Apparently, when a workplace incident occurs that causes serious injury, WCB sends out these WorkSafe Bulletins. What made me and the construction manager giggle was the graphic.

Click on the image for a better view.

Last week it was the mouse....

This week it's the keyboard.

Someone get me out of here.

And you don't have to look too far to find it. Acutally, William Gibson pointed it out.

I just found the video below. It's vaguely reminiscent to me of Electric Circus and Retro Boogie Dance Party. I hope this isn't really making a return but it makes for a good laugh.

Sometime back I discovered that my little camera actually records some pretty decent video. Nothing spectacular but it does the job of capturing the moment and the microphone is pretty decent considering we're talking about a fairly middle-of-the-road digital camera. I've taken a couple of short little movies and done nothing with them but today, I happened to have an SD nearby with a video clip along with some spare time so I thought I'd check out the services at blip.tv which I discovered at NV.

It's nothing spectacular (Colleen and I talking about the weather and getting up early) but it's fun. At this point, I'll also direct your attention to my Flickr set with a bunch of pictures from NV including the shot of the North Vancouver sunrise which is pictured above. I must admit, I'm quite impressed by how beautiful that looks.

Pardon the language but this fucking sucks.

I watched quarterlife last night, the internet-turned-tv show from the creators of "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called-Life". I'd been to the website before but had failed to check the show out and when I noticed it was on last night, I got cozy and relaxed and started to enjoy the greatness.

Basically, it follows a group of 6 twenty-somethings trying to glimpse some meaning into their lives. In the tradition of its predecessors, the writing, situations and characters are realistic and, as per tradition, it's not widely accepted by the television viewing public hungry for reality tv and over-the-top melodrama.

It's quite sad. Here we have another great show which is likely to kick-the-bucket thanks to viewers not tuning in. I expect that if it does, indeed, get canceled, it will find legs down the road much like "My So-Called-Life". Still, I can't help but feel robbed. I don't watch a lot of television as it is and the one show I'm interested in is being yanked.

More than that, it goes to show that the viewing public hasn't changed much. During an early episode of ATC, Dale, Colleen and I discussed that perhaps MSCL would have found footing with today's viewership but here we have a show similar in tone and style and it's still a loss in the ratings. Reminds me of the old adage: "The more things change, the more they stay the same".

It started off simply enough. Leeny sent me a link to a cool (if strange) thing called "Mobile Desktop" where an Improv group in NY took their desktop computers to a Starbucks and used them, essentially, as lap tops.

I started reading a bit more about the group and clicking through trying to find out if there was a local Improv group like this one that I could join for an event. A bunch of clicks later I ended up at Improv Everywhere Global and from there, a Facebook Group which recently had their first "freeze".

I've joined the FB group and am looking forward to the next one. I've always been interested in participating in something like this (I walked into the middle of one at the VPL steps a few years back) and it looks like now I'll get the chance to.

All because of a little link meant as comedy relief.

And for fun, here's a video of the Vancouver Freeze.

I first picked up Anne Rice in Grade 9. I was young, a reader and crushing on a boy who loved Anne Rice. I tried my hand at "Interview with a Vampire" and it ended miserably. I managed to get through the first 25 pages before wondering out loud what anyone saw in Rice's work. Fast forward a year, an encouraging English teacher and "The Vampire Lestat" and second time was lucky: immediately I became a fan. Over the next year I read everything I could get my hands on. I started with vampires, moved on to witches, carried through with odd ball titles not part of a collection, discovered the aliases and even read through the erotica. I've been a fan ever since and my favourite of her works is easily "Queen of the Damned" (thought the movie was tripe).

Anne lost me with "Blood and Gold" which I thought suffered greatly from lack of editing, something which I attribute in part to the publisher. I revisited her work with "Blood Canticle" which feature both Lestat and Mona and was an interesting cross over between her two worlds but I lost track until I gave her another shot with "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" which was a surprisingly entertaining and thought provoking novel. I haven't gone back to read what I've missed over the last few years but doing some research I've discovered that she has "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" coming out later this year.

