the pomegranate tiger

I love the neighbourhood around my office. It's like an anachronistic small town plopped in the centre of a modern, vibrant city. It's full of renovated heritage homes, mature trees and luscious gardens. Each home different and unique. It's a neighborhood that actually feels like a neighborhood -- the antithesis of the cookie-cutter homes found in suburban subdivisions. It wasn't always like this. Not too many years ago, the homes around here were run down and seedy. The older generation had moved on, moved out or died. Homes once lovingly cared for were left to die a slow death to the wrecking ball or condo development. Luckily, and just in the nick of time, people came to their senses and realized the importance of preserving something of the past. I love that these old beauties have been restored. A new generation of young families are gradually moving in. There is evidence of babies, toddlers and the clutter of strollers and squeak toys. Sometimes, progress and ...

Not that long ago, I questioned how well we can actually know the people we read on the internet; whether it's from discussion forums, blogs or comments in response to posts. I was wary of believing that people are truly as they present themselves online. In this post , I even went so far as saying, We all make assumptions about people based on what they present to the outside world, and in the case of the interweb, how they write and respond in discussion forums, blogs, and comments. I start wondering if they'd be people I'd really like to meet face to face, whether I'd like them, whether they'd like me. The more I think about it the more I believe there aren't that many I'd want to meet in person . That's not to say I don't like or am not interested in the people I've met online; it's just that I'm not sure meeting them in reality would mesh with my assumptions, if that makes sense. Although, it might make for some interesting experien...

Procrastination is the bane of all would-be writers. My procrastination takes many forms. One of my favourite ways of avoiding work of any kind is by sitting in front of my computer screen and deciding that I simply must check on a favourite message board for new posts. This is followed by checking for new email; and by-golly, the Inbox is getting mighty full and needs some deleting; and surely someone has posted something new on Forum xyz. Eventually, I open up a game of Spider Solitaire. Spider Solitaire must be the spawn of some evil-minded hater of writers and workers everywhere. Anyone who works in front of a computer screen and has Spider Solitaire installed on their desktop is a victim waiting to happen. It's just too easy to open up -- for just one or two quick games. Two hours later, bleary-eyed and half-asleep, you vow to yourself, just one more game. Come to think of it, I think I'm addicted. Having an addictive personality certainly doesn't help, but h...

I have a compulsion to watch the movie, "Jaws" , before I go on beach vacations. Eccentric or just plain weird? Perhaps there's some horrible psychological, even pathological, meaning to this little quirk of mine. You decide. I'm not quite sure how it all started. I loved Jaws when it first came out in 1975 -- the best movie of that summer. I remember it scared the bejeebers out of me. I remember watching in horror and fascination as the first victim was tugged this way and that by the unseen shark; screaming at the part when Hooper is in the water at night examining Ben Gardner's chewed-up boat and the head pops out of the hull; and watching right to the end credits when Hooper and Chief Brody drag themselves onto the beach after paddling to shore on the detritus that was The Orca. When it came out on video, I first rented it, then bought it on VHS tape. Later, I bought the Special Edition VHS. Now, I have it on DVD with behind-the-scenes footage a...

I don't normally link YouTube videos, but when I came across this one, I just had to put it here. Even if you're not a fan of reality shows or talent shows, please watch. This brought me to tears -- and not just a few welling-of-the-eyes tears. His name is Paul Potts and he's made it to the semi-finals of a talent show in the UK. He says he was bullied in school and lacked confidence, but has always wanted to pursue a career in music.

Something from my old site, circa 2001 Aaaah, finally on a dream vacation to Mexico. There I was, under a beach umbrella, comfortable on a chaise lounge, reading a fat historical novel -- when right next to me I heard, "Babe, I hate to tell you this, but I think they're REAL. Come here, take a look." Intrigued, I peered over my book to look at the Neanderthal who called his significant other "babe" in public (don't babes belong on the arm of some mob boss in an old time gangster flick). Sure enough, there was this big, buffed-up, twenty-something guy, looking like a football linebacker, standing with a male friend on a small retaining wall that overlooked the beach. He was motioning to his girlfriend to climb onto the wall. This was followed by some giggling and "Babe" getting another girlfriend to join her. "There, in the purple," points Neanderthal Man. The two women reply, "No way. No way they're real." The four of ...

