Look, it's only been a little over a week! And I'm posting again! :)


Saw the new Disney 3D A Christmas Carol last night with guitarpulsation. I was pretty impressed, actually, because while they added some amusing bits, they actually stayed true to the original story. Including all the dark stuff and the lines like "If they are going to die, then they had better do it then, and decrease the surplus population!" So I went in expecting a very Disney-fied version of the story, the way A Little Mermaid got Disney-fied and fluffed up, and got a completely no-Disney-fied version. So I was very happy with that. :D

I was less happy at one point during the previews - this particular preview started, looking somewhat grim and sci-fi, with a man in a wheelchair rolling onto the screen. The preview follows him in such a way that it's clear that he's the main character, and I'm sitting there going "OMG a movie with a main character in a wheelchair! YAY!"

...Then he transfers his mind/soul/consciousness into the body of an alien/genetic experiment/something or other. And then he's (obviously) not in a wheelchair any more. And I was sad. D: Ohai ableism. ;-;


ALSO! Tomorrow is Transgender Day of Remembrance! So, you know, think about it and what it means. It's important to remember this, and think about WHY it happens. I wish we didn't NEED a day like TDOR, but until the prejudices disappear (lol never sadly) it is something needed.

So I was feeling kind of nostalgic and was bumming around Youtube looking at late eighties/early nineties cartoon themes, and TADA!



THE RACCOONS!

Does anybody else remember this show?  Because I was totally a huge fan when I was little.  Also, I really love this song, even now.  Yeah, I know I'm a big dork.

The actual music video is pretty cool, especially because it's way eighties, haha.

Embedding is disabled for the video or the actual music video, and it seems to be the only copy on Youtube, so you'll have to settle for a link.


Cheers!

(Wordcount: 5884)

Ohai, I iz not dedz!

...Yeah, it's been ages since I posted, and I do realise this.

SO!  LIFE UPDATE!  (Including why I haven't updated in ages.)


Am now on antidepressants - Zoloft, to be precise.  Ever since last year I'd been miserable and down and ugh and I just thought it was school stress or something, but then classes ended and things that should have been awesome (new video games, best friend getting married to a wonderful woman, favourite books, etc.) no longer gave me any enjoyment or fun or excitement or anything.  I could barely make myself leave my room (because I didn't want to see my roommate), let alone the house (because I didn't want to see people).  I couldn't write, couldn't concentrate on anything, couldn't be bothered to DO anything.

It was fucking awful.

Early in the summer I finally managed to make myself go to the clinic in town and they referred me to the mental health folks at the hospital and I had a basic evaluation done, and got put on a list for the psychiatrist - it took me two and a half months to get an appointment (Sept. 28) because of the whole too many patients and not enough providers thing.  BUT!  I finally saw Dr. Raafat (I love her - she's awesome and adorable and hilarious) and we decided to put me on meds ( I had already started counselling at this point - Isabel is also awesome), so we tried the Zoloft first.  And LUCKY!  It works WONDERFULLY!  I am totally back to my pre-depressed, sometimes terrifyingly perky, cheerful, hyper, happy self.  I can't even explain how much better I feel.


Still working full-time at Wal-Mart on my nightshift - we have a new night manager that I love but nobody else seems to, haha, but still.


Also in classes - which is a whole other kettle of fish.  Last year, I failed practically everything and ended up kicked out of school - thankfully, the appeal I sent in regarding that decision was approved (or whatever) and they said I could come back on probation.  SO YAY!

But I've only got a partial courseload this year (three classes each semester) because of a few factors: the job, the depression, and because I didn't want to take out another student loan, as I already have a bunch.

So I've got Canadian Women's and Gender History (full year), Social Psychology (full year), Tolkien (half year, again, because yeah, I failed this last year - tells you just how bad things were), and Victorian Literature II (half year, next semester).  I don't have any marks yet (past first year, profs are not required to give midterm marks), but I feel a lot better this year than I did last year, and feel good about (almost) everything I've done so far (the timing on my Canadian Women's midterm was shitty and that went poorly but my prof gave me a couple extra cred assignments and it isn't worth a HUGE amount for the year).

I handed in my first Tolkien essay yesterday and I feel really good about it - although, lol, it was two pages 'too long', but Nemesvari said that wasn't a big deal and that a lot of other people had the same problem.  It was a crapton of fun to write, too, because it was option five on the list of essay topics, "a topic of your choice as approved by the instructor", so I got to write about, well, my absolute first choice.  ^^  It was super fun.  We have another paper for that class that was just assigned, and I'm hoping to do something, well, other than the given topics.  But I'll have to see if I can come up with anything.

