A post containing way too may fragments in brackets

Okay so here's my excuse for not blogging,  I'm back at school.  No not university, no not Gillespie, but culinary school.  It's been crazy.
So here's how it happened.  Last Christmas I forced my family to watch episodes Jamie Oliver's Christmas special for like 5 hours (and the Juniors)  and with that I kept saying, I really should just quit school and cook.  Last April after midterms and my psych class driving me psychotic I decided to apply for Culinary Arts at NSCC.  I was told I would be on a 4 year wait list.  I then had to decide what to do until I was accepted, and I couldn't figure it out. The Monday of camp I was making my bed and recived a call from my dad, he told me NSCC had called and I was accepted into the program starting the next Wednesday.  I liked Acadia, I love history and politics and all of that but, overall my university experience kind of sucked.  I hated getting up early to hike to my English class and taking German and Psych.  Now I have class everyday at 8:30 and I don't dread getting out of bed. ( I still love to sleep and goodness at 6:51 in the morning flannel is the best feeling in the world but...)  I have 2 teachers's who know exactly who I am.  (okay, so occasionally one of them can't remember my name and calls me Mademoiselle) I don't have to write my student ID number on anything, ever.
I am now 3 months into the program and I adore it.  Of course it stresses me out to no end, but it's a different kind of stress, almost a nice kind of stress.  And I'm saying this after a week of scrubbing dishes every day.
 It's crazy that this time last year I was trying to drill the parts of the brain and their function and millions of German words into my head and this year I have to know different types of soup and the 5 mother sauces.
Does this justify a 2 month hiatus?
No?

I have been spending a lot of time listening to Jay and Dan while I study.

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Christmas music started a month ago with me, but this week marked the official start of it.

I would set up my Christmas tree but we're moving in 18 or so days.  I think I'll be able to survive.

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p.s  I need to write a camp post

I'm not dead yet.

Remember those absolutely wonderful times when I still blogged.
I will in the very near future write a post pleading for forgiveness.  I will also write a hilarious recap of camp, including video and pictures.

I know for a fact the internet misses my hockey ramblings.  But there is no hockey right now, I know.  I could write a rant but it's mostly just anger and disappointment.   Above is Brendan Shanahan, head of NHL Player safety wearing a Mickey Ear's hat in a Disney store.  The amount of crazy pictures of this guy you can find out there on the world wide web, he should have no credibility. 

p.s please say the title in your best Monty Python voice.

All brain no brawn.

Back from camp.  I will write my yearly Camp extravaganza in the very near future, I think I'm going o clean out my drafts a little bit before I do.

I brought home a lot of things from camp, one being a head cold from George.

I should probably give you something to tide you over,

They really thought he was going to die.

"I don't even know why moo is an option"

    I don't get to drive to camp with my usual band of hoodlums, this makes me incredibly sad.  I found my camp notebook and I was reading the crazy things we did and said on the way to camp last year, then it hit me, I don't get to do that this year.  I won't get to sing-scream the words to all the songs on the camp CD.   I won't get to plan how to rob a skinny asian man of his airstream trailer or a small man of his Lays truck. I won't hear the GPS moo every time we pass a church or go over the speed limit.   I won't get to experience how disgusting green army men gummies are at 8 in the morning( Actually at any time, those things are nasty)  I do however get to cross one thing off my bucket list the night before, one of the things I never thought I would be able to cross off.  I also get o make the journey to camp, though 3 hours shorter with my cousins.  My cousin Ryan will be a ball of crazy energy, so that aspect won't be completely gone.
I'm excited for camp,  last week it finally hit me, I'm going to camp in 2 weeks.  I'm making the big jump from Junior Counsellor to  full fledged counsellor this year.  I'm also in charge of tie-dying which is super fun, but more intense than I thought it would be.   I also am organizing registration the first day, and cabin assignment.  It's been crazy but I love camp so I would do almost anything they'd ask me to do.
In a week I'll be scrubbing a table furiously after crafts before lunch.

9 days.

