Audioblog from Swan River, Manitoba

Mirage in the Prairies: Timmy's, the Net, Water and Maybe a Password?

So tonight I'm off to Winnipeg with Alex, to be off to Swan River tomorrow, to be off to Birch River the next day for Paul and Julie's wedding (woohoo!). I'm only gone until Monday night, but I'm trying to figure out how I will survive, how I ever lived, without the internet and a Timmy's every 10 metres. Yes, it's a great and huge country we live in, but I've only ever really lived in the most lived parts and only occassionally visited the more spacious and off the trans-Canada places, mostly notably in 2000, when city girl here got some sort of heat stroke. No you can't just stop off to get a bottle of water at the corner store when there is no 'corner' for miles.

Having said that, the 2000 trip was a blast and I'm sure this will be too.

And I'm going to remember to keep some water in a cooler in the trunk this time.

I'm also going to try to audioblog, but at the moment I can't remember that password. It may come to me. We'll see.

Sundays, Blue Men and Yellow Jerseys

Ah, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France and all is right with the world again. Okay, not really, but that's why we have sports and entertainment, to take us away from this tsunami-bombing-killing-poverty-death business. Yes, it's tragic, but I suspect even the people at CNN appreciate a little levity. And in the form of a 33 year old inspiration such as Lance (so long as he doesn't run for office), well, as I said, life is good.

Went to see the Blue Man Group last night. Quite honestly, it was the most bizarre theatre experience of my life. But then again, why not a little levity in the form of three mute guys painted blue eating marshmallows and dumping toilet paper all over you. I mean, if a couple hours of that leaves you offended or monstrously bothered, you have other problems buddy.

It's Sunday, and I have to work late tomorrow night and I have a marathon of a week to get ready for a marathon run to Birch River, Manitoba next weekend... But for now, it's still Sunday. And after all if Lance can do it all, than I can surely make this stage. I'm just going to take a nap in preparation for my run for the yellow jersey.

From the Gallery to the Pulpit, Where She Belongs

Lots of talk about women's ordination on CBC radio lately, what with the Women's Ordination Conference in Ottawa upon us. It's clearly not simply for Roman Catholic women, but that's the section that stands out since it's the most conservative of religious organizations, at least in the sense of its opposition to change of any kind. Of course, whether or not women's ordination is a change from God's intent for over half the population is another story.

CBC asked the question we all want to know of a delegate to the conference. Why not just leave the Catholic Church and join a congregation that will accept you and your calling? I was expecting the answer to be frame in the language of the rights revolution that my secular (post-secondary) education schooled me in. Instead, she pointed out, quite simply, the Church is not the Pope but the people. Clearly she's good people.

I've written about this issue before, so I won't rehash except to say that if you feel like a chuckle (or a good cry?) check out the conference's cartoon gallery.

Elephantime Problems

So last night I was watching the National and they were doing a story on the implications of the US's decision to extend Daylight Saving Time for Canada. I actually heard the reporter say, "Time is a Provincial responsibility". Yes, indeedy, those politicians you elected within the last five years have the authority to change the hour the sun rises and yet they have difficulty with numbers already. Prime example is Ontario's own Dalton McGuinty who, prior to being elected, promised that residents in Long-Term Care Facilities would get three baths a week. After the election, far too long after, it was upped to two and called a victory. If three is equal to two....well I just can't wait to see how they fuck this one up. Not that it would be better if the feds were in charge of "time". Never mind not being able to count, they'd just lose it entirely. Or give it to some ad agency in Quebec.

Reminds me of the great Canadian joke. Lots of versions are on the web, all slightly different, but here's one that captures the point well:

You have perhaps heard the story of the four students - British, French, American, Canadian - who were asked to write an essay on elephants. The British student entitled his essay "Elephants and the Empire." The French student called his "Love and the Elephant." The title of the American student's essay was "Bigger and Better Elephants," and the Canadian student called his "Elephants: A Federal or Provincial Responsibility?"

Lift and Separate

So Bush's Supreme Court nominee is a conservative dude. To replace a liberal chick. Something doesn't add up. Actually, what doesn't add up is why Sandra Day O'Connor is leaving before William Rehnquist, who is, perhaps not ironically, yet another conservative dude. In case you ever thought the law was clear, think twice about how judges, charged to impartially interpret the application of law, can be so easily politically located by their matrix of past decisions. Oh, were it only that life was generally so clear.

