Canada Day!

Posted on July 1, 2004 by Heather

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers. (All, uh, two of you I think.)

Canada Day is quite different then the American holiday of Independence Day. Today we are celebrating the joining of the British North American provences into the dominion (and later country) of Canada. This holiday was orginally created in 1979 as Dominion Day, but was later changed to Canada Day in 1982. (Funny, that’s in my lifetime, but I don’t ever remember the old name. I suppose I was too young.)The Canadian Flag

Canada Day is celebrated in many different ways. Generally speaking, people have the day off work, except those unlucky enough to work in tourist areas. (The major mall in downtown Toronto is open today, for example.) In many major cities and towns, there are festivals and celebrations around the city hall or at the major park. Often, a part of these celebrations is a citizenship ceremony, where new citizens are sworn in. The entertainment and food at these festivals, especially that in Ottawa, refect the diversity of Canada. And perhaps the best part of Canada Day is the fireworks displays at night. There are lots of professional displays to see, but many different types of fireworks are legally avaliable and people set them off in their own backyard or nearby open field.

So my plan for today is to enjoy having quanta home for a long weekend, before we have a procession of guests join us next week. We are also going to walk down to the lakeshore later to see if we can see the fireworks from Ontario Place. Other then that, I’m just going to be proud that I am a Canadian.

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Grammar and Focus

Posted on June 29, 2004 by Heather

I finished up the Barnes and Nobles grammar course today. I can’t say that I learned anything that I didn’t already know, but it was still nice to finally learn the rules that I follow unknowingly. And I have certainly written a lot of notes in the past few weeks. I’m going to file everything away so that I have them for reference when a problem crops up.

As for The Book, it is slow going. I think I have decided on a how-to or course, since I am so dissatisfied with all those currently available. That means that there will be a good deal of research to do and notes to make. Most of what I want to include I know, but I can’t always put that knowledge into words. And it is also difficult to be sure that I am including everything that a neophyte would need to know. I must be careful about assuming too much about what my reader already knows. So, there will be much reading of forums, books, and websites dedicated to newcomers. I need to discover what is being taught (or not taught, as the case may be), and what questions are being asked. This is certainly not going to be a six month project.

My dad gave me quite a bit of encouragement this weekend. I am always uncomfortable discussing my spirituality with my parents, but he thinks The Book is a great idea. Maybe I will write it with him in mind. It is important to have an audience in mind when writing, and he might just be right.

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And the Winner Is…

Posted on June 29, 2004 by Heather

Entry number 300 here at the Pond marks the final edition of my Unofficial Guide to Canadian Politics for the Uninterested and the Apathetic. Paul Martin and the Liberals have been re-elected as a minority government. That means that they hold the most seats in Parliament, but they do not hold more then 50% of the seats. In fact, they have only 36.71% of the seats. So, to pass laws and make the government work well they must either make an alliance with another party (the NDP is the most likely), or at least sweet talk the party that is most likely to support whatever it is they are working on at the current time.

As I mentioned before, I did vote. And although my candidate didn’t win his seat (in fact, no Greens got into Parliament), I still feel good about voting for him. And overall I am pleased with the shape of the government. I think that Canadians have shown that no one party is particularly in favour right now, but we like parts of what each party stands for. With the minority government shaped the way it is, each party will have to work together to find the moderate road, and hopefully please as many Canadians as possible. This is especially true because with a minority government we might see another federal election in as few as two years, and I suspect that parties who don’t try to get along will be penalized by voters in that election.

The end of election season marks the end of my interest in politics. Really, this is the only time that I pay much attention to what is going on up north in Ottawa. Sure, if I big issue pops up I do try to learn about it, but over all Canadian politics are very bland. Tomorrow should see a return to more normal entries, promise.

