insurance ; aka: in case sh-t

They shouldn't even call it insurance.
They just should call it ''in case shit.''

I give a company some money
in case shit happens.

Now, if shit don't happen,
shouldn't l get my money back?

That's right, man, you better have
some medical insurance, or you gonna die.
That's right, everybody.
You got to eat right and exercise.

No, you don't, you need some coverage.
Coverage will save your life.
That's right, we all gonna die,
but at least if you got some coverage...
you will die on a mattress.
-Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker

Let's see if we can actually get some comments flowing here. I've been on the fence about getting mr.Aki some insurance for a while now and can't decide. Petplan is a Winnipeg based Pet insurance company, and has varying degrees of coverage for dental and veterinary visits. The cheaper plans are pretty worthless to me and seem to focus more on accidental aid if he were an outdoor cat. (ie. motor vehicle accident, injuries from fights, poisons, insect bites etc.) So I would have to pony up ~35$/month for something that would cover root canals, kidneys, infections etc. Think its worth it? I'm basing the coverage mainly on the problems Mr.Peanut had...

What about life insurance for you humans? (yes, I'm switching to people now) There is a very annoying, and persistant ex-member of my triathlon club who loves advertising her services on our mailing lists so its always on my mind. (Not to mention my dad's pestering.) Do you all pay for it? Ericy never paid for it, so I never paid the extra $. I suppose it makes more sense to do it while I'm healthy; what do you people in the health care profession think?

While I'm on this topic, can any of you recommend any decent home insurance policies? I took one with my car insurance monkeys (meloche) to keep my premium level (after claiming that stupid tree branch which fell on the car) but the one thing I'm not thrilled about (not 100% sure either) is that they would "replace" my belongings as opposed to paying me off. I don't care about the furniture but the #1 reason I got the insurance was for my bike. Sure, they could replace it with a similar value, but re-selling it and having another custom bike built would probably cost me... and yes, I loooooove my bike.

Tsotsi

definitely worth seeing. I was a little annoyed with Roger Ebert's review (in that it gave too much of the story) but in all fairness, the story is quite simple. Of course, there isn't anything wrong with that (look at "Three Burials...") Watch the eyes of Tsotsi throughout; from the beginning where he is lost in the world where he lives day to day stealing and intimidating to the end where we can start seeing a glimmer of hope. I also enjoyed how it wasn't a hollywood ending, but rather that of "as good as it gets".

twenty-four season five.

if you haven't watched last night's episode, stop reading. I'm pretty sure I've complained about this season on this blog already, and last night's episode just added to it all. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of CTU's incompetence. After more than four incidents of "national security", this fictional government agency (funny how it doesn't even pretend to be the NSA, CIA, FBI etc. - I guess they're politically correct.) still has moles, security leaks, gutless staff and idiotic facilities. I'm just not as excited for the next episode as I was last season.

My sister said it best, 24 has gotten so popular that its become its own cliche. How many times can this agency get attacked?

