In the News

Hmmm…is it bad that I don’t know who is the current premier of the province I live in?

That sounded rather bad, didn’t it? You see, we had an election on Monday–I voted–and I haven’t heard who won. Which, I suppose isn’t that unusal since I have not turned on the TV or radio since then. At least radio with people who talk on it (see Radio ADD post).

I think I had better go look this up. Hold on.

Okay, Ed won. I thought he would. He did amazing things for education in Alberta a few months ago. Go Ed. Even though you are conservative and we’ve had a conservative government since the 70s. But if you act like a socialist, I’m in. Free education for all! Now, about our health care…

Here’s a photo of him. I think he might be a bit happy that he won. Look at those teeth. Do you think he wore braces as a kid? Or maybe this is the photo not of when he won but of him right after the braces came off. “Look mom, no braces!”

Anyway, I usually am totally out of the loop when it comes to the news. I just find it so depressing. I mean, how many stabbings can you hear about before you get jaded, depressed or fearful?

It is interesting when I do see the news though. Usually it is at the gym during circuit training. I pedal and watch the words scroll by on the TV above me. Usually, I’m like, what? A hurricane? Cat food poisoning? A lady had a baby outside a firehall? (And then the trainer comes by and makes me start pedalling again.) But then sometimes, I am really disgusted and opt to watch footage of the lumberjack competetion where men are sawing through these really thick logs. I can’t believe that it’s a televised sport. And an American one no less. A Canadian sport, well, yes. We tend to televise lame things that suck viewers in. But Americans? Usually it is a bit more lively than lumberjacks.

Hey, that reminds me of a song, “I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay. I wear women’s dresses” and something or other…Kam used to only sing that part over and over again.

I think I need to get out more. Either that or turn on the TV more.

How is it Possible?

February 9th, 2008–How is it Possible?
How is it possible that on a freezing (really freezing) Saturday afternoon and evening there is nothing on TV? I still feel like hell from my stomach flu that has been lingering all week and there is nothing good on. Seriously, with 4 1/2 channels, you’d think there would be SOMETHING on at SOME time. But no. Hockey and Football. Like, what the hell? It is FEBRUARY! Football? Give me a freaking break.

I may have to brave the elements and go rent a movie. But you know what that means. It means that I will then have to stop and buy some pie or something to go with the movie. And seeing as we have no supper ideas… I’m editing and playing with our child while hubby writes a 10 page paper. Ha! 10 pages. Double spaced. That’s what? Only 2500 words or something? I’ve edited how many thousands of words today so far? Ah well, I’ve always been a babbler. It’s not his fault I’m working on HUNDREDS of pages. Single spaced. In some ways, it would be nice to switch. It’s so gratifying to actually be able to start and finish a writing project all in one day. I suppose that is why I am blogging these days. It’s like, yep, I wrote that today. I conceived it, wrote it, proofed it, posted it and it was DONE!

TV Land

You know, it must be fall. There is actually TV on that I don’t mind watching. Well, how about that?

You see, I’m not much of a TV person. In fact, when we moved into our new house, I asked my husband to choose between satellite TV or high speed internet. Guess what he chose? The smart boy. So, basically instead of losing him for hours in front of the TV, I lost him for hours in front of his computer.

Oh well.

Anyway, here are a few shows I’m watching sporadically.

How I Met Your Mother: Pretty darn good. I really like Barney. He’s funny. Mr. Wait For it. Although, I am already noticing that this season isn’t as good as last season. I really liked the sardonicness of last season.

Gossip Girl: I read part of the series and can I just say that Blair (on TV more than in the book) is absolutely amazingly evil? Like oh my god. No wonder adults are afraid of teenagers. This girl is scary! I’m not really watching it much anymore though. It’s losing it’s appeal, I suppose. It is the whole other world, other life, people with money in New York thing which, to me, is getting a bit old. Not to mention that it really isn’t that interesting in the first place. Maybe it is the farm girl in me.

Private Practice: I have only caught a few minutes of this and it intrigued me. So, I have an hour of it recorded that I need to get around to seeing. And as a bonus, it has that guy from Wings in it and he was healing people with rocks. I’m all over that.

