beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
 HEY GUYS, I FEEL LIKE WRITING THIS ENTIRE POST IN CAPSLOCKS BUT THAT WOULD BE ANNOYING. So I won't. But imagine a capslock mood. 

CUE JAUNTY, UPLIFTING, CELEBRATORY MUSIC

(I would totally use the serious Civil War man icon that I have for this post, because it's the most historically appropriate, but it doesn't convey the sense of glee I feel at the moment. Imagine me as the man on the right, Jacques Cartier, at least in expression and mood.)

I just got back from Staples (AKA the office supply store) and I came back with three printed copies of the final copy of my thesis: the one I'm going to hand in for my final grade. 

It's done. It's sitting in a box downstairs, by the door, so I can bring it to school on Monday when I return a huge stack of books to the library. I had to fiddle with the formatting this morning (you have to expand the left hand margin to one and a half inches instead of just one because they're going to bind them into BOOKS), but after looking over my conclusion one final time, changing two or three words... I declared it completely and absolutely finished. 

You can make tiny little nit-picky edits forever, you know? I could probably still be making changes in a month's time, if I wanted, adding in one more source, chasing down one more salient example... but I've made myself stop. It's as good as it's going to get. And it's finished. \o/ \o/ \o/

Here my honour's thesis is, by the numbers... 

Title: Too Easily Blamed: American Civil War Surgery and Medical Care in Context

Pagecount (main body): 51

Pagecount with bibliography, title page and table of contents: 59

Number of sections: 12

Wordcount: 14,789

Wordcount (including textboxes and footnotes): 17,789

Character count: 96,768

Character count (with spaces): 114,537 (THINK ABOUT HOW MANY KEYSTROKES THAT IS FOR A SECOND, NOT INCLUDING EDITING)

Number of items on bibliography: 15 primary, 37 secondary, 52 total

Number of footnotes: 215 (many of which cite more than one source)

Number of hours put into this project: COUNTLESS.
beboots: (Default)
 So [livejournal.com profile] beckyh2112  got me thinking about lists, and organizing my thoughts and goals, etc., in time for the new year. :) 

Awesome things that happened to me in 2010:
-For the first time in my life, I managed to actually KEEP a new year's resolution! This bodes well for the future. I vowed to take up push-ups: I began in January barely able to do one set of five knee push-ups at a time, and now I tend to do sets of thirty or thirty-five in a day. I think that I'll keep going with this, working my way up to fifty at a time by the end of school this April. :3
-I figured out a topic for my thesis! (Now, to actually WORK on it...) I've kept up with the honour's programme, which means that I have consistently kept a ridiculously high GPA... through lots of hard work. I just have to keep it up for one more semester... 
-Everyone in my immediate family has remained healthy and happy, more or less. No deaths! We're all going strong. :)
-I went on an amazing trip to the British Isles. The experiences I had there will stick with me for my entire life. :) I had fun, learned history, became independent, and realized that I can always work my way through the troubles life throws me. Keep calm & carry on, right?
-Despite setbacks, I was hired at Fort Edmonton in the funnest job I have yet to have. Where else would you be able to dress in costume and talk to people all day about fascinating subjects? Learn to light fires with flint and steel, and cook meals with wild game in cauldrons on fireplaces? I learned valuable skills that will serve me well in the case of civilization-destroying apocalypses in 2012. ;)

Things I am anxious about for the coming new year:
-Jobs jobs jobs. I have an almost guaranteed job at Fort Ed for the summer, but what am I to do for a career? I'm going to apply for grad school for the year afterwards, but in what program? Decisions, decisions... 
-I do feel a bit lonely at times. I mean, I have a very loving family and some very good friends, but I have to say I wouldn't mind meeting a special someone. Until last year, I never really understood that old adage: "all the good men are gay or taken." This year I found out that damn, that is so true! D: Still, I hold out hope. :)

Things to look forward to in the new year:
-During the second week of January, I get to be an extra in the short film "Northern Lights"! It's a ten minute movie that they're filming for the new Capitol Theatre they're constructing at Fort Edmonton which will serve as an introduction to the park and to Edmonton's history: it's to tell 10,000 years of the history of the area in 10 minutes. I'm going to be one of the extras in the background of the fur trade era scenes. :) I'll have to skip a class to do it, and there's apparently going to be a ridiculously early start time (like 7:30 in the morning at a place that's nearly an hour a way from my home during rush hour), but it will be entirely worth it. :)
-As of sometime in the next year, my little brother would have been in remission for five years straight, which means that he will be effectively "cured" of cancer! :D Huzzah and well-wishes for my brother dearest!
-While this could (and is) also placed up above under the "anxieties" list, this year will also be the year that I figure out what I'm doing with my life. Probably. :) So that's something.
-I have two very good novel ideas floating around in my brain right now. I'm not going to wait for November: I'm going to actually write them, I've vowed to myself. I'll work on them in between working on my thesis and doing other things. :) Which brings me to...

