what do you call a fish with no eye?

fsh.

ha!

so, when it gets that hot in my apartment that my poor fishes are swimming around in 86 / 30 degree water and it should be 79 / 26 degree water, what's a girl to do? I put some ice-cold Brita water in there last night, I don't know if it really helped, since I didn't want to put a lot in, rapid temperature changes aren't good for the little guys. Who knew something so small could be so nerve-racking? If the power goes out when it's cold, they're screwed. If it gets too warm, they're screwed. If the apartment caught on fire...you get the idea.

My algae eater has been slacking off lately, he used to keep the tank so clean I had to feed him algae wafers. Now, there's not a ton of algae, but it's definitely noticeable on the tank walls. I think I'll cut back on the wafers and see if things clear up. He's really quite gi-normous, he should be able to get it clean in like a day. All my other fish are just tiny, then we have Cleatus, who's roughly a foot long nose to tail. The other fish don't seem to mind, except when he takes a psychotic episode and thrashes around the tank. He jumped out one time, and he was so vile to touch. I hope that never happens again, for both of our sakes. When I get a house, I will buy him a super-gi-normous tank, but not before then, because giant tanks are very hard to move.

edit: the link works now.

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Lists

Go ahead. You might as well get comfortable, you could be here for a while.

sh1ft.org presents 26 Things : July 2004

go nuts! I did this last summer too, and I'm running a bit late this summer, but many people submitted their entries late last time, and since it's not an actual contest, it's all good. Have fun, go take pictures! You don't need a digital camera, I think all remotely decent photo developpers will put your film on a cd for you, (make sure you do this at the same time you get your photos developed!), but you do need some space. I could host some of you on here, I'm sure, if anyone is in need.

In case you're that lazy that you can't click a link, here is what you need pictures of. Use your imagination, take things as literally or as not as you want:

lines
mechanical
stretch
through
bottom
organised
different
far away
green
mug
dummy
at night
liquid
artificial
out of reach
switch
relief
blades
missing
underground
historic
button
popular
grand
exotic
delicious

guess who has 20/20!

It is me!  I got lasik surgery on my left eye, which pre-surgery was worse than 20/400, and now it's 20/20.  Pretty cool, no?  The procedure took about 10 minutes all together, but the consultation (which was free, so go for it) took about an hour and a half a couple of days previous, and I was at the clinic for about 2 hours the day of the surgery, just waiting around and filling out paperwork.  Anyway, it was a bit pricey, but most definitely worth it.  Plus, they give you a sweet ass pair of safety glasses-inspired sunglasses that you're forced to wear at all times when awake for 4 days.  I've opted for my own glasses since day 2, because the ones they gave me are, frankly, ridiculous looking, and not actually all that dark, but more designed to prevent me from sticking my fingers and whatnot in my eye accidentally.  I also have to wear an eye shield for 4 nights so I don't accidentally poke my cornea while sleeping.  Probably a good precaution.  Corneas are important.  Anyway,  I just got it done Thursday, and I went in for my next-day checkup to find I had 20/20 vision, and that my corneal flap was healing perfectly, so I'm pretty stoked.  I'll keep you posted on any new developments.  
 
We've seen a couple of movies lately, most notably Spiderman and Anchorman.  Spiderman 2 was better than 1, of course, and I did enjoy it.  I had hyped it up quite a bit for myself, because everyone I knew who saw it said it was absolutely fantastic, and I don't know if I'd go that far in describing it, but it was good, the characters were better developed, the bad guy was cool, and there will definitely be another movie.  I saw Anchorman last night, and I laughed my ass off the whole time.  I ran into a friend of my sister's, who also saw the movie, and she said she could hear me laughing above pretty much everyone else.  Sweet.  There were some completely random moments in the movie, like Pleasure Land, which made really no sense, but as a whole, freaking funny.  I think I'll see it again, because there were so many great lines that I've forgotten. 
 
In other news, I have no other news, so I'm going to do nothing again, maybe sit in the sun for a bit.  Going to see Bryan Adams on Wednesday, looking forward to that.  Colin James is opening, so it should be a great show.  
 
 "I ate a lot of fiberglass insulation.  It wasn't cotton candy like that guy said it was.  My stomach is itchy."

Catenema.com: Do NOT Try This at Home!

Hil-freaking-arious. via Jenn, via lyd. Enjoy.

Good to know, all of it

drink your face off! but not whiskey...

Buy me this

Please? It's so cute. It comes in loads of fun colours, but I think blue is the way to go.

helpme.moderatelyspicy.com

it's just that you are all so...useful. haha. Ok. You know when you're on MSN Messenger, and you have a minimized window and that person starts talking to you, and it flashes orange? Can you change that colour to something less gross / more fun? I can't find it in any options anywhere, I'm fairly sure it's not just a MSN thing, but it's not in the windows appearance options either. Any ideas? I'm thinking like green, or pink, or something would be nice.

vacation

what can I say, summer doesn't make for interesting posting material. The most exciting thing I have to pass along is that the new DQ Moolattés are really, really good. The bad news is, they're really, really bad for you. Here's the breakdown:
Tim's Ice Cappuccino (made with cream) - 230 calories, 11 grams of fat
Tim's Ice Capp (made with 2% milk (you have to ask for that) - 150 calories, 1.5 g fat
DQ Moolatté (made with ice cream, what do you expect) - 490 calories, 18 g fat. Ouch.

So, the moral of the story is, stay away from the DQ Moolatté diet, it's a bad idea. But once in a blue moon, can't be a bad thing.

once again, I call on you, loyal readers...

haha. No, seriously. Our friend Jenn is in need of a recipe. Who remembers those chocolate, peanut butter marshmallow squares? They didn't have rice crispies in them, they weren't baked...you might have cooked the chocolate part before throwing in the marshmallows, but then they're just cooled to set. I think there's not a lot to them, chocolate chips, peanut butter, margarine, mini marshmallows. My mom never made these, I'm pretty sure they're atrociously unhealthy, but soooo good. Does anyone have that recipe?

just don't call the FBI, and they come to my apartment while I'm taking a nap

That was definitely the funniest part of Farenheit 9/11. You all have to go see it, and tell all your friends to go see it. There are some very funny parts, but mostly you'll likely spend the 2+ hours with your mouth agape and a 'what. the. fuck.' look on your face. I was pretty upset at the end, but mostly because the whole thing is so utterly ridiculous and, well, upsetting. Grant made fun of me a little bit, but whatever. Anyway, go see it.

Now, on a lighter note:


Letterman's Top Ten List: Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints About "Fahrenheit 9/11":

10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing

9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election

8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words

7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get him deported

6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives people the finger

5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true

4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe

3. Where the hell was Spider-man?

2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth

1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball

isn't she lovely...

he's not so bad either. This is my dear friend Calleen and her husband(!) Travis; they got married on Saturday. I thought this picture was fantastic, so I thought I'd share it with you all. Congratulations, lovebirds! The wedding was great, the reception was super fun...I had planned on coming home that same night but Calleen's parents, being the wonderful people they are, invited me to stay with them, so I got to stay for the whole reception and the breakfast (mmm, blueberry pancakes!) and gift opening the next day. I cried about 13 times all told, but that's generally what happens at weddings. This was only my second wedding ever, so it's still pretty new to me.

please help!

ok. About a month ago, possibly longer, we saw a preview for a movie. What was it? ha. No, seriously. The movie is a comedy, that as far as I know hasn't been out in theatres yet. All I can really remember is that there is a super geeky guy in the hallway at school, and he sort of freaks out, but not directly at somebody. It looked really funny, and I'm driving myself crazy trying to think of what it's called. I've checked all the 'coming soon' listings and nothing there looks familiar, so I'm at a loss. I am, however, looking forward to seeing a couple of movies that I do know the names of: Saved! and Without a Paddle. Hopefully they'll come out soon, and maybe they'll have a preview for this other mystery movie. There are lots of movies out right now I want to see...Farenheit 9/11, The Notebook (even though I'm pretty sure it's not a happy movie), Spiderman 2 (I've heard it's really good, much better than the first), and The Terminal. On my 'would like to see, but the rental will probably suffice' list are The Day After Tomorrow, The Chronicles of Riddick (I know, but I (heart) Vin..), and Stepford Wives.

Now you know. Anybody want to go to any of those with me? I'm free...now.

long time no see

yeah, well, turns out I did have some plans for this summer. They're just about done though. I went to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, to visit my uncle and eat at his restaurant, and it was good, as always. I went down with my mom and my grannie, and we had a pretty good time. Went to Freeport, didn't buy much though. For outlet stores, they're still really expensive. Went out on the boat with my uncle and got thrown around a bit, but that's a good time too.

Tomorrow my good friend is getting married, so I'm pretty excited for that. The only wedding I've ever been to is Tiresa's, and it was a lovely, outdoors in the park, justice of the peace wedding. This is going to be equally lovely I'm sure, but inside in a church instead. It's not a Catholic church though, which is a good thing I think, I've heard Catholic weddings are quite long.

after my island adventure tomorrow though, things get significantly quieter. We might be going to a wedding on the 16th, and I'm going to see Bryan Adams on the 21st, and then my vacation will be half over. That's pretty sketchy. Although, I suppose vacation is designed for not really doing anything. Good thing.

inspired by Jenn

Let's see how the title bar digs links.

