Encounters with culture.

Two books recently begun and abandoned:

Jonathon Safran Foer's Eating Meat. I love Foer's novels and I was really looking forward to this. But two things turned me off it: the flurry of really negative, even sometimes downright mean-spirited, reviews; and the fact that every page of it I read was like a little pin in my stomach. I wanted to read it, but found the details of factory farming (and fishing in pretty much all its forms, sigh) so horrifying that I could barely turn the pages. I already know the things this book is trying to convince me of, so I decided to spare myself the agony. And for several weeks I have only been buying farmer's market meat and farm eggs from a co-worker. (Maybe this time it will stick. I really, really try to be a conscientious meat-consumer and, as this book calls it, "meat-reducer." The problem is that I JUST HATE VEGETABLES.) Oh, and no more shrimp, even though it hurts my heart to give up those gross, delicious little sea-bugs.

Eoin Colfer's new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, And Another Thing. I put a hold on this at my library with reservations. (Haha, hold with reservations! Get it! Library humour!) I had a feeling I wouldn't like it but I needed to see for myself. The first 25 pages were not bad, just not good enough for me to keep reading-- a little too Adams-y, too glib, a book that is trying a bit too hard to be liked. That doesn't mean it won't be, or that it shouldn't be. I think people who are fans of the original five books should give it a try, and decide for themselves, because if you like it, then this represents a small victory. Also, I don't really like Artemis Fowl. Maybe I am just not the sort of person who likes Eoin Colfer, and that is ok, because there are other books for me and other readers for him.

Two books finished and enjoyed:

The anthology Geektastic: stories from the Nerd Herd. Edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. Like most short fiction anthologies, this one was a bit hit and miss, but more hit than miss, and there were a few real standouts by authors I had never heard of. It's so reassuring to learn that almost all writers are nerds, or can at least write persuasively about nerds, because it confirms my suspicion that they are my sort of people. This is the best possible combination of words that can be said about a book. Now I have out Kelly Link's tangential Pretty Monsters. (Her story was probably my favourite from the collection.) Also, I spent a lot of time gazing lovingly at the little pixelated, minifig-type people on the cover. So cute!

Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday. Every year I make a real well-intentioned gamble at reading all the YRCA nominees and I usually get to about, uh, 2 of them. I would say if you are going to go through this same guilt-inducing process, that you make this book one of the 2. It's very very fun and cheeky, and the fact that it is published by Disney seems a bit scary, except the book seems to be kind of making fun of Disney. It's confusing! Like all the product placement that took place in the movie Josie and the Pussycats. Anyway, good stuff. I was laughing out loud at various points, and I am generally someone who does not laugh out loud at books. (Also: if you are someone who doesn't usually read young adult or children's fiction but is interested in it, the YRCA list every year is a great place to start. There is usually an assortment of different sorts of books on the list, and they represent some of the most readable fiction for younger people--books smart enough to be enjoyed by adults and interested enough to be enjoyed by young people.)

A troubled relationship with one television show:

The Office. I'm watching Season 2. James is many seasons ahead of me but is also watching Season 2 with me. Here is the thing about The Office. I think it's one of the cleverest, best-written shows going. The likeable cast members are so likeable, and the others are such scene-stealing unlikeables that it almost makes them likeable. But it is so UNCOMFORTABLE. I can only watch 2 episodes at a time and then I have to take a break from the awkwardness and discomfort I feel watching it. I feel this way about Michael and to a lesser extent Dwight: they are not so much funny as horrible. And just when you think they are such horrible people that they deserve execution, they'll do something that makes you feel so sorry for them that you have to start at the beginning in terms of finding them horrible. I know this is exactly the effect the show is trying to have, but maybe I'm too sensitive to be amused by my own reaction, as some people surely are.

