Ideeahs

I have written about how quickly the world is changing these days and commented on how this impacts society. In the world of finance, politics, technology the changes are coming faster and faster - all domains are affected.  Often times these changes are not insignificant and hard to ignore.  So changes come fast and they have impact on our lives.  I recently read a book (The Way of Transition) that took this subject and extended it to aging.  The conclusion was obvious when I read it but I had not thought about it until then. Society has always made use of tools and inventions to improve its standing.  As humans have evolved we have managed to disconnect ourselves from nature (though in the end nature always has its way).  We have inventions that have decreased the impact of seasonal change on what we eat.  That have permitted us to migrate like no other animals can.  A winter storm is not as big a deal as it might have been 100 years ago when communities would be cut off. As our depe...

After sixteen years of service I am saddened to let you all know of the passing of YKK.  He toiled hard in service to his master.  In the rain, the snow, the sleet, the hail.  Pulled up, drawn down.  He was yanked in anger, especially later in his life when his abilities started to fail him.  But warm he kept me.  Bruised and battered, yet working to protect me to the very last minute, he passed away January 27 at 8:41am - a snowy day. Replacing him - a rookie to the task.  Someone who, recently laid off from her previous employment in the paper fastening business, has retrained and is ready for this more physically intensive job.  I will call her Trombone - the French word for her previous profession.  May she last as long as YKK. That little voice utters "Maybe after 16 years you could buy a new jacket." Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

The length of a movie or...... Getting the kids outdoors for a walk can sometimes be a challenge.  The television has a strong magnetic force. Last weekend the four of us (wife, daughter, son and I) went for a walk around Point Grey.  I don't mean a walk around the neighbourhood called Point Grey but around the geographical Point Grey, the westernmost part of the city of Vancouver.  We walked to a beach called Tower Beach - so named because the remnants of two towers built during World War II still stand on it. Those towers were constructed in a very different time from our present.  They are gun towers that were built to protect Canada from a potential threat from Japanese warships.  Since the Pearl Harbor attack the west coast of North America was considered threatened and vulnerable.  The two towers were therefore built to help protect Vancouver's harbour. Today they are sealed shut and covered in colourful  graffiti.  There seems to be no effort to try and preserve these to...

Sitting in my daughter's bedroom.  It is very cozy.  A nice flowery duvet cover - all fluffed up.  Two pillows with flower patterns.  Stuffed animals in a corner.  Very neat and orderly.  Warm lighting.  She is reading a book and I am lying next to her reading mine. Silence..other than breathing and the flipping of a page now and then. She is in her world.  I am in mine.  Yet we are together. This is what life is all about. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I joined the Facebook community last week.  It is quite an amazing tool and shows you the importance of human networking.  For me it reinforces the theory of seven degrees of separation.  From that perspective Facebook is a great and useful tool. Having said that I awoke from slumber at 2:00am the day after I joined.  I was hyper and wired.  That had not happened to me since leaving work back in April.  At work I used instant messaging, email, phone, virtual worlds and other technologies to get through my many tasks.  This would result in many interruptions and a scatter-brain feel.  A need to know what is going on everywhere...NOW!   Facebook has resurfaced that feeling.  As I go through my day I find myself wondering what is going on in my network of friends.  It interrupts my thoughts.  A touch of voyeurism.  So what is my friend up to and who is he friends with?  What is she doing?  What are those two over there talking about?  I need to know....NOW. I will need to control this ...

Autumn of '84.  Sunny day.  Leaves on the ground.  I am wearing my Clarke desert boots, jeans, a white sweater and a scarf, tucked in around the collar.  I am running down Springfield Avenue looking over my shoulder.  The ball comes in and out of sight as its path is hidden by the low sun.  Darn....incomplete pass.  I run back to the Mount Stephen end of the street.  My turn to throw the ball. Soon we'll order a case from Sam's. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

The weather forecast for Vancouver has been sun for the last ten days or so and is for the next week.  Sounds great but where we live it has been foggy....every day.  If you go a little further east or into the mountains you get glorious sunshine and mild temperatures.  Here it is hovering around 1 or 2 degrees.  (I know, it is all relative to where in Canada you live!!). Our kids told us a joke at dinner recently. What is your name?  Olivier What colour is the sky, well in Montreal during the summer?  Blue What is the opposite of down?  Up Olivier blew up!! Hahaha Even the wording for jokes is being affected by the weather! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Once again I have been given a topic to write about courtesy of the school system.  Last week our children's school brought in some people from the University of British Columbia (UBC) to talk to children about healthy eating.  I think that nutrition is an important part of a child's education and believe that the place where that education should start is in their homes, with their parents.  However, given the busy world we all live in this does not seem possible on a daily basis.  But so long as the fundamentals are engrained in their little minds we can only hope that they will go through life conscious of the importance of healthy eating. So....what exactly did those folks from UBC tell the children.  I have heard about what happened in two of the classes only.  Check this out: 1) Kindergarten class.  They walked to the Domino's Pizza outlet a few blocks away.  There they made pizzas.  Superficially this is a cool idea.  The children like pizza, they like Domino's a...

