Muddy Dreams

I have five minutes before din-din has to come out of the oven, so I'm gonna quickly blog about the interesting dream I had last night.

I dreamt that there was a mudslide on the mountain that we can see from our living room window. We watched the trees lose their footing as the mud n' rocks poured down on top of the houses at the mountain's base. I turned my head for a moment, and when I looked back the mudslide was now a block closer, consuming everything in its path in giant chocolate waves.

The next thing I knew, it poured over our apartment building. We were confined inside with no way out. I was sure that they'd have to call in the army to dig out our entire neighbourhood... who knows how long it would take?

That's when I noticed that I could still see a few inches of sunlight peering in from the top of our vaulted window. There was still a way out. All hope had not been lost.

I don't usually wake up knowing exactly what my dreams are trying to tell me, but I think the message in this one came across loud and clear: While we're currently confined to our apartment, bogged down in work, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, just for fun, I checked my dream dictionary and it said that "digging through mud" (which is what I was just about to start doing to escape, right before I woke up) means that "hard work will pay off with success and wealth". Ha. I don't know where the hell they came up with that interpretation, but I'll take it! (Then again, "being stuck in an avalanche" had a far less positive meaning -- something about bad things are going to happen. But since this was a mudslide and not an avalanche, I'm going to opt for the other interpretation... or better yet, just stick to my own.)

And now I better go grab my vegetarian shepherd's pie. Ah... comfort food. (And tomorrow's leftovers means NO SOUP FOR ME!)

Where The Sidewalk Ends

We have decided to take five or ten,
Before we return to writing again.
My poor brain deserves a much-needed break.
There's only so much work a girl can take.
I wasted some time by surfing around,
And I had to smile with what I had found.
My favourite poet as a child and teen,
A gentleman known as Shel Silverstein.
His words would capture my imagination.
Re-reading them again brings pure elation.
So now I'd like to share with you, my friends,
A special poem called "Where the Sidewalk Ends".


Where the Sidewalk Ends


There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends. 

www.shelsilverstein.com 

Naughty

Why is it when you encounter a knot, as soon as you start examining it and pulling at the thread, you suddenly realize that it's actually a whole nest of knots.

Not much writing was done today, as it has come time to tackle the scenes that we glossed over solutions for during our meetings in Van. I can still remember everyone saying, "Oh well, we'll figure something out for that when the time comes."

Argh. Well, the time has come bitches... and the only ones faced with the reality of trying to "just figure something out" is Jim n' I. And once you start asking questions, the rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. Ideas we've had forever are no longer relevant and it feels nearly impossible to mend the holes.

Of course, we've crossed these murky depths before, and we'll "just figure something out" eventually, but in the meantime we're kind of at a standstill, because these particular plot points drip into countless other scenes. This makes it hard to just skip 'em and write them up later.

I swear I only got to write three pages today, and those were pages I had already written yesterday. I only polished them a bit more.

Le sigh. Brainstorming is exhausting!

Jim is hilarious though... By three o'clock he started suggesting that we should recharge. Just take a nap to give our minds a break. But I refused, adamant that we MUST unravel at least a knot or two before we could call it quits. (Even though taking a break or at least getting a change of scenery is probably the healthy thing to do.)

Eventually he wore me down by saying, "Okay, let's not take a nap, but let's just brainstorm in bed." (If this is starting to sound like TMI, don't worry, it's only because you've got your mind in the gutter.  (And yes, I'm looking at you, Aunt Holly! *LOL*) Even if my blog title is misleadingly Naughty, I'm not going down that road. Ha.)

Anyhow, we did lie down and brainstormed, occasionally joking to one another, "This is just like back at the office, isn't it? Afternoon naps and brainstorming sessions all cozy in bed." Ha. But soon Jim decided, "I brainstorm better on my side." And well, I think I fell asleep shortly there after too, or I was at least on the verge of falling asleep when the phone jarred me awake about ten minutes or so later. I suddenly realized that Donovan and Maggie had somehow transformed into Ross and Rachel and that I was actually analyzing about an episode of Friends and not our script.

Yeah....

Oh well, it's late now, and we've been working hard all evening, so now I think I'll finally retire to a nice bath and hopefully the remaining knots will melt away, and our solutions will bubble to the surface...

Something tells me that we're probably just over-thinking things.

Hardcore Soup and Jammies

It occurred to me yesterday that we have officially entered another phase of Hardcore Soup and Jammies.

No, we're not sick. Just busy.

Hardcore soup means that we're too busy to take the time to cook decent meals. Actually, so far I've been making a solid effort to cook at least one good meal a day. Last night I made one of Jim's favourites - Hunan Kung Pao stir-fry.

Of course it helps that we haven't done grocery shopping recently, so there's no boxes of soup in the house to fall back on. Although Jim just left a few moments ago to buy a bunch, if that foreshadows anything.

Hardcore Jammies means that we're too busy to leave the house, so we don't bother getting dressed in "public" clothes. However, I will point out that neither of us are ever too busy for a shower or nice bubble bath. But after that, we're back into either back into jammies or other "around the house" threads.

I always feel like I'm such a depressing sloth during these busy phases. Eating simple meals, wearing lazy clothes, and missing out on the sunshine as I sit on the couch staring at the laptop for hours upon hours day and night. Blegh.

I want to find some balance, but as many of you 'work from home' folks know, it can be very hard to pull yourself away from your work. Especially when you've got a critical timeline that is insanely crunchy. Hopefully just by getting dressed, cooking a real meal now n' then, and even just taking a quick walk down the path once in a while, will be enough to prevent the Hardcore Soup and Jammies Blues.

In the meantime, I think we're making some good progress, and should hopefully meet our deadline with ease. *knock on wood* We were just told the other day that "while writing takes as long as it takes" if we can get this draft in sooner than March 12th, that would be best, as it'll buy us more time with deadlines down the road. Because who knows how long it takes for Telefilm, actors, lawyers, anyone, to get back to you. Just because you have tight deadlines to go into production this fall, doesn't mean they live by the same clock.

So, on that note, if I'm not around much for the next lil' bit... well, you know why.

Oh Canada!

