Category Archives: News

Friday Fun Link – New $245 Million Calgary Central Library Opens

As a former Calgarian who often worked closely with the city’s librarians via my role at the Writers Guild of Alberta (a highlight of my time in Calgary was being invited by one librarian to be her “community guest” at the opening of a new suburban branch that features a speech by well-known author and […]

“The reality is…my real name is Joe and I’ve been living with leukemia for eleven years. And unfortunately, it’s back.”

Pretty shocking development in the fake/real world of WWE, not only that top star Roman Reigns dropped his persona during the opening promo of RAW to announce he had leukemia, but also the revelation that he first battled leukemia *eleven years ago* and this wasn’t public knowledge and/or exploited by the WWE who have exploited pretty much everything […]

Saturday Snap – A Versatile Sign @officialRPL Regent Place Branch #yqr #ReadAboutWeed #GuideToGanja #MaryJaneMonographs #GetBuzzedonBooks

Usually, the “Homegrown” sign at my library helps identify a display of Saskatchewan books or perhaps a display of books about gardening or agriculture or something along those lines. But with the legalization of marijuana this week, we found another way to use this sign… 🙂

Friday Fun Link – Dollar Street and GapMinder’s Four Income Levels

Dollar Street, from the GapMinder Foundation, uses a well-designed interface to help counter misconceptions about different income levels in the world. Their main point is that people don’t uniformly live in “poor” or “rich” countries like most of us tend to think but that people actually share similar lifestyles, items that they own, and things they […]

10 Random Thoughts as Pot Becomes Legal Across Canada

I briefly thought of doing a list of “10 of My Fondest Memories of Pot” for this post. But since it feels weird to talk about something I did that was very common within my circle of friends but illegal (even if it’s now legal), I’ve decided to hold off on that list for now.  […]

Brazilian Inmates Can Read Books To Shorten Their Sentences (Not So Much in The US)

This is a pretty cool, innovative program with a lot of potential to pay ongoing dividends. And of course, the US is doing the opposite with prisons in Pennsylvania where inmates are no longer being allowed any form of print book sent by family members or charities but they can buy overpriced, overly restricted ebooks, […]

Optimism and Pessimism Around Climate Change

Optimism: The Sask NDP released a very innovative climate change policy as part of their annual convention which would see Crown Corps like SaskPower & SaskEnergy helping individuals, organizations and corporations underwrite a move to a green economy which is the best way forward to get off our current “track” and switch to another that could lead […]

We Live In the Craziest Timeline

Wow.  

The Importance of the US Midterm Elections

Good overview of the history and importance of the US’s midterm elections, coming to a state near you in one month!  

Music Monday – “It’s not such a scary time for boys/They’ve always had the upper hand, they’ve always had a choice/It’s time for women to rise up, use our collective voice/The day to vote is Nov 6th so let’s go make some noise”

As I type this, Democrats have a 75% chance of taking the House of Representatives and a 20% chance of taking the Senate in the US midterm elections which happen in just under a month. In the wake of the Brett Kavanaugh decision, here’s hoping that women (and men who recognize the injustice that was done […]