advice

Instructions on a hairdryer:

do not use while sleeping (jamie if you read this, please take note)

A Good Medical Study

An interesting conclusion for the thousands of you that watch what you eat...relief to finally know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies.

The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians, British and Americans.

The Mexican eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians, British and Americans.

The Japanese drink very little wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadian, British and Americans.

The Itlians and French drink excessive amounts of wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians, British and Americans.

The Germans drink lots of beer and eat lots of sausage and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British and Americans.

The conclustion is eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what is killing you.

- Found on the wall of Peter Legge's doctor's office.

nothing brilliant to say

today.
k.
may.
say.
nothing.
nada.
hey!

good nite.
bright
tight
light
bite
kite
sight
right!

delight!

smile!
wide....for a mile!

sunday mOrNing...

woke up to k-os...its sunday morning...

breakfast with cousins
kids soccers
kathy dinner
install some router thing
research for work

i'm tired already...

eating is good

i lOOve my man
i lOOve kimmy and indian food
i lOOve my sis
i lOOve lots

the end.

another day in paradise

i woke up and took a shower and washed my hair.
i wash my hair ever other day so it doesn't get too dry.
i love the tingling easy breezy feeling when my head is nice and clean.
paradise.

i went to work and the sun was shining.
i ate lunch with kimmy at whole foods where the salads are crisp, variety is abundant and soup is more than divine.
i got work done.
paradise.

i went home and skipped yoga ballet (not so paradise)
i,kids, family and friends went trick a treating
i,kids, family and friends watch the hells angels put on an amazing firework show (its still going on!)
i, kids, and family ate halloween candy and hot chocolate.
paradise.

"Man is not a rational animal, but a rationalizing one"....well said by some science fiction writer Robert Heinlein.

my rationale for not penning is that i've been too busy living! yes, yes, so lots of thoughts and leakage of now what are memories for great events and not so fab ones.

Blindness by Jose Saramago, good good read on lots that could be discussed.

I'm reading three books now, hey why not
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - to brighten my brain
Mother-daughter wisdom - Christiane Northrup - so the girls would not be anything that was badness of me:)
The KNow -It- All - A.J. Jacobs - so that I may know it all and because it was endorsed by Jon Stewart
Social Intelligence - Daniel Goleman - so that I don't feel like strangling everyone around me and I do have a great yearning to understand, even if I cannot control body and mind. ha!

ok that's four, whatever!

Life is incredibly good, but I can be incredibly ungrateful, thus, is the struggle sometimes.

I've hit my 3-month mark at the new job, and am getting used to new environments, working descriptives, modes of thinking, culture and what nots.

Funny how we all miss the past, very silly, as there are so many good things everywhereish.

I have concocted great lyrical prose, observations and self discovery type stuff, meshed with some clever funny insightful stories....but they are always during an encounter, while I'm driving or sleeping...so unfortunately they've all drowned in the unconsciousness of my brain.

Endings and Beginnings

i'm leaving the aquarium for greener pastures. yes, its true. i will say goodbye to bulugas, dolphins, sea otters and the 621 Species, 70,465 Specimens for more of the usual mammals...of the human kind again.
many mix feelings, as i've made some dear friends.

mexico was amazing! i have been long long overdue for a vacation! i've lit the fire of my travel itch and its burning burning for more more more. i have since been planning the next vacations for the next ten years. poor dan, he would like a rest from the doing...walking...seeing...exploring...absorbing...

we swam with the dolphins! it was outrageously wonderful. the girls thought it was better than Disneyland! (although they've never been!) it was in Xel-ha, in this amazing natural setting that goes out into the ocean. even swallowing salt water was fine according to Ash and Am! You truly get to appreciate and understanding more being so upclose. There is no learning like actual interaction. We get to learn about its nature, all the usual and unique parts, give them commands, they do stuns around us, feel and actually play with them, they even kiss and interact with us. Most memorable is what is called the 'foot push' where you lie belly down in the water with feet stretch and straight, arms forward, and two dolphins push you through the water with your feet.

Xel-ha itself is an amazing place though, however, once we got the girls snorkling, they didn't want to do anything else. there was so much to see underwater i guess! we snorkled for the rest until closing. there were some incredibly big fish, that gave us a bit of a fright, though they were very tame. Imaging swimming up to an area and see a 5 foot long fish, and thinking oh, big fish! then looking around and realizing, you've just swam into a school of very bIg fish! well, little Ambrey and Ashti adjusted quickly and just continued exploring.

we met a couple as we got out and they asked am if she liked snorkling and she gave them an enthused yes! they asked her about the big fishes and if she was scared, and she replied no, not really, and they told her she was very brave because they both jumped out of the water!

four parts

i'm sick
we are going to mexico!
rob's annual b-day was mellow but great as usual...well, i was mellow as usual:)
apple juice, vodka (i think) and whipping cream is gOOd...
had a day at the beach!
french toast and bacon is yuM.
part I

ICBC should NOT have a monopoly. this was a very bad experience.
The person you hit my car is a decent man. He will have good karma.
ICBC is a bad place.
The passport office made me cry and I DON'T cry.
But now they are ok as i have passports.
part II

Gilead - Marilynne Robinson is a very thought provoking book.
as i like thinking, well really its goes on whether i like or not:)
the writing is simply...well its full and rich and I'm in awe...

"In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable---which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, untraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us."

i'm taking a cough prescription cough mixture that has some potent ingredients.
so if this post is off a little
this is what i'm blaming it on:)
part III

so, to the story.
the little girl and her family moved from one nice neighbourhood to another nice neighbourhood, on top of a very tall mountain top. (well the neighbourhood was on top of a large hill)
she said goodbye to her dear best neighbour, a little girl just her age, and thought it was the end of the world.
she said goodbye to the kindergarten, and was very glad, as her teachers were very strict but what was worst was that they were very mean.
she asked to go to the washroom once and was not allowed.
the little girl had an 'accident' and was sent home.
an older kind boy walked her home.
she was ashamed and hid behind the living room couch.

bit three

little girl grew and grew and grew.

she is now two. she's off to her uncle's work shop with cousin in tow. getting in the usual mischief. she dislodges the vice on her uncle's work bench. opps, its gonna fall. she looks at it, cousin is no where in sight, she sits down, puts out one leg, and watches the vice fall onto her little toes.

blood everywhere, she probably screamed. mom and the whole house is now aware of her plight. doctors bandages her up.

days later, she's off again, bandages in tow, unraveling as she find her next mission.

thinking

i'm thinking...nay don't want to say that....

....no that'll shock you too much...

....too cheezy....

....too boring....

....too long....

....private

....private

.....xxx....

ok nothing for today.

strands of dna song and story:)

this is a song that ambrey made up. she's 7.

there's a worm in my body
that goes up and down
there's a worm in my body
that goes round and round
there's a worm in my body
that goes side to side
there's a worm in my body
that's trying to hide oooOO.

the expression and tune makes it even better. will have a video one of these days.

A day in the life of first Nations Kid
by Ashti

I woke up before the sun this morning.
Everyone was making so much noise.
"The eulachons are here" my sister yelled in my ear.
And then I said "stop yelling I'm trying to sleep!"
Then my mom said "wake up it's time to go berry picking."
Then I took a bath in the river.
I felt clean after my bath.
After I took my bath I went berry picking with my mom.
Next I had breakfast, we had dried berries and clams for breskfast mmmm.
Afterwards I helped my dad by controling the fire.
Then my dad said "I could play with my friends".
My friends and I played tug a war.
Next we played hide and seek.
It was so much fun.

After my friends and I watched these two boys stick fighting.
Next my Dad asked me to go fishing with him I said "okay".
I helped my dad get the nets.
I got five eulachons, my dad got 20 eulachons.

After, it was lunch time.
My family and I had the eulachons that my dad and I had caught.
We also ate urchins.
next my mom asked me to help peel the bark of the cedar, I said "okay".
Then I helped weave baskets.
After I went to the bush to relieve myself.
Next I asked my mom if I could go canoeing with my friends and she said "yes".
After we got back from canoeing it was time for dinner.
For dinner we had a big feast.
We ate, berries, oysters, clams, mussels, urchins, smoked salmon, and euladchons.

