I just realised I run a good chance of not being able to get people who don't know me into my Kapcon game. Huh.
Last year I ran Jane Austen which a lot of people are familiar with and love, whereas this year I'm running an edgy self-written indie game which is about how awful it is to be a teenage girl. I guess what I'm hoping is that people remember that I ran a good game last year and are curious enough about what I've written to give it a chance.
Then again, if it's only my friends who sign up to play my game I'll be pretty happy too. Sam, you following me around again this Kapcon? Will you have time to play games?
It's too too hot today.
Point of Fashion: pirate skirt
Current Obsession: shopping
We watched the first two episodes of Carnivale last night with the commentaries on which was very very cool. Man, I love that show.
Also, the Critic! They're (thankfully) as funny as I remember them being which is a big relief. I used to see them on Friday nights as I stayed up to watch Forever Knight. Heh.
Tomorrow I'm hitting the shops again, Lee's birthday present shopping, more %30 off socks, and some pre-wedding treats from Lush: I'm thinking of shiny-hair making stuff, king of skin and maybe something for my footsies.
What else? I finished the latest Jacky Faber book Under the Jolly Roger which makes me pretty sad since I love the books and I never want them to end. After the wedding I can afford to buy myself a nice hardcover set from Amazon. That and the 5000 Fingers of Dr T. Bliss.
About the wedding: I am not excited about it, but freaked on a low level. I want everything to be sorted but this is not a good week to nail anything down. Also, it's too freaking soon! *breathes deeply*. Of course, I can't imagine anything that will happen after the wedding and honey moon...Oh crap. It's getting onto the time we should be getting a marriage license, well, got a couple of weeks for that yet.
Hen's night details will be finalised on Monday when I see my sister. I have to decide what I want to do...my earlier plans seem lame and babyish and I don't want to do the whole get-drunk-in-town thing. Bah.
Point of Fashion: new purple skirt
Current Obsession: end of the day
I've just noticed that Howl's Moving Castle is playing at the Paramount right now. They have different sessions for dubbed and subtitled which is pretty cool, and I know a lot of people missed out on seeing it at the film festival who should really go and see it now that it's screening all nice.
While I'm at it Broken Flowers is on at the Penthouse and that is well worth the trek to Brooklyn if you enjoyed such movies as Coffee and Cigarettes, Lost in Translation and it's also similar to a kind of middle-aged just heading over the hill Garden State. It's paced quite slow but is very very funny.
anyhoo, something a little different from the Mega Blockbuster epics playing right now if'n your in a movie going mood.
Yesterday morning I had a powerful urge to get into the sea so Lee and I drove out to Eastbourne (it's been a while since I went out that way) and sat on the beach and read. It was lovely delicious sunny and although the water was freezing cold I had fun at the beach. We had lunch at a cafe out there and then came back into town at about midday.
Then I read my book some more Under the Jolly Roger which is the third Bloody Jack book and I am loving it and then I had a nap. Then I played some dance mat game, had a shower and was just tidying up our presents and boxing day purchases when Giffy called to invite us over for Singstar. I am weirdly resistant to being invited over on the spur of the moment but we went because I am desperate to play Singstar 80s and it was awesome. I *am* Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
As soon as we got home from Giffy's Elric arrived for the brainstorming session for the second season of Hix's Buffy game. It's gonna be wicked cool and I am disappointed we didn't get any actual play in.
This morning I dreamed I had shamed my family by talking while climbing up the prayer tower to get into church. As a female I was not allowed in at all after talking so I had to wait outside for the entire Holy week.
Point of Fashion: new short pants
Current Obsession: the next four day weekend
Another Christmas over. It was a good day, if not a great one. I got some lovely presents and am especially excited by the first season of Canivale on DVD. Lee gave me a massaging foot warmer that is just like the one big slipper that Billy Connelly goes on about by high tech. I foresee it will be mighty useful in the winter months.
Other neat things I was given include: new little pink handbag, necklace, teeny painting, huge stack of towels (really a late engagement present for Lee also) and assorted books. I'm not sure people really realise how happy the standard book or DVD present makes me. They are my largest collections!
Today was annual "Jenni hits the Boxing Day sales day" and I have come home with three new skirts (blue into white knee length, purple into darker purple broomstick ankle length and black belted by full A-Line mid calf length), one pair of short pants (faded black jeans that come to the knee = too cute!), three DVDs (Hellboy, Peter Pan and Phantom of the Opera), three pairs of socks (extremely cheap at %30 off) and $5 duckie knickers. It's a good haul. (Lots of threes.....)
I can't seem to find the hoodie sweatshirt I desire and suspect I am shopping for it in entirely the wrong season. I will instead purhcase some nice sweatshirting fabric and make my own. Hopefully it will not be hard to find nice sweatshirting. Ooooh actually...I have a bunch of scraps, I could make a weird multi-coloured patchwork confection of a sweatshirt....hmmmm....might be really ugly....
Anyhoo, this afternoon Lee and I saw King Kong. I really liked all the actors and the cinematography was just gorgeous. It was a very visual film and I did love it but I found I didn't connect at all with Kong. Rachel has warned me that it's a crying movie and I'd definitely cry but I found it sad, but not sad enough to cry. This could be down to any of the following factors: Peter Jackson failed to create a likeable CGI character without the aid of dialogue (unlikely), I don't like giant gorillas (I am abivilent about gorillas), I had a serious case of consumer satisfaction (true) or there was a bored six year old in the row in front of us. (Main contributing factor to any dissatisfaction.)
Seriously. A six year old. Now there are movies aimed at children and then there are three hour epics. Which is Kong? I didn't mind that the yelled during the really loud bits, I could get over the fact that he kept sitting on the folded up chairseat and then banging it down. It was the way he'd get bored in the quiet (a.k.a. plot filled) parts and talk to his father that bugged me.
***SPOILER ALERT****
Putting that aside: I thought some of the long action sequences were overlong. I loved Jamie Bell's Jimmy and the giant millipedes gave me the freaking heebie jeebies. I had to look away from the hideous giant leech things when they ate Andy Serkis. The giant wetas were very creepy and I liked the way Ann made Kong laugh.
***END OF SPOILERS---
Point of Fashion: summer girl
Current Obsession: omelette cooking
seasons greetings to all my readers, friends and stalkers!
It's in the singing of a street corner choir
It's going home and getting warm by the fire
It's true, wherever you find love it feels like Christmas
A cup of kindness that we share with another
A sweet reunion with a friend or a brother
In all the places you find love it feels like Christmas
It is the season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is the season of the spirit
The message if we hear it
Is make it last all year
It's in the giving of a gift to another
A pair of mittens that were made by your mother
It's all the ways that we show love that feel like Christmas
A part of childhood we'll always remember
It is the summer of the soul in December
Yes, when you do your best for love it feels like Christmas
It is the season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is the season of the spirit
The message if we hear it
Is make it last all year
It's in the singing of a street corner choir
It's going home and getting warm by the fire
It's true, wherever you find love it feels like Christmas
It's true, wherever you find love it feels like Christmas
It feels like Christmas
It feels like Christmas
It feels like Christmas
by Paul Williams from the Muppet Christmas Carol.
Was visited last night by the lovely Matt and De-lovely Debbie. It was very nice indeed. Especially because they brought me a fantabulous new (Matt edited) version of "It's a Wonderful Library" featuring a bunch of music videos!
I love the music videos, especially "Under pressure" which was all in black and white and "anything goes" with the sepia and olde time film quality filter. It was definitely be screened tomorrow for the edification of the Christmas Eve visitors.
We've switched caterers, as the new ones are a good $1000 cheaper and that's a lot of saving, plus as Lee pointed out it's essentially the same food! We won't be having dessert apart from wedding cake. I am warning you now.
I am feeling so un-christmassy it's kind of strange. I think Lee's worried because I'm not my usual hyper self. He keeps saying things like "how long til Christmas?" to get me excited, it's rather sweet really.
