The Goal That Wasn't Meant To Be!

I interrupted my regular scheduled programming to watch the Vancouver Canucks play the Dallas Stars this evening. Vancouver won 2 - 1 but the Stars came close ... so incredibly close to tying the score late in the 3rd period. As soon as I saw this image from the instant replay I exclaimed to my friend, "That photo is going to be front & centre on many newspapers tomorrow!!!"

I was reluctant to start believing in my hometown team a few days ago but now I just have one thing to say: "Go Canucks, Go!!!"

52.6% of Americans Receive "Significant" Government Income

This article boggles my mind. It makes me wonder what percentage of Canadians are receiving similar significant amounts of income. I have to believe there'll be a tipping point beyond which those paying will refuse to any longer.

Some Tips on Creating a Great Resume

In my career I've had the opportunity to review hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes (also known as "CVs"). I'm convinced that a lot of job seekers don't really understand what goes on in the mind of those reviewing a resume. When a job is posted by any company, often dozens or hundreds of people apply for it. The company can't possibly interview every single person so they have to find a way to narrow down the list of applicants.

To this end there are a few simple things you can do to heighten your chances of getting into the "We want to meet this person!" pile. Similarly, there are a few obvious things that will almost certainly get you into the "Rejected" pile. I offer the following, not so much as the definitive guide to applying for a job, but more of an initial primer, which will hopefully get discussed and improved over time.

General Tips

• Ensure there are NO spelling mistakes and no grammatical errors. If you're not a good writer then pay someone else to help you! However you create your resume and cover letter, get someone else to carefully proofread them. Make no mistake that an application full of careless errors just tells the employer what you'll be like working for them; actually, they assume you'll be worse because when you're applying for a job you should be on your very best, most diligent behaviour!
  
• Every application needs a personalized cover letter. You can write a generic one first and then customize it for each job you're applying for but if you don't bother with a cover letter applicable to the job at hand then you're telling the employer that you're really not that serious about working there.
• Many people I know have several different resumes, each designed to reflect their professional histories in a different way. For example, my background includes both mining engineering and software development and so I'm qualified to apply for both professions. But the resumes for each would be completely different.
  
• Since most jobs are applied for via e-mail these days, help out the employer by using a simple naming convention as shown below. They will appreciate this and it can only help your chances:
• Smith, John - Resume.doc
• Smith, John - Cover Letter.doc
• Your resume should be straightforward, well organized, and concise. More than anything, the person reading your resume doesn't have a lot of free time. So don't make their job more difficult. Your cover letter can be more "flowery" than the resume. More than anything it should explain why you would be an excellent candidate for the job and possibly better than any other applicant. Be careful with the latter approach though because no one thinks fondly of an arrogant person, especially one they don't know.

Resume Format
There's no "one" best way to put together a resume but here are some suggestions to create a good one. Incidentally, some say that every resume must be just 1 page long. I don't agree with this. As long as the experience is relevant to the job at hand then it likely should be included. I'm comfortable reading resumes 1 to 3 pages long.

• Introduction
  
• Your Name
• Contact Info including your E-mail address (If you don't have one, get one!)
  
• Photo (optional, but generally a good idea, especially if you're photogenic)
• Occupation or Objective
• Specialization (optional)
• Professional Profile (optional)
• Personal Profile (optional)
• Work Experience (one section for each relevant job)
  
• Dates
• Company
• Location(s)
• Description
• Related Experience (optional)
• Education & Training (one section for each relevant item)
  
• Dates
• School
• Minor Description of Accomplishments
• Volunteer Work (optional)
  
• Other Skills
• Languages
• Computer Skills
• Other
• Memberships (optional)
• Personal Interests (optional)

I hope this helps. Please do leave any comments and questions. I'll improve what I've written here if any good gems are provided! And for a more humorous look at reviewing applications, read this!

Those Darn Accurate Horoscopes!

Just when I'm ready to dismiss horoscopes entirely, I read this pair in the weekend Vancouver Sun for Virgos:

Saturday, April 14th
The story that's told by appearances isn't the whole truth. The one who looks like a past love sure doesn't act the same!

Sunday, April 15th
The emotional reverberations you're feeling aren't all in your head. Take all the time you need to process. The satisfaction you get from deeply listening to yourself is invaluable.


If you knew all that's gone on in my life this past week, you'd exclaim, "Wow, that's spooky!" But alas, not everything is fit to print.

