Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Ryan's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Monday, June 8th, 2009
2:14 pm	You have no one to blame but yourself. 01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal. (If you say so) 02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper! 03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on. ( Read more... ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
12:19 am	Stop screwing up the English language! Ahhh! Ryan's posting something. And nobody reads this. Ahhhh. I've got a bit of a complaint. It's about the words "biweekly", "bimonthly" and "biannually" Biweekly's proper definition is "once every two weeks", but people eventually screwed it up so much that dictionaries also include the secondary definition "twice every week" in utter contradiction of the first one. In fact, I voiced this complaint to my brother and he said "I think most people use it as twice weekly though, or at least they should" and it took me almost ten minutes to realize that he had endorsed the wrong one. This is a serious problem, people. And bimonthly is broken in exactly the same way. Things get even kookier when you notice that the primary definition of biannual is "occurring twice every year". What the FUCK?! I'm passing a decree. These words are to be abandoned and never used again. Because you've all ruined them. Here are your alternatives. Once every two weeks ==> fortnightly (sort of Old Englishy I know, but I think it deserves a comeback) Twice every week ==> semiweekly Once every two months ==> Once every two fucking months. Bimonthly has no synonym. I hope you're fucking happy about killing it now. I'm not. I'm fucking pissed. Twice every month ==> semimonthly Once every two years ==> biennial Twice annually ==> semiannually That is all. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
1:47 pm	Blargh "The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed." 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicize those you intend to read. 3) Underline the books you LOVE. Strikethrough the ones you HATED. 4) Reprint this list in your own LJ ... 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible (Yes, I want to read this in its entirety. Even though I'm an atheist.) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (Love is a pretty strong word for this one) 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19 Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (EDIT: Oops, thought I'd read this book, but I was actually thinking of another book that had "wind" in the title. I was thinking of Who Has Seen the Wind, which is completely different. I was like "21st place? Really?".) 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (Narrative was amusing, although the plot was pretty dull.) 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams(Is there a way to underline something twice? EDIT: I tried to, but I just made the text larger with one really thick underline. I guess that will do.) 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (I have only italicized the author's name because I liked Of Mice and Men, but I'm still not sure I actually want to read this book.) 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (Same deal here, but with A Tale of Two Cities.) 33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34 Emma - Jane Austen 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (I had a very colourful post on my Xanga about what I think of Margaret Atwood.) 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (again, I liked it, but love is too strong a word.) 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert (WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IS THIS BELOW THE HANDMAID'S TALE?!) 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Dickens needs to be sent to a good editor and trimmed.) 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding 69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte's Web - EB White (I read this like 10 years ago and I haven't been able to stop using the phrase "Greetings and salutations!" ever since.) 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (I don't remember whether I love this or not. I'd have to read it again.) 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 20 19 that I've read total. (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
9:25 am	ALWAYS lock your door So this morning at around 7ish, I awake to a disturbance... A disturbance in the mattress. Someone is sitting on it, and partially my foot. At first, I think it's Chen using my bed to sit down for some reason and I think to myself "What the hell is he doing?" I'm a non-confrontational sort of guy though, so I just move my foot and pretend to still be asleep. Then, with increasing horror, I realize that this guy is actually trying to lie down. I also realize that I can hear Chen moving around in the bunk above me, and the door is wiiiide open. So I try to get in the guy's way, make him notice that he's in the wrong room while still pretending to be asleep, thus minimizing embarrassment. Unfortunately however, this guy is pissed drunk and has no clue whatsoever that I'm there. He lies down, completely oblivious to the fact that there's actually half of a PERSON underneath him, and just goes out like a light. Some things high school just doesn't prepare you for. So now I'm sharing a mattress. With some guy I don't know. Trying to figure out how I should get this guy the hell out. I know the correct choice seems obvious on paper, but you weren't there! Damnit, you weren't there! Option 1. Wake him up. I was tempted to just flick him on the ear, or poke him until he stirred awake. But there's something about waking up the guy who has no idea how much he's just violated a stranger's personal space that's just as terrible as... well, having a stranger violate your personal space. Also, I wasn't entirely confident in this person's ability to move from "Hey, there's a guy in my bed poking me!" to "Hey, this isn't my bed!" in time for me to avoid bruising. Option 2. The David Bellamy approach. Just pretend the problem doesn't exist and hope it goes away. This was initially my favourite idea, although I'm afraid that doesn't reflect very well on me as a person. The plan was to go back to sleep, hoping that he would wake up at some point, realize that he was sleeping in someone else's bed and leave before I woke up again. He'd just assume I was a really heavy sleeper or something. But as it turns out... sleeping while some strange guy sleeps right next to you? Not easy. Option 3. Try to get out. If a guy can lie down with a person who is doing his very best to make himself noticed and, well, not notice, chances are your attempts to climb over him and out of bed while he sleeps will also pass unnoticed. This option was particularly inviting, seeing as I used to have a third roommate whose bed was now vacated. It was looking very comfy. I chose option 3, but he woke up. From his perspective, I can only imagine that it looked like some guy in a t-shirt and a pair of striped boxer shorts was over top of him in something resembling a straddling position. I stumbled out of bed as fast as I could. Him: Yoooooo.... Me: Yeaaaaah... This would be my room. Him: What? Nooooo ... Oh man, sorry. Me: Yeah... that's alright. Him: Sorry. Me: 's okay. and with that, my friends, the kindly stranger left. Chen was of no help, by the way. He got up to close the door while I lay there, fidgeting uncomfortably next to the drunk in plain sight, and then he went right back to bed. ALWAYS lock your door. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
6:15 pm	Woah, I'm posting something. Felt like doing this thing Ally just did. 1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. Return of the Jedi is the only thing that comes to mind. 2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Once with the band, once with my mom and my brother. Then I saw it on TMN with my Dad. And let me tell you, as good as that movie is, it is excruciating to watch the third time through. 3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie. Oh, I don't know... Morgan Freeman? Matt Damon? I don't pay much attention to the actors, just the premise of the movie. 4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie. Nicholas Cage... I've seen him in a couple good movies, but the bad movies I've seen him in were so terrible I hesitate to risk it again. 5. Name a movie that you can quote from. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Mind you, everyone quotes that one, so it doesn't make me particularly special. 6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs. I'm not really a musical kinda guy. 7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with. Haha, I don't remember doing that ever. 8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see. The Shawshank Redemption 9. Name a movie that you own. Batman Begins 10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. I can't really think of anyone who fits the bill, although I'm sure if I thought about it long enough I'd come up with something. 11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what? Never been to a drive-in. 12. Ever made out in a movie? Heh. No. 13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it. Normally I'd say Casablanca, but I just saw that recently. It's A Wonderful Life? 14. Ever walked out of a movie? I've never walked out of the theatre, although I thought about it once or twice... *cough* Peter Jackson's King Kong *cough*. I remember a few years ago my family and I stopped watching a particularly unfunny comedy that had John Trovolta in it, but I didn't have much input in that decision and if it had been just me I probably would have watched it to the end. So, no, I guess. 15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. I don't think I've ever cried in the theatre. Most of the movies I go to the theatre for have less sad moments and more things-blowing-up moments. 16. Popcorn? Usually. 17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)? It depends on how many good movies are coming out. 2007 wasn't a particularly good year... I think I only went twice. Normally I go about 4 times a year. 18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater? Hot Fuzz, I think. 19. What's your favourite/preferred genre of movie? I'd say Science Fiction, but sadly there just aren't enough GOOD sf movies out there to justify it. I guess I'll be a male stereotype. Action. 20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? Star Wars? I'm sure that's not the first, but it is the first I remember. 21. What movie do you wish you had never seen? Premonition! It's boring, pointless, and it strings you along throughout the whole brain-dead movie, always acting as if it's building up to some sort of twist ending that never comes. The actual ending will piss you off by the time you get to it. In fact, I'm just going to tell it to you: the husband fucking dies anyway and the wife is pregnant, which is supposed to make it better for some reason. Notice the lack of a spoiler warning. You'll actually enjoy the movie a lot more knowing this, because then you'll be resigned ahead of time to the fact that the movie is completely wasting your time. Although, and I can't stress this enough, you should still never ever watch it. 22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? 2001: A Space Oddysey was pretty weird, and I mostly enjoyed that. Although, truth be told, the parts that were really weird I didn't particularly enjoy. 23. What is the scariest movie you've seen? I don't think I've ever really been scared by a movie. I've been startled, but that's not the same. To be fair, I haven't seen very many horror movies, so maybe that's all it is. Some time I need to watch The Ring or something, so I can find out if I'm actually impervious to scary movies or just underexposed. 24. What is the funniest movie you've seen? At the moment I can only think of Shaun of the Dead, although maybe if I thought harder I could think of something funnier. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 18th, 2007
3:41 pm	Sorry. As an atheist I really enjoyed this comic. I had to share it with someone. Carry on now. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
10:28 pm	Random Stuff Pulled out of my Xanga Site I was trying to find a specific entry to verify some information, when I found these two tidbits. Enjoy, to the extent that this is possible. ( Read more... ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