I got another present today, a giant bubble-bath pony. Thanks Star! It's lovely!
(plus chocolates, which we won't mention to anyone at all.)
Getting quite excited about the lj rpg I'm starting up. People seem keen which is always a good thing! Might try to set that up tonight...of course, it'll be slow over the holidays so maybe it's best to wait? But I'm excited now!
Point of Fashion: layers to cope with weather
Current Obsession: masking the inner rage (I soooooooo need a holiday!)
Ok, so. My hen's night will have to be without either my sister or my best friend. Damn busy January. How do I choose? I can't!
Lee is talking to the caterers today to try and get them to lower their price. If they don't back down we're going with a totally different company.
I'm paying a lot of money for wedding makeup.
My sister is up North and we won't have a proper family christmas until the new year.
No one seems to hire out mini-vans anymore.
No wedding cake yet.
*breathes deeply* I will let none of these things worry me.
as a kid, there are always going to be things you just intriniscally don't understand. I figured out some things that I never understood. I will start with the Christmas based things:
"Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin". Well, this was a pure case of not knowing what 'kin' was and I always sung "king". I had this image of people spending Christmas with their own private king. I guess he'd get the head of the table at dinner and then have to sit awkwardly over on the armchair in the corner of the room the rest of the time. I mean he's only having one day off work from ruling the country to spend Christmas with you. It's not like he knows where the dishes are kept or how to make himself helpful.
The ghost of Christmas present. I always thought it was the ghost of Christmas presents. He was always my favourite one because he represented my favourite part of Christmas: gifts. It isn't helped by the way they always show him turning up surrounded by bounty, all that food and wheat and suchlike. He was like a chrisco hamper who was friendly and merry and exciting.
How the TV worked. I guess I knew there weren't *really* little people in the tv but I never had a better explanation. I eventually figured out that it was little ghost projections of people that you could only see when they stood inside the tv. I imagined a long line of invisible teeny people just waiting in my lounge for their turn to go into the magic box.
Hmmm. That's all I can think of for now. Have you got anything you just didn't get as a kid?
I'm reading Morgan Spurlock's book right now. It's called "don't eat this book" (so he doesn't get sued for someone trying to eat it and then injuring themselves) and I just read something really freaky that I thought I'd share.
You guys know that Mcdonalds cooks the french fries in Vegetable oil right? Well, it seems that when they made the switch from beef tallow they didn't like the new taste so went ahead and added some beef flavour back into the vegetable oil. The proof of this is on the nutritional information page of the offical Mcdonald's website. It says waaaaaay down the bottom there:
No products are certified as vegetarian; all products may contain trace amounts of ingredients derived from animals.
Doesn't that freak you out some? They aren't even going to promise that the sprite doesn't have animal derivative in it.
Ok, so I'm not a vegetarian and as you all know I'm pretty anti-Mcds anyway, but that's a pretty freaky statement there. Much more worrying than "may contain traces of nuts".
Huh. In America you can also get a "Mighty Kids Meal" which is bigger than a happy meal. They're advertising it for older children and apparently it comes with a "cool fun toy". I want a cool fun toy.
and hey! They have Grimace on there too! I thought they'd phased him out!
(Man, do you remember those colouring calendars Mcds used to put out about this time of year. I loved those.)
In addition to two trayfuls of Lebkuchen tonight I made the dreaded Russian fudge.
I paid NO blood price. I surely have mastered the ritual of fudgemaking so completely that I can now be named High Priestess of the Fudge. Or something.
Anyway, to make sure the fudge isn't just biding its time I carved a protective thingie into it. You can see it here. You can see that the fudge has bent the light somehow just below the symbol giving it a strange appearance. Such is the power of the fudge.
I am so pleased with myself.
Point of Fashion: extremely happy dude badge and silicone bracelets that advertise the library
Current Obsession: Queen of Baking
Ok, so I didn't make fudge tonight. I do have a good reason though!
This afternoon I discovered that I am unlikely to ever be called Captain Hero Jenni, if in fact there was any danger of that happening, it is all over now.
