Crunch Time 3

So I did it.  I handed in my thesis to my professor earlier this week.  Now begins several months of re-writes.  I wonder how sick I will be of my thesis before it even goes to my committee?  While I await the first set of re-writes I am hearing horror stories of both the length of time other grads have experienced for re-writes and how many people cry either during or after their thesis defence.  Despite some harsh criticism of two parts of my thesis, I did not cry during or after the proposal, but I was in shock for about a week.  Walking around thinking about how I could have made the proposal better to have avoided the criticism, as well, wondering where a university's responsibility begins in teaching about their students how to complete research, and where the individual grad student's responsibility begins.  Besides, open verbal group feedback is a very difficult experience and chilled me a bit to the bone.  Then again, that is the whole point of a thesis committee, the group that gives you ideas about how to improve your work, your abilities as a researcher, and your writing.  A bit of a double-edged sword, pointing out the weaknesses while at the same time helping the individual to improve through little tiny repetitive cuts to the top layer of skin.  Hopefully I can handle what comes.  The end is near, I just have to sustain my level of progress until the very end.

Towards the end I looked like every other crazy student's space: papers everywhere, books piled in each other, pens, pencils and highlighters all over the place, cups of leftover beverages strewn about, piles of dishes in the sink, semi-rotten food in the fridge, running out of clothes to wear, few clean towels left, and a dirty apartment that scared me.  The picture below is the cleaned up version of my study space (you will not be seeing the rest of the apartment).  Should have taken a shot before I organized.  It was a hilarious, academic mess.    

Worry, not, I was not bored after I handed in my thesis as my student political career winds down at the end of this month as well.  What a strange and eclectic ride that has been.  Full of the interesting, bizarre, and overwhelming experiences that can crush one's soul or bend you in ways you thought you were not flexible.  I had to have a long conversation around January with a colleague about the sacrifices I was making to complete this political work and the tole it was taking on my academic progress.  At the time I was being steam rolled by a colleague and it was exhausting and disappointing, but not worth delaying my academic progress.  From this and other experiences I have learned that democracy is illusive and hard to work through as a process.  I am willing to interpret rules in order to serve people and ensure their needs are met, but there are multiple interpretations of rules and critical thinking is always necessary.  We serve people, not words on a piece of paper, but the ideas attached to those words are important and subject to interpretation.  This makes democracy challenging and formidable.  It has been an interesting few years.  

As these two main pieces of my life come to a close, work that has occupied my life for three years, I wonder about the next steps.  I am lucky as I have already had several job interviews for work in both the tourism and recreation fields.  This weekend I am spending time thinking about what I want from life, and I wonder what the future holds for me and what choices I will be asked to make.  All unfolding uncertainties.  Exciting and a bit scary at the same time.

Off to create a poster and re-read my thesis just for improvement sake...again.
I'll keep you posted.

Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping

Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping by Elisabeth Eaves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Somewhere behind my desire to be both a reporter and a stripper lay an impulse to conceal.  Stripping - in competition with acting and espionage - is the ultimate job for someone who's instinct is to present different facades of who she might be.  There is nothing more illusory than a woman pretending to be a sexual fantasy for money." - p. 5

This book was on the wrong shelf when I entered a university library about a year ago.  It has been reminding me it is there waiting to be read for many months and I decided to pick it up over the holiday season.  It was on the apartment shelf as a classmate, during my first year of my Master's degree, announced in class one day that she was completing a PhD about women, their bodies and stripping because she stripped to pay her way through her bachelor's degree several years earlier.  I work hard to be an open person and I easily delight in meeting people whose lives are vastly different than mine and who are willing to share their stories of their life experience.  This book was perfect after I had spent several hours talking with my classmate to begin to build a healthier and more realistic perspective of stripping, the why, who, for what reasons, etc.

