Babbles of a Procrastinating Grad Student

Wheezy Knitting

2020-07-21T08:02:11Z

Well shit.

You know you've been treating yourself poorly when you go for a 20 minute bike ride, and spend the next hour with an achy breath, and a weird weeze in your lungs for the rest of the evening.

I'm going to avoid riding my bike to work until it's less painful to ride. But I'm going to try to keep riding, even if I have to reduce it a bit for the next while.

In knitty news, I managed to knit up 2 toques this weekend. Didn't mean to do the second one - I finished up the hat I started a few days ago, and since I freed up the needles, I thought I'd cast on and putter away at the second one. NOPE, it basically just fell off my needles today. I wasn't supposed to have a day at home - I was supposed to be doing paperwork today. But I really needed another day off, so instead I spent most of the day knitting and reading Laocoon's Children: The Fugitive from Azkaban. Mostly I was looking for a specific scene, but got sucked into it. Which is hilarious because I haven't read any of the other parts since they came out 15+ years ago. The whole Stealing Harry series is so well done though, and Sam is rewriting the whole thing into a modern day original piece and I'm so stoked for that. I hope he publishes it because I don't care what I have to do, I will be buying the thing.

But for now, I suppose I need to reread the whole thing from the start. Darn.

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A Social Sunday

2020-07-20T04:58:38Z

Sunday mornings mean coffee with some friends at their place. We've modified a bit despite having no cases in our territory. We sit apart, and I try not to move around the house a lot. We've relaxed a bit more, but I think we'll tighten it back up now that the border has opened. They have a puppy I'm one of his favourite people. K is starting to make sourdough bread, so once a month I get to take a loaf home. Today was one of those lucky days, and a couple slices with some fireweed jelly was my lunch.

( A recap of my day and some physical and mental health chat... )

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Hello?

2020-07-19T08:18:33Z

::blows off dust::

Erm, well hello there, ancient old blog that I apparently slagged off way too many years ago. Uh...cracking you open again, because I've been itching for a quiet, less peopley place to write shit down on, and livejournal...uh seems sort of a gong show. Sorry for shitting on you, Dreamwidth. I was young, I didn't know of what I spoke.

No promises, because ye gods I suck at things like "writing" and "consistency", but time for a try, eh?

ETA: omg I miss moods!

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bare_bear @ 2014-03-26T09:40:00

2014-03-26T16:47:55Z

Boy, have I been absent from all of my online hangouts lately. ( Oh cripes, don't click. So much thought vomit. )

Sorry for the wall there. TL;DR: basically just annoyed with the public-nature of most social media and need a place for me - hello there livejournal! Also, goodbye Dreamwidth, because I don't like your interface (it's not you, it's me).

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bare_bear @ 2013-11-09T19:25:00

2013-11-10T03:31:46Z

In camp after a very relaxing and lazy time home. So lazy that, in combination with losing the battle with the dessert cabinet last rotation, I've packed on a fair few pounds. >:( My punishment for not even trying to ride the exercise bike in our living room (right in front of the tv too) is that I'm forcing myself to go to the gym in the morning before my shift start.

I get to the office at 5:30 am. My alarm clock now goes off at 3:30 (and then again at 3:45 - because bleerg mornings).

If this doesn't nip my lazy dessert eating ways, I don't know what will. Because this sucks.

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bare_bear @ 2013-10-28T08:07:00

2013-10-28T15:23:28Z

MONDAY BATTLE PLAN:

~~Smash biggest and most urgent overhanging debt~~
~~Clean ALL The Things~~ (~~or at least the bathroom~~) - although I didn't vacuum, and I'm ignoring the bedroom for now.
Hunt down sewing room
SEW!!

( Cut for debt babble - because believe me, I know how much this can induce freak-outs. )

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bare_bear @ 2013-10-20T19:52:00

2013-10-21T03:28:56Z

Huh, I haven't update this since *checks* July 28th. Well okay, that's not quite as bad as I thought. But I didn't even mention that I got laid off of my job at the mine in July. Which sucked, but that's the mining industry, there's not much you can do except take it with some grace and try to make a good impression with everyone before you go.

Which I must've, because I got recalled last month! :D I'm doing something a little different, helping run the underground exploration project with our new drill, but I absolutely love it! And I think it's a better opportunity for me, as I'm working with a really experienced geologist who seems to be a great mentor. A nice change from what I was doing before, when I was older than almost everyone else in the department.

