Who Wants to Be a Travel Writer?

I don't really make it a secret that Christiane Amanpour and Lisa Ling are my heroines. They both travel around the world reporting on important global issues and addressing topics of concern that have often been swept under the rug by a world who thinks that maybe if you can't see it, it'll just go away.

Yes, investigative travel journalism is a job I would enjoy every second of.

The other night I was watching OLN and discovered a show called "Word Travels." Basically, two syndicated travel writers go around the world, become tourists, write about it, film it - and get paid to do it all. When the show was over Craig looked at me. "I know what you're thinking." He said. "I know you know what I'm thinking." I replied.

Travel writing/reporting is another job I'd be all over like white on rice.

So basically, anything that pairs travel with writing/reporting is what my dreams are made of.

That same night, while surfing the web, I came across a course offered by Ryerson University in Creative Travel Writing. It was available through distance education, there was May 2nd start date, and the topics on the course overview really appealed to me.

I showed Craig, not knowing what he would think about the whole thing and not wanting to pressure him as he is already sacrificing his current job so that I can do my Master's in the Fall.

"You should do it. I know that's what you're interested in."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" He was even a little bit enthusiastic about it.

So... I am now enrolled in Ryerson's Creative Travel Writing course which will go from May - July. All it really means is that I'll have a tad bit more education to stand behind my writing. Yet, I remain hopeful that maybe it's a pinky toe in the door. You never know what you're capable of until you try.

Those Swine are Crossing the Line

The world is in a paranoid uproar again and this time it has nothing to do with anthrax, SARS, mad cow or avian flu. This time people are steering clear of our porky little friends.

Apparently swine flu cannot be contracted by eating pork - so all you people out there stuffing your faces with pork chops and bacon can continue to do so. In moderation, of course. While your grease-covered slices of bacon (a.k.a. swine fat) may not be infected with a serious influenza virus, it could quite possibly clog a few of your good arteries. And unfortunately clogged arteries won't earn you 15 minutes of fame like swine flu will. Just throwing that out there.

I have to say, I love pigs.

Once upon a time, during the summer after I graduated from high school, I worked on a farm. Well - it was more of a petting zoo, really. I scooped horse manure, fed little calves milk from bottles (just like real babies!), got bitten by a feisty little Newfoundland pony named Rudy, almost got rammed by a billy goat, fed Mary's little lamb, watched hens lay eggs, tried to make jewelry out of hay when business was slow.... and befriended the pigs.

I'm not sure if many people are aware of this or not, but pigs are actually a lot like dogs. I can see them becoming domesticated. While working on the farm I discovered and fell in love with their playful, upbeat nature and decided that they would make fantastic house pets.

Nutritionally, I'm an omnivore leaning herbivore. Not that I think it's wrong to eat meat - I do it nearly everyday. It's just that as an animal lover being an omnivore is a tricky thing. I cannot bring myself to think that the food I eat was once frolicking around gleefully and enjoying life as a living, breathing, thinking organism. So when I do eat meat I push those thoughts out of my mind and instead force myself to think about the importance of protein and the natural order of life. Either that or I just try to think about something completely unrelated to food altogether. Being near the top of the food chain is not always as wonderful as it may seem. Though, I bet the lions amongst us would beg to differ.

I feel sad for the swine in this whole situation. Obviously I feel sorry for the people who have been inflicted with this new strain of influenza, too. But- I'm aware of the mass slaughterings that are taking place (in Egypt, for example) and it kind of makes me sad that things have to go down this way. It's not the pigs' fault and now there is such a stigma attached to their "race." If you listen closely you can almost hear the collective message of swine all around the world rising up through the air. They are saying: "We never meant for this to happen! Please forgive us. We are good creatures, we would never intentionally hurt you!"

Okay, so I'm making light of a serious situation. Yet there are elements of truth in what I say. Not too many people are thinking about the pigs right now, which I suppose makes sense on many levels. It is more disconcerting to think of all the people who have become sick as a result of swine flu than to think of the swine who are suffering as a result of all this.

There are cases, though, where I do worry more about animals than I do humans. Rightly or wrongly, I have always been the kind of girl who feels more concerned for the horses that the men ride in war movies than the men themselves. I think it's because the horses are helpless and didn't get to choose if they wanted to become embroiled in conflict or not. And the men in most of these movies are mostly just bottles of testosterone driven by an innate desire to kill on their quest for superiority.

