Is a comment even necessary for this?

Have a great weekend everyone!

I think I've solved the mystery of all of the feet we've been finding in BC. Perhaps they're leftovers from this scheme to steal body parts in New Jersey...

I'm always interested to see articles on Japan because of my time there. Having been lucky enough to live near Kyoto, I've been fascinated by the whole tradition of geisha. These women were not only beautiful but educated and visually intellectual in a time that the average woman was not.

Since my time living there, I've found on subsequent visits that the country is becoming more and more Western and that is something that saddens me deeply. The tradition is what makes it a magical place and to lose that to a more America-centric model is simply motainai (a waste).

I then stumbled on this article about the movement to popularize and create renewed respect for this form of entertainment. It takes me back to a time, long ago, that I wandered the same pavements trying to find myself amongst the sea of humanity there. It also makes me happy that, in a country so technologically advanced, that tradition is once again paramount and not falling by the wayside.

That is the beauty of the small city of Kyoto.

I can only hope that it spreads throughout the rest of the country...

Do you feel bored with your job? It turns out that you aren't alone.

I found an article on the Guardian Online entitled Chairman of the Bored which is about just that. Boredom at the workplace and how it should be dealt with. It appears that people are looking towards employers to cure them of this "epidemic".

I can't wait to read the book mentioned in the article. I've got it on hold at the library. It's called "The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out - The Shocking Truth About Office Life". Anyone familiar with it?

It's a sad state of affairs that people tend to sue at the drop of a hat. Today, I saw a story in Reuters about one such lawsuit in which a woman sues Victoria's Secret claiming injury from one of their thongs. It appears that while she was putting a pair of what I deem to be the most uncomfortable looking bits of lingerie on, a bit flew into her eye and caused tiny little cuts in her cornea.

Was Victoria's Secret negligent? Or was this woman expecting too much from such underwear? And, barring questions like what is a 52-year old traffic officer doing wearing a thong in the first place, I can't help but laugh. Why? Because it seems that there are no limits to what a person can sue someone or company for. It's a sad state of affairs.

I don't know about you, but I would be embarrassed to hang out my dirty laundry like this (pun definitely intended) for everyone to take into account. I can't even imagine hanging such items out on the line - if I was the type of person who would actually wear one in the first place. I mean, one would expect a certain amount of delicacy to an item that basically consists of a couple of pieces of string.

This reminds me of an article I read a month or so ago that said that thongs are no longer in. The younger girls have moved on to the next fad and now it's the cougars that are doing wearing them - a sure sign that they've gone out of style. Perhaps the woman named in the story above should get a clue.

Sure goes without saying that it should be comfort before style!

PS... is anyone else out there old enough to remember when thong was actually used to describe footwear?

I'm really bored...

It looks like I have some thinking to do. I have to put together a plan in order to reach some pretty lofty goals. I also have to stop making excuses for not being creative. In fact, I think I just have to stop wasting energy sharing the ideas and actually do something with them.

I just wanted to share this and add that I'm not really sure where this is going to take me. It may mean that I neglect this space... or not... I can't really say. However, I thought that I'd share it with you.

No need to comment. I know it's not that this space has been all that busy in the comment department. But, really, what did I expect? Constant adoration?

It's a hoax!

The 6th foot found in B.C. not human, says coroners service.

I wondered how long it would be until someone started doing things like this...

It must be the effects of the full moon or something...

There has to be a reason, besides my high expectations of those in my peripheral, for me being quite irritated with folks. I'd like to blame the effects of the moon but the truth is, I've just lost my patience. I'm having trouble understanding the unwillingness of people to make any sort of commitment nowadays.

Why is this? Why is it so difficult for people to commit to even a simple invitation to an event in the near future? It's not like they're telling someone something serious like "I love you" and for sure, unless they're not sure of their work schedule, they pretty much know if there's going to be a scheduling conflict. So, why the apprehension?