And I'm only 32.

So I'm in camp now, four days from heading home from my second rotation since being recalled. Am just relaxing in my room, knitting a hat with fornicating deer on it.

Really. Here's the two I knit last year as gifts for my brother and step-dad. :D

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bare_bear @ 2013-07-28T22:08:00

2013-07-29T05:20:50Z

D and I went on a fantastic hike this weekend. We went up to Mt. Lorne, just south of Whitehorse.

We hiked up to the ridge and camped next to a snow pack (our water source). I'm a prairie girl, so topography is a new thing for me. I've been working on it, and walking up the ramp at the mine has helped a lot. But oh man, did it ever hurt! Like I told D, it wasn't bad (where bad=godawful and I never want to do it again), but it was hard.

Still, once we got up onto the ridge and set up camp, it was spectacular. There was no bugs, nice cool weather, cuddling and cloud watching in the moss, and a bottle of bubbly that D hauled up there. Pretty damn romantic, if you ask me.

It took us about 5-6 hours to hike up, and 2.5 hours to get down again. And honestly, only a hour to walk down the section that took me us over 4 hours to do.

For the last 6 hours, though, I've barely moved off the couch. OOOWWWWW. lol

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bare_bear @ 2013-06-14T12:19:00

2013-06-14T19:24:00Z

I am a ginormous klutz.

I was chopping an onion last night, and obviously wasn't paying enough attention. The knife slipped and cut into my left forefinger fingernail. :( :( It just grazed the fleshy bit underneath, and didn't even really hurt much, but I'm not looking forward to this growing out. I've already caught the nail on a few things already (which, to be fair, is the only time it really hurts).

*sigh*

On the other hand (heh, literally), I'm really enjoying my new Kobo! Now to go download a tonne of ebooks for fill it with!

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bare_bear @ 2013-06-13T14:54:00

2013-06-13T21:57:17Z

I just bought a Kobo (ereader thing that's not an Amazon product). I'm actually pretty excited about this despite my technophobe tendancies and the general pro-book-anti-ereader stance I've generally taken. I can load all sorts of fic and ebooks that I normally read on my laptop, as well as pdf documents like my knitting patterns! To be honest, it was the pdf reader thing that won me over. :D

Now if I could just get this thing synched with my computer...

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bare_bear @ 2013-05-19T14:29:00

2013-05-19T21:41:51Z

Went camping at SNAFU Lake this weekend, and despite the lack of sleep due to freezing cold nights and way too much smoke in our eyes, we had a great time. I haven't been camping in years! We went on a hike yesterday and found a winter trapping line and an old camp site, complete with rusted metal fuel tank and cans.

We stayed in the camp ground, but next time we're going to find a random nice place in the bush with a nice view and set up camp there. Being woken up at 7 am by the neighbours obnoxious generator was less then pleasant, especially since an hour later we could hear the TV they were watching over the drone of the engine. Not exactly what I'd call camping.

We came back early because holy crap cold, and arrived home just in time for a bunch of snow to dump down on us, so yay for a good call there! Now we're cuddled up in the living room, reaquanting ourselves with our computers. :D I think we're going to get the fireplace going tonight and roast the rest of the mashmellows, so hurrah!

Also, I have eaten almost all of the smores, and will finish them up tonight. Mmmm...smores.

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bare_bear @ 2013-02-03T15:23:00

2013-02-03T23:29:23Z

D just turned on the Big American Football Game, and I've wandered off to my sewing room. But we're both cooking, and from the kitchen I heard the national anthem start. It was a bunch of kids, and I thought 'oh hey, are they actually going to have a non-celeberty sing? Wandered into the living room just at a celeberty walks on and takes over from the kids. AND now someone else is singing the song...slowly...on a piano. Is it standard for the song to be sung mulitple times? Seems ridiculous to me, but I'm not a football nut, and it is the American Game.

*shrugs* I guess we can just chalk it up to either National Pride or possibly Playing It Up for the Big Event. lol

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bare_bear @ 2013-01-20T03:47:00

2013-01-20T12:22:34Z

Just come off of my first night shift, and I really should get to sleep. Oh goodness, so tired. I worked 2 pm -2 am, but wound up staying until 4 to get stuff done. I'm shifting my hours to 4 pm-4 am so that I have more people-free time in the office.

Anyways, TO BED! Soooooo tired. :)

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bare_bear @ 2013-01-04T13:04:00

2013-01-04T21:07:46Z

Moving all my crap into D's place today. Just brought the second load over. How the heck did all this crap fit into my car in the first place?! (Because remember, other than a couple small tuppleware containers of yarn, all this stuff came with me on my trip from Manitoba to Yukon.)

Cripes. I hate moving.

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HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

2013-01-01T07:39:51Z

It's 11:35 pm here, and D and I are about to hop into his hot tub to ring in 2013. I may have had a bit too much wine and Kamora, so I suspect I'm going to pass out about 3 minutes after 2012 goes out the door. :D

I'm kind of hoping that we'll be able to see the firewords from the hot tub. Or maybe just Natures fire works - the northern lights! *hopeful*

I should probably write something of more substance, but see comment about wine and Kamora.

HAPPY 2013! I'm off to sit in a hot tub surrounded in snow. YES!

(This is going to do wonders for my cold)

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-27T17:53:00

2012-12-28T01:57:32Z

Am home. Got in at about 11:30 am, picked up some beer and minutes for my phone, and then proceeded to spoil myself with a lovely bath, face mask, lotion, and a veg session on the couch. Think that's going to be my tradition when I come home: washing away camp life and a bit of me time!

Alright, packing an overnight bag and headed to D's. Oh, I guess I should wrap his Christmas gift first. Or at least, half of his gift. The other half will come when I get my first paycheque next week. :D

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-27T04:47:00

2012-12-27T12:51:36Z

It's 4:47 am, and I'm packing my bag to catch the first flight out of here!

This two week rotation both flew by and dragged on forever. The first few days and the last few days have gone by super quick, especially since I've given myself the task of organizing All Of The Files and Maps. The middle part dragged on forever due to the Camp Plague. I'm still coughing, and it's making my voice super raspy. I called D last night, and he had no idea who I was! Even Mom was stumped at first when I called home Christmas Eve. lol

Anywho, I have to run because omg why didn't I pack last night?!

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-24T22:17:00

2012-12-25T06:36:44Z

It's Christmas eve, and I'm 3000 kms away from the people I love (plus one about 300 kms away in Whitehorse). I'm mostly alright with it, but I am feeling pretty lonely. There's lots of activities planned for those of us stuck in camp, and I already had a fun time playing BINGO with a bunch of dirty miners. :D The phone call home this evening was tough, but I'm glad to have talked with everyone back home.

Not quite over the camp plague I caught 4 days into my 2 week rotation, but at least I don't feel like death anymore. Still coughing, and now have a runny nose, but it's better every day. Still sound like I have a frog in my throat and/or a 13 year old boy going through puberty, but I sound worse than I am! Most of the time, anyways.

Anywho, I'm to bed. 5 am comes along really quickly, and I should try to get to sleep before 11 pm tonight. Oh, being a night owl with an early morning shift. :P

Happy Christmas all! I hope your day is filled with friends, family, and fun! And if, like me, you're not with family this holiday, I hope you find joy in the little things. Like BINGO filled with filthy jokes and a miner in a Santa hat!

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-17T18:16:00

2012-12-18T02:19:18Z

Am sick. CAught the camp plague. Have lots of meds and juice boxes beside me. Please send more in 2.5 hours, or possibly tomorrow morning if these meds do as promised and knock me out. Please knock me out meds.

Ugh.

Took less than 5 days in camp too. :(

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-12T14:58:00

2012-12-12T23:03:23Z

God I hate packing. I'm trying to get my crap together for my first fly-in rotation at the mine. We're supposed to only limit ourselves to 25 kilos luggage for the flight, but I have no idea how I'm going to do that when I have to haul in all my winter gear, heavy winter composite work boots, and all the shit I need while I'm there.

So as usual, I'm procrastinating online.

Don't worry, I'll update while I'm there. We get internet access in our rooms (if I can find an internet cable...), which is awesome. Oh, that reminds me, I have to find the cable for charging my ipod.

*sigh* Okay, back to it. I guess. Maybe a cup of tea will help...

