about about me

for those of you who've landed here through random searches, errant links or sheer boredom and are asking "who the hell does she think she is?"; i've added an "about me" page, so now you know.

pleased to sort of meet you.

d is for don't forget...

well, mac and guerlain may have waylaid me in the last couple of days, but i'm back on the alphabet city express, going through my rather frighteningly large makeup stash one letter at a time. you can check out my progress on my "colour by letters" page.

and d is also for "don't worry"... mental health mondays will be up shortly.

the new hotness?

as is customary on wednesdays, i've posted the latest installment of my ongoing fiction serial. thanks to those of you who've been reading/ supporting it!

in related news, dom came up with a name that quite suits it [in fact, he has no way of knowing exactly how suitable] :: a definable moment in time. he even came up with some book cover art, which will hopefully be unveiled at some point in the near future.

and i have a question for those of you who have been following this story so far ::

how would you feel about me posting these installments twice a week rather than once?

i don't want to overwhelm anyone and i know that everybody has things to do, but at the same time, i want everyone to get new bits quickly enough to keep their interest piqued. let me know what you think.

also, since i finished up my "30 days of lips" challenge, i asked for something new and fun i could do that would get me to plumb the depths of my cosmetic stash. and one clever lady came up with a great one- going through the collection alphabetically. so now, you'll note that there's a "colour by letters" page link on the upper right hand side of this page, where you'll see over the coming days just how well i know my abc's.

my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who reads these posts.

friday favourites 13.05.11

the only friday 13th spookiness you'll be seeing here

you'd think that the first ever friday the 13th favourites would have to be different, creepy, dangerous. and you'd be wrong. this week was kind of startlingly average. a couple of beautiful days definitely made it nice to get outside. finding out that, despite having taking all the proscribed precautions, some asshat still managed to access our internet account and run up over $500 in extra charges [for which our supplier videotron politely but firmly insists, in the face of reason, that we are liable] was sort of a downer. i think i'd give videotron the money if they'd give me the exact location of the person that got into my account. however, since that isn't happening, i'm entering another telecommunications battle. just the thing i need, how nice.

in fact, it seems like the last little while has been particularly embattled. perhaps it's just that i've reached the end of my patience with a lot of things, which means that i'm reorganising those things into groups: what i can walk away from and what i have to deal with. there are enough of the latter that i have no problem sweeping a lot into the former. i guess "choose your battles" is great advice, but it isn't always practical.

well that's an all-out crappy way to start a piece about the things that made the week better. this is what happens when i'm cut off from my ranting outlet for more than 24 hours. the indignation just builds up and has nowhere to go. but if anything, that just indicates how important it is for me to take this time and think about good, positive things. [thank you, firemen, for choosing this moment to pause in front of my office window with your siren and horns blaring. deep breath. they're off rescuing someone. the system is working. happy thoughts.]

well dammit, let's get to the happy stuff.

ALL THE HAPPY STUFF IS AFTER THE BREAK, ALONG WITH YOUR WEEKLY CAT



bring that blog back! :: ok, it was down for 20 hours and between the scheduled maintenance [being a night owl, i'm one of the people whose schedule is actually thrown off by these things], post-maintenance wonkiness and that blackout, the last couple of days have been a good reminder to all of us bloggers how insignificant we really are. frustratingly, the world kept turning and people went about their lives much as they always do, without my acerbic political commentary, musical mumblings or disproportionately passionate ramblings on makeup, shoes or other accoutrements of modern life.

thankfully, i can now return to the illusion that there is a quiet, secret world hanging on my every post. since i've only had to ponder the possibility of my own insignificance once in almost six years of having this repository for my random thoughts and interests, i suppose that blogger can be forgiven.

fresca :: it is perhaps fitting that, since all my tastes seem to lean towards the periphery, that my favourite type of soda would be one that's so unpopular that you need to send out search parties to find it for you. it's sometimes available in supermarkets, right out in the open. but not all super-markets. and not always at the same super-market where you found it last time. it's almost never available in convenient, single purchase form, which sort of sucks for me, because i don't consume much soda as a rule.

