Blogdate: Friday, June 30, 2006
A privilege to live in BC? You've got to be kidding me.
I read a letter to the editor in one of our local papers the other day that left me shaking my head just long enough to compose a response. Baseless letters that criticize teachers non-objectively leave me thinking no wonder it is so difficult to get students to think critically about issues when there are adults out there that are so blindly ignorant to societal pressures and expectations. The gist of this "Letter of the Day" in the June 27th edition of the Vancouver Sun was that the writer believed that because "it is a privilege" to live in BC with our beautiful mountains, tall green forests, clear water and air, and that as such, we who choose to live here must both succumb and accept the fact that we should and will get lower wages and benefits and have to pay more for services and real estate as a trade-off for said privilege. The writer is either fundamentally wrong or monumentally fooled, or worse, she is both. Here is my reply that I am hoping gets published on Canada Day of all days:

Dear Mr Bucci, Editor/Vancouver Sun:

Ms _______'s position in her June 27th "Letter of the Day" is fundamentally wrong. She has unfortunately fallen prey to the notion that "it's a privilege" to live in BC. Nowhere in the history of BC nor in the post-Constitutional history of Canada for that matter does it state that living in BC, or any Canadian province, is a privilege. On the contrary and at the risk of being pedantic, the Canadian Charter implies that living anywhere in Canada is indeed a right.

I am a teacher. I am a parent. I am also a proud born and bred BC'er, having grown up in northern BC and then moving south later in life. When I hear people talk about BC as being this ambrosia of the gods and therefore something that only the select can partake of, I feel ill. With Canada Day right around the corner, it still never ceases to amaze me to see many people -- Canadians even -- fall victim to false and artificial expectations.

I'm glad that Ms ________ feels so good about the BC lifestyle. I do too. But she needs to stand up against the few who believe and continue to think that living in BC, or anywhere in Canada really, is a privilege and that you consequently have to accept various unwritten requirements of such a privilege.

Don Mah
Vancouver, BC

Blogdate: Monday, June 26, 2006
A letter to the premier of BC and other "Liberal" MLAs in British Columbia...

Dear Premier Gordon Campbell:

I'm a parent and teacher, and have been a proud citizen of BC all my life. My wife, who is originally from Ontario, has been through already similar educational difficulties that teachers are presently facing here in BC.

We live with our 15-month-old son in Vancouver. We love this area. Parks, schools, other young families and perhaps most significantly grandparents are all nearby. However, we cannot stay. And there are two reasons we plan to move: 1) we both teach in the Surrey SD and 2) house prices in east Vancouver are beyond what two teacher incomes can reasonably afford and live on (in fact, house prices in Surrey don't offer too much reprieve either).

Despite the financial hardships that it may present, both my wife and I are prepared to stand up for education and strike again should it come to that. Last October, we gave up over $4000 of our household income so that our students could have a more meaningful classroom experience. What I am referring to are the funds the government saved and therefore re-infused back into schools for not having to pay teachers from the October protest. But I ask the question why should I, as the teacher, make the continued sacrifices so that my school could now purchase for my OWN classroom an overhead projector, a mobile whiteboard, and 3 class sets of novels? Heading into my 11th year of teaching, it's a sacrifice that is painfully on-going. The BCTF bargaining team continues to fight for a reasonable salary increase and even more shockingly a set amount of preparation time. I recently read with dismay that, amongst other things, the Liberal government is making a demand for a concession in prep time, moving from guaranteed weekly prep time to an average amount per week over the year. I'm sure you know as well as I do that set preparation time is integral for good teaching. In fact, it would seem obvious that any time someone is able to prepare for something, the better they will be able to do the job. That the Liberal government wants to challenge this maxim seems to me that the maintenance of a hierarchal power structure within the school system is a higher priority than is creating a quality and equitable educational environment for everyone in BC.

I love teaching and being a teacher. I would also love to be able to provide my son with a life that allows him, too, to say in the future that he is a proud citizen of BC.

It's time we all got on the same page. Let's put education first.

Sincerely

Don Mah
Teacher
Surrey School District

Blogdate: Friday, May 26, 2006
This kid makes me laugh.
I took this shot of little Boo tonight while he was taking his bath. Bern did up his hair into a single spike and every time I snapped a picture of him he would rush up onto his feet and stretch out his hands for the camera to view the picture. He didn't seem to mind, or even was aware of, the fact that his hair was sticking straight up, and even laughed when he saw the shot. What I would give to know what goes through his mind at this stage of his life. He's so excited about everything he sees, no matter what it is. And since little Boo likes planes so much, I recently bought a flight simulator game for the computer so that we can pretend to be flying together (with the help of the computer of course). I recently downloaded and have been working with Windows Photostory 3 too, a decent free piece of slideshow software you can get from the Microsoft Downloads website.

Blogdate: Sunday, May 14, 2006
Happy Mother's Day...
    Succumbing to a McDonald's craving we started today off early with a takeout breakfast to the park up the street. Living here in east Vancouver means lots of families and lots of parks within walking distance of each other. Bodhi loves being outside, which is good, because we love being out there too. I'm anxiously anticipating the day when he's old enough to haul is own gear and we'll all do some back-country back-packing at Manning Park or something like that. Actually, I'm already planning all this because I already got him his own backpack, helmet and climbing rack. However, back to today, which is a special day for moms.

     Our day not only included breakfast in the park, but also an afternoon of cheering on Christian at his baseball game in Surrey, and then a barbeque luncheon at Bear Creek Park. Christian plays for the Whalley Dodgers, a group of seven year olds who play 3+ hours of 7 inning baseball twice a week. Obviously, Surrey takes their baseball seriously. And then Christian tells me that tomorrow they have a "clinic". A clinic? What kind of a 7 year old tells you that they have a baseball clinic? Now that's serious, or at least I thought it was until I saw that, despite it all, the kids from both sides at the end of the game throw up their caps in the air and let out a "I'm just glad to be here" scream. Plus everytime I asked Christian something about the game -- Hey, Chris, what inning is it? What's the score? Who are you playing? How many hits do you have? -- he would answer every question with a shoulder shrug and a carefree "I don't know."

     I also finally picked up a new lithium battery for my G3, which meant I could go back to shooting digital without worrying about the damned thing dying on me. Lucky too because when Bodhi spied the water fountain at the park today he couldn't help but find a new way to have some fun. Below are six images of about 10 that I shot of him playing with the water. His putting his finger on the faucet opening was spontaneous and it has become my new favorite shot.

based on set criteria, but rather show you how much a student knows when compared to everybody else in the school system. Sure, we'd all love to have the son or daughter who does exceptionally well in school, and we (I'm speaking about EVERYONE here now) all love it when we hear about a wunderkid who scored in the upper 90-th percentiles on provincial tests, but what does this tell us about HOW the students learned? In fact, it tells us very little. Teachers teach to the test. They can't help not to. It would be irresponsible to not address the provincial test in some way, shape or form. However, the best kind of teaching is instruction that permits students to examine, to explore, to question, to create. It's teaching that takes time. It's teaching that doesn't always move students in a straight line from point A to point B, instead taking them in a myriad of directions that stimulate varied and often times divergent thought. It's implicit teaching as opposed to explicit instruction. It's not the "here's what you're going to have to know, so let's get to it and learn it" approach that standardized tests compel teachers and students to lower themselves to.

Standardized tests run counter to how kids learn.

     Let me get something else off my mind. This year I spent exactly $1850.00 (yes, that's eighteen hundred and fifty dollars) of my own money so that my classroom could have, among other things, a printer for the students to use, an overhead projector so that I could demonstrate writing examples for my ESL classes, three class sets of reading novels, and a host of other resource materials. That $1850 would have been my paycheque had I not had to go out on an illegal protest in support of public education last October 2005. Now the question we should be asking here is why wasn't any of this material already in my classroom? Why did I have to sacrifice two weeks of work, a fortnight of pay, so that I could have the most basic of teaching materials in my room? I made the sacrifice because the BC government would not. It's time for them to step up to the plate.

Blogdate: Sunday, April 29, 2006
Funny television commercials

   Last month, I did a mini-unit with my class on various tv and movie genres. As a finale, and just to mix things up a bit, I had the kids watch various funny tv commercials and complete a package about them (if you want the videos I used for this package, then drop me an email and I can zip up the files and email them to you). There were of course some commercials that I found that I couldn't show, namely beer commercials, so I've compiled a few of them here for viewing. I also included the two favourites that the kids liked, those being the first two below. You may need the latest Flash and Quicktime installed to view some of them.

John West Salmon bear fight   German Coast Guard   

You're from Canada, eh?   All about the lyrics, man!   FedEx Castaway

Beware of tools made in October   Kerry or Bush?   Street Luge bad for your body parts

Blogdate: Sunday, April 23, 2006
A little bit of sunny weather and...

   ...everyone in Vancouver forgets about the appalling daily rain of the last few months. Over 50,000 people turned out for the annual Sun Run. I've never seen so many people on Vancouver streets at any given time, more than when the Canucks made the Stanley Cup finals back in '94 even. Bern and I ran this year and finished the 10km in 61 minutes, not bad considering my only training came in the form of chasing Bodhi all over the place for the past few months ever since he started to walk. We also went to La Conner yesterday for the annual tulip festival. Actually, Bern and Tara had gone to La Conner two weeks ago for the Tulip Parade opening day events, but when I misplaced their car key and they were 3 hours late getting out of the house things didn't go quite as planned since by the time they finally got to the festival it was raining and a huge traffic jam had developed.

     No word yet on our tickets to Malaysia. Booked but no confirmation. We are going to begin making alternate plans soon if something doesn't turn up. We can fly Cathay but that means a layover in HKG instead of Seoul (it also means an additional $600 + accommodation). And while we love visiting in HKG, stopping in to see Charles and Jean in Korea is important to us. Besides, I think Bodhi would prefer the "slower" pace of Seoul to the poetic madness of Hong Kong.