I write this on behalf of the swine of the world. Just in case any of you have been hating on our little piggy friends. I also write this in case any of you have begun to reread "Animal Farm" and are convinced that the swine are up to their usual conspiring ways. I know some of you have been thinking: "Oh those darn swine, they're really crossing the line." Please keep in mind that they did not choose this outcome for themselves. In a time when it is easy to look down on our curly-tailed friends, please remember the Babes and Wilburs of the world.

Stay safe!

The Canadian Rockies

I almost forgot!!!

I said I would post a few pictures from our trip to the Rockies a couple of weeks ago.
Fortunately for you, I just remembered! :) I apologize that the photos are so small.
Here we go:

First signs of the mountains on the drive to Banff

We were upgraded to a beautiful loft suite. YES! J'adore free upgrades

Overexposure, much? But I love the mountains. So majestic. The air, so fresh.


View from the top of Sulphur Mountain

Soaking it all up


Breakfast stop at Starbucks


Look! I found a fossil in the sidewalk! :)

So we arrive at Lake Louise and a snowstorm hits

Breathtaking


Elk, I think?


I love the enlarged version of this picture


The end.

Dream Deferred - Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up 

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

and then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Directionally-Impaired

Hello! I'm the newest grad student you know!

Last week I found out that I've been accepted into the Masters programme I applied to. I'm going to be completing my M.Ed in counselling/psychology. So now I know where I'm going to be this time next year.

Oddly enough, this new found direction my life has recently acquired is making me feel smothered. Perhaps I'm mistaking the causation factors; perhaps the "smothering" I refer to has more to do with my crappy sinuses at the tail end of a minor cold. But it still feels strange to know what I'm doing and where I'm going.

At the risk of sounding overly frivilous, I have drawn comfort from the spontaneity and up-in-the-airness that has been my life for the past two years.

It's possible that I'm too naive or over-confident in this area, but I have always felt assured that things would work out somehow. I have always trusted myself.

And now all of a sudden I'm searching for apartments in a city I've already lived in, to go to a school I've already graduated from and to be reacqauinted with people I've already met. Not that this is a terrible thing; I think maybe I just lack an appreciation for the familiar. Just like how so many others I know lack an appreciation for the unknown. It's simply two different ways of life.

Though it could (and probably will be) another post all in itself, there are many things I'll miss about teaching next year. For example, kids who make me stop whatever I'm doing to tell me something so completely and utterly unrelated to any thought I've ever had in my entire life that it makes me seriously wonder if they've just warped from a different planet.
And the way they say it is what I'll miss even more. As if it's the most normal thing in the world to stop busy, rushing people dead in their tracks and tell them that you own a purple rock.

Yes, working with kids is priceless. It's a treasure and they are the little gems. They're no purple rocks, though.

I am excited that I've been accepted for three reasons, and three reasons only. 1.) It's one step closer to a career I can see myself doing for awhile 2.) I get to move back to my beautiful home province that I've missed, and 3.) I get to be close to my beautiful family, whom I've missed.

Other than that I feel like I'm playing it safe because I'm not out conquering the world. You may say I'm a dreamer....

Did I ever mention I have no internal compass? I'll walk into a room and when I walk out have no idea which way to go. I'm not joking.
So, I guess you could say that I'm directionally-impaired. In more ways than one.

What on the Web?

I've started a new website that will eventually become a collection of random "gems" that I find on the internet. 

It's called: "What on the Web?" - a sister site for "What in the World?"

Check it out here: What on the Web?

What Happened to Raffi?

Perhaps my thinking is slightly antiquated, but since when can kids navigate their way around the internet better than me? Since when do kindergarten students need iPods?

I grew up back in the glory days of the Walkman. Yet, I'm pretty sure sticking enormous circles on my ears and rocking out to the latest New Kids on the Block tune was the furthest thing from my mind when I was five. I remember having a record player in my kindergarten class and singing "Baby Beluga" and "The More we Pull Together" - far from the equivalent of the vulgar, completely inappropriate "Nickelback" songs kids are so obsessed with these days. (Ew, I can't believe I just tainted my blog with the N-word).

It seems we're on a path that would put the Jetsons to shame. Not a horrible thing. I love me some technology. I am eternally grateful to the military that the internet exists.

Sometimes I watch my students roam around the hallways of the school with their iPods or cell phones and am possessed by the sudden urge to plead with them: "Just be a KID... okay? Honestly...." Then I resist that urge and remind myself that I wasn't on Noah's ark. The odd reality is that these children are growing up in a different time than I did. Earth has undergone: "Extreme Makeover, World Edition" and kids are adapting.

