Tea Time

I got some exciting mail today.

Nerdy tea! Picardian Earl Grey. (For the non-Trekkies who are reading this.)

It is slightly more bitter than my usual blend of Earl Grey but I still like it and it has the added nerd reference. Once it's gone, I will need to repurpose the the label. I just hope that I can figure out how. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I'm able to... make it so! *snort*

May the Fourth

Happy Star Wars Day! I don't care if I post the same video every year on this day, it makes me happy.

Just to cement my nerd level, every time I watch this video I can't help but think "they'd never get accepted into the 501st with those incomplete Stormtrooper outfits."

Another Monday Down

Every Sunday night, I head to bed with the plan that I'm going to weigh myself first thing in the morning. The reason for this is for consistency in showing actual reductions in overall mass and not just "I took a really big dump after lunch and lost 5 lbs."

Every Monday morning, I remember that I'm going to do this as I'm walking out the door or already at work. Or sometimes I forget about it until Thursday.

But when I got up this morning... I totally forgot again.

Well, why not just do it another day of the week first thing in the morning?

Because I forget those mornings, too. Trust me. I've tried.

I really need to take a whiteboard marker to my bathroom mirror and leave myself a reminder. Something like "Is it Monday morning, dumbass? Then weigh yourself!" (Maybe I'll do that on my way to bed.)

Or I could write something nice. Whatevs!

While my ability to remember to step on a scale has been lacking, my attendance at the gym has not. To make it easier on my trainer's schedule, I moved from 6:30 am workouts to sometime after work workouts. I really thought I was going to hate them but I actually don't. I'm not super keen on the 5pm-everyone-just-got-off-work-and-went-to-the-gym workouts, but a little bit later is great. I have time to go home after work to grab a bite and the gym has cleared out enough I don't feel like screaming at people taking up my equipment.

Another important gym note: my trainer is Brazilian and I recently learned how to say "go [sorry mom] yourself" in Portuguese. These things are totally related.

This week is the start of 8 days of filling in for my manager while she's on vacation. She and I had a long meeting about what was coming on Friday, I took lots of notes, she sent me various follow up emails with files, etc. I sat down at my computer this morning and had couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. It was like my notes were in Russian. Then there were emails from people about things my manager and I had not discussed.

::breathes into a paper bag::

I already alluded to it on twitter but Business Kitty is my spirit animal this week. I might need to get a toy version of her for my desk.

Although, 1980s-something Spaceman would also be a pretty apt description of me at the moment.
SPACESHIP!!

I celebrated a birthday a few weeks ago. Every year I think that I should really do something for my birthday but I never do. My tentative Saturday-night-out plans were kiboshed when my one-drink-after-work Friday plans ended with us shutting down the restaurant. I'm mature enough to know that one night of heavy drinking on a weekend is enough.

Side note - hasn't this whole post just been a series of side notes? - my little brother and I planned out a pub crawl around Victoria after seeing this movie. It would have hit 9 pubs. We never did do it though. Hmm, summer goal perhaps?

The other two big things going on are that I'm back at studying Swahili and it's been going well, and Alumni Band is back on for another session.

I honestly don't think I could type a sentence that makes me more of a nerd than the one I just typed.

Only four more days to the weekend!

Going to My Happy Place

There have been some stressful things happening to people I love lately, and then those stupid Facebook memories (which I love) reminded me of someone who died too young. It's been a rough few weeks.

Let's talk about what's making me happy.

This was released on the weekend:

That appearance at the end?!? WHAT?!? Last I heard, Marvel didn't have movie rights for that character!!?!?! Mind. Blown.

Vancouver hosted its first Rugby Sevens tournament. By all accounts, it was a success. Plus, it meant that Brian O'Driscoll was in Vancouver. I love that man. I seriously considered heading to Vancouver for the weekend to see if I could spot him. 

In B.O.D. we trust!

The man was a legend on the Irish Rugby team.

I didn't go to Vancouver, however, because stressful things happening to people I love.

I know awesome people who are doing awesome things. Cely and her sister are raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (I linked to the Canada page because they also do Team-in-Training) with an epic bike ride. My cousin, David, is raising money for Mencap by running a marathon. And yes, I did just shamelessly link to both of their fundraising pages. When it comes to good people doing good things, I have pretty much no shame.

I went to see The Bills on Friday night with my stepmom. It was their CD release party for Victoria as well as a fundraiser for UVic's Continuing Studies division. The funds raised are going towards sponsoring a refugee family from Syria. I love the Bills and it was a fantastic evening of entertainment. 

