It's been a crazy couple of days at both the office and school. I started working on a paper for philosophy class on the weekend (it's due next week) only to realize, after writing it, that I had somewhat confused myself. To make matters worse, after re-reading my paper, my notes and the book, I was *still* confused so last night I had stayed behind to ask some additional questions. Prof was great about it and explained it to me in "plain English" and not surprisingly, I think I'm back on track now.
The Mad About Movies FilmCast is now live and can be heard here. I'm very excited at how well the show turned out and I've finally sorted out a few of the glitches and now I'm just waiting from approval from places like iTunes and Yahoo Podcasts.
I have a ton of work to do today (hopefully this will include a few other additions and updates to the site so I'd better head off but I hope everyone is having a great week and I'll be sure to be stopping by the various sites to catch up on my reading!
On Forgive Us, But We're Not Quite Getting Your Point, Bobby
When it rains, it snows.
Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden
Sorry for the lack of posting boys and girls but things have been a bit crazy lately. The lack of posts yesterday and for most of the day today have to do with me spending much needed time completing some minor adjustments to the movie site. I think I finally have things more or less as I want them. Nothing huge, just a few touches here and there. The next step: updating the header bar!
In other news, we recorded our first ever podcast on Sunday and as I'm typing this, the final edited version is being compiled in the background. I hope to have this up before 5PM today so make sure you keep your eye out for it! :)
Alright. I still have lots of stuff to do so I'm going to jet out. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll be back with more tomorrow!
Today's stupid thing:
On Really Caring, Great Senate Majority Leader Moments In
Get some devastation in the back.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), to an aide during a photo op, while visiting tsunami-ravager Sri Lanka
Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday folks. I was busy compiling an hour's worth of 'fanish' commercials. Wow. Not as easy as it sounds considering they're all an average of 30 seconds long which means, I need a lot of them.
It's been an uneventful few days and the weekend is going to be just as quiet. I'm really looking forward to Sunday when a few friends are coming over to work on a very special and ultra top secret (not really) project that I'm REALLY looking forward to. Can't wait! Other than that, a few rentals to get through, a couple of papers for Philosophy and some more Chaucer to read through.
I've sent out my Oscar party invites. I'm very, very excited. This year, I'm moving the party to one of the bigger rooms in the house and we're going to be watching it on a bigger than usual screen. D and I are breaking out the projector. Oh yeah baby. It's going to be AWESOME. We just need to figure out how we're going to pump the sound out....
I gotta get back to work. I have a bunch of stuff on my desk that I need to get through before the end of the day.
Here's a little something I discovered during my YouTube cruizin' last few days. It's today's KFF:
And to finish off, a stupid thing someone said...
Care to Rephrase that Department
Female TV news anchor to male weatherman, regarding snowfall amounts:
Where's that six inches you promised me last night?
Another day gone by. Another day closer to the weekend.
I'm going crazy trying to understand the intricacies of god being timeless or in time. The basic principles make sense but the who said what part of what argument is starting to hurt my little brain. More studying definately required.
I've been fighting with my home pc the last few days, trying to find some free and legal way to convert avi files (from a camcorder) to one of the dvd compatible formats so that the bloody thing will play on a DVD player. Someone passed on some footage of our home town to me on a disk but my parents want to see it on the big screen. If anyone has any program tips or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. And yes, I've tried the software that comes bundled win WinXP and it sucks. Big time. Compresses everything all weird and I'm just not sure how to fix it. Maybe the simples suggestion is if someone has tips on how to fix that; whatever. Any help is appreciated.
I didn't manage to catch any of the State of the Union Address, I was too busy discussing the attributes of god and all, however, I did find some more excellent Bushisms. Before I go to the next one, I also found this State of the Union Address drinking game. I know it's a bit late, and no, it's not the only one but it's damned funny.
Oh crumb! One more thing before the Bushism. As a midweek treat, here's a short clip starring the one and only, Bruce Campbell. Check it out:
And now, here's the Bushism:
"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die."
-- George W. Bush with reporters on facing the challenges of war, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006
I spent hours reading Old English yesterday and I have to say that as much as I love lit, reading Chaucer isn't my idea of a great time. However, I've discovered that hearing it out loud is very helpful, at least to me, and last night I found a website that has nearly all of Chaucer read out loud in sections. It's not as good as another site I found in which the narrator is actually a British guy that sounds like he does this for a living, but the free one was enough to help me get through the General Prologue. I still have the book's intro to read but that's modern English and I'm pretty sure I won't have too much trouble with that! :)
Oscar nominations were announced bright and early this morning (6AM my time). I managed to watch some of it before leaving the house and I just posted my general thoughts about it. For the most part, few surprises but the ones that did squeeze in are really good.
The Robert Pickton 3 ring circus kicked off yesterday. Lucky for me (not really), the trial is taking place at the Supreme Court of New Westminster which happens to be directly beside the college. Nice. The dude is being referred to as one of Canada's most notorious serial killers. That's a bit scary and to to think that he was living close by (meaning in burbs about 20 minute drive away) is even scarier. The trial is estimated to go on for the next year and though I'm all about innocent until proven guilty, I'm not sure I buy this guy as innocent. He's a little too calm, too removed. If you're interested in more information, CBC has a great article with some of the basic details.
Now that I've bored you, let me entertain you with some more Bushisms:
The only way we can win is to leave before the job is done."
It was a good and quiet weekend. I got lots of reading done (thought I'm not finished yet!) and a lot of resting which was nice.
I've been having problems with the website the last few days and though it's been up the last few days, it's been excruciatingly slow. Now it appears that the site is down completely which really isn't good but I just spoke to CS at the hosting company and they are aware of the problem and are working on fixing it. Yikes! I hope they get it sorted out soon because I'm bloody freaking out!
Other than that, it's been a quiet day. I now have a bunch of reviews to post but the site is dead in the water which is really getting to me (did I already say that???). Can't wait to get home and finish my reading. Hopefully it won't mean me staying up until ungodly hours.
As I mentioned Friday, this calendar is really not very funny at all. I think I would have been better off with the Bushisms calendar instead. So here's a little Bushism a friend sent me:
"And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and our guest read it."
George W. Bush, on the Baker-Hamilton Report, appearing with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006
It's a very quiet day today. The boss man is sick and the PM has gone off the site so it's just me and the accountant in the office. Actually, it's worked out quite well because I've managed to do some of the filing that I've been avoiding for months.
I'm running with a bit of a headache today. Not sure why but it started to set in about 10AM and though I tried to avoid taking drugs, I just broke down and took some Tylenol. Hopefully that'll kick in soon.
We had a great philosophical discussion about education yesterday. Not only was it eureka inducing but it solidified my belief that I'm always going to be swimming up stream. We discussed the difference between training and educating and how 'real' education requires questioning and critical thinking and those two things really play a big part in Literature studies and Philosophy. Not to say that critical thinking doesn't pop up in other places (I'm sure it does) but it's most apparent in these two areas. The funny thing is, the reason I've always leaned towards these areas of study are for precisely that reason: I love the discussion, the interpretation, the what ifs. I love taking the knowledge and using it to support an argument. That may have something to do with the fact that I love to talk so much.
All of this 'big thinking' led to another thought. This is also the reason why I love movies and why I run both a film and book group. I like the idea of reading or watching something and then discussing it. Finding little tidbits of information, hearing what others took from the same experience. And that thought led even further 'down the rabbit hole'. I started to think about why we make movies, why society cares so much for movies but ultimately, what we take from them. Is it simply for pleasure or are we looking for something more? Well, that sparked more thoughts (isn't it funny how all of this stuff happens at once? You have one thought and it sparks another etc.) and before you know it, I'd started writing some of them down. At the moment, all I have are some loose ideas and key words but over time, I hope to expand them a little into, hopefully, a series of articles on movies and their social effects (if there are any). Still a lot to think about and probably boring as heck for you guys (sorry) but I wanted to throw it out there and see if people had any more thoughts on this. If you do, let me know!
I'm going to skip the stupid things said bit today because the entry I have is sooooo lame. I may need to change this feature all together. Maybe best quotes or word of the day or something. We'll see. However, without further delay, here's this week's KFF. This one is a bit interesting. I found it on a website dedicated to photographs of famous people playing table tennis. Yeah.....there's some interesting people out there!
First English class yesterday and it was great. I love the material and the prof seems really good as does the class. It's a small one, only 10 of us, but so far it's made for great discussion and it's proving to be one of my faves. Lots to read for next class but then, I have the weekend to catch up!
More snow today. It was still snowing when I left the house this morning. Gross. I don't mind snow but this is getting out of hand. Just when you think it's over more snow falls. The big problem is that it's snow on top of snow and when it gets really cold, it freezes. Thankfully, we haven't had too much of that yet but it's still difficult to walk through various layers of packed snow. On the bight side, it's been a bit warmer the last few days.
Getting to class last night proved to be a great problem. There was a problem with transit and a commute which usually takes me 45 minutes took nearly 2 hours. Needless to say, I arrived 30 mins late to class and, of course, this had to happen on the day when I have the class that I can least afford to miss. I need to see about borrowing someone's notes.
The day has been fairly quiet so I've managed to get a lot of odds and ends done. I'm about to post movies for the movie group next week. Turns out there are a number of excellent documentaries on short run at the end of the month, a few of which are even short listed for the Oscars and none of which I have seen. I'm particularly looking forward to Iraq in Fragments and Our Daily Bread. Oh yeah, and I've posted my review for Pan's Labyrinth. Now that I'm pretty much caught up on 2006, I'll be posting a top ten list. That'll be coming in the next few days.
I've also been reading a book which has me really involved. It's called Poison Study and I'm sitting here wondering what the heck is going to happen next. I can't wait to get back to it on the ride to school.
I didn't like today's stupid thing so I've jumped ahead and am posting Sunday's instead. It's a little dumber.
On See, Mrion, It's Kinda Their Job...
What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?
Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry
Alrighty. Sounds like someone may need a lesson on the duties of each body of government...Does he, by any chance, know what a Mayor is supposed to do?
This morning really sucked. I stood out in the freezing cold waiting for an earlier bus to make sure that I made it to work on time since, you know, we got hit by ANOTHER snow fall. Stupid early bus never showed up and so I figured I'd be OK for my bus but, lo-and-behold, it was late too and when it finally showed up, they both showed up. I got to work 15 minutes late but boss lady was OK with it because she knows I always make the effort to try to get here. It's nice that she's pretty understanding about stuff like that.
I just registered for Northern Voice which is the Canadian Blogging Conference. I'm excited to meet some fellow bloggers and to get some tips and learn some more about blogging in general and, hopefully, blogging for money.
As for the Golden Globes, the sidebar isn't showing it yet but I did write down some thoughts on the movie portion of the awards show. It can be found here. As for the TV side of things, I was happy to see Ugly Betty recognized since it's one of the few new shows that I've gotten into and really enjoyed and Amy will be happy to hear me say that I really like America Ferrara and her little speech was quite nice. In general, I enjoyed most of it and it was nice of Sacha Baron Cohen to makes us laugh. I was also quite impressed with Warren Beatty's and Streep's acceptance speeches. Good for a few laughs. Oh, and I was impressed with Streep's comment on smaller films and how they're not shown on enough screens. I'm pretty sure it probably won't make much difference but it was nice of her to mention it. Everyone looked fabulous (never once did I say "What the hell is _____ wearing!?!?!" which is a ncie change) but I was particularly impressed with Jeremy Irons' little outfit. The show made for a nice evening in front of the TV.
On Agents, Alas, All Too Typical
Talent Agent Lew Grade: Twenty five is ridiculous, I can get you forty. Who's your agent? Actor: You are.
Fairly quiet day today which is nice considering I had a busy day yesterday and really need a bit of a rest. I was going to go to the movies tonight but a combination of snow fall warning and the fact that the Golden Globes are on tonight is enough to get me to go straight home.
I don't really have much else to report except that we had a great meeting yesterday and we're working on a great little surprise and step forward for the movie site. I'm really excited and can't wait to kick it off.
I'm headed back to work now. Maybe I'll even get to write my reviews today. We'll see.
This is just weird...
On I Scream for Ice Cream
Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream Lettuce Potato Ice Cream Shark's Fin Noodle Ice Cream Goat Ice Cream Deep Sea Water
ice cream flavours available at Ice Cream City, Tokyo
TGIF is all I can say. It's been a cold and miserable week and it looks like it's not going to get any better with the snow that's forecast for tomorrow. I hope it stays put because I have a busy weekend ahead of me. It's been particularly cold the last few days. I'm actually not too bad with the cold but the Westcoast cold isn't quite the same as the cold (with windshield) in Alberta. When I was outside of Calgary in the dead of winter a few years ago, it was something like -30 outside. Yes it's cold but if you bundle up you're ok and as soon as you get inside, you start to warm up almost immediately. Out here, the cold is different. It's 'wet' and really seeps into your bones and when you come in out of it, it can take hours to warm up again. That's been the case the last two days. It's brutal.
As for the weekend...plans with the GF's for tomorrow (if it's safe enough to go out) and Sunday I'm taking my sorry ass to the movies for the day. With school now back, I can't go out evenings during the week and so, weekends like this one, when more than one movie I want to see is playing, I have to resort to spending an entire day at the movies. Not to worry though, they're all good flicks and so you'll be seeing a review for "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" early next week.
Looks like the Blogger picture uploading feature is working again so here's this week's KFF - the first of 2007:
This one is from Parenthood, one of Keanu's first movies. Can you tell?? :)
And today's dumbest thing is, appropriately, movie related. If you've ever seen a foreign film with really bad subtitles, you'll totally laugh at this. I've seen my share of these but nothing quite like this one...
On Threats, Kung-Fu
Yah-Yah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough examination.
It's been a busy (and interesting) day. To boot, my fingers are freezing at the moment, I think the boiler may be down. Again. They should really either fix or replace that bloody thing. It's down more often than it runs!
Snowed like crazy yesterday and I had a good few inches at the house last night. My dad had to pick me up at the skytrain station as the bus look where I catch my bus was closed and D was stuck out in Langley until almost 8PM. It was a total nightmare. This morning it was better but bitterly cold which just caused everything to freeze. Not good. I did take some pictures of the snow but, alas, I left them on my PC at home so I'll have to post them for you all tomorrow.
In the mean time, here's thoday's stupid thing. It's the first one that's actually made me laugh.
On Judges, A Little Too Persevering
Judge: I know you don't I? Defendant: Uh, yes. Judge: All right, how do I know you? Defendant: Judge, do I have to tell you? Judge: Of course. You might be obstructing justice not to tell me. Defendant: Okay. I was your bookie.
More snow. We had 2 inches when I left the house this morning and I stood in the freezing cold waiting for the bus, another 1/2 inch fell, some of it on me. I got on the bus and was caked with snow. Not fun. The commute was surprisingly good but then, I leave the house really early. The accountant, who comes in from further out, is still not here and she's called the boss lady to let her know she's going to be about another hour. I don't get it. If you knew it was going to be bad weather out, wouldn't you leave the house earlier? Maybe it's just me but that seems like the thing to do. Oh well.
First class went well. Looks like it's going to be an interesting course though it focuses more on western religions that I had expected (I thought it was going to be more of a mix). I like John and the class is a good size for discussion plus it sounds like most of the folks in there know what the hell they're talking about. Should be good. There is one girl at the front that pisses me off (and we had a short class yesterday). It's funny really. The prof is obviously not impressed and he shakes off her comments with little remarks that, to me, sound like he's trying to tell her that they're not appropriate. We'll have to see how it develops.
I had a big problem with some of the blogs yesterday. For some reason, nearly all of the blogs I visit regularly stopped working. Looked like it may have been a problem with google and all seems well now!
Other than that, things are fairly quiet. Hope everyone is having a good hump day!
On Crucial Platetary Preferences, Actor's Thoughts About
I've always liked Saturn. But I also have some sympathy for Pluto because I heard it's been downgraded from a planet and I think it should remain a planet. Once you've given something planetary status it's kind of mean to take it away.
Well it's official, I'm now making money from reviews. Not a lot of money mind you but a little. I've been hired onto screenhead.com. Just working out the kinks and then we'll get started. I'm thinking I may only be giving them DVD reviews because, after all, I have to look out for myself first and the new release films will probably bring me more hits but, we'll see how things work out. Generally, I'm just happy this is moving ahead so nicely.
