BC Digital Divide in the News

CKNW Orphan's Fund Pledge Day

This Friday, December 7th, I'll be working the phone board at the CKNW Orphans Fund Pledge Day. The event, held annually at the Hotel Vancouver, is a special one and is broadcast simultaneously on CKNW AM 980 and Shaw Cable 4.

If you can't make it down there to make a donation then please donate online. Remember that, unlike other charities, 100% of the administration costs are covered by Corus Entertainment, CKNW's parent company. It's a great cause and one worthy of your consideration.

Yaletown Photos

I received one of those different kinds of e-mails this morning that could only happen in what one might call the "Google Age". It was from a woman who found a bunch of my old Vancouver photos on my old personal site. She works for a company in town that is moving into Yaletown and would like to use some of my photos for their website. She offered to pay me for them but I declined, preferring instead that they make some donations of old computer equipment to BC Digital Divide, when they have them available.

To give her more choices, I posted this new page of Yaletown Photos. Enjoy!

European Turkeys

Thai Ravioli Recipe

I put together a little something that turned out to be quite delicious:

• 1 pkg frozen ravioli
• 1/2 cup of mushrooms (any type you like)
  
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• 1/4 cup of shrimp
• 1 pkg thai coconut sauce

Boil ravioli. At the same time, bring sauce to a low simmer (follow instructions on package). When the ravioli is a few minutes away from being done, throw in peas & shrimp and cook for 1 minute. Then throw in mushrooms and cook for 1 more minute. Drain pot into collander and empty mixture into serving bowl. Cover with sauce and serve.

Wise Words For Pushovers

NICE PERSON SYNDROME

Nice People are carefully trained to be, at all costs, "good boys" and "good girls." They are steeped, too soon and strongly, in the value of unselfishness, cooperation and the importance of pleasing others. Consequently, they grow up feeling that it is natural to defer to the wishes of others, putting their own desires in second place (or ignoring them altogether). I use the word Nice (capital N) to describe adults who still act like good boys and girls. Such people are often highly intuitive, but they use their sensitivity mostly for the purpose of learning what is expected of them. They have a profound need to be liked and will violate, if necessary, their own integrity for even the possibility of love and affection. They usually are accepted and well-liked, but they are not satisfied, because they know they have withheld something of their true identity. As a result, Nice People often live in fear that nobody will ever really love them -- including their weaknesses and blemishes. They feel they must be perfect. Yet they are constantly and painfully aware that they are not perfect. A good number appear to have bodily symptoms of chronic inner conflict (e.g., anal tension).

Nice People operate on the basis of one central conviction: The only way to get what I need is to do what other people want. They are usually very good at getting what they want (without asking for it) but there is always something missing. Spontaneity is difficult since each interpersonal encounter is, in a sense, a performance. Remaining a Nice Person requires constant vigilance, since all "bad" qualities (e.g., anger, selfishness, competitiveness) must either be suppressed or rechanneled in such as way that they at least appear nice....

Nice people have trouble making explicit requests...Nice People know that if they are just good enough, others will automatically know what they want and give it to them...Nice People are usually "rescuers" ...We rescue somebody each time we withhold or distort our true feelings, not wanting to hurt or anger the other person. We do the same thing when we go along with something that we really do not want to do...Nice People save up little grievances each time they play rescuer because they rarely let themselves say "no" when they want to. As a result, they are chronically angry....

In sex, as elsewhere, it is impossible for a person authentically to say yes to anything unless he/she simultaneously feels complete freedom to say no.

-- Jack Morin

Office of Blogger/Journalist Trashed

Bill Tielman, a local B.C. journalist, had his office trashed in a peculiar way, with a strange "calling card" left for him. Though Bill and I rarely agree on anything, no one with any integrity can support this action.

Please go visit his site and leave him a message.

Society's Downfall

On this rainy, dreary day Mark Steyn has a new article in Maclean's that will make you even more depressed. But it's an interesting read.

In it he quotes fellow Canadian writer George Jonas, who said: "Something isn't wrong because it's illegal, it's illegal because it's wrong!" How many people in the justice industry and the criminal industry have lost sight of this?

He also provides a startling statistic about England. Over there, the number of indictable criminal offences per thousand people was:

• 2.4 in 1900
• 9.7 in 1954
• 109.4 in 1992

I'd love to learn what the stats are here in Canada. You can almost bet that the trends are the same.