but i threw down a challenge this week and dom answered, tracking and capturing a case of the stuff like the hunter-gatherers of old. and now i have fresca, which i'm tempted to drink, but which i'm also tempted to store in a vault somewhere, because you just never know.

i'm not sure why fresca is so unpopular, or why- since it's been around for as long as i have which means that someone, somewhere is drinking this stuff besides me- it seems to occupy such a consistently dark and cobwebby corner of the soda market. perhaps people mistrust its cloudy appearance, since most pale-coloured soft drinks are clear. perhaps it's the fact that it's grapefruit- flavoured makes it seem a little daunting. believe me, on that last one, i sympathise. one of the reasons i've been unwilling to take my chances with store-brand substitutes is because i'm afraid that they'll actually taste like grapefruit.

it's sort of an added irony to how much i've always loved this strange little soda that, having detested even the scent of grapefruit since childhood, i finally decided to give it a try a few years ago [hey, i used to hate lots of things, but i've killed a lot of taste buds since then], only to discover that i'm actually allergic to the stuff. which speaks to just how terrifyingly artificial fresca must be, because i can drink litres of the stuff. ach, there are worse things i do to my body, i'm sure.

aging like claret? :: on my way home last friday night i noticed a group of young punks- literal young punks, a group of three or four guys,  all of whom i would guess to be about 18, dressed exactly like punk guys did when i was in my early teens, when i thought they were the hottest things in the world. i think i sort of smiled inadvertently when i saw them, because it was somehow reassuring that there are still guys with jeans and red suspenders, close-cropped hair when they have hair at all, band logos scribbled on their jackets [and for some of the same bands]... anyway, it made me feel sort of nostalgic. what surprised me was that one of them smiled back and, a minute later, came over, shook my hand and asked me if i wanted to go to a house party with them. until i remembered the lateness of the hour, i thought that maybe i was being invited along so that they had someone who was old enough to get the beer, but the invitation seemed sincere enough [for all i know, he lost a bet] and it felt kind of nice, since i was never, ever cool enough for the punk guys in halifax to take any notice of me. there's never anything wrong with getting a reminder that you still have it. i didn't go to the house party.

frank bretschneider, photo courtesy of dominic f. marceau

elektra-spectacle :: i mentioned last week that i was looking forward to catching a couple of shows at this year's elektra festival, especially since i'm unlikely to attend any of the shows at either kinetik or mutek this year. it was nice to see that the excellent minimalist electronic label raster-noton send over a fresh group of artists to tickle our eardrums. mark fell [friday], frank bertschneider and kangding ray [both saturday] all put on excellent shows, but i really have to hand it to bertschnider for testing the limits of the always awe-inspiring sound system at usine c. and thanks again to the always genial mr. p for his company both nights.










the owl and the pussycat :: ok, other than cats, owls are my favourite animals in the world, so it's like someone had me in mind when they made this video. [except the music... just put the sound on mute. thanks to sd for finding this.]

you know, i'm going to have to draw the line there if i have any hope of getting this posted at all, but it does occur to me that this was actually a pretty good week indeed. so the friday favourites system works, at least for me [and, as a blogger, i am the centre of my own virtual universe].

i'm missing the friends who i got to see last week for certain and i'm steeling myself for a couple of battles in the days upcoming, but hopefully there will be enough bright spots to make those seem bearable. this week, i actually don't have specific things that i'm looking forward to. the fact that it's supposed to rain for the next four to five days gives me a good excuse to do some serious spring cleaning and get my closets organised- they're in a sad, sad state of disrepair, and i've been limited to wearing only those shoes that have migrated to the front of the closets, because they're the only ones i can find. how horrible! i do have a feeling that i'll be sneaking out to check out the events of international fluevog day on sunday, because we should all celebrate the work of artisans we love. and while i am absolutely going to be doing some work, i have a feeling that there will also be some quality time spent on my sofa watching my two new addictions, msnbc and top chef canada, most likely while giving myself a summery manicure courtesy of chanel's new "mimosa" nail polish.

and chances are that while i'm doing this [the cocooning on the sofa, not the cleaning bit] i'll have some company from the furry feline family. and it'll probably end up looking something like this ::

thanks as always for reading and godspeed in the coming days. don't forget to check out the now-complete 30 days of lips odyssey, as well as the ongoing saga of adela landis in the as-yet-untitled serial story!

friday favourites :: 29.04.11

ugh. i almost decided to make this "friday f**kers" and compile a list of things that grind my gears, because it's just been that sort of week. personally, the pretty much constant pain i have in my upper back, neck and shoulders has been acting up, meaning that i'm constantly in a lot of pain. not pleasant to deal with. i've also had some people get under my skin- generally not a comfortable place in which to have people stuck and something i try to avoid. although i was optimistic about my plans for writing when i posted last week, i didn't get nearly as much done as i'd hoped, because, strangely, my muse just deserted me. damn her. so all in all, with some exceptions made for coffee with a great friend, baked goods shared with a loved one and, as always, time spent with cats [plus a couple of cosmetic finds that helped soothe my nerves- watch for more news in subsequent posts], i'm glad to see the derriere of this week. but, of course, there were some bright spots, as there always are. and that's what i'm going to think about now.

here are my friday favourites ::

first flowers :: after a chilly spring and with nary a bud on the trees outside my window, it's kind of a relief to see these little buggers poking through the ground in front of the buildings on my block. i know eventually it will be verdant and glorious, but at the moment, nice days are a bit hard to come by. fortunately, these little blue-purple fellows are here to remind me to hang in there, at least until this weekend when we're supposed to have some fairer skies.





FIND OUT WHAT ELSE MADE THINGS BEARABLE, PLUS THE CAT PIC OF THE WEEK!




the other orange revolution :: i don't generally announce any political preferences in terms of parties, but i think it's fairly clear to most people where i stand on issues [in fact, i posted a graph of how i compare to canada's various political partiesa couple of weeks back]. so with only a few days left to go, it is hard not to get a little excited about the orange tide that polls are indicating.

regardless of what one's opinion of the ndp and their burgeoning support is, i find one thing is certain: for the first time in canadian federal politics since 1993, people are engaged. advanced polls have had record turnouts, despite concerns that they were held on holidays, when many people travel. poll numbers are changing, as opposed to campaign after campaign of watching things stay more or less the same.

what makes me feel particularly good about this surge is that the last two such movements i remember- in 1984 and 1993- were about voters reacting against the government of the time. in this case, the prime minister hasn't suffered any such collapse- in fact, the same polls that show the ndp surging in many areas show that stephen harper is still comparatively well-regarded- but seems to have simply been overwhelmed by a public sense that it's time for something different.

i'm a little unsure as to how much of this support will pan out on election day, but i will say that the usual tactic of  scaring people straight seems to have fallen flat [a combination of lack of preparation for this eventuality and distraction caused by the royal rumble known as william and kate's wedding].

i'll also take this opportunity to say up front that i completely messed up one thing coming out of the national debates. i thought that when gilles duceppe taunted jack layton about neither of them being in the running for prime minister that he'd landed a very palpable hit. on the contrary, it seems that quebec voter reaction to layton saying that he was in the competition to win was "oh, ok, thanks for telling us, we hadn't known. we'll vote for you now". granted, i don't think anyone saw that coming, but i'll admit, i got it 100% wrong. [i was right about michael ignatieff imploding in quebec after the debates, though, so it sort of works out... in a way... kind of... not really.]

i have absolutely no idea what is going to happen on monday, but for the first time in a long time, i'm interested.

personal progress :: since that last one was a bit of a doozie, i'll keep this one short and sweet [like me!]. i was speaking to someone earlier and the subject of self-improvement came up. i still find that one of the chief areas where i would like to see some is in my confidence and ability to project that. when i was younger [i won't even say young, because this is something that persisted into my twenties], i was almost painfully shy. early on, this manifested itself as being completely withdrawn from the world around me, later, it would swing between periods of withdrawal and gregarious over-compensation. however, even when i was being more boisterous and social, i made a habit of more or less just repeating things that i heard around me. talking about myself, my thoughts, my interests in anyway was terrifying. so i laughed along when i could and worked at blending in.

when i was explaining this today, i remarked that it got a very surprised reaction. in fact, it generally gets a surprised reaction whenever i say this nowadays. while i'm still more than a little uncomfortable talking about myself and my projects [other than in indirect forms like this blog], i do know that with age has come a certain assertiveness. and that feels good. i feel like it came late, but i have gradually shifted from being invisible to "me too" to "here i am". it's nice to know that other people notice that.

coming up this week, i feel like i have a lot to look forward to. there's the election on monday, followed by the third installment of the caustic lounge on wednesday and visits from not one but two good friends who i haven't seen in much too long. couldn't come at a better time.

i'm also looking forward to the coming week's blogs, since i feel quite well-prepared. i'll have reviews shortly of new things from mac and guerlain and on monday, i'll be channeling my inner mythbuster and taking on some myths about mental health. plus, of course, there are the ongoing sagas of my fiction serial, which will, of course, be updated on wednesday and my "30 days of lips" project, which is updated daily as i root through my burgeoning lipstick collection.

and because we all need something to make us smile, what could be more endearing than some brotherly love, courtesy of seth, hecubus and arthur?

something's afoot!

i'll bet you're thinking this post is going to be about shoes aren't you?

please, come right in

never judge a blog post by it's title! this post is to call your attention to the fact that i've started to add not-so-secret pages to the blog, which will be dedicated to specific things. the first one i've established "let me tell you a story" will feature a serialised story- a new installment every week (something i tried before, but it sort of came off the rails). you can follow along with the adventures of heroine adela and give me feedback. i'll be keeping the excerpts fairly short, so that they're easier to read on screen.

i plan to have more of these pages up and running shortly and they will all appear in the same place- on the upper right hand part of the home page, just under the "about me" section.

hope you enjoy the first serial installment and, hey, if you come up with any suggestions for a title, please pass them on. this story has lived a long life just being called "the serial". it deserves better.

giving the people what they want

i was perusing my blog stats again this morning, which is a way of finding out what people are looking at around these parts, from where and how they get here. it's all very encouraging, since all subjects seem to get their share of love, but my favourite part (aside from the fact that march is already a record-breaking month in terms of site visits, eclipsing february's previous high-water mark) is seeing how the internet has directed people here.

the number one search term for the last little while is very simple: "orange". that's right, the little colour that nobody likes, let along wants to wear on their face apparently has a secret fan club who are searching for it through the wilds of the internet. happy to oblige.

steve bickley continues to have a popular following (in fact, he now leads the pack in all-time searches), as do other bell-related searches, but the last few weeks have seen a new term emerge: "abuse by bell". yes, it's obvious that there is an increasingly desperate group of people seeking support after their bell canada experiences. be strong, folks, there are many others like you and there are options available.

"kate macdonald benzos" is making regular appearances on the list of terms through which people get here, which makes me scratch my head a little, but at least it's better than "kate macdonald should be on benzos".

apparently, through the number of views and the number of search terms that have landed people here, people were happy to see a restaurant review of gourmet du vietnam in montreal. more nom reports to follow shortly. (you can also check out the reviews on drunk on food.)

but the absolute winners of the past week, which somehow led people to this site were (and these are probably my favourites ever):

"how to create a halo effect in a passion play"

which makes me happy that people are reviving the medieval tradition of passion plays. and our winner:

"things that look like desserts in space"

my friend, i can't guarantee it will be here, but i sincerely hope that you find what you're looking for.

more like stats

just because i write this blog doesn't mean that i always know what's going on with it. but thankfully, the nice folks at google have made it possible for me to learn more about the people (you) who read it and what interests them. here's a few things i've gleaned:

- the most popular post i've ever written is called "mixed nuts". it's just a bunch of on line tests i did dealing with mental disorders (while i was dealing with some demons of my own). there's rarely a week that passes that it doesn't get more hits and at this point, it's over a year old. i must find some new tests so that i can contemplate a sequel. eek! i've become as creatively bankrupt as hollywood! i seriously have no idea why this post should be so popular, but it has over three times the number of hits as my number two post.



