Okay, now this may seem kinda weird, but one of the most important questions remaining to me now regarding the Olympics is who will carry the torch up the stairs and light the cauldron at the opening ceremonies?

Being a life-long resident of BC thus far, and I proud Canadian, I think this is huge.  Who we pick not only says that we are proud and intend to kick ass at the games (though is there any doubt?), but signifies who we are as a nation.

In the past, the cauldron-lighters have been chosen for any number of reasons (according to Wikipedia): the propagandous 1936 Olympics picked a dude who looked good running, to professional descendents of Greek athletes, to an entire hockey team, in order to show their strength as a nation only to be trounced by their Northernly neighbours (ya, that was the Salt Lake games and ya, both the Canadian women and men kicked - sorry, I'll be less of a bitch about my country once the Olympics are done).  Anyhoo, the first example shows the style isn't better than substance and the last one shows that you shouldn't do cocky bastard stuff because mockery may ensue.  Also, Canada doesn't have a track record of choosing those best representing athleticism: Montreal gave the honour to some teenagers, and a 12-year-old figure skater finished the job in Calgary.

Now, this brings me to the contenders for my Olympics:

1. Betty Fox (mother of Terry Fox, superhero legend of Canada)
2. Wayne Gretzky ("Great One," poor Olympian)
3. Rick Hansen (slightly less renowned hero; Paralympian)
4. Barbra Ann Scott (actually a gold medalist, 81 years old)
5. Trevor Linden (Captain Canuck, minor god)
6. Nancy Green Raine (who? pre-eliminated, in my books)

Now first, I'm going to straight up eliminate Linden and Scott.  Now, I'm a Canuck fan and therefore have an undying love for Trevor Linden, maybe one of the biggest sweethearts in hockey, ever, but his name doesn't resound terribly well across even Canada and we have to think globally.  I vote he carries it somewhere awesome, but not to the cauldron.  Scott is - according to royal asshat Scott Russel of the CBC - the only real Olympian on the list (despite Hansen's many Paralympic accomplishments), so she would make an alright choice.  But, she won one medal, I have never heard of her and, given her age, I'm guessing few Canucks have.  For that reason, and my fears about sending an 81 year old up any stairs, I would rather see her somewhere lower down the line.

This leaves us Fox, Gretzky, and Hansen.

Rick Hansen is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.  This incredible man has toured 34 countries (including going across all of Canada) in his Man in Motion tour, to raise money to help find a way to repair the damage of spinal cord injuries.  He hails from BC (unlike Gretzky) and would be a powerful image and say a lot about our nation, I think, were he to light the caulron.  Unfortunately, I highly doubt this will be the case, due to The Television People.  This is obviously aired and I think they'll have far to much say.

Which leaves us two Canadian icons: Fox and Gretzky.

I would love to say that my country would make the obvious choice and pick Betty Fox.  She is the mother of Terry Fox and I believe she would help inspire the nation, the games, and the world.  Please, if you do not know who Terry Fox is, I urge you to look him up.  I was raised on stories of this remarkable man, so I'll give you a super quick synopsis (based solely on what I recall, sorry for any lacking facts): Born in PoCo, BC(!!!!), Fox was a gifted athlete.  While still rather young, he was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his leg amputated below the knee.  Not to be beaten down for long, he began training and appealing for sponsors/media attention/etc to begin the Marathon of Hope, his goal being to raise $1 from every Canadian for the Canadian Cancer Society to help in the fight against cancer.  In 1980, he set off from St John's, Newfoundland with the intended goal to run a marathon everyday until he reached Victoria, BC.  By the time he reached Ontario, he was a phenom, with people running alongside him and cheering as he passed.  Just shy of Thunder Bay, Ontario, lung issues forced Fox to stop his run in order to enter the hospital.  A telethon held in his name after he stopped earned more than $10 million in a day (and I seem to recall an anecdote of a kid calling in to donate his parent's house).  Fox was diagnosed as having had his cancer metastasized to his lungs.  He died shortly after.  To this day, Terry Fox is a hero in Canada: schools, roads, and mountains are named for him; he has a statue in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, his intended finish line at the Pacific Ocean; and yearly, Terry Fox Runs are held across the country to earn money for Cancer Research.

