Update

After listening to the radio all day yesterday it appears that I'm getting my accent back. Sweet, eh?

HRH

Sounds like home

I was indulging in a little bit of web radio today and made my way over to The Edge website. I know that everyone from Toronto says that the station just isn't what it once was, but to my far away ears, it sounded like home. What's funny is that the thing that made me the most homesick was the use of the word "Ass Hat" and hearing that good ol' Canadian attitude. Good thing I'm coming home in 17 days.

HRH

All you need to rule the world is a good set of mammary glands

Aye me. It has it's own airline now. Can you even imagine what the planes look like?

And FYI, you can add "Hooters" to the list of names you shouldn't call my breasts.

HRH

Still a hot topic in my house

If you'd like to see a more articulate take on The Matrix Reloaded have a look at the blog of my wordsmith man, M, who's always been able to say what I'm thinking, but with things like nice words, grammar and correct spelling. It would bug me that he's a much better writer than I am if he weren't such a hottie.

HRH

Delicious

After a second and sober viewing of Reloaded I can confidently say that I dug it. Sobriety really is the key, and doing a little bit of homework before class didn't hurt one bit either. What I like about the Matrix movies is that they satisfy my ass-kicking-action loving side and my "fascinated with iconography and semiotics" side. Yeah I have one of those sides, I just try and keep it a secret as it would do some serious damage to my reputation as an airhead. If I had been able to take my self seriously as an academic I think I really would have enjoyed semiotics.

While a lot of people didn't like the talky parts in the movie, I found them downright fascinating this time. All the talk about causality, choice, purpose and the ever important "why are we here" had me thinking and entertained. Heck even the names of the characters are worth a look at Who's who in the Ancient World or this interesting essay about the Merovingian Mythos (I'm not sure if I buy (or understand) all of it, but certain bits are interesting). There are so many different philosophies mixed into this movie. From Christian to Greek (and who knows how many others), mixing angels, daemons, gods and the beings that they all seem to revolve around, humans. The machines seem to do that too, no? I really wish I understood the nature of computer systems better, as I'm pretty sure it would add another layer for me. I've been reading a lot about it, but I simply do not understand how it all works.

I also liked the heartbreaking moment where the king of dreams sees his own shattered. It was also nice to see the numbers "101" come up again. Okay, I promise I'll go back to talking about lipstick soon. I'm sure all this "thinking" has all of us equally freaked out.

The night was also made super-special because before Reloaded I got to see the trailer for the movie #3 movie on my list of movies to be a total freak about this year. This is the new Yimou Zhang film, Hero (Ying xiong). He directed one of my favourite films, Raise The Red Lantern (Da hong deng long gao gao gua) and now he's having a go at wire-fu. And from what I saw, it's going to be gorgeous.

Hero, Revolutions...really November can't come fast enough for me now.

HRH

Eh?

I considered the Globe & Mail to be a pretty respectabe newspaper until today. Maybe I missed some sort of news alert or someone in the web department at the paper had their medication upped today, but I was baffled by today's online Globe and Mail Poll:

"Do you believe it's possible that SARS did not originate on Earth?"

So far 78% percent of readers polled have said no, which really makes me worry about the other 22. I'm a sci-fi geek and find the notion of aliens far more terrifying than an axe murderer, and even I said no. I really hope this is all in the name of fun and not something people are actually considering. I know, maybe the Raliens and Clone Aid are behind it...

HRH

Yum

Yes the rumours are true. On Tuesday night my darling M proved again that he's the best boyfriend ever. It was a rather deary evening as I had to work pretty late (work meaning drinking with people in power who might want to give my non-profit some money depending upon how charming I am). At least I was "working" with nice wine. M was also at a work gathering "working' with beer. When we met up in the middle of the city after freeing ourselves from our respective engagements, M informed me that he was willing to cast aside his anti-fanboy tendencies and go with me to the midnight screening of Reloaded on Tuesday night. Maybe it was the beer making his decisions, but I didn't care. We hopped on the next tram to Andel and scored some of the last tickets. Meaning we were sitting in the second row, but we were still there. In retrospect, having a Gimlet before the show started may have been ill advised but I just couldn't help getting caught up in the moment. There was a DJ, and people from Bobmay Shapphire and Stella Artois and someone offering rides on a Gryoscope (I think that's what they're called - I just call them something you shouldn't do when you're pretty drunk).

