nan hynes

December! My goodness!

The other day my sister put a new profile picture up on her Facebook account, I think it’s her first Christmas at about 4-5 months old (either that or she looks like a flopsy 16 mth old). It’s me, her and our grandparents at Christmas. I was showing JB and we started talking about Christmases and our families; I was telling him stories about my maternal grandmother. She’s 92 now and lives in a home. But growing up she lived alone in the house my mother grew up in. I used to call her “one nanny” - as opposed to my paternal grandparents who were both alive and well and the house was always busy. I was telling JB that I think Nan would have liked him a lot, and he would have gotten lots of compliments on how handsome he is. And that probably would have also came with big ol’ kisses and squeezes! Her house had a nan-house smell, and I remember there always being cookies and snacks in the cupboards and in a cookie jar. She had an old fridge and always 2 litres of soda! Or "big boss" as my whole family calls them haha! My dad said once the first time he ever saw packaged store-bought cookies was at my nan’s house, and he was 15-16 when he started banging around down there. Nan was loud and seemed to enjoy company and was busy up until she couldn’t be busy anymore. I remember watching old videos my uncle had, there wasn’t even any sound on them. She was chewing gum and appeared to be yelling out things – it was a winter and at one point flung my cousin (now pushing 40) up on a snow bank. Well, she was having a good time that’s the main thing!

Also I put our Christmas tree up and other decorations. Still need to put on all the tree bulbs!

Happy holidays!!

-AB

photoz

So I know what you're thinking...

You're thinking, what kind of silly blog is this? She rants about aliens and television and hardly even does that! So do I have an awesome post for you? No. But I have this website: Light Gets In. It's a photo blog I started!! Check it out yo! I'm starting with just a 30 day challenge I found on pinterest.com and we'll see if I take it anywhere else.

Don't worry, I can't stop thinking about fun posts related to tv and internet searches, so there's more to come. And PS: Are you on Pinterest? It's Ideaville, I love it.

-AMB

celeb gossip

30th birthday countdown: 1 week. 

So I'll just come out and say it... I read celebrity gossip. I read TMZ.com a few days a week and I watch TMZ Weekend sometimes too -  I like Harvey so much :) I weened myself off PerezHilton.com only to end up on another site - at least it's not as often. Anyway I get bored of it easily - I know Dr. Conrad was found guilty of wrongdoings against Michael Jackson, but you know, let's move on.  I usually just get the gist of things, and move along. Maybe if the sites were less reality TV.  Those Housewives are everywhere, I don't get it. If people get paid to be on TV and be rich and entertaining, pay me! I can be comical and spend the money! So there's the storyline: me flush with cash ;) Anyway, the point is I'm aware of Ashton Kutcher and the gossip that he cheated on Demi.  I saw his Nikon commercial today, where's he's snapping pictures of the pretty gals and I just thought it was in bad taste - if the gossip is true anyway. Pretty girl flirty commercial at a time when everyone is gossiping about your possibly broken home - heck maybe it's publicity! I bet that stuff happens all the time. 

Thinking about celebrities makes me upset though, just thinking about how much money people have. And that's not fair of me I know, lots of people who make money work hard for it. I'd love to win the Lotto 649, who wouldn't?!  But people are making money now for showing up places, being on TV, being a meat head, being tanned. Boring.

Ok this is not a very exciting update for my return after however many weeks.

Let's see what's in my search history!

Hey guess what? Gordie Howe looks exactly like his son Mark. Mark Howe was getting inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame and has been on the news (JB's sports news anyway). I thought immediately he looked like his dad, and Googled that to see if I was right. Here's a nice picture on a hockey legends website.

On Saturday I watched a bit of the movie 'The Pianist' on TV.  How sad was the Holocaust? Pretty sad. Can you imagine opening the Western Star and finding out you have to move to a ghetto? I don't even know about ghetto - only whatever is shown on movies, media, internet. Walled in, starved. That shit is effed up. Maybe we should have a world government, as long as it was taking care of everyone and respected differences. Ha, there's my Miss America quote of the evening. I Googled the plot to the movie because I couldn't remember the ending, and I was on the way out. It then lead to websites about trivia, Adrian Brody, The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and I can't recall what else. I think at one point I ended up comparing some run times for the Oscars over a few years. 

There's too much information on the internet. 

Time for bed! Goodnight!

-AMB

fever pitch

Random post!

I love the 2005 movie 'Fever Pitch' with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon is super adorable; I've always thought so, he's so funny. One of the hardest times I laughed at his show was a joke about this Guitar Hero player who played a lot of game hours (contest?) of Guitar Hero and won; the prize was a picture of the outside. It's a nice movie, an good old fashioned see-with-your-girlfriends kind of movie!

I thought about how on the satellite dish I'm always happy to see that the Red Sox movie is coming on, but at further investigation (aka reading the description) I'm fooled half the time because it's the movie 'Fever Pitch' with Colin Firth. Today I decided to figure out what it's about. It's a movie based on a book of the same name by Nick Hornby. I don't read a lot, but I'm always up for a good book. I've read two books by that author, Slam and About A Boy, both good!! 'About A Boy' the movie is one of my favorites (and the soundtrack = thumbs up). I'm in like with you, Hugh Grant. Anyway, here I am, looking up more as I'm writing, and guess what? Movies are both based on the same book (UK/US versions) and the book is autobiographical! There you go, now you're all informed!

