Cat Harbinger of Death

I stumbled upon this article, A Day in the Life of Oscar The Cat, about a cat living in a nursing home. He can apparently predict which patient is going to die next. I must say, this has me very intrigued. I'm not one for superstition at all so I am just wondering what the cat perceives that lets him know the patient will die soon. So strange.

This article is The New England Journal of Medicine so it is not like Conspiracy Theory Magazine or something. LOL

This Feels Like An April's Fool Joke...

but I guess it isn't: Falling in Love With Objects. My brain is broken by trying to understand this. How can you be in a sexual relationship with an iBook? I want to know. As much as they want to claim they're not fetishists, I beg to differ. Anyway, I am not going to judge too much because I was far too invested and happy on Thursday night, knowing two fictional characters were finally going on a date. ;) Well, you know though it is not a deep-abiding love for fictional characters and I'm not sleeping with Jim and Pam action figures as of yet. LOL Although I may as well come out and say it, I would date Jim Halpert if he were real. Ha!



How cute are they? Very cute.

Canadian Spy Coins and High Maintenance Women

Two topics that have nothing to do with each other except for the fact I encountered both this week. Okay, so I didn't encounter the spy coins, but I read about them. Seriously, listening devices in Canadian toonies? I thought this was the stuff of spy movies, but I guess not.

As for high maintenance women... I am one of the two interns in a hospital department. This week, there were two days of interviews for potential interns that will occupy our positions next year. It was my (and the other current intern's) responsibility to take them out to lunch. Most people were very nice and friendly. But one girl just stood out, and not in a good way. She was probably very nervous, but there was something beyond that. As an interviewee, you usually try to be accommodating, but she was being a bit of a pain for restaurant choice. Then, when we got to the restaurant, I swear to God, she ordered like Sally in When Harry Met Sally. It took her like 3 minutes to order a salad with all her questions and demands for changes to the chef's salad. I am really not exaggerating. But this was nothing compared to the fact that she didn't let anyone else talk during lunch, and asked the other intern and me a bunch of questions she barely let us answer. Yikes. Talk about not so good first impression.

Oh, one more thing... Golden Globes tomorrow night! Be there or be square.

So Disturbing...

There was a shooting at a school (cegep, which is between high school and university) in downtown Montreal today. I have had shivers up and down my spine all afternoon. It can't help but remind me of the 1989 shooting of 14 women in a Montreal university. I was young then, but it always stayed with me. It was one of the first times I was ever aware incomprehensible acts of hate happened in the world. It is just unbelievably sad. The theme of this week is random acts of hate.

Sad News

Émilie Mondor, a Canadian Olympic runner, died in a car accident last night. She was 25. She went to the same high school as I did, and she was 2 grades behind me. I didn't know her personally, but I remember that she used to win most track and field events at the school's olympics every year. She was the pride of the high school and her every move was followed by the local paper. So sad for someone so young to pass away.

I Want A Chef's Knife!

Most of you know my love of kitchen utensils and appliances. I'm getting really frustrated with my crappy knives. Really, really frustrated. I was trying to cut some fish last night, and it was an exercise in patience. I have been looking at chef's knives, but today, I decided to go investigate a bit further in stores. It turns out that the kind of 8" chef's knife that I'd like is priced for at least 130$. Hard to justify such a purchase. So I decided that to justify spending 130$ on a knife, I would use it as a reward to myself to help move along the thesis. LOL Hence, I shall buy myself a chef's knife only when I have completed a full first draft of my thesis. That should get me writing fast. LOL After successfully defending my thesis, even if I'm broke, I'm getting a Cusinart! Kitchen stuff= good bribery for me.

In other news, I got to see a swarm of police cars close the intersection I was crossing on Thursday. The policemen were saying a man in a car said he had a bomb strapped to him. Lovely. It turned out not to be the case, thank God.

Besides that, I started my clinical internship yesterday. Very exciting stuff. It is going to be so much fun. :)

Ken Lay Dies

Ken Lay Dies of Heart Attack. Is it karmic retribution?

