We throw Out 40% of our Food...

"America thinks it's Robin Hood but it's Friar Tuck. A swordsman priest who gorges by taking one bite out of each chicken leg in a huge horde and then throwing the rest over his shoulder."

Maybe we have to change too

I am so very tired of people whining and moaning that Obama isn't living up to his hype. He's barely had a year in office, and personally I think we've had enough of the cowboy politics of yesterday when Presidents and Prime Ministers shot first and asked questions later. So if it means our leaders have to take a few extra weeks or months to decide how best to handle situations like the so called 'war on terror' or  operation Iraqis 'Freedom' then good on them. After all I think I give more thought to what beer I'm going to drink after work then Bush and Cheney did on where they were going to drop bombs next. Change; that is long lasting positive change, takes time. Its not something that you can just wave a presidential wand and make happen.After eight years of the Bush regime its going to take alot more then 10 months to right the wrongs and still manage to garner at least moderate consensus* (which is what democracy is all about). Change has happened, health-care reform is now well on its way to happening, something that Canadians need to keep note of since our provincial and federal governments seem hell bent on doing away with the very system Americans have fought so hard to get. The whole 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' nonsense of the American military is on the chopping block. Which if history teaches us anything is the first step to legal gay marriages (at least it was in Canada with the two happened just over a decade apart from each other, 1992 and 2005 respectively). So give it time people, stop expecting him and his team to right all the wrongs created over the last decade (or century) in 10 months. Change is a slow, sometimes painful process and its not just the system that has to change. We have to change too.



* Consensus does not mean majority rules or that you even have to truly agree with something to consent to it, but rather that a) you believe that other understands your point of view, b) that your understand the others point of view and c) Whether or not oyu prefer this decision you will support its outcome because it was reched openly and fairly.

Dirty Socialist!!! (warning..rant ahead)

Are you a socialist?
Do you believe in a democratically equal country where there is no direct correlation between wealth and political power?
Do you believe in public education?
Public healthcare?

If so then you better listen up. Because the war on our very identity has picked up the pace.Lately newspapers like the National Post and other more right leaning publication have started spewing out the terms socialist and socialism as tho they are concepts that are poisoning their lives. And we're letting them get away with it and giving them a reward as well (bailouts).

I don't doubt that many readers don't truly understand socialism as the entity it has evolved into today. Socialists haven't done a very good job of distancing themselves from the misuses of the term by Stalin or Hitler and our opponents have done a very good job of making sure that those few who do want to make some noise are politically neutered.

Enough is enough.

Are we going to give in? Bend over and the let them turn socialism into a insult, turn us into the red demon of the new cold war; without so much as a halfhearted reach around?

FUCK THAT!

We've been passive in all the wrong ways. Our passivity has molded into apathy. Time to take a page from Ghandi's book of passive resistance and fight (non-violently) this nonsense.

So lets take back our word and tell them all to go to hell. We're socialists and proud.

Whatcha got to say to that CanWest?


....oh thats right, you better say nothing because dispite all the fire and misinformation you been spewing about socialists your more then willing the take a socialist handout from the taxpayers when you vaunted capitalist endeavor of a media monopoly has failed.






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Survey to pass the time.

what was your first alcoholic beverage?
A Big Rock Traditional Ale

have you ever lived with your girlfriend/boyfriend?
I live with my girlfriend/fiancee right now

have you ever taken someone back after they've cheated?
Nope.

have you ever thought about killing someone in detail?
I don't think so, I'm very none-violent and even have trouble killing a fish.

have you ever peed while on the phone?
hahahaha. Yup.

what do you have pierced on you?
Nose and eyebrows...been thinking about getting my ears done but its just so old school.

what do you have tattooed on you?
An Egyptian Hieroglyph of an Ibis, representative of their god Thoth, creator or written language and recorder of history.

do you own porn?

Own...no...Stream?..yes.

have you ever been on a blind date?
Never had the opportunity, hopefully never will.

what reality shows do you watch?
I dont have tv, so none.. unless I happen to be at someones house.. I like Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.

when is the last time you saw fireworks?
July 1st...

what are you dressing up as for halloween?
I don't think I am but if I end up I think I will go as either Master Chief from Halo or Sookie from True Blood.

do you remember your first favorite song?
I think it was 'Gloria' by Laura Brannigan (give me a break, I was four) but I quickly came to my senses and by 5 it was Galileo by the Indigo Girls.

are you taller than your mom?
Yes.

favorite fruit?
Mango.

vegetable?
Green Peppers...or arugula.

what was your first screen name?
really? I dont even know

what are you planning on doing after filling this out?
Probably generating a new playlist and writing. After writing my cousin a thank-you e-mail for taking me to the u2 concert last night :)

have you dated anyone on your top?
Not sure what this means.

