why no poets?

We cover poetry and verse in school. We learn rhyme and meter, Limericks, Haikus, and endless variations of ‘Roses are Red.’ Most of us lose all interest and appreciation in it soon after. Sure, you have some angst-ridden teens who churn out reams of doggerel. But most of us have their poetry and verse mocked, beaten, or ridiculed out of us fairly early.

Some do carry on with it. Either in writing song lyrics, composing raps, or even beat poetry. These ones at least get shared. Most poetry that people write seems to be kept private. It might be due to the personal nature of the work or, more likely, to avoid the ridicule of the masses. Blogs and such should allow for more of this to be shared.

I’m not a huge poetry fan but I do appreciate a fine turn of phrase. I like comedy and read voraciously. In blogging, I am able to try and string words together in clever ways and have to keep up with trying to express my thoughts in a somewhat-coherent way.

On Canada Day, I saw a clip of ‘We Are More’ from the Olympics opening ceremonies. This is what inspired me to find a transcript and posted it here. I had to add punctuation though. In looking for it, I came across a bunch of Shane Koyczan’s other works on youtube and became entranced again by the spoken word.

I’m not about to run out and start writing a bunch of poetry. I’m too fond of rhyming to do that. But I may post up the occasional verse that I come across from time to time

Books read 2010 - Apr - June

Apr
Codex Space Marines (5th Edition) by Matthew Ward
Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Magna Trade by Jonathan Clements
The Making of King Kong: The official guide to the Motion Picture by Jenny Wake
Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
Codex Imperial Guard (5th Edition) by Robin Cruddace

May
Comic Book Design by Gary Spencer Millidge
The Alien Invasion Survival Handbook by W.H. Mumfrey
The Great Klondike Gold Rush by Pierre Berton
Codex Tyranid (5th Edition) by Robin Cruddace
Beginner’s Guide to Cake Decorating by Merehurst
The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Cake Decorating by Carol Deacon
Cake Art by The Culinary Institute of America
Jesse Ventura – The Story of the Wrestler they call “They Body” by Matt Hunter
Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry by Dylon Whyte
Codex Orks (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers
Codex Tyranid (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Williamham
Codex Imperial Guard (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Peter Haines, Andy Hoare, Phil Kelly, & Graham McNeill
Codex Tyranid (4th Edition) by Phil Kelly & Andy Chambers
Codex Tau (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, & Graham McNeill
Codex Tau Empire (4th Edition) by Andy Hoare
Codex Necrons (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Graham McNeill, Phil Kelly, & Andy Hoare
Codex Eye of Terror (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Peter Haines, Andy Hoare, Phil Kelly, & Graham McNeill

June
Codex Daemonhunters (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Phil Kelly, & Graham McNeill
Matchless: a Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire
The Reel Truth: Everything you didn’t know you need to know about making an independent film by Reed Martin
Do I Stand Alone? Going to the Mat Against Political Pawns and Media Jackals by Jesse Ventura with Julie Mooney
Codex Orks (4th Edition) by Phil Kelly
Codex Space Marines (3rd Edition) by Jervis Johnson
Codex Space Marines (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Andy Hoare, Phil Kelly, & Graham McNeill
Codex Battlezone: Cityfight (3rd Edition) by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, and Jervis Johnson
Link It! : Colorful chain mail jewelry with rubber o-rings by Susan C Thomas
Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie by Mark Millar
The Skate Boarding Field Manual by Ryan Stutt
Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero by Matthew K Manning

Figure Paint Total - June - more excuses

In June I bought more bits but the only full figure I got was the remaining pieces to mostly complete the Ork Stompa. Being a crazy-busy month, I wasn’t able to finish any painting but did read a bunch of codices so I am psyched to get working on some of these.

40K Stompa (in bits)
June figures bought – 1, figures painted – 0
Running total 2010 – figures bought 83, figures painted 0

Now that the pool seems to be holding its own I will probably be able to start doing some work on this. No, seriously. The wife is pushing me to clean that corner of the kitchen so I’ll have to do something with it.

Canada Day - We Are More

We Are More
By Shane Koyczan

When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake.

You might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada.

You might rattle off some celebrities -
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie,
might even mention that we've got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we make these crazy things
like zippers,
electric cars,
and washing machines.

When defining Canada,
it seems the world's anthem has been
'been there, done that'
and maybe that's where we used to be at.

It's true.
We've done and we've been,
we've seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada,
don't forget to mention that we have set sparks.

We are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away.
We do more than sit around and say 'eh?'
and yes,
we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines,
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off the rocky coast of the Maritimes.

And some say what defines us
is something as simple as 'please' and 'thank you'.
And as for 'you're welcome',
well we say that too.

But we are more than genteel or civilized,
we are an idea in the process of being realized.
We are young.
We are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history.

We are an experiment going right for a change,
with influences that range from A to Zed,
and yes, we say 'Zed' instead of 'Zee'.

We are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy.
We dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow.
We do more than grow wheat and brew bear.
We are vineyards of good year after good year.
We reforest what we clear,
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing no that so many of us
have grown past what used to be.

We can stand here today
filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like 'someday';
'someday we'll be great',
'someday we'll be' this
or that.
Someday we'll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say 'someday'.

We will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks,
more than backpacks and hiking trails,
we are hammers and nails - building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across.
We are the lost and found for all those
who might find themselves at a loss.

We are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others.
We are fathers, brothers, sisters, and mothers,
uncles and nephews, aunts and nieces.
We are cousins.
We are found missing puzzle pieces.
We are families with room at the table for newcomers.

We are more than summers and winters.
More than on and off seasons,
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or so.
We live to get past what we go through
and learn who we are.
We are students;
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why.
We don't have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more.
We don't all know what it is in life we're looking for
so keep exploring.

Go far and wide
or go inside but go deep.
Go deep,
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you've been through hell and high water
and you went deep.

Keep exploring,
because we are more
than a laudry list of things to do and places to see.
We are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate.
We are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can't wait.
We are the first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes,
a country that is all the ways you choose to live,
a land that can give you variety
because we are choice.

We are millions upon millions of voices shouting
'Keep exploring . . . we are more.'
We are the surprise the world has in store for you
it's true.
Canada is the 'what' in 'what's new?'
so don't say 'been there - done that'
unless you've sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun.
Don't say you've been there done that
unless you've been here doing it.

Let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old same old.
Let us be the story told to your friends
and when the story ends
leave chapters for the next time you'll come back.
Next time pack for all the things
you didn't pack for the first time
but don't let your luggage define your travels.

Each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry.
We are the True North
Strong and Free
and what's more
is that we didn't just say it,
we made it be.

St John's 100th Reunion

The St. John’s Reunion was good. It was great to walk around the school again. A bit has changed but the hallways still seemed familiar. The library has been gutted – less books but more computers. We went to the Decade rooms – the fifties was too packed to even enter. No one was in the nineties and only two people were in the 2000s. The eighties had a few – but no one from my year. My sister came in as well for the weekend.


The North-End social on the Saturday was good – it was at the Tijuana Yacht Club so the set up wasn’t as conducive as a regular social but they did bring out the KUB bread, cold cuts, and cheese. Burton Cummings was there near us - people kept swarming up to him for pictures. We didn't want to bother him though.



I didn’t make it to the Gala Dinner – I couldn’t justify the cost not knowing how many of us would be there. My sister went – she got a nice picture with Monty Hall. She said that Burton Cummings played a nice long set.


We went to the Sunday events. I took Shan and G to the pancake breakfast and then they left my sister and I there for the rest of the day. We watched the show on the North End memories by Russ Gourluck based on his book - The Mosaic Village: A History of Winnipeg's North End. I caught the slide show – an hour long and the three minutes dedicated to the eighties only had pictures from the 75th reunion that occurred in 1985.
The photo sessions were a bit of a bust. Only seven of us from our year showed up and two didn’t stay around for the picture. I did get to see my president, Catherine Anderson, but she was one of those who didn’t hang around so I don’t have a picture of us – president and vice-president.
The teachers-in-the-tent was neat. I ran into a few teachers – some of whom even pretended to remember us after a quarter-century. I got to talk with a few teachers and even got some pictures with a few.





All-in-all, not as much fun as I had hoped. I was certainly expecting a few more familiar faces. I’m looking forward to the 125th in 2035 though. Since the turn out to this was so apathetic, we probably won’t have our 25th next year.

Malathion!

Maybe because I’m reading through the 40K Cityfight rules right now, but when a deep rumbling woke me from my sleep the first thought that flashed through my kickstarting-from-sleep brain was ‘tanks’. The next instant awareness fully synched up and I realized it was one of the happy sounds of summer – the mosquito fogging truck. Gleefully, I went around closing the bedroom windows.

Most places get mosquitoes to some degree but we often get them bad. It may have to do with the clay/mud soil or the wet springs but often they can swarm in larger size and numbers than I have seen in other areas. My sister was in for the reunion last weekend from BC – she confirms this.

We do use larvacide and they have introduced dragonflies to help cut down on the populations but neither seem to work as well as a good dousing of malathion. There is a bit of controversy about the buffer zones people are allowed to request around their houses but when it becomes bad, or the threat of west nile virus increases, these are overridden.

Tears for Toys?

We took the kids to see Toy Story 3. It was worth seeing. The Toy Story franchise has been very good – the first movie was great, the second movie added nicely to the story, and now the third movie has furthered the story even more and provided a nice final ending. It was fairly predictable but there were still a few moments near the end where we were all choked up.

If you have seen any of the others, I recommend this as well. If you haven’t seen them yet, then watch them and then go see this one. And take your kids with you. Now they are asking us to dig out their old Buzz and Woody toys so they can play again.