I grew up in Montreal.  It is one of the snowiest large cities in the world and, due to this snow, lots of sand and salt are thrown onto city streets and sidewalks to prevent cars and pedestrians from slipping and sliding and also to minimize ice and freezing.  The result of all of this is that when spring arrives and the sun starts warming the city up again, the snows recede and what is left behind is a heck of a lot of grime.....and dog poop.  Every spring the aroma of the city changes.  Layers of dog poop start thawing as they get revealed by the disappearing snows of the winter.  Watch your step and breathe through your mouths.  Yuck. This winter Vancouver got a lot more snow than normal.  We had about fifty centimetres in our neighbourhood.  The city is not well equipped to clear the snow and so, four weeks later, there are still some snow banks.  There are still some shaded streets with snow covered sidewalks.  The city looks dirty and grimy and there is dog poop.  Lots of it. Du...

Hi Barack. The world has really not made it easy for you.   1) Middle Eastern hopes 2) African hopes 3) Improved relations with the world 4) Improved image of the United States in the world 5) Environmental issues 6) Afghanistan and Iraq (and Iran?, North Korea?) 7) Poverty 8) World Health issues 9) World recession Regardless of whether you succeed or not on impacting some or all of these, you have already done an amazing amount of good by renewing the level of hope in the world.  By bringing youth to the office.  By bringing a fresh point of view and way of doing business.  For that alone, thanks! So good luck Mr. President! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Walking around our neighbourhood I started thinking about population density and the growth of cities.  I saw some of the new day-care centres  that were just completed nearby.  This area of the city of Vancouver is growing rapidly and the demand for these services is also growing.  Those that were built years ago were all single storey buildings.  There are about ten or so of these.  The news ones are also single storey buildings .  I wondered why they chose single storey?  Zoning should not be an issue since there are eighteen storey apartment buildings backing onto some of the daycare.  All of these could have fit into one building with a slightly larger footprint and about six storeys high. My thoughts than moved on to my trip to Japan and an entry in my Autumn in Japan blog comparing the sizes of Tokyo and Vancouver as well as their population densities.  Greater Vancouver's population is about 2.1 million.  The surface area it covers is about 2877 square kilometres.  If Vanc...

Trying to view the "We Are One" concert from the Lincoln Memorial, part of the Obama Inauguration.  Quite the challenge here in Canada.  Here are my options. 1) Subscribe to the pay television channel HBO Canada. 2) Watch RDI, the all news channel of the french language Canadian national broadcaster, Societe Radio-Canada.  So, while not ideal, I can listen to it there with speeches translated in French.  I would rather here the speeches in English. 3) Newsworld, the all news channel of the English language Canadian national broadcaster, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is not an option as it is showing the Antiques Roadshow - yep that is history in the making and definitely more important than the inauguration events happening now. 4) HBO.com webcast.  Nope... here is the message I receive "This video is only available in the U.S. and Territories.  We apologize to the rest of the world." 5) I can listen to the audio on National Public Radio (NPR) the American...

1978 or 9.  Going to Phantasmagoria, the record shop on du Parc just north of Sherbrooke.  Looking through the wooden bins filled with records.  Deciding on Who Are You, The Who's latest album.  $4.99. Once home, I slit open the cellophane and the record falls to the ground.  Argh.  Will it be scratched?  It had been inserted with the inner envelope facing the wrong way. The vinyl is red!   You can almost see through it.  Cool! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Our daughter was given a booklet by her a teacher entitled Daily Physical Activity For Families .  It is published by the Government of British Columbia and is meant for children in Grades 4 through 6.  Basically it says that you need to get off your behinds and move for sixty to ninety minutes per day.  It could be by running around, by helping with chores, by walking - whatever. On page 10 of the book our government informs us that: Kids your age should not use computers or watch TV for more than two hours a day. Remember that this booklet is intended for children in Grades 4 through 6 - children that are somewhere between nine and twelve years of age.  Fourteen hours of TV a week!  Gosh.  That fourteen hours has become the acceptable number for sitting on your arse watching the boob tube at ten years of age amazes me. I tried to understand how one is supposed to follow our government's suggestions.  Here is our family (a typical?) schedule. 7:00am - Get out of bed! 7:15am - Get ...

