31 May 2012

Next week is Oceans Week. This week is Crazy Murder Shit Week.


According to Tumblr,  some crazy shit went down in  Miami. Some guy ate some other guy’s face? At the risk of appearing ignorant, I am actively avoiding any more information about this. I don’t want to read about modern cannibalism.  I like my cannibals safely ensconced in fictional narratives.

While we’re on the topic of crazy shit, how about this male model/porn star who dismembered someone “known”** to him and sent body parts to political headquarters? So many aspects of this story are unsettling. It’s just endless layers of disturbing. I mean, if they found the torso in a suitcase, and they found a foot and a hand in the mail – where is the rest of that poor person? I wonder why the foot for conservatives and the hand for liberals?. What part was he planning on sending to the NDP? Am I alone in thinking that if you were to receive a body part in the mail, a hand is preferable to a foot?  I mean, it's still a severed hand, but a foot is worse. Feet are ugly to start with. And they aren’t limbs you use socially. You walk with them and you kick with them. You never, for example, "lend someone a foot." Whereas hands are much more helpful and positive limbs.  Tangentially related, any cop show will tell you that hiding bodies in luggage never works, yet this isn't the even first time a body's been found in luggage this week. 

I think a lot of Canada still thinks we’re not the kind of place where this stuff happens. We absolutely are. It’s just a numbers game, really.  If a certain percent of humans are going to commit gruesome acts regardless of the underlying causes, then it’s going to happen everywhere. I think it’s telling that we try to link these incidents to past events as a way to explain them. Remember when Russell Williams was found out, the rumours were that he went to school with Paul Bernardo? Now people are saying that the knife-happy porn star dated Karla Homolka. As if that explains it. They’re the Adam and Eve of Canadian Evil. As if every  person to have done something inexplicably horrible in Canada must have come into contact with that original duo at some point.   

**I think once you kill someone and take apart their corpse, you know them pretty well. 

26 May 2012

The Bird

I can't wait for Eurovision to be over. It's all tumblr is talking about; it's tiresome.

Something is wrong with my hand. Specifically the middle finger on my right hand. When I describe it to people they say it sounds like a pinched nerve. I can neither fully extend nor tightly curl that one finger without intense pain.  I prefer to think of it as hand cancer. That's more appealing to my inner hypochondriac. Either way, it's annoying and painful. It's affecting my grip and ability to do even simple things, like write or pick up my coffee pot. You have no idea how vital your middle finger is to every day use, not just for driving!

Anyway, this injury/cancer is forcing me to favour that finger, so it's always partially extended so I'm constantly flipping everything and everyone off. So impolite. That has reminded me of when we were kids and my youngest (not younger, mind you) brother and I would give each other the finger. If our mom caught us, the punishment was to wear mittens. We could still give the finger from in the mittens, but no one could see. Of course, these mittens were likely made by my mom, and were, therefore, Death Mittens

25 May 2012

Belated post about the long weekend

Last year on the 2-4 long weekend, a group of us went hiking on the Bluff Trail. It was cold enough that we did the hike in long sleeves, toques, and mittens. I'd forgotten how crappy last spring was. Not this year. Well, not this particular long weekend this year, anyway.

Both Saturday and Sunday had highs in the low 20s. Saturday was the usual market trip, and we went out to Long Lake to eat lunch and take a walk.  I hadn't been there before, but it was nice. We only did a short hike. The best part, though, was all the dogs. So many adorable dogs, running on the trails and playing in the water.

Sunday I went to Taylor Head,  a peninsula provincial park with trails. We did about 8km. Once you found the trail head, it was very well marked. The trails we took went around the head of the peninsula. It was beautiful. The trail went though some scrubby forest, teetered over rocky cliffs, took us down onto cobble beaches, and ended at an amazing sandy beach.

Nova Scotian picnic

23 May 2012

Coming Soon

From the producer of Death Sweater and Death Sweater: the Unraveling, comes a new featureless face in horror: Eddie, the Death Chew Toy. Lovingly crafted while watching hours of classic silent horror films, the Death Chew Toy is given to an unsuspecting family pet and gory havoc ensues.




