Thoughts on Dancing!

I always knew I was meant to dance. I remember cradling my big teddy-bear as a child and dancing along with the cast of Dirty Dancing. I even did the scene when Johnny keeps on tickling Baby as he tries to get his hand down her hand-armpit and waist.

Sure I must of looked a little weird; technically a 6-7 yr old trying to dirty dance with her bear must of caused my mother to potentially have to settle for dreams of me just making it out of puberty instead the usual doctor/astronaut/successful-tyrant. But, alas I have made it out and well past puberty and unfortunately I didn't do it as a dancer.

This has caused a lot of misplaced energy to ball-up, and for as long as I can remember it seems that unless I dance at least a few times a week, I become a lifeless-angry-easily frayed brain-eating zombie. Now I know this description is not totally accurate, but then again its not all in the details.

That is why I decided to share with you my love of dancing, and link to a YouTube video of a flash-mob dancing to Oprah's Kick-off Party. I have a feeling I will try and do this later tonight, although I did have my usual morning dance-off (with myself) in the kitchen.

To all those dancers who where told they were too fat, or not talented enough...I encourage you to take over your kitchen floor and dance till the egg's are done and the oatmeal is cooked! It might not be a stadium yet, but one step at a time :)

Here We GO!

Travel's on Greyhound and other fun!

Hello blog readers,

it is I, your semi sane and always inquisitive friend, and I have news for you. I have made it back, all in one piece with more wear and no tear. The trip was fantastic. The people I met were sweet and a very interesting bunch, and there are stories to be told.

The stories include rants, and so I want to begin with one...two..or three:

"Made in China"

the above says it all, almost everything in all the 'knick-knack' shops was made in China. All the stuff that looks local and handmade is deceiving, because every time my heart would jump and my thoughts center on "finally something made by local artists that I can afford", I would flip the thing over and there it would be. The engraving/sticker signaling it was made by the ever productive hands of China.

Now I'm no cheapo when it comes to local crafts, but then again I also do not have $400-4000 dollars to drop on an original photograph of a bear. This then became part of my impromptu trip-goal: find local arts and crafts that I can afford. The end of which centered on bringing back local beer (Bear Paw), local soap (Canmore Soap Co.), and chocolate (Le Chocolatier). The most local of course was the beer, local water...honey...and yeast, but lets face it most of the ingredients were not local for any of the other items...just the services rendered to make them were.

Although not a huge deal, I wish I could of had something entirely made from and by locals. Sometimes those are the things that speak the most about the character of the place. Alas, I was lucky enough and a local artist after hearing my pleas for local art, gifted me with a mug...for this I want to thank Miss Marzena Pustelnik, the ceramic artist-extraordinaire who heard my loud cries (between that of an annoyed cat and angry bear) and kindly graced me with one of her pieces. I will be in close contact with Miss Marzena and will post some of her very cool ceramic art, so keep tuned for a special post on ceramics and their uses (beer making among some). Now on to other observations (part rants).

Thanks to the Greyhound trip I now realize that large provincial cities are remarkably similar in all aspects of commerce. From Winners to Shoppers Drug Mart to Wal-Mart, there is little local character and the grids of city planning make each less of a unique experience and more of the 'show me what I know, and I will ignore what I don't". This makes me sad. Sad because character is important to where you travel, and may be one reason why Europe sees so much traffic, as does Montreal and other "historical" centers. Again thoughts to ponder.

To add to the Greyhound theme, I now know how they stay afloat. With ever bus ride, the smart people of this bus carrier, realized they could make an extra buck by tugging along a courier service, and since they go to lots of small places, stops between Calgary and Winnipeg were all Greyhound Courier service centers. This made for welcome breaks in scenery, as well as a sore butt (but when you sell a girl a ticket for $113 CND to go from Calgary to Toronto, somehow you have to make your ends meet...and to that end I solute you Greyhound, for making travel dirt cheap if purchased 21 days in advance).

There are lots of other observations, like the fact that I can tell each provinces' landscape apart , or that some people can talk for 2.5 days and their voice doesn't even get hoarse. This last one blew my mind, as well as the ability of strangers to tell you the most intimate of life's situations without apprehension. Oh the things you learn while traveling on a Greyhound. Also if you plan on doing this, bring stretchy shoes. Sitting for long periods makes your feet swell; not the size of watermelons (not quite at least) but good sizable cobs of corn.

I have more, and if you or anyone you know plans on visiting any city within Greyhound bus service limits, I highly suggest you do it at least once in your life, and no Greyhound is not aware of my love of their services. Although I do hope someday they will grace me with bus-service that borders on star-trek like shuttle service coupled with five-star dinners :)
(a girl can dream...and should..coincidentally while on overnight trips on buses this may prove to be difficult).

