Food issues and security...

As anyone who has been hanging around here for a while now knows, I am rapidly becoming obsessed with agriculture and food security.

I was having a discussion about these topics with my friend Laura when I was in Vancouver in January.

She told me about Deconstructing Dinner , a weekly podcast about food issues, local food etc.

I had never listened to the podcasts before, but today I figured out how to stream them at work (it's a slow news day) and listened to 2 podcasts.

This is quality stuff and I highly recommend listening to these if you're at all interested in these topics. You should at least check out the website.

From looking at their website, I also learned about a certificate in Food Security , which I could complete by Distance Education from Ryerson University. Hmmm.

I never complain about not meeting anyone interesting...

Yesterday I attended a local fundraiser for The League of Canadian Poets . The event was organized as a four part tour, with stops in Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie and Saskatoon. Poets from Edmonton, Dawson Creek, and Grande Prairie did a reading last night, and I got to read a few pieces from my book.

I have been working on new pieces, but I didn't have any of them ready to read last night. I've been really busy, and haven't even had a chance to finish writing anything new. I'm planning to spend a lot of time at home this weekend so I can have a chance to clean my house and work on some writing.

Anyway, it was cool to hear a lot of new poets, especially Andy Michaelson and Jenna Butler, who were both visiting from Edmonton.

After my reading, I was stopped by a man who is now working at the Rabbithole, the really cool used bookstore where we were hosting the event. Dymphny had mentioned my various Asia connections when she introduced me, and the man wanted to know where I'd been in the Philippines. It turned out that he was a former investment banker from Britain and has worked all over Asia for the past 20 years. He's known the owner of the Rabbithole for years, and Tim offered him the opportunity to chill out and re-consider his life in Grande Prairie. So he's been here for a while, just hanging out, recuperating etc. We were able to gush about various countries in Asia and share our passion about the region.

As I said, I try to be interested in other areas of the world, and I am, but Asia really captures my heart and makes me more excited than any other area. I can't help it, so I've given up fighting it.

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Speaking of Asia, I was also having an online conversation with my friend Mike, who is currently doing some development work in Chennai. He is married to a Norwegian journalist. We were talking about some of the challenges of journalism and he said, "It's a tough gig, but cooler than 99% of the jobs out there."

Indeed.