War of the Worlds

I'll begin my review of War of the Worlds with an historical fact everybody knows (except perhaps my future sister-in-law Julie who didn't realize it was going to be a Science Fiction!). Anyway here's the fact: when the War of the Worlds radioplay was first broadcast in 1938 people actually believed the world was under attack by Martians. The panicked and fled their homes or hid in basements.

How can you compare with that? You can't.

While at no point did I feel the need to find a storm cellar to crawl into, War of the Worlds was a great flick. Lots of scenes with extras running, getting blown up, being sucked into a spaceship's anus, etc.

As always Dakota Fanning is a fabulous actor, beats Tom Cruise out of the water. He wasn't bad either though. Random celebrities for no reason: Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman (voice).

If you know the War of the World's story, you'll know that you never get the satisfaction of seeing the human race triumph over the alien menace. If you don't know the story/don't remember what happens, I ain't spoiling it here.

Oh, and the bloody roots make for a nice visual.

*****

I did something to my back

I was hanging out at my friend's house when I moved in a funny way and my left back started hurting (by "left back" I of course mean the left side of my only back). My friend Becca, who is not a doctor but who used to work in a health food store so is just as good, says that one of my ribs is not moving and that it would probably go away while I slept.

My back still hurts today, but it's a bit better I guess. My job is turning me into an old woman.

Definitely my apartment

So our application was approved! We're getting the apartment (see below) on August 15th.

Woohoo!

My apartment

So Adam and I put in the application to rent our first apartment. So if all goes well we'll have a fabulous pad to move into once we're married. It's two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living area/dining room and one of those narrow kitchens. It'll be nice and cozy and it's reasonably priced.

Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to put up my Wonder Woman shelf.

Things I'm not good at

This is to contrast the "Things I'm Good at" list. If you are in any position to employ me, please skip to the previous entry.

• Saying No to people.
• Sounding confident and sure of myself. (Even about topics I am confident and sure about).
• Being serious. Even when I'm serious, a part of me is joking. Sometimes people think I'm making fun of them or not taking a situation serious enough or something. Whatever.
• Drawing noses. Anyone who can draw a nose that is in any way convincing is some kind of super human. This is likely the power I'd get if radioactive goo was poured on me by accident.
• I lack ambition.
• I'm addicted to computer games. Not the cool ones with the super graphics that the boys are addicted to. No. I'm talking silly flash games where you match colours.
• I procrastinate. This should probably be counted under things I'm good at because I'm darn good at procrastinating. The aforementioned computer games help.
• I'm lazy.
• I'm shy.
• I have never, nor will ever, figure out how to apply make-up and do my hair for the purpose of making myself "pretty".
• I'm terrible at keeping my room clean. (I'm a packrat).
• I'm afraid of heights.

That's pretty well it. None of this stuff is that bad I suppose. I'm working on the laziness.

Things I am good at.

For my own self esteem purposes I am writing a list of things I am good at. I will not inflate or BS this list in anyway (this is not a résumé). If you do happen to be an employer and you need someone with these qualifications don't hesitate to leave some kind of contact info in the comments below and I'll send you a real résumé (a more impressive sounding list).

• I'm friendly all the time. This may not seem like a lot but I find it's a quality not many people have. Also, by being friendly I can make other people more friendly (mostly) by putting them in a better mood.
• I'm good at writing. Not just this blog. I wrote a whole book and I got a few articles published (if you like this blog and you want to pay me to write an article for you, we'll talk).
• I'm good with computers. I'm patient with them like I am with people. I don't freak out when a program freezes and I have a good instinct for getting programs to do what I want without reading lengthy tutorials. If I can't find what I want, it usually isn't there. In which case I shrug my shoulders and find another way to get a similar result.
• I'm good with children and the elderly. This has to do with the friendliness and patience I mentioned before.
• I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm good at art (see my art below) but I did go to university for it and learned a bunch of stuff. What my paintings really show is my unique way of looking at the world, with humour and a touch of fantasy.
• That reminds me, I have a good sense of humour.
• I'm honest. To the point of my own detriment. This makes me bad at inflating myself, in a job interview for example.
• I don't smoke and I rarely drink.
• I'm intelligent enough to do pretty much anything anybody throws at me.

