A poll

I have a friend here that I knew from home that I used to spend a lot of time with. He is American and lived half of his life in Canada. When he and I used to spend all of the time that we did together, much of it was spent arguing about the merits of being Canadian versus being American. He was staunchily anti-Canadian, and you can imagine how that made my blood boil. So tonight I was talking to him and making plans for tomorrow. We are going with Adam and some friend of his to "Halloween in the Castro". He casually mentions that I shouldn't tell this girl that he's bringing that he lived in Canada becasue he is ashamed of it. ASHAMED. OF. IT.
Naturally hearing that set off my crazy switch and I berated him for being ignorant and perpetuating ignorance. He went on to tell me that he told this girl that it's way too cold in Canada and that we really do live in igloos. He also told her that he lived in Hong Kong.
So the poll.
DO Americans really think that Canada is that cold?
(people, I grew up in a desert! IN CANADA!)

rar.

Evenin' all.

I'm sorry that I have deserted you all, but we were busy. Remember the in laws? Well they were here, and now they're gone. We had fun. We did the touristy stuff, ate food, looked at pictures and talked, a lot, about stuff.
We went to San Francisco and toured around china town and fisherman's wharf. We drove down some crazy steep streets that made me squeek like a little girl. YIKES. Then we went down Lombard Street, in neutral. NEUTRAL! And not touching the breaks. Scary? Oh yes. Adam's dad's car has downhill assist. It works when the car is in neutral and it pumps the breaks for you, and mades a horrible noise. But it worked, we didn't die!
Today very early they all left and now we are left with a quiet house.
Chachi had a great time and was a crazy dog, he remembered everyone and was so happy to see them. He spent a lot of today sleeping, I think he needed to recover from all of the excitement that is five laps to sit on and five faces to lick.

NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo

The title of this might suggest that I have some strange "Speak in IM" disease which tends to afflict California teens, but nay I say my dear friends. The first one is National Blog Posting Month, I will post every day of the month in November. The second is National Novel Writing Month, in which I will write a novel. I expect to pepper you with excerpts from my novel, or at the very least moan about it a lot. Are you excited?
I am.

So let's talk about Adam's new blog. I think it means he doesn't love me*, but hey, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. You'll notice his signature is now Ze Ace (until he figures out how to have 2 signatures, one for each blog). For those of you not in the know, "Ze Ace" is to be said with a horrible German accent. He aquired this name in highschool, apaprently he was an Ace? Yeah I still don't get it. In any case, I call him Zeace, which rhymes with Peace, he loves that.

On to other news, Adam's family arrives tomorrow night, and the house is nice and spic and spanny, yay super cleaners. Oh wait, yay me! Another interesting tidbit, apparently Britney didn't name her baby Sutton Pierce, rather Jayden James, hmmm... interesting. Oh and you all need to check out this tid bit, or rather tit bit? (my bad.) Ok and the last thing, we're thinking of making a calander, maybe a Chachi loves Bonsai one. What do you think?

Well my little Peanuts, I think I have covered everything that I wanted to say,
cheers.

and don't forget to go and say hi to Adam.

Adam's new blog

Hi All,

So I know I don't spew my soul around here nearly as often as all of you would like, but it's not that I don't want the whole internet to know. Rather I'm trying to save most of you from a horribly technical discussion of whichever software engineering topic is on my mind that day. Most you wouldn't follow, and I'd hate for someone to get hurt.

A few of you though are likely to not only follow my rants, but have strong opinions on the matter. You're a bunch of nerds! Nonetheless, I'd love to engage in some good ol' fashioned tech talk because I've got enough strong beliefs to hold my own in any software religion war (Go C/C++!!!)

So to help spare those of you who wouldn't follow anyway, I'm splitting my thoughts off into a sub blog: http://thetweedles.net/tech. I've already got lots of things on my mind to post, so hopefully it'll get rolling fairly quickly. For the less technical of you, the first post isn't too scary, and you may even learn something (and get a new browser). So please feel free to go have a look.


And I promise next time I have something non-technical to say I'll be back to write some more...

International Clean a Berkan's House Day.

