London/Rome Vacation - Part 1 - Itinerary

I really apologise that this post has taken awhile to write. I find that the jet-lag is taking a while to get over. Anyways, here is an itinerary of our trip. My favourite places are marked with a red *

Thur May 15
Fly to London

Friday May 16
Greenwich day trip

• Royal Observatory - For those of you who don't know, the Prime Meridian, which Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is measured from, actually goes through London. I, like so many others, had one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere
• Queen's House
• National Maritime Museum *

O2 - Apparently, this is Europe's largest entertainment centre. We wanted to see this place because we've seen it several times on TV shows and we heard so much about it. The place is huge!

Sat May 17
Leeds Castle* - Kent County - Really cool castle

Sunday May 18
Bath day trip

• Jane Austen Centre
• Pultney Bridge
• Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms * - the museum was cool, but what was really neat was to see the Upper Assembly Rooms as described in Jane Austen's novels
• Royal Crescent and the Circus - more interesting architecturally than anything else
• Number 1, Royal Crescent
• Building of Bath Museum - a mildly interesting museum that describes the architectural development of Bath as a city.

Monday May 19
- Stratford-Upon-Avon day trip - Where Shakespeare was born, lived and buried (if you are going to visit, I suggest you start at Shakespeare's grave and work your way back to Shakespeare's birthplace). Stratford-Upon-Avon is also a pretty town to hang out

• Shakespeare's Birthplace
• Nash House & New Place
• Halls Croft
• Shakespeare's Grave @ Holy Trinity Church *

- Warwick Castle * - another really cool castle
- Jack the Ripper London Walk * - I've always wanted to go on this walk. It's also a nice way to learn more about London's social history in during the Victorian era, and presented in a way that you wouldn't normally see in a museum or in a history book.

Tuesday May 20
Fly to Rome - Stansted Airport was very nice. RyanAir is really no frills, but you can't beat the price

Wednesday May 21 (also know as the 24 hours of hell)

• Roman Forum (Foro Romano) *
• Palatine Hill (Monte Palatino) * - This place is massive, but very interesting
• Colosseum (Colosseo)
• Arch of Constantine
• Trajan's Column, Market & Forum - (Colonna, Foro, e Mercati de Traiano)
• Mamertine Prison - Where St. Paul and St Peter were imprisoned for a time
• Capitoline Hill Square (Campidoglio)
• St. Peter In Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli) - Displays the chains that held St. Peter

Thursday May 22

• Trevi Fountain
• Pantheon
• Castel Sant'Angelo
• St. Peter's Basilica* (Basilica San Pietro), Dome (Cupola), and Pope's tombs - yes, we climbed up the dome, and we saw dead popes

Friday May 23

• National Museum of Rome * (Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo Massimo alle Terme)
• Baths of Diocletian (Terme di Diocleziano) - No longer Roman Baths, it was converted into a church sometime during it's history
• Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna)
  
• Alter of Peace (Ara Pacis)
• Capitoline Museum * (Musei Capitolini) - great view of the Roman Forums as well as lots of interesting artifacts

Saturday May 24
Via Appia Antica tour - good stretch of road for biking

• Tomb of Cecilia Metella (Mausoleo di Cecilia Metalla)
• Circus & Villa of Maxentius (Circo e Villa di Massenzio)
• Catacombs of San Callisto *
• Domine Quo Vadis Church

- Galleria Doria Pamphilj * - lots of interesting artwork collected by the Doria Pamphilj family. The house is really nice too

Sunday May 25
Ostia Antica * - Ruins of what used to be a major port city near Rome. Our guidebook said the tour would take about 2 hours, we were there for 5 hours, the place is massive. We only left because we were getting really hot and sunburnt.

Monday May 26

• Vatican Museum * - my favourite part was actually watching someone do restoration work
  
• Sistine Chapel *

Tuesday May 27
- Fly back to London
- Wallace Collection * - Lots of cool armour and weaponry
- Watched Indiana Jones movie at the O2

Wednesday May 28

• Museum in Docklands* - This is a cool place because it shows yet a different perspective of London's history. They also had a Jack the Ripper exhibit. I found it interesting that the opinions of the murders varied somewhat between the exhibit and the London Walk, but still a fascinating look at life in the East End during the Victorian era. The Docklands area is super nice, lots of modern office buildings and flats.
  
• Apsley House - the First Duke of Wellington lived here
• London Ghost Walk

Thursday May 29
Fly back to Vancouver!

Pictures and other comments forthcoming! Dave took over 600 pictures, so it may be a while before you see them.

Back home!

Hubby and I got back home from our vacation yesterday afternoon. We're severely jet-lagged, but we had a fun time. I'll be posting my vacation comments shortly, probably in about 4 parts, including the pictures.

I've spent some of today getting stuff done, and most of today (like about 10 hours worth) catching up on work email. I probably need another couple of hours tomorrow to be really caught up; I need to hit the ground running come Monday when I go back to work.

Although we did have a nice time, there was about a 24 hour period where it was very stressful. In order of appearance, on the first full day in Rome:

• It was raining very, very hard, and we were outside most of that day. Think of someone pouring water out of a bucket on your head, that was our day (no joke);
• Hubby had his wallet stolen. We spent a lot of time calling Canada to cancel cards and such. Our cell phone bills will be huge;
• Someone called me at 2am, on my cell, to tell me that the house alarm on my mom's house was set off, and the alarm company couldn't get a hold of anyone. Lots of panic calls back to North America ensued, again our cell phone bill will be huge. After several calls, I had managed to reach my sister in Seattle. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.
  
• I sprained my ankle and shin muscles. Found out today that I wasn't suppose to walk long distances on it. This happened smack in the middle of my vacation, so naturally, I kept walking long distances; it is vacation after all. I won't be going to my step class for a little while.
  

Off to Europe!!!

Yayay! We're going to Europe! I may post, but it'll be highly doubtful that this will happen. Definitely will when I return end of this month or in early June!

Off to Europe!!!

Yayay! We're going to Europe! I may post, but it'll be highly doubtful that this will happen. Definitely will when I return end of this month or in early June!