Average Canadian family spends more on taxes than life's necessities

Monday, April 16, 2007 - Canadian Press

VANCOUVER

Taxes are taking a bigger chunk out of the average Canadian family income than food, clothing and housing combined, a new survey suggests.

The Fraser Institute says the Canadian Consumer Tax Index is up significantly in the past 45 years.

The average Canadian family earned $63,000 in 2006, with nearly 45 per cent of that going to taxes.

Just over 35 per cent was spent on food, clothing and housing.

In 1961, the institute says just 33.5 per cent of income went to taxes.

The tax index includes direct taxation, such as income taxes, sales taxes, Employment Insurance and Canadian Pension Plan contributions, as well as hidden taxes, such as import duties, gas taxes and excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol.


You can read the full report here.

Taxi Racism: Alive & Well in Vancouver

An interesting little event just occurred. A young man, originally from Somalia, just came by to pick up his computer. He's in Grade 12 in a Burnaby high school, getting great marks, and looking forward to a Computer Science education at university.

But when I called Yellow Cab to drive him back home with his new computer, the taxi driver did a double-take when he saw who was getting in his car. The driver asked me, "Is he a good guy?" You & I both know what that's code for.

Ironically, the driver's skin colour was only a few shades lighter than the student's.

I've never driven a cab in this city so I don't know what the drivers face but I would have hoped that such events no longer occurred in 2007. This was a vivid wake-up call for me about things I never have to worry about.

Birds at Rest

Back in Miami I frequently saw large pelicans perched on various structures by the water. While I've never seen any such birds in Vancouver, I did find these guys near the north bank of False Creek today. Note: The structure they're on is a piece of art that I believe was originally supposed to have a laser on it that was supposed to "paint the sky".

Memories of Expo 86

Were you in Vancouver for Expo 86? It was a fabulous time and somehow the entire city felt newer, better, funner. Is "funner" even a word?! But it really was a great event. One of the architectural highlights of the exposition was a glass-roofed Plaza of Nations. Now 21 years later it's all coming down. Sad, but perhaps inevitable, as most man-made structures on this continent don't seem built to last.

A Digital Divide Kind of Day

As indicated previously, I held a BCDD distribution day out of my apartment. As always, a diverse and interesting set of people came by. We had 4 deliveries and about a dozen people pick up their computers from my place. Very rewarding!

Everything I Do . . .

I heard this song on the radio today and realized I hadn't heard it in a while. Okay, maybe it's sappy but I've always liked it. Here are 3 versions for your listening enjoyment:

The Chicago Spire

I just learned about an amazing new building that is being built in Chicago and will be completed in 2010. The 150-storey, 610 metre tall tower will be the tallest building in North America.


You can read more about it here, here, and here.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: Same Old Spin, Same Old Inaction

Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin wrote a brilliant, cynical piece which you can read here. Fellow blogger and the best talkshow host in Canada, David Berner, beat me to the punch with this witty commentary. But I couldn't resist send this letter into the Vancouver Sun:

Pete McMartin's insightful column about the Downtown Eastside Poverty Industry (DEPI) hit so many chords that my head felt like a church bell tower on a Sunday morning! When exactly did it become acceptable for endless amounts of public money to be spent with absolutely no meaningful, helpful results being achieved? It seems that actually helping the less fortunate has been replaced with feeling good about dialoguing and conferencing with other like-minded holier-than-thou souls. With all this hot air being generated, Stephane Dion and Al Gore should declare this area an environmental hotspot!

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at a meeting of one of these DEPI groups. I'm convinced that the sentiment around the room would be that if we feel good about doing something then that's more important than actually accomplishing anything. Don't worry about the fact that drug use and poverty is actually increasing. That's just a minor technicality.

At the end of the day, everything looks pretty rosy for everyone employed by the poverty industry. Their bills are paid and since things are only getting worse, they have guaranteed job security for life. They've guilted large corporations into making donations, which in turn makes them feel better on the PR front. Nobody loses, right? Well, except for the thousands of people on the Downtown Eastside who are struggling to overcome their addictions and squalid surroundings. As a recovered heroin addict once told me, "I was never able to get myself better until I hit rock bottom." That's a sad fact that no one in DEPI wants to admit.

On a personal note, hearing about more public money being wasted like this especially galls me. Contrast this with the completely volunteer organization I'm involved with, BC Digital Divide. We allow anyone to apply for a computer but are careful that we're not just giving them out to be sold on the street or replace one they've received from us before. Just today I gave out two computers, to two lower income ladies. Indeed, it cost them nothing but I'm fairly confident that they will treat them with great respect and take good care of them. Our efforts are modeled on "a hand up". It seems that all of DEPI programs are based on "a hand out". And anyone who knows they can continually receive a hand out will generally keep on taking it forever.

