The Chaser’s comedy segment about “investigative journalism” heads close to home. The 10am start time for print journalists and the TV investigative journalist’s daily trip to the newsstand are two comedy hits that are sadly all too common.
Take a look at the video on YouTube by following the link.
With the Christmas slowdown finally underway, I’ve found some time to start diving into coding my WordPress theme.
I haven’t coded with much depth since mid-2007 when my journalism started to overtake my programming.
I’ve never really dove into WordPress like I dove into MovableType – the blogging CMS that powered the first four years of JoeyColeman.ca.
The MovableType version of my blog was extensively customized with many modifications from the default template which was the based of the site.
I was able to code those modifications during a series of all-nighters in the Engineering computer lab during my first year at the University of Manitoba and the odd all-nighter (often night shift working) during my time at McMaster.
This weekend, I’m taking advantage of a four day weekend to do a few all-nighters at think|haus coding my site.
Thus far:
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For the next week or so, I’ll be doing a few all-nighters working on updating and changing my site. For this time, thing may appear messy or incomplete (ie. the single post sidebar right now)
The blog is one of only four unique installs, I’ll be creating separate sub-sites for coding and mapping. As well, my mainpage will be reestablished as a portfolio.
During my journey across the Interwebs today, I came across this blog post by my then-Managing Editor Tony Keller:
As you’ve heard, Ted Rogers recently put down $15 million towards the renaming of the Ryerson business school. And as you’ll read if you continue reading the above linked-to story, our own Joey Coleman thinks that Rogers (the man who runs the company that owns Maclean’s) cut a pretty good deal — and that Ryerson walked away from the table with less than it should have.
Me, I’m not so sure.
….
This post is reflective of why I enjoyed working for Maclean’s during the early days of my journalism career.
One of my Christmas Eve “traditions” is on hold for the next two years – ordering snack food through the window at the Shell gas station in Ancaster’s Meadowlands.
I have a friend who works for the Hamilton Street Railway and the past couple of years, I’ve joined him for his last trip on Christmas Eve. When we arrive in Ancaster after 11pm, where he waits 25 minutes between trips, everything is closed except the Shell. The Shell isn’t fully opened, only the window and we tell the cashier what we wish to purchase and they slide it through the window after we pay.
I attend Christmas Mass with two of my closest friends and their family at 8pm in Burlington.
Tomorrow night, I’ll attend Mass in Burlington and then …. while, I’ll have to figure that out. My friend doesn’t drive weekends so it will be another two years before we restart our “tradition” again.
… a couple of years ago, a lovely woman I was dating at the time called while I was walking to the Gas Station. It was rather amusing to explain the tradition to her. Later that evening, I was looking for chocolate in my place about 3:30am in the morning. (I was working on a breaking news story) Not finding any, I opened her gift to get the chocolate (and replaced with twice as much chocolate two days later). She, rather humourously, noted I should’ve bought some chocolate while at the gas station.
… lastly, here’s a YouTube still with audio of my favourite popular music version of a Christmas Song
Roger Gillespie is the new executive producer of CBC Hamilton.
The appointment was announced in an internal email to CBC staff today.
“We are pleased to announce that Roger Gillespie is the new executive producer of our ground-breaking digital service in Hamilton,” wrote Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor in chief – CBC News and Centres. “Roger brings a wealth of experience in newsroom leadership, innovation and staff development to this exciting new service that will launch this spring.”
Mr. Gillespie was the assistant managing editor for visuals at The Toronto Star prior to his appointment at CBC.
Mr. Gillespie is a former Hamilton Spectator managing editor who, according to his Linkedin profile, served 20 years in Hamilton.
Among Mr. Gillespie’s responsibilities at TheStar, he oversaw the paper’s internship and training programs. The internal CBC email notes his training experience:
“He launched the Spec’s innovative training program WebU, which introduced print staff to the basics of web work including the use of video on the newspaper’s website. That training program has been adopted by the Metroland newspaper chain, and at the Toronto Star.”
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DISCLOSURE: I’m considering applying for CBC Hamilton
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UPDATE: As of January 3, 2012, The City of Hamilton now offers this information on their new Integrity Commissioner webpage
[box style="box_gray" type="download_box"]Updated – download a .doc format of the complaint form:
Complaint under section 9 of the Integrity Commissioner By-law[/box]
For a $100 application fee, the Citizens of Hamilton are able to seek redress for grievances caused by the misbehaviour of any member of our City Council including the Mayor.
