Links 'cause I'm lazy

I have three book reviews and a DVD review I need to write and I can't seem to face them. With the DVDs I have an excuse - I haven't finished watching - but by the time I get around to the book reviews I'm going to forget which book was which and puzzle readers completely when I talk about the Toronto ER docs and crabby Hollywood writer in the book about a Victorian writer and his pet project.

Anyway, I'm at the start of a four day weekend, following my six day Christmas weekend. If I'd worked things out differently I could have had one 10 day weekend (or, as some would call it, a week and a half off) but instead I got a lot done in the office yesterday, all by my lonesome self.

So instead of tackling those book reviews or doing something else more productive, I'm doing some housecleaning on the computer (or, as some would call it, computer cleaning) and ran across some e-mails people have sent me containing links I'd had some vague thought of posting at some point. That point, my friends, is now. This will be pretty random. But it's an easy way to make a blog post with little effort.

• Cinema Sequence trivia game. It's addictive to a certain point, but if you play too much, the questions start repeating themselves. Not that I would know.
  
• Virtual Hip Surgery from Edheads.org. For the medical show lover who's too squeamish to start operating on people in real life. It's kind of hard. I think I'll leave the surgery to doctors. It even has video of a real hip surgery, but I won't be checking that out.
  

My Cubicle, with apologies to James Blunt



2 1/2 year old prodigy tabla player



And if you're in Vancouver, here's a potentially interesting event coming up:

Director's Workshop with Carl Bessai and the feature presentation of Emile

On Sunday January 7th First Weekend Club is offering a special one-hour workshop with renowned director and cinematographer Carl Bessai. This workshop will precede our next Canada Screens event and showcase of Emile, Carl Bessai's third feature film. The workshop offers a great opportunity for aspiring and emerging directors, actors, film enthusiasts and the simply curious who are interested in learning from one of Canada's brightest filmmakers. Carl will provide an overview of the directing process: working with actors, the DOP, the editor, shot lists/storyboards, and how to manage creative relationships. Following the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to see one of Carl's films come to life on the big screen and experience his award winning film Emile, starring Sir Ian McKellen, Deborah Kara Unger and Ian Tracey.

The workshop and film is part of FWC's Canada Screens, a monthly screening and talkback series of the best Canadian cinema. Canada Screens offers a unique movie going experience that includes conversations with filmmakers and special guests.

They don't seem to have all the info up on their website, but ... contact them for details, I guess. I'm not reprinting the entire bloody e-mail.

Now on to other projects, like ... cleaning out the fridge.