An open letter to the Israeli embassador

Embassy of Israel
50 O’Connor Street
Ottawa,Ontario K1P 6L2

Dear Embassador Miriam Zim:

Let me preface my comments about the current situation in Gaza with three clear points:

I mean no hatred toward Jews or Israeli citizens;
I have no personal enmity towards you or your family;
I do not advocate the dissolution or destruction of Israel.

1.  I believe that in a misguided attempt to secure its borders, safety and global reputation as no country to trifle with, the state of Israel and IDF is killing Palestinian civilians.

2. I believe that, news reports notwithstanding, Israel is not trying to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, and given the nature of the military actions and the size of the targets, it would be impossible to avoid them.

3. Israeli news media and their global supporters repeat the question, “What would you do if you were under fire from Hamas rockets in Ashkelon?”, but neglect to voice the corollary, “What would you do if you lived in Gaza?” The people who live there are trapped, starving and desperate, and are not likely to be negotiating in anything like good faith while they are being bombed, or turn into obedient minions afterwards.  The behaviour of the Israeli government and the IDF appears identical to activities for which persons in this century and the last have been tried for war crimes.

4.  I respectfully request that you ask your government to cease bombing Gaza.

5.  I respectfully request that you ask your government and military to cease activities (like ramming aid ships and bombing aid convoys), which prevent neutral third parties from providing aid to victims of Israeli shelling.

6.  It is my intention to boycott all products, cultural and material, produced in Israel or by Israeli citizens, until such time as a just solution is negotiated with the people living in Gaza. 

Israel’s current military actions in Gaza are not going to make Israel more secure.  For the sake of reason and self-preservation, I urge you to convey this message to your government.

With best wishes for your health and safety during your sojourn in Canada,

Allegra Sloman
Vancouver BC

Another glorious day at work

Jarmo’s on my team, Jarmo’s on my team, Jarmo’s on my team!!!!!!

I talked to Mike today, he’s doing better.

LTGW and Francis went swimming at lunch at the aquatic center at the university.  The thought of LTGW in swimming trunks kept a happy smile on my face most of the afternoon.

Robof9 wrote one of the most humane pieces of business communication I have ever seen, not to me, but gosh it was good.   I heart Robof9.

On the basis that I wouldn’t want to hear it read back to me in court – a sore point with me and Patricia these days, although not because we’re having problems with each other – I deleted this first line.  I may say Patricia’s a happy woman these days, and she’s taking her boyfriend (long, long, long, and wonderful and not bloggable story) – to Carmen.

Tanya booked her 3D ultrasound, which of course I didn’t have access to back in the Mesozoic, when I was progenizing.  Gosh, it was a long time ago, and it gets longer ago all the bloody time!  It is good to experience the wonders of birth anew vicariously through Tanya.  PS, her sister in law accused her of STALKING HER.  When Tanya was at home in bed.  Asleep.  This is not good for the baby in waiting, and if the first thing that baby does the first time it’s in the same room as the SIL is vomit and spray feces like Eta Carinae spews light, it’ll be better than the SIL deserves.  Oh, I’m so hoping Tanya’s eating when she reads this and sprays partly chewed Cheerios on her laptop as she’s lying in bed.  Hugs to Battery.

Daxus got the ring Katie got him out of pawn.  Seriously, I’m not crazy about the priorities, but it makes an incredible difference to Katie… huge in fact.  If she’s happy bla bla bla.  Jeff just scowled when I told him; he’s not the only one who feels like that.

We watched a documentary about the Hubble, thus the Eta Carinae reference earlier.

And I’m happy.  I’m really quite unreasonably, and unseasonably, happy.  I don’t understand how I can be so blah one day and so in a happy groove the next.  Earlier this week I felt like scrap, and I feel good now….This despite the fact that my company’s landlord and the university ARE TRYING TO KILL ME EVERY SINGLE MORNING by not putting salt and sand down.  There was a skin of ice on the stairs and the walkway this morning that nearly sent me on my ass and definitely wiped out some others.  What’s with these people?  Don’t they know that people who try to kill me don’t get biscotti?

Was it the ice cream?  Mayan Chocolate ice cream is very good.  That’s enough to keep you happy for a minute.

More running around

Yesterday was a good day at work; afterwards I went to the Coop Car office on Granville and picked up my ‘fob’ (all the cars have little onboard tracking systems now) so I can rent a truck for Mike to help him finish his move (the alternative being putting the Road Apple on the road temporarily, which involves getting it running first) and then I came home and found Jeff looking porely on the chesterfield.  I stuffed pork chomps, fried mushrooms and onions, chickpea salad and tater tots into him and he perked up somewhat. 

