somebody wasn't thinking here..

ok. Now, I'm a big fan and supporter of the Breast Cancer Site, go, click, every day. Also click on all the other sites, Child Health, Hunger, Animal Rescue, and Rainforest. Go. Now. Do notice, and see if you agree with me though, that it may be in poor taste to have an ad for WeightWatchers placed directly beside an ad to help a starving child. Really. Yikes. I'm sure it's all random, but those ads should be separate entities, not near eachother. One in the 'sponsors' section, one in the 'awareness raising' section.

that is all.

16 Things That Took Me Over 50 Years To Learn:

by Dave Barry, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

via D

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.


2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will chieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."


3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."


4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.


5. You should not confuse your career with your life.


6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.


7. Never lick a steak knife.


8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.


9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.


10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.


11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.


12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.


13. A person who is nice to you, but rude to a waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)


14. Your friends love you anyway.


15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.


16. Thought for the day: Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Oh, Canada...

Medals! We're ranked 15th out of...a lot of countries. 200 or something? Sure, some of them only had 4 athletes, but still. Not too shabby. I'm pretty pissed off that the US is leading. No offence, my American faithfuls, but it's just nice to see the unexpected happen.

fun with cruise control

I got to drive Grant's new car back to Moncton from Fredericton for reasons I don't feel like going into. It works now, so everyone's happy. Especially me, who got the nice car with the full tank of gas, vs. Grant who has my newer but not really as cool car with no gas for the week. Haha. Anyway, his car has cruise control, which I didn't know existed for standards, but it does. And it works. For a while I had it set at about 130, driving behind this truck who was clearly in a hurry, but when he turned off I didn't want to be going that fast all by myself, so I slowed down to about 122, still on cruise. I'm still passing people, but not going so fast that I'm worried about getting pulled over. So, while passing this one truck, a woman in a Ford Focus comes up super fast behind me, rides my ass until I am able to pass the truck and move back over. Fine, you go. She boots off away. So about 3 minutes later, I see that I am catching up to a car...lo and behold, the same Focus. I pull out to pass her, because otherwise I will run into her, she has slowed significantly, and she sees me, and speeds up. Fine. I pull back in behind her, she starts to move away from me again. I lose her again for about 2 minutes, then catch up again. Please bear in mind that my speed is remaining perfectly constant during this little adventure. I pass her this time, stay ahead for a couple of minutes, then she passes me. Fine. Again, a few minutes later, she passes me, again, soon, I pass her. I am laughing my ass of at this point, but she fails to see the humour. She soon passes me one last time, never to be seen again.

I have some advice. Take a gander at the speedometer every now and then, it's quite handy. It's very conveniently located mid-dash for your viewing ease. Try to keep that needle in approximately the same spot while driving. This saves gas, and aggrivation toward and from other drivers. Use cruise control if you have it, it's fantastic! I think it's the one luxury I would spring for in my next car. CD players are standard issue now, so I don't have to spring for that.

That about sums it up. Last night we had a fantastic chicken dinner at my sister's place, and then we spent the night at Grant's aunt's place, on the squeakiest bed (seriously, just from sleeping, the noise!) and thinnest pillows in the world. I'm thinking weekends here rather than in Fredericton.

randomosity

2 fun sites. Site 1: Bacon and Eh's. A good read, with lots of good links. This is where I found Site 2: Disclosure.ca. I'm always up for a project; the goal of this site is to get pictures from all over Canada, eventually every town and city, that show something that represents Canada or being Canadian to the picture taker. Sounds pretty neat to me, get clicking!

Also, I've become somewhat obsessed with 2 songs. Avril's Happy Ending, and Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved. Here are the lyrics to the latter for your viewing pleasure.

She Will Be Loved

Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else

I drove for miles and miles
And wound up at your door
I've had you so many times but somehow
I want more

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
She will be loved

Tap on my window knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore

It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along
My heart is full and my door's always open
You can come anytime you want

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
She will be loved

I know where you hide
Alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls

Tap on my window knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved

[in the background]
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye

Yeah
[softly]
I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain

Try so hard to say goodbye

technical difficulties

I'm supposed to get in touch with the vp at my new school, but I can't log in to my school email to find his email address or phone number. Not helpful.

