As I was writing my last post, there was a moment where I had to think about about what featured image I wanted to use. I didn’t really have one, so I just picked my profile picture. It worked, I guess, but I don’t think this is a sustainable approach. Ideally, I’d like to have a unique image for every post.
But this sounds like a lot of work, and I’m lazy. Perhaps WordPress can offer an assist?
I’m thinking of adding a feature to my theme to automatically generate a post image, save it to the Media library, and then append it to the post. I think all of the elements I need are already available:
PHP can create image files, and upload them the WordPress upload location.
The theme should be able to create an “attachment” post type with the image details.
Then, upon successful upload, append the attachment ID to the post I’m authoring.
As far as the substance of the images themselves, I’m thinking it should be easy enough to retrieve a profile picture of the author, or the header image/colour from the theme, and put that into the image. The excerpt of the post can be used as a text overlay. Give it a nice trendy layout and, voila!
I’ll get to prototyping something when I can. Should be fun!
1 year. 12 months. 365 days. 8,760 hours, since I last told Toby that I love him. Since I heard him say he loves me. Since I’ve heard anything come from his voice at all.
It still weighs on me, clearly. I understand from other parents that have also lost their children that this is normal. It could take years to feel “normal” again, if it happens at all — which brings me to the point of this post.
I’m making, and have made, some changes.
Brampton Cycling Advisory Committee
In September of 2021, I formally resigned from the Brampton Cycling Advisory Committee. I think the letter I submitted with my resignation explains my reasons best.
“The death of my son Toby to cancer has forced me into a position where I have been re-evaluating everything in my life. One of those things is a greater emphasis on spending time with my family. … I don’t feel that I have the same energy or mental fortitude that I did when I applied for the committee. I’m not the same person that I was — the person that was appointed to serve this committee and the City of Brampton.”
Don’t get me wrong: I still think bicycles are awesome. But my style of advocacy, for better or worse, was confrontational. This was intentional. The reason was not just to be a pain in the ass (though that was kind of fun for a while), but because growth takes time in politics, undoing growth happens quickly. Transparently challenging ideas is a fast way to evaluate whether they hold any water, even though, generally, people don’t like being challenged.
The reason why I mention this is that I’m actually an introvert. Any speaking engagement I’ve ever been to has relied on careful preparation, anticipation, and attention, which left me feeling exhausted at the end every single time. I simply do not have the energy for that anymore — or at least for now. While advocacy was something I certainly cared (and still care) about, perhaps because I’ve already invested so much time in it, I don’t know that it’s something that brings me joy. It feels like an obligation, somehow. An obligation that feels misaligned with my priority of spending time with my family.
Work
Because of the often confrontational nature of my advocacy, and observing a phenomenon called “doxing”, there were certain things I kept mostly private — or at least wasn’t very vocal about — including my full-time employment because of instances I observed where friends were reported to their employers over disagreements on Twitter.
Doxing or doxxing: To publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dox
I want to start changing that up a little bit. My work has been an important part of my life too.
For the last 11 years, I’ve been a full-time employee, in some capacity or another, for the AIR MILES Reward Program. Most recently, my role was “Sr. Content Specialist, Publishing” for Marketing Shared Services. For many years, I was able to put some of my design, and a lot of my development skills, to work within this role. But not full-time.
I recently accepted a new role, starting in January 2022, within the AIR MILES Program of “Developer, Productivity Tools”. With this move, I hope to get myself back into a headspace of designing and developing useful products for the AIR MILES marketing team, full-time.
Papineau Homes
My family has decided that it’s time for a change of scenery. We’re co-purchasing land in Northern Ontario, and will be documenting the process of creating new dwellings there — ultimately with the intent of monetizing the content to help pay for “nice to haves”. We’re calling this project Papineau Homes. We’ve already released a few videos, mostly introductory stuff. We don’t really have a release schedule yet, but I encourage anyone who is interested to subscribe to the Papineau Homes YouTube channel for updates.
The Bikeport
The pandemic has continued to take its toll on cycle training lessons for The Bikeport. I’ve been continuing to offer a service agreement for data aggregation with BikeBrampton, and starting to prototype other services that could be offered province-wide as I prepare to move to Northern Ontario. I’m also looking for ways to make it easier to manage an online shop using affiliate marketing and drop shipping services.
Other Development Stuff
Gradually, I’ve been getting back into web development. I’ve released a WordPress theme on GitHub that I use as the parent theme on all of my websites. However, I feel that the pièce de résistance of my recent development effort is converting a proof of concept I had for web typography framework, and producing a WordPress typography plug-in with it. In my mind, if you feel inclined to check out these projects, these should be considered perpetual alpha versions. I update and support them as I need to, they’re not intended for general use on WordPress sites. If they were, I would have submitted them to the official WordPress repository. 🙂
I’ll try to remember to write more on these projects later.