So, for no real reason other than Jenn sort of did it, and I have this notion that you want to know trivial things about me, here you go.

Things that annoy me:
1) bad drivers
2) people who stick their tongue out when they laugh / smile
3) when the person you're trying to argue with doesn't make sense
4) the fact that my 16lb cat always sits on my bladder first thing in the morning
5) that a lot of the best things in life are not free

Things I like:
1) human contact
2) flirting with cute boys
3) hot chocolate, warm brownies
4) nice surprises
5) making a new friend
6) reading books that make me laugh out loud
7) wearing skirts
8) relaxing in the sun
9) that one of my cats is always up for a cuddle
10) naps

whee, prom!

I think, for the first hour anyway, that I had more fun than the students. Prom is SUCH a huge deal there, it's really funny. They have this whole 'grand march' thing, then the parents all hang out for like an hour and take pictures outside and stuff. Small towns, gotta love them. Anyway, wow I was tired. I felt hungover all yesterday, but it was purely lack of sleep. Interesting. Tonight the big plan is to go see Dodgeball. We thought about going last night, but I was too freaking tired.

For now, I must eat something. I haven't eaten much home-cooked food lately, I'm feeling a bit malnourished.

kill me now

my god, if I have to sit in one more meeting, I'm going to kill somebody. Hopefully not myself, but pain will have to be inflicted on somebody. Again, I'm teaching art to all grades, so all of the grade promotion meetings (who knew there was such a thing?) I have to attend. My input is basically useless, naturally, but my presence is required. Unfortunate. I have made some super sketches and doodles, and made up some fantastic limericks about my coworkers and students, but really...how productive is that? I've got my classroom and supply room in fantastic condition, everything is put away on shelves in an orderly manner and even labelled. I'm really, really proud of myself. I know I won't even be there next year, but since I have a bad feeling that it will be somebody like me, who doesn't really know what they're doing, I figure this will help tremendously.

the prom is tomorrow, I'm chaperoning it and safegrad. I don't have anything to wear though. I think I'll head out tonight for a bit and see if I can find a nice sundress or something. I have lots of clothes here, but they're all either really formal or sort of business casual, not too good for promming. Plus, I like getting dressed up, so I can go get something new. Friday I have a meeting at my new school, which should be fun because I'll be good and tired after safegrad, and Saturday I'm invited to the staff party for my new school, which is pretty cool. It's looking like English 9, 10, Theatre Arts, and Social Studies 10. Should be fun.

almost better

after a week of pain and then disgustingness as my entire upper body peeled off, I think I'm just about back to normal. lesson learned: wear sunscreen on all exposed parts of your body, even if you don't think it's that hot out. wind is tricky. I bought myself some sunscreen, and was all set to buy the PC brand, because I love PC, but I gave it a sniff, and it's not offensive by any means, but it just doesn't smell like summer. So I ended up paying an extra $3 for the Coppertone stuff that smells like the beach.

School is officially over for students, we finished up exams on Friday. I've done really well, I marked all of my exams and bubbled in final marks and comments as I went, so all I have left to do is the set of essays from my 11/12 class, and their bubble sheets. I'm quite proud of myself, but anyone who's not a teacher won't really see why this is so fantastic. That said, I'm not going to mark those until tomorrow, because I'm really enjoying this day of nothing. I've also started bringing my things home from school and un-decorating my classroom. It was so nice and bright all year with the artist posters and student work and things all over the place, it's pretty dreary now. My big plans for today include cleaning the inside of my car. I like to let the rain take care of the outside. That's about it. I did venture out to the Salisbury Big Stop to see the aforementioned bobbing lobster, and damn, it's the most hilarious and horrifying thing I've ever seen. So, obviously I bought one. Bargain price too, $3.19. Odd price. Pictures to follow.

I went to see Raising Helen on Thursday night with my camping buddy. Let's call her Anna. Anyway, the movie was really, surprisingly, good. There's a lot more to it than just the funny bits they show you in the preview, so I'd recommend it. Kate Hudson, whose hair I envy, Joan Cusack, who's just funny, and John Corbett, who's pretty sexy, but who I can only ever see as Chris, from Northern Exposure. I'm browsing the site for the movie, and I see that he is also 'the voice of General Electric'. Interesting. The girl who plays the eldest daughter is the same girl, grown up considerably, who played in Remember the Titans. The son is played by the kid from 'The Kid', very funny, and the littlest girl is played by his sister in real life, she's the little one from 'Signs', who would never drink the water, and she's just adorable. She made me cry at least once, but I found myself sniffling through a few parts of the film. Lots of funny parts too though; Anna and I were sitting there and enjoying our Garfield kids meal-sized popcorn buckets, and there was one part where you're just waiting for Kate Hudson to kiss John Corbett, but she just wouldn't, so I said 'oh, come ON!' a little louder than I meant to. Everybody laughed at me. haha.

Ok, off to vaccuum the car. Wooh!

mmm, sunburney

that's what you get for being blonde on the first hot day or 2 of the year. Ah well, that's what aloe vera gel is for, right?

I managed to get through my last term of the year unscathed, as did most of my students. I got a little sad Friday when I was telling everyone that I won't be back, but was very careful to tell them all that it wasn't my choice whether I got to come back or not. I most likely wouldn't have chosen to come back, given the option, but that's not the point. I'm waiting now to see what courses I'll be teaching for sure, and when I can get into my new classroom to see what I'm working with and maybe start to set up a bit. Since I didn't get my current job until about a week before teachers were to go back to school, I didn't get to do much of anything in advance.

This coming week is just for exams, tomorrow I don't have an exam so I'm going to do my damndest to get all the projects marked that came in last week, so that I'll be able to use the rest of my afternoons to mark tests and clean the freaking art room. It was such a disaster when I got there in the fall, I can't possibly leave it in total disarray for the next person, whomever that may be. I'm thinking it'll be somebody like me, just looking for a job who falls into it again. I enjoyed my time there for the most part, once I just accepted that some things are the way they are, and that there's nothing I can or even should try to do to change them, and also that I'd most likely only be there for a year.

On a completely unrelated topic, have any of you borrowed either my Romeo and Juliet DVD, my DMB Busted Stuff cd, or my To Kill a Mockingbird unit plan? I'm missing all of them and can't for the life of me figure out where any of them have gone. Also, I'm in the market for a new bobbing dog and / or a dancing hula girl for my car. I can't find either anywhere, so if anyone spots some fine car decorations such as these, pass it along!

never again

so, hiking. good times. camping with a bunch of 17-year olds. again, good times. Let me just tell you about my weekend. I have made some interesting discoveries.

discovery #1: the outdoor pursuits teacher is a dink. he's the one who put this whole trip together, and I swear to God, if I had not had another teacher friend with me on this trip, I would have left in the middle of the night without a second thought. I don't want to bore you with the details, but suffice to say it turned into my friend and I chaperoning the whole gd trip, including *leading* the pack of kids up the mountain, while the teacher enjoyed a leisurely stroll up the mountain with his girlfriend and another couple friend of theirs. We sat with the kids, played games with them and stuff, yelled at them to shut the hell up when it got to be about 2am and we had to drive for 5 hours today to get back here. The teacher...was either in the cooking cabin or the tent with his friends for the whole weekend. Good times. Most oft' heard comment in the tent with my friend, "I fucking hate camping." and / or "I fucking hate *insert teacher's name here*."

discovery #2: excercising does not help cramps, as I had previously read / been told. Not even a little bit. I'll also spare you details on this one, but as you can well imagine, this discovery went along with some other unpleasantness.

discovery #3: apparently, I have exercise-induced asthma. I was not aware of this, but I have also not ever tried to climb a mountain. I've been out of breath lots of times, I'm not exactly in peak physical condition, but this was completely different and really frightening; my throat closed up so I was all wheezy, at one point I could barely get any air in, so naturally I freaked out a bit and started crying, which was very helpful to my calming down and being able to breathe normally. I felt like a complete tit, especially for having been crying in front of Mr. Dink, and didn't get to go up to the top of the mountain. I made it just over halfway up, and I wasn't tired at all, and I was just generally pissed off to have to go back to the bottom, but I never would have made it.

discovery #4: kids, when left unattended, will throw just about anything in the campfire, including, but not limited to, giant plastic bags which held wood, water bottles full of water, and styrofoam cups. I'm sure they would have thrown more in, but we had limited ammunition for them, being at a camp site. Along with this, kids are really sort of stupid. They can all hear each other in their tents, but they were remarkably, and repeatedly, surprised when my friend or I would yell at them from our tent to shut up and go to sleep. I got "I thought they were asleep!" and "how did they hear us??" and my friend got one "oh, fuck off" when the kid didn't realize it was a teacher telling him to quiet down. That was pretty funny. She was like, "Pardon me?" The kid was like, "oh, shit, ah....sorry Madame.."

discovery #5: camping in the rain and cold is really, really unpleasant. I didn't have a sleeping bag, so the outdoor pursuits teacher lent me one of his. It was the size of a very small pillow, when in the bag. I was assured it was good, but it really wasn't. It was Thinsulate, but I'm sure designed only for summer camping. It was easily 0 both nights, and damper than damp since it literally didn't stop raining for more than 10 minutes the whole time we were there, and I froze my ass off. I was sleeping in flannel pj bottoms, sweat pants, 2 pairs of socks, a t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, and winter hat. I was still cold. I was warm for like 20 minutes, and sooooo blissfully happy for those 20 minutes, but then it got damp and cold and I was like, "I fucking hate camping." again. I think I will go though, this summer, when it's not raining and freezing, and there are no people I don't like, and no students, and I can drink. Those things will all make the experience much more enjoyable, I think. Anyway, I'm home now, and clean and dry and relatively warm, but in dire need of some sleep. I was supposed to go on a weekend canoe trip with the same bunch, but without my friend, and there is just no way in hell I'm going. I've given my notice, so I don't feel bad at all.

