Flight Change

Just a quick note, since I just found out today...my flight comes in at 8:30pm instead of 6 pm. I don't ACTUALLY expect anyone other than my family to be there, but just in case, I don't want anyone who...uh...is bored around Christmas (I highly doubt such a thing would happen) to have waited around. Anyways, I'll talk to you all very soon, and possibly even in person. =) Feel free to pass on the message. To, uh...anyone..who would care...like the paper boy...maybe that guy who works at the coffee shop near your house...you know, important people. Anyways, I'll see you all soon.

AUGH! TEH SPELLING!

Man.

I'm so embarrassed.

I just looked over my last post, and I realized I had about five-to-seven spelling mistakes which rendered it nearly unreadable. Augh. OK, well, I will try harder. Less errors, more...non-errors? (I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with errors to make it a catchy phrase. Sorry. All I could think of was the word 'eros.' But that doesn't count, because it's not even an English word. AND it doesn't rhyme. With lime. In time. For me to make another...oh, never mind. That wasn't going anywhere.)

OK, so I've decided I would bring you my exciting bike story! Since this has been a real trial and tribulation for me, I feel this is best expressed in art form. (Don't you love it when I say that? I love it when I say that.)
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This is me. Typically riding as fast as possible to class because I'm always JUST on time. On the bright side, that's better than I've ever done for being on time.






This is me when the brakes on my bike snapped. I was on a slightly inclining hill.





This is me deciding that I should tempt fate. After all, nothing is as fun as a bike with no brakes on a hill in high traffic.






This is me...well, I think it's pretty obvious what happened.








This is me apologizing. I felt it went well given my highly emotive facial expressions. Click to see the picture in all it's pixilated glory.









This is me, walking to school and social events for about three or four days. All I can say is, I value my bike, which I have recently dubbed 'Big Red' or "Little Red Riding Hood", for short. Because then I don't have to go running through the centre of Leuven like a maniac. Now I can BIKE through Leuven like a maniac. (You know, I've noticed something. If someone is running through town, you think them uncultured, unkempt, and OBVIOUSLY disorganized and not together. However, if you see someone biking or DRIVING like a speeder super fast, you think something more like, "Oh wow, that person must have to get their kids to daycare before work, THAT'S why they're speeding." You usually make excuses for people who speed on bikes or in other types of vehicles, because they naturally go faster than someone who walks, and yet you often think it's very normal for other modes of transportation to go VERY fast. It's kind of funny when you think about it. Compare your reactions next time you see someone running down the street compared to someone biking or driving a car relatively speedily down the street.)






SO, now I have my bike back! I'm so happy! =D =D =D

Anyways, I'm glad things worked out with that. I'm also glad I got a 'customer card' at the second hand bike shop at the start of the year, since this is the third time I've broken...I mean, this is the third time the bike has broken itself. Yeah. I didn't man-handle it or anything. No.

Pictures!

I decided I would post the picture of the rice, since the most exciting thing about Belgium is the food I make.





I also will give you a picture of the Town Hall in Leuven, since it's verrrrrrrry beautiful with all the lights right now. The picuture is blurry because of the camera settings, and I thought the pictures looked fine on my camera when I viewed them. ;)








I had a chance to make the rice since I just got back from a potluck at Zuzanna's place. She has a nice place. Besides that, though, I had a really fun time, and I just watched a musical I had never seen before, and it was really nice. It's called "White Christmas," and I laughed through almost the entire thing. Very nice story. We all commented throughout pretty much the whole thing, and it was like "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" only with a Christmas musical. We kept saying things like, "She's too skinny," and "You're just jealous," and "Mutual, I'm sure." Anyways, what a good film. I totally could have watched that a thousand times over. Well, maybe only a couple more before I couldn't take much more...it IS a musical...and you only have so much sanity. You have to be careful what you spend it on. We then commenced to have a dish-washing party in the kitchen, since pretty much everyone but the core group of us weho stayed to wash dishes from about 25. It was fun. I did most of the washing. =D The water at Zuzanna's place (which is a seminary-come-professor-residence-come-student-residence. There were a lot of statues and intricate floor rugs on REAL hardwood flooring.) was actually hot water when you turn the hot tap on, and I burned myself a couple of time at least when I thought I could turn on the hot water and get lukewarm for a couple seconds. So that was fun. And I was happy that everyone seemed to like the rice (aka. it was pretty much all eaten) since the last potluck I went to I brought perogies, and all the polish people were confused, and then I explained to them they were Ukrainian perogies, in which I was then told that I had brought Varenky, and not perogies. On top of that, THEY WERE THE WORST PEROGIES/VARENKY I HAD EVER MADE. I WAS SO ASHAMED. A-S-H-A-M-E-D. AND I KNOW EVERYONE ATE THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE TRYING TO BE NICE. Whew. Seriously. Anyways, everyone was saying how good I made perogies and I was like, "Stop it! Those were the worst perogies I had ever made! I am not normally that bad a cook!" (Generally, of course, I'm worst. But I don't want people to KNOW that. I also tend to rise to the challenge when I test food on people other than my family, especially if I'm cooking dinner for a bunch of friends. Of course, generally speaking, I also usually phone Elizabeth about twenty minutes before people are supposed to come over for a dinner party and start saying things like, "PLEASE SAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE." At that point, Elizabeth comes over with her I'm-going-to-turn-you're-Chernobyl-like-cooking-area-of-disaster-into-a-three-course-five-star-resteraunt-meal-all-while-you-run-around-like-a-chicken-with-your-head-cut-off-and-run-into-walls-and-things. Yeah. I don't know what I would do without her. Probably have a lot fewer dinner party guests, and a lot more people eating pizza at my place.) Anyways, I got a lot of jokes tonight from Monseratt and Zuzanna, who kept saying I'm one-third Mexican because I'm so loud, and Ukrainian because they know I'm SO not (I had to look up the word Varenky because I forgot it.) and it drives me crazy to be called any other nationality than those which I am (which is a very Canadian thing, really) and OBVIOUSLY I'm even more bothered if they call me Canadian. My roots are Scottish.