So I've seen Reloaded though I'm not sure how much of it I absorbed (fast moving images hurt the drunk), but I do know that I really enjoyed what I saw. I'm going to see it again on Saturday just to be sure that I saw the movie I think I saw. And I'll try to understand more of the Architect. No kidding I'm only going to understand some of it.

Also, Kari was very right. There were a couple of moments where I had to remind myself to breathe. Like, could I just switch bodies with Carrie-Ann Moss for 15 seconds?... That's all I'm asking for. Even for one of the scenes where she's just standing beside Keanu. I would be satiated with that.

HRH

A new era of revenge

Wherein people get back at those who've mocked them by getting scads of cash. I'm talking about "The Star Wars Kid." I'm nore sure if you've seen it, but it's basically a 2 minute video of a chubby teen with a broomsitck pretending he's a jedi... sound effects and all. The poor kid made a tape of himself in his school's AV room, hence the unabashed nature of his performance, but somehow some other kids of a hold of it and put it up on KazZa. And now lightsaber boy is famous. And I imagine feeling rather low in the self-confidence department as people all over the world are laughing themselves silly watching his performance. Someone even edited the video adding lighsaber effects, music and sound (not covering the boy's own wonderful effects of course).

According to and article from Wired there's now a fund for the kid where people can either pay symphathy money or simply pay him for all the laughs they've had on him. Last week they'd raised almost $1,000.00. Mental. It's nice to know that we've finally found a way to get over the guilt that comes from laughing at others... buying our way out of it.

HRH

A very merry Faux birthday to you...

A couple of weeks ago Tania and Klara asked me if I was free on the evening of May 17th. I asked for what and they both smiled at me and said "It's a surprise." I asked them for more information but they were adamant about not telling me what they were going to do with me. I was going to be taken out, I would have no part in the planning and no control over the situation. "Strange... but interesting." I thought and decided to go for it and agree to head out with them on their mystery adventure. I'm a control freak and pretty picky, everyone knows this. So when two friends decide to plan something for me and have the courage to control it, I have to stand back and take notice.

It turns out that May 17th is my faux birthday. I was able to be with Tania and Klara for their birthdays in February, and it seems that they felt badly that we wouldn't be able to get together for my birthday in September as Tania and I are headed back to opposite ends of Canadaland and Klara will be making Prague home for quite some time. It's a really sweet idea and I was totally pleased. I even got a present - one of the first Sephora gift certificates issued in the Czech Republic according to the drama that surrounded purchasing it. I guess I can expect a bit of an adventure when I cash it in.

The girls took me out for a yummy dinner a Universal, where I even got to have chocolate cake (No Barneys in sight mind you Mike - "cccaaaake"). And then led me through old town to Alcohol Bar where I promptly ordered a Don Pedro or 3. At this point I'd thought it had been a pretty sweet night. Two of my closest girl friends taking me out and spoiling me more than I think I deserved, but I'll take it! Then I noticed something interesting. Tania was sending an awful lot of text messages. When I asked her what was up she informed me that there were more people coming to celebrate my faux birthday. Talk about a surprise party. All these other people knew it was my birthday and I didn't. Within half an hour M arrived with Taina's boyfriend Adam, and two of my favourite people in Prague who I never see enough, Marie and David, showed up as well. A bit later on Klara's man Wil came along and the crowd was complete.It was seriously cool and I was really touched by what Klara and Tania had organized. Through my rather mild hangover this morning I still can't stop smiling. I really can't thank them enough. It was just a wonderful night.

I don't know what I did in my past life to earn such sweet and thoughtful friends. But I've got them all over the world. I'm so totally lucky.

