The setting sun has turned the mountain caps pink

basking the city below in a loving glare

staring ominously down on those

of east hastings and point grey alike

Saying LOVE.

All we are is love.

Women and Ranching in the 1960's

Its annoying that I can find multitudes of info on ranching in the early 1900's but hit a wall after the 1930-1940. I would prefer anecdotal but all I can get are charts and tables on the economics of the practice. Frustrating to say the least. Its been about a month since i've seriously engaged in this research and its a bit disheartening to see so little of what I need out there. I have a list of material that i need to get at the Archives in Edmonton, the Galt Museum and  the Glenbow to get to, which at my current financial state is next to impossible. But I've managed to get access to a number of online archives and libraries which has given me some hope, and my local library seems to have some good information although the 3 books by Hank Pallister would really help but VPL doesn't have them.

Did you mean Bradley?

I am getting really tired of being told that my family name is spelled wrong. Stupid google.

Atlas Shrugged 1

I am embarking on what is probably my fifth attempt to read Ayn Rand's seminal work Atlas Shrugged (aside: I think a new word needs to be invented to take the place of 'seminal' since its more of a medical term and it seems strange to attach it to a woman's work). I'm not sure what has kept me from getting into her work before and I've been trying since Highschool. She's very conservative, against all government interfearance in a free market economy but I can't imagine that being what has kept me from diving into her fiction since I've been able to read to much work that I don't agree with. This time I've made it farther then before and its starting to grab me. Its helped that i've needed a distraction from exams.

So far my impressions are limited seeing as I've only reached page 81
- Dagny Taggert is a woman with much potential and hopelessly stuck in man's world in era where her values and beliefs are being left behind by all those around her.
- Hank Rearden is possibly a high functioning autistic

Questions:
- What is the anti-dog-eat-dog rule's real life listing and has it been introduced by lefties or righties?

Research

So I have embarked on a historical fiction novel, not the easiest project I could have picked. Especially since most of my research will have to take place digitally because the place of research - southern alberta - is currently so far away. Its hard, the libraries out here have very little to offer me and most museums and archives are a little slow to catch up to the digital age. I've managed to find some information on the Mormon operated Ancestry.ca (for a small fortune) as well as there are some amateur genealogists in Edmonton who will send me family Homestead Records that could help but my current location, while inspirational, is presenting some unique problems. I guess this just means a trip back to my roots is needed in the near future. I need a day or two at the Galt Museum in Lethbridge to really dig into their archives, and the U of L has some wonderful collections as well. (Too bad I didn't think about all this 5 years ago, when I was living and going to school there).

Can't Believe I like this song....

Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

M E

I just finished Mass Effect for the 4th time...there was 100 hours well spent lol!

sad

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

Helpless...

Sometimes its just to fucking hard,
when even your best doesn't get shit done
because no one is listening

I hate oil. I hate gas

May I never have a car
May I fight to the very last drop of my blood to end our addiction to this black cocaine



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

Opening paragraph?????

The  sun cooked pavement as it mixed with the diesel fumes of the greyhound bus station was intoxifying. It hinted at summer road trips, foreign cities and lawn parties. Levi's eyes were shielded by sunglasses and still the reflected glare from every passing car caused her to squint. The greyhound bus hovered into view as it negotiated its way down main street, the heat waves from the pavement obscured its tires in a ethereal haze.



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

The Skies of Vancouver As seen from my patio

The Re-imagining has begun!

I have begun to clear the clutter, both physically (you should see the recycle bin on my computer and in my garbage room!) and metaphorically. Hopefully this bright new streamlined layout will encourage me. Thank-you all for your patience.

Madness

Book Review: Bright Shiny Morning

Bright Shiny Morning
James Frey
HarperCollins 2008


I picked this book out of the discount bin at Chapters. At first I thought it was easy to see why, the stories jumped around in a million different directions with seemingly innocuous facts about the city of Los Angles thrown in as filler.I found my self frustrated with Frey's habit of introducing a new character or story arch only to have it disappear a mere 2 paragraphs later with no sign of returning. Something pushed me onward, made me keep turning the pages until the books saving grace dawned me; the seemingly random characters were not the character the reader was meant to focus on. The city itself was the subject of the novel and the hodgepodge of stories, from the homeless men on Venice Beach, the wealthy closeted actors, the american mexican maid,  or the newly wedded teenagers from out of state were all just plot progressers for Los Angles. A character study not of a person but of a city. Once you can accept that your focus should not be on the people in the city the book just flows. However, I find Frey's writing style (when not confined to random facts or lists most likely taken from source books close to verbatim)to be a bit awkward. To much repetition and awkward diction detracts from otherwise suspensefull and emotional scenes and leads to a very cliche filled novel. Somehow, dispite it all , it worked for me. Maybe I too have a cliched vision of the city of Los Angles.


***bloggers note***

At the first reading of this novel I was painfully oblivious to the fact that the author of this was also the infamous James Frey of the  Million Little Pieces memoir controversy so this in no way had any influence on the review nor my initial interest in the novel.

Lady Gaga - Telephone (march 11 2010)

When you couple the newly released "Telephone" music video with Lady Gaga's acoustic performance of Paparazzi you get my newly founded respect for her. She has breathed new life into the music video industry, proving with out a doubt that MTV, Much Music and the like made a mistake of gargantuan proportions when they decided to plug more and more crap reality television on their playlists and less and less music. But oh well, she has won a new fan in me.

Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger of late, what with finals, term papers, work and of course the brand new 42 inch flat screen LCD TV that makes my xbox games look oh so sexy I haven't posted much. That doesn't mean I haven't been writing tho, so expect to be inundated in the next few weeks with a back log of thoughts, images and writing.

Vancouver ( a work in progress)

The lights of Vancouver shimmer across false creek
Bouncing from the cloud cover to water and back again
Even in the dead of night the city is alive and vibrating
Singing its song of humming skytrains and police sirens

The  flicker of bus lightening lights the damp streets
The city is born anew in the damp drizzle
yesterdays sins washed clean, ready for more
under the watchful eye of the twin peaks

...over coffee

Occasionally I am graced with a customer who doesn't just treat me like an baristabot and wants to engage in more than just meaningless banter about my day while they only have listen to my response. One of those customer is a computer techie names Justyn...not sure if he spells his name with a Y but to me he just seems more like a Justyn then a Justin. Justyn is a very well groomed man, crisp pants, shiny shoes, trimmed beard and stylish sunglasses. He is well spoken, polite and witty. All the things I ask for in good customers. We've had an ongoing debate for several encounters over the virtue of e-readers. Our last encounter left me deeply puzzled over the place of books in the new millennium. He said that he to can appreciate a good book and even owns a few 18th century 1st editions (!) but that he sees nothing beautiful in the mass produced, artless tombs currently rolled out of a factory that Chapters sells. Part of me conceded a point to him there, where is the art? Can we compare the individually bound books of the past to the mass produced paperbacks of today's bookstore. And if the content is truly all that matters then shouldn't I to succumb to getting an e-reader and store up to 20,000 books in one tiny machine rather then continue to let mountains of books take over my apartment.

Where is the art in modern book binding?


(I have not given up my POV that the tactile emotional response I get from touching, seeing and even smelling a book will ever be replaced by the sterility of and e-reader, although the portability of the e-reader may result in my purchasing one at later date)

1. 
   

Re-imagining

The Re-imagining is coming...

Thought Du Jour #2