22 May 2012

Dear Oz,

I haven't written in a while. I hope you weren't relying on me as your sole font of thesis writing motivation. If that was the case, you're totally fucked. 


Today I want to ask a favour. Please never climb Everest. It's not just the fact that you could die that bothers me, although that would be horrible. It's the idea that your body would sit up there forever and become a macabre landmark for other crazy mountain climbing people that I can't stand.


Love,
Ellie

19 May 2012

Happy 2-4!

It's the start of Canada's summer. More importantly, it's the start of cottage season!




17 May 2012

Dartmouth Love

My love of Dartmouth is fairly well documented. I saw these at TIBS last weekend and promptly bought a set for myself:

Dartmouth Clothing Co.

I've always had a soft spot for the underdog, and Dartmouth is certainly that. It's on the brink of really "taking off" in terms of development, and the downtown business people are trying to market Dartmouth as a vital urban area. I'm all for that. I'm sure a lot of people don't give downtown Dartmouth a second thought and a public awareness campaign, if you will, is a good idea. The video, however, is disappointing. There's 40 seconds of swirly graphic and five still shots of Dartmouth. It seems to me like a missed opportunity to really show how beautiful downtown Dark Side can be.


12 May 2012

You humans are so petty....and tiny.


I saw Avengers again. I have to say, the audience this time was kind of listless. They didn't seem to enjoy it nearly as much as the audience I saw it with last week. Also, no one stayed for the little bit at the end. Seriously, the theater was empty. It was actually a little creepy.  I suppose this means that all the die hard fans who know about, or at least expect, a post-credits scene have already seen the movie. The people seeing it now are seeing it because...any of the myriad other reasons we see movies, I guess.  

Yes, there is a pornographic image on the new $20. Because that makes sense.

I'm very excited for our new Australian-like dollar bills. Imagine how happy I was to learn that my favourite monument, the Vimy Ridge Memorial, would be on the new $20. I've never been there, and I've only seen pictures, but it seems like such a haunting and beautiful place. I'm perfectly fine with it being on our $20 as a way to recognize the historic and on-going sacrifice made by our soldiers.  The most moving aspect of the memorial, the thing that made me cry the first time I saw a picture of it, is the stature of Canada mourning her fallen sons.


Sadly, the bill doesn't feature this image.

11 May 2012

Made of Awesome

The Mary Sue has a fabulous, funny, astute review of The Avengers (it's a little spoilery).  It really helps me understand why it is I can't really view it objectively. 


Happy Friday

Happy Friday! A day made even better by the news that Community got renewed for a (shortened) 4th season. I won't have to cry myself to sleep at night any more.

Also, yesterday was a very important day. An important and reverent day. A holy day for my people, if you will.

10 May 2012

Spring Cleaning

I'm going through my bookmarks and trying to delete the ones I save with the intention of posting about. Here's a few things that I found interesting for various reasons.

Some Links:
And some pics:

I saw this on boing boing. Smart ads strike again.


09 May 2012

Wow. Brilliant. About Freakin' Time.

Also

New Hark! NEW. HARK.. Why are you even still reading this. Go!
It really bothers me that NS Power calls planned, annual rate increases "rate stabilization." I think their IT department blocked their access to Dictionary. com.

Speaking of NS, Hali is having an Open City weekend. $1 espresso at Java Blend!



In Whedon news, Deb sent me a link to this letter from Joss to me. People like me. To his obsessed non-bandwagon fans. 
I'm discarding my old fans so I can concentrate on fame, Euro-trash guy-jewelry and my precious "Air Bud" reboot

JW: TV is my great love. To tell stories with that alacrity, intensity, and immediacy... Nothing quite like it. I imagine it's not dissimilar to the feeling great poker players have: "Here's what I got, here's where I'm going... How to trick everybody into thinking I know what I'm doing?" [Full disclosure : Joss hates poker. He is probably talking about bridge. But it should apply nonetheless.].

