Adam's World

The Fact of the Matter

2010-08-03T22:09:00.003-05:00

Yeah it has been a while, but this kind of crap is enough to pull anyone out of retirement. I am actually scared now. I didn't believe it when I heard it, but I went and checked online, on several sources, and it seems to be true. Astonishingly, stupefyingly, true.

We all remember back a month or so when the Conservatives had this brilliant idea to make the long form census optional. Never mind that everyone who is anyone (who isn't the government that is) says that this is a terrifically bad idea, the conservatives will not stand idly by while Canadian's rights are being trampled on. They are on the side of the thousands of Canadians who don't want to answer intrusive questions like how much you make... no wait, that is still legit... how much you pay in child support... no wait, that is still there too... like how much you spend on drugs... no... hmmm. Anway never mind that, there are still those thousands... well 3 documented by StatsCan, and Stockwell Day said he heard DIRECTLY from 3 people as well, so that is fully 6 documented people who have a problem with the long form. So clearly 6 out of 30 million is enough to go against the facts... ah, I think I see the issue.

Fast forward to today. The government is building jails. Billions of dollars worth of jails. Why? To combat the rampant crime in Canada. Never mind that jails don't do anything to combat crime, in fact they often breed more crime. That is ideology. But the facts show crime rate is down you say. It has been falling for years. Pfft! Facts again! The Government has decided crime is *actually* on the rise, people just aren't reporting it. of course Mr. Day doesn't have facts to back that up, because, well, I guess they just don't do that kind of thing.

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/03/canada-economy-stockwell-day.html

Kidding aside, this is quite terrifying. For a government to decimate one of the key tools for trending in Canada, and then to simply outright ignore other well documented and official statistics in favour of other, more ideologically aligned "facts", is at best dangerously misguided. I am not a fan of the slippery slope angle on things, but when a government starts ignoring facts that are inconvenient, and cripples the ability to gather more actual facts, then I think we need to question the motivation and where that is taking us.

Willing spring

2010-03-29T16:52:00.003-05:00

We participated yesterday in one of those classic Winnipeg rights of spring: ice cream. And not just any ice cream, BDI ice cream. We were not alone. The lineups were very long, but we waited. There were even people there in short selves. Now, the actual outside temperature did not correlate strongly with the clothing worn or the need for ice cream, yet we were all there. I think if you told someone from Florida that we were lining up for ice cream in our short sleeves at +5 they would think we were crazy, but you must understand the context. Our summers are great, but short, and I think these premature ice cream runs are just part of our way of willing spring to come. In the same way that our ancestors brought pine branches inside to in dead of winter and made offerings to gods to ensure the return of the sun, we buy our ice cream and dress for summer in an effort to actively bring about spring. I am pretty sure it works. So sure that I think we will go for ice cream again tonight.

Juiced

2010-02-04T05:13:00.002-06:00

First things first. And for future reference and context, one should not be writing blogs posts at 5:13 in the morning when one is hopped up on the juice. In this case the particular juice I am currently hopped up on (given that juice hopped-up-ness is not generally my normal modus operandi) is Prednisone. This is pretty significant juice for the afore mentioned up-hopping, and does not have any of the pleasant side effects normally associated with hopped-uped juiciness.

This little experiment I am on is to see if I can in fact smell anything (see previous post: “superpowers”), like at all, like ever, and to see if breathing through my nose on a more than intermittent basis might be possible. Prednisone was the drug of choice as it seems to pretty much cure everything… of course it kills you in the process, but whaverever. Again, for context, it is kinda like putting a picture hook in the wall with a wrecking ball. This is wicked stuff, but does actually work. Of course the olypmics are out. That is a bummer.

The nice thing is that I can breathe. And I actually gotta say that it is strange to walk around with my mouth closed all the time… which I needed to do for the whole breathing thing, as opposed to the talking thing… I still seem to need to do that a lot still.

So back to smelling… I haven’t actually lo9dsa l9i

Ok seriously. Cat. Licking hand whilst typing. Not functional.
[removes cat]

Sorry. Smelling. I am getting whiffs of the possibility of smells, but nothing serious. I was kinda hoping that this would actually allow the whole full-on smell thing that everyone keeps talking about (I still have my doubts that smelling actually exists), but so far it is just teasing me. I have a few more days on the juice so maybe something will come of this. Right now though it is mostly a bizarre feeling of standing right here beside myself – slightly to the right and back just a touch - and of course a bunch of no-sleep. I am not sure how people actually function on this for any real stretch of time. I am quite wiggy.

Did you know that there is nothing on the internet at 5:13 am?

Allergies, I has them

2010-01-31T22:40:00.001-06:00

IMG00085
Originally uploaded by adamgerhard

Went to the allergist the other day. Go tired of this whole not breathing, not smelling thing. We did the classic pin prick test. For those not familiar with this joy, here is the drill: They make a little plot on your arm in pen. Then they take all sorts of known allergins, and dab them on your skin above the pen marks (so they know where they put them, just in case you don't reacy - ha). And then they prick the dabs. Fun ensues in the form of not scratching for 20 minutes. Then then rate all the dabs on a scale of 1 to 5 (or something). I won - in the same way I win at golf: I get exceptionally high scores. So now I am hopped up on some new juice to see if we can't mash a path through my nose and let some air through on a more regular basis.

Smart

2010-01-24T22:51:00.002-06:00

If there is one thing I can’t stand… actually there are lots of things I can’t stand, and there seems to be getting more and more all the time. I should maybe check that. Anyway, amongst the things I can’t stand is technology that thinks it is smarter than me. There is much of this out there: The entire Apple product line for one thing – but that is an argument for my brother and I for another day. My most recent encounter with this kind of thing happened when I was driving home from class on Saturday. Saturday, by way of context, was a crappy weather day. It was March in January in Winnipeg: slush and ice and yuck. Getting out of the parking pad with the Smart car was sketchy at best, and parking at the university was even sketchier. But I got there. The car ended up stopped in an area near the parking lot in a configuration that was not completely unlike a parked car, so I figure I would deal with it later. Leaving class, much of the roads had been ploughed and there I managed to trundle home rather easily… until the back lane. Our parking pad (which you can actually see of you do street view on google maps – complete with the Smart car parked there. I am not sure why, but it is our back lane that shows instead of the front street. Weird) is perpendicular to the back lane, which means one needs to turn 90 degrees off the lane to park. Normally this is no problem. Combine the aforementioned slush and general crappiness with a Smart car without winter tires (I don’t think they make then in “little red wagon” size) and pretty much you are doomed before you start. But I figure, I could just gun it and get somewhere near parked. Nope. I cranked the wheel, the car turns and get half way off the road and stop. So I floor it. Now I admit, that “flooring it” on a Smart Car is like “rock out” on a Kazoo, but still, it does have some jam. However, the boys at Smart really took to the name and added many “safety” features including traction control. Of course they failed to install an off switch. So here is me attempting to floor it on the Smart car in the slush and yuck and what happens? The smart car freaks out and de-powers the wheels – you know, for safety. So that doesn’t work. I fwip the thing in reverse and try again, more freaking out – but we do move a bit – although due to the high tech safety features, it is mostly sideways. I fight with the car for a few minutes but ultimately end up smack dab in the middle of the road, facing sideways, with no ability to move anywhere. Totally Stuck. It is hard to position a smart car to block anything, but I managed. The safety features of this advanced vehicle have now positioned me square in the middle of traffic with no hope of moving. If there was just a freaking off switch I could rock the car and get out – it just needed a wee bit more oomph to make it over bump of snow and into the spot, but alas no. Why? Because the car is smarter than me. Alas the scourge of unintended side effects. I don’t mind smart features, usually they are great, but please please include an off switch. Sometimes I need things to be dumb, so they will work.

lookin' at a guy in a truck

2009-12-31T15:56:00.000-06:00

It is funny what people find and what creates buzz on the internet.

checkout 1398 elgin in winnipeg on google street view.

Superpowers

2009-12-02T21:54:00.004-06:00

I had my physical today. Wee. Not too much poking and proding - apparently I am still "young" (note appropriate use of quotations to imply irony regarding the term young). However we did have a conversation about my lack of smell (being a comment on the functioning of my nose, not a comment on the odor of my body). I have always though of this as a disability: we have 7 senses, losing an entire sense would seem to me somewhat disabling. However there doesn't seem to be any special treatment for this particularly disability since it really isn't all that dis-abling. In fact, and in light of my current role as Manager of Outputs for Matthew, it is actually somewhat a plus. I would go so far as to say that I have a distinct advantage over most other humans - you could even classify this as a superpower. Granted, not particularly flashy, and I can't really use it to fight crime, or save the planet or anything, but I tell ya, I am completely impervious to diaper smell. I can stick my head in that bucket-o-dirty-diapers and breathe deeply with no effect whatsoever. I can change a babies diaper with stank so nasty it makes normal mortals recoil and gag uncontrollably. Me: nothin'. Zip. Nada. I can change that diaper as if it smelled like a grassy meadow after the dew - which I imagine would smell lovely, although I admit to having to frame of reference. Maybe it smells like diaper. You get my point. It sometimes takes a while for people to fully understand the power they have. I am beginning to understand mine. And I promise you oh internet, that I will only my power of no-smell for good.

Matthew Frederick

2009-11-29T21:53:00.003-06:00

Kristine and I now have a son. (I need to keep saying that to really get in touch with the staggeringness of that statement). Matthew Frederick Hagyard Gerhard was born at 1:40 am on Thursday the 26th of November. 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 in. We are home now after the requisite hospital stay and we are all mostly good. There will no doubt be other posts about the details and all that, right now though, this is just to say how, well, how everything we are that we have finally got to meet our boy. He is pretty much the best thing ever.

Some pics up on Flickr for your viewing and subsequent gushing.
There is also some of this stuff up on the facebook.

accessorized

2009-11-23T17:42:00.003-06:00

Welp, we have the car seat, the crib, the cradle, the change table, the diapers, the clothes, more clothes, the backup chair (the actual chair is on order), the soothers, the books, the blankets, the play pen (what is the politically correct term for those anyway: exploration enclosure? parental controled non-egress defined self-space?). Heck we even have the diaper pails. What we lack, however is the baby. It is like having the roof rack, cd changer, heated seats, halogen running lights, winter tires, but no actual car.

We wish the car would come soon.

Clarification

2009-11-13T14:51:00.005-06:00

It is always amazing to me a) who reads this thing and b) what they get out of it.

Apparently some of our closest friends have taken "She thinks I am mostly full of crap and that people should mostly keep their wisdom to themselves." and applied it to help and advice they have been giving. So let me clarify: our friends and family have been exceptionally helpful during our pregnancy and their wisdom is not only helpful but also sought. This comment really applies to those strangers and acquaintances who have provided such gems as:

"you don't know what you are getting into"
"too late to turn back now"
"get enough sleep now because you won't get any later"
"I don't know how we got through it"
"life as you know it is over"
"birth is the most painful thing ever"

These could even be marginally helpful if friends said them, because at lease we have some shared context for the comments. But generally they aren't from friends and aren't really helpful - and you have to question if they were even really meant to be helpful.

So, friends and family please continue to share your wisdom.
Everyone else, shhh.

mostly

2009-11-08T21:30:00.004-06:00

We are officially "normal" now. We are T-13 days from birthday, and +/- 14 days is spot-on normal. It is a little freaky because a family friend just had their baby with a rim-shot on normal in the -14 day range, so we really are at "any day now".

We put the car seat in the car today and had the nice men at the fire station make sure it was all done correctly. We had it mostly right. We have the baby room mostly ready and the bags are mostly packed. I think this is actually a theme for our life right now: "mostly". We are mostly ready for baby - not that anyone can every be fully ready I am sure. Most people who have had kids have this look about them when we say how close we are. It is a cross between fond recollection, sympathy, and pity. People have been mostly helpful, although I am somewhat tired of hearing how much my life is going to change. Really? change you say? We are only going to have a helpless child totally and completely dependant on us for the foreseeable future, how could that possibly imply change! I know this comes out of a good place for people, but there are only so many answers one can come up with for this without getting repetitive, or snarky, or both.

I was actually commenting to Kristine on this the other day. In some way being pregnant is like being famous: part of you is given over to the wider community. People want to be part of it, to share somehow in this fundamental miracle of life. So, as celebrities must do, the pregnant woman must play the part - to let people share their advice, and wisdom and stories - it is part of the experience! ... yeah, Kristine didn't really buy it either. She thinks I am mostly full of crap and that people should mostly keep their wisdom to themselves. Kristine is also 9 months pregnant and can pretty much have whatever opinion she wants at this point.

As I said, we are mostly ready: Me, in the "I think I have my life mostly together enough that I won't totally screw this up" way, and Kristine in the "get this out of me now" kinda way.

Karma

2009-10-08T21:05:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was class day, in that I had to attend class, not a day to celebrate antiquated social structures. Class starts at 2:30. That will be important in a minute, but first some history. Back in the day... the day the early nineties.. so I guess back 'in the decade' would be more accurate... wow, three lines and 2 digressions, I am totally on a role. So there I am going to university. Me and Dan are driving, that is to say Dan is driving and I am riding. We aren't so into the whole 'parking pass' thing - not sure why, but we didn't really get one. So we parked in what we lovingly referred to as 'hell lot'. This is the sort of place where you get in your car, back out of the driveway, drive around the block, park next to your house, then walk across the city to university. It was far, it was cold, and it sucked, but it was cheap - a buck a day to park. Done.

Fast forward. The university now as a fancy shmancy parkade with (theoretically) lots of room. And to keep all the rabble (ie students) away, they charge standard downtown parking lot rates. This I am good with, since I am only going once a week for a few hours and I am actually making more than 8 bucks an hour these days.

2:05. I am precisely 8 minutes away from the university if I punch it - which I do. I drive straight to the centre of the university to the parking lot. Full plus lineup. 2:13. Backup plan. Drive to another parking lot and pull in. 2:21. Lineup. No spots. Crap. Pull out. Last option: hell lot. Seriously? I am 38 years old with a real career and an Audi and I still need to do hell lot? Grumble. 2:26 pull into hell lot. Stall 1 is available - cool. As soon as I get out of the car I start to bee-line to to the pay station when someone says "sir". Sir?! "yes?". "I paid for the full day but I am leaving now, could you use my ticket?". "Totally! that would be awesome! Thanks!" huh, not so bad, saves some time. So I throw the ticket onto the dash and run for class.

Now the story would be nice if it ended there, but not only did I make it to class just in time (it is a solid 10 minute run, so figure how that time warp happened), but I realized that I had actually not brought by wallet - it was safely at home. This meant that not only would I not have been able to pay at hell lot, but, had I actually gotten in at the parkade, I would never have been able to leave.

Apparently I did something good once, because this is clearly good karma coming back to me.

Who owns the potato?

2009-09-16T12:34:00.005-05:00

Apparently - and I don't yet understand the full story - but the potato market in Manitoba is actually controlled by Peak of the Market. This means that potato farmers must sell to Peak of the Market and only Peak of the Market. Crampton's potato suppliers have been visited by suits who have told them to stop their nefarious ways and follow the true path laid out by their legal contracts wherein they only sell to the Peak of the Market.

Now, I don't quite get this and I doesn't smell quite right to me, but Crampton's has posted a fairly complete update on this on their blog, which I would encourage you to visit.

http://cramptonsmarket.blogspot.com/2009/09/bad-news-for-manitoba-potato-eatersand.html

I would love to hear Peak of the Market's side to see what they think is going on. We have other monopolies - like the wheat board - that many find quite helpful, however this is a private company controlling the market, which brings up all sorts of questions about who actually owns the food and who controls the farmers ability to produce - in this case, apparently Peak of the Marked does.

Random Connections: 999

2009-09-09T09:09:00.001-05:00

Today is September 9, 2009 or 999.

999 is the name of some band that has had 276657 hits on their website since Sept 24, 1999. September 24 1999 is the name of a song by Xavier Rudd. Xavier Rudd plays with a guy named Dave Tolley who was born in Kitchener in 1978. There are currently 4 1978 Corvettes for sale in Kitchener. 1978 was the year that the Corvette was 25 years old, and to commemorate, a version with a two-tone paint job was produced, of which 15,283 were sold. 15283 in roman numerals is MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMCCLXXXIII. Mmmmmmmmmmm is one of the lyrics in Xavier Rudd’s song September 24, 1999. Coincidence? I think not.

The year 999 is also CMXICX is roman numerals. CMXICX is the website of one of those classic Finnish thrash metal bands. They have a video on their site that made me laugh – which was the opposite of their point I think. Their name is Survivors Zero. Zero is the amount of work I have accomplished in the last 15 minutes while following this path of randomness.

baby pictures

2009-09-03T21:28:00.004-05:00

I have been fairly remiss about posting our most recent pre-birth pictures. Here are the last ultrasound pictures of baby. They are posted on flickr.

This started to make it pretty real. When you start seeing elbows it is pretty hard to deny. Baby wasn't as cooperative this time around, apparently s/he has a bit of grandma Hagyard in him/her and s/he seems to want to avoid pictures.

Movies on a Plane

2009-08-28T18:42:00.000-05:00

Although it sounds really cool and important to say that you are “going to Calgary tomorrow for a meeting”. The reality tends to be less so. I mean, it is still cool an important, it just also sucks. It doesn’t really need to suck, but plane travel is never super great, and spending 6 hours traveling for a 2 hour meeting is sub-optimal at best. And 6 hours of plan travel is like 50 hours of non-plane travel because it has so much more process involved... and waiting, lots of waiting. Car travel isn’t so bad – longer maybe, but you just get in your car and start going, no screening, no pre boarding, just driving. As soon as you go you are going. Plane travel is all in fits and spurts: you rush to the airport; then wait to check in; then rush to security; then wait to be wanded; then rush to the gate, then wait be boarded; then mush onto the plan; then wait pushback; then wait for taxi; then wait for takeoff; then, and only then, are you really on your way. You are basically like a package: checked, screened, loaded, delivered.

I was lucky enough to have Air Canada’s in-flight commercials on my flights. Don’t get me wrong. Air Canada gets more points then West Jet in my books, but they do show an awful lot of commercials that you can’t avoid. It wouldn’t be so bad if they started the in-flight systems earlier, but no, not until we have taken off, leveled out and the first class passengers have all been shampooed and manicured, only then to they turn on the system. Which then starts with 15 minutes of commercials. Why can’t then have it on from the second you sit down? Then interrupt it anyway for announcements. Is it because they are worried we will kill ourselves with those headsets? Because I have gotten those things caught plenty of time and if there is a fire and we need to evacuate, they aren’t holding me back let me tell ya. Here is a tradeoff – let us watch our pictures starting the moment we have achieved seat, and you can show us a few of your adverts. Otherwise, you are taking up many moments of my pre-constrained movie-watch time!

I now have two movies that I have not seen the ending too. And as my facebook status indicates, I am in the process of using nefarious means to discover the ending! Air Canada made me do it!

Bible 101

2009-08-19T22:12:00.003-05:00

Russell, one of the ministry staff at our church, has started to put together an online bible study called Bible 101. He has two sessions up on YouTube and is making more. Here is episode one for your viewing pleasure

I think this is awesome from several perspectives. First, it is actually quite informative and helpful. When one claims these sacred stories as having meaning in their life, or exploring what they mean to them, it is important to know and understand the context from which they emerged. Second, I think that this venue and medium is an absolutely brilliant way to start doing this stuff. I can see this whenever I want, as often as I want, and, most critically, I can do it in my pajamas.... although technically I guess I could attend bible study at our church in my pajamas too... you get my point though. They are short little segments - bite size morsels if you like - and it is completely self serve. I am excited to see how the series goes and what else we may start to put online!

bacon

2009-08-14T19:15:00.003-05:00

For no reason other than I laughed a lot.

More Perspective

2009-08-11T08:36:00.002-05:00

I listened yesterday to the General Council live webcast. I wandered by wondering what might be happening in Kelona. As it turns out they were having a presentation from the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission).

This is some pretty important stuff and particularly relevant to my last post. I relate them thusly:

Residential schools were founded on a premise that we knew what was best. Our way of life was right and our way of life was best.

Fundamentalists – of all stripes – are similar. Their way is right, their way of life is best.

Both of these miss the possibilities that come from shared experience and conversation. We missed having a rich and vibrant first nations heritage as an integral part of our society – we are working towards that now, but the road is long and hard and much damage has been done. Fundamentalists miss the chance to have their faith enriched by new possibilities and expressions of the holy.

There are fundamental truths in life, but to claim one has *the* answer, the only answer and it fits for all people, in all situations, for all time, is a rather large claim. Unless you are god, you need to know you might not have the whole picture and maybe, just maybe, there might be more than you understand.

There was a quote from one of the survivors. It was simply: “Are you open to new ideas?”

We must always be open to new ideas. As soon as we close our mind to the possibility of difference, or other, or new, that is when we stop growing, that is when conflict starts, and, for those of us who use words of faith, that is when we stop being the face of God to those we meet.

Perspective

2009-08-10T09:46:00.004-05:00

I received in my mail box – that is my traditional, nailed to the front of my house mail box – some literature for a local “bible church”. The literature was a combination of high production flashy and down-home campy. The print was very small, since there was a lot they needed to say, and the message was clear: I am doomed.

“My unbelieving friend, you are doomed. You have sinned and you know it. Even now memories of a wasted, sin-cursed life come up before you. Scenes you would give anything to forget torment you. You are lost and bound for hell. Heaven you will never enter unless you repent of your sin and accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour.”

Harsh.

And this is their recruiting strategy for the un-churched and un-believing.

I have seen this approach before. We use it in our advertising for positions. We tend to be more positive though: “You are a motivated individual with blah blah experience who wants to blah blah in their career with a blah blah blah team.” Etc. It tries to help the individual picture themselves in the position, to get them to say “yeah, that IS me!”. I can’t really see that working with the whole “doomed” thing though, unless this particular church is focusing on attracting the depressed and demoralized, or people with really low self esteem. Because really, there is stuff in my life that I would change, but on the whole I am pretty happy. I would hardly describe my, or anyone else’s life as “wasted and sin-cursed”.

The other option might be that they are trying to frighten me I suppose. The whole “lost and bound for hell” is pretty scary and confusing. They try to help with the confusing by the following “Simplified” chart:

My fav part about the chart is that they actually uses the bible to slam those that don’t get it. Nice touch. In fact, frequently they use the bible to prove their point. Which is fascinating, since the premise of using the bible as proof is that the bible is the word of god, which, if you don’t believe in their god, automatically negates any validity of the proof. But that is discussion for another day.

This could quickly turn into post mocking these things, however that is not my point. I think these things come from a good place, they are twisted and bizarre, but at they core they come from good. As a Christian I get what they are trying to say. I don’t believe some of it, and I certainly think their approach does far more to drive people away from faith, and from Christianity, than any do any good, but I get it. I would, however, offer this perspective:

When I read this stuff, what I get is: “accept our ways or you are dammed to hell”. This is vanilla religion: Anyone can make this claim. Christians have “dammed to hell”, but you could replace that with anything from any religion, made up or real, and the sentiment is the same: There are serious consequences for not believing what we do. The Taliban have this, but it is a bit more raw: Never mind the whole god thing, believe what we do or we’ll kill you. Bottom line: they are right and everyone else is wrong (something that every fanatical group claims and fervently believes). There is no differentiation here. The Christians sending salvation messages are lumped in with all other fringe groups saying weird and wacky things and are dismissed by the general population. Which is too bad, because quite a few of these groups have real messages to share. But seriously, haw far do you think you can get in a conversation when you start with “you are going to hell”. Why not just add “and your mother dresses you funny” and be done with it.

If you want conversation that would allow people to choose your way, then you need to invite them into conversation, not scare them into submission.

Avoiding eternal damnation is not enough for me to want to believe what you do. Faith should not be a “get out of hell free” card. It is so much more. I needs to be so much more. It needs to become the source of your passion - to dive to you to seek justice and strive for this world to be a better place. Your charts, and graphs, and judging god that on the one hand loves us unconditionally and on the other hand damns us to eternal hell doesn’t speak to me in this world. I am not scared of your hell, because frankly, my faith tells me that I am not going there... and neither are you.

Erratic

2009-08-07T17:47:00.004-05:00

We created our first ever earth cache! An earth cache is basically an add-on to the geocaching game wherein one identifies a particular geological formation, includes some educational component, and posts it for the world to find. Ours is called Glacial Erratic, which, btw, is a particularly cool band name.

You can read all about Glacial Erratics on our cache's page. Here is a pic of the erratic just for fun. The erratic is that large boulder that looks totally out of place - since it is.

The basic jist is that this boulder was picked up from somewhere and plopped here by a glacier during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Pretty cool.

Button

2009-08-01T20:54:00.003-05:00

Nothing illustrates the difference between men and women as much as this. Picture it. We are driving to the cottage and stop at a rest stop along the way – something about pregnancy and bladder issues… which is odd since it was me who needed to stop. Anyway. We stop and both use the fancy government provided outhouses. I enter my gender-assigned stall and Kristine, hers. I immediately notice that the wall of my outhouse has a button on it. Not just any button, but a red button, mounted precisely in the centre of one wall. No markings, no instructions, just a red button. The following picture illustrates:

[Yeah, the picture is wierd - something went fubar with the picture machine]

I am of course perplexed by the button. What does it do? Why is it there? Have the instructions been removed? Where there instructions? But most importantly, should I press the button. Well, any man knows the answer to this question: of course you press the button. Buttons are for pressing after all. So I press the button. Nothing. Not to be disheartened. I press the button again. Still nothing. What next? Well obviously – and I am mostly sharing this for the benefit of the women since the men know – you press the button multiple times in rapid succession. Alas still nothing. Clearly a decoy button.

I exit the outhouse just as Kristine is exiting the outhouse, which is curious and notable because men never take as long as women do in a washroom of any sort. I immediately ask Kristine about the button. Her response: “What button”. “What Button?!” I fling the door to her vacated gender assigned stall and point to the button on the wall: “That button!”. “Oh. I hadn’t noticed it.’

?!

Hadn’t noticed it!? And this dear friends, is one of the fundamental differences between the men folk and women folk: Buttons. Men must press them, women barely notice them.

I have wondered about this button ever since our encounter with it. Again a difference since I am sure the button has long since passed out of Kristine’s consciousness. What was the purpose of the button? Was it for something and was simply de-activated? Or, more nefariously, was it some secret psychological experiment to expose something about the nature of men and women and buttons? I think that, most likely, it was it placed there by some secret sisterhood tired of men always complaining about how long women take in the washroom. Installing a button that does nothing with occupy men just enough and level the washroom field as it were. Very Clever.

lego moon landing

2009-07-27T14:22:00.002-05:00

In honour of the 4oth anniversary of the lunar landing, we pulled out one of our oldest lego sets - the lunar lander. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to actually rebuild something like this after lo these many year. It uses all really basic pieces, but we have so much Lego that individual pieces can be pretty hard to find sometimes, and some have been lost to the depts of time, and vacum cleaners.

phetiquette

2009-07-27T10:26:00.004-05:00

"hello?"
"Hi, how are you?"
"um, fine..."
"Great! I just thought I'd call to see how things are."
"well, that is awfully nice. And, um, who are you?"

I have quite a few friends whose voices I know. People I talk too regularly, or know well enough that I recognize them by ear as it were. But I have to say that there are quite a few people that I don't recognize. So maybe that is my bad. Maybe I should study tapes of the speech patterns of everyone I meet so that I can instantly recognize them in the rare situation that they call. Or maybe I could return to the days of yore and answer the phone "Hello, Gerhard residence, you have reached the head of the household, may I ask who is calling?".... Yeah, your right, that would never fly. Everyone would think it was kristine on the phone. (head of the household... kristine... little patriarchal gender flip humour there) Or, just for fun, maybe the caller should pretend that they are not the centre of the freakin' universe and introduce themselves. Seriously.

Privacy, facebook, and the small town paper

2009-07-20T08:54:00.006-05:00

There has been much in the news lately about facebook and privacy. The Canadian Privacy Commissionaire has given fb 30 days to become more transparent or suffer her significant, although polite (this is Canada afterall) wrath. More transparency is good, and getting facebook all up to snuff is also probably a good thing. I get an absurd number of invitations to become a pirate, vampire, zombie, star trek captain, or to play scrabble, or support a “cause”, on facebook every day. All those requests are from third party apps to whom all my personal information would be available if I decided to participate. I don’t.

I was thinking about this whole privacy thing when I was flipping though the Sentinel Courier this weekend. This is Pilot Mound (and area’s) local paper. Very local. So local that thing like this are considered breaking news:

Ok, so you kinda have to squint to read, but basically it says this: “Ralph and Joyce Hagyard enjoyed July 1st and vacation time at Sioux Narrows with the Gerhard family.” And this isn’t the first time that the antics of the Hagyard family have been reported. Kristine and I have made the paper several time as well. On the one hand the community benefits from what essentially amounts to an old-school facebook status or twitter feed. However, no-one actually gave permission for this to be printed. Is this really newsworthy? Or news-appropriate? What constitutes news? What event, once it has occurred, provides, by the fact of its occurrence, the implied consent for it to be reported on and thus made public? The Halyards visiting the Gerhards is by no means a public act, but it is now there, recorded for posterity, in a public forum.

I am not sure this is bad necessarily. Perhaps there is an implied consent within this community for this kind of thing. Perhaps it is a way of keeping a geographically large community connected in some way. Regardless, I think that as we struggle with what privacy is and what it means in an age of instant global communications and digital identity, I find it refreshing to remember that small town papers have been violating personal privacy for generations.