I spent a nice weekend at the cottage with my parents, it was actually sunny for a good part of the time, which was a pleasant surprise. My dad and I also painted the bedroom in the little cottage, which was pretty funny. It had been wallpapered, so they took off most (but not all) of that. Dad had filled in most of the holes, but not the seams of the drywall and stuff, and we then bought paint at Loonieland and painted the room. Interesting. It's going to take about 4 coats, I think, and you can still see the wallpaper chunks through the paint at this point. Pretty nice. I love dollar stores though, they have the most interesting assortment of stuff.

Grant and I are going back-to-school shopping today, he starts work on Monday and needs some new stuff, and I might pick up a couple of things myself. My actual plan for teaching is still pretty rough. I don't know my schedule, but I do know that I'll have the English classes all year, so that's easy to figure out. I'm going to try to do a rough outline, but what I'd really like to do is to talk to the other grade 9 teacher and see what her plan is. I find it's helpful to be doing the same things at the same times, in case kids have to switch out or anything, and that way you know the kids are going to get the same things covered in the run of the year, so they're all equally prepared (or not, haha) for the next year. The 113 class, I don't know. I don't even know what books I have to work with, so that's interesting. They also re-arranged and cancelled some of the provincial testing, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm responsible for. I guess I'll find out! I keep looking for work in Freddy, but there just isn't any, and Grant keeps looking for work here, same deal, so it's looking like we'll be spending a few months apart. *sigh*. We did one semester last year, so this will just be...double that. Good times. He'll have a car too though, so can come visit me. He joked that I could come see him on snow days, but that's probably not the best plan at all.

T-13 days until back to school, yipes. I know those of you who aren't teachers have no sympathy for me whatsoever, but those of you who are or who know teachers understand. There's a reason we get summers off, and it's not just for the kids. There's a school district in the states where the kids go for 9 weeks, then get 4 weeks off, all year. That sounds pretty sweet to me, I'd definitely sign on. I'm off to get some breakfast and forget about the sadness that is returning to work. Thanksgiving is really early this year, wooh!

vacation is ending, and I'm so not ready

I was so traumatised by the Lenny post that I had to take a break. Also I've been feeling like ass lately.

I'm trying to get my head wrapped around my teaching assignment for the fall, because that's coming up pretty quickly and I don't have a concrete plan of action. I've thought of some fun projects, but not for right away. I've also had dreams of the sort that I show up on the first day of school, but unaware that it's the first day, and all my students are there like, what the hell? and my classroom is not set up, and then, generally, I'm naked. No good. I don't think I'm that nervous, but maybe I am subconsciously.

We finally got around to seeing the Village and Bourne Supremacy. I enjoyed both, although they're pretty different. For all who are debating the Village based on scariness / nightmare factor, go see it. I scare easily, and though there are some jumpy parts for sure, but overall it's a really good story, and the acting is fantastic. Also, and I may be completely retarded for not realising this, but Joaquin Phoenix is a Phoenix a la River. I did of course, know his last name, but I just never made the connection. Interesting. Anyway, he's a fine actor, as is pretty much everyone else in the movie. Adrian Brody did a great job too. Bourne was good, a bit fragmented, but that was on purpose, and I do agree with Tirex that they made the bad guy pretty obvious. I (heart) Matt Damon though, so whatever.

And I'm still looking forward to Harold and Kumar, so shut it.

Still on the topic of movies, both of our theatres here are now Empire, where one used to be Famous Players. This means nothing good, as far as I can tell. While both theatres now get the good movies, where Famous used to just basically have the Disney blockbusters, they now get the SAME good movies. There are currently 5 movies playing at both theatres. Which would be good, if we were in like, Toronto. But we're not. The theatres are about 6 minutes apart. Redundant, I think.

