A comment that made me think a little

I was having a talk with someone about the guy with potential, i.e. the guy that gives me butterflies in my stomach. And she made a good point: "If he's married to his job, maybe he's not meant for you... Perhaps not in this lifetime."

I made the point that he was in a ten year relationship before hand, but she told me that apparently, people put up with a lot. So, I would have to investigate the level of commitment.

This is an interesting point... Maybe he's meant for me, but not in this lifetime. Or perhaps in my last lifetime, I was too busy for him, and now, he's too busy for me. Yet another interesting viewpoint.

Haha, I always find myself empathising with teen pop music...

Why is it that I always tend to find that 16 year old girls who sing songs, not written by them, echo my sentiments about certain things? For example, the song by Mikaila - Emotional completely echoes my fears about my current situation with the guy who gives me butterflies in my stomach.

I don't need a heartache
And crushes can be so fake
Sooner than you know it
They turn your world around
You might think I'm crazy
When I don't want red roses
I'd rather have you promise
That you'll never let me down

Chorus:

I don't wanna fall in love
I try and try but then we get emotional
Oh, I don't need a hit and run
Don't tell me we were only having fun

Kinda like your sweet talk
And that could make a good start
But if you wanna move me
You better play it straight with my heart

Chorus

So, maybe you're the one
Who gets me going on
But I'm not waiting for a star to fall
You've gotta treat me right
And be my knight in white
That's so emotional

Oh oh emotional
Oh oh emotional
Oh oh emotional
So emotional

Chorus x 2

Why is it that silly teenage poppy songs with a catchy beat always reflect my love situation? I guess I'm just a 16 year old teenage girl at heart... Yeah, girl power!

Lions for Lambs

On Tuesday, November 27, 2007 I went to see the movie Lions for Lambs. Three really well known actors that were in this movie were Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise.

The story is about the lives of three individuals. Streep, a journalist named Jeanine Roth, Cruise, a Senator named Jasper Irving, and Redford, a professor at a university named Stephen Malley. There are three stories unfolding during the movie. The first story is of two soldiers who were fighting in Afghanistan. We find out during the movie, that these two students used to be students of Professor Malley. The second story, it's the interview between Jeanine Roth and Jasper Irving, about his new plan to win the war in Afghanistan. The third story, it's an appointment between Professor Malley and Todd, who has only attended eight classes.

During the movie, we find out how each of these three stories are intertwined with each other. I didn't like the abrupt ending of the movie, but this was a very dramatic movie. I'm not a huge fan of Tom Cruise. I can tolerate Meryl Streep, but I think Robert Redford's acting as the professor was superb. Perhaps I just relate to the professor the best because he's an educator at heart, and that's what I inspire to be. There were some also difficult scenes to watch in this movie.

Overall, a war movie, semi-dramatic, and a bit hard to swallow, since there was a huge bit of American patriotism in this movie regarding the war in Iraq/Afghanistan. This movie didn't make me cry, but I think I heard some sniffles in the theatre.

This is rather bizarre...

I recently met a dude who is a nice guy online... We have a lot in common. He's very scientific, he's got a great sense of humour, etc..

Today, I have had butterflies in my stomach for the past two hours... I don't know if it's because he has more of an effect on me than I realized...

I guess I now know how people feel when they have a crush, or when they are in love... They are so in love that thinking about the other person gives them butterflies in their stomach...

Am I in love? I don't think so... Do I have a crush, maybe... I'm just going to see how things roll out with this fella... And try to think about something else so that the butterflies go elsewhere.

Dialogue Avec Mon Jardinier

On Tuesday, November 20, 2007, I went to see the film Dialogue Avec Mon Jardinier... The main character, an artist, was played by Daniel Auteuil.

The story is about Daniel Auteuil's character, le paintre - but called M. Dupinceau, who is on the verge of divorce with his wife... He decides to go back to his childhood home and spend some time there... He ends up hiring a garden, played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin, le jardinier Léo - but called M. Dujardin. What he doesn't realize is that this person was actually a childhood friend of his, and that they had one prank together that they both remember.

Aside from the little side track story lines of divorce, daughters getting married to men the same age as her father, etc., the most important storyline of all is the friendship that these two build, or rekindle, as they were already friends before hand. Granted of course, they each lived very different lives during the time they were married, but they are rebuilding the friendship... However, M. Dujardin has an ulcer, and even though M. Dupinceau takes care of his friend, he is after all, just an artist, and not a doctor...

This is a heart warming tail of two friends who connect again, and then realize that time is not on their side, since one of them has an illness that may not be cured... It's stories like this that make you realize just how fragile life is. This film is classified as a comedy, but the ending is actually pretty sad, and I nearly shed a tear.

It's about compromise?

Today, I was replacing someone for a fitness class. At about 11:30 a.m., a bunch of kids and their supervisors entered the gym. At this part of the course, I was finishing with stretches, and I don't mind the kids there. However, they weren't quiet...

So, I tried to get them to be quiet, and I was flat out told, "It's our time now, they have the right to be here."

Also, the volunteer in the weight room also said, "You have to cut your class."

