Let's test that theory...

Today, on my way to the metro to meet a friend for dinner (and travelling together on the metro). A bird shat on me. Now, according to some cultures, this is actually good luck. So, I'm hoping that's the case. So, the phone calls for interviews for CEGEPs will be rolling in now? Haha! And I'll have an abundance of choice for when I choose to work in September? I'm going to test this theory.

Subway rant

Today, when I went to get a submarine sandwich at Subway, I received a nasty surprise.

Since the majority of the vegetables I cannot eat, because they are either light coloured vegetables, or too sour, etc. My only choices are green peppers and olives.

The guy who worked there decided to charge me $0.30 for the green peppers, because I asked for a lot.

Considering my scenario, it's difficult to substitute other vegetables... I wrote an e-mail to complain, so this will be interesting.

Spelling Bees

I read an article this morning about how the winning word this year for a spelling bee was only seven letters... And I took a quiz on words that were winners in previous years... Why do these contests still exist? How does being able to spell words that people do not use prove that one is more intelligent than others?

I got 0/7 on the quiz, and most of the time, it was my instinct that killed me. I looked at the words, and I would choose b, but then I would think - wait, usually, the one that looks wrong is right, so I would choose the one that looks semi-wrong.

Made of Honour

On Sunday, May 18, 2008, I went to see the movie Made of Honour featuring Patrick Dempsey.

This movie is about Tom, played by Patrick Dempsey, who is a casanova. His reputation dates back to when he was still in school at Cornell University, where he was known for sleeping around with women. And it also introduces us to how he meets Hannah, who is his best friend, who's a girl... Tom has never bedded Hannah.

Tom's friends are very impressed with him, because he's got the best of both worlds... He can sleep around as much as he likes, and he still can have Hannah as his best friend... But then Tom realizes that there's more to life than sleeping around, and he decides that he will ask Hannah for her hand in marriage when she returns from Scotland. She had to make an unexpected trip to Scotland for her work.

And things go according to plan, until she comes back to New York, with the man of her dreams, and she has accepted his proposal! And of course, this is devastating for Tom, because he thought he was the one that was going to pop the question... But Hannah asks Tom to be her Maid of Honour!

What follows is a hilarious tale of being set up some of Hannah's friends, and Tom learning about the whole marriage thing, and being supportive, but not trying to seem too obvious that he wants to win her over... Does he get the girl at the end? You'll have to watch to find out.

This is a fun movie... I enjoyed it, as did my friend, but she started sniffling at the end... I didn't think it was that much of a tear jerker, but then again, I am a boy. lol

Maman est chez le coiffeur

On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, I went to see the movie Maman est chez le coiffeur. This is a Quebecois film about a family in the 60s, and the mother runs off for a reporting gig in London, because she discovers that her husband was not faithful to her.

I have a guess as to why she went off - my guess is that the husband is really gay and had to get married due to societal pressures, so he goes and has sex with his golf buddies.

So the wife runs off, the husband gets here to stay, and to no avail, and he's stuck trying to raise three children.

Not really a film with a point, because there's not a lot of stuff that is explicitly stated. For example, it is never explicitly stated that the husband has his boyfriends on the side, we just know that he chats with someone on the phone, and this individual makes him smile, unlike his wife.

The wife wanted to find a big apartment and bring all the children to London, but that never happened in the movie.

And since a lot of this stuff is never stated, I am going on an assumption, and I could be wrong, which makes the movie very up in the air and not worth watching. It's one of those "artistic" and "open to interpretation" movies. When I go see a movie, I want to see a film with good development, unless it's an action movie. Since this was not an action movie, I expected to see development, which it lacked.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

On Saturday, May 10, 2008, I went to see the movie: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. This movie is a sequel to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

I don't know if you really need to see the first one to understand the second one. I didn't, and I found the movie funny, but not really good. And the humour is all racist, sexist, homophobic humour. (But I guess what do you expect, right? It's Harold and Kumar?), but I heard that the first one, the jokes were very funny and very clever).

Anyway... it's okay, the movie. But if you have seen the first one, this is probably very disappointing.

Although, I have to say, the actor who played George W. Bush Jr. is very good at portraying the President. I really enjoyed him a lot.

Past weekend and Review of Melanie C concert

This past weekend has been a bit rough. There were some good parts, but mostly rough.

On Saturday, Raoul and Rupert decided to go and have lunch at Score's in West Island, in the part of town where my ex used to live... And with my luck, my ex just happened to walk outside of the car... I was not a happy camper, having to see my ex, and I didn't really have time to acknowledge him before we sped off in our car to the restaurant.

Saturday night - Iron Man, you already know that. Review in a previous post.

And on Sunday, Raoul and Rupert asked me to help print some pages on Rupert's project. They said they were going to show up at 5:00 p.m., since I had a concert at 8:00 p.m., and I had to be there for about 7:30 p.m.. They didn't show up until 5:30 p.m.. (Half an hour late), and then it took another hour to print, because they saved their document on a camera which they tried to use as a USB drive. Didn't work... I had to restart my computer many times. And then after, when I ran a virus scan, because I found it weird that my computer would act up on me all of a sudden like that, I was awarded with a trojan horse. Where did it come from? My guess - Rupert's five-month old laptop. You help print a document, and your thank you gift is a trojan horse. Lovely. Granted, it may just be my computer reacting badly to the new hardware of the camera, because after looking at the files that were flagged, I believe they were false positives. However, I am having difficulty sending the files into the company for analysis. But anyway, I took time out of my schedule to help, and I don't really feel appreciate, especially since they created more problems for me.

I thought that things would turn around at the concert. I was really looking forward to it (and luckily, because those two clowns took up so much of my time, I was offered a ride to the concert hall), which I did appreciate, although I was just shooting to get a quick ride to the metro so that I could vent to my friend with whom I went to the concert with about those two.

The concert I went to see was Melanie C. She's playing a few concerts, one in Montreal, one in Ottawa and one in Toronto. She's probably playing in other cities too, but these are the ones that are close to me (addition suggested by my friend - thank you). The venue she chose in Montreal was Club Soda. So, the tickets weren't expensive, but there wasn't really assigned seating. We went in, and we stood.

And the show was great, the opening act, I didn't quite feel, but he was nice and was chatty, so that's cool. Melanie C's show was great, she knows how to play the audience, and she has a good sense of humour. Someone held up a sign saying, "Where's Geri?", and her response was, "Who knows." and she went on with her set. She actually did forget words to one of her songs, which caused me do a double take, because she's been around for a long time, in terms of singing.

The show was good, but what followed was not so good. The concert was kind of short, she did a short set, in my opinion. She didn't start singing until about 8:50 p.m., and we were done (with the encore - about 10:20 p.m.), so it was about 1.5 hours. And she has so much repertoire that she really could have given us an extra 20 minutes... She didn't even offer any autographs. And no one would put a definitive as to whether she was going to sign for sure, or not sign for sure. The bouncers would just tell people to wait around out back, and that's what many people did, including me and my friend.

It was very secretive, the whole affair. The fans were waiting by the doors, and the people who worked with her would try to spread false rumours about her having left the building or whatever. And then finally, when she did, she left through the "24 hour sex theatre" exit and got into her bus... It was cold... And all her fans were braving the cold, hoping to either get a signature or just to shake her hand. She made us stand in the cold (from when this whole fiasco started to when the bus took off - yes the bus took off on us), for three hours. There were, at the maximum point when her fans were waiting for her, at most, fifty people. In three hours time, she probably should have been able to sign the autographs and give pictures.

I understand that she has a schedule to keep, etc. etc., but three hours sitting on the bus would have been better if you just took care of your fans. And apparently she does a lot for her fans... I wouldn't know, because I have never experienced it, but all I can say is I'm a bit disappointed. And really, she's not that famous. Her solo stuff is good, but it's not as good as Spice Girls good. I mean, she played at Club Soda! Come on! And it wasn't even filled. Usually, when you choose a venue like Club Soda, you expect to give autographs. If you don't want to give autographs, choose something like Bell Centre. But she wouldn't have sold out there, would she? And besides, if you forgot words on stage to a song of yours? I don't think you deserve the diva status of not signing autographs and making your fans wait in the cold for three hours, then driving off into the night.

One of the comments I was really peeved about was the driver (or bouncer) or someone who said, "I hear that she's playing in Ottawa tomorrow." and my retort was, "Oh, are you going to give me a free ticket? Because I can't afford to go to Ottawa and buy a ticket to see her in concert." Excuse me, I already took money out of my budget to see her, I didn't have to. I could have spent the money elsewhere. I also don't expect to be treated like royalty only because I saw her, but don't try to pawn off your fans by saying, "Oh, she's playing tomorrow somewhere", and give the illusion that she will sign autographs then because we know very well that she probably wouldn't.

I'm glad that I did wait until the very end, because all I can say is that, "I tried." I tried to get my CD covers signed, and the bus drove off into the night. I don't regret that I waited, but I am a bit disappointed. And the ironic thing is, I now feel exactly like the lyrics in Better Alone:

I understand your point of view letting me go
But I thought you had more faith
Everything I've done for you
You made the mistakes
and now you throw this in my face
And I have worked so hard for you
all of this time and you cast me aside
I understand your point of view

But I can't seem to get my head around
All the things that I feel good about
always seem to disappear
And every time I think I've got this all worked out
Something chews me up and spits me out
But there's nothing left to fear
I'm better alone my dear

You couldn't pick a better time to give me the news
Why don't you kick me when I'm down?
I'd (should be I've) always believed in you
Defended your name, but you have not been true
I gave you so much of my life
I've compromised and you tell me goodbye
You couldn't pick a better time

And I can't seem to get my head around
All the things that I feel good about
always seem to disappear
And every time I think I've got this all worked out
Something chews me up and spits me out
But there's nothing left to fear
I'm better alone my dear

I know I really should thank you for setting me free
It's really amazing the changes I'm starting to feel
It's not gonna be long till I'm fit and strong
Deliverance helped me heal still
I wonder if you ever wish you still had me

Will I ever get my head around
All the thing that I feel good about
that always seem to disappear
When every time I think I've got this all worked out
Something chews me out and spits me out
But there's nothing left to fear... I'm better alone my dear.

(Note, I took out some repeats at the end)

Yes, Melanie C, I guess I'm better alone, my dear. I don't know if I will consider myself your fan anymore.

Iron Man

On Saturday, May 3, 2008, I went to see the movie Iron Man, featuring Robert Downey Jr., and Gwyneth Paltrow. It's based loosely upon the Marvel comics character. I don't know the comic really well, and I don't think it started in Afghanistan, but other than that, most of the stuff was pretty accurate. I have to say however, that to me, Robert Downey Jr. was a poor choice of casting for Iron Man. The movie was enjoyable, but he did not convince me as Iron Man.

The movie had a lot of explosions, and lots of special effects. Enjoyable movie, fun, and definitely one to see on the big screen, because of the genre. And stay until the end, there's a hidden scene that you'll miss if you don't!

And on another note, The Montreal Canadiens were swept tonight... 6 - 4. Too bad, I was hoping that they would at least go onto the finals for the cup. Maybe next year.