I love Google.

It's Sesame Street's 40th anniversary! Whee!! I don't really know -when- it is (and I'm too lazy to go find out), but they've been putting up the Sesame Street characters for a few days running now.






I realised that if I just hover the mouse over the image, it'd tell me what the occasion is! Silly Mel! LOL.

Wonder who/what is next. :P





Speaking of sunny days, it's actually 20 degrees outside. TWENTY DEGREES CELSIUS!

Wow. I think I'll take a shower and go for a walk. Or something.


-Lissa-

Forgot to mention that I passed on the Bookworm Adventures Deluxe to Amos, of which I'm not sure it was a good idea. See, the first night, he played the game until 6 in the morning, and he still wasn't awake when I called him at 12 noon to get the pizza dough recipe from him. *dies* 'Course, I didn't know that he'd slept so late, and he called again at 1 and said he'd bring the recipe down soon cos he just woke up. LMAO.

And when we called him for dinner last night, he said he was coming down in 15 mins, but he went back to the game and it took him about half an hour. -.-

The last time he was this addicted to a game, he didn't study much for class, and people, this Amos fella is BENT on getting straight As (or 5s, here in Ukraine) for every subject, no matter how stupid, e.g. Social Medicine and Hygiene.

I laughed. So hard.

Poor Amos. >:) He's lucky we're having holidays now. HAHA.


-Lissa-

You know what I hate most about holidays? Not knowing what day of the week it is, and how long into the holidays it's been.

Well, I know it's Friday today, because the neighbours are taking off to go back home to Malaysia and Reuby and I are all, "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!" They won't be coming back till the 2nd of December, so it's a good thing and Reuby will get a dry toilet until then. XD

But all this while, I'd been thinking that this is already the second week of holidays... which means, after one more week, we'll have to go back to class! *CRIES* But! I started counting the days and discovered that this is only the 5th day out of 15. -.- I feel like such a ditz. LMAO!

TWO MORE WEEKS OF HOLIDAYS!

And according to news reports (aka word of mouth), the situation in Ukraine is getting worse. I'm a little torn in between - want more holidays but want to graduate as soon as possible and don't want to rework classes on the weekends. >.> We're doooooooooooooomed.


-Lissa-

HAHAHA!

Not officially. Just for the peeps in Reuby's room. ^.^

Reuby and I invited Amos over for pizza last night. I made my own (read: put my own toppings), while Reuby shared his with Amos. He let us have the recipe for pizza dough, so I figured, "Why not?" Plus, when we make pizza, there's always more than enough. ^.^

And I was right. I only ate half of mine. >.>




Nummeh.




OH. And I got to the bottom of the Google picture... The 2nd of November is Cookie Monster Day. >.>


-Lissa-

Reuby bought a packet of toasted and salted pistachios that we got addicted to pretty quickly. And there was one lone nut that had no cracks whatsoever in its shell. It was virtually impossible to get to it. :| We had no nutcrackers, I tried using the other edge of a chopper. No deal. Tried pounding it with a can of pineapples. That nut made a dent in the can! Several, in fact. :| Shit.

Used the back of a heavy duty flashlight. Nada. Then I had the bright idea of using the ceramic jar I keep my coffee beans in. AND I BROKE IT! *cries* It steeled my resolve to crack the nut though. Rummaged around for a hammer. NONE. So I headed over to the neighbour's to borrow theirs. Edmund handed me a pair of pliers instead. That should do the trick. And it did! BWAHA.

And I ate it. Yum.


The moral of the story?



Pistachios are hardcore.

Don't mess.


-Lissa-

...the fifth of November.


I can only remember the first line, unfortunately. -.- So I shall copy the whole bit from the Net. BWAHA. >:)



I first heard of it when I was playing Pink Panther: Passport to Peril. >.> It's strange what computer games can teach you. LOL. (It was also where I learned of the existence of Earl Grey tea and it's been my English tea of choice since then. HAHA!) But I digress.

Today is the 5th of November, like duh. And in UK, New Zealand and some parts of Canada, I think... They celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night which marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, in London.

I'll paste some bits about the plot from Wikipedia for ya.


The Gunpowder Conspiracy of 1605, as it was then known, (also known as The Powder Treason or The Gunpowder Plot) was a failed assassination attempt by a group of provincial English Catholics against King James I of England and VI of Scotland. The plot intended to kill the King and most of the Protestant aristocracy by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605.

The conspirators also planned to abduct the royal children, and lead a popular revolt in the Midlands.