     Cousin Kelly emailed again from China, this time from somewhere in Guilin and somewhere near Flying Goose village. How she managed to find an Internet cafe near the village is beyond me? I guess China really is changing because when I was in Canton in '96, something like that was pretty hard to find. Kelly's parents will be visiting with us for a week on their way back from HKG. Ian and Cynthia, along with 20 students, recently returned from the Egyptian-Libyan border where they watched a total solar eclipse. Now if you're asking me, I can't think of a better place to view such a phenomenon than in a cowboy-like border town in what has got to be one of the most least visited parts of the world. Ian wrote something about the trip that he plans to publish in "Professionally Speaking", the magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers. I'm still editing his piece and should hopefully be done soon (I'd better get it done soon because I promised it back to him over a week ago). Hey, CIMP had their annual Talent Night too -- see it here on TMC's Ravings of an Insomniac.

Blogdate: Sunday, March 26, 2006
Aches & pains...

   ON Saturday, I played in the annual staff-students ice hockey match. When I signed up for the match, I simply wanted some exercise, maybe a little free ice time, but I later learned that our grade 12 boys team was at one time ranked #1 in the Fraser Valley. Oh, great! I thought. That's when I started thinking about what I had gotten myself into. After all, I haven't laced up my skates and held a hockey stick in my hand for about 4 years. It's no surprise then that there are parts of me that ache that never ached before. No matter, the game was tremendously fun and the kids were great. Good thing though that we had some young blood helping us out on our side.
   NCAA tourney is down to final four (though I don't know who the other two teams are yet in the other bracket so I'm going out on a limb to pick Villanova to not only make the final-4 but to win it all.    Bernadette's sister, Tara, and her 16 month old daughter, Brooke, are visiting with us for a week starting this Friday. Little Boo gets to play with his cousin again, only this time both of them can walk, and Brooke can even talk from what I am told.
   Carol, formerly of CMP back in Malaysia and who has been in Morocco for the past two years, dropped us a note informing that she'll be moving on to teach in Columbia next year.

Blogdate: Monday, March 20, 2006
MotoRcyCles, SpOrTs & oTher ThoUghtS...

       NOW that it seems like I'm comfortably settling back into Canadian life, I've gotten back into following some sports again, though mostly the Vancouver Canucks hockey club and the UBC men's basketball team. Ever since graduation from UBC, I've been trying to do my part with supporting UBC Athletics by making a very, very modest monetary donation annually, and in exchange they give me (an anyone else who gives financial help) a free pass for all the regular season home games. Not a bad deal really. This year was a good year for the men's team, perhaps too good if that can be possible. The pressure of a 20-0 run up season, and early talk of a CIS title before the tournament even began, probably had something to do with their 2nd place showing in the Canada West Finals, and then a early exit in the CIS Nationals this past weekend in Halifax. The loss to Cape Breton was disappointing. This was a pretty good UBC team but not necessarily the best all-round squad I've seen.
     As for those Canucks, what can I say? News-caster, Kerry Marshall on Jack-FM sums it up nicely: "When they're winning they're the loveable lads. When they're losing -- trade'em all they're all bums!" I tried to get tickets before the season began but I was too late. That left me to either getting the tickets from the Canucks-Ticket-Exchange or from bidding on eBay. Orca Bay, in their infinite wisdom or perhaps the wisdom of some 20-something-year-old wunderkind marketing exec wannabe came up with the splendid idea of a $100/seat per-purchase membership fee, which is a complete cash-grab, so I quickly decided against that. That leaves tons of tickets on eBay, but it seems like everyone and their mothers is a ticket scalper now, and they don't even have to leave the comfort of their home computer. Even the dismal performance of late by the "lads" hasn't slowed ticket sales on eBay. However, win or lose, I like watching the fluidly fast game live, so I'm still going to try and get some more tickets. Incidentally, after breaking a 5-game losing streak just the other night, our beloved Canucks just got shellacked tonight by the Red Wings 7-3. If Crawford knows something we don't then he'd better start sharing it, and sharing it soon he should.
     However, amidst all this sadness (actually, I just got bored reading the stats for the Canucks' #1 line), I decided to visit the Harley Davidson website after seeing downtown yesterday afternoon a Harley low-rider sportster. All I can say is: you can take the man off a motorcycle, but you can never take the motorcycle out of the man.

Blogdate: Sunday, March 19, 2006
HaPpY St. PaTTy's DaY...

       Despite the last couple of days being a little rough for Bodhi -- first he fell in the bathtub and cut his tongue and lip, then he fell again yesterday morning outside the side door as we were getting ready for a walk up to Solly's for an outdoor bagel breakfast -- I couldn't let Bodhi miss out on his Irish roots by not going to the annual Vancouver St. Patrick's Day Parade. Not only did he get to see just how odd and fun the Irish can be, he also got to see what seemed like an eternity of men and women in uniform spanning every emergency service agency known. He also got to see the proud and few, very few, men who can still put on the uniform, pin their medals on their chests, and walk with their chins up knowing that they're one of the lucky who managed to lived through the experience of war. Ten or so years from now all of them, sadly, probably won't be in these parades any longer.      As for Bodhi falling so often, this is what happens I suppose with early walkers; he's just so eager to be mobile that he ends up tripping on his own feet sometimes. He's even running too now, or a fast walk anyhow. I didn't tell Bern but yesterday when I was getting him ready I let him walk outside near the garage. While I was getting his carriage together, I turned by back for 30 seconds, turned around once again only to find him with a mouth full of dirt.
     Yesterday, we also returned to little Boo's birthplace, the BC Women's Hospital that is, to look at the birth plaque we got for him. BC Women's offers parents whose child was born in that hospital an opportunity to donate $100 to the hospital whereby they will permanently put up a small ceramic tile with the baby's name, Chinese name, birth weight and date, on one of their "baby walls". It was a great way to immortalize little Bode's birthdate. He'll be able to look at that when he's all "growed up".
     In other news, Cousin Kelly and her parents are in Beijing and north China for a month or two and will be stopping in to visit with us in Vancouver on their return leg back to Canada sometime in May. Tara, Bern's sister, and her daughter, Brooke, will also be visiting in a couple weeks. Little Boo and Brooke can finally play together once again; they were quite small that last time they saw each other.

