Monthly Archives: December 2011

Ready for 2012?

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While it’ll be an unusually uneventful annum for you, with your wacky ruler Uranus rollin’ into Aries in early March you can expect the first. The first what? Well, that would depend on you. Whatever untried desire you’ve so far been ignorin’, spring 2012 is the time for explorin’! FFWD

Photobombed, Xander-style.

My Twitter/Facebook feeds seem to have an overarching theme tonight: 2011 sucked, bring on 2012 already! I’ll admit that 2011 was an extremely challenging year for me, what with taking on a new position, struggling through a masters’ class on grounded theory, being elected to two new boards and still making time to parent/game/eat/sleep as needed (or not, as the case may be). But I don’t feel that 2011 was a particularly hard or terrible year in my corner of the world.

3 Things for Calgary

Now 2012 could be a stressful year – or it could be a year filled with opportunity My new position will continue to push people’s boundaries about collaboration, community building and leadership, but I anticipate continued support from current partners and the opportunity to develop new supports through an increased staff team. I have to complete two masters courses this year, with one focused on organizational development starting in a few days (I’m already behind on my pre-reading – only 1500 pages to go), but completing them will bring me two classes closer to attaining my degree. My life seems to be spent in meetings, but I’m excited about what the boards will be doing this year (including the upcoming Project Ploughshares Calgary workshop “Non-Violent Cultures – from Antiquity to Contemporary Times”  and a spring Federation of Canadian Carsharing Cooperatives conference in Winnipeg, which happily coincides with my father’s 70th birthday).

CSRS "Dream a Little Dream" Event

Meeting the new year with gratitude, acknowledging that nothing gets done without hard work, and setting clear personal goals so that I don’t lose sight of what matters – these are the strategies that will help me thrive, not just survive in 2012. I’m looking forward to visits with family and friends, listening to good music and having Xander make me a meal from what he learns in his food and fashion class. I have a lot of great books to read, movies to watch and music to enjoy.  And I can’t wait to see what “the first” is going to turn out to be. Any ideas?

Fare/Fair: CT Senior’s Pass

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New year, new transit fares. Calgary’s transit rates are going up (from $90 to $94 for my monthly pass), but the big story is the senior’s pass increase, which is going from $35/year to $55/year. (Low-income seniors are still able to ride for $15/year, and it should be noted that a senior’s pass cannot be used for Access Calgary rides.) Meanwhile, in Halifax, the push is for seniors to ride transit for free, with a petition appearing on the mayor’s website this week.

Personally, I’d like to see no fares for transit (recognizing that this would mean transit funding would likely come from increased taxes for all Calgary citizens, including myself). And because I work with seniors, I am very aware that their costs are increasing faster than their incomes are (even those not yet retired).

However, in this case, I think that the City of Calgary has made the right move. If we are to develop a transit system that works for everyone, it needs to be fairly supported by everyone. Giving seniors a break on the pass rate simply because they’re 65+, in a world where more and more seniors continue to work after that age, no longer makes sense.

Instead, I’d like to see a move toward two transit rate categories (regular and low income) and then look at how transit fares can be reduced and/or eliminated so that more people can use transit effectively. This is what should be really be part of the discussion on Calgary Transit priorities in 2012 and beyond.

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

Today’s Horoscope

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Take an inventory of everything you own (roughly). What can you do to be more in control of your possessions? For starters, recycle, give away, sell or turf what you no longer are using. Second, can you see new uses for things? Or possibly, new ways to make money?

(Which would be much more useful if I was acutally AT HOME, but thanks for the “cheer” all the same!)

See more progress on: downsize

Cross-Posting, the New Black?

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I only seem to get major projects done during my vacation time. Last summer, I spent significant time moving my blog to a new server (Bluehost) and a new platform (WordPress). Now it’s winter vacation and I’m connecting my blog to all the other places I go to make cross-posting much easier. Having my posts at 43things.com is part of that process. I guess that means I have to get cracking on some of my list items again!

See more progress on: blog more

Write for Rights

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December 10 is Human Rights Day, and I spent part of my time today writing letters as part of Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign. I’ve been a monthly donor to AI for a while and have been aware of the letter campaigns, but this is the first time I’ve sat down to write a letter… and well, it’s not easy, but it is satisfying.

I picked three cases to focus on:

1. Jabbar Salavan, imprisoned in Azerbaijan for using Facebook to criticize the government,

2. Natalia Estemirova, murdered in 2009 but the perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice

3. Nasrin Sotoudeh, imprisoned in Iran for her work as a human rights campaigner

My other letters were to the Canadian government asking that Bill C-4, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act, be withdrawn because it will unfairly punish refugees and migrants who are seeking protection in Canada.

As of this post, people have written 12621 letters to governments around the world. It’s not to late to join in and write #4rights – even a greeting card with a few words of support can make a difference in someone’s life.

Why I Keep Working for Change

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Today was the National Day for Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and, as every year, I gathered with others to “mourn first, then work for change.”

Tonight I lit the purple candles (made by volunteers from the Women’s Resource Centre) on my alter, honouring those who have lost their lives to violence and sending energy to those who continue to work for change. After a day of questioning whether we were having an impact, I felt at peace.

And then I turned on the internet…

Jim Hillyer: MP Celebrates Gun Registry Vote with Finger Guns