Not wanting to rant about something that might just be an overreaction on my part, I ran it by a couple of people today in my office. There's a good cross-section of people in the office with differing levels of organizational skills so I felt safe in bringing it up. I found many differing levels of what they thought but one of my coworkers was telling me that she felt the same way as I did. In fact, she said, when she was younger, she always felt that the indecision of her friends often meant that she ended up planning things because she couldn't stand the "I don't know" response to "So, what should we do tonight?".

This has always been a problem for me. Oftentimes people just assume that I'm being pushy however, what they don't realize is that I really just have difficulty with indecision as a whole. What's so difficult about deciding amongst themselves what a group of people wants to do? Are people afraid of their ideas being "shot down" or of rejection so they'd rather say nothing to spare themselves the pain of their ideas not being the one that was chosen?

Hell, what they don't realize is that those of us who seem to be pushy in making these decisions are actually not that thrilled with taking the responsibility! We'd be happy for someone to come up with something. What are you going to lose if you do speak up? Most likely, nothing...

I was thinking that maybe this is just a female trait. You know, this whole impatient thing... Like those of us that sit around and wait for that guy that we really like (and are afraid to admit it until we're sure it's reciprocated) to say that they love you (or like you). Maybe it's in our hard wiring. I've been told that men just don't like to commit to anything (even about that new haircut that you've had) but I've been experiencing this a lot lately with women as well. I just don't think that it's that easily defined.

Again, maybe it's just the moon...

It's gotta be something! Today, I stared dreamily out the window of the bus when it drove by this women's formal & wedding dress shop at that pale pink organza gown. The scary thing is that I started having these "princess"-type thoughts that even a shake of the head couldn't stop. What finally did stop me was realizing that there was no way I was going to fit into that tiny size two.

There's nothing worse than the slap of reality to cure a girl of her princess thoughts....

Especially if you can imagine yourself trying to fit into that same dress and it being a struggle to fit it onto one of your arms (let alone your entire body) because that's the only way you'd really be able to say that you tried it on. Once those dresses go past about a size four, they don't make you look like a princess anymore... More like the Michelin man trying to be a princess...

Wow. That's a really funny image that just popped into my head.

Anyway, I'd like to say thank you so much to Ms. Slovakia who helped me put my disappointment into perspective today. You're absolutely correct! I don't know what I'd do without you!

By the way, on a final note , can anyone tell me why people come to internet cafes and then after looking things up, make a really loud call from their mobile phone? It's bad enough to have to deal with the noise but then they share information like their email addresses, telephone numbers and credit card information. If I hadn't been typing this out today, I would have shared this person's phone number with all of you so that you could give her a call!

Lastly, it appears that there was a Sixth Foot found near Campbell River.

Okay, Sam & Wonderkid! What are you two really up to?

I think I must be missing something...

It seems that the whole text message revolution really has transcended the use of written language. Have they been spelling "come" this way for long? Or is there some sort of innuendo to this.

Personally, when I text, I use full written English and after seeing this item from the Bell Mobility magazine, I'm kind of glad I did. In my days, this version of the spelling was used for something more fun than text messaging.

Hmmm. I guess I'm not quite a young as I feel. I just can't quite help thinking that this kind of thing really trivializes sex. No wonder young people seem so much more confused that I was about it at that age...

Any comments?

I'd appreciate hearing your point of view on this. Feel free to let me know.

Yeah, yeah... I know that I've been shirking my duties of blog mistress but to be honest, I haven't really felt like (a) I've anything that interesting to share and, (b) wondering if time is better spent writing something that would show some semblence of a book or other masterpiece.
Now that I'm doing this on my weekends because I have no other time to do it, I find myself thinking that I should be putting thoughts down on paper and creating something more cohesive. Be it music or written work or photography or, god forbid, painting, I keep thinking that there are better ways to spend my time hanging out in my favourite restaurant accomplishing nothing. I'm still thinking it through and promise not to abandon my readers however, some serious thought has to be put into this...

