Lethbridge Public School Board Trustee

I’ve decided to put my name forward to run for the Lethbridge Public School Board as a trustee. I believe the trustees hold a crucial position that provides significant impact on children, families and the entire community.

I want to ensure every student in the Lethbridge School Division receives a high-quality education that prepares them for the future, whether they choose post-secondary education, a trade, or entering the workforce. This means focusing on foundational skills like literacy and numeracy while also embracing modern learning that teaches critical thinking and problem-solving.

As a trustee, I will be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. I will scrutinize budgets to ensure that funding is directed where it matters most—the classroom. I believe in transparent financial reporting so our community knows exactly how their money is being invested in our children’s future.

Parents are a child’s first and most important teachers. I want to foster a culture of partnership between schools and families. I will work to improve communication, ensure parents’ voices are heard and respected, and make it easier for them to be actively involved in their child’s education.

As Lethbridge is on traditional Blackfoot territory, I am committed to honouring the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action by supporting Indigenous education, culture, and language programs within our schools.

I look forward to continuing this dialogue as the campaign season kicks off.

The Story of WidgetSmith

I know him from his podcast Under the Radar and this story has been shared on air but David “Underscore” Smith’s tale of how building an iOS app changed his life is a fantastic story you shouldn’t miss. It even made me want to be an indie developer.

David Smith on what it feels like to win the App Store lottery:

The initial response to the app was warm but nothing out of the ordinary. Widgetsmith was the 59th app I had launched so I’d been through this process a lot over the preceding twelve years of indie app development. Typically you see a little swell of interest in the first few days. Then things settle down into a stable level and you move onto the maintenance and gradual improvement of the app.

This was what I thought would happen with Widgetsmith and the indications for the first few days were that this was exactly what would happen.

[…]

It wasn’t until we got back from our walk that I had my first indication that something was up. Someone reached out to me on Twitter saying they’d seen Widgetsmith getting mentioned on TikTok. I click through to the video they linked to and discovered that there was a walkthrough video by Katarina Mogus which was going viral at the moment.

Widgetsmith now has around 131 million downloads.

New Puppy and a New Camera

This weekend Andrea and Nesslin went on an epic road trip to the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan to pick up the newest member of the family… a puppy! They haven’t made it home yet but I’ve seen photos and videos and I’ve got to admit, it’s as cute as promised. It’s a black Maltipoo (half Maltese; half poodle) and they got it the very first day the breeder declared it old enough to go.

Also on the first day it was available, I just pre-ordered an iPhone 17 Pro. The last iPhone I bought was the 13 Pro four years ago and while it has been my favourite so far, I’m really hankering for the upgraded telephoto (200mm equivalent) that these new phones have. There are a ton of other upgrades too but the camera is what’s driving this purchase for sure. Apparently it’s even better at lowlight situations. I’ll be sure to see how it does on the dark fur of our brand new puppy.

First Day of School

It was the kids’ first day back at school today. We started a tradition of interviewing and creating a poster for each of our kids identifying their favourite things1:

The kids seemed to have enjoyed their first day back but by the time dinner was on, they were both losing their dang minds. Stress from back to school is a real thing and although I don’t remember it myself, according to Andrea, the same thing happened last year.

  1. They are mostly the things they’ve most recently experienced.[]