I might go to the beach this afternoon, but the possibilities are really endless here. This weekend is either for the cottage or to Halifax to see the Buskers. I could do either, really.

I signed up for gmail, but it wasn't working because IE sucks and messes with cookies. Anyway, it's working now, and apparently I can invite somebody (because you can't just sign up yet) so if anyone is interested, let me know. It kicks hotmail's ass, with like, 1G of server space and no annoying ads. If you're just looking for info, go check it out. I invited my sister, so I only have one invite, and I think everyone who uses Blogger got one, so only you non-bloggers need apply.

also, what the hell happened to Lenny Kravitz?

he used to be *super* hot. click and click.

now he looks like Prince / a dirty pimp. click and click.

Not happy.

short and sweet

Real hackers must have laughed their asses off when they saw the movie Hackers. Good cast though.

via Natters

Survey with a twist

YOU fill in the blanks about ME and send it back to me. Or leave answers to random ones in the comment box. Whichever. But first, send a blank one to all your friends including me (or post it on your website..), so they can return the favor to you.

1. My name:

2. Where did we meet?

3. Take a stab at my middle name:

4. How long have you known me?

5. When is the last time we saw each other?

6. Do I believe in God?

7. Month of my birthday: (Bonus points if you can give a date.)

8. Hair color:

9. Eye color:

10. Do I have any siblings?

11. What's one of my favorite things to do outdoors?

12. What's one of my favorite things to do indoors?

13. Do you remember one of the first things I said to you?

14. What's my favorite type of music?

15. What is my best feature?

16. Am I shy or outgoing?

17. Would you say I am funny ha-ha or funny sarcastic?

18. Am I a rebel or do I follow all the rules?

19. Would you consider me a friend, an acquaintance, or a good friend?

20. Would you call me hippie, glam, nerdy, snobby, or something else?

21. Have you ever seen me cry?

22. If there were one good nickname for me what would it be?

23. If I had broccoli stuck in my teeth would you tell me?

24. Is there anything you need to tell me?

they were indeed tall ships

We got to Halifax early enough so that there weren't a billion people and it wasn't too hot, which was nice. We had to park a bit of a walk away from the waterfront, but that was expected. The ships were pretty cool, very big. I like the older looking ones better than the new fancy ones. The new ones are more like, 'hey! look at me, I'm rich!' There were lots of vendors selling crap, nautical knot bracelets and the like, but the tourists just eat that stuff up. I'll post some pictures in a bit.

We went to play some blacklight mini golf, which was pretty fun. I think there should be a place like that here, because there is just so very little to do here that it has to do well. Supper was at a place called Jack Astor's, and it was pretty good too. They should also make one of those here, it would make a nice extra choice with ESM and Swiss Chalet. Moncton is lame.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely going to see Napoleon Dynamite. Naturally, it was playing in Halifax, but is not yet here. If it comes to your city, it's your duty to go see it. And to keep watching after the credits, there's more movie. The guy is just so hilarious. The movie is completely random, and you mostly don't know whether to laugh at the guy or feel really bad for him. I went with both. Go see it.

Yesterday, because it was absolutely gorgeous, Tirex and I went to Magic Mountain water park. The time we spent actually on the rides was pretty cool, but that only accounted for about 10 minutes of the 3 hours we were there. We decided the people who run the place need to learn to play Rollercoaster Tycoon, and then they would figure out that the park is in desperate need of expansion. The lines are just ridiculous, and I think they've built one new slide in the past 15 years. No good. But, again, there is nothing else like that around here, so it's an incredibly popular place for tourists. So, along with there not being enough slides and new / exciting things, there are just a foolish number of people there. We did get to go on *the* new slide, the Tornado, and it was fun. It's a tube slide, and it's all enclosed and dark with just pinholes of light coming in. Try not to scream or laugh, I dare you. Regardless of lines and the horrifying discovery that Beavertails are BAKED now, instead of deep fried (no good!), we had a pretty good time. It's all about the company, I suppose!

I'm feeling pretty boring, so I'm going to stop now!