The intention for Betty Fox's run would be have a film made using footage of Terry's run, altered to have him carry a flame, for her to receive the flame from him and then light the cauldron.  This would undoubtably be an incredibly touching and beautiful moment and I can't imagine it going down any other way. 

The other choice is Wayne. fucking. Gretzky.  This man has tormented my life since early childhood, being all omnipresent.  He is not from BC, now lives in America and is married to an American (not that I don't like America, but these are Canada's olympics, sorry dears).  The man never won a medal for his hockey-playing ability and, to be honest, there are greats from the past who are still alive and would be better choices.  The man is a hockey player with no real ties remaining to Canada and his dad is already carrying the torch (and really, he's the dude who was the Hockey Dad, so he's probably earned it more).  My disappointment will be palbable at the Opening Ceremonies if this man turns out to be the one who has the high honour of lighting the caulron.

Okay, so that's my long-winded opinion, anyone care to share theirs?  We'll know who was chosen Friday at the moment the torch is passed over.

(PS: I need a Canadian icon, all I have a silly ones about Cthulu and whatnot...)

First off, I watched the halftime show from some little, unknown event on youtube today and the Who officially sucked balls during their performance.  Not so much everyone else as Pete Townsend.  I was almost embarrased to be a fan, though Daltrey nailed his scream pretty well.  All told though, Townsend blew his singing, his guitaring, his way-over-doing-the-windmill-much-ing, and the arrangement for the performance, which was awkward and stilted at best.  Apparently the Saints won this obscure event, so I have been plauged by terrible English all evening as people "Who dat?" at every possible moment (WHAT SIGNIFICANCE DOES THAT EVEN HAVE!?).  Summary: the Who failed at a show I was eagerly anticipating to the point of thinking it occurred a week earlier than it actually did and I still don't like football.

Awesome news of the weekend, though:

Neil Gaiman is doing an episode of Doctor Who.  I can think of very few things that are possibly more nerdgasmic than that.  I hope the ep involves the cheesy staples of the Cybermen or the Daleks (despite the fact that a lot of people over at that terribly oh no you didn't thing seem to think those baddies are anything other than joyous nemesi).  Or that he introduces something fairly unique, like the episode Blink (I think that's right?) so wowed me with.  So yay.

I finished "Water for Elephants" a few days ago and I highly highly recommend it.  It was a "rollercoaster of emotion" (sorry): I laughed and cried and was told a fantastic story throughout.  The author's attention to biological detail was much improved over "Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters" and the style kept me turning the pages well past when I should have put the book down and studied.  So, go read it.  I'm now reading "The Sandman" and "Good Omens" (again.  It's more awesome the second time, I'm ashamed to admit I missed Elvis on the first go).

Anyhoo, that's about that.  Though I want to add that Lucifer in "the Sandman" looks fantastically like David Bowie.

Yeah, it's not my birthday at all, but this is awesome and stolen from jamie2109 :

Err... I can't find the little description-y, but you're supposed to say the top song on your birthday, with a video:  (Note: it's official, the US has the worst taste in music, then Canada, and the UK's song was actually kinda catchy):

No. 1 in the States was "Anything for You" by Gloria Estefan (youtube taught me that is wasn't a "v" in her last name):

( Here's was the Canada and UK charts have to say )
I'm pretty much glad the amount of time I spent in the '80's was limited.

Woah, dudes.  This is weird stuff: I was thinking what kinds of quotes I would think about immortalizing (first on my wall, but then I was trying to decide a short one that would be a good tattoo...) and lo, I'm led to this website:

http://www.contrariwise.org/ - It's my freakin' lj name and it's dedicated to inked book, etc quotes.  Trippy.  Though they spelled contrarywise wrong (and left out the numerical I utilize).  Just thought I'd share.

Also, JD Salinger died, which is a bummer.  I rather enjoyed "Catcher in the Rye."  Not that it inspired me to kill anyone, as it seems to do some people.

But that bring me to books!  I just signed up for goodreads.com and proceeded to waste a bunch of time on it.  Here's my page-y thing here:

http://www.goodreads.com/c0ntrarywise


One final note:  The media confuzzles me.  I just learned today how ridiculously easy it is to take someone's quote out of context.  Not that I didn't know that before, but this is to the point where there are serious implications in the misinformation...

