The Girl Who Screwed Up Her Sleep Cycle By (reading) Stieg Larsson

OK, I am probably behind the times here but after about a month or two from starting, I've just finished reading the 'Millenium Series' by Stieg Larsson:



... and I've paid a nasty price. My 'sleep hygiene' (as they say) is all fucked up; I feel jet lagged and I bounce between having oodles of energy to turning a '15 minute nap' into a three hour snore-fest.

Seriously! I am normally very regular with my sleep. Asleep by 10-11pm and up by 6-7am and very much a morning person. I wake up full of energy (and gradually turn to mush by 9pm). So staying up repeatedly until 2am reading these damn page turners as turned me right upside down!

But wow! I thoroughly enjoyed the series. Very interesting plot, and sub plots, and great characters. I mean, how can you not love Lisbeth Salander? ... and not develop a crush on Kalle Fucking Blomkvist?

Oh, and I've watched the first two films (the Swedish ones) and I'm planning on watching the third this weekend. The first two were very good. Here's the trailer for the third:




OOOoooOOOooo, can't wait!

I'm also looking forward the American version of the first film; the trailer looks excellent although Salander will always be the Swedish version for me, I think. Still, the Americanization of a good film looks very promising!:




And while searching for the trailer above I found the following clip. It looks like it's probably from a Swedish comedy show and although it's entirely in Swedish and I have no idea what's being said, I find it very amusing. People who've read the books and/or seen the film would too, I think.



I am now going to bed with an algebra text book and hope to be asleep by 9pm!

OMFG!

I am going to do this!



Next spring/summer!

Who's with me?

Terry Fox Trotting

I happened upon the 31st annual Terry Fox Run/Walk/Wheel/Hop/Cartwheeling today. I completely forgot about it this year and hadn't heard anything in the local media (bad Marnie) but I cheered on the participants and soaked in the good atmosphere. It was nice.

Later in the day, I returned to the area where the run had been in the morning. All the signs, banners, etc had been taken down. There was no sign that there had been hundreds of folks there just hours earlier. I slowly drove by the Terry Fox statue and noticed that there was a single wee bouquet of wildflowers resting at his feet...

A pic of the statue taken on a cold day last winter...
see the toque? ;-) Folks look after Terry.

The poignancy of those delicate lone flowers contrasted with the morning's festivities absolutely floored me and I had to pull over for the tears. The 'Marathon of Hope' run is one thing, but the death of an individual is another.

I'm not entirely sure I understand why, but Terry Fox stirs some of my more profound emotions and has so since I was about twelve. This short video, accompanied by a Stan Rogers song, dissolves me to a puddle.



But I don't want this to be a sad post because really The Terry Fox Run has raised about 500,000 million dollars for cancer research and that is fucking fantastic.

I'll be out Fox Trotting next year and I've already marked it on next years calendar so I don't forget! Until then... here's some baby foxes and their doggy stepmom. She doesn't show until half way through but it's a lovely video et c'est tres francais! You can click the wee 'x' in the top right corner of the blue box to remove it - annoying!



C'est bon, eh?

Shake, Rattle and I didn't feel a thing.

I just sat down here at my computer for a bit of a coffee (iced coffee, mmmm) break and brought up the Beeb to catch up on the news and the words "Quake hits off Vancouver Island" right on the front page sort of grabbed my attention.

Magnitude-6.4 quake hits off Vancouver Island

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake has hit near Vancouver Island, Canada, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.

The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 12:41 local time (19:41 GMT), was 289km (179 miles) west of Vancouver, the USGS reported.

The quake occurred a depth of 23km (14.3 miles), the USGS added. Eyewitness accounts say buildings swayed in central Vancouver.

However, no tsunami warning has been issued.

The closest major settlement, Port Hardy - with a population of over 5,000 - has received no reports of damage caused by the earthquake.

Kinda odd to read a foreign news site and read about such a local news event that I should have noticed!



But it's true, I didn't feel a damn thing!

Understandable really, living in a wood-framed structure, you get use to it wobbling whenever a big truck goes by so you just sort of tune that out. And I'm a bit spaced out with the ol' PMS so maybe that lightheaded feeling I felt was actually my brain momentarily jiggling like seismic jelly.

EDIT: adding... Here's how it was reported this evening on the local evening news.



Good reminder though; we're right on a fault line part of the 'Ring of Fire' and best be prepared and all that. LOL! Like a windup flashlight is going to save my ass when the condo above me decides to meet the condo below me. Sigh...

No sense worrying about it. Crank up the volume and let's dance!

Jerry Lee Lewis' first TV appearance
on the Steve Allen Show - 1957
I love this!

:-)

Candid about Candide

Last week I read Voltaire's Candide. I knew the general story and the main points about the book, as it was part of some high school literature or history class, but I had actually never read it. We were assigned to read it and I had procrastinated and procrastinated (hell, it's just a wee book, right?) and when crunched for time, I couldn't find the book, whoops! Fortunately I had the 'CliffNotes' version and read that instead.

It's always sort of bothered me that I had never read it, so 25 (cough!) plus years later; mission accomplished! I enjoyed the read. It was funnier than I had anticipated and I now feel honest.

However...

Perhaps it's just the effect of time or some glossing over by an old school curriculum but I didn't recall any mention of the bum-biting monkey lovers when I was in high school. I think that's a detail I would have remembered!

Being the curious sort, I looked up Candide on Wikipedia and along with lots of interesting info there is an illustration of the two naked ladies and their bum-biting monkey lovers that are included in some editions of the book. Alas not the edition I have but here it is in all its erotic buttocksie glory:

Engraving by Jean-Michel Moreau, le jeune

And now it's time for the candid bit.

Somehow that image and feelings aroused by it, nibbled their way through my brain and resulted one night, in one of the most horniest dreams that I have ever had. I won't go into details because actually I don't really remember many; it was all very surreal and, well, dreamlike but, whoa! When I woke I tried for a good hour to return to that pervy paradise but it had evapourated. Sigh... it was lovely while it lasted though.

So, two thumbs up, as it were, for Voltaire's Candide.

;-)