tonight

Yeah yeah, we went to see a play tonight at the NAC called "The Wrong Son" and it was a musical and yes it was written by a Nova Scotian playwright (Cole?) and was set in Nova Scotia... Yeah yeah.

But John Manley sat two rows behind us! That means he ended up with worse tickets! HA!



(I need a life.)

family history

Very cool (for me). Head over to my mom's new blog and read about one of my ancestors. I did my grade 6 speech about my family history.

And if you think that's cool, swing by the National Geographic Genographic project's site to find out more about your ancient ancestors! (My mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is "H".)

at play

attempted responsibility

I tried to play the part of a responsible grown up on Saturday.

The neighbourhood kids were playing in the courtyard. By playing I mean they were bullying one kid to lay still in a soccer net while they took turns kicking the soccer ball at his head. The kid is about 7 years old, and he was near-crying while struggling to maintain a tough exterior.

Having been the victim of bullying in my life, I didn't like it. But I'm also not good with kids, and I'm never sure where I can draw the line. Sure, once I told a kid in the co-op who was using the roof of his father's car as a trampoline that he should get down because if his father found out, he'd get into trouble. But these kids aren't my responsibility, and I don't want to irk any of my neighbours.

I debated what I should do. Standing on the balcony/deck to photograph a spider, I could see and hear their actions. Despite their parents living along the row, no one came to the kid's aid. So I thought I should do something.

"Hey guys," I said in my most stern and authoritarian voice. "Play safe, ok?"

The two older boys froze for a moment. In unison they replied in dull monotone voices. "We are."

Then they resumed kicking the ball at the bullied kid's head. Ah well.

Little Ray's Reptiles

be it ever so humble...

I began to feel that myself plus the bicycle equaled myself plus the world, upon whose spinning wheel we must all earn to ride, or fall into the sluiceways of oblivion and despair. That which made me succeed with the bicycle was precisely what had gained me a measure of success in life -- it was the hardihood of spirit that led me to begin, the persistence of will that held me to my task, and the patience that was willing to begin again when the last stroke had failed. And so I found high moral uses in the bicycle and can commend it as a teacher without pulpit or creed. She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.

- Frances E. Willard, How I Learned To Ride The Bicycle (1895)



Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.

- Mark Twain, Taming the Bicycle

golden day of September

Beautiful day - a gorgeous weekend day. Shorts, sun, laziness and biking. Spent lots of time outside.


Signs of Autumn


Mushrooms


Spider on the deck

yard sale

Never a dull moment in Arnprior.


Sale Table


Ed watches

and then...

I found this one.

little secrets

Going through old photos tonight, I found this one taken in Arnprior earlier this summer. The irony.

found photo

This is a photo I found at work.



And perhaps it's just a sign of my evilness, but I love the old lady in the middle.



Her crossed eyes, her expression, the way her polyester dress is hanging over her spread knees.... To put it simply, she makes me laugh. (I'm going to hell now.)

Just Say No (to Diamonds)

Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One (2/14/02)

By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist

1. You've Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond

The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.


2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value

The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.


3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value

Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers’ advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original "value."


4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS

Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.


5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats

Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.


6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People's Rights

Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.


7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds

More than one-half of the world's diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.


8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa

There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.


9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors

Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.


10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling

Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 million small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

References:

Collier, Paul, "Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy," World Bank, June 15, 2000.

Epstein, Edward Jay, "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?", The Atlantic Monthly, February 1982. www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htm

Global Witness, "Conflict Diamonds: Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds," A Briefing Document, June 2000, www.globalwitness.org/text/campaigns/diamonds/reports.html

Human Rights Watch/Asia, "The Small Hands of Slavery: Bonded Child Labor In India," Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project, www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India3.htm .

Human Rights Watch, "Children’s Rights: Stop the Use of Child Soldiers;" www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm .

Kerlin, Katherine "Diamonds Aren’t Forever: Environmental Degradation and Civil War in the Gem Trade," The Environment Magazine, www.emagazine.com/september-october_2001/0901gl_consumer.html .

Le Billon, Philippe, "Angola’s Political Economy of War: The Role of Oil and Diamonds, 1975-2000," African Affairs, (2001), 100, p.55-80.

Mines and Communities, "The Mining Curse: The roles of mining in ‘underdeveloped’ economies," Minewatch Asia Pacific/Nostromo Briefing Paper, February 1999, www.minesandcommunities.org/Country/curse.htm .

Other Facets, Number 1, April 2001; Number 2, June 2001; Number 3, October 2001, www.partnershipafricacanada.org/hsdp/of.html .

© 2002 Center for Popular Economics

i probably need some of these

By the bucket load.

• "'A fool uttereth all his mind.' Proverbs is harder on the fool than on anybody else, Jane... and rightly. It's the fools that make all the trouble in the world, not the wicked." - from L.M. Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill



• "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. But all the angels are in heaven, and few of the fools are dead." - James Thurber

Let the self-flagellation continue.

Happy 64th Birthday Dad!

Once again, he's somewhere in the Nova Scotian wilderness for his birthday.


Photo of Dad in NS on his 60th birthday


Me and Dad playing

One more year until retirement! Woot!

rainy garden walk

In between rain showers I walked about the neighbourhood, peering into people's gardens.







I had to run home in between rain drops.

early morning walk

Summer is slowing coming to an end - we went for a walk this morning to enjoy what's left of it.









My first Heiligenschein