Gloryfades.org

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. The weather has been so nasty and unforgiving this month that I’ve retreated into doing as much “warm” things as possible, namely curling up into a ball and watching stuff on the tube. Occasionally, I actually venture out into the world as well, but only if absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I’m wearing PJs and my extra warm socks and picking away at my cross-stitch.

It started off with No Country for Old Men, which I reluctantly agreed to see with my sister. I’m not a huge fan of gory films and I had heard rumours that this one was not for the faint of heart. Well, they were right. It certainly was a blood-fest. However, despite that it was a good film. The last Coen Bros. film I saw was Fargo and I didn’t see it all the way through. In fact, every time it’s on TV - and it’s on often - I can’t seem to watch it the whole way through. Anyway, since I paid to see No Country for Old Men in the theatres I had to sit there and take it all in. Bloody, silent, and intense. Those are the three best adjectives I can ascribe to the film. There’s no doubt that it’s horrifically violent and not in a “cinematic” style either - everything looked like it hurt. A lot.

Having seen one Oscar contender, I decided after that to watch as many of the Best Picture nominees as possible. This weekend I managed to finish off two more - Atonement and Juno. Atonement was sad. I didn’t really feel any emotion for any of the characters until right around the end when the “twist” (was it a twist?) came. I’m not sure if it’s the character or the actress but Kiera Knightley seemed selfish and arrogant. I felt terrible for the younger sister, though, which I believe I was supposed to. All in all, it was a pretty standard weepy sort of film. The score, on the other hand, was fabulous. If I can get my hands on that I will. I love classical music with a twist.

Juno was fun. It’s a cute little story about a cute little girl and I loved Jason Bateman. If I were Ellen Page I’d have a total crush on him. I wish Michael Cera could have had a bigger part in it but all in all it was a sweet little story. I doubt that it will win Best Picture but that’s just because the Academy is comprised of old men. 90% of the humour will be completely and utterly lost on them. Plus, they tend to pick dramas over comedies.

I also watched Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (and I TOTALLY keep typing the Demon Barbar of Fleet Street. Could you imagine a giant talking elephant with a razer in his hand, killing people in Victorian England?) this afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good musical but this one wasn’t my favourite. I guess I’m just spoiled because I grew up on Phantom of the Opera. My visions of London were always snowy and encased in an opulent but decaying theatre, not grimy and soot-faced. Violent and remorseless, it didn’t really solve any problems. “Mr. T” remains unhappy until the bitter end even when everyone is dead! Not even the faddish lure of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter made me care for any of the characters (except Sasha Baron Cohen who was awesome as Todd’s Italian rival). Overall, kind of a disappointment. I bet it would be more interested on the stage.

So all that’s left in Best Picture is Michael Clayton, which I have, and There Will Be Blood, which I think I might have to go to the theatre to see. Great, another gory film. I’ve always enjoyed watching Daniel Day-Lewis act but I’m not sure if I can stomach more blood. Unfortunately, Michael Clayton looks really boring. I read the imdb description and wasn’t too impressed. I’m definitely not a courtroom drama fan, they just seem so silly and have the potential of getting really convoluted. We’ll see, though. There are plenty of other films to watch as well!

Oh, Lordy is it ever cold out! I left early this afternoon to try and beat the snow but it still hit me and I still spent an hour and a half trying to crawl home. Thank goodness I had a book on tape to keep me company. That’s right, I said tape. My car’s ancient. I have a tape deck. It works like a charm, though. The book in question is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, book #5 on my To-Be-Read Challenge 08 list.

My plans for tonight, coffee with my sister, were derailed by this snowstorm that is currently beating against my study’s window so I think I’ll spend the night being cozy instead. I have my knitting right beside me (a modest scarf as it’s my first attempt at knitting) and a DVD full of Battlestar Galactica episodes I’ve never seen. Seems like a perfect night for catching up.

Given that I’ve made this website a genuine weblog again, over the weekend I revamped the image of my collective. No longer an extension of my weblog, it’s now a full fledged website of its own (to the extent it can be, that is). I’ve named it Zealous since most of the good names have been taken already and I think it looks pretty spiffy.