Social Psych isn't really worth mentioning, haha.  It's sorta interesting but nothing interesting has happened, if you know what I mean.


And!  It'S NOVEMBER!  YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

NANOWRIMO!  :DDDDDDDDDDDD

My novel is a rewrite/continuation of this fic, which I wrote for blind_go last spring.

It's so much fun to write, especially since I now know who my villain is.  :D

Wordcount is a little low (around 3500 words when I 'should' be at 6668), since I've had school stuff to do, but I'm not gonna stress about it too much this year. 



Oh, by the way, my hair?  IS GREEN.  Like, VERY GREEN.  Pics forthcoming, I promise.

EDIT: OHAI BLURRY PIC.  TAKING A PICTURE OF MYSELF IS HARDER THAN I REMEMBER.

Back from my first shift!  It went really well.

Also, I got a ride home in a blue '70 Impala.

Aw yeah baby.

So I've got a journal on DreamWidth now, too. I'm not abandoning LJ or anything, so I'm basically going to be crossposting to the two of them, but it's a good backup and stuff. I'm caitlin_chan  on DW and LJ, because that keeps things nice and easy. :D

I HAVE A JOB!

At Wa-lMart, which sounds like it would be blah.

BUT IT IS BACKSHIFT.  SO NO CUSTOMERS.

ALSO, MY BASE WAGE IS 9.35 AN HOUR.  PLUS AN EXTRA DOLLAR AN HOUR PREMIUM FOR WORKING BACKSHIFT.

I WILL BE MAKING 10.35 AN HOUR.  I HAVE NOT MADE MORE THAN MINIMUM WAGE (currently 8.60/hour) SINCE I WORKED AT CONVERGYS IN 2005/2006.

WHEEEEEEEEEE!


Also, I have my own internet now and will make a big long epic post (complete with some of the pictures of my trip to Cape Breton last weekend) sometime in the next couple days when I don't have to go get ready to go swimming with guitarpulsation .  :D


BUT.  JOB.  HALFWAY DECENT PAYING JOB.

GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.


Also also, before I forget again, my current mailing address:

Caitlin Mooney
27B Highland Drive
Antigonish, NS
B2G 1N7
Canada
 

My blind_go fic is finished and submitted and everything!  WOOHOO!

BUT OMG IT IS DEFINITELY TOTAL CRAP.  AUGH.

I still not-so-secretly love it though...

ANYWAYS.  YES.  DONE.  WILL BE POSTED AT inkntendinitis AFTER GUESSING IS DONE.  BUT YOU CAN TRY READING ALL THE FICS TO TRY AND GUESS WHICH ONE IT IS IF YOU WANT.  XDDD

But, sadness, I will not get to read fic today.  ;-;

DAMN YOU, INTERNET GUYS, FOR NOT COMING UNTIL FRIDAY.  DAMN YOU, LIBRARY, FOR CLOSING AT FOUR THIRTY IN THE AFTERNOON DURING SPRING SESSION.  DAMN YOU, SELF, FOR HAVING THINGS TO RUN OFF AND DO NOW SO YOU CAN'T WAIT AROUND FOR FICS TO BE UPLOADED.


MORE OF AN ACTUAL POST TO COME WHEN I DON'T HAVE TO RUN OFF QUICK-LIKE AND HAVE MY OWN INTERNET AGAIN.

Going up to Halifax this weekend to look at cars, woohoo!!  The second portion of my student loan is coming in soon (yes, AFTER the main two semesters are done; I'm not going to get into it, haha) so I can afford to go this weekend - if I find one I can put it on my credit card, and then pretty much entirely pay it off before I get any interest on the higher balance.

Sadly, there aren't many options - the cap of my budget is around $2200 because I'll have to make my insurance down payment and register the car and stuff.  I looked on the AutoTrader site (country-wide site for used vehicles and stuff) and got these results - some of them are in the wrong spot, but any within my budget in Halifax, Dartmouth, Eastern Passage, and Upper/Middle/Lower Sackville are ones I can think about, and maybe also Truro.

