The Sasquatch.

I knew it!

Is that a tear I see?

Presenting a new Photography Series:
i heart Mother Earth.

Introduction:
We live in a beautiful world. And I am fortunate to live in a very beautiful city. Vancouver is surrounded by my favourite things: trees, mountains, wild life, beaches, and water. Simply put: i heart Mother Earth.

Breathtaking, isn’t it?

I know what you’re thinking. Where’s the sarcasm? The catch? This can’t just be a post about trees and earth and loving sand! It just wouldn’t be mostly me, now would it?

That’s more like it!

And now I make a short, passionate speech:

Our main lady Gaia is being put in an horrible position — between a rock and big pile o’ nuclear waste. And it makes me sad and angry and frustrated. It may be inconvenient, but it’s definitely true: We’re running out of time.

PS. It rains a lot in Vancouver.

For an introduction to this empowering and inspiring project, I refer you to my previous Project Ecuador post.

Update:
The boys from Project Ecuador have all arrived safely in Chimborazo, Ecuador. They have certainly been busy since arriving, and have kept their spirits high, despite their long, arduous journey and dealing with Altitude-sickness of the Andes. The altitude is approximately 4,795 m where they are staying — that’s a long way up from sea level.

They have already bonded with the local children through soccer (of course) and ipods. Hooray Team Apple! Bringing together the world one tinnie tiny portable media device at a time. The Project Ecuador blog has been updated with details and photos of their adventures in Chimborazo thus far.

For more inspiring tales of Ecuador, take a look at Andrew’s blog, (my very talented Victoria neighbour).

Video Journal 1# just added to blog and youtube. Check out the amazing footage.

When I first moved to Vancouver two years ago, I was a little lonely. Ry was on tour and I was home alone and friendless in my big glass tower with nothing but my ibook G4 and a pirated internet connection. It was sad sad sad. That is until I befriended four little Neopets.

Friendly bunch, aren’t they? Yes. Yes, they are. And delightful company, I might add. We explored Neopia with an adventurous spirit and a pocketful of Neopoints that I earned playing Tetris-like games everyday. Fun fun fun. But being the greedy entrepreneur that I am, I opened up a large store to sell rare items in order make more Neopoints. After my loving shopkeeper, Moosaka Noodlenese sold a very rare book, I had more Neopoints than I knew what to do with.

First, I built my Neopets a house made out of chocolate. Decadent. Oh yes. My Neopets were very happy to live in their beachfront, three story, chocolate condo on Tiki Tack Street in Mystery Island. It was all fun and games for my four little friends, but I felt that it was time they took on some responsibilities of their own, so I bought them each their own petpet. They love their petpets.

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Here’s Mumblefat talking to Snugglymouse. Isn’t that nice?

Then several factors got in the way of me spending time with my little friends:

1. My time availability after getting a real job and real deadlines;
2. My hands turning into “claws” after spending all day typing reports etc. resulting in 3 months bound in wrist braces and being officially banned from Neogaming all together;
3. My interests expanding beyond building digital chocolate houses.

But even though my life became busier, my Neopets were still hungry, bored, and demanding as ever.

I just couldn’t take care of their demanding needs on a daily basis, but I couldn’t let them starve to death, so I sent them away for 6 months. They were reluctant at first, but once they saw the AstroVilla’s 5 star diggs with all the fixings including, Swimming Pool, Tennis Courts Spa/Sauna, Burger bar, Maid Service, they said they were “delighted”.

Today I got four email messages from my Neopets. They’re baaaack! So I said hello, brushed them, gave them some treats, and packed up their favourite toys for another fabulous long vacation. This time they will be heading to the Ye Olde Ship Inn. What could be more fun than that?

Bon Voyage!

I interrupt this story to show you these cupcakes:

a cupcakes poem

all
some
one
none.

crumbs fall
icing’s done.

all
some
one
none.

i ate them all
every last one.

Read any good books lately?” Sometimes it comes up in conversation — a question about, or involving books.

“Uhh… books. You mean reading “offline”? Do subtitles count? No? What about tabloids in the grocery line? No. Hmm… Camera manual? Flash manual? Wikipedia? Nope. OK then. Not so much.” (Divert attention). “Boy that Jack Bauer. What a trouble-maker!” I’ll admit it’s not the most eloquent segue.

On to my blog profile “favourites” list, which is over-flowing with directors, films, and music, but not one “favourite” book. Sinful. Like chocolate after midnight, it sits there taunting me. Unwritten rule: After eight, but before midnight. Otherwise, the deal is off.

You might be appalled by the fact that in the last three years, I have read a total of twelve books: Harry Potter Books 1-6, and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles Books 1-6. That’s a mild under-exaggeration. But this is a blog. Reality is like a fuzzy ball of yarn being frantically knit into a haphazard scarf by the knitting needles of a man with aluminum hands. Meaning? Not quite sure. I’ll get back to you on that one.

Let’s break it down, shall we:

1. My book shelves are filled with DVDs and CDs, instead of books;
2. My book collection is in storage;
3. The only “book” I am “reading” is my “ibook”.

I feel it’s time to explore why in the last 3 years I’ve become “exclusive” to digital media.

Here’s the story.

Chapter One: 10 years old.

I am sitting in a special loading zone for kids traveling alone waiting to board a flight to Saskatoon to visit my dad. Around my neck is a gigantic, white plastic Air Canada required tag/bag, with the letters “UM” (Unaccompanied Minor) printed in gigantic, red letters.

Inside the tag/bag are the following items:

1. My airplane ticket.

2. My parental contact information.

3. One AC crayon packet (missing the black crayon which is an important crayon to be missing).

4. 5 packets of honey-roasted peanuts, (back when peanut-induced anaphylaxis was tolerated), which I hoarded like a mad squirrel and collected and stored in a secret compartment behind my bedroom drawers to be enjoyed at a later date. This date has yet to come. And it’s sad really because over the years I’ve developed quite a distaste for honey-roasted peanuts.

5. One small, round, plastic toy maze game. Quite a famous game now due to the fact that this particular labyrinth of fun, called the “Mercury Maze”, actually contained a real blob of mercury (back when children’s toys were not on the Hazmat ‘Most Wanted List’).

I am also carrying a small, purple duffle bag. Inside the bag are the following items:

1. Seven of my favourite animals. Like Mookie, they are all real, but magical and unconstrained by the physical laws that govern this world.

2. The paperback edition of “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Paternak.

After being seated on the plane, I take out my book and Ricky the raccoon (because he is the newest animal and has not yet traveled by airplane). Ricky likes to look out the window. He presses his nose to the cold window and watches the sailboats on the ocean become small like toys.

After the view turns from land to clouds to sky, I start to read my book. A few seconds into my read, the man next to me says, “What a big book for such a small girl.” I smile. He continues, “What are you reading?” I turn the cover over so he can see the title “Oh! There are so many pages aren’t there?” I flip to the last page so he can see the number of pages. “Oh my. Why would you want to read so many pages?” I turn to Ricky. He doesn’t know. But Ricky can’t read. He’s a raccoon. I smile and start to read my book again.

What happened next? Go to Part Two of this in-depth analysis.

Drum roll please… (the suspense is killing you)

My favourite Pez is… the…

Ewok!!

For the linguistic nerds among us you can check out the translation of Ewokese saying “yub nub” in the Ewokese entry in Wookieepedia. If you are just a HUGE nerd check out the total breakdown of “sentient, furred bipeds native to the forest moon of Endor” including, tribal structure, culture, religion, notable Ewoks. Welcome to the Nerdiest Link Ever.

“Ee chee wa maa“

Pez for the World.

Pez for Nerds like Me.

Pez photographs taken outside, looking into the front window display of the Candy Aisle on 4th Ave (next to the Comic Shop and Sophie’s).

**Bonus points to anyone who can guess which Pez is my favourite**

Pez!

Seriously? Serious. Wow. A=B=C? All the same. Right. That’s what I thought.

Sometimes I just want to point my wand at the whole thing and say “Riddikulus” and watch the whole industry turn into a big spider on rollerskates.

NB. Alhough I took out the specific details of the above casting call, all words, phrasings, and the ridiculous sterotyping used in the above are taken from an actual casting call. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still feel horrified.

Reality: Take a look at Lauren Greenfield’s documentary entitled: THIN. And her photography of THIN.