I'm working on getting my MP3 player up and going again, so I put the music from my external hard-drive on to iTunes (4052 songs so far and that only includes very few of my CDs... oops).  So, I figured I would give a music meme a go, because I've seen a bunch about and haven't been able to do any, owing to my lacking computer-based music collection.  This one I stole from aldehyde, and the shuffle is not from an MP3 player, but rather iTunes:

Step 1: Put your MP3 player on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 15 songs that play.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1)  She keeps Moet et Chandon in a pretty cabinet
2)  Just around the corner, there's heartache
3)  When the night has come and the land is dark
4)  I took a course in hallelujah, I went to night school for de blues
5)  I lay me down tonight, much further down
6)  They painted up your secrets with the lies they told to you
7)  The war was over and the spirit was broken
8)  My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
9)  Saw you stretched out in room ten oh nine
10)  When the time is right and the night is bright
11)  You've got me girl on the run around run around
12)  Well with buck shot eyes and a purple heart
13)  I can see very well there's a boat on the reef with a broken back
14)  She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean
15)  I 'd gladly lose me to find you

Feel free to guess for as many as you like, anyone, because there won't be all that many guesses had ;)  Some are terribly easy, so not so much, so good luck!

Fairly certain this is Bad News Bears:

www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/01/25/consumer-ticketmaster-livenation.html

It seems like the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger has come with some alright caveats, but this is still the merger of the two biggest companies in the live preformance racket.  It doesn't much matter that venues are allowed to choose who they sell their tickets through, because most of them are owned by Live Nation.  I think this strikes a huge blow to the music industry, as ridonculousness like this can easily be related to the industry's gagging demise in terms of record sales.  Shame, court systems, for allowing this to occur.

Much more awesome, is a battle to the death, once and for all, between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (with Peter Petrelli siding with the Hobbits):

paralleluniverse.msn.com/ultradome/

The title reminds me I haven't talked about "Stardust" yet.  And it's not happening in this post.  One day, maybe.  (Though Neil Gaiman has a kicking Cthulhu story on his website - http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/I_Cthulhu).  And his kitty was put down for the same thing that killed my childhood cat :(

Oh, meme.  I stole this one from srsly_yes. 

1.) Look up ten of your favorite films on IMDB.
2.) Go to "trivia" and pick out the most interesting fact about each film.
3.) Copy + paste!

I had a terrible time trying to keep it down to ten (I forgot "Rear Window" and "Dr. Strangelove" for example).  So what follows is a list of ten movies I like (in no particular order) and if you feel I missed one that should be amoung my faves, I probably did.


( Film wonderful film! )

Also of note:  I am currently terribly obsessed with "Heroes."  Having moved past the "Holy [enter power here], Batman, that's just like [enter corrosponding hero/villain]" stage.  I am now on to nerdily noticing the cameos.  Like Stan Lee the bus driver.  Sigh.  I can't decide whether Hiro or Sylar are my fav characters.  Noah is definitely who I cheer on the most.

(I can never quite catch how one might spell what Rafiki says, so the title was nabbed from IMDB)

You might be able to guess from the title, but I just watched "The Lion King."  It was far and away my favourite Disney movie as a child, I watched it all the time.  Often enough that I could about quote the whole movie if I chose while I just watched it...  It reminded me just how much I loved that movie, though: Mufasa, with his awesome voice and kingliness, Timone and Pumbaa as a wonderful comedy duo, Scar teaching me that evil exists in the world and it has the voice of Jeremy Irons.  And Elton's music :)  Great stuff.

I think that the only children's movie that would compete in my mind now is "Up."  That movie had me bawling my eyes out within the first ten minutes and lifted my spirits amazingly.  I came out of that movie feeling better than pretty much any movie ever.  It was a truly cathartic experience (assuming I got the right phrase).  I was quite glad it won a Golden Globe - one of the few awards I was actually satisfied with the presentation of - and I really would hope it might win a Best Picture Oscar, though I don't even know if it got nominated.  It was a very beautiful and wonderfully written movie.

Speaking of writing, there seems to be quite the hate-on for Neil Gaiman and his new fiance right now on the internet.  Yes, her dress at the globes was terrible and a number of her twits from the event were fairly pretensious and holier-than-thou, but they are "arty people" (in the complex and odd way I separate my fellow university students into two groups - the other are "scientists" and they are a whole other kettle of fish) and I wouldn't expect anything else. 

