¡Sarah!

Quick recap: I sponsor several children through Children International, and have recently begun helping their families set up small businesses (what CI calls Income Generating Projects) in order to increase their income. Today I received the report on Mercy's IGP and it came complete with ELEVEN PICTURES, making this post practically ( a picspam! )

I just found out that Kelvin, one of my sponsored children, moved out of the area covered by Children International and so I can no longer sponsor him. :( Between this and the two-month vigil starting in an hour, I see today is not going to be the happy-go-lucky day off I'd hoped it would be. Sigh ...

This week TCM is featuring "fan programmers," guests who are fans of the channel and get to pick a movie to be shown. Today's picks included Gone With the Wind and Singin' in the Rain. Gotta say, as much as I enjoy both of those movies, if I had the chance to pick a movie to be shown on TV, I wouldn't pick something that gets played once a month anyway!! >_<

Book:

9. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, Peter Singer
I found out about this book through Singer's interviews on The Colbert Report and The Hour. I basically LOVE this man for having the guts to go on international television and say, "Yeah, this economic crisis sucks, but you're still much better off than a lot of the people in the world." In the book he argues that people in wealthy countries should give time and money to people in poor countries, he talks about the reasons why people generally don't, and he tries to figure out what level of obligation one should feel to this goal. I don't agree with everything he says, but I do think I agree with a lot of it, and overall I found this book incredibly interesting. Of course I'm speaking as someone who's already really interested in issues of world poverty, so now I totally want one of you guys to read it and tell me what you think!

To be slightly more specific, one of the parts of the book that I really liked was when Singer pointed out that, should you have $100 to spend on whatever you want, there is probably nothing you could buy for yourself that would mean as much to you as the same amount of money would mean to someone in a poor country who is in need of a $100 surgery that they can't afford.

Movie:

28. Paprika, 2006
I liked this movie and at the same time I didn't. I figured a movie about recording people's dreams wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, and so for the most part it didn't bother me that I rarely knew exactly what was going on. But then the climax of the movie made even less sense than the rest of it, and I was not down with that. How am I supposed to be interested in the epic final scenes if I have no idea what is going on? :( ahaha ah well, overall I'd still say I enjoyed it. And I liked the music in it, especially that weird not-quite-a-song that always accompanied the appearance of the parade. xD;

Here is a post that is long overdue!

( child sponsorship update )

Breaking news, you guys. Discovery Channel has finally created a commercial that I love very nearly almost as much as the classic "Hello, Meteor" commercial from my middle school days: I Love the Whole World (Boom De Ah Dah). That's the Canadian version; I only just now realized there's an American version (man, they have a different logo?!) as well, but since like 65% of my love for the commercial is based on hearing my hero Jay Ingram sing, definitely the Canadian version is my favourite. xD;

Speaking of my hero Jay Ingram, I have started watching Daily Planet again after a two-year hiatus. And man I am glad to have it back! Even if watching it still makes me a little sad. :(

I am still really enjoying this semester, so yay for that. :) I'm a little frustrated with my biology class because so far we have been told nothing that is not straight from the textbook, a little weirded out by my sociology class because the prof takes an hour to explain things that should really only require about five minutes (first discussion group on Friday, I'm not really excited about that, but at least the article we have to read for it is interesting), fascinated by my economics class (today the prof went a little off-topic to explain to us all the economic stuff going on in the news this week, which was good of him), and MADLY IN LOVE with my Greek Epic class.

Epic Prof: "I love the name Paris! If I had a son, I would totally name him Paris." (ahaha, secretly I agree with her. xD; Paris is an awesome boy's name! Only I don't think I would want to use it till we reach the end of a certain heiress' fifteen minutes of fame.)

Epic Prof: "'Phthia.' It's a hard word to say, so he only says it when he's forced to." (LOL at the idea of Achilles stumbling over the name of the place he's from! xD! )

Epic Prof: "Paris does have some good qualities. I mean, other than his unbelievable sexiness." ( xDDDD! )

And then we talked about how The Iliad never demonizes the Trojans even though they're the Enemy, and I felt smart because that's something I'd noticed on my own a while ago, and then we ended up in a discussion about the depiction of the Persians in 300. So yeah, I am kind of in love with this class. xD The only question now is whether or not this love will last through to the end of the semester, since after The Iliad we're reading The Odyssey and The Argonautica and I have yet to be convinced that I will feel the same passion for those. xD; Well ... The Odyssey will at least be okay, even if it is (I think) one of those sequels that isn't quite as good as the original. xD; el oh el oh el!!

AND, for the first time in my nine semesters at UVic, I have signed up for a couple clubs that I actually intend to participate in! ahahaha NO WAY!! xD;; On Monday I went to the first meeting of the Oxfam group. I'm not entirely sure yet what it'll be like, but we'll see I guess! Someone in the group had an awesome idea that we could do for World Food Day next month, and I won't spoil it for you now because I really hope we end up doing it! And my co-worker and I are going to the first meeting of the Spanish club which is on Wednesday. So hopefully my shyness doesn't catch up with me here!! ahaha. I also signed up for the badminton club, actually, but that was mainly because the people at the booth were so nice; I do like badminton (it's seriously like the only sport I enjoy playing) but I'm not really enamored of the idea of three straight hours of it every week. ^^;

Also, for all you UVicers -- holding Clubs Day outside: great idea, or GREATEST idea?? MAN I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU GUYS BUT I LOVED IT!! Thank you, strikers, for enabling me to peruse the booths without fear of being squished. It almost made me feel bad for my complete lack of sympathy towards your supposed plight!

And after such a shockingly controversial statement, I think I shall declare that to be enough LJing for now. x)

So I never told you guys my most very favourite story from my short time working at the toy store!!

Some Guy: "Is there any store in the mall that sells ... girl stuff?"
Sarah: "You mean like Claire's? Like, jewelry?"
Some Girl: [looking quite embarrassed] "He means tampons."

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I just loved this so much because I totally imagined the girl being all "Oh I'm too embarrassed to ask, you ask for me," and the guy asking for her, and TOTALLY MESSING IT UP. xDDDDD;;

Or maybe I'm just dense.

I was reminded of this story because today at work one of the tampon dispensers ate someone's quarter, and she came to box office to tell me, and I had to direct her to the floor staff, because yeah, definitely not my area. (My first thought was, "Give her a refund!," because that's what we do when the candy/toy/game machines ARGH I HATE THEM ALL eat people's money, but then I realized that would probably not be the best of help.) So she left to ask them and I forgot about the whole thing until we were all in the office at the end of the night and my manager was telling the continuation of this story. After her visit to the box office, this woman went to the podium and told my male co-worker there that the tampon dispenser ate her quarter. (Sidenote: this guy is one of my favourite co-workers because he is so much like my brother, except for the fact that he is ALWAYS IN A GOOD MOOD. Amazing!!) This co-worker calls over the (male) manager and tells him that "the machine in the women's bathroom" is broken. Which confuses the manager for a second, but then he figures it out and goes with the woman into the bathroom to open the tampon dispenser. At which point the conversation apparently went something like this:

Manager: "Well, that's why it ate your quarter; there aren't any tampons in here. There are plenty of pads, though, would one of those be okay?"
Woman: "Oh, this is really awkward."
Manager: "It's okay - I'm gay! :D "

AND APPARENTLY IT WASN'T QUITE SO AWKWARD AFTER THAT. And they had a merry trip through the washrooms, and eventually found a dispenser that actually had tampons in it. hahaha!!! Okay maybe this story isn't actually that funny, but the way he told it was HILARIOUS. xDDD;

And then as I was leaving work, this same manager called me back into the office as if he was asking a favour. I thought it would be something of the usual sort, like "Can you take tomorrow's sign-in sheet out when you leave?," but NO, his question was, "Can you take a karate class for me? Some sort of martial arts? Jijitsu, maybe?"

BECAUSE HE WANTS TO SEE ME BEAT SOMEONE UP

>>>>xDDDD!!!!!

Man I know I have been complaining more than enjoying my job recently, but oh how I do love my co-workers. <33333

On a completely unrelated subject, today I searched YouTube for "Tokyo DisneySea" and discovered that for the park's fifth anniversary, they apparently made a series of overlapping short films in the park. And not only that, but they have been FANSUBBED!! You don't even understand my shock at the idea of people other than me actually wanting to watch this stuff. I've only watched one of the films so far (part one / part two) and was pretty weirded out! haha. Like, who has these kinds of conversations? And at a Disney park??? While simultaneously advertising the park, too, hahaha! I'm sure I'll watch the rest, but man, I can't decide which is weirder: these Sea of Dreams short films, or my discovery that World Vision has its own television show. I thought I watched it on Channel M but I can't find it on their schedule now (unless it falls under "Paid Programming"?) so maybe I'm misremembering. But ... that was a little weird, too.

Anyway, I was looking up Tokyo Disney stuff not because of my usual obsession, but because my dad and I are finally getting some concrete plans for our late October-early November trip to Japan! :D (I realized today that if we time it right, we could catch both Disneyland's Hallowe'en stuff AND their Christmas stuff, so that is A+ in my books.) ANY SUGGESTIONS OF STUFF TO DO IS TOTALLY WELCOME!!! My list right now is so pathetic. I'm like, "Disney ... MoMusu ... Shibuya? ... maybe a castle??" So yeah. Those of you who have been to Japan, help me out here. D:

( child sponsorship update! :) )

~ Round-up of other news: later this month I am going to Calgary to meet my cousin's baby boy, and in preparation I bought him a baby-sized shirt that says "I [heart] UVIC"; this fandom!secret makes me stupidly happy only because of the Cate and Jude characters in my novel (this is the only reason why I ship it, too xD; ); this article about the phrase "the customer is always right" makes me happy because it's someone outside the customer service world recognizing how much it can suck to be inside it; and, after hearing it on my manager's iPod last night, I am now rather obsessed with Kelly Clarkson's "Haunted," despite the fact that it's exactly like every other song she's ever released. :D

SEE GUYS I'M NOT A FREAK AFTER ALL I KNEW IT!!!

Apparently there is some speculation regarding a possible sequel. SO IT COULD STILL HAPPEN!!!

(Waiting for this DVD is kind of gnawing at my soul.)

Also: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA and how fantastic is it that I recognized these guys right away? hahahahahaha oh the lulz~. xDDD

Okay I am actually kind of ashamed to be reading fandom!secrets so let's pretend I'm not.

(HAHAHAHAHAHA oh gosh why??!!)
(I very much agree.)
(And I am totally guilty of this.)
(And maybe I have to agree with this one too?)
(Ahahahahaha!! Now I really want to watch Muppet Treasure Island. D: )

So ... now for something completely different?

( child sponsorship easter presents )

I'm sorry that there is nothing much of interest in this entry. D:

And now for something completely different!

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