Here in Canada, many people will celebrate Victoria Day. Victoria Day celebrates Queen Victoria’s birthday. Canada is still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which the Queen is head.
Victoria Day is always on a Monday, and thus the holiday is part of a long weekend, which is commonly referred to as the Victoria Day Weekend, or sometimes the May Long Weekend. The weekend is also called the May 24th weekend, although it does not necessarily fall on May 24th.
The Victoria Day Weekend always falls on the weekend before Memorial Day in the U.S.
I am going off topic a bit from my usual type of blog posts. I fully believe a lot of my fellow Canadians, along with people from America, Australia and Great Britain, among others, understand emotions and thought process behind the following letter, which was written by a Canadian woman who lives in the province of New Brunswick:
Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not
started by Islamic people who brought it to American shores on September 11, 2001 and have continually threatened to do so since?Don’t forget that when US airspace was closed this day, the American planes were allowed to land in Canada.
When I was a child, I did not watch much television. Like many other children, I was usually busy playing outdoors or working to finish my homework, among many other activities. My television options began with 3 local channels, and 2 more channels were added later. I never thought that I was limited by having “only 5″ television stations. I was able to find something to watch. If nothing seemed interesting, I simply found something else to do. Like many others, I am amazed at the number of television stations available these days. I do not subscribe to a cable television package with a seemingly endless amount of choices, as I know I would not bother to watch most of these channels to begin with. In order to save time, I will watch video clips of television shows online. Apparently, as I have recently learned, many other people are making changes when it comes to their television viewing habits.
I enjoy many styles of music. My favourite singer is Eva Cassidy. Eva was born 2nd February, 1963 and died 2nd November, 1996. Her life was cut short by cancer. Eva had a phenomenal talent for taking a song and “making it her own.” Whether it be gospel, blues, pop, or whatever the style, God blessed her by giving her the ability to do this. I am going to include some video clips as part of this blog post. One of Eva’s best known albums is Songbird, which was released in 1998, after Eva had passed away. In fact, most people became familiar with Eva’s musical talents only after she had died. One person who did work with Eva and her band was Mick Fleetwood of the musical group Fleetwood Mac. I hope you will enjoy the following selections. These are just a few of the songs she recorded. I tried to choose a variety of songs to showcase her truly splendid talents. If you do not have time to listen to all of these now, please bookmark this page and come back to listen, and enjoy, these songs at various times. Thank you. RIP, Eva.
My favourite sports usually involve ice and snow, so I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming winter Olympic games from Vancouver, British Columbia. I very much enjoy curling, luge, ice hockey, bobsledding, ice skating, speed skating, and skiing, among other events. Of course, there are also some events that I do not care for as much. Obviously, there are some Olympic events that are more popular than others. I have friends who couldn’t (could not) care less about the winter Olympics, but avidly watch the summer Olympics. While I also enjoy some summer Olympic events, I personally prefer the winter games. It is nice to have the variety. I must admit to being more interested in these games as they are being hosted by my home country of Canada. Overall, I hope the games are exciting, safe, and representative of good sportsmanship.
Recently, I have added a few plugins to my WordPress.org blog. I have some active plugins and the rest are currently deactivated. There is certainly a wide variety of plugins, and I am grateful for all of the choices. I appreciate those who are able to design plugins. When I was first learning about the world of WordPress plugins, I found the following tutorial on WordPress.org to be most helpful:
Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. This article contains a list of plugins by category, and links to other plugin repositories. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.
Each November, Remembrance Day is celebrated here in Canada, and Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States. These days honour the men and woman who have fought to keep our nations safe. I have had numerous family members serve in the Canadian military ranks over the years. One aspect that I’ve always appreciated are their stories of what happened while they served our country. I came across a Canadian Press article, written by Sunny Freeman, which explained the urgency of getting information from soldiers who served in the Second World War. I fully agree that this task is both urgent and very meaningful to all sides involved.
There are not too many television shows I watch on a regular basis, but those that feature figure skating or hockey always seem to draw my attention. I do not know who came up with the idea for the show “Battle of the Blades,” which combines figure skaters and former hockey players working on routines together, but I am certainly glad someone did. I enjoyed season one very much.
I realize how much work went into learning these routines, especially considering the change from ice hockey to figure skating. Here is the winning team from season one:
One of my favourite TV shows is Flashpoint, which is shown here in Canada on CTV. It is also shown in the United States on CBS TV. During the recent Gemini Awards, which celebrates the best Canadian television shows, Flashpoint took home top honours. I remember another Canadian television show, “Due South,” which also was shown both on CTV and CBS during the 1990’s. It is nice to have Canadian TV shows gain acceptance across the border. Based on the popularity of the show, more episodes have been ordered and both Canadian and American audiences will be able to continue enjoying the show. I came across the following article which outlines the honours given to Flashpoint, along with other top notch Canadian television shows:
