20 December 2015
Island Life 20 December 2016
20/12/15 08:12
There’s been a number of interesting appearances in the last few weeks. A couple of weeks ago I did another “Fossil Guy” performance for Marsha’s class of second graders. I had an assortment of fossils for them to look at and to touch. They were a bit more…vocal than previous classes. OK, they were squirrely. To cut them some slack, it was just before Christmas, they had a guest speaker talking about fossils and dinosaurs, and it was early in the year so they weren’t as mature as the kids I’ve seen in April or May. So yes, they were harder to keep on task, and I didn’t get to cover as much as material as I wanted to. But I think they got something out of it. Anyway Marsha and I had a lot of fun doing it.
Then a few days later I was interviewed by the CBC Radio program The 180. We’d been corresponding back and fourth for a few days prior to the interview, to set up a time and what we’d be talking about. Then that morning I found a quiet office and chatted with the host. The topic was the Comments sections for CBC News Articles. The comments have gotten overrun with trolls. People looking to get a response, be annoying, and get the last word, but not to have a discussion. There have been more and more calls to just close them down completely, both from inside and outside the CBC. I was saying that the Comments section as they are now, needs to be closed down. Comments themselves however, are not bad, the CBC just have an archaic model. Right now some poor schlep sits in a room, reading the thousands of comments that come in every day, trying to weed out the offensive, the off topic, the trolls, all the while being accused of “censorship”. I proposed replacing it with a system where the community itself would rate and weed out the unwanted posts. I think the interview went well.
Then later that week we had a special event at Inuktun. Several politicians, and press, and such were at the shop. We had all sorts of equipment on display and answered questions as needed, though mostly I tried to stay out of the way. They were there to announce a Provincial High Tech Jobs Initiative. Interestingly enough, this big event generated a huge lack of interest. I’ve not found any references to it on CBC, Global, or the local press. Oh well, that’s the way with political events.
One media event we were very pleased to see was when Prime Minister Trudeau, met the first plane load of Syrian Refugees coming to Canada. Several planes will be arriving every day and we hope to have resettled ten thousand by the end of the year. The plan is for twenty five thousand to be starting their new lives by March.
http://globalnews.ca/video/2394633/welcome-to-your-new-home-justin-trudeau-greets-syrian-refugees-arriving-in-canada
This weekend we were out shopping. They were, of course, playing Christmas songs. At one point they played Here Comes Santa Clause, the 1947 song by Gene Autry. I commented that the lyrics always bothered me.
Here comes Santa Clause.
Here comes Santa Clause.
Right down Santa Clause Lane
Nixon, and Blitzen and all his reindeer.
Pulling on the reins.
I said it was odd that a song about Richard Nixon would become a Christmas classic. Marsha gave me “that look”, pulled out her phone and looked up the lyrics. You know, Google takes a lot of the fun out of my silliness.
Then there was this odd event. One night the phone rang at our friends house. The voice, voices actually, on the other end were drunk. They were trying to share a phone and in the background was the noisy chatter of the food court at the curling rink in their little town in Saskatchewan. “Is Dave there?” said the first voice. “Yeah, we want to talk to Dave.” slurred the second. As I said, they were quite seriously drunk. Penny, who answered the phone replied “No Dave isn’t here. He will be home in an hour and a half.” “Oh, we know you just won’t let him talk on the phone. We’ll call back.” Over the next hour and a half Penny got a call, every fifteen minutes, from the people in Saskatchewan each time drunker than the last. Just after the last call Dave got home and she told him the story. Thinking fast he took a picture of himself with a beer in his hand and posted it to Facebook. Then he called his friends. “Hey it’s me. I want to Skype you guys. Go out to my Facebook page.” They did and were amazed. “Whoa, dude we’ve never used Skype before. This is so cool.” They had a long conversation with Dave on the phone staring at his picture on Facebook, without ever noticing that the “Skype” picture of Dave never moved.
Gotta love Saskatchewan.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: First; Christmas decorations at the hospital, (I was in for a routine CT scan). Then I made some Christmas cookies. They’re Gluten free, GMO free, have no artificial sweeteners or colours, have been made in a nut free facility, and are certified Vegan. They’re part of a true Palio Diet.
Then a few days later I was interviewed by the CBC Radio program The 180. We’d been corresponding back and fourth for a few days prior to the interview, to set up a time and what we’d be talking about. Then that morning I found a quiet office and chatted with the host. The topic was the Comments sections for CBC News Articles. The comments have gotten overrun with trolls. People looking to get a response, be annoying, and get the last word, but not to have a discussion. There have been more and more calls to just close them down completely, both from inside and outside the CBC. I was saying that the Comments section as they are now, needs to be closed down. Comments themselves however, are not bad, the CBC just have an archaic model. Right now some poor schlep sits in a room, reading the thousands of comments that come in every day, trying to weed out the offensive, the off topic, the trolls, all the while being accused of “censorship”. I proposed replacing it with a system where the community itself would rate and weed out the unwanted posts. I think the interview went well.
Then later that week we had a special event at Inuktun. Several politicians, and press, and such were at the shop. We had all sorts of equipment on display and answered questions as needed, though mostly I tried to stay out of the way. They were there to announce a Provincial High Tech Jobs Initiative. Interestingly enough, this big event generated a huge lack of interest. I’ve not found any references to it on CBC, Global, or the local press. Oh well, that’s the way with political events.
One media event we were very pleased to see was when Prime Minister Trudeau, met the first plane load of Syrian Refugees coming to Canada. Several planes will be arriving every day and we hope to have resettled ten thousand by the end of the year. The plan is for twenty five thousand to be starting their new lives by March.
http://globalnews.ca/video/2394633/welcome-to-your-new-home-justin-trudeau-greets-syrian-refugees-arriving-in-canada
This weekend we were out shopping. They were, of course, playing Christmas songs. At one point they played Here Comes Santa Clause, the 1947 song by Gene Autry. I commented that the lyrics always bothered me.
Here comes Santa Clause.
Here comes Santa Clause.
Right down Santa Clause Lane
Nixon, and Blitzen and all his reindeer.
Pulling on the reins.
I said it was odd that a song about Richard Nixon would become a Christmas classic. Marsha gave me “that look”, pulled out her phone and looked up the lyrics. You know, Google takes a lot of the fun out of my silliness.
Then there was this odd event. One night the phone rang at our friends house. The voice, voices actually, on the other end were drunk. They were trying to share a phone and in the background was the noisy chatter of the food court at the curling rink in their little town in Saskatchewan. “Is Dave there?” said the first voice. “Yeah, we want to talk to Dave.” slurred the second. As I said, they were quite seriously drunk. Penny, who answered the phone replied “No Dave isn’t here. He will be home in an hour and a half.” “Oh, we know you just won’t let him talk on the phone. We’ll call back.” Over the next hour and a half Penny got a call, every fifteen minutes, from the people in Saskatchewan each time drunker than the last. Just after the last call Dave got home and she told him the story. Thinking fast he took a picture of himself with a beer in his hand and posted it to Facebook. Then he called his friends. “Hey it’s me. I want to Skype you guys. Go out to my Facebook page.” They did and were amazed. “Whoa, dude we’ve never used Skype before. This is so cool.” They had a long conversation with Dave on the phone staring at his picture on Facebook, without ever noticing that the “Skype” picture of Dave never moved.
Gotta love Saskatchewan.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: First; Christmas decorations at the hospital, (I was in for a routine CT scan). Then I made some Christmas cookies. They’re Gluten free, GMO free, have no artificial sweeteners or colours, have been made in a nut free facility, and are certified Vegan. They’re part of a true Palio Diet.