You may not feel outstandingly robust...

[beboots]

"You may not feel oustandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 x 10¹⁸ joules of potential energy - enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hyrdogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point."
-Bill Bryson, on the meaning of E=mc², A Short History of Nearly Everything

(one of the most interesting paragraphs I've read today)

Mysterious Plant by ~Beboots on deviantART

So... what have I been up to?

Mainly working and doing errands. But as you can see from my previous post, work = lulz. :) I've been reading the abovementioned book, which has the distinction of being the only media that has made me actually interested in science in any capacity since Bill Nye the Science Guy. (For the unitiated, here is an example episode of a show that consumed my childhood along with the Magic School Bus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ag6rcM9V-U ) Everyone my age who grew up in North America can sing the theme song, or at least recognize it, I swear.

In any case... yesterday, on my first day off, I went out to Fabricland with Ashley on a whim, and we bought patterns and fabric and have half-finished floor-length cloaks on our hands. With lining. <3

I've also jumped through hoops to get my passport renewed. I swear, Passport Canada should really make passports expire every ten years, like the rest of the world, and not put us through such trials and tribulations every five. D:

I've also discovered that I really like Canadian government buildings, especially ones built to be impressive like Canada Place in Edmonton. (Does every large Canadian city have a Canada Place?) I feel comfortable around the familiar bilingual signs - it made me feel at home, even when visiting the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo a few years ago. :) It makes me feel calm and patriotic. Maybe they put something in the air...? ;)

I'm also planning on posting a long Temeraire fic idea soon. It's probably not going to get written out in full, but it's essentially the plan for a novel-length fanfic. I wrote it over the course of three hours or so, after ruminating on it for a week.

This post came out much less enthusiastic than I wanted to, but that's probably because I'm wilting from the heat. D: It's been like above 20C every day this week, and when you're working out in the sun, running hand-cranked rides or even just talking with people... it saps your energy.

Comments

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yay for European passports! :D Italian is a beautiful language - do you think that you'll start learning it, too?

Also, your great-grandmother sounds really awesome.

I have a few interesting relatives - a great-uncle of my father was in the First World War and lost a leg. Apparently someone threw a grenade into his trench and it was between him stomping on the grenade to absorb some of the explosion or them all dying.

Also, my dad's grandfather died (or dissappeared) mysteriously around the birth of my dad's dad, way back in the early 1900s. Dad's grandma didn't speak very good English (they were newly arrived from Poland) so they couldn't do much investigating. It's an unsolved mystery.

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Probably, though not in the near future. Two of my sisters are studying it, though.

Yeah, she was... particularly considering the time she lived in. Back then it wasn't such a common thing to go against your family and flee just because you didn't want to sleep with the old guy they picked for your husband. She must have had it rough faring on her own at such a young age...

My mum's mother was pretty awesome, too. Her mother died young, so she had to bring up her younger brothers and take care of things at the house. This took up all her time, so she never went to school... but she taught herself how to read and write by listening to her brothers reciting their lessons aloud while she cleaned. She also learned to add and substract in this manner, and she was the one to balance her own family's budget in her time.
She was also engaged to marry a guy she didn't love, and like my great-grandma, she didn't stay put, either (she already had a guy she liked in mind, and apparently she was the one to make the first move). She went by herself and told the guy she was not going to marry him, even though she knew the consequences would be dire (you didn't just go against your father's wishes lightly). She was estranged from her family, but she never let that bring her down. She had eight children, and she worked hard her entire life to send all but one of them to college (which is cheaper here than in other countries but still requires extra living expenses they didn't have). She was a tough lady that knew what she wanted and how to get it, and if it wasn't for this I wouldn't have been born: at age 45, she wanted another daugther (she'd only had two) but my grandfather didn't want another kid, so she tricked him: she told him she was already pregnant. By the time he realized she had been lying, she was really pregnant, and she had my mother a few months later. XD

Oh, that sounds awesome. One of my dad's friends has a WWI helmet with a very clear bullet mark hung on a wall... I asked him once about it, and he told me that helmet was the only reason he was born. It had belonged to his grandfather while he was on the war, and the bullet-shaped dent was acquired while he was still wearing it... that helmet saved his life, so he could go back home and get married and eventually have a son, who would became my dad's friend's dad in time. That's one cool heirloom, I gotta say. :)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

That is pretty darn awesome, I have to say. :D My dad likes collecting some war memorabillia as well - mostly actual firearms. He does do a lot of hunting and shooting competitions and things, so he has quite a (working) collection. He only has a couple bayonets, but has several rifles from the First and Second World Wars (mostly American firearms).

My favourite is an Australian hunting rifle (designed for killing rabbits) from the early 1900s - it has a kangaroo engraved on the barrel. :D

Anyway... I can't think of any more super-duper amazing relative stories to tell you. I don't know my extended family very well, more's the pity. :(

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty cool... but dangerous. I mean, bayonets can be pretty dangerous even when not charged...

Still, that's awesome. The Australian hunting rifle sounds particularly great. My dad used to have an antique rifle for hunting rabbits, too, but it was damaged and wouldn't fire anymore. Apparently one of his uncles used to charge it with cartridges emptied and refilled with salt... he says it was one very effective way to keep trespassers out of his property. Getting a shot of salt won't hurt you (much), but it will sting pretty darn bad...

I know a lot of stories about my extended family (though I can't recall exact names or dates) ...Italian descended, remember? "the family together" is the root of all Italian beliefs, and that implies gossiping with gusto about everyone that shares your blood. My late grandma would always have a particularly juicy repertoire. Whether all of it was true is highly debatable, but she never let that stop her. XD