Glass on Glass, Shadows, and Bank Street Construction

Random pics from around Ottawa in Early May:

Here, the shadows of Rideau Centre's glass roof on the wall above Sears in the Eaton Court


Inspired by M's glass reflection photo, I attempted to take one of my own of a building reflected in another's glass exterior.



Also, non-stop construction on Bank Street near work. This is the second summer they rip the street's guts out, and though it needs the "surgery", I feel for the shop owners...

Anti-American, Anti-Canadian or just Pro-Equality?

I read this fantastic article on CBC.ca about a book regarding what's often called Anti-Americanism, but what's actually Anti-American Exceptionalism. The article's author defines American Exceptionalism as: "the increasingly shameless U.S. tendency to believe it is above the rule of law, that it is exempted from the rules other nations are expected to obey."



The test she uses to define whether Canadians support this exceptionalism is as follows: "When America does something, like invade Iraq without the permission of the UN or rampage through Afghanistan, how would we assess that act if it had been done by Syria or Libya? Dreadful, we would say. Action must be taken. We would call on the UN to place sanctions on Syria, to starve its citizens (as was done to Iraq), to bomb it back to the Stone Age, or however non-thoughtful people phrase it. "



Unfortunately, this exceptionalist attitude is creeping into Canadian politics with the current governing party, the Conservatives. I won't go so far as to call them Canada's version of Republicans, because Canada in general is a more liberal and left-leaning country, but we're currently as close to a right-wing, we-know-what's-right, international-law-be-damned attitude as we've been in a LONG time... and it's very very scary. Read the whole article here; it'll certainly help to have a definition for what it is you are (and aren't) the next time you're called Anti-American...

What I meant to say was...

To clarify what I said yesterday about not being inspired to write... this is not exactly accurate. It's more along the lines of the words I've written below. Maybe those out there who've had writers' block will recognize this oddly agitating feeling...

I have this freakish sense
that
I should be writing
am inspired to absorb
but the words come out
like scribbles: empty

how much poetry must
a person inhale
before her pores will bleed it back
for the world to swallow
before her senses
invert the experience
gush and froth
the words like water
breaking a dam
of silenced apathy?

One of those weeks (and T.S. Eliot)

This week the weather warmed up beyond expectations to high 20's / low 30's levels, along major humidity, making yours-truly incredibly sluggish... add to that going in for Jury Duty (my name wasn't called, so I didn't actually have to sit on a jury, just a lot of waiting around), staying late at work for some last minute stuff, and the fact that my boss retired today (best boss ever! I'll miss her A LOT) and I've been not particularly inspired to write or take pictures. I still wanted to update the blog (it NAGS at me when I leave it a long time, and the nagging has been in full swing for several days now) but being in a non-creative state, that left not a lot of options...

Sure, I could have gone through the roughly 60 pics I took at the Ottawa Tulip Festival on Monday, but that would involve figuring out which ones are good and which aren't, and I wasn't really up for that either, so those pictures will have to wait.

Instead, here's my favourite poem for your enjoyment: Portrait of a Lady, by T.S. Eliot. I love this poem for its simplicity, its lyricism, and most importantly, the way it delivers such a potent message in such a clever way. Enjoy:

Now that lilacs are in bloom

She has a bowl of lilacs in her room

And twists one in her fingers while she talks.

"Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know

What life is, you who hold it in your hands";

(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)

"You let it flow from you, you let it flow,

And youth is cruel, and has no remorse

And smiles at situations which it cannot see."

I smile, of course,And go on drinking tea.

What You See...

is not always what you get. This video by Dove shows so well how the beauty industry is unreal. It's a minute long. Watch it, you'll be glad you did.

ISNA Canada - this Weekend

The Islamic Society of North America's annual Canadian spring convention is this weekend in Ottawa (it's almost always held in TO, so this is big news for the capital, and a small victory for us Ottawans and our inferiority complex).
I'll be talking on a panel about my experiences as a second generations Muslim Canadian, under the heading: "From Integration to Contribution". M and I were discussing yesterday, and he made a good point (which I think I'll steal for my talk) that Contribution, in some ways, has to come before real integration comes. Until you care about the society to contribute to it, you haven't truly integrated. I think he's right.

The other thing that comes to mind when I think of Integration is the following Quranic verse:

"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another..." (49:13)

It doesn't say to ignore one another. Integration is a basic concept in Islam.

