Oh MAN!

So yesterday I mentioned that it looked like the New Kids on the Block were getting ready for a reunion and now, thanks to Sean over at Media Bytes, we get a link to ACTUAL new material!

And YES, I signed up for the email updates. No, I'm not joking.

Check it out HERE.

Memory lane... "ohhhhhhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Hangin' tough"

We'd planned to record our February preview last weekend but bucketloads of snow stopped us from actually managing to get together so we re-scheduled for last night. A bit more snow, some light rain and it looked like things were going well until one car got stuck and we spent a good 45 minutes to get it unstuck (thanks in part to Leeny's afinity to carry lumber in her truck at all times).

We finally recorded the show (complete with EXCELLENT sound) and I edited the thing together last night. So I'm listening to it to do the show notes and I discover that I somehow managed to lose about 10 minutes of audio. Gone. Caput. Not sure what happened. I do know that I forgot to clear my SD car which meant I had to switch cards but that still doesn't account for the lost audio. Bloody hell. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

So I promised more pictures of the winter weather and here we go. Loads more!

This one's just a taste but you can check them all out here.

Looks like it!

I think I could actually drum up the enthusiasm to re-live my grade 5 love...

DO: Let your readers know, in a post that comes VIA the RSS feed that the feed will become invalid at such and such a date

DON'T: Simply invalidate the feed and figure that readers will find you regardless

CHUD, one of my daily movie news reads, stopped publishing feeds late last week and this morning, I head over to the site to find that they've redesigned it. Looks nice, much cleaner, but they didn't sent out word to their readers that their feeds had changed. I'm almost tempted to stop visiting all together. They'll be lucky to make back half their readers in the next few days - if ever. Whoever rolled out that redesign missed a pretty huge point.

Oh man. If I thought the weekend snowfall was something, I didn't know what was coming.

I failed to upload a picture this morning, I'll have to do it later, but we have a good 10 inches, INCHES, of snow at our house. Let's just say it was interesting getting out this morning. I finally made it to work at 10AM.

So I'm sitting here watching my second dose of Masterpiece Theater today (earlier today I saw the re-airing of "Northanger Abbey" which was, as expected, fantastic) and right now I'm watching "Mansfield Park" and checking out the schedule of upcoming screenings including the best of the Austen adaptation, "Pride and Prejudice" with part one to start on February 10th.

Also worth noting there's a version of "Emma" coming up in a few weeks starring none other than the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale and the brilliant Samantha Morton - well worth adding to the calendar on March 23rd. To be honest, I can't believe I've never actively searched for Masterpiece Theater. I can't believe it - it's brilliant! The entire schedule and a couple of juicy tidbits of information at the official website.

And while I was looking for a few pictures, I discovered We Make History. So far, I've spent 20 minutes digging through the links - particularly the Sense and Sensibility link which features a whole load of wonderful looking patterns. I feel another project coming on...


Or maybe this...

So we were supposed to record our February preview podcast today and then I got a call from S asking if we were still going ahead. I thought so...until hubby opened the blinds and we looked out the window. Looks like we're not doing anything today other than hibernating.

What's going on you wonder? The better question is what would happen if...?

The CBC is putting to the test what would happen if women weren't around to look after the home and what better way to see what would happen but by running an experiment? Talk about social studies on a grand scale. Sounds really interesting.

They've put together a show based on the experiment which I'll have to check into but in the meantime, you can read all about the experiment and what some of the participants had to say, here.

It's official. Today I registered for Northern Voice and requested Friday, Feb. 22nd off. I'm all set to go!

To add to the excitement, I also got some fancy, FANCY business cards in the mail from one of the other contributors - they're SO darned professional looking! - so I'm pretty much set to go!

OMG. OMG. OMG. This is sad, SAD news.

From the NY POST:

January 22, 2008 -- Actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his Broome Street apartment, apparently from a drug overdose.

I'm not some crazed lunatic that thinks death, murder and violence are funny but I have to be honest, I feel very little pity for gang-related deaths and the same holds true for the recent death of Ricardo Francis Scarpino, a known gang associate who was shot outside of an upscale Vancouver restaurant. No, it's never nice when people die but when you're involved with as much crap as this guy was apparently involved with, your likely to have some pretty close calls and probably a bad ending.

My major concern about the entire thing is that this happened in public and luckily, no innocent bi-standards were killed and now I have some more news to report. A girlfriend passed on news that Keanu Reeves was IN the restaurant at the time of the shooting.

