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By Katie Kish, December 23, 2008 4:18 am

The Best and the Worst of 2008

It’s that time!

CDs

5. Sarah McLachlan – Closer: The Best Of … I’ve always loved S.M. I used to joke with Sam that I have a “Sarah Sense” because I’d always seem to find her music on the radio. She has probably been the most consistently admired and loved singers since I was like 10.
4. Josh Martinez – World Famous Sex Buffet …I love a little hiphop
3. Mr. Scruff – Ninja Tuna
2. Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
1. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals …I read an article recently about “girl talk killing music” because he uses clips of essentially illegal bits to make his music…but gets around it because they’re all online samples and stuff. …His mixes are amazing.

That category is always the hardest, other bands who released beauties: Tokyo Police Club, cat power, tv on the radio, the walkmen, mates of state, british sea power, …and others. sigh.

Movies

5. The Dark Knight – I’m still having a hard time deciding if I like this movie because it was so entertaining and so like…comic book looking, or if its because Heath Ledger died so there was a huge hype around his acting. I’ll say this – he did a great job. But some people were saying he should be given an award for it…even though he’s dead. I don’t really think that’s necessary. Anyway, I think the movie was really good. It was dark, but it was also a lot like the Batman with poison Ivy in it – it had that cool comic book feel to it.
4. The Strangers – this movie was weird.  …I love Liv Tyler and it scared me to death.
3. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – i think CON are really cute stories. Despite the obvious religious undertones to them, I really really like them.
2. Sex and the City – much anticipated and not disappointed …although I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in a theater as I did when I saw this movie. It may have been the fact that we were drinking wine in the front row, so we were a little tipsy, or it just could have been that it was so tragic to see the girls is such sad situations. Sigh.
1. Wall-E – not only was it mine and John’s first date movie…it has a great message about the environment and mocks our consumerism. Which I always like It was by far the best movie John and I could have seen on a first date. Robot love? Seriously, it doesn’t get any better.

Books

5. In Search of Time by Dan Falk
4. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
3. A Madman Dreams Of Turing Machines by Janna Levin
2. Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg
1. Factory Girls by Leslie T Chang

Gadgets:

5. Nokia N95 8 gb – My new phone! 8 GB worth of space, Wifi, 5 mp camera with carl zeiss optics, radio, mobile e-mail, vision tv/radio, a gorgeous screen with DVD like video capabilities, 35mm headphone jack, 8 gb internal memory, gps with preloaded maps… and best of all, it doesn’t have a full keyboard. I was so sick of the full keyboard, bulky shape and “smart phone” look of my blackberry. The Nokia looks like a normal phone, but totally does more. Its great.
4. HTC Diamond – my brothers phone… it’s sleeker and more easily customizable thank the iPhone. The only reason I didn’t get this over my phone is that it is a touch screen. They seem to be all the craze right now, but I just don’t like them.
3. Flip MinoHD – a tiny HD camcorder for only like $200… mostly because it only has 4gb worth of space…
2. The nikon D90 – *drools* an HD camera. …
1. Optoma Pico PK-101 – the MP3 player projector… I really need to get me one of these. Its the size of a regular iPod, plugs in and plays your movies on the wall. …awesome.

Games
I dont really do a whole lot of game playing…

5. Wii boxing…i played it once
4. Rock Band …I pretty much rock at everything except the drums. But…i’ll get to those in 2009
3. I started playing WoW a couple days ago, i’ve played twice
2.Sims!…one of the expansion packs came out this year, i dont remember which one. But thanks to john i have ALL the expansion packs and have WAY too many options. Its awesome.
1. Spore…. cooool

Hits of the financial crisis:

5. AIG’s credit fiasco
4. No more Fords and Chevys – the Detroit big three went belly up! the earth is happy, but hummer drivers are not.
3. Citibanks 75 000 job cuts
2. Greenspan – people are living in tents!
1. Iceland …is broke, needing to take billions of dollars from the IMF, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Finland.

