So Many Twits to Choose ...

There're just too many platforms to choose from when it comes to socially connecting and sharing. Presently I'm using CellSpin to post on my blogs because I think it's friendlier than the newer WordPress. But from what I've gathered reading out there people are raving about the latter, newer johnny-come-lately. So, I've tried it on my Bold 2nite, and must say it's very impressive, yet it doesn't fit into the friendlier aka easier to learn category. Subsequently I'm back using the CellSpin. Amen!

On ferry heading back to the mainland to Nikki's

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Left mainland headed off to Victoria ...

June 22, 2009 - Left Nikki's around noon, & walked down couple streets to Tropica at Cambie/12th Ave where we had Malaysian/Singaporean Nasi Lemak, Hainanese Chicken Rice & Chinese Brocoli. Not bad for the price; $27. Left the place and got on the BC Transit for a mere $5 each with 2 transfers in total. The entire bus journey to Tsawwassen Terminal took 5 hours. From there we took the ferry across to Swartz Bay Terminal which journey was another 1.5 hours. Retrieved our bags after the ferry docked and headed to catch the bus to our hotel; another hour ride. We were bushed already and hungry too. As soon as we checked in we went out again; Sphagetti Factory & cold beer just around the corner. It's 11 pm Victoria time now and we are finally resting in clean sheets and really, really tired. Front desk will be waking us up in 5 hours so we can catch the bus at 6:15 a.m. for yet another long ride; 6 hours to Bamfield where we begin our trek for the next 6 - 7 days --- 77 km stretch length through cougar & bear forest. Wish us luck!!

Off to British Columbia ...

June 20, 2009 flew outta Toronto Pearson International Airport to Calgary via Air Canada. Half hour late leaving on account workers having to weld in the cargo berth to ensure safety flying. Bumpy ride there. Got in Calgary around 10:30 pm. Switched yet to another smaller plane and got in Vancouver 10:45 pm. Took the airport hotel shuttle bus to Holiday Inn Vancouver Airport around mid-night. When we got there everything was closed, not a single coffee shop was opened. So, we went to McDonald's drive thru, pretended we were driving and got us 2 coffees and breaded fish on buns. Finally knocked off 4:30 am Ontario time.

June 21, 2009 - got up early and we walked over to Aberdeen Centre for Dim Sum. Most places were not opened until 11:00 am. We're in Richmond and majority of people here are Asians; Chinese predominantly and Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, East Indians. And the houses here each runs over a million minimum. After eating Nikki picked us up around 11 a.m. Got to Nikki and we took off on own as soon as we dropped off our bags there; Nikki had softball until 2:30 pm and we roamed around Main Street and found lotz sporting stores including MEC which is just down the street from Nikki's.

Lori wonders if this is poppy?

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Lori wonders if this is poppy?

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Carol & Jim trekking through Hydro Cut

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Carol & Jim trekking through Hydro Cut

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Babes during trail hike

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

It will never go away. I wish it would.

Friday, October 27, 2006

It will never go away. I wish it would.

A friend of mine was sexually assaulted by his priest when he was 12 years old. The perpetrator is died now. My buddy is still having a tough time relating to others, especially other males, and females too. He was married once but only for a few years, and they decided a divorce not long into their marriage. He had since encountered many other relationships but none lasted more than a few months. I wish for him the bad stuffs in his life would go away, and he could be peaceful with himself again, and sleep a peaceful, restful night.

Lawyers, Litigation & the Human Needs

Highly conflicted families are usually found in counselling offices struggling to make it together. And when they failed to work things out some ended up in Courts. About 12% of these remained in a state of perpetual conflict. They as a group is the main source of incomes of family lawyers; an average divorce legal costs per couple in Toronto is about C$60,000. That's a lot of mullahs if you asked me. The litigation process as we know today isn't working. Family incomes paid to lawyers are taken out from looking after the young ones. That's the opportunity costs. They are the innocent victims the legal professionals don't like to talk about. Lawyers prefer to speak about how they represented the legal rights of their clients. They might even add that the current systems are the only ones we got and until better ones come along we are stucked with the present status quo. What we need to hear more of are solutions to mitigate more costly litigations. What we need to have are systems that help more people to move on with their lives without the high costs passed on to the children as their burdens. We must stay away from litigating family issues, especially parenting after the split. We currently have mediators, but they are under-utilized because lawyers prefer not using the process unless they have to. I would prefer putting mediation and other forms of dispute resolution in place prior to litigation. Jus my 2-cent worth.


blackberrycat

Passport Office, let the buck stops over there ...

So, I heard today the Canadian Passport Office has withdrawn its plan for passport applications over the net. The official explaination cited for the withdrawal was quite insulting of Canadians. Apparently they withdrew services because they decided it was not "convenient" for the general public to access their services. Wow! blame the public - their clienteles - when their setup was amateurish and most mediocre the first place. Last year their system was compromised, and recently Canada's privacy commissioner called their setup "sloppy". What's wrong with these people? I swear somebody was sleeping on the job. What ever happened to accountability? I say sack the IT department. Better still, fire the politician who is in charge of that department. Let the buck stops there and maybe the message will get across that it's not the people's fault when they screwed up over there. Jus my 2-cent worth.

blackberrycat

Mother Nature here I come ...

