Woohoo

Billy is back on Y&R, back in Genoa City, and I can't wait!

HA!

Tina Fey does it again. The sad thing is, she looks too much like Sarah Palin, and this is too close to reality, that without me telling you ... lol ... would you know it was a parody? ;)

Happy Birthday Kyle

It's my little brother's 21st birthday today.
We're heading out in a few hours to celebrate with him and my parents.
Happy birthday kid.
Looking forward to it ...

Also - anyone see the debates on Friday between Barack Obama and John McCain? Barack did well - very presidential and intelligent, and while it wasn't a home run to either of the candidates, he came off better than McCain, who seemed obsessed about the spending Obama had requested over his time as senator, while offering very little substantive of his own plans for the future of the US of A. As Obama pointed out to the American people at a rally the next day - "He said an awful lot about me, but very little about YOU."

To continue with the birthday theme -
If any Americans read this blog
Who want to give my hubby
An awesome early birthday gift in November
Vote Obama! :D

Enjoy the rest of your weekend every body.

Odds n Ends

So ...

End of Week 1 of my diet ...

Down 6 lbs. Hurrah!

Have my first appointment at the gym with a personal trainer tomorrow, see how that goes.

Looking forward to seeing my family this weekend for my bro's 21st birthday. Happy Birthday kid!

Hope the debate tonight goes on as planned - if it doesn't, McCain is a coward. And I think the RepubliCANTs are only sabotaging this bailout deal that congressional leaders and the White House are negotiating to basically hold up the debate. BOOOO!!! DEBATE!!! It's what democracy is about.

This week's been a boring one in case you can't tell from my comparatively infrequent blogging, and the fact that said blogging, such as it has been, has been largely made up of short and/or impersonal entries. Figured better that than nothing right? (or maybe not ...? lol)

But you'll for sure hear from me this weekend - other than family plans I'm looking forward to, I've got nothing else going on! :D Take care.

Slacker Uprising

Check this out guys - filmmaker Michael Moore has made his latest biography available for free download! That's how important he considers this film, and the upcoming US election it pertains to. Check out the preview:



And then sign up for your free copy at http://www.slackeruprising.com - and remember, VOTE!!!

Also ...

Didn't the Emmys suck?

I mean, ... reality show hosts?

The poor directing?

"Wrap it up music"-ing esteemed and revered Oscar winners who are too good for TV?

sigh ... no wonder it got the lowest ratings of any Emmys broadcast to date.

Happy Fall!

First day of fall today - hope the change of season brings everyone all sorts of lovely things. :) I for one am hoping the season will bring a new figure, a new baby (and since when do THOSE two things go together? lol), and a new positive attitude. Looking forward to Halloween and our first time doling out candy ... to the holidays and hopefully our first holiday as parents ... and as sad as I am that my temp contract is coming to a close in 6 weeks, I'm taking the approach of being excited about the adventures that are coming my way thereafter as well. It's an exciting time for Ari and I - anyone else have anything they're looking forward to this season?

Day 2 of ...

My new diet.

I haven't had much to say this week, for anyone wondering where I've been since Wednesday. Not much new, and if there was, I haven't had much time to say it in - Thursday was Meet the Teacher night at my school, and I had tutoring last night. So I guess some stuff new, but in that sense it's just been routine busy-ness that I didn't want to bore anyone with. Plus I started a diet yesterday, which means surliness, to anyone who's ever been there lol.

I'm trying the Nutrisystem diet - VERY yummy foods and it's all about portion control. So far I'm enjoying it; I'm just trying to get the timing down right to not eat things too close together and then go hours without food. But I'm doing that, plus went to the gym today ... I'm not going to fail this time. I WON'T! Too many people to prove wrong, including and most especially myself.

And in that sense, I wish any of my fellow dieters luck, and think it might be fun if anyone's interested to maybe get a support group going; it's not easy and I think communication, accountability and people to share successes and divide setbacks with are all key. So to that end I invite you if you want to email me or post comments and I can come check out your blog if you have one, and we can support each other on our weight loss journeys. Post away! :D

Nutrisystem

So I'm trying it.

My food was delivered today but I wasn't here and didn't drag my butt out fast enough to the outlet to pick it up tonight.

But Friday it's going to happen. I'm not putting this out there to impress anyone or to make any claims that I will absolutely without fail 100% succeed at this - anyone who knows me knows I'm the queen of week-long, failed diets.

But I'm hoping the fact my very generous grandma is springing for this program, and that it's now public knowledge, helps inspire me to stick with it.

Wish me luck.

