Yanksgiving... Yanks taketh it away.

Thursday, November 27, 2008 - In a world that has us complaining constantly about that which we do not have, and whining in unison about how bad things are... along comes American Thanksgiving. A time to reflect on the things for which we can be thankful. A time to bring family and friends together. A time to gather those who are near to us... and hit the malls.

Yanksgiving is the start of the retail season. If anyone feels more thankful, it is the malls, the big box stores, and the television stations. Ahh... the festive cha-ching of the cash register and pumped up ad time. No matter how bad the first 7/8ths of the year has been, Friday is all about going from bleak to black - and if you aren't too comatose from all that turkey, the sales start when the clock strikes 12:00. Black Friday... get your list started.

It is that warm fuzzy time of the year... where we roll from giving thanks for all we have directly to thinking of all the things we don't - but are hoping to have in a few weeks. The tree will be lit at the top of the needle. The lights will be on at all the malls. The snowman decorations will be appearing on a lawn near you.

I'm Canadian. I live in Canada. I am right now smelling the turkey in the oven, and wishing that this isn't the meal everyone talks about for years to come... and not in a good way. But Yanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays. It brings back warm and fuzzy memories of spending time with good friends, without a care. I miss those days very much and so this year, though I am in Canada, I am cooking Yanksgiving dinner and will be thankful for the friends who will share it with me. I will also think on the other things in my life I have to be thankful for.... and get that list started. Dear Santa, I've been a very ok girl this year...

Flowers the colour of blood

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - I realize that the signing of the Armistice agreement to end World War I was 90 years ago today in 1918, officially ending the war on the 11th day of the 11th month at 1100 hrs (the 11th hour). In Canada, Australia, the UK and other Commonwealth countries, today is Remembrance Day. In the US it is called Veterans Day, although until 1952 it was Armistice Day. In New Zealand, France and Belgium, it is still called Armistice Day. For Poland, today is Independence Day.

It doesn't matter what you call it, 90 years ago today, the first World War came to an end but not until the end of many hundreds of thousands of lives. This day has come to represent more than the celebration of freedom, and the mourning of the lives lost in that first World War. Indeed, it has become to represent the great sacrifices made by all soldiers, both alive and dead, in order that you and I can be free. There is a war going on as I write, and you read. Whether in peace time or in war, at this moment there are thousands of men and women at war.

Each year by the middle of September, Poppy lapel pins start showing up on store counters and on jacket collars all over town. This year however, there seems to be a short supply of Poppy Pins. For the first year in my adult life, I have no poppy. I didn't get one in the mail. I haven't seen one in a store anywhere I've been in the last three weeks. There hasn't been a Veteran on the sidewalks selling the pins. The Veterans are getting too old to stand on the streets to push the poppies, and stores hate to give up valuable counter space without a profit. So for the first time, I have no poppy. Even more disturbing than that, I overheard a group of teenagers this weekend who were all wondering what the red flower was all about. Now THAT is disturbing.

I may not have a Poppy, but at the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month, I will stop what I'm doing and give a minute of silence to remember the sacrifices of others and to thank them for the freedoms I enjoy now.

The 11th day of the 11th month is also Twins Day in Taiwan. This is a festival for biological twins. Apparently the date was selected because 11-11 looks like a pair of twins. Must be something to this date in Asian cultures. As 11-11 is also Singles Day in China - a day to celebrate the single lifestyle. Really, if you are single, do you need one day to celebrate being single? Isn't every day a celebration? Whatever other things today brings (Happy B'day P), lets celebrate with blood red poppies.

So many numbers, so little time.

Monday, November 10, 2009 - Ten digit dialing is a pain in the finger. Seven numbers is hard enough to remember. But along came cell phones, and suddenly every house had not one, but two or more phone numbers. Seven numbers just wasn't enough. So, the area code became part of every day dialing. And that meant new area codes. A house could have two phones, and each one was a different area code. Got very confusing.