"I learned that no one is neutral about female bodies.  If they aren't sex objects used to sell every conceivable good, they are political objects, causing bitter debate on how to manage their fecundity.  And where not sexual or political, they are imbued with society's ideals with fears, turned into Miss Liberties, Virgin Mary's, and Wicked Witches.  Everyone had an opinion on what to do about female bodies, and sometimes it feels as if the only people who get in trouble for holding such opinions are young women themselves.  Some of us, though, have to live in them, and we each get by in our own way." - p. 6-7

Eaves explains how she first became involved in stripping and we meet several of her colleagues, who become friends, and their work as strippers, what purpose is serves in various lives, for some the cycle of dependence that is created in this industry, and the rules of safety that are continuously broken by purchasers and strippers alike.  Eaves teaches the reader that every woman had a line that she has drawn about the sexual work she is willing to perform, and sees many women move and bend this line under pressure from others and due to economic circumstances.

"And I was tempted to see sex work as more of a symptom of social illness than a cause.  The sex biz was nothing more that a sophisticated arbitrage operation, dealing in morals rather than financial instruments...At some point women had become artificially divided into two types - the good and the childbearing ones, carefully trained to disdain sex so that they wouldn't stray, and a separate, pro-sex class.  The second group were despised and disparaged so that the good women wouldn't want to join them.  One group of women ended up with respect but no freedom, and the other with freedom but no respect.  But economics abhors a vacuum, and the whore class...rushed in to fill the chasm between men's actual desires and the social structure that they, with women, had built.  I don't think the divide between the two types of women would go away until all the girls were raised to be free, responsible and unashamed of sex.  And until society had bridged the sex-ed gap - porn for boys and religion and romance for girls - there would always be Lusty Ladies [the stripper club Eaves worked at]." -. p. 138-139

A book that was telling and a strong mixture of social and political commentary shaken together with the lives of women and how their work infiltrates all aspects of their lives.  Give it a read!


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A Little More Understanding and Equality

May we spend 2013 spending more time learning more about people, analyze and improve how we treat each other, and see the ways that we can improve relationships with each other to coexist with more understanding and equality.

Here are two examples of ways in which people are changing the world to create a more positive, considerate and thoughtful sphere on which we live.

Idle No More:

Religion and Homosexuality:

A BYU's student review of the new LDS Church website about homosexuality.

May your holidays be merry and bright!

Remembering

As I posted several years ago, I took the opportunity to go on a tour of the Normandy Beaches in northern France while I was living in London.  As November 11 is commemorated today, here are a few more pictures and stories of this experience.

This shadowed plaque reminds the reader that it took several years for the D-Day plan to come to fruition.  The amount of tanks, guns, vehicles, food and people that had to be amassed in order to cross the English channel to create an artificial port in order to defeat the Nazis is incredible.

Fifty years later the pieces of the port still rest in the sand, slowly being eroded or encrusted with ocean creatures.

An encrusted container on the beach with more of the port structures behind out in the ocean.  The sea claiming what used to be claimed by people.

Arromanches-les-Bains the heart of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

Pointe du Hoc at which soldiers who landed did not find a beach to run across as they dodged bullets and grenades, but who found rock cliffs they were required to climb as they were shot at and bombed.  Such an incredible series of tasks in order to defeat the occupiers.  

Another portion of the Point du Hoc cliffs ready to be climbed by the soldiers.  

A sculpture called Les Braves, which was erected on Omaha Beach near St. Laurent sur Mer.

Moving to the US Cemetery in St. Laurent it is a peaceful place replete with memorials, reminders, crosses, starts and many art pieces reminding the visitor how many Americans died as the country joined in the final chapter of World War II.  This also reminded me how many more people had died from countries who had participated in the war since its beginning.  

The names of those who lost their lives during World War II.

 A water sculpture with a submerged map of the Normandy Beaches connected to a flat, extended pool of water that reaches out, visually, into the ocean from which the soldiers appeared.

A single cross in the US Cemetery.  Note the lack of a name.  A reminder of so many of the unknown soldiers, those who died but who were never identified.

Leaving a rock on a Jewish grave.  Symbolic of remembrance, God as the rock of Israel, acknowledge recent visitors, and adding their piece of rock to the ancient mound of a grave.

A copy of an old picture in one of the Normandy museums.  I love this picture as it juxtaposes the old with the young, the daily tasks of life with the task of unique events, the lack of acknowledgement by each of the main characters toward each other....just doing what needed to be done for survival.  Side by side.

Keep Shining

While I plaster my blog with videos....here is one a cousin shared with me.  She was able to see Shad in London.  You and I get to enjoy his video and powerful music through YouTube.  Thank you to all the women who have taught me so much.  Keep shining.

I Love Jezebel!

For all those people who were disgusted at the type, amount, bizarreness, and uneducated number of rape comments made during the American election, this article is for you and me!

Team Rape Lost Big Last Night

Second Week of September

We all have busy lives and wonder sometimes if I can actually squeeze more into my life and not fall over from exhaustion.  Well, it was another week that I knew was going to be crazy.  All the responsibilities and signs were evident and I knew it was going to be a commitment and a doozy of a week.  For all you graduate students out there, you may have had similar weeks.  Ones that you know will take every ounce of survival skills you have and every ounce of energy.  Here is my seven day extravaganza week.   One I will look back at this post and wonder how I survived, remind myself what I am capable of, and be proud of how much work I have completed not only to get a degree, but in truly engaging with the many communities at this University:

Monday
- finish and send my supervising professor seven documents related to the methods section of my thesis (up until 2 AM doing this)
- organize supplies and freebees for graduate students attending orientation
- apply for a professional job
- meet with a professor about a new teaching assistant position
- three hour meeting with grad students executive team
- continue buying food, prizes and thank you gifts for orientation

Tuesday
- day one of grad student orientation (that I planned): four presenters, two meals, one open house, one social activity
- purchase more prizes and thank you gifts for orientation
- meeting two with a professor about a new teaching assistant position (prof forgot the meeting, the grad students did not)
- a two hour sustainability meeting to improve University campus
- work on paper for a conference, due on Friday

Wednesday
- day two of grad student orientation: five presenters, two meals, one open house, one social activity (a quiz night that was hard to organize and not well attended)
- order food for orientation party on Thursday evening
- meeting three with a professor about a new teaching assistant position (all present)
- purchase more food for orientation
- work on paper for a conference, due on Friday

Thursday 
- first seminar class for a term long course
- day two of grad student orientation: six presenters, two meals, one open house, one social activity (presenters fantastic, food great, much support from the mature and team focused executives)
- run about replenishing food, drink and snacks for bar-b-q orientation meal
- work on paper for a conference, due on Friday
- fell asleep on couch in GSA Lounge between open house and social activity due to level of tiredness
- kept the party going at the social, then moved it to a local pub, arrived home at 3 AM (not the best choice I made all week)

Friday
- first seminar class for another course taught and the group organized
- taught a lecture for a professor on monism, dualism, materialism and physicalism (thank you philosophers for both asking people to think deeply about our lives and confusing the crap out of us at the same time)
- cleaned up grad office from craziness of orientation
- organized and handed in receipts for reimbursement (much money spent, good times)
- slept for two hours
- went to bed at 9:00 PM exhausted (it felt like 3 AM...again)

Saturday
- headed out to Farm Food Discovery Centre (FFDC) two complete research for six hours
- work on paper for the conference, now due on Monday
- write a report about my grad student activities this month
- hang with a friend in this evening (she has a hot tub)

Sunday
- complete research as part of Open Farm Day at the FFDC (100 people expected, extra activities on the go)
- complete paper for conference due on Monday
- do nothing in the evening after all responsibilities are complete (so exhausted)

Monday
- do as little as possible
- sit around
- read
- go for a lovely walk
- buy some groceries
- clean my apartment
- do a little as possible (repeat as needed)

Yep, this is my week and right now I am half way through Saturday.  Good luck to me for finishing off this week and only have one strongly worded conversation with two people (whose immaturity was more than evident throughout grad student orientation).

May we all survive our weeks.  May we all keep going.  May we find the meaning and moments of joy in the constant demands on our time, talents and energies.

Cover Up ! / ?

