Three weeks ago I wrote an article about my departure from the railway industry entitled “Working for the Railway” (http://www.ausu.org/voice/search/searchdisplay.php?ART=1818). It ended with the statement that: “I hereby declare myself to be a fulltime Athabasca University student.” This week I am forced to recant my statement and once again declare myself to be a part-time… Read more »
I began my railway career in April 1988 when I hired onto CP Rail in Cranbrook, BC as a trainperson (termed trainman in those days). I worked for CP Rail as a trainperson/yard-person for several years until qualifying as a conductor/yard-foreman in January 1992. In May 1993 I was offered a position as trainperson at… Read more »
BC Premier Gordon Campbell has ordered a provincial state of emergency to free-up resources in order to fight the province’s massive forest-fire problems. As of Saturday August 2, 2003, there were 352 active fires burning in the province, bringing the year-total to 1120 fires which have, so far, consumed 59422 hectares of BC’s forests (1)…. Read more »
Can you remember your first car? Mine was a 1968 Pontiac Grand Parisian. I was the proudest sixteen year old in Vancouver when my father bought it for me. I tried to spiffy it up however I could on a shoe-string budget and it was great until I totaled it in an unfortunate accident (see… Read more »
I consider myself to be rather analytical and I’ve always found it intriguing that some people maintain extremely close family ties throughout their lives. Personally, I have been somewhat emotionally distant from my extended family for as long as I can remember”?practically to the point of reclusiveness. My sisters and I keep in touch twice… Read more »
I have been taking courses, off and on, through Athabasca University since 1996 and for the most part I love to learn through distance education. In fact, distance education is an old friend of mine. I experienced difficulties in high school due to my own lack of self-discipline and rebellious attitude toward authority figures”?teachers in… Read more »
I don’t live in Alberta, but as a student of Athabasca University (AU) and a Canadian post-secondary student in general, I am interested in all educational regulations”?especially those in Alberta. Recently I was made aware of the impending Bill 43 that will alter Alberta’s educational regulations, if passed. The concerns that a fellow student of… Read more »
Every day I pass by a friend’s place on my way down-town, but I rarely stop by to see him any more. There was a time when we would hang-around together constantly and I must say I miss those days. But life has a way of taking people down separate paths and so it happened… Read more »
Luckily for me, while I was growing up my father was equally comfortable in the city and in the country. After separating from my mother, he and I (at age 4) settled in the suburbs of Vancouver BC, where I lived until my late teens. Of course, I was very accustomed to the hustle and… Read more »
On Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002, 55-year-old Richard Anderson, a BC Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection manager in Kamloops BC, walked into the office building where he worked. He entered through the back door with a gun, shot and killed his boss, shot and killed a union representative, and finally, shot and killed himself…. Read more »