Dancy Dance

Check out this video.

This makes me laugh. It seems like Elijah Wood has some extra time on his hands now that the Rings trilogy has ended.

That said, I have to give the guy some credit. To go from Frodo Baggins to this takes some guts.

Eternal Treasure?

So I realize it's been about 6 months since I blogged. And I'm pretty sure not very many people will even read this, however, I've missed blogging so I am going to try to take it up again. And having just finished Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson for my Children's Literature course, I thought it would form a great basis for a new post.

This was my first time reading Treasure Island, although I did see the Muppet's movie version many many years back, but it wasn't until I was about halfway through the book that I even remembered the story. The only thing I remember from the movie is Kermit the frog in a pirate hat. So apparently the story had little influence on me at that time, however reading it now sparked a few thoughts.

First of all, let me just say that I really enjoyed the book. I sat down yesterday and started it, and it took me about 5/6 hours to finish it over the course of yesterday and today. (There was a LOT of pirate lingo to wade through, but it was entertaining at least). I really was dreading reading it, because several of my friends absolutely hated it. What can I say, I guess I'm into the whole male coming-of-age adventure story. Haha.

In short, Jim, a young boy of about 16 is swept away on a pirate adventure to find gold with a crew of "baddies" and "goodies". He idols Long John, a pirate who turns out to be a mix of good and evil, who plans to betray the Dr. and captain of the ship with the crew in the form of a mutiny. Jim finds out about this by accident, and tells the "good guys" about it. Once they get to the island there is fighting, shooting, and lots of action, and Jim has a chance to mature and really become responsible, etc (the whole coming-of-age aspect really kicks in). In the end, the good guys win (of course) and sail home with the treasure.

The story to me is like a Victorian Pirate's of the Caribbean. Which of course, makes sense. Characters, themes, and even setting descriptions (the description of the cave where Ben Gunn stored the treasure matches the cave of Aztec gold in Pirates of the Caribbean almost to a T) made me think of Jack Sparrow and the crew. If you've read the book you'll understand what I'm talking about. Long John = Jack, Jim = Will Turner... even their relationship reminds me of Jack's manipulative behaviors on the young naive Will Turner (who just wants to free his girl, haha) in the first Pirates movie.

It also amused me that so many themes in old books like this one are seen today. Themes of good vs. evil are obvious, but also things like coming-of-age, betrayal, and gender stereotypes (for males, a coming-of-age requirement is often that of action while coming-of-age for girls is often seen as being passive, learning around the house, etc.) are seen time and time again, not just in similar genres like Pirates of the Caribbean.

Another observation I had while discussing in class today was that there were about 2 girls that raised their hands when asked if they liked the book (out of a class of about 40) while I'm pretty sure most of the boys in the class did. Why is it that often girls are not into these pirate stories and movies, while boys are? Is it simply because of the environment and expectations we place on boys and girls? Boys are allowed to like Pirates and Ninja Turtles, etc. while girls are expected to like Cinderella and Snow White? Or is it because the action is actually more appealing to boys? Personally I see the environment playing the biggest role... that said, I wasn't really raised to play sword fighting and shoot'em up games and yet I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

So really, I'm not coming to any real conclusions here just using the blog as an outlet for me to write some thoughts on the book - feel free to comment on any of my musings if you so desire. :)

If Everyone Cared

Okay, okay, so it's Nickelback, but I still think it's a good song. Go listen on YouTube. Our society is so materialistic and based solely on "me"....it definitely wouldn't hurt the world for a few more people to think this way.

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died

And I'm singing

Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
(I'm alive)

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died
When nobody died...

We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died

Is It Beneficial in the Long Run?

I've always sort of felt sorry for children like Connie Talbot (up and running Britain's Got Talent - takeoff of American Idol - star) and Dakota Fanning (I am Sam, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web).

Even though I'm in the Childhood and Social Institutions program at Kings, which talks quite a bit about "empowering" children, so to speak, I've always thought that children should keep some of their "innocence" (when they're not being little terrors). I mean, there are certain things children should experience, (IMO) and certain things they shouldn't. Is fame and fortune and working full time as an actor at the age of 5 one of them?

