Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in olga_zhitnikova's LiveJournal:

Thursday, January 7th, 2010
5:57 am	Boozasaurus Starting on my June birthday, I usually drink away my higher functions and roam the park for three weeks or so, a modern Tyrannosaur of gin, sleeping where I fall and roaring awake whenever the Genever spirits leave me.The weather is right. I want to start now. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
2:08 am	Canoe adventure! Spent the weekend up north near avenray's old haunts. Out on the water, an adventure was had!Drove up Saturday morn, down a couple of bush roads, through a busy group of tree-planters, and down to Lake 1. Wooden canoe handles like a dream, much more agile than the aluminum ones I'm used to. Went down a crick to find a bridge had fallen down into it. A bit of hauling, some heavy lifting, and away we go again! This was not to be our only obstruction; it seemed to have been several years since someone had come down this route, and the river was full of trees and ex-trees above, below, and at the waterline. Those that were sufficiently above were not too big a deal; hack a couple branches out of the way and pass under. Those that were significantly underwater were not too big a deal; get up a bit of power and scoot over. It was the ones at the waterline that were worst; it often took quite a bit of sawing and chopping to get it cleared sufficiently to pass a canoe over.The target lake was beautiful. Dead quiet; we were alone but for a trio of terns based on a rock across from our point. The life underwater was a different story; at the rivermouth it was one-cast-one-pickerel. I captured a mighty one and devoured it just this eve. We dined well with our catch. I set my tent on the soft moss, and was so comfortable that no matress was required. I dropped my tent two feet short of the flat spot I had intended, but it turned out to be an S-curve that made my back feel wonderful! I may this evening experiment with a similar configuration on my own bed, such was my delight.The rains came sometime overnight, and were fairly heavy at breakfast-time. It turned out to make things easier; with no concern about getting my feet wet, I could stand on submerged logs and get us moving over snags with much ease. The swamps turned to enchanted moss-floored spruce forests, and finally to cedar. We ate lunch on an island scarcely the size of my living-room, and decided to waste no more time. We would use the motor.Our lead canoe, which had until now been doing the bulk of trail-breaking due to its resilient aluminum nature, was equipped with an as-yet unused 3.5HP motor, a privilege owing to the retirement of our guide. So we roared out and down the next river. When we came to the first rapids, they chose to shoot them, while I elected to walk ours through. The next ones were beyond our ability, and we did our only true portage, perhaps 150 feet along a woodland trail that once again showed just how little-used this route was. I became fascinated with the detritus on my hands; it was difficult to tell which flecks of dirt were actually insects. About half, it seemed, as I'd picked up hundreds of a variety of micro-leech in the rapids. Fascinating! But we were once again en-route, and once again under tow.The standard sternsman strokes and draws become second nature after a while, but under tow they take on entirely different meanings. One has to watch one's heading, one's alignment to the lead boat, and one's sideways motion in the river. More than once I misjudged the width of a turn and dragged us to the bush before I could correct. But it was exciting; instead of casually scanning the river ahead for snags every now and then, one had to keep constant vigilence and be ready to backpaddle a braking maneuver at a moment's notice. Once I took a heavy log to the chest, but otherwise it was remarkably injury-free. Twenty-four skin breaks to the hands and arms, but if there was only one to each log we cut, it was a small price.We passed the largest cow moose I've ever seen. With the light rain misting off her shoulders, she looked like a truck on stilts. Immense.But we came to the end, loaded up and were on our way. It felt strange to be standing on solid ground rather than submerged logs. To be in a warm shower was wonderful. Nonetheless; bruised, bleeding, and exhausted, I can't wait till the next time! (Comment on this)
Monday, January 4th, 2010
10:07 pm	Ordinatio Delenda Est I love this weather. We get:* The long summer days* The beauty of winter* The warmth of fall* The green green grass of springIt's bottle-with-a-handle weather.In other news, I've successfully recovered all necessary components and installed my hybrid acoustic/electric drumkit into my jammin' place. Retrainin' myself in the ways of rockin'. Once my rock trainin' is complete, I'll be pumpin' out the funk Wednesdays at the Apollo. Oh yes. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
