Flashpoint Interactive.

I spent yesterday on the set of Flashpoint Interactive, a new online video game based on the television show. I won't give anything away, except to say I think the lead actor is the same person who does those hilarious cereal commercials for...um...Oatmeal Raisin Crisp? Maybe? You know the guy who is always going on about how you shouldn't eat his cereal because "you wouldn't like it"? I love those commercials and wish I could locate them on YouTube.

Here are some photos from the shoot:

BOOK REVIEW - "The Believers" by Zoe Heller

Since reading The Secret I've had a hard time getting my engine running in the book department. It's like it frightened me away from the written word. I'm not trying to be dramatic here; it really was that bad.

Happily, I have rediscovered my love of reading.

The Believers, written by Zoe Heller, takes place shortly after 9/11 and centres around the family of Joel and Audrey Litvinoff (he, a celebrated lawyer - a fighter for the underdog, who cares deeply for each of his clients, and she, his acerbic and passionately socialist wife).

Very early in the book Joel collapses in court, where he is meant to defend a terrorist suspect, and falls into a coma. What follows is...not what I expected.

Because of the setting of the book (New York, post 9/11) and its title, I thought the story would have the characters struggling harder with their political and religious beliefs. We do meet Rosa, the youngest of Joel and Audrey's children, who after 30 years of believing in an even more extreme socialism than her parents, decides to explore her Jewish background, much to her atheist parents' chagrin. I was never quite sure what was drawing Rosa to the Orthodox faith, but I enjoyed going on the journey with her regardless.

But the other two children (Karla, the unhappily married and unhappily overweight eldest daughter, and Lenny, the drug-addicted adopted son) make personal journeys that have only to do with relationship issues and drug addiction recovery.

As for Audrey, we forgive her her cruel and unusual way with the doctors when Joel has first fallen comatose, because we know she's grieving. As months pass, however, we learn that these first glimpses of Audrey Litvinoff have not been atypical, and that even her best friend Jean is a constant brunt of her insults, not to mention her children. Karla almost welcomes her mother's callous comments about her weight, comforting in their familiarity. I like Audrey for her honesty, but am baffled by her still being on speaking terms with all three children, and actually having a friend in Jean, ever caring and kind even in the face of Audrey's brutal attacks.

Having said all that, I loved this book. Heller's prose is some of the most clever and veracious that I've ever read. I found myself eagerly awaiting the next brilliant line, the next fully realized character. And I was never disappointed. Though I was expecting a cleverly costumed forum for Heller's political and religious beliefs, all I got was a great story with well-drawn characters, that kept me coming back for more. I was disappointed by the ending, but I think that's only because I didn't want it to end.

"solve in bed with alison"

I use google web analytics to track who has been reading my blog. Never fear, stalkers, I can't tell who exactly has been to this site, but rather how many people and from what cities. I can also see what people have searched for in google that caused them to land on my blog.

Some searches are obviously related to all my talk of the Maria show:
"how can you treat a girl like Maria"
"how do you control a girl like Maria" (um...yikes)
"microphone tap tap tap is this thing on"

Several people were looking for info about Joshi's detox, like this person:
"joshi detox anyone constipated?" (Oh, dear.)

Then there is a random assortment of search terms:
"pictures of unidentified rodents" (I talked about wanting to get rats for awhile, so this makes sense)
"smilesing" (pardon?)
"birthday cards for kids and grownups" (This person so did not find what they were looking for)
dav devalle road rage (I don't think they're talking about this Dave Devall)

And then there are my favourites:
"wow-Jutzi" (Who was this person looking for? Do I have a relative who goes by the nickname "wow"?)
"in bed with alison demo" (I'm sorry, those videos aren't available yet)
"solve in bed with alison" (What do they want to solve? I'm so curious!)

So, welcome, accidental visitors. I hope you enjoy your brief stay before you press back on your browser to refine your search terms. All the best!

America's Worst Credit

I came upon this today by accident. It's another version of my freecreditreport.com commercial, with an "America's Most Wanted" spin. Check it oot!

Ripper Hockey blooper reel.

Remember the Ripper Hockey video I did awhile back? My friend David, the creator of the Ripper Hockey series, just sent me a blooper reel from that shoot. I was really having a hard time keeping a straight face...

How dodgeball kicked my butt.

A week ago I played my first game of dodgeball. Ever. Don't ask me how I made it through elementary school gym class without it. Maybe Guelph hadn't heard of dodge ball in the 80's.

Anyhoo, it was good fun. I wasn't great, but I wasn't abysmal, and I really enjoyed myself. It was tiring, but nothing compared to the few games of ultimate frisbee I've played. Phil said "You'll be sore the day after" and I was all like, "Pshaw, whatevs. I'll be fine" and he was all like, "Okaaaaaaaaay" and I was all like, "Please pass the sea salt" (we were eating dinner).

So. I was pretty sore the day after. But I loved it. It made me feel hardcore.

But then? The day after that? OH MY GOD. The pain. The stiffness. The inability to walk across a room without groaning. And the next day? Even worse! I still kind of liked it, to be honest. To have pain caused by a sport makes me feel like a very sporty person. One might even say I have a "sports injury", which sounds very sexy.

