GIMP

Photoshop users, do you want to use an imaging tool that's as good as Photoshop (or so I've been told)?

Try the GIMP.

What do I use imaging software for? Well, I use it for resizing an image, and cropping and image. That's it. I'm a photo imaging loser, I can't do anything else. In fact, my brain freezes up when I try doing anything more than that. Okay, maybe use the sepia function, but that's pushing it.

The beauty of the GIMP is that it's completely free. Here are some photos from the Calgary Stampede from a month ago that has been sitting on my hard drive because I didn't get a chance to transfer the images to my work laptop, which has Photoshop, so I can resize the images, but now they're resized now that I've just installed GIMP on my desktop....

Free Pancake breakfast!


Me at the Indian Village


Hungry porkers!

Captain Picard Song

I almost peed in my pants when I saw this. It's really well done!



(If it doesn't download, view it here)

Keira Knightley: A Biopsy

RC from Strange Culture had left a comment on one of my blog postings asking why I had it in for Keira Knightley. Not true. I just don't understand why she's such a big thing right now and why people think she's so hot.

I won't comment on her looks as she was born with her features and can't help how she looks. She does have nice eyes, I will give you this. (I don't think she's bad looking per se, she just has weird features).

I will instead point two things out which she can change:

#1) KK can stop slouching.

KK has a long graceful neck, and would look elegant if she actually didn't slouch. I think anyone who slouches makes themselves look lazy and unintelligent. But most of all, it's an unflattering look on anyone. Anyone's looks can improve immensely by just standing up straight.

With her longer neck, she reminds me of a vulture. Or a turkey. Here's proof:










































If you still don't believe me, then you stand in front the mirror and see if you can stick your head out in front of the rest of your body. The only way to do so is by slouching.

#2) She needs acting lessons.

I've seen KK in six movies: Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually, King Authur, Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2

In all six movies, she has failed to wow me with her acting. In fact, her acting's very forgettable. She does a good enough job at delivering her lines, but please don't tell me that she's a good actor, or tell me that she actually deserved all those nominations for her role as Elizabeth Bennet.

The worst for me was the scene where Lady Catherine confronted Elizabeth about her supposed "engagement" to Mr. Darcy. Judi Dench was awesome. KK was a walking zombie. For pete's sake girl, someone stops by in the middle of the night to throw false accusations at you, and insults you and your family in the process, and you act like you're sleepwalking?

She acts the same in every single movie, and she has the really boring pouting thing that she does in every single movie. Very unoriginal. She doesn't make me believe that she's any character. She makes me believe that she's KK trying to be another character, and failing miserably, IMO.

But I suppose there's no accounting for some people's tastes.

Does Your English Cut the Mustard...

I suck...

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 80%

Punctuation: 80%

Spelling: 80%

Vocabulary: 40%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Got this from The Teacher...

The Source of all Evil

You decide...

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/

I am coveting this right now...

No, not the bed frame, that's ugly! The mattress!

I was at the Relax the Back store over the weekend and decided to lay on their floor model. It was comfy. Extremely comfy. Insanely comfy. (I also sat in a Zero Gravity chair. Very comfy as well).

And only a mere $2400 for a Queen size. I will be dragging hubby there one day soon.

Hubby should be glad it's not the Porsche Carrea GT that I want to get, only a mere $550,000...

Treasure Hunters

So I stumbled on this show Treasure Hunters on Monday and found it a pretty interesting watch. There are a lot of similarities to The Amazing Race, as these people travel around the world doing different things.

The main thing about Treasure Hunters is that the whole entire game is a puzzle, and not just parts of it. It also seems that time and money are not factors in this (except the fact that each team is racing against each other). They're also given little laptops to carry around and use should they need to.

"Treasure Hunters is an exciting new adventure quest series featuring multi-player teams that will be sent off around the globe on a search for clues leading to the location of a hidden treasure. The first team to decipher all of the clues will be given the location of the treasure. The focus of the show will is not so much on the race to find clues, but on the actual solving of the puzzle instead."

Interesting premise. It certainly appeals to me at some level as I really love puzzles and rather take my time to figure something out properly than trying to race to figure something out quickly.

I'm surprised that NBC doesn't have a heck of a lot of information about this show on their website. They are looking for cast members, but it's uncertain if it's for the current season or the next one. I'm not too sure if they're somewhat ashamed of this show and don't want to showcase it too much on their website, or their webmaster is just incompetent and didn't plan out the site appropriately.

One group that's already annoyed me is the "Geniuses". Whether or not these three guys are really as geeky looking in real life as they portray themselves on the show, I don't know. But their theme was just lame. And they were annoying me.

But I guess I have another thing to watch on Monday nights for the next little while.

Pride & Prejudice Meets Harry Potter

I love both (although I still reject the idea of Keira Knightley playing Elizabeth Bennet), so I found this vastly amusing...

Arr, ye mateys!!

I went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last week. I give it 7 out of 10. Here's why:

• They put way too much plot in the storyline. Without seeing if there were a lot of ties between the second and third movies, I have to say that they crammed too much in. I was actually wondering when the movie was going to be over about 2/3 of the way through it. That's just not a good sign.
  
• I liked the first movie better because the plot was neat enough and the movie was fun! This movie was fun too, but it dragged too much, and took some of the fun away from it. I felt that the big fight scene with the water wheel was just too long. (Although a friend of mine liked this movie better than the first one cause there was more swashbuckling action).
  
• I don't understand Davy Jones's character, and unless they explain how he came about in the first place in the third movie, I will be vastly disappoint in the script.
  
• The voodoo lady was getting annoying.
  
• One question that I kept asking myself is "What happened 13 years ago to make Jack Sparrow promise his soul to Davy Jones?" If it's answered in the third movie, I'd wished they'd hint at it in the second. If they don't tie this up neatly, again I'll be disappointed.
  
• My other question is, "What the hell is Keria Knightley's character doing in this movie?" Really, if it weren't for the fact that they felt they had to include Keria Knightley in the movie, they definitely could have done without the character. Really. And I'm not just saying this because I thinks she's a mediocre actress at best.
  

What did I like?

• The way Jack Sparrow runs like a girl. (And Johnny Depp was excellent through the whole movie)
• Tom Hollander, who played the bad guy.
  
• Actually most of the acting was good. And Orlando Bloom, for all the over-acting that he did in Lord of the Rings, is getting a wee bit better. But I still don't like him. Or KK.
  

A word about Tom. I've seen him in Pride and Prejudice and Gosford Park. He played two completely different characters in both movies, and I really thought he did a wonderful job in both. I didn't know he was playing the baddie in Pirates until I watched the movie. I hated the bad guy, and that to me, made me respect Tom Hollander's skill as an actor more. I've also seen him in a couple of other productions, but those two movies stick out the most in my mind because I've only seem them about 50 times each. Heh.

Chaucer' Blog

One thing that had really bugged me was that people had always called Shakespeare "Old English". It's not Old English people! It's Modern English. The colloquialism is different, that's all. It's no different than if you went to Australia or England and you heard phases or terms that you don't understand. Their terms of references are different from North America, yet, they are still speaking English!

Case in point, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date

Now here's Middle English (Intro to Canterbury Tales):

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Old English (Intro to Beowulf):

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

So you can see what the difference is!

Anyways, I was chuffed to see that Chaucer has a blog. Check it out!

iPod Accessories

You too can have a toilet paper holder with a built in iPod player stand. More here.

Disco Darcy

I never liked Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice.

But I have to say that this Disco Darcy grew on me...


[Source]

Back to Lotusland

Well, I'm finally back in Lotusland after 11 lovely hours on Highway 1. The trip should have taken 10 hours, but we ran into traffic going through Surrey for no apparent reason. I think the Port Mann Bridge is a huge bottleneck, hence the reason why they're going to twin the bridge. Trust me, sitting on a highway with the sun beating down on the car, at a dead stop in a 100 km/hr zone is not my idea of fun.

Some points of notice about my trip to Cow Town (in no particular order):

• I saw lots of moo-cows, and mooed at them. They didn't respond.
• Who is crazy enough to bike up the Coquahalla highway? That highway going north is pretty steep. Well, I saw three crazy people.
  
• Calgary can get pretty windy
• Calgary has mosquitoes. I was bitten three times
• RVs are spawns of Satan.
  
• No amount of talking will convince me that cowboy boots, cowboy hats, plaid shirts and string ties are a fashion statement.
  
• We had a lot of bug guts splattered over our windshield while driving on the highway. One particular insect splatter is bright yellow. I wonder what sort of insect it is? (There were some red splatters as well. We figured them to be mosquitoes who had a feeding frenzy on some humans. Imagine that, another person's bodily fluids on my windshield).

I also saw a lot of really bad driving while on the highway. Some didn't understand the concept of a fast lane. Here are some tips:

• If there are people passing you, get out of the fast lane!
• If there is more than one car tailgating you, get out of the fast lane!

Savvy?

Cow Town Day 3 - One sick hubby!

Well, we were suppose to have gone hiking in Banff today (Saturday), but hubby was still not feeling well. So I left him at home while I hung out with my friend "L" and her hubby "R".

L also bought a electronic piano the same time I did, and I was playing with it a little bit. I'm not as rusty as I though I was, but my piano-playing skill has really degraded with many years of non-practice.

The highlight of the day was going to Smuggler's Inn for dinner. Prime rib, yum! I'm still trying to figure out how big their biggest cut is. 21oz?

Cow Town Day 2 - Stampede

Today we went to the Stampede. I actually have pictures on my cell, but I won't be able to download them until I get home.

First off, we went and had free Stampede Pancake breakfast. After all the horror stories that I've heard about half cooked food, it was surprisingly not too bad. I can understand that they end up making food for several hundreds of people, so that may happen.

As we were taking the C-Train to the Stampede grounds, hubby was decidedly not feeling well, so ended up going home. I continued on with a couple of hubby's friends.

I had a pretty good time, but I hate to say it, the Calgary Stampede is somewhat similar to the PNE. Sure, the PNE doesn't have chuckwagon races or rodeos, but there is a separate rodeo in Lotusland that has similar stuff.

One of hubby's friends kept on trying to get me to buy a cowboy hat and trying to convince me that cowboy wear (cowboy hat, cowboy boots, string ties, large belt buckles and plaid shirts) were the in thing for fashion. Uh, no thanks. There were a lot of people around wearing various combinations of the above, which was odd for me to see.

Cow Town Day 1

After an 11 hour drive from Lotusland to Cow Town, we were pretty tired. We had to contend with drivers that drove in the fast lane that should have been in the other lane, RVs, road construction... Fortunately, no dead deer, although we saw mountain goats.

So today, shopping at Market Mall, Gravity Pope, and I picked up this sweet thing. Now we have to figure out where to put it...

(Yamaha P140)

Off to Cow Town!

Tomorrow hubby and I will be heading off to Calgary to visit the family and friends out there, so I may not be blogging for the next few days. Hopefully we'll get there in one piece. PST-free shopping here I come!

Other news:
Said application (SharePoint) that I had to demo, my director at the last moment pull in our PM/Consultant, who knew the application better than I did. Which was a good thing as there were people there who asked questions that I couldn't answer, but he could. I hardly said a thing. Stress over! Thanks for the good thoughts guys!

However, the day I go back to work, I have three back-to-back meetings in a row in the afternoon. The morning will be spent to wade through email. (Okay, maybe not. I'm lugging the laptop to Cow Town, so I may check before then =P No nagging, DC!)

I need to keep my big mouth shut...

I just let my director (my boss's boss) talk me into doing a demo tomorrow on an application that I know very little about. However, I'm deemed as one of the "experts" in the group, as I have played around with the application more than most others, and I do certainly am more familiar with it than she is.

I have no idea who my audience is. I will need to get plenty of sleep tonight so I don't look like a walking zombie like I normally do. And I will need to dress up a bit and put on makeup. And write up an outline. Bah.

This post is sponsored by IT Plumber/Janitor

Hubby, a new word for you to use in regards to the idiots who served you at Vera's Burger Shack: himbo.

(Note that one of the owners had actually responded to hubby's comment. Good times!)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

"SKOOKUM"

Okay, I've now hear this used word used by three different people, all who are at work, and twice alone this week. It seems that it has various meaning, but it's definitely regional jargon that's becoming mainstram (locally anyways). You should see if you can incorporate it into your conversation once a day.

"Skookum."

There's my effort for today.

[Wikipedia]
[InfoPlease]
[Encarta]
[Grandiloquent Dictionary]

N's birthday pic

This is a picture from Sunday, when we took N out for his birthday. He and hubby had the feast for two.

Happy Birthday!

Happy July the 4th!

Today happens to be my best buddy, "N"'s birthday. We took him out for dinner on Sunday, and I made him choose a restaurant, so he goes and chooses Liliget Feast House. I never knew that we had a Native Indian cuisine restaurant until now.

I had the venison. It was okay, it tasted a bit like steak, but was tougher and chewier, but still moist (ie, not dry). It was not as gamey tasting than I thought it would be. Hubby and N shared the Liliget Feast Platter for Two.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10.

Afterwards, we went to La Casa Gelato for dessert. N had Durian & Jackfruit and persimmon. I could smell the durian.

Venison:

Some pics from English Bay:
Inukashuk (N and hubby are standing on the left in the shadow):

New fan! (Finally)

So thanks to our friend and all around fixer-upper guru "E", we had our fan installed last week. Yay!

Why were there sparks when hubby did it? Well, he screwed a screw into a wire. Way to go hubby. But really, it's a good thing that he didn't electrocute himself when that happened.

It took me a couple of days to get used to the fan blowing air down instead of from the corner of the room, but it does the job more or less. Now let's hope it doesn't get any hotter...

KOOKY: Can you spot the difference?

(Boy, I haven't done a KOOKY posting in a while...)

Can you spot the difference?

gynecology
gynaecology

And more importantly, do you really care?

Well someone does care, because they got really upset about it, and they want them all changed.

Welcome to my world.

(They wanted the one with the "a" in it, British spelling and all. And it seems that Blogger spell check is an equal opportunist, it recognizes neither).

