August 3, 2009 — Comments Closed
New Madonna song!! It’s incredibly catchy… You can listen to the new single on Madonna.com. I’ve also managed to get a-hold of the single EP. It includes some Benny Benassi mixes which are amazing.
Other things to celebrate today: holiday from work! For the past three days I’ve been doing essentially nothing. I went to see Harry Potter HBP again with Gwynn/Matt though. It was just as great the second time :D
Food experiment: I cut up the rind of my grapefruit I had a couple days ago and made tea. I put a small handful of finely-chopped grapefruit peel in boiling water. Then I put two frozen raspberries in there too. It was a bit weak, but still delicious. Ever since we ran out of that amazing grapefruit herbal tea at home, I’ve been wanting to try making some. I think I’m missing some other ingredients…
July 31, 2009 — Comments Closed
Yesterday, I went through some more car adventures.
I believe it all started a couple weekends ago when a couple friends and I went to my place in Ottawa, then came back down through cottage country to visit Mike’s cottage before coming back home. The cottage roads, full of loose crap and gravel are probably what broke my poor car. A week or so after the cottage, it sounded like there was a stick or rock in the engine and it was whirring against things (if that makes any sense). I didn’t bother getting it looked at, since I thought it would just fall out or go away. Later I discovered that if I turned a hard left the noise would stop, but a hard right would cause the noise to start again… After a couple more days it stopped completely. Yay! Problem fixed itself.
That’s not all, though. Apparently that stick or whatever, had more of an effect than we thought. Driving home from work yesterday (the entire kilometer), my radio started acting up and shutting down eventually. In the span of 5 minutes of driving, my radio shut off and I realised the battery indicator should not constantly be on. I think it might have been on for a few days prior… So I stopped the car in the driveway and took out the manual and saw that battery indicator = potential electrical failure. Awesome. I tried to start my car again, hoping for the best. Of course it didn’t start. Just what I need, when I’m trying to save money for my two terms of school coming up (basically $5100 x 2 for tuition alone).
Next morning I got it towed for free (yay preemptive CAA membership from parents) to the CAA shop which happens to be walking distance away. I then went to work. I got calls throughout the day from the mechanic telling me what was broken. Apparently the serpentine belt, what essentially delivers charge to the battery when it runs around in the engine, flew off at some point. Just gone. So my battery wasn’t being charged, and therefore it was dead. This was a brand new battery (to replace the one my dad let die). But apparently the battery itself had a bad cell, so potentially not completely the belt’s fault. The total at that point for cost-to-fix was around $350. I could deal with that, since I thought I could get the money back from CrappyTire since their battery was bad in the first place. That would only end up putting me out $200 or so. However, another phone call later, the tensioner, which makes sure the belt stays on in the first place, was discovered to be broken. I’m glad that these things are being pointed out and all, but the cost… D: Now total cost is $600. Ouch.
Everything is all fixed now and she works again. I was supposed to go back home this weekend, but now since I’m out $600, I don’t feel much like spending that money to get there. Apparently the mechanic who looked at my car under 3months ago was working in the vicinity of the belt/tensioner. Maybe it just kicked the bucket now, but maybe he missed something. He has a warranty on his work so I’ll give him a call. Obviously I’m hoping for some kind of financial compensation here.
So there’s my long-winded story on my recent car issues. If anyone has ever read my other car-related stuff, you’ll know that this isn’t nearly as big a deal as other car ‘adventures’ have been…
July 25, 2009 — Comments Closed
I just got back from Guelph’s Hillside festival. It was quite the event in the middle of nowhere. I never would have gone, unless Loreena was there.
She was here in Waterloo in the fall 2007, but I was an idiot and didn’t go. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time… “Oh, she’ll be back. In this dinky little town.” “It’s too expensive!” Not only am I considerably poorer now, but it was further away this time as well. Durrr. I’m also surprised that my family hasn’t made a bigger effort to go see her when she was around Ottawa. The whole family, dad especially, have been fond of her since I was little.
The performers before Loreena were interesting as well. One guy had a didgeridoo, and there were more random instruments being played. It was pretty energetic compared to ’sit down time’ later with Loreena. There were also a lot of… sketchy smells. Mostly weed. I wasn’t surprised at the amount before Loreena came on, but then I found myself thinking: Who smokes up for Loreena McKennitt? That’s why I’m tempted to call this more a Hippyfest than the Hillside festival. The advertising makes it look hippy-ish though anyways.
When the lights dimmed and the random filler music stopped playing, I definitely started tearing. I was finally seeing Loreena McKennitt! (You’re all thinking I’m a giant loser now.) I definitely was crying/tearing through the entire first song, which was one of her oldest, “Stolen Child”. Q.Q I’m not sure why I was crying… I could have just been the crazy stress crap that’s been going on, or the fact that I was ‘moved’ or something. The show was awesome! Her band is and extremely talented bunch, on some super cool instruments. For a while I thought the cello was some mysterious thing I’ve never seen before, but then the player was introduced with the cello. She was just so pro that she was always on the A string. Another special treat was a guest fiddler who could really play. The band’s fiddler and the guest played a song together and were dancing on the stage. It was a bit of a context switch to go from slow celtic songs to fast Irish dancing things. After that, a couple more songs, and a ‘unique experience’ in her career. She got a little flustered, I think because of the low bass coming from another stage. She stopped “Caravanserai” to complain about it a bit, then started “Old Ways” – which to be honest, I’d much rather have than the new stuff. I like her newest album, but I find it too different from all the older stuff. That was pretty much the show, and it was awesome. Well worth the money and time to get there. :)
In other news…
Work term is almost over, and school is starting again soon! I’ve already had some sneak peaks of the classes I’ll be taking, and they look pretty interesting. It will be more work than last terms, that’s for sure. I don’t mind though, since I think I need to be busier to actually work effectively. As soon as I have free time, I start finding excuses not to do work.
Over the summer so far, I’ve been volunteering at a library reading to children, taking a couple trips to Ottawa, having another HPDM binge, attempting to exercise (I’m trying out for varsity rugby in the fall, I’ve decided), and other things. There are a lot of things I should be doing, but I haven’t really felt motivated enough. Even for this work term: not motivated enough. (Though apparently I’m still doing well?) Blehhh life is just boring. There have been plenty of drama things recently to make it less boring though…
Whoa new layout? Yes! As stated on my hiatus page, the previous one (which I still like a lot) had been up since last November. I thought it was time for a change. This time, I don’t have to write epic long entries to make the page look good. I’m going to try and start blogging properly now, and not just have a ‘monthly digest’ thing every… month or more. This is the last one – I swear. The current thing you see is horribly incomplete, but I really wanted to post this entry now.