The original idea was to mine their way under the foundations of the Lords chamber to lay the gunpowder there. The main idea was to kill James, but many other important targets were to be present, including the majority of the Protestant nobility and senior bishops of the Church of England. Guy Fawkes, as "John Johnson", was put in charge of this building, where he posed as Percy's servant, while Catesby's house in Lambeth was used to store the gunpowder with the picks and implements for mining.

Fawkes assisted in filling the room with gunpowder, which was concealed beneath a wood store under the House of Lords building, in a cellar leased from John Whynniard. By March 1605, they had filled the undercroft underneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder, concealed under a store of winter fuel. Had all 36 barrels been successfully ignited, the explosion could easily have reduced many of the buildings in the Old Palace of Westminster complex to rubble, and would have blown out windows in the surrounding area of about a 1 kilometre radius.

Guy Fawkes was left in charge of executing the plot, while the other conspirators fled to Dunchurch in Warwickshire to await news. Once Parliament had been destroyed, the other conspirators planned to incite a revolt in the Midlands.

The weakest parts of the plot were the arrangements for the subsequent rebellion which would have swept the country and installed a Catholic monarch. Due to the requirements for money and arms, Sir Francis Tresham was eventually admitted to the plot, and it was probably he who betrayed the plot.

On the evening of Friday, 26 October Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter while at his house in Hoxton revealing some of the details of the plot.


Monteagle had the note read out loud, possibly to warn the plotters that the secret was out. The conspirators learned of the letter the following day, but resolved to go ahead with their plan, especially after Fawkes inspected the undercroft and found that nothing had been touched.

Shortly after midnight on the 5th of November, Fawkes was found leaving the cellar the conspirators had rented and was arrested, giving his name as John Johnson. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal. Far from denying his intentions during the arrest, Fawkes stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and the Parliament.

Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London and interrogated there under torture. In a letter of 6 November, King James I stated:


On hearing of the failure of the plot, the conspirators fled. Many of them were caught by Richard Walsh, the Sheriff of Worcestershire, when they arrived in Stourbridge. The remaining men attempted a revolt in the Midlands. This failed, coming to a dramatic end at Holbeche House in Staffordshire, where there was a shoot-out resulting in the deaths of Catesby and Percy and capture of several other principal conspirators.

The conspirators were tried on 27 January 1606 in Westminster Hall. All of the plotters pleaded "Not Guilty" except for Sir Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself on the grounds that the King had reneged on his promises of greater tolerance of Catholicism. The trial lasted one day and the verdict was never in doubt.

The trial ranked highly as a public spectacle, and there are records of up to 10 shillings being paid for entry. Four of the plotters were executed in St. Paul's Churchyard on 30 January. On 31 January, Fawkes, Winter and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster, in front of the scene of the intended crime, where they were to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Fawkes, although weakened by torture, cheated the executioners: when he was to be hanged until almost dead, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his neck and killing himself, thus avoiding the gruesome latter part of his execution.


NB: Until reformed under the Treason Act 1814, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:
   1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution (a possible meaning of drawn).
   2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead (hanged).
   3. Disembowelled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (this is another meaning of drawn).
   4. The body divided into four parts, then beheaded (quartered).



It remains the custom in Britain, on or around 5 November, to let off fireworks. Traditionally, in the weeks running up to the 5th, children made "guys"— traditionally effigies of Fawkes—usually formed from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and equipped with a grotesque mask, to be burnt on the 5 November bonfire. These effigies would be exhibited in the street, to collect money for fireworks, although this practice is becoming less common.


There are several foods that are traditionally consumed on Guy Fawkes Night:-

• black treacle goods such as bonfire toffee and parkin
• toffee apples
• baked potatoes, more commonly and traditionally referred to as jacket potatoes, which are wrapped in foil and cooked in the bonfire or its embers
• black peas with vinegar
• potato pie with pickled red cabbage

There ya go. A little bit of history. ^.^


-Lissa-

I was browsing through eBay again, hoping to find some interestingly fun and unique card games to get Zi for Christmas. It was then that I recalled a Travel Scrabble set I had back home which was missing a letter. What better place to look for spare tiles than in eBay? :P Sure enough, they had plenty of sellers with varying prices. Woot! Now I just need my sister to look for what letter is missing and then I'll place the order. If I'm not mistaken, it's 'N', but I want to make sure.

Also came across Enid Blyton books for sale. OMG. They bring back all sorts of memories. I love reading, ever since I was a child, if you wanted to get my attention (or stop me from reading), you had to practically yank the book from my hands and out of my face. I'd stick my nose in them everywhere I went, even to school or the bathroom. Amazing, huh? I started off with Peter and Jane books, then moved on to Enid Blyton, Sweet Valley Twins, R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, L.J. Smith, L.M. Montgomery... Then when I hit high school, I 'graduated' to more serious works, such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Daniel Defoe, Alexandre Dumas and the like, including biographies. I don't care much for romance novels. Sure, they're nice to dream about and all, but hardly productive. For me. Plus the graphic covers sort of repel me in some way. *shrugs* Give me classical literature any day. Now, THAT'S the way to write!

Sometimes I believe I was born in the wrong time. >.>

But anyway!

Reuby's gone from killing zombies to raising an army of fantasy creatures and castiing magic spells to take over the world. >.> Heroes of Might and Magic. And he made me feel like playing it too. :( I spent the whole of yesterday playing Mysteryville 1 & 2, and Book of Legends. Finished them and I'm currently on Bookworm Adventures Deluxe, which I absolutely love because I always seem to come up with these long-ass words which I would never have dreamed of using. My best word last night? COVENANTERS. What's up with that? LOL.

I have this vision of myself, playing Scrabble on my own, just to boost my vocab. >.> Sad, huh?

Reuby went out yesterday to watch This Is It in the town centre while I stayed home. Not a big fan, yeah. So he called to ask what he could get me (cos they were going out for food - I ended up cooking cauliflower soup. YUM!) and I said, "A LIFE." LOL. It's so sad being stuck here with nothing to do and it's too cold to go out and do stuff. Heck, if it was snowing (and thick enough, too!), I'd have liked to build a snowman and have snowball fights - to the horror of the university authorities who would throw a fit because we weren't keeping warm like we should. LOL. But seriously, fresh air is good for us! Not like they'd know. They like to shut themselves in, seal the windows and turn up the heat so it's boiling inside. ~.~

Well then, that was my day... Not much to do, as you can see.

I want more cauliflower soup! But we're out of cauliflower. -.- I don't feel like going out. It's foggy and the humidity is 100% plus the wind is, like, 26 kmh. It's warmer, though... 9 degrees Celsius, though the wind and humidity dragged it down to 6. Hmmm... I'm considering.


-Lissa-

I did a double take as I opened Google today...

WHAT DAY IS IT THAT THEY PUT UP COOKIE MONSTER ON GOOGLE?




-Lissa-

That was our movie of choice last night after Reuby came back from his football game (on TV). We'd been wanting to watch it for a while but never had the chance.

My honest opinion on the movie...

They should have cast a lesser-known actor. I didn't exactly like seeing Tom Cruise (and his nose) in a German uniform. Not because I object to him being a Nazi, but because, well, it doesn't suit him. Also. Also, I detest the fact that a brunette couple has 4-5 kids, all running around with perfect blond hair. I wouldn't have said a thing if either parent had blond hair, but isn't it rather odd to strike the jackpot every time they have a child?

Plot-wise, I suppose the movie was pretty accurate by historical terms. And I have no complaints about that. Reuby, on the other hand, said the movie was too slow. I suppose he's right, but he also said that it showed the typical Germans' meticulous planning.

Watch Valkyrie, if you must, but this is one I won't be seeing again. Ta-rah.


-Lissa-

While Reuby chose to sleep the chilly hours away, I preferred to curl up next to the radiator and watch movies that I had previously downloaded on Vuze. I still have a few, such as A Bout de Souffle and The Breakfast Club, which I might watch soon, along with a couple of horror flicks (Halloween, Drag Me to Hell) and movies that require some thinking (e.g. Angels and Demons, Valkyrie, Schindler's List).

But anyway, Blue Velvet was my first movie and I found it unsettling. It was all right for a movie, but I wouldn't say I liked it. Pretty much teetering on the 'neutral-dislike' margin. >.>

The Pianist, though, was tragic. It is based on a memoir written by a Polish musician of Jewish origins, Władysław Szpilman. It should have been included in the list, but it wasn't and that alone made me sad. LOL. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie, and it sort of reminded me of the horrors I saw in Auschwitz when I paid the place a visit. It told of the cruelty (and kindness) of the German soldiers, the racism and fear shown by the non-Jews, all that in addition to the suffering of the Jews and what they had to go through to survive. It was truly heart-wrenching. A must for movie fanatics.

Having watched the film, I'm itching to get my hands on the memoir and read it. :P


-Lissa-