Out Of The Silent Planet

Random

2011-02-16T10:38:00.004-05:00

I officially love this picture:

Its a train, stuck in the snow! So much snow! Twas taken in Minnesota, on March 29th, 1881.

BEWARE THE BLACK LUNG

2011-02-15T18:46:00.000-05:00

Still sickly, sadly

2011-02-14T12:28:00.003-05:00

I was hoping I'd be feeling all better by today, but alas, I have not yet recovered. I've still got this awful hacking cough that makes my lungs hurt, as well as being all sweaty-clammy skinned, and woozy/light-headed. It sucks, I've missed 3 days of work now. Which makes me feel like a bum or something. I had been expecting that I'd feel well enough today to go back to work, so I feeling disappointed that I ended up having to call in sick.

That whole debacle in Egypt recently has inspired me to re-read The Trouble With Islam by Irshad Manji. Excellent book, but rather sad. It isn't really meant to be sad/depressing, she seems quite optimistic/hopeful throughout the book, but I still come away feeling like these things never really seem to change much or really get all that much better in the end. I read about 180 pages (of 237 pages) yesterday while laid up in bed sick.

I think I shall go make myself some tea now.

It Has Been A While...

2011-02-13T17:28:00.002-05:00

Been ages since I posted anything on here, hasn't it?

I had been feeling a little under the weather all week, but then yesterday I was hit with a full-on raging Flu or something & spent the rest of the day/night in a feverish haze. I can't remember the last time I was so sick. I'm starting to feel better now though. Hopefully, I should be feeling well enough to go to work tomorrow.

Finished reading the Court of the Air the other day. It was a really weird book, sort of an epic steam-punk adventure. There were a few elements in the story that really gave me the creeps (the poor armless kings, mostly). I think I would rate it 3.5 out of 5.

I should probably update my goodreads &/or library thing at some point.

Creepers

2010-11-19T21:31:00.004-05:00

An odd thing happened at the bookstore yesterday. There was a guy in the "adult" section, taking photos of the pictures in the porno magazines with his camera. WTF? I kicked him out of the store.

Also, why must people buy used porno?

Random

2010-11-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

Funkasaurus Rex!

2010-10-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

Rawr!

2010-10-23T22:40:00.002-04:00

Today I stumbled upon this on the internets:
I LOVE IT!

Zombieland, where art thou?

2010-10-23T22:19:00.006-04:00

Too bad, so sad...

I was intending to go to the Zombie Walk that was happening today, but I apparently didn't clue into the fact that it was happening during the hours that I work today. So I missed it. Oh well, maybe they'll do it again & some point & I can enjoy it then.

The library was having a booksale though & I did manage to snag a few nonfiction books that looked interesting to me: Hunting Dinosaurs by Louie Psihoyos, David Attenborough's The Living Planet, Dinosaur Hunters by David A. E. Spalding & The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs by Adrian J. Desmond. The books are all decades old, so I do expect the dinosaur ones to be rather outdated & I expect that our Living Planet isn't nearly as alive as it was when Attenborough put that book out. Between pollution, climate change, overpopulation, wars, deforestation & environmental destruction, overfishing, erosion, reality TV & etc, it is probably more like "The Undead Planet."

Playing some PS3 on my new tv though, made up for missing the zombie thing though. So its all good!

While I was out today, I learned that Stars, The Black Keys, Eels, Broken Social Scene, The National & Filter all have new cds out. Man, how out of the loop am I?

Time & Modern Warfare

2010-10-18T22:08:00.007-04:00

On Saturday night I was at my sister's house & played some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with brother-in-law. Twas my first time playing that game. I really liked it! We played split-screen & I absolutely stomped brother-in-law. In one typical match I beat him 17 to 5! I think I'll have to buy the game.

On another note...

Where does the time go? There was a bunch of things I wanted to do this summer. Such as: Get my driver's license (I still only have my G1 license. lame), get a bicycle & start riding it, see a play, learn some songs on my guitar, etc, etc, etc. But then I never got around to doing because the summer passed me by too quickly. I feel like I've just blinked & I'm suddenly halfway through October. Where did the summer go? It is weird. Part of getting older I guess. From here time will only pass even more quickly, says SCIENCE. I'll have to get around to those things sometime soon.

I'm reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. I'm only about 50 (of 560) pages in so far, but it is really really interesting!

Delays

2010-10-13T21:50:00.005-04:00

Blargh! Gran Turismo 5 has apparently been delayed yet again. This makes me sad because I've been waiting for this game for about 2 years now but they keep pushing back the release date again and again. I'm starting to wonder if it is all some kind of cruel joke and the game will never actually be released but Sony just likes to torture playstation nerds with the possibility of the game. Frown!

Finally finished The First Human by Ann Gibbons. Twas really good actually. The only aspect in which the book was left wanting is that it didn't focus enough on, or give enough detail about, the origin & evolution of peopleseses. It was pretty much all about the field/practice of paleoanthropology & all these personalities in the field and all the ridiculousness, competitiveness & one-upmanship of it all. Not to sound like I'm complaining, it was all very interesting, almost soap-opera-ish in its dramarama factor, but for a book titled "The First Human" I feel I didn't learn enough about "The First Human" from it. :\Still a great read though, all in all.

(for some reason I keep wanting to refer to the book as The Last Human. I don't know why. )

Tonight I also read Amulet, the first book of the Stonekeeper series by Kazu Kibuishi. Which was fantastic. It was mostly just setting things up & introducing the characters & the rising action & whatever the eff else, but I enjoyed it. I'm seeing lots of potential for the next/future installments. I think books two & three are already out, I'm going to go try tracking them down.

I also procrastinated on my homework a bit more. Oh, how I will regret this tomorrow! I'll blame the alcohol happily swimming through my veins for my shirking of homework duties. FAIL!

Sanity?

2010-10-13T11:22:00.006-04:00

I rather enjoyed this little article:

Why would any sane person run for office? By Christopher Hitchens.

You should read it. Whoever you are... if indeed anyone is reading this at all!

The Fantastic Kingdom

2010-10-12T23:25:00.006-04:00

So I recently found this lovely art book at the bookstore. Naturally, I snatched it up immediately, like some sort of book-vulture. It is The Fantastic Kingdom: A Collection of Illustrations from the Golden Days of Storytelling, edited by David Larkin. At $7.95, it was an absolute steal. This book is a collection of fin-de-siecle era illustrations from fairy tales. The picture are all just gorgeous!

I discovered a new artist (new to me, at least), Edmund Dulac. I had never heard of him before, or seen any of his work. I am really digging it though. Very ethereal stuff, reminds me a little of Mucha in that respect. I've been googling him quite a bit since & oogling his work. Great stuff.

Braaaaaaainsssss!

2010-10-09T21:52:00.005-04:00

Apparently there is going to be a Zombie Walk on the 23rd. I'm thinking about going. Should be neat!

Yay for homework!

2010-10-08T22:18:00.003-04:00

I have so much homework to do. Frown... I mean yay! Oh joy!

A random pictures moment...

2010-10-07T21:57:00.004-04:00

Found these in a photo album:

Should we call in Poirot, Holmes, Grissom or Miss Marple?

2010-10-06T18:57:00.005-04:00

So apparently today there was a shooting on Durham street, which is actually right on the way I walk to work. It seems I missed it by only a few minutes. Weird. Perhaps if the 'many-worlds' interpretation of physics is correct, there is an alternative universe (or universes) where I left for work a few minutes later & ended up as a witness.

They say its usually someone you know, in this case apparently the perp & the victim were buddies for like 20 years. People are messed. I don't really understand how or why someone would something like that.

Link

Today was actually one of my days off, but I came in to work to make up some hours I missed when I took sick day a couple weeks ago. It was a decent day. I have lots of homework to do. Yay for homework!

Long Time No See

2010-10-05T12:29:00.008-04:00

Hi there blog.

I'm sorry I've been away for so long. I've had difficulties in knowing what to write. It has kind of been a problem since day one of this blog for me. I'll sit down to type & my mind will go blank & I'll be at a loss of what to talk about. I'm bad for that. Not even just in terms of blogging, but also in terms of writing anything, including homework assignments, but also even just talking in normal everyday conversation. I have a hard time with expressing myself.

But I'm going to get tougher on myself with my blog writings (as well as with other things), be more disciplined. I'll try to post more often/regularly than I have been recently.

Lately I've been kinda in a bit of a weird funk. I've been trying to be positive & keep things in perspective. I think I'm on my way back up & out of it though. I think a lot of it was just that I was in this work/homework/bla bla bla/etc etc etc cycle where everyday was starting to feel exactly the same & it was all blending together in my head, so I got rather blah about everything.

I notice that the last book I talk about having read in this blog (ages ago) was The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott. I've gone through a bunch since then. So maybe I'll talk a bit about those in future postings. Yay for backtracking!

In other news, my brother got a dog last week (or maybe it was the week before that... hmm... whichever). She is a 'rescued' dog he got from a shelter. Her name was originally Twirler, but he didn't like that and so has decided to rename her Emma. Twirler/Emma is a two year old greyhound. She was a racer apparently, but only briefly. I wonder how successful she was, I mean, if she is only two & being adopted she couldn't have been a terribly successful racer, right? She is frighteningly quick though. I like her, adorable she be.

The Big Move

2010-09-01T20:26:00.002-04:00

+ Almost all my stuff is moved in.

- Still have to unpack everything.

- Still have some things I need to buy.

Meh.

2010-08-20T21:25:00.002-04:00

I keep wanting to update this, but I can't think of anything to write about. Apparently I have nothing to say. The picture pretty much sums it all up. Anyway...

Ralph!

2010-07-28T22:08:00.008-04:00

So today I went with my sister to the airport to pick up her new puppy dog! He is a Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog. He is absolutely adorable. Like a little polar bear. I say "little" but at only 14 weeks he is already 55 pounds. He will grow to be a really big dog, that much is for sure. I would post some pictures of him, but I still haven't gotten around to buying a digital camera, so the pictures will have to wait. I did take some pictures with my phone, but I don't yet have the cable to hook it up to the computer, nor have I bothered to figure out how to send pictures in some other way yet. So whatever. He threw up a bunch of times though. I blame that on the flight.

Last night I watched episodes of Highlander: The Series & Forever Knight. Yay for cheesy tv shows from the early 90s!

I'm reading 2012: The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott. Its pretty good so far, at first I felt it was good, but not great, I'm starting to get into it though. I'm diggin it. I enjoyed the Nostradamus "cameo." Twas a nice touch. Nostradamus = awesome.

Also: I've updated my LibraryThing.

Shiny Happy People Holding Hands...

2010-07-21T22:09:00.013-04:00

I feel that I have lived my entire life in a cage, locked from the inside. I've always had the key, but was too fearful of what might lie beyond to use it. Confinement was safe, comfortable, predictable. Outside there was too many risks, the possibility of failure. Chaos. So I chose solitude, and lamented while the world turned away. I loathed myself for that.

I want to open the door. I want to escape. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I wrote that a while back. Rediscovered it in a notebook the other day. Not the slightest bit emo, eh? Not sure why I'm posting it, out of a desire to be more honest, more transparent, perhaps?

In more cheery news, things are good! I've finally finished reading Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters, which was beyond awesome. Tis lame how long it too me to complete it though. I started reading a new book today. School is going well. I'm elated to see that a certain fellow blogger is progressing nicely.

I'll be updating my LibraryThing sometime soon.

ALSO: Eclipse was fantastic! Munich was incredibly depressing but also very good.

Movie night.

2010-07-17T01:08:00.003-04:00

I must say that The Secret of the NIMH is an effing awesome film. That is all for now.

Blog, I'm sorry I haven't had time for you.

Please get well!

2010-06-18T23:56:00.008-04:00

I just found out that someone I love dearly is in the hospital. I'm so worried for her! I've never been so worried in my life.

My Brain Hurts.

2010-06-17T22:20:00.002-04:00

An artistic impression of myself at this particular moment in time:

Narnia

2010-06-16T22:47:00.026-04:00

The other day I finished reading A Brief History of Anxiety by Patricia Pearson. It was a wonderful book that I enjoyed a great deal & found I could relate to it a tremendous amount. I made a half-assed review on LibraryThing. I was a little bit sleep-deprived when I wrote it. Writing reviews is incredibly difficult! (or at least it is for me...)

It contained a quote that I thought a rather neat one to ponder. It was from an anonymously-written article published in a magazine (I think it was Time or People something like that, although I'm not sure exactly which, I've forgotten & since I already returned the book to the library I cannot consult it to be certain.) back in the early 1960s. The article was about the self-aggrandisement going on in American/modern culture & all that keeping up with the Jones' stuff. People being compelled/driven to spend & consume & desire more & more & more, over-reaching their means. It was talked about in the book in terms of the anxiety created by demands/expectations of consumer culture, the obsession/pressures to have more & the willingness to cross or disregard any line or boundary in achieving those desires (yay for run-on sentences!). "Fake it till you make it!" "I want it cheaper, I want it now!" Always more & more & bigger.

Here's the quote:

"The most orthodox tenet in the American creed is that the individual can accomplish anything if he tries hard enough. It may be one of the glories of a free society, but it also carries great potential for danger... From the noble notion that man is free to do anything that he can do, the US somehow subtly proceeds to the notion that he must do anything he can and, finally, that there is nothing he cannot do. This leads to a kind of compulsory freedom that encourages people not only to ignore their limitations but to defy them."

I find that commentary particularly interesting to contemplate in the wake of the whole mortgage crisis/financial meltdown/"global economic downturn" hoopla.

On much the same note: "Lebow and his cronies got together to 'create' the modern advertising industry, which plays to primitive beliefs," says Rees. "It makes you feel insecure, because the advertising industry turned our sense of self-worth into a symbolic presentation of the possessions we have," he told me. "We've turned consumption into a necessity, and how we define ourselves."

But now to digress...

I'm a little more than halfway through Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. I am absolutely in love with the book. Its kind of making me want to read the original Pride & Prejudice upon which it was based. I'd like to see how much they differ in story/plot/details/etc. Obviously, I expect it wouldn't contain zombies or ninjas or violent combat, etc. But I am really quite curious about how different it is & what has been changed & so on. So perhaps I'll read me some Jane Austen someday.

The Caveman Diet

2010-06-16T22:33:00.004-04:00

I thought this cartoon very amusing...

In other, entirely unrelated news... I got back my marks from my latest assignment the other day. 47 out of 50. Not too shabby. Not quite as good as the 100% from my first assignment in my PC tech support class, but it'll do, it'll do. Needless to say, I'm rather "stoked" about it.

Hi!

2010-06-11T22:19:00.019-04:00

Today I worked a 9.5 hour shift. Twas only supposed to an 8 hour, but a co-worker of mine called in sick & I was the only one available to cover for her. Not too bad though, it was a nice quiet day at work with only a couple of very busy moments sprinkled in. Its a little extra money in the bank right? Which is always nice.

In the past two days, two books have come in which I have been very very much wanting to read for ages, but as of yet had not acquired. The first was Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Graham-Smith, the other was Sweet & Low: A Family Story by Rich Cohen. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is exactly what it sounds like; The classic Jane Austen novel rewritten to include a zombie apocalypse. So obviously it must be AMAZING! Sweet & Low is a memoir written by the grandson of the guy who invented artificial sweetener. He talks about his eccentric family & their history, the company, artificial sweetener, and last but most certainly not least, the tax evasion & criminal conspiracies & other back-stabbings that apparently went on behind the scenes within the business! Sounds neat to me! I also want to snag, The Suess, The Whole Suess & Nothing But The Suess (a biography of Dr. Suess) but I'm feeling slightly guilty about the number of books I've borrowed from work & somewhat intimidated by the sheer size of my "To Read" pile.

I'm almost finished my current read, which is another memoir: A Brief History of Anxiety [Yours & Mine] by Patricia Pearson. A crime-reporter turned chick-lit writer who is apparently the granddaughter of Lester B. Pearson. Which seems a rather interesting background if you ask me. It's been a pretty good read so far.

NY, NY fantasy vacation revisited

2010-06-09T22:42:00.010-04:00

In my previous post about all the various places in New York I'd like to visit, I had neglected to mention North Brother Island. It is a desert island in NY, which was once used as, amongst other things/ways, a sanatorium for Typhus patients &/or recovering addicts. It has been completely abandoned for about 40 years. It having been abandoned for so long is the reason for my fascination with the island. It would be so spooky to explore. Would be something of an adventure, almost post-apocalyptic in nature. I first learned about it on the docu-drama series "Life After People." Great show.

A few days ago I finished another book, Footprints of Thunder by James F. David. Twas quite good. I really enjoyed it. It was sort of like Jurassic Park, in that it involved dinosaurs in the modern world, but it featured a clever time-travel motif instead of the whole genetic engineering thing. In some ways it made me think of a "zombie apocalypse" novel, but with the zombies replaced with dinos, I also found it slightly reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand. Breakdown of society & collapse of civilization as we know it. In part of the novel a big chunk of New York City reverts to primordial reptilian-fauna-infested savanna. So yeah, I enjoyed it a great deal. I actually have the sequel sitting on my "to read" shelf right now. I'll be picking it up after I get through a few other books.

That is all for today.

Restaurant Host Cartoon

2010-06-08T14:57:00.004-04:00

I thought this was pretty funny, so I decided to share: LINK

This one is my fave:

It seems I'm not the world's greatest photographer

2010-06-08T09:21:00.004-04:00

So maybe about a month ago, I went to the park with my friend & we took some pictures using her camera. Her camera is one of those old school Holga cameras, an actual film camera rather a digital contraption. So I went to take a few pictures of her hanging around a tree Tarzan-style, only for us to realise a few minutes later than I had forgotten to wind the camera after each photo. So we had to retake each picture. This is the original multiple exposure picture, it looks weird, doesn't it? (weird in a neat way though, I think)

Reading Rainbow!

2010-06-05T22:31:00.004-04:00

Today I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel & The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

I loved them both, they were each outstanding, brilliant, quite moving. They're each pretty much perfect.

I've had a really good day today.

People are strange, when you're a stranger.

2010-06-04T08:32:00.013-04:00

There is this strange character named Nick on an discussion board I frequent & sometimes I have a hard time believing that he is a real person rather than, well, just a character. I've cut & pasted, AKA "stolen", a few of his stories to post here, because I find them so weird that it is both perplexing, humorous and very strange to me. I wonder if it is all for real, or if he just makes it all up. I kinda hope its all fictional, but sometimes truth has a way of being stranger than fiction, doesn't it?

I probably could have/should have broken this up into several bite-sized, more easily digestible posts, but whatever...

Enjoy, Nick in all his creepy glory!

"once my brother and i were playing baseball against my sister and her friend, like a modified two-on-two baseball, and they were both kind of chubby, and when they started beating us my brother and i got mad and started chanting "weight watchers!" at both of them until they started crying."

"once when i was 17 i had an online girlfriend who was hispanic! and she internet-dumped me when she found out i was cybering this other girl in a private chat in an X-Files chat room!

FUN FACT: the girl i was cybering had some leg condition and walked with a cane! lol"

"another internet girlfriend story: when i was 19 i think i met a girl on PowWow chat who lived in a town just like a half-hour away from me, and we agreed to meet at a Walmart (lol). her dad and brother drove her there in an old truck! she had a perfect body but a giant cleft lip. we went to a park and sat on the swings and made awkward conversation. then i dropped her back off at Walmart and got the hell out of there. a few months later she recorded a Smashing Pumpkins interview on the radio 'cause she knew i liked them and sent it to me in the mail with a really nice letter asking to see me again. i listened to the tape a lot but never got back in touch with her."

"one that's really long but here's just the gist of it: when we first got AOL when i was 16 i convinced a 42 year old Bostonian woman in a hockey chat room that i was a 25 year old photographer from Chicago with terminal cancer mostly just so i could vent about my troubles in a more pitiable guise than an acne-ridden 16 year old and i had her going for like three months until she tried to contact the hospital i wasn't staying at"

"also when i was 16 and acne ridden and afraid of real life girls, i met Vanessa in that WBS X-Files chat room. she was 16 also and had a 14 year old sister who also chatted in the same chat room but at a different computer at home. once Vanessa (who was super hot but would always talk about colorguard and dance and it bored the shit out of me) logged on and found me and Heidi (the sister) cybering out in the open 'cause no one else was in the room and she dressed me down and told me she wished she never sent me the VHS tape of her performing colorguard and dance routines and told her sister she was gonna tell their parents and i was so afraid i'd get in huge trouble for cybering a 14 year old but nothing ever came of it."

"i went to Ann Arbor to visit my Hispanic internet girlfriend who was a freshman at the University of Michigan while i was still in high school and i had a hotel room my dad got me 'cause i think he wanted me to lose my virginity already and was ashamed of me lol . so we were fooling around and it was all very clumsy and i remember at one point trying to give her oral sex and she had a huge bush and it smelled like b.o.! and when she went down on me she kept on squeezing my balls too hard and i couldn't come 'cause of it so i started crying! she held me in her arms and sang a song! lol then we watched Beavis and Butthead on MTV for the rest of the night 'cause they had a marathon on. it was like a couple weeks later when she broke up with me for cheating on her by cybering with the girl with the cane. "

"here's a random one: this girl i'd been chatting with in the WBS X-Files chat room since i was like 16 or so wanted to meet me when she got accepted into the University of Minnesota. at the time i think i was a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point. i was never really attracted to her and just considered her a friend 'cause in the pics she sent me she looked rather homely and had no curves or boobs. anyway she must have had a really late growth spurt 'cause when i visited her dorm she was really curvy and had like d-cups! i was thinking like "SCORE!" so we got really drunk with her friends the first night and we started making out and saying "i've always been in love with you". we were 2drunk2fuck but i gave her a huge hiccy (sp?) on her neck and the next morning i embarrassed myself by asking really loud in front of everyone "how did you hurt your neck?" 'cause i didn't know what it was. the second night we were smoking outside and this short but morbidly obese black student with Don King hair approaches her and they start fighting 'cause apparently he had a crush on her and she kept on looking at me to defend her honor but i couldn't stop staring at his hair and later that night one of her friends told me that when he shits the back of the toilet seat gets all smeared 'cause his ass is so fat the hole gets pushed way to the back of the seat and makes contact! the second night we got really drunk again and i ended up lying on my back about to pass out with the internet girl on one side of me and her friend on the other side and for some reason they both had their pants off and i started fingerbanging both of them with my eyes closed and internet girl started crying! (i think i've told that part of the story here before). the next day i left before anyone woke up 'cause i didn't know how to deal with the situation and later, no joke, the girl's mom sent me an angry letter!"

"well Alexis was a girlfriend i met irl! she was a friend of this other girl who was into me (and had manic depression and really rough palms). she had a lot of weird hang ups and her father took a really prurient interest in her sex life. she's the girl who had period sex with me and picked the clumps of bloody flesh out of our mingled pubic hair and rubbed it into her skin. she also could not poop in any house other than her own. she would have horrible abdominal pains and i'd have to drive her home now and then just so she could go. we'd joke about me having the problem of going too much, and she having backed up poop anxiety. she also had a weird hole between her boobs where a breast plate should have been, got off on putting her hair in pigtails and talking like an adolescent child during sex... what else... oh i took it really well when she broke up with me: one night i called her house (she still lived with her parents) at like 3 AM and just screamed into the phone when she answered and then hung up and she called the cops and they sent a car to my house and i was like "oh shit act sober" and i think i convinced them my cat stepped on my cell phone."

"oh and once another girl i was into in the X-Files chatroom was Canadian and told me she was bi and we'd cyber but her girlfriend didn't like me 'cause i'm an Aquarius (seriously i was told that's why she didn't like me even though i cybered with her girlfriend) and i once i was on the phone with her and said girlfriend walked in and they started fighting about her being on the phone with me and i felt so cool having two lesbians fighting about me until i realized how pathetic it all really was"

Don Bluth, whatever happened to you?

2010-06-03T21:47:00.005-04:00

I just finished watching All Dogs Go To Heaven. Childhood nostalgia blast from the past it was.

*a few hours later*

Just got home from my sister's house. I had bought that movie on DVD for my sister yesterday when we went out & had dinner. We also stopped at a few places as there was a few things I needed to purchase. A laptop sleeve & a dry erase marker board among a few other things. bla.

In writing this blog entry I am procrastinating terribly. I have an assignment due tomorrow & I'm no where near finished yet. I've barely even started writing out the actual report. So I need to go do that. :\

*later still*

I'm still working on my assignment. I had a drink to help myself relax a little & so hopefully do a bit better in my writing (something my friend had mentioned before, I'm such an idea thief!). Although it did help loosen me up a bit & help in my thinking process, my skin now has this weird tingly feeling that is very distracting (It isn't terribly unusual for me to get such a feeling when I've either consumed alcohol or am really tired, both in this case). It's coming along though.

If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere!

2010-06-03T00:48:00.021-04:00

Some day I would like to travel to New York City. On my ideal trip to NYC I would visit the following places. (Note: I concede that these will all be obvious, touristy places & rightly so!)

The Library Hotel:

This is where I would like to stay while in NYC. Ideally, I would like stay in a different room each night I was there, as each room is entirely unique & based on a different genre of literature. It's pretty freaking cool in an uber-geek chic kinda way.

Lombardi's Pizza:

The first pizzeria in New York! Because I love pizza too much for words.

American Museum of Natural History & Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Because of all the incredibly awesome & amazing things they have in their collections & exhibits. I would love to geek over it all. I could easily spend a week in each of the museums.

Central Park:

Its like a green oasis in a concrete wasteland... or something something...

Central Perk:

If only I could!

Bronx Zoo:

To see all the wonderful animals, of course.

Broadway:

I'd definitely go take in a musical. I believe its a production of "Wicked" in the picture below. I've heard it is an extremely good book, so I presume the theatre adaptation would be good as well. Who knows?

Wall Street:

Money, money, money, money, money!

Times Square:

Because it is the most obvious place in NYC to go. It kind of defines the city, doesn't it?

Empire State Building:

Why? Because its there & its ginormous. I expect the view would be spectacular.

Little Italy:

Food being the primary reason for this pick. I would fat it up there until my belly & heart both explode with joy & deliciousness! And just because it is so stereotypically New York City that you kinda have to go.

Chinatown:

Chinese food! Chickens & various other creatures hanging in windows! Neat characters on all the signs! Just would be an interesting place to wander, I imagine. Also, ditto to what I said earlier about being so stereotypically a famous part of New York that you kinda have to go.

Luna Park, Coney Island:

For the obvious reasons of the roller coasters & rides & attractions & games & all the rest of the usual fun fair/carnival/amusement park stuff.

Bannerman Island Castle:

Not actually in NYC, but it is in New York state, upriver a bit on the Hudson I believe. Why? Because it is an old castle, thats why! I love castles, isn't that reason enough?

Fini.

Exogenesis

2010-06-01T01:49:00.001-04:00

I thought this cartoon was really funny:
Also: HOLY COW! It's looks like a bottomless pit from a cartoon or something...

LINK: Tropical storm blows 60m deep sinkhole in Guatemala city.

Think Happy Thoughts

2010-05-31T21:18:00.003-04:00

+ Got paid!

+ Prepared some tasty foods!

+ Sunshine!

+ Got an assignment completed & submitted!

+ Turns out my grade for the course I took last semester is 84%. Not too shabby!

+ Had my shifts at worked changed up so that I now have two days off in a row!

+ Enjoying an interesting book!

+ It's officially my weekend right now!

+ Nice pictures!

+ Finally finished cleaning out a section of shelves at work (the religious section), for now. I've started fixing up the politics section. It'll be so nice when they're all tidied up! (until they are inevitably messed up again by customers)

+ Making pesto pasta tomorrow!

+ White chocolate!

+ Exclamation points!

Celebrity Five

2010-05-30T23:25:00.010-04:00

Not long ago, my friend asked me on formspring, "who are your celeb 5?" I've pondered it over a little bit (I require pondering time because I am terribly indecisive & I have a tendency to get frequent & numerous little crushes.) So here is a top five of my celebrity crushes (with the exception of the number one spot, the order of this list is entirely arbitrary)...

Number Five, Keri Russell.

Number Four, Famke Janssen.

Number Three, Allison Mack.

Number Two, Julie Ordon.

Number One, Emily Haines.

Some other celebs considered for inclusion in this list are: Mila Kunis, Milla Jovovich, Selma Blair, Jennifer Aniston, Kari Byron, Adriana Lima, Josie Maran, Hannah Sung, Joelle Jones (although warranting "celeb" status is highly debatable/questionable with her, she does have some degree of fame in her field nonetheless, so whatever), Zooey Deschanel, Ingrid Bergman, Alessandra Ambrosio & Trish Goff.

HOMEWORK!

2010-05-28T23:28:00.002-04:00

So I have an assignment due on Monday, the 31st & two more assignments due on Friday, the 4th. I'm a little bit behind, so I'm feeling a tad frazzled about it, but I'll get it done no probbo. Procrastinating & then getting it done almost at the last minute seems to be my MO. I will survive!

A Picture Moment, Featuring Charlie...

2010-05-26T09:32:00.004-04:00

Charlie at the park:

(The baby is my step-sister's kiddo, Jubilee, she is 15 months old.)

Happy Birthday!

2010-05-25T23:36:00.003-04:00

Today was my sister's b-day.

I'm trying to read a lecture, but the hot weather we're having here is bothering me, making me feel yucky & this is unconducive to my studying. Having difficulty concentrating. That I'm full of sugar from ice cream cake probably doesn't help matters.

A Vision of Beauty

2010-05-24T13:15:00.002-04:00

Where we sat at dawn together, while the star-rich heavens shifted,
We were weaving dreams in silence, suddenly the veil was lifted.
By a hand of fire awakened, in a moment caught and led
Upward to the heaven of heavens—through the star-mists overhead
Flare and flaunt the monstrous highlands; on the sapphire coast of night
Fall the ghostly froth and fringes of the ocean of the light.
Many coloured shine the vapours: to the moon-eye far away
’Tis the fairy ring of twilight, mid the spheres of night and day,
Girdling with a rainbow cincture round the planet where we go,
We and it together fleeting, poised upon the pearly glow;
We and it and all together flashing through the starry spaces
In a tempest dream of beauty lighting up the face of faces.
Half our eyes behold the glory; half within the spirit’s glow
Echoes of the noiseless revels and the will of Beauty go.
By a hand of fire uplifted—to her star-strewn palace brought,
To the mystic heart of beauty and the secret of her thought:
Here of yore the ancient Mother in the fire mists sank to rest,
And she built her dreams about her, rayed from out her burning breast:
Here the wild will woke within her lighting up her flying dreams,
Round and round the planets whirling break in woods and flowers and streams,
And the winds are shaken from them as the leaves from off the rose,
And the feet of earth go dancing in the way that beauty goes,
And the souls of earth are kindled by the incense of her breath
As her light alternate lures them through the gates of birth and death.
O’er the fields of space together following her flying traces,
In a radiant tumult thronging, suns and stars and myriad races
Mount the spirit spires of beauty, reaching onward to the day
When the Shepherd of the Ages draws his misty hordes away
Through the glimmering deeps to silence, and within the awful fold
Life and joy and love forever vanish as a tale is told,
Lost within the Mother’s being. So the vision flamed and fled,
And before the glory fallen every other dream lay dead.

- George William Russell

He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty

2010-05-24T13:09:00.001-04:00

O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes,

The poets labouring all their days
To build a perfect beauty in rhyme
Are overthrown by a woman's gaze
And by the unlabouring brood of the skies:
And therefore my heart will bow, when dew
Is dropping sleep, until God burn time,
Before the unlabouring stars and you.

- William Butler Yeats

bla bla bla

2010-05-24T00:30:00.006-04:00

Hey there,

I'm really tired but can't sleep. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I see it has been a week since my last post. Sorry I've neglected the bloggy blog. I've been a bit busy. Today I worked, yesterday (Saturday) I also worked, as well as spent some time with my siblings & watched a movie (Iron man 2, twas pretty good) & helped my mom with more moving of things into her new house until 1 in the morning. On Tuesday my friend came over & we watched a movie, Just Buried and some Real Time with Bill Maher, whose name I managed to forget somehow. The other day I also picked up a b-day present for my sister, whose b-day will be this Tuesday. The rest of the past week I mostly just spent working.

She asked me if I could help her with more moving tonight (she called at 10:30pm), but I was too tired to be carrying around boxes & was already in my pajamas, plus I have a lot of homework to do. So... not today, maybe tomorrow. I tried to go to sleep, but it wasn't working out so well, actually falling asleep just wasn't happening.

I finished my latest read a little while ago, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. It was great! One of the best books I've read in ages. Really, really interesting & very, very well written. I would very highly recommend it to anyone & everyone.

It is a biography about the famous British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 during an expedition in the Amazon jungle while searching for the fabled lost civilization he cryptically dubbed "Z". Whatever happened to him has remained a mystery ever since. Killed by hostile Indians is the most widely accepted theory. So the author sets out to try to solve the mystery. Awesomeness ensues.

At this moment, I'm watching a show on the History channel called After Armageddon. It's also pretty neat. Yay for post-apocalyptic docu-drama type things! Viagra commercials are really annoying aren't they? I can't stand them. I hadn't really been watching much TV in a while, but this past week I've started watching more of it again. Mostly on On Demand or whatever. I've also been seeing a fair number of movies lately.

I'm mad at Rainbow Cinemas! Also: Magical Mystery Movie + I am the Lorax!

2010-05-16T22:56:00.019-04:00

Hi there,

Sorry I've kinda been neglecting my posting duties the last few days (although I suppose it isn't a rule that I must post everyday or anything, of course). I've been keeping myself a little busy.

This weekend I worked on Saturday & then after work I read a bit before going over to my sister's & spending time with her & my brother. Brother & I also went out to visit my mom at her apartment (still not anywhere near finished with the whole moving in process). I fell asleep at her house & slept though the beginning of some movie we were watching. Though I then woke up & powered my way through the rest of it. I don't know what the movie was & didn't recognise anyone in it, but it was about some sort of murder + real estate scam thing going on in Chicago.

Synopsis of Mystery Movie:

So some guy murders a brother & sister who have inherited a fortune including a massive & very ritzy estate home. Then he & an accomplice girl pretend to be the victims (although apparently they didn't realize the vics were bro & sis/assume they were Mr & Mrs, this be what gives an already no longer needed clue that they're the villains & be scammin') & dupe this cute but naive chicky who is kinda dabbling in real estate but is a tad clueless/doesn't really know what she is doing, into selling the house for him. The Imposter asks that the house be sold WITHOUT LISTING IT & that it be paid for in CASH. (as if! You would think at that point someone would clue in to the whole thing seeming just a little sketchy, n'est-ce pas?)

Of course, she immediately finds a buyer, some Saudi consular official who wants to move in right away & pays $10 million +. She receives a nice fat commish check for $650 grand for her seemingly minimal amount of effort, before everything goes to crap.

How everything goes to crap: The caretaker of the house is offed when he gets too close to the sketchy criminal happenings. The bodies of the dead siblings be found & their deaths are reported in the paper (the morning after the sale, most conveniently), Mr. embassy guy looses his brain when he shows up to take possession of the house & finds the next of kin/new real owner there. Little Miss Realtor is questioned by the police. Oh & after all that, when she finally gets home, her Frenchy BF "Monseur Boeuf Bourguignon", we'll call him, dumps her. Then her BFF & partner in the sale is hit by a truck while in hot pursuit of Imposter/Killer's female accomplice.

So Little Miss Realtor decides to unravel the mystery & solve the crime herself. All the pieces fall into place, she scores herself a new love interest in the form of the next of kin/new inheritor guy (who by the by, is apparently a spoiled rich kid, turned drug addict, turned army guy, now Chicago's best carpenter), accomplice girl gets killed herself by Imposter/Killer who is then caught (but obviously not before Little Miss Realtor gets herself in danger's way at his behest! Does "behest" make sense used in that context? Whatevs! But no worries because new love interest saves her from danger deux ex machina-style! Then she saves him from close call at the hands of Imposter/Killer, since this is supposed to be a post-damsel in distress era, after all, isn't it?) & BFF girl wakes up from her Mack truck induced coma with nothing to show for her sorrows but a band-aid on her forehead. Fini/happily ever after!

Wasn't a bad movie actually, twas decent/not too shabby, although 199.99% predictable. The weird thing is that lately whenever siblings & I go over to watch a movie with my mom, mom ends up inadvertently selecting a movie with at least one (in this case several) sex scenes. I find this quite consistently results in some degree of awkwardness.

I had Sunday off work, which I spent helping out with things at my Mom's new house (getting things ready to move in type help, I also watered some of their newly planted trees, which were planted quite conveniently while I was working a shift at work.), eating very unhealthily & then hanging out with brother & sister & brother-in-law. We watched a show about dinosaurs & then a zillion episodes of The Office.

How unhealthily was I eating today? The facts: Harvey's bacon double cheeseburger combo with fries & a diet coke (as if it being a diet helps me, who do I think I'm kidding? LOL), buttery popcorn, chocolates, iced tea, a coke (not a diet) & pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. AKA: I've fallen off the "I'm going to start eating better" wagon. I've actually gained like 5 pounds in the past few weeks. I think all the treats "L" brings into work & thus I am inevitably tempted by is partly responsible. But naturally, I have no one but myself & my willpower to blame!

Perhaps you're wondering why, I've included "I'm mad at Rainbow Cinemas!" in the title? Well, my friend & I are supposed to see Avatar this Tuesday & last time I checked they were showing it at 4:25 & 7 on Tuesdays, but they've since changed that & ceased to play Avatar. A seriously serious LET DOWN this be. Lame! I'm hoping she still wants to do something that day, as I would still greatly enjoy her company.

That be more than enough rambling for one day, I'm certain... so until next time, au revoir!

PS: Ramble! Bla bla bla! Yadda yadda yadda!

WEIRD BOOK ROOM

2010-05-10T23:12:00.003-04:00

Dear reader(s), I wanted to share with you this wonderful link to the awesomeness that is the WEIRD BOOK ROOM. Tis really keen. They have some really bizarre & cool books on there.