So I found this fabulous website, or rather my mom sent me a post from it and I became obsessed and have read every single post on it since then...  So what is it?  Camp Confessions.  With less than 2 weeks until camp I am really starting to get pumped up, and this website is helping immensely (also drinking milk regularly and listening to hymns over and over)

Here is a collection of my favourites

This happens practically every single day for me.  I hardly think a day goes by with out a mention of camp.  I know for a fact no Sunday goes by without it.

Industrial dishwashers just make everything better.  And you may be rewarded with the chocolate milk bag.  It's impossible for counsellors because we can't make doing the dishes punishment, unless it's sausage breakfast day.

It was a particularly intense game of Capture the Flag.

Samarah saw this one and she just said, "This is Kaitlyn"

I wrote a whole skit based on this fact.  It's now 9 days until camp.

Bonus post from Camp Counselor moments.  Because really, this happens every single meal.

 p.s I have a camp craft bracelet on right now, one of the ones made from seam binding, it's not coming off for at least 16 more days.

p.p.s I sat here trying to think of a wonderful title for this post and I am completely stumped.  Leave a better title in the comments.

We are Canadian, and we are proud to win

The Olympics have come and gone. (this is my excuse for not blogging in an eternity)  The Olympics exist for people like me.  The Olympics exist for nationalists.
The opening ceremonies drove me a little insane because they kept showing the royal family, and I have issues with the royal family.  Besides that, they were amazing.  30 Mary Poppins flying from the sky to banish Voldemort was kind of amazing.
Canada did not perform up to everyone's expectations, walking away with one gold medal.  The thing is, the Canadian media builds up our athletes so much.  We are convinced that every single Canadian athlete is going to medal, and we're not, we can't.  I still cheer like crazy for the Canadians in every competition of course.
We had a ton of heartbreak these games. So let's focus on the positive.
The Women's soccer team.  Bronze.  First time for that team, Canada's first medal since '36 in a team sport.  I know, we should have been in the gold medal game, thanks Norway I though we were friends. But Bronze,Canada is a country where we celebrate Bronze like it's gold, ex. 2012 Juniors, Joannie Rochette.
Canada earned a lot of Bronze these games.
In Diving, Emilie Heymans winning medals in 4 straight olympics.
Darren Drouin in the high jump, a complete surprise of a medal and our first medal in high jump since '76.
Brent Hayden finally getting his olympic medal, after so many years of disappointment.
Mark Oldershaw, a 3rd generation Olympian, finally brining a medal to his family.

Our Women's gymnastics team placed 5th when we weren't even supposed to make it to the final.
In the end Canada walked away from these games feeling happy.
The love spread by our athletes on twitter was absolutely amazing (and reading Hayley Wickenheiser's tweets for 2 weeks made me so happy)

As a proud Canadian I always feel like a traitor when I cheer for Michael Phelps.  But he is now the most decorated Olympian of all time, which is amazing.
And who can cheer against Usain Bolt?  Triple gold, 2 Olympics in a row.

Someday maybe Canada will be super awesome at the Summer Olympics, until this happens we will always have the Winter.  I love that only Gold will do in the winter and then at the summer Olympics we celebrate top tens and bronze.

"Just" a Mom

I know exactly what I want to do with my life.  I want to get married, and live here in the Valley on a hobby farm and bake and cook and raise oodles of amazing kids.  And read to them and love them to bits.  That is what I want, that is all I have ever wanted.   But society has put so much pressure on me.  Society says I have to go make something of myself.  Society says I can't "just" be a mom, that I have to go to school and work and be this great woman.  But I can do all these things raising my kids.  Being "just" a mom is like a  curse in society today.  I feel like I am letting down the entire planet because I'm not going to be the next Hilary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice.  Because that is what society has told me I have to be, because I like history and politics I need to do that.  They say that anything and everything I do will be a waste of my brain.  But society doesn't take into account that maybe all I want to do is have 3-8 children, bake and maybe write a cook book.  But me making this choice at the meagre age of 19 doesn't make me worthless, that my decision to stay home and raise kids doesn't undo everything feminists have fought for, for so long. The fact that I dropped out of school because I know I can't get a job when I'm done doesn't make me stupid.  Sure if I had the money I would go and finish my degree in history and poli sci, but I simply don't have the money.  Feminism should be accepting of this, the fact that they look down on women who make this choice is un-feminist.  Believing in equality is the only qualification of being a feminist.  But it's not even feminism, it's equality, it's human rights.
Some of the most amazing and strong women I know are, "just" moms.  "Just" moms change the world every single day.  I don't know why are society doesn't put as much faith in "just" moms.

