Monday Morning Stuff and Things

And I’ve never watched a single episode of the Walking Dead. I live my fandoms vicariously through other people’s tumblrs.

We’ll start this off (we as in the royal we) with a quote for this Monday morning.

I was born with a reading list I will never finish. ~Maud Casey

Where we goin’? HIGHER!

One of the many totals during the telethon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over the weekend, here in Saskatchewan, the 37th Telemiracle Telethon was held in Saskatoon.  It’s one of those events that begins on Saturday night and runs for 20 hours.  It’s broadcast live on television, and at one time both CBC and CTV ran the broadcast (I am not certain how it works currently for broadcast times).  This year the telethon raised 5.5 million dollars for charities to help mentally and physically disabled people, from children to adults.  Over the course of the 37 years, Telemiracle has raised over 100 million dollars.  The Kinsmen Telemiracle at one time was in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most amount of money raised in a region per capita.  When the event began, Saskatchewan had less than a million people.  37 years later, we have slightly over 1 million people.  One of the longest appearances at Telemiracle happens to be Bob McgGath of Sesame Street fame.  He has come to Saskatchewan to be a part of Telemiracle for all but one of the 37 years, and before this weekend Premier Brad Wall awarded McGrath with a Distinguished Service Award for his service to the Province of Saskatchewan (the award is open to those not from the province, but who have helped make some contribution to Saskatchewan).  During that time, the host city has always switched back and forth between Saskatoon and Regina.

Now, the 2013 edition of Telemiracle has come to a close.  This is an event that has come a long way since 1977.

Forgetful me

You ever have one of those times when you think of something really profound, and think how awesome it would be written down in a notebook, on your blog or posted to twitter?  But you happen to be nowhere near a smartphone, notebook, laptop or desktop computer, and so you think “Yeah, I’ll remember that because that was some profound stuff”.  And then you sit down at a computer or smartphone and suddenly…

…blank.

You’ve forgotten everything about this most profound aspect of life.  Gone.  All of it.  You can’t remember a thing at all.  And you know for a fact that it was the most incredible thing ever to exist on the planet.  Because for some reason at 2:30 in the morning when you wake up to get a drink of water or go pee, you think of this thing and it sounds so good so you end up going back to bed and think about it some more, all the while reminding yourself that you will write this down in the morning when you get up.  I’m not mocking that, I’ve been there.  Because there is a part of me that thinks “that think you thought of that you thought must have been profound… probably not so much”.  Some really good ideas go down the tubes just because of that.

And it’s happened to me right now.  But it wasn’t something I thought of during a middle of the night pee break.  It happened while I was driving to work.  But the constant barrage of stuff and things (TWD reference again) that happens when I get to work, I sometimes forget this profound thing I thought of before.  Never to return.  Which is often the case.  My day continues, and this thing I thought of never gets thought of again.

Walkin’ in a winter wonderla…. SHUT UP ALREADY!

I don’t know if I can emphasize this enough.  I hate winter, with a huge passion.  I hate winter when the snow falls.  I hate that crisp bite in the air.  I often glare and narrow my eyes whenever someone says “oh, I’d love snow here in (insert name of warm climate region here)”.  Really, I say.  You want snow.  Then you want the windchill, the freezing temperatures, the ice, the difficult driving conditions, all of that along with it.

Snow comes with a huge amount of really crappy baggage.  If you’re in a warm climate region, consider yourself lucky.  How fortunate you are that you don’t have to deal with a constant temperature shift that makes your genitalia crawl up into your body cavity just so it can stay warm.  And I’m not talking about just dudes, it can happen to women too.  That’s how freakin’ cold it gets up here.  Snow, you can keep it.  Winter is a novelty that has seriously worn off on me a long time ago.

Since that day I skinned my knee on a crazy carpet going down a snow hill.

You’re so addicted

I was accused the other day of being addicted to my smartphone.  Which, I’m totally not.

Yes, I know first step which proves the accusation right is that I go right into denial.  But there’s some facts I need to dole out here.  My smartphone, while being black and having a keyboard, is only 4.5 inches tall by 2.25 inches wide.  I only check the weather on the device, or answer texts.  I do not go onto facebook, I will post witty comments on my twitter that sometimes accompanies a photo, or I might check my email.  I sometimes even (gasp) use my smartphone as a phone.  And answer calls.  Now, at the time when I was accused of this addiction, and not really given the opportunity to defend myself because the accusation took me aback, I was holding onto a device that is about eight by six, still black, has no keyboard, but I can read stuff on it.  And things!  And it has a completely different name from my Blackberry.  Last I checked, Kindle and Blackberry have no common link, save for two letters (the “L” and the “E” for those keeping score at home).

So no, I’m not addicted to my smartphone.  I am with my Kindle because it’s awesome.  500 books and counting.