___________ 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

i libri

Did you expect it? I know I didn't. I only went to church (and then the mall) today but I came home with 13 more books than I left the house with. One I bought..the rest were thrust upon me. It's a good job I had two scarves today: one was used to tie a stack of eleven books (they're study guides, less than a centimetre thick) together so I could skip off to school uphill both ways in the 1940s.

I haven't read any Gordon Korman in a while. In August I was killing time in a Kitchener Public Library and so GK was the author I instinctively checked out. Seems every time I look he's got another few titles out but I'm gaining on him. :) I picked out Born to Rock for whatever reason (appeal or availability, I don't remember) and sat and read about 80 pages in the time I was there. I wanted to push far enough into the book so that I would remember I had started reading it so I could remember to pick it up elsewhere and finish it.
I liked it OK. There were classic GK things that I enjoyed, that made me laugh, that reminded me why he's one of my toppest and things that kept me focused more than just the goal of reading as many pages as I could.

A few weeks later I found that the U of G libby - MUCH to my surprize - has a copy. Rarely one to say no to a free book, I borrowed. I didn't open it until last Thursday, the 31st, largely because I had just finished A Christmas Carol which I had enough trouble putting down and that void was just GAPING now that I was done, but also because New Years Eve smells like fresh starts & second chances and I want my future self to actually reads as much as it seems to read and wants to read. I finished the book this afternoon.
I mean, it was partly quick because of the publication style but it was still 261 pages. I was just voracious this afternoon as the tale picked up to that speed where I don't realize how many pages I've turned (or THAT I'm turning pages) and now 115 has become 125. Such a funny experience to not notice the numbers go up - especially when you've had the opposite experience of continually calculating the pages til the end with every turn...maybe even checking twice while on the same page.

Turns out it's now one of my favorite books. It can def go in my top five of GK books, maybe top three, but it's a favorite for instrumental purposes, for lack of a better term. I don't know how to say it...except that it illuminates and examines things that resonate with me but that I don't know how to articulate or haven't yet tried to articulate. I really connected with it which was totally unexpected. That being said, GK def has an uncanny knack for doing that but usually more in moments, character traits, or artistic decisions instead of with an entire relationship, plot, subplot, sentiment, circumstance. It's great. I feel strangely validated. It was cool: there was one paragraph on one page in which I decided definitively that I would be buying my own copy of the book. Before that I was just enjoying the ride.


I know NYE resolutions usually fizzle out within a week, fortnight or month so I'm not making any great claims or predictions here on January 3rd. I'm still gonna say I'm happy with the start and I'm going to pretend there's such a thing as literary metabolism. If there is then I think the principle of having spicy food for breakfast is gonna transfer.

I kicked over a cup of 7-UP this afternoon and as I bent down to begin sopping, my first thought, honestly, was, "I wish I had a Shamwow."

Who am I? hahah how weird.

I just feel like they've proved so soundly that the cloth will soak up liquid from beneath your carpet. That sounds good! I want that! That's what they use, isn't it? They use 2L cola and a lil square of carpet to demonstrate. Ahh. Soon enough, I shall have my prize.

I knocked over a few things in succession while trying to pull two pillows off the top shelf in my Nana's cupboard. My mum had just slipped into the bed and to my mild, "argh," she said, "what?" in a tone that wasn't overly interested but could soon be convinced that I was overreacting.
Not needing to explain cos nothing was actually knocked over - just half-ly - and wanting to get out of the room sooner than later so she could sleep, I said, slapping the mattress for emphasis, "Everything's comin' up Milhouse!" and she actually laughed.
Hahah I was so surprized I didn't even know what to do. I used the line so incorrectly and she very likely didn't know the episode (though prolls would have connected Milhouse with the Simpos no problem) but she still laughed. Oh boy it was amazing.

I would really like to have a friend who likes the Simpsons (likes them as much as I do, anyways). I think this on and off, here and there.