December 17th, 2007
Snowy days
Hey, we had a blizzard. It was great–I bailed on all parties (which, to be fair, would also have been great), all errands and the world at large. I spent the entire weekend reading and writing and, when I got too stir-crazy, going to the gym. I managed to lure writing/performance partner J. to the house last night, but other than that, I did not see a lot of other humans.
Perhaps that is why, despite the ONE AND A HALF HOURS it took me to get to work, I found the commute a great pleasure. The bus was so packed with so many humans going crazy, and yet everyone was in a good mood. Things that happened on the bus:
–woman speaking to a toddler, both aloud and in sign language, about how many people might be on the bus. The tot’s ASL was still weak–she kept signing the zero first in 50. While this was being debated, we hit a stop and someone boarded. The caregiver was patiently explaining how digits worked, when the little girl, who could not speak, impatiently signed something. The caregiver laughed, and said/signed, “Ok, yes, 51.”
–a teenager shrieking into a phone, “You *broke Jordan’s nose*?? That’s not good. Ok, how? Is it really broken? Is she ok? Ok, honestly, that’s sort of funny. Has school started yet? I’m gonna be *so* late.”
–when I finally got a seat, it was next to a man with an enormous, old-school, 1990s-style CPU in his lap. It came up to his chin and out to his chest, but when I dropped a piece of paper on the floor and couldn’t reach it, he got it for me…somehow. So chivalry isn’t dead.
This is a message
RR
December 16th, 2007
Worst typo ever
as he lifted the forkful of eyewhites to his mouth
Ewwww.
I meant *egg*whites, obviously.
Hand in hand / to the witness stand
RR
December 15th, 2007
Good and Bad News
Well, it is good news to me, as well as surprising, to discover that 28% of Canadians are currently boycotting Walmart (in a marketing text I read for work; sorry I can’t offer a link). I was feeling really pleased to be a part of a group so much larger than I’d have thought. I haven’t been able to shop there, despite my delight in inexpenisve consumer durables, since I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s gently terrifying bookNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, about minimum-wage jobs and the lives lived by their workers.
Anyway, I felt good and solidarity-like for about 12 minutes, before I realized Walmart is doing just fine. More than a quarter of the country is pointedly not shopping there, and the store is thriving.
It’s maybe that “pointedly” above that was the problem–is the 28% really comprised of people who would’ve shopped there anyway? As I tell this news to my friends, friends who are mainly young people who rent their homes, have a lot of education, low-level professional jobs and no children, I have found that almost all of us fall within the 28%, but what would we have been buying if we did shop there? Walmarts aren’t easily available to the downtown-dwelling, non-car-driving population; the year before my boycott, I remember what I bought there distinctly, because I went only once. A friend’s father drove us as there as a special favour, and I bought a coffeemaker and yoga pants, for a grand total of about $50. For the year. Pre-boycott.
My brother points out that people will take on the strong stand when the costs to their personal happiness and inconveniences are minimal, and this is sadly true. I still don’t buy much organic food because it is so expensive, even though I do believe it is better for the environement. The sad truth is, I haven’t much buying power.
Then yesterday, I was at a party, whinging about this to a group of the converted, one of whom pointed out that it’s only by talking about these issues that a relatively powerless demographic can gain some power. My nickels and dimes don’t add up to much, but I can tell people who have more to spend, or just so many little people that our collective power adds up to something. So I’m telling you this–not that you should boycott Walmart, but that you might want to if you read about their treatment of their employees and think about these issues the way I do. So…that’s it, I’ve told you. And I think that’s for the good.
Other good news is that Polident, the denture-cleaning people, now make one of those effervescing pellets for retainers. The bad news is that I wear a retainer, but you knew that. Now it is a sparkling clean retainer.
But, ok, ok, the *really* good news is that The Journey Anthology was reviewed in The Globe and Mail‘s Books section this morning, and they said amazing things about my short story, “Chilly Girl.” Also the other stories in the collection, all of which blow me away, and the whole thing was quite joyous to read (my protagonist gets called someone else’s name, but that’s pretty minor. Quibbles!!)
And the other good news is that, despite living under a rock, I have numerous lovely friends who call and email when something nice happens. Otherwise I might never have known.
Let’s get wrecked on Rolling Rock
RR
December 14th, 2007
Friday Likings
349. Friends
350. Lists
351. Pudding
352. The Joel Plaskett Emergency
353. Annabel Lyon
354. Annotated PDFs
355. The phrase “carbon footprint”
356. Reducing your carbon footprint
357. Marmalade
358. Song lyrics that encapsulate something you’ve always thought but never said aloud
359. Shiny hair
360. Staple removers
361. Wireless technology
362. Gingerbread
363. Rhymes
364. Futo maki
365. Thoughtfulness
366. Parents
367. Fluffy snow
368. Places where it doesn’t snow
369. Free downloads
370. John Updike
371. Punctuation
372. The “Little House” books
373. Hawkeye Pearce
374. Toblerones
Now, don’t those 25 things make you want to add some of your own?
Happy Friday!
Everytime they look at us / We’ll blow their minds
RR
December 13th, 2007
Little Big World
Occasionally I de-pod in transit, put down my reading and tune into the world around me. Usually that world consists of cellphone conversations between my fellow TTCers and people who aren’t in the world around me.What can you do, ours is a “virtual” culture. Still, it never fails to amaze me how freely people will discourse cellularly, at much higher volumes than they’d ever have a conversation in person. I’ve heard people talk about what they’ve stolen, about fistfights at work, abortions, alcoholism, violent relationships, and trips to the food bank. I guess when people raise their voices talking about this stuff, they aren’t really thinking about privacy; they have bigger problems. Joy can wait until they disembark, I guess, since I rarely overhear the job acceptances, happy birthdays, just-called-to-say-I-love-yous.
