On Saturday night Andrew and I intended to watch a movie. I was to do the dishes, while he took our cat for a walk, then we would sit down and watch something (while I knit). I finished my task before Andrew did and decided to fill the time with Maria Snyder's new book, Sea Glass. (Note: I attended Seton Hill at the same time as Maria. During her first semester [my second] her first book Poison Study was about to be published. I remember Maria, but I'm not sure she remembers me. I like to purchase her books to support a once fellow student, but also because I like her writing.) By the time Andrew returned with the cat I was onto chapter 3. He joined me on the couch and picked up the Blue Beetle comic book series, lent to us by some friends. Then it was 10:30. I was half way through chapter 10 and we weren't going to watch a movie. Unsure about what my blog topic would be this week I started to ponder what I like to read and why.
I humour myself by thinking I like a wide variety of genres. I have Canadian authors like Margaret Attwood and Jane Urquhart on our bookshelf, 19th century writers such as Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell, contemporary British writers such as Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (Andrew is trying to collect them all), children's writers such as Diana Wynn Jones and Hilary McKay and fantasy writers such as J.K. Rowling and the affore mentioned Maria Snyder. These authors and their genres overlap, of course, and we have more books on our bookshelf than what I've mentioned. We also have North American comic books (Sandman, the Watchmen), Japanese managa (Hana Yori Dango, Ranma 1/2) and a small collection of picture books. We're under represented in the science fiction category, although we're both Trekkies and I loved Quantum Leap when I was younger. Also, I do not do horror. This is for the same reason I do not watch horror--I have an over active imagination.
After some consideration, I have come to the conclusion that one of my major hooks into a story is the characters. This became aparent to me when I tried to read Heart of Stone, which is a Luna title about gargoyles. I couldn't get into this book. I read at least half, if not more, before I finally gave up. I didn't care about the main female character or the romantic-interest gargoyle. I liked the poor detective who was definitely going to get the stiff and I couldn't compel myself to read further. Going back to my first reading of Gone With the Wind I recall I probably read about half of the book overall. At thirteen I found the descriptions boring and tended to scan for scenes where Rhett was involved, as they were always more interesting. I also noticed while reading Storm Glass, the book preceding Sea Glass that I didn't care so much about finding out how the conflict was going to be sorted out, but was much more interested in which romance angle was going to succeed.
I think the second feature I look for in a story is the world. I absolutely adored Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I could related to Rae (if this PhD thing doesn't work, I could totally see myself working in a bakery) and so I didn't mind that I felt the story itself was rather slow moving. I also enjoyed Rae's world, even though I would never, ever want to live in it. I think this is also what I like about the Harry Potter series. I don't have a favourite character (although if I was pressed to name one, I would probably actually say Harry--very unoriginal, I know) but I loved the world. I loved the idea that people can use magic and there's a whole magic-using world hiding in plain site of ordinary people. I want to go to Hogwarts. If I had to guess, I would also say this is what suckered me into Twilight. I find the idea that gorgeous, non-people sucking, vampires could be out there, rather appealing; however, now that I'm out of my Twilight haze, I can't see many other redeeming qualities about the books.
Plot seems to come third on my list of reasons why I would read a book. I guess this is a little odd, since I hated Lord of the Rings, which I feel has a very unimaginative plot and an over-described world. I will reign in my tirade against LoTR here, as I think I'm about the only person on the planet who does not like it. I sympathize with those of you who do not like Harry Potter, all 6 of you who aren't religious nuts--it can be frustrated to hear people gape over a story you personally don't like. I think my low plot-priority may be why I enjoy 19th century novels, which aren't necessary light in plot, but certainly don't move very fast. This again begs the question why I couldn't finish Mrs. Dalloway if I consider plot so low on my list. It may have been the time at which I tried to read it. I suspect it may have come directly after an Attwood novel--very different in style and tone and couldn't get my brain into the right mindset. When I get the chance, I'll try Woolf again sometime.
My final thought is on the series. I've had differing success with the series. I endured it quite happily with Harry Potter, but gave up after the fourth book of the Outlander series by Diane Gabaldon. I also found Maria's third "Study" book a little frustrating. The problem is that characters sometimes fall into what I like to call: "the most unlucky person in the world" syndrome. In this situation everything terrible can and will happen to the main character just because they're the main character and even though this scenario already befell them two books earlier. I've also given up on the Hendee's Dhamhir novels. I felt like the third installment was dragged out far longer than necessary, and accomplished far less than possible just so there could be a fourth book. I do, however, like Pratchett's novels, set on the Discworld, which are perhaps a serial rather than a series. The world is the same, but the possible cast of character's is so large that any given book can include only two or three, or a dozen or more established individuals. The stories are related, but storylines don't stretch across the entirety of the Discworld collection.
So there's a look into some of my reading habits and some thoughts about what I like to read. I think I will end off here, so I can go and read, in my favourite place and time. In bed, half an hour before I go to sleep.
Ciao,
Andrea
Favourite 5 books (in no particular order):
1) Alias Grace
2) The Graveyard Book
3) Nightwatch
4) A Northern Light
5) Sunshine
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Nora 1.0 and beyond
I am happy to report that I completed the final draft of my manuscript on September 2nd, 2009. This draft stands at 64,457 words and spans 208 pages. The actual story word count is a little lower, since the TOC and the chapter headings take up some of that total (I would guess around 100 words). This is more than 3,000 words longer than the first draft, which I completed on June 2nd (61,107 words, 194 pages). I began writing my manuscript on April 9th, 2009.
I noted in an early post that I struggled to come up with a proper title for my story. I wanted something simple. Despite my mixed feelings about the series, I liked the one or two word titles of Twilight, New Moon, etc. I essentially played a bit of word association to find something that I thought symbolized my story. Since the presence of a mysterious disease plays a major part in my world, and the major conflict centres around a con man who claims to have a cure, I thought: The Cure, was a logical choice. Also, it lends itself to an easy second book title: The Cause and possibly The Prevention for the third.
I am relatively happy with my manuscript. I think I've kept my writing tight and I tried to keep my character's reactions as realistic as possible. I also really like my characters and I hope Nora would be a good influence on young girls who might one day read about her adventures. Andrew enjoyed reading the story as well--granted he has a somewhat biased opinion--but he also thought this is the best writing I've done to date. I hope the other readers I've sent it to feel the same. And most importantly, I hope one of the eventual agents I send it, think so too.
Of course, like many amateur writers, I have publishing aspirations. I've submitted other works before (also previously blogged about), although I've always attempted to submit directly to the publisher. This time I plan to solicit literary agents. My reasoning is twofold. One, I've written a young adult manuscript, which is a harder sell, and two, many of the publishing houses I checked explicitly stated on their websites that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Of course, finding a good agent may be as tricky as finding a publishing house, but right now I feel it's the best way to go.
While I wait for my readers to get back to me I plan to work on Nora's second story, The Cause. Actually, I've already begun writing it. With the fall term underway, my free time is of the essence and will soon be of the past. Things are going well for the writing, but not so well for Nora. Poor girl, not only is she deaf, but she never gets a break.
Ciao,
Andrea
I noted in an early post that I struggled to come up with a proper title for my story. I wanted something simple. Despite my mixed feelings about the series, I liked the one or two word titles of Twilight, New Moon, etc. I essentially played a bit of word association to find something that I thought symbolized my story. Since the presence of a mysterious disease plays a major part in my world, and the major conflict centres around a con man who claims to have a cure, I thought: The Cure, was a logical choice. Also, it lends itself to an easy second book title: The Cause and possibly The Prevention for the third.
I am relatively happy with my manuscript. I think I've kept my writing tight and I tried to keep my character's reactions as realistic as possible. I also really like my characters and I hope Nora would be a good influence on young girls who might one day read about her adventures. Andrew enjoyed reading the story as well--granted he has a somewhat biased opinion--but he also thought this is the best writing I've done to date. I hope the other readers I've sent it to feel the same. And most importantly, I hope one of the eventual agents I send it, think so too.
Of course, like many amateur writers, I have publishing aspirations. I've submitted other works before (also previously blogged about), although I've always attempted to submit directly to the publisher. This time I plan to solicit literary agents. My reasoning is twofold. One, I've written a young adult manuscript, which is a harder sell, and two, many of the publishing houses I checked explicitly stated on their websites that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Of course, finding a good agent may be as tricky as finding a publishing house, but right now I feel it's the best way to go.
While I wait for my readers to get back to me I plan to work on Nora's second story, The Cause. Actually, I've already begun writing it. With the fall term underway, my free time is of the essence and will soon be of the past. Things are going well for the writing, but not so well for Nora. Poor girl, not only is she deaf, but she never gets a break.
Ciao,
Andrea
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
"Brown, brown all around."
The father of a friend of mine said that once. If I remember correctly, her family had been on vacation and were eating breakfast at a restaurant. They normally ate brown bread at home and my friend was looking forward to having white toast while on vacation only to be foiled by her father, who when the server came by told them: "Brown, brown all around."
