Ideeahs

Walking on the seawall in White Rock yesterday I saw the following comment spray painted across the stone path: "Vandals are gay" Interesting comment coming from a vandal. P.S.  I also noticed how wonderfully enticing that massive white rock must be for them.  A clean, white canvass reaching out to them all.  The city must have to paint that rock every week.

In the last two days I have seen two lawsuits that I have found interesting.  The first is ridiculous the second great. The first involved a woman who is suing a local supermarket chain because the produce she had purchased included a bonus prize.  A spider.  Unfortunately for her the spider bit her.  The result is that she has had considerable discomfort, pain, etc for sometime.  I don't deny that her case is unfortunate.  But how can the supermarket chain possibly be held accountable for the spider biting her and it being there in the first place!!  Produce comes from all over the world and routinely there are various creepy crawlies in them whether they be the tiny green spiders on lettuce, bigger beetles in spinach, worms in fruits and bigger spiders.  What is the supermarket chain supposed to do?  Spray all the produce with insecticides?  Clean all produce?  Which for lettuce would mean tearing the head apart.  Man......what an amazing case.  I hope the judge throws it out. Th...

At an intersection I sit waiting for someone to complete their U-Turn.....a quiet residential intersection that requires the driver to forward and reverse about five times to complete the 180.  Anyhow...I am sitting there waiting.  She completes the turn.  I see a cyclist barrelling down the hill.  They have a stop.  I don't.  Since I have been sitting there waiting for the U-Turn lady (the cyclist doesn't see this) I wave him through (helping?).  He yells out to me "Why don't you just go!!" (clearly not). Don't ask me for help.  Don't try to help.

We have gotten to the point in this world of ours where someone's word is worthless.  If a statement is not written down on a piece of paper, some official piece of paper.  A form that has been approved by a legal department that deals with laws, code, by-laws and not humans.  I guess we have been there for many years....today I had another example of it though.  Frustrating as it wastes all of our time.  I wasted thirty minutes.  The clerk only wasted 2 minutes.  We are able to hide behind the rules.  The clerk said that I couldn't because the rule says I can't.   I wanted to renew our car insurance.  Simple enough.  We own the car.  My wife and I.  Last I checked we had a legal marriage, a union that is protected under the law .  I got to the insurance broker's office and was told that I could not renew the insurance.  Why?  The car insurance is in my wife's name.  Unless she has signed the renewal notice stating that I can renew it I cannot renew it. No trust.  ...

Communication.  Networking.  It is so important.  Prior to going on my Leave of Absence I was a manager in a large corporation.  I had thirty people reporting to me.  During my years as a manager I found myself giving the same advice to people, whether they were fellow-managers, up-line managers or my direct reports.  Simply....communicate!  Let people know what you want to do.  Ask the question and do not assume the answer.  Basically be a good listener, be a good interviewer and build your network that way. I have a recent example from my life that highlights this in spades.  If you've been reading this blog you know I am on a Leave of Absence from my current employer.  To figure how on earth we were going to finance this year with no income, my wife and I had to head over to our financial adviser to make plans.  During that conversation the adviser mentioned that she had been looking for three years for someone to join her small company.  Someone that she felt had the customer ...

I watched the Champions League final today.  It was at a convenient time for me as it was 11:45am when it started and it ended at 2:34pm.  Those lucky souls in Moscow watched the match end at 1:34am.  To boot they got to go home in cats and dogs rain.  But we all saw a pretty emotional match.   Ronaldo's amazing header.   Ronaldo's heart wrenching miss in penalties.  Terry's bad luck in penalties as well.  Tension with Drogba's slap of Vidic's face.   Schole's nose.  The game itself was choppy and didn't flow well but nevertheless it was an entertaining game and the three hours flew by.  Manchester wins in penalties 1-1 (6-5). At the beginning of the match I had no preference but as the game went on I gravitated towards Man U and was rooting for them in the end; happy to see them win the cup.   Ronaldo is a fantastic player.  I have always liked van der Sar .   Giggs is classy, Rooney has punch. I am looking forward to Euro 08 starting June 7.  Portu...

Today I felt like I was in a southern town somewhere.  Could have been San Diego, Antibes , Cascais .  The sun was out, the heat was on (27 degrees), the bugs were out, the blooms were open, the smells of food were drifting, the festivals were on.  People were out walking, roller-blading, jogging, cycling.  The water park was open, the kids there were laughing.  Parents had smiles on.  We had forgotten the freaking miserable fall/winter/spring we had had in Vancouver.   Vancouver is a beautiful city.  And on sunny, warm days it is the best.  Granville Island, the seawall, the sail and motor boats, the people.  It feels like a vacation resort.  When I am on Granville Island or at Spanish Banks or Stanley park or or or or I feel lucky to live here.  It is a beautiful city, in a great country.  No wonder 30000 people are moving here every year.  No wonder we are at 2.2 million people now.  No wonder that the average house in Vancouver is $750000.  No wonder condos are going for $2300 a sq...

