Friday afternoon I took pictures at the high school for one a possible project for one of W.'s classes. This photo is the model skeleton from my old biology 11 class. I just did some minor adjustments to the colour temperature and the levels. (That's about all I ever do).

Friday evening was very amusing... I went for a little festivus with the usual crowd, but there was an unexpected addition to the party that changed the mood somewhat, and put everyone on their best behaviour. It turned out to be a very amusing evening, but far too complex to describe in this bare bones blog post.

Saturday, I took to the road with W. and J. We stormed the stores of the Prairie Mall, watched an arm wrestling competiton in the food court, and feasted on sushi at the charming restaurant Tokyo Ichiban near Winners (which we did not get to on time), Jysk (which was closed), and Michaels (which had very slow service. It was a lovely road trip... we were enveloped in sound from W.'s stereo, we experienced a stunning sunset that we collectively refused to photograph, and I had the opportunity to tell very entertaining stories about my past romance. I had two very sympathetic listeners with me... thank you, you're both absolute darlings.

on tonight's agenda... The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy at the aurora cinema centre.

and a giant congratulations to my sweet friend Amber... who has completed her undergraduate degree at UofA, bought a condo, and moved to Calgary. All the best my dear!

Applied for another job today... still waiting to hear about the other job I applied for... I've started to go a little stir crazy, probably because it has been lovely and sunny out and I haven't been struck by divine academic inspiration and felt like starting research for my next paper yet.

In an effort to expand my horizons and stretch my legs I took myself on a solo photo excursion this afternoon. It's been a while since it was just me and my camera taking pictures. I took a few nice photos, but I wanted to take some portraits and I didn't have my model muse with me to photograph against the lovely colours of the water "tower". I really need to find someone who does not mind getting their photo taken or can learn to not mind it that much (Cisca or Sandra come home for a weekend so I can take some portraits of someone other than my model muse... no offense w. darling, we just need to diversify every now and then).

So what's the intention of this evening's post besides trying to consume some of empty blocks of time that I have? Well I wanted to state that I would really like confirmation that I will have some type of regular and well paying summer employment very soon... and that I need to diversify my selection of portrait models... and that I think that one of these days, when I am emotionally mature enough, I should go down to the nearest grocery store and pick up a dashing PhD from the foreign food section. If they're all out of that, then I guess I'll just go to the bulk bin and get a bag of intelligent and amusing friends who will keep me entertained as I continue my ascent/descent into spinsterhood.

Some former Fort St. John residents might recognize this stunning lawn feature. This giant wooden ornament has been a part of the "lawnscape" of this house for many years, but only today did I take a picture of it. Maybe I waited until now when I had a big enough lens to take a photo of it.

Anyhow, there it is... in all its glory. Feel free to add your comments and or observations on my flickr photostream. I will be much obliged if you do.

I thought summer was getting closer... so close that I could move almost entirely into sandal mode and forget about socks for a few months. But people keep on telling me to expect cold temperatures this week. And much to my dismay the weather network supports this.

I am a little bored right now, hence this post about the weather. I need to make a trip to the library or bookstore and get something new to read. It hasn't been that long since I went in for my job interview... I know that the people are still sorting some things out about the position, but it would be nice if they could give me some indication whether or not they want to hire me. I am getting a little antsy, and I have the feeling that the hestiation indicates that they are waiting for someone better to come along. Oh well... things will work out eventually.

That's a little phrase that I/We have been throwing into the mix for the last little while. It probably annoys people, but in addition to being a well known intellectual (caution: uber self esteem showing) I am also known to be somewhat obnoxious in certain company. Are the two related? I think it is very likely.

Anyhow, posted some new photos from another truly random and spontaneous photo excursion yesterday (to the industrial park no less). This shot of the chain link fence and the rusty gas paraphernalia with the jolt of electric green is possibly my favourite of the 104 photos I took yesterday.

However, on the subject of learning something new every day. I'm just starting to use certain features in Bloglines (my free web based feed aggregator). It's taken me awhile to discover certain features, like for instance the option to display items from a certain time frame other than my current session. Very useful... I don't know why I didn't use it before.

