Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

Yayayayayayayay!!! It's my birthday again!!! Here's what I did to celebrate my birthday:

Went to the Hart House on Friday for dinner. Went out for Chinese food Monday night for dinner with the parents. Saturday, got my annual birthday hairdo. Check out the purpley! This also freaked out my mum, she couldn't understand why I wasted money dyeing my hair purple. I actually came this close to getting hot pink but I a) hate all things pink and refuse to wear that colour (makeup being the sole exception) and b) found the purple to be a little more subtle, but I was able to keep it fun.

Movie Review: Jumper -- Ug

Today, Hubby and I went to see Jumper. I will write about why I went to go see this movie in a separate post. However, I'm not even going to write a proper review of this movie because, quite frankly, this movie stank. Big time. At the time of writing this blog post, Rotten Tomatoes gave it 16%. If you want to read a synopsis, check out Wikipedia.

I know that the main weakness was the script. The premise was interesting, but the execution was lousy. They needed to develop the whole concept of jumping further; instead, we're left to piece together how jumping may work through side comments and events in the movie. Not a bad way of doing things per se, but it lacked any organization and cohesion in the movie, and I was left with more questions and a feeling of dissatisfaction. I would have liked to see a little more of the history of the Palidins more, it would have at least made me understand their motivation better.

I certainly didn't feel any sympathy for the main character in the story, nor did I care either way for the "bad guys". All the relationships between the characters were very poorly scripted out. It's such a shame because there were some great actors, like Jamie Bell, who performed spectacularly in Nicholas Nickleby, and whose acting I really admire.

I'm still sitting on the fence about Hayden Christensen. The only other movie I've seen him in were the Star Wars movies. Hayden, in my opinion, can't act. He delivers his lines with a monotone voice, and always seem like an emotionless block of wood; he is part of the reason why I feel nothing but apathy for the main character. Most of the other actors, as bad as the movie was, at least put in a passable amount of acting. I even felt more for the Young David Rice than the Adult David Rice, because I felt the young actor did a better job than Hayden. I'm hoping that Hayden will improve in his other movies, but frankly, I'm not holding my breath.

I give this 3 out of 10, and it only even deserved such a high rating because, as a friend of mine who saw it said, "The movie was lousy, but the scenery was great!"

Update on me....

I've been pretty busy. Busy being sick that is. The last few day I've been preoccupied with hacking up a lung. I think that there's a nasty flu bug that's been going around, and it was my turn to get it. I've called in sick two days in a row. It's rare that I even call in sick, never mind two day. And last week, I was also not feeling too swell either, I had to leave work early. I think I've been fighting the flu bug for a while now.

Work. Work is... busy. It's tough being a manager. I don't mind juggling 10 billion things. It's the people factor that I'm scratching my head on. Mainly, those who work under me. Don't get me wrong, for the most part, they do a good job. But there's something... lacking. I don't know if it's me, or the people I work with, if it's my style of management, or their style (or lack of it) of doing the job well, or a combination of everything. The project manager tends to measure how well a project is doing by the "nag factor". I seem to be nagging a lot with okay results, but I feel many times that I'm herding children along. This managing people business is hard. However, I will be getting my raise shortly. My manager actually asked me what I wanted. I had to think about it. (Okay, I did say 1 Billion Dollars, and he laughed and cried at the same time).

School. Less than two months to go. And the less said on that subject, the better. Sigh.

What's been occupying a great deal of my time is planning our trip to Roma! Yay! We almost have everything booked. I'll leave the actual planning of the trip itinerary until after May Day. Since we're also going to be spending a few days in London, I've picked up Frommer's Best Day Trips from London. I really want to go back to Bath, but there's a few other interesting side trips I would like to take as well.

I've just gotten my Visa bill for part of our trip purchases for flights and hotels, and yikes! But this will probably be our last kick of Europe for a long while, so might as well spend the money while we can.

Going back to hack up my other lung...

Geeks!!!

Today I went to this Microsoft bru-ha-ha event. Cheesy marketing, MS propaganda everywhere, but the best part: being in a room with 14,000 other geeks with bad haircuts and questionable fashion sense. Sadly, not unlike the picture posted here.

Well, I was somewhat interested in what they had to say in their new product offerings, and while I picked up on a few interesting points, it on the whole was not too thrilling. Of course I go for the free lunch (it was meh) and the shwag, but they make you sit through most of the session--pounding your every auditory and visual nerve endings with how wonderful Microsoft's products are, and how they can completely change your life around--before they give you your bag of goodies. Sadly, a string of emails about Tiramisu--that was being sent amongst my colleagues through the day--that I was reading on my Crackberry was equally as riveting, if not even more so...

To be fair to them, they are trying to sell a product, and have to do a credible job to suck us in. And because we're an MS shop, we'll be using those products. Eventually.

(BTW, Bill's the guy in the bottom row, far left with the blue shirt. His eyes are really crooked!)

Garfield Minus Garfield

Someone on my chatboard had posted this site for our amusement. This is the funniest thing ever! The Garfield comic strip, with Garfield take out. Who knew Jon could be so funny!

Garfield Minus Garfield

KOOKY: Mountains!

I thought I'd share this with you. I took this picture on Feb 21st, on my way back to my office from a meeting I had across campus. The gardens in the picture are the Rose Gardens, and while it's difficult to see in the picture, I saw green flowers shooting up in the soil, so Spring is slowly making it's way here.

I actually can see bits of mountains on campus on a good day, and that day it was glorious!

Shamrock Shakes are back!

One of my fondest memories of my childhood is having a McDonald's Shamrock Shake. I loved Shamrock Shakes because they are made with the magic of 1000 leprechauns and kissed with Irish luck.

Just kidding. I think the main reason why I liked the minty goodness was mainly because they were only around for a short time (usually around St. Patrick's Day) and then they would disappear, never to be seen again until the next year. But I think there may be some leprechaun magic blended in as I was drawn to it quite often.

Imagine my surprise then when I found out that they were re-introducing them after not a hair to be seen for so many years. Last Tuesday was the first day of their introduction back in the mortal realm. I, of course, made a beeline to the closest McDonald's at lunch time. Here's what happened:

Me: Walks into the restaurant, and noted that there were no advertisements or pictures of any Shamrock Shakes. Confused, I asked the cashier.

Me: Excuse me, but do you have any shakes?

McD: Yes, we have Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry

Me: Do you have any Shamrock Shakes?

McD: What?

Me: Shamrock Shakes (says this very slowly). You know, the green one.

McD (looking very confused): No. We have Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry only. No green one. (Way to go McDonald's for informing your staff!)

Me (very disappointed and trying to figure out what I wanted to eat): Well, I'll have...

McD (looking at her screen): Wait. Sham-rock Shakes. Yes, I think we have them. (Now turns to her superior, whom looks like a Junior Manager). Hey Junior, do we have the Shamrock Shakes?

Junior: What?

McD: You know, the green one?

Junior (walks over to the area where the shakes are located): No. Wait, yes, we have some left.

Some left? You weren't even suppose to have any before today, so how could you have some left? Anyways, to make a long story short, I don't think they were prepared for the onslaught of Shamrock Shake fans (ie me!). My shake turned out too sweet and too watery, and nothing how I'd expected it to be. It definitely was the first one out of the machine.

Very disappointing.

I, however, was rewarded on Friday. One of my staff happened to make a trip to McDonald's so I asked her to bring me back another Shamrock Shake. After one sip of that baby and I was in minty heaven once again. Yum!