Darla did an awesome job figuring out my T13 quotes. One point of clarification though, they aren’t all Canadian films. That title can only be claimed by #’s 1-5 and 7. There’s a few US & French films. Late last night I began to suspect some of these may not be Indy films. Some of them may have been intended as big screen blockbusters that just found a cult following. If that’s the case, I blame it all on my shoddy memory.
So what were they?

1. Exotica
2. Les Invasions barbares
3. Bon Cop, Bad Cop
4. Crash
5. Men with Brooms
6. Night Breed
7. eXistenZ
8. Boondock Saints
9. Bastard Out of Carolina
10. Boys Don’t Cry
11. Mississippi Burning
12. Le Fabuleux destin d’Amalie Poulain (Amelie)
13. Clerks

Movies I wish I’d included on the list in hindsight? Or, “you idiot, I can’t believe you forgot about…”

1. Margaret’s Museaum
2. Power of One
3. Babette’s Feast
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Leon – I always wach this when I need a good cry
6. Memento
7. Donnie Darko
8. Platoon
9. Shaun of the Dead
10. Trainspotting
11. Fargo
12. Sling Blade
13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
14. The Ususal Suspects
15. Serenity

I better stop now or I’ll be at this for years…

Technorati Tags: movies, independent film

Welcome to the 23rd edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen.

I love watching movies as much as I love to read. Independant cinema is, of course, my muse. Canadian cinema, though not as developed as British or American cinema, offers some great viewing. With that in mind, I’ve included a 13 of my favourite independant movie quotes for you to stew over and attempt to identify the movies. If no one manages to guess them all, I’ll post the correct listing of movie titles tomorrow.

Thirteen quotes from Indy movies I love. “He comes in here every other night. He has his favorite drink, and his favourite table, with his favorite dancer. Sometimes he has to wait for her, and sometimes she’s waiting for him, to protect him. She’s his angel.” “I wish that one day you will have a son like you.” “You have an accent in both languages. Who was your teacher? Jean Chretien?” “After being bombarded endlessly by road safety propaganda, almost a relief to have found myself in an actual accident.” “It’s forty-two pounds of polished granite, bevelled on the belly and a handle a human being can hold. And it may have no practical purpose in itself but it is a repository of human possibility and if it’s handled just right, it will exact the kind of poetry…” “Remember me doctor? I was dying when you had your way with me. You made me give up my secrets when I was feeling particularly vunerable…” “We’re both stumbling around together in this unformed world, whose rules and objectives are largely unknown, seemingly indecipherable or even possibly nonexistent, always on the verge of being killed by forces that we don’t understand.” “You know, you Irish cops are perking up. That’s two sound theories in one day, neither of which deal with abnormally sized men. Kind of makes me feel like Riverdancing.” “I lived in a world of shame. I hid my bruises as if they were evidence of crimes I had committed. I didn’t tell Mama. I couldn’t tell Mama.” “You don’t have to be sober to be able to weigh spinach.” “It’s ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it’s like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn’t something you’re born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what’s said in the Bible… Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it… you breathe it. You marry it.” “I like to look for things no one else catches. I hate the way drivers never look at the road in old movies.” “Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader’s his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that’s what life is, a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.” Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, independant film, movie quotes

Feast Number One Hundred & Thirty Nine

Appetizer: When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?.

• Any of the multitudes of shades of green.

Soup: On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?

• It depends on a few things. 1. What’s the job? 2. Do I like it? 3. Is there a Canadian Forces base in the area? I’d certainly be willing to consider it, but honestly am not likely to move without el hubby. We have this deal – I follow him around for the first 20 years and he’ll follow me around after that.

Salad: Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?

• 66.

Main Course: Have you ever “re-gifted� anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?

• I know we’ve re-gifted books that don’t interest us to people who’ve mentioned a desire to read them or a liking for the author. Specific titles and recipients elude me though.

Dessert: Name something you need from the store.

• Keyboard. This one is only semi-functioning at the moment.

Condiments:

1. When money’s a bit tight, how do you cut costs in keeping yourself fed?
   We buy no-name brands or whatever is on sale and don’t buy any extras (pre-packaged foods and junk foods).
2. When money’s a bit tight, how do you cut costs in keeping yourself entertained?
   We’ll trade books at a second hand store instead of bookcrossing them. We’ll wait for movie to come out on DVD instead of going to see it in theatres. We invite friends over for dinner instead of meeting at a restaurant.
3. When money’s a bit tight, how do you cut costs in other areas of your life?
   We trade in airmiles for gift certificates, shop at second hand stores, and I stockpile cards and gifts so we can parcel them out later if $$ is tight.
4. When money’s a bit tight, what do you do to keep your spirits up?
   We laugh, we joke, we play with the animals.
5. When money’s a bit tight, what are some things you refuse to sacrifice?
   The animals food or VET trips.

h/t to Caylynn’s Contemplations for the FF graphic. I shamelessly swiped it from her site.

Technorati Tags: Friday’s Feast, condiments

Sometimes the career path we end up following as adults doesn’t match the things we dreamed of doing when we were children. Until I was in my early 20’s, I didn’t even know that the field of Instructional Design existed. I certainly didn’t fantasize about being the worlds best ID when I was a little sprout.