In the following video, Tom Brokaw explains the relationship between Canada and the U.S. in a pre-recorded short film that aired on NBC prior to the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

All I have to say is what a great video! Not only did I learn a thing or two, but I kinda felt a little pang of pride --we are pretty darn lucky to be Canadian. While watching the video Jim said, "How beautiful! I want to move to Canada!" Ha ha. :P

Roses and Thorns Feb 13 - 19

Okay, off the top of my head (as always), here are this week's roses n' thorns...

Rose
Valentine's Day. Of course. But what made Valetine's extra special was that we didn't think we'd be able  to celebrate this year, but then our schedules suddenly cleared up and we could. Oh yeah, and the fact that Jim did all the planning was very nice too.

Y'see, usually I organize what we'll do to celebrate on the evening of this annual Hallmark holiday, because I'm kinda romantic like that. Plus, I enjoy any excuse to either go out for/make a fancy meal. So I had started making plans as usual, when I found out that Jay n' Cheryl had invited us to an early b-day party for Jim's mom on Sunday. As a result, I decided to just trash any plans I had started making thus far. (And no, I couldn't swap Sunday for Saturday. I already had plans with friends that evening, and I wasn't going to bail on 'em just to suit my increasingly-crowded agenda.)

But, as it turned out, a few days before Valentine's, the birthday plans were postponed on account that J & C still had a lot of unpacking to do in their new home, and Mom Cliffe also didn't want to interfere with V-Day.  By this point, I had already decided that I was going to step down from my role as Queen of Hearts, and that the ball would now be in Jim's court to figure something out. I told him it was okay to keep it simple. No weekend getaway, no presents, no chocolates, no flowers. Just make reservations somewhere or cook us a nice meal at home. (As along as it was anything but stir-fry with cucumbers! Blegh. I don't know why he likes cucumbers in his stir-fry?) Anyhow, as written in my "I'm happy because..." post, he done good. ;)

Thorn
Jim's computer just got a crazy trojan virus this afternoon. He went to access his RBC internet banking account, and after he logged in, instead of getting his banking info as usual, he was prompted with a second RBC screen that said it needed to do a security check. It asked him to reenter his account number and password again, as well as some kind of code and his PIN number.

Even though the URL still said that it was the official RBC website, Jim called customer support to find out what this nonsense was all about and why he had to log in twice and provide all this extra info. Turns out there is some kind of virus going around that manages to infiltrate your computer and disguise itself using the same URL as the website you're visiting! Crazy, huh?

Jim n' I are computer-savvy enough not to click on suspicious looking emails, and our computer is well equipped with all kinds of virus/spybot protection software, firewalls n' stuff like that, so we have no idea how something like this could've gotten past our countless gatekeepers.

So, just a note of warning to you all to be careful! Especially when it comes to internet banking. Sheesh! Thank goodness Jim was smart enough to confirm with RBC customer support, and is now working to remove this bugger from our computer. (And now, can I just take a moment to say that I LOOOOVE my Mac! I don't even need virus protection because it's apparently not profitable enough for hacker assholes to waste their time developing viruses that attack the tiny majority of Mac users out there. Oh yeah! Love, love, love my sweet, precious MacBook!)

Rose
We've gotten producer approval (and plenty o' enthusiasm!) on our latest outline and are now able to dive back into writing. Yay! I know, I shouldn't be so excited since this is like the millionth time we've rewritten the script... but I like writing, and the sooner this is all written, the sooner I can return to DE the novel. Fun. Fun. Fun.

We've got some pretty harsh deadlines ahead of us (but what else is new?), so it's gonna be heads-down over these next few weeks. I believe our deadline is March 12th, and we'd ideally like to have the script done a few days before that. (Which pretty much never happens. We always find stuff to tweak until the 11th hour. And I do mean that literally... we're always up to 11 or 12 (or even 1 or 2) on the night we finally hand our draft in. Oh well, hope springs eternal!)

In preparation to jump back into the trenches f/t, I spent this morning scraping some contract work off my plate. So really, instead of blogging I should actually start writing right now. But.... the outline spreadsheet is on Jim's computer which is bogged down doing virus scan stuff, so he can't email it to me yet. And it's almost dinner time. And it's Friday night, so I think we should just relax for the evening. The script can wait until tomorrow, and then I'll start putting my nose to the grindstone for the next couple weeks. F'real.

Thorn
The check engine light came on and we can't figure out why. Sigh. My nail tech's uncle is a mechanic, and she said that we can get him to plug it in to his little machine and he can see if it's just a loose wire or something. To hell with going back to the dealership. Seems everything that's gone wrong with it lately hasn't been covered beneath their conveniently selective warrantee.

I guess on the bright side, we're fortunate that we had a rental car for our trip to Van, as the check engine light came on our car two days after we got home. Otherwise, it probably would've flickered on while we were out of town, and then we really would've been fretting and cursing.

I can't wait until we're rich and can buy a new car and tell Hyundai to go f*** themselves. (Not that we have to be rich to tell them that... we're practically done so already every time we have to bring our car in with another friggin' problem. And when I say "we", I obviously mean "Jim". Ha! I just sit in the background stewing in angry thoughts.)

Rose

I had a really fun night out with Lara and Michelle on Saturday. The conversation was wonderful -- serious, light, silly.... we covered all basis. Dinner at DJ's was terrific -- except the refried beans. I was very disappointed. Normally I like me some good Mexican refried beans, but theirs were totally gross! I dunno... maybe I'm just bean picky. (Har, har!) 

Then when we got to Roses, surprisingly, I thought the music was really great. I say surprisingly because it was nice to see that Roses still caters to our older demographic. I like it when I know most of the songs and don't feel like a total geezer who is completely out of the dance music loop. Speaking of dancing, I had loads of fun on the dance floor -- until I hurt my knee, of course. But even that didn't stop me from enjoying myself. (My knee is better now, btw.)

So yeah, it was an all-around great girls night! (Thanks again for the good time!) 

Thorn

The only bad(ish) side... more annoying, really.... to our girl's night out is that Roses has hired some girl to hand people paper towels in the washroom. Poor girl. What a crappy job! (No pun intended.) It's not like Roses is some high-end restaurant where that sort of service is expected. It's a friggin' bar. (Known for its reputation of attracting HA's, no less...) 

