Since moving out to St. John’s, my sleep patterns have become more erratic. I sometimes fall asleep by 5AM, often wake up after 2PM, and alternate sleeping 10 hours then 6 hours on a night-to-night basis.
I have no answers.
Since moving East, I have begun to focus my attention on improving myself in a few different areas. I came here to learn how to do high-grade social research, improve my journalism – primarily my sports writing – and learn more about the beautiful game (soccer/football/futbol/etc.).
I have been accomplishing all three goals at an alarming rate, which brings me back to one fundamental value we should never lose sight of. We are so ignorant, and have much to learn.
Never stop learning.
Blog
Make me proud, son
Many people were sad. I was leaving them. I hoped it was not permanent.
Start with the truest sentence you know, and then continue.
I was at a wedding in Hearst, Ontario. I had my arm around my father, and my mother was smiling across the table, sober.
“Make me proud, son,” my father said.
“Go out there, make a man of yourself, and make your old man proud.”
The next morning I said goodbye to my parents, and drove home to Sudbury. I left Sudbury the next day, in a car with my sister, my two nephews and the love of my life.
I could not grasp what it would feel like leaving my hometown. I could not begin to think about what a move to the East Coast would bring.
It was new, and I was happy. We were both happy.
I knew I would make him proud. I will make everyone proud.
We will all meet again, and be together again. Remember me, friends I have temporarily left behind. Love each other, and don’t wait too long between your visits.
You have each other, and you need to remember the important things.
Smile today, laugh today, and especially, love today.
Love now. There is not enough love, and hate is such an awful waste of energy.
Social Nation: A great overview of the philosophy behind social media
Barry Libert's Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow your Business is not your typical social media book. In fact, it read more like a philosophy book. And no, not an Immanuel Kant or Friedrich Nietzsche sleeper, but more of a general A.C. Grayling piece of work. That means the book deals with complex ideas in simplistic terms that every-day people can understand. In comparison with many of the other social media books and articles I've laboured through, the book is mush easier to get through.
The book is a short one in comparison with most business books, but that doe snot mean it suffers for it with a lack of depth. The books comes across as a well-thought-out series of ideas brought together in a loose narrative. The voice of the author is alive and well in the book, which is something most business books don't usually offer. That being said, this book should not be approached as a one-stop-shop for how to move your business into social media, or an expert's guide to social media. The book should be read as a good entry level work about social media, a good touch-up for social media advocates/experts, or to understand the philosophy and some of the bigger ideas with social media as a whole.
The book also has a few unique features worth mentioning. The book, and the online accompanying website, have a social media test to help you gauge your understanding of social media. This is a good test for beginners right through to experts to make sure your social media ego matches the reality of your skills. The book also discusses 10 major pitfalls companies and people fall into when trying to create their own “social nation.” The more important pitfalls mentioned include: Running a social nation like a traditional business, under-investing in social initiatives and giving up on them too soon, neglecting inspiring and motivating your followers, underestimating the power of your social nation, not relying on partners, and trying to develop your own social software and analytics when there are easy-to-use ones already developed to suit your needs.
The book relies on some quotes taken from some famous, and no so famous, individuals. In truth, one quote, by Thomas Watson, sums up the main message of the book: “To be successful, have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”
2010 in review – blog stats
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,200 times in 2010. That’s about 15 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 176 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 260 posts. There were 13 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1mb. That’s about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was October 29th with 174 views. The most popular post that day was Sudbury Star’s failure with the 2010 municipal election and what it means.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, WordPress Dashboard, uswlocal6500.ca, and mail.live.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for andy veilleux, lise chapados, chris mercer laurentian, alan stephen sudbury star, and hobb beckett.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
Sudbury Star’s failure with the 2010 municipal election and what it means October 2010
25 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com
2
About June 2010
3
Affiliations June 2010
4
Current Projects June 2010
5
Sudbury, Ontario: A Beginner’s Guide to the Nickel City June 2010
2 comments
Sudbury Star’s failure with the 2010 municipal election and what it means
To say I am disappointed with The Sudbury Star’s unapologetic stance regarding their “City misled public…” article would be an understatement. The article was released on the Saturday before the election, which took place this Monday, and may have affected the results of the election. This is more than a case of poor timing.
The article begins: “One of the first things this council did four years ago was to authorize senior city managers to mislead the public about the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of a former employee, a Sudbury Star investigation reveals.”
By “Sudbury Star investigation,” they mean brown envelope that mysteriously showed up in their office at the beginning of the week, containing information only employees in City Hall knew.
Marianne Matichuk worked for the city for 17 years. The Star supported Matichuk in an editorial on Friday, even using her buzz-word in their headline (“Change;” her website is realchangenow.ca, and she’s campaigning on the idea of change in council).
The article has NO sources in it that are current, and did not allow any balance whatsoever. I have a serious issue with their “attempts” to contact John Rodriguez, and any other relevant sources for the article:
“Calls to Stephen and Mieto were not returned. E-mails asking for response sent to Mayor John Rodriguez and all city councillors were not returned.
CAO Doug Nadorozny did respond, asking for more time in order to contact Stephen.”
So you can’t pick up the phone and call John Rodriguez, the man whose campaign you just torpedoed? Don’t give me that. No journalist or paper, with integrity, would launch a story like that at a candidate, and then not even make a decent effort to contact them.
Brian MacLeod, The Star’s Managing Editor, was on CBC’s Points North with Jason Turnbull earlier today, and his interview failed to seriously respond to any of these issues. He defended the article’s timing by revealing how the brown envelope showed up in their office at the beginning of the week.
I don’t know why it would take an entire week to write a story, which did not use any sources, or how in one week’s time a city council reporter as seasoned as Mike Whitehouse could not contact John Rodriguez. Whitehouse is a better reporter than that.
MacLeod also defended the paper’s editorial, stating that they always backed a candidate. I understand their practice of backing a candidate in an election, although I personally don’t believe journalists should publicly back any candidate. I will agree to disagree with that issue.
I am not willing to let their other irresponsible behaviour in this election go, however. When you support a candidate on Friday, and then torpedo her main competition on Saturday, without letting the competition respond, that is inexcusable.
Rodriguez responded to the article, after he was defeated in the election, claiming it was something one would typically see in the southern United States. He is right. It was gutless, and to shrug off his comments as the emotional response of a defeated politician is irresponsible, and childish, but that was the Star’s response anyways.
I was pleased to see Turnbull ask some hard questions about the issue, but it’s not enough to have one interview about it and then let it disappear. As journalists, we must police ourselves when it comes to ethics and responsibility. Most importantly, we must watch for bias.
I agree with Hunter S. Thomson that objectivity is impossible, but that does not mean we can absolve ourselves from the pursuit of it. We must be vigilant to watch our biases do not interfere with our coverage of the news, and be sure not to negatively affect matters we should merely observe and report on.
The Sudbury Star has failed the public, and tried to absolve themselves of responsibility for doing so. It will likely be shrugged off by the masses, but I hope people will take notice of how important a failing like this is to democracy. Their poor judgement may have affected the results of a democratic election, and that is a more powerful failure than any ordinary slander.
Maybe shoddy reporting like this has something to do with the public’s distrust of journalists? (the three links included here are from the UK, USA, and Canada, respectively).
Good conversations and the eternal sadness of being human
I've been having a lot of conversations lately, with a bunch of people with differing opinions. I've talked about purpose in life, Hemingway, Jung, Bukowski, the ADHD generation I am coming up in, intellectual boredom and stagnation, the difference between academic and public writing, and most important, the overall sadness that invades daily life.
There's a certain sadness to the daily events of life. Not specifically, because it's nothing you can put you finger on, but generally. It's not an overwhelming sadness.