6:40 pm	Weather's off. WTF? I think I just hit a tornado with my car. Snow has been falling intermittently all week, but isn't building up or making the ground wet. It's shirt-sleeve temperature out now.Tornado! (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
5:18 pm	April update Blue faded from the sky. The air was suddenly cold as deep dark night. And the sun's color was a gray luminescence, like a faded moon. Less. Pilgrim was back from the hatch. He interrupted Ravna's incoherent panic with a matter-of-fact, "The sun just went out." His heads bobbed in an expression she couldn't fathom. Pham answered, "That's temporary. Something has to power this maneuver."--Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon The DeepIt's exactly that time of year. Some part of me is tesseracted away, thrumming busily on some project I may never comprehend. Thinking's not nearly as clear as it should be. But that's alright. Today was Skirt Day, the day when the unexpected warmth trumps modesty.In lieu of a coherent thought, I've at least got a couple scattered ones from the past month.I'm currently drinking a 2003 Jackson-Triggs Proprietor's Selection Smillon-Chardonnay, because with Smillon there's always the chance of delicious botrytis. But I'm kinda disappointed; even though its big brother won Canadian White Wine Of The Year, I wasn't particularly impressed. Maybe I just need to work on my palate for whites; I'm almost always drinking a red. You lucky Winnipegger folk have got the Winnipeg Wine Festival coming up at the beginning of next month. The imminency of my project at work means I can't attend this year, but I'll be hoping for next...I was peeved at the open sewer that the trails at the Cascades had become. Truly, it was difficult to navigate there, having to watch every step, never being further more than three feet from the nearest dungheap. I wrote half of a Letter To The Editor on that subject, but decided that phrases like "the spastic anii of ten thousand untamed curs" would go right over the heads of those responsible.SOHO is out of keyhole. This means plenty more sun pictures to stare into! This ain't no olden days where you lift your head to see what the sun's doing. Incidentally, it's letting off a pretty thick stream of particles from a coronal hole on the northern hemisphere. Good aurora last night, possibly some good stuff tonight.An excerpt from a dream: "I just saw a spider the size of my head crawl out from behind the pinball machine with two rocket engines and an RPG on its back. It went up the wall, opened a door and left. Tell me I'm not fucking insane.""We call it Thing. Don't mess with it."Massive wave of celebrity death and debilitation. The Pope, Terry Schialvo, Mitch Hedburg, the Prince Of Monaco; Peter Jennings got cancer and Neil Young had an aneurism; 3 close relatives of friends have either died or are close to it. This certainly blows the Rule Of 3s out of the water, unless there are 2 or 3 simultaneous waves of misfortune. As for me, my great-grandfather's brother's daughter's husband's sister's son's wife died. Due to a certain anomaly in my family tree, she was also my great-grandmother's sister's daughter's husband's sister's son's wife. If I've figured it right, that makes her my second cousin once removed, twice over. She shares the same last name with cogent, but I don't know enough about his ancestry to know if we're related. Shows that we're all connected somehow, though.In the next 20 minutes, I'm figuring on either going to the bar or switching operating systems. If your webbrowser is using 1gb of ram and doesn't actually have any pages open, you may have a memory leak.I'm looking for the kind of music that you'd want to hear if you were shot in the gut at the top of a cliff and jumped into your fighter jet and flew at Mach 3 towards the hospital, hoping you'd be able to eject in time. Anathema's Pulled Under At 2000 Meters Per Second is the only song I've found that really gets it, but Muse has got a lot of stuff that comes very, very close. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 1st, 2010
3:31 pm	'tis time. Wednesday night the smell of spring was on the air for the first time.The Three Words are ready and will be said. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
2:12 pm	woe on me My lymphatic system feels very clumpy. Repenomamus, I'm sorry. I haven't been a very good mammal lately. (Comment on this)
2:14 am	gyroscopically locked I had the idea in my head to get the map inscribed on my left arm, so wherever I travelled in the universe I'd be able to find the way home. With 14 pulsars and the core to guide me, I could count starblinks from any world in this quadrant and know. Spin is my compass. Atomic clocks, pulsar clocks, the galaxy provides its own GPS. My body has the sense built in as well, for I'm tidelocked north and that's one place I'll be able to find from anywhere on the Earth. Magnetism is my compass. I eventually decided I had no need for maps. Whereever I go, that's where I'll be. There's no need to fear getting lost when getting lost is exciting. With no compass, I will be free. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
