Marco Polo Didn't Go There

Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer by Rolf Potts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Within the context of being a post-modern traveller and writer, Potts takes the reader through chapters of stories, each dedicated to an individual experience he has had after having vagabonded about the globe for a decade.  This book provides an interesting and didactic structure through which Potts uses current academic research to affirm his narrative choices, as he shares his experiences about travel.  Most of this writing has been published elsewhere and this book is a collection of assorted stories that offers Potts to teach the reader about travel writing within the context of vagabonding, academic research, and individualized learning through experience.  A great read and one that is worth looking at again if you are a travel writer.


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Ochre

While visiting with family in Calgary I began playing a game with my nephew.  There is always a Canadian dictionary at hand as one of my sisters enjoys reading them and learning new words.  In order to avoid playing yet another video game, which is often torturous for me, I grabbed the dictionary, flipped through it and began calling out words, asking my eight year old nephew what the word meant.  Refuse, meditate, spar, pronounce, all words we defined and talked about.  Then I spied the word 'ochre'.  I asked him what the word 'ochre' meant and he shared his response with me in about 15 seconds:

"Oh, that's the sound that Darth Vader makes when he is breathing in and out.  

Ohhh-ker.  Ohhh-ker.  Ohhh-ker!"

Just hilarious!  Amazing connection and of course, we imitated Darth Vader and his breathing for about five minutes in between bouts of laughter.  In the end I did share the actual dictionary definition of the word ochre, but that word, for me, will never be the same.

Ohhhhh-Ker!!!

Picture copied from http://www.google.ca/search?q=picture+of+darth+vader&hl=

en&client=safari&pwst=1&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ

&sa=X&ei=8NXWT7XzC8iQ2AWrr_mxDw&ved=0CHIQsAQ&biw=1056&bih=600

Still Too Busy?

Gargameg,

One thing you should try it out

Hold a mirror shoulder high

When you're older

Look you in the eye

When you're older

Look you in the eye

- Tsmurf

Projection Ruined This 

or

Dance to These:

Sarah Jarosz - Run Away  

Imaginary Cities - Manitoba Bossa Nova 

Mary Chapin Carpenter - I Have a Need for Solitude 

Sarah Slean - The Right Words 

Spirit of the West - Political

Dar Williams - Closer to Me 

The Swell Season - Two Tongues 

City and Colour - Sam Malone 

Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know  

Keane - My Shadow 

Sarah Slean - Set It Free

Sapphire Bound! Add It!

While I am reading methods books to pump up the research section of my thesis, and I have delved into the thick and hearty text, The Handbook of Qualitative Research by Denzin and Lincoln (Sage Publications, 1994).  This is the big mama of qualitative text books so that I can write a methods section and complete my mixed methods research with some flare and accuracy.  As I have been reading through the first section I came across a quote that caused me to pause and ponder.  Then ponder more.

Viola the quote written by Regina Austin (1989) in her book Sapphire Bound!:

"When was the last time someone told you that your way of approaching problems...was all wrong?  You are too angry, too emotional, too subjective, too pessimistic, too political, too anecdotal and too instinctive?  I never know how to respond to such accusations.  How can I legitimate my way of thinking?  I know that I am not used to flying off the handle, seeing imaginary insults and problems where there are none.  I am not a witch solely by nature, but by circumstances and choice as well.  I suspect that what my critics really want to say is that I am being too self consciously black (brown, yellow, red) and/or female to suit their tastes and should "lighten up" because I am making them feel very uncomfortable, and that is not nice.  And I want them to think that I am nice, don't I or "womanish"?" p. 76-77


I am adding this book to the list of 'To Read' in my mind and on GoodReads.

Stop Using the R-Word

A PSA announcement to help those of us who have not figured out yet that using the word 'retard' or 'retarded' is not respectful, considerate, kind or acceptable.  Having worked with, taught, been friends with and have family members who have been diagnosed with a disability(ies), language barriers or learning issues, it is time to spread the word and stop the use of language that causes others emotional anguish.  After all, 'language is constitutive; truth is provisional; meaning is contigent' (Peter Barry) and in the case of the R-word being used in modern casual slang conversation, the meaning is not a compliment.