I recently broke the 2000 mark on my Flickr photostream. Currently I am at 2508 views, although that number is quite suspect.

That's all for now. It's a beautiful day outside and I think I'm going to do some selective laundry.

I have some of the world's biggest hair. It's easily my number one vanity and curse. I say curse because it is quite the ordeal to make it look nice enough so it is the envy of all the other thin and fine haired people around me. For example, let's take Saturday evening... the evening of the infamous Salute to the Patch Art Auction. I happened to be in the midst of finishing off a research paper, but I can be young and stupid from time to time... and my darling friend W. had informed me that I was attending this function and it's not often that I have the opportunity to dress up, so I threw caution to the wind and spent a night out on the town (after the arduous task of styling my hair) with the local artistes and rich patrons who make their work possible.

In anticipation of the evening I altered the hemline of a black dress that I had already adjusted the neckline on the summer before in a fit of boredom. But on the day of... I had to schedule in breaks between writing my paper (with a faulty enter key I might add) and washing and drying my hair (For the record I have enough hair to feed and clothe at least three others). I even whipped out my collection of underused velcro rollers for the event in an effort to create a little volume for my heavy head of hair. This photo that I have posted demonstrates stage 3 of the hair styling process (Stage 1: wash; Stage 2: blowdry; Stage 3: volumize; Stage 4: smooth & gloss).

I am spending a lot of time explaining the hair styling process because it was possible the most positive aspect of the evening. As I indicated in my last post, the Salute to the Patch Art Auction was possibly the best worst time I ever had. The combination of black tie (Fort St. John style of course... which means your best pair of Wranglers and the possible combination of diamond fringe shirt with a sports coat), cattle auction (as provided by the chubby faced cattle auctioneer with the protuding belly and lack of anything original to say other than to say that no two pieces of pottery are ever alike), and boxing match (the parading around of the various pieces of art up for auction by various women clad in nomex overalls rather than bikinis, with bejeweled backsides such as foxy, angel, sassy, bad girl, etc.) was something for the story books.

I have to admit that I was a little bored as I was hoping against hope that there would be better entertainment and more impressive art pieces. We arrived to the auction just when supper was starting, so we missed the first set of entertainment (that being some kind of musical group called Men Will be Boys or something that effect), and the second act was an overly loud piano (keyboard I should say) of scandalously horrific lobby music like the classic Music Box Dancer (think Frank Mills the piano player and you'll know what I'm talking about). Lucky for me however, I was sitting at a table with mostly likeminded individuals (read: intolerant critics) so those sitting to my right and my left did not mind when I cringed at the volume of the piano, nor did they mind when I gripped their knees and squeezed tightly when Music Box Dancer was played for a second time within ten minutes. Thankfully, the company of traveling intolerant critics that I keep managed to make the night an enjoyable one. I had an audience for my impromptu sugar portraits, a support group for gawdy art awareness (take for example a stained glass piece entitled Elk in Rut), as well as a support group for underappreciated and undermined art (take for example the several student pieces where the young artist remained anonymous while the art teacher got credit... and sold for approx. $80 when much inferior pieces sold for $300-$400).

I think it was a necessary experience. I needed to remind myself of the type of environment that I was lucky (from my perspective anyhow) enough to be oblivious to for my entire childhood. Despite being a long time resident of the north, I really had no concept of the presence of the oil and gas industry, or really any type of northern (read: hunting) type of mentality. This of course is excluding my experience with the northern weather. I was not oblivious to the cold although I would have liked to be.

A couple positive things I will say though about the event... it's nice to see strong support for the local arts community and it was nice to see a display of local art even though the majority of what was being auctioned off I would not put on display in my house - there were exceptions of course. My suggestions for any future auctions... change the venue, nix the cattle auction and boxing match style of auctioneering, hire better entertainment, and do not undermine the integrity of student art... they are artists like everyone else and deserve equal respect.

anyhow... that's all from me on that one. I went for a job interview on Monday and I'm hoping that something will come of it. My speedlite arrived on Monday and I have yet to use it. Should this weekend offer opportunity methinks that it would be time for another photo excursion.

bon nuit...

