little bits of me
started 'the patch'
Today is my first day on the patch. I have tried in the past to quit smoking with only limited success. There have been periods over the past 20 years that I have managed to stop for a few months, but obviously none of these previous attempts have been permanent. I think it might actually work this time.
Already I am feeling the dread signs of psychological withdrawl as my anxiety level rises at the thought of not having another smoke. Funny that this little white stick effects me in such a way, but that's smoking for you.
I am a little tired of feeling the outcast for being a smoker. On the street I am always conscious of my smokingness and the degree of shame, or more accurately embarassment, that goes with it. My understanding is that I would feel far more comfortable as a smoker if I was living overseas, the europeans take smoking as a birth right, but I don't live overseas and don't plan on moving there just so that I'll fit in. Besides, I am really quite sick of the feeling that smoking leaves me with.
good luck.
title here
I might try titles at a later date. I still haven't figured out the purpose of these ramblings. Although they aren't all ramblings. There is thought put in to some of these thoughts, and unfortunately the thought often gets in the way of clarity. I need to relax a bit. Yesterday's post was way too long and didn't really make the point the way that I wanted to.
Problem with thoughts. I like my first thoughts. Sure, there is always a raw nature to them, but there is an honesty to them that smooths some of that roughness. I look at the election campaign and all the ideas being thrown around by the different players. Some of the ideas are good, some are great and some are down right foolish. But for even the most dastardly of proposals there is often a small kernel of wisdom that can be salvaged. These kernels probably started out as an original thought and the thoughts that followed, the analysing and editting thoughts, steered them in the wrong direction or cluttered them with irrelevent details.
Addressing problem with thoughts. First thought, every thought. Get rid of the editting and the over-analysing and rely on the little kernel of wisdom to form the foundation. This is an over simplification of course, but the general idea is really this simple. Instead of starting a post and saving it as a draft, to be read and re-worked and re-read and, well you get the point, I need to begin to publish more frequently. The process can only improve with practice. Hopefully, in the end, clarity will also be improved.
We'll see.
Election 2004.
That's the simple label on a folder I created to help me make some sort of decision on whom to vote for come June 28. There are two sub-folders, one for links to Constituency Candidates and one for links to National Parties. There are also links to pundits, columnists and other observers in the main folder.
Initially, I set out to see what ideas were being floated that I could identify with. I wanted to know which individuals in my constituency, as well as what National Party, I identified with, if any. Instead, what I found myself studying was the over all ineptness of most of the candidates and parties to present themselves well on the internet.
The world wide web is an information junkie's dream come true. Anything there is to know about a given subject (okay, I exaggerate, there's a lot missing from the web, and I'll also concede that not everything that a user reads on-line is necessarily accurate - caveat emptor) is available at a person's fingertips. It's just a matter of time until the OED adds google, (v.) to its pages. We all do it. Sitting at computers across this country are likely thousands of people, all taking the same steps as me in an effort to make an educated decision. What an opportunity to get a message out, people are looking.
But I don't see it happening. For the most part, the national party sites that I visited were well laid out and presented. It was easy to find information on most of the basic topics that a constituent might want to know. I would like to see sitting candidate’s parliamentary voting records, though. Although they have since added a candidate finder, I found the NDP's lack of such a tool surprising. Five days in to the campaign, 1/7th of its overall life span, and I am just now learning the name of the candidate for North Vancouver, my constituency.
Even at that I am going out on a limb in saying that his name is John Nelson, because the Page for that riding has only a generic greeting from the candidate. His photo is missing and his name appears only in an email link. Who knows, maybe I just fired off a message to his campaign manager.
John Nelson's page doesn't tell me anything about John Nelson. There is a message from the candidate saying how he and Jack Layton are going to work together to 'present' the people of North Vancouver. The exact same message can be found on many of the other NDP candidate's website. How will we be presented? Wearing knickers and a bow on our head?
The Liberals and the Conservatives each managed restraint in the use of their respective party colours on their websites, although the Conservative's index page could probably stand to be a little less blue. The NDP on the other hand has far too much of their party colours on display. That's a lot of orange and green, not to mention a lot of Jack Layton. And speaking of green, the Green Party of Canada, like the Liberals and Conservatives, also does a fine job of presenting itself online.
Each candidate and party should be looking at the web as a remarkably inexpensive way of getting a message out. There is no material cost, as there is with flyers, and candidates don't have to rely as heavily on volunteers going door-to-door to disseminate campaign information.
I would think that a well-organized political party would have enough foresight to see the value in assisting their candidates communicate online. It's important to get the message out and the message has to be the same coming from everybody's mouth. All of the national party websites I visited had a brief bio supplied by each candidate. But there seemed to be little room for personalization. "Here's my message and a picture. See you in a few weeks."
Some candidates did have links to their own personal websites, but because there seems to be no coordination within the party for this aspect of communicating the message, these personal websites range in quality from clean to comical. This one step, out side of the official Liberal web domain, is a perilous step though.
Many of the individual candidate websites could use a little fine-tuning. In the case of some sites, though, an overhaul seems the only solution. Don Bell's is particularly dodgy looking. At the very least, get the red right; it looks like he is selling tomatoes. Mind you, every liberal site uses a different shade of red.