But a lot of women are having kittens over the fact that Gaiman wrote something about how "So-And-So is not your bitch," taking it way out of context and blowing the thing out of proportion.  Yes, he used the term "bitch" again while talking to the New Yorker writer, but in a way that irked me more in being treated vaguely like a member of the "sheeple" rather than a poor, betrodden (might have made that word up) woman.  Gaiman utilizes many female characters that are very strong - I can think of very few male characters as strong as the majority of the females in his stories - and I think a misogynist is the last thing I would ever call him.  I also don't think he seems the type that would ever treat something as serious as rape intentionly lightly.  Personally, I didn't associate these terms with negative views/feelings at all towards women.  I think the fumes from your bra-burnings are clouding your brains, philosophizing feminists.  I don't mean to come off like I feel "women belong in the kitchen" or something silly, if it seems that way to you, but come off it, please.  There are actual people out there who don't feel women are equal to men in terms of rights and the like, so please spend your time grousing at them.  (Like my boss from the summer, who told me I should be more of a "Chatty Cathy" because I was uncharacteristically quite for a female.  That, I would submit, is sexist).

And actually "philosophizing" drags me awkwardly and with a poor vocabulary to "Watchmen and Philosophy," which I finished up.  It was pretty good, considering I roll my eyes at philosophy typically (sorry).  It was fairly funny and rather informative, only one paper really made me cringe, as it was someone who might be considered to be on the opposite end entirely from my views on LGBT issues writting about closeted superheroes.  The author really tried, but it came off terribly awkwardly, like he was trying to convice readers of the fact he has gay friends, so it's cool he writes on the issue.  Which of course it's cool he writes on the issue, no one needed a resume as to his right to do so.  Overall, definitely interesting, though some of the papers seemed like it took them x number of pages to say nothing at all, because it can be hard to draw conclusions (like Science when your experiment doesn't quite work as you had expected).

First I have to apologize for the title, it's terribly punny.  Which is to say, not at all funny.

It is entirely Heroes fault.  I've already watched the first two episodes today.  I'm afraid I might be hooked.  It's all like "ooo, that's like Watchmen" and "gasp, she's like the Spirit" and "drug-addict-comic-book-artist-that-predicts-the-future is awesome" and "aww, the baby-faced kid makes Star Trek references (and his name is Hiro, that's just bad, writers)."  So ya, it's kinda nerdgasmic.  Plus I'm rather excited for this Sylar to show up, he seems rather Magnificent Bastard-ish.  I'm also completely in love with narrator man.  Anyhoo, done with that now.  Ooh, except that shape that cropped up a couple of times!  It looks like a scyth (ya know, like Death carries) without the blade.  I have some ideas about it, but I won't say, because I'll sound silly if I'm wrong :)

My rage at the poor marine biological fact-checking done for Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters made me put it down (and it's a spoof, why on Earth should I let it bug me?).  But I read Stardust instead.  This is the FIRST book ever where I have to seriously consider whether I liked the book or the movie better, so I think I'll talk about it later.

I'm reading Watchmen and Philosophy right now.  And it's kinda awesome.  It's had me grinding me teeth at times, because my ideas about humans as a student biologist and philosophers ideas of humans are a touch different - I take the "humans ARE animals" approach, they separate out humans and "non-human animals."  But overall, there are some interesting takes on why certain characters did certain things, etc.

One last, and a much more awesome, thing is this beautifully nerdy picture of David Tennant:

http://roflrazzi.com/2010/01/14/celebrity-pictures-david-tennant-fangirl-nerdgasm/

I'm off, probably to watch more Heroes.  Sigh.

Oh dear, I should be doing any number of other things.  But men-I-would-do meme...

Snagged from draykonis 

1. Bold the names of guys you'd definitely shag.
2. Italicize the names of guys you might shag after a little persuasion.
3. Leave the guys who don't do anything for you alone.
?4. Put a question mark after the guys you've never heard of. ?
5. Strike the guys you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
6. ADD THREE OF YOUR OWN AT THE END.