For all the geeks out there

Sadly, I want the projector, and I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan.

http://www.nikkor2d2.com/

So here's the scoop....

Yes, I had promised that I would update my readers as to the status of my school thing once I found out what was going on with it. I've had a very busy and exhausting week, so that was my only excuse, and not a good one at that.

So here's the scoop. I didn't get a pass, but I didn't get a fail either. They (being the committee of people who looks over and grades these reports) didn't feel that there was enough substance in my report to warrant a pass. I had a very long talk with my advisor, and she felt it was partially her fault for trying to push me into finishing too soon. She didn't take into consideration the rest of my life (ie that I work full-time, and that am a manager who needs to work outside of work hours to get things done, and that I have a life outside of all that). To her credit, she was trying to help me finish quickly, there wasn't any malicious intent, just some misjudgment on her part.

So the bottom line is I need to do a major rewrite and add lots more information to the report. She's given me more time, but I really want to get this done by the end of July. She did a lot of brainstorming as to how I could improve my report, so I now have lots of fodder to work with.

In other news: work has been very stressful for me. I had someone leave, and haven't had a chance to replace her properly. The big problem is that this position is needed by a very large project that we are doing at work, and schedules keep slipping, and people keep breathing down my neck to hire someone else. Easier said than done. While that is mostly resolved, it's not completely. Without getting into too many details, there's a lot of pressure of getting this positions filled permanently. Sigh. There are other things going on at work too that is sucking up a lot of my time and attention, so I've been coming home every day last week completely exhausted.

Life: I'm going to Europe in 4 days! These last few days have been very busy with trip planning as well. Even though we've been in London a couple of times already, I'm still amazed at how much stuff there is to do in that city! I did a bit of a search as to what else there is to do and there are a ton of stuff that are not on the top 10 tourist attraction list! What we will be this time around is three out of town trips: Bath, Strafford-Upon-Avon/Warwick Castle and Leeds Castle. As well, we'll be hitting a few of the lesser known sites in London. I'll definitely post a full itinerary and pictures after we come back. But this is why I love London so much, there is always something to do.

Rome was a bit of a challenge to plan out, mostly because I'm not that familiar with it. What I did was print out weekly calendars and listed everything that I wanted to see, and planned out the trip that way. It's a bit of a juggle as there were several things I had to take into consideration, but I won't bore you with the details just yet, they are for a different post. I'll let you know if all my plotting has worked out. Needless to say, we will be doing lots of walking! I really hope that the weather will be good.

We still have some part of the trip that needs planning out (for instance, we still don't have a hotel for the last part of our trip), but things are coming together... I can't wait!

Rest of my life: well, somewhere amongst all the busyness, I need to go to see my chiropractor. Apparently my lower back is slightly out of alignment. My massage therapist caught it last week, but she wasn't able to fix it (the feeling of someone trying to push at your vertebrae is very weird). Part of the problem is that I physically need to be at work to get certain things done, like interviews, so it's been near impossible to go see my chiropractor. I definitely need to see him before I go on my trip, my lower back is warring with my upper back as to which part wants to cause me more pain an misery. Sigh.

Sigh...

So I had handed in my report on May 1. Although I told people that I was done, there is always a risk that I may need to tweak my report or some other such horrors to be had before I actually pass and get my credits.

My adviser had informed me today that she had to talk to me about my report. It's probably nothing more than I need to flesh out a couple parts of my report, but of course, I'm thinking worse case scenario, so I've been stressed all afternoon. I will find out tomorrow what the status is.

On top of all that, there is still trip planning and work is crazy busy. I need to get a certain amount done before I leave. This isn't a good time for my free time to be eaten up (yet again) with school work. Please just let me pass this thing.

Plus, my massage therapist told me today that my lower back is out of alignment. Which means another trip to the chiropractor, and I don't have time as it is. Stupid body, I'm not suppose to age.

It was also bad enough that I got to listen to our neighbour's dumb-ass kids (who are high school aged) get drunk and high on pot. With about 50 of their friends. And no parents. Two nights in a row. In the middle of the night. Two nights of calling the cops, and two nights of no cops showing up.

Sigh.

Going AWOL

(You know, I'd always thought that the term meant that the person went crazy. Not completely off the mark with my life right now).

Sorry, I haven't been posting for a while. It's not like I don't have things to say, I always do. However, I'm up to my neck with:
- Schoolwork - Due April 30th, so it's really the home stretch for me, I need to buckle down, focus and bang out a 100+ page report (plus peripherals) by my deadline. Cross your fingers for me!
- Work-work- I'm about 2-3 weeks behind on some of my email, bad me, and it takes me about an hour just to compose my daily to-do list. Sigh. One day I'll be caught up, just not today.
- The rest of my life.

As much as I would like to blog about my musings, honestly, it sometimes take me a hour or more to properly post something up. I can barely keep up with laundry, dishes and cleaning my toilet as it is (no joke). Never mind the fact that we still have trip planning to do.

You will hear more from me at the beginning of May, promise!

Dear Passport Canada

I will be going on a big European adventure in six weeks time. My passport will be expiring within 6 months by the time I start my grand tour, and thus, being the good citizen that I am, and knowing that it would be easier on me to cross international borders if I had a newly-issued passport rather than an almost expired passport, I am going to renew my passport.

Since January of this year, I have been trying to figure out your extremely complicated, non-explicative, new "simplified" process for renewing my passport. Your rules, I must tell you, are not simple.

First, I am puzzled and dismayed by your new rules for the passport photo. I understand that you need to scan the photo and you need to set it up so that it is easier to scan. However, those rules also ended up making me look like a washed-up bag lady. I also understand that you prefer that people have a neutral expression, in other words, no smiling. In my picture, I look like a pissed-off, washed-up bag lady. I also don't understand how my own dear mother managed to smirk in her photo, and you allowed it through.

Second, your instructions for the Simplified Renewal Form are not explanatory enough. Do I need to have my photo endorsed by a sponsor? Can I use the online form to do the simplified renewal process, or do I still need to bring in my form or mail it to the Passport Office? Do my references need to be passport holders as well?

