weather – Imaginary Sunshine

I want sunshine!

Michelle — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 01:59:53 +0000

It’s been busy in my world lately, what with a midterm (Wednesday), working on a few new patterns for Chelle-Chelle.com (and I’m working on opening up a pattern store!), life in general. So it’s felt busy, at least to me! It’s still winter and the weather’s been utter crap. There was snow. And then there was hurricane-strength winds hitting the entire coastline of British Columbia on Wednesday. Power went out everywhere (and briefly out for me!). And then it’s been raining on and off, fantastic. I look outside and it’ll be absolutely pouring rain. A few minutes later there will be sunshine and no rain. Mother Nature, please make up your mind (and stick with the sunshine!)

I still have… 2 midterms left until the end of the term (I’ve finished 5 so far – I only have 4 classes, by the way). I have a handful of assignments left, one stats lab report to do (haven’t done the lab yet), one ecology lab report (haven’t done the lab yet) and then, you know, 4 finals before I’m done for the term. I’ve decided against taking summer classes mostly because I’ve done a summer course before and I’m just not fond of it (time constraints) and I only have 7 (seven!!!!) courses left between after this term and graduation, so I’ll be taking 4 in term 1 and 3 in term 2. 7 classes, zomfg. Heh, of course I’m applying for programs for after graduation, but still.

I’ll be done, briefly.

I picked up a vintage (ish) needlecrafts book last week that I’m so excited about. It was only $2 (from the thrift store) but in such amazing condition and has such great instructions for some fun stitch patterns (knit and crochet) and has a huge in-depth section on embroidery, cross-stitching, punch-needle, how to make rugs and so much more stuff. It’s amazing and has been a great inspiration for me lately as I’ve taken to sketching out more stuff that I want to make and have the inspiration to make. So I’ve just been drawing everything. I sketched out a crochet lace shawl that I want to make. Not that I wear shawls, of course, but I just enjoy a challenge!

But in the mean time, I’ve made these two outfits (knitted headband + knitted dress & crocheted hat + crocheted dress) as donation sets for 4alissia.com! Please check out the website if you haven’t already yet!

Double rainbows and other fun things

Michelle — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:30:13 +0000

Hello world, I’ve missed you. Have you missed me?

Lately I’ve been busy with schoolwork – I finished up a paper on the impact of global warming on polar bears for Monday night (for my plants biology class, of all things) and I just finished up a quick and almost painless assignment on the Western red cedar tree (which is not a true cedar tree, awesome, eh?). It’d been really nice out lately, except for a small period of it raining hard yesterday, but it’s been really nice out. Warm, sunny, chirping little birds… and I’ve been indoors and working on essays. But I did take a photo of this yesterday (actually, many photos, but I decided not to spam everyone today, aren’t I nice?):

It’s a double rainbow! The second one has the colours going in the opposite direction (red on the inside and purple on the outside). The darker band between the two rainbows is called Alexander’s band (I did a project on rainbows, and light refraction, for my Physics 11 class).

So school’s basically been consuming my time… I wore green today – not because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, but because the hoodie was clean, hah. One of my friends was like “Ohemgee, you remembered! I thought you weren’t going to wear green today!” and I was like “Oh, is it St. Patrick’s Day already?” Yay for not actually remembering the excuse of a day to get drunk. That being said, my plants biology prof was suggesting names and locations of pubs and bars that serve green beer today. I did not take down notes on that (unlike some people).

It just really feels like spring now, you know? There’s daffodils in my front yard, there’s so much darn sunshine and there’s a light breeze… And then I open my window and all I can hear is construction. On-freaking-going construction. And then I’m reminded, again, that I’ve been living near to a construction site for the better part of about 2 years now. They had delays due to weather issues (lots of rain – but seriously, British Columbia is a temperate rainforest) and then also due to the cost of construction materials… And then once they were finished constructing their original project, they tore an adjacent building to rebuild that. They’re supposed to be done construction by 2011. Or “around there”. Sigh. I hate it, I really do. Trucks going by makes my room shake. =/ Pretty sure that is not a good sign!

Anyways… I hope everyone has been having a wonderful Wednesday (and St. Patrick’s Day, if you’re into that sort of thing). Cheers!

