saundra

saundra...
she was my first car...
she was brand new...
my parents wanted my sister and i to have 'decent' vehicles for when we left home for college. i received mine when i was 17 years old...
it was a 1990 pontiac sunbird LE in charcoal grey...
5-speed manual transmission
sunroof
am/fm cassette
that's all i remember
that's all that mattered LOL
at the time my parents bought me the car, i didn't know how to drive a manual transmission... my sister attempted to teach me... *ATTEMPTED* she took me out to te parking lot at devonshire beach and i could not, for the life of me, get the car INTO first gear, nevermind OUT of first gear into second gear... i think everyone in the car got a severe case of whiplash... (sorry T) the following week my pops was on his days off and he took me out to the same spot my sister attempted to teach me. he got out of the car and said "ok, kid... drive" and left me to my own devices. i learned to do it in 5 minutes!!! he kept cheering and dancing in the parking lot every time i managed to get it out of first and FINALLY into second gear... he then got back into the car and told me to drive into town... PANIC!! well, i made it without incident, and still had to get comfortable with hills and such, but i was a quick study and it wasn't long before i was taking corners on two wheels, playing cat and mouse with other classmates and uhmmm... 4x4ing with her in the sand pits and getting her stuck high-center... heh... she was spitting out sand for years later... sorry saundra... but it was fun, wasn't it??
my parents used to use her as leverage against me... punishment. they would "ground" me from my car whenever they felt i should be punished for being late for curfew or heh, when i got my first speeding ticket... or if i looked at my mum sideways or burped w/o asking permission or breathed incorrectly... ha!
she was toilet papered during NHL playoffs... had cartoon characters drawn on her dirt and dust... she had her muffler decorated with cans and had champagne spilled in her trunk...
saundra saw me through a lot of different times... she was a part of my first car accident (i rear ended a classmate after we all had to harshly brake for kids jay-walking across the street)... she attended college and university with me... she hauled me and my friends around to parties and crazy/random drives into the mountains and across the prairies...
in 1998 when i was preparing to move to california saundra met her painful and sad fate... i was on memorial drive during rush-hour traffic, sitting about 20th back from the red light... i heard the squeal of tires behind me -- i knew it was inevitable... somehow, during the split seconds before impact i managed to crank my wheel all the way to my left directly into the curb to avoid hitting the person in front of me and checked to see if my car was in neutral... i put both feet on my brake and braced myself... i looked into the rear-view mirror and remember seeing the "GMC" logo as it rammed itself into my trunk... the impact was harsh, but i was prepared for it so when i managed to get myself out of my car (the seat broken and seatbelt locked, i wasn't suffering any major injuries... mostly shock... my poor car... saundra was hurt... badly... her trunk was now a part of the back seat... it was pushed in at least one foot... i managed to drive her home afterward. probably the smartest thing i did. i could have been terrified to ever drive again, given the impact and the damage the other vehicles sustained... i took her into autobody shops where they just laughed at me and wrote out that my vehicle was recommended to be written off...
WHAT?
retire saundra??? you've got me joking???
my poor baby girl...
i watched as the tow-truck came to take her away that september morning... she looked battered, bruised, worn and just plain tired... i remember crying as i was emptying my things from her the night before... i know it sounds stupid and sentimental, but i really did love her...
she is now, i like to think, a part of some avant garde industrial metal sculpture somewhere... i like to think she was rescued by some scrap-metal artist and is now living as a part of something more beautiful than what she left me...
*smooches*

leaving...

on a jet plane...
i booked it... my ticket that is...
i am going /away...


remember how i said this...
well, i finally did it!

i'm so excited i could pee!

in fact... brb...

Which Discworld Character Are You?

You scored as Greebo. You are Greebo! The most evil cat in the entire Disc! Due to an old spell, your morphogenic field is a little mixed up, so you sometimes turn into a man. You enjoy killing, raping, torturing, playing with yarn and inspiring fear. When bored, you like to look for wolves to "play" with. Greebo 63% Death 56% Carrot Ironfounderson 50% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 50% Commander Samuel Vimes 44% The Librarian 44% Lord Havelock Vetinari 38% Rincewind 25% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 13% Cohen The Barbarian 0% Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Likes/Dislikes... Brought to you by the letter "D"...