I have now almost completely recovered from last Monday's game, just in time to play again tonight. If you see me walking funny on Wednesday, you'll know why.

Joshi's Holistic Detox - Completed!

Today is my first post-detox day, but I haven't eaten any non-detox foods yet. Well, last night I had some peanut-butter chocolate ice cream, but we don't need to go into that.

I've lost a few pounds and feel healthy and energetic, and plan to continue following the detox diet to an extent, while not denying myself the odd drink or hamburger. This was certainly my favourite of the three cleanses I've done, the other two being Isagenix and the Lemonade Diet.

Habits I picked up on the detox which I plan to continue in my everyday life:

- Drink hot lemon in the morning
- Use my juicer
- Eat brown rice
- Have rice cakes as a snack
- Minimize wheat intake
- Eat an entire black forest cake

Oops, did I just write that out loud?

Ripper Hockey

I recently shot a spot for my friend David Battistella's site, http://www.ripperhockey.com/. You can check out his site to see the first in his series of funny hockey videos, and here is the second one, starring me in super-sexy pyjamas:

Keener Reunion!

My theatre school class (a.k.a. "The Keeners") reunited last night at Pauper's Pub. There were about 15 of us there, out of 25 people who graduated from our class 8 years ago. Some of us are married, some of us have babies, some of us own houses, some of us are still living like University students, in tiny apartments with no plants.

I sometimes wonder what University would've been like if I hadn't studied theatre. Our class was made up of 25 people who, for the most part, got along quite well and knew how to have fun. Any fellow Keeners who read this might laugh at my saying that, because I certainly wasn't one to be out at pub every night. Not a party girl, me. But I loved rehearsals. I loved class. I loved putting down the boring essay I was working on to go see the ISP's. I loved being surrounded by a large group of dynamic people, and missed them deeply after graduating.

The above photo is the class picture we took before graduation, and below are some stills from Lysistrata (starring my friend and former classmate Nicole Stamp) and my final Erindale show, All's Well That Ends Well.

Dr. Joshi answers my questions.

If you are currently doing Joshi's detox, or are thinking about doing it, I would encourage you to email him (joshi@joshiclinic.co.uk) with any questions you have. He responded very quickly to mine, and seems genuinely interested in helping people through the detox. Of course, you should read his book first. It really is necessary to have it if you're going to do the detox.

Here are the questions I had for him, with his answers in caps:

1) Am I supposed to completely avoid fruit, or just minimize my intake of it? How much is too much? TRY TO AVOID FRUIT AND FRUIT SUGARS IF TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT. TWO PIECES OF FRUIT DAILY IS GOOD.

2) If I cheat and have some decaf coffee, is that really bad? NO BUT TRY TO GET ONE THAT HAS BEEN DECAFFIENATED NATURALLY

3) Why do you specify "gluten-free oatmeal"? Isn't oatmeal normally gluten-free? NO, OATS CONTAIN GLUTEN, WHICH CAN BE VERY MUSCOUS FORMING IN THE GUT, GET A CEREAL THAT IS GLUTEN FREE ESP IF YOU HAVE CONSTIPATION AND BLOATING

4) Should I totally avoid the no-no veggies (cucumber, tomatoes etc.) or just minimize my intake? MINIMIZE, COOKED TOMATOES ARE OK

5) Is it bad to have lots of honey while on the detox? Should this just be a treat? YES, THINK OF THE CALORIES!

6) I don't think I read anything about minimizing my salt consumption...but should I be watching this? I feel like I'm eating more salt than usual. WHY ARE YOU EATING MORE SALT? PERHAPS YOU HAVE A MINERAL DEFICIENCY, TAKE ONE EMERGEN – SACHET A DAY AND SEE HOW YOU FEEL

7) Are sun-dried tomatoes as bad as regular tomatoes? NO

Joshi's Holistic Detox - Day 15

Whoa.

Dr. Joshi posted a comment on my blog. That's really cool!

I have a ton of questions to ask him so I'll send him an email and hope that he has time to address them. Then I will, of course, post the answers here.

This past weekend at the cottage was much easier than I thought it would be. I wasn't nearly as tempted by the chocolate and booze and sausages as I thought I'd be. And fortunately my parents allowed me to dictate what we had for supper most nights. Saturday night we ate salmon with brown rice, asparagus and spinach salad - with tons and tons of garlic. And Sunday night we pretty much had the same thing, replacing the salmon with a lovely honey/lemon/garlic-glazed chicken.

One thing I'm quite enjoying on this detox is the hot lemon that I drink almost every morning. It's a delicious coffee substitute, and apparently does wonders for your kidneys.

On the way up to the cottage we were a little peckish so we had some hummus with carrots and rice chips. I also ate several bananas throughout the weekend, as I am wont to do.

I've definitely lost weight in the past two weeks, but I haven't had a chance to weigh myself so I'm not sure how much. My clothes are fitting more loosely and I feel lighter. It feels good! One more week...

Joshi's Holistic Detox - Day 11

This is getting harder.

I'm tired of rice.

I want a chocolate bar.

I want to eat strawberries at the cottage this weekend.

There are only so many bananas a person can eat.

I cheated last night by having terriyaki sauce on my chicken and I DON'T CARE.

Hrmph.