Journal

Day 64

I became suddenly paranoid yesterday after reading more about the kind of data that Google has on everyone. My initial reaction was to get a second computer to use for searching and surfing on the Internet, but that, of course, does not change the fact that they know who owns the computer. You could go to a library or community center but then that is completely unrealistic. I use Google almost every time I use the Internet.

Maybe I should not be so paranoid, who would want to sift through something so incredibly boring anyway. I just imagine a Business Intelligence tool that uses search engine data to pinpoint consumers, employees or citizens for marketing, firing or controlling. I can’t help feeling that this really smacks of big brother. It’s all out there now, a million digital fingerprints on everything we touch. I have always strongly believed that Internet technology could bring true democracy through the availability of information worldwide and by putting such a serious means of communication into the hands of the individual. Here is the dark side to such a revolution. What could be a vehicle of freedom could end up being a vehicle of control. I think this is the first time that I have been seriously worried about what technology can do. I will never be able to stop using the Internet now. I am in fact, like everyone else, completely reliant on it

Day 52

I found an amazing cheese shop today, 3 blocks from our apartment. Sheridans Cheesemongers is a tiny store off Grafton street that is piled high with fresh local cheese. After you pick your cheese, they hack off a wedge for you with a cheese wire cutting board.  I also discovered a fantastic wine shop called Berry Bros & Rudd (only 1 block away from our apartment) that was having an after Christmas sale. Coming from B.C. the idea of a wine sale is pure heaven, especially in a store like that.

I am spending all day tomorrow with the relocation agents. They are driving Max and I all over Dublin to look for a future home. At the very least, I am looking forward to seeing more of Dublin outside the city centre.

Tomorrow evening I am attending the first of four evening public lectures at Trinity. They are given by the English Department and the first one is on Jane Austen. I am dying to know what it would be like to study there.

Day 49

We are here in Dublin. We arrived yesterday. Our temporary accommodation is right in the heart of it, one block from the corner of Wicklow and Grafton and we couldn't be better situated for getting to know the city as everything is within walking distance.

The amount of things to do and see is overwhelming. I am so culture starved from living in Vancouver for the last 12 years, that I feel as though my heart and head will explode when I look through our guide book. Being a person who is passionate about the written word, I was excited to discover that Dublin has two very famous libraries (in addition to the National Library). The Chester Beatty Library and Marsh's Library both house large collections of  rare books and manuscripts. These include (from the Chester Beatty Library) 270 Qur'ans dating from the 9th century, which are considered to be the best example of illuminated Islamic texts in the world.

Day 32

Our journey has begun with our first stop in Montreal. Montreal is a complex city and I have a deep affection for it. You are confronted with layers of history and culture on every street corner. There is also a sophistication and cosmopolitan feel that you can't find anywhere in Vancouver. I went to University here straight out of high school, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I even got a pang of nostalgia as I turned onto Sherbrooke Street, got a full blast of winter wind in my face and was required to wrap my scarf over every inch of exposed skin.

We are staying in Westmount with Andrew's sister Christina and her boyfriend Josh for two weeks over Christmas. Max, Shrub and I went out for a walk and negotiated some heavy winter slush in the stroller. All my anxiety about flying with Shrub, who had never been on a plane before, dissipated when we arrived at Dorval Airport and she came out of the kennel with tail wagging. Now she sits out in a snowdrift in the backyard and acts like she owns the place.

Andrew and I made the brilliant move of packing our camera charger in the container that we will not see until February, so I can not post any pictures yet.

Day 20

For some reason I remembered this scene in Trainspotting today.  I also remembered that when I met my husband I found out he knew it word for word and could recite it with a Scottish accent. This is part of the reason I fell instantly in love with him.

Renton: Excuse me, excuse me. I don't mean to harass you, but I was very impressed with the capable and stylish manner in which you dealt with that situation. And I was thinking to myself, now this girl's special.
Diane: Thanks.
Renton: What's your name?
Diane: Diane.
Renton: And where are you going, Diane?
Diane: I'm going home.
Renton: Well, where's that?
Diane: It's where I live.
Renton: Great.
Diane:  What?
Renton: Well, I'll come back with you if you like, but like, I'm not promising anything, you know.
Diane:  Do you find that this approach usually works? Or let me guess, you've never tried it before. In fact, you don't normally approach girls - am I right? The truth is that you're a quiet sensitive type but, if I'm prepared to take a chance, I might just get to know the inner you: witty, adventurous, passionate, loving, loyal. Taxi! A little bit crazy, a little bit bad. But hey - don't us girls just love that?
Renton: Eh?
Diane: Well, what's wrong boy - cat got your tongue?

