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

I don’t go to the theater very often, but in the past 2 weeks, i’ve gone twice. (also - before i get into this… im on a broken laptop, the regular shift key that i used doesn’t work, so im not going to put anything in caps. also, the last letter of the alphabet doesn’t work, so i couldn’t spell capitali_e just now…sigh… i love my best friend, but he’s sort of a space case sometimes.)

Last weekend i saw the ever famous Expelled. i’m sure everyone’s read 1.4 million reviews of it online already. so i’ll just say this. …it was the worst thing i’ve ever seen in my entire life. i’m sorry, but sitting there watching hours of stein compare evolutionary biology to hitler and the holocaust?? yeah, definitely not something i’d ever want to do again or recommend to anyone else to do. it was so horrible. i thought that there would at least be a few good points in it or something… but no, it was just bad. i hadn’t read any online reviews of it, so i didn’t know what i was in for… sigh.

On the other hand…Wall-E??? cutest movie EVER… i totally loved it. it was great to see something environmentally AND sciencey being done for kids. not only that but there were 2 other previews for science-ish kid films. one about monkey’s in space and another about a science fair that an igor tries to win. science is awesome, and there should be more science films for kids made. so this is good. yes, wall-e was great, and the perfect date movie, btw… if you haven’t heard about the plot line - the robots fall in love. and its the cutest thing since kittens.

a lot of other stuff happens too, but that was the part i was focused on. yeah, i couldn’t get enough of it. wall-e good. expelled bad.

im back in toronto this weekend, sans hemant. we’re having a whole crew of people go to the rom tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun. science science and dinosaurs. awesome. im sorry about my lack of content, but… i’ve been busy trying to figure out plans for september. as it looks now i’ll be moving to toronto at the end of august to go to york university. … where i plan to live… i dont know yet. where i plan to work… i dont know what either. what classes i plan to take at school…. haven’t quite got that under control. but hey, it’s only the first week of july, i still have some time here. and yes. im aware that this is like my 80th university. shut up.

So I saw it. Me and my ladies got dressed up (like trendy new yorkers) drank a whole lot of wine and went and saw it. And it was SO GOOD.

I’m not going to write about the plot on here - beacuse I don’t want to let out any spoilers. but I definitely wasn’t dissapointed. I did cry a LOT… like… a LOT.

It was done exactly like the tv show - so if you’re not into the show, don’t see the movie. I’ve read a lot of reviews of people who said it was horrible - but it’s because they weren’t into the show. Yes, there are a lot of designer labels, the girls always talk about sex and boys, Samantha is horny, they say “fuck” and it IS hilarious and Carrie DOES NOT look like a horse.

I really did hate the Steve/Miranda plot line - it was just too much for me to handle. Anyway - the movie was great, I don’t care if the big hollywood buffs think it was shit - I loved it.

Also recently loved: Darjeeling Limited. LOVED. I also downloaded the soundtracks for ALL Wes Anderson films and it was the best decision of my life.

Okay, I’ll be back later to bitch about athiests. After I play some pacman.

On Friday CFI held an event with the producer of the Agenda, Wodek Szemberg, on the topic of why we see so few atheists in the media. I *really* wanted to go - but again the whole sick thing got in the way.

I heard feedback about the event that wasn’t so hot, on point in particular stuck out to me where one of the members of our group said he was ignoring/disregarding scientific fact. As someone who has spent the last few years fighting for rationality and science that tickled me wrong. However - when I dug for more info the “truth” of the matter came out.

Some people in the crowd were getting angry because the speaker wasn’t feeling sorry for atheists. Because he was telling it like it is. He claimed that all shows that are free of God and religion, are essentially secular - like a sporting game.

Now I can see why people would get angry about this. Because when they think “secular television” they think TV that is actually catering to their… “movement” or whatever. They are thinking a show ABOUT atheism/secular humanism like the Skeptologist or Point of Inquiry. They’re shows made my skeptics/atheists/humanists to cater to that crowd about issues they deem important.

… People want to see atheist propaganda - and simply secular television isn’t good enough for them. Ah ha. But I see where the confusion is coming in for people.

People want to see loud and proud atheists on TV shouting “WOO DAWKINS!” or talking about how awesome science is. Having a secular program, just isn’t good enough for them. An important point that was made is that they weren’t feeling like the victims anymore - and that wasn’t good. Because if we’re not the victims, how can we make everyone feel sorry for us?

