New Years Thought (as we all get a little older)

"Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age"

Booth Tarkington

The Edge

As Winter Comes - The Lake Freeze Accumulates - at Chaffey's Lock

Clean and Simple Transverse Waves

Spot the Duck

Anyother Cool Book - The Toyota Way

The Toyota Way

What does the customer really really want – defines value
Define Waste – 8 ways – all equally important:

• Overproduction
• Waiting (time on hand)
• Unnecessary transport
• Over processing / Incorrect processing
• Excess inventory
• Unnecessary movement in the process of completing the work
• Defects in manufacture – repair / rework costs
• Unused employee creativity

Principles:

• Long term philosophy vs short term goals (Mission – contribute to country economy, well being of stakeholders, and Toyotas growth)
• With the right process the results will follow – trust it
• Continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface (link operations together)
• Use pull systems to avoid over production
• Level out work load (production control and management people) - heijunka
• Culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time -Judoka ( and Quality – Jidoka)
• Standardise tasks are the basis for continuous improvement and employee empowerment – balance rigid procedures vs challenge to improve
• Visual control so problems not hidden – Just in time information
• Use only reliable tested technology
• Grow leaders who understand the philosophy
• Develop exceptional people that will follow the philosophy
• Learn by doing
• Go and see for yourself (GENCHI GENBUTSU -)
• Make decisions slowly by consensus - Implement Rapidly - Nemawashi – a technique is employed to reduce misunderstanding
• Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection (Hansei) and continuous improvement (CI can only work with stable and standardised processes) –and KAIZEN

Flow

• ID customer and added value
• Separate repetitive from unique processes
• Map flow – value add and no value add
• Future state value stream map
• Learn by doing (Plan do act)

Personal Leanings

• Balance standardisation with individual autonomy – Currently more standardization would create greater efficiency and quality.
• Standardisation is a Core and Key base for CI – without it there is no CI
• Take the time get it right
• How to principles become common?

Web links:

http://www.fredharriman.com/services/glossary/jidoka.html
http://www.strategosinc.com/jidoka.htm
http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/management/gemba.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemawashi
http://www.si.umich.edu/

Broken Love
By William Blake (1757–1827)

MY Spectre around me night and day
Like a wild beast guards my way;
My Emanation far within
Weeps incessantly for my sin.

‘A fathomless and boundless deep,
There we wander, there we weep;
On the hungry craving wind
My Spectre follows thee behind.

‘He scents thy footsteps in the snow
Wheresoever thou dost go,
Thro’ the wintry hail and rain.
When wilt thou return again?

’Dost thou not in pride and scorn
Fill with tempests all my morn,
And with jealousies and fears
Fill my pleasant nights with tears?

‘Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
Has bereavèd of their life.
Their marble tombs I built with tears,
And with cold and shuddering fears.

‘Seven more loves weep night and day
Round the tombs where my loves lay,
And seven more loves attend each night
Around my couch with torches bright.

‘And seven more loves in my bed
Crown with wine my mournful head,
Pitying and forgiving all
Thy transgressions great and small.

‘When wilt thou return and view
My loves, and them to life renew?
When wilt thou return and live?
When wilt thou pity as I forgive?’

‘O’er my sins thou sit and moan:
Hast thou no sins of thy own?
O’er my sins thou sit and weep,
And lull thy own sins fast asleep.

‘What transgressions I commit
Are for thy transgressions fit.
They thy harlots, thou their slave;
And my bed becomes their grave.


‘Never, never, I return:
Still for victory I burn.
Living, thee alone I’ll have;
And when dead I’ll be thy grave.

‘Thro’ the Heaven and Earth and Hell
Thou shalt never, quell:
I will fly and thou pursue:
Night and morn the flight renew.’

‘Poor, pale, pitiable form
That I follow in a storm;
Iron tears and groans of lead
Bind around my aching head.

‘Till I turn from Female love
And root up the Infernal Grove,
I shall never worthy be
To step into Eternity.

‘And, to end thy cruel mocks,
Annihilate thee on the rocks,
And another form create
To be subservient to my fate.
‘Let us agree to give up love,

And root up the Infernal Grove;
Then shall we return and see
The worlds of happy Eternity.
‘And throughout all Eternity

I forgive you, you forgive me.
As our dear Redeemer said:
“This the Wine, and this the Bread.”’

music master

You that love lovers
This is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, love
Made this love that melts form
With love for the door
Soul the vestibule

Watch the dust grains moving
In the light near the window

Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music
But were all dancing to it nevertheless

Directed by the one who reaches us
The pure joy of the sun
Our music master

Rumi?

Dale Chihuly

Just watched a dvd of his work. What and amazing process and vision. This really lifts the sole. This is a person who is free, confident, leader and carisma and vision. And how beautiful are the things that he and the team create.

