Feet Don't Fail Me Now

The other day, I was walking down the stairs, minding my own business, when my feet decided to race me to the bottom without telling me. This ever happen to you? You don't fall, per se, but you certainly get to the bottom sooner than you had intended. It was funny, I'll admit it.

I am not the most graceful person in the world, but I haven't fallen or even slipped for a long time. So it was a surprise to me when, not an hour after slipping down the stairs, I walked into a small box that's been in the hallway for years. Then the next day, I slipped on the ice. Same thing happened as with the stairs--my feet went into fast forward for a moment.

Clumsy as I now feel, I am proud to say I stayed on my feet all three times.

Instead of a quote of the day (because I totally forgot until now), I have a short little video. It is from The X-Files--or rather a commercial for The X-Files. Whether you like this show or not, you might be interested to know that on TV (and movies, I suppose) when one actor is shorter than the other actors in the scene, the shorter actor often has to stand on a box to even up everybody's height. This practice goes for filming commercials for the show as well. One of the stars of The X-Files is my favourite actress, Gillian Anderson (who played Scully, on the right in the clip) and she happens to be short. For years she had to stand on boxes and occasionally the boxes (as with my feet!) failed her. And the thing we can all learn from this clip is: if you're goin' down, try and take someone with you!!

Who Raised Me?

First of all, I read in the paper this morning that some German scientists recently gave up on one of their experiments. What was the important experiment they gave up on? Trying to make a sloth move. No kidding--they had spent three years trying to get a sloth to climb a pole. I, for one, feel slightly less useless now. And I have to say--bonus points to the sloth for keeping them going for so long! He had to be taunting them--going near the pole, backing away. One foot on the pole, two feet on the pole--ever so slowly removing them.

So I was in the WM today (sounds better than saying 'I went to Wal Mart' doesn't it?), and something occured to me. Where do all these kids come from that are out shopping in the middle of the day? Okay, some of them were babies and toddlers, so that's fine, but some were obviously school age children. When I was a kid, you were in school all day, unless you were deathly ill--in which case you were at home watching The Price is Right, Jerry Springer and Rikki Lake.

Also, while trying to pick out a birthday card, some lady pulls up in front of me with her cart. Being raised with MANNERS, I backed up a bit. She said nothing, only inched her cart forward. This tiny move piqued my curiosity. I scooched away a little more and she took another step towards the cards. I wondered how many times she would shuffle in order to get where she wanted (which was, of course, right where I was standing), but, like the German scientists with their sloth, I lost interest in my experiment. I retreated from the cards and the lady took up my spot, just as I knew she would. Why wouldn't she just say excuse me, or wait patiently, or something? I'm guessing that in a casino, she'd be a lurker--waiting to take someone else's slot machine. She's a WML--Wal Mart Lurker. My owh phrase, just coined it. You like?

So then I was walking home (it takes away the guilt of eating the chips I bought!) and coming at me on the sidewalk was a mom, dad, and their little kid (about 5 or 6). I moved to the side with the kid, thinking the parents would tell him to get out of the way, and I end up on the grass!! I had my iPod on, so I don't know if the kid was told to move, but if he was, he didn't. The way I was raised (again, with MANNERS) you sort of yeild the right of way on a sidewalk to those older than you. And, if you have children with you, you ask them to move for other people, and if they don't, then you ever so gently move them. I would have mowed the kid down, but those manners that I was raised with told me not to.

I'm starting to wonder about the way I was raised. Edged out of the card section by a silent, shuffling old lady; pushed off the sidewalk by some little five-year-old. Not to mention the fact that I think it's hysterical that people--smart people with degrees and stuff--would spend three years trying to move a sloth.

Quote of the Day is from one of my favourites, Miss Mary Poppins herself. Or Maria Von Trapp, if you prefer.

"Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it."
--Dame Julie Andrews

Depressed Yet?

In case you don't know, today--the 22nd day of January--is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. I suppose there must have been some sort of study to prove this, but I heard it on CNN and the radio, and that's enough proof for me! It even has a name--'Blue Monday' (and now I have that New Order song stuck in my head). It has to do with bad weather and remaining Christmas bills and what not.

So just in case you were going about your day thinking it was business as usual, now you have been reminded of the bad weather and those unpaid bills, and can continue on your way in a depressive slump. And if you're lucky, you also have New Order songs stuck in your head!

As for the quote of the day, I decided to put two. The first is from my all time favourite book, called 'The House of Mirth' by Edith Wharton. It is also the most depressing book I've ever read (or maybe not, but it is pretty depressing).

"it was easy enough to despise the world but decidedly difficult to find any other habitable place."
--Edith Wharton, 'The House of Mirth'

And here's a completely random quote that made me giggle a little.

"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster."
--Jonathan Swift

Quote Unquote

Quote of the Day today is from an author called Joan Didion. I have actually only read one of her books (The Year of Magical Thinking), but I began to like her after reading a couple interviews with her. She is an older woman who has been through a lot, and she remains funny and truthful.

"I procrastinate. I play computer solitaire. I fall into depressive sloth. I don't like it, but there it is."
--Joan Didion

I prefer spider solitaire myself...and Playstation. Sonic the Hedgehog anyone?