Lately, I have been thinking about the words 'crazy' 'nut job' and 'insane' too.  I use these as common vernacular and technically they can all be referenced back to mental health issues, and in using them as dismissive or as an insult, is not respectful.  It is time to replace some of my colloquialisms with some new, more kind, words.

I Don't Buy Books, Thank You Libraries!

It has now been about a decade since I discovered that sharing books through a public library keeps money in my pocket and less heavy clutter in my life.  Since my conversion to the public and academic libraries and the wonderfullness of their existence, I visit at least 1 day per week.  When is the last time you visited your local library?  Read an actual book?  Touch and smelled the pages of a good read?  May I suggest you give it a whirl.  Find your local library.  Walk, bike, drive to it.  Walk the isles and peruse the possible books to read.  Try a new genre.  If you don't have 3 -10 books as possible reads at the end of your visit, look a little harder and the library will deliver.  Pay your $10 fee for a card.  Take them home and dwell in happiness as you expand your own mind.  I also discovered the art of books on CD which are also available from the library.  I know, I know, kinda old school with podcasts, Kindles, and other electronic devices but you can't beat the smell, touch and enjoyment of a good, physical, delightful read.

If you live in Toronto, you may want to jump on the rescue project to save public libraries as their budgets are about to be cut and a petition has started.  Keep in mind, what happens in major cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver often become the trends seen in less large cities in a few years.  Therefore, people in Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Halifax, etc will want to start visiting their local libraries if you love libraries and want to continue seeing them as part of the public spaces available to citizens.

I do enjoy electronic media and it is important to acknowledge change and progress but I don't want to cuddle up with a Kindle, I want paper, printed words and a cover I may or may not have judged well.

The Holy Grail

Doing research for my thesis.
Found this in the footnotes of an article on blogging.
The Holy Grail of Blogging
One of the original blogs.
Where is began.
Simple.
Crude.
Partly unintelligible to the non-programming eye.
Cooooooool.

Robot Wisdom
by Jorn Barger
(www.robotwisdom.com, if link does not work)

Today's lesson?
Read the footnotes.
Always read the footnotes.
Then follow the links.

rebecca's pocket
by Rebecca Blood
(www.rebeccablood.net, if link does not work)

Another original.
Blogging since 1999.
Wasn't there a song, blogging like it's 1999.....

I Am Not American

Ok, even though I am partly American (as well as French, Irish, British, Scotish, Metis, and Canadian), I have one niece and two nephews who are half American, I have lived in the US and I have many friends who are American, I thought for July 4th I would share with my 9 readers the incredibly intelligent humour of The Arrogant Worms.  The first time I went to their concert I laughed so much and so hard that the next day my stomach muscles hurt.  Yes, that funny!

Even though this is all in good fun and I don't really want to hang out with penguins, don't want to be called Antarcticans or Northern North Americans, it does bother me with the United States (or the States) is called 'America'.  The rest of us are here and we do need to be acknowledged in the language that is used in casual conversations and in the media (George Strombo makes this error consistently and often in his show).  Either way, enjoy this video and check out a Canadian band whose joy in life is to mock Canadians and others, The Arrogant Worms.




If you have a chance, listen or watch these as well.  Arrogant Worm classics and the ones you sing along to during concerts:

The Last Saskatchewan Pirate

Rocks and Trees (using Japanese Anime)

I Am Cow

Celine Dion (click on the Celine Dion song on the right)

Changing Language is Important

Often I find myself in discussions with people who don't believe that changing language is important.  This means using a particular gender, race, or term is meaningful.  May I suggest these people start reading Foucault and go from there.

Recently my language was corrected.  At a political weekend with other students, a young Korean-Canadian corrected my language after I used the term 'students-of-colour'.   He pointed out to me that in using this term I was adhering to the understanding that caucasian people (white people) were at the centre or at the core of colours/races and all other people of different nationalities, colours and cultures were assessed in relation to the caucasian norm.  There is no norm.  We are all different from each other.  The term '______ of colour therefore has been replaced in post-modern language using the term 'racialized' which places all people on an equal footing, with no one group at the centre to which all other groups are compared.  I will now be using the term racialized in my vocabulary.  Thanks to this young man for this considerate sharing of knowledge to improve the language I use every day that does effect so much of who we are and how we live.  

After our conversation, this young gay man proposed marriage.  Sadly, due to our sexual incompatibility, I had to decline.  Tragic really.