Sciencey Stories:

5. The Invisibility Cloak
4. Bigfoot is a rubber suit with dead animals inside of it
3. a squid with elbows
2. something tugging at the universe
1. The Large Hadron Collider

Absolutely Hilarious

5. The McCain green screen challenge – McCain did an interview in front of a green background, prompting Colbert to challenge his audience to come up with the best scenes to put McCain into
4. Letterman to McCain “You don’t show up for me, America doesn’t show up for you!”…after McCain stood up Letterman, and was shown at another interview instead, it was the core of Lettermans jokes for weeks.
3. The writers strike… so many late night talk show hosts were SO strapped for content. …hahahaha suckers.
2. is america ready for a woman president? – Samantha Bee as Carrie Bradshaw
1. Tina as Palin…and she didn’t change any words.

Personal Worsts:

5. Working in retail – even though I was the boss, i hated it. i hated bending over backwards for jerk ass customers and seeing people spend 800 dollars on clothes. I hated fitting plus women for bras in the summer when they smelled funny and I hated answering to my overly bitchy and micromanaging district manager. She treated me like a moron. I hated that job.
4. I miss a lot of people including Shaneka, Mark, Caitlin, Torrie, Ashley, Dan, Patrick, Karl and family
3. My currently housing situation – my roommates are annoying, they turn the heat up to over 30 (literally!) and leave messes in the kitchen all the time. My door doesn’t really lock and I’m an hour out of the city. I can’t walk around with no pants on and I have to pay to wash my clothes.
2. The York U strike…dont even get me started
1. My grandma died and it was the sadest of all sad.

Personal Bests:

5. Working at acculink where I met Christine and Stacey – two of the best women I’ve ever met in my life. Plus it made me value the 4/10hr shifts a week thing, and loved being on midnights.
4. Moving to Toronto in June. Although I had to shack up with Allen for quite sometime, I love living here and will be sad if I ever have to move out of the city.
3. Getting a job at CFI… my job is to advance science and secularism in society. How cool is that?
2. I’ve lost 20 lbs in the past 2 months! woo!! i love weight watchers…except now the skin on my belly feels really weird, like loose. its kinda gross.
1. June 24th – John and I had our first kiss and were a “couple” by the next day. awe, <3

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By Katie Kish, December 7, 2008 3:09 am

13 years ago today my dad died.

I wish I had something more to tack onto that. It’s weird how… I’m still technically sad about it, because I’ll always miss him. But then again, he died when I was so young that I remember so little about him. It’s like missing someone I can’t even remember. Why would someone miss something that they don’t remember?

I remember bits and pieces and I know that I have an obvious emotional connection to him and that I’ll love him forever. It’s just a little strange.

I do remember that he was a pretty awesome guy and a lot of fun. I also remember reading his first thoughts about me on the day I was born in his journal. That is something I will keep with me forever…knowing that he loved me soooo much.

Anyway, happy december 7th to everyone else. I’ll be spending the day digging in snow to find my dad’s grave and seeing my grandma… and apparently going to my “little” cousins hockey game. I use the term “little” because he’s yonger than me, but could easily snap me in half with 2 fingers.

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By Katie Kish, October 16, 2008 1:46 am

I was home in Guelph this weekend, and I loved it. Although I didn’t actually call any of my friends that I really should have/wanted to call… I did have a relaxing week, which was in much needed order.

I thought I was going to write a long thought out post about my weekend, the political parties, the conservatives winning and my…. new appreciate for the green party (what!?) …I think I’ll go to sleep and leave that shocker for another day. …I keep thinking that one of these days I’ll get my life in order to the point where I’ll be able to post regularly on this blog, Edger, Eco-Chick, mine and Justin’s blog and still talk to all my friends. …But it’s not really happening. NOT YET anyway. Mwa ha ha ha.

I do manage to find time for video games though…

SPORE! PLAY IT!

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By Katie Kish, June 9, 2008 5:53 am

My grandma’s memorial was on Saturday, it was in a church – because that’s where she wanted it. It was the first time I had been in a church in a long while. My brother and I kept shooting one another glances when we’d have to pray or something.

It was really hard to respect my grandmother’s wishes without exploding about sitting inside of an almost cultish setting ["now lets drink the kool-aid" my brother said to me at one point].  My step-dad spoke at one point and it was quite nice because he talked a lot about personal experience type stuff. But later on the minister of the church that we were at started to speak.

It was so horrible. I wish I had a copy of what he said.It’s not a good start to something whe you begin a new thought at a funeral with the words “I don’t want to be disrespectful…but…” … and then go on about “yeah, she’s dead, but the church will be okay!” Please, that’s totally not what I wanted to hear at my grandma’s funeral.