what would happen if you had a baby with the last person you kissed?
I would love it ! And then we would market our discovery (of female-female conception) to all the struggling lesbian couples out there :)

do you sleep on your stomach?
On my side.

are you dating the last person you kissed?
Does being engaged count?

have you ever broken someones heart?
I think so...but it was hard to tell with her.

what are you listening to?
"Whose Side Are You On" by Ani Difranco.

next time you will kiss someone?
When my honey gets home from work.

have you ever injected a drug?
Not to my knowledge.

who are the people you would do anything for?
My family, Ruth and Ryland and Jil ( who might as well be family).

when was the last time you felt like your heart was actually breaking?
When my grandma passed.

do you get along better with the same sex or opposite?
I dont really know.. I have a lot of girlfriends and a bunch of guy friends as well.

how did you and your number 4 become friends?
Who's number 4?

have you ever kissed someone whose name started with a b?
Yes.. A Brad

are you happy with your life at the the moment?
Very much so.

what is something you disliked about your day?
Getting up before 8am.

would you ever live with anyone on your top friends?
I have and I would again.

your current relationship status?
Engaged.

have you ever liked somebody and never told them?
Yuppers.

do you currently hate someone?
I don't hate. I don't like to put that out in to the ether.

what are/were you doing at 12 this afternoon?
Writing my masterpiece hopefully.

would you ever dye your hair blonde?
Only in the minutes before it became purple :)

have you ever gotten a sunburn so bad it hurt to move?
Yes unfortunately.

what is bothering you right now?
Humanity's creeping pace at evolving past the quick fix mentality (yes I know, an easy fix lol).

have you ever read an entire book in one day?
My favourite thing to do on a dreary Saturday...its happened to often to count.

if you could move to africa would you?
Yes. I'd move where i could help teach women to read and write and then become teachers themselves.

how long would it take you to walk home from school?
probably a good 45 minutes or so.

what do you have to do tomorrow?
Write, write and write

what were you doing at 9 this morning?
Kissing my honey in the only heteronormative activity of our day as she left for work.

hows your heart?
Bursting with love and positivity.




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Another Day a Few Less Dollars

I am lacking inspiration....so fucking frustrated


AHHHHHHHHHHHHH


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Ophelia3's Top 10 Lesbian Movies of All Time

In no particular order...

1) Better Than Chocolate
2) Girl Play
3) Bound
4) Fried Green Tomatoes
5) Lost and Delirious
6) Imagine Me and You
7) Chasing Amy
8) Aimee and Jaguar
9) Gia
10)Fire


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A Little Help From My friends

Political Spin; at its best is an annoying coat of white wash that the original sinful colour eventually bleeds through. At its worse is a never ending smoke screen blown up every available orifice of the electorate, a never ending barrage of sound bytes, stylized imagery and sweater vested promo shots that make it impossible to break from cover to actually see the scenery.

A couple of days ago we were victim of some either incredibly well thought out political spin or some not so planned, not so good political spin. Our Prime Minister took some time off from arguing with the opposition, visiting with Obama, and just generally trying to prevent a winter election to sing a little ditty with Yo Yo Ma for charity. A wonderfully sweatervested collective 'aww' moment for a man portrayed as somewhat cold and altogether...well..sweatervested.

And its not so much Harper's musical break that has me questioning his motives but rather his choice in tunes. The Beatles? Really? With A Little Help From My Friends? Seriously?

Seriously.

This from the man who said he was fighting a war against 1960's style drug culture. According to our PM "We are up against ... a culture that since the 1960s has at the minimum not discouraged drug use and often romanticized it, or made it cool." So now he's singing a Beatles song? (albeit one of the lesser 'druggie' songs in their repertoire).

All drug references aside, who are your Friends Mr Harper?
Students? Definitely not.
Small Business owners? Definitely not.
Pubic employees?
Farmers?

You live a pretty lonely life at the top their Stephen. Must be a hard life to live knowing that your only true friends are American Big Business Tycoons and Evangelical Pastors.

Well this blogger has only one thing to say about this whole political grandstand...

wouldn't 'You have a friend in Me' been a better choice? Its a Woodie Guthrie song, so plenty of political connotation there (dustbowl era music is scarily realistic in today's economic climate). And it would have gone hand in hand with the Mr. Rodgers sweatervest you seem so fond of wearing.

Keyboard Cowboys

Remember the 1990's film Hackers? Its quite irrelevant to this post other then it was the first place I heard the term 'Keyboard Cowboys'. I'm not sure if the writers were simply mistaken in the usage or if it, like many pop culture references, has simply evolved in meaning over time. A Keyboard cowboy is a blogger or message board commentator who insists on responding with a jarring tone of omnipotent expretise that is often false. Half the statements these self appointed guru's type they would never ever dare say in the midst of civilized debate/discussion. They are hidden behind a computer screen and we feel impervious to contradiction. And they drive me insane.

