Sunday 30 July 2017

Sunday Sundries

1. It took four boxes of throat lozenges, 1 bottle of DayQuil, 1 bottle of NyQuil, and a lot of doing nothing for me to be able to say that I'm finally better... almost. There's still the occasionally coughing fit and a semi-persistent sore throat but I feel like doing things. That's a far cry from how I've been feeling these past two and a half weeks.

Due to work commitments, I couldn't miss any days but it meant my evenings were naps, followed by some TV, followed by bed.


I'm happy to have that part of the illness behind me.

2. Dunkirk is fantastic. The movie is less a story and more a moment in time. If you are interested in seeing it, definitely see it in the theatre.


3. Sticking the with movies (because when you want low-energy activities, you go see all the movies), Atomic Blonde is a lot of fun. If you enjoy James Bond films and like strong female protagonists then check out this one. The fight scenes are pretty intense but unlike most action flicks, the characters become tired and affected by their injuries as the scenes go on. Thumbs up on that.

Now, the one thing I didn't like. I'm going to preface this by reminding you that the use of Xhosa in Captain America: Civil War bothered me because NOT THE RIGHT REGION. The movie takes place in the days immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall and there is a scene set in East Berlin. When the lead character crosses the street, you can clearly see the crossing signs behind her and they are not the correct Ampelmännchen. They should look like this:


The former East Germany is the only place in the world with these symbols. But Andrea, I hear you say, why would they change the crossing sign for a 5 second shot? Because East Germany never got rid of these signs. They started to but after a huge public outcry, the government decided to keep them. They are an endearing symbol of East Germany, one of the few items to survive into the modern era. They might as well have digitally removed the Fernsehturm from the skyline and it wouldn't have been as jarring to my eyes.

Now to tuck that complaint away into the same neglected corner as my Civil War complaint!

4. Monaghan and Armagh both won their GAA Gaelic Football games this past weekend. We now have a pub in Victoria that shows the games live. I'm the only person in there watching them but at least I don't have to watch them on super sketchy Internet sites. YAY! Monaghan faces off against Dublin this coming Saturday. In the meantime, I'll be psyching myself up by watching this classic on repeat.


That ad is a thing of beauty, I tell you. Also, it's nice to know that 31 of the Irish counties will be cheering for Monaghan this weekend because everyone hates Dublin.

5. Updating your CV for a job in the same place you currently work is annoying. I really just want to hand them a paper that says "you know what I'm capable of so do you think I can handle this position or not?" It's that fine line between talking yourself up but not overstating your abilities to the point where they can call  you out on it because they also worked on that same project. Ugh. Just ugh.


Please?

Sunday 16 July 2017

Well, That Sucks

No Sunday Sundries this week because...


My friend got married yesterday and it was lovely, but I was home and in bed by 10:20. That really should have been my first clue.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat and what I call cotton ears. Everything sounds like I have ear plugs in.


I almost didn't watch Game of Thrones tonight because the idea of having to concentrate on it was too daunting. (I made myself because I didn't want to risk spoilers tomorrow at work.) I'm hoping this passes soon because I have to prep for a class I'm facilitating next week. It's hard to concentrate on prep work when you feel like this.

Sunday 9 July 2017

Sunday Sundries

1. From Chek News, our local station, a short video about the work the VHGA is doing at Craigflower Manor.

Sorry, I can't get the embedded video to work so you can click here for the video instead.

I grew up very close to Craigflower so I have a soft spot for it and I'm excited to see what they do with the place. I did a walk-through when we had the Highland Games volunteer BBQ, and the work they've put into the space already is fantastic.

2. A little video to freak out anyone learning Spanish. De nada.


3. I've recently started watching a fantastic show on Netflix about population control called "Midsomer Murders".

If you didn't at least groan at my horrible joke, you obviously don't watch the show.


I used to love watching the show back when I still had cable - and the local station aired the show on Saturday nights which should tell you something about my social life - but I haven't seen it since I got rid of cable six years ago. Thanks to Netflix, it's now my background noise while work on various things around the apartment. Oh, DCI Barnaby. how I missed you.

4. This picture made my week.


And with that, have a wonderful week!

Monday 3 July 2017

BC Politics Update: Final Edition... Maybe

I posted and ran last Thursday because of my concert tickets but I wish I could have stayed home and kept on top of all the happenings because it ended up being an incredible day for BC politics.

But first, PMJ was fantastic and the whole evening was so much fun. The highlight for me was Maiya Sykes singing Radiohead's Creep. I wish I had a recording of her singing it because it was breathtaking. Instead, here's her singing Don't Look Back in Anger.


But the more important news: BC FINALLY HAS A GOVERNMENT! We went to the polls on May 9th and a short 51 days later, we had our results.


As expected, the Throne Speech from Christy Clark promised the moon, forcing the NDP and Green party to vote against things they plan to do as part of their platforms to put their power-sharing plan in motion.


As I've previously mentioned, this is a very calculated move by the Liberals as it means that they already have their next election platform. The worst part? It's working! Reading the comments on a few of the articles Thursday night - I know, reading comments? What was I thinking? - there were more than a few that mentioned "but the Throne Speech promised so many things, what were the NDP/Greens thinking?" Even if the NDP/Greens had decided not to vote against the Throne Speech, the Liberals-in-SoCreds-clothing HAD NO INTENTION OF EVER FOLLOWING THROUGH ON THE PROMISES IN THE THRONE SPEECH!!

This is a government that removed so much funding from the education budget that the Supreme Court of Canada found them in breach of contract and mandated that they restore funding retroactively. Think really hard for one freaking minute: it took a court-order for the Liberals to even come close to properly funding public education. Do you really think this is a government that is going to increase funding to everything else that they've cut over the last 16 years?


By losing the confidence vote, Clark had shown that she did not have the support of the government. She went to Government House Thursday night to tender her resignation to our Lieutenant-Governor, Judith Guichon. Upon tendering her resignation, there were two things that could happen: the LG accepts the NDP/Green proposal for power-sharing or she could call another election. We know that when asked for her opinion, despite saying she wouldn't advise on it, Clark told the LG she should call another election because of course she did.


Thankfully, Guichon didn't follow Clark's recommendation and called John Horgan to Government House that same night. BC now has an NDP minority government with Green support.

This is uncharted territory for BC politics. We've never had a minority or coalition government in BC. It could be a great success or we could be heading to another election in a few months times.

On the upside, this whole fiasco gave us one of the greatest tweets ever.