Signing off,
-Anna

look forward to a post on religion, girls, and boobs.

In Canmore!: Observations

Its time for another post, and this time I am sitting comfortably on a chair, at a glass desk, and glancing out at the mountains that make up the Bow Valley. Last week I made my way to Canmore, Alberta, and have decided to post some of the observations that have made my trip that much more fun.

Un: the women in Canmore seem to be pregnant/just had a baby or are waiting for a baby, this is shocking also because I have noticed many younger women having babies. This may be because I am use to Toronto's 30+ mothers, or maybe the mountain air keeps everyone looking young. Who knows, but its a bit weird....there is even a mountain range that looks like a pregnant lady. Maybe Canmore's new visitor ads should be catered to the many people currently having problem's with fertility. The slogan could be something like this "when elsewhere you can't, in Canmore you can!" (not the best slogan, but you get the idea) :)

Deux: the food here is pricey, take lunch as an example. A salad is about $11, whereas I am use-to lunch hovering just around $10 all included...or less if its just a snack. The only flip on this is Subway Sandwiches, their stuff seems to be cheaper than Toronto. Also, breakfast at Silvertip Golf Resort is well priced, and very cool (about $10). One more buck in the trend is the ever amazing Grizzly Paw pub, with great food, great prices, and home-made beer and ginger-ale (with real ginger!!).

Trois: everyone who lives here seems to be fit, in the sense that the only chubby/fat people I have seen were visitors/tourists. This maybe not be the most scientifically based observation but it seems to hold true whenever I meet locals. I chalk this up the the prominence of hiking/biking/walking among the locals. I think Calgary could learn a thing or two from here.

Quatre: there are a lot of French people here (from Quebec it appears). Also lots of Japanese tourists (Banff mainly) and German adventure ppl. Cool mix to chill with.

there are more, but that's it for now. If I had to recommend a vacation place Canmore would definitely be it with regard to Alberta, with the note that you must like the outdoors, and want to spend a lot of your time out and about in the great-outdoors.

Ps. there are bears, I bumped into one on a mountain trail, but never run, talk to it calmly and slowly back away. Never scream at it, just wave your hands and be gentle. if it starts to follow you, well you are F*k*d, but there are ways to deal with that too. Oh the things you learn from educational videos.
Enjoy the hikes, keep warm, and make sure to be prepared for temperatures ranging from -10 to +20 C in one day !

Back !! (notes on Travel)

Here I go again, a new post and a new adventure.

I mismanaged my time here on Pickled Thoughts because I had a lot of personal stuff happen (between December and now) that needed tending to. Sometimes this includes taking a bit of a time out from activities that seem amazing and fun. Alas Pickled Thoughts was one such activity, but now I am back!

Back with such a vengeance that I will forgo my usual media rants, dismiss the stories of smelly fat cats and vampires, neglect to mention fruit that explode in your mouth and coat the inside for up to 24 hours with a chemical mix that makes everything taste sweet (even dandelion juice), and not mention my love of flax seed. No...indeed I shall speak to you all my lovlies about travel in Canada. Specifically from Toronto to Calgary.

I am scheduled to depart for Calgary tomorrow, and being the green imp that I hope I am, I decided to try my best to make my travel 'less bad'. These are my initial impressions:

1. train travel is damn expensive;
2. air travel is almost on par with train travel money-wise, but time-wise it is like comparing rock hard kiwis just delivered to your grocery store, to those picked fresh (and ripe) off a tree and immediately consumed (guess which is which);
3. Canada has transitioned into an "air" travel country, which makes me and a bunch of birds very sad;
4. flights to Calgary cost more than my all-inclusive Cuba trip (taken last year @ $480)
5. :(
   

But on to good news for a change, and no not the David Suzuki book. I in my moment of genius-thought, decided to fly one way and take the bus the other. IN short I will fly to Calgary and visit my sister/brother-in-law, and then embark on my great expedition back to Toronto on a Greyhound bus.

I decided to do this for a few reasons...

• one: being the ability to finally see the prairies;
• two: saving a few bucks on air travel (woohooo for 21-day advance ticket purchase discounts);
  
• three: meet a few characters and aim to not be decapitated (Google greyhound and decapitation);
• four: save a bit of my now depleted "green-glow" by opting for less damaging travel options (at least on the way back).

I shall update you-all on my initial thoughts of Alberta, and then on my 2 day harrowing account of travel by road with people you don't know (on a bus!!).

I imagine you cannot wait to hear what tails of horror I will bring forth. Especially the potential for 'bathroom-use' murder, but for this and other news you must tune in next week.

Just remember "spider man spider man, does whatever a spider can, spins a web any size..watch out here comes the spider man..."--> the above are unfortunately the lines that are stuck in my head (and now in yours I hope). You and I can send our thanks to Teletoon and its reruns of old spider-man episodes.

DAMN YOU Spider-man theme song writer(s)!!!

A Shout-out to a Friend!

She was the person I met in high school, someone I fell in love with.

We shared some of the funniest and most intimate moments together, and over time and loads of school we have drifted a little. We still talk, and see each-other when she's back in TO, but that close physical contact has waned.

In this post I wanted to give a shout-out to all my friends, who keep me going and smiling. Sometimes we argue, for hours...sometimes we sit in silence as someone else entertains us, but through it all we love each-other.

Many many virtual hugs :)

I love you all more than you will ever know!

I also want to send out a shout-out to anyone who stumbles on this blog, I hope you like what you read, or at least find it amusing, and if time allows do send me an email and say hi...I always love to have more friends, as it makes the world a brighter place.

FIDO Goes Green!!!

Fido Canada has released a new phone, and its green!! No not only in colour, but in what is said to be carbon emissions.

Motorola's W233 is what FIDO is given me as a choice for trying to do my part for the environment....oooh and its cheap too....kinda what might be expected with a bare-bones phone of this sort.

So what are my thoughts??? Well, apart from carbon neutral phones...which I'm reading up on as I type this, I find the concept intriguing. Motorola produced the casing of the phone from recycled water bottles and off-set the production CO2 with credits purchased from CarbonFund.com. Given my personal interest with mining and Africa, I can safely say it would be nice if the metals inside were certified "ethically" produced (so no DRC metals!).

I know I know, I might be wanting more then Motorola is willing to give at the moment, but a girl can dream.

I think its an awesome move by FIDO, who I am more likely to switch to so as to get access to this phone....That's right Solo, kiss my $50/month goodbye. But there are a few things to consider.

The W233 may be the only phone I know by name, but it is certainly not exempt from a bit of critical analysis. Which brings me to my next point. Given the crazy amount of waste in the cell-phone business, new phones coming out all the time and people upgrading; is a green phone really green when you consider the fact that you need to ditch your old phone, in order to get this new one?

I'm all for recycling and being green, but maybe the idea is to reduce crap we have, not upgrade to more stuff just to say your "green" while creating more waste for masses of the poor the world over to have to "disassemble" and make a shitty living on. If you don't know what I'm referring to check (google) where most electronic waste is shipped to and what is done with it.

More so than anything, given people's excessive need of many electronic items, the smart thing would be to produce a phone that is made of recycled products, and eliminates the need for a camera/mp3 player/tiny computer. The W233 does not do this, if anything by getting this phone you must also buy all the above separetly (especially if you depend on your phone for pic taking). The idea is to simplify life by getting less crap, but when you do get stuff try and combine everything so that you have a 2for1 or 4for1 deal. Kinda like an awesome much improved version of the Apple iphone, only made with the idea of the Mototola W233.

I congratulate Fido and Motorola, and if I'm going to switch my plan I may consider the W233 and Fido (as my provider) for that matter , but I may be more willing to do this if some or all of the above suggestions are met.

What it comes down to kids, is the commercialization of environmentalism. Its all good and dandy that companies want to be green, but maybe just maybe the whole economic system needs to switch from a waste-economy (cradle-to-grave) to a cradle-to-cradle system.

Any electronic purchase is a purchase of "want", so lets work to limit the "want" and when a "must" is encountered, we make that purchase a smart one. If the W233 came out last year when I signed-up for my Solo account I would of gotten it, but now I may just do something more green and get a smart-phone and pay off some of the carbon emissions online myself. Seems more like something I might do, if I need a new phone, this is kinda a touchy subject as I usually keep my phones for about 4 yrs. But I do need a digi. camera and my cellphone plan isn't so awesome that I want to keep it, so stay tuned for my search of a digi.cam/cell phone (2for1 deal) both awesome in price and utility.

This brings me to Samsung's Blue Earth phone; a smart phone of sorts with solar panels on the back to help with charging. A brilliant idea, and I believe it has a camera too!!! Now let the green cell-phone makers wars begin!!! Its all about competition, and we need more of it to get amazing products that are smartly designed.



until another day,
yours truly,
-anna

I Hate Smores!**

I don't know why people like these things: melted marshmallows, chocolate, and some sort of biscuit....and incredibly sweet for my taste.

Who ever came up with this had a good thing going with chocolate, or maybe a quality biscuit, but to add a marshmallow was sin!! SIN!!

I feel like its taste is still in my mouth, and I had a bit of it 10 minutes ago!!! ooooh how I wish I wouldn't of!

To all you out-there in this wide world of the web...look not at smores as something to consume, but something to never again make! If you crave a tasty treat grab anything but a smore, because these things are a big bore!!!

**all opinions expressed within this blog are mine, and you do not have to share them although it might benefit you if you do :)