The story revolves around anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott – an obviously troubled individual – who has taken it upon himself to peddle anti-gay propaganda.

From the article:

The first two sets of flyers were titled “Keep homosexuality out of Saskatoon’s public schools” and “Sodomites in our public schools.”

The other two were photocopies of classified ads with Whatcott’s handwritten comments on them stating the ads were for “men seeking boys.”

The first two items (pamphlets) were determined to be hate speech, while the latter two were not.

I am torn on this. Primarily, I support anybody’s right to say what they believe, regardless of ludicrous and uneducated that may be. However, I also agree there need to be some restrictions. Interesting case, I think I’ll be reading the full; decision…

Google takes on Facebook Connect with Google+ Sign-In, bringing easy sharing to 10 launch partners

“Hallelujah!“, the ‘Stories of the Street‘ are screaming that ‘Everybody Knows‘, like a ‘Bird on a Wire‘, ‘I’m your Man‘ when it comes to loving Leonard Cohen’s music. ‘I Can’t Forget‘ that impressive ‘Tower of Song‘ he has created…

‘Sisters of Mercy‘, ‘Here it is‘! Even if I have to invade the US to get tickets, I want some. ‘First We Take Manhattan‘ and all that. ‘One of Us Cannot Be Wrong‘… And if it is raining, we can be wearing a ‘Famous Blue Raincoat‘, ‘A Bunch Of Lonesome Heros‘, waiting in line for tickets. ‘Why Don’t You Try‘?

Are you going to get tickets too? Hello? Are you there? ‘Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye‘!

***
Tickets go on sale Jan 18, 2013 at 10 AM

If you are a Tolkien / Middle Earth fan in general – and I am – you will love it.

Now, for the details. I’ll try to hold back somewhat on spoilers, although anyone who has read the book (and really, who hasn’t?!?) will already know how it goes and allowing yourself to be upset by a few spoilers is kind of like watching ‘Titanic’ and being upset if someone tells you ahead of time the ship is going to sink. But I digress…

The Story

Some parts of the movie were particularly close to the book and it’s intent (the first meeting/party/supper with the dwarves at Bag End for example), but if you read the Hobbit and expected it to stay true to the original, you will be surprised. Peter Jackson took a lot more creative license taken with this than with Lord of the Rings (LOTR):

1. Frodo/Elijah Wood has a cameo and is at Bag End with Bilbo at the start of the movie, when they basically replay the intro to the Party from The Fellowship of the Rings? I found that odd.

2. Peter Jackson added characters that were either not part of “The Hobbit” (Galadriel, Azog the Pale Orc), or barely mentioned (Radagast the Brown, Saruman). He also added scenes:

• a meeting between Gandalf, Elrond, Saruman, and Galadriel;
• a ‘greyhound’ race with wargs chasing giant jack rabbits; and
• several scenes/battles with Azog, the Pale Orc.

I guess the Goblin King wasn’t enough, he thought they needed two arch-enemies – three if you count the dragon, four if you bring Sauron/Necromancer into the mix? (I suspect Peter Jackson has plans for Azog in round 2 as a way to provide more insight into Sauron’s rise to power.)

3. Bilbo‘s intelligence from the book was downplayed. For instance, a major “Bilbo saves the day” scene – where he used his wits in the book to overcome adversity – was “given” to Gandalf (the Trolls).

4. Bilbo‘s heroics/skills were expanded upon in a battle with Azog – another appearance for one of those “extra characters” Peter Jackson threw into the mix.

5. The story was what I would consider to be much easier to follow for those heathen (er, I mean non-Tolkien) fans/readers who might have been lost during the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Special Effects

Although I had expected more of an evolutionary jump, the detail placed into the work was impressive, on par or somewhat better than that used in LOTR.

Also, while 3D is really not a big draw for me with movies – and I learned tonight that 3D at 48-frames-per-second didn’t really change my mind on that – it was definitely interesting to see. It worked well on inside shots (the supper at Bag End was amazing), while I found it a little lacking in the scenic shots.

Truthfully, the 48-frames-per-second rendition reminded me of the “True Motion” feature on the 120 and 240 Hz TVs that we all toyed with at first, then set back to normal and forgot about. That doesn’t mean I’m against it, it just means I need more time to decide.

Conclusion

Overall, I give it an 8 (out of 10)

Well-worth seeing on the big screen, and worth seeing at 48-frames-per-second, if for no other reason than to judge for yourself whether or not you like the new “look & feel” Peter Jackson thinks is the future in movie-making.

The extra characters and scenes do a decent job of aligning “The Hobbit” so that it does an interesting job of introducing the plot that leads into the LOTR trilogy.

Of course, that also explains how they are planning to get 3 feature-length movies out of a single children’s story!

If you are one of those people who – like me – prefers sorting your Facebook news feed in Facebook in chronological order (aka “Most Recent“) instead of what Facebook considers “Top Stories“, I found this little tidbit at PCWorld to help make “Most Recent” that your default.

Simply use this url (uri…) to launch Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

That will make it default to “Most Recent“.

You are welcome.

Received this years ago in an email. I brush it off and share it each year, just for giggles!

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, and without prejudice or consideration, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the secular practices or religious persuasion of your choice, with respect for the secular/religious persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice secular or religious traditions at all; and also my wishes for a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2013, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada a great cultural mosaic, (not to imply that Canada is necessarily a greater cultural mosaic than any other country or is the only nation with a cultural mosaic), and without regard to the gender, nationality, race, creed, colour, age, height, weight, intelligence, voting preference, physical ability, food preference, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you also accept and agree to these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wisher accepts no responsibility for any unintended emotional and/or physical discomfort, disruption or stress these greetings may bring to those not subject to societally sanctioned or unsanctioned seasonal emotions, beliefs or traditions.

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and male mental health initiatives.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valour by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

Day 1 – the goatee is gone!

I know this will get me into hot water with my teacher friends, but… While this story was written a bit whiny from the “why do they get special treatment” perspective of the writer, it does contain valid discussion points.

Excessive teachers’ wages a boondoggle we can’t ignore.

I enjoyed my time as a Community College Instructor, and I particularly enjoyed my time off in the summer. Teaching is a calling I am drawn to, and I know from experience Teachers often have a tough career, but… when the rest of the public service is getting hit with cuts, that doesn’t give them the right to a free pass. Many other professions are just as tough or tougher, and they come with fewer benefits and higher qualification/experience requirements.

Like any good cell phone owner with caller ID, I ignore any number I don’t recognize, preferring to allow human nature and voice mail to weed out the chaff.

But, after a few weeks of persistence on their part – and annoyance on mine – I did some research. I found out exactly who they were, a company called VoxData, and they were soliciting for RBC Insurance.

I bank with the RBC for some of my finances, and according to the rules of the national “do not call registry“, they have the right to call existing clients. However, they are also obliged to remove them upon request from their calling lists.

At this point, I decided it was time to answer their call and tell them to take me from their list, to do it the “right way”. Unfortunately, after 3 attempts to answer the calls and ask them to remove me from their list, I was unsuccessful. I kept getting dead air at the other end, and the calls kept coming, sometimes 4 or 5 times per day. So I gave up being nice.

What is a social media junkie to do? I did what every good social media junkie should do – I tweeted it!.AND I posted it to Facebook and Google+. Yes, some people believe this is the modern day equivalent to screaming at the weather or actually expecting city hall to change. But guess what? It works (sometimes). My buddy Dave Carrol went viral with his United Breaks Guitars videos (12 million views and climbing). And there are many other examples out there. 

So I sent this (somewhat snarky) tweet about the spam calls I was receiving on behalf of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC):

What happened? Well, I got the usual feedback, comments from friends and followers who sympathized or were having similar issues, etc. But… I also received this reply tweet from @AskRBCCanada, in which they asked for my info via Direct Message to remove me from unwanted calls.

