A couple of small coincidental events today

As posted on my primary blog, PJMixer, I saw a hawk attack a smaller bird on my walk with my dog this morning.  After the post I checked into Facebook and on the first page was a photo of a beautiful hawk from a friend of mine.

I just posted another entry on in Tune in about hip-hop music and I found a video from a remix track of Gil Scott-Heron and it features the story of a US Olympic boxer.  This is coincidental as my wife is sitting next to me and she just loves everything to do with the Olympics, although she doesn't like Gil's raspy voice - we'll see if she watches the video.

Now, there was a third coincidence today, but I can't recall it.

Nagra pops up in Alcatraz

Watching the Golden Globes on Sunday night, my wife confuses Slumdog's Freida Pinto with the actress from Bend it like Beckham, Parminder Nagra.  Unlike, Pinto who I'd seen recently in Rise of the the Planet of the Apes, I hadn't heard nor seen Nagra in a long time.  

I decided to give the new Alcatraz series a try last night (very good I might add) and who is one of the stars - Ms. Nagra.  I had thought there was a second coincidence, but I was mixing up Sam Neill with Derek Jacobi who I'd seen in The Gathering Storm on Sunday.  Almost a double.

There have been lots of coincidences since I posted last in October, but unfortunately have been neglecting this blog.

Hot Tub Time Machine and old friends

After I got home from ultimate last night, I watched a hilarious movie called Hot Tub Time Machine.  I've been thinking of old friends a lot this week, people I've been friends with since university years, for over 25 years.  They are an important part of my life and I make a big effort to stay in touch with them: I saw one (high school and university) friend in Vancouver last week while there on business and I'm staying over with a friend in Ottawa next week while I'm in town for another (rare) business trip.  I've seen 2 other friends here in Toronto over the last few weeks and we go to concerts often together.  I have two of one of my oldest friends live just 4 blocks from me and I'm seeing another tomorrow in Paris, Ontario.  Over the last year, I've also met up with an old university friend who lives in New York.  Including, my wife who I met in 1986, that makes a circle of 9 university friends whose friendships I cherish.


Well, that's not really really a coincidence, but perhaps one of the reasons I chose to watch the movie late last night.  But I wrote another blog this week on inTunein and I made a reference to an old song called Obsession by Animotion.  Of course, that song was was one of the many great 80's tracks in the movie.  Also have to say in closing, the last scene was just a perfect fit for The Talking Head's Once in a Lifetime.

Synapses

I just saw the movie Limitless tonight. My modest review on Facebook was:

I really liked it, lots of fun, action and an interesting premise. Plot could have taken a little more load, but all together, very entertaining. Gotta go and connect a few new synapses.

I then checked my Yahoo email and found an email from Luminato regarding the addition of the New Yorker series, which includes one my favourite authors and big thinkers - Malcolm Gladwell. I'm really excited about the opportunity to see him and hopefully hear about his new ideas.

Oh, and the coincidence ?  Limitless is based on the plot premise that what if there was a pill you could take that would allow you to use more/all of your available brain capacity.  And, if there's anyone who can quickly get your synapses firing and expanding your brain around new ideas, it's Malcolm Gladwell.  I'd highly recommend all his books, my favourite being Blink.

Pi and Einstein

I'm a mathy and I almost missed the geeky numerical date alignment of March 14th with Pi (3.14...).  Thank you to an old math friend from The University of Waterloo who posted this fun fact on Facebook.  On the 14th, my wife told me that Albert Einstein's birthday was March 14th which I hadn't heard before.  In the evening, my daughter and I watched a family movie called Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.  In a later scene, Jason Bateman's dry accountant character begins to feel the magic of the emporium and picks up an Einstein doll who appears to be talking to him.  Nice geek coincidence.

Andorra

My son is currently in France on a two week student exchange.  As expected, news from my son is rather brief, however my wife and the mother of the French host student have been exchanging quite a few emails.  We've learnt that she is originally from a small nation called Andorra.  I'd think I'd heard of Andora previously, but not this small nation in the Pyrenees. 


The day I heard about this, I was working on a crossword puzzle and the clue for 4 down was Pyrenees nation.

The scarcity of water

I took my daughter to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) during March Break and spent some time at the Water exhibit.  We both learnt a lot about the scarcity and value of fresh water to our lives and planet.  The timing of this exhibit seemed tragically coincidental with the recent tsunami disaster in Japan.


After the ROM, we had a nice lunch then went to see the new animated movie, Rango.  I didn't know much about this movie, except its Western theme and Johnny Depp lead voice.  It turned out the primary plot of the movie was to do with the depleting water supply for a desert town.  There was even underground shot of an aquifer, which I knew much more about after visiting the ROM's Water exhibit.