Boob Tube

Guys, this is great- check out dailymotionepisodes.com. You can catch up on episodes of tv shows without having to wait for BT downloads. The quality isn't the best, but it's perfect if you just feel like catching up on a new episode that you can't wait to see that you missed on the telly.

Welcome to My Neck of the Woods

Ok so last week as I was taking a stroll during my lunch hour, I saw all this broken glass shattered everywhere a few metres from my office. I had no idea what it was about until Christian sent me this video of the incident:

The title is "drug deal gone bad" but it turned out that it had nothing to do with drugs; according to our building manager it was a crazy homeless guy going after the driver for apparently having stolen his coat, cell phone and money.

On another work-related topic, a couple of guys at my office made this animation in response to Kramer's infamous racial outburst. Watch it, love it, share it.

Football Fever

The World Cup has finally started, woooo! Although my next week is completely booked solid, I'm leaving Tuesday free for the must-see game between my team Brazil and Croatia. Right now I'm watching the exciting encore game between Germany and Costa Rica. And for anyone who works downtown in the financial district, fans can head over to the BCE Place or Goethe-Institut to watch at noon :)

Also at the Goethe-Institut is the film Walking through Tokyo that I'm going to see tomorrow morning. Sounds really interesting! And especially after watching the finale of The Amazing Race where they went to Tokyo, I'm longing to go back again.

Go Canada Go

Looks like Team Canada's on fire now over in Turin with 4 medals on Wednesday and 3 more today! I was so happy when Jeff Buttle actually won a medal... I've always loved watching him skate, not for his jumping ability (a little on the weak side), but for his amazing spins and artistry. He's even featured on the U of T website now!

The Power of Photography

This evening on CBC Newsworld I watched the documentary Born Into Brothels, about a filmmaker/photography who lives in Calcutta's red light district to document the lives of the women who live there. Instead, she stumbles across a whole population of children living in the area and introduces them to the camera and the art of photography, which brings hope and empowerment to their impoverished lives. The images the kids capture are absolutely stunning as they reveal the conditions in which they live from the whimsical perspectives of a child.

It's repeating this Saturday, Nov 12 on CBC Newsworld at 10pm. Watch the film.

Bumming Around

Life as an unemployed bum is hard. Too much to do... I've become a busy busy bee. Aside from a full-time "job" of building my online art/design/photography portfolio and applying for jobs, a girl's got to have some fun too!

Last Tuesday was the CSSU handover dinner at The Keg, where I learned the hard way that prime rib is really steak instead of a rack of ribs (disappointment #1). The mashed potatoes were fabulous, but halfway through I decided to add butter. However, I had mistaken my small cup of horseradish for butter in the dim light. I mixed around the horseradish and practically choked on my first bite- it was utterly disgusting. I had completely ruined the rest of my scrumptious mashed potatoes (disappointment #2). After dinner a handful of us went to Dmitre's on Eglington for dessert. I was so tempted to get the strawberry milkshake, but learning from my lesson at the Keg for not diversifying from Chris' choice, I decided to try the strawberry smoothie. It was the WORST smoothie I ever had in my entire life. It was tasteless and SOUR. Should not have diversified (disapointment #3).

Wednesday, Christian came uptown to hang out for the day. We lunched with Chris, Tony and Sandra at Ding Tai Fong Shanghai restaurant at First Markham. Watched a few episodes of 24 in the afternoon and then made dinner for my family at night. This dinner was much more successful than our first attempt as we got no complaints from anyone (and had enough food for everyone)! The night's meal consisted of rice, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, BBQ spare ribs, and baked chicken breast. The rosated veggies and mashed potatoes were delish! Gotta love my Betty Crocker cookbook :) [continue reading for recipes]

Friday is known as couch potato day... really! I swear, Christian and I left permanent bum marks on the couch from sitting in front of the TV ALL day watching 24. Ok I exaggerate. We got up to make salad and perogies with onions for lunch. Then we plopped back down. 11 episodes in a day. 6 more to go!

On Sunday I was accomplice to a shopaholic spree at the Eaton Centre. I got to take Christian shopping for grownup clothes! He cleans up pretty nicely... from a bum to a lang jai all in one afternoon :P

'Twas a pretty long day today. Transported my bike downtown in the morning, grocery shopped in Kensignton with Christian for picnic lunch things, then prepared lunch. Early afternoon we went out with Joseph for a light lunch at a Tibetan restaurant where I tried some Momos (dumplings). On our walk back to Chris' place, a pigeon pooped on Chris' shoulder... yucky! (proof #1 that bad things happen to bad people). We took out our bikes and biked down Bathurst Street to Queen's Quay then along the lakeshore all the way to High Park. We biked around the park and in some forested areas then lunched on our yummy yummy sandwiches (I love that creamy Havarti cheese!). After that we visited Christian's best friend's family and socialized until the evening. During dinner, Chris sat on a stool that broke right when he sat down (proof #2 that bad things happen to bad people). Hm, I think I'm onto something.

Back to portfolio-ing.

Mashed Potatoes

6 medium potatoes (about 2 pounds)
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt, if desired
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper

1. Wash and peel the potatoes, and cut into large pieces. Remove the margarine from the refrigerator so it can soften while the potatoes cook.

2. Add 1 inch of water (and the 1/4 teaspoon salt if desired) to the saucepan. Cover and heat the boiling over high heat. Add potato pieces. Cover and heat to boiling, reduce heat just enough so water bubbles gently.

3. Cook covered 20 to 25 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. The cooking time will vary, depending on the size of the potato pieces and the type of potato used. Drain potatoes in a strainer.

4. Return the drained potatoes to the saucepan, and cook over low heat about 1 minute to dry them. While cooking, shake the pan often to keep the potatoes from burning, which can happen very easily once the water has been drained off.

5. Place the potatoes in a medium bowl to be mashed. You can mash them in the same saucepan they were cooked in if the saucepan will not be damaged by the potato masher or electric mixer.

6. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or electric mixer until no lumps remain. Add the milk in small amounts, beating after each addition. You may not use all the milk because the amount needed to make potatoes smooth and fluffy depends on the type of potato used. Add the margarine, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the pepper. Beat vigourously until potatoes are light and fluffy.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Roasted Vegetables

1 medium red or green bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 medium zucchini
1/4 pound mushrooms
Olive oil-flavoured or regular cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves, if desired

1. Cut the bell pepper lengthwise in half, and cut out seeds and membrane. Cut each half lengthwise into 4 strips.

2. Peel the onion, and cut in half. Wrap on half of onion, and refrigerate for another use. Cut remaining half into 4 wedges, then separate into pieces.

3. Cut the zucchini crosswise into 1-inch pieces. Cut off and discard the end of each mushroom stem, and leave the mushrooms whole.

4. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray the bottom of the pan with cooking spray. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer in the sprayed pan. Spray the vegetables with cooking spray until lightly coated. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and basil.

5. Bake uncovered 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven. Turn vegetables over. Bake uncovered about 10 minutes longer or until vegetables are crisp-tender when pierced with a fork.

Makes 4 servings.

What a Relief

I'm so happy about today's quarter-final game between Portugal and England! It was so awesome; tied in regulation time, tied in overtime, and then Portugal finally won 6-5 in penalty shots. Best moments: Beckham pulling a Baggio (ahahaha!), and the Portugese goalie scoring the winning shot after having just saved one. 'Twas so sweet!

I didn't get to watch the game live, so by the time I got home to watch my tape, I pretty much figured out what had happened from the way my dad and sister were acting (didn't help that I was waiting in the car forever when my dad stumbled upon the live shootout while he was supposed to be buying a simple bag of milk... BIG giveaway; plus he was laughing like crazy when he came back to the car!). It would have been so exciting to watch it live, but I would have been incredibly stressed out!! It's all good... my boys made me proud. :)

Eurocup 2004 Kicks Off

Yesterday's game between England and France was sweet! I thought France had lost for sure, then they come back with 2 goals within mintues of each other in stoppage time. Hahaha, Beckham is so useless... he's just an overpaid underachiever. Not that I'm a big fan of France; I don't like either teams, but France is just the lesser of the two evils. I'm rootin' for Spain and Portugal (but what was up with Portugal's lousy playing on Sat??).

In geeky news, I've switched hosts (to 1&1) and got everything up and running again. One annoying thing that I keep encountering is that whenever I post a new blog entry on this site I get an internal server error message page, but my posts are still published. Everything is fine though when I post an entry on my photoblog. Boo, I miss my old host.