A little girl had an accident in the library this afternoon and there was screaming and a freaked out mother and I had to call the ambulance and deal with the very helpful call centre staff ("is the blood spurting or seeping?") and then I had to freak out while the ambulance took its sweet time getting there and then deal the fact that after the ambulance staff had taken the mother and both daughters that I had no idea what the names of any of them were, which we needed to make an accident report.
I'd been so panicked trying to help (and forgetting all my first aid training) that I hadn't even asked.
Eventually after I'd calmed somewhat I remembered that they had a fairy new looking Thomas the Tank Engine book issued and I tracked the name down from that. I felt a little better after that but I think I must have been in shock for about the next hour as I felt quite nauseous and I got very exhausted. I had been doing fine today and then it all drained away.
So, tonight's an early night following a bath with new Lushy goodness from Debz and Matt. (Thanks guys!)
Russian fudge tomorrow night.
Oh and a quick plug, I'm thinking of starting some kind of rpg on lj. Read all about it: clicky.
Tonight: teh Russian Fudge battle. Here's the recipe in case you want to experience synchronicity and make fudge similtaeneously with me. I'll be starting at 7.30pm precisely.
From the Edmond's cookbook:
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
heat these in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Add 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, 125g butter, pinch of salt, and 1 tablespoon of golden syrup. Stir until the butter has melted then bring to the boil and wage a terrible war on the mixture. You have to stir every so often so that the sugar doesn't burn onto the bottom of your saucepan but you can't stir too often because the boiling morass spits at you and burns your arm. You do of course, have to pay some kind of blood price, but the fudge will decide what and when so don't worry about that.
Eventually it'll reach the soft ball stage and if you don't know what that is, then you have no business risking your life making Russian fudge. When it reaches this stage take it off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Beat it, beat it mercilessly, beat it until it thickens. Pour into a buttered tin and mark into squares. Marking into squares isn't very easy but it does make it break up nicely later on. Feel free to mark it into other shapes or carve eldritch symbols into it so it doesn't come back from the dead and avenge itself on you.
When it's cold, cut it up into bite sized pieces and give to people who aren't afraid of the Russian fudge. If you stack it into a Tupperware container it lasts quite a long time.
Point of Fashion: these pants I found in my wardrobe
Current Obsession: baking
. PS. soft ball stage is when you can drop a teeny bit of mixture into a cup of cold water and it forms a little ball which you can squish. Hard ball stage is useful for making toffee.
So the plan for yesterday afternoon didn't really work the way I'd written it . Giffy came over and it ended up being:
go to spotlight and supermarket
eat and read
finish Giffy's christmas present ( 1 hour)
Make jeans cushions (all afternoon)
go for dinner at K.K. Malaysian
Make chocolate cherry torte for work party
watch Clone High
which means I have 7 lovely cushions to try and sell at the craft market today.
Craft market is at Thistle Hall 293 Cuba St from 11.30 - 3pm. Come and support Wellington crafters! Giffy made these amazing fluffy feather flowers which look like something straight out of Dr Suess. I love them.
Good Lord. This is entry number 702. How about that?
Yay Kay-Lee was accepted into Hufflepuff! I'm v pleased about that because she's not clever or brave enough to be Ravenclaw or Gryffindor and not at all evil for Slyth so Hufflepuff was the natural choice. Since the Head Boy is John Constantine (also a Hufflepuff) I am very pleased. Now I can judge others!
Hmmmm Veronica Mars. Ravenclaw?
Last night I put up our christmas tree and wrapped almost all the presents. I am a good girl indeed. Lee messed around with fairy lights and then Seraph came round with a bung computer so Lee messed around with that instead.
I finish at 1pm then I'm going to spotlight then I'm going to the supermarket. The plan upon returning home:
Eat lunch
Make jeans cushions (1 hour)
Book Yum Char
Clean house (1 hour)
Make more jeans cushions (1 hour)
Bake chocolate torte for tomorrow night
then If I'm not completely worn out: make chocolate orange truffles.