Well there it is. I think I'm a pretty good person.

My Dream Shelf

Adam bought me a beautiful black shelf to display my wonder woman action figures on. To you this may not seem like a big deal, but allow me to explain. When most people say "Some day, I'm going to own a Ferrari," or "Someday I'm going to have a big house with a pool" I say "someday I'm going to have a shelf where all my wonderwomans will be displayed in order of height."

It is so beautiful you would weep. A Wonder woman Barbie on one end, then my Justice League Wonder Woman, then the first appearance collector's edition Wonder Woman, then a regular Wonder Woman action figure, and finally, my little Wonder Woman bobblehead. As a backdrop, my Wonder Woman comics.

I'm going to clean my room and then get shelves for the rest of my girls! Yipee!

Monsoon Driving

Yesterday I was driving home from St. Cath when I noticed that I needed gas, badly. A light drizzel had begun, but no big deal, I could tank up. I got off the highway and ended up in this tiny town with nothing but a Tim Hortons and some cattle (while the sign by the exit promised an Esso, it was nowhere to be seen). I got back on the highway.

It was then that the sky opened up and deposited an olympic-sized wave pool onto the highway. Waves from the sky. And fork lightening, with loud thunder. I remembered the boy that was hit by lightening a few days ago.

People were stopping at the side of the road. I was driving 60 clicks on a 100 click road (normally cruised at at 120+). Nobody passed me. I eked all the way home with reserve light on.

Later that night, when it was dry out. I tanked up at the price of 77 cents/liter. Thank you, monsoon

My Art

Some people (you know who you are) have been bugging me that they've never seen my art. So here some pics of it.


This is one I did with oil on a big scrap piece I found in the wood shop. It's about four foot tall and 2 foot wide, I guess. The reflection in the eye is a picture of me either dead or asleep. The painting's tears are made with this varnish stuff which mixed with the charcoal I used for the eyelashes for a nice mascara running effect. 2003.


This one I did in oil on three wooden tiles (again, stolen from the wood shop). It's a self portrait where I'm bleeding to death. Cool! I'm not sure why I was all about painting myself dead, maybe I was depressed or something. Anyway I always hung this painting by nailing straight through my arms, legs, heart and head. People thought this was some religious alusion to the cruxifiction, but that's sillyness. 2003


This one isn't very big, about twice the size of my head. It's part of a series where I used find creatures in the wood. Like, this knot hole looks like a set of teeth, and this one looks like a big ear, etc. It's in oil, as usual. 2002/2003


This is pretty large. Like, 4 feet by 4.5 feet, or something (I never measure, I should, but I'm lazy). I used a mixture of oil, charcoal and chalk pastel. This is much more impressive when you see it in person. It's got a lot of stuff about me(or at least me at the time). 2002/2003


This one I like even though I painted it a long time ago and it's actually not done very well. Anyway it's in acrylic on a 2 foot by 2 foot piece of masonite (okay, so it isn't actually square, but close enough). It's up in my room, and it still makes my smile. Nothing funnier than naked twister with big round cartoon nipples. 2001ish


THis one I did in oil on two pieces of wood I stole from the woodshop. THe one on the left is pegboard, the othe in the same type of wood the tiles were made of kinda. Anyway, it's a self portrait. And those are my legs too. I miss those shoes, those were cool shoes. 2003/2003.

I had a dream last night.

Let me try to remember...

I was bored, or something, so I went to the mall. My friend Amy was there (best friend since grade school) was there with a bunch of our friends. Dream friends that is, they aren't really friends in real life, though I do know them. Here's the people I remember:

Amy L (a friend of ours that I haven't seen since high school but Amy kept in touch with her and went to her wedding)
Leanne W (went to school with us but were never really friends. Neither I nor Amy, to my knowledge, has seen her since high school)
Katherine (Becca's maid of honour, who lives in BC and I know doesn't socialize with Amy).
There were more I think I don't remember.

