Pie for Breakfast

I've been eating pumpkin pie for breakfast all weekend, and of course loving it, because isn't pie one of the best breakfasts ever? At least, that's how I feel about pie for breakfast. I lie and tell myself that because it has pumpkins, or apples, or peaches in it, it's healthy. This time it's pumpkin, and it's left over from Thanksgiving.


Being in Canada, and not having many American friends (they're probably off to places like Europe, if they study abroad, because who goes to Canada if they can help it, right?) I thought I'd miss out on Thanksgiving, my second favorite holiday. But I got lucky - I happened to run into another American, whose roommate is American, and so she invited me to their mini celebration dinner. 


The highlights: 


1. Nobody'd made cranberry sauce, so we had cranberries with vodka. In juice form. 


2. We had chicken, instead of turkey, because we're still students, no matter that we're graduate students, and turkeys are frozen and HUGE. What student has an oven that big? 


3. I drafted myself to make the pumpkin pie, because I love making and baking pies, and really they're the only kind I like to eat. Homemade pies, that is. I had this recipe that called for anise seeds in the crust to give it an "Italian" flavor, but naturally my small neighborhood grocery store didn't have anise seeds. My crust recipe yields enough for a bottom crust and a top crust, and I got the really large can of pumpkin, so I got two pies for the effort of one! Which is why I can have pie for breakfast this weekend. Turns out my pie was a big hit (it's all about the cream-instead-of-condensed-milk). 


4. I was tired, but not hungover, for my Friday morning class. 

Veronese Playlist

This playlist can, almost without fail, take me back to the good times in Verona in 2005. The most exciting (in every sense of the word) four months of my life.

Verona 2005 Playlist (created 2010)

Yahoo! Pipes!

If you look closely, you might find a new item on my page down at the bottom right, just above my usually-inane Tweets. Check it out!

One of the many things I thought I'd never do but find myself doing in this Masters of Information program, is designing/developing a Yahoo! Pipe. Turns out it's one thing I really enjoy. But I guess that's not surprising, given how much I enjoy other Web 2.0 apps like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If you're not familiar with the idea, it allows you to connect websites, images, RSS feeds, maps, and much more, in a mash-up format. Mine's a plain old list, right now. I'm still learning the basics, but have definitely enjoyed putting the first one together, which is mainly about fashion, one of my extracurricular interests.

So. Have a look at the Pipe, tell me what you think... especially if you know how to add the results of a Google image search!

Nap Time as Metaphor for Essay Writing

I'm currently working on a hypothetical response to a request for a proposal regarding a hypothetical oil spill off the coast of Newfoundland. My goal is to design and discuss implementation for an information system that facilitates communication and effective goal-achievement in the recovery efforts. It might be the most difficult paper I've written. It involves analyzing a case study; many many summaries; responding to specific requirements; justifying my choice of requirements to address and the order in which I've prioritized them; considering problems and guidelines for implementation of the information system; and drawing a model of the information system. Whew!

So, it's due tomorrow afternoon, and I still have two or four of those subjects to cover, the model to draw and discuss, and the usual editing, revising and proofreading.

This morning I've finally gone over my analysis, which is what the rest of the paper is actually based on. (The solution has to fix the stated problem, right?) So, briefly, I feel more comfortable about being able to answer all the sections appropriately and well.

Which brings me to the metaphor. I recall very well one particular nap time in elementary school, I believe it was first grade. Back then I hated nap time, like most kids (what was I thinking?), and usually spent at least part of it chatting to my next-mat neighbor. One day we had to take a memory test. My name was whispered, so I got up and walked outside to the little table by the door where the teacher told me a story, which I was supposed to repeat back to her. I failed. At the time, I couldn't remember why my teacher got so mad at me. She told me I could try again later, and even though I protested that I could do it then, I got sent back to my mat. The second time, I realized how easy the task actually was. All it required was my attention, and applying myself.

I realize now I've not been paying attention to the story I've been trying to tell, and that paying attention to it is all I really need to do to succeed. I guess I'll find out if this metaphor still holds when I get my assignment back in a few weeks. Here's hoping it does!