Tonight, the clean underwear runs out, so laundry it is. 

Only a couple of weekends until Conflikt II. Looking forward to it, but I have to rehearse….

v. nice weekend

Dinner for Tom’s birthday last night was glorious; it was so good to see everybody and share a meal.  I must really try to be more hospitable myself – it’s good to feed people.

I wrote the letter to the Israeli embassador and forwarded it to a couple of people for comments and edits, and will post once it’s back from them.  Me not happy about Gaza.

I watched, in its entirety (I couldn’t sleep, woke up at 2, so it’s good I went to bed so early!) a documentary about demographic winter. It was paid for by a bunch of fundies, but I have learned that one should study one’s enemies.  I am still processing what I learned and may share my thoughts later.

Ha, I didn’t do laundry.  Tonight I must do laundry or it’s going to be harsh strong bad at work…

I did my first working from home this weekend.

I did a lot of cooking.

I saw Keith and Kate, and watched feetsball with Jeff a bit.

And, of course, Sculpey.  I feel rested and refreshed and ready for work.

Sculpey!!!

Katie and I went on a shopping expedition yesterday, and it was a success!  She liked her new camera (her first picture, of me, was the WORST PICTURE EVER TAKEN OF ME and no, I’m not posting it because it makes me look like I’m drinking beer with a face made out of jello (it was tea, actually, but in a beer stein)) and loves her new hat, which has flowers in the pattern so Dax won’t ‘borrow’ it.  It’s a very nice hat, the kind that Gwen Stefani or one of them other stylin’ broads might wear. And I can hear my ancestors bellow “And it should be, for what you paid for it!”  A day with Katie is always fun.

I also picked up for free a replacement feather for Keith’s hat.  I also went to Opus at Granville Island and picked up Sculpey, a clay gun, acrylic paints in zombie heart colours, and then I made this object!  Yes, it needs painting.  I will paint it sometime today.

zombieheartbackzombieheartfront

If your initial reaction is “Blecch!”  Yay me for the win!!!!

Katie’s art work, for which no pic alas, was a beautiful chess piece (a knight).  She’s going to make a chess set eventually.  I’d like to make a chess set too but I have to figure out how I’m going to do it because there’s kind of a technical challenge involved BEYONDS the fact I haz no skills.  I’d like to thank ScaryClown for letting me know about Sculpey.  Clay guns ARE FUN!  I recommend them for insane amounts of stress relief – there are no fewer than 20 discs for the various shapes (which is how I did those veiny things on my Zombie Heart).

Et alors, Biscotti pour Tom.  C’est mon métier!  Then Keith comes over for lunch and then I’m off to the Lunderhaus.

PS it snowed yesterday.  April is NOT the cruellest month.

Movies

So, there are three movies I should mention which have wormed their way in front of me:  Jane Austen Book Club, La Vie en Rose, and Blast from the Past.

Jane Austen Book Club was goodhearted and fun, and there were definitely some good lines in it.  It could also have been entitled “Managing Multiple Fandoms in a Testosterone Reduced World” but that I guess is being too cynical.  I liked it because there was a character in it called Allegra, so every time her mother called for her or a character mentioned her name I’d sorta jerk reflexively.  And she’s a babydyke, just to add to the wonder…. Anyway, nautilus3 recommended it and I finally watched it with Jeff. He likes Emily Blunt (so do I) and there’s a scene where her character Prudie is being a ****ing pain in the ass, and I said, “I’ve been that woman, and Christ she’s annoying” and occasionally Jeff would pause it, waggle his eyebrows and go “That was a classic chickflick moment.”  Definitely a better script than you usually get with these kinds of outings, and the morals are delivered like the bill in a good restaurant, in a leisurely and tactful way.

La Vie en Rose I’m not going to talk about much.  If you like Edith Piaf, see the movie.  It’s great, and the lead performance is nothing short of mesmerizing – I can understand the Oscar nod. One of the best biopics ever, that I’ve seen anyway, possibly nosing out Ray as being the best I’ve ever seen.  And tasteful.  AND THE DUBBED SINGING IS AMAZING.  The lip synch was incredible.

