Sick Soundtrack

Yeah, you might think this is an awesome soundtrack as in "siiiick" (or maybe now you think I'm totally uncool). No, this is a soundtrack to mope to when you're Sneezy, Sniffly, Phlegmy and four other of the symptom dwarves of sick...

1. FC Kahuna - Hayling

2. Eels - I Need Some Sleep

3. Broken Social Scene - Swimmers

4. Carla Bruni - Tout le Monde

5. Atmosphere - Happymess

6. Starf**ker - Jupiter

7. VV Brown - Traveling Like Light

8. Vitamin String Quartet - Clocks (or anything with a violin for that matter)

9. The Weakerthans - Everything Must Go!

10. The Pogues - Fairytale of New York

11. Mumm-Ra - She's Got You High

12. Munchausen by Proxy - Sweet Ballad

13. The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour

14. Octoberman - Trapped in the New Scene

Being sick sucks. (Duh.) Yeah, I know, you've never met anyone who loves being sick.

But seriously, you look like crap, you feel like crap, you're not sleeping because you can't breathe, your lips are chapped because you've become a mouth breather, no one wants to go near you for fear of being headbutted when you go into a full-body sneeze, and I'm pretty sure there's less oxygen in your brain because you pause between breaths because you're trying to keep the mucous in your nose from leaking out...

Blargh.

But maybe, just maybe

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.
Henry David Thoreau

Oh, and one more, just for kicks...

Apologies

Some hope is restored to humanity when you get apologies from exes who totally fucked up in the past and have no ulterior motives attached to said apologies. Mamas and Papas, keep teaching your sons to treat girls right and how to apologize when they don't...

Edit: Alternatively, Bad Moms and Pops who don't seem to be able to teach their children that they are responsible for their actions and externalize it all(or kids that just don't effing listen and are dirtbags despite). WTF.

(B-Side)

Canadiana

Bikes and Vanity

distinction from others, on top

“Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain - at least in a poor country like Russia - and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.” - Leon Trotsky

Music Monday?

Because who doesn't want to wake up to Chris Martin in an elephant costume unicycling down the road?

Pumpkins!

I carved two mini pumpkins this Halloween... A tin man and a tiny cat. :)

Try not to be a...

Kerfuffle

Little late to the concept of this in terms of the G20 but there's stuff going on all over the place... unsettling...

Meow

Music Monday?

Mansgiving

All you dudes out there carving turkeys, here's a few more Man Tasks for you...

xo

L

Defeatist

Skinny Love

Marxes and Gherig

Thing that are Random that I found in the middle of the night...

Books I'm Reading Right now

- Stockett's The Help,

- Marinovich & Silva's The Bang Bang Club,

- Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

Things That Just Make Sense

Things That Make Me Nostalgic #3,282

90's, I loved you... I miss you.

Things I'm Not Addicted To (Kinda)

So, I think my two coffees a day "addiction" is more so like the way that people get into smoking. Boredom, usually a nice excuse to get out of the shop and go for a walk, everyone else is doing it so why not? I wouldn't say I'm addicted. Not like the way that people are when they wake up groggy, stumble out of bed and head-first into the nearest wall and need a coffee to return them to a working basal level before they can start their day.

Not my style.

I don't even like the taste of coffee. I've never drank a black coffee in my life. I order lattes and other fun drinks that add sweetness and maybe even whipped cream. It's kind of like alcohol for me - I don't want to taste the alcohol, I just want something that tastes good. Probably more akin to candy than beer.

More so though, I've become addicted to coffee shops. Hanging out with a nice drink with a book or your laptop and lazily getting things done or not doing anything at all is ideal for a chill day... I like hanging out on the couches of Kafka's down on Main between Broadway and 10th or Our Town on the corner of Kingsway and bway or Gene on Main and Kingsway. There's rarely anyone on the couches at Kafka's and Our Town when I'm there, which is weird but perfect for curling up with The Book Thief or the paper or fooling around on my laptop. They have delicious treats (salty caramel cookies!) and make their vanilla lattes just the way I like 'em. I know I can do that at home as well but there's something about people watching that's so fun that I definitely can't do from the comfort of my bedroom. These three shops are the best for that since they're deep into hipster territory. Always an interesting time...

I remember when I first started drinking coffee drinks. I used to get jittery and sort of drunk feeling, which was weird. Suppose I've gotten used to them now since I don't get the shakes anymore.

I also find it weird when people say they can't have coffee after 4 pm or whenever because "it'll keep them up all night..." Especially people my age. I guess I do have the metabolism of a hummingbird and can just get it out of my system quick enough for bedtime? I dunno. Weird.