I don't think that there will be hoards of people knocking at the door to clean our house, so I think that Mr. Dumm and I will have to go it alone. The Tweedles In Law (TIL) are coming into town next weekend, so I figure now is as good a time as any to break out the toothbrushes and scrub the grout. Oh the joys we are going to have today, I can bearly contain myself. To make the day even more over the top Adam gets to miss a whole football game, just to make the whole day special. He got to watch College football all day yesterday anyhow so shouldn't he be in football overload?

Yesterday I went to a scrap-a-thon where there were about 30 other scrapbookers and a few babies. It was fun, I managed to get 5 pages of my wedding album done. I seem to be having trouble breaking away from my standard style of a disorganized collage which is visually pleasing, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for journalling. A lot of the other ladies there will put 3-4 pictures on a double page spread and only matte one of them and I will put 10-12ish and overlap them, matte them and double matt them. So my pages are a little more full. I don't want to day mine are disorganized, but I take advantage of all of the extra white space. I'll try and take some pictures of the layouts and post them.

I am thinking of doing this next month. It involves writing 50, 000 words in the month. That breaks down to 2500ish words a day, which is doable. My problem is while I don't edit this, when I write for 'real' I edit a lot as I go so it's hard to just let go and just write. NaNoWriMo wants you to just write with no abandon. Dude I'm all about the abandon! So I'll have to keep you up to date on that and let you know how I'm doing, hopefully I'll make it. To 'win' you just need to get to the 50,000 words. Some people have actually managed to get published, and that would be a great side effect.

Well people I should go and get going on Mission: Soap Scum.

cheers!

Oops.

So I know that I have been neglecting the blog, and I apologize. I will sum up what has been happening since last Friday.
hmmm nothing interesting really.

There is a new Barbie at the gym. It's Hippy Barbie. She doens't wear a bra. It's distracting.

I am taking another writing course and I started it today. It's a memoirs writing course, I'm the youngest in the class, by a long shot. A few people made some comments about me not having anything to write about seeing as I am so young. When the time came to give a brief synopsis they all ate their words. I have done more in my short life than a lot of them have. I am sure there will be some great reads coming out of that class, like how to churn butter and what it's like to live in Mountain View your whole life, but I might have something else to say. Perhaps how while in Korea I was privvy to information that I am sure the US Army wouldn't like me knowing. tee hee.

Adam and I went climbing last night and I climbed a route to the top on my first go, it was great. Normally on a new route that is at my level it takes me a couple falls, but I did it. YAY me!

I am going to a scrapbooking marathon on Saturday and the geek in me is so excited. YAY! And there are going to be lots of other women there around my age so that's cool. It is a party that is being thrown by Creative Memories so they aren't going to be happy with all of my 'contriband' tee hee.

In my Freelance writing class I submitted a poem for them to critique and I was so scared that they wouldn't understand it or tear it to pieces, but they did like it and most understood it. I would love to publish it, and I was given some ideas where I could do so. Hopefully one day I can tell you where to read something of mine published. Also I will take this time to remind you that I DO NOT EDIT my anything on this site, please expect it to be riddled with errors. However the stuff for my classes I do edit. In any case I would love to put some stuff here and I am sure that I will, but I don't know about my poetry. I am too scared of plagerism, if you really want to read some email me and I will send you a copy.

Since we are on the topic of my classes I am also taking a caligraphy and ceramics class. I feel like I am in Uni again. So cool.

And... my thank you cards. If you were at my wedding, I am so sorry that I haven't sent them yet. I bought some before the wedding, but they are plain, and mass produced. Really I can't send those, ahhh! So I thought of these lovely ones that I would make, but they were really elaborate and I was waiting on our master disc of the pictures by the photographer. Finally I decided on a much more simple design and they should be going out soon. Now to find all of the addresses that I used for the invitations. Arg.

Well my little peanuts, I should be going. Life still trudges on in the land of eternal summer, never giving in to the sweet crispness of fall. I am in the middle of cooking dinner for Adam, a yummy non-cheese alfredo and a soup. The dog and cat say hello in their own strange ways. I promise not to be gone so long this time.

Happy Friday the 13th.

