i'm father mackenize

I'm writing sermons that nobody will hear.

To understand, check out Today's Globe and Mail article on bloggers.

this time around...

It struck me today as I walked around campus how different the university experience is this time around. Last time I was at university it was a whole new world, it was the first time I had lived away from home and it was a chance to discover myself.

I was hugely involved in campus life. At Waterloo, the student government was the Federation of Students and over my four years there (to get a three-year degree) I served in a countless number of different positions. I also sat on University and local town committees. I knew the issues, I ran campaigns, I even got the chance to help organize a new provincial group to represent students. I was even a local organizer for a federal leadership campaign.

University was my life. I lived and breathed student politics. Every Thursday it was a rush to get the student newspaper to see what was said. All my friends were involved in the same things. We lived as a large group, living our lives in each others laps, figuratively, and in some cases literally.

This time the university experience is something different. Walking around today I realized there is a referendum going on that I don't know anything about. I'm not even sure when the student newspaper comes out. I can't tell you the last edition that I read.

I'm at a different point in my life, where I know who I am and what I am doing. I've had a career, a mortgage, I'm not here to discover myself. Maybe because I'm in a law school, I just feel that university is a means to an end. I need the degree to do the job. I'm enjoying learning, but it's not the same. I'm having fun, but once again it's not the same. I do like that my life is broader than just the university, which is a positive change.

I guess the realization hit me today; I'm a little sad it will never be as good as the first time.

will I still want you, will I still need you when I'm 64

For the last several months I've been giving a lot of thought to getting a tattoo. I'm still on the borderline. I've narrowed it down to a few options, and have a good idea of what I would get and where it would go, but not sure whether I can go through with it. The biggest issue is the committment. Right now I think I would realy like to have one, the question becomes will I still be happy that I have one thirty years from now, when I'm 64.

I understand that they can be removed, but that would be a lot to go through. In addition to the committment, there's the whole pain and phobia of needles, but I'm told the pain isn't really that bad.

The needle thing, I'm pretty sure I can get over that, it's not like I'm dealing with an overzealous nurse with a hypodermic needle, like I had to in the past. To make a long story short, when I was just a young boy, I was at the doctor's office to get an immunization shot, well the nurse seemed a little too excited, put the needle into the wrong place and I passed out. Since that time I've had what I consider to be a rational fear of needles.

Several of my friends have tattoos (you know who you are) and there may be other friends I know who do, that I don't know about. The general idea is that I would get a tattoo on my lower leg, that way it is inconspicous for work (I'm never likely to have a job that requires me to wear shorts), but I can show it off publicly if I want to, if I don't want to, I wear pants.

Who knows whether I'll go through with it, but it is fun giving it some thought.

five, seven, five

Well it is another exciting contracts class today, it's all about privity. This is a new topic so I will have to give it some thought, but it has been a long time since I've done some contracts haiku, so I've decided to go back to some of the contracts basics and draft some more until I finally understand privity and consideration enough to write some on those topics.

battle of the forms
when terms end up in conflict
last shot wins the day

- -

an offer you make
i then tell you i accept
a contract is made

lord denning rocks

It looks like curling and law go together, certainly here at the little law school on the prairie. Today, our team "Lord Denning Rocks" (offical name Law Team #2) hit the curling rink on campus. Yes, a curling rink right on campus, welcome to the prairies.

First an explanation of the name for those NITK (not in the know). Lord Denning is a prolific English judge, most notably from his stint on the English Court of Appeal. Not only was he prolific in the number of his judgments, he was a very descriptive writer, capturing the essence of english country life in his judgments. Lord Denning would begin today's post on the curling game something like this:

"On a cold, blustery day as the wind blew across the snow-covered prairie, proud people gathered at their local curling rink to wage a collegial battle. Amid cries of "hurrry" and "haarrrrd", they took to the ice and threw rocks at painted houses..."

The rocks part of our name, obvious enough, Lord Denning, as a Judge, he just rocks; and in curling, the rocks (pictured above) are what you throw at the "house", the painted rings at the other end of rink.

We were a rag tag group, none of us having played very much, and some, never at all. But we put in a respectable 6-5 loss. We even started out scoring two in the first end, and stealing two in the second.

i live in a continuous state of excitement...

Ok, the title of this post would work better if I lived in one of the 50 states in the USA, but the statement "I live in a continuous province of excitement" doesn't quite have the same ring to it. But I'm told it's true, and how do I know that, well because the Government of Saskatchewan has rebranded our fine province. We are now:



Yes, that's right, get out your permanent markers, your maps, globes and atlases, and start drawing in the exclamation point. We are a province that feels it needs to put an exclamation point on its name to tell the rest of the country, and the world, just how damn exciting we are. This is no ordinary exclamation mark, let me tell you, this is a $1.5 million dollar, I'm going to be aired on the superbowl exclamation mark. Yes the Government is spending $1.5 million of our tax dollars to reinforce how exciting this province is.

