Archive for May, 2007

Just One More Time…

{ May 25, 2007 @ 11:38 pm } · { Brother, Language }
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I swear if I hear the the word ‘amazing’ one more time I’m going to scream.  It’s just one more example of the linguistic laziness that is rampant in our society.  Other examples would be ‘cute’, ‘interesting’, and ‘awesome’. 

I remember years ago when my brother went on a similar rant about the overuse of the word ‘interesting’.  It really stuck with me.  To the point where nowadays when it’s on the tip of my tongue I flail around frantically in my mind for something more expressive.  Although I must admit that if I’m speaking to someone other than Doug I sometimes just let it slip out. 

28 Days Later

{ May 19, 2007 @ 7:30 pm } · { Movies }
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I decided to see this movie in preparation for 28 Weeks Later – which looks like a good movie from all the commercials I’ve seen.

I’m not really a fan of science fiction unless it’s a really good story.  I don’t know if this movie qualifies as science fiction but I don’t know what else I would call it.  It does, however, have an excellent story.  There’s a romantic storyline, a redemption storyline, and a plain old apocolypse storyline. 

It begins with a woman letting loose an infected animal a la pandora’s box.  She is dealt with in a manner that lets the viewer know exactly what the movie is all about – kill or be killed.  As with all great movies one never knows quite when it’s going to happen however.  Reminds me of one of the Exorcist movies in that respect (the one where you see the bad guy scuttling in the background unbeknownst to the protagonist – startles the heck out of me every time I see it).

It’s also the type of movie where the good guys die, and sometimes you’re not even sure who the good guys are.  It keeps you on your proverbial toes.  I like the part where the young girl, after suffering much misfortune, then seeing her saviour shot point-blank in the chest, reverses the car she’s driving and delivers the evil man to the infected (he gets ripped right out of the back window).  It’s a satisfying moment.

I cannot finish without mentioning the haunting images of a deserted London.  I imagine they used digital photography to remove the people and cars because even first thing in the morning there must be people about in the places he visits.  The cinematography is startlingly original.  The rare but brilliant colours, and use of light and dark blend together to create a surrealistic and stark atmosphere that evokes a true sense of hope amidst apparent ruin.

The movie is full of comedic little moments that are sometimes quite subtle.  I’m sure there are many references to such classics as “Night of the Living Dead”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and “The Day of the Triffids” etc.  There is a moment in the movie when one of the bad guys approaches a vehicle and it made me flash back to a movie I watched as a child (behind my parent’s backs no doubt) in which a character does the same thing and is horribly startled when a madwoman suddenly presses her face against the glass.  Scared me silly.

I might also add that the male star of the movie (I have no idea who he is) is quite easy on the eyes.  To quote the movie “hello!”

Dear Deer

{ May 16, 2007 @ 1:36 pm } · { Adrenaline, Animal Control, Brother, California, Deer }
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I saved Bambi once.  One of the cooler things I’ve done in my life and one of the most memorable.

I was driving down the long, winding, wooded road to my job at the tennis club.  Coming around a bend I looked up to the top of a hill and noticed a deer standing up by a wrought iron fence that surrounded the yard of one of the neighbourhood’s wealthy occupants.  Nothing unusual there until I noticed the mini deer standing next to it.  The mini deer was just a baby.  Half the height and probably a third of the weight of its mother.  The baby deer’s haunches were wedged between two bars of the fence. 

I watched as a garbage truck (with two burly guys in it) drove by.  I watched again as a large pickup truck drove by.  I knew they had to have seen the deer but neither vehicle stopped.  Hmmph I thought, so much for men. 

My anxiety level was rising.  I am always completely overcome by desperate situations that involve animals.  I stopped my car, not even thinking what I would do, and looked up at the house.  I could see an older couple framed in the picture window with a phone in the hand of the gentleman.  They were looking at the deer.  I knew what that meant.  ANIMAL CONTROL.  I had had many encounters with animal control.  In my experience they would come out and take the animal away and that would be that.  For some reason they are reticent to just let animals go.  Anyways, I couldn’t let that happen.

I approached the deer and realized that deer are much bigger than one would think.  Especially when you are looking up at them.  Mama deer didn’t budge from her spot next to baby.  Baby’s haunches were scraped and bloody from trying desperately to free itself.  It struggled as I approached.  My brother later told me I was lucky that mama deer didn’t rip me a new one but to this day I think she sensed I was there to help. 

I looked at the bars and decided the only thing to do would be to widen them so the baby could slip through.  My heart was pumping like mad which probably accounts for the adrenaline.  I placed my hands on the bars, heard a noise and stopped.  It was the garbage truck coming back.  I suddenly flashed to the horrible sight of me freeing the deer and watching as they ran headlong into the path of the garbage truck.  So I waited.  Moments later I bent the bars apart (still QUITE amazed about that – seemed like nothing at the time, but today I try it on similar bars and they don’t budge), and sure enough the deer shot down the hill and across the road.  They didn’t even look both ways.