Cooking...AND I'M HERE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT!

OK, so....I did it again.

I tried to make Dill Paprika Chicken.

And my chicken had grown mould on it.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.

I swear, fate has it out for me. I basically just threw out everything in my fridge and freezer today while I was trying to MAKE A MEAL! ARGH! LOL.

Well, that's what I get for thinking that I can eat five minute food all week, and doing all my fancy cooking on the weekend. SO, I have decided to share the results of having a near empty fridge and a lot of panicking with all of you! Yes, you! Back there, going for the nearest exit! I see you! Sit down!

Anyways, other than a very clean and non-smelly fridge which I am now the proud owner of, I decided that I needed to eat something, so I did what I normally do, which is I try and make something so unedible, I'll probably get sick from eating it. And usually the results are terrific! =D =D =D

The uh, one out of...four times that it's not, the toilet bowl is my friend! But it's better than dumb ol' mouldy dill paprika chicken anyways! Or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself! =D So here's my recipe that I share with you!




Apple Carrot Rice


1 cup ½ of basmati rice

1/3 cup of plain yoghurt (optional, but a very good idea if you can)

2 medium size carrots

1 apple

½ of onion

Dill seasoning

vegetable oil

vinegar

1-2 sausages (optional)

BBQ sauce (optional)


1. Heat vegetable oil to hot temperature in pan. Peel carrots, and slice into medium-sized medallions, and chop onions into slices. Throw onion and carrot in.

2. Once about half done, add a bit 'o' vingar. Don’t go overboard…you just want enough for the sweet sour flavour, not enough to clean your floors with.

3. The carrots and onions, when looking near done, add in sliced cubes and triangles of apple. I prefer to leave the skin on so that the apples don’t turn to mush in the pan. But, I mean, hey, whatever floats your apple-y boat.

4. You should only need a minute or two for the apples to get some of the flavour of everything else in the pan, and to get soft. Those apples. Old softies.

5. While this is going on, now’s a good time to start the rice. It should only take about eight minutes, so don’t start it too early. Of course, if you're like me, and you burn the rice simply by looking at it the wrong way, then maybe you should be careful about when you stop and start the rice.

6. Once the fruit-vegetable mix you’ve been cooking looks done, throw it into a bowl and set it aside. You can forget about it for a bit.

7. Now, for the optional part. Now is the time where you would add sausage if you so desire (I did because I had a SERIOUS meat craving tonight. Like, for chicken. But, well, we know what happened to that.) When you add it, you may wish to add BBQ sauce, which I did so that the sausage will have some flavour on its own.

8. The sausage should be about half done when your rice starts looking cooked. I like my rice soft, so it may be that you want to stop your rice earlier. (Don’t you love it when people give you recipes and you read the part you should have read near the start so you didn’t ruin things? Yeah, I love that.) At this point, you should probably take the rice out and put it into a a seperate bowl than the veggie fruit mixture. You can now add a dollop of yogurt to the rice if you like; it should enhance the flavour of the dill later. Don’t add too much though, especially if you have really runny yoghurt like I did. Otherwise, well, it wont be pretty. Although it will still probably be edible. I can't promise anything on that one, though.

9.Now you can go back to your original bowl of apple, onions and carrot, and you can add in dill seasoning (or fresh dill if you're a spice snob.) and stir it around until it’s all sufficiently coated. Throw this on top of the rice, and it should like you’re a gourmet chef! =D You can also add the sausage at the point as well if you added it. This turned out so well, I think I will post a picture of it when I bring it to a potluck tomorrow night! =D I ate it too fast to take a picture.
=( I looked at the ingredients and wrote them down as I ate it. =(

Anyways, I went Christmas shopping today, and I can honestly tell you, I have most of it done! Awesome! Now if only I could figure out what to get my little brother Adam for Christmas besides money. Hey, maybe I could give him European money. Hmmm...too much of a cop out? Probably.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

AUGH! 7 DAYS!

Yeah.

So, I just wrote a final today.

I'm feeling a lot better. Actually, it was probably the funnest exam I've ever written. My first master's class final! Yay! But, on the other hand, I'm sad to see the class go. It was a really fun class...sort of. It's a long story. I started to understand what was going on with the text MUCH closer to the end of the class, which was too bad, instead of nearer to the middle...but hey, I'm slow, right? But overall, I hope I did well on the exam. I didn't finish the last question on the test, but I don't think it matters much, since half the class wrote for three hours straight, and I would say at least a quarter of the people didn't finish. It was a rough test...but I think that's why I thought it was fun. There was no regurgitation allowed, and you were required to answer in a fixed number of lines, no more and no less. Anyways, I'm glad it's done, and now that this is over I will be able to concentrate on other things. Like Christmas. And making a fool of myself.

Like, today, when I was over at Shayne's party, and I went on a long random tangent about how I have adopted the word "y'all" and how much I think it's one of the best things that came out of the U.S. Yeah. Way to NOT offend your friend from the South, Brennan. Good one.

On the bright side, I gave him a Canada pin, and told him to wear it next time he was taking a little tour through Palestine. Since Shayne's a nice American and a bit of a Canadian sympathizer, I thought it was ok. Doin' a little ambassadorizin' for the friendly ones. Maybe they'll convert.

And I hung out with some of the Dutch students, tonight, too, so that was really nice. The Flemish here take a while to know, but they're really awesome. Two thumbs up.

