Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Adaptation

I saw an advertisement that got me thinking (always scary). It was for a new video game: The DaVinci Code. Now some might claim that this is definitive proof that the book does not qualify as literature. I beg to differ, in fact I think that it's high time more famous literary works were made into video games.

The Great Gatsby (with built in driving simulator)
Moby Dick's ESPN Whaling 2006
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (and you thought Mario's magic mushrooms were cool)
Sim City 1984
The Diary of Anne Frank (there are so many WWII video games, and yet I think they're missing a crucial market here)
The Scottish Game (not availabe from Microsoft)
Grand Theft Auto: A Clockwork Orange Edition
Pilgrim RPG
Anne of Green Gables (first person shooter)
Racing game: Brake fast at Tiffany's

That's enough. It's late.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Wax On...

My story begins when I got home from work this afternoon at around 1:30pm. The weather was finally nice enough for shorts and I got this stupid stupid idea. I thought I would try to wax my legs.
Now I know there are many women perfectly capable of doing this. I am just not one of them. I was doing pretty well until I got to a patch just below my knee cap. I stuck the wax on and went to rip.... the wax however decided not to come along. Now this particular wax brand does not wash off with water. In fact applying water to the wax makes it MUCH worse. It comes with this comedically small vile of "Azulene Oil" which removes the excess wax. So I applied the oil and sure enough- the wax remained. A huge clump of it right in the middle of my leg. Well I sure used up the oil and the wax sure did stay there on my leg. I tried damn near everything to get this wax clump off of my knee. I scraped at it (making everything I scraped with unstickably sticky), I tried 3 kinds of soap, several skin lotions, shampoo (which, unlike wax, washes right out), conditioner, hydrogen peroxide, peaunut oil, Nair hair remover (seemed logical), and what finally removed the wax from my leg: 8spf Coppertone sun tan lotion. So anyways, you can add that to your "useful information for leg waxing" (I'm assuming that everyone with a Y chromosome stopped reading at the third sentence).

Anywho, the uber exciting thing these days is my trek up to Sudbury next Friday! Graduation, hoorah! I never thought I would be so excited to see the Super Stack... or Laurentian University. Thorneloe I'm always excited to see (well almost always), but even more so these days. Soon enough!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Not a Sleep EZ

I had my very first shift at work at the mansion last night. It's pretty damn cool. I don't get to waitress until Friday, but I've learned all of the computer-esque parts of my job. I also discovered that bussing to and from St Catharines is not as simple as I might have imagined it to be. I won't go into any great detail, but suffice it to say my shift finished at 7AM and I didn't get into bed until 9:30AM. A severe lack of sleep has made me a little on the grouchy side. I should do something to improve that...

still... a small price to pay for such a high level of coolness.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Coffee and Sigur Ros

I am training in the art of wakefullness. My first shift at the mansion is an over-night 11pm to 7am shift. While my recent exit from studentdom should have prepared me for keeping these sorts of hours I must confess: I don't manage well without my sleep. So I must get into the habit of staying up at night and, most likely, sleeping in the mornings as shifts and rehearsals will be afternoons/evenings for the most part. I am working my way up to pulling the all nighter, and still being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Right now they might have to settle for bushy-eyed and bright-tailed.

PS: Check out the latest edition of the Daily Show's comic The Decider.

Friday, May 19, 2006

You must mean another Liz


Apparently when people told me to relax and that things would work out just fine, they weren't just making that up to shut my yap-hole.
So here's the good news:
1. I got the part of Adriana in A Comedy of Errors with Shakespeare in the Vineyard. It's being done at the Henry of Pelham Winery and is produced by the Niagara Falls Theatre Society. If anyone will be in the Niagara area then it runs July 13-15 and 20-22 at 7pm.
2. I got a job! I am going to be a front desk clerk/hostess/bartender for the Keefer Mansion. A fully restored 19th Century Mansion in Thorold (near St Kitt's). The mansion is beautiful, the atmosphere is ever so cool AND I have been talking with the management about bringing dinner theatre to events there! I may be able to make some money and do some directing/acting while I'm at it.
3. I found out today that despite its absence from the Event Calendar at Cayuga Secondary School, the Baseball Tournament that I started up in high school ran today in memory of Will, Jay, Dayton and Tom. I am sorry that I couldn't attend, but I am so happy that they are still doing this at the school.
4. I just ordered my Lollapalooza ticket, Raconteurs, Death Cab for Cutie, Shins, Flaming Lips, Iron and Wine, Feist, etc etc and more awesome etc, here I come!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Pension Grillparzer

