It took the Supreme Court of Canada all of 20 minutes to decide that it was time for Canada Post to pony up after 28 years of trying to avoid paying 6-7000 odd mostly female administrative staff what they were owed according to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
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cmkl: Bullet lists are good. But don’t believe me – look at this
Such a simple thing, really, a bullet list. A visual cue in the text to indicate an organized collection of symmetrically arranged bits of information. Ideas organized like merchandise on a shelf – there for the taking. What’s not to like?
Continue readingcmkl: Rethinking content strategy – I don’t do design like I used to either
In about 2000 I had this crazy idea that if you made a simple cut paste and post system and hosted it on the web server, anyone could be a web content creator. I had just started a new job and in talking to my co-workers and to people in
Continue readingcmkl: Do, do re mi fa so
Mallory had her piano lesson this evening. She’s quite impressive, I think. But then I would say that. She’s very good at the sequences of notes and moving her fingers around the keyboard. Even with both hands. But she is missing rhythm. It’s not even …
Continue readingcmkl: Capitalism has a lot of staying power
I was thinking about this as I went about my one per cent Sunday, putting up shelves in the laundry room, raking leaves, trimming back the grape vines and disposing of the now-rotting jack-o-lanterns on the front porch.
Continue readingcmkl: Mallory read bedtime stories to me tonight
That was pretty exciting. For some reason Mallory picked out two much younger books for stories tonight. I figure it’s because she’s bored with her usual favourites. They were a learn to read book and Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop. I told her “I bet you could…
Continue readingcmkl: Remembrance Day: comparative poetry
The poppies, the poems. I’ve gotten yelled at before about this, and this topic very rapidly leads to a proof of Godwin’s Law, but here goes anyway.
Continue readingcmkl: Jim Flaherty pushes back deadline for balanced budget
Gosh. Never saw that coming. He could beat his earlier date if only he’d rescind those corporate tax cuts and use the money to put people back to work instead.
Continue readingcmkl: Mallory’s first loose tooth is in the house
Well, actually it’s in her mouth, still. But I’m trying to be… uh… hip. She was tired this morning, sleeping in to 7:10. We crawled downstairs and after starting in on her fruit, she complained to Irene that she was tired and wanted to go back to b…
Continue readingcmkl: Air Canada arbitration: so what was that decision all about?
Air Canada was happy. The union was not. But then, this is Lisa Raitt’s shop, we could have predicted that, right? So here is my understanding – as an outsider – of what was at stake.
Continue readingcmkl: That whole gain an hour of sleep thing? Not for kids
Whoever thought of that as an upside for changing the clocks in fall did not have a young child. I carefully set the clock in our room back an hour before bed so that I could still observe the iron rule without having to explain the whole time change t…
Continue readingcmkl: Lemon of a battery
So the first battery I got with my laptop lasted six years, more than twice the number of anticipated charge cycles. The one I got to replace it in February is now dead. Or more accurately, it thinks it’s charged only it has exactly 0 mAh of power in it.
Continue readingcmkl: Dear commerical media quit using “union boss” to describe our leaders
I know y’all are into brevity and everything. I’m with you. But is the pain of adding three extra characters to your titles and content really so onerous that you have to completely misrepresent the relationship between someone who is the head of a uni…
Continue readingcmkl: Social media: lessons from Chapstick
I am late to the party on this one, but I thought I’d flag it. The Globe writing on Facebook. Not usually where I go for info on social media but I’ll make an exception.
Continue readingcmkl: Writing web content for union members: is it public voice or intimate voice?
Most of the how-to manuals on web writing focus on writing in public voice. They presume that the words will be the product of many pairs of eyes, the writer being only the first. Editors, revisors, approvers, translators etc. It’s a safe assumption be…
Continue readingcmkl: NGO looking for a home? Consider Under One Roof
Amongst civil society groups, aka NGOs, aka social change organizations, advocacy organizations etc, Ottawa has a rich tradition of architectural folklore. Buildings where marginally funded, maximally mandated organizations out to change the world have…
Continue readingcmkl: Halloween: better than Christmas
Genuine excitement today as Mallory and I bounded home from daycare to gird for Halloween. Oh the candy. But first, there was so much to do. The candles, the candy, the costume, the meetups, the tombstones.
Continue readingcmkl: Early morning frost
Mallory and I went for a walk this morning to see if we could find tracks made by the bigish deer we saw yesterday. Of course, my real agenda was to make an image or two of the fabulously thick frost that had fallen overnight. Naturally my camera batte…
Continue readingcmkl: Late fall at the farm
Can actually be pretty boring especially when it’s cold and wet outside. Ah well. We will be going outside soon. I swear. Maybe I should make more coffee.
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