Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas!

Just woke up, it seems, and suddenly it's Christmas. We're off to my aunt's house in a few moments, but here are some winter thoughts to entertain you in the meanwhile. I promise to write next week, when I will have hours and hours of free time.

Snow can wait
I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose
Get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart
When I think of winter
I put my hand in my father's glove
I run off
Where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping Beauty trips me with a frown
I hear a voice
"'You must learn to stand up for yourself
'Cause I can't always be around"
He says, When you gonna make up your mind...

— from "Winter" by Tori Amos


December will be magic again
Don't miss the brightest star
Kiss under mistletoe
I want to hear you laugh
Don't let the mystery go now

— from "December will be magic again" by Kate Bush (who is promising a new album in 2005)

with stars in my eyes from watching the Christmas lights of Beverly,
Leslie

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

It's not OK to throw stones ... unless they're small ones

The CBC news reports: "Premier Ralph Klein says it should be OK to discriminate against gays and lesbians when it comes to marriage." A reporter quotes him saying, "I do feel that gays and lesbians ought not to be discriminated against in any other form other than marriage, because I think that marriage is a sacred thing that exists between a man and a woman."

Why why why why why why why why why do I live in this province?

(banging head repeatedly on desk)

L

Monday, December 13, 2004

C'est chouette!

Just a quick one today, because I must race off to a final exam and have piles and piles of marking still to get through. But there's always time to play!

1. One of my favourite words was recently the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day:

ludic \LOO-dik\ adjective: of, relating to, or characterized by play: playful

According to the lexicographer's notes, "Ludic is ultimately from the Latin noun ludus, which refers to a whole range of fun things — stage shows, games, sports, even jokes."

2. Looking for something to cheer you up? Check out this link. Reason number 431 to hire a professional professional designer. Sigh.

More as soon as sanity permits...

L

Sunday, December 05, 2004

That terrible, terrible time of year

I know I owe many people letters, or at least notes, if not phone calls and visits. I'm sorry to be so pokey lately. I will try to write or call you soon! I promise!

In the meantime, here's something to provoke comments, perhaps, or at least amuse you. Have you been watching the storm between Naomi Klein and the US administration in the Guardian? Wowsers!


All those with agency are confronted by a choice. We can use that agency to secure for ourselves a safe and comfortable existence. We can use our life, that one unrepeatable product of four billion years of serendipity and evolution, to earn a little more, to save a little more, to win the approval of our bosses and the envy of our neighbours. We can place upon our walls those tombstones which the living erect to themselves: the framed certificates of their acceptance into what Erich Fromm has called the 'necrophiliac' world of wealth and power. We can, quite rationally, subordinate our desire for liberty to our desire for security.
Or we can use our agency to change the world, and, in changing it, to change ourselves. We will die and be forgotten with no less certainty than those who sought to fend off death by enhancing their material presence on the earth, but will live before we die through the extremes of feeling which comfort would deny us.
— George Monbiot


Please forgive me my lapses! Surely you know by now they're always mindless and never mindful. Or something like that... Anyway ... Must go "attack a stack" now.

Flitting around the stars,
L

PS: And lest you think B is the only one to comment on climbing, I will chime in that 1) I was surprised we passed our lead checks, given that we both had to fall off the wall AGAIN and neither of us wanted to (somehow I doubt it was a good idea to re-read "Saturday Climbing" before taking my lead test); and 2) B placed third in the Novice category at the Rip and Grip on Friday, which was only his second time taking part in the event (I didn't actually place at all, but I was feeling wispy, etc.). So congratulate the man with the rippling shoulders and massive biceps when next you see him!

PPS: Oh ya — EARL! That's KATE BUSH, not PG, singing the "jeux sans frontiĆ©res" BV on "Games Without Frontiers."

PPPS: Check out the iTunes store!!! Click here and then follow the "Download Here" link. I've already spent much more money than is seemly to disclose, almost all of it on eighties hits... Yes, there were hits in the eighties ... though you probably don't remember most of them ... How about "Geronimo's Cadillac" by Modern Talking? I bet I'm the only one among us who remembered that particular gem ... probably with good reason ... bear in mind my penchant for both sarcasm and cheez ...

PPPPS: Being unreasonably indulgent tonight ... Remind me to tell you my thoughts about pie.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

And in the lead...
...it's Bouncing Bruce and Lead-foot Leslie, scrambling to the top!

Well we had our last climbing class and miracles of miracles we overcame age and adversity to actually get our Lead Checks. This means we are now qualified to dispense with rope dangling and just put our trust in the fact that enough knowledge got into our heads that we we won't die without a rope...

Our team: