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Showing posts from July, 2024

Canadian Book Reviews ~ Elegy for Opportunity

Happy publication to Elegy for Opportunity by Natalie Lim and Supergiants by Kyle Flemmer, both released today by the stellar Canadian Press, Wolsak & Wynn. About Elegy for Opportunity: In Elegy for Opportunity, Natalie Lim asks: how do we go on living and loving in a time of overlapping crises? Anchored by elegies for NASA's Opportunity rover and a series of love poems, this collection explores the tension and beauty of a world marked by grief through meditations on Dungeons & Dragons, Taylor Swift's cultural impact, the all-engulfing anxiety of the climate crisis and more. About Supergiants: For millennia humanity has looked upwards and traced stories in the night sky, projecting our human wants and desires outward. In Supergiants, Kyle Flemmer turns his gaze in the other direction. What does our reach for the stars say about us? Working with the technical language of engineering and astrophysics, Flemmer reorients the reader within our galaxy.  Both of these cosmical...

Journal Prompt ~ Banned Books

Today's Writing Prompt: Banned Books Unfortunately, your country is now under the control of an extremist regime, and all literature other than religious texts has been banned. Do you give up your books to stay safe? Or are there certain books you make an effort to conceal and preserve? If so, which ones are worth the cost to you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_Canada

Journal Prompt ~ Personality

Journal Prompt:  Personality What animal species best represents your personality? I had no idea how to answer this question so I went to  https://animalinyou.com/ .  According to them I am a gorilla.  Here's why . . .  https://animalinyou.com/animals/gorilla/?891=4222323122

Journal Prompt ~ Party Animals

Today's Prompt: Party Animals At social events, where are you usually found? At the bar? Dancing by the band? Welcoming your friends? Behind a bush with a 'friend?' Or are you the kind to avoid the whole thing and stay home? I like to "work" the room when I'm at a party. You just never know what interesting people you might meet or what interesting conversations you might have. This is fairly new behaviour for me. I used to be the one with a drink in my hand and a fake smile on my face, wondering if someone would talk to me or how long I would have to stay before I could politely leave. I have taken that experience and turned it around because I assume someone else might feel that way and my saying "Hi, I'm Pam, and you are?" could change a long lonely evening into a chance to make a new friend.

Canadian Music ~ Jean Leloup

Article by  Annie Joan Gagnon Published Online  January 30, 2008 Last Edited  November 17, 2016 Jean Leclerc (a.k.a. Jean Leloup), singer-songwriter, novelist (born 14 May 1961 in Québec City, Québec). Leloup’s talent and genius first made him a hit with young francophones in the 1990s, and ever since, he has continued to develop his art and captivate French-speaking audiences. Regarded as an anticonformist artist, he has projected an eccentric persona and gone by many names, such as John the Wolf, Johnny Guitare, Roi Ponpon and Dead Wolf. But despite his extravagance, Leloup has proven an authentic, complex individual. Childhood and Early Career Jean Leclerc spent part of his childhood in Togo, where he lived until he was 8. After that, he returned to Québec for a year, then left again for Algeria, where he discovered his passion for music. Like most young people of his generation, he was heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but he was ...

Journal Prompt ~ Talent

What is a talent you've recently discovered you have?  

Canadian book review ~ In Form by Ruth Abernethy

  Whether you know it or not, you have probably seen the art of Ruth Abernethy. Ruth is the sculptor who created the installation of Queen Elizabeth II at Queen's Park, the Glenn Gould sculpture in front of CBC studios, and the Liu Xiaobo piece in Ottawa. Her art, which has been installed coast to coast, has inspired many conversations among many Canadians. (She's also the only non-American to sculpt Abraham Lincoln!) Ruth’s new book   In Form: Life and Legacies in Bronze , was released by FireFly Books on September 21, 2024. We’re honoured to have her join us for this Power Q & A to talk with us about her singular path to international acclaim. Read the interview with Ruth  here .

