Vancouver Olympics 2010

I've never been prouder to be Canadian!! The last 17 days have been an absolute whirwind.


I didn't watch a lot of the Olympics, because I wasn't home most of the time (and when I am, I'd rather sleep), but I did catch some Men's Snowboard Cross, Pairs Ice Dance, Curling and of course Hockey! I was sporting my blue Wrigley Olympic toque while sitting nerve-wrackingly at the edge of my couch during the Men's gold medal hockey game.

I'm so proud of our Canadian atheletes and how outstandingly well we performed this year!

To recap:

Feb 13 -

• Silver medal for Jennifer Heil in Ladies' Freestyle Skiing Moguls.

Feb 14 -

• Bronze medal for Kristina Groves in Ladies' Speed Skating 3000m
• Gold medal for Alexandre Bilodeau in Men's Freestyle Skiing Moguls

Feb 15 -

• Silver medal for Mike Robertson in Men's Snowboarding Cross

Feb 16 -

• Gold medal for Maelle Ricker in Ladies' Snowboarding Cross

Feb 17-

• Silver medal for Marianne St-Gelais in Ladies' 500m Short Track

Feb 18 -

• Gold medal for Christine Nesbitt in Ladies' 1000m Speed Skating

Feb 19 -

• Gold medal for Jon Montgomery in Men's Skeleton

Feb 21 -

• Silver medal for Kristina Groves in Ladies' 1500m Speed Skating

Feb 22 -

• Gold medal for Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in Pairs Figure Skating Ice Dance Free Dance

Feb 23 -

• Gold medal for Ashleigh McIvor in Ladies' Freestyle Skiing Ski Cross

Feb 24 -

• Bronze medal for Clara Hughes in Ladies' 5000m Speed Skating
• Gold medal for Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse in Ladies' Bobsleigh
• Silver medal for Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton in Ladies' Bobsleigh
• Silver medal in Ladies' 3000m Relay Short Track

Feb 25 -

• Gold medal in Ladies' Ice Hockey
• Bronze medal for Joannie Rochette in Ladies' Figure Skating Free Skate

Feb 26 -

• Silver medal in Ladies' Curling
• Gold medal for Charles Hamelin in Men's 500m Short Track
• Bronze medal for Francois-Louis Tremblay in Men's 500m Short Track
• Gold medal in Men's 5000m Relay Short Track

Feb 27 -

• Gold medal for Mathieu Giroux, Lucas Makowsky and Denny Morrison in Men's Team Pursuit Speed Skating
• Gold medal for Jasey Jay Anderson in Men's Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom
• Bronze medal for Lascelles Brown, Dave Bissett, Chris Le Bihan and Lyndon Rush in Men's Bobsleigh
• Gold medal in Men's Curling

Feb 28 -

• Gold medal in Men's Ice Hockey
  

We won medals virtually everyday! (exceptions: opening day Feb 12, and Feb 20). With an abundant 26 medals this Olympics showing - 14 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze - we've outshown all the countries in previous Winter Olympic history by sweeping the gold podium! The previous record was set in 1976 by the Soviet Union, and tied again in 2002 by Russia (13 gold medals). Will we be beat next Winter Games? We'll have to wait until February 7-23, 2014 in Sochi Russia to see...

Nikki Yanofsky - I Believe

A Single Man and a Social Mixer

Kendra, Ildiko and I went to see A Single Man yesterday. I've been eyeing this movie since I saw that it would be playing at the Bookshelf. Since I watched Avatar on Thursday, I decided to put a day in the middle, and watch A Single Man on Saturday. I spent the morning at school, chugging my way through even more assays and going over the stats assignment with Kendra before deciding I am (FOR ONCE!) leaving school early. I got home by about 415 and relaxed for just over an hour before Ildiko came over to go to the theatre.

The movie is about a homosexual relationship, and not in any ray a romante or comedy movie - very much out of my normal genre of movie - putting it as the fifth movie on #95 of my DayZero project.

I very much enjoyed the movie. It is reminiscent of Requiem for a Dream, in that it is disjunctly put together, but not as exaggerated. There is a lot of shuffling back and forth within time, but most things are sequential, as we travel through what Dr. Falconer is planning to be his last day alive.

The movie literally doesn't skimp on details. With a constant visual of clocks in the background, there is a real feel for time progression as George makes his way to the end of his day and the end of his life.

It's a heartfelt story of prematurely lost love, and what I enjoy the most is how off the cuff it is, by portraying not the typical plotline of a lost spouse, but headlining what happens when a homosexual couple is torn apart by inevitable accidental circumstance. Set in the 1960s, it also highlights the segregation of homosexuals at the time, by George not being invited, or allowed, to attend the memorial service for his deceased partner. The acting by Colin Firth and Julianne Moore definitely deserve the praise they are receiving. Truly an amazingly done movie, and very worthy of the Oscar buzz it is generating.

After getting home from the movie, I got ready to head to social mixer 'k'. Kendra came over to drop off her and Chris' stats assignments before giving me a lift to Chase's place. There weren't as many people as last time, which frankly is a good thing. When I arrived, they had just begun singing the day long written 6 page story. I wasn't around for the making of it, but it was apparently a day long process to get that ridiculous story out there. It was monologued to guitars, with Phil freestyling some lyrically rhyming choruses in between.

There were a lot of New Liskeardians, and a vast amount of new faces to me. I finally got to meet Joel and Adam's girlfriends, and the girls are an absolute blast. I met some other people and chatted with them for a large portion of the night, before realizing it is past 2am (wayy past when I was originally planning to go home) and decided it was time to go home. The walk home was much shorter than I remember from last time, which actually didn't matter for last night since it has been relatively mild outside here lately. At a balmy zero-ish degrees, the walk home was refreshing and much needed - especially after the tequila Adam handed me, and the drink that Graehem mixed for me. A fun night indeed, as always at Chase's.

Avatar

Kendra, Kris and I went see Avatar (FINALLY!) in 3D last night. We first stopped to grab a bite to eat at a place down the road called Ample Annie's. You could tell we were totally in a bar, because it was full of the after work crowd getting their beer on.

It was 2 of 1 wings at the bar, plus free pool, but we partook in neither of them. We ordered our wraps (which were humongous - hurray for 2 meals in 1), ate quickly and dashed off to the theatre.

The theatre wasn't full at all, and we sat a bit closer to get in on the highly touted action. Bad idea. With a headache already coming in, it is not a good idea to watch a 3D movie up close. I absolutely loved the movie, but the pounding going on upstairs in my head wasn't the greatest.

I won't write much about the movie since I'm sure everyone on the planet has seen it a bazillion times by now. Suffice to say, I thought the movie was absolutely fantastic. Although I couldn't really tell the difference between the regular 3D and the steroscopic filmmaking - however, I haven't been told/shown the exact differences between them.

Be Mine!

This song is so addictive.. I love it. The video is weird, but Robyn is fantastical.




It's a good thing tears never show in the pouring rain
As if a good thing ever could make up for all the pain
There'll be no last chance I promise to never mess it up again
Just a sweet pain of watching your back as you walk
As I'm watching you walk away

And now you're gone it's like an echo in my head
And I remember every word you said

It's a cruel thing you'll never know all the ways I tried
It's a hard thing faking a smile when I feel like I'm falling apart inside
And now you're gone it's like an echo in my head
And I remember every word you said

And you never were, and you never will be mine
No, you never were, and you never will be mine

For the first time, there is no mercy in your eyes
And the cold wind is hitting my face and you're gone
And you're walking away
And I am helpless, sometimes, wishing's just no good
Cause you don't see me like I wish you would

Cause you never were, and you never will be mine
No, you never were, and you never will be mine

There's a moment to seize everytime that we meet
But you always keep passing me by

No, you never were, and you never will be mine

I saw you at the station
You had your arm around what's her name
She had on that scarf I gave you
And you got down to tie her laces

Cause you never were, and you never will be mine
(You looked happy and that's great)
No, you never were, and you never will be mine
(I just miss you, that's all)