Blogdate: Friday, March 17, 2006
Grandpa returns home; little Boo cuts his tongue...

       This past week has been outstanding. Tiring and outstanding, but we love showing people around even if it's not in our own city. Aunt Colleen and grandpa enjoyed their time here and in Seattle, and have probably never eaten more food in a week long period than at any other time in their lives. Turns out I've got grandpa beat in the "eat-pretty-much-anything-category because grandpa can eat anything but two things: cilantro and chicken feet (I can eat anything but one thing: yogurt). It's tradition to take visitors for dim-sum to see their faces when they're told that they have suck the meat off a chicken foot.
     Little Boo fell in the bathtub last night, clanging this chin off the side, which in turn rammed his lower jaw into his tongue. Since he more or less has a full set of teeth, he cut his tongue open just a little bit, but it doesn't take much to draw a lot of blood from a small wound anywhere on the head. Bern cried for a while and felt quite horrible. Little Boo cried for even longer and then went on to have a pretty rough night since the cut probably bothered him as he slept.
      Ian and Cynthia are expecting their first child, and he/she may be born in Cairo, Egypt of all places. Exciting times ahead for this soon to be adventurer and globe-trotter. Heath dropped us an email, says he's on his way to teach in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Good for him. Also every so often, we also get some news from CIMP kids, this time from Natasha and G-To who are in Perth on the final stretch of university study. They sent us this pic from a recent wedding in Malaysia.

Blogdate: Tuesday, February 27, 2006
Happy birthday, little Bodhi.

   

Blogdate: Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Some overseas plans?...
     Now that we have a better handle on our financial picture (moving, finding new jobs and having a baby all at the same time presented a monetary challenge quite unlike the last six years of living like czars in a developing country), Bern and I have moved our discussion about a return to southeast Asia for part of the summer of 2006 from possibly to most likely. I'm pretty certain that we can make it happen, so it will be exciting to see old friends again. I'm also trying to conincide this trip with a study tour to Shanghai, Nanking and Beijing though this tour is dependent upon being selected to the teacher team that will be going on it.
     Bodhi has been learning to swim in a weekly "swim-song" class. Somehow, me singing to him while he's in the water is supposed to increase his comfort level in a pool. Not sure about anyone else here, but me trying to hold a tune in a pool while babies kick water in my face isn't really my idea of comfort music. Bodhi doesn't seem to mind however and he seems quite natural in water and even under it. Finally, our baptism class is this Friday which means that little Bode will be baptized Catholic in mid-March.

We spent the early afternoon having lunch at the top of the Seattle Space Needle where I let little Bode climb onto the protective outer glass for a full bird's eye view, only to have Bern yell at me for a second time, ha, ha, and asking why fathers always seem to find the most stupid and dangerous things to try with the kids. Next stop was a bank, where my mom wanted to exchange over $300 of US coin for bills. How she managed to save that much US change over the years is beyond me? Anyhow, armed with some newly and easily acquired greenback we used the rest of the afternoon for the aquarium, a first for all of us, and finally coffee and cake at Pike Street -- clearly a must do when in Seattle. Tomorrow, we celebrate my first birthday as a father.

(1.2 Mb video stream: Bodhi playing with starfish at the Seattle Aquarium)

Blogdate: Monday, December 22, 2005
Bodhi seed bracelets for our second anniversary...
Bern arranged for the most amazing gift for us on our second wedding anniversary. Though we had already agreed that we weren't going to exchange gifts this year -- neither for our anniversary, nor for Christmas or my birthday because we're busy saving for a house -- she went out and had made modest treasures of prayer bracelets for me, her and for little Bodhi. Ironically, we also had bracelets given to us in Bodhigaya back in December 2003, blessed and presented to us my four monks. Those bracelets were made of mere string wound on itself three times and symbolizing love, strength and trust. The bracelets this year were made out of, and much to my surprise, seeds from a Bodhi tree. I had no idea that that was what these beads were, and neither had Bern. But when she went to the temple to get them made, she knew the moment that the monk showed her Bodhi seeds that these were what we were all going to get for our anniversary. What was even more intriguing was that after the monk had selected the beads for our two bracelets, he then selected seeds from those bracelets to make little Bodhi's bracelet.

