Squelch Knob

Backward along the arrow of time there is a CB radio sitting on a desk
The child that was me reached out for the squelch knob
Cranked it clockwise
And in doing so, stilled the multitude of voices
That drowned understanding

Forward along the arrow of time, there is a keyboard sitting on a desk
The man that is me has no squelch knob to reach for
The multitude shrieks out its ignorance
And understanding gasps for oxygen

Farewell Twitter

After just over 14 years on the platform, I deactivated my Twitter account tonight. I haven't been using it much since I left provincial politics, but I'll miss it in a way; I won a Canada Writes contest on the platform, and Chase Masterson favourited one of my tweets, and Martin Landau's daughter Juliet followed me out of the blue. 

I once had a lot of hope for social media, but pernicious forces have turned what could have been a promising venue for better communication and understanding into a cesspool of hate speech and an arm for corporate and government surveillance. 

I feel more relaxed already. Facebook will be harder to get rid of, since I engage with more people there, but it, too, must go. One day I'll pull the plug. 

One of Those Moments

 Last Thursday I experienced a moment of something close to despair. I stayed up far too late; I didn't come to bed until midnight, even though I had to get up at six to get ready for work. 

When Sylvia asked why I was up, the answer congealed immediately, and I spat it out in surprise: 

"I don't want to go to bed because waking up will bring doomsday another step closer." 

In the moment, I believed it. Generally I'm pretty good at seeing the abundance of good in the world, but the mounting evidence that we won't act quickly enough to prevent civilization from being destroyed by climate change, the world's democracies sleepwalking into fascism, the unsustainable gap between the rich and poor, mass extinctions, political polarization, and the rejection of science and expertise by so many...well, some nights it feels like the bad's catching up, to put one of my favourite Gowan songs in reverse. 

I felt better the next day, and I feel better now, even though nothing has changed. Except I remembered I still believe there's a chance civilization will pull through in the end, and that our better natures will prevail. 

Iconic Science Fiction: The Top 50

Over the course of the last year, I've had fun putting together movie lists on Letterboxd. Some of them required careful thought and consideration, such as Iconic Science Fiction: The Top 50. I tried to select films that are not only great examples of the genre, but influenced films that came after. 

Canadian Action Movies

Does anyone remember Google Buzz? Here are a couple of my archived "buzzes:"

Letterboxd Crew Stat

I just discovered that Letterboxd has added a new category to user stats: Crew.

Just as it inventories your most-watched directors, stars, decades and so on, Letterboxd now reveals how many movies you've seen by producers, writers, editors and more. My all-time list is above. Pretty cool! 

Earl on Letterboxd

I just discovered Letterboxd, which offers a means for film lovers to track the movies they've watched and get recommendations from other users. While I'm cognizant of the many downsides of social media (not least of which is our eroding privacy), I weighed the pros and cons and decided to give it a try. If you're on Letterboxd, let me know; my profile can be found here. If nothing else, I've used it to collect all of my reviews in one place. 

@CO

@CO: We Make "At" Signs.

Workplace humour, arr arr. Works nicely for Twitter, though. 

Unicorn Klout

About a month ago I started experimenting with Klout, an online tool that purports to measure your online influence. I signed up because social media is growing in importance to communications professionals, and I figured I'd better experiment. Based on my usage of Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, YouTube and this blog, Klout seems to think that I'm influential about five topics, as seen below:

Media, sure, video, okay, politics, makes sense, Alberta, of course, and...unicorns???

To the best of my knowledge, I've never blogged, tweeted, facebooked, Instagrammed or youtubed about unicorns. But I wouldn't want Klout to be perceived as inaccurate, so here are some things I know about unicorns off the top of my head, without googling for extra knowledge:

• Unicorns have been featured as important symbols in at least two of the films of Ridley Scott: Blade Runner and Legend.
• The Irish Rovers crafted a hit single in the 1970s that explains why we see no unicorns today (they missed boarding Noah's Ark). 
• For a while Think Geek sold a pretty cool set of plush action figures featuring a unicorn and some gored humans. 
• If unicorns existed, they would probably make pretty fearsome cavalry mounts, what with the horn and all. I certainly wouldn't mess with one.
• Despite their fearsome nature, women and girls seem to adore unicorns, if we believe certain gender stereotypes. 

All right, can I legitimately claim to wield influence on the topic of unicorns now? No? All right, how about a movie proposal...

COMING IN 2014 FROM PARANOID PICTURES

UNICORN VS. PEGASUS

In the time of the Greek gods, demigods, titans and the mortals caught between them, two noble, fearsome beasts lifted the hearts of men with their magnificence:

UNICORN...mighty horned stallion of the deep woods, symbol of purity, wild and free, no terrestrial beast its match!

PEGASUS...astonishing winged steed of the skies, faster than the wind itself, proud and haughty, far removed from the earthbound woes of mortals!

In a time of great darkness, as the rivers and mountains tremble, the gods will pit these glorious beasts against one another!

SEE the UNICORN gore the skeleton army, smashing it to smithereens!

SEE the PEGASUS swoop down and crush the skull of the cyclops with its powerful hooves!

SEE mortals flee in terror as these unstoppable steeds clash in the streets and skies of Athens!

UNICORN VS. PEGASUS

Pegasus versus unicorn!

All right, let's see if that affects my Klout statistics.