etc.

commentary on Canadian politics? right here.

The evidence of rampant communal/social apathy I am witness to on a daily basis makes me sad, I mean everything from zero general neighbourliness to ignoring your trash blowing on to your neighbour’s yard to not shovelling the snow off your sidewalk and never-ever shovelling the snow off your shared-driveway. These are all things that I do not because they are lawful things to do (some of them, anyway) but because they seem to me to be the right things to do and I find it hard to believe that no one else considers them the right things to do. More likely they do, they’re just riddled with some sort of urban despondency, which maybe isn’t restricted to the urban, it just seems that way to me because the city is my dominant sphere reference.

When I take stock of what it is I love about our current living arrangement, I usually come up with: the comfortable confines of our space (craziness notwithstanding), the park, the fact that I can walk two blocks for fresh local produce at more affordable prices than the big grocery chains, and that our branch library is straight out of those wonderful locked-in-the-library dreams and that it is a stumble away from our front door. But really, besides the library thing, I wish it was because of friendly neighbours and general communal goodwill and zero likelihood of getting shouted at in your car because you’re not close enough to the curb to let other motorists pass, but it isn’t, and that makes me even sadder.

I think we can all agree that it’s important to challenge assumptions and behaviour patterns. Some years ago, when I lived a lot more urban than I do now (while I still live in the city, I don’t do city things like I used to, like take the transit and walk places), I used to walk a different route from home to the bus stop, and from the subway to school/work everyday. It was my conscious attempt to defy routine and embrace change on a daily basis, and sure this sounds like a whole lot of inspirational-speaker crap, but it was good for me. These days I’m feeling the burden of working 65 kms away from where I live because one highway can get me there in 45 minutes and 65 kms, but it makes for an uninteresting commute and the routine is starting to feel a bit stifling. The trade-off is taking any number of more interesting routes and staying off the highway, but I’m already burning way more gas than I’m comfortable with so it doesn’t feel like a viable option. So this is me saying I’m on the hunt for a happy median.

And since there’s no good way to bridge a highway story with a squirrel story, I’ll just tell you that we think that the squirrel we found trapped in our furnace last weekend has climbed his way into an equally problematic rock & hard place location. While I was putting the finishing touches on my LIScareer article last night, I heard a lot of high-pitched whining and trapped-animal scrambling beneath the floorboards of the study. I’m usually pretty kind to all of god’s creatures, and as much as I keep telling myself that they were here before us (on the land, not in the house, although they were probably in the house before we got here too ), the milk of human kindness is definitely souring around here. I can’t wait to rip the shingles off this place and have a good hard go at really patching it up.

Also, I did some work on blogwithoutalibrary.net yesterday. It looks great on my screen, but I’m not kidding myself that it looks good on yours too. Let me know.

Sadly, much of this is due to stigma and discrimination.

If you enjoyed all that non-consumerism yesterday, the one day purge to counter our 364 day binge if you will, then you might consider trying it for the holidays. Or all year.

In site-related news, those of you who have used the search feature on this site recently will have noticed no results where there should have been some. Thing is, these pages haven’t been crawled since June 25th. That’s all been rectified now, I did a manual index yesterday so we’re up to speed, plus I’ve set the search bot to crawl around once a week. So, there you go. Have I said how much I love Atomz recently? The functionality of their free service continues to blow my mind in all sorts of good ways.

Thanks for all the novel-writing encouragement. You’ve got me thinking that maybe I can do this.

I’ve been a good little blogger lately, haven’t I? A good blogger, yes. Posts everyday, and two on one day last week even. Prolific is all I can say, not minutes after I post an entry, I’m frantically typing another. Save it for to-morrow though, readers can’t take so much bloggy goodness all at once, it’s like sugar.