Oh, Canada

They did it again: Today, in Russia, Canada's Senior (over 20) Men's Hockey Team won the gold medal at the IIHF world championships with a 4-2 win over Finland. After taking a 3-0 lead into the third period, the Canadians had to make it interesting for their fans by conceding 2 goals before going back up 4-2.
Way to go boys! The Canadian team not only won the gold medal, but they went a perfect 9-0 for the tournament, something they've never done before. We dressed my niece in a little "Team Canada" Red T-shirt with a player skating down the front before the game started. Being as young as she is, she had no idea what was happening, but could sense our excitement, and it rubbed off on her a bit...
There are few things that give me a more genuine sense of pride in being Canadian than watching our hockey teams do so well. This year, Canada has swept international tournaments by winning the Men's tournament, the Women's tournament, and the Junior tournament.
It's consolation that my NHL team, the Habs, didn't even make the play-offs...

Slater Ave.

I finally tried out my camera in manual mode and fiddled with the various settings of aperture and shutter speed... These pics from Slater Ave on Friday afternoon.




In other news, the Ottawa Senators advanced to the third round of the Stanley Cup play-offs for the first time in forever last night, beating my most hated team, the New Jersey Devils, in the process... Not quite enough to turn off the Habs and on the Sens permanently, but they are my hometown team, they are the only Canadian team left, and they are FINALLY, FINALLY playing as well in the play-offs as they always do in the regular season. 8 more wins and a Stanley Cup parade in Ottawa... A possibility? I think so.

April Showers

After several days early last week of beautiful June weather (temperature in the 20's, sun always out) we've had what seems like every variation of rain possible for nearly ten days: drizzling, pouring, threatening to come down but not actually falling, big drops, hazy air but no drops to speak of...

This morning, out with my niece for a jog (she sits in the stroller, I push and run, not a bad workout ;)) I stopped to take some pictures of budding flowers (inspired by this photo on M's blog); to my grand disappointment, my 10 attempts did the exact opposite of M's picture, with my buds coming out blurry, and the backgrounds coming out clear! This is motivation to actually read my camera's manual and figure out how to increase the shutter speed for my pics, as I figure a big part of the blurriness was the slight wind that was shaking the flowers ever-so-slightly...
I won't bore you with my not-cool pics. Instead, here are a couple from the rainy week in downtown Ottawa.

on the roof a building across the street from my French class downtown, 14 floors up

before the fountain has its own water at Place de Ville

no one out on Starbucks patio

Pics are Back!

I took these before lending my camera to a family member a few weeks ago; now that it's quasi-back-in-my-possession, I've had a chance to upload my pictures.
Here are my favourites:
One of M holding his camera (yes, we truly are a photography-obsessed couple):


... and one of some wonderful yellow pipes:

Something is very very wrong here

By now, everyone's heard of Virginia Tech. I have a habit of turning on CBC Radio One while I get ready in the morning, and for the last two days, as I listen, I tend to start crying at a word or two in the newscast. The whole situation is just so upsetting, but on top of how angry/sad/helpless the thought of these poor 32 people who lost their lives so senselessly makes me feel, there's a feeling that's poking around at the edge of consciousness and upsetting me even more. And it's this:

How many other deaths have I heard about while I get ready each morning in Iraq, in the Palestinian territories, in Afghanistan, in Rwanda, in Somalia, in Thailand, and in so many other countries and regions I can't even remember which ones they are anymore? Did I cry? Did I feel anything more than a twinge of frustration as I picked out my shirt/skirt/scarf/jewellery for the morning? Did my mind wander to other topics while that part of the newscast aired, and only snap back to attention when I heard something "relevant" to me, like the day's weather?

On Saturday, I was at a panel discussion on Promoting Peace and Healing between Muslims and Christians, and I spoke about how Islam ties the concept of Peace to the concept of Justice, how every believer has a responsibility to bring about justice in their day to day life, whether it be with something big or small. I quoted this prophetic saying:

That who sees something detestable, let him change it with his hand, if he cannot, then with his tongue, and even if he is not able, then with his heart, and that is the weakest form of faith

And talked about how at the very least, protesting with our hearts was the way to keep ourselves from becoming desensitized to the world's injustices. I am desensitized. I'd be willing to bet that most of us who live in safe countries with heating and stocked fridges and cable tv and shopping malls are desensitized. I definitely, definitely need to get myself sensitized again.

Food, Health, and the Environment

I've posted here before about my allergies (wheat, sugar, milk and milk products, some nuts, some fruits, and a few other additives and preservatives). I only discovered my allergies about 2 years ago after nearly 10 years of feeling sick and not knowing why, and it was a great challenge and an exercise in discipline to overhaul my bagel-and-cream-cheese-lovin' diet to something that wouldn't leave me in a constant state of nausea.
I slowly improved and eliminated the foods I couldn't handle, but because nothing made me so sick that I could never cheat, I often went back and had "just a little bit" of a chocolate bar, or a slice of cake, or a peanut butter sandwich. and then I would start the slippery slope to having "just a little bit" more, and on and on until I constantly felt sick again.
Recently, my "just a little bits" left me feeling much sicker than they used to, and I made a decision that it's just not worth it. Period. Full Stop. I've been good and strict about my diet for a few weeks now, and I'm feeling much better. I've also been looking at some of the other health trends out there when it comes to incorporating what you eat with how you treat the Earth. While I'm not yet ready to make the drastic adjustments required for some of these (and may never be) I still enjoyed reading about the hundred mile diet and raw food eating.

