A fresh start

It’s strange, I’ve been at this blogging thing for years now. It started off with an online diary. Then a couple travel blogs. And then A Journey Northwards took hold. And now I’m hooked. I’m a blogger.

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Swine flu cases in Canada: breakdown

Number of cases of swine flu in Canada (by province/territory) 
Data as of June 15th, 2009
Sources: Health Canada and Wikipedia


British Columbia = 172 = (0.0038%)
Alberta = 264 = (0.0072%)
Saskatchewan = 327 = (0.031%)
Manitoba = 154 = (0.0126%)
Ontario = 1907 = (0.014%)
Quebec = 971 = (0.0124%)
New Brunswick = 3 = (0.0004%)
Nova Scotia = 81= (0.0086%)
Prince Edward Island = 3 = (0.0021%)
Newfoundland and Labrador = 1= (0.00019)
Nunavut = 164 = (0.519%)
Northwest Territories = 2 = (0.0046%)
Yukon = 1 = (0.0029%)

Best places in Canada to catch H1N1 (swine flu)

Nunavut @ 0.0519% of population positive with H1N1
Saskatchewan @ 0.031% of population positive with H1N1
Ontario @ 0.014% of population positive with H1N1

Now you know.
Aren't you glad I didn't take my lunch today?

Canada Post: Epic Fail

Dear Canada Post.
 
My name is Jackie S. Quire and I live in a remote community in the Eastern Arctic.

Mailing things from the north can be difficult, not to mention expensive. And I understand you have to charge for your services. You are a crown corporation, after all... and crown corporations have to stand on their own and not expect handouts from the federal government, even when peoples' livelihoods are at stake...

Oops. Sorry. Got off on a tangent there.

Where was I? Oh yah. Charge for your services.

So I understand you have to make people pay to send letters and packages across our fair country and around the great wide world. And I've come to terms with the fact that you are going to raise the price of stamps even if it's not necessary. Even if gas prices aren't at their peak (I just buy your PERMANENT STAMPS IN BULK mwa hahah).

But what I DON'T understand is why you've gone and changed your fraking Expresspost envelopes. Understand, just for a moment, how bloody expensive it is to ship any kind of package from the north. Or TO the north. Family members don't even send me birthday presents anymore because it's too pricy to send them by mail. The ONLY saving grace has been Expresspost envelopes. Where for a nominal fee (your choice of either 10 or 20 dollars) you can stuff a padded envelope with whatever nicknacks and do-dads your heart desires.

But now, NOW you've gone and messed everything up. And REPLACED the padded envelopes with PAPER BAGS.

Yes.

Paper. Bags.

This is ridiculous. You can't fit anything into a paper bag without it ripping. They don't come with the patent-pending Glad-flex stretchiness. THEY. ARE. PAPER.

And if I WANTED to mail a package in a PAPER envelope, I would... you know... BUY THE BLOODY EXPRESSPOST LETTER ENVELOPES.

NOT the Expresspost package envelopes.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Sincerely,

Jackie S. Quire.

Reader says: WTF CBC??

It's horrible that the MotherCorp would cut the only reporter position in a region as ginormous as yours. We are all worse off for this.

There are two ways to look at my layoff.
No. Make that three.

Yes. There are at least three ways to look at the way I lost my job. Wait. Maybe there are more. Hm.

I'm getting confused. Why don't we just look at the "facts:"

1. Poor Jackie: she doesn't have a job anymore. And now has to leave the place she's called home for the past two years. Moving is hard. Moving from the north is harder. Leaving people and places behind you may never see again is difficult. Leaving without a job on the other end is even harder. Poor Jackie.
2. Poor Rankin: there are a handful of reporter positions for the territory. One in Rankin Inlet. One in Cambridge Bay. About 5 or 6 in Iqaluit (giving half-points to the news reader and senior reporter etc.) The position in Rankin will soon be gone, leaving a huge gap in news coverage for the territory.
   
