Day 021/365 2.08.2010 – Puppy Love

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Gabby and I took Kira to the dog park this afternoon and we got our first taste of the energy of the border collie breed. This little puppy, only 8 weeks old, was keeping pace with my daughter as she ran around the park. And, unlike how I would react after such torture, she still planted a sloppy one on her cheek when she caught her.

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Day 020/365 2.07.2010 – Puppy Breath

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of my family. She is a yet-unnamed red tricolour (red, tan and white) Border Collie and yes, she has the sweetest puppy breath around!

UPDATE: The name is chosen and she is Kira.

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Day 019/365 2.06.2010 – Inukshuk

Originally uploaded by goose3five

I took “3 hour tour” today of downtown Vancouver to try and get a look at the sites before evreryone shows up for the 2010 Olympics. During my walk I came upon this section of shoreline just outside of the Edgewater Casino that is filled with little hand stacked rock sculptures. This inukshuk was among them. In the background of this photo you can see Science World which is being repurposed by the Russians during the games as “Russia House“.

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Day 018/365 2.05.2010 – Lookin’ Rough

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Wow, a combination of Friday pet blogging and Project 365. How can you beat that?

This is of our two Shitzu’s, Buddy, looking like she is in dire need of a grooming.

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Day 017/365 2.04.2010 – Stirrup

Originally uploaded by goose3five

This is another look a the stirrup ladder on the previously pictured climbing wall. Everything in this image feels rugged, rough and masculine. I particularly like how the red stirrup pops.

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Day 016/365 2.03.2010 – Pride

Originally uploaded by goose3five

No artsy photos today, just a dad and his pride.

Sorry I could not resist.

Gabrielle received her 1st Dan (Poom) certificate from the WTF today and I could not resist sharing. I am so proud. Since she is only 8 she will keep this belt but continue to test until she is 15 at which point we expect that, if she keeps it up, she will automatically be granted a 3rd degree black belt. Cool eh?

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Certainly, some of these star names are sympathetic figures and have important and instructive stories to tell that go beyond soap opera melodrama. But I’m betting that most of us ordinary joes and josephines will not feel much of a kinship with folks like these, or learn anything deep and lasting that can help us in navigating our own lives and careers.

This is the invaluable asset that Stacy Parker Aab brings to the table in her memoir, out this month, about her experiences as an intern in the Clinton administration, working in the office of George Stephanopoulos, and later as an assistant to Paul Begala, and as one of the “advance people” who plan and staff presidential trips.

If you’re wondering, “Who is Stacy Parker Aab?” that is precisely the point. You may not be familiar with her name (I wasn’t, before I read this book), but she was one of the many unknown and unsung staffers who talk to constituents on the phone, read and answer correspondence, and do all the behind-the-scenes grunt work that needs to be done for the people whose names are known to everyone — and for the aides and assistants to those household names.

At its heart, Government Girl is about power relationships. As a young woman (very young — just 18 when she began interning in the White House), Parker had to learn how to negotiate the minefield of relationships with much older, very powerful, mostly male figures who had so much influence and control over her career and her professional and personal reputation.

Parker was working for Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist and adviser to Pres. Clinton, when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. She saw firsthand, up close and in your face, how incredibly easy it is to travel from rising star to slut if you are a young, attractive, relatively powerless female working with powerful men. Lewinsky made serious mistakes — objectively and unequivocally. Parker makes no attempt to deny this truth. But although Parker in no way condones or excuses the choices Lewinsky made (faced with similar choices during her time in the Clinton administration, Parker chose differently), she also refuses to make the easy judgments so many others have made about Monica Lewinsky. “There but for the grace of God go I,” seems to be Parker’s conclusion about what happened to Lewinsky — not because Lewinsky lacked a choice, but because the line that Lewinsky chose to cross is so easy to cross even when you think you’ve done nothing wrong — and even, in fact, when you haven’t.

Consider this: If you are the advance person on a presidential trip and you’re sitting in the hotel lobby chatting with a Secret Service agent while you both pass the time between official events, does that mean you want the agent to phone you up in your room later and invite you to come up and sleep with him? Does it mean you want him to do that repeatedly even after you’ve said no? If, on the last day of the trip, the agent stops you as you’re walking down the hall, pins you against the wall, and tries to force your lips open with his mouth, is he justified in telling you, “I’ve been wanting to do that since the first time I saw you, and I know you wanted me to do it, too,” even though you have refused all his advances, because in that one moment in the hotel lobby while you were idly chatting, you asked his age and told him he looked much younger?

Or, consider this: If you are told by a staffer that the President wants to see you in his hotel room, and you know that’s highly unusual but what are you going to do? refuse a direct request from the President of the United States? and when you get there he invites you out on the balcony and gives you a hug, even though you have done nothing to encourage him and in fact successfully extricate yourself (tactfully and gently) from his embrace and leave the room with no rancor on either side, are you justified in hoping no one saw you going to or from his room and praying he doesn’t tell anyone or decide to take offense at your rejection even though you know you did nothing wrong? If someone did see you, or if the President decides to retaliate, who is everyone going to believe? You or him?

