Saturday, November 29

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior. It's been quite busy, as I've been working another contract as Territorial Student Counsellor all week. The weather has been varied, with a few skiffs of snow, followed by melting temperatures. A little snow that fell on Friday still lingers, partially masking the dying lawns.

I have been completing two assignments for the Territorial Student Program. I have been working as replacement counsellor for twenty days now, and I've been developing a data base of all students in the program to help the regular counsellor operate the program more effectively. Both tasks are now complete, and my final paycheque has been issued. I have my Record of Employment (ROE), so I now qualify for Employment Insurance. I plan to work my way through those regulations next week! Of course, I have continued to field questions as part of my old job as MISA coordinator as the first set of report cards for the year won't write themselves!

Wendy has been disappointed to find out that she didn't get the accounting job she applied for—we were both expecting a positive answer there after we found out her references had been called. She continues to search, and I have applied on a couple of jobs as well. Otherwise, she has undertaken a major house-cleaning—it's not spring, so this must be a Christmas cleaning! She is running a home-based sales enterprise this weekend with Pampered Chef (cookware), Tupperware (plastics), PartyLite (candles) and Mary Kay (cosmetics) covering every available horizontal platform in the dining room, living room and hallway. I retreat to the bedroom or my office!

Erin had Kristian to the audiologist again. Kristian cooperated more with the testing, so they're starting to get some confirmation of a hearing loss. He'll be back for further testing next week, and a consideration of remedies. He continues to be a delight, and is particularly devoted to his Cars movie. I think I've seen it three times this week!

Travis celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday on Thursday. He continues to do well in his work and his education. One of his contracting bosses took him out for lunch this week.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

Monday, November 24

The Obamabots are Coming!

While the President-Elect is busy assembling his cabinet and has yet to lead/rule a single day, many among the Reichwing are expressing fear and trepidation reminiscent of the pinko-Russki-red-baiting days of fifty years ago. Even as the Republican campaign raised negative emotions by playing the fear card, the race card, the security card, even the religion card...
"He's pallin' around with terrorists."
"He's different than we are."
"He wasn't even born in America."
"He's anti-American."
"This is the real America." (i.e. the part that supports me!)
"He's a Socialist."
"I wish you would investigate our politicians and find out who are anti-American."
"He's a wealth redistributor."
"He's a Muslim."

Now we see how it has given licence to the neo-Nazis, the KKK, the white supremacists... and we hear the chants from the campaign trail "Traitor" "Kill him" echoed and raised in the chants "Assassinate Obama" that even school children have been trained to express. It is truly a sad state of affairs when the rhetoric descends to this level purely on the basis of bias since the poor man hasn't even had a chance to do anything!

Meanwhile Barack Hussein Obama (some lament that his middle name wasn't Roger or Robert... so we could call him BRO!) works to manage the transition, strategizes for clearly needed changes and chooses his cabinet members. And here, we see many supporters express their concern and chagrin over the names of candidates the transition team carefully leaks to the blogosphere and the news media. The progressive side of the Democratic party wrings their collective hands over the prospect of candidates too far to the right in the political spectrum.
"He's too pro-Israel."
"He's too pro-business."
"He's not for net-neutrality."
"She's a DINO (Democrat in name-only)"

Some call for patience as they point to the best-managed, best-run campaign in history and express their confidence that the man who has coalesced their hopes into a successful Whitehouse run will also express their dreams in his governance. Many others on both the left and the right (as if such a thing as left actually exists in American politics!) express their doubts that Obama will achieve their wildest dreams, or their fears that he will achieve their wildest nightmares!

Sunday, November 23

Dubya's Legacy

The American government is in transition stage, and the Bush administration appears to have determined to see how much damage it can inflict before their January 20th departure. With economic and foreign policy misadventures in full bloom, one wonders about the scope of the mess Dubya is leaving to his successor.

