The Shining

one of my favourite horror movies

Happy Hallowe'en!

I should have you know that out of all the holidays, I dislike Hallowe'en the most. I've always hated dressing up (it makes me feel embarrassed). I wish I did like it though because everyone else always loves it. I did enjoy taking the boys trick-or-treating but, alas, that will not be happening tonight. Instead, I have volunteered to be a guide for my houses haunted house! This is me stepping out of my comfort zone.

NaNoWriMo

I am attempting to participate in NaNoWriMo!!! Isn't that fun to say?
It means National Novel Writing Month!!!! There is a small group of us at Vanier who are going to try to write 50,000 words in the month of November! Not many finish it and we're not exactly expected to,  it's all about just starting to write about SOMETHING.
So, I have to decide on something to write about and then I will be on my way...

Gender // Heteronormativity

So, I read this article.
It's about a queer mother and her difficulties of raising two children while trying to create a gender-less and open environment for them. It's a cool little article if you get the chance.
But, what I want to take out of this is my own experience.
Firstly, obviously, I was a child once and I seem to remember wearing some shade of pink usually, wearing dresses, floral and in most cases, just being a little girl. In the last few weeks as we talk about gender in Sociology, I always wonder what I would have turned out like if my childhood had been gender-less.
I guess I need to elaborate of gender first though: Gender is a socially constructed idea to basically create a hierarchy between males and females and for judgement of a human being to be passed most easily.
Really, I was socialized to play with dolls, one day be a mother, and to think of boys as a whole other species. I think about Brody and Lincoln a lot with this subject. At one point, Brody had really long hair and he liked it, and I've been thinking why didn't we just let him keep it? We kept telling him he looked like a girl but what does that even really matter? So what if he looks like a girl? We're still going to love him the same, aren't we?
Brody and Lincoln are a great example of how they're being socialized to be masculine little boys. They are told to buy cars, super heroes, and usually told, that's a girl's toy. They have bought Polly Pockets a few times and they both like playing dress-up in costumes such as, military, knights and superheroes. They do watch Sophia the First every now and then but for the most part, they watch boy shows, wear boy clothes and act like boys.
I think it would have been really interesting to see what they would have liked without that guidance of this is a boys item or this is a girls item. To just allow them to do what they want without gender.
Is it possible we all might have ended up a little bit more neutral had this been the case?

Another issue this article raises is teaching children about their options. (I'm not sure how to word that part.)
I don't remember knowing about LGBTQ-anything until around grade seven. I didn't even know people of the same gender could get married until around then, I had no idea what sexuality was and I didn't even there was anything other than being a heterosexual and I didn't even know what that meant. I am a great example of how we live in a very heteronormative society!
But at the same time, by not talking about it at all, maybe that was for the better. Because my parents never raised the question of whether it was right or wrong, I was left to assume it was just normal; It was only the media and people at school who ever said it was anything but.
When I think about Brody and Lincoln I think of the time Lincoln and I played Life and he decided to marry a boy. I didn't say anything about it and neither did Brody really.

What do I gather from all of this?
That being a parent is going to leave me with many questions.

Myself

I am constantly reminded of all of the things I wish I had done or said in high school and now, in the prime of my schooling, I am still denying myself the opportunity to do all of the things I want to do in fear of not being accepted or perhaps, of being overwhelmed by how comfortable it feels. It just never feels right.

Whales

On Satuday Mom and Dad brought the boys out to UBC so that Kevin and I could show them around campus. I love being around them. We walked them around UBC to see the squirrels, rose garden, and the Harry Potter library. Obviously, we took them to Blue Chip. We also took them to see the Blue Whale at the Biodiversity Museum then we hopped on a bus to go downtown to see another Whale by the Convention Centre. Along the way we saw a creepy haunted garden and of course, had to take a look. To end the night we had some Halloween cupcakes. Here are some pictures of our adventures!

Super dysfunctional siblings

Russell Brand

This is a pretty interesting and, dare I say, inspiring from Russell Brand that ignites the activist in me. 

Weeds

I finished watching all of the Weeds episodes today... All 102 of them.
I'll admit, I started getting pretty emotionally attached to the characters and that was the reason I continued watching after it all started getting a little-- weird? What, with the burning of Agrestic, the Mexican baby, Shane and the across-America rat race. But, I did quite enjoy the last two seasons and finally seeing Nancy succeed and getting closer to her family, with the exception of poor Andy, really made my heart swell. I admit, I did cry and I admit, it broke my heart to not see Nancy and Andy get together for good.
The hole will be filled soon though as I am very excited to see what Jenji Kohan has in store for us all in the second season of Orange is the New Black.
To demonstrate my admiration and love of the TV show that took up a little bit more time in my life than it should have, I will leave you with this:

Current Issue

I think it's about time that I comment on the recent sexual assaults that have occurred on campus in the last three weeks. Thus far, there has been three confirmed and reported assaults. To me, this is extremely frightening. I no longer feel safe walking alone on campus even with my trusty whistle in hand (honestly, what is that going to do). I don't mean to purposely provoke worriment from my Nana or the rest of my family but, honestly, it's all anyone ever talks about anymore.
"Don't go out alone."
"Make sure you don't stay out too late."
"Do you have your whistle?"
Today we saw news cameras reporting the incidents, my entire facebook feed is articles pertaining to these assaults and safety on campus and on Saturday we had a floor meeting giving us safety tips.
Even worse, people are making jokes and even exaggerations about what has happened.
"They're here to talk about the rapist."
"There was a fourth assault and the girl got raped."
Where do these people get off? First of all, none of these assaults can be described as rape and the fourth assault hasn't even been officially reported yet and may never be. This fourth assault was reported only to The Ubyssey, and even so, it was reported by a 'friend' of the survivor who was assaulted.
But what we should perhaps be talking about here is that it is not up to any UBC student, male or female, to live like they are in prison, taking every single precaution that they will be safe at night or even during the day. What really needs to be happening is for people to stop assaulting because it's no one's fault but theirs that this is happening. This issue is something that needs to be taken care of first by the rcmp or campus security to make UBC a safe area. Secondly, it's up to society to stop blaming the survivor and to start blaming ourselves for encouraging rape culture, in whatever shape or form it may be. I don't know exactly how to fix this but we can easily start by ostracizing the ideology behind rape culture.