Simply put, I feel bad that this guy took flak from the audience for telling the truth. The fact of the matter is - the proposals that are put in to make secularist television shows are SO lame and cheesy. It’s difficult to create a television show surrounding a movement. There aren’t really that many environmentalist television shows, or feminists television shows. There are shows with feminists on them, there are also shows that are written and directed and produced entirely by women - but the theme isn’t always feminism. That doesn’t make it a non-feminist show.

If there was an “atheist” show on television, I likely wouldn’t watch it. Just like I don’t read many blogs that are loud and proud about atheism 24/7. The one statement that really got me worked up was this by Rod “He sure doesn’t sound like an atheist.”

Why? because he didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear? because he didn’t make it seem like the media was giving atheists a spanking? because he didn’t start spouting anti-religious propaganda? Ask me about my views on religion - I don’t sound like your everyday Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris atheists. I can assure you of that. To say that someone “doesn’t sound like an atheist” because they didn’t tell you that the people in your movement are being victimized is pure crap.

I really wish I would have gone to that talk. I think the speaker was spot on, and deserved much more credit and appreciation than what he was shown.

*UPDATE*

Zak has a blog. I think I knew it existed a long time ago, but couldn’t find it again. Anyway, he does write ups about CFI stuff - and I like them because he a) doesn’t sugar coat things and b) usually formulates some of my thoughts into sentences that I usually don’t know how to formulate. His sum-up of the event:

Overall, the evening was a refreshing look into atheist activism in Canada. I now realize that about half the visitors at CFI events are morons who have more in common with the religions they claim to oppose than the freedom of thought and ideas that CFI is suppose to really be about. However, the question period that followed was long (as was expected) but the questions were generally polite and supportive since the rude and crazy people made themselves heard throughout the presentation and, I suppose, couldn’t think of any new ways to rant. More importantly, the activists in the crowd (the ones who actually do things) were generally supportive of the message being presented so I hope we can use the opportunity to start working towards more productive and realistic goals.

Amen.

*update #2*

So… I had to take all the quotes out from the e-mails, it’s hard to gain the same message from the post, but alas… gotta do. Everyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows I hate more than anything on earth taking stuff off of my blog - especially when it’s been there for more than a few days and has gotten a lot of reads. I remember when the christian camp asked me to take stuff down it nearly went as far as court.

I think the last time I willingly took content down from my site is when a friend of mine was arrested for manslaughter… after I posted the stuff, I decided I didn’t want it up.

However. …I … whatever.

I’m running out of energy to keep blogging. I get in trouble too much.

I saw 10,000 BC. Now I want to cry.

I’ve recently learn to just STFU and watch movies understanding that they can’t be historically accurate and that they are meant to just be entertaining. But this one was SO incredibly bad, that I couldn’t help but go “omg, that’s just ridic” because it was.

Our first animal - the saber-toothed cat that appeared in the movie… sigh. This animal, the smilodon, lived entirely in the Americas - 10 000 take places in the Old World. Granted, there were other animals such as the homotherium that lived in the Old and New world. But the size? And the timing? The homotherium would have died out about 20 000 years before the time of the movie and would have been half that size of that which appeared next to the humans.

The “terror birds” lived 40 million years ago… an early bird that couldn’t fly, and just stocked around preying on animals all day. It wouldn’t have been in the Old World. And lets not forget the woolly mammoth… this is the only animal in the movie that would have been alive at the correct time - but in like… the Arctic, and much smaller.

The woolly mammoth is often depicted as being substantially larger than it actually was, this movie isn’t the only one that does it. Even in cartoons, or other movies the mammoth looks larger than modern day elephants - but really it would have been about 10 feet at the base of the neck… but then they had big heads… with big tusks attached, so people assume that they were larger than they were but its an optical illusion of sorts. You know what I’m sayin’ yo?

Anyway - I started watching it thinking “I don’t even care about historical accuracy” but there was nothing else to catch my attention. It took all cliches and SHOVED it all into one movie. There was no action, there were no dinosaurs, there was no love, there was no epic ending or heroic tale. …Sigh. It was hard to look past the fluent english, nicely done eyebrows and perfectly polished teeth too…

There was potential, but it fell flat. Real flat. …I hate watching bad movies, I just feels like wasted life. I will admit that the boy was quite nice to look at.