Head Tale

Saturday Snap – Pace’s First Drive-in

¶ Posted 15 September 2012 § Family § Humour § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § Saskatchewan § SaturdaySnap § Shea ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday Fun Link – A Fun Day! #skndpldr @ryanmeili

Usually, every Friday, I try to post a link to an interesting site or video or whatever. But today, I just want to ruminate on one of the most enjoyable days I’ve had in awhile.

Today was the day that Ryan Meili kicked off his campaign for the leadership of the Saskatchewan NDP. I was up way past my bedtime finalizing a few of the last-minute details for today’s big event then had a great day at work, with my phone constantly buzzing with Tweets, Facebook updates and more.

Since I couldn’t be in Saskatoon for Ryan’s launch, I caught a ride with a friend over to the launch of Trent Wotherspoon’s campaign launch in Regina at noon. I will have *way* more thoughts in the weeks and months to come about the various candidates, their campaigns and so on but I’ll just say that I was impressed with the very professional show that Trent put on for his launch.

Back to work and had the pleasure of one of our regular patrons bringing myself and a co-worker in Outreach soft drinks and Timbits – to be honest, a somewhat regular occurrence which is one of the benefits of working with a client group who, perhaps more than any other in the library, are thankful and show appreciation for what we do for them.

I had a few great conversations with colleagues about all manner of topics throughout the day – from how best to scavenge office furniture to the travails of organizing a staff conference to the travel options in South America.

The day was topped by a guy I somewhat know from the Internet (but should definitely get to know better!) handing me two 16GB thumb drives at the bus stop which were loaded with videos of one of my favourite artists who was at the Regina Folk Fest last year!

(I’d jokingly tweeted yesterday that it felt like “the day before Christmas” in a winking reference to Ryan’s launch but those thumb drives were a very real and tangible gift I unexpectedly received today – pretty cool! The guy saying he’d seen my tweets throughout the day and that he was also a Ryan supporter was a bonus.)

Supper with family friends – totally conservative and totally rural and totally cool with me. I love how Ryan says (probably paraphrasing) “My dad is a card-carrying member of the Sask Party and if I didn’t know him, I might see him as an adversary. But since I do, I know him as a good man.”

That’s how I see many of my own family and friends in rural Saskatchewan and that’s the key to future success for the NDP as far as I’m concerned. They’re not the “enemy” or “wrong”, they just have a different viewpoint for whatever reason.

We, as NDP members, need to find a way to bridge that divide. And to do that, we need to find a leader who won’t come at them in a strongly partisan way but in a common-sense fashion. That’s a big part of why I’m supporting Ryan and that and other reasons are also something you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the weeks and months to come.

As Ryan’s slogan says, we’re “Better Together”. Looking forward to the campaign!

¶ Posted 14 September 2012 § FridayFunLink § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: saskatchewan

Pace’s Kindergarten Class (Revisited)

Just about five years ago, I did a post called “Pace’s Kindergarten Class” where I listed some of the names being given to the children of many of our friends, relatives, co-workers and so on. At the time, I did bit of speculation about what the names of his classmates might be when he finally reached kindergarten himself.

Now, after the school’s open house the other night, I have the answer to my question…

¶ Posted 13 September 2012 § Baby § List § Meme § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: cute, language

“A Healthy Society” Book Launch at Regina Public Library #skndpldr #skpoli #yqr

¶ Posted 12 September 2012 § Library § Photo § Politics § Saskatchewan § Wisdom § Work ‡ Comments (2) °

Now You Know – Feeling Buzzed

Now I Know (site currently down making this a bad day to post this but whatever) is an enjoyable little e-newsletter that comes out every couple of days with all kinds of interesting facts about all kinds of things. Here’s the most recent one…

You’re sitting at your desk, standing in the kitchen, watching TV, etc. All of a sudden, your cell phone vibrates, informing you that you have a new text message, phone call, or email. You reach into your pocket and check, only to find no such message — and, perhaps, that your phone is not even in your pocket in the first place. The vibration felt real, but maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, it was not caused by your cell phone.

If this has happened to you, rest assured you are not alone.

In 2010, a team of researchers from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts asked 232 of their colleagues to answer a questionnaire about phantom vibrations from their cell phone (or, more correctly, from the area where their cell phones usually are). Of the 176 who responded, 115 — 69% — stated that yes, they experienced the disconcerting fake alerts like the type described above. The researcher’s plain-as-day conclusion: “Phantom vibration syndrome is common among those who use electronic devices.”

What causes it? There are a lot of theories. Discovery News suggested that “[i]t could be because cell phones produce electrical signals that transmit the feeling of vibration directly to a person’s nerves or simply because of the mental anticipation of alerts.” Mental Floss explains how the first of the two theories would work, likening it to “a physical stimulation similar to what happens when your phone is near a speaker and you hear that weird buzzing sound as it does a ‘hand shake’ with a cell tower and gives off some electromagnetic interference.” And the anticipation aspect is not dissimilar from any other sort of psychological conditioning — we are so used to our phones vibrating that our brains make it feel like it is happening when we “want,” not when it actually does.

There’s some newer evidence suggesting that it’s all in our heads. In July of 2012, researchers published a study on the phantom vibration phenomenon after speaking with undergraduate students about the fake shakes. The vast majority experienced the vibrations, but, as Slate explains, the study found that extroverts and neurotics had it happen more often than the others:

Extroverts, the theory goes, check their phones a lot because keeping in touch with friends is a big part of their lives. Neurotics, meanwhile, worry a lot about the status of their relationships—so while they may not get as many text messages, they care a lot about what they say.In any event, most researchers think that the fake vibrations are harmless (albeit annoying) — although there has been very little research into that, too.

¶ Posted 11 September 2012 § Internet § Politics § Randomness § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, health, history, language, science

Music Monday – Pace’s First Day of Kindergarten (Video Edition)

¶ Posted 10 September 2012 § Baby § Family § MemoryLane § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Sad § Shea § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: cute, parents

10 Reasons I’ll Never Be A Political Candidate

As I’ve gotten more and more involved with the NDP over the past few years, I occasionally get asked if I’d ever consider running as a candidate. Sometimes it’s tongue-in-cheek (I think) and sometimes serious, like when someone recently asked if I would consider running for city council (I think).

When I used to work with emerging writers, we’d talk about book awards and I always used to quietly laugh at the ones who said they didn’t think about winning awards. When I heard someone say that, I’d always think to myself, “If you can’t imagine yourself winning an award in your chosen field, you’re probably not a very good writer!”

I kinda feel that way about running for politics – of course I’ve imagined what it would be like to be a candidate (and to win!) and I don’t think anyone who’s got a high level of interest in politics hasn’t also imagined what it would be like to be “the guy” (or gal).

But there are lots of reasons I know I wouldn’t make a good politician…