100 Year old Boy Scout

So... Boy Scouts in Canada is 100 years old...

I was reviewing the whole Promise and Law thing - love and serve God/Queen/Country/Fellow Man - people can really use this nowadays. Scouts was big on environmental stuff way years ago and getting butt-headed teenyboppers to give back to the community and make better citizens. The US has a lot of Order of the Arrow native flavoured stuff... wonder if it ever caught on in actual native communities.

Depression and TV

I think I'm depressed - I can barely stand to watch TV anymore. Battlestar, Sopranos... and .... um.... geez, not much else.

Grey's Anatomy is cool - except when they keep talking about their relationships and don't actually do any doctor work....

Dang emotions... get in the way of a good story. Good shows have events and issues with good relationship dynamics. Minus the events and you have a soap opera. I hate soaps.

Is it wrong to cheer for people to die in a ferry crash?

Things you find out that you really didn't want to know

So... being obsessive compulsive these days about finances... I was looking through last year's bills and I had this one credit card that seldom carried much of a balance and is now all paid off.

You know how you get that phone call and they offer you insurance on your account. Well, this card had that insurance for on X% of the balance in any month. Last year I paid a total of $27 interest on that card. Stupid me for touching it even.

But I paid $23 dollars in insurance fees over the year. So the insurance didn't really reduce my costs - because they still got their interest. Just in case I died or was laid up, the company managers could sleep at night.

Note to self: never use that card again.

Non-celebrity Antics

So Britney comes out of a limo with no underwear, she gets lots of... exposure. I do it = restraining order and free psychiatric evaluation. Ever think that your true measure of fame is how much you can get away with? And when it is used up, you become "whatever happened to..."

Zen of Transit

The Zen of Transit
Being stuck on the bus has made me a better person. I’m a small town boy who a year ago didn’t know how to take a bus and drove everywhere, but life changes and if everything has a purpose, being confined to a mobile tin can for my transport needs has been good for my soul.
Once you ‘grok’ the workings of our un-rapid system, you can grow to appreciate it. It is neither good nor bad - it simply is. Like so many things in nature, it cares not why you are late - it simply goes by. I give the Great Gods of the Interweb my location and my goal, and if I trust in their yogic instructions, we both succeed. Of course, absolute trust involves showing up a little early.
How they wait tells you a lot about people. Some will chat to their fellow human, but most cannot just ‘wait’. They smoke, pace, keep checking the time, look again, and huff and complain. But once in their seat, they are still passively waiting for their destination, but somehow that feels more like ‘doing something.’
A panhandler once said he served a higher purpose for people because they had to examine for themselves how they treated him. A rude driver or impatient passenger has the same calling - for you are your true self when under duress. The freedom of passive transport means you cannot always do all your errands on one transfer, so you prioritize what is important, and will amaze yourself at what you can do without. Having someone else chauffeur me around allows me to ignore the gas station prices and actually have time for my self.

Minimum RRSP contributions

I actually was thinking that every employee of a company of more than (X) people - 30? - what's the definition of small business again? - should have some money mandatorily from their cheque for RRSP... if the company has no RSP or matching RRSP plan.

Yes, especially McDonald's and grocery stores.

Literally, 25c an hour - because a lot of people never save in the young years when they 'really should due to compounding'. I know the take-home pay of a 16 year old sandwich artist is not huge but a 40 hour a week job would save $10/wk - or 520$/yr - uh.... let's see, get the on-line calculator - after 49 years of just investing the 520$ - at 5% - 108,340.96$I just wish I had been saving a little during the early years. I think this is quite do-able...

Yeah, I don't want to coddle anyone... but a little helpful hint when you are young and silly

It's that Latte Effect - if you save the price of a latte and muffin - $3.50 a day - you will be beaucoup rich when you retire...

Amish Porn

Imagine a website where Hutterite men with beards place a frilly hat on their heads.... I was joking around about this at work the other day. It doesn't exist - well, I haven't surfed for it - but I just wanted to blog the idea and make it my copywrite.

"Hell-lo, English.... woood yooo lyke som butter?"

PS: I still think "A Mennonite thief wears robber boots" is the funniest joke to come out of Niverville ever.

London Fog was MINE!

So... the hot new Vancooooooover drink is Earl Grey Tea, milk, and vanilla. Whoa - spent all night thinking up that one. So when I was 5 and stirred vanilla ice cream into my tea - I was ahead of my time.

Yesterday's Liberals...

Yesterdays Liberals are tomorrow's Conservatives. And maybe vice versa.

I always tried to be a 'good guy' and ultimately respectful and even 'PC' - now, who cares. Move on. At one time, if someone said 'the guys on the loading dock', I wondered if in fine 70s style nag 'well, there could be females working there too, and you are disenfranchise... blah blah' - now - I don't care.

