Back to school

Just a qick note, this is my last back-to-school year. The last year of the anticipation and excitement the end of summer brings. No more buying new clothes, school supplies, a new lock and lunch supplies. Can it be true? Con is in his last year of high school. Pat's finishing his college. It's an end of an era.

Get out punk!

I used to love going out. Staying out, in fact staying out late late late, getting loud, jumping up and down, screaming to punk music and yes, I still do. It's just so fun...I have to do it more, and I urge everyone else to do it too. Although now it's more Flaming Lips than Screaming Trees, Elliott is near and dear and the Ramones are in high rotation. A bit calmer, but still bop. I went out twice this weekend, one night downtown - yes, it's been ages. And one night to a friends home for a BBQ. I danced all weekend. That's another love of mine, dancing, but not with anyone. Just with me, with the music inside my head, and like that old Stan Rogers' song, I dance like no one's watching, truely I do. And I could care less how silly I look. It's nice to know there's just a little bit of the old Stacey still bopping around.

On another note, Angelina Jolie is on the Actor's Studio. Jaysus, she's beautiful, and she sounds intelligent and has a delightful laugh. Damn...I ask you how fair is that?

Sunday night, school starts this week. The kidz party is over.

The MEATRIX....smart swine!

If you haven't checked it out yet, take a few minutes to view the Meatrix. Jamie Oliver told me about it. He thinks it's important, so do I. It's a perspective that just may change your grocery shopping habits forever. The Meatrix I and II offer insight into how your milk and meat gets to your table. It concludes with some ideas and suggestions that will give you healthier and safer eating options. You'll thank yourself, your family and community will thank you too.

It IS a risky business....Tom Cruise just found out how...!

Say it ain't so! Tom Cruise has been axed by Paramount. The once "uber popular" star of the Mission Impossible action films who's boyish good looks made women and even some men swoon, has proven it is possible to be too weird for Hollywood. Hey it even sounds weird saying that...

But it's true, Paramount has severed its lengthy and profitable relationship with the star who made 'Y fronts' famous in Risky Business. A source at the studio said ...It's regrettable, but Tom's recent behaviour was just not suitable for Paramount.

What a summer it's been, first we see Mad Mel slip up and mouth off - it's gotten rather quiet about that now don't you think? And now the milk'n'cookies and Scientology star has been given the shove. Is it all because Mars is so close to the earth? No wait, that was a hoax, just like the enduring charisma of the above mentioned former most beautiful men.

Not that I give a darn about Hollywood or its inhabitants, it just seemed bloggable and I had it before the National at 11. Nice!

SL, making the crap credible..and loving it!

Hey happy birthday to our Sher, an absolutely fabulous individual and role mode to us all. She indeed makes the crap credible. I wish you were here darling, we'd celebrate with some Stoli and Bolly and a right rave. Maybe even rest under the table at Bern's. Have a terrific day, and yes, why not a ride, oh sorry darling... make that a drive up Snaefell. Kiss kiss sweetie darling ... Eddie...

Does Air Canada Care? Sure, but help customers? Neah!

On Sunday, my youngest was on his way home from a trip to the UK, he's a minor and travelling alone on his first international vacation. He was flying Canada's airline...Air Canada. Unbeknownst to me, he'd missed his plane connection in Toronto. I was in Ottawa at the airport to pick him up, but his scheduled 5:00 plane arrived and....no sign of Con. I went to the 'customer service' desk to inquire as to whether he was on the 4:00 plane outta Toronto, and had I perchance missed him? Or was he on the next plane due into the Ottawa airport at 6:00? Simple requests I thought, and as a mom and guardian, my right to know.

The extremely helpful (not) attendant informed me that "they can't tell me who is on the plane" ! I said it's my son, he's a minor, and travelling alone. Blank eyes stared back, and then I was rewarded with a shrug, and "yeah, well too bad, but we can't even tell the police who's travelling on planes, it's all about privacy." Right! Well thanks Air Canada, I know I can trust and rely on you to keep me informed.

He did turn up on the next flight, he'd been delayed due to long lines in customs. Would it have hurt Air Canada to let a mom know her son was ok, and on the way? Was I being unreasonable? Safety is safety, I'm all for it, and the same for privacy, but can they not understand or have a little consideration for a mother's concern. Wouldn't you want to have an answer. You bet you would!

It all worked out fine for us, but here I am blogging about Air Canada, and their spectacular lack of caring or customer service. Hey I was polite, I just wanted to know.

I would have called to make a complaint, but they don't have a customer service complaints phone number...go figure. You can always send a fax though....Let's fly together. You and me and Air Canada. You can travel and rest assured that no one else will ever find out if you're on the plane, or lost in an airport.

Note: Con had a cellphone for emergencies, but that had to be packed in his luggage due to terrorist activities...see early note about getting nekkid.

Achieve this!

Canadian Junior Achievers Conference - sound like a room full of underage overworkers? Well you may be partly correct, but it's much more than that. It is probably one of the neatest way to get a look at and meet the future leaders - from all over this planet, and it's one heck on an inspiration. Chipworks is a sponsor for the this event which takes place annually in different cities across the nation. This year it was in Ottawa. The conference attendees are the best of the 'best' from their high schools. To start the day, we hosted a tour of our facility, answered questions and let the kids see first hand how exciting the world of reverse engineering is, and how we use our technical and patent expertise to provide services to our customers - how we help them solve problems. Ok, commercial off. We also fed 'em lunch.

In the afternoon, we attended the Canadian Junior Achievers "Fulfilling the Vision" conference at Carleton University. These are cool kids, smart, curious, energetic and eager to learn. We chanted and chatted. I was on hand to discuss Marketing with the Red House, 26 really cute and keen students. We were working with the bilingual team that included delegates from the Bahamas, across Canada and from as far away as Guam and across Europe. They wanted to know how we help to fulfill our company's vision. I was joined by a colleague CAM - a true marketeer - for a Q&A session following the day's keynote from a well recognized and highly-successful marketing 'tour de force" Wendy Kennedy. It was a blast to talk about ourselves, our strategies, startpoints including some of the campaigns that worked, where we got our ideas, our successes and hey we even talked about some failures. The two hour session flew by, before I knew it, the clock said 4:30 and we were done.

They were very sweet, they gave us pen sets as a thank you, but more than that, they gave us a look at who the next leaders are going to be - a sneak preview. Tell ya what? I'm impressed.

Don't Eat This Book

That's how I've spent most of my weekend, reading this book and becoming increasingly freaked out over food. I'm not a big eater, I don't eat red meat, but potatoes? I can't eat potatoes anymore? Damn! I thought it was the texture I didn't like, but it could be the pesticides that are making me gag. I'd gotten over, or perhaps forgotten the dire warnings of "Fast Food Nation" - but it's back, my growing and exponential fear over the pesticides and other poisons in our foods.

Here's a quick little view, taken from "Don't eat this Book" Morgan Spurlock, Penguin Books Ltd....

"...collective insanity, the meat producers of this country (USA) are feeding all sorts of animals to the animals they feed to us. Dead pigs and dead horses are ground up for cattle feed, and so are dead chickens."

"...you want to hear something really disgusting? The cattle industry buys millions of dead cats and dogs from animal shelters every year, then feeds them to the cattle who end up in your burger."

According to this book, they do the same with roadkill.

I don't want to scare ya, but ewww!

I don't eat fast food, I barely eat food at all. I am so-so about 'casual food' such as the fare dished out at the chain food outlets masquerading as family restaurants that have recently opened in my neighbourhood, but the more I learn about our food, the more I hesitate to even take a bite.

I've got a dear friend who's suffering with CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). It's terrible - truly terrible. I don't want to see anymore.