Cause you never were, and you never will be mine
No, you never were, and you never will be mine

There's a moment to seize everytime that we meet
But you always keep passing me by

No, you never were, and you never will be mine

Cause you never were, and you never will be mine
No, you never were, and you never will be mine

There's a moment to seize everytime that we meet
But you always keep passing me by

No, you never were, and you never will be mine

Physiotherapy

At my physio assessment today, the therapist determined my ATFL (anterior talofibular ligament) to be injured. The ATFL is the lateral ligament, and the most commonly sprained portion of the ankle. It is located in front and medially of the talus bone.

To top it off, because of how inflamed my ATFL is, I apparently haven't noticed that when I fell, I also knocked my cuboid bone out of place. The cuboid bone is one of the tarsal bones in the foot. I'm not sure exactly how I injured my cuboid, but the therapist seemed to enjoy me standing on my right foot with my left foot up and behind me, so she could repeatedly jab my tarsal bones "into place".

For the win.

She taped up my ankle really good, so that my ligament wouldn't over stretch itself while I'm doing everyday things like walking and squating. Yes, indeed, she taped it up real good. Good thing I get to take this off before my next appointment. Another reason to look forward to Friday. =)


To make up for a crappy day with a worse-than-last-assignment mark in stats, and having a long day in the lab and being told I should lay off my exercise classes until my ankle heals, I treated myself to new shoes.

NO JUDGING! I know they are virtually the same colour as my old pair, but actually I don't really like black boots. These are suede, like my old pair, and they are super comfortable. Granted I'll have to wear thicker socks, and probably leg warmers inside as well (there's a significantly larger gap in them than my old pair), but these ones are different! They are over the knee, or I can fold them down to be below the knee, and they look fantastic. Cheap too!

Yes. I have a shoe fetish. But it's also because I have trouble passing up a good deal. On shoes.

Dirty Electro Saturdays @ Tabu

It was a girls night out Saturday night. Ann Kendra and I made plans to go to Tabu to experience the "dirty electro saturdays" and the $2 drinks.

Firstly, I spent all day in the lab. And by all day, I literally mean that. I got to school by 9am, and was in lab until pretty much 6pm - with the exception of a 30 minute lunch break in Kendra's office. I did 6 separate runs for my assay, totally like 50 samples.

After that, I was in the office doing random catch-up work and eating, because I was starving. But my concentration was cracking, because I was excited for the night.

I made it to Kendra's by about 815 where I proceeded to eat her food and waste the oxygen. Ann showed up sometime after 9 and we did our pre-gaming and weekly gossip (daily, for Kendra and I).

We didn't leave the apartment until around 11 but it was still pretty dead at Tabu. Given it being Reading Week, I didn't expect it to be packed, and it definitely didn't get to that point throughout the night either. It did get decently busy, and the dance floor (albeit small) was the happenin' place.

The $2 drinks helped the wallet out, as it was by far the cheapest night out I've had since... ever. The light show they had going on was quite impressive for a smaller venue, and the music was absolutely unreal - although I don't think I've ever seen quite that many DJs jamming at once. It looked like it was just for shows, and I wondered throughout the night, which DJ and laptop was actually controlling the music..

Wilson's friends were up for the weekend as well, but they were all out elsewhere (NV I presume). Wilson and Gillian stopped by for a bit, but Gillian complained the strobe lights were giving her a headache, so they ditched to see the other group. Wilson did make his way back eventually, and took Ann home a bit after as well.

Kendra and I stayed longer afterward and danced up a storm. We were coerced into a group of guys who were chatting us up and trying to crack jokes around us. We danced and talked until I decided that my feet hurt too much and they were getting way too close. We high-tailed it out of there, stopped at the Salsateria for some yummy food, and headed home.

I went to take the bus home, but learned from the cops there was no magic bus due to Reading Week. I was going to split a cab with the guy standing next to me, but without any luck getting through on the phone, we decided to walk back instead. He lived on campus (as an RA in res) and I have like an hour's trek back home by foot. We talked until we got back to campus, I learned he's doing his Master's in pure math and that we have one degree of separation. Funny how in a university town, you don't have to rummage deep through your friends to find the common link.