That green '96 Jetta for $1495 was looking really good (I've wanted a Jetta for years, haha), but when I called to ask a couple questions about it the guy said it was sold - but it's still listed, so I'm hoping (probaby futiley) that he was mistaken.  XDD  Now there's another one of the same year and colour listed too, but it's nearly 3k, and unless I get a lot more money selling back textbooks than I expect, it's definitely too expensive.  Sigh.  Also, it's diesel, which requires more maintenance and is currently more expensive than gas.  You can run them on cooking oil in the summer according to beautydreaming , but I'd have to do some of my own research into if it increases maintenance costs and stuff before I went in for that.  Though there's no duty on cooking oil like I think there is on diesel so it, uh, may be illegal?  XD

Oh well, I'll figure things out.  XD


I may get to see fantasyecho  on Saturday while I'm in the city, but if I don't I'll probably hang around long enough when I go back up to pick up my car (I can't drive it home Saturday if I get one because my insurance broker isn't open Saturday, so I can't start my insurance, and driving without insurance is bad and illegal, haha) to pick her up from work and show it off.  XD


Whatever I get, I promise to post pictures and details, assuming anyone wants to hear.  Read.  Whatever.  XD


Had my first exam on Tuesday, Earth Science.  It went all right.  Not wonderfully, but good enough.  I have Spanish in ... six hours at nine AM, and my Tolkien exam tomorrow (Friday) and nine AM.  My take-home for my Mysticism class is due by the end of the day today (Thursday), too, but it's only 750 words, so it shouldn't take me long.


I actually have an idea for blind_go  now, even though it's totally random and I have no idea if I can make it work.  I'll start working on it after this week when things settle down, but won't be sharing anything here or on inkntendinitis  until the guessing is done, in case anyone checks my LJ for hints, haha.  XDD


she_universe  and I have big ambitious plans for getting lots of proverse  work done this summer.  We'll see how that goes.  XDD


Talked to Lloyd at the 5c to $1 on Tuesday - I worked there first year, and since I'm going to be around for the summer, I thought I'd ask if he would have any work for me.  He thought he might have 15 to 25 hours a week for me since Danielle (their main part-timer) left, but he's not sure right now because things are kind of eight kinds of insane.  He figured next week he'd be able to let me know more solidly.  Woo, job!


I get to go to beautydreaming 's convocation because she has an extra ticket, so I'm really excited about that, and she has, unsurprisingly, asked me to help her pack her stuff into her dad's car for the drive back to Ontario.  Ever since I fit her entire dorm room/life (except the two suitcases she was taking back to Ontario with her) into my parents' Hyundai Accent in her first year, I have been known as the resident packing queen.  Even if I can't get my own shit UNpacked.  XDD


Also, here's the song I'm currently listening to: Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know


Blarg, should go back to studying now.  Boooooooo.

Ah well.  Cheers, all!!

So I wanted to make a music post, but I couldn't really pick which songs and didn't just want to have a list of links because that's boring.  So I'm repeating a meme!

Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first song is the title.

If You Could Read My Mind, Love

Well I'm on my way to the city lights,
I remember setting out just to see what I could see,
Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell,
You get up every morning.

I pulled into Nazareth, I was feeling about half-past dead;
It has been raining for so long
I got everything I need - almost

Get you motor running:
There is a town in north Ontario

Something's at the edge of your mind, you don't know what it is
Could have been all right, could have been here tonight

I know it's out of fashion:
Life's like a road that you travel on -
Can you see the light?
Four men in a rock'n'roll band

I got stones in my passway
Two hundred miles from my home
What goes up must come down

One fine morning, girl, I'll wake up:
American woman, stay away from me.
--------

This lyric poem meme thingy is themed, though.  All the lyrics are from Canadian songs!  Because we have produced some very awesome music.  *nodnod*

Songs are listed for download in the order their lyrics appear above.  ^^

Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
Stampeders - Sweet City Woman
Ian Thomas - Painted Ladies
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care of Business
The Band - The Weight
Luba - How Many
Downchild Blues Band - (I Got Everything I Need) Almost
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild
Neil Young - Helpless
Triumph - Magic Power
April Wine - You Could Have Been A Lady
Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach
Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway (the original song, not a cover!)
The Jeff Healey Band - See The Light
Chilliwack - Fly At Night
Colin James - Just Came Back
Roch Voisine - Helene (English version)
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel
Lighthouse - One Fine Morning
The Guess Who - American Woman

And just because this is one of my favourite songs of all time:
Gordon Lightfoot - The Canadian Railroad Trilogy (which is actually a single song, lol)

Consider yourselves musicspammed!  :D

Icon vaguely related - it's my only icon containing a car.  XDD

So I've been pondering getting a car lately.  Nothing expensive, mind, more like a $600 clunker kind of car.  Of course, my mother will freak out at the idea because she thinks I can't take care of myself or that I have any idea about how to budget or what it will cost, but that's the great thing about being out and on my own and over 18 and no longer dependant: it doesn't matter what she wants.

