only it's snowing right now...

cultural recycling

Are there universal rules governing cultural recycling? Is there a fixed amount of time that needs to pass before one can appropriate a style? Or is it possible, like a perverted Dr Frankenstein, to revive something that is still alive? If so, what will happen when the appropriation of the past creeps closer and closer to the present? What happens when last week’s trends become this week’s trends, yesterday’s music becomes today’s music? What happens if our cultural recycling begins to overtake us and starts reviving events that have not even taken place yet? Will this finally be innovation, or will we simply be stealing from the future?

paranoia

Welcome to 2008.

When I started this blog about 3 years ago, I was in a cold, gray, small town with a boring job, but interesting surroundings.

Today I'm sill in a cold, gray small city with a boring job but my surroundings aren't nearly as interesting.

Vancouver, BC. I've been here since September and been working this job since November. I only have a day and a half left in this office. Because I'm always actively job seeking, I'm always paranoid that someone will stumble upon this blog and get the wrong impression. So I won't disclose the company details as of yet. I also have a sick feeling that this day and a half might actually extend to the rest of my life.

Anyway, bring on 2008.

I'm going to go back to drawing in blue and black ink on post-it notes.

Santa's best location

Efficiency:

Santa Claus should leave the North Pole and relocate to Kyrgyzstan to optimise the delivery of Christmas presents.

ok

Flushed with success

Free Rice

Procrastinate and feed someone:

My Hero

dirty water

I've now been in Vancouver for a litte over a month. It feels like 5 years. I'm still doing fuck-all.

A couple of weeks ago I was a train going to look at home furnishings, mostly thinking fight club type thoughts along the way.

Anyway, this big white guy was sitting behind me talking to an older Asian woman. I'm not sure if they knew each other before they got on the train. I would go quote by quote on their conversation, but I'm not sure if I fully remember it.

The general gist of the conversation was the white guy was telling the woman about the best heroin he had ever had being in Asia. Not surprising. However, he said that one has to be careful when they shoot up in Asia because the water is dirty, so you have to make sure to use bottled water when you fry your smack.

So here is my advice to you. Make sure that when you're in a developing country, you use bottled water (make sure the seal hasn't been broken) to add to your heroin when you fry it so you don't get sick when you shoot up.

She said she had missed her stop and got off at the next stop. So did he.

I continued on to buy home furnishings.

Notcot.org

This is a great site:

http://www.notcot.org/

Hawaii

This is me on my short vacation in Hawaii

Canada

Canada Visa
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

I am now living in Vancouver, BC. It wasn't really cancelled.

empire

Just like the British Empire.

truthism

So, in the same breath that you say, "Oh my gosh, I went to this one stupid website and the guy said that aliens rule the world," you should also say, "Oh my gosh, I believe that humans rule the world, even though I have absolutely no proof for my belief." As you can see, one cannot just posit that humans rule the world. Where's the proof???

Church

Horny
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

The best advice I've ever received from a church.

snow

Odd picnic spot
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

So I decided to explore this Aussie snow a week ago, but am only writing about it now.

Yeah, it was alright. Crunchy. There was a decent amount of it. We went cross country skiing. I remember why I don't like cross country skiing now. It's all about downhill or snowboarding.

These people in the picture are picnicing in the parking lot. They're not sitting in the mud, they have a blanket. They also have a small stove and are making noodles. I sat there watching them for about 10 minutes while the other people in my party got ready to go. I have no idea why you would eat there when there are tables pretty close by. And just, why would you eat in a parking lot with all the exhaust and stuff? Strange.

Let see, what else. Stopped my boring job last week. Now I'm doing mostly nothing. Probably moving to Canada at the end of August. Not warm. But i'll probably go via some warm stuff. Really, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing. I've even considered going back to China for a bit - well HK or Taiwan, but we'll see.

Anyway, yeah.

sunburnt country

As most people should know, it is winter in Australia right now. Although if you were able to come here from January in the northern hemisphere, you probably wouldn't notice. I must say, Australia can't handle the cold for the life of them.

The surge in demand is largely caused by consumers using gas appliances to keep themselves warm as the temperature outside dipped close to freezing.

Close to freezing. We're not quite there yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm the first to complain about the cold but that's mostly because central heating doesn't exist here, like in China. They just use their air conditioners as heaters. Not a good option.

I used to laugh at how the east coast in the US dealt with a little snow. If an Australian city were ever to get snow, the entire country would have to shut down (the picture above is from up in the mountains near the ski resorts, not in Melbourne.) Although I do hear that Melbourne did get snow once. It lasted for an hour.

VH1

I get a large chunk of my american news from VH1 Best Week Ever podcast. I think it's probably just as good as CNN.

over it

My new, fun work activity is rolling up a broken rubber band and then letting it go and watching the pattern it unrolls to. I'm thinking of making a movie of it.

The internet at my work is the slowest in the world. I was going to post an article like an hour ago but the flash gets all messed up, and the webpage never loads properly and then...

I can't remember what I was just writing about, someone came through with some candy and I had to pretend to be happy so I'd get a piece.

Anyway, i can't remember the article I was going to post. Something about how nobody cares about where you travel, actually, I'll try to find it since I'm not working anyway...

Why backpackers are so boring

Probably not that interesting, but I'm bored.

I might be going to East Timor (or 'Timor-Leste' as we like to call it in the 'in'), but I probably shouldn't say that because it's very iffy and if it doesn't happen, which it really might not, then people will say, 'so what happened with east timor?' and I'll have to invent a story.

It was independence day yesterday in the US of A, or today since it's still the 4th there. I celebrated by going to Chinatown for Chinese and going to see the musical Miss Saigon.

The American Dream.... (jazz hands!)

Work Space

Work Space
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

My work after three weeks. I wish the post-it notes were clearer. Maybe I'll bring a better camera in next time.

Care package

Care package
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

Because my mommy loves me...