Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Hello Again
It's been a while since I've last posted.
I've been working a lot. 10 hour days, five days a week, 2am to noon, and sleep is often short and shallow during the week. I think I will do one more week then scale back the hours, and look for a daytime job.
The council of Canadians chapter at the UofA is a go! We will hold a table at the club fair and hopefully get started with some exciting work in September or October!
It also looks as though I will be helping work on a web page for greenpeace Alberta, with a friend of mine - I can't wait! I am sure that I will learn tons, and make a bit of extra cash too.
Ali-kat's birthday was exciting, it has spanned a couple of weeks, really. We went out to Moose Lake for a weekend, resting on the beach, swimming and playing around in the water, reading, BBQing and staying in an old trailer of her parents. It was great - and really nice to spend some quality time together as seems so hard of late with work, especially with opposite schedules. We then went to see a Rufus Wainwright show as well ... what a great musician he is! We both really enjoyed the show ... at the end, as an encore, he dressed in drag and did the broadway thing ... it was great!
And the website for Polly Magoos now works with Safari, although there is still some CSS problems with Internet Explorer that I will have to work out ... damn Microsoft!!
more soon ...
I've been working a lot. 10 hour days, five days a week, 2am to noon, and sleep is often short and shallow during the week. I think I will do one more week then scale back the hours, and look for a daytime job.
The council of Canadians chapter at the UofA is a go! We will hold a table at the club fair and hopefully get started with some exciting work in September or October!
It also looks as though I will be helping work on a web page for greenpeace Alberta, with a friend of mine - I can't wait! I am sure that I will learn tons, and make a bit of extra cash too.
Ali-kat's birthday was exciting, it has spanned a couple of weeks, really. We went out to Moose Lake for a weekend, resting on the beach, swimming and playing around in the water, reading, BBQing and staying in an old trailer of her parents. It was great - and really nice to spend some quality time together as seems so hard of late with work, especially with opposite schedules. We then went to see a Rufus Wainwright show as well ... what a great musician he is! We both really enjoyed the show ... at the end, as an encore, he dressed in drag and did the broadway thing ... it was great!
And the website for Polly Magoos now works with Safari, although there is still some CSS problems with Internet Explorer that I will have to work out ... damn Microsoft!!
more soon ...
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Week
Another week, another paycheck. And more.
Aside from late-nite forklifting, I published my first website this week (today actually), am close to registering the UofA Chapter of the Council of Canadians and saw a great pop show the other night.
The website is www.pollymagoos.com and is for the store where Ali-kat is now managing. Eventually, we hope to get into on-line ordering, mailing lists, facebook etc.
The UofA Chapter I've already talked about, but I'm very excited about. I really feel like students have a lot to give to such an effort, especially when it comes to critical thought and research, which these organizations sometimes lack in. I really hope that we can take on the role of being the central research chapter of the Council, and hopefully take their campaigns to a new and highly informed level. Perhaps we can even set up a central research/publication database that is in some way accessible by all members.
Yes, and the band. A good friend of mine, Jeff McLeod, is playing in a great pop band called Jason Plumb and the willing. You should definitely check their website out ... they are amazing!!!
And I must soon start studying for the MCAT.
Aside from late-nite forklifting, I published my first website this week (today actually), am close to registering the UofA Chapter of the Council of Canadians and saw a great pop show the other night.
The website is www.pollymagoos.com and is for the store where Ali-kat is now managing. Eventually, we hope to get into on-line ordering, mailing lists, facebook etc.
The UofA Chapter I've already talked about, but I'm very excited about. I really feel like students have a lot to give to such an effort, especially when it comes to critical thought and research, which these organizations sometimes lack in. I really hope that we can take on the role of being the central research chapter of the Council, and hopefully take their campaigns to a new and highly informed level. Perhaps we can even set up a central research/publication database that is in some way accessible by all members.
Yes, and the band. A good friend of mine, Jeff McLeod, is playing in a great pop band called Jason Plumb and the willing. You should definitely check their website out ... they are amazing!!!
And I must soon start studying for the MCAT.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
The Weeks' News
It's been a long week ... a fair few new happenings
On Tuesday I had a meeting with the prarie organizer/ex-chair of the Edmonton chapter of the Council of Canadians. I will be starting up a UofA chapter this fall, provided there is enough interest. So, I've been looking into the club fair this fall and thinking of ideas for action. I think students could be a great asset to an activist organization. The CoC does not yet have a student chapter and not a lot of students otherwise. I think we could be an invaluable source of research/critical thinking that is not always present. I was reading a book of essays on NAFTA written by another Canadian activist group called the CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). It was awful. The citations were laughable - newspapers, other activist's books: rarely a primary source and even then, not used to support the main arguments. Extremely shotty work. I am excited to get started this fall!
Also, Ali-kat is now managing for a store on Whyte called Polly Magoo's. I am hired now to do a website for them. I will probably start with something extremely basic, but it will be a great way for me to practice! It's a great gig for her because it involves travelling to Asia to work on inventory ... it's a really cool shop.
