Officethink

A friend told me tonight that his company gave out T-shirts one time, with the company logo on the back. When they posed for the group shot to send to head office they proudly wore their shirts ... backwards because of someone's brilliant idea (likely a manager). The people at head office knew the logos were on the back. The manager was likely promoted.

I don't want anyone to think I'm cynical or anything (maybe a little). The truth is I find office shenanigans/politics rather entertaining. It's far less stressful that way.

If you can't laugh at your own office, check out The Office (the show). It's hilarious. I'll be buying the DVD's.

National Geographic

One of the world's great magazines (especially if you appreciate photography) is National Geographic. I received a subscription for Christmas. Interesting, informative, and wow ... those photographs. Follow the link (sorry for my laziness in not pointing you straight to the final destination, but it's sort of appropriate to send you on a 'journey' to find them, given the topic, don't you think?) for lots of great online pictures for your desktop. And I love how their corporate logo is the yellow border of the magazine. Elegant simplicity at its finest!

Niagara Falls

I was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. My Dad worked for Ontario Hydro, and there aren't many more exciting places 'hydroelectrically' than Niagara Falls. Because it's so close, my wife and I sometimes go there for day trips. We did so this past Sunday. We usually go to Niagara-on-the-Lake first and drive down along the Niagara River to The Falls. Last summer we did this on rented bicycles. There is a lot to see along this route, like the historic town of Queenston, the Brock Monument, the world's largest natural whirlpool, a butterfly conservatory, hydroelectric generating stations, and more. The climax, of course, is arriving at The Falls. They are beautiful and majestic, and the many cultures always represented in the onlooking crowd prove that people travel far indeed to see this sight.

If the onlookers turn around, though, they will see one of the gaudiest sights on earth. It's quite a juxtaposition. Natural beauty alongside man-made excess. There are giant hotels, two casinos, myriad souvenir (junk) shops, and worst of all Clifton Hill. The best description of Clifton Hill that I can muster is that it's the exact opposite of subtlety. It's basically the midway of a fall fair on steroids. Could we not have come up with something a little more tasteful?

Tim Horton's Madness

First let me say that I like Tim Horton's. It is what it is. If you want decent coffee and a donut or sandwich I would highly recommend it. But let's be reasonable, folks. This morning on a nice Saturday morning drive I had a hankering for some coffee. I tried two different Tim Horton's locations and both were jammed with walk-in and drive-thru customers. I really don't get it. I realize we're in the middle of the annual Roll-Up-The-Rim-To-Win campaign, but it astounds me that so many people are willing to wait in huge lines at so many locations for - get ready for it - mediocre coffee. The crazy thing is that I'm guessing many of those people made a trip just to get coffee and go home. [I can't really criticize that last part because I've done the same thing.] I haven't done the math, but I'm sure that the cost of most people's current coffee buying habits would allow them to purchase a top-of-the-line coffee maker and premium beans for home. They'd save money and drink better coffee. Out of protest (and perhaps a little impatience) I went to City Cafe Bakery for my java. This is what a coffee shop should be. Local, unique, and convenient.

On a related note, I've been thinking that a certain corner near my home could use a coffee shop. Perhaps I should do my part to improve the coffee landscape and open one myself. Hmm...

Great Canadian Singers

Tonight I watched a show on the CBC that was some sort of tribute to Canadian songwriters. As my vagueness shows, I wasn't really paying attention ... at first. Then they paid tribute to Anne Murray. Wow! She's a really great singer! I guess I've always known that, but wow! John Lennon once said at 'The Grammies' that his favourite cover of any Beatles song was one by Anne Murray. Again I say, wow!

Later in the show they paid tribute to Leonard Cohen. I have to say, I'm glad he's done well and all, but I've never really understood his appeal in general. It likely doesn't help that I don't 'get' poetry (except the high art of haiku). He did, however, write a song called 'Hallelujah' which K.D. Lang performed. Wow. She has a beautiful voice. And I should give Leonard his due for writing the song. He also gave a great speech in which he marvelled at the mystery of where great songs come from. I've heard this sentiment from many songwriters. They say it's more like being lucky enough to find the song, as opposed to creating it. Back to my point. K.D. Lang is a great singer.

Not on the show, but also a wonderful singer is Sarah McLachlan. My wife thinks all of her songs sound the same. I disagree. I think she's extremely talented and has a beautiful, unique voice.

Canada has been blessed with some very, very talented singers. I mean, like, real singing talent. And these three are just the tip of the iceberg. I don't have any music by any of these artists I've mentioned (perhaps I should change that), and in Anne Murray's case her name would normally remind me of some kid's record I had when I was young. But even if they're not singing your kind of music, it's hard not to be moved by a truly great singer. I'm thankful to have so many to choose from in Canada.

Cool Things

Last weekend one of the brothers-in-law that I hiked with asked me what technological marvel I found most amazing. It's a good question. There are things around us daily which are truly amazing. My answers were the first two below. I've listed some more.

1. Ink Jet Printing (heck, even dot matrix printing is amazing!) - The head flies by and shoots micro-droplets of ink onto a page in perfect placement to form an image. The fact that this can be done accurately and quickly enough to form text - let alone a photo quality image - is astounding.
2. Machine Vision Systems - In my former job (I could name a lot of cool things from that job) I was exposed to machines that would literally 'look' at a stream of parts passing by their camera eyes and decide whether each part was good or bad. In some food processing factories the stream of product is passed over a ramp, flies through the air past a camera, and if a bad item is seen it is removed from the airborne stream with a puff of air.
3. Digital Light Processing (TM) - I held one of these in my hand today. It looks like a computer chip with a small mirror in it. That little mirror is actually 2 million tiny mirrors, each of which can tilt one way or another extremely quickly, such that the reflected light creates a high quality moving image. These little mirrors aren't just making 'bright' and 'dark' they make the shades in between by tilting back and forth quickly, staying on more than off for brighter and off more than on for darker. I can't believe this actually exists.
4. Magnets - That's it. Magnets are cool.
5. Electricity, Water, Sewage, Gas, Telephone, Cable - They're not trendy, but these guys are really, really important. If the first four were cut off even for a few days it would be a disaster.

You know, working in the engineering field it seems like everybody else thinks we know how all this stuff works and that means we're not impressed by it. We're just as amazed as everyone else. I worked for nearly five years in factory automation and I still don't understand how those machines get built. I guess it's the whole "no 'I' in team" thing. OK, bedtime.