To me, at 24, this is weird. I'm still young- how has the world evolved SO much in such a short period of time? What's next for everyone?

I am consistently amazed at the intricate new technologies surfacing on a daily basis. Some of the iPhone apps blow my mind. CNN has already broadcasted holographic images to millions of viewers (or else pulled the proverbial wool over our eyes and demonstrated the finest form of trickery- I'm still trying to figure that one out).

Yes, I am forever reminded that perhaps I'm not one of the brightest lightbulbs in the chandelier; I would never dream up some of these ideas. Let alone have the knowledge or patience it would take to bring those ideas to fruition.

But then, once in awhile, somebody comes along and creates something that makes me feel better about myself. Something which makes me feel as though I do shine half decently bright. Something that shows me maybe I do have what it takes to succeed in this fast-paced, super-wired, over-caffeinated world. Something like.... like......

The Snuggie.
FYI, It's a blanket with sleeves.

Just out of curiosity, how many times have you thought to yourself: "Gosh, I just wish this blanket had SLEEVES!"

One step forward, two giant steps back. :)

O, Canada

I've always been a nature-lover. As a child hailing from small-town Newfoundland I always had a forest in my backyard just crying out to be explored.

And explore I did.

My childhood consisted of bushwhacking, building lean-tos, trying to determine if the moose crap I stepped in was warm or not and climbing steep hills with loose rocks - without using any proper climbing gear, of course.

While I am a self-proclaimed homebody, I am also (and have always been) a huge outdoor enthusiast, as contradictory as that may seem. Being outside makes me feel so.... alive.

That's why I'm so glad I grew up in Canada. Not that people from other countries don't have exceptional ways to go about exploring the world outside their homes, I'm just grateful for the opportunities and experiences I was presented with as a result of my Canadianess.

Canada is completely underrated, in my opinion. People pay an arm and a leg to go see other parts of the world. Canadians dish out the dollars to travel abroad, without having even seen their own country. (I know, 'cause I've done it). I'm so glad that I've recently had the chance to experience Canada from east to west. All that's missing on my Canadian travel resume is the far-north experience. NWT, Yukon, and Nunavut. Hopefully that will change in the not too distant future!

Canada is unlike any other country in the world. I love coral reefs and turquoise waters as much as anybody, but they are a dime a dozen. Go to almost any country in Southeast Asia, for example, and you'll find amazing beaches everywhere.

The thing that makes this country stand out is its vastness. The scale of it. The land to people ratio. How when you're here it's like you've warped to Big World on Nintendo. Joshua Jackson explained it more eloquently in his interview with Strombo on "The Hour." It's worth the watch:

The only thing he's missing in this interview, is a good solid mention of the far East Coast of Canada. In particular, Newfoundland. I just returned from the breath-taking, awe-inspiring Canadian Rockies. Perhaps I'm biased, but there's still no place like home. :) If you've never been to Gros Morne, I suggest you get on that ASAP.

**Keep checking for updates, I'll post a few pictures of my incredible roadtrip to the Rockies.

5057!!!

I meant to write a celebratory 5000! post, but haven't been at the computer much these past couple days - too busy soaking up the beauty of the Canadian Rockies!

But yay for lots of visitors! 5000 may sound like a small feat to some, but I appreciate my readership, big or small!

Here's to many more months of blogging to come...

For Daddy - April 2009

Dear Daddy,

Six months. Wow. Is it really possible that you've been gone for half a year? Truly? It breaks my already-shattered heart.

Part of me feels happy that each month I get further and further from that dreaded day when I learned about what happened to you. The other part of me feels lost and hopeless when I think of the fact that we've been deprived of your presence for this long. Too long.

Though I'm still utterly shocked and dismayed about the whole situation, reality has set in a little more this month. I've had Daddy-directed questions; questions that I'm positive nobody else other than you would have answers to. And it's tax time. I must hold the world record for being the most clueless person when it comes to things like filing taxes and taking care of other random paperwork. Never much cared for that- it was always your sort of thing and I was quite content to have you do it for me. So now what? It's just one of the many ways I miss you.

I started reading this book: "The Shack." I have yet to finish it, but prefer to soak it all up rather than cruise on through anyway. As you know, with me everything is done leisurely at a slow pace. Much to your chagrin, of course. The book is about a man who has a little girl that gets abducted on a family camping trip. Throughout the book (thus far) he has referred to his pain as "The Great Sadness" which I feel is an appropriate tagline. It's all-encompassing, it's applicable, it explains without need for larger explanations. The great sadness is exactly what it is.

