About These Entries
You are reading Weblog Wannabe archived entries from the month of April 2005, written by Firda Beka.
The next archived entries are from May 2005 and the previous archived entries are from March 2005. Most recent entries can be found on the main page.
Site Credits
This weblog is powered by Movable Type. The entries are mostly the results of tireless web browsing with my best buddy, Mozilla Firefox. Site design is copyrighted by Firda Beka. That's me, not you.
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links for 2005-04-27 (5)
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According to ABC News, only 61% of Americans know the words to their own anthem. I wonder how many of them know the words to O Canada.
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A graphic video by PETA on the cruel treatment of KFC chickens, narrated by Pamela Anderson. I think Bea Arthur did a better job.
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“The images are so incredibly sharp, they could be enlarged to billboard size and still retain stunning details.” I want Hubble’s camera!
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A trailer of a futuristic movie by Joss Whedon of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” fame to be released in September this year.
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Can you tell which of the images are computer graphics and which others are photographs of real objects or scenes? My best score is 5/10.
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I’m sure you’ve played a similar game before. This flash version allows you to bet virtual money. Your score is the amount of money you have.
The Pop Shoppe! (2)
(The Pop Shoppe!, originally uploaded by firda.)
So we went to Hasty Market to get The Pop Shoppe last night. Of course we took the long way, making stops at the bank, Future Shop, Office Depot, and Zellers. We picked up three rolls of film for my pinhole camera at Zellers for $8, which we thought was cheap, until we came to Canadian Tire and saw that they sold five rolls of film for $10. Ack!
When we got to the Hasty Market, I was worried they’d run out of The Pop Shoppe already so I was glad to see that they still had plenty of them. I picked up The Pop Shoppe Root Beer because I’m a big fan of root beer, but sadly, I can’t really call it my favourite. I like it better than Barq’s, but less than I like A&W and MUG root beer. Troy picked up his childhood favourite, The Pop Shoppe Cream Soda. I think it’s really good and according to Troy, it still tastes the same as it was ages ago.
Anyway, I didn’t grow up in Canada or the States so I have no childhood memories of The Pop Shoppe. But if you do, feel free to share in the comment. I’d love to hear it.
A Thrifty Weekend (2)
Oh wow, for a weekend with crappy weather, I have so much to tell you. See, on Saturday, after waking up, having breakfast, and playing a few rounds of Guess-the-Google, Troy and I went to a thrift store and I got myself a compact 35mm film camera for $1.50 to be hacked into a pinhole camera. After about an hour, we went back to our apartment because we were expecting a visit from Joe. And then Joe came and we went to have Vietnamese dinner in downtown Kitchener. After dinner, we went to a used book store across the street from the Vietnamese restaurant where Troy bought his very first Lucky Luke comic (I grew up reading Lucky Luke!) and then to a cinema to watch Kung Fu Hustle. I’m not usually into kung fu movies or slapstick comedies, but I didn’t mind Kung Fu Hustle. It was funny and entertaining.
After the movie, we went back to the apartment. While Joe and Troy were having quality time together discussing videogames, I did some brainstorming, planning out my way to hack the aforementioned compact camera into a pinhole one. After Joe left, I got into the action. My tools of choice were a screwdriver, a hammer, and a burning candle. It was enough to make Troy think I’d end up burning the apartment down. I couldn’t finish hacking the camera that night because I was already too sleepy and it was already past 2AM. There's more inside →
Snow in April (7)
(Snow in April, originally uploaded by firda.)
I hate Canadian weather sometimes. See, I have nothing against rain and snow. It may rain or snow at any time of the year. But please, not on a weekend! The picture above is not from winter. It’s from today. Stupid snow.
Today’s Browser Stats (4)
Go Firefox! It’s good to know that the majority of my visitors see the design of this weblog the way I want them to see it.
Geeky readers might be interested in the bottom 4 browsers, so here goes: Netscape 7.x (1.0%), [older version of] Mozilla Firefox (0.3%), Opera 7.x (0.3%), and Netscape 4.x (0.3%).
As you may have noticed, I did a little spring cleaning around the site this morning and the most noticeable addition should be the comment link under each entry. Now there’s no more reason for you not to comment! :)
links for 2005-04-22 (2)
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I always find this kind of thing fascinating. The whale had feet and serpentine shape but no blowhole. Sounds scary.
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It’s an old but interesting article. My sleep position is a combination of fetus and sea star. I don’t make friends easily, though.
