Well folks, after several years of blogging, followed by a fair bit of Facebooking, I’ve found that life, love, dogs, work, and school just don’t leave time for the kind of long thoughtful posts that a blog deserves.

Over the last couple of months I’ve found that likely 95% of what I send out to the world travels via Twitter – mostly links, connections, forwarded items of note – and the occasional oh so clever comment.

All of which is my way of saying that for the foreseeable future you find me much more on Twitter, and much less on RSS.

Having spent a lot of time in recent weeks job hunting in this recession which is now over, and which really never entirely existed except for the losers who lack entrepreneurial spirit, I have to say that some things are broken in the way that employers handle this process.

Transparency: In the day, when I was doing the hiring, I always was upfront about compensation, and about the job itself.   If you won’t say exactly what the job entails, what it pays, and what your expectations are you’re likely wasting my time, and your own as you filter through stacks of resumes that don’t fit.  In other words, if you only pay $8 and hour, say so up front.

Transparency, Craiglist:  If you list no company name, no phone number, no real e-mail address, then most people assume you’re a scammer or identity thief - and not without good reason.  That’s why you get messages that say “Tell me who you are and I’ll send you a resume.”  Take that as a sign of intelligence and encourage them.

Courtesy: Yes you should respond to everyone who applies, even if it’s just a bulk e-mail saying “The job has been filled.”  It only takes five minutes, and it just the polite thing to do.

Follow-up e-mails: Yup, I’ll pepper you with follow-ups specifically because you aren’t telling me the job is filled.

Legality, SIN numbers: It’s still the law in Canada that you aren’t allowed to demand my Social Insurance Number until after you’ve hired me.  Yes, I’m talking to you U-Haul.  Even though I’ll go to great pains to avoid annoying possible employers, I will complain if you refuse my application on these grounds.

Legality, contracting: It started in the construction trades, and now it’s everywhere.  No-one is an employee any more, they’re “contractors,” or piece work employees.   No benefits, no paid vacation or stat holidays, no protection under labour laws.  Yup, that’s the mark of great employer.

Be open to new ideas and people: Guess what – it’s possible to be old enough that employers won’t even consider you.  It’s still possible to be of the wrong gender.  It’s still possible that you might think I’m over-qualified.

I’ll tell you what – I can walk into your job and do it today, not after a month of training.  Yes I’m at school part time upgrading my skills, but that doesn’t stop me from being a great employee, or even better a long term one.  If anything it shows that I’m serious, intelligent, and committed.

Instead of looking for the reasons to not hire me, how about looking for the reasons why you should?

I remember the derision when it went up more than 25 years ago, and having worked there I’m feeling a little nostalgic to see it gone.

The Campbell Liberals have moved to the next phase in the process of building a new major hydro-electric dam in northern British Columbia.  There is, needless to say, much discussion.  Little of which seem entirely informed.

Let me see….

Environmentalists don’t like us burning coal, oil, or natural gas.  The choice for everything is electric, whether cars, stoves, or guitars.  Electricity is clean, it’s instantaneous. It’s quiet.  It doesn’t have a tailpipe.

Problem is, all that electricity has to come from somewhere.

No-one wants to burn coal to make electricity, cause it pollutes.  Except Alberta of course.

No-one wants to have a nuclear generating station to make electricity, cause it will make us glow in the dark. Except Ontario of course.

Although everyone wants wind energy, no-one wants windmills to be anywhere near where they live, either because of imagined noise or because, well, it’s near where I live.

And of course everyone wants solar energy, except again not with big solar farms where they live, and not if the mining and manufacturing associated with solar panels is nearby.

All of this explains why hydro dams have always been pretty popular. They’re relatively non-intrusive to the populations who need power most (e.g. urban).  Aside from flooding they’re relatively clean and don’t generate much waste.  Because they tend to be located in remote locations they don’t make noise that keeps people awake at night.

Plus they can be big.  In power generation bigger is better and more efficient.  There’s room for redundancy – a good thing when the lights go out in February.

Still, the same people who don’t want oil, gas, coal, nuclear, or nearby wind or solar power generation also don’t want a hydro dam.

“We don’t need it now!” they shout, ignoring the likelihood that as Peak Oil sets in, people will use more electricity, not less, and when the dam comes on line in ten years it’ll save our bacon.

“Besides,” they cry, “People just have to get used to getting by with less!”

Less of the server farms that generate the Facebook groups they use to build support for their cause?

Less of those quiet, clean electric cars? Less of those clean but annoying fluorescent bulbs? Less of the $550 juicers that they use to create their healthy, locally raised breakfast?  Less of the non-diesel trolleys and trains that they use to get to and from work while their car sits at home?

