JoeyColeman.ca

During the past few months, I've really enjoyed The Daily Show again. TDS lost me in the transition from Jon Stewart to Trevor Noah. Noah seemed (to me at least) too unsure of himself, too guarded in his jokes, the "correspondents" similarly did not appeal to me. Now, Noah has his groove, a clear style, strong media criticism, and the correspondents have their own signature segments and appeal. Of course, it helps there's a US President who provides daily fodder....

I've been thinking a lot about how to create an informed local municipal-focused civic affairs discussion for years; it's one of the primary goals of my journalism. Podcasting provides the opportunity to do so, and Lawrence Lessig conveys many of the ideas I'm considering on his blog:Podcasting will be a critical part of that way out. For the architecture  of the podcast is the precise antidote for the flaws of the present. It  is deep where now is shallow. It is insulated from ads where now is  completely vulnerable. It is a chance for thinking and reflection; it  has an attention span an order of magnitude greater than the Tweet. It  is an opportunity for serious (and playful) engagement....

These words carry greater meaning for me with each passing year; as I watch my friends who served and came back age, yet those who did not return remain frozen in time. I look back on photos of some of those friends who I was fortunate enough to train with in the summer of 2001 prior to the War on Terror, and then I look at them today remembering those who died along side them; I'm struck by the power of the words in Ode of Remembrance. I left the Forces without serving in any notable capacity, I didn't go overseas, I merely observed from afar as those who served went over, I read the names of those who died...

I never watched FRIENDS consistently in the 90s, never downloaded and binge watched during the 00s when I finally watched all those late 90s shows I wanted. I've started watching from the start, since FRIENDS trivia is a thing presently, and my friends teenage children regularly make pop culture reference to plot lines from FRIENDS. The first few episodes didn't capture my interest, but The One With the Dozen Lasagnas (episode 12) is where it really captures me. I wish I could remember where I read/listened/heard the concept that one of the challenges for modern writers is that we don't have many culture reference points; that in the past biblical references and stories provided a [relatively] common reference...

I managed to get a lot of writing done last night, the challenge is that the posts I'm writing are still not complete. Sigh. I'm continuing to pick up my pace post-election, the challenge now is that I'm finding myself juggling many coffee meet-ups, and not finding time for writing. It's an interesting thing, in that I enjoy the coffees and conversations, I need to be catching up on friendships. Hopefully, I'll get more focused in the week ahead and finish a bunch of the nearly complete writings....

It's two weeks after the municipal election, and I have yet to re-establish my routine. The best explanation I have for this is that for the first week, I had to catch up on all the things I didn't do for seven weeks, all the people I didn't see for seven weeks, and work to recover from the burnout I caused for myself in creating The 155 Podcast. This week, it's Tuesday and I've still not done what I hoped to achieve on Sunday. I haven't slipped back into the routine of working at my desk for hours on end, I probably just need to force myself to do a full night in the office. Maybe it's just a matter...

There wasn't any openly gay students in my early years of high school, and when I graduated in 2001, only one openly gay student. In my first years of high school, I had no awareness of homophobia. Like many of my peers, we made homophobic jokes and taunts at each other. Then the horrible and shocking murder of Matthew Shepard happened, my peers and I were shocked. We discussed it, we became more aware of our words and behaviour - which is not to say that we become LGBTQ friendly, we only scaled back our taunts, but they still existed.It was a moment in time, one that shocked a society that was not tolerant. It didn't change anything immediately,...

Finally took the time to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story this evening as I sorted papers and cleaned up a Facebook list. I've enjoyed both of the stand-alone Star Wars stories, especially Rogue One. (The new Trilogy, not so much, and even the recent comics have disappointed me)The Solo movie gives a great back story to the most interesting character of the original trilogy; well it's a standalone movie ties so much into the plots of the other Star Wars. Much like Rogue One, it fills in the loose ends of plot lines from the original trilogy.A couple of things I especially enjoyed:The back story of how Han gains the name SoloThe story of Solo's failed...

It is September 27, 2018, less than a month until the municipal election and I'm presently in the middle of one of my most ambitious projects ever - The 155 Podcast, a series of interviews offered to all candidates in the election including School Board Trustee hopefuls.Today, I completed the 97th interview. It's been a six week marathon of nearly nonstop interviews. The interviews are the easy part, I'm presently editing episode 41 and will really need to bunker myself down and focus to complete the remaining 60 edits in the coming week.In many ways the interview series reminds me of my days refereeing. I've had to enforce a rule book: the questions, I've had to exercise judgment...

Reflections on a man who made a difference, and lived life like so many of us do - fighting peace, after some bumps along the way....