Are You Happy With Your Skin Colour?

Why is that we can’t just be happy with how we look? Most of us spend tons of money and time changing how we look to match more of what we think of as the “ideal.”

Unhappiness is Everywhere

It’s not just those in North America either. While many of us clamour to tanning salons or our self tanners to get a DARKER skin tone, some people with naturally darker skin do what they can to make their skin LIGHTER.

Skin Bleaching

My friend who was born in Somalia but grew up in Kenya bleaches her skin with a special product made for that purpose to give her face a lighter shine. I was discussing this with her, how crazy it is that light skinned people want to be darker while dark skinned people want to be lighter.

Risking Our Lives for Beauty

I asked about the safety of the skin bleach and she admitted that while it’s safer than regular chlorine bleach, you still have to be careful not to use too much or you can damage your skin. Tanning is of course very unhealthy too, and can cause skin cancer.

Our Culture

Of course with anything, there are exceptions. I am by no means suggesting that EVERY Caucasian wants to be darker or every person with what we consider darker skin wants to be lighter but it isn’t just my friend either. Her culture truly believes those with lighter skin are more beautiful than those with darker skin, even in their own country or culture. So since she is lighter than her sister, she is considered more beautiful.

How to Change

Fight against what society says, be proud of the skin colour you were born with, no matter how dark or light that may be. You are beautiful when you don’t pretend to be someone else, when you embrace who you ARE. Society’s beliefs about beauty will only change if every person is true to themselves.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

*photo credit: from photoexpress.com. Do not copy.

Pay Parking

What's with pay parking? We Canadians have free heath care but if you have to pay to park at the doctor's or hospital is it really free? They don't take enough of our money, they have to make us pay for using a slab of concrete now?

This really annoys me since I don't have the money to pay for parking. At least make it affordable. It's $3.00 to START at a hospital here.

It can't be just me that thinks it's unfair to charge for parking, practically everywhere. Next thing you know we'll be paying to park at the mall.

Thursday Bug

What's your Thursday Bug?

I'm annoyed by the people that come door to door from companies such as Universal Power or Direct Energy who want to provide you with their electricity or gas for a slightly higher price in exchange for a 5-year locked in rate. The idea is that the price would normally get higher than theirs soon so if you lock into their rate, you are safe from that. Problem is the rate doesn't always go up and if it goes down, tough for you. They have a way of convincing you that everybody is going through their system and that it's the only way to be. They say they need to see your bill to see if it's on there. As if it has to be on there.

Be WARY! Don't say yes to any of these external companies, stay with the company that you set up with. Thanks to Universal Power our monthly energy bill is over $400!

Interests: How do you choose?

I have more interests than I do time to pursue them. How do you choose which ones to go with? Currently I am interested in blogging, scrapbooking, reading, making graphics online, running web pages, learning photography and starting a pagan playgroup. That doesn't count what I NEED to do like cleaning house, organizing, running errands, caring for children etc.. Plus now I'm starting to do basic homeschooling (http://toddlerhomeschool.blogspot.com)

There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that I can do all of this at once. However I can't seem to choose. At the beginning of the year I was keeping my web pages up and learning how to make graphics, especially pixel graphics. Then I decided to go back to blogging and now I'm doing that almost everyday. This includes reading for my book review blog. I haven't scrap booked in months and am only up to a few months old for my daughter's scrapbook and she is now 19 months old and I have another child. I want to practice taking photographs and start a playgroup.

Does anyone else having this trouble? How do you decide which is more important to you? Do the interests you pursue often change?

Time

The english language is confusing. Very confusing. I always have trouble with things like "next tuesday." I've finally figured it out but not everyone else has so I can't assume that when I'm talking to someone, they will know what I mean.

For example, today is Wednesday, July 11. This sunday refers to July 15. Next sunday would be July 22. However some people would take next sunday to mean July 15 because it's the next sunday coming up. Do you use the terms the same as me or differently?

Speaking of time misunderstandings, Dave Barclay from Toronto, Ontario flew all the way to Wales for a wedding only to find out he was a year early! His friend told him at the beginning of THIS year that it was July 6 so he assumed it was THIS July 6. I would have assumed that too, (although I wouldn't have flown that far without more details and last minute confirmations.) Would you have?

Anyone else have trouble with terms for time?

What's So Special About Anime?

Somebody, please Explain! I guess I can understand kids liking it but I don't understand the large amount of adults who enjoy watching anime on TV and playing it in games. The characters are silly looking, especially their expressions and all they do is fight or battle.

What is the appeal? I like cartoons. I do. I like Bugs Bunny the best. I even don't mind watching most of the TreeHouse cartoons with my children. I find them more interesting than Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh.

The Family Unit

The newest issue of Reader's Digest just came in the mail today. The article under "That's Outrageous" got me thinking and I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject.

