Barbara Lehtiniemi is a writer and photographer from Ontario. She’s a graduate of Athabasca University, having completed her Bachelor of General Studies degree in 2018.
A regular contributor to The Voice Magazine since 2013, Barbara has also contributed to other publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Maclean’s. Barbara writes in several genres, including non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. She’s grateful to The Voice Magazine for providing the opportunity to explore an array of topics and writing styles, and she remains dreadfully sorry for those awful haikus.
Barbara has a fondness for travel, used bookstores, everyday absurdities, and oversized wine glasses. Originally from urban Southwestern Ontario, she now lives on a windswept rural road in Eastern Ontario with her indulgent and supportive husband, Leo.
You can follow Barbara on Twitter @theregoesbarb, or contact her at theregoesbarb@gmail.com.
Could you let someone else select the books you read? According to a recent article in Maclean’s magazine, some customers of a Toronto bookstore are doing just that. Last year, the “Monkey’s Paw” second-hand bookstore installed a machine that dispenses random books for $2 each. Clearly intended to move less-worthy stock, customers nevertheless are enjoying… Read more »
If You’re already using colour and shapes in your note-taking, you may be ready for the next level: mind mapping. Mind mapping is a highly visual method of keeping notes and thoughts organized. Particularly useful for students, mind mapping techniques brings your study notes to life. Mind maps are powerful memory aids incorporating the whole-brain… Read more »
If you wrote 50 items on your grocery list but then forgot to bring the list with you, how many items would you remember? What if you had 200 items? Or thousands? Students? study notes sometimes resemble grocery lists?bulleted lists of jotted words and phrases. Students pore over pages of such notes, willing their mind… Read more »
Dr. Sunday Akin Olukoju has been a tutor at Athabasca University since mid-2011. His courses include: GLST/POEC 230 (Globalization and World Politics,) POLI/GOVN/GLST 440 (Global Governance and Law,) and GLST/POEC 483 (International Political Economy: The Politics of Globalization.) Sunday tutors up to several dozen students in these courses. Dr. Olukoju was recently interviewed by The… Read more »
Ha! Caught you. Shouldn’t you be studying? And here you are, reading a magazine. “But wait,” you say, “I am actually enhancing my studies by reading The Voice Magazine. Look at all this valuable information: writing and studying tips, news on AU, and views on music, literature, life.” Okay, you win. You may be procrastinating… Read more »
For those fond of maple syrup, the simplest way to get it is to buy it. It takes only moments, but may set you back more than what you’d pay for a nice scotch. Some Canadians, however, are fortunate to live in the major maple-syrup producing areas of Ontario and Quebec. Those maple syrup lovers… Read more »
Athabasca University’s Student Union must be doing things right. The AUSU Annual General Meeting was held March 26 by teleconference. In attendance were members of student council, both outgoing and incoming (the changeover to the newly-elected council takes place next week.) In addition to the council members, all student members of AUSU were invited to… Read more »
The tech world turned a page last week with the announced launch of the speed-reading app Spritz. As this CBC article describes, the Spritz app will move e-text on the screen so that your eyes don’t have the chore of moving. Instead of average reading speeds of 200-300 words per minute, Spritz users can look… Read more »
studying online I’m gazing out the window my time is my own reading with intent a model of self control hark, did facebook ding? call centre model where is the humanity I want my tutor style, commas, quotes, rules writing solutions packed in the writer’s toolbox musings on meanings babas, borshch, Alberta sliced from where… Read more »
Is it possible to read a book in five minutes? Can you read a book backwards? Upside-down? What if everything you knew about reading turned out to be only a small part of the picture? What if you could read faster and with greater comprehension? These questions and more rattled around in my mind when… Read more »