Posted by: Dara

If someone asked you if you knew the difference between "like" and "like like" would you know what they were talking about? Tonight my cousin explained to me that when someone says they "like like you" it means that they REALLY like you. Isn't it interesting that people actually say "I like like you"??? I think so.

On the same note, I like like Toronto. Actually, one might say that I LOVE Toronto. I have been a fan of this place since I was young and now that I'm away from it I miss it even more. Family and friends are so important to me and it just sucks to be so far away from them.

Anyways, that's all from like, like Dara.

Posted by: Tom

As I think about writing, I think about how people write. One of my favourite authors is Tom Robbins. In most fiction, one follows a fairly clear and defined narrative path. There are the odd stops and starts, but generally it's a gratifying, fairly straight forward path that allows you to see all the wares he or she has to offer along the way. Most books follow a familiar and comfortable approach - it's sort of the Ikea approach to story telling.

When I read Robbins, I find it more like an undulating, heavily overgrown path that twists up a mountain side to a launch pad where you board a rocket, travel at the speed of light, drop into an ocean, burrow through the core of a planet, pop out the other side, fall ass over tea kettle out of the rocket (which now looks like a giant racoon wearing Batman underwear) and land back at the beginning of the path with stardust and bits of mushrooms hanging from your hair.

I always wondered how the hell he achieved such a different experience. This article written by Michael Dare, explains just how Robbins does it and it blows my mind as much as any Robbins narrative. | Read More...

Posted by: Tom


Dead animals being taken to the rendering plant.

I was recently reading a post to a blog by bandmember of Ozma. In the post, they describe how they were searching for a diesel van so that they could convert it to a bio-fuel vehicle. The sad part was that they flew to Denver to pick up the van. At first I figured they probably wasted is much fuel in that one flight as they would use touring the country, but actually, it works out to about 8 gallons of jet fuel per person on the plane, so I suppose that's a good investment to go green!

In any case, as I was reading about their post and their Herculean efforts to secure a diesel van that they could then convert to a biodiesel "grease" car, I came across a link they listed for greasenotgas.com. At the GreaseNotGas site, I read about what normally happens with the Grease they planned to convert to "biodiesel". Typically, used vegetable oil goes to rendering plants for disposal. I didn't know what a rendering plant was, but there was an article on that site detailing what a rendering plant is and what goes on there. They're a necessary, disgusting recycling plant for all dead animals. Basically, from the pet you put to sleep to the bun of your McDonald's Big Mac. Yummy. Read More...

Albert Camus and Charlotte Bronte

Posted by: Tom

I recently read an article that outlined a study conducted on the reading preferences of men and women. In the study, 500 men and women were interviewed about their reading habits and about the most important pieces of fiction in their lives. Through the course of the interviews, they were asked to identify "milestone" works of fiction - books that had changed their lives. The study (and article) listed the top 20 choices of men and women and the results are very interesting. Below, I've highlighted some of the more salient, if not surprising, results of the study as they were described in the article. Follow the "Read more" link below ...

Incidentally, I took the photo and drawing of Albert Camus and Charlotte Bronte posted above from the original article. Seeing the image posted on our site just above a photo of Ang and I that I had posted in an earlier entry on this blog, I began to worry. Ang and I are in a similar, tete-a-tete sort of pose (albeit inverted). I hope we don't look as dour and distant as dear Albert and Charlotte! Read More...

Posted by: Tom and Ang

Welcome to XOUNZ (pronounced "zounz"). XOUNZ is a Blog for Tom and Ang (a.k.a. 'Angela') Gale. Tom prefers the term Web Journal over "Blog", but we'll not get into that. Regardless of what term you use, it is a place for us to post news, musings and sundry things as they relate to our lives.

The word XOUNZ is one of those words you make up early in a relationship as a shorthand for another word or group of words. These sorts of abbreviations usually come as you start to get to know one another very well early on in a relationship. You anticipate words and feelings and complete one another's sentences. XOUNZ is one that's stuck with us for years and we like it. To many, it will seem silly upon explanation (if it doesn't already) and, as such, there's not much point to sharing the full detail of its etymology and origins. Suffice to say, it's a signature word and we thought it an appropriate name for our Blog.

Having said all that, we promise not to use the Blog for posting sickeningly doting love notes punctuated with signatures of "Love, Schmoopy". We'll also try to avoid making the site so myopically personal and narcissistic that it bears no interest to anybody other than the two of us (although I'm sure you may find that difficult to believe given what you've seen in this first post). To that end, I'll wrap it up by saying it's good to be in the world o' Blogs. Do check out Blogs of our friends: "Collected Apologies" and "a little from a lot" as linked on the sidebar.

Also, visit our site: tomandang.com to see pics of us. It's password protected, but if you actually really care to see our wedding pics etc., just email us through the Contact Us page and ask nicely :)

Tom and Ang!