Uh oh. Riz started a list of quirks, neuroses, and obessions. This could be dangerous, but let's try listing a few of mine:

1) I file receipts. All of them. Every time I spend money, it goes into a spreadsheat, appropriately catagorized, and then filed in it's respective folder. Even worse, once I finish this year I will have two years of consistent data and I plan to start some projections of future spending. I rationalize this by claiming that, since I learned how in school, I might as well try it with my own data... but it's really all a cover for my irrational, compulsive habit.
2) I make lists. Kind of like this one. Usually they are to-do lists, or shopping lists, or things-to-remember lists. I always have at least three going at any one time.
3) I also make schedules. Then I stick to them. Obsessively. (You can stop laughing now, Bubbles. Are those posters back up yet? :P)
4) I only write in black ink. I think it started in grade 8, when I got the idea that my handwriting looked better in black ink. I also prefer fountain pens and avoid ball-point like the plague. I don't even think I own a ball-point pen.
5) I would list singing as an obsession, but it's hardly worth mentioning as everyone knows I do it. On the plus side, we got money for doing it (yeay carolling!). On the down side, apparently I have been humming while people are talking to me, without noticing it. Probably good to break this habit before I go to a job interview.
6) I roll pennies. Actually, I think it has more to do with my love of counting money and not having any money to count. I can (and have) spent hours rolling pennies, and nothing satisfies me more than seeing a nice stacked pile of $40 in pennies. Very good for stress relief, plus spending pennies in rolls is fun. (Oh, I also sort out the American ones... they're worth more, after all.)

I'm sure this is by no means a complete list. Feel free to add to it. Chocolate and sparkly things will not be mentioned. I could give them up any time... if I wanted to. :P

http://www.tunerds.com/mt-tb.cgi/85
  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 1:18 p.m. @ 

 
It would be nice if we could study one company in class that I don't hate. For example, we studied Starbucks, which has used some less-than-ethical strategies to get ahead of its competitors and has a history of destroying small business in the communities it enters. This week we graduate from that to Walmart which, despite repeated warnings from governments around the world (including Canada) it continues to support sweatshops, to replace full-time positions in poor communities with substandard and low-paying part-time jobs, and to stifle unions and any other organizations designed to promote human rights. These are the companies being demonstrated to students as the models of successful business organizations (eg. look how well Walmart has been able to employ a low-cost strategy). Is it any wonder that our business leaders are people who see only the bottom line and are curiously blind to the impact of financial decisions on human lives?

Ok, end of my rant. But seriously, people. I, personally, am boycotting Walmart and any other company that blatently lies about where it supplies its goods from (70% Canadian companies -- only if you count the Canadian importing companies, and guess where they're importing FROM).  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 4:11 p.m. @ 

 
I would just like to take this moment to celebrate my 200th post on GW. Also my 201st post. Ok, maybe I should stop counting until the next major milestone, since this could get annoying, fast. *grin* Still, it's not bad for someone who only started March 2003.

Today must be a good day, because the concert was great, I didn't need medical assistance afterwards (my shoulder still functions somewhat, even after the hell that resulted from 5 hours of rehearsal yesterday), AND I got paid. My group meeting was cancelled, joy of joys, and my violin teacher, who NEVER plays solos, is doing a concert in November on the one weekend I'm not busy, so I even get to go to that.

Also, I am a Pirate Cap'n. http://www.talklikeapirate.com/ppi.html (OMG, Riz, now you've got ME doing it!)

Here's hoping everyone else had as much fun as I did today.  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 9:24 p.m. @ 

 
The word for today is OUCH!!! Ow ow ow. I got this terrible knot in my shoulder after rehearsal, so I thought I would stretch it out. I stretched my arms up, and that felt great, but then when I brought them down again there was this horrible ripping feeling, and now my back is a throbbing mass of pain!! I don't have any muscle cream or anything, so I guess that's on my list of things to do for tomorrow. Fortunately, the rest of that list is:
1) Sleep in.
2) Bake cookies.
3) Practice the ridiculously hard Prokofiev that I can _almost_ play! (yeay!)
4) Go to bed early.

