Old Skool Movie Magic

It's May the Fourth (a Star Wars geek-out pun), so I'm watching Star Wars!!!

Laser-brain, scruffy looking nerf-herder, some-day you'll screw up and I don't want to be around to see it. So romantic.

Watching Star Wars, I'm feeling completely nostalgic to enjoying the movies with my parents who had gone to the originals when they were young.

Please proceed to your polling station

Having worked long 13 hour days for Elections Canada at polling stations, I've had a front row seat to democracy for the past few elections.

Canadian citizen? 18 years of age or older? Driver's license, photo ID or government issued ID and official document or utility bill or even your renter's lease with current address?  That's all you need to vote.

You can proceed to the polling station and cast your ballot. It's that simple, yet a near-myth in many countries around the world where threats of who to vote for are issued and democracy slowly spreads.

While I'm legally sworn to to not share any details that would disclose anyone's privacy, I had lots of time to observe. Makes you feel all patriotic seeing a vote in action.

From trades-workers to moms with little'uns in tow. Punks with mo-hawks and chain wallets to business-people in suits and blue-tooth head-sets. Cyclists in spandex and helmets, eccentrically dressed hippies, old couples in matching jackets or hats. First timers to proudly voting at elections for decades. Reluctant, rushed, excited, bitter, optimistic, confused. It was quite the wide spectrum of who is interested in voting.

From people's comments, there seemed to be different types of voters -- ranging from first timers to newly sworn in immigrants to cynical older experiences.

From questions about voting from those who recently turned 18, it was neat to be able to explain it to them. Although some weren't sure what was the point of even voting, some of them were actually pretty excited to excise their right to vote. Their parents were trying to be good examples and proud their children being  responsible.

Others had become citizens recently were much more quiet but just as excited and appreciative from the shy grins on their faces. At first they still asked hesitantly if they were allowed to vote. Their eyes seemed to give it away of how appreciative they with becoming a Canadian citizen and registering to be on the national elector's list.

The older voters who either see it as a faint hope that their vote will impact anything; or who have seen many other leaders and competitions amount to corrupt scandal or great progressive results. Those citizens come with mixed hope and sense of duty, no matter how few politicians are worth voting for in their opinion.

Yet there was over 60% voter turn-out opposed to down to 40-50% in the past few elections. As was said by all leaders, both elected and un-seated, the people had spoken. Citizens want stability and a majority government will help with that over the next few years.

As an exercise of democracy, Canadians still showing examples of peace and order where elsewhere in the world, rebels must fight to change government. Hopefully they can win the day and install a better way of governing.

--PLR--

make every day an earth day, not just a fancy slogan

Is there only one day where we recognize the earth and all its environmental massive diversity might have some unresolved issues? I'm not even who to believe has the most inconvenient truth or who is the most right about what happened to climate change, good or bad, hot or cold, unseasonal or not. The planet probably goes through cycles of good days/centuries and bad just like everything else in life.

So take time to enjoy a walk in the sun poking through rain clouds. Notice how light is beautiful and everything sparkles on a glistening sunny/cloudy windy day. And likely there will be another one to follow this one.

Either way, here's hoping it's not going to be some brutally ridiculous end of the world as we know it tomorrow. Maybe it's accelerating spiraling downwards, maybe it's getting slowly better. All I know is that there's a lot of planet to absorb all that pollution and guess what, it's not perfect, but at least things are changing.

It's like learning to ride a bike, our knees are take a lot of punishment. Yet they heal and we learn to balance. It'll take a while but the earth will balance out as well.

So haul out and tune-up the old bike instead having to drive everywhere for small errands and simple pleasures. Traffic jams and stress are unheard of when you're cruising along a bike path or bike lane. It's all about habits and cultural shift of mindset when trying to make the place better.

The planet isn't doing well for all the industrial progress. At the same time, people are making a small dent here, a huge dent there.

