Benefits of coma

It would be mighty irresponsible for an individual to live a life with their head down only being concerned with where they’re headed. That isn’t a general criticism directed broadly. It’s a specific comment directed at one person in particular. Me.

Truth be told, I haven’t honestly always (as in very recently) been the most accepting of change — when it comes to myself, at least. Being so strong headed about certain behaviours has proven to be the least productive of my efforts going forward. Especially concerning matters of the heart. Hard lessons learned. And I’m working on it.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, I’m incredibly insecure about the “answers” I do have. And I hope that never changes. However as sure as I am about not being adequately informed about everything, I’m more than secure in proclaiming no-one is. As long as we refuse to listen and learn from each other we will never get to where we want and need to be…

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The lightbulb came on

I haven’t posted anything up here in quite awhile so I’ll cut the shit and get right to it…

I hadn’t been all that happy recently. I’d become increasingly frustrated with life and couldn’t put my finger on what had been bothering me. Characterizing it as a “bother” doesn’t give the extent of my abrasiveness its proper due; I was an asshole, not to put too fine a point on it (and my profuse apologies go out to one person in particular who was hurt by said confusion: I am so very sorry).

But it wasn’t until very recently, with my renewed interest in type, and really studying Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style, that I started to put it all together. I realized something was missing.

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Feels really good

Have you ever had one of those life changing events?  Where you have little choice but to heed it’s wishes? I’ve had a few. My accident is one. Going vegan is two. And the third one happened just this past Saturday. And all are equally momentous.

Saturday I attended the first annual Accessibility Camp Toronto. An unconference absolutely dedicated to the field of accessibility for and by professionals working in the field. What was so special? Great question. First it was a lot different than I’m used to. With 4 PhotoshopWorld’s, a few Adobe Launches, a couple Apple Presentation’s, a Lynda.com Web Conference and a couple other gatherings under my belt it’s safe to say I’m no stranger to these sorts of events. Or so I thought.

The format while similar in scope, as there was a presenter who presented ideas to an audience, but it was how and what was to be presented that was so different. The schedule wasn’t arranged ahead of time. The session ideas were proposed during the event’s opening then decided on before the event began. That’s not how these things are typically structured and run. The attendees, those who were most interested in what was to be offered, determined the direction of the event. But after, or in some cases during said “presentations,” the discussion was opened up to the audience. So not only were the attendees tasked with the conference schedule, we were able to influence the direction of the individual sessions, too…

Continue reading Feels really good

We must never forget

Well it’s September 11th, again. What’s different is this year is this was my first real opportunity to watch more than an online video here and there of a non-American news source, alJazeera in this case, covering 9/11 on 9/11. And concurrently, too. Which helped. But what I think was most important was getting a better perspective — it’s the 10th Anniversary after all, they could have dedicated more commentary toward its implications, but I’m not complaining — on the event’s aftermath around the world. Objectivity counts. Today is about so much more than just America.

That said, I also rewrote both my About and Accessibility statements recently, too. I stripped out all the technical detail relating to the stuff I spend much of my time away from here doing. And the reason I’m choosing today, of all days to post this bit of shameless self-promotion, is how 9/11 has come to relate to the topic I wrote about in my revised statement concerning Accessibility.

We must never forget, or in the very least start acting like we give a shit about, how our actions affect others…