An activity usurped from Angelo-

Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

from page 123 of The World According to Garp

"Tell the truth," the singer said. "He was born without shinbones. But it's true that we couldn't get along with the Russians."
"They tried to jail the bear," said the dream man.
"Tell the truth," Theobald said.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Blue... no I mean yelloooooooo

Thanks everyone for the questions, here are the answers:


Andrew John Root in a Pythonesque manner charged me not to ignore his questions four.

Question the First: Would you ever try cocaine and under what circumstances?
No. Inhaling anything that way kind of grosses me out. Plus drugs are bad :)


Question the Second: Which island most intrigues you and why?

Madagascar for the lemurs and other fun creatures (I’m an anthropology-nerd). A close second would be the island of Yap, which is part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Question the Third: What reasons do you have to be smug?

I didn’t realize I was smug. I thought that perhaps if I looked up the exact OED definition of smug I would be less defensive about answering the question. This did not help, BUT I learned that the word smug originates from the German word “smuk” meaning pretty. I am going to smugly assume that that’s what was meant.

Question the Fourth: Name one song, movie, and book you think the world could live without..... ?

I go so far as to say that the world would be a better place without-
Song: Untitled-Simple Plan - I actually wasn’t sure what the title of this song was so I went to a Simple Plan lyrics page looking for "a song about a spoiled brat suburban boy abnoxiously whining about how tough his life is". It took a while to find the particular one I was looking for.
Movie: The Fast and the Furious - I don’t think that movies make people do stupid things, but why encourage this idiotic behaviour
Book: Toss up between The O’Reilly Factor for Kids and How to Talk to a Liberal (if you must): The World According to Ann Coulter. Actually I suspect that that was actually my answer to “Name two people the world could live without”.

Angelo praised my word-verification for being wheelchair accessible, though I think it is actually a parking permit giving his question a space closer to my brain than all of the other questions. His was:

What is one thing you've always wished to say to a loved one but haven't gone through with because it would be deemed inappropriate? You do not need to identify the loved one.

I don’t think there’s any one thing, I don’t really sit on things for very long, and I pick my battles. It’s probably much more the way I word stuff that I would secretly change sometimes when I’m trying to spare someone’s feelings or resolve things for the best. That’s not very exciting is it? Alright, there’s a person I am very close to that I secretly hate and everyday I have to convince myself not wait until they’re asleep at night to go in and smother with a pillow. Sleep tight everyone!


Lizzie V was finally able to leave me a question. I am so sorry Lizzie V, all this time I thought I actually had the function on for people to leave anonymous comments. I always wondered why people told me that they read my blog, but never left a comment. At any rate… Liv asked:

What in your 23 years do you regret doing (or not doing) the most?

Well going to Alberta was not the best decision I ever made, but I’ve stopped actually waking up in the middle of the night from bad dreams and freaking out that I might still be there, so I guess I can see it as a learning experience of sorts. I also probably should have gone on the Europe trip in high school. I could have borrowed the money the extra money I needed, back then $1000 was a lot of money to be in debt.

If you could be any celebrity who would you be and why?

Heh- alright there’s a real answer to this that I probably shouldn’t give, because there’s no way it won’t look bad. I do adore Kate Winslet and I also think Naiomi Watts and Helen Bonham Carter are very talented and beautiful actresses who I wouldn’t mind being for a day or so. I do kind of like being me, though.

You have a choice between 10 million dollars or marrying a now bankrupt Ewan... what do you do?

