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April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

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No Backyard? No Problem!

05/20/2009 by Debra

balcony1I just cannot do without my garden backyard or no backyard. This years garden is off to a good start with a couple of pots of tomatoes a couple of pots of cucumbers and various pots of flowers.
I still have a window box I want to plant with herbs and I need a few more flowers to round things out.

The bird feeder is getting busier and busier though sadly I have yet to see a chickadee and certainly don’t see the variety of birds I did in Lindsay. Gone are my waxwings, juncos, nuthatchs, woodpeckers and numerous other varieties. No doubt they are near but they eschew the balcony.balcony2Back to the garden I’m hoping to add more veggies and have plans to plant a couple of pots with grass seed and bulbs in hopes of having a little spring garden next year. High hopes maybe but nothing ventured nothing gained. Morning glories are also on the agenda. I can remember as a little girl walking around the various garden areas with my mom early in the morning the beautiful blues of the morning glory in the late summer, the colourful baubles of the sweet pea, tall stately snap dragons I loved them all! I am at my most content with my hands covered in soil, the smell of earth and life in my nostrils and a symphony of birdsong as accompaniment

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

Filed Under: Blogging

Cell Phone Saga

03/30/2009 by Debra

Whilst I dearly covet the iphones, blackberries and other techie, gadgety oh so cool cells the phones and the plans they require are sadly beyond my current means. In the interest of economy I therefore did a comparison on prepaid plans and phones. Virgin.ca seemed to come out the winner. And as I had already previously had a Virgin phone and was impressed with the customer service I choose to go Virgin again.

I looked up their site and chose the Samsung R610. A cute little slider phone with camera and MP3 player. While no smart phone it would be serviceable and the MP3 player would help drown out the embarrassingly TMI phone calls of fellow bus passengers.

I ordered online, paid up front for a month of service and waited for delivery. The phone arrived within a couple of days and then on the second day died. Apparently I had bought a goldfish.

I phoned customer service and was told that while they could send out a return box going to a kiosk would be much quicker and easier and they would be happy to help. Unfortunately they were not happy to help at all. Eventually a call was placed to Virgin and the person on the other end assured me I would have a return box in 3 days. Fine.

10 days later no box. Gentleman at the call centre promises rush order and agrees to put another month of time on the phone as this month is running down.

2 days later a phone call in response to an email. Management type. Promises box immediately. After many calls and many call centre people with no authority to do anything except commiserate I get a gem. She tracks down a box number with which I am able to get Purolator to confirm. Box arrives March 18th, fully a month after original delivery. I sent it back the same day. Finally on March 27th I received my replacement phone.

In the interim I had again sent an email and received this in response on Sat.

Thanks for writing in and sorry for the delayed reply!

I took a look into your account and saw that everything had been straightened out and a credit applied for the inconvenience. EXCELLENT!

Thank you for your patience and please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Have a great Sunday!

Cheers,

Rob,
VM Team

A credit applied for the inconvenience?! The credit was the month they put on to make up for the fact that my original paid for time was going to run out before the issue was solved which it in fact did. Not only that but they put my number back into the pool and suspended my account!!

All this time, effort and Purolator cost not to mention my soured view of Virgin.ca could have been avoided by simply allowing me to exchange the phone at a kiosk in the first place. Does Richard Branson still own Virgin Mobile? Wonder if he knows his company is so wasteful and the customer service so deplorable. I’d phone and let him know but he probably wouldn’t take my call.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: mobile phone, Richard Branson, samsung r610, Virgin.ca

Catnip Kitties

03/21/2009 by Debra

These are my kitties. These are my kitties on drugs šŸ˜€

I bought a catnip plant at the market. The cats were no where to be seen until I put the plant on the floor. They approached the plant commando style crawling up to it on their bellies and then attacking! My daughter filmed it with her cell phone so the quality isn’t ideal.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: catnip, cats, funny animals, pets

Bread & Roses Members & Readers

03/20/2009 by Debra

As you may have noticed the board has been down for a while now. We moved hosting and some of the furniture, tables to be exact got lost along the way.

I am working with the technicians at Hostgator to try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. I appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvience.

The blogs, however are all up and running.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: announcement, bread and roses

Criticism of Israel is legitimate. Michael Ignatieff told me so

03/16/2009 by Debra

Apparently both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star refused to publish the following statement. I’m joining other bloggers who don’t think that should be allowed to stand.

Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick.

The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel’s accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.

They strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people, their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.

Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel

We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy ā€œNever againā€ means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.

We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel’s flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.

B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B’nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because ā€œanti-Semitic hate festsā€ were being allowed on campuses. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech.

We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December 2008, Israel’s siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there, with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel’s accountability to the international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.

We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.

Signatories:

Abigail Bakan
Adam Balsam
Sharon Baltman
Julia Barnett
Lainie Basman
Jody Berland
Sam Blatt
Geri Blinik
Anita Block
Elizabeth Block
Sheila Block
Hannah Briemberg
Mark Brill
Stephen Brot
Meyer Brownstone
Eliza Burroughs
Smadar Carmon
Gyda Chud
Charles P. Cohen
Nathalie Cohen
David Copeland
Natalie Zemon Davis
Eliza Deutsch
James Deutsch
Judith Deutsch
Abbe Edelson
Jack Etkin
Elle Flanders
Danielle Frank
Ursula Franklin
Dan Freeman-Maloy
Miriam Garfinkle
Alisa Gayle
Jack Gegenberg
Mark Golden
Brenda Goldstein
Sue Goldstein
Cy Gonick
Marnina Gonick
Rachel Gotthilf
Amy Gottleib
Kevin A. Gould
Daina Green
Lisa Frances Greenspoon
Ricardo Grinspun
Cathy Gulkin
Rachel Gurofsky
Deboran Guterman
Yesse Gutman
Freda Guttman
Judy Haiven
Michael Hanna-Fein
Jean Hanson
Jan Heynen
Maria Heynen
Adam Hofmann
Jake Javanshir
Jeannie Kamins
Marylin Kanee
Howard S. Kaplan
Gilda Katz
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta
Mira Khazzam
Bonnie Sher Klein
Mark Klein
Martin Klein
Naomi Klein
Joshua Katz-Rosene
Ryan Katz-Rosene
Judy Koch
Anton Kuerti
Jason Kunin
Aaron Lakoff
Michael Lambek
Natalie LaRoche
Richard Borshay Lee
Andy Lehrer
Gabriel Levin
Gabriel Levine
Joel Lexchin
Kim Linekin
Abby Lippman
Lee Lorch
Martin Lukacs
Audrey Macklin
Elise Maltin
Richard Marcuse
Wayne Mark
Gabor Mate
Arthur Milner
Anna Miransky
Dorit Naaman
Joanne Naiman
Neil Naiman
Michael Neumann
David-Marc Newman
David Noble
Clare O’Connor
Robin Ostow
Andre W. Payant
Jenny Peto
Simone Powell
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Fabienne Presentey
Yacov Rabkin
Diana Ralph
Naomi Rankin
Judy Rebick
Ester Reiter
Jillian Rogin
Richard Roman
Joseph Rosen
Herman Rosenfeld
Martha Roth
Marty Roth
Ruben Roth
E.Natalie Rothman
B. Sack
Ben Saifer
Miriam Sampaio
Jacob Scheir
Fred Schloessinger
Alan Sears
Shlomit Segal
Edward H. Shaffer
Noa Shaindlinger
Ray Shankman
Eva Sharell
Elliot Shek
Sid Shniad
Max Silverman
Samuel Singer
Elizabeth Solloway
Susan Starkman
Greg Starr
Jonathan Sterne
Jeremy Stolow
Rhonda Sussman
Vera Szoke
Joe Tannenbaum
Howard Tessler
Marion Traub-Werner
Ceyda Turan
Sandra Tychsen
Cheryl Wagner
Jon McPhedran Waitzer
David Wall
Naomi Binder Wall
Kathy Wazana
Karen Weisberg
Barry Weisleder
Paul Weinberg
Judith Weisman
Suzanne Weiss
Abraham Weizfeld
Ernie Yacub
B.H. Yael
Yedida Zalik
Melvin Zimmerman

Filed Under: media Tagged With: Gaza, Globe and Mail, Israel, petiton, Toronto Star

SnitchTube

03/10/2009 by Debra

canada_revenue

The Canada Revenue Agency is getting all 2.0 on us, and they’ve decided to launch a contest that smacks of a Big Brother snitch-on-your-neighbour deal. CRA wants Canadians to make videos and post them on You Tube, explaining why the underground economy is a bad thing. And why Canadians should be wary of people and things that are part of it.

Contestants are asked to post something that either explains why barter and paying under-the-counter for things is bad or, what the risks are. It’s worth checking out at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/contest/index.html.

hmm isn’t it ironic that they are using unpaid, no contract, non-production people to create their spots against using unpaid, no contract, non-production people?

Source

h/t Toe Dancer @ breadnroses

Filed Under: Canada, Uncategorized

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