What is my role?

One of the things about attending Pod-Conferences (the latest being PodCamp Toronto) is that I find myself answering one of two questions over and over again:

1. Am I speaking/ do I have a session?
2. Why not?

I’m not trying to flatter myself, but attend enough of these conferences, and people start to assume you are an expert in the field (of Podcasting or Social Media or something related). So it forces me to think about my role/my job because I DO want to be a leader in this medium, but here is how I see my contribution:

Watch for the Signs
Attending these conferences and being around these brilliant forecasters is the best way to know both what is coming up next and share what I might have heard. I love these people, they are smart, they are open and totally inclusive.

I listen, I take notes, I do more research and I make some calls based on ideas I may never have come across unless I was a part of this community. Once in a while I actually share something that someone may not have known about, and I hope that I am helping drive forward a medium of which I am an avid user.

Share the Information (with the People who control the Purse Strings)
Ok, so those forecasters - they know a lot (that’s why they are hired as experts in the field), and I know SOME stuff (that’s why I have the job I have), but the people who control the “Purse Strings,” no offense, but they usually know the least about the medium.

Not their fault, they can’t know everything about everything, they have to trust us to sift through the massive amount of choices on the web and bring forward the nuggets of value.

That’s part of my role; making the arguments, bringing the experts forward, making sure that the brilliant ideas that are come up with on the ground level are heard by those who can make the decisions to follow through on them.

Encourage the Development
Often an idea that is brought up in these conferences is very much still in the germination stage, and not yet ready for me to take forward to the big decision makers. In that case, I think part of my role is to encourage the development, to keep up to date on how it is going, and to continue the conversation.

That’s another reason I attend these get-togethers – so people start to know me, and we become allies in realizing their great ideas.

I would LOVE to get to the point in my career where I could in some way finance that development… through some kind of mentoring program or workshop or something. Not there yet, but its something I think about all the time.

Be a Good Neighbor – Share with the Community

At the end of the day, I am really lucky in that every move I make forward in my job (I believe) benefits the users. Whether it be the podcasts we offer, the websites we work on, the streams, the contests, whatever.

One of the benefits of being a Public Broadcaster is that your mandate is essentially to satisfy your audience.It is NOT an easy goal, or even one that we hit every single day, but everything we do IS for the larger community. And I am hoping that contribution is valued, because I am personally very proud of it. I’d always like to do more, and I know Canadians will always want more; trust me when I say part of my role is to DO MORE.

As part of the web community though, I do try to contribute to the ongoing discussions, I try to be the sounding board and the test-audience when someone needs it. I disseminate the information that I think needs to be disseminated, and I comment, blog, play around with Apps, call little old ladies at home and coach them on how to listen to podcasts, you know, the whole gamut, point being, I participate, trust me, to the point that my family misses me.

Enjoy the Spoils
I don’t just do Podcasts or create websites or support webstreams, I consume them. Even if God forbid I were no longer working in the online medium, I would continue to be an avid user of the content.

At the very root of my contribution to all of this sits a girl who loves the internet, and loves the people who create the internet. A big part of that I do daily, but a smaller treat I covet and relish when I get the opportunity is when I get together in these lovely gatherings, and I am truly thankful for it.

le boeuf vrai

Don’t get confused, I just thought that “The Real Beef” sounded cliche… I’m talking about beef. Literally the meat that used to be a cow, and ends up in our tummies.

I have to admit, that the first time I read about the plight of the modern beef cow was over two years ago, in a Time Magazine article about a rancher who had switched from stuffing his cows  “with corn and soy” and “synthetic hormones to make them grow faster,” to letting them eat grass. ‘Letting cows eat grass?’ I remember thinking, what the hell else would a cow eat? Turns out lots of stuff, and against their will too. ‘Cause not surprisingly, it turns out cows would really like to eat.. well.. grass.

Well, now I’ve read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and ‘plight’ doesn’t even begin to cover what we are doing to the cows in the world. Anyway, I am a realist, and a firm believer in the adage of Think Globally, Act Locally so when Jason suggested that we try this grass-fed local rancher’s stock, I bought in. Literally. Again.

The steaks we bought were roughly 150% more expensive than the comparable steaks you would find at Loblaws down the street… but we were prepared for that reality by Mr. Pollan (the Omnivore with the dilemma). The taste was a lot like the one he described in his book: the beef tasted beefier… more like the beef we grew up on for sure. Lots less fat, and I seemed to get full faster.

