some days...

Sometimes memories from my childhood pop into my head and they fill me warmth and sadness.  Warmth because they are happy fuzzy memories that happened during a time when I felt the safest and most secure.  Sadness because I know I'll never feel that way again.

For some reason fish chips as a kid always made me happy.  When the other kids were ordering cheeseburgers and big macs, I wanted the filet-o-fish.  Then as I got older I stopped eating the filet-o-fish and starting eating big macs.

I no longer eat big macs.  The last one, I think was around 1991 but fish and chips are still in my top ten.

pet peeve #4

I have two rules when I go to the theatre:

1) Always go to the bathroom well before the movie starts.

2) Don’t talk to me during the movie (it’s okay to make comments during the trailer but only related to the trailer).

My pet peeve is when my fellow movie-goers violate rule number two.  Now, in Canada this has never been a problem for me but here in Italy it seems to be par for the course.  Why is it that when Italians go to the movies they feel it's okay to have a conversation during the movie??

censorship...

....?

Lately I've been noticing that when I click on an unfolding news story on the bbc twitter feed, about 33% of links link back to the bbc's homepage.

This is strange because since I've been on twitter (only about 6 months) the bbc twitter feed has been 100% accurate and now all of a sudden I have to dig through the homepage to find the article I was interested in reading (I know that sounds lazy, but isn't that what twitter was invented for?).

hmmmm....anybody actually know what happened near Tuscon today?

die hard, YEAH!

Every crazy plot begins with just one man http://io9.com/5838255/

That's pretty obvious...if he had asked for suggestions perhaps nobody would have gotten killed.  But what makes you want to watch is the crazy plan.

for example:



And I thought Face/Off was the most ridiculous movie out there that I could love.  But Crank gives us the bridge from reality (ha! like die hard is reality, right?) to comic book superheroes.  Think about it...Crank's protagonist is a seemingly normal human being that was injected with a slow acting poison which slows down your heart until it stops.  The only way to slow down this already slowed down process is to pump himself full of adrenaline...

...which then enabled him to survive an over 600 metre fall.

now I ask you...how can you not want to watch this movie?  It's gotta be good for at least one memorable line (along the lines of one of my all time faves "you just killed a helicopter with a car!"

jar jar har har

The other day I was watching my friend's kids – two boys, one 8 the other 5…and I had so much fun!  It had been a month since I had watched them because they’ve been on vacation for most of August.  As soon as I walked into the house I noticed the gigantic, completely-made-of-Lego-with-moving-parts DEATH STAR!  It even had an elevator!  We then played boats in the little pool, created an aquatic environment in order to house various toys (including Dory from Finding Nemo), built houses of cards, played the Pyramid of Lego game, whined about wanting to play Indiana Jones on the Wii and finally played Star Wars: The Complete Saga – a Lego video game.  The only negative was seeing that moron Jar Jar Binks in the game.  There was a scene where Jar Jar was about to get run over in spectacular fashion by a death star tank but then one of the boys jumped in and saved him.  And it got me thinking “Could Jar Jar actually be tolerable in other languages"?  After taking a poll, I came to this conclusion: no, Jar Jar always induces homicidal feelings and yes, kids are kind of stupid.

On the bright side the Lego version of the Death Star is good for hours of fun.


Update: upon re-seeing this post a week later I realize that the above pic.....sucks ass.


let's see if this is any better:


no...you know, there are no pictures that would render it justice.  you just gotta play with one.

pet peeve #3

People who think the above picture accurately represents Canadian weather all year round.

For those who are misinformed about the geography of Canada, it does not lie entirely within the Arctic Circle.  However, I will concede that Canadians don't feel the cold as much as others as is evidenced here by the hatless crazy man on a sled being pulled by a Caribou in what I can only imagine is -40 degree weather.

facing fear

All my life I've had insect phobia.  More generally a phobia regarding any kind of unidentified flying (or fast crawling) insect and more specifically about stinging wasps.  Up until I was 30 I used to run in the complete opposite direction any time one came within a metre of me.  I would replace that behaviour later with simply walking away and telling people "I know it's crazy but it's the only phobia I have".

Today I was strung by one of the son of a bitches.  And jesus christ did it hurt.  And the hurt kept on going for most of the day...til it stopped.  And, yeah now it's been almost 18 hours since I was strung, it really doesn't hurt more than a sunburn when you've stayed in the sun half an hour longer than you should have.

