How To Scratch Your Own Back

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, Rants, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

There I was peacefully reading a Reuters article about the looming “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. When I stumbled upon this gem that almost passed tea out my nose.

With the clock running down on the budget negotiations, everyone who’s anyone is weighing in on the subject. So it’s no surprise that the chairman of the Business Roundtable would have an opinion on it. In his opinion, “We encourage both sides to work around the clock, if necessary, to avoid the severe repercussions that inaction would have on U.S. economic growth and job creation,”

Sounds good so far right? It’s just a hard working bureaucrat expressing his concern for the future of the country. We need more like him. More people who put the good of the nation ahead of their own interests. Am I right, or what.

Turns out to be “or what”. You see, the chairman of the Business Roundtable is a gentleman by the name of Jim McNerney. That’s nice you think, but so what. Here’s what… Mr. Jim McNerney just happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of Boeing. That’s right, the same Boeing that proactively cut a ton of jobs the day after President Obama was re-elected. Now Mr McNerney is lecturing about job creation because there’s nothing ironic about that. Oh yeah… Boeing also stands to lose billions of defense bucks if the U.S. sails blissfully off the fiscal cliff.

So what’s a person to do? If you’re Jim McNerney, you put on your Business Roundtable chairman hat and demand a solution to the problem so that Boeing CEO Jim McNerney can keep getting rich off of defense contracts.

That ladies and gentlemen is how to scratch your own back.

Cheers, Winston

What Created These Student Debts?

On By WinstonIn Education, Personal Responsibility, Society, Uncategorized, Values1 Comment

I was reading an article about the student debt crisis in the U.S. and it started me thinking about the students I know here in Canada. The national number may be lower (some estimates put U.S. student debt at $1,000,000,000,000) but on an individual basis, it’s just as painful to those who must repay it.

All of this raises the question of why this debt exists in the first place. Why do students take out loans they have no reasonable hope of repaying? Having taken the loan, why are they then complaining about their debt levels and defaulting in record numbers?

At least part of the answer lies in our societal notion of entitlement. We are trained from an early age to expect the world to give us what we want. We are taught that our jobs should be fullfilling and where possible, something we love and want to spend the rest of our lives working at. Which is why I’ve known several young people who enrolled in film school. It is their passion… but how employable is it?

That is a major consideration when looking at the student debt issue. When taking out that student loan, how many people are looking at the actual projected demand for their eventual skills. Likewise, most “academic” subjects such as English Literature, Political Science, Anthropology etc have relatively few postings relative to the number of people enrolled in each cohort. A prime example being a very pleasant young man I knew several years ago. He spent 6 years working as an investment banker to pay off his Philosphy degree. He hated working as an investment banker, but there just weren’t that many paid openings for a philospher.

Since many students have shown a fairly consistent disregard for this idea, it falls to the lenders to implement it. A simple actuarial table such as those employed by insurance companies would be a start. All that would be required would be data tracking which career paths have the highest probability of repaying the loan. It’s not perfect, but it’s a place to start.

At the same time, everyone from parents to guidance counsellors need to start rethinking the message they give their children. It’s not about doing something you love, it’s all about making a living… and repaying those loans. Most people don’t love their jobs. That’s why employers pay them to show up for work. By encouraging our young people to focus less on the “dream” job and a little more on “real” jobs, we might give them a better chance to get out from under those student loans before their own kids go all post-secondary.

I know that it’s everybody’s dream to see their children graduate from college or university. The problem isn’t the dream, it’s the nightmare. It’s a student loan that prevents them from getting a car, or a house, or travelling or any of the other things that they can’t dc when they have to spend every dime servicing a massive student loan. I’m not saying they shouldn’t get a post-secondary education, I’m just saying they should be a little bit smart and a little bit choosy about what they get.

Until people on both sides of the process start thinking it through before signing the loan application, it’s not going to change. Until then, bad decisions are what created these student debts.

Cheers, Winston

“The Beast” Is Going High Tech

On By WinstonIn Education, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

John Jay High School, is part of the Northside Independent School District in Texas now requires its students to wear I’D tags with RFID chips to track students whereabouts during the school day. While some people are raising concerns about privacy, student Andrea Hernandez has a very different issue with them. Miss Hernandez believes the tags are “the mark of the Beast” as seen in the book of Revelations in the Bible.