Surprises for me are:

How team it is (chihuly does not appear to actually blow any glass).
How fast it is per piece (no reheat practice)
How much glass gets made (hundred annd hundred of pieces)
How many people (over one hundred)
The unlimited imagination.
How casually pieces get broken.


http://www.chihuly.com/ for more magic

The subway train

In front darkness, speeding, deafening clatter, rambunctious movement.
Lights peek into the permanent night.
Surprises turn and swing.
Unaccustomed speed, relaxing and fulfilling.

Behind being, lit by fluorescent flicking, still live debris, nothingness staring.
No less clear although past.  
Advertising impresses life.  
Questions unanswered,
The future becomes the past apparently without notice to the present.      

Kind of Fun

This guys site is kind of fun

http://shmoovio.blogspot.com/

Movie and Picture blog is good in particular.

Día de los Muertos

What an interesting mix of religous and fock law this is.

It is nice to examine the edges of an issue or event and realise how grey it is and how little that matters. All that matters is that people enjoy it and welcome it and it brings them comfirt.

cbc and sun and canvas

Listened to the cbc all afternoon while attempting to paint. How great it is to really look at something, decompose it, look at all its parts and then the whole. See it for the first time.

Chosen subject - leaves. Having racked up countless millions this seems reasonable.

Results are mixed although I notice that the result is improved when I paint each piece and move on and temporarily forgot what it is just paint what I see.

Overall a nice day to fall back.

Christopher Pratt for a today

Christopher Pratt (Canadian Painter):

“Somehow or other the greatest gift we have is the gift of our own consciousness, and that is worth savouring. Just to be in a place that’s so silent that you can hear the blood going through your arteries and be aware of your own existence, that you are matter that knows it is matter, and that this is the ultimate miracle.”

Food for thought

Real turkeys are heavier than imagined turkeys


Ontological Arguments:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/

Today's :-)

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
- Quoted by Rudyard Kipling in From Sea to Shining Sea

Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.
– Ogden Nash

He who knows Love

By Elsa Barker

He who knows Love—becomes Love, and his eyes
Behold Love in the heart of everyone,
Even the loveless: as the light of the sun
Is one with all it touches. He is wise
With undivided wisdom, for he lies
In Wisdom’s arms. His wanderings are done,
For he has found the Source whence all things run—
The guerdon of the quest, that satisfies.

He who knows Love becomes Love, and he knows
All beings are himself, twin-born of Love.
Melted in Love’s own fire, his spirit flows
Into all earthly forms, below, above;
He is the breath and glamour of the rose,
He is the benediction of the dove.

scenes from today

Starting badly with drunken sleeps and sleepless wakes

Rain

Amazing doods dressed for halloween taking photos in the subway.

Rain

Leaf stained sidewalks

Rain and walking in the rain

Silence and loneliness exposed and shared.

Rain

So so sad babies handed over in public, from poor to well groomed and smart and smug.

Rain

Dark and work. A day is gone. Good.

Alabaster Blues

Calcium not Copper Concentrates and crystallizes
Fun in store as the crystal grows, silently, unseen
The winds of change are still and
quiet as timeless pressure and erosion
forms the translucent purely hard and softly still.

Waiting, waiting.

When the time is right, with patients and love
the beauty emerges, joyful and whole

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life
By Robert Buchanan (1841–1901)

THE MASTER said:
‘I have planted the Seed of a Tree,
It shall be strangely fed
With white dew and with red,
And the Gardeners shall be three—
Regret, Hope, Memory!’

The Master smiled:
For the Seed that He had set
Broke presently thro’ the mould,
With a glimmer of green and gold,
And the Angels’ eyes were wet—
Hope, Memory, Regret.

The Master cried:
‘It liveth—breatheth—see!
Its soft lips open wide—
It looks from side to side—
How strange they gleam on me,
The little dim eyes of the Tree!’

The Master said:
‘After a million years,
The Seed I set and fed
To itself hath gatherèd
All the world’s smiles and tears—
How mighty it appears!’

The Master said:
‘At last, at last, I see
A Blossom, a Blossom o’ red
From the heart of the Tree is shed.
’Tis fairer certainly
Than the Tree, or the leaves of the Tree.’

The Master cried:
‘O Angels, that guard the Tree,
A Blossom, a Blossom divine
Grows on this greenwood of mine:
What may this Blossom be?
Name this Blossom to me!’

The Master smiled;
For the Angels answered thus:
‘Our tears have nourish’d the same,
We have given it a name
That seemeth fit to us—
We have called it Spiritus.’

The Master said:
‘This Flower no Seed shall bear;
But hither on a day
My beautiful Son shall stray,
And shall snatch it unaware,
And wreath it in his hair.’

The Master smiled:
‘The Tree shall never bear—
Seedless shall perish the Tree,
But the Flower my Son’s shall be;
He will pluck the Flower and wear,
Till it withers in his hair!’

