Okay, I will be blogging about Ft. Lauderdale today but I'd like to ask if anyone else is having major problems with blogger? Everytime I try to enter to put up a new post I have to refresh each page (including blogger home) at least six times in order for it not to have an error on the page.

Ft. Laudedale, land of sunny palm trees and really crappy, greasy food. This trip to Ft. Lauderdale was a Tania-esque fiasco. So I was supposed to leave on a Wednesday and come back Saturday. This was a pisser as I would be missing two days of the fabulous conference and missing the big party at the end, but I needed the cheaper flights. Anyhoo, with some stress in my heart I set my alarm for 4:00am as my flight was leaving at 7:00am and went to sleep. We had a light dusting of snow that night and guess what? In my stellar, stellar apartment building the power went out so no alarm went off to wake me for my flight.

Being the type of person who does _not_ wake up at 4:00am naturally, I slept right on through to 7:30am, completely missing my flight. Now no-shows are usually not giving any type of refund on flights, but I called and explained my situation so they gave me a few paltry dollars back and I had to pay for yet another ticket for 7:00am on Thursday morning. Needless to say I spent Wednesday searching for a battery powered alarm clock.

I left at 7:00am on Thursday morning and got to the Hilton in Ft. Lauderdale at 8:00pm that night (it's a longer flight than you'd think and I spent 2 hours in the customs line in Toronto). I then rehearsed my paper (which I had to give at 8:00am the next day) and went to bed. I got up, presented my paper reasonably well - the nerves were getting to me more than I had expected but no one pointed and jeered so I was happy. I spent the rest of the attending fabulous panels on fantasy, children's lit and king kong. And then I went and had an $8.00 tiny and not tasty marharita by the pool. The rest of the night was spent drinking and doing geeky activities with the pals I knew from attending the conference last year, which was good.

Then I woke up early, got to hear Nalo Hopkinson read - which everyone must do if they get a chance. Her voice is like butter and I've been dreaming of hearing it again since last year and she did not disappoint. I went to one more panel and then left at 1:00pm to head to the airport. I got home at midnight. I spent longer travelling to Ft. Lauderdale than I spent actually in Ft. Lauderdale.

All the flights were delayed up the ying yang, but I did have one rather excellent experience which will now make it impossible for me to make fun of jocks ever again. Okay, so maybe I just won't make fun of them as often :)

The flight from FtL to Calgary was delayed and we got in at 8:00pm, which was when my flight to Edmonton was supposed to be leaving and I thought "I won't make it" but then the flight attendants tell me that it's been delayed too so if I run I might make it. So I bust my ass through customs running to the next security point where they make me remove my shoes. I just pick them up after the check and keeping running, bags, jacket, and shoes flailing in all directions, my big hiking socks flapping loose on the floor. I must of looked rather amusing because a team of rugby or football players was standing at another gate and laughing at me. I just kept on truckin' past them when suddenly I am lifted off the ground and two large boys from the team are running me, splay legged with one leg in each of their arms, down to my gate. They set me down at the gate and it turns out the flight is still way delayed and I didn't have to run after all. But it was a nice gesture on their part and I was very grateful - chivalry is not dead, it just looks slightly clumsier than it used to.

Oh, and get this, the reason the flight in Calgary ended up being delayed by 2:30hours? They couldn't find the crew. Yeah, that's classy professionalism for ya.

Went out for a little bite last night with a couple of people who wanted to argue about god/religion/spirituality and science. For the most part, it was a pretty boring conversation as one of the people was an extremist atheist (saying I'm right and you're wrong and I can't respect people who don't agree with me on everything is exactly what he was complaining about in religious people, and yet it was what he was doing the entire evening - not so much fun really)

But it made me realize that one of the most useful and profound things I've learned in academia is how to say "I don't know." Now more than ever I am aware of how much I don't know and how mysterious and totally unknowable this magical world is in the span of one human life. (Please let me say now that academia is not the only place to learn this, it's just where I learned it). It has changed my role and opinions in many argument/discussions quite greatly however it does makes me a tad more annoyed by people who only see in right and wrong, black and white.

But an interesting question was raised by the chick involved in the discussion. We were discussing evolution of the species, technology etc and she asked "how does love evolve?" Now on the surface this is perhaps a very Oprah-esque type question, but it has been spinning my brain for awhile. How do we become more empathic, create better community, better human rights etc? How do we evolve that side of ourselves?

Have we evolved in this way so far? Well, I see that we have made some progress in human rights and rape still happens but it's a crime rather than an accepted part of society. But toddlers are being raped on a regular basis in Africa and no one knows what to do or what started this alarming and increasingly popular trend. We've come so far when it comes to hate crimes against different races, and yet we're engaged in an us vs them christian vs muslim war right now.

But what is it that brought about the good changes we've made? Education is definetly part of it, despite the major problems within the system, I think the fact it has become the "norm" to go to school for the first few years of life has played a large role - even just relating to all those other people rather than your own immediate family exposes you to difference and gets you thinking in a more open-minded way from the get go. But what else?

When it comes to our knowledge of scientific and technological stuff, we have evolved I think is definetly helps us evolve our love, our empathy, and our interrelations with other human beings and the planet as a whole. But is this is it?

Is it merely improvements in education and science that will lead us to more evolutionary acts of human relations? I DON'T KNOW

But, if not, what else can we do? What is it that helps us do this? I feel like if we spent more time figuring out how to do this then we could be soaring above where we are now.

And yes, I'm fully accepting my inner Oprah right now.

I've been trying to figure out what makes Sex and the City a bad show. Don't get me wrong, I like the show but for me it's a guilty pleasure like when I read an In Touch magazine or something. What I've been trying to figure out is why I even equate it with In Touch.

Sure, part of it is because I find the lifestyle and many of the values espoused on the show to be morally reprehensible - the materialism, the consumerism, the hypocrisy, the fact that these woman eat like pigs don't excercise and yet remain svelt as hell, and of course the sheer mental vapidity of the female characters - they don't like culture, they can't discuss anything but boys and the attempts they make at discussing other things like politics or the stock market are laughable. And I'm sorry but $500 is too much for a pair a shoes.

But many of these things are common to all television shows, and I generally find I am able to like people and television shows even when I disagree with their opinions. And hey, I like some issues they bring up like the fact that there should be "congratulations! you didn't marry the wrong guy" cards and more celebration of the single experience. And the fact that there are still guys out there that don't like being with a strong, successful woman especially if that woman is stronger and more successful than they are.

So what is it? The acting on the part of the main characters is pretty good, the plots are good (not too melodramatic), the script leaves a little to be desired but it's not bad either. So what the hell is it that leaves me feeling slightly stupid for liking it?

Well, it was actually Harry's character that brought me to the realization that it is the SJP voice overs that create the problem. The are completely overused, I find in one episode that maybe one or two of her comments are necessary and the rest are just crap and indicate laziness on the part of the show's creators.

The creators are often too lazy to create real transitions between scenes, so they just stick in SJP's voice with some inane pun - is "and from jewish to pooish" really an effective transition between scenes? Sometimes her voice comes in to explain what the characters are feeling at a given moment, which is also bad as it should be perfectly clear from watching the actor what they are feeling and just assumes that the audience is too stupid to catch on. And other times, the voice comes in for no reason at all and this is where Harry comes in because it was easy to see the many bad voice overs regarding judaism (these are not transitions, they are just there because, I don't know, someone thought they were funny)

Apparently, Charlotte had the zsa-zsa-jew
Charlotte was busy being Martha Jewart.
In high school, Charlotte doodled. With Harry, she jewdoodled.

I'm considering trying to get someone who is good at technomalogical stuff and seeing if they can take 80% of the voice overs out and see how much better the show becomes.

Thank you for listening to my little rant. I was a little ill over the last week and don't have a tv so got stuck watching a lot of downloaded SATC so I'm obsessing just a wee bit.

Next blog - the saga of my trip to Ft. Lauderdale.

One of the things I love about my dad is that he still stops and looks very pointedly both ways before crossing the street.

Well, that and he buys me shit.

I have had a make-up recommendation to make for quite some time, however I have refrained from doing so because, well this is Highness' area and I just don't feel qualified to really express an educated opinion.

However, as under-eye make-up is the only make-up I wear, I figured I would share the findings of my years of research into this topic.

If you are looking for an under-eye concealer, there is only one way to go: Yves St. Laurent Touche Eclat. Now one of my cherubs initially told me about this, and they have a cheaper version of this available at Boots over in the UK, but having no Boots I had to go for the real thing. When I went into the Holt Renfrew awhile back, being a cosmetically challenged girl, I thought the lady was kidding when she told me the price of the this little tube ($50). I started chuckling, but then in a very uncharacteristic move I bought it anyway. And it is lovely. I used it every day for six months before it got used up (and I'm saving my ass off to afford a new one!) and every day it was a joy to put it on.

There, in the last year and a half I've bought loads of pink clothing and I've taken the time to post a blog about cosmetics. What is the world coming to?

Fait acCompLit

Now Accepting Precious Babies!

Have you ever wanted to submit your precious, artistic creations to a prestigious journal? Why not make it a Fait acCompLit and send something to us!

Fait acCompLit was started by Comparative Literature students at U of A in 1985 and is once again putting out the call for short stories, poetry, and black and white slides/photography. Deadline for submissions is March 7, 2005.

Send queries and submissions to faitaccomplit@yahoo.ca or campus mail Fait acCompLit, Arts 2-13. Check us out at here