Ubalblog

[  Mood: Hypnotized ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
So I went to a wedding in Sudbury this weekend. Sudbury is a mining town in Northern Ontario, home of the Big Nickel. It is over six hours from my house and even has its own song.

The hotel we stayed in claimed to have wireless Internet. And it did, when we checked in Thursday.

When we woke up Friday, we briefly had the net and then, it went away, never to return.

We called the front desk to let them know. They said they were working on it. No biggie, we thought, we’ll log in once we get back from Science North.

Guess what wasn’t working when we got back? Thus began our repeated complaints to the front desk. We were promised repair. We were offered to reboot the wireless. After three days, we were told to use the ethernet connection, which also did not work.

We then found out from a staff member that our room was notorious for having issues with the Internet. So much so that the previous occupant had to be moved to a new room. When we went to the front desk with this info, they offered to move us. It was our last night there. As we were checking out the front desk cheerfully informed us that the tech guy was there to fix our problem. Nice.

When I return to Sudbury, I will not be staying here. In fact it will be awhile before I stay in a Radisson again.

So excuse me as I catch up on a week’s worth of posts.

[  Mood: Cool ]
Magdalena Yoder runs a B&B in Pennsylvania. Being of Mennonite descent, she has decided to name her B&B PennDutch Inn. She offers an "Amish Lifestyle Package" for her guests where they can clean their own rooms.

Into this world comes a weekend full of guests for hunting season. A senator, his wife and staff, a group of anti-hunting activists and a journalist. Add to that Magdalena’s divorced and vain sister, and the elderly Amish cousins who help run the Inn and you have a rich cast of characters.

It is really too bad that author Tamar Myers doesn’t use them better. Magdalena is bitter, jealous and judgemental of all around her. This makes her a completely unsympathetic main character, which in turn makes it difficult for the reader to get invested in the book. So I found this book to be a little on the meh side. I will give the next one a chance, but if it falls flat, to the curb this series goes.

Like many of the culinary mysteries out there are recipes in the book so you can cook what the characters eat. Your choice to include the arsenic or not.

[  Mood: Distorted ]
So Thursday night saw me join my City of Heroes Supergroup, the Strippers of Paragon City for a little smashing of bad guys. But there was a problem. I didn’t recognize many of the other characters’ names. Something had happened.

NC Soft had cracked down on the Srippers as being innappropriate.

But why? We have been around for two years and are a little infamous on the Justice server. Heck, our photo was on the front page of this website.

Near as anyone can figure out it stems from the last SG night. The Strippers sponsored a costume contest in honour of our second anniversary as an SG. We think a disgruntled loser complained. Or maybe the broadcast of the contest offend someone.

Whatever happened, justice was swift. The group’s name was gone. Any of the supergroup characters that were present during the costume contest had their names taken away. They also lost all their costumes. There was no warnng. There was no appeal. The message was labled "final notice".

And here I was upset that I missed the costume contest.

Strippers was started as a parody of the physical representation of women in the comic genre (and in the game). Our tongues are firmly planted in our cheeks. The SG has at least two, if not more, women with strong feminist leanings. Yet NCSoft did not ask about this. They did not even want to talk.

Now I know this is NCSoft’s world and they set the rules, but their reaction was a little harsh for me. The costumes are made from pieces that the developpers make available. (There is a mini-skirt with holes cut out of the back and front.) The body types are also at the developpers command. Why freak out if you make this stuff possible?

The message I got is clear.

You can look like a skank, but don’t draw attention to yourself.

Paragon City got a little darker that night.

[  Mood: Happy ]
Barak Obama is a political superstar and friend of Oprah. He is also a published author. The Audacity of Hope is his second book.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one includes an overview of the American political landscape and a the US Constitution. Part two lays out Barak’s political philosophy.

I found the book fascinating and quite a good read. I know there are many who find Barak an oportunist and two faced, but I found that Obama was trying to walk a very thin line. He was trying to explain his beliefs but understand why the other side feels the way they do. In essence, he is attempting to widen the tent, arguing for a return to the time of bipartisan co-operation, when things actually got done in Washington. This is in contrast to what happens now, where the sides pick positions and do not play well together.

There is a tendancy to portray Barak as a messianic saviour, or as the radical rightwing loonies believe, the antichrist. I think this comes from the fact that he is preaching hope, unlike the overtly negative campaigns of the past. The Premiere of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty did that up here, and defeated a right wing, conservative government hands down. People, especially Generations X and Digital, are tired of the idiological nastiness. They want hope, that they can change the world, that we can get along, that we can have a better life.

Esentially, this is what Barak is selling. You can debate his sincerity, as you can debate the sincerity of any politician, but you can not deny the appeal of the message to a battle weary public.

I would encourage you to read this book. It is good to know what a man thinks.

[  Mood: Happy ]
I have just finished Barak Obama’s The Audacity of Hope and I will do a quick reveiw later. Right now I want to capture some of the quotes that made me pause and think.

"All the money in the world won’t boost student achievement if parents make no effort to instill in their children the values of hard work and delayed gratification. But when we as a society pretend that poor children will fulfill their potential in dilapidated, unsafe schools with outdated equipment and teachers who aren’t trained in the subjects they teach, we are perpetrating, a lie on these children, and on ourselves."

"Justice Louis Brandeis once said: that in a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen."

About the Right wanting the law to restrict gay marriage.
"I find such a position troublesome, particularly in a society in which Christian men and women have been known to engage in adultery or other violations of their faith without civil penalty."

On race and the inequalities in America
"The danger will come if we fail to recognize the humanity of Cristina and her family – if we withhold from them the rights and opportunities that we take for granted and tolerate the hypocrisy of a servant class in our midst;"

"America’s early leaders cautioned against idealistic attempts to export our way of life; according to John Quincy Adams, America should not go ‘abroad in search of monsters to destroy’ nor ‘become the dictatress of the world."

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Guess ]
I like it when an author is willing to shake things up in an ongoing series. It keeps the sreies fresh. Don’t do it and you in danger of becoming Janet Evanovich or Murder She Wrote.

So when I read book three of the Sookie Sackhouse series I was pleasantly surprised. Sookie’s boyfriend, Bill the vampire, has disappeared and she is asked to find him. In doing so, she discovers that he may have been cheating her. Sookie channels her anger into looking for him and flirting with a werewolf. In addition she fends off the advances of Eric, the master vampire of the area.

Good stuff, and the ending shows the strength of character that Sookie must have to be attractive to so many men.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
I will admit now that I had never read this coomic before. I managed to secure a copy of this graphic novel from the Biblio.

Wow!

It is rare you come across something so breath-takingly original. Yes, the concept reads like a bad fanfic story, but it works. By dipping into characters that are familiar, yet distant, Moore is able to quickly build a mythos that we buy into. (I particularly enjoyed a panel with a previous incarnation of the League.)

The characters are rich and illustrations evoke the Victorian era. I love, love, love the litlle "tune in tomorrow" blurbs at the end of each episode. They are reminiscent of the penny dreadful novels of the Victorian era.

I have already requested number two. I am a fan.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Waiting for breakfast ]
For a Few Demons More finds our heroine, Rachel Morgan dealing with the aftermath of Kisten’s death, as well as visits from Al, the demon who she had imprisoned at the end of the last book. The authorities think she is summoning demons, so she needs to find out who is before they close in. There’s a new vampire boss running things and he is more than just a little interested in Ivy and Rachel’s relationship. Twist into that Trent wanting her to go into the Everafter to get a piece of Elven DNA, and you have a mess of biblical proportions.

Kim Harrison has created an amazing alternate history with her Hollows series. Rachel is a gutsy, believable heroine. The secondary characters are rich and three-dimentional.

Harrison is not an author who is afraid to shake things up, kill charaters off or flip charaters’ allegiences. This book gives us an insight into Rachel’s family history and what exactly Trent’s dad did to her DNA when she was a child. It also sets up a couple of upcoming plotlines for future novels.

This one is worth the effort. Go get it.

I just want to say that I am THRILLED that Joshua won So You Think You Can Dance last night.

I have loved that boy since the first audition.

[  Mood: Fed Up WIth Life ]
[ Currently: Guess ]
So in the course of a week there have been two stories about women who were breastfeeding in public being harrased by businesses. Add that to the experience of a woman at Universal Studios, and I got to ask myself, "What is going on?"

When did a woman breastfeeding her child become an indecent act?

It is the most natural thing in the world. And given the benefits to the child and society, not to mention the extreme preassure we put on women to breastfead, you would think that society would be as welcoming as possible.

Instead, there are these narrow minded people who think lactating women need to cover-up or go to a secluded area to breastfeed. The message is clear to me, breastfeeding is shameful and must be done in secret.

How incredibly Victorian.

What’s next? Gay and interracial couples need to not be as visable because they might offend someone?

I am having the urge to head to the Ottawa airport and breastfeed my child in front of the Westjet check-in desk. Start collecting money for my bail.