List It Like a Boss!

I'm not feeling very creative with my writing right now so you get a lovely list of things I need to talk about. I make no promise for any sort of coherency in this post. You have been warned.

1. I just realised that I often end things with "you have been warned". Perhaps that should have been the title of my blog.

2. There was supposed to be another Ireland post today but then Al and I finally set a time for swapping photos. There's a certain section of today's post which really needs her photos. Words won't do it justice. Also, hard to believe I only have two more Ireland posts left.

3. Further to #2, I'm looking into the logistics of organizing a trip to Ireland in September 2013. Reasons and details here.

4. Further to #3, if Ciaran McMenamin knows what's good for him, he'll run like hell if he ever sees me coming. I will make him read an entire phone book just to hear his voice.

5. John Scalzi is my excuse for not doing anything last night. On Saturday night, Scalzi live-tweeted The Two Towers and Return of the King. Then, in case you missed it, he blogged his tweets (which you should totally read because he's hilarious and nerdy. Also, check out the Smegol dub-step fish slapping dance in the comments). I decided that I needed to rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So I started that last night. Say good bye to my evenings for the next little while because I'm watching the extended editions.

6. It also means that my friends will have to put up me thinking I'm hysterical for the next few days when really, I'm just really, really nerdy.

7. I have to go get awesome pictures to make the next Ireland post even more awesome so I'm stopping my listing there.

Things I Think Are Awesome: Part One

I’ve seen these lists posts on other blogs so I decided to do one here... mostly because I really don’t know how to segue through all the things I want to talk about. Although normally I think a well-crafted segue is awesome.

Not segways, though. They kinda suck.

(The only good thing to come from segways was G.O.B.)

1. Stir It Up

I wanted to give some love to a new-to-me restaurant in Fernwood, Stir It Up. I was finally enticed into trying the restaurant one day after smelling of their delicious food. It's Jamaican and Caribbean food. Sadly, the kitchen is very small and does not allow for prep in the space so some of the items are premade and then reheated but it tasted so delicious, I got over that very quickly.

GET IN MY BELLY!!

[Photo from their site]

It is cash only so hit up the ATM before you go (there's one across the street at the Fernwood Inn, so, you know...) and you either need to go on a sunny day when you can sit outside or get take out as the inside has about two 'cozy' seats. Meals run about $10.

2. XKCD

So, this webcomic is something that I always love but I was a little enamoured with this particular comic:

[Permanently borrowed from XKCD]

I know I may get some haters but based on the people I know who attend Burning Man, I have come to decision that the majority of attendees are socially obnoxious d-bags. Also, based on the number of stories those same people have told me about cheating or being cheated on at Burning Man, they're d-bags who can't stay faithful so... yeah...

3. THR

This falls into the list of things I always love but THR (who is also crafty) is back from her trip Down Under to see her family and she linked up to a great link of free organization tools. I thought it was so awesome, I decided it needed to be shared over here too. She linked to some crafty person who also had links to fee name tags/crafty items. The part I liked most is here. It's all free and all cute. What's not to love?

4. Star Trek (TOS)

Thanks to Darla over at Bakingdom (that girl is seriously talented and you should all have her in your reader even if only to look at the pretty pictures of things you'll never make... like me!) I learned that today is the 45th anniversary of the airing of very first episode of Star Trek.

I don't know if you guys have noticed but I am a huge nerd! I watched every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation growing up. I read a couple of the books (which I would only read at home so I wouldn't accidentally be caught with one by a 'cool' kid and mercilessly mocked for) and even dressed up as Counselor Troi for Halloween one year.

I dyed my hair black with one of those 'one wash' dyes and then I curled it.

The curls were gone in about 30 minutes (stupid poker straight hair) and

I was still washing the black dye out two weeks later. One wash my *ss!

I was a late-comer to The Original Series (called  TOS by those 'in the know' aka geeks) only starting to watch it about five years ago. I love it. Some day, when I meet my sugar daddy (so, you know, never), I plan to buy the entire series on DVD because I'm nerdy awesome like that.

Back to Darla's awesomeness. Also being of the geek-persuasion, Darla made these awesome TOS sugar cookies.

[Credit: shamelessly stolen from Bakingdom]

Seeing them in my reader this morning made my heart go pitter-patter! Also, she insinuated she was going to make some Firefly baked goods so that's my day made.

Captain Mal in edible form? If you insist!

So, those are some things I think are awesome right now. I have more to talk about but a) I have a lunch meeting I have to get to and b) The Guild isn't going to watch itself in the next 20 minutes before I have to leave, so, you know...

Why I Hate the Bus Eireann and UlsterBus Websites

(And Why I Love My Family!)

