North of 49

The story of Ross Sheppard High school teacher Lynden Dorval relates to a post I am working on that looks at the delivery of education in broad strokes and (congrats Lynden) also relates to a post just published last week by yours truly titled "When one person stands up".  What I am saying here is that his story has an under current that connects it, no different than any other news story, to other stories. Mr Dorval has been suspended by the Edmonton Public School Board with pay for the crime of what? He is not some child predator, he teaches physics and he seems to be a person who has a beef with the way he must grade his students. He has looked at his profession as something that has a long term impact on the behavior and perhaps success of his young charges. He has what seems to me a very realistic view of what "the system" is creating in the way of  a work mindset and he questioned the wisdom of the system and was as he puts it, considered a firebrand

Now to carve the turkey! It has happened again!!!!!! I start to write about one thing and it turns into two or three things. So once again I am sort stuck in an editing vortex. I'll hack and slash at the words hopefully producing a new post by week's end.

It's titled Angry Girl. What the heck is happening here.  There seems to be that crazy  tension in the air. People are on edge a bit  more than usual. I can tell by my smile o meter. I walk around town being  nice as possible  smile at folks as I walk past them see if they smile back. Maybe I need a haircut because it seems I am getting fewer smiles than a few months ago. There must be a lot of tension in a person who has given up hope in an ideal whatever it maybe. That tension can easily lead to all out revolt. Close to home it is just the usual, people feeling as though they can only count on themselves and figure that politics is a whole lot of hogwash and figure they should be left alone. I don't know and truly when it comes to Fort McMurray Alberta I don't want to dwell on the causes of the tension. The revolt about to happen is on many fronts and it will involve many countries all disassociated but still fighting in many ways a common enemy. Wh

I went to my you tube channel the other day http://www.youtube.com/watch? And watched me play. Sounds strange saying that in my head, must be the HQ green I have. I became depressed, I know it was nothing and I devoted very little time to it but being able to play was almost as good as playing itself. I have brought out my bass and it will be my main focus until I can arrange piano lessons. So life is one thumb up and one thumb down.

The other day I watched a TED Talk and as almost always it was very good but what I noticed at the end struck me and this probably occurs all the time, I have likely been in an audience myself where a few seconds lapse between the end of the presentation and the applause and then I spy a gent in the crowd who half stands and then looks around to see if someone else is starting, he does then comes into a full upright position, the rest of the crowd follows fairly quickly. SO WHAT right! Well this brought me to connect it to the conservative PM we have and the recent disapproval of him by some cabinet members in general and some in direct relation to bill C-38. I can't even begin to tell you what details are in this omnibus. Probably few could, maybe the drafters of this heinous bill, that is neither you or I.    It is unfortunate that this is not a highly rated romp through a Kane/Finger Batman comic book fantasy where the bad guy is thwarted by a dark truth and

When I was a young father and had to do what I had to do in order to bring food to the table, I'm sure more than a few of you been there, I took a job as a parking lot maintenance guy. Shitty job with few perks except I had to go in behind the central library every night and would take the time to go through their garbage.....Mainly discarded books. ok I wasn't a Dad at the time but was a lot younger In the heap I found a text that was part of a media course from the 60's that used existing stories which were political and at that time current. It was the Vietnam war and the book showed, using actual news stories, how different the reporting could be from one newspaper to the next because of the political leanings of the publisher. In the 60's and 70's financial control meant a united front no matter how many newspapers you owned they would all report as the head office wanted. No matter the facts all editorials on certain subjects would be directly influe

I remember back in the day meeting my cousin Gerry for coffee at the Country Kitchen (i think it was called that) restaurant in Saskatoon. It was one of those grey almost spring days with a touch of heat in the air, the sight of snow, smell of wet pavement and the feel of slush lapping over the tops of your shoes. Gerry strode in and navigated around the anxious young teens in new sneakers and jeans and older farmers with the dust from last harvest still lingering in their John Deere hats, he came to the table smiling but not as usual. This day he seemed smiling but not his wholehearted deep rooted genuine smile. This was a smile that I rarely if ever saw, the surface smile, his face was doing what it should but his eyes were not smiling. He hadn't found all the good things and make his whole being happy, He's truly extraordinary in this regard and it's something which I must bow and tip my hat to because it has taken me a life time to acquire the basic skills to project