Wednesday 31 October 2007

Gigli was the most unbearable!

I just got home from attending a Worst Movie Ever Party.


The premise is that you bring a five minute clip from a bad movie. Everyone watches all the 5 minutes clips and then votes on the worst movie ever and you can't vote for your movie.


I brought two because I seriously couldn't decide between them and they let me play both. I ended up winning second and third place. Not too bad, if I say so myself.


First place winner was Black Sheep, a New Zealand horror flick about blood-thirsty sheep that terrorize the countryside. It was gory and stupid and totally worth winning the title of Worst Movie Ever. Although IMDb has given it 6.2 stars out of 10.

Here's the movie poster....

Next was a movie called Adam & Steve, that isn't actually terrible, but has a stellar 5 minutes at the beginning that are embarrassingly horrific and mesmerizing. It got a pretty big gross out reaction from the crowd and took home second place. IMDb gave Adam and Steve 5.7 stars out of 10.



Third place was a painful 5 minute ballad from The Pirate Movie (it's a musical) starring Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins. You could pick almost any 5 minutes from that movie and place in this contest. It's so terrible. IMDb gave this on 3.8 stars out of 10 and I think that might be generous.



Other contenders were Re-Animator (got my vote!) which IMDb oddly gives 7.2 stars. It was incredibly disturbing, The 5 minute clip we saw was a headless man groping a tied down naked girl while his head sat in a metal tray beside her leering at her. He then picked up his head and held it to her body to lick her. Ew!



White Chicks, which looked terrible but also slightly entertaining. 4.9 from IMDb
The Stepford Wives (remake) actually so bad it was hilarious. 5.1 from IMDb
Elephant Shoes, desperate to be indie and cool but just weird and annoying. 6.6 from IMDb
Gigli, Ben Affleck and J-Lo. This was the most painful and embarrassing one to sit through. An absolute mess. 2.3 stars. That was kind of IMDb to give it that much.



Honourable mention goes to Cabin Fever, which wasn't actually in the running but gets a shout out for being the inspiration behind this worst movie ever/halloween tradition that JDub and his friends started. We watched the worst (best) 5 minutes from that to start out the night. It got 5.3 from IMDb.



All in all, it was good fun and I've already picked out my movie for next year.

Friday 26 October 2007

Computer labs and b-ball

I am at work right now. I am sitting in a computer lab that I just discovered today and it's super nice. Someone told me that they are nearly brand new and they look pretty high tech. The monitors fold into the tops of the tables...tres cool.

It's very exciting to me though, because I get big long breaks on Fridays and I always want to check my email, write a post, surf the net and have never been able to figure how to do that here. I'm not a student so I don't get student numbers and passwords for getting online. I'm also not technically an employee so I don't have employee status and access to the web that way either. I'm the invisible interpreter who works without much of an identity.

I even asked at Student Services (which is where I might even pretend to have any territory while at work) if they could keep a bag for me for a couple of hours either behind their desk or in some other private or secure location. It was heavy and I didn't want to cart it all over the campus while I tried to track down a computer or for when I go get lunch...and I got shot down. Nope. I don't have an office, a locker, a cubicle or even a corner to call my own.

I must have looked...perplexed, annoyed, desperate (pick one) because the receptionist looked at me and said, "You're an interpreter, right?" I nodded and sagged further under my heavy load. "Well, then I guess I can do it. I will put in this office over here for you."

"Thanks so much. See you later." and I skipped lightly out of the office.

I am going to the basketball game tonight. It's an exhibition game between Seattle and (the Suns)? (I have no idea what I'm talking about) I feel a bit like a fraud though, since I don't really know anything about b-ball (except that cool people call it b-ball. Right? Right?)

JM and one of his friends bought tickets and then he got 2 more for free. So he is giving the extra tix to TT and I. I think it will be a lot of fun. LT and Jdub are also going to be there in a VIP box suite even, so hopefully we'll get to swing by and see them and get a glimpse of how the rich and/or lucky attend sporting events.

