Christmas went well. I was able to spend plenty of time with my family and share good food, the two highlights of the holidays for me. One of my family’s traditions is to eat Chinese food on Christmas eve, and that’s always a very enjoyable time, since most of those in my family are good cooks.

Most of the gifts I received this year were of a practical nature, which I appreciate very much. I always feel bad storing away presents I won’t use, so I’m thankful to not have to do that this time. Among the highlights are bamboo plants, a toaster (I’ve been missing bagels), other kitchen supplies, the new Tolkien calendar (the first one in years that I actually like the art of), a wall clock, notebooks and journals, a game that I can play at work and plenty of edibles. I also have three books, Ming-Dao Deng’s Everyday Tao, Ursula Le Guin’s translation of the Tao Te Ching and the anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, on their way in the mail.

Today is Boxing Day in much of the English speaking world, so I thought I’d share a bit on its origins that I just came across.

While Christmas had a light, quick-to-melt dusting of snow to make it barely in the white category, we’ll now be hit by a snow storm tonight. Environment Canada is predicting a blizzard for tonight, which should make work rather cold and challenging when I’m dashing through it swiping my lock card. It may be time to break out my ski mask and go about my rounds ninja-style.

To step out of this entry I’d like to leave you with some words I feel have a great deal of value and relevance to those of us who are compelled to write because we love writing, love words, love storytelling. They are from Ursula K. Le Guin, an author I respect deeply and feel has a tremendous understanding of the value of the written word.

Is there any more important message for writers? As online journal keepers or bloggers, usually people writing not for personal profit, and writers of prose or poetry, do we not have a responsibility to live up the the aim of honing our craft?

Before Christmas I read Haruki Murakami‘s Pinball, 1973. I fell in love with his Norwegian Wood in May and have been looking forward to reading more of his work ever since. Pinball, 1973 isn’t of the same quality as Murakami’s later work, but it was still an enjoyable read.
The book details events of a young man working as a text translator as he makes his way through unusual and mundane circumstances. The lead character happens to be living in a relationship that is not quite sexual with two twins he can not tell apart other than through their sweaters, which are marked with the numbers 208 and 209. A major plot element is his hunt for a pinball machine he played while in college and gave the personification of an old lover. These strange aspects are tempered by his career, which he seems to find little joy in.
Twinning the narrator’s story is another of his friend Rat, who enters into a romantic relationship that soon fails and has him leaving the small town in which he was living. The two stories are on the surface dissimilar, but have a common theme of nostalgic longing and a sense of meaningless or focusless living, which drive the characters into cycles of unrest. There is also a tenderness in the relationships as they are waxing, however, that gives the story a pulse of contrast and underlines what is desirable in life.
Pinball, 1973 will likely be hard for you to find in an English translation (it was originally written in Japanese), as it was published only as a English book aimed at readers in Japan learning this language, but it’s worth hunting down. Norwegian Wood is a much better novel, however, so I’d suggest looking for it first.

“You prefer showers, don’t you?” I asked with a mouth turning up.
“Yes.” She looked sweetly perplexed as she said it, then shook her head, casting locks of her cotton candy hair about her face. “How did you know?”
“The way you read that book gave it away. You’re consumed with motion, filled with some need to always be acting, doing things with no time to rest. I couldn’t believe how fast you flipped those pages, and yet you remembered it all.” I sipped my coffee and continued, “Of course, the way you moved on that bed was part of it too. You were so fluid, so determinedly caught up in our dance. It was amazing, but it was a challenge to keep up.”
Her face widened with her smile, a warm line of markers etched with a color somewhere between milk and eggnog. Her cheeks colored slightly and she lowered her head to reach her straw and drink from her glass of cola. “Sixteen hours and you can figure me out that easily? I’m impressed. So, let me guess, you like baths, read a book slowly and like drawn out, tender lovemaking, right?”
“You got it.” We both laughed, no doubt looking to the few other people gathered in the resturant like exactly what we were, fresh lovers. It was obvious we were both intensely enamoured.
We just looked at each other then, our faces glowing. For what must have been the thousandth time since she sat beside me on a crowded bus, I breathed in the beauty of her. Framed by a tangle of blue and pink hair, her features formed a somehow uneven, yet marvelously perfect and distinct face. Her syrupy eyes held a warmth I felt emptied by, in immense longing to drink them down.
Her left hand found my right on the table, having pushed aside the cylinder of sugar. Our fingers slipped between each other’s, locking as if to seal in a prayer. We felt the spilled sugar on our wrists and so soon lifted our hands as we rose, joined by them.
On the sidewalk the wind cut into us, trying to erode the comfort the booth inside had offered. We shared a silence as we walked to the station, teetering between the bliss of the togetherness and the sorrow being created by the fleeting nature of our union. Separation was waiting on the rails.
I could hear the crinkling as her right hand slid into her pocket and she pulled out a pack of gum. I’d come to link that sound to her as surely as I’d tied to her the scent and taste of mint she filled her mouth with. I knew the pop of a released piece, the crack of her first bite and the return of the package to her pocket. It was her audible signature.
The train station was bustling. In accordance with the season, passengers were preparing for their holiday voyages, anticipating reunions and gifts. She and I were out of place, parting and giving up so much so soon. We clung to each other fiercely, unwilling to let go of the magic we had found.
Her departure was a blur. We slid out of a long kiss and joined damp gazes. She placed a brown paper bag in my hand and then stepped onto the train. Her last words escaped the closing doors and barely made it to my ears. “Live for it,” I could see her mouth over and over in my head as I walked to the bus stop.

A couple nights ago I was quickly flipping pages as I read Max Barry‘s Jennifer Government. It’s an innovative, insightful and well paced thriller taking on consumerism with ample doses of wit and humour in a present not that far removed from the one we face ourselves.

Welcome to paradise! The world is run by American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; and the U.S. government only investigates crimes it can bill for.
Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn’t all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell.
(- Max Barry)

Jennifer Government follows the title character and a host of others through a series of events instigated by corporations with the goal of improving profits (by limiting competition, marketing with illegal means and eventually removing all government regulations). In a world where corporations rule and people are content to go along with it the search for profit expands to daring campaigns such as Nike’s move to increase the street cred’ of a high-priced, high-hyped new sneaker by having 10 teens killed, making it seem that “ghetto kids” are killing for the shoes. The audacity of corporations and a key player from Nike increases over the course of the novel, providing twists and exciting leaps of plot that kept me reading at a furious rate.
The characters were able to grant life and depth to the story, underlining the themes with their lifelike reactions to events. Buy Mitsui and Hack Nike were especially interesting characters for me because of the real conflict they both developed as they were exposed to the super-corporate world’s seedier side. Hack’s development from over-passive to over-assertive was nicely done.
This novel is masterfully crafted, a brilliant mix of thriller, Orwellian-like warning and parody. The satire was rich but not overpowering, eliciting chuckles between the brutal turns while the violent action was likewise well managed. This is a broadly appealing, deeply funny and sharply insightful pop novel, one certainly worth being caught up in.

I read an article this afternoon that stated “Nearly one-half of Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans“. The article tells of a poll that found 44% of Americans believe this openly racist policy should be followed.

This leads me to ponder, as did Matthew Good in “ Poison In The Water“,

America, where is you defence of liberty? Where are the ideals you once held dear? Have you truly fallen so very far?

Last weekend The Sci-Fi Channel aired Legend of Earthsea, which was a four-hour film loosely based upon Ursula K. Le Guin‘s Earthsea series of books. Legend of Earthsea came across as mediocre fantasy filled with cliche and little diversity and as a terrible interpretation of Le Guin’s books. Missing were the multi-racial faces, the cultural diversity and attenion to social differences that Le Guin took care to include in her books. Also missing was the underlying influence of Taoism, any sense of a coherant story and any clear meaning. It was, in essence, a terrible failure by the production company and the Sci-Fi Channel.
I’d like to point you toward three articles that can explain how this injustice came to be, “Earthsea” (on her official site), “A Whitewashed Earthsea – How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books” and “Earthsea in Clorox”. Below I’d like to share some important pieces of two articles to help defend Ursula K. Le Guin’s work from any misconceptions the Sci-Fi channel has created.

Do yourself a favour and read Le Guin’s Earthsea books. Do yourself a greater favour and avoid Sci-Fi and their terrible twisting of her story. The books present a rewarding, coherent and rich story that you’ll doubtlessly enjoy. The film’s utterly a failure.

After nearly four years with my current system, it’s finally time to invest in new computer hardware (it really wasn’t much of a choice, since I’ve had unpleasant luck with this beast recently, including a severing of the display flexiwire and a cracking of the case that have made it essentially immobile as it holds onto a life that very well could be very short). I decided, after council from my friend Mark, to choose a Dell Inspiron 8600, a model that Mark recently ordered for himself. It should last me close to another half decade with my minimal computer power needs.

Now you know the device through which I’ll be communicating to you with in 7-10 days. I’m more than a little excited at the increased mobility and flexibility the new system will allow me, especially when it comes to writing at work, where I currently rely on my Sony Clie for anything that needs to be typed.

It’s rare that a book will inspire days of sustained contemplation and assimilation of its insight for me. Ken Wilber’s The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development is one of those rare books that contains a wealth of knowledge and sparks for reassessment of personal beliefs. Stronger than any book I’ve read in the past year, it has inspired greater motivation to increase efforts in my own evolution.
The Atman Project is an attempt to reinterpret psychology and spirituality in a way that integrates both and discerns the truths and fallacies of the orthodox and hemispherical approaches to them. Largely, I believe Wilber succeeds in this, presenting a view of human development that is focused, clear and soundly argued.
The central thesis of Wilber’s work is that we desire and move toward unity as we evolve, ultimately leading to a joining with the Whole, with God. He explores how in our development we achieve successive states of unity and differentiation that leads from atemporal and apersonal to pre-temporal and pre-personal, forward through temporal and personal, eventually passing into trans-temporal and trans-personal. Essentially, our personal evolution is a progression through wider senses of self and association. God, all of existance, stands as the climax of all this, ultimate unity.
I don’t wish to oversimplify Wilber’s work, for it is thorough in its exploration of psychology and its adaptation of spiritual traditions. He relates his theory in a manner that has a strong clarity and makes efforts to explain other theories, to show the contrasts with his own and to explain the reasons for his departure from traditional western psychology. Rarely in this book is there a sense of an aspect of the theory being overlooked (though some are not fully explored in this book), and that goes a long way to shore up the validity of this integral approach.
Wilber, in this book, presents an early aspect of an “integral vision of the cosmos that has evolved over his more than three decades of work toward a workable “world philosophy” that integrates the best of both East and West in the hard and soft sciences, religion and spirituality, wisdom and compassion.” (IJ). Wilber has trained as a scientist and brings a corresponding insight to his writing that is invaluable, but his spirituality is equally vital, informing his work without coloring it too strongly with bias. As the Integral Institute explains of the broader philosophy (encompassing both this psychological and spiritual work and much more) Wilber has developed, it is “dedicated to the proposition that partial and piecemeal approaches to complex problems are ineffective. Whether addressing individual and personal issues of meaning and transformation, or increasingly complex social problems such as war, hunger, disease, over-population, housing, ecology, and education, partial and fragmented approaches need to be replaced by solutions that are more comprehensive, systematic, encompassing – and integral.”
I have not yet read the other books Wilber has published, but this book and my general understanding of his philosophy has given me a great respect for the philosophy and the man. I look forward to further reading his work and exploring the ways it can apply to my own life and how it can challenge my existing beliefs. I believe his work is seminal for the development of an integrated philosophy, which I believe quite strongly is essential for human evolution.
If you’re looking to challenge yourself, to understand the human mind and its development or for a philosophy that is inclusive, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It has the potential to challenge your beliefs in exciting ways and that is invaluable.

Today has a broader significance than just my birthday, of course. December tenth is also Human Rights Day. Today it is important, as it is every day, to reflect on the fact that billions in this world live without basic needs and freedoms and to do all we can to help those less fortunate than us (and to work to retain our own rights). One simple and influential way to contribute to the human rights movement is to take part in Amnesty International‘s Write for Rights!, a global letter-writing marathon “held annually to mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on 10 December 1948.”

Directly related to this, a new study by UNICEF informs us that extreme poverty threatens the lives of more than a billion children (half the world’s under-18 population) around the world.

There are real, concrete failings that are causing rights and needs to go unfulfilled, and a large portion of the blame must fall upon our wealthy, western shoulders. As this same article details,

Isn’t it time to put pressure on our governments to live up to our global commitments and help to alleviate the suffering of the less fortunate? I firmly believe so and my votes and my voice will reflect this.

In more positive rights-related news, the Canadian government has taken another step toward ensuring equal rights for people who wish to have same-sex marriages. Yesterday our supreme court gave the go-ahead to passing a bill giving gays and lesbians the legal right to marry. I applaud this decision and look forward to the day when true equality of relationships and love is embraced by our government and the people of Canada. We still have a long way to go, but I have hope we can transform our society to be more just, open and free.

I almost forgot about it, but today is my birthday. This twenty-second anniversay of my birth snuck up on me, but so far it’s been pleasant enough. It’s sitting in the rocking chair sipping vanilla-laced cola as I type this, talking of back-in-the-days, emulating old age with great vocal prowess. It’s rambling on about days before the internet, when the Commodore 64 was high-tech and when Hero Quest was the keenest board game to be found.

In honor of the nostalgia conjured up by my realization of the date, I’d like to point you toward a Hero Quest adaptation for Windows that you can play to get a taste of my favourite board game of all time (the rules and play style have been altered, but the map, characters and general feel remain intact). The game is still quite fun to play for me even now. I ran a game last Sunday with some friends, in fact.

I recently returned to using a AudioScrobbler, a site which compiles a database of the music you listen to (with a plugin for one of a good number of media players), giving you a list of recently listened to songs, top artists, top songs, recommendations and other interpretations of your music data and that of the large community the site boasts. I find the site useful for discovering artists that I may have overlooked in my musical wanderings. If you’d like to see what I’ve been listening to, you can visit my AudioScrobbler profile page here.