Anyway I asked if I could hang out with them. They said no. They were going to watch a show together at Amy's house. What show, I don't know, but it was some drivel that I don't like (ie Dawson's Creek or Sex in the City). I was still hurt to be left out. It was very grade eight.

I ended up going to Amy's house anybody. Amy's Mom asked me why I was upset. I told her I wasn't invited to Amy's party.

The next thing I remember is curling up with Adam on Amy's couch and the other girls trying to get us to leave.

Amy's a nice person. She wouldn't leave me out, especially if I was THAT keen on watching drivel with her. (I've watched drivel with her on many occasions, and forced her to watch Star Trek, which she considers drivel). I think this started because my sister kicked me and Adam out of the tv room last night. Soon I'll get my own place and the tv will be my oyster.

In other news...

The article I wrote for Today's Parent Toronto made their website.

TorontoFamilies.ca

Stuff that's going on in my life. (a safe, drugfree substitute for valium)

As I may have mentioned before, I have a full time job at a call centre in St. Catharines. We're working on a campaign will a certain American credit card company which means I get to talk to Americans about their credit cards.

Here are some phrases I here frequently:

• What for you want my mother's maiden name?
• I've had this card for years and you people still haven't given me an increase!
• $300! That's ridiculous! I got more money in my pocket right now.
• (after reading a really long script about a product) What was that now?
• (after telling customer his credit limit, and annual percentage rates) I have a question, what's my credit limit? And what's my annual percentage rate?
• You guys are always charging me late fees! What is this late fee for?
• What's this overlimit fee for?
• I've got credit cards with other companies and they don't ________.
• Is my card activated yet? Is my card activated yet?
• I'm on my way to work/church/wherever, can we speed this up?
• Actually I'm calling about my wife's/husband's/daughter's/son's/mother's/father's/cousin's card.

Other stuff that's happened since I last blogged.

• Becca and Drew got married (so, according to tradition, they should now be known as Drew and Becca) I direct your attention to http://merther.blogspot.com/ for some thoughts from and pictures of the groom. I wrote a big long blog about the wedding but it was swallowed by the abyss and I didn't feel like writing another one. We (the bride and bridesmaids) were fashionably late to the ceremony (hairdresser was late, and MOH forgot the ring) but the rain held out long enough to have a beautiful ceremony in the park outside an art gallery.
• I got my first credit card. I don't plan to charge anything on it (I hate owing money) but it will be nice to have for net purchases and stuff. Also I think working for a credit card company has gotten to me.
• Adam is getting a full time job in Mississauga. He's worked for them on and off for a while doing graphic design stuff (websites, advertisements, those cheesey touchscreen things at casinos, etc). Now the full time guy is leaving and it's Adam's turn. We don't have any idea how I'll get to St. Catharines and he'll get to Mississauga when we only have one car, but I'm sure we'll work something out.
• Tomorrow, Adam and I are going to see a play at the Shaw festival (we won the tickets at Drew and Becca's stag and doe).
• Adam and I have been looking for apartments in Burlington for after we're married. Some of them are not bad, and fairly reasonably priced (unlike the houses).

Pre-wedding funness

I'm at my good good friends Becca and Drew's house in St. Catharines. (I met them in my Kindergarten class.) They are getting married on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippeee!!! My fellow bridesmaid Kerri, wedding planner extraordinaire Amanda and yours truly are all on laptops: not just for nerds anymore (though all three of us are nerds, except Kerri and Amanda). My sexy fiancé Adam is watching Kevin (the best man even though Adam is really the best) and the groom play a silly boys' shooting game on the Playstation. Katherine is being all maid of honourish and planning wedding stuff. And the Becca is sitting next to me holding a shoe and playing with the future Mr. Becca's hair. Now she's telling a bridesmaid horror story involving red bridal satin and white sunscreen.

Anyway. Today we had the wedding rehearsal at the Rodman Hall, a gorgeous garden outside an art museum. Apparently, my job as bridesmaid is to stand there and look pretty. Must remember not to figit.

