Published at December 22, 2004
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When it comes to Christmas and the holidays, scrooges and grumps don’t get any scroogier or grumpier than me. I hate this time of year: the crowds, the cold and all that nail-to-the-brain candy cane in-store holiday muzak that makes you want to chuck bathbombs at shoppers and punch the dancing santa at the cash desk.
But it hasn’t always been that way. When I was a kid I loved this whole Christmas thing, solely for the presents that were waiting for me under the tree, of course.
So, no one was more surprised than me when last night my fog of holiday jeer lifted for a few moments and I was suddenly . . . excited for the 25th. I know. Weird. But somewhere in the back of that dog’s breakfast I call a brain, a synapse fired when I saw all those presents under the tree (okay, it’s not a tree but a really big-leafed plant we call the Monstrum, which captures the holiday spirit perfectly for me.) Suddenly, I was returned to my childhood with snow falling outside and Kenny and Dolly on the turn table singing “I’ll be Home for Christmas” for the gazillionth time.
What I loved about that time was the anticipation that led up to Christmas. It’s the secrets that lie within those wrapped presents. There was always a bitter taste on the 25th when all the presents were unwrapped and you realized that was all – it was all over for another year. That is why I’m a firm believer in not unwrapping any presents before Christmas day. Got to save it all up for one big present-opening feista on the big day (Jesus would have wanted it that way.)
I may despise this time of year now that I’m older, but there is one thing that religion and consumer madness cannot spoil for me: the secret thrill of not knowing what is in those presents (which is in a way very consumeristic, but I’m still shaking off my suburban, catholic upbringing.) Last night, for a fleeting moment I was filled with a bit of the holiday spirit and it felt kind of good.
Don’t worry, it’s gone now. I’m not going to start buying turkeys for everyone on my block. So, if I don’t post again here until the big day: merry-whatever-you’re-choosing-to-celebrate and remember to eat far too much chocolate.
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Published at December 17, 2004
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One of the great things about living in Toronto is that for a one-time $20.00 investment, a pair of rabbit ears will give you the best of the best that television has to offer. I’m talking public television: provincial, Canadian and American. The airwaves are public and so should our media.
For me watching commercial news is like eating a giant bowl of Capn’ Crunch cereal with chocolate milk: sugary, sinful and definitely not good for the heart (or brain.) So each night for the past few months, when I’m all done watching my fake news, I’ve caught the last half of Now with Bill Moyers.
After 33 years on public television, Bill Moyers will host Now for the last time tonight. And this evening’s broadcast seems tailored made for Moyers. The topic is the media and it should be a good one. From pbs.org:
Bill Moyers looks inside the right-wing media machine that the conservative NEW YORK TIMES columnist David Brooks called a “dazzlingly efficient ideology delivery system.” The program examines how a vast echo chamber that is admittedly partisan and powerfully successful delivers information ? and misinformation ? with more regard for propaganda than fact. Founding father to the conservative movement, Richard Viguerie tells Moyers, ?That?s what journalism is, Bill. It?s all just opinion. Just opinion.?
Find your PBS station and tune in tonight to see Bill get the last word.
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Published at December 15, 2004
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I joined CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) at the end of the summer and it’s been a great experience so far. It’s great to be part of a large group, spanning the country, dedicated to promoting the arts for children. As part of the membership, we each get a bio page on the website. So, here is my CANSCAIP bio. It’s the first time I’ve seen all my books and comics listed in one place, which is pretty cool if you ask me.
[re-posted from main site]
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Published at December 9, 2004
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As the Americans continue to dump on the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is challenging their citizens to make Kyoto a reality.
The One-Tonne Challenge is a call to all Canadians to conserve energy and cut their emissions by one tonne. That may sound like a lot but, as this handy emissions calculator shows you, it can mean simply taking public transit to work or installing a few fluorescent light bulbs. With a TV ad campaign, fronted by Canadian comedian Rick Mercer, it seems that this just might be money well spent.
My household (consisting of two, non-car-owning freelancers) weighed in at a measely 2.49 tonnes. That’s well below the average, but we’ve already got a head start with my commute to work, which is about 100 feet via the bathroom and the coffee maker, and the fact that all our consumer needs are within walking distance. Other households aren’t so lucky, so meeting the challenge might seem like, well, a challenge.
Regardless of whether people actually meet the challenge of cutting their emissions by one tonne, I think half the battle is won simply by putting the message out there.
It’s not often that messages of reducing consumption are broadcast to the public. We live in a society fueled by consumption and it’s damaging our environmental health and our mental health. December is a time of ramped up consumerism, so I think it’s fitting that this campaign is launched now. Hopefully once people start thinking about their energy consumption, the meme can spread to other areas of life ruled by out-of-control consumption.
If you live in Canada, watch out for the ads on TV (or via the internet), sign up for the challenge and spread the word.
If improving the environment isn’t enough of a motivation, think of how smug Canada can be to the American government in a few years when we meet the Kyoto goals that they said were impossible to achieve.
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Published at December 8, 2004
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After spending the morning finishing the latest Max Finder script, I went on a little blog stroll.
I started here and from there went to here to here to here. And that’s where I discovered Erika Moen’s great comic: i like girls.
It’s a simple, poignant, smart and very funny comic. The story behind it is explained in this Sequential Tart interview:
ST: Last year you came out with the comic I Like Girls which told the story about your first girlfriend, written to your mother. I’ve always wondered, is this what you used to come out to your mom? Or did you prep her first?
