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I’m frugal. Here’s a great article on when to purchase items during the week to get the most bang for your buck.

http://www.everythingfinanceblog.com/2007/07/for-frugal-mind-cheapest-days-to-shop.html

Alright faithful readers…without using any resources within your power…what’s the word linder mean? My Grandmother threw that out at me and I was close but not correct…

When I was at the Loblaw’s Superstore with Krista on Friday night, I was killing time when a man asked me if I wanted to get a bone density test done. Heck, why not?

So it turns out that my calcium intake is great…above my daily recommended intake. Score one for Palmer.

However, when they put my foot into an ultrasound machine to measure my bone density, the pharmacist on hand showed me how the results indicated that my bone density was at 79% of what it should be at my age.

Pharmacist: “You don’t drink enough milk.”
Me: “I have at least one glass a day.”
Pharmacist: “Then you aren’t eating enough yogurt.”
Me: “I have two of those small cups a day.”
Pharmacist: “Well, then it’s your muscle. Do you do muscle exercises? Like push ups?”
Me: “No, I guess I’ll start doing those.”
Pharmacist: “Yes, and eat a lot more yogurt.”

So in the span of two weeks, I have had the following recommendations from medial officials on how to fix me up:

For High Cholesterol: Eat fish three times a week.
For Low Bone Density: Eat more yogurt. Also, do push ups.

It’s just not my week, is it? I mean, I am starting to realize the term ‘ignorance is bliss’ really is bliss. What irks me the most is that I would understand completely if I thought I was unhealthy and eating crap all the time and that was the cause. But no…the doctors can’t really pinpoint a cumulative cause so it seems like they throw out a ludicrous statement like “eat fish three times a week and you will be cured!” and “eat more yogurt!”.

In the end, I depend mainly on my good friend, The Dish, as she has a background in nutrition and can help pinpoint some other ideas of what to eat (such as oatmeal. Yum?).

So we’ll see how the fight for the Aryan species of the Palmer develops…

Other than that, my Friday night was pretty good. I decided I needed an off-night from studying before the gauntlet so Krista came over and we tried out some old school Nintendo games like Lunar Pool (which she claims is the greatest game ever created, but we couldn’t get it to work) and we also ended up watching Grandma’s Boy. Not a bad night at all to relax my brain before the big crunch.

iplaying: Say Goodbye (Live) – Dave Matthews Band – The Best of What’s Around – Disc 2

Jason Voorhees that is. I’m watching Friday the 13th Part 2 right now in preparation for Hallowe’en. I love October when all the scary movies come out on TV. I figured I would just pick up a few films on cheap DVD, but after some research found out that no one has ever released a Director’s Cut of a Friday the 13th film (hence, some gore cut out in the films we know now). OH! There goes someone’s head…man, if you can see heads flying off of bodies, what the heck did they cut out?

Anyhow, I downloaded Friday the 13th to watch over the weekend. OH, here comes Jason! Who would have thought? Friday the 13th is not a bad series. I enjoyed Parts 1-4 the most. It made for a good whole story but then Part 5 was just stupid and then came Part 6 and 7. I’ve never seen the later ones because of the lack of goodness going around.

I’m watching these films as background images really as this was the weekend of studying. These are the weekends where I hole myself up inside the house for the entire weekend, crank some study notes out and then study them while having a film in the background. I think I really understand the Sociology class but the Critical Thinking is…strange. A lot of it is common sense but then they have terms which I have to memorize. I hate memorization. I think my brain isn’t wired for memorizing things as I always have a hard time with lyrics and always need my lyric book in front of me.

Other than that, I caught up on some X-Men comic books, watched what I ate (cholesterol-wise of course) and just vegged around. I’m going a little stir crazy at the moment but being stir crazy sparked some creativity and I finished a couple of songs I was writing a few weeks ago. The music is down, I just have to apply some lyrics and voila! I think these will be the ones I ship off to Troy and he can think of other ideas of what to do with them (aka, add some lead guitar and think of some structure elements).

Oh oh, don’t go into that dark room! Man, what is with the stupid people in horror movies? Oh, at least you are smart enough to bring a knife with you. Or…is that an ice pick? Yeah, that isn’t going to be good for anything lady. You know what I like about old school horror films? They were so cheap to produce that they could release one every year! That’s a good way to get the franchise going…look at the Saw series. They release a film every year around Hallowe’en. It’s something to look forward to. Saw will become like the old school horror films with a great franchise ahead of them – they have classic scenarios that repeat and that’s what people like. It’s like AC/DC. Everyone loves how it all sounds the same. 😉

I also picked up a new book on Friday called the Lies of Locke Lamora (sp?). I am starting to pick up some books that Paul and Miguel recommend on The Wolfshack and this one sounded intriguing. I’ll let you know how it is.

Veronique did a segment for the Rogers Television show “RegArts”, which is a French arts and culture show which runs for 30 minutes.

I just saw it and it was fabulous!

It re-airs a few times in the future so if you were interested in seeing it, it is on the French local Rogers Television station – Channel 23 here in Ottawa.

I am not sure if people outside of Ottawa can see it via satellite dish…I am unsure of how that stuff works. If you do get the Ottawa Rogers channels, it’s the French one. Look for the program called RegArts. She comes on about 10 minutes into the show and it lasts five minutes.

Here are the future airdates:
Sunday October 14 – 12:30
Monday October 15 – 9.30, 12.30, 3.30, 6.30

Hope you get the chance to tune in!