Take for instance that 11 year old (likely with help from her parents, teacher, marketers & publishers) who painted a book's worth of birds. Olivia's Birds is a simple idea of fund-raising. It seems to be making a fair sized dent from a small effort and snowballed into over $200,000 towards helping sick birds from the BP oil spill in Florida. That is one little girl who cared. Good on her and isn't she just a media darling of a poster child.

What if her whole class pitched in? The whole school? Exponentially that's a lot of children who are aware something is wrong and they have an solid example of helping fix it. Maybe a few of them will stick to it and make a huge difference when they're older. Maybe they will figure it out a little quicker like around the Alaskan ship-wreck that is still not growing anything today or the Ukrainian radio-active mess 25 years ago.

Maybe it's simpler when you're young to have less cares and want to help out sick birds but why stop when we grow up? There's some pretty small things to do and give back to the planet for all the resources we take from it.

So don't just fill, but over-flow the recycling bin for what it's worth. Or at least try to reuse stuff when you can. Or you could always make your building sustainable -- Small dents, big dents.

Ever heard of LEED? It's a honourable award for an architectural firm to make a large scale building project eco-friendly. It isn't anything special after the building is opened, just a plaque at the front of the building.

Yet from saving trees on the lot and reusing materials from the old building and proper disposal of toxic materials, to recycling gray water, energy efficiency and skylights, it's an ambitious idea. It might be more expensive to build; such a building likely pays for itself in the long run in energy savings and sustainability.

It's just a wild guess that those architects around the world who decided to do this, probably hugged a tree once in a while, or at least respected it when they were young. They probably rode their bikes through fields too. If you can learn from that and make your own home a bit better, great.

If they can also make a huge difference in how buildings are making a smaller impact on the environment, why stop there? It's a ridiculous balance of legislation, grants, co-operation and innovation but doable. It just takes longer than learning to ride a bike. Some people get all excited about ecological impact, foot-prints and consumerism.... yaddah yaddah until deaf ears it falls on. Kinda like losing inner equilibrium and balance.

That LEED thing didn't happen over night. It probably took tons of planning, problem solving, and raising of standards. Huge building projects aren't exactly the best thing to experiment on so designing probably went slow. Some super smart people are trying to plan out and make the earth a better place too.

Those people just need some encouragement and patience. In the meanwhile, hug a tree. A tree has seen decades and it's still here. Those crazy iPads or PDAs or whatever, they come and go. A tree can grow for centuries.

So take a moment and hug a tree. It sounds like crazy hippies' talk, but remember when you were a kid and could stare up into a huge peaceful tree? It's worth protecting for the amount of animal, plant and soil life it supports. No wonder environmentalists thought it was a good analogy for the planet.

Why not notice the earth every day? It's like smelling the roses once in a while, noticing the small stuff.

coalition? don't matter, get'ter done

Half-way into the election campaign, politically correct, petty political shots and perfect promises, party platforms all compete for our votes. All boast of what to do after they get elected to help communities which elected them. How quaint, however, it's getting tiresome after many elections. Because it seems like we've done this every other year for nearly a decade, it's time for a change. Just like last time.

The simple saying 'get'ter done' is said for a reason. It's a great concept yet we all struggle at times and need a helping hand.

Despite who gets elected, do us a favour and act for the greater good. Not for the party's greater good. Not for a sweet job. I hope they get more done than just sit around in sub-committees planning. I'm impatient so I would love a short and sweet plan to set succeed, so shock me and get'ter done.

Isn't that what they do before elections? Make up convincing platforms for change. Not many campaign promises with solid 12 steps plans to actually happen without a three year projection. Odds of that half-baked plan working challenge even R2-D2's ability to calculate success probability, especially when there's an election every two years... okay maybe the cycle will be broken. Yet it's still a major downer for me if they start with great intentions, only to be blown away before full completion.