Also, I went to the Philosophy Christmas Party last night, and it was a really fun time. Totally got my nine euros worth. There was lots of food, some really great Christmas caroling (Did I ever tell you how much I love Christmas carols? I love Christmas carols. I could nearly cry I like them so much.) And I had fun sitting next to Jon and his wife, and they told me all about working in Japan as English teachers, and how John got paid twice as much as his wife because he was white and a Native English speaker. (A PhD student, Alex, compared it to how Americans do not want to leanr karate from an American, but some sort of Japanese 'authentic' karate teacher. You go, Mr Miyagi!) Also, I watched all the PhD students throw wine corks at each other during the speeches, so that was nice. I had a good time.

And, the Christmas market is on in Leuven here, and boy, is it something to see. Christmas markets are really something different over here in Europe.

ANYWAYS, it's been a weird, weird week, and I'll have to tell y'all about it later, but I should probably go. I told a friend I would go and hang out for a while with him, so I need to get ready. He should be here any minute. I'll probably post one or two more things when I get the chance this week. I don't have a lot left to do now. *Grin*

Small correction

I just realized that I used ADD in a very inappropriate context, so since I have just had a long conversation with someone about this, I feel like I should correct my usage of the term. So, I am going to say that 'I am just too unfocused to do good scholarship like said word detective.'

My apologies.

YAY!

OK, if you like words like me, this site is for you.

http://www.word-detective.com/index.html

This man is my hero. How do I get his job? Seriously, this man is the Elvis of scholarship. People like me woo and swoon at his performance. I just am too ADD to do this properly, so how awesome is this? Very awesome.

By the way, if anyone wants to get me any sort of dictionary for Christmas, that'd be super.

LOL.

I love words. Especially words I know.

Winners!

OK, WHEW! The contest is over! I have had a lot of entries (or at least I'm going to make you believe that) and I have officially decided it's going to be a while before I do THAT again. Who knew a contest could be so much work??? Wow. Anyways, a smashing success by all accounts (Minus a minor e-mail problem to winner number three) and I am excited for all those who've won! So, the winners, in list of order:

1) Russ, who's top dog!
2) Liz, who's almost top dog!
3) Graham, who's...who's....ok, well, he got third. No biggie.

Honourable mention goes out to Dez, because I like her! =D The rest of yous, shames! Shames for not entering Brennan's contest/not entering it fast enough! I'm giving away top-quality stuff of no particular value! You should be like sheeps to the slaughter for this sort of thing!

In light of all of this, however, I've decided that the name 'Brennan Industries' has a certain ring to it, and I need to start some sort of company, so I can continue to validate the use of the title 'Brennan Sarich, President of Brennan Industries.'

Other than that, I need to get back to work on an essay for Theory of Knowledge. Congratulations to the winners. For those of you who couldn't figure it out, the answer to 'Brennan's Mystery Person Blog Contest' it was this guy:





Ok, well, I'm out. Until later!

The Death...Oh the Death

OK.

Something very traumatic has happened to me that is very hard to share.

My plant Herbie...he's dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

*SOB*


Seriously, folks, it's a crisis. He was my best friend when I first got here. I talked to him constantly. Well, not constantly...but...like, once and a while, like, when no one was looking. I WAS LONELY, OK???? I'M NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE CATS IN MY BUILDING, ALRIGHT???

So, yeah, here's a tribute, to Herbie, my best friend in plant form. And like any plants that I keep and actully like, he died. I kill that which I love. DON'T LOVE ME, I"M HIDEOUS AND A GREEN THING KILLER! *SOB*

So...here's a slidehow of Herbie and me while he was still alive.



This is Herbie sitting on the left with his hardier, harder-to-kill cousin, Bastille. Herbie's cousin Bastille was orginally named Spidey, but I decided he needed to be more continental about it, and so I gave him a French name. And Bastille kinda is like a castle. Or a weed. I can't decide. All previous attempts to kill Bastille (leaving him out when it's cold, refusing to water him for days) in favour of showing Herbie how much I loved him didn't seem to phase Bastille. In fact, the more I tried to kill Bastille, the more he flourished, and the more Herbie died. Coincedence? I think not. Obviously, karma was out to get me. And Herbie. Why? WHY THE PLANT?????? *SOB*





This is a picture with Herbie in the background. We had just gotten back from a trip to get my microwave. It rained the entire way back. I was a mess. Herbie is just in the background....isn't he awesome? Yeah, well, he's dead now. Moving on.

*************************************************************************************

Ok...so I couldn't find a picture where I'm talking to him, but I realize that that may be a bit much. When having these personal moments, pictures wouldn't have been appropriate. But, I documented his funeral. Yeah. It was rough.











So this was the official death statement made by the doctor. I feel like it captures in essence what happened, while still making all the technical information easy to digest by the public. After the doctor had made the official announcement, the actual funeral itself was looming. Like, I needed to do it so I could go to bed. I just kept telling myself, "The feng shui wont be right if you go to bed with dead things in your apartment, it just wont be, it just wont be." *SOB* Oh, feng shiu! You make everything so RATIONAL!









OK, so I lent Bastille some things to wear, cause y'know, you have to wear black at a funeral...I didn't have a lot of stuff in his size, though...which is...rotund. So I let him wear my shades so that no one would see him cry, and made him a tie/shirt out of my sunglasses case. Of course, I said to him, "You're a big man, Bastille. No one will care if you cry at a funeral. People do stuff like that." But he didn't listen, you know? Mentally irrational in a state of grief. He's kind of more of the silent type. I think I'm a wailer. Funerals probably aren't my scene. I'm a public mess. Maybe I shouldn't have been put in charge of coordinating it.