Weed's guide to the Grouse Grind

So today hubby and I did the Grouse Grind. I wanted to do something a little different from my regular Saturday morning step class at the gym, and since it was such a nice day, I figured, why not?

Today's time: 1hr 9 mins.

I'm really pleased with this time as it's the best time I've done since university. I guess all the cardio I've been doing has helped.

Weed's rules when doing the Grouse Grind:

• Never stop for more than 30 seconds
• Never sit down, except if you need to remove a pebble from your shoe, otherwise, you'll never get back up again

However, we did get there at 8.50 am, waaaay too late as there were a lot of people on the trail, too many for my taste. We're going to try getting there at 8 am next time.

Afterwards, hubby and I went to IHOP for brunch. Yum!

Computers are stupid

"Whomever" vs. "Whoever". Do you know when to use either? Me neither. (Hey, that rhymes!)

Anyways, I'm in the middle of composing a very long and detailed email. Microsoft Outlook has this really neat feature where it will detect grammar incorrectness and underline it with a green squiggly line. You can either ignore it or do something about it.

If you right click on the word, one of the items that pops up in the pop-up menu gives you suggested "correct" words to use. So I right-clicked on "whomever". It gave me "whoever" as a suggestion. I select that and the word changed.

Wait! It's still underlined with the green squiggly line! So I right click again and lo and behold, the suggested "correct" word to use is "whomever". I've just now flipped back and forth between the two words. Apparently, it's confused and doesn't know which one to pick.

Yes, computers are stupid.

(My hubby has been trying to convince me for years of this, despite being a former IT guy, so he'll love this post.)

"i+lost+my+virginity+to+my+cousin"

I checked Google Analytics today. Yesterday, someone had done a search with the keywords "i+lost+my+virginity+to+my+cousin". So I did the same key word search and lo and behold this post from a couple of weeks ago came up as the first result in Google. Nice.

I've been planting words here and there in my blog to see what sort of search terms people use to "find" my posts. So far, this has been the most interesting one.

Now, I'm not one to judge. In fact, first-cousin marriage are legal in Canada. But I have to say this: EWWWWWWWW!

(My experiment is turning out to be somewhat interesting though...)

Kudos

I have to give a big thanks to IT Plumber/Janitor for helping us figure out how to remove our bathtub plug and allow us to fix the plug that's been plaguing us for some time (ours was Lift and Turn). You are not just a computer monkey after all. You should consider switching careers. Don't plumbers make $100/hour? And you can show your butt crack to all those housewives/husbands, great perk if you ask me. He's also got great cleaning tips.

Please also note in the post that hubby and I now speak to each other via IT Plumber/Janitor's blog comments (see second link). If this keeps up, he'll definitely need to start up a whole new section just so hubby and I can keep communicating.

Harry Potter Dies...

So it seems that JK Rowling has let out that two more characters will die in Book 7. I used to hit as many Harry Potter sites and read everyone's wild speculations and predictions. What made them really entertaining was the fact that people tried to "read" into the book text looking for clues. What's even more entertaining is how they interpret the text. Sure, JK Rowling does leave subtle hints, but I think some people have gone above and beyond the call of duty and tried to see something that's not there. I suppose that's part of the charm (if you will) of the books.

Here's what one soccer dad had to say. May the speculation begin... As for me, I don't have time to read all the nonsense, I'll wait for the book.

(I don't know why I decided to put this up except I found it funny. I need more sleep, I think, darn heat! Click on the image to see it full size).

Captain Picard's Journal

I normally don't steal posts, but I couldn't resist this time. Someone had sent IT Plumber/Janitor a link to Captain Picard's Journal. I can now get my daily Star Trek fix. Whoo!

Fan: 1, Dave: 0

So my industrious hubby was trying to install a ceiling fan to get our bedroom somewhat cooler. Well, he installed it correctly, but as soon as we turned it on, sparks emitted from the ceiling. Not a good thing. Now we have to wait for our handyman friend "E" to come by to help us.

He thinks that there might have been some wires touching each other that shouldn't have touched each other, hence the sparks. So we have to suffer through another night of heat. Tomorrow's high is 26C, and it'll be the same all week. Not the warmest we've ever experienced, but our house has ever single wall insulated, including the inside walls. Great for winter, not so great for summer.

We would have had the ceiling fan up a month ago, but we ran into a series of technical roadblocks. Sigh.

La Casa Gelato

Tonight hubby and I went to what I consider to be the best ice cream place in Vancouver, La Casa Gelato. They certainly have the biggest range of flavours, from your staple vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, to the more exotic, like durian, wasabi, curry, coconut red rice and (I believe, probably the most expensive one in the store), pistachio saffron.

What's amazing about this place is that it's always packed, even in the winter time. Yes, it's that good.

So if you live in Lotusland, or are planning on making a visit, you must stop by and try their ice cream.

The new Captain Kirk?

Yes, the rumor is that they want to ask Matt Damon to be Captain Kirk in the next Star Trek movie. Strangely enough, I actually don't have a problem with this. Probably because I still respect Matt as an actor. The only problem I have with Matt is that he's in his 30s, and the Captain Kirk in the new movie, from what I understand, should be a bit younger (like, by 10 years?). We will have to see how this pans out folks.

However, if they ask Ben Afflick to play the role of Spock, the Star Trek people may start having meteorites thrown at their heads and phasers set to kill pointed at them. I will be the one holding one of the phasers.

[Source]

Another reason not to get a Dell

Apparently they explode... [Source]

This 'n that

So I have today off. I decided to go to the gym later in the morning (after all the moms-that-have-dropped-their-kids-off-to-school-and-had-hit-the-gym crowd). Let me tell you that I like this time of the day at the gym. It's not crowded, and the group is older, so there aren't any young 20 year olds flaunting their skinny bodies around, making me feel insecure (I'm still going after the bikini body, just not today).

I bumped into my trainer, who was surprised that I was there at that time of the day. "Whatcha doing here?" she asks. "I took the day off, " I replied. "That's cool," she says. "Not really," I sighed, "I took the day off to do homework." Sigh.

There was a woman who I think was doing a yoga series for at least an hour (or she was doing it the whole time I was there). I was really impressed with her skill and her core strength must be awesome. You don't normally see the 20 year olds doing that.

Truly, I hate exercising. But I hate doing my homework more. I at least had a productive day, went to the gym, paid down some debt (always a good feeling), ate two bowls of chocolate ice cream (whoops!). But I did get a fair bit of homework done. Hopefully I can get as much done before the end of today, with all the time I have given myself (yeah right!).

One consolation of not having to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, I actually got my 9 hours of sleep. Today's the first day in a very long time that I don't feel utter exhausion.

Species 8472

(You probably want to click on the picture to get a better view)

This is my desk at work. Or more specifically, what's hanging over my desk at work. Yes, boys and girls, it's a cheap, plastic rendition of the Starship Enterprise-D. The saucer and lower body actually separate, just like in ST:TNG. Pretty cool. And you can open up the top part of the saucer section and see a not-to-scale, pretty unrealistic rendition of the bridge. With a non-to-scale, plasticy Picard and Riker inside.