Kudos to RBC! If they make good on this, it will be a perfect example of how social works. The last piece of this puzzle? My “thank you” tweet:

Now, if more businesses would just understand they need to adopt this type of customer service model…

Saint John: Chris London – Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.

(CBC Image)

It’s a good start, but I’m actually a firm believer we should pay our politicians more. Yes, controversial, I know, but I have reasons for saying this.

It is a thankless job most of the time, and most work very hard. More money would also help attract more capable candidates who were willing to try what amounts to a 4 – 8 year “contract” position that allowed them to make a difference in how the country runs.

But…

take away the pension completely!

Let them invest whatever amount they want from their salaries in self-directed RRSPs. Maybe even offer a matching payment scheme, say 5%, like many private employers offer. The savings on pensions alone would more than cover any salary increases.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Lynden Dorval finds new home at ‘old-fashioned’ private school.

Good for him!

I’m all for formative evaluations. They are far more valuable as an indicator of progress than cumulative evaluations (read ‘final exams’, which are basically the modern-day version of educational dinosaurs).

However… I am also a firm believer in education as a two-sided effort. Teachers are responsible for providing the best possible learning experience, using the best possible teaching techniques and assessment techniques, and provide as much additional help as reasonably required to ensure the learner has every opportunity.

But… Learners must also be accountable for their side of the deal. That means doing the assigned work that is designed to help aid their education/learning. Even using “formative assessment” as a platform, failing to hand in an assessment – without reasonable excuse – can only be assessed with a zero. Just like an apple picker who fails to pick an apple from the tree will starve, a learner who doesn’t do the assignment can’t be assessed formatively or cumulatively if they haven’t submitted anything.

Smart Start-up Tips: 21 Things We Wish We Knew BEFORE Starting in Business – Learn From Our Mistakes.

Outer Space Treaty – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Interesting part:

The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the Common heritage of mankind.[2] Art. II of the Treaty states that “outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object.[3] The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object and must avoid contaminating space and celestial bodies.[4]

Question that popped into my head:
So… when does Molly Maid go to the Moon and Mars to clean up NASA‘s debris?

How to Trick Your Taste Buds Into Enjoying More Healthy Foods

It makes great arguments about how we have evolved to eat certain types of foods (crunchy, sweet, and salty) based on survival instincts, and how we must use those instincts to replace processed foods with healthier choices.

While I agree with this article, particularly with regards to the “crunch” (chips are my Achilles heel…), it omits another – and potentially the biggest – “crunch” to which processed/junk foods appeal – the “time crunch“.

The processed food machines have also spent billions selling their “quick fix” meals to a society that, whether real or perceived, is also addicted to a time crunch. They have convinced us that time spent preparing meals is wasted, rather than time that can be enjoyed. As a result, many people would rather plunk their fat a$$ down in front of the TV with a pre-processed dinner cooking in the oven or microwave rather than take a little extra time to prepare a healthy meal. That needs to be addressed as well.

His main reasons for asserting this  are:

1. Ubiquitous Broadband

2. Dirt Cheap Storage

3. Superb Usability

I might add one more reason:

Because everyone is using it!

His current achievement was noted on his own blog post here.

His idea? From his own blog posts:

What if the data already collected by hospitals was used to display real-time estimates for emergency rooms wait times? 

His product gives patients an idea of how much time they should be able to expect to wait in a hospital emergency room, based on their injury. It can be accessed via computer or a mobile device. 

Shawn worked closely with Saint John Regional Hospital staff and administration for this project and hopes to have the project implemented provincially next.

Shawn has always been a go-getter. He is also the wonderful wizard behind Propertize.ca, a web site that puts the Province of New Brunswick’s existing property tax assessment information pages to shame.

A shining example of local creativity, determination, and talent, I can’t wait to see what Shawn comes up with next!

I am mentoring another offering of our “Understand Social Business” course with Sociallogical starting this weekend, and I can help you to become involved instead of being a spectator!

Our three week online course is limited to ten (10) participants, and is designed to walk you through the history of social media, how to use the tools, and will provide ideas on how you can grow a social business. There will be a minimum of three live online chats with all of us together, as well as continuous contact and feedback on progress.