I'm not sure if Giffy is coming over for craft as I texted and haven't heard back...if she isn't I'll have to call her about plans for tomorrow.
Yeah, so what if I'm using this blog as a to-do list. What're you gonna do about it? Eat Sok's delicious milk chocolate heart?
Oh and wedding makeup is booked: Bobbi Brown.
POF: Raro tshirt
CO: Getting stuff finished.
eh heh. I've joined a silly rpg community on lj where fictional characters are sorted into Hogwarts. I'm Kay-Lee. *blushes at the incredible silliness*.
I'm actually really enjoying flirting with Steerpike from Ghormenghast *swoon*.
Clearly the hot weather has addled my brain.
In other news It's a Wonderful Life is a great movie, even if it paints librarians with glasses as the tragic lifestyle to be avoided. It was really neat to see Sokky again too, somehow it feels like it's been ages.
My right wrist is aching today so I'm wearing a 'baka' wool wrist band despite the heat. It seems to be helping with the ache so I'm not gonna take it off.
I'm really looking forward to my afternoon off tomorrow. Crafting awaits!
Point of Fashion: jellyfish top
Current Obsession: Hogwarts Hocus
I've changed some stuff on the sidebar. I organised my links by vague type, took away paper doll heaven and added Meg Cabot.
This is the kind of thing that no doubt only matters to me, but I thought I'd let y'all know anyway.
Read Meg, she's fun!
The trigger for all this is actually that the guy who buys all the Young Adult stuff for the library reserved her new book for me ("Avalon High") and I only just noticed it on my card. I didn't even know it was coming out because I keep forgetting to read her blog but he knows I like her stuff (mostly because I ranted about how great the sex scene is in "Ready or Not" last time I saw him. No really.) so he ordered it for me.
It's nice to know people are thinking about you. Even if it is because you're a freak who talks about sex scenes in teen novels while you're in the store room of a small branch library.
Last part of the Star Wars game last night, and surprisingly we *didn't* all die. I was again frustrated by the lack of helpfulness of the D20 system. (I had a lot of stuff, but none of it seemed to make me fight better!) But thanks to some judicious rules knowledge application from Elric it all went OK and I killed the Scary-Bad-Jedi in a pure Ranma 1/2 "An Opening!" moment. Phew. Oh, the sudden spate of natural 20's helped a bit too.
Oh yeah. We role natural 20's baby.
Then I threated ass-kicking until Steve said he'd run Inspectres. As ever, I love that game!
I can't get over how much I love playing Petrova, the total ass-kicking no-nonsense hardcore bitch. It's very liberating I think...Plus she has lots of cool points so didn't stress over things like the gigantic carnivorous pizza eating children.
I had a good dream. Will post it on Lj.
My weekend was lovely but too too short. I feel like I'm sick at the weekends and all I should be doing is tiptoeing around drinking lots of tea and lying on the couch with a blanket and crying. (Like I do when I'm sick).
Of course, I don't do any of that, I do christmas shopping and visiting and partying and watch movies. All of which is lovely and great fun but means that Monday comes back around and I realise that I'm not so very rested and am in fact still full of the rage I've felt at work for a while now. It's just a sort of internal grumpiness which means I need a holiday. Well, less than 2 months to go and 2 weeks in there are nice short ones 'cause of Christmas.
Narnia as I have said, was very enjoyable. Yesterday Rachel and I went to see Pride and Prejudice which was very very good, funnier and more realistic than the BBC series. I was also thinking about how there's this huge feeling of people not wanting to see the new movie because the BBC have already done it perfectly and there's no point in ever remaking it again. I think that's total crap (to put it bluntly) I mean sure, the BBC did it really well, but with such a classic and well loved story as Pride and Prejudice there's always going to be room for interpretations and artistic variations.
What I don't understand or like is remakes when they change nothing from the original (like the more recent version of Psycho). This new version of P&P focusses more on the characters as real people with real emotions. There's a big emphasis on the conditions the Bennets live in (chickens in the yard, no garden kind of thing) which really puts the whole 'no dowry' thing into a new light.