But you know what is not exciting, coroner's inquests, forest fires, or west nile virus. Now some of you may be quite surprised, becuase like me, you're a little warped, and do find these things exciting. But the Saskatchewan Government is telling you this is not true. According to this CBC report, the government has told its employees not to use the exclamation point when making announcements about topics like these.

When I went to Flak U (public relations school for those not in the know), we learned about things like this. However, the one thing we were regularly told is that you have one exclamation mark to use in your career, so choose wisely. Obviously the communications brain trust in Saskatchewan did not receive the same training. This exclamation mark now appeares everywhere.

If you've read the CBC article (what you haven't yet, go back up and read it, I link to these things for a reason), you will also see that the Government has published a 29-page book of guidelines on how to use the new rebranded logo. For those reporters out there who haven't moved over to flakdom, or those not in the communications field, this is called a visual identity policy. This is the first lesson in PR101 that I offer you.

A visual identity policy is a good thing (Megan, stop yelling NOOOOOO). It sets out how, when and where to use an organization's logo, wordmark or brand identity. In the old days, this was never much of a problem as printing was quite an elaborate and expensive process and not just anyone could do it. However, technology has changed this, with desktop publishing and free internet posting people are constantly publishing or postin documents with their own version of the logo.

For example, as the CBC noted, a visual identity policy will tell you not to stretch, distort, or in this specific case, remove the exclamation point, as demonstrated below:



The goal of a visual identity policy is to create and maintain a consistent image for all the organizations public documents. This is a good thing, it is how you build a brand. Look at some of the largest stores, corporations etc, whenever you see their logo it is always the same. You come to know and recognize it, and corporations will go a long way to protect it. In essence, properly done a visual identity policy can result in your logo actually becoming worth money. Every large organization should have one.

Opponents say that it can stifle creativity or just add a layer of bureacracy, but sometimes in this day and age, all you actually have is your name and your reputation, and a visual identity policy is one way you can try to control how they are used.

it is our respectful submission...

Well, the big week at the little law school on the prairie is now over. Moots are wrapping up this afternoon. I finished mine yesterday. I thought it was a lot of fun, and standing there presenting my case, being questioned by the judges, just brought out the old media whore in me. I mean really it was thirty minutes where it was all about me, who wouldn't enjoy that?

I think I did well, but will know more next week. I have to watch a video replay of the moot with my professor on Tuesday. Although there were not judgments for individual moots, they delivered a judgment based on the case after all of us had gone. Although the appellants won, us respondents did get one of the judges to dissent in support of our side.

Now, it is crunch time. I fell a little far behind in my classes because of the moot so I'll be doing double time the next little while catching up.

moot schmoot

It's done, it's over and it was a lot of fun. More tomorrow, celebrating tonight.

and I thought I was having a bad day

Photo: STEFAN SIMONSEN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

it's all moot

It's an intense week at the little law school on the prairie. It's moot week. Based on the definition of moot, one would think that this wouldn't be a big deal. However, not at the LLSOTP. This is the week where all the first years appear in moot court. We have to prepare either an appeal or a response to the appeal and go in and argue it in front of professors and upper year students acting as Judges.

Generally it creates a lot of tension, stress and high anxiety. Having worked in media relations as long as I have, getting up, speaking and answering questions will be no big deal. It's the law that's tough, plus the facts don't go my way. I'm arguing to uphold the conviction of a mother who blew up a cliff to save her family (who weren't actually in danger, but she didn't know). However, I must be more stressed than I thought because today has been a study in procrastination. I moot this Friday, but spent the day grocery shopping, getting a hair cut, doing laundry, doing dishes, cleaning my apartment. Hell, I even vacuumed.

Anyways, it's back to the moot work. I did a quick search to see what I could find on mooting to try to provide some context to the post, and found this great video from the big law school on the prairie.

this is a test of the emergency broadcast system

BEEEEPP, this is only a test, in case of a real emergency, details will follow. Okay, actually some details will follow.

Although it appears others have been able to, I haven't been able to access the blog since some time yesteday. Sometimes it was a server error, sometimes it wouldn't load, or I couldn't sign in, or at times just freeze. Some problems may have been my computer, while others seem to be with blogger.

Anyways, hopefully this post will go up and stay, and I'll follow it up with something else a little later.

sunday dinner

Sunday dinner with the Saskatoon dads is one of the best things about attending school here in Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon dads are old friends from the North who moved here a few years ago. It's been a pleasure having them back in my life on a regular basis. Also, it's nice having people in my life who aren't directly connected to the little law school on the prairie. A little bit of reality and perspective can go a long way.

