Ideeahs

The Past The Present The Future As long as your life lived. The day, the hour, the minute, the second, the millisecond, the nanosecond, the picosecond. The yet to come. When does the past begin and the future end? When does the present become the past? When does the future become the present? This hour? This minute? This picosecond? How to concentrate on ceaseless present moments when they are but a fleeting moment - gone in a picosecond and forever banished to the annals of the past? Does the present have a beginning and an end? If not, is there really a past and a future or is it all just the present? Should the present be considered in a timeless context instead? Eliminate time and all is present? Our life's timeline is like an elastic band. We are born with a very short timeline. As we age the elastic band gets stretched. To the left of the present, lies the past, our history and memories....forever longer. The certainty of the past. To the right the future - alwa...

On November 19 we headed up to Ottawa. Now that we live in Montreal, Ottawa is a short hour and forty-five minute drive away and therefore our intent is to go there fairly regularly to see the various museums and for a change of scenery. On our first trip we decided to take in the Parliament, walk around Byward Market and the path at the foot of Parliament that longs the banks of the Ottawa River. The Parliament Buildings are beautiful. Most impressive to me was the library with all of its intricate woodwork and carvings. A majestic room indeed. The thought and meaning behind the decorations was also very interesting. Stain glass windows, ceiling paintings, statues and plaques. It is a place that, for a relatively short history, humbles with history and sacrifices made by others on behalf of Canada. It was an enjoyable visit......and it included a laugh. After passing a second set of airport-style security we, at around 12:50, took our seats in the Public Gallery of the House t...

A few years ago I attended a conference as a guest of an Indian IT outsourcing company. Some of their other invited customers were managers from the airline industry. I remember listening to these people talk about their competitiveness and their innovation. A question immediately popped up into my mind, which I did not ask, unfortunately. "To me innovation is about offering new products and new services. Distinguishing yourself by adding more value, often for the same price. How is it that cutting services and/or starting to charge extra fees from them can be considered innovative?" Over the last years the airlines have started charging for booze, food, seat selections, head phones, blankets, pillows. I remembering reading that Ryanair was considering charging for the use of toilets (see link ). Now I am reading that Air Canada is going to introduce a charge to people requesting the bulkhead or exit rows as they have extra leg room. Pity those mums travelling with k...

Last night, for the first time in a year, I meditated. Coincidentally this was exactly one year after I first tried meditation. The scene could not be different however. A year ago I was in Koya-san, a mountain retreat established by Kukai, the founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism. Yesterday I was in the media room of the Beaconsfield library. What a contrast. Of course location should not make a difference at all. If one concentrates on the moment, on breath, on all senses and if one tries not to focus on the bombardment of thoughts coming in to distract, one should be able to feel the same here, there and everywhere. Or so goes the theory. I have been looking for, and continue yearning for, a present of the present. But no one will hand it to me or give it to me....I need to find it within and this is very hard indeed given my 100 mile an hour brain. How to stop it? How about just slowing it down? How to stop comparing the present to the past? How to stop improving t...

I just finished reading an article from the Canadian Press which was published Sunday. It talks about the sanitary conditions in the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto that was in the news in 2008 due to a listerioisis outbreak that killed twenty-two people. I wrote about this back in September 2008 and feel a need to restate my opinion again. One month after the Toronto plant was re-opened inspectors found slime, rust, mould, meat parts and other dirt on various bits of equipment. Some of the items were resolved a month later but not all. So now, twelve months later, I can't help but wonder what might be lurking in the corners of the plant, in the knife holders, under the work counters, etc. If public safety was at risk back in 2008 how can it be that it took twelve months for this to be picked up and reported on by the press? Anyone who cooks and spends time in a kitchen knows that it takes some effort to keep even an apartment kitchen clean. Food scraps end up stuck betwe...

This short came from a car ride I took a few months back. We were driving to see my dying father in-law and my son asked "What happens when you take your foot off the accelerator?" The car speeds along the road. We each live life at our own speeds on unique roads. The car slows as I lift my foot off the accelerator. Full of life we can't imagine slowing down. The car stops and I walk out to say, We can only hope to have said, Goodbye? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Back in June 2008 I wrote about rules and how they put a damper on creativity. Now I am starting to have an additional view about those rules and regulations we all read and either must comply to or feel obliged to due to some new "best practice". Here are two examples that will give you context. One. We recently moved in to a house built in 1965. Before buying it we had it inspected. The house is in great shape, buy it. Great. We did. In the report there were a few things that the inspector noted. One of the items was that the window sills are made of brick. Those particular bricks are a little more exposed to rain water, snow and the thawing and freezing affects because of their flat orientation. He suggests that we should put some sort of water sealant on the sills to protect them. This all makes sense of course. So here is the way I have digested the information. "Oh my gosh! The bricks need to be sealed as soon as possible because they are on the verg...

Halloween has come and gone but all the candies that my children collected are still piled high five days after the big day. So we are having regular treats now. Smarties is one of the more popular options in my family because there are many candies in a box (apparently size does not matter when it comes to candies.....), they are colourful and they are fun to sort into their respective colours. So...yes....they are colourful. Intelligently the makers of Smarties (Nestle) have decided to no longer use artificial colours in Smarties. Good news. They announce this on the side of the box by stating "No Artificial Colours*". If you follow the asterisk to the back of the box Nestle goes on to say "Non-Artificial Colours are prepared from natural sources. For more information visit www.smarties.ca". So I went there to find out more. The page with all the details is http://www.smarties.ca/main/english/noartificial.html. Question 2 on the page tells you that ...

The jet is sitting on the tarmac. It is -4 Celsius outside. Buried in the massive hull of the airplane lies a tiny package destined for my son...... On October 30, Friday, I bought an iPod from the apple.ca store. The device itself is approximately 45mm by 18mm by 8mm and weighs 10.7 grams. On October 31 my order was filled and on November 2 it left Shanghai, China at 21:30. It was in Anchorage at 11:52 the same date (local time). It should be here, in Montreal, on November 4 according to UPS. This is amazing. Here I was, at home, in my slippers, one afternoon. I clicked and bought this tiny device that will allow us to store 4GB worth of data. The click started an amazing chain of events that is only possible due to the amazing human brain and its ability to create a telecommunications network and devices that allow for almost instantaneous transmissions of credit card information between consumer and supplier, address details between consumer, supplier and shipper. Imagine f...