Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. - J R R Tolkien

FYI: I have decided to discontinue our blog. After three years of semi-regular blogging I have decided that even though the expense is minimal, it does not really serve a purpose. The amount of visitors to the site are very small and lately I really don’t have anything to say.

Originally, the blog was started as a way to keep friends and family updated as to what was going on in our lives. Lucille has family in the States and my parents leave to run a campground every summer, so we had thought that this was something we could do to keep everyone in the loop. For the last little while, Lou’s postings are very far and few in-between (which is fine) and mine are fairly uninspiring. I don’t have a lot to talk about. With the advent of Facebook (where everyone goes) and instant messaging applications (which everyone uses), our website has very little to no traffic. I am, essentially, the web site’s most frequent visitor.

Having the blog has been quite an educational experience for me. I learned how to start and maintain a site, blog ettiquette, and taught myself some basis HTML. Overall, it was a great opportunity to learn about something that I previously knew nothing about. In the future, I may decide to have one again, but for now there are bigger and better things for me to turn my attention too.

Having said that, it will be shutting down shortly. Thanks to to all who came to visit.

I was on vacation for all of last week. Time moved so slow it felt like every day was Sunday. Even though I was on vacation I couldn’t sleep in. I really wanted too, but the cat still wanted to go outside every morning at 5 AM. It also felt like monsoon season. It rained everyday.  In fact it rained so much I was able to catalogue the different types of rain. My favorite rain-type is the drizzle. Just enough water falling out of the sky to get you all damp, just enough to keep you inside while the clouds come and go. Should we try to plan an outing or should we stay home? Is this a good time to mow the lawn? With the drizzle, you’ll never know.

Anyways, the vacation is now over and I’m back at work, but I’ll tell you some of the wonderful things I got to do:

• I replaced the toilet in our bathroom. Our toilet had been leaking around the base for quite awhile and I knew the reason was because the wax donut had probably disintegrated into nothingness. After all, the toilet itself has been in its place for over 30 plus years and I knew when I started that it would not be easily removed. And I was right.  In the morning, before I started the extraction of the porcelain throne, I ran to Kents and bought a donut to replace the old one. In the afternoon, I ran to Kents and purchased a new toilet. Tonight, after I got home from work, I removed the toilet AGAIN because it was STILL leaking around the base and my brother Gord came over to help me install yet another donut. This time I think we’re good. Only a brother will come other and help you with a shitty (no pun intended) job like this. Thanks bro.
• My van had this grinding sound on the front passenger side everytime I applied the brakes. Closer inspection revealed that the calibur had seized and ground the brake pad into, well, bare metal.  This also meant my rotor was shot. Have purchased the parts, still trying to get time to install them.
• Also found out that my van inspection ran out last month.  Turns out that I was thinking about the sticker on the license plates, which are good until September.

There were some good things about my days off, even though we didn’t get to do some of the things we wanted to because of the rain.  I was able to:

• Spent much needed quality time with Lou and the kids.
• Made the flower bed by our backdoor.  Brandon and I  borrowed my brother’s ATV and dragged over some rail road ties to frame it up. All we need now is the soil/mulch and some shrubbery. Yes, I said shrubbery, Alex. (Shades of Monty Python!)
• Took some much needed quality time for Lou and I without the kids.
• Invited some people to come over to hang out on our back deck and they actually showed up. Had a good time and might try it again. Lou got drunk and went on the trampoline. Priceless.

There’s more I could probably write but my eyes are heavy.  First day back to work and I remember why I’m looking for another job, lol. Later - Ken

Advertising: The tool of the devil. - Urban Dictionary

After watching the Burger King shorts on TV, I was finally intrigued enough to go to whopperfreakout.com and was mildly surprised to be treated to a very humorous mockumentry a la Michael Moore. Note that the manager of the store is portrayed by comedian  Regan Burns. Also kudos to the staff, who managed to play it straight through the whole thing as they told each and every customer that the Whopper had been discontinued. This a truly a great bit of advertising. 

Had it been the BK Stacker, I would jumped right over the counter and created some mayhem…

Randolph Frederick Pausch, an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University, a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. In August 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. On July 25, 2008 Pausch died at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia surrounded by his wife Jai and their three children. Click here for more.

The lecture itself is well over an hour long, however if you can spare the time to watch it, or maybe play in the background while you work away at other projects, it’s certainly worthwhile to listen too…

Riverview couple sets example of volunteerism - Bob and Helen (Caissie) Vaughan of Riverview maintain an exhausting pace — and most of it in the name of volunteerism. Helen is from Saint-Philippe just outside Moncton and Bob from Dartmouth, N.S. He moved to New Brunswick with the military and met Helen in Fredericton where she was attending Teacher’s College. The couple married a year later…

I have great memories of my Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen.  I always knew they did some volunteering and helped people out but didn’t realize how much. It’s wonderful to see them recognized by their peers. What the news article didn’t mention is that my Uncle Bob should’ve had a career as a stand up comedian. I can’t count the amount of times I almost pee’d my pants as a kid. They is good people, and they is my people!!!

Welcome to the long over-due post.  Things have seemed a little hurried lately, although we’re not doing anything other than the usual grind. Between working and sleeping ,it’s amazingly hard to get anything else done. I can console myself by knowing that I’ll be on another vacation in two weeks and can take some time for myself to accomplish some of my home projects but also mellow out with Lou and the kids. I suggested to Lucille that we take a couple of days to ourselves and go somewhere, anywhere.  In the three years we’ve been together, we haven’t treated ourselves to a trip anywhere. Me thinks it would be well deserved. Besides I’m getting envious of all the trips and vacations I hear our friends taking.  No reason why we can’t disappear for a couple days either.

My son Mackenzie came back on Saturday, after spending a week with my parent’s at the campground. I had asked if he could stay with them to have a change of scenery. While there, he was able to help out my Dad with mowing and painting and other stuff. He also got to spend plenty of time in the river, paddling up and down the shoreline in the canoe. Reminds me of my younger days.

On Saturday we also took the kids to EB Games so they could spend their money. I stood along the wall with the other parents while the kid’s did their browsing.  I was amazed how many thirty year old kids there were in the store. I bet they still live in their parent’s basement (Oh, wait a minute…). Lou also bought a purse while we were at the mall. I was halfway to the public washrooms when she found it and called out my name.  When I turned she was holding over her head like she’d just won a prize. I find purses to be on of nature’s mystical mysteries. No matter how much stuff she puts in it there’s always room for more…

Tonight Lou and I went for dinner and we ended up at East Side Mario’s. The food was incredible.  I had an order of Cheese Cappelletti with unlimited garlic bread (although they only gave us one) and a Caesar Salad.  Lou had the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, which was massive.  We’d tried to get a hold of her sister Annette (& family) to join us but our phone calls were never returned. As far as we know, they could still be wandering the Bouctouche Dunes.  Afterwards, we went to Chapters to browse the bargain books and I made a total ass of myself when I approached the counter at Starbucks and asked for “black” coffee.  Duh! We sat on the fence about going out for beer and karaoke but in the end headed home. Didn’t feel like being hung over for Monday morning.

Anyways, enough blogging, Lou has given me my five minute warning.

Oh baby, when my contract is over I’ll be long gone, for sure. - Debra Messinger, Wireless Consumer

I read it, but I couldn’t believe it.  I’m an advocate of any businesses right to make money.  But that right to make money also has to be equally respected with the consumer’s right not to be ass-f**ked.  The issue; billing for incoming text messages on your cell phone.  Check it out:

• As of August this year, consumers with Bell and Telus are going to pay to receive incoming text messages.  The cost, 15 cents for every incoming text message.

This is an unbelievable act of double dipping.  It is reasonable to expect to be charged for sending a text message from your cell phone.  Use the service, pay for the fee.  But incoming text has always been free with the understanding that you were not the pitcher, but simply catching the ball.  You have no control over how many text messages you will receive.  But as a consumer you can make the choice as to to how many you will send, and that act of having a choice means you’re aware that there will be a fee.  Bell and Telus are taking away the choice, and are instead opting to dip their hands in both of your pockets.  They stand to benefit a hundred fold, especially if the text remains within their network.  Another fact:

• In the first three months of 2008, Canadians sent a total of 4.1 billion text messages, according the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. In 2007, Canadians sent more than 10 billion messages.

Okay, so now do the math.  Let’s assume that out of 4.1 billion sent text messages, maybe 3/4 of them generates a response (I’m being generous because I think that it is probably much, much higher). That would maybe about 3.075 billion text responses, and at a rate of 15 cents per incoming text that would equal to about 3.5 million dollars.  Sounds outrageous, not quite.  This calculation was based on usage for the first 3 months of 2008.  If the texting trend continues, the windfall amount could be as high as 14 million in additional revenue.

So, what can the consumer do to be heard.  First, speak with your wallet.  Nothing makes big business sit up and take notice like lost revenue.  Second, add your name to the online petitions here and here.  You can also join the Facebook group as well.

Also, you should go here, not because it going to change anything but because someone may nominate you and ya might want to cut them of at the pass…

So my vacation ends, and I survived a week with the kids (and they tolerated me quite nicely). The Sunday Night Podcast (see below) was delayed from being posted when I discovered last night that my trial period for Smart FTP (my content upload program) had expired.  I was heading out the door so I didn’t have time until Monday evening to resolve the issue.

The first Monday back to work was exactly what I thought it would be; Ben Stein monotone scripted greetings and super-panic mode customers.  I mean really, if you can’t a text right now, will the world really end?  How using that other feature your gizmo has? It’s been around about a century. It makes phone calls and you actually speak to the person you want to communicate with instead of typing some bastardized, phonetic language.   Anyways, glad to be back in my hobbit-hole. Going forward…

]]> http://www.kenlou.com/2008/07/07/vacation-ends-monday-sucks-and-i-retreat-to-my-lair/feed/ http://www.kenlou.com/2008/06/27/on-vacation-back-in-a-week/ http://www.kenlou.com/2008/06/27/on-vacation-back-in-a-week/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:31:53 +0000 Ken http://www.kenlou.com/?p=599

So, I’m hanging out with my oldest son Mackenzie this week while he’s on summer vacation and I wanted to impart on him some wisdom.  No wisdom was forthcoming so I’ve decided to give to him a song in which he can use to guide him through the rest of his life.  Also (bonus!!!) introducing him the the best damn cartoon in the whole wide world!!!  Enjoy, or I’ll make your grandmother suck eggs…