Health and 90210

So feeling better again - but it is late so tonight's not going to be a long one. And that's fine too as there isn't a whole lot new on my little end of the world. We're still waiting on a certain important phonecall ... work's going basically smoothly, meet the teacher night is Thursday and that should be awright ... the weekend was OK except for being ill ... I HATE the new Facebook ... lol ... still going to ballroom dancing, still watching wrestling, glad my mom will be home from Montreal this weekend ... miss her ... but after what I just spent my last hour doing I keep meaning to ask, and share -

Anyone checked out the new 90210 yet? Anyone checked out more than the pilot? I'm enjoying it. I know from the POV of a 'drama expert' that it's hardly high art - I've seen better TV, movies, theatre, whatever. But it's a great 'guilty pleasure' kind of program, and they do a very good job of keeping enough interest around the veteran characters (Kelly and Brenda, the tie-in with the original cast of Erin Silver Kelly's half-sister), without overwhelming the new cast with them. They're giving us old fans our dose of the originals, while introducing us in a swift and interesting manner to the new cast. It's a really interesting format and they've got me so far anyway. What do you guys think?

Otherwise thinking lots of my family and friends - both my parents have been out of town, and I've talked to my mom every day but I still usually see her once or twice a week so that's been weird. And working, and then being sick over a weekend, isn't conducive to seeing a whole lot of people either. We have two friends whose oldest children just started kindergarten in the last week or so and I've been doing a lot of thinking about them ... we did go see a couple of my friends from high school this weekend but they have a new baby and I was sick so I didn't want to stick around too long. And it was my best friend's birthday two days ago - I hope she had a great one! :D

Anyways guys I'm about to collapse from tiredness and have an early morning, but the point is that I want any of my friends who read here to know that just because it's been a busy start to my year and then I got ill, that I am still thinking lots about you and doing my best to at least stay in cybertouch. And now that I'm healthy again, and gotten into a routine ... you can expect to hear much more from me (I'll leave that to you whether that's a promise or a threat lol). And meanwhile, if anyone's looking for an easy and healthy, guilt-free way to hang out with me, I have a "Y" membership which allows me to bring a friend 5x a year (ie between now and December). So if anyone wants to join me ... let me know! :D

Bleeeecccchhhh!

So please forgive my lack of blogging this weekend - I'm sick and hermitlike and not doing a whole lot of anything I must admit. :P Hoping to feel better by tomorrow, as I'm that awful kind of sick that isn't bad enough to take a day and just heal, but is icky enough that work will be a slog tomorrow even if it all goes smoothly. And all things considered then, I'd rather go in and get everyone started on their new units now that our review work is done, etc.

But I hope everyone else is having a great weekend, is feeling well, and hasn't caught this Godforsaken headcold that seems to be going around my hometown. Be well everyone and I promise a longer, and/or more interesting blog will be up here shortly.

:D

BLOGGER'S DISCLAIMER: while posting this bumper sticker does indeed express this site's enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama, and distaste for Sarah Palin, it is in no way meant to actually, literally compare Obama to our Lord and Saviour, nor Palin to that most traitorous of Roman administrators, but merely to illustrate a point in a clever, witty, and - from this site's point of view, anyway - lighthearted manner. Any more serious or ill-natured intentions inherent in the origins of this quote, or driving its future use, are not the responsibility of this author.

DISCLAIMER II: Anyone who needs the above disclaimer takes things way too seriously.

Theatre News

Currently blogging for your reading pleasure is the director of the one-act play "Echo" for Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre's January One-Act Play Weekend.

Dates and times etc. to be announced at this site at a later date - or they can be found at KWLT's website http://www.kwlt.org.

Script can be found here.

Hope everyone can check out the show and support my new endeavour! :D

An email I sent

To http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/

To whom it may concern,

I am not an American woman, but a Canadian citizen. Fifteen years ago, we experienced our first female Prime Minister, a Conservative named Kim Campbell. As much as I was not exactly strongly politically astute at 11 years old, I did have the sense even then that, as much as I was proud as a girl of having a woman as Prime Minister, it didn't just matter that she was female, but competent. Sadly, she wasn't, and she set the movement of women in politics back years - we have not since had a female party leader come any further than third place in our elections.

I disapprove of Sarah Palin as a candidate - her anti-choice, pro-gun, anti-sex education, pro-corporation, anti-contraception, pro-corruption political makeup are personally rancid to me as a centre-leftist, and a longtime Clinton supporter, insofar as I have 'favourites' in American politics. However, I also disapprove of the fact that as the most public and famous woman in the country right now, she will somehow be perceived as standing for myself, or my American counterparts, as women. I simply hope the American public realizes that one can be the good things Mrs. Palin is - a supportive and loving mom, an eager grandmother-to-be, and an educated and (by all accounts) intelligent woman - without taking the lamentable negatives she represents as a politician.

