The degree of planning will separate the veterans from the rookies in most situations. Be it the game of war, or the war of the game, or just a simple trip to visit friends; without some preparation, the train may go off the rails (or lack rails altogether).
posted in education, travel | Comments Off on Not too far away | 350 words
My local hardware store is trying to drive me nuts. This evening, I needed a certain quantity of machine screws, with the right size of nut. I think they may have had every variation possible except what I wanted. Lots of screws, lots of screws and nuts together (parading under the label of “stove bolt”), and in an expensive part of the department, nuts in single quantities.
posted in technology | Comments Off on Everything but what you need | 292 words
Maybe I can distract myself for another few minutes. Enough time to let the eBay “opportunity of a lifetime” pass me by. You see, there’s the main problem with online sales (from my point of view). You can remain an impulse buyer for days, rather than the few minutes most of us spend at the local mall.
posted in economy | Comments Off on But I need the thing | 332 words
My favourite personal computer manufacturer (rhymes with Bell) is a large corporation. The company no longer works out of a warehouse in the wilds of Texas, it now has a larger “footprint”, and it relies on the marvels of VOIP to keep its many offshore workers in the loop. Therein lies the difficulty.
posted in economy | Comments Off on When languages are a barrier | 375 words
Too much vocabulary needed. Must sleep now. I’ve been caught in the cunundrum of explaining the basics of blogging to someone else. I realize that you can call a dog a cat and it will still chase cars, but if the vocabulary is precise, an explanation is transferable. Right now, my brain feels a wee bit mushy.
posted in education | Comments Off on When the teacher has something else to do | 259 words
I should know better. After all, the largest part of my waking hours are spent in front of a web browser, for better or worse. I see how quickly information moves through those little tubes, and how nothing stays off the radar for very long. But, as we get older we assume that nobody is listening.
posted in media, politics | Comments Off on Comment not content | 297 words
Thankfully, I watch the world around me, because there are so many things that we weren’t taught in school but that, eventually, need to be mastered. I mean, I could probably “do” open-heart surgery, or shoot a crossbow, or shingle a roof if needed. I have watched a lot of educational television over the years. There are other, better trained individuals out there, so I probably won’t be waging medieval warfare in an operating theatre with a leaky roof near you any time soon. Other jobs do pop up from time to time, and I’m ready to try my hand.
posted in ham radio, technology | Comments Off on First, dig a hole in the ground | 497 words
In high school physics, there were demonstrations of Newtonian physics. In part, an attempt to explain why a rocket might actually climb up, or move in space, but the base of the argument was that pushing something in one direction would cause that object to move, in a direct relation with the force applied. There were formulae and everything; science. Canadian economics is not a science.
posted in economy | Comments Off on In the face of rising prices | 319 words
It’s not the letters and spaces; rather, the use of the language that makes all the difference. Particularly in those areas dealing with money and property, which is what the legal system is all about, the words can be poetry or shackles. I haven’t had many occasions to read good legalese, but when you come across the stuff, you recognize the beauty of the thing.
posted in education | Comments Off on It has to do with the choice of words | 473 words
Are we frightened, yet? If you are following the campaign which is now in Day Five and a bit, you should be. After all, you’ve been warned. A vote for the underdog is going to put Canadian Unity in danger. Stevie said so, and he’d never lie. He told me that, too.
posted in environment, politics | Comments Off on What if there is a greener way? | 309 words
