Waste of a good hair day

I've been a little beat up by life lately. Even though I was feeling sort of shaky on Wednesday I did go to school in the afternoon. On Thursday, I felt so good that not only was I at school all day but I even went bowling in the evening with some friends.* I woke up early Friday morning with the flu and I've been sick ever since. Even through all my vomiting yesterday, I had my only good hair day in weeks.




*It was 10 pin bowling. Since my right arm still hurt from the IV on Tuesday I was bowling with my left arm. Each game I steadily got better and for one game I bowled an 88. Since my previous best score bowling 10 pin was 23, I might have to start bowling with my left arm all the time. That game where I bowled 88, I happen to tie a male friend. It was quite embarrassing for him to get the same score as a girl who had been in the hospital two days before and was bowling with her non-dominant arm.

Songs for Staying Inside

I made an ITunes playlist inspired by a blustery day. Some songs are pretty obvious choices while others you need to hear them to realize they are perfect for a quiet night staying in. I'm open for suggests for additions or subtractions to the list.

Snow (Hey Oh) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Brian Wilson - Barenaked Ladies
Long Winter - Cuff The Duke
Parasite - Nick Drake
Karma Coma - Massive Attack & Tricky
Shades Of Gray - The Monkees
Who Needs Forever (Thievery Corporation Mix)- Astrud Gilberto
Space Oddity - David Bowie
One Million Miles Away - J Ralph
Song to Sing When I'm Lonely - John Frusciante
Norwegian Wood - The Beatles
Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
Starseed - Our Lady Peace
The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
Shh - Frou Frou
In My Room - The Beach Boys
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Caide Sin Don Te Sin - Altan
Stormy Weather - Billy Holiday
Zombie - The Cranberries
Last Kiss Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
Midnight Cowboy - Henry Mancini
Ordinary World - Duran Duran
Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) - Arcade Fire
Wonderwall - Oasis
Possession - Sarah McLachlan
Two Step (acoustic) - Dave Matthews
Rocket Man - Elton John
Tell Me Something Good - Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
Agoraphobia - Incubus
Tales of Brave Ulysses - Cream
Tangerine - Led Zeppelin
At Last - Etta James
Snowsuit Sound - Sloan
Of the Girl - Pearl Jam
My Friends - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
After The Goldrush - Prelude

Photoshop skills

This evening I was looking thorough some old teaching files when I came across the first image I edited in Photoshop 6:

Edited in Photoshop Friday, December 13, 2002 2:49 PM


Original Photo

It may not look like much of a change but the edited image probably took me over 5 hours to get right. I wish I had written down the steps I used to change the look of the water because I could never replicate it again. I used at least 2 filters and 3 or 4 lighting effects in a very specific order. I was so proud because it was the first time I created something of my very own.

Wow, it has almost been 8 years since I learned how to use Photoshop 6 using a copy of Photoshop 5 Classroom in a Book . Adobe had a special promotion that fall where schools and educators could get a copy of any Adobe program for $30 US. I got copies of Photoshop, Illustrator, Page Maker, Acrobat Pro and Live Motion.

I finished learning Photoshop well enough to teach it to my grade 10, 11 and 12 technology classes in the new semester in February 2003. It might seem strange to teach all the grades the same thing but it bought me sometime while I learned Illustrator. I justified what I was doing with a plan
Grade 10 - Photoshop
Grade 11 - Pagemaker
Grade 12 - Illustrator
and I needed to phase in the learning so the classes could get "in step".

The first year teaching Photoshop was dreadful. It is a very difficult program especially when you get into color correction, removing or replacing elements and creating your own brushes. Later in the semester some of the grade 11s were asked by a recruiter from a design college what programs they knew how to use. The recruiter was impressed by what they could already do in Photoshop and finally my students understood they knew how to use an industry standard program that people pay thousands of dollars to learn. Suddenly my job became much easier.

A Man and His RC Helicopter

Look at how cute my daddy is flying his remote control helicopter!

2010 NHL Stanley Cup Prediction: Updated

Sigh, the things I do instead of homework.....



