Happy First Day of Spring!!!

MyTunes Monday: Dance of the Knights (Sergei Prokofiev)

I've listened to this SOOOO many times in the last few days that it's ridiculous. Watching live (or live-ish) classical performances never gets old, especially when the musicians are very animated like that one violinist (trust me, you know which one I'm talking about...he's also kinda cute).

Happy Valentine's Day

The Scene at the Store

There is a major snow storm headed to my neck of the woods. In fact, as I’m typing this, the flakes are falling and have been for about an hour. It started accumulating immediately. I was mostly prepared but there were just a couple of things I wanted to get while the getting was good so I trotted off to the store.

Mad. House.

It wasn’t frantic, but there were hoards of people there. Completely understandable. There things that I found laughable and things that I found downright perplexing. I jokingly made a Facebook status a few days ago about getting prepared by making sure I had wine (and yes, I do have the wine, as well as some bourbon because…reasons). However, there were lots of people buying alcohol. The guy in front of me in the queue had two cases of beer.

On the other hand, there were people buying frozen food. Lots of frozen food. That guy who was in front of me had three frozen pizzas. Keep in mind that the forecast has my area getting 10 inches of snow give or take. It may also be a rather wet and heavy snow, so power outages are not beyond reason. What exactly do these people think they’re going to do with these frozen foods, because preparing them would be out of the question?

And of course the bread aisle was absolutely ravaged and there was no such thing as a short line. That was particularly annoying given that I was waiting with just two items.

I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me on this trip to the grocery store (it didn't occur to me until I was halfway there) because it was definitely worth a few pictures.

BELATED UPDATE: As I said, about 10 inches were in the forecast. It ended up being 24 inches officially. Outside my door was 19 inches.

Wayward Weatherman

This was supposed to have been posted two weeks ago but...things. With another storm on the horizon, it seemed to be pertinent.

Somewhere around grade three or four, I became obsessed with weather. Seriously, while boys were getting into sports, I was watching The Weather Channel nonstop. Almost everything I learned about weather I learned then. I would watch the clouds and try to predict the weather. I drew tons of weather maps. I read tons of books on weather. I even kept track of hurricane season year in and year out. This stuff came in handy. In June when I was in grade four, I was in my grandmothers room and the weather started to turn really bad. I looked out the window and up and saw a funnel cloud. Immediately I started running towards the basement. Unfortunately I (and my mother and grandmother) didn’t get very far before…let’s just say it seemed like a bomb went off. We did make it the basement shortly thereafter. Whatever it was - a tornado, microburst, or something else - it didn’t last long, but it did take out a tree in the backyard (luckily it fell so that it missed the house, otherwise…yikes). Years later, my dad would be surprised that I didn’t major in meteorology (that would have required me taking more chemistry which…no).

I was pretty much always on top of the weather. I was always prepared. The faces on TWC were very familiar, almost like old friends (damn, that sounds pathetic).

Meanwhile yesterday, it started snowing. I didn’t know that would happen. It kept snowing and started accumulating. That was a shock. At around 8:30pm, there were maybe 2 inches on the ground. I did NOT see this coming. The day before started out surprisingly warm when I rode my bike into work. Six hours later when I left (keep in mind the Sun was still fairly high in the sky), it was frigid. The temperature had dropped 20 degrees. It turns out that the morning warmth that got me to work was the high of the day.

Somewhere along the road, one of my primary interests fell by the wayside and I’m very out-of-touch with the weather. It’s strange sometimes to think back on the things that interested us when we were younger only to realize that as the years pass, those interests change, sometimes without us noticing until it is brought into specific relief by a jolting event. That makes me wonder what - ten years from know - I will have left in my past, and what I will have picked up in its stead.

Olympic Disappointment

Normally I really look forward to the Olympics with excitement. However, with the opening ceremonies mere hours away, I find myself really disappointed.

As you should know by now, the Games are in Sochi, Russia. Russia last year passed a bunch of anti-gay laws that make the country quite dangerous for gay people and LGBT allies. Free speech and freedom of association have gone out of the window there. This, however, is old news (yet still sad of course).

Pretty much every story I’ve heard about the conditions in Sochi are terrible. There are stories about stray dogs being rounded up and systematically euthanized. It sounds like a canine Holocaust. Also, the hotels are in terrible condition. People who worked on building the venues, many of whom are Uzbeki people driven into Russia, have not been paid. This depressing list goes on and on, and it has taken away most of my usual enthusiasm for the Games this year.