The title is The Family Unit: An Endangered Species?
Let me quote a little so you know what it's about:

"Earlier this year the Ontario Court of Appeal rules to recognize a
three-parent family: a mom, a dad... and another mom. "

"A.A. and C.C. were in a lifelong committed partnership and wanted to have a baby. A nice idea, but also biologically impossible: A.A. and C.C. are both women. ...the women called on their long-time male friend B.B. to provide the missing biological pieces. ...in February 2001 C.C. gave birth to a bouncing baby boy to whom the courts now fondly refer to as D.D."

Basically they all agreed that A.A and C.C. were to be the "primary custodial parents" and B.B. wouldn't have to pay any money but would be active in his kid's life. Later on down the road, A.A. asked the court to grant her full parenting rights and privileges. The request was denied but was approved after appeal.

"Interestingly, the Ontario Court of Appeal is the same court that, in 2003, declared the legal definition of marriage - the union of a man and a woman - invalid, changing it to include same-sex couples."

"We now live in a country where gender doesn't matter to marriage, and numbers don't matter to parenting, which leads to the question "How much longer before numbers don't matter to marriage?""

My response? What does it matter? I don't think the government should have any say in what constitutes a family. If two men want to get married, fine. If three adults want to co-parent a child, fine. If a woman wants three husbands, fine. Why should it be any body's decision but those involved?

Polygamy works for other cultures so I don't see it causing much problem here. As long as all those involved agree on how things work, why is it the government's business?

What's outrageous about that article is not that a three parent family was approved, but that the government still feels it necessary to put limits and rules on every aspect of our lives.

Sad News/Vets

First of all I want to apologize for not posting in a while. First our whole family has been sick with some sort of bug. Then just today, the unthinkable happened. Our beloved dog Essence passed away in our arms. If you want to know the story, email me at callista83@cogeco.ca

I have a little rant about the vets in our city. I don't know about anywhere else but I can speak for my city at least. Actually it's not the vets persay as whoever decides on prices of tests and medications and who makes policies.

The policy is: If you don't have money, tough luck.

Nevermind that your pet is loved like a second child. Nevermind that you have cared for this pet for many years. Oh the vets are helpful if you have the money. You have money, GREAT! But if you don't have money, then I guess your pet dies. Okay then, now what? She's dead. Oh it costs money to dispose of her too? Well now what do you do? I can see some poor people having to resort to "putting the pet down" by themselves and "disposing" of the pet themselves too. Does our city want pets floating in the river?

I'm glad to live in Canada because Canada cares about my health. If you live in Canada, you are covered under the health plan and the basic treatments are free to you. As it should be. It's horrible in the states. The poor have to suffer, die without pain relief. It's as if they aren't considered human because they don't have money. I would never want to live in a health care system like that.

Oh but we have pet health insurance. Yeah if you have money. So maybe poor people shouldn't have pets then? Well no you shouldn't have lots of pets if you can't afford their health care. But poor people are among the mentally ill community and pets help with that. How many times have I cuddled one of my pets when I'm upset? I couldn't even begin to guess.

I don't have any ideas of how our Country could afford healthcare for pets but there needs to be some brainstorming. If free healthcare isn't available, reduced cost care, or a sliding fee based on how much you make or a chance to pay the bill later. If you don't pay that bill on time, your priviledge is revoked. There has to be something we can do.

Text Messaging

What is the big deal about sending text messages? I'd much rather talk on the phone, and I hate talking on the phone. Watching TV today, every other commercial had a text number for people to text something to them. Either to vote for something, or enter something or give them feedback. I'd much rather read text written in proper English on a screen bigger than a matchbox than read text like this:

"hey wuz up peeps! sumone txt me plz!"

No thanks. I like puzzles but on my own time, not when I'm trying to understand what someone is saying.

Then of course it costs money to text. To text your vote for Canadian Idol it used to cost 25 cents. Now it's up to 50. It's 75 cents to send a message to Much Music to be displayed on TV and it's $1.25 to enter a contest from a commercial. Like teens (the majority of text message users) need something else to spend their money on. I just don't get it.

Cell Phones

I hate cell phones. They are good sometimes, like when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and your car is broken down and there are no payphones near by. Or when you are out shopping and there is an emergency or someone needs to know where abouts you are, they can get a hold of you. But other than that, they are annoying. If people could just follow some basic common sense (at least to me) rules than I wouldn't be annoyed by them so much. By husband wants me to get a cell phone but I don't want one. We have this disagreement fairly often. If I do get one, he, his dad and my parents will be the ONLY ones with the number and it must be important and the call must be less than 2 minutes long. Only then will I get a cell phone.

This post on someone's blog explains exactly how I feel about cellphones: http://godsleuth.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-rude-is-that.html

PLEASSSEEEE... if you have a cellphone, read this post. The overheard conversations are funny but true. I have heard some VERY PERSONAL phone conversations. Way more information than I need to know. Also it's hard to hear anything on the cell phone so everyone talks LOUDLY. This just makes it all the more annoying.

Some more Links to check out:
http://www.letstalk.com/promo/unclecell/unclecell2.htm
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/00/05/26/000526opwireless.html