It looks like we all should be wearing masks for a while, which isn’t anyone’s idea of a rollicking good time, so here’s my thinking about how to make them as unobjectionable as possible.
Category: Random advice
Random bits of advice I feel compelled to share with the world
An idealistic plan for elementary schools
So here is my idealistic plan for elementary schools: Forget exact grades, for the moment (it’s always seemed weird to me to stick kids together just because they’re the same age), and cohort the heck out of siblings/close neighbours/groups of friends/kids with similar interests/or something. Figure out creative ways to make sensible, consistent small groups […]
This world is ruining my reading
I’m so tired lately. A lot of people have been saying they’re tired. It’s hard to get up every day and read about what horrible new thing has made “normal†move another step towards “intolerableâ€. We’re all frogs in the pot at the moment, aren’t we? (Cue Bruce Cockburn: The Trouble With Normal Is It […]
On touring high schools
Because my child is rather unbelievably already in grade 8, in the past couple of months we’ve seen, I think, twelve high schools, both public and private. The tours (and the schools) have varied from appalling to excellent. During the appalling ones I spent my time thinking about what makes a tour (and a school) […]
Cargo bike, 8 months on
So back in March we bought a cargo bike. We’d set out intending to buy a tandem, but on the test ride it turned out that I hated the tandem with the intensity of a thousand burning suns within about ten seconds of getting on the thing. Totally synced starts and stops? No control? Ummmmno. […]
2012
And so — 2012. As usual Neil Gaiman has the best wish, which has managed to condense thoughts that took me three pages to write for my niece into a few short lines. Well, that’s why Neil gets the big bucks and I don’t, isn’t it? I hope that in this year to come, you […]
Libations, election, for the watching of, 2011 version
(H/t to the lovely Melle for finding the photo) Again we ponder the eternal question of what to drink while awaiting election results. Last time around we went with Irish whiskey. It was an excellent choice but it feels a bit ponderous for a May election. Sunshine and daffodils and Irish whiskey? Nah. I’m deciding […]
‘Tis the season for Expert Curmudgeons again
In previous years we’ve had warnings about Santa’s fatness setting a bad example and how we should all abjure cookies and eggnog and subsist on carrot sticks and water at holiday parties. This year it’s eating leftovers and Santa’s sleep (or lack thereof) habits that are under fire: Surely Santa will feel jet-lagged at the […]
It Gets Better
I’ve long had a lot of time for Dan Savage, low-bullshit un-shockable sex columnist and general sensible guy, but his latest project is really something I’d like everyone under the sun to both know about and spend an hour of their time with. The It Gets Better Project is Dan’s attempt, through video, to convince […]
An encouragement: bike commuting
In honour of Bike Month, here’s how to die on a bicycle: Fall under the rear wheels of a large vehicle (bus, dump truck, transport truck, etc.) which is turning or otherwise at an angle to the cyclist. The Coroner’s Report from a decade or so ago has many more details, but that’s the easiest […]
Choose Privacy Week
(h/t to BoingBoing) Lovely video from the American Library Association about privacy, what it means to people, why we should worry about it, various (mostly American) legal issues, and why librarians are your friends. If you don’t have 20+ minutes to watch, start watching at about 19:30 for a good summary of pros, cons, the […]
Facebook and information control
In the past week or so there’s been much fuss about several privacy-reducing changes to Facebook and how they are causing people to lose control of their information. The changes (which I’ll detail below, with my recommendations on how to respond to them) do open up how people’s information can be used. Remember Facebook is […]
Some updated H1N1 math
The CDC in the US have come out with some interesting new numbers on H1N1. They now estimate that 22,000,000 US residents have contracted H1N1. Of those, 98,000 have been hospitalized and 3,900 have died. Several weeks ago I very conservatively estimated an 11 in 1,000,000 chance of dying from H1N1 and a 176 in […]
Lest we forget
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Some H1N1 math
In which I play with some conservative estimates and conclude GET THE SHOT.
Desperately sad. Easily avoided.
I have to say something about this desperately sad story, in which two children, non-swimmers both, drowned and died along with their mother, also a non-swimmer, who had been supervising them as they swam in a hotel pool (without a lifeguard). It seems that one or both girls somehow got into trouble and the mother […]
Swine flu — officially a pandemic
I posted about swine flu a while back, before we really knew anything. Since the WHO just moved to stage 6 and declared it a pandemic, causing my RSS feeds to explode with yet more newshype, it seems like a good time for an update. Stage 6 doesn’t mean the disease is getting more serious/deadly […]
On the flu and the choice to panic (or not)
I’ve been doing my best to restrain my usual cynicism about the hysterical media coverage of health issues in the case of the swine flu, as until quite recently there have been too many unknowns to do much other than shrug and say “we’ll see”. But it seems now that we do know some things: […]
Advice for idle parenting
The Idle Parent Children actually have an inbuilt self-protective sense that we destroy by over-cosseting. They become independent not so much by careful training but in part simply as a result of parental laziness. Last Sunday morning, Victoria and I lay in bed till half past 10 with hangovers. What a result! And the more […]
Wisdom
Today I have been playing with my new toy, which is a birthday present from D & M: one of the teeny-weeny little iPod Shuffles. It is perfect for solving a First-World Problem I was having, which is that my usual iPod Classic is kind of heavy to carry about while exercising and also (if […]