Warning: I’m going to rant, but I’m not going to name names or link sites.

I recently joined a local group that has meetups. The focus of these meetups is tea. Our last organizer went AWOL, and so I was very excited when the new Organizer stepped up! I would have myself ages ago except it costs to become an Organizer, it’s free to just be a member. Anyway, I messaged the new organizer expressing an interest in meetups around local tea shops and cafes in Vancouver. I included website links and several location suggestions just incase the Organizer wasn’t from Vancouver proper. I got the most infuriating response back… and when I read it at work, I actually said out loud: “Tea snob!”

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We only have one year until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. To be honest, I didn’t want them. I’ve heard and seen some terrible things about the Calgary Olympics (winter 1988) and the Montreal Olympics (summer 1976). We already have tons of ads about the 2010 Winter Olympics because a Canadian has never won Gold on Canadian soil.

The reason I didn’t want them is because a.) Calgary apparently went into a huge deficit when they thought it would open them up to the world; b.) Vancouver’s tourism industry is fine; c.) When I visited Montreal I learned about the stadium where the roof was supposed to open and make it an open-air roof, but apparently it didn’t work, it’s a huge disaster, and it leaks; d.) They wanted to tear up the Cambie Heritage Boulevard to build a skytrain.

Now, this isn’t meant to be a hugely pessimisstic post, I’m just explaining my reasons. I was still in high school when Vancouver went in for the Olympic bid… and now with one year to go, I don’t think Vancouver is going to be ready. There is a lot of talk about no money being left to finish things like the Athletes Village and other structures for the games. I remember there was talk about updating the Sea to Sky Highway which goes to Whistler (where most of the mountain events will take place), but I don’t know if that ever happened. And, they still aren’t done the Canada Line — their solution to not destroying the Cambie Heritage Boulevard was to tunnel underneath the road. Pure chaos for the past three years in my neighbourhood.

But there is nothing I can do now. My parents are already talking about going out of town during the Olympics. Renting out the basement (which has a full kitchen) and having my sister and/or myself live upstairs. They want to go to Hawaii or Mexico.

I don’t know what I’m going to do during the Olympics. It will be pure insanity and I work downtown, near the historic part of Vancouver (aka tourist central). I have nothing against tourists… but I’m not a fan of crowds.

The whole “1 year until the 2010 Olympics” celebration is supposed to be positive, but I’m a little nervous. We’re welcoming the world and we’re not even ready. There is nothing I can do about it.

P.S. I just thought I should add that I don’t like the logo. We only have one inukshuk in Vancouver (it’s more of a Yukon/Northwest Territories/Nunavut symbol) and it was a gift to BC from the Yukon. I much more enjoy the Paralympic Games logo.

First off, sorry for the rant. It came from somewhere else, and somehow burped all over American Thanksgiving. Second of all, Happy American Thanksgiving to our continent-neighbours! (Sorry the image looks so angry… it was the only one holding an American flag!)

Now, for my explanation: I am basically tired of how commercial the holiday season has become. I’m sure a lot of people are, and that’s not to say I don’t enjoy finding lovely gifts for my and my boyfriends’ families, or that I don’t love seeing their smiles when they open them. All that I really enjoy.

The part I don’t enjoy is the obsession with spending, shopping, and over-consumption of useless products. Even my mom, who claims to hate Christmas shopping (and all shopping) said today, “I guess I need to start my Christmas shopping. Have you done yours?”

I love spending time with family over the holidays (this will be my 4th Christmas in England), and I love the smiles, the chatter, the lights, the smells… I just don’t see the need for it to be SO focused on the gifts. In short, while they are a nice “perk”, they don’t need to be the whole cake.

I think the whole thing was started by the Booking Through Thursday question. It was abut thanks:

Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S.

Now, you may have noticed that the global economy isn’t exactly doing well. There’s war. Starvation. All sorts of bad, scary things going on.

So–just for today–how about sharing 7 things that you’re thankful for?

This can be about books, sure–authors you appreciate, books you love, an ode to your public library–but also, how about other things, too? Because in times like these, with bills piling up and disaster seemingly lurking around every corner, it’s more important than ever to stop and take stock of the things we’re grateful for. Family. Friends. Good health (I hope). Coffee and tea. Turkey. Sunshine. Wagging tails. Curling up with a good book.

So, how about it? Spread a little positive thinking and tell the world what there is to be thankful for.

Not exactly what I was expecting for Booking Through Thursday. They didn’t do anything in October for Canadian Thanksgiving. I didn’t like that throw away comment “sure it can be about books” …. and I just get tired about world things sometimes. My blog is a bit of escape from all the world craziness. Maybe I should have just taken it with a grain of salt and done 7 Bookish Things I’m Thankful For….

But anyway, that rant just got me started and it snowballed from there. Sorry again. I hope I explained myself better this time.

Have you noticed that as NaBloPoMo has gone on, my posts have gotten crappier and crappier? Ugh me too. I think I’m running out of steam. Near the start of the month, I posted nearly twice a day, just because I don’t like to make combo posts, I prefer to have one topic per post. I’m weird like that.

But now, I’m doing tons of memes and little bits and bobs. Not that memes aren’t fun… but they aren’t exactly posts with substance.

Today I should be doing Booking Through Thursday. But because it’s American Thanksgiving, the question is about thanks. Well you know what? I’m Canadian (damn proud) and we celebrated Thanksgiving back in October before Halloween (where it should be). Do you know why I’m a fan of October Thanksgiving? Because in November, it’s far too close to Christmas. Ever heard of “Black Friday”? (Who hasn’t?) Yeah, well, that wouldn’t happen if all Thanksgiving dinners were in October because then everyone would use the “after Halloween” marker for Christmas-beginnings.

So there is my rant for today. I think that to avoid the stress of the holidays, everyone should start planning from November 1st. Hello November = hello Holiday season!

Did you know that I leave for England on December 15th? This will be my fourth Christmas spent overseas with my boyfriend and his family. Is it weird that I still get nervous? Is it terrible of me that I just want a quiet Christmas with no family obligations? I want something quiet, heart-warming, and traditional. Home-baked cookies, roaring fire, watching Hogfather on SkyOne… no big family dinners, no present-shopping rush, no gift-giving frazzle….

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.6, and as my WordPress.com friends were complaining about a couple weeks ago — they have removed the “add picture” button. I suppose this makes sense, as with the new Add media bar, the add picture button was a bit redundant… but I still liked it’s ease of use.

I’m mad that they didn’t move the “Categories” up to beside the “Write a Post” window. Ugh I always forget to select my category since they made this change in 2.1!

I’m playing with some new plugins, so you might notice some changes around here. I’ll keep everyone updated

Take a look at the Version 2.6 Intro Video from WordPress:

UPDATES:

• There is now a Contact Me Form on the About page.
• Re-enabled my Creative Commons Copyright (it stopped working for some reason)
• New “subscribe to comments” to get any comments after yours emailed to you!