Dad will be less insane about it, I think; he'll probably ask me how much I know about the costs of insurance and registration/plates and inspections and stuff, but if I can answer those satisfactorily then he'll probably resign himself to the fact that I'm going to do it whether he's okay with it or not.  Following this decision, he'll likely give me whatever help he can with making sure that what I'm paying for won't fall apart halfway out of the lot.  My dad is awesome like that.


Didn't get to karate tonight - had to go to the hospital with a friend (but things are fine) and thus didn't get much accomplished this afternoon, though I told Mike via e-mail earlier that I didn't think I'd be able to go anyway.  I didn't get hardly any sleep last night, and going to karate means I can't get a nap in and dead tiredness when I should be alert because I'm at work.  XDD


Last day of classes on Wednesday!!  Well, until I start my intersession classes on April 27th.  But whatever.  ^^  I'm kinda excited for my intersession classes, so woo!


Still need a summer job, though I've probably secured a way to make extra money during the exam period before I'm officially jobless.


Found a couple CDs I'd bought during my reading week back at the end of February, during which Kelsey and I drove up to Halifax for a day trip.  They're The Sounds of Nova Scotia volumes one and two, and when I was little we had the cassette tapes.  We've still got them somewhere, but when you play them they sound kind of funny because they got played so much when I was a kid.  They were the two most listened to tapes in our entire collection - they're like every trip I ever took to visit my grandma or my aunts and uncles and cousins when I was young.

I had tried finding the music to download at one point, but I only ever found about four of the twenty-three songs (total from both albums).  So then I saw them at HMV and couldn't NOT buy them.  I missed these songs a lot more then I realised until I listened to the albums again - it's the music I grew up with and it kind of feels like part of me, if that makes any sense at all.  XDD

A bunch of the songs are also giving me Proverse bunnies (Sam being from Cape Breton and all), but I don't have time to write them right now.  Sad.  :(

So, new layout and journal title today.  OMG I used song lyrics! 

But I really like them and couldn't come up with anything of my own that said how I'm feeling right now as well as those two lines.  So that's okay!


Had the first Karate Society meeting tonight, and I'm going to drive down to the club in New Glasgow (the next town over, about a 45 minute drive) on Thursday night with some people from campus who were at the meeting.  I 'm stoked - I've wanted to get back in since Sensei Reeves stopped having classes on campus because of some sort of something that I think had to do with Sensei Donovan retiring.  Either way, I've missed it and am really awesomely excited.

Even if we do have to squash possibley six of us into an old Honda Civic.  Which should be interesting.  XDD

Oh my god, I've been an orange belt since spring 2003.  SIX YEARS RIGHT AROUND NOW ACTUALLY.

Sadly, no one remaining in the Nish over the summer has a car I can borrow to get to NG and back to keep practicing over the summer.  BOO.  I SHALL HAVE TO WAIT LONGER.  I'll survive though.

I am so beyond excited. :D

Since eight thirty this morning I've had two icky dreams that have left me feeling completely freaked.

The first one is kinda fuzzy, but involved lots of family and friends dying and I couldn't be there for any of them.

The second was mostly me getting attacked by people on campus I don't know by them throwing cans of pop and rocks and stuff at me, and then a group of people running trampled me.  And everyone else just kind astood back and watched it happen of pushed me back into the crowd to get stepped on more.

I dunno if I wanna go back to sleep right now.  : /

ETA: at this point, these have been joined by a third one about an entirely inaccurate, yet still terrifying, Jenny Greenteeth with red eyes.  Yeah.  Not going back to sleep until late tonight, methinks, no matter how tired I get.

Uh, hey guys, it's been a while.

...Over two months, I know.  Bad Caitlin, no biscuit.  Please don't hurt me?

Scruffy hair was really, really scruffy until I got it cut.  Slightly different than when I cut it last summer.  And yes, that was the last time I cut my hair.  It was such a mop.

LOTR class is win and awesome.  And yeah, I know I don't have the lectures posted, but I will.  And I will have written notes for the days I missed (more than I wanted to because I've been having these weird, killer headaches that make Caitlin a very not happy camper, but they seem to be gone now).

Other classes aren't bad, but I'm bollocksing Spanish up.  Mrrr.  Too much L2 interference.  Ugh.

Actually joined an LJ RP, which sounds funny since I haven't been posting here, but the activity requirement is very small - twenty comments/posts for a two-month period.  Which I filled with only my intro post, so it's okay that I don't have much time for it.  And it's FUN!  (Is dramadramaduck  in case you're wondering.)

EDIT: Oh! And I met Denise's totally awesome fiancée! She's crazy awesome! Did I mention she's awesome? Awesome.