Pressure

2009-07-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

Hey. Wow. Hello! Oh, May 30. That was a long time ago. July now. Wow. Seriously. There has been a significant lackage in blog contributions from me recently hasn’t there? I am sure that is tragic to everyone. My mom at least. Not that I haven’t had any thing important to share. Many times I have thought “oh, I should blog that”. But then I didn’t. And now, how do you start up again? Can you just jump back in as if nothing has happened? ‘cuz actually tons has. And what if I don’t keep it up? So much pressure! Except of course that there isn’t really any pressure, since the blog is just me saying my stuff, and who really cares anyway. I mean clearly everyone cares, but really.

Anyway. This is me putting pressure on myself to actually blog again. More. Still. You get the idea. (Man, do I even remember my password?)

First pictures

2009-05-30T23:14:00.005-05:00

We have our very first baby pictures. Of course these are identical to the ones in the book. No gender or anything at this stage. But hands and feet and head and brain and we saw the heart pumping and heard it beating away. A pretty amazing dose of reality.

Adam's World is about to change.

The Story of Pie

2009-05-30T22:52:00.004-05:00

Ok, so the pie thing is a bit obscure, but fun none the less. Here is the story of pie to hopefully remove the obscurity and spread the tradition far and wide... or somethign.

Back in the day- the day being about seven years and 6 months ago, give or take - some of our friends were attempting to announce that they were, in fact, expecting - specifically, a child. (for those not quite following, one of them, specifically the female one was "with child" and by "with" I mean they were co-habiting the same space, in that she was pregnant). They wanted to tell everyone, so they invited us all out for pie. "Pie?" we said, "who goes out for pie? Nah we are all busy". So they had to tell us each individually, and then we got it. Then next set of friends to go through this picked up on the whole 'pie' thing and brought pie around to our houses. Thus began the tradition.

I didn't say it was a particularly good story.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that an intentional involvement of pie in a meal, conversation or (in this case, blog) is a signal of pregnancy.

And so yes, Kristine and I are pregnant. Specifically Kristine in this case.
We are thinking November 21 looks like a nice day for a birthday.

2009-05-26T22:43:00.001-05:00

Awesome things

2009-05-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

Because the world needs more awesome things.

http://1000awesomethings.com/

Procrastination

2009-05-05T21:19:00.001-05:00

Exam Tomorrow. This is so me.

Mapped

2009-04-23T17:34:00.003-05:00

I was at the 4-way stop at Grosvenor and Waverly this morning when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the google street-view car!!

This isn't the exact car, but it had that freakish pole and camera dealio, so it had to be it! I am gonna be famous! Me and the Audi, preserved forever at the infamous Waverly and Grosvenor intersection!

I hope this won't change me. I hear fame has that effect sometimes. I promise not to forget you, the little people, who helped me get to where I am today - imortalized in Google Earth. I wonder if CBC will want an interview? I think I may need to get an agent.

living to 100

2009-04-15T13:24:00.002-05:00

I found this calculator that will, with some pretty detailed questions, calculate your life expectancy, and most importantly, help you figure out habits that can increase your life expectancy. All things like this are a bit gimmicky, but they also tend to have some truth. This seems to have more truth than others. I really like how it assigns a year value to each thing - flossing, for example, will add half a year to my life... of course it will drain a year by all the time it takes to floss - so tradeoff.

http://www.livingto100.com/

Missing Charlie

2009-04-07T21:11:00.004-05:00

Today is a sad day in our house. One year ago today our cat Charlie died. People who have furry family members will understand, those without may not quite get it - he was, after all, just a pet. The unfortunate thing about pets is they tend to become more than 'just pets'. Charlie left a pretty big hole in our family. We have two new little furry family members now, Patches and Joey, and we love them both quite a bit. But it is a funny thing about love; as much as we love Patches and Joey, we don't miss Charlie any less. Love isn't a zero-sum equation, and loss is not the flip side of love: we can't fill the hole that Charlie left, even if we wanted to. And actually, I don't think we would want to. Charlie was too important to us to replace. Part of loving him is missing him. And we do.

Arizona

2009-04-04T21:24:00.004-05:00

This year's adventure to heat was Arizona. We traveled to Phoenix (which I can only remember how to spell by pronouncing it "fo-EE-nix"), which has quite a bit of heat, then up to Sedona, which has not quite as much heat, and on to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, which has decidedly less heat. However, it does have a pretty alright view, so that makes up for it. We visited the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix (see, you are saying it that way too now aren't you!) which was quite interesting - it was a great way to get introduced to this bizarre desert land full of strange plants. It was slightly confusing, however, since they had a Chihuly installation there amongst the plants, so for a while we were wondering what these odd glass-like plants were. Turns out they were glass. We then visited with Lenore and her parents in Rio Verde. It is a great little community and we swam and played golf (don't you have to play golf if you visit Phoenix?). The three of us (Lenore, me and K) then took off for Sedona, where we saw the Church of the Holy Cross - a small but mighty church built on a rock outcropping high above Sedona ("high" being a relative term used by a prairie boy familiar with pure flatness). From there we did some hiking and saw some amazing vistas. We didn't get lost or anything, thanks to some good luck with trails and some reassurance from our GPS. We mucked about in Sedona for a while then drove up to Flagstaff via 'the scenic route'. This involved much narrow roads and a significant switchback. I was somewhat disconcerted by what the GPS was showing me:But it was right, there was some pretty interesting twist and turns driving up the side of the mountain (again, that is my prairie boy classification of this particular rock formation). We made it to our $38/night room in flagstaff that boasted free wi-fi and breakfast. The breakfast technically existed, although was pretty sketchy and required significant supplementation. The wi-fi was also technically present, but it took quite a bit of time with tech support to get read-only access that was not quite as fast as dial-up. On the plus side the bed was real, and heck, for $38/night I can find my on breakfast and Internet. From flagstaff we ventured on to our primary destination: the Grand Canyon. It is hardly worth describing, since one must experience the vastness that is the Grand Canyon before one can truly understand it. Lets just say it is worth seeing and leave it at that. We spend the day there and then trucked back to Flagstaff. The last full day there we went to Walnut Canyon to look at the cave dwellings - again, very cool. Then we trucked (and by trucked, I really mean car-ed) back to Phoenix, got stuck in traffic and played eye-spy for an hour and finally made our way to our true primary destination: Nordstrom's Rack outlet store. It was a good trip.

Pictures are up on Flickr for those interested.

Wasted Space

2009-03-28T10:02:00.004-05:00

Why God Why? Why do they insist on two spaces after punctuation? I know that their typing teachers drilled it into their heads, but that was typing class, with real honest-to-goodness olde-tyme typewriters. Times have changed and we have evolved as a people. We have invented proportional fonts and fancy new things like desktop publishing. Gone are the days when one would need to space out one's sentences to make them more easily read. Heck if we are so concerned about that, why don't we just go back to typing STOP and the end of each sentense! Actually, that could be kinda fun STOP I wonder if I could get away with that STOP Perhaps in my next paper I will write like that and see where it gets me STOP Perhaps I should just stop STOP

12

2009-03-24T14:21:00.002-05:00

Ah, the songs that get in your head. Here is a little 70's era drug induced childrens' counting madness for a random Tuesday head-song. Enjoy.

Even from Fox News, one expects more.

2009-03-23T08:49:00.006-05:00

Granted, it is Fox News, and we all know what that means. And I also wonder if dragging this 3am fill spot into the mainstream (not that my blog is mainstream, more that it is being showed on CBC news and other sources) is not just giving voice to people who a) don't represent, well, anyone, and b) have global political knowledge of a gnatt - isn't just doing more harm than good. Regardless, here it is, for your viewing pleasure. Fox News' "red eye" on the Canadian military

Good isn't it. It takes a pretty big man to make fun of things he doesn't understand. Particularly for a county so big on military.

Now, for context, and just for fun, lets just review for a moment shall we: You are a country who is big and arrogant and generally held with in fearful-disdain by most of the rest of the planet. You get a relatively minor black-eye by a fringe group of extremists who, as it turns out, you actually helped create, arm, and fund during one of your many failed attempts to influence international politics through war. You get all excited and invoke the mutual protection pacts that you have with your allies. Many (not all) dutifully respond and go to fight your war with you. They fight, many die, then you make fun of them.

Tell you what, next time don't call.

National Grammar Day

2009-03-04T12:53:00.000-06:00

As you are all not doubt well aware, March 4 is National Grammar Day.

In honour of this auspicious occasion, I present, for your perusal, a dissertation on my penultimate pet peeve: the incorrect use of quotes.

First, lets begin by by reviewing the difference between the single quote: ' and the double quote: ".

There isn't any.

Now, lets review the correct usage of use of quotations: Quotations denote either speech or quotation. In more complex usage they are used to imply irony or alternate meaning.

Quotes are never, ever, ever used for emphasis. Ever. Really. Like absolutely not, under any circumstance. On pain of death. Seriously. Totally forboden.

I actually had someone suggest to me today that I add quotes around "team" in the phrase "We work in a team environment"to "PROVIDE EMPHASIS". Gah! And on national grammar day!! I seriously almost died right there.

And in conculstion, I would encourage you all to take a tour through the Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks.

on crime and punishment

2009-03-03T13:03:00.000-06:00

There have been several items in the news recently regarding crime and punishment. One is about tougher sentences for gang activity and the other is about punishment for those found Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) for a crime. This later is of course the case of Tim McLean who was decapitated on a greyhound bus by Vincent Li, who is arguing that he is NCR for his actions.

The common thread of these two items seem to be action to punish as opposed to action to correct or prevent. In the case of Tim McLean, his family is arguing hard that people should be punished for their actions regardless of their criminal responsibility. They are promoting “Tim’s Law” which would essentially demand that people found NCR would remain in treatment for the rest of their life.

In the case of gangs, people are trying to promote harsher sentences as a way to reduce involvement in the criminal activity.

Both of these, it appears to me, are misguided.

With the utmost respect for the loss suffered by the family, there are some crimes for which there can be no blame and no punishment. If it is true that Li is NCR, and he can be treated, then from a society point of view it would be much better for him to be functioning as a member of society, as opposed to put away for life.

As to the gangs, the evidence that I have seen shows quite clearly that stiffer sentences do not deter anything. They help keep criminals off the street for longer, but jail is often just an intensifier and creates MORE problems after people are out.

As a society, we need to take the bigger view about what is best. There is certainly a need for punishment and restitution in many situations, but ultimately, we need to determine what would be in the best interest of us as a whole. If we really want to reduce crime, we need to invest in social program to prevent it before people become involved. After people are in gangs, it is nigh impossible to get them out.

For both these situations, our time would be better spend on helping people to get better (stay out of gangs, deal with their psychological problems etc) than trying to devise new and more sever ways of punishing them.

Happy 105

2009-03-02T12:56:00.002-06:00

Today is (or would have been) Dr Seuss's 105th Birthday. Talk about impact on culture!

one down two

2009-02-20T10:58:00.002-06:00

Another "one down": This week marks my one year anniversary in my new job. It was a pretty huge change for me, and I did it in record time. Not sure if that is something that is necessarily good or not, but certainly remarkable (in that it is worth remarking on).

So the big question: was it a good move?

All things considered, I would say very yes. It is an interesting and challenging job and using skills that I wasn't as able to use in my other job. I miss many of the technical aspects of old job, but new job lets me still dabble in that a bit. I have some significant frustrations with new job, but the good news is I am in a position to change them, and I am: I am molding new job in my image. Bwahaha.

I know I said I liked the people management part and was really looking for more, but I have gotten, like, a lot more. It is that whole "be careful what you wish for" thing. In year one I have hired 8 people, had 3 quit, and had to let 2 go. I have been doing a lot of HR stuff, much more than I thought. And I am certainly learning lots about that (through the MBA as well).

In the end, the most important thing is that I am happy in this new job... and I have an office with a door... maybe that is actually the most important thing. A guy and put up with a lot if he has a door to close.

One down

2009-02-18T14:08:00.004-06:00

I wrote my first exam of my MBA career Thursday. It was great. And by great, I mean over. I haven't written an exam in like 12 years and I forgot how much I could do without them. Papers I can handle - like even; assignments - all good; but exams - boo. I guess they have their place, but more often than not they test how well you can read a question than how well you actually know subject matter. That said, I think I did ok. I was there until the very bitter end, but so was 98% of the class. There was also a mistake on the exam - one of the attachments that we needed to complete the exam was missing. I found it heartening that I noticed that someyhing was wrong before she told us. Of course it would have been mopre heartening if I hadn't spent 10 minutes second guessing myself and trying to figure out the answer with incomplete information. Afterwards, I totally bought a chocolate bar, so it was a pretty good day in the end.

Readability

2009-02-11T07:31:00.000-06:00

I did a readability test on my blog, you know, for fun.
Thanks to Juicy Studio

Reading Level Results
Summary	Value
Total sentences	936
Total words	3347
Average words per Sentence	3.58
Words with 1 Syllable	1801
Words with 2 Syllables	569
Words with 3 Syllables	383
Words with 4 or more Syllables	594
Percentage of word with three or more syllables	29.19%
Average Syllables per Word	1.93
Gunning Fog Index	13.11
Flesch Reading Ease	39.82
Flesch-Kincaid Grade	8.59

The Gunning-Fog index is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. Mine is 13.22.

The Flesch Reading Ease is a rating out of 100. Higher = Easier to read. People are encouraged to aim for approximately 60 to 70. Mine is 39.82

The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is another schooling-type index (roughly how many years, 0..12, of schooling it would take someone to understand the content). Mine is 8.59.

I am not really sure what all this means, except that you need about grade 9, with 13 years of schooling to understand my blog... so stupid grade 9ers really get me. Awesome.

slickery

2009-02-09T12:42:00.002-06:00

There are mornings when perhaps one should just stay in bed. Besides the obvious benefits of bed-staying, there is the added benefits of not driving, which is particularly important when all the roads have been removed and replaced with the worlds largest skating rink. Forget that whole thing where they pointed a Zamboni west on the Assiniboine river and said "don't stop until you run out of gas". Pfft! that is nothing compared to the rink on which we now live. Winnipeg isn't really big on hills and the like, but we do have the odd dip or rise in relative altitude (like 10 cm rise from the drain intake in the middle of the parking lot to the edge of the parking lot). I was parking today and had that whole car-going-sideways thing happening. It would have been more fun without the obsticals, like cars and people. The ABS Breaks also got nothing on this: I had to become friendly whith a snowbank to stop at one particularly nasty intersection. On the plus side, however, I needed to expend very little energy getting from the car to the office, one push and I just glided to the door.