Sure, I too am hidden behind a monitor. But for those that now me outside the digital realm know that what I type I wouldn't hesitate to say to your face either. I am unabashedly political, controversial and not afraid of being corrected or disagreed with. So don't hide behind your keyboard, say things as you would if I was sitting across from you. Then you can sleep better at night knowing that you stuck to your guns, instead of taking the yellow bellied route of hiding.

Hippies and Cigarettes

I was on my way home from work the other day and as I was striding up the street I happened to get stuck behind some slow walking Hippies. Now this normally wouldn't be a problem, sometimes I need a reminder to take my time and enjoy the everyday things a little more; but it so happened that all three of these new century flower children were sucking back tobacco and tar from cigarettes. My usual response of instant irritation with being bombarded by toxins and the horrid smell of cigarettes was almost instantly overridden by a puzzling sense of incongruity. Here are three girls, dread locked, beaded, smelling of patchouli and chamomile (from what I gathered before they expelled the offending cloud of noxious gas) and decked out in hemp pants and organic cotton, fair trade t-shirts. So much about them screams flower power of the 60's and yet they're sucking on the very image of the vile corporation and capitalism. Could it be that in their nicotine bliss they are ignorantly unaware of the connotations of the small white stick in their hands? Are they that influenced by image?

These questions swirled around me in a foul cloud of second hand smoke as I slowed my pace to avoid stepping on their heals. It wasn't long before the stench overpowered my interest in the paradox and i slid my way in front of them. As the fresh valley air cleansed the tar from my lungs a new question entered my head:

Why are the Arts continually tied up with tobacco? And how can we divest our selves this black shroud?





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Thought Du Jour

There are more inmates then farmers in USA...


This work by Ophelia3 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

THUNDER

To Descartes, one cloud falling

onto another. To the Greeks,

Zeus’s shield shaking, a forerunner

of Hopkins’ shook foil, that grandeur,

gathered and charged. For the native

tribes of the plains, Thunderbird’s

wings beating. Such magnified

oscillations are beyond us, yet

the very air we breathe is grumbling,

a succession of compressions,

negative and positive ions colliding,

as someone in the next room

is about to explode.

- Wendy Barker

Thought Du Jour

"Academies have been instituted to guard the avenues of...language, to retain fugitives, and to repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain: sounds are too volatile and subtle for legal restraints; to enchain syllables and to lash the wind are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires but its strengths."

- Samuel Johnson

Real Vampires Have Fangs

Since I first snuck a viewing of Interview Of A Vampire on late night showtime when I was 9 I have a been an addict of all things Vampire and I have a confession. I HATE Twilight.

There, I've said it. I've been biting my tongue for far too long and now its like a giant cavity of pain has been removed from my psyche. I'm sure you have a million questions; after all hate is an incredibly charged - and somewhat overused- word that shouldn't be bandied around without deep introspective thought; especially when directed at a mere work of fiction. So in attempt at forethought I will try to answer the most pressing questions as they relate to this high level of disgust I have for anything Meyer.

How long? When?

I was kind of ambivalent to the whole Twilight craze at first, mainly just happy that it was getting teenage girls to read. I finally picked up the first two at the bequest of a co-worker and I even will admit to mildly enjoying the first one. I only finished the second one because I was hoping it would redeem itself. It didn't. So I guess you could say I've been hating them ever since September 17th 2008.

Who?
I don't really have a 'who' in this emotion. I certainly hold no more then a minuscule amount of animosity toward Stephanie Myer or any at all towards her fans. And to hate a fictional character is just a little more 'crazy' then I'm willing to go.

So now to the most pressing question:

Why?

Why do I hate Twilight? Its not for the obvious reasons; the overly obvious religious implications, the anti-abortion message, the shoddy writing, the ageism, sexism or any other ism. Its just that Stephanie Myer some how managed to take everything sexy, dark and dangerous away from the Vampire. Sure theirs violence and sex (obviously since the main character gets pregnant) but its PG sex and violence. Twilight is the near-beer of Vampire stories.

Oh and for the record just because the actor who the production company got to play Edward Cullen is sexy doesn't make the character itself sexy.

Vampires are dark, they are dangerous...they are not meant to be cuddly and cute. Sure there were moments of violence in Twilight, small glimmers of bloody scenes but really all in all its just plain safe good fun...which is SO not any adjective I would use to describe Vampires (accept maybe 'fun' but in more of a dirty naughty fun way then the chaste boring fun Meyer uses).