HRH

A tip you might not have considered

If you're dusting your home and you are dusting something about 2 metres high, and on top of said high thing you have a cast iron fondue pot, do not drop said fondu pot when you've lifted it up to get at the dust mites underneath. Furthermore, if you are a total spaz and actually end up dropping said founde pot, try to drop it away from your body. If you're exceptionally stupid and you actually drop the fondue set towards your body, try not to break it's two metre fall with your chest. I can tell you from experience... it's a really dumb thing to do.

Ouch!

HRH

Feel the love

I love how well my loved ones know me. In my inbox today I had emails from Mel and from my Mum. From Mel and Canada.com I learned that there are more Canadians that claim to follow the Jedi faith than there are Satanists. And my sweet mother sent me a story from The Globe and Mail all about the upcoming Matrix release, letting me know that if it didn't come out in Prague before I left that she had some movie passes set aside for me upon my arrival in Kingston. Moms simply rock.

In other news, I may have broken my recent addicition of Tortilla chips. After having a decent French dinner with M and E last night I decided to have some chips and dip while M and I watched some of the TV graciously sent to us by Mike. I don't find french food filling. Sometimes when I have a poulet frites at Chez Marcel I find my appitite satiated, but usual French cusine leaves me wanting more. So the Torilla chips seemed to be the solution to my rumbling belly. About half way through the bag and the dip things went wrong and while we watched a great ep of Angel I spent most of the time in bed sighing and saying "Tortilla..." M laughing at me all the while. For a little while I was sure I was going to wake up as a giant Tortilla Chip. Happily this morning I did not wake up crispy, baked, made of cornflour and covered with cool ranch flavouring.

HRH

Will you be playing hookey next week?

Because the movie gods do not like the Czech Republic and because we got Episode II and X2 the same day as the rest of the Western World, The Matrix:Reloaded will be opening in Prague on May 22nd. I'm really okay with this. Really. The first Matrix was HUGE in the Czech Republic. Considering the country has a population of a mere 10 million people, and the fact that Reloaded will be subtitiled you can take the following information as a reflection of how popular this film franchise is. Next Wednesday Village Cinemas: Andel will be showing Reloaded staring at 12:00 a.m. and running the entire day, in all 12 of it's cinemas. Now it's a great deal for them. They'll be showing the movie a day before it's opened, in all of it's theatres, thus getting a huge jump on all the other multiplexes. How did they get this deal? Village Cinemas is also owned by the same company that owns Village Roadshow Pictures - the production company that made The Matrix. And they said there was nothing good coming out of globalization...

HRH

You learn something every day

The Internet is a remarkable thing. Sitting at my desk I can learn all kinds of facinating things without having to speak to a soul. Perfection. Today I'm scouring the net for information about my kitty and his gastro-intestinal problems. And aside from the very useful paranoia inducing web sites about cat problems, I've also found an amazing amount of services for my kitty once he's feeling better. I could take him in for some accupressure or perhaps have him visit a hollistic docotor. Do cats have chakras?

HRH

Adventures in cat ownership

Not wanting to crib Mike and Dawn's really scary sich with little miss Abigail, but it appears that the Zeuster and I will be pulling an all nighter. While it seems that the worst is over, I'll be staying up to ensure that the Z stops letting it loose from both ends. I've earned the night shift as M had to deal with the, shall we say, least aromatic part of the experience. Zeus has been through things like this before, so I'm not my usual hysterical-cat-mother self, but it never hurts to keep an eye or two open.

In other news, after my exercise binge on Thursday (running, walking and then 3 hours of belly dancing class) I can now report that I can almost walk like a normal person again. On Friday I was walking like I was 80 and some of the little old ladies on the street were actually faster than I was. Saturday was a little better, but I can't really say that I was tested as I spend the say lying in the sun and "swimming" in an above ground pool meant for a 7-year-old. So, it took a couple of days, but I'm mobile again. During all the stiffness, I could hear nagging diet bitch laughing in the backgound. STAMOS.

HRH

We scream in cathedrals... why can't it be beautiful?