This past Sunday, over a fabulous dinner of chicken with peaches (I know it sounds strange, but let me tell you, it's very tasty), talk turned to the blog. I recounted the story of my visitor from Arkansas, and how people will find me when they search for Anne Murray. One of the dads took that as opportunity to point out that I really should be putting better music on the blog. I have the sense that he doesn't approve of some of my recent choices. His tastes range to things that are a little harder than mine. However, in the spirit of taking input, I offer the following little ditty, something I'm sure both of us can enjoy.

i don't think we're in kansas anymore

After the recent Arkansas post I really shouldn't have been surprised, but yesterday I had a hit from Kansas. Now that I have the statcounter working properly, it's proving to be a wealth of information.

I "drilled-down" the details of their visit, combine that with a little google searching and voila, I have a profile of my Kansas visitor. A good public relations tactic is to monitor what people are saying about you, both the good and the bad. The Internet, and the proliferation of blogs and web sites like these make this even more important. It appears I was visited today by a public relations person today doing just that. The hit came from Heifer International. It appears if you do an blog search for "heifer international", my blog comes up.

Heifer International is a charitable organization focused on ending hunger and caring for the environment. One of their initiatives is to give families farm animals to provide them with food and resources.

Interestingly enough, they appear to be running off a server in Kansas, but their head office is in Little Rock, Arkansas. HMMM, very interesting, my blog world is converging.

Anyways, I offer this plug for them, as I am sure they may have been disappointed to find the entry was about another charity. I would have added them to my "do some good" links if only they had answered the burning question I posed below, why is it Ar-kan-saw, not Ar-Kan-sas?

when will these people ever learn

Alright, it's like the bailey's thing all over again. I'm at school, I'm heading over to the catholic college for lunch, because these catholics make good, cheap soup. Because of some uber-virus infecting the hospital and closing my starbucks, it's 11:30 am and I had not yet had any caffeine. In a sleepy, lack of caffeine-induced haze, I reach into the pop fridge and grab a bottle of diet coke.

Those who know me well, understand my relationship with diet coke. I am a coke addict. Diet coke is my crack. At work, I used to keep a case of it under my desk. At home, I probably have enough empty cases to make furniture out of. I have few addictions (at least I like to think so), but diet coke is the big one. Anyways, back to the story.

I reach in, grab my bottle of diet coke and head off back into line, when I come to the realization, that hey, the label is different. I then notice, in small letters, just barely legible, it says cherry vanilla, beside the words diet coke. I literally tossed the bottle back into the fridge, frantically searched through the remaining bottles until I found a plain old diet coke.

Remember "new coke" and how well that went over. When will these people ever learn? What's with all the new flavours, there's now lemon, lime and black cherry vanilla diet coke. People want what they like and what they have. If I want lime in my diet coke, I'll cut and squeeze one, I don't need some artificial flavour injected into my diet coke.

At minimum, clearly label these items and store them on different shelves. People use your drinks to wake up, they are not always going to be alert when grabbing bottles. If the thought of me being trapped in the middle of the woods with the wrong baileys scares you, think of what it would be like without the right diet coke. It wouldn't be pretty people.

one's a heifer

The first thing that I thought of today when I received an update on my journey into the glamourous world of international finance and cattle breeding was Sinclair Ross' story "one's a heifer". I think I read that story in grade nine, but it's always stayed with me.

In the update I recieved, I was told that the microfinance loan I gave through kiva.org has been disbursed to Natik Asadov, a cattle breeder in Azerbaijan. The site maintains a journal where I will receive updates on the progress of Natik's business and the repayment of the loan. The loan is going to be used to expand his business by buying three more cattle. Although I don't know for sure, I'm sure at least one of the three will be a heifer.

hello arkansas!

I was checking out my site traffic today as the little sister and I have been spending a lot of time talking about the merits of various site tracking tools, and discovered that I had a visitor from Arkansas.


Yep, Arkansas. First off, if you come back to the site I'd like to say howdy, and go hillary!

What I found more intriguing was how someone from Arkansas would find a little ole blog like mine. Thankfully my site tracker told me how. It appears that if you do a search for "Anne Murray Canadian Singer blog", my blog comes up. Gulp!

Who knew that my confession of my love of all things Anne would travel across the continent. I may now have a reputation as a fan of easy listening music. So, if you've reached this site looking for Anne Murray, I'm afraid I just have one post confessing my adoration and that I must see her live before I die. For all things Anne, please click here.

For the record, I like other kinds of music, true it tends to be trashy britpop, or thumpy dance music, but at least it's not all easy listening.