Now you know I've got that overdeveloped left wing, so this development will obviously bother me, but what I find more upsetting, unnerving and generally frustrating, is the continual criticism of the Supreme Court, both in the US and Canada, as feigning ignorance of its judicial role and leaping into the realm of proactive legislation. But there's just one problem, at least in Canada, the Supreme Court has only done so when the legislative body (House of Commons) has shirked it's responsibility in this area. In fact, I think in Canada, our Supreme Court, when it makes such proactive decisions, is really only doing so because it finds concordance with other equally powerful or important legislation. You'll notice that the Supreme Court of Canada leapt into the same-sex marriage debate in the absence of leadership from the PM. And aside from the fact that they were given that reference question, they really, in my humble opinion, had such authority to rule of this issue because it is a matter directly related to the interpretation of the application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

As for the US, admittedly, I know less, and what I know only comes from that hottie Anderson Cooper (mwah!), but I think the issue is the same. If you believe in the constitution of the US, that document that begins with the powerful phrase "We the people...", if you believe in the fundamental separation of church and state as is supposed to be the case in that godly (and godawful) America, if you believe in the system of checks and balances mapped out by the founding fathers, why on earth would you revisit Roe v. Wade?

So to all you politicians, don't slam the court for doing what you don't have the courage to do. The point of the Supreme Court is to LIFT up the fundamental laws of the country for inspection and introspection and SEPARATE the beliefs of a church from human rights and civil liberties. Yep, lift and separate. And without Sandra Day O'Connor on the US bench, I think they will be sadly lacking in this department. ;)

Toaster oven, check; Tattoo, check

So a couple more things have come off my list in recent days. I think it's been about 6 years now that I've been saying I'd get a tattoo with Liz before I turned 3-oh. Now I have. You can see it in my flickr photos. It's three stars, which ties in nicely to my current musical theme..."when you wish upon a star", since I'll be spending some time in the magical land of Disney in August.

Oh and yes, I picked up a toaster oven today. The things are so under-rated. And they're less scary than an oven for people like me who are, well, afraid of ovens and their power.

But back to the tattoos. It's such an interesting subject. While we were there, a woman was getting a tattoo with a name with dates, kind of like a memoriam to someone that died. Based on the name, I'd guess it was a grandparent. It's so interesting why people get tattoos and why they choose what they do. Reminds me of that movie "Memento" where the amnesiac guy tattooed info all over his body to avoid forgetting things (I believe they were clues to his wife's murder--I liked the idea of the movie better than the actual movie itself so the details are a bit sketchy. And I saw it in 2001 when memory/brain issues became a touchy subject for me). Anyway, I suppose that's the same reason that this woman got her memorial tattoo. And I suppose that's the same for me too, but more as a reminder to myself, to remember who I am. To not lose sight of the fact that per aspera, ad astra.

And if you're interested in getting a tattoo, I recommend Wes from New Tribe.

For some reason flickr seems to be really screwed up right now, the 'badge' on the right side of the page can't seem to find my source pictures. Still, if you click on the link I have right above it, you'll see the tattoo. Or you can just click here.

Let me introduce my steering committee...

Just finished watching the first half of season one of Kirstie Alley's "Fat Actress". Slightly uncomfortable at times, but totally relatable (which may be why it was slightly uncomfortable). I mean she's brilliant. Take the one thing that's holding you back and make it work to get you where you want to be. Forget waiting. The woman manufactured a comeback, or at least more money in her bank account. I'm envious. I need to find a way to make all this (*she looks around the kitchen, Saturday night at 10*) work harder for me.

Very superficial, but workable, mostly because of just how much I enjoy self-deprecating humour. But then, just as I fire up the old comp I see that Chuck Cadman has died. Chuck, in case you have forgotten, was that lonely (but powerful) MP who stood in Parliament back in May to prevent the government from falling. Or perhaps more to the point, to prevent an early election that no one was very interested in. There he stood, at the back of the seats, jeans, earring, ponytail, chewing gum. Brings new meaning to the label "independent". He died of the big C. My first thought was how shameful it was that the man had to spend some of his last days ferrying off to Ottawa, away from his family, because of a bunch of $$ that was in turn ferried around to different pockets in Quebec a few years ago. Very stupid. Very wasteful. But then again, how do I know, since it did seem that he was enjoying the moment, at least in his sneaking in the back door of the Commons and avoiding reporters. That's Chuck, leave us all hanging, waiting to see. Yes, Mr. Cadman has manufactured his entry into the history books. And I don't say that in a negative way in the least. Good on him. I only wish he could have stayed with us longer.