Things That I'm In Love With #5,678

Heard this on Entourage this week and am totally in love with it. Feel like I need a massive bathtub, candles, maybe some wine or champagne and a big heart o' sadness to listen to it on repeat. haha

Also, I think the background music is a synthesizer and that's totally rad...

Things That Are Helpful In Calming Me Down...

I want to crawl into bed and throw the covers over my head and hide from the world...

Maybe I can chalk it up to being too hot out and not drinking enough water?

Things That Get Done On An Unexpected Day Off...

B.C. Family Day is today. I started it out well with a nice brunch and then rolled to work where I talked Sean into giving me the day off... should've probably talked to him about it yesterday when he actually asked if I wanted it off but it kind of worked out since I got a real day off since no one really knows I have it off and I'm hermiting at home. Shhhh. :)

So, yeah, not necessarily in any order:

- napping

- writing

- applying for jobs

- lying on the floor

- hanging out with my roommate and having a conversation beyond the tired, "Hey." "Hey." "Going to bed now." "Night."

- snacking

- calling my mother and having a conversation beyond "Hey Mum, just on a break at work... How's life?... Good?... Things are awesome here... Yeah, finally sunny... yeah, I'm eating well and getting enough sleep... okay, gotta go. Love you."

- taking out my contacts to give my eyes a break

- reading

- finding new and awesome music - Bettie Serveert. Lovelovelove

- watering the garden

- picking beans and chard and lettuce and eating it while sitting next to the plants

- getting excited over seeing fruit on the tomato plant that we were worried wasn't going to produce fruit

- daydreaming

- trying to make sense of feeling guilty that I'm not working. This one confuses me. Am I just so used to working that I feel strange when I'm not? That I should be. WTF.

- looking at old pictures

- finding random pictures on the internet since I haven't touched my camera in three weeks

Want.

Things That Confuse Me About The Pharmacy...

A new Shopper's Drug Mart opened up down the street, which is kinda sweet because I can walk down the street and get my prescriptions or toilet paper when we run out or when I get a hankering for Fruit Loops...

Popped in the other day to grab a prescription. Headed to the pharmacy and spent five minutes trying to explain things to the girl at the desk (read: pulling teeth). She effs up my phone number, my name, my prescription but I don't say anything because it's obvious she's just started this job and I remember when I started at the Bike Dr. and didn't know anything about the computer or bikes (I was hired because I was seen as "adaptable" [read: girl]) and got yelled at a dude for putting a basket through the computer wrong.

(Side note: working retail sucks enough because you have to cater to people's wants and needs, let alone deal with assholes who think they're better than you because they don't work retail.)

Aaanyway, she literally grabs the pills off the wall to show me to see if they're the proper ones, like, literally has them in her hand... then proceeds to tell me it's going to be half an hour before they're ready. Seriously? Seriously? You could hand them to me right now and take my money. Why do I have to come back in half an hour? It's going to take you more effort to go put them back on the shelf and go about your day for fifteen minutes and then have to go get them again. Why? Why? Whyyyyy can't you just give them to me now?

Luckily the new pharmacy is only a few blocks from my house so I can just walk over and get it but c'mon! So weird. I get the idea that there are other prescriptions and that I'm in a line back there behind the counter but you had them in your hand two feet from me!

Sigh.

Things I Wonder About When I Can't Get to Sleep #36

I used to pile everything on the other side of my bed and sleep on just a corner of it. I don't do that anymore. Now I could stretch out all I like... but I don't.

I wonder what that means or if it means anything at all...

Now if I could only stop eating in bed...

Don't fight with the pillow, but lay down your head
And kick every worriment out of the bed.
~Edmund Vance Cooke

Things That Are Awesome Right Now.

- being able to shave my legs without having to dodge the road rash bits.

- making it to work in 11 minutes

- Third Beach

- beach fires

- Snap peas

- our garden

- pencils

- getting a good picture by shooting from the hip

- going to Canmore, even if it is only for two days

- sunshine

- sunscreen

- chopsticks and the food you can eat them with

- Klosterman books and the questions they put in my brain

- the Sucker Punch Soundtrack

Lonely Blue Boy

For some reason I love this...

"Every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain"

Beat Poets

Sleepy but intelligent too

He cares about me

Little grey ghost chases

Sadness blazes in your face

Used to be almost over you

But it is a dream

Love cut deeply & beautifully.

