Sometimes learning hurts

A word to the wise. When surfing to Jay's very funny site The Trailer Trash, be absolutely SURE to type in the "the." Can you say "not exactly what I was hoping to discover?"

Learning is key, kiddies.

HRH

Dare to dream

I'm having an epiphany. For awhile now it seems, so I guess it's more like a slow realization. I know what I want to do. It's something I've wanted to do for many years, but always put it back in my head like it was never really an option, because I was always told "You're too smart for that." The fact is, if you want to do something well and be the best at it, you really can't be smart enough.

Just before I went to University I had a talk with my mother. I was very reluctant to go. I didn't really see myself as the type of academia. She told me that if I hated University, I could leave and go to college and pursue this other thing I was interested in. I had a lot of performance anxiety and I guess because I've been insecure about my brains I'd always thought that my other ambition was just running away. It's 8 years later, and I'm still interested.

Wondering what I want to be? A make-up artist/beautician. Not so shocking when you look at what gets me really excited. So I'm starting to think that when I move to an English speaking country again, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to go to beauty school. There are piles of options from there. My own salon (to dream!), or working as a make-up artist and actually incorporating some of what I learned in film school. The more I think about it, the more it excites me. It's not like one of those ambitions I've had where I think I want to be something because it sounds respectable or impressive. It's a career that puts all the things I like together and hopefully my own business. A job where I get to be social, use my brain to be the best at it and help people look like they feel they should look. Which is beautiful.

Time to start saving. I want to go back to school.

HRH

I just can't bring myself to do it

I decided to be proactive today. It's raining like the dickens today and I'm trying to fight the intense fatigue that I'm feeling. So I'm ticking things off my to do list, trying to supress the panic I'm feeling because the research for my article still isn't done and none of my sources are available for contact, but I'm fine... cool as a cucumber.

When I'm in denial like this I do a lot of meanial things that I've been putting off for being, well, too meanial. One of these things was dealing with the monsterous volume of junk mail that comes into my mailbox at work. Since this account isn't originally mine, I can only imagine what those before me signed up for. Of course, they signed up for a cooking zine and have been bombarded by at least 20 messages a day in Chinese, amoung other body enhancement offers and African money scams. When I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, about 1200 messages piled up in less than 7 days. I'm constantly baffled at the junk that comes in here. It's an organization staffed by 3 women, two of which are pretty religous and the other (me) who is not the target market of ANY of these messages.

I've been tempting fate and sending emails to the unsubscribe option. Which I now think actually signs you up for more emails or is just a bunk address to make it look like you have a choice in all this junk mail hoo-haa. Anyway, I've been trying to discard some of the more offensive messages coming my way, but I just can't bring myself to actually type in some of these email addresses. The winner so far today for being so bad it made me laugh was unsubscribe@goslutgo.com.

I'm never going to be able to face a situation where upon encountering any sort of reference to porn or the sex industry,where I don't giggle because I have the phrase "Go slut go" running through my mind.

I'm actually getting quite attached to the phrase and for a moment have considered changing my blog title to it. I'm sure that would increase my traffic...

HRH

This is what happens when you're home for 4 days or Exactly how does that slip out?

From the Prague News service "The Fleet Sheet"

Francoise Ducros, spokeswoman fro Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, referred in Prague to Bush as "the moron." Chretien later apologized for the comment.

You can read more about this transgression here.

At least JC me with Spidla to talk about visas. Now that Canadians are on the outs with the US, maybe I'll at least be able to live here without a gargantuan hassle.

Politics. (insert eyes rolling)

HRH

A nice night out

Last night M took me to see John Parish. Don't feel bad if the name means nothing to you right away. I have to confess that I was kind of like "huh?" when M asked me to come with him. The name soudned vaugely familiar in that I was sure I'd heard someone mention it in a "I know obscure things about music" kind of way (not like I've ever done that. Ahem) years ago.

