Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Crazy-ass June

It's been a long time since I've posted. I've put a few things in draft, I might put them up live or not, we'll have to see.

June has been a crazy month. Visited my parents one weekend, visited Kitchener two weekends in a row, my friend's wife passed away, my neighbours had a baby, my godson turned one year old, I bought a bunch of 'previously viewed' DVDs (War of the Worlds, A History of Violence and something with Jean Reno), went nuts on Nick Bantock stuff, moved my storage cabinet, reconnected my stereo system - and through all this I still haven't been able to take out the garbage. *sigh*

Things are finally slowing down a little bit now.

Anyway...

Lastnight T and I went to see The Lake House. This was actually a pretty good movie, less schmaltzy than I expected, less a 'chick flick' than T expected. I would have ended it on the sad note they were aiming towards rather than making it a happy ending. Apparently this is a re-make of a Korean film. All I can say is, whoever wrote it, they had been reading Griffin & Sabine.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Olha Brown

I went to University with this guy named Colin. Real nice guy, always laughing and positive, the kind of person that makes you happy just to be around.

After we all left school, he met this really sweet girl named Olha, who was a perfect match for him - sweet, loving, open - and together they were just amazing. We were all so happy to see them together.

I went to their wedding a few years ago, which was an outrageous affair - cerermony at an elaborate church with gold and bright colours everywhere, reception filled to the gills with the best man having a shot with everyone who came in the door.

Olha's been in the hospital for a few weeks, suffering from pancreatitis. This morning she had complications, needed emergency surgery, and didn't make it.

I have to admit, I never knew Olha very well since I didn't see her and Colin much in the past few years, but she's always felt like a dear friend from the moment we met. My heart is breaking for Colin right now, I can't imagine how he's going to deal with this loss.

And also it makes me feel very odd, considering that I've just been to a funeral.

Anyway, I expect there will be a service this weekend, I know a lot of people will be there. I hope it's somewhere that will let me get to it okay, I want to be there too.

*rescued from draft limbo*

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

When you've got to go...

Well, today I had a pelvic ultrasound. I haven't had one since I was 18, when all this silliness began. And I remembered the drill, and it is the same drill - drink a very large amount of clear liquid, have it all drunk by one hour before the ultrasound, and don't let it out.

Okay.

I borrowed a metropass from one of the girls at the office, as I wasn't going to walk for 20 minutes with a full bladder - what were they doing in the subway when I got down there, you ask? HOSING OFF THE RAILS. Damn, it was miserable.

I got to the clinic and checked in, ten minutes early, and sat down with my book. I had to go when my appointment came around, but I persevered. An hour later, I was in actual agony - I still persevered, thinking how lucky I was to at least be sitting! When they finally called me into the changeroom it was almost an hour and a half past my appointment time. I could hear the nurses arguing, one of them telling the other one "I don't care, you can't take walk-ins like that, there are people here waiting" - damn straight there are!

So the lady gave me the ultrasound (do you know what it's like to have to go so bad, and have someone put goo all over your belly and push? Gah...), then said I could go use the washroom - which seemed to be in another time zone - and then I had an internal ultrasound. I hadn't had that before, and I wish I'd been told it was coming! I mean, not that I would have done anything different or anything, a girl just likes to mentally prepare for something like that.

In the end? Well, I went back to work - they're not allowed to tell you your results.

*sigh*

Oh, did I mention I saw my folks last weekend? Yep, and they're good. Watched The Shining, had a rousing game of Canasta Caliente, visited my friend M and watched Mirrormask and Aeon Flux. Good visit.

*rescued from draft limbo*

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

What's my job?

I am a helpful person, at least I try to be. I think this will eventually be my undoing, as everyone seems to have noticed. So, just an announcement:

I am a Desktop Publisher.

I am not the Help Desk.

I am also not Communications.

Nor am I the Copy Centre.

Please keep this in mind.

That is all.

**saved as draft while Blogger was down**

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Family

Today was my Aunt Shirley's funeral.

I took the day off to be with my Dad. He came into town early in the morning, had a nap at my house while I went to see my doctor (for what, as it turns out, wasn't my annual physical but just a follow-up), and then we both went to my Aunt Patsy's to meet up with some of the family. From there we went to the funeral home (Scarborough) and then out to the gravesite (Markham) and then back to Patsy's for a family gathering of sorts. Everyone held together pretty well I think, Patsy had a bit of a weep at the cemetary, but that's to be expected.

I have mixed feelings about today. A lot of the people at the funeral, well, I just didn't know them - didn't recognize most of them.

My family, both sides, are from New Brunswick - some time in the 60s Shirley made the move to Toronto, and as the family came to visit, they all realized they wanted to live here too, so eventually everyone lived here in Toronto. But when I was two we moved out to Burlington - not very far really, but it meant that we never had the whole hanging out with family thing.

I've met my various cousins before but really I only truly remember Wilma's kids as they were the ones we'd come into town to see usually.

Anyway, at the funeral and at Patsy's later on, I felt like quite an outsider. I was comfortable chatting with my Dad of course, and my grandmother, and Wilma, and I was okay with my other aunts who were there and Patsy's husband and Wilma's and Patsy's kids, but I felt like I had no common ground with them at all. It makes me sad, by moving out of Toronto I lost a connection that I'll probably never get back. I don't think it was a bad decision to move, I just wonder what life would be like if we hadn't.

