I'm Not Talking about the CRTC

But there are folks who ARE.
There are some very interesting discussions happening right now that can change the face of Canadian Telecommunications - everything from voice to long distance to the pre-paid cards you get for international phone calls. Even those underlying services that could be part of how you get internet access.

Everything is up for debate right now, as the CRTC decides what services should be essential, and mandatory to sell, and what services could become de-regulated, and *optional* sale services.

Still, I'm not talking about it.

Mark is. Alot.
The Canadian Press is.
The CRTC is.
MTS Allstream is.
The Public Interest Advisory Centre is.
Deidre at the Ottawa Citizen is.

I'm not.
Nope.

They Don't Make Dentists Like They Used To

Growing up in a small, rural community in Southwestern Ontario, the only dentist within 50 miles was my dentist. He knew the community by their teeth.  Who had dental plans and who was a farmer. Who needed the gas and who was going to need braces in 5 years.

23 years ago, my sister and I were his first “brace cases”.
Because we came from a farming family with no dental benefits, we received the benefit of being his guinea pigs, and a discount on what traditional braces would have cost in the big city.

The excitement of getting braces when one is young can never be measured. For 2 years, I was clad in silver, and then silver and elastics, until finally I was down to a removable top retainer, and a fixed, semi-permanent bottom retainer. I managed to grow out of the top retainer, but the bottom one remained with the expectation that it would be needed to keep everything in place when the wisdom teeth made their appearance and subsequent [ouch] departure.

I lived with the bottom retainer, silver bands circling two bottom teeth, with a wire bar adjoining them for 22 years all told. It was old school. All the dentists that came after my first one were intimidated by that retainer. Remove it? No Way. Go back to the original dentist who installed it.  “We will work around it.”

That retainer became a part of me, showing off in big smiles, making children laugh, keeping my tongue occupied in times of quiet.

Until this week. And the glue holding one band to one tooth finally released. With a little persistence, I was able to take off the glueless band, and the wire, leaving one lost silver band stranded alone.  Now, my new dentist is going to have to figure out how to disassemble what’s left of that retainer. I will be silver-less. Perhaps I can get a charm installed next, but I don’t expect it to be permanent, or to get a discount on it. They certainly don’t make dentists like they used to.

Twitter?

I've never fallen onto the Twitter bandwagon.
Does anyone really use it? Is there any inherent value yet?
Of course, there are a zillion people twittering.
But is there value in the noise, or is it twitter for twitter's sake?
I have enough of a challenge keeping up with people's status in facebook, and atleast that's on the verge of being a static application. The idea of 1,000,000 twitters bugging me is akin to being pestered in IM.

Am I a twit for not using twitter?
:-P


Technorati Tags: twitter

Searching Trends

In the past week, the top 3 searches to jules.ca have been:

• Anything webkinz related (from wanting free codes to knowing if the site was down)
• Anything Tim Horton’s related (from wanting to know about payment methods, to the new Tom Horton’s Master [loser] Card
• Anything Shopper’s DrugMart Related (from finding an email address to knowing if they sell Webkinz)

Curious - Another big result was wanting to know what US vendors are now shipping to Canada.  Apparently the currency peaking really has more Canadians interested in on-line shopping…. and it’s about time!  Now really, who wants to stand in line, along with all the other great unwashed masses to buy things that you could easily “click click click” in the comfort of your home.  No sweaty forehead, no kids crying, no silly people wearing on your nerves. No long wait times in lines.  At some point, I would think that the traditional stores will/should start feeling the pressure from on-line vendors, and smarten up, or at least add another cash register.  There’s nothing worse than a big box store that has 10 registers, and only 4 of them are open, yet each of the open registers has a line 5 deep. Canadian Tire is one of the worst at this, [not counting Walmart - who is the ABSOLUTE worst]. I’ve given up trying Canadian Tire in-real-life, and have resorted to their online version.

