I did a “Seven Things You Don't Know About Me” mini-meme but I haven't succumbed to the pressure to do the full “25 Things” meme that's going around. Apparently neither has this guy…
I was happy to see that after a long absence, the Sask Blogs aggregator is back up and running, better than ever.
I was perusing it last night and happened upon a post on “Giant Political Mouse“, a lefty web site that focuses mostly on Saskatchewan politics. This post mentioned that the provincial NDP leadership race was now up to four candidates after the most recent person threw their name in the ring.
Dr. Ryan Meili is a young doctor from Saskatoon who has a very impressive background
– especially in the context of Saskatchewan politics. He has a farm
background. As a doctor, he knows the health sector. He's worked in
international development and is a committed social activist.
Beyond that, (although I think his campaign is taking pains not to draw comparisons to another young upstart politician who is currently working the crowds in Canada), you don't have to look very hard to see some major parallels…
– like Barack Obama, Meili is inspiring young (and young-at-heart) people who have soured on politics as usual.
– like Barack Obama, Meili wants to run a clean campaign which avoids personal attacks and other similar tactics.
– like Barack Obama, Meili is relying heavily on social networking tools and Web 2.0 to mobilize his supporters
– like Barack Obama, Meili has a background as a community organizer working with marginalized groups
– like Barack Obama, Meili is campaigning on the idea of bringing change to the province
– like Barack Obama, Meili has traveled to and has strong connections with the developing world
– like Barack Obama, Meili recognizes healthcare and the environment as two of the most pressing concerns in our society
– like Barack Obama, Meili is a very cerebral person who obviously puts a lot of deep thought into his opinions and views
– like Barack Obama, Meili got a funny last name that's hard to pronounce (Meili – rhymes with “smiley” 
)
– although Meili's not the orator that Obama is (who could be?), his speeches touch on many of the same themes while using similar rhetorical devices.
Meili isn't
Obama and I don't think he would ever claim to be. But I think a LOT of people (including myself) are hungering to be part of something like we saw in the US. And the parallels
to the recent Obama campaign in the United States are uncanny. So hopefully, the biggest parallel comes true too…
Meili is facing off against Dwain Lingenfelter, an establishment candidate who (currently) has
a large backing from the “old guard” of the NDP party and has already
all but been declared as the winner of the leadership race before the campaign has barely begun, let alone played itself out.
(Of course, we all know how that turned out for the early front-runner in the United States. )
[2009/05/12 Edit: I didn't know this but just heard that Ryan apparently spoke at the NDP convention a
couple years ago – perhaps echoing how Obama introduced himself to the
Democratic party with his speech at the 2004 DNC convention.]
(with the relevant Mark Zuckerberg apology excerpt in italics…)
1. Their launch of Newsfeed in 2006 which they implement, then backtrack then re-implement it with tighter privacy controls available.
“We know that many of you are not immediate fans, and have found them
[NewsFeed and Mini-NewsFeed] overwhelming and cluttered. Other people are concerned that non-friends
can see too much about them.”
2. Their launch of the Beacon advertising network in 2007 which they launch, then backtrack then re-implement with an option to opt-in rather than their previous default that you had to opt-out.
“We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even
more with how we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this
release, and I apologize for it.”
3. And now, in early 2009, their recent change to their Terms of Service which appeared to give Facebook complete and perpetual rights to ANY content you upload to their site forever and ever amen, which they revert to their original terms of service within days of implementing the changes.
“Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and
comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their
information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our
previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have
raised.”
(More on the most recent mess at MetaFilter. And also via MetaFilter, “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know“)
Oh, and just for the record, the the title of this post is a nod to the reader who suggested that I need to swear more on my blog. Your wish is my command! 
You don't
look a day over 29 (okay, maybe one day over 29! )
It's Family Day here in Sask and elsewhere across Canada so I thought I'd post the following video in honour of the day. It's the video slideshow version of a photo book that we made for the grandparents at Christmas set to a nice little White Stripes song.