I now know two things: 1) I'm not allergic and 2) I'm a little less phobic.

p.s. As I was searching for the above photo I came across this website http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/aug/19/notes-and-queries-why-wasps-sting it's made me re-think wasps.

Update: that damn wasp sting took more than a month to heal!

plant update

Two tomatoes have arrived!

My little brain plant is about to bloom although the process looks a little pornographic.

This is the flower that is about to bloom and it should kind of look like a daisy.

The bastard plant has been growing like a weed!  I'm amazed at its development in the last month.

And the following plant has had an explosion of new little baby plants.

And finally, the same thing is happening to my aloe vera plant but it's causing it to tilt for one and two, there's a baby plant growing out of the side of the pot, not the plant.  Very strange.

All the other pants are thriving and I'm happy to say there have been no deaths since May!

UPDATE part 2

I came home today to find that one of my plants has bloomed!

pet peeve #2

Non native English speakers who tell me I speak English very well.

No shit.

plant update

When I went to the nursery a few weeks ago, I showed pictures of my plants to the clerk and he gave me some good advice.  The most important thing I had to do was re-pot everything with the proper soil.  Not only was I using the wrong soil but I hadn't filled the pots up enough.  The soil should be level with the rim of the pot.  He also suggested I use a little fertilizer and water them every night.

Then, about a week or two after I re-potted everything it rained all night and it did the plants a world of good!  All of the plants showed marked improvement.  Take a look:

this one is doing well, but he's got a few mushrooms growing in his pot and I haven't figured out why yet.

 

these are the ones I thought had dried up and died...they're looking pretty green and lush now.

tomatoes come from flowers!

10 new buds!

Not bad for someone who has killed almost every plant she's had.

pet peeve #1

People who ask me to translate English songs into Italian that we are presently listening to at a bar, club, restaurant, in the car, etc.

Stop it.  It's not an easy task and a lot of times the lyrics are not that interesting.  If you really must know the translation to Foo Fighters "Big Me" then at least wait till I know and like you a little better.  Do not ask me to translate 5 minutes after I've said "nice to meet you".

Arcade Fire

There was a time when I'd go to concerts at least once a week.  Living in Toronto, it was easy to satisfy my passion for live music and, honestly by the time I moved to Italy I had had my fill of concerts to last me quite a while.  I've been living here almost 5 years now and I have to admit, I miss going to concerts (my eardrums, on the other hand, have been quite happy to get a rest).

Last night we went to Lucca Festival to see Arcade Fire.  It was kind of a last minute decision and when we arrived, they were already 4 songs in.  I've quite literally seen hundreds of bands, some better than others and Arcade Fire is definitely in my top five.  But the thing that struck me the most was the emotion and excitement I felt as we walked in.  The last concert I saw was Arcade Fire in 2007 in Ferrara so it had been a while.  The sounds of the music and the crowd reminded me of why I used to go to concerts so often.  Good live shows always energize me and this one was no exception.  I was still full of energy at 4 am!

plant update

It's been almost two months since I started this little experiment and now finally I'm starting to see some growth (and also some deaths).

The tomato plant is doing well....she's gotten very tall and I'm going to the nursery this afternoon to get her a larger pot and a stick to lean on.  I have noticed some yellowing of the leaves though and I'm hoping she's not sick.

The following have not multiplied like crazy...in fact, they seem to have dried up and died.

I spoke to a lady that has a passion for succulent plants and she told me that they need to be watered every night during the summer so I've started doing just that and some have bounced back (I'm still hoping the above plant still has a chance).

The two plants above are doing the best.  Both were given to me from larger plants and I was doubtful they would take but since I started watering them every night they've been doing really well!

I should really learn the names of the plants I have.  Does anyone have any idea what they're called?

currently re-watching: films

An hour and 30 minutes I always shake my fist at the screen.

After repeated viewings, the lens flares get only slightly less annoying.

The human-alien love scene is a little disconcerting.

What can I say?  It's been a science fictiony kind of week.

referendum

Yesterday Italians went to the polls to vote in a referendum on nuclear power, the privatization of water, and whether or not government ministers should be exempt from attending trials in which they are defendants.  This last one seems like it shouldn't even be worth debating...you're accused of a crime, you must attend the trial....these government ministers are not foreign diplomats for god's sake.