Thank goodness this thing didn't get too far out of control. And now I know the man likes a good steak!

I used to think I wasn't very superficial and into "stuff" but over the years, I've come to take great joy from my "things". They're not often expensive, but I love my DVD collection and being able to meander the shelves for something that suits my fancy. I love looking through my books for stuff to read and I love the other trinkets that make their way into my house: my very controlled barbie collection, hubby's SW stuff and the odd stuffed teddy (I picked up a Care Bears Cheer bear - glow in the dark to boot) at Walmart on the weekend for $5.

So yeah, I do like to have "things" and though some might think that shallow, they make my life that much more enjoyable - on top of a wonderful family, a great partner and fantastic friends...the best a girl could ask for to be honest.

All this rambling just sort of spurted out from an initial thought that when D and I started dating, I used to spend hours upon hours of alone time in front of his PC playing Unreal Tournament. He worked nights, I went to school days and we'd see each other for a few crossover hours but I'd always get there early and stay a bit afterwards and immerse myself in FPS greatness. I even started to get really good at it and then, for whatever reason, I just stopped playing. I haven't really been interested in any of the other platforms but a few weeks ago I noticed that Unreal Tournament III was coming and now that I've seen the video...I'm drooling a bit. I may need to check this out. I've already put out a feeler to the hubby to see if our computer's video card can support the graphics. I hope so!

Ooops. I realize I promised a KFF but didn't deliver. Here we go:

On an unrelated note, I recently changed the hosting of my DVD collection to a new place that even lets me update the status of the DVD when I lend it. This would have been particularly helpful a while back, before I lent out and forgotten who I lent it to, my copy of "A Scanner Darkly". If you're at all interested in seeing what's in my collection, you can do so here (or from the link in the sidebar). I still have a load of stuff to add but I'm up to the end of the P's at the moment. Happy browsing.

One of the best things of seeing "Cloverfield" this weekend was sitting through the credits and enjoying Michael Giacchino’s “ROAR! (Cloverfield Overture)” - what is easily one of the greatest sound bites of the year. Seriously, it's awesome. If you caught the film and missed it or even if you haven't seen the film but are interested in CLASSIC film scores - this is right up there with the best of the monster movie themes.

I didn't record this but it's pretty good except for the occasional mumble from someone sitting nearby. Apparently the soundtrack and this song will be available for purchase at some point soon. I can't wait for the moment when I can play this in it's full glory on by BIG speakers. SWEET.

Roar! (Cloverfield Overture)

So we've all seen the Japanese folding video but if you're like me, that video is so fast that you can't quite figure out what was going on. Then today, I found this video. Thanks to the kid who put it together.

I'm so going to build myself the folding machine!

After a dreadfully slow CSIS class last night (CSIS apparently has something to do with computers since it's an introduction to computers class), I needed to unwind a little and what better way to unwind than to watch an amazing romance?

Into the DVD player went "Pride & Prejudice" and away I went. Thirty minutes was all I needed to change my mood and settle me into a good night's rest.

So this morning I'm walking to work and I feel the need to listen to something upbeat and so I play "Meryton Townhall" from the film's soundtrack and lucky for you, I get to share. Makes me want to dance!

And because I can't help myself, I also found this clip which, regardless of how often and out of context I play it, always takes my breath away.


I'll be back later with the first KFF of 2008!

Unfortunately, it's not all that triumphant. The holidays came and went. The illness came and went as did the food, the sleep, the rest and the fun. I lived through another holiday, relatively unscathed and surprisingly debt free. It was a good, relaxing holiday and school's already started. Work has been trucking along nicely and the new website is going full swing. Essentially, life is pretty good right now.

It's been a pretty quiet day at the office so I've spent the last 20 minutes or so cruising YouTube. That's pretty dangerous all its own, I know but even more so now that I've kind of figured out how to properly search for stuff and navigate the masses of videos to find what I'm looking for. I'm feeling a little nostalgic today so I dug up a couple of pretty cool videos.

This first one is of one of my favorite fadistas, a woman I'm sure I've mentioned in the past - Mariza. This is a great video of one of my favorite songs "Barco Negro" (translates into "Black Boat") and she even explains the story before hand. Beautiful.

Watching this prompted a search for a version of "A Thousand Years" which appeared on the "Unity" CD which came out during the 2004 Olympic games and featured Sting and Mariza together. This is the only embeddable version of the song I could find but it's so fabulous, I had to include it - even with the crummy video that goes with it.