WM Paul Young, the author of the book, has done a better job of describing the pain than I have been able to so far. Here is an excerpt that especially resonated with me:

Little distractions, like the ice storm, were a welcome although brief respite from the haunting presence of his constant companion: The Great Sadness, as he referred to it. Shortly after the summer that Missy vanished, The Great Sadness had draped itself around Mack's shoulders like some invisible but almost tangibly heavy quilt. The weight of its presence dulled his eyes and stooped his shoulders. Even his efforts to shake it off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it. He ate, worked, loved, dreamed and played in this garment of heaviness, weighed down as if he were wearing a leaden bathrobe - trudging daily through the murky despondency that sucked the color out of everything.

At times he could feel The Great Sadness slowly tightening around his chest and heart like the crushing coils of a constrictor, squeezing liquid from his eyes until he thought there no longer remained a reservoir. 

And one more that struck a familiar chord:

That night Mack slept in fits and starts as the images continued to pound him, like relentless waves on a rocky shore. Finally, he gave up, just before the sun began to issue hints of its arrival. He hardly noticed. In one day, he had spent a year's worth of emotions, and now he felt numb, adrift in a suddenly meaningless world that felt like it would be forever gray.

"The Great Sadness" is exactly what it is.

Recently the same kind of situation that our family is in happened to someone I almost know- it's a friend of a friend kind of deal. We have been in contact as he is now going through similar things that I am. And as much as one would hope that nobody else would ever have to feel this pain, it does help to know that the path has already been somewhat broken in. That we're not the first to go through it, nor the last. That doesn't mean that the path is not a difficult one to hike- but others have made it through, and so will we.

By the way Daddy, the kind of legacy you are leaving behind shines incredibly bright when one looks at the amount of love people have for you. Your friends, for example. We all know how much you loved golf, and they are in the process of planning an annual event called the Ray Palmer Legacy Golf Tournament. They have formed a committee and have sent out invitations to all who knew you to participate. All of the proceeds will go to establish scholarships for students who are struggling in one way or another. There is even a charity status pending. This was completely their doing and I could not be more proud or grateful that they have decided to honour you in such a big way. The impact you had on the lives of those you knew is so evident. You truly were someone special, and I'm not just saying that because you're my Dad- though you were pretty great at that job, too.

Tomorrow Craig and I are heading to the mountains for a little getaway. The peace and tranquility will certainly be a welcomed escape.

My heart skips a beat every time I think about how much I miss you. I've really felt the physical effects of all this in my system. It's amazing how interconnected emotions and physiology must actually be. My heartbreak often feels literal. 

Yet, six months in and we're all still making it-somehow. That is an accomplishment in and of itself. 

You are so loved, so missed. That will never change.

Love always,

Your baby girl XOXO

Watch this Desire Wane

Fun question. What do you think about titles that are completely and utterly unrelated to post content?

Rhetorical, yes, but feel free to answer if you are so inclined. :)

Great news on the home front today.

I just had a health assessment and I'm not a walking disease bucket! Hurray for healthy living!

....Let's eat brownies to celebrate!

Why I Choose to Blog (and Vlog)

Sometimes I wish I could control who gets to read this and who doesn't.

Sometimes I wish I could make this blog exclusively available to strangers, and off-limits to those who know me. I could be a little more candid that way.

Unfortunately, with more restrictions and constraints, this blog would slowly but surely begin to evolve into a diary. If you were to dig through some of the boxes which contain my childhood, you would likely find about 50 diaries and journals that are halfway finished. I'm not sure if I've ever completely filled one.

And that's the point of a public blog, isn't it? That it's public. Come one, come all. No discriminatin'!

In the Blogosphere, it's popular to have a blog. Many of my favourite bloggers blog because they are people who have big dreams for themselves, a desire to do and see more than what they are currently doing and seeing. They are driven by a fiery passion to write, to create, to engage.

In the real world, blogging is not that popular anymore. Very few people I know blog these days, even the writers amongst them.

I guess it has a lot to do with the over-accessibility of the internet. Anybody can use it, therefore anybody can go to your site, read all about your life, stalk you and then fly you to a deserted island to inflict upon you years of endless torture.