As is the custom, the bracelets are presented only upon a blessing ceremony. As Bern tells it, she and little Bode knelt on a prayer stools while two monks chanted various scriptures and blessed the beads, blessed her and blessed Bodhi. Outside of little Bodhi himself, this is the greatest treasure I have ever received.

Blogdate: Monday, December 19, 2005
Technology catches up, or so it seems for now at least, but can it help feed, clothe and house the millions...?...
With some time on my hands, I decided to reformat my laptop and my desktop, which I usually do every so often anyhow just to start the computers on a clean slate, free of any nasties and the sort. Now I won't kid anybody here, I have two copies of an operating system: one copy that I paid for and that which I know is legitimate, and another copy that I also paid for but that which I know is not legitimate. To make a long story short, the illegitimate copy installs OK, it even updates okay, right up to a point though where the software maker asks the user to allow a product key scan to authenticate the software, and this is where things fail. Mind you, the computer works without any glitches so I could just as well leave it well enough alone; it's just now no further updates are permitted since the software maker can confirm the non-authenticity of the illegitimate copy. Good for them. However, a simple GOOGLE search to try and override the authentication process came up with some intriguing and interersting results. Interesting enough that I tried a few of them, and with some further ingenuity I am sure that even a wannabe hack like myself can find the right "crack" in the system and allow me to update the OS software for the illegitimate copy.

However, on a related note I noticed that this year's TIME Persons of the Year is none other than Bill Gates, his wife and U2's Bono. I have always felt that we -- globally, collectively -- have the financial resources to end poverty. Unfortunately, we don't have the desire. And recently , the only thing that incensed me more than so many people dying or left for dead his past year due to natual disasters, was that we still chose to ignore the root cause of the destruction -- and that root cause was and continues to be our steadfast stubborness against ending poverty outright. We put in our 5, 10, 20 or 50 dollars when disasters happen. We get a lump in our throat when we see kids empty their allowances into donation jars when disasters happen. This is all great. But we only do this when disasters happen. What we really need to be doing is telling our governments that we care that others live in dangerous squalor, we care enough that we do what we feel we can only do, and that is to donate money to help. But that is all it is; it is help, and fleeting help at best. Poverty ends when we re-align global, top-down policy to say that it ends. I remember looking at a Reuters picture of a group of Indonesian people sitting in the street waiting for disaster relief after the Tsunami and commenting to my wife that you could have taken that same picture even before the Tsunami had struck and similarly people would have been sitting or standing there also wishing their circumstances were different. U2's Bono often quotes a statistic that G7 nations have known for the last two decades, and that is that 10+ million people -- mostly children -- die or will die of chronic hunger every year. Well, say what you will about Gates, or Microsoft, monopoly or no monopoly, he and his wife have to my knowledge endowed more money than anyone else (mind you he IS the only person who can endow money of that magnitude) in the history of donating. And if it means that part of the billions upon billions that MS makes will be going to philanthropic endowments, then yeah, why waste my time with trying to be clever and outsmarting an authentication system. I'll just go spend the $250 or so to buy another legitimate copy of Windows XP.

Blogdate: Friday, December 16, 2005
Two weeks off...
I love my job. And it's not because I get the next two weeks off over Christmas and still get paid for it.

It's because I get to see kids everyday. I get to be around the energy of the youth. Our school hosted a pancake breakfast this morning, and it was once again another chance to see kids -- public school kids -- come in an enjoy a morning of casualness and comraderie that is often times a difficult school culture to create. Then later in the day the Fine Arts Department hosted an afternoon of holiday song, dance and music. It continues to amaze me, even after ten years in this racket, to see kids get up and perform with such talent that even now I still find myself shaking my head and saying "wow".

This past semester has been an eye opener so far. I have two fantastic ESL blocks and they've made huge strides in just three months, a relatively unheard of time frame where second language acquistion is concerned. I also have a learner support class, where a few of the kids have learning difficulties to varying degrees. That class has been my eye opener. It has been the class that is making me rethink a lot of my teaching and how kids learn. While society may know a great deal about learning disabilities, I know almost nothing about it. And that is the reason I chose to become interested in that area. I guess you could say my pedgogical knowledge has taken another shift, from designing task-based history lessons early on in my teaching, to second language acqusition over these past few years and now to special education. What's going on in my mind right now is that if I can reach more kids, then I can teach more kids.

Blogdate: Monday, November 21, 2005
Bodhi gets a bean protector, and a degree...
Last week's wall climbing was rough, but at least Bernadette remembered the cardinal rule of "never let go of your brake hand", which was good considering how many times I cut loose from the wall. You know it's going to be a difficult ride when you (in this case Bern and I) go to take the belay test and I tie into one end of the rope and my belayer, Bernadette, ties into the other end. Perplexed, the instructor asks if we both plan to climb at the same time. Got to get used to the different methods here too. First the grading is different, using the 5.10 and up system. Next is the route setting where bascially the entire wall is blanketed with holds and then a series of colored tapes mark off the routes. In fact, I don't think I saw an empty hold nut in the entire wall. Anyhow, we loved it nevertheless. And while the Vertical Reality Climbing Center may be small, its proximity to our workplace and their reasonable rates have made us decide to get memberships.