And e-mail. I sent an e-mail to Ted White, my local MP. It went like this:
Hello,
Is there a website that I can visit to find out more about Ted White?
Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
John MacDermid
North Vancouver
I was looking for his personal website. I knew that he had one, I just couldn't remember the address. I could have easily googled him, but I wanted to find him using Conservative party links. There aren't any, at least not beyond his candidate page and even then only a ground and e-mail address is given. It's an aol address at that.
Thank you Mr. White for your enlightening reply:
May 27/04
Good Morning John
The address for my website is on every election sign in the riding, but if you have specific questions about me go ahead and ask them.
Regards
Ted White
I'll just shut things down here and go for a walk through my neighborhood looking for one of your signs. If I'm lucky I'll also come across an NDP election sign and confirm that indeed it is John Nelson campaigning in my constituency.
just to bridge the time gap.
This should be an eye-opener for anyone who thinks the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is going to quickly blow over. Atleast in Iraq. Riverbend is drifting.
In
Setting the Record Straight Riverbend summarizes her feelings on the American presence during the early stages of the American occupation of Iraq. However, she seems to have returned to this theme and has revised her thinking some what in
Just Go...
Something to think about.
Ahhh les spams
Came across a french blog today. The most current post began "Ahhh, les spams" and near as I could tell, with my broken french, it was extoling the virtues of a recently discovered spam filter. Spam is like the new Esperanto. Universal messages delivered across time zones and cultures, written for the internet in pidgin english. Whatever language you read, spam is spam is spam. "gitt yyurrr beeeg donnng herrre"
Some quick notes.
Two points regarding the following excerpt from
Bush's interview on al arabiya:
QUESTION: Mr. President, critics are saying that by your action in Iraq actually invited al Qaeda and other terrorists to do business with you over there. Could you address that?
BUSH: Sure. Do you remember September the 11th, 2001? Al Qaeda attacked the United States. They killed thousands of our citizens. I will never forget what they have done to us. They declared war on us. And the United States will pursue them. And so long as I'm the president, we will be determined, steadfast, and strong as we pursue those people who kill innocent lives because they hate freedom.
And, of course, al Qaeda looks for any excuse. But the truth of the matter is, they hate us, and they hate freedom, and they hate people who embrace freedom. And they're willing to kill innocent Iraqis because Iraqis are willing to be free.
Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country. And we will help them rid Iraq of these killers.
1. September 11. That's been the fall back line since September 12 (or maybe it was 13 when he came out of hiding) When there isn't a suitable answer, when the truth won't do because it's uncomfortable, unpallatable or downright politically untenable, fall back on 9/11. And people wonder why 9/11 and Iraq are intrinsically linked to each other in the minds of Americans. By all appearances, the coalition invasion and occupation of Iraq has exacerbated global terrorism.
2.
Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country. I don't think Bush knows what irony is.
All the time
Mind travels far.
Conversations
With my same self.
Tumbling the world,
All that I perceive,
Into smooth
Manageable pieces.
Press them on to paper
And sell em in a book,
Little bits of me.
I opened an old book of poetry the other day. Poetry composed and compiled by me that I hadn't read in a long time. The 'little bits of me' book. There were words written that I had forgotten about. Other passages felt familiar yet enough time had passed that even these read as new. They hardly seemed my words and I enjoyed reading them.
The poems in 'little bits of me' are a reflection of a period in my life when I was looking at the world through eyes set on a spirit quest. To be certain, I was aware of the larger world around me and I wrote about it in my journal. These were the matters of the state and of society as a whole. But my primary filter then was my soul and it dominates the musings in my poetry.
Alternatively, a half dozen or so poems that also hardly seem to be my words are sketched out in the back pages of my journal, the most recent entry composed over five months ago. Unlike many of the poems found in 'little bits of me', these latest writings don't take me to the moment of their composition. The words are empty and contrived like I was forcing myself to write them, which I probably was. It seems my spirit quest has been put on hold.
There used to be balance in my writing. A little bit of poetry, a little bit of prose. I would focus on one for a period and then shift to the other. The two genres alternated often enough that I didn't have to relearn any skills. I wrote prose with my head and poetry with my heart. Somewhere, I stopped paying attention to my heart.
Some times I would try to address political issues in my poetry, but it rarely translated. The ideas when presented as verse always seemed awkward. These thoughts are better left for prose. However, my spirit writing prose was an easier crossover, though even then it was an intellectual exercise, not an artistic one.
My thoughts now have less to do with my soul than they have to do with a world I cannot control. I think I'm in the process of learning how it all fits together - what an expectation. Years of writing essays and examining the world have guided me away from simple creative output. Now I have forgotten how to write poetry. It's a skill I must relearn.
The heart and the mind are connected and I would like to think that their connection is through the soul. Without these two working together in exploring the world my understanding of it is incomplete. The words may ring true, but their message carries less weight. It is the soul that drives conviction and my words require a balance of heart and mind if they are to be without misunderstanding. It is time I brought that balance back.