Third, nowhere on your website did it explain that I could use the online form as part of the simplified renewal process. First of all, your ePass user account creation was horrible. Why would you get people to create a username that they won't remember is beyond me. I think I've already created three different accounts. Next, after somehow going through the entire process of filling in the form online, I had deduced on my own that this wasn't the simplified renewal process. I had just wasted 2 hours of my time. You need to inform people that the online form is the full form. But as it stands, I don't know what time I will save by filling in the online form, I still need to send in the application. I refused to do so as mail has been known to be stolen before, and I am not mailing sensitive information about my identity. My only other option is to stand in a queue, so I might as well just fill the regular form in the first place and saved myself the hassle and frustrations.

Fourth, I went to the closest Passport office, spent $2 on parking, on my day off (which I will waste in a passport lineup, and note, that I needed take this day off because I'm working on a very time-sensitive project), only to be told that they don't process passport applications for people who are travelling within 6 weeks. That would be me. I was also told at that office that I had to go to one of three offices that did process passports immediately for traveling citizens, none which are close, none which are opened on weekends or holidays. However, there is one opened until later in the evening, and that's the one I'll be going to, even if I have to fight traffic and cross a bridge to get there. Because I need to pick it up for fastest receipt, and I really don't have the luxury to take more time off during work hours to fart around in a queue.

So here is my advice on how you can better spend my tax money:

• Hire a content writer for your website. I always say if someone has to ask a question about it, your communication was not clear enough. Plus, this person should also be able to lay the content out in a more searchable format.
  
• Hire a usability or process expert to go through your very poor processes, which includes the really hard to use online form. Sure it may cost a lot at the beginning to set up proper processes, but in the long run, it will save you time, and save my tax money for more important spending.
• If you are going to turn away passport photos because they do not conform to your guidelines, you should have an on-site service to have the photo retaken, if a sponsor doesn't need to sign the photo (I am assuming this as per my first point above). Trust me, I am willing to pay for less of a hassle.
  

If you have already implemented the first two points, you are still wasting my money. Fix your problems now.

Signed,
Weed, a disgruntled citizen who pays way to much taxes into an inefficient system.

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!

Air Poo

I don't know if this is a hoax or if it's real, but it's an interesting concept nonetheless. The Mac Air won't ever be the same again....

Air Poo

This is wrong in so many ways...

A co-worker sent the linked article below around today. I am flabbergasted. Two things that jumped out after I read it:

1. The last time I'd checked, exchanging money for sex is considered to be prostitution
2. Why the heck wasn't the guy wearing a condom? Do people really not care about getting sexually transmitted diseases? Apparently not.
   

Click here to be just as horrified. Trust me, it gets better...

Music

I've been finding that my taste in music has been tending towards Alternative/Indie/Rock. To this end, I've been listening to a local station that plays more of this genre of music. The one I could find locally is Evolution 107.9, which is actually a student-run radio station. The students are part of the radio & television broadcasting program at a poly-technical school in town. Let me tell you that I don't tune in for the witty banter. However, I've hear some great music, and some great bands, who, for whatever reason, don't get very much, if any, air time on most other local stations.

However, I feel that there is also a lot of good music that comes out from Europe, and after a bit of searching, I found this London station that plays the same genre of music. The interesting thing is since I'm 8 hours behind London, I hear their late afternoon, evening and late night programming. There is one particular late night segment that features interviews with groups or artists who just so happen to be in London. It's really cool because I get to hear music that I wouldn't normally get to hear. Some of these people have such a small following that I'd doubt the music even gets heard outside of the UK.

Anyways, I've recently become a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, a band from the UK. Here they are performing Teddy Pickers:

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! It's the Year of the Rat, and it's my year!

Here's some stuff I found out about Rats, with my comments in italics:

Years
1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020

Rat personality traits
People born in the Year of the Rat are one of the most industrious and hardest working in the zodiac. [That's me!]

Forever busy in pursuit of an ambitious personal goal, at times they may become difficult to work with since they are born perfectionists. [Yup, I'm a perfectionist!] Rats must ensure that every "i" is dotted before completing an assigned task. As a result, they are often successful financially, and are good providers for their family and those they cherish most dearly.

Loyal and loving, Rat people inspire loyalty in others who are close to them. They are essentially honest individuals and loath to betray a confidence. However, their quick wit and restlessness [yes and yes!] can sometimes lead to chattiness, and they can often be relied upon at large social gatherings for a good story or a juicy bit of gossip. [I love gossip!]

Their energy levels and expert organizational talents are such that it is a rare thing to see a Rat person sitting idly by with nothing to do. [Yes, I need to be organized, and I hate sitting around doing nothing!]

They may even sometimes be viewed as opportunists who cajole others into helping them accomplish a great ambition. In their careers, Rat people can find much success as business leaders or politicians.

Rats are most compatible with : Dragon, Monkey, Ox

Famous people born in the Year of the Rat : Charlotte Bronte, Truman Capote, Catherine I, Prince Charles, Sasha Cohen, Eminem, Peter the Great, Mata Hari, Scarlett Johansson, Wolfgang Mozart, Plato, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, George Washington

[Source]

KOOKY: So not amused

This really gives me the rage!

Another UBC threat has put RCMP on alert

Book Review: Stardust

After watching the movie Stardust, I was compelled to read the book on which the movie was based on. Neil Gaiman, from the extras that were on the DVD, came up with the premise of the novel one day while travelling in Ireland. He saw a wall with a hole in it, and began thinking what would be on the other side of that wall... and the land of Faerie was born.

I really like Gaiman's style of writing. The narration flows quite easily, and the worlds of Faerie and Wall are developed through his descriptions and dialogue, warmth and humour. It's an easy read, and it reads like a fairy tale. In fact, if you took out the three or so not-so-suitable-for-children references, you definitely can read this to a child, although, it is clearly an adult-fairy tale. I definitely could imagine everything in my mind while reading Gaiman's prose, even if the images rendered were from the movie, for the most part.