Last May for Mother's Day I set up a Kiva account for Shea from Pace and put $100 in it. Now almost a year later, our initial loans were 75% repaid. After watching the following video we decided to immediately re-loan that money rather than waiting for it all to be paid back.
Here is a link to show the two people we loaned to originally and now, a female farmer in Cambodia we lent $70 to which finalized her total loan amount and will allow her to build a concrete floor to store her rice. (Click on Map View to see the locations in the world of the three people we've lent to – I can't wait to see what that looks like in five or ten years!)
One of our branch librarians did a three-week study in her location to record the type and variety of reference questions her staff received. With her permission, I've reprinted the list her staff compiled below. The list of questions includes the criteria she gave her staff as to what should be recorded.
I think this list provides a very interesting snapshot of what you might hear in a typical branch library in a typical city (although it's also probably fairly obvious from a lot of the questions that this study was done in the weeks leading up to Halloween.)
—
Select Reference Questions
Oct 10-31/07
The following list contains reference questions posed to branch staff over a 3-week period. Please note that these are select questions only, and represent only a portion of the questions answered over that period.
My instructions were to record questions that:
1) Showed the variety in questions that we receive
2) Required some effort/research/thought to answer
3) Went beyond the level of 'where are the Danielle Steel books'
1) Fiction and non-fiction about Druids
2) Pony Pal series
3) Termite mounds – construction/pictures
4) Craniotomy – information and diagrams for class presentation
5) Repair-1985 Toyota Camry
6) Fondue recipes
7) Book called “In the Wild’ about a traveler called Pennington or something (It wasn’t actually called In the Wild and Pennington had nothing to do with it. It was Into the Wild by Krakauer)
8) Marriage to cousin – risks of having children
9) Age of apostles when they died
10) Senior citizens/sex and old age, guides/physical changes, etc.
11) Picture books/non-fiction books for preschooler on construction
12) Killer whales
13) Butterflies and crabs – in French
14) Drawing self portraits (for elementary school children)
15) Pioneer stories in large print
16) Prostate cancer – patron just diagnosed with a terminal condition
17) Sex offenders
18) Book on autism seen on Larry King
19) Videos/DVDs on 1) diet and nutrition and 2) geological history of Saskatchewan
20) Expanded definition of the Westminster model of government
21) Books about Israel for Grade 1
22) DVDs for Elementary kids on fire safety (with cartoon-like book characters i.e. Max and Ruby)
23) Short stories on “children as soldiers”
24) Cruise ports on the island of Greece. Needed maps to follow family cruise
25) Stories (15 minutes in length) to read to grades 2 through 7 (Celebrity Reader)
26) Books about Miss Fisby (was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh)
27) Children in different countries
28) Prices of cars, makes
29) Trees – the definition/history and different types i.e. Conifers
30) Second book in the Gunslinger series by Stephen King – don’t know what it is called. (The series is actually the Dark Tower series. Gunslinger is the name of the 1
st book in the series)
31) Feminism; Iconic women – archetypes/strong historical figures i.e. Marie Antoinette, female Pharoahs, etc.
32) Series called Abby Hayes
33) Do cats shed their whiskers? (Yes, yes, they do!)
34) I just saw the movie 1408. Do you have the story it is based on?
35) Jean Chrétien just wrote a book I would like it.
36) I’m doing a report on Germany – history, economy, culture, etc. Need facts, figures, maps, graphs, etc.
37) History of Canadian midwives
38) Ghost stories of Saskatchewan
39) What is the best known novel of Saul Bellow?
40) Hospice workers/copies with death/cultural differences in dealing with death/death of loved ones
41) Cypress Hills Provincial Park info
42) War planes – WWI/II
43) Pictures of 2 specific grain elevators in Sask.
44) Who was Sacagawea? Whey is he ‘famous’? What tribe did he belong to?
45) Who wrote the Stone Barrington mysteries?
46) I am looking for an autobiography of Charley Pride.
47) Books on fetal alcohol syndrome (we didn’t have any, so then they wanted any IN at Central)
48) What PG Wodehouse books are in at this location right now?
49) Pictures of swords
50) I just printed the abstract of this article. How do I get the full text?
