Serendipity
Now, there is nothing I need that is new. With the exception of socks and underwear, because I happen to be a bit fastidious that way, almost everything I buy is from a thrift shop, rummage or yard sale. Which makes it tough, for instance, when I decide that I need something, a bed, for example, as I have to comb the local thrift shops and rummage sales until something suitable turns up. And often it would be far easier and more economical, considering the time and effort spent, to simply go to "Mattress Depot" and plonk down on a new posture-pedic, but that's not the point.
It's about recycling perfectly good furniture and household items that were otherwise bound for the landfill and supporting local charities. It's about thumbing one's nose at the rampant consumerism that tries to govern our lives. It's about challenging the conventional ideas of wealth and beauty and turning rubbish into art. It's about finding beauty and function in the old and worn. And it's about being unique in a homogoneous society that values only the new and generic.
It's not about finding what you thought you needed or were looking for. It's about finding what you weren't looking for, the thrill of the chance find or discovery, the rare book, (think first edition of Eddington's "The Expanding Universe", or Speake's "Journey to the Source of the Nile"), the 150 year old candlesticks, the 1930's Rolex watch, the vintage clothing or broken scientific instruments to be used in your impending art exhibition....the list is as vast and endless as your imagination.
Invariably, with patience, you will always find what you're looking for, and having found it you will forget that you were searching for it and begin searching again for something else, because in the end it wasn't about the bed, it was about the journey, the countless happy chance discoveries and finds you made along the way.
It's a philosophy...
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- Category: Miscellany
Marda Loop Justice Film Festival
This weekend past I took the children to the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival. On Friday night, just me and the boy (the girl at a Brownies sleepover), we went to see "Sand and Sorrow" - a documentary narrated by George Clooney on the civil war in Darfur. OK, informative, but not a great documentary.
On Saturday we attended 2 more - one a CBC documentary on the Alberta Tarsands, incredibly boring. Television brought to the big screen, but I wanted the boy to see it. Our "local" ethical commitment. And then one on Chernobyl - a very well paced, informative and enlightening documentary on the disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 in the Ukraine. An enjoyable film, which more than made up for the afternoon's presentation.
For those of you not familiar, the Film Festival is used to highlight topical social issues both in the world at large, and nearer to home in our communities. The format is a selected film is shown, then followed by a brief (3 or 4 question) discussion with "experts" present on the issues raised in the film. The "real" discussion is held in the lobby afterwards. Overall the films are chosen to overlap themes - for example the Saturday film on the Tar Sands raises the possibility of a Nuclear Power plant in Alberta's north to fuel the tar sands, and the following film on Chernobyl explores what happens when Nuclear Power goes wrong. This was my/our first time attending.
The festival was modestly well attended, slightly more than half full, good for the event, but a disinterested showing for a city of a million people. Noteworthy was the fact that in the last 2 films we saw we recognized most of the audience as people who were at the previous film(s), so one might generalize that those interested in social issues are very interested. Probably we should have stayed and chatted with some of them in the lobby afterwards to learn more, but 3 documentaries in a weekend was enough punishment for the boy...
Link: www.justicefilmfestival.ca
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- Category: Film
Tuesday, November 18th 2008 10:40 AM
It's 10:40 when the installer shows up. I feel kind of foolish, the internet now working and all, he's friendly enough and shows me the modem stats online, no problems there, then goes and checks the outside of the house. He finds a couple of faulty connectors - one at the house, one on the line, and my problems are solved.
He notes what an "Interesting" place I have. I get this when I have people over, mostly plumbers and maintenance people. "Interesting" here is a euphamism for "What a lot of mis-matched rubbish....do you ever clean?", but I'm tired of apologizing, even if I were Martha Stewart the kids would tear it apart in a weekend, and life's too short to be spent vacuuming and dusting. A bit of maintenance wouldn't hurt, but that's a habit I have yet to acquire.
But my router isn't coming back online. Probably I'm doing something wrong, but for some reason it's broadcasting well, but not picking up an IP from the modem. There may be a problem there, I'll have to do a full hard reset, there's not time today to waste troubleshooting trivial things. The internet's working, and that's what counts. Now back to work.
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- Category: Who's Your ISP?
Tuesday, November 18th 2008 7:00 AM
And the modem is back online. The installer hasn't yet showed up, not due until 9:00-11:00, it was offline all day yesterday, until midnight when I went to bed. So this morning when I got up I checked, hope against hope, and it was working. I've kept the morning free and will wait for the installer, this is far too inconvenient to consider solved. But there's something about having him/her come here when it's working that rather undermines the point of it not working, hopefully they believe me....
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- Category: Who's Your ISP?
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