Tuesday, August 30, 2005

My Hero

An actress that I look up to a great deal is Kate Winslet. Not because she's a "heavier actress making it in Hollywood", because she's not. She's a really beautiful actress with an awesome figure and a lot of talent. If I could look like any celebrity in Hollywood it would be her. But you know... she also makes me think that maybe I can be happy looking just the way I am :)



Kate has great quotes about weight and self image:

"I am so not fat. I'm fit. I'm healthy. I feel so much more comfortable this way. For God's sake, don't argue with nature!"

"When I was 18 and 19 and 20, I would weigh myself and write it down in my diary. I'm not that person now. I have that feeling of not caring. I'm just happy being me."

"What is sexy? All I know from the men I've ever spoken to is that they like girls to have an arse on them, so why is it that women think in order to be adored they have to be thin?"




This is a woman after my own heart. A comfy hooded sweatshirt and hair loosely pulled back.




If this is fat, dear god let me be fat!

"Kate Winslet is a beautiful woman. If she put on another 10 pounds, I'd still outweigh her by 50. People just want to make fun of her weight because she got to make out with Leonardo DiCaprio."
Gabrielle Reece, pro beach volleyball player and ex-model

Amen.

Morgan Webb

In an attempt to even things out with my fella I thought I would dedicate a post to his celebrity crush.

How great is this? Unlike most guys in the 18-25 bracket, my guy does not have a crush on Jessica ugly-face Simpson or Brittney sucks-in-bed Spears. No, my ultra cool boyfriend's celebrity crush is Morgan Webb from Tech TV.



She's an extremely smart and sarcastic video game reviewer. She cohosts a show with this guy, Adam Sessler, and they rip apart crappy video games five or six times...an hour on Tech TV. You can seriously watch this station all day and see these guys nonstop.
At any rate. This chick is cool. I'm a little envious. She loves violent video games and racing cars- And I thought I was a tomboy!

Anyways, Morgan Webb: Very cool.

That is all :)

Monday, August 29, 2005

Crush

I have a new celebrity crush.


My recent addiction to Star Wars has led to a serious crush on Ewan McGregor.


So cute.

As is the case with most men, even hotter with facial hair. I wonder if he plays guitar?




Contrary to popular belief these dafodils are not in fact for Sandra Templeton, but for me.



Sorry Jon and Dave, there's a new man in town. And his name is Obi Wan...er I mean Ewan.

I love you Joe :p

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Fear and Loathing in the Brother's Grimm


Okee dokee. So I went to see the Brother's Grimm which, besides giving me nightmares for weeks, will not go down as the best spent $9.75 of my life.

About the nightmares. When I was eighteen I developed an inexplicable phobia, and as a result I swore never to watch Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". I might as well have after yesterday. I missed a good tenth of the movie hiding my eyes and plugging my ears because of all the stupid birds. I'm sure no one else could care less, and as a matter a fact there are a lot of things in that movie that would gross other people out a hell of a lot more... but crows man... everywhere... huge fricken crows.

Alright, weird paranoia aside: The movie is worth seeing for the visuals and to see that Heath Ledger does in fact have some talent. There are some serious inconsistencies in the plot and I felt that they didn't do a very good job of tying the stories together in a very satisfactory way. The woman that they had to play the romantic lead, Lena Headey, did a fair job, but she was essentially forced on Gilliam by the Studio and really didn't suit the part. She's just much too pretty and they don't make any effort to make her as rough around the edges as she ought to be. The ending was a little over the top, and the over use of the "symbolic" words "magic beans" was really grating. The whole thing was poorly paced and the dialogue wasn't very well written. I don't usually write reviews this critically without giving a more thorough analysis... but those birds man... shit.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Air Speed Velocity of an Unladen African Swallow

So now that I'm done editorializing (sp?)... you know, some one that spells as horrifically as I do should probably avoid doing editorials.

Tonight I am having a Monty Python fest with my friend Adam from high school. He's probably the only other person who can recite Python at random and knows all the words to the Silver Chair song Miss You Love :P
I was having a particularly crappy day at school last year and Adam sent me this picture of himself re-enacting the dead parrot sketch:




I am hoping to raid the costume area at Thorneloe at some point and get digital photos of myself performing the Spanish Inquisition Sketch... or if I get less ambitious I'll get that great Viking Hat and do Spam.

Ah Yes, and for those reading who would find relevance in this, I will be returning to Sudbury tomorrow at 5pm. Hopefully I will get a chance to see everybody before school starts. If not, take care and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The Hero

Superman, Spiderman, Batman. We all grew up reading their comic books, watching their cartoons, collecting their actions figures (I was a Ninja Turtles girl myself). Super heroes fascinate us. We all want to be a hero, but when we reach a certain age we find out that kryptonite, mutating ooze and bat-utility-belts are not real. Most of us realize that values that those cartoons were trying to teach us. Integrity, honesty, hard work, compassion, sacrifice are the qualities of heroism. As we grow older we begin to look for these qualities in others to admire, our parents, teachers, community leaders. And every once in a while there are those that embody these qualities on a large scale for a large number of people. These people are deemed heroes. We look for these people, for better or for worse as an inspiration in troubled times, as someone to look up to and admire and ultimately strive to be like.

The trouble with finding real life heroes is that these people are not super powerful mutants or aliens. They are not superman; they are human. Human beings have flaws, it's part of what makes us both horrible and wonderful all at the same time. When we expect our heroes to be above this, to never make a mistake, we will ultimately be disappointed. There are those that thrive on this disappointment. Humanity as a whole has a history of ripping heroes down from the very platform we raised them up to. No one has ever withstood this scrutiny.

The story itself has been the cornerstone of western philosophy. The fate of Socrates and Plato's allegory of the cave suggest that it is human ignorance and fear of enlightenment that cause society to turn on their heroes. More significantly, the story of Jesus and his life seems to be one of human nature. The same people who demanded his crucifixion had once hailed Jesus as a hero. This is part of our western mythology, and has been taught to us for generations, and yet at every turn we find another human being to build up as our saviour and ultimately tear down when they do not meet our expectations.

One of my favourite episodes of the Simpsons is the one where Lisa is doing a report on Jebodiah Springfield. He is the founder of her hometown, Springfield, and renowned as a hero. When researching she discovers that many of the facts about Springfield were actually just myths. The stories had been embellished and Springfield was actually a murderous pirate. Lisa find proof of all this and decides to inform the town on "Jebodiah Springfield" day. But when she sees the town people gathered together celebrating, the children excitedly participating in activities and how happy everyone was enjoying the myth she decided not to tell everyone the truth. I suppose the episode is suggesting that ignorance is bliss, but if that's the case I wonder why more people aren't happy.

In any case, I'm not suggesting that we should stop exploring history, and you know Columbus was a pretty big asshole (aha, I knew my professional style of writing wouldn't hold up this entire entry). But maybe we need to stop using these people as scapegoats for our own unwillingness to try.

I am sure most of you are aware that I am writing this in response to the recent attacks on Lance Armstrong. A tabloid in France is reporting that Armstrong used banned substances to increase his red blood cell count in 1999 to win the Tour de France. Now putting aside the fact that that was six years ago, and the reason he had substances in his body to increase red blood cells might very well have been related to his battle with cancer, let's say he did use this drug. There is no evidence to suggest that he ever used it again, or that he used it for any other reason that to help him gain the edge that had been taken away from him by this horrible disease. He's a human being. Just like you and I. He suffered through cancer, he battled and survived, but he's still human. People make mistakes, and we need to learn to let each other make those mistakes.

Rather than expect Lance Armstrong to be superman, why not take some inspiration from someone who has fought a hard athletic battle and shown tremendous strength in the face of adversity. We should let is help us look at the adversity in our own lives and say "I can overcome this, I can make this a strong positive thing for me". If he turns out to be imperfect then take that as good thing. Let it be a reminder that all of us are capable of greatness, flawed as we are.

None of us are Superman, and we shouldn't expect that of others or ourselves. But the ideals that he stands for, the life that he leads, like all of our heroes should be something that each of us work towards in our own way. Rather than look for "What would Lance do"? Why don't we look at "What can I do to over come the situations in my life" or "What can I do to help another human being"? Have heroes of your own who inspire you and move you to be better person, but know that they are flawed, and that others will try to rip them down. It is the qualities of a hero that make someone great, not their infallibility.

"You are who you choose to be"-The Iron Giant

PS: In the future this blog will be neither preachy, nor in essay format... well at least not in essay format...

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Smithers climb into the Spruce Moose!




Finally all of my money problems have been solved- in the form of legalized gambling. I made $75 today at the Niagara Fallsview Casino.

I'm not really much of a gambler actually (compared to the rest of my family especially) mostly because poverty prevents me from spending any more than $20 on any given day. But it was sort of a family outing (which is a little sad when you think about it), so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
The Casion is pretty cool actually. It's one of the cleanest buildings I've ever been in. There are stores in there with skirts that are worth more than all of my clothes put together.
There's a really cool fountain where the entrance is:




And during the day they have this dude stand around painted head to toe in gold pretending to be a statue. My dad talked me into going over and giving him a tip. The golden man blew me a kiss, which I think is reasonable for a dollar. I wonder what would have happened if I'd put a fifty in there...?

I love Southern Ontario. I miss school though too... is there any way of relocating everyone I care about to one convient location with a reasonable climate? sigh, maybe when I'm a rich stage actor :P

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Book Club

I didn't copy and paste so this might not even be in the right order.

1. Number of books I own: about 34 (including text books)



In my defence I am an avid library girl, so I don't own a lot of novels.

2. Last book I read:



Finally!