Teacher used an old needle

No bone to put poison in

But if an ocean of affection would

Fetch them

For they know how to play

Hound feeding off him

Then he will always let the animals

At us

Favourite of no men

Beg me as she can devour his companion

Between sex & rotting pie

Only I am porcelain

Marble poetry

Full with a sense of wild

After I walk here

A kiss... yet ask to see you

Sleek growling

Hungry was softly purring

Once good leap

Seep in

Growling chases everywhere

Fly by

Investigating teeth which nip

Never know about that

Could blush.

Desire lingers like an old trick

A brilliant cold

Perhaps heaven and peace

A gift only special here

Drink this dark graceful drink

My sleep is safe though

Decay haunting laughing

Pray for night

Celebrate life become ice

Sad boy

Do as I see

Are you that afraid

Soft velvety voice

Must come and hear the magic

Quiet dazzle in a suffered universe

A child makes things ferociously

You ask why and I say everything

The secret prisoner could live

Vast night air

Remember yesterday

Hard glass liquid window.

Daughter looks at life through

Naked sacred heart

Curious companion

Feline who never dies

Wake from beautiful fever

Learn and understand

Fire from words like smoke

Those we bleed free

Like blind steel circles

We know

Soon you will let go

Young stars give meaning

Pictures wear away almost translucent

As their chain changed our present

Coloured in black

Like fresh kill

Never will he say it out loud

Overly dirty by my hand

Cunning hunter

Born in as of animal.

Give up or scratch

Smile and pounce

Man of messy scratches

Clouded here

The grass is brown

Do it to surround

Dance sweeter than baby breath

God of morning

Have joy like this mourning.

Stay in our bed

Remember the question

By then slow

Give me your best work

But for his gamble

Melted at morning light

So little to do

Together we are bound

Nuzzle on our pillow

No champagne

Water in this street

Bold when funny

So some see more

Come out self

Have more explore

With a stiff eye

Shorter than long stripe

Said so tiger.

If wishes were fishes

I'd still be sorry

Quiet awkward in my head

Words that hang

Between

Just right and

Harder fault

Make me okay.

I am sometimes

Violently opposed

To meeting new people

Only because I don't think

I'm quite done with the ones

I had.

The The Playlist

1. The Temporary Thing - You, Me, and a Bottle of Whiskey

2. The Gaslight Anthem - I Coulda Been a Contender

3. The Thrills - Not For All The Love In The World

4. The Drums - Down By the Water

5. The Ting Tings - Be The One

6. The Switches - Lay Down The Law

7. The Annuals - Fair

8. The Ettes - Crown of Thorns

9. The Black Keys - Ten Cent Pistol

10. The Bravery - The Spectator

11. The Format - On Your Porch

12. The Clicks - Career Suicide

13. The Gentle Waves - Fall From Grace

14. The Cribs - We Were Aborted

15. The Go! Team - T.O.R.N.A.D.O.

16. The Hold Steady - First Night

17. The Naked and the Famous - No Way

18. The Kickdrums - Just a Game

19. The Pogues - Fairytale of New York

20. The Knux - Bang Bang

21. The Rapture - Pieces of the People we Love

22. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

23. The Shangri-Las - Remember

24. The Real Tuesday Weld - Last Words

25. The Sounds - Rock and Roll

"I just need enough to tide me over until I need more." - Bill Hoest

70

"Night can swallow you up, yet none of it touches you. Around any corner, there's a promise of something daring and ideal and things are just getting going. There's something obscenely joyful behind every door, either that or somebody crying with their head in in their hands. A lazy rhythm looms in the dreamy air and the atmosphere pulsates with bygone duels, past-life romance, comrades requesting comrades to aid them in some way. You can't see it, but you know it's there"

- Bob Dylan

Happy Birthday big guy...

Sunday

"I can read minds," she said

I said, "OK" & she said, "Do you want to know what you're thinking?"

I said "No thank you.

I don't do stuff like that on weekends." - SP

DoWhatChaCan

"Do what you can with what you have where you are."

- Theodore Roosevelt

The Bravery – The Spectator

Matt & Kim – Cutdown

The Kickdrums ft. Curtains – I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night

The Midway State – Never Again

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Mickey Avalon – So Rich So Pretty

Chairlift – Bruises

Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan’s 115^th Dream

The Gaslight Anthem – We Came to Dance

Javier Navarrete – Long, Long Time Ago

Matt & Kim - Ginders

The Naked and the Famous – No Way

A Real Muggle...