This MEME came from Jules... Thanks Jules... :) I thought "Wow, this will be alright". The likes were pretty easy, the dislikes were very difficult!

Here's the plan; it's very simple. If you want a letter, just email me (as I don't allow comments on my blog -- I can't imagine I'd get a lot of requests for letters). Use that letter to list 10 Likes and 10 Dislikes.

Enjoy!

10 D Likes:

Discographies - I like all sorts of musical genres and have a vast collection of CDs... Yes, CDs... I actually purchase CDs of artists that I adore (which are a lot) in addition to having a lot of digital files. I work on collecting entire discographies of all my favourite artists.

Documentaries - I love watching a well-done documentary. I find it fascinating firstly, that someone feels so incredibly impassioned to create a film about something and share it with the world and secondly you learn a helluva lot about a subject

Dutch, The - Tall, viking-esque... What's not to like? They've given us tulips, wooden shoes and windmills!

Dragons - Magical? Mythical? Maybe here. But the beauty of dragons in legend and lore feels very real to me. Call me insane (no, please, call me insane), but there is a hope inside me that in some place, in some time, in some dimension these creatures actually exist.

Dinosaurs - If it were not for their decaying carcasses I would not have a job! Yay for oil & gas: dino by-products! Plus, they're very cute and the television show was rather adorable as well.

Dracula - The father of all vampyres... Dead sexy.

Dystopia - Who doesn't like the idea of man's own narcissistic tendencies and oblivious and foolish behaviour will soon land him into a degraded society full of depravity and oppression? Zannng!

David Lynch - Ok, yah, I know. I snuck this in there - this can be classified as a technicality, I guess. C'mon! Even if my letter was Z I still would have mentioned David Lynch.

Dogs - I love my doggies.

Dungeons - I have this thing about dungeons. Dark. Forboding. Dangerous. Sexy. Cold. Secretive. Creepy. This is place where things that shouldn't happen, happen.

10 D Dislikes:

Discrimination - It's an absolute crime to be so intolerant nowadays. We all have likes and dislikes, I'll give everyone that, but the intolerance that diseases some people's thoughts and actions is atrocious.

Dumba**es - This is self-explanitory.

Diapers - Me + Babies = Bad combination. Add to the fact that they just leak too much... Blechy.

Drama - There is too little time in life to have to deal with drama.

Depression - I have family and friends that suffer from depression and I have to say that I loathe what this does to people. How it sucks their ambition and drive, their energy and willingness, their laughter and excitement. Depression is something I wish to never allow to take control over me.

Dim Sum - Although I like different sorts of food, there are some items in Dim Sum that are questionable for me.

Diets - These are unhealthy and cause more problems than the temporary benefit of sudden weightloss.

Distance - Especially when you just wanna be with someone.

Dysfunction - Not in family units... I don't know any family that is "Functional". But when something function like it ought to function. Period. I like efficiency, especially in stupid and boring tasks. Just make it work properly without a lot of headache.

Dances - I don't dance.

...the person fumbling here is me...

I dreamt that I was in an igloo last night. I was carving very intricate etchings into the ice walls and then wiping them down so they would gleam and shine. Inside the igloo was one wrought iron bed with fluffy white sheets. I was wearing a giant parka with a big dead-animal hood but I didn't have anything on my feet. They were bare against the glassy ice floor. I jumped into the bed to snuggle into the softness and fall asleep...

The igloo scene then shifted very busy office building and inside an elevator that was the size of a small dining hall. There were a bunch of very young, soon-to-be executive types riding up and down in the dark elevator chatting about things they really didn't know much about, but using "le jargon" to make themselves sound very important. I stood there and pushed buttons and rode the elevator with them wishing I was back in the igloo and wondering how I ever got into that elevator...

Le Soundtrack

This idea came from Paul's Blog:

Directions

1. Open up your library (Foobar, iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question below type the song that’s playing (or copy and paste from the application like I did --much easier than trying to type the right things, especially with special characters) .
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. No repeat artists…stuff happens (randomly!!).
7. No cheating or doctoring your list to make yourself look cooler than the person you took this from.

