Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Good News Everyone!
Nathanael Shelton-Richards (a.k.a. my nephew) entered his short film, Take Out the Garbage, in the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, AND WON! first prize for grade 10 - 12 category. Way to go, Nat!His film is about a boy named, uh, Nathanael, who continuously procrastinates to avoid taking out the garbage. After he dozes off several times rather than completing his chore, Nathanael learns that sometimes the only way to escape responsibility is to escape reality.
I, ahem, have a small role in the film. My first "project" really. I am, of course, onto something else at the moment...keeping it hush, hush for the time being.
The festival launched in 1998 with an attendance of 2,300, and has grown at a phenomenal pace, increasing its audience to over 25,000 in 2007.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Child Behaviour
Just read an article at Slate.com on how to help your child behave properly.Apparently, smacking your kid around doesn't work and neither does taking the talk and explain approach. What, you may ask is the answer? Go find out for yourself.
Here's a step-by-step explanation of what goes on in that little brain when you do this or that.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Ard!!!!!!!!
Check this out...interested? Date of the chase is June 21st.
City Chase is...
The City Chase is a unique urban adventure that requires participants to exhibit teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. ChasePoints are designed to test teams with a variety of physical, mental, and otherwise adventurous challenges.
To conquer this 4-6 hour urban event, 2-person teams will run, walk and use public transit to navigate their way throughout the city, while calling family and friends for help, accessing the Internet, and even employing assistance of total strangers. The first team to complete the required ChasePoints and cross the finish line WINS
City Chase is the World's Largest Urban Adventure Series!!
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Pompous Windbags
Just read a review by Paul Theroux of a biography on V. S. Naipaul. The biography, as yet unread by me, is written by Patrick French. The title: The World Is What It Is.
Naipaul, is in this authorized biography, shown to be self-centred, masochistic, vile, womanizing, racist, and I suspect, a self hating man. But then, we should all have known this; at least I did, from an unfinished reading of The Enigma of Arrival (published in 1987). Enigma was, in some ways, a love poem to Naipaul's new found home -- England. Every little nook and cranny of this supposed novel is filled with unending admiration for good England. Admiration which spoke to me of self-loathing by the writer for himself, for his land of birth (Trinidad), his people (Indians) and their Black brethren. Naipaul was a sometime great writer with an awful personality.
In the review, Theroux, an erstwhile great travel writer, basically says, 'I told you so!' And then proceeds to repeat this same phrase over and over again. It makes good copy if you want to sell newspapers. But Theroux had already vilified Naipaul in his memoir, Sir Vidia’s Shadow. In Sir Vidia, Theroux, who had a falling out with his friend and mentor, wrote about how Naipaul was a depressive, a racist, and a snob. This was Theroux's way of getting back at Naipaul for Naipaul's dismissal of their friendship.
As for Theroux, whose Dark Star Safari, a travelogue of his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town, I recently also left unfinished, proves himself no better than his adversary. I could not stand the fact that for Theroux, everyone he met in his travels fell into one of two camps: You were either a "tourist" and not a "traveller" like Theroux and therefore, beneath him; or you were a "local" trapped in your provincial life and state of mind. Nobody in this book, it seems, knew as much as Mr. Theroux. Gone is the wonderfully prismatic mind which wrote, Riding the Iron Rooster.
Sadly, it has come to this. Two great writers, at least early in their careers, go down slinging mud at each other, calling names, telling tales, raising their middle finger and acting exactly like each other.
Naipaul, is in this authorized biography, shown to be self-centred, masochistic, vile, womanizing, racist, and I suspect, a self hating man. But then, we should all have known this; at least I did, from an unfinished reading of The Enigma of Arrival (published in 1987). Enigma was, in some ways, a love poem to Naipaul's new found home -- England. Every little nook and cranny of this supposed novel is filled with unending admiration for good England. Admiration which spoke to me of self-loathing by the writer for himself, for his land of birth (Trinidad), his people (Indians) and their Black brethren. Naipaul was a sometime great writer with an awful personality.
In the review, Theroux, an erstwhile great travel writer, basically says, 'I told you so!' And then proceeds to repeat this same phrase over and over again. It makes good copy if you want to sell newspapers. But Theroux had already vilified Naipaul in his memoir, Sir Vidia’s Shadow. In Sir Vidia, Theroux, who had a falling out with his friend and mentor, wrote about how Naipaul was a depressive, a racist, and a snob. This was Theroux's way of getting back at Naipaul for Naipaul's dismissal of their friendship.
As for Theroux, whose Dark Star Safari, a travelogue of his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town, I recently also left unfinished, proves himself no better than his adversary. I could not stand the fact that for Theroux, everyone he met in his travels fell into one of two camps: You were either a "tourist" and not a "traveller" like Theroux and therefore, beneath him; or you were a "local" trapped in your provincial life and state of mind. Nobody in this book, it seems, knew as much as Mr. Theroux. Gone is the wonderfully prismatic mind which wrote, Riding the Iron Rooster.
Sadly, it has come to this. Two great writers, at least early in their careers, go down slinging mud at each other, calling names, telling tales, raising their middle finger and acting exactly like each other.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Sibbald Point
Sibbald Point Provincial: We will be back there again this summer.
I love this place. It has everything a summer holiday should have: Camping, a beach on a swimmable lake, a snack bar full of sugary treats, hiking trails, primitive showers, kid friendly facilities and memories from previous summers.
Here's a pic or two from our stay at Sibbald last year.
I love this place. It has everything a summer holiday should have: Camping, a beach on a swimmable lake, a snack bar full of sugary treats, hiking trails, primitive showers, kid friendly facilities and memories from previous summers.
Here's a pic or two from our stay at Sibbald last year.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Rash Free
As pointed out by my good doctor at the walk-in-and-wait-clinic, many people come in reporting rashes/splotches/hives; in most cases the reason for such outbreaks is never identified but merely treated symptomatically. The splotches I previously wrote about disappeared several weeks ago. I am no closer to figuring out what was causing them. Nevertheless, I am happy to see them go.
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