A British news paper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is
funny how it took someone in England to put it into words...
_____________________________________________________________________________

Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON -


Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.

Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall,
waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with
the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:

It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in
two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.

Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The
great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the 'British.'

The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war
with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the
previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film
only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in
which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching
scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has
any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood
keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British.

It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be
Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any
takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of
its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone
else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's
peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian
imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then
disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like

Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.

It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.

______________________________________________________________________________

Please pass this on to any of your friends or relatives who served in the
Canadian Forces or anyone who is proud to be Canadian; it is a wonderful
tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.

Nathan Fillion has 'friends only'ed his myspace! Now I have to really gather up the courage to message him and I don't know how!!!!!! *sobs*

AND I MISSED DRIVE!!!!!!

G

Quote of the day: "Get me to the roof. I'll do a little bit of the Hadoken thing, and we'll have some corpses where our problems used to be." -Black Mage, www.nuklearpower.com

God does MySpace piss me off. I feel like getting ranty.

Aggravation #1 - I spent about 45 minutes working on my profile but when I 'saved' the damn thing it just went right back to what it was before.

Aggravation #2 - I then started to post an entry about said aggravation but this stupid Telus add kept popping up and was like, part of the fucking page, covering the part where you type the entry heading. So when I went to post what I wrote, an error message popped up saying I couldn't post without putting a heading.

*nervous tick*

Yeah, only 2 things and I'm so aggravated. What a waste of time. I wanted to write something tonight but I'm too pissed off.

*takes a deep breath* Just walk it off...just walk it off...

I have my Trinity Soundtrack playing so at least that's soothing.

Maybe writing will come to me.

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "My toes are getting pruney." -Caboose, Red VS Blue

So we had our Trailer Park Boys event today at work. It was pretty fun! I'm not a huge fan but now I wanna watch it! You could definately feel the IQ of the mall drop by about 50%. LOL! Everyone cheered when they came out and all the employees were all crowded around the door to see. Marcie the manager was all "get back to work!!" and I'm like "No". Well.....I didn't say that exactly, but essentially..... She didn't say much else after that. She gets on my nerves sometimes...

Their book sales were around $5000, so that's awesome. Our GM was pretty happy with it. He even bought them a bottle of JD and vodka (since they were all in character). I was half tempted to put "Shawn's LC run for secret stash" as a reason for the disbursement. That would have been hi-larious.

And Heather and I also thwarted a shoplifter from getting away with it. At least we think she was a shoplifter. Pretty sure. We were on the BALL! HOO-RAH! This woman came up to the desk and asked about the Trailer Park Boys book, then walked away with 2 copies and Heather, Jamie and I were like, "where is she going???" cuz you had to pay for them right there. Then a few minutes later she comes back with 1 and puts it back on the pile we had. And I ask her "Where's the other one??" and she's like, "What other one???" and I'm like "You walked away with 2 and came back with 1" and Heather was all like, "Yeah, we need them all up here" and so she walks away to 'find' it and comes back with the 1 and two other books that she had hid into the teen section. I met her halfway and she's all like, "oh, but will these still be here when I get back??" and so I told her I would put them on hold for her.

SUCH A SHOPLIFTER!!

Heather saw the girls' friend with a shopping cart full of coats, perfect for hiding things in. And such a typical method too. Hide the book then come back for it later. Heather and I were all pumped up afterwards with our thrilling victory.

Shawn is also gonna burn me the Trailer Park Boys soundtrack he had. We got to play it this afternoon and it was SO AWESOME! All Canadian music like Tragically Hip, Guess Who, The Rush, etc. Such good songs!

But yeah, the night was pretty uneventful.

I hardly post anything anymore! Sorry I'm such a flake! And I'm on almost every night with taryn_scott too. I'm just too lazy to come on here and update. I've been busy photoshopping pics for Trinity for D&D. I've been getting some pretty kewl ones from DeviantArt and changing them around to fit the character. It's been time consuming but I've got some kewl-looking stuff.

Trinity is now 14th level with means hello Limited Wish!! I can't wait to throw those around all willy-nilly! *evil laughter* I've pretty much given up on trying to get together with Tim to work on character stuff. I made plans with him 4 weeks in a row to get together and each time he either "forgot", slept in or "forgot what day it was". It's so frickin' annoying. I get irritated just thinking about it. I need to work things out/through with him and I can't. I don't wanna do it during our Sunday sessions because I don't want the others throwing in their two cents and criticizing my ideas. Tim won't say no to my ideas, he'll try and fit them in. Matt already said 'you won't be able to do that' so one of my ideas, whereas Tim would get an excited look on his face.

Oh well, that's a really long thing I don't wanna get into. ^_^

Oh yeah, here's a stupid joke for all of you who love stupid jokes. Heather told me:
"What does Snoop Dog use to do his laundry?"



















"Blea-otch!"

HAHAHAHA!! I laughed my ass off! Matt and Kris just looked at me funny. *scratches head*

But anyways, I wanna get back to my pics. (ieee!!)

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "Looks like I picked a hell of a day to quit amphetamines." -Airplane

Today has been one of the best work-days I've had in a long time. It felt good. Heather was one of my cashiers and we just talked all day. I put her at the front desk so she could be close to the cash office. I finished the daily paperwork and went of my till with her. We joked around, bitched and gossiped all day.

She was still getting over her flu so she was feeling like crap all day though. I let her cash out early and we just sat in the cash office talking from 3-4:30. We were 'working' of course. I helped her cash out her till, then we got away with doing nothing for 30 minutes, then we both cashed tills out for the closing cashiers and killed some more minutes by taking our sweet 'ol time doing our stuff. Then I swiped out and she went on her last break and we ended up talking for another 30 minutes.

I also had found this ADORABLE puppy book with such cute pictures! I was looking at it all day laughing at the cuties and going 'SQUEE!'.

Well, I wasn't saying 'squee', but I was thinking it.

Then I bought a new pair of sunglasses because I forgot mine at home and it was sunny and I hate driving without my sunglasses. So I didn't leave work until an hour after I was off. But anyway, it was a good day.

SOOO GOOD!

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day:
"Um, point of interest. You've been in here for half an hour."
"Oh shit! I'll just tell Echon I was in magazines."
"Ah, he probably hasn't noticed anyway."
-Heather and Me

This is from an old-old e-mail. I warn you, this of true of the city I live in...SO BEWARE!! The last 3 I added myself.

I give you...

A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO WINNIPEG

1. First you must learn to pronounce the city name. It is WIN-A-PEG, not VIN-A-PEG and it does not matter how people pronounce it in other places (Oh yeah, and it's not WINNIE-PEG either!)

2. Winnipeg has its own version of traffic rules. Never forget that downtown Winnipeg is composed in large part of one way streets. The only way to get out of the center of town is to turn around and start over when you reach the river.

3. All directions start with, "Go down Portage."

4. Portage has no beginning and no end.

5. The 8:00 a.m. rush hour is from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. The 5:00 PM rush hour is from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

6. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you cannot be from Winnipeg.

7. Lagimodiere Blvd can only be pronounced by a native Winnipegger, so do not attempt the phonetic pronunciation. People will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you. (And we'll pretend we don't know what you're talking about when we damn-well know for a fact what you're trying to say)

8. Perogies and mosquitos are a fact of life. Deal with it.

9. Construction on the Winnipeg streets in summer is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment.

10. Many bizarre sights can be explained simply by uttering the phrase, "Oh, we're in Transcona."

11. Construction crews aren't doing their job properly unless they close down all lanes except one during rush hour.

12. If someone actually has his or her turn signal on, it was probably left on at the factory where the car was made.

13. Buying a Winnipeg street map is a waste of money since the termination or continuation of any street is entirely at the discretion of the Works Department of the City.

14. Asking directions will help you get acquainted with the numerous recent residents. It will not be any help at all for finding the address you seek. (And it may very well begin with "Go down Portage..."