One last question, why does Arkansas sound like Ar-kan-saw, when Kansas sounds like Kan-sas?

a gentleman's game

Cricket is one of those games that seems to have maintained its traditions. I learned about cricket on my visits to England. On one trip I had the chance to watch my younger cousin play. On that day he was a batsman, which is one of the players at the wicket hitting the ball. Depending on how far you hit the ball, you run between the wickets to score points. If you hit it out of the circle, you receive six points.

He was having an excellent run and had been batting for quite some time when he hit one out of the circle. This gave him 50 points on his bat. When this happens, the batsman receives a round of applause javascript:void(0)for his achievement from the audience and even the opposing fieldsmen. It's all very civilized, british and gentlemanly.

How is this all related; this is my 50th post on the blog and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the achievement, and look forward to reaching the century mark.

dressing for the rapture

This spring it looks like priest chic is in. Not just any priest chic mind you, catholic vatican high chic.

This photo is from Donatella Versace's new collection. According to a report on Towleroad, Ms. Versace was inspired by the Pope's own personal secretary, a Father Ganswein. Who knew the Holy See was so fashionable?

This trend actually intrigues me. I think it would be kind of interesting to see people walking around in priest inspired clothing. It's kind of like guerilla godliness, we can all seem to be a little closer to god, while looking good.

Also, I believe that people tend to underdress anyways, so anything a little more formal would be good.

when the learnin' was easy

It's a tough slog at school right now, big projects requiring lots of work, but not worth a lot of marks, falling behind in readings, and complex discussions of constitutions, charters and bills. It has made me nostalgic for the days of my youth when all I needed to know about these things could be learned in three minutes on Schoolhouse Rock.

Schoolhouse Rock was a saturday morning cartoon that provided interesting lessons on a range of topics from politics to grammar in short entertaining clips. Kind of an educational MTV for the pyjama set. I have a number of favourite clips, ranging from Conjunction Junction a lesson on the proper use of conjunctions, and the following clip, I'm just a Bill, on how a bill becomes law. Come to think of it, maybe Schoolhouse Rock is to blame for this whole law school thing.

does this seem fair?

The Globe and Mail described this photo as "Male and female riot police officers form a line to stop anti-ASEAN summit protesters marching in Cebu, Philippines". Okay, well first a shout out to the Philipines for taking equality seriously. To my knowledge I've never seen women featured prominently in a riot squad before, but come on, is this fair? I have no problem with women being there, but give the girls a fighting chance.

Look at the men, fully clothed, in pants. Having not been in a riot, I don't know, but I assume pants are very practical. If Svend Robinson hadn't been wearing pants during the Quebec City riots, lord knows what would have happened with those rubber bullets. Also, notice that the men have considerable protective gear on their legs, shin pads, etc. The women, a lovely blue skirt; unless it's made out of kevlar, this hardly seems fair.

And those shoes? Come on. I am normally not a fan of the sensible shoe, in fact I hold considerable respect for women in the NWT who wear killer heels, but these women are going in to break up a riot. If ever there was a time for sensible shoes, I believe this is it. The men are wearing combat boots for gods sake. I guess maybe this just proves that women are inherently tougher than men.

Photo credit: Eugene Hoshiko/AP.

guilty pleasure #8

Alright, there's really no excuse that can be offered for this one. It's bad britpop from the turn of the recent century. It's campy, sugary and sweet, real bubblegum pop, and I won't try to justify or excuse this guilty pleasure in any way. The band was called STEPS and they have since disbanded. The song is called "Love's Got a Hold on My Heart".



A wee bit of trivia, the blonde guy in the band, Ian "H" Watkins is currently appearing in Celebrity Big Brother in the UK with another pop group singer, Jo from S Club 7, and other b list brit celebs.

ifamily

It's funny the reaction people have when I make reference to my iPods. It ranges from disbelief to curiousity to disgust. I spent much of the holidays at home explaining how I ended up with four iPods. Yes, I know four, you're probably having one of the reactions detailed above right now. If it's any consolation, I'm not proud and mildly embarassed but there is an explanation.

I like to think of it as my iFamily, the father (40 GB), the mother (20 GB), the baby (1GB shuffle) and the newest member of the family, an adopted bigger brother (2 GB nano). This is the order they came into my family.

My first iPod was the 40 gig. I got such a large one for two purposes, first for a music player, and the second as a back-up drive for my laptop. I was immediately hooked. It sounds corny but the iPod brought music back into my life on a daily basis. I took it with me everywhere. One weekend I was camping in Fort Providence, and riding my bike along the Mackenzie Highway. I was riding along, listening to the music when all of a sudden, the music stopped. I turned and saw my iPod bouncing down the highway. There was a dent in one corner, it sounded like the needle had gone through the hard drive, and it didn't work. I checked the warranty and it seemed clear that for accidents like these the warranty wouldn't apply.