I thought I would post my regular bread recipe (after my sourdough experience yesterday). As a different friend would say, "it's a gooder." I had also at one point (several months ago) promised I would.
White or Brown Bread
Recipe makes 2 loaves.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of yeast
2 (2 1/2) cups of water
1/2 cup (3 tablespoons) of sugar
2 eggs*
2 teaspoons of salt
4 tablespoons of oil
0-2 cups of whole wheat flour**
3-5 cups of white flour**
*The measurements in brackets are for if you wish to make the bread without eggs. Additionally...you have to omit the eggs.
**If you wish to make plain white bread omit the whole wheat flour and use 5 cups of white flour.
Method:
1) Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients.
2) Allow the dough to rise for a minimum of 1/2 hour.
3) Kneed the dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
4) Split the dough in half and place each half into a greased loaf pan.
5) Bake bread at 375F for 20 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when it's tapped.
Additional Notes from Andrea:
1) I'm lazy and use instant (breadmaker) yeast, therefore I don't have to activate it. If you prefer regular yeast, you will need to soak it in the water before you use it. The water needs to be warm, but not boiling. Boiling water will kill the yeast.
2) I mixed everything by hand with a wooden spoon.
3) I like to add only half of the flour at first, let it rise for 1/2 hour and then add the rest of the flour. I never measure the flour, I just keep adding it until the dough won't hold anymore...and it "looks right." Then I let the dough rise some more before splitting it into loaves.
4) I bake the loaves one at a time, although you can do it simultaneously. Sometimes I will bake the bread for 20 minutes, then remove it from the pan and bake it for another 5 minutes or so, to make sure it's cooked all the way through. I don't like it when the middle of the loaf is doughy.
I think that's just about it...and oh, this is what my recipe looks like (the actual paper is about 4"x6").
Ciao,
Andrea
I thought I would post my regular bread recipe (after my sourdough experience yesterday). As a different friend would say, "it's a gooder." I had also at one point (several months ago) promised I would.
White or Brown Bread
Recipe makes 2 loaves.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of yeast
2 (2 1/2) cups of water
1/2 cup (3 tablespoons) of sugar
2 eggs*
2 teaspoons of salt
4 tablespoons of oil
0-2 cups of whole wheat flour**
3-5 cups of white flour**
*The measurements in brackets are for if you wish to make the bread without eggs. Additionally...you have to omit the eggs.
**If you wish to make plain white bread omit the whole wheat flour and use 5 cups of white flour.
Method:
1) Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients.
2) Allow the dough to rise for a minimum of 1/2 hour.
3) Kneed the dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
4) Split the dough in half and place each half into a greased loaf pan.
5) Bake bread at 375F for 20 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when it's tapped.
Additional Notes from Andrea:
1) I'm lazy and use instant (breadmaker) yeast, therefore I don't have to activate it. If you prefer regular yeast, you will need to soak it in the water before you use it. The water needs to be warm, but not boiling. Boiling water will kill the yeast.
2) I mixed everything by hand with a wooden spoon.
3) I like to add only half of the flour at first, let it rise for 1/2 hour and then add the rest of the flour. I never measure the flour, I just keep adding it until the dough won't hold anymore...and it "looks right." Then I let the dough rise some more before splitting it into loaves.
4) I bake the loaves one at a time, although you can do it simultaneously. Sometimes I will bake the bread for 20 minutes, then remove it from the pan and bake it for another 5 minutes or so, to make sure it's cooked all the way through. I don't like it when the middle of the loaf is doughy.
I think that's just about it...and oh, this is what my recipe looks like (the actual paper is about 4"x6").
Ciao,
Andrea
Monday, August 31, 2009
My sourdough experience
As you might know, I love to cook and bake. I make my own bread from scratch, and I have to boast, I think my regular brown and white loaves of bread are far superior to the ones that can be bought at the grocery store. So, about a month ago, one of my favourite cooking bloggers, Clotilde Dusoulier, at Chocolate & Zucchini detailed her experience about making sourdough bread. Although she didn't make her own starter, she did provide links to other bloggers who did. Being always up for a baking challenge, and wanting to expand my bread-making repertoire, I decided I would give sourdough a try--including making my own starter.
If you follow my Twitter feed, you will know that my first attempt at sourdough starter (or "started" as I typed numerous times) didn't go quite right. I used the directions from the blog, The Fresh Loaf, as they are well laid out and easy to follow. Day 1 and 2 went along swimmingly. The starter was nice and bubbly on the second day, but on third day it didn't double like it was supposed to. The instructions said to wait until it had doubled, so I waited. And waited, and waited. And then my starter was rancid and I had to start again. The second attempt went much better. This time, I noticed that the instructions said to give the starter I little boost with extra flour and water if it didn't double, so when Day 3 came around and my starter hadn't grown enough, I gave it a little extra to eat. And voila! My starter continued to grow and bubble and collect wild yeast like it was supposed to. Huzzah.
Last Friday rolls around and I ponder the eternal question of whether or not I should pull my freshly minted starter out of the fridge so I can bake with it the next day. Due to scheduling uncertainties, I decided to leave it be. Saturday morning, up early as per usual, I changed my mind and reversed yesterday's decision. I was going to bake sourdough bread. I pulled my starter out of the fridge, follow Clotilde's instructions for preparing it and continue on with my day as I waited for the starter to rise. Fast forward to 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The starter's looking good and I'm ready to roll. I pull up the recipe again and begin weighing my ingredients (we recently purchased a kitchen scale).
I've got everything mixed when Andrew asks me something along the lines of: "Have you actually read all of the instructions?" To which I sheepishly reply, "At some point I did." Now Andrew starts reading me the recipe out loud. "Let rest for 2 hours...6 hours later..." My response is a somewhat panicked: "Are you s**ting me?" I come over to the computer and after a few minutes we discover alternate instructions, which permit the baker to place the dough in the fridge to rise over night. I took the alternate option.
On Sunday Andrew and I got up, went for our long run (18 km) and when we got back I pulled the dough out of the fridge to warm up. We went to church and even had brunch with another couple who go to St. Joseph's chapel before returning home to the sourdough-dough. At this point there were only a few quick kneadings to go before placing it in a 3 litre pot and into the oven for an hour. My last tribulation of my first attempt at completely homemade sourdough bread: the bottom got a little burnt. Our oven runs hot. Roughly 100 degrees hotter than what the temperature dial reads. We've known this since we moved into our apartment over 2 years ago. We've got a little thermometer in the oven to gauge the actual temperature. Unfortunately, it runs even hotter at higher temperatures and so when I went to pull the bread out of the oven I was greeted with "burning" smell. I was preoccupied with hemming pants while it cooked and I forgot to use my nose to tell me my bread was done.
Regardless the bread is delicious. The sour flavour isn't really strong, yet. But it comes with a more aged starter.
In Garden News...
I wanted to give a quick shout out to our garden, continuing to preserver on our 12th floor balcony. We have strawberries! They're tiny, but they're there. And tomatoes, which, with the wave of hot weather we're getting here in Edmonton, I hope will continue to grow.
Ciao,
Andrea
If you follow my Twitter feed, you will know that my first attempt at sourdough starter (or "started" as I typed numerous times) didn't go quite right. I used the directions from the blog, The Fresh Loaf, as they are well laid out and easy to follow. Day 1 and 2 went along swimmingly. The starter was nice and bubbly on the second day, but on third day it didn't double like it was supposed to. The instructions said to wait until it had doubled, so I waited. And waited, and waited. And then my starter was rancid and I had to start again. The second attempt went much better. This time, I noticed that the instructions said to give the starter I little boost with extra flour and water if it didn't double, so when Day 3 came around and my starter hadn't grown enough, I gave it a little extra to eat. And voila! My starter continued to grow and bubble and collect wild yeast like it was supposed to. Huzzah.
Last Friday rolls around and I ponder the eternal question of whether or not I should pull my freshly minted starter out of the fridge so I can bake with it the next day. Due to scheduling uncertainties, I decided to leave it be. Saturday morning, up early as per usual, I changed my mind and reversed yesterday's decision. I was going to bake sourdough bread. I pulled my starter out of the fridge, follow Clotilde's instructions for preparing it and continue on with my day as I waited for the starter to rise. Fast forward to 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The starter's looking good and I'm ready to roll. I pull up the recipe again and begin weighing my ingredients (we recently purchased a kitchen scale).
I've got everything mixed when Andrew asks me something along the lines of: "Have you actually read all of the instructions?" To which I sheepishly reply, "At some point I did." Now Andrew starts reading me the recipe out loud. "Let rest for 2 hours...6 hours later..." My response is a somewhat panicked: "Are you s**ting me?" I come over to the computer and after a few minutes we discover alternate instructions, which permit the baker to place the dough in the fridge to rise over night. I took the alternate option.
