Day Two Hundred and Thirteen - John Dark

Sex & The City has a very powerful affect over me. I mean, I've never really watched the show - and I think that's the power. I've been @ many uncomfortable lunches in my life, but one of the most uncomfortable happened nearly a year ago with my fellow co-workers, who I would normally be reasonably comfortable with. The conversation turned to Sex & The City and lingered there for almost the entire lunch, with everyone talking about it with such a fervent passion - like how I talk about things that I like [only I usually censor myself in public/when I'm not speaking with Joseph - because I know that no one is really that interested]. I felt very isolated, obviously. And, with the premiere this weekend it's got 90% of the female population all whipped up in a lather of shoes, shopping and sex [? I don't even know if the show/film is all that sexy] and here I sit trying to find out what is so damn relatable about it all as I think it represents some pretty awful things about women - I would not be so eager to embrace.

Which leads me to today's thing and someone who I have recently become more solidly interested in - Joan of Arc. I think this might have started with a Jeopardy question about a month ago - but I started reading all about her and finding her to be a pretty fine example of a strong woman. Even the intense religious conviction - I might not be on board with it, but it's admirable. Today is Joan of Arc Feast Day and since I apparently went to a crummy Catholic school I don't really know what one does for a saint's feast day. So I read Joan of Arc's original letters and trial transcripts. What a super fun Friday night - heh. No one parties quite like me. She actually didn't write her letters and probably didn't really know how to write. Also, she was actually convicted of crossdressing [not heresy] - which I guess really pissed people off back then. I did a monologue from Shaw's Joan of Arc play when I was a drama princess - but now that I have done my research I think playing her as a crazy Ophelia type was way off. And even though I keep reading that she was not a feminist - yes, yes you are Joan. Even if you think that some women should be @ home with their family - that doesn't mean you're not a feminist. Some women probably should be [some men, too].

And some women don't have to like Sex & The City either.

Day Two Hundred and Twelve - Peggy Hill

I love Jeopardy. I watch it pretty much every single day. I'm reasonably good @ it except that Final Jeopardy is frequently not the happiest time of the day for me [I get it maybe once every 8-10 programs]. Anyway, the other day they had a category called "Words in Alex Trebek" - these clues were all words that could be made with the letters in Alex Trebek's name. I thought it might be an interesting mental exercise to try this for myself - as I am beyond awful @ jumbles, Boggle, etc. [as previously mentioned] - and I enjoy a good mental workout. Okay, I'm lying...I don't - but I'm trying to get more into puzzles and stuff to keep my mind sharp as I'm scared of going really senile really early.

So this evening I set my imaginary Boggle timer to 30 minutes and I attempted to make as many words as possible from my first and last names. I didn't come up with all that many words...and spent much of my time lamenting the lack of i and r in my name. I would love to be able to make a clever anagram from my name, but sadly I'm not that clever. If anyone else wants to try - go right ahead. Here are all of my words - I didn't use multiples [like adding s to things, even though since I do have an s in my name I could. if this were serious Boggle of course I would] and I went sparingly on the proper names/slang.

sub, she, he, helm, hey, eel, by, bye, be, ban, been, yes, yam, yak, keel, Yemen, nuke, nan, hue, Hun, man, men, musk, lamb, me, meek, able, abs, am, an, as, aye, ask, amble, kneel, human, bale, hay, Yule, beak, has, keel

As you can see - not really too many interesting words. Personal favourites include: eel, yak, amble, bale [as in Christian] and anything pirate-y. As an interesting aside I can spell the last name of one of my ex-boyfriends using this system - try to guess which one, I think you'll have fun.

Day Two Hundred and Eleven - I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For...

After watching DOOL on tape the other day the TV was clicked on to the Food Network with the vile Rachel Ray doing her Rachel Ray thing. I think she was making some sorta ice cream float [because she's too cool for baking as she points out roughly every four minutes], but she was once more talking about her days as a fountain girl. This seems very old fashioned to me so I can only assume that Rachel Ray is a million years old and has some sort of evil pact going that allows her to continue to look young [and to continue to have like 87 TV programs, all of which suck]. Anyway, she mentioned something about egg creams. I had heard about egg creams, but naturally thought that they must be some sort of drinkable that involved egg [ew] and cream [ew]. My curiousity peaked, I turned to faithful Wikipedia to discover that an egg cream contains neither egg nor cream.