I have a memory of being in St. John's listening to that soundtrack. I can't remember the time of year, but definitely 2002. I had been cleaning the bedroom, moping floors and all that good stuff. I had the window open and there were cool breezes coming in. It was an old wooden window with no screen. You had to bust a gut pushing it up/open and it needed a book or stick to keep it from falling shut. The paint was chipping. The sun was to the west and the sunbeams were really bright and yellow. I may have a picture from that very day somewhere. I remember lying down on a clean fresh blanket on the bed and the room was full of natural light. I had my ex's pimp speaker setup on the go. It's good music, you should check it out.

I had one more thought either about this or maybe even unrelated, I just can't remember. O well!

Goodnight!

-AMB

9/11 anniversary

Goodbye, summer.

Yesterday was the 10^th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the USA. These last two weeks or more I’ve been seeing news articles and posts on television, the internet (http://www.cbc.ca/) and even in the uplifting stories, there is a lot of sadness. Here is a story about Gander, NL where many many planes landed on 9/11/01 and hundreds of people were cared for. Go Gander! That news story has interesting links as well.

Last night JB and I were watching some documentary on HBO. It was probably one of the most moving things I’ve seen in the last 10 years. Maybe it was "Beyond 9/11"? There were so many shows on yesterday. Why that one, I have no idea. But this is also the girl who got choked up watching the Mr. Dressup art inspiration commercial for CBC’s 75^th anniversary.  I’m almost ashamed to admit that it has taken ten years for that sadness or understanding to hit really me.  I remember that day, living in St. John’s going to MUN.  I think the prior summer 2001 was one of my favorites.  I woke up early and had breakfast, and my roommate(s?) were watching it on the living room television.  I watched too, not really understanding wtf was going on. But I had some bullshit first year course elective and went to class for 11a. 845a in NYC was 1015a in NL so that makes sense. I’m sure I watched more coverage that day, but I can’t remember details.

The show last night didn’t appear to be anything that I hadn’t seen before. People running in the streets, buildings falling down, firemen, dust, crying. We’ve seen it so often, it’s so familiar.  This documentry had interviewed the mayor at the time Rudy Giuliani and his staff. One staff person’s husband was a fire chief. She said she knew he was dead, and that she felt anger sometimes that he chose death over her. It was the saddest thing; but she loved him, and knew he was just doing his job, and that makes him a good person. I can’t find any link or extra info.  I hope she’s ok.

Last night I think what got me the most, was the fear that people must have been experiencing. It’s bad enough when something terrible happens; you hear about people hitting moose on the highway and hope it isn’t anyone you know, but it’s still someone’s sadness. Two planes crashed into the buildings where thousands of people worked. The loss of life is overwhelming to think about. What I feel worse about is the feeling of being under attack. I cannot imagine walking anywhere, minding my business getting a tea and a bagel, and not one, but two planes crash out of the sky. It makes me feel terrible for the state of things in other parts of the world, and for those people that day. Living in war and under attack must be frightening; it must ruin your life.

So that’s my 9/11 two cents.

It feels sometimes that fairness and genuine goodness in the world are nonexistant.

-AMB

gilligan's island

20th post!

The question popped into my head the other night: "Do "Gilligan's Island" characters have last names?". Of all the things going through my brain at any given moment, I choose to write about if The Skipper actually has a name. I know already of Thurston Howell III of course. Side note: as a kid I dropped out of Brownies for a period of time because they met at a time when I wanted to watch the show (which was reruns at this time, circa 1987-88?). I don't know how long I quit or even if it was official, but when the group went to the swimming pool, I know I was on board for Brownies once again!

Finding this information out was actually pretty easy, and I think that maybe at some point in my life I knew the answer to some of these questions. According to Wikipedia's character list for the show, some Metafilter message board:

Gilligan: Gilligan was never really given another name, and whether Gilligan was his first or last name, who knows. It says that in early scripts Sherwood Shwartz may have named him Willy Gilligan. And that in the pilot episode Mrs Howell refers to him as 'steward' which some people say could have been Stewart, but I  mean, who knows. I'm also now well informed that he stole his red shirt from his big brother, and is possibly Irish-American.

The Skipper too: Mr Jonas Grumby! Captain of the SS Minnow, lover of hats.

The Millionare: Thurston Howell III. Living it up in the middle of nowhere. He owned a diamond mine, a coconut plantation, a railroad, an oil well, and 40,000 acres of land in Colorado that included all of downtown Denver - ha!

And his wife: known as Lovey Howell. I read that in one episode on a radio announcment on the show, it called her Lovey at one point, but also referred to her as Eunice at another time! Also her maiden name was Wentworth.

The movie star: Ginger Grant. Her measurments are known for some reason: 36-25-36. Nice!

The professor: Roy Hinkley! He was a high school teacher.

Mary Ann: Mary Ann Sommers, maker of coconut cream pies.

