Ideeahs

The Earth's atmosphere is about one hundred kilometres thick.  Given that Earth is about 40,000 kilometres in diametre it is pretty clear that what protects life here is a pretty thin line.   Driving at highway speeds you would be in space in just under hour.  To drive the point home: If you live in Vancouver and got on Highway 1 at Boundary Road and drove east for 100 km you would be in space just passed Chilliwack.  Montrealers would reach space if they drove east on Highway 20 to Drummondville.  New Yorkers hoping on I495 at the Queens Midtown Tunnel would not even make it to the last exit of the Long Island Expressway.  You Londoners?  Hope on the M1 at Brent Cross and space would hit you in Northampton. The vast; the unimaginable; the unfathomable is just a short drive away. Society is never that far from falling apart either.  Its seemingly rock-solid foundation can easily be toppled.  A handful of zealots (think 9-11, Mumbai, Lon...

In my upcoming book, " Avoiding the Blues ", I mention how the advancements which politics and corporations have brought us are poised to bring about their demise.  The last 24 hours have shown this yet again. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK is in the midst of the 2010 parliamentary race.  As the world now knows he called a woman "bigoted" while on the campaign trail.  The fact that a human being called another a bigot is not newsworthy in and of itself.  Stuff like this happens on Main Street on a constant basis. The fact that an elected official, the Prime Minister no less, was the culprit makes it newsworthy.  Somehow the elected office means, to most, that these particular humans are something extraordinary - in the true sense of the word.  Why should these humans somehow be considered to be something more than ordinary?  Sure they got elected (well, in most cases) to office.  They have had to suffer through much scrutiny of their e...

One of the items in the Harry Potter books that I find fantastic is the fact that, in the world of wizards anyway, people in paintings and pictures can move.  They go about their lives and decide to appear (or not) in a particular frame.   I find it to be a very appealing concept for some reason. If only... Ahh..the moving picture. It has a certain appeal doesn't it? While writing this entry I could hear the whisperings of three children — two of them my own — sitting in our television room.  They were watching Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Prior to that the two boys had played on my daughter's NintendoDS while she hurriedly did her homework.  It was a cold, rainy and windy day so I understood how indoor activities appealed to the assembled eight and ten year-olds. For reasons which are not completely clear in my own mind I often grimace when my children ask me whether or not they can watch a movie, television, or play on their DS.  W...

Over the last few years I have often heard how expensive extracting oil from the Alberta oil sands was both in terms of dollars and energy use.  An article in the April issue of GEO magazine really hit the point home for me.  I had never spent the time to read about what was happening in northern Alberta and, now that I have, I just do not understand why we are allowing this work to go on. Some numbers: -The boreal forest that has been zoned for the work is one quarter the size of France. -To get to the oily sand you need to dig an average of 50 metres below the surface. -So you need to deforest 141,000 square kilometres. -It costs $25-$35 to produce a barrel of oil here.  On the North Sea and in Saudi Arabia the costs per barrel are $15 and $5 respectively. -Between 2 and 4 tons of sands are required to produce a single barrel. -It takes the equivalent of two barrels of conventional oil to produce one barrel of oil sands oil. -It takes 300,000 cubic metres of ...

After some procrastination we have finally put up a "no-flyers" sticker on our mailbox.  We had been thinking about doing this for many months and had just not gotten around to it.  Thursday we decided we had to....and soon.  The reason is that the companies that distribute these annoying flyers have completely lost their minds.  Two examples in photographs below. The first, above, was a bag loaded with a bunch of flyers for food shops, supermarkets, fast food joints, perfume.  Crap we never look at.  But what really got me was that the company that prints and distributes these bags of dung, Transcontinental, is actually trying to spin this service as green.   "Green looks good on your door - bag biodegradable, flyers recyclable".  I find that to be almost the last straw in pathetic marketing.  No wonder Transcontinental is the sixth largest printer in North America.  Look at all the crap they deliver to who knows how many houses in...

This is the story of a man who had a knack to make dinner at his restaurant memorable - Shafeen Jamal. His family owned a restaurant in Vancouver called Rubina Tandoori - or simply, The Rubina - on Kingsway just west of Victoria, on the south side of the road. My wife and I accidentally fell upon this restaurant one evening in 1994 or 1995. We were on our way home after a long day at work and we were hungry. We didn't know too many restaurants on Kingsway and, when we saw the red neon sign for Rubina,  we parked and decided to give it a go. Many Indian restaurants in Vancouver are very plain looking from the out and inside.  As we entered The Rubina we wondered whether we had made a mistake.  Luckily, we were immediately greeted and the point of no return had been passed.  Walking out now was not an option.  We hesitatingly walked in and were seated in the dimly lit dining room at the back of the restaurant. Sitar-heavy tunes and fragrances from the kit...

