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Archive for July, 2005

personal injury at track level

the human brain can only take so much of an extreme before it appears to suffer a melt-down and the brain just snaps. today in toronto is mercifully cool. yesterday i even thought i might need a sweater as i walked outdoors in the afternoon. i am so happy to be able to snuggle into my duvet again at night – instead of flopping on the top of the sheets like some shot of a victim at a sordid murder scene.

but this summer we’ve been dealing with much higher than normal temperatures, many more humidex alerts and SO SO SO many pollution/smog alert days (ontario blames the industry of the midwest/detriot/america & america blames us for our emissions… talk about uneasy neighbours). and the heat has gotten to folk here. on monday there were a series of murders, shootings and attacks in toronto. most (if not all of them) had the police saying, “the victim was known to police” – which is, of course, code for ‘gang related activity’. the problem is that there are some very strong and very powerful gangs in the area and while they generally keep the killings among themselves – sometimes innocent bystanders get caught in the middle. and these gangs have witnesses so scared to come forward to the police – the result being that these thugs stay out on the streets to work their own justice in their own little ways. it’s almost as though they are above the law. they have their own world that the police have a hard time touching. it’s a real problem.

and in the heat of summer there are delays on the subway due to the sad message : “there is a delay at the *insert name* station due to a personal injury at track level. emergency crews are on site and we apologize for the delay”. so many people decide to kill themselves via speeding subway train.

and it’s not just confined to heat. i remember one december several years ago where nearly twice a week there were delays of that sort. and you know it’s a jumper because then for the rest of the day the trains slow down and brake several times as they enter a station. it’s a strange energy indeed.

so – now that the heat has subsided a little – maybe my crazed little city can calm down and take a collective breath and people can stop killing each other and jumping in front of subway trains. we can get back to just ignoring one another.

on a completely different note – i am going away to a family wedding this august. going to saskatoon of all freaking places. and that’s fine. but the thing that really sucks is that i’m going to miss a toronto david usher date. it’s a free show for contest winners and some kind soul actually offered me a ticket. but i can’t go. grrrrrrr. oh well. there better be plenty of red wine at my table!

and i am so giddily addicted to rock star : inxs. it’s true. i am able to admit i get excited each week for the show. it has everything : music, bad outfits, outta control ego, dave navarro leering at all the girls and inxs songs.

i am very happy with the removal of heather and daphna. they both sucked in so many ways. and heather seemed pissed off at the band. i think they might of kept her around if she wasn’t so bitchy to them. wrong sort of attitude, lamb.

and is it just me – or is mig getting better and better? and marty? seriously? to me, he’s boring and bland and safe and seems terribly unoriginal. but maybe, just maybe that’s what inxs want. they know they’ll never get another michael – so now they just want something watered down and boringly-friendly.

[music | nine inch nails, “only”]

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on being a god…

so after many days of little to no posting activity i am back… i stopped posting for a few days because i’ve been having a string of pretty shitty luck. on friday i started a post that recounted a seriously nearly unbelievable series of events that happened to me – but didn’t want this place to turn into me complaining about my own stupidity/black star of doom over and over and over again! (it’s really funny, it involves a downpour of rain, a light blue t-shirt, no cash, no debit card, a raging caffeine headache, a yoga mat and messed up transit delays)

onward… my roommate got a computer game last week. this computer game is so freaking addictive – i’m beginning to think i have a problem! several years ago i was a game junkie – i play two main games :
civilization (take over the world – how can you NOT want to play) and
the sims (it’s like being a deity – so cool)

but a few years ago i kicked the habit & stopped playing those games. they are such a time suck and so counter productive to getting ANYTHING done, not the least of which is going out and actually living your own life with real people. but this new sims game my will power is gone! between having bad luck, finishing harry potter and this game, i’ve had no time to do anything else….

must go feed the fish tonight, else they might pack their little bags and leave my pond!

[music | tori amos, “precious things”]

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i’ve always had my suspicions….

and there were small signs building up over the years – but it was finally confirmed “officially“…. canada has won the “dumbest government” award!

the awards were handed out in montreal & they were voted on worldwide by internet users… heehee…

this is my favourite part of the article :

U.S. President George W. Bush may not have led the dumbest government, but he was honoured with the award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year after telling a news conference: “They never stop thinking of ways of harming America, and neither do we.”