What all this book talk is really about is a recent interview at Time Online in which Anne divulges that she may still return to her beloved vampires. She rediscovered religion a few years back and swore never to go back to vampires but now she says that there's one more story to tell and having heard enough authors talk, this isn't something that just goes away.

Personally, I think this is fantastic news. She seems to be back on track with the writing and Lestat rising from the ashes could be what fans are looking for. I'm just hopeful that I have the opportunity to see another of her book tours. She's an amazingly gracious and personable individual. If I can find them, I'll have to post some photos of my meeting with her at the height of my love for her and likely the height of her success as well.

I was sharing Dancing Matt with the husband and he decided to share something funny with me as well.

Turns out that Larry and Willy, the morning DJ's at my favourite local radio station Jack FM, have been trying to get their hands on the Hawaii Chair unfortunately, the company doesn't ship to Canada. I'd never even heard of this thing so we were about to watch the infomercial when I spotted this video from Ellen. I'm not a huge fan of hers but she tends to be pretty funny and goodness, this bit is pretty good.

What's worse is that people are actually buying this. I'm sorry...does this actually exercise anything?

For the past few years, it's become a bit of a tradition for me to have an Oscar party but it requires early planning and the sending out of e-invites in January. Unfortunately, you may recall that in January, the writer's were on strike and there was talk that the Oscars might be all-together canceled. I made the decision to not have a party and instead, looked for some other way to make the event more enjoyable (I find some bits of the show nearly unbearable).

I talked with the fellow Row Three contributors and passed on the idea of live blogging the Oscars and everyone was pretty keen about it. I'd never live blogged before but I knew that I didn't much like the idea of having to update the same post 400 times throughout the 3 hour show while keeping track of the discussion in the comment section of the site. This left me in a conundrum - how on earth am I going to manage this?

I looked around on-line for a solution and stumbled on Cover It Live. Looking over the site, it seemed too good to be true but lo-and-behold, it wasn't. You may have seen my live coverage of NV, mostly as a testing platform, and the event last night went off without a hitch. I had read that there had been problems with the CIL service during Macworld but that may have something to do with the fact that that sort of conference is full of tech savvy folks who probably knew what they were doing. I didn't expect the same problems with the Oscars but I did devised a backup plan just in case of disaster.

The event turned from a 'live blog' to nearly a 'live chat' but either way you cut it, it went very, very smoothly and all because of a little Canadian company. I think it's particularly notable to note that our coverage was indeed live and instantly interactive whereas most of the other big sites 'live blogging' the event resorted to traditional methods and therefore lacked true audience interaction.

I think this is a positive notch in my belt.

Update: I think it's worth noting that the Film Junk crew used my back-up plan.

I don't really want to call it "the weekend from hell" but I must admit that as much fun as I had and as much as I learned, this was a hellish sort of weekend full of interesting tidbits which left me drained.

Northern Voice 2008 was a huge success and I have a load of post ideas that came out of it which will be forthcoming in the next few days but I needed a bit of a laugh this morning so I though I'd share my solution.

The keynote speaker at NV was Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, and in the midst of his great talk (audio of which is coming soon - at least I think I have audio...4GB of audio is a lot of stuff to filter through...) he brought up a few peeves and one of them was that his Google ranking was being overtaken by another Matt, a Matt I'd never heard about.

The leading Matt is from a website called Where the Hell is Matt? and essentially, he's a guy who travels the world and dances at each new location. The truly funny bit is that Matt dances "like a white guy" (aka. not very well).

It's pretty darn funny and I can't help but watch the video below (a collection of Matt's dances from 2006) and laugh.

As a fan of fast cars, I can't help but get excited about this.

Last year hubby brought my attention to the Tesla Motors and their electric sports car. I was excited about it before but watching this video....I can't believe it. Listen to it, there's no background sound and you only hear the engine when it's accelerating.

The video is of Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors, test driving the very first model. It's really sweet and the fact that the Corvette is having a hard time keeping up is a little mind blowing. Not only is the video darned cool but there's a load of extra wicked information about the car discussed in the process. Very cool.

I met a pushy blogger. Really nice, but out to get her way. Can't say I blame her though...

She was bitching about a sticker she picked up at the conference and why, oh WHY, would any company use Vanilla Ice to advertise? Dude, it's Vanilla Freakin' Ice! It's genius!

I offered to trade something for it, I figured a few bucks would do the trick. Instead, she asked for a link. Thanks Raincoaster - the sticker ROCKS!


Update (6:04PM): Just for fun, I tracked down the video with that infamous line. Check it:

So I'm sitting here between session, madly trying to catch up on uploading audio and a little birdie comes by and shares some wicked information.

From a few of the sessions, I've noticed that there are some folks at the conference that aren't local to Vancouver but I didn't realize that some people came from so far away.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out who came the farthest but frankly, my geography skills suck so I'll let you figure that one out for yourself. Here's the list:

Abbotsford
Bellevue
Berkeley
Bowen Island
Burnaby
Caledon
Calgary
Chilliwack
Coquitlam
Duncan
Edmonton
Fairbanks
Fort St. John
Fredericksburg
Gibsons
Kalamazoo
Kamloops
Lions Bay
Los Angeles
Lynnwood
Millburn
Monroe
Mountain View
New Westminster
New York
North Vancouver
Olympia
Ottawa
Playa Del Rey
Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
Portland
Prince George
Reston
Richmond
Richmond Hill
Roberts Creek
Salt Spring Island
San Francisco
Sausalito
Scottsdale
Seattle
St Thomas
Surrey
Toronto
Vancouver
Victoria
White Rock

Here are the regions (12) people are from:

Alaska
Alberta
Arizona
British Columbia
California
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
Ontario
Oregon
Virginia
Washington

Had to sit behind the presenter on this one because the room was PACKED. Thankfully, I did manage to record the presentation...


powered by ODEO

Alright, so this didn't go over as well as planned but I think we'll be good for the second session. I'll still post my notes...once I clean them up. On the other hand, we WILL have audio! Soon at least.

3:30 - As promised. The presentation audio!


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So I managed to check my grades just before heading out for break (but after that god awful presentation on how the mouse works). Sad part is that after looking at them for 30 seconds, I couldn't figure out what the hell I was looking at. Thankfully, after some tea, a rest, and some air, I returned, took a second look and was pleasantly surprised to find that I scored 70% on the midterm. I say pleasantly because, as you may recall, that thing was bloody BRUTAL.

He let us go early. I stayed for an extra hour to get a head start on my Excel project which is due next week. I knew that if I came home, I'd blow the time goofing around. Worked out well. Managed to get nearly half of it done.

Getting ready for the big day. Getting excited. Oh my.

While folks are out enjoying the evening with a few drinks and kicking off NV, I'm sitting here in a computer class listening to the professor explain HOW an old mouse works, you know, the ones with the bouncy balls.

This must be a bad joke or something.

And I'm not talking about a book that holds every bit of information about Manga. Rather, this is The Bible told in Manga form.

It's an interesting idea and one I'm curious about. I haven't done a lot of research to see if creator Siku is religious, though on the official website he is described as "Concept Artist/Art Director/Graphic Novelist/Theologian". Depending on the accuracy, I could see the church jumping on board and using this as a way to introduce youth to religion. It's an interesting synthesis.

I'm seriously considering checking this out. More details about the various versions and to order, check out The Manga Bible online.

Thanks to Popped Culture for the lead.

"Whoa, could Keanu Reeves' performance in the crime drama Street Kings convince skeptics the dude can act?"

That opening line comes care of a reporter over at Canoe and I must say, I think it's more than a little misguided. Has Kevin Williamson ever seen Reeves in anything else? I'll be the first to admit that he has his blank face moments but I'll argue, to my grave, that Reeves does have talent, when paired with the right material and director. How soon we forget My Own Private Idaho, Speed, Feeling Minnesota and YES, even The Devil's Advocate.

I would be surprised if Reeves ever managed an Oscar nod but that doesn't mean the guy can't act. Give me a break Williamson.

