Vote Yes for BC-STV!

Tomorrow British Columbia residents go to the polls in what could potentially be a ground breaking election. Once again, voters can vote to reject our current 'first past the post' electoral system, in favor of a ratings based system that saves your vote from being wasted if you didn't vote for the majority candidate. A lot of people claim it's too complicated to wrap their minds around, but in the age of Wikipedia, that is pure laziness. It's not like the average voter will be doing the tallying either. I admit, I totally was confused by the first explanation I heard, but there's some handy visual aids online:





Although imperfect, I do support the single transferrable vote system and think it would give the people much better representation than we currently have. My hope is that this time around, the atrocious rein (cuts to education and health care being my greatest gripes) of Gordon Campbell and his Liberal party, as well as the close results of the last federal election, will have opened up more eyes to the importance of electoral reform. In an ideal world, the Liberals will tossed to the curb, more Green party members will gain seats (though there's no chance of them winning, it would be good to have some Green seats to voice our concerns about resources and the environment), and voter turn out will break new records or at least be higher than 2001's dismal 55%. A girl can dream, no?

(some songs to stomp to)

The Constantines: Working Full time




Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs: Zero

Adventure Korea

In Korea, non-Koreans are still such a facinating novelty that just about every foreigner (waygook) ends up on TV if you're there long enough! Last Feb, I was part of a local TV show called "Adventure Club" along with another Epik teacher, Graeme. It's on the Arirang Channel and it offers viewers a "more younger and refreshing approach to tourism in Korea." We filmed for 3 days and did a whole bunch of touristy things and rolled around with a lot of dogs. 

From having watched some Korea sitcoms and "gag" shows, I've surmissed that most Korean humour relies on laughing at a buffon who does things wrong. I fill that role here. As a girl, I'm required to appear helpless and silly, while Graeme's masculine prowess is much celebrated. 

It was mostly fun, because we got to do a lot of things you wouldn't ordinarily have a chance to. But, there was also a lot of standing around while they set up the shots, redoing takes, and being forced to overact and do embarassing things. It's always interesting to me to see how Koreans see Korea, and how they try and market it to outsiders ... compared to the reality of how everyone actually live day to day, and what foreigners actually enjoy for fun and recreation while we're there.

Thanks to Graeme for inviting me to come along!  (Feb 2009, Pyeong Cheong, Gangwon-do Province)

Part 1



Part 2:



Part 3: