…but my RN wife brought home a box of rapid tests as some healthcare staff are being encouraged to test themselves regularly to help catch Covid before it can spread in the hospital.
Since they were also allowed to test family members, I got to be the guinea pig for her first “at home” test and luckily, no covid (though a single line might indicate that I’m pregnant…which after a year of Covid-eating definitely describes my current body shape!) 🙂
“Life in a Pandemic (Don’t It Stink)” – “Ironic” Parody
Shea and I often talk about how strange it is that librarians are one of the few professions where practitioners actively visit local examples of their workplace in other communities when traveling (she doesn’t have a strong desire to visit hospitals in other places when on a holiday – that’s for sure!).
I think there’s lots of reasons for this, not least of which is that part of the library’s role is to be open and accepting of everyone as a place of learning, community and even sanctuary which draws people to see libraries as though they were another type of tourist attraction, in line with museums and historical buildings and theatres.
Unfortunately, there’s a downside to this commitment to openness and access in that the library is often also an unofficial social services agency with regular visits from people dealing with addictions, mental health issues, homelessness and so on.
These people are often drawn to the library as one of the few public spaces that will allow them in without judgement or expectation of purchase (Tim Horton’s – and really, most retail establishments – will kick out a homeless person for loitering pretty quickly if they don’t buy something but, as long as the person’s behaviour meets the library’s guidelines, someone can usually linger in the library for hours or even all day.)
For that reason, I was stunned to hear of the mass stabbing in North Vancouver which occurred at their public library (small blessing in Canada that it was a mass stabbing, not mass shooting.
And of course this happens to be one of many libraries I’ve visited during my travels – this one was in June 2010 when Shea and I did a big trip across Western Canada including visiting with family who lived in North Vancouver.
Beautiful library (but I say that about all of them!) 😉
I was talking to the kids about possibly double-masking as an added precaution and Sasha decided to take it a step further with three masks (which she didn’t end up wearing, mostly because she ran out of ear to hook the straps on!)
And it didn’t last long as we made the decision to pull the kids from school later that same day after more reports of rising variant cases in Regina including one case diagnosed in their school (though not in either of the kids’ classrooms fortunately.)
The announcement of the new Apple M1 chip last fall finally got me to make the leap from using a ~2012-era MacBook Pro which was at the point that it was basically held together with digital duct tape and prayers to buying a new MacBook Air which arrived this week.
I’ll likely share some expanded thoughts about my new computer and the process of transitioning from an older computer to a new one at some point but for now, here’s the presentation that basically sold me on upgrading (and yes, most Apple launches are so well done they briefly make me want to buy whatever they’re selling – but I usually convince myself I don’t need the “latest greatest”!)
Pace appears well positioned for a career making hip hop videos…
When something is going through exponential growth, even in the early stages, most people completely underestimate how quickly things are going to change, even when the exponential growth has been going on for quite a while.
Some humans are really bad at understanding math.
Random Sunday afternoon YouTube algorithm finds…both interesting and sad:
