stuff

• McDonald's no longer makes McVeggies. I'm heartbroken. I had found the perfect meal to eat when accompanying my family: McVeggie, salad, and fruit & yoghurt parfait. 10 Weight Watchers points. To put it in perspective, a McDonald's Strawberry Shake is 13 points and a Big Mac is about 5,439.
  
  No, not really. The Big Mac, that is. But it is all very high-points, except for the McVeggie. Which is now gone. I guess SuperSize Me did McD's about as much harm as Fahrenheit 9/11 did to Bush :(
  
  
• In other news, scanning through Guy's photo albums I found an old sepia-toned picture of me, my mom, and ninja_kat that I would love to post but wouldn't dream of posting without her permission.
  
  
• And we got our flu shots today. Hence our trip to McD's, to soothe two little boys with owie arms.
  
  
• We just started The Magician's Nephew last Thursday, and we're more than halfway through. Cool! I didn't think it would maintain Justin's interest much, but he seems to be really enjoying it. We're at the part where Aslan is singing Narnia into existence.
  
  
• Oh almost forgot: we had a speaker in EnvLaw this morning; environmental lawyer. Talking about the McKenzie pipeline. And, um... bitter much? As he put it, they take articling students at his small firm, but, "Some of our former articling students have gone on to Bay Street [Canadian equivalent of Wall St.]... some others we drove right out of the profession altogether. One's a chef, another is teaching English in Japan. So yeah, go ahead, fill out an application, we'd love to hire you."
  
  
• Was going to post a bit on my current bookloves, but instead I must now take Daniel to Beaver's and then myself to choir. Later!

nerdy bibliophilia

• I finally plowed all the way through LOTR. I must say it was a hell of a lot more enjoyable reading it this time - the first time I tried, about ten years ago, I gave up partway through The Two Towers. I felt like I was plodding through an endless field of odd names and stilted speeches. Every time Frodo or Sam complained of how tired they were, I muttered, "You and me both, guys."
  
  This time, having not only the movie images to sustain me (and I'm not just thinking Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortenson here - no, really, I'm not), but also more of an understanding of the actual literary style of the thing, I really liked it. It makes a big difference reading something with an appreciation of what it's supposedly trying to get across, rather than what you think it's trying to get across. As a deliberate reflection of a literary style reminiscent of ancient Anglo Saxon heroic epics, LOTR is lyrical and impressive. As a fast-paced, thrilling modern fantasy adventure novel series, it's as gripping as the phone book.
  
  I must say all the Frodo/Sam interactions (and yes, I am using the slash on purpose ;) gave me the giggles though. Because Frodo/Sam slashfic seems so redundant now. This is not about subverting the text - it's canon! I mean, there's even a line about Sam wanting to "comfort his master with his body." Which is very sweet, albeit a little icky. Because, you know, the general grunginess of them both. And the hairy feet. And Gollum sneaking peeks once in a while.
  
  
• So, fresh from my triumph with LOTR, I decided to tackle The Iliad. Once again I'm relying on movie images and a better understanding of the literary style to sustain me, and so far, so good. And I nearly burst out laughing at the Pretty Boy Soils Himself scene, because it would've been hysterical if they'd done it that way in the movie. In the movie, you can tell Paris is not exactly the brains or the heart of the family, and that Hector's kind of embarrassed. But in the book... well, here it is:
  
  ( Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful - Hate Me Because I'm a Wimp and Dumb As A Doric Post )