I know this is nerdy, but seriously
-if CTU had all these safeguards - like being able to contain each and every room, why couldn't all the systems be controlled remotely? Why couldn't this chemical response team access these systems? Or even have it automatically filter the air through the A/C once these emergency measures were set?
-why wasn't Robocop (Peter Weller) restrained? Are you telling me that after last season when a shortage of doctors (one) resulted in the death of someone as highly placed as Audrey's husband, there is still only one doctor in the facility? -who died a couple of hours ago? when CTU was compromised for the first time by one of Walt Cumming's moles.
-how did the hobbit (Sean Astin) re-enter CTU without his card? Why didn't the expendable CTU agent in red not go with Sam Gamgee to fix the computer? He was more fit than his boss. And whats with the crybaby business? This reminds of the time when the Chinese shot down an American spy plane over China a couple of years ago, and the stupid pilots were captured, and the Americans kept demanding their plane back due to the sensitive nature of its contents. Duh, stupid pilots - ever heard of "scuttling the ship"?
-what happened to all the gas masks? Jack had one at the Mall when the gas was released, and still has his gear/bag in the conference room. He didn't bother to get another one when he got in? Where is all the equipment in CTU? No one in that room could've gotten to it in time? None of the guards stationed outside have access to it?
-Whats with Kim? Why keep bringing her back? Why is she so helpless when she's locked in the room with everyone? Didn't she know some computer stuff when she was working with Chloe two seasons ago? hello? you lose your brain stupid girl?
-Chloe isn't at the top of her game - there are other CTU agents outside - there is this "Division" central office - why aren't people coming from there/or remotely trying to crack into Robocop's laptop? I realize there are security issues with this but if they're chatting freely on the phones saying how they're trapped and Jack sends data over his phone wirelessly, I think the security risks are mute.
-Logan gives Jack his blessing when he confronts Walt Cummings; yet he has not supported any of his movements since. I guess this is part of the game; Jack doesn't have the backing of the President [Palmer] anymore, but this only goes so far. What about Ray Wise's VP character? (ps. everytime I look at his face, I can't help but remember his painfully sad smile he forces upon everyone in "Good Night & Good Luck") He seems to be a lot more able than Logan - doesn't Novak see that? Hell, why isn't he talking to Jack the way he used to? He knows Logan is lost, yet doesn't ask anyone for help; except maybe the mentally unstable, pissed first lady.

that's about it for now. I think I told this to someone but I think one of the reasons I loved Season4 was because it was planned from the hour 1 to hour 24. Habib Marwan had the day planned out; and similarly, the writers. This season, scenes are dragged out, and improvising is done by both the terrorists and good guys. Last season, CTU would be at sort of dead-ends by the end of an episode but the audience knew what would come next (through the terorrists). This season, an episode ends, and then next episode, conveniently, CTU has a new lead. I dunno... all too convenient for me - and bad writing.

enraged

yes, believe it or not, I was actually enraged Saturday evening after spending 96minutes of my life watching the most disconnected rant (movie) I have ever seen. Not even the music could save this snooze.

My dad called Friday evening telling me that he was feeling sick and asked me to attend the two movies that he my mom had bought tickets for Saturday. I wasn't too happy; the weather was 8C and sunny, it was my first opportunity to ride and the next few days had a forecast of rain. I ended up going. In the afternoon they showed two films in the basement of the Musee des Beaux Arts, "Un Cri dans L'univers" was a documentary about a Russian composer, Galina Ustvolskaya, who rambles on about her inspiration and direction of the perfromance of her 2nd symphony. Mildly interesting but hey, at 33minutes it was ok. "Maxim Vengerov" was a documentary following his 30th birthday and the sabbatical that he took from performing. It was a charming look with excerpts from many performances that I've never seen nor heard. So that was ok.

Then, I ended up dragging a friend into seeing the evening show, "Tea" directed by Frank Scheffer at the NFB robotheque theatre downtown. The director was there, and he intro'd the film and it felt cool knowing that he would answer questions afterwards.

After three false starts (technical problems), the film opens with some beautiful scenery in China, a rural family gathered around drinking tea; the sounds of water makes you almost smell the tea. Then, Tan Dun, the composer for the soundtrack of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" begins his diatribe telling us that we will not explore the history of tea, nor the ceremonies around tea, but rather, about him, and his idiotic production, the "Tea Opera". I fell asleep about ten minutes later.

Unfortunately I woke up maybe 15 minutes into the film with a shake (you know, you doze off, get the shakes and wake up? That was me.) And I was now awake to witness 81 more minutes of philosophical rambling (in Tan Dun's accented English), unexplained scenes (driving through a city, some Japanese tea ceremony, some Chinese shadow puppets and of course, that damn opera). Some excerpts:

"man used to believe the earth was huge, but now we know the universe is larger. What is larger than the Universe? the heart. But not any heart, an empty one - so that you can fill it with more than the universe..." (at least this was coherant, and it wasn't even in English, it was a Chinese dude talking with subtitles)

Tea Opera scene, Tan Dun directing during rehearsal. Japanese prince character dressed in peacock costume "goooood!... baaaad! GOOOOD!... baaaaad!". Tan Dun stops him, says, "make, make it more twisted " riiight. I undestood that.