( A cut might be nice, eh? )

This morning (yesterday, now, for a number of you), I heard on the radio about an earthquake that had hit Haiti.  At the time, they thought that at least a thousand people were dead.  Important relief sites, like the UN building and hospitals were destroyed or severly incapacitated.  Last I heard now, 100,000 people are thought or confirmed dead, including 16 UN workers and a Canadian nurse.  According to one of my profs (not fact-checked, sorry), the average annual income of a Haitian is $560.  I know that they are a highly impovershed country.

The aid that has already been sent for relief from Canada and around the world is staggering and reaffirms humanity's commitment to each other for me, but more aid is very much needed.  If you can spare it at all (even the $10 I can afford to offer up), please give it to a trusted aid organization.  The Red Cross, Unicef, and Doctors Without Borders (who were hit there as well) could all utilize anything you could spare.

Thank you.

Ello, all!

Just finished my first week of classes!  So I thought I'd give a bit of a breakdown of the crap I've got to put up with for the next four months:

( Classes. Oh goody. )

Britain has stamps much more awesome than Canada (mine are Vancouver Olympics ones, I sent the people I don't like the curling ones), makes me wish I actually knew a Brit to send me something with a Ziggy Stardust stamp...:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/01/07/stamp-albums.html

Also, this is SO true:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/illegal-downloaders-spend-the-most-on-music-says-poll-1812776.html

If half the people I knew ever got in trouble for downloading, they would be able to haul in the boxes of CDs they've purchased to prove they didn't destroy the music industry (it did that all by itself).  Personally, I think I own about 200.  Wonder where my money troubles stem from?

My first week back was pretty chill, just hanging out with friends.  No job applications, hectic projects, or life stress.  For one, I watched "Coraline," finally.  I liked it quite a bit.  Selick's work on "Nightmare Before Christmas" endeared me to him forever (until he does something sucky) and he captured the creepiness level of Gaiman's book pretty well.  An entire character was added, which threw off some of the dynamics a bit, but it was handled pretty well, I thought.  I loved the visuals and know from experience what a bitch it is to make a movie in such a manner.

Speaking of Gaiman, he actually summed up the "End of Time" Dr Who eps pretty well. ( last minute cut to protect delicate sensibilities. )

I've just realized I've been talking way too much about Neil Gaiman, so he's got a tag now :P

Song of the day is a bit of Canadiana: "And if Venice is Sinking" by Spirit of the West."  Here's a video of them playing it with an orchestra.

Gasp!  Two pieces of awesomeness:

First, there is a "Big Gay Battle" going on between Neil Patrick Harris and John Barrowman for Gay Man of the Decade on afterelton.com.  Though it's almost time up for voting...  So get there quick!!  I voted for Captain Jack, though I must say it was quite the toss up :)

www.afterelton.com/blog/edkennedy/jonathan-ross-tweets

Second, the awesome hashtag #biggaybattle was apparently created by Neil Gaiman.  So hilarious name for the thing created by awesome writer, but said awesome writer has a twitter thinger!!!  Yay.

So go vote!  I'm off to deal with course organization stuff.

I am sooo bored right now.  I start my new semester tomorrow and have a bunch of stuff to get done in prep for it, so naturally I watched an old episode of Doctor Who ("Voyage of the Damned" which a friend was dear enough to inform me was the one with Alonso), all by my lonesome.

You may or may not know that the reason I wanted to rewatch that episode stemmed from a scene in the most recent episode of Doctor Who, David Tennant's last as Just The Doctor.  I saw the ad for the new season and though I'm certainly stoked on certain elements, I'm worried number eleven'll be too much like Tennant (who will always be my Doctor, I suppose, based on when I came into the show).  All of the old Doctor's seem so unique in dress and manner, with the necessary behaviours that link them all as being the Doctor, that it seems like it would be an insult for his most recent regeneration to be hardly a change at all.  So I'm holding out hope, which I only have to hold onto until the spring (yay!).

