Please don’t moan, but this year is <em>really different</em> though… now that I’ve graduated and I’m only working part time in the first quarter of the year, I have time to spend working to implement my resolutions.

So what are these lofty goals?…

• Getting Fit –> No excuses for not exercising! I’m not aiming for a supermodel physique. I just want to be healthier
• Picking up my Sh*t! –> My room is far too small to stay messy. To keep sane I must keep clean
• Work on my own projects –> I’m tired of fretting over custom work. It doesn’t pay and I hate doing it. I need to get into my stash and make the things that make me happy & if they sell that’s awesome.
• Reading for Fun –> I’ve read enough in the last 5 – 6 years to make the average person’s head explode. Now its time to read for the fun of it… I may even read a trashy romance novel (which honestly I have never done).
• Learn to Cook –> If I’m going to be a true domestic diva someday I need to acquire this skill. So far I can sew, I can style hair & do makeup, I can rock the heels and I can swing a hammer, but seriously kitchens freak the living crap out of me. I’ve picked up a copy of some 30 minute meals thingy by Rachel Rae and I bought a couple of new pots so I’m totally psyched to start this one. The first recipe I’ve picked is Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon… now I just need to find a wicked apron & my Grandma’s pearls.

I think that’s it for now. I don’t think I can manage any more quite frankly. I think Mum & others in the fold would like to see me add dating to that list, but lets be realistic… it’s me we’re talking about here! 

Previously I had checked my prerequisites and they were all satisfied, but having satisfied my prereqs I still had a bit of room in my course schedule that was unaccounted for.

My natural compulsion in situations like this would be to pitch a fit, have an ugly cry and have someone else fix the whole mess for me.

What makes me very proud is that I kept it together, breathed a bit, found my centre and solved the problem totally sans tantrum!

I checked the History courses available, found which ones required the least messing around with my schedule, checked the bookstore to see which one had the cheapest textbook and made the nescessary swaps and adds. I moved my French classes to Tuesday and Thursday Mornings from 8:30 to 10:00 with an Oral component on Wednesday at 10:30 and added Mennonite History on Monday nights from 6:00 to 9:00. I’m not too happy about the gaps this leaves in my schedule, but at least I graduate by Christmas. I also managed to not add any additional classes on Thursday afternoons or Friday so I’m still home for long relaxing weekends.

This all being said, I’m carrying 5 University courses, a professional development course with the OMA, a Museum Job and possibly a TA position… am I absolutely mad? YES, SIREE BOB!

So I’m starting my countdown to Christmas (and sleep) today! 15 Weeks and counting! or more specifically 3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days!

I’ve known about the Poladroid for some time. I have used it on this site to create thumbnails for some of my entries. I think its really sweet and the images it creates work really well with grunge website layouts. Nothin’ quite like kickin’ it old school.

The little camera widget looks like a polaroid camera on your desktop and works by dragging an image you have saved on your computer over to the camera and dropping it. The little camera widget makes the characteristic click & caputre noise & then the fun begins. Slowly your image comes to life. There is the option to stop the development any time while developping… a very fun little feature.

To see what some other folks have done with the Poladroid you can check out the project’s Flickr Group, “be Poladroid”–> http://www.flickr.com/groups/poladroid/

For those who aren’t familiar with my position on Harry Potter… the first 3 books ROCKED! They were wildly creative, unconventional, tightly crafted and well written… beautiful. Few run on sentances, very little digression from the point. They moved with purpose while still peppered with the little tidbits that would seed the later stories. However, the last 4 books drove me nuts. To quote a great movie (Dude, Where’s my Car?)… and then… and then… and then… they dragged on, they digressed, they were chalked full of ideas and events that did little to further the story. To me it seemed that she was writing a long book to prove that she could write a long book.

Though not long, Beedle the Bard falls in the same category. Cute idea. Loved the concept. The tales themselves were sprightly and refreshing… a little retro throw back to the Fredrick Warne books I used to read as a child, but the endnotes and particularly the footnotes to the end notes left little to be desired. I got the idea the Dumbledore cared about these stories as they were unconventional portaits of Muggle / Wizard relations… all well and good, but after the first story, who cares? Dumbledore doesn’t seem to be writing as an academic, yet there is very little in his writing that is particularly revealing about him… so if its not academic and its not personal, what is the purpose of Dumbledore’s notations? Why is he writing what would be ablsolutely common knowledge to a wizard? It just all feels like an exercise in redundancy.

That all being said, I’m glad I read the book. At the garage sale price of $1.00 I’m not disappointed. Had it been longer I would have put it asside. As it is a perfect lazy day digest size, I may just pick it up again if I need something for dockside reading at the cottage (if I had a cottage that is).

I’ve also polished off a few books that I have yet to review, but before that happens I have one more co-op report to finish (hopefully by the end of the week).

The last bit of big news is that I am about to enter my last term of Undergraduate Studies! W00t! This has been a 12 year project (with a 8-ish year break in the middle) and I’m glad to have it under my belt before my 31st Birthday… that’ll be one of lifes big goals off of the list. I have four more courses – Stats, French, American History Before 1877 and Intro to Archaeology. I’m a little scared, but very excited. Expect to hear a lot about that in the upcomming weeks. Also throughout the next term I will be working on my next PD course with the Ontario Museum Association.

If you’re not quite following what I’m talking about, check out the following videos:

• Card Weaving on and Inkle Loom by ijpmck (Youtube)
• Birka, brocade with silk and silver tablet weaving by Birkvaever (Youtube)

I’m not ready to start into this yet, but you can bet that this summer I’ll be up to my elbows in it.

Emily Carr writes as she painted. As such it has taken me a long time to finish this book. It demands to be taken at her pace as she composes her thoughts, like mixing paint on a palette, and meanders through fluid and lyrical prose, like a brush moving on canvas. Every entry ends with a sigh of repose and an ‘Amen’ as if nothing further should be said or read, but rather contemplated quietly until she is next ready to guide you along her journey… at a time determined by her, not by a hurried reader.

I could fill countless pages with moving quotations and expound at length over her ideas, but that would spoil the fun of getting to know her as I have, so I will leave you with only a few quotations to contemplate;

It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw, not because she is Canada but because she’s something sublime that you were born into, some great rugged power that you are a part of.

Do not try to do extraordinary things but do ordinary things with intensity.

If you’re going to lick the icing off somebody else’s cake you won’t be nourished and it won’t do you any good, – or you might find the cake had caraway seeds, and you hate them.

Don’t take what someone else has made sure of and pretend it’s you yourself that have made sure of it till it’s yours absolutely by conviction. It’s stealing to take it and hypocrisy and you’ll fall into a hole.

]]> http://thursdayschild.ca/2009/02/new-video/feed/ 0 http://thursdayschild.ca/2009/02/the-next-step/ http://thursdayschild.ca/2009/02/the-next-step/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:08:43 +0000 Kimberley http://thursdayschild.ca/?p=74 So, as I have mentioned before, I’m in school until December when I expect to complete my BA. After that I’m at a bit of a loss what to do, because money is short and a Masters seems so far away. What I’ve been thinking of is completing a Certificate in Museum Studies with the Ontario Museum Association… cheaper than a Masters and the courses are shorter and can be fit around a work schedule. I will do a Masters at some point in time… I like school too much not to, but I can’t sit still waiting for that to happen.

The first course I’m thinking of taking is on Collections Management and it runs from April to May. This is ideal because my classes end April 4th (or somewhere thereabouts) and my next co-op term begins May 4th or 5th… perfect timing! I do have 2 exams, Humanities and Accounting, but apart from that I have nothing for the month of April… and sitting home twiddling my thumbs is a completely unbearable thought.

Judy’s exhibit, titled When Women Rule the World runs until September 7th 2009. The Textile Museum of Canada is located at 55 Centre Avenue (Toronto, Ontario), for more information see the museum website at –> http://www.textilemuseum.ca/