15. Never honk your horn at another car in traffic. The bumper sticker that reads,"Keep honking, I'm reloading." is considered a fair warning. (And tail-gaiting only makes the person go slower, and they're doing to be assholes)

16. Exit and entry ramps on the Perimeter are just the recommended way of entering and exiting, feel free to exit at any grassy point you wish.

17. Green lights mean 'slow down when you approach the intersection just in case it turns yellow'. Yellow lights mean 'boot it!'. Red lights mean 'I can still
make it!!!!'

18. When you're crossing a street on foot the oncoming traffic will speed up for your audacity of thinking you could make it across in time.

19. If you don't need therapy for your road rage once you leave, you couldn't have been in Winnipeg. Trust me.

Hey look, it's Wednesday. The first part of the week went by rather quickly. I don't work every day this week like I did last week so maybe that has something to do with it. I popped some advil liquid-gels for the pain I'm anticipating later for shovelling our driveway. Man, that took forever. It's a big fuckin' driveway.

Now I'm just waiting for my water to boil (which it probably is by now) for my good 'ol Kraft Dinner then I'm gonna sit down and watch Lost In Translation. I've been craving it the past couple days. I'm also supposed to get together with Tim tonight to work on D&D stuff. Plans, ideas, spells and the like. I just hope I'm up to it later.

Cheers
G

Quote of the day: "You're gonna use a big-boom spell on a balor!?" -Matt

Take a gander. Don't worry there isn't a passing grade if you don't answer. But answer anyway so I can learn something about you.

1. Ever punch someone in the face?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single or taken?
4. Do you eat with your hands or utensils?
5. Do you dream at night?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7. Have you ever wished someone dead?
8. Do you like Bush, the president?

HERE COMES THE FUN ...
9. What's your philosophy on life? And on death?
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know about it, what would it be?
11. Do you trust the police? (the cops, not the band)
12. Do you like country music?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself, would you?
15. Would you date me?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Have you ever peed in a pool? While you were still in it?
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. What is your favorite thing about me?
21. Do you think I'm attractive?
22. What's your favorite color?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you.
25. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

I've been fiddling...







Me likey

I thought this night would never end..! Jezus! It just draaaagged. Plus I hate being at work when I'm in such a "blah, I don't care" mood, like tonight. It's better now that I'm home though.

I think it mostly has to do with the 'Stang being fixed!! No more obscenely loud engine!! I was like, "SQUEE!" when I started it and it just purred instead of the wailing banshee of the past couple days. Holy christ was it annoying.

It's like, "whoa, your car is loud." "what??"

I'm totally addicted to the song, "Linger" by the Cranberries. Such a classic song, and so good. Go download it and enjoy!

OH JUST DO IT!!

And now I have the weekend off!! HUZZAH!! And also tomorrow is the Movie Night I'm having with some girls at work: Heather, Jessie, Sarah, Chey and Jenny! We've been planning it for a month now and we're so excited it's finally here. We're gonna rent some scarey movies, get some junk food, pizza and have a chocolate fondu and watch movies all night.

It's gonna be glorious.

Since I don't ever hang out with women, it'll be a change. LOL!! It'll be an estrogen overload instead of testosterone. Tovah is the only woman I'm friends with outside work. It's weird, but I've always been more inclined to have guy friends and tend to prefer them more. I don't know why. Women can be very tiring sometimes. But I'm not gonna get into it now.

It would require a lot more thinking than I'm willing to put out at this time of night.

I made some new Taryn icons. I'm quite excited about them. And they're the new Taryn too, from when her spirit got put back into a new body... (ie. hence the new hair color)

, , , ,

The last one is just something quick I threw together. They're not the best cuz I really don't know how to make those real funky icons. But I love the colors. And...they're the same pic so they aren't that diverse... SO SUE ME!

Maybe I'll write something... Maybe...

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day:
"And if we don't save the world, then nothing matters."
"That's catchy Amanda. Let's make that our slogan."
-Amanda & Kennedy, Storyteller - BtVS

Ahoy-hoy y'all.

I was thinking yesterday while I was at work (for once). How many people were bullies or had been bullied back in school? I was neither, which I guess makes me one of the lucky ones. Well anyways, I was wondering about how many people who were bullied in school have forgiven their tormentors and no longer have hard feelings towards them.