Journal Prompt ~ Earworms

  ear·worm /ˈirËŒwÉ™rm/ Learn to pronounce noun 1 . a catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person's mind. 2 . short for  corn earworm . Choose language Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Bangla Basque Belarusian Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese Catalan Cebuano Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Nepali Norwegian Nyanja Odia Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Samoan Scottish Gaelic Serbian Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Southern Sotho Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Turkish Turkmen ...

Journal Prompt ~ Alliteration

Today's Prompt: Alliteration This is an amusing little prompt.  Using the first letter of your middle name write as many words as possible in 1 minute that start with that letter and that describe you. Able Artistic Affable Angry Abnormal Absorbed Addicted Addlepated Abrupt Absurd Agitated Admiring Adviser

Journal Prompt ~ Sandwich

Today's Prompt: Sandwich That's right, sandwich. Describe your ultimate sandwich. I actually have THREE favourite sandwiches. My happiness sandwich is peanut butter and bologna. My I'm stressed sandwich is cheese slice, Spanish onion, mayo and salt. My holiday sandwich is turkey, stuffing, cranberry jelly and mayo. All three should be on whole wheat or whole grain bread whenever possible. What's your favourite sandwich?

160 Unusual Things to See in Ontario ~ Railway Schoolcar in Clinton

  A unique railcar museum located at 76 Victoria Terrace in Clinton. CNR School on Wheels Museum Looking for something to do on a summer afternoon? Visit the CNR School on Wheels Museum in Sloman Park. The seasonal museum promises an entertaining and educational experience revolving around local and provincial history. From 1926 to 1965, Fred and Cela Sloman, along with their young family, spent ten months of the year on a railcar travelling through the Northern Ontario bush. The car was part of a program called School on Wheels that provided education to students in remote Northern Ontario.  The railcar served as both a classroom and a living space for the Sloman family as it moved along a 150 mile stretch of track between Capreol and Foleyet. The car would travel connected to a train, before being left on a small piece of side track for several days while Fred Sloman taught the local children. The car would hook up to another train and continue on, leaving homework for the s...

Movie Review: Baadasssss! (2004)

This movie was recommended in 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen by Leonard Maltin . . . Baadasssss!   I wasn't sure I would actually be interested in the movie.  It tells a unique story that I was so sure I couldn't mesh with.  But then I saw the list of actors . . . MARIO VAN PEEBLES JOY BRYANT TERRY CREWS OSSIE DAVIS DAVID ALAN GRIER NIA LONG RAINN WILSON T. K. CARTER SAUL RUBINEK PAUL RODRIGUEZ VINCENT SCHIAVELLI KHLEO THOMAS LEN LESSER SALLY STRUTHERS ADAM WEST GLENN PLUMMER JOHN SINGLETON TROY GARITY . . . and decided to give it a shot.  The movie is gripping.  The language is often a bit hard to take, i.e. they say a lot of words I don't want to hear, but I get that Mario Van Peebles is going for gritty realism and so the language is "necessary". I was going to watch the movie on Hal's computer while I cleaned my desk.  A few minutes into the movie all thoughts of cleaning were gone.  My eyes were glued to the ...

Journal Prompt ~ Lost

Today's Prompt: Lost Describe an object that you have lost. I am starting to believe there must be some organic reason why I keep losing stuff.  It may be the old age, the fibro or maybe even the diabetes.  Yeah, I'm a real prize these days . . . falling apart AND forgetting things.   I try to blame Hal but it doesn't always work . . .  . . . although the other day when I went to upload some geocaches to my GPS the cord was lost.  I remembered Hal having it in his hands and I told him to put it back where he found it because I keep all the cords for all my electronics in one specific place . . . so I don't lose them.  He had put the cord in my camera bag.  I don't know why. Hal is also the person who lost my wedding, engagement and family rings for two years.   http://inmyworld-pam.blogspot.ca/2012/06/case-of-missing-jewelry.html But these days I can't always blame Hal.  I put the phones down and can't remember where the...

One Word Journal Prompt ~ Shoes

Shoes. I really don't think I have too many shoes.  In fact, I think I don't have enough.