Spring is Definitely Here

We waited and we waited somewhat patiently, and alas! Spring is here; in Kitchener it's about 8 degrees Celsius. What choice do we have but wait. Some of us, myself included have been known to complain hoping that maybe Mother Nature would hear us and grant our wishes for warmer days. Or at least make the snow melts away and temperatures stay above freezing so we could brave outside for walks around the block. A piece of advice. There are no warmer or colder days for walks. Speaking from experience I too waited for the warmer days in the past to justify walking outside. In reality, they were never warm or hot enough days or nights to motivate venturing outside, so I stayed, and stayed inside until the hot summer "chased" me out of the house. Like most Canadians we went outside to cool off because we didn't want to pay the high costs of air-conditioning. The average Canadians already spent their hard-earned money on gas and/or hydro heating over the winter months, and so most of us have to conserve energy costs knowing soon enough Mother Nature's winter blasts will be back ... THE SOLUTION? Get involved with a walking club in your neighbourhood. I did, and since Fall of last year I was outside walking at least 3 - 4 times a week, even in minus 40 degrees Celsius weather. Now I plan to walk through Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I swear I will never let Mother Nature makes me her prisoner ever again. I intend to be free from the cruel, whimsical cycles of the so-called Mother Nature. Come June-July I plan to hike 77 km of the West Coast Trial, and no wild animals can scare me away. Black bears and cougars aren't going to scare me in-doors. I want my freedom, and I wanna feel free from here onwards.

blackberrycat

Workers Unite & Fight Back

Finally communism is dead? Well at least that was how it was reported over here when the Berlin wall came down, and Russia was in process of getting dismantled. Then journalists and other experts put in their two-cent worth how capitalism had prevailed. Those of us who are in the trenches working with "real people" facing their struggles making ends meet while the rich gets richer always suspected that capitalism the way we have lived it was bound for bankruptcy. I would rather be wrong and I think so would the ordinary guys working out there. But now capitalism is struggling and desperately resorting for tax payers bail out. Its stooges are the very people we have elected to look after us - the politicians. Here at home the Canadian Government has pledged at least a billion dollars bailing out the auto industry. Why? Cynical or just plainly speaking - To Buy Your Votes. How? Giving the tycoons your tax dollars so they could get even richer on the backs of workers. In return they would promise to try keep their factories open which translate to more votes come election time. Moral of this story? First they screwed you then they try to help you claiming credits because they have helped you. Nobody wants to remember that they were the same group of "screwers" that caused all our problems the first place - my own 2-cent worth.

blackberrycat

Life Style Change

Life style change. What one eats becoming one who keeps eating, and eating. That's a life style that breeds diabete type II and a whole bunch of nasty health problems. Eventually it transpires into societal woes and fiscal issues that creates the have's and have not's in this community. Poor adult health continues to breed children who are obese yet malnourished, and then more of. Unfortunately for them the grown-up's are shaping their children's future through fast foods and poor life style. Businesses and Governments are responsible as well contributing to yet another generation of fat, weak citizens.

Self Esteem v Self Competency

Self esteem is a much sought after feeling, yet a rather elusive state of mind if you know what I mean. You see, we all want to feel good about ourselves, and when we do feel better we are happy and the reverse when we don't feel as good. And so the path to that journey has begun; go after that feeling of self worth like one does to that holy grail, soughtable but elusive and temporary. I would like to suggest that we cast aside that useless concept - SELF ESTEEM, and instead teach each one of us anew to acquire SELF COMPETENCY. What is self competency? Simple. It is what we do with ourselves through living and learning to teach ourselves skills that are important to us. Through learning and acquiring skills we become more capable and useful with and to ourselves. May the skills be driving a car, typing, writing on the net, speaking publicly, boxing well in the ring, etc. Now you begin to get the idea; get them skills down pat and you will soon feel better about who you are. It's only through learning and applying what you have learned in life that make you useful and soon enough peaceful and even happy. Happy that you have accomplished something, whatever they may be, and that you continue to help yourself and hopefully others that connect you and them into one happy entity. Thus my own journey - pick up more skills, and hopefully useful ones from here to death!

Accountability

We don't hear much of this word, accountability in our daily lives. What does it really mean anyway? When used in the context of sentencing in the Criminal Court, it usually meant making the guilty felon pay back for his bad deeds against Society. Once in a blue moon, we would hear the word "accountability" associated with wrong doing's by public servants and or politicians. Personally, I'd like to bring back the use of this word "accountability" in our daily, ordinary way of living. We'll use it with our kids in school, with employees and employers, with parents raising their children, with adolescents and their parents, and in many other such human interactions and relationships. In contrast, let's minimize using the words "it's my rights ..." Maybe having too much rights in absence of "accountability" make us what we are today -- violence, intolerance, dispassion for anyone different, and such like's and 'schisms. So, bottomline is let's start here. I'll be accountable to all those I meet today and tomorrow, and I'll expect accountability from them, no more and no less.