For some odd reason, I managed to make reading "American Gods" take most of my vacation, when I usually powerhouse through "general fiction"-style books.  This definitely has nothing to do with the fact that this book was not general fiction at all - it ranks far above such works as those of James Patterson and the other 5-books-a-year writers - and I spent a great deal of time sticky-noting the various gods mentioned and looking up their pantheons *hem*.  I''m really into all that research I'm not doing now, actually, so I will probably have to reread this book once I'm done with all my newfound knowledge :P  So, I'm going to ramble about it a bit now under a cut, because I'm giving a way MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS:

( "Major Major" is from "Catch-22," right? What follows is from American Gods (SPOILERS!) )

Oops, I was also going to talk about "Brida" by Paulo Ceolo, the book I read before "American Gods," but I guess I'll just leave you with a skip it.  Read "American Gods" instead.  "The Alchemist" is one of my favourite books ever, it's themes speak to me despite the heavy religious overtones, but "Brida" laid it on a little too thick.  Plus, he said your "soul mate" is by necessity a (potential, at least) sexual partner and of the opposite sex, which annoyed me because of what I know of reality for the many people who don't follow those rules and yet find their other halves, as it were.  It opens as a framed story and never closes the frame, so I was left dangling at the end.

Also, now I've started "Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters," which I believe I got because my brother wants to read it :)  But I read its zombified predecessor, so I'm kind of excited about it.  And the writing is already better (read: more ridiculous): the oceans are described as "great burbling salt-cauldrons of death."

Now to clean the bathroom, before I get attacked by something growing in there.

Your song of the day: "Live Anthology" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  Okay, this might be a four-disc CD set, but I promise if you like them at all, you'll love them live.  And the set is lovingly put together.  I highly recommend it. (Bonus word of the day is "lugubrious," I could never be sad if people always used that word to describe the state, it's too hilarious).

Happy New Year, everyone!

How were your celebrations, anyone who reads this?   Mine were pretty chill actually and I quite liked it that way.  A few friends, a few drinks, a few laughs.  "Die Hard" actually even ensued at one point, it was that relaxed, which of course brought more laughs (anyone notice how BAD Hans Gruber's German accent is?), though we didn't pay that much attention to it - that's one long movie.

We went on a roadtrip from the small little town I'm visiting my family in more than a few days ago, now, to find a theatre playing "Avatar" in 3D (because, really, it's the only D).  We got to the ticket thing an hour early and there was already a sign on the window saying it was sold out!  All those punk kids off on Christmas holidays, I'm sure...  So we decided to see "Invictus" instead (they also weren't playing "Sherlock").  I had the vague impression this movie was about rugby, so I agreed to it, as I'm kinda in love with rugby.  Get in the theatre, and turns out the movie is about Nelson Mandela!!  Admittedly I cry pretty easily in movies and I am majorly biased by my huge respect for Mandela, so I spent most of the film balling my eyes out.  The racism between the white and black South Africans was intense, as well as the economic divide.  It hurt to see people suffering like that and being asked by their leader, their hope, to forgive those who had caused so much of that suffering.  I highly recommend the movie, but I would get a few more opinions, first ;)

I also finished "American Gods" today, which I believe I got from a friend because I wouldn't shut up about "Good Omens."  It was awesome.  But more on that some other time, Doctor Who is about to start.

The title is from "New Year's Day" by U2.  I wouldn't force U2 on my worst enemy, but I figured a few lyrics wouldn't hurt anyone.

There you have it folks, Canada is the county most hellbent of all the world on destroying said world.  Sorry to utilize this retched thing against you guys, but: Copenhagen Fail.  We were recently rewarded the prestigious "Fossil of the Year" award for being the best (better than all the rest) at PREVENTING reasonable and acceptable policies being set and implemented regarding climate change (for our Billy Flynn act at Copenhagen). Doesn't it fill you with warm-fuzzies, fellow Canadians?  Not only did we fail the hardest in world at our terms for Kyoto, we're actively trying to be worse people.  Stephen Harper, in all his immobile hair-ed, Mr. Wednesday calibre pale eyed, and terrifying, Children of the Corn children-ed glory, has really made me glad I never voted for him throughout the entirety of these past two weeks.  The man is a devout Tory (so at least you can say he sticks to his guns...?), to the point where it doesn't matter if we wind up putting our species on the endagered list, because, you know, profits didn't suffer. Please, bask in the glory of the most non-deal of all non-deals to ever come out of an apparently non-conference: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/12/18/copenhagen-last-day.html Oh Canada, our home and quickly-becoming-unable-to-support-the-polar-bear-population-and-I-only-mention-them-because-people-have-more-sympathy-for-things-with-eyelids-but-think-of-the-corals!-(there-are-some-types-in-Canada) native land. On a lighter note, I am done (and have rocked, thank you very much) my finals for the term, so I'm going to clean the house then set about making the trip to my family for Christmas :)  Hope everyone has a very happy holidays!