It disappoints me that someone in her position, as the mother of a pregnant teenager and a disabled infant, a very educated and, by all accounts, intelligent woman, and a woman who shares the same Christian faith as I do, can stand for the things she stands for. What is best for women, to empower them and enable them to have better chances than their mothers and grandmothers, includes the ability to make informed decisions about one's sex life, having as many options as possible at their disposal to deal with the repercussions of those decisions (especially in the case where those decisions weren't their own, for example in the case of rape, abortions for which Mrs. Palin also opposes), and social programs accessible for themselves and their families ensuring their health and employability. Mrs. Palin does not represent any of these things.

As a woman, if I were able to vote in the United States of America in 2008, Barack Obama would have my vote. I hope that others like myself recognize that and agree. And for anyone who believes the Republican pandering that this woman is somehow a stand-in for Hillary Clinton, who was unfortunately denied the chance to be the Democratic nominee this time around - please do not lose sight of the fact that all she and Mrs. Clinton have in common is their gender, which does not matter at the end of the day. If you want to see a glass ceiling broken, while still having someone in the White House who represents positive change and looks after the American people, vote Obama in November. Yes we can!

Thank you,
Sarah Daigen
Kitchener Ontario

Gotta go with Perezzers on this one

Gossip star Perez Hilton posted this photo:



on his website. About a week ago, this church sign read "I kissed a girl ... and then I went to hell", an ode (or something) to Katy Perry's gay experimentation-friendly, chart-topping song.

I agree with P's take: this 'artwork' sends the right message ... but perhaps uses an inappropriate method? Two wrongs not making a right and all that? I mean, it IS kinda funny and perfect, but at the same time, obviously as a teacher who tries to send the right message to our youth and teach them to deal with disagreements respectfully and to be better than those casting hateful stones, I don't advocate vandalism. On the other hand, I don't advocate gay-bashing hatred either ...

So I'll leave it to you?

The tastelessness of the Conservatives

I cannot believe that the Conservatives would post an add involving a puffin ... erm ... relieving itself ... on Stephane Dion's shoulder. Don't get me wrong - I know Canadian politics of late has taken a major shift into the American direction of attack ads and - in my opinion - unnecessary harshness instead of civil debate. However, one thing I've been proud of us of is that despite that, it still tends to revolve around the 'Issues'. For example, I'm not a fan of the Conservative radio ads attacking Stephane Dion's carbon tax - have you heard those 'call-in commercials'? - however, as short-sighted, misguided and simplistic as they are, they are about an issue. This, however, is ridiculous.

Have we not learned from Kim Campbell's unflattering ad focusing on Jean Chretien's Bell's Palsy-afflicted face some fifteen years ago which ended up backfiring on herself and the Conservatives? All I can hope, as a Liberal but moreso as a Canadian, is that we recognize we should not be voting on October 14 for the best campaigner for the position of Prime Minister, but the best Prime Minister. And I believe that is Stephane Dion. While he is not especially charismatic - when he makes Stephen frickin' Harper look like a rock star, that's an admitted understatement - or a great orator or an inspiring leader, he is a very intelligent, competent man who will do a good job at the helm of our country. And I wish we as a nation would realize that, instead of falling for negative campaigning simply because we centre-lefties don't roll in the mud with Harper's pigs.

Oh well ... at least these ads, as Dion pointed out, reflect more on the Conservatives than the Liberals, and the PM himself was issuing apologies today, finding himself off-message early in the campaign. Interesting times ahead, as much as I'm afraid this particular election will lead to more of the same - if not worse, a Conservative majority government. Oh well ... go Dion. For more information on the Liberal Party and their leader, please check out these sites:

http://www.liberal.ca
http://www.thisisdion.com

And for more on the REAL Conservatives, check out http://www.scandalpedia.ca.

I Can't Believe this is Goodbye ...

So long to "Rent", a Broadway staple and the 7th-longest running show on the Great White Way, which ended its 12 year run this weekend. Having been inspired by Pucini's opera, "La Boheme", and itself having inspired a movie version two years ago, Rent is one of the most important pieces of modern musical theatre today, bringing a very mainstream version of the dramatic arts - the musical - back to its more artistic, experimental, edgy roots. With nary a bad song in the score, memorable and unique characters, each with their own voice, and the normalcy with which gay and straight characters, whites and minorities, the HIV-infected and the healthy, the addicts and the non-addicts, are treated as they come on and off the canvas, is tremendous.