I'm kinda tired & I have a headache, so I think that's all for tonight. Au revoir!

Mother's day weekend

2010-05-09T23:12:00.010-04:00

Bonjour.

So this weekend has been pretty okay. Saturday after work I went over to my sister's house, I was supposed to be helping them with renovation things, that was the plan. But by the time I finished work & got over there, they had already called it quits for the day. They got the bathroom floor tiled though. It looks really, really nice. So I just hung out around the house with my sister & brother in law. At around 8 or 9 we went to Boston Pizza to watch the hockey game & the UFC fight. I don't really care about the playoffs, nor am I interested in ultimate fighting, but it is always nice to spend time with them. I had fun.

Does anyone else think it's really dumb & lame how NHL playoffs go into May & June? I think its incredibly stupid. Hockey is supposed to be a winter sport! Winter! Although we did get winter weather on Saturday, which was effed, so maybe that can fly as a bit of an excuse for them. I dunno, whatevs.

At the restaurant there were some of those "Dude Broman"* college guy clone types (please refer to the diagrams at the top of this post for further info!) at the table next to ours. You know the kind, the ones who all talk & look exactly the same. They all speak like; "dude, so that like stuff was like totally like bro and that chick was like so and then I was like yeah man! Totally!" Followed by the beavis & butthead laugh. And all dress almost the same and all wear some minor variation of the same tediously groomed facial hair style. They're all essentially the exact same person, but there is somehow a dozen of them in the same place at the same time. Its as if neck-bearded Dude Bromans are the next step after Dolly the sheep(s). So my sister & I spent half the evening making fun of them behind their backs & doodling/scribbling on napkins. It was fun, and the beer helped make it more fun still.

Today after work I went over to visit my Mom (naturally, being mother's day & all) at her shiny brand new house. She just the keys for it on Friday. It's really nice! I almost want to steal the house from her. My sister & I helped clean up the place before the actual moving in happens. I also helped paint the basement rec room ceiling. It was also fun.

Work has been good too. I inputted books into our homebase online sales thing yesterday. First time I've done that. It was neat. Tedious, but tedious in a rather good way. I like that.

All in all, it has been a really nice weekend!

* The name "Dude Broman" is a registered trademark of Andi-Lee & is used with permission.

Yay for e-makeover & Shiraz Cab!

2010-05-07T21:22:00.022-04:00

Hello there,

How are you today internets? I hope all is well. So Jen has given this blog a little bit of a facelift, I think it looks the better for it!

Last night I finally got around to watching It Might Get Loud, which was awesome. Just awesome. I really enjoyed it (I guess you already got that from my saying it was awesome, right? Okay!). It makes me wish I was musically inclined & it makes me want to try harder to learn to play my own guitar. Anyhow, I would highly recommend the film to any & all. I also watched Extract, again, last night. Still so funny.

Between work, helping with renovations at my sister's house, helping my mom pack things, and maybe seeing an IMAX movie with my sister (about dinosaurs! Rawr!), it looks like I'll be pretty busy this weekend. So don't be too alarmed if I don't blog until Monday. It won't be because I'm lying dead, murdered, in a ditch somewhere waiting for the dudes from CSI to stumble upon my corporeal remains.

At work today we got 13 boxes of books! So yeah, that is going one hell of a credit to tab up.But it seems that the man who once owned those 13 boxes of books was formerly employed as a book reviewer, so consequently there are some rather interesting books of an eclectic variety interspersed with some random crappy books as well. But it's looking way more interesting than the usual boxes of crummy old paperbacks we get so very soul-crushingly often. I'm told that someone once brought in 50 (!) boxes of books. 25 each of hardcovers & softcovers. Crazy! I'm kinda glad I wasn't there for that.

Random factoid of the day: I really really like Shiraz Cabernet.

Random Justen quote of the day (paraphrased) : "What would God know about hard work? He's only worked 7 days in his whole life. Oh no wait, he rested on the 7th day! So 6 days. God is a lazy bastard!"

In honour of the awesomeness of It Might Get Loud and Jimmy Page, Jack White & little Davey Evans, I have decided that I shall include with this blog some pics of my all time fave guitar. Which I think is the coolest & bestest guitar in the history of not only the universe, but also all of the possible multiverse(s). While I'm at it, I'll also throw in some random youtube video, by some random dinkus, that happens to feature "my" guitar.

1998 model Gibson SG Deluxe in Ice Blue

I've been harboring a shameful secret...

2010-05-04T11:52:00.009-04:00

(the above cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post, I just liked it.)

Yesterday, there was a little bit of back & forth comments about Avril Lavigne between my friend Jenner & myself. On that topic I have a shameful confession to make... due to the songs being played on the radio at work EVERY FREAKING DAY FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS, her songs Complicated & I'm With You have grown on me. So I like those songs now. Damn radio, I blame you! I suppose this means I have to revoke any possible claim to having any dignity, doesn't it? Oh, poor me!

*insert white water rapids-type river of emo tears here*

Anyhow, I had a good day at work yesterday & am having a good day so far today. There may or may not be some layout changes happening with this blog type thing of mine in the near future. We'll have to wait & see!

Okay, bye for now internets!

"No one thinks flavour extracts are interesting"

2010-05-02T21:29:00.022-04:00

I've felt too distracted/scatterbrained the past couple days to really bother with posting anything.

I watched a really good movie tonight. Extract. I loved it too much for words. Twas awesomeness. I think my favourite part of the movie was the bit where Mila Kunis's's's character is reading about "Step" & his accident in the newspaper.

There was a weirdo in the store a few days ago. He reminded me of a zombie. Before he walked in he was standing frozen in front of the doorway with a completely blank look on his face for a good 2 or 3 or so minutes. Then he opened the door & walked in (very slowly). He walked/shuffled around the store (and again very slowly) with this vacant grin on his face. At first he walked towards the back of the store & then he paused and stood still for about a minute or so before turning around and (still slowly) began walking back towards the front. I sort of kept one eye on him since he was such a sketchy weird. I asked him "are you looking for something in particular?" He froze for about 30 seconds before replying (and when he did I caught sight of where several missing teeth should have been hanging out) "no, I'm just looking." Then he walked out (as slowly as ever). Definitely on something he was.

Yesterday there was a mentally handicapped guy hovering around the wank-mag shelf. Apparently he occasionally comes in & does this. Never buys. Once before, when he had been perusing around that section for a while, he was told to either buy something or leave. So now he hovers there for about 5 minutes at a time, then walks down some other aisle pretending to look around, then goes back & does this a few times. Co-worker "L" said that the last time he was in he made a point of telling her that he was looking for The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. So I made a joke about how he probably heard about The Notebook in one of the articles in those magazines, because surely, he only reads them for the articles, right? She laughed at me.

Today there was a curmudgeony older guy in the store looking for Grisham books. He called me over & then bellowed at me "why don't you have The Rainmaker!" I said, "we do. It's right there." Twas right in front of where he was standing, with all the other John Grisham novels. Then he shouted "why don't you have The Partner!" Again, it was right there & I promptly & politely pointed it out. Then he was blustering the same for The Pelican Brief. As he was leaving after I ran him & his purchases through the cash, I said to him "have a nice day, enjoy the books." He grumbled back at me "I'm not reading today, I'm watching the hockey game!" Co-worker "J" said to me "you'll have to get used to him."

Oh, the joys of customer service! I really do love my job, even if the occasional strangers we get make me feel just a tad uncomfortable.

Yahweh seems bitter

2010-04-29T21:21:00.004-04:00

For todays entry I thought I'd just share something I saw on the internets a while back & thought was really funny.

COOKIES!