EM: The script for that came out of my “Memoir and Autobiography” class I took freshman year at Pitzer College when I was very first making these gay realizations. I wrote it as if I were going to give it to her, but I wasn’t ready to at all. So that was in … December-ish? Winter-ish 2002? I didn’t come out to her until that summer, and when I did it was talking to her face. This is the exact dialogue:
Me: Mom … I’ve got something to tell you, you’re not going to like it.
Mom: (cooking something, not looking up) mmhmm?
Me: I’m gay.
Mom: No you’re not.
After that there was lots of crying and, y’know, breakin’ her heart and all that. But things have gotten a lot better in the years since I told her. She really wants to be supportive, but homosexuality is fundamentally wrong to her. She’s made it clear from day one that she loves me no matter what and doesn’t want to lose me; however, she absolutely does not support homosexuality.
After reading Moen’s comics, I was once again reminded of the power that this genre has to convey intelligent, complex ideas beyond capes and superpowers.
Sometimes, when I’m feeling especially self-indulgent, I like to think that Max Finder might be a kid’s first introduction to comics and that they’ll be a comic fan for years to come. Well, you know, it could happen.
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Published at December 7, 2004
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As always, I’m probably pretty late to the party on this one, but I just discovered Jen Sornesen and her Slowpoke comic strip. Even better, she has a Slowpoke blog where she gives voice to the motives behind each of her comics.
Since I’m almost finished reading Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant, I was very happy to see her Reclaimed Language News cartoon. If you’re concerned at all about what’s happening in the world then you must read Lakoff and check out his left wing thinktank, the Rockridge Institute (yes, left-wing-think-tank – it’s about time we did some thinking).
On your way, stop by Slowpoke and have a laugh.
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I wish I was talking about politics, but were not that lucky. When it comes boys and books, it seems that horror and gore are still the way to get them reading. According to this article in the Guardian, children are still lapping up all the zombie guts authors can dish out.
With R.L. Stines Goosebumps series still selling 4 million copies in the US every month, kids are carrying on the tradition of thumbing their noses to literary snobbish adults everywhere and devouring horror books like famished vampires at a blood donor clinic.
The latest Stephen King for kiddies is Darren Shan and his Saga of Darren Shan series (yes – the hero is the author – a step further than the Leomony Snickett, author as confidante angle.) I havent read any of the books and in my typically bad judgement, I passed them off and a soon-to-be flop when I first saw them appear a few years ago (I did the same with Harry Potter and Lemony Snickett). But as Kate Kellaway from the Guardian puts it, I was wrong to turn my back on Shan:
I have tried to ignore Shan, but it has not been easy. And just recently, it has become impossible. He is at the top of the childrens paperback bestseller list with The Sons of Destiny, the 12th and final book in The Saga of Darren Shan; Warner Brothers has bought film rights for the first two books for a seven-figure sum and the series has sold more than a million copies.
With this mega-level success comes mega-level scorn. But while many parents ban horror books and other forms of vomitrious reading material (comic books, Pokemon cards, etc) others see them as a way to get reluctant readers hooked on books. Researchers are looking the into the new literacy skills boys learn when they engage in these low-literate reading materials. Some say that even video games have literary merit.
Since the days of Enid Blyton and the Famous Five, kids have known what they want to read and parents have resisted (Blyton was banned in many libraries for being poorly written.) So, it continues today. As with adults, if you put a warning label on a pop culture product, its sales will increase.
Books like these can be used as springboards to other materials and thats the role adults should be playing, instead of banning the materials and shoving tattered copies of Treasure Island into their hands (nothing against Treasure Island – I loved that book, when I read it at age 21 – today many kids find the plot slow and the language too challenging.)
Kids (especially boys) love the gore of Shan, just as adults love the gore of Stephen King. Its getting kids reading and thats a good thing. Soon itll be getting them into the movie theatres and the merits of that is the subject of another post entirely.
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Published at December 3, 2004
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Greenpeace Canada has launched their Kleercut campaign, warning of the waste that goes into the manufacture of toilet paper and tissues.
The worst offender is the Kimberly-Clark corporation, the makers of Kleenex brand tissues (heard of them?)
From the Kleercut site:
Kleenex, one of the most popular brands of tissue products in the world, contributes to the destruction of ancient forests in Canada. Its manufacturer, the Kimberly-Clark corporation, has been unwilling to improve its practices, continuing to rely on paper and pulp made from clearcut ancient forest including Canada?s Boreal forest. Kimberly-Clark clears these ancient forests, essential in fighting climate change and providing home to wildlife like caribou, wolves, eagles and bears, into products that are flushed down the toilet or thrown away.
Chandrasutra’s Kleercut campaign overview gives you the poop (sorry) on the campaign and getting involved.
Too lazy to follow that link? Then get involved by sending a fax to Kimberly-Clark HQ.
Does it work? According to the campaign’s blog the answer is: YES.
So overwhelming has the response been that I got a voicemail message 4 hours into the launch day from Kimberly-Clark. Seems that they don?t like having the head office flooded with faxes. Makes the bosses upset. Could Greenpeace please change the fax number that we are sending faxes to? Perhaps we could send it to a regional office so there?s less heat? Sorry ?Spokesperson from Kimberly-Clark?, (972) 281-1490 aka head office, is where we will continue to send them.
Keep jamming those phone lines and send Kleenex a fax telling them we don’t want to wipe our bums on trees!
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Published at December 3, 2004
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Tony at Clickable Culture has introduced me to Steer Madness a new game created by Veggie Games. From the site:
“Steer Madness is a fully-featured 3D action-adventure game for home computer. You play as Bryce the Steer who narrowly escaped the slaughterhouse. Now liberated, you are on a mission to save your animal friends!”
Check out the trailer and pick up for the veggie gamer in your life (that’s me Mel.)
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