These things...

1. A good explanation of the Twilight phenomenon. My favourite part, "I'm a 100 year old immortal with a perfect body and a perfect soul. I think I'm gonna go date an annoying high school chick."


2. The oil spill in the gulf has been gushing oil into the ocean for over a month now, and BP still hasn't figured out a way to stop it. The whole thing has been one incompetence after another. All anyone can do is point fingers at one another, and meanwhile the spill has reached the Louisiana marshes. Also, check this video out, so you can learn proper fucking booming:
   
   


3. I was listening to CBC radio on Monday night and they were having an interesting discussion on the ethics of eating meat. I've mentioned this issue a couple of times, and I was pleased to hear that quite a few of the people on the show were of the same opinion. Vegetarianism doesn't make sense from a health or environmental standpoint. And, if you eat organic, pasture-fed, free-range meat, a lot of the animal welfare issues stop making sense. Anyway, they should start posting the podcast soon, and I'm going to go back and listen to the whole thing.


4. What is with this weather? The heat in the ancient house that I live in has been shut off for the summer, and so even with my space heater going full tilt, it's barely livable. I have been sleeping very well though, albeit with extra covers on my bed. Avery has taken to curling up right under the heater, and I'm afraid she's going to set herself on fire.

Most of this post was shamelessly stolen from saskboy and the galloping beaver.

Review Time

I just watched the Boondock Saints II. I enjoyed the first one quite a bit. It reminds me of a Tarantino movie, or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. So if you're a fan of either of those, you'd like Boondock Saints. And Boondock Saints II was quite good. Not as good as the first one perhaps, but only because it was a lot like the first one, so the style is not as fresh. And it's got an actual woman in it, Julie Benz, who will be familiar to anyone who watches Dexter (she plays his girlfriend Rita). Although it still fails the Bechdel Test since she's pretty much the only woman in it. But if you liked the first one, defs check out the second one. If you haven't seen the first Boondock Saints, I recommend you do before you watch this one, because it's first of all a very good movie, and secondly there are some things in this movie that will not make sense unless you've seen the first one.

In reading news, I've just finished A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. It's a teen fantasy set in an alternate early 1900s Europe. Faris Nallaneen, Duchess of Galazon, is sent to boarding school in France by her uncle, who is ruling the dukedom until she comes of age, though Faris suspects that he is reluctant to relinquish the dukedom to her. She goes to Greenlaw College reluctantly, but quickly becomes more interested in her studies since they involve learning magic. She acquires an English best friend and a handsome bodyguard and must somehow save the world with her newly learned magic while saving her dukedom from her uncle. Good read, wonderful characters and a slightly bittersweet ending. Recommended.

Munch munch munch

Quick! Go to the Google Home Page and let it load. Then get ready to waste time.

Sweet...

CBC translator FAIL. That's hilarious. I'd give her a raise.

We're number 12!

A study was recently published ranking the countries of the world on their environmental impact. The link goes to an article which talks about the 10 worst. We aren't mentioned. But before you breathe a sigh of relief, if you check out the original study you'll find that Canada ranks 12th. We just barely missed being on that list. That's unacceptable. Keep fighting, and let our government know that the environmental issues aren't just going to go away.

Women's perspective absent from most movies?

This is an interesting video. I've never really thought about it before, but sadly, most of my favourite movies fail the test. It's funny how you never really think about these things until they're pointed out to you. This same girl does a mash-up video about the lack of female characters in video games, and that I can relate to. I was bitching about that way back in the Super Nintendo days. There was sometimes a token female character, but that was it. (I still refuse to play anyone but Chun-Li in Streetfighter.) And sadly, things haven't changed very much since then.

Blood Pressure Rising

It seems that these days reading the news can be a dangerous undertaking. Every time I turn around, I'm reading something that causes me to either want to cause serious pain to someone else or give up in complete and utter despair. Really, it would be easier to do so. Ignorance is bliss after all. But that is what they want.

The corporations of the world are winning it seems, whether it's a giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the US government deregulating the safety measures for off-shore rigs at the behest of the oil industry, or it's our own Canadian government completely ignoring the will of the people they claim to serve and going ahead with a Draconian digital copyright bill similar to the US DMCA in order to appease their corporate overlords. (Hopefully more on this last issue later since as a librarian, it affects me rather personally.)

If you haven't read Feed by M.T. Anderson, do it. It's a dystopic science fiction novel about a future world that's run by corporations and rampant consumerism... except these days I don't see much difference between Anderson's futuristic horror and our own world. It's so close to the way things are, it's beyond scary. It has ceased to be satire. It is reality. And maybe we won't be able to stop it, but we've got to try. So get informed, watch the news, and do something about it. Don't let the corporate overlords win and don't let our greedy politicians get away with kowtowing to the corporate lobby simply because of the money and other perks they receive in return for their cooperation. I hope that there are at least a few leaders out there who remember that they are supposed to be serving the people who elected them. NOT the corporations that, sadly, seem to run much of the world. Let's take our world back before it becomes the wasteland depicted in Feed.

Incomplete and happy to be so

Being a single woman who's almost thirty can be tough. Friends and family my own age are getting married and having kids and there's this feeling of urgency, of almost panic, that I'm falling behind and that, if I'm not married and have two kids and own a house by the time I'm thirty-five, something BAD will happen. I'll somehow have failed at life.

But I just have to keep reminding myself that if I really wanted to, I could have that right now. But I didn't want to settle for just that. In order to have that, I would have had to sacrifice some other things in my life that are very, very good. And maybe someday I will have those other things too... but only if I know that it will make me happier in the long run than I am now. And right now I'm quite happy as I am.

I was listening to Alanis today, and her song "Incomplete" has some very good advice:

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
Urgent for a finish line
And I have been missing the rapture this whole time
Of being forever incomplete

Ever unfolding
Ever expanding
Ever adventurous and torturous
But never done

Life's a journey, not a destination. There's nowhere that I have to be this year, or in five years. And it's good to remember that.

Junk store salt and pepper shakers

As an update to my previous post, here's a pic of my new shakers:



I've been doing some internet research, and these were made in the USA by West Bend in the 60's or 70's, and also came in the colours "harvest gold" and "avocado green". I'm pleased with my $4 find.

Viacom sucks

Wow is Viacom ever acting like an asshole. Essentially they are uploading youtube videos to their own video sharing sight without the original posters permission or knowledge, where they then get ad revenue off of the video. Then after abusing the copyright of others, they turn around and file DMCA notices left, right and center (some of them false) against youtube users. Copyright for me, but not for thee. It's awful that a huge corporation like Viacom will abuse copyright law and free speech simply because they think they're big enough to get away with it. You know what would be nice? If Google sued their asses off on behalf of the youtube community. C'mon Google. Isn't your motto "Don't be Evil?" Part of not being evil is not letting evil-doers get away with their crimes. With great power comes great responsibility... But I won't hold my breath.