Here we go again, a report on how ceremonies to commemorate those killed in the Quebec City mosque shooting, four years ago, will be held online – with no links to the online events. You have to go on Facebook to find anything.
Do mainstream media realize how much they’ve handed off to social media over the last 2 decades, and what this means for their future, and for the general credibility of information?
I don’t know why this is only available on Facebook, but CJAD’s Shuyee Lee reports that a teacher in St-Laurent has died of Covid.
Thank you!
The man arrested after a violent traffic stop in Park Ex Thursday will be charged with attempted murder as well as several lesser charges. Police held a demonstration (in cars, of course, what, you expect them to walk?) at Sacré-Cœur hospital in support of the wounded cop.
Weekend driving notes, this time from La Presse.
Curfew tickets issued to homeless people before the ruling that they’re not subject to the rule will be cancelled.
The curfew seems to have had the desired effect, according to this piece, since it simply means there are fewer people on public transit and social get-togethers are far more difficult.
Various studies have shown that the sleeping and eating habits of Montrealers have taken a hit since the pandemic. I would’ve expected people working from home, not exposed to so much fast food in their working day, to be eating better, but it seems to be causing some to snack more.
When the fridge is 10 metres away, it’s so easy to snack. At the office, you’d probably need to walk a few blocks. The food at home might be ‘better’, but a calorie is a calorie.
We’re all living for the past year in a triangle made of bed/computer/food that’s probably 10m wide. It’s hard to resist food intake.
But sleep I’m surprised, we’ve been given all that wasted time in transport and traffic to our better usage.
Well, not “all” of us. Some of us still have to go to work everyday.
We do have to acknowledge the people who don’t have the option to WFH.
But if you do WFH, the trick is not to stock the kitchen with snacks in the first place. I can say this, not being a habitual snacker, but I guess for some people it’s normal to have a lot of nibbly things in the fridge.
Some of us have been eating our feelings, too, I’m sure.
As for sleep, I’m sure some are stressed and that is affecting their sleep patterns. That Gazette article doesn’t mention the increased alcohol intake of many, but that’s also going to impact sleep.
Absolutely, this has been a brutal hit to the mental health of a lot of people, and for a variety of reasons. All the early fads (baking, gardening, etc.) that served as a sort of coping mechanism seem to have died out. A lot of us are just clinging onto sanity during the day and zoning out in the evenings.
Zoom partys, virtual work 5@7, heck the Tiger King mania, all this is gone a long time ago. We’re just trying to cling to whatever is left… Social reconstruction is going to take years,
My personal kryptonite is potato chips; specifically salt & vinegar flavour (so old-school).
Pre-COVID-19 I’d occasionally buy a large bag and would take a couple of weeks to go through it. By last summer I found myself buying the huge “family size” bag every week. A few chips on the plate with your sandwich at lunchtime? No biggie. Handful of chips while making dinner? Whatev. Might as well have another… Repeat that daily and it does not end well. Finally stopped buying them in September and I haven’t had a chip since (but oh, do I miss them!).
I’ve been drinking 3x as much booze as normal over the past year, and when I’m sipping cocktails, I’m generally not eating as well that night or the next morning. I think it’s very likely that I’ve eaten more steak in the past year than I have in all the years of my life combined. That’s been affecting my sleep, as has having my full work station visible from my bed, which has caused me to borderline hate my job on some days.
I’ve gone from normal weight to practically obese in the span of 10 months, and I can’t be the only one: I’m guessing that whenever we’re all vaccinated, there’s going to be an explosion in the popularity of gyms and other health related things.
I’ve bought a treadmill, something I never expected to do, and for which I barely have the room, and I use it too.
But my god, exercise is boring. People I know who run and do other things always tell me it gets compelling and more interesting, but I can’t see it. Are they motivating themselves by convincing themselves it’s fascinating? Because it’s not. It’s repetitive and you only go on doing it from fear of what will happen to you if you don’t.
I admit to indulging in a little more wine than I might otherwise have been doing, but on the other hand, if I was still having to go to an office every day, I might be drinking even yet more wine to offset the grind of office life.