I ran back to my car before the owners of the fence could voice their opinions.  But thinking about it afterwards I realized that I could feel only good vibrations emanating from the house – concern.  They didn’t care about the fence (they were rich anyways) and I think I felt their relief as the deer was freed from its prison.  Anyways, everyone around there knew I was the manager of the tennis club so I’m sure I would have heard about it if the people had been upset and I never did.

I like to think about that deer, alive and well, living in California – with maybe a few scars from its brush with a humanity.

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

{ May 13, 2007 @ 2:14 pm } · { Cannibalism, Homosexuality, Movies }
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What can I say about this movie?  It was shocking to say the least.  The commentator warned us viewers that it included such taboo subjects (at the time) as homosexuality, incest, and cannibalism, but I didn’t think that the three would be interwoven in such a dramatic and bizarre manner.  Perhaps I should have known since it was based on a play written by Tennessee Williams but there you go.

To tell you more of what happened would spoil the ending.  Granted there is a lot of foreshadowing that gives one a pretty good idea of what is to come, but the ending is so horrific that even if one feels certain they know they will still be surprized by the sheer violence of it all.

It is the strangest and most compelling movie of that era I have ever seen.  The fact that it stars Katherine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, and Elizabeth Taylor doesn’t hurt.  Both Katherine and Elizabeth were nominated for an Oscar for their roles (neither won).  At the end of filming Katherine spat on the the director, and never spoke to him again.  Apparently she objected to his treatment of Monty whose homosexuality he apparently had issue with.  One can almost understand why the director would want to direct this movie, harboring such sentiments.  In some ways it can be seen as a morality play, ie look what happens to homosexuals when they let their desires get the best of them.

The movie is too complex for such a simple explanation however.  You must see it in order to know what I mean. 

God save the sea turtles.

I had a Dream.

{ May 10, 2007 @ 1:15 pm } · { Dreams }
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Å en Norsk. Jeg Snakke.  Behage.

Lies My Mum Told Me…

{ May 6, 2007 @ 6:50 pm } · { Brother, California, Canada, Cats, Lillian, Mum, Myself }
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The Family Circa 1969The Family Circa 1969 

 I love my Mum.  She is unique to my eyes, and she’s a very smart cookie.  She had a lot to deal with while my two brothers and I were growing up and I think she did the best she knew how.  Some of her tactics however were quite intriguing as I look back.

For instance, as a child we would go shopping together in the department store in Los Altos, California where I spent the early part of my childhood.  One day we were riding the escalator and she told me not to stick my head over the railing.  I think I did so anyways, so the next time we were there she told me the story about the little girl who got her head cut off riding up the escalator (she didn’t even tell me to not stick my head over the railing again because I might have caught on that she was trying to teach me a lesson).  She said the little girl stuck her head out too far and it got chopped off by the plastic divider between floors.  Well I never forgot that.  I was completely fascinated and asked so many questions every time we rode an escalator from then on that I think she may have wished she had never mentioned it.  It did, however, keep me from sticking my head over the railing.

When we moved to Canada I was still quite young – about 7.  We lived in a small town in the countryside for the first two years.  My Mum liked visiting old graveyards and reading the tombstones.  It was on one of these trips that we passed an old barn and my mother told me the story of the little girl who ran into an old barn to chase down her ball.  She fell through the floor and died.  No doubt this has actually happened on occasion so it wasn’t a complete fabrication.  And once again I was fascinated.  Every time I looked at a barn from then on I would remember that story.

Mum’s coup de gras came when I was in highschool a few years later.  I had the terrible habit of leaving my curling iron plugged in after styling my ever-so-popular Farrah Fawcett hairstyle in the morning.  That was in the days before they had auto shut-offs.  My mother kept telling me to remember to shut off my curling iron, but I kept forgetting.  One day I got a call at the school.  My mother said in her iciest tone that she would be picking up me and my best friend, Lillian, from school that afternoon.  She wouldn’t tell me what was wrong but I knew something was up.

She picked us up and drove towards Lillian’s house.  On the way she said there had been a fire.  She said it was from the curling iron and trust me my Mum could win an academy award for her performance.  I didn’t believe her at first but she didn’t cave and when I asked about my cat she said she didn’t make it out.  Well I burst into tears.  Lillian got out at her house and we drove home with me bawling in the back seat.  When we got home I ran upstairs (it was a rather large house so it didn’t surprise me that there was no evidence of fire in the foyer).  There had been no fire.  My cat was sleeping on my bed.  I called Lillian to tell her, and she said my Mum was ‘crazy’ or something to that effect but that she was glad everything was okay. 