So, yeah, it's awkward to go to a small funeral, so I thought I would include more to make it seem like it was a well populated event. So I decided to include my bears ("The Brothers Three, I like to call them) in this event since they're one of those things that I love dearly and would probably hold a funeral for if they ever parted ways with me...or got dropped on the floor and broke. I mean, what do you imagine they would say about someone like Herbie, a book shelf buddy of theirs, since they sat near him all the time? Probably, "Grr," and "Argh," and stuff. I didn't ask them about it, because, well...I think it's obvious. They were smiling during the whole funeral. Who smiles during a funeral???? RUDE PEOPLE, THAT'S WHO. REALLY, REALLY RUDE PEOPLE.






So I hired a bag piper to play at the funeral. He seemed like a good chap. Herbie would have liked Scottish music. But he never lived long enough for me to learn the bagpipe and show him. *WEEP*








So this was the funeral. Herbie is in open casket mode, with all his roots showing. It's a little graphic, but I lit a candle, and I opened the Bible randomly to Job 13, which is a little freaky (Go read it) and the whole experience had a lot of personal meaning for me. I wanted to play "Danny Boy," but I thought that might have been kind of out of place, because Herbie seems to be more of a tropical plant, so maybe I should have played something from a Morrocan band? Anyways, when unsure, silence is always the best answer. SILENCE IS BEST.


So, after a very nice moment of silence, I, the singular person volunteering to be the casket bearer, put Herbie in said casket (grocery bag) and said prayers as I lowered him into his final resting place (disposed of him in the dumpster). After that, I went to sleep and I had nightmares about having AIDS. I decided that this had to do with me BEING THE WORST PLANT OWNER ON THE PLANET.

I suck with plants.

I'm sorry Herbie.

No one likes losing friends. Even plant friends. And plants are our friends.

Except for rose bushes. They're nobody's friend.


So, to Herbie.

Herbie

R.I.P.

Christened Sept 2005

Keeled and Bit the Big One Nov 2o05

Brennan couldn't admit you were really dead until Dec 2005

May Little Bee-Like Angels pollenate you in Heaven

Forevermore.

Contest!

OK, I've decided I've become too lax lately, and when Brennan gets lazy, two things happen:

1) He realizes that he can't afford to be lazy during the last two weeks of the semester and
2) He desgins an ultra-cool contests! Er...I mean....he gives everyone else a chance to win a fabulous prize! Um...I mean...I'm on a study break! Honest!


So, here's the rules. If you can identify the picture below, send me an e-mail. If you don't have my e-mail, you're allowed to post as a comment, and I'll monitor who gets it right. Whoever sends me a message first, gets a prize drawing by me! Yeah! What? What do you mean you don't want a drawing by me?????? How RUDE.

There's more! Once you've ID'd this picture, and proved your knowledge of awesome things over and above your three peers who read this blog, you get to pick what I get to draw! How amazing is that???? AMAZING. You can say, "Brennan draw me aliens landing on Pluto and you defeating them in a galactic space battle using only your brain and a guilt-laden Catholic conscience! AND use MS Paint, because it's sooooo cool!" and I'll do it! Or you could be like, "Brennan, draw me a cubist representation of Shakira! And give her a mustache! A blocky one!" and I'll do it! I just love doing things for people! Aren't I great???? I know, I know. I'm too modest.

OK, so for those of you who could use some encouragement, the hint is: "It's ironic that this mystery man is made out of food."








Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I'm excited to see who will win! OK, so if you ask me to draw something that requires paper, you get to keep the original, and I'll post the finished product on the blog, yo. So, don't hesistate! E-mail away! Let those little fingers fly! Or big fingers! Don't hate! If there's a lot of enteries (Like four!) Maybe I'll even think up secret prizes for 2nd and thrid places! OK, so you know what to do! And so do I! Bye!

*runs off to clean studio and study*

This man is my hero.

http://www.burritoblog.com/


Someday, I will have these kind of jedi skills.

Until then, I plan to make myself my own brand of chili. Wish me luck! =D




P.S. No I'm not joking. Look for the update on whether it was edible or not.

No Play!

Well,

It's official.

We're not doing the play.

Hm.

It's unfortunate. Anyways, it put a lot of people's minds at rest, since they didn't feel ready for this Sunday. In some ways it's good for me, because it will give me a chance to focus on working on school stuff. I can...read...more...books...I guess. LOL.

Well, I don't have much to say about that, for a variety of reasons, but I'll post again when I have the energy and time to tell you about where I've been going, and what I have been doing for the last couple of days. I went traveling! =D Anyways, later, y'all. Eat some snow for me. It's raining here.

Heh heh. I just finished Sarah's Christmas present. Hopefully she wont check my blog until after I give it to her. (Although perhaps counting on someone to have bad memory is not a good thing. Perhaps?) I also went and got some Christmas presents for people from my family today. Today was a VERY good day.

A Response

This is a response I was going to post to Caitlin where she made a comment on my last post, but I realized the response was generally quite a long one, so I thought I would post it here. I feel this is necessary for other people to read, because they might be wondering what the heck I'm up to if I haven't been saying much about school. So, I decided I would post this on the front page of my blog, with no real bad intentions pointed at Caitlin, but I am actually glad she said something, because I realize I HAVEN'T talked about this sort of thing, so I think I should sort of explain why I haven't been talking about philosophy on here. So, here's my reponse to Caitlin, and you can all read it, since it pertains to a lot of people...like probably my parents. And stuff. Just to recap, her comment was, "So, I may have gotten this wrong, but didn't you go to Belgium to write a Masters?"

**********

First of all, way to post a comment, Caitlin friend! That's the first one you've posted in near a millenia! I appreciate it, even if it is a little smarmy. ;) To address your point, since I am sure you are confused by the lack of me posting on relevant philosophical topics, I will give you true knowledge (Very rare, I know) about why I (typically) do not talk about philosophy on my blog.