This is one of their older songs but I enjoyed the new music they played on Friday. I can't wait to get my hands on the CD. I've been humming What Trouble Is since Friday night. (Sticking with the old songs,they closed the night with Bamfield's John Vanden. It gave me shivers to hear it live. P.S. John Vanden was a real person.)

St. Patrick's Day is this tomorrow. You'll probably find a few posts floating about that tell you how to say 'Happy St. Patrick's Day' or to order a pint of Guinness. But what you really need to know is in this video:

I'll be watching it and practicing my insults as I bake my Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese icing tonight!

Always With the Random

I didn't mean to just drop off the face of the blogosphere (again) after the last post but remember how many times I've mentioned "I'm busy"?  Yeah. That. Random catch-up post? Yup. Professionally written with logical segues? HA HA HA! Nope.

1. I (finally) finished recapping my trip to Ireland that I took in May. I know. Shocking! I wanted to start posting them once I was done, but I felt like I needed to remind people I had gone to Ireland and I wasn't just randomly posting about Ireland. By the way, you can find the two previous posts of this trip here.

2. Speaking of Ireland, my brother sent me this video:

Just watching that gives me chills!

Investec is the financial backers for the Monaghan GAA, and Gaelic Football is the GAA of note in Monaghan. I always preferred hurling growing up because of reasons, but in the last five years, Gaelic Football has started to grow on me. If you're curious as to what makes Gaelic football different from other versions of football, watch this video.

The poem recited in the video is by Patrick Kavanagh, who came from Monaghan and was the occasional drinking buddy of my granddad. If we ever go drinking, there is a good chance I'll sing Kavanagh's most famous poem, On Raglan Road, to you. It's kind of my drinking thing.

How convenient that my cousin lives close to Raglan Rd!

3. Remember when you wanted to be friends with someone in Grade One, you'd just go up to them on the playground and say do you want to be friends? and then (assuming they say 'yes') you're friends? I wish it was that easy as adults. Never mind having a talk with someone you're dating when you want to start being exclusive, we need to start having talks with acquaintances we want to be friends with. "So, I've been thinking a lot about us and where we're heading as social beings who interact..."

4. One of my favourite ways to unwind after a stressful day is to drink an entire box of wine plan possible vacation itineraries. This way of unwinding does play a part in why I haven't been blogging (as well as the whole leaving-work-at-6pm-every-day-when-I-actually-get-off-at-4) and it also means that I have a lot of tentative itineraries currently sitting on my computer. If you guys are looking for some travel ideas, shoot me a country. Chances are, I have an itinerary for it. I really should have gone into tourism. 

As dorky as Rick Steves is, I am madly jealous that he made travel his life.

5. If you haven't already seen it, you should go see Big Hero 6. And bring some tissues because

The Reluctant Athlete: Time Keeps on Slippin'

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

~Robert Burns

It was not my intention to only post once a week, but it also wasn't my coworker's intention to be hospitalised, so, you know, there's that. In fairness, I haven't been left with grief and pain in place of my promised joy, but I am left feeling like I am incredibly behind on so many jobs I've set for myself.

Oh, Laura Roslin and your thinly-veiled sarcasm.

The crazy last two weeks of August did give me a good view as to what the next three months of work will look like. I know I keep harping on about this "three busiest months of my life" but the workload is ridiculous at the moment. I didn't know it was possible to look forward to the end of something you enjoy. I love my job - I can't state that enough - but sometimes I miss the days of my data entry job and lack of responsibility.

I mean, I'm not president or anything, but I've got a lot of shit to do.

Where does this leave me for my healthy living goals? Well, I have (temporarily) left my gym. I love the gym, I love the girls, I love kickboxing, I hate having to do this, but it is a gym that works on a schedule and I can't make that schedule work with my current schedule. I can't justify the monthly fees if I can't attend classes with regularity. I am still committed to the goal of four hours of physical activity a week, it just means that the Chikara gym and its awesome built-in group of cheerleaders won't be the source of any of that time.

Chikara girls, you're on notice.
Come December, I'm kicking all your asses.

Other than that, it's still just about plugging away and working on the small changes I set out for myself and making sure I use my free time wisely so when really-crazy-busy-time rolls around, I'm prepared with a plan of how I'm keeping myself on track. I want to come out the other side of this work crazy with the personal achievement of losing weight while going through it.

And I fully plan to celebrate when I do... but probably with something like a day at the Spa.

