November 2010
1 post
I graduated to a real blog
Tumblr is what I call my “pre-blog.” It allowed me to start writing without being overwhelmed with the thought of having to get all techy and start a site. So I’m very grateful for their simple technology and interface.
But …I’ve graduated. With the help of my friend and colleague, Tara Scott of Versus Boredom, I got a real Wordpress blog.
Where to find me now I...
July 2010
2 posts
8 tags
The name Will
One of my close friends just had her second son. She named him Will. This got me thinking about names.
What’s in a name? Does the name make us who we are or do we make the name? The likely answer is that it’s a little of both. But, one thing I know for sure is that names have strong emotional associations. Back to the name Will: It’s a name that means a lot to me. While I had a...
9 tags
Arvind's Blog: "Yes We Can" but When? →
I’ll admit being glued to the TV set during the US presidential campaign two years ago. Obama and his message of hope and idealism captivated me and for the first time in my life I felt genuinely interested in politics. The positive tenor of Obama’s campaign and his ideas for transparent…
June 2010
2 posts
8 tags
Prague in pictures
Prague, Czech Republic, May 2010. Some photos courtesy Jennifer Ming.
3 tags
A date at the dump: Re-connecting with my husband...
A few weekends ago, my husband asked me on a date. After months of renovating, I was keen to spend some quality time together. But since there was still much to do on the house, he decided it would be fun if I helped him do a dump run. Okay, that’s kind of bizarrely romantic.
A dump virgin In all my years in Calgary, I’ve never been to the dump. I was in awe the entire time. My...
May 2010
1 post
7 tags
The Abortion Debate in Canada
On Monday morning’s daily commute, I tuned into my favourite CBC morning radio show, the Current. The topic was abortion in Canada and the show addressed recent speculation that the abortion debate may be re-opening since Harper recently excluded abortion from Canada’s International Maternal Health Plan.
A history of un-debate I’ll keep this short because not everyone loves...
April 2010
5 posts
13 tags
Almost perfect: A review of my 2010 VW Golf TDI...
Being German is at the core of the VW brand. Besides massive mugs of beer, lederhosen and perfectly browned schnitzel, when you think about what it means to be German, you can’t help but think of German engineering. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and perhaps the most accessible of all of the German auto brands, Volkswagen which translates into “the people’s car” (Volks =...
10 tags
Book Review for 95 books: 6. The Designful Company...
I loooove this book. Yes, loooove with 4 o’s.
The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation is the third of Marty’s “whiteboard books” in which he takes a deep and complex topic on branding and simplifies it so that it just makes plain sense.
The powerful concept that Marty (I feel like we’re on a first name basis) presents here is that design is change. Wowzer....
4 tags
Sunday at Stanley Park
I broke our SLR camera during our trip to Nelson, so I’m constantly asking my husband if I can borrow his iPhone to capture stuff I see around me.
Here’s a shot taken at Stanley Park earlier today. We were throwing the ball for our dog and I looked up in the sky and caught site of this:
Courtesy of Bruce’s iPhone
6 tags
In search of meaning
A few weeks ago, my husband and I went on a short roadtrip. During our getaway we stopped in on my husband’s ex-wife’s parents whom he has remained close with since his divorce over 12 years ago. The 24 hours we spent together changed me.
They shared stories of travelling 1,000 miles across the Congo and doing an emergency tracheotomy to save a baby’s life.
They shared the...
12 tags
Book Review for 95 Books: 5. The Answer to How is...
This is an amazing book that I do not recommend.
The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters unmasks our obsession with how we should do things instead of why we do things. Peter Block argues that we are so focused on finding the most efficient ways of executing on ideas that we overlook asking the important questions, like “is this the right thing to do?” or “why am I doing this?”
I have...
March 2010
7 posts
7 tags
The Responsibility of Happiness
“Children were not a way of ensuring happiness or endowing my days with meaning…That hard task was mine alone.” –Lorna Crozier
Lorna Crozier isn’t just a brilliant Canadian poet, she’s also right. I first read this bold statement in an article called “The Case Against Having Kids” originally published in MacLean’s Magazine.
I can only imagine that having...
6 tags
Pets Go Rawng: How a simple change ruined the...
I contacted Pets Go Raw about the new packaging just yesterday. They responded very promptly and professionally. Here’s what they said:
We went to the sausages for several reasons, chief among them are the storage life - no freezer burn - and ease of storage - many people have very little storage space and find thse tuck away very nicely. If you handle them as we have suggested (all the...
11 tags
I hugged a Roomba today
I always thought the iRobot Roomba vacuums were a stupid invention—until I got a dog and had to vacuum almost every day.
On a recent shopping spree at London Drugs (one of my all-time favourite stores), I found one on sale. After my husband and I got over the initial shock that we were actually considering buying a robot to help us with housework, we picked it up and brought it home. My husband...
12 tags
Pets Go Rawng: How a simple change ruined the...
About 8 months ago, my husband and I made the switch to raw food for our pup. Prior to feeding her raw, we had her on Acana, a reputable dry kibble made with fresh local ingredients. The problem was that she continued to experience diarrhea and an upset stomach even on high-quality kibble. After 3 days on raw food, however, the pooch’s stomach was a-okay.
Pets Go Raw - love it!...
5 tags
Book review for 95 books: 4. Hug (Jez Alborough,...
Yes, another children’s book. That’s what happens when you’re 32 and your only regular activity is attending baby showers.
Admittedly, Hug has become my de facto baby shower gift for 3 reasons:
It made me cry the first time I read it in the childrens’ section of a NE location of Chapters.
My friend called me up and told me her 2-year-old daughter loves having it read by her mama.
The...
4 tags
Avoidance
Recently, I learned that avoidance has an inverse correlation to self-respect; the more you avoid, the less self-respect you have.
Ironically, I don’t think this correlation is avoidable. It’s a “natural law” which leaves you with only 2 choices:
Keep avoiding. The likely outcome is that you come to will hate yourself. This doesn’t seem like a good long-term option...
8 tags
Book review for 95 books: 3. Brand Digital (Allen...
Great case studies, but too academic.
Parts of Brand Digital were dense and after re-reading these parts, they ended up being somewhat meaningless. The the last 10 pages, however, delivered the entire message of the book in a succinct, engaging and consumable way.
It took me a year-and-a-half to read this book. Most other brand books have taken me less than a month to gobble up.
February 2010
3 posts
8 tags
Book Review for 95 books: 2. Yellow Square: A...
I’ll admit, I thought twice about counting this as a legitimate 95 books book. But after thinking about it again and again over the last 24 hours (since my husband asked last night, “what’s that Yellow Square book on the shelf all about?”), I figured, what the hell?
When I set out to write this post, I decided I was going to conclude by saying that I didn’t like it and wouldn’t recommend it. I...
8 tags
Book Review for 95 books: 1. Who Moved My Cheese?...
After many false starts on various books in the last month and a half, this happens to be the first book I have finished in my quest to read 95 books in 2010.
It’s a cheesy pick, no doubt; but I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to business books and self-help books. And being that it was going to be my quick read while on a business trip abroad, it had to be small, easy to pack and...
4 tags
Mistakes: We all make them, so this isn't what...
Here’s the thing about mistakes. Inevitably, we all make them. And as one of my mentors once said to me, when you make a mistake, it will always be worse than you thought, it will have greater consequences than you thought and it will hurt someone more than you thought. In my experience this is true. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. And as expected, I’m not the only one who has...
January 2010
1 post
New to tumblr.
Hello, if anyone is listening. Thanks to 95books and Tara for inviting me to join in on this literary, and personal, challenge. I might not be thanking you at various points in 2010, so I’m doing it now to cover my bases. Here I go … My first blog and a reading challenge. I’m nervous and excited …