November 2005 Archives

I'm applying to vote while away from my electrorial district for the upcoming Canadian federal election. If you are a Canadian living outside of your electorial district and would like to vote on January 23, 2006, check your eligibility here and register to vote today!

Today is International Buy Nothing Day. It happens to coincide with Black Friday, but I'm in Toronto right now so there are no crazy sales. Pretty easy to resist buying anything at all, right?

I'm so ashamed of myself. I made a point to participate this year when Ryan reminded me last week, but when I woke up this morning, I totally forgot. I went out and bought stuff. Even worse, I bought frivolous signs of affluence. As consolation, my mom told me to buy more tomorrow so it would "seem" like I bought nothing today by comparison. Har har. Very funny, mom.

It used to be so easy to participate in International Buy Nothing Day when I was in Waterloo, because one would have to make a great effort in order to get to a place where there is anything worth buying. Ditto when I'm in the Bay Area. I spend way too much time at the office, and by the time I leave, all the stores are closed. *sigh* I'm going to have to make up for the bad karma that I've accumulated today.

In other news, I started wearing my Santa hat again, and children at the mall were staring at me, as if they were expecting me to give them candy canes. I used to give out candy canes, but parents are growing increasingly cautious and I'm not sure they would appreciate it if a stranger was giving out candy to their kids. I think I'll keep some stickers in my purse to give out this year.

Since I'm so not with it, JM sent me a link to Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. Yay! It'll be a while before I can sound academically educated in the nuances of various subgenres of electronic music, though.

Whether you want to know the qualities of the music that is classified as jungle or you want to learn the difference between Goa and psychedelic trance, this site is an awesome reference guide for all aficionados of electronic music.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster plush toy auction ended at $510, which exceeded all my expectations. I'm going to miss the little dude once I ship him off to his new owner. There have been many requests for me to make more FSM plush toys, but I should really return JM's sewing machine, since it has already been in my possession for 3 weeks.

A reader asked me to make some plush FSM desktop wallpaper for her. I'm posting them here so that anyone and everyone may enjoy them:

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For the uninitiated, Wikipedia states that "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (FSM) is a satirical parody religion created to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution."

Inspired by JM's Fuzzy Spaghetti Monster Halloween costume, I decided to make a Flying Spaghetti Monster plush toy to decorate my cubicle. However, Mike had bigger plans for my handcrafted effigy of the FSM. Now it's being sold on ebay to raise money for the National Center for Science Education.

Special thanks go out to MJ and Jackson at SFist for all the publicity!