I'm not naive and I am selective about the information I put out there about myself for strangers to see. Yet somehow I don't completely buy into this internet paranoia. Like the whole "Facebook keeps your pictures" fiasco. Didn't really get it. If Facebook were a country, it would be the sixth largest country in the world. I am not so self-involved as to believe that the gods of Facebook are going to one day stumble upon my G-rated photos and think: "hmmm, there's something I haven't seen before! We should bookmark this one for future use!" Though, it would be pretty fantastic on my 80th birthday to see a random billboard of myself in a random city on a random continent.

But back to my point. Why do I blog? 

It's simple, really. I'm a better writer than I am an articulator. I am an introvert with a few dashes of extrovert. I think many people who know me do not even really know me. But basically what it all boils down to is an innate desire to succeed at something I love. To not be forgotten when I'm gone. I believe everyone has this desire hidden within them somewhere, some people just haven't figured out yet exactly what it is that want to be remembered for. 

I'm a huge advocate of blogging. For me it's a great release of creative energy. While a full time job keeps me from doing it as much as I would like and often stifles the juices (by way of exhaustion) a little fix here and there reminds me that there is more to me than just my job and that I still have other avenues to explore. 

Well, that... and it's just fun, too. :)

TGIF???

My Failed Bid for the Best Job in the World

It's being dubbed the best job in the world and it has captured the world's attention.

How would you like to snorkel, scuba dive, explore an Australian paradise and get paid six figures for six months of doing it? See the opportunity? See the opportunity pass you by? There it goes!

In January, Tourism Queensland launched an explosive campaign which hit all those who possess an adventurous spirit and who heard the pitch like a tonne of happy bricks. TQ wanted to find a perfect candidate; someone who would devote 6 months of their lives to becoming a glorified tourist and discovering all that there is to discover in Queensland. A grueling six months, no doubt.

Evidently, the whole thing is a brilliant marketing scheme and not some charitable attempt to fulfill the nomadic dreams of those who cared enough to apply- a fact which has left several applicants feeling cold and discarded now that the 35 000 has been narrowed to 50 (and the top 10 will be announced tomorrow). But honestly, even after considering that TQ did not create this position out of the goodness of their collective hearts, how can we be overly surprised or outraged? I have my doubts that the person who scores this job is going to be taking endless cold showers in an effort to shake the "dirty" feeling that comes along with being used for the sole purpose of drumming up interest in Queensland. Hey, Queensland! Please, feel free to take advantage of me anytime! Call me!

The sheer number of applicants involved in this campaign was astonishing and incredibly daunting to all of us who were busy trying to create application videos that would stand out amongst the masses. For many of us, the whole thing was eerily reminiscent of trying to find a single ant on a football field, or trying to spot a pebble from outer space. We got lost in the crowds.

Yet, several others really upped the ante and managed to get noticed despite the fact that the odds of actually attaining the position (or winning the contest/lottery, depending on how you look at it) were quickly stacking up against them.

Seven Canadians pulled off that grand achievement. Yes, more Canadians made the coveted top 50 from our nation than from any other nation in the world. I'd like to accredit that to the great Canadian spirit of adventure coupled with high-caliber Canadian charisma, but since I did not make it to the top 50, I can't spend too much time talking about that. :)

I will, however, say that the Canadians who did make it to the top 50 have some of the most fantastic, creative and engaging applications that I have watched to date. As a failed applicant it is hard to be bitter for too long when you see what you would have been up against had you made it. Perhaps my low-budget/zero-budget iMovie application is better off fading into obscurity than it would be if pitted against HD and professional videographers anyway. Sometimes you just have to let go and embrace the loss.

On the very bright side, I have a feeling that being a loser is actually less lonely than being a winner. There are loads of other losers at the bottom with me. In fact, there is an online community created for the "Best Job in the World" here: http://islandreefjob.ning.com 

The community exists mostly of candidates who have long been cut out of the process, but there are several top 50ers lurking around on the site as well. At the very least, most of those potentials will also join us at the bottom tomorrow!

Another good thing about being a loser is that I can criticize those who have not yet lost. As losers we can say whatever we want about their application videos but they can't really throw much criticism back our way and run the risk of coming across as confrontational - people won't support them. Us losers can stir up some controversy and throw out the virtual punches without being penalized for it. (Not that many of us do, but we could if we wanted to!) Winners, you must tread lightly. See! It's a win-win situation for the losers!

So to all my fellow losers out there, fear not. Once other marketing agencies catch wind of the unprecedented response linked to this job we'll start seeing clones which means more opportunities for us! Until then, keep your stick on the ice and your snorkel in the closet!