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.

Gunless - it's good!

I saw Gunless tonight with my friend L, and we both agreed it's good. I actually laughed so hard at the end watching the outtakes that my tummy hurt. It's a great little movie of light-hearted comedy - made in Canada. So go see it!

Pet Peeves of the Day

1. Rainy days that are too windy to use an umbrella. Such as today for example. I couldn't walk anywhere without getting wet. And due to my excursion outdoors this afternoon, the rain and wind have caused my hair to become a cloud of frizzy curls. Now, if I don't have to go out in it, then windy, rainy days are great. It's wonderful to sit in your warm bed or cozy chair, drinking warm drinks and eating warm cookies, and hear the wind howling around the eaves and rattling the windows and hear the fat splats of rain hitting the glass. But if you have to go out in it, then rain + wind = NO FUN.


2. Sarcan. It's noisy, smelly, and the floor's sticky. I always feel like I need a shower when I come out.


3. DJs that continue to yap during the intro to a song. Just because there is no one singing does not mean that we don't need to hear that part of the song. Sometimes the intro to a song is the best part. And you're RUINING it! So please, when you play a song, then let us listen to the whole thing, beginning to end.


4. Snobby high-end antique stores. Oh sure, they look really pretty. But you know you can't afford anything in them (and so does the snobby shop-owner and his pedigreed poodles), and there will be no hidden treasures to find. Which brings me to one of my loves: junk antique shops. You know the kind. The ones where every single square centimetre is covered with stuff and even the floor has stacks of stuff, and everything is piled so high and so haphazardly that it's constantly in danger of falling over... Maybe it's not so pretty to look at, and can be somewhat hazardous to navigate. But if you've got some time to kill, you can uncover some real treasures in these places. And half the time the shop owner is as surprised as you when you find something. I've been looking for some green glass salt and pepper shakers like the ones my grandma used to have. See, I'm very anti-stuff. And so I'd like to find some salt and pepper shakers that are both nice enough to look at that you can put them on the dinner table, but practical enough that you can take the tops off and fit a teaspoon in them for cooking. That's harder to find than you might think. And although I did not find the elusive green glass ones today, I found some aluminum ones that will do just fine until I do find them.

Gunless

Paul Gross has a new movie coming out: Gunless

God he's hot.

Dude, where's my car?

So I went downstairs to go to work this morning and discovered my car was gone.



But, I knew immediately what had happened. You see, it was street cleaning day. And I knew it was, but you see, when they have signs posted saying "Street Cleaning Wednesday" I just assumed they meant sometime during the day Wednesday. But actually they meant 5:30 in the morning Wednesday.

Ah. My mistake. So I walked to work, and once I got there I looked up on the city's website and discovered that they don't tow your car to the impound, they just tow it around the corner and give you a ticket. So I walked home for lunch to check, and sure enough, there was my car, parked neatly around the corner with a ticket on it. And the ticket was for $25.00.

Seriously, what other city does that? Tows your car around the corner for you and only charges you $25.00 for their trouble. I figure I got off pretty lightly.

I was, however, still in a bad mood due to the incident, and I consequently sent out several nasty e-mails and had my frowny face on all day.

I'm hoping to go to bed tonight and wake up in a much better mood. To help me along the way, I got an extra long guitar lesson tonight, and for the last half we played the ukulele. And it's like my guitar teacher says, you can't help but smile when you hear someone play the ukulele. So here's some awesome ukulele videos. I'm trying to decide if I want to buy one or not.

Poll results

I got polled about a week ago on the phone. The results are in.

Guess how I answered?

Book Review Time Again!

1. The Good Neighbors - Holly Black
   This is a graphic novel series, written by Holly Black and illustrated by Ted Naifeh. I've read the first two volumes "Kin" and "Kith". It's typical Black fare - gritty urban teen culture meets gothic faerie tale. And while I loved her "modern faerie tale" series, I'm not sure that I'm too crazy about this one. Especially with the second one, I found that the story seemed to move too fast. Events happened too quickly, and we aren't given enough time to get to know the characters, to really understand their motivations. And that makes the story feel kind of flat. Like all these things are happening to people that you don't really know or care about. So I'm kind of disappointed. But Black is a novelist, so maybe she's having trouble with the graphic novel format. I think they're well illustrated. The mood is sombre in black and white, and Naifeh's elves and humans are lithe and sharp-featured. But the story and characters need some work. Still, I'll probably read the next one in the hopes that they'll improve.


2. Elske - Cynthia Voigt
   Voigt wrote four companion novels, all about a mythical place known as "the kingdom". They're a bit of a departure for Voigt who mostly writes realistic fiction. However, despite their made-up medieval setting, the books are still realistic in that there is no magic. I've read two of them, Jackaroo, which was pretty good, and now this one. And I really liked Elske. It follows a young girl who runs away from home and certain death. She journeys to another city where she struggles with learning a new culture and new language, and then ends up helping a Queen regain her throne from her despotic brother. It deals realistically and sympathetically with topics such as rape and infanticide, and Elske is a strong, likable character. Highly recommended.


