Check these pumpkins out, carved by Jodie with no template.

And when photoshop tried to fix the lighting, it failed, but created some pretty interesting designs.

Last weekend we went out to a local farm where we got lost in a corn maze, and hunted for the perfect pumpkin.  A few pictures below.

We also took advantage of the nice weather to go out in our old neighbourhood to say hello to the neighbours and allow Katlyn to sell them some Girl Guide cookies.  One such neighbour had his bike out and let the girls pretend to ride it.

I need a new camera, these Blackberry photos are terrible quality but at least they capture the moment.

I rescued some photos from my Blackberry today taken in Germany.  This is my meal of sour lung soup and livercheese (with an egg on top).  Mmmm…

The girls and I stepped up our geocaching experience last weekend by hiding our first geocaches.  I took Katlyn and Jaimee to the dollar store, where they picked out the box for their caches, some stickers to decorate them, some little toys to hide inside, and the notebook and pencil for the logbook.  After putting together their caches and selecting a name (Katlyn chose “The Sharing Cache” and Jaimee chose “The Worm Cache”) we set out to find a good hiding place.  First up was Jaimee, who said she wanted to hide hers near where she takes swimming lessons. We went for a hike in the park behind the Milton Leisure Center and hid it under a tree.  Katlyn wanted to find somewhere near her school so we went for a walk on the trails behind EW Foster and found a good dead tree to hide it in.

We submitted the caches to geocaching.com and awaited blessing from the site reviewers.  On 10:30am the next morning the caches were published and by noon several groups were already out hunting for them.  Turns out that I transposed a couple of numbers in the coordinates for Katlyn’s cache and four different people were out looking in the wrong spot for it in vain.  Oops!  I corrected it quickly and by 2:30pm someone had made the “first to find” log entry.

By the next day we had received several reports from people who were out hunting for the caches including comments like “nice decoration girls”.  After seeing all of the activity, I started to get jealous and wanted a cache of my own as well.  So I went back to the dollar store and picked up some magnetic key-hiding cases and set up my own cache.  I decided to hide it in the park behind our old house, and as I was hunting for a good spot I noticed a young family out on their back deck who were looking at me suspiciously.  I decided it would be in my best interest to let them in on the game rather than have them call the police on the creepy guy wandering around the playground.  After telling them about geocaching, they basically insisted that I hide the cache on their fenceline so that they could watch people tyring to find it.  I happily obliged.

You can see the caches I’ve hidden and associated comments, pictures, etc here:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=pnear

I’ve also been out geocaching on the Bruce Trail with Jaimee, in Cleveland with my coworker Bob, and just yesterday in Providence Rhode Island.

My dad sent along this shot of Katlyn that he took while we were out for a walk on Thanksgiving.  I hope to get the original shot from him so that I can touch it up some more, but I like the way that the moment has been frozen in time.

I’ve made up my mind for tomorrow’s election.  After weighing the many issues (as described in an earlier post) I’ve decided that I have to act in the interest of local politics.  Too many times during this campaign, I’ve felt like more than one party has gone with the “our voters are really dumb” approach.  My vote will not be supporting that philosophy.

It started for me with Elizabeth May, when she was excluded from the leader’s debate.  Now there are lots of good reasons why Elizabeth May should have been invited to that debate, and I’m sure plenty of nefarious reasons why she wasn’t.  There are a wealth of arguments I would have reached for to get Canadians on her side and get her now very legitimate party represented on the national stage.  However she chose to invent a gender-based conspiracy about how all of the male party leaders and male network executives were trying to keep a woman out of the debate.  Really Elizabeth?  You went there?  She lost my respect right then and there, and until that point I had a very positive opinion of her as the Green leader.

And then the Conservatives got on the bandwagon.  Nationally, they took an unflattering photo of Stephan Dion and plastered it over every piece of demeaning print, online, and TV advertising they could come up with.  The technicolour puffin-laden marketing came off like something out of a highschool student council poster campaign.  Oh look, it’s bright and shiny and Stephan Dion looks like a tool, count my vote!  Locally, the Conservatives poured salt in the wounds of a region where many are still smarting from the earlier expulsion of our MP from the party.  They parachuted in a candidate who, based on the word of people that I know and trust, was placed in spite of the wishes of the local riding association.  I met her briefly, when I was getting my hair cut at the local barber shop.  Her handlers brought her in for a photo op and to introduce her to my barber slash city councillor.  She approached a random kid in the barber chair, said something irrelevant long enough to get a picture, and then left.  It’s an awkward position for anyone to be sure and I feel for her on that point, but I left the barber shop that day with a feeling I had just seen dishonest pandering in action.  The net of all the Conservative messaging (intentional or not) sits with me as:  All anyone pays attention to is Stephen Harper, and the people of Halton are too stupid to realize that we don’t care at all about local representation.  That is not a position I can reward with a vote, the repercussions of allowing them to get away with that type of thinking will last with us for decades. 

So my vote this year goes towards democracy.  The right of the electorate to local representation, the expectation of transparency from those who act on our behalf, and the fundamental principle of government of and for the people.  This year, my vote is going to Garth Turner.

We are approaching yet another election, mostly because people like me can’t make up our minds on what we want.  For the last few years, we’ve been operating under a minority government which basically means that whoever is "in power" is holding onto it by merely a thread and can be turfed out at any time.

I can’t recall an election where I’ve been so much on the fence about where my vote is headed.  I’m torn between the Liberal party (they inhabit the political center) and the Conservatives (as the name would imply, on the political right).  I honestly believe that either party will lead the country in a direction that I’m happy with, so that leaves me to evaluate how each party’s platform would impact my family.

Let’s start with the Liberals…
They seem to be hanging their hat on a new tax plan called the "green shift".  I’ve read the green shift plan, and I actually think that it is a very well thought out and potentially beneficial approach to shifting our tax revenues in a way that encourages people to live in a more environmentally friendly way.  Basically, I would pay less income tax and pay more consumption tax, with consumption taxes weighted towards things that cause harm to the environment.  It’s not the plan that bothers me, but there is something about the Liberals this year that bothers me.  Probably on the top of my annoyances list is that while the environment is something that we should pay attention to, I’m leery of a party and a leader who consider that the top priority (and to listen to him perhaps even Stephane Dion’s only priority). 
I also have no reason to trust this Liberal party.  I got burned in Ontario after becoming accustomed to years of governments who said what they would do, and once elected they did what they said.  The Ontario Liberal party put forth a plan that I thought was a good one, that I voted for, and then they failed to deliver on almost every single point that was important to me.  So while the Green Shift looks good to me, I don’t know Dion and I don’t know anyone in power in the Liberal party enough to really trust that they will follow through on key promises like lowering the income tax to offset the new carbon tax.  They may very well be worthy of my trust, but at this point I just don’t have any proof that they are; so I default to the pessimistic.  As for the rest of their platform, very little of the changes that they’re discussing affect me.

And next the Conservatives…
I’m still angry about what happened in my local riding a few years ago.  Garth Turner was my locally elected representative, and I really enjoyed his transparent approach to representation using forums like his blog and town-hall meetings in person with the electorate.  The Conservative Party turfed him out of the party ostensibly because he was too transparent.  He spoke his views, tried to represent his region over the party line where it made sense, and was quite open with all of us voters.  The modus operandi of the Stephen Harper Conservatives was and is very much about tightly controlled messages and top-down policies, a direct conflict with Garth’s style, so they kicked him out of the party and made him an independent.  I took that as a slight against the will of the voters (ie me) and a concerning statement about the way that Stephen Harper’s government runs.  Add to that a local candidate who was inserted by party brass against the will of the local Conservative riding association and it is clear to me that the Harper Conservatives are actively working against the concept of local representation.
On the topic of trust, the Conservative government did keep all of the promises that were important to me even while operating under a minority government.  I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the massive flip-flop they made on income trusts, but as noted at the beginning of this post I’m focusing on issues that affect my family and at this point in time income trusts are not an issue for me.  When they say that they will for example maintain the $100 a month daycare benefit that I get for each of my kids, I believe them.  For the most part I’m okay with the Conservative platform and I believe that they will work very hard to keep promises for fear of the repercussions.

So if I look at my choices (eliminating the NDP and Green party up front), for me it’s between the following come election day:

• Strong local representation from a politician whose style I generally like, but with a national presence that is focused on what I believe to be the wrong issues, and an uncertainty as to whether I can trust the promises made at that national level (Liberal).
• Strong national leadership, a platform that I’m generally okay with and can trust will get delivered, with basically no local representation (Conservative).

Writing this all down has certainly helped me make sense of it all, but I still have no idea how I’ll be voting this year.

Throughout my adolescence, I had always been "the computer guy".  However it wasn’t until the summer of 1994 that a career in technology really started to take shape.  I had just finished highschool, and was working my final summer as a dockmaster at the City of Chatham marina.  People from all over the Great Lakes region would cruise down the Thames River to spend their weekends in our little southern Ontario town.  I split my time between actual "work" and socializing with our guests to make them feel welcome.  As summer jobs go, it was fantastic and was right in my wheelhouse.  I recall spending a good amount of time one weekend with a particular couple who had come in from Cleveland on their mid-sized yacht.  Jeff Christian was a young executive who was not afraid to talk about his success, and was equally complimentary of the people around him.  He was apparently impressed with me during his short visit, and before navigating his way back up the river he left me his business card and urged me to call if I ever wanted any help.  I tucked it away, and knew it would be a valuable contact.