For a listing of the political promises to see for yourself, check out the Canadian Press summary which comes out every few days through google news. Some of the promises are so practical it hurts. Note the ratios of new promises per party. Their platforms seem real optimistic with studies and surveys and ideas. When you look at how much money they want to spend without saying how to raise it, who foots the bill other than taxes and jobs created? It's easy to be socialist without saying how to pay for it all.

Some of the political ideas are great, but last only as long as the campaign competition. So do promises and plans just get put into storage like shiny Christmas decorations and recipes for next election?

Not being in their shoes, I try not to judge politicians too harshly. I've failed at times to explain their lack of logic. They don't seem to consider wearing my shoes when huge changes impact my life and everyone around me. They should try well-worn sneakers and work boots once in a while. Not trendy but serviceable for the common folk.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to be working with the opposition and common folk who elected them? There are some wonderful ideas which fade after the election is over like supporter signs on the lawn. Why can't politicians just.... all get along? Left or right of center, who knows, they might be able to pull off some major reform or simply be civil and not block bills that might cause an election to swing in their favour to win control.

If they want to control the country, spiffy. If there's some joint coalition, whatever that political jargon means, just do something already. Maybe there's some solid reasons to not have too many chief bakers in the kitchen. Maybe I'm simplifying the whole concept but I thought it was how a minority government gets anything done - by co-operating and making compromises with the evil enemy, the ominous opposition leaders. Aren't they elected people who also want to do great things for the country and its citizens.

Peace, order and good government is what Canada was built on, not half-baked cookie dough. They built Rideau Canal almost 200 years ago and despite set-backs, it was engineered so simply and solidly that it still works. So keep rising to the occasion and orderly build upon good governing - which I hope includes being fiscally responsible and spending within reason.

Whoever is in power after this election stands could do great things, or end up with half-baked cookies and budget plans. If standing by their promises to get plans into action, against the huge odds, do it anyways. Even R2-D2 has been known to be wrong.

Pro-action sounds nice but difficult to under-take. Sweat equity is painful and muscles which haven't been used in a while get sore easily before endurance builds up. Just as work-outs at the gym start to show satisfying results, so do plans turning into results. So politicians, please, shock me, I know you got it in you to get'ter done.

-- PLR --

p.s. check out the Voter Compass at CBC's website because it surprised me on the results for myself. I'm obviously going to need to do some more reading on political stuff...

Spring: Winter's Horse of a Different Colour

Spring came three weeks ago in with a lion's roar of a near-blizzard status snow-storm. Six inches dump of white later, I made a snow-angel of protest.

Driving to work in the morning, I fishtailed like a rally car driver in the slush, trying not to ricochet off the parked cars -- just for fun.

Trying to celebrate the beginning of spring, I went out for iced lemonade with a friend at the Second Cup coffee shop. We had to sit inside as the patio chairs were  covered in snow.

So was the path around the pond near UofC when I tried to go for a nice spring walk. Not remembering I'd need snow-shoes, I decided against wading in snow-drifts around a pond full of snow and devoid of ducklings.

So I waited a week like most people in Canada if they don't like current weather reports. Temperatures jumped north of freezing point; melting icebergs in prairie rivers heralded flood warnings; spring was in the air.

Rabbits metamorphosed from white to brown, girls dug skirts out of closets, guys looked forward to working on cars outside, children jumped in puddles, people's smiles defrosted.

Weather up here isn't just an inconvenience for city politicians to squabble about whether to melt more money with snow-removal. Economic delays for everything from spring sales, outdoor festivals to house construction, shingle and landscaping businesses.

Now as I look out my window, I'm frustrated as inconvenienced molting rabbits as another generous sprinkling of icing sugar settles on my fence and shrubbery. Crocuses that popped up during round one of false spring are still frozen alongside the house.

Last night after a few hours of choir practice I attempted to make a snow-man, on top of my car. My friend looked at me like I was crazy for trying to make a snow-man in spring-time. Or maybe it was because I thought four inches was enough snow piled on top of the car for a miniature snow-man.