- speaking of which, my number two post is a little thing called "bell's hell" and i think that it would give "mixed nuts a run for its money, but for the fact that my bell canada saga is spread out over several posts. i say this with confidence, because the search term that has sent the most people to more like space is "steve bickley bell canada" and there are several variations thereof that appear in the list of most popular search terms as well. i'm hoping it eventually leads people to the post where i put his email address and phone number. it gives me a delirious sort of pleasure to know that searching google for information on bell canada and mr. bickley get an eyeful of the agony they put me through and why i'll never go back to them.

- while the u.s. and canada are consistently duking it out for the most visits here, i was surprised to find that the netherlands was third. it's well back, but there are still nearly twice as many dutch visitors as visitors from the united kingdom, where i actually know more people. this is also a comparatively recent thing, since spain was long in third place (they're now fifth, although the individual site that refers the largest number of people here is still in spain... que pasa indeed). i'm also apparently big in latvia. that's just too cool. (good morning vilnius!!)

- as i mentioned in this week's friday favourites, the popularity of the blog has been increasing. february generated the most hits on the site for the entire time that stats have been tracked (since may 2010). of the top ten posts of all time on the site, five are from 2011, including #6 on the all-time list, "bonkers for benzos" which was only published on march 1. the top ten list includes posts about music, mental health, makeup, shoes and, of course, bell canada.

there are some things in the stats that make me scratch my head. for instance, one of the most common search terms that has led people here is "morelikespace.blogspot.com". i would argue that, if you have that much information, you don't need to search. we're always here. i'm also a little creeped out when i see terms like "looking for girls who want to massage hai" and then just get cut off. i don't think i want to know the rest of that search, thank you, although i am curious to know how it brought them here. likewise "gay boys fuck blogspot". there are many things you will see on this blog. downloads of porn will not be among them. any porn.

i've been at this for five and a half years. i haven't always been regularly active and i can't say that i've ever been as active as i am now, but it's always been something that's been fun. it keeps me writing. it alters my world view so that i increasingly observe everything around me as a potential future blog post. since that means i'm constantly translating experience into literary terms, that might not be such a bad thing. it's nice to know that there are a few who like to stop by and peruse these pages. starting "friday favourites" was a whim i had when i realised that there were always little things that might not warrant a blog post on their own, but that i still want to mention. (facebook has effectively killed the practice of posting single videos, images or links in a personal blog, although i kind of miss the simplicity myself.) given the reaction that posts on the subject have garnered, i'm also tempted to add another weekly "mental health mondays" to the mix.

thanks for stopping by, for sending comments either here or on facebook (where it reappears automatically through the magic of networked blogs). the stats may not have evolved to the point where i know you all as individuals, but i appreciate each individual who chooses to spend a few minutes here.

where have all the blog posts gone?

if you're reading this on blogger, as opposed to on facebook (if you read these posts solely on facebook, this doesn't concern you and you can go about your life without reading further), you may have noticed that some of the historical posts- the ones on the first page, at least, have gotten a bit shorter. they're all still there, of course, but i have started adding page breaks on some of the longer posts, so they aren't quite so visually intimidating and so visitors to the site can browse quickly rather than becoming entangled in my...  loquaciousness.

i'm not going to go back and do this for the entire five and a half year history of the blog, i'm not that obsessive (not at the moment), but i figured i'd at least tidy up the front page to get things started. to view any post in its entirety, just click on the words "read more" at the end of the section on the front page. doing so will whisk you away to a space where you can enjoy the full post, with pictures, videos, links and whatever exciting goodies i can throw in there.

on another note, a good friend tells me that the band seefeel have reformed, which is nice, because they were quite a lovely band back in the day, but i'm hoping that this doesn't result in them hunting me across the earth, demanding their name back. the fact is, while they were languishing in self-imposed retirement, i've been using the name "more like space" for radio shows in two different cities, this blog, my space, facebook and a basically every public face i have (except my dj name, which is of even older vintage). in fact, if you google the phrase "more like space", this blog turns up second only to the wikipedia entry on the song. so there. nyah.

just kidding. i'm curious to see what they do after a long hiatus and i promise not to steal any more of their track titles for my personal gain. i've made my more like space bed and i'm comfortable here.