I hate camping.

whee, find out about me!

Brought to me by D

1. Your name spelled backwards - Haras
   
2. Where were your parents born - Halifax and Saint John
   
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer - porn. just kidding. mp3s.
   
4. What's your favorite restaurant - East Side Marios
   
5. Last time you swam in a pool - wow, a long time ago
   
6. Have you ever been in a school play - yep, I was the narrator in grade one for Sleeping Beauty, then had a bit of a dry spell until grade 11, I had a solo in the musical
   
7. How many kids do you want - 2 or 3
   
8. Type of music you dislike most - gangsta rap
   
9. Are you registered to vote - yes
   
10. Do you have a car - yes, a blue Dodge sx 2.0
    
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped - no
    
12. Ever prank call anybody - before the days of caller ID
    
13. Ever get a parking ticket - nope, no tickets, ever. 2 warnings.
    
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving - yes, sky diving
    
15. Furthest place you ever traveled - Florida. Coolest - NY.
    
16. Do you have a garden - no, I have some plants I'm trying not to kill
    
17. What's the size of your bed - double
    
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem - yes, in French aussi
    
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night - morning, I can't wake up otherwise
    
20. Best movie you've seen in the past 4 months - Love Actually
    
21. What's the next movie you want to see - Shrek 2
    
22. Chips or popcorn - popcorn
    
23. Have you ever broken any hearts - yep, and I don't regret it at all
    
24. Premarital sex - yes please. I hope my mom's reading this!
    
25. Are you a good cook - getting there
    
26. Orange or Apple juice - orange, definitely
    
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you go - the boy and his family, to ESM last night
    
28. Favorite type of drink - non alcoholic = chocolate milk, alcoholic = daquiris, coladas, kahlua and milk
    
29. Best thing in the world - feeling loved
    
30. Have you ever broken a bone - yes, my arm, my first time on the rollerblades I got for my 12th birthday.
    
31. Have you ever won a trophy - trophy, no, but I got plaques for poetry and highest mark in grade 9 shop, and medals for highest score on math competitions in my school in grade 10 and 11. I'm multi talented.
    
32. What is your favorite board game - tie, Taboo or Cranium
    
33. What is your dream car - I don't really have one.
    
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial - no, but I was very tempted by the Ronco Food Dehydrator, Yogurt Maker and Jerky Machine. It makes jerky AND yogurt. very intriguing.
    
35. Coke or Pepsi - Coke, if only for the fact that they have orginal ads
    
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work - yep, McDonald's and VIA
    
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy - nothing for a while
    
38. Who are you going to marry - hopefully the boy...
    
39. Who would you like to meet - I don't think I'd like to meet anybody famous, what would I say?
    
40. Do you believe in love at first sight - sure
    
41. What features do you find most attractive in the opposite sex - a nice smile and the ability to make me laugh
    
42. Where would you go for a romantic evening - I have no idea
    
43. How many pairs of shoes do you own - many
    
44. Last song stuck in your head - 'I Feel Pretty', I saw Anger Management recently
    
45. Any pets - 2 cats and a bunch of fish
    
46. What's your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character - Land Shark right now
    
47. What is one thing you would like to learn to do - horseback ride
    
48. What do you do when you are bored - write to you fools
    
49. What is one thing you would want someone to appreciate about you - the little things
    
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today - acing the interview

phewf

as usual, just when I had convinced myself that I would either be a) jobless b) stuck teaching art or c) teaching small engine repair at a school in the boonies, I get a call from the school I really wanted to work at, that I had an interview at on Tuesday but didn't tell anyone about, telling me I have the job.

I nearly wet myself.

The combination of relief and just sheer excitement at getting to teach at this school, which is an excellent school, and getting to teach exactly what I'm *supposed* to be teaching just had me giddy for about half an hour. I called my mom, of course. I was to the point today with my worrying that I was actually feeling nauseaus. I worry, I can't help it.

So, I'm secure, I'll probably get my permanent contract there next year and be set and be there as long as I want, unless I get bumped (go unions!), I can not worry this summer, and I don't have to go to that ridiculous job fair next week. Which is good, because Mort has a vet appointment.

Grant is in Fredericton, or hopefully on hs way home by now, his graduation was today. I'm worn right out, I think I need to have a nap. My only remaining worry is that the boy won't get a job here, and then what do we do. If he gets a job reasonably close by, we can commute, but that won't work in like, Halifax. So, if you don't mind, keep the happy thoughts flowing for a bit to get things going for him too.

trying new things

so I've got some form mail happening over at McSeagull's, so as to minimize the spam action that's been happening. No, I don't want animated logos or millions of hits per day, nor do I want to enlarge my anything, thank you very much. I'll see how it goes over there, go give it a shot..then perhaps do it here as well. I had to do some searching though, I'm generally pretty happy with the way Dreamhost handles things and explains them, but I couldn't figure out how to get the form mail thing going. I think I've got it though, but there were a couple of things I couldn't quite get...the redirect error page if you don't fill in your stuff kept popping up whenever you hit submit, regardless of your having filled in all the fields, so I just took that option off.

Went to see Troy last night, and though there are plenty of eye candy shots, the movie just wasn't great. You all know I'm a big fan of Brad, but I just don't know. He did a good job, but he kept throwing in the odd word with an accent, where 95% of his dialogue had no discernable accent. A little odd. Eric Bana played Hector, and did a fantastic job; his was definitely the strongest character, and he looked mighty good. There was one part in the movie (sorry to spoil it if you haven't seen it, but you really should know the basic story anyway), where Paris (who's a bit of a tit, btw) tells Hector that he's smuggled Helen aboard the boat to Troy. Hector is understandably pissed, as this is going to start a war, and I was just waiting for him to go all Hulk on the guy. Didn't happen. Probably a wise directorial choice. Now I'm just excited to see Shrek 2, which started today. I'm just checking out the website, it's got games and stuff. Sweet.

Still waiting on my job prospects. I'll hear something by Friday...I'm really hoping to not have to go to the D job fair, which is basically just all the first year (D contract) teachers being herded around like a bunch of cattle, to pimp ourselves to principals in an effort to secure a position for next year. Hey, what about just having a normal application and interview process? Treating us like professional human beings, perhaps. I'm a little bitter. The more I think about my current situation, the more angry I become. I have no idea if I'm being told the whole truth, who this mystery person is that might be coming back, but I do know that my position was never her position, so I don't really understand why it's even an issue. It does make my decision to leave easier, but it also makes the whole deal a bit more shaky. 10 more class days. I thought I would be able to give my tests during classes, not exam period, but apparently the students have to come during exam period, so I may as well do it then. *sigh* I need to have everything marked and bubbled by that Friday, because I'm going on a freaking canoe trip with the outdoor pursuits class. Those of you who know me will find this a bit funny...I'm not particularly adept at canoeing, and I don't camp much. Which is why, obviously, I'm also going camping next weekend, with the class. They needed female chaperones, so one of my teacher buddies and I agreed to go, but only because we're both going. Should be interesting.

stress

so I've applied for 3 jobs, but I really only want one. Now the waiting begins. They have to get things going before Friday, as far as interviews go, so it shouldn't take too long. Cross your fingers, folks. I hate it though, this waiting. I'll keep you posted whenever I find stuff out.

I think we're going to see Troy tonight, I'm pretty excited. It's quite long, so we're hitting the early show.

More later, supper beckons.

ooh ooh

go and add McSeagull's to your favourites, I made a favourites / address bar icon, it's super cute.

fancy

I like change, this new blogger layout is pretty swank.

Job postings came out today, there are only a couple I think I want to apply for, because I know a lot of them don't actually exist. Very complicated, and I'm not going to explain it, it's all political and I don't really understand it at all myself. Things are not going extremely well with our houseguest and with the boy working 12 hour shifts every day, but I don't really feel like going into that either. I just vented at Tiresa, so I feel marginally better, but not really. Working at the group home, taking care of people who were dependent on me for literally everything, was not this stressful or aggrivating.

I'm going to go re-blonde my hair and watch a movie, by myself. Good times.

ticket line etiquette

I was waiting in line for Bryan Adams tickets this morning (go ahead, laugh, the show is going to be great). It's a good idea to strike up some smalltalk with the person or people around you in line. This is good for 2 reasons. Reason one, waiting in line is freaking boring, so it helps to chat a bit. Reason 2, if you have to pee, the person behind you is much more likely to save your place happily if you've been friendly to them. Now, as I write this, I wonder if anyone would say no, when asked to save your spot in line. That would be pretty mean. I can't see it happening here, but maybe in bigger cities or something. People are pretty friendly here. The other day, I was at WalMart, and any of you who have ever shopped at WalMart know that the parking lot is a very scary place. I've never seen such a collection of frightening drivers as I find regularly in that place. That said, I'm driving up and down the rows to find a spot, and I see one, but as I'm pulling in, another woman is doing a drive-through job from the other side. She paused, and then smiled and backed up so we could both have spots. We chatted a bit on the way to the door, and decided that not everyone would have backed up. My faith in WM shoppers/drivers has been somewhat restored, but I'm still always really nervous driving there and pulling out of spots. I always go for the drive through spots if possible.