Frosty would have an icicle's chance in my rainy sun-soaked hometown of Victoria, BC. Four false Calgary springs later I still ask myself why I'm not finding rainbows and daffodils popping up as Japanese cherry blooms drifting down streets in early March. Tourism Victoria probably started annual daffodil counts to gently poke fun of the rest of Canada buried in Antarctic precipitation.

As I complained, my mom pointed out if there's a foot of snow on my lawn I don't need to worry about mowing it. Thanks mom.

Used to eagerly go for knee-pads and roller-blades in my closet to cruise downtown along the waterfront in April. Now less eagerly I debate whether to regain normal gas-mileage by jettisoning sandbags from my trunk along with the snow-shovel and parka.

It's a little known fact, at least in the city, that a horse of a different colour refers to the horse's hair may change colour as they age. However if registration papers say otherwise, a dishonest owner may be trying to sell a different horse.

Another little known fact that in Canada there are only two seasons. It's not CFL football and hockey seasons; not prorogued Parliament coalitions (more on that tomorrow) and election seasons; nor BBQ and Boxing Day sale seasons.

If in Victoria BC there is short sweaty 125% humidity summer and always raining autumn. In the rest of Canada there is a short dry summer with drenching cold rain as bookends transitions to white-out winter.

So if thinking of buying a horse, be suspicious of colour change, as everything might not be as it seems. If booking a flight from Victoria or anywhere else tropical to Calgary in May, be suspicious and pick up a clearance rack parka, as the spring-time might not be as it seems.

-- PLR --

Spring Cleaning for Renewing my Writing

As I'm sitting here in the Good Earth coffee shop with an aptly named High Test, double shot of expresso in an Americano, I realize that won't help.

So as spring cleaning happens with the melting snow, I am deciding that I can't keep delaying the inevidable that I am really not getting anywhere, waiting for it to happen.

For lack of anything to get finished, I've been sitting on too many ideas over the past few months, blaming my lack of concentration and writer's block on too much work and not enough time or energy.

There's still about eight hours of day-light and more than enough time after work to get stuff together and see finished those ideas to completion.

One of my good friends was blunt enough to point out that I'm wasting those talents and hours of things I could potentially get done. Grab life by the balls and get'ter done. Thanks.

So why not get blogging? I see so much, hear so much, talk too much, observe and read so much. Time is long past due to write too much.

No shame in admiting that I have neglected my writing duty to find some truth in the daily events that have taken place. Yes the high test of the bitter truth in the coffee is that I can stare out the window at the brown grass exposed from the pure white snow blanket.

So time to wake up the writing mojo or spirit within me and rewrite my stories past some drafts that never felt good enough to publish.

It's a blog for heaven's sake, the ultimate freedom of speech. Thank God above that such freedoms exist. So look forward to some serious and not so serious writing.

At the same time, the coffee does seem to help kick start the cobwebs out of my mind. It's a good feeling to get the digital typewriter clicking again.

-- PR --

couch kitty counter-attack

Pre-amble on smile stories -- term came from my time as a toastmaster member where a meeting starts with a simple little story by someone about something amusing or heart-warming. i'm going with that tradition and going to keep at it.

Might I talk about my cats from time to time because they drive me nuts sometimes? Other times they just amuse me. It's a 50/50 because I have no idea what they think of me but i get a kick out of their odd habits.

With gradual introduction of course, I shall try to sum one up. Black as a shadow, Gabe causes me more grief than is normal. Eats too much and protests too much when we cut down his diet getting under foot in the kitchen. Without being superstitious, I trip over him.... CONSTANTLY; as he looks for attention.

So any time I can get a chuckle from something dumb he does that seems like karma being justified for the times he trips me up is just great.

Fooling around on a bass guitar, I do get some R&R on occasion. Put the guitar down on the couch and didn't think anything of it to leave my amp turned on as I walked away.