I gave Bodhi his climbing/caving helmet today. It's a little big still though. And since he just can't stop standing and climbing onto things, I'm going to build a little, padded climbing wall for him complete with real holds to put in his play area. Little Bode also had his first UBC class today too. We volunteered him for a Department of Psychology study in infant language acquisition upon which he was conferred an undergraduate degree and a UBC baby-t. How about that, huh?

We were at the Santa Claus Parade yesterday too, another first for Bodhi. He loved it, so much so that he slept through most of it. Actually, anything that happens between the hours of 11am and 1pm aren't good times for him because that's his napping period.

Timmy (Bern's brother) and Katie, his fiance, from Cambridge are in town for the weekend too. Wish they could have stayed longer though. TMC finally udpated his page after a two month hiatus. And Ian has added another check mark in his atlas, this time Jordan. Go check it out. Jason bought a place in St Maarten too and has gotten seriously back into SCUBA. Good on him.

Blogdate: Sunday, November 6, 2005
Finally, a faster computer ...
It seems like Bodhi is growing and doing things faster than I can photograph and/or videotape him. Today, I managed to render a series of videos of his "firsts", the second of four such compilations that I plan to do for the first year of his life. First year = firsts I suppose. Anyhow, it has been, or at least it was, a painstaking process to do video and multi-layer picture editing with my "old" P3 laptop that I got in KL in 2002. Now I'm using Rick's new AMD64 with 1Gig of RAM and a Radeon 9800Pro video card, which means that I can get pics like the 4 image strip above out in a matter of minutes. In other words, expect to see more photos and maybe even streaming video from this site in the future.

On the climbing front, you climbers can let out a collective sigh that we only had to give up sport-climbing for about 10 months. We set up a date to go to one of the larger indoor gyms here next week, and if all works out well, that is if I can haul my fat butt up a 6A or god-forbid a 5C, then we'll join a gym and begin climbing again regularly now that Bodhi is a bit older. Yesterday, Bern felt that little Bode was bored with his toys so that prompted me to give him his first climbing cam set a bit early -- say about 16 years too early -- so that he'd have something to play with. Bern wasn't that impressed, especially since little Bode is more interested in eating it than sticking it into a crack or something like that. But man does he ever look cool and cute with it.

BlogDate: Friday, October 28, 2005
Requiescant in pace...
Lil Higgins, Bodhi's great-grandmother, passed away peacefully last night. Though we only met Lil twice, it was as though we had known her for a very long time already. A Classy, kind, fun, giving, articulate and fiercely independent mother of three, Lil lived in Toronto for the better part of her life. She even drove herself places right up to when she was 85 years old. Gratefully, Bodhi got to meet her last summer, and though he may not remember the occasion, Lil made sure that he would by giving him a keepsake of the meeting, a St. Christopher necklace, the patron saint of travelers. We will miss you, Lil. Lil Higgins, 1919 - 2005.

(left) Judy, Colin, Bernadette and Lil in Cambridge, Ontario on July 2004
(right) Lil holding Brooke, with Judy and Tara on February 2005

BlogDate: Saturday, October 22, 2005
Another vote? Pumpkin patch first...
Amidst all this hoola-baloo on whether or not we teachers will be back to work on Monday (ie. the day after tomorrow), we found ourselves in a pumpkin patch in Richmond this afternoon. What an awesome October day it was to be outside too, so warm that little Bode didn't even need a jacket. We took a host of pictures, ate some fresh farm apples, set Bodhi up for some pumpkin patch pictures, took a hay ride, and then chose a pumpkin each. Mental note number 1 however: remember to bring rubber boots next time.

Today and tomorrow, teachers will cast their votes on whether or not to return to work. Having sacrificed two weeks of salary, did we teachers accomplished what we needed to? Not quite, and some would argue not even close. But in any strike -- legal or illegal -- there will be losses and gains, most noteably losses for the underdogs. In this case, teachers were the underdogs. The mediator came up with recommendations and the teacher's union has asked members to accept those recommendations. Some local unions are encouraging members to vote no however. The question I'm asking myself then is will voting no and potentially staying out longer further our cause? What more can be gained by continuing the strike? Can the fight be undertaken from the inside now that we have made some headway? Where cause is concerned we brought to the forefront serious educational and labor related issues, but having done so we also stand to gradually lose public support as time goes by. As far as further gains, I see little to no further movement from either side because not only are we fighting the goverment head on, we have the court system chipping away at us too, and if I can borrow some strategy from Sun Tzu: "a protracted war on two-fronts is unwinnable". Where we did gain was in awareness with regard to class size and composition, the key issue in my opinion. Whether or not our government chooses to do something about this remains to be seen.

BlogDate: Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Bodhi started crawling, still walking the line, pau-pau's birthday...
I've been keeping a video record of Bodhi's "firsts" and a few days ago, specifically October 14th, Bodhi began full on crawling. That was but five days ago and now there's no stopping him. If we leave him in the play area then he crawls to the kitchen where we are. If we leave him in the kitchen then he crawls to the next room where I'm working on the computer. It's the most amazing thing to see a little human become mobile. And this isn't the end. He's grabbing the top of the coffee table, even the top of his crib, hoisting himself up for what I am told is "furniture standing". Truly amazing stuff!