The more our body of knowledge increases the more rules we seem to create to protect ourselves from the various dangers which our unquenchable thirst for knowledge uncovers. Ignorance truly is bliss and, while it may be dangerous in hindsight, something can't be considered dangerous until the previously unknown danger actually appears and makes itself known to us. There can be no fear of the unknown possibilities that may lie ahead. So rather than not act due to fear one can live in ignorance and, unknowingly, with risk. Yes, I had to read the paragraph above a few times to see whether it makes sense....it does (to me anyway). This post is about a "danger" my family and I were suddenly made aware of.  One that had been lying dormant for years and that suddenly created a life and death (I say that with considerable sarcasm) situation. It all starts on a Wednesday when, as good new home owners, we had our furnace inspected. The technician arrived and started inspecti...

The ash cloud that Eyjafjallajökull has spewed over Europe has brought about all the expected behaviours.  "Gordon Brown under pressure to get Britain flying" screams our The Times.  What a ridiculous headline.  Yep, it is up to him isn't it? First you have the regulatory bodies, the arms of elected governments.  They have taken the cautious approach of banning almost all flights since they do not really know what the consequences of flying through an ash cloud are.  Erring on the side caution they have determined that jumbo jets filled with 300+ people should not be flying.  After all the job of a government is to protect its citizenry. Understandable. Airlines, over the last twenty-four hours have also started to take make their voices heard.  We have heard about flights through the ash cloud with airline CEOs on board.  Somehow the fact that the CEO is onboard is meant to alleviate all our fears.  The bottom line for the airlines is n...

It seems that most media outlets are just referring to it as Iceland's volcano or, even simpler, as "the volcano".  While Eyjafjallalökull may never become a household name (this morning it was deemed unpronounceable by someone on Radio-Canada) it is having its moment of fame these days. Its name reminds me of the alphabet soup that might be written into a bubble over a Belgian cartoon character's head after he has been clobbered in the head by some falling bird dung.  "Merde! !@$&@!%", or now, Eyjafjallajökull!  It would make for an interesting new swear word. My plane has been delayed - EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL!! I can't attend my daughter's wedding - EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL!! There go my vacation plans - EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL! Yes, the explosion of Iceland's volcano has caused some airplane traffic chaos over the last day or so.  We may be in for a few more days, even weeks, of inconvenience.  In fact nobody really know how long it might last.  If (w...

A few weeks ago I sat down to watch some television, something which I rarely do.  Well it wasn't some television....it was three hours in a row.  It had been months, maybe a year, since I had watched three hours of programming. First up was One Ocean - a four-part documentary on the oceans of Earth and their importance to the survival of all living things on our planet.  This particular episode was about how the ocean has been polluted and fished to, in some parts, death.  Off the coast of Oregon it was explained that there are now "dead zones" where the water has been so depleted of oxygen that fish lie dead on the ocean's bottom - and not just a few - thousands of them in the equivalent of a mass-grave.  Acidity levels are rising killing off reefs.  The cycle of life in the ocean, from the smallest organisms to whales, has been severely affected by human action. Second was Grey's Anatomy.  This particular night's episode showed how one of the pr...

The burqa is again making headlines in Quebec and I, again, need to speak up.  This time with a caricature. A couple shows up at the provincial court house to be wed in a civil ceremony.  The Justice of the Peace watches over the attending family and the excited couple as they all take their seats.  The groom is dressed in a rented tuxedo.  The shoes polished to bowling ball gleam.  The bride is dressed in pure white.  They are holding hands and anxiously waiting for the Justice of the Peace to begin reciting the verses they wrote for their special day. Finally the Justice begins: "Please rise.  Ahem....I....I."  He seems nervous for some reason.  Strange since he has presided over hundreds of these ceremonies. "Before we begin I need to ask you to remove your veil Madame...Madame..." he glances down at his notes for the name, "Madame Tremblay.  Quebec provincial law prevents me from providing any services to women whose fac...

Is there an analogy to be made between video games and life? Let's try. The first few levels are meant to teach you how to manipulate various objects in your newfound world. How to navigate around obstacles and stand on your two feet. How to communicate with other players and participants. Once you have mastered those first few years your confidence grows and the challenges increase. More objects to find, foes to battle, people to meet and to collaborate with. Milestones and objectives are set forth for you. Badges to attain before being allowed to graduate to a more advanced grade. In the middle levels you now have the hang of the world and you wonder where the hidden treasure is. Maybe a bit of frustration sets in. Many toss the game cartridge away at this point, unable to make it to the end of the story. Others embrace the difficulties and persevere thriving on the unknown future. The final few levels bring you closer to the treasure - to the bliss of the end. ...

What is a career?  What career progression is generally accepted?  What is a career change? I often ask myself these questions these days. Society's generally accepted definition of career progression could be defined as growing knowledge and responsibility, married with promotions and an increasing salary, in a specific industry.  The key words being "specific industry".  This is a very industry and company centric view and not a very human centric view.  It allows for people to easily make job changes within an industry but it hampers career changes, across industries, tremendously.  Interestingly it is the definition that we all give in to and tend to use whether as hiring managers or job seekers.  Why is that? Risk aversion may be the main culprit.  Employers and employees are all guilty of this - en masse.  The roots for this aversion to risk taking are very real of course - and they are financial.  If a company's business is b...