There's Probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

2009-02-02T09:14:00.005-06:00

The British Humanist Association has decided that they need to get the word out about God... or the lack there of in this case. They have started putting add on buses across the UK. [BBC] The sign reads:

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life"

In an uncharacteristically cheeky move - although one completely in line with the WonderCafe ads that we have been seeing, the United Church of Canada has responded with a campaign of its own:It is (imho) a brilliant and very clever response and one I am proud that we thought of first! True it gives the atheist movement more play, but even their campaign prompts thought. If you are a "true believer" then people challenging you faith should only serve to strengthen it. It forces us to say why we believe, or at least why we don't not believe.

Oh, and the voting is open and so far the atheists are winning - so go vote!

And were back.

2009-02-02T09:07:00.002-06:00

So... how you been? I haven't so much blogged in a while and I thought that I had better dust off the keyboard and get this ol' back up to speed again lest my prose become rusty.

A month break isn't too big a deal big deal, not like much happened in January. I spent New Years in Vegas, the US elected their first black President, I started my MBA, we completed work on a 107 page 5 year book for the church, and the conservatives brought is a massive deficit budget. You know, the usual.

Back at it now. We'll go for the regular updates and hope that annoying "school work" doesn't interfere with the important things in life.

Eve

2008-12-24T08:21:00.002-06:00

Ok, enough of that political stuff.I built this montage for Christmas some time ago and I though I would share it again. Here is to better days.

Agenda

2008-12-23T08:40:00.000-06:00

Ok, lets review:

Harper loses the confidence of the house. Yes technically that wasn’t put to a vote, but I think we are all pretty clear that he would have lost. This has happened 5 times before in the Canada’s history – the last being 2005 when the Martin government was defeated in a vote of confidence by… Steven Harper.
Harper has the Governor General prorogue parliament to avoid said vote. Something that has NEVER been done before in ANY of the Windsor model democracies in the history of ever.
Harper then chooses to exercise some of his more important executive powers by appointing 18 new senators, breaking his own preference for an elected senate. One of the reasons: Fear that the opposition would form a coalition and stack the senate with more liberal appointees themselves, thereby removing any hope of senate reform. Of note, one of the appointees - Fabian Manning – just lost in the last election and has now been appointed as the senate representative for very same people.
Harper appoints a new Chief Justice of the Supreme court, bypassing the process that he put in place for selection. I guess it was taking too long.

What do I see in this? Harper is running scared – as he should be. But the answer is not to reach out to the opposition. The answer is to make as many changes as he possibly can that will support the conservative policies later on.

Still don’t think he has an agenda?

Whether or not one can technically do these things is irrelevant. Steven Harper has clearly - very clearly - lost the moral authority to govern. By the pure fact of being unwilling to face the elected representatives of this country for a vote of confidence and going to the extreme extent of this unprecedented prorogation, he has moved Canada back, essentially to a monarchy, with him as king. He has abused his authority, abused his power, and abused the parliamentary democracy system.

Dare to believe

2008-12-16T12:45:00.000-06:00

"Ikea ... confirmed Tuesday it plans to open a new store in Winnipeg sometime between late 2011 and early 2013." - CBC

[crossing fingers, holding breath]

all dressed

2008-12-11T21:15:00.001-06:00

The christmas tree is up and looking fancy!

Isolated

2008-12-08T08:19:00.003-06:00

Just because this is particularly irksome to me, here another example of Canada's fine reputation abroad.

"After a failed attempt to block an agreement, Canada found itself isolated at the Bali conference Saturday and grudgingly accepted a new accord to set a target of 25 to 40 per cent for cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions by wealthy countries by the end of the next decade.
Environment Minister John Baird spoke against the ambitious target, but found himself virtually alone. Only Russia supported him – so he withdrew his objection, sparking a lengthy burst of applause from other countries."
- Globe and Mail

In the era of George Bush, the international image of the US has plummeted. They are now listened to because they are big and have guns. They command attention - require attention. The classic mouse and the elephant analogy works well for pretty much anyone and their relationship to the US.

Canada does not have that strong-arm to fall back on. We don't have the economic or military clout to demand respect. Ours must be earned. We pride ourselves in our international reputation on things like peacekeeping, environment etc. However, that is quickly eroding.

It is great that Canada can be a loan voice from time to time - pulling the world towards a more just society. But when we are the loan voice against world consensus, particularly on things like climate change, it is not good. We have now fought world consensus on things like aboriginal rights and climate change. Yay Canada.

This is not my image of what Canada should be.

Suspended

2008-12-05T07:49:00.002-06:00

Um. Far be it from me to disagree with the Governor General, but seriously?! Some explanation is owed the Canadian public as to why. If all the GG is there for is to bow to the will of the PM then her purpose is lost and we absolutely should replace that office. Her office is significant and important and seriously? He is going to lose a vote of confidence so we cancel parliament. In terms of undemocratic moves, canceling a parliament to avoid a vote ranks pretty high.

And now a new poll out shows that support for Harper is up! Wow.

He acts like a bully,
misrepresents facts to save his skin,
runs away from a vote he knows he is going to lose,
markets fear to canadians,
bashes quebec and does more to revive the seperatist cause than any seperatist could have dreamed,
and he is the guy most people want running the joint.

Colour me disillusioned.

More...

2008-12-03T11:08:00.003-06:00

I have been watching some of the commentary on CBC's website, particularly in this thread:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/03/jean-crisis.html

My favourite comment so far:

"I think the opposition should just let Harper keep saying "Quebec" and "the Devil" in the same sentence for a few more days, then agree to another election."
- BradleyofOrange

So, so true.

Undemocratic

2008-12-02T12:22:00.000-06:00

I am not sure where these people are found, or where they come up with their political skilz, but I have heard an awful lot of chatter about this whole coalition thing as being “undemocratic”. I find that very ironical. It seems like these clever people would rather see a majority government in place who can “do what needs to be done through these uncertain times”. I say forget majority government, lets just abolish parliament and return power to the Monarchy!

Democracy is all about the will of the people. A Conservative majority is NOT the will of the people. Further, given the popular vote, the clear will of Canadians is Social Democracy not Conservatism.

Democracy in a minority government means you must collaborate, consult and seek consensus (see what I did there with the alliteration – poignant and catchy). The conservatives simply refuse to do that. *THAT* is undemocratic. *THAT* is ignoring the will of the people. And *THAT* is the real threat to our county.

In Canada we are governed by a parliament that represents the people. We are a diverse people with varied and wide ranging opinions and we don’t agree on everything. Having one party that represents the minority of Canadians simply refusing to work with the other parties means by definition they are undemocratic and thus unfit to govern. It is pretty much as simple as that.

Canada is a nation of consensus building. We are renounced for our over politeness. Of all countries in the world where a coalition could work, wouldn’t you think it would be us? Moreover, aren’t you more afraid of a government who can’t build consensus than one that is founded on it?

I think we need to let our system work exactly as it is designed to work. “Matters of Confidence” and the Govenor General are not just nice little conventions that we bow to now and again, they are real political tools that ensure that a government is responsible to the will of the people. They are fail-safes that should rarely need to be used, but they are there to be used when a government goes off the mark.

This is possibly one of the most democratic things I have seen come out of parliament hill recently: The legal, peaceful and completely constitutional overthrow of a government.

A change is in the wind.

2008-12-01T07:29:00.000-06:00

Well, isn’t this just the most exciting drama ever! Harper brings down an economic statement, and the opposition moves to bring down the government. More than that, they are moving to replace the government! Cool.

Back in October we had an election where just a hair over 59% of us bothered to vote. During this election the conservatives won a minority government with 143 of 308 seats. This means that they must work with the other parties to have things pass. The conservatives don’t seem to like that, so they get around it by the simple expediency of turning everything into a confidence motion – you vote for it or you trigger an election. They did it in the last parliament and they are doing it again.

It is important to remember in all this that the parliament serves at the pleasure of the Govenor General. The GG asks the party with the most ability to govern to form a government (usually the one with the most seats). However, there is precedence (and indeed it is how our system is designed) for the parliament to lose confidence in the government and defeat it, triggering an election or a replacement. That is what is happening now. Harper put an economic update together, wrapped some clearly unpalatable things up in it – like changing the rules regarding funding of the political parties (which, will mostly affect the opposition parties and was part of a much larger funding reform package that can’t just be taken apart piecemeal like this) – and said that it was a matter of confidence. Well, he misjudged and now the opposition is saying, “fine, we’ll take that bet”.

Back to the GG. Key to all this is that she can decide who is the government. And if another party can come forward and say that they can secure the confidence of parliament (get the majority to vote for them), then they can replace the current government. And that is exactly what the Liberals and NDP are doing. With the support of the Bloq they can defeat the government and govern the country, removing the conservatives from power.

This is a classic case of “if you abuse it, you lose it” - and lets be really clear here that they absolutely did abuse their power- there seems to be pretty broad consensus on that.

Some points to consider
1. The Bloq has been “Her Majesties Loyal Opposition” before and worked fairly well in that capacity.
2. Liberals and NDP together would represent 44.4% of the popular vote, representing more of Canada than Harpers 37.6%
3. Overall, with the Liberals, NDP and Bloq, Canada is far more left than is represented by the conservatives.
4. Coalition governments MUST work together and build consensus to function. This would be a refreshing change from what has been happening.

Oh, and one more little thing, the last time this was considered was in the dog days of the last Liberal government, when the NDP, Bloq and yes, the Conservatives were in talks to do exactly the same thing.

IMHO, this is parliamentary democracy at work. The Conservatives, by refusing to work with the other parties have lost the confidence of parliament and deserve to be replaced. If the Liberals and NDP, supported by the Bloq, can form a government that can be supported by parliament, then they should do so. Not only is it their right to try this, it is their job. This is how the system works and it looks to me like the system is working very well.

The Bug Came Back!

2008-11-26T21:15:00.005-06:00

After about 2 years and 10 months in the wild, Pin-A-Bug has returned home! Pin-A-Bug is a geocaching travelbug that I launched in Vancouver in January 2006. It traveled around BC for quite a while and got lost in the interior for so long that I thought it was lost. But early this year it resurfaced and made its way out of BC and down the west coast of the US. Finally some friendly geocacher picked it up and offered to send it home. and about a week or so ago it arrived safe and sound.

I have launched several Travel Bugs on my own and know many others who have as well, but I know no-one who has ever seen theirs again (although I know it does happen). Right now I have a geocoin floating around Europe somewhere that would be cool to get back too.

[Note: if you aren't so up on the whole geocaching/travelbug/geocoin thing visit geocaching.com to figure it all out - they explain better than I do]

The most coolio thing about Pin-A-Bug was that is was designed to trade pins. I stuffed it full of about 20 Manitoba pins and asked people to trade with it. And I got pretty much 20 pins back! How totally awesome is that?! And there are some good one in there! I am thinking about packaging it up and sending it off again to see where else it can go. Yay superfun geocaching!

Chapter 2: Where is the Control

2008-11-20T07:55:00.000-06:00

The only true holder of the public good is the public. Everybody else has an agenda. Wow. Cynical much? Ok. I didn’t intend to have that be quite so harsh, and I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing, but it is pretty true. Our politician’s job is to have the public’s best interest at heart, so that is something and they often do a pretty good job. Everybody else though, from community groups to religious organizations, to companies to unions all have some motive they are working from. The motive might even be completely altruistic and wonderful and will make the world a better place, but it doesn’t come necessarily come out of the public interest.

So, we return to the Great Water Debate.

We need to realize that creating a utility is not privatization. It may very well be a step along the way, but it is not privatization. In fact, having private companies involved in things in general is not privatization. Privatization means private sector control over decisions and direction. It is very possible, and in fact getting all the more common, to have public sector control with private industry involvement. These are often called “contracting out” or “Public Private Partnerships” or things like that. These also have had bad connotations to them, which is unfortunate, because they do have their uses in some situations.

It really comes down to control and governance. There are lots of ways that governments can engage the private sector to get work done while still maintaining the appropriate control. In fact, in many cases there can be even better control than if government did it themselves. Of course it can also be disastrous. Key is the relationship built with private industry and the ability and willingness of the government to actually govern the contracts they put in place.

Private industry has resources that the government doesn’t. And government has resources that private industry doesn’t. It makes sense to me that partnerships would be a natural way to get things done. They will be great in some situations and be inappropriate in others. We certainly shouldn’t build an army through private industry – can you even imagine an “Army Utility”. But we might want to consider a water utility, in the same way that we have a hydro utility.

In the end we may decide that it is a bad idea, but the debate is healthy and something to be considered. Anyone who says that private industry is bad and unions are good should be taken with several grains of salt. Anyone who says that private industry is the answer should looked at with an equal amount of scepticism. It is all about the grey.

As the public, and as the keepers of our own best interest, we need to carefully consider what is actually best for us, for now and for the future. Whatever happens we need to decide what control we need and how to exercise it.

Bottom line: How will we get the best service, however we define ‘best’ and ‘service’. Now we get into the ideological debate over big government vs free market.... totally for another day.

The Great Water Debate: Chapter 1: Private vs Public

2008-11-19T08:22:00.000-06:00

Winnipeg is debating creating a separate utility to manage our water system. This apparently goes before council today. There are as always lots of sides to a story like this. One side that I heard today made me particularly angry. I guess that in the end this post is more about unions than it is about water. (yes N, it might mean that you shouldn’t read this).

The head of the CUPE Local was on the radio today. He said basically private industry should not be involved in the water utility (except maybe to build the facilities) because private industry is beholden to its shareholders, and when push comes to shove, the needs of the company and shareholders come before the needs of the public. Now, that statement alone has some truth, but it isn’t as cut and dry as he makes it. Where he went next though is where his argument falls apart. He then said that the public needs to have control over water through public administration of the utility and public employees. Of course the public employees are CUPE members. When asked if his position as head of the union, and the fact that it was his members could to loose jobs because of this had anything to do with their position, he said that it went way beyond that. That, of course, is nonsense.

The purpose of a Union is to represent its members. Full Stop.

If he implies that private companies cannot have anything but their best interest at heart, he must also admit that this is true of unions. The unions have shareholders – their members – and when push comes to shove they do what is right for their members. It is nothing to be ashamed of, it is good and right that they do. But to imply that somehow unions are altruistic organizations that stand for truth and justice and corporations are greedy money grubbers that are out only to line the pockets of their rich owners is ridiculous.

I have seen bad from both sides and good from both sides. Unions block important and necessary advances if it means that their members are in any way affected negatively, even if the advances are in the public good. Companies make decisions that serve their bottom line with no consideration to the impact to their people or the environment or the economy. However Unions are also capable of standing up for the greater good and have been the reason that we have just and good labour laws in this country. And corporations are responsible for some of the most important innovations that improve our quality of life.

There is a place for unions and a place for private corporations. Neither is inherently evil and neither is inherently good. Most importantly, and let’s be very clear about this, neither can claim to be the keeper of the public good.

