my backyard

the last month has been chaos for our backyard. mary's 50th birthday party was last night and ryan and i had to make sure that the garden looked awesome. the pool liner was changed, tents were erected and the birds even built themselves a new nest.

tibet railway

Potala1
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

three Canadian corporations, bombardier, power corp. and nortel, recently announced their involvement in the operation of china’s railway to lhasa, tibet. slated to begin test runs in 2006, the railway threatens to increase environmental pressure on the high-altitude ecosystem, facilitate the entry of large numbers of settlers onto tibetan lands, and bolster military strength in the region. corporate interests are now poised to benefit from these impacts despite stated policies to conduct themselves ethically in their business dealings.

students for a free tibet have organized an online action centre where you can easily send a prewritten email to bombardier, expressing your concern about their involvement in the railway.

the canada tibet comitee have also put up a railway action page for more information about the railway and what you can do to help.

sample letter:

Mr Beaudoin,

I am disturbed to hear that Bombardier is supplying cars to the Chinese government for the China-Tibet Railway. I trust that after hearing the legitimate concerns surrounding the project, you will cancel your involvement in it.

The Tibet railway is the single project most feared by Tibetans, who have lived under Chinese occupation since 1949-50. The rail line will greatly facilitate China's efforts to move millions of Chinese settlers into Tibet, enable increased militarization of the Tibetan plateau, and allow China to easily transport Tibet's rich natural resources to the energy hungry cities on China's east coast. The railway is China's "final solution" in its colonization of Tibet.

The Chinese government itself has acknowledged that the railway is politically motivated. By agreeing to supply rail cars to the Chinese government for this project, Bombardier has made itself complicit in China's occupation of Tibet and the egregious rights abuses perpetrated by China upon Tibetans.

As a Canadian, I am deeply disappointed that you would even consider tarnishing our global image by joining the Chinese government in a project of this nature. I trust that you will do the right thing and pull out of this project.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

bombardier
power corp
nortel

lost

ep_49_kelley_240x360
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

the first season is over with a bang...but no answers. was i the only one expecting some sort of resolution?

the dynamite scenes were tense. we found out why all of a sudden there was a high school science teacher on the show...yes, he exploded! he knew a few things about dynamite, but after all, he only taught HIGH SCHOOL (so there's a nice kick in the pants to those hard-working grade 11 chemistry teachers). and when locke made jack jump out of his skin, i couldn't stop laughing.

what was jack talking about? "a locke problem"? everytime jack becomes suspicious of someone, he begins his murder plot. of course he enlists kate because she is perfect for the job. we also found out that jack is a sexist pig and he thinks that little ladies can't handle carrying dynamite (but of course, kate still took of running without dropping her back pack when they were being chased by that crazy whatever-it-was).

a few more questions...why did charlie leave claire on the beach? why didn't claire start running!?! we were all screaming, why didn't she see it too? it's not like she didn't know that someone was trying to steal her baby! (well, that's what everyone thought).

as soon as rousseau said that she heard them talking about "the child" my stomach just totally dropped. before that, i had no idea that walt was going to be taken! i didn't have any time to prepare for that. now i have to think about that all summer! how are michael, jin and sawyer going to survive? WHY DIDN'T THEY SHOW US WHAT WAS IN THE HATCH!? because they haven't written that part of the show yet, that's why. and i guess that was the only reason i was dissapointed by the finale; i realized all this time, i have been trying to solve a mystery that hasn't even been written.

sorry. i always get like this after i watch a cliffhanger. did i mention how happy i was that locke didn't die? who started that rumour? i bet it was those nasty writers...sorry.

yoga and pregnancy

Pregnant Yoga
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

thanks, jody for sending me this story:

the practice of yoga during pregnancy seems to improve birth weight and reduce prematurity and overall complications, indian researchers report.

dr. shamanthakamani narendran, from the vivekananda yoga research foundation in bangalore, and colleagues studied 169 pregnant women trained in the integrated approach to yoga and in 166 "controls" who received routine prenatal care.

the yoga training included various loosening exercises, postures ("asanas"), relaxation, deep breathing exercises ("pranayamas"), and meditation, which was practiced for 1 hour daily.

fourteen percent of deliveries were premature in the yoga group compared with 29 percent in the controls. rates of pregnancy-related high blood pressure were also lower in the yoga group, the researchers report in the journal of alternative and complimentary medicine.