As much as I would love to enlighten you all on the Augustinian conception of sin, grace, and free will, and the connection between evil and sin, and how the dissimilarity plays a much larger role in Augustine's overarching theory of epistemology and onotology, I know better than to indulge you in my work on a regular basis for several reasons. Said blog is for humourous purposes almost exclusively, not school based purposes. If I wanted to write a school blog...well, I would go hurt myself before I did that. It would be like rewriting my notes in class and then asking other people to comment on how wonderful they are. Ew. Like, mega ew to the degree of ew-ness. And then some.

This web log is mostly so that other people can have a laugh, including me. Besides, since WHEN did all you people get to be the overarching tyrant of my blog? Stop being so autonomous, you Kantain rebels who are imposing their sense of self on me! FEEL THE SMACKDOWN OF TREATING ME AS A THING-IN-ITSELF!

Also besides, my dad reads this, and he needs to know that I'm doing something other than school, or he'll think I'm boring. And that's lame.My master's work is going fine, but the stuff that stresses me out/would be relevant for me to make a humourous situation out of rarely deals with class material.

As well besides, I talk about that baloney all day with other people in philosophy. By time I feel like writing for fun, I don't really feel like writing about philosophy at that point. Unless it's relevant to anyone who reads this. (Aka. my dad) And, most importantly, whenever my Dad starts reading philosophy, HE starts TALKING philosophy, and then he goes on about Noam Chomsky and high tech business and then my head starts hurting. (My Dad definitely has a philosophical side...and it usually make my brain...cry.)

So, in conclusion, you're all still awesome, my blog is still my current comical soap box, and I am still sick. *Sneeze*----So there you have it. My reply which I would have posted in my own comment section, since I do more commenting there than other people, but there you have it. I felt like it was important I remind myself and tell other people who read this why I am not posting about stuff like that. Most of the things professors say are interesting, funny, and awkward to the nth degree, but I can tell you all that stuff when I get home, when it's less...like...right now.

And, also, just as a side note...the food here is worth documenting. (That was directed at someone who shall remain nameless...but full of blame...and shame. You know who you are.)

So, once again, Merry Christmas! I mean...um...Advent. Yeah. Advent.

Comics

By the way, if any of you are having trouble reading the cartoons because they're too small, just click on them and you can see them in full size. =)

My Last Post? No, no, that's November 11th, and the play is on DECEMBER 11th.

OK, so many of you probably don't know what's been going on with the theatre group, and my play. Once again, I felt this summary is best expressed in cartoons...badly drawn and sleep-deprived-and-sickness-induced cartoons. *Sneeze* I will put in pithy comments after cartoons as necessary.




(Public Service Announcement: I'm technically naked in this cartoon. I'm not sure this is rated PG, but I realized my error, and every other stick Brennan will now have pants. Thank you.)





























(Here's where problem happened. We should have been collectively doing the script, but it..uh...happened to be a few people. It's a long story. With murder. And...uh...I'm sick. *Sneeze*)





(Sarah doesn't normally look this evil. I took some artistic license. Not that there's much artist going on here. But...be brave...it's almost over.)






(While Colin is tall, he normally doesn't burn down buildings. It's more of a once-in-a-blue-moon-the-script-wasn't-finished-yet-thing. We all worked together and made a plot.)










And here's where it ends. The script isn't done. That's bad. But we have a plot, which we didn't have before...which is good. So...uh...wish me luck. I have somehow became the central character of this play, which is...UM? I should be practicing???? I don't know how this happened. I mean, I make up my own plays in my mind where I'm the hero, but it's not supposed to happen in REAL LIFE. OR EVEN FAKE LIFE FOR THAT MATTER. WHAT THE HAY IN THE CLAY IN THE DIDDLY.

So, yes, we have two weeks to properly put our script together, which is in the process of being completely rewritten because the plot didn't work before and now we have an actual STORY in the end, so that's really good. However, now that a couple of people (Sarah, me, director, Colin) have sat down and hashed everything else out, we now have to present it to the group, and make them see how good it can be. Which could be bad, because everyone else is a wee bit demotivated because we have been having some bad practices. (Aka. There's no plot. How do we have a play, Watson? I don't know Sherlock, but I bet it's elementary.) I'll be doing a lot of feverent praying up until the play date, now, methinks. And a lot of writing lines for the play. My lines, specifically, of course. That's how this whole process works. *Sigh* Theatre is so confusing. How does Eva do it? She must want to go for the kill on the regular basis. Me, I just want to hang myself from the rafters by my undies.

Other than that, I was told tonight that my way of speaking is 'jiffy-wiffly.' Apparently that means I euphemize everything. JIFFY-WIFFLY???? GEEZ! SERIOUSLY!!!

Whew, blood boiling. Jiffy-Wiffly, my fanny. *grumble*

Ok, I'm ending here. I need sleep like a person who hasn't slept in 22 hours. Or something.

Yay! I love acting!

Supper and Syllogisms

You know, after I just went for supper with Sarah, and we discussed the play (since it's getting nearer and nearer) I realized that my stop word of late is 'yo.' For example, I now tend to end every sentence I say with things like, "That's totally whack, yo!" or "My peeps will call your peeps and we'll hang out at someone's crib, yo!" "I think that's a GREAT idea, yo!"

While technically this is my fault, I feel the perfectly rational thing to do in this situation is to blame Sarah. I have decided that I need to put this in proper forms and categories of medieval logic:


Opinion of Others:

Premise 1: It seems that Brennan cannot speak anything than improper English. He used to use words like "like" and "um" and "uh" as his stop words. Now, he has moved onto words like "yo" and "whack, yo" to explain his inability to grasp the idea of speaking coherently. Thus, the fault seems to be that Brennan simply cannot cognize properly, and not that Sarah is the source of his problems.