You knew I wouldn't let the day pass without commenting about it, right?
I don't have much to say, I am a wee bit sick... rar. That's ok though.
I took a poem to my creative writing class and they liked it, I was a little worried becasue some of the people admitadly don't "get" poetry, so I was relieved. Also we were given "homework" we have to write a couple stories that are historically acurate, whoo... this is actully something I have wanted to do, so I'll have to let you know how it turns out.
Finally a friend send me this. YAY!

My $0.02.

I am a little worried today with all of the talk about the testing of nuclear weapons in North Korea. It's scary to know that there are real nuclear weapons out there that aren't just rotting in some storage unit as I would like to think any remaining weapons would be. Granted that's me living in a little protective happy bubble, but my bubble is much better than living in fear all of the time.
I'm also worried because I know people in Korea and the country is important to me. I don't want to see it ravaged like Iraq just was. I understand that North Korea is a separate country from South Korea, but they share a wee little border, and a wee little peninsula. Mostly I am worried about G. Dub-ya's ability to understand that there is a difference. As it is now my cousin Sue can’t visit me because she is Korean, and needs a visa to come to California, even though she is from SOUTH Korea, and her passport can collaborate this. So can he see that there is a difference?
This quote from that article worries me the most:
"“What it tells you is that we started at the wrong end of the ‘axis of evil,’ ” former Senator Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat who has spent his post-Congressional career trying to halt a new age of proliferation, said in an interview. “We started with the least dangerous of the countries, Iraq, and we knew it at the time. And now we have to deal with that.”"
So if Bushy-busherkins decides to take on another pet project, Anile a Nation 2, what will happen to South Korea? It's already full of American Army bases, already fully rooted in Korean society. How will the South Koreans react? While I was there I got the distinct feeling of frustration from both Americans and Koreans. The American army boys didn't like being there, away from home in a country that was tired of having them. The Koreans were exasperated with them, it was like they wanted to be able to take charge of their own country, it had been 50 years since the Korean War, and the Americans are still there. Now it I fear that there will be more Americans sent in and South Korea will lose even more of its identity to them. Furthermore what will happen if GWB decides to start another war? South Korea is a beautiful country. Lush, green and even. Yes, even, in the mountains all of the trees are the same height. The whole country was obliterated 50 years ago, so all of the growth is the same age, makes for breath taking views, but to me, they were melancholy. Now what? Will it all happen again?
I also wonder about the state of the International World. Would there be so much unrest if the US wasn't such a presence? The analogy of the US being the schoolyard bully is trite, but appropriate. I think that the US needs to stop being the bus stop monitor and take care of its own. I think that the world needs a modern day Leauge of Nations. Not the United Nations, something stronger with a more narrow focus, focusing on international threats, like this one. It seems that the United Nations is mired in a lot of bureaucratic stuff a lot of the time. The New League could assemble quickly and asses and react just as quickly. It seems the world is doing that informally anyhow, why not formalize it? Everyone is agreeing on sanctions to North Korea, and many countries are talking to each other to confirm that they are all doing it.
Really I am worried for South Korea. I don't want them to suffer. I don't want Korea* to end up like Iraq.


*When I say Korea, I mean South Korea, when I talk of North Korea, I specify North Korea. I love it when I talk about having lived in Korea and the occasional person asks, “North or South?”

Fun with tests.

The Nerd Test.
I scored a 23, I'm not nerdy!

I'm Gonna Die...
At age 82.

Oh, as I find more and do more I'll post them here... ok?

Cute

check this out.

What is this world coming to?

A screeching halt.

I read a couple articles today. I followed them from a blog and a vlog.

So you don't have to read them all I'll give a quick synopsis. In the first one a pregnant woman was killed and her fetus was taken from her. I am unsure if she delivered it, or if it was taken from her post mortem. I didn't want to read further. But the other part, I can't say if it's worse or not, it's all equally bad, her 3 children were also killed. They were drown and shoved in the washer and drier.

In the second one it's telling how 10 girls were lined up and shot in an Amish school house a couple days ago. 5 of the girls have died. The other 5 are in hospital in varying degrees of critical.

Really, what is this world coming to? I also read that the Amish school house shooting was like the 5th school house shooting this week, or recently. Again I don't know the details, I am playing the role of ostridge and ice cream is my sand.

