Ideeahs

I awoke this past night to the smell of smoke. It may have been a coincidence or it could have some automatic instinct that awakes animals when a potential danger is lurking. Regardless, I woke up. I did not panic though and I made an assumption that this was somehow related to the fires burning four hundred kilometres north of Montreal. There are over fifty already burning in the Province of Quebec, nine of which are out of control. For the next few hours of sleep I awoke regularly - I can't tell you at what interval as the alarm clock is on my wife's side of the bed and, unless I put on my specs, I can't see the green numbers. Since I had not heard that smoke might make its way this far south I was not prepared for this and, therefore, I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. Something in the back of my mind made me wonder whether this was some other fire, closer to our home. Maybe a house in the neighbourhood? The alarm went off at 6:30 A.M. and the ne...

Businesses are under pressure. Pressure, from their customers, for quality and price and pressure, from their investors, for revenue and profit. With the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico we have another example of how it is one of these two pressures that unfortunately always wins out in the end - the investors and the drive for revenue and profit. The New York Times is reporting this morning that internal BP documents show that it had been aware of problems with the Deepwater Horizon rig for at least a few months (and up to eleven months) prior to the blowout. According to one expert in the field, given the hints of a problem that were so apparent, the right thing to do would have been to shutdown the operation until one could figure out the causes or the solution. Of course that was not done. Why is that? The answer seems obvious though it is not explicitly mentioned in the article - revenue. We, the consumers and the customers of BP, do not have enough clout.  We are...

My eyes are closed and I am seeing red. I decide to have a look outside. I can't open my eyes fully. Through a pair of slits I see that the sun is bright. Its rays are sparkling through the leaves of the branches hanging over me. I am lying on our hammock strung between and apple and an ash tree. On my belly lies the book I am reading (blink, by Malcolm Gladwell) and my iPod Nano. I am listening to Coldplay's Viva la Vida album. I need to close my eyes again and so, once again, my world becomes red. Sometimes it darkens as a cloud passes between the sun and my position. For the most part, though, all is red. I can feel the heat of the sun on my chin and on the left side of my nose. My forehead also feels the heat of that closest of the stars. Minute beads of sweat are forming below my nose. This is life. Live life. The moment. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

It may be because I am more attuned to these kinds of people now.  It may be because one tends to hang around people that share similar thoughts and experiences.  Or, it may just be that there is something fundamental going on.  Irrespective of the reason I have met yet another person this week that has taken time off of work.  I don't mean a two or three week vacation.  I mean months. This week I also came across an article on the Harvard Business Review website .  The article is about an advertising agency that asks their clients what their "Holy S#!t" number is.  By that they mean a number that truly has an impact on their world, their customers and ultimately their bottom line.  Ultimately their bottom line.  This is an important distinction.  Not directly - ultimately. Numbers that directly measure revenue are boring.  % of sales increase.  Cost of goods sold.  Profit margins.  Market penetration %.  B_O...

We are in the middle of the first heat wave of 2010 with temperatures in the 30s Celsius and humidex readings into the upper 30s.  Today's forecast calls for 38 degree weather.  It has been a long time since I felt that kind of heat. A few days ago I had a feeling that I had not felt in twenty or so years.  I went to the local park to shoot some hoops with my son.  The basketball court is newly resurfaced with black asphalt.  Consequently it absorbs just about all of the sun's energy that has made it through the atmosphere.  It is a hot place to hang out much less play a sport. Just walking onto the court meant that your armpits got moist.  It felt like I was walking into a bathroom a few minutes after someone had finished their shower.  Not quite the kind of humidity that allows you to right your name on a mirror - but close.  As we started passing the ball around and shooting some hoops the sweat beads started forming.  On my arms,...

This has been the kind of week where society's dependence on technology has become apparent to me.  I, for one, have become addicted to technology.  I know that this is the case because over the last few weeks I have become increasingly annoyed with the internet outages I was experiencing a few times a day.  It all peaked on Wednesday when they became persistent.  Thursday I was offline all day. Coincidentally, my mother in-law also suffered an outage to her internet connectivity this week.  In her case it was a trojan that made it on to her computer system.  It slowed the performance down terribly and kept redirecting her web browser to various advert and dubious websites.  It took me most of the day Tuesday to resolve her problem. Some time ago I heard an interesting anecdote about a airline traveller who goes from bliss to pissed-off in a matter of minutes.  He discovers, upon boarding, that his airplane is equipped with in-flight internet...

Well, my first book, "Avoiding the Blues', is one step closer to being published.  The proof copy is on its way, the Createspace webpage is up and running.  Have a look ( link ).  I am looking forward to seeing what may come of this.  I will keep everyone posted as I make my way through the final steps.  FYI that it will also be available on all (or so I am led to believe) Amazon websites. Stay tuned! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!