New Year's Resolutions. As I did so well on last year's resolution, I will have several this year:
-Keep up the exercise! I'll keep doing push-ups, and I will endeavour to do at least three days of intense exercise a week: that's swimming sessions, jogs, etc. I may join the fencing club or take up Tai Chi with Cassidy dearest. :)
-Stop chewing my nails. It's a horrible habit I've had for as long as I can remember. It's not as bad as some people, but I'm self-conscious about it and I want it to stop. Must resist...
-Be more confident in myself. Be more personable. Stay positive. I generally am an optimist, and I hope to stay that way. 
-WRITING WRITING WRITING. I'm going to try to be a more prolific writer. I've got my thesis to work on, but also those novel ideas as well as several fanfic in the works. I endeavour to FINISH some of these stories floating around on my hard drive. Also, schoolwork. 

Hopefully, these aren't unreasonable resolutions! ;) I love you all! Happy New Year!
beboots: (Default)
 I certainly hope that everything's going wonderfully for you guys out in internet land. :) I was best pleased this morning - lots of chocolates, books, DVDs, etc., as well as a lovely faux (polyester fleece, not wool) HBC point blanket, which made the fur trade history dork in me squee. You may see photographs of me wearing it at some point in the future. :3 It is soft and lovely. 

In any case, I've spent the morning with my family, and dad and I have been cooking up a storm preparing our Christmas feast - turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, broccoli with curry cheese sauce... My tummy just rumbled thinking about it. :D We're eating it in the early afternoon - 1:00 or so - and then we're hopping in the car and driving down to the lovely Canadian Rockies to go skiing for a few days. :) I'm super excited!

Which brings me to the pressing point of writing this entry now. I have managed to lose track of my postcard mailing list, with its many addendums. 

Thus, IF YOU WERE ON THAT MAILING LIST (AKA HAVE RECEIVED POSTCARDS FROM ME BEFORE) PLEASE RESEND ME YOUR FULL MAILING ADDRESS. (probably in a PM to be perfectly safe) 

I've dug up my grandmother's and [livejournal.com profile] floranna 's, but I'm still missing many others. I'm looking at you, Cassidy, [info]anyjen and others! ([info]shamanessa_wolf : do you want the postcard sent to your address in Hungary or in Spain?)

Also, if you WANT to be on the mailing list and receive postcards from exotic places like the Canadian Rockies when I go on vacation, please also send me your address in a PM! :) All I ask is that I receive the occasional postcard in return. 
beboots: (Default)
(Thank goodness for autosaved draft - I almost lost fifteen minutes of typing!)

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D I'm reporting back on Spooktacular... For those of you just tuning in/who don't live in Edmonton, this is the Hallowe'en event run by the City of Edmonton at Fort Edmonton Park, that living history museum which is so awesome. It's closed for the regular historical interpretation season, and the history knob is turned down (a lot), but it's an amazing setting for creepy happenings for two nights towards the end of October. 1920s street and 1905 street are kid friendly; spooky children's crafts, bobbing for apples, LOTS of candy being given out, face painting, Thriller dancers (the midterm project for a dance class from the University of Alberta), etc. 

Cut for zombie action and descriptions of zombie lurching & groaning techniques... )


Also, the zombies amongst us should shop here

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D
beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
 Hey everyone, I just thought I'd share with you the events of the last two full days of Fort Edmonton being fully open (that was August 28th and 29th). They were fun-filled days, which were liberally photographed. Click here to see! 

Okay, so some of those photos deserve some explanation. The first two were taken of Mike at the Fort Party we had a month or so ago. He always comes dressed for the occasion. I just linked you to a photo of him dressed as a pirate as we moved the York Boat into the water a while back. He came to a dinner at Julio's Barrio, a Mexican bar on Whyte Avenue, dressed in a poncho, sombrero, and bandoliers. He is epic. And our lovely vegetarian blacksmith. 

As for those dinner photos... The Black Powder Society of Edmonton is a historical firearms society that enjoys, well, firing off 18th and 19th century muskets. They are epic, period. They camped out just outside the fort walls overnight before Harvest Fair on the 29th, cooking all day... and firing off muskets. They let me fire off three towards the end of the day. Sorry, general public - only people in costumes are allowed to fire them. ;) When they hang about the fort, they portray a group of free traders from 1805, many of them former Nor'Westers, the Hudson's Bay Company's direct competitors, defunct in 1846, the year the rest of us portray. They're so epic, though, that we forgive them. They invited us fort interpreters to dinner (cooked over an open fire all day!) after the park closed. The only condition they had was that we ate in costume. Even a light drizzle couldn't bring down our spirits. We also toasted the fur trade and the monarch with port. :)

As for the other photos... On the final day of the year, we have a very special programme... all of our men disappear from the fort (including some supervisors from other streets, all costumed up for the occasion), goods are taken from the trade store and loaded up into the functioning York Boat before visitors get there... and two hours into the day, we have a York Boat arrival programme. I was trapped in the Married Men's quarters watching the fire as I made vegetable stew, one of the few people left to literally hold down the fort and direct visitors down to the river. The free traders obligingly fired off some musket blanks to welcome the men as they arrived from their long journey from Hudson's Bay. ;) I didn't get to see the arrival myself, but Lori, the Midway supervisor, took photos with my camera. Look, laborers doing labor! How unusual for us! ;)

As for the final photos... Now, most of the time, we costumed historical interpreters are forbidden from what we call "time warping". AKA the First World War veteran from 1920s street cannot under any circumstances appear walking down 1905 street, just as Dr. True, the quack from 1885 street cannot try to ply his wares at the 1846 Fur Trading Fort, no matter how much we may be in need of medicine. BUT on the final day, just before closing, standards are relaxed, or, rather, broken, as interpreters, starting with us at the fort, run down the other streets, gathering personnel as we go, to storm the 1920s Midway for a ride on the carousel. It was epic. 

One of the men from 1885 street, Mr. Ottowell, as he is normally called, appeared at quarter to 6:00 calling himself Sir George Simpson (our Chief Factor John Rowand's boss) to tell us to begin, and we then chased him down 1885 street, yelling. You see, 1885 was also the year of the Riel Rebellion, and in Edmonton, then a city of just 300 inhabitants, had a scare. Apparently someone saw a Métis man with a musket, probably coming back from the hunt, and, hearing of all the dreadful news of Riel's rebellion further east, thought that they, too, were being attacked, and actually fled into the old abandoned HBC fort, huddling there for three weeks before a small detatchment of government troops arrived to confirm that they had been completely safe the entire time. Anyway, in a parody of history, we, the angry "Métis" charged 1885 street (Mr. Harriott, in his starched white collar, claimed to be a Métis sympathizer). We took out the Mountie first, of course. 

We then proceeded to sneak onto 1905 street all together with the 1885ers to collect the 1905ers, boarding the streetcar from there, only stopping to pick up a few 1920s interpreters and to have Tom Long, the 1920s supervisor, shake his fist at us. Supervisor Mike of 1905 street, eating an ice cream cone, also briefly stopped to shake his head at us in mock exhasperation and chastise us for congregating (which normally happens when three or four of us gather together to talk, not, uh, the entire populations of four streets). 

From there, we sang a few rousing songs on our way to the Midway. Upon disembarking from the streetcar (and thanking its driver), one of the men from 1905 street gave a rousing pre-battle inspirational speech, and we then charged the Midway, taking over the carousel entirely. 

Then, it was all celebrating and frolicking and photographing. We met up at the Selkirk bar, the functioning bar within our hotel on 1920s street for a few drinks. We of the fort, though, had to make our way to the exact opposite end of the park, so Billy of the Motordrome on 1920s street gave us fur traders a lift on an old Model Ford, all the way INTO the Fort itself. 