What can you feed yourself, what can you feed your kids, what can we do to not poison ourselves? It's early on a rainy Sunday, but I want some answers, I need to know what I can buy, where I can shop and what is safe. Am I over reacting? I don't know. What do you feel safe with? What do you feed your loved ones?


=======rant mode off.

Da Boyz of Summer

The youngest comes home tomorrow. Con's been in England on the Isle of Man for the better part of the summer. His first international vacation. While on the island he took in lots of music, festivals, food, pubs and fun. In fact he even busked a couple of days and made some extra dosh.

Today he's in Liverpool on his way to Manchester tomorrow to take his flight home. He's hoping to see some cool sites, the Beatles Museum and anything else Liverpudlian. I've got to say I'm a bit green with envy, and am planning a trip myself across the pond, later this year for a short visit and definitely for a longer stay in 2007.

On this side of the Atlantic...

There's always a great deal of excitement around my place on this August weekend. Not that I'm involved, but it's the annual Baseball tournament for Rick and Pat. Honestly, you'd think it was the World Series! To them I guess it is. But really it's just a mixed beer league. They play three pitch for several games of a two day tournament. This causes a lot of early morning stomping around, cooking, talking, roaring and whistling. All this while I'm trying to sleep (see earlier post about not being a morning person. They're up banging around the house at 7:30, game time however is not until 11:30. But what the hey, it's once a year, I can live with it, I even have been known to go watch a game or two, and have some suds with the team.

Popcorn

Don'tcha love popcorn? Salty, buttery kernels that melt in your mouth (and get stuck in your teeth unfortunately.)

I love it, always have - but I hate what they're trying to pass off as popcorn at the movies and ballparks lately.

Petrified styrofoam coated in canola - or whatever that crap is - and it's cold! Who wants to eat 3000 calories worth of that genetically modified wall insulation.

I say we stand up for our rights, give me popcorn, and make it the real stuff. No more cheez flavoured or buttery flavoured cow corn for me.

If they won't give me the goods, I'll bring my own, and just try to stop me.

Scored again

When you're hot baby, you're hot! Another article from Chipworks was published today. This time on IP Frontline there is an article entitled "Don't Get Caught with your Patents Down" written by Terry Ludlow, the CEO and Founder of the company.

But enough about work. Last night we went to the Ottawa Greek Fest, great food, I had a delish greek salad, Rick went for the souvlaki. Yum. The music was fun - not your typical bousiki music - the band was actually rocking out. In addition to the great unwashed that usually attend these types of events (and yes, they were there in force) I also ran into a ton of people I hadn't seen in yonks; all getting loaded on Retsina and beer. Festivals bring out the beasts and the best.

Tonight I'm off to see the Ottawa Lynx play the Buffalo Bisons (they get a prize for the stupidest sports team name ever.) Going with a crowd, so should be a laugh.

Blogging is fun, more should do it, beats EMail update, and almost as good as instant messaging! Yeah!

Reverse Engineering...from Stacey at Chipworks

You bet! Score! I manage the PR and Marketing Communications work for a very cool reverse engineering/competitive intelligence company called Chipworks. Today on IPLaw360.com there is an article written by a brilliant fellow I work with - Dick James - that explains reverse engineering, how it is done, and what the results are used for - a really good read on the industry and published around the world in several languages.

People (uneducated) sometimes think reverse engineering is illegal, or cheating. Nothing could be further from the truth. This practice drives innovation and is promoted around the world in Semiconductor Protection Acts Read the article, learn the facts and understand.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Other....

It's a double bill at the AIDS Conference in Toronto - Bill Gates and Bill Clinton share the spotlight and discuss priorities to end the AIDS epidemic. Still no sign of Steven Harper.

Schroeder Flu

It's Monday, it was a beautiful weekend, but alas, I have succumbed to the Schroeder Flu. Haven't heard of it? You've probably had it, but under some other name.