And there you have it! Mystery solved.

-AMB

A&E Intervention

Hi hi!

Last night when I should have been snoozing I got caught up in an episode of A&E's "Intervention"  - Season 11, eps #141 - "Eddie". It was a pretty good episode, I liked when at the end he thanked his brother for saving his life. hopefully he's still doing ok, he seems like a smart cookie. That show is pretty sad overall; I spend all day knee deep in other people's problems, you'd think I'd find something less depressing on TV. It goes to show how complicated we are as people, and how we can be affected by things in our childhood so deeply. It's always something it seems.

Anyway. I wonder now that the show is in season 11 how people keep getting manipulated into thinking they are in a run of the mill documentary about addiction, and how they always think they're going to their last interview but really SUPRISE it's your family and the intervention. I'm not in to anything, but if I were, and someone came up to me and said "Hey want to be in a documentary?" my immedaite response would be "Is this for A&E?". I guess not everyone watches television.

I always like hearing how people speak about themselves and their addiction after time in therapry. People become pretty insightful, and I think that's a good thing. I know there's lots of information about interventions being actually helpful or not. One counselor yesterday said something along the lines of that if you continue to accept failure you will continue to fail. How messed up must the human brain be sometimes to not just change its mind, how complicated are we that we can't just sometimes do things different. That can be for addictions to anything in your life you're unhappy with. My vice is diet and exercise. We know the difference, we know what needs to be done differently, but change nothing. I know it's not always as easy as that, but I wish it were. I'm sure all the people on 'Intervetion"'wish things were as easily said than done too.

-AMB

bird calls, curiosity, & esquire

I've been Googling!

Is that a word, googling?

I'm on holidays from work for a total of 10 days, 10 wonderful sleep-filled days!

The other day someone in my family said that the long alternating pitch bird noise that can be heard in my hometown belongs to the robin. O and I'm aware that whatever noise it is may be heard in other communities other than my own :) It's a slow sound, and the tune goes up and down repeatedly, sort of reminds me of the melody to "I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles. Maybe that example was unhelpful. So anyway, I looked up the tune that a robin sings! Here is what I listened to on BirdJam, which by the way is an awesome name for that website of bird songs. Unfortunately, the specific call I was thinking about, I don't hear on this clip. I'm not a bird watcher, but I guess I enjoy them enough. I like feeding them and taking photos, and I always am jacked up to see a bald eagle or an osprey! After getting the link I clicked on a few more birds. The Black-capped Chickadee sound in the first few seconds is almost like it, but it doesn't go up and down.

Holy crab-apples, new show alert!! It's called "Curiosity" and it comes on the Discovery Channel!! The first episode was this last week, and it was about Stephen Hawking's idea (and book) that God was unnecessary to the creation of the universe. I'm not going to get in to anything much about what my beliefs are, but whatever they may be, I am not ashamed or fearful of saying this stuff is interesting! He was explaining the universe, and really, it made me feel like a speck of dust. It spoke about matter and space and energy and how the universe is the positive energy and space is the negative, and there's so much space because the universe is so big. Is a universe a galaxy or are there multiple galaxies in space and that whole thing is the universe? Okay I'm not looking that up, the point is, I enjoyed it, even if I did get a 78% in  high school physics. I blame teaching. I was looking up specifics (like the name of the show, I had forgotten it) and this ABC news website page has a tiny creature sweeping up the bottom of the window. Just throwing that out there!

Also looked up the definition of the word "esquire" this past week. I hear it after people's names, and it somehow came up in discussion. I don't know how, I don't even know where I would have ever heard it. I think maybe at least once in some kind of watch commercial? Merriam-Webster says: Definition of ESQUIRE: a member of the English gentry ranking below a knight; a candidate for knighthood serving as shield bearer and attendant to a knight; used as a title of courtesy usually placed in its abbreviated form after the surname (John R. Smith, Esq.); a landed proprietor. I wonder what Urban Dictionary has to say about this... :) It's all pretty norm, except for this gem: "The friend of a hooker. Derived from the merging of the words escort (high class hooker) and squire (used as a term of endearment towards a friend)"

Take care pals!

-AMB

ears and tomato juice

Hello!

First off, anyone out there in an office that your desk/door is directly across from another person? I hope the student across the way never takes offense for me jumping up five times a day and half closing my door on her face. I'm sorry, I don't need people looking in on me typing or on the phone or shoving a muffin in my mouth. Let's think of an upside... I could be in a cubicle.

Watching some commerical or maybe even UFC was on in background of a bar somewhere one night, but however the reason, I've decided to look into cauliflower ears. Pretty gross looking consequences of blows to the ear if you ask me. Wiki! ... includes gross old man cauliflower ear photo. So basically it's about cartilage getting all effed up in your ear and being deformed. Fair enough. But I wondered more if there was treatment for it, or are people expected to run around with bumpy ears, and does it effect your hearing? Turns out that yes you can (and probably should) seek some medical treatment, there are videos on the interwebz I refuse to watch, I think people are busting their cauliflowers with a needle or some shit. Gross. As for the hearing? I'm not going to look that up, but I assume if, as in pictures I've seen, that some ears are so bumpy and deformed you can barely see the ear canal, that there is definitely some side effect to your hearing.

