Time to Dig for the Truth

This week, a group called the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) held a press conference outside the Indian Affairs office in Downtown Vancouver to announce the formation of a non-government inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of children of the First Nations who were put into the residential school system between 1840 to 1990.

They have chosen a non-governmental inquiry because they do not the government or its officers to let the truth come out.

As part of the investigation, they have presented to the press and the public a list of 28 mass graves across Canada that hold the bodies of the children.

This is one of those moments that we as Canadians should find horrifying. Horrifying because of the atrocities that may have happened; horrifying because, if the atrocities did happen, they happened with the the implicit and possibly explicit knowledge of the authorites; and horrifying because they have been so long ignored.

And please note I use the words "may" and "if" not to express disbelief, but only because I don't know enough about this to say what is the truth.

But I do know the way to find out.

If there are graves, dig them up. If there are bodies, examine them. Learn who they are, learn how they died, and return them to their families and Nations for proper burial.

There are a wealth of archeologists, forensic pathologists, and many others across Canada whose skills could be utilized here. Exhume the bodies, collect the evidence, and let the truth come out.

Of course, I believe our current government will do its damnedest to sweep this under the rug, and I believe the media will mostly ignore it. But I hope I am wrong.

As South Africa showed us, there can be no healing without truth. So let the digging begin, and let the truth come to light.

H/T to The Vanity Press

I are so smrt!

Free-IQTest.net - Mensa IQ Test

So there!

I is smartlike!

Getting Closer...

Got another couple of pages on my website done. The HOme page, writing page, Appearance page, bookstore main page contacts page and dragon moon press page all work, as do all the links from those pages. Yay!

The Obsessions and Links pages are still a mess, so don't go there.

But I'm getting close...

You know you're in trouble...

When you're the only parent home, you want to do some work on the computer and youtube is down.

Another step forward...

The bookstore sections of my website are pretty much complete. I need to test all the links and stuff, but so far, looks good.

So, in addition to buying my book, now you can buy a bunch of others off my website and help me pay for the thing!

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

All right, is there any free website design software out there that doesn't suck?

Page breeze doesn't recognize CSS so I can't see what the pages actually look like. NVu has decided that my pages are no longer editable, and since I'm dealing with the links from Amazon.ca I kind of need a working WYSIWIG to make things go properly.

Annoying as all get out, this is.

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions before I fork out $600 for a copy of Dreamweaver that I really don't want, that would be appreciated.

It's slightly more alive!

I've got the "Writing" page of my new website up. Very happy making. Not all the links from it work yet, but it's getting closer.

It's Alive.... Well, almost, anyway...

Working on the website at long last. Got the homepage up and running, and am working on the many other pages.

With luck, it will be fully functional in the near future. Just having some image and link issues on almost all the other pages.

Not sure which would be cheaper. Buying a copy of dreamweaver or just hiring someone to do it for me...

Meanwhile, I think the "Under Construction" page is very nice...

Truth, Lies and Weight Loss

I don't blog at work. It's bad for one's keeping of one's job, but this post is important.

A friend of mine just sent me a link to Junk Food Science and one of the best articles I have ever read about the science of obesity, starvation, and weight loss. The information in it comes from the Minnesota Starvation Study and published as Biology of Human Starvation (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis, 1950), begun in 1944, led by Ancel Benjamin Keys, Ph.D., as part of the effort to assist the millions who were starving in Europe. It is the definitive study on the effects of starvation on the human body.

Here is the link.

If you have ever dieted, or are thinking of dieting, read this article first. It, and the study which it uses for backing, puts to rest a lot of the myths about diet, and the myths of post diet behaviour.

I went on a diet once. I gained 20 lbs. Now I know why.

Eat healthy foods, exercise and sleep. The rest will take care of itself.

Read the article.

Struck down by the plague

I'm hoping this is like close to seven now, because at this rate, I'm pretty much expecting a rain of frogs.

We have been sick long and often in the past few months, and we're sick again. God a nasty cold bug that caught us both today. Knocked my lovely wife for a loop. I kept going, and thank God for drugs is all I can say.

So in case anyone is wondering where I've been, that would be it.

And by the way:

Which Buffy the Vampire Slayer Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

Absolutely not what I was expecting, but I'll take it.

Hat tip to Chet

I'm Not as Think as People Dumb I am!

Free-IQTest.net - Free IQ Test

H/T to Chet

Defining Liberalism

Chet over at The Vanity Press has a great post defining Liberalism, and given how the conservatives are constantly attacking the concept (more so in the USA than here, where they are too busy attacking the Liberal Party and just work on undermining liberalism without noising about why it's bad) it's good to remember what liberalism is and why it's worthwhile.

Have a read.

It's a good definition. Thanks, Chet.

Geek Link!

By way of Dymaxion World.

Harvesting the Sun's Energy with Antennas

If they can find a way to transmit the energy they collect, these little guys could could literally solve almost all of our energy problems.

Cool, eh?

Happy New Year!

Hope your New Year's eve went off as well as ours did. We had a couple of friends over and served what can only be described as a wonderful dinner. My wife and I took turns cooking, and everything went off perfectly. Our friends brought excelllent wine to compliment the meal. Couldn't have asked for better.

Here's the menu (just to make you jealous):

• Tomato Bocconcini Skewers with Basil & Olive Oil
• Roasted Tomato Soup with Lemon & Basil
• Seared Scallops with Jalapeño Crème
• Warm Spinach Salad with Pancetta Dressing & Asiago Cheese
• Strip Loin Steaks with French Mustard Sauce
• Mandarin Praline Trifle

Now that was a dinner.

Good friends, good food, good conversation, good evening. What could be better?

Hope you had the same, and look forward to spending a fair bit more time here this year.

In other news...

...Started putting up the new website. Running into major problems, of course, so don't go visiting just yet. It will look good, though.

...Cold Magics is ticking along, which is good.

...And I'm back to work tomorrow. And it is a sign of why I took this job that I'm looking forward to it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Been on Holidays

And still am.

Look for more blogging in the new year.

Monday Lunchtime Blogging

Here I sit, contemplating the snow I spent hours shoveling (all right one hour, plus several 10 minute stints to keep up) and the first thing that leaps to mind?

"Now where do I work out?"

Up until now, I've been working out in a local park, using a bench for abdominals, a wall for handstand push-ups, a set of monkey bars for pull-ups/chin-ups, parallel bars for horizontal pull-ups and a lot of open space for the rest of the workout.

It is now underneath a foot or more of snow.

I've been trying to get a workout space set up in my office (large office; it also doubles as our library). Unfortunately, it also doubles as storage space as we move things around in the house. Right now, I have two empty wardrobe boxes (going to a friend who is moving), two dressers (we just put in wardrobes) and six milk crates (left over from our move and need to be returned to our friends) cluttering up the 6x10 space that is going to be my exercise station.

Also on the agenda, buying floor mats (so the whole house doesn't rattle when I do burpees), getting a chinning bar and finding something to use for horizontal pull-ups other than the bottom of my desk, which is nice and give a good grip work out, but doesn't allow for the wide grip that I need to work my shoulder properly.

I'm looking forward to getting this all as done as soon as possible so I can design a new workout program. Of course, I'll need to spend some money, so if anyone wants to help out, here's where you can buy my book.

(Yeah, I know, cheesy advertising, but it's been a while since I did a sales pitch)

Speaking of books, Cold Magics is moving along again, which is nice. Good to be getting back in the groove.

Cold Magics - The Rewrites Continue

So after a day or two of sulking I've managed to go back and get some work done. Gotten to page 261, which is not as far as I'd like, but considering half of it is fresh material, notbad.

Time for bed. Tomorrow, more writing.

A brief comment on the progress of Cold Magics:

AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

So, I have been writing this book for far too long. It is one of the problems with being a working person and an author that, when things in life change, your writing ineveitably suffers. With me, it was the change in jobs and the moving that have made this book drag on a year longer than it should.

And when these things happen you get into start-and-stop writing that can be disasterous for your work. In this case, my work ground to a halt until last night, when I realized where the problems all began: Page 233.

So all I have to do is take the work back to that point and correct it.

Infortunately, I'm on page 483.

Like I said:

AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

Ah, isn't being a writer great?

Still, nothing for it. Back I go, and the result will be a better book.

Joss Whedon on the Writer's Strike

I'm home sick today, and came Joss's across the comments via Chet at The Vanity Press.

It's a good read.

My favorite quote:

"We’re talking about story-telling, the most basic human need. Food? That’s an animal need. Shelter? That’s a luxury item that leads to social grouping, which leads directly to fancy scarves. But human awareness is all about story-telling."

People forget that writing is a craft and a trade, and that people need to be properly paid for their work.

Support the writers. They need all the help they can get.

Geek Link!

Quick lunch time blogging, especially for a certain friend of mine who shall remain nameless until she writes in to yell at me.

It's a giant, prehistoric bug!


(image from the BBC)

Hey, at least it wasn't a spider.

Heh, heh.

I am in such trouble.