One of the more exciting parts of my upcoming Ireland trip for me is that my friend, Al, is going to be joining me. I have a friend with me and for the first time ever, I get to tell my family to shove their "but you have to come over for tea... again" and go be a tourist.

Okay, so I would never complain about meeting my family for tea, but it's lovely to know that I have a built in excuse to leave the family trail for the tourist trail. Like Donegal. I haven't been to Donegal since I was nine. I miss Donegal, but I don't have any family that lives there so it's not high on the list when I go. Well, this time it is because I think it is the most beautiful part of Ireland (take that, over-touristed South-West!) and that everyone should go there. (But don't tell them that I sent you, they'd probably revoke my Irish passport for ruining their little secret.)

Given that it's not just me going, I want to make sure that we get to where we want, when. I know that my family would be more than willing to drive us between points but I want to know that if no one is able to go from Dublin to Armagh until Saturday and we want to leave on Thursday, we can do it.

Via Monaghan, of course, so I could stop at the cemetary and pay my respects.

Enter Irish Public Transit.

I had a problem trying to get DART information a few weeks ago and even took to ranting about it on facebook.

Bus Eireann and UlsterBus blew them all out of the water!

There's a Bus Eireann/UlsterBus multi-day pass and I wanted to have a rough idea if point-to-point would be a cheaper option. I figured looking at the fares would be the easiest way to do this. Oh, how nieve I was!

Bus Eireann was confusing and would give fares going to the North on one page but not on another; once you got to the fare page, you couldn't then click a 'home button' to return to a new search quiery; the default stop for most cities was not the main bus station but other smaller stops (often on regional busses so then you get "transfer at the main station, blah, blah, blah"); in short, it was frustrating and not the least bit user friendly but I was able to get a few rough ideas of time tables and prices.

A couple of our trips would be entirely in the North. As this region is covered by UlsterBus, I didn't expect Bus Eireann to cover the information (and it didn't) so I headed over to UlsterBus to get a few price ideas. Given that they had three links on their main page which said "UlsterBus Fares", I had high hopes. Yet every time I tried to get fair info, it ended with this message:

Every.

Single.

Time.

RAWR!!!!

I again took to facebook to rant.

Within five minutes, I had four different messages from my cousins all saying that they (or their parents, love how we children are so willing to volunteer other family members) will gladly drive me and my friend where ever we need to go.

"I work until three most days but then I can run you up to the North."

"If we need to meet somewhere and drive back, you can just give me a call."

"Why are you bothering with UlsterBus? You know my dad will be more than happy to take you where you want to go."

"You know my dad's retired, right? I'm sure he'd love to pick you up and run you around ."

And that's how crappy, crappy websites reminded me of how much I love my family... even if they do live eight time zones away...

...and even if one of them joked that the websites were IQ tests, I've failed, and now I won't be allowed through customs.

CCM Round Two

After I post this, I’m heading up to Shawnigan Lake for a little R&R. Some family friends have rented a cabin up on the lake for a week and invited my parents to come up to visit. I get an invite by proxy. Not a bad arrangement, if you ask me.

Shawnigan’s not too far from Victoria so it makes a nice day trip but after a week of glorious sunny weather, this morning was overcast. A few breaks in the clouds to the west and north make me hope that the clouds will end at the top of the Malahat. Of course, good company would make it worth the trip even without the weather.

The family friends in question belong to the group I refer to as CCM Gen 1.0 (and I’m not sure, but parts of Gen 2.0 and 3.0 may be up there as well).  Sadly, due to a lingering winter head/chest cold during the annual Christmas party rounds, I haven’t seen any of them since our CCM picnic last August. All the more reason to accept my parent’s offer of a drive over the Malahat regardless of the weather.

For last year's picnic, Gen 2.0 sets up the table that Gen 1.0 used to take on camping trips.

(And I’m hoping that they bring their camera so I can play with it and then upload some photos. This whole no-camera thing blows.)

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. And by ‘lately’, I mean ‘since I lost my free Internet access at home a week ago and have been forced to frequenting the coffee shop when I want to post’. (Yup, ‘lately’ sums it much more succinctly.) Also, it’s amazing how much easier it is to get the stories from my head to word document when I don’t keep checking facebook every 10 minutes.

There’s a few I was debating about sharing on here when I decided to make it a regular feature. A regular feature deserves a regular name. I was going to go with Fiction Friday. Alliteration for the win! Then I started to think that some of my travel stories should be written down but they’re not fiction (no matter how much I wish some of them were). Sadly, with no day of the week starting with ‘n’, I can’t just create another regular feature like Non-fiction Nonday. (My calls to the offices of the Oxford English Dictionary promising the payout of bribes should they add ‘Nonday’ to the dictionary have not been returned.)

Writing Wednesday? But aren’t all blog posts writing?