Afterwards we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant. I had shrimp in a yummy cheesey sauce with mashed potatoes with bits of skin! (potatoe skin, not what you were thinking). After dinner Drew and Becca gave us all thank you gifts. I got earrings and necklace that will match the bridesmaid dress and (more importantly) a CAREBEAR. I got Cheer Bear because I'm so cheery. It's pink and has a rainbow. I think we were supposed to pay more attention to the jewlery but I'm a six-year-old trapped in a 25-year-old's body.

Later Katherine and Kevin and I (note we don't live in St. Cath) went to get the bridesmaid's dresses steamed. We left at 8:40 and navigated a bunch of oneway streets which, rather than being laid out in a grid pattern, were designed in the 1800s to make the Americans get lost when they come to invade us. The bridal store closes at 9. We got there at 8:56.

I am so gosh darn excited that two of my bestest friends are getting married!!!! The music that we'll be walking to is playing from this laptop. I can picture Becca walking up the aisle (grass) in her pretty white dress with pretty pink roses. It's going to be the best wedding ever in the history of the universe (until September, when Adam and I are getting married).

Canadian Politics...or When will our leaders graduate kindergarten?

Okay so conservative leader Stephen Harper* has joined forces with the evil Bloc Quebecois** so they can cry "non-confidence" in PM PM*** and call a new election. He's pretending this has to do with the sponsership scandel, but clearly Steve just wants to be prime minister.

Meanwhile, the NDPs are supporting Paul Martin as long as he does whatever Jack Layton**** says. So the person who almost nobody voted for is now running the country. O Canada.

For the record I must say that I didn't vote for any of these guys. However, Paul was elected fair and square so leave him alone so he can start actually running the country. People! I don't really care if an election is called because I don't think the results will be all-fire different from last time. I'm still voting Green (it's not just for hippies anymore).

_________________________________________________
*Stephen is anti-gay-marriage and was pro-war-in-Iraq, making his slogan "Make War Not Love".
**The Bloc's only agenda is to seperate from Canada. Obviously so they can be the leaders of their own country.
***Prime Minister Paul Martin currently has no agenda except to stay prime minister. This means he must do nothing that will offend voters. This means he must do nothing.
**** Jack Layton is a dork.

My controversial opinions.

I 've decided to make a list of all my opinions which are somewhat controversial. Usually when I meet someone new, I don't tell them these things because I'm afraid they won't like me. Anyway here's the list (in order of what I think of first):

• I am an atheist. That means I don't believe in God. Unlike some atheists, who just have a lack of belief, I actually have a firm belief that God does not exist. While I respect those who are religious and know many intelligent, rational-minded theists, I am continually baffled as to how intelligent, rational-minded people can believe in fairy tales.
• I can not see anything wrong with homosexuality. I believe that it is a sexist attitude to say that it matters what gender your partner is. I believe that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry and that the union should be in fact called a "marriage" not a "civil union" or any other dorky thing to make it sound different because we all know it isn't. I also admire homonsexuals because they have the courage to come out of the closet and be themselves despite social norms.
• I believe that war is wrong. It is murder. While I understand that sometimes governments and soldiers go to war with the best of intentions, it is never never never a good idea. The bad always outweighs the good, and any good that comes in the end could have been acheived with less blood, and less money.
• I believe that abortion is not murder. It should be a woman's choice whether or not to have a baby (even if she's had unprotected sex). It is ridiculous to give any rights to a human life before anything resembling a brain has developed.
• I believe that stem cell research should be allowed. I understand that this research has the protentional to treat everything from Alzeimer's to AIDS (and other diseases that don't start with A). Why people have problems with experimenting with human tissue, I have no idea.
• I believe that humans are animals, more specifically primates. Even if Darwin didn't have that theory it would be obvious . Look, we have oposable thumbs, they have oposable thumbs. It ain't rocket science.
• I believe that scientists should go ahead and try to clone animals, including humans, for no other reason than it's cool.
• I believe that it's okay to eat bacon, steak, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, sausage and bologna, even on Fridays. If we all became vegetarians and let all our farm animals roam free in the wilderness, they would all die of exposure, hunger, thirst, or stupidity in a matter of days. Cows, pigs and chickens have been bred and raised to be our food, to not eat them would be a waste.
• I believe that every person is kind, unkind, annoying, rude, polite, considerate, inconsiderate, loving, hateful, intelligent, and stupid.
• I believe that the Star Trek franchise is the best science fiction franchise ever. It beats Star Wars out of the water. Star Trek: the Next Generation is the best series of any genre.