Anyhoo, hopefully I haven't stirred up a storm there...I was mostly watching the movie and laughing to myself at how exactly right on my P&P roleplaying game got it! I should run that again. Maybe some afternoon in the Christmas break with some girls, maybe even ones who haven't roleplayed before? (Or ones who have roleplayed just once, or not for a while?) Register interest by commenting.
Last night Lee and I watched Return of the King because I had a hankering for a certain elf vs. elephant battle. Turns out I've never watched the whole extended edition before! There was all this new stuff! Ahem. It was good anyway and I kept expecting Two Towers things to happen so I clearly did need to watch it again.
Today I'm working the late night so I spent some time in town this morning picking up wrapping paper and talking to make-up people at Kirks. As suspected the guy we talked to from Clinique had been smoking crack, so I'm waiting to hear back from Bobbi Brown.
Point of Fashion: greasy neck again
Current Obsession: sore neck
We went to Narnia at 9pm last night, which would have been fine if it was an ordinary length movie. Unfortunately it's nine hours long so when we came out Lee wanted to talk about stuff from the movie and I was some sort of achey neck zombie who just needed bed.
Actually, I would have been quite happy to say nothing at all about it, just let it sink in. I guess this is how people who've read the Lord of the Rings book felt when the movie turned out good?
Simply put: I loved the Narnia movie. I found it to be utterly what I imagined as a kid. I was lush and spooky and friendly and epic in all the right places. I thought the child actors were all astonishingly good, especially Lucy who seems so young! (Ok, she's ten, that's not that young...hummm...must be small for her age.)
Without spoilers I'll just say one more thing: Perfection. I am so satisfied with this movie that it was like eating a roast turkey dinner. Even though it was long it didn't feel it. It took it's time where it had to and skimmed over bits that weren't important. I want Susan's green dress, and the silver one from the end.
Ok, that was more than one more thing.
I have a wedding dress fitting this afternoon, then a bitsy of Christmas shopping and it's up the coast for dinner and party.
Point of Fashion: duvet
Current Obsession: Peter not as hot as Cedric
I can get over the weather. It's exactly the weather I hate: all in-betweeny and wishy-washy. It's hot as anything and humid, but the wind's blowing hard and it's all misty-rainy. It's so windy in fact that the ground isn't getting wet!
This humidity combined with my morning washing of it is making my hair all weird and Hermione-esque. My neck feels greasy. I can't cope. I'm wearing warm boots to protect my feet from the forecast showers and I'm too hot with my hoodie on and goosepimpley with it off.
I wonder if Lee has tickets for Narnia tonight? I hope he didn't forget again. It's really bugging me that he doesn't have a cellphone right now because I can't text. Of course, my phone is dead from battery so that's really beside the point.
Gah. Greasy neck sucks.
Point of Fashion: hoodie, boots, jeans
Current Obsession: Narnia???
Neil Gaiman is so great. Read why here. They're going to add a new character to Winnie The Pooh, in fact replace Christopher Robin with a Tomboyish 6 year old. Rather than rant and rave, Neil did the same thing. Bless.
I just found out that I didn't even get an interview for the collection job I applied for at my work. I am left with the realisation that I need a new job. After the wedding when I have less stress I will do something about getting a new job. Anyone got any ideas that don't involve me becoming a teacher?
Maybe should finish writing that novel...
Grr. Hate. Anger. Work sucks.
I am even less interesting than yesterday.
Trouble With Harry went down well, which was something of a relief as I do like it and was disappointed when Lee didn't.
Got some wedding invites distributed although foolishly forgot to give Sass the ones for the people who live with her! Dumb.
I've been meaning to tell you about the lovely pizza I had. I ordered a Creator from Hell and I put on it: refried beans, salsa, mushrooms, cabanossi and sour cream. It was like nachos on a pizza. Delish.
I like Moby.
I got some wedding invites posted in the glorious sunshine at lunch time. I have another set to send when I've got all the addresses. Hopefully I can hand out a bunch tonight.
