Another big milestone in the ongoing battle against Covid – getting our eight year old booked for her first vaccination!
(And the email confirmation had the actual address but its definitely the most “Saskatchewan” thing ever to list the location of the vaccination clinic as a business that moved three years ago!)
Hard to believe it’s been two years since we moved into our new house – time flies but a good reminder that time is pretty meaningless in the age of Covid! 😉
“Pink Houses” – John Mellencamp
A lot of atheists pride themselves on having amazing critical thinking skills as the reason they’re atheists.
Turns out being an atheist might have more to do with what your parents did (or didn’t do) in terms of religious displays than anything you did yourself!
Some research has shown that less displays of faith growing up = better chance of being an atheist as an adult.
For me, there’s definitely some truth to this – our family didn’t go to church regularly, we didn’t have religious symbols in the house, we didn’t say grace at meals (except maybe “big” ones like Christmas or Easter).
So that likely had a subliminal influence about the importance of religion compared to a kid who’s surrounded by it (and threatened by it?) from the moment they’re born.
But personally, I still think one of the biggest influences on my questioning religion and eventually becoming an atheist was one of my best friends who, as a kid, would question what the difference was between the gods the Ancient Greeks believed in and the god that Christians believed in.
Or question his catechism teacher about how Adam & Eve could have created all humanity if they had two sons. Or what the meat-eating animals on Noah’s ark ate if there were only two of every animal.
Or even getting me reading science-fiction novels that often made you see power structures and mass-control in unique ways.
A recent FB post by someone doing a presentation at a library conference asked for good “Other Duties As Assigned” stories.  A real mix of cool, gross and sad and pretty much everything in between as you’d expect.
(I did my own list of these types of experiences a few years ago but its’ probably time for an update – though I’ve fortunately only had to remove a bat from a library once!) 🙂
…my grandma having this set of very unique books, The Richards Topical Encyclopedia in her sun room is one of them!
One of my pet theories is that most professions require extremely specialized knowledge – heart surgeon, carpenter, PhD researcher, appliance repair person.
Librarian is one of a very few (teacher? politician?) professions where being an extreme generalist is to your benefit – knowing a little bit about a lot of different areas of knowledge.
(And I agree with the author of the linked blog post – #14 was the best as a kid – “Leisure Time Activities” including games, recipes, myths, magic and more! On the other hand, I couldn’t even open #3 – I think – as a kid because it had pictures of snakes!)
After our blizzard this week, I thought this video was fitting. Reminds me that things could also be a bit more bleak! 😉
You love to see it…
O’Toole has booted Senator Denise Batters from caucus.
Of course, this is unlikely to shut her up. This may only embolden her.
It’s also sending a statement as to what kind of dissent he will and will not tolerate, and it’s funny how he’ll tolerate anti-vaxxers but not her. pic.twitter.com/5ptC8NJ3tI— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 17, 2021
[Edit: This sequence of tweets is funnier…]
I had no idea Conservative drama would be so delicious. I thought it would taste like stale vanilla sheet cake.#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/3aUO6MQgR2
— Jenny From the Block(ed List) (@jennyleeshee) November 17, 2021