Well that's all I can think of right now. I'm sure some of you hate me by now, but that's a risk I was willing to take in order to express my beliefs. Woohoo!

Real Life Super Heroes?

Ostrich Boy (a.k.a. Captain Weirdo)

So in 5 years we can all have wings. If you can't fly I don't see the point (unless you want to be Ostrich Boy). It's kind of cool that the brain can recognize new body parts though.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Johann Hari on the bizarre world of radical plastic surgery

X-ray Vision Girl

My fiancé sent me this article about a girl who can diagnose internal illnesses just by looking at people.
Ananova - X-ray vision girl amazes scientist

5 minute blog entry

I have five minutes left in my break. Here's what's been going on in my life.

Becca & Drew's stag and doe went well. Sucked that I had to work the next morning.

Mon. Toronto Zoo. Awesome. Saw all the usual animals. 2-month-old baby warthogs. Adam took pics with his cool overpriced new camera www.filipowicz.ca/gal

My day, everyday, is talking to americans about their credit cards. It would be hillarious if it wasn't work.

The end. Break over.

Why Mommies Make Great Lunches

You might think that now that I've reached the ripe old age of 25, I'm past the stage of having my mom make my lunches. You'd be wrong. Today my mom had to leave early and could not make my lunch, so much to my chagrin I was forced to endure a lunch that was not made with love.

The difference?

Lunch made with love includes:

1. Sandwich: two slices of a delicious and interesting new type of bread, filled with at least 3 or 4 slices of smoked turkey, and piled high with vegetables not limited to lettuce (optional tomatoes, red pepper, cucumbers). Everything is glued together with a gerous helping of mayo and (in case that fails) the mountainous sandwich is stuck with no less than two toothpicks. It is cut in half because "the whole thing won't fit in one ziplock bag.
2. Drink: Either a waterbottle, or delicious juicebox
3. Perifferals: Including (but not limited to) cookies, cupcakes, apple, banana, fruit salad, yogurt, apple sauce, strawberries, pudding.

Lunch made by me:

1. Sandwich (when motivated): Two slices of whatever bread is left on the counter from breakfast, with one or two slices of whatever meat is hanging out in the fridge, and one Kraft singles slice. It fits in one ziploc (though I do squish it a bit to get it in there). OR 1. Frostbiten frozen dinner (If not motivated)
2. Drink: none. I get water from the tap when at work.
3. Periferrals: Yeah, right, that's it.

Cool Pictures

I just want to direct your attention to my fiancé's website www.filipowicz.ca/gal

He just got a new toy (digi camera) and he's been using to take all kinds of super-cool pictures of close-up pussy willows and swans and stuff. I love my fiancé dearly but he spends too much money on toys. Hugs Adam! The pictures are cool though. Check them out!

April Fools and Free Computerized Twister Spinner

April Fools, the one day a year when everyone is as silly as me. I discovered a couple April Fools jokes on the net today:

http://www.google.ca/googlegulp/index.html
and
http://www.homestarrunner.com

I'm too late to fool anyone because, as everyone knows, if you fool someone after 12 that makes you the biggest April fool of all the fools (or something like that). But what I can give you is this:

Twister.zip

Download it (Just clickety-click on the above link and say "yes" to whatever it wants you to do). If you're like me, you still have your old Twister game kicking around but you never play it because you need a third person to spin (and it's hard enough to convince even one person to play). Your troubles are over with this computerized spinner. You too can enjoy this gorgeous Flash replica of the Twister spinner, with audio spin-calling. That's right, the spins are called out in my own voice so you don't even have to look at the screen. Just dive for that big coloured dot!

You can also see the program on-line by clicking here.