The only other time I've been to a basketball game is when the Grizzlies existed and my friend MR took me out for dinner and to a game for my birthday. We had a great time so I am anticipating another great time tonight. I think we'll be going for dinner and drinks first too so that will be fun.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun

The reception for Kathleen was yesterday. Her family and closest friends had a funeral service earlier in the morning and then the reception was in the afternoon and open to all her friends and friends of the families.

It was a tough day but good....as good as anything like that can ever be, I suppose. How do you call it anything but tough. There were a lot of people there. It was so nice to see how many people came to show their love and grief. Her husband gave a really beautiful speech that was short and sweet and perfect. It breaks my heart to think of him without her.

Hug and kiss your loved ones! Tell them you love them. Be kind and generous and loving. Life is short but sweet for certain.

Sunday 21 October 2007

School and life

I dropped out of school yesterday. I'm a drop out!

On Friday night, I was gathering all my things for school together into my book bag so that I wouldn't have to do it Saturday morning. I just felt off. I sat and stared at my book bag and started to think as hard as I possibly could about what the hell I was doing and what the hell I wanted to be doing. I closed my eyes and meditated on it.

With Kathleen dying this week, I got a big reminder of how short life is and I decided that since I already knew I wasn't continuing on to the next level, it was time to gracefully bow out. I could spend 3 hours on Saturday morning listening to an instructor read from a book or I could sleep in, have a good breakfast, and head out early to gather wine for the wine drive and see my friends.

I made my decision that I was not going and went to bed feeling a little nervous about it. I felt like it was the right decision. It was just exactly the opposite of what I normally think would be the 'right' decision. I skipped a lot in high school but in my adult life, I'm actually sickly responsible. I don't call in sick to work even when I am sick. I had to miss two days of work once when it snowed and I couldn't get to the college and I felt total guilt about it.

I woke up Saturday morning at 10am and I felt great. I felt well rested and relieved. I felt rebellious and exciting.


The guilt for dropping out early is somewhere lurking in the distance behind me and I am doing my best to keep it at bay. It's far enough away that I am hoping it will give up and slink away. Jack Canfield has taught me that I need to have these 'failure' experiences and that they are equally as important to my success as successes are.

I spent my Saturday collecting wine and spending time with my friends who were also Kathleen's family. It was an emotionally charged day and I was grateful to be there. I love my friends dearly and was glad that I could offer some kind of support even if it was just being there.

Friday 19 October 2007

Kathleen

My friend, Kathleen, died on Wednesday. She fought a very brave and strong battle against cancer but unfortunately, the cancer fought harder and meaner. She passed away peacefully at home with her loving husband. She was young and vibrant and I can hardly believe this really has happened.

Fire and Rain by James Taylor is one of my absolute favourite songs and I am going to post the lyrics here for Kathleen and for those who love her and miss her.


Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to.


I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again.


Won't you look down upon me Jesus
You got help me make a stand
You just got to see me through another day
My body's achin' and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way.


Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again.


Been walkin' my mind to an easy time
My back turned towards the sun.
Lord knows when the cold wind blows
It'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.


Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain.
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again now
There's just a few things coming my way this time around now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you
Fire and Rain

Saturday 13 October 2007

Bookkeeping

Saturday afternoon and I'm all over the place. I'm slightly ADHD right now as I am jumping between typing this post, tidying up my apartment and cooking some lunch. I would be much happier focusing on one thing but I am hungry so I need to make something. And what happens is that while my food is cooking I sit down to type and then when I get up to check on the food, I start cleaning. I think once I eat and have some food in me, I will be better at making a game plan and seeing one thing through before starting the next.

I had my class this morning and it was an interesting day for me. I had some insightful moments that are making me think that bookkeeping might not be my thing. Did I mention I'm not a numbers gal? I kinda didn't think that would matter though. Plus, I don't think I understood to what extent I'm not a numbers girl. I'm really not a numbers girl. As for thinking that it wouldn't matter, I kinda thought bookkeeping was all the pre-accounting stuff. I would just take all the receipts, invoices, cheques, account info and make lists and columns out of it. Put it all in the right place and let someone else do the numbers stuff.

