About Time

This weekend we changed the clocks back an hour (in theory, at least; I actually only changed most of ours yesterday afternoon and still haven't done the cars). That means it's time for my biannual rant against Standard Time. A body can get used to most anything, as the saying goes, and though I spent a lot of time yawning yesterday I'm pretty much adjusted after only two days. But that doesn't mean I like it! 

In fact, yesterday I went searching online for petitions or movements to abolish the time change. I signed one and Liked another on Facebook. And I found lots of people who commiserate with me. However, to my surprise, I also found many - a majority even on some sites - who prefer Standard Time. Mainly they're from the south and they find it makes the day cooler and their air-conditioning run less, and I suppose those are valid points. Perhaps time zones should exist horizontally as well as vertically. It's us northerners who despise night arriving by five and fear the onset of S.A.D. Plus there's the cost of lighting an extra hour a day. 

Most do agree, though, that it would be best of all to stick to one time year round. I could condescend to split the time, adjust it half an hour once and for all and be done with the whole debate. Even here, though, there are dissenters. Apparently some people profit from adjusting lights, alarms, heating/cooling systems etc. It injects considerable revenue into the U.S. economy, at least. The downside, of course, is a lot of very tired people and even an increase in accidents, particularly with the springtime leap forwards. I guess, in the end, you'll never please absolutely everybody, but it would be nice if some inspired politician decided it was "time" to do something to end this semiannual disruption to our lives.

Back to Pilates

It was back to Pilates yesterday. After almost three months off, I'm starting what I believe is my sixth year now. It was very fortuitous when Dorval held a demo night where you could try snippets of a whole bunch of fitness classes. When I learned that Pilates is particularly effective for your core, neck, back etc. I was sold - even though I'd never really heard of it before. It's worked too. My neck and shoulder area aren't perfect yet, but they're infinitely better than they used to be. 

You do go at your own pace and adapt to your own physical challenges, but that doesn't mean it's always easy. In fact, even though I thought I'd kept in pretty good shape over the summer, I found yesterday's class plenty hard enough. Our teacher did say she was going to take it easy on us, that it was more of an assessment class, but personally I don't think she took it that easy!

The assessment idea was good though; I used it to assess myself too. Surprisingly, considering that I don't do anything in particular for it, my abs are definitely my strongest point. I think they always have been; even way back in school when we did the Canada Fitness Tests I was able to ace the gold level in sit-ups almost effortlessly. My back and bottom are decent. My neck and shoulders and arms are my weak spots. And also surprisingly, my legs are mediocre. They're not very flexible and don't even seem especially strong, or at least they tire easily during exercises. Considering how much walking I do, that's a disappointment. Or possibly it's because I do so much walking - by the time I got to class yesterday I had already walked the dogs three times. Maybe it's no wonder they're a little tired! 

Anyway, strengths and weaknesses aside, overall I think it's a very good activity to keep up with. It's sort of tempting to give up on formal exercising, but if I want to stay strong and healthy I think it's very important to keep going - probably even more so as I age. I should probably be adding vigorous aerobic exercise too, actually. Walking the doggies doesn't really require all that much exertion. And if I want my body to keep going strong, I need to keep it tuned up. 

Another Apple non-"Event"

(9:30 AM) This afternoon there will be an Apple “Event” ... and so I am preparing to be disappointed and disillusioned yet again. Of late Apple has been a disappointment, and I really don't see any indications that the product unveilings this time around will be so spectacular. 

It's expected there will be two iterations of the iPhone: the faster 5S, possibly with a fingerprint sensor for security and an improved camera, and the cheaper 5C with who knows what specs. There may be an updated Apple TV. The newest operating system, iOS 7, should be just about ready for release too but again I don't expect great things. As of the latest beta, the iPad version in particular is still riddled with issues. I really dislike the new “flat” look as well; I much prefer good old-fashioned skeumorphism. 

No new iPads are expected before October, and there's little mention of any updated iPods either. That's the one thing I actually would be interested in. If they were to release a 128 GB iPod Touch with an 8 MP camera I might seriously consider it. Otherwise I'm tending towards a discount Samsung Galaxy S3 for my mobile needs. I suspect the iPod Touch could be completely ignored this year; it's in kind of a weird position - particularly with a cheaper iPhone arriving - and definitely overpriced in my opinion. Anyway, I'll update my post later with all the “news” and my probably very subdued reaction. 

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(2:00 PM) Well ... meh. That's about all I can say, having caught the highlights of the so-called “event” this afternoon. Yes iOS 7 will be released next week, but we didn't learn anything radical about it, and only the early adopters (who I won't be among) will be able to tell if all the kinks and bugs have really been worked out. 

And yes there are two new iPhones. The so-called budget model is the 5C; the one with all the latest bells and whistles is the 5S. But really the off-contract price differential between the two is only $100, and your cheapest option is still a pretty hefty $549. I don't really call that a budget buy. 

However if somebody were to generously offer me the 5S for free I'd happily take it. I don't particularly care about the fingerprint sensor, although I'm sure it's good from a security standpoint, but I do like the sound of the improved camera and the sample shots did look pretty impressive. 

The one other announcement of interest is that the iWorks suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto and iMovie) will now be free ... to purchasers of new devices. (And apparently this includes the iPod Touch 5, which sort of suggests to me not to get my hopes up for an iPod Touch 6 any time soon.) That's disappointing. I'm sure a lot of people would happily have taken Apple up on that opportunity but, as seems to be Apple’s trend of late, owners of older devices seem to be pretty much shafted. Not exactly the way to win loyal users I'd say. 

So now I wait for the next non-event, most likely sometime in October, to be most likely underwhelmed yet again. Too bad Apple, but I expect better from you. 

Time Flies

Hard to believe, but in just over two days from now my “little” cousin Olivia will be a married woman. At two days old, she was the tiniest baby I'd ever held. And I looked forward immensely to all her childhood visits (with the possible exception of the endless games of Payday!) Now suddenly she's thirty; in another year she'll be a full-fledged child/adolescent psychiatrist ... and in two days, a wife. I don't expect it will be all that long before she's a mother as well. 

Time is such a funny thing. It can seem to take forever - especially when you're a kid, but then you'll go “whoa ... that was a long time ago” and it will suddenly seem incredibly short. I still don't think I've really fully grasped the concept. I try to savour every moment as much as I can, but I also continue to procrastinate on things as if I had all the time in the world. 

Once when I was around eleven or so I puzzled my mom by telling her that it was really as if everybody was exactly the same age, had lived exactly the same amount of time, because “yesterday” or “the past” was pretty much just like one day (albeit with different amounts of memories, I suppose). It's kind of analogous to those cliches that talk about the present moment being all that anybody really has. I don't know that I ever fully will “get” time or accomplish anywhere near all I could or should, but I'll keep plodding along and try to make my peace with it as best I can. 

As for Saturday's wedding, I know I'll find it a lovely yet bittersweet event. Of course I wish Olivia every happiness: she's a truly wonderful person and she and Stelios definitely deserve it. But I'll be a bit sad too that my time for a brilliant career, a spectacular wedding, and little babies is pretty much over - before I even appreciated that it had arrived.  

Technology in Education - More Personal than Ever

I heard a very interesting radio show on NPR Monday night (American Radio Works: “One Child at a Time: Custom Learning in the Digital Age”), all about the increasing role of technology in education. While there are still caveats and concerns, at least some of the results do look very promising. 

Done properly, technology can offer a variation on private tutoring or the one-room schoolhouse. Students can advance at their own pace, no matter how slow or how rapid, and lessons really can be tailor-made for each student, providing just the right amount of challenge without becoming frustrating. Skilled teachers will always have a guiding role to play, but really more as facilitators or enhancers than as direct instructors. 

In fact one school in the Midwest, Carpe Diem, has only five teachers for the entire student body (currently 90 students in grades 6 through 12, with a short-term goal of 300 ... but still only five teachers). Students spend much of the day working on individualised instruction with their own computers, but do meet several times a day for classes where they will discuss what they learned and do some group projects. They go over their educational objectives and progress regularly with their teacher guides, but make a lot of choices themselves, deciding, for example, when they feel ready to take a unit test (which they need to score at least 80% on to ensure there are no overlooked “holes” in their learning). 

There are downsides, of course. At Carpe Diem, with so few teachers (and students), curriculum options are limited. There are no art or music classes, although there is a music appreciation course. The cost of technology, of course, is a huge factor also - particularly for cash-strapped schools. And I'm not convinced - at least not yet - that the wisest way to go is reducing teachers, making classes larger and giving every student a tablet or laptop in exchange. There are so many different variables, so many different needs. Some ADD students are just too distractible and simply can't handle the stimulation and temptations of technology. 

Still, preliminary results of student progress using technology do look good. Test scores are up; dropout rates are down. What you can't have yet are long term studies to determine if knowledge and learning gains last and if skills eventually transfer well to the post-school world of work. We certainly don't want to end up with a generation incapable of focussing for more than a few minutes or producing the higher order thoughts that typically require in-depth study and lengthy periods of quiet introspection. So, while I do believe that technology can definitely enhance traditional learning; whether or not it should virtually replace it is definitely still up for debate. 

* Show transcript available at: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/personalized-learning/

On Safari at Carrefour Laval

I went to Carrefour Laval today for the very first time. And I must say it was quite a heady, almost overwhelming experience. It was by far the biggest, most glamorous mall I have ever been in. It makes Fairview seem minuscule in comparison. Walking through it was almost like walking down outdoor streets. Many of the stores have facades like real buildings. There was even a good-sized garden! 

Now a confession: I don't actually like malls ... or shopping for that matter. A little browsing goes a very long way for me. So the thought of spending any longer than necessary in one does not fill me with glee. I already find Fairview too big, too sophisticated, and avoid going there whenever possible. All those fancy stores filled with so much I don't need or want. Horrible!

I didn't go today by choice either; I had to drop off my camera at the Sony store for repairs. But it was a sort of adventure, an anthropological survey, if you will. To be fair, it was a beautifully kept mall, absolutely immaculate and with ample, comfortable seating throughout. It was interesting to see how crowded it was - and on a lovely afternoon when it would have been so much nicer to be outdoors. Most people definitely looked as if they'd been buying too. It was a pretty upscale crowd, but there was some cultural diversity. More of the rampant tattoos that have gone so mainstream of late. Plenty of devices of all sorts in the hands of preschoolers on up. Lots of snacking and nibbling. And, by the looks of it, a lot of pretty happy people. 

I'm glad there are people like them who keep the economy running (if it were up to me there wouldn't be much of an economy at all - although the banks would be well-stocked). But I was happiest when we were leaving. We didn't even see all of it; in fact probably not much more than a quarter of it. Other than Sony, we popped into a few shoe stores for Dan and that was it. There were a couple of big names I'd heard of like “Crate and Barrel” and “Williams-Sonoma”, but I just couldn't bring myself to bother going in. Maybe if it had been cold and rainy I could have treated it like a museum and gone browsing through the stores’ “exhibits”, and even enjoyed it a little. But today I was more than happy to get out. Being back home on my front porch swing with an ice cream cone was by far a better way to spend a late summer afternoon. 

Suspended in Sport

I'm not naive enough to believe that cheating doesn't occur in sport, both amateur and professional. But I am idealistic enough to also believe that it doesn't have any place there, and should still be condemned and eradicated as much as possible. So on Monday, when several baseball players - including New York Yankees' star Alex Rodriguez - were suspended for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, I was very pleased to see it. 

Rodriguez, in fact, received a particularly harsh punishment because he had lied and attempted to obstruct the investigation. At over 200 games - through the end of next season - he may not return to the sport at all. (A dozen other players received fifty game suspensions.) Rodriguez will be forty by the time his suspension is lifted, and has already had several significant injuries. He just may not be up to major league level again. 

And I don't feel one bit sorry for him either. The only one I feel sorry for is his team. They will save something, but apparently will still owe him some sixty million dollars whether he ever plays again or not. I don't think that's right either. There should be some sort of standard clause in sport contracts stating that if an athlete is proven beyond doubt to have cheated (which science can do more effectively all the time), their contract is terminated immediately with no further monies forthcoming. That just might make a few people think twice!

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I spent a good part of this past winter immersed in the warm and wonderful world of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency's Precious Ramotswe. It was a truly delightful series which I can't believe I was reluctant to read for so long!(I'm not really a big mystery fan, but as I came to realize - and appreciate - the books were far more about life than crimes.) I read all thirteen books and am eagerly awaiting the appearance of the fourteenth this fall.  

In the meantime, though, the beauty of Botswana and its people has come to life before my very eyes as I've been watching the BBC/HBO television series - seven delightful episodes (I still have two to go, plus some bonus features). It's incredibly unfortunate they only made one season's worth - thus far, anyway. Guess they're just too good quality for the average person to appreciate. 

I was somewhat surprised at first by Mma Ramotswe (Jill Smith). I'd expected her to be a little older ... and a little larger. But I soon realised she, and all the other characters, were absolutely perfect. Most of them are quite svelte, in fact, particularly the younger people and pretty much all the kids. That's refreshing, after being more accustomed to pudgy North Americans. And it's not that they're starving; Botswana is one of Africa's successes. There is poverty, but in general they have enough - just not too much. Clearly they also do a lot more exercise: plenty of walking and biking, and more physical labour. The show really makes the North American lifestyle seem so excessive and decadent. I find the agency's low-tech office with simple desks and rickety typewriters and general lack of gadgets and gizmos to be very refreshing also, the kind of simple place I'd enjoy working. (The only thing I still have issue with is the beloved "little white van" ... which is a little white pickup truck in the videos. But perhaps "van" and "pickup" don't mean the same things as they do in Canada.)

So all in all, watching this series has been pure delight. It's so good, in fact, that I may actually consider buying it at some point (it's on loan from the library, currently), which is incredibly high praise from an infrequent tv viewer. Certainly it's a well worthwhile escape from this reality, that I'll look forward to enjoying again come next winter. 

Good Bye July!

Even though the last week of July was about as perfect as summer in Quebec can be, and I have been supremely happy, I was still very glad to turn the calendar pages to August this morning. Overall it was not a good month, beginning and ending with tragedy. 

Of course the whole month has been marked by July 6th's rail disaster in Lac Mégantic which claimed the lives of at least 47 people (the Sureté du Québec only called off the official search for the final five bodies today) and destroyed the whole city core. It has been called the worst environmental disaster on land in North America in history, and estimates are it will cost between 500 million and a billion dollars to clean up. (There's also a good likelihood the small railway responsible for it all - Montreal, Maine and Atlantic - will just declare bankruptcy and walk away from everything. Despicable!)

Then the next weekend came the sad news of the death of Cory Monteith. That's entirely a self-made tragedy, but it did upset me because I liked his work.  And it certainly left a lot of family, friends, fans, and his co-star/girlfriend Lea Michele heartbroken. Such a waste of good potential. 

The 19th of course was our storm of the year with hundred kilometre per hour winds that brought down branches and trees all over the area - including two in our next two neighbours down. And one of them was far too close for comfort to where I was sitting reading by our huge living room window. I actually saw it fall! Ten or fifteen more feet and I would have been covered in glass - or squashed completely. We lost power for twenty-nine hours, and it seems like virtually every day since then I have been living to a background of chainsaws and sawdust. This week they've been working on the last of the three massive trees that caused the mayhem here. I know it was necessary; every single storm I've looked up at them and hoped they wouldn't land on our house - or anyone else's - but it's still sad. I love trees, and I don't like change. I'll miss their shade, miss seeing squirrels scurrying around them and racoons perched in them, and hearing the sound of the wind rustling their leaves. 

And yesterday, just shy of a year after my pit-bull attack, I heard the horrible news that a sweet little shih-tzu named Lucky was KILLED by a pit-bull.  Apparently people tried to help, even beating it with boards, but it wouldn't let go. I was heartbroken for the poor owner. He's an elderly gentleman whose wife died and that dog was his only companion. He used to hold him up and wave at us out his front window. I don't know how he'll ever get over the experience. I don't think I could. I would be utterly devastated. The people who witnessed it are going to be pretty traumatised too. I'm still nervous after last summer, and still very cautious where I walk. Now I have one more area to avoid. I really think concerned dog owners - and others - need to get together and see if anything can be done about banning the breed here. It's been done in many other cities and boroughs - not to mention whole provinces like Ontario and B.C. Much as I love dogs and know there can be wonderful examples of any breed, there's just too much potential for danger to fit comfortably into a tranquil residential neighbourhood. 

So I think I have plenty of good reasons to be grateful we're moving on into August. (And I've only listed relatively local concerns; there was also a horrific rail crash in Spain, a bus crash in Italy, an earthquake in China and all kinds of civil unrest in Syria and Egypt.)  Hopefully it will be a truly happy and peaceful and thoroughly enjoyable month. 

R.I.P Cory

Oh Cory, Cory, Cory. How could you?

How could you do this to yourself? How could you throw away a brilliant future that was really only beginning. You were just coming into your own as an actor. Who knows how many movies you'll never make, how many Emmys and Oscars and accolades you'll never see.

How could you do this to the fans who loved you and looked up to you and saw you as a role model. You were always honest about your difficult past. Succeeding and showing them you could overcome it would have been so inspirational ... except you didn't.

And most of all how could you do this to your adored, beloved Lea? She's absolutely devastated. Instead of planning her wedding and dreaming of the children she was going to have with you, she'll be planning your funeral. It will take years to heal, and you never really do get completely over something like this. You can never tell for sure with Hollywood - or any - couples, but you two really seemed to have something special, a genuine love that could have stood the test of time. But now there won't be any future at all. HOW COULD YOU?????

If I could, I would take you and shake you and scream at you not to do it, that you were playing with fire and that it could take absolutely everything and everybody you ever loved or dreamed of. But I can't and nobody can, because it's too late. You've run out of chances.

I was appalled when I heard on Sunday's noon news that Canadian actor Cory Monteith had been found dead in a Vancouver hotel at the age of 31. It seemed so wrong, the guy who played my favourite character, Finn, on one of the very few shows I watch, Glee, gone. And for such a senseless reason. Today's autopsy showed a toxic mix of alcohol and heroin in his blood. Cory had battled addiction in the past and even done a stint in rehab this spring, but he seemed to be doing so well, seemed to have everything in the world to live for. Quite likely it was just a tragic accident, but that's rather moot at this point in time isn't it.

I really liked Cory both as the character of Finn, and what I had seen of him as a person. He reminded me of Dan in some ways: sweet, genuine, kind, sensitive, a little vulnerable, a little goofy now and then - a big kid at heart and a big-hearted person. Given a happier upbringing (he grew up in a broken home and attended 16 schools, eventually dropping out and only graduating later), perhaps things could have turned out better for him - we'll never know. And I can't pretend to know much about addictions - my only "addictions" (and you can't legitimately call them that) were to Diet Coke and playing with my hair. I'm not against alcohol in moderation, though I don't like it myself, but heroin - any drugs - is a big no-no. It's just too risky and especially if you start mixing things up you just can't predict the possible outcome. Still, it seemed like Cory was doing his best, doing the responsible thing. He had also done a lot of work with a foundation in Vancouver for young actors, so they could be helped by the craft the same way he was .

Any way you look at it, it's just plain sad. I'm heartbroken over it and I can hardly imagine how Lea must be feeling. Nobody should have to go through the pain she is. It will be hard on all the cast; many of them are young and it may be the first close person to them they've ever lost. Continuing on with the show will be challenging. It will not be the same, their lives will not be the same, the world will not be quite the same. Just a little bit of light left the world when Cory did. It's so, so sad.