Hello, Monday! :)

Michelle — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:31:33 +0000

Biology final was today…
Goodbye, Cell Biology I! I had my final for that course today, it was at 8:30am and it consisted of short answer, multiple choice and one essay problem (the entire test was 100 marks, the essay alone was 30 marks!). I actually felt pretty good about that final, it wasn’t unfair at all. All the questions were related to examples that my professor had gone over in class, it was all incredibly fair and no surprises. I was done at 9:45am and spent the time looking over my answers and my essay (made some corrections – I discovered that I have issues with spelling, heh) and then handed it in at 10:15am – I was not the first person to leave (I hate being the first person to leave during an exam!)

Thanks for the money, honey
Also, I got an awesome surprise in the mail today! A cheque for just over $300. It’s from a company (company? organization?) called USC which is kind of like a educational savings plan (so like RESP) and it’s basically the contribution that I get from my parents, besides not having to pay for rent or food or utilities while I’m going to school/living at home. Sadly, it doesn’t even cover one of my classes (each class is more than $500), but it’s a nice addition to my bank account… right before I go and take out an unhealthy portion of it for tuition for next term. Now to restrain myself from buying yarn, beads, clothes, books and dolls. I’ll be very good this holiday season. =)

Listening to music at the train station…
In other news… I saw a guy playing the guitar near the entrance to the train station this morning when I was on my way home. Please note, it’s quite cold outside right now where I live. It snowed a bit and everything is still quite frosty. He was playing a song and had a hat out for change and also a sign that said ‘If you have a better job for me, please ask for a resume’. That’s when I noticed that he had a clear folder with printed resumes, as well as shoes that looked brand new, and impeccably clean looking clothes. So guessing someone who’s down on their luck (who still has access to soap and laundry machines and printer ink), but he was fairly good at playing the guitar!

Headache and a bit of down time. =)
Anyways, I’m currently at home and bumming around for the day. My head hurts (I kept on waking up last night with a pretty bad headache, magically did not have a headache during my final though or perhaps I just didn’t notice it because I was focused on the final), so I’m not starting to studying for my psychology final until tomorrow (my psych final is next Monday). There’s a recipe for peanut butter cookies on the side of the jar of peanut butter that I have (yum!) and I was considering making them, but the recipe only has three ingredients: peanut butter, sugar and egg. I’ve made peanut butter cookies before, but I can’t find the recipe that I’ve used before (actually included flour for one thing!) so I’m a little ‘eh’ about making cookies that only have three ingredients. It’s odd. That being said, the shortbread recipe I use only has three ingredients too (but those are so damn delicious…) might make the peanut butter cookies anyways though!

Can’t I just inject the knowledge into my brain?

Michelle — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:30:51 +0000

I woke up this morning and realized (erm… sort of) that my room is a mess. I have shopping bags on my floor from stuff that I haven’t snipped tags off of and hung up or put into my wardrobe (erm, this also includes the hoodie that I bought yesterday) and shopping bag with yarn (yet to be made into Christmas gifts) and another bag with a present that I bought for a special someone (because I couldn’t resist). All that coupled with packages of stainless steel wire in various gauges (for jewellery making purposes), a bag with pull rings and eye chips and a new container of tacky glue (for the dolls), pattern print-outs and fabric (more doll stuff), and all my school notes and stuff for the term is littering my floor. Guessing I’ll get to it all eventually… Hopefully before I step on anything important!

That being said, studying for biology is going swimmingly – learning all that I’ve never known before (hah), but my sisters interrupted me again because they want a list of things that I want for Christmas because they want to get all their shopping done today rather than the day before Christmas (much like last year?) and politely asked me not to include any Blythes or Blythe-related items on the list – apparently they don’t feel like supporting my “habit”. Go figure. Things I wanted included a lot of small tech stuff (memory cards, surge protector), craft stuff (pattern books, magazines, fabric, trims, ribbons, yarn, interchangeable circular knitting needles, giant knitting needles and crochet hooks) and random cute things (erm, bakeware? 2010 Olympic mascot plushies? Post-Its!). Yes, Post-Its count as cute.

