Archive for the ‘Front Page’
Wow, that’s a surprise. I personally have been thrilled to be able to read the daily blog of my representative in Ottawa, and was just thinking the other day that this has the potential to usher in a new wave of connectivity between an MP and his consitituents. For too long, politicians have been disconnected from the community, spending most of their time in parliament and showing up at local events but not really making contact with the common folk. Garth Turner has been labeled as a “maverick” by the media and obviously now by the party. Those who are lining up against him are really lining up against blogging - either they don’t get it or they get it and fear the change it will have to their world.
Blogging is about a conversation with the masses; it’s taking that conversation I might have with someone over dinner and having it in public. It lets you get close to a person, to understand who they are, and talk to them like a peer. It’s a diary, a dialog, and it is what I want from my elected officials. I do not want press releases and filtered fluff, I want to know that there is a man or woman who is not that different from me, fighting day in and day out to govern the country on my behald.
I just read an article over at CTV that cited an earlier blog entry where he complained about getting a basement office - who cares??? If I was chatting with a buddy about his new job and he told me that he got a crappy office we’d laugh about it and move on; national news it is not.
I’m disappointed that any politician, especially mine, would be reprimanded for trying to be more human.
Update: More people in the blogosphere writing about this, seems I’m not alone in my disappointment (but others disagree and are blogging about it, I say we suspend them from the blogosphere for voicing an opinion!).
http://pierretrudeauismyhomeboy.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-turner-punted-from-caucus.html
http://jojourn.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-suspended.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1721659/posts
http://kerplonka.blogspot.com/2006/10/just-when-you-needed-brown-substance.html
http://prairiewrangler.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-turner-turfed-for-shame.html
http://canadiancerberus.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-turner-suspended-from-tory.html
http://choiceforchildcare.blogspot.com/2006/10/garth-turner-has-been-suspended.html
I got hooked on my single-serve coffee maker, especially since I work from home and need a good cup of coffee every once in awhile. Unfortunately coffee pods are getting more and more difficult to find here in Canada as most of the retailers have pulled them off the shelves. The old standby for us was the Folgers HomeCafe pods, which have since been discontinued in Canada. I called P&G (who makes Folgers and is coincidentally a previous employer of mine) to check on the status and yes they are gone for good in Canada due to limited demand. They’re sending me out a customer service pack including a few extra pods and I’m sure some other niceties (P&G customer service is excellent that way). But as far as getting their pods in the future, I’m SOL.
So then I called Melitta, who sells the OneToOne pods that we had sometimes used even though they were slightly more expensive. They have not discontinued the product in Canada, but most of the major retailers have stopped carrying them so they’re effectively only available by calling Melitta customer service which is a pain.
So my search for an alternative supplier began, and I came across a coffee distributer in the GTA that sells reasonably-priced and good quality coffee pods. The name of the distributer is Play Fair Coffee and they operate a store in Brampton as well as an eBay store that will ship anywhere in Canada. I got myself a mixed pack of the Distinctively Yours pods and have so far fallen in love with the Serengetti coffee. They also sell Higgins & Burke pods for about a buck more per box, but I think I’ll stick with the Distinctively Yours brand for now. Once I finish the sample pack I’ll choose my favorite and order a 100-pack which is reasonable priced at $26 online and a bit less if you pick it up at the store in Brampton.
Jason Tsang points out a promotion over at Canada Post where you can fill out a short survey and get free courier envelopes for the US, Canada, and International destinations.
If you have never used this service before, here’s your chance to try this service out. Canada Post is offering two FREE
postage-paid Xpresspost envelopes for each of their Domestic, USA and
International products in return for completing a simple survey.
Here are the links to the surveys:
It looks like Bob Rae’s bid to become leader of the federal Liberal party is picking up steam, with additional candidates dropping out to throw their support behind him. I would consider myself to be more interested and aware of politics than the average person and I personally think that Bob Rae is a great choice for leader and a great person. But I don’t think that the rest of the province of Ontario will agree.
Bob Rae was the premier of Ontario in the early nineties and had to deal with some pretty major financial challenges through a very bad recession period. The government introduced a series of controversial policies to reduce spending, including what I remember as several unpaid days off for provincial employees. These became known as “Rae Days” and as a highschool student I experienced these as seemingly random days off from school throughout the year. I think that most people will associate Bob Rae not only with the socialist-leaning NDP political party but also with some pretty miserable times here in the most populous province in the country.
I’ve come to see Rae as a very smart man with great ideas and a true passion for Canada. I’ve heard him speak on the radio, seen some great interviews with him over the years, and most recently as the chancellor of my alma mater, Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a man who I want to be heavily involved in the governing of my country.
That said, I don’t honestly believe that he can win a popular election given the history here in Ontario and as such I think it would be a bad move for the Liberal party to elect him as their leader.
