... what does it hold for us all?

Well, nothing in particular, of course. This time next year we will be
able to recap the year's triumphs and tribulations. But I don't believe
in predestination, so all I know about 2007 right now are some
generalities and probabilities.

I am an optimistic person (perhaps overly so), but one thing I surmise
is that I won't change as much as I'd like to think I could and should.
New Year's resolutions are usually doomed because they demand that we
depart from decades-established habits and patterns of thinking.
Sometimes we meet someone who has made a radical and sudden improvement
in their lives, and once in a while, we effect one ourselves. But not
often, and it's not realistic to expect such things in January of each
year.

My health demands that I lose weight. I want to lose weight. However,
over the last three years, particularly the last year and a half, I
have been gaining slowly. Why? Because of these pesky courses I'm
taking, that's why! Sitting still and reading books; sitting still and
writing essays; sitting still and attending lectures. I have tried to
make room in my schedule for exercise, and I even hired a personal
trainer to help me out; however, my plans fall apart in the second half
of each semester as my deadlines become nasty. After all, my transcript
will not show "75B - but exercised a lot"! I have had success with
dieting, but it's difficult to do that when grocery shopping and meal
preparation take needed time away from studying.

So all I know about this year for sure is that I will graduate with an
Honours BA and enter further education at one institution or another,
whether it's a university or a college. It will be a stressful year for
me, maybe the most demanding of my adult life. Sometime during the
year, probably in July, I will move back to live with my husband for
the first time since September 2005. Thank goodness! That's a great
thing and will help to alleviate the stress for sure.

I need inspiration to improve my life! If you have made a realistic New
Year's resolution, put it in the comments here so I can admire it. It's
surprising how many longings we all have in common. I wish you the best of luck with your dreams for 2007!

Back when I was making up my list of first sentences (below), I was
forced to pass over several works because they are poetry rather than
prose.

Here are the first lines (first few lines, actually) of five fave poems.

Remember:
- Glory will elude you if you Google!
- Peek not into the comments of thy neighbours, lest ye shall say, DOH!

Guess the title, or even just the poet. Number five is the real kicker again.

1.
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;

2.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight

        To me did seem

    Apparell'd in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

3.
Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe...

4.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red:

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

5.
Sleep, my favourite flannel shirt, wears thin, and shreds, and birdsong happens in the holes.

6. BONUS:


He stood, a point

on a sheet of green paper

proclaiming himself the centre,



with no walls, no borders

anywhere; the sky no height

above him, totally un-

enclosed

and shouted:



Let me out!

I heartlessly stole this idea from handicap13, and I repeat his admonition: No googling!

My five fave first sentences are as follows. Note: these are not
all-time favourites, but are the ones I like best of the prose fiction
I have here with me while in school.

My only other clue is that I move backwards in date of publication. Way, way backwards! Fasten your seatbelts:

1.
Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my
mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.
The very cool Avienta guessed FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk!


2. Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell.
Here again, we have the ubersmart Avienta, who guessed (close enough) a Discworld novel -- in fact, it's the first sentence of LAST CONTINENT by Terry Pratchett, which I have just finished reading aloud to my husband. (And yes, I do a great voice of DEATH.)

3. Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss.
Beckzach05 got it right -- THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, one of Ursula K. LeGuin's finest works of science fiction.



4. The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of sails, and was at rest.
Beckzach05 strikes again! Joseph Conrad's classic HEART OF DARKNESS. "The horror! The horror!"

5. There was a man called Ketil Flat-Nose, who was the son of Bjorn Buna.
I did not expect anybody to be right about this one. It's from Laxdæla Saga.
No one knows who wrote this saga so many hundreds of years ago, but it
was probably a woman! Therefore, it's my favourite saga.

Thanks to all the smarties who gave this a shot. It's a fun little game.

CG

Okay, I just can't believe the coolness of this, so I invite all of you to experience this spine-tingling treat for yourselves.

Yes, this is a TUBA thrill! From the site where I found it, here is the
following excerpt, and then on to the amazing musical experience that
awaits you. Trust me on this!

"Live performance of
the world premiere of Fnugg Blue. From the Gala Concert of the European
Brass Band Champinship May 2003. Fnugg Blue is an extended version of
Fnugg. Both written by Øystein. Arranger and co-composer on Fnugg Blue:
S.H Giske. Stavanger Brass Band performs. The full DVD is available at www.worldofbrass.com. Øystein's homepage: www.baadsvik.com."

Head on over to YouTube if you like, and give this the rating it deserves! Whoo!

Curious Georgina loves music!

Actually, if these were my pets, I'd be stuffing them into carriers and
hauling them outta here as we speak, so perhaps it should be:

CG's 10 Pest Peeves! (for today)

1. Noisy slooshy sticky smacky eating noises.
2. Lack of grammatical congruence, e.g., "the author proves their point"
3. People who leave public washrooms without washing their hands.
4. Misuse of apostrophe, e.g., "the author's prove their point"
5. Whining. No excuse for it.
6. Misunderstanding of the possessive, e.g., "the authors point is proved" or "the author's proved their point"
7. People who say "I'm not an X, but..." and then proceed to demonstrate Xness aplenty.
8. Use of this phrase to open every other sentence: "It is interesting/important to note that..."
9. Noisy slooshy sippy sucky drinking sounds.
10. No idea when to use then rather than than.

Note: You can see that I was marking essays very recently, can't you?

Just yesterday I discovered a very obscure malapropism -- just a simple
misspelling, more likely. I was searching for instances of the very
unusual word "narrotics," which I found in the title of a scholarly
article about prose poetry. I discovered that Google is chock full of
instances of the spelling "narrotic" being used for the word
"neurotic"! All I can say is, holy moly!