3. Last book I bought:



4. Five books that have had a profound impact on my life:



It was a toss up with Not Wanted on the Voyage actually, but I didn't want to be a copy-cat.







and most of all:




5. The only five people I can really think to tag have already been tagged by Andrew. I can still get Aimee and Erica if they are reading this... oh and Joe should he decide to blog :p

Happy reading!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

So tomorrow I get to go and see THE TEMPEST! ...which I was fortunate enough to get to perform in at Thorneloe this summer. I will be going to see William Hutt as Prospero in his second "farewell to the stage". My brother and I are taking advantage of our youth and studentdom by going to see the show for, get this, $20. That's all!

I'm also seeing a friend of mine from long ago and far away. When I was working at Lakewood Easter Seal Camp here in Ontario Clark was my first fellow counselor/friend. We did CIT together and worked together the entire time we were at Lakewood. When we both decided it was our last summer there we were both about to go away to University and were both beginning relationships with people that we are still with to this day (Joe and I still have them by 4 days lol).
Clark was also the one who started what is now my unhealthy obsession with Dave Matthews Band, and was the one who started my compulsive need to say Boo-urns. It's been way too long since we hung out, so I'm extra excited to go.

I will take some digital photos while in Stratford and post them asap.

Monday, August 15, 2005

When it becomes cheaper to simply move home and eat their food...

So I'm back home again for the fourth time this summer. This only seems like a lot when you consider that I only went home twice during the entire school year.

I'm here getting ready for school, eating properly to fix up my tummy, spending time with my family who I have to confess I miss quite a bit, and ultimately collecting my thoughts.

While at home I am going take this unique opportunity to finish writing my play. I have been working on this sucker for a year now. I lost the majority of my work when my computer buggered out on me last month. I am now determined however to finish writing it. I don't know what will become of this thing, if anything, but it's something I've been meaning to do.

Being home means I get to watch Fraggles too :P

Favourite Fraggle Rock episode: The Duet-a-thon

Favourite Duet-a-thon quotes:

"Just because something's always been, doesn't make it right, does it?" -Wembley

"What's dragon slaying got to do with violence?" -Red

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Madness

Please go and read this:

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4482.html

It is written by Marc Emery, who I'm sure you've all learned by now may spend the rest of his life in prison in the United States for selling Marijuana seeds.
This is a serious issue for all Canadians. Medicinal marijuana, freedom of speech, and Canada/USA relations are all at stake here. We can not allow the Canadian government to do this to these people. Please write your MP. Here is Diane Marleau's email address: Marleau.D@parl.gc.ca

Remember "Some arrogant government can't by any stretch of the imagination outlaw a plant"- Ani DiFranco

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Liz is...

So I went to this site that Luke had a link to. It's a search engine that comes up with things from the internet... it's hard to explain.

Check it out.

Here are my favourites for "What is Liz?"

Liz is working on her urge to eat ice cream for dinner every night.
Liz is available for speaking engagements anywhere in the USA and Western Canada.
Liz is the woman/wife that God desires all women to be.
Liz is reading this summer.
Liz is the sort of woman who is on intimate terms with her own unhappiness.
Liz is one of the newest additions to the Texans cheerleaders.
Liz is telling the truth for once in her life.
Liz is really bossy and pushy.
Liz is a trainee dolphin interpreter.
Liz is STILL BETTER THAN THAT COW.
Liz is currently working on her new album.
Liz is an active member of Northwest Bible Church.
Liz is an outstanding young woman whose tireless dedication to the theatre and...
(at least they got one right sort of right:P)

Liz is SUPPOSED to be reading this summer. I have made it through 3 books since April. One of them shouldn't have even qualified as a book. Don't get me wrong GenX was excellent, but it wasn't exactly time consuming or even particularly challenging to read. Bugger... that's what I should do tonight... after I watch Return of the Jedi... again.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Girl's Breakfast

This morning I had more for breakfast than I think I've eaten in a week. It is after all the most important meal of the day.

Here is my important quote of the day:

"The are more love songs than anything else, if music could make us do anything, we'd all love one another"- Frank Zappa

Let's do some more lovin' in this world.

Monday, August 08, 2005

I've been drinking and here's what I think (Part II)

It seems that when I have alcohol fueling my brain I am more inspired to post.

I was considering the question of audience tonight. Who am I really writing to when I post? Hi Joe :p

Anyways, here's what I think:

I am very hot. It's a shame that I only think this when I'm at least a little drunken... and that I will inevitably tear this down tomorrow when I sober up.

So enjoying this while I can: I am Liz and I am sexy.

Liz B: The B is for beautiful.
some guy said that to me once... but I think I can just say it to myself from now on.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

There are so many things better than pleasant

I took my rant down. Just as well :)

I like being me an awful lot. Fuck everyone else.

Here are some quotes I like:

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright

"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real."-Iris Murdoch

"I hate quotations"-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"But green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree"-Kermit the Frog

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened"- Dr Seuss

That's all for today