A note on my unrequited love of Kat Stratford.

I feel like absolute fucking garbage, so I stayed in tonight despite getting off work early and watched "Ten Things I Hate About You." After watching this movie I have decided that I am officially in love with Kat Stratford aka. Julia Stiles, despite her obvious lack of a class perspective in one of the first scenes of the film. I know she ends up dating Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), but I really think I would make a much more suitable partner for her, particularily the highschool version of myself.

She loves "angry girl rock of the indie persuasion", me tooo ! Shes veg, me too ! She loves getting drunk and dancing on tables ? Other than puking in my purse, thats basically my favourite thing of life ! In highschool I was also oft described as a heinious bitch and enjoyed driving my car into things ! I really think Kat Stratford should reconsider her choice and date me instead.

Patrick: Someone still has her panties in a twist.
Kat Stratford: Don't, for one minute, think that you had any effect whatsoever on my panties.
Patrick: Then what did I have an effect on?
Kat Stratford: Other than my upchuck reflex, nothing.

Not-so-grand Opening

So I've finally decided to put my limited talent set to use. Basically I'm going to start a mini vegan store/bakery/ice creamery out of my house. Alot of people throughout the years have suggested starting something like this and now that I'm done school what better time than now. Ill make your birthday cupcakes, holiday cookies, artisan breads, cook for you and you gf, provide you with yummy ice cream etc. I'll even give you cooking and/or baking classes. Maybe I should mention that this is all vegan ? Although I guess that should be assumed.

The only catch is, I don't want your money. That makes me feel super uncomfortable. I'd rather trade my talent for yours or your old stuff. Ice cream for old CD's kind of thing. I'll take anything useful DVDS, clothes, homemade stuff, your companionship ... Or even better teach me how touse a computer properly, ahaha.
If you want references, contact Ryan Sexton (ahaah) or my Food album on facebook !

To start off this weekend I'm making a batch of Not-tella, that delicious chocolate hazelnut spread which is usually full of tonnes of undesireable stuff. I'm also making a batch of Candy Cane ice cream and green tea icecream. Let me know if your interested in any of this, or interested in anything.

xoxox

Is so done !

I just finished my last exam of Brock ! A crushing three hour labour law exam ! I'm so stoked on being done this whole thing. I just hope all my credits pull through. First class honours double major here I come !

To celebrate I went out last night, the night BEFORE my last exam. Lets just say I went alllll out ! This included me buying $40 worth of $2 drinks, falling flat on my face, banging up my knee and almost dying on the drive home. This did not include me 1. pulling up/down my dress whether accidentally or on purpose 2. puking in my purse or on your shoes or 3. calling friends in Edmonton/anywhere else in the world. All in all, total amazing night. I got to see Lace and Mo, my fav. people ever, a ton of Hamilton friends and local friends I haven't seen in weeeks and meeting Alyssa, who totally totally rules. Rather than studying for my exam today, I lied in my bathtub for two hours !

Soooo, alot has happened since my last update, mostly political, my personal life, as always, is incredibly boring and uneventful. To limit the amount of time spent writing this when I should be studying for exams, going to the gym, etc. I'm just going to choose three things that have happened politically in the last week to blog about.


1. ETFO - This is probably not interesting to anyone but me, but teaching is soon to be my life.The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, the bargaining agent for all English public school teachers, has just rejected the last proposal put forth by the Ministry of Education. Originally the school board representatives and the Ministry put forth a proposal offering elementary teachers a 12% wage increase over the next four years and 40 minutes of additional prep time. However, since the financial crisis the school boards have significantly scaled back their proposal to just a 4% wage increase over the next four years, far below the rate of inflation. Furthermore, the proposal offered by the school boards does nothing to close the funding gap of almost $500 per child between elementary and public schools. Ontario's public schools at both levels continue to be chronically under funded. The massive cuts to education and the centralization of school boards under both Harris and McGuinty have left schools, particularly schools in poor neighborhoods, unable to deal with diversity in the classroom. Teacher's working and living conditions, as well as the quality of education in the province, should not have to suffer for the mistakes made by the provincial government and the implicit role they have played in creating this crisis. While the ETFO are not yet talking job action and have yet to take a strike vote, the rejection of this proposal sets the stage for labour unrest in the province. Ontario teachers unions, while often correctly associated with "business unionism", have historically been one of the most militant in the province. In 1997 they staged the largest strike in Canada's history and one of the longest illegal strikes since the famous "sit-down strikes" of the 40's. In 1975, the resigned en masse to protest cuts to education and attempts by the provincial government to legislate them as "essential service workers." All over the world teachers unions are often the first of many to fightback against attacks by the capitalist state on public services and the working and living conditions of the working class.