Someone Else More Talented Than Me

In a world where anyone with good looks, a lot of money, a hot producer, and a synthesized beat can become hugely famous over night, it's nice to know that some people still have genuine talent.

This is K.T. Tunstall, someone you may have heard on the radio lately. I saw her do this song on the Ellen Degeneres show a while back, and went out and bought her CD the next day. This is her from a different show doing her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", and it's truely awesome. Yes, she is really performing, recording, and playing back her own backing tracks right there on the stage.

My Happy Place

AC/DC is on the radio right now, to be followed by Guns N Roses and Metallica. Does it get any better than that? Seriously, does it? Okay, I'm sure it does, but it doesn't take much to make me happy where music is concerned.

Oh wait, they threw Nickelback in between GNR and Metallica. That doesn't seem right, does it? The up side is that the Nickelback tune is 'Rock Star', which it occured to me the other day would probably be a good drinking song. Throw it on next time you're really drunk and see what you think. Or not.

Rock on, Ugly Nickelback Guy, rock on.*

*Photo from irocknroll.com














Quote of the Day:

"I wouldn't ask you to do a drum roll if your arm fell off."
--James Hetfield of Metallica

Who says rock stars are inconsiderate?

Bonus Feature

Well, well, so winter has arrived. I wouldn't mind so much, but now, with all the ice, it looks as if I may have to finally put my bicycle away. It actually has really good traction in slippery conditions, however all the large and heavy cars around me DO NOT!! That, and with the chilling cold, I don't always have enough feeling in my gloved fingers to fully apply the breaks. It makes for great, suspenseful riding, though--will I stop this time, or will I sail right into the intersection?

At the moment, my bike is upside down in the shed, suffering from a flat tire. I kept wondering how I'd managed to go for two years riding through all the dirt and debris that gathers at the side of the roads (that includes pieces of metal, sharp rocks, unidentified pieces of whatever that go flying in all directions when you run over them, etc.) without getting a flat tire, and then it happened the other day.

Due to my complete lack of interesting things to write, I am adding a bonus feature to my blog. Ooh, can't you feel the little butterflies of excitement in your tummies? Starting today, there will now be a Quote of the Day!! This doesn't mean there will be a quote every day--oh no, I am far too lazy for that kind of commitment. More like a quote of every day I can think of one!!

For the first quote, I turn to my favourite show of all time, The X-Files.

"Nature abhors normality."
--The X-Files

Why do I like it? Because it makes me feel better, that's why.

Completely Uncalled For

I stumbled across this, and it cracked me up. Useless, uninteresting fact--the cow joke is one of my favourites!

Crappy New Year

Well, I hope the year gets better, cause it started pretty crappy! As you may or may not know, for the past two years, I have had two hamsters, Bo and Blue. In November, Blue died after she had been sick for a week or so (see November post: Sad News). On the 2nd of January, I went to give Bo her nightly carrot, only to find that she had died. I realize that hamsters are 'disposable pets', as was so kindly pointed out to me, but it was still a bit of a surprise. Anyhoo, I decided to get a picture of the little critters on here, because they were very cute. They were dwarf hamsters, which means that when I got them, they were just a little bigger than a toonie, and at full maturity, they were about half the size of a regular hamster. So here is a picture of them--the only picture I have, as those things don't stand still!!

Bo is the white one, and this was about the only time she EVER stood still. Blue is the darker one in the back, trying to escape--she was much more shy, but the last week when she was really sick, she loved to sit in my hand and sleep.

So that's them, gone off to hamster heaven. :(

Happy New Year! I'm An Idiot!

Ever since late November, I have been wondering what became of my Christmas CD's. I do not put them with my regular CD's, because my holders are all full. I do not keep them in the box of CD's in my closet that I don't listen to, because that box is full. I used to keep them with my Christmas decorations, because that was logical. Last time I put them away, however, I thought I might like to get them out before I got my decorations out, so I put the CD's somewhere else. Problem was, I apparently forgot to tell myself where that special place was.

I looked everywhere for these CD's--I checked all my CD holders, the box of CD's in the closet, the box with my Christmas decorations. Even though I KNEW they weren't there, I checked and double checked because they had to be SOMEWHERE. I even half-heartedly cleaned out my closet partway through December because it was just bugging me. I checked every box (and believe me, there's A LOT of crap in my closet) except for one box that I knew they weren't in. No luck. I was seriously starting to wonder if they had maybe sprouted legs and taken off.

On New Year's Eve day, I got fed up with the mess in my room, and decided to re-arrange my closet so I could stuff even more junk in there. For some reason I opened the one box I hadn't opened and--you guessed it--there were my stupid Christmas CD's.

Yay me...I'm an idiot. I didn't even want to listen to them before, I just couldn't believe I had lost them. I value my CD's and keep good track of them. I've only ever lost one, and even in that case, I know exactly what CD it was and where I left it. (It was The Hip's Fully Completely, and I left it in the front seat of a guy's Ford F150 pick-up truck). So to misplace ten or so CD's really messed with my head--and I couldn't even remember what they were!!!!

Fortunately, I'm not alone in my stupidity!