10:39 pm	house == busy! I'm living on a diet of candy, chips, cheese and booze. I've climbed 3 mountains and explored a cave since I started writing this post. There's a stolen Book Of Mormon on the coffeetable next to a dumpster-dived sextoy catalogue. I am rapidly approaching the lifestyle I always wanted.One can measure the rate of one's mental metabolism by finding the time between when one defines something as what one hates the most and when one becomes it. When two objects collide, energy is conserved and output is the same as input. Whether they keep going in the same direction as they did before or rebound in opposite directions is sometimes a surprise.Gathering for Dez, those who know Dez and those who would like to know Dez: this evening (friday), my place. Welcome back, butterbee! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
8:17 pm	I am the new forwardable email! Here's a neat trick I figured out last night. Pass it along to your friends!1) First, grab a fresh sheet of graph paper, make 5 columns. If you don't have graph paper, you can just draw a grid on some regular paper. Number the columns 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1. 2) Write the word 'awesome' down vertically, one letter per row.3) Write the number of each letter next to it. The number corresponds to the position in the alphabet of each letter. So, a=1, b=2, c=3...4) Here's the tricky part! We're gonna break down the numbers. First, see if the number is 16 or larger. If so, put a dot in the '16' column and subtract 16. After that, if the number is larger than 8, put a dot in the '8' column and subtract 8. Keep going till you get to 1. 5) Connect all the dots that are directly adjacent, including diagonals.6) Take a step back and enjoy your 'awesome' picture! :) (Comment on this)
Monday, January 26th, 2009
3:08 pm	North I go! So I moved out, got a house, adopted some plants, familiarized myself with the house's complementary cat. I've been quite busy sorting and re-sorting material possessions, of which I have about an order of magnitude more than I thought. Thanks much to everyone who helped me move!I'm now under 10 minutes walk from the best park for view, the best park for socialization, the best bar, the second-best coffeeshop, the marina, pretty much everywhere I go on a regular basis other than work. Ideally, that'll be the only thing I'll need motorized transport for. Free at last from internal combustion!I think someome spilled maple syrup in my bedCelebration of new environs is here on Friday. Details to follow! (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
9:02 am	Assume nonfrangibility. Dear Diary,Last night I fell from the sky. 4500 feet. Seeing from horizon to horizon, feeling the pure joy of someone who has no idea how frangible their bones really are...and I go to bed every night knowing that I am already gone, that this is a coda to a long and fruitful life, that every day is a boon not to be forgotten or wasted. Reprioritize, there's no time to dally on things that don't involve dallying, you can sleep in the winter with the rest of the world... LIVE! (Comment on this)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
7:05 am	recent days So woke up fresh and early, ready to cause some trouble. Was going to move lumber, but got distracted along the way... What's the stupidest thing we can do today? Well, the welding supply store and the gun shop are right next to each other... So we picked up 2 liters of liquid nitrogen and half a kilo of gunpowder. Ready for trouble! Went over to Sarah's house... Picked up some breakable-looking yard-sale items, got high, and froze the crap out of some fruit. It was very, very hot, so we made a pool out of cardboard boxes, clearblue garbagebags, and duct tape. Filled it by reconfiguring the house's raingutter system. Cooled down the pool with liquid nitrogen, of course. It looks really neat dancing overtop... Like boiling water a quarterinch above freezing water. The interface held until the indentation froze, and then these little puddles of liquid nitrogen turned to icebergs growing from the inside out. Decided to find a real river, but were prevented from swimming by bolts of lightning raining down. Went out for awesome Chinese dinner instead in a quiet little restaurant. Sunday slept late, woke up to the hottest part of the day. Remedy? McKenzie river! Like Soldier's Hole, but with more jumpable cliffs and less broken glass. Went by the CLE to check out shunned_tea's set at the talent show, but she was betrayed by the questionable ability of the soundguy. Roamed with flesh0rz till it was time to bike to work where I'd watch movies and nap the night away...Monday went out to Dad's and spent the day alternating between mowing the lawn and napping in the hammock with Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars. Spent most of Tuesday out at the Cascades with Anna. Wandered up and down the river, swam for a couple hours and hiked through some of the prettiest forests around. Yay!Wendesday I was back out at McKenzie river and dove from more and more cliffs. Had one of the most productive Indymedia meetings I can remember despite the turnout, and of course enjoyed open stage at the Apollo. Running on zero sleep, went out at 10AM to go rockclimbing. Fingers and toes are bereft of skin and my forearms are screaming from overuse, but feeling awesome. So then we went to the Arboretum. And then we got high. Went out to One-Island lake and swam out and back, out and back... love that feeling of still lake, no gravity... floating in space... I'd love to try a sensory deprivation tank. Shots of sweet syruppy liquor on the beach... Came into town to catch the free show at the Marina. Jordana and the Brothers of Metal put on perhaps the most professional show I've ever seen from a local band. Friday I finished work and roamed town in the hottest weather of the year. Mowed the lawn and accidentally got drunk when the only cold drinks in the fridge were boozy. Decided to take advantage of the situation and went biking around for awhile in the park. Played with gunpowder when I got back. Neat stuff!Saturday went to camp with sugarpacket, metasynthesthia, funkypeaches, mutilatedpixie, letiumtide, and treemaster. Had some dire need to get out of the city, very adequately sated. Was awesome. Sunday was the Camp Currie Economic Council with gdh, mattcanning, swami1678, cogent, kpeltonen, hermanhanschke, fire_in_the_sky, and pedxing. Discussed economics, politics, forestry regulations and sundry other things... A lot of really good points raised on all sides, mind suitably expanded. Headed back to camp for one more night.Tuesday caught Guerilla Funk Monster at the Apollo. Great show, was quite impressed.Wednesday was a surprise drunkening around the Trivial Pursuit board. Twas close, but I won :)Thursday headed out to Surprise Lake and caught some really good Northern Lights. Alas, things were already quieting for the night, so I headed back and watched the apartment building down the street slowly burn down. I was sleeping every second day because I don't want to waste time. I went 3 days without shoes. I've gone swimming almost every day because dang if it isn't awesome hot out. I've been eating a lot of junk food, but hiking it all off. I know it's all nontenable, but danged if I'm not going to run with it for as long as I can physically hold out. Come skydiving with me on Monday Aug. 25th. If you've never jumped before, it's 200ish for the course and your first jump. Cheaper if you're brave enough to put down a deposit. It's gonna be f'ing awesome. Life is f'ing awesome. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
1:00 am	I'm a meme-carrier. Interview-meme. Yee! 1. What are your own favourite and least favourite traits?I like being intelligent. I like having the determination to do stupid things to see where my true limits really are. I like that I can use reason effectively when appropriate. On the other hand, I hate how I always find excuses not to do things. I hate how much inertia I have. I hate how much I need people. 2. Describe your ideal surroundings?Utopia in the trees, an Ewok village built here on Earth.Brain in a comfortably warm tank, the whole wired world before me and under my control.Underground home commanding an incredible cliffside view, sunset at the end of summer, ultramodern living room, sweet intoxicant in the air, Tangerine Dream echoing from the hi-fi across the valley.The well-insulated aluminum walls of a space station carrying me high above the Earth.Hiking in beautiful woods / gathering in coffeeshop / enjoying a concert with good friends and good conversationalists. 3. What characteristic(s) do you respect the most in another person?I love it when people pick something and follow through on it. Intelligence is one thing, but it does nothing without productivity. I like it when people think through their problems instead of repeating them. Most of all, I like it when people get things done. 4. What childhood nursery rhyme do you feel represents you most accurately.For want of a nail, the shoe was lost:For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;For want of the horse, the rider was lost;For want of the rider, the battle was lost;For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost,And all for the want of a nail.Runner-up:See-Saw Marjorie Daw;Sold her bed,And lay upon straw. 5. What do you hope to accomplish in your life?Gain a deep understanding of the universeLearn the meaning of lifeFinish highschoolMove out of homeAcquire a full selection of material posessionsFind real loveGet a job that pays higher than the national averageFinish collegeMove out of townGo skydivingTravel in EuropeProduce children smarter and stronger than myselfSave the EarthDestroy the EarthDie satisfiedI might take 3 of the remaining items off the list as silly. Still, I've done almost everything I originally set out to do and am pretty much in a bind as to what to do next. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 19th, 2009