Puffed Sleeves

When I was about 7 or 8 I called garbage, rubbish.

My entire vocabulary when I was a kid was shaped by Road to Avonlea, The Little House books, Anne of Green Gables and when I was slightly older the Narnia series (which sadly I have never finished this series, I have read The Horse and His Boy far too many times however)

My aunt often comments that I have been an adult since I was a baby.  This is true, my mom started reading the Little House series to me when I was three.  Anne of Green Gables is one of my earliest movie memories.  My TV diet when I was a kid was a steady supply of taped from TV, Road to Avonlea and the Waltons.

When I played with Barbies as a kid I always had this revolving story of them being pioneers.  Come on, I pretended my Barbies were pioneers!

I was one of those kids that could sit still and be read to for hours on end.  My mom and I spent a day when I was 5 or 6 reading A Christmas Carol, no kid that age knows any original interpretation of that tale, but I did.  We also read an entire Little House book in a day, it was one of the fake ones about Laura's great-grandmother (also I can remember what book it was) 

I took up Nancy Drew, being a stickler for the old hardcovers, I don't think I have ever read a soft cover Nancy Drew.  The smell just wouldn't be the same.  And I read the Bobbsey Twins, the Bobbsey twins.  I can almost guarantee that no one under the age of 45, and that is pushing it, has read the Bobbsey Twins, but I have.  Funny story I think I still owe late fees on a Bobbsey twins book because I was using it to construct some piece of furniture for my pioneer barbies.

My mom also read me The BFG more times that I can count.

When I was 9 I took up Harry Potter and it was like finding a new nook of home.  It was a world where garbage was called rubbish and sweaters were jumpers. ( Harry Potter is set in the 90's, wrapping up in '98 I believe)

I knew the synopsis of Romeo and Juliet when I was 4. ( I use the word Synopsis for goodness sake!)

In this long convoluted post I am not trying to show off my vast knowledge but trying to justify the reason that sometimes I call garbage, rubbish, or why I still mix cornbread by hand or why I am drawn to calico and know that the Kings only had sheep for one episode (it's the one when Aunt Eliza comes to live with them)  Why I shipped Felix and Izzy and Gilbert and Anne before I knew what a date was.   I should be embarrassed of this post because it shows how truly dorky I am.  Can I blame my dorkiness on my parents?  Aren't I as a child of this generation allowed to blame whatever I want on my parents?  

(also major dork confession, there was this cooking show hosted by an old man with a beard that would come on before Road to Avonlea and I watched it like crazy when I was 5… it's the reason I know that most commercial breaks are 2 minutes. I can't make it any worse but, we had a collection of gardening VHSs when I was a kid and I think I watched them every 2 weeks, 3 years old watching gardening tapes..)

With Glowing Hearts

Today is Canada Day.
I love Canada Day, I love that Canada became a country on this day because together is stronger.  I love that we're a county because of fish, fur and a railway.
My feelings for Canada sometimes overwhelm me.  This week's edition of McLean's had a piece on When people felt the most Canadian, as I was reading the stories I began to cry.  The stories were absolutely amazing, showcasing the kind hospitality of Canadians, the hope Canada offers to immigrants.
Canada is not a country that wears is patriotism on its sleeve, we are not a flag waving country, Canada has a quiet reserved patriotism.  As I drove through the small towns in the Valley today I couldn't help but notice the abundance of Canadian flags.  Canadians do undoubtably love their country but we don't scream it.  Our love is always present, always there but today, Canada Day, the day out nation became one, is the day that we freak out, the day we allow our red and white heart to show.  (and the day of the  Olympic mens gold medal game)
I on the other hand am a Canadian that does not fit the mould, I am a bear my red and white heart every single day Canadian.  An Obnoxious Canadian that thinks Canada is the best country int he world.  A Canadian that cries over Zellers flyers, and Olympic Hockey, and stories about Canadian soldiers.  A person that would buy a t-shirt with the words of our anthem on it (not saying I did...)
Some people may say that my patriotism is only because of my unhealthy obsession with hockey.  This is partially true, my love of hockey only makes my love of this country stronger.  The 2002 Olympics really did change my life, the double hockey gold after 50 years was a moment I will never forget.  I would love this country even if I wasn't an insane hockey fan.   It's more than hockey it's a feeling and undeniable feeling that reaches into the very inside part of me, and feeling that I part of something so big.  I can't find words I cannot put how I feel about this country into words.  I can't find the words to describe the feeling in my stomach, in my heart, that buzz that goes through my whole body when I think of this country.
I love every nook and cranny of his Country, I love that we have nearly any climate you can imagine.  I love the Canada shield and the prairies and the rainforest and our kilometres and kilometres of coast line.  I love our 6 time zones and that Newfoundland is a half hour ahead.
I love the CBC and their never ending Canadian content and HNIC and Don Cherry and their horrible mini series and Road to Avonlea and Rick Mercer and Peter Mansbridge, and Rex Murphy.
I love Molson and their commercials that make me feel so incredibly Canadian that it hurts.
I love that we spell words differently, like centre, metre, favourite, and neighbour and who can forget colour.  I love that we say zed.
I know some people are so cynical about Canada, saying it's not that great of a place saying our government could be better.  I really don't know what to say to these people, in comparison to so many other countries Canada is amazing.  This country has captivated me with its freedom and beauty and I can't combat with cynicism.  But people will always complain.
Should I mention that we have the best part of the Rockies and Niagara Falls?
Sometimes I sit and think how glad I am that my long ago hodgepodge of ancestors somehow ended up on the coast of Canada.  That they by chance or choice decided to live in Canada to stay in Canada.
On Canada Day I also think of all the men and women who's love for this country led them to fight for its freedom, for the freedom of the citizens of this earth.
I live in the True North Strong and Free and I wouldn't have it any other way.

p.s  With Glowing Hearts makes my heart burst because it was the motto for the 2010 Olympics.

Shane Koyczan is able to put everything I have ever felt about this country into one incredibly beautiful spoken word piece.

Fish, fur, railroad, Canadian history in 3 seconds.

Talking Pictures

I was watching this video and suddenly a thought hit me.  This thought was, future generations are not going to be able to do this with my generation, there's not going to be pictures of my generation left behind.  Digital photography has taken over, there are vast stores of pictures filed away on computers but no physical pictures on paper that you can hold.  My parents are huge photographers, we have thousands of pictures and dozens of photo albums, but when Josiah was about 3 and I was 10 the photo albums stop.  Josiah says, "You only have pictures of me as a baby." In the future are hipsters going to be resurrecting old hard drives to find the pictures we leave behind?  Or are there just going to be so many pictures that they bear no emotional value?

I have these 2 videos saved to my computer as "for extreme depression" and "for even more extreme depression"  these 2 videos never cease to make me laugh uncontrollably. 

Jay and Dan are my favourite thing on TV.  I used to not like Jay, this goes back to the 2010 Olympics, he cohosted the morning show, and he used the word "Redonculous"  and I was like, "hold up you can't say that on national TV, who the hey is this guy?"  So from then I couldn't stand him.  Then I started to watch him more, with Dan, in his element and I decide Jay is actually hilarious.   Anyway there's a youtube channel that posts all their shenanigans from Sports Centre, and truthfully I waste way too much time watching that channel.   My family has decided I'm insane because I'm sitting watching 2 grown me throw confetti around and dance.  My favourite part of the videos are Americans commenting "I wish American Sports Center was this good" Just proof that Canada is the best country in the world.

I can't even think of a title for this post, everything I'm thinking of is some ridiculous line they've said that would probably scare people from my blog forever.

We asked nicely

Fun Canadian history stories:

We tried to have a fight for our independence but everyone got too drunk. They began organizing in a pub, they then set out from the pub going down the road very rowdy a couple shots were fired, stopped, went to another pub and got drunk instead of fighting.

Our confederation almost didn’t happen because the Circus was in town.

We burnt the White House down, and that is why it’s white.

We waited a week to join WWII because we wanted to prove we were independent from Britain.

All the Kings men, couldn't have picked this team

The LA Kings have won the Stanley Cup, if you had told any hockey fan at the beginning of the season that the Kings would win it all they would have laughed, to death.
I was cheering for the Devils, because Marty Brodeur is the best goalie that has ever lived, and because the Kings knocked the Canucks out in the first round. (I'm a bitter person)  It is nice for a first time team to win the cup (last time the Kings made it to the final they lost to Montreal, I was 6 days old)  and I like Drew Doughty a lot because he was part of the 2010 gold medal team.(fun fact: Drew was the first person to reach Crosby after he scored the Golden Goal) I held back cheering for the Devils a bit more because Zach Parise was the one who tied up the gold medal game.
So the Kings have done it.

Hey Prince Charles we don't really like you, and we miss Diana but we planted you this tree

I am decidedly anti-monarchy, so every time I write about the English Royal family I'm extremely biased.
England is in shambles right now, the whole global economy is in havoc right now.  England has decided to show off all their grandeur.
Last year they had the Wedding
This year the Jubilee and the Olympics are happening.
I do understand that all of these events were organized before the European economy decided to fall apart.
But then Camila and Prince Charles came to Canada.  Was this visit necessary?  No, no one cares about Charles and Camila.  So why do Britain and Canada have to spend money on something absolutely no one cared about?  The amount of effort and money the Canadian government put into paying for this tour, it just made no sense.

"I want that"

In honour of my previous post about favourite literary families here is my favourite real life family that I am a part of.
To answer all the questions you have, yes my family is crazy.

Alternate titles to this post:
-"I like her bangs"
-"Would you like to look like this?"
-"I like your sleeves"
-"I love you, I love you, I love you!!"

"I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!"

I read a lot, though not as much as I would like anymore.  In my various journeys through the literary world I have come to know many literary families.
Warning, extremely heavy spoilers ahead.

I have a hard time picking my favourite family though, it would ultimately comes down to the Marchs from Little Women or the Weasleys from the Harry Potter series.

The Marchs make me feel warm inside.  They're almost too perfect.  A family of strong loving sisters who almost have no faults.  And the parents are amazing.  I think the thing I like about the March family is how they only have each other.  The March family relies completely on each other, the girls spend hours putting on Jo's plays and pretending to be the Pickwick Society.  The Marchs are also a very giving family, willing to sacrifice for others.  Mr. March goes to Chaplain in the American Civil war, Jo cuts her hair (her one beauty) so that Marmie can go tend to the girls ill Father, Beth's compassion eventually leads to her death.  You read the Marchs for several years through joy, love pain loss and the courses of their lives.

The Weasleys, the Weasleys also make me feel warm inside.  Ron is the best literary best friend ever written.  Arthur and Molly Weasley are amazing.  Molly does everything out of love.   Her love of her children and Harry give her strength.  Arthur Weasley is portrayed as a bumbling idiot in the movies (the movies do the books no justice) but in the books he's just a person with a good sense of humour and an obsession with the Muggle world, he is actually very strong.  The Weasleys become some of the prominent fighters in the war against Voldemort, each lending something to the stopping of this evil.  The Weasleys take in Harry as one of their own, Ron becoming his best friend, Ginny becoming his wife and Molly and Arthur his parents.  The Weasleys become Harry's family.  The Weasleys become your family, in the 1st book you meet Ron and grow to love him in the second you meet nearly all the rest of his family and grow to love them (except Percy) and then by the 7th book you feel as much Weasley as Harry is.

I would rather be a March than a Weasley though, I'm not exactly sure why but I just think I would fit in better with the March family.  Also, come on who doesn't want to be related to Professor Behr and Laurie?

I have other favourite families too.
The Dashwoods  Sense and Sensibility.  Although this might just be because I am Eleanor Dashwood.
The Bennets Pride and Prejudice.  I think there might be an international law that says the Bennets have to be included in every list of literary families.  I like Lizzie and Jane but can't stand the rest of the family, which is exactly how Jane Austen wanted you to feel while reading Pride and Prejudice.  Can I just take a small side trip right now? ( I write this blog so I'm just going to do it)  Okay, so Jane Austen wrote a character named Jane, how is this allowed.  I get it Jane was a popular name in the early 19th century, but it's your name did you really have to name your character that?

The Nolans from my favourite book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, are not included in this list.  Why?  The Nolans are kind of horrible.  Johnny drinks himself to death, Katie picks favourites out of her children and visibly shows this.  There is hardly any love shown with in this family.  I just feel cold when I read this family.  There are small pockets of love, but the Nolans do not give off a warm fuzzy feeling.

(You have no idea how hard it was to figure out the proper pluralization of the family names)

I am the Prince of Wales Trophy

I'm not allowed to pick Stanley Cup Winners anymore.
Last year pick Vancouver in October, they make it to the final and lost.
This year pick Vancouver again, knocked out the first round.
Pick New York Rangers in October, make it to conference final then eliminated.

This season was horrible.

So now I'm cheering for Marty Brodeur to get his 4th Stanley cup at the age of 40.  (even though I don't like the Devils, Marty's the best and he deserves to win the cup every single year)

(the Prince of Wales trophy is presented to the Eastern Conference winner, and most guys when they win it refuse to touch it because they think it's bad luck)

An update in the vaguest sense of the word

I have so many posts I want to write bouncing around in my head.  I come here and I open a new post window and then I just sit there and can't put the random bits into proper sentences.  Though I never write in proper sentences.  It's not really that, I just don't have any full ideas formed.  I think of one thing but then when I attempt to write, it sounds full on offensive.   It's not working out.
I should just write everything down, and then leave it and then come back and edit it into some kind of cohesive jumble.  (Maybe I'll do that)
I just thought that the 1.42 people that read this blog would like some kind of post. (yes that was a scientific number, .19 come here by accident, and about 99% of the traffic comes from a picture of the Original Ocean's 11.  I can credit my blogs traffic to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.)
I'm just going to leave this now.
Well, that's wonderful, I started every "paragraph" with "I"

Summer Reading List

• The Game- Ken Dryden
• In Retrospect- Robert McNamara
• The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
• Nicholas Nickleby- Dickens
• Oliver Twist- Dickens
• David Copperfield- Dickens
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- Betty Smith (for the 3rd time, I've only read my favourite book 2 times.)
• Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
• Northanger Abbey- Jane Austen (yup I still haven't finished it.)
• Clapton- Eric Clapton (I started this book the summer before grade 9 and I still haven't finished it...)
• There's also some new Artemis Fowel books, so I'm going to try and get those in.
• Seinlanguage- Jerry Seinfeld (it makes me laugh uncontrollably)

I'd love to reread the Harry Potter series, but clearly that's not going to happen.

Your cry of Love Rings out across the Lands.

I'm experiencing a lot of camp feelings right now.
I need to figure out a way to get a high quality version of the camp singing You're the word of God the Father this summer.
Fun Fact:  That song is also know as, Across the Lands.
I'm having milk from the milk machine at supper.

ps. I used the wrong your....how on earth did I get into university?