I have absolutely no plans for this weekend, except to give Jenn a call and see what's going on. Maybe catch a movie or something. I also have to try out my giant daquiri glass. mmm. Strawberries are on sale for $1.97 at Superstore, so I can have some real berry action in my drink, which is bound to help. A friend of mine made some with a bit of lime juice concentrate and a banana, and they were delish. I may try that.

how about you just don't have sex with strangers

more on spermicides. seriously, stay away from that stuff, and just have sex with people whose sexual history you know. seems like a wise choice anyway.

Like having sex with a Ziploc bag

I love the Shopping Bags, on W network (formally WTN). Today they're doing a Valentine's Day special, a re-run of course. Anyhoo, they tested condoms, and I just had to share the results with you. Two things I found particularly interesting. One was the fact that the amount of spermicide on spermicidally lubricated isn't really enough to do any good, so you might as well skip that kind. Many women are allergic too, and you don't really want to find that out if you don't have to. The other thing I thought was crazy was the price difference. We have the old stand-bys, Trojan (regular) and Lifestyles (ribbed), which run about $0.50 each. But then they tested Avanti brand polyurethane, which are $3.20 each, and Ramseys (thin) which were $0.92 each. The Avanti ones got the votes, so I guess you get what you pay for, but the couples agreed that $3 was a bit much for one condom, if you're going to use them regularly at all. They tested a female condom, but it's like $6 a pop, and that's where the subject line came from, so I can't say as I'd recommend those either. It looks like Ramseys Thin is the best bet; the regular Trojans were just 'ok', and the ribbed Lifestyles didn't do anything fantastic.

almost 40% of pregnancies around the world are unplanned. Take your folic acid, just in case!

and now you know.

also, you get what you pay for with chocolate. The brand they tested, Valrona, costs around $6 for 100g, and it beat out Lindt chocolate by a long shot, so I'll have to find myself some to try. Also, better quality chocolate has more cocoa and cocoa butter, which is better for you.

A little while back, my cheap, plastic garlic press broke. This is what happens when you buy your kitchen utensils at Dollarama, I guess. Anyway, I bought a new one, and it's just fantastic. Works like a charm. It's almost medieval looking. I love it. On the topic of giant kitchen things...Grant went to a restaurant called Medieval Times while he was in Florida, and brought me back This bad boy, posed with a normal sized martini glass for comparison. The obvious question here is, who's going to help me break it in? I'm thinking it could hold pretty much a blender-full of daquiri itself. mmmmm.

dilemma

ok, folks, public opinion time. I've been growing my hair for quite some time now. I did cave a few months back and cut it a la Julia Stiles. That was the idea, anyway. It came relatively close. I have some relatively unflattering pictures of myself to show you now. Here is what my hair looks like long-ish. I don't really have a lot of hair, it's pretty fine, so I'm not sure I can even really get it to where I want it. Generally, I end up just putting my hair back mid-morning, because it's annoying. That said, I've had short hair lots of times, and am thinking of just kiboshing the growing thing and going back to that. Example 1, and example 2. Opinions? Pretend you care, I need input.

boo to being sick

(warning: long post!)

I should have listened when everyone said, in response to my complaining about my sore throat, 'oh, that's how it starts...'. Turns out, they were right. By the time I got home last night (at 10:30, having missed Friends because of the Grad Fashion Show..more on that later..somebody update me on what happened, please!) I was a wreck. Headache, fever, chills, sore everything. I called in sick at 9:30 last night, from school, and the lady I called was peeved that I hadn't called earlier. It's hard to get supply teachers for our school, it's in a rural area, and it's for a Friday too. Well, I'm sorry. I did actually feel pretty bad though, but I figured it was better to call last night at that time than to wait and see how I was feeling this morning (still terrible) and need a supply then. Anyway, one of my carpoolers reassured me with the fact that she's called in sick twice this year, both times at 6:30am. The one other time I called it was around suppertime, so I figure I'm pretty good.

I had to get up early today though, my dear sweet Morty is having some UTI issues again. He hasn't had any problems for about 2 years, and it doesn't look like it's too bad this time, but it's bad enough to cost $170. That's with new food and drugs, and an x-ray to make sure he wasn't blocked up anywhere...but also with a free examination voucher that I got when I took him in for his shots in the fall. I get overly emotional when I'm sick, so I'm sitting in the waiting room near tears because I'm worried about Mort. It only got worse when this family came in with their dog, obviously to put him down. I nearly lost it, I sat there and sniffled and dabbed my eyes until they finally called Mort in. The dog was pretty old-looking, and could be a rabid child-eater for all I know, but it's still really sad. On a brighter note, Mort's fine, but doesn't like his new food. Those of you who know Mortimer will find that pretty funny, because I've never known Mort to dislike any form of food. Before he had to go on his special diet a couple of years ago, he used to beg for (and get) a taste of everything. His favourites were yogurt, bananas, and hotrods. He still wants very much to eat all of those things, but they would mess with the pH balance of his digestive system. Or something.

The fashion show. It was a good time, I'll say that much. I was placed in charge of music. It was decided at first to use instrumental Disney songs. Barf. But, being a good little delegatee, I downloaded and burned a cd of music. It was awful. Ok, not awful, but painfully slow and impossible to walk to, especially for a bunch of grade 12 students who, for the most part, are wearing cute and/or very casual, fun outfits. So, next it was decided to use....something else. Nobody got in touch with me, I didn't talk to the woman organizing the show on Wednesday, and the last I had heard I was to try to find some cool, upbeat songs to use, so I thought on it all day Wednesday, and then took a couple of hours out of my night and made a great cd. I get to school yesterday, to find that the organizer woman has delegated some kids to make a cd out of karaoke songs ('the words are too loud and distracting'), which they have done. Now, I'm annoyed for a couple of reasons. One, I was already starting to feel like crap, as evidenced by my last post, and would have rather slept or vegetated than have made a cd. Two, it was a huge waste of my time and energy, which could have been avoided by an incredibly short phone call to me, letting me know my efforts were not needed. When I went to talk to the organizer, she just smiled and said she didn't think I would want to bother with doing it. The thing is, I was told to bother with it, so I did. Three, if any of you have ever sung karaoke or listened to a karaoke cd, you'll notice a couple of things that make the songs a bit odd. There is a good 10-15 second gap at the beginning of each song, where the words and the cd company and crap appear on the screen. When it's just audio, it's just dead air. Also, the songs still have the backup voices in them, so you're going along listening to your song, which once it has started sounds good, but then at the most unexpected time you get these random 'oooo's and 'yeah yeah's. Very strange. So, and really not just because I had made the cd, I thought mine was better. I had also put some thought into what songs could be used for different types of outfits, where the girls with the karaoke songs hadn't so much, but they were also limited with their selection of cds. Anyway, the cd they made ended up not working because it was burned on a cd-rw, which most not-new cd players don't like. So we used mine, I fixed all the handouts and things with the old song names on them, and the music was great. I got to control it too, which was fun. And anyway, now I have a fun cd to listen to with my classes.

I realized at about 5:00 that I hadn't eaten anything today, so I went to S'store to pick up a chicken for tonight and got an Iced Cappuccino at Tim's on the way back. Tasty. I also got myself an oatbran apple muffin, my favourite from there. I didn't eat it yet though. I had a neocitran and napped away most of the day, and am feeling marginally better now. It's also gorgeous outside, and I have the windows open to get some fresh air in. After my big adventure to Superstore though, I need another nap.

sick

literally. My throat feels like some giant prickly thing has moved in...rather unpleasant. I always get sick this time of year, but that doesn't make it any better, really. I feel like ass.

Rogers has been improving in my books lately. They came and delivered me a new modem the other day, then today we had a power outage, which for some reason fried the digital cable box. So they came and gave us a new one. Sweet. It's smaller, which in electronics necessarily means it's better, and way faster than the other one. It used to take a second when you would hit menu or info or page down, now it's instantaneous.

I'm staying late tomorrow night at school to help run a fashion show. I'm getting someone to tape Friends for me, CSI I guess I'll survive without, and if I'm not home by 11 for ER, I'm going to shoot myself. We came home early today because 2 of the teachers I drive with have interviews for the same job at a school in town. Awkward, no? I'm rooting for one of them, because she's been surplussed out of our current school, and she taught at this other school last year, but was surplussed out of there. Bad luck, needs to change. No word on jobs for me yet, not until the 10th, so I'm just waiting.

Best Pick-Up Lines. Or not.

"Are you a parking ticket? Because you have FINE written all over you.":

McSeagull's Restaurant

I made this! It's not fancy, by any means, but it does the job, and it is actually getting viewed, so I'm pretty excited. Please go admire the menu page, and let me know if there are any mistakes...I think I caught them all though.

it's pretty cold for looking so very nice outside. My apartment is all clean and tidy, and I'm having myself a nice big steak for supper. Right now I'm waiting for the Rogers guy to come look at my modem, it going offline quite often, like...whenever I look at it sideways. rrrg.

so bored

I'm cleaning the apartment. I've gone through 2 mystery boxes that have been sitting on the floor since we moved here in August. I went through my clothes, rehung some curtains so the whole window shows when they're open, and am about to head out to buy a shelf for my cookbooks, which are presently laying on their sides on top of the microwave. I need a more prominent display for my sweet Jamie.