After I sat by the fire with my Dad.
Then the Chief said "he was going to tell a story".
I liked the story I guess even though I fell asleep in between the story.
Next my mom carried me into our room.
ZZZ The End!!

The pics were great will scan them one day:)
she is 9.
she is my brilliant:)

story bit 2

thanks shnewt!

bit two:
well the new mom cried everyday. she didn't fathom missing her new born quite that much. the dilemma was that new babies were not allowed to leave the country until after their first group of vaccinations and that was after three months. in three month paternal granny took baby on her first plane trip and mom and baby were reunited. (yes the mom could have flown back, can't think of the reasons...but there were some ) things were different in those days:)

the little one grew and she grew. she was apparently very mischeivous and could not sit still. she could climb everything before she walked. maternal granny used to smoke. this was one of the few things that was able to keep the little hellion occupied for a good amount of time while everyone rested. oh, not the smoking but the peeling packs and cartons of cigarettes. this little one was so amazing, she would sit and peel each individually wrap cigarette for almost hours...

to be continued....

today, no yesterday was a full moon...someone told me.. and there is apparently an eclipse today...ahh...that explains why today and yesterday were weird and tiresome...if only everything could be this simple....ha. ha.

a story

so, its been a while as usual, life, busy, etc etc etc.

I have decided to tell a continuous story based on some truths, some exaggerations, some fancyful thinking and some imaginationish stuff.

the fact is, my mind is always talking...

here's a few minutes into my mind....

a story. i could write about....my elementary school play....it was a comedy about a lady who had a belly ache. scene: she went to a walk-in clinic who told her that she need immediate surgery. at the operating table, the doctors and nurses were all exaggeratedly shocked and surprised at all the items coming out of her belly...ridiculous items like a shoe, a chair...can't remember the other items....
audience was belly laughing...i was very proud, i was nine. written and directed:)

this took about five seconds...in thought...

i am now distracted as ambrey walks in, she is a very dramatic child with a oceans of expression...words really fail to translate most of her expression, the wide open eyes filled with blinding brightness as she tell a story...which most of the time is lost as i watch with amazement at the many muscles that make up....

another thought, i once read a book by Malcolm Gladwell, blink, and it refer to someone (can't remember the person) who did a study on facial expression and the many muscles that one uses. According to his studies, our expressions can determine our moods. i.e. if you keep frowning (using muscle this and that, he had numbered them all to some surprising number) you will create negative emotions. He says that we usually think vise versa, that our moods determine facial expressions. He did this study on two tribe of natives i think in Africa, one was a peaceful tribe, and another known to be aggressive. but study their expressions he shocked his peers with being able to determine charteristics in one group toward sexual acts with young boys. can't remember much, should read this again...

how is sexual orientation determined? an aged long debate...that i don't know much about, just bits and pieces that have form my opinions which is ever changing as i encounter more...i believe this is good, as we should always be open enough to change our minds about anything but at the same time be truthful enough to ourselves...

sometimes i think truth itself is a waiving thing, as i struggle most times to understand more...and i do...i really find out i know so much less...which is back to my sometimes ignorant conviction that ignorance is still bliss....

bliss again is an every change state....ok ....this is somewhat ...into a few minutes of my mind's ramblings when i'm not busy....

back to the commencement of my story.

once upon a time, a little girl was born to two grown ups who were very estastic to enter a new stage in their lives. quite unprepared for the bags of emotion and change, the new mom went back to Brunei to work as a executive secretary to the CEO of Shell (the gas co.). there was no maternity leave in 1969.

to be continued....

tree tops

every since i was a child, i have been fascinated by tree houses (i still don't have one..sigh! an ongoing joke between my dad and i)anyways, check this out. i will have one, one day!


tree

belated holiday greetings, happy chinese new year, happy valentines etc etc.

lots to say, no time to write it seems...

maybe i'll be more inspired tomorrow. ha!