A year went by, and as I neared the completion of my final year of university I made a call into Jeff looking for some career guidance.  He welcomed me into his company, where I became the first summer intern at Christian and Timbers.    It was a tough summer for me.  I was a naive kid from a small town in Canada moving to a relatively large and unsafe American city.  Without a car, I found Cleveland and in particular the neighbourhood in which I was subletting an apartment to be a scary place.  Public transit was sketchy and I had my life threatened on more than one occasion.  Jeff took me under his wing, bringing me out to his house on a few occasions to spend time with his family, and encouraging some of my co-workers to lend a hand as well.  I was nobody, but he chose to invest in me for some reason and for that I remain grateful.  He was powerful and could be ruthless, but at the same time compassionate and caring of the people around him.

While at Christian and Timbers, I met many great people both in the IT department and throughout the company.  I was put onto a handful of IT projects that allowed me to spend time with pretty much everyone as I tweaked their desktop Macs or trained them on the new email solution.  Working at one of the hottest tech headhunting firms also gave me an opportunity to see how the industry works, and to get a feel for how one should manage their career.  My direct manager Kinton made a point of crafting a reference letter whose sole purpose was to help set me up for bigger and better things in the future.

The following summer that letter was specifically cited as the reason I was selected to join the internship program at GTE (now Verizon) at their headquarters in Dallas, Texas.  There I was exposed to bleeding-edge technology and really gained a passion and understanding of new media and understanding the point where technology and business need combine to create value.  After GTE I was able to create many more opportunities and was lucky to be able to take advantage of them all.  These early years set up my career like a line of dominoes, one that is still very early in its cascade.  I progressed through Procter & Gamble, Oracle, a small biotech startup, and for the last several years in senior management roles with Canada’s largest software company, Open Text.

It is in this role that I now find myself returning to Cleveland later this week to meet with some of our customers in the area.  I thought that it would be a good opportunity, more than a decade later, to look up some of my old friends and thank them for kick-starting my career.  So into Google I typed the search term “Jeff Christian Cleveland”, hoping to uncover current email of phone information so I can get in touch.  The result of that query was a massive shock to me: The Rise And Fall Of A Corporate Headhunter,  How Jeff Christian went from Silicon Valley recruiting sensation to homicide defendant in Cleveland.

It seems that since we last talked, Jeff’s life has been a severe roller coaster.  He landed a huge win in the late nineties by recruiting Carly Fiona to the top job at Hewlett Packard, and soon after the dotcom bubble burst his life came crashing down around him.  He split with his wife and took up with an eighteen year old girlfriend.  He became consumed by alcohol and drugs, and the new lifestyle came to a horrible climax when he was charged with negligent homicide in the death of a colleague.  In July of 2007, he was convicted in two separate incidents and is currently serving three years in prison.

Wow.  I have to admit that mostly I feel sympathy for Jeff.  Granted, I feel even more for the lives and families that were ruined by his actions but there is something inherently sad about this story.  A man that once took me under his wing and showed so much compassion under much simpler circumstances must have found himself with no one around him with the strength or determination to help.  Jeff’s primary character flaw has always been hubris, but when I knew him anyways that hubris was tempered by caring.  I can clearly see the path that led him to where he is now, and ultimately it is of his own doing.  But I only wish that someone could have been there to intervene and interrupt the self destruction.

Ultimately I am still grateful to Jeff, and to Kinton and all the other great people who helped to get my career started.  But now moreso than gratitude I feel a sense of sorrow for someone who was at one time a mentor.

My flight arrived on Sunday afternoon, so my coworker Steffen was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and head into the city for Oktoberfest.  I’ve been to Oktoberfest in Kitchener many times, but wasn’t sure what to expect.  As expected, lederhosen and busty german barmaid dresses were out in full force.  Something I didn’t expect though was the carnival-like atmosphere.  The closest event I can relate it to would be the Canadian National Exhibition, except with huge tents serving beer, sausage, and rooster.

It was a very international affair, with people from China, Russia, and of course Germany sitting alongside us at the long wooden table.  We didn’t get too silly, just enjoyed two steins of beer and then went on a few midway rides.

On our way back to the train, I stopped by a geocache to hide one of my travel bugs.  On the park bench beside the cache, two young couples had decided that this was the perfect place to publicly display their love for each other.  One might have actually thought given the style of their performance that they were producing “adult entertainment videos” had it not been for the absence of any recording devices.  Steffen claims that this is not a common sight in Germany, but I’m not sure that I believe him.

I’ve been out geocaching with several friends and family over the last few weeks.  Some that I didn’t get a picture of (unfortunately):

• Dad wandering into the middle of a road while reading his GPS
• Walking through a stream behind Tim’s house looking for a cache that was hidden under a tree stump
• Wandering around Gatineau post-conference with a group still wearing suits and digging through brush
• The ultimate cache surprise in Munich where two couples were, how shall we say, “practicing for parenthood” on the park bench next to the cache

Here are a few snapshots I took along the way.

Out with Laurie in Belleville

Darryl pretending to be unimpressed by the “Love Cache”

More caching with the kids in Milton