I just wanted to make a comment about those who are thinking of going to SE Asia to look for loved ones that have not been heard of after the natural disaster there.

While I understand your feelings of helplessness, I also know that in times such as these, resources are really limited. To have more people there than absolutely necessary would put a strain on those things already in short supply such as clean water, housing and medicine and would put those people in need of these items in danger. Not too mention the diseases such as cholera and malaria.

So, please just wait to be contacted. Be fair to those survivors who really need those resources. If you would like to offer assistance, please contact the Red Cross, Unicef, Oxfam or World Vision in Canada to see what you can do from this end...

I don't want to appear cold or heartless but I think it important that consideration is given to survivors. People already in the area are doing their best to assist in the aftermath.

Thank you!

In case any of you out there are looking for another Takeshi Kaneshiro film to watch, I just finished watching a Japanese film called Returner that you might want to check out. Okay, so it's not even close to Oscar calibre but for a B-film, it was amusing. It appears that they borrowed from such films as ET, Battlestar Galactica, The Matrix and those Hong Kong-style martial arts films with loads of gratuitous violence.

I watched it because Mr. Kaneshiro is basically eye-candy and it looked the cover looked kind of interesting. (Anyone out there know if he's gay? It's usually the case when I find myself attracted to really cute men... so I thought that I would put it out there for you all... my friend in Japan suspects it as well).

Has anyone already seen it?

I am not ignoring you. I haven't had computer access for a while so I wasn't able to post...

My holiday is almost finished and I don't know if I can bear to go back to the office. This is the year that I will gather up my confidence, get off my arse and do something more creative.

Haven't taken ANY yoga classes but plan to start up again next month. I will do my usual kundalini and will start some hatha and kripalu.

If I don't post before the end of the year, I hope that you will all have a great new year. I won't be making any resolutions and encourage you out there to forget about the whole resolution idea and just let things go.

Ciao everyone! Hope to hear from you soon!

Yesterday, my friend went to the post office to send a package to her friend in Hawaii. However, when she told the clerk that there were maple candies in the package, she said that they were unable to post a package with food stuffs to the US. Apparently, one has to call the post office to arrange the package be sent, in advance, and go through customs. The clerk said that if the food had been home-baked, it would be fine to send it but store-bought stuff was a big no-no.

My question is "if one were to bake drug-laced cookies or brownies, would it be alright to send it to the states with no checking?"

Weird, don't you think?

I know the end of the year is coming because I have become too contemplative about things. People I know, and care about, are all going in some exciting direction yet I stagnate, waiting for the perfect time to claim what I want. Freedom from the mundane is what I crave but I find myself afraid to make that first step. There is something safe in not changing...

I have been reevaluating relationships and find that many of those that have been started lately are more superficial than I had thought and am losing interest in them. However, I am also lucky enough to have some really great people as friends.

However, I also gravitate towards those who appear to need help and get involved to make their lives easier but this is kind of self-defeating. I make it my responsibility to help them and forget to help myself. I have to spend more time thinking of me however I find it quite alien and a little bit selfish.

Yesterday, I lost my cool because I was supposed to meet someone and the person was about an hour and a half late to call me to set up a meeting place. No big deal, I know but I am only in this city for a day or two more and have to make the best of my time. I hate wasted time. So, when this person finally called me, I had already gone and completed the task that we were supposed to have done together and told this person that I just wanted to get on with my day. I wasn't mad when I told them but I was kind of simmering inside.

When I try to help people or go with them when they have no confidence, I usually don't require anything in return but occasionally, I feel like I am being taken advantage of. It is evil of me but I think any feeling is valid and should be recognized.

I seem to have put my life on hold for youth and right now I am thinking that I need to do something and have the things that most people have at this age. Things like living and working in a place where I am growing instead of stagnating. I have to jump in with both feet.

So, I suppose that I know what I need to do. Now I just need to do it!

Have a great Winter Solstice everyone! (12:42 pm GMT) How did YOU celebrate?

I went to see House of Flying Daggers this afternoon. While it was visually beautiful and the martial arts was brilliant, the story played a bit too much on the melodramatic side for my liking. Much like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it seemed to have way too much of a western influence, focussing on the love aspect and not the integral aspect of honour found in truly Asian films. I thought that Hero was a much better film all around.

Although Takeshi Kaneshiro and Ziyi Zhang are stunningly beautiful and the costumes were amazing (do you think one could get away with wearing that stuff everyday?), it just didn't do it for me. I would give it 2 1/2 out of five.

Anyone else out there got a review of this or any other film?

This time of year reminds me of certain things I remember as a child. One is those things is the wonderful films that we watched like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That's what I am doing right now... watching this delightful film.

Whatever happened to this kind of film and why aren't more of them made? Large production numbers and simple storylines that remind us of a time where using one's imagination was encouraged.

Is the world so jaded a place that these films are no longer valued?

If you get a chance, watch (or watch it again) this film. Sure, there are no expensive special effects or slick characters but sometimes we need to return to days past to appreciate the simpler things.

I am going to get back to the film now. Enjoy yourselves!

I really have to go to a yoga class soon. My body feels abused as I haven't done any since November... Perhaps tomorrow!

The other day, I was talking with a friend about the disappearance of many small businesses and the huge amount of big box stores that were becoming commonplace in our society. Interestingly enough, I was reading about that same issue on My2SecondShelfLife. (Thanks, Radmila)

I don't know about where you are but here this is happening all of the time. I would really like to ask that you consider the consequences of where you purchase something. Personally, I love small businesses. I love the uniqueness that these businesses afford and the usually very high level of customer service you get from them. Yes, the prices can be a bit higher but in the long run, doesn't it work out better for everyone if we do?

What do you think? If enough of us supported these smaller businesses, I am sure that the huge conglomerates would get the point that it is us running their businesses and not them running our lives.

What the hell were Tyra and her posse thinking? Eva as America's Next Top Model? She should have been disqualified from the competition as she already had a career in film.

I suppose that this is just a sign that Yaya was more valid as a model and wouldn't really need any assistance getting a "real" contract. After all, has anyone out there seen anything other than the sad photo shoots that Adrianne and Yoanna did in the magazines? It's a sham and I don't think that I will be watching again.

By the way, has anyone out there ever heard of Noriko Fukushima? I asked my friends in Japan (because I haven't been there for about four years) to see if they had and they were perplexed as to who she was. After googling her name, I came up with this that tells of her twenty year career that was mentioned on the show but that she designed for mature women and not up and coming young designs. If this is the calibre of ANTM, I must question the validity of the show. (I know, reality shows are not real)

This cycle of ANTM did what it could to show the stranger aspects of Japan and does not really reflect the norm. Starting with the fact that it is not recommended that women stay in capsule hotels because of all of the lecherous men that stay there and moving right down to the supposed fact that all of Tokyo fashion revolved around the strange anime-type style that SOME women in Japan wear. It does not. Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons and Issey Miyake are prime examples of that. As well, Tyra really needs to brush up on her Nihongo (Japanese). Sweetie, it is onaka suita not unaka suita... This did not show real life in Japan, it was a western fantasy of life there.

Anyway, enough of that. I will not be partaking in ANTM for the next round. Sorry Tyra. And Eva, good luck, you will need it. .. especially if Yaya takes the world by storm. She may have had a trouble with umeboshi but she has poise, intelligence and amazing beauty. Eva has the beauty... until she opens her mouth, that is...

Has anyone out there heard of a group called
Spinster Sister? My friend saw them in Berlin and he said they were really cool! They are from the "Holy Land" and they consider themselves Gothic Country. Check them out.

Okay, Robbie Williams. So, you are feeling a little left out in America? Come visit me in Canada and I will surely be able to make you feel like a star. As long as you are open for a little fun!

It's funny what one can hear while travelling on a bus.

Behind me today were a young couple who seemed pleasant enough. He was your typical young guy, who I later overheard was from Mexico and she could have been a fashion model who also had some sort of accent.

The conversation starting pretty casually, in that they were talking about going to some party and then she phoned the host on her mobile to ask what time is started. The next thing I knew, I was in plain distance to hear everything about them... right down to the tests that they had just had at the clinic, her thoughts on how things went when they first starting having sex and that, once they were sure, they could tell her mother. Then she started on about the tests that women have once a year - which no doubtedly was her yearly PAP smear and when he asked her what it was for, she said she didn't really know.

Okay, so hear is a woman, who is obviously in a sexual relationship that doesn't know that this test is for cancer. What I want to know is should people that ignorant be having children? I suppose that I am being a bit judgmental. But wait, there is more...

They then begin talking about the future and how that if he felt worried that having a baby should put their whole relationship into perspective. After all, we all know that having a baby really does cement a relationship. (Please picture me becoming nauseous) He was going away and she really needed him and she didn't know what she would do because he would be away for two weeks and that she couldn't survive without him.

I admit that I was being a bit nosey but really, what the hell were these two doing talking about such a personal subject on a public bus. It's not like they were whispering or anything. Maybe they were actors practising their lines on the bus because Vancouver is well-known as a movie town. (Did you know that they are filming the Fantastic Four here? I love Ioan Gruffudd) I just don't know.

Sometimes this city is full of strange experiences...

What. No comments? I know that you are visiting so leave your mark... It's open format time so the floor is open to every subject.

In case you don't already know, Canada has a national air team called the Snowbirds. They are the equivalent of the US Blue Angels squad. I just caught on the news that there was a crash in Southern Saskatchewan in which one of the team's pilots died. Read about it here.

Well, since my last two posts were about Wales and Christmas, it is only appropriate to post this story. It appears that even Father Christmas can have too much holiday cheer. Read this about fighting Santas in Wales.

I don't know what it is about today but many couples that I encountered coming back home tonight were in the throes of some argument. Young and old alike were just not very happy with each other. I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that it is raining today or that Christmas will soon be upon us and people are uptight about gift-giving.

I have no advice about the rain but about the stress of Christmas, I say this. Do like I do and don't do Christmas... This is the third year in a row that I have not participated and it has done a world of good. There is way too much commercialism during this season for me to even think of participating. I usually just spend time with family and friends and that seems to do the trick. No fuss, no muss and I don't go into debt doing it.

Good luck with it...

I just had the strangest couple of days while visiting relatives in Chilliwack, BC...

While there, I met so many people who lived close to, or was familiar with the area that I stayed in Wales a couple of years back. One, was a young woman whose family lived in Wrexham and Y Waun (Chirk) which are basically just around the corner from Froncysyllte. The other lived in Penmaenmawr but was from Manchester originally. She was very familiar with the Hand Hotel

It was strange meeting so many people so far away but yet knowing so much.

We also went to a small cafe that reminded me of the little bakery/restaurant on Castle Street in Llan (when I was there it was across from the grocery store...that is, if I remember correctly)

So, it was kind of like old home week. All I need now is to walk over to the community centre and play bingo with the pensioners!

This time of year brings back lots of memories of that time... especially Christmas shopping in Oswestry. So, I just have to ask... Dave, how are you all doing there?

Wanna see what effects your SUV has on the world at large? Check out this poster!

Just in case any of you thought that President Bush's visit to Canada was to strengthen the relationship between our two countries after we did not support the war in Iraq, you might want to think again. This article tells of how Mr. Bush deviated from his official agenda to suggest that Canada had better support the continental defense system that he has been trying to implement for a very long time. Another article, that I was unable to link to was entitled "Martin's team duped, defense analyst says".

So much for friendly relations...

It's as much as saying that we should band together to defend North America from the rest of the world.

Wouldn't it make more sense to put money into some sort of peace creating-type of program instead of defending ourselves from whatever enemy happens to be out there? Let's learn to accept each other and live together in peace and harmony. I am sure that would be much better than developing a system that will blow up people who may or may not be trying to defend their way of life?

Is anyone else out there thinking the same thing?

Hi there everyone,

Just a short note to say that entries to this blog will be much more sporadic than usual as I started my holiday time this year which is due to finish up on January 4, 2005. Don't ask me how I managed to get so much time off but I did it.

This means, however, that I will not always have access to a computer so you may see updates even less than usual. I promise to not to desert you entirely.

Thanks for reading this past year and while I am still contemplating whether or not the usefulness of this blog is long past, I will attempt to either reformat or just keep on. The truth is, as I am moving from blog to blog, I see that it has more and more commercial. People are using this free medium to promote their products. Used in promotions of selling everything from used cars to medications, blogging seems to have moved from self-expression to corporate in the last year. And this, I find disturbing.

That said, I suppose even I have fallen victim to that, with my thoughts on clothing, law and even music. However, where it differs for me is that these are things that I encounter everyday in contrast to people starting blogs that say Used cars for sale or How to by cheap drugs online. A thin line, I know, but a line just the same.

While I am in holiday-mode, I wanted to pass on my secondary review of Gwen's album after having listened to it a couple more times...

The tunes are catchy, I must admit, however, I must say that once you go past the music and listen to the lyrics, that the shameless marketing of her image, her music and her handbags/clothing rise to the surface, not unlike the bubbles that pop electric. She mentions the influence that Harajuku has on her and that she chooses to emulate the style found on Takeshita-dori in Tokyo. The sad thing is that it takes a big star to make the style world renowned and basically Mrs. Rossdale did not invent it, she is copying it. No wonder I like the style... I have seen it before.

As far as L.A.M.B is concerned, I suppose that I should have known better. After all, that is the name of her design company and to have a CD named after it should have made me think that this is an effort to promote herself. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose but really, did I have to fall for it?

So, if you are thinking of buying L.A.M.B., do so at your own risk. I still hold to my opinion that it is not a dance album but a neatly packaged pop advertisement. I know... What's new? I just wish that such an original person would have had an original perspective instead of doing what everyone else is doing.

All I know now is that I will not be so naive in the future...

Ciao everyone and hopefully, I will talk at you again soon!