Literary news. January 27, 2009

Firstly, condolences to the family, friends and fans of John Updike, who has passed away at the age of 76. A great writer will be sorely missed.

On a happier note, congratulations to Neil Gaiman on his book “Graveyard” winning a Newbery award. Yeah, I know. It does seem a bit incongruous that the king of obscure horror would win the quintessential Children’s book award. I think I might wait a couple of years before I start addding that to the missus’s collection…

 

Addendum: I didn’t realize that he had also written “Coraline” – which you might have seen the trailers for on tv quite a bit recently. So if you aren’t familiar with him (BUT you really should be – Neverwhere is a great place to start) that can perhaps explain my… slight bemusement. But hey, props given where props due.

So when did the Aquarium become uncool? January 27, 2009

Some of you know that I’m active with BZS and BAMZ. Since I was a kid really. I remember pestering my mom to take me there all the time as a child and I even became a Junior Volunteer and then a part-time staffer when I was in my teens. As an adult, I love that I can pass on that fascination to my daughter. But I’m consistently amazed at how few people actually go there, like on a Saturday. That place should be completely overrun with kids… and it’s not. How sad is that we let our busy lives deter us from experiencing nature, learning about the world around us. And to a very real degree, showing appreciation for the many men and women that work so hard to have these exhibits and information available to the Bermuda public. I wonder if that is totally it though – our busy schedules, that is. It is evident from things like BEST’s campaigns and other more recent events (like the beach bar scuffle – which I have my own opinion on but I do see their point), that the environment and conservation of it is not a high item on most bermudians priority lists. So when did we as a collective entity, on the whole, stop caring about Bermuda, the island? The ground beneath our feet seems less important than the money in our wallets.

 

I can say that I do usually see loads of tourists there when I go to the Aquarium and it really is quite sad that people from other countries show more interest in what we have around us every day than the average Bermudian does.

Oh this is going to be fun… January 26, 2009

Just a heads up. I have decided to quit smoking… again. This time hopefully, I can make it stick. I’m doing it cold turkey so if anyone has any tips on how to make it go a bit easier I’ll take any and all suggestions…

Update on Watchman January 23, 2009

Any geek worth his salt probably already knows this but the much aniticpated movie “Watchman”, recently shelved to a dispute between WB and Fox over movie rights, is now back on schedule for its April release date. Yay! Hopefully this means that the trailers will now begin to be shown on a regular basis on tv, like they were before this case got underway.

 

I cannot TELL you how much I am looking forward to this movie. If you can, get out there and read the graphic novel. Well worth it.

Hiatus over January 22, 2009

Hi all.

 

Sorry for the huge gap in posting. Numerous things just came together to make RL a bit more hectic… and to tell the truth, I spent lots of time over at Bda Sux. We were having numerous threads on race and I kinda felt like that was the important conversation and I would be better served joining in there. And I was… for a minute. Then I realized after trying so many different ways to get various points across that this black and white racial gulf in Bermuda is perhaps even larger than I had thought before.  It got to the point that I felt like we truly were speaking two different languages. Like, I’m trying to communicate and I’m shouting louder and louder, but they just speak french… and we got nowhere. I don’t think. Don’t get me wrong, I did learn some things and had a few foundations shaken (which is so totally the point) but not enough to have made all my frustration worthwhile. And I’m sure those on the other side felt the same.

 

I keep thinking that I don’t know who is right, but it just occurred to me that it really doesn’t matter. That isn’t the point, or more truthfully, shouldn’t be the point. This, no pun intended, is not a black and white issue. It’s completely and utterly grey. When it boils down, it’s not about the facts so much as the emotions.  Descartes said cogito ergo sum or I think, therefore I am. I agree but I think it goes even furthur than that. I feel, therefore I live. Humans are inherently emotional beings. Logic and reason are traits but the vast majority of people live their lives dictated by how they feel. Maslow’s heirarchy of needs has things like air, food and water as the most basic of human needs and obviously the most important but I think those are more survival. Humans need stuff like that to live but it is the emotions that make them feel alive. Yes, I know I’m digressing but all that to say that black people (being the only point of view I can truly speak to with any authority) on this island feel like racism permeates every aspect of their lives. That there is a long way to go and that, while it certainly is possible to rise above it, by virtue of having to RISE above it means that it still matters. Hugely. How true that is is not really the point. Perception is key. And if I perceive that a = b, then to me a does truly equal b. The stats back this up, and while a few stats can be explained by matters other than racism… that there is a gulf at all means that racism exists and is effectively working the system.

 

Now there will be some who agree with me, perhaps not exactly the way I put it but will agree… and there are just as many who think I’m talking crap. And that’s the point. It’s not that the two sides aren’t listening to each other, we simply can’t understand each other. Bermuda’s racial Rosetta Stone is yet to be found. And I fear we might have gotten to the point that we simply cannot bridge this gap without it.

R.I.P… December 23, 2008

In the spirit of a friend’s faded smile and the upcoming season, I’ll like to wish everyone a lovely holiday… Whatever your creed, your religion or your preference (political or otherwise), have a lovely season and live safe and well.  Make each day count, don’t simply count the days.

 

Sincerely yours, Tia

Back from the Vacay! December 9, 2008

Hi all

 

Just came back from my much needed vacation. The family and I went on a cruise to Roatan (Honduras), Belize and Cozumel. I loved Cozumel as it reminded me of Bermuda but Roatan… well, it made me sad really. Very under developed and poor, it was a shock to the system really. Certainly made me realize how really good we have it here. Like amazingly and overwhelmingly good!

 

Well, I’m gonna catch up on the reading and checking out of the blogs…

MPs turned down the pay rise increase. November 20, 2008

Good on them. As the Premier says, it would have been inappropriate right now.

 

http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d8ba4a30030000&sectionId=60

Is Gay the New Black? November 19, 2008

As many that followed more than just the presidential election results on November 4th knows, three states in the US (most particularly California) also had Proposition 8 on its ballots that day. This proposition allowed for voting on the legality of same-sex marriage. It passed, banning homosexual marriage. This was a actually quite a bit of a shock, prompting the media to ask “Is Gay the new Black?”. Apparently, a larger voter turnout of the elderly, the devout religious and african americans for such a historically important presidential race allowed for a stronger proponent of people voting FOR Prop 8.

 

How sad is that. A time when people around the world are celebrating the shattering of barriers and professing hope that perhaps equality for all is possible, we are confronted with the inescapable fact that humans inherently need to hold others back, no matter their own situation. Harsh? Perhaps but no less true in my opinion. I have yet to understand why same-sex marriage or indeed same-sex lifestyles are so… threatening to some. Especially the religious. Case in point, of the millions of dollars spend on advertizing for the ban, 1 in every fourth dollar was spend by the Mormons – yes, those who tout pologamy as a more than acceptable lifestyle… or as Jon Stewart said “Of course, ’cause Mormons believe that marriage is between a man and a…um…”.

African americans have apparently gotten a bit of the shaft in the US, being blamed by many for being the proverbial straw. How true that is, I can’t say, especially considering that the african americans only account for 10% of the Californian population and Prop 8 passed with 69% in that state. It can’t, however, be argued that they didn’t have a part in this as more than two-thirds of all african americans voted for Prop 8

“I was born black. I can’t change that,” said Culver City resident Bilson Davis, 57, who voted for Proposition 8. “They weren’t born gay; they chose it,” he added, reflecting a commonly held belief that many researchers dispute.

Sigh… just, sigh. Look, discrimination is discrimination, no matter what coat it wears and it is all wrong. We made a huge step a couple of weeks ago. Couldn’t we continue walking forward??

Why didn’t anyone tell me… November 17, 2008

that Barack was a geek?!? According to newsweek:

• He reads, no, collects, London’s Telegraph reported, Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarbian.
• He may or may not collect Harry Potter books, but according to the Telegraph, he’s read them. All of them.
• Per an account in Newsweek, at a campaign rally in May in Iowa, he walked up to wife Michelle’s belt buckle, tapped it and said, “The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!” (It’s unclear if Obama, or Newsweek, confused lithium for the essential Star Trek component, dilithium.)
• According to the New York Post, he once greeted Leonard Nimoy with the Vulcan “live long and prosper” salute.
• At a black-tie roast in October, he revealed his secret identity (and his more than passing familarlity with the Superman legend), announcing, “I was actually born on Krypton, and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth.” 
• In Ohio on the weekend before Election Day, he accused John McCain of being Kato to President Bush’s Green Lantern. (One minus point for mixing up Green Lantern with Kato’s real boss, the Green Hornet. One bonus point pulling the somewhat-obscure Lantern out of his apparently hero-stuffed memory banks.)
• In 2006, he posed, arms akimbo, in front of the Superman statue in Metropolis, Illinois.
• In the biggest geek move of all, he posted the Superman picture on his Senate website.

Taken on the whole, Obama’s leanings beg the question: How long before he calls out Terence Stamp for Gen. Zod’s assault on the White House in Superman II?

“I don’t know if it’s another sign of geeks inheriting the earth,” says Liz Walsh, artist of the online comic the Tao of Geek. “But I definitely think it’s become a more mainstream, acceptable hobby.”

I mean, anyone who knows me knows that geekhood DEFINITELY trumps political ideology!