It doesn't team up with the other negative emotions to push you down. It waits in the background most of the time. Occasionally, you can let it out of its cage, and play with it until you're both satisfied. It then will return to its cage and wait your next moment of weakness. In this way, it is like that ex-girlfriend, or friend-you-slept-with-and-sort-of-regretted-who-won't-go-away.
A lot of conversation has centred around what causes this sadness, and whether it will ever go away. I don't think it ever really goes away. The dull pain is probably always going to be there behind my ears. Maybe that's what got to Hemingway and Hunter S. Thomson.
Maybe it comes down to knowing that eventually we're all going to die. Our bodies can only continue for so long, and then the show's over. Good-bye Andy consciousness, you'll be gone for good one day. Hell, the whole species is doomed for that matter.
That's the eternal sadness of being human. It may be the only part of us that survives.
There is an emotion that teams up with that overall sadness well; loneliness. The feeling, or even thought, of being alone. To quote Bukowski, "there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock." The clocks have gone digital, the loneliness has to.
Now we sit around on MSN, Facebook, Twitter, just waiting for that message to lead us to salvation, away from loneliness. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn't; but it never lasts.
It's quicker than ever to get in touch with someone, but it's harder than ever to hold their attention and time. How much spectacle is acceptable in one's life to keep on entertaining, without becoming the jester?
Some nights are harder than others.
On being genuine, free, and responsible
It's not something that comes with age. It's not something that is relative to maturity. Being genuine is a moral thing.
That being said, there is a certain amount of responsibility in the way you live your life, whether you like it or not. Every decision has a consequence, and no decision you make can be blamed on anyone else.
People have a way of avoiding responsibility, and in doing so, making excuses for their lack of genuineness. "I didn't tell you about ___, because _______." "I didn't ask you to _____, because so-and-so said______." "It;s not my fault, it's your fault, because ______."
Stop it.
You are granted almost complete freedom in your life, you need to learn how to be responsible for that freedom. Sure, living in a society restrains certain freedoms. If you don't like the social constraints, leave your society. Back to reality:
You are free, therefore you must accept the responsibility of your life. Lying was not brought on by someone else. You chose to lie, you deal with the consequences. You choose to cheat on your partner, you wear the guilt of it. If you choose to hurt a loved one, You must carry the weight of that betrayal.
I've encountered many forms of this in the past month or so specifically. This has mainly been in cross-gender friendships I'm involved in, which should not come as a surprise, considering they can often be complex situations.
It can be as simple as a clever lie to parry a curious question I asked (which, evidently, was not so clever). It can be as big as inventing a reason to not hang out. It can be as complicated as mixing fact and fiction to describe a disagreeable recent-past event as "for the best," when in reality, that's not the way the person was truly feeling.
All of these are lies, and there is a serious problem when it comes to misdirection and dishonesty in our day-to-day interactions. Lies compound themselves, and begin breeding more lies. Lies also grow from small, controllable fact-fiction hybrids, into untamed beasts of deceit.
"So what's is your point, Andy?" Well, it's simple: We need to start treating one another better, and living our lives in a more honest and responsible way. We need to practice being open with our communication, and realizing the consequences that our actions have on the people around us.
I understand the counter-arguments. "Not everyone is going to do this." So what? It's better to live your life in a moral, and respectable manner, and your influence may spread beyond yourself and encourage this healthy way of living amongst your friends and family. "If I'm always honest, and the other person isn't, I'll just get hurt." If you're dealing with a snake like that, you're going to get hurt anyways. There's no reason to act like an abusive idiot, just because someone has abused you.
In conclusion, I hope to see more people behaving responsible. If you make a mistake, confess it to the people who are affected. Make amends with them. Error is a human trait, as is forgiveness. Practice both, and we'll all be happier for it.
Judgement Day, Laundry and Chocolate
I carried the basket full of dirty clothing out of my room. It was a short walk made slightly longer by the weight of a weeks’ worth of laundry. I was happy when I realized half of the laundry had not been worn by me.