Day 19

Last weekend I went to Whistler with three of my best friends to hang out and say goodbye. The four of us went on a crazy two week road trip to Las Vegas via San Francisco and Cardiff (a small town near San Diego) ten years ago, and that was the last time we had been able to party together as we all either got married, got careers or had kids shortly after that road trip ended.

The weekend worked out better than I had hoped. Some of us had been through some tough times in the last few years, and when I looked across at them over dinner I realized I couldn't remember the last time I had seen them all laughing like that. I relish the banter you can maintain with people who know and understand you well.

Day 3

As I was walking the dog today, I was thinking about one of my favourite aspects of human nature; the fact that as human beings we are consistently inconsistent and unpredictable. In a free market economy like North America, we are more concerned than ever with predicting human desire and taste. Even now, when our patterns as consumers are captured so easily and funneled through increasingly sophisticated software, there is still only limited success. I love that life throws out red herrings. We refuse to be pigeonholed. This string of thoughts reminded me of this poem, which puts all of the above in a more poignant and engaging form. o sweet spontaneous

o sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting                fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee , has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy           beauty     . how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods      (but true to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover           thou answerest them only with                      spring) ee cummings This topic is also discussed in an interesting book called Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk  by Peter Bernstein.

Day 2

Jean Baudrillard was interviewed today in the NYTimes Magazine. I found it quite humorous...

NYT: Isn't that kind of simplistic reasoning why people get so tired of French intellectuals?

JB: There are no more French intellectuals. What you call French intellectuals have been destroyed by the media. They talk on television, they talk to the press and they are no longer talking among themselves.

NYT: Some here feel that the study of the humanities at our universities has been damaged by the incursion of deconstruction and other French theories.

JB: That was the gift of the French. They gave Americans a language they did not need. It was like the Statue of Liberty. Nobody needs French theory.

***

Jean Baudrillard wrote an essay in "Le Monde" in November 2001 after the World Trade Centre attack. It is one of the best I have read on Terrorism. Here is an excerpt.

Terrorism is immoral. The event of the World Trade Center, this symbolic challenge is immoral, and it answers a globalization that is immoral. Then let us be immoral ourselves and, if we want to understand something, let us go somewhat beyond Good and Evil. As we have, for once, an event that challenges not only morals, but every interpretation, let us try to have the intelligence of Evil. The crucial point is precisely there: in this total counter-meaning to Good and Evil in Western philosophy, the philosophy of Enlightenment. We naively believe that the progress of the Good, its rise in all domains (sciences, techniques, democracy, human rights) correspond to a defeat of Evil. Nobody seems to understand that Good and Evil rise simultaneously, and in the same movement. The triumph of the One does not produce the erasure of the Other. Metaphysically, one considers Evil as an accident, but this axiom, embedded in all manichean fights of Good against Evil, is illusory. Good does not reduce Evil, nor vice-versa: there are both irreducible, and inextricable from each other. In fact, Good could defeat Evil only by renouncing itself, as by appropriating a global power monopoly, it creates a response of proportional violence.

The Spirit of Terrorism "Le Monde", November 2001. English translation
by Dr Rachel Bloul.

Day 1

"And so, to sum it all up, I perceive everything I say as absolutely true, and deficient in nothing whatever, and paint it all in my mind exactly as I want it to be."

Don Quixote  Volume 1, Chapter 25, pg. 157

I have created this blog to document my move to Dublin, Ireland from Vancouver, Canada. After despising the form of the personal memoir for years, due to my own angst ridden prose that filled volumes at the age of 16, I have been re inspired by blogs and by a book called The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald. This esoteric memoir of an eccentric and curious professor rambling around the English countryside has haunted me since I opened the first page.

I leave Vancouver for Montreal on December 18 with my son Maxwell and my dog Shrub. My husband Andrew will meet us in Montreal for Christmas, then it's on to Dublin.

I have been busy for the last few weeks erasing our identity as Canadians. For tax purposes you are advised to declare yourself a Non-Resident and close bank accounts, cancel health insurance, credit cards, etc. I have just realized that this hasn't upset me in the least and I am wondering whether it should.