The school has offered to issue her a tag with the chip and battery removed but this is not enough. With the support of her family, she is refusing to wear any form of ID tag issued by the government via the school. The school is being demonized in the media for allegedly threatening to expell Miss Hernandez for refusing to be tracked with an RFID chip. This is not the case.

The school district has offered a compromise, but the Hernandez family allegedly believes that “any kind of identifying badge issued by the government is the mark of the beast”. As a result, Andrea refuses to wear even the ID badge with the chip removed. That’s her right.

I don’t believe what the Hernandez family believes and that’s okay. I don’t have to share their beliefs to respect them. I would question whether either of her parents have a drivers license or social security number. Regardless of the answer to that question, what is wanted here is a little reciprocity. The Hernandez family needs to respect the school districts belief that all students need to be treated equally.

Every other student has to wear these ID tags. They have chosen to go along with the program in order to continue attending school in that district. No one is forcing Andrea to wear an ID tag. It is entirely Miss Hernandez choice. What is missing here, is the understanding that choosing not to wear the tag means choosing not to attend that school. No one is forcing her out. It’s all about the choices she is making. I’m not judging her choice as right or wrong. I simply want it acknowledged that she is the one making the decision about whether or not she will attend this school, not the school district.

Over the years I’ve attended many Bible studies and read much of the Bible. Nowhere in it is there anything to suggest that school ID cards, even ones with RFID chips are “the mark of the Beast”. It’s actually pretty clear about what that will look like. It’s nothing to do with school IDs. Unless the Bible got it wrong and the Beast is going high tech.

Cheers, Winston

Romney’s Bitter Over “Gifts”

On By WinstonIn Personal Responsibility, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Once in a while I suspect people of being psychic. That’s the only way I can explain them saying things that make me laugh so often. Today I would like to thank Mitt Romney for providing another ray of sunshine in my day.

Mr Romney basically said that President Obama used social programs (most already enacted during his first term) as gifts to buy votes from poor people. He bought student votes with a promise to forgive student loan interest. He bought generic poor people with free health care (Obamacare). Latino votes were apparently all about the “Dream Act kids” which will allow some of the children of of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. For an extended time. (Ironically those most affected, illegal aliens, couldn’t vote anyway.) The list goes on.

What Mitt forgot to mention were the gifts he was offering to his voters. Tax cuts to the ultra rich and major corporations. Relaxed environmental regulations. Repeal of Obamacare and cuts to other social spending. Increased defense spending. Possibly revisiting Roe v Wade and other reproductive health laws. But of course none of Romney’s platform was intended to pander to his core constituents. Such a thought would never occur to someone who’s entire campaign was predicated on telling voters whatever the pollsters told him they wanted to hear.

What he’s really complaining about isn’t the gift-giving. He’s bitter that there were more voters interested in what the President was offering than the Republican counter-offer. That’s the whole problem with allowing women, immigrants, young and or poor people to vote. Corporate tax cuts are less important to them than affordable health care or more affordable education.

Like so many others, he seems more interested in attacking the winner instead of looking at why he lost. I guess that’s why Romney’s bitter over “gifts“.

Cheers, Winston

Journey

On By WinstonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Playstation Network offers up a game called Journey. I’ve been intrigued since reading some pre-launch articles about it. They lead to watching trailers and developer diaries. The game released in March and I’ve been looking at it off and on since then.

Sunday, I finally took the plunge and downloaded the demo. Twenty minutes later I took the second plunge and bought the game. Two hors later, Lynn was questioning the wisdom of spending $14.99 for a two hour long game. Here’s the answer. It was totally worth it.

The visuals although simple are exquisite and perfectly suited to the story. In each stage, they limit their pallet quite sharply to create a visual distinctions without having to reinvent the core esthetic of the world. This allows for a constancy in tbe world in which you exist while still providing space to provide visual cues to the evolution of the characters progression.

Journey contains no dialog. The musical score is beautiful and serves exactly as it should. It enhances the experience without being intrusive. The games back-story is conveyed in pictographs revealed by a mysterious figure encountered repeatedly along the way.

I used the term “experience” quite deliberately in referring to this game. It doesn’t play out like a “normal” game. It’s difficult to describe without giving away too much, much so let me explain it this way…..

Think of your commute to work. Every day you take the same route and see the same things. This is similar to the way in which games within a given genre tend to have certain similarity of feel to them. This isn’t to say that’s a bad thing, only that one tends to do the same things over and over with limited variation. Then one morning the usual route is blocked so you go a different way. You get turned around and are unsure if this is where you should be. Suddenly you see something beautiful you would never have seen if you hadn’t taken that different path.