As a test of new technology that I'll be using on a "grander" scale on Sunday during the LIVE OSCAR BLOG (check out all the details) and partly because I want to give something back to the blogging community, I'll be putting myself to the test and blogging all of the sessions I attend at Northern Voice this weekend. Coverage will start with the first session "Bloging 101" at 10:45 tomorrow morning and I intend to cover everything I attend (at the moment it's everything) and the Friday schedule looks like this:

10:45 - 11:15 Blogging 101
11:15 - 11:45 Podcasting 101
11:45 - 12:15 Videoblogging 101
13:30 - 14:00 Wiki 101
14:00 - 14:30 Live blogging 101 (<== appropriate no?!)
14:30 - 15:00 Traffic, Stats, SEO 101
15:30 - 16:00 Tagging 101
16:00 - 16:30 What Next?

I'm also hopeful that I'll have a chance to record the various sessions on my handy H4 and share those with the masses. I'll be playing that by ear but at the moment, that's the plan.

As for Saturday, I've been trying to devise a schedule but there are a few things that I'm not 100% on yet and which will be fairly spur of the moment but once I have a general idea, the same principles will apply.

In a last ditch effort (and sudden burst of energy) to make tomorrow slightly less painful, I managed to get ALL of my filing, shredding, new folder making and general clean up done for tomorrow.

I've been in a bit of a daze at work the last few days. Not sure if it's lack of sleep, lack of motivation or some other sort of loss of interest but I really feel like I'm walking through the motions. I have a few things I could probably get done today so I don't have to do them tomorrow (since I'm off on Friday) but I can't be bothered to do any productive work today. Maybe if I get really bored of trying to kill time I'll actually get some of that filing done.

At least this evening will be fairly low key (recording a show) and tomorrow...not sure what to expect. Likely a bit busy around here and then with class we'll have to see if he hands back the midterms.

I feel like I need a nap right now.

I particularly love the bit about the Coen Brothers adapting "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" which falls in the highbrow/brilliant quarter. Does that mean that to make the matrix PT Anderson has to adapt some equally strange sounding book? Not sure. I'd think that There Will Be Blood would count.


Kudos to Mr. Gibson for the link.

Oh, and the Spears comment is a bit mean but quite funny.

This is really cool.

One of the reasons I've always loved NIN so much is because of they're constantly changing sound. Sometimes, the changing sound occurs withing a period of a couple of singles, other times, it spreads over albums. Though some folks might argue that remixing one's own work is making more money on the cheap, I take comfort in hearing new arrangements and mixes of material I already know and love hence, my love of NIN.

Now the band, namely the fantastic Trent Reznor, has launched a new website where you can upload, download and listen to remixes - by fans. Not quite sure how well this will work (ie. how will I know that the mix is worth listening to?) but thankfully, the entire thing is free so I'm much more inclined to check it out and if you're a NIN fan, you might want to head on over there and take a look. remix.nin.com.

Other NIN updates include a website with wicked desktops and a YouTube channel which I didn't even know existed.

Happy listening/downloading/watching.

Yesterday, the BC Government introduced a new tax on fossil fuels which will raise taxes on gas by 2.4cents/litre. In return, every man, woman and child will get a $100 tax credit which, apparently offsets the cost. I'd like to see what sort of 'new funny math' (as my Gr. 10 Science teacher used to call it) they're using to figure that one out. Sure, it might be OK for folks that don't pay for natural gas and don't have a car but what portion of the population is that?

It all seems a bit fishy to me...I'm more inclined to believe the idea that this is all a way to offset ballooning Olympic costs.

God, now more than ever I'm leaning towards the NDP.

I've always liked Natalie Portman, mostly because she's not just beautiful but smart as a whip to boot, but I don't believe there are many women in Hollywood with classic good looks quite like Portman. This photo was taken at the Premiere of The Other Boleyn Girl.


Stunning.

I clicking around on the EMP/SFM website and stumbled on a link to the Science Fiction Museum Advisory Board and wow, it's an impressive list of individuals which includes: Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, Orson Scott Card, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, George Lucas, Majel Barrett Roddenberry and Steven Spielberg.

Wowsers.

This is amazing.

Paul Mawhinney is a Pittsburgh man who owns the biggest record collection ever - it's made up of 3 million records, 300,000 CDs and a whole load of other recordings in other formats. And after years of buying and adding to the collection, he's now selling it. WOW.

