So I gave a TEDx Talk

Enjoy

Changing Your Facebook Status Will Change The World (In Case You Can't Tell, I Am Being Sarcastic....)

Red, Black, White, Plaid. 

Remember that from a few years back?  Or was it just yesterday, the damned internet somehow distorts time or something….  Anyway, you remember though right?   It turned out to be some  sort of ‘meme’ (fuck I hate the misuse of a term invented by Richard Dawkins, but I digress) that was supposed to ‘raise awareness’ of breast cancer.  Raise awareness.  I can think of at least two friends off of the top of my head who have had breast cancer.  One of them is dealing with it right now.  I imagine most of us know about the existence of breast cancer.  But no, we need to ‘raise awareness’.  No, I am sorry, we do not.  This sort of bullshit slacktivism makes me want to set fire to every little ribbon worn for every cause ever. (On a side note, the first time I saw this run of colours on a status I thought it was a reference to Babylon 5, man I am a geek....)

Oh but Dave it does no harm.  Bullshit.  This sort of crap makes people think they are doing something when they are doing fuck all.  So, they then, I would argue, think they have contributed somehow.  So, instead of actually contributing to charities, or volunteering their time, they just change their facebook status.

Now, there are legitimate cases where ‘raising awareness’ is actually sensible.  Like putting up a poster for something with actual information.   If you know me you know I wear a cause bracelet.  It is for the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada.  I lost my Dad to brain cancer a few years ago.  I give money to the brain tumor foundation.  When people ask me what the bracelet is for I tell them about brain cancer, about my Dad, and about how to donate.  It is also a way for me to honour the memory of my father.

Don’t even get me started on ‘for every share of this picture, facebook will donate a dollar to cause x y or z’.  Are you people morons?  Do the math.  (I never said there would be no math).  There are 800 000 000 people on facebook.  Let’s say something actually was shared by 1 percent of fb users.  That would put whoever is supposedly donating, on the hook for 8 million dollars.   Snopes is your friend, use it.

Get out there, give money or time to charities.  The aforementioned Brain Tumor Foundation, the Red Cross and Amnesty International are my three favourites, and they get money from me every year.  But don’t change your facebook status and think you have made a difference.  All you have done is clutter up everyone’s timeline.

Muhammad Ali Did Not Put Quran Verses On His Boxing Trunks

Well, I have not ranted in quite a while, (don’t worry, I am still pretty pissed off…) but nothing has really struck me that much.  Not until a radical right wing nut (you might check out his work with Focus on the Family...) became the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

As those that know me know, I am an atheist.  I am comfortable in that, and that has little or nothing to do with my ideas about Mr. Tebow.  What I don’t like is him shoving his religion at me.  Praying before games, fine.  Hell, pray during games (assuming your deity has money on the game, perhaps it will help…)  What I don’t like is the necessity to look at everything from the perspective of religion.  Yes, I know, if one is religious it is a pervasive thing.  Fine.  I DO NOT WANT YOU TO PREACH TO ME.  Don’t put bible verse references on your eyeblack.  Don’t mention god in every interview you do.  You are a damned football player.  Perhaps someday you will be as good a quarterback as say Anthony Calvillo.  AC is a religious guy.  I have heard him thank god a couple of times, notably after the Alouettes won a Grey Cup and he was about to get treated for a potentially life threatening thyroid condition.  However, when after a game AC is asked about the game he talks about, wait for it, THE GAME. 

Bono is a religious guy.  I have seen U2 maybe 6 times.  I have not once heard him mention his religion.  Now there are religious themed songs on the October album for sure.  (Great songs BTW).  But, when he is on Letterman, he does not mention god.

Remember this, Muhammad Ali never put Quran verses on his boxing trunks.  He is a Muslim (the name should have been a dead giveaway…) but what did he do?  Oh yeah he was just the greatest boxer of all time and perhaps the greatest sports personality of the 20^th century.  We all know what Ali talked about when he was asked about boxing.

I will leave you with this.  I wonder how the world would react if a not ready for prime time athlete was an atheist, or a Muslim and went around talking about that, instead of his sport

What the hell does 2+ mean?

Our 10 year old son Jon has autism.  He is quite high functioning, in a regular class with normal kids (yes I said 'normal', I am using that in a statistical sense, if you don't like it, get your own blog) and mostly does the same course work they do.  Indeed, his grades put him somewhere in the middle of the pack on average.  He rocks spelling, and French, he loves reading, and like a lot of kids his age, he is not much on math....  There are other classes of course, including gym and art.  Now I get the utility of art and gym.  They are important.  Physical acticivty and creative stuff are good things, and a well rounded person does these things as well as academic pursuits.  

I may be wrong (as unlikely as that seems....) but I think that part of the point of art is to express emotion.  Now if you know anything about autism you know that emotions are hard for people like Jon.  They have trouble reading them in other people, and expressing them.  Jon wants to understand emotion in others, he often asks 'what feeling do you have?' when he does not know (which, by the way, is VERY cool).  

Well, the kids had an art assignment, and it seems it was to make posters for being good people.  You know, that sort of touchy feely fuzzy stuff they do to encourage good behaviour.  Jon did a poster of two people holding hands and wrote over top of it 'Be a friend'.  When I saw it it brought tears to my eyes.  He was expressing emotion with a drawing, not just drawing plane crashes or writing up reports on plane crashes (Jon like plane crashes.....).  My poor quality photo of Jon's drawing. Drawing (c) Jon Brodbeck, 2011

So I was very proud of this work.  Hell I still am.  I then turned it over and saw a grade on it.  He got a '2+'.  I asked Jon what the heck that meant and he explained that things are graded out of 4.  (He got a 4+ on a spelling test yesterday, and that was perfect, so you get the idea).  So, apparently, according to Jon's art teacher, his work is barely a pass.  OK, look I know the kid is no Ken Danby (thought I would throw a Sault Ste. Marie reference in there) but it frankly is no worse than what I would have done at that age.  (Honestly).  Plus, it seems to me that he worked within the parameters of the assignment, he successfully is promoting being a good person.  Finally, HE IS A PERSON WIHT AUTISM WHO JUST EXPRESSED EMOTION THROUGH ART.  (I was shouting there, if you are wondering, oh and I left the word 'FUCKING' out...)  

I know this is not a big deal for him, I asked, he couldn't care less.  But, this is to me.  I wonder, what was the objective criterion used to grade his work (or the other kids in his class?)  So this is just barely a pass is it?  For a kid that has trouble expressing and even UNDERSTANDING emotion.  Seems to me this is a 4 at least.  

Now please, I am not saying that in say spelling or math or French or whatever that he should be given some special consideration if he is in the regular program.  He should be graded like everyone else (and he is).  But, in this case, let's be impressed shall we?  He did something that was harder for him than it would be for anyone else in the damned school.  

We have expressed our concerns and I am confident all will be well.  I can also tell you that I am now using this picture as my desktop and we are framing this picture, 2+ be damned.

I Don't Live In My Basement With My Mom....

You hear a lot of crap out there about how people that spend a lot of time online are, by definition, anti social and somehow addicted to the internet.  I spend a lot of time online, I like twitter, facebook, G+ etc.  I listen to a number of podcasts, and produce a few as well.  I play online games on xBox Live and the PSN.  I comment on blogs now and then, and even have this blog here where I apparently think you want to listen to my rants...

I am, however, also plugged in to my family, my job and all of that other normal stuff.  

My online life is no different than my offline one.  Indeed, I find it hard to separate them in my mind.  I use the 'net for work a great deal and for play.  Ken, Me, the Dude and Tom at PAB 2010, photo credit Bob Goyetche

I get really pissed off when I hear people say 'you should get out more' or 'this is anti social'.  That is pure bullshit.  I have met people through online interactions that are real friends of mine.  I now consider people that I have met through this medium to be friends.  I mean real actual friends, not just people I know.  Indeed, I feel more oh, let's go with kinship, with people like Bob, Mark, the Dude and Tom than I do with many people that I see every day (I typically see these guys once a year for 2.5 days, and for all I know, they can't stand me....)  

These are people I never would have met without the internet.  OK, maybe with some weird sort of pen pal thing like we used to do in school when I was little, but that seems unlikely...

A couple of months back a person I know only through their username on wikipedia announced on his talk page that he was ill.  This was pretty shocking.  Many people on there announced their hopes for him, some even said they would pray (which was a joke of sorts, as he is an atheist).  He came back on a few weeks, perhaps oh 2 months, later and announced he was in ICU, but doing ok.  I was really happy with this.  I have never met this person, I have no idea what his actual name is, but I cared enough that it made me damned happy to see an update.  Is that anti social?  

Oh and for the record, I sort of do live in my basement, as that is where the family room is and where my beer fridge lives....