But that's not the only thing that's disturbing to me.  When I arrived at the poll station and went in to vote I was struck by how complicated the language on the ballot was.  It was like reading a contract and anyone who had not finished high school would not have been able to understand the question asked of them.  Laws were quoted, highly formal language was used, and if you didn't want something (i.e. I don't want nuclear power plants in Italy) then you had to answer yes.  I had already made my decision on which way to vote before going and thank god because had I gone in without first doing some research I would not have understood what was required of me.  The language used was incomprehensible!

In the end, a quorum was reached, and the vote was overwhelmingly positive, that is to say that over 95% voted to NOT have nuclear power plants in Italy, NOT privatize water and NOT give government ministers immunity.

Who says a double negative doesn't make a positive in the Italian language?

Foo Fighters Walk

Remember when the Foo Fighters used to get pelted with Mentos at every concert?  Good times.  Here's the latest video based on the film "Falling Down" (1993) starring Michael Douglas in which he goes on a rampage across Los Angeles trying to get to his daughter's birthday party and having a really bad day.

R.I.P. Nonna

November 13, 1919 - May 30, 2011

currently addicted to: music

Albert Hammond Jr. "Yours to Keep"

plant update

R.I.P. Aloe Vera

Well, one plant has bitten the dust.  In my defense, it didn’t start life here in the most advantageous condition.  It was ripped out of its home by my friend as we were walking through a condo complex.  “The smaller plants at the base will suffocate the plant, so they should be removed anyway” she reassured me.  But we didn’t have clippers so she had to pull it out by hand.  She struggled quite a bit with it and in retrospect this difficulty should have warned us to leave the poor thing alone.

But where one plant dies, another flourishes.  My herb plants are growing like crazy.  I may have to prune them soon and freeze the trimmings.  I also want to make pesto sauce with the basil but I don’t have a mortar and pestle which is essential to avoiding the acidic taste that basil gets when you cut it with a stainless steel knife.

For my birthday, the above-mentioned friend gave me a new addition to my little plant family (no, she didn't steal it from some family's garden, this came from her own garden).  Can anyone guess what plant this is?

No, it’s not pot, but it does bear fruit….my favourite….TOMATOES!  Now, I think I’m going to have to be more attentive but so far so good.  I’ve had her four days and her leaves are nice and perky.  This may sound crazy, but I get the feeling she’s happy.  She reminds me of the plant in Wall-E, so delicate, yet so strong.  I’ve put her in the solarium and I will need to re-pot soon but for now everything seems okay.

can a black thumb become green?

I've recently decided to give gardening another try.  well, actually, just a try...no "another" because this is the first time that I'm putting real effort into it.

In the past, I've had basil plants and they've never lasted much past the summer season.  I've also had an office plant, you know, the kind where you can forget about it and then all of a sudden it looks dead so you rush to water it hoping to have saved it in time and 10 minutes later the plant looks fresh as a daisy.  yeah, I killed that one too.  I've had a few orchids but they are so out of my league and died almost instantly.   I've also had an oleander which my grandma brought from Italy as a little baby plant (technically she shouldn't have been allowed to bring it into Canada but my grandma was a sweet little old lady) and grew to epic proportions.  It flowered every year and it was just a beautiful plant.  I didn't even have to worry too much about it.....until I took it back to my mother's house.  She decided that it needed pruning and proceeded to prune the life out of the plant....literally.  There was only a stump left.

So anyway, I want to learn to take care of plants and I thought I'd start off with plants that don't need too much attention.  This may sound like the easy way but rest assured I did not purchase any of the succulent plants in the pictures (I did buy the herbs, but that's for cooking purposes).  The plants in the pictures are all pieces of other plants given to me by friends.  I've planted them in their own pots and I'm hoping that they'll take root and grow.

these, once they start, multiply like crazy

this one when it grows will hang over the sides of the pot

this is my favourite - little brains!

I'm not sure this one's going to take root - I'm keeping my fingers crossed because aloe vera is very handy in the summer!

this is the bastard plant because it has these teeny tiny needles that stick to you whenever you get near the plant and they're painful -  however it's quite photogenic

If anyone has any suggestions or advice or if one of my plants looks like it's dying let me know!