After seeing the look in my eyes of "I don't want to let you know that I'm so uncool that I don't know who this guy is though I'm sure I should know if I'm actually as cool as I preport to be, which it seems, in lieu of this new information that I don't know, I'm not" M let me off the hook by telling me that Parish is a producer and musician based in Bristol (very promsing) who's worked very closely with P.J. Harvey, Sparklehorse and Goldfrapp. Very cool.

So last night we went off to see him at Akropolis, and it was a holy experience. And I don't mean in the religious sense, but in the "Holy Cow" that was the best show I've seen in awhile sense. Parish writes mostly instrumental music, played by his 9-piece orchestra. There were 2 violins, a keyboard with an array of effects (one of which had a guy blowing through a tube, tres cool), a drummer, a bassist and usually about 4 guitars (one of which was played by Adrian Utley: more on who he is later). It was rich and highly atmostpheric. Even better was the fact that the club wasn't totally packed so I wasn't having Sigur Ros experience where my feet weren't touching the floor from being crammed in so tight.

The music and its sensibility transported me back to the joy I felt during the heyday of Trip hop. Without a doubt my favourite genre of music, the mid-nineties were some of the best years for it, with the best of it coming from the Bristol scene. I don't know a great deal about its history and the key figures involved, but I do know what loved about it. I loved, and I guess still do love, the way the music fills me up with feeling. I'd never say that music is better than sex, but there are songs in that genre that come very close.

It was a wonderful show and I was able to be a mere 3 meters away from Adrian Utley (the guitarist from Portishead), who is just so gifted. Parish says that he never writes parts for Utley, as he creates sounds that mesh so well with his music on his own. And I was three meters away from him! The man who wrote so many songs that I love. And I didn't turn into the Zepplin Fan from Almost Famous. Course I didn't meet him or anything... Prague is such a great place for shows. I get to see these amazing artists in small venues for reasonable amounts of money (sometimes for free!). M gets to interview them and occasionally get them to write notes to me. Like when we saw the Sneaker Pimps in the spring and he spoke to them after the show, he got them all to write notes to me. I have 4 notes from the Sneaker Pimps, written to me. So sweet. I have the best boyfriend ever.

Keeping with concert traditions, Woo! Guy was there. He did keep it to a minimum, but once in awhile there was that Woo! for no good reason, other than joy that he's at the show. Go Woo! Guy. There wasn't a much nutty dancing as at The Frames concert and frankly I was too caught up in the show to notice what people around me were doing. In fact, I was having such a great time that the copious amounts of cigarette smoke in the place didn't get me all cranky.

I hope Trip Hop isn't over. There are still new acts that are developing the genre. There's a new Massive Attack album due in late January. Yay! And there are acts like Goldfrapp and Yonderboi proving that it hasn't been exhausted yet. Good to know.

HRH

It's okay to play with toys when you're 26?

This looks like far too much fun.

HRH

Blog Back

No major violence thus far at the Summit. I watched a bit of today's opening remarks on TV and had to confess that it's pretty cool that there are 40 some head of state in Prague. The city where I'm living. All my big city cool washes away and I become the small town trash girl who says "Gosh. That's neat."

I've been inside my apartment for about 42 hours straight now and I think I'm starting to get just a little bit stir crazy. I'm going to throw caution to the wind and go out for lunch, a walk and a little bit of shopping.but first... some blog backs.

Pet Names
In my family we used to name our pets after songs, musical groups or greats from antiqutiy (save two pets, Tigger, who was supposed to be Yoda but I was out-voted, and Nikki, who was named before my time). For music we had Roxanne; who my sister found driving through Kingstons teeny-weeny red light district, Indigo; for one of my sister's favourite groups, and then Miles; for the jazz great. In the masters of the ancient world we had Cassius; a stray that came to live with us and my mother observed that he had "a lean and hungry look," Zeus; who was actually going to be Jupiter until I determined that it was bad karma to name your cat after Laura Palmer's (Twin Peaks) cat-we all know how they ended up, Calypso; one of my parents prized Norwegian Forest Cats and Artistotle; Calypso's brother and hopefully an indicator of my family's interest in reason.