I won't explain the plot, but you can read it on Wikipedia if you're curious. But I have to say that looking for a fallen star (in the form of an adult woman) was certainly a very interesting and fresh premise, and that helped make this story unique. Well unique to me as my exposure to fantasy novels are almost nil. In any case, I don't think I've ever run across a premise like this in either books or film.

There are some similarities and differences between the book and the movie, but I don't know if I really could say if I preferred one over the other. I do feel that both the book and the movie can stand on its own. The movie has a Hollywood bent, and that is very apparent when compared to the book, but both have their own charms. The adventures that Tristan and Yvaine experience in the book were very different, but this allowed for a better and satisfactory plot development and the eventual blossoming of their relationship. Lilim (the witch), doesn't die at the end, but neither can she touch Yvaine's heart, because Yvaine had given it to Tristan by that point; it's no longer Lilim's (or anyone else's) to take as Tristan now owns the heart. Very clever.

I liked Tristan and Yvaine just as much in the book. There were also some characters in the book that didn't show up in the movie, but this is typical of most movie adaptations. And even though some of the character portrayal were different from the movie, I was satisfied with the different fates of the characters. I was sad in the end though, because Tristan, being mortal, does die, and Yvaine, unable to return to the sky, is left all alone. Babylon Candles aren't able to solve Yvaine's dilemma this time around, but I still liked the ending, because life isn't always fair, which makes it believable.

But still, Gaiman has made a fan of me. Two thumbs up!

A little spoof I found, for your entertainment...

KOOKY: Some excitement today...

Police evacuate UBC building after lockdown

Not certain what happened yet, and although I was concerned for other people's lives -- and fortunately I heard that no one was hurt -- I was dealing with putting out my own fires and was more preoccupied with that.

Mansfield Park -- wha?

Hmmm, where to start? I normally try to view adaptations with an objective eye, after all, most film versions are never true copies, just (hopefully) faithful representations. Plus, many times, people have never even read the book, so hopefully there is enough to whet people's appetites and actually induce them to pick up the written original.

I won't even go into what a train wreck this adaptation was, or I'd be going on forever, and I'd rather let other people do the work. You can read a well written opinion here (the title's pretty apt).

Okay, my attempts at finding something positive about this adaptation:

• Tom is a scoundrel, as he should be
  
• Mr. Rushworth is stupid, as he should be
• The pug was cute
• Edmund was how I pictured him: a geeky looking clergyman
• It was nice when they showed the moment when Edmund finally realised that he was in love with Fanny (but the stuff after that was horrid)

Did I say that the pug was cute?

But as I am sadly obsessed, I've already put in an order for my DVD. Sigh. Onwards...

KOOKY: I'm surrounded by a big sea of white...

Snow. That is.

We got about a foot of snow in a 9 hour period. By the time I was suppose to have gotten up and gotten ready for work, the radio was already telling me that two of the nearby public post-secondary institutions have closed because of the snow.

I checked our main website at 6.30 am to see what my fate was. Nothing.

7 am. Nothing.

Finally, just before 8 am, when I was suppose to be at work, the notice showed up: "Everything is opened. You must come to class. You must come to work."

Bah. I was so hoping for a snow day. I even told my underlings about the snow policy, and the years that I've been a student and staff member, this university has been notoriously the last ones to close, if they are benevolent to even do so, and they tend to wait until the last possible moment to tell you so.

I had had a terrible night of insomnia, and really wasn't feeling well, so had already decided to stay at home to work. Fortunate for me that I did. Transit was a nightmarish wreck. And while the streets were probably a little quieter than normal, the conditions at certain points were white-out. So not fun driving conditions.

I am so not looking forward to the drive in tomorrow. I know that my unplowed street will be completely iced over by morning. My only consolation is that someone will be feeding me free food for lunch. Oh wait, it's paid for by taxpayer's money. My tax money. So no free lunch for me. Sigh.

Okay, rant over...

Northanger Abbey

Those of you who know me know that I've got a wee bit of a Jane Austen obsession (of course, if you ask Hubby, he'd probably say it's a little bigger than "wee"). However, most of you probably aren't familiar or even had heard about her other novels. Northanger Abbey happens to be my favourite out of the six full length novels that were published. I love this novel because it's meant to be fun, and a spoof on the Gothic novels that everyone was reading at that time. Jane Austen even mentions a few of the popular titles in the book.

There was a 1986 version, which I have, of course. However, unless you really, really want to watch bad acting and poke your eyes out, I suggest you give that one a skip.

But EEEEEEEEEEEEE! This 2007 version was so very well done! I loved it! I heard years ago that Andrew Davies, who also wrote the screenplay for the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, had a script written out, but couldn't find anyone to fund the project. So let me tell you that I've been waiting on pins and needles for a very long time.

Things that I loved about this adaptation:

• JJ Feild as Henry Tilney: Okay, I will admit that I never really understood him as a character, until I saw JJ Feild in this role. I have now fallen in love with Henry Tilney, and have added JJ Feild to my list of Obsure British Actor crushes. But honestly, the man did an excellent job, and now when I read the book, I totally picture him as Henry Tilney.
  
• Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland: Again, I couldn't relate to her character, either (funny that I've said that of the two main characters of my favourite Jane Austen book), but I loved her imagination and her innocence, and that really showed in this adaptation. Although I kept staring at Felicity Jones' overbite (very rude of me I know, but I couldn't help it!)
  
• Carey Mulligan as Isabella Thorpe: I watched her in Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version), and thought she was a pretty okay actress in that movie. She has gotten better since because she really blew me away. She is saucy, pretentious and manipulative, but without being over the top, the very epitome of Isabella Thorpe. I felt at times she stole the scene away from Felicity Jones.
• General Tilney, Captain Tilney, James Morland, The Morland Family, Mr. and Mrs. Allen were all as I had expected and they had done a great job casting the respective roles. Mrs. Allen and General Tilney were my favourites.
  
• Scenes where Catherine where fancying herself as a heroine in a Gothic novel. I had a friend tell me that she didn't like them, but I did. I found it particularly funny that Catherine seemed to be enjoying herself a little too much, despite the fact that her life was in great peril.
  

Things that I'm sitting on the fence about:

• John Thorpe. William Beck did a creditable job, but John Thorpe is a rattle, and I don't feel that this came through enough. I'm still trying to decide if it's the actor or the script. It may be a bit of both, but nonetheless, he wasn't what I'd quite imagined John Thorpe to be.
  
• Eleanor Tilney. Again, I'm not certain if it's the actor or the script. Eleanor Tilney seemed dull and insipid. Even with the scenes where General Tilney wasn't present, I really didn't get a good sense of her character. She had some pretty good lines when she was able to speak her mind in the book, but that all got cut out in the adaptation. Wait, I just did some more reading, and it looks like PBS cut out another important scene. Bah.
  
• The naked scenes. There were actually two from what I understand, but sucky PBS cut one of them out. Not that I'm a prude, or that I didn't feel that Jane Austen wouldn't have never written or implied such things if she would have, but I'm not certain that it really fit in with the spirit of the adaptation. The scene with Isabella Thorpe and Captain Tilney is probably the more realistic of the two, but I sort of wonder if Isabella is really that stupid. Still not certain. As for the other scene, I've seen pictures, and am more curious than anything as to how it played out and where in the story they put it. I've also heard that the Region 1 DVD doesn't have the cut out scenes, so I may have to resort to searching YouTube for it. Boooo!

So overall, I give this a 9 out of 10. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

A very good review...

List of what was cut from the Region 1 DVD (boo on whomever decided to do this!)

Some picspam for you to look at. There are some spoilers, but more importantly, the naked scenes are depicted. The poster's comments are also hilarious!

Wednesday Laugh

I really need a good laugh right about now. This was emailed to me at work.

---

Here's a prime example of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" offered by an English professor.

The professor addressed his class: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will email your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me."

"The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the email. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary:

[First paragraph by Rebecca]
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

[Second paragraph by Gary]
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron Now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than The neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established.
No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and holed through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

[Rebecca]
He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one
morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

[Gary]
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile
entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

[Rebecca]
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

[Gary]
Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F-KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air-headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!"

[Rebecca]
Asshole.

[Gary]
Bitch.

[Rebecca]
F-CK YOU, YOU NEANDERTHAL!

[Gary]
Go drink some tea, slut!!

[Professor]
A+ - I really liked this one.

Fartman

Someone had sent this to me. I wasn't sure how to take it, fart humour isn't exactly my cup of tea (meaning I don't find it funny, but I'm certainly not offended by it). Anyways, here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofn8-3SWd8M

Persuasion. Well, not quite.

I hate Masterpiece Theatre. I had heard that the latest Persuasion adaptation wasn't that good. But Masterpiece Theatre did one better by editing it. Badly. They took out a bunch of scenes that should have been left in, in order to make this a 90 minute show. What ended up being broadcasted was a big crazy mess. I certainly didn't understand all the running around, and the over-superciliousness. Really, I get it. Enough over-acting and melodrama, please.

I was willing to give this adaptation a chance. I mean how much justice can you really do in two hours (that turned into 90 mins) of a Jane Austen classic? And how accurate and true to the book will it be? Not as much as many would like. But even still, it was horrid to watch. The worse was that I couldn't see very much character development in the main characters, and I blame the script for that. And the over editing. However, the kiss at the end, now that was painful to watch. For that, I blame the director.

This post really says it all...

I'm going to have to buy the DVD, I've heard that all the deleted parts are in it, thank goodness. Hopefully some of the mess will make some sense. Hopefully. Well, I was going to buy the DVD anyways, because I'm a geek.

Hopefully the next one will be better...

Movie Review: The Illusionist

Set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, The Illusionist is about a magician that can do great magic. Of course, there are bad guys, and of course, there is a woman involved; when is there not? The woman is way above his social standing. And the bad guy? The Crown Prince. Throw in a police inspector, and you've got lots of drama.

I thought this movie was really well done. It kept me guessing as to what was going to happen next, and there was definitely the right amount of tension throughout. I felt tense watching the "bad guy", and in the end, was even wondering how bad he really was by the end of it. Yes, the bad guy was bad, but was he as bad as the audience was lead to believe?

I won't give you too many spoilers, but Eisenheim, the main character, played brilliantly by Edward Norton, does dupe them all. How, is something you'll have to find out by watching the movie. But there are enough twists and turns in the movie to make it interesting and will keep you guessing. Sure, the ending's cheesy, but that's love for you.

One other thing I liked about this movie is that it's not often you see a movie set in a place like Vienna, in that time period. And about a magician of all things.

9 out of 10.

Movie Review: Stardust

Hubby and I decided to rent Stardust because we had heard good things about it and we had both wanted to watch it but never got a chance to.

What can I say, after seeing it, I fell in love with this movie. So much so that I'd decided to buy it. My DVD just came in the mail today. Whoo!

Stardust is fairytale about a nerdy guy named Tristan (played by unknown actor Charlie Cox) who goes to look for a star (named Yvaine) that has fallen out of the sky (played by Clare Danes), so he can impress the village beauty Victoria (Sienna Miller). Tristan along the way becomes the hero (although I wasn't that fond of his longer hairstyle in the second half of the movie, I now have a new actor crush. Sigh), and wins the fair Yvaine's heart.

Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer were also in the movie, and both did an awesome job, although I think De Niro was having a little too much fun with his role. But in a good way that made the movie fun to watch. The rest of the acting was great.

It's a fairy tale in a similar style like The Princess Bride, but the story's much simpler, in my opinion. It's charming, funny, has ghosts, pirates, bad princes and very old evil witches. And of course, true love. There's enough appeal for both children and adults alike. Yes, it has it's fluffy, happy ending, but it is a fairy tale after all. And there's not too much fluff or mush to turn anyone off.

Now I've read some negative comments about the movie, such as the CGI wasn't up to Lord of the Rings quality. One person felt that there really wasn't any real cues that told him that Tristan had crossed over from the land of humans into fairyland, like the do in other movies. Give me a break. LOTR was this multi-million dollar project, and for the second comment, you, stop relying on Hollywood to make up for a sorry excuse of an imagination. My only real criticism of the movie was that the plot was slightly weak in some parts, but it wasn't enough to detract from the plot.