Recognizing I had become so used to the iPod that I couldn't survive without it, I purchased a replacement, the 20 gig and life resumed. After considerable bugging from friends, I submitted a service request to Apple on the broken iPod before the warranty expired. Convinced I would get a "you obviously threw this against the wall and stop wasting our time" email, I shipped the broken Pod off to Apple. Within a week, I had a response saying that a replacement iPod was on its way to me. Boom, I had two.

The shuffle was for exercise and skidooing. It was too difficult using the big iPods when running on the treadmill. It was put to regular use on many of my snowmobile trips and I was known for the big, boppin' helmet.

I was happy and content with the one child iFamily, when an unexpected addition happened last fall. In preparing for school, I bought a new laptop. Free with purchase was the iPod nano. The nano has taken over on the exercise front and for walking back to school. The shuffle is essentially now a 1 gig USB memory key. This is how the the iFamily came together, and I promise there will be no more.

lip smackin'

All this cold and dry weather has been waging war on my body. Ask my friends, I am rarely a cold person, but yesterday in Winnipeg I was wearing four layers - global warming my ass.

This dry weather has also prompted a question that fashion and grooming expert Russel Smith has to my knowledge not yet answered - what is the manly way to apply lip balm? This weekend I have been switching back and forth between two methods the dip and rub from the tub of balm and the the stick across the lips method.

The dip and rub in the tub method involves the little jars of lip balm. You unscrew the top, rub your finger around the jar and then run that same finger along your lips. The stick across the lips, takes your stick of lip balm (note I do not use the term lipstick) and traces it across the lips. Not using lip balm is not an option, but how best to apply?

In private, I prefer the stick method. It's efficient, clean and simple, but not manly. In public, it looks a little like applying lipstick. In public, I prefer the dip and rub from the tub. Granted running your finger across your lips is not the manliest or sexiest method, but it does beat the lip stick.

Maybe the happy medium, is the tube. Distinct enough from the lipstick, but still clean, efficient and not requiring fingers, it may be the solution for the best method of applying lip balm.

hello winnipeg, are you ready to rock?

Winnipeg is said to be the coldest spot in Canada. This is my first time in Winnipeg in winter and let me tell you I think they are right. I've now lived in some cold and windy places, but Winnipeg may take the prize. The cold snap that followed the "blizzard of 07" (as the media has decided to call it) has followed me right through to the 'peg. How arctic air can get colder as it comes south is beyond me, but then again I've never been good with the laws of physics.

a challenge from little miss know-it-all

Little Miss Know-it-All and I have spent considerable time bemoaning the quality of reporting of the local paper in the community we once both lived in. Well I have been bemoaning, but Little Miss Know-it-All has been on a bit of a journalism jihad.

A number of her recent posts demonstrate this. One post, Little Miss Know-it-All joins the editorial board, a mock-editorial had me freaking out when I thought it was actually published. The most recent post offers a tongue-in-cheek review of one of their latest news (and I use the word loosely) articles on YouTube. Click through and read the article before reading the rest of this post.

In our talks about this poor quality of reporting and editing, I indicated that the story could probably be saved with some rewriting and a judicious editing of the puns. Little Miss Know-it-All's reaction was "you should totally do that and post it on your blog". Granted, I'm no reporter, but I did work in media relations for a number of years, so I decided to accept the challenge.

I decided on the following rules, I could only use the article for material, do no additional research, or add in material. I could edit, paraphrase, infer, rewrite and remove but could not add new content. This is not exactly how I would do the story if I was assigned to write it, but simply what could have been done by the editors with the story they were delivered.

__________

From Dog Harnesses to Helicopters: Northern Life on You Tube

[Name of town withheld] (Jan 12/07) [Name of town withheld} residents are capturing northern life on video and are posting it online for the world to see.

In less than two years, You Tube has become a cultural phenomenon on the Internet. Started in 2005 by two young Californians, the web site allows everyone to post and download video footage, homemade or bootlegged, for free. You Tube has proven so popular Google recently purchased the site for $1.65 billion.

Although Google still needs to resolve the legality of bootlegged video, such as clips from movies or TV shows, some of the most popular videos on You Tube are produced by people on their home video camera.

A search for [name of town withheld] resulted in more than 70 videos posted by local residents. The posts range from a helicopter tour of the city, to a mini-documentary on Folk-on the Rocks.

After reviewing these video clips, “How to harness a Canadian Eskimo dog,” deserves some recognition of homegrown talent. In this video an enthusiastic [name of town withheld] gentleman promises a 15-second harness demonstration.

"You can tell you're getting better at this, honey," shouts the man's spouse around the one-minute mark while the dog jumps all over him. The appearance of subtitles, necessary to highlight dialogue over the yelping dogs, definitely gives this effort a homegrown, comedic feel.