Journey is that reward for following a different gaming path. At least one time.

Cheers, Winston

My Vote For President

On By WinstonIn Personal, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

I don’t live in the United States, I’m Canadian. Even so, as our closest neighbor and largest trading partner, they have a huge influence on us. We are saturated with American media and culture.

All of this to say that although I can’t vote in their Presidential election, I definitely have a preference. As much as it will annoy a very good friend of mine in California, I truly hope President Obama will get a second term. I’m not about to claim that he has been a perfect President. I don’t believe that there has ever been such a creature.

Even if I didn’t generally prefer Democrats over Republicans, the coverage I have seen of this race has made it clear to me. At no point in the Republican leadership race was there a candidate that I thought should be allowed to run the country. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich none of these people seemed even marginally Presidential to me. As for Mitt Romney, his sole credential for leadership is his ability to convincingly say whatever his audience wants to hear. He flip-flops so often he’s like a living, breathing rag doll.

Long story short. Good luck today President Obama.

Cheers, Winston

Why Is It Even A. Question?

On By WinstonIn Media, Politics, Rants, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

Disgraced former media mogul and ex-con Conrad Black is saying he shouldn’t be stripped of his Order of Canada.  Why not?

He is a convicted criminal who served over three years for fraud and obstruction of justice.  What part of that sounds like he should be allowed to keep one of Canada’s highest honors?  Oh, he also renounced his citizenship in order to accept a British Peerage. That’s how important Canadian honors are to him.

Yet now that his appointment to the Order of Canada is under review, he has decided this Canadian stuff is important to him.  So important in fact that the rules about such things shouldn’t apply to the mighty Lord Black.

He was told to submit in writing his arguments for not being stripped of his Order of Canada.  He is now engaged in a legal battle to give an oral presentation instead.  The judge said no, so now con Conrad is appealing.

Of course he is.  If there’s one thing we’ve learned about this man it’s his deep and abiding sense of his own importance.  The rules shouldn’t apply to Conrad Black because he is a great man and great men shouldn’t be bound by the same rules as the commoners.

Lord Black seems to have let his title go his head.  As with the aristocracy of old, he wishes to be elevated above the reach of the laws and obligations of the rest of society.  Unfortunately for him, that’s not how Canada works.

Lying, cheating and stealing your way to wealth and privilege doesn’t make you better than everyone else here.  In fact, in the eyes of many, it makes you a great deal less worthy of honors and accolades.  Like the honor of being a member of the Order of Canada.

In fact, since being a Lord was more important to him than being Canadian, maybe they could revoke the special pass that let’s his sorry ex-con ass stay here and kick him out.  Then he could move to Britain and see if anyone there cares if he’s Lord Black.  Nobody here does.

Should they strip Conrad Black of his Order of Canada?

Why is it even a question?

Cheers, Winston

Job Well Done Microsoft

On By WinstonIn Personal, Pop Culture, Technology, Uncategorized, Windows 8Leave a comment

So last month I got myself a new laptop. Nothing crazy, but a very nice mid-range AMD quad-core. It came with Windows 7 pre-installed. It also came with a voucher to get $25 off Windows 8. So I said what the heck, why not.

Now I’m just waiting for the install to complete. So far so good. The only thing it hates is my Bluetooth drivers so I’ll have to redo those when it finishes.

On a slightly peculiar side note, when it complained about the driver, and it did so in French. The rest of the installation is in English. Strange, but not any sort of disaster.

Now ten percent…… The wait continues.

Nearly an hour later, I’m now running Windows 8 on my laptop. YAY! I have to say, I like what I see so far. It’s a clever amalgam of Windows Phone OS with access to a more traditional PC desktop.

The Windows 8 interface consists of a set of large, colorful buttons/icons linking to a variety of pre-installed apps. That’s right, apps. Just like those things on everyone’s smart phones. So much like a smart phone in fact that additional ones can be had through Microsoft’s own app store.

In this lies the true innovation in this latest effort from the nice people at Redmond. They’ve beaten Apple to the punch by integrating their mobile and less mobile OS platforms to an unprecedented degree. iOS looks nothing like OSX Mountain Lion. I’ve yet to see a desktop Linux build that remotely resembles Android despite Google’s abortive Chrome desktop a few years back.

Microsoft took it the other way. Instead of trying to figure out how to strip down and shoehorn a desktop OS onto a phone, they built up their phone OS into something that could be useful on a notebook, net book or desktop. Along the way, achieved a couple of other really impressive feats. They lowered its hardware requirements and it’s base price.

It owes both of these achievements to its phone OS DNA. Phones have pretty wildly varied hardware specs. This means that your phone OS has to be able to work smoothly on as broad a hardware spectrum as possible. Hence Windows 8 minimum requirements of 1ghz processor, 2gb of ram and 20gbs of hard drive space. Pretty modest by today’s standards, or yesterday’s for that matter.

The other piece of phone DNA can be seen as either good news or bad depending on how you see it. That’s the idea of the app store. For years Windows has been jeeringly regarded as the epitome of bloatware. Packed with tons of useless items for which Microsoft demanded a ton of money whether you wanted them or not. Not so much anymore. You can still pay a ton of money (a little bit at a time) but now it’s up to you whether or not you get anything from their app store.

Personally I’m liking the new business model. Because I had recently purchased my laptop, I was able to do my upgrade to Windows 8 for a whopping $14.99 CDN. For those who haven’t bought new hardware, it’s much, much pricier…….. $39.99. Pretty outrageous eh?

The verdict so far…. I’m liking it. It’s innovative. It’s pretty. It’s a whole new direction from a company that’s been running in a straight line for years.

Congratulations Microsoft… Job well done.

Cheers, Winston

Henry B. Lake Sr. 1929 – 2012

On By WinstonIn Loving Life, Personal, Self Awareness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Dear Dad,

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you how lucky I have been to have you in my life. We didn’t always see eye to eye… especially when I was younger. But we eventually worked that out. You mellowed with age and I grew up. It’s amazing what a powerful combination that is. It gave us the ability to be honest without being hurtful.

You weren’t a perfect father, but then I wasn’t a perfect son. It took a while for you to stop being disappointed in me and accept me for who I am. It took me a while to appreciate that your disappointment was about loving me and wanting what you believed was best for me.

Over time, I learned that I could love you without having to be you. I decided when I had a child of my own not to discipline from anger. My daughter was a teen before I raised my voice in anger toward her. I’ve never spanked my child. None of this says you were a bad father, only that I learned from you that wasn’t how I wanted to do things. I never felt abused, you were a product of your time as I am a product of mine.

You taught me a lot about how to live. You taught me about treating others with respect. You encouraged me to think for myself and to defend my opinions. Being who you were helped me learn how to be who I am.

I was fortunate to have you in my life for nearly forty-eight years. Four hundred and eighty wouldn’t have been long enough to say everything I wanted to say to you. Every time I talked to you, we always found something to laugh about. I didn’t call as often as I should have, but I enjoyed it every time I did. I will miss those calls for a long time.

I guess there are just a few more things I want to say to you…..

Thank you. I love you. I will miss you.

Cheers, Winston

Techno iRony

On By WinstonIn Personal, Society, Technology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Like many other people, my daughter and I both have cell phones. The idea is for us to be able to quickly and easily talk wherever, whenever. The reality is quite different… sort of.

Earlier today my wife and I were (as usual) trying to decide what to have for supper. As a deciding factor, she asked if our daughter (a sophomore in college) would be eating with us or her boyfriend.

This according to the commercials is the very moment cell phones are made for. I whipped out my awesome new phone and called my daughter…. straight to voicemail. No problem. She often responds quicker to texts than calls. I send her a text message asking if she is eating at home.

We do some groceries. We do more groceries somewhere else. We decide to have subs for supper.

As we leave the grocery store I get a text saying she is eating with her boyfriend. I say “No problem. Thanks for the heads up.”. Two hours later, I receive another text apologising for not letting us know earlier. That for me is the great irony of super accessible instant communications.

By it’s very ubiquity, it is rendered mundane. Because it is so overexposed, we tend not to think of it as a communication tool. Instead it’s a cool gadget, a toy, anything but a phone.

A greater irony lies in its illusion of connectedness. I am fortunate to enjoy a very close and loving relationship with my daughter. We talk frequently and easily about anything and everything. A simple question about supper took longer to receive a reply to than it would if she were on Mars.

The very ubiquity of our connectedness has in some ways disconnected us. That’s the Techo iRony of it.

Cheers, Winston