In the News

I am impressed with the news coverage of world events as of late. My sources of news are many, but lately mainstream news has been more interesting. I love CBC for the Newshour and it is interesting to watch the wedding and the happenings with Osama and Obama. CTV is good in the mornings for Canada AM. It is good to watch the political talks with the special guests and I always find tidbits of predicting information engaging. I also enjoy watching channel 7 news to get information about the states. Channel 13 is also a good source of information and is based in the states. I am getting into the states news lately because it is more hopeful in some ways. However, I would hope that we would never celebrate a death. I simply mean that they have a heads up with more left wing politics.

There are other sources of information I find interesting along with the news. The show 'The Doctors' is good for health-related information and 'Regis and Kelly' is good for entertainment news. Shaw TV is a staple that proves to be interesting in almost every way. Every time I watch, and sometimes re-watch, I gain more information about local happenings and events. It is the best source of information lately and has improved a lot and will continue to improve. If I want to forget about real life for a while, channel 30 or TVO which has stories about real life expeditions are channels in which I'm finding an interest. There was this one show about scuba divers which makes me wonder how some people are so adventurous. TVO also has shows with Steve Paikin which address news topics in an editorial way. I was scared of him for the longest time when I was younger but now I find him intersting.

Masters Project

I just spoke with my sister about my Master's project idea and she gave me some good ideas. I was thinking I wanted to study the formats of mental health projects who partner with higher education institutions and community. I wanted to look at The New Mentality (www.cmho.org), Mind Your Mind (www.mindyourmind.ca), Mobilizing Minds (www.mobilizingminds.ca), and Active Minds (www.activeminds.org) as models of mental health organizing for anti-stigma. I am interested in learning more about research so one of my professors gave me a book on research and might take me on to help with research in the fall. I really want to free up some time to commit to this because it would be very relevant to my learning future. If I could, I would like to start an Active Minds chapter at Lakehead University, although my sister warned me about this being too elementary for a graduate level project. Something like getting a Mobilizing Minds project started is a bit more difficult because it involves professors committing to dedicating time to get the group started. Right now, emotionally, figureatively, and literally, I am looking at preparing not only myself, but others for the undertaking that will be happening in a year. My sister has said that she did nothing but read even during her undergrad. A lot of other things in my life are going to take a back seat. It's a rigorous process and takes a lot of focus to complete a Master's in Social Work. I'm not resisting, but I am going back to the basics for sure when it happens. Even next year, the preparation begins and I need to rethink my summer and what I am dedicating my time to. Preparation means making changes and working hard. I want to ask my professors a lot of questions, really read the material, and come prepared to get to the next learning level and really improve my education.

Workshop at DFC on Addiction and Sexuality

Yesterday, with three other RMYC members, I attended the third workshop of a series called "Girl time," targetted towards girls at Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school for Aboriginal boarding students. The workshop was not only a chance for the girls to gain knowledge about the topics of addiction and sexuality, but was a chance to connect and share experiences among participants. The first workshop was done by a Master's student and retired addictions counsellor. They went over the effects of alcohol on the medicine wheel aspects of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health as well as prevention using the 7 grandfather teachings which are wisdom, truth, respect, love, honesty, humility and bravery. She also talked about some of the pharmacological effects, such as withdrawal, tolerance, and physical dependence, and psychological dependence as well. She ended by going over the different types of drugs and their effects. The second workshop was done by a police officer who has been with the Thunder Bay police for 20 years. He spoke about healthy relationships. He advised that if anyone is in an abusive relationship, they tell their partner, "you've got to get with it. i'm too important to be treated this way and if you don't get with it, I'm leaving." He went into a bit about what the police force does about cases involving domestic violence and the importance of reaching out for any sort of help you can if you are in an abusive situation. The next workshop is Monday night from 4:00 to 8:00pm. Today there is a conference at DFC for high school students. It starts at 12pm and will run until 5pm with a meeting at 5pm for interested participants. The meeting will go until 9pm. There is also an open mic at the Learning cafe at 5pm that goes until 8pm.

Act Out Conference - Tremendous Success

I thouroughly enjoyed the Act Out conference put on my Gender Issues last Saturday. Sometimes a smaller turnout is okay when you generate good discussion. There was a workshop on mental health in the morning and this inspired me to come up with a plan for action around local mental health. Although there are other groups, I have not heard anything about recent events. I am still holding on to the dream of forming a club on campus, perhaps for my Master's project I can work on this. Just an idea. The second workshop was a workshop about WUSC, the student refugee program at LU that brings in several refugees each year straight from their camps. There was a chilling video and the workshop represented the importance of expanding your mind and trying something new. Next, there was a cultural diversity workshop where we talked about what are commonalities are despite differences, represented by different colored jelly beans. Ending off, we finished with a workshop about Aboriginal activism. I'm sad to have ended my placement at the Gender Issues Centre, but I'm moving forward with other things. I have committed to a job at a Solvent Abuse Treatment Centre as well as hopefully doing placement in mental health next year. I will try to remain involved in the Gender Issues Centre because I enjoyed it so much. I purchased a Good Food Box which I encourage anyone who likes good food to do. They are $12 for a single and $20 for a family and can be purchased in the early part of the month at Northern Women's Centre and many other sites, including GIC during the school year. GIC is closing for the winter, but will be back in full force.