You Tube also provides the opportunity for viewers to comment on the videos, where comments range from serious to sarcastic.

Local youth are some of [name of town withheld]’s most active contributors to You Tube. Whether demonstrating their basketball slam-dunk skills in a video called “Chillin’N’illin,” or posting highlight reels of the local school sports teams, their activities are now available on the Internet.

The videos all have a local feel that captures some of the interesting elements of life in the North. Life in [name of town withheld]’s Woodyard is a popular topic. Whether clips from the Snow King’s dances to life in a shack, the videos offer the world a look into northern life.

However, that local feel comes with homemade quality, shaking handheld cameras and grainy video.

__________

As an added bonus, here's the dog harness video featured in the article:



Also, if you are worked up about the quality of local reporting or just like a challenge, why not do a rewrite of the article yourself following the rules above, send it in and I'll post them on the site.

no wire hangers, ever!

While reading the news today I saw the reports that Meryl Streep has been signed to play the lead role of "Donna" in the movie version of Mamma Mia - The Musical. I hadn't heard that it was being turned into a movie but given the recent success of Chicago, Dreamgirls and the upcoming Hairspray, I shouldn't be surprised.

This news reminded me of another time ABBA and the movies came together. It was the early 90s, my first time in New York City and I was at a gay bar in New York City called Spash, which I believe is still open today. It was Musical Monday and judging by how everyone knew the video by heart, this video was a weekly event. The video takes ABBA's Mamma Mia and mixes it with clips from the movie Mommie Dearest. This was the movie version of the autobiography by the daughter of screen queen Joan Crawford.

Here's the video:

the sky is white

Well most of Canada (well southern Canada) has been wondering for quite some time now, where winter had gone. It's been a warm and balmy winter so far. I can safely say that winter is back. The sky is white, we have 60km hour winds and the snow is falling sideways. Visibility is so bad you can barely see the car in front of you. I'm sitting hear listening to the wind howl. Environment Canada has declared this a blizzard.

It's funny, after five winters in the Northwest Territories you would think this would be nothing, but I don't quite recall a day like this up north. The blowing snow is unreal, and there is nothing to stop it, I'm sure the snow blowing outside my window is from Manitoba and it's going to keep going until it hits the rockies.

The brain trust that runs the law school had a banner day today. Our only class today was a guest speaker, a Judge from Regina. It was obvious he would not be coming, and a notice was posted on the web site saying that the guest speaker was cancelled, and "All Legal Research and Writing students (both sections) are expected to attend a lecture held in the Moot Court at 1:30pm".

Considering the blizzard-like (actually, it's officially a blizzard) conditions, you would think they would have just cancelled the class, but no, the class must go on. So, we all risk life-and-limb getting to class, to be told at 1:25pm that they were closing the school because of the blizzard and we were to make our way home if we felt it was safe, otherwise to hunker down at the school. WTF? You make us come all this way to tell us to turn around and go back!

Anyways, I'm back home safe and sound, and will hunker down at home listening to the wind blow.

say it ain't so

Growing up I had better taste in music. I liked much more cutting edge music at the time, and one of my favourites was Morrissey, first with the Smiths, and then as solo artist.

In earlier posts, here and here, I have lamented the Eurovision contest. Now, according to the BBC, Morrissey is in talks about becoming involved in the next Eurovision contest. Oh, how the principled have fallen.

I'm torn, I hate to see him fall to such a new low, but the thought of him representing the UK could mean an actual shot at doing reasonably well. Mind you, having a popular artist will not be enough to break through the regional bloc voting that now dominates the Eurovision contest. In the end, it will probably be just a sad footnote when people are writing descriptions of Morrissey's career.

if glen was to be blinded by this chalk

I think I may have got busted for not paying attention in class this morning. The funny thing is I was actually doing class related work when it happened. I was looking down at my readings, and not at my torts prof, Coops, when I became the target in today's class. Torts is what many people think of when they think of the law; it's when you sue people, most often for being negligent.

Today's lesson, factual causation. This is how you prove one person's negligence caused the damage and the loss.

Coops (well known for vigorous arm movements during class) decided to use an example: "say I was moving my arm around and this chalk flew out of my hand and hit" big pause, quick look around the room "glen in the eye, the chalk bits got into his eye and he could no longer see", what or who caused this action. I am pleased to say that this class full of baby tort lawyers seeing dollar signs and an action rose to my defence and pointed out that it was Coops negligent hold on the chalk, or overzealous lecturing that caused the damage. The discussion continued to bring in the people sitting in front of me for not stopping the chalk, the laws of physics, and as one classmate pointed out (on msn thankfully and not to the full class), that I may have been contributory negligent as I was probably on msn and not paying attention.