This is what happens when nice weather coincides with my being bored, apparently. I clean.

I hate American Idol

I've seen a total of about 30 minutes this season, but it's just rediculous. The voters have serious musical-appreciation-deficiencies. That's all I have to say.

It's Friday, and I'm glad. I took my grade 11/12 class to the art gallery to see the graduating Fine Arts students' work, and it was really good, and good for them to see what they could be doing in 4 years if they chose to pursue further education in the field.

In less good news...sort of mixed really...my job is not up for grabs for next year. Not because it's mine, but because a teacher from my school who has been on leave for 3 years and taught art at some point (is not an art teacher, but then neither am I...) might be coming back, and might want the job. It's the only one available that she could do, so they have to leave it open for her. The whole thing sounded suspicious to me, but I've checked it out and for once, things are being done properly. I can't say that I'm happy to be out in the cold with nothing to fall back on, but this does save me the awkwardness of having to go to my principal and tell him that I really don't want to be there in the fall. It came at an interesting time though, because I had been putting together an order for some books and posters and thinking they wouldn't be much use this year, but they would be good for next year...that I could get used to the school and learn to just ignore the things I don't like or agree with, that I would probably be permanent next year and thus be more free to voice my opinion on things. Then I find out that's not an option. Irony, folks. The rest of the one-year contract teachers are getting screwed too though, only one of them even has her job posted, but because it's posted, of course, other people can now apply for it and will get it if they've got more experience. It's fair, in a way, but it still stinks. The rest of us don't have the option to even apply, and have to look elsewhere. Also, one other new teacher who got her permanent contract this year at the school has been 'surplussed' out, and has to leave. She was also thinking of going elsewhere, but to have the option of staying taken away is more than a little unsettling. I have to wait until May 10th for the next round of jobs to come out, I can't apply for the first round because I'm not on a permanent contract. This is good and bad, annoying but there might be even better jobs in the next round with all the shifting around. I'll keep you posted, as always.

I have no plans this weekend except to maybe clean up a bit. Only one new movie came out today, Man on Fire with Denzel. I don't have a real burning desire to see it. I wouldn't mind seeing The Prince and Me, or maybe 13 Going on 30 again. I'll have to find a date though. Any offers?

why I don't live by myself

I just made myself a wonderful supper of salmon and a sidekick. No worries, simple enough. I made the salmon in the little toaster/rotisserie oven. I listened and waited and did dishes while the timer on it ticked away the minutes. It dings, I go to take the fish out...it's cold. I have forgotten to plug in the oven. *sigh* The good news is that the Singapore curry noodle sidekick is absolutely delicious. I threw some raisins in for extra flavour, that must have been something my parents did when I was younger. It's good. So I'm eating that, waiting for the salmon to cook, again.

We did end up getting an xbox. It's really fun. I bought myself the Shrek game. It's fun, but surpisingly hard! I got really annoyed last night trying to put a bunch of egg-babies back in a nest, while Humpty Dumpty was beating me up because he wanted to teach them to fall off of walls. I've just now found the website, and was very helpful to find the 'tips and tricks' section, but it isn't all that helpful. It offers such advice as "Evil fairies are very hard to catch...because they are evil.". Thanks. Maybe I'm just retarded, but I find the game pretty challenging. I am still getting the hang of it, but I'm not sure if a younger kid would find it really easy or too hard.

Tomorrow we have grade 8 orientation at school until 8. Sweet ass. It's just me and one other carpooler who have to stay, so we're hoping to make it back here in time for Friends, since it's new. Apparently we're down to the final 3 episodes.


edit: my internet was just down for like, 20 minutes, so I couldn't post this. Rogers sonsofbitches. It's all good now though, and my salmon is darn tasty.

having a conscience sucks

and costs money. I stopped to get some cat food today. Now, I buy a giant bag of vet food, 8kg, which lasts a few months. It's pretty pricey, so I was pretty surprised when it rang up at $34 for the food and a bag of treats. I wait, check the receipt to see if maybe she punched in the wrong number, but no, it says 8kg. I still figure, something is wrong, they didn't lower the price $20. So I mention it to her, and sure enough, she has accidentally charged me for the dog food. I was thinking it was unfair dog food being so much cheaper, but then I thought, dogs eat a lot, so it's good that their food is cheaper. I did manage to save some money tonight though, Sears has their 'sears days' (as the Bay has its 'bay days') sale on, and everything is really cheap. Half price bras! That's a big deal, those things are friggin expensive.

well holy shit

I had a whole post done, but then Blogger did what Blogger does, and it's gone now. I talked about how I'm getting to try gmail from Google, about showing the movie The Shape of Things to my 11/12 class, about Grant going to Florida. I can't be bothered retyping it all, so use your imaginations, and find the links yourselves.
ha

how can you not love this guy?

he's so friggin cute.



I went to see 13 Going on 30, and it was just terrific. The theatre was *packed*, which was unexpected, but ah well. We ended up sitting very near the front, which took some getting used to, but it was alright. I don't know that it will win any big awards or anything, but it's worth it just to see Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. They have to be 2 of the cutest people on screen. I would definitely run away with Mr Ruffalo, if he were to come calling. I'm sure Grant would understand.

I'd also like to point out that my sister, as usual, found him way before me. She has this knack for doing that. I almost always come around, but I have to say, she's responsible for influencing much of my taste in music and movies. I have to say also though, her tastes have been straying a bit lately. hehe.

anyway, go see the movie next weekend.

yay, I can eat McDonald's again!

not that I ever stopped, but I did feel bad about it.

A while back, I posted a link to a story about a guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for a month. The link is dead now, but basically he just went to hell in a handbasket. He had to eat everything on the menu at least once, and couldn't eat anything else, not even water from home. It's now a documentary. Just this morning, I stumbled upon this little news bit, which I'll post for posterity, instead of posting the link, which will die.


Filmmaker sets out to debunk Super Size Me

WASHINGTON - A filmmaker has set to out to create a documentary that will attempt to debunk the documentary Super Size Me, which follows one person eating nothing but food from McDonald's for a month.

The director, Soso Whaley, is halfway through her own 30-day diet of McDonald's meals. She says she is feeling good and has lost five pounds.

"This experience has taught me not to think of food as good or bad," Whaley said. "Food is food, plain and simple. It's not inherently evil, and our only 'problem' is that we have been very successful as a species in learning how to create easily accessible food sources."

Whaley is an adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Once her month of fast- food dieting is over, she will compile the footage into a narrative.

Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me will goes into limited release in the U.S. on May 7.

Top 100 Movie Characters of All Time

according to Premiere Magazine. They've got quite a mix of characters in there. I haven't seen all the movies, but judging by the ones that I do recognize, I think perhaps I have some movies I ought to be watching. I was pretty excited to see Indiana Jones and Captain Jack Sparrow on the list, myself.

wow

I'm so tired. I've just been waiting for it to be 10, so I can go to bed without feeling like a total loser. Even though I've been nodding off on the couch for the past hour. I was just about to go to bed and noticed a message from Tiresa about big news from the dept of ed. They're cancelling the P.E.! They're going to bring them back next year, but at a lower grade, so at least 2 years of kids won't ever have to write them. For those of you not from NB, the P.E. is something you have to write in math and English in grade 11, a standardized test that is thus a bit of a farce, and not an entirely accurate picture of how you're doing in English or math. Teachers always end up freaking out a bit, and then completely teaching to the test, which is just stupid. That's not a test of the kids' comprehension; that's them knowing what's going to be on a test. Anyway, the fact that they're cancelling it is strange, especially now with the test only 2 months away.

This week was just awful. Meetings until 5:15 Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we had to stay at school for an entirely useless 'help your kids pick courses' fest until 7:30 tonight, where nobody even came to see me, natch. No wait, I lie, I had another teacher sit with me, and some kids that we both taught came to chat and ask us why we had to be there. Good question. A couple of good things did happen though. One of our supply teachers, who happened to be pregnant, went in to labour yesterday, on the last day she needed to get in order to qualify for maternity leave. We covered for her, of course, and were all very excited, and glad to find out everything went well and she had a little girl (she already had 2 boys, so yay). I covered one of her classes, and it was all grade 9s, who I know all of now, and they were all like 'oh, Miss S, we love you! are you going to be back next year? you're the best teacher! you have to come back!' and so on. Just when I think I've decided for sure that I'm outta there in 2 months, these little bastards make me feel guilty for even considering not returning in the fall. It's not entirely up to me where I'll be, I'm definitely going to explore my options. At the very least I'd like to be teaching a combo of art and something else, not just art. I also had my official evaluation yesterday, which went swimmingly, so if I'm still here next year, I will very likely get a permanent contract. Big load off. I wasn't worried, really, but you always worry a little bit when you know you're being evaluated.

I really have to go to bed now, my eyes hurt. Anyone want to go see 13 Going on 30 tomorrow night? There's a sneak preview.