Marrying Ewan. Contrary to popular belief it is not Ewan’s fame or money that attract me to him. That’s superficial. I think he’s hot and has a really sexy accent and I’ve seen him in a full frontal nude scene, so I am attracted to him in a much deeper way than money and fame.

Here are some questions from Erica (Whom I usually refer to as Erica):

1. When you think of Acting II what is the first thing that comes into your head?

I think the day Sarah made us write those poems and read them out and I suddenly realized what my “wall” was in acting. It was incredibly liberating, and I knew that my real work had only just begun, but it was nice to finally understand what it was going to take to act.

2. If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow where would you go and how long would you stay?

Great Britain. I’d like to do about a month or so of the whole British Isles. A week in London, Stratford and all those other important English places, a week in Scotland, a week in Ireland and a week in Wales.


3. If you had the opportunity to save Jon Stewart's life and have him indebted to you forever and ever but you first had to be the one to endanger his life would you do it?

I would be too scared that I wouldn’t be able to properly save his life after endangering him. And a world without Jon Stewart might as well not be a world… and it’s likely not to be if the Republicans stay in power…

That was a pretty sour note to end on.

I have a job interview at a really cool place on Monday. I have some very positive vibe from my “ins” there, and it would be a really fun job. I will post more if I get it. No sense getting hyped up.
I also did my audition last night and I think that it went very well. The director gave me some positive feedback and said he would be in touch soon. So a bit of a nervous weekend, but things are finally starting to roll down here. Thanks again for the questions, they were all really good/tricky ones!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Editted and Re-Editted... did I spell that right?

****************

I'm doing the question thingy. You know, the thingy everyone did months ago? Well I'm doing it now. Leave a question. And I've re-configured it so that those without blogs may question me as well. Yes this is in the absence of real things to write about. Fear not, this will be remedied VERY SOON.

****************

This is the all time low in the history of blogging. I have nothing of value of my own to say, so I've just decided to steal directly from Nissah's blog and put a post of hers on mine.

The wisdom of Nissah:

"Elbows

People, I have something to say. SAY NO TO DRY ELBOWS!!!!!! I was sitting in class and someone next to me had the worse case of dry elbows. Ugh, that just makes me mad! This is why we have lotions and creams people! For the love of God use them! That is all I have to say on that. So the next time you take a shower or a bath, remember to keep those elbows clean and moisturized."

I also learned from her blog that she has a life-long goal to throw a shoe at Bryan Adams. I've had a shoe thrown at me, and I can officially say that it was not a pleasant experience. It was also being thrown at me by a 250lb six foot tall camper screaming curses at me who would later attempt to lock me in a bathroom.
I miss camp.


******************
Due to some complaints about the length of this post, I have removed the quiz. If you wish to know something interesting or obscure about me, you can always leave a question. I will accept until Friday.
******************

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Compy Pentium I

This computer:

Can't play videos
Can't play music/CDs
Is SLOW
Logs me on automatically to web messenger?
Has no space to download ANYTHING
Has word processing but it takes five minutes to start up

I wonder if I replaced it with a cardboard box if anyone would notice...

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

A New Chapter

I am home and settled, and ready to roll. Despite my exit (fade out on rocky landscape, cue music "Move Away and Shine") from the city of Sudbury I will be keeping up this blog, hopefully with some interesting adventures from southern Ontario. Already on the agenda: an audition for a community theatre group, just outside of Welland that is putting on Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Also my seemingly endless pursuit to find at least mildly meaningful/bearable employment.

I had a great weekend before I left, and I am infinitely confident that I will have more of those over the summer and in the future with many friends, including three of the most wonderful people I've ever had the privilage of be-friending. Jenny, Andrew and Steph did a lovely job of sending me off from Sudbury including an improv performance for the entire Greyhound bus at the station. The girl sitting beside me noticed me smiling and waving at them as they performed a puppet show with their bare hands.

GIRL: Are they your friends?
ME: Yeah, I'm moving away, we're all just finishing school...
(Steph's hand viciously attacks Andrew's hand and Jenny falls backwards dramatically behind the wall)
ME: ...Theatre school

Keeping reading, and stay in touch!