The Schoeder Flu is legendary in our family. It usually makes its appearance - or is characterized by a lack of appearance of its namesake Bernie. He is famous for partying like a wild person on New Years Eve and then not being seen till a fortnight into the new year. I'm no saint, having had a few Schoeder Flu New Years in my life. But yesterday - following a lovely bike ride - Bernie and family came over to dinner on the deck. My immediate thought was...uh oh, it's Sunday. Well, wouldn't you know it. One thing lead to another bottle of wine, and yet another and some laughs, pictures and conversation and lots of Danny Michel's music and voila, Stacey is feeling the pangs of Schroeder flu between her ears, and won't be out to play today. Sherrilynne recently suffered through a bout of the aforementioned virus, and posted this highly appropriate article on her blog. I'm feeling very beige, and so I'm using her idea and doing the same. Enjoy..and yes comments please.

News notes:
AIDS conference in Toronto - Steven Harper choses to ignore - demonstrates his disconnect with the Canadian people.
And while I whine about the flu the world reports that the life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years. We in Canada have it good.

Shameless self promotion:
I participated in a silent auction at the Ottawa Blues fest and my bid won me a laminated poster of Xavier Rudd in action. Xavier is a fabulous digerrido, guitar, percussion artist/singer/player from Australia. We're big fans, and now we've got this cool autographed poster for my wall of fame. yeah!

Not a morning person - Thanks Jim

I'm not, nor have I ever been, one to bounce outta bed in the morning. Rick wakes up early and starts whistling every day. I pull the covers over my head on weekdays until about 7:45, but on weekend I head to the basement where the darkness lingers and sleep till 10:00 or so. Today was such a day, and I awoke to the sounds of Jim Bryson singing about being tired of sleeping in Toronto. Nice! Got me right up, thank you CBC for playing one of my favorite musicians on a sunny Saturday morning, and not too early to disturb my sleep. Jim Bryson should be a really big star, he writes gorgeous songs. But his record label dumped him after the North Side Benches failed to make great sales, despite the fact that it is loved by critics. We went to see Jim this summer at the Ottawa Blues Fest and he was awesome. A quite confidence in his playing and lyrical ability; a real artist who doesn't give a damn about the business side of the music industry. Too bad 'cause in some ways cause more would know about his gift, but he's happy backing up Kathleen Edwards and touring the world with her band, so go for it Jim. At the Fest we watched him ply his craft and totally charm the audience. That's what got me outta bed today....hearing Jimmy sing. I love when a Saturday starts that way.

Get to know us

I'm in, you're in, we're all in the blogosphere. Check out my innovative friend Chris, at Prospectics. He got some cool ideas, useful tips, and a nifty little slant on the world. Sherrilynne lead the way across the pond at Strive Public Relations on the Isle of Man.

Git Nekkid?

After reading all about yesterday's airline/terrorist fiasco and the ensuing new 'restrictions' as to what we can and cannot take on plane, I've come to the conclusion that the only safe way to fly is naked. Check your passport, wallet, clothes at the gate, board to your left, get your buttocks snug into a seat and the attendant will pat you down and buckle you in. After all better arrive safely than dead. What a world, it's going to make travel the ugliest part of our lives, and it should be the most exciting. Wanna see the world? You bet! Strip us down and squeeze us in.

Have a safe weekend.

Today's the day

OK, today's the day I start my blog. I'm online all the time I'm not sure why I waited so long to set up one of these - could be I couldn't think of anything to say? Let's see if I can pull this off daily and not sound like so much sludge.

So these terrorists...who do they think they are anyway? Causing all this airline trouble and fear fear fear - I'm selfish, this is happening just when my youngest is visiting the UK and due to fly back in 10 days. Doesn't bear thinking about. I truly wish they'd expend their energies on eliminating themselves; what they're doing just doesn't make any sense to me.

===Rant mode off.