Plenty of Nothing

Good Things and Bad Things of 2015

Good things:

The Ebola vaccine.

We expelled the tyrant Harper in October.

We heard Lynda Barry talk at TCAF in May.

Samphire in spring.

Heather got an office with a door.

Bad things:

Early 2015, Halifax city government collapsed under the weight of snow.

Ebola.

Megan Leslie lost her seat in Parliament.

Current events.

Above: Le Monde's Plantu on the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2014

Good things:

None of our relatives died this year.

Heather got a tenure-track job at the Dalhousie libraries.

Pistachio borma.

Bettye LaVette.

The Mushishi anime.

The new Halifax central library.

Bad things:

The internet. Because:

1) Netiquette has worn off. It has become pretty much a big feedback loop of horribleness.

2) Ads. Ads upon ads, so many ads that the site you want to visit can't load. And stupid, stupid.

3) It empowers governments to spy on everything. Canada is spying on Brazil. Why? Because we have the ability.

4) Once we've carted the last of the analog, bricks-and-mortar world to the dump, one good solar flare and ftzz.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2013

Good Things:

Reading Sylvia Townsend Warner. Douglas has gobbled up fifteen of her books, and there are still more.

Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize. Lynn Coady won the Giller.

Yuyushiki.

Bad Things:

Deaths: parents, high school teachers, friends from college, readers of this blog, seemingly everyone who was important when we were young.

Halifax drivers are becoming aggressive and self-involved. The days of stopping to wave the pedestrians across appear to be over.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2012

Good things:

Heather graduated library school and got hired on at Dal.

Douglas decided to buckle down and read fifty books this year. Final score: 122.

Douglas learned a really delicious way to prepare a side order of potatoes.

Kate Beaton Fat Pony mug.

Greenock Morton FC.

Bad things:

Douglas' father died.

Heather's mother doesn't remember Heather's name.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2011

Good Things:

Spittlefields Life. In the long run there will be agreement that the internet was invented so that this East London blog might exist.

We have reached the age when our drinking buddies are becoming presidents of universities.

Bad Things:

The March 11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown in Tohoku. Japan was ready for the earthquake, but not the tsunami or the nuclear meltdown.

Social media marketing.

Mount Allison University.

Nursing homes.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2010

Bad Things:

We sold the house! Sitting around in coffee shops during viewings is the worst.

Halifax: shootin' and stabbin'.

Apartment: beige walls.

Dementia: it gets worse.

Hard work studying. 

Good Things:

We sold the house!

Halifax: spontaneous funny conversations with strangers.

Nova Scotian sunsets are awesome.

Apartment: no rats, excellent heat.

Sappy Fest 2010.

Janelle Monáe.

Yotsuba to!

Genshiken Nidaime.

Propeller Vanilla Cream Soda.

Construction paper.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

A's.

Good Things and Bad Things of 2009

Good things:

Finally this crappy nameless decade is over!  Maybe now the 21st Century can begin.

Music: Neko Case, Joel Plaskett, Chris Smither, Billy Bragg.

Manga:  Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

The graphic novel.  Jason Lutes's Berlin.  Aya.  Angora Napkin.  Tatsumi.

Web-comics.  Kate Beaton, Nobody Scores!

TCAF.

Books without pictures: The Year of Lesser, Home, Brooklyn, Too Much Happiness, Somewhere Towards the End

A visit to Halifax. Lots of tasty food (haddock!) which was needed to power up the hills. Oddly good weather.

The Ottawa Comix Jam.

Tiger and Elin.  Now maybe I can be my Mom's favorite. (Note from Heather: ooooooo. She's going to be mad.)

Lenore Zann elected to Nova Scotia legislature.  Take that, Italy! (Note from Heather: I dunno about Italy but I like my mother's finagling a campaign button right off Lenore, especially since Mum is a genetic Tory.)

Most popular post: "Fuzzy Yellow Caterpillar."

Douglas figured out cross-hatching.

Bad things:

"Kill your darlings."  The calculated and manipulative slaughter of favorite characters ruined the final half-season of Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and of course, before 2009 ever began, Lost.  Save the darlings! (Note from Heather: no one remind him about the Star Trek movie. Please oh please oh please.)

Bus strike.  Nobody won that. (Note from Heather: Though we did learn how long it takes to walk from the Byward Market in the freezing dark. It takes slightly longer if you're propositioned along the way.) (Douglas: No, it doesn't.)

Ottawa's dysfunctional city government.

Ottawa drivers.  You can divide cities into two groups: where a yellow light means Stop, and where it means Hit the Gas.  Ottawa drivers pass on a yellow light.  They also pass on the shoulder, turn right looking left, and always take the pedestrian's right of way.  Contrast Halifax and Calgary. (Note from Heather: This could easily be expanded into a discussion about the strange invisibility of Ottawa pedestrians at Stop signs.)

The end of bookselling.  If Pages can't make it, there is no hope.

Working through 9 months of CCAA/Chapter 11-induced craziness. Let's not talk about the missing severance package.

Heather busted up her hand in Halifax.  (Manga readers, think Madarame.) (Note from Heather: Sometimes I come over all-determined. May or may not be connected with being any sort of sensible.)

Breaking the Ice

Good Things and Bad Things of 2008

Good things

We're both still working.
A new niece and nephew.
Record snow.
Genshiken.  Seriously, this is how you draw a novel.
Raising Sand.
Yellow living room.

Bad things

Layoffs.
Record snow.
Overcast summer.
Missed a Lynda Barry lecture.
Bus strike.

Non-Trip Report: Days 4, 5 and 6

Let's see: it's all starting to blur together. A sign that the time off is working. 

Tuesday was hiking day chez nous.  During the transit strike Douglas' boss has been giving him a drive to and from work but wasn't able to on Tuesday.  It was relatively mild and sunny so Douglas walked the five miles.  Those long skinny legs came in handy: he made it there in an hour and a quarter.  I have short legs and I'm lazy so my walk to the Rosemount Library was much much slower. I hadn't been to the Rosemount before. It's interior--layout and fixtures--is very similar to the Rideau branch I used to visit: small oak book cases, central desk, small non-fiction annex. I left with a couple of book (I might run out, seriously, it could happen) and trundled off to the deli and bought lots and lots of chutney since Douglas has recently decided that he loooooooves chutney. And then there was some reading.

Wednesday was a snow day so shovelling and a short dash to the grocery store. And then there was some reading.

Today's what, Thursday? So far: a whole lot of nothing.