The Ubyssey's coverage:
http://ubyssey.ca/news/rcmp-sexual-assault-235/
http://ubyssey.ca/news/sexual-assault-fairview-235/
http://ubyssey.ca/news/third-sexual-assault-436/
http://ubyssey.ca/news/wesbrook-assault-325/
http://ubyssey.ca/news/ubc-patrols-235/
http://ubyssey.ca/opinion/sexually-assaulted-on-campus-story394/

Thirteen

The Foundation is probably the most deliciously wonderful and interesting restaurant in Vancouver and they have THE BEST NACHOS I've ever had in my life so Kevin and I went on down to Main Street to do some eating. They also have tons of vegan and vegetarian eats, that look pretty delicious but I stick to the nachos. And their Guacamole is to die for.

Basically, the nachos consist of tortilla chips, cheese, black beans, corn and jalapeños! My friends, that is all you need in life.

We finished off a large plate of these bad boys and then headed over to Fifth Avenue Cinemas. It was the first time either of us have ever been to these cinemas, and I was surprised to know they are own by Cineplex! 

Anyway, we went to see Gravity and I'll give a (not so nice) review on that later. It was a pretty perfect night in all. 

The Fog

It has been ridiculously foggy around here for the past few days. Here are some pictures I snapped yesterday! You can't even see a kilometre ahead of you! The night time ones are even creepier. 

This one is probably my favourite, since arriving at UBC they have been doing major construction, most specifically on the new Student Union Building. It looks like a super villains lair! Or even an old abandoned building that Harry Potter is practicing his spells in or trying to get rid of the dementors! 

Creepy. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was AWESOME. Home-cooked food, family (missing uncle and Kim, unfortunately), friends and even couch time. 

One of the days some friends and I got together at Kim Chi, praise god, to surprise Betsie for her birthday! We sat there for about 4 hours talking and laughing and eating. I am so happy we had the opportunity to get together.

On Sunday Kevin and I had breakfast at Rolly's, praise god. I had pancakes and they were just as I remembered them. 

Afterwards, we went home and caught OVER TWENTY GRASSHOPPERS! Lincoln even grabbed them with him hands! It was too cute. There were so many and the boys were very excited! 

Then, of course, THANKSGIVING! veggies, turkey, stuffing, over-night salad, pumpkin pie, yum... 

On Monday Dad made a giant breakfast and we celebrated Brody's birthday with a giant Blue Chip Smartie cookie! He, obviously, was spoiled. 

It was so nice to be home however, I did attract a cold/flu and I completely slacked off. So, this week hasn't been the greatest exactly. 

Dissolve

Kevin and I went to a short play called Dissolve two Thursdays ago, and it was a surprising little event. Firstly, it was about sexual assault/date rape and was completely free. I think you can all assume why UBC was holding this event.... and if you are correct then you might not be surprised to know that the dean of Sauder was actually there!! And he introduced it!
There's an article here if you want to read more.
And here's a picture that I'm in. If you look up in the very top right corner you can see the top half of my face! Hooray!

retrieved from http://ubyssey.ca/culture/sauder-school-of-business-play-235/ on October 19, 2013

Sandy Hook Elementary

Here's the story.

I found this story yesterday while on Reddit. I think everyone probably remembers the mass-shooting that occurred last December at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Well, in the past week the town voted to demolish Sandy Hook and build a new school. The votes were 4,504 yes to 558 no and apparently, that was the town's highest voter-turn out since the 2008 presidential election. 

The school will be built with $50 million of the state funds, which will be in use to both demolish the school and build a new one in it's place. 

I must say, I'm surprised that they would even consider this. That's a really big decision to make and lots of money that will be used. I obviously will never be able to feel what the community members feel but I still think that's a really really large amount of money to be put towards tearing down a school and putting up a new one and that definitely doesn't mean that the memories can be forgotten. 

Bubbles

I had also forgotten how happy bubbles make me. 

Home

Kevin and I went home this weekend for a family event and we took the West Coast Express to Mission for the first time! It's a pretty typical kind of train but it's kind of cute and the views were pretty. 

We had Japadog. 

Katie and Chris kindly picked us up from the station and then we went to this place called Rocko's in Mission. It's a little diner, located in a trailer kind of thing. It was interesting to say the least. The food was yummy though, I hadn't had pancakes since August, so I was very pleased!

One of my favourite parts about the fall season, is that it's salmon spawning time and for some reason, I've just always really loved going down to Sucker's Creek in Hope and watching the salmon. Lincoln, Brody, Kevin and I took a walk down on Saturday morning. There were lots and lots of dead salmon, especially on the sandy area with their eyes picked out, which scared Lincoln a little bit I think. 

It was nice to be home, even though it was only for a little bit. Being in Hope reminded me both of why I wanted to leave but also, how much I missed it. It's been a difficult transition. 

However, I did realized two things while I was there.

1. It already gets really dark really early.

2. There actually are stars in the sky.