I have some opinions about why so many people are now developing food sensitivities, and I believe that it's definitely linked to mistreatment of both our bodies and the environment. The antibiotics we ingest, the pollution we inhale, the pesticides we put on our crops, all of this is fairly recent, and eventually, our bodies rebel, and the Earth rebels. One thing I discovered in trying to overhaul my diet and consciously eat healthy food is that too many people eat without thinking about what they're consuming, and more often than not, what's out there (and what we're eventually putting inside us) on supermarket shelves is shockingly worse than we may have ever considered.
I'm convinced it's all interconnected, although I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do about it.

How to break a sports fan's heart

How could you, Les Boys? I believed in you. I thought you could do it, and you lose to the Maple Leafs during the last game of the regular season and surrender 8th place.
For all my loyalty, I will get no play-off hockey this year, not even a first-round loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
On behalf of Habs fans everywhere tonight: Ugh!

Camera-less...

This is an excuse, but I really do think it's a legitimate one: my camera is currently on loan to a family member who really needs it much more than I do. That's why there are no new pictures.
I've also been reading a lot more than I've been writing for the last week (more on that in a future post) and that's why there's no new writing...
Publish
If you're starved for cool writing, I suggest checking out Sajda's poetry section.
If you're starved for cool pics, I suggest checking out M's photos, especially this one.

Cool

There is an art
that you practiced to perfection
in the 7th grade
to flicking your cigarette
just so

that when you do it
at 40, after trying (and
failing)
countless times to quit
you look
so cool it's juvenile

It's the fingers, performing
minor acrobatics
too fast for the amateur
eye to trace
and the butt (still lit at the end)
sailing softly 3 feet away (always
across the curb, and onto the road)
landing
at some diagonal angle
its smoke curling quietly upwards.

Total Disbelief

THEY DID IT! 6-4 and back in 7th place in the East!

****************************************************

Is this actually happening?
Are my Habs actually leading the Rangers 5-2 halfway through the hockey game? According to Boone, they are!

The pessimist in me is still still bracing for a possible loss when it's all over.

Hang in there, Habs Fans!

The realist in me says to let it go...
The optimist in me says they can do it...
The pessimist in me says there's no way (but really this is just the emotionally wounded part of me making sure that I'm not let down in case it doesn't work out)...

Tomorrow, my Habs play their latest "Must win" of the season. Against the red hot New York Rangers. Win, and they could potentially move into 7th; Lose, and they could end up in 11th or 12th...
I'm not watching tomorrow (not the whole game anyway). Too many other things to do, not to mention too painful (I could easily be someone who dies of a heart attack one day, not due to high cholesterol or any of the "regular" ailments, but from the stress watching the Habs try to make the playoffs each year induces. I will, however, be following along on Boone's Blog. The man is utterly hilarious, and I feel like he expresses all the angst we poor fans experience.

Walking Along

Ottawa winter weather is really quite the persevering little thing. This week, it rained several times, washing away what remnants of snow there were left on the streets, sidewalks, and yards, and leaving the threat of car-splashing clothes-ruiners in the form of deep puddles everywhere... Then today the snow was back with a vengeance. There is now a coat of white over Ottawa. I haven't checked the forecast to see whether I should be expecting it all to melt again tomorrow...
Here's a picture from that downtown walk a couple of weeks ago, when the snow was (still) almost all gone...

Bipolar Ideologies Just Don't Cut It

I found this great post on a site called "Mooselim" (for those of you who don't get the pun, they're playing on the Canadian Moose idea, and the Muslim idea in combination) linked from Sajda's blogroll, talking about how Muslims come in all ideological shapes and sizes, if you will, and how we can't just be lumped into "Conservatives" and "Moderates". My favourite line:

Muslims are not all neatly cubbyholed into radical, Sharia-loving, I’ll-impose-my-views-on-you-and-you’ll-like-it Conservatives or secular, freedom-worshipping, enlightened Moderates.

And it's true. Check out the rest of the post here

Downtown Ottawa

Before the last storm we got on Friday, there was a bit of a warm spell in Ottawa, tricking us into believing spring was finally here... I took advantage of this on Wednesday after work to run some errands downtown, and stopped to take a few pics.

Canada's flag, along with those for all the provinces and territories (Near Elgin and Rideau Streets)

The back stairs behind the NAC

The Chateau Laurier; one of the oldest hotels in Ottawa