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They’re not as ugly as they are creepy. Well, except for the two birds, who are just being birds. Not creepy, but not that ugly either.
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I’m an ISFP — the Composer. My type is 0% Extroverted, 62% Observant, 18% Logical and 0% Structured. It does sound like me.
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All you need to know about the new Superman costume. They really should listen to Edna (from The Incredibles) and get rid of the cape.
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Catch the sea creatures as shown in the top left corner. There’ll be time limit so be quick. Frustrating game. I quit at level 3.
links for 2005-04-21 (1)
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If you’re looking for a reason to eat less hot dogs, sausages and other processed meats or to stop eating them altogether, I’ve found you one.
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It may sound more like a fact of life than scientific news, but it is true that the happier a person, the better their health is likely to be.
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Leave it to the scientists to find out why some popcorn kernels don’t pop. Turns out that it’s because they have leaky hulls.
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My profile is featured here this week. It’s in the bottom right corner. I’m sure my choice of favourite sandwich would disgust you.
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Just the kind of thing you can expect Zefrank to come up with. It is more like a love song than a love letter, though.
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Shoot the poor kitten with a cannon as far as possible. It’s not a cute game, but pretty addicting. My personal best is
758951 ft.
Mishmash, Hodgepodge, Whatever (4)
‘Tis a rainy day
Buds turning into fresh leaves
Spring is here to stay.
Remember when I used to post a haiku every day? I’m sure at least a couple of my readers do since they used to guestblog here and had to cover the haiku-writing job. For some reasons, I feel like writing haikus today. Could it be the springtime effect?
In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted any yummy del.icio.us links lately, it’s because del.icio.us is hating me and won’t post the links here. For the time being, please visit my del.icio.us page for all the linky goodness. I’m still trying to figure out what’s gone wrong between us (me and del.icio.us, that is).
I received two Flickr Pro accounts from Flickr to give away a couple of days ago. I’ve given one away to Troy for being a good boy (see Troy’s Flickr). I haven’t given away the other one to anyone yet, mostly because I’m picky. I’d only give it away to someone who can’t afford a Pro account and whose photographic works I like. I haven’t found that person. Yet.
We’ve decided to start watching a new TV show: Revelations. It’s pretty interesting, and spooky at times. We watch it in order to avoid American Idol. Well, fifteen more minutes of Law and Order and I’m going to bed. TV almost owns me. Almost.
On Photography (4)
I came across this article a while ago, Your Camera Does Not Matter. Didn’t really read it until five minutes ago, and boy, was it good. I no longer want a better camera now. Well, almost. I still do, but not as much as I used to.
You see, it’s not the camera that makes good pictures. It’s the photographers, their ability to make a good composition and how well they know their cameras and photography techniques. I’ve seen some people with expensive cameras coming up with mediocre pictures while others with cheap, toy cameras coming up with great pictures. It proves the point perfectly.
My camera is actually the crappiest in the Olympus Camedia UltraZoom series. You don’t know how many times I was tempted to trade it with another camera, but I like its 8× optical zoom capability too much, so I never did and I don’t think I ever will. At least not until I know I can afford a better camera without getting into a serious financial trouble, which probably won’t happen in the near future.
The picture on top of this entry is from the barbecue we had on Saturday. The Flickr photoset from the barbecue can be found here. Most of the pictures are still-life. Why? Because I can! Enjoy!
Long Walk, No Opossums (0)
Rock Point Provincial Park is located on the north shore of Lake Erie, south of Dunnville, Ontario, not too far away from Buffalo, New York. We went there on Saturday for our weekly hiking/picture-taking trip.
The park was still closed for winter and won’t be open until May. We parked right in front of the gate and soon I realised that we might have to take a long walk to get to the lake. I was right. We didn’t see any signs of the lake until we walked for a couple of kilometers into the park. We were supposed to be able to see some opossums there but alas, we didn’t see any. All we saw was lots and lots of shells, fossils embedded in limestone, and driftwoods. The only animals we saw other than the tiny little fish inside some puddles along the beach were two Canadian geese, a few butterflies, a snake, a number of birds, and plenty of bugs.
As we walked along the beach to get a better view of the lighthouse on Mohawk Island, we could hear the annoying sound of a beach buggy breaking the silence every now and then. We even passed the guy driving the offending beach buggy. If the park was officially open, I’m sure there wouldn’t be any beach buggy all over the place, which would be nice, but then we’d probably have to pay admission fee to get into the park, which wouldn’t be nice. Hehe.