Only today, I happened to look straight up (yes, I sit directly under this thing), and saw and addition to my starship Enterprise-D. It's what you seen in the picture. It totally reminded me of Species 8472, which is actually from the Voyager series and not TNG.

I found out that IT Plumber/Janitor had stuck it there last Friday after I'd left work. I didn't notice it until today. My brain's usually in a fog on Mondays, but with my stress, exhaustion and lack of good-quality sleep over the past year, I didn't notice it until today. But it made my day. That, and the other stuff that happened over the course of today.

Yes, I am a Star Trek geek.

Don't colour me blue!

For some very odd reason, everyone around me is depressing me today. People on Hitched, people at work... Now I realize that dealing with politics and megalomanics can be a downer, don't get me wrong.

Today, my co-worker and I bandied about two scenarios: ideal and realistic. The ideal situation, in my mind, still doable for the large part, just not in the time frame that we were looking at. Realistic situation was... depressing. Two steps forwards, three steps back. Do the math, and you end up walking backwards to the Dark Ages.

They say if you're given lemons, make lemonade. Really. That's what I try to remind myself every day. Things are never as bad as they seem.

Let's see, what were the positives of today:

• I met a fellow Hitched chick today for lunch. We commiserated over her ruined $150USD Citizen jeans, but she managed to find some authentic ones at Value Village for way cheaper. Yay!
• I went to go buy a bag of chips at the vending machine. I'd put in my money and punched in the numbers, and waited for the machine to do it's thing. Well, the bag started falling, but just as it was going to complete it's fall, a corner of the bag gets caught in the coily thing that holds it in place. I was flabbergasted. But then the machine started whirling again, and I got not only my original bag of chips, but a second bag as well! Sweet! (Now if you want to pity anyone, pity my hubby, who will now have to hear me whine about me getting fat over my silly craving. But he doesn't get a choice in the matter).
• I finally got to go to the chiropractor today. My upper back, neck and shoulders were killing me, mostly because of Evil Homework, so I've kinda regressed. But it's all good. And I'm going to start regular massage therapy sessions as well until Evil Homework is over.
  
• It ended up being sunny and warm today.
  

Well, that's it, but it's a start.

Now, blue people are Smurfs, and Smurfs tend to be a jolly lot. So if you're blue, then you're a Smurf, and if you're a Smurf, you're happy. And if you're happy, then you're not depressed. So stop making me depressed! How's that for Irene-Logic?

(BTW, Smurfette always annoyed me, I don't know why I put her picture up. Bah.)

No more turkey for me!

I had some frozen turkey dinner for lunch today. Then in the afternoon, half my brain fell asleep. Not good when trying to do work, and more importantly, have a meeting with my boss and trying to explain some concerns I had about something. I kept repeating myself, over and over again. My only consolation is that he was just as tired as I was, and didn't noticed. Bah.

The Chen Clan

Yesterday at my cousin N's wedding, an uncle from Chicago shoved something into my hands to give to my dad. It was a detailed genealogy of my dad's side of the family, the "Chen Clan". (By the way, my legal last name isn't Chen, it's something else. It's a long and interesting story how I came about my fake-legal last name.)

Anyways, reading through it, I apparently am a descendant of Emperor Shun (2300-2201 BC)! It's speculation whether or not he really is the "Adam" of all the Chens, according to this person (a distant relative of mine who compiled the whole thing). But he has evidence from documentation that he had found.

The first generation that he has listed is Chen Nan-qiao (1205-1284 AD). But going back further, it seems that there may have been a Duke in our family, and he had lost his Dukedom due to some civil strife. I may also have high ranking government officials and possibly a rebel who initiated and led a popular uprising that ultimately overthrew the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC). My ancestors seemed to have moved around China for a long period, partially due various invasions, partly due to more civil unrest.

According to this document, I'm the 28th generation "Chen". They even have hubby's name in the family tree. But whatever the story is for my ancestors, it's really cool that someone actually took the time to trace the roots of my ancestry.

Wedding Food

Yesterday, I attended my cousin N's wedding at the Sutton Place Hotel. I would post pictures of people, but my pictures didn't turn out all that great, and I don't have their permission to post their pictures on the internet. And really, you wouldn't find people you don't know very interesting. But you will find the food interesting. (I have to apologize for the really crappy pictures, they were taken with my camera phone, and I'm still figuring out how to use it. Dave says that the white balance was off). Food was very nummy by the way.

Here's the menu:

Amuse Bouche Plate: Citrus cured salmon, spiced tuna loin, stick of aged white cheddar, basa filet with mango salsa, and cocktail prawn wrapped with Prosciutto. (And of course, I'd forgotten to take a picture of it. D'oh!)


Lobster bisque with cognac chive cream:










Roasted prime rib steak green peppercorn dijonnaise with garlic prawns and scallops (this was one big hunk of meat!)










Dessert: Wedding cake and chocolate buffet (what the Sutton Place is known for!):

• Warm chocolate fondue with assorted fruit
• chocolate truffle cake
• white chocolate bavaroise
• chocolate flourless cake
• chocolate cheesecake
• chocolate pecan pie
• chocolate & mango mousse

I've lost my virginity!

Yes, for the first time ever, I've gotten a pedicure. Now my toes are polished red for my cousin's wedding tomorrow. Those are even the shoes that I'm wearing. Now to decide the rest of the outfit.

(I'm no longer a pedicure virgin, what did you think I was talking about? =P)

Salty Dried Prunes

Yesterday, my dad came by to give me some salty dried prunes. If you've never heard of them before, they're a Chinese "candy", so to speak. Ingredients: Dried prunes, licorice, salt, sugar.

When I was a kid, I would inhale these in, I love these things. A lot of my friends would put the whole thing in their mouth and suck on it. I was not so brave, after all, these babies are very salty.

Last night, I had three in a row. Okay, I felt like puking after the third one, but they are still good. They're great for car or plane sickness too. Just suck on one of these things should you start to feel nausea.

If you want to get on my good side, by me one of these packages and I will love you for life. (They're really cheap, so does that make me a cheap floosie?)

I'm a purge queen/nazi

The moment I saw today's PC Weenies cartoon, I thought immediately of myself. No, I don't have Apple packaging, I hadn't even gotten to absorbing the Apple details when the thought came to my mind. All I saw was boxes in a garbage can and someone being upset about it. (I do get the joke, but that's not what this post is about). Ryan would be my hubby. I would short, fat, bald guy.

You see, I'm a purge queen/nazi (pick whichever you think is appropriate after you've read the post). Once a year, for about 3-4 days (or two weekends) I morph into a green-eyed, ugly witch, and go purge-mad. Last year, the ugly, green-eyed witch took over in the middle of summer, on a really sunny, hot weekend when we could have been out biking or hiking or something. Not purging.

The thing is I don't just go through things like clothes and books. I go through every single item in the house. And I make my hubby go through every single item. This is the one time, guys, you'll be glad that you're not married to me. I can be downright inflexible and non-negotiable at times. There is no such thing as "well, maybe we should keep it, just in case." In my experience, "just in case" never comes.

I am ruthless when it comes to purging. I've even thrown out photos. I never look at them, so why keep them around? I'm all for putting pictures on disks. Hey, I'm not much of a sentimentalist, what can I say? Hubby on the other hand, likes photos. He's a bit of a amateur photographer (some of his stuff's pretty good), and any photo that's on display that isn't a portrait of someone, he took himself.

There are still some items that I want to throw out, but hubby doesn't. So it becomes a battle of wills. Sometimes I win, sometimes he does.

Fortuately for hubby, my yearly purge will have to be postponed to next year, because I simply just don't have the time to do it due to Evil Homework.

I've created a monster...!

One of my co-workers is a really big spender. He's also an impulsive shopper. Not a good combination. So today he showed me this $200+USD light/bowl thingie that he bought (I think it's a table lamp, but I'm not certain).

Anyways, I introduced him to this site that I'd ran into a couple of days ago. The stuff on the web site is really more his style than mine, and I can't afford/justify most of the stuff.

So I sat back and watched the show.

He took to this site like a moth to a flame. And bought a $89USD wine rack. And looked at each and every item on the site (there's quite a few items). He's definitely planning on buying more things off of the website with his next paycheque, I just know it.

I'm such a bad, bad person. =D

Body Rolling

I almost didn't go to my Pilates class tonight. I didn't sleep very well last night, and was quite tired all day today.

My major stress from work has been over for more than a week, but my body's still not relaxed from all the stress I put it through (plus burning the candle at both ends doesn't help).

Anyways, I forced myself to go. And I'm glad I did!

My instructor decided to do some body rolling, and let me tell you, my upper back hasn't been this loose in months! We have a ball at home that hubby uses on his IT band (whatever it is, but it helps prevent his knee problems when he runs). I think I'll be rolling on the ball a little more often, as a couple of people have already commented how tight all my muscles are. Wait until I go to my chiropractor next week! Yikes!

(Definition of Body Rolling in red).

I have no life

My boss was shaking his head when I asked him to sign my vacation request today. Don't get me wrong, he's all for vacation and taking time off (and he never does enough of either, as he always claims).

So I'm taking next week Wednesday and Thursday off. Why not do something like take Thursday and Friday or Monday and Tuesday off to get a 4-day weekend, you may ask. Good question.

I'm taking two extra days off to do Evil Homework (which I will rant about in more detail soon, I promise). I actually want to go back to work on the Friday, I actually like my job much more than Evil Homework. All I do on the weekends is Evil Homework anyways, so I don't know if I could take four days straight of it.

Yes, I have no life.

Hello G!

Gwynabella and I have never met. The only way we know each other is through a common person, "D". "D" is my co-worker, and "D" is a good friend of Gwynabella.

This morning, I found a post-it note with a message from Gwynabella. It seems she was in the office on Friday after I'd left. She really liked my wedding cake topper, and my other Star Trek paraphernalia. I figured I'd show Gwynabella (and my faithful readers) my cake topper in all it's glory.

I love my cake topper. I bought Locutus at a Star Trek convention, and Janeway on E-Bay. And glued it onto a surface. Total cost: $25-ish. Total cost for a regular wedding cake topper, about $100, depending on what you're after.

What can I say, I'm a geek. I still need to get around to buying the Jane Austen action figure, and then my life will be complete.

Edge to Edge Marathon

Here's what hubby's doing this weekend: The Edge to Edge Marathon. He's doing the relay with a bunch of other people, so he'll only be running less than 10K for his leg.

As you can see, he'll be running along side the Pacific Ocean (the real ocean. From Vancouver, the water you see is the Georgia Straight, not real ocean). Hopefully he won't fall into the water. And have good weather.

(Well, running a marathon has got to be more interesting than what I'm doing right now, which is Evil Homework.)

Trouble

Yay! Blogger is working again. I will post more later. For now, this is for IT Plumber/Janitor...

D-Day

(Wow, this is my 100th post!)

So today is D-Day.

It's the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year of this century. 6-6-6. The sign of the Devil

But that's not the D-Day that I mean.

It's also the day that the Battle of Normandy started back in 1944. As much as I appreciate the fact that countless of lives were lost for our freedom, I'm not referring to this either.

No, boys and girls, today is my lovely hubby's 35th birthday. And his name is Dave.

Happy Birthday Dave!

Coffee is Vile!

You coffeeholics/jazz-a-philes are going to really hate me now.

Coffee is VILE. Blech! Today I went to Starbucks, and because it was a nice sunny, warm day, I decided to get one of their summer drinks: Bananas & Cream Frappuchino Blended Creme (with no whipping cream).

First, the barista gave me the drink with whipping cream. I pointed out her mistake, so she fixed it. As I went to take a swig of my cool drink, VILENESS hit my mouth! She made me a Banana Coconut Frappuchino Blended Coffee! Yes, it was the wrong drink. With icky coffee in it!
After nearly choking to death, I pointed out her error (yet again) and she finally whipped up the correct drink (with no whipping cream). And like a good little Starbuck employee, gave me a coupon for a free drink as a gesture of goodwill (I now have two coupons, the other I got from a similar incident). Anyways, the drink tasted like a banana milkshake.

I had to explain to my boss why I was late for a meeting with him. I told him about my near death experience. I also told him that I hate the smell of coffee. He asked me how I every survived walking into Starbucks each time. I told him that I've perfected the art of not breathing through my nose whenever I smell vileness. Really, it's quite a handy skill to have.

I don't like jazz

Okay, what's the big deal about jazz? On Saturday, I was at my work's summer BBQ Funfest, and the topic of jazz came up. People were horrified that I don't like jazz.

I don't hate jazz. In fact, I know how to play two different instruments (piano and bass guitar), and can appreciate jazz technically. And some of the faster stuff is okay. However, at best, I'm indifferent to jazz. At worse, it bores me to tears.

See, I'm not one of those types who likes to mellow out, glass of wine in hand, relaxing on a nice rainy day, listening to jazz. Jazz puts me to sleep. That whole scenario puts me to sleep. On a rainy day, I'd be doing something, like cleaning. Or purging. Or surfing the Internet. Or shopping at the mall.

I need to move around. I love dancing, and most jazz pieces, really you can't dance to. Okay, so you can swing to some of it, and that's kinda cool, but otherwise forget it. I need a regular, fast, pounding beat to shake my booty to.

It's not like I'm not going to give jazz a chance musically. One day I try playing some jazz riffs on my bass guitar.

But ask me to listen to it and like it? Forget it.

Aggression is good

So I had a pretty hellish week. Actually this past month was pretty stressful, but it really accumulated this week. We had a deadline this week that our vendor had pretty much admitted they couldn't meet, and although they thought they did, they still had to go through user acceptance (ie we had to give them the thumbs up.) . There were no thumbs pointing up.

It pretty much was a lot of back and forth with several different people (there even was a VP in the melee), lots of not really good customer service, and a final mediocre product that still needs fixing. I had finally lost my patience. But we're at a point where we need to go-live, so go-live on Monday we will!

So anyways, last night at the gym, my trainer decided to do a little mini-circuit with me. She noted after the first round that I was pretty aggressive. I told her my long sordid story of all the jackassery that was going on at work.