"the exact role of yoga is unclear at present," co-author dr. vivek narendran of cincinnati children's hospital and medical center in ohio told reuters health.

he said possible mechanisms whereby yoga improves pregnancy outcomes include increased blood flow to the placenta, decreased transfer of maternal stress hormones, and decreased premature release of hormones that trigger the onset of labor.

"given the larger picture of multiple failed attempts to reduce low birth weight and prematurity globally in the last decade," dr. narendran commented, "we provide preliminary data for the first time, to support a simple potential intervention, particularly in india, to improve pregnancy outcomes."

lost

terryoquinn_lost_240_001
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

what can i say? there is so much action now that i have no idea where to start. i am feeling pretty overwhelmed, so i am just going to focus on the few major events that stick out.

i cried when walt's dog started swimming to him as he was leaving on the raft. i thought that was really too emotional for me. of course, leave it to the dog to make me cry. i got through jin and sun's reconcilliation without too much trouble. it was just the dog...why did he have to give it to shannon anyway? wouldn't that have been a really nice goodbye-bonding moment if he gave his dog to locke? they seemed to have skipped that part of the show...could it possibly be because the raft isn't really going to get anywhere?? that thing was moving sideways.

what else, what else (that i haven't already talked to jody about, who i think may be the only person who reads these reviews)? i think that they will be finding the other half of the plane soon and that's who that girl in the bar was with jack. or maybe they wont meet, they will just have a totally new cast next season. i just keep saying goodbye to all these people because they are all going to die! or at least that's what the writers are doing...reconcilling everyone's differences and giving everybody closure! they are all dead meat.

jody and i both agree that rousseau and locke are a perfect match and he was already checking her out when they were trekking for the dynamite. so maybe they will still be alive.

oh! and those noises that art was making when he was running away from that "security system"...the only thing creepier than that was in the movie ravenous, when that crazy cannible guy starts freaking out and digging in the ground and making all those crazy noises...yeah, it was creepy.

anyway, i can't write about this show anymore because i get so excited and incoherent. i guess i only have to write one more after this.

birders' ten most wanted

marshall mccall

mccall
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

ryan, dan and i had this prof for environmental studies this past year, and i have to say, he was one really cool guy.

he convinced me to replace my incandescent bulbs, showed us what plastics we could recycle (and which we could not) and taught us that the planet can only support so many meat eaters. and that's just a few of his famous environmental tips.

so it is no surprise that i was pleased to find an article about him in the summer issue of york u magazine. its short, so i thought i would post it:

unsung heroes: great canadians you've never heard of

as a counterpoint to cbc's search for "the greatest canadian" last fall, victoria's times colonist invited readers to nominate truly great canadians of high achievement but low profile. it published hundreds of names including that of york astronomer marshall mccall, 51, and alumnus of the university of victoria (BSc '76). uvic's alumni association had given mccall a distinguished alumni award for his and a collaborator's discovery of two new galaxies and the identification of three of the five brightest galaxies in the northern sky during the 1990s. that early research is critical to mccall's current project - to create an atlas of the "local sheet", a vast pancake of galaxies in which the milky way resides.

using infared images taken at observatories around the world, he and york graduate students are mapping the arrangement of galaxies - mostly dwarfs - within 15 million light years of earth. mccall's research should bring us another step closer to understanding our own origins.

a letter from the whalers' field

hi, i'm jim wickens and i am writing to you from ulsan in south korea!

to be more accurate, from a dusty field where we've established the first "whale embassy".

we're only here thanks to the 20 thousand of you who sent letters to the mayor of ulsan over the last few days to protest our threatened eviction. the mayor's email box filled up quickly, his server crashed, and there's a lot of muttering about "international pressure" in our meetings with city officials. i'm writing to tell you how you can ensure the pressure continues, whether we're evicted or not.

