Playing with food.

TV Dinner

I'm sitting in a nice restaurant called the Banana Leaf in Vancouver, eating my green-bean stir fry with rice tonight and I look to the family that has just sat down adjacent. A mother, a father, a daughter, a son... but wait. There's something else. Between the two children is an iPad and playing on the iPad is the Incredibles.

When I was young, no such thing existed. If my parents were nice enough to take my sister and I for dinner (usually to the town's Chinese restaurant) we sat quietly, drew animals with wax crayons, and ate our dinner. If we were too hyper to sit quietly, mom and Dad would play games with us or we'd be required to bring our favourite book and read.

Twice in the past month have I been sitting at a restaurant and then, low and behold, a child comes in with his/her family and begins playing on whatever sort of new technological device she/he has with them. It angers me. Partly because I wonder if it's the parents who have consciously decided it's just easier to plunk a movie down in front of their children then it is to converse with them?

In all seriousness, to those people who are parents out there, PLEASE do not become like this. Challenge your children, teach them that dinner time is family time and not time to watch another Disney flick. It's quite despicable, in my very honest opinion.

blue shoes.

Can't shake the cavernous creep
With these insecurities.
They pull, seize inconsistently,
Run deep. They do, within my veins.

Hands-on.

Learning can be fun, especially if you get to wear hip waders and balance on slippery rocks while doing it.

...White as snow geese: last years fotes...

"But she's a Jewess!"

I'm taking a European history (1900-1939) course. Recently, we've been focusing on Hitler's rise to power in Germany. I could go into extreme detail, but I won't. I will however, tell you a small story that to me shows that Hitler and his Anti-Semitic views, along with many who supported and were a part of the Nazi party, was nothing more than a desire to hate. It was a load of crap.

Marta Appel was a German Jewish woman living in Germany in the 1930s with her family when Hitler's dictatorship was slowly, but very strongly, influencing the German people. The Nazi party began integrating into education a new curriculum, a curriculum that would teach young German children about the Jewish race. But Jewish children were still required to attend school and would have to sit for hours and listen to the persecution of their people.

Appel's daughter was at school one day when an official from the Race Policy Office came to speak with the students about "high and low races." Below is an excerpt from her memoir:

"I asked the teacher if I could go home," my daughter was saying, but she told me she had orders not to dismiss anyone. You may imagine it was an awful talk. He said that there are two groups of races, a high group and a low one. The high and upper race that was destined to rule the world was the Teutonic, the German race, while one of the lowest races was the Jewish race. "And then, Mommy, he looked around and asked one of the girls to come to him." "First we did not know," my girl continued, "what he intended, and we were very afraid when he picked out Eva. then he began, and he was pointing at Eva, 'Look here, the small head of this girl, her long forehead, her very blue eyes, and blond hair,' and he was lifting one of her long blond braids. 'And look,' he said, 'at her tall and slender figure. These are the unequivocal marks of a pure and unmixed Teutonic race.' Mommy, you should have heard how at this moment all the girls burst into laughter. Even Eva could not help laughing. Then from all sides of the hall there was shouting, 'She is a Jewess!' You should have seen the officer's face! I guess he as lucky that the principal got up so quickly and with a sign to the pupils, stopped the laughing and shouting."

This story warms my heart a little bit, as it shows the Germans couldn't even distinguish themselves what the real difference between them and a Jew was. And yet, more than 6 million were murdered in a span of six years.

a childhood friend.

Cotton stuffed but not too much fluff:

There's something to be said about a 23-year-old woman who still sleeps with a stuffy.

But we can't help the things we find comfort in and mine I find in Flopsy.

(Let's be honest here, I'm no poet. But I can't help but feel like my favourite stuffed animal need receive a little credit on my blog!)

word problems

Words I have trouble with:

subtle - not suttle

accept vs. except

definitely - not definately

pour - not poor

The park of Stanley

Spent the afternoon biking around Stanley Park. It was wet and cold but very much enjoyable. It's quite odd, actually; it's so green and lush that you almost forget you live in the city.

There are tons of old-growth trees that stand over 100 feet tall. 

Siwash Rock behind Mr. Ben Ross. This rock is a sea stack made of basalt (from an old lava flow) and is more resistant to weathering than other types of rock.

The friendly neighbourhood raccoon who lives in Stanley Park. He came to say hello, and even smiled for the camera.

Pickled Carrots

Sometimes all one needs is a jar of pickled carrots in the mail to make a better day. And I received such a jar yesterday. In a a box of Kisko Kids Freezies, wrapped in bubble wrap, my friend Chelsey sent me this jar of carrots, a little note included.

I like to think that we remain in contact with certain people for a reason - they were a friend in high school, someone who you always, always enjoyed being around. Thanks to that someone, there is a jar of pickled carrots sitting in my cupboard.