#avjournal

[my-name-is-dahlia]

Six months ago, I tried to hint about some “wonderful news.” I can finally say that I’m published! And by published I mean there is an actual book with pages and an ISBN that has my name written on the front cover.

Yay

[my-name-is-dahlia]

So I finished reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (and already Goodreads is telling me I’m one book behind. That’s it! I’m going to get a bunch of YA books and binge read that so I’ll stop getting behind).

I liked it. I really liked it. I can see how people can detest it but I enjoyed it. It was unique and crazy and I kind of love Heller’s writing style. Like, it was amazing. There were some parts that were so frustrating that I feared I’d have a breakdown if that scene went on any longer, but otherwise, just wow.

(Clearly I make a horrible reviewer.)

I’m trying to get into The Last of the Mohicans but... I’m struggling. Not because I don’t find the first page interesting... I’m just having problems understanding what I’m reading... which, of course, makes me feel dumb.

Have you read The Last of the Mohicans?

[my-name-is-dahlia]

How is it possible that I keep exceeding the word limit in my assignments? I’m not even finished the first part and I’m already 31 words over. And there’s still three more parts...

As Stephen King wrote, “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

[my-name-is-dahlia]

March 14, 2017 • New floral bedspread and my orchid has bloomed again.

[my-name-is-dahlia]

For my assignment, I wrote fifteen pages in size 9 Garamond when it’s supposed to be six pages in size 12 Times New Roman.

(I’m not even going to acknowledge that it’s supposed to be double-spaced.)

And I don’t feel like cutting...

P.s. I love Garamond.

[my-name-is-dahlia]

Did you know there’s a dictionary for Newfoundland English!? They call dandelions piss-a-bed.... excuse you.

This is video precious. I love the “sounds French, but never spoke a word of French.”

[my-name-is-dahlia]

Class notes on Canadian English:

Loonie and toonie, you probably already know, are unofficial names. But so too, according to the Canadian mint, are nickel, dime, penny, and quarter. Those are technically American terms. We have 5-cent pieces, 10-cent pieces, and so on.

I did not know actually. And all this time at work, whenever some random person would wave a toonie in my face and ask (or demand, depending on my mood) for “two dollars,” I’d clarify (or emphasize, depending on my mood) “two loonies.” After all, the monetary value between this random person’s fingertips is worth two dollars.

But it makes sense. Loonie is a nickname for loon, which is the bird featured on the one-dollar coin. And two loonies, naturally, is a toonie.

[my-name-is-dahlia]

Class notes on Canadian English:

Orientate is not wrong: it’s British. For a Canadian-specific audience, change it to orient, but try not to alienate your British writer in the process.

A few years ago, I spent half my organic chemistry lecture trying to figure out why my professor said “orient” and not “orientate” and whether he was wrong... or right.

(And now you know why I failed that class.)