I never thought to bring my purse with me into the washroom because we always had someone at our table, so I never had any money with me to tip the girl. (Not that I really wanted to anyway... I can manage my own paper towel dispensing, thanks.) So, needless to say, her presence made bathroom trips kinda awkward. We'd always wait until we saw a big crowd go in, that way we could try to dodge her if she was busy. Lame, I know... but really... it just felt weird. 

We speculated that maybe she's there to prevent drug use in the washroom, but at one point I could totally smell pot coming from one of the stalls... so... yeah... I doubt she's really stopping anyone. Why don't they just give the poor gal a tray and make her a waitress, or else give her a shirt that says "Security"? But paper towels? Really?

No offense Roses, you might be on the waterfront, but that doesn't mean you're high class.

Rose
Using my new Compassionate Cook cookbook that my friend Janet sent me last week, I made Veggies Taj Mahal and it was sooo good! I also made up some chutney to put on top. Delightful! Well, at least I really enjoyed it.

I think part of the reason I enjoyed making and eating it so much was because the recipe required a lot of different spices that I own, but never get to use. "Yay! Fennel seed! I've only used that twice before. Whoo hoo! Cardamom! I've only ever cracked the lid on that spice jar once." I even got to pull out my ol' mortal and pestle and grind up some coriander too. Oh yeah, good times in Mel's kitchen.

Unfortunately, when Jim returned from his outing he commented that our place smelled like our cab driver in Paris, which is not exactly a compliment. Ha ha ha! We were both convinced we were going to die from suffocation that day, as we held our breath for almost twenty minutes. Mon Dieu!! Actually, I can remember trying to survive the ride by pretending that his stink was just some sort of potent spicy dish, and that it wasn't the most wickedly rank b.o. I had ever had the displeasure of smelling in my entire life.

Of course, once the cooking was done and the air had cleared, Jim thought the Veggies Taj Mahal tasted pretty good, so that's all that counts, right?

Thorn
Okay, this isn't really a thorn, but I don't have many too many these days, so I'm just gonna stick this one in here just for fun.... The creepy ballon.

A few weeks ago when we had Jim's family in to celebrate his dad's birthday, we bought a few balloons. Only one of them now remains -- the tinfoily kind that always seems to last. We've kept it around the house because, well... why not? However, the last two days, Mr. Happy Birthday Balloon has taken on a life of his own and floats around the house on his own accord. For weeks, he was content to just hang out next to our DVD cabinet, but now he moves all around the living room. He hovers down the hall. He hangs out above our bed. He visits the far corner of the spare bedroom. And he even spent a night lingering in my bathroom.

I'm sure it's all part of the gradual helium-deflating process, but I have to admit that Mr. Happy Birthday Balloon is starting to freak me out. Sometimes I'll open the door to a room or round a corner -- and boom! -- there he is greeting me face to face. And I do mean face to face, as he sometimes likes to hover around at eye-level instead of floating up to the ceiling (which he still occasionally does).

See what I mean by creepy? I think I should just deflate him... and yet, I kinda enjoy the surprise of being unexpectedly greeted by him. Ha.

Rose
The email about our other possible Donovan casting choices. That was a great night! Not much more I can say about that....

Thorn
Well, considering my last thorn was a stretch -- a creepy Happy Birthday balloon, do ya really think that I have any more thorns to share this week?  Of course not. (Which isn't such a bad thing now, is it?)

Nothing To See Here

As the title suggests, as of April 27th this post has been deleted.

As we begin the casting process, we've been asked not to discuss these details with anyone. While this blog has a limited audience, I felt I should cover my tushy and remove this post just in case. ;)

Food for Thought

This article was written by the same author as the last one I posted. Here he proposes an interesting idea that will never happen. While I obviously like the idea of geographic equality, I think he makes a pretty darn good point.

Anyhow, like my subject line says, it's just food for thought....

Want to Green the Olympics? Stop Moving Them Around.

For all the efforts to minimize the impact of the Olympics, one big solution never gets taken seriously. So much of the environmental and financial cost of the games comes from cities trying to build facilities that suit both a massive, two-week influx of athletes and spectators and also the long-term needs of locals. So you get things like Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 summer games and not paid off in full until 2006. Or the “spookily quiet, deserted” Olympic villageTom Philpott saw in Turin, Italy, two years after the games there.

Photo courtesy BinoCanada via Flickr

The solution: Hold the Olympics in the same location every time, one spot for the summer games and one for the winter. Since the greatest concentration of athletes comes from Europe, putting the summer games in, say, Athens and the winter games somewhere in the Alps would minimize jet travel, which accounts for fully half the carbon impact of the Vancouver games.

This idea has been floated before and explored at length elsewhere, and it’s worth considering. You’d no longer have local organizers trying to defensively explain how massive, fast-track infrastructure projects are really in an area’s long-term interest. Canadian officials say the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion from Vancouver to Whistler was needed even without the Olympics. If that’s true, then they shouldn’t have needed the 2010 games to provide impetus for it.

A permanent Olympics home is unlikely to happen, of course, because these things aren’t driven by rationality and a desire to minimize environmental impacts. They’ve got much more to do with the International Olympic Committee’s desire for geographic equity and with host nations’ pride and ambition. As each opening ceremony makes clear, the Olympics wouldn’t be the same without this element. And it’s unlikely the Greeks or Italians or whoever would muster the same level of excitement every four years that Canadians are contributing now.

Still, the three official “pillars” of the International Olympic Committee are sport, culture, and environment. If organizers were serious about the third pillar, they’d give the traveling show a permanent home.

Jonathan Hiskes is a Grist staff writer. He reports, tweets, eats, asks questions, self-promotes, looks out windows, and wonders if it could be like this.

The 10 Greenest and Brownest Things About Vancouver

I thought this article was quite interesting... Especially since Jim n' I have occasionally toyed with the idea of  moving to Van someday, (although not in any level of seriousness.) It provides an interesting breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the city.

Of course, I guess if I were to be truly honest with myself, while I like Vancouver quite a lot, I think if someone were to ever kidnap me, tie me up in the back of a U-Haul, put a gun to my head, and said that I absolutely had to move to a big city and live there for the rest of my life and could never leave.... I'd probably have to choose Toronto over Vancouver. 

