April Fool's Day 2009

These have gotta be the best April Fools' Day videos ever. I dare ya not to laugh!

Also, check out this gallery of April Fool's Day pranks on TIME.com.

First up: Swiss spaghetti trees (from 1957):

And now, flying penguins (from last year):

Here's one that I found about the making of the penguin "documentary":

Okay, that's enough videos for now. ;-) Enjoy the day!

Earth Hour 2009

What a wonderful night last night was!

My observance of Earth Hour actually started at about 9:00 because my mom and I were at an open house to celebrate a family friend's ninetieth birthday (some of the stories told were extremely funny to the point that I was bent double with laughter). When we got home most of the lights had been turned off (thanks, Tom!).

I took some photos for the Earth Hour Global group on Flickr (I cranked the ISO up to 800 and made sure I used a tripod in case of long exposures. I also avoided candles at all costs because that subject had been done about a million times before.) and then I decided to grab my violin and play something in the dark. I started out with some easy pieces and then moved on to more difficult ones like Beethoven's Minuet and Trio in G, and The Two Grenadiers (once I got to the second half of that one I just blazed through it).

Some of these pieces I hadn't played in a while so it was wonderful to dig them out and dust them off. Sometimes I played in total darkness, but when I hit a piece that I had trouble with I turned the stand-light back on again.

We kept our lights off until about ten--half-way through Earth Hour in the Eastern time-zone (I have quite a few friends who live in that time-zone, including two in Toronto, so that was rather cool).

When I write it out here, it doesn't seem like I did much. But it felt like a lot last night.

Earlier I noticed that on the Earth Hour website it seemed as though there were more people who were using the forum to state how they were going to turn everything on in participation of a so-called Human Achievement Hour then there were people who were going to turn everything off. Hmmmmm........ What's wrong with this picture? If all our "achievements" (fossil fuels, clear-cutting, polluting the rivers and streams, etc.) end up destroying our home is it really an achievement? Yes, this species has done some wonderful things (the civil-rights movement, composing beautiful and moving music), but by turning everything on and calling it an "achievement" I think it's celebrating the worst of the species. Okay, I'm done.

I hope everyone--from Canada to Vietnam--had a wonderful Earth Hour.

From CBC.ca: Canadians douse lights to usher in Earth Hour 2009

From CBC.ca: From Antarctica to Pyramids, lights dim for Earth Hour

Here's a video that really tells what Earth Hour about:

sad news

A quick entry before I go to bed.

I just found out that Natasha Richardson has died (I had to do that one last check on the news). I'm crying as I write this--I can't imagine what her family and Liam are going through right now. God bless and be with them all. May God surround them all with It's Light, comfort, compassion, love, and understanding. :'-(

March 19: PS TIME has a photo gallery of her life. The obit that they wrote last night (see link above) is absolutely beautiful and extremely well written.

Also March 19: PPS Here's an article from TIME.com explaining what caused her death.

I'm watching a couple of scenes from The Parent Trap and I'm laughing and crying at the same time--this was the only movie that I saw her in, but talk about good acting. The scene where she's drunk and meets Nick (Dennis Quaid) again is absolutely hilarious--even at a time like this. I'm trying not to laugh but that's next to impossible. I wouldn't be surprised if she would've wanted me to laugh.

March 19 (yet again): PPPS Yet more bombardment (that's one of the ways in which I deal during something like this): here's the New York Times' obit, which gives a run-down of her life.

Natasha Richardson--need I say more?

I've been debating about whether I want to post what I'm about to write, but I think I'll just go ahead and post this (no doubt a couple gazillian bloggers beat me to it--she fell on Monday, after all).

As just about everyone knows by now, Natasha Richardson (who's a member of the Redgrave clan of actors, and is married to one of my favourite actors, Liam Neeson) is in a hospital in NYC after an accident during a beginner ski lesson on the slopes of Mont Tremblant, QC. From what I've read, there's virtually no hope of her recovering, which I think is just unbelievably sad--it makes me want to cry right now. I agree with Holly Lebowitz Rossi at Fresh Living:

How are you reacting to this? For me, in addition to feeling heartbroken for Richardson and her family (who we feel we "know" because we know their theatrical work), I feel a tingle of anxiety. It's that "does no compute" feeling of, how can a person be laughing and talking one moment, and gone the next? How can a person be pronounced "ok" [sic] after a fall but reportedly be brain-dead less than 24 hours later?

I have to admit that I'm rather obsessed right now--sometimes I check TIME.com what feels like a dozen times in ten minutes. Or at least I check whenever I see that the homepage is automatically refreshing--like now, at about 7:04 PM. No update.

But CNN does have a rather interesting article about how head injuries that start out small can get worse fast. It's well worth reading (now I sound like my father).

Speaking of obsessed, I watched The Parent Trap on YouTube today. I haven't seen that one in so long--my gosh, Lindsey Lohan was cute (x2)!

In much happier news, Friday is the first day of Spring (and it's the Pagan/Wiccan holiday, Ostara). I plan on really celebrating this year. So far my plans consist of simply going out just before dawn and watching the sun rise. I'll say my morning prayers at that time as well. I just checked weatherunderground.com and according to them Friday will be sunny with a high of +2˚ C (roughly 36˚ F). Happy almost Spring, everyone!