Home Sweet Home

I’ve returned from my businesstrip! Check out the new album with some pics in my gallery. I’ll post something more meangingful later.

Hold Me Accountable!!

I’m a procrastinator… but I’m trying to break the habit.  I’m sitting here with a figurative pile of emails to answer, and no excuse not to.  There’s little on TV (unless you speak Flemish!), so that’s what I’m doing.

Someone, please nag me tomorrow or the next day, ask me if I got through them.  I promise I won’t bite.

It Came from Foreign TV

I was sitting in my hotel earlier, waiting for supper (I had ostrich, tastes like duck IMO), watching Belgian TV.  Among the subtitled English TV shows (Cold Case), dubbed English TV (Without a Trace), BBC, CNN International and some Belgian/Flemish talk shows, I came across one of the most interesting game shows.  Blokken combines trivia/Jeopardy and Tetris.  Two players compete by ringing in correctly on trivia, to get points and the chance to play Tetris blocks and earn more points!!  How cool it that!

Another week, another work trip

For those of you that have missed me, I’m sorry.  I’m currently in Belgium (staying in Beveren, just outside Antwerp).  While here I’m hopefully not going to be working 18 hour days, so i hope to update this a little more and catch up on my IEEE duties.  But right now, a long day of travelling combined with a stuck thermostat in my hotel room has me ready to drop.   Later.

I’m Busy July 21-22

Final Harry Potter hits shelves in July

MmMmm…. Tasty

Courtey of www.becomeanmm.com

A Mugging Mystery Special

Despite the recent cancellation of the critically acclaimed Mugging, we must impore its makers to help solve this dilemma: which dish in a sink full of suds caused THIS?

The Looney’s Clean

*sigh* I’m a little disappointed that Canada ISN’T the smart little sister, but still the dumb young kid brother…

Official report of Canada ’spy’ coins not true: U.S.

I Always Thought that Polar Bear Looked Suspicious, and Don’t Get Me Started on the Loon…

I gotta say, I’m a little proud (and a tad weirded out) when I read this story:

Pocketful of Espionage: Beware the Spy Coin
Bet the US never thought we had it in us, hey?  Kind of like when you find out your little sister’s been reading your diary and replacing that hair you put across page 42 to detect intruders…

Now, I must go to Tim Horton’s and spend whatever change I have… can’t be too careful.

Some Movie

The first “chapter book” I read by myself as a kid was one I purchased myself too, out of a gift certificate I won for writing an “essay” about block parents (it was a paragraph, but that’s impressive for grade 1or 2).  It took me two weeks to read it, a long time considering how quickly I devour novels these days.  And it’s been one of my favorite books of all time.  That book is “Charlotte’s Web”.

I was apprehensive to see the new movie.  I mean, when you read a (good) book you develop a fondness of the characters you’ve envisioned.  Wilbur and Charlotte are supposed to sound a certain way, the farm is supposed to look a certain way, Fern is supposed to look and act like the Fern you’ve seen in your head.  I’ve seen a few too many movies based on books that have messed that up.

I’m definitely pleased to say that this movie was not one of them.  It stays true to both the story and the spirit within.  Fern is perfectly played by Dakota Fanning, down to the impressive vocabulary and sparkling innocence.  Julia Roberts voices Charlotte, and does so with compassion and intelligence.  The animation of the spider is more detailed than I imagined, but they make the spider look not-so-scary, good for the kids.  Wilbur lives up to “terrific”, “radiant”, and “humble”.  Though some of the other characters (particularly the goose) don’t get as much attention in the movie as in the book, they’re not neglected.

Most importantly, the movie “feels” like the book.  It takes place sometime before modern conveniences became a major part of kid’s lives, in a place where life was simple. There were county fairs and barn swings and country doctors who cared. It’s nice to visit there, especially now that life has gotten more complicated than when I first escaped in the book (I’ll admit I re-read the book recently, while travelling).
I cried a little near the end, as they prepare to leave the fair, just as I had to stop reading at that part of the book for a bit, to let it sink in what was happening.  I don’t cry at movies, so that’s a big compliment.