Ideeahs

New and improved. We all like that. Faster computers, cameras with more mega pixels, larger chocolate bars, different smells for soaps, etc. Many years ago I used to watch 60 Minutes religiously every Sunday evening and would look forward to Andy Rooney's commentary at the end of the sixty minutes. Today when I bought a bottle of Children's Tylenol I was reminded of one of Andy's commentaries. It was one of those where he covers his already messy desk and office with boxes of crackers, cookies, cereals and rolls of toilet paper and paper towels. He goes on to compare the present's product (new and improved often times) with the past's product carrying the same brand and name. The Ritz crackers now have 50 less grams in the package. The chips have less as well but the bag is the same size. Now you get twenty fewer squares of bumwad. You pay as much (or more) and you now get less of the newer and better, improved, product. So back to Tylenol. I was buying i...

The music is streaming in to my ears it goes and into my brain trying to distract me from my thoughts of past and future. The light is dimmed and illuminates with an orange glow. Surrounded by family yet wondering what is important in my life. Should family be first? Four? Six? Eight? Extended? Friends? In or out? Friendly advice or annoying opinions? Is it all just a search for distractions and an inability to express an opinion a lack of confidence, of place. Music, oh music....distract me! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

When I moved back to Quebec this summer I told myself that I would try to not get involved in politics. I have very little respect for most politicians as I find that they are egotistical, power hungry people who allow their beliefs to be twisted by the essence of power that they smell. One of the reasons I left this province back in 1992 was the politics. I had seen too many hours (days!, years!) of conversation wasted on the topic. Family arguments, doors slammed, glasses of wine poured on heads, yelling, a family split apart all due to the f-ing politicians whose goal it is to divide and conquer. Shame to those who allowed the politicians to take language and make it a weapon in their war for votes. Shame on those who continue to make this an issue. My view of the world is that communication is vital. To resolve disputes, to create, to love, to share ideas, to better the world. There are many ideas lying within individuals all over the world yet they remain hidden from us all...

A few days ago we went into a Starbucks here in Montreal. I ordered my regular drink, a Double Short Americano, and my wife ordered her Tall Soy Milk Latte. The dude at the counter shouted the order over to the barista - "One Piccolo Double Americano and one Mezzo Soy Milk Latte!!". Huh? The man told us that in Quebec Starbucks is not allowed to use the words Short and Tall. After a long absence from Quebec I had forgotten how ridiculous the French language protection law can be at times. Somehow replacing English words with Italian words will, I am sure of it, protect the usage of the French language. This in a place where the French language is regularly massacred in prime time television. Maybe they should clean up their act before trying to force others to learn Italian. One last comment......My thoughts wandered to my trip to Japan last year. There I was able to order a Double Short Americano...where this is a menu item. I just went to the Starbucks Coffee Japa...

A few days ago I stumbled upon a TED Talk given by Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a brain scientist, a neuroanatomist, who suffered a massive stroke and had the insight - and the unbelievable energy - to pay attention to what was happening to her. The talk moved me. Here was a lady who let her heart out in front of an audience without any apparent concern for her mannerisms, her tone, her look on stage. She just let it flow and let it rip. In the process she touched the gathered audience in Monterrey, California in February 2008 and now is doing the same to people around the world via ted.com. She mentions in her talk that, during the stroke, she could no longer see the physical shape of her arms, her body or the walls around her. That she only saw that there was energy and that she could not clearly (or at all) determine where her body ended and the rest began. It was all just molecules and energy with no perceived shape. She had lost her ability to structure the world with her left...

"There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." - Pierre Trudeau I could not agree more with that statement. In my mind the state should not meddle in anything other than what is necessary to create and maintain an infrastructure required to allow its citizens to live free - in speech, travel, ideas, employment, art, business, etc. Laws should be limited to those that ensure public safety - physical and of property. All this is true so long as the Earth is organized into units called states. If we ever evolve to another organizational framework my theory might change. So what am I on about exactly and why? You already know that we recently moved within Canada, from on province to another. From British Columbia to Quebec. Well, in Quebec there is a 1981 law that forbids a woman from taking her husband's name. This is what triggered this ideeah . First let me state my position on the topic. A woman should be free to keep her name or to take the name...