Friday, April 27, 2007

Small House

Here is a guy who is living in a house even smaller than my apartment! Now I don't think it's directly comparable because he technically has two stories in it (the top section is a cute little sleeping loft), and he definitely has it better arranged with furniture and the like, but it's worth a look.

Obviously he doesn't have pets or kids... and no wife. Wives tend to have this thing about full-size kitchens, you know. Good thing I don't have a wife. I'd much rather have a mechanic.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Amazing Revival!

My old mouse had been dead for 24 hours already, when I contacted PK the Tech Miracle-Worker. I was just getting used to the idea of life without my trusty laser mouse, when he suggested that letting it dry for a day or two might restore it to its former glory.

At best, I was dubious. Before it died, it was limping along pathetically, totally incapacitated in the left button area, and the scroll wheel was maimed beyond description.

But then this morning, I decided to uncover it from its shallow paper grave on my desk, and try connecting it again to the life source of my computer. What a miracle! Full function was restored, and a living, breathing mouse it was again once more!

Many thanks to all for your kind thoughts during this time. I exhort you all to value your mice, as you never know what tragic events may befall them without warning...

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A Fallen Mouse

Here lies my trusty mouse, laser dark forever, scroll-button stilled at last. Never again will I hear its soft “click” or feel its smooth, ergonomic curves; surely I will miss the ease with which it glided over my desk, the graceful roll of its wheel and the gentle grey colour which so perfectly matched my grieving keyboard.

Tragically felled by an errant cup of hot tea, despite numerous attempts to resuscitate …

R.I.P., Mouse. I will always regret this day.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Canadian Gas Guzzling Stats

As noted on CBC.ca today:

"Despite rising gas prices, the sales of gas-hungry minivans, sport utility vehicles, light and heavy trucks, vans and buses surged to a new record high.
Consumers bought 803,166 of these vehicles in 2006, up 2.3 per cent from the previous year." (full article here)

Shocking. Saddening. And most of all, this makes me angry. "Despite rising gas prices..."???!!! Are you kidding me?

How about, "Despite the devasting potential effects of climate change, the worldwide impending oil/energy crisis, the massive problem of resource depletion, and the health-destroying pollution that causes cancer and disease at increasing rates, Canadians, symbolic of the reckless and short-sighted North American disregard for anything but immediate pleasure and convenience, continue to willfully jeopardize the future of the world and the viability of the human race."

Sell bicycles. Close roads. Get people off their couches and get them walking to work. Grow food. Talk to each other. Build a community. Connect with your environment. This must all be done in order to survive.

WAKE UP

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Response to Survey of Organizational Culture

*an appeal to our senior bureaucrats and other government leaders*

While efforts such as the e-newsletter, service excellence awards, all-staff/ Branch meetings, formal departmental events, and surveys (such as these) do certainly have their place, it is important to remember that organizational culture is not an "add-on" or an overnight fix: it is simply an attribute and a by-product of the business, and can only be built one employee at a time.

To front-line employees (the "face" of our department), fancy terminology and carefully-planned "Culture-Building" events lack resonance. Employees need to know how their tasks fit into the big picture, they need to be listened to (not just heard), and they need to be recognized by their immediate supervisors - not in a contest, not once a year with a Departmental birthday cake, but simply with a smile and a "well done!"

Finally, we need to grow our service culture with the training and grooming of young talent. We need to encourage young graduates, and show them that the public service offers exciting and challenging career opportunities. We need to respect their ideas - which may conflict with our more traditional ones - and invite their participation. We need to offer them the chance to put their education and intelligence to good use in serving our country and its citizens.

Monday, April 16, 2007

A Gem

Overheard at work:
"We can derive intake using a mathematical formula".

A.K.A: Using addition and subtraction (those mind-boggling arithmetic functions) we can develop the following:

Beginning Inventory + Incoming Work - Work Processed = Ending Inventory.

Then rearrange to form: Incoming Work = Ending Inventory + Work Processed - Beginning Inventory.

