One of my old Open Text buddies has informed me that the chili-cheese burrito has been dropped from the menu of Waterloo-area Taco Bell restaurants.  Mike and I were perhaps the last of the local chilito fans, always tacking one on to our lunch combo for good measure.  Within our small circle (technically with two points I guess it’s a line segment not a circle) there was not only an appreciation for the venerable concoction, but a set of guidelines that went along with the lore:

1. Never open a chilito and look inside.  Never.
2. A chilito is to be dipped in hot sauce.
3. Even though it is probable that one of the bandaids fell off of the scary cashier-lady’s fingers into the burrito-steamer, it is not to be discussed while consuming the chilito.
4. It’s best to drive an extra ten minutes to the Kitchener Taco Bell to avoid having to discuss #3 (she works at the Waterloo location, has for what I assume must be the last 85 years).

We are not the only ones who are chilto fans, indeed there is an entire website dedicated to its tracking and pursuing its eventual return to all North American stores.

Some interesting chilito facts:

• In 1986, Taco Bell acquired the Faux-Mex restaurant chain known as Zantigo, known for their Chilito, a chili-cheese burrito. The chilito was added to the Taco Bell menu, then later quietly dropped after comedian Paul Rodriguez pointed out the negative connotations of the word chilito (a slang for penis) in Mexican Spanish dialect.
• A chilito contains 383 calories, not bad for about a buck!
• Until recently, it was on the menu in Ontario taco bell restaurants as the “Chili Cheese Burrito”, I haven’t actually seen “chilito” used since I was a kid but still call it that to this day.

The tender offer finished up last night, and as of this morning Stellent is now 92% owned by Oracle.  Oracle will now take control of the board of directors, and it looks like they’ll spend the next few days taking the steps required to merge the company into a wholly-owned subsidiary.
I guess it’s time for me to finally order some new business cards!

It used to be that I would get frustrated finding only the same hits every time I do a google search (like “Securemote Vista”).  Then I’d get frustrated when searching for new information only to find stuff that I already know.  Now when searching for new information I’m finding my own words!
Xbox Live launched their TV and Movie service today, something I’ve been looking forward to.  Went downstairs to try it out, and nothing.  Either it’s not up yet or they’re blocking Canada, so I goes to Google to see what what.  Type in “xbox live hd movies canada” and review the results.  And guess what I find?  Some idiot from Milton who ranted about a month ago about how it sounds good but like all other good movie services probably wouldn’t work in Canada.  And like so many other searches I’ve done lately, that idiot is me.
The world needs more people to be writing about things that interest me so that I can get a fresh opinion.  Unlike Fox News, I really do enjoy opinions other than my own.

Well we certainly have Fridays, about fifty-two of them every year, but none of them to my knowledge are black.
Black Friday (the day after thanksgiving) is the first big shopping day of the year in the United States, and it seems to make the news more and more every year.  In order to kick off the shopping season, most retailers have crazy sales that works up the general public into a shopping frenzy.  More recently, the Black Thursday flyers have been acquired early and posted on the internet for people to get prepared.  They line up outside locked doors all night so that they can be first in line to pick up that plasma TV for 90% off.
Here in Canada we have an equally puzzling day called Boxing Day, and it is the day after Christmas.  It’s origins somewhat unknown, it is now most famous as the biggest shopping day in Canada.  Retailers sell off excess inventory from the Christmas season, and the general hype looks alot like Black Friday.  The ads are all top-secret (and more likely to be kept as such so they don’t hurt the “real” Christmas sales), there are websites posting the flyers as soon as they get their hands on them, and there are people lining up outside the stores waiting to take home that plasma television for 90% off.
So while there won’t be any craziness north of the 49th parallel this weekend, don’t worry it’ll just take us another month or so to show everyone our crazy.

It was not quite as earth shattering as people had made it out to be, but Garth Turner just held a press conference in Ottawa where he announced, amongst other things, that he is resigning from the Conservative Party of Canada.
A few weeks ago he was suspended from Caucus, which means he is no longer allowed to sit as a conservative MP, but he was not actually removed from the party. Party membership is open to anyone, including you and me, should they want to align themselves with the values and policies of the party.
So what exactly prompted this move, and what are the other topics that Garth spoke on today?
Well let me step back even a bit more than he did in his statement today and give a quick rundown of how someone gets elected in Canada.

1. A local riding association is formed, and is aligned with the party of their choice (in this case the Conservative Party of Canada)
2. Members of the riding association (mostly volunteers) nominate candidates for election in their area, eventually one person is chosen to run as “the conservative candidate for Halton”.
3. Volunteers work to raise money for the party and for the candidate in preparation for an election.
4. When an election is called, the riding association is the local group who works to get their candidate elected.
5. Once elected, that person becomes a member of parliament and is responsible to represent all constituents in their riding.
6. Lather, rinse, repeat.

What happened in the case of Halton is that after being elected, the unelected party officials in Ottawa chose to remove Garth Turner from the conservative caucus. This was done without input, consultation, or even communication with the local riding association. Not only was he removed from his immediate role in Ottawa, but he had already been chosen by the local riding association to be the next conservative candidate for Halton; that nomination was retroactively quashed by the party brass.