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-10T13:43:00

2012-12-10T21:52:31Z

So...my boyfriend asked me to move in with him last night. In a totally sweet and sappy way that I can't really share, but oh the cheese. :D After some brief negotiations of the conditions, of course I said yes! I was so excited and happy, I couldn't even fall asleep for hours.

This was so unexpected. I thought it'd be at least next summer before we even started talking about living arrangements, if it was still a possibility. But now, come Feb 1st (and lets face it, probably earlier) we'll be taking this next big step. A bit scary, but so good. :)

Of course, then he sweetened the deal by telling me I could make the spare bedroom into my sewing room. OMG YES!

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bare_bear @ 2012-12-06T16:59:00

2012-12-07T01:12:12Z

I got a job offer today! It's for the job I was talking about before. I'm stoked...now, but I've been freaking out and conflicted since yesterday.

My M.Sc. supervisor and a former prof were in town for meetings with an environmental consulting company, and arranged for me to meet one of the people there. I went down for a 'chat' and had a 2.5 hour interview. The company, my god, I think that it'd be perfect as a consulting company. They do the kind of work that I thought I'd be doing, but learned that most places don't. They were excited by my thesis research because they use a lot of the (non-standard) methods I used and they emphasize passive and in-situ remediation methods, which I'm passionate about. They seem really eager to hire me too...but they won't even know if they have the budget until January, and admitted that they take a long time to hire.

I don't have the time for that. My EI ran out last month, and I'm running on financial fumes right now. I wasn't even sure how I'd pay for Jan rent.

And then there's all the reasons I didn't want to take a consulting company that's only now starting to come back to me (everything got blown away by the awesomeness of the work). There's the fact that I want to be able to leave my work at work (although I should say that I'm fine with some overlap), that I think 2 week rotational shifts would be great for my lifestyle right now (allow me to get home to visit family on my time out, have guilt-free sewing days, and not to mention allowing D and I time apart to work on our communication skills, etc), and the exercise that will come with the underground portion of the job, instead of a lot of sitting at a computer.

So I'm taking the mine job, but I'm going to keep in touch with the consulting company. Because who knows, I may hate it at the mine, or they may not think I'm a good fit, and after a couple months, the consulting place will know if they can/want to hire me, and I'll know more about what I want to do.

SO YAY! I FINALLY GOT A JOB OFFER FOR A GOOD JOB! :D

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bare_bear @ 2012-11-27T15:53:00

2012-11-27T23:57:27Z

Watching the golden light of sunset, reflecting off of the trees and houses outside our front window. At 3:50 pm.

The really hilarious part is I remember watching the sun consider approaching the horizon behind those same houses 5 months ago from this same window. At 11 pm.

The North is a beautiful and strange place.

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bare_bear @ 2012-11-26T23:12:00

2012-11-27T07:18:35Z

Still no word about the job. They were checking my references on Friday though, so I'm choosing not to panic. The self-doubt is starting to creep back in, but I'm beating it down with excessive knitting.

Speaking off, I am working my butt off trying to get all of my Christmas gifts done. I have to have everything mailed out by next week if I want them to get home in time. I'm thinking I might just have to put it off a bit longer and then pay for express shipping, but we'll see. I've trimmed down my list to immediate family and closest friends only this year, so the work-load has lightened considerably, but I still have a ways to go.

Oh, in case I haven't mentioned it, I'm staying in the Yukon for Christmas. This will be my first time away from family for the holidays, and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle this. Not sure how my Mom's going to either, because even my brother is stuck working and won't be home for Christmas morning. I feel really really bad.

Hense why I'm trying to make something special for everyone. Cross your fingers for me, that I get it all done! Because I have two toques, a mate to the mitt I just finished today, and possibly another cowl because I can't for the life of me find the one I finished up ages ago. :P

(Still need to find a knitting icon)

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A special message for my flist

2012-11-23T04:02:17Z

999999996699666699669999999999699999999996699999999
996666996699666699666666996666666669966666996666666
996669966699666699666666996666666669966666996666666
996699666699666699666666996666666669966666999999999
996666996699666699666666996666666669966666666666699
996666699699666699666666996666666669966666666666699
999999996699999999666666996666666669966666999999999

Press Ctrl and F, type in 99 and then press “Highlight all”.

Ganked from this person on tumblr.

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