The DOW had fallen below 8000 and no one is predicting that the bottom has been reached. It hasn't often happened (one other time–as Hoover brought on the Great Depression!) that a president has presided over a net loss in the DOW over the course of an eight-year administration, but Dubya looks like he can fall to the ignominy of that achievement. He took over a booming economy from Clinton and has managed to run it into the ground, turning a budgetary surplus into record deficits where he manages to beat his own record of futility year after year. In recent weeks we have seen the remarkable hypocrisy of the Republican administration presiding over a multi-trillion dollar (current estimate: not the 700 billion that often gets in the media, but 7.67 trillion) taxpayer payout to businesses while their campaign decries the Democrats as wealth redistributing socialists! It appears that the bastion of free enterprise will soon complete the nationalization of their financial system.

Meanwhile two incredibly ill-managed wars continue in the Middle East. As a result, the armed forces are stressed to a breaking point, and are markedly overburdened by the large-scale, long-term deployments. The recent agreement with Iraq allows US forces, for the first time, to be subject to the justice systems of foreign jurisdictions. That alone will be a remarkable burden for the new president. Finally, they have the culture-wars at home. These have been inflamed by the campaign rhetoric of the Republicans and are widely evident as racial tensions arise in many locations throughout the country. There have been over two hundred hate crime incidents since the election, including cross-burnings, hangings-in-effigy, and assassination betting pools. Meanwhile in view of his criminal administration, Dubya prepares pardons for his friends (even for himself!) by issuing blanket pardons for torture while maintaining they didn't torture! And he tries to embed his cronies into job assignments, while relaxing environmental protections as favours to his business buddies.

What a legacy for a disastrous presidency! There are reasons why his administration is considered among the worst in American history, and why he is challenging Nixon for the lowest end-of-term presidential-approval ratings on record.

Saturday, November 22

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior. The weather has turned decidedly frosty, and we even have a skiff of snow. However, it's a little warmer again, so the snow seems to be disappearing again. We've spent the week around TBay, but have kept busy all the same.

I have continued with OnSIS work and Maplewood support—mainly helping schools get their report cards set up and running in the current school year. I had a teleconference with our principals on Tuesday—just giving them an update on my project work—and worked two days with the Territorial Student Program. Actually, I worked an extra half day there, so I'll finish that contract next week. As a result of these small contracts, I have now qualified for an extra pay day, so we'll celebrate that next Thursday! I have finally made an application for a new job; it's a part time job with a franchised adult education provider. The advertisement and the website leave me with plenty of questions about what the job would actually entail, so that was probably part of the appeal! One special feature of the week is that my registration to perform marriages in Ontario came through—so Dean & Kelly will be able to get married after all! And I'm preaching tomorrow, so I've had to spend some time getting that ready!

Wendy continues to wait on developments over her job application. We feel it is delayed because the operation is currently on strike. Perhaps, she's on strike and hasn't even started work! At the same time, she continues to search out job opportunities for both of us. She tore the old wood paneling off the end wall of the living room one day, and that surely brightened things up in there. The whole room looks larger; maybe we won't have to change the flooring!!

Erin continues with work pretty much as per usual. Kristian is continuing to develop his vocabulary and his interest in communicating. He is a regular delight!

Travis is also carrying on with same ol' same ol' school and work and hockey.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

Saturday, November 15

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior, where the women are strong, the men are handsome, and all the children are above average. I have spent part of the week in Toronto at a conference. That, like most conferences, was a mixed bag. Some sessions were good, a couple even great, while others couldn't even convince me to stay in the room!

I also continued (possibly completed) the work on the database project for the territorial student program. I'll be installing and using that next week. I have a couple of small projects yet to do, but my official work is completed and my final paycheque was this Thursday! Now, I will take my ROE (Record of Employment) to EI (Employment Insurance) and try to collect back some of all those fees I've paid over the years! Wendy (and certain other family members) have dedicated themselves to finding me a new job and thus preclude my receipt of EI Benefits!

I got most of my stitches out on Wednesday before heading to Toronto, and then had to return to the doctor this morning to get the final one out. The wound seems to be healing up appropriately, although since it is in the middle of my back, I can't really give an authentic opinion on that!