Although popping some champagne in front of a cheer crowd would also be fun.

Mid-June Catch Up

I had originally planned to take a trip to Ireland in the Fall instead of in the Spring. The only reason that didn't happen was because I have a work project that launches in the Fall and I knew that asking for time off would be like asking for furlough from prison.

Why, yes. I did binge watch Season 2 of Orange is the New Black this week.
I did that instead of writing blog posts.

It also means that returning home pretty much meant I had to hit the ground running with work. Time off between now and when this project finishes is going to be a precious, precious commodity. It also meant that after 7 hours staring at a computer screen writing, I've found it really hard to come home and write for fun. It's like being in university again, when you didn't read any 'fun' books because there were so many bloody textbooks you had to read. Also, the World Cup started so there goes a huge chunk of my weekends until July 13th.

New favourite goal keeper: Guillermo Ochoa from Mexico.
That man is the only reason Mexico tied with Brazil instead of losing.

But it hasn't all been work, eat, sleep since I got home. I spent a day volunteering for the UrbaCity Challenge with my friend. We ran the challenge station at the beach volleyball courts on the roof of the Sticky Wicket pub. Six hours spent running around in the sand, laughing with the challenge participants, and raising funds for the Prostate Centre in the lead up to Father's Day and all I got was a lousy shirt, a farmer's tan, and this awesome picture from our set up.

We're ready to rock this station!

I will definitely be volunteering next year, I'm just sad that my partner-in-crime will be off on mat leave. If you're in the Victoria area next June, I strongly encourage you to get a buddy and compete next year. (And say 'hi' if you make it to my station. I gladly hand out free high-fives to participants.)

I tried Crossfit for the first time... and the second time... in the same day... in fact, in the same hour... because my trainer is evil. I did not care for it. (Luckily, my trainer doesn't either.) This pretty much sums up my opinion:

I spent an awesome Thursday night with friends drinking beer for charity (no, really) before taking a dry erase to a certain store front in the name of the World Cup. I was at that same store the next day watching Switzerland lose to France... badly. The upside to watching this happen with them? I got a consolation macaron with every goal France scored. It made up for losing the bet to them on the game.

Like the rest of the known Geek Realm, I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones. I understand why a certain character wasn't shown in the season finale (especially given how much is going on) but said character better still be included in season five. I also did that quiz and ended up with my Game of Thrones name.

I'll take it!

The highlight of the past few weeks, however, was eavesdropping on the conspiracy-fuelled coffee shop conversation of a Putin-supporting, capitalist-loving but corporation-hating, Chavez-defending, anti-media spouting, global-warming-denying, devout Catholic. Seriously. I half expected someone to jump out and shout "Surprise. You're on Candid Camera!" Sadly, it did not happen.

All-in-all, not a bad June.

And I have a few posts actually scheduled for this week so you won't have to wait so long to hear from me again!

Question: Anyone else following the World Cup? Who are you supporting? Favourite moment so far?

In Praise of Anthony Mackie

I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CATWS) on opening night and I really enjoyed it. (I also really enjoyed telling everyone about how I ran into a sizable component of my company's IT department who were also seeing it opening night because of course they were.) I raved about it to friends, coworkers, family, random people at bus stops, and my cats. Especially my cats.

 Because so many of my imaginary friends live there, I also took the Internet to see what it had to say about the movie. My favourite pastime became trawling my Tumblr account for CATWS related posts. What kept coming up a lot were gifs of Anthony Mackie in interviews and it was immediately apparent that the man was having a blast. He had a blast making the film and he was having a blast promoting the film. I wanted to high five him.

 

I had enjoyed Mackie as the Falcon. I thought the role was well written, I thought he was good in it, and it seems like he is going to be around for Captain America 3. But as each gif set appeared on my Tumblr dashboard, I fell a little bit more in love with Anthony Mackie as a person. Oh, that we could all have that much unabashed enthusiasm at some point in our lives for something, anything.

 

 

And then I saw this quote from him.

When I first got this role I just cried like a baby because I was like, “Wow, next Halloween, I’m gonna open the door and there’s gonna be a little kid dressed as the Falcon.” That’s the thing that always gets me. I feel like everybody deserves that. I feel like there should be a Latino superhero. Scarlett does great representation for all the other girls, but there should be a Wonder Woman movie. I don’t care if they make 20 bucks, if there’s a movie you’re gonna lose money on, make it Wonder Woman. You know what I mean, ’cause little girls deserve that.
~Anthony Mackie

This man gets it.

