I know, where the hell have I been right? What can I say, work has been kicking my ass this week. Work rarely kicks my ass and its even more rare that it stresses me out so when it does it causes me to have to drop everything else to focus on it to sort it out, otherwise I get a little addle-brained and that's no damn good.

That being said I am going to be keeping this brief; I have a friend crashing at my place all week because I am making him go into work with me to help out so as to calm my stress level. He's an angel for helping me with my work crisis... remember to always surround yourself with good friends.
And I am trying to write up a business proposal for a friend of mine who struggles with his English. This is the guy who runs the meditation group I sit with every Sunday, so I am happy to help him draw up a plan to open a meditation centre. I think it's a great idea and hope he can get the financing.... I can only pray that I write up a great proposal for him and he gets the government grant (no pressure there at all!). *fingers crossed*

Most of you know by now I was spending a lot of time at the "Hot Docs" festival last week here in Toronto, watching Israeli documentaries. Well, I am happy to announce that a documentary called "Sentenced to Marriage" won as best Israeli documentary. Here's a synopsis:

"Personal rights of freedom and independence clash with centuries of orthodox Jewish law when two young Israeli women struggle to obtain legal divorces in a country that has no separation of church and state. Through audio recordings and hidden camera footage, Anat Zuria takes us behind the closed doors of the Israeli rabbinical courts to track the Kafkaesque web of religious and governmental bureaucracy. Although separated husbands are permitted to couple with new women and even withhold child support, under Jewish law, wives are prohibited from contact with other men and are fated to be chaste until an official divorce is issued. The barren and gloomy rooms of the courthouse provide a bleak backdrop for the tireless efforts of, on one side, the aggravated wives and their solicitors and, on the other, the rabbinical judges who regularly side with the husbands and their lawyers. Sentenced to Marriage is a powerful indictment of a legal system that, Zuria suggests, is at best an anachronism and at worst a demoralizing labyrinth of misogynistic inequity."

Amazing! I wish I had been able to see it.... it sounds like a great topic and will hopefully open up people to discussion on the matter.

Anyway, that will be the last I go on about the documentary film festival, I promise. It's over now. What I *will* mention though is a story about 6 students who created a Nazi website and were expelled from their school for it (bravo!).

"Six students at an exclusive Toronto private school have been disciplined in connection with an anti-Semitic website. Royal St. George College has expelled three students and suspended three others following an investigation into the site, which contained Nazi images.

The boys' alleged involvement came to light after a female student at another private school sent a note to the site's chat room. When the Branksome Hall student urged the site's creators to remove some of its offensive content, she received a graphic reply that prompted the investigation. The website has been taken offline."

Yes, anti-semitism is alive and well here in Canada too, I hate to say..... and in kids so young! I'm glad the students got expelled though I am not entirely sure it was to discipline them so much as get rid of them so their actions do not reflect upon this "upper class" school. Either way, I am glad some kind of action was taken and not just a slap on the wrist.

Alright alright.... enough of the serious stuff. Go play some Pacman. (why oh WHY have I always and forever sucked at this very simple game??)