One movie anticipated almost beyond reason:

The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Going to see it tonight with hopes perhaps too high. The trailers have filled me with uncontained childlike glee. I love Wes Anderson's films as much as the next hipster 20-something, or actually more probably; but if there is one thing off-putting about them it is their pretentiousness, the Wes Andersoniness of them. And they have been getting more and more Andersony as time goes by. Based on the very small glimpse of Fantastic Mr. Fox I've gotten from the trailers it seems like this movie might dispense with that a bit, be a bit more accessible, make some jokes just because they are there to be made, substitute some exuberance for some angst. Maybe? If so, this may become my favourite movie. Plus, in an utterly conventional and disappointing admission, George Clooney is my movie star boyfriend. He is dreamy, and his movies are always good. I bet even as a fox this holds true. Perhaps The Fantastic Mr. Fox represents the beginning of a new golden age of Wes Anderson movies in which all his movies have George Clooney in them and also are based on children's books. A girl can dream.

Please watch this 10 times in a row along with me.

expanding my web-empire

A couple weekends ago James and I watched Jurassic Park I and III and it inspired us to launch a new blog: how to build a better cloned-dinosaur theme park. What is sad about this blog is that we did not get the full URL we wanted. What is awesome about it is everything else.

Q: Is it leather? A: No, it is PVC

Last night we went to see Watchmen. Let me tell you some things about this movie, Internet. Not having read the graphic novel, and therefore basing my analysis purely on the movie itself:

• It is very long. TOO LONG.
• It had a lot of ads at the beginning because my friends wanted to go to a dumb, busy, capitalist theatre. (instead of the one I usually go to downtown where there are never lines and also no visible signs that they ever make any money)
• There is a guy in it who looks exactly like Robert Downey Jr. BUT WHO IS NOT ROBERT DOWNEY JR!
• I may be stating the obvious here, but I was pretty disappointed in the calibre of superhero outfits. Just once I would like to see a female superhero with a viable outfit for actual crime-fighting. Because you know that woman has problems with (a) chafing, and probably increased numbers of yeast infections; (b) getting killed by supervillains because she HAS NO PERIPHERAL VISION.
  
• 10% of it made me feel physically sick, or it would have if I did not have my hood pulled up over my face. The other 90% made me feel bored.
• It reminded me of the recent Keanu Reeves remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY. Like Philosophy Lite ^TM.
  

I have seriously had about enough of these comic book/graphic novel movie adaptations. I do not like any of them. I should just accept that they are not for me, and stop paying money to see them, instead of watching them and getting upset. But I don't. It's like I have no long-term memory.

That's the way we get by

In Safeway this morning, where I stopped to pick up my delicious petroleum-based coffee creamer, I paid for my stuff and the kind lady working at the till asked something like, "You going to get by there, hon?" and I looked at her blankly before I realized it was a colourful way of offering Safeway carryout service. It seemed like a general question about my wellbeing, as if she might as well have said, "I know your work hours are increasing, and you're trying to plan your wedding, and you haven't done dishes for a week, not to mention the windchill-- are you going to get by?" and the answer that first came to my mind was, no, but that was just the early-morning, pre-coffee funk talking. I think I am going to get by. BET ON IT, SAFEWAY LADY.

I watched Gangs of New York on Saturday. Have you seen this movie, Internet? It's looooong. And bloody. And I didn't like it at all; in fact, I think it's safe to say I disliked it. However, it did provide an excellent opportunity to exclaim "Acting!" and "Filmmaking!" at regular intervals, as it had plenty of both. The Gangs of New York philosophy of filmmaking appears to be: you cannot over-flashback. Audiences have short attention spans. Also: can we make the blood kind of explode outward more?

Also, I swam 1km yesterday.

Since I started keeping track at the beginning of August, I've swum just over 20km! Since I only travel 15 km to work every day, that means I could have swum to work. Although not home.

I had my first taste of Rock Band last night and I think I'm addicted. The drums are the most fun, I think, although singing is fun too--I'm pretty bad at it, but I'm loud. I don't really believe in singing things quietly. I'm pretty sure that after a few hours of Rock Band, I'm ready to be a real rock star. All this other stuff is not working out for me. However, my band is only going to sing covers.