Fresh Sushi

One of my favourite sushi restaurants is also very close to me. It's called Opera Sushi and is run by an actual Japanese family. The husband is an opera buff and the walls are covered with old opera records. They play a mixture of music though. Here are a few photos I took of their delicious food.

BCDD Distribution Day

Generally once a month BC Digital Divide distributes a large number of computers out of the home of one of our techs. But he's away in Hawaii right now so I agreed to take on the responsibility this month, even if it did temporarily consume my living space. The first photo shows that my place is not always an electronic junkyard!

Mother Nature, The Artist

I snapped this photo at the Vancouver School Board building at 10th & Fir in Vancouver. Much of the year they have an elaborate array of beautiful flowers such as these. Click on the thumbnail and you'll see something quite majestic.

It's Playoff Time!

Many foreigners I meet think that Canadians are pretty much the same as Americans. Perhaps so, until it comes to the NHL Playoffs! The Vancouver Canucks are one of only three teams in the playoffs this year. Here's a small sampling from some very dedicated Canucks fans:

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

While the subject line is indeed true, it's a bit misleading because each new day is the first day of the rest of our lives! In any case, this is a pivotal day for me. My time in Miami gave me much time to think, rest, and regroup. When I got home early Wednesday morning I was both exhilarated and exhausted. This past weekend was one of the very best times in my entire life (for reasons I may elaborate on in the future!) and now today, after the holiday weekend, I'm easing back into "real life", so to speak.

I've committed to myself to start each day with an hour long walk. Today I started with what I call "The Million Dollar Walk". It starts at Granville Island, heads west through Vanier Park, past the doggie beach, along the shores of Kitsilano Beach, up the steep hill of Yew Street, and then back through the pleasant residential neighbourhood of Kitsilano. This is one of my favourite walks anywhere and here are the photos to show you why:

A Little FYI on Consumer LaserJets

I recently started looking into replacing my HP 932C inkjet printer with a colour laserjet instead. Two models at a local Staples caught my attention so I asked a local printer expert for his opinion. Here's what he had to say:

The HP 2600N is a good price but is an entry level machine which means they've scrimped a bit on some parts of the printer. It uses 4 toner cartridges (black @$89 and prints up to 2500 pages) (Colors run $97 each and produce up to 2000 pages) The machine prints well but if you don't use the colors much users are surprised to find out the machine will force you to have to install new color carts or stops printing unless you do and this is because the image drum on the machine rotates, wipes and cleans the color cartridges on every print run whether toner is used
or not and so the color carts become "worn out" even though still containing toner. Not a good printer option if not printing "color" as much as black.

The Samsung 300 is okay if you didn't get one of the "Monday lemons" which many people have and getting satisfaction thru Samsung Canada warranty is turning out to be "legend" for user dissatisfaction. I helped a client try to get warranty on a cartridge which took nearly 2 months of correspondance and in the end we left a code letter off the end of the printer models name and were rejected on claim even though every Samsung printer uses that code letter. They are that picky even though every other number, letter, description and RMA information were included all in original packaging. Doh! Also the Samsung cartridges are expensive compared to the HP's. (Samsung Black is $64 but prints half as many pages as the HP black) and the colors are $54 but also only print half as many pages.

Consumer color lasers are very poor performers per page cost. Once you go up a few hundred dollars the performance and cost per page is quite a bit better but expect to pay $450 plus the cartridges are proportionately more money (but print more).

Auto Co-ops in Vancouver

For some time now I've lived in Vancouver without a car. I work out of my home office, am just 4 blocks from a major transit intersection, and just haven't felt the need to have a car.

But I have been long aware of the Co-operative Auto Network. With them, you pay an initial up front fee of $500 (which is fully refundable if you leave the program) and then can pay to use various cars which are parked around the city.

There's new competition in town in the form of ZipCar. I haven't investigated either much but may very well do so soon.

Update: Commenter "HMS Victory" referred me to this great video about a similar service in London, England:

Easter Sunday Breakfast

My friend and I had grown increasingly skeptical about the quality of service at Paul's Place Omelettery. But his wife convinced us to go. I'm glad we did. As always, there was a bit of a wait, but the food and the service was very good this time.