Should be noted how Gabe has a particular pattern in the evenings. He has a crush on a ginger cat that prowls around the block. Without fail, he jumps up on the end of the couch and looks out the front window, whipping his tail back and forth. Being a house-bound cat with no hunting instincts ever displayed, it's a fantasy far from happening kind of hope.

Countless times Gabe's tail has ended up in the ear of whomever has the misfortune of sitting down on that end of the couch. This pattern repeats nightly and frequently.

So as Gabe jumped up to watch for his fantasy ginger kitty and connected with my bass guitar, you can imagine what followed in quick succession. Guitar amp thrummed; startled cat jumped 2ft in the air; amp reverberated from additional tail thrashing; confused cat fell off couch; bass guitar for the win; cat sulked off; Phil laughed at ridiculousness of it all.

Karma justice to ear tickling kitten was served.

-- PLR --

Ice Cream & Heart Attacks

And now for something more serious. With more people in the western world having heart attacks, it doesn't make sense to me of why we still eat so unhealthily. There's a real long list of things that potentially can clog arteries which directly supply and valves that work within the heart muscle, yet we still enjoy guilty pleasures.

Yes this is personal because my dad had a fourth heart attack last week and I didn't feel like writing much because I was too worried about him. And too far away to be of any help while he was laid up at the hospital.

Back-tracking six years, a neighbour had to drive my dad to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. Turned out my dad's heart had murmurs. No it's not like murmle murmle murmle by Robert Munch. It's when a heart beat is irregular. No biggie, just a tattle-tale heart-beat that Poe would have loved to have learned about -- heart attack imminent.

Three years later, ice cream, nachos and greasy food without much exercise in the balance caught up to my poor father. He was down for the count as my poor sister put her CPR skills to use. She very calmly broke a couple of ribs, which is a side-effect but kept dad going until the impressed paramedics arrived. Turns out she'll make a fine nurse when she's done her program. My heroine.

So my dad recovered and walked 5km a day, not an easy task to work up to from sedentary life. However he was on track, having given up smoking long ago, given up most of the greasy foods and ice cream and even the weekend bottle of wine & cheese. He actually listens to his doctor and even went to acupuncture for detoxification of kidneys and lungs. Dropped 30lbs and was feeling quite well.

This Christmas... we were really good and didn't eat too much fattening food. This past week I got a text message from my pastor in Victoria stating, your father had a heart attack again, but he's fine now, thanks to your sister's CPR skills and in stable condition. Oh good....

Turned out that a random fat particle got dislodged and carried up and into the heart, causing blockage. Turned out to be a bad thing requiring a stet to shore up the heart's artery. Healthier than he had been in years and still, attack on the heart like lightning. My dad cheated death yet another time, and continues to help support my sister's nursing schooling.

Knowing my dad gets that much exercise, I had a good heart to heart with my sweetie who is also in nursing and with my diet. Decided that I'm doing okay for diet mostly, doing yoga and walks. That said, needed to hit the gym and get back on a bike, drink more water, less of the missing hours of sleep.

Learned a lot about going to the trainer and getting my body composite. With textbook heart rate 130/80 & 60 bpm, I'm have 17% fat which was a few percentages above the limit for my age, but on the fluids end of things, i have 50% water -- right on target for freeing up toxins out of the body.

My sweet girl and my dad as well are very happy to see that I had taking pro-active measures on my health. As for my dad, he was up and about flirting with nurses the day after and recovering while watching the hockey games. So what did I have to eat for supper? Creamy beef stroganoff. However, by draining off the excess cup of grease after browning the pound of beef, it wasn't too bad for me.

Now my dad gets a heart monitor embedded up under the left side of his collar bone and mini defibrillator leads connected to his heart to restart heart and activate an early warning to call 911 if his heart tries to stop again. A bit cyborg rebuilt stronger with the technology, but I'm muchly relieved for this amazing sounding invention. Guess what didn't make the cut on my latest grocery shopping trip? Ice cream.

