Accentuating the Positive

I've been trying hard to not feel crappy lately, and I'm not having much success. And so now I would like to make a list of positive things in my life:

• In January my net worth increased by 7% compared to December.
• My only debts right now are my student loans.
  
• I'm going to be house sitting for three weeks starting a couple days before my birthday.
• My birthday is in a few weeks!
• A few people are interested in my 'art/dance for cancer donation' offer, and others have let me know they think it's a cool idea. This means that I will have a great excuse to paint soon!
  
• I've felt really comfortable helping people at work lately, and feel very competent there.
• Something deep inside me is itching for inspiration.
• I get to do some acting in class on Friday. I get to pretend I have a specific rheumatic disease and my classmates have to determine what it is. Then we present it on Monday.
• The new baby in my life is extremely cute (my friend Tanya's son William).
• My mom and I are going to the spa in Moose Jaw for a couple days during midterm break.
• I got lots of compliments on my blouse today.
• I also wore my favourite pants today.
• I get paid in a few days.
• The least expensive time of the year for me has begun.
• I don't have nothing to do.
• I want to feel positive and good.
  

For scientists only

What not to do with a microwave

Cancer Fundraiser

(If you would like to help me spread the word, then feel free to send people to this URL: http://hurleyanne.blogspot.com/2006/01/cancer-fundraiser.html, but please do so before Feb. 20, 2006. )

Hi all! Since the students of the School of Physical Therapy are raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society this year, I thought I would send a request to you to help me spread the word. Some of you will be aware that in 2004 I lost my father and an aunt both to cancer only 6 weeks apart. I decided that I would like to do a little extra to help out with the fundraising effort and am offering the following:

For a $25 donation you will receive a piece of original artwork or beaded jewelry made by me, Lorianne Earl. I will take requests re: colours if you have something particular in mind.

For a $50 donation I will give you and about 5 friends a private belly dance lesson in your home in the Saskatoon area. This would be a 60-75 minute basic lesson. I've done a few of these for wedding showers/stagettes over the years, and they can be quite fun!

For a $75 donation I will provide a bellygram to the person of your choice for a special event in the Saskatoon area (i.e. party for an anniversary, retirement, birthday, and the like (sorry, no stag parties)). This will incorporate approximately 5-10 minutes of dance to help embarrass someone in front of their friends and family on their special day!


Anyone who donates more than $15 to the cause is eligible for a tax receipt, if they provide a full address and contact information.

I will be accepting requests up to and including Feb. 20, 2006. For further information or to set up your donation I can be contacted at lorianne.earl@usask.ca.

Thanks for your help!

Lorianne Earl
Physical Therapy student

Some cool research

I've learned a lot about strokes this year, so I thought that this news story was particularly cool.

... and they flew off into the sunset together

Brokeback Top Gun

Living Will

A man and his wife were sitting in the living room and he said to her: "Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state dependent on some machine. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

His wife got up and unplugged the TV.

Election black out?

Well, according to the Elections Act national news agencies in Canada aren't supposed to report any results until all the polls have closed across the country. I thought I'd check out a foreign blog for election info, and found one of a Canadian living in England: The Surly Beaver. In the comments there somebody mentioned that Radio Canada International was streaming election coverage from the Maritimes. I listened to it for about 5-10 minutes before it cut out. I guess someone got wise to it...

Guess I'll just have to wait another hour and a half...

I suspected as much!

CTV news story confirms my suspicions about why our weather has been so nice.

Heh heh heh

Here's another funny video! WARNING: Content of a sexual nature.

One hour optical

We will be in good hands

I saw this on the Mercer Report earlier this week. Very interesting, and the attack ads near the end are hilarious!

A youthful look at the election

Guilty Pleasure

Look at me, ma! I'm procrastinating!

The Nut Bra

Election-related blogs

I ran across a website where you can find a listing of Non-Partisan Bloggers

"The Blogging Alliance of Non-Partisan Canadians gathers together Canadian bloggers, regardless of political affiliation, to celebrate and increase awareness of the diversity of thought within the Canadian blogosphere, and to increase the profile and traffic of member websites."

Happy Trogday!

On January 13 Trogdor the Burninator turned three years old!

What if...

...you didn't say no for a full year?

For me, there would be no difference to my dating schedule. I'm going to try really hard not to get depressed over that now!

Some people's mothers!

Judge: Fetuses do not count as carpoolers

Ninjas vs. Pirates

Anyone who has spent any amount of time on the NaNoWriMo forums will be instantly pleased at just the thought of this. It's the ultimate love story of our time!

Ninjas vs. Pirates complete video (approx. 15 minutes)

Swoosh!

Tonight I went cross-country skiing with a couple of the other girls in my class. We met at Kinsmen Park at 8 pm and skied in the dark for an hour or so. It was good! I don't feel too bad now, but we'll have to see how I feel tomorrow. I've had skis for 12 years or so, and haven't used them in the last 9 or 10 years. It felt good to get them out again. I look forward to going out again!

Tan is a power colour?

Your Birthdate: February 25

You excel at anything difficult or high tech. In other words, you're a total (brilliant) geek. It's difficult for you to find people worth spending time with. Which is probably why you'll take over the world with your evil robots! Your strength: Your unfailing logic Your weakness: Loving machines more than people Your power color: Tan Your power symbol: Pi Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Farewell, Irving

Poet Irving Layton Dies

Irving Layton was my favourite poet in high school. I think it must have been his passion... and the sex... that was fascinating to me. It was inspiring. Here are a couple of his shorter poems that I really liked:

Misunderstanding

I placed
my hand
upon
her thigh.

By the way
she moved
away
I could see
her devotion
to literature
was not
perfect.


On My Way To School

On my way to school
I used to pass
A Baptist church
And fields of grass.

"Jesus Saves"
Above the gate
Would comfort me
If I were late.

The church is gone,
The street is paved,
The Home Bank thrives
Where Jesus Saved.


Here you can find the Irving Layton website.
Here's the entry about him in Wikipedia.

A Little Bit of Saskatoon History

Those of you who know me know that I'm a bit of a local history buff. I spent much of the evening tonight wandering around the internet looking at historical pictures of Saskatoon, and reading about the mayors we've had! My original intention was to find this picture of a man who lost a leg in World War One. What's so special about him is that he taught himself how to figure skate with only one leg! I wish I could have seen that! Here's the story about Norman Falkner (along with some other interesting stories from Saskatoon's early days.)

I also found a site with some pictures from Saskatoon (up to 1949). If you click on the picture labelled '1929' at the bottom, then scroll down to the sixth picture on that page you can see what my neighbourhood looked like in the 1920s. I'm going to have to look up Tuxedo Park sometime...

New videos!

I'm not yet totally recovered from my video addiction, apparently.

• The Fishes (reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock!)
• Round 1, Fight!
• Pacman Invasion!
• Scuba diver blows air rings!
  

Retirement

Well, apparently Dave Barry has decided to retire his weekly humour column. He is still maintaining a blog though.