The key is how both are used and engaged. We’ll save that for chapter 2.

The Scourge of the Hoax

2008-11-17T17:39:00.001-06:00

Peeps. Look, you know I love you. I love all y'all. I do, really. But I gotta say... and I say this with love... the whole email forward thing - not a shining point in our relationship.

In an effort to reduce the amount of spam I get, let me define for you some fundamental truths about email and the internet:

Adam's Endowment of Trust Axiom:

Just because one trusts the source (sender) of an email does not mean one should trust the content of the email.

Adam's Email Forwarding Axiom:

Anybody telling you to forward anything to anyone is either lying about something or gullible or both.

Corollary

Anybody telling you not to forward something is either telling the truth, or is lying about something much more serious.

Adam's Schoolyard Email Axiom:

"Forward this to all your friends" is the internet age equivalent to "open your moth and close your eyes and I will give you a nice surprise."

Let us apply this in real life:

Illustration 1: THE FREE STUFF: Your friend sends you an email from Bill Gates saying that you will something substantial for free if you email this to 10 of your friends.
A) Microsoft doesn't (and can't) track emails. If this was from the CIA, then maybe. And seriously, doesn't this freak you out a bit thinking that they could?
B) forwarding 10 emails is pretty scant work to get the big Microsoft payoff. That alone should be enough to cause you pause.

Apply Adam's Endowment of Trust Axiom: Your friend is nice enough, but they may not have thought the whole Microsoft thing through. And give that it is a forward of an email, then perhaps they aren't the creators of the content. Result: Maybe you should check it out

Apply Adam's Email Forwarding Axiom: Your friend is telling you to forward it to 10 people. Result: Instant skepticism. Are they gullible or a liar - Again they didn't create the content, so chances are they are just gullible.

Illustration 2: THE VIRUS: Your friend emails you warning you of a serious virus. And make sure you forward this to everyone in your address book so you can protect them too!
A) Viruses are around for a long long time - you forwarded the email without considering if the problem had already been licked, so when would this stop?
B) Virtually all this time, these emails are a hoax and actually end up having a worse impact on the internet than any virus would. So by forwarding it, you are the virus.
C) I have worked in IT for 12 years for some pretty big names. There was only twice that virus warning were sent, and both those warnings said explicitly NOT to forward the email.

Apply Adam's Endowment of Trust Axiom: Again, nice friend, but did they discover the virus? No. Chances are they got it a as a forward. Result: Dig just a wee bit.

Apply Adam's Email Forwarding Axiom: As soon as the email says "Let all your contacts know" there should be substantial red flags - particularly if you haven't validated the information. Besides, some people don't want to know (like me!).

Illustration 3: THE SAD STORY: Your friend emails you with a sad sad story about a lost child that we need to help find.
A) It may have been true, but is it still true? Several of these have circulated and the family has pleaded for them to stop, but they won't because there is not date.
B) People are mean and they change the location and send it out again just to see what happens.

Apply Adam's Endowment of Trust Axiom: Does your friend know the family specifically? Do they have some connection? No, then

Illustration 4: THE CHAIN LETTER: You get a message of love and luck from a friend that requires you to forward it on to 10 friends to get good luck, and if you don't bad things will happen... and it gives examples.
A) how do they know about the examples? and who is they?
B) Seriously? Luck?

Apply Adam's Email Forwarding Axiom: Gonna get some luck eh? They know because of the people who were lucky right? and thy know that becasue... [lightbulb]. Exactly. They know that because they are BIG FAT LIARS!

All of these have 1 thing in common. If I get the email, then you are gullible. Sorry, it has to be said. I only say it because I love you. The truth hurts sometimes, but it is still the truth.

When in doubt... and you should always be in doubt. Check these links:

For email hoaxes: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
For virus hoaxes: http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

Or just google it - chances are you will turn up something.

Seriously, my peeps, there is no lost kid, there is no free anything, if your anti-virus is up to day, who cares about virus warnings, and seriously, give up on the forwarded e-luck! If it doesn't have a date on it, if it doesn't have a website to refer you to, and if it has more than one FWD or RE in the title, please please please check it out first!

At very worst, forward it to one of your friends with an actual brain.... oops I mean, who can actually think for themselves... drat... I mean... you know what I mean... did I mention I loved you?

It is just that you look silly forwarding stupid stuff around. A word to the wise - check before you email. It is you that gets the bad rep - not the person who sent it to you. Yes, you think you are doing a good thing (except for that forwarded luck crap), and that is why I haven't hacked into your computer and turned off your forward button myself (and no, of course I can't do that... see what I mean about gullible!... but I know someone who can).

I love you, now please stop sending me emails.

on Direct Democracy

2008-11-06T07:58:00.001-06:00

The US political system is an interesting mix of styles. On the one hand they have this weird Electoral College voting system to choose a president. The basic premise is that the people elected to the Electoral College will carefully consider their choice for president and bring greater wisdom and thought to the process than the unwashed masses. Although by convention they vote with the popular vote, they are necessarily required to. Theoretically the electoral college could elect McCain for president, defying the wishes of the people. Theoretically they could have (and maybe should have) elected Al Gore over George Bush 4 years ago. Regardless, the voters are functionally one level removed from the election of the president.

On the other hand, they have this "proposition" thingie whereby citizens and organizations can get items put on the ballot that the populace votes on. This is a form of direct democracy. An interesting example is Proposition 8 in California. Basically, the story goes like this. The courts overturned the definition of marriage as one woman and one man, thus making Gay marriage legal. Some people didn't like that and put proposition 8 on the ballot to amend the constitution to define marriage as a just man-woman thang, thus effectively overridng the courts ruling and making Gay marriage illegal again. (It passed by the way) There were other such propositions in other states, everything from legalizing medicinal marijuana to canceling income tax. If you have enough names, you can get something on the ballot and the population can vote on it and if it passes, it becomes law. Period.

I find this dichotomy very interesting. The population is not trusted to elect a president, even though there is only really 2 choices and they have basically 2 years of campaigning and debating to get to the point of deciding. But they *are* trusted to make decisions on often complicated issues with much less information and background. It seems like it should be the opposite to me.

Ideally you should elect people who you think can represent your interests and whose job it is to spend their time considering issues and the long term implications and ramifications. Then you let them make the decisions necessary. They must be free to make unpopular decisions and difficult decisions, things that the unwashed masses sometimes don't either know how to consider or can't consider enough to make a truly informed decision. And really that is what it boils down to. We elect people to make informed decisions.

Direct democracy is a noble concept, but in practice, in large countries and states like we have in the world today, I question how functional it actually is. There are certainly times and issues that need to put put to the entire population, but special care needs to be taken with them so that people are informed and can make the decision well. As with all things, sometimes it can work well, and sometimes... I guess it depends on which side of the issue you are on. Traditional marriage types are pretty happy right now in California.

a Leader

2008-11-05T08:22:00.003-06:00

I think the news media has it wrong.

Granted, the fact that Obama is black is a remarkable thing, and shows how far that nation, and in fact most of the world has come in terms of race issues. However, Barack Obama did not win because he was black. I imagine (having no real proof or data or anything really) that at best the people that voted for him because he was black was offset by those who voted against him because he was black. It is remarkable and noteworthy that he is black, but more remarkable is how strong a leader he is. Barack Obama won because he is a visionary and a great orator. He moved people and made people believe in his vision and what he represents. That is why he won, and that is far more impressive than the colour of his skin.

I was listening to his acceptance speech last night and I tell ya, I would follow him just about anywhere. I thought about him and then I though about our Canadian politicians and what Canadian politics needs. We need someone we can believe in and get behind. Someone that moves us and makes us believe in what they have to say. Stephan Dion, for all his brilliance and character does not engender that kind of following. Neither does Jack or Stephen. Elizabeth, maybe. We haven't had a real charismatic leader since Trudeau. It would be nice to have someone that spoke of hope and possibility instead of... um... can you even remember what we were talking about during the Canadian election?

The election of this US president is obviously a huge thing around the whole world. It will be well documented in history. But Canadians also have large figures that we hold to as leaders. People like Trudeau and Pearson. As the Liberals start to sort out their leadership... again... they simply must find someone that can capture the imagination of this country. Someone who we actually want to get behind as a leader and someone that can inspire us, at least for a short while.

All wired up, and no place to go

2008-10-28T12:50:00.004-05:00

Last Friday I went for my sleep study - quite and experience. I was hooked up to all sorts of recording devices to track my every movement - literally. The tests included monitoring my heart (EKG), brain (EEG), pulse, oxygen concentration, CO2 levels, breathing effort, leg movements, air flow, and breathing vibrations. Not to mention an infrared camera to watch me all night long. It took about 45 minutes to get all wired up and then another 10 minutes to get all calibrated. The I waited while they repeated the process with some of the other overnight guests. Then they tucked me in for the night - F'real. I haven't been tucked in in years! I guess they have to make sure the wires, tubes and cables won't get all mucked up. The theory then was that we would go to sleep. HA. A) I never sleep well away from home, particularly on the first night (which apparently is a thing: the "first night effect") and B) someone is watching. At about1am they asked me to flip from my side to my back, then at about 2 they had to come in to fix the CO2 monitor - which was a very cool borg-like implant. At that point I commented that I hadn't slept yet, but they assured me that I actually had. Weird. That is also, apparently, a thing. It had a longer name though and I was to sleepy to actually register what it was. Anyway, I am pretty sure I saw past 3am, but I did wake up at 6, so there was some sleep. The people there were great, but it was certainly something I would not want to do every night. I find out in a few weeks what the prognosis is. It is funny, because after 3 years on the wait list I can't really remember what my initial complaint was that prompted the test. Oh well, they'll figure out whatever is wrong, if anything. I say I am normal - kristine disputes that.

classic cat

2008-10-23T08:21:00.002-05:00

toilet paper: an entire roll of fun.

Dave the Columnist

2008-10-22T13:39:00.001-05:00

Look at brother dave go

http://www.cbc.ca/morningedition/david_gerhard.html

man date

2008-10-16T22:05:00.004-05:00

You know, sometimes there is just no gender equality and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

Women have girlfriends they have 'girls night' or even 'dates'. The menfolk just can't do that. Me and my boyfriend can't go for a boys night out or a man date. Seriously doesn't work. Men actually have to do a 'thing'. Women can say "oh I am just going out with the girls" and it is all good, it will likely involve nail painting and perhaps shopping. If the men say "I am just going out with the boys" then it is either drinking or porn... or both... maybe even football. We have to say "I am playing golf with Jim" or "I am playing poker with Hubert" or "I am mountain biking with Arthur well after dark through trails that were built with the specific intention of making you fall to your death. We'll likely die. Then we are going for dinner". I think it has to do with ensuring all involved that there will be appropriately manly things done on this evening with just men. I am not sure if it is some repressed homophobic somethiningorother, or just general man insecurity. You see I couldn't say "me and my boyfriend sat around having coffee and talked about church for 2 hours", even if that happened right after a manly adventure through aforementioned trails.

I am not really all that upset that the parallel gender phrasology cannot be applied to male friends as it can to female friends, but it does make the explanations more difficult, and somewhat lengthy, particularly since - as was previously alluded to - the connotations with "oh I am just going out with the boys" are substantially different and less, shall we say, wholesome then "oh I am just going out with the girls".

Anyway, it was a nice ride, and dinner was lovely... er, great... um cheap? See! Men can't even use adjectives! We rode, we ate, now I am home.

Historic Low

2008-10-15T08:23:00.006-05:00

I am pretty tired of the 40+% of Canadians who don't vote in elections. Have you looked around at all in what is happening in the world? Have you thought at all about the history of humanity? This kind of political system is completely unique and very very rare. And 40% of us ignore it. They think that "oh, my vote doesn't really count" or "my party will never get elected so why bother" or "I don't really follow politics" or "I am not sure who to vote for" or "it doesn't matter anyway". All lame and dumb excuses by lame and dumb people. There are exactly 2 good reasons for not voting:
1. you are under 18
2. you are dead

Certainly your individual vote doesn't make all the difference in the world (although in some ridings, if actually would have) but voting is about combined will, not yours alone. Thinking that just because you are one of thousands means that you are less important is a remarkably self centered and arrogant way of thinking.

40% is more of the popular vote than any political party received. If those unibrows who stayed home this time actually bothered to participate in the most important act a citizen can do, then they could have redrawn the political face of Canada. 40% is literally the balance of power.

So, to all you sub-canadians who didn't vote. Stop thinking about yourself all the time and do some thing for the greater good. People died to give you this right. People work their entire lives to protect and strengthen this system. It isn't perfect, but it is what we have now.

Use it or lose it.

/rant

Almost Christmas

2008-10-14T06:46:00.003-05:00

It is Election Day today!!! Super Exciting. You know, can't hardly sleep the night before, wake up early, that sense of anticipation. Yep. Almost like Christmas. Except that on christmas you don get a whole evening of statistics!! Superfun!

Happy election day to all, and to all a good vote!

output irregularity

2008-10-08T21:48:00.002-05:00

We had a cat. He was a lovely cat, and he pooped. I would consider this generally normal for a cat, since I do not believe that this species has, as of yet, developed an internal Infinite Storage Area for Kibble (iSAK) - although this would be a good upgrade. No, our version of cat pooped. Now I did not measure the poop regularly for volume, viscosity or other such measurements one would normally associate with poop, but we were generally satisfied with his overall output. We have since acquired 2 new cats. I was assuming that I knew what I was in for in the litter box department, however, I have discovered and irregularity. This irregularity is based mostly on anecdotal information, however, I can assure you, as the one who had the primary responsibility for litter box maintenance and cleaning, that these findings are correct.

Let me describe the issue thusly:

Lets us say that our previous cat (cat n-1) pooped amount x over period p. We now have two new cats. We shall call them n and n'. I have not been able to discern the poopage of these two cats individually, however I have monitored their combined output over the same period p and discerned the amount of poop from cats n and n' to be y. It is a given that cat n<>n'<>n-1 however, one would postulate similar overall poopage or at least a linear relationship between x (poop from cat n-1) and y (poop from cats n and n') if measured over a similar period p such that 2x ~ y. However I have found through much litter box cleaning over p that indeed the amount of poop generated from n and n' (y) is significantly and disturbingly more that 2x. In fact, I am not sure there is any linear relation at all. The only thing I can think of is that there is some quantum factor f that is influencing poop production from n and n' such that 2x+f ~ y, which still maintains some semblance of relationship between n-1, n, n'. I am worried however, that it may turn out that in fact xf~y such that there is no realistic relationship between cats as measured by their overall poop output.