I made it home at 345am, scarfed down a bowl of cereal (mmm yummm) and went to bed. Clearly.. I did not make it in to the lab today like I planned... Nonetheless, I had a fantastic night out, made that much better by being out with my 2 favourite gals! =D

Police seize nearly $90,000 worth of drugs, local business person arrested

Who says large drug busts are only in large cities?

I live literally across the street from where there was a drug bust yesterday. Read about it here. When I'm ambitious in the mornings, I walk down to the further bus stop and wait by the grocery store, which is in plain view of the Coffee Time. I pass by it everyday on the way home when I'm taking the bus.

Awesome.

Lent

For Lent this year, I'm being very ambitious and putting 2 things on the list:

• no junk food/snacking food
• no meat on weekdays (this does not include eggs, dairy and fish)
  

On Ash Wednesday, we went out for all you can eat sushi, which was also the last meal before Lent that I was able to gorge and eat whatever I wanted (Lent starts midnight after Ash Wednesday).

The ironic part is, Vanessa is making chips all day today in the lab. !!!!!
I was planning on taking a bag, until my memory jogged that I can't have junk food. Damn. So I grabbed a bag to bring to Kendra's office, and Kris was so happy to see that I brought chips for her. At least I made someone else's day, even though I cannot eat the yummy yummy chips.

42 more days to go...

Angular Momentum

Courtesy of xkcd.com

Chinese New Year

This was a fairly hectic weekend for me, with a lot of things going on. I headed in to Toronto on Saturday morning, and had plans to meet up with 2 friends, and see both my aunt's families for Chinese New Year. Adding on top, this year, that Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year coincide, and the fact that Family Day is the following day, I knew there would be a lot going on.

Saturday morning, I was set to take the train in to downtown Toronto. I wasn't impressed that I was put on a bus instead of a train, and I definitely took advantage of writing politely nasty emails this morning on this incident. Nonetheless, I made it in to downtown around 11am and walked about 10 blocks to the MEC. I spent over an hour there looking at backpacks for my trip to Europe. I wasn't planning on buying, but I wanted a more expert opinion on how I should go about planning my packing. My cousin Sharon was bringing me her bag to use anyways, but I wanted to see sizes of other bags too. I am under consideration for getting a hiking/camping daypack, but made better use of my money (aka. food).

Vernon came by to get me, where we dropped off all my stuff in his car, went to lunch on Spadina (mmm Swatow..) just off Dundas. A tiny hole in the wall chinese restaurant, Vernon tells me the place is really good. He was right, and I thoroughly enjoyed my (excessively large) lunch. After lunch we walked along chinatown and in the little malls randomly. I got fruits and et cetera things for my aunt for chinese new year, and we headed a bit north of the craziness to find a coffee shop to sit and talk. After all that, I was dropped off at my aunt's place where Sharon and I (hungrily) awaited for Kean to come home so we could have dinner.

After dinner, we went to Market Village to peruse some of the chinese festivities going on before heading to the temple on Bayview. Unfortunately, right in front of temple while we were getting in the carpark line, we were side-swiped and the driver side fender of Sharon's car is now dented and scratched up. The police that were policing the intersections didn't see it happen, but it was very loud inside the car, and clearly forceful enough that it left a good amount of damage and fast enough that we didn't catch any plate numbers. I guess we can be lucky that it happened just prior to midnight and we didn't start off the Lunar new year with an accident on our hands.

The carpark line took around 30 minutes and there was a standing line of over 30 minutes to get into the temple itself. We made it TO the temple for midnight, but with the waiting line, we unfortunately didn't make it in until after 1230am. We did the regular temple-y things and hung around for a while before making it home. What a late night...

Sunday mornings are meant for sleeping in, but not at my aunt's house. My uncle wakes early and speaks loudly, leaving little ability to sleep in. Not to mention it was new year's day and the plans are to go to temple on Bathurst for the vegetarian lunch. We took the bus there, since it's not really that far away, and were met with lines (again) to get in temple.