I'm going to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist today. I have pretty low expectations for the movie but I liked the book, plus I like Michael Cera (although he needs to play a badass serial killer or something quick, before he ends up playing sweet, awkward guys well into his 40s). If the blue kool-aid slurpee machine at the theatre is still broken, there's going to be a riot--the last two or three times I've gone there, no slurpees! What's the point?

I have Apple Genius now and I can already see it is going to be an expensive proposition for me. Downloading things out of a dynamically generated sidebar is credit card suicide. I am not all that impressed with its playlist-making capabilities though--I mean, it's pretty easy to pick things I'll like from among my own songs, since, you know, I paid money to download them.

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Now playing: Amanda Palmer - Leeds United (Lounge Version)
via FoxyTunes

[I love this song.

"Who needs love
when there's Law and Order?
Who needs love
when there's Southern Comfort?
who needs love when the sandwitches are wicked
and they know you at the Mac's store?"

GOOD QUESTION.]

So forgive me for going all corporate on you, but I consistently love buying things from the American Eagle website. You can pay for your order with Paypal. Paypal! No setting up a dumb account with another dumb store website, and having to remember another dumb password!

I'm going to the States next weekend to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my parents and I'm thinking of ordering Planet Earth and having it shipped there so we can watch some of it over the weekend. Amazon.com has a funny suggestion for people who are considering buying this DVD set:

Iron Man! Why not! I mean, nature documentary violence or superhero violence... same difference basically.

How I've missed you

Internet!

Gosh, it's been awhile. I'm a bad, bad blogger. Barely a blogger at all actually. My excuse is that I've been really busy, and it's fall, so every minute I spend blogging is a minute I can't spend crunching leaves with my feets.

I made a new jacket which I finished last week and it is pretty much the cutest thing ever sewn by a human with a sewing machine. Also it has a moose applique on it which I think makes it very fall-ish and appropriate. I get compliments on it wherever I go, including at least one from a complete stranger. Whenever I make something cool from cheap materials (in this case around $25 for fabric) I feel like I am totally subverting capitalism. Go me!

James and I have been slowly working our way through the BBC "Planet Earth" documentary. I'm totally absorbed by it. It has some of my favourite things including monkeys, baby muskox (I didn't even know those were one of my favourite things until recently) and funny salamanders that have no eyes and live in caves. We're about half-way done. The other night we were getting really up in arms about the stupid walruses that would not allow themselves to be eaten by a polar bear. The bear was very hungry! Animals can be so selfish. (Side-effect: I have sort of come to resent David Attenborough for always bringing us down with his negativity. He's obsessed with the deaths of cute baby animals!)

I slept for about 3 1/3 hours last night and today I'm checking out some books on insomnia from my library. The problem this presents is that while I love non-fiction books and genuinely believe they can help me solve my problems, I also really resent the self-helpy tone of most of them. My criteria for choosing a sleeping book: (a) the author had to have a PhD (b) the author could not be Deepak Chopra. I ended up with two so I'll take them home and get acquainted.

I was also thinking that I might download some sleepy-type sounds such as waves lapping against a shore. This might help me sleep--it worked for some boyfriend of Carrie's on Sex in the City (I think it was the dude from Office Space) so maybe it will work for me. One of my many problems is that I tend to get a song in my head while I'm trying to sleep, and it starts to drive me stark raving mad (last night it was the Ben Folds Five cover of Bitches Ain't Shit which becomes really sad and totally loses its charm after about the 100th repetition.) I'll try it tonight. I'm in problem-solving mode, or I would be if I had enough energy to solve problems.

Also on my to-borrow-from-the-library list: Paul Newman movies.

In a reverential movie-theatre whisper

Me, about fifteen minutes into watching WALL-E: "This is my favourite movie."

I could say more, but that pretty much sums it up.