A very interesting post about women, breast, cancer, surgery, gender performance, choice, non/conformity and acceptance.  One sassy blog!

Discrimination Korner: 

Cover your boobs whether you have them or not

Travel As A Political Act

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Rick Steves is one of the most seasoned travellers of which I am aware, I had high expectations of this piece of writing, in particular because it branches off from his repeated pattern of reporting on the good, bad and challenges of a particular place or city.  This book appeared to meander into the more tempestuous waters of the politics of travel, which, as a travel and tourism graduate student, I have been researching for two years.

Each chapter presents a country (or city) and a specific topic (i.e. after war, taxes, soft drugs, etc.) through which Steves shares his experiences, opinions and political ideologies about what he has learned from each of the places with regards to the people and their lives in relation to that topic.  There is a mixture of positive, negative, warnings, messages, ideas, and comparisons throughout the book always directed at his largest market, the American people.  This book is full of lessons and suggestions that many English speaking people can learn from as non-Americans will also find this information poignant.  

This book presented some very good ideas about race relations, cultural understandings/misunderstandings, differences in choice, varying life perspectives, poverty, all within the subject of travel.  He is honest as a traveler and points to the places where he, as an American, is welcome, where he encounters harsh words, and differentiates between government propaganda and the people in the same country/city who see through their country's poor attempts at defaming other countries.  While I did not agree with everything he says in the book (i.e. the continued myth that the USA won World War II for the Europeans, and calling the USA America), as a person who was raised in foreign countries and continues to travel, I did see his open-mindedness and joy in meeting other people through his writing.  I would recommend everyone read this book, in particular those individuals who are afraid of travel or a particular country.  Time to set fear aside and ride the wave of mutual understanding and respect.


Best Parts:

I worry that the mainstream tourism industry encourages us to be dumbed down.  To many people, travel is only about having fun in the sun, shopping duty-free, and cash in in frequent flyer miles.  But to me, that stuff distracts us from the real thrills, rewards, and value of travel.  In our travels - and in our everyday lives - we should become more educated about and engaged with challenging issues, using the past to understand the present.  The more you know, and the more you strive to learn, the richer your travels and you life become.  In my own realm as a travel teacher....I take it with the responsibility to respect and challenge the intellect of my tour members, readers, or viewers.  All of us will gain more from our travel partners to be engaged and grapple with the challenging issues while on the road.  Your experience will be better for it.  p. 12

While traveling, I'm often struck by how people give meaning to life by producing and contributing.  p. 45

Perhaps Europe's inclination to be tolerant is rooted in the intolerance of its past.  In the 16th century, they were burning Protestants for their beliefs.  In the 18th century, they were drowning women who stepped out of line as witches.  In the 20th century, Nazis were gassings Jews, Gypsies, and gay people.  Now in the 21st century, Europe seems determined to get human rights, civil liberties, and tolerance issues right.  Instead of legislating morality, Europe legislates tolerance and human rights. Along with all the rights an American would expect, the in-the-works European constitution will include the right to work, food, and education.  All will have the right not only to healthcare, but to preventative healthcare.  In Europe, the "right to life" means no death penalty.  Europeans will all have the right to the protection of personal data, the right to access any data that has been collected, and the right to have it rectified if it is inaccurate.  Everyone will have the right to paid leave and paid parental leave.  And all will have the right to join or form a trade union.  p. 72

That first [travel] trip lit a fire in me.  I realized I have a right, if not the responsibility, to form my opinions based on my own experience, even if it goes against the mainstream at home.  p. 87

Traveling reminds us that contentment is based not on surrendering to conformity, but in finding that balance between working well together and letting creative spirits run free.  p. 125

What I learn about Islam from media and the US can fill me with fear and rage.  What I learn about Islam by traveling in Muslim countries fills me with hope...The centuries-old tension between Christendom and Islam is like a human sharing a forest with a bear.  Both just want to gather berries, do a little fishing, raise their kids, and enjoy the sun.  Neither wants to do harm to the other, but - because they can't readily communicate - either would likely kill the other if they crossed paths.  The world is our forest and we're sharing it with others.  As it gets smaller, more and more cultures will cross paths.  Our advantage over the human and the bear: we can communicate.  p. 147