Yesterday was a fat day. They happen to the best of us. And I suppose by saying that yesterday was a fat day I'm being a tad misleading as it makes it sound like I'm totally happy with my body the rest of the time. I'm not. It's fat week really, or fat month, or year, or whatever. The point is yesterday I came home from work, had a bath and cried in the tub because I felt like a whale. And then I got even more upset when I realized that even if I only ate once a day and starved myself down to nothingness, I'm still 5'11 and have a medium frame. I'm just never going to be small.

That's just not who I am. And most days, I'm pretty happy about who I am, what I look like and moreover how tall I am. I don't contantly compare myself with the women I see around me. But sometimes "she" comes along and I get all freaky. I look at all the malnourished little Czech girls with envy and start taking note of any women I see that are bigger than me weightwise, kind of like a poll in my head. All the women I know that are taller than I am have that great willowy tall girl body type, as in, not the body type I have. I see heavier girls and wonder if that's what I look like. I can't tell what I look like anymore. I haven't been objective about that for years and I worry so much that when I think I'm looking good I'm just deluding myself and I've become one of those fat-ish girls who wear things meant for people that are fit.

When "she's" not running the show I get mad at myself for my behaviour. I refuse to be the girl who is trapped in the unending cycle of fad diets and workout tapes that never work or the girl who's afraid of the bathing suit store. As much as I try to refuse to be her, I'm becoming her and I really don't like her. Gah! STAMOS! I've turned into such an idiot about it that when I was watching "Clone High" with M last night I realized that the character I most identified with was Marie Curie. Talk about needing to overhaul your self-image.

"I'm a fat girl" whine aside, when I woke up this morning, I decided to do something. I'm really good at planning a diet or an exercise regimen, but application seems to be my undoing. But not today. I put off cleaning and blogging and all the other things I distract myself with, made a mini disc and set out for a run. Yep. I was going to run the layers of fat off my body, and maybe change my body frame while I'm at it. And I did run. I took the metro out the Vysehrad, where they have nice paths and views of the city and I managed to run from the metro stop to the church. It's isn't far...like maybe .5 km. I would have liked to run more save the feeling that my lungs were about to incenerate my body from within. I think running would be really fun if not for the burning.

Anyway, I elected to not run too much more than that, but instead walk quickly. I have no idea how effective this was, but I did work up quite an unfeminine sweat and get my heart beating at a place where it was quick, but not so hard as it sounded like a Drum & Bass show in my head. I'm going to try running again and try to go a little further each time before I start walking. Well see how long this lasts (or more accurately see how long my knee lasts) and if it actually does anything for me body wise.

It's such an aggrivating thing to be bugged by. My life is pretty awsome and I have so much to be excited about and happy for but I'm unable to shake this. I say that I'm okay with my body and that it's cool being bigger, but somedays that's a lie. I'm okay with it in that I'm not tearing my flesh off my body with my own hands, but if I was presented with the opportunity to be 2 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter I'd take it in a flash, because "she" thinks that I would be less unusual that way and that people wouldn't give me the "Woah, you're a big girl" look anymore. I'm a glamazon and I want to be proud of it. If the nagging diet bitch in my head could take corporial form nothing would give me great pleasure than drowning her.

Then maybe I wouldn't sound like such a psychopath. Phew.

HRH

Dark Phoenix

I had a lovely time in Bavaria and reaffirmed my belief that Germany is my own personal paradise. It's very precise (say it in a Austrian accent for effect) and clean and organized and the people are so very friendly. Namely my wounderful friends there who showed us such a great time (and plied me with apple juice and sushi. Weeee). M and I are now slight obsessed with Austin Powers 3 and can't seem to stop saying "Boo-frickety-hoo" and "Isn't that weird?" I know, it's SO last summer, but we're enjoying it, so deal.

Like any good nerd one of the first things I did when I got back to Prague was see X2. There's always time to get your nerd on. I really enjoyed it and I was really happy that I had no idea what was going to happen (they joys of being out of the loop I guess). Of course, when what happened did happen I was upset, moved and all that. Still adore Wolverine, Rogue and Mystique and they did a great job with Nightcrawler. All in all happy nerdy goodness. Now just 2 and a half weeks to Reloaded. It comes out a week later here, so if any of you tell me even the sightest thing about it, I'll get my cat to "bite you good."

HRH