The collection is currently up for sale on eBay but from Mawhinney's official website, it looks like he's looking for an institution that can maintain the collection in tact since it appears that it is one of the most complete musical collections ever. There is a hole load of history and WHY the collection is important, over at Mawhinney's website. I hope he finds the right person to take on his passion. This looks like the sort of thing Paul Allen should be picking up to add to his already extensive music collection - I could see this as an integral part of the the Experience Music Project.

And just for fun, here's a clip of Rob, the protagonist from High Fidelity talking about deleted Smiths singles. I hate this character. Both in the book and in the movie. He's such an asshole but this is the sort of obsessive thing that leads to 3,000,000+ record collections.

YES!!!!

All the juicy details here!

My CSIS midterm yesterday was a nightmare. Seriously. He dug through his notes and gave us some of the most obscure stuff to deal with. And who the heck gives a written test, complete with short answers, on computers? I'm not a happy camper. At least my practical assignments are good otherwise, I'd already be dead in the water.

I'm still sick and today I'm feeling a little more run down than the last few days (blame it on my 2 hour trip to various banks earlier this afternoon) but I will prevail and I still plan to attend my movie group event tonight. Then I'm heading home and to bed!

Hubby and I hope to get out tomorrow to test the GPS system. We still don't know where to go but I'm looking forward to an enjoyable day on the road capped off with a nice dinner and hopefully a movie - I'm pushing for "Jumper" but we'll see. And then Sunday...lunch with Vernie (who I haven't seen since before Christmas) and another film, this time "In Bruges" which I had hoped to see this week but which has been put on hold thanks to my flu. Somewhere in there I also have to make time to watch "Praug" which I downloaded the other day - I'm testing Jaman (a movie download service) to see if it's a service I'd like to keep using - and other than that, more sleeping.

And next week is Norther Voice! I'm very excited, mostly because it snuck up on me!

But enough rambling. On to the goods. A classic KFF to finish off the week.


Have a great weekend everyone!

Check out "Blue State".

And I can't wait! Seriously. Love the books. Liked the first movie. Love the girls. Looking forward to it!

YOU HAVE TO CHECK THIS OUT.

WTF moment of the day...

Scarlett Johansson's debut album is a collection of Tom Waits covers.

WTF?

I'm in love so I should be happy that it's Valentine's Day right? But I'm not. What wrong with celebrating love every day of the year? Simply put, Valentine's Day has turned into this ubber commercial event. I've asked hubby to keep his money in the bank and to not even bother with chocolate. I have an exam tonight and I just want to come home afterwards, have a nice dinner and curl up on the couch for a little while before I head to bed. Nice and simple.

That said, I did get this interesting handout while stepping off the Skytrain today. I'm considering giving it to hubby....he might like the exotic cars and lingerie models bit...

Yesterday I posted some pictures of the big explosion that took down a Starbucks.

Early news coming out from those "in control" was that it was a gas explosion, an accident but news today is that the incident actually started next door at Taco Del Mar and that it was arson. All the grim details here along with a rather uncommon picture - uncommon for Vancouver that is.

From this:


To this:



All from one box.

I wouldn't want to sleep on that bed but it sure is handy... All the steps and more details here.

Thanks to Leeny for the link.

So poor Keanu looks a bit stunned here but still...............Reeves and Evans together???? YUM!

Drop date of "Street Kings": 11 April 2008

So exactly how many days is that???

So yesterday I get home, still sick, but determined to make a dent in the Word assignment that is due for my computer class tomorrow but first, I have to install Office 2007 - that, in and of itself, took for freakin' ever.

Finally get the thing installed, type up the letter and start making edits. I was on a roll and the drugs still hadn't kicked in so I finished it, leaving behind the podcast editing that I should have done yesterday. Then, just as I'm following the final steps on what I need to hand in...I notice something. The assignment I worked the last 2 hours to get finished isn't actually due until next week. Crap. So much for that. At least it's done and I don't have to worry about it.

Tonight:

1. Podcast
2. Read notes for mid-term tomorrow
3. Take drugs
4. Watch a movie until drugs kick in and I fall asleep

It sounds like a bad title but I don't hold any ill will towards Starbucks but I do hate the fact that the one that opened up down the street from my house closed my local family owned cafe (which, btw, provided free wireless whereas Starbucks wants me to pay).