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Canada Votes… Finally

Posted on June 28, 2004 by Heather

It is election day here in Canada, and polls are just starting to close out east. So far, no results are in, but it is only a matter of time until we discover who Canadians hate the least. This year, I’ve tried to pay attention to the what all the parties have had to say, but it was difficult. I haven’t heard so much whining and name calling since I was in grade school. But I did vote, last weekend at the advance polls. I voted early mostly because I just wanted to get it over with.

I’ve been checking out the CBC page dedicated to the election, and I thought I would email in my thoughts.

Quite frankly, I have never been so disappointed with the party leaders as I have been during this election campaign. It seems to me that they did everything possible to avoid talking about the important issues, as well as avoiding any concrete election promises. Every time a leader opened his mouth, it seemed like he was lashing out at one of his opponents over some minor (and occasional major) point. What about the parties platforms? Do they not count anymore? Are we supposed to be voting based on who made the wittiest remark about their opponents downfalls? If that’s the case, none of them win.

I can’t wait until this is all over. *sigh*

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Sidhe Shots – Awareness

Posted on June 28, 2004 by Heather

This week’s theme for Sidhe Shots is Awareness. I took a picture of my current journal, my Robin Wood Tarot, and one of my daggers. The journal represents awareness of myself, and the Tarot deck resprents awareness of both the future and my higher self. As for the dagger, I see it as a tool of awareness, its sharp edge cutting through the fog to show us what is there.


Awareness

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Unconscious Mutterings 73

Posted on June 28, 2004 by Heather

Yesterday was a busy day. I spent approximately four and a half hours redoing the computer room. We now have nice new decks from Ikea. And the computer room no longer looks like a leftover from our university days. I still need to do a bit of rearanging and reorganizing, but my back is killing me. Sadly, I had to do nearly all of the work by myself because quanta’s parents all but kidnapped him last night.

Anyway, enough whining, on to Unconscious Mutterings.

  1. Lounge:: Rest
  2. Photograph:: Picture
  3. Catacomb:: Dungeon
  4. Crucifix:: Cross
  5. Fire drill:: School
  6. Tube:: Sock
  7. Dropped:: Class
  8. LTD:: Wha?
  9. Panther:: Cat
  10. Formica:: Table

Unconscious Mutterings

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Witches Weekly – Jewellery

Posted on June 26, 2004 by Heather

It’s time for another Witches Weekly. (This weeks questions were donated by: Liv)

Wearing Symbols in Public

Do you wear any religious symbol jewelry/clothing? If so do you wear it openly in public?
No, I generally do not wear any religious symbols in public. When I was much younger, and fairly new to Wicca, I used to wear an ankh ring and a pentacle ring. In university, I wore ankh earrings almost every day (they were so small most people mistook them for crosses). Just after university, I wore a pentacle pendent, but I usually kept it in my shirt. Currently, I am looking for a small gold pendent, pentacle or ankh, to wear. If I found one, I might wear it in public, depending on what I was doing. I wouldn’t wear it at work, because as I have said before, I feel religion is private and has no place at work.

How do you feel about the issue of wearing religious symbols in schools and how some young teens are forced to remove their religious fashions?
If all religious jewellery is included, then it doesn’t bother me. So, no pentacles, cross or Stars of David. I think it teaches children that they are more then their religion, and allows them to get to know someone who they might not normally want to know because of their religion. I do feel, however, that young ladies should be allowed to cover their head. That is one of their religious tenants, and not a fashion statement like religious jewellery is.

Have you ever experienced a confrontation about wearing your jewelry in public? How did you handle the situation if so?
I have never had any sort of confrontation about my jewellery. Once, one of my co-workers mistook my ankh necklace for a cross and asked me when my confirmation was. (She wasn’t the sharpest tack in the box.) A few years ago, when I was wearing a pentacle necklace, it slipped out of my shirt while I was helping a rather matronly customer decide on a game for her son. When she noticed it, I saw her eyes get larger and she grabbed the game we were talking about, quickly bought it and left the store. I’m not sure that my necklace caused it, but it seemed that way to me.

Witches Weekly

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