The director had set out to make a film that was appealing to both adults and children, and I think he's succeeded. It also encouraged me to read the book, so that will be coming in the mail shortly. Review for that forthcoming...

8.5 out of 10 stars. A must see.

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

What is the difference between a movie star and a movie actor?

A movie star acts, sometimes tolerably well, many times not so well.

A movie actor makes you believe that you are actually watching and relating/reacting/empathising with the character.

Johnny Depp is a movie actor. Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom are movie stars. Never mind about my normal rant about Keira's slouchiness, one other thing that she does in every single freaking movie that I've seen her in (Bend it Like Beckham, Love Actually, King Arthur, Pride and Prejudice, and the other two Pirate movies), she does this silly pouty lips thing. Really. If you don't believe me, go and read comments about Atonement, the director told her to stop it. All I could see was Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom pretending to be another character. Bor-ing.

But even great movie actors can't save a really bad script, I feel that Pirates 2 and Pirates 3 were movies that should have never been done. They made the story too complicated. Although the characters Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner have bigger roles in Pirates 3 (a complaint I had about Pirates 2), I felt like banging my head against the wall while watching the movie. There was a plot, but it was so confusing and tedious that it really wasn't worth telling the story.

Hubby and I couldn't remember the plot to Pirates 2, so we had actually stopped the movie to read about it online. How sad was that? And any time I sit and wonder when the movie's going to end is not a good sign. I'm usually one who tries to keep an opened mind, but the abysmal script kept me wanting for the bad guys to win.

I couldn't pick out any good parts. I can tell you some things that let me down:

• Norrington's death was poorly done and glossed over (I actually sympathised with his character, plus this is yet another example of what a proper movie actor is, in my opinion; one doesn't have to like the character to admire a good actor)
  
• Calypso's fury was lame and drawn out too much
  
• They could have easily cut the "voting of the Pirate King" scene in half
• Jack Sparrow's schizophrenic scenes should have been cut out all together
• The entire scene where they were in Davy Jones' locker was boring, and when Elizabeth Swann found out that her father died, I was hoping that she would jump into his little boat with him.
  
• I was actually happy that Elizabeth and Will couldn't be together in the end. That's what they get for boring me to death.
  
• I actually like most of the other actors in the movie, but even they couldn't save me from wanting to poke a sharp object in my eye.
  

What is the biggest downer of the Pirates trilogy was that the first movie was great. I liked it because it was different, it was fresh, it was fun, and it was an entertaining movie. Pirates 2 and 3 weren't. Disney should have stopped after the first one.

I'd give this one a 4 out of 10.

Movie Review: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

I saw a bunch of movies over the holidays, so I'd thought put up my thoughts before I forget.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Well, it was okay, not great, bot okay. The search for the actual treasure was at least somewhat entertaining. But it was entertaining up to the point where they actually go and look for the lost city of gold. From that point onwards, it was just a big mess. I sat there either wondering why they did things the way they did, cringing at drawn out scenes that were full of some type of action (and not even great action) and wondering why they did it that way, or just plain scratching my head at non-explanations of events. And that was about the last 1/3 of the movie.

I was excited about seeing Paris and London scenes, makes me want to go back again. Especially London.

6.8 out of 10.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm not one to make New Year Resolutions, but if you are, I've found something that may help you.

Also, for those of you who have resolved to drink less coffee (or more!), so interesting pros and cons, but be forewarned: like anything else on the Internet, double-check the information, in particular, with your doctor. Me, I think coffee is one of the vilest things on Earth. Blech!!

Have a great 2008 everyone!

Boss and Employee Articles

As I stumble along the road called Middle Management, I am on the constant lookout for articles that will help me on my journey of being "The Best Boss in the Whole Wide World". While this is a very lofty goal, and realistically, I'd just as well be happy with the title of "A Good Boss", it never hurts to aim high, right? Right?

Anyways, here are a bunch of articles I found interesting, let me know what you think:

Speaking with Integrity - Do the right thing and speak truthfully

How to be a Good Boss - I suck at delegating, but am trying to get better

Common Sense Management

Personality Types - this is how to go about communicating to different personality types. I'd actually learned something similar in my Peer-to-Manager course, but the instructor used slightly different terminology. Fundamentally though, the ideas are the same. Through this exercise, I have sort of figured out how to better communicate with my boss. Now to make sure I can better communicate with the rest of the world. Sigh.

Hack your Boss - What your boss wants or doesn't want. Just as I am a boss, I too have a boss who has expectations of me.

How to Deal with Micromanagers - This is a kick in the butt reminder for me as well as good tips for everyone else. You can't believe the number of times I've caught myself going down the path of micromanaging my employees, and yet for every time I manage to catch myself and stop, I've probably just as many times have micromanaged people. I hate being micromanaged, and honestly, micromanaging others sucks up my time and energy.

Dissatisfaction in the Workplace - It's all about attitude baby!

Get a Great Annual Review - Also a handy way to keep your resume fresh

FLIB-ur-tee-jib-it (n.) is 2!!!

Whoot! So I've been blogging for two years now. Wow! I hope you found the blog somewhat interesting to read. It's definitely been an interesting year for me, and 2008, well I can't predict what will happen other than I will finish my stupid Evil Homework!

However, I do have a number of things to blog about before 2007 closes off, more to come as the days progress. I have this week off from work, so you will see something!

Christmas wasn't too bad for me. My sister was in town and we had Christmas dinner on the 24th, then Christmas Dim Sum on the 25th as my sister had to leave later that afternoon. I ended up spending Christmas night having Christmas Dinner with some of my Dad's family. Adventures abounded of me trying to find a strange house in the dark of winter, driving up a mountain no less, while it was snowing. Good times. No misadventures met up with me, thank goodness, and I was able to enjoy a hearty Christmas dinner, and reconnecting with some family I hadn't seen in some time. Then up early on Boxing Day for some shopping! I walked away with some nice booty, and even a sweater for hubby!