*Gasp!* I know, right?! ;)

For starters, I have waaay more friends n' family in Ontario.... And yes, I know that Jim doesn't have any peeps there... but hey, this is my blog, and we're talkin' about me being kidnapped in a U-Haul, not him. Plus, after our last visit together out East, Jim admitted that he liked Toronto quite a bit more than Vancouver too. Those of you living in the GTA may laugh, but he couldn't get over how few homeless people he saw (in comparison to Van anyway), as well as how clean the city was. (Of course, we weren't visiting during a garbage strike...) 

Now, not that this is an advertisement for the "Centre of the Universe", (I know how a lot of westerners like to shake their fists at TO n' all... although I'm hoping that none of you readers fall into that category), but aside from the obvious friends n' relatives factor, the three main reasons why I think I like TO slightly more than Van is because it gets way less rain, it's more affordable (believe it or not!), and as I alluded to above, the level of poverty and open drug use doesn't seem to be nearly as bad, IMHO. (And according to this article, MHO appears to be correct.) 

Of course, I have no plans on moving back to Ontario anytime soon or even in this lifetime. I really, really love BC, and so in BC we will stay. I think if we were to move anywhere within this province, I totally have my heart set on Tofino. Ah yes... someday...  someday... 

Okay.... Now enough with my ridiculous hypothetical situation tangents, and let's get on with the article. 

Courtesy Ecstaticist via Flickr

The 10 Greenest and Brownest Things About Vancouver

All eyes are on are Vancouver this month—not just on the Olympics, but on the city itself.  Is the world’s biggest athletic circus making the city a better place to live in the long term?  A worse one?  Or is it just putting the global spotlight on strengths and weaknesses that will persist long after the games? 

The David Suzuki Foundation, a prominent Canadian environmental group based in Vancouver, has a mildly optimistic take. It gives the games a “bronze” medal for green efforts, praising the smartly designed venues, fairly compact layout of the games, and transparent carbon accounting. But it says organizers missed a big opportunity by making many transportation improvements temporary rather than permanent additions to the city.

Many locals have a much dimmer view, protesting the $6 billion public bailout used to rescue the games from recession woes, a ticketing racket that shut out many locals, and the perception that real estate honchos held undue sway over the planning.

Whatever your view, while the spotlight is trained on Vancouver, there’s a lot to learn there about what makes a city successful, and what gets in the way. 

The best of Vancouver

An ambitious leader: Mayor Gregor Robertson, a guy who rides his bike to work, has staked his legacy on a plan to make Vancouver the most climate-friendly city in the world. It already has the lowest per-capita emissions of any major city in North America. By ramping up building energy standards and getting residents to drive less, Robertson hopes to catch green leaders Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Downtown densityGrist photo/Jonathan HiskesDensity: The city’s high population density is most apparent downtown, birthplace of the slender, cylindrical “Vancouverist” architectural style. Three years ago, planning leaders led a citywide EcoDensity discussion to show how efficient land use improves quality of life. The city’s downtown added 50,000 people and two schools in the past decade, evidence that it’s figured out how to draw families, not just single folks, into the city center.

Mass transit: Vancouver is a rare major city with no highways downtown. Instead, it provides commuters with light rail, buses, and ferries. There’s a new rapid rail line linking downtown to the airport and a (possibly temporary) streetcar, both added in time for the Olympics. It’s the only metro region in Canada to show decreasing commute times in a 2006 study, suggesting residents are finding ways to live near where they work.

Low-carbon energy: The city gets much of its electricity from hydropower dams. The credit goes to having mountains nearby rather than to any great foresight. And hydroelectric dams inflict their own significant environmental damage. Still, this goes a long way toward keeping the city’s carbon emissions low.

Beauty: The Strait of Georgia and the snow-capped Coast Mountains sit just outside the city’s windows. Like hydropower, they have more to do with fortune than planning. Still, they provide constant reminders of what’s worth protecting.

Image: Vancouver 2010A flashy centerpiece: The new Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek—constructed on a former brownfield site—draws together a slew of green-building innovations, experiments in neighborhood design, and a novel blocky structure that owes more to Amsterdam than to typical Vancouverist towers. It stands to draw lots of Olympic-related media coverage, though its cost and shrinking affordable-housing goals take off some of the sheen. Here’s the full story Grist reported last summer, along with a slideshow.

The worst of Vancouver

Poverty and homelessness: Vancouver’s black eye is the infamously squalid Downtown Eastside, just blocks from a main tourist drag and several Olympic venues. It’s marked by chronic poverty, open-air drug use, mental illness, and prostitution, and has been called the worst slum in an affluent city in the world. Dozens of social service organizations work in the area trying to stem the suffering, and poverty advocates have organized a Poverty Olympics to try to put the shadow city in the global spotlight.

Affordability: Vancouver has the least affordable housing market among 28 major cities in Canada and 272 in other developed countries—Ireland, the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.—according to a recent study. The Olympics have only worsened the shortage of affordable housing. The city’s promise that the Olympic Village would contain low- and middle-income housing has been scaled back, and it still hasn’t determined who will qualify, or how.

Crime: Gangs have long warred over the region’s drug trade, and last year saw increasingly brazen attacks—including some 60 homicides in the area—before the police stepped up an anti-gang campaign.
“18 die as drugs war rages on streets of Vancouver” reads the headline of a chilling overview from the U.K.Telegraph.

Sprawl: While the city proper has handled growth relatively well, its suburbs have followed more typical sprawl patterns. Public transit has been unable to keep up with the outward growth. The province of British Columbia still tilts its transportation funding toward roads, crimping the growth of regional mass transit, said Suzuki Foundation climate specialist Ian Bruce.

When the Olympics have come and gone, Vancouver will have a new green neighborhood, a bit more public transit, and, for the most part, the same advantages and challenges it had before. For anyone interested in figuring out ecologically sustainable urbanism, it’ll still be a city worth watching.

Jonathan Hiskes is a Grist staff writer. He reports, tweets, eats, asks questions, self-promotes, looks out windows, and wonders if it could be like this.

I'm happy because...

I'm happy because I had so much fun out with the girls on Saturday night. We enjoyed a late dinner at DJ's Mexican Restaurant, followed by dancing at Roses. I was smart and drank plenty of water (and light beer) so I wouldn't be hurting the next morning. The only thing aching was my left knee. I have no idea what the hell I did to it -- must've been my super fancy dance moves? Fortunately, it seems to be better today. Gawd, I am totally getting old...


I'm happy because I had the most perfectly perfect Valentine's Day with my most perfectly perfect Valentine. I started the day by making us banana waffles with real maple syrup. After breakfast, Jim n' I exchanged flowers for scratch n' wins along with sappy cards. (You can use your intuition to guess who gave which to whom.) We then spent the afternoon at Blendz, drinking coffee (well, I had London Fog, but whatever...) and working on our revised script outline. Afterwards, Jim surprised me with dinner at Manteo, where we held our wedding reception.

Once back home, Jim (who really went over the top) surprised me again with chocolate, wine, danishes (which he had originally bought for our breakfast) and a new pack of conversation cards, which I haven't been able to find anywhere! Last Valentine's I prepared our dinner table with a set of conversation cards, and we played with them as we ate. They ask all kinds of interesting questions, encouraging conversations about topics you normally wouldn't think to discuss. We had so much fun with them that I wanted to find another deck this year, but the store was no longer carrying them. Jim still won't tell me where he managed to locate the new edition. Sneaky! Sneaky! :P


I'm happy because I just submitted this week's Urban Harvest order. Don't ask me why this excites me so much, but it does. For almost a half hour, I was sitting here with a stupid grin on my face, picking n' choosing from their unique selection of produce. I love mixing it up, and researching all the different kinds of vegetables I've never heard of before. Call me a food geek, I really don't care. I like that I find delight in such little things.


I'm happy because our new outline is 97% there. (Thanks mostly to Jim. I always take very thorough notes in our meetings, and then he works everything into a comprehensive spreadsheet.) We just have one problem left to solve that takes place in the third act. What is Lionel's motivation to... well, I probably shouldn't tell you. Suffice to say, we need to figure out why he'd be motivated to do A instead of B, when B seems like the perfect solution, but unfortunately, it doesn't give us the action we need to take place. Blegh. I'm still happy though... because like I said, we're almost there.

Anyhoo, that being said, I should probably work with Jim to try n' figure that last problem out... I think I might have a solution that could work. If it does, then I'll really have good reason to be happy!

Roses and Thorns Feb 6 - 12

Consider this sentence my mandatory introduction.... Okay, now let's hop to it.

Rose
Very productive meetings in Vancouver. Even though the writing process sometimes feels almost endless, I know we've actually made incredible headway. I think we're both pretty pleased with the results from this week's meetings. It also helped immensely to have some fresh outside input.

Thorn
Being brutally honest requires some very hard cuts. The time has come to cut the fat, and over the course of this past week, we've lost a couple great scenes out on the battlefield. Le sigh. The funny thing is, I think we both surprised ourselves at how easily we cut out these scenes. I think Jim n' I recognize that the college scenes don't really push the story forward. Sure, they're nice... but there's no big payoff that can't be achieved in better ways.

It's too bad because we both loved a couple of those scenes. We've crafted some pretty witty dialog over the last draft or two, and now it has all been stripped to the wayside. We especially mourn the loss of our clever hotel room riddle.

So, in memory of this beloved riddle, I will share it with you now before it finds it's final resting place, buried deep within our 'Development Drafts' folder, where it shall never be read again. Poor lil' hotel room riddle.

***Argh. Never mind. Jim won't let me include the scene in case we find somewhere else in the story to shoehorn it in. Oh well, when the script is finalized and the joke is inevitably cut, I promise to tell it to you then. ;)

Rose
A safe and comfortable ride to, from and around Vancouver. The only damage done was when a stone was kicked up by a car driving past us and it chipped our windshield.

However, interestingly enough, before we left town, the gal at Budget who rented us the vehicle wrote on the damage assessment that there was already a chip in the windshield. She said to me, "I'll just put this down now in case you get one along the way. That way you won't have to fill out any paperwork when you get back."

Funny, huh?

Thorn
Getting towed wasn't exactly a highlight of our trip. Of course, it could've been much worse. We can swallow $65. A stolen vehicle would've been another story.

Rose
Olympic fever.... or at least, Olympic warmth. For a girl who normally couldn't care less... well, maybe not "couldn't care less".... how about, "not exactly bursting with excitement" over the big event, I found that being around all the pre-Olympic action in Vancouver really lifted my energy. I was wishing that we could spend another few days there just to continue soaking it all in. (Sans meetings, of course.... )

Thorn
Keeping in tune with the Olympics, I'd like someone to answer the question why the news keeps replaying the horrific scene of that young Georgian luger's death. Like really? Do people actually need to see that?! Maybe the media should ask themselves if they would want to watch one of their friends or relatives get killed on camera over and over and over again. Just because there's footage, doesn't make it right.

Rose
I got an unexpected package in the mail this week from my friend Janet. It was a belated Christmas gift which included all kinds of great goodies including her second-hand vegetarian cookbook, a package of Quebecois fudge, two free trade chocolate bars, a package of free trade coffee, a can of poutine sauce, a box with 7 bars of local goat's milk soap, and a homemade painting of a coffee cup that says "Coffee first. Then your mundane bullshit." Ha. Best of all, there was a little note describing the inspiration behind most of the gifts. So much fun! :)

Thorn
Is going to the dentist for a cleaning a thorn? I was complemented on my brushing and flossing, so that was okay. But keeping your mouth open for that whole 40 minutes is a real pain in the jaw. Oh yeah, and not having benefits anymore is kind of a pain in the ass. Long gone are the days when I only pay $30 for a cleaning.

Rose
Yesterday, I was asked by Cassandra, an old friend and co-worker of Jim's, if she could post a photo I took of our eccentric San Diego cabbie to a website she runs with her friends called, "GranPaparazzi".  And oh my goodness, you MUST check this site out! It is just sooo super cute. I love it!

The site is about fashionable seniors, but I won't do it justice to describe it. You'll just have to check it out for yourself. Some of the photos are just precious. I haven't made it through the entire site yet, but my current fav is DeNiro and his flashy turban. Simply awesome.

Our neighbourhood is brimming with seniors, and I already have a couple other photogenic subjects in mind who I'd love to submit. Like the little old lady who is always dressed to the nines as she walks her poodle pup down the path. She often wears flashy jewelry (I believe her husband was a diamond carver, or something like that), and she has a wide-brimmed purple hat that is lined with colourful little "worry dolls", as they're sometimes called. I think her name might be Pearl...

Thorn
Uganda's parliament is passing a horrible new law that would punish gay people with prison or even death.

From what I've read, "The bill proposes life imprisonment for anyone convicted of having same-sex relations and proposes the death penalty for 'serial offenders'. NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV could be imprisoned for up to 7 years for 'promoting homosexuality'.  Even members of the public face up to three years in jail if they fail to report homosexuality to the police within 24 hours!"

Can you friggin' believe such a thing?!

Go here to sign the petition that will be sent to President Museveni, members of the review committee and Ugandan embassies worldwide, as well as key donor governments.


Alright... and that's it, that's all for another week.

Olympic Observations

While weren't actually in Vancouver during the Olympics, in many ways it felt as though we might as well have been, as Olympic fever was certainly in high swing. Below are my top ten Olympic observations. (In no particular order, of course.)

1. Unless it's July 1st, you'll never see so many people wearing red and white clothing that screams CANADA!

2. Unless you're in Moscow, you'll never see so many people wearing red and white jackets that scream RUSSIA!

3. While Vancouver is certainly a very multi-cultural city, the variety of different languages and accents I overheard was far more vast than the last time we had visited. Although Van already has a high Asian population, you could tell that there was obviously an influx of Asian tourists as many had their noses buried in maps and their digi cameras flashing. There were two or three languages I overheard but did not recognize, as well as Germans on the streets, Russians in the wine store, Italians in the spaghetti restaurant, Irishmen in the pub, and Aussie gals at the impound lot.... Yes. The impound lot. Bringing me to my next point....

4. To accommodate the increase in traffic, there is absolutely nowhere to park. As a result, we got towed. (We didn't see the sign up the block that said no parking after 3, and our meeting ran until 5.) And let me say, the impound lot was quite the hive of activity. Oh well, $65 is better than I had expected.

On the bright side, at least our rental wasn't stolen! Then again, someone would have to be pretty bold to steal a car considering....

5. There are police everywhere! And I do mean everywhere. It felt like they were on almost every street corner. Honestly, we couldn't go five minutes without seeing a cruiser or two, or an officer or three. I'd even go as far to say that you couldn't go two minutes without seeing one, but I don't want to be accused of exaggerating. I'd say five minutes is a generous estimate. (At least in all the areas we travelled through.)

6. In addition to a police presence on every street corner, Big Brother also occupies all corners of the sky. Helicopters circulate constantly. Our one producer speculates that it's intended to protect the city from acts of terrorism. Although, personally I don't see how a few helicopters could prevent any such thing. If some crazy person has a bomb strapped to their chest beneath his or her clothing, there's no anticipating that. Although I'm sure the helicopters would have an impact in helping to reduce crime with the ability to identify possible situations more quickly.

7. If you're a tourist without a map or a GPS, you're in trouble. Major detours spring up like weeds. What was open yesterday, might not necessarily be open today. Like in our case, Cambie Bridge. Bumper to bumper traffic slowly led us around through Chinatown, down Main and then finally to our producers' office over on East 2nd. We got very accustomed to hearing our GPS saying, "Recalculating. Recalculating." If we should never get to use our GPS ever again, it would still be well worth the investment for this trip alone.

8. Night lights. After our nap on Monday evening, I awoke to find a dozen large spotlights dancing in a vivid ballet that stretched across the sky and into the clouds. So cool. For the rest of the time we were there, I couldn't sit in the living room of our suite without my attention being constantly lured out the window. Okay, so it's not like the lights were doing anything that amazing - just crissing and crossing and bending and weaving this way and that - but it's still not something you see everyday.

(Forgive the pixely photo, but we didn't realize that we had our stupid camera on the video setting. :P)

9. While it was to be expected, there was certainly gouging aplenty going on. Of course I had seen it on the news before we headed to the city, but it was interesting to witness it firsthand.

For instance, our hotel restaurant normally offers a variety of tasty breakfast options for a range of prices. Right now all they are offering is a breakfast buffet for $25/per person. I don't know about you, but I can hardly finish a $13 breakfast, let alone eat $25 worth. When told of our sole breakfast option, our waitresses recommended a couple of other good places within the block. I think everyone else must've taken her up on her advice as the only people eating in the empty restaurant were three Russians. (I know this because they were all wearing those seemingly popular red n' white Russia jackets.) I don't know what the exchange rate is for Russian to CDN currency, but something tells me they were paying too much - even if breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Also, at the spaghetti restaurant, there was a memo clipped to the menu which read that a 17% gratuity would be automatically tacked on to all bills between Feb. 4 - 28th. This was something that I had seen on the news, because a lot of restaurants were concerned about travellers who are not accustomed to tipping in their countries. Fair enough. Fortunately, the service was great and so we upped our tip by another 3%, which is what we usually like to give for awesome service. But if the service was shit, needless to say we wouldn't have been so pleased...

10. There is an undeniable energy that feels almost electric, fueled by the high spirits of holidayers and all kinds of nifty sights n' sounds. Musical acts. Multimedia displays. Colourful light shows. People zip-lining across city blocks. Huge displays of every kind of artistic nature. Signs welcoming visitors in a wide variety of languages. Flags, flags and more flags. Everyone posing to have their photos taken. People even stopping to take photos of the homeless, which to me, felt kinda weird.

There was one point where Jim n' I found ourselves surrounded by folks snapping photos in every direction, so we pulled our camera out as well to take part in the action, only to realize, "Wait a minute... this is just Granville street. We don't need a picture of this."

I have to admit, for a girl who has never been totally "into" the Olympics,  (Yes, I absolutely admire the athletes' hard work and ambition. Sure, I appreciate the history. And of course, I love how it brings the world together.  That doesn't mean I necessarily care enough to tune in) I actually wished that we could've stayed for the opening ceremonies.

The excitement is definitely contagious. We almost felt like hypocrites when we joined the crowd to have our picture taken with the torch, considering that we never bothered to check it out when the torch passed through town. We recognized that it was one of those rare things we'd probably regret if we had kept walking by in search of a restaurant that wasn't overflowing out the door. We will never remember the name of the restaurant we ate at. But we will always remember that we got to hold the torch in Vancouver.

(Don't ask me where I was looking in this photo. I have no idea?)

Back in Vancouver

The clock radio started singing at quarter after five this morning.