Wendy has continued the employment process throughout the week. Her references are being called, so we're encouraged to think that this is progress. She also has been caring for Kristian most of the week as he's been kicked out of day care for having conjunctivitus (pink eye). He seems to be well again, so should head back to day care on Monday.

Erin and Travis have continued with their usual responsibilities and interests.

Eric/A and the boys are here this weekend, so we've taken the option of celebrating Kristian's birthday again this evening. It makes for a boisterous household!

Anyway (anyways as they say in TBay—Yikes!), that's about the kind of week it's been.

Saturday, November 8

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior, and an eventful week it was! We've spent our week here in town, but our thoughts have often been focused on our neighbour to the south! Travis took Tuesday off work, so we all gathered in front of the TV to watch the historic American election unfold. Overcoming our many trepidations, we were relieved to watch them elect Barack Obama as their new president. Widespread support produced a landslide victory (365-173) and only the interests of the media in prolonging the race kept it from being acknowledged earlier. Electoral mishaps that continue to mar the 2000, 2004 results and remain the subject of investigations and court cases were remarkably absent. It seems there was clear electoral misbehaviour in only three jurisdictions this time—Georgia, Minnesota and Alaska. Georgian issues now seem resolved, a recount and court battles are underway in Minnesota, and only in Alaska does there appear to be a longer term concern over fraud. In any case, Obama is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20th, so I have only a couple of months to transition from supporter to critic!

Otherwise, I have spent most work time helping secretaries with OnSIS reporting and continuing my work on database development in support of the territorial student program. I managed to get over to the golf course one last time on Tuesday, so I've finished my season (I think) and my handicap has settled at 15.3. On Wednesday, I had my surgery on my back. The doctor was removing a lump that has been bothering me for some years. In recent weeks it had become such an irritant it interfered with my sleep, so the doctor agreed to remove it. It is now sent away for testing, and I am getting used to sleeping with six stitches—due to be removed next week.

Wendy keeps occupied as per usual and is preparing for a job interview on the 10th. These days, she also is responsible for cleaning and replacing the bandage on my incision each day—perhaps she should go into nursing!

Erin and Kristian continue with their regular routines of work and play. Kristian focuses on increasing his vocabulary, and is being directed increasingly toward toilet training.

Travis keeps busy with work and homework—more so homework. Things are progressing pretty well for him.

Finally, this afternoon, we sat down to watch our Riders, but were disappointed to see them lose the Western Semi-final, so that's the end of their season, along with the end of our hopes for back to back Grey Cups!

So, that's about it for this week.

Saturday, November 1

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior. We have spent the week here in Thunder Bay, and despite the excitement of Hallowe'en it is a pretty quiet week.

I am working on a few different projects this week. I have been asked to prepare a project design for data work in my usual batch of schools. This will entail exporting their data from each student management system data base, and preparing it for analysis within TinkerPlots (data exploration software). My blog has also aroused interest from a contact farther afield, so I am beginning to think about a small workshop there in the new year—pie is promised! The Territorial Student Program has expressed interest in my building a data base for them to track the high school students from the small communities. So, all of those catch my interest and consume some time. In addition, I carry on with my usual work of supporting the school secretaries as they prepare for the first major reporting of the year. OnSIS reporting is done with October 31st data each year, so those reports are now open. The weather has been nice so I even got over to the golf course on Thursday, but too many other people had the same idea, so I decided not to wait long enough to get on. If the weather continues like this, I may try next week.

Wendy has continued to work around home taking care of us all. She has also had some success with a recent job application and is scheduled for an interview. She continues with workouts at the Athletic Club fairly regularly. She also manages some day care each Saturday afternoon in support of a parenting program at church.

Hallowe'en was a big time for Kristian and Erin. Both were in costume and he really got into it. After the first couple of houses, she could barely keep up. Then grandpa spent the rest of evening helping him access more and more candy! Luckily it was a Friday night—he may be un-wired by Monday!

Travis has progressed through a series of midterm deadlines successfully and continues to work and study and play hockey.

And that's the kind of week it's been.