I have been reading a book on Kundalini Yoga called The Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwya Kaur Khalsa over the past week or so and although I have been a student of Kundalini, found this book very easy to read and quite informative. It covers so many aspects of everyday life and much of her writing rings true with me. It has made me question the way I do things but not in a negative way in a very postive way.

I found the section on women very interesting. She says that women are sixteen times stronger than men in an emotional and spiritual way. She also comments on the quest for equality of men and women and what I get from that is that we should stop trying to become equal and instead be learning to cherish our differences and do what should come naturally... complement each other.

I know that many of my friends may consider me a feminist when in fact, I dislike the whole ideology that we must be equal. Really, what does that mean? Men have strengths as do women however, they are not the same strengths. Each characteristically knows those strengths yet, and I can only comment for women, they choose to submerge them into the subconscious.

It seems to me that the early feminists gave up their feminity to succeed. They tried to be men. Why? Why should we have to deny this part of us. Why should we stop being women? If we would like to wear ridiculously silly shoes and makeup, why should this stop us from being taken seriously.

I have been discussing this with a coworker and he came up with a valid point. Did we know the long term effects of these feminist pioneers efforts? They wanted to compete and be equal with their male counterparts but did they really know where it would take them? I don't really think that they had that vision in mind...

My point being that with so many other people having entered into the workforce starting from the early days of feminism, wages became lower and the demand for products skyrocketed. Those of you who know about the economic side, know that prices rose as well. Things became more expensive and then it was necessary for families to make more to buy more. Nowadays, it is a rarity of one-income families because everything is so expensive and both partners must work.

Because of this, we have less time to cook, spend time with our families, and make our own clothes as both partners need to work to afford the home and other material things. I for one would love to have the time to do these things. And I would be happier because I was doing things that didn't involve sitting in a chair all day and typing... I could be creating things with my hands.

So, what about equality? Women struggled for equality but within the workforce, there are so many jobs that are considered "women's work". Did getting out of the house and into the workforce change anything? No. Many women are stuck in low wage secretarial or sales positions and are now, instead of being marginalized as stay-at-home mothers, are now just secretaries.

I know that I have digressed, but this has been floating around in my head for a few days... I suppose what I want to say is that perhaps we really have to stop complicating our lives and think about our relationships with others in a simpler way.

Man is the sun and woman the moon. Neither could really exist without the other. Woman reflects the light of man, yet she also has a power that man does not. Man has physical strength yet he is unable to exist without woman giving birth to him. He also does not have the emotional strength to survive without the guidance of woman.

Maybe we just have to stop putting up these gender walls and learn to work within our own strengths to support and exist with each other. Given enough time, I know that we can do it.

Let me know what you think?

Liza Minelli as a model for MAC? What are they thinking?

This morning, on the bus coming to work, I saw the Grim Reaper. I wasn't that worried because even though his face was covered, I wasn't the only person who was able to see him.

Sitting behind Death, was a rather large bunny. Later, a rather dead-looking woman boarded as well.

Either it's hallowe'en or somehow I managed to get really drunk before I left the house this morning... (doubtful, as I don't drink... however, maybe Lorne from the series Angel cast a spell over me, like in this week's episode)

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!!!!

Just when I thought the little guy was losing the battle, I find this story in our local newspaper. Want to start a franchise?

For years, we have seen the small business disappear from our areas and more of those "superstore"-type mega complexes sprout up all over the place. I go out of my way to avoid these places and to this day can proudly say that I have never bought anything at a Wal-Mart store. I dislike Wal-Mart and other such companies like McDonalds & Starbucks and so I am always looking for confirmation that I am doing the right thing by not shopping there.

I received this story in email form and would like to share it with you. Although, I tried to find a link for this story via the Toronto Star but was unable to do so... I know it's long but I found it really interesting. I hope that you will change your mind as well...

Have a good read!

*************************************************************


Values outsourced; What are the social costs of the Wal-Mart economy?
Everything is justified by 'slavish devotion' to the consumer
The Toronto Star
Sat 18 Oct 2003

At the beginning of the 20th century, the most transformational enterprise
in the world, Ford Motor Co., dramatically raised wages for its
assembly-line workers and reduced their work week. Henry Ford wanted his
employees to be able to afford a Model T, and have the leisure time to enjoy
it.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the transformational enterprise of our
times, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., pays most of its U.S. employees poverty-level
wages, skimps on worker and retiree benefits and is accused in almost 40
lawsuits of making staff work overtime without pay.

This is Ground Zero in the Wal-Mart economy, and most of us are complicit in
whatever role it has played in the elimination of 2.8 million jobs in the
U.S. economy since 2001, and 77,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada so far this
year.

A stunning 82 per cent of American households bought something at Wal-Mart
last year. And not long after its arrival here in the mid-1990s, Wal-Mart
had pushed T. Eaton Co. and Kmart Canada into an early grave, merely an
opening act for its current menacing regard for survivors Hudson's Bay Co.,
Loblaw Cos., Shoppers Drug Mart Ltd. and the like.

At Ground Zero, Wal-Mart has piggybacked on the trends in free trade,
weakened unions, diminished customer loyalty and just-in-time delivery
methods to become the world's biggest private enterprise, with $245 billion
(U.S.) in sales.

Wal-Mart alone now accounts for about 10 per cent of total U.S. imports from
low-wage China. ("Walk around Wal-Mart," says former General Motors Corp.
chief executive Jack Smith, "and it looks as if everything is made in
China.")

What it doesn't outsource directly, Wal-Mart obtains from suppliers who find
they too must outsource to low-wage jurisdictions in order to cut their
selling price to the bone.

The saying goes that the second-worst thing for a manufacturer to do is sign
a Wal-Mart contract, so stringent are its cost demands. The worst thing is
failing to do so, given the importance of Wal-Mart's shelf space.

This would explain why even the mighty Procter & Gamble Co., which looks to
Wal-Mart as the largest customer for many of its products, was compelled
this year to outsource production of its iconic Ivory soap to a lower-cost
manufacturer in Ontario.

In the wider Wal-Mart economy, blue-chip companies now benchmark themselves
against "the Beast of Bentonville."

And so the giant Electronic Data Systems Corp., founded by Ross Perot but no
longer run by that noisy patriot, now recruits $1.25-an-hour tech workers in
India and sheds their $10-an-hour counterparts in EDS's home state of Texas.

Wall Street brokerages including Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
are shifting from New York to India the ground-floor stock-research jobs
that traditionally lead to plum analyst assignments. Both India and China
are already well-known to recruiters from Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.
Levi Strauss & Co. has just announced the closing of its remaining four
North American plants, including three in Canada, and will shift all
production to Asia and Latin America.

Paul Martin's Canada Steamship Lines has long recruited mostly non-Canadian
crews for its freighters. Recently, Nike Inc. shut a Southern Ontario plant
that made hockey sticks for stars like Eric Lindros to shift some production
offshore.

And despite personal interventions from Governor George Pataki, Sen. Hillary
Clinton and a bevy of state and municipal officials, Carrier Corp. said this
month it will relocate production to Asia from Syracuse, N.Y., a city
synonymous with air conditioners ever since Willis Carrier was lured by
local tax breaks to open his first factory there. No inducement or threat
could now save Syracuse's 1,200 Carrier jobs, a company spokesperson said,
"unless they are going to pick up New York State and move it."

Two unlikely sources of social-justice concern, Business Week and the Wall
Street Journal, have recently fretted about the implications of
Walmartization of the global economy.

The former editorialized this month that Wal-Mart's "methods of squeezing
out its low prices - paying salaries below the poverty line, building
superstores that crush local mom-and-pop shops and pushing manufacturers to
the wall for savings - are generating a strong backlash."

But there is no significant backlash against the hollowing out of industrial
North America, where a university degree is no longer sufficient protection
against a redundancy notice.