Anyway, Rock Point is obviously no Rockwood but it’s not really the worst place I’ve ever been. If anything, I still managed to take some pretty pictures. As we walked back to where we parked, we saw another place closer to the lake where we could’ve parked. If we ever go there again, we’d definitely park there. The long walk was really the worst part of the trip!
links for 2005-04-18 (0)
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Apparently, snoring is a big enough problem in the UK that the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association has to launch National Stop Snoring Week.
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There are people hired by AOL to protect minors from sexual predators in chatrooms. Unfortunately, one of them turned up to be a sexual predator.
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The probability of the 1,000-foot-wide asteroid hitting Earth is 1 in 38. Impact would come on Friday the 13th in April 2029. By then I’d be… not old enough to die.
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A resolution by the State of Idaho to recognise the talents of the makers of Napoleon Dynamite who are said to have increased the nation’s awareness of Idaho. So funny.
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What would happen if you’re left with a calculator and nothing to do? Why, Oðblgshezi of course! I really wish I could spell my name with it.
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Yet another cutesy flash game from Ferry Halim (Orisinal.com). And as usual, I didn’t do very well. Just remember: click the mouse and hold to jump far.
Away for the Weekend (0)
We’re going away for the weekend, down to the boy’s parents place. We’ve been invited to a barbecue type thing in Simcoe (I think) on Saturday, but hopefully the boy would be nice enough to take me to a provincial park/nature reserve/conservation area sometime during the weekend so that I could treat you to some pretty pictures when we’re back in Waterloo again. I’d love to go to Trillium Woods Provincial Nature Reserve but I don’t think the trilliums would bloom until next month. Bummer.
Anyway, I’d better get ready. I still have yet to pack and do the dishes. Have I told you how much I hate doing the dishes? No? Very much! But you gotta do what you gotta do. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!
links for 2005-04-15 (0)
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Interesting music video by the Decemberists. Rushmore-inspired and amusingly political (or is it politically amusing?). Love it.
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RIAA filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 405 students at 18 universities for using Internet2 network to share songs and movies.
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Apparently, death-row prisoners might be awake enough to feel the excruciating pain caused by the lethal injection due to poor anesthesia.
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Draw a pig, and learn something about yourself. It’s not necessarily accurate, but fun nonetheless. My pig drawing’s really sucky.
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Throw the football through the targets. You have one minutes to score. My highest score is 56, which is not bad, if I say so myself.
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I just spent more time that I’d care to admit playing this game. It’s so fun! It makes me think that maybe I am the next Beethoven. Ha!
links for 2005-04-13 (4)
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Well, most of American women anyway. Also, according to the same survey, size matters, orgasms not so much. Just so you know.
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I wonder if there a site like this but for people instead of cats. I’m sure it would contain a lot of
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Do you have the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics Magazine containing “Moore’s Law” article by Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder, in mint condition?
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Pamela Anderson has a blog! *groans* It’s mostly about her new TV show which will premiere today. Can’t say I’m looking forward to watching the show.
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An a cappella group from Wisconsin singing themes from some Nintendo videogames, with visual reenactments. Pretty amusing.
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Fly the helicopter from one side to the other. Being the crappy gamer that I am, I got stuck at level 4. There’s no way I could cross the damn thing.
An Eventful Weekend (1)
Have I told you how much I hate “24” the TV show? This show makes me dumb. I always try to ignore it while Troy is watching it but it’s not that easy. Did you notice that Jack Bauer’s back-up/partner/sidekick/whatever always ends up dead? But I won’t get into any more picky details because it would only make me angry. I’m just going to talk about what we did this past weekend.
On Saturday, I decided that I wanted to go to Rockwood Conservation Area, which is somewhere outside the city of Guelph. Before we headed out that way, we dropped by a thrift store here in Waterloo where we picked up some stuff. Mostly old records for Troy’s record collection.
After our visit to the thrift store, we drove towards Guelph, but before we got to Guelph, someone hit Troy’s car from behind so we had to take a detour to the Waterloo Regional Police HQ and then to an OPP office to report the accident. Good time. NOT! We could’ve gone to Guelph OPP, which was closer, but noooo! The guy that hit Troy’s car just had to bring us back to Cambridge instead. After about an hour of driving around and doing paperwork, we hit the road again.
