The Little Mermaid

I think most young girls are totally enchanted by the story of the Little Mermaid, at least the Disney-fied version of the story. However, this poor young girl may always hate mermaids, and I would say she would be justified in that. She may have a very odd life (who doesn't really?), but perhaps she will turn out alright in the end.


mermaid syndrome 

To read more on mermaid syndrome, click here.

Last night I saw The Aviator... I thought it was a good movie but I wouldn't say that I came out with any deep thoughts except for the fact that Leonardo Di Caprio plays mentally ill very well. I think the most horrifying thing about the movie is watching the character of Howard Hughes sink into his OCD and be completely aware that it is happening, but having no bodily control over it. I think it would be truly horrifying to have a disorder/disease which you are aware of but cannot fight because it is degenerative in nature. It brings to mind the recent news of the Pope's illness and even if you are not a follower of the Catholic faith, you have to at least admit that as a man, he has been struck down by a lot of adversity in his time. A neighbour of mine at home has Parkinson's disease and I guess it's going to start causing a lot of problems very soon because my dad who is friends with him has noticed decreased mobility, and other symptoms are beginning to become evident. One of his daughter's and I grew up as good friends and I can only imagine that it must bother her a lot although she has never mentioned it to me. Heather and I only seem to meet up when we are home for holidays, especially since we are in school at opposite ends of the country. It's funny that I went west of Toronto for school and then to the western edge of the country and she went east to McGill and is now in Halifax, so we are literally both on an ocean framing the country. I don't know why that is striking to me but I guess we both took baby steps in one direction and then a giant leap even further. So, yeah, deep thoughts shaking around my brain today.

Yesterday I was randomly inputing book titles at chapters online and I remembered all these crazy awesome books I read when I was a kid. It would almost be fun to have a kid just to get to re-read all those stories again. Some of my old favourites that I found again were the following:

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Wait Till Helen Comes
The Bridge to Terabithia
The House on Hackman's Hill*

There are many more but maybe another day I will seek them out. I was seriously tempted to buy all of these because they were all like $5 each. I know it would seem weird to read them all again as an adult, but I wonder what drew me to them in the first place and if they are as I remember. Maybe it will be a summer project.

Anyways, I'm heading out to the Frog & Firkin tonight with some friends from school, so I better get the hell out of here. I notice I am developing a very bad habit of being late for class, appointments, meeting up with friends. I have to get my act together and organize my time better. Maybe I will challenge myself to do that tomorrow.

*This book caused me to have one of the worst nightmares in my life. I can still remember Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, chasing me down. It was freakin' scary for an 8-year-old! In fact, it still bothers me because I can still picture it so clearly and this was before I really had any knowledge of ancient culture, mythology, etc. All representations of Anubis that I have seen since then look exactly as I saw him in my dream. It's really kind of odd.