On AskMetaFilter, an anonymous poster who's getting married in June wants to know if he should take a month-long work-related trip to England for the month of May when his fiance isn't enthralled with the idea.
To me, this is an obvious “no”. If you weigh those two things – a wedding (which *should be* a once in a lifetime event – including all the lead-up activity) versus a trip that could happen anytime, whether via work or, oh, I don't know, *with your fiance* at some later point in time?
[Edit: Jurist has replied to my comment on his site (which I've also posted below) to clarify that when he said Tamara had “the strongest web presence” of the Coronation Park candidates, he was referring to her “web site” presence, not her “online” presence. I guess it's semantics – when someone says “web“, I think of the World Wide Web and all the various services that encompasses whereas Jurist's comment was only focused on one small element of the larger whole. And even with his clarification, I'm still not willing to concede that Tamara's site is a better one in terms of being thorough or the more professional looking – in some ways it is but in others, it isn't. Again, this is a matter of taste as much as anything and a full analysis of the usability and functional details included in each site is perhaps a post for another day.]
His recent post on the state of the races in Coronation Park and Regina-South is a prime example of this. But I did have one correction to his thoughts which I posted as a comment on his blog and wanted to re-post here as well because I know lots of people don't click through to read comments.
I'm not trying to start a blog war or anything but all the evidence I see is that Jaime Garcia has the stronger web presence, especially in regards to the metrics that likely reflect real world support.
Here's the comment I posted to the Jurist's blog (not even correcting my bad math – Tamara would have to do 10 tweets to “catch up” to Jaime, not 6!):
Nice assessment.
However, you're probably not surprised to hear that my one issue with
your post is your assertion that Tamara “has the strongest web
presence”.
As I write this, Tamara's Twitter account has 106 Tweets
with 27 followers while Jaime has 116 Tweets with 30 followers giving
him a slight edge. On Facebook, Tamara has 189 fans while Jaime has
348 fans – neariy double your candidate's total.
I know both are imperfect metrics as Tamara could do six
different tweets listing the next half-dozen things she sees as she
looks around the room and “catch up” to Jaime. But I think that
discrepancy in Facebook numbers is very revealing about the wider
support the respective candidates are enjoying – doubly so because I
know Jaime grew up in Coronation Park so presumably many of his
supporters are people who live here or also have roots here. I'm not
sure if the same can be said for Tamara?
I will concede that Tamara has more photos on her personal
site and presents them in a very nice fashion. But otherwise, their
sites seem to basically be very similar to each other in terms of
function and content.
Hockey I really hate the Canucks and think it would be a travesty if one of the Sedin sisters won the Hart Trophy. I mean, a guy with a career average of 65 points a season gets a bunch of assists and is now one of the best players in the game? Right. Love him or hate him, Ovechkin is great for the game – dominant and entertaining – and it's best for the game if he wins the Art Ross, the Hart and the Rocket Richard trophy. Oh, and one other trophy too because when the Flames are finally put out of their misery and out of the playoffs, I think I might throw in behind the Caps as my pick for the Cup.
Libraryland
Frankly, I'm worried about libraries — not because I think e-books
will replace their dead tree counterparts specifically, but rather
because the library as an institution is an anathema to today's notions
of intellectual property. It's a loophole left over from a more
permissive and libertarian era.
An interesting comment about libraries in a Reddit thread about a 1995 article by anti-Internet commentator, Clifford Stoll (which is also worth a read) about how the Internet isn't and never will be the nirvana that others were predicting. (Yeah right. Although to be fair, I've read both of his books and his first, “Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage” is really good, especially if you came of age in the era of BBS's and Telnet in the pre-Internet days like I did. “Silicone Snake Oil”, on the other hand, is pretty crappy and may even have been inspired by his Newsweek article for all I know.)
Pace Cuteness Shea and I bought a laser pointer so we could expend the absolute minimum amount of energy while entertaining the cat. What I didn't realise is that Pace would end up getting down on all fours and chasing it around too!