*sigh*

well due to a miscommunication with the carpool this morning (not my fault), I waited at one woman's house while she waited here. I booted it to work, in my own car by myself, to arrive not as early as I wanted to, to photocopy a bunch of stuff for my 3 new classes. I got whistled at by somebody in my grade 10 class when I stepped out from behind the desk, but since I didn't see who it was I just ignored it. Plus, I was looking pretty hot, so who can blame him. That, sadly, was pretty much the highlight of my work day. New classes are exhausting. You have to go over all the rules and expectations, where the bathrooms, fountains, fire exits are, why they shouldn't throw scissors, why art IS important and how they can all pass if they put in some effort. 3 times.

So that was fine, I was looking forward to my prep and then to going home at a decent hour. Since I didn't have to drive anyone, and couldn't see staying late, I figured I'd be able to skidaddle. Wrong. There was a meeting for grade 11/12 teachers after school, which I won't bore you all with the details of, but suffice to say it was completely idiotic and not at all useful with all the stuff we've already done (PT interviews, progress reports, and report cards coming out this week). And, as usual, it was totally unnecessary that I be there. I doodled, covering 3 sheets of white paper. The music and phys ed. teachers, beside me, read the textbooks for the law class that's usually in there. They tell us we have to go, try to make us feel important, the 'specialty' teachers, but we're not, and we know it, and honestly, I'd rather be useless at home, or at least in my classroom, than be made to sit in a meeting where my input is meaningless. Good times. So I left school at 5:15, more than 2 hours after I sat my ass in the chair at the start of the meeting. And don't even think about commenting on how early we get out at the end of the day - we get only one break, in the morning, and lunch is 42 minutes.

I have to go eat some chocolate.

a collection of four chicken pieces. In the classical style.

Child Prodigy Compared to Mozart

Easter goodies / fun with photoshop

Happy Easter!


A little gift for the messengers among you.


My sister sent me this one, I've seen it before though.



enjoy!

Lucky me! Marks have to go in first thing Tuesday, which means I have to actually mark a bunch of stuff, tally them up, and then fill in bubble sheets. I really, really don't like the bubble sheets. We have to bubble in 2 comments for each student, which is stupid. I don't have 2 comments for each student. The choices are totally stupid, like 'finds subject diffucult', and there's no 'good', just 'superior' and 'satisfactory'. To me, satisfactory is almost insulting, so I try not to use that one, unless I want it to serve as a written *shrug*.

The Easter bunny found me this morning, at Grant's house. How did you all make out?

wisdom from the Mike's Hard box

If you lose your sense of direction, find your sense of humour.

Life is a mystery to be lived, not solved.

You'll find that all great ideas seem absurd ar first.

Looking back won't get you ahead.

(my favourite)
Mike's is hard. So is prison. Don't drive drunk.

amazon.com kicks ass

I know, supergiant companies are evil, but they just make everything so easy. And cheap. I managed to get 3 books (Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and Notes from a Small Island, and a book for Grant), as well as the movie You Can Count on Me for like $50. Granted, there's exchange on that, but with free shipping and my mom coming up in a week, it's a great deal. The weird thing about them though, is that 'gold box' feature. Sometimes it seems to know me really well, like when it suggests a set of pretty green ramekins, or a DSL router. Other times it suggests these weird wine re-corker things, or like, an iron. Odd. I did just check my 'new releases' page of recommendations though, and they're bang on. I can't remember if I mentioned having watched My Life Without Me, with Sarah Polley, but I did, and it was great. You should rent it. Amazon told me to pass that along.

Grant and I are thinking about buying an xbox (yes, I'm thinking about it too). My question to you all is, do you have one, or do you have another gaming system, and what would you recommend? xbox seems to be a good price and have a good following, but I know Microsoft is sort of evil, and there don't seem to be many games. I'm pretty happy with racing games and Tetris, I'm more about fun / puzzle-type games than, say, Grand Theft Auto-type...pick up some hookers and beat them-type games. There's a system at Costco that's $300 for the system, an extra controller, the dvd remote set-up thing, a Star Wars / Tetris combo game (I don't know how those two go together, myself) and a racing game. Seems like a good deal.

My big plan for tonight is to print off my tests for tomorrow. I have to do 2 different ones for my 2 grade 10 classes. They're basically exactly the same, but with either 'period 2' or 'period 3' on the top, and a few questions changed around. My grade 9 one is all made up, and the 11/12 class doesn't write until June. As of tomorrow after school, I'm officially 75% done. Pretty crazy, this term went by super fast. Easter is this weekend...my dad's coming up for a day, Erin might be coming down, tough to say. I think we're going to have supper on Sunday with Grant's family. In honour of Easter, I bought myself a bouquet of tulips at Costco. I'll take a picture later, they're quite nice.

so not trendy

why is it that at American Eagle, all the clothes look like somebody has been wearing them constantly for a week. They're all worn and tattered, and wrinkly. Especially the guy stuff. I don't really like the 'new clothes smell', but I do want my stuff to look new. I can go to Goodwill for used shite.

all about posting

Lissa Explains it All
This little gem I stumbled upon a few years ago, and recently discovered it's run by like, a 14 year old, but she knows her stuff. It's really good to get you started, if you want to break away from the blogger templates, or just spice things up a bit. Figured I should give some credit.

My other 2 boyfriends.


this guy, I think, needs no real introduction.





this guy, we know and love as Mitch. I didn't want him to feel left out of my photo-love. He's very intense here, showing off his climbing prowess. This is one of my favourite pictures of him, which is lucky, because it's also one of only 2 pictures I have of him in total. Other than the naked ones. hehe.

oh, yeah

and I dyed my hair red. "spiced tea" actually. I like it, as do most other people I ran into today. Grant's parents were a bit shocked, but that's the way with parents. It's a wash-out, so in a couple of months I should be back to semi-original colour.

a treat for the lay-days

I am a comment whore.

Jenn says so.

so sue me.

Went to see Hellboy and Walking Tall. What to say about those movies. The first was decent, reasonably entertaining, but you won't lose anything by renting it. The second....well. I love "The Rock". I'm a little disappointed though, he was going by his real name (Dwayne Johnson), but is back to his good ol' WWE name for this one. May have something to do with the fact that the movie as a WWE production. Regardless, he's a hottie. Certifiable. And, as expected, he kicks some serious ass in this movie. He also gets his ass kicked a bit though. You know, keepin it real. It's 'inspired by' a true story, but I'm not sure how much has to be true for that description to hold water.

We watched Something's Gotta Give this weekend too, it was pretty good. Keanu's such a cutie. I couldn't really get past the 20-somethings going for old man Jack, but other than that it was good. I think we're going to watch Runaway Jury tonight. It didn't appeal to me at all originally, but everyone I know who has seen it said it's good, so I'll give it a shot.

In other news, I had guests in today to talk to my grade 11/12 class about pinhole cameras, it was pretty interesting. One of them is coming back Wednesday to help build the cameras. I'm pretty happy, because before I took this job, I had never even heard of a pinhole cameras. Don't tell my students! haha. I have to be honest, I'm not liking my job any better. I do love the staff, but the job itself, not so much. However, in 11 weeks I'll be done, and hopefully sometime before then I'll find out what I'm doing next year, and hopefully it'll be different! whee!

Music | Sarah's Edge

My sister has known this for years.

2 annoying things

Chocolate milk is good forever, right? But not really. I had some, and I guess it's been in the fridge for a while, because I just poured myself a big ol glass, and took a big ol swig, and it was NASTY. I've never had bad chocolate milk before, and I can't say that I'd recommend it. So yeah, gross. Not happy.

Also, my sweet boyfriend had this roommate who used his computer all the time. The computer was in his room, and this guy would just come in, like at 1am, and then apologize if we were in there. Yeah, no worries buddy. Anyway, in all his usage, this guy managed to rack up 2.7g of stuff. That's a lot of stuff. It's almost entirely mp3s. My sweet boy, being a sweet boy, has been not deleting the stuff, with the plan of burning it onto cds. The thing is, that would take a few cds, and I figure if the guy has lived this long without his stuff, he'll probably manage. I had to move it to the D drive so I can format the C...this computer came with the drive partitioned, so C is relatively small but has the OS on it, but also gets full pretty quickly. Especially when people are loading it with mp3s.

So that's my big plan for the rest of the evening, defragment the C drive. wooh! Yeah, and try to forget about that milk.

buy me this

Please.

edit: ok, the link doesn't work, but it's just to an Apple iBook, 14" screen, with an airport extreme card. I briefly toyed with the idea of buying it for myself with my income tax money, but then realized I need to do other things like pay off my line of credit and buy food.

actual news

imagine that.

Last week, I bought the new Norah Jones cd. Yes, bought. It's good. I listened to it in my dad's rental car, no problems. Imagine my surprise when I put the badboy in my car cd player, and it doesn't play. Not just certain songs, or skips a lot, or anything, it just won't play.

Rage.

Yes, the back of the case does say that the disc is copy-controlled, and may cause playback issues in certain players. To me, not playing isn't so much a playback issue, as a lack of playback altogether. EMI actually has a whole website dedicated to problems with these discs. Naturally, I went ahead and voiced my opinion, but surprisingly, I haven't heard anything back yet. I just don't see how the irony could be any richer here. I try to do the right thing, and pay for the cd, and it won't work. Apparently I can return the cd, but then I wouldn't have it at all, and I would still be angry. So, I downloaded some pirated software which overrides the copy-controls, and burned myself a copy of the disc. IT plays in my car. I'm quite tempted to make more copies and sell them to my friends, just on principle.

