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Dancing 2008

Oh how I love the Dancing Matt videos. Watching this repeatedly is so much more fun than cleaning house, which is what I am supposed to be doing today.

I’ve already seen this on a number of blogs. Most likely, you have too. However, if you have not, enjoy!

Or go here and watch it in High Quality. It looks prettier that way. You can also watch it, and the past dancing videos on the “Where the Hell is Matt?” website.

I don’t dance. Or, I don’t dance in places where dancing is expected. Clubs, weddings, parties and the like. Too much pressure. This video proves what I have always believed, dancing is better in places, and times, where it’s least expected

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Uncategorized

I’m an American, not an American’t

Happy 4th of July, USA. I miss you. Later, I will wear my US Flag 4th of July boxers to bed in celebration. Also, I might eat some apple pie.

Raul had an interesting post this morning about our (Americans) tendency to refer to ourselves as Americans, when there are so many more Americans out there. Technically, it’s a continent, so Canadians and Mexicans are also Americans.

This is not meant as a rebuttal. This is simply a different perspective. Since I’ve moved here, and spoken with more Canadians, I’ve realized this is a slightly sore spot. And I totally get it. I have a tendency to say, now, that I am “from the States” instead of “American” so as not to offend. However, inevitably, someone will say “oh, you are from ALL THE STATES? That’s AMAZING.” Which drives me nuts, cuz I’m trying to be all sensitive and shit. I’m working from your outlook here, kid, so cut me some slack.

Ok, so we are all Americans. But, really, we are all NORTH Americans. There are actually massive amounts of Americans to the south of us as well, let’s not forget. This is flaw número uno in the “Let’s All be Americans,” plan. Flaw numéro deux is our fault, the USA’s.

Fact is, we are the only ones who actually use the world “America” in our name. And by doing so, we sorta stuck our flag in it, didn’t we? I apologize for bogarting it. Nonetheless, do not begrudge us our BEness. That is to say, I am from the United States, but American is what I am. (Also I am North American) I don’t know why we took the name, but we did. People from Canada get to be Canadians. People from Mexico get to be Mexican. Unfortunately, we did not choose to say were are United States of Americans. Too long, I suppose. USAsians just sounds dumb, and could be confused with “Asian” which someone is already using. But we should have the same ability to say what we are, in addition to where we are from, right?

Listen, my fellow North American friends who are not from the US, saying your American is sort of a mixed bag, too. When someone says they are Canadian, people say “Oh I love Canada! You guys are so nice and polite. Thank you for all the fine comedians. And natural resources!”

When someone says they are Mexican… ok, I just realized saying you are Mexican to someone in the US is also a mixed bag. Most people would say “Oh Mexico, so beautiful, and I went down there on vacation just last year. Loved it! By the way, thank you for the cuisine. So delicious. Seriously. Love it!”

But then others would just look at you suspiciously and ask to see your green card. And that, right there, kids, is the reason telling the rest of the world you are American can you get you trouble. So, really, you don’t need the hassle. Leave the potential hostility to those who worked hard to earn it. The US.

That being said, for all your flaws, I love you United States of America*! Happy Independence Day!

*Even the 51% of you who are responsible for keeping Bush in office 4 more years. What’s done is done, let’s move on.

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blogging, Canada

Vancouver and WordPress sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Today, I had a major breakthrough regarding my understanding of THE WAYS THINGS WORK with Movable Type 4. Finally. I was so elated that I not only sent a tweet out about it, I had to bug Wil at work about it as well. That’s just the best feeling, isn’t it? Figuring something out. There is a huge lightbulb over my head right now.

So, there is a large and active blogging community, here in Vancouver. If a community existed, like this, in Seattle, I did not know about it. Which is a shame. I “met” some of them at Northern Voice: 2008. And by met, I mean I saw their name tags or heard them speak. I only met two people: Airdre whom I’d know from her blog, and Catherine.. But I added a lot of the people I saw to my RSS feeds. And I’ve gotten to know few more bloggers by association.

So, as an outsider looking in to that community, I can tell you – Vancouver area bloggers LOVE the WordPress. They hold regular gatherings they call WordCamps. This is awesome. Raul, who follows me on Twitter and comments on my blog, is speaking at the upcoming WordCamp on the 16th. He’s watched the regular tweets of despair I have sent out, while struggling with MT4. And he, like a few others, are of the opinion that I should consider moving over to WordPress. And I’ve thought about me. But… you know how I feel about it. I’m a Movable Type girl.