Went for a nice walk with my wife this afternoon in a regional park that backs on our home.  It was raining.  Walking in the forest we were partially protected from the falling water.  The smells of the damp trees, earth, moss was beautiful.  The rain really brings out smells....as anyone who has smelt a wet dog can attest.  Ahhh....what an aroma.  The squishing of the wet earth under our boots.  The scrunching of gravel and pebbles.  The sounds of the rain falling.  Nice. The walk relaxed me.  The walk opened up my visors to life.  The walk cleared my mind.  I was going to say that the walk distracted me...but that would imply a short term clearing of the mind which I hope it was not. What will this year off lead to?  Accept.  Open your arms.  Don't find a mould to fit into.  Try.  Explore.  Be open and share.  See how the road unravels itself.

While I have not heard anyone yell out that statement over the last three days it sure seems like most families that are at Disneyland fall into this trap at some point during their stay in this happy place where dreams come true. Our family is no exception. Disney does a great job of putting on a show for its guests. The problem is that the families get caught up and I imagine there are numerous reasons for this. Money. It costs a lot of money to go to Disneyland. So you had better have fun. Time. It is such a big place that you can't do everything....so you'd better hurry up and have fun. Expectations. It is a place designed for kids of all ages, a place where they know how to take care of kids and where the rides are designed for kids. What? You didn't like that ride? You are afraid of going on that ride? What is wrong with you?? We have heard parents call their children morons. We have heard parents call their children ' fraidy cats. We have seen adults...

On April 20 I wrote about the adverts that are running in bus shelters raising awareness of the seal hunt. Another thought occurred to me yesterday. We have been driving down to Anaheim. In Santa Nella , California, after pumping gas at about $4 a gallon, I started washing the windshield to remove the carcasses of all the dead flies, wasps, butterflies , grasshoppers and whatever else we killed on our drive down. I noticed the blood on the side mirrors (possibly a well fed mosquito had been obliterated by the 2008 Honda Civic). My thoughts moved on to the millions of cars that fly down the highways of North America everyday. I then thought about the number of insects that likely get killed that way. I imagine we are talking about millions of insects a day. Also hundreds or more of different species as well. So now we can compare this to the 250,000 seals. Clearly (and understandably) humans have a greater affinity to cute animals. But when you compare one seal hunt a year of 250,000 s...

We've been travelling down to Anaheim over the last few days and have slept in Best Westerns and Holiday Inn Expresses. They have been cheap ($75-85), clean and have all the amenities we need including free breakfasts. They also have Wi - Fi included in the room rate at a cost of $0 (yes, it is costed in to the room rate, I know). Parking is also free. I have stayed in quite a few swankier hotels ( Hyatts , Marriotts , Four Seasons). In those cases the rates for the rooms have all been in the $175 to $350 a night. Sure the room are a little bigger...but at the end of the day you sleep in your room. In those cases Wi - Fi would cost an extra $12-15 a day. And you need to buy the $10-15 breakfast. Parking will run you $15 to $20 a day. Why would that be? Possibilities....the costs of running the Four Seasons is considerably higher....possible. Their properties are more expensive to build I am sure as they have nicer finishings . Do they pay their staff more....possibly....

I have had some time off from work lately.  As a result I have been able to spend additional time with my children.  Time I can never have when I am working my regular ten to eleven hour days.  So far it has been a lot of fun.  Today I dropped them off at school in the morning and I stayed behind to read with my son in his classroom and then to watch his tap dancing class.  This is one of the PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) funded extra-curricular activities (ie. paid for by parents and not the school board). Unfortunately the tap class was cancelled as the instructor was a no-show.  So instead the teacher (happens to be a sub) brought them back to their class to have a spelling test.  Groans from some of the kids, cheers from others. The teachers were left scrambling a bit trying to figure out what to do.  Nobody knew what was going on and why the instructor had not shown up.  I would have expected any decent human to call the school, leave a message, give some notice that they would ...

They've almost completed building a traffic circle at one of the main intersections in our neighbourhood.  I am quite happy about it as it will mean less time idling at red lights and better flow.  My main concern  regarding the circle was that North Americans are not used to them and that, as a result, mayhem would reign at the intersection.  I could imagine people not yielding before entering the circles.  No signaling from drivers letting others know they are remaining in or exiting the circle.  Last second braking to avoid smash-ups.  Arms and hands being waved out of windows and sunroofs, fists clenched or various fingers raised (depending on your upbringing). Well, I have been pleasantly surprised.  The circle has been in place for a few months and drivers have been orderly.  Us humans figured it out...unaided! The issue now seems to be with the final touches on the circle.  Just like the last thing you do when building a house is paint it the last step of building a road is ...