H0pe everyone is having a lovely holiday!

Happy Christmas!!!!

Click on the image above to see it properly. Happy Christmas everyone!

KOOKY: Yet another...

Promotion!

As I had alluded to in an earlier post, I had some news that I couldn't share just yet. Well, the reason why was because my boss hadn't told everyone at work yet.

So I go from being Team Lead to being Manager. Ooooooohhhhh!!!!

What does this mean for me? A little more pay, not much more I think. The biggest change is that I do very little technical stuff now (or I shouldn't be doing any technical stuff any longer). And more strategic work on my part.

So that's the big news. Manager. Still very strange to me.

365 Days of Pictures: More Christmas Lights

Hubby had changed the lights up a few days ago...

Inside lights now complete with stocking!


More outside lights!

This is our Christmas present to our mum, tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Corteo that's coming to town next summer. This will be the fifth Cirque du Soleil show I've seen, the others being (in order of when I've seen them): Saltembanco, Alegria, "O", Mysterie. (And if you count the film Journey of Man that they made back in 1999, which was my actual introduction to Cirque, then that count goes up to six). "O" is by far still my favourite, and I have generally found the stage shows to be better than the tent shows. However, it's been a while since I've seen one, so I'm stoked to going to see this one!

Another Update

Yes, going another week without blogging. Bad me. I have been busy, and I actually have two pieces of news to share. One I can't share quite yet in Internet-land, but hopefully by the end of next week I will be able to. And for PJ3 and the rest of my faithful followers who are trying to guess what's behind door number one, no, I am not pregnant! But still, it is good news, just news that I don't feel yet is the right time to put up on the ol' blog. However, if you know me in real life, I will tell you my news--for the right price (chocolate!).

The other piece of news has to do with school. Without getting into the details as to the absolute project management disaster this whole debacle has been since day one, I had yet another breakdown about it about two weeks ago and cried bitterly on hubby's shoulder for a good half an hour. Shortly after that, I spoke at great lengths with my advisor. The long and short of it is that come hell or high water, I will be handing in my report come May 1, and I'm done with this hellish project after 2.5 years. Regardless of what happens after that, this is the biggest weight off my shoulder. This thing has felt like an absolute albatross around my neck, one that I can finally cut loose from. Bu bye birdie!

Something fun to leave you with as I sign off: Hubby and I enjoying ourselves at our annual Bible Study Group Christmas Party. I think I look like a bucked-toothed, horsey-faced idiot in the picture. Good times!

365 Days of Pictures: Christmas Lights!

My hubby rocks! I was going to ask him to put the Christmas lights this weekend, only he beat me to it. I found him putting up the lights when I got home. Yes, I know it's not a lot of lights, but I'm not much of a Christmasy person. Still some lights help bring a bit of a festive air to my humble abode, n'est pas?

Snow!

This was taken at about 12.30 pm this past Sunday. 24 hours later, all of the snow was gone.

365 Days of Photos

Proof that Vancouver does get snow! This is my front yard today, at about 9pm



My lunch. All you can eat Indian buffet. Yum!

KOOKY: Time to celebrate!

Yesterday, our larger group had it's monthly Tea Party. Everyone is supposed to take turns hosting the party and this month, it was our turn. This is where everyone gets together to celebrate the birthdays for that month. What it really is, it's an excuse to take a 1/2 hour off work to cram bad-for-you food in your system and socialise.

Many times people have themes (eg Halloween). Sometimes we play really insipid parlour games. My group, we are so not into that. It was a huge pain trying to figure out what we were going to bring, never mind the fact that none of us had the inclination to think of an actual theme, we had better things to do. Okay, we kinda had a theme: bad food that you love to eat! Only someone even ruined that by bringing in veggies and dip (although I suppose that the dip's really not good for you).

My offerings were a couple of bottles of Orangina and Cheese Puffs (I was feeling orangey). If you've never had Orangina before, try hard to get your hands on some, this stuff is sooooo good. I had even gone to two different stores to find it, I was dead set on getting some. The first time I tried it, it was at a friend's house. Let me tell you, I will never go back to vile orange pop again, I was converted! Soooo yummy! Sooooo good! I was in heaven when we went to Paris, they sell this stuff all over Europe. I don't think those people even know what the yucky orange pop is like.

Anyways, despite the lack of theme, boring games, or even a real birthday cake (the closest thing was a cheesecake), the party was a smashing success.

***

Another thing that I had to share with you, I found out that I got a raise with my promotion. My promotion was effective as of May 1 this year, but I had stupidly failed to ask my boss if I was going to get a raise. I went through a performance review only 4 months prior, and they had given me a huge raise then. I was shocked that they had given me the promotion, so I suppose it was excusable not to have a brain at that point.

Anyways, I was in my boss's office the other day talking to him about something. Somehow we got talking about how he was pulling his hair out with HR, and my promotion didn't go through properly, hence the reason why I didn't see more money on my paycheques.

Quoi? (That's French for What? for you non-Francophone types)

It turns out that it was my manager's fault for not knowing that the Faculty had yet another step for finalising staff appointments, and he's been spending a good deal of time straightening the whole mess out (not just my appointment, but a whole whackload of them. He really hates HR even more now!) This interprets as some inefficient process was created eons ago and never removed, causing more red tape, needless paperwork, and ultimately, job security for someone. Sigh, working here is certainly never boring.

Anyhoo, once I print off the contract, sign it and return it to the proper channels, I will get a whopping $101.79 more per month. That's before taxes and other deductions. My boss did tell me that my raise wasn't much, but in the same breath, asked if I hadn't noticed anything in my paycheques. Really, after all the deductions, I'd be luck to have received an extra $20 in my wallet. (In fact, I'm certain once the government is done with me at income tax time, I'll probably be further back than if I hadn't received the raise, such is life).

But yay me! Raise! Whoo!

Life, maybe not so boring...

I do have one little piece of exciting news. Well, exciting to me.

We paid off the car loan.

One year ahead of schedule.

Whoo. Go us!