Is it just me, or are there seemingly more people ordering tomato juice when you're on an airplane? I don't have a huge social circle and lots of dining, and when my friends and I do eat or drink, guess what - water, soda and booze. Actually now that I think about it, I don't even see other people ordering up glasses of tomato juice. But on airplanes it seems there are always a lot of people ordering it. I wouldn't even know who to call right now that would have it in their fridge - maybe my mom, as an ingredient for making Caesars. O, I was looking up a recipe, and my mistake, that's clamato juice. I didn't know this until today, Caesars were invented in Calgary, AB. Cool!  My normal travel would be smaller planes, maybe 20-40 people on some of these tinier airplanes - but I bet there are say 5/40 people ordering tomato juice sometimes! It's just interesting, I think. And I realize my "stats" are only made up numbers. But next time you're on an airplane, take note of what people are ordering.

Take care!

-AMB

cracked.com

O hello! Still alive and kicking; my laptop has seen better days lately.

 

Here are some articles from Cracked.com!
As you know, I really enjoy the site for its humour and writing :)
And the topics usually stir my curiousity:

• Awesome space images!
• Blog on why to watch the Tour de France
• Yet to read but scientific reasons against social networking sites
• Creepy UFO sightings
• Five myths that are admitted hoaxes

What have I been searching lately? Not a lot, sadly.

 

I did Google search a "shipoo" recently. Which I just discovered is spelt "shih poo".
Someone at the ballfield had a black puppy, it was so tiny. World's cutest puppy!!!!

 

I do have some good ideas (in my POV anyway!) and I hope to update a bit more regularly.

 

Stay tuned, thanks for dropping in!

 

-AMB

tgif, tv and links

TGIF!

I had a note in my phone about America's Next Top Model from a few weeks ago. I used to watch the show regularly and now I don't. But I was watching the photo-viewing part at the end. It was the top 3 finalists, and the complaint the judges had about a girl was that she could never get 'sexy' facial expressions. I'm sorry, but the first few describing words of a "model" should include the word sexy. If you have made it in this TV show from dozens of others, I'm pretty sure you should probably have a "sexy" pose by now. Geeze by!

I don't know when my little obsession with mystery and conspiracy will go away, but for now, a little note about something I jotted down that I saw in the Ancient Aliens pilot. It's about the Piri Reis map, which looks to be a map of the land of Antartica, under the ice. This website from some BBC magazine says that Antartica has been under thick ice for 15 millon years. Is that correct? And I can't link anything or remember it well, but I'm sure that it was said that technology has only been able to tell us about the land under the ice in the last decades... or something that says this map was a mystery! JB sometimes suggests that all this alien assistance in the show and remarkable arcitecture and whatnot just shows that people were really smart all throughout history. I'm not saying that 100% I believe everything is to do with aliens, of course not. Is the idea of angels/gods, aliens and history pretty neat? You bet! But the history and magnificance of things in the world really make me wonder about people. I don't know if there's anything after we die, but I always hope that in the very least we get all our questions answered somehow; I have a lot!  

I'm worried my blog makes me sound like a huge frigging nerd.

Speaking of being a nerd... some things I've seen lately that were interesting:

• Ancient underground cities in Turkey (i.e. Derinkuyu)
• Crazy ant colony
• Vancouver loses Stanley Cup, goes ape-shit. Way to ruin it for us all, you losers.
• CBC's interactive moose sighting tool

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend!

AMB

human planet

More sociology jibber jabber!

I’ve been watching this BBC documentary called “Human Planet” and it’s awesome! I really don’t know if I can explain all the mind blowing ideas I had, and really I don’t want anyone reading to think I’m an idiot for things I say. The show talks about how people/humans interact with the world; so far I’ve seen ‘Oceans’ and ‘Rivers’ and ‘Mountains’. The show is really interesting. This guy can walk under water!! You all should try and check it out. Let me tell you this: people put up with a lot to just survive.

I feel a bit bad for these people. Maybe I shouldn’t, maybe this is just culture and ways of life that’s different for everyone. But even if they simply wanted to live where/how they do, I feel like a bit of technology couldn’t hurt. Maybe you still need to cross a massive river/waterfall thing to get to some of the good fish, but instead of basically type rope walking, maybe a bit of iron and something sturdier? Perhaps some kind of trolley? If you fall in, you’re dead, and it’s all a risk for fish to feed his family. It’s sad that not everyone can have food and water. So right, is it just culture? Or are they poor countries with no money for anyone? Or both?? And even though I feel some levels of what I assume is pity, I wonder if they even want my pity. Maybe it is a way of life that’s just different from mine, and they have families and fun and a life. Is it ridiculous and rude for me to even consider pushing technology on the world? Even if I don’t know what I’m talking about… I know it’d be nice for everyone to have water and food accessible to them. Watching things about the world makes me sad about the state of things for others, and that I take my own life for granted sometimes. I feel very, very privileged.

