Not dead...

Just very, very tired. I spent most of Saturday either napping or reading Howl's Moving Castle, trying to recover from a) going into the hospital last weekend, and b) going almost straight from the hospital back into intensive Naturequest field trips. It was totally worth it -- the kids had a great time -- but I'm paying for it a bit now. I'm feeling a lot better, though. I was back to work in the galleries today, and they let me work in Bio, which means I got to sit a lot, so I was fine. Plus, Claire had Advil.

It's going to be weird going back to real life now. Naturequest is only two weeks, but it always seems at once infinite, and over far too fast.

We watched the rest of Doctor Who last Monday. It was absolutely heartbreaking. I still love the show, but damn, did that Finale hurt. But so awesome!!!!! But sad!!!! But OOh it's HIM! And THEM! And LOOK WHO THEY'RE FIGHTING ::dies of geekery::

Karina and I have determined we can't participate in the pirate festival this year -- it's just not feasable. So instead, we're having a Tenth Kingdom marathon and making jewellery. Hurrah!

Enter the Haggis has released a new album, which is keeping me company as I attempt to rediscover my room beneath what I have come to learn is "prep-explosion" -- a thing that happens every time I do a ROM Kids program. You can listen to the entire album online here, and I strongly suggest you do. There's a reason they're my favourite band.

My younger cousin Erin also just had a baby. They named her Nevaeh (pronouced "Na-VAY") Angel (though Simon had a thing or two to say about the implications of a name that is "Heaven" spelled backward). She's Simon's age (Erin, not the baby). I admit, I always thought I'd be the first cousin to have kids. But I'm also nowhere near at a point in my life at which I'm ready for them. I haven't seen Erin in a long time. My family is having a hard time dealing with it, to the point at which the last I heard of the baby, it was just a rumour, so I have to say the delivery took me as something of a surprise. My family has been drifting apart lately, and as we used to be very close when I was younger, this upsets me a bit. I don't know what's going on with half my cousins lately, I haven't spoken with Erin in years, and every time I try to mend bridges with one branch of my family, I find another has fallen apart in the meantime. I wish my head was in a state at which I could really address this, but I'm definitely too orangey to deal with it now.

That's it for my rambly thoughts at the moment. Go listen to Haggis and wonder at the coolness that is "The Alchemist".
posted by Sarah E. at 9:38 PM

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Ummm.... Where Did the Week Go?

Trek was a week ago? Seriously? Damn.

So a Stellar Magpie con report is coming soon, as soon as Karina and I have a chance to sit down on MSN for more than two minutes together. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to finalize things for the start of Naturequest next week, and in and around other things, managed to see Pirates of the Caribbean (SO AWESOME!) and cut all my hair off.

So in lieu of actual content today, may I present the pilot of The Amazing Screw-on Head? I liked Hellboy a lot, which is why I checked this out, and I would be fairly indifferent toward it were it not for the presence of David Hyde Pierce as Emperor Zombie. If you want to make anything awesome, just make David Hyde Pierce evil.
posted by Sarah E. at 9:16 AM

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Arrrr!

I have ROM photos to post at some point, and my MYST adventures on the viaduct, but I'm still frantically working on Trek stock (some updates at Stellar Magpie's journal), so in the meantime, I leave you with dancing pirates. Because, come on. Dancing pirates!

(via Cleolinda)
posted by Sarah E. at 9:31 AM

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Perky is my superpower

Okay, first off, Superman Returns was awesome! Spoilery things commence.

I've heard a few people complaining about certain things, and even the people I went with liked it as a whole, with a few quibbles, but I didn't share them. One of the biggest critiques in one of the reviews I read, the Superman-as-Jesus parallels, went right over my head. But then, I'm also the one who had to be told that Narnia is not just about four kids and a lion.

I had a hell of a good time, and in my opinion, this was everything X-Men 3 should have been (thank you Bryan Singer). Brandon Routh was excellent, I loved how he's one of the few Supermen who is decidedly different from Superman to Clark, and his channelling of Christopher Reeve was positively eerie at times.

I loved how much homage was paid to the original movie, I loved Kevin Spacey stealing every scene he was in. Parker Posey, who I usually don't like in anything not directed by Christopher Guest, was surprisingly good too. And I loved that I actually liked James Marsters in this movie (which did make us wonder if this is why Cyclops got such short shrift in X3). I really enjoyed what they did with Richard. Usually, a character like his, in competition with Superman, would either have some sort of flaw (either being a jerk or a wuss), or be destined for a tragic death to get him out of the way. Richard was neither, and that really, really impressed me.

I loved the scene of Jason with the garbage can on his head, because that was just such a kid thing to do.

The whole movie had me grinning like an idiot for pretty much the entire time (when I wasn't crying), and I can't wait to see it again.

So I'm in a very good carryover mood this morning. It's another slow day, so I've instigated a project and gotten the volunteers involved. We're putting together a "Dinosaurs in my Backyard" display using a lot of the extra bird resources we have that never get used, and I'm really excited about it.

Days like this, I really love my job.
posted by Sarah E. at 12:33 PM

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Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day everybody! (Or, as we're calling it at the ROM today, Happy Time-and-a-half Day!)

Kidding aside, it's been a very slow day here at the museum, as everyone seems to be doing other things. And well they should -- I went outside for lunch, and it's an absolutely gorgeous day for a picnic. I imagine lots of people will be at Ontario Place today in preparation for the fireworks, if they haven't gone out of town to the cottage already. And it seems everyone who came in to Toronto was here last night, leaving today very empty.

Sabrina and I have been keeping ourselves busy. We changed the articles in the kiosk, I played with the gecko for a while with a very charming 8-year-old British exchange student, and we made a temporary bulletin board display about Canada Day. It's gone through several iterations, as our original instructions weren't terribly clear, but now that people can post drawings of their favourite Canadian place, animal, plant, activity, food, or sport, there's a bit more going on. Which is good, because my three cottage drawings were getting lonely (I'll try to get pictures tomorrow -- I'm rather proud of them, especially my bear-in-a-tree).

Chris, Leah, Kel and I are going to see Superman tonight once I get off work, which is going to make this a very good Canada Day.

I'm reminded on days like today why I love this country so much. I know in light of the whole dolphin girl thing, many people have asked me why I didn't choose a career working with dolphins, and while the sheer insane competitiveness was definitely a contributor (as was my inability to get NSERC funding), another very large part of it is that in order to make a living working with dolphins, I would have to move out of Canada.

And I'm just not willing to do that. Not even for dolphins. I love it here.
posted by Sarah E. at 4:31 PM

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