This is topical following the latest “misunderstanding” from the Mayor’s Office.
City Council decided to not sanction the Mayor for his statements that a $30,000/yr pay raise for the Mayor’s Chief of Staff was a decision of the bureaucracy. In fact, the decision was made solely by the Mayor and/or his office.
City Councillors are requesting citizens to file complaints to the Integrity Commissioner. The complaint fee is $100 per filing and the fee is refunded if the Commissioner rules the complaint valid.
To file a complaint, citizens must submit an affidavit to the City Clerk after filling out Appendix A of By-Law No. 08-154 – The Office of the Integrity Commissioner.
To find the form, one must first know that it’s Appendix A of By-Law 08-154. There is no page on the City of Hamilton website for the Integrity Commissioner and no page offering assistance in filing a complaint. In fact, the search for “integrity commissioner complaint” and similar searches provide no link to a complaint form or process.
To find the form, one must:
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The form is in PDF and on page 13 of the bylaw. Once a complainant completes the form, they must find a Commissioner of Oaths to swear the affidavit in front of.
If one is mailing their document to City Hall, it is likely one will have to pay a barrister or solicitor to witness. At City Hall, the City Clerk and Deputy City Clerk can witness. Also, any member of City Council may serve as the Commissioner by virtue of their office.
Filing at City Hall is done at the Clerks service desk on the first floor.
Once filed, the Integrity Commissioner will consider the complaint.
The Integrity Commissioner can impose a reprimand or pay suspension of up to three months against the Mayor if the Commissioner rules this to be a valid complaint and the Mayor did in fact violate the Code of Conduct with his “misstatements”.
If the Commissioner decides the complaint is in good faith and reasonable, the complainant will receive their $100 fee refunded.
Update: 19 Dec 11
The Deputy Clerk of the City of Hamilton emailed me a copy of the form in .doc format.
Appendix_A_to_Item_9_of_COW_Integrity_By-law_doc-48143-1
The City of Hamilton’s Culture is moving from the Community Services umbrella to Planning and Economic Development where it will merge with the existing Tourism division under EcDev.
The move is effective February 6, 2012 and reflects an increasing point-of-view at City Hall of the arts as an economic investiment in the community.
As politicians are more likely to “invest” taxpayer money than “give it away to the arts”, the move of Culture into the EcDev fold could result in more city funding of events such as SuperCrawl and the new Gage Park festival.
[quote_box author="Debbie Spence " profession="Communications Officer, Planning and Economic Development Department "]
Effective February 6, 2012 we are excited to be creating a new Tourism and Culture Division. The Culture Division in Community Services will be merging with the Tourism Division, forming one new Division under the Planning and Economic Development Department. (The Farmers’ Market will remain with the Community Services Department.) The tourism/culture merger will create a number of great synergies further promoting tourism and culture as economic drivers for Hamilton while continuing to deliver a number of exciting programs for our citizens that help improve the quality of life in all socioeconomic levels.
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My favourite Australian comedy group The Chaser is at it again. They have a show called The Hamster Wheel
One of the segments of the show is ‘Politics with Cats’ which explains “a difficult issue to you in a language much better suited to the modern attention span” – YouTube cat videos.
So to kill your productivity, much as mine already is, here’s the first video of the series:
[youtube title="The Chaser: Politics with Cats" width="560" height="315" link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=7yFcoAYkKME"]
To be honest, I really have done much in the way of design on my webblog (blogsite in Hamilton political speak) since 2007.
This is the umpteenth post saying I will dive into design again and hopefully it won’t be followed by the same pattern as the previous ones – my writing takes over.
I’m doing some minor tweaks to the theme CSS and have already changed a bit of the blockquote code.
I’m also learning shortcodes, which appears to be a very powerful feature of WordPress.
I’m still a MovableType thinker. Here’s hoping I master WordPress – eventually.
A slight change of pace for my blog this morning.
Here’s a picture of one of my guinea pigs last night after he found the pocket of my hoodie to be what seemed like a good hiding place.
“Sil”, as this guinea pig is named, is the shy sibling of my two brother pigs and is always looking to hide from the world. (His brother loves nothing more than to whistle and remind me of his endless appetite for carrots.)
Needless to say, I don’t think Sil much liked his pouch when I started moving around the apartment. He was very quick to get out when I sat back down.