Filed under: A, Filmology, potpourri | Tags: A, funny, Year One, Spanish, jokes, Yo La Tengo, language
I subscribe to a ‘Spanish-word-a-day’ kind of thing and sometimes the sentence in which the word is used is accompanied by some anecdote. Today, it’s a joke:
Suena el teléfono a las 6 de la mañana en la recepción del hotel, y dice un borracho a la recepcionista:
Señorita, ¿Me puede decir a qué hora abren la barra?
Ella le contesta:
A las 5 de la tarde, pero déjeme decirle que con la borrachera que tiene no lo van a dejar entrar.
Y el borracho le contesta:
Si yo no quiero entrar, lo que quiero es salir, pues me quedé aquí anoche.
¡Ay, ay, ay!
(That’s basically a guy, who’s drunk, phoning the hotel receptionist and asking, at 6am, what time the bar opens. She replies that it doesn’t open until 5 in the afternoon, and that in his state, he wouldn’t be allowed in. His rejoinder is that he doesn’t want in, he wants out, for he’s spent the entire night there.)
Copyright © 2009 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.
Oh, and don’t see Year One. It’s pretty terrible.
Filed under: A, Biomusicology, youtube of the day | Tags: A, youtube, youtube of the day, 1960s, covers, Music, Paul McCartney, Beatles, Neil Young, McCartney, A Day In The Life, duet
Filed under: A, Paying homage | Tags: A, Alanis, Canada, Canada Day, Canadian, hockey, Morissette, national anthem, NHL, O Canada, Stanley Cup
Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadians!
I really can’t say how proud I am to be Canadian. Polite, kind, and loved at home and abroad.
When I was in grade 3 we used to have to sing this song and I found it so annoying at the time (it was between this and Camelot). Looking back, and I’m probably over-emotional due to stress, I could cry because Canada really is as great as these lyrics proclaim.
Canada Is, by Roger Whittaker
Canada is the Rocky Mountains
Canada is Prince Edward Island
Canada is a country made for love
Canada is La Belle Provence
Canada is the Yukon Mine
Canada is a country full of love.
We have love for our neighbour
Of whatever creed or colour
We have love for our cities
And our valleys and our plains
We have a voice that is calling
Telling all the world we’re willing
To welcome them to this great land
For that’s what Canada is.
Canada is the Rocky Mountains
Canada is Prince Edward Island
Canada is a country made for love
Canada is La Belle Provence
Canada is the Yukon Mine
Canada is a country full of faith.
We have faith in our future
We’re ready for tomorrow
We have faith in our children
For our future’s in their hands
We have a voice that is calling
Telling us to keep on hoping
For time will make this wild land great
And that’s what Canada is.
Canada is the Rocky Mountains
Canada is Prince Edward Island
Canada is a country made for love
Canada is La Belle Provence
Canada is the Yukon Mine
Canada is a country loving peace.
We have peace in our valleys
We’re happy and contented
We have peace in our cities
And our boundaries have no chains
We have a voice that is calling
Telling all free men we’re willing
To show them how to live in peace
For that’s what Canada is.
Canada is the Rocky Mountains
Canada is Prince Edward Island
Canada is a country made for love
Canada is La Belle Provence
Canada is the Yukon Mine
Canada is a country full of love.
Canada is the Rocky Mountains
Canada is Prince Edward Island
Canada is a country made for love
Canada is La Belle Provence
Canada is the Yukon Mine
Canada is a country full of love.
Peaceful and peacekeeping. Our songs (national anthem included) are so humbly patriotic – no bombs bursting in air (USA), no bloodied banners being raised (France), no being asked to be shown the way of the Lord (Italy), no cannons roaring or rifles pealing (Ireland).
(Blah, ended up crying after all.)
Copyright © 2009 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.
Photo credit to Flickr.
Filed under: A, Biomusicology | Tags: A, Aberdeen, Athlete, Deptford, England, Half Light, indie, Lemon Tree, Music, UK
Last night I saw Athlete at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. The venue is really small and probably has the same volume as, say, Lee’s Palace, but it’s more spread out and squat (probably the ceiling is only 12 feet high).
