on the North American education system for boys:

"That should have been though for me. It always had been before. The word of Zach Powers. He was the guy who convinced me I wasn't as stupid as I thihnk I probably am. Before Zach, school was pure torture for me. Imagine spending 180 days a year in a place hat's designed to take everything you're not good at and make it important" (153).

Korman, Gordon. Schooled. Scholastic Canada Ltd.: Toronto, 2007.

The Time Traveller's Wife (2009)

Very interesting and well coupled with the only special feature the rental DVD offered. I like how the screenwriter, director and main actors were all so familiar with the book and held it in the respect they did. I also liked how the screenwriter made it clear why it wouldn't work to copy the book directly and how the film needed to be a separate thing. It's OK to emulate and imitate! Why did we ever forget that?? I say it's allowed. I wish I had more to say on the subject.

8/10

triet

people that will never be out of a job: psychologists
(EVERYBODY IS F*ED UP)

people that are amazing: Engineers
(pulleys are a beautiful thing)

instrument that has more divine input than any other: the cello
(there are countless examples of this but try Clara Schumann's "Piano Trio" Opus 17, the third movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umOXLxWGh94 , particularly at 3:07 for about 40 seconds)

email forward of cool.

USING ONLY ONE WORD...

Not as easy as you might think! Now forward, change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to send back to the person you received it from!

Where is your cell phone? close

Your hair? temperamental

Your mother? strange

Your father? stranger

Your favorite thing? cherished

Your dream last night? forgotten

Your favorite drink? water

Your dream/goal? fruitfulness

What room are you in? mine

Your hobby? energizing

Your fear? assimilation

Where do you want to be in 6 years? aligned

Where were you last night? Laura's

Something that you aren't? done

Muffins? carrot

Wish list item? iPod

Last thing you did? emailed

What are you wearing? pyjamas

TV? scapegoat

Your pets? hypocrisy

Friends? indispensable

Your life? His

Your mood? pff

Missing someone? bittersweet

Drinking? deliberate

Smoking? never

Your car? milestone

Something you're not wearing? necktie

Your favorite store? irrelevant

Your favorite color? none

When is the last time you cried? defeat

Who will resend this? sender

Where do you go to over and over? solitude

Five people who email me regularly? appreciated

My favorite place to eat? snug

Favorite place I'd like to be at right now? grace

Four people I think will respond? females

today a stranger told me I should write a book. (what's that all about?)

I don't know how else to say it: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my stitched pyjama bottoms.

I liked them when I bought them x number of years ago (at least 2.5) because of the price, the fit and the pattern. I still quite enjoy the fit (the cut?) but the pattern is winteresque so sometimes I feel weirdly about them at different times of the year but it doesn't bother me.

Two days in close succession I managed to hook my pocket onto the handle of my computer chair and in sitting down, produced a tear maybe an inch long. I left it for a while just so I could pay homage to the adage, a stitch, in time, saves nine. Whoever said that knew what they were talking about. I have a tendency to let torn garments sit for a long time, probably because sewing is a task that doesn't double up very well. I can't do it while watching TV because I need to look down too much. I can't do it while doing ANYTHING else with my hands (so that precludes typing, cooking, cleaning which are typically good doublers). It would be good paired with a telephone call because that only needs a tilted head and raised shoulder...but I can't always plan or predict long telephonius conversations.

Strangely, however, when I get into it, I don't mind it and the time passes as it passes. (I understand why people knit and crochet on the bus or in waiting rooms or even in lectures.) Fortunately stitching (darning?) clothes is different from other put-off-able tasks because if I didn't need the garment, I'd be tossing it, 'stead of fixing.

So after probably three days, I had made the hole about two-and-a-half to three inches long and so I decided enough was enough. (a) I'd be saving thread and time to do it sooner and (b) I might actually lose enough of the structure after a certain point that stitching wouldn't take.

Then, the very next day, I did the same thing with my left pocket but it started out at about five-and-a-half inches. This time I set to sewing right away.

A few weeks later, I somehow ended up with a tear in my left lower thigh. It was a weird place for a tear and even weirder that it had been wrought overnight. I didn't notice it until I felt a weird upon weird draft in the first few steps upon rising. I foolishly let it go for another day and the thing trebled in size. It got BIG'R. You must understand that I wear pyjamas for up to four or five hours before I actually sleep so regular movement like sitting, squatting, reclining, ascending stairs, etc still happens in the pjs. Certain bending was aggravating the tear. It got ridiculous.

I set to it and stitched 'er up. I think there was a problem a few days later (just with the way it tore, it wasn't easy to get a good seam so I had to redo some but now she's right as rain. I don't know how else to say it: I LOVE MY STITCHED PJS.