Wither Democracy

Venezuelan dictator-wannabe, Hugo Chavez, lost a narrow victory this past weekend, in a photo-finish vote with numbers very reminiscent to the last Quebec referendum. One fact that seems to have escaped every pundit was that only 56% of the population turned out!!! What on earth would an election have to be about to get 99%+ of the population out. Those who didn't vote should be ashamed.

Sadly, I'm not at all convinced that the turnout would have been much different here in Canada, especially Vancouver. For instance, we currently have one of the worst mayors in our history, crime and drug abuse and homelessness is completely out of control. Yet will more then 35% of voters show up in the next election? I very much doubt it. :-(

Democracy is only effective if the majority of people participate in it. Imagine a baseball game where only 1/3 of each team were to play. It would die a quick death.

Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)

Though raised as a devout Roman Catholic, I'm no longer a formally religious person. I find much more of a spiritual connection in nature, movies, and some songs. One example of the latter is exemplified by this famous Christmas song, performed by the magnificent Irish singer, Enya:


Here's another rendition by the Italian singer, Andrea Bocelli:

Winter Wonderland!

Yesterday I walked over to a birthday party and was able to capture these photos:

The BCTF Is The Most Destructive Force To Children in B.C.

Not teachers, but the BCTF definitely! Education Minister Shirley Bond is asking teachers to have the courage to discuss the policy of holding back children who fail many subjects. The BCTF wants none of it!

Here are some voices from the destructive BCTF:

"There is no research that supports retention. What we end up doing is punishing children." - Janice Neden - Kamloops Thompson district

"We used to call that failing kids and we shouldn't fail kids." - Irene Lanzinger, president of the BCTF

These two women do not know of what they speak. Or perhaps they do and are more interested in protecting the reputations of teachers more than educating children. The fact that people like this are seriously involved in the education of our children should send a chill up the spine of every parent in this province.

I do agree that extra resources should be brought to bear to help kids who are failing but at the end of the year, if they can't pass the tests then it makes absolutely no sense to move them forward with the other kids who can.

I distinctly remember a boy named Ian who was in my class in Grade 5. Our teacher was going around the class, asking everyone to spell different words. Ian was unable to spell the word "blue". I kid you not. Take a moment to put yourself in his shoes. Can you imagine how embarrassed and inadequate he must have felt each and every day. This is what the BCTF wants more of.

'Tis The Season ... To Take Offence

December has arrived and the vast snowfall in Vancouver has provided a vivid reminder to us all that Christmas isn't too far away. In Australia, where they're several time zones ahead and thus much closer to that special day, the annual season of ... people taking offence to most everything you can possibly imagine has begun.

As this article outlines, an HR staffing firm Down Under has told its Santa trainees not to use the traditional "Ho, Ho, Ho" because it might offend women. Why? They fear that some women may associate the term with the American gangsta' rap meaning of the word "Ho".

In Britain, some feel that Santa is setting a bad example for obesity and slimmer Santas are being requested by some shopping malls.

Elsewhere, some environmental groups are informing us that Santa's sleigh, pulled by 9 reindeer, will emit the equivalent of 40,600 tonnes of greenhouse gases, thus making Santa an affront to Mother Earth.

Have you ever wondered what propels such people to take offence to everything? Long ago I coined the phrase "Permanent Victim Syndrome" (PVS). I'd now like to release a new one into the Zeitgeist.

The new millennium has seen our society dramatically shaped by globalization, computerization, and an endless number of conveniences. The end result? Most people have very little to truly worry about in their daily lives. As such, they have much more free time on their hands. While some spend their time thinking about the deeper issues of our existence, others have instead turned in the opposite direction and instead focus on, and often invent, issues that heretofore were never that important to anyone.

With a wide spectrum of individuals, you'll always have a wide spectrum of views. Some of these are just wacky. But in our 24/7 news culture such voices get a much wider audience than ever before. Combine this with the propensity of many 1st world liberals to not want to offend and it has become clear that we've entered a new period that I will now forever call the PCS Era, short for "Post Common Sense".

Walter Schultz was the first I've read to take note of the fact that PCS disciples have joined together to Protest Everything, Be Against Everything, and Say No To Everything. While his focus has been on local issues, such folks exist everywhere.

I've come to realize that such folks don't really base their protests on a cohesive set of principles, so much as a reason to be against something. Take the ongoing environmental debate as an example. The same sort of groups are against: getting energy from oil, from coal, from nuclear power, and even from new hydroelectric projects. They instead say that we should get all of our energy from solar and wind power projects. But rest assured that if the necessary installations were actually ever implemented, they'd be against them too. Here's one of many examples.