Act Out Social Justice Conference

The LUSU Centres are hosting a Social Justice Conference addressing topics such as stigma and barriers towards mental health, International refugee student experience, Aboriginal activism, and Cultural Diversity. The event is geared towards high school students, though we have opened it up to any students or youth. It will be a wonderful opportunity to interact with University students and gain some skills in anti-oppression and social activism. I'm thinking anyone would love to attend this free event with lunch provided. If you're thinking of going to Lakehead or would like to know more about student life and social change, please sign up! You won't be disappointed. The event is on Saturday, April 2nd at the Lakehead Regional Centre near the Outpost from 10am-5pm http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=170678659646180 Facebook event is here. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&ndplr=1&AuthEventSource=SSO&formkey=dFV6NVdtSHhCNUpxdUtvTks1OVlsR2c6MQ Event registration is here.

LU Radio

This week is the funding drive for LU Radio, Thunder Bay's only campus and community radio station http://www.luradio.ca I just spent an hour listening in on the Fun night featuring host Ryan Trush of Lipstick and Leather to kick the week of activities off. There was also special guests on my friend Gloria Ranger's show "Happy Hour" this morning. Gloria is always a delight to listen to. Her husband, Robin Ranger, hosts a favorite show, it is jazz vinyl from the late 20s to early 30s. It is fantastic! He is performing at the wrap up event this Friday, April 1st at the Finlandia. Doors will open and there will be great Indian food at 7:30pm, cooked by LUs volunteer team. I'll be there dancing all night. There will be a wonderful lineup including DJ Luv. DJ Luv was broadcasting live from the outpost today at lunch as part of the week's events. He is a great local DJ and founder of the Sugar Shakedown which is one of Thunder Bay's most attended regular music scene events. Also, you can donate this week to help fund LU's radio station to keep it going. There was a point that they thought it might stop running, but they brought it back. You can get a shout out on LU radio for a donation of as little as $2 and then a donation of $10 will get you a back with the LU radio logo on it.

Another radio station that I like is Vancouver's only Coop radio station, also 102.7 http://www.coopradio.org/ My favorite shows on this station are "She-Boom" and "F-word." It's a really need concept with this station because there are different hosts every show for "She-Boom" so you get a variation of music. I also enjoy CBC radio 2 http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/ and especially when they play Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain." I wake up to this station and listen to the jazz on my way home. When I took driving lessons, one piece of advice from my in-car instructor was to listen to jazz along the way because he said I drive much better with it. I have trouble seeing at night, so I'll take any help I can get. But, sometimes when the reggae beats are on LU radio, I need to switch to that. I have CBC on at home quite a bit, especially because LU radio does not come through on the alarm clock. Somehow, when I'm listening to music on the radio at home alone, everything is okay. I also enjoy the radio all day at placement at the Gender Issues Centre. Radio is my main source of music and it always have been. I remember times in my life when all I would do was listen to the radio and sing every song and dance to every beat. It drove my parents mad, but I was crazy for music. I want it to push again, that love of music. Music is life.

Social Media as Tool for Action

I'm so impressed with the amount of time I can spend on twitter and not get bored. I have found it's use and made it work for me. I love blog sites too, and because twitter is so successful at engaging people across distances, and facebook helps the activist and action-oriented community thrive, as a blogger, I see a future in unmarketing my events and activities. I want to blog on this site about the events that are coming up in my community and talk about them afterwards using this forum. It is not far from being a useful tool for community change, but for me it is only beginning.

I have yet to learn the uses of facebook in my life, because I get lost in other people's lives. With twitter and blogger, I feel more control. I can choose the knowledge that I am consuming. I think large text and small text are two entirely different things, and you need both. I have used facebook up until now as a way to keep in touch with friends and find out about local events, but posted very little content. It's not long before I begin to be as active on facebook as I am on twitter. On twitter, I post for http://www.twitter.com/mobilizingminds and http://www.twitter.com/genderissues as well as my own http://www.twitter.com/paulinefogarty ... sometimes I feel like my life is spent on twitter.

I'm rekindling the blogging flame in my life and this is a good start. I have a goal to blog at least twice a week. So, I hope that I can begin to exchange blog names with some interesting bloggers. Where are you? I know you're there.

Two other great Northern social media sites are www.sevenyouthmedia.com and www.wawataynews.com ... they make me smile!