After carting the kids around to various doctors and grandparents, I got a chance to sit down with my old buddy Nick for a drink. It’s always nice catching up with old friends, and yesterday’s visit reminded me of an article that I read recently on Wired about geeks whose hair is their prized possession. I would think that computer scientists should be admissable as well.
And in other related Nick-news the Royal Medeival Faire is this weekend in Waterloo, which I always try to bring the kids out to if I can (pray to your various deities for sun). Every year it gets forecasted for rain and every year it turns out to be sunny so let’s hope that pattern continues.
Finally for some reminiscing, take a peek at my old photoshopped movie poster collection where Nick was usually the victim of the clone stamp tool. So there you go Nick, I respond to criticism of inadequate blogging frequency by dedicating a post to you. You are welcome! 
In so many ways I’m alot like the dad in one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story. I get excited about little things, and my family thinks I’m a huge geek for doing so. Here’s a quote from that movie, when the dad wins a glowing leg lamp from a contest in the newspaper:
Mr. Parker:
It’s a Major Award!
Swede:
Shucks I wouldn’t know that. It looks like a lamp.
Mr. Parker:
What is a lamp, you nincompoop? Tt’s a Major Award. I won it!
Swede:
Damn, hell, you say won it?
Mr. Parker:
Yeah, mind power, Swede; mind power.
Well today I’m in my glory, it appears that I won an award for being one of the top bug producers in July on Media Center. It’s a - get this - Windows Media Center mug that plugs into the USB port on the computer to keep my coffee warm. It’s so cheesy that it’s cool, and I can wear it like a geek badge of honor on my desk. And just to set the recod straight in case you bump into my wife, yes I’m pretty much a huge geek.
My new HDTV arrived the other day, and while I know that this comes a few years late compared to many of my readers… wow, it looks awesome!
Picture quality on my Samsung DLP is just stunning, depending of course on how you feed it. Surprisinlgy, standard definition television looks awful. I knew it would look somewhat worse when blown up to 61″ but it’s downright terrible. That’s okay though, because the other thing I’m patting myself on the back for is the decision to put up a new antenna in the attic for HDTV signals (details are here if you’re interested).
For about $100 in parts I’ve now got crystal-clear high-definition video with Dolby Digital sound… for life. Not many people know about it, especially in Canada, but antennas are due for a comeback with the new digital transmission technology that’s been implemented. With my pizza-box sized antenna in the attic I can pull in CTV, CBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, CITY, SUNTV, and a few other smaller local stations. Because it’s digital, it either works at perfect quality or it doesn’t work at all - and the nature of the technology means that more likely than in the past it will work.
Finally, DVD quality is much better than I had expected. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the DVDs were all in high-definition as well because of the clarity that I’m getting off of my old discs. Of course they’re not, but wow when you upscale a DVD to high-def you’d barely know you were missing anything. I’m not in any hurry to rush out and buy a HD-DVD player now, that’s for sure.
Well it’s midnight EDT and still no pilots. I’ve been here before, and I know what happens next… the pilots show up and then get a call from the powers that be letting them know that they have no more legal flying time left in them. Chaos ensues and I get very grumpy (oddly enough I’m still in a decent mood). Luckily the hotel connected to the airport still has rooms, so I’ll be bunking it here in Chicago until my newly booked flight can get out tomorrow after lunch.
Of course my luggage is still in the belly of the plane, so I feel sorry for the poor soul who gets to sit beside me on the flight tomorrow. Mmmm… day-old business clothes…
… and the pilots have arrived at the airport. Slight mixup though, our plane full of passengers ready to get home is in Chicago and the pilots are in Milwaukee. Now this is fun! There are rooms available at the Chicago Hilton, I’m thinking I should learn from my past mistakes and just book a room. In case you’ve missed it in the past - never, ever travel with me or this will happen to you too.
Oh I just love connecting via O’Hare. For this flight I “took one for the team” and flew BUF-ORD-MSP instead of a direct YYZ-MSP and saved the company $1000. The warm and fuzzy feeling of saving money is going away right… about… now.
I should start keeping stats of my personal ontime performance flying through Chicago, officially the average last year was 75% ontime but I think my personal stats are closer to 50%. The worst experience was when flying with a group of colleagues a couple of years ago when a Blizzard hit. I had a Las Vegas vacation to start the next day, so I worked my a** off to get home in time to pick up the wife and make it to Vegas on-time. I bounced across a couple of different flights and airlines eventually making it all the way to the runway before the pilots gave in to mother nature.
Of course all of my colleagues, not caring so much about going to Vegas with their wives the next day, had already checked in to the Ohare Hilton and were sending me drunken heckles via Blackberry.
This one’s not so bad (yet). It looks like a 1-hour delay but still, that’ll get me in to Buffalo at about 1:00am and there’s another 90 minute drive back to Toronto. I might end up getting a hotel in Buffalo so I don’t doze off and plow into oncoming traffic on the drive home.
I remember when I was 22 travel was glamorous and exciting, oh how naive I was!