Canadian Music ~ Jason Collett

Jason Robert Collett is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. He has released six solo studio albums, and is a former member of Broken Social Scene. Collett was born in Bramalea, a Greater Toronto Area suburb. He began writing songs at a young age to escape the boredom of his suburban life, and cites Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Nick Lowe as influences. Eventually, Collett moved to downtown Toronto where he worked as a woodworker and carpenter, doing renovations and custom home building, while he pursued his music. In the late 1980s, Collett co-founded the band Lazy Grace with Kathryn Rose and Kersti McLeod, performing every Monday at Toronto’s Spadina Hotel at the popular indie music gathering, Radio Mondays, alongside The Weakerthans and artists on the record label Arts & Crafts, who would perform and write songs together. Collett has mentioned how Radio Mondays were great community-building events, with five or six artists on stage at a time. Around 2000, he w...

Six Words

Describe your life or current situation using exactly six words. HOT!  Thank goodness for air conditioning.

Canadian Book Review ~ RUFF by Rod Carley

  Happy Publication Day to RuFF by award-winning author Rod Carley, published by Latitude 46! RuFF is Carley’s highly-anticipated fourth novel. This historical fiction transports us to Elizabethan England, where we witness Shakespeare struggling through a midlife crisis while trying to win a national play competition to secure the King’s business. Hilarious hijinks ensue, with whip-smart dialogue and a captivating tale that touches on salient social issues that persist today, including equality, justice, and censorship.  Humour and incisive wit combine to create a compulsively readable and thought-provoking novel from this Leacock Award long-listed author. We know RuFF will be a favourite book of the year for many.  Praise for Carley: “At times I found myself both laughing and cheering out loud! The dialogue is some of the best I have ever read. The descriptions are transportive. Not only can you see Elizabethan London – you can smell it!” —-Heidi von Palleske You can gra...

Journal Prompt ~ OMG

Today's Prompt: OMG Have you recently seen a peer (another parent, a coworker, a friend at school) do something that shocked you? These kinds of events make our jaw drop because people we think we have a lot in common with turn out to be totally different than we thought. What happened? Yes I have witnessed some of these jaw dropping events . . . I guess I assume that all people who think would have similar opinions on certain subjects especially gender-bias, racial and religious-bias and so on. I will say that my husband and I got into a HUGE fight years ago when I heard him declare, upon watching a news report about making O Canada more gender inclusive, that that was a stupid idea and that the anthem has always been a certain way and should not change.  I crushed him with facts and realities, including how the anthem first came into being and the number of times it has already been altered.  And then the knock out punch was to wonder why I wasn't as Canadian as...

Journal Prompt ~ Tanka: Friends

It's time for the next installment of Tanka Tuesday! Tanka is a form of poetry similar to haiku. It's short, and the lines don't need to rhyme. The just must have a set number of syllables: 5/7/5/7/7. Today's tanka prompt is friends. We share together We work and play together Sometimes we're silly Sometimes we are serious My friends are like oxygen

160 Unusual Things to See in Ontario ~ The Bayfield Windmill

  This is the Folmar (aka Bayfield) Windmill, North America's only wind-driven sawmill, located in Bayfield, Ontario.  The mill is now closed to the general public, although tours can be arranged with the landowners. It can also be viewed from the road. The Folmar Mill is located on the south side of Huron County Rod 13, about 3 kilometres east of Highway 21, south of Goderich. The mill remains privately owned, while further restoration is underway. 

Journal Prompt ~ What's in a Name?

Today's Prompt: What's in a Name? Does your name have a meaning? If so, what is it? My mother named me Phyllis.  She thinks it is a lovely name.  It is not the name that fits me.  Phyllis means "foliage" in Greek. (I kill houseplants)  In Greek mythology this was the name of a woman who killed herself out of love for Demophon and was subsequently transformed into an almond tree. It began to be used as a given name in England in the 16th century. Fortunately for me my initials were P. A. M. and my grandfather started calling me Pam.  Pam is a name that is comfortable to me.  The meaning of the name Pam is all honey.

