Filed under: Consumerism, Internaute, Uni | Tags: Alice + Olivia, Belle de Jour, Feminism, Secret Diary of a Call Girl
So I am blogging… but minimally, as in… I like this dress:
[420 USD]
Otherwise… I’ve finished a chapter of my thesis. I think it went better than the first chapter, which will need to be rewritten, but not ’til I write another chapter. That’s all for now.
[ADDENDUM] Actually I have something better to post about consumerism than a picture of that lovely earth-toned dress. I read Belle de Jour. At first I read it ’cause it was linked as an exciting and funny sex blog, or something, in a guide for bloggers not to pretend your life is exciting unless it actually is, for example, if you sell sex and consequently have great anecdotes.* Later, I read it ’cause it was clever and funny. Other times, I just like reading the blogs of strangers who have lives. As well, I think there is something like sincere feminism from a woman of middle class background who faces some kinds of gender oppression in society in general, but is honest about not facing other kinds because of said middle class background. This excerpt is from a post reacting to a friend’s death:
Yesterday in one of the broadsheets was published a list of things that I, as a woman, should have achieved by my thirties. What would ordinarily be weightless fluff suddenly felt morally offensive. I should have amassed a shoe collection? Been taken to lunch by my boss? Negotiated a pay rise? What the fuck, people? What the fuck? I hope no one in real grieving – my friend’s mother, say, or those female friends closer to him than I was – saw that article. We are being told by no less than the paper of record that the gold standard of human achievement amounts to buying pointless garments with the dosh you earned in your pointless job.
Yea.
*I was disappointed when the spin-off show didn’t have some blog-format in the way it was later realised in Dr. Horrible. I should note, however, that I didn’t read the spin-off book on which the show was based. It probably wasn’t blog-formatted.
Filed under: Attempts, Internaute, Travels, Uni | Tags: China, Chinese language, East Asian Studies, Gap year, McGill Book Fair, Pierre Berton, Public policy, The Last Spike, Travel, Used books
I went to a used book fair last week organised by the women’s alumni association with Verena and I picked up a bunch of books related to China for very little money and learned where the free library tote bags were. The books available were very interesting, very dated, and very remarkable. By remarkable, I really just mean that in my head I remarked, “Hey!” everytime I saw a copy of Pierre Berton’s The Last Spike, a book that is apparently not only often purchased but often passed on. I wonder what that says about Canadian history.
This post is actually my worry-’bout-the-future post. Not the future (of the world) but my immediate future leading up to and following the convocation of my B.A. class (praying to gods I don’t believe in that I get some direction and motivation for my thesis). I know that I will take a gap year and I think I will apply to graduate programs related to public policy but it all seems very uncertain and I really must make sure that I do something at least vaguely productive in my gap year. (more…)
Filed under: Current events, Internaute, Music | Tags: Culture en Péril, Michel Rivard, La Complainte du Phoque en Alaska, 2008 Canadian federal election, Arts funding, Beau Dommage
Filed under: Consumerism, Fangirl, Internaute, Travels | Tags: Batavus, Cycling, Dutch architecture, Helmet, Xi'an
There is something about a shiny red bike. It doesn’t even have to be shiny really. Biking on the wall around the city of Xi’an was really cool and the first bike ride in years. I’m an advocate of helmets, but it was my first time riding with my hair in the wind and it was a wonderful 13.7 km stretch. I would like to go to the Netherlands and study and hang out and bike around cities that have really funky and progressive and creative infrastructure (and architecture, featured in the New York Times magazine several weeks ago, on cities). I hope whenever I get to go, my imagination doesn’t let me down.
Filed under: Attempts, Fangirl, Internaute, Uni | Tags: Born Ruffians, Elliptical trainer, Peter Bjorn & John, Raw food, student anxiety, summer job, The Go! Team
… except for waiting to hear back about job applications. The Toronto employer I was interested in emailed me back (I sent in a cover letter and CV at the end of February) this week to ask me what my schedule was like but didn’t explicitly offer me a job. The made a follow-up call (to follow up on the e-mail no one responded to) to the Montreal employer I’m interested in and they told me they’d let me know by the end of the week or the beginning of next week at the latest. I guess I’m looking forward to Tuesday since it’s already the end of the work week. Tuesday also happens to be the date of my last exam, so I guess I’m looking forward to that too. I hope whichever job I take is worth it, though I suppose in the weighing of employment vs. nothing, what’s “worth it” is probably obvious.
New links are to Alex’s blog and my own fansite for my favourite director. I had dinner with some of my Korean cinema classmates, my prof, and his wife last week. It was nice and makes me want to take the Korean studies summer course offered just so I can hang out with all of them for another month or so, but that also depends on job apps and summer anxiety. Umm.. yea. My life is boring. 3-year program friends are graduating so I’d like to be in Montreal for a while just to hang out with them. But for now it’s exam time and I think I’m working days enough so that I’m falling asleep during Radio Netherlands on CBC Radio Overnight despite my love for it. I’m working out, which is supposed to raise energy levels, but maybe I’m just getting sleepy and messing my left leg. Who knows? I hope I lose weight. I tried on a dress today at Space FB and it was pretty but I still have weight to lose. This is a terrible paragraph, I know. And then I try to eat vegetables but I’m too lazy to even eat carrots so thank gods for cucumbers.
I hope to be in Toronto for some time at the end of the month. Maybe I will see the Born Ruffians with Annie. They were on Skins, which is where we both first heard of them. I’ve only been listening to Peter Bjorn & John’s Writer’s Block and The Go! Team’s Proof of Youth lately because the former is perfect for this weather and the latter is perfect for a half hourish workout with breaks. I wish I led a more interesting life. Let’s hope that comes this summer. If not, I’ll read more books or something. I have a few waiting for me.