10:14 pm	you are all yous A couple billion years ago, we formed cell-walls against the ocean around us. We started to carry our own special ocean around inside us. We were magic chemistry, and we didn't want to wash away. We became homes for our juices.A couple less billion years ago, we clustering together with other single-cell critters to form greater things. We started to carry others around with us. We were magic chimeras, and we didn't want to wash away. We became home to the cells that were home to the juices.A couple thousand years ago, we gathered together with other composite beings to build houses. We needed an environment seperate from the weather around us. We were frail pink things that didn't have the cell-families to make protective fur. We extended the concept of home outside of our skin and made places to live that could last generations.You're a trillion little critters that all agree to be a person. You carry an ocean around for them. Your blood simulates the tides and your enzymatic fire simulates the sun. You rule by committee of neurons. Anarchy could be disastrous.We live lives that make our cells unhappy. Their kids live in broken homes and aren't always suited to the old hereditary jobs. It just takes one to light the fire. Half of us can expect revolution within our lifetimes. Would you let yourself become a police state? (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
3:32 pm	etymology I had a dream that I knew the word for "the portion of one's personality that is artificial". Does such a word exist in realworld?When I close my eyes, I see colours that have no names, but that in fact seem to be several different and seperate colours simultaneously. What would one call those?Do other cultures have stories like that of Icarus, of being destroyed by the sun? (Comment on this)
Friday, January 16th, 2009
1:10 pm	forgot to post this lastweek Ahh.. Just crawled out of the car after a long drive, and it'll be a while till I learn to use my legs again. But I'm home, and it was a great weekend.Folkfest was awesome. 8th year since I started going, 6th time I've been there. Perhaps there shall be more. Blew the usual pile of cash at the music shops in Osborne Village. As usual, I am quite pleased with the results.Adrian Utley and Mount Vernon Arts Lab: WarminsterThe Beta Band: UntitledDownload: Charlie's FamilyFantastic Plastic Machine: Self-titledFidget: Inside The RoosterFreedom Of ChoiceFunky Porcini: The Ultimately Empty Million PoundsFurnaceface: This Will Make You HappyGeggy Tah: Sacred CowHis Name Is Alive: Are We Still MarriedHocico: Signo De AberracioJimi Tenor: IntervisionKing Crimson: The Construkction Of LightLords Of Acid: Heaven Is An OrgasmRainer Maria: Look Now Look AgainRed Lorry Yellow Lorry: Talk About The Weather & Paint Your WagonRinocerose: Music Kills MeSilver Apples: RemixedThe Whitlams: Torch The MoonSheep On Drugs: Greatest HitsThe Music Tapes: First Imaginary Symphony For NomadAs for the festival music itself... Bomba put on a good show. Burnt did as well, and had the whole crowd dancing. Billy Bragg is a better speaker than a lyricist/singer, it turns out. Ani DiFranco put on a good show, but it seemed like she'd done that same show many times before. Bob Geldof was great, and had some interesting things to say. Buddy Guy is one of the best performers I've ever seen. He's been doing it for so long, but he's still so good at it. Jim Moray was another pleasant surprise. Leon Redbone... Everything that man does is art. I was in awe. Seven Nations is the only band I have ever seen that has successfully rocked out with bagpipes. White Cockatoo was really interesting, but I guess I just don't have the cultural background to understand it, as it all kinda blended together to my untrained ear. There were a lot of similiarities to north american native singing, so I wonder how much of it remains unchanged from tens of thousands of years ago when they split off to migrate there. Spoken in the strange voice of the absurdly tall: "Yea, we got five BOOZEmelons this year! They got everything you need! Ya got food... Ya got.. water, heh heh heh... And ya got yer BOOZE!"Roxx0r! (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
8:23 am	travelling / manipulating / time driving abruptly lost its charm so i ditched the car and blew 15 on the spot for a new old bike. i think it's a whole new world of laws than when i last rode, but i've always been a hidden-trails sort so i should be fine.they say the engine control system is flaking out on startup, which makes sense but perplexes as control systems are my 'thing'. i guess it comes down to i love to hold the entire system in my mind and tweak configurations till it holds tune, but in school i always had minions to do my dirty work except when i needed that hands-wrapped-in-wire mind-wrapped-in-formulae rush. fix imminently soon.the sun sets sooner on a longer day; with horizon crossing as bookends you frame it a lot differently than you would indoors with sleep buffering the start. the more time you spend, the more you can have. (Comment on this)