To sign up for this course, navigate to http://learn.sociallogical.com and, when registering, use the coupon code CHRISLONDON.

Participants in the course will also be able to participate in our upcoming Uptown #Learnsocial Time Crunch on Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 10 am – 2 pm. This special event is meant to make good use of your time to look closely at how you represent yourself online, how you plan to use social to grow your business in 2012, and connect you with others who can help mentor you throughout the year. The best part? This event is free for graduates and current students of the “Understand Social Business” course and will concentrate on the following areas:

• boost and enhance your online profiles,
• get honest critique and help improving your online social profiles,
• get answers to questions focused on personal and business use of social media, and
• refresh your headshot in a session with a photographer so you can refresh your online avatar (for a fee)

To sign up for this course, navigate to http://learn.sociallogical.com and, when registering, use the coupon code CHRISLONDON.

***

Here are details about the course:

Course requirements

A decent comfort and ability to navigate and use the internet for daily needs.

Who teaches it?

Community Manager Mentors with demonstrated success and experience in building a network online and facilitating discussion and learning for others.

How hard is it?

If you can find what you’re looking for in an online newspaper or play a YouTube video, you’ll be able to work your way through this course.

How long will it take?

3 chapters planned for 3 weeks in total (15-25 hours).

Who is it useful for?

Entrepreneurs and business people, ideally those who can implement what they learn immediately in their businesses and functions.

There’s a basic understanding of what opportunities and risks social business creates that most people don’t yet understand. This course is meant to:

1. provide anyone in business with a good understanding of social business.
2. guide students through the creation of an online portfolio they can share to demonstrate proficiency.

To accomplish these goals, there are three main sections of the course, with live online class discussions, facilitated by the course mentor, after each section before proceeding to the next. This is a 3-week course that can be completed on your own flexible time (except for the 3 live discussions) in a total of 15 hours or 25 hours – depending on how far down the rabbit hole you wish to go with the recommended readings that support each section. The section titles are:

Chapter 1: How Did We Get Here? How Do I Start?

The impact and opportunities of social media, the importance of strong profiles and how to create them.

Chapter 2: How To Use the Social Media Tool Box

Overviews of the strengths and weaknesses of the main platforms for business: Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, and Facebook, as well as exposure to other useful tools. The lingo and behaviours found on each and how to get setup with these channels.

Chapter 3: How to Grow a Social Business

A look at all of the different operations inside a business and how social can have a powerful, positive impact on each. How to introduce these practices and tools to each function and exposure to analytics and driving business decisions based on powerful, live social data.

To sign up for this course, navigate to http://learn.sociallogical.com and, when registering, use the coupon code CHRISLONDON.

Tomorrow will be my last working day at the New Brunswick Community College, a place I have spent the past seven years pouring my heart and soul into as an Instructor teaching Computer Programming/Information Technology, Business, and Office Administration students. Because of this, I am also leaving many close friends and colleagues as well as some great students I hope will become future colleagues.

I loved teaching. I was proud, excited to go to work, motivated to learn along with my students, and ever searching for new and better ways to transfer knowledge to the students so they could be successful. The long hours spent preparing and marking assignments, liaising with industry and attending school career fairs, counselling and mentoring students were all worth the reward that comes with watching them cross the stage at graduation. Along the way, I even managed to pick up a few teaching and education awards, so I guess I was pretty good at it. Teaching at the NBCC was truly my dream job.

So… Why am I leaving?

Well, it’s complicated. And yet also simple.

First and foremost (and easiest to explain) is job security. The second (harder to explain yet a much more influential decision-maker) is job satisfaction.

Here’s the back story: The NBCC is becoming a fledgling Crown Corporation, trying to spread its wings and escape the suffocating effects of being within the New Brunswick Government nest. As such, the NBCC is an organization in flux. Unfortunately, while trying to become more progressive, they remain at least partially tethered to some medieval government policies and HR practices – things that will take some time to fix.