I have been having so many computer problems lately (and by lately I mean yesterday and today). It is simply ridiculous. Yesterday my enter key stopped working (again), and today I have had to restart my computer at least seven times because the internet keeps cutting out and freezing things up. Not good at all.

Anyhow, on a lighter note... yesterday I had the one of the best worst times in the history of all my social outings in Fort St. John. I'll post a longer story sometime within the next few days, but let's just say... yesterday evening will go down in the record books as the most ecclectic event I have ever attended. Where else but FSJ would you find a mixture of cattle auction, boxing match, and supposedly black tie dinner?

In an effort to expand my vocabulary I subscribe to a few (yes only 3) word of the day mailing lists.

This was the word of the day from a.word.a.day. It was foreshadowing and I didn't pick up on it.

lat·i·tu·di·nar·i·an
adj.

Holding or expressing broad or tolerant views, especially in religious matters.

I was in the middle of a brilliant sentence for my paper and I heard someone bodycheck the gate to open it, but I had thought it was only the dogwalker. But then the doorbell rang. The dogwalker doesn't ring the doorbell.... so something was afoot.

I walked to the door and opened it. Two strangers clothed in black stood smiling on the stoop. I knew they were not Mormon missionaries as there before me stood a woman and a man, and they were about 20 years past the Mormon missionary prime.

"Hello my name is Margo," said the woman with the faint hit of herpes simplex B on her upper lip. "This is my friend Chuck," she continued, motioning towards her gentleman friend who stood a few steps back with a fedora sitting jauntily on his head.

I am a polite so I said hello back and waited to hear the news that the world was coming to an end and how I needed to join a special elite club to pave my way to the kindgom of heaven. Much to my surprise however, Margo quickly launched into a well rehearsed speech documenting how the bible and science do not contradict. Chuck, the silent apprentice, watched Margo's performance with a simple smile while I stood thanking my lucky stars that I have never been afflicted with herpes simplex B. But my thoughts were disrupted when Margo asked me my opinion on whether the bible contradicts science or vice versa. I didn't really answer her question... instead I told her a little story about how when I was in cowtown hanging out with a bunch of prosties (note: protestants not prostitutes) I went to an open forum about evolution and christianity (true story...). Then I gave some ambiguous reference to people trying to achieve balance... so on and so forth. I should have just said that I had to go and feed my baby, since the child I was minding was shouting at the cat in the living room. But of course I didn't, because I will not claim that child as my own even with such intense pressure from the jehovahs.

Chuck tried to say something at this point, but Margo flashed him a look that said "Keep your mouth shut Chuck... you are a silent apprentice... nothing more!" Margo then reached into her bag and pulled out her literature that I found easier to accept rather than say no. And I can find use for it anyhow as newsprint is widely recognized in arson circles as a remarkable firestarter. But then Margo wanted to share a passage from her gold leaf bible with me. And still I resisted the pressure to say, "sorry dears... lovely stuff and all but I have to feed my child some lunch... there will be hell to pay if I don't do it soon.... oops, pardon my french... I forgot who I was talking to for a second." And then jokingly add, "Maybe you could take the boy off my hands... sometimes his father and I think he is the spawn of lucifer." If they asked my name I would say Rosemary and then I would bid them goodbye and shut the door with a devilish grin. But I'm no Mia Farrow so I listened to her little passage from the bible and once it was done bid Margo and Chuck a polite goodbye.

The entire experience, although not painful, could have been done without. It set me back in many ways... as not only did I relive my experience with the prosties but also I was just overcoming my addiction to arson and then they come and give me newsprint which they just know I will need to burn later. I would have much preferred had it been a pair of delicious mormonskis like the one played by the sexiful Steve Sandvoss in Latter Days. Then I could have tripped and cut my thigh on the outdoor water tap while wearing teeny tiny shorts... and the sexiest of the mormonskis would have to help me treat my wound which would initiate an illicit and tumultuous affair which would lead to excommunication from the mormon church but ultimately result in a happy reunion at a restaurant made over from an Elk's lodge... or something like that anyhow, I only watched the movie once. I think you get the picture though.