I love to travel and fly frequently. Work. Play. Doesn’t matter, I’ll always volunteer to hop on any plane and land at the opposite end of the country, continent, or earth. I’ve been booked on more red-eye flights than I can count on my hands and feet. My red-eyes were often canceled after I’d made my way through security and became colloquially known as the “Sheelagh special” around the office. Sometimes, the travel time would be more than 24 hours. Sometimes I found myself drifting off while waiting in airport lounges. You know the drill. Your eyes become heavier and chin drops towards your chest. Head bobbing, your eyes flash open and then you desperately pretend you weren’t sleeping.

In honour of my love of travel, I’ve decided the topic of this week’s T13 will be Airports I’ve nodded off in.

Thirteen Things about SHE. Airports I’ve nodded off in. Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) Memphis, TN (MEM) Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) Edmonton International Airport, AB, Canada (YEG) Seattle, WA (SEA) Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) Toronto Lester B Pearson International Airport, ON, Canada (YYZ) Mumbai, India (BOM). Manila, Philippines (MNL) London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH) Winnipeg, MB, Canada (YWG) Tokyo Narita, Japan (NRT) Oh boy, I could have expanded this list to include at least 3 or 4 more airports where I have disctinct memories of nodding off (or even falling asleep for over 30 minutes). However, in the spirit of T13, I’m keeping the list limited to 13 airports I’ve either written about falling asleep in or told friends and family about falling asleep in… Thanks to other Thursday Thirteen participants who viewed my list and left a comment: Chelle, Caylynn, Stephanie, Norma, Trish, Stacie and Gabrielle. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme

I can’t donate blood. As a child of British immigrants who spent a significant time living and eating beef in England and Scotland, I’m on the indefinite deferrals list due to possible exposure to CJD or VCJD. No one in my family can donate blood for this reason.

My dad was a 35 year blood donor and was shocked to learn he would be no longer allowed to donate due to the change in rules. He understood it but the fact that he occassionally got calls at home asking him to donate once the decision to bar him was made was a bit annoying.

Worse was the hospital having mom donate her own blood prior to surgery and then throwing out the blood when the rules were changed. Instead of having her own blood put back into her, she was given someone else’s blood. The reason they gave her was that her blood wouldn’t be safe for infusion. What? Like she could have infected herself with something through her blood that she didn’t already have?

I think that because of my mom’s experience and because I’ve spent more than 3 months (cummulative) in Britain between 1980 and 1996, the Canadian Blood Services “It’s in you to give” commercials always struck the wrong cord with me. Obviously it’s not in me to give 😉

Today I’ve learned that someone in my family can donate blood. According to the Edmonton Sun article Wanted: canine blood donors, my puppy may be eligable to donate blood. Don’t let my calling him a puppy fool you. He’s a 55+ lbs 2 year old bundle of fire. According to the article “To donate blood, dogs should be no less than 23 kg, between one and eight years old and in good health.” Due to the weight and age restrictions, our oldest dog isn’t eligable (40+ lbs and 8 years old) but I think we’ll look into whether or not the puppy would be a good donor candidate when we visit the vet for his bi-annual check-up in November.

Technorati Tags: blood donor, canadian blood services, canine

Today was my first day back in the office. I’ve been working from my home office since leaving Saint John at the beginning of the month. It’s odd being surrounded by so many people again. It wasn’t as bad as I expected though. Unless of course you factor in the ewwww quotient that comes with having to clean out someone else’s desk drawers.

See, Boo* and I were moving cubes and since I was going to be away, Boo put in the paperwork and recommended I pack up my stuff so that it’d be easier to move when the approvals were complete. I packed up my stuff (how does one accumulate 4 boxes of “stuff” in only 8 years?) and set it aside for the move before heading to my parents house. I cleaned out all of my drawers and tried to make it suitable for the next occupant.

Today I spent the first part of the morning cleaning out the drawers in the desk I’ve inherited through my move. With all the crud in the drawers, I thought maybe the previous occupant had quit or been fired while I was away. Along with the stale foodstuffs, condiment collection, scraps of paper and crumbs I found employee personel records and financial reports. Skip the fact that I’m under the impression that these items shouldn’t have made it out of HR, they should have been shredded the minute the previous occupant left the company. They definitely should not have been sitting in unlocked drawers in the middle of the production floor. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she hadn’t left the company. I bumped into her later in the morning and learned that she’d just moved cubicles.

UGH! UGH! UGH!

Some people just have no respect for themselves, others, or other’s property.

* Boo earned her nickname due to her line of work. Just like the little girl from Monster’s Inc., she’s the sweet little girl surrounded by “monsters”.

Technorati Tags: home office, work, co-workers, cubicle

I spent a large chunk of my day today reviewing a design document and crafting lists and lists of questions. I love questions. Someday, I’m going to master the art of finding the right question to ask 9 times of out 10. Sounds like a silly goal, but I believe the entire process of learning surrounds not the answers people offer, but the questions we must ask along the way.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve spent time visiting some of my favourite learning and education related blogs. Today I decided I needed to take a step back from work, life and grieving and spend some quality time on-line. Of course, that means I have to pop in and see what Harold Jarche is writing about these days. In Harold’s post from 10.23.06 titled Formal education needs more informal learning, he writes:

According to Marilyn Taylor [PDF see page 53 for a reference to Taylor’s model], disorientation is a natural state in formal education:

Stage 1 Disorientation: The learner is presented with an unfamiliar experience or idea which involves new ideas that challenge the student to think critically about his/her beliefs and values. The learner reacts by becoming confused and anxious. Support from the educator at this point is crucial to the learner’s motivation, participation and self-esteem.

I believe that disorientation is an almost constant state in many workplaces today, so we had better prepare learners for it. Incorporating informal learning experiences in an ever widening variety of contexts could help prepare students to be better informal learners throughout their lives.

This disorientation theory explains a lot about my formal learning experiences over the past few years. I’ve often felt off kilter in formal learning environments – even in ones of my own design. Perhaps it’s due to the roiling fear in my gut that seems to strike whenever I’m put in a room and expected to participate in group learning activities. I’m just not comfortable when someone else is directing my learning experience. I want to sit back and absorb what’s going on around me, reading or listening, then reflect before I open my big mouth (or get my typing fingers in gear).

The increased anxiety I feel in formal learning situations is likely compounded by the fact that I don’t think I received much support for my learning style. Instead of gaining the requisite support as I moved through the confused and anxious stages, I was made to feel like a sore thumb because I didn’t fall in line with the accepted ideology about adult learners enjoying small group activities and teamwork.

On the other hand, I’m not sure I can agree with Harold that the work world is a constant state of disorientation. At least, not based on my own experiences. Perhaps I’ve taught myself how to handle work related learning experiences in a manner that has resulted in my ability to handle these situations with more comfort and confidence than traditional formal (school, university, professional courses) learning experiences. Instead of feeling disoriented in these situations I feel energized and ready to dive right in.

I always knew I was a little weird…

Things to look forward to: While I was in the CACE program at the U of A one of my profs introduced me to the Up series. Theresia sent out an email this week that made me smile. I’m looking forward to heading out to the Metro Cinema to catch up on other’s lives. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, here’s a blurb from the notification email:

49 Up is the 7th installment in the widely celebrated series which began with the seminal film 7 Up. In 1962, Michael Apted assisted then-director Paul Almond as he interviewed a group of economically, racially and culturally diverse 7-year-olds living in England.

He asked about their lives and their hopes for the future, and caught up with them every 7 years to repeat the process. Now, over 4 decades and 6 films later, Apted returns to his subjects once again, finding them at age 49.

Devoted viewers will be happy to reunite with characters who feel like old friends – the good-natured cab driver, Tony; the soft-spoken boarding school boy, Bruce; and Neil, who at 28 was seen wandering the highlands, homeless and verging on insanity.

But the film is also a rare treat for those encountering the series for the first time, as it artfully weaves into the contemporary images footage from years past, as far back as the 1964 original, creating a potent dialogue between articulations of the past, realities of the present & projections into the future.

Technorati Tags: questions, informal learning, education, Marilyn Taylor, disorientation, Harold Jarche, Up series

I love my house. It’s 790 square feet of beautiful cove ceilings, stained glass, ceramic tile, hardwood floors, and it’s all mine. The previous owners loved this house too and it’s obvious in the care they took with it. We’ve owned it for about 18 months and have made very few changes to the original decor. We painted one room (story here). Everything else remains as it was when we bought the house.

When we first viewed the house we noticed how small it was but thought it was absolutely perfect for the two of us. After we purchased the house, we started calling it the mouse house due to it’s diminutive size. Calling it a doll house just seemed too cliche – and way too girly for the two of us. Ever since, we’ve been happily referring to the house as the mouse house. The name just fits – both us and the building.

Every Sunday, the Edmonton Sun prints an article related to derelict houses in the city that have been boarded up by Capital Health. Last week, the article referred to the derelict house as a “mouse house”. Granted, they weren’t using the term as a cute way to describe the size of the building but rather the itty bitty critters running around inside it. It was obvious by the description provided that this “mouse house” wasn’t loved and cared for but rather ignored and let to rot from within.

I love my house and I don’t plan on changing how I refer to it. In future, I think I’ll be less surprised when people don’t respond favourably to our family nickname for the home.

Technorati Tags: house, home, mouse house, derelict housing