Public Sector = Rocket Science

Thursday, April 12, 2007

10 Things

10 things I love and will miss the most when the Oil Age ends:

10. Having Sunday brunch with my friends
9. Drinking coffee
8. Cycling in Gatineau Park on a carbon racing bike
7. Going for a run on a rainy afternoon
6. Making and enjoying music, in the traditional sense
5. Blogging
4. Hot showers
3. Kissing
2. Sleeping in a soft, warm, bed
1. The knowledge, science, and marvels of our globalized, modern world

10 things I love that I can still do when the Oil Age ends:

10. Have Sunday brunch with my friends (roasted squirrel and gull eggs over a campfire, anyone?)
9. Eat local, organic foods
8. Paddle along the Ottawa River
7. Go for a run on a rainy afternoon (but without Asics dual-density midsole runners)
6. Make and enjoy music, using whatever resources I can find
5. Read & write
4. Swim in the lake
3. Kiss!
2. Sleep in a quieter, cleaner world
1. Be a contributing member of a close-knit, local community

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Overheard

It's my last day of being 25... my youth is gone, my hair is going white, and I noticed two wrinkles on the right side of my forehead yesterday. On the bright side, I've decided that I've had a good and full life so far, living at the "pinnacle" of human progress (take that lightly!) in relative peace and prosperity. I have great friends, and have experienced many great moments during the last quarter century. Doesn't leave me too much to be sad about I guess, except the future of humanity ...

Overheard at Work (more proof of stupidity):

"Button, button, who took my button? The button I’ve been using all day is gone. "

That’s not really a bad word, it’s in the Bible… but I think they call it ‘procreation’.

Middle-aged woman: “How’s the baby doing?”
Retirement-aged man: “Good, good… she’s 8 months old now”
(Questioning looks exchanged among elevator passengers)
“She’s not mine, I mean she’s my grand-daughter … not that it couldn’t be, I mean, it definitely could be! Really, I still can!”

"Not Marie Antoinette… it’s Mario."

(To me): "Why can’t you eat pizza? Is it because of your biking?"

“Others may have found this information informative.”

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Smell the roses, hear the Strad

I walked around the grounds of Parliament today at lunch hour. I watched the Centennial Flame, and read the dates on the provincial plaques. There was a woman doing yoga on the front lawn, amid the flurry of passers-by and idly strolling RCMP officers, while the clock tower struck a quarter-to-one. A few snowflakes fell lazily over downtown Ottawa today, and I was alive and happy to experience it all as I soaked up the early spring sunshine.

What a mystery this world is, and what a gift! How much do we miss everyday, scurrying off to our posts with nary a glance to left or right, with no time to appreciate the beauty around us. We are so caught up in complexity, in technology, in haste …

In January 2007, the world-renowned virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell donned a baseball cap and jeans, and went busking in a subway station in another “government town”: Washington, D.C. For 43 minutes, among the hustle and bustle of the subway during morning rush-hour, he played his heart out on a $3.5 million Stradivarius. He played Bach, Schubert, Ponce; masterpieces of melody and song.

The whole stunt was recorded on video camera. How many of the 1,097 passers-by stopped to listen? How many of them even noticed his playing at all?

Only 7 (article here)! Not including, interestingly enough, each and every child that passed - enthralled - but propelled along by annoyed parents.

The story frightens me… because although I hope - beyond all hope - that if I would have been in the Washington subway that day, I would have stopped to recognize beauty for what it was, I cannot be sure. I cannot know absolutely that I would not have continued on my way in a rush, going to wherever I was headed, oblivious.

And that is the deepest sadness and the darkest blindness I can imagine.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Green Energy & Transportation show

Ottawa's first Green Energy & Transportation (GET) show is scheduled for May 12-13th, 2007 at Lansdowne Park. Think Home Show, Auto Show, Sportsman's Show, etc. in nature, where exhibitors set up booths and visitors wander around getting info and trying products.

For $10 admission, I'm game to go and if anyone is interested in checking it out with me, drop me a line!

Also, I just heard about Bullfrog Power: Ontario's first 100% green electricity provider. Drawn through Ontario's existing grid, your dollars go to clean, renewable electricty providers.

