beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
 Sometime in April, I think, I'm going to organize an excursion for some friends of mine (history dorks, all), which I want to entitle "A Day of the Dead at the U of A". Essentially, it's going to amount to making an appointment to visiting the mummy (we have a mummy! The only one in Western Canada! His nickname is Horace - AKA Horus)... and then, we'll go into the bowels of the Health Sciences library (which is itself in the middle of the labyrinthine building that is connected to the university hospital, so it's a quest to even get that far), heading down to the special collections room to look at... THIS. 

LJ cut because I'm morbid and some people don't really want to see books bound in human skin. A (horrifying) part of European heritage, people. )
beboots: (Harry Potter Face)
 I... can't help myself. >_> The shinies. They are so pretty. (ALSO: warning, the last one in this list is a (hilarious) SPOILER OF SPOILERS)




See more - MUCH MORE - under the cut!  )
beboots: (Awesome Iroh)
So this week off from school has been fairly productive, I suppose. More or less. I could have always gotten more work done. (And now I'm second-guessing the way I phrased that because my British mother always tells me that "gotten" is a filthy, clumsy Americanism and that I shouldn't use it. >_> BUT IT JUST COMES OUT NATURALLY THAT WAY WHAT SHOULD I SAY INSTEAD, "I HAVE BEEN"?) 

ANYWAY so I reached 10,000 words in my thesis! \o/ Woo! I'm sitting at 10,593 words right now, or 38 pages. It still needs a crapload of editing, but things are slowly coming together. 

I also got a decent amount of reading done this week, as might be expected. I'm about a week's in advance of my readings, which means that I can spend the coming week before and after class ALSO working on research papers. 

Anyway, I had a lot of fun a few days ago posting that mocking Twilight picspam, so I thought I'd do another one with all of the lovely GIFs I've picked up recently! (And this time, I swear, I'll figure out lj-cuts properly and make sure it doesn't overwhelm your friendslists. THIS TIME FOR SURE. 

How about I make this one AWESOMENESS-themed? (Note: as illustrated immediately below, a bunch of these will be Harry Potter themed, simply because of the inherent awesomeness of the books, but also because I did indeed pick up a lot of these from the comments of Mark Reads Harry Potter, which you should read too. 





Let us begin! )
beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)

At the behest of [livejournal.com profile] mightyinkas , I've been convinced to make a post of all of the really funny pictures I've compiled that, well, hate on Twilight. See original post here.  

I usually don't hate on something like this. I'm more of a live and let live kind of person. I'm normally not one for taking potshots... but Twilight makes it so easy. >_> Just to be clear, though, I'm not trying to be malicious. See this comment by me explaining my thoughts on the quality of Twilight. This is all in good fun. You'll laugh. I promise. 


The vast majority of these come from the Mark Reads Harry Potter blog's comments... which explains the continual references to Harry Potter as well. 

Let us begin.






Cut to spare spamming your friends list with LOTS of (hilarious) images. Many, many more under the cut, guys. Check it out! )
beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
When I was answering history prompts on that meme a few days ago, I totally intended on including with each one an image or a video, but as I fail at html, I decided to make an entirely new illustration post for everyone! :)

(Also feel free to post more history prompts! Be a welcome distraction to me from my homework!)


For [livejournal.com profile] beckyh2112 . Picture unrelated because trying to summarize the history of the world even in two semesters is a massive undertaking and I wouldn't presume to find a single picture that could represent all of the world's history. 

More pictures and videos for everyone under the cut! )
beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
 EAT ORGANIC, GUYS.


My era supervisor from Fort Edmonton this summer posted a bunch of pictures he'd taken over the season. This was one of them. I was helping out in the fort's garden one day (we grow a relatively small garden - historically it would have been planted surrounding three of the four sides of the fort, outside the walls), and I was pulling carrots for stew ingredients... and I almost fell over backwards when I pulled this carrot up because it was so BIG. It's like, as big as our beets, which were like half the size of my skull. It was purple on the outside, and bright orange-yellow on the inside: not a beet that I mistook for a carrot or something. 

We don't use any chemical fertilizers (IF IT DIDN'T EXIST IN 1846 IT IS ANATHEMA TO US), so those who bitch about organic foods not being as good, I thrust THIS example into your face! 

As a side note, it was delicious in bison stew.

Cut for more pictures and history nonsense, including why we associate "XXX" with whiskey... )

(Photos courtesy of Ryan Mullan, Fort Era Supervisor)
beboots: (Default)
 I was really stressed out yesterday. Right now, I'm just focusing on getting through this semester, and finishing my degree, while still trying to find stuff to actually apply for. As of now, I have no clue where I will be in September. 

So for now, here are a couple things to distract you (that may indeed even prove useful!)

-Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling. (Also, others in that Grammar Pack of Posters)

-Sounds Familiar? A neat-o compilation of voice recordings of different regional dialects in England, some of which has analysis. If you've ever been fascinated by English accents, linguistics, etc., definitely check it out!

-Have a picture of a white peacock on the attack. And a video of an incredibly shocked hawk while I'm at it. And a video of an animal that clearly enjoys life.

Also, for when things get really stressful, have a gorgeous nature time lapse video of Japanese landscapes with soothing piano music:


(And now I need to stop procrastinating and actually get back to writing that book review. Hey, cut me some slack, I've written 7 pages already!)
beboots: (Default)
 It was about -17C when I woke up this morning. We'll see that as pretty warm in a few weeks. :P We've survived the storm; it snowed steadily for nearly two days. Not fast and thick, but small little snowflakes more like a mist that just wouldn't dissipate. 

I've already had to drive into Edmonton, to an appointment about half an hour away. It only took me an extra ten minutes to get there, but I also borrowed my mum's car, which has the snow tires on already. Still, some of the roads had been plowed but not all. The backroads were I had to drive through to park were really slippery. It was lucky it was past rush hour because I slid into several small intersections while trying to stop for stop signs. D:

Tip: leave plenty early, and drive as slowly as you have to. I've been re-acquiring all of my good habits from when I was a learner: leaving huge stopping distances, going five under the speed limit at all times... And hey, I didn't crash or even fishtail like I saw some trucks doing! ;) 

The other task I had to do this morning was drop off my car to get snow tires installed. $1000 gone: luckily, my mum paid for them. It's only so expensive because we were buying entirely new tires, plus the installation fee for the shop. Now that we have them dad can switch them out in a few hours in the springtime for free. My mum is of the opinion that this is a safety thing and anyways we need to use it for six months of the year... Those "all season" tires that they plug were designed in the States and are pretty useless on winter roads. :P 

I am also of the opinion that if it's going to be cold, you may as well have some lovely snow and frost to offset the ugliness of brown trees and dead grass. Here is the view from a top-floor window in Albertan suburbia, so you can get a look at the frosted trees that some Christmas ornaments try to replicate. 



Now that the cold weather has arrived, I've also brought out my famous warm knitted scarf, as seen in previous years here
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 guys... I'm not sure if you remember, but in the last week of summer, I went to Jasper National Park on vacation with my mum and sister... and then my sister went home to work after two days, and a day later we were joined by my father and brother, so it was ALMOST a family vacation. Still, very fun! I did lots of walking and hiking and viewing of significant wildlife, so I thought that I'd share some of those photos with you!

Click here to see the whole batch on facebook, or stay tuned for the highlights! 

I also sincerely hope that these photos make you want to come and visit the Canadian Rockies. Seriously. They're gorgeous. 


In the restaurant by the boat launch. Obligatory mountie!


A view of Maligne Lake, with Spirit Island to the right.  


More photos under the cut... including a few of my twin sister! )


And on our last afternoon in Jasper, we run into this guy: a giant bull elk. He's got balls. And huge tines. 


There he is. Look at him. Look at those ANTLERS. Holy crap, guys. I'm surprised he fits through the trees! And he's about two minutes walk from downtown Jasper. They have garbage cans there that are super-difficult to open to deter BEARS. It is an epic place. 
... and I also told myself that I wouldn't be one of those people who insists on pulling over to the side of the road to photograph significant wildlife. I made fun of those people who pulled over to take photos of the Big Horn Sheep or whatever. And then I saw THIS and I was like "well damn, I'll regret it if I don't get a few photos. :P Hypocrisy! 
beboots: (Default)
 
Oh hey guys... remember how three weeks back there were these people who were whining about the poor conditions of the athletes' village at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi? 

Here's my dad in his room there! :) Just to reassure anybody who was worried. Very clean, lots of natural light. Quite nice! 



I particularly like the bedspread prints. :) 

So far, he's been in one competition, and didn't place well, but it was his least familiar shooting style. His favourites - the ones that he is most comfortable with - will be tomorrow, so I'm thinking positive thoughts his way! :)
beboots: (Civil war lithograph)
 Okay guys, so some of you may be aware that I have a fascination with medical history, especially that of the nineteenth century, right? That's what I'm writing my honour's thesis on?

Well, a friend of mine just linked me to what looks like a fascinating website run by the British National Archives. Take a look!

In short, they're: "journals and diaries compiled by Royal Navy surgeons and assistant surgeons who served on HM ships, hospitals, naval brigades, shore parties and on emigrant and convict ships in the period 1793 to 1880." 

(This may also be of use if you're a fan of the Temeraire series and/or Master & Commander! The heroes do occasionally get injured!)

The photo gallery includes some super neat things, including:

-drawings illustrating the effects of scurvy on the lower limbs
-very nicely detailed coloured sketches of sea snakes, one of which reportedly killed a man on board
-in a different folder, a sexy picture of an actress named Mrs. Langtry from 1885

All available to you for the low, low price of FREE ON THE INTERWEBS. 


Edit: 

!!! In the "highlights" page, it says that some of the documents include: "A surgeon recounts the case of a 12 year old girl who vomited an 87 inch worm and in another journal a surgeon describes what is possibly the first recorded case of a hermaphrodite in the Royal Navy."
beboots: (confusion)
 So after I posted that list, yesterday, of all of the things I have to do in the coming months, I felt incredibly stressed out. I made tea, and that made me feel better, and then I did some more homework, which could have made me feel worse but at least I was getting stuff done... And then I remembered this photo that Erin took of me while I was in York in June! I predict that this will become my profile picture on Facebook towards the end of October/into November and December. It was the motto of our trip in Britain, what with so many crazy things happening to the members of our group. 

So when we saw a print of that famous Second World War unpublished propaganda photo in a poster store in York, we just HAD to take a photograph. And I think that it's the best photograph of me from the entire trip! And it really sums up certain emotions really, really well. Particularly how I felt for about ten minutes yesterday after writing that list. I just thought I would share with you guys. :)


Also, in other news: the Commonwealth Games in Delhi were kicked off today! :D Mum woke me up early (well, at 7am) to watch the opening ceremonies, live, with her. The drummers and dancers were cool - I particularly liked that bit where the children suddenly flipped off the golden outer layer of their outfits to reveal the Indian national colours, then painted those henna'd hands on the sheets above their heads. Uh... if you didn't see the video, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But it was cool.

Furthermore, the march of the athletes was very much a geography lesson for me. Who knew that Britain had conquered so many tiny islands...? ;) Also, I couldn't spot dad in the crowd of 251 Canadian athletes, but I didn't really expect to. The Canadians had snazzy outfits! (As did many of the other athletes.) Go dad go! :D
beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
 Hello everyone! Remember how a month or so ago I posted a few photographs of myself in one of my fort costumes? It occurs to me that you guys never saw the second one! And then, I was sent a few photographs by an awesome retired couple from Saskatchewan. 

You see, I was doing a train tour... )

About a month ago, that married couple from Saskatchewan took a few photographs of me during the tour, and they got THIS just as I made the joke! I look like a hula dancer, but I'm actually gesturing, indicating a "putting the vermin and rot in the legislature" motion. 



They showed it to me on their camera afterwards and I was like MUST HAVE COPY. They agreed, and also took this other photograph of me in the courtyard of the fort, with Rowand House on the background to the right. (Yes, that is the PERSONAL RESIDENCE of the Chief Factor, and his family of four. That's it. One house.)



