September | 2023 | Richard's Ramblings

Can We Just Talk – Like We Used To

Today, I’m doing a little reminiscing about years gone by.

Back in the early days of Twitter, now “X”, Edmonton was known as a hotspot for activity. We were known, not only locally, but much more widely, as one of the most active Twitter areas in the world.

Back in those days it was indeed a “social” network, as we would actually talk to each other, share thoughts and ideas. There was essentially no animosity. We would of course at times disagree, however that would usually result in a discussion, and often there would be a resolution of the matter.

Even better than that however, we would meet. Yes, meet. Face to face. We would have a “Tweet-Up”, where we would get together and chat, and in so many cases, become friends.

Some tweet-ups were planned, but many were spontaneous. Someone would tweet that they would be at such-and-such mall food court for a while, giving a time. Lo and behold, while they were there someone would stop by and join them for bit. This actually happened quite often. Planned tweet-ups were usually in the evenings and would be more of a social gathering. At times, we would gather to benefit some organization, such as having a mini fundraiser.

It was essentially through Twitter, and these Tweet-ups, that I got to know so many people in Edmonton, a large number of whom I remain in touch with to this day. They were truly great times.

My reminiscing today comes as I am making a small effort to perhaps recreate some of those times by starting what I’m calling a “Chat-Up”, on a weekly basis. As I write this, I’m sitting at the designated location for my second Chat-up, waiting to see who might drop by. The first time I did it there was one person who dropped by.

After posting the event on social media I did get several responses, however to this point only from those who said sorry but they were out of town or unable to come due to work, but they liked the idea and would try next time. But it’s a start. You know, the “Rome wasn’t built in a day” concept.

My thinking is, with all the crap that seems to be going on in our world these days, the odd get-together for plain and simple friendly conversation would be a good thing. I really miss hearing people actually discuss something without the fear that fisticuffs would transpire. I do have hope.

Here I am, home now. It was a quiet time at Koffee Cafe again this morning. However I do like the owners there and the atmosphere is friendly. Have been going there well over ten years.

I will post the “Chat-Up” time and place again for next week and see what happens. Regardless it’s a nice place to have Friday morning tea.

What are your thoughts? Do you still meet for chat in person, or does that even appeal to you these days?

For me, I like to keep in contact with as many people as possible. My choices are, in order of preference:

In person
By video
By phone
By messaging

Would you like to chat with me, in person or otherwise? You can find out more about me by visiting my Wee Internet Empire and subscribing to my Old Guy, New Tricks newsletter.

Thanks for reading, I do appreciate your support. Until next time, look after yourself, and watch out for others.

My Name I Ponder

Yesterday I read an interesting post by Waking up on the Wrong Side of 50, a fellow blogger. Her post, entitled Name Game, was asking about the name one was given at birth and the name one goes by now.

That got me thinking of my own name and its transitions.

At my birth I was given the first names Richard Linnaeus. Richard having a long tradition on my paternal side and Linnaeus being my maternal grandfather’s name.

Up until I began school I was known as Linne, short form for Linnaeus. Once in school I was often teased, even bullied, for having a “girl’s” name, so I started using Richard, which, at some point in the process became Rick. That stayed with me through high school, technical school, university and into the military.

During my military career I began using Richard more and, depending on the activity I was involved in, would answer to either Richard or Rick. This carried on after my military retirement into my business activities. Eventually Rick all but disappeared, and for at least the last 20-25 years I have gone by Richard.

Now comes the crux of the thinking brought forward by the blog post.

Over the years, many years, I have often mulled in my mind about reverting my name to Linne. I must say that it has bothered me at times that I gave in to the teasers and bullies (these are similar but have different processes). I have determined that my grandfather went his entire life known as Linne to many, and he was a highly successful, accomplished person, becoming very well known in Great Britain.

During my life I have learned much about names, how important they are to us, in meaning, in family, and in history.

Even though I’m blogging about it, my situation is but a very small scale issue in the grand scheme of things.

However, there are many people who have had others literally rename them. People who are born here, or come to Canada from another country will be “renamed” by acquaintences, co-workers or employers, who, for one reason or another, don’t (or won’t) make the effort to say the person’s name properly. As a result they are given a “Canadian” name that is easy to say and/or spell. I need not provide any examples because I’m sure that each of my readers will know of someone in that situation.

So, getting back to my situation, I have often thought I should change back, and then I hesitate, wondering about any issues it would create. Even now, as I type this, I have stopped to ponder. If I change, how would I do it, how much would I change. Would I leave all the “official stuff”, passport, drivers licence, healthcare, and so on, the same (actually for most no change would be necessary). Probably just change the day-to-day usage, social media, that type of thing.

It is indeed something to ponder. What will I do? What would others think? What do my readers think? Feel free to let me know.

Regardless, life goes on. Be assured that I will continue to provide blogs, podcasts and more, through my Wee Internet Empire, irrespective of what name I choose to call myself.

Until next time. Take good care of yourself, and look out for others.

Birthday and Calendar Contemplation

Well, they tell me that I’m a year older today than I was yesterday. Now if that isn’t some high power time shifting, then I don’t know what would be. Seems it’s some curious occurence called a “birthday”.

This auspicious (??) event put me in a bit of a contemplative state, particularily after receiving a multitude of congratulary greetings from family and friends around the globe.

Those who know me in real life understand that I like math and science and consider many things in a precise fashion. I have at times been accused of as “being anal” in this regard.

With this in mind, in reality, I am now a year older than I was 365.2425 day ago.

((Note: The Gregorian Calendar is the dominant calendar used in most countries around the world today. Officially introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, the calendar was simply a modified version of the previously favoured Julian calendar. It reduced the average year from 365.25 days to a more accurate 365.2425 days.))

Now my contemplation grows as I feed Otis the cat and then have my morning coffee (notice the order, it is very specific).

You will likey all be familiar that in order to account for the extra portion of a day each year, the calender makers simply added an extra day every four years. It was decided that this extra day would be tacked on to February and would be called “leap day” indicating that a person’s age would just leap over that day every fourth year.

Now I won’t go into a long dissertation about calendars, how there were originally ten months, that a year was 364 days, how the Romans added January and February to account for more days, and that February was chosen because it would host the Roman rituals honouring the dead and to make sure that the first day of spring was always aligned with the right time. Oh, I guess I did, a little anyway.

So, on my birthday, why the fascination with February 29. Well, it just so happens that my wife Kim is what’s known as a “Leapling”, a person born on a Leap Day, one of an estimated five million around the world.

The anniversary of my birth occurs annually, whereas hers technically only occurs once every four years. Hmm… does that mean that she is a teenager four times longer, that she has to wait sixty-four calendar years to get her driver’s licence? In both these circumstances we could probably say “thankfully no”.

But as a result, every four years we do try to put a little extra emphasis on her actual, this is the real day, birthday celebration.

Next year is one of those special birthdays, February 29. 2024, and we will be celebrating in Melaka, Malaysia, where Kim was born and where we have our second home. Interestingly enough, in 2020 we celebrated there as well, and in 2016 she celebrated while she was there visiting family (I was in Canada for that one).

I realize that this is not the typical type of contemplation that most (perhaps read normal) people would have as they annually celebrate their earthly entrance, however I am well known for being slightly (okay, a lot) different.

Here endeth this particular contemplation (undoubtly there will be others).

Moral of the story: People are often similar, however if we were all the same, how boring it would be, so remember to be unique.