I really have to say, that when asians amalgamate into large groups like this, they really are the rudest people I have seen. Events like this are clearly drawing the older asian crowd, and needless to say then, the irritatingly stubborn crowd. When I was in the basement with my family eating lunch, one of the monks had to announce on the microphone for people to stop pushing and shoving, because an elderly lady was pushed and fell down the flight of stairs. Sharon and Linda came separately and so they were a bit behind us, and saw the lady afterward sitting on the floor with blood coming down the side of her face. And yet, despite all this, these close minded irrational asians continued to push and shove, like they wouldn't be getting lunch if they didn't clamour over everyone else and force their way to the front of the line. Words can't even begin to describe the disgust I feel when I see masses of asian people and how rudely and idiotically they behave.

After visiting the 3rd temple of the weekend, my aunt asked me if I wanted to go to chinatown with her to spend the afternoon shopping and watching chinese festivities. Sharon probably knew what I was thinking, and (thankfully) stole me away to go with her to meet friends for coffee a little ways away.

6 girls in a coffee s hop on Valentine's Day means for a very very rowdy bunch for a couple hours. We went to La Merceria on Portland and Adelaide, a very cute cozy little coffee shop tucked away in a high-rise area of downtown. We all got some specialty coffees and sat there for what seemed like hours gossiping about everything about each other like all girls do.

My soy milk mocha, with a chocolate heart for Valentine's Day.

After coffee, we went to see Annetta's new apartment which is just a few blocks away. In a barely completed complex, her junior 1 bedroom pad was fantastic. So clean and modern with the unfinished ceiling look, my favourite thing was probably her cupboards! Designed to be ultra quiet and sleek, they are spring loaded to close quietly and with minimal effort on the user's part.

After spending a while there, we decided it was dinner time, and walked to Sushi Time on Queen West. I had told Kendra I would hold my sushi-belly for Wednesday at Hockey, but I didn't really want to go back to my aunt's to have more vegetarian dishes, so I opted to get non-sushi items at dinner instead. The restaurant started to fill up with couples, so we group of 6 girls stuck out just a tad. Dinner was fantastic, and I was satisfied with the portion size and taste. We headed back to Annetta's to watch Modern Family.

On Monday, I had planned with my other aunt for dim sum lunch in Scarborough. My cousin Winnie picked me up in the morning and we met up with her family there. The restaurant had a Lion Dance while we were there. A staple for every chinese function, the dance was very long and the drums started giving me a headache. We left after a rather unsatisfying lunch (it was very busy, but I was disappointed in the lack of dishes), and Winnie and Ray took me to Destiny for bubble tea. Ray took me here last time for dim sum and bubble tea, and I was rather fond of their chic modern decor. Winnie and I tried to order a crepe, but we were informed it would take 20 minutes for the crepe machine to warm up (whaaaat?!) so we opted out. Finally having satisfied my Toronto bubble tea fix, we headed off to the 401 to go back to Guelph.

In Guelph, I showed Winnie and Ray my home, and we chatted before heading to Squirrely's for dinner. Thankfully they were open (albiet quiet), and gorged on nachoes and beer battered fish and chips. The nachoes left much to be desired, with a lack of cheese and seemingly any spice but the fish and chips were fantastic. Having ordered way too much food, I packed it up for Ray to take home to eat the next day (or that night), was dropped off at home, before my cousins made their way back to Toronto again.

Kendra came over shortly after and we talked about our crazy busy weekends and watched some Olympics before finally calling it a night. What a weekend!

Olympic Tragedy

I'm sure most of the world has heard by now, about the devastating death of Georgian luger Nodar Muaritashvili. The American luge team had expressed concerned about the speed of the track just moments before Muaritashvili's fatal crash. Apparently, the track is 20km/hr too fast (in reference to a planned maximum of 137km/hr).

Read more about it on the Journal.

Heartfelt condolences to friends and family, and to the Georgian luge team. Without trying to lessen the intensity of this incident, it really does put a damper on this year's Olympics, especially given the "lack of snow" in B.C. right now as well. There seems to be a pile of incidents tipping the scales out of favour for Canada.

Guelph among top romantic cities in Canada

February 12, 2010
Rob O’Flanagan
roflanagan@guelphmercury.com

GUELPH — Guelph has a priggish side, some say, but that’s not the side Amazon.ca drew the covers off in a recent survey.

Through measuring the sales of romantic and sexy material, the online retailer named Guelph the fifth most romantic city in Canada and the most romantic in Ontario. The height of amorousness was reserved for cities in western Canada, with starry-eyed Saskatoon taking the top position and cuddly Calgary ranked second.

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” said Ezzie Dubs, owner of My Flowers Are Your Flowers on Gordon Street, speaking of Guelph’s placement on the love list. Her business is churning as Valentine’s Day approaches, but she sees constant evidence of Guelph’s romantic side.

“People will come in and buy flowers for a loved one for no particular reason, just to do it,” she said. From her experience Guelphites are not afraid to show affection toward one another, and romantic relationships are generally solid and loving among her customers.

Chocolatier Rod Prosser, owner of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in the Stone Road Mall said he was somewhat surprised by the findings.

Guelph has a conservative side, he said, but the large population of university students likely helps loosen the community up romantically. The chocolate business is a good one to be in come Valentine’s Day, he indicated.

Amazon.ca measured its sales of romance novels, sex and relationship books, romantic comedy DVDS and Michael Bublé CDS to determine which cities indulge the most in matters of the heart.

Sales figures were gathered beginning on Jan. 1, and were calculated on a per-capita basis in cities of 100,000 or more residents. Kingston, London, Peterborough, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Brantford, Barrie and Windsor were the other Ontario cities to rank in the top 20.

Sexual spark and spice are essential to romantic relationships, said Andy Kandic, owner of Sweet Dreams on Woodlawn Road, an adult entertainment shop.

“A relationship is half companionship, half sexual,” he said. “That sexual part is going to be there for a long time. If the sexual spark is lost in a relationship, then your relationship is half over. It’s a basic human need – after oxygen, food and water. If you lose that you are going to drift away from each other and your relationship might come to an end.”

Amazon.ca sells a host of books on how to use sex toys. Kandic’s shop has been selling the items for the past 12 years.

“Those are the items we have sold the most of from the beginning,” he said. “Mostly they are bought by couples, whether they are dating or married. They are used to enhance their sex lives.”

Frank & Steins Pub & Grub on Wyndham Street held a pre-Valentine’s event Thursday night, serving romance-enhancing beverages, and giving out free condoms.


Interesting article. For a metro city of 110,000, we must really enjoy promoting the (god-awful on agriculture) cut flower market and the sex industry.

This makes me laugh. Frank's giving out free condoms at the pre-Valentine event.

life in parable

There's been a lot of random crap going on lately that I've been privy to the knowledge of, and sometimes all this stuff is just so overwhelming that it makes you stop and think. Life is so messed up, and things always come and go at the same time. Everyone seems to deal with the same shit at the same time, and it all gets dumped out onto other people and it becomes difficult to deal with. But when you think about it, are these really the biggest problems in the world right now?

There are only 3 categories that men of this world fall under:

1. The ones who want you
2. The ones you want
3. The ones you'll never get

Each category has sub groupings within, of the types of men within the umbrella category. Each category has their own versions of the good the bad and the ugly, but generally following the same cliché.

Group 1 and 3 are completely distinguishable groupings. Whereas group 3 is a large subsect of group 2. Group 1 and 2 intersect, but at an alarmingly low rate.

For those that enjoy venn diagrams, please see below:


Those in the group 1 singular grouping are the people who chase after us when we clearly are not interested. Those in group 3 singularly are people who we would never get, even if our life depended on it. Those in the group 2-3 bisect are the subset of individuals who we would never get, that we actually want. There is also a group 1-2 bisect (albeit very VERY small), which is where the bulk of our relationships stem from. It's when things actually seem to go right, and the person who wants you is someone you want as well.

"What the crap?" you say? I completely concur. All (or, for political correctness, most...) of us strive to land in the area of intersect of all 3 groupings. What's that you say? I didn't talk about a group 1-2-3 trisect? That's because it doesn't exist. Group 1 and 3 are, in every way shape and form, polar opposites. It cannot occur that someone who you'll never get, will also be someone who wants you. The closest they get to overlapping, is sitting directly next to each other.

It's a little hard to see, but I highlighted the "intersecting" points in blue. And this is the area we strive to be in. We want the other to want us (group 1), but we also strive for the best we can achieve, and therefore strive to find someone who falls into group 3. However, given we are searching for them, they must also fall under group 2, or else the entire process would be pointless.

"How am I supposed to attain this?" you ask? Simply put, you can't. Unless your name is Orlando Bloom or Miranda Kerr.

Just more proof human nature is innately flawed. Why do we fight against ourselves and try to get something that isn't attainable? W. Clement Stone said to aim for the moon, because if you miss you'll still be among the stars, but is this really something we should apply to absolutely everything? Sometimes the best isn't necessary. Sometimes, there is something so great about something so ordinary. Home is where the heart is. Where did all this go?

Europe!

I'M GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!!


I've deleted out the specifics of my flights, so there is no potential for internet stalkers. I've booked my flights, and I'm going to LONDON!!!

Precious

Friday was the opening night for Precious at the Bookshelf. I was going to watch it regardless, but I invited a few of the girls to come along. I ended up at the theatre alone, which is fine. After the movie was over, I found out Kris was in the theatre too, but came in late and couldn't find me. Haha, funny.

Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, it's a book I've never read but really conveys a strong message. The movie is about an illiterate 16 year old girl, Claireece Precious Jones, who is having her second child after a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse by her mother and father.

The acting debut for Gabourey Sidibe really does deserve the oscar nomination. With such an awful hopeless home life, Sidibe portrays really well the deep dark secrets of Harlem's worst.

A movie with a obviously dark underlying theme, the theme of hope, perseverance and changing one's life is something that everyone should strive for - not just those who's lives are down in the dumps.

I recommend this movie to everyone. I know that a lot of people say that the film didn't live up to all the hype (Kris included), but frankly, I didn't pay attention to any of the hype it got. All I saw was 2 minutes of Ellen interviewing Mariah Carey a few months ago. They showed a short clip of the film and I was stunned by the depth of the movie. That's what made me so excited to see that it was going to be showing at the Bookshelf.

Go into the movie without any expectations. Just go with the mentality that it's a heartfelt tragic story of a young girl who pushes to change her life.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words, and never stops at all.
- Emily Dickinson

Keep Feet Elevated

Like the idiot I am, I was running to catch the last bus of the night last night after Aggie Pub, and did a total faceplant in front of the buses. Uninhibited without any bracing from arms and legs, I flew in the air and landed awkwardly on one ankle, on the opposite knee, and all down the side of my hand. If it weren't for it being winter and wearing a jacket, I would have been bleeding up my forearm to my elbow.

I did a pretty good (newb) job at doing an ankle wrap. I took the gauze and wrap bandaging from the first aid kit in the lab, and sat there tediously trying not to stretch my ankle in awkward positions, while working over my now very inflexible body and wrap my ankle up.

The very concerned Jerlene sent me to the walk-in-clinic today to get it checked out. After a 1.5 hour wait, the doctor came in, rolled my ankle for a whole 2 seconds, told me it was a soft tissue injury, got me some sample advil liquidgels and sent me out the door. Not even 2 minutes in the doctor's office. Awesome.

Bruce is going to bring over a velcro ice pack for me later tonight to use to keep the swelling down. As you can see, it's getting pretty bad...

I personally didn't think it was swelling, because I was having no trouble getting my shoes on, but after getting home today from a day of walking around campus (aside from when waiting for the doctor), I noticed the blue tinge to my skin and the MASSIVE swelling around my ankle bone.