Gromit would be a break with tradition, but well worth it I think.

Betty and Veronica
I always liked Veronica (she was direct and well dressed) and thought Betty wasn't much of a good girl for alway trying to steal Archie away all the time. Sadly it is true, being sweet all the time gets you nowhere. If you're chilly or aloof most of the time and save the sweetness for special occasions then it's all the more dramatic and impressive. You see it all the time. "He/she is usually so cold to me." And when they're nice to you, you feel good about it, like you've done something that they finally approve of, and you forgive all the bitchy/jerky behavior yet to come. Awful isn't it.

Also, It doesn't strike me as strange that we all have issues with tempataion and fiedelity when we grew up with a group of hormone driven, backstabbing, cheating teens as our role models. Even Midge couldn't be faithful to Moose. I also wondered why it's always be brunette that's evil. It happened in the smurfs too.

Bobby Briggs has not aged well
Kari saw him on a recent ep of Dawson's Creek (what were you doing watching Dawson's Creek?) and age has not been kind to my highschool crush, which is a shame since most men age very nicely. Just my luck.

HRH

Big fat boring

I'm home for a couple of days to stay out of the way of the NATO summit. However, thus far it seems that though there's nothing to stay out of the way of. Well, just means more time to play Jedi Outcast.

HRH

My love affair with lunch

Each weeknight as I fall asleep I think about. After I've eaten my breakfast and on my way to work, I think about it. I look at the clock and I see that it's almost 11:30, meaning only a half hour until it's appropriate for me to go out and get it, and my tummy does flip-flops in anticipation. What is it that has me in such a tizzy? Lunch. And not just some tuna sandwhich I pick up at Paneria (which are, to be fair, quite excellent). I'm in love with a salad.

Every day that I am afford it (which, I confess, I contrive to do each day) I head down the street to the Break cafe. The wait staff all know me and as I'm sitting down they ask me if I'd like a mineral water or a tea (depending upon the weather) and order my salad. The sweet farmer salad. What does this beauty have in it that makes me giddy just thinking about it? It starts with mixed greens, a healthy helping of them. On top of that, they put pan fried bacon cut into small pieces, croutons and shaved parmesan cheese. Dress it with some olive oil and balsalmic vinegar, and you have one of the highlights of my day.

While I make my way through my salad, I read. I bring whatever book I'm reading at the time (currently The Name of the Rose) and have a 30 minute reprieve from work and the rest of the world. Being able to repeat moments like this most days of the week makes it so clear to me why I am such a creature of habit.

Yay... only 25 minutes to lunch.

HRH

There's a feeling in the air

Someone said to me "It's like the calm before the storm." as I was walking into the elevator at work today. Part of me, well all of me actually, is hoping that everything goes peacefully. First, because I'm not so keen on violence and I think it's always better when people aren't beating the crap out of eachother and second, because it feels like everyone is hoping for calamity to come. I would prefer no calamity, no crazy and no disruption of my daily life. I know that some people would be disappointed if there weren't windows smashed, cars overturned and streets kicked up for ammo, but I would be happy if it could all go down with a little bit of sanity.

I'm not even talking about the terrorist threat. The first meeting of 45 world leaders, many of whom are on OBL's hit list, since 9/11. I think a couple of nerves are warranted. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the helicopters flying overhead for the rest of the week.

HRH

Wallace, Gromit and the hunt for the perfect dog name

M and I have the most interesting conversations before we fall asleep. Last night's stuck me as interesting so I made a point of remembering it. As most people know, I'm a person of passing obsessions. I find something, like it and for a brief period of time I make it my world. I do it with everything, even food. There are a few things that stick with me like M, Star Wars, Buffy and make-up for example.

Anyway, my most recent obsession is Wallace and Gromit. Mike left a DVD of Big Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave and I've been bugging M to watch it with me any chance I can get. I think he's a little relieved that I'm not bugging him to watch Lord Of The Rings all the time, but he's still laughing at me a whole heck of a lot.