Darks first, in cold/cold with a short spin cycle. I made my way upstairs to write statements for a client. I indulge myself by eating four miniature chocolate bars, which had probably been created to give people the illusion they can satisfy a sweet-tooth by eating only a few smaller portions. People are never satisfied.
The orange, plastic cup of cola was sweating on the table. Beads of moisture formed on the outside, creating a substance with more nutritional value than the dark, sweet liquid inside. The chocolate and cola combined to give a sugar high that would drop me in about five minutes tops.
It was time to write, or time for nothing. If you figure all the nothing eventually amount to something, you’ll be disappointed on Judgement Day. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, however, when the Tax-man comes.
It isn’t up to God or taxes to explain the significance of a human life. Life is used up when time runs out, no matter how you spend it.
A lost relation-friend-ship, from long ago
There was sex, sleep, conversation, and art. There was no love. We did not even love one another improperly.
The art was tired, and made in the spirit of fun. Art is only art when it is expressing an emotion. We expressed our humourous side, with a slice of our inner happiness.Happiness took its foot of the gas occasionally, and the remnants of past glittered with pain in the pupils of our eyes.
The sex was never tired, even when we were. The conversation never struggled, but never went much below the surface. Sleep didn't matter.
We existed this way for months, in between relationships, ex-lovers, and competing friendships. One day it broke, and we may have spoken a total of three sentences each since.
Even broken friendships are worth remembering. Some things that glitter lose their appeal too soon.There is an abyss of lost friendship, and conversations that should have happened.
Sometimes we dance on the edge of both love and friendship. Sometimes we are too broken to dance.
The resignation of Sun TV's Kory Teneycke means nothing
After a tumultous period as vice-president of development for Quebecor, Kory Teneycke has announced his resignation. You should be familiar with him for being the main face promoting Sun TV News AKA 'Fox News North'. I'm not going to go into the battle from Avaaz against Sun TV news, but I would like to take the time to go over what this resignation means, politically speaking.
In a nutshell, this resignation means little to nothing, despite Avaaz' exectuive director and co-founder Ricken Patel's claim that it meant "a battle won in a longer fight against crony-media in Canada." I disagree with this statement. As soon as Teneycke stepped down, Luc Lavoie was appointed to the position. Whereas Teneycke was a former Harper spokesman, Lavoie is the former spokesman of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney spokesman. You say to-maht-o I say to-mate-o.
That being said, I do understand the significance of Teneycke being the former director of communications of the current Prime Minister. The political history was too recent for many people to feel comfortable with him heading up a news channel, which was applying for some special permits (such as the status of "must-carry" on cable channels, which means cable companies in Canada would have to carry the channel as part of their broadcasting). It is quite possible he was using some of his political power to lobby for this status, but is that really the important, bigger-picture question? No, it is not.
The important question is: How will this resignation affect the values of Sun TV News, and the Conservative view-point it is bringing? The simple answer is that it won't, which is evidenced by the hiring of Lavoie. At the end of the day, Sun TV News is still coming to Canada, and will likely be granted must-carry status, despite Avaaz' petition against it.
It is worth nothing the way that 'democracy' has been thrown around lately. Some people, such as Patel, claim biased news, such as Fox, or by induction, Sun TV News, "poisons American democracy." This claim is absurd. Democracy is best served by having a full-range of political opinion. While the opinion of the right is well-served in print media in this country, some would argue it is lacking in broadcast (some would argue differently, due to national stations like Global).
To be clear, I am not a fan of Fox News, or a person of right-wing political persuasion. In fact, I despise Fox, and have done a lot of research into the network, and many of their failings. However, diversification of the Canadian media, and more capital being put into journalism, can only be a positive step for media in this country. In a time where news coverage is shrinking due to under-funding and cost-cutting, journalists and citizens of democracy should welcome new investment in media and new political viewpoints in the media.
Andy Veilleux 