12 (other things) on 12...

[This is from the 14th of March--originally I forgot about the 12 of 12 so I started a new post then I forgot about the new post too and only posted this on the 25th of March--what a dork!]

Oh crap. I completely forgot about 12 of 12 this past month. Leah and I were walking to swimming and there was a great shot of the sun on what, in spring summer and fall, is a lawn in front of City Hall. At the moment it is a ploughed snow feild about 5 feet high and very impressive.

Despite having missed the whole show, I still want to play along-ish... I'm totally bending (breaking actually) Chad's rules, but I'm going to put myself through an a technicality and hope that the judges, well, look the other way.

1 of 12: I'll start things off with an actual picture of mine (what a concept! Someone should create a project about that! original photos! Okay, I'll stop...) Anyways, this is a picture from the 12th folder in the "My Pictures" folder on my computer (well, I had to count a bit creatively...). This is my friend Stacie, who I've been thinking about a lot this past month. This is from September when she was here in Ottawa and she's seated at the feet of Nobel Peace prize winner, Lester B Pearson. Here's wishing you peace, Stacie and this bit of 12 of 12 fun and frivolity is dedicated to you...

2 of 12: Here's that fabulous Pinball video and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 song from Sesame Street.

3 of 12: In searching for the first Sesame Street video, I turned up this other one about the Princess Twelvia, who I think must've been the original muse for 12 of 12...

4 of 12: Here is a link to an article from my local GLBTTTIQQ paper, Capital Xtra, about a new series of 12 step programs for the more secular of us who didn't feel quite at home with the "surrender your self to [a choice of deity]" form of 12 step programs.

5 of 12: There are currently 12 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies left from a batch of like 40 ish made just last Sunday. So tasty! Here's the recipe:

3/4 c. butter
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 c flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3 c oatmeal
1 tsp cinnamon (this is what really makes it...)
1& 1/2 choc. chips (well, these are what REALLY really makes it
Mix it all in the usual way for cookies (dry together, wet together, add dry to wet in portions, don't over mix) and drop onto a greased/parchment lined sheet spaced about 2 inches apart. Don't flatten dough blobs. Bake at 350deg for 12-15 minutes. Try not to scarf 40 in 4 days...

6 of 12: A cube has 12 edges and six faces

7 0f 12: Here apparently, is the deal if your Birth Day is on the 12th:

• You possess a high degree of artistic talent that emerges in almost everything you take seriously, your home, your cooking, the way you express yourself, and any artistic endeavor you commit to.



• You are highly imaginative and quick-witted, allowing you to be the life of a party, entertaining people with stories, jokes, or witty remarks.



• You have plenty of vitality, your body heals quicker than most people's.



• You are especially talented in the verbal and writing skills. These areas, as well as acting and other performing arts, should be cultivated.



• You have a great deal of enthusiasm and make an excellent salesperson.



• You can make the best out of a given situation and are easily satisfied.



• You are emotional, friendly, sociable, and affectionate.



• You can also be moody and given to self-indulgence, especially when it comes to feelings of depression or self- pity. Be careful not to waste time and energy on trivial matters and keep your priorities in perspective. The keys to your success are commitment and discipline.



• You must learn to focus your considerable creativity in a given area or field. This will keep from scattering your energies in an endless number of areas
  

8 of 12: Here are the current Canadian #12s on the best seller's lists:

Fiction (hard cover): Confessor by Terry Goodkind

Fiction (paper back): Revelation by Karen Travis

Non-Fiction: From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant

Canadiana: My Years As Prime Minister by Jean Chretien

Children's : Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

9 of 12: The 12th element on the periodic table is Magnesium. It was recognised as an element in 1755, but wasn't isolated until 1808. It's name comes from the Greek work Magnesia, a district of Thessaly. Here's it's electronic structure:

10 of 12: There is way more information on the 12 hour clock than I'd imagined.... All I know is there's never enough time for sleeping!

11 of 12: 12% of Canadian men work for less than $10/ hour whereas nearly 20 % of Canadian women do:

"Considerably more women than men earned less than $10 per hour. In 2005,
19.7% of women and 11.8% of men worked for under $10/ hour. Rates were highest
among young adults aged 15 to 24, with 54.7% of women and 42% of men earning
less than $10 an hour in 2005. "

[From the Canadian Council of Social Development]

I naively went to this site looking for minimum wage info, sadly there is no provincial mimimums anywhere near 12 bucks an hour...

12 of 12: What to choose, what to choose... I could go with the number of times I swore when stupid blogger's picure uploader screwed up or the formatting changed randomly which = 12 to the power of 12 *stupid formatting*, [edit: I could go with the number of days this post has been sitting around either in progress or forgotten about which = approx 12], I could go with the fact that Geoffrey the archbishop of York was born on 12 12 1212, or that the 12th thing to come up on Google with 12 as the search term is a thingy on the 12 apostles. [edit: this is where I originally stalled now I have something exciting(to me) to put in] But really, I'll go with one Stacie will appreciate: the number of times our dog Gibson has peed outside 12

Theme: Ice and Cold, Feb 12 of 12

Well, the 12th again, and that means one thing: Chad Darnell's 12 of 12 project with great pics from today from all over the place. Good good whole wheat fun. I know there're no themes this year, but I like them and well, ice and cold have been on my mind all day (as I sit here in a woolly sweater and toque typing and thinking about tea...) So, this is my bonus pic of the ice sculptures from the Winterlude winter festival here in town. (Even tho I thought it wouldn't happen last month, the canal is open for skating during the festival btw, but it was too cold tonight to get pix).

