comfort movies

My friend David Brake has inspired me to create my own Frappr! map. I'll echo what David posted in his blog:

"Just for fun and to give me an idea of who visits my site, I have put up a Frappr! map for this blog which I encourage you to visit and add yourself to (no registration required). Basically all this is is a really easy to use way of attaching a short note about yourself (and optional picture) to a map of the world."

If you feel uncomfortable about using your real name, a nickname will do. I've added my map link to the navigation bar on the left.

Still sick. Slept most of yesterday. Will likely sleep most of today. I find that the first two days pretty much decide which way a cold is going to go. This one started in my chest and is trying to make up its mind whether or not to turn into an ugly cough or not. Sadly, I have to opt out of seeing "Rent" with Allison and Jodi tonight.

:-(

Went to the Rogers Video and borrowed a bunch of comfort movies (6 for $9.99), or what I hope will be comfort movies:

Footloose (never seen it, figured it's about time)
Fried Green Tomatoes (never seen it)
All That Jazz (never seen it)
The Ghost And Mrs. Muir (liked the book, never saw this movie version with Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney)
The Door In The Floor (could be very bad, but I'm curious)
My Fair Lady (love this movie, was inspired by Cacie's LJ to rent it)

SURVEY: What are your favourite comfort movies?

Some of my favourites:

Chocolat
Babette's Feast
Tampopo
Tortilla Soup
Sleepless in Seattle
Sound of Music
Titanic
Wizard of Oz
Breakfast Club
My Fair Lady
Cinderella (Rogers & Hammerstein)
Star Wars (the first one)
Wrath of Khan
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Singing' in the Rain

Argh. I know I'm forgetting a ton.

Skimper experiment update: I've removed Skimper from my left-hand navigation bar, but it remains #3 in Google search results. My LJ entry is #4 (likely because of the comments), and my Flickr Skimper image is #7.

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sick

Had fun at the Irish music session at the Tranzac last night...because of Germanystuff and movingstuff, I hadn't been able to attend sessions since they started up again this fall. Looks like I have some catching up to do, to learn tunes the group has been practising while I've been gone: Denis Murphy polka, O'Keefe's polka, Humours of Glendart, Saddle the Pony, The Cow That Ate The Blanket (don't you love the names of some of these tunes?). Last night, we learned Tobin's Favourite.

After nearly a year of attending these sessions, I'm at the stage where I recognize many of the tunes, though I may not be able to play along on my whistle on all of them yet. Makes listening all that more enjoyable, though. :-) Sometimes I purposely DON'T play along on a tune even if I know it, just to enjoy the music.

Started feeling not-too-great near the end of the session, and left earlier than I normally do. And when I woke up this morning, I was sick.

:-(

Going back to bed now.

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In praise of J.K. Rowling

Saw the new Harry Potter movie with Jeff and Craig last night. I'm enjoying each HP movie more than the one before, probably because they're getting more dark and menacing. I did wish for more of the character development that was in the book, but I sympathise with the moviemakers' challenge of taking that hefty tome and having to cut it down to a kid-friendly movie length. I won't say any more for fear of spoilers, but do read Allison's great comments if you've already seen the movie; be warned her entry has a LOT of spoilers (there's a cut-tag warning) and spoilers for Books 5 and 6 in the comments section beneath the entry...I only let myself go back and read it after I saw the movie.



Whatever you may think of the Harry Potter books and movies, you've got to give credit to J.K. Rowling. Not just for creating a world and a storyline that appeals to so many types of people, but also for persevering. According to many reports, Rowling's first Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by Penguin, Transworld and HarperCollins, among others, before finally being accepted by Bloomsbury Children's Books. Sounds like she worked very hard to make sure that the books were as good as she could possibly make them, with a ton of prep and revision.

It bugs me when people want to tear down the successful just because they're successful. They like rooting for the underdog, but as soon as the underdog makes it to the top, that person (or company) loses all underdog privileges and is heartlessly labelled as part of the Greater Corporate Evil.

J.K. Rowling has made a ton of money off her Harry Potter books. I hope she makes a boatload more. She deserves every penny.

I've seen a zillion discussions online about the popularity of Rowling's books ("What's all the fuss about? They're not all that well-written", "But will they stand the test of time?", etc. etc.), some better than others. I particularly enjoyed reading this discussion in Allison's LJ.

For me, it just comes down to the simple fact that I find the Harry Potter books a wonderfully satisfying read.

And I'll be in line when the next book comes out, of course. :-)

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Santa Claus parade, quilting squares, Hairy Potter

Today's Blatherings consists of pics I took over the weekend and today. Click on any photo to see a bigger version and comments.

Thanks to Margaret Middleton, who made me this wonderful quilt square to hang from my office tree:



After being hung on the tree:


The package also contained the quilt square kit I ordered. My plan is to turn this into a square I can contribute to the GAFilk quilt. I have zero experience in quilting, so this should be interesting:



Thanks to my friend Walter for this cute Hairy Potter t-shirt:


Walter also gave us a fire extinguisher as a housewarming present (THANK YOU, Walter!). He told us he hopes we never have to use it. :-)

And a few pics from the Santa Claus parade yesterday (you can see a full set here)...

Clowns have always creeped me out a bit:


Especially upside-down clowns. And what's with the bunny on the turtle?!?:


Sometimes the corporate sponsor signs/floats seemed a bit odd:


...or inappropriate, like this one for Lipton (to non-North Americans: Lipton is a company that makes chicken soup products). These chickens seem awfully cheery considering that they're ALL DOOMED:


Not sure what these wolves were doing in the parade, though my friend Andy helpfully suggested that they were the wolves that ate Rudolph:


Christmas skunks?!? I really don't get it. Can ANY animal be part of the Santa Claus parade, even if they have nothing to do with the holiday season?


After the parade and some hot chocolate, we browsed the Christmas display windows in the Bay/Simpson building (a tradition for many Torontonians since childhood). This year, there were about half a dozen Narnia themed window displays. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo below; I couldn't figure out a way to get rid of the reflections in the glass, and also couldn't get close enough to the window because of the crowd of children :-) :

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comfort zones

Still haven't seen the new Harry Potter movie. Today I decided to go to the Santa Claus parade with one of my nieces instead. Tomorrow, I have a whistle lesson with Karen Light; because of a longer commute now that we've moved, I've opted to do one lesson a month instead of biweekly.

Going back to Irish music sessions at the Tranzac this week. Looking back at my first session at the Tranzac, I'm reminded of how I felt going into the NCS Christmas party Friday.



I try to step outside of my comfort zone on a regular basis, doing something despite my personal fears and insecurities. Sometimes it doesn't turn out so well, but most times it does.

The fear of failure is usually a big stumbling block for many people. Sometimes it's a career-breaking one. Unless they're unusually lucky, for example, most freelance writers and artists have to get used to the sting of rejections and the occasional bad review, else they won't survive in their career longterm.

Stepping out of one's comfort zone also means being open to change, an uncomfortable notion to some people. Change usually means effort of some kind, even the mere effort of adjusting, and that's also a turn-off for many who would far rather have things continue the way they always have been.

So here's a survey question, for those willing to answer:

What's the last thing you did that forced you to step out of your comfort zone? (even a small step)

More squirrels and artsy/tech hybrids:

Thanks to Harald for sharing this memorable squirrel picture (warning! not for the weak-hearted!!)

And from my sibling-in-spirit, Scott Snyder:

"Arts / Tech Hybrid. That's me. :-)

My degree is in Theatre/ Sound Design. That's technical theatre - nearly the definition of artsy/hybrid all by itself. I spent a decade making noises for computer games, and now am Marketing VP for a large audio computer chip company, where I get to design products and generally be hip around the adults.

My entire career has been with one foot solidly in the arts (I was graphic artist for AFKN Television in South Korea at one time) and one foot in technology (I did that graphic art on a Quantel Paintbox, a very advanced graphics computer for it's time).

You are my sister. :-)"

More search engine skimpering

I've been sporadically continuing my search engine experiments. My Skimper page has dropped from #2 to #3 position because of a plug for Skimper.com. As of today, I'm removing the Skimper link from my left-hand navigation bar and seeing if that knocks me out of the #3 slot in Google results.

Hm, interesting. Just noticed that my Livejournal entry on Skimper is #5 because of content in the LJ comments section. Is this the result of some of Blatherings Google juice leaking into my LJ, or has my LJ generated its own small measure of juice?

I've also started to investigate how people find me in Google and other search engines. Here are just a few, as of Sunday morning:

talking edna doll: I'm in the #1 position in Google
Ginzu knives: #1 in AOL Search
BIKINI NIGHTMARES: #1 in Yahoo! search
limpy: #1 in AOL Search

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