What teh interwebs has been up to lately:

I know this has been making the rounds lately, so my apologies if you've already seen it: Where the Hell is Matt? In this crazy video, a guy travels all over the world and does a silly dance. People dance with him. It is more astonishing than it sounds.

Satisfying my gaming lust and my handbag lust: a 12-sided dice handbag [or d12 Handbag (of Holding)].

I had a Day Off from work today, and it was disconcerting. I feel kind of lost, like there is something (or five things) I should be doing. I went to have lunch with my Man Friend, and on my way home through downtown I wandered to the Legislature grounds and sat on a little concrete promontory that stuck out into one of the fountains and just baked in the sun. Then I came home and watched Candy. Wisdom garnered from watching this movie: No, you do not want to be a heroin addict. You might think you do, but you don't.

My zucchini fritters are perilously close to the pile of papers on my desk. I do live on the edge.

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Now playing: Calexico - Deep Down
via FoxyTunes

A bit broken

The internet at my work is a bit broken today, and I can't really get on with what I should be working on. That's how I'm justifying this particular update. (Certain pages will load, but sloooooowly. Others will not load at all. Wikipedia is working, so I'm using it to answer all my virtual reference questions, in spite of its dodgy reputeable-ness.)

I've seen so many movies in the past two weeks! From worst to best:

Ed- In case you are not familiar with this movie, it is about a beautiful friendship that develops between Matt LeBlanc, of Friends, and a chimpanzee. I did not watch it of my own free will, but rather, because my friend Caleb insisted. (Spiderman was the other thing on offer, and I realllllly wish I'd insisted.)

Jocelyn: Why does the monkey have to play baseball? I don't understand this movie. Why is the monkey wearing jeans?
Caleb: Because that is what he needs for playing baseball!

The very concept is ludicrous. I hate the entire wacky-monkey-adventure subgenre.

Hancock- This movie seemed kind of good at first, and then it turned out to be stupid. Will Smith is very charming, but he is not going to be able to get away with dumb stuff forever just on that basis.

Cloverfield- This one is right on the line between "good" and "bad." (All movies appearing further down the list are firmly in the "good" category.) I admired the death rate--I like suspense movies that don't screw around with trying to save the likeable people. Also, I spotted a guy from Veronica Mars in the background. Oh, and there's a monster, or something.

Michael Clayton- I watched this movie last night. Confusingly, "Cate Blanchett" is a common tag on AllConsuming in spite of the fact that she is not in this movie. I tried to combat this tagging misinformation by tagging it "Cate Blanchett is not in this movie." Anyway, it is pretty good, and perhaps by "Cate Blanchett" people actually mean "Tilda Swinton."

Waydowntown- This movie is kind of like the Canadian version of Office Space, only a bit weirder. James and I identified the main actor as the guy who played Scott Hope on Buffy, and I was thus a bit angry at him throughout the whole movie for having broken Buffy's heart in Season 3. Anyway, this movie is surprisingly slick for a Canadian production, it was filmed in Calgary, and it is about the Canadian prairies obsession/compulsion of STAYING INSIDE.

Atonement- I haven't read this book, but I liked the movie a lot and I probably will get to the book. Keira Knightly is so hot in this movie. In a perfect world, she would have been actually born between 1916-1923 so she could be an ACTUAL PERSON THAT AGE IN THE TIME PERIOD IN WHICH THE MOVIE WAS SET.

War, Inc- This was my favourite of all the movies I saw in the past couple weeks. It's nice to see John Cusack in something interesting that doesn't involve contrived romantic dalliances. This movie is weird and mean-spirited and surreal and Hilary Duff is (and I never thought I would say this) AWESOME in it. I am not even kidding.

I also made some delicious zucchini fritters, and played some World of Warcraft, and volunteered at the Shakespeare festival. I went to the farmer's market! I did all my dishes! It was reallllly hot here last week and I've been swimming a lot of laps.

I wish the interwebs would be fixed. I'm bored of this.