My children often ask me to act out one of their stuffed animals as I tuck them into bed for the night.  A few months ago I picked up one of my son's two stuffed Mickey Mouses and acted it out.  It was a big hit.  He suggested that I make a video and post it.  Well, months later, I have fulfilled my promise.  Here it is for the world to see.  Maybe it will give you a chuckle. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Reading an article, on CBC.ca, regarding an increase in calls to 911 centres in Surrey, British Columbia, I couldn't help but make a connection between two types of call centres. Centre 1 I need help! The software I just bought is not installing and I can't seem to get my head around the problem. I had better phone the help desk. Or I can call my buddy working in Delhi. So I start dialing 91-11. Darn I forgot to dial 011. Hang up and redial. Centre 2 This child needs help! He was just struck by a car while riding his bicycle on the street. Dial 911! Quickly! Crap, why are they not answering? CBC News - British Columbia - Solution sought for 911 dialling errors Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

"As far as we are concerned the payment has been sent. Contact the merchant." "We have not received payment so please contact your bank." Meanwhile I am out $261 and can't drive. "It is not our operating system. Please contact the application vendor." "Our application is fine as we can't recreate the problem here. Please contact Microsoft." Meanwhile I can't use my application. "We have checked our cables and all is fine. We can view the picture." "The cabling on our end is OK. Please contact the service provider." Meanwhile I have no programming. "Our compiler is working properly. There is an error in your code." "I have compiled it under another and the code is fine. Check with the manufacturer." Meanwhile the application is down. Has this ever happened to you? Surely it has. That line of demarcation which different vendors do not ever want to cross. It is like the Korean DMZ - a no ...

In this day and age where people are looking for quick and easy ways to make hiring decisions certifications are becoming more important. I know because I am out there trying to find a job. -You don't have Project Management Institute (PMI) Certification? -No I do not but I have managed teams that are twenty or more in size, and indirectly been responsible for projects involving sixty or more. I have been responsible for creating and managing project plans, reporting on milestones and for managing risks. I have created dashboards, I have reported to steering committees and internal audit teams. I have been responsible to a budget, to a schedule and to specific service levels and deliverables. I have managed stakeholders and third parties. -But we are looking for someone with PMI Certification. -You don't have ITIL certification? -No I do not but I have managed teams that have delivered service and support to customers around the world. I have been responsible for managing...

Living is easy with eyes closed.... The system of world trade and commerce is pretty amazing when you think about it. If you open up your eyes to what you are buying and give it a bit of thought I think you will find that we are pretty lucky. There are many people who will say that we are well on our way to destroying the planet because of trade. I disagree. I would argue that it is, rather, our dependence on non-renewables for transport, our incessant need to replace material objects that are not broken and our tendency to buy more than we need - and see it waste and decay in a veggie drawer - that are some of the primary causes. Yesterday I bought two pounds of Florida strawberries for $2.99. It made me think of this world we live in and I must say I was torn. Torn between buying fruits that come from a place that is 2200 km away and just thinking of how lucky we are to be able to buy these fruits. First off think about this. $2.99. These strawberries were hand picked, package...

How important must a message be if its sender takes the time to print it in colour on a glossy piece of paper, insert it into a plastic bag and then, to boot, have it hand delivered to your front door? I would think very. I am not talking about a publi-sac with adverts and flyers from twenty different businesses. No...I mean one advert, one bag. Mazekia Kitchen, a kitchen renovation joint clearly thinks its message is important. But clearly it is not important enough for them to target it. Rather they dropped off one of these plastic bags at every house in our neighbourhood. Foolish waste of money don't you think? I am thinking there are more effective ways reach your target. Time to rethink the advertising campaign, especially in this day and age where people go and get information for themselves rather than wait for it to arrive. Our kitchen was renovated, by the previous owners of our house, two or three years ago. Whomever approved the budget for this must not have thou...

On my walk home this morning, from accompanying my children to school, I saw a few signs that nature, and not the calendar, had decided that spring had definitely settled in. Robins were chirping and scurrying around on front lawns. In the air, against a heavy and overcast, low-cloud sky, I saw Canada Geese flying north in their signature V. The forecast calls for temperatures in the twenties this weekend - even upper twenties! The weather specialists are saying we may very well break more records - after having had a record breaking winter for warm temperatures and lack of snow. So I was walking home happily. Halfway I noticed a tingling sensation in my nose. No deeper than that, in my sinuses. Not quite the feeling you have when you are cold which is to say no congestion or pressure. Just tingling. In fact, as I am writing this I still have the sensation. I also noticed a smell. Finding words to describe the smell accurately is proving hard. Chlorine? Some other chemical?...