Culture Shock 2/8/2010

Allo! Bonjour! Comment ca va mes petites amies? Ou mes petits amis. Ah! Isabelle, correct me.

So I have had a lovely couple of days! Including: gathering with my besties for a nice patio dinner + Despicable Me (details to follow!) + choco cupcakes. It was a lot of fun, and nice to catch up with my ladies. We were celebrating dear Isabelle’s birthday, and, by the way,  since I was busy at Ikea on her birthday, I have been working on a special belated birthday post for her coming up imminently. (And you probably thought I forgot about you!) Anyways she forgot her ID on her 19th birthday – what a silly, right?! Haha just kidding Is. Anyways, it all worked out in the end, our waitress was cool. :)

Anywho. Here we go. A bit of a mishmash of things this week but that’s okay.

.

The Article

2o Life Lessons I Learned on the Rogue River from Jenny Blake

Photo thanks to Axel-D

A simply delightful little article from a great blog – Life After College. The author went on a weeklong river rafting trip (one of her life goals, don’tcha know?!) which had yoga and friends, and taught her many important things about life. She makes some great, true analogies between river life and real life, and reminds me of things that I sometimes forget. A great read about improving your quality of life. Loved it!

.

The Song

So, you know that feeling you get when you hear an amazing song which proceeds to get stuck in your head and stuck on repeat for four hours a day for weeks until you just can’t take it anymore? Because you love it so much?

Yeah no. I have been so un-into music lately! I haven’t had one of those obsessive-song times since I discovered the Wicked soundtrack (don’t tease nerds, it’s not polite) back in March. What on earth? I know. I’ve been so disenchanted by the radio and the crap it is spewing lately (and it’s very repetitively played crap too) that I’ve been driving around listening to the CBC at all times. So I’m sorry. This week, I’ve failed you.

If anyone at all knows of a truly amazing CD that would floor me and make me crazy, tell me. I need it. I need something!

While you’re waiting, go listen to La Vie en Rose or Moon River or something like that. They’re beautiful.

.

The Website

Environics Analytics

Are you 'Lunch at Tims'?

Ooh, I’m uber excited about this one this week. Laur pointed me towards what is pretty much the sweetest website ever. So you go onto the website, and then in the right hand part of the screen click the ‘Lifestyle Lookup’ button. Then type in your postal code. Then read the description of the people in your neighbourhood! It’s so crazy! This company classifies neighbourhoods in order to market more efficiently depending on the consumers’ preferences. But all that aside, it’s just fun to read the various descriptions.

.

The Book

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

Photo thanks to Soundoftheanything

Well now I know I recommended the first in this series only last week, but I can’t help but do it again! These books are so well written, every character is thought out and described perfectly. Especially our heroine Flavia! She is both whip smart and fiery, always one step ahead of everyone else when it comes to solving mysteries, and quick to create some vile concoction if one of her sisters crosses her. She is, in a word, delightful. I love reading these stories because they are so well crafted, and every detail of the mystery is executed wonderfully! They’re so much fun to read. Marvellous books. I can’t wait for the next one: A Red Herring Without Mustard. (Don’t they have fabulous names?!)

.

The Movie

Despicable Me

The voice talent alone in this movie is enough to make anyone want to see it, storyline aside (but the storyline is very good too!). We have Steve Carell as an adorably sweet supervillain with a heavy accent, Russell Brand as his very old, British lab technician/evil plan hatcher/right hand man, Kristen Wiig as a Southern ‘belle’ aka evil orphanage manager, Jason Segel as a nerdy-cool villain..the list continues. They’re all hilarious. Then the story: supervillain attempts to become the greatest supervillain ever but then sort of fails because he gets mixed up with three adorable girls from a local orphanage. But he wins in the end. Tee hee! :) It was very cute. I laughed my guts out, and also got a bit teary near the end. Great movie.

.

The Photo

HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT THESE POPSICLES RIGHT NOW? Ahhhhh!!!! Peach-raspberry popsicles from La Tartine Gourmande.

.

Alrightie folks. That’s all for now. Off and off and off.

xoxo, S.