It was shitty to be so disconnected from what was going on. The only times when I actually felt like I could relate to what was going on was when my little cousin did a little talk, and when my step dad was telling stories about how we all viewed her. “special k”

Going into church again definitely gave me a huge reminder about why I walked out of the church life. People kept saying to me “She’s in a better place now”… my brother and I had to grind our teeth a little because as far as we’re concerned when you’re dead, you’re dead. The off switch has been flicked. But you can’t be that rude and abrupt with people who have just lost someone so dear to them. I feel so bad when I say to my mom “you didn’t just talk to dad, because dad is dead”. She believes that he’s really communicating with her. I will admit that I did know my grandma died before my mom even told me. I said to a girl beside me “I’m pretty sure my grandma just died” and literally 10 minutes later my mom called to let me know that it had happened. Granted I knew she was sick, but I had just finished a 10 hour shift and hadn’t been updated on her status in a while. …Just a tid bit.

I don’t know how to tell people what I believe when they’re in such a …sad state. Because the biggest way they’re coping is by thinking that she’s in a “better” place. I did buck up enough to say “no, i actually didn’t think it was a nice service” when people asked me if I had enjoyed it as much as they did. Because I really didn’t think it was a nice service. My brother and I promised that who ever dies first – the other will take care of their funeral arrangements, and then leave a note before we die that we want the other’s to be handled in exactly the same way.

Then, to top it all off, we paid the minister $150. SHITTY.

Soooo, things that have made me sad in the past few days:

Marcus Ranum said: (Saturday 07 June, 2008 (edit))

I don’t think anyone is necessarily calling theists ’stupid’.

I am. They are.

Next?

jerk.

worg said: (Saturday 07 June, 2008 (edit))

If you’re tolerant of religion you’re fucking dumb.

sigh.

Standing at my grandma’s grave letting the wind dry my tears so I looked strong.

Not being able to enjoy my grandma’s memorial because the religion kept annoying me.

Seriously though – the comments that I’ve gotten in the past few days have been too much for me to handle. I usually soak all this shit right up and fight right back, just as hard. But I’m pretty sure this is the first time commenters have made me cry! Ah hahaha. Fuck. I think it’s just the emotions of this week.

How do you manage to get through a religious funeral? What sort of respectful response is there to “she’s in a better place”?

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By Katie Kish, June 6, 2008 10:55 pm

It’s been a long week. My family is a lot of work… well, like the old people in my family. And it’s been pretty emotionally tiring. So tonight I decided to take a break from all the crying and bickering and short tempters and dogs that bark and jump all over sad and tired people… and came to Windsor to stay with my aunt Mel (the one I look like). She has two little boys AJ and Will that I really wanted to see.

They are seriously the cutest things ever. (Maybe second to EllaBella… but not likely. They’re all on the same level with their own little things about them.) So it’s been a great night away watching the boys play, hanging out with Aunt Mel and Dwain and just relaxing. They’ve brainwashed little Will so much, he can tell you what hockey teams they don’t support, who is the best hockey and baseball team (Leafs and Tigers) and apparently – what the leafs do when they don’t make the playoffs. It’s too adorable.

EllaBella can’t say cute things like that yet. But I can buy her pretty clothes, so she makes up for it in that respect.

Anyway – I think the one thing I really loved about hanging out with Will is just his down right inquisitive nature. He asks questions about *everything* “Why?” he gets an answer “why?” again. Why why why. I wish we just kept asking questions like that for the rest of our lives. I think if we all thought like kids do, we’d get ourselves trapped into far fewer corners, and wouldn’t fall into so many scams, religions, corners and etc.

I remember sitting around the table with my parents friends one night and this same sort of topic came up. When do we stop asking why? And why do we stop asking? Do we get preoccupied with something else? or do we just stop wondering?

I think if there was one thing I would continuously teach other people – it would be to question. Does it make sense that that random woman can see into YOUR future or did she say something generic? Does it make sense that there is some omnipotent thing that no one can proove existance of? Where is you’re money ACTUALLY going when you donate it? … Just ask questions, and be skeptical about things.

Why why why. Why are my little cousins all so darned cute? I should have brought my camera this weekend. <3

Tomorrow is the memorial. It promises to be a long day.