It ends with TanDun asking the audience not to typecast him into early Tan Dun works, or later, or China TanDun and manhattan Tandun. He is only, TanDun.

Nut.

My friend wanted to bold about 10 minutes before the end but we stayed to the end and left the moment the credits rolled. At least I know I wasn't the only snoozer, the lady next to us was fast asleep and she had some creditation hanging off her neck: I hope she was a judge.

The stupid thing is, there are movies my dad would enjoy that the rest of us hate, but this, this one scored bigtime, I'm 99% sure he would've hated it too. Damnit. This is the third time in two weeks that I've been getting unwanted tickets... grr...

Welcome to the Year 2006!

Any Canadian who knows about the "Roll Up The Rim To Win" contest from Tim Horton's should read this article...

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060308/tim_hortons_fight_060308/20060309?hub=TopStories

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

One feature I like about seeing movies at CinemaduParc is that they show GOOD trailers. I hate it when I see a couple of movies over a short period and see the same stupid trailers commercials over and over again. (Yet, I have only seen the Superman trailer once, and Miami Vice too. - Yes, as cheesy as it sounds, I know Micheal Mann will make a kick ass movie. The Insider and Collateral were a bit slow, I hope he makes something like "Heat" again.) Anyway, I got to see the trailer for "Sophie Scholl" and it looks great. That Dave Chapelle Block party looked half decent too, I didn't realize it was Michel Gondry directing it.

While I was watching the movie, my mind shut down and didn't understand the meaning of the title. Maybe it was because of the long name but I felt pretty stupid by the time I understood it. As with his previous works, Guillermo Arriaga deals with the subject of death and the people who are left to deal with it. I don't remember how disjointed the story telling was in "21 Grams" but this one starts of a bit jumbled but after a while the timeline is straightforward. Similarly I found it started a bit slow, but the movie and characters grow on you as they develop. Anyway, its definitely worth catching - the more I look back at the movie, the more I start pondering about the characters even though they're fictional.

Mr.Hurc, Flash, went by like a flash. I watched a good portion at "2x" speed on the player, with subtitles on. Its a recent bad habit I've picked up, sometimes even going to "4x" speed; I realize I probably miss some subtitles but its pretty effective at picking up the story line. Either way, the pilot *is* terrible, but some of the other episodes are kind of funny & cute. Its embarassing seeing Amanda Pays' character remembering I had a crush on her back then. hahaha.

So... now that some good movies are out, anyone interested in seeing "Totsi"?

running scared

I was going to post a picture of the silver snub-nose gun that is the basis of "Running Scared" but I ran into this picture on the walther website and it made me laugh so hard. Squirrels? haha. Maybe they should put a picture of Cheney. So, yeah, I just came back from seeing it. Another so-so movie. (I guess I should've gone to see Brokeback at Parc.) As usual, I wasn't too big on the ending but the movie does have its moments and "what-the-f..." scenes.

I've recently become addicted to provigo's home-made banana-chocolate muffins. Mmm... me getting nice and round :)


ps. I also rented "Howl's Moving Castle" from Ghibli Studios (ie. Miyazaki Hayao -yes, last name first, it sounds retarded when you say it the other way around) It was interesting up to a point (3/4?) but the ending was just silly. "Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Service"(? Majo no Takkyubin) and "Nausicaa" are probably my favourites. Spirited Away's main draw was the Japanese mythical origins - and Nausicaa was a comic almost 10 years in the making (7 issues?). It was a fantastic world that he created. Maybe I'm just a crab but I also don't think that he is the "great master" as people tout. Yes, the characters and the worlds are fantastic but the stories are obsessed with

• people who get transformed (old lady, pig, cat, demon etc.) -who can't love
  
• war (blah blah blah, lets not do it)

and a flying castle? uh... "Laputa" was what? almost 15 years ago? After re-reading Tezuka Osamu's "BlackJack" mangas I have to say that he is a much more imaginative thinker/writer than Miyazaki... (Osamu is the creator of "Astroboy")

crash?

