Happy New Year!

A little something to wish everyone a happy new year!

Which cartoon character are you?

From the e-mail file:

Everyone has a personality of a cartoon character. Have you ever asked yourself what cartoon character do you most resemble? A group of investigators got together and analyzed the personalities of well-known and modern cartoon characters. The information that was gathered was made into this test. Answer all the questions with what describes you best, add up all your points (which are next to the answer that you choose) at the end and look for your results. Put your character in the subject line and forward to your friends and back to the person that sent this to you. Very interesting to see "who" your friends are! Do not cheat by looking at the end of the e-mail before you are done.
1) Which one of the following describes the perfect date?
(a) Candlelight dinner (4 pts.)
(b) Fun/Theme park (2 pts.)
(c) Painting in the park (5 pts.)
(d) Rock concert (1 pt.)
(e) Going to the movies (3 pts.)

2) What is your favorite type of music?
(a) Rock 'n Roll (2 pts.)
(b) Alternative (1 pt.)
(c) Soft Rock (4 pts.)
(d) Country (5 pts.)
(e) Pop (3 pts.)

3) What type of movies do you prefer?
(a) Comedy (2 pts.)
(b) Horror (1 pt.)
(c) Musical (3 pts.)
(d) Romance (4 pts.)
(e) Documentary (5 pts.)

4) Which one of these occupations would you choose if you
only could choose one of these?
(a) Waiter (4 pts.)
(b) Professional Sports Player (5 pts.)
(c) Teacher (3 pts.)
(d) Police (2 pts.)
(e) Cashier (1 pt.)

5) What do you do with your spare time?
(a) Exercise (5 pts.)
(b) Read (4 pts.)
(c) Watch television (2 pts.)
(d) Listen to music (1 pt.)
(e) Sleep (3 pts.)

6) Which one of the following colors do you like best?
(a) Yellow (1 pt.)
(b) White (5 pts.)
(c) Sky Blue (3 pts.)
(d) Dark Blue (2 pts.)
(e) Red (4 pts.)

7) What do you prefer to eat right now?
(a) Snow (3 pts.)
(b) Pizza (2 pts)
(c) Sushi (1 pt.)
(d) Pasta (4 pts.)
(e) Salad (5 pts.)

8) What is your favorite holiday?
(a) Halloween (1 pt.)
(b) Christmas (3 pts.)
(c) New Year (2 pts.)
(d) Valentine's Day (4 pts)
(e) Thanksgiving (5 pts.)

9) If you could go to one of these places, which one would it be?
(a) Paris (4 pts.)
(b) Spain (5 pts.)
(c) Las Vegas (1 pt.)
(d) Hawaii (4 pts.)
(e) Hollywood (3 pts.)

10) With which of the following would you prefer to spend time with?
(a) Someone smart (5 pts.)
(b) Someone attractive (2 pts.)
(c) Someone who likes to party (1 pt.)
(d) Someone who always has fun (3 pts.)
(e) Someone very sentimental (4 pts.)

Now add up your points and find out the answer you have been waiting for!

(10-16 points)! You are Garfield: You are very comfortable,
easygoing, and you definitely know how to have fun, but sometimes you
take it to an extreme. You always know what you are doing and you are
always in control of your life. Others may not see things as you do,
but that doesn't mean that you always have to do what is right. Try to
remember your happy spirit may hurt you or others.

(18-22 points) You are Snoopy: You are fun, you are very
cool and popular. You always know what's in and you never are out of
style.You are good at knowing how to satisfy everyone else. You have
probably disappeared for a few days more than once, but you always
come home with the family values that you learned. Being married and
having children are important to you, but only after you have had
your share of fun times.

(22-28 points) You are Arnold: You have lots of friends
and you are also popular, always willing to give advice and help out a
person in need. You are very optimistic and you always see the bright side of
things. Some good advice: Try not to be too much of a dreamer. If
not, you will have many conflicts with life.

(29-34 points) You are Sponge Bob Square Pants: You are
the classic person that everyone loves. You are the best friend that
anyone could ever have and never want to lose. You never cause harm to
anyone and they would never not understand your feelings. Life is a
journey, it's funny and calm for the most part. Stay away from traitors and
jealous people, then you will be stress free.

(35-42 points) You are Charlie Brown: You are tender, you
fall in love quickly but you are also very serious about all
relationships. You are a family person. You call your Mom every day. You have many
friends and may occasionally forget a few birthdays. Don't let your
passion confuse you with reality.

(43-50 points) You are Dexter: You are smart and
definitely a thinker. Every situation is fronted with a plan. You have a brilliant
mind.You demonstrate very strong family principles. You maintain a
stable routine but never ignore a bad situation when it comes.

Simply Put: Snow removal

Simply Put: Snow removal

During my days at the University of Ottawa (which is in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada...who knew?) I always loved watching the snow removal equipment in process.

Some people don't believe me how fast the city removes the snow from the banks. Withing 24 hours of a major snowstorm, Downtown Ottawa is usually fully clear of snowbanks and all! Want to know how they do it? Check out this blog entry by Q to see how it works!

Very Busy couple of Weeks!

I nearly had to jump up on the televisions I was demoing for Philips on Friday morning as the doors opened at the Markham Costco. Those people are crazy! I did however end up surviving two long weeks of working straight for SPAR Canada as both an administrative assistant (my regular job with them) and as a product demonstrator for Philips at The Bay and Costco. I enjoyed my time learning about the products Spar merchandises for.

However, I am still unsure how the people who work regularly day in and day out in retail stay on their feet all day. They just don't stop!

I also provide a couple of random observations from these past two weeks:

1. Note to drivers: Not a good idea to cut off a fully packed 60 foot bus full of people so you don't get stuck behind it.

2. Let the bus back into traffic, it is the law! Besides the sixty of us on the bus might start driving instead of taking the bus which will only increase gridlock even worse. Think about what an investment holding less than ten seconds for the bus to pull out is!

3. Note to Police: Please start enforcing number 2 above. It is the law and there never is a cop to be seen!

4. If we start enforcing traffic laws like number three above, there might be an increase in ridership on buses. Why? Because some of the turkeys will be off the road as they finally have lost their licenses!

5. Know where you are going before taking the bus! Don't stand and debate with the driver while sixty of us wait to get home.

6. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Random Thoughts & Musings #4

Another week of election fun here in Canada, and then there was the other news. Here, at this wonderful blog, we look at both.

1. Letting parents decide on which childcare their child should be in? Theres a novel idea! Stephen Harper unveiled, on Monday, a strategy where every child would be entitled to a thousand some odd dollars per year in tax incentives towards child care costs. The Liberals countered with promising to governmentally subsidize spaces. This debate sounds familiar, wait....I know, the Liberals promised a national day care plan in the last election! Seems this is just like the party that promised in 1993 to drop the GST...wait it was the Liberals again! Jack and the NDP promise a national daycare program as well, but how much will it cost?

2. Anybody know how much any single one of the NDP promises will cost the Canadian taxpayer if it is ever implemented? Anybody? Jack Layton, do you know? Thought not.

3. Last week Aurora had its first annual tree lighting ceremony out front of the local town hall. Looks like the event was fun for the families! Don't worry! The Mayor of Aurora assures us that the lights used are "LEDs." Want to see more? Click here.

4. Apparently the Governor General has set the Canadian federal election on January 23rd. January 23rd, believe it or not, is statistically the coldest and one of the snowiest days of the year across Canada. To give you an idea of what voters will be experiencing within the 12 hours on January 23rd the polls will be open:

Toronto will have only 9.5 hours of daylight on Jan. 23. "That's an issue. Some people will be voting in the dark," [Environment Canada's Senior Climatologist David] Phillips said.

Phillips is exactly right. The voters will be voting in the dark in many ways both because of the time of year (lack of sunlight) and in terms of not paying attention to what the politicians are saying!

The Liberals and Conservatives love to bash each other. The Liberals love to try and viliffy Steven Harper and the Conservatives (which amazingly worked last election) while not putting forth anything of real substance (or merely re-promising what they did years before...anybody seen the revitalization of Toronto's waterfront or a national childcare program yet?). The Conservatives, while I admire that they started rolling out a costed election program right after the election call, have started to snipe back at the Liberals. But perhaps that is because they are fighting back against the Liberals continued attacks on Steven Harper. On a footnote, how many times has Paul Martin said "Stephen Harper" on television and in the press? If Paul Martin keeps this up, I will know what the conservatives stand for, but what do the Liberals stand for? Besides not implementing the GST cut, not reducing gun crime with the implementation of the gun registry, pushing Quebec towards separation because of the Adscam, etc. So the Liberals don't do what the promise and do what they didn't promise. I got it now! No child care program will be in our future if a Liberal government is elected!

I was watching on CTV Newsnet today representatives from the Conservative, NDP and Liberal parties take part in a discussion. The Conservative and Liberal representatives talked over each other for most of the interview while the NDP representative sat quietly. Nothing of substance came out of the interview really because the Liberals bashed the Conservatives while the Conservatives bashed the Liberals. I really don't get why the media continue to have these all party representation debate style interviews anymore, it is just the same old tired bafflegab from the Liberals and the Conservatives. Anybody else tired of it yet?