Premise 2: Other people have nothing to do with Brennan's problems. He's totally whack, yo.

Further: It seems that Brennan's inability to speak in proper nouns, verbs and adjectives is conflated by his iniability to study anything but continental philosophy, Dutch, German and French. Such a combination cannot produce anything but madness. Hence, Brennan is mad. Clearly, this argument is irrefutable given premises one and two.


Refutation: We reply that such things are not true, and we deny them vehemently...because...um....look, over there, a distraction!!!!! (Made an impressive chart while you weren't looking) And as you can clearly see from this chart right here, this proves the validity of Brennan throwing blame on Sarah. Plus, look at this duck! It's AMAZING! Very realistic.

Further: Brennan kept giving Sarah advice on how to talk like a skater girl, which is her character in the play, and eventually he started turning it into the way he talks normally. Quite problematic, yo.


Sigh.

And, that, my friends, is what happens when you study medieval philosophy late at night.


Yo.

For Dad

OK, so here's something that happened to me this weekend. The one fault here is that the scanner picked up too much blue for me to use auto correct, so it's going to be a little lighter this time around, because I'm trying to find a happy medium for scaning that doesn't involve a really soft lead pencil...for obvious save-the-scanner-plate-from-destruction reasons...so I'm sorry if it's not too dark. It's crystal clear on my page.

Gah, nevermind, I have to to darken it...there's no hope for you seeing it, otherwise. =P There also going to be small...I can't widen them properly without them pixelating like an NES game gone wild. OK, ok, My apologies.

No wait, I can fix the auto contrast! Yay! This is better!

Holy crap this is a lot of work. I need a webmaster.

Otherwise, if you don't get a joke, it's because it's very contextual...like...uh...cookies bubbling...that's the nice way of saying there...wasn't...enough.....yeah. Anyways. They turned out. Sort of. I COULDN'T THINK OF A FUNNy ENDING PUNCHLINE THAT CORRESPONDED WITH REALITY, OK??? Whew. Glad I got that out.

Holy bed time Batman.

Oooo, check this out!

OK, for anyone who has ever watched a book club show or played a video game, or done anything similarly in the realm of what people call 'for intellectuals' you should see this:

http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/videos/index.html

This show is not always funny, but I recommend the 'book club' espcially 4 and 3, (AND I would recommend you watch them in that order) and also the storm trooper and the Hogawarts video are pretty decent.

Anyhow, I'm going to go do some drawing now.

Quizzes!

This quiz rules. And perhaps the best part about it is that I turned out as Canada. That's great, eh? EH?

You're Canada!

People make fun of you a lot, but they're stupid because you've
got a much better life than they do. In fact, they're probably just jealous.
You believe in crazy things like human rights and health care and not
dying in the streets, and you end up securing these rights for yourself and
others. If it weren't for your weird affection for ice hockey, you'd be
the perfect person.


Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

The usual suspects

Dad, I would just like to say I love you very much, and you have a great appreciation for music. I don't know if you remember, but you got a "Rawlings Cross" CD for my birthday way back when I was younger, and I was like, "Uh....thanks?" However, I would like you to know, it is now one of my favourite CDs in my collection, and I can't thank you enough for getting it for me. (I can't remember what style of music their cover said they were technically doing, but there's a lot of tin whistle and drum, so I'm thinking Irish?) Anyways, I'm listening to it right now, and it's bringing back good memories...and sometimes you just don't appreciate how lucky you are to have people in your life like you have, or you don't understand the things your parents do for you until your older. So, Dad, thanks for giving me a good appreciation in music. I couldn't have done it without you. Even if you forget half the things I say. I know it's because your old. Don't fight it. (And I know my Dad is reading this right now. Nothing like distance to protect you from the people you love. *Grin*)


Also, I bought these candies in the store tonight, and I am SERIOUSLY horrified they sell these things...I mean, are these things legal? I feel like I'm eating child pornography.




I case you can't tell, they're touching themselves. Am I supposed to like my candy to be naked little children????? WHAT THE HECK?????

Also, I have some comics that I want to post, so I'll probably post them in the next couple days, I think, as long as my act keeps together.

Whew. Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who e-mailed me in the last little bit. You're words helped me get through today on two and a half hours sleep where I had a class, my scary seminar today, (in which the man I am absolutely petrified of deep, deep, down but try not to show by pretending to play it cool when I am really a quivering jelly mass inside hoping that he wont tear me to several pieces over the course of the two hours) which is a highly intensive class and on hard material and I also promised a night of cookie making (which, like, I couldn't turn down because, well, it's food. And I'm hungry.) which just ended about twenty minutes ago. I just got home. It's midnight. I haven't stopped all day. I had many a good laugh at my e-mails, and I also felt re-energized, and it turned the day completely around. So thank you.

And cookie making tonight was really fun. And we ordered food in for supper, and I ate a really big thing that was like a taco but different. It was good. Myabe I'll post pictures later.

OK, now I'm spacing as I type. Holy crap. I feel like I've had a few. And I have only ever had a few, techincally...uh, two? No, no, three....four. Yeah. Anyways, I'm so tired it's like I'm back home! Ah, good memories. Anyways, I'll talk to you all later, and we'll see if my medieval philosophy professor buys my interpretation of Aquinas in my essay or whether or not he'll eat it for breakfast and give me a fifty. I'm hoping for option number one.

And a good grade.

Thanks, and letter/postcard writing will resume shortly. Namely, when the post office opens again on Monday. =)

And Done!

It's 3:45 a.m. and my essay is done.

Life is good.

Time for a shower.

Randomness...