2. The workers of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, set to shut down Friday at 10AM, was occupied over the weekend. The workers are demading the 75 days severance pay guarenteed to them by Illinois law. This has been happening all over Southern Ontario recently, but it is the first time in decades that workers in the states have adopted militant strategies to demand justice in the workplace. However, the occupation should not stop with severance pay. This is their factory! The money stolen from these workers in the form of profit has built this workplace. Every tool and machine in that factory is theirs! They know how to run that factory better than any boss.The workers of Republic Windows and Doors should re-start operation at this factory under democratic workers control.

3. And finally the issue that everyone is talking about, this fucking coalition ! Harper just recently suspended Parliament for seven weeks. As the IMT predicted earlier, this attempt at a coalition was a disaster for all parties involved. Dion is expected to step down as his popularity plummets, and the NDP, once poised to overtake the Liberals in the polls, are back down to around 14% support. This attempt at a coalition has unmasked the NDP bureaucrats for what they really are, greedy, power hungry and willing to sell out the rank and file to gain a few cabinet seats. No actually democratic system would of allowed the Prime Minister to suspend Parliament to avoid loosing his job. Imgaine the furor if Chavez would of don this? Who has this latest debacle benefited? None of than Mr. Harper himself. Harper's popularity has been polled at around 41% recently, higher than his support has been at any point when he was actually governing. If the NDP is truly interested in gaining power and setting a course of meaningful change it must adopt policies in the interest of workers and give up on this game of political manouvering. Workers are looking for real solutions to the current econmic crisis. Capitalism is in a deep crisis and the working class realize this. The NDP must adopt and follow through on socialist policies.

On a personal note, the only thing really exciting this week was my work X-mas party. I'm always surprised at how much fun I have at these events.



The girls in our limo. Look at me, I look like a real live girl !



Look !My work BFF and general favourite girl, Sharra.



The boys. As much as I make fun of these boys, sometimes they are fairly amusing.

And here is when my camera died.

I also did a wee bit of baking and cooking this week.



A tale of two breads ....
I made a chocolate chip banana bread and a cranberry orange bread for Ryan and Dylan of the Vegan Police when they invited me on their amazing radio show.



Chixen Ceasar Salad Wrap. This dressing is 100% stolen from Jon at www.ohgourmet.blogspot.com It's everything caesar dressing should be, incredibly creamy and super garlicy !



I also made this delicious and unphotogenic Curried Cauliflower and Red Lentil Soup and "buttery" Naan bread. I think I could actually live off this stuff in the winter. Sorry for the shit quality, I didn't realize how dark it was.

Oh, oh, oh. I also cleaned my room ! I think there might of been dragons living under my piles of books and papers !

Fuck you Brock !

I just handed in my last paper ever at Brock ! Two exams, one guidance session and good-bye ! While I loved my program and the handful of people in it, the school itself and the majority of people in it were awful, awful, awful.  I'm really excited to graduate, even though I don't plan on attending my actual graduation. At the same time I'm mildly terrified of graduating. Graduation means I actually have to decide what to do with the rest of my life ? So far this process has led me to a much different profession than I ever thought (teaching ?!) and potentially a new home on a different continent !

I made a bit of food over the past few days. After a week of sundaes, subs, pizza and pancakes, I'm trying to do things a bit lighter this week. I'm not really to sure how successful I was. 

Tangerine Baked Tofu and Couscous and Black Beans topped Tangerines, Sweet Red Onions, Diced Red Pepper and Cilantro with a Red Wine Vinagrette. So Yum !

Grilled Sweet Potatoe and Black Beans Tortilla, Pineapple-Cilantro Salsa Fresca and a lil' Guac.

Also, Im going to be on the radio tomorrow doing a cook book review with Dylan of the Vegan Police. Listen in at 103.7 or www.cfbu.ca at 11 PM! I think I might make some reverse chocolate chip cookies for this !

Yum !

Raspberry - Lime Pancakes ! Yum ! I ate these with my mum at noon today, what an excellent idea !

Sundae non-party

So, rather than working on my massive paper due tomorrow, I decided to spend my weekend watching Harry Potter and throwing a sundae non-party. The non=party part refers to the fact that only two people showed up. Free brownies, free ice cream and free fudge and only two ya'll showed up, seriously, seriously. Anyways, the sundaes all turned out fantastic!

Heres a very sleepy Ryan enjoying his sundae and wearing possibly the greatest union shirt ever, surpassing my old favourite, the classic CAW "Will strike if provoked" shirt with cut off sleeves and an 80's cobra.

Kath, enjoying her sundae much more than she enjoys photos.

Homemade vegan ice cream ! Chocolate Mint, Banana Ripple and Cookies n 'creme! Also homemade chocolate fudge and caramel topping. There was also homemade coconut whipped cream, but it wasn't thick enough until we got to seconds !

The making of the caramel topping. It was a bit sticky, as in it stuck your jaw together, but once you got over that, it was so so good.

Here's some photos of some other stuff I made this weekend:

Beanball Sub - Veganomicon meat balls, roasted red peppers marinara sauce, FYH vegan mozza, day old bread bought on sale from the A&P

Pad Thai - totally inauthentic, totally delicious, totally addicted.

I also got these done a few weekends ago, and they've just healed enough to post:

They're not crooked, I am. Thank you scholiosis for making me the most difficult person to tattoo or pierce !

A few days ago I posted about the CUPE 3903 strike at York. If anyone is interested (or if anyone even reads this) they're holding a rally this Wednesday outside the Ministry for Training and Education, contact me via facebook or msn if you want more info. If your from around here I can prolly hook you up with a ride!

Also, has anyone been following the Conservative governments recent economic statement? Basically, contrary to what ever other Western government around the world has been doing the Harper government is looking to cutback on social services and privatize almost $2billion dollars worth of assets and Crown corporations. Cutbacks to deal with a recession, really has this ever worked? No, most definitely not. Furthermore, the Harper government is also proposing to remove the right to strike of all public sector employees and to freeze their collective agreements until 2011. Trudeau tried this in the 1970's and it only served to further the recession and actually created stagflation! How is eliminating the right to strike for public sector workers a way to deal with recession? Its not! Harper is attempting to silence to labour movement at a time when capitalism is in crisis and the labour movement is finally beginning to show signs a radicalization (factory occupations in southern ontario anyone?) The Harper government is also attempting to eliminate the 1.95 subsidy each parties receives for each vote it receives in a general election due to third party funding restrictions. Seeing as how the Conservative party is the only party to really financially recover from the 2006 funding changes, this proposition would devastate the opposition parties. The amount saved from the elimination of party subsidies is a "drop in the bucket" compared to the billions in corporate bailouts and tax cuts given to the capitalist class under the Harper government.

This proposal is being put forward as a confidence motion. Essentially, if the parties vote down this motion, the house will fall and we will be hurled back into yet another general election after only two weeks in session. Recently it has been proposed that the NDP and Liberals form a "Progressive Coalition" to govern instead of the reigning Conservatives. But, really how "progressive" and how different would an NDP-Liberal Coalition really be. We saw in the 1990's how Liberal governments respond to recessions with massive cutbacks to social and economic transfers and a general downloading of services onto the cash-strapped provincial governments. In the 1970's, the Trudeau government was all too willing to impose binding wage restrictions on all public sector workers, essentially throwing their collective agreements out the window. And what about the NDP's electoral commitment to withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan, recalling Conservative tax cuts and corporate bailouts and reinvesting this money into much needed social services? Might as throw that out the window as well. The Liberals are no different than the Conservatives and represent big business and the rest of the capitalist class. While the Conservative governments needs and deserves to be thrown out of office the NDP cannot act as "the social conscious" to the Liberals. If the NDP are to attract the working class and youth, it must adopt and carry through socialist policies. NO more bailouts to corporations, NO more tax cuts for the rich and NO to an NDP-Liberal coalition government. YES to a socialist NDP and YES to a socialist Canada !