EMI can kiss my ass.

gulty pleasures

I have to tell you all about Hershey's chocolate filled Classic Caramels. I have a bag in my desk, and I snarf a couple whenever I have a chance. They're delicious. I'm not a big Hershey fan, I'd take Cadbury any day of the week, but I can't resist these bad boys.

I also harbour secret admiration for Phil Collins' music.

in other news

I bought an optical mouse, and I'm loving it. The mouse that came with this swanky computer sucked hardcore, so now we have a fancy light-up one. oooh! it's quieter too, all the better for playing minesweeper with.

details

as per G.G.'s request, some personal info. I try to keep the revealing details to a minimum, but so long as we're all keeping to a fake name / first name basis, I guess some details can't hurt. Most of the relevant stuff you already know, have gleaned from my random postings, or found out in my 100 things list. Maybe it's time for a new list? I'll see what I can come up with. I'm 24, I teach high school art. I'm trained to be an English or Resource teacher. I've been with my boyfriend for over 4 years now, and I really don't like the word 'boyfriend', it sounds very jr high. We met at university, he lived down the hall from me in residence. There isn't a really romantic story behind it, I'm afraid. We were friends, his roommate was my roommate's boyfriend. We started dating, I really did try to do the casual thing, but that's just not me, so after a few months of that we decided we were a couple. We've been living together for...almost 3 years now, but even that started out as just as more a 'we need to get out of residence and it's too expensive to live alone' than a 'whee, let's play house' thing. We moved in together in the summer; we (I) got a cat in the fall, and then another one the following summer. We've talked about getting married, but not officially, and aren't really in a big rush.

now you know.

whee! finished

almost. 6 hours of PT meetings is TOO MUCH! I didn't have a lot of people, probably about 15 altogether. Nobody is overly concerned with how their children are doing in art. Can't imagine why. I don't like feeling like my job doesn't matter. I'm not pity-hunting here, it's just a fact that to most people, my job has no impact other than to fill time. The courses are mandatory, but not required for anything beyond being in grade 9 or 10. You can fail all your specialties, I'm fairly sure, and still pass the year, because who really cares. You can't take the upper level courses, but that's not an issue for most kids. Anyway, I'm nearly 3/4 done the year. I don't know what I'll be doing next year; I'm going to do some looking around. Grant is applying for jobs all over the place, so maybe he'll get some swanky high-paying job and I'll just leave with him. maybe.

Tomorrow is PD. I'm exhausted, so going to have a little nap. Nothing good is on tv tonight, except Survivor I guess. I love how shows give you like 8 episodes per year. Well worth the money those folks at Friends are being paid!

blech

We're in the middle of parent-teacher-athon. We had 1.5 hours last night, we have 2.5 tomorrow night, and another 2 Thursday afternoon. I had 4 parents last night, so I'm not expecting too much to come of any of this. People really just don't care about the art teacher, I have to say. Which is good and bad. I mean really, for the 9s and 10s who make up the bulk of my teaching load, the courses don't count for anything, so why should the parents care? It makes me feel mighty important though, I'll tell you that.

On a brighter and less tiring note, we went to see Taking Lives tonight, and it was pretty good. Jumpy, as I expected, but an interesting plot with a few twists. And you get to see Angelina's boobs. And Ethan Hawke's, for that matter. It takes place in Canada (Montreal), with mentions of Nova Scotia, Tracadie, Winnepeg, and Moncton. They are, at one point, actually in the Moncton train station, but not really, which was sort of disappointing, but as Grant pointed out, they probably do that all the time with US locations, we just wouldn't know better. Still neat.

I'm going to hit the hay because I have PT until 9 tomorrow night, and even if I'm not busy, it's still quite wearing. Thursday we have PD in the morning, PT in the afternoon; Friday we have PD all day, but I signed up for some interesting sounding workshops - media across the curriculum, how to start a school newspaper, and my favourite, 'dough sculpture'. That last one is designed for grades 6-8, but it sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon, and my jr high art teacher is running it. My last PD day was a complete waste of time, so I tried to pick a little more carefully this time.

I'm plugging away at my book, I'm at the part where he's explaining how life started on Earth. Seriously, it's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Here's an sampling:

"In three minutes, 98 percent of all the matter there is or will ever be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich."

Pretty informative, and entertaining to boot. What more could a girl ask for?

good day

Today was a good day.

Most recently, I just marked the latest batch of projects from my grade 10s, and they're mostly fantastic. I got them to write children's stories; some of them re-did exisiting stories, and others made up the stories on their own. They're not all entirely appropriate for kids, but some of them are darn funny. I'm asking to keep several, just for my own entertainment.

Just before I settled down to mark, I filed my income tax refund, and I'm getting a good chunk of change back. I *should* be able to pay off my line of credit entirely, so I'm pretty excited. Now, hopefully, I can actually start saving some money for a rainy day. Or a house, or something.

Earlier today, I was with my grade 9 class, and it was going really well. This is a big thing. The grade 9s are funny, they're pretty sweet kids, but they're really immature. Anyway, so I'm just meandering around the class, helping them with their projects (they were needing a lot of help because we started a new project today), and they're just being nice and sweet and working really well, when one of them says 'psssssst, Miss S! you have a visitor!' I looked over to the door, but there was nobody there. As I'm panning back across the classroom, I see my principal sitting at one of the corner tables in the class, taking notes. My first instinct is YARG!, but then I realized that things were going swimmingly, so I just kept doing what I was doing, and he kept doing what he was doing, and then after a while he was mysteriously gone again. I have to sidebar here. Thing one, as a first year contract teacher, I am required to be formally evaluated by the principal. If I get a positive eval., then next year I can get a permanent contract. Without the positive eval., there's no way to get one. So that's why I was a bit nervous, but I think I did well. Thing two is that my principal is like 6'7", 300lbs, so they fact that he was able to sneak in and out is pretty funny.

One last thing that didn't happen today but I forgot to mention earlier. One of my grade 12s from last semester asked me to write her a reference letter to get into art school. I had never written a reference letter before, but thanks to my best friend Google, I found some templates and apparently wrote a pretty good letter. I was talking to her the other day, and she thanked me profusely because she got in! I was so excited, it made my day. I helped someone! Like, with life! I feel good. I still don't think I want to teach art forever, but this helps to make it seem like a good thing for now.

a little encouragement never hurts

I've changed the comment link to sort of push you all in the right direction. I need to feel loved!

whee, green day!

but alas, there are no mint milkshakes at McDonald's, so the holiday just seems lacking.

in other news, you should download this, even though I'm sure running it is sucking the life out of my computer. It's just too freaking cute. You should also download the new handwriting plugin for messenger plus, but do so at your own risk, because it killed my mom's messenger.

100 most often mispronounced words and phrases

I miss teaching English. I couldn't resist these, because people sounding stupid is a real peeve of mine. Thanks to D for the link!

for mitch

because he liked it so much when I dedicated a post last time. He's got a new website, and it's purty. Check it out.

all cultured up

I've been to the ballet! It was called Merlin, but was quite different from the only Merlin I'm familiar with, which is Disney's Sword in the Stone version. It wasn't, honestly, very exciting. The lack of dialogue and constant dancing make the plot a bit hard to follow, but it was interesting to watch just for the skill of the dancers. And the shirtless men in tights. There was a synopsis of each scene in the program, which I read before it started but had to refer back to a few times. It did nothing for my self-image though, I'm feeling like maybe I should steal my sister's pilates videos or check to see about adult beginner ballet classes. I'm pretty sure I'd make a kick-ass ballerina.

In other news, 13 weeks of school until summer, quite a few of which are shortened for holidays and parent teacher interviews and such. Jobs for me to apply for should arrive in about a month; I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to try for, I'll just wait and see what comes up. I have to finish up my marking, progress reports go out in a week, and parent-teacher interviews are the 25th, so I need to have everything sorted out by then. As usual though, I would bet that the parents who should come in, won't, and the ones who do come in, I'll have nothing to say to. That's of the 10 people who will actually bother to stop by my table...I'm just the art teacher, after all. I actually had people sitting and chatting with me whose children I wasn't teaching; they were just waiting for the line for the English/math/science teachers to subside. *sigh*. Gives me a chance to get some marking and doodling done anyway.

How to Clear The Messenger Sign In History

whee! Again, Google has saved me, since nobody left any comments on how to fix this one. It was just annoying, because Grant had the computer at school, so a bunch of random people had used it to sign in. This is what I don't like about XP, it tries to be too helpful and save things and do things for you, but it's not usually what I want it to save or do.

I just noticed a dead fish, gross. I think it's the one that was having the expanding stomach issues. Time to clean the tank!

In honour of St. Patrick

Did you know he wasn't even Irish? He was kidnapped by pirates when he was 16 and became a slave, I think. But then he drove the snakes out of Ireland, or something.

My mom sent me these jokes, and I laughed out loud. I'm allowed, because I'm part Irish, way back.


Into a Belfast pub comes Paddy Murphy, looking like he'd just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cut and bruised and he's walking with a limp.
"What happened to you?" asks Sean, the bartender.
"Jamie O'Conner and me had a fight," says Paddy.
"That little shit, O'Conner," says Sean, "He couldn't do that to you, he must have had something in his hand"
"That he did," says Paddy, "a shovel is what he had, and a terrible lickin' he gave me with it."
"Well," says Sean, "you should have defended yourself, didn't you have something in your hand?"
"That I did," said Paddy... "Mrs. O'Conner's breast, and a thing of beauty it was, but useless in a fight."

===============================================

An Irishman who had a little too much to drink is driving home from the city one night and, of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road. A cop pulls him over. "So," says the cop to the driver, where have ya been?"
"Why, I've been to the pub of course," slurs the drunk.
"Well," says the cop, "it looks like you've had quite a few to drink this evening."
"I did all right," the drunk says with a smile.
"Did you know," says the cop, standing straight and folding his arms across his chest, "that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?"
"Oh, thank heavens," sighs the drunk. "For a minute there, I thought I'd gone deaf."

=======================================================

Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door. "Brenda, may I come in?" he asks. "I've somethin' to tell ya".
"Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim. But where's my husband?"
"That's what I'm here to be telling ya, Brenda." There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..."
"Oh, God no!" cries Brenda. "Please don't tell me."
"I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus is dead and gone. I'm sorry."
Finally, she looked up at Tim. "How did it happen, Tim?"
"It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat of Guinness Stout and drowned."
"Oh my dear Jesus! But you must tell me true, Tim. Did he at least go quickly?"
"Well, Brenda... no. In fact, he got out three times to pee."

==================================================

Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears. He says,
"So what's bothering you, Mary my dear?"
She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news. My husband passed away last night."
The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Tell me, Mary, did he have any last requests?"
She says, "That he did, Father."
The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary?
" She says, "He said, 'Please Mary, put down that damn gun...'

====================================================

A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church, enters a
confessional booth, sits down but says nothing. The Priest coughs a
few times to get his attention but the drunk continues to sits there.
Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall. The drunk
mumbles, "ain't no use knockin; there's no paper on this side either."

How to display your web site logo on the address bar and in the favorites list

I love Google. I'm always so surprised if ever I can't find something on the internet. It's like...it's the internet, you know? If I can't find it here....

To see the icon, add or re-add (overwrite) this site to your favourites. It might take a second, but it seems to be working for most people! You may have to restart explorer too, and I have no idea if it works in like, Mozilla or anything. It's a bit of trouble, but it's so worth it! ha.

edit: Mitch helped me, he has a fancy icon for his page too. I would truly be nothing without him and his veritable wealth of knowledge and opinions about everything.

whee!

maybe. The address bar / favourites list icon thing seems to be working...or it was, then I changed it and deleted all my temp files, and now it doesn't seem to be working, but it might show up later, we'll see. Are any of you seeing it? I had to change it because the first program I used to make the icon put a watermark in it, boo. I think this one didn't, but I can't see it to tell!

still working on getting rid of the list of names in messenger.

needed: tech help

not really needed, but desired, I guess. Thing one. You know how in winXP, with messenger, it saves the whole list of people who have ever used your computer to sign on? That's annoying, do you know how to delete those names? I always have to scroll through a list of people who, in all likelihood, will never sign on here again. I'm lazy; what can I say.
Thing two. You know how some sites like Blogger and Google have cool little pictures beside their names in the address bar, and in your favourites, instead of the IE 'e' thing? Does anyone know how to do that? That's pretty fun.

The first week back from March break was killer, but is almost over. I know you don't have any sympathy for me, since I did in fact get a week off, but it's harsh. There's a reason teachers get so much time off. We'd murder students otherwise. Seriously. I had sort of a fun day today though, went to a trade/career fair with the grade 10 classes. It was much better than I anticipated, with lots of hands-on stuff for the kids to do, instead of the standard old people standing around with pamphlets. They had CPR dummies for the kids to work on, and they could weld, lay bricks, make little wooden things to hang on keychains or necklaces. Not all of the kids got something out of it, but it was a very refreshing change from the usual tunnel-vision focus on the 30% of kids who will be going on to university. I want there to be some kind of vocational / trade high school here again, I think it's just stupid not to have one. I'll stop before I get ranty.

I don't have any real plans for the weekend, it's snowing out pretty well right now, but I seriously doubt there'll be another snow day if there's anything less than 4 feet of snow down. We've had 9 days already. I realize it's probably because of what I teach, but I don't really mind. I can speed the kids up or leave out the less important things. Some other teachers agree with me; some thought we should have lost March Break to make up for it. I'm half done with my 3rd group of 9s and 10s, and I've got some absolutely amazing talent in my 11/12 class. I'm going to see if one of the girls in the 11 class wants to move up to the 12; she hasn't taken the 11 class, which is normally prerequisite, but she's just produces fantastic work, is in grade 12, and there's really very little she can get out of the 11 class. I've talked about it with the admin, and I've got to make up some sort of concrete criteria so that we won't have every other art 11 student trying to move up. Which is fair, and I think I've got it about done. The rules are strict, but I do have to maintain the importance of the 11 class, since most kids don't even think they have to take it in order to do the 12.

That was probably pretty boring for you, I apologize. I just finished watching Survivor, and I'm a bit sad to see Colby go, that's one less piece of eye candy for me. hehe. Plus, now that tribe is going to suck hardcore. I'm hoping there is no merge, that would be reeeeally funny. Just keep playing as a team, and now that you have only 2 good players, you'll lose, and you can all get voted off. Except Kathy, she can go to the other tribe.

The Matrix Reloaded: The Abridged Script

For Mitch.
I love this website, I'm so glad this guy's back. He also did an excellent job of The Matrix: Reloaded, which I hated, so loved his mocking it.

so sad it's funny

Have any of you seen The Surreal Life? It looks really funny, but mainly in a, 'haha, Cory Feldman!' kind of way. We're just about to start getting season 1 on MuchMoreMusic. I might have to watch. Apparently season 2 has already started, with such stellar celebrities as Vanilla Ice. I think season 1, with MC Hammer, Jerri "the Survivor bitch", and the guy who played Webster, is much more promising.

Pop Culture

I got 10/10

Supposedly, I "read a good cross section of newspapers and am constantly on the lookout for the next big trend." You all count on me to recommend movies and books and art exhibits.

Most of what I know about pop culture is gleaned from Friends, the Simpsons, and Entertainment Tonight.

Online quizzes

How Sexy Are You? I'm a siren.

I've been learning about myself this evening. Watched a decent movie called SLC Punk, but it's over and now Grant is watching hockey, so I'm doing quizzes on the Life Network page. So far, I've learned that I'm a super-sexy siren, but also that I need to let loose a little bit, that I need a hug, that I'm ready to have a baby (ha), that I should run, not walk, down the aisle (ha, again), that I have 'true romance', and other stuff that I can't remember anymore. I've always liked quizzes, even though they're horribly inaccurate sometimes. It's interesting to see how some formula figures me out. I'll let you know if I find anything really interesting out about myself.

lurkers

who are you? 166 people have visited this site since I switched to this domain. I know that's not 166 separate entities, but I think it is more than just the ... 6 people I can think of off the top of my head. Join in the fun, leave a comment or something!

signs of spring

for me, the first real sign of spring, other than the warmer weather and rain (which we've had lately, yay!), is Tim Horton's Roll Up the Rim to Win. I never win anything beyond a free coffee; I'm not sure what the big ticket item is this year. My theory is that in the warmer weather, people like myself who are more about the hot chocolates and mochas start to buy less, so they bring out the contest to keep us interested. It works, of course.

I'm still muddling my way through A Short History of Nearly Everything, but not because I'm a terribly slow reader. I've read a couple of other books in the meantime, to break it up a bit. It's all very interesting, but it's quite fact-filled, so a bit slow going. Recently I've learned that there are a lot of people who have discovered very important things and not gotten any credit for it, and that we are all here due in no small part to incest. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre both made outstanding discoveries relating to radiation, as most of you know. He started showing signs of radiation sickness but was, mercifully, run over and killed by a carriage before he could feel its full effects. Marie was not so lucky and died of lukemia; her papers are now kept in lead lined boxes and can only be handled when the viewer is wearing protective clothing.

more to come!

earth-shattering revelations

Next thing you know, men will be staying home and cooking, and women will be going to work!

From Erin.

new stuff

well, new to me. We now have the sweet boy's computer here, which is newer and much faster than my old one. Old Bessy has gone to live at Grant's parents' place until I figure out if I want to sell it or what. It's giving me grief about the modem, because I haven't used it in so long, and have formatted, and it doesn't seem to be installed now.

I've also gotten a fixed retainer put in, because my regular retainer sucks. This is much more fun, I don't have to worry about it and it just stays in all the time. Mainly because it's cemented to my teeth, on the back, so nobody knows!

I've been up to absolutely nothing lately, which I think is ok, and sort of the point of being on break. I have marking to do, and I will do it, but knowing me, probably not until the weekend. I'd like to go see a movie or something, but there's not really anything playing that I *must* see. I'm waffling about The Passion, I want to see it just to see it, but it's quite violent and stuff, so I don't really want to see it. Decisions decisions! My plan for today is to go buy School of Rock, because that movie kicks serious ass. I'm also waiting for Elf to come out. Hopefully they won't wait until next Christmas to release it.

off to eat, I've only had a bagel today and my stomach is complaining.