April 29: If there was no such thing as electricity...

...you wouldn't be reading this

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Dec. 1: What if...

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About 10 years ago, my friend, Natalie, and I were discussing our respective journalism careers. Hers started in 1998 in a small town in southeast Saskatchewan. Mine started in Regina in 1999 after I moved there with her. She got a job at a weekly paper there and she introduced me to her editor, who hired me. "I owe my career to you," I told Natalie. This did not impress her. She said that her role in my career trajectory was an infinitesimal one, that I should give myself some credit for my own success. - Still, if I didn't meet Natalie, I might not be where I am right now. When I moved to Regina, I had no ambitions toward a journalism career; all I wanted to do was write a novel. Natalie told me about the job at the paper and encouraged me to go in and meet the staff and see what happened. I wound up surprising myself, I was a pretty good - if not raw - reporter and that job in Regina led to further opportunities in Saskatchewan, Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario, where I re...
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Dec. 16: Why note-a-day is different this time around

Way back in June of 2013, I decided to start doing the note-a-day project. It was inspired, in part, by my magician friend, Eric Leclerc, who had taken it upon himself to put up a video of him doing a magic trick every day for 365 days. I didn't want to be a copycat but I admired his tenacity, so I did the same thing, only with writing. The idea was to have a friend send me a title every day and I would write something inspired by it. I broke with tradition twice. Once I dedicated an entire month to writing notes based on Prince songs. Another time, I spent a month writing notes inspired by the work of David Mamet. It's different this time too. At first, I was going to have people send me titles again, but that just seemed old hat for December of 2024. I decided instead that I would let each day inspire me. I would go into an environment and I would take something from it and that would be my inspiration for the day's note. Yesterday, for example, I was inspired by some peo...
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Dec. 10: The audience

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I had an audience of one for about 20 minutes while scraping a good 25 pounds of ice-caked snow off the car this evening. My son. He watched me from the upstairs window, never taking his eyes off me. I waved to him. He waved back. He's 11. Autism.  Two days earlier, I performed for about 200 partygoers at the army base in Petawawa. It was a different kind of audience. In Petawawa, the audience was in search of entertainment. My son just wanted to observe me. - I've heard it said that when a child turns 10, parents should begin the process of letting go. It is not a selfish thing; it is a painful yet pragmatic piece of good advice. A parent must prepare his or her child to live apart from them because - statistically speaking - the child will outlive them. This letting go must be cruel at times and surely one of the saddest and shocking revelations of life must be that the world does not revolve around them. - I am my kid's best friend. At the age of 11, there is no one he l...
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