I'm probably going to have to kick people out quite soon after the movie tonight as Lee was back much later than normal after quiz last night and I am now extremely tired.
I am also extremely tired because Lee did that adorable thing of waking me up so he could sleep talk at me last night. It was about 1am and he said "I saw what you did!" I said "whaaaaa?" and he chuckled a bit and said "I saw what you did" and I said "so, what did I do?" and he said "Never mind."
Odd. I wonder what he caught me doing?
Point of Fashion: pink and blue
Current Obsession: not Cedric Diggory. Not at all.
There was lots and lots of rain this morning and lovely thunder and big flashes of lightning. It was very exciting in a "shall we start building the ark?" kind of way.
I do like Thunder.
I finished reading Valiant which turned out to be the sort of follow up sequel to Tithe where some of the same characters turned up in minor roles. It's a very good book and a nice companion to Mad Maudlin and various other teen novels I've read. I am now gripped with ennui about which book to read next. I'm plugging away the novel of Batman No Man's Land but the text is so small and dense it strains my eyes and puts me to sleep.
I have started another teen novel called Running Out of Time which seems to be The Village mixed with time travel. It's ok.
I woke up from a sexy dream to find my hand somehow got very very sore overnight. I can't grip things very effectively and it hurts to crack my knuckles.
Busy work day, must now go.
Point of Fashion: humid day hair
Current Obsession: not stressing
oh and dogblog's updated finally.
for those who enjoy the eating of kai moana, but are concerned about fish farming, popultion numbers, etc the forest and bird society have put out the "best fish guide" which lists the species in categories.
Right now there's nothing in the best choice green category, which is a shame. The list is here. Featuring the albacore tuna, but listing all the rest down the left hand side. You can get little dinky cardboard foldy versions of this at the library which is how I know about it!
In other news our wedding invites are all done (although one may need to be altered to add a newly-engaged partner whom we were inclined to exclude for number reasons). We'll be posting them sometime this week to those we don't see often and giving them to people we see a bit more of. So, if you are a regular Wednesday movies person you should come along and save us 45c this week! Ah-hem.
I am beginning to get nervous about Christmas depsite the fact that I have only a couple of presents yet to purchase. I have no desire to do the normal levels of Christmas baking but hope that'll improve after I've watched some more festive movies. Last night was the first of the season: Love, Actually. It still pisses me off that they keep calling Natalie 'fat'. She's really not! I still laugh at the good jokes and cry at Emma Thompson's scene of tragedy in the bedroom though. Bliss.
Point of Fashion: pigtails
Current Obsession: wrapping paper and postage stamps
Luckily I had to go out to the Thorndon Fair this morning, or this post would have been a lot more vitriolic.
The number one song on the New Zealand charts this week is "My Lumps" by the Black Eyed Peas.
Lee and I watched the video with the kind of mortified fascination with which you would watch a car crash. I came to the conclusion that this song embodies everything that is wrong with the music industry today.
The song (the lyrics are available via the link above) has this basic, essential message: women use sex to get men to buy them things. Of course, they don't use those nice words to say that, oh no. It's all about the junk in the girl's trunk (ass) and her (and this is my favourite) Lovely Lady Lumps which she uses to drive men crazy and then they buy her bling.
So what's the basic premise here? All women are whores! That's right kids, people who sell their bodies/love/affections for money or good are prostitutes.
If I ever had any respect for the Black Eyed Peas (which seems unlikely) it is all gone. This song objectifies both men and women and somehow made it to number one? I can't understand the women who will sing this sort of crap. I thought The Milk Shake song was bad but that was before this morning.
Here's a taste of the lyrics at the end, so you can savour the true horror. It's even worse with the video...
"What you gon’ do wit all that breast?
All that breast inside that shirt?
I’ma make, make, make, make you work
Make you work, work, make you work."
I am truly disgusted. I hate this song a lot. End of rant.
Oh and stonesoup comments are down so I'll post all this into my livejournal and you can comment there, k?
