Secular Sunday – Cardinal Marc Ouelette Resigns Amidst Misconduct Allegations

If you pay attention, you’ll see that though I aim for daily posts on this blog, I often don’t do them until the following day for one reason or another (get busy with the kids or fall asleep early or just forget or whatever.)

Two ways to know it’s a backdated post are if the time stamp shows anything between 23:00-24:00hrs which is the time I always use when backdating for some reason.  My posts also get syndicated to Twitter immediately so that’s another clue – this one will show up on Monday morning for instance.

So anyhow, this is technically a “Secular Sunday” post but I woke up on Monday to something the 24-hour news channel tells me is pretty serious breaking news – Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouelette has resigned after multiple misconduct allegations.

I know this is a standalone issue but given the church’s role in homophobia and attacks on libraries offering drag queen storytimes (aside: proud to say my branch offered the first ever drag queen storytime held at RPL – all credit to my programmer at the time who brought the idea to fruition and managers/program leads who didn’t blink an eye when we put it forward), I’m reminded of the various memes about who is the real danger in society…

 

 

 

 

Saturday Snap – Doggy Paddle Training?

Charlie has decided he loves to jump into the tub.  I guess that’s better than having a dog that hates water but definitely makes our baths…interesting.

Friday Fun Link – Sask Regional Park Sets Record For Longest Line of Water Inflatables

Hopefully the regional park we camp at tries to break this record that was recently set by another park in Saskatchewan.

I know we’ve been practicing for this moment for years…

 

 

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Stuffed in a Locker (April 2016)

Pace did this to himself after parkour, he wasn’t being bullied by a classmate (or a parent) – honest!

RPL Stories: John

I’ve said it before but #RPLStories is easily the best marketing campaign the library I work for has ever done (they’re focused on patron stories so I’m not just saying that because I have a cameo in one of them!) 😉

I knew his story already (likely from his own #RPLStory) but had a lengthy conversation with City Councillor and RPL Board Member, John Findura, recently and it was amazing to hear firsthand about the role the library has played in the success he enjoys today – from a new Canadian who literally knew no English to discovering the library as a life-changing sanctuary and on to become a long-serving City Councillor.

Covid News and Research Round-Up

Random thoughts:

* Covid isn’t over even if people are acting as if it is.

* I don’t think its fear-mongering/living in fear to pay attention to what is being reported by scientists, medical professionals and others.

* I have a pet peeve with people who say “My Covid was mild” which I hear as “I don’t know how to process information in the digital age.”

For example, research is showing that Covid persists in causing damage after the initial infection “ends”:

Cognitive impairment after Covid is impacting the workforce:

And many people (including myself!) talk about their “brain fog” after having had Covid but the reality is this is a name that softens the effect.  The real name for what is happening/has happened to people is “brain damage”:

There is still no effective treatment for Long Covid and less than 10% of survivors are recovering after two years, no matter what type of treatment is attempted:

“Black hairy tongue” is perhaps the strangest Covid side effect I’ve heard of:

Fifty papers have said that, unlike HIV which can take 8-10 years to cause immune-dysfunction, Covid can cause immune dysfunction even during the initial infection:

And finally, a new study shows the places where (and how) you are most likely to catch Covid.  (Of course, I’ll never know for sure but I’m 97% sure I caught mine at work during a crowded special event where I stupidly chose not to mask consistently because I was running around doing a lot of physical effort *and* having a lot of conversations with people – including one person who happily shared she had Covid at the event!) 😮

Music Monday – “Well did you hear?/There’s a natural order/Those most deserving will end up with the most/That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top/Well I say, “Shit floats”

“Running The World” – Jarvis Cocker

Secular Sunday – I Hope Satan Returns To Put Atheists Out Of Their Misery Having To Listen To This Level of Stupidity

My brain hurts that this is one of the “leaders” of the United States…

 

Saturday Snap – Not Impressed With the Smushies!

Friday Fun Link – How To Take Sports Less Seriously

I’ve always followed sports and played a lot of different ones in my younger days (not so much these days as Shea said she’d divorce me if I started keeping hockey equipment in the house ever again!) but I don’t think I’ve ever been fanatical in following sports to an unhealthy degree.

With that said, I’ve definitely let myself be overly attached and emotional or even moderately obsessive about certain sports/teams/players/championship runs at different times – the NHL in general and Islanders specfically when I was a kid, the Flames’ run in 2004 when we were living in Calgary a few blocks from the Red Mile, the Blue Jays’ Two World Series wins, the Riders on the rare occasions they’re good, etc.

The fine folks at Calgary Puck recently had a great thread about how to take sports less seriously with tons of good tips.