3. A Well-Timed Enchantment - Vivian Vande Velde
   This is Vande Velde's second novel, written quite a while ago, and I have to say I found it quite mediocre. Which is funny, because I really like her first book, A Hidden Magic (which is written for a younger, Gr. 3 - 5, audience). But this book, from its terribly punny title right down to the unlikely romance between the main character and her cat, felt a little cobbled together. A girl drops her mickey mouse watch down a wishing well where it goes through a portal to medieval France. Two elves send her and her cat (first transforming him into a human) to retrieve the watch before it alters history forever. Medieval France is not described in a way that seems very realistic or historically accurate. She meets up right away with a noble family who invite her and her friend/squire/page/brother (as she introduces her cat turned boy to them at various times) into their castle without blinking an eye. And her relationship with the cat is not developed very well either. They are supposed to be in love at the end, but I'm not sure when that was supposed to have happened. Anyway, I'm weeding it from our shelves, and I doubt it will be missed.

Good Stuff

1) I am wearing fuzzy pink socks. Cuz there is nothing like fuzzy pink socks to make you feel better on a cold, rainy day. Except maybe hot chocolate and a good book. But I have those too!

2) You should go and visit Hyperbole and a Half. For its weird randomness and crazy cartoons that make me lol, it has earned a spot in my sidebar.

3) I like reading romance novels. But, I often start romance novels and then stop reading them because I lose interest once the relationship is consummated, because the sexual tension was the only thing advancing the plot. The best romance novels are ones that have interesting characters and a good plot in addition to the romance. And I came across a good one that I actually enjoyed right to the end. So if you like historical romance, try The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt. It's part of a trilogy along with The Raven Prince and The Serpent Prince, but that one's the best.

Apocalypse... now?

Hmmmmm...

I don't know whether to take this seriously or not. I do think that unless we change how we run the world economy we are headed for a collapse of some sort, I just didn't think it would be this soon. Time to learn how to grow your own food people. I'm lucky since I already have a source of good home-grown meat, vegetables and grain. You can eat locally in Saskatchewan. Maybe you should try it. Maybe you'll have to try it.

h/t to Saskboy.

This one's for you sis...

Fuuuck! Is anybody else having problems embedding You Tube videos? It's too big for my blog, even the smallest size. Videos that embedded just fine before are now too big to fit on the screen, despite the fact that the html is EXACTLY the same. Fucking youtube. I'm assuming it's youtube, because it looks shitty no matter what browser I open it with. Some sort of bug rolled up with all the (stupid!) changes they have made to the site recently?

Anyway, due to youtube's retardedness, you'll have to click on the link to watch:
Chiropractic vs. Science Based Medicine.

Update:
Okay, I've manually changed the video to have an object width of 500. But I still just don't understand why previous videos with a width of 650 fit, and now they don't. Anyone who can shed any light on this, please do. Anyway, the video:

Down with Disney Princesses

I recently heard a story about a librarian who did a fairy tale program for young kids and their parents. She was shocked and horrified to discover that none of the kids or their parents had had any exposure to fairy tales outside of the Disney version, and indeed, most of them thought that Disney was the original source of these tales.

I consider this to be an alarming trend. Parents, please expose your children to more than the Disney version of a fairy tale. Disney "cutesifies" these tales with wide-eyed talking animals, and a lot of times they also change the ending completely to make the tales more kid-friendly (eg. in the original Little Mermaid, she doesn't get the prince). If children only ever see the Disney version, they are missing out on a huge chunk of our rich, cultural heritage.

There are also problems with the way femininity and race are represented in the Disney movies. For a good critique of Disney, check out this documentary. Suffice to say, the women in Disney are either invariably evil (the witches) or beautiful princesses in need of rescuing. And little girls today are obsessed with the Disney Princesses. They are everywhere you look, on tv, in movies, in books, in toys. Disney has gone into merchandising overload. And these princesses are frankly not good role models for girls. There is a series of books that we have in our library called Disney Princesses Secrets (or something like that) and they go out all the time. In each of these little books, one of the Disney Princesses imparts a "secret" to the reader. Guess what Snow White's secret is? When she gets tired of doing "princess" things she sneaks off to the seven dwarfs' house and cleans it for them. Barf.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not completely anti-Disney. I owned and loved many of these movies myself as a kid. I still love Beauty and the Beast. But please, any parents, or anyone who is thinking of becoming a parent, please make sure your kids get more than the Disney version of any fairy tale. And to combat the weak female characters (cuz let's face it, even in the originals, many of the women are passive) try a couple of fractured fairy tales where the women take control of their own destiny.

A couple of my favourite feminist picture book fairy tales are The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch (which also has the word "bum" in it as a bonus) and Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole (which has the most hilarious illustrations). And when they get a little older, try some Tamora Pierce, Shannon Hale, and Gail Carson Levine for some kick ass fantasy novels with strong female protagonists.