Blessed

Lessons From the Hundred-Acre Wood

Following some mysterious tracks can lead to an adventure.
If you don't know something for sure, you may as well admit it.
A real friend (however small) never lets you feel foolish for long.
Sometimes just being there takes courage.
Its better to remember before going up that you have a problem with down.
Sometimes the best thing to do is let go.
Thinking can be hard when someone else is talking,
You should wit for a polite time to interrupt, no matter what your tumbly tells you.
It one goes on long enough, it gets a bit boring.
When someone calls you silly (in a nice sort of way), just call them silly right back.
If you don't succeed wit the wrong sort of bees, its wroth another try with the right sort.
Only an understanding friend will do something for you he thinks is silly.
"Silly old bear" when said the right way, sounds just like "I love you."
Its hard to keep it down and exercise at the same time.
When your mother puts her paws on her hips, you know you're in trouble.
Good manners are good.
There's always room for hope.
When in doubt, change the subject.
If you're looking for home but you keep finding a sandpit, try looking for the sandpit -- and
     you might find home.
If you listen to your honey (or your heart or tummy), it may call you back home.
The best-laid plans aren't always.
The friend who finds you when you might be lost is a very welcome friend.
You are where you are wherever you are (that's got to be a rule).
Getting organized is sometimes better than just talking about it.
Accidents happen.
Its bad form to save yourself when somebody else needs your help.
A tail can be more than an extra bit at the back.
According to Christopher Robin, its goes like this: you're braver than you believe, and
     stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Friends can be there for you, whether or not they're there with you.
If you're between this and that and here and there, you might be completely lost.
When things get very scary (and when you're very small) its comforting to shut your eyes and
     hold on to a friend.
Nowhere is a wonderful place -- especially when you're beside your best friend.
When someone else asks what you're going to do, you can always say, "Oh, nothing."

~ Hallie Marshal

Nirvana

Parinirvana 2012

Magha Puja 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 2012

If you want to build a ship, don't heard people together to collect the wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~ Antoine du Saint-Exupery

Lord 'Tunderin' Jaysus Christ B'ye

So there is this wee tiny part of me that is Irish and I get a bit sentimental when I hear the accent or see pictures of rolling hills and valleys separated by stone fences.

I love most things Irish.  I love soda bread and barley soup.  I like my colcannon made with cabbage, not kale ,and it is spelled faeries, not fairies.  I like reading about Michael Collins and listening to U2 and The Commitments.  I cannot drink anymore and I miss Guinness.  A properly drawn pint of Guiness that is, not the shite in a bottle.  So.  Wrong.

So when something "Oirish" comes along, I cringe.  This gem landed on my Facebook wall:

I can't even.

PS: Westlife called.  Kian wants his hair back.

Turkey Dinner 101

Some of you are celebrating Thanksgiving today.  Some of us did last month.  Even more of you are in agony about cooking a big turkey dinner for Christmas.

You need to take a page out of Tante Marie's book.  I've been cooking turkey dinners since I was in high school, most times for nearly 20, and I do not understand what the fuss is about.  Cook the fucking thing already.  Nobody wants corn as a vegetable?  Well nobody said they have to eat it, right? 

Just cook the fucking thing.

Happy Cluck Cluck!

For Sacrifice, For Peace

Occupy His Arse

Sorry Henry, we are going to have to disagree on this one.  Now, this this dood is on to something...

Let me add, winters in Canada are reeeeaaaallllllyyyy fucking cold.  Let us see where this occupy business lands in Edmonton come January when its -45 celcius with the windchill.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday pretty girl!

Blessed

Occupy My Arse

It is really too bad that your liberal arts degree cannot get you a job in one of the very Fortune 500 companies you are protesting against.  Surprise!  You live in a world where it is not good enough to prove you can "read good" and spew a 10 000 word essay on oppressed rats in medical research.  I am sure your interest in 19th century art and the history of weapons used in the Boer War makes for interesting conversation at cocktail parties and fund raisers for PETA, but let us get something straight: you were out of your fucking mind if you thought that was going to be the foundation for employment.  Most of you owe your parents an apology and all that tuition money they gave to you.  Same goes for all the "flash cash" you asked for so you could beer pong your way through your third year.  Oh you know who you are.  I spent many a Friday at the Power Plant watching you trying to replace you blood volume with alcohol so shut it.

Before you get all bent out of shape and take one of your clever protest placards to my head let us get some things straight.  I started out university as an English major.  In this particular matter, I am the voice of experience.  I wanted to take classes that broadened my horizons, study literature written by the best of the best and have my mind blown by the debates in class.  By the end of my first year, my brain had been filled with vast amounts of knowledge about history, anthropology, political science, archaeology, and Victorian English but the fact of the matter was that this was not going to pay the bills unless I taught classes on Victorian English and let's face it, that is a pretty narrow market.