If I’m in ANY store now (not counting fast food, of course), and there is a line of more than 4 people, and there are multiple registers, I’m outta there faster than you can say Debit or Credit. I’m always good to be polite and tell people WHY I’m leaving, and I set everything down carefully, [usually close to the register] but I leave.

US Headlines Vs Canadian Headlines

When the chickadees are over, we sometimes watch Fox News (or any US news channel) and talk about the foolishness of the US News Media, and how it’s more like a soap opera and not real life. We talk about only seeing the bad news, and never seeing the good news.
The chickadees love the gore, surprisingly enough. It’s high drama, suspense and over produced, until we tell them that most of it is exaggerated.  They are old enough now to appreciate the difference between real news and US TV news.

I’ve got 2 different sections in my Google Reader for News.  One for the US news (for when I’m in need for a drama boost) and one for Canadian News.

Take a peek at the difference in the headlines:
US: 25 Shiite militants killed
Spain arrests Basque leaders
US: 25 insurgents dead in Iraq
Police blast into law firm, kill man who shot 5
Police Kill Law Firm Shooter
Track Olympian Reportedly Admits to Steroid Use
Report: Marion Jones Used Steroids Before 2000 Olympics

And
Pirates Remains At Top of International Box Office
Getting a grip on effective cancer treatment
What’s Open And Closed On The Holiday?
Rick Hillier: Rock star …
Abella inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Jobless rate dips below six per cent to 33-year low
Record companies win music sharing trial
New rules to make late-night shifts at BC gas stations safer

I agree - if you are a drama starved kid - the top section looks like a fun adventure. But the bottom set is actually a better balance of what is going on in real life, with good and not so good balanced together.

Me, I’m waiting for “What You Don’t Know About Your Toothbrush Can Kill You…. The Full Story at 11…”

The 30 Minute Meeting Movement

Over the past 3 weeks, I've begun to become accustomed to double and triple bookings in my calendar. Sure, I just juggled or declined a few, but most are reasonable meetings. Yesterday was a milestone - quadrouple over booking.

Did you hear the sound of my head hitting the floor?

Now I acept every meeting (within valuable reason), and send back the acceptance of either: "I am available for the first 30 minutes" or "I am available for the last 30 minutes" of your meeting.  Please send me an agenda so that I can be prepared and make the most of the time available.

My boss got 30 minutes on Monday.
He will get another 30 minutes on Wednesday.

It feels good. In the past week, there was only 1 meeting that I attended for longer than 30 minutes, and it was on-line, collaboratively building a customer presentation with 2 other people.  It was the best use of 90 minutes ever.

I should be able to maintain the 30 minute meeting movement. I'm not really looking forward to having to shorten it to the 20 minute meeting movement.

What do YOU do when you are double booked? Do you want to embrace the 30 Minute Meeting Movement?

Day 10 and Counting.

I’ve been bumbling around the past week, nursing a bruised rib. Being an Aunt is a hard job, babies are dangerous.

But I was expecting this weekend, now that the bruise has receded, for the rib in question to stop causing such excruciating pain. Alas, it seems that the bruise was protecting me from the rib’s wrath. Now, 10 days post injury, the rib actually is in *worse* condition than ever.

A quick Google search landed me on a mountain biking injury page. [No, I wasn’t taking the baby mountain biking.]

Apparently ribs take forever +1 day to heal. And even then, may still lash out at you when you least expect it. That’s just not right, on so very many levels. The average healing time is 3-4 weeks. I might as well have pulled a groin.

Sneezing, hiccups - especially those nasty ones caused by a cold can of Coke, laughter, and rolling over while sleeping are all inflaming my rib. These are also all activities i could do a few dozen times a day.

At this rate, I may not have a decent night sleep for another 20 days. And me, I’m just the Aunt ;-)

When We Believed We Could Fly

At one point in time, we all went through the believe of invincibility, courageously performing ridiculous antics for the benefit of the crowd and our own immature egos. We believed that nothing bad could ever happen, and taking risks was part of our everyday existence.  In fact, a weekend wasn’t complete without an outrageous account to retell on Monday.

Now, of course, we are grown, and timid, and more aware of the repercussions and implications of our actions. We think about consequences, we review potential outcomes before attempting a risk. I don’t remember changing, it must have happened when I was asleep. Apparently I’ve grown-up, somewhat.

The recent stories this week of kids [and I really mean boys] spraying each other with Axe body spray, and then lighting themselves on fire initially made my head hurt.  The stupidity, the juvenile antics of teenage boys trying to impress their friends and retain their position on the high school popularity ladder. And then I remembered….. When you are fourteen, you can’t possibly be afraid of things you haven’t thought through.  And when you are fourteen, most of the things you do aren’t well thought out.

I remember.
I remember stopping a girl who would one day grow up to be a beautiful finalist in the Miss Teen Canada pageant. Stopping her from filling her mouth full of hair spray so that she could then blow it out, lighting it on fire as she exhaled, thus becoming a fire-breathing dragon.


That was over 20 years ago.
When we too believed we could fly.

The current trend isn’t anything new or troubling, or something to have school-board administrators any more up in arms about than usual. The only difference - now the whole world knows when you make an error in judgement. Instead of just your friends knowing of your accomplishments and failures, the whole world knows. And comments. The joys of growing up with the Internet.

A Plethora of Saturday Content

Oh joy Saturday. With a plethora of possible content at my fingertips, it's impossible to make a decision on which direction to go in.

Their Caledonia house is no longer a home
A "backwards day" scenario whereby the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario government have given up trying to protect an Ontario couple who are experiencing the misfortune of having their home behind a Native Canadian barricade in Caledonia.  Left to their own defenses, the couple has finally taken a page out of the Native Canadian playbook, gotten a good lawyer and is suing the government and police.

Canadians Sue over Cell Phone Access Fee.
This kerfuffle seems to rear it's ugly head every few years...A group of well meaning Canadians band together to try and stick it to the Canadian wireless carriers, trying to figure out if the network access fee charge is really for network improvements, or is simply a cash grab. This time though, an industrious lawyer has hyper-jacked the charge into a Class Action Lawsuit that carriers are going to have a tougher time burying. More and more cell phone toting Canadians jump on the bandwagon, hoping to grab their share of the bounty.  Could this be another example of taking a page from the Native Canadian playbook?

Glencoe Fair Rocks Rural Village
If you find yourself in Middlesex County this weekend, the 131st Annual Glencoe Fair opens,  expecting to draw crowds to the small, Southwestern Ontario village numbering in the thousands.  With a Demolition Derby, Midway and the ever popular Baby show, the weekend is expected to offer something to please everyone.  Not to be missed: The Country and Western Video Dance. Be sure to try the Souvlaki, and don't forget to buy a ticket for a chance to win your very own steer from the Fair Board. Alas, no one is getting sued yet in Glencoe - but the weekend isn't over yet.

Bringing Customers Closer to the Source

The phenomenon of blogging, and to use the over-used term of web 2.0, has had the magical ability of bringing customer and service provider more intimately linked together than ever before.  I'm consistently amazed and impressed when I write about a service, a product or an organization, and the said entity contacts me directly with feedback.  Amazing feedback.

10 years ago consumer feedback occurred in a vacuum. Now, with participatory consumerism, you can be as close as one click to the consumer, and vice versa.

Case in point, my recent article on well.ca resulted in a personal email from their product team, and a huge smile on my face.  The fact that they are paying attention to the internet,and actually participating in the conversation is just one indication of how we are advancing in a consumer based society.

Thank you for the smile, well.ca folks!! You are certainly not the standard model of a drugstore! :-) I hope more service providers take notice, and begin the conversation as well!

It's a Fog Day!

