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From: CNW Portfolio System [mailto:portfolio@newswire.ca]
Sent: February 4, 2009 12:13 PM
To: Portfolio E-Mail
Subject: Media advisory - Minister Finley and Minister Baird visit seniors coop...

 

CNW Group Portfolio E-Mail
 

 

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

. . . and I moved to Regina, why?

Environment Canada's Official Weather Warnings

Various shots of stuff & things . . .

Every Saskagirl's dream -- a Roughrider themed wedding dress!


. . . not much of a "market", one would suppose.


. . . where to begin?


This sign works on so many levels: 
"Policy Muffins!" . . . sweet! 
"Be generous while delighting yourself" -- I'll let you go where you like with that.


Getting into the Guiness Book is a vocation now.  Can't find the NOC Code, though - must be in the upcoming revision.

I love me the politics. This is a given. So, some may expecting me to chirp in on the current situation in Ottawa . . . what more can be said? The issue has been analyzed, re-analyzed, interpreted, re-interpreted, dissected & dismantled . . .

Of all the analysis, I think Rick Mercer hits the nail on the head:

"With leaders like this we shouldn't be blamed for asking why bother. But I do know this. If this parliament was a dog it would be brought out behind the shed and shot. Rabid dogs aren't reformed, given second chances or trusted ever again."

"One imagines the Queen will not be amused. In a perfect world she would just knock [Harper & Dion's] heads together and call it a day."

"We need one more historic press conference attended by two political enemies. A joint press conference between Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion. A historic event where they both apologise to their country and their parties, in that order, and then they resign immediately no questions please. Because quite frankly they deserve one another and Canada deserves better."

Too cool -- I love it when megacorporations take an interest in my health . . .
Google Flu Trends

Sadly, I thought this headline was a joke.  It was not.

The information in this article got me thinking . . . if the economy in much of Canada & the world is tanking, the government & opposition parties could collectively decide to help provide a shot in the arm by maintaining a minority government & bringing the House down on confidence motions every 6 months or so . . . 40,000 temporary hires would soon turn into 40,000 permanant employees;  $300million is directly spent on the election;  safe to assume another $50 million is indirectly spent on advertising, chartered planes, hotels, shooters, food, bribes, balloons & confetti . . . . all good things for the economy.

I'm not sure if this is part of Stephen/[Iggy/Bob/random backbencher]/Jack/Lizzy/Gilles' master plan, but if it isn't, my advice is free this week only (I can be placed on retainer, however).

. . . in what I'm reading right now, have a look at my Google Reader shared items.
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Happy Black & Orange Day to my friends in the GTA . . .

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I'd also like to send a quick note out to the drivers of Regina:

the right-hand lane is drive-able.  No, seriously -- you can drive in it.  It's all legal-like.  The cops won't ticket you or nothing. 

Don't get me wrong, your aversion to the right-hand lane shaves time off my already blistering commute (especially at 13th Ave & Pasqua), but to be fair, I thought I'd let you know.

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On a somewhat related note, I find the fact that the right-hand lane on Albert Street downtown has been designated "Bus-only" during the morning & evening rush to be endlessly amusing . . . and a waste of asphalt to boot.  For those not familiar with Regina Transit (also known as, "Regina has a bus?"), the designation of this lane as bus-only has the effect turning 3 otherwise drive-able lanes into 2 at precisely the times that extra capacity is required. 

Correction to my previous post -- thanks K.

The phrase I meant was, of course, "social cues" . . . not "social queues" . . .

My first reaction to this was the same indignant reaction I had when told in 2nd Year that my curiosity had not been "peaked", but rather "piqued."  I stomped off to Merriam-Webster.  Finding that MW had the wrong definition, I went to the source . . . the Oxford English. 

When I found that the OED had entered into an OPEC-like definition cartel with MW and the other major dictionaries (the Definition Cartel, of course, being controlled by the Stonecutters), I started a grassroots movement to bring down the cartel & have the errors corrected. 

The movement did not come to fruition, and we are stuck using "pique" in place of "peak."