Conan in Toronto

So did anyone watch the Conan O'Brien episode on Thursday night? The show featured Adam Sandler as well as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who was quite insulting to say the least. They went to Québec City where the dog said the rudest things to the locals, including "You're in North America, learn the language". I didn't think any of it was funny at all, and I was quite embarrased when the audience was booing at the mere mention of Quebec. There have been quite a few articles in the news about it, including this one.

World Idol

Anyone see World Idol last night? It was a surprising victory for Kurt Nilsen of Norway, who scored the maximum number of points in every country except one. I really liked his performance the week before and I was rooting for him, but the fact that he did that well was unexpected. I'm sure Kelly was in disbelief too from the look on her face! LOL! She's a great singer and all, but the hosts kept talking about Kelly this and Kelly that - it was so arrogant - so it was cool to see her be beaten by what one judge referred to as a "hobbit".

And I don't understand why Ryan scored so low in practically every country! I honestly thought his performace was really good. He only did really well in the Pan-Arabic region. But the results in that region were totally messed up- clearly politically driven. I mean, the German guy came in first place for heaven's sake! He was terrible! And guess which idols were at the bottom? The American and British.

Speaking of which, I went skating at Nathan Phillips Square this afternoon and Zack Werner was skating there as well with his family. He doesn't look so mean in real life... :/

Canadian Idol On A Roll

Canadian Idol was great last night- most of the singers were amazing. I especially loved Billy, Karen-Lee, Ryan, Mikey, and Audrey, however I wasn't a big fan of Richie and I thought Candida sounded terrible. Tonight, if Canada votes right, Candida should be gone. Here was the performance list from last night:

Billy: If You Could Read My Mind by Gordan Lightfoot
Toya: If You Asked Me To by Céline Dion
Richie: Bulletproof by Blue Rodeo
Karen-Lee: Black Velvet by Alannah Myles
Gary: Angel by Sarah McLachlan
Candida: The Power of Love by Céline Dion
Ryan: Try by Blue Rodeo
Jenny: Possession by Sarah McLachlan
Mikey: Straight From The Heart by Bryan Adams
Audrey: Angel by Sarah McLachlan
Tyler: After The Rain by Blue Rodeo

A Dose of Reality

Last night on The Amazing Race the teams visited Seoul, South Korea. One of the detour tasks was to eat live squirming chopped up octopus... oh man, was it nasty! Kelly and Jon came in first after starting last for this leg. I hate Jon, he's so rude, mean and dumb! I mean, what kind of idiot doesn't know how to read orangutan?? Sheesh.

Boob Tube Time

[Mood] Dead tired
[Music] Pink- Feel Good Time

I'm so lethargic today. I got 5 hours of sleep again last night finishing up my long-term assignment and sketchbook drawings for my art course. Yay, it's all over and done with! Now time to enjoy my summer :P

On Canadian Idol, in a suprising(?) turn of events, 2 Wildcards have been chosen to move on instead of 1, making it a Top 11. And they are:

1. Karen Lee-Batten, 23, BC
2. Gary Beals, 20, NS
3. Mikey Bustos, 22, ON
4. Candida Clauseri, 20, ON
5. Audrey de Montigny, 17, QC
6. Jenny Gear, 21, NL
7. Billy Klippert, 24, AB
8. Tyler Hamilton, 26, AB
9. Richie Wilcox, 23, NS
10. Toya Alexis, 22, ON (Wildcard)
11. Ryan Malcolm, 24, ON (Wildcard)

I'm rooting for Mikey, Audrey and Ryan :)

And, oh is Big Brother 4 getting more exciting! We have Dana, who was originally part of the Elite Eight, now betraying her alliance and siding with the Ex's by nominating Alison and Jack. But who should go? Alison- becuase she only has Nathan to depend on. Well, in a desperate fight to win the Veto competition, Nate comes through and wins the Golden Veto to save his good ol' Alison. But hold on-- who will be put up for nomination in Alison's place instead? Dana and her team have warned Erika, Jack and Dave that if Nathan is actually idiotic enough to use the Veto, sweet ol' David (who has nicely perfected his hammock splashing technique) will be nominated. Talks ensue to convince Nathan to play it smart, but alas, he obeys Alison and saves his master. Now David is on the chopping block... oh the terrible things that will happen soon. Now the house is divided up into 3 opposing groups rather than 2. Exciting....