I think it's important that this has come at a time when I've been thinking and trying to learn a lot about saving, scrimping, necessity, excess and alternatives/substitutions. These bottoms seem to epitomize for me the beauty - and, more important, the possibility - of making do. Whenever they catch my eye, I run my finger along the stitches like it's a battle wound. I'm sure that sounds funny but it's what I do. It's meaningful to me and I'm happy about it. I thank God for how He can fuse meaning into whatever He pleases. (50)

The Hurt Locker (2009): actually really cool (said with a light, arching optimistic tone). I'm surprized I liked it and even MORE surprized that my enjoyment was torqued up in the closing 20 minutes. I find with films like this, my enjoyment tends to plummet in the closing minutes. I'm...really impressed. I'm impressed that I was able to sincerely LIKE a film like this. I rented it because it's been nominated for nine Academy Awards and I'm trying to get my research on, in advance of March the 7th.


Hmmm. One of the main characters, SFC William James, he really got under my skin which I appreciated. I appreciate when a film makes me talk back to it, without even realizing it.

Like many critically acclaimed war movies, this one gave me a slightly new perspective on war. It mercifully gave me a kind of insiders' perspective (if I trust Hollywood to be accurate -- which I think they are held to on pain of death when it comes to depicting the troops) and managed to be unmanipulative. I feel like I really GOT it, and I say that fully open to being told, "Nope, you didn't get it at all, and you never will."


I liked it and I don't know what else to say about it. About an hour in, I wondered what a respectable Canadian citizen is supposed to do to support the troops. I donno how it works.

I'd watch it again/buy it. Maybe I can say it had good "character development". That phrase has been misused... so I am trying not to be flippant but there was some depth and interplay there which I thought was fantastic.
Anyways...I'm saying nothing right now so let's end it.

8.7/10

___________ of the house

Today someone told me I looked elegant. :) I'm sure I didn't REALLY really but I was feeling good about how I looked so it's always nice when my perception lines up with someone else's. (48)

On Friday someone asked when I graduated high school. I told her it was 2002 and she said, "Oh, OK so you're independent," and followed with something, "I just needed to know what your status/situation was."
Oh man, I was beaming inwardly. I liked the word choice, I liked the speed at which she drew that conclusion and I liked her benefit of the doubt. I am not sure I have EVER felt vindication like this before. (49)

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (2009) [26/01/10]

When I first saw the ads for this way back I thougth the originality was going to be something quite compelling. Then after seeing too many ads when it was being released to rent I thought it was going to be too predictable/run-of-the-mill and just not DO enough to convince me it was worth my time.
Then I caved partly because of a funny one-liner I heard in it which gave me a better taste for the style, partly because I think it's on the road to the Oscars and partly because I do really want to see how the animate food falling from the sky. For some reason that last item was QUITE compelling.
Anyways, I liked it mucho. It was interesting and compelling just in the way I hoped it would be. I was engrossed. I loved the voice talents AND loved that I didn't recognize four of the voice credits that I should have known. (I like that this is more like acting than celebrity cameo gig.)
The creativity blew me away and the idiosyncrasies of the main character were adorable and hilarious. I`d call it a sweet film. Sweet and interesting and actually challenging in a way which animation is just murdering these days, especially the folks over at Pixar.

8.5/10

I guess I should count my blessings

because I don't think I've ever felt obligated to attend a Sunday church service because of what other people would think of my absence. (46) I honestly have never minded about this kind of thing. There have been other bad reasons I have gone out of obligation but not this particular & popular one.

--

In other news, this is a great quote from some high school folk I heard on a bus several months ago. (I'd like to get rid of this scrap of paper, hence my posting.)

About his step-dad, this kid says, "Six-eight, two hundred-and-something pounds... friggin' ex-army, bald, scary man," and his friend interjects some whoa kind of response that comes out more like a beauty shop mmmmmhmmm. He continues: "He's really controlling but if it weren't for him I think I'd be in a lot worse spot than this."

I would say the reason which made me want to write this the most was because I was suprized that someone so young could make such a fair, lucid assessment about his own life and about something as difficult and potentially confusing as a blended family. The other reason that was a very close second was that I needed a breath of fresh reality to unclench my cynicism over the concept of blended families, specifically about step-parents. Brother, TALK about refreshing. Thanks, random kid sur l'autobus. (47)

I miss baseball (a.k.a. post 670)

HAS ANYBODY NOTICED THAT BEAUTY PAGEANTS FOR CHILDREN ARE INCREDIBLY CREEPY??

There is something so wrong with this....I've been trying to catch that TLC show "Toddlers in Tiaras" because I wanted to see if it's as bad as the ads make it seem. Turns out it's just as bad + worse. I honestly, honestly wish this was one battle in life I could pick but there's just no room for it. sigh.

I really don't like those mornings where I wake up and hate the look of my room. This morning I honestly blasted: "Do ALL these things belong to me??"
Part of it was rhetorical but part of it was an honest inquiry. I was trying to figure out what was here before I moved in..and it's just the bed and the bookshelf. :(

Oh, it makes me so sad. It's another reminder that I don't belong here and I'm not really anywhere. This is not a nice thing to wake up to.

Curtis Stone thinks he's so hot....ha I don't even know what to say.

I think I'm finding this room thing harder because I have worked hard to get rid of the things I don't need or use or want.
When I came back in the house 20 minutes ago, I sighed, "I wish my life was simpler," but I didn't mean with materials exclusively. I don't have any great conclusions on this, especially nothing that seems to fit in a blog post.

booo-the heck-urrns.

I can't believe The Office did a clip show. I'm...sad.
Just recently Ricky Gervais was arguing against people who were saying the American version of The Office had jumped the shark. Props to him for defending them even if it's a conflict of interest as someone on payroll and it wasw just part of a bit in his set at the Golden Globes. Now I'm wondering if it really is coming tru.
That being said, it's just one episode..who knows what happens. I'm trying to keep an open mind.

...I thought it was a myth!

I'd heard before about the generosity of Tim Hortons employees when doling out Timbits late at night ..but I'd never experienced it.
I don't buy Timbits that often (last time I did must have been clear two years ago...) and if I'm at Tims late at night it's usually with another person and we're usually there just because it's open late so we buy drinks as a sort of courtesy.

I wasn't watching as he filled the box cos I never liked being watched while I prepared people's food. But then when he seemed to be taking longer than I might predict and when I saw how big the box was and how heavy it felt, I started to get susp. And as I thanked him and he wished me a good night, I regretted not paying more attention so that, if he had given me more than I paid for, I could thank him for THAT. (I didn't know!)

I just opened the box now and hahah WOW it's full. Some axon was weakly connected to all the optical illusion puzzles I'd ever been fooled by and said I should actually count in case it's actually 20 and I don't know how to do visual estimation.

I think there are three sort of rows in there and counting all that I could see (i.e. on the top layer), there's 21. So...he over-stocked me.

I suppose it's in their favor to get rid of baked goods they can't serve six hours later AND to make customers feel like they somehow "beat the system" or however we feel when we get free stuff. BOOYA!

Maybe can't count..and he's trying to cover his butt. That would be funny & sad.

"Inside the Actors Studio" questionnaire

I've been wanting to post this for a long time. In fact, I originally recorded the questions on the 18th of October, 2007 (22h37).

I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to use the questionnaire but in the back of my mind I was definitely hoping I could use it as part of a series, i.e. use it in more than one context so that each part contributes to the whole and - probably - informs the others.

I still don't know how to do that so I decided to at least answer it for myself last October 31st (23h21). Now, if the series ends up consisting only of me answering this questionnair every five years then that's cool. A big ego-centric maybe, but cool. I need to start somewhere. I still have seven other drafts in this blog that I'm trying to eradicate...it's very slow going.

The questionnaire* wasn't created by James Lipton but he is the one who poses it to actors at the end of each "Inside the Actors Studio" episode, right before he leaves the guest to the students. I find the responses quite interesting every time, for various reasons and it really doesn't hurt that I get to see the same set of questions posed to various people. (This is no doubt where I got my hope for creating a series from.)

What is your favorite word?
-Jesus

What is your least favorite word?
-whatever

What turns you on?
-good baseball

What turns you off?
-closed mindedness

What sound or noise do you love?
-excellent (read: rich, high quality, euphoric) music

What sound or noise do you hate?
-hateful speech

What is your favorite curse word?
-ass

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
-professional athlete (baseball, basketball, hockey)

What profession would you (certainly) not like to undertake?
-coroner

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say?
-"Well done, good and faithful servant; with you I am well pleased."

I tried to answer without thinking, as the actors seem to. But how interesting that even now, two months later, I would want to change a few answers...
I think my favorite curse word is actually the f-bomb but I for some reason thought my favorite had to be the one I used most often.
I'm not sure about what turns me on (in the way that Lipton means).
Other sound or noise that I love which I remember was a tie with good music was unrestrained laughter.

Hmm. I gotta come up with something better to do with this stuff.

[12/01/10 01h07 *Bernard Pivot, apparently, is the guy's name.]

"Pitch Black" (2000) [05/01/10]

-not bad
-better than expected
-re-reminded me why I like Vin Diesel and some action films

6.7/10