Wedding wilderness part 2

Memories:
How great it is to dress up
The calm and involved groom
The smiles
Everyone dressed up
The relaxed bar drink
Chatting with new strangers and new perspectives.
The glimpse into lower class American life
The roads and the traffic
The healthcare and healthcare everywhere
The religious dogma and the spiritual peace it brings

wedding weekend in the wilderness

Thud thud bump bump bump werrr werrr whale werr. The road noises are endless and the miles disappear so slowly.

Eventually:

The wedding day is beautiful and the motherly details busy, the bride calm and the groom unusually chaty.
10 minute ceromony and the drinking begins.
Cricket and football fans mingle and tell each other stories
The nite is young and then suddenly done....

"vigilance and service"

A border experience.

14 - the number of immigration staff apparently doing nothing.
25 - minutes of time to process 1 person
0 - amount of organization obvious. Only the use of hand cream tells me they have actually done this before. Hand cream to make the finger print stand out of course.

How much I feel safe now knowing these guys are in charge: zero

The Return Trip - Guns and Gifts

US Guy wanted to know did I have any guns
Canadian Guy - did I have any gifts

Conclusion - Americans don't want you leaving with any of their precious guns and Canada's don't care about guns but want you to pay Taxes.

Found this

Found this on a blog - like it -


"In the ecology of spirit, just as in the ecology of matter, one eventually discovers that one cannot simply throw something away.

The corollary is that, with regard to both matter and spirit, there is no such thing as junk."

Ode to a Nightingale - first 2 verses

MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Dont think about the War in Iraq much

This was interesting -

http://costofwar.com/

What else we could have done with the money - of course we would not have, but wow we could have changed the world

Quote for today

There are people who make things happen, there are people at watch what happens , and those who wonder what happened.

Anon

up and down - from the film fest and Intermission from no where

A view of life in the check republic.

Nationalists, white supremacy, cancer, wasted lives from small mistakes, the need to recreate in the world in their own image. Humm, I am sure I have seen this film before.

Intermission

Story of nothing, no where and somewhere. Everyday, real time, real life, nicely told, depressingly told, already I cannot remember it.

Beauty a formula? The Golden Ratio

X^2=X-1. X= 1.6180339887 - the Golden Ratio

Found in nation and Art and all over. Why is this case?

What is Beauty? Is that a good question? Do we need to know what it is? Why is Beauty? Japanese have Wabi-sabi.

Others thougths:

My favourate: Beauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness. Stemdhal

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." Confusius

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms -- this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness." Eistein

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful." Emerson

Mae west

"Too much of a good thing is wonderful"

Day to day

What was my vision for today?

A life is gone, for $21.40 and an empty travel bag in and empty elevator. The soft wet noise is not, the late night cries for attention have been met with more attention than desired or deserved. A life is gone. Just like that. A hole is left.

What was my vision for today? No.

October weekend

What a beautiful sunny and warm weekend.

The signs that winter approaches are clear.

The leaves have appeared on the grass and leaf stains on the sidewalk. The chipmunks are busy and cheeks full. A woodpecker rests on the deck on its way south.

My first attempts at oil painting in 30 years. A really relaxing 4 hours and 3 paintings later.......

Yoga outside was really cool, in the open air, so refreshing and warm

layer cake

Lock, stock, smoldering and then going out.

Apparently complex plot on reflection turns out to be no plot at all really. Some great performances saving this otherwise uninteresting movie. The scenes and sets are nicely filmed and created.

It you are desparate for something reminding you of England, like me, go ahead and rent otherwise rent the motor cycle diaries.

The Aristocrats

I try to be open minded and I have reportedly a strange sense of humour based on feedback I receive from time to time.

The Aristocrats causes me to wonder about funny, while I did giggle a little I also fell alseep at the end. Partly figured north americans do have a sense of humour after all, partly concluded they really don't.

In the end this just deosn't seem that funny

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination circles the world.

Albert Einstein

For Today

Close your eyes and recall ten distincy smells. Keep each smell in mind for a few minutes. It is amazing how strong some smells are and how long they stay around and how easily they can be recalled.

Any memories you thought you'd forgotten?

Possible: grass, spicy, perfume, a particular person.

Grease monkey - taking control back, orders of magnitude change

Back when I was doing my MBA in ITManagement we learned about the value of bringing information together, being an exponential vs mulitple.

ie Information + Information = Information squared (not 2 X information)

Here is a real example of some technology that should the world, slowing perhaps and in ways that we do not realise -

http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/

I think is may only possible does to xml and a bunch of other applications. Anyway very COOL

Life as a TV show

If your life was a TV show, which one would it be and why? Which one would you want it to be?

Suggestions please.

