bridge club skier?

Are you a bridge club skier?

With all the snow and cold, it's not surprising that I overheard some gals on the bus chatting about heading up to the mountain to ski and ride. I found myself nodding along as one of them went on to say that she was perfectly happy on the blue runs and had no desire to head up to the blacks. You see, she explained, black runs have any or all of trees, narrow sections and moguls which do not interest me.

Yes, yes...I'm not interested in those things either.

She then went on to say she just wanted to have fun, not push and push and push to be better because the result of all that pushing is nearly always a very tired and sore body the next day.

As I listened, I knew we were in the same boat - when I snowboard I do it for enjoyment and pleasure, and although it is not true in all aspects of my life, when it comes to riding it's not about the pursuit of excitement or the challenge.

One of the other girls laughed and called her a bridge club skier to which she simply giggled and agreed.

The truth is, as much as I love to ride, I sure love that steaming cup of hot chocolate that comes at break time. In fact, I often look forward to it.

If that makes me a "bridge club snowboarder", I'll take the title with pride.

Bottom Trawling Moratorium

Have a look at this video that Green Peace has made, simply titled "Blame Canada (and España)" which uses South Park as their means to discuss Canada's lack of participation in the recent Bottom Trawling Moratorium.

I honestly don't know as much as I should about this issue, but from what I understand, this moratorium is for international waters and is not actually talking about a full ban, but rather is looking for bottom trawling to cease while the actual process is re-evaluated.

Bottom trawling is fishing that involves dragging large, non-specific nets along the ocean floor. For more check out Wikipedia.

It seems that Canada doesn't feel that trawling is damaging in our country because we have sandy sea floors rather than corals or other sensitive sea life. Although the moratorium only applies to International waters, there is fear that agreement may eventually lead to exclusion of trawling in our own waters.

That's how I understand it at least - watch the video...it's entertaining at the least.

thoughts on Kyoto

I just used the David Suzuki Website to send an email to the Prime Minister about how important I believe the Kyoto Protocol to be.

This is the first time I have ever felt inspired to use one of those "form email" things, but the truth is I think it is a crock that Canada is ignoring their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.

Here's what the letter says:

Dear Prime Minister,

I’m writing to let you know I’m concerned about global warming and I want Canada to do something about it.

Climate change is a global issue and the Kyoto Protocol is the only global agreement we have to address this challenge. We made a promise to the world that we would reduce our heat-trapping emissions and to ignore this promise would be an international embarassment.
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Kyoto was always designed to be the first step towards the long-term changes we need to make to protect our health, our environment and our economy. Like the vast majority of Canadians, I support Kyoto and expect Canada to take a lead role in this critical global issue.

Please don’t let us down.

Sincerely,
(your name and address automatically added here)

The form also allows you to add your own comments, so this is what I added:

As a Canadian I am embarrassed by the knowledge that Canada was the second country to sign the Kyoto Protocol and despite this excitement and eagerness we continue to look the other way with regard to Canada's contribution to Global Warming.

We all have to do what's right for ourselves - check out the website for more information.

moving desks

I spent all day yesterday moving offices.  Packing stuff up, hauling it to my brand new desk, in a brand new building and then attempting to organize--what can only be described as--my semi-organized clutter into a resemblance of a normal desk.  When I arrived this morning, I was surprised to find that my desk did in fact look similar to the multitude of neat and tidy desks that make up our open office space. 

 

Now, I simply have to keep it this way.

I have a feeling that's going to be the deal breaker for me.

Not that I don't want to keep it clean and tidy and beautiful.  I appreciate neat - A LOT.  I just have a hard time keeping things that way.  I'm hoping that my husbands theory (that if everything actually has a home then it becomes a lot easier to put away) is going to ring true, be effective and possibly even help me to improve my cleanliness in our home.

Time will tell.

Bubble Tea

Mmmm...I just had a HONEY MILK TEA with PEARLS.

Delicious!

If you've never had one, you should try. Although it's probably safer to try someone else's first. The tapioca pearls creep a LOT of people out!

(note: picture nicked off the internet - although mine was the same colour!)

siblings

It's curious, I'm not sure where it came from, but I was driving along today and had a bizarre realization. My dad is a "because I said so" parent, and though many things have changed over the years, I know that his attitude was consistent throughout both my own and my siblings upbringing. And despite this, or perhaps more likely as a result of this attitude, all three of us have a problem with authority, especially being expected to blindly follow instructions without explanation, rhyme or reason.