Thursday Morning Blitz

Data analysis has picked up so I'm in a good mood today. I'm feeling physically tired because I've run/walked quite a bit in the last 2 days, but it feels nice. Plus, my parents are coming on Saturday so it will be nice to see them.

I got my invitation to a friend's wedding yesterday. I had been all excited about going but now that I'm looking at things such as the price of the plane ticket (it would be a 12-hour drive and I'm not sure I want to have to drive 12 hours and back in the span of 2 days) and hotel, I'm just not sure I can spare the expense. Plus, life is crazy busy this summer. On the other hand, I think it would be a shame if I missed out on this. I'm so happy she is getting married. I have to RSVP (which comes from the French "Réservez, s'il vous plaît.", meaning "Reserve, please.") by July 5th so I'll think about it.

In random news, it looks like Keanu Reeves wants to get married and have kids. I'll gladly volunteer for that job. ;)

Besides that, we are having fun here dealing with potential terrorism. It's not a surprise that sooner or later, that was going to happen. I'm glad our police and secret services have done a good job, although to think we are out in the clear would certainly be wishful thinking. I guess I'm not overly worried about it, because I think it is pointless to worry about something we have such little control over. I can only hope all these good people out there protecting us continue to do their job so efficiently.

I Am Speechless. I Am Without Speech.

I must say I just find this sad: Send a Brick. "We are tired of open borders, uncontrolled immigration, terrorist infiltration, the spread of pandemic diseases, criminal alien gangs and all the other horrors that can arise due to our defenseless borders and unenforced immigration laws."

As a Canadian living in a very multicultural city, I find this kind of attitude very dismaying. Building a big wall is not the answer to feeling threatened by immigration. There has to be more reasonable alternatives.

Yay! New Episodes of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show Tonight!

Both shows were on holiday last week so yay for that.

On a less joyous topic, I was watching the news at dinner time, and they were reporting that the biggest food bank in Toronto did not have enough food to feed 170,000 people who use food banks every month (which is such a high number for a city of 5 million people, by the way). Anyway, it prompted me to get off my butt, which is a good thing. Went to the grocery store, filled a bag with food, and dropped it in the donation bin. I feel ashamed that I need to be prompted to remember to give to those in need.

Okay, I must got back to marking papers...

One more thing, if you missed SNL this weekend, you missed the awesome Laser Cats short film. So so funny. Go watch it.

Catcalling

I was not aware this was an issue in the US. There is an interesting article about it in Montreal's Mirror.

The Mirror is a free newspaper that I used to read it every week (along with Voir) on the subway & the bus when I lived in Montreal. See, I used to spend an insane amount of time on public transit (on average, 10-15 hours a week) so I needed some distraction. LOL

Amazon Celebrates 10 Years, Heat & Terrorist Attacks

How is that for a post title? LOL I'm having varied things on my mind. I actually mostly have work things on my mind these days (I'm buried in books) but I need to talk/write about other things so here goes nothing...

I was browsing Amazon.com last night to see when the third season of NewsRadio would be released on DVD (soon, please, Mr. Simms!), and I saw that Amazon is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and having various activities to celebrate. One of the coolest things they are doing is the Special Deliveries. A celebrity delivers a package containing a book he/she wrote, a DVD of a movie or TV series he/she appears in,... As far as publicity stunts to flaunt the wonderfulness of a company go, I thought it was pretty cool. I loved the clip of the girl whose Sex & The City DVDs were delivered by Chris Noth. Hee. The girl moved from Greece to NYC, and she said her cousin would tease her, asking if she had met Mr. Big yet. Her cousin is in for a big surprise, pardon the bad pun. LOL

Besides that, it's really hot in TO. We are under a smog advisory, a humidex advisory, and an extreme heat advisory. Yikes. We beat a heat record today; it was 34°C (93°F), 40°C (104°F) if you factor in humidity. It's supposed to be like that until Saturday. It was actually kind of funny how they kept reiterating on the news how hot it was, getting Joe Q. Public on the street to comment. Gee, I didn't notice it was boiling hot! It is kind of funny that they have created emergency cooling centres in a few points in the city, yet the province has asked us to turn off our ACs to conserve electricity. Apparently, the hydroelectric grid is at a breaking point. I'm all for turning off lights and non-necessary appliances but the AC? Is kind of crucial this week if I don't want to turn into a melted brain. We didn't have it on last night, and it was just unbelievably uncomfortable. We do turn our AC off when we're not home but that's kind of as much as we can muster for now.

Terrorist attacks... It's really terrible what happened in London. So, now, of course, they are saying Canada is probably next. That's not exactly a surprise to me. But according Public Safety minister, we're not psychologically ready for it.

My inquiries are three-fold:

1) How can you ever be ready to get the crap bombed out of you?

2) Is she suggesting we should now live in a constant state of paranoia to ensure readiness?

3) Should I buy more duct tape?

Of course, I am living in the Canadian city most likely to be bombed (we have earned this title 4 years running! How lucky are we?). Honestly, I don't really buy the idea that we can be ready for it. Sure, we have to protect ourselves against it but are we going to live our lives in constant fear that the other shoe is going to drop? What a terrible way to live. I think it's this powerlessness against these groups of extremists that is most frustrating. How can we stop them? The war of terror sure has done diddly squat.

The Daily Show was back tonight! In a new studio too! The studio looks nice but the only thing I'm not liking about it is the words constantly floating behind Jon's head. They were distracting me big time; I felt like it overloaded my attentional resources. It was nice to see him satirize the media sensationalization of the London attacks. Marci Hamilton, who was there to discuss her book God vs. The Gavel , was quite an eye-opener on the overprotection and exemption from the law religious groups receive in the US. She was talking about how the Catholic Church has been seeking protection under the First Amendement for keeping its eyes closed on cases of child abuse. And it seems to have been working. Truly disturbing.

Melting Pot: Live 8 Concert, AI Gets Starstruck & The Daily Show.

Toronto is getting a Live 8 concert on July 2nd. Or so it has been reported in the media. The amphitheatre it will be held in is actually in Barrie, which is about an hour drive from Toronto. A friend and I were talking about going but to bus this would take 2 hours, and our lineup is not nearly as interesting as London's. Seriously, I would kill to go if I were in London. U2, Madonna, REM, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Coldplay, Dido, Mariah Carey, Sting, Pink Floyd, and the list goes on. As much as I think this is exciting as an event, I'm really wondering what it will do to help poverty relief in Africa. I'd like to think it will make a difference but somehow, it just seems like it will be a thing that will momentarily enter people's psyche to go right out again. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that people are trying to make a difference. I'm just wondering if rock concerts distract from the real goal of this endeavour.

I encourage you though to support the White Band campaign. Wear a white ribbon any way you can to signify your support to this campaign against poverty. I am going to put one on my backpack, and wear one in my hair. You can also buy the white wristbands on the Canadian page I just linked or on the American page.

In not-nearly-as-important news, since it was somehow decided there isn't enough American Idol on TV *rolls eyes*, they have to bring out a celebrity edition of the show where celebrities who are not known for their pipes will battle it out in a singing showdown. "Idol" Gets Starstruck - E! Online News report So Simon Cowell will get to yell and humiliate celebrities live while getting paid? He must think there is a God. Personally, I'm so over American Idol (and have been since season 2) so I shall stay away...

The Daily Show tonight was just awesome. Stephen Colbert had a hilarious field report on new members joining the Republican party but it was a porn director and a porn star, which led to a lot of silliness all around. I laughed so much. Very therapeutic! Howard Dean was also the guest tonight so it was very interesting.

I have more to say about the TTC deciding to invest in making public transit fun as opposed to on time and with newer buses & about la St-Jean but I'll keep that for tomorrow! :)