In summary:
  • Yes, it will cost you up to 1$ more per day.
  • No, the reliability of your service will NOT be affected.
  • Yes, alternative energy sources are a LONG way from replacing fossil fuels, but also YES we are running out of said fossil fuels.
Frankly for all its drawbacks, I would still rather have my dollars go to support wind power and hydro rather than coal/oil/nuclear. At the very least, it's worth reading more about it here.

Have I switched yet? No, but I am seriously considering it for after my move. It takes about 3 months to switch, but you are free to switch between your local provider and Bullfrog at any time (Bullfrog pumps green electricity into the Ontario grid, and its electricity sales cannot exceed the amount of power it supplies).

Friday, April 6, 2007

175 Square Feet

I'm going through all my worldly possessions to find out what I can jettison ... before I move. What's funny about that? It will only take me a day or two to go through every paper, object, clothing article, and furnishing. But before I make the move to 375 square feet and an oven, I wanted to capture some memories of the last 4 years of living on the cheap.

Here is how I made it work, complete with photos: check out my virtual apartment tour on Flickr.

And here's a preview: you can see 3 out of my 4 walls with this shot.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

100-kilometer breakfast

Ever wonder what a truly local, springtime breakfast would be like? Well here's the Ottawa version, as served by the Table vegetarian restaurant in Westboro: "roasted potatoes, sugar-free pancakes with maple syrup, eggs, mushrooms, hot house tomatoes and herbal tea" (CBC, April 7)

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? With the notable lack of coffee... I still intend to try the "eat local for a month" experiment, but I gotta find a way to grow coffee beans. Coffee, the second most valuable commodity in the world (behind petroleum). (Fair Trade Toronto).

Why eat local? To support our farmers, to encourage a healthier diet, and to reduce the pollution & greenhouse emissions that result from trucking food to our tables.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Eco toilets et al.

If you wanna go really EcoTech, you gotta check out this waterless composting toilet. I'm still unsure as to the logistics (I mean, how about the smell of the compost?) but it certainly looks nifty. More importantly it cuts down on the water waste and costly treatment, while recycling those "nutrients" eventually back into the soil. Certainly beats burning your garbage for energy... still haven't got over the stupidity of that one (air pollution, fellas?)

I also read an article in the Walrus this morning (at 4am, no thanks to my neighbours with the blaring stereo) about chemical pollution. Yes, right here in Canada... now we've all heard about the MP's who underwent chemical testing this winter, but I suppose it didn't really hit home for me until I read about how formaldehyde from embalmed corpses seeps into the ground...

The Walrus is really good with the gritty imagery, but seriously I could have done with a little bit less of it this time (Janine MacLeod: "Forgotten, But Not Gone"). The most poignant thing, however, was the simple revelation that while so many cancers are caused by chemical pollution, there are far fewer funds dedicated to preventing cancer through cleaning up our environments (and by extension our bodies) and preventing toxins from making us sick, than are invested in finding a pharmaceutical solution... who lobbies the government for funds? The biotech industry, the "drug companies": the ones who seek to profit most by "us" getting sick.

Of course that is NOT to say that medical R&D should be thrown out the window. It's just an observation... and it's tragic that cancer incidence continues to rise despite improving treatment options. Why no examination of carcinogens?! Why no investigation of cause?!

It makes me angry to think that the potential exists for pharmaceutical companies, short-sighted policy-makers, and other powerful individuals - by their negligence or omission - to seriously jeopardize the personal health of you and I.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

April Fool

So it's the first day of the best month of the year. No jokes played on me today - not yet anyways - although I was close to pouring balsamic vinegar on my pancakes this morning. Note to all Ottawa residents: Carmello's on Cooper has amazing coffee, and amazing service.

The month also heralds the dawn of a new age... literally, my new age. Closer to 30 than 20 and what do I have to show for it, other than more white hair???

Today I also scored a new bathing suit at a decent price: Speedo Endurance in splashy blue and black, and I may have scored a potential swim coach too (can't jinx it 'tho). I need to swim well enough so that the macho guys lounging on the deck will be too respectful to say: "Nice tan" as I walk past. In fact, since I'm practically an old geezer now, I think next time I will just respond: "Nice ass".

Whatever. Since you know how I got that tan, shut up already and race me up the freakin' road, loser.

Sick of all this time off, bring on the darn workday already (never thought I'd say that).