Sentimental without being schmaltzy, Jonathan Larson - who died just before opening night - created a piece of musical theatre, a modern theatrical masterpiece, which will endure beyond just the cult hit many fancy it to be. It will always live on in touring versions and hopefully a revival on Broadway. My congratulations to everyone involved with the production the last twelve years on a memorable and fantastic run. "No day but today!"

Thoughts

Sorry for the delay, I don't usually like posting further apart than every other day but hey - busy-ness! I'm working again.

Which has been going well, might I say - a very good start to the school year I think, and as young as it is that is encouraging to me. :) Good to see my kids again - they've grown up some over the summer, and I know them a bit better, it's really nice to have a chance to build this kind of rapport at a school - and my fellow staff members. A really happy week, and a decent weekend so far to boot - so productive like I haven't been all summer!

Of course I wish this gig I've got was for the full year, or that something that was full year had come up, as much as I'd miss the little circle of friends and students I've come into at my school, but even that you know, I'm looking at now as 'what's meant for you won't pass you by', and I'm actually looking forward to the adventures and challenges, as well as the opportunities and security of having another year teaching under my belt, that the upcoming year is going to provide. With that and so many other things in my life coming together, you know, I'm feeling really good about the future.

Let me say if you're having a rough time, there's nothing like some time with good friends and a nice vacation, like I got in spades at the end of this summer, and a successful return to something you love and haven't done in awhile (my job), to put things in perspective. It was a long boring summer in which everyone I value was busier than me for a time, that anyone reading my blog could see had gotten me down until towards the end, but I'm even glad for that as it allowed me to get some things out of my proverbial inbox that needed to be cleared out, and to value what was coming up (my trip to Sauble, back to school, etc.) all the more.

Even this weekend, which would have otherwise been spent lying around being bored and lethargic, was spent getting my car washed and vacuumed, calling my grandma who I hadn't talked to in too long, seeing off a friend who's about to leave the country, going to a movie I've been wanting to see in awhile, and doing some shopping and errands that needed to be done. PLUS we get to entertain my dad and stepmom tomorrow night (although, is it us entertaining when they're bringing the food?), who we haven't seen since in awhile since they went on vacation then we were! Wow ... just goes to prove the old saying - want something done? Give it to a busy person ... nothing like keeping moving to get some perspective!

And BTW - lest after a summer full of 'downer' posts leaves this one sounding fake and trying to hard to sound cheery - ask Ari how much happier I've been in the week we were in Sauble and now that school's started. :) More tired? Definitely. Happier as well? Absolutely. Which means I feel a bit foolish for wasting six weeks of beautiful weather and time off being bummed and whiney and hermit-like, but also grateful for them as at this point I feel better than I did even before the summer started, so obviously they did *something*. And since that's where I'm at, I figured after a summer of posts which were kind of depressing, I should share the better side of things too. :D

Oh, and? See The Dark Knight. That is all. XO

90210 thoughts ...

Great show -
Funny, entertaining.
Not exactly high brow
Or kind
To teens or adults
Or West Coasters.
But oddly entertaining
In the guilty pleasure
Kind of way.

Neat to see the ties to past characters -
Kelly and Brenda,
Kelly's sister Erin Silver,
Hanna Zuckerman-Vasquez
And Jackie Taylor Silver next week -
Without overwhelming
The new characters and story.
Good job all around -
Again, even if not quite
"Sophistiquee"
To say the least.

Don't know how long I'm hooked,
But I'm hooked -
Will tune in to ep 2.
Encourage any former fans to do the same.
It's different -
But if it were the same it would never survive
The comparisons.
Different in a good way,
While being true to the right spirit -
Not a bad start!

9021-OH I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Anyone else watching tonite??? :D

Please join me

In praying for the residents of the Gulf Coast and those who either are, or have loved ones, homes, and other pieces of their lives, in the path of Hurricane Gustav. We all remember the devastation caused by Katrina in this region three years ago - thankfully, it does not sound like this hurricane should be as devastating, as it is at least a Grade below the level Katrina was at, and many, many more residents have been evacuated at this time than they were for Katrina. But that does not mean there are not still people who are in danger, or who will have lives to put back together, people, pets, homes and valuables lost, and so on.

And so I pray for all those affected by this natural disaster. And for those of us who aren't directly affected, I hope we all can learn its lessons; not to let the petty, day-to-day grievances we all let fester affect us so deeply, to take care of the things we value and cherish in our lives, and MOST IMPORTANTLY after such soul-searching, to find our most charitable selves at these times to help those in need.

To that end I encourage everyone to donate to the many agencies currently looking to relieve the storm, either through their specific sites (such as the Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org), or through either of the current US presidential campaign sites (http://www.barackobama.com or http://www.johnmccain.com). Ari and I certainly will be doing so - please join us. And hold those people you love tight. God Bless.