Guess whose back
February 17, 2006
Mine. An old joke, but I'm an old guy. At least, my back is this week. I have a recalcitrant disc that doesn't like to stay in line - years ago it sidestepped a tad, pinched a nerve, numbed my calf and gave me foot flap. Treatment is regular exercise - of course I forget to keep it up and suddenly, when doing something innocuous like filling the windshield washer in the car - it's out! Then lower back spasms, drag myself to bed, and wonder where the drugs are. Recovery seems quicker this time - now I have the physio exercises Natalie gave me to heal and strengthen. Not quite the same without her gentle guiding hands, but I'll manage.
In the meantime - what's new? Well, election is done, we increased our local NDP support by 50%, from 10% to 15%. Not a majority, but a respectable increase. We had a good turnout again (76%), in the riding, partially because once again there was a close Liberal-Conservative battle. This time the Conservative won. I think the riding may have lost - check out this review of him. We'll be keeping an eye on this guy, as well as Harper. We had several thousand in our budget, and maybe 50 keen volunteers - an increase over the previous election. And a better candidate - local, bilingual, family, local business, good speaker, well researched in the issues. But to get more, I think we need to focus and run the association and campaign more like a business, with a plan. Vision, some long term goals, some specific measurable objectives for this year, tasks, processes and responsibilities. Remains to be seen how the volunteer base aligns with this - a lot are great doers, but we need some planners too.
I was browsing some blogs via Bloglines (a web-based RSS news feed aggregator) and found this one by John Scalzi, titled "Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing". Some good points.
Heard an interesting bit on CBC tonight, on C'Est la Vie, an English-french program. They talked to a language professor from University of Alberta about a free site he built called Le Patron that helps you with your French. You type in a French paragraph, and it points out common spelling and grammar mistakes. And it doesn't just correct for you, it hi-lites the error and you have to mouse-over to get not only the correction, but the why. So you learn the grammatical rules also.
Got an update lately from a friend about her site - jenr8.com. Check it out - new pics from her, and art from her partner, Nic. I met her years ago thru my graf flics, she used to take a lot of similar ones in the alleys of Toronto and took me to some new sites. She has some different styles on her site - Jessie is a series of soft focus erotica, Amazon is playful in leather, mannequin is - a mannequin. Delightfully decorated. Nic has some wonderfully detailed drawings, and some paintings that hint of anime. I think he must be Japanese.
And speaking of graffiti - here's a site about "throwies". An article in TechWeb news says "Throwies' Put Open Source Spin On Graffiti. The small devices attach to any magnetic surface, such as a metallic wall, and turn it into a space filled with tiny colorful lights. The idea: express yourself while doing no harm. " The Graffiti Research Lab site has a video of a group covering a metal wall at night with several hundred of the devices. Check it out. The music is by Jose Gonzales, a cover of Heartbeats by The Knife. His is restful, but I kind of like the original. His version was also used as part of a Sony Bravia LCD display commercial, with hundreds of coloured balls bouncing down a San Francisco hill.
I'm supposed to be studying tonight but I got tired of making notes every day of "things to blog" and then never doing so. Enough for now, I'll lie on the floor some more and read my study guide. Exam is March 4h. Yikes.