If I can put myself in the position of the riding association for a moment, I would be mighty ticked off. I went through a ton of work to get this guy elected, fought tooth and nail to get him propped up for the next election, and raised alot of money based on the name of the candidate that we’ve been backing. Not only do you pull my guy, but you tell me that you don’t have to share with me your reasons? You just do it on a whim and don’t even talk to me? There’s an election likely coming within the next 12 months and I’ve got to start from scratch while wiping the egg off of my face that got there through no fault of my own because you felt like it!?!! Yes, I’d be a little upset if that were me.

Back on topic now… Garth Turner today registered his disgust with the way things went down. It is up to the people of the riding to choose a candidate, it is up to the people of the riding to get that candidate elected, and it is up to the people of the riding to bust their humps for no money and little appreciation. If the people can have their will overturned by some faceless guy in Ottawa, then what’s the point? Is politics for the people or not? The position of Garth Turner is that under the existing system the answer is clearly “it’s not”.

So where do we go from here? Garth Turner has cited examples of his effectiveness as an independent MP for the last few week, and will refocus on making sure that all independent MPs have a chance to be effective. This includes changing some of the rules of the house, bringing these topics to the top of mind across the country, and doing the best indpependent job he can in the remaining months.

As for me, my thought is that all of these changes would require the votes of people who are happily aligned with parties already and democratic reform coming from the mouth of one person isn’t going to amount to much. HOWEVER I do think that with a whole country to solicit it might be possible to get a new political party started, The Independent Party whose sole mission is to get independent candidates elected, supported, and backed by the things that make a political party powerful in Ottawa. Instead of trying to beat them, join them and show the country how party politics can really be played.

Update:  I just read the transcript, and Garth will be launching a new forum which will help to move forward this agenda.  It’s called Promises Kept, and will be located at http://www.promiseskept.ca.

I won’t comment on this because obviously I’m right in the middle of it, but here are some links:

Oracle Press Release

Oracle FAQ (this is a good read)

Stellent Press Release 

Oracle / Stellent Powepoint 

I just got back from my physical, and surprise surprise she says I need to exercise.  I was told the same thing at my last physical about 18 months ago, but I decided to try green tea as a way to boost my HDL (which apparently didn’t work).  So we had a conversation where my doctor challenged me as to why I don’t exercise.  First and foremost and because I don’t want to be the guy with all the excuses, it’s because I’m lazy.  There are limited hours in the day and I’d much rather spend that time cooking, playing with the kids, and at the end of the day relaxing in front of the television.  Beyond lazy, here are the others:

• I’ve tried working out at a gym, even with a buddy, and it just wasn’t interesting.  It does nothing for me, it’s boring, and a little intimidating.  I just don’t think that’s an option that I’m likely to stick with.
• I have in the past been successful with organized sports.  I’m not very good, but it’s fun and keeps me coming out regularly because I have a team that I’ve committed to.  However now that I travel alot, that’s not really an option.
• I like swimming, but a membership to the indoor pool is expensive and if I go the kids will want to go as well which makes it no longer about cardio.

While traveling it would be very reasonable to be able to find at least a bike and a treadmill at most hotels, and a small pool if I decided to take that up.  Right now I’m resigned to the fact that I have to do something, and knowing myself it needs to be something with a routine or a pattern or it won’t work.  Walking is an easy one to say I’ll do, but an easy one to drop too once the weather gets bad.  There’s a new local gym we got a flyer for a couple of weeks ago called “Average Joes” that might take the intimidation factor out of the gym but I’ll need to find something to make it interesting… maybe a daily cardio workout and a podcast I get hooked on would work.

Anyways, I’m open to suggestions if anyone has them.  I can’t be the only lazy guy who’d rather not exercise who has tried to figure this out, and I’m certainly not the only person who travels alot for business.  Please leave your comments.

I was flattered yesterday when Garth Turner posted my rundown of the Milton press conference verbatim and provided his readers with a link back to my blog.  Flattered and at the same time a little scared for my poor little web server in the basement, I thought it might fall over.  But traffic hasn’t been as crazy as I feared and it turns out that my old HP873n Media Center PC holds up just fine to a a hefty web load.
It’s times like these when it’s really interesting to watch the web site stats to watch who is visiting, where they came from, and how they were referred to the site.