it is impossible to bring you physically here, to the "whale embassy", to fight together for the life of whales. this is why we invented this new concept, the "virtual march", where, by sending your photo with a banner expressing your rejection for the killing of whales, you can actually be in ulsan. your photo, together with thousands of others, will be published on our web site and, from the day the iwc meeting starts, projected on the walls of the building where the meeting will take place.

click here to add your image to the "virtual march" and the more people you can fit in the picture the better.

i want to share a number with you: *2137*.

this number, 2137, is the number of whales that could be killed in 2005, if we do nothing about it. this figure will INCREASE if the korean government decides to become a declared whaling country.

on april 10th greenpeace and the korean federation for environmental movement (KFEM), the most influential NGO in korea, established the "whale embassy", right near the brand new jangsaengpo whale museum that might be better called as the "whaling museum". the embassy has been built on the ground where a whale processing factory is proposed to be built. i can't imagine a more bizarre argument - "we're protecting whales by establishing a whale meat factory" - can you?

the spirit of the embassy is to represent whales and raise awareness of the plight of these endangered creatures.

in a few days, on the 19th of june, the international whaling commission (IWC) will come to ulsan, korea, to decide the fate of the whales. we need the whole world to join us and support whales by making sure that the korean government does not follow the footsteps of the japanese government, and does not push for a resumption of commercial whaling and lethal research.

looking forward to seeing you in ulsan protecting the whales !!

jim

jim wickens
whales campaigner
greenpeace international


Víctor Hugo Borja
Ecuador

star wars!

sith1
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

this movie was so much better than the first two movies and that is exactly what i was hoping for.

it was crazy getting into the theatre. we had to go through metal detectors and they were shining us with night vision through the entire movie. yep...i'm feeling pretty full of myself right now.

i don't want to spoil anything for anyone (psst...anakin skywalker turns into darth vader) so i won't get into the movie, but its not like anything dramatic happens that you didn't know about already.

so go see it. it was a whole lot of fun and excitement. oh and of course all the tragedy. you can't forget the tragedy; definitely not a toys'r'us commercial like the first two - as the saying goes.

the only downside of seeing the screening was that they didn't show any previews. i was almost positive that they were going to show the goblet of fire preview, but if that's all i can complain about....

i don't think i'll be able to sleep tonight. what, with new star wars and new lost on the same day. i will be totally overstimulated.

star wars

anthony_daniels13
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

here i have been heckling ryan all week because his dad got him a ticket to the star wars sneak preview tomorrow morning, and just last night, his dad scored an extra ticket for me too!

i was complaining about how i saw the other two opening day and i have to work on thursday so i might have had to wait until friday blah blah blah...generally, just being a big baby about it and now i get to go see it tomorrow morning, even before all those people who have been waiting in line for weeks.

so what's the lesson of the day? whining and moaning to the universe really will get you a ticket to see star wars on the 18th instead of the 19th.

six stretches to do at your desk

if you are reading this, you are most likely at a desk. so here are some stretches especially for you:

Side Stretch

this is a great stretch to relieve computer-related tension in your wrists and to stretch your sides. it will also help relieve lower back tightness.

stand with your feet hip-width apart and parallel. inhale and stretch your arms out to the sides and then over your head with your palms facing each other. exhale as you take hold of your left wrist with your right hand. with an inhalation, stretch the fingers of your left hand to the ceiling. exhale as you gently stretch to the right, drawing out your left arm and wrist with the right hand, and move your hips to the left simultaneously. keep your head and left arm in alignment with the torso. don't drop your left arm in front of your face. feel this stretch on the entire left side of your body, from your hips to your fingertips. keep your feet solidly planted on the floor by pressing firmly down with your outer left heel. continue to breathe softly as you stretch to the right, particularly noticing the deep stretch in the left rib cage as the breath enters your left lung. inhale as you come back to center. exhale and switch hands. holding your right wrist with your left arm, inhale as you reach up through the fingers of your right hand. exhale as you stretch to the left. continue to breathe as you stretch to the left side. inhale and return to the center. repeat this sequence on each side.

Shoulder Rolls

movement is one of the best things you can do for your back if you've been sitting in the same position for awhile. this particular movement helps relieve tension in the upper back and shoulders where the trapezius muscle is located.

sitting upright, inhale as you lift your right shoulder to your ear. exhale as you slowly roll your shoulder around and back, dropping it away from your ear. continue these shoulder rolls three more times, alternating right and left.

now, inhale as you lift both shoulders up to the ears. exhale as you release them. repeat five times and then relax your shoulders.

Neck Stretch

this stretch is particularly good for a stiff or compressed neck. you can really feel how it lengthens and stretches the neck, creating space between each of the vertebrae in the cervical spine.

sit upright without letting your back touch the back of the chair. align your head directly over your spine and feel the crown of your head lifting. you may want to hold on to the side of your chair seat with your left hand. breathe in, and on the exhalation, drop your right ear toward your right shoulder without lifting your right shoulder or turning your head. take several breaths in and out, feeling the stretch on the left side of your neck.

to create a deeper stretch, reach over your head and place your right hand on the left side of your head to gently pull your neck away from your shoulders. at the same time, you can hold firmly onto the chair with your left hand to draw your left shoulder away from your neck.

visualize your neck lengthening and the muscles along your vertebrae relaxing. hold the pose for at least five more breaths, then release your left hand from the chair and gently massage your neck and shoulders with your left hand. slowly lift the head and switch sides to repeat the sequence.

Open Chest Stretch

this pose opens the chest, decreasing rounded shoulders and releasing tightness in the middle back. in addition, it helps decrease kyphosis, extreme forward curvature of the thoracic spine.

sit near the edge of a chair and interlace your fingers behind you, with your palms facing your back. leaning slightly forward, lift your arms and rest them on the back of the chair. inhale and lift your chest. exhale and relax your shoulders away from your ears. if your hands do not reach the top of the chair, clasp the sides of the chair back and pull your chest forward, relaxing your shoulders and opening your upper chest. hold for 10 to 15 breaths, feeling lightness in your heart. with an exhalation, slowly release your hands and bring them down by your sides.

Chair Twist

twists are the antidote to sitting for long periods of time. after twisting, you will feel the release of all the muscles in your back (particularly in the middle back) that have been locked into position from sitting a long time.

sit toward the front of a chair, then swivel your thighs toward the right side of the chair so you are sitting diagonally on the seat. if you have an arm rest on the side of the chair, bring your thighs as close to it as possible. inhale and lift your right arm up to the ceiling. with an exhalation, move your arm to the back of the chair on the opposite side, taking hold of the chair back. bring the left hand to the right knee or chair handle. inhale and lengthen your spine. exhale and twist to the right, pressing your right hand against the back of the chair to deepen the twist. visualize the shoulder blades dropping down as if they were hanging from weights. breathe into your rib cage. consciously relax the muscles in your back and gently twist a little farther. stay in the pose for 10 to 15 breaths. return to your center with an exhalation and repeat on the opposite side.

Back and Shoulder Release

part one: sit on the edge of a chair and place your feet about two and a half feet apart, parallel to each other. lean forward and place your forearms on your inner thighs. press your inner thighs out with your forearms. breathe deeply in and out, feeling the stretch in your inner thighs.

part two: make sure your knees are directly over your heels and your feet are parallel to each other. slowly stretch your arms down towards the floor, resting your ribs on your thighs and your armpits towards your knees. cross your arms, placing your hands at the opposite elbows. continue to breathe deeply.

part three: for a deeper stretch of the back, stretch your arms forward toward your desk or the floor, reaching through the fingertips and feeling your spine lengthening. round your back and slowly roll up, returning to a sitting position.

don't worry, i'm not trying to kill you...this info came from elise browning miller and carol blackman. thanks yoga journal!

ray bradbury on writing

this is from an interview by frank black speaking with ray bradbury

FB: when i was 16 years old i took the ged high school equivalency test because i was anxious to begin my career in music, and my mother made me finish high school. would you have different advice for a teenager who’s in a rush?

RB: well, it depends what you’re going to do. now if you want be a writer, you don’t need education. you can do it yourself. so when i graduated from high school, i went to the library and i stayed there, i went to the library two or three days a week for 20 years. i graduated from the library when i was about 28 years old. through writing, you educate yourself. you write every day and you read every day. and at the end of 10 years or so you’ve become a writer. that’s the way you rush it, by doing it.

lost

WYZGUY-lost
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

ok, so i'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but i knew it was sun who poisoned michael. actually, i just thought to myself, "who would be the least likely person to do it" and, well...sun. then i figured that she would be the only one who would know what to give him to make him sick and how much to give him without killing him. don't get me wrong, i wasn't able to guess that it was actually for jin, but i'm not writing the show here.

if i was, i would have cut out that horrible crying scene at the beginning when kate was reading the letter. not to mention that i would make wardrobe a little more consistent. why on earth does kate get a whole spring line and locke has to scrub boone's blood out of his only tshirt?

jack and locke are friends again, but only after locke schooled him two or three times. it looks like they are really setting it up for a locke martyring death. i can see it now...jack will find a new way to get more "leader attention".

locke and walt got to have a chat which just scared the hell out of me. i think walt can actually see what's inside and he wants to get the hell off that island. ALIENS!! sci-fi actors usually stay in the sci-fi curcuit. we have terry o'quinn (x-files, harsh realm), josh holloway (sabretooth), maggie grace (creature unknown), daniel dae kim (angel), emilie de ravin (roswell), harold perrineau jr (matrix), not to mention cameos by well known sci-fi frequenters like robert patrick (the terminator, x-files, the faculty). so all of you who made fun of the geeky x-files fans are actually getting tricked into liking science fiction. can anyone say, "where's my pocket protector?"

summer movie list...

i am going to start keeping track of all the movies i watch over my summer vacation. hey, don't be so judgemental. i'll watch almost anything.

i know...this is another blog post that only i will really care about, but i am a sucker for a list. no, i think i am ocd when it comes to lists.

1. CUBE - a claustrophobic classic. i still can't believe that i haven't seen this movie before now, but the more ryan wanted me to see it, the more i wanted to tease him about how geeky it was. just kidding, ryan. it was a really cool movie with enough geek and cheese to keep me interested.

2. HORNS AND HALOS - you know you like george w bashing movies

3. RAVENOUS - gave me nightmares. cannibalism at it's best.

4. HOTEL RWANDA - gave me nightmares. this movie was amazing, but i can never watch it again because i was grinding my teeth the entire time. be armed with kleenex and bite guards.

5. EULOGY - funny and sleepy at the same time

6. HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY - stupendous and stupifying. i loved this movie! but i already told you about it. so go see it!

7. DARKNESS - you'll be disappointed if you wanted a horror movie. still good, but come on...with such a creepy and disturbing back story, you could have showed a little more action.

8. ENDURING LOVE - good, but the book was much better. great acting in this philosophic thriller. (philosophic, you say? you'll see what i mean)

9. STEPFORD WIVES - it gave me a migrane, and then i fell asleep. but i still like frank oz

10. THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN - i haven't seen this movie since i was a kid, and i must say, i am still confused as to whether that was actually a children's movie or not. my dad seemed to think so.

11. NATIONAL TREASURE - it could have been so much worse, but so much better. the story was really neat, but they could have expanded a lot more. beware, there are some really bad accents and the lead characters are poorly developed.

12. THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU - i love this movie. i even loved it more the second time i watched it. everything is so perfect and complete that you really feel that you are entering a whole other universe. the humour is more passive than active, but its constant. if you are buying the dvd, pay the extra $2 for the criterion collection, because the supplimental footage is awesome.

13. TIBET: CRY OF THE SNOW LION - i highly recommend this thoughrough documentary. a total overview of their cultural and political history.

14. THE FINAL CUT - this movie had a good idea that they didn't even use. it's rare that a movie has great philosophical and ethical potential and it is sad to see it go to waste because the filmmaker is only trying to shock you. there is nothing wrong with some disturbing images or ideas in a movie, that's not what i am trying to say. i just don't like when people are edgy just for the sake of being edgy.