Olympic Mascots

I'm meh. However, they are a darn sight better than the the Inukshuk logo.

[Source]

Wet Snow

Apparently, it's our first snow fall this season. Typical that it had to be wet snow. Depending on which part of the city you're in, it could have fallen as big fat flakes or it could have fallen as really cold rain, with nare a snowflake in sight.

This has been about as exciting as my life has been getting so far. Work is steadily chugging along. Evil Homework is, well, there. Not too much else happening right now, at least not with me. Oh wait, I caught a cold and had my flu shot. Joy.

However, November is quickly coming to a close, and everyone knows a lot happens in December. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to blog about.

Later.

Star Trek 11

I'm sooooo stoked! Star Trek 11 has just started filming. It's set to be released Dec 25, 2008. Whoo! I'm really looking forward to Zachary Quinto of Hereos fame to play Young Spock, see him above. I'm also looking forward to watching Simon Pegg as Young Scotty. He was hilarious in Shaun of the Dead. I haven't seen Hot Fuzz yet, but I it's definitely on the list of movies to watch.

[Source]

The Complete Jane Austen

I am soooooooooo excited! PBS is going to have a Jane Austen extravaganza starting January 2008. And not only will they be playing all 6 adaptations, 4 of them will be brand new!!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

For those of you who don't recognize Rupert Penry-Jones above, he plays Captain Wentworth in Persuasion. I've seen him before in Spooks/MI-5, and he's not a bad actor (definitely easy on the eyes!). I'm also excited that my favourite Borg, Alice Krige, will also be in the adaptation. I've met her in real life at the last Star Trek convention that I've been at, she is a very beautiful and elegant lady.

I have a friend who is a big fan of the 1995 adaptation of Persuasion, and she is especially fond of
Ciarán Hinds, who also plays Captain Wentworth. She doesn't think that anyone will outshine him. I think she may have second thoughts once she's seen the newer adaptation.

Another adaptation that I'm looking forward to is Northanger Abbey. This is actually my favourite Jane Austen novel. I've watched the 1986 version, and it's incredibly painful to watch, it's so bad. Anything has to be better than that.

Anyways, I'm prepping by re-reading all of the novels again. Yay! I can't wait!!!!

Some headlines

Now doctors say it's good to be fat?

I understand their point of view, but as the article also brings up, what about quality of life? And what does it mean that more people die or less people die? Everyone dies. I always read stuff like this and think that they need to qualify their meaning. Do you mean people under a certain age? It's just too confusing. I certainly hope (but know that this won't be the case) where reports such as this will just give people more of an excuse to eat poorly. Our bodies certainly weren't made to process junk. Nonetheless, there's too little information in the article for me to come to any good conclusions about this.

Parents win right to grow babies for 'spare parts'

I don't know how to feel about this one, I really don't. I understand that parents would want to try to save their children, and this is one possible avenue. I also understand that the child should have a right to make the choice of helping the sibling with the health problems, and not feel like his parents needed him to exist in part because they needed a solution. I am not a parent, nor do I know anyone else in this position, so I don't know what my true feelings will be if I had to face this situation. I've learned a long time ago never say never, because sometimes when push comes to shove, and you're feeling like a trapped animal, you may end up doing things that you'd thought you'd never do.

But that doesn't mean that I don't see the ethical dilemmas and the social impact laws like this may trigger. I would like to think that our world leaders would try to make the best decisions for the people that they represent, and hopefully they have talked about and debated the ramifications of this legislation. Even if that were the case, you can never please everyone, and it is impossible to come to a consensus about it. However, I wonder the state of mind of the person or persons who had originally lobbied for this to become law, did they have to deal with this very same situation, and are they basing their actions on fact or emotion? Let's just hope that this turns out to be a good idea after all.

KOOKY: Six months later...

So it's been about six months since I've been put in a Team Lead role. In the six months:

• I've made mistakes and still do so
  
• I've had to deal with conflict
• I had to learn about office furniture
• I had to learn how HR deals with things
• I've hired 4 people
• I have less time to do more work (and consequently take more work home)
  
• I've taken leadership training
• I've micro-managed
  
• I've had to do a lot of mentoring
• I've probably sent out mixed signals to my underlings
• I've had to make executive decisions
  
• In short, I've learned that being a leader is hard, hard work
  

It's been hard so far, but a good learning experience for me. I certainly don't want to be one of those supervisors who people complain about. I want to be the person who everyone says that I was a great supervisor -- what can I say, I want people to like me. I know that I won't ever be perfect, but my main goal is to do whatever it takes to help my team do their job well and efficiently, while having fun in the process. That's not always easy as I need to figure out how to get there, and I generally don't get a lot of feedback, even when I ask for it. And it's certainly weird treating people who used to be my peers as subordinates.

Here's what I have learned/come to realise so far:

• Less is more.
• I won't always make popular decisions
• I sometimes have a too big of a mouth
• I like, and I want everyone to feel like they are a part of the process, that I don't always need to make the decisions, and have someone else take the initiative (with my blessings of course)
• I'm learning to not only juggle my time, but everyone whom I supervise
• I hate micro-managing, but sometimes it has to be done
• I can't be everyone's friend
• I don't like to deal with unpleasant things (who really does), but I have realized that I need to, and as much help as I may get from others, the buck does stop with me and I need to do something about it.
  
• That it's okay to say no.
  
• That it's okay to make executive decisions and not consult the team.
  
• That this is my area, and my people, and (within certain confines), I can pretty much do anything I want.
  

But there is so much more that I need to learn.

I've taken to reading leadership blogs, and I've just bought a few books on leadership; I'll put up reviews once I've had a chance to read them. I do feel like I'm struggling as I don't always feel like I know what I'm doing, and there are days when I feel a sense of impending doom (or that could be my PMS making me moody). So I'm training myself by reading what other people who have been in my position say. I'm also thinking about taking another course.

Of course, I may be over-preparing, over-thinking, over-doing it. After all, very few of us become good at what we do overnight. That's why they call it experience. I can't look for a silver bullet solution with detailed step-by-step instructions on what to do, that doesn't exist.

Man, this is hard.