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Full Circle
Saturday, 22 July 2006
At Last, Leyena
I have had a most difficult time getting in touch with the friend in Russia we want to visit but, today, success! She is stretched to the max because she is caring for her elderly parents, so she will probably not be able to meet us in Odessa, and may not, even, be able to spend much time with us. That's okay. Things will work out. H and I are very relieved to hear from her.
Post by fullcircle
at 12:42 AM PDT
Friday, 21 July 2006
Are you an Indian?
I was trying to remember the name of a native musician I particularly like, when I came across this Genetic Testing site. It has the nerve to say that with all the opportunities being offered to native Americans, it will pay off to be able to prove you have native ancestory. Good grief. I've also read that it's not uncommon for people in India pretend they are dalit (untouchables) to get in on affirmative action programs there. We really are a scummy species.
Post by fullcircle
at 10:58 PM PDT
Indie Festival
The first time my son told me he was an "indie musician" I thought it was odd but, what the heck, I've always enjoyed short bursts of Indian music. Or, I thought, he could mean we call "First Nations" here in Canada. All drums and "hey, yuh" which seemed unlikely for a adorable little blond kid who grew into a large, snarly, middle aged, conspiracy theorist. Still, I like First Nations music so it's all good. In fact, his place on the indie scene is a place I would never have voluntarily explored. After listening for a few hours, I began to hear music. Luckily, I don't hear lyrics at the best of times. Anyway, there is an idie arts festival at Wells in a couple of weeks and I am going! M will learn about sound (he has a decent sound studio but is self taught and anxious to learn from a couple of professional sound engineers from Vancouver), I will do Hippie Bitch at the One Minute Play competition, and G. will get her face painted. We may also take B (boy grandchild, 13) who will practice being an teenager and Mm who will watch B like a mother grizzly who thinks somebody is going to molest her cub. H would undoubtedly accompany us if we killed him and stuffed his body in the trunk. So, maybe not. Forget it. M can go on his own. H can stay home with the Jay's game. B and Mm can do whatever they do to get through the day. G can visit me, or B and Mm, her choice. I will blog. No, I won't. I've found a friend to accompany me to the One Minute Play competition and she is actually going to leave her child at home. Oh, happy, happy day.
Post by fullcircle
at 10:42 PM PDT
Updated: Friday, 21 July 2006 11:04 PM PDT
Bother
I just finished writing a long entry about grandma doing slam at the 7th annual One Minute Play competition in Wells, BC, when grandchild, G, unplugged my Internet connection and substituted her DVD player. I was attempting to take a break from doom and gloom over the world situation but forget that. Fact is, I'm finding all this talk of WW3 rather depressing. Watching scared, unhappy people flooding back to North "America from Lebanon brings it down to a personal level. War is one thing when you thing God is on your side but war as just a one more victim of collateral damage is no fun at all. Tonight, on Global, there was an item picked up from one of the American networks that attempted rework the current situation in the Middle East into a humor piece. Lots of "hah, hah, Bush and the Pope think we are into WW3 and how do YOU feel about that?". Somehow, it didn't amuse. The folks being interviewed on the street said, "I'm trying to ignore it" which was bad enough but the journalists involved seemed to think WW3 was not a serious topic. Have people decided it isn't going to happen because it has been a long time coming? A friend explained that she ignores the news because "there's nothing I can do about it". I'd rather try to work out a philisophical position on war, death, pestilence, the end of the world as we know it, etc. BEFORE it slaps me upside my head. Speaking of my friend, she has been invited to a relative's bar mitzvah in Chicago and wants me to accompany her and her young son. I'd love to but the date coincides with my 40th wedding anniversary which H and I are planning to spend with friends fishing at Francoise Lake. Now there's a choice you don't have to make every day of the week.
Post by fullcircle
at 10:05 PM PDT
Updated: Friday, 21 July 2006 11:08 PM PDT
Fun in the Summer Sun
Today the temperature here hit 34 degrees which is a record; Lytton was 42; Osoyoos (near the American border) around 40. Even Vancouver is steaming and baking at a near record 28 degrees. If I understand the theory, this heat wave is probably the result of crap spewing into the air and rising to create global warming. Apparently crap rises VERY slowly so we are presently being affected by crap we spewed out in the 1960s. Which means that 40 degrees today may become much hotter in the future when the real crap hits the atmospheric fan. This is not good. People start to cook internally at about 50 degrees, as mentioned below. Is this the end of the world? Who said next time the world would be destroyed by fire? Oh, oh. A lot of people in Canada like having a four season climate and quite a few love winter best of all, but some of us are secretly annoyed with their ancestors for not having the sense to emigrate to a warmer climate. These folks are enjoying global warming. So far. But since people can't live at much higher temperatures than we are experiencing now, what do we think is going to happen? Let's face facts: crap rises. While we are at it, wanna talk about the oxygen content of our air? H used to run a refrigeration plant where giant rooms were drained of oxygen so that the Okanagan apple crop could "sleep" away for months w/o spoiling. It was very dangerous to walk into one of these rooms because people could (and occasionally did) drop dead just a few feet inside the door. No warning. No sign of distress. They just dropped dead. So how does this effect the rest of us? Well, in the good old days of glaciers and vast forests, the oxygen content of our air was about 24%. Now it's 20% due to deforestation, pollution, etc. People can't live at less thn 16% oxygen. I think I'll go googling for a chicken little image. Oh, perfect: Kiss It Goodbye
Post by fullcircle
at 6:28 PM PDT
Updated: Friday, 21 July 2006 11:09 PM PDT
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Links Won't Link
Tripod is a lovely host, most of the time, but every once in a while they try to improve and all hell breaks loose. Thus, at the moment, I can't insert links by clicking on a button. Nobody knows why but it may have something to do with my new Mac and its Safari OS. So I tried Firefox but still no easy way to add a link. However, the html link works which takes me to a page of densely packed html code where I can code one link at a time. Lot of bother, though, and I may never catch up on the dozen or so links affected. Until then, please cut and paste. Update: okay, I did the links. Lordy, I'm compulsive.
Post by fullcircle
at 11:42 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:26 AM PDT
Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Front Row at Armageddon
The Baha'i World Centre is in Haifa, Israel, which pretty much guarantees a front row seat. There are hundreds of Baha'is, from all over the world, serving the thousands of pilgrims and visitors who arrive each year. Many of these workers are Canadians and Americans but the other continents are well represented, too. The world centre of our Faith ended up in Israel when Baha'u'llah and others were banished from Iran by the Iranian government. Iran is still home to many of the millions of Baha'is in the world. Their history has fluctuated from massacre to intolerance to persecution, depending on the fanaticism of whomever is in power. It has never been safe to be a Baha'i in Iran and the present regime is ramping up the pressure. For example, right now Baha'is can't go to school, get married, work for the government, or be buried. They don't have the usual rights of Iranian citizens who are Moslem or Christian and they are subject to sudden seizure of property, to prison and execution. Why? The reasons vary. One excuse is that our world centre is in Israel. Which is where the Iranians sent the early Baha'is -- to the worst prison in the Ottoman Empire. That makes Iranian Baha'is "spies" in the eyes of some. In fact, Baha'is strictly avoid partisan politics. Our perspective is that no one party or political system has all the answers to the world's problems. There are many pieces to the puzzle. We all have a lot to learn and we all have attitudes we must change. If we don't learn to work together, we will perish together. We believe God wants us to work together so we'd better get on with learning how. Partison politics is a distraction that is part of the problem, not the solution. Baha'u'llah said, "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens". Therefore our country includes both Arabs and Americans. He goes further by telling us we are all one family. Right now Uncle Sam and Uncle Habib have an issue with each other but they have no right to destroy the family over it. So, what's the solution? This is MHO: If we, the citizens of this earth, realize that we are truly ONE the leaders will have no choice but to make peace. Our ignorance and apathy is the fuel that allows the fires of war to burn. In this sense, we are the true leaders of mankind. Nothing less than the recognition of our essential unity is going to save us from becoming just one more failed species in the long history of this planet. Baha'u'llah has assured us that destruction is not God's plan for us. He prefers the peace and happiness of humankind and, eventually, He will have His way. Nobody says the process by which this comes to pass will be a pleasant one. The degree of suffering is a collective choice but time is getting short and too many people seem to have decided to achieve the future the hard way. Still, as Margaret Mead points out: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Here's where you can learn more about the millions of people who make up the Baha'i community, world wide: www.bahaiworld.org
Post by fullcircle
at 6:05 PM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 19 July 2006 11:23 PM PDT
Monday, 17 July 2006
Keeping up with Armageddon
Need news? These should cover it: Aljazeera gets first spot because it starts with the letter "a" and reports the Arab point of view. Fox is also on the list to answer the question, "What can those people possibly be thinking?" Now, you know. There are two CNNs because the American one might as well be on a different planet than CNN International which is quite good and appears to recognize that things do happen in the rest of the world between tsunamis. Of course, we can't get CNN International in North America because ... so far, nobody can tell me. BBC World is boring and mainstream which is true of most of us. Today, there isn't a word about the wars on their home page. So, go there if you don't want to hear about it. CBC is on the list because it occasionally, mildly challenges the notion that America is destined to rule the earth w/o trying to get into a fight about it. This is pretty much my own perspective. I taught English in the Chinese military (Wuhan Naval University) for a few months and told them, "Don't worry about the West. We are determined to destroy ourselves." We (H and I) were in Haifa last October and it's a dandy town. Should be left standing, I think. Here's a Haifa Tour
Hmm, for some reason the site doesn't come up. Perhaps it will, later on. Let's hope so. Today, the fearless leader of the free world said to Blair: ""See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over." Now, don't you feel safer? Someone quipped that the news clip reminded him of a scene from A Clockwork Orange.
Post by fullcircle
at 6:06 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:02 AM PDT
A grammatical work in progress ...
Grammar is not a big woo with me since I decided not to give a damn about 'who' or 'whom'. Who cares? Whomever cares, cares, but not I. If it fails to annoy my untutored ear it is good enough for me. Disagree? There is more than you ever wanted to know about who and whom, here: Punctuation has always bothered me, sad to say. I used to think there were people who knew exactly where to put commas and when to leave them out. Turns out they were mostly just guessing in accordance with some system or other. Turns out most of them (in my childhood) had one year of normal school. Turns out people now, with degrees, also have no idea. Much of this is due to the drop in our educational standards. I am seeking for an online example of an early 20th century grade eight curriculum and will pop it in here when I find it. You will be shocked, guaranteed. No wonder people who finished grade eight in those days were often teachers the following year. They knew stuff we will never know. Don't even want to know, most of us. In China, people who have been to North America for post grad studies say they learned all that in high school. They don't know how Americans do so well technologically. I think there are two reasons: 1) they recruit many of the best from other countries, and 2) the sloppy curriculum lets a few real geniuses through the system. In China, you have to be an A+ student in everything to get into university. That includes Chinese language (ancient and modern), English, the arts, all the sciences, EVERYTHING. Einstein wouldn't have had a prayer. Edison either. So university grads in China are smart as hell but they aren't those rare geniuses who change the world with their brilliant ideas. Those guys are ploughing behind a water buffalo because they didn't make it out of third grade. But can the Chinese college grad adapt brilliant ideas to the real world? Oh, yeah. So don't go feeling superior because our grads are, on average, far less intelligent and educated than theirs. It isn't going to work for us, forever.
Back to punctuation, but, first, a nap. See what I mean? Commas can so quickly get out of hand.
Post by fullcircle
at 4:06 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:20 AM PDT
Shanghai in October
Whoopee. Travel agent just phoned and we are booked for seven nights in Shanghai in October. This is to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I've written something about the trip, below, but I mistakenly booked for September, realized how hot Shanghai will be then, and tried to change to a month later. Which worked, thank you God. The agent said most of the seats were booked (cheap air/hotel combo) all summer but she'd try for October. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? People are going to Shanghai in July and August. Beyond belief. It is SO HOT. SO MUGGY. SO AWFUL in Shanghai in the summer. People who live there (all 18 million) try to leave by any means possible. So, who ARE these people (sorry for all the shouting) who rushed to book Shanghai in summer? Several possibilities present themselves: - old China hands who know what they are getting into (which begs the question WHY?); or - East coasters, from Alabama or Toronto, for whom home is not nearly hot and muggy enough in summer; or - West coast innocents who think, "Hey, Gertie, let's book this cheap trip to Shanghai -- wow, look, we can go in August when the weather is sure to be pleasant. Lucky us." The problem is the official temperature for cities worldwide is not taken on a downtown street with the heat bouncing off several billion dollars worth of concrete. No, the temperature you see online, or in any weather report, is supposed to be taken as follows: - at the airport - on grass - in the shade - with any available breeze blowing past the thermometers. This means if the official temp is 40 degrees C. it can be pushing a balmy 50 or 60 downtown. Since people start to shut down internally (read: die) at 50, THIS IS NOT GOOD. In China, there's another problem. Every city has a temperature cut off point, at which workers automatically get the day off (well, at least the "non-essential" workers). In Kunming, the "city of eternal spring", this cut off point is around 22 C/72 F., at which people can (and do) enjoy a balmy day in the park. In Wuhan, the cut off is 40/104 but, get this, temperatures in excess of 40 have never been officially recorded -- no holidays ever given. I guess the thought of shutting down a city of 7 million is just too much for the city fathers to contemplate. Nobody in Wuhan believes, for a minute, that the temperature has never risen above 40 degrees because it gets really, really hot there. In fact, Wuhan is one of the "three furnaces of China" and people think you are a big dummy to move there if you don't have to. The other "furnaces" are Chongqing and Nanjing. No amount of Sechuan food or history is going to get me there in summer. Or to Shanghai. By mid October, however, the high is about 24 degrees, on average. About the same as last time I was there which was May, 1992. Still felt like a sauna but at least a cold one.
Post by fullcircle
at 3:27 PM PDT
Updated: Monday, 17 July 2006 3:43 PM PDT
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Hey, I finally get my emoticons. How annoying is that?