My Child, the Holocaust Denier

  I still can't, I never will be able to rationalize how the Holocaust happened. Or how in '94 we let it happen again, and how we let it happen in Bosnia, and darfur, and that I want so desperatley for the human race to say no, no to genocide, no to killing,  to hatred. To say yes to love, to say yes to compassion, yes to stopping the killing, yes to doing whatever it takes to end genocide. But we won't, we can't.  I am extremely pessimistic, but my compassion over rides that.  I often say, I hate everyone, but I don't I don't hate every one.  I just want to spread this compassion across the entire universe, to let people know that they are loved, that every human living on this planet deserves to be here, deserves to be alive and to be happy.  That there is no logical reason that you are inferior because you're of a different faith, or ethnicity, or because you live somewhere you are less of a person, that you don't deserve to live.
I live in a world where people are still killed because of who they are, where children don't get to to go to school, where women have to walk miles to get dirty water, where women die in child birth, where people don't have health care, where churches have to hide.  Where the biggest super power anyone has ever seen is slowly collapsing and the rich rule this world with money they made off the backs of the poor. I live in this world, this world we created out of war, and messed up history and nuclear weapons, and money.
So all I want is for people to feel the compassion I feel, the compassion that wracks your body, with the guilt of all the mistakes the people before you have made.  The compassion that makes you cry at the mere mention of the holocaust or Rwanda.  Where you still cry thinking about Vietnam, a war your country didn't fight in, and that ended 20 years before you were born.  The pure and utter compassion that makes you want to adopt all of the hurting children across this world and tell them that their life is worth it and that you love them.  Just to feel the smallest inkling deep inside them, the smallest bit.  Just to understand love.
I want my children to be like this.  I want them to not be able to fathom that one man would take his hatred to such an extreme, to kill 11 million people because of who they were.   That another man at the same time would kill 18 million of his own countrymen because he was paranoid.  That in the 90's only a year after I was born people would kill their neighbours because white men told them a horrible lie.  Where they believe it was never.  Where they live in a world where sick people don't draw Swastikas on table and books.  Where people don't us the n word.  A world full of love, where genocide is such a distant memory.  But I don't want the memory of these genocides to fade away, I want them to always be here to remind us where we came from, to remind us to never let it happen again.

Sorry I haven't blogged in forever.  I have an exam in an hour, and then I'm officially done all my exams next Wednesday.
Anyway I found this spoof suspension video, it's put together incredibly well.  Almost spot on.

You may have already watched this, you may not have but you should watch it anyway.  





I’m an incredible cynic.  I am just scared that this Kony thing is going to become fad something you support for a week or two and then forget, like the Haitian earthquake or the Arab spring.  People are still going to continue dying.  This battle cannot be given up until Kony is arrested and tried at the Hague.  I know it’s the cool compassionate thing to do.  But remember human life, remember to be compassionate no matter what.  Always remember to love.

Guess who's writing another essay on Communism and Russia?

If you guessed me then you win...
The prize is Nothing.

Also remember that time I mixed Presidents Choice pudding and Cool Whip and it tasted like soap?

Hockey Fights and Lost Lives

I don't want to sound heartless, because I'm not, I've just observed things.  Whenever talk about banning fighting in hockey comes up Rick Rypien, Wade Belak, and Derek Boogaard are always mentioned, because they were enforcers.  These men did not die because of head trauma. Yes, Boogaard died because of his addictions to painkillers, because of trauma, but the actual trauma was not his killer.  Belak and Rypien committed suicide. Because they had issues far greater than the sport of hockey.
All of these men were fighters and hitters and did all of those things that they want removed from the game.  But these things were not their killers.  So I don't think it's fair to them, to mention them in your crusade to end fighting in the game.
I am not trying to down play the fact that they died, not at all.  I'm trying to show the people that mention them when fighting comes up how wrong they are.
I feel for these men every single day.  For their families and their friends.  For the NHL that is left with gaps where these men should be.

In my Poli Sci class we were talking about Alienation this week.  We of course discussed the feminist side of alienation.  One point I thought was particularly interesting, alienated from motherhood.  The basic idea is that women no longer have control on how they mother.  Of course freedom of their body was discussed in the context of abortion and birth control. But also the fact that women are controlled in the amount of children they can have.   There are so many pressures, you can't over too many children because the world is already overpopulated, why bring more polluters, consumers etc. into this world.  Poor women shouldn't have children because they cannot support them.  Why would you give up your career to have children?  So on and so on.
I just thought it was interesting that our society has come to that.  Where in one breath well tell girls that it's okay to kill a child and in the next say that they're wrong for wanting to have children.

Do you know what?
Russia still has a Communist party.  You would think of all the countries in the world they would be the least likely, and the found out for 60 years that it didn't work for them.
Can't say they're not optimistic.