Movie Review: Nine Lives (2005)

Nine Lives.   Captivating.  Emotional.  Very different.  Those are the words I have come up with to describe this film. I don't think it will be everyone's cup of tea but I liked it. The movie is actually a series of vignettes about turning points in various women's lives.  Some of these lives have a connection, albeit tenuous at best, but most do not.  They are just a study of pivotal moments.  The filming is quite interesting.  Each vignette is continuously filmed rather than a series of scenes.  And when the story ends, that's it. The cast is totally all-star: GLENN CLOSE ROBIN WRIGHT PENN HOLLY HUNTER SISSY SPACEK KATHY BAKER AMY BRENNEMAN ELPIDIA CARRILLO DAKOTA FANNING LISA GAY HAMILTON MOLLY PARKER MARY KAY PLACE AMANDA SEYFRIED STEPHEN DILLANE WILLIAM FICHTNER JASON ISAACS JOE MANTEGNA IAN MCSHANE SYDNEY TAMAIIA POITIER AIDAN QUINN MIGUEL SANDOVAL LAWRENCE PRESSMAN

Journal Prompt ~ Philosophy of Life?

 Do you have a philosophy of Life? If so, what is it?

Canadian Music ~ Jason Blaine

Jason Blaine McEwen (born April 19, 1980) is a Canadian country music singer/songwriter from Pembroke, Ontario. Blaine is a multiple Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA), SOCAN & Country Music Association of Ontario Award winner with over 20 Canadian country radio hits. Twelve of those went on to become Billboard Canada Country top ten singles including "Country Side", "Friends of Mine", "They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore", and "The Road That Raised You Up". Blaine lives in the greater Nashville area with his wife, Amy, and their four children. Blaine's first hit single, "Rock in My Boot", was released in 2007. It received multiple CCMA nominations and led to him performing at major festival appearances across Canada. His most successful song to date was "They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore", which was written for his grandfather and released in 2012. The song eventually went on to win CCMA S...

I love cutting and pasting . . .

I spend a lot of time scrapbooking; a hobby which creates lots of scrap paper.  I have come up with a fun way to use up my scraps and make a little income so I can afford to scrapbook more, creating more scraps, and so on and so on. Paper piecings require planning and can be quite time-consuming so I make several of the same at the same time.  It doesn't seem to take much extra time that way. Paper piecings are individual.  No two ever come out totally the same.  Each piecing has its own personality.  And if you don't like a colour or pattern I've used you can always special order one.  The price doesn't change because I will just make several at the same time.  So please feel free to email me with your special orders. Here is the paper piecing I made today.  Aren't they just adorable?  Would you like one?  Only $3 + $1 for shipping and handling (unless you are local and can pick up). Stuffed Bunnies 5" x 6" $3.00 If you wo...

Journal Prompt ~ Confidence

What makes you feel confident?

A Big Exciting Announcement . . .

I've been talking about it. I have posted a couple of links about it. But it is finally here!!!!!! But let me start at the beginning of the story. A few years ago I wrote a book on getting started in a small or home business. I didn't make a lot of money at it but I learned a lot about publishing and writing from this effort. The title of the book was A Fresh Start and the information in it is just as relevant today as it was when first published.  And now for the BIG EXCITING NEWS . . . It's finally ready and available for sale. I started from the research I'd done for A Fresh Start, 95 pages of good solid ideas, and expanded it to almost 400 pages of small business ideas . . . some quite unique, many added to represent our modern multi-media environment, and some are good old time-tested ideas. I'm pretty sure that the perfect home or small business idea for you will be in here. The First Step: An Encyclopedia of Small Business Ideas is available in p...

Three New Paper Piecings - Love & Mickey & Minnie

Paper Piecings for your next card or layout . . .

Assini De Peppi

I asked my buddy Cailyn for this recipe because it is just so awesome. Assini De Peppi 1 tin tomato soup 1 tin consome 1/4 c assini de peppi 12 oz of water Heat together.  Add chopped up cooked bacon if you wish.

Clothes on the Clothes line . . .

Hungry for a hamburger?