There was a huge explosion on Broadway this morning which took down a Starbucks. I should be giving DB money because the only pictures I've seen of the explosion come as a result of his blog. Twice in one morning. NICE.

If you're like me, banking is like German. I get the basics and compound interest and whatever else, none of it is really crystal clear. RRSP have always sounded like a bit of a confusing mess, especially when you listen to your parents talk about paying off debt before saving for the long term. This short clip from Canada's Citizen's Bank lays it out plain and simple. Check it out:

I knew there were folks with money who lived in Vancouver but after spending some time at a Vacation Rentals website, I have come to understand where stars stay when they come to Vancouver.

I've spent the last 20 minutes looking at pictures of unbelievable homes in Vancouver. WOW.

Street Fighter, one of my favourite arcade games of all time is coming back this summer and it looks AWESOME!

Not feeling better. If anything, I'm feeling worse. And I think I'm running a fever. My eyes hurt. My head hurts and even the Tylenol hasn't helped.

I'm going to home tonight to sleep.

Yuk.

The sniffles and sore throat started to set in on Friday but by Sunday it was a full blown illness. I managed to get it together enough to do some grocery shopping in the morning (so keen where we to get to Costco that we ended up waiting outside the door for 10 minutes for it to open). We also made a trip to Best Buy because they were having a sale on GPS systems. Hubby picked up a fancy system which was nearly $200 off. It's AWESOME. Talks to you and everything. Very nice and will come in handy for his trip in a few weeks.

Other than that, I managed to catch up on a bit of reading, watched a few more movies and finished the day with Buckley's and Masterpiece Theater. Still feeling god awful today but hopefully I'll get better instead of worse as the day goes on. I'd like to have the energy to finish "Lady Vengeance" which I started yesterday afternoon but had to turn off when MT started at 9PM. I'm thinking I may have to buy this film because so far, it's FANTASTIC.

Gotta tell you, I've been pining for Friday since Tuesday. There's a great weekend ahead and I'm really excited.

Tomorrow is a screening of Carl Bessai's "Normal" with a Talkback session with the director and crew, then recording a podcast AND THEN a free talk by the fantastic William Gibson at UBC. Sunday I'm meeting with a friend from my film class and Sunday night kicks off the first part of BBC's "Pride and Prejudice" on Masterpiece Theater as part of their Complete Jane Austen series. It's being shown in three parts and, I noticed, with no commercials. Very nice.

The other reason I've been pining to Friday is to share with you the fantastic KFF with some great new photos of the great Keanu in his upcoming film "Street Kings" (renamed from "Nightwatch"). I have to admit, I like Keanu in all sizes but wow, he's looking exceptionally buff here:



Looking good. Be sure to click on the pictures for FULL effect! :)

Oh man. I can't wait to post the KFF for this week. I'm so excited.....I'm giving the excitement an entire post! :)

And I'm now an Associate Producer on a movie! How EXCITING!

Juliet Marillier, one of my favourite authors, recently wrote this about inspiration:

Not being of a scientific bent, I won’t attempt a discussion of how inspiration relates to brain function. The fact that some people end up as writers, composers, artists or choreographers, while others become accountants, plumbers or truck drivers is probably as much a matter of nurture as it is nature. And where does creativity start and end, anyway? To be a good teacher, baker, gardener or parent, you must be creative; you need inspiration. You need those sparky ideas, the ones that seem to come from nowhere and enable you to communicate with others in a special way. It would be arrogant for us, as writers, to believe that inspiration visits only a narrow group of creative artists.

I don't know the exact number of people that die every year because of drunk drivers but I do know that the number is gargantuan. What I'm pissed off about is WHY celebrities and rich people in general continue to use bad judgement and choose to drink and drive.

It's bad enough that other people do it but these are folks that should be setting an example, not to mention, they can AFFORD to pay a freakin' driver to drive them around. Use your bloody brains! If you drink, DON'T DRIVE. I, and no one else, feels sorry for you!

Rant courtesy of recent news that Rebecca De Mornay is the most recent moron to enter the hall of shame. And I don't care how brilliant or famous she might be. You drink and drive, you ARE a moron.