Please forgive, I didn't have much time to make the bracket image. Hopefully I'll have time to improve it by next round (and talk about my rational). It is unfair that hockey playoffs coincide with finals. Two years ago, I asked my doctor if she could write me a note to excuse me from finals until the hockey season was over -- she was not amused.


Add: James Cybulski of TSN made the exact same prediction as me. That has to count for something? Exact same logic as I (if you care).

Champion!

If only I could translate this into not pretend success...

Ugh, more nightmares

Two nights ago, after I wrote my last blog post about nightmares, I was too tired to remember my dreams. So what made me wake up in a cold sweat early this morning? Zombie apocalypse*. I will spare the very gruesome** details but you didn't know who was a zombie until they attacked. The only other non-zombie was a female chef I didn't like*** and we had to learn to work together.







*Interesting Janny stat: this is the 6th zombie related post. Might explain a few things.
** I accidentally typed gruelsome the first time.
*** Not a real person but the chef part was integral to her skill set in my dream.

Well that took long enough

I once read that if you ask your brain a question, it has no choice to answer it. It may not answer it right away but it never stops until it does.

This morning as I tied my shoes, I noticed my laces were made out of a nylon blend. I became annoyed because cotton shoe laces stay tied better. Shoe laces that won't stay tied reminded me of a time I re-lace a friend's shoes in a parking lot after midnight. The cops drove by and thought we were doing drugs. I chalked it up to strange behaviour and my friend's is anxious nature. I realized today the cops thought we pulled out the shoe lace so we could use intravenous drugs. Duh, why did it take me 12+ years to realize?

As I walked towards the bus stop, I heard the word antediluvian in the song Atlantis by Donovan. A couple years ago, in a semi-conscious state, I was bother that I didn't know what antediluvian meant. When I woke up in the morning and the weeks following, I was bothered where I had even heard the word.* People told me that I must have been reading something about Noah's Ark. This didn't make sense, I would remember that. It is amazing what the brain picks up when you are not paying attention. I spend so much time with music in the background as I work. This is the same reason why I realized I knew all the words to Bowie's "Space Oddity" as I caught my self singing the harmony part as I studied.






* Poet and I didn't know it.

New Highest Scrabble Score Ever! (With Apologies to May-B)

Beat my previous best score of 513 last week with a new high of 517! Woot!

As happy as I am for doing so well, I felt bad it had to happen when May-B was having such a rough game. Right after she had to swap her tiles, I played slumping for 100 points (my new highest single word score). She started a new game called "Thank God that is over".

What nerds do on a Friday night

A sixth order Sierpinski triangle:

Each side of the largest triangle is 12" long, the smallest 1/8" long.

Feed the Masses or Just Me

Last school year I spent way too much money buying meals at the university. I convinced myself that I'd make a lunch everyday to take but that rarely happened. When I was teaching, I'd cook massive amounts of food the freeze it. I think I set a personal record today for most amount of food cooked in one day but not consumed:
- 9 servings of pasta and sauce
- 9 servings of chili
- 5 servings of tofu stir fry
Please note that all of this food was made from scratch (except the pasta and the tofu). Even if I have nothing else but these three things for weekday lunches, this food would last me until Thanksgiving weekend. I need a little more variety so I want to make soup sometime this week before things get too busy at school.

somethings never change

Lessons learned at age 27: three cubed - April 29, 2005.

Things I learned this year in no particular order:
1) I am a music elitist.
2) There is no media conspiracy.
3) Some battles are not worth fighting.
4) Forgiveness is a choice you continually have to make.
5) You cannot lighten hair dyed black.
6) Life is never what you expect it to be.
7) God will humble the proud heart.
8) Patience is easier said than done.

I'm sure I learned some other things but I can't think of them right now.

I learned a lot that year. Yay me! Those were some rough years I went though but I know they were necessary.

Breaking Hearts and Pushing Carts

Tonight I busted a shoplifter at Walmart. So why was I suspicious?

Out of place object or person
Man appeared to be homeless -- did not look like he had bathed in a very long time.


Unexpected behaviour
Man was kneeling in a very close to a wall and had taken three shirts off the hanger. One was bunched up in his hand as he looked at the others carefully -- he did not look like the comparison shopper type.