Also on the ‘Rivers’ episode, cameras followed a bunch of dudes in Kenya and their camels looking for water. They would follow the elephants who can SMELL water, and then check out their holes in the ground because they can tell where the water table is. Then the dudes made a well. So that’s a good thing, and they left more water in troughs for the elephants. But my goodness! What if they were walking along and one of these people keeled over and died? They were walking through a dried up river bed where there were bones all over the place, because people and animals died – I assume from lack of water.  Or in the video of the guy walking across the rope/river – what would happen if he fell in?? He wasn’t tethered for filming, nor is he in every day life without cameras around. I can only imagine that someone would try and save him? Right?  Hmm.

That’s all for now!

AMB

links for you

Here are some websites I've enjoyed, past and present:

• Postsecret.com
• ToothpasteForDinner.com
• OverheardinNewYork.com
• TextsFromLastNight.com
• HarkAVagrant.com
• PostcardsFromYoMomma.com

No it isn't cheating if I posted three times and 2 were links to other sites.

-AMB

cracked.com

Here are some Cracked.com articles I've enjoyed recently:

• Six reasons why high school reunions shouldn't exist
• Five impractical aspects of a superhero costume
• Five unhelpful people you meet in every hospital
  
• Six things everyone knows about women that aren't true
  

Happy reading!

-AMB

origin of humans?

O hi, and why yes, I still live here. Welcome!

So it's been a month, oops.

Let's see, I have a lot of notes in my phone, some of which are incomprehensible now... note to self: write clearer jot notes. No real news in the last month of the life of AMB. Still working, still alive. Looking forward to the summer of family and friends and new pseudo-niece arriving for extended visit!

Yesterday JB and I had a nice date-day planned, which was almost ruined by me being incredibly hungover. I love you, orange rum Breezers. How any of our discussions begin, I don't know. Anyway we started talking about where our ancestors came from. He said that perhaps I have Scottish background, because my maternal grandmother came from the Codroy Valley, NL. Then he said that a lot of Newfoundland is from the same place in Ireland and two distinct differences are the Codroy Valley, where there are many Scottish folk, and the Port au Port area where it's French. (General terms of course, I'm sure of Acadia and English and whoever else as well). O and guess where the Scot people came from? Nova Scotia. I guess maybe I didn't put enough thought into why everything in Nova Scotia has a kilt on it, but there you go, and now I know. After more discussion, I remember that everyone in the world came from Africa, or so many people believe.

Then, see, I'm a genius and ask: if Africans have been here for-frigging-ever, you'd think they would be the most developed and evolved people... right? Well no. Anyway I don't know how I'm going to get even more information on this, the whole task of learning about the history of the entire world population is a bit intimidating.

Don't even get my mind going on the missing link and alien DNA in humans! *

* I recognize of course that my actual knowledge on anything I write here is likely about only 5% of the total available information on anything. Just so you know, I know. No worries.

Well anyway. I find it incredibly interesting! The way we speak, maybe even things like work ethic, basically our whole entire lives are evolved and come from those who came before us. Do people today have some sort of immunity to sea sickness if there ancestors historically were fishermen and on the water and whatnot? Wouldn't that be something? Maybe that's weird. Maybe you're reading this thinking, Amanda, you moron, did you learn anything in your 29 years? Yes, but I guess I have never thought about it in such a huge scale as I do now, which is way more interesting than ever. We're all so different across this country, I never gave much thought to why.

Side note: on one visit to the Rooms in St. John's there was a whole display based on the Irish and English coming to Newfoundland, showing maps of where everyone came from. But what was really cool was this photo display, showing present day Irish and Newfoundlanders with the same last names who looked identical! I've tried hard to find a link, but I cannot. I think it may have been the "Irish Legacy Project" but I can't be sure. There's a Murphy from some town in Ireland and another from NL and then two people named Connolly or Kennedy - I think there were six or eight examples, and the similarities were uncanny. I wish you could have seen it.

Anyway Sunday afternoon is approaching, and it involves a toasted turkey sandwich, mopping the kitchen, washing sheets, and Lego Indiana Jones.



See you soon!
-AMB

cracked.com

Here are some Cracked.com articles I've enjoyed today:

• Fifteen best songs about masturbation
• Four reasons apartment hunting sucks
• Five reasons why anti-conformity is worse than conformity
• Ten people who will haunt you on Facebook

Goodnight!

-AMB

ancient aliens

So it's a Saturday night and me and my main squeeze are taking it easy at home. I'm actually exhausted, I guess staying up late and yammering on about TV wasn't a good way to get a good night's rest.

I have 3-4 notes written from this one show we just watched on the PVR, it was called Ancient Aliens and it airs (aired?) on the History Channel. This one was called 'Chariot's, God's and Beyond'. Now that I'm browsing online about it, I can see that show was the pilot, and there are two seasons about this stuff! Honestly, I don't know if I can watch anymore shows, the pilot actually freaked me out. Literally, ask JB. I will post about the topics I wrote down and reference the show and this post as I do over however long it takes me to do them all!

So... the show is basically all about how there were aliens on Earth years and years and years ago, and everything is based on architecture, religion, books and all kinds of neat stuff. Books like the Bible, and some story of Ezechiel's wheel. It's messed up. They say that there's things that cannot be explained easily. Such as the pyramids, about how precise they are and how hard they were to build. And about how there are pyramid similar buildings all over the world (i.e Mayan. Hello!? 2012?). The three great pyramids are located at the center of the Earth in respect to longitude and latitude, which is before some major history of maps and that sort of knowledge of geography. The center of the Earth exactly. Whaaat? And alien air strips on top of some mountain (sorry I can't find a photo). And! The oldest city in the world, Puma Punku, how it was built and tools that seemed to have been needed to construct it - alien tools maybe? There's lots more, and I find it all to be very interesting!

After typing this and getting my courage up to google 2012, I feel calmer with the belief and less freaked out that Mayan scientists think this is more than likely spiritual or something, like a new age. Mayan's didn't write about doom. [Side note: Mayan's may also have been aliens, according to that show. Some boss guy Mayan was like 8 feet tall] But others say 2012 could be a collision with another planet. I thought that if Mayans were aliens they were really smart and could tell us or warn us about the future. Anyway, I'm going with the new age thing, it makes me feel better!

To summarize: check out 'Ancient Aliens'

-AMB

drunk tv observations

I was flicking channels on the TV - it's 3:20 am on Saturday morning, I'm just getting in (fun night!). I was putting notes in notepad about a blog post. But I decided to write instead of waiting, plus by the time I'm done new shows will be on the hour on the boob tube. I will add all my links to sites/info tomorrow because that will just take too long right now.

- I clicked on 'How It's Made' (did you ever see the candy episode? youtube video!!) Anyway, I caught the last 30 seconds of how they make bagged ice salt. Guess what they said? It takes an HOUR to make that from start to finish. Oh that's normal you think? Start to finish from MINING IT to BAGGING IT. That's no time! I guess making salt isn't a complicated process, but I missed the first part of the show lol!

- Guess what? I love the Next Generation series of Star Trek. Just that one, not any other one. Love it! Don't quiz me, I would never win a trivia game or anything. But I like the show! There's a movie marathon on now on some channel, and I'm probably going to watch the start of a movie. It's ok, I'm a lovable nerd :)

- It's Amanda-TV heaven now by the way, at three thirty in the morning. I'm a re-run junkie, and there are tons of shows to choose from! Family Guy, Bobby Flay's Showdown, Simpsons, How It's Made, American Dad, Friends and a crap load of movies. * Editor's note: I went with Family Guy, it was the episode where Peter grew a mustache!

- Also one more thing. I hate when, on the dish guide, I mistake a really interesting half-title for something awesome, and when you read the show summary info, it sounds so boring. * Editor's note: I wrote something (like 10 lines!) that I mistook on the guide,the 30 min show 'Don't Tell My Mother' (last night he was in Pakistan) with the end of the movie 'Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead'. Looking today, it might have just been the alcohol talking, so I deleted it :)

Anyway, it's 3:30 am. Good night!

-AMB

booing habs fans

O hi.

So I had some ideas about posts, 99% of which I've forgotten about. The solution to this to may be to not wait a week to blog. I have to try and remember to make jot notes in my phone or something.

I was watching the NHL playoffs the other night with my main squeeze. And when I say "watching" that usually means I'm doing something on the computer, listening to commentary, asking questions about skate tape, and pointing out if someone has funny looking eyebrows. O and watching Coach's Corner! One thing I also do is listen to people screaming things on the ice and in the stands.

It was a Boston vs. Montreal game, being played in Montreal. Every time that Zdeno Chara had the puck, a huge loud "Boooo!" would resonate from the crowd. Every. Single. Time. All you sportsfans (Carebear shoutout!) may remember the March 8th Chara hit on Max Pacioretty. Obviously Montreal fans are none too pleased with this guy, and they brought out the boos. I thought it was hilarious - interesting-hilarious, not funny-hilarious. It made me curious to what this guy had to say about the hit, and really about what players intentions are. Well from what I can find, there's a lot of chatter about this stuff on the ol' interwebz. This ESPN article says that Pacioretty said it was "part of the game" and that Chara didn't intend to hurt the guy. Even if he was on a mission to hurt, there's no way you'd be able to admit that now. There'd be a lot more than booing to worry about. I also saw Don Cherry comment on how Chara was acting more cautious and not hitting shortly after the Pacioretty hit. So I guess the news and points are about oh, hitting in hockey (I barely watch hockey, and I've heard about this a hundred times), and if there should have been a more severe punishment for Chara. Why players are running around delievering head blows on purpose, I don't know.

I'm always saying about sports hits: Oh I don't think he didn't mean to hurt him. Maybe that's not 100% true, body checks are not entirely OH&S approved! Accidents happen too, someone turns or moves and a bump to the arm turns into a bump in the head or back. But I can't imagine players wanting to really injure one another. But then again people hurt one another all the time, why should I believe that a hockey game is the exception. In my line of work I should know better. Sometimes people just are down right evil.

Tune in next October when I'll be on the hunt for the continuing fan boo-ing in Montreal!

