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In an effort to learn more about Canadian history, I have begun reading the Dear Canada series . This is a children's series. Historical notes and real life events form the basis for the series. (It's a cheater's way of studying history).

ETA- While reading the profiles of the authors who write this series, I was surprised to learn that Gillian Chan is not Chinese, but is married to a Chinese man. I'd thought she was Chinese for years!

Your mama wears army boots.

Ugh, I've been so bitchy the past few days. I can barely stand myself.

However, there have been a lot of good things happening too.

Today, I bought a thermarest and army boots. I got the boots as a pair of back up boots for treeplanting. The woman at the surplus store says that boot sales are down, as teenagers don't think that wearing boots is trendy any more. I had my own pair in high school, and I loved them.

She also told me that I should stretch out my boots by putting a quarter cup of water in them and wearing them for a day. Apparently that's what people in the army do.

Writing and the brain

I just read this interesting article on writing and the brain

Not only was this article informative, it was also funny.

Here is the intro-

I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: first, one must cultivate incompetence at almost every other form of profitable work. This must be accompanied, second, by a haughty contempt for all the forms of work that one has established one cannot do. To these two must be joined, third, the nuttiness to believe that other people can be made to care about your opinions and views and be charmed by the way you state them. Incompetence, contempt, lunacy—once you have these in place, you are set to go.

by Joseph Epstein