I also got the latest O mag when I was out getting the DVD. Inside, Oprah interviews the wonder boy of the moment, Lance Armstrong. He survived the big C, by some miracle. The title of his book, "It's not about the bike" is what sold me on reading it. It's not about the bike, it's about steering, which is often the hardest thing to remember.

Mr. Smith, in the Library, with the Minutes, deceptively

As I’ve said in another context, taking the minutes is not some new slang for stealing a clock. Minutes are a record of what took place at a meeting. For reasons I won’t get into, I’m intimately aware of how to take minutes, or how to record what happens at a meeting. I’m talking about writing here.

The thing is, when you read minutes of a meeting, you very often get a choppy, flavourless account of discussion or commitments that everyone agreed upon. Minutes are really a CYA exercise, and as such, say very little. The general idea is to record what happened “without note or comment” meaning, without inflicting or perhaps, entertaining, the reader with the minute-taker’s analysis of what happened.

Unfortunately, this also means that you miss out of such gems of wisdom as can be bestowed with adjectives and adverbs. As if Mr. Smith merely "stood to address the U.S. Senate”. Isn’t it more useful to point out that “Mr. Smith held forth for his beliefs on the Senate floor, straining valiantly to continue in order to preserve his right and those of every citizen, to uphold the ideals of democracy”. True, filibusters aren’t usually Capra-esque, and, sorry to say, senators are not usually quite so endearing as Jimmy Stewart. I’d like to move a superlative motion to allow, nay, require the use of interesting and flowery descriptive language in minutes.

And….the motion fails to carry.

But it would be cool, wouldn’t it?

But you know what would be eerie? What if your whole life was like a meeting and you could steal into the secret back room of the library and read the minutes of the part that hasn’t happened yet. Sounds like something that came up in my first year philosophy class. Would the minutes show the part where you stood reading the minutes? And if they did, could you ever really skip ahead to what comes next? And if those minutes didn’t have adjectives and adverbs could anyone ever really understand what the future is meant to hold for them?

And would I be too scared to read it anyway?

I still think minutes could use a little colour commentary.

Too much to handle; Not enough to go around

I didn't end up watching or even listening to Live 8. Then again, I don't feel disenfranchised. Hopefully those who do were paying attention. I was actually helping to feed starving jazz musicians instead. Which is not to say the two are entirely comparable, but really there is so much out there that needs to be done it's really overwhelming. Like I said, too much to handle and not enough to go around. No, it's not fair that by some cosmic coincidence I was born in Canada, and into a fairly well-off family (because let's face it, being born in Canada is not a guarantee in and of itself). But now what am I to do? There are starving people in Africa, dying of AIDS because major drug companies are holding onto their profit margin as if it means more. Hang on though, before you through your full force behind solving that problem, there's also the staggering number of cancer deaths; heart disease and stroke affect millions (and I'm one). How about the environment? Maybe that's what's causing the cancer? And what about poverty in our own backyard? And then there's the litany of historic buildings being torn down, minority authors not getting published, media convergence. Oh my god people, where should I start? It's sort of like housecleaning. Sure, I can devote time to cleaning the bathroom, but then there's also a leak in the kitchen ceiling, the wall that needs painting in the front room, the overgrown trees in the front and back yards, nevermind the basement (the basement!). It's overwhelming. So overwhelming that it's depressing. Oh, and I forgot to mention the problem of mental illness and the associated stigmatization of those that are affected by that in the list a few sentences back.

So, pick one and go with it I guess. Although, as I said in an earlier post, I don't know whether I agree with dumping a whole lot more money into foreign aid just because Bob Geldof said so, I think Live 8 will be success if more people in that 18-24 group become enfranchised. Because if during the next election there is even a discussion about a greater contribution to human development and security around the world on the part of our country, kudos to you 18-24'ers for getting out there and being a force to be reckoned with at the polls. Keep it up. You'll have done more than my compatriots ever did while sandwiched in between those brackets. *Sigh*

I'm off to clean up my room a bit.