We have laws against child labour and regulations regarding child work, but for some reason, there don't seem to be many regulations re: children and movies. Hm... maybe that's because the producers can make money off them (another post, I'm sorry). I mean, Dakota Fanning has worked since she was 3, and has been conducting herself like an adult (not to mention taking adult roles in R rated movies) since she was like, 6. I'm not saying being mature and conducting yourself in a polite manner is a bad thing, but is it a good thing to lose some of the most foundational years of your life? Is there such a thing as growing up too fast?

Don't think I'm judging Dakota Fanning... (or should I say, Dakota's mother who would allow her daughter to star in rape scenes at the age of 10), I'm just more wondering about the wisdom in getting children into the celebrity business so early. I mean, you can see what happened to Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, ... the list is endless.

So my question is this: what do you think about child actors?

Also: Are child actors like Dakota Fanning allowed to watch the R rated movies they star in? Something to think about.

Retail

Sorry for the lengthy delay. With working 2 jobs (one being 40 hours a week) plus babysitting, I've been a tad busy. Not to mention I shouldn't talk about what goes on at TD (for privacy and customer courtesy reasons), so I haven't had much to post.

This comic is probably one of the best comics I've ever read. Okay, that's not true. But if you have worked in retail, you're going to understand where I'm coming from.

Note: click on the images to make them bigger (aka: legible)

Customer A: It's not about giving you a good deal. It's about us making money. Sorry to break it to you.
Customer B: It's first come first serve. And no, we don't save Christmas stuff in the back so we can sell it to you at half price on Boxing day. That's not how it works. Again, sorry to break it to you.
Customer C: I'm sorry, but we actually can't take the tills out and start counting until you're out of the store.

(Note: I used one of these on Saturday)

Hahaha... okay, okay... So it doesn't make any sense if you've never worked in retail. But if you have, it's definitely amusing... and SO true.

Vacation

Well, our family is off for a family vacation tomorrow so you won't be hearing from me for a little over a week. Once I get back, however, you'll get to hear all about how stressed I am about starting at TD/training! Haha. Happy blogging and talk to you all soon!

This and That

The London Free Press had an article on its front page on Saturday with the title: "Household income influences post secondary education enrollment" (or something to that effect). Um.. no kidding? I briefly looked at the article but had to laugh because the LFP made it sound as if this was a new discovery.

My inspiration for the Oddly Enough pieces has been sold for 19 billion.

The decomposed corpse of a German man was found alone in his bed after nearly seven years in Germany. How is that possible? Besides that... how sad is it? I feel sorry for the guy.

This is a good commercial. Wow. That's definitely amazing advertising for you.

Because...

E: Me
M: the 3 -year-old

E: (playfully - just so you don't think I'm some mean babysitter :P) You don't need your soother.
M: Yes I do.
E: How come?
M: Because I like it.
E: Why do you like it?
M: Because I need it.

Ah, 3-year-old logic, and the wonderful world of babysitting.

... it's the National Anthem!!

So I have a bone to pick. With who? With the guys at hockey games who cannot wait until the end of the National Anthem to yell "GO (insert team name here)" at the top of their lungs.

I mean, why is it that these people can't just stand respectfully through the whole national anthem and THEN show team support? Please. Someone explain this to me.

DONE

Oh yes. That's right. I'm done first year! I honestly can't believe how fast it went by. Except for the last week, which felt like a month in and of itself, I feel like it was 2 months ago that I started University. I'm going to be in 2nd year next year!! Craziness.

As for celebration procedures, I have purchased the mandatory Ben and Jerry's ice cream and plan to watch/fall asleep to movies this afternoon. I only got 3 hours of sleep last night so it sounds like a heavenly plan to me.

:D More meaningful posts to follow... once I catch up on my sleep.

Kryptonite on earth?

Came across this article today and found it interesting.

Apparently they've found a mineral on earth that has "virtually" the same composition as Kryptonite.

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine and is white rather than green, but in all other respects the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite."

I love how at the end they say they'll have to be careful with it as they don't want to "deprive" Earth of our favourite superhero.

Okay, so how long before I sound like a complete Superman nerd? I'm already there? Alrighty then.

Oddly Enough...

... if you don't quite have the courage to break up with your significant other you can now hire someone to do it for you.

...think you have a brand new toilet design? Mm... not so much as apparently they can easily catch fire. But it's okay, this company is offering "free checks" and "repairs" to people who want them. Lol, if I was a customer, not only would I be demanding my money back, but I'd be suing... who wants a repair job?

...if you want your very own authentic piece-of-the-Titanic watch, there is now a guy in Switzerland who makes them. Oh, and did I mention they cost between $7,800 and $173,100?

...apparently something as small as a loose mouse can delay flights. I love the line where it says the mouse was "taken off". Is that just a nice way to say "disposed of" or did they actually set it free?

Done... in 14 days

So today I had my last lecture of my first year of University. I'm actually kind of shocked. Scratch that, I'm a lot shocked. I can't believe how fast this year went by. Wow.

Anyways, this is what my exam schedule looks like:

Monday 16: CSI at 2pm
Sunday 22: Astronomy at 7pm
Monday 23: History at 9am
Monday 23: Sociology 7pm
Wednesday 25: Psychology 9am

I'm not looking forward to the whole 24 hour period with 3 exams, but what can I say, they'll be over and done with really quickly! Lol.

Okay, and now for the question of the day.

Do you believe in extra-terrestrial intelligent life? What about UFOs? If you believe in ET life, do you believe that Earth has been visited? (And by UFOs, I don't just mean objects in the sky that we don't know what they are, I mean ET UFOs.)

My thoughts to come.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I'd just like to say a wonderful bloggy Happy Birthday to my Mom. :D :D I'm not going to say how old she is, because she might sue me for infringement of privacy or something, but I will post a picture of the two of us in Vancouver last summer:

Hahaha. It's one of the only ones of the two of us from the whole trip. On our second last day there at Shannon Falls (really pretty, I'd recommend it) this random guy was like, "You guys look like you need a picture together. Allow me?" and pretty much took my camera out of my hand. So viola, here we are.

More to come next week, but for now, I'm pooped and am off to enjoy the wonderful world of sleep. :D

So Apparently I'm Supposed to Post

:P

Must See

If you haven't already, you must see this video. SO cute. Enough said.

Fill an Empty Tummy

I just thought this was a really special and worthwhile idea and am participating myself, and thought some of you would be interested. No pressure whatsoever, but I thought I'd give some info about this anyways.

One of my TAs in the CSI (no, not the movie show, the Childhood and Social Institutions program at Kings) program has a daughter who has taken it upon herself to compile a recipe book. The title of the recipe book, "Fill an Empty Tummy" is a great representation of what she wants to do with the recipes. She's going to make a recipe book and then sell it to raise money for kids in India who don't have enough to eat.

Delaney has asked for recipes from the following groups - (1) snacks, (2) appetisers, (3) main course, (4) soup, (5) desserts, (6) side dishes, (7) salads, and (8) baked foods. If you would like to participate, please pass the recipes along to me (through e=mail or via the comment section) in the following format:

Name of dish:
Category of the dish:
Your name:
Ingredients:
Directions:
How hard it is to prepare - rating it from 1 (really easy) to 5 (sort of tricky)
How many people it will serve:

Once again, this post is not meant to put you under pressure (come on, it's a blog :P) but if you feel like sending in a recipe or two I will make sure it gets passed along. She's going to be selling the cookbooks at some point as well, so if you'd like one of those I could definitely order one for you.

Spring.

Because it has been heaven outside. Spring is coming. Yay!

P.S. I renamed my blog. I get tired of the same old, same old, and was itching for a change. Nothing special, but I think it reflects my perspective on blogging. :)

Continuing...

I have two friends that I met at the beginning of the school year, and we share a number of classes together. We hang out occasionally, which is nice. Now, these two friends were friends with each other before they met me, and have been friends for a while. Recently, however, friend A has become angry and annoyed with friend B, and is now refusing to talk to her. Friend B has no idea what she did and despite her attempts to talk to friend A, friend A is still refusing to speak to her.

If you followed and understand that you're doing better than I am.

Let me say this:

1. For those of you who haven't finished highschool yet - the drama doesn't end there.

2. If anyone ever has a problem with me, please just talk to me about it. I'm sure it isn't as big of a deal as you think it is.

3. Staying out of the middle of drama is harder said than done.

*Sigh* Such is the life of a university student. Apparently.

So this is why the youth of society are messed up...

Before you read anymore, go and read or listen to this song. It's called Lips of an Angel by Hinder. In all likelihood you've heard it on Fresh FM or Cool FM.

I've been thinking about blogging about this particular song for a while, and so after hearing it on the radio AGAIN today, I thought I'd just go for it. It's a bit of a rant, but meh, according to my "fans" *cough* that doesn't matter. :P Before that, however, let me say that I don't have a problem listening to decent music on the radio. There is a lot of good non Christian music on the radio that I certainly have no problem with. This is not a rant against the radio, or against non Christian music, it is against musicians and music like this.

So just in case you didn't read/listen, here's the song in a nutshell. Guy is with girlfriend (#1). Guy is up talking to girlfriend #2 late at night. Guy wishes he could be with girlfriend #2, but needs to stay with girlfriend #1, so instead, he kisses and talks to girlfriend #2 on the phone late at night. Guy then laments that it is hard to stay "faithful" to girlfriend #1 when girlfriend #2 has "lips of an angel".

So first, let me say this. I have heard this song (or the beginnings of it before I turn it off) probably about 7 or 8 times on the radio. Once I started hearing it on Fresh FM, turned to Cool FM and 1 song later it was playing there. This song is a big hit right now. Apparently.

Secondly, I'd like to say that music wise, I think it's a decent song. I have listened to it the whole way through and the actual music is pretty decent. The guy's voice is okay as well. (It's not like some random band that sounds crappy and has crappy lyrics.) It's not U2 or something amazing like that, but it isn't horrible either. Combine that with that it plays on the radio a lot, and I'm sure a lot of people have heard this song.

So. I honestly couldn't believe it when I first heard it. This is what we are promoting to our youth. And yes, I know I'm a "youth" but when I say that, I'm referring to preteens and young teens. It's that age category that listen to Fresh FM. Not only are we encouraging guys to be unfaithful and treat their girlfriends disrespectfully, but we're teaching girls this is normal behaviour. What is society coming to?

What bothers me even more is that the clincher line is: "But girl you make it hard to be faithful....with the lips of an angel." The use of faithful in that sentence isn't even accurate!! Obviously if this guy is going around kissing other girls, etc. etc. he isn't being faithful. Once again, we're promoting this as "normal" or even "cool" behaviour. This isn't just a stab at guys however, this negatively paints girls and is providing a bad example for young girls too. We're basically teaching girls that if they put themselves out there available to guys and their every whim (not to mention cheat with a guy), they're going to be beautiful, and have lips of an angel? Not only is this not reality, but I think it's wrong.

All this to say, that quite frankly, I think society is going off the deep end. In fact, maybe they're already there. I mean, this is what's popular. Combine that with provocative advertising and music videos and it's no wonder once people get to University they're so messed up. Okay, okay, Overheard at Western is amusing, but more often than not it's crude and inappropriate.

*Sigh* I know this was a huge rant, but I think it's something that needs to be said. People need to start acting mature and have some morals. I believe that as a society (and even older teens like me) need to start setting a good example for younger teens (ie: be a Big Brother like Jamie) and show them that what's being displayed in the media isn't the way to go.

Just some thoughts. Sorry it's so long. Take it or leave it, it's just my opinion.