I’ve also been just informed that it’s currently snowing outside (bleh). Guess this definitely means that I’ll be leaving super early tomorrow for my biology final! I don’t mind having to take the final – I just mind the ‘getting there’ portion of it because public transit is not my friend at times… Neither are the people who also use public transit, but that’s okay. They make for excellent blog fodder sometimes, heh.

Anyways… Been compiling patterns with yarns lately, in hopes that I’ll be able to do all my crafting in a relatively organized and quick manner. Somehow I doubt it though, but one can hope. Same with cleaning my room. Once all my exams are over, everything is getting cleaned and organized (yay).

And lastly.. Jenn is hosting a giveaway for a $50 gift card to Eden Fantasys with three easy ways for you to enter for a chance to win. There is more than one way to brighten up your holidays (and that special someone else’s holidays too!).

The price tag on imagination

Michelle — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:59:10 +0000

The lyrics came from the song Fact Fiction by Hans Langer (Youtube link!).

And, Heather, they were crocheted preemie hats, but I don’t think the babies care if they were crocheted or knit, to be perfectly honest.

Anyways… It rained today. And rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained today. It rained on and off, but it was mostly on. Which really sucked. Because I left my house this morning, it was raining. Between buses and trains, it was raining. Between classes and between buildings, it was raining. Walking home from the bus stop? Raining. Good thing I don’t have anything against water, but how much can it honestly rain? You would think that the clouds would eventually run out of water or something. But have spent my time at home working a biology project (due Friday, whoot) and continuing some work on my psychology paper, yay, but the newspaper came, so I decided to flip through the fliers.

I saw what I thought was something rather hilarious. Do you remember ever making paper bag puppets when you were younger? Like taking a regular brown paper bag and painting it or adding glitter or stickers or googly eyes? I remember making those when I was younger, in school and at home. I loved crafts when I was younger, still do (perhaps with a little less googly eyes though), and I think all children should be encouraged to play and to be creative. And I came across this product in the flier, Little Hands Paper Bag Puppets, which includes a glue stick, 5 paper bags, stickers and punch out pieces for the awesome price of $12.99 CAD. Really? $13 + tax for a completely premade kit for paper bag puppets? Because I’m pretty sure you could get a package of 50-100 paper bags, a glue stick (or two), loads of stickers and a pad of construction paper for under $10. And make a lot more than 5 paper bag puppets, and probably prettier ones as well.

Anyways… I’ve got questions for everyone today, all related to your winter holiday of choice.

So here are my winter holiday-ish questions for you all today:

What is your favourite happy winter-time song?
What’s your favourite type of cookie to eat or bake during the winter holidays?
What is one holiday tradition that you think is unique (or mostly unique) to your family?
Are there any charitable things that you regularly do or plan on doing during the holiday season?

My answers:

Jingle Bells
Shortbread and sugar cookies (for both baking and eating)
Umm… The parents are absolutely civil and awesome to each other for the couple of days leading up to Christmas, and then argue it out from Christmas morning to dinner time and we all open presents in silence and pose with fake smiles for the camera with our new gifts.
Well, so far I’ve donated preemie hats to the hospital. I also plan on buying a board game and donating it to a local charity who puts together gifts for children from families that can’t afford to spend the money on gifts.

It’s a clumsy me day

Michelle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:56:27 +0000

I read the novel Frindle by Andrew Clements when I was 8 years old. It was a chapter book recommended to me by my teacher that year because I had exhausted the collection of books in the classroom. It’s a really fun book, of those who have never heard of it. It’s about the story of a boy who has an English teacher that isn’t very nice and so he makes up a new word (frindle) for the word pen as the teacher had explained to the boy (Nicholas) that the reason why words mean the things that they mean. So he makes up a new word and it catches on with his peers. I remembered this book when I was reading the news this morning and I came across this news article online that talks about the ‘word of the year’ for 2009 by the New Oxford American dictionary: unfriend. Nice to know that unfriending people on Facebook and Twitter has become that popular that it’s become the word of the year. Other words that were in consideration included “netbook” (as in, I really wish I had a netbook so I wasn’t carrying around a ~7lbs 15.4″ laptop around) and “sexting” (as in, something that you shouldn’t do while you’re still a minor).

Original article that I found was from CBC.com (“Unfriend is New Oxford American Dictionary’s 2009 word of the year“).

