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I'm still under the gun, but it's getting better. So for your viewing pleasure, yet another photo.
Recently the hubby performed a puppet play at the Oakwood Library during the March Break. The local York Guardian took a photo, so now Guido's famous!
Ain't he cute? Sigh...
As you can guess, I've had one hell of a busy week. I've been doing 15 hour days for the past week and I'm near the breaking point. And I'm still working, and will be up late again tonight. But after that, I should be somewhat caught up, so am hoping to post something of interest during the weekend.
So as a way of apologizing, I thought I'd give you all a good chuckle by sharing some beautiful photos of me when I was a kid. Funny thing is, just recently I was thinking of asking my dad if he had any old slides of me as a kid reading the comics, but I didn't bother because I figured the answer would be no. And so in one of those delightful serendipitous moments, my dad sent my mom some scanned slides for a completely unrelated reason, and looky looky!
Yup – it don't get much geekier than this. Not only was I chubby, sporting this horrendous contraption and blessed with bushy eyebrows, but I also had asthma at that time, and was allergic to almost every living thing in sight. Good times.
Strangely enough, it is often when I am at my busiest that I feel the least inspired. My mind is overwhelmed by deadlines and wanting to please art directors, and the end result is that my heart and soul feel a tad neglected. I've been feeling very uninspired lately, because tax time approacheth, and the deadlines loom ever large. But as luck would have it, some friends have been reminding me about the amazing web site TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), which contains some utterly awe-inspiring and passionate speakers. Do check them out if you can spare some time. In fact, I insist you do. Instead of watching yet another silly TV show, get a cup of coffee, or better yet, a glass of wine, sit down and prepare to be engaged, entertained, and yes, inspired.
Some of my fave speakers to date: Jill Bolte Taylor, Isabel Allende, Ben Dunlap and Maira Kalman.
Enjoy!
Well....after my very silly garbage rant yesterday, I thought it only fitting that I share a poem for Silly Poetry Friday that's all about garbage! And of course, the best garbage poem out there is none other than Garbage Delight by our very own delightful Dennis Lee.
You know...after reading this poem this morning, it occurs to me that the best answer to our garbage problem is to find a creature who enjoys eating garbage! Any takers out there?
GARBAGE DELIGHT
Now, I'm not one
To say No to a bun,
And I always can manage some jelly;
If somebody gurgles,
"Please eat my hamburgles,"
I try to make room in my belly.
I seem, if they scream,
Not to gag on ice-cream,
And with fudge I can choke down my fright;
But none is enticing
Or even worth slicing,
Compared with Garbage Delight.
With a nip and a nibble
A drip and a dribble
A dollop, a walloping bite:
If you want to see grins
All the way to my shins,
Then give me some Garbage Delight!
I'm hand with candy.
I'm a star with a bar.
And I'm known for my butterscotch burp;
A can stare in the eyes
Of a Toffee Surprise
And polish it off with one slurp.
My lick is the longest,
My chomp is the champ
And everyone envies my bite;
But my talents were wasted
Until I had tasted
The wonders of Garbage Delight.
With a nip and a nibble
A drip and a dribble
A dollop, a walloping bite:
If you want to see grins
All the way to my shins
Then give me some Garbage Delight,
Right now!
Please pass me the Garbage Delight.
Here's this month's Town Crier cartoon.
Some background for those not living in Toronto. Toronto City Council has decided to start a user-pay garbage system. Very soon us Torontonians with have to decide how much garbage we are going to produce, and we are going to have to pay for a bin to put our said garbage in. The bigger bin you decide to have, the more you're gonna have to pay.
Now, of course I'm all about decreasing our garbage. And yes, I'd love it if people recycled more. But I just don't think that this was the best idea. First of all, once again, it just seemed to be decided by council PDQ, without much feedback from the people who live in the city, or much attempt to think of alternatives (like, why not a 'pay per bag' concept instead?) I'd love to know how much it cost to purchase all these stupid plastic garbage containers. And will we get reimbursed for the money we had already spent on the containers we purchased to put our garbage in before this dumb decision? Never mind that already people are complaining that the containers are too frickin' large to drag down along the side of their narrow alleyways.
I just don't see how this system is going to encourage people to recycle more. What I see is that we are going to have people do whatever they can to get around this system. People will compress their garbage, so garbagemen will have to deal with bins that are extremely heavy. Then I'm sure Toronto Council will go back and vote on some new law about the weight of your garbage. And there will be a hell of a lot more illegal dumping, you can count on that. Which ain't gonna make this city very pretty-looking. But oh no, Miller says Torontonians "have a choice" with how to deal with our garbage.
Choice my ass.You know what really cheezes me off?? It's this goddam attitude from every level of government that this garbage problem is all the fault of the average little guy. We are made to feel guilty for the endless amount of packaging and crap that we purchase. And yet these same stupid politicians are also encouraging us to "get out there and buy more, spend more money" in order to keep the economy going. Not once have I heard or read Mayor Miller talk about how the corporations are the bastards who keep producing all this useless shit that we all have to deal with. Nope. It's apparently all our fault, and it's all up to us to clean up the mess. And boy, we're gonna pay for it. And so while we are made to feel guilty, and have to once again pay for this problem out of our own pockets, corporations continue to get tax breaks from the government, instead of fucking fines for producing all this shit. Pardon my rant, but this situation really pisses me off.
This latest garbage fiasco is not an effort to really solve the garbage problem. It's a cash grab, plain and simple, and these bloody politicians should have the balls to at least admit to that fact.
Time for another Bizarre Books entry, don't ya think?
Drummer Dick's Discharge
Beatrix M. De Burgh
Ernest Nister, 1902
From Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities
By Russell Ash & Brian Lake
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."
– Ray Bradbury