I'm really tired this morning, thanks in part to a long night, but more than anything, I'm excited about classes starting out again tonight.
Other than that, there isn't much else going on. Still have a bunch of stuff to get through so I'm thinking I'm going to reserve Saturday night and Sunday for doing some work on the site. I really need to talk to someone about updating it. I should really be playing with Drupal a little more but at this point, I'm concerned about losing some of the data (comments) stored in my wordpress files. I need a re-design. Anyone out there do WP designs? I'm willing to pay a little money (not that much to be had at the moment but I badly need a reorg).
On You Should Have Dined In
Take-out order taker: May I have your name please? Customer: Bill. Order taker: John? Customer: No, Bill? Order taker: Dion? Customer: Bill. Order taker: Jill? Customer: No, Bill. Do you know Bill Clinton? Order taker: Yes. Customer: My name is Bill, like in Bill Clinton. Order taker: Okay, Dill Clinton. May I take your order, Sir Dill?
Exchange on the phone at a Manila take-out restaurant
It was a quiet weekend chalk full of movie watching goodness. The weather was super crappy for the most part so I spent most of the two days cooped up inside the house with D sitting in front of the TV. Nothing too exciting.
Movie tonight and classes kick off tomorrow. Should be fun. I have a bit of a tummy ache today - not sure what from - and to boot, my head is pounding like it has it's own pulse. Ugh. I can't wait to get to bed tonight.
I've been a bad blogger. Things have been busy these first few days of 2007 and I've been running around like a mad woman. It appears that it's slowing back down to regular pace around here though so I should be back to normal for next week.
Lots has happened the last few days. I am now an official full time employee as of Jan. 1st. Signed all the paperwork yesterday and, after almost 8 years of various temp jobs, I'm finally full time staff with the full package. It's nice that I've already been here for so long so it's was just a matter of filling in some paper work. I figure this will be good for the next few years as I continue to trod along on my degree with the final intention, to either do a library sciences master or a teaching degree (with film/cultural studies) as a main focus. I figure I like movies so much, I may as well do something worthwhile with it. Of course, this is the plan now but who knows? Maybe the review site will take off and I can do that full time. That would be sweet (to use a term that's totally 90's).
I'm a bit miffed at the weather man. Last night, I checked the 11PM news to get heads up on the weather for this morning. The verdict was for flurries over night and then showers in the morning with the snow gone by the morning commute. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the back window this morning to find this. Sorry guys, I tried to upload the pictures but Blogger isn't cooperating.
Thanks to my inability to upload pictures at the moment, this also means that I can't post today's KFF. Bugger. Instead, I'm going to entertain you with another segment that will become a regular for the year. I purchased The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said page-a-day calendar for 2007 and so, every day, you too will get to revel in the greatness that stupidity can provide.
Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing Over 7,000 pounds
We have seen thee, queen of cheese, Lying quietly at your ease, Gently fanned by evening breeze, Thy Fair form no flies dare seize.
poet James McIntyre, from the book Very Bad Poetry
I had planned to update this thing over the holidays but it just never happened. Between being sick over Christmas and trying to catch up on movies that I had sitting around the house, I managed to get very little of anything else done including a disastrous New Years eve that consisted of D waking me up at midnight so I could ring in the New Year with him. What a lovely man. He was so sweet and understanding at my being to sick to do anything other than sleep. I'm feeling a little better today (no choice considering I had to come into work) but other than that, it was a fantastic holiday full of food, drink, family and fun. Santa was much too good to me this year again and I can't help but feel spoiled by all the goodies that I'm not sure I really deserved.
As per last year, I didn't make any resolutions but thinking on it a bit longer yesterday, I've decided to put more effort into school, the movie site and friends. That's the extent of my resolution.
I can barely talk - every time I do I break into coughing fits and it was REALLY painful watching Little Miss Sunshine Saturday night. Every laugh = more coughing. Other than that, I'm back into the regular swing of things. And tonight is the night for the much anticipated Notes on a Scandal preview screening. I know some of the winners but others are total newcomers and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone and maybe finding out how they discovered the site. WOOHOO! I know. I know. I should be going home to rest but I HAVE to be there (especially considering that I have everyone's tickets!)!
I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and all the best for 2007!