To be honest, though, some of the people there were, let's face it, people I'd never have any social connection to beyond blood relation, but some I think I'd like to connect closer with.

Shirley Murray 1936-2006

**saved as draft while Blogger was down**

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Success!

Well, I'm claiming success on my outing - lastnight I came home with the Philips DVP642. I hooked it up this afternoon. Popped in a disc with DivX stuff on it. Finally got to see DivX on my TV. Yay! Haven't tested out its PAL vs NTSC abilities yet, that will come soon.

But on top of the purchase, I also went with T to see Silent Hill. Verdict? Creepifying. Great atmosphere. Somewhat confusing at times, but that's okay - it is from a video game after all. My ex-roomie used to play it and I'd watch, it was just like watching a horror movie so this was bound to happen I suppose. It seemed a bit rushed. Good effects. Had the pilot from Pitch Black in it, and Sean Bean too, although his role was somewhat small, and also that guy Kim Coates who's in everything ever, for once playing someone not villainous. Oh, and Borg Queen chick too. Anyway, the movie was interesting, creepy, lots of 'what the hell is going on' moments. I read on a site just now the description "the best Clive Barker film that Clive Barker had nothing to do with" - won't be buying it, but it was worth the admission.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Hey baby, what's your region?

I have an issue.

Now I know what you're saying - Koshka, you have more than a few issues. But we're just talking about this one at the moment, so pipe down and bear with me here.

You all know about Region Encoding on DVDs by now. My DVD player is regionally locked and there's no way to change that for my particular model (I've researched and found only one but it isn't proven yet and I'm not risking it with this baby), so it used to be that I would just watch alternate-region discs on my confuser. Not as comfortable, but better than nothing.

I really love my new confuser, as you all know. The Metatron™ is a wonderful machine, sleek and beautiful and blindingly fast, nice wide screen and all that goes with that. But Apple's new models come with region-specific DVD drives (which I don't think they had before). Apparently there are two types of drive they've been installing in my particular model, and while there are ways around one of them, the drive in my particular model (Matashita, apparently) checks for the disc region in two separate ways so it can't be 'got around'. Such is my luck folks.

Generally, you know, living in region 1 all my life and not planning on moving, this shouldn't be an issue. Except there are a VERY LARGE AMOUNT of region 2 movies and tv shows I would love to be able to watch, which have never been released in region 1 and may never be. So what's a girl to do? Is it fair that a movie from ten years ago is only available to watch on another continent? It's not like it's a theatre-release-timing issue, which was the film studios' flimsy excuse for the whole encoding thing in the first place.

On top of that problem of broadcast line standard, which differs all over the world - and in particular, it's a different standard for most region 2 countries than for my own region. So even if my DVD player was region-free, I still couldn't properly watch a region 2 disc as my TV doesn't have automatic broadcast line conversion - again, my luck, how was I to know six years ago that I would need this ability?

Anyway.

The point I'm getting to here is that I'm going to have to BUY something to get around this issue.

So that's what I'm going to do today. I'll keep you all posted.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

An odd week

Yep, it's been odd.

Ágætis ByrjunThe Kick InsideThat sore throat really came into its own on Monday and Tuesday. With the humidity what it's been this week, my sleep is all screwed up and I'm exhausted. Two nights of overtime, and a couple of huge projects that took over my week and have left my task list HUGE with things that I've had to bump around and reschedule.

BUT

The Real RamonaDefinite ArticleI did have a good evening Wednesday at the stitch & bitch, and Heather B and I saw a fantastic lightning chain as we came up out of the subway, which always makes me happy. I'm still working on that blue & purple shrug, I still can't wrap my brain around my cable scarf, it's still too busy at work and my brain doesn't want any confusion. Add to those two projects the stupidly long tube I'm making with my old knitting toy to make a huge rug, and it adds up to TOO MANY PROJECTS!

indiepop 1My monthly trip to Sonic Boom was more than fruitful - I ended up with five CDs but that was whittled down from something like 20, which is just frustrating (I'm having to hold myself down from going back tomorrow!) This month's haul: Sigur Rós (Ágætis Byrjun), Kate Bush (The Kick Inside), Throwing Muses (The Real Ramona), Eddie Izzard (Definite Article) and a Rough Trade Shops collection (indiepop 1) that cost twice as much as I usually spend there, but it's so worth it...

Who Pub afterwards was good too, folks I've never met showed up, as well as some who have been absent for too long - although I stayed way later than I should have (Andrew, you know whose fault that is). As a result, today I have been SO TIRED, I've been able to do my work but I've felt really draggy all day.

X-Men: The Last StandBut my friend Danny was home from Seattle and in town today, so after work I went to meet him, his brother and their respective ladies for dinner at Salad King (take note, those in the know: Danny had the 20-chili spice and survived!), after which we went for a nice long walk and saw X-Men III at the Paramount.

My verdict: well, it's a bit hard for me to explain. I mean, I liked it, I enjoyed the story, but it didn't really grab me in any way. I don't think I'm going to need to see it again. I can't put my finger on the reason why though, I mean, they didn't have Bryan Singer directing this one, but there must have been more to it than that, surely?

Oh, and did I mention how much it freaks me out that it's already June?

Ugh... so tired...