V: Value

 
V: Value
Does human life have value anymore? After my recent travels and also watching news about  the  the phone hacking  scandal; I think not.

 What else can I say about air travel that hasn't already been said? Does anyone remember the comic Alan King? He had an entire routine about how awful air travel is and things have only gotten worse. You have to practically be an Olympic athlete to survive it.

I know we need airport security, but those body scanners are dehumanizing. Doesn't seem to matter how much security we have when any bozo can hack your cell phone and even delete your messages.

Enough said about all that, because it's too depressing to think that we no longer have any privacy or any dignity.

On a lighter note: I'm plugging a website for my friend Sourav,  who lives in Mumbai. It's called Skyward Future Artists. If you like art you will enjoy this site.


We are having a crazy heatwave, 38C out there. For the last three days I haven't been any further than my garden and even then only for a few minutes. I can't handle this oppressive weather. Yeah, last week I was visiting friends who live in the dessert and it was incredibly hot; but they live the typical American lifestyle.  The go  from the air conditioned house, to the car, and then to the cool indoor destination, with only short periods outside,so I was fine. Back home it's a different story. I don't have a car, I detest cabs, and public transportation in my city really sucks. I'm staying in my nice cool house and am amazed how much better I feel with the air conditioning on. Haven't had a hot spell in weeks. It's lovely to feel almost normal.

Most of my vacation pictures didn't turn out . I'm waiting for my friends to send me a few shots.  Meanwhile, here's one of my favourite restaurants in Las Cruces, N.M., me at the pool cooling off, and some art.

 

Audelin Chappuis

French culture has always been associated with aristocracy, grace, beauty and the world’s greatest artists. There is no country like France as far as art is concerned.

It‘s an honour to introduce you the representative of this fabulous country - a person who knows a lot about an art - French cultural attaché Audelin Chappuis.

Where are you originally from?

I was born in Versailles and moved to Paris when I was 15.

Audelin Chappuis

Why Lithuania?  Did you get to choose? How much time have you spent in this country already?

Iit was a choice. Lithuania integrated EU and I was interested in this country that moved from one union to another so quickly : less than 15 years!

In August it will be 3 years that I am here. After that one more year remains.

How different are Lithuanians from French people? What major differences did you notice?

The more you live in the country, the more you understand that there is no typical French or typical Lithuanian. But I would say that French and Lithuanian people should know each other better. It’s a challenge!

In Lithuania people are very respectful everywhere: in shops, restaurants, public transport. They also express themselves freely.

I heard during the meeting at French Embassy that you collaborate with artists.

The essence of my job is promoting French culture. So collaboration with artists is a must. At the beginning I used to work more with French artists, but now more and more I work on collaboration between French and Lithuanian artists: caring out projects together. Like I said, French and Lithuanian people have to know each other better. Achieving this objective through various artistic projects is my job and I am very excited about it.

What about your creative side? Any hidden talents that you are proud of?

I‘m not sure. I can play piano, but I‘m not an artist.

Nevertheless I need art. I enjoy it.  I like visual art, literature.

What do you like to read?

I can not single out any genre or country. I like literature from all over the world.

Usually I don‘t have much time to read, but if I want a good book, I ask my friends for advice. Some of them are avid readers. They read a lot of books. I prefer to get recommendations from them before I pick a book.

What are your favourite cultural places, subjects, topics in Lithuania?

There are so many amazing places! The National Gallery, The Centre of Contemporary Art, Philharmonic, Opera House, cinemas Pasaka and Skalvija. Also the Academy of Arts. It‘s so nice - you feel excitement and creativity in the air no matter when you come there. In Kaunas I like Zilinskas Gallery, in Klaipėda I enjoy The Art Exhibition Hall. It doesn’t matter whether it is a little gallery or a big establishment, the most important thing is that you feel good there.

What is your favorite pastime?

Hunting with hounds or the big-game hunting experience without shooting animal. Its a great outdoor sport.  You get to use dogs and horses to follow an animal and cornet it, but no shooting!

How often you go back to France? Not very often. Four times a year maximum. I go twice between September and March because of the hunting. Also once during summer.

U: UN

U:UN

And I don't mean the United Nations. No, I was looking up a word in the dictionary; the old school, book kind, when I came a cross the the entry for : un.  A very useful prefix, that can be used to change the meaning of so many words: unkind, undead, unbelievable, undeniable, unlike,unreal, etc. etc.

Perfect because I'm feeling very un.  First, the phone call from the neurologist's office, telling me they can't interpret the results of my thyroid biopsy, so they are referring me to an endocrinologist. That I don't get. Either the thing is malignant or benign. Has to come out, or be treat with drugs.  Another delay, another nuisance.

Then I got the bill for my share of the tree removal: $1045.!!! At first my neighbour and me were hopeful that that was the total for both of us, but Nope!!    AND does the neighbour who's tree caused all the damage give a hoot!! Nope. AND no point in putting in an insurance claim since I have a $500 deductible and they threaten to raise my rates if I do. Don't you just love insurance companies!

Canadians, this is the kind of crap we will have to go through with insurance companies if  we decide to go with private health care; so  think about it before you start ragging on about what a mess our system is. We have a pretty good system; even if the doctors can be real twits sometimes.They are just as big of twits in the U.S.


I've been reading some MS blogs, which I haven't done for awhile.  So many people having real challenges.
 So many people who believed the drugs would help, yet sadly they progress; just like me. Doesn't seem to matter what we do, MS keeps marching to it's own pace.

  My challenge right now is with my walking. I can still walk pretty good, but I've had to give up climbing the stairs at the harbour, and walking uphill yesterday,  was  really slow and difficult. My right leg is the one causing me problems, but the left one ain't so hot either. I guess that's because I'm compensating for the right leg, which stresses the left.  I can see that in the near future I may have to sell my house, because the stairs are getting hard to manage. 

The Canada Day weekend was pleasant. The first real summer weather and the first weekend for  air conditioning. I have a love/hate relationship with my air conditioner. I feel so much better when it is on but I hate the ever increasing expense of electricity.  For me the culprit in my MS struggles is the heat, so I really need this air and I hate that reality.

Here's a few photos  from this weekend. It was Scottish day at Dundurn Castle, and I just happened to be going by when the bag pipers were practicing. We were being sill at the garden and the ants were having a good time too. The Elvis is from my trip to the Falls last week. For $2.00 he will do a dance and give you a guitar necklace.

Mofeta & Jerre

Who is this Sweden based duo? It was the name that captured the interest. I introduce you Jens Siverstedt, a member of a band, which every fan of good music should know. Enjoy.

Julija: I don't understand Swedish language, but I like the sound of your songs, Mofeta & Jerre seems to be a positive band. What do you sing about?

Jens: Haha, Swedish must sound really weird when you don't understand it! We try to sing about different topics, lately we've try to write more serious lyrics, more about love, politics and deeper stories. But when people think about us, they often think that we just write about party and easy-going things. I think that they should listen to our albums!

Mofeta & Jerre

Julija: I know your band collaborates with a Swedish rapper Promoe. Could you elaborate?

Jens: Sure, we went on a big tour during 2009-2010 with Promoe, we were his backing liveband. It was a really good time, he's a good friend of mine. I'm working with Promoe in the studio with some tracks that I've produced.

Julija: Do you play with other musicians?

Jens: Yeah sure! With my liveband "Spiderdogs" we've made a lot gigs with other artist, mainly hip hop artists. We've played with Adam Tensta, Chords, Timbuktu, Looptroop Rockers and many more.

Julija: Do you need special occasions or inspirations to create? If yes, what inspires you?

Jens: Hm, that's hard to answer. I often get the best results when I don't expect anything. When my mind is clean and don't have to bother of anyting else. But during the nightime I always get into a better mood for making good music.

Julija: What is the feeling when you hear your songs on the radio or see videos on MTV?

Jens: That's great! That's a big part of being a musician, to get the audience to hear your music, that's like the final stage of making music.

Band's latest videos:  



Julija: What are you listening to at the moment?

Jens: I'm listening to a lot of different music, At the moment I discovered "Frank Ocean" he's really great. And if you like good hip hop music you should listen to "Fashawn - Boy Meets World.

I thank Jens for the interview!

CCSVI Clinical Trials

 A break from my alphabet posts because of an important announcement. The Federal government is going ahead with funding for CCSVI clinical trials. Read about it here http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1016906--ottawa-to-fund-trials-of-controversial-ms-treatment?bn=1

Yay!!! It's a step in the right direction.

T: Trails

Another rainy day here.  Ever since the tree incident I'm nervous during a thunderstorm, as the tree that is now only half a tree, is very threatening. A city inspector is supposed to drop by to have a look at it and it will be cut down if it is deemed to be unsafe. I think it is and so does my neighbour. She has more to worry about than me since her house is tiny and has the most exposure to this half  tree. You would have to see it to realize what a huge thing it is and far too big for the tiny property it's on. If I don't hear anything by next week, I guess I'll have to start nagging my city Councillor

I'm waiting for the results of my  thyroid biopsy. I should know the good/bad news by the end of the week.

My legs are killing me and I'm walking very stiffly at times. Still I manage to get out on the trails walking. I'm a wreck afterwards but I don't care. I'm a wreck anyways, so may as well keep walking. If it means I spend the rest of the evening lying on the couch so be it.

The only other news is the federal government has introduced legislation to privatize the growing and sale of medical marijuana. Health Canada and regular folks like me will no longer be permitted to grow the stuff. I don't have a problem with that except once again; will the weed be of poor quality and expensive like the health Canada product is ?

There's no point in me even saying that marijuana should be legalized. Our prime minister has made it clear that no way will that ever happen while he is in office and he has a majority in parliament . An international panel has declared the war on drugs to be a total failure, and recommends marijuana be legalized, but do the politician listen ? No they and the enforcement community are stuck in  the 1950's ideology of " Reefer Madness".

For some reason a person has decided that the Sassafras trail, is the LSD trail, as you can see from the pictures below.Why anyone would get stoned and attempt to navigate this trail I think is very foolish. There are no lights, and if you veer off the trail even slightly there's tons of poison ivy. You could also easily fall down the embankment and end up in the harbour.  Otherwise it's very pretty and soul restoring to walk there.

S: Subculture

 On June 3rd I went to the "Treating Yourself Expo" in Toronto. Everything and anything, you need to know about medical marijuana. Not to long now until I get my license to legally smoke and grow my own weed. The only thing holding it up is the mail strike. In the meantime, if I get hassled I have a temporary card to legally smoke it, and the name of a good lawyer too. A young man in a wheelchair told me he was arrested even though he had his license on him. The charges were thrown out of court, but still he went through a year of stress. 

What an interesting show. The people at all the booths were so kind and had lots of useful information. The common theme  seemed to me to be about compassion, although it's amazing to see how companies are cashing in. All the things you need to start your own grow op, whether indoors or out; including a
self contained unit with lights, tables, fans, and security cameras starting at $80,000 and up, depending on how you want it customized.  They had a small unit for $1200 called the "Spinner" which holds about a dozen plants and only uses about $20 per month of electricity. If things go well, I'm considering buying one for myself. 

I tried this amazing marijuana pain relief cream. It wasn't for sale at the show but the had samples. I rubbed some on my neck which was so stiff and sore, I didn't think I would survive the trip on the bus to Toronto.
At first I thought it wasn't working; then after about half an hour Wow! It removed all the pain and stiffness.
I'll let you know the name of it as soon as I sort through all the information I picked up at the show and I have a ton of it.

Then I purchased a marijuana cookie; cranberry and white chocolate. During a break, I had a cup of tea and half of the cookie. Same thing as the cream; at first I didn't think it was doing anything and then Boom! Did I ever feel good and mellow. The cookies range in price from $8 to $10 each which is expensive, but you could easily break it up in pieces and still get a decent buzz.  What a nice relaxing trip home on the bus!!

So here we are with  this weed  subculture. It seems like everybody is doing it, yet the stuff is still illegal!

The only other news is that a tree fell on my house during a real nasty thunderstorm. The guys are outside right now cleaning up the mess.