Drunken Marxist emails are almost always funny.

One of the editors of Jezebel received this hilarious email from her drunken sister, who went to see the Sex and the City movie last night: "Or, as Marx would say, the conditions that produced the world of the Sex and the City film would never have been brought into existence."

I've been thinking alot about SATC lately, not because I like it exactly, but more because it was this weird cultural moment that seemed so over and now seems so back. Plus I'm obsessed with things that are about women, especially things like SATC, which is about women in such a brilliantly fictional way. However I'm going to see it tomorrow so I might as well save my (undoubtedly brilliant) insights until then.

Blah blah blah, cataloguing research articles. I feel kind of like I've already died (presumably from some kind of bacterial infection in my perpetually-sore throat) and I'm in hell, except I didn't notice. My real life blurred with hell so inconspicuously that it was invisible. Oh, and it's air-conditioned, unexpectedly. Itinerant librarian discovers hell air-conditioned! Read all about it!

Morale is the highest it has been all week.

Sometimes, when what you really want is a break, you have to settle for a few minutes alone in your cubicle with a bagel and coffee and some photocopies and a highlighter, looking busy so people will leave you alone. And sometimes, if you're at your second workplace of the day and you're tired and sick, that few minutes will actually feel like a break. Which is the sad part. Except it doesn't feel sad. It feels like a tremendous relief.

I am pretty sure there is a Gordon Lightfoot song about this.

I watched the greatest movie last night. It's called Desk Set. Have you seen it, Internet? Katharine Hepburn is in it, and she plays a librarian, and she is AWESOME. She's smart and sassy! She wears awesome clothes! She knows everything! In other words, she is Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up. At least I am on the right track. I mean, I already have a library degree, and at least a few items of awesome clothes. It's nice when you realize you are becoming the person you want to be.

The only other thing I have to say is: INDIANNNNNNA JONES!

I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world

Yesterday James and I attended the Pop Culture Fair, or as I prefer to call it, the BiMonSciFiCon. There were comic books a-plenty, and World of Warcraft toys, and people dressed up as storm troopers, although they were totally ooc, just standing around and chatting to each other, not being evil at all. I really, really want to find a Batgirl comic with her in her librarian outfit, but I was too shy to ask any of the comic-book people for help finding one. I've had negative run-ins with those comic-book people in the past. They really think I'm a moron. And like many smart people, there is nothing in the world I hate more than being made to feel stupid. I will find one on my own, perhaps on ebay.

Half-life of the BiMonSciFiCon: all day I have been humming the Darth Vader music to myself as I walk down the hallway in my office. Do do do, do do do, do do do. "She's singing her own theme music!"

I was tired and dazed when I woke up today, and I couldn't seem to contemplate my outfit effectively. As a result I am wearing much prettier, girlier clothes than usual, including a white linen skirt and an embroidered, cleavage-y shirt. I am also wearing black tights (with giant black leather combat-esque boots, natch) and I had a brown blazer on, but I realized that even I could not pull that off. Everyone was really excited when i got to work, as in, "You look so pretty! Doesn't she look pretty?" What they don't realize is that it is inadvertent, akin to putting on one black sock and one brown one in the early-morning cognitive fog.

Yesterday James and I watched Once, which is an adorable, charming Irish movie about music. My parents recommended it to me. Thanks, parents! I downloaded the soundtrack as well, within 10 minutes of the movie ending, because it's awesome. That makes four movies in one weekend. Go me.

This is the main thing I accomplished today:

Yeah, I will smite you.

I also watched no less than 3 movies. I will smite you, and then lie on my couch. Violence is exhausting, but the antidote is cinematized violence in the form of The Outsiders. I don't want to spoil this movie for anyone, but it is THE MOST DRAMATIC MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Seriously. It would just like to remind you, the audience, of its dramaticness. And it has so many actors in it that can really only be referred to, in its 1983-ness, as "rising stars." Matt Dillon! Rob Lowe! Tom Cruise! Patrick Swayze! Emilio Estevez! It is the best-looking gang in gang history. Why are you still reading this? To the batmo-video store!

it's been so long since i've seen the ocean

I finished The World Without Us, and it ended on an oddly optimistic note, considering the annihilation of humanity and all. Then I got up and made a Denny's-style "scrambler" with eggs and sausage and peppers I found in my fridge. And that pretty much brings us up to now.