Today’s been a fairly decent day. Of course this morning started off at a rocky start. I woke up a bit late, but had enough time to have breakfast. At which point I managed to burn my finger, spill tea into and down my shirt and tripped out the front door as I was leaving to go to the bus stop. Oh, let’s see… Also tripped on my way off of the bus, and up the escalator and then off of the escalator and then at school (going into the building). And I also managed to trip getting onto the bus on my way home (however, that time, I was actually running because I checked the time and it was a minute before the bus was schedule to leave) and managed to fall asleep on the bus going home and ended up missing my stop (by one stop, and walked the longer distance home). The ‘decent’ part was where I did realize that my shirt was slightly see-through, before more people were in my lecture hall and that I managed to avoid stepping in the five hundred and three puddles that were between the bus loop and the building where my biology building is.

I’m trying my best to be absolutely positive and cheerful today. Is it working yet?

Rain, rain, go away

Michelle — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:03:32 +0000

At school today, I found Waldo sitting with Cleopatra, a rather short looking Jack Sparrow and a random vampire. None of my profs dressed up (I had profs dress up last year, and give out candy – no one was that interested in doing so today). However, classes went well today. Still waiting on the results for one of my midterms (Tuesday!) and then after that, only 2 more midterms, 2 more projects, 2 papers, 1 lab final and 4 final exams. Yeah… I don’t know, the term’s only been a handful of weeks but it’s just felt like it’s been so long. I mean, I only took a midterm last week, but it has felt like it’s been forever ago. I don’t know, it’s weird. Time, not flying at all.

In other news… One of my coworkers has not forgotten about me (they always claim to whenever I pop up again at work). He inherited a tub of gummy candy from another coworker who moved (from Building A to Building B) and he told my mom that “since Michelle always had like a handful whenever I saw her” that I should have the candy. Mmm, artificial colours and flavours, delicious! And then today he sent cookies to me via my mom. So eating handfuls of candy (not on a daily basis, mind you) a few months ago means that I get a tub of candy… Works out well, I think!

The weather has been crap today. The rain wasn’t that bad when I left volunteering today, but I just got to the sidewalk when I saw the bus zooming by and it was going to be about another 30 minutes before the next bus showed up, so I figured that I would walk home instead. 10 minutes later, it was pissing rain. I anticipated the weather being horrible, so I wore a lot of layers (regular shoes though – don’t know what I was thinking, a tee, a hoodie, a jacket, knee socks, jeans). Oh, guess what was completely soaked through by the time I got home? My jacket, my hoodie, my shoes and my jeans, at least up to mid-thigh. Not cool, not cool at all. Oh, and about 5 minutes after I got home? Rain stopped.

And it’s Halloween tomorrow… My names? Working on a biology paper, studying, organic chemistry problems, shopping. Yay… Such is the life of someone who has no… life?

How has your Thursday and Friday been?

Monday, Monday, why can’t you be Tuesday?

Michelle — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:13:37 +0000

Georgina – acetaminophen = paracetamol. It’s the same chemical compound and it’s commonly known as Tylenol in North America (also, a major component in a lot of cold and influenza medications). (And for those curious, since I did mention acetaminophen as one of the two drugs that I have abused before in the past – no, I did not do it on purpose, it was one extra dosage in a 24 hour period; and yes, it will fuck up your liver if you take too much. So don’t do it!).

I haven’t spoken to S since Saturday, I expect to see her tomorrow so I’ll see how she’s doing then.

Happy Monday everyone… It pissed rain all morning long (and once it was around 11am, it was bright and freaking sunny). Not cool, considering I was dressed for the cold, windy, rainy weather and I had on multiple layers. And the windchill? Sucked. In the last 24+ hours, I managed to cause a lot of inexcusable damage to my relationship with Clay. Which I’m not proud of, at all, and essentially am kicking myself over because I was being very, very, very, very, very, very (very x ∞) stupid. Kind of like ingesting 18g of pure caffeine in under a 48 hour period, but so much more emotionally draining. And without the use of a hospital. And intravenous fluids. Just saying.

