It Is Happening, Again

On the google hangoutFor those of you who know me, you know I like the TV.  Isabelle and I actually walked down the aisle at our wedding to the Twin Peaks theme.  

So, with the premiere of the new Twin Peaks season I was back on Damn Fine Podcast with Tom and Ron as well as two other past guests (Connor Kilpatrick and Rob Reid).  We talked about the books, and made some speculations about the upcoming, well I guess not upcoming any more, the PRESENT season.

It was a great time, and I really appreciate being asked back, thanks guys!

Oh, here is the episode. 

Damn Fine Podcast Guest Appearance

It seems that once every March Tom Merritt has me on one of his podcasts....

This time around it is the Damn Fine Podcast that he does with Ron Richards.  I started listening to the show for a couple of reasons, one is that I am a really big Peakerhead, the other is that frankly, I like listening to stuff Tom does.

I emailed the two of them my and Isabelle's experiences watching Twin Peaks back in the early 90s, like how we walked down the aisle at our wedding to the theme song, and Tom emailed back 'wanna be on the show?'  Then Ron, unbeknownst to Tom I think, emailed me the same thing.  Of course I said yes.

We had a great time, even though it was at the point where season 2 sorta started to suck.

Anyway, check out the episode.  Thanks Tom and Ron!

I Was a Guest on The Daily Tech News Show

I've been a fan of Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont for a long time, going back to the early days of CNet's Buzz Out Loud.  I have been fortunate enough to hang out with Tom some at PAB and appear on a panel with him.  Now and then I get a text from him about hockey, probably becuase he has nobody to talk hockey with....

So yesterday I was getting creamed in Destiny and my phone buzzed.  It was Tom asking me to be on DTNS.  I jumped at the chance.  Now, of course my computer screwed up, but I just switched computers and it all went well.  Thanks Tom, Veronica and Roger, it was good fun.

So This Thing Happened

If you don't know this already, I have albinism.  It is a genetic condition (don't worry, you can't catch it from me) and the kind I have (there are many) shows up 1 in 17 000 live births on average.  Anyway, the UN has been at the forefront of trying to explain to people that we are just like anyone else, except on the outside (oh and except for our shitty vision).  So, they have been collecting stories and such from people.  Well, it turns out that one of the people they are featuring on their website is me!  (As an aside, I use parentheses way too often).

The local (and by local I mean 330 km away....) CBC station picked it up and had an interview with me.  You can listen to the interview here.  I think I did ok, though the guy misprounounced my name.  To his credit there is a typo on the website.

End of the Term

This is a very special time for a lot of university students.  It is when their undergraduate degrees end and they start new stuff, you know like grad school or med school or gasp, they get a job or something.

It is a pretty special time for me as well.  For the first time in my career I am taking a sabbatical.  Basically I don't have to teach for a year, and don't have any mind numbing committee work service to do.  I can concentrate on scholarly stuff, and play xbox oh and drink Pernod.

This year is also very special because we have a really great group of fourth year students.  I am very proud of this group.  I said goodbye to them today, and while I know I will keep in touch with many of them, some I honeslty probably won't see in person again.  The neat thing is that through things like facebook I will see them again, and see them get married and have kids and careers and all of that stuff.

It is also the year my daughter graduates from Algoma and she was in that last class of mine.  Today was probably the only time I ever actually ever made mention of it besides the standard 'you should all know that is my duaghter' disclaimer I make at the beginning of each term in a class she takes.  I felt a strange mixture of sadness and pride when I talked about her and her two highschool freinds that are in the class.  She has better grades than I ever did, and I fear she may be smarter than I am....  As an aside it is pretty cool that today is world autism day, as the day reminds me of Jonno as well.  So this day is about both of my kids and always will be to me.

I just want to end by thanking this great group of people for allowing me to teach them for the last four years, and I guess for paying tuition.

Thanks guys.