3. Poor Regions: while there is *supposed* to be a reporter position in Cambridge Bay, this isn't the case, really. The reporter assigned to the Kitikmeot is actually currently based in Iqaluit. The plan *was* to move him to Cambridge Bay, but there are some logistical issues that have been tricky to work out. That means there are only reporters in the Baffin region now. All reporting outside Iqaluit will now have to be done by phone.

BUT there are a couple good things going on here.

1. Locals doing local news: For the past couple months (and especially since I left for vacation) my coworkers here in Rankin Inlet have been doing more and more news clips. Instead of me taking clips from the interviews they've done and writing them into a story, they're doing it themselves. This means more chances for bilingual stories. And more stories grounded in the culture of the regions. This is a good thing.
   
2. Jackie gets what she wanted: to head out of Rankin sooner rather than later. And she doesn't have to pay her own way to do it.
   

So reader, while I agree with you on principle... that cutting the only reporter position in a geographic area as stupidly huge as the Kivalliq is a real shame...

Having the local people here in Rankin do that job is probably the direction we should have gone in in the first place. Have them trained to do the reporting, or at least job-shadowing the reporter for a couple months so they know how things go.

The PROBLEM here isn't in eliminating a job (because in reality, though not in name, they are going to have others fill that void). The problem is that yet again we're going to have people in the Rankin station thrown into doing a job they've not been really trained to do. Sure, more often than not, you learn by doing. But there's journalistic theory involved in reporting. Guidelines and rules that need to be followed... and until you get someone up here to hold a session on Journalistic ethics and practices... the station's going to be at a bit of a loss.

New Blog: Serendipity Now

So I've started my new blog up and running.
After hearing Megan rave about Wordpress and how it's god's gift to bloggers, I thought I'd give it a try.
I'm still going to be posting here for a bit, but eventually that will stop and I'll be fully moved over to the new site.
I like the look better. It's cleaner, I think.
Let me know what you think...

serendipitynow.wordpress.com

Inuk music and altered states

Well I already wrote an entry for the day.

So this is just a bonus one. And not a real one. So there.

My sandbox. My rules.

Neener neener neener :P

1. I was helping out an amigo of mine figure out where there's money to be had for budding recording artists (incidentally, the same talented woman who drew my Sedna picture) and I came across a "new" blog - one that exclusively features arctic musicians. Pretty neat photos and articles. Check it out here! (Clare, is this on the database?)
2. I have become dangerously intrigued by The United States of Tara. It's a Showtime series exec. produced and created by Diablo Coady of Juno screenwriting fame. Though from what I've seen of it so far, it's NOTHING like Juno. The series is typical Showtime fare: take something somewhate out there and place it in a typical suburban setting. The show follows Tara, a woman dealing with DID (dissociative identity disorder) and her various "alters." I'm now hooked on reading the blog that belongs to a woman who worked as a consultant (holy qualifiers batman) on the show. She has DID, and it's just facinating to read about "integration" and "splits" from someone I can only describe as the most stable instable person ever. Check that blog out here.
   
3. A friend of mine now has a shop on Etsy. (Please tell me I've told y'all about Etsy). If you are into earrings and do-dads I'm sure she'd appreciate your support. She's a pharmacy student who just happens to be the most creative and crafty person I know (besides my babysitter from when I was like, 4 - but then who can ever really hold a candle to Shelia?). Her site is here.
   

Okay, that's all. Buh-byyyye!

Non-reader asks: Did you go out?

As I was walking to the story meeting room this morning...

Co-worker: *mumble-out*?
Jackie S. Quire: wha?
CW: *you-mumble-went-mumble-out*?
JSQ: *giggle* whaaaat?
CW: You. Look. Like. You. Went. Out. Your. Face. Out!
JSQ: ohhhhhhhhh yah, I went out *squinch face*

So I went on a 2.5-week long vacation "down south." And came back nice and brown.

I went for a weekend at a friend's cabin. And came back with my skin feeling a bit tight, but not looking all that different.

And my co-worker can tell I've been out on the land.... and I don't even have the tell-tale hat/goggles tan line.

Go figure.

** I should mention said co-worker speaks perfect English, I just was feeling geriatric and he was mumbling a bit too haha