Haiku, a True Story

Where there's smoke, fire;
a little bird told me so.
Damn! My toast is burnt.


Inspired by actual events and Marc's Daily Writing Blog.

Speaking in Circles

I like being the centre of attention at times. Who doesn't? I think that's why I tell stories. When I'm telling a tale or recounting an experience I have an audience, and their entire attentions are focused on what I'm saying.

That's also probably why I started up this blog, again, for the third time. Past editions included "Simple Innocence," "Jackerbie: Builder of Worlds," and "Coffee-clotted Inkings."

And now, "I only speak the truth."

It's a quizzical title that relates back to me being the centre of attention and the act of storytelling. As a kid I would spin all sorts of stories, some obviously fiction and others an attempt at telling it like it is. I had this obsession with "one up-ing" other people's stories, like most kids.

"I got a new Lego set over the weekend."

"Cool. I got one too, but it's the new Aquanauts one with the two sharks."

I must interject by saying that I'm very impressed that, for some reason or another, my spell check isn't underlining the name "Aquanauts." Rad.

Anyways, so that was me as a kid, sometimes actually telling the truth, most other times, well, not. Kids embellish, y'know? Even adults embellish. But upping your own ante has a strange way of influencing your thoughts. Suddenly, you are being completely truthful, at least in your own eyes. You've repeated the same white lie over and over again until it's become transparent.

And then it's your own truth, and so truth is all you speak.

my Caffeine Landscape

I'm sitting in one of the many Starbucks I frequent as a student, and just finished reading two of the articles I wish to use in one of my research assignments. But this isn't about my assignments, or about my experience in Starbucks; it's about a concept that is now starting to make sense to me.

Nature isn't a thing, it's a relationship.

Think about it for a moment: what exactly do you define as nature? The forest outside town? The park down the street? The moss growing in the cracks on your walk? Now, try to come up for a definition of nature that can include all those things, but exclude all the things you feel aren't nature. It's hard, isn't it?

That's because nature isn't a thing, but a concept. Nature is nature because it is outside of yourself, because you define it by what it is not. You walk through nature, appreciate nature, maybe you even fight for nature, but yourself are never really part of nature, are you?

Nature is something with ownership. Nature is something with value. Nature, then, is something that can be sold, right? It isn't sold that often, though. What is sold is the experience of nature, the park pass or the kayak rental or the guided tour. Again, nature is something to be experienced.

Just thought I'd share that, since it's consuming my thoughts at the moment. Now, I'm studying culture (read: ideologies and power structures) and human/social geography, so that puts a bit of a slant on my views. Care to help correct that? What did you come up with to define nature?


pinecone photo by me

Proposals, of the Academic Sort

Today is the second of October, and yet I'm already having to research my term papers. Not just conceptualize them or toss ideas about in my mind, oh no. I have to find the articles I plan on using, read said articles, and write up reviews of those articles regarding their use towards my thesis. Might I mention that these papers are not due until December, and we've had only a month of classes. I'm not even sure what to expect from the courses at this point, much less figure out a thesis that is relevant to the course materials.

Can I start pulling hair out yet?

All that said, I actually do have an idea of what I want to write about; I just haven't found the necessary scholastic material to beef up my proposals. Here's what my two term projects look like at the moment:

For Culture, Space, and Politics I've been assigned a group (composed of some pretty awesome folks). Our plan is to write a blog (surprise!) about our experience with geography in Kelowna. Me? I'll be bringing my Cultural Studies side to this project, likely looking at issues of social structures and power relations. Sources? Zero of three.

For Geography of Tourism Development I have to write a traditional term paper. Right now I'm considering writing about the Maori of New Zealand, and how their culture (a phrase I have trouble with, as the culture shown in ads isn't really Maori culture, but a construction of what traditional Maori culture should be to interest tourists) has been appropriated to be a tourism commodity. Sources for this one are a little more promising, with one definite article and two others possibly coming from the course packs of two other classes (I love overlap).

Now, what do apples have to do with geography research assignments? Actually, you'd be surprised. But I'll spare you those details, and instead say this: spot the metaphor. It's a pretty basic game, I hope you can do it!

apple photo by me

Just Another Friday Night

I'm what's called a Residence Adviser. This means a lot of different things at a lot of different university and college campuses, but at UBC it means that I am in charge of building a strong residence community and ensuring that the Residence Code of Standards is followed.

In short, a lot of what I do is not fodder for this blog in a legal sense. Heheh.

What I can say is this: tonight I asked someone to put out their cigarette, since he was smoking in front of the air intake for the residence building. It's kind of illegal here in British Columbia. He didn't want to. So I got a little less polite and a little more forceful, throwing out words like "illegal" and "ticket-able offence." Still, he wouldn't budge. In fact, he wanted to fight me over it. So what happened next?

"Girls, could you call security? Thanks."

What would bring someone to want to fight another person over something as simple as putting out a cigarette? Seriously. Sometimes these university students, who are obviously smart enough to be admitted to UBC and retain student status from year to year, blow my mind. I just... don't understand it. Am I missing something?

Oh, and thankfully they guy's friend came and helped out. I got an apology and a handshake out of the deal, and I called off security.

And that's a short snippet of what I do here at UBC.

edit: it's currently 3:06AM, and I am obviously not in bed yet. Instead, I'm doing paperwork. Paperwork. At 3AM. Rad.