I have since mellowed, and am willing to accept right off the bat that we as a society have allowed these "dictionaries" to dictate the meaning of words . . . rightly or wrongly.

You know, I like business trips as much as the next guy.  I especially like trips to cities I've never been to . . . things to see, places to explore . . .

I was even excited about my pending overnight in Prince Albert . . . until I read the TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel we'll be staying at:

I'll start with the positive review:
"Other than overlooking the provincial jail, it is a beautiful hotel and a very nice place to stay."

and the other review:

“New but very dirty. Clean people don"t stay here!

Toilet was VERY dirty. Urine stains under seat from last people staying there. I had to CLEAN the bathroom as soon as I got there. Cig holes in the blankets of a non-smoking room. T.V. didn't work. Air con doesn't keep constant- hot and cold throughout the night. Ironing board very stained and dirty. We found a BIG bag of candy and crap in the drawers from the last people.

The front desk girl was nice....that's all I can say good about this place!

Not even worth $20. If you dont care about smell and dirt-STAY HERE."

Awesome.  Perfect.  Yippee . . . who wouldn't love a cigarette scarred, urine-soaked room overlooking the Jail?

I'll have to enjoy the Sheraton in Saskatoon a little extra the night before . . .
sigh . . .

A colleague of mine recently (10 minutes ago) mentioned that she was annoyed/ frustrated by a co-worker's lack of social skills & inability to grasp basic social queues.

I shared the following outlook with her -- it's helped me a great deal with interpersonal relationships . . . and it's really simple!

If you go into life assuming everyone's an idiot, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you're wrong.

. . . conversely, if you assume people aren't idiots (as exemplified by, say, social skills, manners, basic comprehension of "stuff", an understanding of the world around them, etc), you'll be disappointed & annoyed when you meet idiots.

This is similar to the Professors who tell you at the beginning of a semester that you start with 100%, and just need to maintain it.  In this case, everyone starts at 0% (idiots) and can move up the ladder (to 100%, presently held by such notables as Rick Mercer, Jon Stewart & the Dalai Lama).

Though counter-intuitive, lowering expectations of everyone will actually result in a happier, less stressful life.

Please allow me to preface this by saying that I am in no way intending to make light of this girl's situation . . . only a poorly written title to the article & associated inference . . .

Girl attacked by dog now fights cancer

"SASKATOON — A six-year-old girl who was mauled by a dog earlier this year, sparking a heated debate about banning dangerous pets, is now fighting brain cancer. Jaidyn Siemens-Solanik was diagnosed with brain cancer in September, exactly nine months to the day after she was attacked in Delisle by Bandit, a neighbour’s dog.

The family is questioning whether there’s a link between the attack and the tumour’s malignancy. . ."

OK, I have to admit, I had only read the headline & first paragraph when writing my preface -- turns out, it's not simply an inference . . . the "dog bit-cancer link" is actually raised as a possibility. 

I guess with the election over, the media has turned to publishing articles that have only fleeting relationships with reality . . . so we're back to normal. 

Excellent -- I'd been wondering about Elvis' latest hiding spot (I hear he's in Area 54 with the alien . . . and Bigfoot).

I don't know about you, but I rely on Google for virtually everything:
- What's the deal with this guy I'm meeting?  Does he have some sort of bizarre history I should know about? . . . Google
- How many feet is 3.2 metres?  enter "3.2m to ft" & Google tells me the answer (10.4986877 feet in case you're curious bu too lazy to google it)
- Need a way to manage my small blog-obsession . . . Google Reader.
- mrs_drofmab  is trying to get the cat to the Kitty Palace & gets lost . . . a quick phone call to me & Google Maps gets her going in the right direction (ignore the fact that it was Google Maps that sent her in the wrong direction in the first place . . .)

So why shouldn't I turn to Google's newest feature -- Google In Quotes -- to help me sift through all the political mumbo-jumbo Canadia's political leaders are blathering on about.  I mean, they're saying A LOT of words . . . how can I possibly keep track of everything & make an informed decision at the ballot box?  I can't . . . it's basically a crap shoot . . . at least it was.  But with Google In Quotes in my life, I can now compare  what
Jack Layton & Stephen Harper each said about Parliament:
""I am not going to predict, as you're attempting to make me do, and I'm not going to do it, what the composition of that parliament will be," Layton said. "You can ask me any hypothetical question about the number of seats and parties after..."

