her real world

Speech from the Throne – March 2010

So, because I like to blog and I like Parliament, I decided to live blog the Speech from the Throne. I tried out ScribbleLive and I quite liked it, but I really need to fiddle with it some more.

I have lots more to say regarding the speech, but here is a play by play of my initial reactions:

• 2:20 PM: Melanie Ching It’s funny, I think this is one of the first times that I’ve ever watched the Speech from the Throne not as a Senate Page or a Public Servant. As a Page I never saw what was going on outside the Senate Chambers, as a Public Servant I kept my colour commentary to myself.
• 2:22 PM: herrealworld I really miss working in the Senate every day. Mr. Mansbridge is right, the artwork is amazing. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:24 PM: herrealworld RT @colinlefevre: “This is a day which will be unencumbered by critical response” @BobRae #sft #haha #awesome
• 2:26 PM: herrealworld Speech from the Throne website is still not updated. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. www.speech.gc.ca #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:27 PM: herrealworld MPs are more concerned about the Budget (yay!) than the SFT “fluff”. SFT is used a lot by public servants as boiler plate. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:30 PM: herrealworld GG has read 5 speeches, PM has written 5 speeches. He’s been PM since February 2006. That’s 5 reads, 5 writes, and 4 years. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:39 PM: herrealworld I see Pages! Usher of the Black Rod is off to go get the MPs. I’m still able to name most of the Senators I see! #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:42 PM: herrealworld An hour long speech!? Pages will have to stand whole time! At least they won’t have to sit on little stool. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:43 PM: herrealworld Three knocks and the Usher of the Black Rod tells the MPs to come to the Senate. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:47 PM: herrealworld I love Mr. Mansbridge’s little trivia. I’ve never watched this procession before, saw Paul Dewar, Judy W-L. I miss Parliament. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:48 PM: herrealworld Yay Pages closing the bars! Today I am missing my white gloves. But I’m not missing the black tights. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:49 PM: herrealworld And the speech has started. #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:50 PM: herrealworld I think I finally have it working the way I want, follow me here as I don’t want to spam my tweeps: bit.ly #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:51 PM: Melanie Ching And the Olympics is mentioned once. Also mentioned paralympics, so that’s good.
• 2:52 PM: herrealworld You’d think that given that the Speech has started, they could update the website: www.speech.gc.ca #sft #cdnpoli
• 2:52 PM: herrealworld RT @iancapstick: I’m a Parliamentary traditionalist, but this ceremony gets longer with the years and less relevant by the day. #downwit …
• 2:54 PM: Melanie Ching Lots of mentions of working Canadians (forest floor to factory floor). Who wrote this speech?
• 2:56 PM: Melanie Ching Top priority is to complete second year of Economic Action Plan (http://actionplan.gc.ca/eng/index.asp). You mean plan where we spend money in only certain ridings?
• 2:58 PM: Melanie Ching So far I’ve heard nothing inspirational or new. “The Government will not repeat the mistakes of the past.” I think that since the Conservatives have been in power now for four years, we can stop blaming previous governments.
• 2:59 PM: herrealworld The FAQ for the Speech from the Throne has been updated. Looks like they are using Action Plan branding. bit.ly #sft #cdnpoli
• 3:01 PM: Melanie Ching So no raises for politicians and review departmental spending. Make sure that Canadians are getting “value for money”.
• 3:01 PM: Melanie Ching Native people mentioned, along with voyageurs. Immigrants mentioned. “Bright minds with bold ideas.”
• 3:02 PM: herrealworld And finally we’re updated! Full text of the Speech from the Throne: bit.ly #sft #cdnpoli
• 3:03 PM: Melanie Ching “It will launch a digital economy strategy to drive the adoption of new technology across the economy.”
• 3:06 PM: Melanie Ching I can’t help it, I’m reading ahead.
• 3:07 PM: Melanie Ching “It will take steps to support a competitive livestock industry and pursue market access for agricultural products. Our Government will also ensure the freedom of choice for which Western barley farmers overwhelmingly voted, and it will continue to defend supply management of dairy and poultry products.”
• 3:07 PM: Melanie Ching It’s funny, there is no mention of “beef” or “cattle”. I guess that since most producers are already out of business, they are no longer a priority.
• 3:09 PM: Melanie Ching “Regardless of profession or trade, of industry or region, Canadians have always striven toward a common objective – to make a home and nurture a family. For many Canadians, there can be no greater accomplishment than to provide for their children, to contribute to the local community, and to live in a safe and secure country. Our Government shares and supports these aspirations.”
• 3:10 PM: Melanie Ching So you people who choose not to have families, can’t have families, don’t have “the right kind” of family, you’re not real Canadians.
• 3:11 PM: Melanie Ching Oh my, I heard “Our Government will also ensure the freedom of choice…” and had my hopes up. “…for which Western barley farmers overwhelmingly voted.”
• 3:12 PM: herrealworld RT @scilib: “Our Government will continue to support the renewal of the Public Service” bit.ly #sft #cpsr #cdnpoli
• 3:13 PM: Melanie Ching “To help Canadian families to balance work and family life, our Government introduced the Universal Child Care Benefit to provide $100 per month for each child under the age of six. This is direct financial support to working families that gives them the freedom to choose the best child care for them.” Cause seriously, child care only costs $1200 a year. Right?
• 3:15 PM: Melanie Ching “Too often, however, grassroots efforts are hobbled by red tape. Too often, local solutions are denied access to government assistance because they do not fit the bureaucratic definition of the problem.” I love it when they blame the bureaucrats. Do they realize that the bureaucrats are doing their best given the circumstances?
• 3:16 PM: Melanie Ching “To ensure justice is delivered swiftly, our Government will introduce legislation to improve criminal procedures to cut the number of long, drawn-out trials.” Why not get rid of trials completely? Seriously, all of those bad people should just go to jail. /end sarcasm
• 3:18 PM: Melanie Ching “It will make travel by air safer by employing the latest screening practices and detection technologies for passengers and cargo. While the costs of air security must be borne by businesses and individuals who use air transport, our Government will ensure their contribution is invested responsibly and effectively, and delivers measurable results. ” Cavity searches for all! But you have to pay for the gloves that are used on you, it’s only fair.
• 3:22 PM: Melanie Ching “Our peaceful, prosperous and pluralistic society…” /shudder. I love that they use the word pluralism but don’t really know what it means.
• 3:25 PM: Melanie Ching Oh man I used “they”. It’s so bad of me, the “us vs. them” thing. Can’t we all just get along?
• 3:30 PM: Melanie Ching “Our values as Canadians are rooted in our history and in our institutions. Our parliamentary democracy (how many people vote?), which brought together people of many lands (what about the people who were already here?), faiths and languages to live in harmony. Our federal system, which recognizes our differences, while advancing our unity. Our official languages. Our northern landscape. (How many of us live in cities? I know I do.)”
• 3:33 PM: Melanie Ching Second mention of the Olympics. So happy about outcome of the Olympics. But did Parliament really need to take time off? Well, of course! PM needed lots of great photo ops. Like this: www.pm.gc.ca
• 3:33 PM: Melanie Ching P.S. Why do government links need to be so *ugly*.
• 3:34 PM: Melanie Ching “Our Government will also ask Parliament to examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem.” Wow! This shows that the government really cares about women. Cuts to Status of Women when they first came to power are canceled out now right?
• 3:34 PM: Melanie Ching “To reflect the growing number of Canadians living in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, our Government will follow through on its commitment to address their under-representation, consistent with the fundamental, democratic, constitutional principle of representation by population in the House of Commons. It will propose legislation to increase voter participation by expanding advance voting in elections. Our Government also remains committed to Senate reform and will continue to pursue measures to make the upper chamber more democratic, effective and accountable.”
• 3:36 PM: Melanie Ching Orly? Parliamentary reform? Like how you were only going to appoint elected Senators? By the way, how do you elect Senators with no system that allows for it? en.wikipedia.org
• 3:41 PM: Melanie Ching “We are a northern country. Canadians are deeply influenced by the vast expanse of our Arctic and its history and legends.” www.firstperspective.ca
• 3:41 PM: Melanie Ching “Canadians want their Government to do what is right, not what is popular.” How do we decide what is right?
• 3:46 PM: Melanie Ching “That is why tomorrow our Government will present a budget (will we get meat and not fluff?) focused on jobs and growth – now and for the future. Honourable Members, let us join together to build a stronger Canada and a stronger economy (what about all the other stuff that isn’t the economy?). As you set about this vital work, I pray that Divine Providence (what about “the people of Canada”) guide you in your deliberations.”
• 3:46 PM: Melanie Ching Budget, economy, divine providence. I can’t wait.