I feel greedy that I want to have kids when this world seems so un-kid friendly at times.

UBC Alumni.

When I was in high school and I was presented with the chance to choose which ever university I wanted to apply to, I only chose one. I chose Okanagan University College. I chose OUC because it was close to my grannie who was quite ill. I thought that I would do 2 years at home then move on to a larger, more recognized institution to get my degree.

However, the world had other plans. All of the relatives moved away, including my mom, leaving me as the only caregiver for my grannie. Some people might see this as unfair to me, but I loved my grannie to the ends of the earth and it didn't even occur to me that I should transfer to a larger institution. I was aware that applying for jobs would be a little more difficult, but in true young person style, that was in the future and thereby didn't warrant much thinking about. I went on with my life, spending a lot of time with my grannie, and even taking a pile of extra classes to make me more appealing to UBC when I would apply to get into the Post Degree Program for my BEd.

In my last year (5th) of university my grannie got really sick during the spring semester. At the same time I wanted to make sure that I had taken every education related class that I could, so I had 125% course load. I spent a lot of time with her and missed a lot of classes. Most of my professors really understood, except for one who wouldn't give me an extension citing that I had known about the paper all semester. I ended up failing that class, but Grannie pulled though and I graduated.

That summer I applied to UBC while I was in Calgary, but I still had all of my mail going to my mom's address in Peachland where I was living while she was away. Apparently on my application to UBC I made a mistake and they sent me a letter asking me to rectify it. Unfortunately I didn't receive the letter in time and I missed the application. I never went to UBC, I didn't get my BEd. I went to Korea.

While I was in Korea my grannie died. It was the worst gut wrenching feeling I had ever felt to read the email from my mom telling me that the most important person in my life had died. I didn't go home to go to her funeral. I didn't want to deal with all of the family crap that accompanied her death. I feel I got the best thing from her; I spent more time with her than anyone. I didn't need her jewelry, or any of her other possessions which were distributed through out the family. I had the best memories and I was grateful for that.

After I got back from Korea, life went on as it does and I never applied to UBC again. I ended up in a completely different industry than I ever thought I would be in and I met Adam etc. But a few years ago OUC was sold to UBC. I was a little upset by this, because OUC only granted its own degrees for a few years. Previously it was a UBC degree at OUC, or a UVic degree at OUC. Now there was to be only 7 years of OUC degrees out there, making my degree even less recognizable. Then I heard though the grapevine that UBC was going to grant the 2000 OUC graduates UBC degrees. I checked the website and I see that they agree in principle that they SHOULD do this.

And the wind was taken from my sails.

On the website they said that they would discuss it this September and make a decision then. So I checked the website daily, and nothing. And then today, there is a section stating that they are going to grant the degrees to us! I will get to be a UBC graduate! Needless to say, I am happy. I know that it's really moot for me to want to have the degree now, I don't need to beef up my resume, but it's the principle.

I never resented my grannie for me choosing to stay in the Okanagan. I know that she was really happy that I stayed and she would have never held me back. It was really hard for me to leave her and go to Korea; I honestly thought that she would still be alive when I got back. I went to Mexico that year also and I made her promise me that she would stay healthy, so when I went to Korea she made the promise again.

I guess the moral to all of this that sometimes Karma is a bitch, and other times it's in your court. I am happy with the decisions I've made, and sometimes the universe recognizes them.

Feminism

I was reading a blog asking us when feminism meant to us. I choose to respond here rather then a long winded response in her comments.

To me feminism means that I can be who I want to be the way I want to be it. It means that I can express my own version of 'girl power' and not have to shave my head to exhibit such power. It means I can wear a cleavage shirt, skirt and heels and still be a strong woman. It means that I can want to be a stay at home mom and not have to defend my choices. Finally it means that I have every right a man does and every right to not lift heavy objects because I am a girl.

