Abject

Irwin DeVries passed away last week. He will be missed so much, by so many of us. His career in education spanned five decades: he was at the Open Learning Agency in the early eighties, and over the years he made immense contributions to the Justice Institute of BC, TRU Open Learning (retiring as our […]

Preamble soundtrack: Bat Hearse, “The Day Don McLean Died” One of the ways I’m a bad blogger is failing to post about the good stuff when it happens. Usually because the best moments are the hardest to get right, and I worry about seeming obnoxious in celebration, showing the right amount of gratitude, or trying […]

Today, in “blog posts that probably should have been a Tweet”… Reading Adam Johnson’s “People ‘Feel Unsafe’ Because Visible Poverty Is Everywhere” last night hit me hard, and I haven’t been able to shake it. A few key excerpts: Homelessness is used interchangeably with crime despite it not being one—beyond a social one inflicted upon […]

So, a year like no other has rolled into another year like no other. Along with most of Canadian higher ed, TRU has resumed on-campus instruction and staffing, though so far the sense of “back to normal” has eluded me. I suppose normalcy always was an illusion. The office has a pleasant vibe and delightful […]

I have been wanting to write an “update” post for some time, but with so much going down, I didn’t know where to begin. So when Anne-Marie Scott suggested we do a follow-up on our OER20 conversations from last March about the OpenETC, I was grateful. It’s always fun, stimulating and rewarding to talk with […]

I was honoured to have been invited to speak at TRU’s Privacy and Security Conference. The organizers put together another great event addressing many complex elements of the subject. Yes, this is quite similar to the talk I gave for the Kamloops Film Society. However, this one had about thirty per cent more material, and […]

I was honoured to be invited to give a pre-screening talk for the Kamloops Film Society’s presentation of The Cleaners.     Audio: (42:42 28MB MP3)   My presentation slides and references are below.   References: Tarleton Gillespie, “The Scale is Just Unfathomable” CBC Spark: “Your photos can be used in ‘catfishing’ romance scams” Alec […]

Shortly after Charles Manson died, a couple droll Tweets by Kaleb Horton crossed my feed: They hit me as funny enough to check out Horton’s The Last Exit Show podcast, and I was not disappointed that the most recent episode opened with a monologue that carried on the Mike Love bashing with a certain élan. […]

These years in Kamloops, I have been so lucky to regularly jam with Breaking Band in The Bassment — thank you David and Ronda Olds for being in the band and hosting us so luxuriously. The band is turning a page as our guitar player Irwin won’t be living in Kamloops because he’s moving on […]