Bottom line n and n' produce vastly more output than n-1 ever did. Wow.

when to buy

2008-10-06T19:46:00.003-05:00

Look down, wayyyy down. Yep, thats the markets. According to the nice pictures I looked at they have lost all the value that they have gained over the past 5 years. Bretty big drop. On another note, the Canadian dollar, although it has been higher, is still at some of the highest levels it has been in, well, ever.

hmmm

For those of you having trouble seeing the silver lining here, let me connect the dots: Dollar high = higher buying power. Lower cost = ... seriously? do I need to spell that out? Anyway, I believe this is what they had in mind when they coined "BUY LOW". The issue of course, is how low is low enough. Every day we just keep tankin'. I am assuming that this is going to stop at some point, and then start to rebound. The timing that is going to get very interesting. And then, of course, you gotta get in and then hold on for the ride, because it is gonna be bumpy!

2xUncle

2008-09-29T17:30:00.004-05:00

David and Tricia have brought forth a boy. Jacob Arthur was born today.
Happy Birthday little Jacob!

http://triciadavidandthelittleone.blogspot.com/2008/09/welcome-jacob-arthur.html

tough on crime

2008-09-22T21:04:00.003-05:00

I am a big fan of getting tough on crime, I just don't think that tough sentencing = tough on crime. It is kinda like saying "wow! it is cold out in January, better close the screen door. That isn't working? Really? Well we better get a heavier screen". Or "hey, that man is bleeding, forget that harpoon sticking out of his chest, lets get him a bigger band aid". Or "hey, a bunch of stupid greedy people made some really bad investment mistakes and now the stock market is collapsing. Lets spend a billion dollars to buy them out..." oh wait... Anyway, my point is that this is all symptoms, not causes. Wanna get tough on crime, fight the *cause* of crime. Getting tough on crime by setting stiffer penalties is just vengeance shrouded in the cloak of justice. It is false and it denies the true facts that a) crime is actually falling and b) stiffer sentences as a deterrent generally have a very limited success. "Tough on crime" is the battle cry of the simple minded, or those who believe that the voting public is simple minded.

Routine

2008-09-16T08:36:00.001-05:00

The cats have been with us for several weeks now and we have settled into a bit of a routine. This routine, as of yet, does not contain an over abundance of sleep.

Joey (the kitten) and Patches (the not kitten) seem to mostly get along with each other now. Patches seems to be taking the high ground in their relationship – literally. She is always up on something which gives her the ability to a) look down on Joey and b) defend herself better when Joey decides that it is time to play... which is most of the time. Joey continues to view Patches, and the vast majority of the contents of our house - including my breakfast this morning- as created specifically for his pleasure and entertainment.

We are now able to leave them in the house together (instead of locking them in their separate areas) with a fair degree of comfort. We do still have a litterbox in the dining room though - 5 bucks says that stays there until Christmas. And if you wander about the house you are more likely to see them together now than before, when Patches would be hiding basically all the time.

The breakfast time routine consists mostly of Patches sitting in her chair watching while Joey attempts to eat whatever we are having for breakfast.

Dinner time consists mostly of Patches sitting on her cushion watching while Joey attempts to eat whatever we are having for dinner.

Evening consists mostly of Patches sitting desk watching while Joey attempts to help us with whatever email or computerie thing we are working on or.

Night time consists mostly of Patches and Joey tearing around the house making a bunch of noise and not, in any way, assisting us with sleeping.

So there you go. It is good to have a cat back in the house again. And we are learning the value of a closed door (even if we don't choose to use it very much).

Just making stuff up now.

2008-09-11T15:48:00.003-05:00

Harper on the Green Shift: "The carbon tax will do more than undermine the economy," Harper said to a crowd of business leaders. "By undermining the economy and by re-centralizing money and power in Ottawa, it can only undermine the progress we have been making on national unity."

See, this is the problem: Lies and misrepresentation. This comment is at best is a disservice to Canadians. At worst it is pure crap meant to cloud and issue that is complicated and requires real debate and thought.

I would love to hear a substantive argument against the Green Shift. I think debate is important - critical even. The Environment is not a simple problem and the answers are not clear. But this kind of attitude and comment confuses the issue, misdirects attention, and does nothing at all to actually address the really substance of the debate.

It just makes me frustrated with the whole process. They don't want to engage, the want to win, at all costs. Yay! that is best for Canada for sure.

on governments, change and the green shift.

2008-09-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

Governments have thee major vehicles to affect change.

Information (some would say propaganda)
Regulation
Taxation

They can inform us of a desired direction, they can regulate the desired direction or they can use tax to promote the desired direction. They are all powerful alone, but to be most effective they must all be used together.

Information alone is good, particularly if the change is generally easy and generally perceived as socially necessary or ‘correct’. Great examples of this is education around drinking while pregnant or smoking. Both of these campaigns have produced real results in terms of public perceptions. This is governments promoting a shift in public attitude. It works well, particularly if there is generally no real “cost” to us as an individual.

Regulation (and legislation) is clearly an important way of affecting change – we simply regulate the change we want. However, this is often focused more at business and industry than individuals. Laws work, but some things can’t be legislated or regulated well. Regulation typically involves restricting the bad to encouraging the good and has a difficult time directly promoting the good: ie there are more "don'ts" than "do's"

One of the most powerful, but also difficult to manage, tools is taxation. Taxation can be targeted and can affect every part of our society. It can promote the desirable behavior or actions (lower tax) and discourage the undesirable (higher tax). It is a fairly simple equation. Increase taxes on what you don’t like and decrease taxes on what you do like.

The environmental change issue is one that requires all three of these vehicles, but particularly taxation. Why? Because fundamentally it requires a substantial shift in our individual behaviours. There is lots that industry must do, but also lots that we as individuals must do. Information works well, but becomes less effective when it starts to cost us individually money or pain. Regulation is also important, but you can’t regulate people’s choices. So we move to taxation where we simply make the “right” choice the more economically advantageous one.

Don’t believe it. Look at gas prices right now. As it happens this isn’t as much a tax issue as it is an economic one, but the premise is exactly the same. Ask any environmentalist and they will tell you: the best way to promote alternative energy and fuel is a significant increase in the price of gas. And that is exactly what happened. Look at the dramatic shifts in the last year alone. GM canceling some of its larger trucks and SUV lines; people purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles; hybrids suddenly becoming options; alternative fuel sources being demanded by the public; people driving less. These are big changes that would never happen with just information or regulation alone. Just think where we would be if governments had raised taxes on fuel some 10 or 15 years ago. What kind of car would you be driving? That is the power of taxation. And, if it was all a tax issue, relief could be provided to industry to allow them time to adapt or encourage greener choices in fuel, machines etc.

That, fellow internetters, is the premise of the Green Shift.

For me it comes down to this. If we are actually serious about climate change then *significant* change needs to happen now. This is the only option I have seen so far that comes close to starting that change.

In the club

2008-09-08T11:33:00.003-05:00

They say that golf is the best way to ruin a perfectly good walk in the park. Until recently I tended to agree. Then, for some unknown reason, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at this “golf” thing. So I played a round, and as was mentioned in a previous blog post, I had the lowest cost per shot ratio of anyone there. After that I sorta got this itch you see. I kinda wanted to try it again. A friend bought me golf lessons for my birthday (awesome) so I have been doing that for part of August. And then as an anniversary present, Kristine bought me clubs. Now I have no excuses: I have had lessons and I have clubs. I have even been out a few times to that hitting ball place. It is remarkable how much less one can suck if one has had some training. I am saying “suck less” since I still suck quite dramatically. But more lessons to come and maybe even a round or two before this summer/fall is over and who knows I might even be the next guy who is good a golf person. At the very least I’ll be able to go along when we go on one of those corporate golf days and do more than caddy and fetch beer.

Betterment

2008-09-05T12:33:00.001-05:00

For context lets just say that I believe we are very lucky to have public auto insurance in Manitoba. I think the people that work there are all generally nice people who are competent at what they do and do strive for satisfied customers. That said, I believe there is room for improvement in the system.

Our story today begins with Adam ramming his lovely, sporty little Audi into the side of an unoffending SUV. Let just say that is was bad, and my fault, and no one was hurt, and we will leave it at that.

Thus began my 4 month saga with MPI (Manitoba Public Insurance) for whose from away.

It started off well. I called MPI they took all the particulars, went and picked the car up, took it to the wrecked car place, checked it out and delivered it to Audi for repair as soon as they were done with it. Great service, and relatively timely, and all covered as part of the insurance claim. Audi worked their fix-up mojo on the car to make it good as new.... except for the glass. You see I snuck in a second claim for the glass repair. We cracked the glass a long time ago and I figured why not get it fixed now while everything is in the shop. ‘Course they forgot to do. So another trip back to the shop and another journey in the shuttle. Long story short, we get the car back sorta end of June ish. Accident in May, car back end of June. Long time without a car. Luckily we have several backups.

So back on the road with the lovely sporty little Audi. Half way to the cottage one weekend and *bing* the oil light comes on. As any good driver would do at that point I promptly ignored it and continued on my way to the cottage. I did investigate before I left (barely, I was at the end of the road about to turn on the highway when I thought “hmmm, maybe just to be safe I’ll check that out”). So I check the oil. Turns out there wasn’t any. So I call back to the cottage and good ol’ Dad hikes ‘er into town to fetch some oil for the car. Fill ‘er up and I am off again.

I monitor the car for a while and sure enough it is leaking. I can tell because of the pool of oil under the car every morning. So back to Audi. They look and say that it is indeed leaking (see, I know cars). They say, as I assumed, that is was very likely just missed from the initial collision and they will just ask for an amendment. Good. Easy. Done. But again with the backup car and the waiting.

Audi calls: No Joy. Claim Denied. Apparently I need to call. So I do. The damage, says MPI, is due to a collision, but not *that* collision.

Here we go.

Yes, apparently, between the time I picked up the car from Audi, and the time I noticed the leak – about 1 week – I had another collision that was bad enough to puncture the oil pan but do no other damage to the car. The fact that I was the only drive and I hadn’t noticed any collision was irrelevant.

Now, to their credit, they did send supervisors out to see the damage and were very apologetic, but also quite firm that it was not related to the previous accident, and what I really needed to do was put in another claim. Ok Fine. By this time we had been another month without our lovely, sporty little Audi. I’ll pay the $200 deductible and be done with it.

Ah, if only it was that simple.

I met with a new adjuster (new claim, new adjuster of course), who was a lovely young lady who informed me that indeed a new claim was the only option. Now, given that this was clearly collision damage, they consider it an at-fault accident. Not only that it would be my second at-fault accident in under 3 years, so I get a double whammy on my license.

Now I am not as happy.

She was also very apologetic. I am apparently stuck in a bit of a technicality here. My “accident” doesn’t fit in any good category, so they must consider it a moving at-fault accident with the assumption that I was not driving to conditions. And we all know how those beautiful sunny clear summer days driving on the highway can be so treacherous.

So in the end, 1 real accident requiring 3 trips to Audi, 3 claims, 2 surcharges, and no Audi for most of the summer.

But now we have the Audi back and all is well.

Except that of course is not the end.

I went to pickup our lovely, sporty little Audi and as one last bureaucratic tweak, there is a $15.63 “betterment” fee added to the deductible that I need to pay. Betterment of MPI? No. Betterment of the environment? No. Betterment of humanity? No. It is in fact Betterment of my oil pan. And it isn’t that they made it better than before (and who can’t use a better oil pan) – which would be something one would assume from “betterment”. However this is not the case. Apparently one of the electronic components of the oil pan (yes, electronic oil pan) has been depreciated or something and so I need to pay a fee to cover that... or something. Betterment. So really, who cares about 15 bucks, except that it is for “Betterment”?! Wha? Seriously? Betterment?! I don’t even know what to say, except that perhaps they should apply some betterment to their processes. Seriously.

2x Cat

2008-09-01T17:19:00.004-05:00

We are once again sharing our lives with furry little animals… in a good way, not the “get those freaking squirrels out of the attic” way, which we have also done from time to time.

We have been to the Humane Society a few times to talk about adopting some cats (some being >=1 and <3. Kristine defined the lower constraint and I quickly defined the upper one).

On Friday we found Patches and Joey.

Patches is a 5 year old cat with very soft fur, and Joey is a little grey and white kitten who is all of 3 months.

The theory with 2 cats is that they can keep each other company whilst their people are away (buying them more food and toys and whatnot). It is a fine theory, however these two, well, lets just say that they haven’t earned many stars in the “getting along” category as of yet. I am sure it will work out in the end though. They are both pretty great cats. Joey has the cute factor going for him (what with being 3 months old) and Patches is playing the soft lap-cat card. And both can get their purr on pretty well. Patches is having a bit more trouble settling in than Joey. Joey just sort of looked around for 15 minutes and decided that the entire facility was designed specifically for his amusement and has proceeded to take over. Patches isn’t so sure, about the house, her new monkeys (us), or this other little fur-ball that keeps bugging her. She has decided that the bed is pretty ok, and the chair in the dining room, but other than that she is wary. We are hoping that given some time she will adapt well and will start to tolerate Joey a bit more. Right now we sequester them separately if we have to go out, and at night Kristine is sleeping in the guest room with Joey or Patches, and I am in the other room with the other cat so that we can both get some sleep and the cats don’t freak each other out. We aren’t doing that forever! Just sayin’.

Chirp, Blink, Chirp, Blink

2008-08-28T15:44:00.002-05:00

The crickets (plural) who have invaded my office and now chirping in tune with the "message waiting" light on my phone.

Crickets. I hate them so hard.

Choosing

2008-08-28T08:24:00.003-05:00

How do people even to this?

We have decided that it is time for us to get another cat. So off to the humane society we go. The facility is awesome, but the process is heart-wrenching. You basically go around and find one you want. You know that not all of them get adopted, and many of them stay there for a long time before they are eventually put down. So in a very real sense you are choosing who lives and who dies! At best you are choosing one *over* another - it is the very worst example of the school-yard pick. Ug! Kristine was much braver than I, she actually picked some our and held them for a while. I said that I wasn't going to touch any of them until we decided which we were going to take. Then I made her open the other cages and pet every other cat in the room so that the other cats wouldn't feel left out.

Anyway, I think it might be coming down to Patches, Squishy, or a little grey one that has kinda caughty my eye. We need to go visit again and play with them. Who knows, it might end up being Patches AND Squishy.

Overkill

2008-08-26T08:16:00.000-05:00

We all know the story of the young man brutally killed on a bus outside Portage La Prairie earlier this summer. In fact, it made international headlines. Why? Because it was particularly gruesome and particularly unique. Up until that point bus travel was safe. Carry on what you want, nothing was screened or checked. Now? Bus travel is apparently not safe. The bus lines have just banned carry on baggage and the unions are talking about x-ray scanners and much better screening and training. Although this kind of knee-jerk reaction is completely understandable, it is also misguided. Do we expect a rise in beheadings by psychotic individuals? Do we in fact expect a rise in criminal behaviour on buses? Is bus travel more dangerous now? Has there been a real increase in violent behaviour on busses? That would all be good information to have to help us understand the context, but it isn’t being reported or talked about. What we do know as fact is that crime in general is going down and violent crime along with that. We also know that this incident is an extreme incident that, in reality, you cannot really anticipate or prevent. It is one of those one in a million types of thing – which – if you look at the population of our country, you actually expect to happen at least 33 times a year.