4:25 pm	Yay! Got accepted by Waterloo! Just got an email from my choice university. I'm pretty psyched. That's all I have to say. Go away now. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
1:25 pm	Ally posted a little quiz thingamabob... so I'm gonna give it a shot. ( Read more... ) (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 13th, 2007
4:24 pm	As Concretely Proven as it is Sinister As I may have mentioned at some earlier point, Mrs Campbell used "lol" when she was grading one of my English assignments. This is an event I have regarded with some pride in my achievement (making my English teacher use "lol"), as well as a bit of horror concerning what this actually means for our civilization (That we've actually come to the point where people are using "lol" in the written word). Now, finally, thanks to my new scanner, I have evidence of this twilight zone occurrence. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 19th, 2007
8:55 pm	Found this old email I wrote to Maple Leaf about a year and a half ago. I've always been somewhat proud of it. They never did respond though. "Hello, my name is Ryan McLeod. I'm writing this because a few weeks ago, my mother and I were grocery shopping, and we happened to see that a number of packages of Maple Leaf Top Dogs were on sale. They were dirt cheap, so we figured "Why not?" and bought several of them. Shortly after my return, I bumped my head against a cupboard door. I reached into the freezer and pulled out one of the packages we had recently purchased. You may be pleased to hear that as an ice pack, your product performed marvelously! Through further experimentation I discovered that the frozen packet has a multitude of other uses such as a table leg balancer, a paper weight, or you can even use it for playing catch! The list goes on and on, and I'd like to congratulate you on such a versatile product! My only unpleasant experience with the device (and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this) occurred when I was in a little bit of a hurry for something to eat and due to the shape and pigment of the cylinders inside I actually mistook them for hot dog wieners! Just imagine, the look on my face when I bit into that bun expecting some kind of nutritional supplement and was instead greeted by the disgusting rubbery texture that one might expect to find when trying to ingest a car tire! I'm sure you must be laughing at me now, but I think I must not be alone in encountering this problem. I would recommend that you perhaps paint the insides of the ice pack a different colour, or perhaps print a warning label that reads "WARNING: The contents of this package are not for consumption. In the event of accidental ingestion, seek a physician IMMEDIATELY." Again however, I would like to congratulate on you on an otherwise fine product, despite its lack of any nutritional sustenance whatsoever." (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
4:49 pm	Mmmm... homocidilicious... (22 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 5th, 2007
7:55 pm	Somewhere in between hilarious and kind of disturbing... It's kind of dated... in fact, I've been told it dates back to the 70's, but it's just too good not to post. Dance, Santa Claus and Genghis Khan's lovechild, dance. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
8:53 pm	You'll die from a Heart Attack during Sex. Your a lover not a fighter but sadly, in the act of making love your heart will stop. But what a way to go. 'How will you die?' at QuizGalaxy.com I must say, I've had many comments made about me, but never "a lover not a fighter" (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
6:13 pm	I've been sleeping really lousily lately. Almost as bad as that one night when I was in that hotel room with Adam, and he poured a bucket of water on my head. While I was trying to sleep. And no, I'm not going to let that go. Regarding this matter, the fires of my rage burn so intensely, I believe they will actually continue to sustain themselves after my death. At that time, this ball of hatred will shed my physical body and etch itself into the core of our Sun, where it will reside for eons until finally, just as that star is beginning to wink out, my grudge will be released into the heavens by way of a solar flare. Nearby alien scientists will watch it pass and go "Wow, that guy was really pissed." ( Read more... ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 29th, 2007
11:52 pm	I'm posting this using Linux. 'Cause I'm just that nerdy. It's Fedora Core 6 distribution if you're curious. You're not though, are you? Bastard. My pirate name is: Red Sam Rackham Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr! Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com. part of the fidius.org network (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006
11:03 am	Wow. Harsh. ( Read more... ) My favourite question: Who would win in a fight between Winnie the Poo and Elmer Fudd? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 9th, 2006
1:34 pm	Ten Top Trivia Tips about Ryan! Ryan is the only bird that can swim but not fly. Only 55 percent of Americans know that the sun is made of Ryan. People used to believe that dressing their male children as Ryan would protect them from evil spirits! A bride should wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and Ryan! If you chew gum while peeling Ryan then it will stop you from crying. Ryan can jump up to sixteen times his own height. Some hotels in Las Vegas have Ryan floating in their swimming pools. The first domain name ever registered was Ryan.com. Ancient Chinese artists would never paint pictures of Ryan. Early thermometers were filled with Ryan instead of mercury! I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem I especially like #4. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 30th, 2006
6:17 pm	I should not find this funny. There is something seriously wrong with me. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
11:46 pm	A Cullinary Experiment Copy & pasted from an old post on my Xanga site. If you ever wondered what sort of thing I write about there (tossing and turning in the wee hours of the night, hair matted with sweat, curiosity gnawing at you on the inside), this is a pretty telling sample of that nothing. ( Read more... ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)