Here's my least favourite side effect of the cold: Raynaud's phenomenon. See how my finger tips are all white? They started purple, then went white & tingly, then eventually (~45 min) back to normal. In the spring and fall they bounce back to red hot & tingly. This wasn't too bad as it was only the pads rather than all the way down unbending fingers.

Would also suck to be waiting around in the -20C / -33 C windchill (-4F/ -27F) temps this morning. This is the view down the block of taxi drivers protesting in-car cameras. They filled the streets outside city hall & courthouse (the buildings in the background) and honked and refused passengers.

Very excited: New cutlery with one of the grotty old spoons in there for scale. Plastic handles on cutlery is really dumb unless you don't wash with hot water. All cracked and stained and ready for the garbage (or a give away if we can make them presentable/not a biohazard) to make way for the shiny, sleek new ones.
This is my blotter. All of these pics belong in a big collage that never got finished. All our cute friends and their cute kids.
This is the wall of family. These are things I like to look at when some blowhard makes the news with stuff like in this parody or this cartoon

This is the mountain of snow from my Dec 12 of 12 its still as tall, but as you can see in the next pic, about as big as a football field (take your pick).

This is the view from my cubicle. Notice the flag of the Syrian embassy. I'm sure they were thrilled to look across and see someone from a Govt. of Canada building taking photos of their embassy offices...

This is my cubicle. I need something for the walls. This is what I'm working on. Happy back to work Chad. We'll be glad to see some new shows (although also glad some Canadian shows got picked up... unless they get dropped again)

After work I went to the train station to pick up Leah. En route there was a very brave bicyclist at the corner of Colonel By Drive and Hawthorne near the Pretoria bridge. So, so windy at that spot and icy. The only thing is if you wiped out you might not feel anything from being numb from cold.

That's Leah in the blue jacket. She walked up to me having seen the camera and said "12 of 12?". I'm so predictable...

This is at the grocery store. I love how the promo for healthy blue label products runs across the display case. Leah's fave was the one with the dump trucks in the top left corner. I didn't have a fave because I don't like those icy rose decorations. I like the idea of a dump truck cake...

And from there it was home to have dinner, bundle up in woolly clothing and drink tea. Dinner is long gone, but the rest is ongoing.

Cheers and stay warm,

Jen

12 on 12 January 2008

[UPDATE: Gah! I got the title of the project wrong. It's 12 OF 12 (not 12 on 12... )]

Finally, a chance to get my 12 of 12 for January onto the new blog! My last (well, first actually) 12 on 12 was in Dec and is located on my original blog which I encourage you all to take a peek at and let me know what you think about the issue. Chad Darnell's 12 of 12 photo projects don't really fit with the theme of the Keep Insite Open blog however, nor do many of the things I get a hankerin' to blog about and thus begat Mendelbrot! the frivolous blog. Welcome.

So Saturdays are big reading days--I did have to go to a meeting with classmates later in the day, but the morning was spent with coffees, homemade granola (dried dates, cranberries, mangos and raisins), and reading materials. Anyone who is lamenting the finishing of Ian Rankin's Rebus series should check out the books by Giles Blunt featuring Detective Cardinal of Algonquin Bay, Ontario. Good stuff.

Saturdays are also the "fat paper" days in Canada, not Sundays like in the US (& Britain?). So, a quick trip to the cornerstore for the Sat. Globe and Mail (Grope and Flail) is a must. Canada's national newspaper.... Canada's news with a bunch of info about Toronto. But still, the best of the bunch.

The darkness of this tree outside of Lisgar Collegiate (a public high school) looked all stark and grim compared to the bright blue sky.

Lisgar's facade. Prettiest high school around. Sure puts mine to shame.

The treacherous paths heading towards the canal. The aftermath of the big snow storm (visible on my flickr pics once I figure that out) meant that some paths and sidwalks didn't get ploughed until way too late in the game. Once packed down by foot traffic it's bound to get icy once the temps warm up. Watching some of the lil oldersters navigate their walkers over this mess to get to the grocery store is scary.

A patch of very green grass by the canal. This segment is in daylight all day, but that's no reason for it to be bare of snow AND green. Makes ya wonder what the heck is underneath!

Looking back towards Parliament from our no-longer-quite-so-new-pedestrian bridge. In winters past the canal would be teeming with skaters--you can skate for 10 km from downtown to the funky lil Glebe neighbourhood and onward to Dow's Lake. This year though, we've had lots of snow (which makes for rotten ice) and warm-ish temps (which makes for thin ice). We need a couple of good solid -20 to -30 weeks to get the thing open. It likely won't be open for Winterlude. More Beaver Tails for the rest of us (fried dough with sugar)

The "modern" industrial complex that is the University of Ottawa/ Universite d'Ottawa. All the glories of 1960's-1980's architecture can be found here. Oh, and there is a nice historic building too.

Leah and me in reflection on the sloping facade of the Monpetit building. 'Kay, that funky architecture is useful for something...

The late afternoon brought me from the University home past St. Theresa's RC xch which has this pretty stained glass near the door. I like to think it is a turtle and in homage to Iroquois First Nation's creation story wherein the little turtle is sent by the great turtle to collect lightening from the sky to create the sun. This turtle would look all zingy with light shining through.

Traditions I can't let go of: we still have our Yuletide tree up... it's drying out rapidly. We may have missed the City's collection days where the trees get made into mulch. It was just such a great tree... [there would normally be a flickr link here]

And there you have it, another successful 12 on 12. Thanks Chad!