Have not written more than random, couple hundred word-long bits and pieces of unrelated fics since... uh, I can't remember.  Sad.  : (  I miss having time for writing fic.

I signed up for Round 007 of blind_go  anyway.  I think I'm just a sucker for punishment, especially since the minimum word requirement is 3500, and fics are due May fourth.  I finished exams April 17th and start my spring classes April 27th.  *headdesks*

Haven't played any video games since Christmas break, and even then I didn't play much.

Am taking two classes in spring session, History: Victorian Britain and Sociology: Irish Society for a total of six credits.  Which is the max numbers of credits one is allowed to take during spring session.  Actually pretty excited!  Nothing for me to take in the summer session, though, unless I feel like taking three creds on Shakespeare's tragedies over a two month period via distance with Marquis.  Which I don't, as he's the primary reason I ended up dropping the full-year Shakespeare course.  :/

Need a job for the summer break, especially as I am staying in Antigonish.  I'm taking spring classes, and I'm sick of living at home and sick of my mother treating me like I'm incompetant or that it is ANY of her business how many hours I work, how my classes are going, when I'm going to graduate (later than she wants), or how much I owe on my credit card.  I make my payments on our co-signed student LOC on time, so that's ALL the business she has with my financial situation.  My mother needs to learn to mind her own sodding business.  Thank god Dad can.

(Speaking of my dad, he was in Vegas for a Kodak conference and when I asked him what Vegas was like he used "strange" about eight times in two minutes.  Also, "noisy".  Oh, Dad; you are not so articulate when you're brainfried and jetlagged. <3 )

At work right now, and at the end of this shift I will have worked 35 hours since five to twelve on Sunday night, along with going to class, having a job interview, making time to eat, showering, studying, doing class readings (some of which were fun LOTR class readings, some of which were not), not sleeping (damn insomnia)....  *dead tired*

That's all I can think of right now, really.

I promise I'll try and update more.  I swear.  I missed you guys.  <3<3<3<3

This semester I'm in a class about Lord of the Rings.  Yes, in university, and yes, it's already awesome.

Anyways, I'm recording the lectures for a few friends already so I figured I'd see if anyone on my LJ would be interested in them?  If people are, I can post the links to download the sound files here.

Yes/no?



Also, on the subject of Christmas cards, well, I kinda failed.  I had exams and I planned to do it afte rthey finished, but then Joy died and I just forgot with everything that was going on.  I'm sorry.

Joy died this morning at 4am GMT.

Goddamnit.  Goddamnitgoddamnitgoddamnit.

Granddad called and left a message at home (Trenton) today.  Joy is back in hospice at Saint Michael's Hospice, and family members are advised to visit before this weekend.  There's some hope but not a lot.

Goddamnit.

Since everyone else is doing it...

Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first song is the title.


*amazing piano riff*
The Silicon Chip Inside Her Head

Picture yourself sleeping on a plane
Well I'm hot blooded, can't you see?
Carry on my wayward son
I see the bad moon rising

Everyday is so wonderful
Under a lover's sky
In this farewell

On the window ledge I don't feel safe
Far am bi mi fhìn is ann a bhios mo dhòchas
In a gadda da vida, honey

Boys and girls of every age
Travelling
Living easy
I count the cases piled up high
Well, I took a walk around the world
Day to day, where do you want to be?

Well me father often told me when I was just a lad
Everything's so blurry
The wolves, my love, will come
I'll be a killer whale when I grow up
====

If anyone's curious as to what song a particular line is from, feel free to ask!  :D

So, I'm thinking about Christmas, and I'm actually going to send Christmas letters/cards this year.

Yes.  I'm sending Christmas correspondence.  Me.  I always swore I never would, but... well, I want to!  So I will!

If you want me to send you something, leave your mailing address in the comments!  Comments are screened, so no worries about other folks seeing you address!  :D

Cheers!

EDIT: I should probably warn you guys that they might be, uh, late, since the deadline CanadaPost gives is coming up soon and I haven't actually BOUGHT any cards or anything to send yet... ^^;;

So last week, one of my profs said that our final would be a take home exam, and it would have to be a minimum of ten pages.  We would get the question on December third and the essay would be due by noon on December tenth.

I was not impressed.  At all.

Tonight he changed it.  Now it's three essays, each a minimum of four pages in length.  Assigned December third, and STILL due December tenth, even though we suddenly have more to write.

Still not impressed.  Impressed even less, actually.

Fuck you, Pretentious.

Oh, Dean! ;__________; *hugs him*