This is what happens when I get a run out of the way at 9 am and spend the rest of the day trying to write web stuff for work... the interwebs are so distracting! haha

DFW

“We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy’s impossible. But if a piece of fiction can allow us imaginatively to identify with a character’s pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with our own. This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside.
What passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human, since to be really human… is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naïve and goo-prone and generally pathetic.
Personally, yeah, I’m a Platonist. I think that God has particular languages, and one of them is music and one of them is mathematics.
But young adults of the nineties - who got to watch all this brave new individualism and sexual freedom deteriorate into the joyless and anomic self-indulgence of the Me Generation - today’s subforties have very different horrors, prominent among which are anomie and solipsism and a peculiarly American loneliness: the prospect of dying without even once having loved something more than yourself.
You think it makes you a fraud, the tiny fraction anyone else ever sees? Of course you’re a fraud, of course what people see is never you. And of course you know this, and of course you try to manage what part they see if you know it’s only a part.

— David Foster Wallace

Sums

Yeah, that'll sum it up... yikes.

Love Like a Sunset

Favourite song lately to do bike intervals to... or, if you prefer... bintervals...

Also, summer is here in Vancouver... Love love love. Freewheels are kinda fun after so much fixed gearing. Louise and I did a few park laps after work then burned back up the hill to home. Things are pretty calm around 9 pm and it's still SUNNY! Yeah! haha

"Important things are inevitably cliche, but nobody wants to admit that." - Chuck Klosterman

VOTE.

I don't care who you vote for just so long as you get out there are give your say. It's not a huge time out of your day and this way you can whine about the elected government guilt-free for the next however much time they get to be in office with a majority/minority/coalition/new thing they make up on the spot.

Also, how embarrassing for Harper if he doesn't get in and the Canadian government's gotta go through a whole process to change their name again? He'll have to put that kitten down to fight off Layton ripping down his pictures in the main hall. That would be a sight... if the NDP get in and Layton's calmly ripping the pictures of Harper's creepy smiling face off the wall when suddenly he's tackled at the waist by a Harper screaming "Never!" It turns into this old man wrestling match, pictures and glass scattering across the floor, while Ignatieff looks in with his British 'tut tut' face. Layton manages to get the upper hand and crashes Harper over the head with his Christmas '10 photo, the ugly sweater split from shoulder to waist over his big melon. Harper starts throwing photos like ninja stars as Layton parcours his way behind a door then retaliates with Harper's snow globe collection (because we all know he has a snow globe collection to go with that freaky-ass picture of his cat).

Let's be honest, probably they'd just have a slap fight...

But ANYWAY,

In the event the mumblings are true and they form a Conservative/Liberal government, it's going to be like that poor kid in kindergarten who has a gawdawful long hyphenated with another gawdawful long name who has to learn to spell it... people will start then just give up halfway.

Not going to lie, I still can't even say Ignatieff's last name let alone spell it right the first time. Can't we just skip right over to Justin Trudeau? That would definitely get the 18-25 voters out again.

I'm curious to see if all this push push push will get more people out voting or if they'll just feel overwhelmed and get apathetic.

DBeats not dbags...

Today's pick up and go song...

Sunday morning run song...

Today

Billie Holiday

Sort of missed this but only by 45 minutes... Happy bday Billie Holiday... yesterday... you were pretty badass...

Tacos

I am Jill's...

Fight Club is fun to read and nice for the creative side...

I am Jill's Dramatic Mind.
I am Jill's Failure to Communicate.
I Am Jill's Complete Lack of Surprise.
I Am Jill's Smirking Revenge.

I Am Jill's Twitching Trigger Finger.

I am Jill's Dirty Little Secret.

I Am Jill's Medulla Oblongata.
I Am Jill's Empty Head.

I am Jill's Breaking and Entering.

I Am Jill's Right Side.

I am Jill's Disturbed Nightmares.
I am Jill's Overwhelming Rage.

I am Jill's Fear and Loathing.

I am Jill's Missed Faith.

I am Jill's Undying Love.

I am Jill's Unnerving Happiness.

I am Jill's Lack of Trust.

I am Jill's Handful of Frustration.

I am Jill's Warm Bath.

I am Jill's Lucid Athleticism.

I am Jill's Non-Existing Hangover.

I am Jill's Wasted Talent.

I am Jill's Fresh Stereotype.

I am Jill's Abstract Control.

I am Jill's Designated Wilderness.

I am Jill's Sensual Firestarter.

I am Jill's Turbulent Happiness.

I am Jill's Skillful Debate.

I am Jill's Incompetent Emo.

I am Jill's Old Language.

I am Jill's Bag of Conspiracy.

I am Jill's Warped Fear.

I am Jill's Proper English.

I am Jill's Perfect Day.

I Am Jill's Shiny Interest.

Soup 'n Flowers

This made me laugh so I thought I would share it with the internet...

From Wil Weaton's website:

" 'I've made so many different recipes from so many different places, I just looked through the pantry and refrigerator and wung it.'

We looked at each other. 'Wung it?' I said. 'I think I mean I am winging it What's the past-tense of winging it? Wang it? Winged it?'

'I don't know, but it's not 'wung it,'' she said. I couldn't argue with her."

__________________________________________________________________

Gorgeous day today. Pushed the couch into the sunlight and catnapped after work. Bought flowers that I should've just planted from bulbs last fall but didn't really think it through. They smell nice anyway.

Should

One man's crap is another man's...

She walks by an elliptical trainer, facing the jungle gym, rain beading up on the grips, dripping from the saddle. It looked like a puppy tied up outside a store, patiently waiting for an owner to return. Maybe it belonged to a soccer mom, who, sitting on the bench watching her kids running around screaming at the top of their lungs. Maybe the woman felt fat and lazy but the idea of running around with the kids seemed too childish and ridiculous so why not bring out the old elliptical to get some exercise in while the children played…

She makes her way through an alleyway and passes by forty Globe and Mail newspaper boxes lined up in perfect rows. She spends the rest of her walk to work trying to figure out whether they’d been retired permanently or just been switched out for newly designed ones. What a waste…

Later that day, she spots a giant screen TV as she made her way home. Too bad she didn’t have that elliptical from earlier. That way she could set up like that scene from Juno and get all her TV watching in while exercising in a low-impact sort of way. She also wouldn’t mess up her eyesight or her back by trying to lean over mid-workout to make out the faces on her favourite tv shows. Maybe not…

She wonders what the warm weather will bring for the back alleys of Vancouver. What other treasures await and how much she can decorate the backyard with useless crap arranged into bedroom and kitchen sets before her landlord starts to complain…

Tough

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going and when the going gets rough, the tough get rough..."

Worst part of my ride to work/best part of my rides home...

I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence. I will not hunt down commuters on the road just so I can breeze past them with a casual cadence.

The frustration never ends nor the hunt ever sated.

This goes for bikes and cars alike...

Why I love Chuck Klosterman...

• "Recognizing Your Nemesis:

- At some point in the past, this person was (arguably) your best friend.

- You and this person once competed for the same woman, and you both failed.

- You have punched this person in the face.

- If invited, you would go to this person's wedding and give them a spice rack, but you would secretly hope that their marriage ends in a bitter, public divorce.

- People who barely know the two of you assume you are close friends; people who know both of you intimately suspect you profoundly hate each other."

Poster Poser

Sometimes I wish my life was lived in early 1900s' posters...

Rorshach

Gotta start the day off right, right? Amazing...

Gastowns! Yeah!

Gastown Sprints at Malone's. Moses versus Thomas Pickett. Don't think we've had one so close ever before...

Gin Joints

Gastowns! Yeah!

Flip

I'll Melt With You

Sometimes things aren't what they seem.

Sometimes people aren't what they seem.

Sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes just different.

Sometimes... sometimes life is not nice which means you have to do your best to be. You won't be perfect all the time. Most likely you'll never be perfect, which is pretty okay. Just don't be the kid in the sandbox who pushes the others to get the best toys.

Arg. Whatever. Going to bed unimpressed with humans and trying not to dream of false advertising.

Music to fall asleep to...

Red Sprints!

Red Sprint Times – 350 m, fixed gears, no resistance, pure awesomeness and FUN! :) Times are in seconds.

Cyril – 16.72

Derek – 16.81

Dumptruck – 16.91

Tom McLeod – 16.98

Dylan – 17.05

Moses – 17.08

J.P. – 17.1

Linnaea – 17.14

Louise – 17.58

Newf – 18.22

Jamie Bizness – 18.30

Kerry – 18.62

Harry – 18.71

Darryl – 19.16

Ottawa – 19.34

Anna – 19.35

Scotty – 20.80

Lana – 21.73

Crazy Eyes – 22.10

Crash - 22.70

Meow

VIRGO (Aug. 24 - Sept. 23):

Worry is a useless emotion. Experience has surely taught you by now that something always comes up – and you seem to be one of those people who, no matter how far they fall, always seem to land on their feet.

Meow.

This is from my friend Thomas. For some reason, it's so ridiculous and so hilarious.

Yesterday was one of the best days ever and reminded me of all the reasons I live in Vancouver and how far I've changed as a person from when I didn't live in Van. Awww, shucks, I know. haha

The concept of "it's only dramatic if you make it dramatic" has stopped evading me, which is nice. haha