I am a lackluster blogger these days, for sure. So many things have ceased to interest me, lately, though. Maybe it would help if I went outside.

I listened to some This American Life this weekend while I tried to clean up my disgusting apartment. If The World Without Us had me believing that there is nothing worthwhile about humanity, the episode Human Resources changed my mind a little. If we've done nothing else, humans have built retirement homes for chimpanzees (after we performed tests on them, natch). You know? What kind of a species makes everything out of plastic, but builds retirement homes for chimpanzees? It's crazy. I am having a minor existential crisis.

The next book I read needs to be something upbeat, dudes. I'm thinking Inkheart.

Oh, also: I picked up a DVD of Good Night, and Good Luck at the video store in Stony Plain for $6, and watched it the same night. I'd forgotten how much I love this movie. It's so concise and articulate, it's poignant without being manipulative, and it's so talky. I love how the experience of watching it is more like having a movie happen around you, rather than actually watching. The actors talk over each other, and there are background noises that never become important. Its appearance manages to be both extremely stylish and also extremely realistic. On Friday night I watched Casablanca with friends (some of whom had never seen it), and I grew sad as I considered that a movie with as much dialogue as Casablanca would never become a mainstream hit these days. It's too subtle, requires too much attention. I was trying to think of a contemporary movie like it, and Good Night and Good Luck was the best I could come up with. They are both movies that believe the audience should pay attention, that we should not just allow the pertinent facts to be presented to us.

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Now playing: Counting Crows/Ben Folds Five - A Long December (Live)
via FoxyTunes

This song seems oddly prescient for today.
"Drove up to hillside manor sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her

And its been a long december and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass..."

Better at making things than blogging

I feel like such a good citizen today. I went and voted, and then I filed my taxes! And it's not even 7:30 yet! I made delicious Conservative Hegemony Shepherd's Pie for dinner, including a mysterious sauce of my own invention. And zucchini, natch. I'm going to install my new modem, too, but first I'll update this blog in case I break the Internet. Then I'll see if I can get any reception with my TV to watch the results roll in as the polls close.

I guess Thing-A-Day ended with a whimper. I actually did make something almost every day. There were maybe 4 days I missed out of 29. I was better about making things than blogging, apparently. The artificial constraint of having to do things daily did help me to focus my energy, and try things even if I knew I didn't have time to do them as thoroughly/complicatedly as I might like.

It was also Freedom to Read week last week. I feel bad that I didn't get around to any thinking about it this year, yet alone doing anything. However, a book club that I am a pseudo-member of is meeting in a few weeks, and our book (chosen by my lovely friend and fellow librarian Becky) is The Outsiders. Yeah. It's awesome. I was totally the kind of kid who read all these books everyone told her were Important, and The Outsiders was on that list along with The Outsider (heh), Catcher In the Rye, and so on. I wish I had kept a reading journal in those days, because I read so many books, and I remember my reactions to so few of them.

I'm glad The Ousiders is at least interesting, because I've been on a Bad Books and Movies Roll lately. In the past week, To Paint or Make Love, Serendipity, The Other Boleyn Girl and Beyond the Deepwoods have all disappointed me. (I'd seen Serendipity before, but I watched it because my mom and sister rented it. And they were in my apartment. So.) It's time for some things to be GOOD.

Fish, science, and the weird sense of familiarity that comes from seeing one's home on the big screen

In other crazy science news, the Telegraph reports that fish can count to four--but no higher. This doesn't really surprise me as I had always suspected fish were hiding secret intelligence. Tomorrow's headline will read, "fish can plot the deaths of humans--but only one at a time." I'm watching you, fish. Walk softly.