We also had a couple of Germans staying with us for about a week. They walked into the cafe and asked whether we knew anyone who was involved in 'couchsurfing'. www.couchsurfing.com And we said they could stay on our couch if they needed to. It was a lot of fun. They are very nice people, and we had some good conversations and food and coffee. I hope to see them again.
New thoughts on the marriage next summer too! We think we might have it near the Rocky Mountains somewhere so that it is beautiful and easier for my family to get to (and so that Ali will bring only who is important for her to bring ... her parents want the guest list to include some 150 people on her side of the family) and then we will have a reception in edmonton.
On Tuesday I had a meeting with the prarie organizer/ex-chair of the Edmonton chapter of the Council of Canadians. I will be starting up a UofA chapter this fall, provided there is enough interest. So, I've been looking into the club fair this fall and thinking of ideas for action. I think students could be a great asset to an activist organization. The CoC does not yet have a student chapter and not a lot of students otherwise. I think we could be an invaluable source of research/critical thinking that is not always present. I was reading a book of essays on NAFTA written by another Canadian activist group called the CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). It was awful. The citations were laughable - newspapers, other activist's books: rarely a primary source and even then, not used to support the main arguments. Extremely shotty work. I am excited to get started this fall!
Also, Ali-kat is now managing for a store on Whyte called Polly Magoo's. I am hired now to do a website for them. I will probably start with something extremely basic, but it will be a great way for me to practice! It's a great gig for her because it involves travelling to Asia to work on inventory ... it's a really cool shop.
We also had a couple of Germans staying with us for about a week. They walked into the cafe and asked whether we knew anyone who was involved in 'couchsurfing'. www.couchsurfing.com And we said they could stay on our couch if they needed to. It was a lot of fun. They are very nice people, and we had some good conversations and food and coffee. I hope to see them again.
New thoughts on the marriage next summer too! We think we might have it near the Rocky Mountains somewhere so that it is beautiful and easier for my family to get to (and so that Ali will bring only who is important for her to bring ... her parents want the guest list to include some 150 people on her side of the family) and then we will have a reception in edmonton.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Compassion
Thich Nhat Hanh/Daniel Berrigan again:
TNH: "The real Buddhist cannot be rich"
DB: "Why Not?"
TNH: "If you have compassion, you cannot be rich."
DB: "You could say that about the real Christian. But they all get rich. Not all, many."
TNH: "Maybe it's not that all poor Christians are more Christian or poor Buddhists are real Buddhists. But it seems that compassion, both in Buddhism and in Christianity, is so important, so basic, that you can be rich only when ou can bear the sight of suffering. If you cannot bear that, you have to give your possessions away."
TNH: "The real Buddhist cannot be rich"
DB: "Why Not?"
TNH: "If you have compassion, you cannot be rich."
DB: "You could say that about the real Christian. But they all get rich. Not all, many."
TNH: "Maybe it's not that all poor Christians are more Christian or poor Buddhists are real Buddhists. But it seems that compassion, both in Buddhism and in Christianity, is so important, so basic, that you can be rich only when ou can bear the sight of suffering. If you cannot bear that, you have to give your possessions away."
News!
Ok, I can't hold out any longer! Since my parents read my blog, I have been trying to hold out until I have a chance to talk to them both, but I cannot hold on any longer.
Ali and I are now engaged! We plan to get married next summer in July (July 19). It will be an unconventional wedding ... more a party, a celebration of life, rather than a stone engraving of tradition and dreams, hopes too large to fulfill. It is very good. I have never loved a woman so much or felt so close in heart. Her compassion alone makes me happy enough to marry her. Still trying to figure out whether I should call her my fiance, wife, partner, spouse. So many of those words are worn, darkened. We will figure it out. Instead of getting me an engagement ring of some sort, she bought me a cat ... a new kitten. We actually still have only three cats, since one of them ran away during a thunderstorm while I was going to work ... it's sad, perhaps we will find her some day. We are thinking of having a BBQ with live plants on the tables instead of flowers. Some small ceremony for the actual wedding, speeches only if volunteered (and therefore heartfelt) and a big party that night.
This is a woman that I can share everything with. Someone with whom there is understanding: she looks beyond my words into my meanings, with whom I can walk with pride. My beautiful Ali-kat. Soon to be my ____.
Ali and I are now engaged! We plan to get married next summer in July (July 19). It will be an unconventional wedding ... more a party, a celebration of life, rather than a stone engraving of tradition and dreams, hopes too large to fulfill. It is very good. I have never loved a woman so much or felt so close in heart. Her compassion alone makes me happy enough to marry her. Still trying to figure out whether I should call her my fiance, wife, partner, spouse. So many of those words are worn, darkened. We will figure it out. Instead of getting me an engagement ring of some sort, she bought me a cat ... a new kitten. We actually still have only three cats, since one of them ran away during a thunderstorm while I was going to work ... it's sad, perhaps we will find her some day. We are thinking of having a BBQ with live plants on the tables instead of flowers. Some small ceremony for the actual wedding, speeches only if volunteered (and therefore heartfelt) and a big party that night.
This is a woman that I can share everything with. Someone with whom there is understanding: she looks beyond my words into my meanings, with whom I can walk with pride. My beautiful Ali-kat. Soon to be my ____.
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