Raul has challenged me to come to the next WordCamp, and if I don’t switch over to WP, he will buy me a coffee. I might do it. But he’ll need to buy me a Dr Pepper, because I don’t drink coffee. I don’t think it will make me switch. I am extremely stubborn and can be quite tenacious about things. And I’ve set my mind to figuring out MT4. I wonder if he gets a free toaster for every convert he brings over to the WP side? Do you think they are going to be testimonials? I’m not worried, the Southern Baptists didn’t git me in Oklahoma, WP won’t git me here.

I kid. I’m jealous, actually. I ask you, are there no other Movable Type bloggers in Vancouver? Where is our clubhouse? Why don’t we have t-shirts and secret handshakes?

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Uncategorized

I’ll buy running shoes. We’ll take up yoga or jogging. You know, we’ll be organized. Pay our bills, floss our teeth. We won’t set fire to the apartment anymore. I’ll buy a goldfish, and we’ll be like normal people.

For the last few weeks, I have been attending a Restorative Yoga class, once a week, with Airdre. And, I have to confess, I’m not very good at it. (Although my teachers say, every week that this is yoga practice, not yoga perfect.) I can only imagine how delightful this class must be for people with busy, stressful, lives.

You would think that someone as inherently lazy as I am would be aces* at a class of relaxing in different positions with pillows and blankets. At regulated breathing and quieting the mind. Wrong! I am an incredibly twitchy person, it seems. And my mind? Here we are, supposed to be concentrating on something we want more of in our lives, such as love or heath or some such shit, and all I can think about is taking over Russia with Wil when he gets home from work! Thinking about warfare, even fake warfare, when you are supposed to be breathing peace is just wrong. Or I write blog posts. It would sadden you to know that my most brilliant blog posts exist only in my mind during yoga, or when I am trying to fall asleep, never to make it out onto page. Seriously… GENIUS stuff.

I try to wrangle my brain back in. I try to concentrate on my breathing. I try saying a word, in my mind, when I breath in, and another when I breath out. I try to make them positive words, but they usually end up being “cheeeeeeeese burgeeeerrrrrrr.” The millisecond I stop focusing, which is often, I am backing to thinking about anything but relaxing. Last week was particularly difficult as I had had a bad headache that day, so I had taken a couple of excedrin. And I had also had a big gulp of Dr Pepper, which is unusual these days. I was over caffeinated and buzzing like a bumblebee. And I kept thinking about swimming. And bunnies. Bunnies… hopping happy bunnies bunnies BUNNIES I love bunnies need more bunnies in my life HOP HOP HOP omigod bunnies are AWESOME. Whoosh! And food and food, mmmm… cheese burgers.. steak I LIKE MEAT! And ick, I need to clean the house. I hate cleaning house. In what order should I clean the rooms? Start in the kitchen and go in circle until I end the living room? Maybe I should go the opposite way for once, except … all those dirty dishes. Forget it, let’s think about war instead. Russia is going down. Oh it’s on, Catherine the Great.

Let’s face it, I’m a mental AND physical spaz. But I keep practicing. The first day I was back after the flu, I was still terribly congested. I brought in a box of kleenix and a plastic bag to put my used tissues in, as I didn’t go more than 5 mins without blowing my nose or coughing up a piece of my lung. It’s very quiet and dark and relaxed in yoga, and one of the teachers came over and asked if she could do some energy work on me, which I said was fine. Airdre later told me she is a reiki master. That is just about the sweetest thing ever. Whether or not your are into energy work, to have someone come over to you and work their healing craft on you.. the sincere intention that you feel better is beneficial in of itself.

*You know what I am truly aces at? Procrastination. I could go pro in procrastination. I wish there was a procrastination olympics, except I’d probably miss the sign up.

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Canada

Happy Canada Day!

I shall celebrate by having a swim lesson and playing Civ with Wil, when he gets home from work.

It’s been very hot here the last few days. I’ve been miserable, physically. If you know me at all, you know I start wilting at anything above 76 degrees. 74 is my preference. Add to the heat complications due to having what appears to be a fully functional set of female reproductive organs, if you know what I mean, and you’ve got a cranky girl.

I realize my complaints about the weather would probably make other parts of Canada and the US laugh. They are dealing with weather in the 100’s. Or in the 30’s, if that’s your unit of measurement. I think we got up to 90? I’m not sure. I didn’t want to know, so I didn’t look.

But today? Today is awesome! What a gorgeous Canada Day here in the greater Vancouver region. It feels like low to mid 70’s, with a delicious breeze. Not a cloud in the sky. Lovely.

I don’t know why I blog about the weather. I always feel shallow when I blog about the weather. It’s small talk blogging. Mostly I just wanted to say Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends. And my American friends, as well. You can join in the celebrating of Canada. Consider it a warm up to the 4th.

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macs, William

It’s the end of civilization as we know it! And I don’t even know it all that good!

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve had a new addiction. It has replaced housekeeping and blogging (both reading them and writing them) and television. The only thing I’ve managed to do besides the new addiction is read. This addiction is called Civilization IV.

I suppose it’s not too surprising. Although I was never a big player of military strategy games, such as Risk, when I was a kid, CivIV is basically a large scale game of the Sims. You’ve got to make money, keep everyone happy and healthy, increase your skills; it’s just that you’ve got the possibility of war in this game. (I think war is what Wil felt was missing from the Sims.)

This new addiction is Wil’s fault. He downloaded a demo for a new version of Civilization called Civilization Revolution, for the PS3. This is a scaled down version of the computer versions of Civ, which could take up to weeks to finish a game, depending on how many people were playing. This version allows you to sit down and play multiplayer games online with your friends, and finish the game in 2-3 hours. It’s a turned based game, like a board game.

Civ: Revolutions is just so darn cute on the PS3, I watched Wil play a couple of times, and then when he went to work, I started the play. Blammo. Hooked. The demo only lasts 100 moves which is not much at all. I remembered seeing a demo for a Mac version somewhere, for CivIV, so I downloaded that. Blammo! Hooked again. I bought the game and we’ve been playing ever since.

When I play on my own, a game will last about 3.5 hours, easy to sneak in a game while Wil is at work. When Wil and I play together, I think a game averages 22 hours. And man, it is fun. There is pretty much nothing better in the world than getting all caught up in a great game with your sweetie. And eating snacks at the same time.

When I play by myself, I am the epitome of peace. War, what is it really good for? Nothing, I am trying to win a Cultural Victory. But when Wil and I play together, it’s him and me against the world. And we’ve developed a bad habit of wiping everyone else off the planet and splitting it equally. In the beginning, I was blood thirsty. It was great fun to wipe out the bad tempered Aztecs, they were such a pain in the ass. Or the arrogant Russians. But, it’s gotten a bit old. So we’ve upped the difficulty on this latest game. So it’s not so easy to conquer the world. Currently, I am playing America, he is China.

The civs I like playing the best are: America (Roosevelt), Arabia, Russia (Catherine the Great) , Egypt and Spain (Queen Isabella). Honorable mention for India (Gandhi) as well. Will seems to stick with Mongolia or China. Note: I always rename the capital city to from the default Washington to Seattle, when I play America.

Oh, if you have PS3, you should buy the Civilization: Revolution. We could play together. I’ve already informed Evildeb I’m kicking her ass and taking her Great People.

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swimming

So, maybe Level 42 doesn’t get its quota of oxygen today because I’m distracted, but if it makes you happy!

Tuesday I started a new round of swimming lessons: Level 4. Contrary to what logic may tell you, Level 4 is not one level above Level 3. Turns out, it’s a gabazillion levels above it!

Level 3 class is held in the middle lap pool. I imagine the deepest point of that pool is possibly 6 feet in the middle. Shallow enough that I can bounce up and down on my toes, should I need or want to. Our class was full, and was conducted in one lane. Therefore, it was often necessary to wait on either end for the swimmers ahead of you to make some progress, some room, so you didn’t run into them. Everything I did was easy and manageable. I felt proud of myself after every lesson.

The difference between L4 and L3 is like the difference between walking briskly down a path and running down it. L4 is conducted in the Deep End. I am unsure of the length of either the Deep End and the middle pool, but I’d guesstimate that the lanes in the Deep End are 47 times as long as the middle pool. I might be overshooting a bit. Our class is only five people, and we have two lanes. Plenty of space for everyone. No need to wait after the first length.

I’ve known how to swim since I was a little girl. I am in no danger of drowning. However, swimming in deep end is just DIFFERENT. If someone in the next lane kicks a giant wave onto your face while you are doing the back stroke, and you start to cough and sputter, there is no bouncing up and down on your tippy toes while you catch your breath. There is something a little intimidating about that.

Everyone in the class is at a slightly different level than everyone else. In L3, I would say I was at the top of the skill level pile. Now I am definitely at the bottom. When I got in, the teacher told me to swim the front crawl out and back. He wanted to see my crawl. What he probably saw was a stroke I like to call “The Spaz.” My best stroke. I got down to the end of the first length and I was wiped. Out of breath and starting to get a stitch in my side. I guess I thought because walked everywhere in my neighborhood instead of drove, and walked up three flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator, I was in ok shape. I am, compared to the shape I was in a few years ago. But people, swimming is HARD WORK. Lest you forget.

I made it back down the second length and stopped to catch my breath. When I could speak again, I told my teacher that I probably needed gasp A LOT of work gasp on my gasp gasp endurance. Obviously. So I switched to backstroke for the rest of the class. There is more oxygen in the backstroke.

When I got home, my arms were shaking and I was very disappointed in myself and my performance. At first. But then I realized, L3 was helpful to work on my form, but it was not a challenge or a workout for me. This class will be. And yes, it’s hard to suck at something. But I would not improve unless I had that challenge. Right?

Gasp sputter gasp.

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macs

The iPhone is coming to Canada

July 11th. We all know that, with my current lifestyle, I don’t really need one, but I want one. I put myself on a waiting list, because Wil is getting me one for our anniversary, which is next month.

My question is, I put myself on the list for a 8GB. Because, I can’t bring myself to acknowledge how much money this is going to cost, just for the calling plan and data plan. It’s incredibly indulgent, considering. Oh, the question is, do you think I’ll regret going 8GB instead of 16? I have an 80GB iPod I use for music, and that’s what I use in the car. So I am not planning on putting music on the iPhone, really.

My natural inclination is to get the biggest, but I just don’t know if it’s necessary. Any iPhone users out that have an opinion?

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Canada

The answer to the beaver question.

Some people have asked me how one would go about punching a beaver in the face. First and foremost, I want to remind you it was not my idea to do so, but Stephen Colbert’s. However, I can think of 3 ways right off the top of my head.

First, find a beaver and then do one of the following:

  1. Point and yell “Hey look! Free wood!” and when he’s looking away, sucker punch him. Run away.
  2. Take him out for a beer, when you are both drunk, become belligerent and start insulting his woman. He’ll probably start the punching for you.
  3. Sneak up on the beaver, from behind and pick him up by the scruff of his neck. Raise him up to your eye level and watch his short little legs wave uselessly in the air. Start punching. It would help if you have long arms. I do not, so I’d probably choose #1 or #2.

There you go.

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Canada

Punching Beavers In The Face

This is a big deal in Canada. The loss of the Hockey Night song. I guess, it’s considered almost a national anthem. I’ve never heard before now.
Nonetheless, when I saw this on the Colbert Report the other night, I watched it 5 times and laughed every time, in the way only an American living in Canada truly could, there was a bit of a snicker to my laughter.

It’s hard to explain why that is so funny to me, given my particular situation. It’s not that anyone is mean to me because I’m American. However, there are times when they discuss America, and Americans, and it makes me feel … engulfed, in a way. It’s somewhat “underdoggish” type of feeling, only not nearly as competitive. I’m not sure I am able to explain it, without making it sound like a US vs. Canada thing.
It’s really more of a foreigner in a foreign land thing. Trying to fit in and find a place for yourself. And one of your own, one of your peeps, comes along and stakes a tiny little claim. While being as stereotypical an American as possible. (American things = waving a gun around. I do enjoy hot dogs, tho.) I imagine a reverse scenario would be as funny to a Canadian living in the US. If Rick Mercer stole the theme to ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
Ok, that show isn’t even on anymore, but it’s the only iconic American Sports Theme I could remember.

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