Posts from — July 2007

Regular readers know that my first summer vice, So You Think You Can Dance? has already started, and I’ve been enjoying it immensely. But now my second summer vice has started, Big Brother! We’re on edition number 8 right now, and it’s only the second week so I don’t know all the “characters” yet, so I can’t really comment. Stay tuned for more comments from the peanut gallery. Why do I like Big Brother? Let me count the ways:

1. the vapidity of some of the houseguests is just high-larious. Where do the producers find these people?
2. the machinations of the alliances, especially at the beginning, is pretty good too. When everyone’s trying to find their way, they don’t really know who to trust, and who they like or hate.
3. the challenges the producers come up with are also fun. Nothing too cool yet, but who knows. Oh wait, I’m typing while watching tonight’s episode, and tonight’s food challenge is the nasty eating challenge. Hmm, the mystery pie game. Could be nasty! Oh, and they brought back the infamous Big Brother slop this summer!
4. the Big Brother slop. It’s just too funny. A sort of Oliver Twist gruel-type stuff that is just nasty.

Oh, I could go on about all the silly reasons of why I like this show. Such summer fun!

Tonight was movie night chez moi, and I had several classic movies to choose from on my list. I decided to go with Murder on the Orient Express. No, not the remake from 2001, but the original from 1974. The one directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman in her Oscar winning role, Sean Connery and the wonderful Albert Finney. Go check out the rest of the cast on imdb.com because it’ll impress the hell out of you; it sure did me. I couldn’t believe such an all-star cast had been assembled for one movie. And the story was wonderful! I’ve not read any of Agatha Christie’s novels, however I had seen a few of the other Hercule Poirot stories on PBS growing up (my mother was a big fan of the mystery, and PBS was always showing these Hercule Poirot mini-series’.) They were always quite interesting, and this was no different. In fact, this was the one movie adaptation that Agatha Christie herself liked; she didn’t really like any of the other ones. Apparently it took a lot of persuading to get her to sell the rights to this one, as she was not happy with previous adaptations. But I’m glad she did agree, the result is wonderful. If you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely need to see it.

To add to the movie night here, History Television is showing Out of Sight, which is a bit of an odd choice for their History on Film show this Saturday night. They usually show a movie with a particular motif, or to talk about an era in history, however this one escapes me. Guess I’ll have to watch till the end to hear the explanation. The host, Ann Medina , usually introduces and recaps the movie. At any rate, it’s a good movie, so I don’t mind catching it mid-way thru.

Edit: Found out Ann’s last name (I always forget it), and have added that name. Plus, I completely forgot to mention that I also watched my first Woody Allen movie yesterday afternoon, which was Match Point. I’ve never been a fan of Woody’s, as I find him too neurotic, but I wanted to watch this one as it involved tennis at some level, and I’m a big tennis fan, so there it is. Interestingly enough though, I found the movie to be more of a modern version of a classic 19th century English or French novel, where you’ve got the poor main character who somehow manages to insinuate him/herself into high society, and then the hijinks that ensue while s/he tries to stay there. Very odd that that’s how the movie went, but it was fairly interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one, however if you’re a fan of Woody, I guess it would be on your list.

Yes, I present to you, El Primero!

I finished him off last week, and I must say, everything went well during the whole process.

Except for the end part.

In my excitement, I bound off the sock, and then sewed in the end. Stupidly, I did this before trying the sock on! Oye veh. So when I tried it on, I couldn’t get it over my ankle. The bound off row wasn’t stretching at all, so I couldn’t try it on. I’m now stuck with a perfectly good sock that I can’t wear. *sigh*

Don’t worry though, I will be knitting up El Segundo as well, just to keep El Primero company. But I will use all the tricks I learned with this first one. Plus I think I’ll do up future socks with plastic needles, because the sound of those metal ones was just like nails on a chalkboard to me. Okay, I’m exaggerating a tad, as I was able to knit up a whole sock, but it was mildly annoying, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it again.

Sock stats

Wool: Regia in Canadian Color (that’s lots of reds, burgundys, black, purple and charcoal grays)

Total knitting time: About 4 days total.

Dips in the frog pond: 2 (I’m quite proud of this stat, as I was expecting to have to do it multiple times.)

Mmmm, !

I just ate my first corn on the cob of the summer, and was it ever good! Peaches and cream corn, to be precise. I picked it up in Simcoe, on my way back from Long Point Provincial Park. I had spent the day at the beach with a friend, and we noticed quite a few fruit & veggie stands on the side of the rode on the way in, and decided to stop in on the way home. I only bought 6 ears since I didn’t want to spend the entire week eating the corn, but still, I couldn’t resist! Here, take a look at the remnants of my lunch today:

Mmm,

Whoa, did you hear about the man in Vancouver who was struck by lightning while listening to his iPod while jogging outside? Impressive. It’s not just the iPod that makes it dangerous to be outside, but rather the fact that the earphones have metallic parts in them. It’s not safe to be using earphones or a telephone or cellphone outside when there’s a possibility for lightning about. So be careful!