The Philisophical Works of a Pseudo Author

Feeling annoyed, blah, angry, depressed, hot, etc. so naturally I spent money on things I didn't need to spend money on, but whatever. It was less than the $500 I nearly spent to meet Misha for 45 minutes, so I'm calling it a win.

I'm going to go buy iced coffee because I have spent the last 4 hours talking non-stop.

I've given a lot of thought to how I want to spend this weekend. I am horrified once again by the treatment of our government to our First Nations communities, the latest incident only yesterday. They keep preaching 'let's have reconciliation!' but don't ever consult the FN communities on it. It's despicable.

In light of everything, I feel it unCanadian to celebrate a date that represents religious oppression, cultural persecution, murder, and other acts I would rather not type, of an entire people.

Canada is 15,000+ years old. It was a culture of amazing trade networks, religions, diverse cultures, and beautiful ceremonies long before the Vikings even arrived here. I wish this country could better understand that and our education system didn't seek to ignore it. Perhaps more white people and immigrants would understand why eating hot dogs, listening to pop music, and lighting off a bunch of fireworks for the '150th' is not appropriate. But here we are.

And here I'm going. Down to land near the largest First Nations reserve in Canada, to be as un-annoying and as respectful as possible. We're cooking over a camp fire, sleeping in tents, and all around going to be as quiet as possible. But we plan to raise a glass of traditional strawberry juice, commonly made at this time of year by many FN tribes, to salute those that this country still marginalises and abhors.

Today, and tomorrow, I am not proud to be Canadian. And I'm certainly not proud to be a white person from England and France. But I can't change the colour of my skin, nor the country I was born in. What I can do is try to make this country a place for EVERYONE, including those that were here long before I was.

Looks like everything has imported over from LJ successfully. Let me know if you find anything a bit screwy though!

You've heard the refrain. He'll 'make America great again'. And the 'oh, that's just compaigning. He'll calm down when he's in office' and 'we should give him a chance' and 'it won't be that bad'.

Humans have been deluding themselves since the beginning of time, but I don't think we have an example this good since Hitler. And don't get me started on those comparisons (some are valid, some are not).

What I do know is that my daily feeling since January 20th has gone back and forth between horror and fear...and 'I told you so'. I really wish I didn't have to say that. I really wish it hadn't turned out this way. But 26% of the voting populace voted for this. And whether they thought it would calm down, or not be so bad, or they are still out there cheering him on doesn't matter. They caused this. And the people who protest voted in favour of independents caused this. And the people who couldn't be bothered to vote caused this. And here we are.

And I live in Canada, so there's not much I can do. But I CAN speak out. I can be sick at what is happening. I can show my support for all the people he is harming. And I can make very sure, personally, that I don't contribute to the same happening in Canada.

Speak up. Protest (online, in person). Stand up with others. Protect. Donate. There are plenty of things you can do, even if you can't legally vote in the US. And as citizens of the world, it's our responsibility to do everything we can. This can NEVER be allowed to happen again.

Suddenly realised why I feel like I have cabin fever and going a bit stir crazy: I haven't been around different scenery since April (Vermont looks much like, you know, Ontario AND New York). Need that drastic 'foreign' look for a bit. Two weeks to New Orleans.

Well, it's the 30th. I'm not going to say goodbye and farewell, because I won't be that gone, but I won't be around as much, or checking LJ as often (unless I'm really suffering writer's block).

Wish me luck!

Yeah, so I might have written this one about a year ago. But I'm old enough to forget a few things every now and then, alright?

If you'd care to toddle on off to here. It's a fic in three parts, and it will all be posted by New Year's. It's a bit heartening, a bit depressing, a bit family!angst, and a bit 'I really needed to figure out this head canon'. It's Arwen, with a lot of Elrond, Lindir, Aragorn, the twins, Bilbo and a bit of unconscious Frodo thrown in. And it's movie canon.

Now posted above on LJ!

So, that happened. As it does every 4 years (Summer Olympics don't count by Canadian standards). I have been a wreck for 14 days now, and only because the really stressful stuff doesn't get started until team skating medal awards, so like, three days into the Games.

It's hard to describe Vancouver to people. I was alone in February 2010, housesitting, and I literally spent the better part of two weeks crying in front of the TV pretty much all day long. Because if the events weren't on they were doing replays and musical montages to I Believe, and that song still makes me cry to this day. I spent a lot of the last few days of the Games screaming at the television, and memorably remember listening to the finale Gold Match men's hockey game on the radio on the way home from work (which had run long) and managing to make the TV in time for OT, at which point I pretty much had a full blown anxiety attack in the 8 minutes it took Crosby to score the Golden Goal. I had not really paid attention to the 2006 Olympics (the hockey lead to nothing that year, so it was rather a bore all around) and in February 2002 I had just acquainted myself with the person I now lovingly call sister, so Olympics wasn't high on the list of things to do (as I recall, obsessing about LotR was).

2010 was my first proper Olympics. The first time I honestly watched it to cheer for my country. And I think it was like that for a lot of people. I think that was the year many of us learned to be proud (and vocal) Canadians. To celebrate our successes even on the international stage. To acknowledge that, for a country of 34 million people, we are pretty awesome. We cheered, we cried, we won (we lost), and for many of us I think we thought it was a one-off. It was Vancouver, and we were Canadian. It was home soil and nothing was going to take that from us.

Russia is a long way away from home soil, and I admit I was worried at first. But not because I was worried we would lose, but because I knew now that we had it in us to win. And then, Canada, look what you did. Through trials and tribulations you pulled it off again. You pulled off 10 gold medals and another 10 silver and you did it in a foreign country who is good at the winter games. You fought the USA every inch of the way and several other countries even further and you made it. You won. And as always, it all comes down to that last game. For Canadians, that final game on the last day of the Winter Olympics is our Olympics. It's what we spend 16 days waiting for (and 4 years planning for) and it's the one that matters. The other games all matter. It all matters, but that last game is the one that really counts for us. The one we measure ourselves against. Because to come so far and lose the gold is, for us, becoming I think, unthinkable. It's our gold now. For the women AND the men. It's ours to lose, basically, and we are not going to let it go without a fight. This was not the heart-pounding final of Vancouver (the women got that game instead), but it was an amazing hockey match and Sweden deserves that silver wholeheartedly for fighting as hard as they did. But as someone took to waving on a placard in 2010, this is our game.

And boy, Canada, did you make it a good one.

Here's to 2018 Korea. We'll make that a good one too.

LJ is hardly working for me so I might be very quiet for a while. This is the first time I've been able to post anything in two days.

So, Happy Christmas all.

It's DW Day again!