Gah! There are so many posts right now, but I don't have to go through everything. Which gets me thinking, actually, does anyone know how to see posts further back on the Friends page than they let you?

I just finished my last week of classes, so major relief there, but now it's exam time... Huzzah. But the exam I have Monday has a really interesting essay attached to it about the behavioural divide/relatedness between humans and other animals. It's a critique on this paper that goes on about how superior humans are, with some fairly flimsy arguements at times. And worse grammar than me (which you can no doubt see takes some pretty bad grammar).

Anyhoo, a little while ago, aldehyde posted a meme about icons and I'm finally getting around to getting it done (I'm procrastinating, natch). So, without any further ado, my icons:


This is my default pic. When I signed up for lj, I first panicked about a name that didn't suck wildly (my success is debatable :P), then was informed I had to come up with a picture and I panicked some more. So, I googled up whatever came to mind first (Alice, as that's where the name's from) and popped in this super-copywrited image.


I have absolutely no idea about this one. I don't have the remotest idea of who the picture may be of, but I know I "stole" (hopefully the credit shows up somewhere...) this one because I liked the boots. They stand out awesomely in the picture and look fun. That's about it... this pic is all about the boots.


People post a lot of worries on their ljs. I got this one to hopefully lighten the mood a little. I know it made me smile :)


This one is hilarious. That's the entire reason I have it. fera_festiva (I think) used it once and I commented on how awesome it was. If you've ever seen "Watchmen," there is a scene in which one of the characters is on Ozymandias' computer (Oz is the dude in the pic) and there was about five folders on it. One was entitled "boys." It's a really cool reference to a comment made in the book and I was impressed they found a way to work it in if they couldn't have the comment. Anyhoo, I am all sorts of in love with "Watchmen," so this icon is a way for me to geek.

Off to go hole myself away with my textbooks, because I'm sure there's nothing I would rather do with my Saturday evening. Sigh. Hope you all have a bit more fun :)

EDIT: Oops, one more thing. Go check out the best protest signs of the year, some of them are pretty awesome.

Song of the day:

"Hey hey" by Eric Clapton, from his unplugged album. I'm feeling this song today.

Okay, writing this on the new computer, which I am totally not used to, so forgive me if this seems like it was typed by a two year old.

I finished "Good Omens" the other day and must say, I loved every minute of it. I truly did enjoy it. "Good Omens" was one of those rare books that I wanted to never end while I was reading it, but felt deep satisfaction upon completing it. It was hilarious, had an engaging plot and characters, and was deliciously thought-provoking. Where "Supernatural" mostly just yells APOCALYPSE at you (with some family values stuff thrown in), this book yelled APOCALYPSE and proceeded to inform you as to what that may mean in a wholly interesting manner. As a biology student, I found some (read: all) of "what that may mean" to be fantastic things to talk about.

If you haven't guessed yet, this is a book about the Apocalypse. It follows Crowley, Aziraphale, a Full Chorus of Tibetians, Aliens, Americans, Atlanteans and other rare and strange Creatures of the Last Days, and a whole host of other people as they all careen quickly towards the end of the world. With an accomponying score by Queen. Though it covers 6013 years (give or take), the bulk of it is focussed on the few days leading up to the End Of Days. You meet and love all of those various characters within that stretch and I found myself totally invested in the book within a few pages.

If you don't know Terry Pratchett, he's hilarious and I recommend you read his Discworld books and anything else you can get your hands on. I giggled reading this book. I giggled on the bus, on my couch, even in the middle of class (because I was unwilling to put it down when the other option was a boring lecture). And though Neil Gaiman is a fairly recent discovery of mine, I have started consuming pretty much any piece of writing I can find of his. He is a very powerful writer. And funny as well, actually. Sometimes. When maggots and black buttons aren't overwhelmingly involved.