There is some security measures that are warranted for general safety and common sense. But, at some point, we give up too much for a tiny chance that we may prevent a hugely improbably event.

There is absolutely no way that we can ever put enough safe guards in place to ensure that nothing bad will happen. There is simply no way to be completely risk-free. The question is what is a reasonable precaution and acceptable risk. And the flipside of that: what is acceptable inconvenience to offset unacceptable risk.

Personally, some random checking might not be a bad idea, but if it were me, I would rather be allowed to carry on a bag for my 18 hour bus trip.

If it ain't fixed...

2008-08-19T12:35:00.002-05:00

Canada is a parliamentary democracy with constitutional monarchy. This means that we elect people to serve, but they still serve a the pleasure of the ruling monarch - in our case the Queen, represented in Canada by The Governor General, Michaëlle Jean. According to various laws and conventions, the parliament can last up to a maximum of 5 years, but at any point during that time the GG can, at her behest or the request of the Prime Minister, dissolve parliament and call an election. In a majority government this means that the PM gets to decide when an election is called. In a minority situation the same is true - with one strong caveat: The government only functions if it has the support of the parliament. It is called "confidence". Budget issues are a matter of confidence, but other issues can also be a matter of confidence - meaning that if the parliament votes against the government, and wins, the government falls and an election is (usually) called.

That is the background.

Now, our PM has decided that random elections are no good. He wants fixed election dates. So he picked one; specifically October 9, 2009. A lovely day by all accounts. Fine. It flys in the face of our traditions, but fine. The government can still fall if it looses a confidence vote.

Steven Harper seems to really want an election. He has been playing a little game for the last little while. He has decided that EVERYTHING is a confidence motion - basically daring the opposition to trigger an election. Again, not typically done, and certainly not something that indicates that he is particularly interested in working with the opposition parties in any way. Basically, he is saying "do what we want or send us to the polls". Again, rather bold, and not so much the "plays well with others", but fine.

Well, now he has decided that parliament is not working well and he may just call an election. Normally that is all part of the deal, except one trick little detail: his little fixed election date law that he was so big on.

So lets recap:
1. elections must be called within 5 years
2. usually PM gets to set the date (at the pleasure of the GG)
3. governments can always fall (ie: election time) during a confidence vote
4. Stevie set a fixed election date for the 9th of October 2009.

By setting a fixed election date, all he is saying is that the ruling party cannot have the flexibility of when to call an election (which was, granted, a significant perk to the ruling party).

So then if the point of the law is that he doens't get to make that choice, then what heck is he doing thinking about calling an election? [CBC] The only thing his much touted law prevents is exactly what he is trying to do. The law means he needs to play nice and he doesn't want to... so I guess it doesn't apply then?

Look Steven, you made a law that forces you to work with the rest of parliament. You of all people need to live with that. It was your idea afterall. Suck it up and make things work.

Required Reading

2008-08-11T16:52:00.002-05:00

I have just finished RISK – The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner. This is simply an awesome book. It is academic, and there are lots of numbers, but is was very engaging and was a huge eye opening.

His basic premise is this. We are the healthier, richer and safer than any human who has ever walked the planet. Ever. Yet we are also the most scared, the most likely to succumb to irrational fears.

There are things we should be afraid of and should take precautions against, there are also things that we are afraid of that we should not be – or should temper our response to in proportion to the risk.

Anyone who plans to watch the news, or vote in an election should be required to read this book. It helps us to be healthily sceptical and remind us that we have far more to be thankful for than we realize. We really should take a moment to count our blessings, because they are many and abundant.

Adventure on the high seas.

2008-08-07T19:28:00.000-05:00

Cottage. Summer. Finally awesome weather. And on this day, lots and lots of wind. A prime time for sailing. One of the nice things about sailing our little Laser II is that it can fit 2 people (or, to keep the numerical notation scheme consistent, II people). So out we go, venturing forth into the rather windy high seas… er, lake. Now, even on our little part of the lake, we can get a bit wavy. And more wind equals more waves. Given that I am the one that actually knows how to sail, I sit near the stern so as to be able to affect more directly the steering. Kristine, being the one who does not know how to sail, sits more towards the bow end, so as to be able to more directly block the waves from hitting me. The result: Kristine soaking wet, me, very dry. Anyone else see a potential issue here? Anyway, Kristine, ever the good sport, agrees to continue sailing even though she is continuing to get wet and cold. She was kind enough to update me regularly, though, on her status: “fun factor is continuing to decline” as we hit some rather impressive waves. It was near that point that I decided that I had pushed the ‘declining fun factor’ about as far as I dared, so we were heading back to port… er dock. We were scooting along at a fair clip and working pretty hard to keep the boat from going over when all of a sudden *snap* - the rudder gave way and we lost control of the boat. The good thing about a boat like this is that when you lose rudder control the boat tends to head upwind and come to a stop with the sails flapping – which is what happened. I quickly investigated and found that the lower bracket for the rudder pins (of which there are two) had snapped off completely, so the rudder was held to the boat only by the top pin. This would not suffice for any aggressive sailing like what the wind that day was demanding. So, quick call, sails down and we will figure out the rest after that. So we did, after which Kristine observed “fun factor increasing”. Adventure is good I guess - except we were adrift, with no forward momentum, and being pushed rather briskly across the lake and away from our intended destination. Now what? We tried a bit of sculling, which was marginally successful, but wouldn’t result in significant movement. If only there was some way to get some forward momentum… Of course we are on a vessel designed specifically to generate forward momentum from nothing but the wind. Interesting. So Kristine took over the steering (such that is was) and I jury-rigged a wee little sail and low and behold we were under way. It took us 5 minutes to zoom across the lake under full sail. It took 15 minutes for us to navigate the last little bit to the dock. A lovely little side diversion on a very pleasant day. Upon our return to harbour, we investigated our wounded vessel to find that indeed a rather significant piece had bust good. Now for some internet surfing to see of we can locate a replacement part – a different kind of adventure.

Missing rudder bracket.
Not so good akshuly.

on Tasers, Racial Profiling and Fact

2008-07-24T09:27:00.002-05:00

[rolls up pants, wades in]

Winnipeg police deployed an electronic restraining device on a 17 year old aboriginal with a knife who was seen attempting to bread into a car. The 17 year old is now dead.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/24/taser-mother.html

Firstly, anybody dying like this is a tragic thing. And anytime anyone dies at the hands of the police it needs to be thoroughly investigated in an open and transparent manner. Not so much so that everyone can know the itty-bitty details (because, lets face it, the general public will not read the details, not do we actually care. We will read “taser”, “police”, “knife” and “aboriginal” and make our own conclusions) but more so that the police are held accountable. And accountable is not a negative thing. We, the public, have embued our police force with power and authority and they must account for how that power and authority is used.

I have been reading a book called “Risk, the science and politics of fear”, which, btw, is totally kick-awesome and should be read by everyone – particularly numnuts who call radio talk shows... speaking of which, I find it very interesting – and by interesting I mean scary and worrisome – to listen to the things people say when asked about this - an event that they really know nothing at all about, but have significant opinions on... kinda like me... but I digress. One woman called into CBC and said that the facts clearly show that tasers are deadly. The police tell us that the facts clearly show that tasers are safe in the vast majority of cases. The FACT is we only hear about the cases where things go badly and we don’t hear about the times when it actually saves peoples lives (being that of the police, suspect or public). The FACT is that most people don’t care about facts, but do care that they have heard about a lot of deaths due to tasers and therefore tasers are bad.

The other thing that needs to be mentioned is race and the response of the aboriginal community. Their first response – which is totally admirable and appropriate – is to support the single mother who just lost her son. And really, we all need to remember that whatever the reason or actions that led up to this, a mother lost her son and that is sad regardless of the cause. Their second response, however, I find troubling. They called into question race. David Chartrand, head of the Manitoba Metis Federation said:

“Why does it seem to be aboriginal people that seem to fall prey to this extra force against us?”

This actually not bad question, but the answer seems pretty obviously to me: the aboriginal community is typically much poorer, has less stable families and suffers from higher rates of alcoholism etc. This tends to promote more anti-social, ie criminal behavior. That is fairly well documented in lots of disadvantaged communities around the world. In Winnipeg, it is typically aboriginals, in other cities it is other groups. Given that proportionally more aboriginals (in Winnipeg) are involved in this type of property crime, proportionally more will be arrested and proportionally more will be involved in situations requiring force. (please note that typically more old white men are involved in corporate fraud based again on societal issues of old white men being the power brokers - that also need to be addressed) What is a more interesting and difficult question, is why is the aboriginal community generally poorer and why have we, as a society, not been able address some of those systemic issues around poverty, particularly in that community. Why do we deem unable to break that cycle.

I am not sure that you can say that racial profiling was involved if people in the neighbourhood witnessed the youth attempting to break into the car, and the youth wouldn’t put his knife down when directed to by the officers. I actually think it is fairly irresponsible to claim that it is. It essentially implies that the police are inventing the crime, which it is pretty clear is not the case here.

There *are* issues that need to be addressed, and this unfortunate, but important incident that can serve to call them to light. I think that claiming that the issues are tasers and racial profiling does an significant injustice to this young person’s life. Claiming “racism” locks us all into inaction. It requires that the accused scramble to defend themselves against the claims and prevents the community from looking at the real issues. It is a red herring, a diversion from real issue. Racism certainly plays a part and is an issue that must be addressed, but I would argue it is a symptom and not the cause.

Both of these issues (tasers and race) seem to me to be classic cases of incomplete information, cobbled together as fact and used to reach an inconsistent conclusion. We need to be very careful with this kind of thing. It *will* prevent us from addressing the actual issues at hand if we let it.

Shhhh

2008-07-20T09:28:00.002-05:00

And! For those who didn't get a chance to see this when it came to town, it is completely amazing. Moving, funny, sad, and very very real.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Updated Sundays.

Dr. Horrible

2008-07-20T09:14:00.003-05:00

Apparently this is only available until midnight tonight! Fans of Joss Whedon, Fans of "Firefly" and Nathan Fillion, Fans of "The Guild" and Felicia Day, and fans of "how I met your mother" and Neil Patrick Harris will totally love this... I think... I loved it... so, deduce what you will from that. It will be purchaseable via iTunes and will be worth it.

America’s got… bad attitude.

2008-07-17T22:19:00.001-05:00

One of the many exciting bachelor things I have been doing this week is to become reacquainted with our television. In my now all too regular evening ritual of channel surfing for an hour or more, I have discovered a few rare gems of shows. And by gem I mean a warm pile of smelly goo that likely has once been something but has recently been processed through the entire digestive system of a large-to-midsized mammal. The smelliest of these piles is “America’s Got Talent”. Firstly, anyone who does, is not on this show. Secondly, Seriously? With the X’s? and the Rude? And the Hoff? F’Real?! Thirdly, and most abhorrently, the audience. Since when is it ok to boo someone off the stage, like ever? Your mamma would be non to proud of you lemme tell ya. And this fickle bunch of miscreants can turn on a dime. This one guy, who of course had some sob story about losing his voice, never to speak again, and now is singing for the first time in 15 years, and is probably blind and has cancer or something, anyway, he starts singing and they start booing right away and calling for the X’s and stuff. Then, all of a sudden he hits his stride and the audience starts cheering. What? You don’t think he deserved a second to two? You think you can evaluate someone’s talent that fast? And even so, booing? Really? Granted, this show is not playing to the most sophisticated amongst us, but it has gone beyond whatever line there is. It has turned into the very worst of human nature. It is sad and terrible. I might not even watch it tonight.

black is the new gold

2008-07-14T20:54:00.004-05:00

My new visa gold card came today. It is black. Black is not gold.

I don't mean to be elitist and snooty or anything, but one of the reasons to have a gold card, is to have a *gold* card. I know I know, I am playing into the hands of the corporate machine supporting the empire that will doom us all. Look, that sucks and all, but I have a gold card.

I do like all the servies that the gold card has, don't get me wrong, but generally it is about the aeroplan points and pizza. Yep, the most important thing I use my visa card for, is ordering pizza - certainly a task worthy of my gold card. To that end I have memorized my card number. To serve me better, visa has changed this number.

I called to inqure:

me: [navigates IVR, presses 0 repeatidly until someone answers the phone]
visa: Thank you for calling visa. How can I help you today.
me: I am calling about my visa gold.
visa: yes?
me: it is black.
visa: oh, you have the new visa infinte.
me: apparently. is this an upgrade?
visa: yes.
me: what if I don't want to upgrade and want to continue to use my old card.
visa: well, you need to cancel your old card to use your new one.
me: yes. What if I don't want to.
visa: well, as soon as you activate your new one, the old one is inactivate.
me: right, I don't want that.
visa: well you have been upgraded.
me: upgrade implies there is choice.
visa: well, there isn't really a choice.
me: so my account has been changed then.
visa: upgraded.
me: right. to a black gold card.
visa: yes
me: with a different number
visa: unfortunatley, with the upgrade we need to issue new cards.
me: can I have my old number?
visa: unfortuately not.
me: can I have a gold card?
vias: unfortuantly not.
me: So then what are the services of my new black gold card?
visa: optional travel insurance
me: optional that I need to pay for that I could already get?
visa: and concierge service, so if you need a dog sitter while you are on vacation, we can help arrange it.
me: ...

so let's recap
1) new visa gold card which is not, in point of fact, gold.
2) new number, not the same number that I have memorized, but a new one
3) all my direct payments need to be changed over to this new card.

new benefits:
1) assistance finding pet care

I am not complaining... ok yes I am... I am fully complaining.

Look, in the ream of moves that are smart, this significantly not. One of the reasons I have not switched away from my $160/year credit card is a) it is gold in colour and b) I have a bunch of direct payments going against it. If I have to change all that anyway, then this is the perfect opportuinity to switch AWAY from the visa black gold infinity card would you not think?