I hadn't seen Wallace and Gromit in English before, but was intrigued by what I'd seen in German at the language school I work at for mad money. After several viewings of Untershaffen, and Chicken Run (in English) I was up for watching the claymation antics of Nick Park. So I love it. And I'm singing the Wallace and Gromit theme song as I'm cleaning and cooking (making M laugh at me all the more).

One day, M and I want to get a dog. I don't consider myself a huge dog lover, but the look on M's face when he's playing with a dog is enough to sway me towards buying a cute one. While the purchase date is years away, we talk about what types of dog we'd get and what his name might me (we're going for a male pet theme in this home it seems). M really wants a Rhodesian Ridgeback, but I don't think they're cuddly enough. I would be really happy with a big German Sheppard, but M thinks that Everyone has a German Sheppard and the breed has a genetic predisposition to hip problems.

It looks like we're leaning towards a Siberian Husky, as it's in the Spitz family of dogs, but a touch less conventional. Grey or red, we're not sure. I like grey, as it would mean that our pets would match (yep, I'm that shallow). We have a long standing interest in the Akida breed of dog (the national dog of Japan), but I'm getting fond of the Husky idea.

So we're sorting the breed thing out and after watching The Wrong Trousers again last night I commented that I really wanted to name our future dog Gromit. To which I was told that I was wrong to name a dog like a Siberian Husky Gromit. Like the other dogs would laugh at him or something. Also, M thinks that there must be piles and pile of Gromits out there by now. By this point, I'd decided that Gromit was the name and said that M could get any kind of dog he wanted as long as I could name it Gromit. Apparently that offer wasn't enough to sway him.

This debate about naming pets after claymation figures progressed to a full on debate about what the best name for the future potential dog might me. The best of which we came up with were: Abel, Lynch, Cooper, Ragnar and Roark (and Gromit!). The worst of which were: Cain, Grenouille, Vitezslav, Premisyl, Oscar II:Electric Boogaloo, Gimli and Wallace.

Of course, I tired to name my first cat Yoda.

HRH

A discovery in Letnany

M and I decided to break with tradition and do our Saturday shopping somewhere else today. We usually head to the Delvita in Pankrac (for the non-Czech speaking audience: pronounced Pancrats)to get most of what we need, knowing that the selection isn't excatly what we need it to be, but it has parking and is an easy drive from our place. Today we decided to give the shopping center at Letnany (Letneany) a shot. We had no idea what was out there, save a Tesco, and we can pretty much always get everything we need there. Why don't we shop there all the time? There's one in the center where I do a lot of the weekly pick up shopping and one across the river in Zlicin (Zlichine) near the Ikea. This is what we refer to as Super-Tesco as it's size is beyond what any reasonable store should be. So much so that shopping there is a little like having a slow and painful panic attack. Also, since the floods driving across the river is more adventure than we're up for on our day off.

So, we head north east to Letnany. A little bit of river crossing, but always on the main highway. The route there is pleasant and direct. Sadly, we couldn't see much of the way there because of the blanket of fog that has been laid down upon the city. If fact when we got there all we could really see was a lot of fog. As we got closer we could discern that it was more than a Tesco, it was a mall. A big new shiny mall, with what has to be the biggest Tesco I can imagne. I've deciced to call it UberTesco.

I wasn't really in the mood for the mall, but I'm always intrigued to see how these things are coming up in this country. The place was packed, which made me wonder. Every time I'm in a mall in Prague; Hostivar (Hostevarj), Andel (Andiel) or Letnany it's always packed, as is downtown, so I have to wonder where did all these people go before the malls were there? I haven't seen a scourge of businesses going under, so what's the deal? Sudden population boom?