We finally made it to Rockwood Conservation Area after missing the entrance to the park as far as Acton, which is the town next to Rockwood. The park is awesome. It has an old mill ruins, limestone cliffs, caves, glacial potholes, a hiking trail along the Eramosa River, and a sandy beach. The old mill is my favourite part of the package. It’s just so beautiful. Check out the pictures if you’re interested. After spending 3+ hours there, we went back to Acton for dinner and I had a yummy steak. Mmmm, steak…
Oh, before I forget, thanks for wishing me a happy birthday. I had a good day. I got a cool telescope from Troy and a lovely bouquet from Troy’s parents. We had a birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant. Since it was my birthday, the waiters sang me a silly song and I got a complimentary chocolate cake from the restaurant plus a chance to win a prize by rolling a wheel of fortune thingy. The prize I won was a $5 voucher, which is better than a pie in the face (yes, it was one of the “prizes”). And now I’m going to get ready for bed. Night!
links for 2005-04-11 (3)
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We delete their junk and filter out their trash and just get on with our lives. But does it stop them? Of course not. They’re silly that way.
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I didn’t know breast implant ban was in effect. Hollywood celebrities seem to be getting it all the time. Exception for the rich and famous?
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“Cookie Monster, the biscuit-eating puppet on US children’s show Sesame Street, will cut down on his favourite food as part of an anti-obesity drive.” Say it ain’t so!
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A Douglas Adam’s fan/journalist reviews the movie after seeing it in an exclusive screening for journalists in London. Verdict: bad. Really bad. Uh-oh.
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I made this pinhole camera this morning, and man oh man, it’s got to be the dorkiest thing I’ve ever made. Can’t wait to see the results!
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This is not a very politically-correct game but whatever. It’s entertaining. All you have to do is steal something without getting caught. I’m not very good at this.
links for 2005-04-08 (0)
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Be sure to check out this table with a listing of times and circumstances at maximum eclipse for a number of cities in the United States if you don’t want to miss it.
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If you have nothing better to do tomorrow, you might want to watch the Royal Wedding Cam and see the wedding from, like, across the street.
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Imagine queueing for 7 weeks (!) for a ticket to the new Star Wars movie only to find that you’ve been queueing at the wrong cinema. Dorks.
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Top 10 list of which celebrities look better and worse in high-definition TV. I sure am glad I’m not a celebrity, what with my whitehead problem and all.
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Shoot the albino vampire baby freaks, or they will kill you. My best score was 15,620 at level 2. Not good at all. I’m sure you can do better.
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I think it also applies to Canadian men. ;) I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that music can be easily downloaded for free off the internet.
links for 2005-04-07 (5)
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“Pope John Paul II is being reborn in a Colombian comic book as a superhero battling evil with an anti-Devil cape and special chastity pants.” I kid you not.
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Study shows that young children who watch a lot of television are more likely to become bullies due to the increasingly violent nature of children’s cartoons.
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I don’t know what the organiser was thinking when they decided to have these people sing during the half-time break. I think the event is a soccer match in France.
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My favourite part of the article: “Although no one has investigated the possibility of rat humour, if it exists, it is likely to be heavily laced with slapstick.”
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A sequel to a ball game I blogged about a while back. This one consists of 50 challenging levels. I’m still struggling to get to level 10.
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Have you passed all the 50 levels in the previous game? Good jorb! Here, play 50 more! This one is more difficult, though.
Odd Dream (11)
Last night I dreamed that it was the early morning of my birthday and I was trying out a telescope I got as a birthday present from Troy outside. The telescope looked more like a PDA than a telescope, i.e. you pointed it upwards and you’d see a planetary image on the screen. I was rather disappointed in the dream because I’d wanted an old skool telescope, but in real life, I would really love to have that kind of telescope if it really exists.
Anyway, as I was trying out the telescope, suddenly the sky lighted up and there was aurora borealis! And not only that, there was a rainbow, too! It was awesome. I ran to the apartment to get my camera, but once I got my camera and I was ready to take a picture, the aurora had already subsided. The rainbow lingered, though. Don’t ask me how you could see a rainbow when it was dark outside. Like I said, it was just a dream.
“Happy birthday to me…”
links for 2005-04-06 (4)
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“As if earthquake-ravaged Indonesia doesn’t have enough to worry about, now scientists warn that a Sumatran super-volcano might blow its top at any time.”
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“Awarded to the Associated Press Staff for its stunning series of photographs of bloody yearlong combat inside Iraqi cities.” Heartbreaking.