This question popped into my head when I was covering a break for one of my cashiers yesterday afternoon. Into the store walks a girl who I hated in middle school. I used to be friends with this girl named Jana who was a a grade or two older than I was. We hung out everyday and played for hours. Then she became friends with Danielle and turned into a complete bitch. . .laughing at me and just being mean. And I blamed Danielle for it. Now whenever I see her, that's what I always think about.

Danielle came through my till and I helped her with a smile and friendliness. Afterwards I wondered, If I hate her so much, why am I nice to her whenever she comes into the store? I don't know if she remembers who I am or not. It doesn't matter really. It's not like I'm holding a grudge. I just don't like her.

But anyway, back to my point. People tell you to forgive and forget or whatever the hell it is, but in a way it's letting those bullies get away with treating people like shit. Sure it may have been however many years ago, but they still weren't nice people. What does that teach kids who pick on others nowadays? 'It's ok to do it when you're young because in the future you'll probably be forgiven'?

I don't know where I'm going with this. I just don't think people who were/are mean should be forgiven. It's just too easy. I'm not the best person to be singing this tune, but it's something I believe. I wouldn't hold it against anyone who disliked because of something I did or said to them back in school.

Have you forgiven a childhood tormentor?

On another note.. :)

Jenny gave her two weeks notice today at work.

'Tis a sad day for the Chapters crew! She's one of the most senior employees. She was there when I started 5 years ago. But she got a huge opportunity offered and she's taking it. I'm so happy for her but will be sad to see her go. We're gonna be having a huge Cash Lead shortage in the next few months. Echon is applying for Transit and will find out by the end of February whether or not he's got a job. He's another senior employee. Also a cash lead. Then Tyler and Heather are going to Europe for a month and a half at the end of April, then Heather is going to school in BC and Tyler might be taking a promotion at his other job. Both cash leads.

So that leaves yours truly left. Huzzah. *waves a pathetic flag*

My parents are pressuring me to get a fulltime job, but I can't leave them now when so many other (ALL the other) Cash Leads are leaving. *le sigh*

Just like God said in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, "Just like those miserable psalms, sooo depressing..."

Also. I'm gonna be needing a new car soon and no money to get one. 'Stang is rusting so bad his parts can't stay together. Now when I accelerate it sounds like I'm hugging the engine, it's so loud. I just don't know if I can afford to move out and pay for a new car. I would definately need more pay and 40 hours a week *grumble-grumble*. Matt says we can share his car. And it would be nice, 'cept I gotta learn to drive standard and it would be so hard to work out a schedule with his odd work hours. In the words of Peter Griffen..."SHAPOOPIE!!

I'll write more later!

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "Mean people suck." -old highschool creed

Poll #916085 BUFFY!! (just testing this poll-thing out)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

What is your favorite Buffy season?

Well the 50th birthday party went really well. Everyone had a good time. It was at a pool hall so we got to play and visit with family. My brother's video turned out really well though it was hard to hear some parts because of the noise in the place. He borrowed the projector from a friend and hooked it up to his new uber laptop and played the video off there then burnt it onto a dvd right after for her. It was funny.

Then after Matt and I met up with Kris at my place and killed each other in Halo till 4am. Then Matt stayed the night. It was really nice cuz he hasn't spent the night since he moved into the apartment with Kris in September.

Oh yeah, and Cassandra is back in D&D.

Thought she was dead-dead, but no, apparently that was her clone the Crazed 'Venturers killed. Now she's back and more powerful with a scorching case of herpes (thanks Ferris Beuller's Day Off).

*takes a deep breath* Oh well. We'll just have to kill her real-good this time. Work-work-work. Currently we're surrounded by Drow, Han and Sedrick have just arrived to help us out, Cassandra is about to cast another spell which we can't interrupt, Kardash is a dragon and I'm standing there stupid for 12 rounds. HURRAY!!! :D *thumbs up*

Work is for chumps!!

