test blog #10

Major congratulations are in order! Our friends and fellow expatriates "Gito and Mrtew" are now Canadian citizens! Or soon will be: they've passed their test and are scheduled to take their oath. These guys have been through a lot to be together. Because Gito is not a US citizen, they couldn't live together in the US, since their relationship is not legally recognized. They stayed together through deportation and then the long wait of immigration. In Canada, they were able to get married, buy an adorable house in Windsor, and make their life together. Gito is now attending university. We finally met in person for the first time a few years ago , and I'm sure we'll all see each other again. The Red Sox in Detroit are a great excuse to visit friends in Windsor. You can see Gito's amazing and unusual photography at eggfactory and Arte is Foto . Becoming Canadian means a lot to me, and our journey from that first thought - "Maybe we should move to Canad...

I don't watch award shows and I don't care about the Grammys (i.e., I care about music), but I love this footage of Mick Jagger and Raphael Saadiq rehearsing for this year's Grammy show. It swings like crazy, and Jagger is so hot in his street clothes and sneakers. I wish there was more straight-on footage and fewer effects. Seeing Mick look so down-to-earth reminded me of a wonderful bit I read about how he is described in few different books - by Keith, Christopher Isherwood and Werner Herzog. As everyone knows by now, Mick Jagger's foibles and flaws are on display in Keith Richards's autobiography, "Life." (Mick's harp playing receives the highest marks from Keith, but that's pretty much it as far as unqualified praise goes.) Jagger comes off considerably better in "The Sixties," the second volume of Christopher Isherwood's diaries. Isherwood describes meeting Jagger in the Australian outback, where he was filming "Ned Kelly...

I've been breathlessly following the news from Wisconsin for a week, and it just keeps getting better. Canadian readers may not know that the capital of this once (and future?) liberal US state has been a battleground for labour rights and public services, ever since Governor Scott Walker declared war on public-sector workers. First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced a state budget plan that strips state workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, cuts pay and benefits and says there will be no negotiations. Today, he took it even further: He announced he has alerted the National Guard to be ready in case state workers strike or rise in protest. He told the Associated Press he’s been working on contingency plans for months. The last time the National Guard was used against public workers was the Postal Workers strike in 1970. The last time the Guard was called out in Wisconsin to quell a labor dispute was the 1934 Kohler strike by the UAW. A few days later, ...

From Coquitlam Now , with heartfelt thanks to Jeff Schutts. Canada's conscience 'in limbo' by Jeff Schutts Old news: American soldiers living in Canada seek sanctuary from the Iraq War. When you heard this news several years ago you probably responded with confusion; unlike during the Vietnam War, the United States now has a volunteer military. And, like most Canadians (64 per cent in a 2008 poll), once you considered the war's controversies, chances are you thought that Canada should allow them to stay. It hardly seems right that someone should go to jail for refusing to take part in activities like those at Abu Ghraib prison, or otherwise fight in what the United Nations (UN) general secretary deemed an "illegal war." After all, the lack of a UN sanction for the U.S. invasion of Iraq was why the Liberal government of the day declined to participate. Surely, all that is resolved by now. Barack Obama is president and, as he declared last August, "the Amer...

Despite my complaints , there is some good news. Nothing solid like a job offer - too early for that - but hope is beginning to take shape on three different fronts. Volunteering. At the iSchool, we are absolutely inundated with opportunities to be more active in the library and information science community. Talks, conferences, networking opportunities, volunteering needs - our in-boxes are flooded on a regular basis. At first this used to add to the pressures I felt during my first term, but I learned to quickly scroll through the emails, then hit delete. However, graduates are expected to have participated in some extracurricular activities. Library students are especially expected to go beyond, at least a bit. I don't think anyone expects our resumes to be laden with organizations and activities, but on the other hand, not having any would be a deficiency. I feel like I can't afford to have anything working against me - I'm not going through all this to lose out on a ...

A new list thread is coming soon, but first I must use my poor, neglected blog to complain about why my blog is neglected. This is not a participatory list - it's an extended whine. I am very glad I am on the road to making a career change, and very hopeful about my prospective new career. I'm super excited about becoming a librarian. So far, my library-specific courses have been extremely interesting; the one I'm taking now - Intro to Reference - I love . But being in school sucks. Here's why. 1. I hate always having to read for school rather than what I choose to read. Even if I have a bit of time in which I could be reading something for myself, I don't - the need to read for school is too pressing, plus my mind is so crowded and over-stimulated, pleasure reading isn't even pleasurable. 2. I hate not having adequate time to blog. Other than papers for school, blogging is my only writing outlet. I need it. I don't have enough of it. 3. My schedule is too ...

It's been a very long time since I posted a column by Bob Herbert. He's an excellent thinker and writer with a difficult beat: the liberal readers of the not-so-liberal New York Times , who he challenges to step outside their comfortable, 10-degrees-left-of-centre box. As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only. As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only. While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, a...