-AMB

blood type diet

I decided to look up the 'blood type diet'. Here's some guy's official website: Eat Right For Your Type. I'm type O+ and here is the chart I found (on the trusty ol' internet) related to the O+ blood type diet. Have I read much into this? Nope! Do I doubt that there are different chemicals and nutrients and proteins and foods and (insert other terms here) that react well together, and differently for different people? No I do not doubt this fact, this actually makes sense, even with my limited knowledge of the body and science and health. Here's the main page for the charts: click click.

Random point I'm going to make: weight loss is eating and exercising. That's all there is to it, isn't it? I'm overweight, I complain sometimes, but because I can, not because I think that any of my complaining will make a difference, ha! It's eating right and eating junk in moderation, and getting exercise, which is good for you anyway, never mind losing weight. I just googled the terms "weight loss products" and got 103 million sites/search results. We are crazy for quick fixes. I wish there were one!! Or should I say one that is healthy and normal. Because I suppose I can do crack and hope to shed some lbs, but that's just stupid. Wait!? Should I be encouraging about talking to your medical doctor before starting any sort of exercise and diet regime?

Back to the chart. Type O's do well with high protein, and "do not tolerate whole wheat products at all". Wicked, I can continue munching white bread! It also advises me to avoid bacon, potatoes, cabbage, and a number of other things. I think this is pretty interesting and if you were actually concerned about what mixes with your blood, then perhaps you should check it out. I checked a few charts, it doesn't appear to have anything too crazy. Although if anyone thinks I'm eating kelp, you're sadly mistaken.

I'll keep hoping for the magical Doritos diet! *Sigh* Maybe some day... :)

Nomnomnom.

-AMB

two pet peeves

I should look up the definition of pet peeve...

Anyway. Here are two, thank you Twitter and TV for the ideas.

1. When you see places in Canada being mentioned on the news or on American TV, etc. and the place is listed as "City, Country". Edmonton, Canada. Halifax, Canada. Corner Brook, Canada (joke joke, like American TV would ever have a reason to mention Newfoundland and Labrador. But they SHOULD, this province is beautiful!). Back to my point. Use the province/territory!! They don't ever say "Houston, USA". We should be smart enough to list a province or territory and the general North American or Western population should have enough common sense to know, hey, that's in Canada. I know every state. I don't see Canadian news going on about crime or other news in "New York City, United States". But I guess it goes back to how 'they' say Americans don't know shit about Canada, and 'they' say we know more about American stuff (like i.e. the government) than we do our own. I'll admit, I'm like that too... but the majority of my knowledge is because I loved 'West Wing'. I love you, Josh Lyman. Anyway... "City, Province/Territory/State". Says me.

2. When people make a big deal out of music genres. Holyyyyyy crapppp that's stupid. Wow Avril Lavigne is so punk rock. Is she? Maybe not? Ok so I know Skater Boi is sooooo 2002 :) but it fits my point. Which is: who cares! What does genre or people's description of what type of music something have anything to do with if you like that music or not. It doesn't, not really. People enjoy music for all different reasons, they like the music or lyrics or respect different things about the artist or maybe its a good song to dance to on a Friday night at some club. Just enjoy it! Support your favourites and have a good time, and leave people alone who enjoy other music you hate. Part (B) of this rant is I hate when other people hate music - not by itself, but when people don't shut up about it and/or people make judgments about the person based on music they like. I'm not perfect, I make good and bad judgments sometimes too, but I really do try to have clean slates on the general population. And I'm a social worker, that's really hard some days! Change the station, don't buy that music, listen to whatever you want to listen to. Some people enjoy music that you don't, and there isn't anything wrong with that. I don't love all pop music, but some people do. I hate the sound of some 80's music. Some people don't. I love Sarah Harmer and the Beatles and Sherman and Andrew and Van Morrison; I also like some Missy Elliott and Miley Cyrus or Garth Brooks in my mix sometimes! Judge me if you must! I'm just having a good time :)

Check out Sherman Downey and Andrew James O'Brien!!

-AMB

cracked.com

I read cracked.com quite a bit; I like the random articles and it's totally suited for me and my ongoing quest for useless information :P I will likely share things from that website, because I find at least five random things to mention randomly to JB or the lunch room from there every day. It would be easy to bombard, but I'll try not to! Here just three of my favourites:

1. Crows are ka-razyyyyy. Honestly, I think they'll eventually eff us up.
2. Awesome advice from Cosmo magazine... no wait, Cosmo sucks.

Ok so I'm out at my parents' for Easter, and the computer is a piece of crap so pages and stuff are not loading. Plus I'm poking around on Facebook showing mudder some pictures. O geeze! So I'll end this now! Enjoy!

-AMB

post-easter dinner post

On May 2, 2011 there is a Federal election here in Canada. I was playing with this Vote Compass a few days ago. Turns out I'm in kahoots with the Green Party. Check it out, and don't forget to vote. Ok, so I promise this isn't a pushy blog, you know with the environmental hoopla below, and now encouraging you to vote. Although you should vote, just sayin'.