08 May 2012

I really shouldn't have

God help me. I joined Tumblr. I don't know why. I think all my staunch aversion of social media and internet fads made me snap and overcompensate. I mean, this was slowly becoming an ad hoc Tumblr anyway 'cause I was always reposting stuff here that I saw there. But now it's official and addictive and I WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.

Maybe it's because I can't sleep and am giddy from exhaustion,

but I think this is really funny.


06 May 2012

The internet mislead me! But, no, it didn't.

That spoiler I read about the Whedon actor who was going to be in The Avengers? I spent the whole movie looking out for that person and I did not see them. I saw another Whedon person, but not the one I was expecting to see. I had to Google it afterwards, and I've found out who this person played, and I did see them, but they were in heavy make-up, so I'll have to see it again to see if I can recognize them if I know it's them. I suppose it's not really a spoiler if the person is unrecognizable, but I'm still not going to tell you who it is.

So, I went to the movies today. It was a toss up between The Avengers and American Reunion, but since I'd never see American Reunion, and since I've been counting down the days to Avengers since I first heard about it, and since I'd already bought tickets online, I went to see The Avengers.

Nerdgasm, indeed.

Firstly, while I love the ReadD 3D just for the depth it gives the picture, it was completely unnecessary. It wasn't filmed in 3D, so some scenes still looked a bit flat. It was nice for some of the action, but there's was nothing gimmicky, that I noticed, and I don't think you're missing anything seeing it in 2D.

05 May 2012

Saturday in the City

It's May, so many of the students have left town and been replaced by tourists. It's warm enough to ride uptop on the ferry and the Harbour Hopper is in the water. Welcome to summer.


That's beautiful downtown Dartmouth in the background.
I went to the markets this morning with Alej and C's mom (C's out of town). We got Mary's cinnamon rolls and Laughing Whale coffee at the old market. (It will forever be the Old Market to me. It's like people who lived here when the bridges were being built call them the Old and the New bridge, the markets will remain Old and New to a lot of us). I had a Canadiana, which is a shot of espresso in a coffee. It was awesome.

Boy ice: the only thing I remember from first year chemistry.

I was puttering around the apartment this afternoon, just tidying up and whatnot. I went into the freezer to get my compost to take it downstairs (residential organics collection: just one of the things that makes Halifax awesome; I keep it in the freezer to cut down on fruit flies). I pull out my compost and behind it I see this:


Boy ice!

04 May 2012

Happy Friday, indeed

The Avengers is out, my friends. And reviews from websites I trust look favourable (although I haven't actually read the reviews). In fact, it has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's even better than Cabin in the Woods got, and I want that movie to have my children.

I think it's safe to say, without even seeing it, that Avengers is the best movie ever made by anyone at anytime ever. Until Whedon's next movie comes out.

When does this movie come out?
I showed remarkable restraint and did not go to a midnight showing last night (this morning?). I will, however, see it this weekend. And, maybe, sometime after that.

*Update: The best review I haven't read yet:
"The Avengers": A Cripplingly Powerful Nerdgasm. You might have some trouble walking and need a cigarette once the end credits roll.

01 May 2012

If Elections Canada offered voters a chance to win $10,000, voter turnout would be greatly improved

I told Deb I'd post this for her, and I promised that the dozens (bakers dozens, even) of people who read this blog will all go and vote for Thor College.
They are one of 10 finalists across the country up for a chance to win an outdoor classroom through the Majesta Trees of Knowledge contest.  The contest is an online vote – there are 12 days left to vote and you can vote daily (also, for every vote you cast, you get entered for YOUR chance to win $10,000).  You can go to www.majestatreesofknowledge.ca, enter your email address, click “vote and enter contest”, then vote for Thor College!  J  They’re a little school (just over 50 students) and they’re up against schools who have up to over 500 students, so they’re currently in last place. 
Also, how can you not vote for an elementary school named "Thor College"?