The point is, changes to diet and establishing exercise routines can do a heck of a lot of good when the crucial time comes. I don't want to think about the alternatives, but am proud of my dad for dropping the weight and getting back in shape. The ticker might be wearing out, but the mind is still super active so my dear father, thank God above, got another chance with another cat life down. So my mother is renewing her CPR training and I'm trying to cut down more grease from my cooking.

Life goes on. So look after the ones you love and look after yourself.

-- PLR --

v-day approaches so learn from the past

Now for something more light-hearted. Valentine's day cometh and that strikes terror to the hearts of singles and men everywhere. Once upon a time I wrote a cheeky guide for my slightly gothy girl and she loved it. Now I write for the nursing student I do love and adore.

As my sweetie Sharon does read this, I apologize if I got stuff wrong, but it's how I remember stuff. As I'm predictable at times, I have no intentions of giving away any surprises for this V-day. But as tech school grad, I do have the experience to recount what has and hasn't worked over the years when in college.

Writing and giving a poem to a girl I had a crush on? Win.

Finding out she was hoping to date someone else? Worst fail of high-school.

Found out she kept the poem on her wall for years when the other date didn't turn out. Win.

Finding out that knowledge years later in college when I'm already dating someone else? Fail. But no regrets.

Writing a poem for a girl I had a crush on in my college newspaper column while single? Win. Having her friends laugh at me as she walked away indecisively blushing? Fail. Thankfully I had developed a thicker skin by then.

Making brownies? Win. Almost burning them while making out? Fail. Asking Sharon to marry me? WIN three years ago; Hence why brownies were forgotten. Tie game.

Romantic dinner out in Banff? Win. Not making reservations? Fail with bonus round of searching out a restaurant where someone else's reservations fell through. Win. Taking her to the fudge shop afterward? Win.

Feeding on fudge and giggles followed by wine & cheese while watching romance of Mask of Zorro? Absolute win.

Cooking pasta for fancy dinner? Fail if it's a staple student meal.

Cooking grilled fish with white sauce & rosemary? Win.

Roses? Win. Farts? Fail.

Dancing in the kitchen spontaneously? Win.

Asking to go out for Karaoke? Fail. Singing on voicemail? Win.

Taking her to Bedouin Soundclash or the ballet? Win.

Most recently last year.... going out to a look-out point, in the dead of winter -30C with windchill, for a dance atop the hill? Chattering teeth fail. Having her cuddle up with me to warm up? Tie game,

Getting stuck waiting at the train tracks for the freight train on the way to the hilltop and feeding each other A&W fries? Win.

Calculating the number of miles I've walked just to see her? Biggest kiss of a win.

Doing Sharon's laundry or dishes on occasion and helping her with studying? Win.

Bringing coffee and a pastry or her A&W take-out favourite, a mozza mama burger, for supper when she's bogged down with research essays? Win.

Listening to her rant about worries on skype when apart and missing each other? Win.

Lads, the point of the dates is in the efforts. Girls don't really care what you do, as long as you put some logical thought into it to make it memorable. It isn't in the huge date plans made last minute or weeks in advance, it's in spontaneous stuff and the small stuff done weekly, like maintenance on your car checking the oil, listening to her requests. So learn from past mistakes and give it another shot. Cheers to that awesome date on V-day. But make it happen all year around and if she's worth it, it'll be a keeper. Good hunting.

-- PLR --

January catch-up

Like katch-up shouldn't appear on mac & cheese when it's done justice, nor should the news when a month old. Yet here I am trying my best to keep an even keel when I've been moving way too much in a forward motion, in personal and working life changes. So I'll try to chronicle it for a while and keep track of the successes and near-misses. Call this a brainstorming session for the weekend edition.

Having always been a fairly scattered personality in my ideas when it comes to writing, photography, planning and everything else under the sun, I have grand intentions but never get 75% done. That had to change, and we've all said that before, just before procrastination hit. But now it's do or die because I realized I was able to get so much done over the past month. Everything except writing on this blog. Screw writers' block because we create messes so we can clean instead of getting to work on something that pays little usually. Enter the dynamite of the spring cleaning and I can't wait until the weather thaws out.