Bachelor Watch - Day 1

2008-07-08T22:08:00.002-05:00

Kristine and he friend Joanne are off in London (the England one). They have arrived safely and are currently [checks watch, does math] asleep... or at least hopefully asleep since yesterday was an exhausting travel day.. but that is her story, not mine.... although mine is not very interesting. So far, i have seen two movies (the theatre kinds) with different people (accompanying me, not in the movie... although they were different in the movie too... which is good, because that would be weird or meant that I had seen the same movie twice... or both... both weird, not seen both movies twice, because that *would* be weird) I have eaten movie popcorn for dinner twice and forgot to each lunch once. I have gone to bed late once... which was good... the going to bed part, not the late part (seriously, please try to stay with me here). The going to bed I chalk up as an accomplishment since it was the travel night and my worry factor was working overdrive. I even watched the airline website to see that they had taken off, and for the longest time the thing just said "has left the gate but has not taken off". I am not sure exactly what I was looking for, since I don't think they often put "crashed" in the status... So it finally said "in flight" and I promptly stayed up later for no good reason since the book I was reading had a super sucky ending... yes, I realise those two things don't totally flow: please refer to the aforementioned lack of sleep and nourishment.... where was I... ah yes! seen two movies, ate crappy, gone to bed late and drove to work instead of biked... although it was the smart car, so points there. On the plus side, I did make it to work and was essentially functional... although people did comment frequently about smelling popcorn as I walked by... Anyway, all that to say that this is not so much a stellar start. Oh! and Kristine will love this. Last night I lept out of bed and yanked the covers (quilt and all) off, wrapped them around me and giggled fiendishly because I had just defeated the monkeys who were going to drop watter on my head from the ceiling. I am fine with having the crazy dreams, I just don't like the waking up half way through them to find out I am actually acting them out (A) because I don't get to find out how they end and (B) I have no idea how to answer Kristine when she asks "what were you doing". Luckily she will never find out about that one! Wait...

Seriously. Less Popcorn, more sleep.

Join us tomorrow when Adam searches for food in the twisting maze they call the "supermarket".

2008-07-06T12:25:00.001-05:00

You cannot kill your way to peace.
You cannot lie your way to justice.
The way you walk it is the way it is.

The death of .com

2008-06-26T20:49:00.002-05:00

ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - today announced that they are opening up internet naming. Soon the days of .com and .ca will be gone. Replaced by .mcdonalds, .ibm, .sex, and .whatevertheheckyouwant. In a few years, when we are all talking to our grand kids about the .com bubble, it will be like our grandparents talking to us about black and white TV, outhouses or brylcreem.

I myself will be sad to see those three little letters go. They ushered in an era of change, they did. Just think of talking about ".com" in the 80's. Nothin'! But at least we will still have the dot. Another new part of the lingo. In the 80's when you said 'dot' you were refering to a) your great aunt, b) a childrens tv show - usually used in conjunction with 'polka' and 'door', or c) the latest in printing technology - ususally used in congjustion with "matrix" and "printer".

My how things change.

'sniff. Getting a bit sentimental overhere.

Fair thee well my .com friend. You are leaving just as I got my spell checker to recognize you.

The fallacy of proving faith

2008-06-26T07:05:00.001-05:00

I read an article in the Regina Leader-Post today. It was a response to some letter to the editor which I didn’t read. The original letter was about sexual orientation and mentions that the person was a member of the United Church, a church which “rejects theology suggesting that homosexuality is a sin”. The response was from some “Christian” who is clearly opposed to this view. Fair enough. However, I find it interesting how these types always try to prove their point of view instead of calling it a point of view, or even a belief. This lady even started out with some dictionary definitions, before she went into biblical "proofs".

For me, my beliefs are just that - beliefs. They is based on my experience and my faith community, but I have no need to try to prove it. I would be happy to discuss it, to even debate it, and I can even use the bible to back me up. But I can also use the bible to backup slavery, the subjugation of women, and all sorts of over various and sundry nasties, so it needs to be more. Without getting all super religiousie here, it needs to be about a living faith based on the experiences and realities of today. If we truly believe in God, then we need to believe that God is active today and has new things to tell us based on our context.

The really funny thing about the whole point-proving thing is that they use the bible to do it. And it is particularly funny that they are often trying to prove things to non-Christians. It is like if I were to write an opinion paper and then use that opinion paper to prove my opinion. That just doesn’t fly.

Proof requires a common, accepted foundation on which to build your proof. The bible is not that. It only is a source of truth for Christians - and, to be honest not a very good one. It is not meant to be proof, it is meant to be truth. There is a difference. I believe it is meant to be struggled with and to speak to each of us a bit differently. As such, it is open to extremes of interpretations. There are very few cut and dry answers in the bible. You've got "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbour as yourself". Beyond that...

Bottom line: you can’t use what the bible is saying to prove what the bible is saying. It doesn't make logical sense, and it denies what the bible is - truth beyond fact and beyond proof... wait, isn't that the definition of faith?

The upside of upsell

2008-06-25T07:16:00.000-05:00

Try this on for size: health care and selling.

Let me say that is makes my face go all skewie with the cringing and the skeptical. However, I am beginning to become converted. Which is good, since this is part of what my business is.

Now, before you all gasp and go all indignantie on me, let me ‘splain.

Firstly selling in health care does not equate to private health care. Secondly, selling in health care does not equate to differential treatment in health care. Thirdly, selling in health care does not equate to people getting something they don’t need or want. And Fourthly, selling is not always about an exchange of money.

Ok, that was a bit defensive.

How about what selling is: Selling, is the art of professional communications that has the client getting the best outcome that is right for them. It is about a mutually beneficial outcome.

Every day in our lives we sell people on ideas. I need to sell Kristine on the fact that I need a $400 Lego Start Destroyer (that has yet to actually work – see, I haven’t figure out the mutually beneficial outcome). I need to sell my IT department on new enhancement that I want to make. I need to sell myself on the fact that I should bike instead of drive today (just try coming to a mutually beneficial outcome with yourself... not as easy as you may think!). Anyway. Selling is everywhere. We are sold things and we sell things every day, every interaction.

Except not in health care.

Never in health care.

In health care, the professionals give us the best option and everyone gets everything they need. Right?

Well actually. Ever hear of “patient advocates”, or patients that refuse to accept their condition, or refuse to adhere to treatments? Selling. Doctors need to sell patients on what they need to do to get better; advocates need to sell doctors and professional staff on the need for attention and coordinated treatment for their loved one. All of this involved the best outcomes for the patient and ultimately must involve mutually beneficial outcomes for everyone involved.

Now, reality check.

Not everything in health care is covered by provincial plans. Dentists are a great example of completely uncovered health care. Eye glasses – arguably one of the most pervasive health related appliance that is completely not covered. Lots of drugs are not covered. Massage is not covered. Many types of therapists, non-western medicine, crutches, private rooms, ambulance rides... the list goes on.

So what is our response? Where is the line between something covered by healthcare and something not? Should providers be able to “up-sell” patients if that up-selling is beneficial to the patient.

Ug... “up-sell”... again with the cringing.

What if I wrote it like this: Should providers be able to present options to patients if those options are beneficial to the patient.

That sounds better... In fact, I think we can agree that in fact this is just good health care. We all want options - we want control of our health.

So then what is the difference between “up-sell” and “present options”?

Well, up-sell is that pushy dishwasher sales person trying to make me buy something I don’t need (my apologies to all those non- pushy dishwasher sales people – you are an undervalued lot). Except that selling, isn’t about people getting something they don’t need. Remember? Mutually beneficial outcome? Getting the best options for the client? Seriously, did you even read the first part of this post? Ok, So then how is pushing something that I don’t need a mutually beneficial outcome? It isn’t. And that, dear readers, is the crux of the matter.

Selling is a good thing if it is about listening more than talking, if it is about mutually beneficial outcomes, and it is about the best possible outcome for the client.

A glimpse of Mecca

2008-06-24T07:19:00.000-05:00

I have found mecca, and it is a vault of Lego.

http://gizmodo.com/5018990/lego-secret-vault-contains-all-sets-in-history

Victim to Leader

2008-06-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

Apparently I haven’t done much of the ‘social commentary’ lately. I figured it was high time for a good old fashioned (and perhaps slightly misguided) rant. And by rant I mean constructive discussion of the issues. And my discussion I mean me typing and you reading.

Last Wednesday the Federal Government apologized to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples for their treatment in Residential Schools. This has been a long time coming and I think it is long overdue. Although, that said, it was important that is be real and sincere and meaningful, and sometimes that takes time.

I was very surprised by three things that I experience from this:

First, was a bit of pride by how well it was done. The apology was sincere, it wasn’t made too political, and the response from the aboriginal leaders was positive and future-looking.

Second was a bit of shock at how unknown this issue was throughout the general populace. I guess being part of one of the Churches that ran the schools, I have heard much more about it. It feels like this has been going on for a long long time.

Third was disappointment at the response from some aboriginals. The leaders responded in a generally positive fashion, but the people that called into things like the CBC call in shows talked about it not being a magic wand that would fix anything, and how it wasn’t really going to make that much of a difference, and how the government still had to do more.

It is this third thing that concerned me the most. Not because of the complaints necessarily, but more because of the tone of the complaints. They seemed to have this air of victim-hood about them. Granted – and let’s be very clear about this – they were and are victims. However, the defeatist attitude, particularly when something that *could* be used as a catalyst for positive change, is frustrating.

I want a different life for the aboriginal peoples. I want things to be positive. I want there to be a proud heritage there and that to be a positive influence on Canadian culture. But it is not up to me. This is not something I, or the government, or anyone but the aboriginal community, can do. No amount of apologies – sincere as they may be – will fix anything. That isn’t their point. They recognize past harms and start the healing and moving forward. But the moving forward can only be done by the people harmed. And it takes time, and it takes involvement from the government and the non-aboriginals, but the lead lies with the aboriginals.

So, when I hear “you need to do more” and “that didn’t fix anything” and other phrases coming from aboriginal people, I don’t know what to do with it. I can’t do more. I can only follow your lead. My doing more – my peoples doing more – has gotten us all in the mess that we are in now. You have to do more and tell me how I can help you do that, but you have the lead. I think *that* is really what the apology is about.

We have a legacy of “parenting” the aboriginal people; of deciding what is best for them and deciding the direction their culture will take. That can’t be. The apology says we did it, we did it badly, we did it for bad reasons. Now it is time for aboriginal leaders and communities to step forward and lead us into how reconciliation can happen. And we absolutely must avoid the trap of the government (aka the people) moving in and trying to fix things. We can bring resources; we can present a menu of ideas; but ultimately the aboriginals need to lead.

That takes 2 things:
1. “us” resting the urge to fix, because we theoretically know how to do it better
2. “them” resting the urge to continue to be the victim.

That is going to take very strong leadership from the aboriginals and a very responsive government and public. I believe it can be done, and I hope we don’t miss this opportunity to actually address one of the worst parts of our history and legacy as a combined peoples of Canada.

change it up

2008-06-11T22:26:00.004-05:00

We moved into our house 10 or so years ago. At that point we plopped things down in various good (and not so good) locations. Now, as we all know, once something is in a particular spot it is very difficult to move it. the kitchen is a perfect example of this. No one ever reorganizes a kitchen ever... unless you are a particular un named friend of mine whose name starts with L and ends with the first name of the 1995 vocals singer from the spanish folk band "Mägo de Oz". f'real. Anyway way, unless you are her, things never change.

Except things are changing.

I must admit that I am having some personal challenges with this, and goodness knows Kristine is having challenges with this... mostly in the form of her husband having challenges. Regardless, we are now totally moved out of our bedroom and into every other room in the house. The bedroom will, we hope, become painted in the next few days wherin we can move back in. this is where the change will be happening. The crap that got moved out will NOT be moving back in in the same format. No longer will we tollorate the overstuffed shelves, the books stacked high in the corner. The plastic overflow bins and cardboard boxes designed as tempoary storage until we 'found something better'. Gone are the posters from University, the boquet of flowers from the wedding, and even some of the stuffed animals. Gone are the gacky (and really dusty as it turns out) drapes and their floral print. Gone is the 100 CD CD stand with 5 CDs, an old watch battery, 3 coasters, a knife, and a picture of a squirrel on it. Gone even is the "Most Beautiful Thing in the World"... (well, maybe not totally gone). Yes, the bedroom is getting an update, and I am having an anurism. I love home renovations.

GNBN

2008-06-10T08:28:00.000-05:00

It’s time to play good news bad news.

Good News: those biodegradable bags that you can use in your kitchen waste bins before taking things out to the compost – they work great.

Bad News: you have to actually take them out to the compost from time to time lest they biodegrade right in the bin and you are left with the same mess you had before the magic bags, just more expensive.

Good News: I am now much more comfortable and confident with the inner workings of our dishwasher.

Bad News: “comfortable” does not equal “able to fix”.

Shift

2008-06-06T08:55:00.000-05:00

Recent changes at GM are a perfect example of how quickly public policy can affect real change. GM is getting out of many of its large truck lines and switching to smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. They say that their analysis indicates that consumer demand has shifted, and that it is not a spike (or dip in this case) in demand, but a permanent change in consumer buying habits. Other news reports talk about how SUVs and other high gas consumption vehicles are getting harder and harder to resell. Consumer demand is shifting likely because of two things. One is people trying to make better environmental choices, but mostly it is because they are seeing a direct impact to their pocket book. None of this, however, is due to public policy – or at least not directly. It is due to market demand for oil. But it is a perfect example of how we COULD have public policy affect this kind of change. If there had simply been a $1/liter tax on gas 10 years ago, we would have fuel cell cars today. It does take a government willing to take a stand and people willing to respond well. But this kind of thing can happen. Although it is tough that we are losing so many jobs in truck making, the overall implication is generally positive. High gas prices are a good thing if they are starting to make people make choices. Of course I say that now, wait until my strawberries are $18 a carton. But even that will force us to grow more locally, choose more local products – all of which are generally good things. The key is going to be weathering this shift.

GMAT

2008-06-03T00:15:00.000-05:00

The General Management Admission Test is the standard thing you gots to do to get into a management program - specifically an MBA. I am thinking about an MBA, thus I am thinking about the GMAT. I bought the books and have found, through experience, that they accomplish very little sitting on my bookshelf. So I started into one.

The GMAT has basically two parts the "Quantitative" - having to do with numbers, and the "Verbal" - having to do with words. I must say that I am all over the Verbal part of the test. I took a few practice exams and scored super good. The Quantitative, not so much. But seriously, it is like algebra and fractions and nonsense that was only really invented to torment grade 11 students, and, apparently, management entrance types. The fractions are the worst. Who uses fractions when we have nice simple decimals that we could use?! I haven't done fractional math since I was discussing the finer points of pies division back in grade 4! Ug!

I fail to see what any of this has to do with management. If you are in management should you not hire someone to do number type things? Particularly algebraic simplification?! Math is easy to assess I guess, you either get the right answer or you don't. But what about geography, or spelling... wait, not spelling. But politics for sure! or History even! Nope. Math. High school Math. High school math that I last used lo those many years ago in, you guessed it, high school.

Throughout entire my university career in computer science and my employment with IBM and now RANA, I never had to simplify a fraction, perform any fractional math at all, or do any kind of geometric calculations. In fact, the last time I used geometry was to build a bench for my dad. The skills came in quite handy, but I would not classify bench building as management required training.

Anyway, all this to say that I am apparently going back to high school to re-learn my basic math skills so that I can apply to university to learn management where those skills will not be applied.... wait, that does sound like management