51) Benefits of organic farming and gardening, health-wise
52) Picture of a nightingale
53) Info on history of Canadian libraries
54) Zlota’s Diary – needs introductory notes by the author
55) Movie – Tuesdays with Morrie
56) Online predators
57) English version of La Fete a la plage by R.L. Stine
58) Residential school children, differences (Canada)
59) Books by the former president of Israel (Benjamin Natna? Wasn’t sure of spelling)
60) “My Daughter’s Cookbook’ – Ukrainian cooking. Is actually “Ukrainian Daughter’s Cookbook”
61) ‘bring forward’ filing system
62) Music from WWII- songbooks and CDs
63) Riddle books and funny jokes
64) Items on Linda Laylle (Lael) Miller
65) Trickster books
66) Dream catchers – picture books, story books, history, construction, mythology
67) DVDs on the law of attraction and Abraham flicks
68) About Margaret Atwood – Vampire
69) Personality disorders
70) Heart disease – thriving with
71) Iliad – Kid’s version
72) Druids and Halloween – specifically how our modern day celebration of Halloween is related to druidism
73) Looking for the mystery author who writes really gory/graphic stories where the detective of this series is important
75) Main Street books (it turned out to be a series)
76) Do you have the movie Flowers for Agrenaw (or something like that)?
Note: the book is Flowers for Algernon. The movie is Charly
77) Movies in Italian, with English subtitles
78) Info on Rosa Parks – books, databases, whatever
79) Showed a patron how to access the automotive dbases, because he couldn’t find what he needed in Chilton
80) Toasts to the bride – info has to be IN here NOW!!!
81) Latest edition off the building code of Canada
82) Juvenile books in the Japanese language
83) Spanish language course on CD – Pimslauer version
84) Books by Farley Mowat in large print
85) Genealogy/track down family history – specifically Scottish Family history
86) Which movies does the library have in VHS? Can I make a list?
87) Consumer reports on 1) cars 2) pots and pans 3) hair dye
88) U-boats/German submarines/WWI
89) Calvin and Hobbes comics
90) Human anatomy
91) Books with the character Inspector Hill
92) Series by Alexander McCall Smith about Scotland. What is the first book in the series?
93) How to draw Manga
94) Fiction novels about women in the Bible i.e. The Red Tent/books by Francine Rivers
95) Articles from the dbases on motivating yourself to get fit
96) Diet to follow for people with kidney disease
97) Fantasy/scifi for kids
98) Impact that humans have on the environment
99) Book discussed on CBC – Generosity somewhere in the title
100) Movie about a family (Irish?). The mother dies and the children are placed in an orphanage. The father tries to get them back. The title is a first name….
101) DVDs based on true stories
102) Biographical info on Matthew Boulton (co-inventor of steam engine)
103) Remembrance Day video comprised of war images, with Bryan Adams singing in the background (found it on YouTube!)
Before the Internet, I probably would not have had access to Christopher Walken's techniques for roasting a chicken. My life is better for having this knowledge…
You love celebrity gossip, admit it. And when I need my fix, I visit What Would Tyler Durden Do (wwtdd.com) which has some of the funniest snarky comments you'll find on the Internet (that's a pretty high bar right there!)
A recent post about the “celebrity” mother of the octuplets in California caught my eye because it contained a photo of the woman while she was still pregnant. I usually don't put warnings on posts but seriously, if you click this link, you won't be able to unsee this. Her belly looks like the craniums in Alien Nation (okay, I'll leave the snark to the pros. 
)
My hometown served as a backdrop for many of the exterior shots of the CBC comedy, “Little Mosque on the Prairie”. (Saskatchewan has a film tax credit that gives incentives for productions to shoot here and increases the benefit if you shoot a certain distance outside our cities. Indian Head is just outside this zone, about forty-five minutes from Regina, so has received a lot of film production since the tax credit came into effect.)
Now that the show is finished, they put up a thank-you note on the show's blog with a photo of the cast & crew (many local – hey, there's my grade eight shop teacher!).