Anyway, we checked it out and it had all the usual stores. I did a little Christmas shopping, got to work my way through some crowds with my elbows and got to enjoy a very well lit mall. "A well lit mall?" you ask. M noticed it really. The lighting wasn't flourencent, in fact most of it was trying it's darndest to make you feel like it was natural light. Makes a difference too. The mall had all the usual mall things, and pretty much all the places I shop in Prague were represented there, which made me quite happy. I really have hated how I could never get my week's shopping done all at once... but here it's all possible. All of the groceries we use are sold there, we can get Zeus' cat food, there's a chemists' for medication, a Sephora for my make-up binges and possibly the best food court I've ever seen (more on that later). Sadly, the crowds are way too much, so I'll have to reserve my megashopping to ood times of day.

I do love shopping, don't get me wrong. And I'd rather do all my shopping in the center and not in the mall, but I can't fight the convience of it all. They make it so easy. I never used to be a mall person until I started working at one. Even when I came to Prague I didn't set foot in one for months at a time. But now, becuase I'm so busy and can't leisurely shop like I used to, the mall is my friend. It's been my friend for several years. In fact, I've always had a sixth sense when it comes to a mall. I can whip through them at great speed, finding great deals as I go. Everyone needs a superpower I guess.

Tesco was a mad house with everyone stocking up supplies for next week. Traffic is going to be a nightmare, so people aren't going to want to head out shopping during what may become rioting. There's been a lot of crisis grocery shopping this year. I guess I finally had to get caught up in some. Unless, of course, that's what the Letnany Tesco is like every Saturday... Yikes!

So, the food court. There is a MacDonalds in the mall, and a pizzeria or two, but the best feature of it is the international food court. Indian (maly Mahal, so cute) Thai, Korean/Japanese, a French creperie, Chinese and a coffee place that is going to face a huge copywright lawsuit whenever Starbucks finally rolls into the Czech Republic. The food is fresh, cheap and yummy. I had some of the best sushi I've had in this country and for so much less than usual. The salmon was melting in my mouth. So good. The foodcourt works on a card system, so you charge up your card with money and use it at the various stalls. A very useful tool for impulse food buyers like me. Had I not had a finite amount of credit on the card, I'm sure I would have put down piles o' crowns for more sushi than I needed. The cool thing about the card is that once you've put credit on the card it's valid for 15 days from the last time you've used it. We used up all of our credit, but it's a smart way to encourage return visitors.

The only thing missing from the centre is an arcade. A non-smoking arcade. My favourite one, located 10 mintues from my home, moved into the Novy Smichov centre in Andel and now allows people to smoke in there. Gah. I love playing my pod racing game, but not so much that I'll be willing to inhale nasty Czech cigarettes for it. But add one on to Letnany and I'm game for a bite to eat in the food court, a movie at the multiplex and a good trashing of the Empire afterwards. I can now get my fill of North America without the 9 hour flight. The first thing I said to M when we walked into the place "so tell me again why we need to move back to Canada?" Oh yeah... cable.

HRH

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Dawn Kyla Robertson. Now 26. Smart Chicka and all around hottie. Kitty mum to Abby. Companion and cuddle supplier to Mike. Future lawyer and fixer of the Canadian political system. Thoughtful, friendly, funny and (the one I admire the most) organized. Happy brithday da-arhling!

HRH

Misc

I have almost nothing to do today. The one thing I have on my list, I can't do becuase I'm suffering from a case of topic block. Much worse than writer's block, topic block makes it impossible for you to even think of something to write about. You surf the Internet in vain, hoping something will catch your eye, that you'll find something of interest for 7,000 Czech school kids, but you find nothing. You find piles of stock quotes, AOL Time Warner fretting about the online version of Harry Potter, you find that Surg Knight has had his studio and homes investigated by the LAPD, and you see there is, yet again, a mounting fear of a catastrophic terror attack.

Pause while your boyfriend drops by with a strip of sour red candy and a bottle of Canada Dry ginger ale. Note that your boyfriend totally rocks... continue.

