There’s lots of stuff going on in the news and politics and the world and on social media that feels interconnected and important and I’d like to talk about some of this stuff too.
Hell, I know that just doing a vaguebook post like this one opens me up to charges from some that I’m somehow making all of those issues I’m alluding to above about me rather than the actual issues in question.
Double hell – or there’s the fact that I’ve read and re-read this short post over and over for nearly half an hour, imagining how different people might read it, react to it, even change what they think about me because of it.
And I haven’t even really *said* anything! (But then again, some people will likely read this post and think I’ve said everything.)
So I’ll just leave off by saying that I’ll likely have more to say on some or all of these topics eventually. Or I won’t.
But right now, I’m going to go to bed with my mind spinning with thoughts of ego, hypocrisy, culpability, loyalty, positivity, and the inanity of the circular firing squad.
Cleaned out our basement store room the other day and found this cool gift we got for our wedding from a relative who works as a graphic designer.
Hard to believe that next March will be our 15th wedding anniversary and we’ll once again be back in the Mayan Riviera to celebrate. Might even have to try to re-create this photo!
I was scrolling through Facebook and came across a post by the good folks at Rebellion Brewing talking about a nearby donut shop which they frequent. (I love seeing locally owned businesses supporting each other like this!)
That led me to a YouTube video of the donut shop’s owner which reinforced my strong belief that anyone who thinks that immigrants are lazy, freeloaders, or somehow bad for Canada is full of absolute shit.
But, as I think back to the Mexican resort we visited last February, I can’t help but think about how, in a total coincidence, we ended up going at the same time and staying at the same resort as Trent Wotherspoon’s sister and her family. (Shea and Trent’s sister used to work together which is how I think we found out they’d be going at the same time as us.)
And given that Trent and Ryan are now running against each other for the leadership of the Sask NDP, it becomes a bit more funny to think back on the (brief) conversation we had on the bus from the airport to the resort about what was, at the time, the campaign Ryan was running (and eventually won) to become MLA for Saskatoon-Meewasin as well as some observations Saskatchewan politics in general.
Probably by choice for all of us (we were on holidays after all!), that was the extent of our political talk and any other time we spent together (most notably when we shared a cab to our hotel’s sister resort in what might have been the single best beach day of my life!) was spent talking about our kids, our jobs and everything *but* politics.
Oh, and it also meant we had someone to act as our photographer for a family portrait. (I was able to return the favour by taking a few pics of Trent’s sister’s family with my water camera and sending them to her when we returned.)
There are concurrent leadership races happening for the NDP and the Sask Party and while some observers might find the races cool, the reality is that I believe there is a genuine warmth between the candidates (at least on the NDP side) and that will serve the party well, no matter who emerges victorious in the end.
(Disappointingly, the change in the date of the NDP Leadership convention means Shea and I will most likely be out of country when it’s being held. But if it means clear blue water and a margarita, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make!) 😉
But given the amount of junk Shea and I have in our house, I think we should probably start now in our late 30’s (her), early 40’s (me) to get a head start! 😉
I think I’ve mentioned before that one of my highest marks in library school was, ironically, for the one class I took within our faculty but outside our department – a “History of Information” course that was offered through the journalism school.
My final presentation in that class was about the future of online video and although I don’t write as much about changes and developments in this area as I used to (heck, at one point, I was going to start a whole different blog specifically about this topic!), I still am very interested in how how online video is changing the world in so many ways, good and bad.
And even if you allow that YouTube can make their own policies, some feel the new rules aren’t being applied equally…
Popular YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who has 4.5 million subscribers, is one of the leading voices expressing irritation about the service’s pulling ads for violating its terms of service. He said ads were disabled recently for 12 of his videos apparently because they included “excessively strong language” or covered “controversial or sensitive subjects,” thereby running afoul of YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
Also this guy whose rant has around five million views as I type this…
(YouTube says they haven’t changed their underlying policy but it appears that a video that made me a few bucks over the years will no longer have ads – or may only have limited ads – so this is a big change, especially for the increasing number of people who now rely on YouTube for their income.)
On that note, due to the volume of complaints about this change, YouTube will only review videos that have had 1000 views or more in the past week (mine has had 17,000 but that’s over a decade so it’s frustrating that there is no real recourse for situations like this either.)
Here’s a new one from Eric Church, the Friday night headliner at the Harvest 91 Festival who had actually jumped into the crowd during his set and, had circumstances been different, might have not had a celebratory experience with his fans like he did.
He’s written a song in response to the experience going from the highest of highs at the end of his final show of the year on Friday night to hearing about what happened on Sunday…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwDZ8uhqJg0
“Why Not Me” – Eric Church (this link leads to a front row recording which includes not only the new song he debuted at the Grand Ole Opry but a cover of “Hallelujah” he followed it with.)
Shea’s channeling her inner Martha Stewart for a Thanksgiving center piece this year (though the fact that our plates appear to be stolen from a 1970’s Chinese restaurant sort of cancels the effect!) 😉