In the meantime, a fair amount of personal development time is going into creating my own personal finance software, using custom WordPress post types. *LOL* I’m just not happy with solutions on the market right now. Especially when it comes to creating reports on my finances that I want to see but cannot have, but could create myself for free. I might share some screen captures of that work later, but it’s definitely intended to run on personal web servers on local computers only!
My God. Has it been 7 years since writing a post on this site?
I guess it’s been easy to forget about. Other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Medium, etc. make it easy to post and share content quickly and efficiently. Although, Facebook has increasingly become more of a dumpster fire.
But I guess, sometimes, there are some things to say that need to go, I dunno, deeper — with many parts. I think this is one of those posts.
Back in Christmas 2014, the last time I apparently wrote a post on this site, my son Toby would have fairly recently turned 6 years old, being enabled in his love for Lego.
Toby, Christmas 2014.
This hadn’t changed by the time he was 12.
Toby, Christmas 2020.
7 years later, in 2021, we’ll be experiencing our first Christmas without him. He died of a rare liver cancer, fibrolamellar carcinoma, on January 2, 2021.
I miss him every day. So, so much.
On August 29, 2021, I did my first of what will likely be many more fundraisers to raise money for cancer research: The Ride to Conquer Cancer. Unlike previous years, due to the pandemic, participants were encouraged to either participate virtually, or participate in a physically distant ride. I took the opportunity to plan a ~50km ride around Brampton, a sort of trip down memory lane, to remember important locations that impacted Toby’s life.
Summary of Locations
Toby’s Way
The ride starts at “Toby’s Way”, a section of recreational trail in Brampton named in his honour.
Place of Birth
Toby’s delivery was a home birth. It seemed fitting to re-visit this area of Brampton early in the ride.
Daycare Locations
The cost of daycare, especially after Toby was born, had a huge impact on our lives and the decisions we would make later regarding our “cost to work”, and eventually living car-free for 10 years.
Helen Wilson Public School
Toby’s first kindergarten school experience, a short cargo-bike ride from our house.
Brampton Public Library, Four Corners Branch
Toby was a prolific reader. I would often stop at the library on my way home from work to pick up and return books for him.
Bramalea & Chinguacousy Park
“Canada’s first satellite community”, this part of what is now Brampton had a huge role in Toby’s life. His cousins lived here, and he visited often. When his older siblings went to school here, he enjoyed breakfast with his mother after the school drop-off (before we sold our car). He would then enjoy dance parties later during after-school pickup. Eventually, he would go to school in this area.
Dorset Drive Public School
Following his older siblings’ footsteps, Toby attended this French immersion elementary school from grades 1-5.
William G. Davis Sr. Public School
Before ending the ride, the final stop is William G. Davis Sr. Public School. This school is significant to my family. It was attended by myself, both of my brothers, and Toby’s older brother. September 2020 was Toby’s last school experience, before collapsing in gym class one day and needed to be taken home, a few days before waking up jaundiced when his liver failed from what we later learned was cancer.
The entire ride was live-streamed. I wore a microphone to record my narration as a rode around Brampton visiting each location, reflecting on the significance of each place in Toby’s life. It’s over 4 hours long, but if you wish to see them, they’re here:
Thank you to everyone who donated to my Movember campaign. Your donations are very much appreciated. In total, my personal campaign contributed $103, and our team managed to raise $630!
On October 30 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced measures to help make life more affordable for Canadian families.
The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) for children under age six will increase. As of January 1, 2015, parents will receive a benefit of $160 per month for each child under the age of six – up from $100 per month. In a year, parents will receive up to $1,920 per child.
The UCCB will expand to children aged six through 17. As of January 1, 2015, under the expanded UCCB, parents will receive a benefit of $60 per month for children aged six through 17. In a year, parents will receive up to $720 per child.
The Child Care Expense Deduction dollar limits will increase by $1,000, effective for the 2015 tax year. The maximum amounts that can be claimed will increase to $8,000 from $7,000 for children under age seven, to $5,000 from $4,000 for children aged seven through 16, and to $11,000 from $10,000 for children who are eligible for the Disability Tax Credit.
I don’t have experience with raising children who are eligible for the Disability Tax Credit. I won’t be evaluating that credit, but I welcome comments from anyone who can offer it.
All this seems like good news, right? Not so fast. After doing some number crunching, this does nothing to help struggling families. Why? Because “The enhanced UCCB will replace the existing Child Tax Credit”. This changes everything.
Spoiler: This plan causes a net loss for the poor, and benefits the well-off. There is further loss for more than one child. See examples below, or read on.
A family hovering above an at-risk income experiences a net loss from this change to their tax benefits. The problem gets worse with more children. Let’s look at two kids under 6.
The net loss experienced by low-income families goes up with each child!
Examples
Here are tables comparing before and after, based on the examples provided earlier.