I was four years old the first time I was told I couldn't like something because of my gender. The thing I couldn't like was He-Man. My friend was five and explained how I couldn't love He-Man because He-Man was a boy so it was meant for boys and I was a girl. This conversation replayed itself over and over in my childhood. G.I.Joe? Boys. Star Wars? Boys. Comics? Boys. Star Trek? Boys.

While the idea that comics are just for boys is changing, it still exists. (Even worse, the long-held belief that comics are only for white boys. Racism, sadly, is alive and kicking in an imaginary world in which many of the characters are supposed to hold better ideals than the world we current live in, but that is an entire series of posts which I am woefully under-qualified to even begin discussing.) As a grown woman, I still encounter this problem on a regular basis. I would give anything, ANYTHING, to have a comic movie with a lead female protagonist because nothing says "you are welcome in this place" to a little girl than seeing a hero on the screen that she can emulate. (That lead female protagonist could be a stand-alone Black Widow movie. Hint, hint, Marvel. Scarlett Johansson is fantastic in that role and I would gladly watch a movie based around that character.)

So thank you, Anthony Mackie. Thank you for talking about it. Thank you for standing up for the dream of geek girls everywhere. Mostly, thank you for being an awesome person who is so clearly in love with his lot in life.

And if our paths ever cross, I am so chasing you down just so we can high five.

I Should Probably Start Wearing a Toga

Beware the Ides of March! Beware friends brandishing knives in the forum.

It was not my intent to go from one Roman day-of-note to the next one between posts but somethings that's what happens when you're busy being awesome. Yeah, let's go with awesome. I celebrated the Ides by waking up way too early after a night of drinking to clean gutters at my dad's house. Kind of hard to stab someone in the name of the Roman Republic when you're six feet up a ladder, dripping pine needles down your shirt, longing for some Tylenol.

Anyway, it's time for a random post because I have a lot of random thoughts in my head at the moment.

1. Running is on hold. My running partner, Katie, has been in physio due to a car accident a few months back. On her physio's orders on Thursday, she has to stop running. I'm not going to lie, without a running partner I'm not sure I'll have the get-up-and-go to continue lunch-time runs, especially with projects meaning lots of meetings with people I probably shouldn't be stinky around and evenings at the gym not leaving any other time to run.

I will still walk the TC10K because I promised someone I would moonwalk across the finish line. Silly promises like that obviously have to be kept!

2. To make myself feel better, I've listened to this cover of Frozen's "Let It Go" about three dozen times. I'm in love with it:

3. Warning: Rugby talk ahead. Ireland won Six Nations this year with a win over France this morning. There was a lot of smack talk between myself and some certain French macaron proprietors prior to the game. Sadly, the next time I'll get my macarons with a side of sports sass won't be until the World Cup. It's going to be a long three months.

4. Today's rugby game was also the last game for Brian O'Driscoll in an Ireland jersey. This is a bitter-sweet moment for Ireland fans. BOD, as his is affectionately known, has done great things for Irish rugby. He is also a fantastic humanitarian. I recommend having a hanky nearby while you watch this video.

5. I am obsessed with BBC's The Musketeers. I'm actually more excited about watching it on Sunday nights than I am about The Walking Dead and that's saying a lot. I think part of that might be simply because I've been watching a lot of fairly heavy drama TV shows and while this is definitely drama, it's a lot lighter in tone. 

Witty dialogue and a cute cast also helps.

6. Alumni Band season is starting up again. In other news, I'm a gigantic nerd. 

7.  St. Patrick's Day is on Monday. You know, just in case you somehow weren't aware of the biggest drinking day in the world.

Happy Roman New Year!

If you never did get around to making New Year's Resolutions and are feeling a bit bummed about that, never fear! Today is the Roman New Year so make those resolutions now! (Perhaps "procrastinate less" should be on that list.)

I think I'm hilarious the first 20 minutes after I wake up.

Without even remembering that today is the Roman New Year, I made a reference at work on Friday about Caesar crossing the Rubicon with an armed legion to start a civil war. It was a replacement for the oft used "is the Pope Catholic?" yes response, but the amount of time I then spent explaining what it meant to cross the Rubicon with armed legions and Caesar's reasons for wanting to start a civil war made it abundantly clear that next time I'll just say 'yes'.