Blast from the Past…. If you like Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser, you’ve probably already seen it.  If you’re looking for a nice little comedy, undemanding, charming and steadily amusing, this will be a good companion.  I must mention the guest spot by Christopher Walken, who was just starting his streak of being in all movies in a supporting role.  I must own to liking Brendan Fraser – he was AWESOME in the first Mummy flick (I haven’t bothered with the others) and I really liked him in George of the Jungle.  He’s a goofy looking guy…  At one point in the movie I burst into tears and sobbed a couple of times.  After the movie I explained what was going on (Brendan did something for Alicia that somebody did for me once, and I lost it) and Jeff just said, “Oh, I just thought you’d gone crazy.”  Thanks, bud.

On another note, have you ever spent a fair amount of time with somebody, on a casual basis – like somebody you eat lunch with – and then one day he comes out and says something that everybody else at the table, including you, finds rather disturbing, and when somebody calls him on it he doesn’t notice?  I had one of those moments yesterday.  Rather than get into details, I’ve decided to turn the spotlight back on myself.  Mocking the afflicted IS NOT A NICE THING TO DO.  I should stop doing it.  I should recognize when I’m doing it.

What a day!

Awake at 5:20 am, poked around the net for a while, then got up and cleaned some pots and next thing I knew I was late for the bus. All quite normal.  Late for work because both the 145 bus and the Skytrain were delayed, who knows why.  At least I didn’t kill myself by falling down that slope – I’ve posted pictures of it, just imagine it covered with a glossy slick of compressed slush.

At 9 the town hall meeting with our new squid overlords.  THEY CAN HAS SWAG!!!  They gave out jackets, and mine is very nice and will probably fit me better in a year.  But I like it. The meeting was full of my coworkers conspicuously signalling to me to get off my ass and ask the new squid overlords some pointy questions like I used to do, but I glued said same ass to my chair.  Besides, I was wearing my “Earth to the Dandy Warhols” t-shirt and I just didn’t look corporate enough.

At work today, Mike McG gamely attempted over three meetings (Patricia was also there) to a) jam Ohm’s law into my tiny pea brain; b) jam info about PV string sizing into my tiny pea brain and c) get my advice/input/loud and unfeigned praise on a totally HAWT Salesforce customization.  This will mean nothing to most of you but when I think of how much time and keystrokes that man plans to save the company I tremble in my granny panties, lemme tell you…

At lunch, Jeff the Queasy (an easily grossed out cowirker) said, “What the hell was with 206, somebody drew Ohm’s law all over the whiteboard?” and Patricia and I are thinking, “Hm, should we tell him?”

Anyway, I didn’t work much because I was in meetings or lunching for like 5 hours.  It was like being an executive, and Tanya took the worst call of the day, honestly, the customer was a jerk to her, and then of course was nice as pie to me.

OH MY STARS.  I have to tell this story, even if it gets me fired.  The marketing department, whom I have been convinced wants to either kill me or slap me into an insane asylum for at least a decade now, put my name on a document….. associated with a phone number which comes to my desk …. and a toll free number that, alas, was one digit out from being correct.  Care to guess what my name was associated with?  A front for a phone sex line. I can die happy now.  All my Dilbert dreams/nightmares have come true.  By all the gods I don’t believe in, this story is absolutely true and I can call witnesses.  And besides, the marketing department has already fixed it.

Our new HR overlord is from Suth Cahlina, and she said You All twice during the town hall.  Not Y’all, that’s trashy, but You All, that’s cute.

Much thanks to Sandy P for the hilarious email about the mighty huntin’ dogs she has, I laughed like a drain.

Then a call from Paul – I’d been expecting to take the bus to his place preparatory for a swim, but he decided to pick me up, and then when I got there it was me, Keith, Kate, Paul and Daxus, and Dan T. dropped by for some soup, and I arranged to spend most of Saturday with Katie, and she plucked my eyebrows (they were raggedy). Katie and Daxus were playing chess when I arrived – Daxus was shellacking Katie. I saw the board and went, Concede, you fool! but they played it out.  After dinner Keith and Paul and I went to the pool and swam and soaked, and then Paul drove me home.  I drove home, but it’s Paul’s car.  You know what I mean.

It was so good to see everybody.  Dan T. said, “I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamed that I ate somebody’s dog, and it tasted like a pear, but I didn’t really like it all that much so I had two bites and threw it away, and then the owners were saying, “Where’s Fluffy?”  I cried laughing, he was so matter-of-fact about it.  I light a candle for his dad, who died recently.  I only met him the once, when I gave a homily at the Comox Valley Fellowship, but I was very impressed with him indeed.  He will be missed.