My sister is the baby and the princess, and she knows how to work it. She pours on the charm, looks you straight in the eye and tells you how SHE wants things to be when confronted with unexplained authority.

My brother has the strength & resiliency of steel, which will forever amaze and inspire me. If you don't respect him, you can expect less than nothing from him and he will take your punishment without question.

Myself, I am the weakest in this respect. I am the oldest and I strive for a harmony that comes with taking care of others. If a request is reasonable, if it is spoken to me with respect, if I can understand the need I will agree. However, if I feel taken advantage of, or disrespected I WILL stand up for myself.

Perhaps the truth is that none of this has to do with the "because I told you so" parenting style we encountered but rather is just the natural trend of our family: strong willed and persistent. I really don't know what the answer is, but I certainly found the idea to be extremely ironic.

changeeverything.ca

I heard about the http://www.changeeverything.ca website for the first time on the radio. I didn't really know what it was, but I was intrigued.

Then I heard about the changeeverything.ca website at work. I heard it was a vancity initiative that had their look and feel, but wasn't about banking. I was told it was a website designed to help real people make changes in their lives and connect with other people with same values, moral and/or goals.

Cool. I've been meaning to check it out for ages and I finally did.

It was easy to register, it's easy to post things you want to change in your life, your community or your world and it's easy to discuss a plethora of topics of interest to you. Of course for me, the environment is my primary interest for discussion, but that's certainly not the only topic people are discussing. I've already posted two changes I strive to make in my life and just finished commenting on a different discussion thread.

I think it's a great initiative, it feels proactive and I'm happy I've jumped on board.

bus-ly inspiration

I ride the bus a lot now, nearly every day, and though it can occasionally be slow, annoying, sweaty and smelly there are also a few benefits. First, I don't have to drive in traffic, I can listen to my ipod, I can play sodoku puzzles (sometimes), I can sleep and best of all, I can people watch. During my approximately 1hr commute I see a lot of people get on and off the bus and I often find my mind wandering, thinking about what their lives must be like, where they are going, what kind of job they must have - you know, people watching.

I often find myself inspired and composing blog posts in my mind. Unfortunately, when I arrive at work, it turns out I actually need to work and those lovely thoughts often dissipate throughout the day. Why not write them on the bus you ask? I have two responses to that, first off I am prone to motion sickness and have been working my way up to reading. So far I can do sodoku on the way to work, most of the time. I tried writing one day and I had to stop because I felt sick and that lovely feeling stayed with me for the remainder of the bus ride - ick!

Just the other day however, someone or something on the bus must have reminded me of my brother, because I found myself envisioning something a little more substantial than a blog post. I was imagining a book, the lessons my brother has taught me. Please don't misconstrue, my brother is not older and wiser than me, he has not sat me down at the kitchen table and taught me much of anything, but he had a hard time growing up and I was his rock and THAT taught me everything.

I could easily cover a chapter each about love, compassion, strength, courage, morals, anger and of course pain simply by recalling the experiences of our childhood.

Maybe I should.
Maybe I will.

just a few honeymoon photos

Downtown Playa del Carmen - Despite the heat, locals play soccer on the beach, and you can see the ferry to Cozumel in the background.


The Beach Club view of the ocean - the weather was changing and the waters were choppy, but it only added to the beauty.


Xcaret "ecological reserve" was full of brightly coloured and beautiful animals - here you can see the Macaws.

Invasive Plant Survey

If you know me at all, you know that I spend OODLES of time out in nature removing invasive plants from our natural areas.  These nasty plants have made their way into our habitats accidentally or occasionally on purpose and they are able to grow extremely rapidly and aggressively.  As these plants are often very far from their natural range, they exist in our habitat without any natural controls such as predators or disease and thus are able to outcompete and often crowd out native species, dramatically reducing native populations and thus the biodiversity of the ecosystem...

 

Take a few moments and fill out this survey put out by Simon Fraser University (even if you don't know much about invasives) and contribute to the knowledge base that these researchers are trying to establish.

SFU Invasive Plant Survey

Seriously...click the link and check it out!