I got neither takoyaki nor okonomyaki last night at dinner. That makes me a sad panda. What I did get was sukiyaki which is a kind of chicken stir fry served in soup form. The flavour is quite strong and sweet, one of those that starts off delicious and is sickly and rich by the end. Thanfully Lee got a special set menu bento box of goodies including wonderful dumplings that I was able to steal.
Apparently Hede is where the blondes go before they go on the pull. I just though some of my readers might like to know.
Opening of the library this morning was really fun and mad hectic. One hour on the desk and I was ready to crash out. I just kept telling people how exhausting it was...which probably wasn't that interesting to anyone when I think about it.
I wonder how C was doing. I knocked off at midday and that was a plenty long shift for me.
Went to the Lyall Bay warehouse and got some stuffs. Not a new Christmas tree like I hoped but two low and surprisingly comfy deck chairs so now we have some additional seating for Movie Appreciation Wednesday. But which are the cheap seats? I just don't know.
I also got me a new matching underwear set with a ridiculously comfy bra. Ridiculous I say! Man, I need more new undies. *sigh*.
I've managed to stay awake all day which is something of an achievement given my wakefulness between 4 and 6am.
Invitations are printed. Yays!
Point of Fashion: post bath slovenly undress
Current Obsession: the lasagne in the oven
Feeling very sleepy. This does not bode well for the plans to get to Karori library at 8 tomorrow morning. Man, I'm gonna be having a nap tomorrow afternoon like nobody's business.
Two more trademe fabrics arrived yesterday so I washed and dryered them (they came out wrinkle-free = I love our dryer) and assembled the centre of the top of Katy's boy baby's quilt. I won't finish it until I recieve the fabric with planes and helicoptors which I'm going to use for cornerstones but I was quite pleased to get it together last night. I tested the I Spy game with Lee and he took ages to find the parrots so I'm guessing it'll be fun for the chilluns.
Seeing the caterer was good for sorting stuff out. We're getting another quote next Friday (they're super busy with Christmas functions right now). The food all sounds so good...tuscan roasted potatoes *drool*...
Out for dinner tonight with Lee's ex workmates to a Japanese place. I'm hoping for takoyaki and okonomyaki. *fingers crossed*.
I was awake for a while this morning (2.30ish and it seemed really light. Maybe they were doing work on the train tracks or something.) anyway, Lee was snoring and I was thinking of patchwork ideas and it took a while to get back to sleep. Now I feel both wired and sleepy. I wish I drank coffee.
Point of Fashion: stripey socks and pink sneakers
Current Obsession: patchwork, sleep, panicking
It's strange that the day Lee brings home an enormous chocolate cake is also the day the least amount of people show up for Wednesday movies. Y'all missed out on chocolate cake! That'll teach you.
Anyhoo we watched the Brothers Grimm instead which I liked for all the fairy tale stuff but seriously disliked for the creepy creepy child kidnappings incorporating magic. The worst was the crow-well-mud-gingerbread man one which seriously squicked me out in exactly the same way as the episode of the Storyteller that I can't watch ever, ever again. (It's called A Story Short and also features people being victimised by magic...I just hate it.) I suspect as I watched it that someone has warned me about it, maybe Luke and Sam at my birthday? I watched those bits through my hands anyway.
I was annoyed by the extreme Gilliamness of it too, which actually got in the way of my enjoyment. He threw in an awful lot of bizarre torture for no good purpose. The story didn't require it at all. Things like instead of being transported in the back of a prison van, they were transported in a prison van inside individual cages that were suspended from the ceiling. Ok, I'm complaining a lot but the film could have done without all the eveil French and weird torture interludes and would have been better for it.
It did have some very funny moments and some very beautiful ones too. I was frustrated by the way the lead female started out really strong and then had her power drained away over the course of the movie. Suffice to say I won't be rewatching this one.
Tonight we've got a meeting with the co-ordinator from the caterers, which should be enlightening. I don't think we've sorted out the stuff they wanted us to such as who will MC and where's our cake coming from? We have finalised the menu and organised a bunch of other stuff though, so that's nice.
Point of Fashion: damp towel on shoulders
Current Obsession: sleeping