I’ve started a list: Winter — Crazy Little House — Tasks. It’s only the beginning of a list, more items will be added to it as they are discovered and stuff will get crossed off as things get done, this is the nature of a to-do list. I’ve included a few “done” items because every to-do list should have some done items already on it, it cultivates the illusion of accomplishment and accomplishment begets accomplishment friends, don’t you forget it. This from a to-do list aficionado, seriously, I made the cover once.

Also remember not to buy a damn thing to-morrow, you know you don’t need it anyway.

We have a new mayor here in Toronto, and regardless of whether or not you voted for him (I did), I think most Torontonians are happy to see the back of Mel Lastman, an embarrassment at best and a lying, cheating scoundrel at worst. And despite the anyone-is-better-than-Mel rationale, I’m actually excited about this new guy, not only because he lives in my neighbourhood, but because his policies are suitably progressive. So excited, in fact, that I’m surprised I’ve waited until now to mention it.

NYC pictures are up. There are only a handful. I didn’t notice it at the time but sorting them today made me realise that my picture-taking habits change the more I know a place. It’s not all about the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building anymore, as you will see (although, apparently, it IS all about the Chrysler Building). One tries to find more interesting ways to capture a place one already knows, I suppose.

The more exotic, and doubtless, enticing, China and South Korea pictures will have to wait. There are just too many of them and not enough of me right now.

What better way to usher in a new month than with a head cold. Briefly:

· All is not well yet at our crazy little house but if understanding the problem is the first step to correcting it then we are well on our way to correcting said problem. This past weekend, it was determined that there is no live animal in our chimney, but there could well be a dead one. A simple chimney cleaning should have the problem licked but when your fireplace is bricked up, there is no such thing as a simple chimney cleaning because chimneys are cleaned from the bottom-up, not the top-down. I’ve spoken to three different chimney sweeps this morning and have now confirmed that we will first need to unbrick the fireplace, which means many more dollars.

· No go on the part-time work. Rational minds have convinced me that I will be working myself ragged if I took on anything else right now. For many reasons, it’s good to surround yourself by people more rational than you are.

· We estimated about 30 kids showed up trick-or-treating on Friday night. I had originally planned to give the whole thing a miss since I’ve never quite bought into the hullabaloo that is Hallowe’en, but my sister convinced me that since it is our first year in the neighbourhood, it was probably a good PR thing to do. She was right. As we were leaving the neighbourhood at about 7:30pm, we noticed that most of the other streets were teeming with kids, hundreds of them. When I told the mister about this he informed me that since our street is sort of dead-endish (about 10 houses and then a hospital at the end of it), it wouldn’t hold up to a thorough cost-benefit analysis. That is, the amount of time taken to canvas the street compared to the estimated candy haul. Now I know.

· Three buttons picked up at the bookfair this weekend: “Civil Disobedience is Civil Defense”, “War is Murder” and “Don’t Close the Chapter on Our Libraries: CUPE Library Workers”.

World Workers, whatever may bind ye,
This day let your work be undone:
Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
And come forth and be glad in the sun.

Now again while the green earth rejoices
In the bud and the blossom of May
Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,
And keep merry the World’s Labour Day.

Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
With a message of strife and of hope:
Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands
That gathers your cause in its scope.

It is writ on each ribbon that flies
That flutters from fair Freedom’s heart:
If still far be the crown and the prize
In its winning may each take a part.

Your cause is the hope of the world,
In your strife is the life of the race,
The workers’ flag Freedom unfurled
Is the veil of the bright future’s face.

Be ye many or few drawn together,
Let your message be clear on this day;
Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
In this–that ye sing on May-Day.

Of the new life that still lieth hidden,
Though its shadow is cast before;
The new birth of hope that unbidden
Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.

Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
Together pull, strong and united:
Link your hands like a chain the world round,
If you will that your hopes be requited.

When the World’s Workers, sisters and brothers,
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life–not for others,
For the earth and its fulness is theirs.

- The Worker’s Maypole, Walter Crane, 1894

An observance with pagan origins, May Day is now considered to be the original working class holiday, a celebration of the labour movement. So happy International Workers’ Day to you.