I will say that there is one part of this Games that I’m still looking forward to: the Ice Dance event. I’m really hoping that Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the gold. They’re the reigning silver medalists (the reigning gold medalists will be competing too), they’re the reigning world champions, the reigning Grand Prix champions, they’re undefeated this season. They have put together some really great programs and I love their skating to bits. My one wish for the outcomes of these Games is that they bring home the gold. I’m far too invested in this for my own good. I’ll leave you with the programs they’ll be bringing to the Olympics (these performances are from U.S. Nationals, which they also won.

Short Dance:

Free Dance:

Other than this, I'm pretty much checked out of these Winter Games. Call me again in 2018.

MyTunes Monday: Once Upon A Dream (Lana Del Rey)

So beautifully dark.

Basic Audience

Tonight I watched one of my favourite films with a couple of people. You would think that I had fun given that this is one of my favourite films...right? Not so much. The problem was that one of the people with whom I was watching this film - who had never seen it - had ZERO appreciation for the film and kept voicing that. Don't get me wrong, I get that not everyone has the same taste in films that I do and that's perfectly fine. The thing is that this film is not a "lowest common-denominator" kind of film which is part of why I like it. Films like this demand things  of the viewer such as attention, thought, etc. They are not simple films. A lot of effort went into these films which actually have something of substance to say. Even though I can get this person not liking the film, the disrespect that was shown was undeserved and annoying. Basic people who aren't up to watching films that require thought should stick to the likes of Twilight. Even though there are plenty of "simple" films that I like or even love, I tend to prefer films that require functioning brain cells and have something to say, not to mention that when the various elements are put together well it just makes it even better. Luckily my love of this film is still intact (or maybe it's even stronger).

Kids these days don't appreciate a good thing when it's staring them right in the face.

Worst. Music. EVER!!!

Once upon a time, I thought that Justin Beiber music was bad. Little did I know just how bad music could be…until Friday night.

I was exposed to the worst music that I can recall hearing in a very long time. Generally, the music I listen either means something, or it is lyrical, or it is just fun and catchy. This music however…let’s just say that calling it music is a bit of a stretch. What I mean by that is that there was very little discernible music. It was just noise. Some people would call it noise pollution. Apparently my displeasure with the “music” was written all over my face. I didn’t realize that until two people at the bar asked pointed out that I seemed “unamused.” I said “It’s not my kind of music.” That was a polite way of me saying “This ‘music’ is shit and I can’t believe ANYONE finds it enjoyable.” At least with Beiber, I can get why people like it even though I personally don’t.

Not only was the music terrible, it was really fucking loud. It was like my ears were getting blitzed by the Luftwaffe. I spent a good chunk of the night as far away from the speakers as I could get. At some point in the night, someone who was rocking out to this sonic assault knocked over one of said speakers. I considered paying him to “accidentally” knock over the rest of the speakers. By the end of the night, I definitely wasn’t hearing out of my left ear (the one facing the music) as I was out of my right ear. It is nothing short of a miracle that I didn’t have a throbbing headache.

Time for me to buy some earplugs.

Hiatus Explained

My last post was on October 29th. Yeah, it's been a while.

First, I had a computer issue. I finally decided to do something about my computer constantly overheating. I bought one of those compressed air things and used it to get rid of the dust that accumulated over the years. In the process, I damaged the fan...or something. It didn't work for a few days, then it worked for a few days, then it didn't work for a few days, then it started working again and has worked since...and that's with me doing practically nothing else. Having zero engineering know-how, I don't know what the fuck happened. So that was for about a week and a half.

As for the rest of the time, I got a computer game called "Civilization V." I've been pretty obsessed with it for the past two months and still am. Seriously, hours and hours straight with only potty breaks. I've racked up 204 hours of game play (the game keeps up with that) in two months. Not only have I neglected this blog, but my political blog as well, plus exercising has suffered too. Life = shambles.

I'm back and hopefully I'll balance my time far better than I have recently. Meanwhile, during my absence, the adorable Tom Daley (British swimmer, Olympic bronze medalist) did this:

My one criticism of this video: he's looking at the viewfinder and not at the lens. Though If I looked like him, I probably would look at myself too. seriously though, I would like to point out he didn't label himself as...whatever. That is an important thing of which to take note.

Team Queer scores again!!!