My sister J called me up this afternoon and right after saying “Hi!” she tells me that she stopped by this store during her lunch break and saw this particular brand of yarn and in a particular colour and told me to buy it as her birthday present. No please, no thank you. Sigh. People get demanding with family members, don’t they? I said maybe (even though I only have a vague idea of where the store is… sort of) and that I would try. I think she took it as a yes. So guess who’s buying sock yarn for her sister’s birthday present…? Yeah, that’s right. Me. Oh well, she’s my sister. She only has one birthday per year, right? (Unless we’re going by the lunar calendar as well, in which case she has two. But then so do I – only my parents ever remember when those are though!

D (the other sister) was really awesome today! She came home and called from the door “I have a present for you!”. She stopped by an organic foods store (had to specify – did you know they sell organic clothing now? Made me go ‘WTF?’ when I first read the label on a shirt that said ‘100% Organic!’ – does that mean they only oil the machines with organic oil? Inquiring minds want to know! Or at least this one does.) and came home with a 1kg bag of organic crepe mix. Yum! She knew I was having issues coming up with what I wanted to serve for breakfast for my little sleepover birthday party and I originally wanted to get pancake mix. Instead, she bought home a kilo of crepe mix (much more preparation work in comparison to store-bought pancake mix)… And she also ate a danish on her way home from work. Teehehe.

I think after the term is done (or after I’m done my cellular biology course), I’m going to plant a million trees (or at least one) somewhere. I’ve been printing the lecture slides because my prof goes way too fast for me to be able to keep up with writing my notes and there’s so many diagrams that it’s so hard to draw them all before he’s moved on. So I’ve been printing them. My one-inch binder is looking rather full now… Whoopsies. And it’s only unit 5 (of 8!). So definitely planting a tree. And recycling my notes.

And I have a new theme header/colour scheme… Hopefully you’ve noticed. I wanted a change from all the pastels (which, I realize, nearly all of my themes since the conception of Imaginary Sunshine have been pastels!). Chances are, before November is over, there will be a new theme up. Probably in pastels. Or something closer to it.

Anyways…

Questions:

What are you planning on dressing up as for Halloween (this Saturday, kids!)?
What is your absolute favourite type of candy?
What was your least favourite candy to receive when you went trick-or-treating?
When is the last time that you went trick-or-treating?

My answers:

Previously, was not going to dress up for Halloween. And I’m still not. But I do have a Halloween-esque outfit idea… But if I told you, you’d probably go “TMI!”. Which is it. I’ll leave you to ponder that.
Skittles! Skittles! Skittles! (And, on occasion, chocolate – Aero, please!)
Sometime in high school with K – her neighbourhood was the best. My neighbourhood? Not so much – people are stingy around here.

Why don’t you… distract me or something?

Michelle — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:57:09 +0000

So this is what I did today:

Sneezed. A lot.
Watched Supersize Me with the sisters (it was the first time for both of them to watch it, D was so disgusted, it was hilarious!)
Finished notes, definitions and readings for my psychology class (midterm this Friday!)
Printed out slides for the last 4 lectures from now until my cell biology midterm (I need to go to the store at school and buy the note package – black ink is running low, I don’t think my printer will suffer printing another 70+ pages of full text!)
Sneezed some more.
Made (better) flash cards of animo acid structures
Ordered copies of my university transcripts online (not as expensive as I thought it was going to be…)
Read a chapter for organic chemistry, completed the online reading quiz (booooooooring)
Read people whining on the online discussion board for o-chem over their chem grades (I am pleased as punch to announce that I did better on the o-chem midterm compared to a guy who claims that he spent 3 weeks in the library studying and spent ~$100 on a 6 hour tutor session for the midterm – I did better by nearly 10%! Without spending ~$100 extra on the course, but I spent ~2 weeks studying for this… while juggling studying for another course.)
Sneezed some more.
Watched General Hospital (because it’s only the Canadian Thanksgiving, so I still get my American shows)
Caught up on stuff over at my roleplaying game, Ames!
Did psychology midterm essay prep for 3 of the 5 possible topics (yay)
Reread the good parts from Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. I swear, that part about “Mont Blanc” and the whole entire section about the sunflowers? Best parts ever.
Sneezed some more.
Commented on some of the entries that have been gathering on my RSS feeds (sorry everyone – you all blog too much and I’m only one person… It’s not my fault you all write interesting things!)
Played Mafia Wars and Farmville on Facebook… (Procrastination at its best?)
Killed a spider (forecast called for rain before I killed the spider – honest!)

And I’m going to go to sleep. Atrociously early on a Monday night. Why? Because I’m sick (tear). I also emailed the people at volunteering to let them know I wouldn’t be in this week because it’s never a good idea to go in and work with people who have compromised immune systems when you’re sick or just recovering from being sick. I’m not sure what I hate more – my immune system, or the fact that people last week refused to stay home when they were sick and coughing in enclosed rooms with poor air circulation. Damn it, I’m going to be a hypocrite and join that group of people, aren’t I?

Oh well, such is the life from the start of midterms until… finals end?

A’choo!

Study, study, study, splat.

Michelle — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:07:30 +0000

Wednesday
Classes were pretty okay – the weather was actually pretty nice yesterday though! I got abandoned in my organic chemistry class by the 3 girls that I generally sit with (I know J and R from previous classes, and their slacker, insecure friend M joins us whenever she gets out of bed on time). Because R was sick, M never wakes up on time unless J gives her a phone call and J slept in. Yeah, good thing that class is only 50 minutes long. I generally need a bit of help to stay up in organic chemistry, but my prof was really engaging yesterday. Not that he normally isn’t, it’s just that it’s so early in the morning that I’m generally sleepy enough to doze just a little bit. But yesterday’s lecture was pretty good. I stayed up. And I can J and R’s friend M a slacker and insecure because… well, she essentially is. She skipped the first 2 weeks of chem class because she couldn’t be “bothered” to wake up on time (it’s currently week 4) and J and R both gave me separate stories of how M always needs to be dating someone, or else she gets depressed and starts drinking. Yeah, good fun. My other classes (one of my biology classes and psychology) went very well… My psychology prof went through more than two whole slides during the course of the 50 minutes. Which was awesome. And it helps in the whole ‘let’s actually pay attention to this guy!’ whole train of thought.

Thursday
My (other) biology class actually went really well today. I learned something new today. Good thing too, since we’re now a third way through the term and I’ve just started learning new material in that class. And then there was my (plant) biology lab. Oh boy. Let’s just say that it was interesting. First off: the weather wasn’t very nice today. It was drizzling but at one point it was pouring rain. It was at around 11:30am while I was in my biology lab, about to make a cut in my mushroom sample (Phylum: Basidiomycota; Subphylum: Agaricomycotina) with a brand new, sharp razor blade and…. the fire alarm goes off. We all had to grab our stuff and leave the building. And, that building is damn difficult to navigate when you’re going down unfamiliar sets of stairs. But we all got out, and hung out in the rain for approximately 30 minutes. While it was piss-pouring rain outdoors. R and I spent some time talking to the lab instructors, because we were curious about upcoming optional field study that we can sign up for. So that was interesting, but it was pissing rain until we go to go back in. (There’s some construction going on and they decided to go and cut one of the wires… Guess what alarm they set off? Yeah…) So not cool, but R and I got our project slide done for our mushroom. Mostly because neither of us really wanted to work on it during the weekend (we both have the same midterms next week, whoo…. midterms).

And… Things are getting better, I think I’ve gotten past the whole ‘zomgwtfamIdoing?’ stage. Which is good, in my humble opinion. I spent the first two or so weeks trying to study everything every single day. And I wasn’t doing so great with that (psychology got really neglected). Now I spend time studying just one or two courses in a day, which is a lot nicer (but psychology still does get pretty neglected). I’m currently surrounded by: 1 binder, 1 stapled package of notes, 1 organic chemistry textbook, 1 model set (and 1 completed model – 2-methyl-2-bromobutene – if you cared) and… a plate of cookies. Freshly baked. I made the cookie dough last night, rolled it out and made all the circles but didn’t bake them until after I got home. Which, essentially means, that I’ve got a little bit under 3 dozen cookies next to me right now (I’ve eaten a few). I’ve missed baking… amongst other things and people.

Questions:

What’s the weather like in your area today?
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month – for all those without the Y chromosome, do you do a self-exam once a month?
How much sleep do you get on average?