Author Archives: trasie

About trasie

Settler/Treaty7; Bi🌈; She/They; Radical Feminist Witch; Geeker Girl; Musician; Single Mom; Nonprofit Activist; Community Builder; Community Builder.

“Safety in Parking” – Vote Today!

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Aviva Community Fund

Hey everyone. Bow Cliff Seniors (one of the centres I work with) is proud to be participating in the Aviva Community Fund competition again this year, and they need your help. Their project – “Safety in Parking” – builds on two years of fundraising toward a new and improved parking lot, including:

  • south side sidewalks (so seniors don’t have to walk behind parked cars)
  • centre walkway (allowing safe access to all parked cars)
  • speed bumps and barriers at ends of the lot
  • signs (speed limit, handicapped parking and information)
  • landscaped planters
  • security cameras

How You Can Help

First, register for an account at https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/users/registration/register. (You can’t vote unless you register for an account.)

Then, starting Monday, October 3, 2011 (12pm ET), you can vote by clicking on the “VOTE” button at our Aviva Community Fund site (Bow Cliff Seniors “Safety in Parking” Project) or, if you’re on Facebook, you can vote at their page (https://www.facebook.com/avivacommunityfund/.

Once you start, please keep going! The first round lasts 15 days (October 3 to October 19) and each person registered can vote once a day. The top 90 ideas will make it into the semi-final round and the top 30 into the final round, and every vote counts!

And please, share this information with friends and friends! Post it on your Facebook wall, tweet about it, write a blog post or two, text your kids, share via intra-office email – whatever you can do to get the word out. The more people who hear about this project and vote, the more likely that BCS will win the competition.

Pipeline Days of Action

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It’s incredible that 1009 people have now been arrested in this rolling civil disobedience action.Today is the final day of action and it’s expected that many more will join Margot Kidder, Naomi Klein, and others who have risked arrest in order to ask for what President Obama promised – a cleaner, better future for all of us. (Photo from TarsandsAction Flickr stream – taken by Josh Lopez)

Pipeline Days of Action – Day One

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Today is the first day of actions against the Keystone XL Pipeline (which would transport oil from Alberta to Texas). It’s expected that 1,500-2,000 will gather at the White House over the next weeks (August 20 – September 3); they’re asking that President Obama refuse to approve the deal. (Read more about what they’re asking for at 24 Hours From Jail by Bill McKibbon.)

Yes, it’s a long shot. (I can’t believe I’m still protesting this stuff.) Yes, it impacts me. (I live, work and breathe in Alberta.) Yes, we need to develop better alternatives to oil and be willing to use them. (Not all of us want to be martyrs for the cause.) es, I think that standing up and saying “not in my name” is one of the most empowering things a person can do. (How else does change happen?)

There’s a lot of great information about the pipeline and its impact – try Yes! Magazine’s continuing coverage, for example, or this article from TruthOut – and pictures from the protests are being posted at the flickr stream. Also, you can vote in today’s CBC’s poll – Are you in favour of the oilsands pipeline?.

New Transit Planning Tool – Mapnificent!

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I just heard (on Twitter) about a great new tool – Mapnificent – for transit users like me. Type in an address, pick a time estimate, and you’ll see how far you can go in that time on your local transit system.

So, just to compare, here’s what I can get to from Bow Cliff Seniors in 15 minutes:

And here’s what I can get to from my neighbourhood in 15 minutes:

Of course, this is an estimate and doesn’t take delays/etc. into account. Still, I can see it being a useful tool for trip planning when thinking about changing work/home locations, for nonprofits thinking about where to locate in relation to clients, etc. 

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

The Christians and the Pagans – Chocolate Style

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(Anyone get the reference to the Dar Willams song? It’s a favourite in our house!)

It’s the Easter weekend and I’ve just finished re-watching Chocolat, one of my favourite movies-with-pagan-undertones *based on the book by Joanne Harris with some changes). The movie circles around the themes of patrichary/morality and matrifocal/sensuality through an ongoing conflict between the mayor and the owner of a chocolate shop during Lent (the 40 days prior to Easter). 

Any witch can explain how Easter has its roots in paganism: Eostre is actually a Germanic Goddess, and bunnies/eggs are symbols of fertility (which is what spring is all about) and so on. This appears in the movie in a scene where the mayor attacks the display created for the chocolate shop’s fertility festival,. The first thing he destroys is a chocolate statue of Ixacacao, the Mayan Goddess of Chocolate; he then destroys other, more common, symbols of the holiday.

While some pagans get upset that our festivals/gods/ideas are reshaped by Christianity, I recognize that the original purpose (taking over/destroying the symbols of the Goddess) no longer holds power over us. Instead, I celebrate the common themes that bring our religions together: first the sacrifice, then the celebration. Jesus was the original hippie, after all, and his stand against the dominant ideas of the day have stood the test of time. I may not make it to sunrise service, but I’ll be celebrating the power of life over death just the same. Blessed Be!

Elizabeth May Comes to Calgary (and Shares a Car)

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Out and about on Calgary’s streets.
 It was great to see Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, come visit Calgarians today. She’s the first party leader to stop in since the election was called and it was great to see so many people come out and hear what she had to say about the environment, foreign policy, poverty and how the federal government should support cities. My favourite quote: “Are we are warmaking country or a peacemaking country? Canada should be a country that supports conflict resolution and stands for peace.”
Waving goodbye from the Calgary Carshare Prius.
It was also exciting to see a leader who “gets it” when it comes to transportation. She came down from Edmonton on the Red Arrow (our inter-city bus) and commented on how it would be great to have high-speed rail between the two (which I support). Calgary Carshare (our local carshare co-op, where I’m on the board), which is being used by some of the local Green Party candidates, was booked to take her from the bus to the event and eventually to the airport. (She had to be back in her BC riding for an all-candidates forum tonight, which necessitated a quick trip back.) IMHO, climate change is THE issue for this election, and while I’m disappointed/frustrated/angry that it’s not being talked about, I am glad that May and others recognize that it also impacts the way campaigning is done. Well done!

Carsharing rocks! (Photo by @Tisin)
Edit: There’s story/photos/video in the Calgary Herald and I’m in the background of one. (It’s like “Where’s Waldo?” if he had a pink scarf.)