I still think it's probably an acquired taste. I acquired the ingredients after work today and then later on tonight I made and drank an egg cream. For the uninitiated an egg cream is a drink served in a tall, preferrably chilled glass. It is built with one inch of chocolate syrup, one inch of milk and then the rest is seltzer. Stir it up and enjoy. Errrr - that should be - *try* to enjoy. Because it's so very gross. For one, I don't enjoy ice cream floats @ all - much to my father's chagrin. And now that I've tried an egg cream I think I know why - because fizzy dairy products just shouldn't be. Very unpleasant on the senses and makes me think that something has gone horribly off.

[I just realized that I haven't mentioned MilkPop. MilkPop seems like it would have been a lot like the egg cream. It seems that my friends Seth and company were even more hip to urban flare than previously thought while growing up in small-town Ontario. I have just recieved an update that MilkPop was never successfully created. Concept is everything though.]

I only managed to down about half of the egg cream before turning back to pomegranate tea. However, the notion of egg creams being very New York made me think - what food can Toronto lay claim to? I think of many foods for NYC, Philadelphia has its cheesesteak, Montreal its poutine, Cincinnati its chili with cheddar, Seattle its coffee, Brussels its mussels [okay, and I guess its sprouts], London its fish and chips and even Denver has its omelette. I'm sure there are more cities out there with famous foods [and please tell me what they are if you know], but since Canadian cuisine is kinda...not entirely existent...and Toronto is a total immigrant city - we got nothing. What should Toronto's unofficial official food be? Suggestions please!

I actually have photos of the ill-fated egg cream[eeeee!], but I have to install the software on my femputer and stuff and I'm lazy. Watch this space though. I might become magically un-lazy.

Day Two Hundred and Ten - Ballet Is For Sissies

Today I had my first shift @ the shoe museum since early in April. It felt like much longer than that though. A new exhibition has moved on in during my absence - and it's all about ballet. Specifically ballet slippers [as one might suspect as it is the shoe museum, not the tutu museum - I'm not so sure that I would volunteer there]. We had a group of people come in from Iceland and after they had toured around a little bit they returned to the front desk with a question - did we have Baryshnikov's slippers? Huh. I did not know. My photographic memory allowed me to recall seeing something about this in the museum's quarterly newsletter and I was proven correct [yay brain! thanks for storing all that useless information!].

However, I don't like feeling stupid, even if it's just for a few moments. I decided that I should probably overcome my ballet prejuidice in yet another meaningful manner so I took a self-guided tour of On Pointe: The Rise of the Ballet Shoe. It was actually kinda interesting...I mean, I'm still no ballet fan, but I like learning how things are made and learning history generally. Here are some new things I learned about ballet:
- ballet slippers are not sold in pairs - they are called "straights" as there are no left/right slippers - they have straight sides
- ballet dancing was originally done in high heels [ouch]
- male ballet dancers dont wear the pointe slipper
- ballet dancers customize their slippers by "breaking" [literally busting them up, not breaking them in] them in some fashion
- ballet slippers might be worn out in just one performance [or sometimes more than one pair per performance]
- after they were initially introduced ballet slippers became incredibly fashionable/popular - just like today

To learn more about the exhibition, please visit The Bata Shoe Museum - either online or in person.

Day Two Hundred and Nine - I Even Love It When You're Faking It

I must thank fellow thing-a-dayer Colette [www.colette2008.blogspot.com - it won't link the other way] for this idea. She seems to do the most suitable stuff for me to copy [or imitate - it's the highest form of flattery] on days that are...just not my kind of day [such as today].

When I was @ U of T I took Psych 100 as I needed to take one science course to graduate. Unfortunately, psychology @ U of T is incredibly difficult and no one bothered to tell me this. Psychology was...interesting: sometimes this resulted in an epic nosebleed during an exam, sometimes this involved me drawing dinosaurs on an exam paper, sometimes this resulted in tarot card reading or Salinger reading on the upper deck, sometimes this involved me skipping an entire semester of class, sometimes this involved me getting hysterical and needing to be slapped [and getting slapped and rightly so], sometimes this resulted in me getting hideously and illegally drunk for the last time [oh, the memories...oh, wait...], sometimes this resulted in 90210 and sometimes this involved me consenting to allow others to experiment. On my brain. By letting psychology grad students experiment with me, I was allowed to raise my grade. Yay. It was way easier than actually going to class, learning and studying Gleitman.

I only mention this because my thing for today reminded me of the one psych test I took as a result of me being an exceptionally high-ranking narcissist [I know - try to contain your surprise]. Today I took an online psychology test about distinguishing fake/real smiles. I guess it's not specifically a psych test, but it really seems like something they might make you do. I'm officially terrible @ this as I got 13/20 [and I predicted I was going to do awesome]. I think it's because I'm very cynical and paranoid and I think that everyone is faking it. I was going to try to take pictures of myself smiling naturally and forcing a smile, but I didn't know how to make that happen.

Here's the link for the test. Let me know if you are better @ this than I am. And yes, now that I visit the site again I see that it *is* a psych test...so I am not going crazy.

Day Two Hundred and Eight - Squash It!

Okay, so after seeing the Indiana Jones debacle/film I was not riled up @ all. It was quite late when the film finished so we just went straight home. Instead of talking about the film on the walk home or on the subway or AT ALL we didn't talk about the film. Then, on our way to the grocery store we finally did. It all just blew up. I know this is beyond silly, but I was scared that if we spoke about the horrors we had witnessed that it would be more true and Indy would suck all over again. And yet, talking about it made it okay. It was reassuring to know that I wasn't crazy...okay, I'm a little crazy for putting too much stock in some silly film that never should have been resurrected.

I came home and went on IMDB and read some reviews that I should have read on Saturday afternoon and ultimately visted the Rotten Tomatoes website. Only to be shocked, dismayed and appalled @ the way too high rating. Granted, most of the official reviews were generally average to positive, but I was incensed by the 79% rating. So incensed that I went to a great deal of bother and I registered myself with Rotten Tomatoes and reviewed/rated a film. I ended up getting another blog type thing, which I didn't want, but I had to do it or I wasn't allowed to squish my rotten tomato. It was totally worth it to see my name and squished tomato up on the site. I'm the new Ebert, ya'll!

Day Two Hundred and Seven - It's Not The Years, It's The Mileage

I suppose I should issue a warning and say right now that if you haven't seen the latest Indiana Jones film and you don't like being spoiler-ed then you should probably stop reading right now. Also, if you are a fanboy/girl you should also stop reading. Because I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and I am fully prepared to blog all about it. And it's not going to be pretty.

Let's just say this - I am so rarely filled with girlish [or womanly] glee - but as I sat in that darkened cinema I really and truly was - very much so. However, less than a third of the way into the film I wished more than anything that I had never gone to see it in the first place. I'm not saying that this installment killed my childhood or my love for the previous films, because I'm not quite that melodramatic. But, I know Indiana Jones, I love Indiana Jones...and that, friends, is no Indiana Jones. Generally I'm not so guarded against spoilers [and sometimes I actively seek them out if they are movies/programs I'm not otherwise interested in], but this time I protected myself against spoilers, plot points, even still photos. That was a big mistake. Had I known that this would be Indiana Jones vs the Space Invaders of Galgamek-5...well, let's just say that my butt would not have been in the seat. The acting performances were all fine [yes, even Shia] although most characters weren't given much @ all to do. Everything else was terrible [okay, I liked the ants because it reminds me of that MacGuyver episode that everyone has seen and I like stuff like that generally]. The dialogue [show me, don't tell me!], the directing, the editing, the plot [ummm - what plot? there be no plot here], the McGuffin [that wasn't]...all crap. Just say no, kids [it's solid advice].

Another thing of note is that it's pretty darn extraordinary of me to go to a "big box cinema" type place. The first time I went to this cinema the whole experience was so bewildering and it still kinda is with all of the lights and music and unnecessary-ness of everything. However, it's not quite summer until I go to that cinema [the only films I see there are summer blockbusters]. This time it was incredibly sticky [even for a theatre - I went out for candy and I could barely move my feet] and smelled incredibly rank [everyone was commenting on that as they entered the theatre]. Say what you will about the vermin-infested Bloor - it never smells that bad! Though, in hindsight I think that was just a sensory commentary on the film I was about to see...