But like all things that change, we just get used to things. Need to use the area code to phone a friend, no problem. We adapt. We adapt so well, that I don't remember what it was like to only need to dial the phone number. I'm amazed at just how fast we do adapt to changes. Today is Area Code Day. There may not be any formal celebrations today, but maybe it's a good excuse to pick up a phone and call a friend. Or call someone in a different area code. Oh hell, just call a random number and see if you can strike up a conversation. Tell them you are just trying out a new area code.

How easily we adapt to changes as a society is pretty fascinating. Microsoft launched Windows on November 10 in 1993. I remember that first Windows computer I had and how many people thought it was a silly expense to have that computer in the first place. It was an expensive typewriter. Now, if you find a house without a computer, that is the odd ball out. Computers are everywhere. We not only adapted to their use in the work place, but we now can't imagine life without them. what is next? We've adapted to the $4.00 coffee. We don't think twice paying the Electric Bill regardless of how high it gets. Sure we promote 'conservation', but unplug the coffee pot? Never.

We would never put our credit card numbers in to a machine, and yet, we shopped more online last holiday season than ever before. This year will be no exception. (Well, maybe the market downturns will slow a few). And if we were todl we haqd to give up our cars now... it probably wouldn't go over well. Gas hit $1.50 a litre, and upwards of $4.00 a gallon.... we drove. We just adjusted the amount of money we forked over at the pump. Did we drive less? Crap no... we just adjusted. We did complain about it for a while, but pumped the gas regardless.

We adapt. Maybe we adapt out of sheer laziness. Maybe we adapt because it's less hassle than getting up in arms. Maybe we just don't care. I gotta believe it's an issue of said laziness. But today - be lazy. It is Laziness Day. Don't know what the origin of such a day is, but I'm sure the folks who came up with it meant to tell the story. Perhaps they figured we'd all adapt so the why wasn't important. Who knows. Who cares. I'll just be lazy for the day because. I'm adapting.

Just Another Brick in the Wall...

Sunday, November 9, 2008 - Even the most random of events has order. When thing seem to be right out in left field, it has order. The seemingly random movements of the boys on the field has much order. Chaos in our lives, no matter how chaotic it might seem, has order. In science this is called Chaos Theory. In matters of the day to day - it's just life.

Some people thrive in the chaos. Chaos is a place I feel the most at home. I tried to be on of those organized, put together, got it together kind of people. I put things away and couldn't find them. I spent hours looking for things because they were where they were supposed to be. I NEVER think to look there. I look under things, I look through things, and I look in all my pockets. Keys have their own randomness. They are most certainly somewhere, and only they know where that might be. November 9th annually is Chaos Never Dies Day. As long as there is patterns (known and unknown) Chaos will never die. Thankfully, I will forever be in my element.

Chaos is not so comfortable for others. Some are just unable to deal with changes of any kind. But change too will never die. Things happen. Things happen more often than they don't happen. Part of the chaos perhaps. Time gets away from you, and time goes by. Today is Sunday. I am still trying to get those things done that I needed to do last week. But hey... welcome to my chaos. I think procrastination is really avoidance, and avoidance is a way to protect one's walls. But the beautiful thing about walls is that even the best constructed walls can come down. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. In Germany, today is celebrated as the Berlin Wall Opening Day. So put your walls down for a day and stop procrastinating.

Is that a pointy hat or are you just happy to see me?

Saturday, November 8, 2008 - Idiots. The world is full of them. There are those who haven't a clue and know it (the easy idiot), those who haven't a clue and don't care (the happy idiot), those that haven't a clue and talk about it (the funny idiot), and those that haven't a clue and don't know it (the dangerous idiot). Idiots are indeed everywhere.

Nowhere are idiots more prevalent than in politics. I have just been to see W. As a movie, it wasn't so wonderful. As a portrait of a man who has been 'dubbed' the worst President in US history, it was terrifying. In some ways, it showed that he was a child of two people who ultimately didn't believe in him, and who never got over their disappointment that the Presidential appointment didn't go to his brother. Really, how much worse could Jeb have been? Dubya spent his life trying to earn the approval of his parents. That isn't what I found scary. What I found scary was that Dubya is so much more than the dangerous idiot. Dubya hasn't a clue, and has the brains to back it up. He is the brilliant idiot. He manipulated first Texas, followed by the entire country, and lastly, the world.

Now the brilliant idiot has but a handful of weeks left in office, and the hole that's been dug will take more than one term and a new President to fill. Today is Dunce Day. If Dunces unite, we could be hooped. We could get more than Bush... we could get an entire house and senate full. Like that could ever happen. What? Oh crap.

Parents have a duty to ensure that if their kids are going to grow up to be politicians, that they are not also dunces. Mommas don't let your dunces grow up to be politicians. Today is also Parents Are Teachers Day. This may be the most important job a person can have. Don't mess this one up or you could end up the mother or father of a President. 

Trash Talk and Magazines

Friday, November 7, 2008 - Ever notice that the trashiest rag mags are always at the checkout stands? No matter how much you try to deny it, you just can’t stop yourself from reading the covers. You may even pick it up and flip through the pages until it is your turn to pay. Then you quickly put it down, with a look of disgust and disbelief on your face – on the off chance the next person in line caught you with the ‘publication’ in your hand. It’s almost worse than your secret need to watch TMZ. I have to admit it. I watch TMZ. I go out of my way to watch TMZ. I would NEVER however admit to such de regeur. But seriously? The blonde fella with the long hair and that to die for smile? I’m not much in to the surfer look, but strap me to a board and call me Gidget.

From the monotone newsprint magazines of the past, to Emags and online forums – People to Mad Magazine, from Time to the National Enquirer, magazines have come a long way baby. News magazines seem to be falling off those checkout counter racks and being replaced by “In Touch”, “Globe”, “Hello”, “OK”, “Celebrity Hairstyles” and “Soap Opera Digest”. It is as though the news that is fit to print has gone the way of the Dodo…. turning us all IN to Dodos. If you want to access the magazines that contain actual news, thought provoking articles, and commentaries on the state of the planet, you need to turn to your computer on. Newspapers are another apparent dinosaur set.
Newspapers once held a place of importance nearer the checkouts. Today, if you want a paper, they are in racks past the checkouts. You don’t see them until you’ve paid the bill and are unlikely to get back in the line-up and have to stand there through another price check for feminine hygiene products that you know is only being done because buddy in front of you is embarrassed to be picking up for the girlfriend in the first place.

There are still a handful of fabulous magazines that have stood the test of stupidity. Scientific American, though they increased the number of ad pages, is still a thoroughly fascinating read. Men’s Health and Women’s Health have lots of great information and Mental_Floss and Vanity Fair offer up hours of entertainment. Reading a magazine online is alright. The content is there. But that tactile experience of flipping pages with a magazine on your knees while you lean back in to the sofa is missing. Sure I lean back with my computer on my knees, but my knees get too warm, and when I fall asleep, the computer makes a heck of a ruckus when it hits the floor. Today is Magazine Day. Now that the rains have come, I think I’ll stop on the way home and pick up a couple magazines for the weekend. I see slippers, and mugs of steaming hot coffee, and falling asleep on the sofa with the pages of a magazine stuck to my cheek in my future.

There are other reasons to celebrate, and tonight is the night the ladies don the pants and do the asking. It’s Sadie Hawkins Day. You know, 40 years ago, this day probably had some meaning. In today’s dating world, the women seem to do as much inviting as the men anyway. In honour of Sadie, I've asked a not so blond fella to a movie. Oh heck, forget Sadie Hawkins. Grab a magazine and a remote and invite yourself out for a night of page turning.