radar men from the moon

If you're looking for a little classic Sci-Fi to spice up your lunch hour try Radar Men from the Moon. Warning: It's only episode 1 so you won't get the whole story, but trust me it's worth it.
Hilarious.

waiting to be found

Sometimes the truth is just sitting there waiting to be found. About a week ago I was asked a very unexpected question. I was having dinner with some new friends and it came out of nowhere. It wasn't a life changing question (not that question) but I can't seem to get it out of my head. What surprises me the most is how unexpected I'm finding my own answer.

Most people who know me would say that I spend a lot of time inside my own head. How strange then that in something so basic, I don't know myself as well as I thought. Maybe I knew all along and just hadn't said it out loud. Maybe the truth was sitting there, waiting to be found.

I keep thinking that I've fully answered the question and something deeper reveals itself. Walking down the hallway, rounding the corner, there it is, unmistakable. You say you think this, but really what you think is over here. I don't think I've been deceiving myself or intentionally hiding but for whatever reason clarity has come to the surface this week. I have no idea what it means or where it is going. But I'm curious to keep walking this path and to see whatever is waiting.

This post feels like it should come with it's own soundtrack. I suggest Amos Lee to take the edge off. Or for anyone who watched Grey's Anatomy last night, Kendall Payne's "Scratch" would go nicely. (Although the lyrics when read alone come out a little sad.) My copy from Amazon isn't here yet but I'm told you can get it on iTunes. I've been trying to think of what this song reminds me of and it's one of the early productions of A Maze of Grace. That show haunted me from the first rehearsal to the final curtain. How interesting that it haunts me again now.

he dreams of Janie

I had to share the cuteness. Here's my niece at a week old. As you can see she's learning valuable lessons from her Dad already. I love the custom pillows in the background.

feelin' the love

My cat is stalking me. I've been working from home today and Gandalf is facinated by it. Every time I turn around she's there. Maybe it's the classic Miss Piggy logic "I could watch people work all day." Whatever it is, I am feelin' the love.

time to repaint the house

Here's how the seats in the House of Commons were divvied up as of yesterday. (Image source and also great source of information: The Wikipedia article on the House of Commons.)

I wonder what it will look like tomorrow.

Don't forget to vote!

i'm an aunt!

In the wee small hours of the morning I became an Aunt.

Corrina Jamie Joy Colvinson
January 18th, 2006
8lb 14 oz
Winnipeg, MB

The whole world changed today, even if much of the world didn't feel the difference. There is more beauty in it today than yesterday, more gentleness, more laughter, and a brand new reason to smile.

Welcome little one. You kept us waiting, but I have a feeling you were worth the wait.

Update: January 20th

I finally got a photo of little Corrina. I think she looks like Dave around the eyes and like Janie everywhere else. And of course she's beautiful. Here she is:

the liberals and westjet theory

I was really, really hoping that my next post would be announcing my niece or nephew's arrival into the world but that's currently a work in progress. So in the meantime . . . . Liberals and WestJet theory.

The election is getting pretty close. At some point before next Monday I plan to spend some time on CBC's Canada Votes to educate myself a little better on the issues at hand. In the meantime however I have a theory. The Liberal party is like WestJet.

Remember a few years back when WestJet had some mechanical trouble and the whole fleet got grounded? Not long afterward they were back in the sky and I mentioned to a pilot friend of mine that there was no way I'd trust a WestJet plane. He pointed out that it was actually the very best time to fly WestJet. He mentioned that because WestJet had just been slapped they had gone over every inch of every plane in the fleet. He argued that at that moment there wasn't a safer fleet in the sky than WestJet.

Which makes me think of the Liberals. They just got slapped pretty publicly and so my theory is that the Liberals are not such a bad bet. They've had to seriously clean-up their act. They've been scrutinized, audited and publicly flogged (quite rightly). They screwed up enormously but here's the thing -- do any of us really believe that all of the other parties aren't running some scheme of their own? At least I know what the Liberals are up to and for a few weeks at least we've put a stop to it. The others just haven't been caught recently.

Will I vote based on this theory? I haven't decided yet. I've still got a week. But I will vote. Democracy doesn't ask all that much of us. If you can't be bothered to vote, the exists are mostly to the south.

getting away with murder

A movie about a bunch of guys in wheelchairs shouldn'’t be this much fun. In the first few minutes of watching Murderball I felt like I shouldn't be staring at the guy in the chair. But less than an hour in I realized that I wasn'’t seeing his chair at all. Days later I'’m still thinking about it.

Murderball follows the stories of several members of the US National Quad Rugby team. It'’s one of the film's first mind-bends to conceive of quadriplegiclegics playing a contact sport, but as one of the guys in the movie says "What's the worst that can happen? We might break our necks?" It'’s this call-it-what-it-is-and-get-on-with-it style that reaches out and grabs you. Murderball'’s greatest strength is that finally you don't see an injury or even a piece of equipment. All you see is the man.

If you haven'’t seen Murderball I highly recommend it with this one caveat: this is a documentary that follows young male athletes. All of the language and graphic stories of the locker room are in this movie so if that's going to bother you, sit this one out.

As for me, I'’m still chewing on this one and I'’d say odds are good I'’ll be renting it again. Kudos to directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro for a job well done. Let team captian Mark Zupan and company take on all your assumptions about people in wheelchairs. Trust me, they can take it.

happy new year!

Happy New Year 2006! I still find the 2000's look strange on paper. I'll probably get used to it just in time for 2010.

Ceone and I both felt crummy on New Year's Eve and had to welch on our plans. We had a bottle of red wine and a few sparklers though so it wasn't a total loss.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year. The year I turn 30. The year I finally make it to Disneyland. The year I become an Aunt for real. So much to look forward to and it's only just begun. Here's to the year stretched out before us. May we have the courage to hope, the strength to love and the vision to dream in all the days ahead.