Looking for that illusive Loch Nessy of organized life I rolled up sleeves and got messy. Having planned out and followed through with vacation plans, I got a lot more done; even though I took three days planning and shooting a wedding for my friend (editing has been a harder task) and organizing my old files and papers from school days. My poor sister protested as I hauled up her stuff from school too.

The recycling box got over-loaded from 4 boxes of old assignments and crud and like-wise three boxes of photos hit the round editing basket. Why I kept all the blurry, ex-gf, bad composition and other photo mistakes was mostly a lack of time and guilty reminder that I needed to get better at my craft. It was an eye-opener of how much film I developed. I'm suitably scared to start doing the same to my 1000x's in digital files, but tough luck. It's called the delete button. Also found lots of gems buried in the rubble so that was encouraging.

My poor mother was fairly happy to get some basement storage back and embarked on her own purging of pre-school teaching stuff too. It was a good waltz down memory lane and I hope to digitalize them all in the spring so I can take them with me from Vic to Calgary. A road-trip is still a wistful idea, but will be a heck of a fun time if I can get everything in line to pull it off, including a car maintenance laundry list.
 
When I got back home I realized that wasn't so bad and went to work on the other stuff. Revamped my room organization because it was bugging me having no place to sort stuff. Put a 4x2ft plywood board on a bunch of milk crates and voila an editing table. Photos, mail, books & other crud was way easier to get at and sort away. Recycling bin is near by as well. So are plans to re-vitalize my website and photo sharing.

My computer was sluggish and disorganized so that's next. It got the customary yearly nuking back to basic install. All my files were safe on different partitions, but I did a back-up of photo and document files anyway. computer games disappeared and amazing how much I could done. If I could find a better labeling system that'd even be better so I'll look for some freeware. It's tearing me apart on deciding whether or not I re-install them. One game only is the deal as a reward for purging through stuff and staying to a time limit. Same to movies though that was hard to give up. I allowed to watch a few more if I keep writing more.

Although it's been a way cooler reward to tackle my reading list -- aka too many books over-flowing from my shelving and tucked on top of my dresser. So I'm narrowing it down and going to review a bunch of them as I hack through them. A Sony E-reader helped make the transition and eventually I'll find enough stuff from the library to download instead. More on that later.

Next was my agenda book as the year wrapped up and I needed a new one. Got a new cellphone (2nd hand) which has windows mobile on it and the task list and calendar reminder alerts are golden when so busy. My palm-pilot got me through a year of journalism school but proved to die too fast in the cold to be a reliable time piece. So I'll find out how the Motorola Q does. Funny enough I'm still using the 'palm-pilot' of writing on my hand since I can't use my cell-phone at work meh.

Lastly was getting through the musical theatre commitment that was been going on for the past few months. Titanic: the Musical set sail on January 13th and I got to relax finally. Went into high gear and got so much errands done for last minute deliveries of dry-cleaning, seamstress alterations, random stuff like dozens of batteries for wireless microphones and everything else. The car odometer hit 500km in a week but it was worth it. Both production manager and costumer designer, who are both dear friends and asked so much but I was happy to do my small part to get the show on. More on that later about patterns in life and sewing. Through the planning and execution of said plans, the amount I was able to get done on top of editing the wedding photos and university opera productions to the point where I'm like just get everything else into high gear.

SO there ya go.... if you're keeping track, I'm getting way better at keeping track of what I want to get done. yay for Mondays.... stay tuned for more to come. As the radio dj on beloved CBC radio 2 pointed out, two weeks in, the new years resolutions are still good and in a week the three week habits will set in.

Soon to follow this weekend will be eReader vs books, sewing & life patterns, cellphones, photo-shoots as well as a bit of health and world events reflections, a trip from my old archives and some other editorials. It'll be a heck of a January issue. Thanks for reading and peace-out.

-- PLR --