Hmm, I wonder what the chances are of getting a snow day tomorrow?

Yay, a brand new layout for a brand new year! Sort of. It’s only been a month, though! Anyway, I liked this photo so I thought I would use it for my next layout. Drew Barrymore looks like a Greek goddess in that pose, don’t you think?

Truthfully, I don’t have that much to say at the moment. I’m still typing up my account of our trip through Central America so that’s coming. Also, I need to upload those photos to Flickr at some point. Hmm, it seems I have a lot more to do than I thought! Sadly, the weekend is coming to a close. I’ve had a very relaxing weekend; my whole department moved up two floors this week and, suffice it to say, I was glad once that was over and done with. Afterwards, G and I went out with friends for some Winterlicious fun.

Winterlicious is a semiannual Toronto event - about a hundred restaurants across the city participate by serving a prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner. It’s a way for celebrated Toronto chefs to reach more people as well as a way for people who enjoy luxurious food but can’t afford it on a regular basis to sample some of Toronto’s finest food. I absolutely love Winterlicious (and it’s warmer, sunnier counterpart, Summerlicious) and try to go at least once each time it comes around. This time we went to Brassaii. I had the seared salmon which was just delicious.

Other than that, this weekend has been quiet. I had coffee last night with a friend from Chapters and generally spent the day relaxing. Today, likewise, I haven’t been doing all too much. I did change the layout here, though!

I expect G will be arriving soon since he said he’d come by after a long day of playing Magic at a friend’s house. Yes, I’m dating a twelve year old boy. No judgment!

In 2007 I took up the To-Be-Read Challenge but ended miserably. I completed two out of the twelve that I set myself to read. How embarrassing! Part of the reason was that I actually forgot about the challenge until October. That’s right, I actually forgot about it entirely until G. mentioned it. However, I still managed to read a whopping 30 books in total last year, which is still quite a few considering I spent the first part of the year in school.

This year, I’ve decided to go with a theme with the books I’ve chosen. I’ve been interested in The Great American Novel ever since I read John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. So, in honor of that great book, I have picked 12 novels that have been written by American authors in the past two centuries:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
5. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison
10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
12. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

I’ve tried to put an equal mix of male and female writers but it’s hard to be even. It looks like a pretty good list, though. Some of these have been on my master list for years and years.

Alternates include what I didn’t read last year, that is:

1. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
3. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
4. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
6. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
7. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
8. I’m Not The New Me by Wendy McClure
9. The True Account by Howard Frank Mosher
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

You know, I’ve been trying to read The Name of the Rose for about two months but someone keeps requesting it from the library and I have to keep taking it back. Maybe I should just buy it?

Hi everyone, I’m home! I spent the entire day yesterday flying from Guatemala City to Buffalo, New York. It literally took all day and we were pooped. I’m still pretty tired as I got up rather early this morning but I’m glad because I had quite a bit to do. I’ll post a recap of my trip in the coming days with a smattering of photos. The rest will likely appear on my flickr account.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. I’m nervous! I had several nightmares on my trip about screwing up at my new job but I’m not going to let myself get psyched out. They wouldn’t have hired me if they didn’t think I was competent so I’m going to keep that in mind tomorrow while learning all sort of new things.

The majority of this post I had written about a week before I left. My intention was to post it prior to leaving but that didn’t end up happening unfortunately. Still, it’s quite relevant since they’re my New Year’s resolutions!

Looking back on 2007, I think I can safely say that I have had a good year. I improved my school marks significantly, graduated from university successfully, found a well-paying job, eliminated my credit card debt, met G.’s mother, and began thinking about my future (yay budgeting!). As for smaller steps, I managed to read over thirty books this entire year, finally got a great hair cut, went blonde, and managed to go to the United States (scratched that doozy off my travel list! ).

Overall, a great year. My rabbit unfortunately died, but these sort of things happen and I’m okay with it now. I hope 2008 is just as good, if not even better! Without further ado, here are my plans to make 2008 the year of Olga.

1. Become Wardrobe Conscious
At school I wasn’t much of a shopper, primarily because I didn’t have the cash to do it. Over time, I just became accustomed to never seeing the inside of a mall for months at a time. While that may have saved me from getting more than one credit card to indulge a shopping addiction, it has also led me to having a pretty shatty wardrobe. To be fair, over the past six months it has grown in size and in quality – to an extent.

However, I don’t feel comfortable in all of my clothing. I lean more towards wearing jeans and cotton shirts to work because A) they are comfortable and B) they are easy to match and find. Now, my office doesn’t have the strictest policy on work attire but I still feel embarrassed when I arrive to work in jeans and a t-shirt on a Monday morning. Call it Catholic guilt.

My goal in 2008 is to begin compiling a wardrobe that is easy enough to wear as my current wardrobe. My inspiration is Allie who actually looks a heck of a lot like me, except for the fact that she wears really nice clothes and I usually don’t.

This resolution is probably going to be a lot of fun to work with than my next one but I can already tell it will be difficult for me as well. I think a lot of women have the same problem that I do – we tend to buy clothing that is in style because it looks good in the moment. We see people like Lindsey Lohan, Jessica Alba, etc. wearing things that – perhaps in another time and place – would make us laugh our asses off (skinny jeans?! Are you KIDDING ME?!), but instead we want to wear them cause they are “in”.

Classic pieces are the things that will last a lifetime – or at least more than one season. They flatter your figure, make you look feminine, and support your personality in more ways than skinny jeans ever could, because you choose clothes that make you look good, not what everyone else is wearing.

I will concentrate on building up a collection of well-made clothes that suit my figure and my personality.

A part of why I am deciding 2008 is the year of the runway is because my new job starts on Monday. In my new position, I will have a more conspicuous role in the company. I don’t feel comfortable in my clothes now when I barely see anyone. I’ll feel downright embarrassed in the new year if I don’t dress presentably.

2. Live Actively
Yes, I’m a big girl. My issue is not with how I look but how I live my life, which, I’m afraid to say, is not very active.

In November I began working on this as I felt that I had nothing to wait for. It’s no time like the present when you want to improve your health, I think. The build up has been small but steady. I have a membership at Curves two minutes away from my work and I go three times a week, the recommended minimum. It’s a hard work out for this big ass of mine. I expect to see it get easier as I go more often but for now I’m still sweating like a stuck pig after my thirty-minute circuit run.

I have issues with Curves, which I might mention in a later post, but for now I’m going to stick with just that. My membership runs out in the late spring of 2008 and at that point I expect to have the stamina and energy to take on a Big Girl gym (i.e. a real gym, as I like to call it).

My goal is to also get back on the horse whenever I have bad days/weeks/hopefully not months. It’s easy to get downhearted when you’re trying to improve yourself. I’ve recently discovered the value of self-help books, which I think can really help me in my 2008 goals.

3. Budget My Money
Again, this is something that I have already begun to do. I have learned through a variety of money blogs, library books, and miscellaneous internet resources that budgeting is really, really important and easy to do. As long as you have a willingness to save money and access to Microsoft Excel or an equivalent, you can really do a lot to take control of your financials.

Since June 2007 I have paid my credit card off each month, saved enough for a trip to Central America, and developed a budget to pay down my OSAP in five years instead of the ten that they estimated I would be paying for. I’ll be saving almost $10,000 in interest alone by using the budget I have made for myself! I’m proud of my achievements and I hope to keep working on them in 2008.

Some of the financial goals I have for 2008 include moving out of my parent’s house, creating a retirement savings plan, and going to Germany for Oktoberfest in September.

So there you go, three big goals with a variety of smaller ones in between. I think it will make for a pretty full year, don’t you?

Oh, and it’s probably not something I need to mention but I also plan on reading another thirty books this year. Maybe I’ll even break my 2007 record!

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words and sympathy for Diefenbaker’s passing. He was an awesome bunny and he will be missed dearly.

Just wanted to leave a quick note to say Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and all the best in the new year for everyone who passes by my little spot on the web. I will be gone from December 23 to January 12. I will see you when I return!

I’m very sad to say that Diefenbaker passed away yesterday in the afternoon. He had to be put down due to a very sever neurological illness that hit him very, very quickly. Suffice it to say, not a very happy surprise on the eve of my trip.