*Snooze*

*Snooze*

"Oh gawd, please just ten more minutes!"

*Snooze*

We finally surrendered to Sun F.M.'s wake up call and pulled ourselves out of bed at 5:40. I don't think 5 hours is nearly enough sleep, but whatever... I'm sure new parents get a lot less. And while our baby may not cry and puke, it still had us rolling out of bed at an ungodly hour, so we could hit the road for Van.

We really should've gone to bed sooner, but it couldn't be helped. Jim n' I had been up to almost 12:30 preparing for our meeting. He wrapped up the rest of his thumbnail storyboards of the Car Crash scene, and then we reviewed some new dialog notes sent to us from our producers, written by She Who Hates Everything.

We were actually both very receptive to these new notes - with the exception of the f-bombs she scattered throughout. (No offense to SWHE, but I think f-bombs are a lazy way to create drama and tension... but whatever, I get her point and appreciate what she's trying to say.) Her notes illustrated how she felt Don could be much harsher without being a hateful character. Think Marty Crane from the TV show, Frasier.  (Just throw in a few f-bombs...) We found her dialog samples somewhat entertaining and are sure that we could make these kinds of tweaks on our own with relative ease.

Anyhow, we freshened up, finished packing, filled up some extra bowls with chows and H2O pour les chats, did a quick tidy (in case, y'know, heaven forbid something should happen to us while we're gone, and our friends n' family enter our apartment to find dishes in the sink or socks on the floor), and within an hour, we were out the door.

Now, while our little car is capable of travelling the sometimes treacherous, always unpredictable winter conditions through the mountains, it certainly is not ideal. It's small. It's light. It wiggles in strong cross winds. It hydroplanes in rain. It has four snow tires, but they'll still sometimes spin... which is always a nice feeling, let me tell you. So, as you can imagine, all things considered, driving the Coq in the wintertime is a real pain in the ass.

Fortunately, our wonderful producers took this into consideration and paid for a rental of a very nice high-falootin' SUV. They figured it was more feasible than flying, because then we wouldn't need cabs once we were in town.

Now, normally I'm not an SUV kinda gal. I think many of them are gas guzzling beasts and totally shitty for the environment (or at least many of them use to be back in my more hardcore Greenpeace activist days - I think I've heard that many have since improved their miles per gallon, along with their image...) Regardless, I will admit that I felt very safe. I'm normally white-knuckled the whole way on that four-hour journey, but today I didn't feel the need to hold my breath or whisper a desperate prayer for our safety even once. It also helped that despite a few thick foggy patches, the roads were totally bare. Hopefully the ride home will be just as good.

We also brought along our GPS, which I bought Jim for his birthday (because I anticipated that we'd be making a lot more of these trips), and it was sooo nice not having to watch for turn offs or street signs. We made it to our producer's office with plenty of time to spare. In fact, after we parked, Jim n' I spent fifteen minutes sitting in the car (not idling of course!), laughing to the comedy channel on Sirius. I have decided that I really love Sirius. Of course, I don't think we drive around often enough to make it worth the investment, but still, it was definitely a cool perk to our road trip.

Now that I've described our drive in excruciating detail, I'll get to the point of this post. Our meeting. In a word - awesome. It started off awesome with TC paying Jim a huge compliment on his storyboards. Not just his ability to draw - but his ability to visualize shot-for-shot of what he wanted to see with such clarity and with such a quick turnaround. Even though TC has seen Jim's storyboard work before, they were designed to meet another director's vision. The fact that Jim already knows our script shot-for-shot in his head, well, TC seemed kinda blown away. He told Jim that this talent will be a huge asset for the production of this film. Which is obviously a very nice compliment.

Next, we got down to bid'ness dissecting the work that still needs to be done. A third producer was also brought in to give his fresh perspective of the story. (Because when you're so intimately intrenched in something, it's hard to see the forest through the trees.) And my goodness, the brainstorming was just a-buzzin'! Every one of us was coming up with cool ideas to better define Lionel's character arc. We were all really in sync. One of us would have an idea on how we could enhance a scene. Then another one of us would think of a way to take their idea to the next level and make it even better. I mean, it was just so friggin', well... awesome!

Everyone walked away from today's meeting totally jazzed. None of us expect the next rewrite to be a total overhaul. Like both pro readers suggested, everything is already on the page -- it's just about tweaking certain elements we already have in our story and just making them a little stronger.

So yes... very, very exciting!

Anyhow, I have so much more to say - especially about all this Olympics nonsense. (After all, how could I yap all about being in Vancouver two days before the Olympics and not make any mention of it?!) But it's 8:30, we just woke up from a much-needed nap, and now we'd kinda like to head out for some much-needed nosh. So, perhaps I'll save that post for another time.

Roses and Thorns Jan 30 - Feb 5

I think some of my earlier posts this week kinda summarized quite a few of my roses.... but whatever... who said you can't count your blessings twice?

Rose
Our meeting on Tuesday. Everything about it was a rose: We're moving forward into packaging. We have another producer on board. I'm going to get paid to write a book. And then there are even one or two other things that I haven't mentioned, because it's too soon to disclose. Needless to say, they are nothing short of little miracles. :)

Thorn
Well, the current thorn in my side is the 13 pages of contract work that was passed back to me yesterday with rows of X's all through 'em. Nothing like a few dozen X's to really rub you the wrong way. Of course, that's what happens when you're expected to write instructions on how to use a product that wasn't finished being built yet. I had to use my magic powers to guess how it would work based on how similar products function.

Argh... Soooo very, very frustrating!

Anyhow, I'm not taking all those nasty X's personally. It's CIC's fault that they rushed me to write about their vapourware, and now they will have to pay me twice to do so. They should learn that there's a lot to be said for having patience.

And, as I have learned, there's a lot to be said for charging by the hour. If I had still been working at the office f/t, and this was dumped back on my plate, well... you can bet I wouldn't be taking it with simple sigh and a grain of salt. Ha.

Rose
Love, love, loving "Eat, Pray, Love". Love! It!

I've always enjoyed true stories, but more than that, I just adore Elizabeth's style of writing. And as if I wasn't already inspired to travel, just reading this book has really pushed me to start thinking a bit about my own bucket list of places I'd like to go, and things I'd like to see n' do just for my own personal fulfillment.

Actually, just the other night, one of my nearly-forgotten bucket list items found its way into a conversation I was having with my friend Lara. After watching a T.V. documentary a few years ago, I decided that I really want to take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing (or vice-versa) someday.

While there are obviously a million places in this world that I would love to visit, (Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Florence, the Galapagos Islands, and New Zealand to name a few...), as an experience, the Trans-Siberian just seems SO completely out of my comfort zone, which is what I think makes it so incredibly appealing. I'd also like to spend a day with the Mongolian nomads, as some of the Trans-Siberian tours allow you to do.

Since Lara is interested in visiting both Moscow and Beijing, she wrote down our tentative barstool plans on the back of a business card. "Trans Siberian Railway - April 2011". Whether or not I can actually save up enough money while living on funding n' the odd contract job between now n' then has yet to be seen. (Of course, if CIC keeps sending stuff back to me, I should be doing okay....) But at least I know that when the time comes where I can afford this unique adventure, I will be in good company. (As I don't think this journey quite makes Jim's top ten... or even top 50 for that matter. Of course, you never know....)

Thorn
Well, this isn't really a thorn for me, it's actually more of a sympathy thorn for Jim. Because our deadlines are so crazy tight if we want to shoot this fall, this week Jim was asked to thumbnail-storyboard two main scenes from the script and write out all of his director's notes (on the themes, production design, sound design, style, characters, etc... ) for our Vancouver meeting on Monday.

Anyhow, while Jim is absolutely loving writing out his director's notes, (and they're coming along exceptionally well, btw) the drawing has been more of a pain in the neck - literally. After spending two days from morning until the wee hours of the next morning drawing out all the shots for the Science Fair scene, he was suffering from an aching neck, tight shoulders and a sore wrist.

Fortunately, our producers seemed quite impressed with what he has provided so far, but he still has the second Car Crash scene left to draw this weekend. I wish there was something I could do to help him... but I'm not the director. I guess just keeping the house clean n' cooking meals is help enough.

To show my support, I tried to stay awake with him the other night. So I read my book until 2:30 a.m., but then I finally had to crash. I think he came to bed around 3:30. Oh well... aches n' pains aside, the end result is that he'll get to direct a movie. No pain, no gain, right? ;)

BTW, here's just a couple thumbnails Jim drew. This three minute scene required close to 80 shots, if that gives you any indication as to how much work he has ahead when it comes time to storyboard our 100+ minute movie.

Rose
My new paint brushes and canvas!! Currently, my swirly yellow painting is winking at me from the corner of the living-room, coyly tucked behind the wingback chair. Maybe once I'm done writing this blog, I'll go enjoy his company some more.

Thorn
While out for dinner earlier this week, I was talking with my hands and carelessly knocked over a glass of red wine. To my complete surprise, it totally shattered, spilling all over my shirt, my pants, my purse.... ugh. Oh yeah, good times!

The waitress kindly brought me a free refill and sweetly assured that I was actually the third person to shatter a glass that evening. Guess there were a lot of klutzes out on the town for a Wednesday night. Anyhow, thank goodness I was able to Shout it out. You'd never know that there was ever a spot.

Oh yeah, and even though this isn't a thorn, I wanted to mention that our waitress also dropped off two crispy crunch shooters just after we paid our bill, "just because". Isn't she the sweetest!? I love my neighbourhood pub! :)

Rose
We received our first delivery from Urban Harvest this week. Yay! Fresh organic produce delivered right to our door, for less than what we'd pay at the grocery store. Best of all, even though it's February, somehow the majority of the produce is still local. (Except the more exotic things like bananas and oranges... and since it's winter, the Roma tomatoes are from south of the border as well.)

When making your order, UH provides you with the ability to swap their weekly selection of produce for other fruits n' veggies they have on hand, but for the most part I tried to stick to what they already had on this week's list. (I only swapped the pears for oranges, and the rainbow chard for tomatoes.) I want to force myself to be creative with cooking, so I left the beet, cabbage and carrots on the delivery list and attempted to make Borscht this evening. It actually turned out pretty good.... if you don't mind beets, of course. I know that Jim doesn't care for 'em, but he still cleaned his bowl like a champ. What a great guy. ;)

I'm excited to slice up the watermelon radish, which is about the size of a turnip, and see what that tastes like. UH also provides recipes so you know how to use some of their more unusual vegetables. Fun stuff -- if you're the adventurous foodie type, that is...

Thorn
Hmm... I don't really have any more thorns this week. Let me think....

Well, I feel like I'm really slipping on the whole "being healthy" thing.  Like, I haven't been drinking enough water lately, and I'm sure that I've forgotten to take my vitamins a few days in a row now. So, I suppose that's a thorn.

I've also only been out for one walk this week too. Okay, maybe two walks. But still, I don't know if that's really enough to be considered exercise. I've gotta get back on the ball!

I almost need a little checklist on the fridge to ensure that I'm exercising three times a week/drinking 8 glasses of water a day. And as for taking my vitamins... I have no excuse. They're right on top of the fridge and I usually always take them... I guess I just haven't been thinking lately.

Rose
I've been having some really amazing, insightful and - in a couple cases - completely mind-altering conversations about metaphysics this week -- and with people I'd never ever expect!

Two of them are folks who I haven't spoken to in about 10 years. In one case, it's a guy I went to college with -- and it's not like we ever got into any deep conversations back then. (In fact, I can't even remember any conversations we might've had, although I'm sure that we did speak at some point....)

Anyhow, he had posted a pretty mind-bendy video on FB about "Creating Reality" which I totally felt compelled to comment on, because it sounded like it's straight out of the Seth Material.

(A side note: I have yet to meet anyone who has read the Seth Material.... except the one random customer who introduced me to the subject when he generously gave me two of his Seth Speaks books back when I was waitressing at the BG. Little did he know what a profound affect they would have on my way of thinking. Or then again, maybe he did know? Why else would he be so inclined to pass them on to some random waitress at a dingy lil' blues club?)

Like I was saying, since my casual comment on his video, my college pal n' I have gotten into these crazy long email discussions about perceptions of reality, the Law of Attraction, "Seth Speaks and The Eternal Validity of the Soul", and all kinds of other Matrix-y topics that take your mind way, waaaaay down the rabbit hole.

Weird, wild stuff I tells ya!

Of course, that's what makes it so cool....