Oh sure, Andy Grove, the corporate conscience and former CEO of Intel, has
taken up the cause, warning this month that something drastic must be done
to prevent the bulk of new information technology jobs from being shipped
overseas. (Goldman Sachs & Co. says an estimated 200,000 IT-related service
jobs have left the United States in the last three years.)

But Grove's remedies, including bigger university R&D budgets, tax cuts and
tort reform, would do nothing to curb domestic job loss, only strengthen the
balance sheet of domestic enterprises still in the hunt for expedient
cost-saving devices. In the meantime, recruiters for Intel and Microsoft are
now active on campuses at Stanford University, the University of Waterloo
and in Bangalore.

As for Wal-Mart, it makes no apologies for its role in the spiralling down
of employee wages and benefits. "Where we have the option to source
domestically we do," says Ken Eaton, global buying chief for Wal-Mart, which
has de-emphasized the popular "Made in America" campaign that founder Sam
Walton launched in the 1980s.

But, Eaton added in Business Week this month, "there are certain businesses,
particularly in the U.S., where you just can't buy domestically any more to
the scale and value we need."

There are no significant consumer boycotts aimed at this latter-day coal
mine.

Sam Walton's strategy of "stack 'em high, watch 'em fly" has been a boon for
consumers. As the largest peddler of everything from toasters, toys and
toothbrushes to TV sets, headache remedies and motor oil, Wal-Mart is justly
lauded for helping keep inflation in check. And the firm is believed to have
accounted for about one-eighth of all productivity growth in the U.S.
economy in the late 1990s.

But in service to its mantra of delivering the lowest-cost goods to
consumers, Wal-Mart has outsourced its social obligations. So have its
blue-chip emulators. That's the real bargain that Wal-Mart shoppers have
unwittingly bought into.

The Wal-Mart economy knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
- certainly not of a well cared-for workforce, or of a full-employment
economy, or of competitive marketplaces that have not yet succumbed to the
predations of a single omnipotent enterprise. And who's to blame for that?

"How about you, for one?" says Slate business columnist Daniel Gross. "At
Wal-Mart, the customer is king, everyone else be damned competitors,
employers and the domestic manufacturing base.

"Everything Wal-Mart does - particularly its low prices - is done in the
name of slavish devotion to consumer demand. And every day, millions of
Americans ratify Wal-Mart's strategy by shopping there. Stores don't kill
economies, consumers do."

Who then pays for the chronic unemployment and under-employment of the
Wal-Mart economy, the hollowing out of the manufacturing economy and the
dismantling of the old social contract among corporations, employees and
communities?

You again, probably, as the corporate outsourcing of social responsibility
spreads and deepens throughout the economy. At some point, the consumer
might be surprised to find himself called on to surrender a portion of his
windfall savings at Wal-Mart in the form of higher taxes to preserve some
semblance of a just society.

***************************************************************

What is it with American Photo magazine? It has a huge picture of Britney Spears on the cover. What does she have to do with photography? Are they worried that they won't have men buy the magazine if they don't put these fluffy individuals on the cover? I don't buy magazines like this because there is fluff inside as well.

Personally, I prefer the British magazine Practical Photographer. Even though not so long ago, it had the usual pinup girls but it always had a lot of useful stuff in it. Now that they have changed the cover format, it is even better!

It's interesting how I gravitate towards dark or black things. Over the past couple of days, I have come across things that stick in my mind and all of them are black...

Yesterday, while I was walking back to work after lunch, I saw a crow. Just a small one and it was doing its best to stand on the roof of someone's car that had been parked in the lot while the occupant was inside the shopping centre. This wouldn't normally stick in my mind except that it has been really windy here lately and yesterday was no exception. So, here was this crow, its feathers ruffling all the while trying not to slide across the metal roof of the car. It didn't try to fly away or walk into the wind, and so I began to wonder if someone had stapled it there. I know that this would have been cruel but it was funny that the thought just popped into my head.