The other morning, I found myself eavesdropping on the fellow behind me, though I could not understand him. He was talking on his cellphone in Hindi at 8 in the morning, but with such intensity that I felt I was following the rise and fall of the covnersation . Though there was heated emotion in his voice, he was speaking in long, reasoned-sounding sentences, and I couldn’t tell if it was a business or personal conversation. Then, appropos of what I don’t know, he said a sentence in English: “It’s not a routine, I call you every day because I *want* to talk to you.” Almost a thesis statement really, outlining almost everything else that had been spoken and would be so far.
He went back into Hindi after that, but I felt that understood the rest of the conversation perfectly, even before he gave another couple subject-lines in English a few minutes later. When he got off the bus, he passed my seat and I of course turned to see what he looked like–a college student with an enormous backback, sneakers tied by their laces hooked onto it. He was still talking, somewhat miserably. I don’t think he was convincing whoever it was on the other end.
The man next to me visibly craned his neck to see the speaker’s face. I smiled at my fellow voyeur and he somewhat awkwardly looked down into his lap, confused at my attention maybe, or startled at being caught out. Me, I felt sad for us all, but strangely happy to be a part of this bizarrely connected world.
He came to inspection / before me in sections
RR
December 11th, 2007
This Lovely Lovely World
335. People with perfect pitch
336. How veggie wraps are tasty in almost every restaurant–seemingly impossible to screw up
337. Sloan
338. The Killers (band, der)
339. Clean dry sidewalks in winter
340. Crunching leaves or cracking ice (or making wine or bursting paintballs) with your feet
341. Clapping on the beat
342. Biting stuff
343. Canada
344. Microwaves
345. People who contribute to this
(so far: 345 a) Jessica
b) David
c) Jane
d) Kerry
e) Penny
f) Ian
g) Scott
h) Felicia
i) Fred
j) Kevin
346. Things that are better than you’d expect
347. Riding in cars
348. Harmonicas
I like you
I hope you’ve seen the wealth of wonderfulness hiding in the comments on previous posts. To add to the joy, I’ve been polling a wide range of friends and acquaintances. Liking stuff is a pretty fun game to play with people you don’t know well, because everybody does like stuff!!
325. turkey help-lines
326. Christmas cards
327. first-edition hardcovers
328. reading copies
329. giving books away
330. lattice (waffle) fries
331. paintball
332. roasted red peppers
333. lasers
334. families
So much more to come!
December 8th, 2007
Can-Lit Tip
It’s going to be a Can-Lit Christmas here at Rose-coloured, and while not exclusively, I have mainly been accumulating books for the holidays, which in addition to being entertaining and edifying, are also easy to wrap rectangles! Hurrah!
I’m also attempting a semi-non-corporate holiday here, not because I am completely convinced of the evils of big companies (I do enjoy shiny, as we all know) but because when possible, I’d rather my cash go somewhere that I think will do something awesome with it, and most likely needs it. I won’t be naming names but the companies that I’m ambivalent about are not really feeling the bite of my semi-boycott–if I don’t shop there, other people will. On the other hand, when I buy a book at Book City or This Ain’t the Rosedale Library I feel like it might actually matter. Which is a good feeling.
Much as I love the look and feel, breadth and range, and care that I see in small bookstores, they can’t stock everything. In our want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it lifestyle (ok, in mine) it can start to seem quixotic to stomp to 4 bookstores in the cold when you actually know what you want is at the mall. And while shopping online is the answer to many lifestyle issues, as far as I know the online bookstores are all big corporate. (if there’s a little indie site somewhere in Canada, please tell me!)
You’ve probably understood the point of this post from paragraph one, or some years before, but to me it was a revelation that came last month: you can order books directly from the publisher!! If the book’s print, it’ll be in stock, and the publisher actually makes more money on that particular sale because they don’t have to give a cut to the store/site/distributer/whatever.
Ok, yes, I’ve been working in publishing for more than five years, but let’s emphasize that it wasn’t marketing/sales, ok? Thanks!
I can see not wanting to do this if you only want a single book from each publishing house, but multiple books in total, and want the economies of scale that come from the online superstores (ie. free shipping). But some houses have pretty good deals about this stuff, too, especially around the holidays, and many (I’m sure not all) are as quick and easy as an online superstore.
So here’s what you do–find out what publishing house puts out your book, or distributes it in Canada (most, though not all, imported books will come into the country through some sort of a arrangement with a Canadian house–no need to order books from abroad unless a) they haven’t been picked up here for whatever reason, b) they’re cheaper elsewhere, c) you particularly like a cover from another country. If you don’t know, Google your book (or, sigh, search it on one of the Canadian bookstore sites) and it’ll tell you.
Then google the house or find it on The Association of Canadian Publishers website, and follow their ordering system. It’s a couple extra steps, but it might be worthwile, if you feel so inclined.
Happy reading and, oh, happy Hannukkah (everyone spells this holiday differently! How do you spell it?)
RR
December 6th, 2007
More
281 Wintersleep’s “Weighty Ghost”
282 Streaming
283 Days of rest
284 Christmas cards
Buy the book: