Where's Willy?

As I was paying for lunch at the cafeteria today, I received a 5$ bill with a website address on it. The website is called Where's Willy, after Wilfred Laurier, a former Canadian prime minister whose face appears on the 5$ bill. It is so cool because it basically tracks how money travels. I'm such a geek but I find it fascinating! By the way, my American friends, there is also Where's George to track American currency.

In other news, Eve was supposed to arrive in TO tonight, but she is missed her layover and is stuck in Memphis instead. Bah. Take care, Evie. See you tomorrow. Actually, it will give me time to vacuum and clean so I think we're all winners here. LOL

An Effect of Birth Order on IQ

Over my undergrad and graduate career, I've read a lot about intelligence. It's overall a very controversial topic in psychology. A new Norwegian study published in the journal Science quite convincingly demonstrates that older siblings (in the case of this study, they looked at 241, 310 men) will have a slightly higher IQ than their younger siblings. What is fascinating is that it is not so much the effect of being the first born as the effect of being the eldest in the family, because this effect was also found in boys whose oldest sibling had died during childhood and now found themselves the oldest of the family. A companion article by a psychologist at Berkeley outlines plausible reasons for this effect. The most likely theory is that oldest children find themselves in roles of tutoring youngest children and sharing knowledge and that this role benefits more the oldest child than the youngest. Anyway, there are many more fascinating intricacies to it all, but I thought this was so interesting.

Oooo, Extras DVD!

David, I don't know if you still read my blog, but given that I don't have access to Hotmail (and consequently your email address) from work, I thought I would post this here to remember to tell you. Look what is coming out July 10!


Brilliant! Hopefully, my videostore will get it. At any rate, we'll need to have a viewing party because I can't wait to see it.

The Wonder That Is The Internet! Plus YouTube-a-palooza!

Those who know me in real life know I have a fairly unusual name. So I was really surprised when someone with the same exact name contacted me on Facebook and she lives right near where I live. How crazy is that? Especially given that she speaks French, and it is not exactly full of French speakers around here. I thought that was cool.

I couldn't sleep early this morning so I played with YouTube from links at a board I frequent. But whenever I get one link, it leads me to something else and so now... Anyway, I present to you fun clips from my hunt.

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers. This video is amazing. They've compiled 100 movie clips with each number from 1 to 100. It's so cool. Oh, and I had totally guessed what they would use for number 11! LOL (11, 43, and 71 are in my Top 20 favourite movies! :))



How cute are this puppy and kitten play fighting? This kitten is tenacious if a little foolish...



Oh, and an Office video just because... "It's Getting Hot in Here, Scranton Style." (Technically, I know "here" is written with 2 "R"s in that song, but I refuse to write it that way.)

Gravity, 2; Me, 0.

If you are keeping track, last week I twisted my left ankle and fell in the stairs. I ended up with a few bruises on my legs but I was okay otherwise. Today, I twisted my right ankle walking home from the grocery store. I was wearing a knee length skirt and I managed to fall in gravel and dirt and scraped my whole left knee and upper tibia. Just lovely! It's a pain because it burns. It reminds me when I scraped both my knees when I had to do hurdle race in high school. (Not my idea of a good time, let me tell you!) Because of course we had to do that on gravel too.

Yay for Mix CD

I made myself a new CD for the summer... I am loving it. Here is the playlist:

1) Never Again, Kelly Clarkson - Yay for angry chick music.
2) Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 - Their whole album makes you want to dance.
3) Girlfriend, Avril Lavigne - Faux-punk princess meets bubble gum pop.
4) Middle of Nowhere, Hot Hot Heat - A band from British Columbia with a funky sound.
5) Lost Without You (Acoustic Version), Delta Goodrem - An Australian teen singer; this piano version is particularly nice.
6) Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield - I've been listening to her album for at least a year and I never get tired of it.
7) SexyBack, Justin Timberlake - Nothing to say that I can't not dance when I listen to that album... so I do!
8) Candyman, Christina Aguilera - I have enjoyed her throwback to 40s-50s music.
9) Here It Goes Again, Ok Go - Have Ok Go become mainstream at all? If not, they should.
10) These Walls, Teddy Geiger - "And even when I'm scared, I have to try to fly/Sometimes I fall/ But I've seen it done before/ I gotta step outside these walls"
11) When You're Gone, Avril Lavigne - Pretty ballad.
12) Extraordinary, Liz Phair - Girls rock!
13) Let Love In, Goo Goo Dolls - I hadn't heard the Goo Goo Dolls in a while... This is very good.
14) Courage, The Tragically Hip - The Hip = one of the best Canadian bands.
15) Islands in The Sun, Weezer - I just love it. You've seen the video with the band playing with animals? LOL
16) My Love, Justin Timberlake - See SexyBack.
17) Bad Day, Daniel Powter - Okay, so from what I understand, American Idol used that song a lot in previous seasons. It is still a good song though.
18) Keep Holding On, Avril Lavigne - Avril looks most unpleasant in interviews, but I like her poppy music.

(Not So) Clean Fun

A link to a ton of random, but funny, IRC conversations here.

So after I went to the ballet on Saturday night (which was outstanding), I went to see "Knocked Up". Talk about a different plane of entertainment... LOL Anyway, it was funny and I liked, but not nearly as much as I had enjoyed "The 40-Year-Old Virgin". I think Steve Carell really took that movie to another level. Plus, his chemistry with Catherine Keener was wonderful whereas while Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl were good, they were nothing outstanding. By the way, "Knocked Up" is raunchier than "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" if that is possible...

Before "Knocked Up", there were some previews and Seth Rogan's next movie is called "Superbad" and it stars Michael Cera (aka George Michael from "Arrested Development"!) Looks very funny. So I'll add that to my list of upcoming movies to watch out for. The one movie I want to go see this week or next is "Waitress". I need to go before it closes.

By the way, my blog turned 2 yesterday! How time flies by!