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A collection of the world’s top artists’ renditions of their memories of gaming moments from the era when pixels reigned king.
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You will have fun with this text-to-speech, especially since you can make her say things in a male voice, which is odd indeed.
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Poke around Bob’s cubicle while he’s away. Be sure to check out the photos inside the second from top drawer on the left-hand side. Amusing stuff.
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I couldn’t find any interesting game to blog about so I thought I’d just blog this silly, old-skool style game, courtesy Homestarruner.com.
Your Song (1)
If I were a singer/songwriter, I would write a song called “I Believe (There is a Super Patient Man for Every Difficult Woman in the World)”, and I would dedicate it to Troy. It sounds like a fantastic title for a song to me. It would be a folk song, of course, because I like folk music. It would make you think “What the hell is this song all about?” because it would really be that confusing. One of the lines would go something like this: “If I asked you what one plus one is, you’d say four. If I asked you what your name is, you’d say five.” Yes, it would be one of those crazy stupid songs that only the writer knows the meaning of.
If I were a singer/songwriter, I would never ever get a record deal, though it would be due to my hearing-impairing voice more than anything else.
links for 2005-04-05 (0)
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An error in the JavaScript engine causes a vulnerability that could be exploited by malicious people to gain knowledge of potentially sensitive information.
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Apparently I’m an idiot who can’t tell the difference between left and right. If you read this entry earlier, you’ll understand.
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The study was designed to gauge teen perceptions of oral sex versus vaginal sex. Girls and boys reported similar experiences and opinions about oral sex.
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I only scored 23%, which means I’m a rebel and I will never really fit in at the Kingdom Hall.
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It’s an interesting puzzle game. I don’t think it’s hard but still I’m stuck at Episode 1, Stage 6.
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It’s a spin-off of the 20 Questions game but specifically on animals. Pretty entertaining.
Long Story Short (3)
(At the Book Sale, originally uploaded by firda.)
Didn’t get a new spring coat. Did pick up a new pair of pants. (Very comfortable! For only $15!) Did make it to the book sale in Dunnville. Had to go through a snow storm. Lucky enough not to end up in a ditch or to get lost. Picked up 62 books. Didn’t make it to Port Maitland due to crappy weather. Did make it to turkey dinner with SMooSH and Loba. (Very yummy! Highly recommended!) Was taught how to play Euchre but am still pretty clueless to actually play it. Couldn’t make it back to Waterloo after dinner due to crappy weather. Spent the night at the boy’s parents place. Did make it to Waterloo on Sunday.
Oh, and I sold out and put up Google Ads all over my weblog. The ads will stay here at least until I got Canadianized and can apply for a job. If you see anything you like in the ads, click it and I will get a cent. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It’s My Life (5)
I haven’t posted any journal entry here for ages so I thought I’d post one today because I feel like boring you to death.
I know talking about last weekend when another weekend is only a day away is kind of lame, but whatever. Last weekend was a long weekend due to the Good Friday, so on Thursday night, we went down to the boy’s ‘rents place for the weekend.
The highlight of the weekend was our trip to the Long Point Provincial Park. The park was still closed for Winter but who cares. We went in anyway. The best thing about closed parks is, you don’t have to pay any admission fee. And of course I took a lot of pictures while we were there. Click the lovely picture below for more pictures from our trip.
Fast forward to yesterday. I went to the mall to pick up a new spring coat because my old one is already too shabby, but after 4 hours of walking around and trying out about a dozen spring coats, all I got was the exercise. I hate how my body size is not small enough to fit L size but not big enough for XL. Anyway, I’m going to go back to the mall today and find The Spring Coat That Fits Me & My Wallet™ and I swear I’ll only spend at most 1 hour there.
This weekend we’re going to go to the monthly book sale in Dunnville and then find that spot where the Grand River meets Lake Erie (Port Maitland?) so I could take a lot of pictures, and bore the boy to death in the process. You don’t know how much I love taking pictures. I automatically turn everything I see into a photographic composition, even when I don’t have a camera with me. Yeah, I know. I’m a freakazoid.
Finally, my birthday is only six days away. *hint hint* At the moment, what I want, what I really, really want is a new digital camera a telescope. So I’m a geek. Just sue me. You won’t get much. It’s going to be my second birthday without my mother in this world. How I miss my mum. But at least this year I’ll get to spend it with my dearest darling boyfriend. He’s good with presents, and I love getting presents. And that’s why he’s the one for me. Hehe. :)
Read all entries from March 2005 →