Colin Ferguson’s Blog

Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.  Which is amazing if you like variety in food, culture and even street life.  It does create a challenge though for newcomers who don’t quite get the double meaning of legitimate names. And oh, the typos are pretty good too.

The Healthy Chinese Option

Low Fat Chinese Food. Awesome!

Open but Locked?

It seems they are open a lot, but only unlock at certain hours.  That’s the best I’ve figured out.

(in reality it’s a phone store doing unlock)

Who said Accountants were Shy?

He's good with Endowments

Kebabs: Now we know what’s really in ‘em

Mystery Meat!

Seems like Asok has finally gone to the dark side – and is doing SEO.

So, does anyone else loathe the Olympics?  Am I the only angry man in Toronto that every form of media is owned by Atheletes I’ve never met, and products they shill?

Well seems I’m not:

http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/100217.html

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/02/17/bored-games/

Both are good, and I appreciate their intent.  But over past few days I’ve realised it’s not the Olympics per se that get my ire fired up. It’s the inescapable hype that surrounds them.  Yes I realise the Royal Bank has donated money to the Olympics, and probably the Canadian Dental Association has given free mouthguards to them all, or whatever, but why is that so relevant they need to ADVERTISE that they have given this stuff to them?  And worse, why does the donation by McDonald’s Hamburgers or Mars Bars mean their products are now implied to be part of a healthy Olympic-level athletic diet?

So, yeah, I’m loving some of the athletic competitions!  They really are awesome in all the senses of the word.  But the  hype; yuck! I’m gonna consciously boycott the ones that are just over the top.

I met up with a friend last night. A friend I hadn’t seen in a year or so. We met during my first job at Schenker of Canada. Overall a good job, and one that talk me a lot about how companies really work. (Nothing like being the newbie gopher/right hand of a branch manager to feel the knives go in. Especially as many branches were merging into one, and everyone needed to fight for jobs.) Not fun at the time, but amazing experience for understanding my clients in later jobs.

I digress. My friend was from that first job, and she asked me “Do you miss the Corporate World?” My first response was to laugh, but then I realised there are parts I do miss. The personal companionship. Going out for dinner and beers after work. Birthday party cakes and singing. Watching another professional in action doing their job very well. The job of LEAVING the office for the weekend.

Almost all of those things I have working from home, but they are all virtual. So it’s not that I miss those things; it’s that I miss doing them in person.

I play a game called StarPirates. It’s more a Social Media MMO than a graphics one. Lots of community involvement, with Role Playing and Community-driven storyline development. Cool.

But sometimes we get random polls, like this one. Evidently it’s to match a debate from CBC’s the Debaters from this weekend past.

Vote – Which one do you want after dinner tonight?

Cake 51% [356 Votes]
Pie 49% [344 Votes]
Votes: 700

It’s essentially a dead heat. Let’s count the chads. Then eat both!

Most Cubicle Dwellers loathe their office space.  The pale lighting, the unnatural fabrics, the coffee slurping of smelly rog in the corner all conspire to destory the fun of a work day.  Oh and don’t get ‘em started on the commute.  Ugh!

Well grass always seems greener when seen over a corporate wall, my friend. Working from home is far more stressful than an office.  At least for me.  Let me list the three big things I hate about you…err, I mean working from home.

1) Loneliness: you may hate that John always stops in to talk about the scores last night, or his dog’s movements, but my god at least he’s a human you see in person.  IM chats are ok, but they are the Tofu of the chat world. I want steak.

2) Mixing of Fun/Work Zones: Cubicle Dwellers dream about talking their lunch in front of the tube, and catching up on last nights Dexter. Rocking!  But then what happens at night? Do you sit on the exact same couch, watching the exact same TV program?  If so then you’ll soon start to feel that your night shift is just like your day shift.  When you work from home your kitchen and living room become part of your work space.  It’s hard to take ‘em back for chill zones at night.

3) Long, Confusing Lists of Things to Do:  It’s great to throw a load of laundry in while waiting for a call.  But then that means your list of things to do during office hours just doubles up.  Some can handle that well – I can’t. I need a short, clear list of goals for a day. If not, I start running in circles.  And that drives everyone, including my downstairs neighbour, nuts.

I’ve thought about solutions for each of these, but the main one is to get out of the house.

Until next time, enjoy the cubicle….you don’t know how good you got it!

CF

Avatar, the latest release of James Cameron, is mesmerising.  For many visual and storytelling reasons it’s the next truly great SciFi film – after Matrix.  As with Matrix, the movie’s visual advances weren’t just showing off, they were used to aid storytelling. In fact it’d be hard to have made that movie come alive as it did without the amazing graphics.

I understand that true movie critics might have some issues with some technical sides – that’s beyond me.  I do recognise also that if you wanted you could call “heavy handed” on criticism of how Canada specifically destroys communities while gathering “legal” resources for the benefit of shareholders.  I disagree, as even the villains were perfectly rational and even kind characters.  They just had different interests.  So no  mustache-twirling villains here.

But to say it’s simplistic – that’s just plain wrong.

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano says that despite “so much stupefying, enchanting technology,” there are “few genuine emotions.”  Vatican Radio called it “rather harmless” but said the movie was no sci-fi masterpiece.

I disagree with a lot the Vatican says but stay out of it as that’s their business to help or mess up their followers as they please.  But when they come into MY space, the SciFi space, and start spouting jibberish…that’s when they’re over the line.

No not me, I’m off to Cuba on Thursday. But my buddy Rob did a biiiiiiiiiiiit more travel. He’s in the Antarctic Ocean, on a tall ship.

“A cruise ship” you say?”

No. Listen carefully, a Tall Ship. Wood, masts, rigging — like they did 150 years back.  Bloody hell!

Or better yet, read all about it here:

http://tallships-antarctica-2009.blogspot.com/