A wonderful end to the season. Except that I still have to work weekends in September. But still - the last day in which everyone was there!
beboots: (Default)
I'd like to speak more on AP exam stuff, and my pretty eventful week beyond just tests.
But I'll start with that. Every day for the last three weeks, I must have studied for an hour or so a day for European History - recopying notes into timelines and lists, etc., which I found was an easier way to go about studying and memorizing than simply re-reading all of my notes half a bajillion times. So I took the exam on Wednesday, and I think I did pretty well - at least on the multiple choice. The written is iffy, but I wrote one of the questions on England, which I know really well (I'm a British citizen as well as a Canadian, so I've always been interested in the country), and the document-based question was on Feminism, so it wasn't completely unknown to me.
I also wrote a French AP exam, which I challenged, as I've taken French immersion classes since second grade. >_<; It was so.... pompous! And frustrating, because the questions were all on CD, so we had to listen and answer, which wouldn't be too bad if the voices were trying to speak in the most high class France-French as possible - and failing at the cost of their coherancy. I'm not saying I didn't understand (although it was hard as many of my teachers have been Québecois), but when you test someone on their fluency in a language, shouldn't one use people who speak actual French, as in what you'd hear on the streets of Paris, or something? >_<; And don't even get me started on the stupid recorded vocal question - it took forty minutes for me to record a fourteen-minute tape, because the instruction CD kept skipping.
But in a more positive light, this week we also hosted two girls from Konodai school, Chiba, Japan! Their names were Chihiro and Yukie, and they stayed for a week, leaving this morning. They cried when they had to get on the bus. We had so much fun together! ;_; I wish they could have stayed. They were so polite, nice, smart... and cute! They were very shy at first, and their English was adorably bad when they did speak ("My father works as the car salesman"), but after a week, they were much better. We also jumped at the chance to make real breakfasts every morning instead of the usual milk and cereal. I love pancakes! :D
Yesterday, mum was feeling ill, and she and dad were supposed to go to a ball - so I was drafted to go with dad. I threw on my ball gown (I wore it to the Battle of Trafalgar Ball a few years ago, and will wear it again next week for graduation), brushed my hair, and went with him to the Consular Ball 2007. I'm actually glad I went, though.
The food was very good. We were all impressed by the carved ice sorbet dishes and the decorative deserts, and apparently the wine was very good; I had some of the white wine (I'm eighteen, w00t!), but I don't yet have a taste for alcohol, so I wouldn't know.
Also, I had to sit up at the head table! It was sort of scary - we were on a rectangular table on a dias, on display, facing three dozen or so circular tables with six or seven people seated at each. And I couldn't even sit with my father for the dinner - I was seated to the right of a nice italian gentleman named Minuti, who was very happy that they were serving italian wines. On my right was Mr. Sweeny, who was the Deputy Commissioner (I think that was his title...) of the RCMP for pretty much the entire Western Canada. He made for good dinner conversation, and was very nice.
Just to the left of Mr.Minuti was Premier Ed Stelmach, though! The head honcho of all of Alberta! We were introduced (I as the base commander's daughter), and we chatted a few times throughout the evening (once on Alberta beef, actually). He has a nice smile.
There was a band, and some polish dancers. After their first dance, they walked up to the head table and we weren't sure if they were their to shake our hands or what, but they then dragged us all down to the dance floor to lead us all in the first dance! I danced with a fellow in a purple outfit (I confess that when they first walked on stage, with their bright outfits, some of them red, and all with white trim - I thought "Santa Claus"), who was very nice about the fact that my dancing was absolutely horrible.
We left at around 11:15, which was good because I was quite tired. Thank-you, long-suffering Corporal Neil, for your wonderful driving!
beboots: (Harry Potter Face)
So far, so good.
~Anonymous

So... I survived my English 30 AP exam today! Woot! I signed an agreement saying that I wouldn't "divulge the contents of this packet, not even to my AP teacher", so I can't give any specifics beyond what's already known. I had to do 55 multiple choice questions (comprehension stuff), with five options instead of the usual four (you know, ABCDE instead of ABCD) - the last one was particularly obscure. And then was the whole "three essays in two hours" thing - otherwise known as "write until your brain dribbles out one ear". XP

But... I live! XD I actually think I did pretty well, and they scale it all anyway. ^_^

Of course, it was a morning thing, and my English class is in the afternoon, therefore to add insult to injury we had to go to class, afterwards. But we got a treat - we got to watch the movie version of that awesome play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - hilarious stuff. :) Plus, y'know, deep.

I've been quite busy - learning how to waltz for Grad. I also broke up with my longtime boyfriend, Daniel (actually, only two weeks before our first anniversary). I feel bad for breaking up with him, but a little relieved, too. I've just turned eighteen last month, and I'm not searching for a life partner at the moment.