I borrowed this from Carrie:

Level 1
(x) Smoked a cigarette.
(x) Smoked a cigar.
(x) Kissed a member of the same sex.
(x) Drank alcohol.

Level 2
(x) Are/been in love.
(x) Been dumped.
(x) Shoplifted.
(x) Been fired.
( ) Been in a fist fight.

Level 3
(x) Had a crush on an older person.
(x) Skipped school.
( ) Slept with a classmate.
( ) Seen someone/something die.

Level 4
( ) Had/have a crush on one of your friends who is now on Facebook.
( ) Been to Paris.
( ) Been to Spain.
(x) Been on a plane.
(x) Thrown up from drinking.

Level 5
(x) Eaten sushi.
( ) Been snowboarding.
( ) Met someone BECAUSE of Facebook.
(x) Been in a mosh pit.

Level 6
( ) Been in an abusive relationship.
(x) Taken pain killers.
(x) Love/loved someone who you can’t have.
(x) Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by.
(x) Made a snow angel.

Level 7
( ) Had a tea party.
(x) Flown a kite.
(x) Built a sand castle.
( ) Gone mudding (offroading).
(x) Played dress up.

Level 8
( ) Jumped into a pile of leaves.
(x) Gone sledging (sledding).
(x) Cheated while playing a game.
(x) Been lonely.
(x) Fallen asleep at work/school.

Level 9
(x) Watched the sun set.
(x) Felt an earthquake.
( ) Killed a snake.

Level 10
(x) Been tickled.
(x) Been robbed/vandalized.
( ) Been cheated on.
(x) Been misunderstood.

Level 11
(x) Won a contest.
( ) Been suspended from school.
(x) Had detention.
( ) Been in a car/motorcycle accident.

Level 12
( ) Had/have braces.
( ) Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night.
(x) Danced in the moonlight.

Level 13
(x) Hated the way you look.
( ) Witnessed a crime.
( ) Pole danced.
(x) Questioned your heart.
(x) Been obsessed with post-it-notes.

Level 14
(x) Squished barefoot through the mud.
(x) Been lost.
( ) Been to the opposite side of the world.
(x) Swam in the ocean.
( ) Felt like you were dying.

Level 15
(x) Cried yourself to sleep.
( ) Played cops and robbers.
(x) Recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers.
(x) Sang karaoke.
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins.

Level 16
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't.
(x) Made prank phone calls.
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose.
(x) Kissed in the rain.

Level 17
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus.
(x) Watched the sun set/sun rise with someone you care/cared about.
(x) Blown bubbles.
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach or anywhere.

Level 18
( ) Crashed a party.
( ) Have travelled more than 5 days with a car full of people.
(x) Gone rollerskating/blading.
(x) Had a wish come true.
(x) Slept with a member of the same sex.

Level 19
( ) Worn pearls.
( ) Jumped off a bridge.
(x) Screamed "penis" or vagina".
( ) Swam with dolphins.

Level 20
( ) Got your tongue stuck to a pole/freezer/ice cube.
( ) Kissed a fish.
(x) Worn the opposite sex's clothes.
(x) Sat on a roof top.

Level 21
(x) Screamed at the top of your lungs.
( ) Done/attempted a one-handed cartwheel.
(x) Talked on the phone for more than six hours (in one day).
(x) Recently stayed up for a while talking to someone you care about.

Level 22
(x) Picked and ate an apple right off the tree.
(x) Climbed a tree.
( ) Had/been in a tree house.
(x) Been scared to watch scary movies alone.

Level 23
( ) Believed in ghosts.
(x) Have had more than thirty pairs of shoes (not necessarily all at once).
( ) Gone streaking.
( ) Visited jail.

Level 24
(x) Played chicken.
(x) Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on.
(x) Been told you're hot by a complete stranger.
( ) Broken a bone.
(x) Been easily amused.

Level 25
(x) Caught a fish then ate it later.
( ) Made a porn video.
( ) Caught a butterfly.
(x) Laughed so hard you cried.
(x) Cried so hard you laughed.