Possible ideas:
Gilmore girls
House
CSI
The office
Cracker
Coronation street
Friends
Law and order
Reba

What's in a birthday

There is life, full on
There is change, measured and unavoidable
There is friendship, pure and simple
There are dreams, filled and real dreams

There peach blush, smiling, knowing
There is pride, prudence and old spice gathered
There is anticipation, abundant and wasted
There is appreciation and love unlimited, unconditionally

There is it all, face to face, figured and final.

non-verbalize

Too early expression may commit an idea to a pattern of development it may not naturally have followed

- Edward de Bono

Everyday

Write the entry in your diary for tomorrow.

budism and me

Budism does not have answers, but is has good questions....

We are thinking all of the time, the question is what do you want to think about- Bmw's, boats, angry or pure and happy and acceptance.

We are always inter-conected to people so we have to do the best here and now.

The unenlightened life is suffering. Unenlightened means not knowing who you are, not having the operating manual for your life.

I am not the only one, I am one of the ones.

Surf the life wave dont try to change it.

Infinite Life by, Robert A. F. Thurman - http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594480699/qid=1127179201/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/701-8042309-0585917

a good day

The primary determinor for if we have a good day is us or our attitude. It is not the news, food, cars, air conditioning.

So we should spend time on us now as that is what matters not anything else.

Civilization as Experientation

Civilization is an experiment. Civilizations died out, often every quickly where the people seemed to have no understanding of the problem they faced. What was going throught the heads of the Easter island people as they cut the last tree down? Do we have a last tree? Will we know when we cut it down? Have we cut it down already? Is it possible that progress in genetics and material sciences will enable us to break the cycle of the rise and fall of civilizations? What part with culture play?

Self-experimentation

Self-experimentation seems like a path to life and learning

Here is one that was not -

The 19th-century German medical researcher Max von Pettenkofer once drank a test tube of cholera bacteria to try to disprove the emerging theory that diseases are caused by germs. Von Pettenkofer managed to not get cholera, but he did commit suicide after a cholera outbreak proved his anti-germ hypothesis disastrously wrong.

Fema Humm

What is this all about?

http://www.fema.gov/storm/katrina/photo_katrina1.fema?id=1

Chemical Engineers Rule

Chemical Engineers are bright and funny

Examples include:

Arthur D. Little - started 1st consulting company
Dolph Lundgren - IQ 160
Nancy Pimental - Writer for South Park
Jack Welch

bikram yoga

Just discovered this type of yoga. Yoga in the sauna. Amazing.

It is the hardest workout I have every done. After you feel energised and peaceful in a whole new way.


http://www.bikramyogacentre.com/

Music Master

You that love lovers
This is your home. Welcome.

In the midst of making form, love
made this form that melts form,
With love for the door
Soul the vestibule.

Watch the dust grains moving
In the light near the window

Their dance is our dance

We rarely hear the inward music,
But we're all dancing to it nevertheless
Direct by the one who teaches us. The pure joy of the sun
Our music master

When I am with you we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I cannot go to sleep.
Praise for these two insomnias!
And the diference between then.



Rumi
(Blackberry)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
"I love thee true.”

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Advise Please......

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.

thought for the day

I began to understand that self-esteem is not everything.
It is just that there's nothing without it.


Gloria Steinem
American journalist and feminist leader

Quote for the day

Don't listen to everything you think.


Unknown

Quote from New York Times

"People try to learn things in a land of opportunity" - Mr Patel

New York New York weekend weekend - Part 3

Moma magic, magnificant, magnified, miraclous.
The new space is timeless, although not extravagant.

Integrity
Emotion
Movement
Idea
Composition
Intimacy
Vocabulary

New York New York weekend weekend - Part 1

Igniting the sole with variety, imagination, images and exhaustion.

A day in new York.

People, hot and people, struggling
Subway stops that aren't
Yellow fords invade
A to z of J walking, New York style, where the people have all the power and revel in it
People are crazy, people omnipotent

Selling blooms that last only moments,
Washington square full of jazz and memorial comedy in the still night
Princesses, pints, pictures, paint as Gothic gotham grins and grinds. To good to be true but wariness lives on.
Why not time spend with traipse schools by the water or with chess champions, or sailing from the school? People every where as the city creeks and cracks and breaths.

(Blackberry)

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve.

Albert Einstein

(Blackberry)

http://www.livestrong.org

http://www.livestrong.org/

picture of the day

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16974

went here a couple of years ago - what a spirit full place

And you think your day was not great

Where is this guy going?

http://thecasualfriday.blogspot.com/

Fun stuff for Monday

http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/2531/nwis.htm

This is fun, if you are in the mood.....

Elevation

High, higher than the sun
You shoot me from a gun
I need you to evalate me here
At the corner of your lips
As the orbit of your hips
Eclipse, you elevate my soul

I've lost all self control
Been living like a mole
Now going down, excavation
I and in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high, elevation

A star lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you could educate my mind
Explain all these controls
I can't sing but I've got soul
The goal is elevation

A mole, living in a hole
Digging up my soul
Going down, excavation
I and I in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high, elevation

Love, lift me out of these blues
Won't you tell me something true
So high, elevation

(Blackberry)

Ono matter pier my dear

AAaaaaaaaaaarrrggghhhh. B

Chicago Chicago - I recall

• The customs line coordinator who was really doing the job. Hussle and bussle and all our security is checked.
• David at the ritz carlton for being sensitive and hearing me and for walking me to the elavator.
• This is one clean, cool, confident,exciting, modern, old, proud, futuristic city.
• Nessa for her great, straight forward and sassy attitude.
• Sidestreet Sidewalk restaurants.
• The global concepts group for bring together the people and the sharing and ideas.
• Steve levitt for being brave enough to address the issues where he finds them.
• Sunshades and blindfolds that help you see.
• Small people with limited experiences
• Public places for us to share. Water fountains.
• The reasonless laugh shared with the security scanner guy.
• Reminding myself to report what I see.
• Blues and jazz and the dreams they invoke...........

Bass and Fire flys

As twilight becomes a reality, the bass fisherman buzz and steer.

The orange glow of dust and at once the fisherman are gone.

Replaced by loon, heron and bull frog. Fireflys begin the ritual courtship

This is a wonderland, a vision, a waking dream.

(Blackberry)

Read the news today oh, boy

Read the news today oh, boy Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire...

Difficult not to be effected by the news yesterday from London, although every time this happens it seems like there is less physical and emotional reaction. The terror that they seek is doomed to fail if this is all they have.

Still without actually talking to my Mother (living in London), you do wonder if the world changed for me yesterday and I dont know it yet.

"And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes
it takes to fill the Albert Hall"

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

An oldy, but a goody and a bit fluffy:

wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

Banff web sites

Found locally.

Rockie mountain raft tours -web tbd
Mountain climbing - www.yamnuska.com
Hiking/sightseeing- www.banfftours.com
House riding- www.boundaryranch.com

Places to go (soft wilderness experience)

Jasper seems like a great town - good local walks
Ice fields tour
Lake Louise hike to upper tea room
Emerald lake
Petyo is great
Banff springs
Sulphur mountain
Anthabasca falls
Multiple stops on the highway

(Blackberry)

Becoming Human

This is a great web site. Loads of info. Great for any kids and adults. Great insights into humans.

Looking forward to looking at it more when I get home:

http://www.becominghuman.org/

(Blackberry)

Burgess Shale and Tao

500 million years of evolution tells us it is because it is. There is not master plan. We are here not bacause have better or chosen we are just the lucky ones or the fact is someone was going to be here.

Confusius, buddha and Lao-tse are Wrong. It's simple. Life is not naturally sour or bitter or out of step with anything, suffering is not required to reach any place.

There are no rules to be learned..... it just is..

(Blackberry)

Banff Sightseeing

Lots of places do tours. Try www.banfftours.com seems to have a good range
of heli hiking and wildlife tours.

(Blackberry)

New experiences from the summit

New words for new experiences

Being Australian,
New words and new meanings - avalanche, glacier, snow, chipmunk, glacier
flour, springback....

Being new the words are repeated almost without regard for a meaning, or
searching for assimilation. Learning seems to look same for everyone.

The views.

Wow these mountains are awesome. Feels like Switzerland up here. The looks
on the faces are almost better. People are excited and scared, helping each
other, pulling together, Japanese, England and German sharing the
experience.

I am in a trance, if I concentrate I can touch the mountains the other side, I am
floating and falling and swimming. The place is cool..........

(Blackberry)

Banff Stuff

Local news paper:
http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/ - ok this site is not great, just looked at it properly

Current some paths are closed due to bear action (min of 6 people to travel together)

More to follow...

Rain Rain Rain Part deux

Keats:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music: - Do I wake or sleep?


The following worries me, have not figured out why yet, it might be the first symptom is one that I am exhibiting :

"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you areliving. Then you read a book(Lady chatterleys lover, for instance), or you take atrip, or you talk with Richard, and you discover that you are not living,that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable:first, restlessness. The second symptom(when hibernating becomes dangerousand might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. Itappears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions livelike this(or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. Theydrive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And thensome shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakensthem and saves them from death." Winter, 1931-1932 from The Diary of AnaןsNin, Volume One 1931-1934

Buddha for a day

Each of us is a god.
Each of us knows all.
We need only open our minds to hear our own wisdom.

(Blackberry)

White not

White noise; White water boiling; White mist rising; White clouds enclosing; White Mountain tops; While lines curving; White horses riding; White paper falling; White noise; Wide Eyed.

(Blackberry)

What a wonderful world

Ok its true there mountains are amazing, after the rain yesterday to see
them today for the first time in the sun.......

Not in particular:
1. Grass carpet under the trees.
2, The wide wild valley floor.
3. The vivid colours of greens
4. Hard core bikers with digital camera's - and mothers too I am reminded.
5. Tour guides passionate about ice climbing, loving one thing so completely
and the deep deep blue of glacier.
6. The varstness of the ice and ice field.
7. The park ranger that was so happy they seemed drunk.
8. The mossy ways.
9. The sharp peeks.
10. Champagne at chateau lake Louise andthe postcard views.
11. Fudge making, warm and sweet and pure
12. The stags, with their velvet symbols of there own meaning and purpose.
No self doubt here.
13. The clean cold air and fresh mountain streams.
14. Honeymooners feeding each other chocolate fondu lunch.
15. Garbage bins that aren't just bear proof.
16. Soft toys.
17. Coincidences.
18. Seeing "slow nerve action" in banff (see earlier bog)
19. Open, simply and pure

(Blackberry)

Day 2 Ice Fields

Rain, Rain, Rain ..... hum

Wow this glacier water is crazy.... I feel like I am in a black and white photo, and some one painted the water in an amazing blue.....

Jasper seems like a really great little town, it would be great to spend more time here, perhaps a month or so.....

wildlife count.... 2 squirrals, 4 goats (2 kids), lots of wild poop.....

Missing you (Airport experiences)

At the airport for an hour, I heard "I missed you" about 20 times as people greeted returning partners or friends. Some appeared less enthusiastic than others, some decidedly and opening passionate. Why the difference, does that mean anything?

Began to wonder what " missed you" really means. How do we miss each other, are we missing the person, the interaction, the feeling, the touch, the companionship, the sex? Is it familiarity or something more? What is the physiology of missing one?

Random thoughts for the day

Enjoy the things we do and do the things we enjoy - what is the difference? Is there a difference? Is this a choice? Why do we enjoy things anyway?

Why do we take picture? Moments to experience and moments reflect. All around me are people who appear to be experiencing only through the moment not the experience.

Hummm.

(Blackberry)

Day 1 alberta adventure

Arrived in calgery surprisingly without incident.

In the next 3 hours managered to go to the wrong car rental company and
arrive at the wrong hotel.

The hotel we actually booked turned out to be much better. This is, if I had
planned on being kept awake by the signs from the 24 hour adult video store.
At least thire will be something to eat from the 24 hour Denny's. Tomorrow
off to jasper...

Still did meet a guy who was very excited about a band playing at the
canmore hotel tonite. Apparently "slow nerve action" are from BC and really
great. I would go but for the a rare family responcibility tonite.

Quote for the day:
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger, Comedy is when YOU walk into an open
sewer and die" - mel brooks. Not a big mel brooks fan, but this not bad -
comedy, like so many things has a close cousin - in the case of comedy it is
sadness.

Calgery has not really impressed so far, sure the people are friendly but
how far can you trust friendly people? Seems like there there is certain
amount of activity in the market town grow up.

(Blackberry)

Adult Entertainment - 2nd play

Second of 7 plays by George F Walker

Same Set - the Hotel Room, different time, or the same time period perhaps it is not clear.

Somewhere along the road to get lost, you are aren't sure where and when you think about it you cannot remember the last few miles anyway, actually it has been a while, the can't remember when you last remembered. This is the first time you have traveled the road.

Your intensions where always good, but somehow life became a series of transactions with self loathing and self destruction becoming common place.

Again well acted and thought provoking play. 4 out 5. Run at factory throatier, Toronto, now finished.

Today's misquote

Dream life like you are going to live forever
Live life like this is your last day

HERE COMES THE SUN - get your old records out

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
And I say it’s all right
It’s all right

Saturday - Hum Hum

DON'T WANT TO BE PASSANGER IN LIFE

Try this -

The Born Free Foundation is an international wildlife charity working with compassion to

• prevent cruelty,
• alleviate suffering and
• encourage everyone to treat all individual animals with respect.

Born Free believes wildlife belongs in the wild and is dedicated to the conservation of rare species in their natural habitat, and the phasing out of traditional zoos.

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/index.shtml

Toronto Short Film Festival - Part Deux

Celebrity Short's Program - what a great couple of hours -


Keep Right - Public enemy #1 (Ewen Bremner - "Trainspotting") and his arch-rival, (Lance Henriksen - "Aliens") up the ante in this high stakes game of cat and mouse. Complete with cars and guns, a Scottish accent, existentialist ambiguity and a green dumpster.

The Little Things - After a failed suicide attempt, Claire (Alisen Down - "Da Vinci's Inquest") has nothing better to do than go to work. During a cigarette break, she meets Simon (Ioan Gruffud - "King Arthur"; "Horatio Hornblower"), a man with a few issues of his own.

Milo 55160 - Heaven's loneliest bureaucrat Milo, played by Patrick McKenna ("Traders"; "The Red Green Show"), meets Will, a boy who is struggling to stay alive on earth. When Will disappears, Milo embarks on a journey through the afterlife that changes him forever.

Spelling Bee - Charlie Sheen is a guest judge at the Spelling Bee to end them all, in this riotous send-up of the high stakes and high pressure world of words. Can you spell i-n-a-p-p-r-o-p-r-i-a-t-e?

Pigeon - WWII is raging and a train offers one man his final chance to escape the certain horrors that await him. Based on a true story, Michael Lerner ("Barton Fink") and Canadian treasure Wendy Crewson ("Sex Traffic", "What Lies Beneath") star in this emotionally affecting film.

Notting Hill Anxiety Festival - Charlotte (Julie Delpy - "Before Sunset"; "Waking Life"), a beautiful young woman who appears to have everything, is contemplating leaving it all behind in this fanciful fairytale.

News for the Church - Andrew McCarthy directs this powerful tale of hypocrisy and misfortune, as a boy and a young woman (Nora-Jane Noone - "The Magdalene Sisters") living in a small village both struggle to maintain their dignity, only to meet with shocking results. Based on a short story by acclaimed Irish writer Frank O'Conner.

Why Blog?

Here is one reason why -

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."

Anais Nin - http://www.anaisnin.com/booktastings/index.html


Others?

Brave and Free

This guy is great - bringing humour to the world

http://dailydancer.com/

Click the photo a few pages down for the video clips

Toronto short film festival

The best short films are like poems, the are short, concentrated with a single powerful well expressed memorable theme.

The gala performance included:

1. Sons of war - humour helps in all situations to pass the time and make a situation tolerable
2. Rain is falling - beautifully shot, conveying the loneliness, poverty and love
3. Home game - Great comical observation of an everyday task, most of us are familiar with - what a great imagination these guys have
4. Birthday boy - innocent, sad, renewal, cycle,
5. Fluent dysphasia - what does happen when you are speaking a different language?
6. Milk- mother and grand daughter making everyday fun and mysterious, what could get better than that
7. Ryan - wow this animation is crazy - amazing visuals and nice story

(Blackberry)

Looking for something to fill your soul?

This might do it:
http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/rf.html

Try looking at this and not smiling

What a great idea.

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives/photos_concerts_events/050606_1184.shtml

This idea shows a great sense of humour and humanity. I Love it.

Jamie Lee comfort

Jamie Kennedy Vs Susur's Lee's

After several trips to Lees and going on for 20 trips to Jamie's I feel ready to compare. (Mostly recently was Lees on Thursday)

Overall I am a huge convert to the genre. Social sharing of food is at the very heart of who and why we are. Sharing the small concentrated favour parcels both these places serve is a culinary delight, a personal connection and no blotted feeling later!

Pros for Lees

Great bar area - the only place to site if there is 2 of you is at the back row of the bar.
The food in excellent, tasty and generally light and from what I can tell consistent.

Pros about Jamies

The bar
The wine (extraordinary wines)
The people (always friendly/chatty/professional service)
The menu turnover. When you go as often as me you need new things to try.

Overall I am hoping both these places are a sign the Toronto is slowly becoming cosmopolitan as well as the multicultural we always here about.

Now summer is here both places really need a patio.

(Wireless Cottage report on the city)

(Blackberry)

The end of civilization

Phew.

I always knew that the veneer we have become used to calling
civilization was thin.

This play (Currently at the factory threatre - but not for long) does just a great job of exploring who we are and what we can and
will do in a given situation. How we can live with ourselves and the rules
by which we live.

On the way the acting is really first rate.

The overall experience is humorous, thoughtful, provocative.

4 stars out of 5

(Blackberry)

A New Day - A New Song

Wild Horses - by U2

You're dangerous, 'cause you're honest
You're dangerous - you don't know what you want
Well you left my heart empty as a vacant lot
For any spirit to haunt
Hey hey, sha-la-la, hey hey

You're an accident waiting to happen
You're a piece of glass left there on the beach
Well you tell me things I know you're not supposed to
Then you leave me just out of reach

Hey hey, sha-la-la
Hey hey, sha-la-la
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna fall at the foot of thee?

Well you stole it, 'cause I needed the cash
And you killed it, 'cause I wanted revenge
Well you lied to me, 'cause I asked you to
Baby, can we still be friends?

Hey, hey, sha-la-la
Hey, hey, sha-la-la
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna fall at the foot of thee?

Ah, the deeper I spin
Ah, the hunter will sin for your ivory skin
Took a drive in the dirty rain
To a place where the wind calls your name
Under the trees, the river laughing at you and me
Hallelujah, heaven's white rose
The doors you open I just can't close

Don't turn around - don't turn around again
Don't turn around - your gypsy heart

Don't turn around - don't turn around again
Don't turn around and don't look back
Come on now, love - don't you look back

Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna taste your salt water kisses?
Who's gonna take the place of me?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?