Welcome to the 22nd edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen.

Thirteen careers I imagined I wanted (as a child). Archaeologist – Egypt. Dinosaurs. I was enthralled with the idea of digging in the mud. Fighter Pilot – Didn’t every child of the 80’s want to be one after Top Gun was released? Ballerina – Never took a single Ballet lesson, but that didn’t stop me from thinking this would be an awesome career – at least for a little while. What was I doing when I was dreaming of Ballet lessons? Highland dancing. And like most of the ex-highland dancers I know, I have thighs like ancient tree trunks, bad knees and shoddy ankles. Nurse – We have two “family businesses” where lots of us seemed to end up. Nursing is one of them. My mom (and MIL) were nurses. Me, I couldnt’ stand the idea of cleaning up bodily fluids and blood so nursing quickly dropped off my radar. Teacher – Our other family business is teaching. I even went to university straight out of high school to become one. Then I discovered that I didn’t have the requisite patience to be a teacher. It wasn’t that I wanted to be a teacher as much as a I wanted to be a good teacher. I’d had lots of mediocre ones in school and a few amazing and inspiring ones. Computers quickly supplanted my interest in teaching… Football Player (CFL) – Ok, let’s pretend I’m not 5 foot 3 and a girl. Pro football seemed like an exciting career prospect. Author – Doesn’t everyone want to write the next great novel? Me, I wanted to be a poet. Vetrinarian – I love animals, but VET was out of the question for the same reason I avoided nursing. TV News Anchor (talking head) – While waiting for a train in Baltimore, a woman sitting next to me told me she thought I’d make a great news anchor. It was completely out of the blue, but for a few short weeks, planted the idea in my head… Historian – History fascinates me. I adored Prof. Rhinelander in university. Like teaching, history fell to the wayside as I became more and more involved with computer sciene. Librarian – I adore books. I love to read. Of course I’d want to be a librarian. Architect – I didn’t want to build, but I certainly wanted to design buildings. Electrician – When I was in high school and busy considering where I’d go to post secondary school, I really wanted to head to trade school and become an electrician. Dad veto’d it, saying I’d have a better future in University than I would if I took on a trade. Man, was he wrong. I’d be laughing if I’d become an electrician! Now it’s your turn. What did you want to be when you grew up? Is the career path you’re following now in any way related to your childhood dreams? Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, career

Susan, over at West of Mars, tagged me with a thinking blogger award. I’m flattered. More importantly, I’m thrilled to promote some of my favourite blogs. Anyone who spends any time here knows I read and respect Susan’s work, so I’m going to leave it at that and list other blogs.

I’m nominating the following blogs, not for a single article, but for their complete bodies of work. They are thought provoking – in many cases the source of a niggling idea that was then expanded in a full post on my own blog – and inspiring.

• Dust My Broom – DMB is a group blog that has it all – humour, politics, blues and beer, and Mr Orangetoque (MOT). Anyone who followed MOT’s adventures in Asia will know he made a fine traveling companion. Of course, to explain what I was doing, I did need to frequently use the Travelocity Traveling Gnome analogy… They’ve posted a lot of excellent pieces over the years, but Raskolnikov’s Paragraphs Become Ramparts definitely stands out.
• Harold Jarche – Anyone who has spent some time in my Learning & Education section knows that Harold Jarche has been known to inspire the odd post now and again. While it has been some time since I’ve stepped on my soapbox and added my two cents, I haven’t missed anything Harold has been writing about recently. Read. Reflect. Educate.
• Half an Hour – If you don’t know who Stephen Downes is, then you’re not part of the Education community in Canada. To steal from his online About me page “Stephen Downes lived and worked across Canada before joining the National Research Council as a senior researcher in November, 2001. Currently based in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Institute for Information Technology’s Internet Logic Research Group, Stephen has become a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata, weblogs in education, content syndication, digital rights and related issues.” Half an hour, like Harold Jarche’s blog, is must read material for me and occassionally spawns a post on learning and education on my own blog. I’ve learned so much from Stephen in the past few years – it’s time to share the wealth. Stephen’s Web is also a fascinating site and is home to the OLDaily newsletter. If you’re interested in Educational Technology and learning, these are two sites you don’t want to miss.
• A light in the heart – Carwyn (pseudonym) started this blog shortly after being notified that her father had developed terminal bowel cancer. It chronicles her thoughts, observations, and gried upon his loss. Carwyn was such an amazing source of strength and peace when my own father passed away from cancer last year. Her blog, full of love, pain, and honesty, is well worth the read.
• The Torch – Another group blog; this one is focused on the Canadian Military. Until recent years, the Canadian Military was an after thought for most average Canadians. Dutch children learn more about our soldiers, past battles, and history than Canadian children do. While they have pledged never to forget, some Canadians already have. Trudeau’s legacy to the Canadian Forces has been brutal. The bloggers at The Torch work hard to ensure that we both remember the past and are aware of current actions, media references, and what’s going on in the world around us.

…and because I was never good at sticking to the rules… honorable mentions go out to The Learned Man!, The Gods of the Copybook Headings, and Civitatensis.

• If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
• Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
• Optional: Display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Technorati Tags: thinking blogger award, meme, inspiration