2010-04-28T22:18:00.005-04:00

Today I made cookies! Ginger molasses cookies! (not chocolate chip cookies as featured in the cartoon) After that I ate some vegetable samosas for lunch, then I went to work. That is all.

Here is a little piece of childhood nostalgia, enjoy!

Also, I really want to see this movie, It Might Get Loud. It's a documentary that came out a couple of years ago about Jimmy Page, Jack White & David Evans (I refuse to refer to him as "The Edge" because I think it sounds dumb). They talk about their respective bands & playing guitars & music and stuff. Then they "jam" together. It looks groovy. So I'll probably track it down on the interwebs somewhere (I'm terribly sorry entertainment industry peoples, but I invoke the "starving student" defense for my consuming your product without paying for it, aka "piracy.") and watch it sometime tomorrow morning. That is the plan, at least!

Here is a clip thing of it from the youtubes:

Okay, adios internerd amigos and amigas!

Movies & Books, Books & Movies

2010-04-27T23:48:00.032-04:00

(the reason for the time machine cartoon will be made perfectly clear towards the end of this blog entry)

Book talk first...

So I'm almost halfway through my current read:

Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded.

New York: Harper Collins, 2003. Print.

I'm just getting to the part where the volcano erupts, exciting! (Spoiler alert: the volcano does in fact erupt!) So far the author has gone through sort of the history of the islands & the volcano, given some background on the events which occurred leading up to the eruption (such as the rivalries between the major European powers of the day competing against each other for influence, power & riches in the far east; the impact of trade & colonisation in Indonesia & Java; the growth and development of the settlements; relations between the various foreign groups & the indigenous peoples; political, technological & scientific developments relevant to the story; and so on & so forth), as well as going into the natural history, a bit of primer on the geology (including plate tectonics theory & the development of said theory) & geography. It's all been really quite interesting.

But now it's getting to the part where things are going to go KABLAMO! and start to get all crazy and catastrophic and disaster-y. So yeah, I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to getting farther into it.

Now onward to the movies part of this post...

The two most recent movies I've seen (just this past week and a half or so) have been Avatar & The White Ribbon. I'll give some thoughts on them.

Avatar

I watched it with my siblings in 3D at the IMAX, which was rather neat. I had some difficulties getting into the 3D thing at first, as I felt very aware of the 3D camera trickery stuff going on. Do you know what I mean? Like I was very much noticing the glasses on my head (wearing two sets of glasses at once feels really weird), and seeing the different 'layers' of the film & having a hard time consolidating them into a single picture. Like the 'foreground', the 'middleground' and the 'background' were seeming very separate and therefore weird. But after a while, maybe an hour or so into the movie, I gradually got into it & wasn't noticing it as much.

Anyhow, it was a good "popcorn movie" which I suppose it what it is supposed to be. All spectacle. I didn't find the story to be that substantial, and some of the story that was there, seemed a tad corny. It was way too predictable, and I found so much of the alien stuff to be too "kumbaya" and "cowboys and indians." The heavily idealised fairy tale "one with nature" stuff that was incorporated into the aliens seemed like it was being laid on a little bit thick.

Having said all that, it was still a very fun movie to watch & I'd really like to go see it again before it ceases to be playing in the theatres (although at this point it is starting to seem likely that it will never ever ever leave the cinemas, never ever!)

The White Ribbon

I saw it on it's final day showing in the theatre with my friend Jen. This movie was not very good at all. I didn't get it. I like for a movie to have an actual plot structure. At first I was thinking that it was just being a little slow to get started... then really slow to get started. They sort of set up a bunch of different little subplots, but there was nothing to really tie any of it together & in the end NOTHING was resolved. There was no resolution at all and so the movie felt very unsatisfying.

There was the bits where the schoolteacher was narrating, as if reminiscing over it all and telling the story many years after the fact. But that just leaves you wondering, why would he even be bothering to tell the story because he doesn't actually tell you what happens, so the entire thing seems completely pointless! At one point towards the end, maybe a third of the cast is just gone, vamoosed & vanished never to be seen again apparently, but even with the characters that remain you are not told or given an impression of what happens with them. Everything is left hanging.

The stupid part is that they had a lot of material that could have made for an interesting film, but they just never did anything with it or took it anywhere. They could have done so much more with what they had. But there was no rising action, no plot, no climax, and no ending. It's just a lot of bitter, miserable German villagers wallowing in a bottomless mud puddle of futility. So you're left feeling kinda cheated. When it was ending and the credits began rolling I was left with the feeling, "that's it? Really? That can't be it, it can't finish like that without really being finished, can it? Seriously? I've been bamboozled!"

I'm lucky I had great company & so for that reason I still enjoyed going out and seeing it. If I had went to see it on my own I probably would have walked out and asked for my money back. Or perhaps after having seen it on my own, I could/should have invented, designed and constructed an ingenious contraption that I shall call a "time machine" and used that quite marvelous and rather remarkable device to travel back in time to before I went into the theatre & so regain the three hours of my life I had lost to it. I suggest avoiding the White Ribbon as if it were the plague. Or a least get yourself vaccinated.

Wow, I'm really rambly today aren't I? I totally should have broken this up into three smaller posts. You live and you learn, right?

PS: I love time machines. Best invention ever.

A Top Ten List Of My Favourite Cars

2010-04-27T00:07:00.030-04:00

My top ten favourite cars are as follows:

(disclaimer: I am not really a car guy, I don't really know all that much about cars. So this is all purely from an aesthetic point of view. I do love racing games though!)

_______________________________________________

Honourable Mention: Ford Focus Coupe (2nd generation)

I rather like the new/current Focus coupes, but I don't really trust Fords, due to all the innumerable problems my brother has had with his car. I know what you're thinking... "What's that, you don't trust in Ford? World Controller Mustapha Mond will have a fit when he finds this out!" I'll probably be banished for it... :(

10. Volkswagen Iltis

9. Nissan Skyline GT-R (1st generation)

8. Scion tC

7. Volkswagen Golf Mk 5

6. Ferrari 350 GTE

5. Toyota Celica GT-S/T230

4. Nissan 350Z

3. BMW M3/E46

2. Toyota Yaris Hatchback

1. Toyota Echo Hatchback

"Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?"

2010-04-25T20:57:00.013-04:00

Hi there.

So today I learned about something pretty amazing. In France in the 1500s there was an outbreak of a rather unusual plague. This "disease" was actually infectious dancing. People apparently just randomly started dancing, dancing, dancing and couldn't stop, to the extent that some actually danced themselves to death! Isn't that bizarre?

Wiki: The Dancing Plague of 1518

Salutations!

2010-04-24T19:00:00.009-04:00

Hello Internets,

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I've been busy. I've been having a rather pleasant week. I'm actually at my sister's house right now. My siblings & I are supposed to go to my Mother's house later. There is a supposedly a UFC fight going on. I have no interest in the fight itself, but everyone will be there so...

I know I've already posted a few Land Of Talk videos, but I'm "into" them at the moment, so why not throw one more out there. It's another performance of Some Are Lakes, but this one seems a bit more energetic. I like.

Land of Talk "Some Are Lakes" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

I'll try to put up another, more interesting post tomorrow.

Awake In the Universe.

2010-04-20T23:12:00.007-04:00

Hi. So how are you today internets? I had a quite lovely day.

The other night I was over at my sister's house and we were (with brother-in-law as well, can't forget him) watching this excellent BBC documentary about the earth, the solar system & the universe & all the physics & cosmological stuffs that led to the formation of the planets & the universe & so on & so forth. I only saw the second half & I can't recall the title of the program, but it was really quite a fantastic docco, I wish I had been paying more attention to it than I was but alas, I was distracted by having to study for my exam.

So that has inspired me to post a Carl Sagan youtube video. So here I now present that to you in all it's nerdy & deeply profound glory...