You check your email over and over again, fill out on-line surveys using an estimation of Donald Trump's identity (note: not actually DT's idenity. That would just be a little strange), visit European and American versions of the same site to try and understand cultural differences... find nothing insightful, doodle, think about writing a book but then remember that you're fickle and can't spell, see how many christmas presents you can buy online thereby saving you the horror of holiday crowds and christmas markets, find piles of presents for one person and none for everyone else on the list, realize that you're going to have to do the holiday elbow dance after all and finally get tired of looking at the computer.

I can't pick a topic and it's making me just a little crazy. It's not like it has to be an amazing topic. It's 800 words on the back page of the English language education plan. I've written about 20 of them already, so it's not like it's new territory. Perhaps I've exhausted all my topics? Perhaps there have been no new innovations in techhology that would interest Czech kids? I dunno.

I'm wondering, since I'm the only one in the office today, if it would be appropiate for me to just go home and be bored there. At least I could do laundry or take a nap with the cat. Pedicure?

Home it is...

HRH

It begins

You can't say that Prague isn't an exciting place to live. If ever I needed Kari's connection to all the wires at RFE/RL, it's now.

From CNN.com/Europe:

Police reveal NATO summit plot

Thursday, November 14, 2002 Posted: 1154 GMT

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Five "extremists" planned to cut power to a NATO summit in Prague next week, Czech police have revealed.

The plot was discovered while the five people were being interrogated, a spokeswoman told Reuters. However, she did not say whether the group was still in custody or even if they had been arrested.

The group had targeted the summit venue in the Czech capital and the metro system. The spokeswoman gave no further details.

Up to 12,000 police and soldiers are preparing, Reuters reported, for the arrival on November 21-22 of more than 40 leaders for the key meeting of the military alliance, its first since last year's September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Czech police aim to be tough on the expected 12,000 anti-globalisation protesters if they attempt to disrupt proceedings, especially with memories still fresh of violent clashes that caused a Prague meeting of the International Monetary Fund in 2000 to finish early.

Reuters said NATO was set to ask seven former eastern bloc countries to join the alliance at the Prague meeting and discuss plans on how to deal with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

NATO first expanded into eastern Europe in 1999 with the admission of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia are expected to be invited to join the alliance this time around.

Of course I know this is from CNN and usually dramaticized, but I'd be a liar if I said it didn't freak me out just a little. I just realized that I have to cross Vaclavak to get to work every day during the summit. It's going to be like IMF only funner.

HRH

Kudos to the K

Yay! Kari is working again... and do you know what that means? More Kari email. More Kari blogs, just plain more Kari.

Pity about the time zone thing. And isn't it just a little weird that I can't stop listening to Taxi Ride either.

HRH

Can't we all just get along?

Torn between thinking this is funny and silly. Well worth watching though.

HRH

My honey is smart

Last night as we were watching an episode of Angel from 2 weeks ago (first time for us, but just a frame of reference type thing), M impressed the heck out of me with his literary knowlegde. Lorne (possibly my favourite Angel character said in reference to the coming Big Bad "Think slouching towards Bethlehem." To which M exclaimed "Wow. Great reference." Being the literary lightweight that I am, I scraped my brain for things that slouched towards Bethlehem and had to say "What's that?" "It's from a Yeats poem." he replied "The Second Coming. I'll find a copy of it for you tomorrow."

True to his word, M found it for me and has again opened my verbally retarded mind to the world of early 20th century poets. Kudos to the Angel writer that pulled out that literary card. I like it when I learn things whist being entertained.

HRH

Dig it:

"The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Some of the reasons why Kari rocks or Attack of the crazy tall chick

Yesterday I got a package at work. It was sent from Kari and I couldn't imagine what it might me. She hadn't mentioned sending anything to me, so I opened it with much curiosity. First there was a magazine from Tower records about Tori, which was sweet. The highlight of it was the notes that Kari had diligently written over key ads and articles. The best of which was written across Christina Aguilera's skirt. "I'm a dirty whore." it read. Kari rocks.