With the wind in my hair, I ventured out of the office again today. The wind is still howling here - something that I really enjoy seeing. It reminds me of the sheer power of nature and how we really have no control over it. I went down to the bookstore on campus to buy some trail mix (as I am once again on the avoid bread thing) and I saw this black labrador dog, that was slightly overweight, standing near a tree with a chain leash that was not attached to anything. I thought it a little unusual that he had a leash but it wasn't tied to the tree... it just dragged on the ground. The owner, probably having noticed this perplexed look on my face, suddenly called the dog by name. Willis. What an interesting name for a dog. Was he named after the older brother on the series Diff'rent Strokes or the star of Moonlighting and Die Hard fame? I should have asked, I suppose. Willis. What a name for a dog!

Lastly, on my way back from the bookstore, I saw a solitary glove lying on the walkway. And, yes, it was black too. I should probably have picked it up and took it to the lost & found but instead thought "Man! Should have had my camera". I am always inspired by lost items. I think they make for really interesting photos...

I passed by the spot where Willis was the first time but he, and his owner had gone. And I was still thinking that I should have brought my camera...

If one searches for one's own website name, I suppose that not only would they be able to see their own site but a collection of others (some of which would be way off base in comparison). I happened to be checking out who was referring to my site and decided to check out the one referral that had checked out can you dig it. It was pretty interesting...

I found a:

Monkees website
a children's gardening book
an article on an interfaith gardening work camp in the UK
a digital products site
an article about digging the Cross City tunnel in Sydney
The Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation website
an article about DJ John Digweed on Creative Loafing
the Watcher's World Dispatch
a website that sells artifacts
the COIILS site and finally,
a Shaft website!

What a diverse collection of items... and that was just the first page!

If you are interested in getting more of these types of sites, here is the next page from the Yahoo Search site.

Sad as it is, that is all I have time for! Sorry about that... If you are so inclined, leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!

I don't want to get into soapbox mode but I wanted to share with you my feelings of disbelief over something I read today. I really had to shake my head over this one...

I don't like to think that the government is concerned only with how much money they can get out of something but today takes the cake. Here is what I read about one of our province's most important environmentalist/scientist:

In the legislature on Monday this week, the already-strong credentials of David Suzuki ratcheted a notch higher, when Liberal MLA Bill Belsey blasted the renowned environmentalist as someone who's "single-handedly done more to destry the economy of British Columbia than anybody else." Suzuki's crime? Questioning the environmental impact of fish farms, like epidemics of sea-lice in wild salmon.

(If you are interested in reading more about Mr. Suzuki's activities, please go to his website. )

It just goes to show you that politicians don't represent the people.... they represent whoever gives them the most stuff... It must be a prerequisite of being in public office that one lies, steals and cheats to get what they want.

Well, enough of that. Hope that you are having a great day!

I am just shattered today! I got back yesterday around dinner time from Vernon, BC after having attended and helping out with my friend's wedding. I just really want to sleep but I had to come to work today. It's funny. While one is away having fun, tasks just keep piling up. Like the laundry I had to do before I went to bed last night.

Anyway, please forgive my lack of prolificness... I just really wanted to say hello to everyone out there!

Have a great day and if you get a chance have a nap for me!

Just in case you didn't know, Claire at Toast and Coffee is up and blogging again! Visit her blog and check in to say hello!

As much as I love the UK and many of the people in it, I think the thing that shocks me the most is the racism and the levels of it that exist there. In Canada, we have seen the same attitudes but due to our Multicultural policy, we have more of a "leg to stand on" (so to speak) so that we can speak out against racism in any form. This policy gives us a voice to speak out against discrimination due to colour and belief. While it is not the perfect system it is a good start.

You can imagine though, that when I was in the UK last time, I was shocked to see so much discrimination in a country that has so many people of different cultures supposedly coexisting. Many of the attitudes that I had seen in Canada when I was young (that are no longer acceptable here) still existed there. I was horrified. This is a country that I looked up to, that my ancestors had been a part of and yet, people of colour were not equal. Their religious beliefs were frowned upon because they were different or they were considered to be dodgy if their skin was too dark.

A friend of mine who just returned from there said she had the same observations. She said that, even though she was Caucasian, when she was with friends who were visible minorities, she was treated differently. Kind of like she was a second-class citizen. It was disturbing, she said. Even those who were from countries in the continent were looked down upon.

Anyway, I was reminded of that when I read this story today. I love North Wales and I know that this is not just a regional thing but it is still upsetting that this stuff goes on. Wales has beauty and charm and some really nice people. It's too bad that this lunacy still exists.

I know that racism exists all over the place. However, with the wisdom I think that I have achieved, I have learned not to judge cultures through the eyes of my own. By this I mean that, we base our opinions on something by using our own culture as a measuring stick. I have come to realize however, until we can stand in the others' shoes and look at it within their cultural biases, we have no right to judge. Let's just accept the differences and if we cannot understand them, leave it at that. Everything exists for a reason. We may deem it as wrong or threatening but really, what's the use of getting ones knickers in a knot just because we don't understand something.

If we don't stop this stuff (I am reminded of a song by the Manic Street Preachers entitled "If you tolerate this your children will be next"), we give everyone the right to force change on cultures and people without consulting those whose lives we deem necessary to change. And we all know how that worked for Mr. Bush...

I don't want you to think that I am picking on the UK. This story just happened to cause some feelings to resurface in myself about injustice and judgements in the world today. We just really need to revisit it.

Have a great day! I am off to Kelowna to attend a wedding from tomorrow and don't know if I will have access to the internet there. If not, I will see you next week!

I have been thinking about this for a while but was reminded over the weekend and felt that I really had to say something about this.

In North America recently, we have been barraged with infomercials trying to sell videotapes entitled and usually blonde) girls baring their breasts on videotape. They then put all of this footage together and sell it to, well to tell the truth, I don't know who would buy this stuff.

This brings me to recall a night a couple of weeks ago, while surfing through the telly channels, I saw a video that was being presented and advertised by Snoop Dogg the rap artist. I watched the infomercial for a while and found myself really amused. Not because of the content but because, here is this African American artist selling these videotapes with his name attached to it.

Why is this amusing, you might ask? Well, here we have these vapid females baring their breasts and a black man advertising it. Why were there only white women and no visible minorities? I guess that African-American and Hispanic women are much smarter than their white counterparts. The really sad thing is that this type of stuff perpetuates the black man as a pimp. The struggle of generations of blacks seems to be on a downward spiral.

Snoop Dogg's version of Girls gone wild has received some bad press lately because Snoop enticed some very young girls to participate. What I want to ask is what is wrong with women that they would do this.

I have no problem with nudity and I am not a prude. I believe that the human body is beautiful. It is the belief that nudity equals sex that causes people to get their knickers in a knot about nakedness. It is an antiquated belief and needs to be corrected. The vulgarity comes when the naked body is presented as a form of titillation (such as what can be found in these videos) so perhaps we just need to adjust our thinking.

Well, I suppose that I should stop ranting now. My lunch break is over and I have to get back to it.

Okay. So the prediction was correct. Canada got whomped 41-10 by Wales. For those of you who are interested, here are some photos from the match between Canada and Wales of the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia...

I got a call from across the pond on Saturday suggesting that Wales was going to kick Canada's butt in one of those sports that involves running and balls over the weekend. I didn't hear the final score but am imagining that either they didn't manage to beat Canada or the person claiming it would happen is still out celebrating.

Hopefully, he isn't out trying the martini recipe that I just posted...

(So, Dave, care to fill us in on the score? Thanks for calling... I was out with friends and managed to catch a cold...)

Man! I am ever glad that I gave up drinking alcohol. This new taste sensation appears to be more of a science experiment than a beverage but, hey, who knows? It might not be so bad!