What has inspired this train of thought?

Well, I suppose that it was the inspiration of a few hours spent on a little island off of Sidney in which my soul was freed from the shackles of tediousness. It was a place that had no "civilization" and void of cars and supermarkets and drunken idiots and of course work. I returned with the taste of salt on my lips, skin "sandblasted" by the ocean air and a whole new lease on life. It's amazing what inspiration came out of this journey if only because I wasn't being barraged by the stresses of life.

The one downside to this was that the couple of hours that my friend and I spent there was only enough to open the portal for me. Life back on my regular island closed it as quickly as it had been opened although there was a residual effect.

I must admit that I didn't manage to hold on to the inspiration much past the day that I went. The ocean air calmed me so much that I was barely able to stay awake until I got home. I felt a little guilty but then again, the inspiration to write still fills my brain.

Anyway, I'd better sign off. It appears that one of those annoying distractions that I mentioned above has taken shape in this internet cafe. I hope that you all keep on creating! Ciao!

Hey all!

No time to post right now but wanted to point you in the direction of Fleas in Paradise, the blog by started the artist whose show I mentioned in the last post. She's going on an epic journey so if you dare, please follow. It will no doubt be interesting.

Be safe ilona jane.

Hopefully I'll see you if you decide to grace this town with your presence.

Well, I promised an update and now I suppose that I'll now have to honour it.

The trouble with promises is that you pretty much have to keep them unless, that is, you want to be known as unreliable. For me, that is just not an acceptable situation. So, my reading public, here I am posting... I hope that it doesn't disappoint.

As you've already read, I got tickets to see Beck in August. It's really very exciting and I'm still a little in shock that he's actually even travelling here in the first place. It's such a small city and the theatre where he's doing the show is pretty tiny as well. (It's really ironic that the city rebuilt the local arena a few years ago and it seems all of the really great performers are avoiding it like the plague. No doubt it's the horrible acoustics...) Nevertheless, I am not complaining. I'm especially thankful that The Zone @ 91/3 fm had a presale event that was relatively painless...

That excitement aside, I went to see the Sex and the City movie on Friday night. In my opinion, it didn't disappoint and, in fact, I really enjoyed the film and it was really great just to go with a group of girlfriends and watch it. The one negative thing was that an integral part of the group was missing and (I just wanted to say that we missed you Z!) so it was a little sad.

I won't give anything away but I must say that it's ironic how I try to convince myself that I am a strong, independent girl yet I totally buy into the whole romance thing. In that way, I feel as if I am a fraud because I pretend that I don't need the fun and romance that those princesses in life desire yet, there I was, tissue in hand, hoping that my life would be just that. All this after a lifetime of convincing myself that these things don't exist and to become more realistic in my views.

Where am I now? Pleasantly amused at the contradiction that is Lola.

Speaking of films, I also went to see the new Indiana Jones flick yesterday. Incredible (and I mean this in the sense of unbelievability) mindless entertainment however, I enjoyed the "sex" film better. Funny but the day seemed to be filled with theme of skulls because the film was full of them and there were many depicted at the activity that followed (see *)

Well, my friends, not much else is that new these days. The new job is going well. The social life is pretty good even though Z has gone home for a couple of months. The creativity is not at the level that I'd like it to be at but I did attend an art show(*) last night. (Thank you for the invite Ilona... I hope that it went well for you!)

The great thing about art shows is that they provide perspective. I came away with many of my more creative ideas at the surface. I really should come up with a list of things to endeavour on and then I won't be so disorganized about it all. Maybe then I will actually get something done. The good thing is that I don't feel blocked at all. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Well, it's time for this "contradiction" to finish up on this post.

Take care all. I'm not sure when I'll have time to write again but I urge you to keep checking in. You never know when I'll next be inspired... Ciao!!!