OK, I just found this through another one of my random traipses through the web. I don't know how I keep finding this stuff, but if you have ever read "To Kill a Mockingbird" you NEED to see this. It' s about five to ten minutes, so get some popcorn before you watch it.

http://www.stanford.edu/%7Escodary/tkam.htm


Other than that, my posting/e-mailing/letter writing/sleeping has been curtailed by me needing to be done an essay. That's due tomorrow. That's really frustrating...and my brain hurts.

And for any of those of you who would like to be asking why I found this on the web if I'm supposed to be writing an essay, I'll have you know this was done during one of my BREAKS, thank you very much. Check the link. =)

I recommend to anyone who likes Christian music (although there's not much to like...most of it's baloney) to check out Bethany Dillon. She's got slammin vocals, and whoever is producing her albums knows how to do it properly. Her songs actually sound inspirational when they're supposed to, and worth listening to for their own right, not just as if you feel like you've accidentally walked in on someone's private personal singing prayer session with God. And, oh man, she's just SO GOOD. I don't know how she's not chart toppin' everywhere. Anyways, a big fan, obviously. Check it out, if you think you can handle it. It's pretty tame in content in terms of Christian music.

Ah, yes. Grad school. My place really does look a lot like this right now. There's paper everywhere. And books. Books I have yet to read. So, my sporadic posting on my web log will be every two to three days, perhaps four if I have a busy week, but I've been pretty good about it. Normally I am terrible with this sort of thing. But, since my Dad has threatened to contact Interpol to make sure that I am still alive if I don't post at least every three days, I am doing my best to stay under the radar. So, please be patient with me. Please. Dad. And friends. More exciting news in a day or two!

Acting

I just realized that my last post title was a subconscious advertisement for diet coke. Curse you consumerism, curse yoooooou!

Also, I just got back from acting practice, and the director was there, and wasn't listening to anything anybody was saying, and now I feel like the play is going to go down in flames. Again.

Yay! Burning!

It's right up there with drowning.

RAZAM FRAZAM FRAZAM!

Frazam.

For the fun of it

I just got back from acting practice a little while, and I am feeling a little better. We're slowly hashing everything together so that eventually we're going to have a play. I think it will work. Before I was absolutely paralyzed by the thought that we might be floating dead in the water before we even began, but now I think the play will be finished before we have to give a performance. LOL!

I know, I know. It's been weird, but the director was gone today, and we just went about things, and did scenes, and had good ideas that actually went somewhere, and I think everyone is starting to get a feel for the plot. It's really nice. I think it will be good.

I was having so much fun tonight because we were doing actual improv tonight, and less talking about what would be good and agreeing and disagreeing, but working with what we had, and doing the best we could with a small stage and a few people. Anyways, it was really enjoyable, overall. It reminded me of why I like to do acting. The laughter, the not caring what goes wrong, the just trying again and doing it over if you didn't like it, and just having a good time. It was fun. I like the energy. It's positive. I miss that. Belgians are polite, but they're not theatre people in the way that North American people are theatre people. Belgians are polite, kind, people. But they are also fairly closed off, I think. They're not very good at letting people in the inner 'circle of trust. ' (A movie reference if any of you have ever seen "Meet the Parents.") So, theatre is a really good way to be open, and to yell and be crazy and other things that Brennan likes to do. Mostly yelling. And being crazy. And some more yelling.

Europeans are too quiet. I don't think I have ever seen a loud and laughing group of people at a cafe before. Hardly anyone LAUGHS here. They're all so serious. HOW DEPRESSINGLY EUROPEAN. Whenever I go out with my friends, we are easily the loudest people there. (Which, granted, is a North American stereotype.) But, I think this is the reason is because North American people are less subtle about their happiness. It's not drawn out. It's bursting from them at the seams. They accept the vibrancy of life in a different way than most European adults do here, I think. I see more people here with sad faces than happy faces. Their happiness seems quiet. Mine, obviously, is loud. How to reconcile? For a while I felt like I should fit into this subdued model of how to act, but I don't think I can. I feel like I'm forcing a square block into a circle hole, and I AM that square block. Hey, it's hip to be square, but nobody likes trying to break the mold and themselves at the same time. I don't think I can try to be so subdued anymore. It doesn't make sense. It's not very, well, very ME. Not that I know a lot about me, but I don't think I function well, uh, quietly. I suppose I should stop trying to adjust to people, and I think I should maybe let people adjust to me. I thought the whole idea of going to another country was about learning about how to live the life of another country. "When in Roman, do as the Romans do." But does that really make perfect sense? Don't we pave over the good parts of ourselves if we buy into this too much? I'm an international student, but I shouldn't try and give up what I like about me just to fit into the quiet Belgian lifestyle. There should be some middle ground. It should be 50-50. I am going to do some things that you think are crazy, and you are going to do some things that I think are crazy. Maybe that's as good as a middle ground as we get. Because if it's too much to adjusting we lose what we had to begin with, which was a distinct culture, and a distinct set of people, and we lose ourselves somewhere in there, too. Maybe intercultural dialogue doesn't have to be painful. Maybe it can be fun, and also good without getting rid of what we like about ourselves to try and fit in. I'm certainly going to work on being more me, and less, uh, not me. Yeah.

My tap will not. stop. dripping.

AUGH.

Movies

Hey friends!

I would just like to say that I have now seen Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds." I have never sat through a full length Alfred Hitchcock anything, but now that I have, WOHOO! WHAT A COOL FILM! It was really cool because it made you think as well as being creepy. It was really good for the philosophical thought on evil and philosophy. Why did the birds turn on everyone? What was really going on? It's interesting to think about.

But I like birds so much. It made me sad to see birds be so...well, horror monster-ish. Non-happy. But I understand that's part of the reason he used birds, I'm sure.

Now I'm sad. Darn you Alfred Hitchcock. DARN YOOOOOOOOOU!

Anyways, I also JUST found out who Margaret Cho is today! My goodness, what a funny lady. I listen to some audio clips of her stuff, and she's just a blast. I had to stop myself from buying the complete DVD series of all her comedy shows over the internet. It would have been a bad...yet good idea. Sigh. Life is hard. Margaret Cho is funny.

In other news, I am almost done doing some actual work today. MAN, I'M LAZY. Holidays are no good for getting work done.

Although, I went to All Soul's Day Mass, and it was really nice, and I went to the cemetery and I said some prayers. It was a good time. Their cemeteries here are beautiful, and I feel really calm just hanging around them. They're so...meditative? Maybe that's the right word. Although I'm not sure if it's healthy that I want to hang around cemeteries. Need to think about it.

If you would like to know the answer to whether or not music videos have regressed back into the 80's look no further than here, and watch the videos by Sean Paul and Britney Spears:

http://www.artistdirect.com/


I think it's also official given the audacity of the Britney Spears video here, that she has officially jumped the shark. Like, she chose to jump the shark. Like, she wanted it sooooo bad. You wont understand until you watch the video, but I have two words for you: Pink SUV.

Yeah, I know. Ouch majorus.

Anyways, I would like to comment that I have been having weird dreams lately. Like, I had a dream a couple nights ago where I was having some sort of huge stress that I need to go talk to someone about, and then I had this big emotional conversation with somebody like a therapist, but who maybe wasn't a therapist, maybe just a close friend of mine/family member. Anyways, I asked her something like, "But why do I feel this way?" and she said, "The reason is because you're one third Mexican." I felt so relieved once she said this, like it was some sort of big revelation or something. Yes! This explains WHY I'm so neurotic. I'm ONE THIRD MEXICAN. In my dream I actually went and examined myself in the mirror, and I had to agree that I really did look one third Mexican. It was like the answer to all my problems, racial stupidity style. Having a bad day? No worries, you one-third Mexican! Don't like Belgian water because it's too hard? Hey, you could be in Taco-home-country, mister, don't complain!

Then the dream I had last night was about some guy who kept singing and he had a guitar and was playing pretty nicely, and he had a nice voice, but I kept telling him, "No, you're still a little bit flat/sharp." Then he'd say, "Yeah, I know, I know." And try to sing again. Repeat coversation. But the thing was he was REALLY flat/sharp. It was like voice-cracking-going-through-puberty-flat. It hurt to listen to once he got going. (Thankfully he only sang a couple words and then stopped. Then I could interject. Which was why I brought up that he was flat. Rather rude of me, now that I think of it. GEEZ, I'm a terrible person...I blame it on the fact that I'm one-third Mexican.)

Also, I had a Belgian waffle with ice cream on it tonight when I met up with a friend of mine from philosophy, and it was AMAZING. Best thing I've had in a long time. I definitely ate it too quickly, though. (Especially considering it cost 2.25€)

And, now that I think of it, I really don't like the soup here that comes out of the can, because it's too salty, but think that's because I've been eating it without adding any water to it. I suppose if I read/could read the label I could sort this issue out. Hm. Maybe I'll just add water to it anyways. It'll probably taste better.

Oh heck, I can't believe I'm deliberating about this. Some life, huh?

P.S. I have been doing much too much culture-glam related stuff lately, so I think that is going to be it for a while. I know I usually find such things very boring when I come across them on other people's blogs, so I think I should try and ration them out more. Like the way I need to ration out my obsession with ice cream. And waffles. And quesidillas. I mean candy.

Night all!

P.P.S. I was going to ask you all something important in which you could give me good feedback, but now I don't remember what it is. Dang it.

Well, here's a good one anyways. Do you like the semi-deliberately lame cartoons, or would you rather see more writing, less bad artistry? Vote now! =D =D =D

Commentia

OK.

I'm doing something so incredibly crazy that I probably shouldn't.

Oh well.

Now, anyone, even if they don't have a blog, can comment on my web log.

*Cringe*

*Waiting for loads of flamer-mail, junkmail comments, and other variations of nastiness.*

*Hope the people who begged Brennan to do this are happy*

So, yes, I'll be doing a lot of deleting of comments, but I'm here to appease...I mean please. Something like that. *Grin*

Happy All Souls and Saints Day, too.

Which are national holidays in Belgium.

Now I really am asking for hate mail.

Geez.

Happy Halloween!

I would just like to wish you all a Happy Halloween.

No children came to my door.

So I'm eating all the Halloween candy I bought for anyone who was maybe going to come by. I'm eating candy coke bottles and suckers that say things like, "Happy Kids, Boys and Girls!" and has soccer balls and sunshine faces on the wrappers.

And, yes, in case you're wondering, that IS how I justified buying 10€ worth of candy.

Yay Halloween!

And props to Elizabeth who sent me the nicest Halloween card ever!

A Survey worth a look

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

What do you think? I must be a true hybrid breed. Once again, I've been finding myriads of semi-interesting stuff on other blogs. I thought I would have a higher percentage in MidWestern, or general American English. Anyways, give this a shot if you like it

The Can Opener

This is a cartoon I made to vent my frustrations I had with my can opener about three weeks ago. I would have posted this MUCH earlier, but my scanner and I are currently resolving our problemos. I am seriously crying because I don't own nor have enough knowledge to use cool programs like Photoshop, which means I had to repencil everything with a darker pencil before I scann it, so the quality suffers somewhat. Even if you don't think this is funny, this is pretty much how I felt while trying to open a can of dessert rice for breakfast one morning, and I laughed so hard, almost to the point of tears, while reviewing my work for closeness to how things actually happened in reality. Enjoy! (My hair is longer here because this is before I got a haircut and was on the serious verge of a shag.)