The Resolution is a Revolution Over Myself

This year, it's not just about resolutions. It's about a revolution over established habits and unrealized dreams. It's about using gifts long dormant, making connections that are meaningful, being truly adventurous. But seriously, what does this all mean?

Revolution (noun): a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system

Definitions mean nothing! We want decisiveness and actions. And that's what I am hoping I will achieve here. Maybe writing about what I want to do this year, and holding myself accountable through words every time I look at this blog, will enable this year to become revolutionary! Overthrow the overlord albatross!

Albatross (noun): an obstacle to success; a source of worry or distress

How about we start with my old list of resolutions, which isn't in any particular order of importance or priority. I will create new posts for each list item to describe in more detail the whys, the whens, the hows. 

Old Resolutions

• learn about and invest in the TFSA
• practice French and Japanese
• cook at least three times a week
• read about health and live healthily, as far as possible

Me Versus Pistachio Macarons - Part 1

Decided to try making pistachio macarons on my birthday, thinking to myself, "Oh, this'll be easy-peasy! The recipe's so simple!" Boy was I deceived. It was...not a very successful experiment @~@ As you can see from the above photograph, the macaron shells turned out hard and cracked. The buttercream filling was okay...the recipe called for quite a LOT of sugar, so it was really, really, REALLY SWEET!

I'm not a fan of sugar, so you must be asking why on earth I would make macarons, which are the epitome of sugary doom and gloom. But man oh man, if you have ever tasted a real French macaron...I don't even have to say anything. My mouth is watering just thinking of them.

Koerner Hall and the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra

Hands down, the National Ballet of Canada's Orchestra is talented beyond words. The fact that they played in one of engineering's greatest odes to music, Koerner Hall, made the experience of listening to the orchestra doubly majestic.

Last Tuesday, March 3, 2012, the National Ballet of Canada celebrated its 60th anniversary with a concert at Koerner Hall. A couple of years back, Koerner Hall was opened to the public for a free performance during Nuit Blanche, but alas! I missed it. That fact has been a thorn at my side for quite some time, but last Tuesday, I finally conquered my regret! Bwa ha ha! And boy was it ever worth every penny!

X Japan Rocks My World!

October 7th, 2010, one of my favourite bands from Japan came to Massey Hall and wowed the crowds. They definitely made me want to cry after the concert was over, because this may be the first and last time they ever come here. But who knows? Perhaps X Japan will cross the Pacific Ocean again one day to grace our shores :) For now, I'll just regale you with stories of my experience last Thursday.

The opening act was called Vampires Everywhere and they were forgettable. No offense. If Yoshiki's drumming skills weren't so awesome, I might be tempted to say that the drummer from Vampires Everywhere was pretty good, but under the circumstances, playing the opening act for X Japan was just asking for major memory obliteration from the crowd. After the opening act, I'm not sure if the sound engineers at Massey Hall were having technical difficulties

Cooking Fiends

While I was preparing a spinach, peppers, mushrooms and goat cheese sandwich one not-so-cold day in November of 2009, I came across these cooking fiends...it was so hard to part ways afterward (aka they were eaten with gusto!) And even harder after I named them @~@

This first one, a red pepper fiend, is aptly named Crackers. "Crackers?" you ask? Don't ask. The process of naming pet plants and random food fiends is

Love You Ninong!!

An ode to a loving ninong whose kindness and humility have grounded my outlook towards life. You have been and will always be a great source of strength and inspiration. Love you and will always miss you!!

Here are additional notes written afterward...

Death is a strange subject.

After all, it took me more than two months to finally gather my thoughts to write something! My ninong died back in the Philippines on November 12, one day after Remembrance Day, which is ironic because I'm not sure if the day itself will ever stick in my head...? Not because I don't want to remember, but more because the idea of my ninong being gone is still unreal.

My Mondegreen

When I was younger, whenever I heard Sting's "Fields of Gold", there was this one line that never made any sense for me, because he would sing "So she took her love / for to gaze awhile / upon the fields of bodies." It made me think this wasn't exactly a good song because of its morbidity, though it sounded really nice regardless. When I told my mother, she burst out laughing because it turned out to be "fields of barley" dear. Heh heh! Well, even if I was wrong, every time I hear that song now, I can't help but remember my wee mistake and laugh about it.

Another episode: in Hall and Oates' song "Every Time You Go Away", I found that when they sang the chorus, for me, it sounded like

they were singing "Every time you go away / you take a piece of meat with you" instead of me!! If this wasn't a song, I would call it a malapropism, which is the substitution of one word that sounds like another, usually for comic effect. Well, in my case, I wasn't trying to be funny. "Meat" was the word I heard, dude.

So today, I was going through the Wiki for malapropisms and found an entry for "mondegreen", which is the word for what I have been doing with song lyrics: misinterpretation due to homophony. Aha! I found you, o elusive vocabulary!