Ojibwe Language Interactive CD

Over the past eight years basically since I returned home to the reservation, I’ve been active in the restoration and preservation of our language. One of my goals was to push the creation of an interactive language instructional CD. Another individual was able to get a similar CD produced with just audio a few years ago, which was a success and even won an award.

The new project I am happy to say is underway! Right now a group of us me, Donald and Curt are working on a draft outline of the Anishinaabemoin (Ojibwe Language)  Interactive CD.  It is so exciting! It is going to be a lot of work but it is needed and has been something I have a lot of passion. Of course as usual I’m volunteering my time and knowledge. I don’t mind at all. Curt is volunteering as well. It is so nice to work with other people who share the same passion as I do. I believe between the three of us this project will be a success.

The big thing right now is the outline, deciding on if we want to do volumes or just one CD. We have dicussed it breifly and we are going to go with steps or volumes starting with the level 1 and so on. This helps a great deal in planning, otherwise it starts to look and feel overwhelming.

With all of this I found a story at anishinaabemdaa of one of my favorite stories Nanabozho & Animoshak. You can go to Anishinaabemdaa’s website to view this ledgend as well as others. Kenny is one of our mentors and inspiration in this project.

Nanabozho & Animoshak

Nii’ii saa giiyenh gwating giizhiwebat. Nanabozho epiichi maadizit. Naa’aa giiyenh animoshak giidaawok besha Nanabozho gaadaat. Gidaaki giiyenh giidaawok. Nanabozho dash niisaaki giidaa. Gwating dash bidagwaashing shkwaa gewset, aapidje giiyenh giibaatiinwok animoshak. Kinagwa gwaji giibinjijibaawok.Giikchimaawnjidiwok. Miisaa giiyenh kwa gaazhichigewat gwanda animoshak.

Twilight – Anti Feminist

Yes, I will admit I am a fan of the Twilight book series. I did see the movie and I plan on seeing New Moon as well. Of course the book to silver screen always has me weary – movie interpretations tend to be a bit empty. Well, I love reading Proffessor What If?, here on WordPress. She has a real interesting view on things. She recently posted a blog titled ‘What if Twilight had a Buffy Twist’.

It made me start thinking of a few other things that occur in the series that may be taken as a bit anti-feminist. For instance she noted that – I never even pondered this one – Edward actually stalks Bella (not to mention very controlling of her; friends school, family, work). I’ve personally had a freak stalker and it is no fun. It only seems to work out in this instance because Bella is in love with Edward. Although I will say this that if her father new about Edwards stalking habit he would be slapped with and order for protection in a heart beat.

As much as I like how down to Earth Bella is, I still can’t help but cuss a bit under my breath as she is what many women have fought against for years. She is completely helpless. She has to have the knight in shining armor protect her 24/7. Of course I realize this is part of the fairy tale story but whatever happened to the independent woman, whom like Buffy takes care of herself? Buffy always knew how to defend herself and of course she had help when she needed it.

This topic came up between my father and I not so long ago. Of course we weren’t speaking of Buffy or Bella but me. I have been raised to be independent, intelligent, strong – think for yourself woman… as my father noted. I have been single and many people have been trying to get me to begin a relationship. The thing is I am fine on my own. I don’t need anyone to take care of me or rescue me. However, I wouldn’t mind having a person I could lean on if and when the time comes.

I will say this though, later in the series Bella does step up – even if for a mothers intuition interferes – and she takes care of herself and her family. But until that time comes I think that Bella and Buffy would have a lot to talk about.

WTF?

Ah! I fell off the edge of the world! Not really but pretty damn close. So much has happened over the past several months, some good, some bad, some I can’t even categorize. I want to start blogging and getting my life back into action. A lot of my projects have been hindered – some even died – but there are a few that I can revive.

Somewhere along the lines this post got axed! So I’m going to leave it short and sweet.

Summer Movies- Batman ‘The Dark Knight’

Batman: ‘The Dark Knight’

I was finally able to get the time to see one of the summers most anticipated movies, Batman ‘The Dark Knight’. Like most movies I try and limit the amount I know of the story line before I see the movie. Doing this helps make everything much more exciting and surprising. All I knew is that Keith Ledger did an excellent job with his interpretations and performance of the Joker – and with a memorial type homage I went to see the film. 

I actually really feel that the film was a wee bit long in some parts, especially the non-masked/action areas. I was very pleased with the presentation of the Joker, which just so happens to be my favorite character from the series. I’m not even going to get into the reason why I didn’t call him a Villain, so I will stand with the description of character.  One of the most enjoyable aspect of the Joker was his major weapon of choice, the potato peeler.  This definitely will or may create a spin off to explain what a ‘Peeler’ is and used for or even its name – ’skin peeler’. But back on track…

I definitely feel Keith’s performance was the best yet and is going to be extremely difficult to beat. Jack Nickolson was excellent as well (not to mention he was extremely upset with not being approached to play this new Joker – read more here). Jack did a great job but I feel that Heath (RIP) got deeper in expressing the darkness of the Joker character. 
I recall hearing people mention that the main concern movie goers had with this flick was the ‘emotional darkness’. Isn’t that one of the reasons why its titled “The Dark Knight”? I think that the parents complaining that the darkness of the film is a bit much for their children, have never really read, seen, or comprehended the true story of Batman. The complex emotions and psychological levels of the characters are not for the average pre-teen casual movie goer. [not to diss but they probably had a blast watching Transformers] 

TBC