I was originally thinking of posting instead about something that "The Girl" & I had been talking about earlier today, but I'm worried I'd just ramble on in a clumsy quasi-rant... so yeah, maybe I'll post about such a topic later on when I'm feeling a little more clear in exactly what I would like to say about it. Whatevs.

Anyway internets, I hope you have a good night & a pleasant tomorrow. Bye for now!

A Random Pictures Moment...

2010-04-19T00:26:00.012-04:00

SKYWHALES!!!

2010-04-17T21:45:00.005-04:00

So I didn't get to see Avatar today after all, as the tickets were all sold out. But all is not lost, as we will go tomorrow (Sunday, for those of you who can't tell time or work a calender & yes, I know you're out there!) instead.

Despite missing out on the film, my day was still great because I did get to eat some marvelous chicken curry, delightful pistachios & an exquisite milk chocolate bunny. Twas one of those Lindt bunnies. Yum! My stomach = my road to happiness.

So continuing on my Aliens & UFOs theme de jour, I thought I would share an article that my sister just sent to me. Why? Because it makes mention of SKYWHALES amongst other possible extraterrestrial beasties. FYI: SKYWHALES are effing awesome! I mean, a flying whale, how can you not love the concept of a flying whale? Seriously.

Here is the article:

Sky Whales & Pagoda Forests -Scientists Study Possible Course of Evolution on Planets Beyond Our Solar System

Enjoy!

Tis posted on Daily Galaxy (which looks to be a rather interesting place, I will have to check it out & further explore it when I don't have an exam to study for. Which I really really seriously need to start doing! Like, ASAP or right this very minute even!)

"Little Blue Men" (and no, I do not mean the Smurfs or Blue Man Group)

2010-04-16T20:30:00.013-04:00

Hi. How are you today? Good I should hope. Anyway...

So tomorrow I'm going to see Avatar with my sister. I'm really amazed that it is still playing in the theatres, isn't it supposed to be coming out on DVD next week? Since Avatar is choc-o-block full of aliens, I thought aliens would make a delightful subject for today's bloggy-blog. Not that I would need Avatar as an excuse to talk about aliens, because not having an "excuse" wouldn't stop me. I am rather interested in these sorts of things & am happy to talk about them anytime anyway.

But yes, cutting to the chase now I be... I thought that today I would post two excellent videos featuring Neil Tyson (who is awesome, by the way. I love him, he is a very funny & incredibly smart guy) which deal with the topic of aliens & UFOs & alien visitations/abductions & life in the universe & so on & so forth.

Neil Tyson Aliens/UFO talk, part 1:

Neil Tyson Aliens/UFO talk, part 2:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go study for my upcoming exam...

*end communication*

No Sleep. Dorian Gray. Books. Library Thing. Etc.

2010-04-15T09:21:00.010-04:00

Hi, me again (who else would it be, right?)

Yet another post being made. That makes it what, four (not including the intro) on the first day? Seems like a lot. Tis a good thing I suppose, as it gives any potential or hypothetical reader(s) more to peruse. I was actually having a great deal of difficulty thinking of things to write about at first. A bit of writer's block perhaps. But once I've got started it has been going okay, hasn't seemed too tricky. Let us hope I can keep a somewhat brisk pace going!

I was having trouble sleeping last night. I hadn't been able to get to sleep yet & as of 6 am I'm saying "eff it" and am just going to stay up and do the "all-nighter" thing. Luckily today is my day off. I'll probably spend most or all of the day studying for my exam next week, which is something that I should have been doing more of but I've been procrastinating. This past week I've felt somewhat unmotivated. I guess everyone has those from time to time.

I've been advised that readers of blogs like funny, so maybe I'll have to try to think up some clever, humorous witticisms to dole out. Or some bad jokes to share, perhaps?

Right now I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I am about two-thirds of the way through and am absolutely loving it. From the time I first picked it up it has been quickly growing into a place amongst my all-time favourite books. Tis a shame he apparently only produced the one novel. Perhaps I'll have to dig into his catalog of plays and poetry once I get through my current pile of books to read.

I've been having some good luck with my reading lately. That is, in finding good reads rather than being disappointed with my literary choices. A few other books I've read recently which I've enjoyed/been impressed with include: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon (It has such a great, quite Sherlock Holmes-y title, which I suppose is exactly the intent); The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (I'm not quite certain how to actually pronounce his last name, to be honest. Is it Che-bow-ski?); Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (those wonderful Huxleys, what a brilliant lineage of writers & scientists. Count me an admirer).

As has been suggested to me, I'll probably be taking a fair amount in this blog about what I'm reading at the moment, so perhaps it might be of interest to know that I do have a LibaryThing account where my current booklist can be found. I'll try to produce some half-assed reviews to post of any book I complete. I expect at first they will be quite half-assed (maybe even more quarter or third-assed, even) as it's been forever since I've written such things. However, I presume they will improve with time and practise.

Anyway, that is all for now.

Silentium Amoris (The Silence of Love)

2010-04-15T00:56:00.003-04:00

As oftentimes the too resplendent sun
Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon
Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won
A single ballad from the nightingale,
So doth thy Beauty make my lips to fail,
And all my sweetest singing out of tune.

And as at dawn across the level mead
On wings impetuous some wind will come,
And with its too harsh kisses break the reed
Which was its only instrument of song,
So my too stormy passions work me wrong,
And for excess of Love my Love is dumb.

But surely unto Thee mine eyes did show
Why I am silent, and my lute unstrung;
Else it were better we should part, and go,
Thou to some lips of sweeter melody,
And I to nurse the barren memory
Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung.

-Oscar Wilde

Ten Things About Me

2010-04-15T00:35:00.007-04:00

1. I am a boy.

2. I was born in the seventh month of Orwell's famous year.

3. I’d like to do some traveling someday. As of yet, I’ve never been off the continent.

4. Not only is chocolate my favourite food, but I am pretty sure it is also my soulmate. AKA I am a chocoholic.

5. I am a student who works in a used bookstore.

6. I am shy.

7. I find Stephen Harper & Michael Ignatieff both rather annoying.

8. I am taking Library Science in school.

9. I love to cook.

10. I like Land Of Talk. Here they are live on QTV: Some Are Lakes, It's Okay & Young Bridge. Also, an interview.

The Brick Testament

2010-04-14T23:33:00.010-04:00

So to kick things off, I think I'll yammer on about one of my all-time favourite websites, The Brick Testament. Basically it is the bible acted out with Lego. How awesome is that? Part of my fascination with the site is that by far my favourite toy as a kiddo was Lego. The other part is that religion is a rather interesting topic, of course.

One thing that amuses me is that, from what I understand, a number of Christians got all outraged upon hearing about the site, and wrote some angry emails or something to that effect. Called it blasphemy or anti-Christian or whatever. Except the author of the website is actually a reverend. So that was kind of an "outrage fail."

Anyhow, I think that The Brick Testament is pure and absolute genius. Just brilliant. It is just hysterical.

For me personally, having the acts of the bible played out with children's toys, just underscores the absurdity of the source material. I expect that might not be the intended result, but that is sort of how I feel about it.

Anyway, enough talk! Here is the goods:

The Brick Testament

Bonjour...

2010-04-14T22:28:00.008-04:00

This will be my blog.

I shall begin by first providing a disclaimer-type statement:

To be perfectly honest, at this point in time I don't have much of a clue as to what I will even be writing about on this blog of mine. I'm really just doing it as a little pet project to kill time & keep myself busy/occupied.

So I don't have any actual plans for the future of this blog. I'll just be playing things by ear & making it all up as I go along. It will either grow organically & evolve over time, or it will wither and die.

(perhaps I should mentioned that I have edited this initial "space-holder" post, because my friend Jen disapproved. But I think in its edited form it makes as a good a first post as any, so it'll stay.)