Then there were piles of pages torn out from People magazine. "Sexy at any size." was the title, with Kari commentary above "Yeah, "full-figured" & a bunch of versions of thin!" So I flip through the pages and find the offending article. And dude, what are they trying to push? Maybe the article was written with good intentions, but the fact remains that aside from the three bigger actresses (Nia Vardalos, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Sara Rue) and full figured icons (Emme, Camryn Manhiem, Kelly Osbourne, Carre Otis, Mia Tyler, Kate Dillon and psychopath Anna Nicole Smith) it was basically showing the reader several versions of thin and passing it off as brave actresses who's overcome physical obstacles to find their inner beauty. P-lease!. It was nice for me to see that both Allison Janney and Uma Thurman are the same height as I am, however I can't help but notice that all the girls in the tall category are also stick thin. There was no tall and curvy category.

The astute Kari made notes beneath each body type. Where the category was Curvy, she added Thin below (the best of which was, Thin and Thin). Even worse than the categories were the before and after Ally McBeal comparisons f Claista Flockhart and Portia de Rossi, who have apparently fleshed out a bit since the end of the show. And that's great since they were nasty thin, but why, dear lord, why did people feel the need to digitally stretch their before photos to make them appear uber-skinny. Sigh. And can a please send a giant F-U to the editor of people magazine for adding that Jennifer Aniston worries that her behind is a little big.

Anyway, getting the people magazine was a total treat and thank you Kari! You rock. I don't understand why I can read In Style and feel A-Okay about my body and even enjoy it, but then read People and feel like a really tall cow. They're pusbished by the same company! I do try not to fall into all the body image crap. I question myself when I call myself fat. I try not to judge my self worth by how well my pants fit, but even though I try all that it, sadly, doesn't work all the time. I don't think I'll ever be citied with having a confidence problem, but I do say to myself "you should do more sit ups" or "you'd be perfect if you just changed ..." Which is really just total bull. Sigh. Would life really be better if I had ripped abs and a different nose? No, it wouldn't.

I think the thing that upset me the most about looking at all the sizes of the stars was how totally short they are. I love being tall and being who I am. However the girl I once was, who refused to date people if they weren't tall enough (how much of an asshole was I?), bought huge clothes in an effort to feel small or refused to wear heels, sometimes wonders what it's like to be small and cute. Heck, I wonder what it would be like to be average. What would people see as my defining characteristic if I weren't the glamazon that I am?

I have to pause and smack myself. I just wondered what it would be like to be average! Clearly this body image crap is like a fever that has to pass. One of these days Glamazon Woman will kick Insecure Girl's ass and this whole debate can be put to rest.

Stand up tall chicka.

HRH

We have a bad transmitter

Mike has checked in. I can relax now.

HRH

TK-421, why aren't you at your post?

This isn't to say that Mike is an unconcious strom trooper, but it is to say that he has not checked in to let M or I know that he did in fact make it across the atlantic...

Like you needed another mother to fret about your whereabouts.

Fretting....

HRH

I have a bad feeling about this

Yay! I buy this and I'll never get any work done EVER again. Yay!

HRH

Learn to face the strange

Well that was a good time. Mike has returned to Canada and I’m still listening to that damn Nelly song. To celebrate having such a good week M decided to reorganize our living room. Yes single people, this is what you have to look forward to. Reorganizing your living room. You’ll be really excited about it when it happens. How exactly did we get so domestic and who the hell knew it would be so fun? Anywho, it’s actually looking pretty good. And still.. it’s getting hot in here. Thanks for everything Mike, it was a great time. Do they make Jedi Outcast for OS X? So good!

HRH

Good Gracious. Ass is Bodacious

I'm listening to the Nelly song Hot in Here on repeat. Half in an effort to learn all the words and half to get the song, which has been in and out of the transium of my mind for about 4 months, out of my head at long last. With the help of Mike who downloaded if off The False Idol and Jay who got it there in the first place, I am now grooving to lyrics like "Mix a little ugh ugh and a sprinkle of the ugh ugh."

It's funny as I listen to the song I can almost feel myself in Stages. I can smell the Canadian cigarettes and Labatt Blue. I can hear the bowl shaking bass and that totally irritating DJ and see the townies trying to move like they're not the trash that they really are. Nothin' like getting back to your roots.

"So take it off like you're home alone." Nelly you are the poet for our times.

HRH

Since when is relaxing so tiring or Etemology a go-go

So I've been on vacation for 5 days now, and you'd really think that I'd have relaxed by now. I fully expect to chill out on Friday. Late I know, but tomorrow is that last day I have any work obligations (yes I've been working through my holidays), so I get friday free for my head.

I have been having fum however. We went to Cesky Krumlov today, the UNESCO town and it was quite lovely. Cold, but lovely. And I had, for the first time in as long as I can remember, a bad meal. It's pretty good that I can't remember the last time I had a bad meal, but at the same time sad that I had one. I totally should have had the onion soup.Tonight we're staying in and making dinner at home. Which promises to be much better than lunch, since i know the cook and I know that he's good.

Mike taught me a new and exciting variation on the movie game where you say the name of a movie and then the next person has to say the name of another movie that begins with the last letter of the movie you mentioned. This variation is that you mention a movie, an actor, a director.. .something in pop culture, and the next person has to name someone or some project that connects to the person or project you mentioned. It's totally fun and I love it. So much so that I tended to go off on naming connections before anyone else had a chance to answer. M and Mike didn't get too upset with me as they saw the inherent joy that the game was giving me (that and Mike owed me some Karma for the whole exploding sausage incident). Kari would be amazing at this game. Together, she and I would be unstoppable at it.

I love that I have friends that I can appreciate art with, obstinantely (Mike word) debate philosophy with, enjoy great food and drink with, share dizzing amounts of pop culture trivia with and laugh so freely with. It's great having Mike around as he's really keeping M and I on our toes. I'm learning all kinds of words that begin with "E" (espouse and eschew) and can now properly utter the word pejortaive (if I can ever remember it). Needless to say the dictionary is getting a lot of use this week. Yay learning.

HRH

Boys

Get me a shot of estrogen! I'm surrounded by males. Two human and one feline. Oh how hard it is to be in a home where no one understands the nuances of being female. Of course I'm totally full of it. M and Mike are my favorite people to be around. I'm in my most relaxed and comfortable state. Like I'm suring a sea of codine.

We're having a great time. M and Mike are being really wonderful. Mike has even helped me get my archives working semi-properly. The part that isn't working is not his fault, but mostly blogger's. I love my blogger pro, but the advanced code seems to be creating more trouble than it needs to. Anyway, we will find the archive for October in case anyone is missing it dearly and I promise to stop randomly deleting html code with the notion that I know what I'm doing.

Yesterday we went to Cesky Raj and looked at some seriously big rocks (whilst singing the "Rocks and Trees" song by a Canadian humour band who's name escapes me. All I can remember is something about wet trolls. Anyway, it was lovely. Many leaves had fallen and covered the ground in a lovely orange. It did wonders for me to get out of the city for ahile.M and Mike are planning of creating some sort of site or magical web thing that will enable us to post our photos without having to clog our blogs with them, so you'll all have to wait until that's done to see it.

Out of 4 mornings getting up has gone in this order. Me, Mike and then M. The man needs his beauty sleep.

HRH

We have a Mike

Yep, at about 1:30 Central European Time M and I were given a Mike. Graciously lent to us by Dawn for a period of 10 days, Mike is a happy additon to our home. M is a very happy man now that he has 2, count 'em, 2 cases of Vanilla coke and I have already consumed one bag of President's Choice Salt and Vinegar chips (which made belly dancing class a little difficult. It's hard to make your belly roll when it's full of chips).

So, I'm going on vacation tomorrow to enjoy my time with Mike and maybe chill out just a ltitle bit. I am very happy that Mike is here to see us, but sadly I've already listened to the new Tori CD too much and am kind of depressed by it. Best to stick to Jamiroquai for a couple of days.

HRH