When we travel - whether to the "Axis of Evil" or just to a place where people yodel when they're happy, or fight bulls to impress the girls, or can't serve breakfast until today's croissants arrive - we enrich our lives and better understand our place on this planet.  We undercut groups that sow fear, hatred, and mistrust.  People-to-people connections help us learn that we can disagree and still coexist peacefully.  p. 193

My travels have taught me that you don't want to be really rich in a terribly poor world...[it is] simply pragmatic to bring compassion for the needly along with me into the voting booth.  p. 199


Interesting Websites from book:

Take Back Your Time
http://www.timeday.org/

www.ricksteves.com/politicalact


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Pro-Poor Tourism

In completing cultural tourism research for my supervising professor, I came upon a travel philosophy called Pro-Poor Tourism.

Here is a well written definition from the website PPT - Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership:

What is pro-poor tourism?

Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) is tourism that results in increased net benefits for poor people. PPT is not a specific product or niche sector but an approach to tourism development and management. It enhances the linkages between tourism businesses and poor people, so that tourism's contribution to poverty reduction is increased and poor people are able to participate more effectively in product development. Links with many different types of 'the poor' need to be considered: staff, neighbouring communities, land-holders, producers of food, fuel and other suppliers, operators of micro tourism businesses, craft-makers, other users of tourism infrastructure (roads) and resources (water) etc. There are many types of pro poor tourism strategies, ranging from increasing local employment to building mechanisms for consultation. Any type of company can be involved in pro-poor tourism - a small lodge, an urban hotel, a tour operator, an infrastructure developer. The critical factor is not the type of company or the type of tourism, but that an increase in the net benefits that go to poor people can be demonstrated.


No sense in re-writing what is already so well written.

I found this information through a video that piggybacks on the idea of 'this or that'. Meaning, as a member of the industrialized rich world, I can use my money for this thing or I can use my money for that thing, cause, support, service, opportunity. Here is the video titled, Imagine What Tourism Could Do:





In having just watched the movie The Hunger Games, I was disgusted by the people living in The Capitol. Then I realized that in the grand scheme of the real world in which I live, I am one of those people living in The Capitol with colourful expensive clothes, ostentatious hairdos, outrageously large homes, immaculate streets, safe neighbourhoods, busy aestheticizing my life, and my stomach churned. To some people in other countries I, along with others in the developed world, are hoarding resources, money, power, control, all in the name of creating my beautiful life. I then realized that when I travel and I try to buy something in a market, and the first suggested price by the seller is $5,000 for a wooden mask (yes this actually happened) and I walk away shaking my head wondering to whom this individual thinks they are talking, the seller sees me as someone from The Capitol (developed nations), and I had a sense of what it might be like to be from the outlaying districts (developing nations). One group making the rules; the other trying to find then comprehend the rules. A moment where one's life experience clicks with other people's outward perceptions of those experiences.

This is my plug to try and change the balance of this imbalance. Choose a destination for your next travels that actually supports those in the world who live on $2.00 per day. Avoid all inclusive resorts that hide the realities of other people's experiences from your eyes. Participate in tours that support local people overtly. Make choices to spread around some of the money and joy that those paper pieces can bring. Take responsibility for your own tourism and your tourist monetary choices.

Just some thoughts.

Winnipeg Weather 2

Due to the copious amounts of snow that fell during the winter of 2011, the Spring was upon us here in the water drenched province of Manitoba.  With 56 rivers, over 1,000 lakes we were join to lose.  Lose what?  I did not know as this was my first Spring in Winnipeg, but that amount of snow and the continuous rain?  We were going to lose.

Canadians were smart back in the day, and most of our cities are built on waterways as this was the best way to transport goods, people, and the necessities of life as Canada was being stolen from the First Nations people (might as well be blunt).  This also precipitates flooding in many cities as the water is right there meandering through the centre of the city.  Too much water in any form will eventually turn to the liquid variety, collect at the lowest points in town, and forge onwards.  Flooding is a big problem in several cities, but in a province where water flows in from the West, South and North, it can be even more damaging.

This is why in the Red River Floodway was built around Winnipeg in 1969.  Essentially, it is a big ditch into which water from the Red River can be diverted that would normally flow through the city, but can be taken around the city if the Red River is too high.  It truly is a large ditch.  Ingenious really.  Until the flood waters of 2011 collected and could not find a place to go.    

In May 2011 it all hit with evacuations, planned dike breaches, farm and reserve land flooded, roads cut off, people losing their home, it was chaos for many all along the Hoop and Holler Bend.  I was unfamiliar with all this information until the news, media, World Wide Web and people talked about it for months.  Interestingly enough, because of the floodway, Winnipeg was not flooded.  It could have been disastrous for the city but in diverting all the water to the floodway, most of the city did not even notice there was a flood.

The park path over-run with water

Water very close to the underbelly of this pathway bridge

Will the truck survive the day?

Don't live on the first or second floor

Just outside the city however, the floodway was dangerously high and the government stepped in and planed a dike breach.  This decision flooded farm and reserve land halting the growing season for many farmers, leaving many First Nations people without homes and a community, and cottage dwellers were left with little information about available support to help their properties remain in tact.  7,000 sandbags, $8 million dollars in temporary housing, multiple rivers high enough to evacuate homes.  All outside the city.

Trees in the river

Another road was needed to get to this destination

I was safe.  My apartment was higher up in my building.  My car was parked far from the river.  A series of philosophical questions filled my mind.  What is more important, a city of cement and wood or farmland on which we grow our food?  Whose lives are more important and should be left undisturbed, rural people, First nations people, or urban people?  Who decides what is important, government, city officials, general populace?  How do I take a flood seriously when my home and car are not in immediate danger?  I am new here and don't necessarily feel that this is my community, so how do I contribute feeling like an outsider?  Still thinking about some of these questions.

RIP Jack Layton

Just wanted to commemorate the listening of Jack Layton's funeral on CBC Radio.
I know that we idealize people during funerals but with teach talk, speech, piece of information about Jack, he is more amazing.

For a person to pioneer causes such as decreasing violence against women; improving the situation of the poor; to listen to the issues facing immigrant individuals and families; fighting for the rights of the gay and lesbian community; speaking on behalf of the middle and lower income groups in this country; teaching each of us that our contribution does make a difference.  To fight for these causes as a white, heterosexual, middle to upper class man and to not be afraid of sharing power, decision making processes, money, and access to the good of the world is what is most impressive about Jack Layton.  Our cities, our country and the world would improve if we lived more like Jack, not leaving anyone behind.

The more I live, the more I realize that I am not a democratic capitalist.  Far from it.  (I say this as the US is slowly imploding from over consumption and over accumulation of the ruling class and others).  Money is helpful and useful in a world that circumnavigates production, consumption, consumerism, and there are many things in my life that require money (place to sleep, food, clothing, writing, reading, education, ceramics, photography, entertaining friends) but I want money so that I can live.  I don't live for the accumulation of money.  I am not a capitalist.  Jack and his life's work makes me more motivated to be even less of capitalist and more of a democratic socialist, the policies, procedures and laws that leave no one behind.  A world of private enterprise and things is a world in which there are fewer people willing to share, and in which accumulation and having more at any cost is the priority.  Others are always more important than things and accumulation of things.

Thank you democratic socialist and activist Jack, for this reminder.

From Google Pictures

Son of a Witch

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While I enjoyed the book as a story of a lost young man who may or may not be the son of Alphaba, it was very dark and depressing.  As the plot proceeds there is a measure of main character development, but during his wanderings through Oz, he and the readers, is not really sure of who he is or is place in the grand scheme of the book, which is perplexing.  As a reader, I wanted more of a climax to the story and it was not there.  If you are a fan of Wicked and McGuire's books, as well as a lover of darker reads, this story will fit you well, just don't expect a major resolution to a climactic story, as it is not to be found.