The Office: What do I need to say, but that the boss guy is kind of sexy he is so innocent and wanting to do good. A bumbling loser, but a loveable one. I love it when he says stuff like, “My own two girls that I hope to have one day really like that show too.” Or, “Yeah it is hard to balance work and time with my wife and kids that I hope to have one day.” And the characters are just good. They are real.

Survivor: This one is a habit. I’ve been watching this one for, well, since it came out in 2000. The immunity idol thing in this season is pretty good. But, I think they should rearrange the tribes more often because really, the castaways rarely switch sides and then some of the good people get booted off just because of the numbers game.

The Amazing Race: This one just started up again and I am glad to see that the guy who was like, “Karma is a bitch, but I’m a bigger bitch” got bitch slapped by Karma and was the first one eliminated. Go karma!

Desperate Housewives: Okay, so it is not as pithy as it used to be. Still, they are getting a few good one liners in there. And some ‘problems’ you just know is going to blow up in someone’s face and all you have to do is wait. It is pretty crazy the things that the characters get into. Not exactly realistic, but amusing nevertheless.

The Rick Mercer Report: I love Rick. I think I’ll join his little Facebook account thing where it is ‘Rick Mercer for Prime Minister’. I am all over that. But what I wonder, is where does he find all those alleys with such bright coloured graffiti. Is it the same alleys over and over again and I just haven’t noticed?

Pushing Daisies: Or is it ‘Pushing Up Daisies’? I couldn’t care less. I tried watching it as some commercial was raving about it. Well, whatever. It never captured me. I tired it, I didn’t like it, don’t make me watch it.

Brothers and Sisters: There seem to be a lot of brothers and sisters wandering around in this ‘oh, it is all so dramatic’ show. Yak. Spare me. I’d watch soaps if that was what I was into. Which I’m not.

In the music world: Paolo Nutini again. I guess, if I had thought about his last name more and ignored the fact that his singing accent sounds East Indian (to me), I would have gone, ‘oh. Nutini. ‘ini’ like in Lamborghini, Linguini, Fettuccini and all those Italian ‘ini’s and thought he was Italian too. Even though he is Scottish. But really, what does it matter, other than the fact that I thought there might be a little bit of variety in the white guy singing thing. And there isn’t. He’s white.

State of the Universe

So what is this about Warner Brothers executive blaming women for their poor box office hauls lately? Evidently a bigwig said that they will no longer choose scripts where women have the lead roles. What I wonder, is that just for action movies? I’d like to see a chick flick with no chicks. Ha!

Of course, people are furiously covering up the comment so thoroughly that the media is already doubting their three separate sources. That isn’t so scary. It is scary that someone actually is thinking that way. Does Mr. Bigwig really think that not casting Nicole Kidman and Jodie Foster is going to help? What about all the other elements like say, good supporting actors? Directors? Publicity? Scripts? You know, the other zillion things that make up a good movie. Because face it, us women can’t do EVERYTHING all at once. If the script sucks, it doesn’t matter who is cast as lead, it is going to bomb.

As an aside…some of these TV stations sure are making it hard to find out what their schedule is for their shows. I just wanna know what is on tonight! And yes, the above little rant did come out of me trying to find out what is on TV tonight.

There was an article about living without items made in China in Chatelaine that was okay. It didn’t really debate the issue or tell me much new. But it shows me that I am not the only one looking around at other options. I always expect more from magazine articles. I guess that is why I usually don’t read them. I expect a couple thousand words of facts, not just talk. I guess I expect it to be a mini book or something. Same with newspapers. Those articles start off good and then reduce themselves to dribble.

It’s tough when my husband is right about things. For instance, he was right that one of his students was in trouble. (Now a former student by a few years.) But he was powerless to save him outside the school. He’s been a touchstone for this kid. And he knew that the kid was in limbo. He could either make it or not, he just needed the right thing in his life at the right time. And he couldn’t figure out what the right thing might be and how he could get it to the kid.

Sadly, that ‘thing’ didn’t come along and now there will be a funeral for that teen next week.

I hate it when he is right.

And We’re Back…

Well, we’re back home again. No vehicular mishaps or otherwise. Well, other than a lightning storm that prevented the ground crew from putting on bags on the plane on time. So, a one hour delay. But we had one of those planes with the cool TV sets in the back of the seat in front of you. So, we had TV and movies and music. It was great! I loved it. I got to watch some episodes of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and ‘The Class’ that I hadn’t seen before. I really like those two shows.