blip

Quick question: I'm looking to put up a medium-size website, mostly just a lot of text files. Any suggestions? It doesn't have to be free, but cheap would be nice.

Newsy bit: went on a date last night. It's been too long since the last one. We ate at a Moroccan restaurant and took a walk around Dow's Lake. We should probably do this kind of thing more often.

This weekend is looking rather ominous. Nothing bad, it just looks over-scheduled.

Friday: Revenge of the Sith (me & Daniel)
Saturday: Ballet, Dungeons & Dragons, fair
Sunday: birthday party (Daniel), HBLN choir performance

And somewhere in there Chris also has to study for a couple of hours. And we should go see Guy. And call my Aunt Mary to let her know Guy's prognosis, as Guy can't talk to her himself; she doesn't speak French or English, and he doesn't speak Spanish or German.

I've been music-tagged

... by animaltalker. So here's The Song Meme:

List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

Well, I couldn't stick to five.

The first two I got off lonejaguar's Song of the Day.

The next three are some of my favourite choir songs (none of them, alas, recordings of my choir). The Freedom Song Trilogy is my favourite, because of how it blends 8th Century Kyrie Eleisons with African rhythms and a Gospel tune. It's also gotten the wildest response of any song we've done so far with my choir, all three times we've sung it.

Seriously. Download it.

The last two are from the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, which are gorgeous and make terrific study music.

Lyrics for all of the above (actually, all of the below) available on request.

Adventures in Paradise - Ace of Base
The Girl From Ipanema - Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim (English lyrics start 1:20 into the song)
Freedom Trilogy - Paul Halley
African Celebration
Fields of Athenry - Mark Sirret
The Council of Elrond, featuring 'Aniron' (theme for Aragorn and Arwen) (starts 0:30 into the song)
Into the West (from LOTR, Return of the King) - Annie Lennox

Not sure who on my f-list hasn't already done this one... ninja_kat?

cops and pools and droids

OK, so today I was told I would be reported to the police, reprimanded for abandoning my child, and watched a nice guy get turned into a monster. It's been a good day.

• The police thing: I was driving and turned into an intersection without checking properly in all directions. A car was about to cross, and as I pulled into the street he honked his horn. I glanced back and my heart did a little "OHSHIT I didn't even notice him!! GAH!!"
  
  He pulled into the intersection (residential area, BTW, there were no other cars in sight and we were both going about 30kph/18.5mph) and leaned on his horn, blasted all the way through, and sped up. I pulled off to the side to let him by, and when he pulled up alongside me, I rolled down my window and opened my mouth to say, "Oh my god I am SO sorry that was totally my fault-" but didn't get a single word out. Because he screeched to a stop beside me, leaned over, and screamed (I'm talking veins popping and eyes bulging and spittle flying, here) "THAT WAS AN INTERSECTION, LADY!!! YOU BETTER LEARN TO WATCH WHERE THE HELL YOU'RE GOING WHEN YOU'RE GOING THROUGH AN INTERSECTION, AND IF YOU DON'T, I'M GONNA CALL THE GODDAMN POLICE ON YOU!!!!" and then he screeched off so hard he actually left skid marks on the road.
  
  I was still sitting there with my mouth open. And then I was really grateful he'd taken off, because I started to laugh. Poor guy must've just had his wife walk out on him and take the dogs with her. I hope. Otherwise, he's got some serious anger issues to work out.
  
  
• The abandonment issue: went to swimming classes. Left the boys at the pool and went upstairs, as I do every week. Came to pick them up at the end of the lesson, and Justin's teenage teacher said, very loudly and pointedly, "Ma'am, it's very important that if you have a child under seven in class you have to stay on deck during the lesson."
  
  "Really? Oh. Sorry, I didn't know."
  
  "It's pool policy, ma'am! That was explained to you when you signed up!"
  
  "Um, actually, it wasn't. I signed up through the home schooling association."
  
  "Oh." She kind of blinked at me, then got a rather 'I'm trying not to look sheepish' look on her face. "Um... you didn't get the pamphlet?"
  
  "I didn't know there was a pamphlet. Where can I pick one up?"
  
  "Oh, um, yeah, OK, I'll, I'll get that for you, um, right..."
  
  "Maybe you should ask the supervisor to make sure the home schooling association gets the pamphlets?"
  
  "Oh, yeah, that's a good idea, yeah, I'll do that-" and then I started to feel sorry for her too.
  
  
• The Not So Nice Guy: Went to see Revenge of the Sith with Daniel.
  
  You know, I'd heard it was the darkest but possibly the best of the Star Wars movies. I'll have to ponder this one, because I did enjoy it but I'm not sure I'd concur with that assessment.
  
  I'd also heard that the dialogue and acting was painful. Which is just totally wrong; it's not painful at all. It's excruciating. Agonizing. Deeply, deeply embarrassing. Positively squirmilicious. And it's the main reason I can't really see it as the best of all the movies, even though personally I found the plot and the special effects and the themes and all of that very compelling.
  
  I think, some day, it will be possible for regular folks to have digital versions of movies that they can edit to their heart's content, substituting dialogue and editing acting with CGI technology. My first project will be this movie, and I will not rest until I have a version that doesn't make my heart break with every splendiferous cliche.
  
  Other than that, it was good. Way too dark for Daniel, though. He said he liked it, and he'd really wanted to go, but I think next time I'll do what Chris wanted us to do this time, and go see a questionable movie ourselves instead of taking another similarly-minded parent's opinion on its suitability for our kids.

And now, bed.

P.S.: Neato shirt: a girl at the theatre (maybe 14, 15 years old?) was wearing a shirt that said "Friends are forever. Boys are whatever."