It's all about how it works for you. Pure practicality. If Donald Trump is crude - he is crude. If Rosie is crude - no excuses - she is crude. I don't care if you are whatevergender, whateverorientation, whateverrace, you are just one racial slur away from obscurity and being a has-been or never-was. Blah Blah, historical inequality blah blah... ok, taken as read. Now - what are WE going to do today and tomorrow. Marginalizing anyone just doesn't seem to work.

Gay couple wants to marry - great - makes the marriage industry go up 5%.
Want to adopt - great - some kid gets parentified.
Want to join the army - better you than me.
Does harrassment or mistreatment of anyone make you more productive? No - then don't do it.
Parents need to leave work to look after kid - why doesn't your business run an on-site daycare and you'll squeeze even more hours out of an employee?
You want to open your own private clinic - fine - reduce the waiting list for me.

Part of being 'accepted' means no extra excuses - do what you gotta do - pay your tax - love your family - leave me alone unless we want to hang out together - and we'll all do fine.

To quote Henry Higgins (via George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalian or 'My Fair Lady' without the music) - "It's not that I treat you bad - I just don't treat anyone better."

Buck up, Buttercup. It's cold out - so wear a parka.

Rants and Ramblings of MylesH

Myles figures out the secrets of the universe - and wins the Branson prize!

I actually sent this to his website already so...
billionaire Richard Branson is about to send me $25 million - he challenged for someone to create a non-damaging way to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year. Uh, how about a tree - more likely - 100 billion or 1 trillion trees or carbon-hungry plants. Maybe bamboo or... sigh... hemp (you dope smoking freaks just settle down now)...

We cover over soil to build houses and then plant a lawn or some token 'greenspace' - say the word with a lisp - and think we made a good impact - quite the opposite. Now, we are all selfish and aren't going to stop spreading - but if we incorporate architectural design in our thinking - why can't every flat-top building - with sufficient reinforcement - have a rooftop garden/atrium - in fact, large buildings could have plants on every floor to improve air quality. Plants are carbon sinks - so planting more sucks up more carbon.

The challenge is getting all of your slackers to stop cutting trees in your own backyard or paving the forest (along the Seine River) to build condos - and start planting more trees. Just do it.... ya bunch of prisses...

And another thing.... when they knock down buildings like the Winnipeg Arena - they leave it as an unused lot until someone buys it or builds again. It could become a requirement that you dig a little hole in the concrete to the soil beneath - probably crap growing medium really - and plant some hardy plant to grow - for even a year. Maybe berry bushes or something - making a community garden in the meantime.
All you have to do is put up a sign - "plant here" and some local hippy head will start tilling...

Boy, can you tell I'm not an architect or a botanist... but I can always find a Royal Smart Person with my 25$million

PS: Must remember not to hit 'publish' button 3 times like last time

New Holiday

So... people are noticing it is 90 days from New Year's until Good Friday and are hungry for a stat holiday to deal with the winter blahs. Lots of whacky ideas, but I think just make Valentine's a stat and be done with it. 45 days after New Year's - get the day off to spend the day with loved ones - might be the only province to get ST.V's as a stat.

We really need another stat in summer - August long weekend is a civic not a stat so lots of people don't get it off. So I propose we take July 29th as stat -it's 28 days - 4 full weeks after July 1st.... and it so happens to be my birthday. You're welcome. I think Myles Day would be a great hit.

Happy Myles Day to you.

New Holiday

So... people are noticing it is 90 days from New Year's until Good Friday and are hungry for a stat holiday to deal with the winter blahs. Lots of whacky ideas, but I think just make Valentine's a stat and be done with it. 45 days after New Year's - get the day off to spend the day with loved ones - might be the only province to get ST.V's as a stat.

We really need another stat in summer - August long weekend is a civic not a stat so lots of people don't get it off. So I propose we take July 29th as stat -it's 28 days - 4 full weeks after July 1st.... and it so happens to be my birthday. You're welcome. I think Myles Day would be a great hit.

Happy Myles Day to you.

New Holiday

So... people are noticing it is 90 days from New Year's until Good Friday and are hungry for a stat holiday to deal with the winter blahs. Lots of whacky ideas, but I think just make Valentine's a stat and be done with it. 45 days after New Year's - get the day off to spend the day with loved ones - might be the only province to get ST.V's as a stat.

We really need another stat in summer - August long weekend is a civic not a stat so lots of people don't get it off. So I propose we take July 29th as stat -it's 28 days - 4 full weeks after July 1st.... and it so happens to be my birthday. You're welcome. I think Myles Day would be a great hit.

Happy Myles Day to you.

Rants and Ramblings of MylesH

Middle Age

You know you're middle-aged when everything good about you is guaranteed to not get you laid by a waitress in a bar. "Hey baby, come home with me. I got a nice mini-van and I produce beautiful children... I mean, I'm fixed, so no condom... I mean, I been faithful for years so... oh, just never mind."

"I have a nice RRSP package and good dental benefits" just doesn't loosen the underwear like you'd hope.

Sigh

I'm so old...