Monthly Archives: December 2009

Reading fiction



For the first time that I can remember in my life, I’m reading fiction of my own free will. I’ve a prolific reader, I love reading, but I always read with a purpose and I see little purpose to reading fantasy. I’ve always been this way.

I remember at age 8, my grade two teacher assigned a book report project. The class went to the library to pick out a small book. I managed to sneak away into the section of the library dedicated to the middle school teenagers (grades 6 –8) and I found a gigantic National Geographic book about The Solar System. It was huge, I could barely carry it. I was told to get a book from the children’s section instead. I refused and eventually I was allowed to sign out this non-fiction tome.

I remember reading it and the enjoyment I received from doing so. The book was 284 pages and entitled National Geographic’s Picture Atlas to Our Universe. I learned a lot reading those pages and felt pretty smart afterwards.

This continued for the rest of my elementary and secondary education. If I could get away with ditching a fiction book for non-fiction I would. I never bothered to do much with fiction, when forced to read it, I only did so because it was a requirement and only did a minimal book report in the end.

Near the end of high school, I did read some Star Wars science fiction. I found books by Timothy Zahn to be engaging and I always buy Star Wars books written by him. Of course, that’s not the kind of fiction that one can use as a cultural reference or to engage in small talk conversation.

This last year as been transformative for me; mind you, each year is transformative. This year has been more transformative than the last few for many reasons. Culturally, this year marked my first trip as an adult overseas. I travelled to Doha, Qatar twice. What an experience. (This will be a later blog post) I also went to my first Canadian Opera Company performance.

This had a profound impact. Basically, I was completely resistant to the idea of going to the Opera. I only went because I felt trapped into going and I wanted to be able to say “been there, tried it, hated it, leave me alone.”

I was shocked to discover that I really enjoyed the opera; so much that I make a point of going to the opera whenever the opportunity presents itself. The fact that I’ve enjoyed the opera has resulted in me experimenting with other forms of culture. I’ve been to a few art galleries and art crawls. Can’t say I’m a fan of the galleries, but I definitely enjoy the crawls.

Now, I’m reading a book of fiction. The book, Lullabies for Little Criminals, was a finalist for a Governor General’s Literary Award and the 2007 winner of CBC’s Canada Reads. I’ve only read the first chapter so far. After three chapters, I hope to write something on my personal blog.

I haven’t enjoyed the first chapter and I look at my academic textbooks wondering if I’m wasting my time on this fiction venture. I know I’ll finish this fiction book, if I don’t @nursekama will be disappointed in me. I’m reading the book at the same time as her and we’re supposed to discuss it on a regular basis.

Thanks @nursekama! You making me still to my goal of becoming a culturally informed person.

Filed under: Coleman Reads, Coleman Reads

The return to Facebook



So, after much peer pressure, I’ve reactivated my Facebook account. I don’t intend to use the site as much as I used to and my use will be limited. No more sharing of my YouTube favourites, no more status updates, and no more uploading of photos.

Many of my friends complained about not being able to invite me to events and that I was being anti-social by not commenting on their statuses and such. I’ll probably still be anti-social, but at least they’ll be able to invite me to events I probably be too busy working to attend.

Toronto Star runs article on Flight 253’s potential debris field



The Toronto Star ran a piece on this topic on Sunday. It did not appear in any of the Google searches I ran prior to posting my own piece entitled “Why the Canadian media is increasing irrelevant”. The graphic attached to the article shows the potential area of the debris field which does not cover a major urban area. The plane flew near Midland, but at no point was Midland below the flight path. I choose Midland as the example based upon the flight arc I linked to.

Filed under: Canadian Politics, World Politics, Canadian Media

Why the Canadian media is increasing irrelevant



The big news story of the last few days was the terror attack against Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day. It is yet another story that reveals why the Canadian media is becoming irrelevant. There hasn’t been much of a Canadian angle to the story published by our news outlets beyond the regurgitation of statements by the Canadian government.

All of our major news outlets are republishing and broadcasting reports primarily from American wire services. There is very little original reporting on the Canadian aspects to this story. Yes, Canadian media outlets have interviewed the Canadian passenger on the flight, but they haven’t gone much further than this.

Transatlantic flights follow a great circle route that takes them though Canadian airspace en route to their destinations. The Amsterdam to Detroit flight path is no different. (NWA 253 Flight Route)

When the terrorist attempted to blow up Flight 253, he did so over Canadian airspace. This is an extremely important angle to the story. The Lockerbie bombing resulted in 270 deaths after a terrorist exploded a device in mid-air resulting in the break-up of the Pan-Am Boeing 747.

Eleven of those deaths were on the ground when the remains of the aircraft fell to the ground.

Here’s the question I’d like to see answered in the Canadian media; where was NWA 253 over Canadian airspace when the terrorist attempted to combust his explosive device and does the Canadian government have the capability to respond to a Lockerbie-like incident?

A plane falling apart over Midland would require a massive emergency response. With CFB Borden and pretty much the entire Land Forces Central Area command on Christmas Leave, where would the response come from and how long would it take to mount?

It is quite possible that not only were the passengers of Flight 253 lucky, but Canadians on the ground were lucky as well.

We’ll see if the Canadian media covers this angle in the Monday newspapers. I doubt it, the media’s angle on this story will be the line-ups at Pearson airport due to the new security regulations.

The media is dying because it is no longer thinking deeply about the news, it’s merely reporting what it’s told by government news releases and sources.

 

UPDATE (28 Dec 09 2200GMT): The Toronto Star ran a piece on this topic on Sunday. It did not appear in any of the Google searches I ran prior to posting. The graphic attached to the article shows the potential area of the debris field which does not cover a major urban area. The plane flew near Midland, but at no point was Midland below the flight path. I choose Midland as the example based upon the flight arc I linked to.

Filed under: Canadian Politics, Canadian Media

The best physical gift I received this year



A big light blue towel in early April.

I’ve always been one to prefer huge towels. I have a dark blue towel which I purchased from IKEA in early 2003 that is my favourite. It’s travelled with me across the country and became a bit of a trademark of mine while I lived in barracks and later in residence. In short, I valued the towel.

I had the towel, along with many other items of mine, at a girlfriend’s apartment when she ended our relationship by email during the second half of February.

She refused to return any of my items. By the end of March, I was really frustrated by the situation. I often complained to my close friends about the fact that the ex-girfriend was refusing to return my stuff. When asked which item I wanted returned most, I would respond by stating my big blue towel.

A good friend was out with her now-fiancee. He suggested a few towels, to which she told him they were too small. After an extensive search, she found a huge towel. A few days after purchasing it, she gave it to me. It was the best gift of the year because of how thoughtful it was and it reminded me that my friend truly cared.

Whenever I use this towel, I fell that I’m wrapped by the caring feelings of my friends.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-26



Iggy’s coming to your city



Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is looking to take a break from his troubles on Parliament Hill in the new year by returning to the ivory tower, sorta.

No, he’s not leaving politics for the sanctuary of an academic posting, he’s going to visit 11 university campuses during the second week of January to speak with students. The Liberal news release is available here.

Last year, both Jack Layton and Elizabeth May conducted speaking tours visiting campuses across the country. May’s visits were extremely successful in generating media coverage for her and, to a lesser extent, her party.

With Iggy needing to rebrand himself and rebuild his party, visiting campuses seems like a smart move. Combined with the “Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge” conference his party is organizing to occur in Montreal during March, it appears the Liberals may be embracing Ignatieff’s intellectual nature and promoting themselves as the party of thinkers.

One of the downfalls of Stephane Dion was the failure of the Liberals to embrace Dion’s intellectual nature and to make that a positive about him. Instead, they tried to hide this and Dion appeared to be fake to the public. I remember meeting Dion during his first visit to Hamilton as Liberal leader. I remember distinctly how awkward he was and how he tried to make statements that reflected what spin doctors were advising him to say instead of what he thought.

The Liberal Party of Canada has an opportunity to rebrand Ignatieff in the new year. The question is if they create an image for Ignatieff or if they embrace the academic that Ignatieff is.

I’m hoping to interview Ignatieff during his stop at McMaster University in Hamilton. I’ve emailed my contacts in the party to attempt to arrange this. With this in mind, what post-secondary education related questions do you want Ignatieff to answer? (Keep in mind, I’m going to be lucky to get one-on-one. In all likelihood, I’ll be asking these questions in the middle of a media scrum.)

Filed under: Canadian Politics

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-19



Yes, I left Facebook



On Friday, I decided to leave Facebook for the month of December.

Why? There are many reasons and none of these are protests against Facebook’s so called “improvements” to privacy.

The primary reason is that I don’t know why I’m using Facebook anymore. I knew why I used it back in 2006; it was a small exclusive student community. I could manage it and it was fun. Now, it’s this clutter of games, groups, spam, and other useless garbage.

I need to figure out what purpose Facebook serves me before I return.

I can share my ideas using JoeyColeman.ca and Twitter. I can share my photos here on JoeyColeman.ca and Flickr. My pinball league uses Yahoo! Groups and Google Wave is quickly becoming the discussion forum of choice.

What’s left that makes Facebook special other than my back-and-forth poke wars with my friends Sarah and Annette? Nothing.

People can reach me by email and inform me of events using this same old fashion technology.

The added bonus of not being on Facebook is that I won’t look stupid for not creeping people. If it’s important, you’ll have to tell me and not assume I creep everything about you every hour of the day.

Now, I’ve had a few people say they’ll miss seeing my YouTube favourites show up in their feed. The integration features will be missed, but I can replicate them here.

There’s an added bonus, I know how many people are creeping me here.

Missing the old Joey Coleman



I’m working on a story related to Oshawa continued anti-student posturing tonight. As part of my story, I’m reading all the coverage I did for Maclean’s and getting nostalgic.

Erin Millar and I did an amazing job of covering higher education back in 2007 and 2008. She did an amazing job building that site and we were the top source for higher education coverage in Canada.

I like to think we raised the bar forcing the creation of GlobeCampus and the new University Affairs.

Anyway, my experiences as a journalist are another series of blog posts and not what I started this post to discuss.

Back to the point – as I was saying, I’m looking at my old articles and I miss the old Joey Coleman. You remember, the smart ass, fun loving guy. The guy who did nothing in life beyond blogging, working at the parking garage on weekends and evenings to subsidize that blogging, school, and sometimes slept.

While, there is no going back to those days. I work 8am – 12 noon M-F at the parking garage. I’m taking tougher courses, and have rediscovered my friends. (They’re nice people who like to see me every few weeks or so)

That said, I do want to return to blogging more often and doing some form of a regular higher education update on joeycoleman.ca along the lines of the ON CAMPUS DAILY UPDATES I wrote back in the Maclean’s days. Reading the update I wrote for 06 November 2007, I smile at how much fun I had.

I enjoy how I wrote the second half of the update:

Beam me up SSMU

The Student Society of McGill University will be holding a special general meeting next Tuesday in which they will vote on joining a Quebec students strike. The student strike is not the only matter before them. A student group calling itself “Students Organized Against Protestors”, SOAP for short, has put forth motions to honour McGill graduate William Shatner of Captain Kirk fame.

The motions call for renaming buildings at McGill with Star Trek-themed names, would force the Students’ Society Council to recite “Rocket Man” in the style of William Shatner, and will require the students’ society to provide prayer space for students “Shatner-worship needs.”

Personally, I liked Shatner’s destruction of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

I can only ask one thing, can somebody amend the motion to exclude Max Silverman, I hear his singing is really bad. Also, what about those who pray to The Prophets?

Free condoms in your paper? You need protection!

In yet another case of political correctness gone mad, the University of California has cancelled the distribution of 4,500 condoms in the campus paper after some people took offense.

People claimed to take offense, not at the distribution of condoms, but at the advertisement for the distribution which showed two stick figures in the missionary position.

The University health centre had agreed at the beginning of the semester to provide the condoms which the paper would insert into the Nov. 14 issue. Following complaints, the campus health centre will instead print coupons in the student paper which students can submit for a free condom.

Could somebody please invent a form of protection for people who take offense too easily? Or at least something to inject common sense into the ivory tower? Anyone?

Speaking of sex, student newspapers and censorship

Loyola University has pulled a student magazine from distribution on the campus after the magazine ran a sex issue on the Jesuit campus.

The magazine included a drawing of a naked woman in high heels being penetrated by a male from behind. Clearly this is a taboo on most campuses; let alone a private Catholic university.

The students are claiming their freedom of speech is being infringed upon; a valid claim. However, all freedoms must be exercised with reason, just because you have the presses doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with them. Clearly, this is a Catholic university and nobody is forced to be there. One goes there with the clear understanding that there are certain conventions that are followed. In short, the University is well within its rights to remove this publication; if these students wish to publish a magazine without the restrictions of Catholic doctrine, they are more than able to register at the local public university.

Filed under: Coleman's Rants about Blogging

Recent reads – 13 Dec 09 – Part I



A couple of months ago, I experimented with Delicious in an attempt to share what I’m reading with others. I kept up with it for a few weeks, got busy, and never returned to updating the bookmarks.

Now that I’m finally rebuilding joeycoleman.ca, I need something to write about. I still wish to share what I’m reading with others. I’m going to do this on my blog in a new category entitled recent reads; this is the first post.

 

An amazing article published by the United Kingdom’s The Daily Mail expresses concerns about what appears to be the lack of social mobility in today’s British society. Due to the massification of higher education, the value of an undergraduate degree has greatly diminished resulting in less opportunity resulting from the degree. Despite the massification, the number of students from the lowest social economic groups has not grown significantly; it is the middle and upper classes which are benefitting. The column asks a great question: is increasing the number of students attending university actually boosting social mobility? The author, Ryan Shorthouse, notes that the graduate premium often cited (uni grads make more than high school grads) is based on the earning of students in the 70s before the age of purchased internships, non-paid internships, and the necessity of grad school, and student debt; all factors that hinder climbing the social ladder. As someone from the lowest social-economic classes, I read this with interest. I know that I haven’t been able to find an internship that pays enough for me to support myself during it.
More students don’t always mean more social mobility

 

Last Wednesday (09 Dec 09) a study underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about why students drop out of college (it’s an American study) and the reasons these former students cite for dropping out was released. The study was conducted by Public Agenda entitled With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them interviewed 600 young American adults. The findings are best summarized by Tamar Lewin on The New York Times blog The Choice. 
Study Sheds Light on Students Leaving College Early

The Associated Press reports that the United States primary federal student assistance program, the Pell Grant (wikipedia), faces a $18-billion deficit over the next three years. The deficit is the result of increased eligibility, an increase to the maximum amount of the grant, and the number of people enrolling in higher education during the recession. Both the White House and Congress are reassuring students there will be no cuts to the program.
More head to school, while Pell Grant program faces $18 billion shortfall

 

The Washington Post ran a column Tuesday noting the challenges facing homeless students attending American colleges. It’s a good inspiring read.
For homeless college students, each day brings tests of will

Earlier in the week, The Chronicle of Higher Education technology section ran a piece discussing the transformation of university computer labs into lounge spaces. Motivated by a desire to save money, some universities are cutting back the number and size of computer labs on their campuses. With most students now having portable computers, this is a win-win scenario. The university saves money and students receive study space.
Rebooted Computer Labs Offer Savings for Campuses and Ambiance for Students

 

My home university, the University of Manitoba, elected its next Chancellor last week. Harvey Sector takes office in the new year. I’m sadden to see Bill Norrie end his terms as Chancellor. Norrie was accessible to students and often promoted student causes. Here’s hoping Chancellor Sector does the same.
University of Manitoba

 

The University of Guelph is demolishing six houses located at the southwest corner of their campus, reports the Guelph Mercury. The houses, which at one point were the residences of university deans and administrators, are currently used for the campus food bank, bike coop, and some student housing. It’s just another symptom of the mass production assembly system of higher education which we’ve built here in Canada. The community formed by having academics live on campus has long left. With the demolition of these buildings, the last large visual reminders of that era are gone as well.
Days numbered for little houses on the campus

An interesting read from U.S. News & World Report’s education section notes the difference in pricing for dorm accommodation within the American higher education system. No surprise; the luxury dorms at NYU are more expensive than traditional dorms at smaller rural universities. It’s worth noting the current momentum in Canadian higher education is towards more “premium” residences which, not surprisingly, generate higher revenues for the host institution.
Are Pricey Dorms 10 Times Better?

 

With so many post-secondary institutions, there are always quirky stories about initiatives to assist students. One of the more interesting, reported by The University Leader, is Fort Hays State University in Kansas giving students $5 dollars for graduate an on-campus class with a mark of C or above. (Hattip: Chronicle of Higher Education student affairs blog)
Several unaware of grades-for-cash student program

(I haven’t started my Sunday reading, so these likes are not the freshest. I’m hoping to do part two with today’s news before going to bed tonight)

Filed under: Higher Education

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-12