Monthly Archives: November 2008

Dentist

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So, dental appointment tomorrow (finally) to have the tooth looked at.  Here’s a rundown of how I’m feeling.

  1. I hate going to the dentist even when my teeth are fine, it’s an incredible invasion of my personal space, and dentist visits as a kid were not happy times.
  2. I hate not really knowing how much it’s all going to cost.
  3. I fear how much work will need to be done, whether they’ll need to or be able to remove a single molar or whether it’ll need all my wisdom teeth out.
  4. I fear how much extra stuff wrong they’ll find which will need more work and more money to correct.
  5. I ultimately fear being told that ‘they’ll all have to come out’.
  6. I find medical professionals and their receptionists intimidating, cold and impatient.
  7. I have an irrational fear / worry about not being able to open my mouth wide enough.

Hopefully, writing out why I’m so worried about it will help me deal with it.

I want to not go tomorrow so strongly that it gives me butterflies just thinking about the time of the appointment.  I am going to go, because I am stronger than my stupid fears, but it doesn’t make the fears any less troublesome to deal with.

Obama did it, America did it.

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Well, they elected a president with vision, intelligence and some respect in the rest of the world.  I hope it works out for us all.

American bloggers are writing “remember where you were when Obama was elected”, well, it should be easy for me.  I was in bed.

Good luck Obama, hopefully this is the start of eight years of not randomly invading places because it seems like a good idea at the time.

Never forget

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Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot!
A stick or a stake for King James’ sake
Will you please to give us a fagot
If you can’t give us one, we’ll take two;
The better for us and the worse for you!

or

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

CSI: Miami

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We love CSI: Vegas (or just CSI), and we watch CSI: New York and CSI: Miami.  I’ve always felt Miami was the weakest but it’s grown progressively weaker and weaker as time has gone on.

It jumped the shark a while back – but we still watch it.

Here’s a list of reasons why it annoys me,

  1. too many plot lines directly involve the team members being stupid, screwing up or falling to temptation.
  2. too many plot lines directly related to team members being the target of crime or involved in crime.
  3. too many plot lines directly related to Cain and his bloody family.
  4. too many pointless crimes with the weakest of possible motives.  Yes, I killed those nine people because that morning they laughed at my singing.
  5. crimes getting more and more complex and clearly prone to going wrong (tonight’s story had a gun mounted under a car firing a bullet at a homing beacon on a chair in a crowded wedding which somehow managed to miss and kill the bride, no really?)
  6. totally dumb approach to actually interrogating your suspects, that always goes like this “you had a motive, so basically things got out of hand and you killed blah using foo and bar”, to which the suspect says “no, I was over there doing this” and the CSI’s have to say “well, maybe so, don’t go far”. Every.  Fricking.  Time.
  7. that. fucking. computer.  You know the one, the touch panel one.  Grrr.

Pan’s Labyrinth

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This is an adult fairytale told against the backdrop of 1944’s Fascist Spain.  A young girl (Ofelia) and her pregnant mother travel to live with a sadistic Spanish Captain.  Ofelia’s mother has recently remarried the Captain and her unborn child is his.  The Captain is fighting a personal war against rebels in the surrounding hills.  Ofelia begins to interact with a fantasy world of faeries and fauns, discovering she is herself a faerie princess.

Pan’s Labyrinth is very clearly two intertwined stories.  A compelling drama of rebellion, betrayal and loss in a bloody war and an equally compelling tale of a young girl seeking to escape the harsh reality of her new life.

The viewer is challenged to decide if Ofelia’s story is real or imagined, in some ways to make the same choice those around her are forced to make when she reveals the truth.

The film is in Spanish with English subtitles, is shot with del Toro’s now trademark brilliance and vision, and as mentioned, is compelling viewing.  The contrast between the real world and it’s rebellion and the faerie world somehow makes both seem even more solid.  The characters are believable and engaging, and in a very short space of time empathy is built for Ofelia and the adults around her.

Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia and brings life to the role, her performance is truly memorable.  The cast around her is superb as well.

Pan’s Labyrinth is not an easy listening fantasy tale, or something you can just put on in the background, it’s a challenging and interesting story which encourages you to think and believe.  Well worth the effort.

Update from the snot-front

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Grete’s still pretty ill, she had a mix of sickness-bug and cold yesterday, her temperature got up over 102 last night.  We spent the early part of the night just trying to keep her cooled down, she’s a little better today.  I’ve still got a cough (and the associated headache) and generally snot-issues, also feel like I still have a temperature.

Really sucks the energy from you – the house looks like a bomb site which is a real shame since it was really clean when our friends visited.  We’ve been existing on whatever food is in the house or takeaway.  We managed to get out today and pick up some food though so that should help.

With the lack of energy comes a lack of writing for NaNoWriMo, but I’m confident I’ll start up again in a few days, despite now being three days behind.

And today is the 4th November, which means Americans get out to vote (in case you hadn’t noticed).  Good luck Obama.  Good luck America.