Today I snuck out of work for an hour to attend the press conference for ousted MP Garth Turner. I consider myself lucky to be close to this historic event in Canadian politics, and wanted to experience it in person.
Today’s press conference was held in the local riding office on Main Street in Milton, about 3 minutes from my house, and it was about as much of a zoo as this little town has ever seen. When I arrived, satellite trucks lined the same street where every weekend farmers set up their booths to sell sweet corn and home-made pies. Inside the constituency office the air was damp as it tends to get when you cram too many people into a small space, add studio lighting, and turn up the stress levels to eleven.
The mix was one of reporters and political supporters, as for non-affiliated common folk I bet I was the only one of those in attendance. There was a surprisingly large turnout from the Green Party, including Milton’s Green candidate from the last election and several Green supporters sporting Green Party buttons. A few minutes into the press conference there was an older gentleman who couldn’t get in and started to make a fuss, he was escorted politely away from the door so that the conference could continue but I felt bad for him because he was obviously passionate about being there and might just have been the number two “average voter” to join me in my pilgrimage.
Garth’s statement was not unlike others that he made last night and today on his blog. The reporters in the room were desperately trying to bait him into saying something bad about the prime minister, and he barely took the bait. Lots of talk about options going forward like Green Party, Liberal (?), or independent. His stated feeling is that it is very hard to be effective as an independent so I expect that some sort of affiliation or alignment is coming. This lead to my question…
Being apparently the only voter in the room, I felt obliged to speak my mind somewhat especially given the allusion to alternative political alignment. When all the cameras snapped around into my face I became much less eloquent than I would have liked, but the paraphrase of the question was “I fully support your voters-first approach, but the voters of this riding elected you based on the conservative platform. Albeit we understand that there was a Garth spin on the platform, that is what we elected you on and what we expect. Will you hold true to that platform?”. His answer was that he is a conservative (note the small c that I’ve used in that description) and will remain true to those ideals. (If you see any of this on the news, I’m the tall guy in the back who could stand to lose a couple of pounds and wearing a brown leather jacket.)
Speaking as one consituent, I can say that for the most part Garth’s stances represent my own. I am fiscally conservative and excited about many of the fiscal policies that this government is bringing in and in applaud the push that Garth is making on income splitting for families. I am however socially liberal and Garth’s leaning supports that, most notably in his support for gay marriage. As far as representing me, he does it and while the deomgraohics of Halton are changing daily with all of this rapid growth I believe that he represents the majority in this riding as well.
I was just on a call with some of my US colleagues and explained to them what had happened and why I thought it was historically significant, it might be useful to explain my feelings here on the blog as well. The ousting of Garth Turner brings blogging as a political tool to the front page of every newspaper in the country. He has been very effective at communicating with his consituents via the blog (and for the older deomgraphic via town hall meetings) and I think that everyone will now take notice of its effects. The news story here is in my opinion the incredible grassroots support that Garth Turner has from his electorate, and that support comes directly from the transparency shown by blogging. People will take notice, and I think that it will change the face of politics in this country very quickly, definitely in time for the next federal election. That is sweeping change, at an incredibly fast pace, and I think that the events of the last 24 hours will be the catalyst for that change. It will signal a return of democracy to the people and will refocus politicians on the people that they represent. It is in my opinion truly historic, and I for one will be proud to tell my grandchildren that I was there when it happened.

Some more interesting commentary today:
http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/10/19/garth-turner-blogging-hero-or-blogging-opportunist/

http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/10/19/garth-turner-for-prime-minister 

http://democraticspace.com/blog/2006/10/what-garth-turner-can-do-for-canadian-democracy/ 

http://flacklife.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-turner-man-who-takes-blogs.html 

Canada has had almost a day now to digest the news of Garth Turner’s ousting from the conservative party, and I’ve had plenty of time to read the news, listen to the commentary on talk radio, and to read Garth’s comments on the blog.  I would say that for the most part here in Toronto anyways, the reaction has been similar to mine in that he was connecting well with the people of this riding.  And there are dissenters, which is perfectly fine, I realize that not everyone agrees with my opinion.  Of the two most common arguments against Garth Turner, one I think is reasonable and the other complete garbage.

1. The party feels that they can’t do their business because he’ll discuss what is said on his blog.  Okay, fair enough I can see how people in the caucus might feel that way even though I don’t personally find anything overly offensive about his blogging.  But hey, if that’s how they feel then so be it.  I call this one valid (I disagree with it, but it’s valid).
2. You don’t talk badly about your boss.  If you publicly blasted your boss in a corporate environment, you’d be in big trouble and therefore Garth should be in trouble for challenging the policies of the prime minister and the party.  While it sounds reasonable, there is on huge gaping hole with this argument and I want people to stop using it.  I AM GARTH TURNER’S BOSS, not the prime minister.  He was voted in by the residents of Halton, his job is to work for me, and yes I voted for him because of his stance (and the conservative party’s stance) on financial relief for middle-class families.  As an MP his first duty is to his constituents, he works for me and I pay his salary.  Now if he were in cabinet, paid by and expected to make policy and represent a ministry on behalf of the government then things might be different.  But he’s not.  He is a representative of Halton, he works for me, and I’m the one who gets to comment on his performance.

Whew, got that off my chest and I felt the blood pressure rising as I was pounding out that last paragraph.  It was driving me nuts yesterday, and were the first place I heard this a talk radio show I would have called in and made a stink.  But it wasn’t… the first place I heard it was on 680 News as a “man on the street” piece where they were asking people what would happen if they badmouthed their boss.  Now the “disparaging your boss” line of thinking is everywhere and it’s driving me nuts.

As soon as garth writes on his blog “Man, that Peter Near guy drives me nuts and he dresses funny too” then we can have a conversation about him berating his boss.  Until then, this argument holds no water.