All this got me to thinking about being in a smaller school. The last month, as has been detailed on the blog, has involved a lot more socialization. I've been going out more and you meet a lot more people, including the profs who come drink with us (Coops included). Before that, I don't think Coops knew my name, and in fact spent one tutorial referring to me as Greg. I didn't catch it in time, and then it was too embarassing to correct him. It led to much hilarity in and out of class.

Anyways, I've decided it's kind of nice being in a school where the profs know your name, and care about how you're doing. At the bar Friday night, Coops came up and said he had seen my marks and told me I was doing good. The one drawback to them knowing your name is you get picked on for examples like these, or when they think they may not have your full attention.

forgive me father, for I have sinned

It appears that the blog is slowly turing into a confessional, certainly when it comes to confessing to the music I like. Although I revel in my guilty pleasures, one does wonder whether I, like Megan, should be ashamed of my mp3 player?

I refuse to believe that I should be ashamed of the music I like. I like thumpy dance music; bad europop; and have the muscial tastes of a 12 year old girl; what's wrong with that? However, in the spirit of redemption, I offer this one big confession, my ultimate favourite singer (probably of all time), the pride of Springhill, Nova Scotia, the grand dame of Canadian songstresses, Anne Murray. Before I die, I will see Anne Murray in concert. If she doesn't sing Snowbird when I do, it may result in her death, but that's another story, never mind, anyways.

Until that big day comes, and the dream is fulfilled, I'll just need to continue to listen to Anne on the iPod, and watch her on you tube.

ring, ring, why don't you give me a call

Well I lasted five months without one, but I finally broke down and got a new cell phone (that's it on the right). My old cell phone was supplied by my employer, and funny enough when I told them I was leaving to go to school, they wanted their phone back; how rude.

In spirited defiance of both them and this technology-driven world, I thought that I would be able to go back to the good old days of a cell phone free existence. I tried, but five months in, I have failed, it just can't be done. With nary a pay phone to be found anywhere, I'm constantly on hands and knee in front of cellularly endowed friends asking to make a phone call.

Also, it's been impossible to try to remember telephone numbers. After two years of not having to dial anyone's number, I had forgotten most of them. Little slips of paper with numbers on them were constantly getting lost; but a built-in phone book is only one of the features of this exciting new phone.

In fact, in just 24 hours of life with the new phone, I'm beginning to feel inadequate to my many-featured new phone. I have yet to find something this phone can't do. It talks and listens on its own, it will make calls for me; take messages; send messages by text; and something called "say and send" which I am yet to figure out. It has "bluetooth" (I'm thinking this must be some sort of incredibly excited or exotic dental disease); a phone that will take photos and videos; play music; surf the web; and watch television clips.

Who could possibly use all these features? I just needed a phone, but it appears you can't get one of those anymore. Anyways, one of the advantages is the ability to select personal ring tones. What's mine, you ask? The next time you call, all those around me will be hearing the jingly tones of ABBA's Ring, Ring; fitting, no?

For those not familiar with this early ABBA greatness, here's a clip for you. Please note that I have provided a sing-a-long version and expect you to sing-a-long.

high finance

My new role of international financier is off to an excellent start. In just two days, Natik has gone from 31% of his loan funded to 100% funded.

I should soon be recieving updates on how his business is progressing and repayment should occur in roughly 12 months or so.

I wasn't expecting the money to be raised so quickly and over the several weeks will be going back to the web site in search of a new loanee. In the meantime you can continue to follow Natik's progress on their site and here on the blog.

Also, over the next little while, I'll be adding some more links to the "do some good" sidebar here on the blog.

guilty pleasure #7

The other day the little sister and I through the wonders of msn watched MuchMore Music's 50 Top Guilty Pleasures together. Both of us felt mildly ashamed about how much of our respective music collections was featured in the top 50. I guess I'm just a sucker for a catchy pop hook.

At a surprisingly low #29 was one of my particularly favourite guilty pleasures, Rick Astley. The original red headed skinny white boy with the really big voice (note to clay aiken, remember who came before you) was a staple growing up. This catchy tune and that chorus sung in Rick's big voice is so distinctive it's immediately recognizable. This guilty pleasure is a two-for-one in that the clip is from VH1's Pop-Up video, another guilty pleasure of mine.

i'm an international financier

I may not be able to balance my chequebook, but I have entered the fast-paced and glamorous world of international finance. I am officially a money lender.

I just made a $25 loan to Natik Asadov a young man in Azerbaijan looking to expand his farm business by purchasing three cattle. The whole deal was done in less than five minutes online.

Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, you can provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty.

It's a new, direct and sustainable way to fight global poverty, and for only a small amount of money you can help someone build a future.