Thoughtless Thoughtful Thursday? But that’s not really about writing and sometimes my writing isn’t thoughtful. Actually, it usually isn’t.

Story Saturday? Or Sunday?

Maybe staring at the lake will help me figure it out.

Any suggestions?

Next Comes Saturday

I had plans for a post today but two things happened:

1. I got distracted by boring things like housework.
2. My computer is now moving at a speed just slightly faster than the glaciers at the end of the last ice age.

I'm off now for fabulous Ethiopian food followed by a hockey game.

Hopefully my computer will be more cooperative tomorrow.

PS. You can still donate to Matoto's Ten Day Event using the button on the right.

Ireland Over the Internet

One of my favourite things about Google maps is the street view. I know that many people feel it's an invasion of privacy, but I just find it the simplest way to visit my family without getting on a plane. Sure, I can stand in the middle of Trinity College and stare at the cobblestones, I can visually walk the Mall in Armagh, I can stare at Galway from the Claddagh, or I can relive the view from the Diamond in downtown Monaghan, but the best part of the street view is looking at the homes of my aunts and uncles.

There's Uncle Kevin's house. It was the first house I ever snuck out of to attend a house party. I had my first real heartbreak when the boy I had a crush on picked another girl. I got dolled up with Elma and we attended a disco out in the middle of nowhere. Cormac introduced me to ABBA. I drove Uncle Kevin's car around the block just so I could drive on the left side (*ahem* Uncle Kevin, if you read this... I'm sorry, Lorcan dared me). 

There's Uncle Lorcan's house. We used to play ping-pong in the front yard. One year in the green across the road they had a bouncy castle and silly string. I still don't know why. We'd walk to Dalkey for crisps following the path of the DART. I just really like saying 'Dalkey'. We'd drive to the Forty Foot at night to go for a swim. My cousins and I would watch 'Home and Away'.

There's Aunt Eileen's. I decided to be nice one day and beat her downstairs to make tea; I set off the alarm and woke the whole house. I played soccer on the green in front of the house in my TEVAs and learned just how painful a cracked toenail can be. Cousin Frank mocked me for saying 'Armaaaaaaaaaaaaagh' instead of 'Arma' (for the record, nobody outside of Ireland understands me when I say 'Armagh' so I my accent can't be that Canadian). Anne taught me how to say all the counties in Irish. Elaine and Uncle Frank took me to my first hurling match.

There's Aunt Dympna's. I 'worked' in her hardware store. I won a game of horse shoes at the fair. I flew a kite at the beach in my gummy shoes. I looked at the town and said "it's a parking lot" and nobody disagreed with me. I asked the question "which is bigger: Ireland or Canada?" and learned that sometimes I should look for answers before asking my brother questions he thinks are dumb. I set off the car alarm and it made me drop my bag.

Then there's Grannie's. It has long since stopped being Grannie's. I can see the division in the middle bed room which was converted to two bathrooms when it was turned into rooms for rent. But I also see the grassy area where we played tag. There's the front room we accidentally locked ourselves in once. There's the bedroom with the large wardrobe which never led to Narnia. There's the church I used to light candles in for my granddad who died before I was born. There's the road which led us into town and to the ice cream shop with the jukebox. There's the other road which lead us to the graveyard where my granddad and aunt were buried. Behind the house, just out of view, is the backyard where we played frisbee golf 15 years before I even heard about it in Canada, where I made daisy chains, where we sang songs while turning cartwheels, and where I just remember being happy.

So thank you, google street maps. I see so much more than just a picture.

Books, Movies, Reviews. Oh My!

I've been doing a lot of catch up work this morning which is why there was a flurry of posts this morning. Finally, all the books I've been reading are up to date! Part of the reasoning is that I don't have Internet in the apartment this morning and if I'm going to haul my laptop all the way to the coffee shop, I should at least be productive while I'm there...

I mentioned briefly that I attended the Victoria Film Festival. Every year I pick about ten films I want to see, try to find people to go with and then end up maybe seeing one. This year, I decided to pre-pay for tickets and go regardless of company. In the end, I saw The People vs. George Lucas, Le Poil de la Bête, Out of the Ashes, Two Indians Talking, and Kinshasa Symphony. I really enjoyed all the movies. The People made me think about how I view George Lucas; Le Poil was a lighthearted comedic romp through werewolf lore, Ashes was wonderful film about the power of sport, Indians could have used some editing but I thought the ideas put forth were very interesting and a great jumping off place for a discussion on the current state of natives in Canada, and Kinshasa Symphony did for the power of music what Ashes did for sports. As someone who is a lover of music in all forms, I really enjoyed this documentary.

I feel like I have a million more things to say, but I've now been at the coffee shop for over two hours so it might be time for me to pack up and head home. That floor isn't going to vacuum itself... unfortunately.