Life is Sacred

I often see signs or hear people say, "I believe in preserving life" this is almost always in the context of abortion.  I believe this too but in every aspect of life.  I am very clearly antiabortion.  It often seems that some people get so wrapped up in apposing abortion that they forget about human life in general.  There are genocides, and hidden wars happening all over this planet but nothing is being done to stop them.  Why will you fight for the life of a child but not the life of a woman or a man in another country? Both of them are equally as human, both as equally alive.
I used to be like this, when I learned about the genocide in Darfur Sudan all I could think of is, we can save these peoples lives but we can't save them from hell.  It's the same for abortion, if you save a child from abortion there is no guarantee that they will be raised as a Christian.  But you are still saving human life.  A sacred God created life.  It does not matter if the person is an unborn child or a 77 year old, they're still a human.
All human life is equal, sometimes people forget that.

So here is my gold medal game story.

My family was at my Aunt and Uncle’s house, they have a big TV, they’re my parents bestfriends (they’re not actually my aunt and uncle…). So we’re watching the game, it was intense, in the last minute we got really excited, we were a minute away from winning Olympic gold at home for hockey.  Then Zach Parise scored his goal, everyone just got angry and slightly depressed and very very tense.  Some of us may have started to pray.  I know I screamed out “Are you kidding me!?”  So we wait for overtime to start, no one really talked.  Overtime starts, most of us are not breathing.  We wait.  Crosby scores, we all start screaming and freaking out, because well we just won gold for hockey, out game on home ice. And freaking Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal.  We all freak out for like 5 minutes, we hugged and screamed and everything.  Then my aunt says,” Did we win?” We all go into shock, yes yes we did just win!  My uncle just goes over and hugs her, “you’re so precious, yes we did just win”  So she starts freaking out so we all do, again.  She says” Oh I thought we had to play the rest of the period”  ”no it was sudden death”

(I wrote this for another source, but you all know I'm talking about Kevin and Joanne)

Hockey is Canada's Heart.

I know that the 2014 Olympics are not going to be that same.

Nothing will ever compare to 2010.  No other games. 

Those games brought this entire country together, the amount of pride out poured then was beyond any dream we could ever have.

When Crosby scored the golden goal the entire country was there.  We as a country had scored that goal.

We had never won gold on our own soil before.  No other gold mattered besides the gold in men’s hockey.  That is the only medal we cared about.  All the other medals nice bonuses.   If we had only come away with that one gold medal this country still would have been over joyed.  We needed to win, we needed gold, and redemption.  We needed to prove that hockey was ours, that it was our sport.  Hockey was Canada and Canada was hockey.

I will never be able to put my emotions into words.  The feelings I have can not be explained.

So in 2014 we will go to Russia, we will stand behind our athletes, we will cheer loud and strong as one voice.  

Canada has an odd form of patriotism.  Canadians need to be told it’s okay to be proud.  We would rather stand back and silently cheer our athletes on,  Feeling the same sense of pride as every other country but not screaming it out loud.  When it comes to hockey it’s like all of these  are broken down. We know we own this game, it is ours and we let our pride show.  This can be seen every olympic hockey game, every World Juniors competition.  Only then we will stand up and cheer.

This is not how I truly feel, I can’t put that feeling into words.  

p.s It only took me 2 years to write about the Olympics.

But I'm a Hab, and he's a Bruin.

I know, I'm posting about hockey again.  ( I promise Vietnam will be soon)
The NHL All-Star weekend is here.  Tonight was the Fantasy draft.  Carey Price was drafted by Team Chara, headed by Chara, a Bruin, and Joffery Lupul, a Leaf.  You could say he was a little surprised.

I will eventually post again.  I actually have a post related to politics bouncing around in my head right now.
Done my first week of classes.  They're going so far so good.
In my history class we're eventually going to have a lecture on Nationalism so I'm excited about that.
My Poli Sci class sounds likes it's going to be amazing.

Some pretty crazy stuff happened in the hockey world lately.

Mr. W

Wow I haven't blogged in a long time.
Here's  German Commercial, it's in english.  It's very clever.  Took me almost to the end to figure it out.
Oh and the beginning...a woman's skirt is lifted up...at like almost the very beginning.  Just a warning.