Mom's (pau-pau) birthday was yesterday and well all celebrated with a home cooked dinner of six Chinese food dishes that Bern and I prepared. She turned 69 and as was the custom she gave out ang-pow to the kids, which I commented to Brandon that this was a pretty easy way to earn $40 (2 x $20 -- one from gung-gung's birthday a week earlier).

Peghee out in Courtney, BC, sent a picture from her wedding. We've known each other since teacher college back in 1996 and she and Dan got hitched over the weekend [finally]. A big congratulations to them. Ian and Cynthia in Cairo, the couple I shared a condo with in KL for two years, recently returned from their latest adventure in Malta. They have to be getting close to the record for most countries visited in the shortest time period. Good on them.

Lastly, teachers here in BC are still walking the line. Bern and I attended the 10,000+ strong rally on the lawn of the legislature in Victoria this past weekend. Other unions have pledged their support and have kicked things up a notch by sending support staff from government offices to the line during this week. The support is growing and the "Liberals" were probably hoping it wouldn't so just yesterday a talks-facilitator, specifically the well-known Vince Ready, has been asked to see if he can get both sides talking. Judge Brown, who ruled the BCTF in contempt of court last week and froze the federation's strike assets, heard arguments again yesterday. I suspect in a move to buy time for both sides Judge Brown has reserved her judgement for further penalties to this Friday, October 21st. Things around the province will heat up some more this week with more walkouts planned up north in Prince George and then here in Vancouver. The teacher resolve is still strong. Parents, seniors, students and many small businesses have stepped up the pressure on the government too, so really the next few moves belong to the Liberals (they haven't done anything at all since invoking Bill 12 on October 6th other than quote the rule-of-law). 600,000 kids have been out of school for over a week now, which I too am not very happy about -- but when governments create legislation specfically designed to enforce their public sector policy agenda, and then exacerbate the situation by hiding behind the rule-of-law maxim, this simply cannot be left unchecked. History has dictated that citizens won't stand for it. Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change the thinking of powerful institutions. This fight has nothing to do with the rule-of-law as many would choose to believe and conveniently cower behind. And this good fight is far from over.

BlogDate: Monday, October 10, 2005
Yeh-yeh's birthday on Thanksgiving...
Though it can't be the first time, this is the only time I remember that dad's (or yeh-yeh as everyone calls him now) birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day. It was also dad's first birthday with little Bode. And the fact that dad gave out very generous ang-pow to the kids for saying "gung hei" to him made for an extra special day for the grand kids. As is usual, we all had our share of the turkey which for some reason the carving responsibility has been bestowed upon me, and of course we all ate my "special" mash potatoes -- made only on this day and Christmas Day -- because of the secret ingredient of 12 cloves of garlic and 1/2 pound of butter.

In other news, we teachers here in BC went on strike as of October 7th, 90% of us voting to do so in response to the BC government's choice to impose a contract through the use of legislation, specifically Bill 12. The Minister of Labor went on the news saying we were setting a "bad example for kids". This statement doesn't even deserve a response. Personally, I voted yes to strike more as a stand for the average working person, which much to many other people's opinions, we teachers are your average working people (those of us who pay 35%+ in taxes, pay the bills, raise a family, and take a vacation or two every so often). I shudder to think that the BC government has actually succeeded in making many BC'ers believe that the only way to guarantee our future is to do without in the present. It has to stop and I plan to do my part to help stop it.

BlogDate: Saturday, October 1, 2005
Bodhi in the Comox Valley...
We don't go anywhere without little Bodhi. In fact, part of the excitement of having a kid now is being able to take him places and show him everything. We are already planning a return to southeast Asia with him as early as next summer, but for now it's to closer places like the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. It's no secret that I love water, having grown up next to it while living in Prince Rupert, so any chance I get to visit coastal towns is always a treat. Bodhi loves being on the road, and I must say that we are getting better at packing him and his things up (no easy task, and something we all take for granted when children are not involved), tossing the whole mess into the van and heading out there. We also had a wonderful lunch with Paul, Lynne, Jen and Benjy in Victoria on our way back.

Kids that get a chance to experience an international academic setting are very fortunate in my mind. Fortunate not only because their families possess the financial ability and committment to send their children overseas, but also because of the myriad of new people and experiences that would in all likelihood not present themselves otherwise. Having said this then, it's not enough that new and varied opportunities simply appear, it extends further in that the "kids" have to avail themselves with the wherewithal to take advantage of these unfamiliar opportunities. Kids like Gautam, Kim and Riza have done just that. They've chosen to join a club. Not just any club, but a club that represents who they are. And it doesn't stop there. Gautam ran for and was elected to the executive, and Kim is actively involved as well. Kudos to these kids I say!

Well, I suppose they're not kids any longer, but anytime former students keep calling me "mister" Mah I feel like an old guy, which is perfectly okay with me. And as for things coming full circle? I'm a UBC grad too.

BlogDate: Saturday, September 10/05
A "grinding" we will go...
It's a nice feeling to know that it took us longer to drive to the Grouse Grind that it did to hike it. The Grouse Grind, or simply "the grind" as it's know to many a panting, sore, hapless souls who have done it without some prior knowledge or training, is Vancouver's premier populist fitness test. Ask anyone who has done it. They don't ask you about the trail or the scenery; no, instead the question of order is always "What was your time?" And when you here anything 45 minutes and under, you know that his person is someone to be reckoned with. Even 60 minutes and under means you're probably a fairly active person c-v wise.

