21 - 44

This week has been a whirlwind of yearbook.  It seems like it's all I've been doing, all day, every day, mixed up in a sprinkle of work and getting ready for Shad.  Out of the eighty-eight pages in the book, twenty-one I've done completely myself, and I've had a hand in editing forty-four more.  And we're still not done!  The grade 10/11 school pictures still have to be put in once the grade lists are secured, and that's another eleven pages.  There's a few others here and there left to do, but none that I can do myself.  One is the school Athletic Banquet, which Mr. Toms requested to do himself, same with the Confederation City Classic tournament page, and the library monitors/newspaper page.  Then there's the staff pictures, but aside from that, the book is completed.  It's been so much work... most nights I haven't got to sleep before midnight, as I'm up late working on or fixing up pages.  But it's almost done, and all my and the rest of the committee's hard work will soon pay off.  What follows are the proofs of some of the pages I've created:

For the rest, well, you're going to have to buy a yearbook (42$, or 45$ with a signature page).

Now, there's one dilemma that I'd like to mention that I came across when it comes to creating a yearbook.  It's deciding on the pictures.  When I was a little kid, I played soccer every summer, and ringette every winter.  At those younger levels of sports, it was usually just kids' parents who coached.  When it came time to decide captains, the kid whose parent was coach always ended up on that list, but whenever my dad took his turn coaching, he never let me be captain, because he didn't want to play favourites.  I always felt cheated about that; I was one of the better players, and objectively, I probably should have been captain that year.  But anti-favoritism can be just as problematic as favoritism, and in trying to not be biased, often one goes just as far in the opposite direction.  I am long over not getting to be captain of my ringette team when I was eleven, so why I am telling this story?  Well, when it comes to choosing the pictures for the yearbook, the same ethical dilemma exists.  You're inclined to put more pictures of your friends in the yearbook, but that wouldn't be fair.  But often in attempting to not be biased towards your friends, you're biased against them, and then they don't get in the book at all.  And, like as not choosing your daughter as captain because she's your daughter may be just as problematic as making her captain because she's your daughter, so is putting or not putting pictures of your friends in the yearbook because they're your friends.  So that line was something that was in the front of my mind every time I dragged a little picture square over onto the digital page.  All in all, I think my pages ended up being unbiased.  My friends and people I know aren't completely excluded, but their presence isn't any greater than anyone else's.  The fact that it is something one must be conscious of means it can't be 100% perfect, but in the end, I think it is fair for everyone.

So, that's yearbook 2012/2013.  By mid-July the book should be finished completely, although I will be away at Shad Valley by that point.  The books will then be delivered in the fall, and I'll be sure to report in on the finished product.  Until then, get ready for a chronicle of my Shad Valley adventure in Saskatchewan -- coming tomorrow to a blog near you.