Hi friends. It has been a very long time since I've posted here. I feel like the blog has wound down fairly permanently, but I decided I would post in case you happened to look here. I could update many friends on Facebook, but I currently have a deep hatred of fb and am trying to give it as little traffic as possible.
So what's exciting? Some travel, some moving. Dude, I just checked at is was November that I put anything up here. Well, in December, I was in Barcelona for a conference. So, Spain is awesome -- at the conference dinner each place setting had like 5 distinct glasses (one for Cava, white wine, red wine... perhaps a water glass, etc.). I was hoping for some relief from the Canadian cold there, but 5 degrees feels really cold when you don't have your winter coat and it's windy.
But up next is a 3 week trip to Asia at the end of June. I'm going to Japan, and Hong Kong. Thoughts?
Finally, I've moving to Boston for about 10 months, going to be a visiting student at MIT for the 2010-11 school year.
Updated.
March 23, 2010
November 29, 2009
September 21, 2009
Cuzco?
(Photo taken in Montmarte)Hey there, sports fans. I know I'm a terrible blogger, terrible friend, terrible human being. I'm not sure I'm quite in the head space to regale you with all my Europe antics right now, but you know how I love music, and love copping out by posting youtube videos. So I've embedded some "videos" of some songs I've been listening to lately. Some are not new in general terms, some are, but they're all upbeat and I would say fun. I make no claims about the actual associated videos posted, as far as I care you can push play and go to another tab to get back to your email or... work. Some of them are just picture videos anyway, and one just an mp3.
Anyway, let me know if you have any music you want to share with me, b/c I really love music and its not particularly easy to find new good music out of the wild blue yonder.
I owe posts on Europe, and the continuation of my "what the heck is linguistics?" If I could stop napping in the afternoon I'm sure I could find the time.
Gorillaz: DARE
Metric: Help, I'm Alive
MIA: 20 Dollar
Peter Bjorn & John: I Want You!
Download bài hát I Want You
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Dull Life
August 26, 2009
Scandinavia
Hi, its been an unforgivably long time since I've posted something decent. And I'm guessing it will be longer. I have to do the 2nd part of my trilogy in 5 parts about Linguistics and grad school for humanities students. My first part was a big hit, it seems, so no promises on the next ones.
I'm in Sweden right now, got to Uppsala this morning, spent about a day and a half in Stockholm, but will go back there later. I was in Paris, Copenhagen and the south of Sweden before that.
June 25, 2009
In the News
So it was a big day for celebrity news. Farrah Fawecett lost to cancer, Michael Jackson’s heart gave out. Very sad indeed, and the latter is quite shocking – and despite what your opinion is of the character of the man, he was a pop music genius. But some other news concerns me much more closely and deeply, and that’s the update on the Pickton trial appeal.
A very brief summary of the matter, Pickton is a pig farmer in BC who murdered women from the streets of Vancouver and hid their dismantled bodies on his farm, and also fed the pieces to his pigs. He’s charged with 26 murders, but there were more that couldn’t be conclusively pinned on him.
He lost an appeal today (by a split ruling) that claimed the judge responsible for the trial mis-instructed the jury. But what this also means is that he gets another appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada.
When I lived in BC in 2002-03, every week I went with a group of students from my school to the downtown eastside of Vancouver, which is notorious for the drugs and sextrade. We walked around with big things of hot chocolate in oversized blue jackets giving away hot drinks, as well as candy and various other useful items (gave away the mittens I was wearing once, who could say no to that request?). I was part of the group (comprised only of women) who spoke to the women on the street. We gave hot chocolate to those who wanted it, left alone those who had no interest in us, and talked to those who would. Despite what you think about this kind of outreach, it has made a huge difference in my life, mainly because it allowed me to simply interact with these people. They are me, they are exactly the same – what is different is that I was born into a stable, loving middle class family and they were exposed to situations either of poverty, abuse, or other unfortunate circumstances. Talking to these women I learned of their hopes and dreams, which are like yours and mine. One woman wanted to be a marine biologist, others just wanted to care for their children and make sure they were ok. It seems to me that the drugs and prostitution are effects of the crap they’ve been given in their lives, but the hope and the smiles show the wonder of their human hearts and triggered compassion in me. They are the same.
Many of the women we interacted with knew other women who had gone missing from East Hastings. They knew those women who were brutally murdered by Pickton. Some were afraid, because it could have easily been them.
So I read the story about the appeal on CBC news and it really brought me to frustrated tears. Leaving Pickton himself aside, I’m astonished that there are people who are willing to be his lawyers and defend him so vehemently. I know that everyone deserves defense, and all that stuff, but the scale of evil we’re dealing with makes me forget what the logic behind these laws is. He is an unbelievably evil man, and should be in prison for the rest of his earthly days. Those women deserve whatever tiny shred of justice we can muster up for them. They deserve infinitely more. Remember that they are you and me, they did not deserve to die, they deserved to be loved. Remember that when you think about people on the streets, when you think about prostitutes. Please don’t condemn them in your mind, because we don’t know what they’ve had to deal with in their lives. Remember that they have children, they have friends, and they have dreams. Think of the dream to be a marine biologist.
A very brief summary of the matter, Pickton is a pig farmer in BC who murdered women from the streets of Vancouver and hid their dismantled bodies on his farm, and also fed the pieces to his pigs. He’s charged with 26 murders, but there were more that couldn’t be conclusively pinned on him.
He lost an appeal today (by a split ruling) that claimed the judge responsible for the trial mis-instructed the jury. But what this also means is that he gets another appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada.
When I lived in BC in 2002-03, every week I went with a group of students from my school to the downtown eastside of Vancouver, which is notorious for the drugs and sextrade. We walked around with big things of hot chocolate in oversized blue jackets giving away hot drinks, as well as candy and various other useful items (gave away the mittens I was wearing once, who could say no to that request?). I was part of the group (comprised only of women) who spoke to the women on the street. We gave hot chocolate to those who wanted it, left alone those who had no interest in us, and talked to those who would. Despite what you think about this kind of outreach, it has made a huge difference in my life, mainly because it allowed me to simply interact with these people. They are me, they are exactly the same – what is different is that I was born into a stable, loving middle class family and they were exposed to situations either of poverty, abuse, or other unfortunate circumstances. Talking to these women I learned of their hopes and dreams, which are like yours and mine. One woman wanted to be a marine biologist, others just wanted to care for their children and make sure they were ok. It seems to me that the drugs and prostitution are effects of the crap they’ve been given in their lives, but the hope and the smiles show the wonder of their human hearts and triggered compassion in me. They are the same.
Many of the women we interacted with knew other women who had gone missing from East Hastings. They knew those women who were brutally murdered by Pickton. Some were afraid, because it could have easily been them.
So I read the story about the appeal on CBC news and it really brought me to frustrated tears. Leaving Pickton himself aside, I’m astonished that there are people who are willing to be his lawyers and defend him so vehemently. I know that everyone deserves defense, and all that stuff, but the scale of evil we’re dealing with makes me forget what the logic behind these laws is. He is an unbelievably evil man, and should be in prison for the rest of his earthly days. Those women deserve whatever tiny shred of justice we can muster up for them. They deserve infinitely more. Remember that they are you and me, they did not deserve to die, they deserved to be loved. Remember that when you think about people on the streets, when you think about prostitutes. Please don’t condemn them in your mind, because we don’t know what they’ve had to deal with in their lives. Remember that they have children, they have friends, and they have dreams. Think of the dream to be a marine biologist.
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