Day Two Hundred and Six - Let Them Eat Cake

In my old job I ended up being quite well known for my culinary skills [such as they are - ha]. I cooked entire meals for our United Way campaigns and also did baked goods. Those I worked with could very well excpect tasty baked treats [such as they are from me - they can be a bit hit and miss - I'm way more of a cook than a baker] if it was their birthday or maybe some other special day. I baked my first apple pie [with homemade pastry no less!] for those people, dammit! And honestly, I know it was appreciated.

I'm having a bit of a hard time fitting in @ my new job - possibly because I work with a very small group of people and they are all Management/Director-level type people and I'm a lowly worker bee. Also, since I'm only there three days per week, there is a disconnect that happens on both a professional and a personal level. I figure that everyone loves tasty baked goods and since I've been baking a lot more today I brought in homemade baked goods to the office for no reason @ all. I make this banana and chocolate cake a lot - usually once every week and a half or whenever I can get my hands on some bananas that are turning bad. I think I know the recipe off by heart, which...for a non-baker like me - that's really something. The cake went over really well - with one person coming back for seconds. But really - who doesn't love cake on Friday?

Day Two Hundred and Five - Hans and Franz

For our anniversary two years ago I bought Joseph a complete set of weights [yes, it even included the highly prized broken benchpressing bar]. I guess this might be taken as an insult by some overly sensitive people, but I thought that he really wanted them as the weights he used to use when we first met got shipped back to Belgium and Joseph is totally not a gym guy. So, caring less for vanity and more for his health, I thought it was a nice gift. Unfortunately, Joseph has used the weights all of...never times. I think I have moved them more often in tidying up the house or when we moved last summer - it is hard to find storage for heavy, lumpy things.

I used to be kinda a gym person - for a little while anyway. When we lived in a big highrise we had a free gym/community centre thing located in one of the buildings in our complex. Even though the whole area is supposed to be pretty sketchy and I had friends who refused to come visit me - I thought the gym thing was so convenient and I went everyday to do the weight machines, ab machines and to use the stationary bicycles. My gym now is too far away and therefore highly unsuitable. And, until I get WiiFit, I need to find a way to be a bit more active...or just slightly less pathetic. So this evening in an effort to boost my awesome upper body strength I lifted free weights. As mentioned I'm used to using the weight machine as they kinda help you with your form so you dont hideously injure yourself [and I can do that easily enough]. The people lifting free weights always seem to know more about what they are doing and they study themselves in the mirror. I hate anything that requires to look in a mirror. I had Joseph watch to see if I was doing things right as I did three different types of arm/weight exercises/lifting. I could feel the burn. I seriously have no upper body strength. I couldn't even do half of a pull-up if the lives of a basket of kittens depended upon it.

The good news is that I have found to be what seems to be a neat-o women's boxing club in Toronto. I can go and try it out, take a class...and there is no need for me to get in the ring. I do have a real problem with being punched in the face.

Day Two Hundred and Four - Thank You Al Gore

As we all know, the internets is a series of tubes invented by Al Gore [who always invented global warming - that one is less awesome] that is occasionally clogged up. In my life, this happens a lot - the clogging. I'm not very adventurous on the internet - I mean, I have my little blog here and I like to read certain message boards [and very very rarely post something] and I like my hot celeb gossip and my baseball scores and to do various types of research. I rarely even use YouTube and I've never downloaded music or movies or really anything.

Joseph and I are also creatures of habit. We never miss an episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, but we tend to watch these shows while eating dinner [watching the previous night's show]. I love my VCR and I will never part with it, even though I think I might be the only person alive who still tapes things the old fashioned way. Well, our Thursday night episodes got sacrificed to the god of the Mummy marathon so tonight I watched The Daily Show/The Colbert Report online. It was okay, but somehow less tangible than the normal big screen show [my laptop wouldnt show it full screen because it's bitchy like that]. I like fast forwarding...although no adverts was really cool. I'm happy that our Comedy Network has decided to follow suit with their American counterpart and put these shows up in a really accessbile way [along with lots of other shows]. I think I just have to give up my prejudices - I spend *so* much time staring @ this screen, but I am still very uncomfortable with watching things, rather than just reading them.