Elections

I swore I wasn't going to follow the election. I was going to boycott the media until mid-May but I can't help myself. I'm a junkie. I do love this country and I do care about its future. I don't think Harper is a good fit for the kind of Canada I want to live in. Sadly though, I'm in one of those ridings that is rabidly Conservative so my vote is really just a "Hey, I don't want you for my MP!" shout out. Maybe someday, but this guy does so well every election it may not be in my lifetime. He is one of the more silent of the silent 13 though. Except when he's apologizing to a Supreme Court Judge, or resigning from a Commons Cttee for inappropriate comments. But, nevermind. Your mileage may vary and I respect that. That is one thing I have noticed in this campaign. A very real and frightening lack of respect for differing views. Reminds me a bit of some recent American elections :(
Laughs are few and far between in this campaign so here's my contribution. It's non-partisan and even 'politically correct'.


While walking down the street one day a 'Member of Parliament' is

tragically hit by a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter. 'Before you settle in, it seems
there's a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you
see, so we're not sure what to do with you.'

'No problem, just let me in,' says the man.

'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is
have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose
where to spend eternity.'

'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says the MP.

'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.'

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes
down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the
middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing
in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with
him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake
his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich
at the expense of the people.


They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and
champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly & nice guy who
has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They're having such a
good time that before he realizes it, it's time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where
St. Peter is waiting for him.

'Now it's time to visit heaven.'

So, 24 hours pass with the MP joining a group of contented souls
moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now
choose your eternity.'

The MP reflects for a minute, then he answers: 'Well, I would never
have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would
be better off in hell.'

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down
to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a
barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and
putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. 'I don't
understand,' stammers the MP. 'Yesterday I was here and there was a
golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne,
and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of
garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?'

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, 'Yesterday we were campaigning...

Today you voted.'

Community Walk

This one was fun! I've used Google Maps alot to find my way around different places I've visited.  I took a virtual tour of the Jack the Ripper sites in modern day London using Google Maps. (I know, dark but fascinating still). I've used Google Earth for quite awhile as well,  (exploring the ocean and the stars was great fun).  I love things like this so I found Community Walk very interesting as well. I'm glad this was included in the 23 Things because I've always thought GIS and on-line mapping was dry, boring and statistical and it's nice to find out I was wrong.

Bookmarking and Widgets

I like Diigo. I admit I'm slow to embrace new technologies but I liked Diigo almost immediately. Just being able to find a page at home that I have bookmarked at work (and vice versa) makes this a great tool! All the other add ons are like icing on the cake. ;-) Up until now I'd have to send myself an email with the URL. Won't have to do that anymore.
I'd already added the Countdown gadget to my IG page. Tried to countdown to my retirement but it only goes to 999 days and ...oh dear...I'm tearing up again.
I'm not counting down to the end of the Thing program because that will also be the end of my vacation. And I'm not going to torture myself by going there...

Social Networking

Okay, something I'm familiar with. I have a Facebook page. I rarely remember to check it. I don't have very many friends but I have lots of requests from people I've never heard of asking to be my friend. I must be old school because I don't get it. You don't know me but you want to be my friend?? Am I being too literal?  I also don't play any of the games on Facebook. Some people really enjoy them but I'm not one of them.  I seem to spend most of my time on Facebook tweaking my settings because Facebook keeps changing the rules and assumes I want the world to see ME. I don't hate it, but I'm not really a fan either. I do check other facebook pages though for news and traffic updates (Global Saskatoon for instance gives good traffic reports). And I had never gone to the library facebook page before this week either. I think it all just operates outside of my 'sphere of consciousness' (for lack of a better phrase). I'm not terribly social so social networking isn't high on my list of places to go, do and see. And who the heck is Catlady and why does she want me to join her on Plaxo (whatever THAT is)?  Once a month without fail I get that email.  Apparently she's waiting for my response.
Twitter...never going to happen. I did my homework and created an account. (My password is weak, it's ALWAYS weak, how else am I going to remember it?). None of my preferred user names were available so I'll forget my user name within the hour anyway. I don't like Twitter. I don't like reading tweets. I don't like the thought of having to count characters and trying to compress my thoughts.  That's why  I don't text on cell phones. Okay, I don't HAVE a cell phone but if I did I wouldn't text. I texted once on my son's phone to see what the excitement was all about. How do people do this while they are driving???


Twitter must be where I draw that line in the sand. Or else I'm just having an exceptionally cranky day. ;-)