Be humble

Who knew?

But aura can go beyond this to things like dizziness, ringing in the ears, trouble focusing, slurred speech or trouble finding the right word when you talk (aphasia). You may smell an odour that isn’t there (some migraineurs just will not be convinced that they don’t have horrible BO!). Some have numbness or tingling in hands, feet or lips (lasting about 20 minutes). Yawning. Thirst. Irritability or euphoria. Stiff neck. Some people just have a gradually coming on “not right” feeling, or wake up feeling like they’ve been “hit by a train.” In rare cases even amnesia or advanced hallucinations. You can imagine how many of these symptoms could be quite frightening if you’re experiencing them for the first time!

Resource

Everyone has bad days.  No question about that and I am pretty forgiving of the occasional outburst (perhaps because I looked in the mirror).  Perhaps the good lady was preoccupied by the implications to her career resulting from her (alleged) coke snorting drunk driving husband.

The reason I suggest that she must go is her reference to us as ‘you people’.  Mentally segregating a geographic demographic in a negative way is not a person I want in a ministerial capacity.

If you have a TomTom or Garmin GPS you probably received a TomTom product or MapSource for Garmin as stand alone software.  If you are not interested in GPS etc – move along as this will bore you.

I have found both TomTom and Garmin packaged software awkward and not at all user friendly.  I am aware that most automobile drives will just punch in a destination and let the GPS guide them to where they want to get.  It works and for the most part works well.  However a lot of us (especially those who ride motorcycles) like to plot our own route and most often that will be a route that avoids the multi-lane highways.  This can be done with the included tools, but, as I mentioned, I find those tools awkward.

Google maps is an amazing on-line mapping / routing tools.  Spend some time using it and I suspect you will begin to realize the power and flexibility of this tool.  In my opinion, it is the best of the selection of mapping tools.  However, how does one get a carefully prepared map route (prepared on Google Maps) on to the GPS?

I have discovered two ways.  One is easy, the other takes a few more steps.  Both work.

One way is to first draw your map in Google Maps.  Below is a sample map that I created from down town to the airport.

Note the arrow that points to ‘save to my maps’  I click on that link and save the map to ‘my maps’ and give it a unique name.

Now I can open ‘my maps’ and see the map I just saved.  

Note the arrow in the upper right pointing to a link button.  Click this button and copy the link to your clipboard.

Now rush off to takitwithme (no, I did not misspell that) and past the link into the map link box and click ‘load my map’.

You will see your map as below:

Plug your Garmin GPS in the computer using your USB cable and click on ‘upload to Garmin GPS’.  You are done. You can now load your custom route from your GPS and navigate the plotted route.  This only works with Garmin GPS units.

That was the long way to do it.  The alternative is to get a wonderful free product called Tyre.  Tyre uses Google Maps and allows you to create custom routes by inserting waypoints.  Then just adjust the waypoints to suite your routing requirements. I just made this sample of N. Shore to Hammonds Plains:

When I am satisfied with the route I click OK and return to the route screen.  From there I simply click on Garmin (or TomTom if using TomTom hardware) and the route is copied to the GPS.

If this is the sort of thing that interests you and you have a Garmin or TomTom I recommend Tyre.  It is a very nice product.

The study, published this month by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said Canadian Internet systems are slow, expensive and tied up by a government strategy “that has mostly focused on connecting unconnected areas and not on increasing capacity at the higher end.”

and..

The country is also positioned badly for the future, it said. Canada “is even weaker in 3G wireless service than fixed broadband, with its growth of subscriptions among the slowest in the industrialized world.” <snip..Canada ranks with Poland, Hungary and Mexico as laggards in the availability of 3G.”

From The Sun

Another public relations triumph for gommit!

Sherry confirms Charlotte Court will get part of that funding.

But Martin went one step further saying the building will be replaced – not repaired. 

That’s something the minister refused to do only 24 hours earlier.

The Guardian: “We don’t need an article on the front-page of The Guardian to go and do work there,”

From the Vancouver Sun

Ontario will consider state-sponsored Internet gambling, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday, days after the provincial gaming agency said it is looking at taking a cut from the online poker business.

How long will it be before our political overlords are unable to resist their own addiction to gambling revenue and begin the process of introducing this expanding sickness to our little part of the world. 

On the day I am told of two more established downtown businesses leaving the downtown core because of lack of and cost of parking…..

The City of Charlottetown is going to double the cost for parking at metered spaces to bring the price in line with the downtown parkades.

CBC News - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown parking rates to double

On Friday, February 19th I placed an Internet order with a firm in Calgary.  I was offered shipping options and the two that made financial sense were standard Canada Post at $10 and Fed-X two day delivery at $13. Having experienced the appalling service of Canada Post far to many times, I opted to spend the extra $3.  My order was filled within 15 minutes of the firm opening (Calgary time) and within an hour I had confirmation that shipping arrangement had been made and my package was on the way.  I was provided with a tracking number and advised of an ETA of February 23. 

The package was delivered today – a day earlier than expected.  The Fed-X ability to provide reliable tracking continues to amaze me.

It is odd that a visitor referred to the Japanese / Korean concept of mu in response to a earlier musing on this site.  In Zen Buddhism, it is intended to indicate that the question itself is meaningless.

Being influenced  by recent reading I have been thinking about the concept of mu and think of it as not yes, not no, not one, not zero, not positive and not negative.  Thus, philosophically a question that is answered may provide an inaccurate answer (note I did not say right or wrong), but rather the answer may be mu.

A monk asked Zhàozhōu, “Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?” Zhaozhou said, “mu.”

I have also been thinking about value rigidity.  Value rigidity is what happens when you believe in the value of something so strongly that you can no longer objectively question it.  Think of the monkey trap.  A common way to capture a monkey is to place a small hole in a coconut and place rice in the coconut.  The hole is large enough for the monkey to put his open hand through the hole and grasp the rice.  However, once clenched around the rice the hand is to large to pull from the coconut.  The monkey’s values are such that as his captors approach, he refuses to open his hand and escape.  His rigid values place a higher priority on the rice than on the logical step on opening his hand, fleeing and finding his food elsewhere.  His values are rigid.

With these concepts in mind, I consider the issue that is tearing apart a local community. Of course, the issue is the French school and French cultural centre.  Firstly I should say I have no interest in the French language other than a deep respect for any demographic that speaks another language or who wishes to preserve their culture.  I am, however, very interested in psychology, philosophy, community, marketing, passion and human nature.  This issue has elements of all of the aforementioned.

The advocates of the French school want a school that will preserve their language and will be separate from the English system.  In addition, they want a French cultural centre to preserve and further their language and to preserve and further the wonderful Acadian culture.  From what I have been told (and I acknowledge that I know little of the Acadian perspective – so I may be incorrect) is that to maintain the linguistic purity of Acadian French, the facilities must be separate from English facilities to avoid pollution of the French language learning process.

Let us step back and think about the various parties to this issue.  Of course we have the Acadian French advocates that are supportive of the project.  This is the only group that I can identify that is completely supportive and the group that is driving the concept / project.  That they are numerically (politically) relatively insignificant is meaningful.  

I am told that a vocal opponent of the project is the assimilated Acadian.  (How awful to use that label – assimilated VS unassimilated – just more divisive rhetoric).

Also opposing is a large number of poor souls who are simply insecure and ignorant and who somehow feel superior when they make mean spirited and nasty anti-French comments.  We have all heard and seen the comments.  I have seen the advocates refer to them as rednecks – a most unfortunate term which only serves to add to the divisiveness of the issue.  Because I am unconvinced that reaching in my back pocket to pay for a French Cultural Centre is a good investment for me I run the risk of me being called a redneck.  I will have an enthusiastic response for the person who chooses to say that to my face.

Another opposing group is perhaps the most sad.  Intelligent articulate people who by their station and good fortune in life should know better.  They are cursed with their own biases and racism.  They are most often the English speaking pseudo-aristocracy of our communities.

There is another demographic.  It is the one that I place myself in.  Moderately intelligent, reasonable, willing to think about an issue without the baggage of history and who have a steak of decency and fairness.  We need to be convinced.

One more point, before I go further.  A dear friend of whom I am very fond is a passionate and eloquent supporter of this issue.  Thus I may be sensitized to a desire to be supportive.

OK – lets think about the “it is our right to have…” position we have all heard.  Bullshit!  Oh dear, that got your attention! Of course it is your right- the courts have said so.  However placing all your emphasis on that is a losing proposition.  The world is filled with people who have rights that are denied and the world is filled with unfairness.  Charter Rights are just one tool in the toolbox of French language advocacy.

Marketing marketing marketing – and the understanding of human nature is so important in this issue.  The marketing  by the advocacy has been appalling in my opinion.  We want it, it is our right, so give it to us!

Yeah, that may work in time (a long time) but all it does is further divide the English speaking majority and the French speaking minority.  It will add to the existing animosity and further the separation mentality that pervades both sides of the argument.

Yes, the Acadian advocates have been treated poorly by Madame la Ministre (TM Donnie St. Pierre).  They have been treated poorly by the current government.  They have been lied to, manipulated and deceived.  Why is that?  I suggest it is political reality – the advocates have confused want and right with the realities of politics. The advocates have failed to make a logical political case and this has led to mean spirited small minded comments like “we can’t have the little French darlins hearing English, can we?”.  That politicians are self serving and liars seems to come as a surprise – this points to an inadequate understanding of marketing, community and the cold hard facts of politics. 

The advocates must re-think their marketing and they must convince me.  If they do both, it will be people like me and many others who will drive the pragmatic politicians.  I need to be convinced why I should pay for a community /cultural centre that has as its purpose my exclusion.  This only adds to further separation.  If the advocates knocked on my door asking for financial support as they wished to build a French cultural centre, I would happily contribute.  I would do so because I think that cultural diversity is good for any community and I have experienced the warm and wonderful Acadian hospitality and culture many times.  If someone tells me I am going to pay for something because it is their right and they want it I will probably bristle and say piss off.  Marketing!  Marketing!

The advocates must step back and look at their goal in individuals components and then look at them as a whole.  Pirsig calls this the classical and the romantic view.  The advocates must look inward and consider the perception (remember perception is reality) that the very goal is exclusive and elitist, leading some to think of the advocates as racists – the very term I have head used by the French speaking lobby to describe those who oppose them.

Both sides of this issue must consider mu and value rigidity.

…and for the record, I want to be convinced.

Years ago I forecast that our love / hate relationship with our telco would be resolved as Island Tel would revise it’s presence to a couple of suits in Halifax and a few (few as possible) installers situated in PEI.

This week the Island is buzzing that Bell (note the trucks are being re-painted to remove Aliant) will be leaving PEI and relocating their office in Newfoundland.  The same rumours are reported to be swirling around Toronto.

If the rumour is true, did Rory Beck and the Honourable Robert Ghiz know about this when they granted Bell-Aliant the untendered roll-out of medium-speed Internet and granted Bell-Aliant the untendered contract for Government communication services?

If they did know, what does this tell us?  If they did not know (and most thinking people realized it was inevitable) what does this tell us?