Pete Moore
I’m about to eat a leftover hamburger and a pot of Kraft Dinner for lunch. Honestly not sure what’s more disturbing; the fact I’m hungry enough to consume all of that myself, or the fact that I feel no shame about it.
There will be no pics of this shocking event, as nobody wants to see that.
Is it pronounced “Jif” or “Gif”?
The debate is long and unresolved … BUT.. I hadn’t heard the ‘Jif’ stories before.
I’ve always pronounced it “JIF”, seeing as:
- It’s easier to pronounce that way in my opinion.
- It reminds me of peanut butter, and peanut butter is a gift to humanity.
Thanks for attending my TED talk.
More Comments and Replies Please 🔗
Great post by Greg Morris talking about the difference between blogging and social media:
“You have no idea what people are saying about you because no one seems to leave comments or write replies any more, if there was more interaction on the web without having to get super nerdy on the indie web then maybe we could all quit Twitter.”
I love this idea of bringing conversation back to blogs and away from the dopamine hits of Twitter, but I also agree that some people wouldn’t understand or be interested in a service such as webmentions. However, there’s another veteran technology of the internet that is a perfect second option:
Email.
I’m planning on adopting an open invitation to contact me or reply to my posts via email. I’ve interacted with several writers via email, and not only were the conversations enjoyable and genuine, the people were ecstatic to know someone was reading and getting value from their content.
Can’t second these wise words from @hawaiiboy enough. Along those same lines, this is one of many reasons why I will always prefer direct or easily accessible plain text for my most important data.
Apps and services that purport to offer “Lifetime” plans or access are a marketing ploy. Whose lifetime is it, the lifetime of the EULA? Don’t believe it. Companies are bought, sold, get sherlocked or just plain shut down, and often take your data with them.
966
I’ve always been a proud and resolute Canadian, but right now I’m feeling ashamed. The once lustrous silver lining of this country has become stained and tarnished by time and history. By a heavy hand brought down upon innocents. By blood and tears.
By mistakes.
966.
Perhaps in the COVID age when our eyes, ears, and sometimes now-fragile attention spans are used to being bombarded by the sheer scale of numbers in the tens of thousands, or even millions, this could be deemed a paltry and insignificant number. Inconspicuous enough to belie the terrible truth it signifies, and the tally of those same innocents it counts. The tally of mistakes.
All 966 of them, so far.
Why so far? Sadly, that number will undoubtedly increase, leaving us reeling no less from what it represents than from the unfathomable numbers of cases, suffering, and deaths invading our weary senses every day during a global pandemic. A minuscule total in comparison, yet carrying the same amount of pain. A reminder of what we’ve done, of what we’ve lost, of what we tried to leave behind. And, as we so desperately reach out ahead of ourselves to the future to try and latch onto some semblance of normality, with tired fingers and bruised, heavy hearts, this number serves us a brutal reminder that our old normal should never be viewed through rose tinted glasses, lest they too hide the blood on our collective hands.
966.
Between the provinces of British Columbia (215) and Saskatchewan (751), that is the total current number of unmarked graves found near former residential schools.
966 unmarked graves. 966 deaths never accounted for. 966 innocents that were silenced and, apparently, erased from knowledge and existence. Or at least, that was the intention.
966 terrible, heartbreaking mistakes.
In both cases these residential schools were where First Nations children were sent to be assimilated into our culture, while simultaneously being ripped away from their own. All of this so they could fit into our society, or at least what the mould of our society dictated should be the case. As if their own life they were already living was deemed flawed and unworthy, requiring forceful reconstruction into our “perfect” ideals. Stripping these children of everything that made them unique and special and loved by their families, and replacing it with our clothing, our mannerisms, our attitudes, and even our beliefs. A cookie cutter residential school system designed for quick adoption of these children into our society, indistinguishable from the rest.
The 215 graves at the site in British Columbia have been determined to be all children, while the 751 in Saskatchewan may also include adults. Nothing about that makes this any better obviously. The fact that some of those graves may not be children doesn’t become a parachute that somehow cushions the resulting free fall of emotions this news has wrought. Sadly, it’s just a bandage barely covering this festering wound of neglect and human indignity. Crimes committed against First Nations children and their loved ones, all in the name of assimilation and progress. There’s no doubt more grave sites will be uncovered at former residential schools across the country, and our federal government has already voted to fund and begin the search in earnest.
966.
One must wonder what they were like. What were their dreams and aspirations? What made them smile and laugh, and what made them cry? What did they want to be, or do, or have when they grew up? Are these merely the things these children used to feel before they were sent away, or were they still holding onto them the whole time? Grasping at the memories of the world they once knew to cover up the fear and feelings of the one they were suddenly in. Burying their own truths deep within themselves, wrapped inside the safety of their own secret emotional blanket in the hopes this was perhaps just a passing storm.
The storm didn’t pass.
It engulfed them.
966 voices, silenced and buried by the dark truths of history.
Never honoured.
Never recognized.
And by the people that dug those graves?
Most likely, never remembered.
History has proven time and again that silence is the vicious cold-hearted enemy of progress, and as Winston Churchill was so apt to remind us, those lessons we fail to learn from are doomed to repeat themselves. Those children deserve better. Those children deserved better. A new normal is on the horizon, but it needs to be one that promotes hope and prosperity, not despair and inequality. We need to do more than just offer thoughts and prayers and empty acknowledgement of the past while slipping back to the convenient excuses that provide only lip service to our mistakes, and then subtly sweep them under the proverbial rug with the rest of history’s failures. We need to reflect upon these dark and horrible truths that cost the lives of countless innocent children. We need to reconcile our actions of the past, and allow ourselves to never forget what happened.
We can’t be silent.
966 Indigenous children were silenced.
Those children had their voices taken away.
We must give them a voice.
📷❓ Question for the camera and photography buffs:
I’m a huge fan of black and white photos, and from reading here and elsewhere Fuji is a great choice for both their B&W and JPEG processing. As a noob who would like to do photography — and I’m assuming I’ve heard correctly about Fuji — what’s a good camera model that doesn’t require lenses and other accessories, and hopefully won’t break the bank?
As a Canadian and (former?) Leafs fan, I’m not gonna lie…
I’ve come down with a huge case of #HabsFever. 🏒 🥅
After ordering fast food last night, I was quickly reminded why I don’t like pop and sugary drinks anymore; it was pretty much like watered down syrup.
Anyone else ready to boycott all drinks except coffee/tea and water?
Purging negativity from your life is not about dwelling on what you’ve removed, rather questioning what you allow in.
Some sage advice from @danielpunkass:
“If you’re like me you’ve got lots of inboxes. Email. Twitter. Facebook. Websites you like. Websites you don’t like. What do you do when all of your inboxes are empty or ignored? That’s your purpose in life.”
If we take the time to cultivate these inboxes and eliminate the traffic that serves only as a distraction as opposed to a source of value, that purpose in life can garner even more of our attention.
iPad Grows Up
From Jason Snell, writing over at Six Colors:
Then there’s the Globe key. Hold it down in any app in iPadOS 15, and you’ll see a different set of commands, all of which can be applied globally. (Get it?) These menus are full of shortcuts to switch to the home screen (Globe-H), open a Quick Note (Globe-Q), activate Control Center (Globe-C), and pretty much any other system-level area.
Reading this should already pique any power iPad user’s interest, but then there’s this, emphasis mine:
The Globe menu also contains loads of keyboard shortcuts to control multitasking. You can put apps into Split View and Slide Over, pop them back into full screen, and cycle between apps, all via Globe key shortcuts.
As a heavy keyboard user, I was already excited from Apple’s recent WWDC that they were finally adding keyboard support to multitasking on the iPad. Naturally, as a former Mac user at home and still current one at work, who wrangles around multiple windows of the same application on a regular basis — as well as on my iPad — I found myself holding on with bated breath for even a sampling of these pending shortcuts. Hoping for just that one in particular, that while being only a simple combination of two inconspicuous chiclets on a keyboard, would signal to me that the iPad is growing up. And then, like the glowing filament of the proverbial lightbulb moment, there it was staring me in the face:
Right here is when I realized the iPad is starting to join the big leagues of more power computing for those that need or want to take advantage of it. I’m still confident that while we didn’t perhaps see all the wanted features at the event, at some point we will. That forward momentum for the platform is again taking place and will continue to do so. All from the inclusion of this single, lowly keyboard shortcut, ported over from its Mac big brother.
Is this a small thing? Maybe.
Is it geeky to get this worked up about it? Guilty as charged.
Did it put a huge smile on my face? Absolutely.
All these 🖋 posts are awesome. Here’s my “quiver” right now. I love pens.
Like sheathing weapons of prose, I love @Jack’s coining of the term “quiver” to describe his pen holder. ✒
So, after only a two day break from the humidity it’s rearing its ugly head again tomorrow. Time to move to Svalbard for the next four months. 🇳🇴
I’m only half joking about that…
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
— Winston Churchill
Anyone else feel like we’re not taking this advice to heart?