This change is not simple. Picture a team of mechanics trying to change the tires on your car while you are driving it down the road at full speed. Currently, it’s like that part in a renovation project when everything is torn apart, it looks impossibly messy, and you really hope it all goes back together in the end. It’s a lot of work, and they have and will continue to make some mistakes. But, they have a mess of people (pardon the pun…) working on this transition in Fredericton. If pay scales are any indication, they are supposed to be smarter than the rest of us, so hopefully (for the students) they get it right and keep quality of education as the backbone of the organization.

During my seven years at the NBCC, despite receiving the same salary and benefits, I was always a “term (contract) employee” and never a “regular” employee (similar to tenure in a university environment). The numerous contracts varied in duration, often without rhyme or reason. If you have never done it, trust me when I say working on contract takes a toll on your sanity. And the older you get, the more likely it is to affect your health and well-being. When you come from an industry like mine where there is a shortage of skilled workers, you do sometimes feel like you are beating your head against a brick wall when you work for the government…

Plus, change is hard, and the transition away from government (more like “further from government”, not truly away) is part of that change. Last Spring, as part of a “workforce reduction”, the Saint John campus cut somewhere around 17 Instructional positions solely on the basis of seniority. As a (relatively) junior Instructor, mine was one of those instructional positions cut, and I found myself losing my Instructional status (and years of seniority) and transferred into a Business Analyst role – still on contract.

While being a Business Analyst is not a bad job (I have successfully managed or worked on plenty of projects in my time at the College on top of my Instructional duties and elsewhere in my career), it was not what I had left the ICT industry to come to the NBCC to do.

So, despite a chorus of “Don’t go, the College needs more people like you” (yes, I did just blatantly jump on this opportunity to blow my own horn a bit. I believe with everything I have done while at the NBCC, I have earned a bit of hubris, humour me…), things just didn’t feel the same anymore.

Job security and job satisfaction. There’s the one-two punch I mentioned earlier.

If you are lucky, you actually notice when you start becoming angry, bitter, and confused at the fact that, despite how hard you work and what you do, there is no light at the end of the tunnel you find yourself following. And if you are even luckier, you realize when it is time to do something positive and within your own control to change your situation before it becomes untenable and you do or say something nasty to the wrong people that you will always regret and negates all the good things you have managed to accomplish.

In hindsight, maybe I should thank the College for moving me away from the classroom. Without that push away from something I loved so much, I may never have considered leaving. I may have stayed longer, hanging around begging for scraps from one contract to the next indefinitely…

In any case, as a result of the previously mentioned events and despite the great relationships I have built up over the past seven years, after some much-needed reflection, I knew it was time to mix things up.

The good news is that my next move takes me back to my roots in the ICT industry, to Genesys Laboratories, a telecommunications company specializing in call centre and video conferencing software. Genesys is a place where numerous friends, former colleagues, classmates, and even students I have taught are already employed. And they all appear happy and (relatively) sane . That definitely takes away some of the initial angst associated with starting a new job. By all accounts, I am told it is a great place to work. If the level of respect, professionalism, and personal interest in my goals I experienced during the HR process at Genesys is any indication, it definitely will be!

This is also by no means the end of my teaching career. While I may work at Genesys during the days, I will continue to feed my insatiable need to teach by working in my alter ego form with Jeff Roach at Sociallogical as a Social Media Community Manager Mentor, Learning Design Consultant, and in any other capacity needed as well as continuing to teach SCUBA diving at the Dive Shack – in all my spare time…

So, while I am excited to be returning to industry and working directly on the technical side of things again, it is not without some sadness that I will no longer be at the NBCC, standing at the front of a class full of eager minds trying to keep up with their thirst for knowledge. Teaching is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done. I have a feeling it will find its way back into my life in the future.

Of course, being an early adopter, I upgraded.

So far, I notice a toolbar with the most commonly used tools has appeared above my page… I like that!

Irving Oil lays off 78 – New Brunswick – CBC News

Irving Oil (CBC Image)