My biggest peeve, however, is Edwards 'teeth'. Um, ahem; vampires don't have teeth, they have fangs. Its pretty standard. You can pretty much break every other Vampire rule out there except that one. I mean Angel didn't sleep in a coffin, Blade was a day walker, Louis (Rice) and Bill (Harris) like crosses and churches etc. But every vampire I have ever heard of has fangs. Its pretty much the sole defining accoutrement of a vampire. And somehow, in Meyer's chaste telling she neglects to once call them fangs (at least in the first novel). Teeth vs. fangs. Which is more vampiric? Maybe fangs are just too 'evil' for Stephanie Myers? Too devilish perhaps? What is a vampire with out fangs? I superhuman being perhaps but not a vampire...

I do applaud Meyers on creating a 'vampire' *cough* novel that appeals to those who thought the more traditional approach to the supernatural genre was a bit to close to devil worship and for selling literally millions of copies of her novels (although I did return mine after reading it for a full refund). But I do not forgive her for draining her vampires of everything that makes them vampires...

Vampires drink Blood
Vampires fuck
Vampires drink blood and fuck at the same time
but most of all

VAMPIRES HAVE FANGS!!!


This work by Ophelia3 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

Watchmen Trailers

I am so stoked that i might just explode

O' CANADA

Let me start off by saying that I am a proud Canadian, I love being from Canada and I love Canada. I don't always agree with the direction our nation takes, or some of the viewpoints of our diverse population but all in all I love being Canadian.

I read in an article on CBC.com that a New Brunswick elementary school has decided that its students should no longer have to sing O'Canada each morning before commencing with class instead only having them belt it out at monthly assemblies. The schools Principal made the decision based upon some complaints from parents who felt that it wasn't appropriate to make their children sing the anthem (probably because of its God reference, or its non gender biased language). People are up in arms over this, calling the Principal unpatriotic and saying things along the lines of "this is canada, if you don't want to sing the anthem of this nation then go live somewhere else:

Can we say overreacting much?

I haven't sung the anthem in class since grade 1 and I extremely patriotic.

Not to mention isn't singing it everyday a little bit of an overkill? Cheapening the patriotism of it all? Shouldn't we save it for moments of somewhat importance?

And, my real issue with this whole debacle are peoples' reactions to its cancelation.

clearedfordeparture wrote:"Our forefathers layed down their lives for that flag. It is time for us proud canadians to raise a lot of hell over this unpatriotic BS...Maybe the kids whose parents don't want the anthem played should have to pull their kids out of school."

BrendaLynn wrote "After reading a few of the comments posted that agree with this principal's decision to stop the singing of the national anthem in his school, I have only disgust and disrespect for the principal and writers of those comments. Why is it, that only in Canada, are we bullied into accommodating and fulfilling the frequently absurd requests of our `new citizens'?? It's no wonder these `new citizens' don't emigrate to the United States or Australia or many other countries that actually have the backbone to stand up for their culture and traditions. Sadly, we, as Canadians, have become the laughing stock of the world. We gladly welcome and support new immigrants to our beautiful country but unfortunately, allow many of these new immigrants to slowly and painfully coerce us into removing what makes us proud to be Canadians."

I mean honestly people, talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. Give me a freakin' break! Because obviously if our children don't belt out an oftune rendtion of O'Canada everymorning to a scratchy recording crackling out from bargain bin intercom systems then our nation is truly going to fall a part *insert sarcasm here*

I mean isn't it more important to get to the rood of this problem - why parents wouldn't want their children to sing O'Canada in the first place. Or why students feel that the only way for them to show patriotism is to stand at attention and salute? Can't we teach our youth that blind loyalty to a flag is not a good thing? That questioning our nation and ourselves is our patriotic duty not mumbling out a few lyrics now and again.

We should address why our nations anthem doesn't represent Canadian's anymore because if we have to force our kids to sing the anthem then are they truly patriotic? Can patriotism be forced?

No.

It needs to be inspired.

Now I'm reading comments that because the principal is activly involved in the peace movement he wants to remove the anthem from school. Why, because its so war like ???? Give me a break people. This is a non-issue.

Some educational issues to get up in arms over :

1. Overcrowding
2. Lack of funding
3. Quality of adminstration and teachers
4. The fact that our education system is still based upon a set u designed during the industrial revolution to prepare children for life working in a factory
5. The fact that education text books still reference material writtien in the warly 1900

Really want to be patriotic - VOTE in the next election, wear a flag on your backpack and please GROW UP!


Links to the articles:
N.B. School silence O Canada

Schools Should Have To Play O Canada


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M4(Part II)

One of my new favourite bands from Edmonton Alberta