In Cecily's blog she mentions Queen Elizabeth I, I immediately wanted to scroll down to her comments and leave a hearty "HELL YEAH" because I believe that Queen Elizabeth I was the first women in history to exploit her femininity for her benefit. Long before The Spice Girls made "Girl Power" all the rage, Elizabeth started the trend. She used the best kind of girl power and used her sexuality to get what she needed and wanted; now she didn't become a prostitute and use her body to get what she wanted, rather she gently manipulated the men of Spain and France to her own ends. This is why I think she is the mother of feminism because she used what she had to achieve what she needed and she didn't compromise who she was. That demonstrates strength.

Now if we fast forward to now and talk about what feminism is to me in the 21 century I would say it means I can be a strong opinionated woman. When I was working at home I loved that I had a job that was dominated by men and that I was better than a lot of them. I loved that I played a sport also dominated by men. That I was able to beat them at their sport and then have a shower and still wear a skirt and make up and be desired by them. Then I loved that I could shut them down because I knew that I wasn't obligated to any of them, and that I could still feel good about myself and my choices because I never compromised myself or my values. To me this is feminism.

Feminism is also about realizing that men can be held just as accountable for their actions as I am. When I first started dating the American army guy in Korea we slept together the first night and he professed his love for me then. I was a little taken aback and chose to not acknowledge it. As our relationship continued I realized that he was ultimately not the right guy for me and I left him, I moved from Taegu to Seoul, over night without telling him. He called me the next day and I explained to him that I wasn't going to be with a man who treated me so poorly and I wasn't going to languish waiting for him, so I left. He would often call to check in on me and not really say anything, just sit on the line and not talk. Eventually he had the gonads to accuse me of being a slut for sleeping with him on the first night. Without thinking I fired back that he was there too, and that he participated just as much as I did, so if I was a slut, then so was he. It was then that I realized that men should be held just as accountable as me for their actions. Just because I am a girl doesn’t mean that I should have to bear all of the brunt of the wrongdoings in a relationship.

I read an article a while ago written by a woman very similar to myself. She had a job that she worked hard to keep at the top of; she considered herself a modern woman and tried to meet all of the ideals. She had determined though that as soon as she was going to start having children she was going to be a stay at home mom. Whenever she mentioned this she was met with shock and disgust by other women like her who were very career driven. I think that she understood things that they did not, or could not (because their values were different, not wrong just different). I think that she exhibited feminism because she was able to assert herself by choosing a path that could be perceived as being archaic and be strong about it. She could stand up to her peers and demonstrate that SAHMs are just as strong as the corporate woman and deserve just as much respect. She wrote the whole article without ever having an apologetic tone or demeanor. I think that is feminism.

Finally for me, feminism is about embracing my femininity. I am a girl, and if I want to play the role of a damsel in distress I can. I know that there is a conflict with the damsel in distress role and the GI Jane one, but as a woman I can wear many hats. Sometimes I just don't want to carry the heavy bag up the stairs. Why? Because I am a girl.

Oh I am SO MAD!

I got this email:

Complaint ID#: 254463
Business Name: Sunnyvale Chevrolet

The Better Business Bureau has made several attempts to contact the business regarding the above referenced complaint. We regret to inform you that we have not received a response from the company.

The Better Business Bureau develops and maintains Reliability Reports on companies in our service area. This information is available to the public and is frequently used by potential customers. In the case of your complaint, the company's failure to promptly give attention to the matter will be reflected in the report we give to consumers about them.

If the company has contacted you in the interim, please notify the BBB immediately.


Sincerely,


Cathy Jasper
Consumer Services
BBB Complaint Department

Does anyone have any ideas what I should do next? I was thinking about maybe sending a letter to the local newspaper, but I don't want to get into any legal trouble.

What do you think?

Untitled

I didn't know what to call this post.
Anyhow I haven't been posting. I don't know what to say. My birthday came and went. Adam bought me a Buddah Board and it's cool. And we had cake. Lovely cake. Blizzard cake. So sweet. So creamy. So Oreo-ey.
It's all gone now. I want more....
Also, this just in. I've cut back on my sessions with my trainer. I'm scared, hold me.
I have been having good success with Julie. I'm getting a lot stronger and seeing, actually seeing!, results from my workouts. BUT Adam and I want to be able to buya house sometime, so we have to be responsible. This adult thing? It sucks.
Anyhow that's all I have to say right now.