Empire Building

9 months ago I had no one reporting to me. By the end of next month I will have 6 people reporting to me. That’s empire building people!

Past meets present

Past meets present.

I view change is inevitable. You can defer it and fight it but change always wins.

So thus I’m sad to see long time residents of Chinatown fight the change that Chinatown desperately needs. I spent many a day in Chinatown over the past 30 years and it is really, really sad to see what it has become – more so than what has happened to the downtown east side. There’s absolutely no reason nowadays to visit Chinatown, it is decrepit, dirty, old and has nothing to offer that you couldn’t get elsewhere with great quality. Not even the cultural aspects are worthwhile.

When it comes to change, you can either be part of the process or you can be wiped out. If you’re part of the process you can retain the things you value most because people will want to listen to you, they will respect your opinion.

Instead these people have fought everything and have gotten nothing – they’re having what’s important to them taken away not by the people they rail against but by themselves. Just take a look around Chinatown today and you’ll see what I mean.

Chinatown can be saved but not the way things are going.

204 Beech Ave, Save it!!

204 Beech Ave, Save it!!

There are people who are embarrassments to themselves and there are those who should be ashamed of themselves. The owner of this blog is both.

The house in question is about to be torn down and replaced with a modern new home being built by a husband for his family. Specifically for his paralyzed wife.

If you look at the house on Google Street View you’ll see another ho-hum house that speaks of tackiness – there’s no reason why that house should qualify for heritage status nor any reason why someone shouldn’t have the right to tear it down so that his family can have a life they want.

Shame on Kirsten Campbell for what she is doing.

2012 Hyundai Elantra Unveiled in Korea

2012 Hyundai Elantra Unveiled in Korea.

A very nice looking car. The girls are not bad either.

Lexington: Sex and the single black woman | The Economist

Lexington: Sex and the single black woman | The Economist.

I wonder how this is playing out in places like India and China where the imbalance is the other way and males are already the ones that do more preening.

Travel

My trip involves 7 different flights on 4 different airlines (none of them with the airline I booked with) and this is how I’m doing so far:

1) Victoria to Calgary: 25 mins late, plane was stuck at another airport.

2) Calgary to Newark NJ: 1:30 late, plane was stuck at another airport.

3) Newark to Hamburg: 30 mins late, plane was stuck on runway.

4) Hamburg to Dusseldorf: 15 mins late, luggage fails to make it onto plane. The luggage arrives at the hotel about 7 hours later.

5) Dusseldorf to London: Flight cancelled. Rescheduled for Monday, odds are that it will be cancelled as well.

6) London to Vancouver: This happens Tuesday and it’s looking likely that it will be cancelled or I will miss it because I can’t get to London.

7) Vancouver to Victoria: Ah, fuck it.

Languages

All the staff at the hotel I’m in speak some English, most of them speak it quite fluently despite it being a 2nd language for them. If I had to make a list of languages I’d like my kids to speak in priority it would be:

1. English. It’s the world’s language – in any first world country (and even some non-first world) you’ll usually be able to find someone to communicate with in English. It’s become the default 2nd language for most countries now.

2. Mandarin. China’s the next superpower and you can’t live on the West coast and expect to not to run into people who speak Mandarin.

3. Cantonese. It’s my mother tongue so a must for the kids.

4. French. You can find French in a lot of tourist stops and French girls sound really hot. Canada is also part French so if working for the Feds is part of the plan then this is a must.

5. Japanese. Japan’s pretty insular so it’s one of the places where finding people who speak English can be a bit hard.

What’s your list?

I’m in Germany

Dusseldorf to be exact. I was in New York over the weekend.

New York is very cool – I got to see Midtown where all the action is and also Brooklyn and both were very interesting although neither were places I’d want to live in. Still worth visiting at some point though.

Why I wont buy an iPad and think you shouldnt, either – Boing Boing

Why I wont buy an iPad and think you shouldnt, either – Boing Boing.

If this wasn’t written by someone like Cory I’d call this article flamebait written by a troll with limited mental capacity. Like John Dvorak.

Nevertheless it still feels like it was written by a man afraid of the future because the future doesn’t include the things he values the most. Tough luck Cory.

I’m a 99 percentile nerd (meaning I know my computers pretty well) but I FUCKING LOVE computers that make my life simpler, not more complicated. I FUCKING LOVE it when I use a computer where I don’t have to care how it does it, why it does it or anything else about its operation – I just want it to work so I can get on it with it.

I haven’t made my order yet for an iPad but I will be making order soon and I know I’m going to ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY FUCKING LOVE it. I’ll probably say it’s the greatest piece of technology I’ve ever owned and I’ll probably use it far more than even I expected.

Just give me the money

The girlfriend doesn’t drink so I when a guy has tried to buy her a drink she declines by saying she doesn’t really drink. This is totally wrong. I have corrected her, going forward I’ve told her to say:

“I don’t really drink but if you give me the money I’ll talk to you for 5 minutes.”