You would think I might be a little scarred by that incident and perhaps I was because from then on I became paranoid I had left my curling iron on.  I remember calling from the payphone at school on many occasions to ask her to check.  Even to this day I double-check my hair straightener and stove burners are off before I leave for work.  And, thanks to my brother, I unplug anything that contains a heating element – like my toaster and portable heater.  So I guess you could say it’s a good thing…a few weeks ago a guy’s whole house burned down because he went out and left a battery charger plugged in.  I guess his mother never lied to him…  

Moi

{ May 5, 2007 @ 1:17 pm } · { Art, Isaac Newton, Myself }
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You know those annoying emails one gets from their friends that asks them 20 questions about their preferences?  Yeah.  I get those.  But unlike some people, I find them very interesting.  I had to interview some people at work the other day.  I tell you that I would pass up all the questions they make us ask in those interviews for this simple list of questions.  I’m going to include my answers so you all can extrapolate my psychological profile at will.

1:  What is your favorite color (reminds me of a book I read as a child “The Luscher Color Test – my step-mother is a psychologist and has many interesting books in her library):  yellow-orange.

2:  What is your favorite media artist:  Sir John Everett Millais (painter 1829 – 1896)

3:  Musical group or artist:  The Beatles

4:  Movie:  (Ooooooh tough one)  Bad Boys (with Sean Penn)

5:  Movie star:  Sean Penn (male), Kristy McNichol (female)

6:  Animated movie or TV show:  Ice Age

7:  TV show:  The Partridge Family

8:  Book:  Thinner, by Stephen King (ending was stupid though)

9:  Website:  AllRecipes.com

10:  What figure in history would you like to meet:  Isaac Newton (I would like to ask him how he came to the conclusion that the world is going to end before 2060, and what he was seeking with all his alchemical experiments*)

11:  What is your favorite vehicle:  1981 Nissan 280zx Turbo

1981 Nissan 280ZX Turbo Photographic Print

12:  If you could have any job in the world what would it be:  Ballet dancer

13:  What is your favorite food:  Burritos

14:  What is your favorite dessert:  Chocolate layer cake (even though I like caramel much better than chocolate – I’ve just never heard of a caramel layer cake…damned chocolate-based society!)

15:  Drink:  Chocolate milk (yes I appreciate the irony re: #14)

16:  What is your favorite way of passing time:  puttering

17:  Favorite animal:  the cat in all shapes and sizes  (I would ask your favorite insect but you might think me strange – I like flies)

18:  Favorite city:  New York

19:  Favorite country:  I think I like England the best but I haven’t seen enough of it to be sure.  Perhaps Ireland.

20:  If you could holiday anywhere:  Norway

I’ll be interested to read this in a year or so to see how my tastes have changed.  Wow, what a self-indulgent way to spend a Saturday morning!

*  If you have not read about the life of Isaac Newton you have missed out.  He was a true genius; the co-creator of calculus, and the first person to refer to gravity and explain its effects.  He explained the laws of motion (in particular as applied to the planets), the theory of color, he was the inventor of the reflective telescope, and much more.  Above all he believed that it was impossible for the universe to exist in all it’s perfect glory without the grand planning of some great and powerful creator.  He spent years deciphering the bible for clues to alchemical truths.  I have included the three laws of motion for your delight and edification:

Newton’s First Law (also known as the Law of Inertia) states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and that an object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force.

  1. Newton’s Second Law states that an applied force, F, on an object equals the time rate of change of its momentum, p. Mathematically, this is written as \vec F = \frac{d\vec p}{dt} \, = \, \frac{d}{dt} (m \vec v) \, = \, \vec v \, \frac{dm}{dt} + m \, \frac{d\vec v}{dt} \,. Assuming the mass to be constant, the first term vanishes. Defining the acceleration to be \vec a \ =\ d\vec v/dt results in the famous equation \vec F = m \, \vec a \,, which states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force acting on the object and inversely proportional to its mass. In the MKS system of measurement, mass is given in kilograms, acceleration in metres per second squared, and force in newtons (named in his honour).
  2. Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Who?

{ May 3, 2007 @ 1:26 pm } · { Blogs, Myself }
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 Hands

I know this guy who has a blog.  And on this blog he talks about all the things in in life, including his friends, family and lovers.  But despite the time and effort I have spent getting to know him he has never mentioned me.  It’s like I didn’t pass the test (which he actually referred to when I met him).  It’s not a good feeling.  I know I should have the confidence to see it as a glitch in his own personality but I don’t.  I see it as a personal failure.  I see it as not being good enough.  I must be inadequate emotionally, physically, pschologically, or intellectually.  Perhaps a combination of all four.  According to him I have a tendency to feel sorry for myself.  Perhaps so, but I think there are worse things one could have as a personality trait.  Like being an arrogant ass.  Anyways, I digress.

What to do? 

Cut all (imaginary) ties? 

Plug away and hope for change? 

Pretend I don’t care?

Post a blog and wait for good advice?

I guess time will tell.  I just hope I hear it and do the right thing.