I have a question I need a scientist--or a blog reader!--to answer. Like a lot of other people, when I'm approaching a set of doors, I am more likely to go through one that was just opened. But if I'm leaving a building, a door that was just opened and is now in the process of closing is closing TOWARDS me. Wouldn't a door that has momentum closing be HARDER to open than a door that's just sitting there? Is the tendency to use the most recently opened door a FAILURE OF HUMAN RATIONALITY? Anyone?

This week has been absolutely beautiful, but I know it's Fake-Out Spring, the season that comes right before Break-Your-Heart-All-Over-Again-Winter. So I'm trying not to get too emotionally invested in it. I'm having one of those weeks where I don't really sleep, have no time for silly dishes, cooking, or laundry, and feel like I've been bitten by an ill-tempered bitey fish. I spend lots of money because I don't have time to cook. I'm wearing socks with terrier dogs on them with my dress shoes because I don't have any plain black socks. Anything that happens, happens at work, because I barely even remember what my apartment looks like. However, my hair looks HOT. By Tuesday next week, the day after the election, most of the craziness in my life will have evaporated and I will be free to pursue my normal warcraft-playing, zucchini-baking domestic lifestyle.

My sister and James and I went to see The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford last night. It wasn't the best ever, but it also wasn't terrible. Albertans have an attachment to this movie (as do, I suppose, Manitobans) because it was filmed here, on the Canadian prairies, and in the historical village near my parents' old house. I felt a weird sense of familiarity, actually, watching it. The prairies, with broken wheat stalks sticking up among clumps of snow, were so visibly our prairies. There is a scene where Jesse James crouches on a frozen river, and snowy trees rise up behind him, and in the background are the Rockies. That shot was so Canadian it gave me shivers. This would actually make an interesting topic for a paper, if I were still in film studies: (mis)constructions of Canadian wilderness. It was a bit unnerving. I mean, how many Americans think Kansas looks like Manitoba? Or for that matter, think New York looks like Vancouver?

spend more money than i guess i have

This weekend has been top-drawer. i love long weekends where monday is the holiday. Four-day week coming up! It's psychological manipulation, the good kind.

On Saturday James and I went to the farmer's market. I have been there before, many times, but never in actual food-buying mode. It's fabulous! I bought tons of local, organic, non-feedlot meat, and some fresh pasta. Next time I'll take more money because you can also get locally made perogies, green onion cakes, hummous, honey, and cheese! It was very exciting. We'll start to get local vegetables soon too. I can't wait. I already put zucchini in everything, but this summer it's going to be all local zucchini.

Yesterday I watched one of my favourite movies from my childhood: Swiss Family Robinson. Have you seen this movie, Internet? It's actually pretty good! I totes have a crush on the oldest brother (Franz)--he's hot. Actually, I think 25-year-old Jocelyn loves that treehouse as much as 8-year-old Jocelyn did. I'm so impressed by how industrious these people are, too. If I was stranded on a strange, ecologically confused island, it would take me at least a few days to adjust. Not so the family Robison! They get right to work building their little 19th-century paradise, where reward is based on competence and man is free to achieve his full potential. (And it is Man. Woman is mostly free to scream at lizards and marvel at the men's accomplishments, although the mom in this movie is pretty tough, everything considered.)

Today:

*ding* 67. The key to weekend productivity is to intersperse other activities with the warcrafting. I went for a swim today, had a shower, made lunch, applied for a job, did some dishes, and made potatoes in my slow-cooker. In addition to hitting 67. And it's not even 6 yet!

Amused, embarrassed

I just got back from Juno. I liked it a lot, but one moment in particular cracked both James and I up: when Juno explains that jock guys secretly want to date weird girls, who play cello and wear goth makeup and "read McSweeney's and want to be children's librarians when they grow up." I feel pigeonholed.