Archive for June, 2004

So, as Robin informed us a week or so ago, the Lost Dogs are going to be in Ottawa in a few weeks. Call me optimistic (yes, optimistic) but I don’t think their show will sell out. Never the less, we’ll get our tickets next week probably.

So, to get Jenn ready for the Dogs, I’ve been playing them a lot. Last night on the way to mini-golf, she told me that she knew one of the songs on The Green Room Serenade Vol. 1 from a movie. The second one, something about a happy day or something. Interesting, if it’s true.

In other semi-Dogs news, she likes the Joel Hanson & Sara Groves version of Traveling Light better than Derri’s version.

We went for our mostly-weekly mini-golf game last night. As usual, Jenn won — and it’s not because I let her beat me either. 50 – 51 was the final score after 18. She started beating me after I gave her a couple putting tips earlier this year, so I suppose it’s my own fault. It could also have something to do with Jenn’s approach vs. mine. I tend to go for the spectacular shots, while she plays it safe. I make much more of the spectacular shots, because she doesn’t try them. Does that make me like the rabbit and Jenn like the tortoise? Slow and steady wins the race? I suppose I could lower my score right away by three or four strokes a game by playing conservatively, but, if I keep practicing the spectacular shots, I could eventually lower it by even more. Besides, the trying the fun shots is more, well, fun.

PS: I’ll talk about voting once I get the courage up to voice my opinion, which differs from Doug’s and Jen’s.

I’ve been putting regular thought into my story this past week and I’ve made lots of notes. I’ve realized that I really do have lots of ideas, but distilling them into the story that I want to write is what’s giving me problems. I’ve created family trees and history(s.) I’ve thought of economic systems, geography, religion. I’ve created a big bad guy, his motives and methods. I’ve planted gardens, dug canals, burrowed tunnels, buried cities in the desert, given animals speech, married the prince’s uncle off to the princess of a neighbouring kingdom. I’m still no closer to starting though.

Today, when I was out running some errands, I stopped by the library (Chapters) and took a good look at three books. One was on getting children’s literature published, one was on everything about writing childrens books and the other was about how to develop plot and write stories (not child specific.) I’ve also done a lot of reading online about creative writing. I just haven’t written much yet.

Maybe I should reflect on the post I made a couple weeks back about empire building. Perhaps I’m just enjoying creating worlds too much to let my characters live in them. Maybe I should just write something — anything — just to write. I’ll let you know how things go with this afternoon’s writing session later.

I told you that I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie on Friday afternoon. Well, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It went on for over two hours (as many movies do) but it didn’t drag at all and I felt like I could enjoy it for even longer. I’m going to tell you a couple things that I didn’t like about the movie and one thing that others didn’t like, but I didn’t mind at all.

First, I disliked the two scenes that had Harry flying about enjoying himself and shouting with delight. They were the hippogriff scene and the Firebolt scene. I thought it was a particularly cheesy scene to end the movie with, especially. But, that won’t stop me from enjoying the movie many more times to come.

Second, I really liked the whomping willow transitional scenes, especially when it grabbed the bird in mid-flight. But, during the winter to spring transition I disliked how when it shook the snow off it’s branches the snow landed on the camera lens. Of course, it didn’t, it was all digital and that was an effect inserted into the movie. But why? Why would the director want to reinforce the fact that I’m just watching a movie and not let me continue to imagine that I’m really there watching the story unfold? I think that was the part of the movie that I disliked the most.

Last, Jenn’s sister and Jenn (to a lesser extent) didn’t like how this movie features a different looking Hogwarts castle, different grounds and a double sized hut for Hagrid. I didn’t mind it at all. I was more disappointed with changes and omissions to the story. Presenting the “skin” or “veneer” of the story in a (very slightly) different style worked for me. Perhaps this is due to the fact I have recently viewed a new “Classic” Star Trek program online. The producers of the show explained that they felt that it was okay to continue the series with new actors because the characters are now timeless, like Shakespearian characters. It doesn’t matter too much who plays them, just as long as they play them well.

I’d like to see Daniel, Rupert, Emma and the others continue playing their roles as long as possible though. The new Dumbledore was fine and the twins, Fred and George, looked great in their contemporary costumes.

I’m listening to Stoned and Left for Dead playing Jesus Saves right now, and boy does it bring back memories. Earlier tonight I was listening to Rat Cat’s playing Getting Away (From this World) and it’s still makes me shiver. Thanks to Robin for introducing them to me, and if you’re in Canada, I can urge you to download this song legally.

Jenn and I went for our walk tonight and as we crossed the street into the St. Paul’s University campus Jenn spotted a groundhog beside the parking lot. She took the high road and I took the low road and we had no problem cornering it. It was dead. But it had a much longer tail and Jenn was sure it wasn’t a groundhog. She thought it was a woodchuck. So, I decided to play along and call it a Prariedog. Does anyone know the difference? Have I already touched on this?

Later in our walk we saw the swans, and then a bunny. When we walked near the bunny, a bunch of baby ducks jumped into the river and swam away. Later we saw a bunch of male mallards in someone’s back yard and Jenn called it a guys night out.

She’s pretty clever sometimes, that girl. When we were walking through the university campus earlier, we passed a sign with a man walking a dog on a leash carrying a shovel in his other hand. There was no explanation for the sign so Jenn suggested, “Remember your shovel, if you’re going to bury your dog while you’re taking it for a walk.”

Jenn and I are going to see the new Harry Potter movie this afternoon. I’ve been quite the fan since I started reading the books. I’d suggest that you get your hands on them and give them a read if you’re still avoiding them. I’d even suggest that the books are much more accessible than the movies. Most anyone should be able to read through the first two books in a couple of days, even if you don’t have much free time in your schedule. Naturally they go much deeper than the movies can and you’ll find the mystery, thought and planning worth it. I’ll post a review of the movie later.

I think it’s a good idea to be clear with our language. I know I’m a poor speller and I occasionally mix up my grammar. But that’s not what I’m talking about today. It’s the idea that we must clean up words and phrases from our speech that offend our orthodoxy.

I don’t think I’ve said “Good Luck!” to any one in years. Not because I don’t want things to go well for people, but because luck has nothing to do with it. I remember when some of my friends stopped stating that they were going to do such-and-such a thing a few years ago and started using “Lord willing.” I’ve been noticing people starting to use this phrase at my church a lot lately too.

Tell me if you think this is going too far, though… Remove “potluck” from your language — okay, maybe. But, replace it with “pot blessing?” I think that’s a bit silly. The first time I heard it, I thought of weed. It may cause more confusion that it seeks to solve.

Long live the potluck!

Wow, would you look at the time on this post. I just got in from observing the transit of Venus. I got up just after 5:10 a.m. when nature called. I had planned on it as my alarm clock. I headed over to the athletic fields behind St. Paul University even though it looked pretty hazy out.

I got there around 5:30 a.m. and couldn’t immediately locate the sun. I thought it was the haze, but I was just a few minutes early. Almost right away, I saw where the sun would rise over the trees and at about 5:32 a.m. I saw the sun rise. And it only took a minute or so to rise over the tree line. It was hazy still and I couldn’t discern the sun at all through my no. 14 welders glass. So I did the naked eye thing — but don’t tell my optometrist.

At about 5:40 a.m. I was able to make out the black dot of Venus in the lower right quarter of the sun’s disc. It would have been pretty hard, had I not known what I was looking for. After waiting another seven minutes the sun had moved out from behind some very light clouds enough that I thought I could see the transit through my glass. At this point, it was too bright to try to view it without.

So, around 5:50 a.m. I folded up my camp chair, said goodbye to the West Nile mosquitos and walked home. On the way over, Main St. was empty save for the police car that I casually walked in front of. On the way back, there were maybe half a dozen cars including a city bus. Maybe when this happens again in 2012 (every 128 years, ha!) I’ll have a nice pair of binoculars to take along with me. “Clear skys,” as they say.

Last night we watched Sense and Sensibility. I think it was only the second time I’ve watched it with Jenn. I asked her why it was called Sense and Sensibility, and she replied that it might be due to the fact that one of the sisters has sense and the other has sensibility. It would seem to me that Elinor has both and Marianne has little of each. I’m glad Snape gets what he wants in the end though.

In other Jenn news, during Saturday night’s hockey game, she remarked (again) on how it peeves her that people pronounce numbers such as 2004 as “two thousand and four.” She tells me that she was taught in school not to use an “and” when expressing numbers like that.

Finally, Jenn told me during the last hymn at church yesterday that I was “ruining the song” because I was emphasizing and repeating certain words of the song. Words like: proffer, sublime and supernal.

This weekend was Doors Open Ottawa weekend. As such, many historical, cultural or otherwise significant buildings open their doors to the general public. There were about eighty-five buildings open and quite a few that would have been very interesting to visit. I went to two culturally significant buildings — and I’m so glad that Jenn likes to come along with me on outings like this. I probably wouldn’t have gone alone.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the Hindu temple of Ottawa-Carleton. It’s located a good half hour south of downtown, way out in the land of farms and golf courses. I’ve never been to a Hindu temple before and most of what I know of Hinduism I learned from the Simpsons. Besides the building — clean, white, lot’s of marble, nice carpet, interesting architecture, etc. — I was impressed with the tour we got. A nice older (50′s, 60′s?) woman walked us around to the different shrines for the different gods and did her best to explain who they were, why people would choose to worship them and answer questions. We saw Genesh, then Vishnu then two or three “couple-gods,” a many armed woman with a tiger, a family of gods with their monkey, the same monkey on his own as a god and then Sheeva. I did not know that Sheeva was a man, he looks very effeminate.

When we got to the end of those shrines, our tour guide asked another gentleman who had finished giving a tour to answer some of our questions. He seemed more prepared than she. I suppose the answer for the question that sticks with me the most was his response to “Why do some of these people have so many arms?” His response was that the idols were merely symbolic representations of the gods and that they don’t really have many arms. The many arms symbolically represent the strength of the gods. I wasn’t cheeky enough to ask, “So, why a monkey? Why the elephant trunk? Because he’s so mischievous? Because he likes peanuts?&rduo;

Today after church — and the business meeting — we went to the Ottawa Main Mosque. Again, great carpet and rugs. Why can my church be this comfy? I’d be glad to take my shoes off to worship if we had these nice floor coverings. And again, it was interesting to note the architecture and the use of arches and domes — especially after looking through Jenn’s history of western architecture books.

We arrived just as the Imam was finishing his lecture. We watched the men and boys (and one little girl) perform their ritual prayers and then sat down for a little Q and A with the Imam. There were probably 50 of us there to visit, so they split us up into five groups for the tour. Our guide, a young woman who just finished the teaching program at Ottawa U, was very friendly and knowledgeable. There was a Jewish man in our group with his two young daughters. While we were in their library, I hung back and listened to him ask our guide if Muslims uses the Psalms in their prayers and about ritual bathing.

One thing I made a mental note of after visiting the mosque was how Jews and Muslims make the effort to learn the languages their holy books are written in. Why don’t we Christians? Unfortunately there were no synagogues open for the weekend. Visiting one would have rounded out my weekend quite nicely.