I think it's going to be a good day tomorrow!  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 10:46 p.m. @ 

 
My computer is fixed! I even got my data back. *happy sigh*  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 7:29 p.m. @ 

 
Today was so surreal. Ok, so really only the last 2 1/2 hours were surreal (timed by Bubbles). However, things were strange nonetheless. It started when we got on the bus (in L-don) on the way to dinner with friends. We were one stop away from where we were getting off when a tall thin guy ran off the bus into the street and started waving his arms to flag down the bus going the other way. (We assumed he wanted to get on it.) After missing that bus, he ran back onto our bus. While he had been out, the bus drivers were switching shifts so there were two of them, and one of them was putting his bags away. The guy ran onto the bus and asked the bus driver if he could have one of the bags that the bus driver had just put away. The bus driver said "No, it's my bag." The guy said it was his and that he left in the bus. The bus driver asked him what was in it, and the guy said "None of your business." This was rather odd, so the bus driver took the bag out and the guy GRABBED it, and basically started attacking the bus driver. So the other bus driver got involved, and after a scuffle, the guy ran out of the bus and disappeared. The bus driver was surprised, since the only thing in the bag was a hat. Some lady on the bus noticed that there was an identical no frills bag where the guy had been sitting, so the bus driver picked it up. In the bag was a HUGE amount of marijuana. This necessetated a call to the police, so we got out and walked.

While we were wating for the next bus, a random guy walked up to us and asked for change. When we said no, he said "Gee man, it's a fast-paced life here. It's just go go go. I'm from New York, man, but I love it here." Then he walked away.

THEN we were walking across a bridge to get to our friends' house and a horse-drawn carriage with bride and groom, with groomsmen in top hats and tailcoats goes by. At this point I was laughing hysterically, and unable to walk as a result.

It didn't help things when, after dinner, we got on the bus to go home and IT WAS THE SAME BUS DRIVER! As I said. VERY surreal day. I'll let you know when (if ever) I have recovered. *grin*
  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 8:19 p.m. @ 

 
My computer died!!! So I won't be blogging for a little while. (I'm using school computers at the moment... I've never heard a keyboard SQUEAK before!) Anyway, I'm hoping to have a computer in 48 hours, preferrably my computer, with all my data on it, which I was GOING to back up this weekend. *sigh* Meanwhile, I'm leaving for L-don on Thursday. No time for more news, as I have to get some administrative stuff out of the way before someone kicks me off this computer (due to the incredible noise it makes).

Hope to see you all online again soon!!
  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 3:21 p.m. @ 

 
To all you violin players out there, get your sorry selves down to the music building and sign up for orchestra now! (Ok, I realize none of the people who read this actually play the violin, but I'm venting.) I had to sit through 1 1/2 hours of auditions last Monday. Not that it was all bad. We have some positively stunning cellists, plus I got to skip History.

Actually, Monday was a good day. No history, AND one of my other profs skipped the first class. Didn't show at all. So that was fun. Too bad it wasn't a commerce prof, because they're usually the ones who rant about participation and attendance, so it would've been fun if one of them had skipped the first day.

This year is going to be all about the reading. I've been averaging 100 pages a day (ok, not counting the days I'm not working at all), which is probably more than I read all of last year. I even have a business book to read for one of my music classes, which is just wrong. Fortunately, I have SimCoaster to take my mind of that. Nothing like firing a couple of lackeys and picking up golden tickets and stock options towards that big promotion. Ooops. I sound like a commerce student. Oh well, we all have our little faults. *grin*  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 6:00 p.m. @ 

 
I posted more when I was working full time than I do while at school, before classes even start. How sad is that? I can't even use the excuse that nothing happened for me to write about. Instead, I will use the excuse that I am the laziest person in the world. That should work.

I have moved both carloads of stuff into my room. Huge thanks to Eva for storing my bookshelf and doodads all summer, as well as for the Pole tickets AND the b-day present. Oh, and for finding that JD Robb book that I couldn't. But, then, I already expressed my thanks a bit too enthusiatically for that one, didn't I? Sorry 'bout that.

I went to the Pole yesterday! It was kind of neat being there, since my dad went way back when he was in school. Even with the bus-problem and the melting grease, and waiting for the ambulance TWICE, not to mention the getting mud up my nose (without even going into the pit), it was great fun. Which reminds me. Thanks also to everyone who got me home on time. I had JUST enough time to shower and hide the filthy clothes before my parents showed up with the harp. *phew*

Today was less fun. I'm doing homework. History homework, no less. *sigh* It's a newspaper-article-collecting assignment. The one fun thing about it is that I just HAPPENED to find a completely relevent article about George Bernard Shaw expounding on the evils of homework -- which I plan on handing into the prof who gave me the homework. *crosses fingers and hopes prof has a sense of humour*  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 8:28 p.m. @ 

 
Just a quick update so everyone knows that I'm here. (Here being back at school.) For anyone in K-town planning on dropping in, I'm the last window to the left of the front door, right on the end, same building as last year. Feel free to knock... and scare the life out of me. haha. I'll probably let you in anways. I'd write more, but I'm wiped from two days of unpacking, preluded by two days of packing. Ah well. It's good to be back.  - posted by Purple Mangos @ 5:59 p.m. @