it's all going to the dogs ... well, figurately speaking.
this year, according to the chinese zodiac, it's the year of the dog.
Saturday, January 28
Thursday, January 26
reflections on the 2006 election
it's now been five days since the canadian public elected a conservative minority government into office. considering it was a winter election (and there have only been five ever held in the winter, according to elections canada), i wondered how the turnout fared. compared to last election (june 2004), it was up by five per cent (65 per cent for 2006). i kinda suspected this might be the case in light of the gomery report and the investigation by the rcmp of finance minister ralph goodale (and people just wanting a change in govt!)
while some this protest vote brought in a minority government, there's that question ... will they survive? or will they fall in a matter of months or a couple of years (again)? cbc pointed out the last time the tories had a minority government (joe clark and kim campbell), they didn't weather the political climate so well.
at about midnight of election night, when i was checking the incoming results on the web. i saw a news story on paul martin stepping down as the leader of the liberal party. it seems like paul's an all or nothing kinda of person. or is it that he's not a gracious loser?
meanwhile, it's interesting to see how outsiders (for example, our neighbors down south) think of us; for example michael moore.
while some this protest vote brought in a minority government, there's that question ... will they survive? or will they fall in a matter of months or a couple of years (again)? cbc pointed out the last time the tories had a minority government (joe clark and kim campbell), they didn't weather the political climate so well.
at about midnight of election night, when i was checking the incoming results on the web. i saw a news story on paul martin stepping down as the leader of the liberal party. it seems like paul's an all or nothing kinda of person. or is it that he's not a gracious loser?
meanwhile, it's interesting to see how outsiders (for example, our neighbors down south) think of us; for example michael moore.
Sunday, January 1
destined to be an observer?
this weekend, i had the luxury of wandering aimlessly in a bookstore. a dangerous thing, i tell you, when i'm starving to sink my teeth in an engrossing book. it's especially dangerous when it's boxing week sale at chapters. i spotted amy tan's "The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings." i really didn't need to buy any more books, so thank goodness my rationale part of my brain thought ... why not just borrow the book from the library?
i'm done about a quarter of the book of amy tan's memoirs. amy tan moved a lot of times in her childhood, changed lots of schools and had a mother who liked to "scare her straight" (that's my inference). isolation or alienation seems to be a common theme of great or notable writers. she expresses this process of being alone or alienated as painful, but beneficial, in the writing process. she does say that this alienation is not a prerequisite for producing good writing.
as a former "writer" of non-fiction (aka news), i identified with amy tan's comments on the relationship of alienation and writers. ever since i was little, i've pretty much adopted the viewpoint of an observer. i kept journals throughout high school and university (paper version before blogs were in use) maybe it was a coping mechanism for moving eight or nine times by the time i was 14 years old. or attending five different schools by the time i hit grade 5.
being alone allows writers to have the physical, mental and emotional space to mull over random tangents or think through ideas and their premises and implications. alone time is so precious when synthesizing life experiences and mental processes ... to attempt to make sense or explain things. this seems rather obvious, but there's a paradox: in order to produce a work that has somewhat universal appeal, the writer must retreat into alienation in order to craft the nuances and details of the story.
i'm done about a quarter of the book of amy tan's memoirs. amy tan moved a lot of times in her childhood, changed lots of schools and had a mother who liked to "scare her straight" (that's my inference). isolation or alienation seems to be a common theme of great or notable writers. she expresses this process of being alone or alienated as painful, but beneficial, in the writing process. she does say that this alienation is not a prerequisite for producing good writing.
as a former "writer" of non-fiction (aka news), i identified with amy tan's comments on the relationship of alienation and writers. ever since i was little, i've pretty much adopted the viewpoint of an observer. i kept journals throughout high school and university (paper version before blogs were in use) maybe it was a coping mechanism for moving eight or nine times by the time i was 14 years old. or attending five different schools by the time i hit grade 5.
being alone allows writers to have the physical, mental and emotional space to mull over random tangents or think through ideas and their premises and implications. alone time is so precious when synthesizing life experiences and mental processes ... to attempt to make sense or explain things. this seems rather obvious, but there's a paradox: in order to produce a work that has somewhat universal appeal, the writer must retreat into alienation in order to craft the nuances and details of the story.
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