Sometimes other people capture what I think and feel better and more eloquently than I ever could in my own convoluted words. So, to borrow from others: The Paris Hilton fiasco: - From Waiter Rant; We'll Always Have Paris Importance of the internet and blogs: - From Time Goes By; Your Little First Amendment Machine

Someone commented recently that we (me and hubby) always seem to be planning one, getting ready for one, or going on one –- vacation, that is. I'm sure it seems that way; and to a certain extent, it's true. In the last few years, we've been going on vacation several times a year -- sometimes just short little get-aways, sometimes two or three week trips. You'd think we were retired - but we're not. You might even think we have oodles of money – but we don't. It's all about the priorities we've set for ourselves at this stage in our lives. We'd like to retire. Really. So why don't we? We have friends our age who've already retired and we've certainly thought about it. Sometimes, after a particularly stressful day, I just want to walk out the office door and never look back. We're self-employed and don't have the luxury of a company pension, so retirement money will come from Canada Pension, Old Age Security, and anything ...

Here's a book meme that I've run into a few times, but never bothered to do until I saw it on Wenda's Daring to Write . A list of 100 books: You're supposed to bold the ones you've read; italicize those you'd like to read; cross out those you don't want to read (I've put an X next to them); and asterisk ** those you've never heard of. Wenda added 10 more of her own which I've also included. And true to my obsessive-compulsive nature, I've included a key and tallied up my individual totals at the end. I'm not sure what this all achieves, but it was fun to do and reminded me of a few titles I'd forgotten. Key: Bold = read Italics = would like to read X = don't care to read ** = never heard of 1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) 2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) 4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) 6. The Lord of the Rings: ...

One of the blogs I've discovered over the last couple of years is The Millions (A Blog About Books) . It's well-written, interesting and about, well, books. I hadn't visited in awhile, so when I went back, I decided to read some earlier Notable Posts (yes, there's an actual section called "Notable Posts"). The title, The Reading Queue Revisited , caught my eye. Like most avid readers, the owner of the blog (C. Max Magee), has a large stash of books on his shelves that he hasn't read and needed a way to get through, hopefully, in his lifetime. I can relate. Just look at the four books I purchased a couple of blogs ago. They've now arrived and join the dozens of unread books already on my shelves and nightstand. This compulsion to accumulate books is somewhat akin to my aunt's post-Depression Era habit of picking up and saving every bit of string, paper and bag – just in case. Heaven forbid I'd be without reading material if some catas...

As Joy, of Joy's Updates , noticed, I've changed the look of this site over the weekend. I'm trying out Blogger's new, supposedly improved, "updated" template. I like the ease of changing things around without having to dissect the html, but it seems to be having trouble loading my blogroll. I'm not sure if it's a problem with Blogger or with Blogrolling (my blog links manager). Sometimes the links are there, sometimes they're not. I'll give it a few more days and see how it goes. (I miss having my favourite links close at hand.)

It's an odd thing, this blogging world. I started the pomegranate tiger thinking that it was only going to be about me posting my own thoughts, my own opinions; me writing about what's important to me - in isolation - like the journals I've always kept, but in a public forum. Me, me, me. What I didn't realize was that I'd discover such a wealth of ideas, information and creativity amongst fellow bloggers. So much so, that I now realize most of what I feel compelled to write about originates from things I've read on other blogs. It's become an unexpected education of sorts. The other by-product is that I have dozens of blogs started, but not finished; or finished, but not posted because I didn't think they were relevant or timely anymore. So, I was rummaging around some of these unfinished, partly-finished, finished-but-not-posted files and decided to resurrect some of them. No guarantees that they make a whole lot of sense anymore, but I must hav...