No, I didn't watch the awards, yes, I agree Jon Stewart is funny - but no one is at the awards. Its just a boring event. A good portion of my lack of interest stems from the fact that none of these pictures really stood out for me this year unlike "Million Dollar Baby" which I loved the year before. To be fair, I have not seen "Brokeback Mountain", "Capote" or "Munich". But awarding "Crash" best picture? I dunno, it was a great film but that had more to do with the screenplay which was written by good 'ol Canadian Paul Haggis who also wrote Million Dollar Baby and some episodes of "Due South". And "Good Night & Good Luck" was good too, but once again, not award worthy... I think...

anyway just wondering if there are any movies you guys think are more deserving. I'll catch Brokeback eventually, Munich less so,... the only thing that comes to mind right now is "Paradise Now" and "Cache" which I was DENIED thanks to some people who ditched me... Grr...

Winners never quit, quitters never win?

Whoa there, Mr. Feisty. You want a messy debate? You got one.

I know your main rant was to point out the insignificance of an athlete's allegiances, whether it be country, city or school, to their successes. I don't agree that the environment you live in can't have a direct, if not major, impact on an athlete's success. Where do you think the motivation comes from? That can affect a person's morale which translates into how hard you train. If you lived in a country that doesn't respect your sport or discipline, or if you didn't have a team around you who shared the same passion for it, you think you would still be as motivated to train?

But really, I needed to comment on this:

"The average person can work really really hard and get to an elite level - but those who win, those world champions are genetically pre-disposed to it; I think."

So how do you know if you're a born athlete? Or "born anything" for that matter? If you win that one race that comes around every 4 years, but you've never ever won a world championship, does that make you a born winner? Or will you argue that some athletes only train for the Olympics and don't care about the Worlds?

I think we need to define what winning really means. It doesn't always mean getting gold.

I'd extrapolate this to walking down the path of what we call life, but I'm late for work. :)

save a snowflake...

wish i knew this when i lived in Montreal - how to save a snowflake for decades!

trying to get mary to train with me for the Nike Women half marathon to raise money for Leukemia i think we can at least walk half and run half of the 13.1 miles...

my friend (a good catholic) went to mass today cuz it's Ash Wednesday. remember those days of Ash Wednesday mass followed by confession sessions at Sacred Heart? i think i'm good with guilt trips cuz they trained me well there...
i guess Lent start and we're supposed to give up something we like as sacrfice...

now *this* is amateur competition

I just saw Stephen Harper congratulate the Canadian team for their contribution to the country. He talked about how their acheivements have shown to the world how Canada supports exceptional individuals and help them reach their dreams.

Really?

My impression of the games was that Canadian women have fantastic opportunities if they choose a career in sports. Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of downplaying their success, but rather, just put to light that maybe Canada did well because more women are in the system to challenge, coach and choose from. Honestly, the men did equally as pathetic as they have in past olympics. Had it not been for the women, we would've been very low in the medal standings - which brings me to my other question:

Who cares? A nation is judged by the number of medals it wins?

You have to got to be kidding. When we were in school there were always those really smart kids who would get all the attention from school; the school would use them to sell themselves. But the truth is, they were smart before they attended McGill; I seriously doubt McGill had any major impact in them becoming a nobel prize winner or what not. This is another messy debate but, to me, athletes are born. The average person can work really really hard and get to an elite level - but those who win, those world champions are genetically pre-disposed to it; I think. Bringing out these freaks and teaching them to reach their potential is another story but overall I think it has nothing to do with a country. Heck, people switch nationalities all the time: case in point: Dale Begg-Smith.

***** ***** *****

Its pretty pathetic how major networks cover the olympics all day, everyday yet we barely hear anything about the paralympics. I saw a piece on cbc about this guy, Daniel Wesley. Holy crap he's amazing. The guy uses his torso on one ski and flies. He also designs his own equipment. I would really like to see more coverage of these paralympic games; knowing that Canada will do well since outside of Quebec, the disabled seem to have more opportunites in our country as our women do.