Gut feeling
I know guilty behaviour when I see it. As my sister and I walked by, he kept on looking over his shoulder at us with a panicked look on his face. When I first saw him he looked like he was trying to tuck the bunched up shirt under his own shirt.

As I left the store I told an employee what we say. He grabbed a co-worker and they went to the men's section. As we were walking out the door, the co-worker was calling for the manager over the intercom.

End of an Era?

I have noticed less small children know how to high five and more know how to fist bump. Is the high five passé? I am doing my best to pass on this cultural tradition but I need your help.

Into the Minds of Bored Female Physics Students

My friend Alana and I were texting during our math class today. We are the only non-engineering students in and the class and the only ones who don't need everything explained 3 times to understand. This is our story:

jannymaire: Your shoe lace is untied
alana: Your face is untied
jannymarie: Your mom is untied
alana: Your mom's face is untied
jannymarie: Good one. Now i'm the fool laughing to herself in class
alana: Aw but I had more

alana: Teddington Penish*
jannymarie: Your mom dated Teddington Penish in high school.
alana: Who told you? :(
jannymarie: Teddington and I are total bff

Problem was written on the board:

Captain Ralph is in the trouble near the sunnyside of Mercury. The temperature of the ship's hull at (x,y,z) is given by

where x, y and z are measured in metres. He is currently at (1,1,1). In what direction should he proceed in order to decrease the temperature rapidly?

alana: He's in the trouble!
jannymarie: Cpt Ralph is your secret lover
alana: Can you blame me? He can go to mercury!
jannymarie: But it must be worrying when he gets in the trouble
alana: Well its a good thing he knows calc and magically has formula for such things
jannymarie: Sigh. He is so smart and so brave
alana: Someone has has a cruuuuush


*In a lab a couple months ago we determined Teddington Penish to be the worst Scottish name ever. Alana, Blond Derek and I randomly text each other Teddington Penish to make each other laugh at inappropriate times. Today Alana knew how giggly I was all class so she was really trying to set me over the edge.

Lord Stanley's Cup: Round 2 Predictions

Ok, so I got 4/8 correct for my first round predictions. Here is what I think is to come:

Janny's Stanley Cup 2009 Prediction

Now let's see if I can make a better prediction that last year. This year I definitely watched more hockey and kept track of the stats of other teams because my fantasy hockey teams. I feel like my decision is much more informed than previous years but I'm not comfortable about my western picks.

The East:

My beloved Canadiens will not make it out of the first round. I adore them but this is reality folks. Boston has beaten them in every meeting this season. Montreal may win a couple games in the series but no more than 2.

Rangers just don't have the skill to beat the Capitals. Enough said.

Carolina is too inconsistent and doesn't have the goaltending to beat New Jersey. Carolina definitely has the ability to make it to the second round but unlikely to happen.

Philly versus Pittsburgh is definitely the series to watch. It will be close but ultimately Philly is the better all around team.

The West:
San Jose has had a play off work ethic all season. What the results of the other series are inconsequential because the Sharks are going all the way.

Chicago and Columbus are young and lack playoff experience.

Calgary is too inconsistent and has too many injuries right now.

Detroit has inconsistent goaltenders.

Vancouver will have an easy first round but lacks the tenacity to beat any of the teams that could make past the first round.

That's Unpossible

I just finished my chem lab report. Either I made a mistake in the experiment or 125% of the vitamin C tablet was made of ascorbic acid. I hope it is the latter because unlike physics labs, I can't redo experiments.







Update: I made a copying mistake and wrote some data for my second trial under my first trial. At least it is something I can fix easily.

My Highest Scrabble Score Ever

A good game for me is anything over 420 (a bad game is anything under 350). There is something about that 420 barrier that is difficult to get past. Previous record was 475. When I realized that I might break 500 I was so excited I could barely stand it.

I'm that good...

Yesterday I busted my brother for cheating on a high school calculus test 8 years ago:



I admit that catching it after he finished university defeats the purpose but in my defense I didn't even live in the same city as him at the time.