Prairie Sentinels

Another one lost

Grain elevators naturally make me think of Grandpa Al since he spent his life working for the Wheat Pool. I miss him.

I found a site that has loads of elevator photos from around the province.

Jackass Monday Part II

I thought something great might happen yesterday after work, like ice cream. Instead I took the dog for a walk where she had three s#its. I only had two bags, but since I am rule follower and abide by the social contract requiring me pick up after my pet, I reused the second bag very unsuccessfully. I'll spare you all the indignity of elaborating on the details. Then I inhaled a bug and it got stuck sort of in my throat sort of up my nose. I gagged violently. It was awful.

On the bright side, we watched the season premiere of Bored to Death last night and I was regaled with hilarious jokes about aneurysms and s&m. Jason Schwartzman is my hero.

Jackass Monday Part I

8:00am: login to facebook, lurk for a couple minutes

8:10am: read the news (CBC, Star Phoenix, Toronto Star). Jaycee Duggard is writing a memoir about being held captive for 18 years, being raped repeatedly, having 2 kids by her captor and living in tents and sheds for 2 decades. She's obviously a very strong individual. I can guarantee I would not have survived that.

On another note, high school kids in Saskatoon are no longer getting docked marks for handing assignments in late or not showing up to class. That's great! Because two key life skills aren't meeting deadlines and taking responsibility for yourself. Don't worry kids. When you get into the work force and come in late and miss your deadlines, you'll just keep getting second, third and fourth chances. Oh, no wait, you'll get fired and end up living in a van down by the river where mean people will give you money to fight other people who live in vans down by the river and they'll record it, post it on youtube and make money off your suffering while you eat sandwiches from the garbage. Awesome.

8:25am: Blog (waste some time)

8:30am: work...

Bald eagles released from death grip

Wow. My sister and I also used to get into fights like this over scraps of food.

Bald eagles released from death grip

Boobs boobs boobs.

As cranky Seamus said on Canada AM this morning, "I'm offended by their offendedness."


‘Sesame Street’ cancels airing of Katy Perry-Elmo duet - thestar.com

Don't ask don't tell...

The American senate wants their country's soldiers to continue pretending .

Cormac's sweater

Not bad for a first attempt. Also, I didn't have a real pattern, but scaled down from an adult pattern. Admittedly, I did have to redo the sleeves. The first time I left way too many stitches at the top for the collar and it looked like some kind of 80's flash dance sweater. Might have been funny now, but I want Cormac to love me when he's older, not resent me for making him look ridiculous.

Whaa?

I'm so confused by this woman:

Artist wants to remove Tommy Douglas statue

Also, she seems unnerved that Jack Bauer showed up, yet she posed for a picture with him.

40 years!

Don loves Dorothy.

Making fun of Canadians...sort of.

Someone spoofed "The American" trailer with "The Canadian". You can watch the clips here:
How many Canadian clichés can you fit in two minutes? - thestar.com

I don't find this offensive, but I also don't find it remotely funny. Very predictable, standard fare. Stephen Colbert's Ice holes and Saskatchewhiners are much more clever.

Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury!

Freddie Mercury's voice makes me so crazy that I wish I'd been a hot London gay boy in the 70s. I have a feeling this movie is going to rock my socks off!

CBC News - Film - Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury

Children, Children!

Europe is in a serious tizzy over France’s summary deportation of its Roma population. The Roma are traditionally nomadic people who have no “national” homeland to speak of. By “national” I mean a specific territory delineated by an invisible yet enforceable border and comprised of people who share a common language, value set, religion (in many cases), history etc. Anyway, France is getting rid of them (while also banning burkas, religious symbols of any kind in public schools, and soon any one that doesn’t eat cheese, smoke cigarettes, or wax nostalgic on all things France. Ok that last bit wasn’t serious.)

Before the tsk tsking starts on this side of the Atlantic, I would like to share that I once took a course from a brilliant Hungarian who made an excellent point of putting the entire class (of Canadians) in its place by likening European treatment of Roma to Canadian treatment of our First Nations. They are systemically marginalized (some would say demonized) and excluded by governments and populations alike, to the extent that they generally live in poverty-stricken communities with poor health, low education levels and a high crime rate. He was very careful to make this point before he began his lecture on the Roma, which I believe was a pre-emptive strike against any sense of superiority on our part. In this regard, I believe that Canada has absolutely nothing to offer Europe in the way of advice and no right to condemn Sarkozy’s actions. Not because Roma deportation is in any way acceptable, but simply because the kettle and pot are both brimming with ignorance.

The Guardian has an excellent article detailing the Roma plight, which you can read here.

On a side-note, I once made the mistake of mentioning to some of my peers in grad school (50% of whom hailed from Russia and the former soviet bloc) that my grandmother thought she has some Roma heritage. They called me a dirty gypsy (in jest, I suppose), for an entire term. I prefer to be known as a cheap Mennonite, for the record.

News of the Day

Let's see...what's up in the world?

Politics - State-run media in Iran called Nicolas Sarkozy's wife a prostitute, then told the world she deserved to die because she disagreed with the state's stoning sentence for a woman who apparently committed adultery. Who knew that believing a person shouldn't be stoned to death for having an affair (whether there's any truth to the offender's confession is beside the point) equates to giving it up for the bills. The government is distancing itself from the remarks of course. Ahmadinejad knows immodest ladies like Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy are busy enough causing earthquakes with their boobs. Much too busy to sustain a career in the sex trade.

Your health - TEENAGERS ARE LOSING THEIR HEARING AS A RESULT OF LISTENING TO IPODS / MP3 PLAYERS. I LOST MY HEARING 15 YEARS AGO AS A RESULT OF LISTENING TO MY WALKMAN. For real though, I could have told you that listening to booming music through ear buds might have a negative impact on hearing. Common phrases in my house include: huh / what / I don't know what you're saying to me / Say that again / I don't know what you're talking about etc.

Hollywood - A movie about Facebook? Starring Justin Timberlake? For reals? Why? Because millions or billions of people use it? Millions and billions of people also use such innovations as the telephone, electricity, computers, aeroplanes, toilet paper etc., any of which would be infinitely more interesting to learn about in movie format than the genesis of facebook. Don't get me wrong, I like Facebook. I use it regularly. But I do not care about the history of it or whose children Mark Zuckerberg had to eat to get his billions. Much in the same way that I use my office whiteboard but do not care about who invented the whiteboard or any of the drama that might have surrounded who got credit for inventing the whiteboard. Blurgh.

The Fosters - Our new furnace will be installed on Thursday; we've finally made it through two seasons of Angel; and, we had a minor altercation with a neighbour over his incessant parking in the alley, blocking access to our garage (he's a d-bag, obviously).