Sunday, July 31, 2005

Taming my very own shrew

Tu Anh and I recently learned that there is a theatre at Ashbridge's Bay Park presenting William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew". It's not your usual Shakespeare in the park 'cause there's actually a roof over your head, so rain or shine, the show will go on.....Theater_01_thumb The backdrop of the stage is a great view of the park, and Lake Ontario in the disance. You can even hear the waves crashing onto shore, adding a pleasant background noise to the actors' dialogue. Shrew is the story of Kate, who has a reputation of being a shrew, a.k.a. a big beeeach. She is married off to Petruchio who subsequently tries to break her fiestly spirit to the point of total obedience. I must say, the end of this play must be a feminist's nightmare! I could've sworn that I heard a vein pop in Anh's neck. Some advice from Kate:

"Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable."

Take that Shrew-Anh!....just kidding sweetie hehe.....geez I'm gonna get a beating for that one....

Other Shakespeare in the park productions around town:

High Park: Much Ado about nothing
Withrow Park: Merchant of Venice
Brampton's Ken Whillan's Square: All's well that ends well (July 22-Aug 8), Richard III (Aug 12-29), Twelfth Night (Sept 2-3)
Mississauga Bradley Museum: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)

Friday, July 29, 2005

Toronto Music Garden

One place I discovered while exploring downtown Toronto was the Music Garden........... located on the waterfront at Queen's Quay between Spadina and Bathurst, the Music Garden is not just another horticultural oasis in the middle of the urban jungle, but an open-air temple to classical music. Designed in conjunction with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Music Garden is an interpretation of Bach's Suite No.1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello using the horticultural medium. The garden is divided into 6 sections: the Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuett, and Gigue, each representing a different movement in the Suite. Music_garden07The Gigue was designed as an outdoor amphitheatre facing a simple flagstone stage beneath a weeping willow tree. During the summer, there are free concerts on Sundays and Thursdays, here is the schedule for 2005. Foofs, let me know how you liked it!

Monday, July 25, 2005

Nermal gets neutered

One last beer before surgery..............

<>s/p bilateral orchidectomy, dental cleaning, dematting (07/25/05)..........
Benefits of neutering: aside from controlling the cat population (Nermal has no intentions of settling down and having kids), stops or reduces spraying behaviour, urine also becomes less foul smelling, prevents roaming (which Nermal never does anyway, he's happy to sit under his favourite tree in the backyard), reduces agressive behaviour (Nermal's already a sweetheart to begin with).

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Youbelonghere_1


....


Living overseas for several years gave me a new appreciation for home. When I came back to Toronto after almost 6 years in the Philippines, things seemed comfortingly familiar, but at the same time strangley new. I felt like I had missed out on so many new developments, politically, socially, infrastructuraly (is that a word?). I remember driving down the usual country roads near my house only to find that the corn fields and grazing cattle had been replaced by subdivisions and business parks. And the downtown skyline, which I used to have memorized, was dotted by numerous unfamiliar edifices, almost blocking the once prominent view of the skydome. Feeling out of the loop in my own home inspired me to go and re-discover the great city that is Toronto.....I suppose its usually the case that the locals of a city are the ones most likely to not visit the landmarks of their own city....But aside from the interesting architecture to behold, I discovered so much more going on. Here's what's going on in July and August. The Harbourfront in particular has a lot to offer.....Enjoy and don't forget to explore your own backyard.

July 20, 1969 Man Lands on the Moon

Full_moon Tomorrow there's a full moon.....my mother always said to watch out for me when there's a full moon:

The Moon is associated with emotions, intuition, imagination, empathy and nurturing, and also with upheaval, fluctuations and changeability. It is most closely associated with Cancer.

The intermittent effect of the Moon on the mind has been acknowledged over time and gave rise to the word 'lunacy' to describe its more extreme effects.

The Moon and Cancer: Zodiaccancer_1The Moon, Cancer's ruling planet, is the strongest influence, particularly heightening the proclivity to be self-protective, which can work against intimacy. The Light Moon's influence strengthens the nurturing instincts of Cancerians and this influence can extend to increase sensuality and passion and encourage more self-revelation. The changing Moon is associated with fluctuations and upheaval and may add to the Cancerian tendency to employ catastrophic thinking. The influence of the Dark Moon is strongest with the new moon and can be particularly unsettling for Cancerians.

The Moon and Leo: ZodiacleoThe Light Moon can heighten Leo's innate enthusiasm and the expression of positive energies, especially in the areas of leadership and organization and ardent sexual drive. However, the Moon is also associated with fluctuations and emotionality and during a period of insecurity, it may help spark the expression of negative energies in displays of a dogmatic mindset or arrogance. The Dark Moon's influence is strongest when the Moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun. This is a potent combination for the sun driven Leo, and Leo will need to guard against inappropriate self-expression.

I got this from Starscine.com.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

How long is one meter?

I remember in a high school science class, my teacher lectured about SI units. She mentioned that in Paris there was a metal rod Platinumiridium_meter_barthat was kept under very specific conditions, constant temperature, atmospheric pressure, etc. Why? Because this metal rod was the length of exactly one meter. This metal rod was the standard from which all other meter sticks were to be measured. I carried this image throughout my life and applied it to things non-scientific. Aux affaires du coeur, this attitude becomes difficult. There is no perfect meter stick. And keeping past meter sticks under the perfect conditions of your selective memory jeapordize your acceptance of the measurments you get from that meter stick you bought at the local HomeDepot. What my teacher failed to tell me was that since the turn of the 19th century, with the inception of the "meter", the definition of exactly what its length is has evolved. As our scientific knowledge has matured, so has our ability to more precisely define the exact length of a meter. So has the exact length of the meter changed over time? No, but we are better and more accurate when it comes to knowing what it is. Today a meter is defined as "the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second".

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

l'âme jumelle....où êtes-vous?

Le plupart de ma vie, je cherchais pour la jumelle de mon âme…...et à la même fois je cherchais pour la vraie définition de ça…...I think I like this the best: l'union intime intentionnellement créé par deux individus conjointement pour cultiver leur plus haut développement dans une façon qui répondre aux besoins de leurs tempéraments humains et plus, leur développement spirituelle….... . .

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Foo-Foo

Here’s a link to the blog of my friend Foo-Foo, Foofooexpert blogger and my source of English vocabulary. This fellow philomath is far from callow! She appreciates my odium to idocy. Her voluble nature compliments my oftentimes taciturn character, and her garrulousness most certainly dispels the somnolence of a non-surgery day.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Badlands

The Cheltenham Badlands in Caledon, Ontario.... cool.......Orange_hills_010

Who would've thought they were there, just sitting at the side of the road? Tu-Anh had never seen them so we decided to take a really short road trip. From Brampton, we went north on McLaughlin Rd until we hit Old Base Line Road, we then made a left or went west on Old Base Line Road. The badlands are on the left or south side of Old Base Line Road, a little after you hit Chingacousy Rd. Apparently, this land was cleared many years ago for farming, and rapid erosion over the Orange_hills_007years has moulded the soft, dry soil into the strange undulating formation we see today. The reddish hue is caused by the presence of iron oxide in the soil, and the greyish stripes result from the reaction of the red iron oxide with circulating groundwater, changing it into green iron oxide.....cool.........