In any case, I've also been writing a lot - besides, of course, all of the scholastic essays I've been writing. I have made a promise to myself to write at least a paragraph a day of my fanfics (none of which I've posted except one random one-shot, featuring Furher!Ed and here it is, *shameless plug* http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3429447/1/), and so far I've succeeded, with the exception of the two-week in Japan period.

Speaking of which... I've uploaded some of my best photographs (not of scenery, anyway, I mean some of the more unique stuff) onto a website called Flickr. Here's a link to my gallery: check 'em out! :D http://www.flickr.com/photos/7780435@N05/ (click to make them bigger, and feel free to post and ask about the backstory to any of them).

I hope you're all doing well! ^_^
beboots: (The Cheerful I Hate Everything)
Hohenhiem: Oji... sama...?
~Fullmetal Alchemist, episode 43: The Stray Dog
(because Hoho-jeebus has a very smexy face and voice, for all that he's a rotting fleshbag and horrible father to our precious Ed and Al. Just look at him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hohenheim_of_Light_%28FMA%29.JPG ^_^

(oh, and basic japanese translates to "Thank you, (honoured) uncle!" -- "Un... cle...?" He just looks so cute while saying it! So confused... XD)

I appologize for random FMA squeeing (I just bought the newest DVD released; volume 11 of the anime, and Hohenheim is just awesome -- and so are Ed and Al, of course. Even Roze is as well (curse you laptop that does not allow me to do accents! XP Roze really needs an accent on the "e" in her name to get the pronounciation correct... But whatever).

That brings me to my next point; we've had computer troubles. First a virus (it looks like everything's still there, thank goodness *pets avatar collection and enormous favorites library*), which made the computer restart every minute or so. We got it back last night... only to find that the problem wasn't really fixed (it only restarted every TWO minutes XP). So we took it back this morning, only to find that the memory was faulty (well, the newest part of the memory; we got extra memory space a few weeks before we left on vacation).

Oh, and that reminds me! Vacation! :D For about a week and a half, my family and I went to British Columbia. We drove, BTW -- two days each way, about eight hours on the road apiece. So... a total of approx. 32 hours on the road. Fun stuff. -_-; At least I got to finnish my first Harry Potter scarf! (Ravenclaw house, for a friend's birthday *waves to Leah*) I'm never using those circular needles to knit something like that again; I could have finished it in half the time (with around two thirds less stitches) had I only used a larger sized pair of needles. It's over a meter and a half long! About 120 stitches per row, about 20 rows per stripe, nineteen stripes. *is dead* Blah, whatever. It looks awesome, though; as I said, nineteen stripes, and so is long and fwooshy. I've nearly finished a Gryffindor one (I'm on the seventeenth stripe), and have learnt from my mistakes -- my new needles are almost twice the width of my old ones.

We did a bunch of touristy stuff; checked out Stanley Park for a day in Vancouver, hopped on a ferry to the island and chilled in Victoria for a week (yay for the Royal BC museum, the Maritime Museum, street buskers, whalewatching and orcas (we saw some! :D I'll post what few pictures we have later when I can access my (hopefully not permanantly disabled) computer), the Butterfly Gardens, Madame Tussaud's wax museum, sea walls, and the Pacific Ocean! XD)

For the last two days spent in Victoria, we three kids had to accompany our mother and father to a few military functions in honour of the HMCS Edmonton (we normally live in Edmonton, and dad's on a council to honour Edmonton's military, the council was invited to tour the battleship, etc., so there we were!). We got to hang with some really cool people (including the Mayor of Edmonton (Steven Mandell) and his wife -- who were nice and funny, BTW). I sat with two different tables while at the formal meals, and met some nice people; many of them were rather affluent, though, and would casually begin telling an anectdote about their vacation to the Bahamas or the Philipines or where-ever (and I would feel jealous). They flaunt their economic power to me, a poor highschool student! ;_; Still, they were all generally nice people. ^_^ I also met the guy who played Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar Ball I went to last year with dad -- and he's quite funny out-of-costume (he's really a naval officer, which is cool).

We got to tour some of the naval training facilities (the simulator rooms were cool), and we spent a day on the HMCS Edmonton (and they did flashy maneuvers). It even has an article on Wikipedia (and a picture): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Ship_box_HMCS_Edmonton_(MM_703)The inside was cool, but slightly claustrophobic (so compact!). They actually had hallways labelled with street names from downtown Edmonton (like Jasper Ave., etc.) ^_^

Gack! Long entry... Must... wrap... up...
It was a very good trip. I'll post pictures when our actual computer's up and running.

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