Visiting a WWI German cemetery

We're reading Harry Potter. Here's a post we've pre-written to fill the space while we disappear into a children's book. Yeah... that's right. This also demonstrates that we have a few more posts left in us from our trip to France/Belgium... watch for them.
As insensitive as it sounds, Commonwealth cemeteries look the same. They're meant to. So when our tour guide mentioned there was a German graveyard in the area as other Canadian cemeteries, Daorcey and I basically pestered her to see it. I'm not joking. I think every day one of us asked.

I"m glad we stopped to see the cemetery. The "winners" of a war are meant to forget that millions of the "losers" died during war time too. In fact, many of those remain buried in the land on which they gave their lives.

Allied grave sites are almost common in western Europe and we saw a number of them during our tour. It was interesting to know that Allied countries are leased land in France (and in other countries, I assume) for free. Axis forces, in particular Germany, are required to pay for their leased land if they wish to maintain a cemetery abroad.

So we visited a German WWI cemetery while in Belgium.

The mass grave in that dominates the cemetery is a mass grave of 20,000-40,000 soldiers. There aren't headstones either since the ground is too unstable to support them. Instead flat stone markers line the fields. The oak tree and leaf are important symbols for the German people and so oak plays an important role throughout the cemetery. In fact, the entrance archway is completely paneled in oak with thousands of names of (unknown?) soldiers engraved. We were sure to a photo of the few Wagners (the Le Bray family name on the paternal side).

This was a humbling experience. I think too often we casually forget about the other young men and women who died during the World Wars and other conflicts. Maybe it would be be too morally challenging to remember that whole generations were destroyed not just for us, but for them. Either way, we were glad to visit a site that doesn't get too much traffic from Canadian student groups. I hope it had a similar impact on the kids who came with us.

Insert Harry Potter cliche here

It's two days before the last book comes out and I have to stop looking at the Internet.

With news of the photos of the book leaked online, followed by the fact crazy fans were transcribing the book from the photos (nevermind some of the photos required Photoshop to become legible), it was inevitable spoilers would fly about. (Notice I stopped short of inserting a Quidditch cliche there. Come up with your own.)

Daorcey came home with the news the New York Times already printed a review and the Toronto Star, in all its classiness, printed who died.

So it's very hard to stay away from spoilers especially when previous experiences have taught me that being spoiled beforehand does not pay off.

What? All the slayers-in-waiting get activated? Wuh? Tigh's a Cylon?

Here's hoping Friday slips by and Saturday arrives with a letter carrier holding the last book with my name on it.

Introducing my new sister (in law)

I've neglected to blog about a very important event in my life: my little brother's wedding.

On a rainy day in central Alberta, Arone and Kristi were married in the backyard of my childhood home. I had decidedly little to do despite being Best Man and Ring bearer (I also received a Frodo action figure for my role). Mostly, I just joined with the 18 others there in celebrating a marriage of two people very much in love. Highlights:

• A beautiful ceremony in the pouring rain
• A bonfire and marshmallows once the rain cleared after the reception
  
• Big hugs for my old brother and new sister
  
• The tasteful Lord of the Rings theme
  
• Sushi!
• Wii!

Photos:

The cake

Cutting the cake with a tiny sword

The kids playing Wii

The Parents and the Kids

Best game you can name...

On a whim, I joined a floor hockey team. The captain of the team, Cliff, heads up our document control department. No doubt that description of him conjures up an image, of well, a document control guy. But he's nice and puts up quite well with others' dismissal of document control as boring.

But Cliff is Wayne Gretzky on the ice. He scored three goals out of five. I didn't do as well but did not score on our net a la Steve Smith. Other members of our team include our company's VP of Operations, the goalie, and a product manager.

We won our first game but it's going to be a long season and we have to take it one game at a time. But if we give it a 110 % effort and stay consistent, we can be really successful.

Lack of shame? Check.

Famous for all the wrong reasons.