Anyhoo, I actually have no idea at all how to write a review of something, so I'll leave it off here: READ THIS BOOK. I compel you. Also, I'm going to yadder on in a spoiler-filled fashion for a bit, too, so maybe don't read that if you've not yet read the book.

( Waxing poetic about Good Omens, spoiler edition )

Oops, one more thing: Stephen Fry posted a link to this comment, regarding anti-piracy in Britain. The man referred to gets called a Pirate Finder General, so I thought it was fitting to put it here:

http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/comment-of-the-year/

Okay, now I'm gone.

Hallowe'en is one of my favourite holidays, it's a total blast.  The one sad thing was that this year it seemed to fall in the middle of midterms, so I didn't hit up much in the way of house parties.  But, I did go to two pretty cool events that are more fun to talk about than parties:

First, we went to a walking production of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," which takes place in the local tourist trap castle here (the one that isn't a prison :D).  These guys do a show every year - it was Dorian Gray last year - and they own the style.  The audience was "cast" as servants for Jekyll's house, so we were bossed around by Mrs Pool and another servant who were given bigger roles for this.  They had two different actors to play Hyde (who was actually short!) and Jekyll, using banisters and whatnot to hide the other actor, so it was much more effective than, say, this version:



Though I do like me a musical...

Speaking of!  Last night, we hit up "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."  I've loved this movie for years, but this was my first time going to the actual showing of it (of course I got the giant "V" on my forehead in lipstick :D).  It was so much fun, I couldn't believe what a blast watching a movie could be.  Though, by the time we got up to do the Time Warp, the ground was so covered in water and rice that dancing and the high heels I wore weren't terribly well-paired...  But I did get to throw my piece of toast!  I definitely plan on going to that again sometime and be a bit more prepared with no-neck comments and the like...

Also yesterday, we carved pumpkins, though it was a bit of a challenge to find one or any of those little candies for handing out in the theatre (via throwing them at people!).  Now, though, I'm off to a pumpkin smash.  I could use it, my Elton John/Billy Joel concert has just been postponed.  Le sigh.

Hope you all had a good Hallowe'en!  Any exciting stories?  Any big plans for Guy Fawkes night if you're from across the pond?  Or any of those other holidays...  Anybody do Reformation Day (I think it's called that) in Germany?

Song of the Day:

It's all of Rocky Horror.  If you can't say that movie all but word-for-word, there's a solid chance you haven't seen it enough times :)

It's been pretty close to two months since I started classes (I think) and now it's starting to get pretty busy...  Last week could be summed up by the word "hell" - unless we were speaking German (one of my classes) because then it would mean "bright".  Anyhoo, there were four exams to be written, a research progress report to be presented, and thankfully small written assignment.  This weekend has been spent boozing and relaxing, with the Rebus party we on Friday being a particular bright spot.  Seriously, Rebus parties rule, you dress up like a word puzzle - I was a "beer garden" - and try to guess everyone!  It may have been the margaritas we made that made it so much fun...

But, now, it's back to the grind and thus back to the procrastination.  My evolution class has assigned a paper worth 20% of my grade.  It's due tomorrow and I've gotten as far as titling the thing.  I am SCIENTIST, I haven't been assigned a paper since my mandatory English classes and the wimpy 50 word things I have to churn out in German.  Why on Earth do they want me to write about evo?  And the possible questions run along the lines of "provide evidence for the argument that all life on Earth comes from a common ancestor."  Ugh, so now I have to write a bunch of crap about how little Creationism (or We All Came From A Giant Clamism, etc) are completely devoid of fact and I'm going to get angry at people's ignorance and be up all night...  Okay, I might already be a little cheesed, that's what the research has done to me.

This next bit is about global warming:
( Ranty McRantpants )

Oops, that last stuff got a bit lengthy and grumpy.  I put it under a cut to spare you...  

Also, another article was about net neutrality.  Canada has officially failed at that:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/10/20/crtc-net-neutrality-ruling.html

Good luck whichever country tackles it next.

Okay, so I'd better sign off here, because I'm coming across pretty bitchy, so I'll post this meme people have been doing lately:

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Ask whatever you like, I promise I'm not always a psychotic bitch :D

Song of the Day:

If you don't know the title is "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" by Chuck Berry, shame.  Listen to it and a bunch of his other stuff and revel in the roots of rock.