Understanding the deeper psychological motivations of these protesters, it's not too much of a stretch to realize that if these same people were in Sudan, they would be joining the mob to call for the death of British teacher, Gillian Gibbons. If you think that this assertion is outrageous or an exaggeration then you clearly do not understand the PCS mindset and the "emotions, not facts" mindset that so deeply grips its advocates.

Mac vs. PC . . . . . . . Mex vs. BC

Here are a series of short videos of Mexican-Americans poking a little fun at themselves. They're parodies of the infamous "Mac vs. PC" ads that Apple frequently run on TV.

South Granville Will Never Be The Same!

The first Williams-Sonoma store in Vancouver opened in my very own neighbourhood of South Granville no less. Even with the terrible weather outside, the store was absolutely packed all day!

Winter Arrives!

To borrow a line from the Wizard of Oz, "Toto, we're not in Vancouver anymore!"

The snow started falling at my place a little after 8:00am this morning. But I've just spoken with the hardy Irishman who's helping me deliver computers today and he's not backing out. The main thing the weather will do is slow us down, but just like that famous sleigh, we will not be stopped!

Here are two more shots from this evening:

All Women Are Helpless Victims

That's not me saying that. But it's precisely what 3 Socialist Kool-Aid drinkers (2 women and 1 man) had to say on Sean Leslie's show on CKNW this afternoon. Here's the e-mail I sent to Sean:

Thank you for letting the 3 pseudo-intellectuals on your program to talk about the NDP's new quota system. For it lets a broader audience learn just how sexist such social engineers like these people truly are.

I am COMPLETELY against any quota systems. They are absolutely undemocratic and simply wrong.

In the past few weeks I have discussed this subject with many people, including a large number of women and minorities. Every single one of them was vehemently against this. In fact, most of the women were extremely insulted by this initiative.

Isn't it ironic that the day after the buzz in the city has been all about Carole Taylor likely becoming the next mayor of Vancouver if she chose to run as an independent candidate, that we're talking about female political victims?!

You Think It's Cold Where You Are?

I received the following from an associate up in Thompson, Manitoba:


I created a little map to give you an idea where Thompson actually is:

Weekly Workout

For the past month I've engaged in a weekly workout with mi amigo, Senor D. I get the opportunity to go on a lovely walk through magnificent Shaughnessy and then do a 40 - 60 minute workout. I can't say I love it yet but I am trying to turn it into a habit. And without a doubt, I already have a lot more energy because of it.

Soon I'm going to be adding core muscle strengthening to my fitness regime. There's a great article about it here. For very little time per day, there are huge benefits.

Bad, Bad, Bad, But Oh So Gooood!

I've discovered a new addiction. Take a shortbread cookie and adorn it with Nutella and you end up with one heavenly treat!

From the photo, you may think that this is a normal sized cookie but in fact, it's about 15cm in diameter! Yes it's bad but I'm not eating this culinary masterpiece 24/7 ... only 16/7. Then I work out the rest of the time! :-)

Williams Sonoma in Vancouver!

South Granville is getting excited. This Saturday, the first Williams Sonoma store opens in Metro Vancouver!

Everyone who knows me knows that I hate shopping but I may exceptions for certain things and anything related to food is one of them!

Inco becomes Vale Inco

Inco Limited, a longtime institution in the Canadian Mining Industry, changed their name to "Vale Inco" today, reflecting the new ownership of their Brazilian parent company. You can read more about it here. Note: "Vale" is pronounced "Val-lay".

Word of the Day

quix·ot·ic (kwĭk-sŏt'ĭk) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.

Transvestite Vandals

Sometimes life can be more outrageous than the wildest movie script! In Memphis, Tennessee 3 transvestites started a fight at a McDonald's. Read the full story here. I couldn't stop laughing!

Outsourced

I just saw a beautiful film called Outsourced. It's about a middle-level manager named Todd Anderson, whose department in Seattle gets outsourced to India. He can either quit and lose all his stock options or go to India to "train the new guy". He opts for the latter and the result is a fascinating look at the exotic country of India from the perspective of a simple American.

Beautifully shot and a well written story combine to provide a compelling cinematic experience. As I have a number of Indian friends, it was exceptionally interesting to me.

Highly recommended!

The Three 2010 Olympic Mascots

Meet Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi, the 3 mascots for the upcoming Olympics in Japan ... errrr in Vancouver I mean. Silly me for mistaking those names as being authentically Canadian! You can check them out in depth here.