So when I was hopping up from a bench to touch a low hanging ceiling, I wasn't touching, I was whacking. Hard. And imagining that I was whacking someone's head in the process.

Whack! Take that Mr. Vice-President-who-never-returns-my-calls.

Whack! Take that Miss-programmer-why-do-you-ask-me-how-the-system-
works-when-you-can-see-the-code-for-yourself- and-you-were-the-ones-who-coded-it-in- the-first-place-so-I-shouldn't-be-the-one- telling-you-how-it-works!

Whack! Whack! Whack!

My trainer also got me doing karate kicks on an exercise ball she was holding. I kicked very hard, but I didn't want to hurt my trainer. I like her.

Kick! Kick! Kick!

Sometimes it was the head I was kicking, sometimes it was the groin.

I think I really pushed myself cause I was already pretty tired a bit exhausted from the week, and afterwards, felt a big sick and dizzy. But it felt good.

(Note that I've never met these people before, only ever talked with them on the phone or email.)

I HATE Regular Expressions

So I've been in vain trying to look for a regular expression that validates dollar amounts but doesn't allow any other symbols other than "+", "-" and "." (no commas either please).

I refuse to figure out how to build it, it's bad enough simple ones are beyond my comprehension (read: I have no patience, and frankly, no time to figure this out). So I'm just not going to put the validation in right now, I still have too much to do.

For once, Internet is failing me. Waaaaah!!! If anyone has any bright ideas, please let me know.

(And for those who haven't got a clue as to what I'm talking about, trust me, you don't wanna know).

Chocolate has its uses

When my boss see me with a chocolate candy bar in my hand, he knows it's due to one thing: stress. And kind soul that he is, asks me what's wrong. Sometimes it's work related, sometimes it's something else.

I love chocolate, but I actually try to cut down on my consumption as eating too much makes me fat. However, I cave when I get really stressed out and I can't push away the craving.

Chocolate is yummy. And it makes me feel so much better. My husband is at this point rolling his eyes as he read this.

Now scientists are finding a way to create fuel with chocolate. Maybe one day we'll be driving chocolate-fueled cars. Talk about a renewable resource.

See hubby, chocolate is useful. You can stop rolling your eyes, they're going to get stuck.

Ringxiety

This morning on my way to work, I was listening to the normal chatter on the radio. The topic they had brought up was "ringxiety".

What the heck is ringxiety? Apparently, when hearing a faint, discernible sound in a certain sound frequency range, that person mistakens it for their cell phone ringing when it is not. A "phantom" ring, so to speak.

This is apparently a widespread phenomenon, according to this NY Times article. Because many people's lives are centred around their cell phones, they automatically make this connection in their brain. Makes sense.

What is surprising (or sad, depends on how you want to look at it), is that when they hear this "phantom" ring and discover that their cell wasn't really ringing, it affects their feelings self-worth and popularity.

This coined-phrase has already made it's way around the Internet at its normal lightening-speed. It's in at least one online slang dictionary, go figure.

Fortunately for me I don't think I'll every suffer from ringxiety. The majority of my calls are from hubby (who usually is calling to ask for an opinion or if I need something at the mall) or my mother. Or maybe I'm just not popular enough.

Google slowly takes over the universe...

I've just started playing around with Google Notebook, and I'm loving it so far! I've heard of this software from a monthly email that I get from Google. So I decided to try it out for my hunt for accommodations in Edinburgh when we go in September.

I was a little apprehensive at first when I was told that I had to install a little plug-in. After all we are discouraging our users from installing Google Toolbar as there have been reports that some of your information on your computer can get stored elsewhere. Serious security breeches for us. (And really, if you need a tool to find a file or content on your computer, you really need to organize yourself better).

However, it definitely integrates nicely with my Firefox version 1.5 browser. I'm guessing that the good folks at Google are using some form of AJAX to get the tool working?

In any case, it's pretty darn cool. Now instead of bookmarking sites and trying to remember information that I've read all over the place, and writing it down, I can put everything in one place. I particularly like the drag-and-drop features as well as the ease of being able to add something (whether it be text or images) to my notebook with a click of the mouse button. Plus, you can publish the page to the Internet should you choose too. Neat!

So far, my only complaint is that sometimes it adds a new note instead of adding to a current one, but this may mean that I have to learn how to work around it's limitations.

But I still give it a thumbs up. If anyone knows me well enough, I HATE paper, and I would rather do away with it altogether. This is definitely a step in the right direction for me.

Let's make a deal - a summary

So after talking with IT Plumber/Janitor about my long London post, I've decided to give you a summary.

Looking for a place in London was very painful and complicated by my criteria:

• it needs to have two bathrooms (you don't get your own ensuite with anything under 3 stars)
  
• it needs to be near Hyde park so hubby can go running
• it needs to be near a tube station
  
• it needs to be cheap
  

So after my sister introduced me to Hotwire.com, we managed to get two hotel rooms, rated 3.5 stars for the price of a 1 star hotel room. And all criteria met. Whoo!

Edinburgh is proving to be a little more difficult. Stay tuned.

New Sofa!

New sofa:
















Chair and a half

Let's Make a Deal

So as some of you may know, I am going to London/Scotland with my family (me, hubby, sis and mum) in September. I was given the task of looking for accomodation, and I've only realized now that I had 3.5 months left before the big trip. So this past week, I went looking. And looking. And getting very depressed. And getting very stressed.

Here are my problems:

• London is huge
• London is very expensive
• There are about 10 billion different accomodation choices
  

So this past week, I was re-learning their system of how they rank their hotels and rooms, which is somewhat different than in North America. This is down partially to show you my challenge and as a reference for me should I decide to visit the UK again sometime in the future.

Hotel Classes (as I understand them, and oh, star ratings for the same hotel vary depending on the site you're looking at. It seems no one can agree on even that):

• 1 star: you're lucky to get a bed, mattress is very questionable, and don't look to hard, you won't see the dirt. Depending on the area, it's under £50 pounds per night
• 2 stars: you have a bed, but you share a bathroom with other strangers. Price is about £50 - £75
• 2.5 stars: you get your own bathroom, but it's a 2x3 (literaly, I've seen pics) shower that's really a part of the room. The drain is in the middle of the bathroom floor.
• 3 stars: you get your own bathroom, and hopefully with a tub. Cleanliness is questionable. Your room and bathroom are still closets, but they may start providng more services (like a hairdryer and trouser press in your room). About £70-120, again depending on the area
• 3.5 stars: the place is somewhat cleaner and nicer, more services. £80 - £170.
• 4 stars: your room is much bigger (in London standards anyways), and much nicer. £130 - £200+
• 5 stars: living in luxury. Don't even ask about the price.

And here are the room options:

• Single twin: one person, one twin bed
• Double: two people, one double bed (their version of Queen a lot of times is two twins pushed together)
  
• Two twins: two people, two twin beds
• Triple: three people, either one double and a twin, or three twins
• Quad: four people, and it's a combination of the above for beds, and also includes sofa-beds, trundle beds and air mattresses (hard to find)
  
• Family room: be careful, this a lot of times means that it's for three people, not four or more.

My challenges:

• My sister wanted two bathrooms (long story)
• Hubby wanted to be near Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, so he can do his early morning jogs
• Do it cheaply (cheap and London are oxymorons)
  

My options:

• Rent a self-service apartment (a challenge unto itself). Many units, despite the fact that they can house 4-6 only have one bathroom. You'll be lucky to get two bathrooms. (Londoners probably would be shocked to find out that I have three toilets in my house, and it's only me and hubby)
• Book a quad room from a hotel. Again, the one bathroom problem, and dicey bed choices
• Book two double rooms in a hotel
• Book a single and a triple room in a hotel

My Goal: So I was aiming for a 3-4 star place with the combined total of no more than £150-200 per night, near the parks and with two bathrooms. At a place with pretty good ratings and near a tube station. A very tall order. (I been checking out this site a lot for reviews and prices).

So I started writing looking, writing down places, inquiring, doing more searching, changing my search criteria, showed hubby about 40 thousand potentials, more searching...

My sister came up last night (she's going on an Alaskan cruise, I seriously don't know where she get's the money. Oh wait, she earns more than me. Duh). And I presented her with my problem. She told me about a site that she goes looking on a lot. Hotwire.com has a lot of travel deals. You put in your search parameters, and they return a list of deals. The kicker is that they don't tell you exactly what you're booking for until after you book it.

So in my list, the best deal was two rooms in a 3.5 star in the Kensington/Earls Court/Knightsbridge area for $83 USD per night. Yes, that is very bloody cheap.

So after a great deliberation and a bit of guesswork as to which hotel it may be, we decided suck it in and deal with the consequences and pressed the "Submit" button. The result.....






A Holiday Inn. And not just any Holiday Inn. According to their website, they are 4 star, and they are the largest Holiday Inn in the world. Plus, it's near a tube station, in a very nice area, we have two bathrooms, and it's a 10 mins walk to the park (hubby can probably run there in about 3).

And the total costs? It worked out total to be under £45 per night for each room (for a total of under £90 per night). BAWHAHAHAHAHAH! Hotwire.com ROCKS!

Now onto Scotland... sigh.

This 'n that

(Sorry, this has turned out to be one long rant, something I don't normally do. IT Plumber/Janitor, you might as well skip this post as I'll rant to you later anyways).

Today I had a very overwhelming day. I'm stressed because of school, I'm stressed because of work, and I'm stressed because I'm looking for a place to stay for our London/Scotland trip.

First, work: I have a deadline coming up next week, and things were not looking good for a while. I was banging my head against a brick wall for almost two weeks. The thing about IT is that things either work or they don't work. If they don't work, it can take weeks, or even months to fix the problem. I don't have weeks, I have several days. And I stayed late at work, instead of going to the gym, to make sure this piece was finally working. It was, thanks to the help of my co-worker "D" who is absolutely brilliant.

Anyways, my deadline is still looming, and what I still have to do keeps piling up as I took so long dealing with this other problem. I feel a bit better, but it ain't over yet. (I also had to go to the mall to get some baked goods as tomorrow is my turn for cookies at the weekly meeting).

Second, school project: I will sit down and actually write a detailed post of what's been going on with my school, as I've been giving very vague answers to everyone. School is complicated, and it's stressful. I have deadlines every two months, but believe me, I prefer that to the state it was in before. Like I said, wait for that post for more details.

Third, vacation planning: It seems that a lot of places ask for either a deposit or full payment up front, so you have to do your homework and you have act FAST! I managed to find a really sweet deal in Mayfair of all places (a really swanky part of London where a lot of famous people live). However they want full payment, not a problem. Except they want it done through Western Union.

As of today, I hate Western Union. They make it so bloody difficult to send money to someone. I spent close to an hour on the phone being sent around in a circle with an automated voice. Someone definitely hasn't tested all the paths on their system to see that they actually offer the service that they bloody advertise. And they are charging an exorbitant amount of money for the transfer! Highway robbery, that's all I can say. Well, hubby is suppose to wire the money tomorrow. Cross fingers that we get the money there in time so I can confirm the booking.

This leads to my final gripe. I haven't gone to the gym at all since last Friday. I normally go 4-5 times a week. I need to exercise to help alleviate my stress levels (my stress got really bad a couple of years ago, and I've done some damage, so I try to be careful as to how much stress I can handle nowadays), and to help me sleep.

I tend to need about 9 hours of sleep. I'm lucky if I get 7. They say that for every hour of sleep you lose, it takes 4 hours of sleep to make up for it. So if I lose 2 hours of sleep every day, 2 * 7 * 4 = A whole whackload of sleep that I need to make up during the day. Bah.

I've been progressively been getting more stressed out and more tired because I'm having trouble sleeping. It's the chicken and egg scenario.

My day typically goes like this:
6.30 AM - get up and get ready for work
8.00 - 4 .00 - work
5 -ish - gym time
between 6-7 - eat dinner
7.00 - 9.00 - do EVIL homework
9.00 - 10.00 - wash dishes and try to do devotions
10.00 - 10.30 - stretch and allow my body to wind down
10.30 - 11.00 - go to bed

This has not been happening lately. I've also been eating a lot of crap, and thus gaining back the 5 or so pounds that I've been in vain trying to lose. Bah.

Lost

I LOVE this show! Last night's season finale was awesome! Here are my thoughts:

• I'm not entirely convinced that Desmond brought down the plane. Don't forget that the plane had been flying off course for 2 hours already, something else was causing that. The fact that Desmond saw the System Failure had occurred about the same time as the plane crash is speculation on his part, IMO.
• I don't think Eko, Locke and Desmond are dead. The Others I think know exactly what had happened, they didn't even seemed fazed that it happened.
• I think we'll see Michael and Walt again. Michael has a lot to do to redeem himself, although I'm curious about the looked that passed between him and Jack. He was annoying me big time though.
• Charlie was acting weird, really weird
• My question: Okay, if you don't press the button, all hell breaks loose. What would have happened if Desmond didn't turn the key? I'm still not convinced that the key does anything. They've only left us with the impression that the key does something.

So many questions! I don't think anything was answered, only implied. And of course what would Lost be without more questions?

I've also discovered this site to get my Lost fix.

Things to do while in London...

This looks mighty interesting. And it's opening a week before I get there. Whoo!

£15 is a bit steep for admissions though.

Why is this so hard?

After some mental calculations, I'd realized this morning that there is only 3.5 months before we go on our England trip. I was given the task to look for accommodations. It's harder than it looks.

I decided that I didn't want to stay in a hotel like we did on our London trip last year. I wanted something with a kitchenette, or at the very least, a microwave and bar fridge. I found last time that I'd rather go to the local Tesco and buy my own breakfast and lunch nibbles. Also, I'm not a big eater, so being able to put things in a fridge to eat the next day would've helped with the expense somewhat.

I had a couple of constraints. First, there are four of us. Second, there is no way in hell we are going to share a loo with other people, we have enough trouble getting along amongst ourselves as it is. In fact, my sister had requested that we find a place with two toilets. Great. (As an aside for the uninitiate, 3 stars in London means that you get a loo to yourself as oppose to sharing with strangers).

So I Googled for Apartment rentals in London. Let me tell you that there are about a bajilliion sites out there, and about 80% of them are really poorly put together, the rest being barely passable. Nothing turns me off more than a really poorly designed site.

What have I discovered so far? That renting is just as expensive. Renting a place with two toilets is even more expensive. Having more than one toilet in many English households is actually a bit of a luxury. I'm trying to determine what my upper limit in terms of price will be, and let me tell you, it keeps going up. Not to mention that I had foolishly waited until now to book something, a lot of the places that I was considered were already taken. Wah!

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

SPOILER ALERT for both movie and book (don't say I didn't warn ya!)

After reading a lot of bad reviews for the movie, I had to take a step back and un-remember what was in the novel and ignore pretty much what was being said in the press regarding the movie. So I sat back and tried to enjoy the movie for what it is.

Quick Points - Things I Liked:

• Sir Ian McKellen: His acting was superb as always, and pretty much stole the show.
• Paul Bettany: despite the makeup, still has a yummy body, and was a half-decent crazed monk.
• The computer graphics were seamless and very believable
• For those who haven't read the book, they had changed the ending slightly, but it still worked in context of the movie plot
• I thought they did a creditable job explaining all the history, etymology, symbolism stuff in the book
• The action and suspense were well done.
  
• It followed the book fairly closely
• Audrey Tautou: she's hot (at least I think so). You gotta hand it to the French for propagating such beautiful women. If hubby were ever re-marry, he should try French =P
  

Things I didn't like:

• Tom Hanks: B-O-R-I-N-G. Sorry, but his acting wasn't remarkable, and I still think they could have casted better.
• Audrey Tautou: She was also boring. But the worst part was that I felt zero chemistry between her and Tom Hanks. Also I don't think her character was very well developed in the movie
• My friend "N" said that there was too much talking. For those who've read the book, you may feel that way, but the background information is mainly for those who are unfamiliar with the story.
  
• Although I felt that the book's plot was a bit dodgy, it became even more apparent on screen. Plus there were a lot of unaccounted-for plot holes that wouldn't have made sense to those who hadn't read the book.
• They changed the ending. I still think that the book's ending was better. It would have made it more meaningful for Sophie and not seem like such a cop-out.
  

After all that, I give the movie 7 out of 10. Enjoyable enough on it's own, but the script needs more work. Watch the movie first then read the book to fill in the holes.

It's all in the name

This post is dedicated to my friend "P", who asked me the meaning behind the name of my blog.

Fibbertigibbet happens to be my favourite word in the English language. I have no idea where I had picked up this word, but it has been with me since I was a teenager.

It was originally defined to me as "a frivolous and flighty female" (say that 3 times fast!). Dictionary.com actually had it as a Word of the Day, andMerriam-Webster online tells me that the etymology goes back to the times when Middle English was en vogue. (eg in Chaucer's time). Cool!

I've actually seen this archaic word in two different novels, one that was fairly old, and I wished that I'd remember the title of the book. The other instance was in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, Chapter 15. It was used as a password to get into the Gryffendor common room. I've actually contemplated writing to JK Rowling to not only commend her use of my favourite word but keeping such an archaic thing alive and kicking. Haven't written to her yet.

So the million-dollar question now becomes, "Is Weed a flibbertigibbet?" You'll need to ask the hubby, he's the best judge of me. =P

Red Eggs and Ginger

Tonight, I went to my friend's baby's one-month birthday celebration. Well, she's actually 2 months now, but still it's a time to celebrate. For those of you who have never heard of this particular Chinese celebration, you can read more about it here.

Normally, we would go to a Chinese restaurant for this sort of dinner. However, my friends decided to do something a little different. We went to the Cafe Pacifica at the Pan Pacific Hotel. Every Friday and Saturday night, they have the Italian Opera Buffet. Let me tell you that the food was absolutely fabulous! They had a roasted vegetable ravioli that was absolutely yummy, and the chocolate mousse was to die for. The rest of the food was equally appitizing. The view and singing was excellent. All in all, a really enjoyable evening. Hubby and I will definitely go back someday.

Book Review: Da Vinci Code

Following my usual habit of trying to read the novel before viewing the movie, I went out and bought The Da Vinci Code from Chapters. Mostly, I was curious to see what all the hoopla was about. I've just finished the book, and here are my thought about it.

I have to say, right off the bat, I was disappointed in the book. I suppose that it was because of all the rave reviews that I've heard from other people that my expectations were high. Never having read a book in this type of gendre before (well, never to the end), I really hope other books of the same gendre won't be as disappointing.

There was too much detail, and it actually got boring at times. I spoke to someone at work who read through a 1/4 of the book before she stopped reading it, it was so boring for her.

Much of the plot hinges on very specific historical information and facts. In fact, the information is so specific, if Brown didn't detail out the intricacies, some of the story's rationale may not make sense. For me, the pagan history, symbology and etymology lessons were mildly interesting, but that's it. The constant repetition of rose symbology is one of the pivotal themes in the book, but it got a little too repetitious for me.

This book sort of reminded me of a murder thriller book I tried to read many years ago (sorry, can't remember the title or author). The author of this book was a real-life forensic scientist, and her specialty was blood splatter patterns. Yeah, the same sort of thing that they talk about on CSI. In this murder mystery, she goes into great depth about different types of blood splatter patterns, and how each pattern has a different meaning. While it was important to the plot that she had to go into that much depth to explain the character's reasoning, that book got tedious rather quickly. And so does The Da Vinci Code.

I think Sir Ian McKellen had expressed my feeling the best:

Sir Ian, who plays the Earl Grey-loving grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code, said before the film's world premiere yesterday: "While I was reading the book I believed it entirely. Clever Dan Brown twisted my mind convincingly. "But when I put it down I thought, 'What a load of ... [eloquent pause] potential codswallop." [Source]

But of course, he didn't mention that he read ahead like I did. That's a sure sign for me that the book is dragging on. And I thought it was codswallop even before I finished the book, thanks to my reading ahead which allowed me to think about the events a little more thoroughly.

I suppose that what makes this book sensational is that Dan Brown plays up the theory that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, and stuff like this upsets the Church. And anything that causes this much ruckus tends to draw people in. (Being a Christian myself, I have thought about it from a Christian point of view, but won't put them here as this is suppose to be a book review.)

I did feel that the action did translate fairly well from book to screen; in my head, I could actually see the action happening. (Someone asked me tonight if I had ever pictured anyone other than Tom Hanks in the role of Robert Langston. Since I saw many pictures and trailers for The Da Vinci Code already, I couldn't picture anyone but Tom Hanks, not that I'm a fan of his). However, as I mentioned before, as the book is already bogged down by too much detail that is important to the forward movement of the plot, I don't think that will translate well to film. I've already had indications of that from the dismal ratings the film's gotten so far. A friend of mine had already seen the movie and he was telling me bits about the plot, and from his narration, it may be as I feared, that they cut out a lot of detail to make the film. (And it's already 2.5 hours long). I'll know for certain once I see the movie tomorrow night.