At breakfast one morning the children starting talking about how they are learning to write cursively at school.  Over our morning grains my daughter expressed concern that last year the teacher permitted students to make heavier uses of loops and that this year (my gosh!) loops are strictly being controlled by the teacher. I remember this part of my education as well.  Each line on the foolscap paper was split into thirds.  The stems of the "p" had to be of a certain length.  The "t" needed to reach two thirds of the way up, no more or less. I find it interesting that we continue to be so strict when teaching cursive writing.  After all, we know that we all create our own unique scripts as we get older - some of them completely illegible. Nobody makes their Qs this way anymore....do they?  So why teach it that way? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

You and I are Homo sapiens sapiens.  Part of the order of Primates and the family of Hominidae.  In the Kingdom of Animalia.  We are animals. Our appearance on Earth goes back approximately 200,000 years before present (BP).  We migrated out of our east African home about 70,000 BP.  We developed language at 50,000 BP.  It took another 40,000 years to understand the basics of agriculture in 10,000 BP.  In 6,000 BP the first nation-like organizations appeared with cities and armies to defend them.  We then figured how to conquer and expand territory using those armies thus giving rise to Greece, Rome and China in 3000 to 2000 BP.  That is when things really took off. I believe that, today, we live in a world where new inventions are coming out a pace that is hard to keep pace with.  I don't just mean in the field of consumer electronics.  I include our understanding and invention in physics, in biology and medicine, in finance - in all fields. New gadgets come out that society feels...

I am a fan of technology - especially the kind which eases communication between people.  For that reason the Internet and the myriad of devices that connect to it are mostly of benefit to our world.  They bring people closer together by easing our ability to share ideas and, consequently, exposing us to disparate ideas.  Together we get a broader view of the world.  All good.  Mostly. While I was working one of the topics that would often come up at the lunch table was attention deficit disorder (ADD).  Many of us felt that we were becoming less and less able to focus on a subject or task for more than five minutes.  We could each say that we were constantly interrupted by telephone calls, email messages, chats on a messaging system, or someone walking into our cubicles.  All of those are external events however.  The more disturbing kind was that, even if none of these external events occurred in the five minute period, our brains would cause an interruption.  Our thoughts would wand...

Springtime in Saint-Laurent.  A blue sky day.  You can feel the sun.  Across the street from my cousins' house is the Bois-Franc - a wooded area as yet untouched by suburbia.  The snows of the winter are melting quickly causing the forest bed to flood and temporary creeks to form.  We are out their floating on child-made rafts of fallen logs and twigs.  Deep into the woods we go, hoping not to get our feet wet, using branches to propel ourselves forward. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

How did Nemo make it through the Sydney Water Treatment plant? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

They know best. They know right from wrong.  They offer advice. They say we should eat more of this and less of that. They say we should act this way or that. They say this or that. We then quote them in conversation. We use their ideas to make decisions. We trust some of them and believe some of them. We disagree with others of them. Who are they? Find out. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

When I was writing my entry entitled Perspective I came across this webpage  hosted by Florida State University.  It takes you from one incomprehensible world that is ten million light years across to one that is one hundred attometres across -  in thirty-nine steps.  From one universe with nothing but space to another much smaller one with nothing but space. I wanted to share it so that we can all gain a bit more perspective and try to not take ourselves so seriously. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

It is eight in the evening.  My parents are in the pousada's dining room finishing dinner.  I am in the guest room upstairs.  This is one of my favourite spots in the world.  It could be my second home.  A modern inn, overlooking a dammed lake in the Monchique forest in the Alentejo region of Portugal.  Green and mountainous.  Clean, fresh air. My Aiwa portable cassette player is playing Genesis' new album, Genesis.  I am lying in bed, the tunes are loud in my head and I am singing along to Mama, Home by the Sea, That's All, etc. I am told that the chambermaids enjoyed the "concert". Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

We are playing Monopoly on a cool, breezy winter's day in Vancouver.  It is the late afternoon and the clouds have finally given way to some sun, the setting sun.  It is low in the sky and its rays are streaming deep into our home directly to the corner where I am sitting awaiting my turn. My Monopoly situation is not very good.  I own Electric Company and Vermont Avenue.  The others own the rest.  But I am loaded with cash!  I close my eyes and the situation improves. The sun's rays turn orange as they pass through the thin, blood filled skin of my eyelids.  All I see is a bright orange as if I were on a beach somewhere on a hot summer day.  I feel great and my body warms. Pretty amazing star - even without feeling its heat I feel warmer. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Beware, a rant follows. My mother-in-law was supposed to arrive from Montreal on Air Canada flight 183, arriving at 16:49 on December 25th, here in Vancouver. When she awoke that morning she checked to see whether her flight was still scheduled for an on-time departure. Nope. It had been cancelled. She called Air Canada and was put on hold for an hour to be told that all flights starting with a one (ie. 1xx) had been cancelled. Interesting. Flight AC 111 arrived from Montreal at 10:41am on time (well, two minutes late). Air Canada's website stated that delays and cancellations were expected in Vancouver due to "winter conditions". If you consider partly cloudy, melting snow and a temperature of 1 degree Celsius winter conditions there is something wrong with you and you certainly cannot claim to be the Great White North's national airline. I checked the website of Vancouver International. Only three Air Canada flights were cancelled the 25th (one from Victori...

All the best over the next three hundred sixty-five. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!