Ideeahs

Last night we ended our meal with a couple of LU cookies.  They are brand of cookies made in France which my family has always indulged in.  These were nice biscuits covered with a thick coating of dark chocolate .  Yum.  Cost....about $4 for twelve cookies or 33 cents per. On the side of the box are printed the production and best before dates - 4 September 2008 and 30 September 2009 respectively.  So my mind wandered to a scene that would be unlikely to occur at a bakery. Imagine a sign at the bakery: Fresh cookies - $1.25 per Day- olds - $0.70 per Six-month- olds - $0.33 per Which would you buy? At our local bakery we wouldn't dare by, nor ever expect to see, six-month-old cookies for sale.  Yet, we walk into a grocery store and we all do, regularly, purchase some. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

The shooting rampages in Alabama yesterday and in Germany today are reminding me of a conversation I had with my son just this past weekend.  Unfortunately I can't recall what sparked the conversation but I do remember what he said.  If people just could not buy guns - if people were not allowed to sell guns - then there would be no more war.  Spot on conclusion.   If only adults could be as clear minded as a seven-year-old.  The answer was obvious to him and there was no other option.  Instead adults consider the children to not have the street smarts or experience.  We conclude that their conclusions are therefore naive.  How can a seven-year-old have the wisdom to make those statements?  Quite the opposite really. It is our adult experience and "wisdom" that leads to the creation of these weapons and to their use to kill, in the last twenty-four hours, at least twenty-seven people.  By the way, here in Vancouver another two were killed yesterday morning.  How many more

UPDATED April 24, 2009 with New York Times article link at bottom. I have worked in customer service and customer facing roles all my life.  I think that this is why I am very picky when it comes to service.  I expect good service from people and I expect them to suck it up if they are having a bad day and to fake it - likely because I have faked it on crappy days so that I could still provide the best service I could to my customers.  I therefore expect that of people that serve me and I expect that of employees as well. Today I bought an Airport Express form the Apple store in Vancouver (ever since I bought my MacBook, ripped all my CDs to it and have taken to buying music from iTunes I have wanted to be able to listen to all the tunes on my stereo - now I can).  Anyhow...Apple gets consumer marketing and service like no other company that I have come across.  Their products are beautiful, their packaging looks good and is minimalist and their IT systems work.  So I picked up my Airp

Pierrefonds, Island of Montreal. The sky has darkened tremendously in these last few minutes of a hot, humid afternoon.  30-40.  I am receiving.  Suddenly it is terribly quiet.  Sounds are muffled.  The air is heavy.  We look around and up at the sky, wondering, and thinking we should not be here, on this court, surrounded by four high lamp posts. CRACK!  So, so loud. Immediately the air lightens up and the regular sounds start re-emerging.  It is pouring rain and we run like mad to the safety of four rubber tires.  Deuce.  This game is over. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Gosh there is so much going in my life these days that I have no time to write as much....some the ideeahs I have had over the last weeks which I have not expanded upon. 1) GM.....enough already.  Goodbye. 2) Citigroup at $0.97.  Wow. 3) Vince Li found not not criminally responsible for beheading of Tim McLean - Blame God? 4) Tori plans for attack ads regarding Ignatieff .  The kids are indeed once again back at it.  Grow up. 5) Question Period in Parliament.  No more please.  You all make me sick when you play this game.  The news media should stop reporting on it until Members of Parliament grow up. 6) No Line on the Horizon, U2's new album - awesome. 7) Iranian nukes, North Korean threats - some world. 8) Vancouver shootings - 30 shootings and 12 deaths in 2009, so far.  And the police know who they are.  Huh? I hope to expand on them soon. Ciao. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I roll my body over and tiredly lift my head up to see the time.   The green numbers on the clock radio state that it is 7:06 am.  Behind me, in a low voice, my wife says "time to get up" and she does, walks to the bathroom and starts running the water.  My eyes see 7:07 am come to life.  "Time to get up" orders the voice in my head.  I squint again to focus on the green.  7:09 am. Sorry I missed you '08. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

The seed for this idea was sown when I wrote two $11 cheques so that my children could participate in a Hip Hop dance class at school.  In turn this led to a memory, now a few years old, that there had been a fair bit of press ( example from the CBC ) about how schools in British Columbia are charging money to have children participate in what some thought were activities that are part of the curriculum.  The Supreme Court of British Columbia voted that school boards would no longer be allowed to do this. My children are students of the Vancouver School Board.  To date we have disbursed about $180 during the 2008/09 school year (and I just got another notice this week for $14.50 to cover the costs of a field trip) for field trips, school supplies, special programs and a school phone directory.  I am not including the incessant requests for a buck (or five) for various fund raising activities.  Those likely amount to another $20 or so, so far.  It does not end. On the surface hip hop wo