Well, I wasn't entirely wrong. It is pre-accountingish and I mostly spend my time putting the right amount in the right column and making sure they add up properly. My problem is that I can't seem to get the actual numbers right. Instead of entering 2000, I write down 200. Instead of 675, I write down 765. Instead on 705, I write down 700. My brain mixes the numbers up. I think I have some form of numerical dyslexia.

So this could get in the way of me being a bookkeeper. It's just that bookkeeper is so fun to spell. Seriously though, I got to class today and compared homework with another student and I had made a few of those transposition errors. Everything adds up at the end so I don't recognize that I am doing this. I am getting the theory part of the class though. We had a quiz today on theory stuff and I got 19/20.

And by 19 out of 20 I mean, 18 out of 20, except that one of the questions was ambiguous and poorly written. It left some room for interpretation and I apparently chose a different one than the instructor did. I got the question right as I understood it and could argue my point and prove that I understood the theory so I count that one as right. The test wasn't for marks by the way, it was just for us to see where we are at.

The other question I got wrong was just a stupid question. It was a multiple choice question about computer accounting. We haven't even touched on computer software for accounting yet so don't ask us a question about it. The question was, "What can't a computer do?" With options for the answer including, post a transaction, update accounts, analyze transactions. I figure you need hands to post the information so a computer can't do that. I forgot that in accounting, the term 'posting' has an entirely different meaning. The right answer was analyze transactions. Ridiculous. Weren't computers invented to analyze information? So in my mind, I actually got 20/20.

As I sat through class, I started wondering what I was doing there. I wanted to be at home painting, or writing or drawing. Am I doing this for the wrong reasons? The explanation and answer of which, deserves it's own post entirely. (See! Post! Totally different meaning)

I flipped to the back of my workbook and wrote this, "I seem to be willing to give up a couple hours a day and my Saturday mornings to work on something that doesn't come naturally and isn't my dream. What if I committed that time to working toward something I already know I want and am afraid to go after?"

That in itself needs another post and a lot more self reflection.

So this is where I'm at now. I will finish this course and hopefully decide fairly quickly what I am going to do about continuing on, or jumping ship. I started this because I really thought that it would be exactly up my alley. But at some point my alley turns right and this program keeps going straight. There are parts of this that I am enjoying but if I can figure out what those parts are exactly and then find them in a different program with other things that I would also enjoy, I think I'd be so much happier.

It's like dating. You date someone to see if they are a good match for you. If they aren't, you take note of what worked or didn't work and try again with someone new who hopefully is a better match than the last. You keep learning what you like and don't like until you find the best match for you.

So that is what I am doing. Figuring out what I like and don't like so that I can make a better match for myself.

Breaking Twigs

This is my friend C, making his fiance M, laugh hysterically while he comes up with imaginative ways to break twigs. I love this video.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Another bloody dentist appointment

Well, not literally bloody. Thankfully.

I have lost count of how many dentist appointments I have had since spring. I just know it is a lot. And I mean A LOT. I was back again today for what was suppose to be a simple, 10 minute appointment and my very last one until a cleaning in six months. It definitely was a simple 10 minute appointment but not for the right reasons.

I had an appointment last week to make molds of my teeth to fit me with a night guard. Today, I was going in to pick it up and make sure everything was good. Well, the nightguard was warped and didn't fit my teeth. My dentist, who I quite adore, turned and pretended to huck it out the window. It is for these types of things that I quite adore her. She also once fully jumped into the Superstar lunge (a la Molly Shannon as Mary Katherine Gallagher) and whisper shouted "Superstar". She is entertaining and lovely and if I had to spend a million hours at the dentist, I am glad it was with her.

So after she pretended to launch my faulty nightguard across 4th Avenue, she told me we'd have to redo the molds and get me back in a week. So one more appointment and then I truly should be done until March. It's been a long,tough haul but I am so glad to have it all done. And I am grateful for my new chompers.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. Now it is Tuesday and most people are back at work. Not me though. I somehow scored an extra day off and I am thrilled. I am spending my day today doing not too much of anything. Groceries, cleaning, blogging, cartooning, writing...I might go to a movie. I guess that isn't really 'not much of anything'. That actually sounds like a lot now that I write it out. How am I going to fit it all in today!?

I spent all my hours before dinner yesterday doing homework. Which means that I finished it...yay! That gives me the rest of the week before school on Saturday to read ahead so that I can follow along in class. I am definitely one of those people who does much better if I don't procrastinate. If I waited to do all of my homework the night before class....I wouldn't do it and then I'd skip class and then I'd be too embarrassed to go back the next week and so I'd never go back and then I'd be a drop out. This is actually how I failed grade 12. Seriously. I failed grade 12 out of embarrassment.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner at my dad's last night and it was really good. It was nice seeing everyone and we had fun. His wife is a great cook and there was so much yummy food. In addition to the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, she had cooked up lots of different veggies so we had our choice of parsnips, broccolini, brussel sprouts, yams, and green beans. I ate them all. At my grandpa's the night before, we actually forgot the veggie section of dinner so you could have turnips or....well that was it really. The turnips were delicious but that was it for veggie sides. I have a giant plate of leftovers that I will be eating soon for lunch.

My dad had a DVD to show us when we got out to his place yesterday. He had taken some of our old movies to be transferred from a reel to DVD. It was just about 5 minutes of footage. Mostly of my older sister L playing softball when she was about 10. It is pretty adorable. At the very end of the clip there is a bit of footage of my other sister S and me. S is running around trying to dodge the camera and I am trying to figure out how best to keep the camera on me. It's pretty cute. Hopefully I will get a copy of it soon.

I was also able to collect some wine and dollars over the weekend for my wine drive. So far so good. I think I might start making some rounds next weekend to collect from people. My goal is still $500 and 50 bottles of wine.

Sunday 7 October 2007

Umbrellas and boots

I should be doing homework right now. I didn't have school yesterday because of the long weekend which was great since Friday was JM's birthday and we were out late celebrating. I would have been in no shape for school Saturday morning. The best part about not having school this weekend though was that I got to cut my homework time in half for the week. Two weeks to do a week's worth of homework.

At least that was my plan.

I haven't opened my books since class last Saturday. So now I have to do a week's worth of homework in a week. Not so bad I know...it could be worse. I still have a week to do it and although I'm not likely to get much done today, I know I will over the next three days.

Instead of doing homework, I am listening to music and making a bunch of cd's. I have made about 3 for my Aunt S. and will likely make some for my sisters too. All I have on my rotation these days is the Once Soundtrack, the Across The Universe Soundtrack and a cd my friend C made for me.

It is the rainiest day today and I kinda love it. I can hear the rain pouring down outside and I keep getting up to go stare out the window at the puddles and people running by with their umbrellas. The umbrellas are usually black or some other dark or muted colour. On such a gloomy day, I would love to look out my window and see a rainbow of brilliantly coloured umbrellas. Brightly coloured brollys are hard to find though. I went shopping recently for a new umbrella. Green. Bright green. I want a bright emerald green umbrella. The only one I've ever found was a child's umbrella and far too tiny for me. Imagine how lovely it would be if you walked down the street on a rainy day and every umbrella you saw was a bright colour.

I did find some lovely bright gum boots though. Bright red with rainbows, clouds, hearts and lightning bolts on the sides of them. These might clash with my green umbrella when I finally find it but who cares. Clashing bright colours on a gloomy day is only all the more fun!

Here is a pic of my awesome rain boots!

Saturday 6 October 2007

September 24, 2007

This is belated post for my dear friend MC, who celebrated her birthday on Sept 24th. Happy belated birthday M. I am so happy to know you and am grateful to have you in my life. Plus you are painfully adorable.
Happy Birthday!