Years ago, my friend Andrea pointed out that the fall was the best time to listen to Radiohead. It just has a feel of the autumn in its music. Ever since then, I always find myself walking outside or staring out the bus window while listening to them. I don’t have many albums so I picked up their Amnesiac album yesterday as well as a Damien Rice album from the past. I find I have this problem where if I am introduced to a band by a newer album, I rarely appreciate their older works. It must be because they usually are worse because with each new album a musician advances in music. Anyhow, while waiting for the Smashing Pumpkins to come on state at the Osheaga Festival, I enjoyed what I heard from the Damien Rice so I figured I would give him a chance. So far, so good.

Last night I caught up with a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. I didn’t care for the season premiere this year, but the subsequent episodes made me a fan once again. I’m liking some of the new dynamics they’ve introduced within the cast. I also watched Journeyman – the tale of a guy who time travels unwillingly. Think – Quantum Leap. I enjoyed the first episode and will continue watching for a few episodes to see if it’s worth my time or not.

We also had a feed of moose meat last night (thanks to Sam and Marc-Andre for that!) which was excellent as always. I was joking that there wasn’t enough salt in it, but this hearkens back to awhile ago where I messed up the recipe and the moose meat was saturated in salt! Vero was not impressed at all as we had guests over and they had to choke it down. Ah well. Nothing like a good salt lick for supper!

The weekend is looking up to be a bust for me. I have to study for a few midterms AND I just got word that I have a written exam for a PM-05 position at work on Thursday. So…I have three tests next week. Gak! I also want to attempt to fix my eavestrough before the weather gets cold, but we’ll see how that goes…

iplaying: Amie – Damien Rice (O)

I have had a few requests on the status of the Led Zeppelin tickets and whether or not I purchased them.

In the end, even though I found a flight for $500 round trip (heck yeah! Zoom Airlines…who knew? Thanks to Katie and Lianna for both pointing out this airline to me), I figured the event would have cost me $1000 which is $1000 I don’t have to spend right now.

Anyhow, here’s an interesting point to the story. While it was impossible (or is it really?) to give your password to someone and let them buy tickets, someone was a genius, bought two tickets legitimately and sold his extra seat next to him for $12,000. So in hindsight, I should have picked up two tickets and sold the other one as “An Evening with the Palmer and Led Zeppelin.” Ah well, I guess I don’t have that much business sense!

Upon research (let’s be honest here…my main friend The Dish), I have determined that a good way to reduce cholesterol is to eat oatmeal.

So it’s Day 3 on eating oatmeal in the morning. So far, so good. I can’t say it’s amazing, but it’s not bad either. I think I shall try the apple flavour kind next.

My main issue with the oatmeal is the fact that I have to slot in some extra time to eat it in the morning. If you don’t know the Palmer’s morning habits, it consists of waking up at 6:10, showering, getting dressed, eating breakfast and making lunch…all in time to get out the door by 6:45. I like to consider myself a machine. There is no room for error in my morning lifestyle.

So now I have to wake up at 6:00 to accommodate the prep/eating of the oatmeal. Am I whining about this? Well, 10 minutes a day is a little thing to bicker about when I’m talking about my health. So I suppose I don’t mind TOO much. I’ve come to discover the A-Channel Morning Show which is quite enjoyable for 10 minutes.

I also figure I should prepare myself for the eventual introduction of children in my home (warning: not for a long time!) and the fact that no matter how much I love to have a morning process, it just won’t happen somedays so I better get used to it. 😉

Is this a poll? Heck yeah it is!

What’s your favourite Beatles album and why? Let me know in the comments section.

As I am trying to become a more proficient songwriter, I have looked back to the classics – The Beatles. More specifically, their older stuff as they were just starting out themselves. I can see the simplicity in some of their songs coupled with the fact that a simple song can still be an amazing one.

Onto the favourite Beatles album…I asked Sara and Krista this the other day and it’s interesting to see people’s responses. Sara replied with The White Album whereas Krista responded with With The Beatles…an interesting choice but she mentions how she constantly played this album that her Mom owned over and over again.

My favourite album would have to be Abbey Road. Right off the bat, I’ve realized that I enjoy the later Beatles than the older Beatles. I don’t know if ‘later’ Beatles accounts for anything considering I really enjoy anything from Rubber Soul onwards…I know that everyone fell in love with the band with the old songs which revolved around the concepts of love…but I enjoyed it when they started entering different territory.

Fast forward to their last recorded album, Abbey Road. I love it all. I am a sucker for medleys and that’s what really hits it home for me. I enjoy how the last half of the album have recurring themes of music and lyrics that intertwine once in awhile. Very smart on their end. Then you have the instant classics like Come Together, Here Comes the Sun (!!!), Something, She’s So Heavy….what a haunting guitar riff. I can’t get enough of The End and listening to everyone’s guitar (and drum!) solo. Do yourself a favour and put this album on for a listen right now if you can and see what I mean.

There you have it. My favourite Beatles album. Are there certain albums that I haven’t given a fair judgement? Sure. I really haven’t listened a whole lot to their older albums like Please Please Me. The White Album is still this hodgepodge of music for me. It’s an incredible album but I find it’s sometimes hard to get into. It’s almost like a compilation of tunes rather than a flow of an album. I shouldn’t pass too much judgement on The White Album yet. Give me another year to really get into it.

So…what’s yer fave?