Quinn has posted a great article on his site (I've bolded the really fascinating part below):
At the risk of jinxing things – I think it’s
pretty clear that there’s a historic shift underway between activities
we used to engage in offline and things we now do online. It’s no
surprise, for example, that CD saleswere down 20% this US holiday season while online shopping was up 19%. That’s how it works, right? People are moving from one marketplace to another, more virtual one.
Another dataset released this weekend, however, paints a more complex picture. According to the newest study from the Pew Internet and American Life Center – the youngest, most affluent and most internet-connected adults in the
US are also the most likely to visit a physical library. It wasn’t that
way just 10 years ago. How many
other legacy industries can you think of today that can say their
strongest growth is among young, affluent, power-internet users? Something is going very right in library land. The music business ought to pay close attention to what’s going on there.”
From the people who brought you the endlessly fascinating, Baby Name Wizard's “Name Voyageur” web site which shows the popularity of various names during the past 100 years, a new web site called Nymbler – Your Personal Baby Name Assistant which provides baby name recommendations.
Some of their suggestions when we put in “Jason” and “Shea” as “Inspirations” included: Brian, Kier, Shea (for a boy), Bryn, Logan, Cael, Eamon, Ione, Quinn, Sybil. Not a Pace to be found but I think Shea said that name wasn't in their database at all. And some of their suggestions (I didn't list them all) were on our shortlist so maybe there's something to it? Oh, and if you're interested in this type of thing, the print version of the Baby Name Wizard is great fun as well – even better than the web site because it lists suggested sibling names, categorizes names in a variety of different ways and gives more information about each name in general.
I did this last year and found it a good way to sum up my year so I thought I’d do it again today as 2007 comes to a close.
What did you do this year that you’d never done before?
Became a father!
Did anyone close to you give birth? Well, my wife for starters! My brother-in-law and his girlfriend had a baby six months after Pace was born (if you have kids within the same calendar year, they’re apparently “Irish Twins” so does this make Pace & Dennon “Irish Cousins”?) We know a lot of friends and acquaintances who’ve had babies in the last year or two and it honestly seems like there’s a bit of a baby boom going on right now, probably linked to Saskatchewan’s strong economy and sense of optimism (or it could be a batch of faulty rubbers. )
Did anyone close to you die?
My last living grandparent, Wally Peet died a week after Pace was born. A PhD student at FIMS who was my age named Chris Dixon was also a shocking loss.
What countries did you visit?
A couple shopping trips to North Dakota to take advantage of the soaring Canadian dollar were the extent of our travel this year. Well, we traveled a lot if you consider our weekly commute to Weyburn. And the fact that a large part of my job consists of visiting rural branches covering the entire southeastern portion of Saskatchewan.
What would you like to have in next year that you lacked this year?
Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.
What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory?
March 31 – start my first job as a professional librarian
May 19 – Pace is born
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I’m quite proud of the advocacy work I did which convinced a newly amalgamated community of three small villages to join our library region instead of another bordering library region which they were initially planning to join.
What was your biggest failure?
I’m sure there are some but I try not to to dwell.
What was your biggest surprise?
I know it’s 50-50 odds but Pace being a boy was a great surprise.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major though I recently did have an MRI to follow-up on an issue I had about fifteen years ago that hasn’t really been assessed since that time.
What was the best thing you bought?
I just bought a 250GB external USB drive that I’m quite impressed with. Now I’ve got all my MP3’s, movies, photos and various other digital files on a device that’s about half the size of a paperback book (and only ~$150 at Costco if you’re interested.)
Whose behaviour merited celebration?
It’ll sound like ass-kissing but Shea’s been amazing this year. I always knew she’d be a wonderful mother but the amount of work she puts in to that job continually astounds me.
Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Oh, lots of people probably – some that are far away (<cough> George Bush </cough>) and some that are closer to me.
Where did most of your money go?
It’s not our biggest expense but it feels like we’ve spent a lot on gas for the weekly commute to Weyburn.
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Anytime Pace hit a milestone of any kind blew my mind – smiling, crawling, babbling, eating solid food.
What song/album will always remind you of this year?
I really haven’t listened to a lot of new music this year. Sam Baker’s new album “Pretty World” is great and just the whole story around the new Radiohead album being offered on a pay-what-you-want model is pretty monumental.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder? Is it possible to be both happier and sadder? As happy as I am to be a father, there are those moments when I realise I’ll never have my young, carefree life again. (But that’s what midlife crises are for, right?)
Thinner or fatter? Fatter, unfortunately.
Richer or poorer? Richer since I had an actual income for most of the year.
What do you wish you’d done more of?
