Or so I have been told.
Anyway, a lot has happened since my last posting and yet, not so much. And because I would not want the year to end without at least a quick sign of life, here follows my latest random update.
I [obviously] never posted the rest of my ambitious report on Rehabilitation International’s 2008 World Congress. Now I understand that y’all have been waiting with bated breath and believe me, I did continue writing up this detailed report in my [little] free time but never got around to finishing it and at this point, doubt I ever would. So let me make it easy for you [or me] and summarise…
On the 3rd day, I attended some conferences and workshops, some of which I found really fascinating, things to do with the human rights of persons with disabilities, access issues, equality, etc., blablabla. Of note, the day ended with a mini-concert by local rocker Martin Deschamps, who happens to be disabled by the way. He gave a good show and, surprisingly, talked about the culture of difference. I had no idea this guy was so popular, what with my living under a rock and all. Anyway, everyone quite clearly enjoyed his performance and the Asian girls (who probably had no idea who he was) went wild, rushing the stage and taking a million photos.
On the 4th and last day of the conference, I got to go on a tour of a major rehab institute for persons with disabilities in Québec City and was honestly impressed with all that they do (though – in keeping with the conference’s culinary ineptitude – was not impressed with the fact that they served pork hot dogs at the closing day picnic which, after all, hosted delegates from all over the world, some of whom do not eat pork, for crying out loud).
Was it worth the price of admission? Indeed. Spent 4 days amongst over 800 delegates (of which I would estimate roughly 20% were persons with disabilities) concerned about and engaged with our quality of life on various levels. Got to meet some very interesting people. Had the opportunity to learn about some exciting research and projects. Plus, my hotel had a very good restaurant, the weather was great and I even went speed-shopping the last night I was there. But I definitely feel that there are not enough people with disabilities involved in these kinds of events. We need to not only invest these spaces more but indeed take them over.
The next conference is in South Korea in 2012. Would so love to go. Please sponsor me :)
I have finally started to try to bring order to the chaos that is my apartment, most notably by emptying out boxes of junk that I have been lugging around from move to move over the years. I have gone through one box so far (about 18 more to go) and have thrown out at least 90% of what was in there. I find this to be a rather difficult exercise; I am a major packrat. But since I will be working from home for the next 6 months (not a change in job, just a change of location, for now), I need to make room in an already cozy apartment with absolutely no storage space and where boxes have literally lined the wall from floor to ceiling in my office since I moved in last January. So a lot of angst and gasping will take place in the coming weeks as I throw out a lot of useless junk.
Winter has barely started and I am already so officially fed up. And yet it would not have to be that way if the City could get its act together and do its job and just clear out the freaking snow already. My eyes glaze over as I remember how it was last winter and to be honest, I just can not take another winter like that. Of course, it does not help that my new next door neighbour, who is a really sweet girl, can not be bothered to shovel the stairwell. It has snowed at least three times in the last week and I had to do it once (despite the fact that I have a nasty cold and oh, did I mention I am disabled?) and a friend of mine had to do it last night. Anyway, all of this is rather uncomfortable but I am a closet optimist so I am still hoping she will get with the program.
I have recently opened an account on twitter. It took a while for me to warm up to the idea; I am usually wary of those social networky things and it is a well-known fact that I would not be caught dead on Facebook. But I think twitter has some value and seems pretty effortless. I like the idea that you do not have to be “friends” with people, that you can choose to follow someone’s euh, “tweets” or they can follow yours and that it can stay at that, that it does not have to get into this weird reciprocity obligation. And I like the idea that within a very brief format, you can be directed to interesting information that others with similar interests have thought to broadcast. And of course, I also like the idea of being able to use third-party applications to access the service. I am using twhirl; it is quite simply delightful. Of course, there is a lot of meaningless drivel and a lot of people talking to each other that may have little value to you but the format makes it much easier to ignore stuff. I do find the 140 characters or less constraint a bit difficult, I can be rather long-winded if given the chance but I do not have much to say at the moment so it does not really matter and I am thinking it might be a good discipline for me. One thing is for sure, it will probably force me to reconcile with contractions (oh! the horror!) but I am still hoping to find a way around that.
Last week, my province held general elections and for once there was a little bit of drama. Yeah, the Liberals won a small majority but it could have been worse. Anyway, I will leave all the post-elections analysis to our various pundits but one thing I am defintely happy about and absolutely want to underscore here is that Québec Solidaire finally won a seat. Wooohooo! Félicitations à Monsieur Khadir et à toute l’équipe ! Votre victoire représente un espoir certain, nous fait effectivement croire que le changement, bien que se faisant souvent désirer, est tout à fait possible.
Other stuff has happened recently, some of it bordering on the bizarre and a lot of it kind of annoying but I do not really feel like getting into it here. Suffice it to say that “plus ça change et plus c’est pareil”.
Anyway, on that cryptic note, I leave you with my usual, albeit upgraded, holiday tidings (Flash required, sorry). And if you think one of me is more than enough, oh my gawd are you in for a scary treat. So Merry Christmas everyone! And may 2009 be your best year ever!
Note: There used to be a video here that, through the magic of digital technology, had three elf-dressed copies of moi dancing to a disco-flavoured instrumental rendition of “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. It had flashy disco lights and a glass ball and everything. It was very cool.