I didn't start until 10:40 a.m. (because the previous class wasn't out until then), it would be unfair for me to cut my class 10 minutes.

There was a lot of negative energy in the above situation... And I think this could have been resolved in a much better way if the other people had approached the situation with a more positive attitude, i.e. communicate positively. Instead of saying, "You have to cut your class short", say "Is there something that you can do so that the kids can get into the gym on time at 11:30?", and then you would find out that the previous class didn't leave until 10:40 a.m..

Or instead of "It's our time now, we have the right to be here.", "The kids are really excited about their gym time, because they only get half an hour."

And I agree that I was not very positive in my responses, because of the negative energy that was first projected like a spitball in my face.

Just an observation of life. I think we would be much more harmonious if we thought out how we should phrase things before we said them. Unfortunately, not everyone does that.

And honestly, I know it's hard to keep a group of children quiet, but if you're hired to do so, then it's your job to do it, and if you can't do it, then it's a problem with your skills.

Michel D'Auber

On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, I went to see the film Michel D'Auber.

This is a French film about a foster family adopting an Algerian child in about 1960, because of the instability and rioting in Algeria. The father sends his two children into foster care, because he could not care for them full time, as he needed to work in a factory for about twelve hours a day, and the mother is sick in the hospital with leukemia.

The younger brother, who's named Michel (formerly Massaoud) by his foster family, because they didn't want him to face harassment in their village about being Algerian. This doesn't really succeed, however, as pretty much everyone in the town/village knew about him being Algerian... It's because his big brother couldn't stand being on a farm... Granted of course, the bigger brother, got the blunt end of the stick, since he got sent to work as a farm hand, and the little brother got sent to school, with a name change and everything. He even got his hair dyed.

The older brother always thought about escaping, and didn't listen to his father, when he told him that "When the situation is better, I will come back for you."

The story is mostly based upon the family's growing affection for this child, along with twists and turns... The father's unfaithfulness (father played by Gerard Depardieu), and the mother's unwilling journey into unfaithfulness as well (mother played by Nathalie Baye), as she falls for and has a fling with the school teacher.

There was also the gardener, whose name is Paul, and who looked like the French version of the Trailer Park boy who had the bottle pop glasses. * shudder *

The movie was funny, and it had warm fuzzy moments. One scene was very emotionally powerful, and it made me shed a few tears. But I didn't cry that much.

Not quite like that, no...

Today, when I was getting a ride home from teaching aerobics (this was at a Mandarin school), the teacher asked me if I needed to find a girlfriend, and if I had one... I didn't really answer the question in full, and I just stated that I believe that the whole thing about love is related to fate, and that when the time is right, I'll find the right person. I completely didn't mention the sex of this person, but for the purposes of this discussion, it wasn't important.

Please, if I am having difficulty with women with usage of words like haggard, I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life with one. Granted of course, they are very nice people, and I have lots of female friends, but still.

One of life's lessons

Don't call a woman haggard. Enough said. Nice lesson on annotation (dictionary meaning) and connotation (what the word is taken to mean).

Bollywood Restaurant

On Wednesday, November 7, 2007, I went to try out this Indian restaurant downtown, close to Guy-Concordia metro, called Bollywood Restaurant. My friends went to this restaurant for their third wedding anniversary celebration, and they suggested that I try it, since it's very good.

My conclusion, good service, the food is okay, the flavours are kind of hit and miss, depending on the item. I got a dahl soup with the meal, which was kind of bland, and I ordered some onion bhaji. Those were small, and a bit bland. The chicken curry on the other hand, was very tasty. But again, the servings were not really big for the price I paid... Granted of course, I did order a launch special, but I could pay a bit more and get Indian buffet...

It's not a really good experience, but it wasn't terrible... The onion bhaji was nothing to brag about, nor the dahl soup, but the chicken curry was okay. I don't know if I will go back.

Surviving My Mother (movie)

On Tuesday, November 6, 2007, I went to see the film Surviving My Mother. This film was written by the same writer(s) of Mambo Italiano, and directed by the same dude.

The story is about a family, where there was a grandmother who was dying of cancer. There was a mother (Ellen David), a daughter (Caroline Dhavernas), and a husband (Colin Mochrie). On the outside, they seemed like a typical family, but as you watched the movie, you realized that they had so many issues. And the movie was about them finding out about these issues, and dealing with them together as a family.

There were lots of scandals in this family... The daughter was a really sexually active female, who got pleasure from teasing men. She was responsible for breaking up a marriage of someone, and she has been with so many men. And we had the mother who was dealing with a lot of emotional distress because she spent the last couple of years taking care of grandma, and she quit her job to do so.

And then you throw in the romantic love interest, the daughter who falls in love with a priest who couldn't quite keep his chastity vow.

A fun movie, but I preferred Mambo Italiano. I know I cannot really compare the two, but I can state that I preferred the latter. Granted of course, there were stars that were in this movie that were also in Mambo Italiano. For example, the mother was the angry lesbian, and the nurse that helped take care of grandma was the femmy gay man who introduced himself first in the Gay Helpline circle.