[music | the killers, “somebody told me”]

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all the world’s a stage…

and i’m it’s freakin’ tragic clown….

question time : what’s a bad thing to do on a warm day?
my answer : (so many answers for this one, but what comes to mind right now is) finely dice an especially hot and juicy jalapeno pepper & let it make contact with your hands.

second question : what’s a REALLY stupidly bad thing to do on a warm day….
my answer : oh, how about slice and dice that spicy little pepper without wearing gloves & slip with your sharpest knife and slice about half a centimetre into your index finger. holy fucking ouch.

so, instinctively, what’s the first thing you do when you’ve got a gusher on your finger – well, for some bizarre reason, the first thing we do is shove that finger into our mouth (there’s a little vampire in us all). normally – that’s ok – i mean, even though i’m veggie, i like the irony taste of my own blood. but try mingling that with jalapeno pepper… my tongue and lips began burning. the cut on my finger was burning. it was all just burning… if the neighbour was looking in through my kitchen window she must of wondered what the hell was wrong with me as i hopped like a mexican jumping bean in front of the sink waiting for the water to get cool enough to put my firey fingers in its stream.

it’s hours and hours later and i’m typing without the aid of the pointer finger on my left hand – this is taking a while… and my cut finger is burning and throbbing. damn peppers! actually all of my fingers are burning right now – the heat of the night is developing the feeling quite nicely, thank you. i want to head for the nearest indian restaurant and stick my hands in the buffet’s cucumber yoghurt… but i will refrain. that’s just icky.

i was making a black bean salsa for a little get together tonight…. the salsa ended up being great (if i do say so myself) the get together was nice and i do love the light of a full moon.

as i type away at this entry, i have rock star : inxs on in the background. tonight is the night someone gets kicked off the show and as part of this process the singers who get the lowest votes from the audience need to sing an inxs song. it’s amazing. the house band is absolutely amazing. probably made up of some of LA’s top session guys – but hearing them play inxs songs… it never ceases to amaze me that there is always that certain something that makes a band sound like a certain band. as great as these session guys are, they’re not inxs.

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*sigh*

so in my current situation which finds me with a paucity of gainful employ, i have taken on some admin/organizational/bookkeeping work for a record producer. he’s a nice guy with a lot of work – but being one of those ‘creative types’, he has absolutely ZERO ability to keep himself organized in any sort of civilized manner….

he has also hired some business managers to handle all of his financial stuff & i’m working with them to get the past 2 years ready for the tax man….

and i have lost the forest for the trees… currently i think i am logging and catagorizing the types of trees and how many holes their leaves have and how many branches they have… i have lost the shining path in all of these bloody receipts. and quickbooks is a real bastard. me thinks me hates quickbooks….

the memorable buffy quote “fire burn, tree pretty” kinda describes my current state of brain.

so, as a remedy – i thusly present :

pictures from my garden

scarlet verbena, pansies and mexican heather in my front pot

very pretty day lily – have about a million of these

my very overgrown arbour – it’s nice to sit in there! if you don’t mind spiders…

gorgeous african dasies

unidentifed pretty purple flowering plants… i have a group of about 40 of them – they smell very nice!

[music | david usher, “forestfire”]

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and more pictures…..

from earlier this spring – lovely lilacs – my favourite flower

not a great shot – but it shows a giant hosta & some sad little nasturciums in front of it

ooh, ahh – a collage!

this one is for you johnny newt…. it shows the extent of my artistic capabilites… that’s why folk like you need to keep on keepin’ on!

one end of my fishpond (lovely algae, huh?) in the top of the picture you can see a little dark shadow – that’s my black moor… i call him ‘jaws’

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i’m a new mummy…..

this is so freakin’ cute…. click on him, move your mouse around, turn your volume up, say awwwwwww!

adopt your own virtual pet!

[music | david usher, “long goodbye”]

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just thought i’d surface from my harry potter book long enough to post this kinda cute link to a “write your own chapter” thing. (pick tom cruise and scientology when you have the chance!)

last night at about 4:40am-ish i woke up to the sound of much rain pouring down and running down the streets. it’s about time… my front lawn looked like an army of great danes had been pissing on it all summer. now it still looks ravaged by doggie piss – but the clover has rebounded nicely & there are little green weed spots. oh well. it’s a rental!

as i was listening to the rain, i swore i also saw some lightning. i started to fuzzily wonder if i should move my fan away from the window area. my room is on the 3rd floor of the house & it would just be something for the lightening to come zipping in my window seeking the electrical current of the fan. you see, my dad was struck by lightening a few years ago. he’s a farmer – so it’s really not that uncommon… all that time spent by great hulking pieces of machinery in open fields.

how did it happen? he was kneeling on some straw and mud (which probably saved his life) trying to fix a broken piece of equipment. he saw the storm clouds and lightening in the distance and kept working, thinking that he’d probably have to call it a day. then he said the next thing he knew he woke up and he was laying on the ground. he idly wondered if he’d been struck by lightening. he got up in a bit of a daze, got in his truck and drove to the house – which wasn’t far away. my mom said he came in, said he was struck by lightening (to which she laughed because it sounded so strange) and said he didn’t feel well and went to go to sleep.