The Result

Opening Credits:
0613. Fantômas - [Delìrium Còrdia #01] Surgical Sound Specimens From The Museum Of Skin [1:14:17]

First Day of School:
0023. Arcturus - [Aspera Hiems Symfonia] Du Nordavind [3:57]

Falling in Love:
1103. This Mortal Coil - [Blood #18] 'Til I Gain Control Again [4:42]

Breaking up:
0382. Avrigus - [The Secret Kingdom #05] Qliphoth [6:24]

Prom:
0887. Macabre - [Dahmer #15] Into The Toilet With You [1:42]

Life’s Ok:
1705. Wagner, Richard - Ring of the Niebelung ( Gotterdammerung ) Siegfried's Death & Funeral March.mp3 [8:15]

Mental Breakdown:
1083. Therion - [Vovin #10] Draconian Trilogy 3 - Black Diamonds [2:58]

Driving:
1601. The Cranberries - Dreams.mp3 [4:32]

Flashback:
1143. Ulver - [Kveldssanger #04] Nattleite [2:11]

Getting Back Together:
1260. Happy Mondays - [Pills 'N' Thrills And BellyAches #05] Loose Fit.mp3 [3:38]

Wedding Scene:
0998. Opeth - [My Arms, Your Hearse #06] Demon Of The Fall [6:13]

Birth of Child:
0535. Dark Tranquillity - [Haven (Pre-release) #01] The Wonders At Your Feet [3:01]

Final Battle:
0590. Draconian - [Arcane Rain Fell #02] Daylight Misery [5:30]

Death Scene:
1678. U2 - [The Joshua Tree #03] With or Without You [4:56]

Funeral Scene:
0294. Duncan Sheik - [Duncan Sheik #05] Days Go By [4:48]

End Credits:
0030. Arcturus - [The Sham Mirrors #03] Ad Absurdum [6:48]

This was neat! It's funny how some songs "fit" the question and... some didn't... heh...

doubleplusungood

So I'm on the bus this morning. I get on at the first stop on the route and often the bus is full before it even leaves the circle and today, with the snowfall and cold temperatures, was no exception. The commute can be long, especially on days like this; the traffic was expected to be insane. We had some wind and snow yesterday which, together, make for a crazy and dangerous combination.

This woman sits down in front of me and like everyone else, she started digging around in her bags to settle in for long commute into the downtown core. She pulled out her iPod. Ehm, the skinny one...? Ehm, I'm not all that familiar with each of their names, I just know Apple™ has marketed about a ba-billion of them. It was in a pretty lime-green leather case (which is what I actually noticed) and she starts pushing buttons. I can see the frustration building on her face as the bus pulls away from the curb. She is a very pretty woman. Petite with shorter medium brown hair and she smiles a lot; she reminds me of a pixie faerie. She, however, was not smiling this morning.

She keeps pushing buttons.

The ear buds are not even in her ears.

She pushes more buttons.

Still no motion to actually *listen* to anything.

She sighs heavily and then turns to me with a worried look on her face. "Excuse me. Do you know how to work these things?"

I laughed, "No, I'm sorry, I am not familiar with the iPod stuff but it should be pretty basic. I'd look, but I don't want to accidentally break it." (I use an iAudio)

She smiles and says "That's alright, I'll read the manual when I get home tonight." and she pulls out a copy of George Orwell's "1984". I noticed her reading this last week. Good choice.

I sit back in my seat and get ready to take my usual dozy nap into work.

A very big and burly man in business attire sitting next to me, his huge hands holding a book atop his attaché case, announces with a very loud voice, "You're better off with that, anyway." as he points to her book.

The woman looks at him a little perplexed and says, "Pardon me?"

He says again, "You're better off reading your book anyway. It's a lot better for you."

I sat there a little dumbfounded.

Now, I understand that reading is great for the soul, it encourages thought and creative thinking. Or it can really educate and provide a wealth of information. Trust me, I'm all about Information Porn. Not to mention that I've done my fair share of reading throughout my thirty-four years. I've studied history and literature in University and have read a plethora of classics and "greats". But to say that books are "better" than music as if you've just discovered oxygen is a little pretentious. Music can be just as fulfilling as a great novel. Well-composed music, whatever genre it may be, can tell stories just as well as a great piece of literature. It can educate and inform. It can breathe new life into old tales. It just happens to be another medium for it.

I found his comment to be self-righteous and insulting. Music, like everything else, has a different meaning to everyone. And although I sat there a bit offended by his base comment I had to tell myself... "Consider the source..."

I hope he enjoyed his Dean Koontz novel.