Recommended Online Reading

I'm writing another post as I type this but the hour is creeping closer and closer to my Boozy Brunch with my three favourite ladies so I really should get off my butt, shower and put on some pants [EDIT: Actually, with these fine gals, pants are optional]. So instead of my post, I'm going to give you a link to an awesome site I discovered thanks to WilWheaton and BadAstronomer.*

It's called The Big Picture and everyone should have it in their RSS feed. (I also think everyone should have an RSS feed but that's another post). It's a daily story told in pictures. From current news stories to collections for a retrospective, the photos are Ah. Maze. Ing. There was a recent one about the sulphur mines in Indonesia. It's both breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time (the lack of gas masks for the miners just tears at me). But my favourite part about the Big Picture? This is the third year they have done a Hubble Pictures Advent Calendar.

Merry Dorkmas to me!

*Everyone with a passing interest in science should also have the Discover Blogs in their RSS feed. Then you get to follow awesome people like Bad Astronomer, Science Not Fiction, and Not Exactly Rocket Science.

102: Stop Buy Cookbooks

I can't believe it is the weekend again already! It's been a busy past week and it's kept me away from the internet more than I was expecting. I never got to talk about my lamb Thanksgiving dinner. That's right, lamb. We're Irish and my dad didn't feel like cooking a turkey. I love lamb; it really has to be in the top three for my favourite meats (along with fresh salmon and Alberta beef). The only downside is that I missed out on the leftover stuffing and turkey sandwiches. Sigh. Christmas isn't too far away so I will get those sandwiches soon :)

Wandering around dad's property

Despite being away from internet, I've been doing a lot of writing via the ancient tradition of using a pen and paper. How quaint, I know! I have a blog post written but I'm waiting for my mom to come home from Nova Scotia so I can use a few of her photos. Even knowing that I was writing it for the blog, there really is something about the act of writing that I love. Computers, for all their ease and speed, will never replace that.

Here's a hint: the post has something to do with Grandpa's farm in Milk River, AB

Tonight is the AGM for Matoto, the non-profit connected to MoonDance. I'm going to go check that out and if it looks like something I want to get involved in then I can cross #23 off 101 in 1001. During morning coffee with a friend (during which we also played rummy... me and my cards!) there was a discussion about a possible cross-Canada road trip in the future. It feels good to know I'm working towards crossing things off the list!

Taking names and kicking ass in Rummy. It's what I do.

As much as I'm trying to cross things off my list, it would help if I stopped buying things that added to it. While in town this morning, I bought another cookbook. It was on sale for $7, how do I say no to that? So that's one more meal that I have to cook for #97. Two steps forward, one step back!

Hawaii Five-OH!

I got rid of cable last January. The decision itself was somewhat rash, but I had been tossing and turning it around in my head for at least three months prior to actually doing it. I found that I had gotten into the habit of having the TV on all the time. Not because I was watching it, but because I liked background noise. Then I found that I would spend a lazy Saturday doing nothing but flicking for hours.

The great thing about the Internet is that I cancelled my cable but I can still watch my favourite TVs on the cable sites that broadcast them. This makes me feel less guilty about not watching them on TV. Sure, it means that I will have to wait until tomorrow night for The Big Bang Theory which aired tonight (does Sheldon actually have a girlfriend?!?!?), but I'm willing to put up with that when it means that a) I'm saving money and b) I'm not wasting time watching shows I don't actually care about.

This week is the 'big week' of TV shows starting up again. I wasn't able to watch Castle on Monday night, but it was a great way to unwind after dance on Wednesday (seriously, if you don't love Nathan Fillion, I can't be your friend. It's as simple as that.). Not having cable also meant that I didn't have to choose between watching Castle and watching the new Hawaii Five-O. I didn't have to choose between Nathan and Alex. I've had a huge crush on Alex O'Loughlin since his days in Moonlight, so I was super stoked about the idea of him being back on TV on a weekly basis. Plus, it takes place in Hawaii so I'm hoping the show will be increasing the number of shirtless scenes. The first episode left a bit to be desired in that department.

This picture is not from Hawaii Five-O, but any excuse to post it :)



The Internet Wins This Round

My Internet has been playing evil, evil tricks on me for the last 36 hours. It finally seems to be lasting for more than 10 minutes at a time, but I'm now very, very behind in pretty much everything I planned to do online since Monday.

A beautiful sunset on Tuesday night drew me out of my house and down to the water when I was planning on getting a lot of writing done (not just blogging).

Looking South-West from Dallas Rd. towards Albert Head.

Venus is that spot towards the top right corner.

By Wednesday night, my Internet was playing peek-a-boo. Tonight it stayed up long enough for me to work on a post, but not to actually get it finished. Maybe tomorrow... if the Internet lets me.

I'll get you next time, Internet Gadget!