"They level the playing field for all parties. The rules are clear for everybody. Unless we're defeated or prevented from governing, we want to keep moving forward to make this minority parliament work over the next 3½ years," Harper said.

OR

Stephane Dion & Stéphen Harper each said about the Arctic:
"I think it is very important for the world to give very clear rules and laws about the arctic before it becomes a jungle - a jungle without trees, but a jungle," Dion said. "It's what Canada should be speaking about very clearly. We need to..."

"Use it or lose it, is the first principle of arctic sovereignty," Harper told reporters.

OR

Stephen Harper & Stéphane Dion each said about Bush:
[Harper:]  No quotes about "Bush" available

"I love the winter," Dion says on one of several on-site videos. "I love the snow. I love to go with my snowshoes and my dog in the Bush."

. . . like I said, I can now safely march into the ballot box knowing that Google has carefully examined each leader's position on issues relevant to me, rolled the info up & presented it to me in a interactive & useful manner. 

Google's apparently even had a look at the name of our country & improved it -- Canadia it is!

Me loves the technology long time.

UPDATE:  I was fully unaware that Andrew Potter was going to highlight Google's gracious foray into the Canadian election.  Next time I'll touch base with Andy prior to posting . . . 

Awesome . . .

Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' ad pictures made on a Mac

. . . that's it.  The article really speaks for itself.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone . . .

To celebrate, our good friends at Google have added an additional language (based on some excellent market research) -- PIRATE!

Pirate comes as an addition to Google's many other languages . . .
- Elmer Fudd
- Hacker
- Klingon
- Pig Latin
- Bork, Bork, Bork! (my personal fav . . . I wish there was an International Talk like the Swedish Chef Day . . . )

Air Canada's version of transparency apparently involves removing items from the spotlight & into the shadows . . .

"Air Canada is making its pricing more transparent by removing add-on fuel surcharges for flights within North America and instead adjusting its base fares to cover the total cost of fuel," said Ben Smith, Air Canada chief commercial officer in a statement. "These initiatives are made possible by the recent relief from all-time high oil prices."

Wiktionary defines Transparent as:
"2.  (of a system or organization) Open, public; having the property that theories and practices are publicly visible, thereby reducing the chance of corruption.
3.  Obvious; readily apparent; easy to see or understand."

To put things another way, to be transparent, Air Canada's fares will shift from "$199+$49fuel surcharge" to an all-in fares of $259 or $279 or $219 . . .

More straightforward?  Yes.  More like the rest of the pricing model consumers experience in the rest of the retail world?  Yes . . . but transparent this is not.

I've long maintained that Air Canada has the best spin doctors around -- remember when they somehow turned the fact that meals would no longer be free into an enhancement of their service offerings?  (something to the effect of "Air Canada will have a top-notch Kelsey's, Montana's or Milestones chef on-board every flight -- preparing made-to-order meals for each customer!")

I realized that I'm a little too into the Election hub-bub upon misreading the headline of this article.

Curiosity about the Largest Prime Minister got the better of me:  Largest how -- Sheer weight?  Muscle mass?  Height?  Ego? 

Oh, Prime Number, you say?  I have no further questions.

Note to the gentleman seen walking down Hamilton Street at 10:30am today in a metallic silver suit . . .

1) Geepers you're shiny;
2) Your hair is done just so, you're clean-shaven, your shoes are polished & such;
3) Do you know that your suit is blinding passers-by?
4) I saw a dude walk straight into a parking meter while blinded by your suit's aura;
5) Seriously, it's like you've draped yourself with tinsel . . .
6) You are aware that you're in Regina, right?  This ain't some big city, where silver & gold metallic suits are a dime a dozen;

Honestly:  Regina.  Shiny.  Burnt retinas.

Please ton'er down tomorrow . . . or pass out sunglasses.

Sincerely,
The Citizens of Regina