Equality gap

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I was in the Gap yesterday (please don’t judge -their jeans are the only ones that fit me!) and noticed an interesting sign at the till:

SALE!
20% off all women’s summer dresses!

I pointed it out to the sales clerk, and asked him if they sold any men’s dresses.

“Sadly not!” he laughed.

And it made me think: if the Gap ever starts selling dresses for men, it will be a proud day for equality.

Yeah, yeah, I know – such small niche markets probably won’t be represented in my local mall any time soon, if ever. It would be nice though.

I bet the internet has done wonders for cross-dressing men – I remember seeing those shops in the red light districts of Newcastle*, Glasgow and Vancouver and thinking that it wasn’t fair that some people had to do their shopping in the scuzziest areas of town rather than in clean, bright malls and pleasant pedestrian areas.

Yay, internet! (Hugs MacTavish)

—————-

*comment from drunk, naive, 18-year-old friend as we queued up for the next-door club on student night, lo these many moons ago: “wow, those are really, really big shoes! Who would ever want stilettoes in that size?!”

Posted in shopping, technology | 5 Comments

iPhreaked

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’ve been making good use of my ability to turn any song in my iTunes libarary into a free iPhone ringtone, and now have several custom tones set up to denote different callers.
Sitting at my desk just now, finishing up the day’s work and playing around on various websites, I suddenly got a call from my parents. At 1.30 am UK time.
Not having learned my lesson from last time, I freaked out and started trying to answer the call. Except I couldn’t quite figure out how… the usual button hadn’t popped up…
Oh. Right.
The iPod was on shuffle.
It was playing the song I took my parents’ ring tone from.
D’oh!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

It’s gonna be the best birthday EVAH!

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I finally got my grubby mitts on some Olympic tickets! And it only took 53 minutes of watching the browser refresh in the “virtual waiting room”!

Feb 15th: Men’s snowboard cross finals
Feb 16th: Men’s hockey prelims, Canada-Norway
Feb 17th: Women’s hockey prelims, Canada-Sweden
Feb 18th: Men’s curling prelims (10 minute walk from my house!)

I’ll hopefully be celebrating my birthday with a Canadian victory! (Sorry, Norway)

Wooooooooooooooooo!

Posted in sport, Vancouver | 15 Comments

Cover me

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

As soon as I saw the first cover meme post pop up, I thought of this song… but couldn’t use it.

It’s not a good cover, because it’s horribly naff.

But it’s not a bad cover, because it’s deliberately naff.

It’s a kind of genius, actually.

So here’s my pick for “most deliberately cheesy and naff cover version”, although Arlenna’s picks give it a run for its money.

Posted in meme, music, silliness, video | 11 Comments

Cover meme

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?
I was tagged for the cover meme by Mrs Comet Hunter. Naturally I had to give the matter some serious consideration, at the risk of various other bloggers stealing choosing my picks, which they went ahead and did. So no Britney Spears, Celine Dion, or Sheryl Crow* here.

(Those were my picks for worst cover, just in case there was any doubt).

I discussed my picks with Mr E Man over dinner the other night, and he wanted to play too, so I’ve included his choices as well as my own.

Best cover

My pick: Muse (responsible for my best ever live music experience) doing “Feeling Good”, originally recorded by Nina Simone.
Mr E Man’s pick: Eric Clapton’s version of JJ Cale’s “After Midnight” (we saw JJ Cale a couple of months ago and he was simply amazing).

My runners up: Alien Ant Farm’s version of “Smooth Criminal”, the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout”, Guns’n’Roses doing “Live and Let Die”, and of course “Gin and Juice” by the Gourds.

Worst cover

My pick: Candy Flip doing “Strawberry Fields”. I was 13 when this came out and I still knew it was just wrong.
Mr E Man’s pick: “Kiss” by Tom Jones. I protested this one strongly as I love Tom Jones (I’m still British after all, I think it’s compulsory) and much prefer this version to the original by Prince, who I find creepy.

I tag: anyone else who will admit to liking Tom Jones!

———————–

*I usually like Sheryl, but that cover was not. cool.
Posted in meme, music, silliness, video | 9 Comments

Cats are so dumb

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It’s hot here right now – record-breaking hot, way too hot for fur coats.

I’ve been feeling very sorry for Google and Saba, but unfortunately they’re just far too stupid to take advantage of any of my mitigating actions:

  • They are terrified of both standing and ceiling fans, and run away from them into the hotter areas of the house
  • They thought the ice cubes I put in their water bowls were toys to be fished out and batted under the dresser, where they are now forming inaccessible puddles
  • They really, really do not like being sprinkled with water from the watering can

I give up. They are currently lying on the kitchen floor like pathetic furry rags. Ah well, it’s supposed to start cooling down soon.

Posted in furry friends, silliness | 6 Comments

Another career change in the works

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I recently commented that I don’t think there’s any such thing as the perfect job.
But I think I might have been wrong.
A paper in today’s Current Biology[1] made me realise that my perfect job does exist:

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Cookie politics

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Conversation with Mr E Man last night:

Him: “I got some Girl Guide cookies”

Me: “Oh, whatcha do that for? I’ll have to eat them now, and it’s too hot to exercise”

Him: “I couldn’t help it! There were like twelve Girl Guides in the supermarket, once they spotted me I had no choice!”

Me: “Oh alright then, I’ll have one of the chocolate ones”. (Om nom nom)

Him: “I said ‘it doesn’t matter which one of you I buy them from, right, the money all goes to the same place?’ And then they all went crazy and started yelling ‘buy from me, buy from me!’ There was this one girl, she was all popular and trendy with those huge sunglasses and shiny hair, and she was literally jumping up and down and yelling”

Me: “So did you buy from her?”

Him: “No! I ignored her and gave my money to the quietest, geekiest girl”

Me: “I love you”

Hooray! This formerly painfully shy, quiet, geeky girl guide is very proud of her husband.

I’m so glad we didn’t meet in high school though – I probably would have had a secret crush on him, and he probably would have completely ignored the goody-two-shoes geek while he skipped class and smoked under the bleachers. (Oh yes, I’ve heard stories!)

Posted in food glorious food, silliness | 15 Comments

Please define “other”

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I understand the need for the first “Other” option.
But not the second.

No wonder they need people to specify.

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

And here’s what awaited me at work this morning…

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?
Do I have awesome colleagues or what?!


Posted in Canada, photos, silliness | 13 Comments