Over all, February was a fantastic month. I attended the Victoria Film Festival for the sixth year in a row (and highly recommend both Good Vibrations and The Stag - I swear it's just a coincidence that they're both Irish films), made it to the gym enough times to average out my less-than-stellar-January-attendance, bought a Venus Fly Trap and promptly named it Aphrodite, failed at making macarons, watched the extended Lord of the Rings and knitted a scarf so I could say it was productive time well spent, and made another big deadline at work. My coworkers celebrated making the deadline by making me a Darth Vadar cake. For all their blank stares after the Caesar-and-the-Rubicon email, sometimes my coworkers totally get me.

The only downside to the month was the death of Harold Ramis. I had such a crush on Egon when I was growing up because he was smart and awkward and nerdy, someone I could totally identify with. He was and always will be my favourite Ghostbuster. 

Source (original artist)
Found via Epbot

I'm excited to see what March will bring!

Question: Any indie or small film recommendations?

How Long Would the Movies Have Been If Frodo and Sam Were Out Of Shape?

I don't have a car. I live a 20 minute walk from downtown and my work and easy access to major bus routes mere metres from my front door. The lack of a car has never been a huge issue. However, it means that getting from the bus stop to my gym means a 10 minute walk up a fairly steep hill.

It looks just like Mt. Doom in the background there complete with lava.
Honest!

The first time Katie and I arrived at the bottom of the hill, I almost turned around right then and there. I highly doubted that kickboxing would be worth climbing that hill every time we came. While I quickly learned that kickboxing was worth it, it didn't stop either of us from saying a word that rhymes with puck every time we reached the foot of it. When we were really lucky, a fellow gym-goer would pass in her car and offer us a lift before we reached the hill. I'm not going to lie, I love those nights!

Between the illness and car rides, I had managed to avoid the hill for a good two months.  I had almost forgotten just how much I hated it. Then on Tuesday night, I had to face the hill. I was meeting Katie at class which meant I could catch the early bus after work. It also meant there was zero chance a fellow gym-goer would be driving by at that time.

Actually, you kind of do, Boromir.

I cringed when I saw the hill. It is the Newman to my Seinfeld, the cylon to my Adama, the cilantro to my any-food-people-mistakenly-think-tastes-better-with-cilantro, and I hate it with a passion.  I cursed Katie and I started my long trudge up the damn thing.

And it was easy.

I was still huffing when I reached the top but I didn't have to stop to catch my breath.  In fact, I was moving at almost the same speed I had on the flat parts of the road. I was proud of myself and I texted Katie to tell her I had made the hill my witch... or something like that.

It can be hard to remember to celebrate the little victories on the road to fitness when you have a long way to go. You lost 5lbs? Great. Now go lose that other extra 85 you're packing around with you. It takes moments like this to remind me that I am making progress.

That was the night I realised my rib cage below my chest is smaller than when I started. That was the night that I upped my weights. That was the night I noticed my upper arms don't jiggle as much when I shake them. That was the night I did a combined total of 15 minutes worth of burpees (before switching to skipping for the last five rounds because burpees just suck). That was the night my trainer stopped giving me an alternative to chin ups and just made me do them.

That was the night I conquered my Mt. Doom.

I am becoming a healthier, fitter me and this hill is proof of it.

No Question today. I just want to bask in my own awesomeness for a little while longer.

One of Those Weeks

I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm already done with this week.

Midway through Monday, I started to feel achy and flu-y again. I had never really shook whatever it was I had after New Years but it wasn't bad enough that I felt the need to do anything about it. Perhaps I should have.

At any rate, after 10 years of thinking 'I should buy a thermometer', I bought a thermometer on my way home. Correction, I bought a defective thermometer. No matter how much I shook it, ran it under cold water or yelled obscenities at it, it refused to budge from 108F. As I moved to package it up so I could return it, the bloody thing slipped from my hand into the bathroom sink and shattered.

I feel ya, buddy!

Remember how excited I was that I'm not involved in a certain work project? Well, it was because I was already allocated to two major projects this year and I just straight up didn't have time for another one. I got the preliminary changes for one of the projects yesterday.

So long, social life. You were fun while you lasted!

I guess that's what I get for dancing around the office, laughing at everyone else.

Then, just to top off this week of joy, I decided to be a mature adult and not go to Emerald City Comicon this year. The time of the Con combined with financial plans I want to achieve this year just made it really difficult to justify going. It was a really difficult choice to make because there are a lot celebrities there this year I would give my left kidney to see. I was priding myself on being mature about my decision when I saw the announcement today that Karen Gillian is going to be there.

*sigh*

Way to rub salt into the wound.