April. Because I was born in April and because it was questionable as to whether I'd survive my first day. When I did, my Aunt Lorna suggested April to signify "a new beginning." Had all gone as originally planned, I may have been called Jennifer or Heather.

Lynne. Because my Aunt Lynne would babysit my brother. Apparently that was no small favour.

Robinson. Because it's my Dad's name. His side is Scottish. Our family motto is "Foi est tout", which means, "faith is everything". Of late, I have been wondering if this might make a interesting tattoo.

I've been called Ape, Cakes, Avrilla, Splenda, Sunshine, Robinson, Sparky and Pootz by others. They've also called me Creative, Witty, Beautiful, Together, but sometimes also Cold, Stubborn and Mean. Oh, and Short.

It's hard for me to give myself a name, unless of course I am upset. Then I'm So Stupid, or So Insecure. Sometimes I go by Selfish, Competitive, Dispassionate, and Loner. On good days, I call myself Optimistic, Compassionate, Patient, and Lucky.

I'm often Daughter, Sister, Friend, Wife. I'm also known as A Lefty, A Vegetarian, and many times, Just Like Your Mother.

For starters, just know that I'm not proud to admit to any of this. But the guilt has been crushing. It really has. I just have to come clean about this and get it off my chest already.

I am a cheater. And I have been cheating for a while now. Cheating on my blog, that is. On the blog that I claim to 'heart'. You see, for weeks now, I have been consumed by a new passion. Something fresh and exciting and frankly, it's all I can think about. I can't deny it any longer. It just wouldn't be fair to my blog, to you my readers, or to myself.

My new love is Last•FM.

Seriously.

I can't help it. It's a social music revolution!

I have set it as my homepage. I have installed i•scrobbler on my mac and enabled iPod scrobbling. It's the first thing I do when I get home from work and it's often the last thing I do before I go to bed at night. Sometimes I lay in bed Saturday evenings or bright and early Sunday mornings, and I pour over my charts of recently played tracks, marvel at the growing numbers beside each artists name, and search for upcoming events in my hometown. I peep into my neighbours profiles and I watch what they listen to, and then I sample some tracks. I read the artist bios, and look at their photos, and then before I know it, I am tracking down their music and downloading it into my iTunes with utter abandon (20 gb and counting!). Just last night, I discovered The Pipettes and The Long Blondes. It was an instant attraction. Oh, Last•FM!

I have scrobbled nearly 1000 tracks since April, and to borrow a Depeche Mode-ian phrase, I just can't get enough!

Thanks to this new love of mine, I not only discovered the delicate, exotic strains of Beirut, but I found out they had announced a show in my city. I purchased tickets as soon as they became available and am going to their show in the Fall. Last•FM also told me that Stereo Total are coming too, and so I snapped up tickets for that as well. Last•FM just keeps on giving, and giving, and I love it for that.

And while I'm being open about all this, I may as well confess that occasionally I have in fact copied posts from my blog (gasp!) and have pasted them into my journal on Last•FM. (oh god, I can only imagine what you must think of me).

My blog has been there for me through thick and thin for more than a year now, and I know it's despicable to place my affections elsewhere and to not faithfully post to it like I should. Please understand that it's not that I don't heart my blog anymore because I still heart it very, very much. I never stop thinking about it or caring about it the whole time I'm on Last•FM. Honestly.

Perhaps Last•FM is just a phase and I'll grow tired of it after a while. That's probably the case... right?

In the meantime, sweet, dear blog... Be patient with me and try to understand. I will return to you someday soon; for you are my one true love. You and I have a history and have shared so much.

I heart you, blog. Wait for me.

I've not seen a site quite like Jonathen Yuen's before. It makes my cursor go a little wonky, and the nav takes a bit of getting used to, but it's original, and serene, and very lovely to look at. Part of me thinks it's a tad complicated for the average user, then another part peruses his projects and decides that really, any and all parts of me should just shut up already.

Mmm... i want an mStand by iRain. Just look how pretty it is. Look how beautifully it compliments the mmmMac. It's so ergonomically appealing!

{fig.1} large: toronto's cn tower
visit photo friday

thursday challenge {motion}

I heart this quote by Leonardo Da Vinci. And I'm not a big "quotes" person, so that's saying something. I even made this desktop so that I could enjoy it and read it often. Sigh. Be still my heart. Can you tell I have the travel bug these days?

the wheedling


split

Katie got me these. They're prints by Linnea Gits (limited to 250, and signed even). Aren't they lovely? I just think she's beautiful. I couldn't be more pleased about the gift of Gits because I currently have... let's see... zero pieces of art in my home. Like, none. Nothing. Not a thing on my walls. So these are perfect. I would've chosen them myself in fact. Really. It's uncanny, Katie's eye for art: dark, yet pretty... innocence mixed with the sinister... It would appear that Katie knows me very, very well indeed! And I really hope that I am over this terrible cold soon and can remove this tissue from my very red nose for long enough to actually get out this weekend to go frame shopping already. Because they are lovely. Just lovely. And I can't wait to put them up. Thank you, KE!

These and other limited edition art prints by Gits available at binth.com

{fig.1} relaxation: lazily surveying one's kingdom