Politics Jaime Garcia's Facebook fan page has all the latest on his most recent activities including shots of his steak fundraiser, Jaime at the NDP convention and the billboard ads he has out in the constituency. Check it out and consider becoming a fan!
Apparently some people don't find the term “Zombie Jesus” appropriate, especially at Easter. And they'll show you every offensive reference/graphic they can find so you know it (jus' make sure thee wummins and chillrens is out of the room before lookin'! )
As a profession, librarians constantly struggle with the fact that we aren't exactly regarded as a “cool” profession. (Man, there are times I miss working in publishing – a life full of wine & cheese parties and awards banquets, I tell you!)
Sure, librarians are trying to update their image – getting articles in the NYT about how cutting-edge we are with technology, how kick-ass we are about social justice and just how hip we are in general.
But really, that's the New York Times. They're about as far from defining trends as your great aunt Martha.
“He has declared: “When you are growing up there are two institutional
places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to
God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library
is a great equaliser.””
Bought an iPhone app called “Touch of Colour” that allows you to highlight one area/colour of a photo while turning the rest to black & white (or another colour of your choice.)
I know you can do this with most cameras these days (including ours) and probably with Photoshop and all the other similar programs.
But doing this on the iPhone was, like so many things on that little piece of technological crack, simply very fun! (Plus it helps to have good underlying photos – both of these are from a sitting we did with a very talented co-worker of Shea's – who, if you're in Regina, is currently taking spring bookings.)
Meanwhile, I saw this photo on an atheist message board today with the very un-PC but otherwise fitting caption given the recent sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church: “Happy Easter! Enjoy Your Chocolate Treats – You Know This Guy Will!”.
One of the big hub-bubs of the last week or so was around the fact that American right-wing commentator, Ann Coulter, had one of her speeches in Canada shut down by protesters. The one that was shut down was at the University of Ottawa while others at locations including my alma mater, the University of Western Ontario and my former employer, the University of Calgary (where I spent exactly one week as a page before being hired by the Writers Guild of Alberta!) went on as planned.
After the speech in Ottawa was shut down due to “safety concerns”, I was a bit saddened to see the crowing on Facebook and other social media sites by people who should know better (ie. librarians) about how proud this made them.
See, I have two big insights into this whole “controversy” that I'd like to share – one comes because I worked in publishing and one comes because I was a huge fan of professional wrestling as a kid.
The first observation from the publishing angle is this – the worst thing you can do is draw attention to something you don't agree with as it only gets it more attention/more sales/more money/more notoriety. People on the left and right both seem to miss this anything they try to censor something/someone – whether it's someone like Philip Pullman (great title, eh?) from the right or someone like, well, like Ann Coulter from the left. Often the best thing to do with a book or a person you don't agree with is to ignore it/them (especially one that is so blatantly a media whore like Coulter).
Which leads to my second point. Ann Coulter is the modern equivalent of the Iron Sheik (and I'm not hte only one who noticed the similarity.) Now, for those unfamiliar with the 1980's wrestling scene, the Iron Sheik was one of the leading bad guys who had a gimmick of being an evil Iranian doing battle with the super hero American champ, Hulk Hogan. He got “heat” (or crowd response) by saying and acting in the most inflammatory fashion possible – using the American flag as a prop, belittling his enemies and generally, just carrying on like an ass. (Sound familiar?)
So yeah, if Ann Coulter happened to come to the University of Regina, I wouldn't have been there protesting – I'd have been there with a box of popcorn and a big foam finger (guess which one?) enjoying the show for what it is – a staged exhibition intended to maximize the heat for a performer who is very skilled at what they do.
Oh, and this is a bit of a tangent which has nothing to do with Ann Coulter but I recently learned that Iron Sheik has had a late life career resurgence due to appearances on Howard Stern and YouTube where he plays (?) an amped up, crack-head version of his former character – rambling drunkenly while threatening to humble people by anally raping them! Here's a clip of the Sheik in action which is somewhat NSFW (but compared to some others on YouTube, relatively tame):
And here's a photo of Ann Coulter's face that I photoshopped onto the Iron Sheik's body. (Sorry it's not my best work in this vein but I had to try it.)