If you grew up in the country, today is the kind of day you dreamed of as a kid. Foggy. Foggy meant that the school busses were going to be delayed.  We would hover around the phone until the call came - School busses are going to be delayed 2 hours. Whoot!  And then, if the fog hadn't lifted by 10 or 10:30 - another call - the school busses are cancelled! It was awesome. No school, and nice enough outside by noon to have the whole day to yourself.

If you were a town kid, you still had to walk to school - and it would likely be pretty lame - considering more than 70% of the students were on the busses.

I miss fog days. No bus driver in their right mind wanted to drive on a fog day. The school board created rules around fog to keep kids from being smucked on the back roads by trucks, cars, tractors, trains and errant bovines.  If you're standing at the end of your laneway, and it's foggy, you are likely ripe for a smucking.  If you're already on the bus, there are likely 4 train tracks you've got to cross between your house and the school. In the back country, they don't have those new fangled wig wags to tell people that a train is imminent. In fact, in the back country, they add another element of challenge, and make sure that there are trees that come right up to the road, so you can't even get a good look down the tracks to see if the 7:40 from Windsor is on time or not.  Your only chance is to get up enough speed a few miles from the crossing, and barrel over the tracks, hoping that all is clear.

Of course, even in the country, busses stop at railway crossings.

An Open Letter to Rob Zombie

Dude: I’m sad.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to learn of you doing a new movie, and a remake off Halloween, no less.  What a wicked vehicle to show off your non-traditional directing [read: creepy as hell] and innovative scariness.  I’ve been wondering what happened to you since House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. 

Tonight was the first time I went to a move because I loved the director.

Alas, Rob, you’ve let Hollywood get into your head.
I was optimistic in the first scenes, and jittery with Sheri Moon-iness…. “Special” appearances of  some of the rest of your crew kept me thinking the movie was going to turn around…

All I feel is ripped off. You cheated me out of the action scenes with camera jitter and panning away from the action.  Anyone can make a crowd scream with a Bogey Man popping out from behind a door.  That’s not the Rob Zombie I know.

Nothing says real terror more than having to run through a field in a bunny costume. Now that was some good horror directing. I’m not even kidding. I still get uncomfortable thinking about those damn bunny outfits.

I sat in an audience of 14 year olds, just waiting for them to beg to get out of the theatre, terrified by what you were going to show them about the real world of horror.  Instead, I felt like I was stuck in a Hilary Duff concert.  Teenagers screaming, and a production that was simply badly produced with mass media appeal.

I wonder though, in the IMDB, Halloween is rated R, but in my Canadian theatre, it was just 14A…. perhaps all the good stuff is still to come?  Is there an unrated version that you are going to save for the folks who appreciate you? Are Canadians just tougher than Americans (ok, I jest, sort of)

Dare I even think about trying Grindhouse?

Just the Kick that Shoppers Drug Mart Needs

Well.ca launched this week, pushing the envelope on Canadian Heathcare Retail. Not only a new resource for over the counter medicines, heath products and illness prevention, well.ca also has a full suite of beauty and skincare products!
Anything that you might have had to go into Shoppers Drugmart for, you can now clickity click and order.

$3 for shipping anywhere in Canada.
Holy.

If Well.ca also can integtrate a customized mailing list, lettting me know when the products I use regularly are on sale, I'll let it keep track of my favourite products, and then it'll also have one of the most innovative marketing directories in the country.

An additional tidbit: Well.ca is from Guelph!  How fantastic is that?

Go Well!!
Take that, Shoppers Drug Mart.

September 11, 2007 - Where Do We Go From Here?

It was sunnier out 6 years ago.
And warmer.
I was being all salesy and on my way to see a  customer about a big honking internet pipe.
We ended up just watching the news in her office lobby.
And then I went home.
I think everyone went home that day.
I couldn't go back to the office as there were UN delegates being chaperoned there.

I sat in my backyard, and listened to the silence of a thousand grounded airplanes.

It's been 6 years.
Do we know any more than we did 6 years ago?
Can the governments make any more dizzying announcements about accountability, responsibility and motive?
Are we any closer to any resolution, or do we simply carry on, hoping that it was just a co-incidence and an excuse to invade a country who had what the US wanted. Was it a money making scheme between the Bush Family and the Saudis?
Ah - I'm beginning to sound like Michael Moore.
Still - so many questions, and so little effort put into finding the answers.

All You Need to do to Get a Crowd to Scream is Yell the Name of Their City

…. and so goes the concert mantra of Hilary Duff. When in doubt of what to say next, holler *Torontooooo*.

In a venue packed to the rafters with pre-pubescent girls in pigtails, glitter and, for some reason, trackpants, it was an ideal event to take 2 someones who were 7 and 9.  We fit right in. Not like the fellow in front of us in the ticket queue, mysteriously aged and dressed in black, until his girlfriend showed up, and we breathed a sigh of relief.  It’s hard to think about twenty something males going to a Hilary Duff concert on their own.

A lengthy delay gave the crowd ample time to buy the requisite glow sticks, and when the lights finally wend down in the Ole’ ACC, the audience was replete with neon fireflies.  That visual effect by itself made the drive downtown worth it.

We were surprised to know so many songs, despite the fact that there are 2 tweeny-ish girls in our house most of the time.  It was after the 3rd song that we realized that YTV plays most of Hilary’s music videos between TV shows.

I’ve got tinny ears at the best of times, and spent a few songs disappointed that I couldn’t hear what Hilary was singing, the lyrics lost in waves of instrumental melodies.  When I whispered my disappointment to the Wiz, he said he couldn’t hear her either, and we chalked it up to an intentionally blurred sound effect.  Apparently The Duffster needs some serious post-production work.  But the kids didn’t mind.  Thousands of screaming girls, singing and swaying and waving those glowsticks like crazy.

But I’ve got to wonder, if you are the type of performer that requires such post-production work, why would you go on tour? Simply hoping that your audience doesn’t notice that your voice in real life is blurry, or that they are immature enough to realize that concerts don’t normally sound the way that yours does…..

Bah - the kids loved it.

It was essentially a kid’s concert, considering the audience and atmosphere.
But how does Hilary move up the foodchain? What happens when she gets to be in her late 20s and is tired of being a children’s entertainer? How does she get from here to there?  She’s got to walk a very fine line right now, squeaky image, song lyrics that are fun, uplifting, motivational and directed to elementary school girls. It’s not only the kids that she’s got to impress, it’s their parents as well.   At some point, she’s going to need to morph into a Christina Aguilera to continue her entertainment career. Gulp. Look out tweenies.

Picking the Right Wireless Horse to Win the Race...

The Globe has a good article this morning on the differences between the Canadian Wireless Carrier's networks. With wireless number portabiity launched and available, it's good to know the differences.

The article focuses mainly on international roaming, which is easier done with a GSM phone. One point that's missed in the whole comparison is the fact that the CDMA networks that Bell and TELUS has are now faster for data transfer than the Rogers GSM network. So - are you a traveller, or a data streamer?

reportonbusiness.com: Telus to keep wireless system

Your Ever Shrinking Digital Privacy

This morning, Facebook announces that your profile will be findable in search engines in a month, giving you time to batten down the hatches before the hordes descend on you.  So long to funny and inappropriate Facebook profile photos, now that your boss and your future bosses can search to see if you've got an inappropriate dark streak hiding in your closet.  Of course, you can choose to completely lock down your profile, but even the shyest of us wants to be found by someone. 

I cannot say it enough: "Know where you are, and act accordingly.  The line between digital and analog has almost disappeared. There is no more anonymity on the internet".

This is just another cog in the machinery destined to make you more visible on the internet. Rapleaf, a people finder, is able to aggregate a goodly chunk of social networking content to put together a digital reputation of you.

Meanwhile, just yesterday, wikiHow had an article on "How to UnGoogle Yourself". ZDNet's Stephanie Olsen has a compelling article on the dangerous side effects of these personal information aggregators.

The race is on, with folks trying to wipe their dirty digital feet before the footprints become tracked all over the public internet. 

All this being said - I tried Rapleaf, and it didn't find any information on me, but I haven't given up. These tools could also be used to help clean up the annoying bits of digital dandruff you leave on the internet.  I un-googled myself yesterday, and managed to kill off 3 instances of myself that I had forgotten about.  Perhaps someday, there will be just one me again, the analog one.

High Traffic from a Hot Lap

Funny - In the past month, traffic has doubled because of this nondescript article, outlining which Dell Laptops have a battery recall.  All visitors are coming from google.com, but not necessarily because of a search query. Alas, because I am north of the 49th, I can’t see google.com. :-(

If there’s a friendly American, can you let me know if I show up in the first page of a search on Dell Laptops overheating?
:-)

jules dot ca - jules dot ca - No Wonder My Lap Feels Like It’s on Fire

In 1907.....

…. pulled from an email, not reprinted with anyone’s permission, but definately worth a read. I’ve been contemplating changes and differences in generations over the past few weeks, specifically regarding what life was like when I was a kid, and what being a grownup is like for me, compared to my parents. This listing of what life was like in 1907 is fairly apropos, all things considered.

One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:

· The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years old.

· Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

· Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

· A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

· There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

· The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

· Alabama , Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee, were each more heavily populated than California.

· With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

· The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

· The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

· The average U.S. Worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

· A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

· A dentist made $2,500 per year,

· A veterinarian $1,500 per year,

· A mechanical engineer made $5,000 per year.

· More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

· Ninety percent of all U. S. Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as substandard.

· Sugar cost four cents a pound.

· Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

· Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

· Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

· Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

· Five leading causes of death in the U.S. Were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

· The American flag had 45 stars: Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.

· The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30.

· Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet.

· There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

· Two out of every 10 U.S. Adults couldn’t read or write.

· Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

· Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”

T Minus 11 Months and Counting....

When we first moved into our new house, setting up cable and phones and internet was one of the first things on our list of important things to do. As Rogers isn’t up in our neck of the woods any more (north of Stoufville Sideroad), we had to make some hard choices.

My Primus Talk Broadband phone came with me. I couldn’t give up a 416 land line, not after spending so much time lamenting my 905 area code for so long. I’m probably the only kid in my neighbourhood with a 416 in a sea of 905s. The video store is confused by me.

The Wiz got a Bell phone for work. (Poor guy).
The last things to sign up for were TV and Internet service. The wiz talked me into Bell. It was the first time I’d ever had a taste of satellite TV that wasn’t grey market. You know the funny face you make when you eat something that just isn’t…. good. I made that face.

No more Movies on Demand, no more clear reception regardless of the weather. We bundled TV with Internet. The internet lasted 30 days before we cancelled it, complaining so voraciously to get out of the 1 year contract we were nailed to. ADSL might work in some places, but north of the sideroad, it’s muddy at best. Perhaps we are more than 3 kms from the Bell central office, where DSL comes from, perhaps living on the Oak Ridges Moraine has introduced interesting interference into the copper lines. Regardless of the reason, it was an experiment that went hopelessly awry.

In comes Aurora Cable to light our internet fires. Fast, lovely fast internet service. They wanted to know if we wanted to bundle the internet with their new HD Cable TV. Alas, in our naivety, we signed a 24 month contract with Bell. Cancelling that contract prematurely is worse that the hit you take on withdrawing RRSPs before their prime.

Now, we’ve come 12 months through the 2 year contract, and the service continues to be middling at best, interference, pixilated and the painful expense of paying for something you don’t love. Aurora Cable - we will see you next September!