See how easy it is for a young, attractive woman’s reputation and/or career to be damaged or even destroyed no matter how careful she is?

Both of these incidents — and more — happened to Parker. Yet, Government Girl is not a gossipy tell-all, despite the impression that anecdotes like these mentioned in a book review might tend to give.  You never get the sense that her purpose in sharing these experiences is to titillate or shock her audience, or to discourage young women from public service. Indeed, her purpose seems to be the opposite of this. Throughout this book, Parker conveys her gratitude for the opportunities she was given to meet and work with some of the smartest, most talented and interesting people in the country. Among many other tangible gifts, the career path that began with an unpaid internship when she was 18 gave her the man she later met and married.

But as most of us know, love deepens when you’ve seen and experienced the warts. What Parker is after here is to tell about the warts with as much honesty and openness as she can. She says it better than I can:

If I have one wish for America, it is my hope that when our leaders stumble, as they will, when they hurt others and themselves, which is inevitable, that we will be as compassionate to them as we sense they would be with us if the faults were our own. Our leaders are not gods, and they are not our fathers. But they can be our best hope for peace among nations. They can lead by personal example at home and abroad. I tell these stories of my past experiences with President Clinton, his staff, his agents, and the village of folks who indeed raised me because I think it’s important to be honest about human behavior, that it’s important to forgive, that it’s important not to hold one another to unreasonable standards. That first and foremost we must strive to understand one another. If we do, our hearts can expand enough to truly accept others for the people they are, not for the flat icons we may wish them to be.

That’s the best reason for writing a Washington memoir I’ve heard in a long time.

Day 015/365 2.02.2010 – Primary Colours

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Notice the nod to “British” Columbian English? Yea, it was intentional.

Being an American in Canada I find it quite difficult to get used to the subtle differences like the “ou” in colour rather than simply an “o” or the pronunciation of pasta with an a as in ass (pASSta).

One thing I do not have trouble getting used to though is the brightly colored (ok coloured) fire hydrants. With the green grass in the background and a little sun shining I was able to capture all the primary colors.

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Day 014/365 2.01.2010 – Wet

Originally uploaded by goose3five

The rain has returned to Vancouver. It is never gone for long when you live in a rain-forest. As a photographer there are two ways to see the rain; an infinite number of little wet obstacles or an opportunity to be creative. Today at least I chose the latter.

I have been eyeing this wicked antique green pick-up truck in my office parking lot just waiting for sunny day to get some shots in the chrome. With the rain I decided to use the truck in a different way.

I hope you like it.

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Day 013/365 1.31.2010 – Weathered Fence

Originally uploaded by goose3five

As the world will find out in about two weeks the weather in Vancouver does not fit the American picture of Canada. As a matter of fact, it is down right temperate.

Don’t believe me?

Here is a great geeky tool for the chart/graph lover in you. It is a monthly summary of the highs and lows at the Burnaby Mountain weather station for the month of January. As you can see, we only dipped below freezing on the night of January 7th (31F/-1C). The other thing to note is that it rained roughly half of the month.

It is no wonder with weather like this that the old white picket railing on my porch is in a state that would have old Huck Finn busy whitewashing all summer.

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1-2-3-4-5

Originally uploaded by goose3five

The five count in pattern 8.

This photo is part of a set taken during my 8-year-old daughter Gabrielle’s taekwondo Poom belt promotion test at Phoenix Sports Academy, January 30, 2010, Coquitlam, British Columbia.

Day 011/365 1.29.2010 – Foreshadowing?

Originally uploaded by goose3five

As I sat at my desk looking for acceptable ways to position this little rodent skull on my portable Western Digital hard drive I couldn’t help but worry that this wasn’t a bit of foreshadowing. Just in case I am going to back up my hard drive.

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Day 010/365 1.28.2010 – Congratulations

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Congratulations are in order as my little one (pictured here on the beam at right) was promoted to the competitive gymanstics team at her gym today. As you can imagine we are very proud particularly because both my wife and my sister were sucessful competitive gymnasts in their youth.

I have to tell you, I spent a ridiculous amount of time in the gym with my little sister when she was a kid. It is “like deja vu all over again.”

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Day 009/365 1.27.2010 – Camera Shy

Originally uploaded by goose3five

This was shot in the monitor reflection of my powered-down Macbook Pro. It explains the slight ghosting around the edges of my image (look at my shoulders or head).

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Day 008/365 1.26.2010 – Camera Shy

Originally uploaded by goose3five

Say hello to my daughter Gabby’s 1.5 year old bearded dragon, Phoenix.

This is as good a time as any to plug Gabby’s cool video entitled “Me and My Pet’s.” Check it out.

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