P.S. Can you find me in the photo above?

Feeling blue-ish green

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. The hardest part has been staying positive. As for the most part I know it’s going to be alright, but sometimes it’s hard to believe yourself when everything seems to be going completely as not planned. So not only have I been a bit depressed (blue), I’ve been feeling under the weather (green around the gills).

Financially things were stressful (I have a blog post all queued up on that in general), an expected check or four didn’t arrive at all. He and I got to spend Valentine’s Day weekend eating cake (which was awesome) because that’s what I had the ingredients in the house to make. When I ran out of icing sugar I tried making a frosting that used flour as a thickener, quite good and much less sweet. I’ll blog about that too.

These few weeks of freedom from work were supposed to be stress free and time to recharge. I had it all planned out, I had enough money saved to be able to make it for a while without having to stress out about finding work. Instead I stressed out about having to find money for groceries. Plus I was PMSing. And PMS for me brings hormones galore and headaches and insomnia and….

Bless Him.

I’m almost done a bit of work on a website (for lovely ladies), but sitting at the computer sometimes amplifies my headache. I’m supposed to be done a scarf for my Dad and socks for my Mom (Christmas presents no less!), but I’ve not had the ability to concentrate. And then I start feeling guilty about all of the things I’m not doing and then…gosh.

So why am I telling the wild world of the Internet this? Because we all have down days. I want to be as open and honest here on my blog about mental health issues and it wouldn’t be fair to any of us if I always painted a rosy picture. Will I go into detail about the panic attacks? Probably not, but if you want to know about them you can ask and I’ll find a way to talk to you. Because everything isn’t always bright and sunny and full of sweetness and light.

Sometimes things things are blue-ish green.

Mosey on down

Blogging twice in one week. Something must be going on! Oh but something is…

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I was dumped in a rather unbelievable way. It’s nice when people use the words “heartbreaking” and “inhumane” to describe my ordeal. However, out of it all came a time for me to do a lot of soul searching and a lot of thinking about who I am and what I do. I’ve come up with a list of things that I want to be able to describe myself as in the process.

And “knitter” is one of them.

I had found this pattern (Mosey Legwarmers in the Spring 2008 Issue of Knitty) while daydreaming at my desk and reading blogs. It looked altogether too complicated as I hadn’t knit in ages. My Grandma C. had spent some time teaching me and my Grandma A. knitted and crocheted up a storm. My Mom is also a crocheter and my Great Aunt and my Lang Amma were good with the needles and hooks as well.

And then the OC Transpo Great Strike of 2008 began.

You see, I lived downtown. However, the difficulty I had getting out of bed to go to work was amplified that I had to cross a river to get there. And in the cold of winter? I wasn’t really motivated to walk. Even if it was good exercise.

Thankfully a new colleague D. had arrived and she had a car and offered a ride. I helped to pay her parking, but the better part was that we became fast friends/accomplices during the neverending strike. I had been throwing the idea around about making her something to thank her, but generally became exhausted when thinking about how hard knitting or crocheting seemed to be and gave up. But then one day for some reason I showed her the pattern for the Mosey legwarmers and I knew I had to make them for her. She offered to pay for the wool and I thought I was getting a really good deal. But as I’ve quickly come to learn, it’s not the cost of the wool that matters in the grand scheme of determining something’s value: it’s the number of woman hours.

I started making these leggings the first weekend in March and I traded the cost of gas for a trip to Toronto with D. I felt good about it, but little did I know that I’d not give her the leggings for nine more months. You see, the weekend after that I met Him. And though the endless bus rides to and from Toronto would allow me to have some time to work on my project, I was happily distracted by getting to know Him. It wasn’t until I sat down over this past Christmas at home and really concentrate that I was able to finish them. The pom poms are seriously my favourite part.

I didn’t have much time between getting back to Ottawa and packing to go to Toronto, so I wasn’t able to take any photos of the leg warmers on my own, as I wanted the lovely D. to model for me! Thankfully she was able to take some photos for me and as you can see: the legwarmers aren’t half as divine as she is.