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Sitting in FRA

by John
Categories: General, Interesting
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Published on: February 24, 2013

I decided to finish this post finally,

I have a few hours in Frankfurt and am sitting in the same business lounge where I read the famous Canadian joke:

Two Canadians are sitting in a bar getting bored, so they decide to play twenty questions. The first Canadian tries to think of a subject for his friend to guess and, after a little pondering, comes up with “moose cock.” He tells his friend he’s ready to play.

“OK,” says the second Canadian. “Is it something good to eat?”

The first Canadian thinks for a moment, and replies, “Sure, I guess you could eat it.”

The second Canadian says, “Is it moose cock?”

Now, you have to imagine the original circumstance – 7am in Frankfurt Airport, in a business lounge, sitting in dirty jeans and a t-shirt, surrounded by German business men awaiting their flights to Hannover or whereever, laughing hysterically to myself at this joke that is quintessentially Canadian, hoping no one asks me what I am laughing at… re-living those circumstances some 5-6 years later, I actually laughed without having to read the joke again.

The moral of the story is simple:  moose cock is funny, no matter where you are!

In keeping with the election results and the backlash from business owners….

by John
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Published on: November 10, 2012

I have always been a bit of a “cause consumer” – purchasing from establishments that seem to meet my political and social criteria. I am not perfect, but a nod in the right direction is at least a nod in the right direction.

So, with that said, I am fully declaring that I will consume with my eyes wide open and my wallet closed to those who do not have a policy to properly support the people who work for you and the communities you serve:

- Cut people hours to avoid providing health care: lose my business
- have sub-standard products produces in slave labor conditions overseas: lose my business
- lay off people solely to generate dividends for shareholders: lose my business
- move factories and work offshore, shelter money and profits and pay no taxes, cut customer service to increase profit… you know the drill.

- pay properly, buy local: I am there.
- quality above price: I am there.
- tell me that the business is there to do more than make money… and I will listen

I will do my best to sustain businesses that put their employees and their customers first, above profit… treating the community with the respect it deserves will generate more business from the likes of me and like minded consumers. Gone, for me at least, are the days of price-only driven consumerism… give me value, make me feel good about it. It is worth paying a little more for quality, service and community – and I can do with less, frankly, and I am lucky to be in that position and want to ensure my money goes somewhere where it will do some good.

Now, let’s see if I can put my money where my mouth is…

Louis CK is popular!

by John
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Published on: June 27, 2012

So I get an email from Louis CK (I bought his video online through his website about a year ago – totally worth the money and I think he has the right idea) saying he will be playing 45 shows and charging a flat rate of 45 bucks per seat.  Now, a couple of days later and I go to purchase a seat for Connor and I – sold out!

Lesson learned:  buy em the moment you can!

 

I went to Vegas for work, Christina joined me for fun…

by John
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Published on: June 26, 2012

I am afraid for his life!

by John
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Published on: June 25, 2012

Connor Went To Japan – Summer 2012

by John
Categories: Connor, Travel
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Published on: June 24, 2012

Connor was lucky enough to be chosen to go to Memuro Japan as a Tracy Sister City Ambassador.  He had a great time, enjoyed staying with his host family – the Shirahata’s, and would love to go back to Japan to visit other parts of the country!

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Connor Math: 13yo + 16hrs traveling = lump on couch

by John
Categories: Connor, Family, Travel
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Published on: June 21, 2012

Connor finally arrived home after a 10 day trip to Japan.  Connor went to Japan as a Tracy Sister City Ambassador, and as part of a group 10 kids and 2 chaperons that traveled to Memuro Japan to live with host families, engage in cultural exchange and make new friends.  Connor really had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed living with his host family and seeing what it was like to live in a very foreign environment.

Of course, travel takes its toll on a young man, as you can see:

Connor Passed Out After Return From Japan: maybe he will have new found respect for what I feel like after a long trip from overseas…

 

and to think, Christina makes me drive home after coming back from China!

Morgan Freeman’s Voice

by John
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Published on: June 21, 2012

Alright – that hurt a little

by John
Categories: Family, General
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Published on: June 21, 2012

Sadly, my home NAS (which is also my web server and blog host) drives took a powder.  This means I had to recover files from the failed RAID array, buy a new set of drives (yes, the drives I bought were put on the non-compatible list after I bought them, and I discovered this fact too late!), and now I am back and running. Now I have 4 good 2TB drives – which I will rotate for backups… ALWAYS make backups!

Replacing all the files using WinSCP took DAYS, and simply replacing all the database files with the backed up versions worked, amazingly… next time I will figure out something a little more reasonable and performing.

So with lots of hand wringing, psychic pain, and money spent, I am now back up and running.  Thankfully, I did not lose any of the 10s of thousands of photos, home videos, or any of the 150GB of music I ripped from my CD and iTunes collection.

Back to my regular programming.

Not what I expected to read…

by John
Categories: Interesting
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Published on: January 19, 2012

based on the title of the article… but it really is a nice read:

How Atheists Find Meaning In Life?

 

Welcome , today is Thursday, June 20, 2013