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Sunday is for riverwalking. Ruth, Mel, Epiphanie and I tromped down the riverbank and off to the Forks. Along the way, we checked out some of the new Warming Shacks, functional art installations that are new since our last trip down the Assiniboine. They’re great! And, as I see it, a good first step toward Art Shanties in the vein of Medicine Lake.

The river and the Forks weren’t as busy as they were last time, probably due to the clouded-over sky and the fact that it was actively snowing.

Yesterday I was organizing my filing cabinet and found something — well, two somethings — I thought I had lost in a move in 2007.

I thought I had lost it forever, but it turns out it was in my filing cabinet, safe and sound, the whole time.

What was it?

FAT MAP!

The fat map was a project that Stina of chubbluv zine did a few years backk, where she pasted pictures of fat people, fat animals and tasty food onto maps and sent them to you. I treasured this map, and added to it — the colour images are ones I glued on, including the likes of Camryn Manheim and Leslie Hall. This map dates back to 2006 — the days when I first became more into the fat acceptance/body positivity movement. As it is with most people, it’s a process to get to the point where you can say, “fat does not equal bad/ugly/gross/whatever.” For me, the journey started with my high school art teacher, who was fat and amazing and lent me copies of the now-defunct plus size fashion mag Mode. A couple years later, I started ordering zines from the (also now-defunct) Pander Zine Distro. I read the bio page for Ericka, the distro runner, where along with vital stats like name, age and location she also listed her height and her weight (!) with the parenthetical comment “Fat girls represent!” That kind of blew my mind, opening the pathways so I’d be ready to get into chubbluv and Fatshionista and the like.

Nowadays, you can find Stina at no futvre, where she continues to be excellent. You can find Ericka and her beautiful photography at elbfoto.

The second item returned to my possession by this expedition into my files was this strip of photo booth pics. It’s my brother and me at the airport. I’m probably 15ish and he’s probably 13ish here.

It’s surprising to see us getting along so well at this particular phase in our lives. It was before he grew to be bigger than me, nullifying any physical intimidation I was previously able to use to bend him to my considerable will; it was before we made it through the treacherous waters of adolescence, able to finally be friends as adults. Bro, if you’re reading, we should take another set of photo booth pics soon!

Here it is, my monthly video scrapbook, vol. 10. Just two more left! (That is, if I actually quit making them once I’ve done a full April-to-March year like I planned.)

You’ll see a few road trips, lots of quilts, cute kids and wintertime outdoor recreation.

Previously:

• December Video Scrapbook

• November Video Scrapbook

• October Video Scrapbook

• September Video Scrapbook

• August Video Scrapbook

• July Video Scrapbook

• June Video Scrapbook

• May Video Scrapbook

• April Video Scrapbook

Photo: gdgt.com

It’s been announced. It’s been explained and demonstrated onstage by Steve Jobs (in a presentation of which, for some reason, Apple refused to provide a live video stream, making the nerds of the world resort to listening to crappy cell phone feeds, not that I’m bitter or anything). Discussion of it has taken over Twitter, news sites, Facebook, and every other corner of the internet.

I have a few thoughts on the matter, which I will share with you now.

1. THIS IS SO COOL

Seriously, people. We are getting closer and closer to living in Star Trek. (Minus the faster-than-light spaceships, the end to hunger, poverty and greed and the onset of world peace.) Frankly, I think we’re all getting a bit jaded about the proliferation and excellence of the consumer electronics already in our lives — from the iPhone to the Wii to our super powerful laptop computers. This stuff is awesome, and let us relish that we are among the privileged few on the earth who can possess it.

2. I’M NOT GOING TO BUY ONE

Yet. As much as I wish I were an early adopter of hardware, I’m not. I can’t afford to be. I wait a couple of years for the bugs to work out, which, let’s face it, is important when it comes to Apple products. That said, I do look forward to owning a tablet device in the future. However, I’ll probably buy an e-paper reader before I get a tablet, since, as many have noted, the iPad is not really a must-have device if you already have a laptop and a smartphone. Which I do.

3. ENOUGH WITH THE JOKES

People are asking, “Did the marketing people at Apple not google ‘iPad’ before giving the device that name?” You know what? I think they did. And they didn’t care. Apple doesn’t care about an old MadTV sketch, nor do they care that you’ll be making “macs ipad” cracks for the next few weeks. In the end, they will bend the cultural context surrounding the word to their own will.

So, instead of repeating a tired feminine hygiene joke, how about making a donation to buy menstruation products for Ugandan girls, who often have to leave school for lack of them? [GlobalGiving]

The past week was so packed (as one might be able to guess from the lack of posts) that I have done some serious vegging this weekend.

Part of that has been looking at pictures of swans.

Diana+ + Diana 35mm Back by Maco@Skywalker

This shot reminds me of this song.

winter view by bibman

The collective noun for swans is either “herd” or “eyrar,” depending whom you ask.

The name for baby swans is “cygnet.” I didn’t have to look that one up; I know that ’cause my dad is from a town called Swan River.

Not gonna lie, I definitely want that inflatable.

And of course, no discussion of swans can ever be complete without this:

I am of the opinion that this dress was a victory for fashion. Classic and epic.

Sunday afternoon I took a stroll down the frozen Assiniboine River with friends (i.e. the stylish mama pictured below and her adorable offspring, in pink, running away from us. Don’t worry, we didn’t let her go far!).

The unseasonably beautiful weather made the Forks a great place to be! Lots of other people had the same idea as us, and the whole thing had a festival vibe to it, though it’s not a festival per se (though there were some Festival du Voyageur folks there, as well as a kettle corn truck!),

Our pals DJ Co-Op and DJ Hunnicutt were spinning tunes in the centre of the skating rink. (Rink pictured below.)

The young ones ate mini-donuts! (A Forks essential if ever there were one.)

I didn’t take too many pictures — mostly video, which you will see in the January Video Scrapbook, due to arrive in a scant fortnight. I will leave you with one photo of DJ Co-Op demonstrating why he really needs a better iPhone case. And to be fair, one of the stellar DJ Hunnicutt, betoqued, beheadphoned and hard at work!

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