I should also mention that I'm wearing my "cold weather" version of this outfit, with the blanket. All native and Métis women living in the fort would be wearing a blanket like this and almost all times. It was an essential part of your outfit... but they're made of wool, and so we can get away with not wearing them when it's plus thirty degrees out. But towards autumn... You need it. 

Also, you can see the fur press in the background, pointing towards my left shoulder! It's not a catapult, a sideways gallows, see-saw or a barbeque (we have gotten all of these answers and many others). You use it to make bales of fur. Like hay bales. But fur. :)

SNAPSHOT

Sep. 11th, 2010 10:10 am
beboots: (Default)
 When you read this you're tagged! Take a picture of you in your current state, no changing your clothes or quickly putting on makeup. NO PHOTOSHOP. Show your F-List the Real You!

Tagged by [info]feriowind

BLANKEEEET....
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: (Canada "discovery" history)
I'm feeling restless at my research assistant job (having completed almost all of my work), and so I'm taking a well-earned break to write about my other history-related job, Fort Edmonton.  Remember how I wrote about my "fort husband" a few weeks ago? And how I promised I'd upload photographs of him? Well, I keep getting "internal server error" messages from livejournal whenever I make the attempt at uploading the super-awesome photograph that I want, so, uh... Here are a few that I could find online!

Read more about Anne-Marie, Rowand, Duncan, and screaming children... )
And HAHA! I've finally managed to upload the photograph I was thinking of a few weeks ago! This photograph is SO Will. (Um, not quite accurate to 1846, but, uh... JUST LOOK AT IT! That's Mike the blacksmith lying on the ground, conquered, by the way. He was passing love notes to Mr. Rowand's daughter, Nancy, you see.)
beboots: (Default)
Okay, so it's all-but confirmed.

And it's completely different from what I just said!

After having phoned up to confirm with the Antique Photo Parlour people and setting up the date for my first training shift, I got back from grocery shopping with my father to find an e-mail sitting in my inbox: I have the research assistant position, should I want it.

And my parents and many of my university friends convinced me that I should. I think that I'd have super fun at the Antique Photo Parlour, but at the end of the day it's over $6/hour less than the research assistant position, and wouldn't look as good on a resume, especially if I wanted to apply to grad school, for an internship, or for a teaching assistant position (all distinct possibilities).

There was also no way of doing both - the first three weeks of research would be the most intense, because I'm going away right afterwards, and a chunk of it needed to be DONE by the time that I leave, and that's just at the time when I would have to do like half a dozen full-day training shifts. So it's a no-go for both of them.

SO I called up the Antique Photo Parlour people to ask about the possibility of part time work. Fay is the one who answered, and she was super-nice, and just made me want to work for her more because she was so ridiculously understanding. Part-time is a no-go as well, but I expected that. BUT she surprised me because she actually anticipated what I was going to say: she suggested that she keep my resume on file, and I could call them up AFTER my trip, because they may not have a full slate of workers. Essentially, when the research gets less intense, I could perhaps get a second job with them... perhaps, even if summer doesn't work, I could have a job for the rest of the school year.

Fay said that she totally understands that working for her is a fun part-time job to make money and friends, not a career, and she congratulated me on getting such an awesome research assistant position. She told me that she really respects my decision to do something for the good of my degree and future career. She said not to be a stranger, and that she'd love for me to call her back sometime. ;_; She was so understanding it was beautiful.

SO I may still be able to work for them! Just... later!

I e-mailed my professor back, but that was ten minutes ago, so I'm not surprised that I haven't gotten a message back. But it's looking hopeful! :) Wow, that's a weight off of my chest... I'm glad that I took care of this tonight and not tomorrow, or I'd have been anxious all night and unable to sleep.

I have a summer schedule! This is great!

(And one of the best things about the research assistant position is the flexible hours - I have days off when I want them, mostly. So I can do the camping trips and attend the conventions that I want to! <3 )
beboots: (Default)
Hello, friends list people! You're all quite smart (or so it appears to me) and I need some outsiders opinions to help me figure out what I'm doing this summer. (People who know me in real life can answer, too - I need to be convinced one way or the other.) 

Maybe I just need to write down everything, pro-con, so I can figure out what I'm doing.

So last week I had no job, now I have too many to choose from... )

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