I have completed the most thankless task that I face each year. My tax returns are “on the net”. All four of them, because in this schizophrenic political system I must report to two sets of masters, for my better half and me. Four sets of forms that reassure my choice of profession: anything other than financial affairs. I hate dealing with numbers.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Permission to scream | 251 words
I’m confused by what I read. Well, not everything, but on the question of what vitamins are needed to keep me healthy and wise there are a few doubts that have crept in. You see, a new study says I need the “sunshine vitamin” to prevent cancer.
posted in health | Comments Off on Taking your vitamins | 278 words
No wonder people have a hard time with the “political class”; if you give them a chance the polit will do the stupid pet trick routine every time. Watch our latest minister of the environment. Here is a man that will save the world with some lightbulbs. In keeping with the pet tricks, my youngest refers to the man as the hampster from Ottawa. My own feeling is that with one of those wheels that are synonomous with the species, we could light a dim bulb.
posted in politics | Comments Off on More inconvenient truth | 327 words
The news is out. Some day, at a retailer near you, (in PEI), you will be able to buy a can of pop. Just like everywhere else. More details to follow.
posted in environment | Comments Off on A can requires a complicated plan | 317 words
In the world of the blog, we sometimes get so self-absorbed in our writing that we forget that we are simply emulators of a model that the world calls the “newspaper”. Especially since we don’t always have to present news, and our editorial direction is ours. But in the real world, newspapers do exist, do have to fight for readership and do have to live in a world where the dollar rules supreme.
posted in economy | Comments Off on It depends who is doing the name-calling | 313 words
Among the farm of printers in our office we have one that stands above all the rest. The expensive one. The printer that adds colour to our lives. The Xerox machine with the crayons for fodder. A prince among the common mono lasers. So, when things aren’t “as they should be”, people notice. And in the technicians’ world, getting noticed by others is a guarantee of intense attention.
posted in computing | Comments Off on Gold plated technical service | 416 words
In one week the traps will be on the bottom, filling up with those expensive little buggies that make the tourists all weak at the knees. At least, that’s the hope. You see, in certain coastal areas the annual lobster season will begin at dawn on the first of May, and hundreds, nay thousands of fisher people will again pray for healthy harvests and high prices. Think of a very wet gold rush, with no gold but lots of wet. There you are, lobster fishing.
posted in economy, environment | Comments Off on One week to go | 319 words
The gang at the office came together today. Any time you offer free coffee, donuts and assorted other tasties, the office comes together – it’s a rule. And following the rules of management science, we had a meeting with an agenda, goals and boss monologues. For what it’s worth, there was a rational reason. It was time to discuss emergency measures.
posted in politics | Comments Off on The secret is in the planning (again) | 332 words
Of for the simpler times, when changing the channel required a twist of the wrist, rather than sequenced act of remote control manipulations. I’m protesting the proliferation of blippers needed to control our main TV. Further, I’m protesting our dependence; when the TV reverted to a single-channel one-eyed monster last evening, none were impressed.
posted in media, technology | Comments Off on Remotely useful | 481 words
It’s hard, in the middle of a large city, to imagine simpler times, when the automobile didn’t require as much of the “living space” as the humans it serves. Of course, the occasional city bus reminds us that there are alternatives that are less consuming, but on the whole, we live in a world of metallic monsters with an enormous appetite.
posted in environment | Comments Off on A double dose of green for today | 416 words