Current Payouts Under CCTB + UCCB Plans for Children Under 6
Family Net Income
Number of Children
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
1
$109.16 + $100 = $209.16
$75.83 + $100 = $175.83
$42.50 + $100 = $142.50
2
$218.33 + $200 = $418.33
$185.00 + $200 = $385.00
$151.66 + $200 = $351.66
3
$327.50 + $300 = $627.50
$294.16 + $300 = $594.16
$260.83 + $300 = $560.83
4
$436.66 + $400 = $836.66
$403.33 + $400 = $803.33
$370.00 + $400 = $770.00
Current Payouts Under CCTB + UCCB Plans for Children Over 6, Under 18
Family Net Income
Number of Children
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
1
$109.16
$75.83
$42.50
2
$218.33
$185.00
$151.66
3
$327.50
$294.16
$260.83
4
$436.66
$403.33
$370.00
Number of Children
Proposed Payout Under New UCCB Plan for Children Under 6
1
$160
2
$320
3
$480
4
$640
Number of Children
Proposed Payout Under New UCCB Plan for Children Over 6, Under 18
1
$60
2
$120
3
$180
4
$240
What about the Child Care Expense Deduction?
I’m pessimistic. Child care costs have increased for years in Ontario. Without a cap, like the one proposed by the NDP, there is no reason to believe they won’t continue to increase. This will quickly swallow up any increase to the Child Care Expense Deduction.
I’m doing something a little different this year for Movember. I’m giving you, yes you. All of you, the opportunity to tell me which mo to grow.
But, there’s a catch. If you want to decide the fate of my mo, you have to be the single largest contributor to my donations. Anyone can change the style I grow out by offering a larger donation. Feel free to use the style guide above, or send me a photo of a mo to grow.
Will this work? I dunno.
Could this result in some weird deviant hybrid mo that should never have seen the light of day, growing on my face? Could be.
Carsharing “is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They are attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day. The organization renting the cars may be a commercial business or the users may be organized as a company, public agency, cooperative, or ad hoc grouping.”
Carsharing adds another tool to people who want to free themselves from car ownership: Providing access to cars only when they are needed. This addresses challenges in the suburbs where using transit might be possible to get to work, but a car is still required for other transportation needs such as weekends.
What is Community Carshare?
Community CarShare is a non-profit co-operative which provides its members access to vehicles on a self-serve, pay-per-use basis. The co-operative was founded in 1998 and operated first in Kitchener-Waterloo, adding service to Hamilton in 2009, Elmira, Guelph and St. Catharines in 2013, and London in 2014.
Community CarShare’s mission is to deliver a carsharing service and to promote carsharing as an important component of a sustainable transportation system. Through this the co-op seeks to reduce overall transportation costs, traffic congestion and air pollution, thus improving our community.
Reservations for CarShare vehicles can be made for as little as 30 minutes, or as long as needed, and gas and maintenance costs are included in driving rates. By filling in transportation gaps with occasional car use, Community CarShare also helps support the use of greener transportation modes such as transit and cycling. Many CarShare members also already own a car, but supplement their driving needs with CarShare reservations a few times a week.
The following is a letter I sent to Brampton 311, Councillor Gael Miles, and Councillor Sandra Hames.
Hello. I’m Kevin Montgomery, a car-free resident of Brampton.
I suggest a pilot project to install bike traffic signals and a bi-directional bike lane to connect the Don Doan Trail to Bramalea GO Station. The specific locations I suggest for bike traffic signals are at the intersections of Bramalea Rd. at Avondale/Dearbourne Blvds. on the north and west sides, and at the intersection of Bramalea Rd. at Steeles Ave. on the west side, with a bi-directional bike lane connecting the two intersections on the west side of Bramalea Rd. Please see the map image with illustration for reference.
My commute usually sees me taking my bike to and from Brampton GO Station downtown. If it’s early enough (before traffic picks up), I’ll sometimes take my bike to Bramalea GO Station in the morning by way of Birchbank Rd. and Avondale Blvd. Unlike Brampton GO Station, taking a bicycle for multi-modal connectivity to Bramalea GO Station is not easily done, and especially not for the faint of heart as traffic increases. This is particularly true for northbound trips trying to leave the station during rush hour, which puts someone on a bicycle in the awkward position of trying to get to the north-east side of Steeles/Bramalea and merging with heavy, impatient, and fast-moving automotive traffic. A bi-directional bike lane on Bramalea Rd. would solve this problem for cyclists by removing the need to merge with automotive traffic at all. It would need only one road crossing on the same side as the pedestrian exit on the south-west corner of the intersection, and cut construction costs by only building one lane instead of two.
The problem of parking and the traffic it creates in that area could be easily reduced by encouraging people in the Bramalea area to make a healthier lifestyle choice, leave their cars at home, and take their bikes to the Bramalea GO Station by way of the Don Doan trail and nearby north-south Pathways. Installing bike traffic signals and a bi-directional bike lane would allow for easier, meaningful, and most importantly safe, bicycle travel and multi-modal connectivity to existing Pathways into Bramalea and onwards.