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William Shatner and His Canada

Here is a video that I have taken from the blog Joe. My. God., who also posted it from YouTube, and was created by the National Film Board of Canada.  Shatner hilariously rewrites the Canadian anthem to update it for the 21st Century with regards to health care, native rights, religion or no religion, marriage equality, gender neutral language, size of country, all through the enjoyable medium of video with humour.  This I find incredibly interesting especially due to the previous Canadian government's discussion to attempt to change the national anthems lyrics and the enjoyable debate I had with a few friends on this blog.  Don't forget to listen to and watch then credits.  Tongue-in-cheek hilarity!

Go!!!!

Elizabeth May!!!

Green Party may get their first seat on Parliament Hill ever!!!

NDP make us proud!!!

Liberals, maybe next time more blue will be turned red.

Harper Government Government of Canada:
do not screw up health care in 2014

don't bring up gay marriage again, it's legal, leave it alone

don't revisit the abortion debate, it needs to stay legal

we don't need more cuts to corporate taxes

we need funding to organizations that represent and give voice to the poor and the oppressed

remember, Canada is not a totalitarian democracy

you are not the government

you are merely elected to listen to us, the people, as we tell you what to do

so listen this time

listen

CBC sharing the news with us

When I Said....

.....VOTE....

I did not mean a majority Conservative vote.
I have never voted Conservative.
Nor will I ever.
Harper and his harpies.
There may have been vote splitting, but more people voted for the blue.

Crap.
I am going to start complaining now and it will not end for many months/years to come.

Harper does not listen.
He does not listen.
I want a leader who listens.
Crap.

VOTE!!!!

VOTE!!!

VOTE!!!

   

VOTE CANADA VOTE!!!!

Project Democracy

Interested in participating in a coalition of Canadian citizens who have created Project Democracy and don't want to see Harper back in power in Ottawa?  Here is a link below so you can read more and use a widget that will help you find the leading or elected incumbent in your area so the vote does not split, thus reinstating those currently in power who are not listening or playing well with others.

Project Democracy for May 2

Honest Conversation

Many years ago when I was a practicing member of the LDS faith, a friend introduced me to a site called Mormon Stories Podcasts.  I dove in and found an incredible collection of stories, ideas, thoughts and perspectives that provide a breadth of understandings to those who are Mormon and those who are not.

Several years ago, the site was taken down by John Dehlin (a practicing Mormon), stopped his regular podcasts.  To those on the fringe of Mormonism, this was a blow as he was not afraid to talk to and about the intellectuals, the excommunicated, the LGBT groups, the edgy and those whose voices of questioning and dissent provided a much needed critique required to practice any religion, participate in any political group, or aspire to understand the tenets of any ideology.

Although as a single, well-educated, liberal, feminist, woman it was hard to end my participation in the larger organization as part of my self-identification came from the church, my continued unhappiness with many of its practices and religious ideas required my cessation.  Even though I have 'gone astray', I continue to peek in once a while to see if progress with regards to women's issues, the LGBT community, and other more liberal ideas has been made.  To my surprise three weeks ago, I was delighted to see John Dehlin back with an improved website and more conversations with a wide breadth of people.

While peeking around, I found this gem.  The much maligned subject of sex, masturbation, pornography and marriage.  Gathering professionals within and without the LDS church, Dehlin and cohorts present an interesting and honest talk about subjects that are so frequently ignored or pushed beyond the fringe of most religious groups.  Talking about sex does not lead to random sexual behaviours, it just means that the subject is no longer taboo and a maturity around the subject can grow.  Give it a listen.  It will make you feel healthy, wealthy and wise.  :)

I just found another gem, a woman I will adore for the rest of my existence, Carol Lynn Pearson.  

Bodega

A classmate of mine encouraged me to download Bodega the other day.  She said that her partner had developed this website for phone Apps, a unique idea at the time, then disappointment struck as Apple created their own App store.  Download it.  Check it out if you get the chance.  Share the money, power, capital, production and consumption of goods in North America.  Give as much as you can to the littler people like you and me.

Bodega