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