So what made us go? Well, I've been a happy grinder for years now though Bernadette and I last did it when she was four months pregnant, making that trip a little more than twelve months ago. A long time between grinds by any stretch. Bern wasn't into our usual run today (which we usually do only on weekdays anyhow), so at 9am she said "let's do the grind." I on the other hand was more interested in trying little Bode's baby backpack we got brand new from MEC and cost a pretty penny. And now that Bodhi has more or less full neck-control, it was time to pack-him-up the grind.

By 11am we were at the trailhead, with Bodhi on Bernadette's back, and me with the rest of the stuff on my back. Note that the "rest of the stuff" is basically Bodhi's stuff -- diapers, two feedings, warmer clothes, wipes, and paper towels. Gone are the days of us hiking this thing with just a water bottle in our hands. Our climb of the first 1/4 was pretty leisurely and Bodhi seem to love the view from up high on mom's back. We reached the quarter mark after 30 minutes and stopped to feed little Bode, and like any given nice weekend in Vancouver there was basically a pedestrian train of people going up the mountain. Everyone from the serious 40-minute warrior to the 3-hour glutton-for-punishment-let's-see-if-I-can-do-this-without-dying-from-exhaustion walker seemed to be on the trail.

Bern and I changed hands here at the 1/4 marker with me taking Bodhi, we agreed, to the 1/2 marker and then switching again. That's when the gung-ho time-to-hurt mentality hit me. I raced off leaving Bern about 20 meters behind me, only to discover later at the top that during that time we were seperate she was cursing me under her breath for leaving her. My reply to that was simple: I didn't leave her since I more or less had her in sight the whole time. With Bodhi refusing to take a nap in the pack, our pace picked up and at the 1/2 marker I continued on with him. The Grind gets its steepest between the 1/2 and 3/4 marker in my opinion, and combined with the slightly thinner air, this part kills the average walker on the trail. Many newbies have run out of water by this time too, and they can be seen gasping for air along the way-side, so a quick "hi" and smile as you pass them is generally good trail etiquette. It's also pretty self-encouraging to be able to pass people, especially carrying a 20 pound baby and 5 pound pack on one's back.

At the 3/4 mark Bern has caught back up, sweating profusely but no worse for wear. Hey, she's a trooper plus she gave birth recently. She's thankful that I take Bodhi to the top, saying she's only got enough gas to get her own tired limbs there. So after 1 hour and 15 minutes we reach the summit. Not bad considering I suppose. Bodhi has fallen asleep, and I feel like getting some "Zzzzs" too, but not without a stop at the lookout first.

Bern and I decide that we should do this every other Saturday. We also decide that we should take out-of-town guests on this hike too (so consider yourself warned). My best time ever? 45 minutes. But I'd be hard-pressed to repeat that kind result any time soon.

Three hours outside of Vancouver plus an additional 50km bumpy, dusty dirt road to Ross Lake this time we got a flat. I've never had a flat in the van so changing it out was a new experience because every car seems to hide the damned jack somewhere one would never look for it, and to exacerbate matters it turned out that the spare was a temporary, small spare, as opposed to the full size tire like the one already on the van. Never one to be caught off-guard I had a tire repair kit, but in my haste I didn't pack an air pump, so fixing a flat without a pump would be like trying to swim in a pool with no water. Fortunately, like many BC campers we've met along the way, there's always someone willing to help out far beyond general kindness. The Chilliwack family in the site next to us not only insisted that we use their electric air pump, but they also helped fix the flat. Their generosity didn't stop there. Then they gave us some famous Chillwack sweet corn to add to our dinner. Finally, when they heard me chopping driftwood for our fire, they walked over with two bundles of their own firewood. Turns out they too had taken their kid camping when the kid was very young, so they knew the extra set of challenges people face when you're willing to pack a van full of gear and head out into the woods with very small children (ie. children who can't even walk yet). They'll be glad to know that we got back to Vancouver on the self-repaired tire.

My nephews -- Brandon and Chris -- are spending the rest of the week with us before school begins again. The week before last we made last minute plans to go to the Abbotsford Air Show, the only reason for going was to see the US Air Force Thunderbirds and the Canadian Snowbirds, both of whom Brandon and Chris have never seen before. Brandon had recently completed a scale-model of the F16 so he was pretty gung-ho about seeing the jets live and up close doing some pretty amazing stunts. The Snowbirds are always a treat, but they just had another crash in Thunderbay so their future is probably going to be debated hotly in various military and political circles. Let's hope that yet another thing that is definitive Canadiandoesn't go the way of the dodo bird because we don't have the guts to put up. There are already too many things in Canada that we think we won't or can't do because we condition ourselves to believe that we don't have the money or the will. It's time to suck it up I say.

Just got an email from Ian in Cairo. His site is updated from his summer in Kenya, Tanzania and neighboring countries. Pretty impressive travel. Glad to see people out there doing it at ground level.