"Keep your feet elevated as much as possible. Ice it constantly. Stay off your feet for at least one week."

Damn. There goes my plans for my exercise regimen..

Exercise: Jan 2010

I know I spent the last 4 months (majorly) slacking off when it came to DayZero #55 (Exercise at least twice a week)... but I've been trying very hard since I came back after Christmas!

For starters, my brother and I bought a treadmill for my parents for Christmas, and we received it just shy of the new year. I got to test it out, using it (at a low intensity level due to my lack of running shoes). While I was at home, I also managed to sneak in around 5 or so elliptical sessions in the morning.

But my regime for the school year thus far:

Tuesday mornings 7:15am-8:15am AQUAFIT
Thursday lunches: 12:00pm-1:00pm STEP

I started January 7, with STEP class and started January 19 with AQUAFIT. It hasn't been long, but I haven't missed a class yet. I tried to attend the Saturday morning sessions, but the schedule changed on me, and I ended up being an hour early. It got in my way of getting things done that day, so I skipped out on it to get work done instead. But once I get into a more regular routine with my lab work, I will start attending kickboxing or zumba or something else with high intensity during my off hours.

I paid $51 for my fitness pass, and I intend to make very good use of it this semester.

Salad Rolls

I spent the day in the grinder room grinding the last batch of samples from this year's field season! Now I can fully concentrate on my lab assays!

To celebrate me lasting through a day in the grinding room without Joe, I spent the rest of my day in the kitchen. Ohhh yeahhhhh =)

I made salad rolls in preparation for bringing lunch for the girls tomorrow. I gathered enough to make about 25, but only packed about 20 for school for a group lunch. Amidst all this as well, I made another red wine dry rub roast and tried out roasting artichokes.

Gather your ingredients first!

To make salad rolls, get your ingredients ready first. The noodles and shrimp need to be cooked beforehand. Nothing should be warm when making the salad rolls.

I've never made salad rolls before, so this is an experiment for myself as well. I knew from eating a lot of salad rolls growing up, the basics of what goes inside. However, the sauce was something I hadn't really the slightest clue how to make. A quick phone call to my mom the other day provided some very basic guidelines to making salad roll dipping sauce, and after some tweaking at the stovetop and my landlady trying out the sauce for flavour, a successful concoction was created!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed the afternoon making them.

For ~25 large salad rolls

• 2 batches of cooked and cooled thin rice noodles (I use Kong Moon rice sticks in a clear bag with red accents), cut short
  
• 25 pieces rice paper (Báng Tráng Mỹ Tho Royal Ox vietnamese rice paper is good)
• bean sprouts, washed and ends cut
• 25 pieces cooked, cooled and halved medium shrimp
• fresh basil leaves
• warm water
• 25 pieces pork loin (omit if vegetarian)

1. Soak the rice paper in water for ~5 seconds. Do NOT let paper soften, let it soften on the working surface (plate)
2. layer basil leaf, cut noodles, bean sprouts, shrimp and pork loin into middle of rice paper.
3. Fold bottom of rice paper over filling. Follow by the left and right edges of rice paper. Roll the wrapped filling area upward toward the 4th edge of the rice paper (see diagram below).

How to: roll salad rolls.

For the dipping sauce (I don't have measurements for this)

• hoisin sauce
• oyster sauce
  
• crushed peanuts (or chunky peanut butter)
  
• water

• If using peanuts, crush them well and heat them in a bit of water beforehand, to release the nutty flavour.

1. Add 1 part water to 2 parts each hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and 3 parts peanuts. I forgot to pick up peanuts when I was at Zehr's, so I used peanut butter (2 parts).
2. Cook over very low heat in a saucepan until desired nutty flavour.
3. Add water if sauce gets too thick.
   

Voila!

Today's kitchen adventures were quite successful. Jen liked the salad rolls and dipping sauce very much, and both Jen and Bruce very much enjoyed the roast. Bruce more so than Jen, given the rare-ity of the centre of the roast. Success!