Today's readings

There's this wonderful magazine that comes every other month in our Globe & Mail at work called Backbone. It's all about technology and is a very interesting and sometimes fascinating read. This month's issue is a look back to 2001, when the magazine started, and it compares some predictions from then to what has actually happened in the technology field until now. Great stuff! There's also an article where 10 people were interviewed to discuss which technological advancement in the past 5 years has made the most impact on them. Stuff like high-speed internet, WI-FI and digital cameras are on the list. It's hard to remember a time when we didn't have these technologies and yet that was only a few years ago! If you are remotely interested in technology, you will find something to grab your attention in this magazine. Fantastic! It's available online too (see http://www.backbonemag.com).

Another magazine we get from time to time is the CalgaryInc magazine. Obviously, this is all about Calgary but it has so much information in it that could easily apply to any large city. One of my favourite parts of the magazine is near the beginning. It's the section where they list all kinds of stats about anything you can think of. Truly amazing and yet completely useless (unless of course you enjoy playing trivia as I do) information. This month's magazine mysteriously went missing from our kitchen at work within hours of its arrival. I have a very strong feeling that it had something to do with the cover page showing a large Help Wanted poster with a subtitle of "Hot Jobs in the City". I was so looking forward to getting my hands on that issue during my lunch break but apparently the powers that be were too quick for me. If only it were online!

Today, beyond the usual time reading North and South on my daily commute, I have been reading an e-book I purchased a while back about becoming a technical writer. I had to take Technical Communications courses every semester at tech school and always did very well. Although the good marks were likely a result of submitting assignments exactly as described by the instructor, I like to think that I must have had some skill as well. I've had some experience writing technical documentation at work too so it seems like a natural progression for me to consider working as a technical writer.

Usually during my lunch hour I will read the Calgary Herald; first the Entertainment section which, more often than not, gives me something to laugh about, then Sports or Real Life or sometimes the City & Region section. Today, I read a bit of the Real Life section and found a short article about how many calories you can burn doing work around the house. Since I plan on painting my walls soon, I was overjoyed to discover that, as a female, I can burn 140 calories per 1/2 hour that it takes me to paint one room! This is great and I don't even care about burning calories!