Socialist Project | The Bullet

Socialist Project | The Bullet

Manager Achieves Full Mastery Of Pointless Managerial Jargon

During what was described to them as "a look-forward meeting to discuss and evaluate the company's event-chain methodology," MediaLine employees stood with mouths agape Wednesday as they witnessed the very moment at which project manager James Atkins attained complete mastery over the fine art of meaningless corporate doublespeak.

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Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization

Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion.

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Writing Teaching Book

I'm toying with the idea of writing something about teaching social workers research methods. There's a lot of textbooks that discuss research methods but not a lot that discusses the process of teaching them. Social workers in particular are expected to pickup research methods and understand them but very few are eager about it. Most social work students are there to pick up practice methods and research is just a bitter pill they have to swallow.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I don't believe it

For some reason Flock is now working with my Blogger account. Hazzah!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Good Post on the State of Digital Media in Canada

CBC's Jesse Brown writes this.

The usual b/s from Greenspan which brought us all to the brink of economic meltdown.

How True

Obama's Victory

Is anyone else concerned that when Obama wins today (and I'm convinced he will), that he won't turn out to be the American saviour he's being billed as. Of course he'll be better than McCain or Bush (duh) and the the fact that's he's black make it a major accomplishment and a milestone in American politics but once his victory is accomplished, what then? I'm concerned that he'll be quite a moderate liberal. I mean as the Onion has pointed out, even during the Clinton administration, the poor were incarcerated in record numbers and welfare rates were once again cut beyond livable levels. Are Americans just in for more of that kind of leadership. After all, he's a politician and politicians need to do things that will be popular and win them votes. Often, the things that are best and even the things politicians KNOW are best, aren't the things they do because they need to win votes.

Kitty Tries to Stay Awake

Reminds me of my son.

Sarah Silverman and The Great Schlep

OK this is pretty funny and OK maybe more than a little offensive. Offensive in a good way maybe?

Large Hadron Rap

Rappin' about CERN's Large Hadron Collider! Could this be any more awesome? I think not.

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TVO Kids Day

A brief addition to my previous post.

Catch Up

It's been quite some time since I've submitted a blog post. I have a strange relationship with my blog. One the one hand I have very few readers so in a sense it's more like a diary. On the other hand I know that it's essentially a public document so I'm very hesitant to discuss issues that are actually meaningful to me. This tension between private and public often prevents me from making any posts at all. Anyway, one of the many posts I didn't make was regarding TVO Kids day I attended at Black Creek Pioneer Village. Great fun! As you can see above I got the chance to meet Steve Paikin, host of The Agenda. That was kind of exciting for me as I have a lot of respect for his work. The kids also had a blast (yes, I was there mostly for the kids). Here they got a chance to meet Polkaroo "in person". What exactly is Polkaroo anyway? Polkaroo made a lot more sense when he was 0n Polka Dot Door. Whatever . . .  the kids love it. I must admit I was very impressed with the caliber of entertainment provided to the kids--and all for no other cost than that of admission. There were puppet shows, TVO Kids personalities doing skits and getting the kids to dance. We were there the entire day including buying the lunch there (the TVO Kids meal which included lunch bags one of which I'm now using). Great day!

Good Movie

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York University | Experiential Education - Atkinson | Video

York University | Experiential Education - Atkinson | Video

Check out my time in the limelight. I come across as a bit of an idiot but I can't believe how eloquent the students are. They should be very proud.

Junk Mail

Terry O'Reilly's Age of Persuasion segment on 23 things I'd like to change about advertising is great stuff. An interesting note: his website includes a link to the red dot campaign which suggests that in addition to posting a notice on your mailbox indicating you don't want junk mail, you need to send a note to Canada Post that indicates your wish to not receive unaddressed junk mail (or ad-mail as Canada Post prefers to call it).

 

The note that the red dot campaign supplies for you reads:

Please remove me from all unaddressed mail distribution. This letter, combined with a “No Junk Mail” sign on my mailbox, expresses my wish to stop receiving unaddressed flyers and mail. I understand that it may take a couple of weeks before the database is adjusted and the junk mail stops.
I also understand that Canada Post will still deliver some unaddressed items, such as community newspapers and letters from the House of Commons, provincial and municipal electoral offices and Elections Canada. And I realize that some unaddressed mail comes from distributors other than Canada Post, so I may still receive mail from these other services.

This would be ideal. After listing to O'Reilly's episode, but before I knew about the red dot campaign, I wrote Canada Post a rather testy email:

I understand there is a way to opt-out of unaddressed admail but after searching on your site for 45 minutes I've given up trying to find the form I need to fill out.

I received this response:

Consumers who do not wish to receive unaddressed material should put a note to this effect on their mail receptacle. The note should be placed inside the receptacle in the case of a community mailbox, group mailbox or postal box. As a result of such a note being placed on or inside a mail receptacle at a particular address, Canada Post will no longer deliver the following mail items: free samples, coupons, flyers and newspapers, government mailings, free distribution magazines, catalogues, non-profit and event information. As well, Canada Post will no longer deliver municipal service notices (e.g. schedule of snow removal, changes in garbage pick-up, announcement of town hall meetings). However, since Canada Post is only one of many distributors of unaddressed materials, consumers may continue to receive these materials from other distributors. The only unaddressed materials that Canada Post will continue to deliver to these customers are as follows: community newspapers, as well as House of Commons, provincial chief electoral officers, municipal electoral offices and Elections Canada mailings.

NB, that the list I received from Canada Post is a lot more exhaustive and includes things I would actually like to get, like municipal service notices (it also doesn't say anything about having to send a note to Canada Post which actually makes things easier). Sigh . . . I can't decide if I want to opt-out or not because, as usual, they make you opt-out of so much more than you want.

globeandmail.com - Exit, the Dungeon Master

OK. I'll admit it. I played D&D when I was in my late teens. Those of you who know me are are no doubt underwhelmed with surprise. Anyway, it was a hell of a lot of fun back in the day and I have many fond memories of hanging out with friends and playing all sorts of role playing games throughout the night. Gary Gygax was sort of a brand name back then. His name on a game meant something. With me and my friends (who moved from D&D to other, what we considered to be, more sophisticated games) his name was sort of the microsoft brand among games. He was the powerhouse and if you knew nothing about role playing games you had at least heard of D&D. Well anyway, it's kind of amazing to me that he's gone. He certainly was, indirectly, a positive influence in my youth and, as a geeky teenager, provided me with a medium to make friends that I otherwise might not have had.

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Finn Fun

Today Irmina and I traded places. She took Asha to church and I looked after Finn. Irmina thinks it's a good idea for Finn and me to spend more time together so he bonds with a male role-model. I just like a change now and then.

I finished the breakfast dishes and then took a nap. My strategy when I want to nap with Finn is to lie down and fall asleep and after playing for a while around me, sooner or later, he lies down and falls asleep too (kind of a non-strategy strategy). Although he did lie down, he was quiet but awake when I woke up; so it was semi-successful. Afterward I gave him some lunch, did the dishes and we played. We played with his older sister's leap-pad, read some books, ate some snacks, and played in the tent.

He also played very well on his own for a few minutes while I graded a couple of papers. When the rest of the family returned we had both had fun together; and I felt better rested than I have in weeks. Irmina had done some errands including picking up for me that copy of Don Quixote that I've been wanting to read.