Once again, I'm back in the media. Unlike a simple quote "If I could wear metal shorts comfortably, I would." I'm interviewed (briefly) on CBC Radio 3's R3-30 top 30 podcast.

If you download this week's podcast (permalink to blog post with my picture), you will hear me chatting up my recommended song: Joel Plaskett's Fashionable People. You'll also hear me talking about how I might just eat Hello Kitty. And if you're lucky, you'll hear me yell LET FREEDOOOOMMM SPINNNNNN!

Would I have done the interview differently now that I know it's recorded forever more as a verifiable gong show? Probably not. I think gong show was what I was going for. I hope you enjoy it.

And the photo: that's from the Gauntlet archives--an easy find if you type my name online and look for a photo of me. Craig and Pedro thought it was funny and asked if they could use it in the blog post. So there you have it. Thanks to Anna Chan, Nicole Kobie and Adam Berti for putting that original photo together. Although, I'm not so sure that's the photo of me that I want roaming around online for the rest of my career. Just ask Stephen Harper what he thinks about that issue...

Oh, yeah, and when my slide whistle comes in the mail, I'll take a picture and put that online. For being the booby prize, I'm totally stoked for it. And all this time, I thought it didn't exist.

Stampede - Calgary's Halloween

Threadless.com t-shirt

Much has been said about the Calgary Stampede. Yeah, it's the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. More importantly, it's Calgary's Halloween--a 10-day period where Calgarians and tourists celebrate the signifier over the signified. It's a period of cowboy hats and belt buckles, not about history and western lifestyles. And that doesn't really bother me... I just wanted you to know.

Natalie and I were out at the mall today and I found myself looking for a "western style" shirt that I could wear at work. I got something, so my coworkers can rest assured that I will be wearing more than one shirt with my two pairs of jeans over the next 10 day. Mmm, the sweet smell of Stampede.

It's interesting that the Calgary Stampede has created a strong culture of expectation. "Tradition" dictates that every building in the downtown area must have cartoon cowboys and bulls on its front windows. Everybody must wear their jean skirts and earthy shirts. No suits allowed. Belt buckles and bolo ties are encourages. And cowboy boots? Wearing yours means you have enough money to buy a $100-500 pair of boots that you wear for 10 days a year.

Stampede time is known for its pancake breakfasts and barbecues. You're either hosting one of attending many. Most of the time it's both. I can't dis them because their great marketing and communication opportunities and maybe I should be happy that they're all contained neatly over a two-week period. Politicians, of course, know this and so they flock to Calgary in early July to host their own event and be seen flipping flapjacks for the common man. You'll see more Liberals in Calgary during Stampede than any other time of the year. That's becoming the same for Conservatives, but I guess that's a function of having power and comfortably assuming your support base won't be going anywhere while you bend over backwards for Eastern constituencies that you previously didn't know existed...

But it ain't good enough to just flip a burger or two and shake hands with the unwashed masses--you have to look the part. And so in steps the fashion and PR consultants to help someone who has never "worn western" to look the part. Your Ontario-based Fisheries minister needs to appear as though she just walked off the ranch because, hey, that's part of what Stampede is all about. If you're going to the Halloween party, you'd better bring a costume or you're going to look like a dork.

But then again, you can also look like a dork if you don't have the right advise. Let's ask Stephen Harper for his thoughts:


You must have seen that photo before. I mean, it's associated with nearly every single article about the man since it was taken 2 years ago. OK, that's a hyperbole, but we honestly do see it more than we should. There's a PR lesson in here, but I'll leave that for discussion.

So Stampede comes around and the office uniform is imposed: jeans, etc. Not bad, I guess. Jeans are comfortable. But it's the etcetera that becomes a problem. Hence the shopping on the weekend for a western style shirt. But on Friday, I didn't have a western style shirt, so I compiled the best western outfit I could find:







Dork? Yes, I'll admit to that. But I'm proud to have brought Halloween and Stampede that much closer together.








UPDATE: Check out this article about Stampede tyranny in the office that appeared in Monday's Glove and Mail.