What happened after that was a re-shaping of my future.  I came to understand that I could always go back and study those things but what I needed to do was restructure my education so that what I learned was useful, lent itself to employable job skills, and gave me a foundation for future employment.  Jane Austen and Athena would have to wait.

Along the way, I took a few courses in economics.  I learned a thing or two about capitalism.  One of those things is the power of the consumer's dollar.  Oh you may think that the Walmarts and Chase banks of the world have all the power but the truth is, they don't.  They exist because you buy from them or do business with them.  Want to really protest?  Hit them where it hurts: the bottom line.  Do not buy from companies that fund/support/prop up things you do not like or agree with.  Same goes for places that offer services you use.  If you are reading this online, you can use the services provided by Lord Google, do some research and find out if that Capital One credit card is what you really want in your wallet.  All you do when you destroy the property of the "1%" is give them reason to charge higher interest rates on things like loans and mortgages and give you less interest on your savings; someone has to pay for the damage and you just gave them justification for doing so.  Thanks a bunch.

So all you Occupy Wherever can take your Marxist/Socialist ideals and rotate.  You are where you are because of choices you made.  Do not bother making your shitty choices someone else's responsibility or problem.  Trust me, the "1%" do not feel guilty about where you chose to be in life.  Have the balls to stand up, get a job, pay your taxes and contribute to society in a meaningful way.  You say I am my brother's keeper?  Well that asshole better get off his duff and get a job and I don't care if it is at a convenience store or bagging groceries at a market.  No one is too good to work at these kinds of jobs.  I have a hippie heart but I am tired of funding his leaderless, pointless Arab Spring field trip to Wall Street.  And tell the fucker to pack up his tent, go home, and take a shower... him and his new dreds are stinking up the place.

Amen.

300 Really Is Too Many

I was bullied in high school.  Not because I was gay, but for being short, for being fat, for being smart, for being ugly, for being poor, for coming from the wrong part of town.  And while I am not gay, having been bullied, I can sympathize.

The "It Gets Better" campaign always seemed to fall short to me; celebrities appealing to kids they have never met that sunny days are ahead.  Kids staring down the barrel of a gun that they themselves are holding know that more often than not, that celebrity is just jumping on a band wagon and that the words being said are being read off a cue card that a publicist approved.  Nobel idea, sure, but it still smells like a steaming pile of bullshit to me. 

Before I finished grade 11, two kids I knew blew their heads off with shotguns.  I was 17 then.  I am 40 now.  Things have not got better.

As Mr. Mercer says, we have to make it better now.

Blessed

She's Like A Bird

Ever been twelve and had dreams of flying?  Ever grabbed life by the balls and chased after your dreams?

She did.

When I'm up there, it's like I'm free like a bird.  It's just... its... the best thing ever.

Congratulations on your promotion, Corporal.

Wordless Wednesday

I Miss You, I'm Not Gonna Crack

Remember when he was on that really bad show about the alien family?  Remember it occurring to you that John Lithgow was on television and you had to wonder if he owed a shit load of money to the IRS?

Ya, it's like that

And just for shits and giggles...

Blessed

Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.
So, love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't.
And believe that everything happens for a reason... if you get a chance -- take it; if it changes
     your life -- let it. 
Nobody said it would be easy... they just promised it would be worth it.

~ Unknown

Big Shoes To Fill

I could never run 1500 m in under four minutes.  Oh, I can walk it in under fifteen minutes but I could never run it in under four.

My cousin who, let's face it, I have been pimping on here, ran in the semi-finals at the world champs this morning (last night in Korea o'clock) and for a while he was right in there, keeping up.

Alas, in this race, it was not meant to be.

Geoff does not regard this as a failure but an opportunity to run with the absolute best in the world.  For him, it has been an opportunity to set the gauge for Calgary and then London in 2012; he has seen all this as a learning experience.

For Geoff, it was not a race lost but a dream come true.

I think Geoff said it best on his blog: "As I was walking up the backstretch towards the line, prior to the starting of tonight's 1500m, I looked around and tried to take in the moment. I can't put in words what it was like, I couldn't take a picture for it, no silly blog video would capture it. To walk the track among the best 1500m runners in the world, to be in a big, packed stadium, and to be wearing the Canadian singlet; it was literally a dream come true."
So the question I ask myself tonight is this: do I have the ability to turn my losses into victories?

It really is about perspective, isn't it?