My feeling is that most people hear more words than they have ever
actually seen in print. This includes many students who have just
completed 12-13 years of full-time school preparatory to entering
university. In contrast, when I started university, my embarrassment
was due to the number of words in my passive vocabulary -- that is, I
had read them but never heard them spoken. Therefore, I was often
gently corrected when I first tried these words out loud, and still
roll my eyes whenever I remember a public mispronunciation.

 Here is my assignment for anybody who would like one: favourite malapropisms! My favourite for today: "wreck havoc." Or how about, "I am alfalfa and omega"? Or, "I am out on a limbo"?

*rushes off to write the next essay*

I can't believe I got this essay done early. Like, I mean, before the deadline? I didn't know there was any such thing.

Now I feel sad though. No more thinking about V for Vendetta and the complex,
controversial destructive/creative impulses of the anarchist. I love
how both graphic novel and film refuse to make their readers'/viewers'
minds up on the issues. The film is more optimistic, naturally --
that's Hollywood for you! And the superhero genre, of course -- I've
always loved effective work in this genre.

Now I own the DVD, the graphic novel, the script book, and the novelization, as well as the most recent issue of CineAction
magazine, which features a relevant article. Onto the shelf with them!

[Later note:
I recommend the graphic novel if you like dark, gothic, uncertain,
unsettling. I recommend the movie if you prefer uplifting, hopeful,
redemptive, resolved. Check the consensus movie review here. Both works are thought-provoking.]

I leave you with two quotations from the front of my essay:


I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally
free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my
freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
        - Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871)

Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world.
But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most
unlovely and most unforgivable. Let’s drink their health, then meet
with them no more.
        - V, V for Vendetta (2005)

Okay, my final essay for my fun "Modern Gothic" class is about V for Vendetta.

I am writing to compare the final scene of the movie with the latter bit of the graphic novel which inspired it.

Besides the movie and the graphic novel, I have the script book, the
novelization, and an article in this month's CineAction magazine to
look at for ideas.

I am having such a good time writing this essay! V for Vendetta
is an interesting movie, particularly if recent world events disturb,
dismay, and disgust you. The graphic novel is more complex, but the
movie's ultimate message is hopeful: that, collectively, a people
shaken out of apathy could point the way out of a dreadful spot their
own government has gotten them into. But how ought/must the shaking be
done? This is the crux of the matter. If you are familiar with the
anarchist ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, you'll see echoes of them here.

If you don't mind the superhero genre, this movie is an intriguing variation on it.

You don't wanna hear about that.

You wanna see a picture of my Uncle Bob from the previous story!

Here he is in all his glory, the life of a recent birthday party at my house. 79 and still having the time of his life!

I heart the Uncle Bob.

Hi everybody! I hope your week has gone smoothly.

On Wednesday, I did indeed hand in installment #1 of my four-part
thesis. In some ways it is not complete, but since this is a work in
progress, I will be able to continue to expand and adapt it until my
final due date in April. So it's all good, and the professor seems to
think I have done well, which is just a great feeling.

Meanwhile, does anybody know of any good online examples or resources
about how to apply to grad school? Some of the application questions
seem answerable only by extratemporal, omniscient demi-gods. Are any
mortals ever accepted into MA programs?

My mom turned 65 this week, and I have a cousin who will be 21 next
week. So a giant family bash is happening on Saturday. Well, giant for
us -- we are not a huge family. About 20 people! My Uncle Bob will be
there. He's actually a great-uncle (my mom's uncle), and I adore him.
For one thing, he has a very distinctive working-class English accent.
Reminds me a bit of Ben Wicks.

OMG. I have the funniest story to tell about me and my Uncle Bob! I
will tell it here, and you will have to say if it comes across onscreen
-- it is a great story to tell in person.

In my early twenties, I did quite a bit of temporary secretarial work
in downtown Toronto office towers. I was in demand because I was
reasonably intelligent, a good typist, and I loved working on those
newfangled computers that the regular secretaries were scared to death
of. (They were kinda monstrous back in those days! The computers, I
mean! LOL)

One day I was working in the outer office of a law firm on University
Avenue, on one of the upper floors of a tallish building. I was typing
away like a mad fiend, when suddenly, behind me, I heard someone
speaking with a very distinctive working-class English accent. Reminded
me a bit of Ben Wicks! OMG. I shot around in my chair and sang out
"UNCLE BOB!" in the my most tickled-pink voice.

The busy, crowded room fell abruptly silent, and people scuttled here
and there, mostly away from me. I thought nothing of that at the time.
I rushed right over and expressed my surprise, since I had had no idea
that my very own great-uncle was the Director of Operations for this
big downtown tower. He was just as delighted to see me, and we promptly
made a lunch date.

After my uncle had disappeared into an elevator, people began to ghost
back into the area from all the offices around, where they had been
whispering and conferring. I was approached with deep suspicion
bordering on awe. "Are you REALLY Mr. Hogarth's niece?" demanded my
supervisor. I nodded and explained the relationship happily.

Turns out, you see... that everybody thought of my uncle as "Uncle
Bob," cuz he looks like an "Uncle Bob," and constantly referred to him
as "Uncle Bob," but only privately amongst themselves, and nobody would
ever have DREAMED of calling him "Uncle Bob" to his respectable and
intimidating face, and they were worried that I had called him "Uncle
Bob" the way they called him"Uncle Bob" and that therefore the jig was
up and they were all in BIG TROUBLE!
 
Bwahahaaaaa! How I laughed when I saw all their cute li'l worried faces!

I told them it was okay and their secret was safe with me. After all, Bob's my uncle!

Okay, that's my fun for the evening. Back to work!

CG