Ricepaper + A little old and a little new

In recent Tim-news, guess what I got in the mail today? If you guessed the 12.4 issue of Ricepaper, then you're right! Being a quarterly publication, I think 12.4 corresponds 12 equaling the number of years they have been publishing the magazine and 4 being their winter publication of 2007. Shrugs?
For a brief explanation of what Ricepaper is, from the little blurb where it lists the editors and publication information, it says:

Ricepaper is a national literary and arts magazine committed to providing diverse perspectives on contemporary Pacific Asian Canadian identity and culture. Ricepaper's primary emphasis is on the creative work produced by emerging and accomplished Pacific Asian Canadians. The magazine showcases quality work by writers, artists, performers, filmmakers and cultural producers of Hapa, East Asian, and Southeast Asian descent.

Ricepaper is published four times a year by the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, 10 Keefer St., Vancouver, BC, V6A 1X4. Direct all mail to: PO Box 74174, Hillcrest PO, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5V 5C8. Tel: 604.677.1383. Fax: 604.677.2147. e-mail: info@ricepaperonline.com. website: http://www.ricepaperonline.com/

A quick search also provides that they also own http://www.ricepaper.ca/. Strange, how they have three different websites…

I’m not sure why I got this magazine today. I think it’s because last summer in 2007, I was walking through the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival and I remember seeing they had a booth set up which intrigued me. I entered some sort of contest and they gave me a free past issue of Ricepaper as a gift (in case you’re wondering, I chose this issue – woohoo Dragon Boys on CBC).

Maybe they are trying to entice me to subscribe. When I started to flip through it, it actually went through my mind, “Maybe I should read more… maybe I should subscribe to this…” But a few seconds later, the more reasonable side of me told me I wouldn’t bother because I don’t really have a main source of income now. Also, I noticed that there’s a very heavy emphasis on culture/arts/writing. Normally, I’m all for those three things. In fact, I’m very intrigued by those three things… except I think Ricepaper is a little too artsy for me.

I’m more inclined to find a good RSS feed that updates regularly to read about similar things… Sort of related, lately, I’ve been finding that there’s nothing like a good news blog that has posts on wide varieties of topics, that more conventional news outlets probably won’t spend as much time covering.

Hmmm… it’s a pity in a way, because in ASC 300? or was it ASC 301? I remember learning that English language Asian Canadian (and Asian American) magazines are very rare and frequently are not successful, but Ricepaper has managed to stay afloat all these years. So kudos to them!

For the record though, there were a number of interesting articles I did find myself reading with curiosity because they were really that fascinating.

Now if I could only read my textbooks like that….
----------------------

Hmmmmm…… I didn’t actually intend to write so much about Ricepaper… but oh well. My main intention was to write about an observation I made on the bus today, of a young mother, perhaps late twenties, early thirties, with her little baby/toddler… perhaps 1 to 2 years old? I don’t think the baby could speak yet. Anyways, they were very fascinating to observe (sidenote: “fascinating” is such a great descriptive word! but if you say it too often, you might sound too much like Hank McCoy aka Beast from X-Men TAS…).

I found it fascinating when the mother pulled our her Motorola Razr (or some similar looking phone) and the baby immediately reached for it. I later understood why; he wanted to watch his cartoon (the characters looked like Rosemary Wells characters so I’m guessing it was for the pre-school cartoon Max and Ruby).

Imagine what kind of world that little baby is going to grow up in… Being born in the 2000s with so much technology… I mean, for myself, if you talked to me 4 or 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself currently being a proud owner of a Creative ZEN Vision: M (which for the record, is superior to the iPoop, sorry I mean iPod in every way). In fact, if you talked to me 10 years, ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself currently being a proud owner of a gadget that plays not only music but video as well, allowing me to watch stuff like TV shows or movies on my long commutes on the bus(es), in the palm of my hand! And now, technology is allowing for faster, cheaper devices, that do even more? Sort of bewildering the pace at which our tech progresses.

So that was the new stuff.

What about the old?

I observed the baby throw a mini-tantrum, kicking/hitting the side of the bus, making an incredibly loud noise. To stop him, the mother gently slapped him a few times on the arm/leg and scowled (angry scowl) at him to cut it out. The baby didn’t cry (the slaps weren’t hard enough) and he looked at his mother’s face and he stopped.

I wanted to stand up out of my bus seat and applaud that woman. (I’m saying the following in a somewhat sarcastic, yet very serious way) Yes! Thank you! A message for all you parents in the world: If you love your kids, BEAT THEM!. Spanking your child is the way to go. It is biblical and effective. No I don’t condone child abuse (or other people abuse, unless they're absolutely asking for it), but as part of the punishment, please parents, beat your children! I don’t know how many episodes of Supernanny (shutup, I’m not gay) I’ve seen with my Mom where I’ve just wanted to scream at the television, “Smack your kids already!” I know I’m don't have any place to judge (yet) but I don’t think too highly of parents who have kids who misbehave. And I don’t think too highly of the kids who misbehave either. But most of the time, it’s the parents fault. So please, parents, beat your kids.

As a former child who was spanked (ahem, actually my mom tried to swat me with a metal hanger a few months ago because I was being snippy…), I endorse it 1000000%. And so does Russell Peters (warning: foul language, but highly funny).
-------

In the latest Pointless Post, I said I'd make an Instructables of what I'd hacked the USB cable for, but it turns out other brilliant people thought of this before me as there are already a few on there. All I did was cut the USB cable in half attached an old CPU fan and now I have a little desk fan to cool down my laptop. It helps! 我就喜欢!