The World is so Ageist

Hey guys, sorry for the late post, it was one of those moments where you get home, pass out, and wake up at 6:15 thinking, "Shit, I forgot to post"

Anyways, today's class was pretty sweet, I find that it's always a nice little change to have professional writers come in and talk. The point I found interesting was when Todd Babiak was talking aboot how people in larger Canadian cities feel that staying in Edmonton hurts their chances whereas other countries in the world think the same of all Canadians. After I heard that I thought, "Dude, the world is so ageist"
Authenticity of one's identity and culture seems to be half defined by the culture itself and half by its age, it's ridiculous but so true. It's like the job interview on steroids. Half the battle is making sure you show your potential boss that you are qualified for the job, and this could involve anything from being a little computer savvy to having that University degree in "such and such" field. The other half is all you baby, you gotsta be charismatic and show this guy that you have "the stuff" he needs to make his company better. While I admit that I know (sometimes myself included) people who just talk their way in and out of situations, it does seem unfair when the less qualified but more charismatic guy wins over the super qualified socially inept hermit guy. To culminate this idea, age seems to define that "charisma" for the job interview of cultural acceptance. Edmonton is young compared to Ottawa, so a really smart guy from Edmonton would thrive better in Ottawa and heck, while he's at it he might as well go to London, there he'd kick ass and take names like nobodys business.
I dunno how well much you are gonna wanna take that but yeh, there's my thoughts
Cheers!
-Captain Awesome

Edmonton People Vs Edmonton Places

Whilst preparing for my essay for this class (originally planned to be written about the Charles Camsell Hospital) I realized that a large amount of Edmonton places are completely unrelated to the people. For example, we learnt about how Frank Oliver was (pretty much) a racist, and that has nothing to do with the square that is now named after him. Charles Camsell was a geologist and a mineralogist, and he got a hospital. In terms of honouring people, I just think Edmonton has had some weird methods of doing it. Then again, Laura Secord got chocolates, so maybe it's normal... just a thought!

Father Leo Green!

I just wanted to note that I found it interesting that he talks about Father Leo Green elementary at the end of the novel. First of all it IS a real school, in fact I went to the mandarin immersion public school correspondent Kildare down the street. Either way, I liked how he describes the school with such a disappointing light, without any excitement for how the school might turn out when it finished. That, to me, is hilarious because the school was a dump when I would walk past it (during my later junior high days at londonderry walking to Kildare to tutor). So yeah, just letting you all know Neil's gut instincts were right, the school kind of sucked.

Back to the Ghost Stories

Afore we all got into our delicious debate about racism, we looked at that small passage about the ghost stories and it did make me think about how ghost stories really develop a sense of place. Much like previous posts about owning a little part of the city or pretty much about sense of place in general, ghost stories seem to really bring this idea to the forefront albeit in a different way. While all the former residents really wanted to just get the heck outta the place, it (for me anyways) almost endears the place and makes one want to go, just to know. I don't know if that was articulated well enough for understanding... so in short
Ghost Stories = good sense of place
-Cheers

Continuation of the Edmonton Disaster Scenario

After Tuesday's discussion and our thinking of how different areas of Edmonton would be affected got me thinking about the same phenomena on a larger scale. In terms of Alberta, Edmonton would be better off than the other cities that don't have as ready a water source as us. On this note I was imagining if battles over fresh water were to occur in the province how would Edmonton stand up to the challenge. Ideally, I would like to say Edmontonians as a whole would stand together and defeat the surrounding attacking villages; however, after discussions of how different areas of the city would fight amongst one another got me thinking, what does unite Edmontonians into one solid unit. This class, for example, is one way of finding that answer but would all Edmontonians feel as patriotically Edmontonian as we do once learning all this history about our beloved city? I'd like to say yes, but it does make me wonder. Considering our "City of Champions" motto scarcely seems fit to describe our city at times (c.f. last post), maybe rather than infrastructure Edmonton should work on finding a way to unite the people's love for the city again. Just a thought.

Mcilwraith - Tells it how it is!

I just wanted to say that the manner in which Mcilwraith wrote her story was amazingly good. It had the feel of a critical scholar and the problems that arise when encountering people who either do not have a scholarly background, or purposefully choose to bring up the controversial. This idea to me is intriguing because it reminds me of the idea that you truly discover a city by examining its underground. I do very much like the notion that what makes you uncomfortable or even what you don't agree with entirely forces one to examine things in a new way. Abandon all your preconceptions, this is what it is... react! (or something to that effect)

Displaying my Ignorance (I'll say Part 1 because it'll like happen again)

This is going to be short and sweet folks, sorry if you're expecting more!

I have to admit that I have lived in Edmonton for almost my entire life and have never heard it called the River City before this class. I have heard City of Champions billions of times, I've heard "Deadmonton" like Dianne Chisholm, but even she knew the term River City. I asked my brother if he's ever heard of Edmonton being called the River City. Much to my delight, neither has he! On this note, was the name abandoned when we became the City of Champions, or have I (and I suppose my brother as well) been living in some weird boxed world that has selectively blocked out the name from our ears. Anyways, that's it for now.
Cheers and thanks for reading (if you stuck around),
-Captain Awesome