WOW

Finally home.

What a long and great day today. I think some things clicked for me.

Time to grow, make changes perhaps, and move on

Visualization

This is really Cool -

http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

I wish I to come up with cool way to look at data - like this

Wireless Cottage Weekend Update

2 amazing hot days, highlights include:

First swim of the season - wow the water is warm for early June.

Fell asleep floating off the dock.

First canoe of the season, just a short trip across the lake, and a little
late in the day to be really relaxing, with all the fishing boats.

The fish seem to out in greater numbers than last year, several sizeable
bass came by.

Dinner at Shangri-la marine - by boat of course - great ribs.

Osprey fish catch right in front of us. Neat to see the bird slowly carry
off the fish, carried length ways to improve the aerodynamics.

Harriet heron eat well also.

More swimming and playing around on the kayak on Sunday. (Almost fell into off the rocks - having drunk to much - make note - less drink before swimming)

Red skin - wow it is hot.

Managed to almost sink the boat by leaving the plug out. Why boats have plugs I am not sure, but leaving them out is bad.

Made good progress on angels and demons.

Drunk homemade raspberry/blackberry vodka with lillet and lime juice. Great way to end a long hot lazy day.

Smoked some chicken - dinner in the week ahead

And so .............A great weekend.

(Blackberry)

Why

A while a go, after years over going to art museums, discovered that I began to understand the feels and impressions and emotions one gets from a painting. Picasso's "Guernica" particularly hit home when we saw it in Madrid. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm. The picture here in no way describes the emotional impact.

With this is mind have been looking for something with impact, that I could look at everyday. (looking at Guernica everyday would possible lead to suicide)

I acquired a painting - after much review and searching. Nothing spoke to me. This one did -
http://www.gibsonejessop.com/gallery/artists/painting/77/

Flowers on grave stones from a trip to Mexico. Again the picture does not really do it justice. After 6 months this is still something I can enjoy every day.

Let me know the first thing that comes to mind when you see it.

Photo blogging - taking a moment everyday

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives/photos_snapshots/050531_1176.shtml

The Weekend end

Life goals met:

• Exercise - Gym trip today
• Booked Mind expanding activities - Montreal Stand up Festival in July, Short film fest tickets purchased, Factory theatre tickets purchased for next 2 weeks
• Continuing Education - Read up on Boron Chemistry
• Read MBA notes on HR and Leadership
• Connected the other humans - Dinner and Drinks on Friday and Saturday
• Making a difference - failed in my attempt to get Helen's sister to make a surprise trip to Canada for Helen, but tried at least, Made infused vodka's that will give away (not sure if this is making a difference but hopefully it will bring some pleasure)
• Garden cleaned and planting continued - Beginning to like summer at last - this brings great joy and relaxation
• Teeth are whiter, Skin is browner (a little in both cases)
• Afternoon naps taken
• Planned on education course at UofT - will look for people to share this with

Life Goals that took the weekend off:

• Eating Health - to much duck Liver and Alcohol and refried beans
• To much TV - why oh why do we have this box
• Did not get the Jazz festival

The week ahead:

• Focus on Regulatory work
• Team event organization's on Monday
• Connecting with Friends

Human Resources

Rational Economic Man presumes that people work to attain extrinsic rewards ($$$) which leads to satisfaction. ("Happy workers are well-paid workers.") These happy workers may or may not be productive depending on the connection of pay to performance.
The Social Man model presumes that acceptance leads to satisfaction which leads to good performance. ("The happy worker is a productive worker.") Monetary rewards have only an indirect relationship to satisfaction and performance.
Self-Actualizing Man presumes that high performance leads to both satisfaction and rewards. ("The productive worker is a happy worker." He is well-rewarded though the rewards are more a side-effect of performance).

The Complex Man Model is essentially a micro model of human behaviour. Though management may use somewhat of a complex man approach by implementing different philosophies for different groups (e.g., self actualizing for R&D; social for the clerical staff; and rational economic for manufacturing), it is still operating from general models of human nature. Complexity, plus legal and equity problems, do not permit managers to readily approach HRM policies and practices from a complex man perspective and account for the fact that individuals differ in their wants, needs, and concerns

infused-vodka.com

http://infused-vodka.com - after Shelley's suggestions - I am going to try this tomorrow.

Any recipe suggestions?

50 + 50

Must Equal 150

(Blackberry)

Lunar society

Havn't read anything around the Dan Brown books - just started reading Angels and Demons (Great so Far).

The other day came across the Lunar Society - the germ of the idea for Dan perhaps -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Society

Monday morning after a long weekend

My brain hurts.

Not sure why blog yet - will be figuring this out perhaps.