I just finished seeing the film Lost in Translation on this rather blustery, rainy day that we are having today. It looks like I am getting a cold so at first I was just really annoyed by the editting but by the end, I was glad that I saw it. Sofia Coppola has a remarkable way of setting up the images on film...

My photography instructor once told us that we are all just media babies in that we have grown up with the media and we have a very distinct way of presenting the images that we see. I have to agree. We live in a very graphically driven world. This film supports this. Coppola, although I sometimes think that she is lucky because she has a very famous father, creates beauty from the mundane.

The film itself could have been staged in any non-English culture that westerners see as bizarre in comparison with their own so I found myself a little disappointed that the usual Japanese generalizations were used. However, I was happy that I could understand all of the Japanese language bits. It made it more amusing than just thinking about the silliness of the main character just confused about what was going on.

I'd have to say that my biggest criticism is the use of so many of the the stereotypes of Japanese culture that were included. However, to balance that all out, I noticed that Coppola herself perpetuated an American stereotype as well. Was this her intention? I don't know. We tend to use our own cultures as a measuring stick to judge other cultures. The audacity of ridiculing something that we do not understand has always irritated me but it worked here. It had a very western feel.

For the most part, I enjoyed the film. However, if you are going just to get a insight into Japan, you may be disappointed. Tokyo is just the stage. The two leads in the film had an interesting chemistry which, along with the cinematography, created a delightful film about human nature in a world that we do not always understand.

Check it out. You might be surprised!

I watched a bit of the 11 o'clock news last night and really should not have. I really should stick to my pact not to watch news at all. Even the weather reports are not worth it!

I stumbled upon this really cool blog yesterday. You might want to check out Tequila Mockingbird! The writing is superb and interesting to boot!

I really hate the word corporate.

I don't celebrate Christmas any more. I was thinking about this last week while I was watching a new episode of (spoiler alert!) Sex and the City when Charlotte had to give up this season to change her faith.

I didn't decide this for the same reason that Charlotte did however, I did make a conscious decision not to partake in the whole gift exchange/holiday spirit thing starting this past year. I must say that I don't miss the whole stressing out over the holidays feelings tha I usually had around that time of year. No gifts, no cards, no anything. I don't support the whole spend into credit card oblivion ideal and well, I don't get hurt at Christmas sales.

Anyway, just thought that I would share that with you. Ciao!

I must say that I must be missing something. I went out to a club over the weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday and realized that I really must be out of my league.

I love to dance. I love it like I love taking photographs. However, while out flailing my arms and legs about the other night, I noticed something different. DJs have become like messiahs...

I am out on the dancefloor and I see that no one is facing anyone else and they are all just dancing by themselves facing the DJ like he was the latest live singer. Can anyone tell me when this started? Don't get me wrong, it was great seeing people of all sorts of styles of clothing and dance out their shaking their thing but I just don't think that I understand why everyone was facing the DJ. Despite their individuality, they are all facing the same way.

I just continued to dance in every direction until I almost crumpled to the floor in exhaustion. And the music wasn't so bad either!

I am really happy that I don't drink alcohol anymore . Gone are the days that my motor skills were impaired by booze and as well the days of foggy-headedness I had the day after those impairments. However, I am now more aware of how others perceived me when I was wandering around in a drunken stupor.

Thank goodness I woke up from that and now can go out to a club, dance my brains out (without falling down) and just have fun. Who needs alcohol to be charming when I am the epitome of charm!

It was only a question of time before this happened! You keep animals penned up and make them jump through hoops long enough and they begin to resent it! After all, wild animals should be free!

Did you know these ten things last week?

Yesterday, I officially moved into an office space after my 11+ years of sitting out in an open space with other coworkers. In the process of cleaning my space, I find an old courier envelope from Sri Lanka that has the following warning text on it:

Cash, jewellery and cash equivalent not accepted. Please do not send fragile items, liquid, blood, or fluids in the package. Other packaging is available for this purpose.

I kept the thing just because of this text. I will chuck it in the recycle bin today and thought that I could immortalize it on this blog. Hopefully, you get a chuckle out of it too!