I hadn’t listened to Athlete in ages; I think I was a fan in third or fourth year of my undergrad (spanning years 2004-2006) but hadn’t even bothered to give their ‘newest’ (released in 2007) album a spin. Oops. Thesis writing generates apathy, what can I say.
Basically, I went to see one song, Half Light, which was the third on their setlist. Here it is:
Though I do like the electric version, the acoustic one is, in my opinion, a bit more profound (previously posted here).
All in all, it was a good show even though I sometimes can’t stand not knowing songs being played live… but as I mentioned, that really was my own fault.
Copyright © 2009 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.
Filed under: A, Biomusicology | Tags: A, Music, indie, Spoon, Ga ga ga ga ga, Texas, Got Nuffin, Tweakers, Stroke Their Brains, Britt Daniel, EP
A new Spoon EP is being released this Tuesday! I will celebrate by toiling at my desk, unable to reach the record store before it closes (I will give you the illusion that I am a moral member of society). Though I kind of (physically vs. otherwise) want it just for the album art (I’m such a fontophile).
Better than 'Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'
Track list: Tweakers, Stroke Their Brains, Got Nuffin.
Via MBV Music.
It’s only so that I can get work done without people bothering me.
So, it’s nearly the end of June which means I have just a little more than a month left to polish off my thesis. I’ve been plugging away at this thing since the first Monday of February (I had just a weekend between finishing exams and beginning this project), and at times it’s been wearing me down.
I’ve run into a bunch of unforeseen issues with my thesis. Whether it’s accidentally including women who haven’t completed the menopause in my analyses (it’s menopausal age that I’m studying, and the factors contributing to it, and some other stuff), realising that I needed to use 99% confidence intervals instead of 95% (and not keeping a syntax file!), running a ton of analyses we later saw as pointless (to be absolutely blunt about it), or whether it’s a near-complete derailment of our original aims.
I frequently use ‘we’ when talking about the progress of the study; I’m extremely fortunate to have two ultra-supportive supervisors. Unlike other people in my programme, I have a standing weekly appointment with both of them. Whenever I churn (or, rather, print) something out, I hand it over for their deconstruction and editing. It’s probably the best learning experience because rather than waiting until I finish this magnum opus, I get to see what they expect of me all along the way.
This, however, has been sometimes irksome. Whether it’s finishing my methods chapter and thinking it’s completely hunky-dory, then getting it back with the margins completely filled with inky scribbles, or finally thinking I’m done with SPSS only to have to re-do 6 of my 15 tables (currently each table has at least 7 previous versions). However, this has taught me patience (which means they’ve cracked me! I thought it’d never happen!) as well as a ton of humility (had some of that before).
Today, I’m in the midst of writing up my discussion chapter. And it’s sinking in how lucky I am to have gotten this topic: my study strengths overweigh the limitations by a landslide and it does seem that most of my findings are congruent with the literature.
Still, I don’t think you’ll find a happier girl at noon next month on the 30th.
Copyright © 2009 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.
Filed under: A, Domestication 101 | Tags: A, cocktails, drinks, earl grey, lemonade, mixes, recipes, summer, tea, vodka
Trust me that this is the best cocktail you will have this summer. Also, the most unique (though it’s either unique or it’s not… nevermind the technicality).
Yet-to-be-named awesome cocktail:
1 bottle good-quality vodka
4 bags (or equivalent in a tea steeper) Earl Grey tea
1 bottle lemonade (7-Up/Sprite do just fine)
-Steep the tea in the vodka overnight. On Sunday, we rushed things and steeped the vodka with 12 teabags in an hour… while still tasty, there’s a tannin-y taste about it.
-Add whatever measure of lemonade you like. (Probably a 1-part vodka mix to 2- or 3-parts lemonade will do you well. You won’t want to do shots of this stuff.)
I mean it when I say it’s even better than Pimm’s and lemonade(!).
Copyright © 2009 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.