On Sunday Andrew and I got up, went for our long run (18 km) and when we got back I pulled the dough out of the fridge to warm up. We went to church and even had brunch with another couple who go to St. Joseph's chapel before returning home to the sourdough-dough. At this point there were only a few quick kneadings to go before placing it in a 3 litre pot and into the oven for an hour. My last tribulation of my first attempt at completely homemade sourdough bread: the bottom got a little burnt. Our oven runs hot. Roughly 100 degrees hotter than what the temperature dial reads. We've known this since we moved into our apartment over 2 years ago. We've got a little thermometer in the oven to gauge the actual temperature. Unfortunately, it runs even hotter at higher temperatures and so when I went to pull the bread out of the oven I was greeted with "burning" smell. I was preoccupied with hemming pants while it cooked and I forgot to use my nose to tell me my bread was done.
Regardless the bread is delicious. The sour flavour isn't really strong, yet. But it comes with a more aged starter.
In Garden News...
I wanted to give a quick shout out to our garden, continuing to preserver on our 12th floor balcony. We have strawberries! They're tiny, but they're there. And tomatoes, which, with the wave of hot weather we're getting here in Edmonton, I hope will continue to grow.
Ciao,
Andrea
Monday, August 24, 2009
Redundancy...and playing with fire
I've been made redundant. Just for this week though, and just for this blog post. Andrew and I and a couple of our friends went inner-tube rafting down the Pembina River on Saturday. We lucked out with warm, sunny weather and even the river temperature was quite nice. We spent the whole afternoon in the great outdoors and the evening too. After we got back to Edmonton we stopped at our apartment long enough to grab our poi equipment, next to Save on Foods for dinner supplies, then we headed over to our friend's house. We sat around a fire, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows then Andrew and I spun poi. We haven't done that in ages. If you want an in depth report on the day, you can go here. Like I said, I've been made redundant this week, and I'm feeling too lazy to write up a full report myself.
Instead, how about a few words on poi, also known as fire dancing?
I started spinning poi, oh I'm not quite sure now, six, seven, maybe eight years ago? A friend of Andrew and mine had spend some time in Australia woofing (that's working on organic farms for room and board). One night she and the friend she'd been traveling with, spent the evening on a beach. This particular beach is apparently where all the hippy, poi spinning people hang out, and for the price of sharing their loaf of bread our friend got to learn how to spin poi using socks stuffed with rocks. When she got back from Australia she demonstrated her new found talent and wowed us all. Andrew picked up the hobby next and not too long after so did I. I was once told by a member of the girl guide group I used to help out with that, "I wasn't as boring as I seemed," after I had demonstrated my poi spinning skills.
The way to learn how to spin poi is with tennis balls. Do not start out with flame on your first try, you will probably seriously hurt yourself and potentially others. Practice poi cost about $3.00 to put together with a quick trip to your local hardware store for 2 tennis balls, string and 2 washers. You just have to nick the tennis balls with a cut long enough to slide a washer tied to string inside and you're pretty much done. Then you start spinning, just the basics of course. Spinning forward, maybe turning and the basic beat/wave. Once you've masters those tricks you can move onto the butterfly and its variations. I learned many of my tricks off of a website called Home of Poi, which I believe is still in operation (just Google it).
The first time I tried poi with real fire was pretty terrifying. I recall it was a New Years eve and I could do all of three, maybe four tricks. For some reason I also recall wearing a white shirt at the time. I think it's good to have a healthy does of terror on your first live spin, you are after all, flinging flaming balls of fuel soaked Kevlar (in my case anyway) around your body. The flame roars while you spin. Andrew often tells people we can't hear what's going on outside our poi while we spin, but that's not entirely true. I don't practice too often, and get to spin with fire even less, so I have a tendency to have little mess-ups. The worst I've done is smack myself in the face while preforming for a bunch of girl guides. I swore rather loudly. I had singed some of the skin around my upper lip and felt a bit like the Phantom of the Opera for the next week.
My poi are made from Kevlar rope (as noted above). The rope is tied into a monkey's fist knot around a large metal ring, which is then attached to a length of chain. I used to have handles made out of bits of an old leather belt, but they broke a long time ago and now I hold onto the metal rings the handles were attached to. It's a little hard on the hands, but I've gotten use to it. We use citronella oil as fuel. You can use kerosene as well but it's rather smelly. Most of my tricks center around the butterfly maneuver, including: regular butterfly, giant butterfly, Mexican wave, alternating Mexican wave from front to side and from front to over my head, as well as a front butterfly/behind the back thingy. I can only do a 3 beat wave, whereas Andrew can do 5. I've said for a number of years I need to learn more, but I've never found the time/someone to teach me.
Below are my poi, unlit. You can see the monkey's fist knot and the bear rings I hold onto. You might also notice that one of the poi is frayed. This happened one night when some chemist friends of ours brought us some salts to test in our fuel in an attempt to make the flames burn different colours.
These two pictures are from a few years ago when Andrew and I went camping in Pembina Provincial Park, AB.
These final pictures are from a June night in Elora, ON several years ago (I don't remember when specifically). They include our friend who originally showed us poi as well. I'm not really sure which picture is of whom.
Ciao,
Andrea
Instead, how about a few words on poi, also known as fire dancing?
I started spinning poi, oh I'm not quite sure now, six, seven, maybe eight years ago? A friend of Andrew and mine had spend some time in Australia woofing (that's working on organic farms for room and board). One night she and the friend she'd been traveling with, spent the evening on a beach. This particular beach is apparently where all the hippy, poi spinning people hang out, and for the price of sharing their loaf of bread our friend got to learn how to spin poi using socks stuffed with rocks. When she got back from Australia she demonstrated her new found talent and wowed us all. Andrew picked up the hobby next and not too long after so did I. I was once told by a member of the girl guide group I used to help out with that, "I wasn't as boring as I seemed," after I had demonstrated my poi spinning skills.
The way to learn how to spin poi is with tennis balls. Do not start out with flame on your first try, you will probably seriously hurt yourself and potentially others. Practice poi cost about $3.00 to put together with a quick trip to your local hardware store for 2 tennis balls, string and 2 washers. You just have to nick the tennis balls with a cut long enough to slide a washer tied to string inside and you're pretty much done. Then you start spinning, just the basics of course. Spinning forward, maybe turning and the basic beat/wave. Once you've masters those tricks you can move onto the butterfly and its variations. I learned many of my tricks off of a website called Home of Poi, which I believe is still in operation (just Google it).
The first time I tried poi with real fire was pretty terrifying. I recall it was a New Years eve and I could do all of three, maybe four tricks. For some reason I also recall wearing a white shirt at the time. I think it's good to have a healthy does of terror on your first live spin, you are after all, flinging flaming balls of fuel soaked Kevlar (in my case anyway) around your body. The flame roars while you spin. Andrew often tells people we can't hear what's going on outside our poi while we spin, but that's not entirely true. I don't practice too often, and get to spin with fire even less, so I have a tendency to have little mess-ups. The worst I've done is smack myself in the face while preforming for a bunch of girl guides. I swore rather loudly. I had singed some of the skin around my upper lip and felt a bit like the Phantom of the Opera for the next week.
My poi are made from Kevlar rope (as noted above). The rope is tied into a monkey's fist knot around a large metal ring, which is then attached to a length of chain. I used to have handles made out of bits of an old leather belt, but they broke a long time ago and now I hold onto the metal rings the handles were attached to. It's a little hard on the hands, but I've gotten use to it. We use citronella oil as fuel. You can use kerosene as well but it's rather smelly. Most of my tricks center around the butterfly maneuver, including: regular butterfly, giant butterfly, Mexican wave, alternating Mexican wave from front to side and from front to over my head, as well as a front butterfly/behind the back thingy. I can only do a 3 beat wave, whereas Andrew can do 5. I've said for a number of years I need to learn more, but I've never found the time/someone to teach me.
Below are my poi, unlit. You can see the monkey's fist knot and the bear rings I hold onto. You might also notice that one of the poi is frayed. This happened one night when some chemist friends of ours brought us some salts to test in our fuel in an attempt to make the flames burn different colours.
These two pictures are from a few years ago when Andrew and I went camping in Pembina Provincial Park, AB.
These final pictures are from a June night in Elora, ON several years ago (I don't remember when specifically). They include our friend who originally showed us poi as well. I'm not really sure which picture is of whom.
Ciao,
Andrea
Friday, August 14, 2009
Heading down PhD road
I think I might be heading down PhD road. I'm not too sure what to think of this.
Today I had a meeting with my adviser for the literature review I discussed in my last post. We didn't actually talk too much about my work thus far, which is fine, I'm sure I'll get feedback soon enough. What we did discuss for some time was the prospect of my doing a PhD. The thing is, I'm not sure I would be happy with a librarian-esque job. I could probably manage it for a short while, doing reference or giving library instruction. But I suspect eventually I would grow bored and want something else to do. Also, I don't want to drop my research topic once I'm done the advanced research course this fall. I think there's more work to be done in the nutrition information seeking area, and I'm not likely to find a job that will allow me to pursue my interest.
I'm not concerned about the work required for a PhD degree. I know I can handle it, possibly better than many people who have gone through the process before. I'm highly, one might even say, over motivated--I think this has to do with my being the youngest. I'm pretty good about not procrastinating too much and I can work without direct supervision. My adviser told me I would probably do well in a PhD program, and even hinted if I didn't do one now, I would likely wind up doing one eventually anyway. The good thing (actually there are 2 good things), is one, I will be able to apply to both SSHRC and CIHR (where there's a lot more money) for funding. And two, the Library and Information Studies/Science (LIS) field is in need of professors, or so I'm told. In fact, according to my adviser (who was recruited to U of A before she'd even completed her degree), they've been in need of professors for at least 10 years. Therefore, getting a job shouldn't be too difficult.
So what's the problem? My writing. I want to keep writing. I want to be published, not just on scholarly papers or government reports, which I already am, I want to be a published fiction author. And just when, in the 3-4 years it takes me to complete a PhD or the years after will I have time to write? I might, as I did last year, still be able to squash 30 to 40 minutes of writing in before I go in for morning classes. But only writing 30 to 40 minutes a day will take me a long time to complete a full manuscript, even a young adult one. This, above the marking, above the teaching, even above the pressure to produce papers and attend conferences is my greatest concern. When will I find the time to write? When will I ever see one of my stories, printed and bound on the shelves of your local bookseller?
Despite this, I will probably begin the application process soon. U of A does not have a LIS PhD program yet, and aren't expected to for a couple more years. Instead I have to apply for an interdisciplinary degree. This means much rigmarole. I have to co-ordinate advisers and courses (6), then get approval from grad chairs and then the University. In the end, if I decide this is what I want to do, I should be able to start in the fall of 2010 (or potentially even do a course next summer). Then I can really start reading PhD (comics) in earnest.
Ciao,
Andrea
Today I had a meeting with my adviser for the literature review I discussed in my last post. We didn't actually talk too much about my work thus far, which is fine, I'm sure I'll get feedback soon enough. What we did discuss for some time was the prospect of my doing a PhD. The thing is, I'm not sure I would be happy with a librarian-esque job. I could probably manage it for a short while, doing reference or giving library instruction. But I suspect eventually I would grow bored and want something else to do. Also, I don't want to drop my research topic once I'm done the advanced research course this fall. I think there's more work to be done in the nutrition information seeking area, and I'm not likely to find a job that will allow me to pursue my interest.
I'm not concerned about the work required for a PhD degree. I know I can handle it, possibly better than many people who have gone through the process before. I'm highly, one might even say, over motivated--I think this has to do with my being the youngest. I'm pretty good about not procrastinating too much and I can work without direct supervision. My adviser told me I would probably do well in a PhD program, and even hinted if I didn't do one now, I would likely wind up doing one eventually anyway. The good thing (actually there are 2 good things), is one, I will be able to apply to both SSHRC and CIHR (where there's a lot more money) for funding. And two, the Library and Information Studies/Science (LIS) field is in need of professors, or so I'm told. In fact, according to my adviser (who was recruited to U of A before she'd even completed her degree), they've been in need of professors for at least 10 years. Therefore, getting a job shouldn't be too difficult.
So what's the problem? My writing. I want to keep writing. I want to be published, not just on scholarly papers or government reports, which I already am, I want to be a published fiction author. And just when, in the 3-4 years it takes me to complete a PhD or the years after will I have time to write? I might, as I did last year, still be able to squash 30 to 40 minutes of writing in before I go in for morning classes. But only writing 30 to 40 minutes a day will take me a long time to complete a full manuscript, even a young adult one. This, above the marking, above the teaching, even above the pressure to produce papers and attend conferences is my greatest concern. When will I find the time to write? When will I ever see one of my stories, printed and bound on the shelves of your local bookseller?
Despite this, I will probably begin the application process soon. U of A does not have a LIS PhD program yet, and aren't expected to for a couple more years. Instead I have to apply for an interdisciplinary degree. This means much rigmarole. I have to co-ordinate advisers and courses (6), then get approval from grad chairs and then the University. In the end, if I decide this is what I want to do, I should be able to start in the fall of 2010 (or potentially even do a course next summer). Then I can really start reading PhD (comics) in earnest.
Ciao,
Andrea
Monday, August 10, 2009
Food for thought
I thought, since it's currently consuming my life, I would take this opportunity to briefly describe my literature review and the related research project I am completing for my Masters. Also, nothing much of note happened this weekend, although I did get the chance to try out Starfarers of Catan.