15. RAGING BULL - scorsese at his scorsesiest. and its okay to hate robert de niro in this movie because with that perm and those wierd eyebrows, he looks nothing like himself. joe pesci is really brilliant and the whole thing is just totally intense, but man i still hate boxing.

16. DUMMY - good movie. cheesy. really funny at some parts, but the music is really bad...and by bad, i am not trying to be mean...it's just that kind of music that makes you feel really akward and alienated and it didn't suit the movie at all.

17. STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH - exactly what you were expecting this movie to be, but take away some of the wookiees because there really weren't that many and add a really amazing opening scene (not that you weren't expecting one of those anyway).

18. STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH - i had to. i was leaving to go bus the lunch shift when lou called to cancel me (it's really not patio weather yet) and star wars just seemed like the perfect way to celebrate.

19. STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES - i actually like this movie more now that i have seen episode three.

20. TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLIICE - this movie was visually incedible and hilarious, not to mention more offensive than you expected it to be. have you ever seen puppets do such things??

21. KINSEY - surprisingly boring and drawn out, but i enjoyed it. qui-gon jinn cries a lot in this movie.

22. STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

23. STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

24. STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI

25. BOOGEYMAN - need i say more?

(I'M LOSING TRACK SO I AM GOING TO LIST THEM AND COMMENT LATER)

26. I HEART HUCKABEES

27. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

28. POTLUCK

29. A DIRTY SHAME

30. WAR OF THE WORLDS

31. GOOD FENCES

32. WHY DOGS SMILE AND CHIMPANZEES CRY

33. MANUFACTURING CONSENT

34. THE CORPORATION

35. HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITECASTLE

36. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE

37. DOWNFALL

38. DUDE, WHERE'S THE PARTY?

39. HAM AND CHEESE

40. ALEXANDER

41. THE RING 2

42. THE ARISTOCRATS

43. SIN CITY

44. LUCKY 13

hitchhiker's guide

HitchhikersGuide
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

i saw the hitchhiker's movie yesterday. it was really funny and i think you will like it, even if you haven't read any of the books.

of course it was silly and really absurd a lot of the time, but that was to be expected.

one word of caution: beware of the opening chorus of dolphins. they are really funny, but the singing creeped me out a little and it led me to expect more spontaneous singing sequences (which thankfully there were none) throughout the rest of the movie.

ford prefect was probably the best character translated onto screen, but alan rickman as the voice of marvin was pretty much perfect...if not totally obvious.

ok...one more word of caution: they totally embellished the love story, but i guess in the movies there is no time for subtlety.

what made the day totally exceptional was the star wars preview they played before the movie. they showed so many different action scenes, i have no idea how they are going to fit it all into one movie. i love summer movies.

eco-warrior, bob hunter dies at 63

050128_bob_hunter_250
Originally uploaded by jessalauren.

from joseph hall - toronto star. read full article.

bob hunter, the greenpeace co-founder who came into countless toronto living rooms in his housecoat as a quirky commentator on citytv's breakfast television, died yesterday after a long battle with prostate cancer.

described by friends and colleagues as a congenial, funny, kind and fiercely brave rebel, hunter was a seminal figure in the global environmental movement. his Greenpeace work in the 1970s and 1980s helped achieve moratoriums on whaling and the newfoundland seal hunt (since lifted) and a ban on nuclear testing in the pacific.

it also ushered in a general global concern for the environment that had been largely absent before he and his "eco-warrior" comrades took the stage.

hunter was citytv's environment reporter for 15 years, and also was also a founding contributor to the toronto weekly eye and the author of 13 books.

"i was the right person in the right place," said hunter of his pivotal role in greenpeace's dissident activities to halt the slaughter of whales.

"but when it's done, i think you can get into a habit of just clinging to it because you don't know what to do next, whereas i knew all along i wanted to get back to what i was doing already."

confrontational stunts at sea became his greenpeace trademark — even as they literally put hunter's life on the line.

indeed, many say it was the televised image of a harpoon flying over watson's head and into a whale he was trying to protect in the mid-'70s that brought environmentalism into the public eye.