the screaming pages

While over at small dead animals yesterday I saw an old familiar face. Well, actually, I saw a graphic and link to Stupid Comics (which Kate got via Colby Cosh). My, what an incestuous little bunch we Canadian bloggers are.

I’m sorry to say that as I child I distinctly remember being provided a copy (or perhaps multiple copies) of this comic and reading it enough times to remember segments of the story line and some of the graphics. Since Kate and Colby are older than I am, I’m having a hard time imagining them reading this the first time round. Kate might have been in her early teens and likely way too swave to be victimized by the packaging of Canadian Governament propaganda in comic book form. Colby, being only a few years older than I, might have fallen into the trap.

I wonder how much influence this comic had on my recycling/save the earth phase I went through in the mid-80’s. Perhaps it wasn’t brought on by an early rise in consciousness, but by the residual leftovers of the contents of a comic book sloshing around in my head.

With the giant rise of parents screaming about just about anything that might “hurt the childruuuun” and the emphasis on self-esteem over attempting to complete a task I see in schools today, I have to wonder where our parents were when this comic was being handed out to small children in the 70’s and 80’s? Perhaps they were too busy dragging us to the library to read books, helping us with our math homework, building tree forts, or chucking us out of the house to go play to notice what the government was passing around…

Technorati Tags: superkids, canadian, comics

In Alberta, it seems that everyone and their dog drives a pickup truck. With all the farming, construction, oil related work, etc. it’s not hard to understand why trucks are a favoured vehicle. Many are mud splattered, battered, and loaded down with a tonne of equipment. They’re true work trucks.

A good chunk of those that aren’t work trucks still bear a lot of the scars trucks are meant to display. My own baby truck has a pretty substantial dent in the side and hood from misadventures and the like. If they were on a car, these dents would have me rushing to the body shop to have it fixed. On my truck, they seem like minor blemishes that tell the story of it’s adventures and seem to add to the aethetics of the vehicle rather than taking away from it.

Every once in a while you see something strange on the roads that really just seems to defy the whole reasoning behind owning a pickup. I just don’t see the point in purchasing the Lincoln or Cadillac versions of the vehicle. No matter that these trucks just don’t look right…I just can visualize the owners of a Lincoln or Cadillac (or any other high-end car brand) truck shrugging their shoulders and saying “oh well” if there truck were to mysteriously develop a dent like Fords, Dodges, GMC’s and Chevy’s have been known to do. I certainly can’t picture them living by the philosophy that “the first dent’s mine, all others don’t matter…“. And as hard as I try, I can’t imagine one of these odd looking designer trucks being loading with wood, hay, steel piping, sod, etc.

I just don’t see the point of paying so much money for a truck if you’re not going to use it as intended – to haul, pull, drag, throw crap in or on, etc. I’m soooo confused. Let’s not get me started on the bright pink low rider trucks that look like they were spawned from a pepto bismal bottle…

Technorati Tags: pickup, truck

I’d be upset, but I’m still younger than the hubby – and haven’t yet followed him to the land of salt & pepper grey hair – so life is good. My parents provided the best birthday present on the planet this year, shipping me home to Edmonton to spend the week in the mouse house with friends, family and our four footed children.

When I’m not trying to figure out how to resolve my technorati update issues (my feed isn’t updating, despite a number of pings), I’ve spent some time reviewing the standard literature about blogging. It all makes sense – create a niche market, blog about what you know, keep to regular posting and you’ll slowly develop a readership. After all, no one wants to spend time formulating a post and publishing it if no one is reading.

I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis that do just as the “experts” advise. I find myself gravitating towards blogs with a purpose – politics; military; eLearning; learning and development; and the occasional off-the-wall personal journal are all daily staples.

Unfortunately, I’m full of excuses as to why I can’t pick a topic and stick with it.

I’m a news junkie and devour as much as I can from a variety of political spectrums, but there are already many amazing current events and Canadian politics related blogs. Besides, I don’t have the patience to devote my little grey cells to the intricacies of Canadian politics on a daily basis. I’d quickly drive myself mad.

I’m a military spouse and have lived on bases all over the country. When it comes to the military I can be opinionated, defensive and exasperating. Writing about this aspect of my life would have me searching for the nearest exit within a week – never mind what it might do to anyone who reads these posts.

I travel with work and for pleasure all over the globe. I keep travel journals and photo galleries chronicling some of the experiences. Sometimes there are months between the trips, it would make for a boring blog (or one that’s not often updated) if I dedicated it to travel alone.

I don’t have enough confidence in my own abilities to handle a blog dedicated to exploring eLearning or instructional system design (ISD). I’m still struggling to understand my own philosophy of learning and how my existing mental models influence my opinions relating to preferred methodology. I may dabble in an occasional post, but I’m not ready to jump into the deep end of the pool just yet.

At the moment, the one thing that’s been taking up a large portion of my time, brain power, and spirit that could fit the bill is a topic I just can’t bring myself to write about. I’m sure it would fulfill a niche market and might even be cathartic. I’m avoiding the topic for many reasons, not the least of which is that I just don’t have the emotional strength to write about home care for a palliative cancer patient. I struggle sending email updates to family members. I can’t imagine allowing the public in to read about our daily struggles and losses.

I guess I’ll just continue along the current path, posting willy-nilly about whichever topic strikes my fancy. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: technorati, blog topics