Perhaps they agreed to the names in exchange for a discount from the Japanese Anime artists?! Further to these overly cute critters, I have an admission and a question.

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I will share with you that I once dated an Air Canada flight attendant named Sumi. She was half Japanese and half Caucasian. The mascot Sumi is cute but she was much cuter. I imagine her colleagues must be teasing the hell out of her!

And now the question: Do you think that Quatchi's hairy stomach was closely modeled after Charles Adler's beard? Think I'm kidding? Take a look at this:

Furthermore, his deep baritone voice is very reminiscent of Adler's!

Growth of a Chicken

My biology teacher friend sent me a series of photos, which I compiled into this video:

Robert Dziekanski's Death: The Incompetence Continues

Canadian Border Services held a heavily controlled press conference to release their inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, on October 14th. As I expected, it revealed nothing particularly new in substance, other than they had no idea what he was doing for 6 hours and 31 minutes, in between when he passed through primary inspection and when he tried to leave the luggage area.

It annoys me to no end how the process of tracking passengers is completely flawed. Nobody in this organization knew where he was. When his mother tried to find out, they didn't even know he had arrived!

Being in the I.T. business, it seems so glaringly obvious how a simple mobile database tracking system could have been implemented as long as 5 years ago. Federal Express has one. So does Wal-Mart. So does Amazon. But our Canadian government? Nope, they're still living in the 1980's.

How difficult would it be to have mobile wireless computers on every mobile official at the airport, each getting an update from their central database every minute. Anyone not accounted for, for more than 30 minutes could be red flagged and brought to the attention of one or the attention of many.

Additionally, each handheld computer could have prepared messages and/or questions in every language known to mankind, displaying them visually or audibly or even as welcome videos. Simple, simple, simple.

Yet will something so obvious get implemented? Probably not. Or if the government were to take on such a project, it would cost $100 Million and never get done right. If such technology was needed by a private sector facility, they would buy something "off the shelf" and just make minor modifications to suit their specific requirements. While I don't sell this kind of software myself I know many firms who do. I estimate the cost per mobile employee could easily be kept under $1,500 per person, for both the hardware & software.

What a concept, having timely, accurate information in the Year 2007! Who would'da thunk it possible?! Certainly not our public bureaucrats.

Our Addiction to Oil isn't so simple to stop

A geophysicist friend in Calgary directed me to this recent talk by business analyst, Peter Tertzakian. He's also the author of 1,000 Barrels A Second, a fascinating book that further delves into our deep dependence on oil.

The talk is lengthy - about an hour - but if you can listen to the first 15 minutes, you will gain a much better understanding of the facts behind our predicament and why much of the talk by environmentalists and politicians is nothing more than hot air.

Good People, Good Food!

I had many people to visit this weekend, so I rented a car to get around in a more reasonable time period. Without it I could have never accomplished all that I needed to.

The car was a Buick Allure. I'd never had driven this model before. It was stylish, had a very quiet engine, and a smooth ride. It also had a Satellite radio featuring XM Radio. I'd never experienced this before so it was quite a treat. In addition to some great music channels such as this one, it also featured talk radio channels from BBC, CNN, and Fox News. Perhaps the most interesting channel was one called "POTUS 08". I'll leave it to you to figure out what was on it - my politically savvy American readers should instantly know!

Here's a shot of my friend, Monsieur S., and his long hose! :-)

And here's his sister's beautiful dog, Cory. What a wonderful little guy he turned out to be!!

It was my first time to see an iPhone up close. It belonged to one of my friend's cousins, who was visiting from California.

Finally, here's a selection of photos of the great food I was lucky enough to consume this day:

A Great Night of Indian Food

My longtime friend, Mr. T., is turning 37 on Sunday so his brother and I decided to take him out for dinner. We ended up at Maurya on West Broadway. What a great choice! Not only was the food and conversation great, but we also met two lovely ladies working there, one from Guadalajara, Mexico and the other from São Paulo, Brazil.

A New Blog Voice

There's a Canadian fellow in Seattle who was prompted to start writing a blog because of what happened to Robert Dziekanksi at YVR. Way back when we had an informal competition about who could get the most letters published in each other's local newspaper. He won!

His blog is called Renaissance Cynic. I think you'll enjoy his witty, cynical prose. Do check it out!

Ever Eaten A Turducken?

I haven't. Didn't even know what on earth it was! But now I do. It's "a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken".

You can read more about it here.