I have an interest in nutrition; however, I have only taken one course on the subject during my undergrad, and I've done some reading on the topic (primarily Michael Pollan's books--who's not a nutritionist). In general, I have an interest in how medical/health information is passed onto the public and how that information is preceived and used. This interest has grown out of my experiences during my nursing degree, my time as a research assistant involved in systematic reviews, and my general outlook on health care and how it should be conducted. Since I am currently in a library and information studies program, I have combined this interest with the the LIS field of information seeking (basically, how people look for information).
Currently, I am enrolled in an independent study course involving a literature review on the topic of undergraduate information seeking behaviours for food and nutrition-related information. Since no one has specifically looked at the nutrition information seeking behaviours of undergraduates, I'm having to combined data on undergraduate nutrition (perhaps not to surprisingly, it's not great) with information seeking behaviours of undergraduates in general (also not that great) along with a smaller section on what is known about how people search for health information (I haven't gotten to that part yet). This whole process has taken a considerable amount of time, much more time than I had anticipated. I'm glad I don't have to factor in class time as well. Sadly, because of this, completing work on my Nora MS has been delayed.
During the fall semester I'll be taking on the primary research part of this project. I'm going to interview U of A undergraduate students to find out if, how, where and why they search for information on nutrition. This is a slightly terrifying prospect, a) because I'm an introvert by nature; and b) I suspect I'll be dragging information out of these students by tooth and nail. My suspicion is that most students don't look for information on the food they eat. They eat what's convenient (which is what I've found out from my literature review) and cheep. I think the whole thing is going to be a tough go. Once I've completed the interviews I'll have to transcribe, code and analyze my data and finally write up a paper. From where I stand, it seems like a mind-booglingly large amount of work.
After that, well, I'm not sure. I would love to continue on with this vain of research except, the only way for me to really do that is through PhD studies--and I'm not convinced I want to do that (when would I find the time to write more adventures with Nora?). Another possiblity bouncing around in my head is I could look at applying to the Nutrition department at the U of A for a second Masters. I would be a little behind on the nutrition knowledge, but I think given my background experiences I might be able to swing it. However, there again, do I really want to do a second Masters? I don't know. This is a problem, and I see no immediate answer to the question. Maybe I should just apply to everything that comes my way (jobs included) and see what happens.
Ciao,
Andrea
I have an interest in nutrition; however, I have only taken one course on the subject during my undergrad, and I've done some reading on the topic (primarily Michael Pollan's books--who's not a nutritionist). In general, I have an interest in how medical/health information is passed onto the public and how that information is preceived and used. This interest has grown out of my experiences during my nursing degree, my time as a research assistant involved in systematic reviews, and my general outlook on health care and how it should be conducted. Since I am currently in a library and information studies program, I have combined this interest with the the LIS field of information seeking (basically, how people look for information).
Currently, I am enrolled in an independent study course involving a literature review on the topic of undergraduate information seeking behaviours for food and nutrition-related information. Since no one has specifically looked at the nutrition information seeking behaviours of undergraduates, I'm having to combined data on undergraduate nutrition (perhaps not to surprisingly, it's not great) with information seeking behaviours of undergraduates in general (also not that great) along with a smaller section on what is known about how people search for health information (I haven't gotten to that part yet). This whole process has taken a considerable amount of time, much more time than I had anticipated. I'm glad I don't have to factor in class time as well. Sadly, because of this, completing work on my Nora MS has been delayed.
During the fall semester I'll be taking on the primary research part of this project. I'm going to interview U of A undergraduate students to find out if, how, where and why they search for information on nutrition. This is a slightly terrifying prospect, a) because I'm an introvert by nature; and b) I suspect I'll be dragging information out of these students by tooth and nail. My suspicion is that most students don't look for information on the food they eat. They eat what's convenient (which is what I've found out from my literature review) and cheep. I think the whole thing is going to be a tough go. Once I've completed the interviews I'll have to transcribe, code and analyze my data and finally write up a paper. From where I stand, it seems like a mind-booglingly large amount of work.
After that, well, I'm not sure. I would love to continue on with this vain of research except, the only way for me to really do that is through PhD studies--and I'm not convinced I want to do that (when would I find the time to write more adventures with Nora?). Another possiblity bouncing around in my head is I could look at applying to the Nutrition department at the U of A for a second Masters. I would be a little behind on the nutrition knowledge, but I think given my background experiences I might be able to swing it. However, there again, do I really want to do a second Masters? I don't know. This is a problem, and I see no immediate answer to the question. Maybe I should just apply to everything that comes my way (jobs included) and see what happens.
Ciao,
Andrea
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