5. I enjoyed a great children's musical production at church today. Well done Mark Ruhnke and the kids! Very well done and rehearsed.

6. This weekly feature will take some time off as I will be working almost straight right through to Christmas Eve!

Random Thoughts & Musings #3

This being the first week of the Canadian election I bring you a run down of blogs and other indescribable things that are covering the Canadian election both serious and humourous (sometimes it is hard to tell the difference).

1. We start off our merry adventure around the internet on the issue of a Canadian election with our tongues planted firmly, yes I do mean firmly, in our cheeks with the musings of both the Conservative & Liberal leaders courtesy of Rick Mercer.

2. On Tuesday, the first day of the election campaign, Stephen Harper was asked if he loved Canada by a reporter. Harper blathered on and on...

"Well, I said Canada is a great country. You know, all of us who get involved in public life spend a lot of time away from our families to go across the country, probably get in many ways the most rewarding experience you could have, you know. It's not tourist travel, you don't see all the hot spots and all the great sights but you get a real sense the kind old and the of traveling I've done, especially the last seven or eight months, you get a real sense of Canadians, where they live, who they are and what their challenges are. And I think the country has unlimited potential.That's why I think it would be so exciting to take over at this point in our history. But I think it's necessary to make a change if we're going to realize that potential."

Note to Steven: A simple yes would have done. In true political doublespeak Harper provides a classic example of why most Canadians can't stand politicians. They just don't get the point! Nuff said!

3. If things couldn't get any more crazy during the election, the Liberal Party has hired a former humourist of the National Post to ride on the big red festive campaign bus and write useless blog entries. As Paul Martin's speechwriter, I would have expected a daily explanation of what the hell Paul Martin is standing for instead of trying to explain what the Liberal's opposition stands for. Yet another problem of politicians, knowing what the other stands for, yet not telling you in succint terms what they stand for. Nope...the speechwriter just writes about UFOs and how Paul Martin doesn't want to be seen on the side of a bus with a swelled head. Well perhaps Martin and the rest of the leaders get their swelled heads down to size and release their full election platforms and start campaigning on what they believe in. That would be a change over the past couple of elections.

4. Former Toronto Sun humourist Gary Dunford covers the issues that matters to Canadians most during the election campaign, what the leaders and voters think during this election campaign and which leader shows us they love Canada the most. Message to Steven Harper, Dunf shows you how you might show you love Canada! Are you taking notes?

5. Privacy has reared its ugly head again. Sony has recently been hit hard because of its use of anti-piracy software that, even Sony music admits, can be hacked to harm computers running the software. Michael Geist, an internet law professor at the University of Ottawa, notes the latest on the issue and what New York and Texas State governments are doing to ensure Sony is held accountable in this case. Geist points out a very real problem "With thousands of Canadians likely affected (if you are one, I'd like to hear from you), Canadian authorities can no longer sit on the sidelines." So my question is, what does each party plan to do in order to ensure Sony and the other companies follow Canadian law in this case?

6. The local riding of Newmarket-Aurora is a very interesting one indeed. Former Conservative and now Liberal Cabinet Minister Belinda "I crossed the floor because I have principles" Stronach is going to face the heat. One question for her, as a cabinet minister responsible for "democratic renewal" (or whatever bureacratic bafflegab her role is), what have you done on this file to move? Also, if I were to vote for you in this election, will you remain a Liberal and in the federal Parliament as the Newmarket-Aurora representative until the end of the next term? I hope so, otherwise Stronach might become an NDPer then a Green Party candidate or even returning back to papi and hugging the tailpipe of a new car at MAGNA. Watch for more coverage on the Newmarket-Aurora Stronach controversy in the media.

7. Stephen Harper has at least taken the idea of releasing his platform in straight terms this week. Everything from how he would handle the same sex marriage issue (have a free vote in the House of Commons on the issue), taxes (cut the GST to 5% over five years and making transit passes tax deductable) and set standards on healthcare waiting times. The Liberals have nothing really in response to say. Sure they said the cut to the GST is bad policy, but then wasn't that bad policy in 1993 when the same Liberals proposed eliminating the same GST altogether? Talk about "calling the kettle black".

8. Rick Mercer's fun with the current election campaign continues....

9. To finish this posting on a festive note. Q notes on his blog two cases of politicans fighting over a Christmas trees. Yup, the old ugly argument over what to call the tree and if the tree should be real or not. How about we just ban everything this holiday season. Yup, everything from Christmas/Festivus trees, Menorahs, christmas lights, tinsel and the such? That way nobody would be offended. That would only ruin the ability of the challenge to federal party campaigns to decorate their election signs in a festive fashion. Anybody have pictures of federal election campaign signs decorated for the holiday season? Please post links to pictures in the comment section to this post.