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summer at last

This summer is much needed. Classes are over finally and my exams are done. I have two final papers due next week that I will have to write sometime but I’m not thinking about that right now.

I need a break. I have been a full time student for 8 semesters straight now. I got a bad cold that lasted for most of April, through final projects and assignments. I’ve ended up quite demotivated and it’s making finishing the semester a challenge.

But…

Spring is here and in this part of the country it never lasts long. My daffodils are done and the tulips are blooming profusely. I can smell the hyacinths as soon as I step out the door. Soon it will be summer and the heat will be oppressive. One of my neighbours is running an air conditioner tonight. I went around the block with the kids on their bikes tonight and we stopped at the park. I don’t remember the last time we had the leisure to do that. It feels so good to have time to just be with them.

I have big hopes and plans for the summer. I have a new website that I’ve been developing in my spare time (hahaha) which will go live any day now. I’ll be doing some web design for money this summer, plus there’s a chance I’ll be working on a cyber ethics text with a prof at the university here. I’ve had some photos accepted to a conference in Windsor and another in Toronto and I received a grant to do portraits of low-income moms and their families. The photo meetup group is going to start up again and I’m taking some exciting trips too. It’s going to be a wonderful summer.

I’m hoping to remember what it is I like to do for fun and do more of that. I’m also hoping to figure out how it is I’m going to support my family when I graduate. It’s a tall order but the summer will be long, right?

I’ve already started working on my sunburn.

Yay Canadian BlogHers!!!

Hooray for Kate!

After BlogHer 2005 (which I could not attend) I got really keen for bringing it to Canada. I talked with the team at BlogHer and they put me in contact with Alexandra Samuel. Unfortunately my house was robbed right as the excitement was building and with no computer it was a challenge to keep up the momentum. Then the new semester began and here it is April…

Luckily Kate has started up with the idea and there is interest! I’m so excited – it will be a great way to meet other bloghers, and a fabulous way to share the work of planning.

Get ready for more of this at E3 2006

Rob‘s been away at GDC this week and he’s been taking pictures of the boothbabes apparently. This photo is from his flickr page. With the fines for objectifying women set for this year I wonder how many boothbabes like this one we’ll be seeing at E3 2006?

It ain’t easy

These ‘happy’ posts are easy. Essays about sexism, feminism, culture, i.e. ‘Issues’ are easy too. For the ‘happy’ posts, all that’s required is making a list about my day, noting a few good things. For an essay, I just do some research, often something I’m doing for school anyways, maybe form an opinion or take a stance, depending on the type of essay, but really, it’s all pretty academic. I mean, it’s work, but it’s all relatively straightforward.

Blogging about ourselves is sometimes straightforward – like the happy posts from last week. But sometimes, publishing a blog post puts us out on the line. A real line. I talked about this a bit in this post, about how often do we play down our politics.

I’m involved in an action campaign which began through a club at school. The backlash has been personal and at times overwhelming. I’ve debated writing about it but fear potential backlash on my own ground. Of course, without posting about it I can’t enlist the support I might get from the community of bloggers that come here to visit.

Feminist backlash is not just some academic thing that happens to other people. It happened to me and is happening to me still. If I find the courage this weekend I might put up the post. I sure could use the support.

Happy? February 26, 2006

Happy things for today:

1. I found skates – they’re bright blue and they’re comfortable. Not to shabby considering it’s February, winter’s almost over here, and I had to go to more than one store to find them.
2. Skating was excellent. I took my kids, my s.o. brought his, and other friends brough their three. We went to an outdoor rink in the downtown which was relatively empty and all of us, kids and grownups, had a great time. It’s the first time in 11 years that every child can stand up on their own, which means I got to skate too!



3. We followed up the great afternoon with a fabulous meal of hot soy cocoa, homemade Vietnamese rice noodle rolls (with the wonderful Mimi Gardens hoisin sauce), coconut curry, mashed yams, and steamed broccoli (for the kids who don’t like their food saucy or spicy).
4. Everyone ate.
5. Hooray for cell phones. My car broke down on the way home – it looks like there’s a hole in the coolant tank, a hose, and/or the rad is shot, but thanks to the handy dandy cellphone in my pocket I was able to call that very same s.o.’s house which I’d just left and within 15 minutes we were pouring in a jug of coolant and he was following me home so I could get the kids out of the -8 °C night and in to bed. We made it home safely and I don’t have to drive anywhere today. I have some time to sort out if I’m going to get the rad (and transmission which went last week) fixed or if I should just look at replacing it. Everything’s going to be fine and it feels great.

When I Need Help Getting Happy

When I need help getting back to feeling good about what I’m doing, I like to read Gendergeek.org’s FAQ page In clear language, they summarize the reasons why we’re doing what we do as feminists:

We would like to live in a world where women weren’t subject to male violence; where work of equal value was paid at an equal rate; where women had real options in respect of work-life balance; where reproductive healthcare didn’t have to be fought and refought for; where women were represented in public office and at senior levels in insitutions; and where economics, jurisprudence, and public policy took cognisance of the realities of women’s lives.

They identify the backlash that comes when people don’t like our actions (this takes the forms of the actual frequently asked questions). The page is like a quick overview and reminder of what I’ve studied in feminist philosophy and epistomology:

So much of claimed rationality is in fact androcentrism masquerading as value-free objective analysis. The idea that an emotional response is inappropriate should in and of itself be interrogated.

Sometimes this is enough to get me back on track when I start to get run down.

Thank you Emma and Emmy. And like I said in the comments to your Buffy piece, welcome to WordPress and great choice of theme.

Time to be Happy

Get ready – here goes:

1. The owner of the vacant house next door picked up the garbage in the backyard. This will hopefully help deal with the rat issue around the neighbourhood.
2. Reading week officially begins now! I have plenty to keep me busy but there will definitely be sleep time and rest time.
3. I had a great evening with my kids tonight.
4. I have a great s.o. who helped me a lot this morning. It’s great to have real life help when you need it.
5. Tomorrow I’m planning to buy myself ice skates and take my kids skating. My daughter (age 11) grew into my skates this year which were always a bit tight anyway. We’re going to go skating in the afternoon. Everyone is excited but it’s hard to tell who is the most excited, me or them.

3 days running: More Happy, February 23, 2006

If you look around you can usually find something to be positive about. If you want to be happy, you can be. Here’s my list for today:

1. There were birds singing outside my window this morning.
2. I have chocolate chip cookies waiting for me at home.
3. Only 3 more papers to write and then it’s Spring Break!
4. It’s a skirt day. Mine is long and flowy, kind of gauzy.
5. My daughter’s aikido test is tonight and she is so excited!

More Happy: February 22, 2006

It just goes on and on! More reasons to be happy:

1. I have a night off with my kids tonight.
2. I get to go grocery shopping this afternoon.
3. Latin dancing was awesome (and I got to skip out early with my partner for yummy eats). Chachacha, rumba, samba… aaaahhhhh. I’m a total dance junky.
4. I got this really cool bag from Moutain Equipment Coop in the mail today.
5. I gave away 6 big boxes of fabric on freecycle. I used to sew costumes for a living (egad! and design make all mine and my kids’ clothes too!) but those days are past and the fabric is clutter. It feels great to have the space back.

5 Things to be Happy About: Feb 21, 2006

Here are 5 reasons why I’m happy today:

1. In my corner of the world there is sunshine. It was wonderful that walking home from campus today I got to take off hat and mittens.
2. My daffodils are poking their heads up through the winter’s mulch. (See #1)
3. I have a Latin dancing lesson tonight.
4. I finished my midterms. One was last night and two were today.
5. Next week is reading week which means no exams, no assignments, no school!