But the thing is, I really don’t feel a whole lot better about my beef. I guess that I am not a huge carnivore to begin with, I can go weeks without having red meat (though I would miss my weekly eggs at brunch), and would probably miss fish way way more than chicken (once a week?), pork (very rarely, once every three months or so) or beef (once a week – tops).

Maybe the point of the Omnivore’s Dilemma (I’m about a chapter away from the end) is not so much a dilemma (“a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.”) but more of an end-of-the-road choice.

No longer can I be in ignorance as to the life (such as it is) that that hamburger “lived” before arriving on my plate. Whether feasting on grass and clover as he/she was meant to or force-fed antibiotic-infused corn that makes him/her sick to his/her stomach… that cow was raised to be eaten.

Think about that. Born on this earth to be eaten by me. No other purpose. Nothing else to look forward to. And isn’t that the situation of the whole frickin’ Bos taurus species? Are there any cows born into this world who’s sole purpose IS NOT to feed humans? Are there any ‘free’ cows in the world?

I mean, I’m a Hindu, and I know cows are sacred back home, but I wouldn’t call them ‘free.’ I guess they are ’safe’ from being eaten by humans, but its not like they are cared for or anything. Maybe that is where cows are supposed to be evolutionarily speaking. If we were not cow-eaters… if eating beef was as crazy an idea as eating rats… I guess cows would be wandering the streets, filthy and diseased like they seem to be in the cities of India.

I think what I am saying in this long blog entry (sorry guys!) is that I think its time to explore a beef-free existence… I want to see what that is like… will I really miss it? And if I do, is there a way for it to be such a rare occurrence that it is totally not a big deal? Let’s see.

My Favourite Parenting Sites

I’m a parent (if you did not know) and recently I’ve been pretty focused on helping my son to learn to read. <She wonders for the umpteenth time, why doesn’t parenting come with a manual?> Not surprisingly, in addition to reading books about reading, I’ve got some key bookmarks that I like to hit when I need a parental-cheer-me-up:

Here are my digital recommendations feel free to add yours:

Two Boobs and a Baby Podcast - Been listening to this since PAB 2007 I think. Lots of great funny anecdotes in this show. My favs are episodes 36 and episode 5.

Pirate Papa – Very funny blog written by a proud papa; everything from advice to anecdotes to great links. A good read. One of my favourite posts: Smashing Capitalism – check out the baby pics.

Suburban Kamikaze – “Her address says suburbs, but her shoes scream “get me out of here…” Need I say more? Yes? She’s funny, she’s dealt with a lot of kid-stuff and has some great friends who write great comments. Fav post: 101 Hamster Names (ROTFLOL).

Brightest Kidz - Cool site with advice on making science fun for kids. We had fun making our own rulers (from this post).

Everything Preschool Site – I’ve used quite a few of these ideas, including this one for teaching the alphabet using coloring pages.

Toddlers and Tykes – Some stuff that I wouldn’t use, but definitely some stuff I do, mostly prompts me to think more about upcoming challenges in parenting. Check out the post about teaching your child fiscal responsibility.

Geek Parenting – Anyone that knows me will totally understand my enjoyment of this site.. if you don’t know me, I dare you not to find this review of Batmobile toys totally brilliant and useful.

Jayne recommends TVO Kids (big shock Lady Jayne lol) so I suppose I must recommend CBCKids, though those are both more KIDS websites than useful or fun for the parental units…

Jesse Brown recommends Bunch!

Found it!

Yes, I was worried, but at the very least, I have located a hard copy of my book. I also found four 3 1/2 floppy disks with it, so hopefully one of them has a digital copy of it on there, but I can’t check ’cause none of my computers have a 3 1/2 floppy drive (sigh).

But don’t worry, the Ceeb has the most amazing stock of ten-year old hardware I have ever seen. Will try my luck at work on Monday.

How I rang in the New Year

As I prep for tonight’s New Year’s fun (check out the curlers!), I review my ghosts of New Year’s past:

Ages 1-5: With my family, we lived in Britain my first 6 years, and I was an only child. I believe New Years was usually celebrated at a family friend’s house where I fell asleep on a couch with the other children well before midnight. This was back in the time when children were seen and not heard… oh for simpler times!

* note: my dad loves to tell this story about when I was 2 or 3 and a “friend of your Mother’s – some YOBO” thought it would be funny to switch the milk in my sippy cup for either Brandy or Sherry, I never remember which (possibly because of being fed this drink as a child and damaging my poor developing brain).  I threw up I am told and my father has forever compared future YOBOs he identifies to this original YOBO. I love that word.

Ages 6-12: Suddenly in Canada, we gained a larger Indian family and spent New Years at either the Dhars, the Kouls or at our place with the three families and at least 5 other kids who became as close to little sisters and brothers as my own. I remember actually making it to midnight with this cohort of cronies, and driving our parents mental with our madness.

*note: I also remember FANTASTIC pot-luck dinners of Indian food that have never ever been seen since that age. Those ladies could (and continue to) cook. This is also the first time I took note of the fact that my mom always seemed to drive us home… interesting.

Age 12-18 - I actually did the exact same thing in these years as in the previous 6, I just put it in to highlight just how much of a loser I really was. Yes, I had friends. Yes, they went out without their families on New Years, but not in my little community. No way mister! Sigh.

Age 19-22 – OMG. I actually went out on New Years! Though I usually had a curfew of like 12:15am New Year’s Day… oh and my Mommy picked me up from these ‘parties’ I was permitted to attend.

note: My first time at a Gauntlet party (I wrote for the U of C’s newspaper and it was called The Gauntlet), I was witness to so many things I can never speak of (I didn’t drink at that tender age), but some of the ones I can speak of include watching a bunch of people throw their coats onto a christmas tree and then trying to rescue those coats a few hours later when they started to burn. Oh and the puke in the bathroom. That was nasty. Lots of puke.

Age 23 – 26.5 – Ah the newly-married-not-yet-mommy years. My first married New Year’s was spent working at the CBC on the 2000-today show… my brief 6 weeks in TV land between CBC News Online and CBC4kids. Jason came down to the broadcast centre to be with me when the clock struck twelve. The years after that we spent with various friends at their houses and at bars, but that first one is the most memorable for this period of time.

Age 27 – Who am I kidding? We probably fell asleep at 8pm with our 5-month-old baby.

Age 28 – 32 - Searching for people with families, that’s what we do… we’ve done Nathan Phillips Square, we’ve done friend’s houses that are also filled with Baby Einstein distractions and we’ve done our parent’s houses (which, ironically takes us right back to my experiences for Age 1-12, even down to the sad fact that my father offers my husband a drink and not me).

note: Seeing this from the angle of a parent is weird, but Connor genuinly seems to enjoy adult parties… it helps that he thinks he is 35. I am watching for when he gets bored… but it would ALSO be nice if more of my friends created friends for Connor! hint hint!

What are your memories of New Year’s past?

Back to the Future marathon

It’s a numbers game:

Gorbould does this a lot and it amuses me, so, in the Back to the Future trilogy:

• Number of times Marty says ‘Heavy’: 9
• Delayed time on the clocks in Doc’s workshop: 25 min late
• Number of times Biff screws up his phrases: 5
• Number of times Doc and Lorraine speak to each other: 1
• Number of times Biff eats manure at the end of a chase: 3 (all three!)
  
• Actual number of times the DeLorean hits 88mph: 11
• Actual Time the Clocktower gets hit by lightening: 10:04 pm, Nov. 12, 1955
• Number of times Clara needs to be rescued: 3
• Number of times Lorraine needs to be rescued: 5
  
• Number of Gigawatts of electricity to make the DeLorean time travel: 1.21
• How far in to the future Einstein travelled: 1.21 min
• The time when Einstein returns from his travels: 1:21 am
  

My New Year’s Resolution(s)

Yes, I know, the righteous people of the world are resoluting(?sp) to do all kinds of goody-goody stuff as they head into 2009, but I, I am a more humble, more selfish, and dare-I-say more realistic a person than they.

N.B. This is Wikipedia’s list of most popular new year’s resolutions.

Being a Karmic Angel, I of course wish them well in their resolutions (sad sad disappointments that they will be) and submit my list to the Universe:

1. Blog. More than 5 times a year. That is just sad, and there is really no point at that rate.
2. Communicate more with my friends and family. It has been pointed out to me for several years that I am a great friend to have when we are face-to-face in the same place, but I suck at staying in touch with people when they are out of sight, and out of my mind.
3. Get back to writing my novel. Inspired by my friend Joe, I am going to locate my novel (last seen two years ago, in hard-copy form.. it may not even exist in digital forms I can read any more… I started writing it back when floppy discs were still the norm <sigh>) and get myself reacquainted with it.
   • 3a. Start writing my novel again. Yeah, I know, I’m flinching as I type this… but if I don’t write it down, none of you will chase me around reminding me to get out of Azeroth and back into 3rd century India.