Treadmills were originally designed for prison labour. (Not even kidding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_treadmill )
We have one, and it is only tolerable because there’s a big-ass TV in front of it. I watched the first three seasons of “Game of Thrones” while walking to nowhere on that treadmill. If I don’t have something to watch I am literally screaming with boredom after one minute.
I know Oscar Wilde was forced to go on the treadmill, the irony being that a century later he’d probably be doing it for medical or vanity reasons.
No surprise there, as a treadmill really feels like a form of torture.
Overall, like most sane people, I have no will to exercise unless it’s fun (skiing, hockey, splashing around on Miami Beach), or curtail my consumption of all these delicious things I’m eating and drinking. Probably also like most, the only things that’ll get me back to bring fit are: (1) a health scare or (2) shame.
I ran into someone at a market recently and she raised her eyebrows at how much weight I’ve put on. That sort of thing does more to get me onto a treadmill that any amount of will power I could ever summon.
I’m guessing when people start seeing each other in person on a daily basis again, there’s going to be this great collective “oh damn, I’ve really let myself go.”
Well, either that or we’ll just join the Americans in collectively deciding that being overweight is the new normal.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the average lifespan in Canada lowers a lot (and not only because of Covid deaths) with the higher obesity % in population. I’m in shape (running during summer / rower during winter) and still put on 10lbs, mostly from drinking all those carbs.
Im actually thinking of switching to those super lite beers (that is so, so sad).
Kate, good for you on buying the treadmill.
Pre-covid, when I was allowed outside, walking was my main form of exercise. I also listened to dozens of audio-books. Picking a book made me look forward to picking up where I had left off. Some people prefer music; just choose what works for you.
The thread seems to connect exercise to weight loss which I think is a mistake. That saying “you can’t outrun your fork” exists for a reason. Exercise leads to better health.
I’ve been a guinea pig in three university studies on the effect of exercise on aging, and even on seniors coping with covid. Each lasted more than three months.
To anyone connecting exercise with controlling weight, I suggest reading “The Hungry Brain” by Stephan Guyanet (https://www.amazon.ca/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X).
I actually listened to the audio-book version while heading to one of those studies I mentioned.
Good job on the treadmill, Kate. I think that is perhaps one of the more repetitive and boring forms of exercise, but it does have the positive of being super convenient when one is inside your home.
Are you a fan of podcasts? That is what I do to keep my mind occupying when exercising. I even save my favourite ones that I only allow myself to do when exercising. It’s a good motivator.
I’ve got audiobooks and can find more. I don’t find I want to concentrate on video while doing the treadmill, but promising myself a chapter of a book I’m enjoying is working as a reward system so far.
I recommend tracking calories. Apps like MyNetDiary are good for that. And for learning just how many calories are in certain foods you thought were healthy.
My exercise is weightlifting, x-country skiing, and yoga. The online yoga classes are nice because if I catch them live there is interaction which is fantastic.
Hasidim are planning to challenge Quebec’s limits on numbers of people permitted for religious observances.
I’m embarrassed for them, even if they don’t understand why they should be embarrassed and what this does in regards to those who already hate them. And I hope others are noticing and it hits them in the donations.
Noticed this in the Guardian.
A fire in Montreal East caused such heavy smoke Thursday night that the authorities closed the Met because of lack of visibility. TVA says the building was empty but used by police for shooting practice.
The fire was still burning after 15h Friday. I pass by there twice a day every weekday. I always wondered why the building was unused. It was a handsome building, for a police station. The outer walls were made with stones, which was kinda nice.
A wild turkey seen around NDG was named Butters by locals. Sadly, Butters was killed in traffic on Thursday.
“Oh my god, they killed [Butters]!”
You bastards!
Raymond Lutz 18:58 on 2021-01-29 Permalink
«handed off to _corporate_ social media» puis-je humblement préciser (see my sig). There’s even a Mtl angle to it! The fediverse is mostly based on a protocol developed here by Evan Prodromou…
Kevin 21:28 on 2021-01-29 Permalink
I don’t understand it. When I was writing online I put in links whenever I could.
I think writers are just completely ignorant of the SEO importance of linking out to sites.
Kate 10:52 on 2021-01-30 Permalink
There was an early web design dictum not to outlink because it leads the user away from your site, and you want to keep eyes on your site as long as possible. But that has ended up with mainstream media maintaining this pose of floating somewhere above social media but not “of” it – even while they keep up Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. It puts them in a closed box, and paywalls don’t help. No wonder so many people find their “information” on social media, with all the dangers that involves to truth and democracy, q.e.d.
Raymond Lutz – do you use the Mastodon/Fediverse stuff? Is there anything on there you would recommend? I think I signed up for Mastodon ages ago, but things like:
Gaming (5) – Technology (16) – Academia (1) – Furry (4) – Food (1)
kind of put me off. Any platform that has more forums dedicated to furries than to food is probably not for me.
Raymond Lutz 17:29 on 2021-01-30 Permalink
Kate, Yes I do have a Mastodon account (it’s https://mamot.fr/@lutzray). I choose mamot.fr merely because they speak french and the association running it (LQDN) has political goals I subscribe to:
«La Quadrature du Net promotes and defends fundamental freedoms in the digital world. We fight against censorship and surveillance, both from States or private companies. We questions how the digital world and society influence each other. We work for a free, decentralized and empowering Internet.»
My account runs there but I don’t follow their public timeline anyway. You don’t have to find a thematic instance nor a geographic one: being at one place doesn’t limit you to follow exclusively local people. Example: out of the 88 accounts I’m following, only 13 are from the same instance as mine, mamot.fr; the others are all spread around the world, on instances I don’t even know the name of.
Recently a (french speaking) Quebecer started an instance (and others fediverse application servers) at https://fedi.quebec/ . Here an electronic teacher started a Pleroma server (Mastodon compatible) about information guerrilla, DIY, self-hosting and IoT: https://social.technodruide.ca
If you will, I can even help you start your _own_ instance about graphic design, treadmills and typesetting 😎 . Many people start a microinstance where there is only one or two accounts and link to the outer world… ex: https://kicou.info/about/more
What’s the goal? Decentralization of hosting and of moderation (you can, and must, block instances with illegal content… gasp! Think of the children!)
Raymond Lutz 22:38 on 2021-01-30 Permalink
@manu@mastodon.fedi.quebec vient juste de me signaler l’existence de ce plugin WordPress qui permet de diffuser les updates d’un blog WP vers le fediverse via ActivityPub. Ce n’est quand même pas rien: un Montréalais d’adoption développe un protocole qui finit par être adopté (jan 2018) par le World Wide Web Consortium!
Kate 10:54 on 2021-01-31 Permalink
Merci, Raymond Lutz. Si je comprends bien, il faudrait que je devrais établir une instance Mastodon d’abord, puis y canaliser un feed? Comment ça diffère de RSS?
Raymond Lutz 13:26 on 2021-01-31 Permalink
Hmmm… Not exactly: you don’t have to deploy a Mastodon instance. I presume this plugin will broadcast each of your new blog entry (and their comments?) to existing ActivityPub servers (which Mastondon being part of) and users there will see your content (if they’re following you).
It’s effectively kind of a RSS functionality, but as far as I know, RSS (and its sibling ATOM) are more of a one to many broadcast protocol whereas ActivityPub is bidirectionnal… Me think: I’m really guessing here 🙂
One should see those bridges (the WP plugin and the mastodon-twitter bridge I’m using) as temporary tools with limited functions while the internet wakes up, leaves the GAFAM facehuggers behind and adopts open federated social webs.
“In short, federation distributes governance and cost, and can allow us to tackle challenges that we couldn’t overcome without it. The free software community needs to rally behind federation, because no one else will. For all of the reasons which make it worth doing, it is not rewarding for corporations. They would much rather build walled gardens and centralize, centralize, centralize — it’s more profitable!” Drew DeVault.