Pay more even more attention to Pace’s development and growth – I want to remember every little detail but that’s impossible when you’re at work most of the day. I’m already scheming to figure out how I can get a much longer paternity leave if we have another child someday.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
I really can’t think of anything off the top of my head. It’s been a fairly “put it in neutral” kind of year in many ways.
How will you be spending did you spend Christmas?
Spent it with Shea’s family then came to Indian Head on Boxing Day for a great visit with some Calgary friends we haven’t seen in years including their new daughter, Hali, who was also born this year. (A librarian’s point of pride – he’s a doctor but he took down a number of the books I told him I’d read in the last year.)
Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
As I said last year, we literally do not use the phone anymore. So I’d have to say it was the customer service lines at Sears, Canadian Tire and various other places that forced us to spend a lot of time on the phone (well, on hold) with them.
What was your favourite TV program?
I try to make a point to watch at least some of Hockey Night in Canada each week – the opening feature, the intermission segments and most of the late game and after hours – but really, that’s it for my TV watching these days.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is such a strong word. There are probably people I dislike this year that I didn’t last year but that’s pretty much inevitable, isn’t it?
What was the best book(s) you read?
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy for fiction and “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins for non-fiction.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
Quite embarrassingly, nothing pops to mind.
What did you want and get?
A healthy happy baby. So far, so good but as I’m sure I mentioned somewhere, everybody tells you how great being a parent is but no one ever tells you how constantly terrifying it is from the moment of conception on.
What did you want and not get?
We’re sort of the in the market for a new vehicle (yes, a mini-van – please check the jokes at the door!) but will likely hold off on any purchase until Shea gets back to work. Oh, and we wanted but did not get twins – thank god!
What were your favourite films of this year?
I think “The Simpsons Movie” was the only film I saw in a theatre this year so I’ll pick it even though it was underwhelming (but how could it ever live up to the expectations?)
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went to work, came home, had cake. I turned 34 this year.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More time at home.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
“Jason becomes an adult.” Jeans and t-shirts are replaced by khaki pants and collared shirts. Shaving happens on a much more regular basis. Still resisting wearing a tie as much as my boss would like but I’ll save those war stories for when my contract is over.
What kept you sane?
Early evening naps when I could sneak them in. Long baths where I could get lots of reading done.
What political issue stirred you the most?
Not that I’m doing anything about it but being back in rural Saskatchewan after fifteen years away has been a reminder as to what the issues, concerns and values are compared to urban centres.
Who did you miss?
More ass-kissery but I sincerely missed all my friends at FIMS. Quite a shock to go from being surrounded by smart, young, cool (<smooch>) budding librarians to a workplace which has a grand total of three other professional librarians, one of whom is in a city branch an hour away, one of whom has been a professional librarian for over 30 years and one of whom has been kept busy dealing with various issues at his own city library most of the year – even though it’s right next door to where I work.
Who was the best new person you met?
Besides Pace? One thing I love about my new job is that we have a great group of people at our headquarters.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year.
“It’s all politics.”
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
Ooh, little sleepy boy
Do you know what time it is?
Well the hour of your bedtime’s long been past
And though I know you’re fighting it
I can tell when you rub your eyes
You’re fading fast, oh fading fast
“St Judy’s Comet” – Paul Simon
What do you hope the next year brings?
A new job (hard to believe my contract is half over already!), continued good health and development for Pace and everyone else in our family. Oh, and a Stanley Cup for the Flames!
Here’s
another year-end meme where you record the first sentence of the blog
entry that began each month.
Pace is babbling up a storm these days (what's the line? “You spend the first few months of their lives waiting for them to talk and the next eighteen years wishing they would stop!” ) with lots of “da da”, “ga ga”, “blah blah, blah” (seriously!) and grunting noises.
So I did some research (okay, a Google search for “typical baby first words”) and found this article which will be of interest to both parents and any librarians who work with children.
Lists of Bests is a rather unique site that allows you to not only see various “Best of” lists but also to track your progress working through the lists and compare your progress with others. The usual categories (books, music, movies) are here but there are some unique ones too (travel, people, things to do before you die).
I told the story in a recent post about how the person that clued me in about Santa Claus was also the same person that first made me doubt the existence of God.
So I thought the picture below was appropriate for today, even though I know that posting this picture today is sort of the equivalent walking into an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day and pointing out that St. Patrick didn't drive the snakes from Ireland. (Or coming up to me on the opening day of the NHL season and saying that the Flames suck – which admittedly they do, based on their last two OT losses. And which reinforces my point that we all need to look at the hard cold truth behind any statement or belief!)
So anyhow, Happy Yule everyone and, whether you're a believer or not, here's hoping Santa brought you a copy of “The God Delusion” as a gift (or your local library brings it to you as a hold) as it's probably the single best book I read in the last year!