he woke up in the middle of the night and felt that his heart was beating at a crazy rhythm in his chest. without waking up my mom, he got in the car and drove himself to the hospital (are you starting to see where i get my stubborn, bullheaded and independent streak from?) he was admitted immediately and when they hooked him up to those little machines, his heart beat was not doing good things. speeding up, slowing down, that sort of thing.

after a few hours he seemed to stabilize and the doctors sent him home. they were able to confirm that it was a lightening strike and not some other cardiac event because they found “exit points” on the tips of two of his fingers. seems that when the current enters your body it needs to also leave. usually strike victims can locate both entry and exit points.

my dad is just fine & the doctors told him he was quite lucky to have survived. the only lasting effects he has suffered is a significant reduction in short-term memory. we all tease him it’s just because he’s getting older – but he has gone from a person who could keep the most minute details about his business up in his brain to a guy who needs to carry around a note pad to make a list to remind himself of things he needs to do that day. i shouldn’t laugh – i need one of those lists myself!

so – even though my sleep/heat addled brain thought i should turn off my fan “just in case” – i decided ‘fuck that!’ and threw caution to the skies. no way in hell was i turning off my fan. and if lightening rod tendencies run in the family – well, so be it….

[music | chris koster, “wartime romance”]

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and that would be me. or at least me and my entire yoga class on friday. i arrive to the studio and am told that a tv crew is coming to tape the class and as compensation, we all get a complimentary class coupon. ok – fine… i wanted my class and wasn’t going to leave.

we’re halfway through our class and the crew comes in – a guy and a girl with handheld cameras and a woman in some fancy gauzy clothes. the fancy woman hops on her mat and begins getting into poses with us. the crew tapes her and the instructor and the class at random. however, i end up getting in most of the shots as the woman they’re taping set-up her mat at a right angle to mine. i particularly loved it when we did a forward balancing pose (one of the warrior poses) and my body moved right in front of the camera…. Just lovely… so, if you’re ever watching korean television and a lo-fi yoga show comes on and you see a woman with a green tank top getting in the way of a gauzy fancy lady – well – that’s me!

after that i had lunch with judy and karola and caught up on the latest goings-ons at their office. i must say, it sucks to be unemployed – but it’s better than working there and dealing with the clown-car style of management that seems to pervade….. then i went shopping and bought a pair of pants on major sale at the bay and a pair of amazing franco sartos – (60% off! and in basic black). why am i shopping when i am not working? well, how ’bout because i haven’t bought clothes or shoes in over a year and how ’bout because my shoes are falling apart and many of my clothes seem to be looking a little ragged… *sigh* so tragic for a taurus to feel shabby…. must remedy….

and then – the whole reason for getting up on friday happened…. i went to go see that little depp/burton flick about chocolate.

if you’re thinking the trailers looked too corny and cheesy – forget them and go see it!! i can’t remember the last time i honestly laughed out loud at a theatre. this movie is just so colourful and beautiful and johnny depp’s willie wonka is so sublime. i am so looking forward to seeing it again… i’m offering myself as a movie-date to anyone who wants to go see this thing… so so so good.

granted – i never was able to watch the original gene wilder film – ever. you see, i can not stand gene wilder. when i see him, i get the same bad freakies that i do when i see sean desman or dennis quaid or pictures of conjoined twins…. i’ve always wanted to watch young frankenstein – but it also is a movie i am unable to sit through…. damn you gene wilder!

and then leaving the showing i ran into frank and cynthia and their wee maeve. last time i saw maeve, she was just over 1 year old… she’s now 7 and adorable and bright. not to mention she loved me immediately. she was holding my hand as we walked on the street and she wanted me to come home with her and her mum…. so so sweet. while we were walking frank told maeve that i was the 2nd visitor she ever had… i went to the hospital after work the day she was born and saw this beautiful little red-haired baby… and it turns out the stuffed animal i gave her as a baby gift is still one of her favourite toys…

now today i sit in front of my fan waiting for the postman to ring twice… or even just once. i ordered the harry potter book online eons ago (40% off, doncha know) & chapters is having it delivered today. really… i had better things to do today, but now i’m just waiting for my book! i need a break from the mongol hoardes and this will do the trick.

also – this is the cutest thing you will see all day! it won an award in this past years european advertising awards. we will rock you, indeed!

[music | david usher, “see you fall”]

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gin

too tired to post today…. i think i’ll have some gin and wink and mint leaves…. ahhhhh…..

i did accomplish one thing on the ole blog today – i added code for the moon phases… look down, look way down….

[music | tori amos, “northern lad”]

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