me and my little buddy

Three 7 AM shifts, each of them 8 hours of merchandising stores (minus lunch), done.

Now curled up on the sofa reading. Oooh Major Pettigrew has gotten to that unputdownable stage--the most exciting stage in every book. A little community is finally forming around the main character, which I love, and the romance is blossoming, very slowly and carefully. Meow meow meow!

Janelle Monae - Archandroid

Ooh I downloaded the new Janelle Monae album (currently posted on her myspace). Weee! Here's what Spin's review says:

Monáe can really sing; she could follow in Beyoncé's designer pumps if she wanted, but she's clearing a new path for black female entertainers. She's venturing so far away from soul that she's come back around to it. By finding spirituality in the machine she's imagined for herself, Monáe rewires the one that society has dumped on her.

me talkin' Survivor

I've only had 45 minutes of sleep, but I had to watch the Survivor finale and reunion show before going to bed. I'm not even tired yet, cause Survivor stiiimulates the brain cells. I don't know how people can knock this show, who have never watched a season starting from day 1. There is nothing like it on television, and certainly no sporting event like in real life, that I know of.

Because it's all driven by people, and people are fantastically unpredictable--which is why one of the common debates in the social sciences is whether they can really be called a science at all. That's why political scientists are shite at making predictions. It's like the name of the short story, The Most Dangerous Game (that is, hunting human beings.)

So to make for a good people watching game, you just have to deprive everyone, give them a goal worth fighting for, and then set a few rules that work in contradiction to each other. And the result will be massively suspenseful.

Of the Survivors I've watched, not one has ever been predictable. People make DUMB moves that make you jump up and down on your couch out of shock. You never see the dumb moves coming. People make really great strategic moves, but you never know if they'll work out or not. And you can play the best game in terms of the physical and mental (winning challenges), in terms of making strong alliances, and in terms of lying and manipulating people, but there's that ONE last part of the game that you still have to consider, which is that the people you backstabbed will get to decide in the end whether you get the money or not.

There are a lot of Survivor fans (including the guy who was the runner up the last two seasons) who think the winner should be the person who strategized the best, but the fact is if you didn't strategize with the jury in mind, then you didn't strategize well enough--which is why a couple of the cleverest players have never won. And if you tried to make the game without that element, it wouldn't be as fun, because it would only favor the snakes, so it's a key part of the enjoyment.

Ahhh Survivor. This is why when I want to avoid TV, I just don't watch the first few episodes. Once the game's gone far enough into the season, it's too hard to understand, so it's easy to resist. This season sucked me in! But at least it was a goodie.

Guess I'd better get some sleeps now.

I'll just go sit in the corner and cry now

My dad makes videos and such for the World Parrot Refuge on Vancouver Island, in BC. They take in abandoned or abused birds and try to give them a good life for the last of their years.

I don't know how people can work with animals in pain--I admire people like that so much. I love animals, but in a weak, cowardly way. It takes a Superman like strength to be the one who actually helps take the pain away.

This is a video of a bird thrown out by his breeder--his back broken so that his legs are now paralyzed. It's simultaneously sad and happy.

DO NOT BUY PETS!!! meh meow sob sob sob

Scenes from a marriage - The Ewok Cooking Song

Scene: Fernando is trying to tell a work story.

Mabel - You know when you're working, sometimes you should sing: Looka look laka loooola.

Fernando - [no reply]

M - Looka look laka loooola. That would help your work along.

F - [no reply]

M - I guess you're ignoring me.

F - I think we've reached that portion of the evening. Where I ignore you, and you sing looka look laka loooola.

Rooobin Hoood suuuperstaaaar

Reviews of the new Robin Hood movie aren't hot--the feeling seems to be that it's too slow, too convoluted, and takes itself too seriously.

When will people learn that they need to watch the BBC version?? Huff. It manages to keep a serious and dark side, while still having a cheeky Robin; you get one Tragicky Sexy Bad Guy and one Twisted Funny Bad Buy (for whatever your taste); nice mix of sidekicks, including a "Saracen" woman in season two; and a perfectly done romance. Until they make a movie version that does all that (and with British accents), BBC will be my *definitive* version.

Mind you, it might be a little too good. I can't bring myself to watch season 3 because I'm still heartbroken over the character they nixed in season 2.

I am so ahead of my time

Years ago I wrote a story about a friend I worked with who wanted to be a kids book writer. In my usual style, I made her into a fictional character, who meets with famous children's author Simon Nibble, and tries to get him to help her with her career. She ends up falling in love with his personal "handler."

Obviously the name Simon Nibble was a play on Robert Munsch. My Nibble character was nice and fun in front of the public, but a lech behind scenes. (Though I like to think he was a fun lech.)

Well now it seems that Robert Munsch is an alcoholic and uses cocaine. I think it's great that he's talking about it publicly--would be worse if it got out on its own.

Maybe my writing is sooo powerful that I accidentally cursed him!