If you have a minute, please check out the the site. Also, you can follow the progress of Natik Asadov's loan on the banner on the right side of my blog.

a big ole softie

I always thought that as you got older and more experienced you became more cynical and jaded. The reverse seems to be happening to me at the moment. I'm becoming a big ole softie. The worst of it is, I even fall for the stuff that's designed to get you. For example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, I can rarely get through an episode without tearing up, let alone any of the various animal shows that I have now just given up on watching.

Even when it comes to politics I am afraid that I am losing my cynical, snarky self. Normally I have nothing but cynicism for politics, particularly media stories about politics, but I came across a Wall Street Journal news story yesterday that left me feeling touched. It's such a sweet, nice story about two openly gay men and their friendship with former Republican President Gerald Ford. Unfortunately the article is now only available by subscription, but this blog entry on Towleroad provides a nice summary and hits all of the big "awh" moments.

You have to think that if there were more stories and people like this, there may just be a little more acceptance going around and a little less hate.

hey little sister, what have you done?

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you're beginning to pick up little snippets about my family, such as my brother, my Mom and Dad, or as they are more commonly known the parental unit, and the Yellowknife Moms. Well it's time to talk about my little sister Megan. This may prove to be a bit of a challenge, as technically I don't have one, and for some readers, my little sister may actually be yours.

Little Miss Know-it-All (see blogs I read) is just one of my little sister's personalities. Her other personalities include Mom, Friend, Media Watchdog, defender of the Pink, and one I affectionately call Rapture Girl. Yes little sister you were wrong to think you only had three personalities.

On her blog, Megan recounts how we met and what our relationship has been like ever since. There's some references to her throughout my blog (and in fact she should be considered the mother of the blog as she practically dared me to start this) but she has not received the full blog entry treatment.

I knew of Megan long before I actually met Megan. When you live in a small town, and work in an even smaller profession, you quickly hear about the new folks in town. It started with a few members of the fourth estate commenting on the fact that some new communications person in town "knew what they were doing". I was less than impressed. "Knowing what I was doing" was my schtick. You can't pull the "Come on, I'm the only PR guy who knows what he's doing" when dealing with reporters if someone else is out there. Consoling myself that we dealt with completely different topics I continued to go about my business with little thought to this person they called "Megan".

Slowly our paths began to cross, the incredibly long, but occasional email (Megan's media call emails are legendary for thier detail), a phone call here or there. We finally met face to face when we were introduced to each other by a reporter. That first meeting did not get off to the best start, I believe the first words out of Megan's mouth was "You're Glen, HEY, I WANT MY BOSS BACK!" Megan's boss had recently moved over to become my boss and there were some separation issues.

At the time I was thinking of going off to law school and this kicked off several months of clandestine activity over whether Megan would want to come over and replace me. Given our similar philosophies in dealing with the media we both thought it may be a good fit. Well plans changed, law school got delayed, I got promoted and my job was open right away. Megan agreed to come over for a 3 month trial period, and thankfully stayed. It was not an easy thing to do, given I was going to be her boss and she was doing my old job, but Megan came in, took over and most people forgot I even used to do it.

While doing all this, we quickly became fast friends. We have a lot in common, and the consensus around the office was that we looked and acted alike. For the first several weeks, we were regularly asked whether Megan was my sister, or how else were we related. We kept saying No, but in fact our relationship quickly came to mirror one of siblings, with all the good and bad that goes along with it.

Megan and I kept each other sane, and made each other just that little bit crazier. We knew which buttons to press to wind each other up. I'm quite proud I can get Megan from 0 to a foot-stomping 60 in under six seconds. The speaking aloud of one name alone is almost guaranteed to produce those results. Our fighting was infamous around the office, but the best thing is that only Megan and I really knew that we agreed and the fighting was just part of that sibling fun. We turned the government into our own family business.

Megan made going into work each day that much more fun. I never knew what was coming up, whether it be threats of newfie music or secret revelations, there was never a boring day. When I finally left for school, Megan made a South Park version of all the staff, that's her above, and me to the left.

Being away from the office I miss Megan, but through the blogs and online chatting I'm very happy our sibling-like relationship is being maintained.

september is the new new year's

I've never really liked New Year's Eve/New Year's Day. I've always found it a bit of an artificial holiday. Probably because so much of our lives revolve around school, I've always considered September the New Year. It's after the summer, people have been taking breaks and everyone starts to focus again. I have always found that's when the introspection occurs for me, whether I've been working or in school. It starts right around labour day. I wouldn't go so far as resolutions, but I do stop and look at where I'm at personally, professionally, what do I want to change, what do I want to do in the next year.

So for all those not on the September is the new New Year trend, here's hoping you can stick to your resolutions. I heard someone make the following resolution and I think it's probably the best and only one to make, "I resolve not to look back at 2006 with regret and to keep moving forward in 2007".