Level 26
(x) Mooned/flashed someone.
(x) Had someone moon/flash you.
(x) Cheated on a test.
(x) Forgotten someone's name.
(x) French braided someone's hair.
( ) Gone skinny dipping.
( ) Been kicked out of your house.
( ) Tried to hurt yourself.

Level 27
(x) Rode a roller coaster.
( ) Went scuba-diving/snorkeling.
(x) Had a cavity.
( ) Black-mailed someone.
( ) Been black mailed.

Level 28
(x) Been used.
(x) Fell going up the stairs.
( ) Licked a cat.
( ) Bitten someone.
(x) Licked someone--not in private places...

Level 29
( ) Been shot at/or at gunpoint.
( ) Had sex in the rain.
( ) Flattened someone's tires.
( ) Rode your car/truck until the gas light came on.
( ) Got five dollars or less worth of gas.

Oh man. It's been a bad evening/morning.

Last night I was supposed to meet my movie group for a screening of "Seven Samurai". Since I wasn't meeting the group until 6:30, I decided to stick around the office to make up some of the lost time from last week's major snowfall. BIG FREAKING MISTAKE. I mean HUGE MISTAKE. I was doing some filling when, at 5:45, all hell broke loose. I can't go into details but lets just say that the entire project, the only thing we're working on at the moment, was a pin's head away for falling through. I spent the next two hours digging through files trying to put together an emergency package for the lender. NIGHTMARE.

I actually considered going to the movie but since I've already seen it and I was going to miss the first hour (not to mention I was irritated), I went home instead and took out my frustrations on Guitar Hero. I've now completed my career in "Easy" mode and have moved up to "Medium" and HOLY SHIT, it's hard. Love it.

To make things all that much better (drip sarcasm) it was SNOWING at my place this morning. Big, wet, ugly flakes that were actually sticking and making the roads a disaster. We made it as far as 6th before I convinced hubby to leave me there to catch a bus. He turned around and headed to the highway to make his way to work. When I talked to him, he'd made it in one piece. Freakin' snow.

Still have to check if classes are still on for tonight. Apparently it's supposed to turn to rain but then, they didn't predict that the snow was going to stick either...GAH!

Again, a bit late.


On Saturday, I had the great pleasure of going to a talk by George Borshukov who was the lead f/x supervisor for the bullet time sequences in "The Matrix" and I ended the night watching "Tron" and "The Matrix" back to back. Considering I'd just heard that informative talk, I took a load of more material from my millionth screening of one of my favourite films. Here's one of my favourite scenes.

Oh yes! I've already lined up to borrow a DVD of 2 episodes!

Just a taste:

I've mentioned my surprise at the "sudden" rise to fame of Hannah Montana (I understand she's been around for a bit and just now am I getting wind of this....probably because I don't have kids).

Seems that Disney has really hit the cash cow here and the 3D Hannah movie killed at the box office this weekend. I just read a great review over at Cinematical and I gotta say, I'm mildly curious. I also did some digging and found a video for the hit song which plays double as the show's theme music and it's catchy bubble gum fun.

I will say this much, I'm even MORE interested in checking out the U2 3D show now that I've read how good it can be.

I've got my fingers crossed that Miley Cyrus will go down the path of Hilary Duff rather than Spears. She seems to be going in the right direction so far and with a dad that has some experience in the music business, I'm hopeful things will go well for her. She's obviously a talented girl!

Oh man, Oh man, Oh man.

As predicted, I have a new addiction: Guitar Hero III.

Hubby broke down and bought it on Saturday and I finally got to play last night. Three hours later, I'm now on the third stage of my "career" and actually getting pretty good, on the easy level. I think I'm going to have to update to medium to see how that goes.

I called it advanced Tetris. Once you get into the zone, it's pretty good. Yeah! I'm rocking it! I also found that I play better when I stand up. I'll have to post the picture that hubby took of me yesterday rocking out. Wooohoo!

I was making my weekly Monday morning pilgrimage to Post Secret and noticed a link to something completely cool.

It's called Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures and it's a website that posts pictures from found cameras (or memory sticks now that we're in the digital age) and tries to connect the lost pictures with their owners. It's a great idea. Go on over and check it out. You might know someone in the pictures!