So I'm going to tackle one or two things from my list in my cell phone... I have something noted in there recently that just reads "rocks in desert". I should be more specific when I'm writing notes, because I can only remember that I think I was watching something a few weeks ago about mysteries and stuff, and these round rocks were listed. I don't remember the place or what the solution was to the round rocks and how they got there. But weird huh? I wish I remembered more, I think it was in the US. All I can find are pictures that look like what I saw on TV, but I can't be sure if there is just one example of these rocks or more. The world's huge, I wouldn't be suprised. This person's vacation blog shows a picture of what I'm talking about somewhere in South America. Random!

I should point out that some of my interest in the Earth topics may stem from the fact that I did Chemistry in high school and not geography or geology or anything like that. I did first year geography in university, and it sucked. I don't know why it rains, or about currents, or highs and lows. My main squeeze, hereby known as JB (loves ya!), taped a show about how the earth was formed. I was blown away. No wonder we're getting hit with volcanos under the ocean, can't be suprised it's been happening literally forever. Anyway. Did you know that oil we use now are dead fish from ages ago? And coal are trees and plants? Ok so maybe you've known since grade 9, and I'm the dork who only just realized this in the last 2 months. It was DELETED before I could finish the end of it. What exactly humans evolved from, now I will never know! ;)

I saw the Star Wars movies, but don't quiz me on anything. I heard a while ago that Mark Hamill had an accident (or something) and needed surgery on his face and that he looked different from one movie to another. I made a note to look up before and after photo... here it is!

Check out my friend AMES who's getting back into the interwebz: AMY O!

Whiskey VS Scotch. I don't drink either of those, strickly a rum cooler kind of gal (or vodka or gin or basically anything that isn't a dark liqour or beer. Ew, hops). I don't believe I ever inquired about what scotch is exactly. Scotch is whiskey but made in Scotland. Simple enough, I suppose. With some differences in how much of what is in it, or something. I'm taking this off the list now.

Sometimes I put in videos that I want to look up, clips from shows or news or sports. JB can testify that my favourite things about sports are the highlights and random facts and tidbits from the announcers! I'm always asking about "funny" things that happen in sports, i.e. "Hey... Are there any funny face-offs in hockey?" :) Anyway, here is a video of Charles Barkley's terrible golf swing. It's worse than I could have imagined!!! Seriously? I only play golf half-assed and even I can recognize this is not good. Although perhaps I should give him credit, maybe the swing sends his golf ball to all the right places. Let me know, I will think differently of his skillz, but right now, thumbs down!

Toodles!
-AMB

there's garbage in the pacific ocean

So I'm not sure where I saw this last week, but it's messed up. I read about this thing called the Pacific Gyre, and basically there is a huge area of garbage there in the Pacific Ocean. Yup, a huge ocean garbage dump. I think somebody found it returning home from a sailing race in the late 1990's.

Here's a Wikipedia link: Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I know Wikipedia isn't gospel, but hey, it's there, it's full of articles, and this isn't brain surgery, it's a blog about my internet searches. Someone said this garbage patch is as big as or twice the size of Texas. I haven't been to Texas, but I've seen a map. Anyway, apparently all the plastic is breaking down and fish and animals think the plastic is plankton. Even if fish weren't eating the plastic, I mean come on, twice the size of Texas? That's just clutter and unnecessary. From what I can tell, I'm pretty sure someone is concerned and there could be some clean up happening. I also think there are patches in other parts of other oceans, but frankly I didn't put hours of research into this.

I find things about the environment and our impact on it to be interesting, like global warming and whatnot. You should be concerned about Earth, we live here. How is it possible that people aren't doing more about global warming? It's possible some people are TOO worried, but I bet there's more who are not worried enough. Things are melting. I don't know how that isn't scientific and important to every single person running a country and world organizations. Anyway I'm not a psycho preacher environment girl, all I do is recycle. And like 30% of my reasoning for this is the 5 bucks I get for a bag of cans. Hey wait, I can preach a little, I OWN THIS! You guys should recycle too. Take care of the planet, and whatnot. Ok, preaching is over.

Happy trails!
-AMB

welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog!

First entry, woo! I'm Amanda. I'm curious. Basically I started this, perhaps foolishly, thinking that information I check out on the internet would be interesting to others. Maybe it isn't. But two of my friends said they'd check it out, and that's good enough for me!

I don't know why I like to look everything up, but I do. It's not that I don't believe what I might be hearing, but I just think to myself 'Hrmm, I'd like to read more about that'. Random people and topics, websites, videos, things in the news, TV shows, trivia, history, science, and who knows what else I need to get more information on. I have a list in my Blackberry notepad that is called 'Google' and it's filled with tidbits of things I thought I might like to look up. Sample? Well sure: what does the 57 mean in Heinz 57; cap-nip; types of English accents; blood-type diet; ingredients in chowder; photographic memory; and I was also wondering if small pox still excited, which stemmed from some question on Jeopardy. The list is about 50+ items long. It's okay, I know I'm a nerd.

So there's a lame introduction to what this is about. I'll try to update a few times a week with information, links, etc. of information that floats my boat. I also commit to doing my best in using good grammar and to type with capital letters in the beginning of my sentences.

See you soon!
-AMB