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
-quote on my new bookmark

I pretty much wasted my time over the past two shifts at work counting gift certificates. Time on Thursday and today counting when it had already been done on Wednesday. No one thought to mention it in the communication binder OR mention it when they saw me doing it. Until tonight when I finished and Vicky and I were joking around about how she was doing work and I wasn't. I said how I counted all the GCs and she said "But they already did that on Wednesday". And I'm like, "What? Then why the hell didn't you say anything!??!" Every manager saw me doing it, including other cashiers and cash leads. No one said anything.

I don't know why I'm so bitter about it.

I really don't.

I mean, it was a good way to pass the time and all. Just for some reason it really pissed me off. Over 10,000 GCs...

I'm just glad I'm only working till 2:30 tomorrow. My mom's thing doesn't start until 6:30, so I could have worked a full shift, but I'm glad I'm not. It'll be so nice.

*looks at the time* blaaaaaaaahhhh.... I better get to bed

le sigh

Cheers
G

Quote of the day:
"So I was sayin to him, you just gotta get the 411!"
"--Did you just say 'get the 411'?"
-Tyler thinks he's such an OG

I just got back from my aunt Margaret's place. My brother was filming my dad and I and my two aunts for a video for my mom's 50th birthday party on Saturday. He asked us a bunch of questions then he's gonna edit it all together. It was pretty fun. We had to keep from laughing during other peoples' responses which we didn't do too well.

Then I hopped on the workout machine we got from deepbluesee3929's mom. My dad doesn't like the idea of me going for walks at night. *rolls eyes* There aren'y many freaks around here.

Anyways, if someone were to try and attack me I would just have to ask myself, "What would Buffy do?".

It would be so kewl if I were a Chosen *giggles in delight* Oh yes.

Oh baby
Oh baby
Oh baby

Know what's a good song? "Alive" by Edwin. So old school. Like...grade 8/9.

Also saw Slither for the first time this past weekend. It was so good! *swoon* Nathan Fillion is so frickin HOT in it. I wanna send him a message in myspace, but I don't wanna end up like some raving lunatic asking to touch his bum...

Uh, I mean... --He's Bill Pardy!

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "Now that is some fucked-up shit." -Bill Pardy, Slither

I hate the dentist.

Not the dentist. I hate going. I hate what they do to you. Did you know they charge you for that scraping-thing they do to your teeth with that miniature icepick? I figure I might as well spring for some midevil torture device where they burn the bottom of your feet and pull out all your teeth without anethestic *stops in consideration*

The worst thing is the taste in your mouth afterwards. And they tell you "Now don't eat or drink anything for a half hour" and you're like, "Um, I don't think so cock-face!" I ran out and got an icecap and timbits from Timmies and had to endure the taste/feeling for the rest of the afternoon. It's pretty much worn off now. Thank god.

Also got my hair cut.

Remind me...

Next time I get my hair trimmed....tell the girl who does it to cut it at least 2 inches shorter than I originally wanted. Cuz she'll most likely cut it shorter thus being the length I want. Like she did this time. A lot of my lovely length is gone. My bangs are nice. I like those. But the rest will take some getting used to. She left the front very blunt for some reason. *wiggles nose* Not sure if Matt will like it.

You know what's a good song? I Don't Feel Like Dancing by the Scissor Sisters. *dances in her chair* Watching the video while your high would be awesome. Very trippy.

Also, I don't know if I like this layout. A bunch of the ones I did like are available only to paid accounts. Wankers. Maybe I'll fiddle around with it when I'm done. I need a bigger monitor so I can see what it actually looks like.

And I fell in league with the darkside by making a myspace account. But I'll say this... I only did it because I heard from sanguinepen (hugs) that Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon have blogs there. I even wrote that on my profile. I'm only there for that reason.

I love my livejournal *snuggles*

I keep putting off my writing for some reason. I used to tell myself, 'I'll work on something after my next test'. But...I'm done school now. The only think taking up my time is work. I'm just lazy. There are even some good prompts at deviant_muses this month, I'm just having problems thinking of something to write.

I feel like watching Gone in 60 Seconds.

Cheers!
G

Quote of the day: "Of all the girls I know, you're the only one who would 'rather kill stuff'." -Matt