No, none of those.  The folks who are rallying against Site C are among the group that doesn’t want anything available to anyone else unless they have personally approved of it, and who will never, ever come up with a positive, realistic alternative.

Sometimes the gnomes at Google sum it up all too well!

While entering my local liquor store I noted a small sign telling patrons that the store would no longer be a handy source for cigarillos and “small cigars.”  Apparently something called Bill C-32 is changing the rules of the cigarillo game.

A little research tells me that Bill C-32: An Act to amend the Tobacco Act will regulate little cigars and blunt wraps, as well as various flavourings which are apparently popular with young smokers.

The debate surrounding this bill basically swings between those who see these products as targeting young people, tobacco companies who fear going out of business as a result of these restrictions, and those who fear that regulating the sale of tobacco will somehow infringe on our obligations under international trade treaties.

Seeing this sign immediately carried me back to my earliest days as a smoker.  In late high school drink meant Baby Duck, Lonesome Charlie, and Lemon Gin.  Smoking meant Colts.

Colts* are a loathsome little cigarillo with a plastic tip like a small cigarette holder.  What made them appealing to beginning smokers was their claim to be “wine dipped.”  What that actually meant was they were impregnated with a noxious fruity flavouring that seemed good at at the time, but which would likely turn my stomach today.

Why did I start smoking? Probably for the same reason every other person does.

Once during a serious discussion of anti-smoking initiatives aimed at young people the more mature among us were interrupted by a twenty year old smoker who said, “All of this anti-smoking propaganda will never work.”

We asked why, despite knowing all of the health risks, kids still started smoking.

“That’s easy,” he said with a smile, “cause smoking is cool!”

* Now a product of Scandinavian Tobacco Group Canada

Working this week with a new company doing construction and remodeling work.   Part of that has involved building shelves and closets using plywood.

Cheap, Chinese plywood.  It saves a few bucks per sheet – until you start using it.

First warning: the guy at the lumber store warns to be real careful if you sand it.  The top veneer is very, very thin.

Second warning: whenever you cut it the edges splinter badly.  Not big healthy splinters, but tiny little skinny ones the size of a needle.

Final warning: At the first sign if moisture it starts to delaminate.  By moisture I mean “paint.” By delaminate I mean bubbles.  Bubbles in the veneer.

So you have plywood that can’t be cut, and can’t be painted.

Did I mention that it’s cheap Chinese plywood?

The irony of course is that this plywood is likely made from whole logs shipped to China, turned into plywood, then shipped back to Canada.  The actual wood probably was cut not more than 500 miles from Vancouver.

The fact that you can ship raw logs 8000 kilometres, process it, ship it back another 8000 kilometers, and still sell it for less than BC made plywood tells me one thing.  The mill workers in China are being paid rock bottom zero wages, have little or no safety or job security, and probably are party to some pretty egregious pollution.

We may have mills shutting down every other week in BC, and unemployment that’s still high, but damned of we don’t have a great market for raw logs!

Of course the ideal boost to our economy would be to bring over a boatload of $3 a day Chinese workers to harvest the trees as well!  Then we could get another buck off the price of our plywood!

Five predictions of the “obvious to anyone awake” variety.

1) The Olympics will wind up costing more than anyone is prepared to admit.  My guess is the true bottom line will be about a billion more than we’ve been told. (UPDATE: Wow, that was fast.)  VANOC fans will continue to say “The Skytrain and Sea to Sky upgrades aren’t really Olympic expenses” at the same time that they continue to say “You wouldn’t have the The Skytrain and Sea to Sky upgrades if we didn’t have the Olympics.”

2) Stephen Harper will continue to run this country. Probably into the ground.  This is 50% because people will keep voting for him, and 50% because the Liberals and NDP are too cowardly to actually bring down his government.  Besides, Harper doesn’t even respect the Supreme Court of Canada, so even if they pulled off a non-confidence vote he’d just refuse to leave.

3) The Economy will continue to get worse, not better, at least for anyone who actually works for a living.  Too many countries are on the edge of economic collapse.  Too many people are two paycheques away from defaulting on mortgages that are predicated on really low variable rates.  In BC there will be a homegrown post-Olympic slump that will be amplified by the HST and spending cuts.

4) China will get mean and say “Excuse me, but we hold most of your national debt, and we produce damned near everything that you need to keep your economy going.  It’s payback time.”

5) All of the above will make it less than great time to be visible minority or immigrant in Canada.  Quebec’s treatment of Muslim women is just the beginning. Can Alberta be far behind?  Suddenly we’ll hear a lot less of how generous Canadians are, and a lot more about what makes a “real” Canadian.

Canadian booksellers have their shorts in a knot because Amazon.com wants to build a warehouse and distribution centre here.

Although this is being painted as David and Goliath battle between big bad corporate Amazon and the poor little Mom and Pop independent bookstores, I have to think that the real push to halt Amazon is coming from Chapters\Indigo.

You know, the company that pre-Amazon decimated local bookstores?

If you buy books you’re likely a little confused right now because Amazon.ca has been selling books in Canada for years.  As did Amazon.com before it.

What Amazon wasn’t allowed to do was actually warehouse and distribute books from within Canada.  Everything that they sold us was shipped from the US via Canada Post.

Of course that didn’t prevent them from offering .ca customers better selection than Ch’Indigo, better prices than Ch’Indigo, and faster delivery than Ch’Indigo.  You see, because of their near monopoly in Canada, Ch’Indigo just didn’t give a damn.

So I’m rooting for Amazon.com!  I want to give them even more of my business!

And those independent bookstores?  I’m all for Mom, Apple Pie, and the local bookstore, but realistically most of them are an anachronism. Unless a store can find a very specific niche it just doesn’t make sense to try to keep them all in business.

Yes they’re friendly, yes they’re quaint, and yes they can be pleasant to browse, but really the small general interest bookstore is about as relevant as the record stores that have all but disappeared, the neighbourhood groceries that are gone, and filling stations with people to pump your gas.

Instead of worrying about how to keep a dying retail sector alive, let’s put our money into publishers of books and magazines – the people who really keep our writers alive.

Look at the world around you.  Look in corners.  Look at the stuff that you’re supposed to miss.

A while back we were in Vancouver for The Eastside Culture Crawl, a great and large open studio event that stretches from the Downtown Eastside all the way to Commercial drive.

Although there honestly wasn’t a lot that really thrilled us, I was delighted to find the “installation” pictured.

These fantastic clear plastic platform shoes were situated half way across a set of railway tracks on an overhead pedestrian walkway between Raymur Street and the end of Keefer Street.

I have no idea whether this was an intentional installation, or whether the graffiti was related to it, or whether somewhere in Strathcona a drag queen is crying her eyes out at having lost her shoes, but it was lovely.

Ever wonder how those big numbers get onto the grass at football games?

It’s really pretty simple: they’re spray-painted on using big honkin’ stencils.

It’s all pretty low-tech, involving one guy who drives the paint sprayer on a golf cart, one who sprays the paint, and two that pick up the stencils and move them to the next location.

The real challenge is that the CFL guys want the lines and number placed within inches – on a 110 yard long football field.   Trust me, there’s nothing more annoying than trying to remove and repaint lines a half hour before game time.

That, and realizing that one of the arrows points the wrong way.

I have accepted that all government advertising is actually pre-election bumph for the party in power, but really the Conservatives have taken things a large step further than anyone before them.

This time of the year one of the fixtures of Canadian life are boxes of income tax returns at the post office. Always in the corner, always on the floor, but always there.  (I’ll ignore pointing out that there are in fact damn few actual Post Offices left in Canada. Instead your mail services and delivery are handled by minimum wage clerks at corner stores and drug stores in what are euphemistically called “Retail Outlets.”)

In the past these boxes had exciting labels like “Your 2008 Tax Returns are here!”

This year though the Tory economic mantras have taken over, with each box stamped in Green “Real Tax Cuts at Your Fingertips.”

My first reading of that was actually ”Real Paper Cuts on your Fingertips.”

When that made no sense I looked closer, and realized that Harper’s people had slapped Tory election advertising on the boxes!

Needless to say, the last people who will benefit from any of Harper’s “Tax Cuts” are those who are likely to be preparing their own tax returns.

Last night I joined the ranks of those who love haggis.

Poor haggis, much maligned and eternally sneered at, usually by those who have never even tasted it. There’s a metaphor for life in there somewhere.

Twas of course a Robbie Burns celebration, with two friends (and their daughter) all decked out in tartan as expected.

We began with some lovely single malt, cheese and oatcakes, then salad.

Then, with much ceremony, the recitation of Burn’s words.

Address To A Haggis
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,
Are bent lyke drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
“Bethankit!” ‘hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

What I hadn’t realized was that even if you don’t know all of the vocabulary, the Address To A Haggis is actually a very funny and  entertaining bit of work.  How can you not love:

An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

And as the poem suggests, we cut it open and scooped out all of the steamy richness inside! The haggis itself is lighter than I ever expected, tasting more of liver (kind of like a Pâté) than oatmeal, and with a little gravy and potatoes quite yummy.  It’s a more sophisticated dish than I would have believed.

Really, give it a try!

Years ago I went to chef’s school.  Rule number one was wash your hands! Lots! Frequently!

This was so important that there was rumour that a test would happen for which they would distribute pencils – special pencils.  After the test they would turn on the black light and you could see who had touched their faces, noses etc as well as the (presumably specially treated) pencil.

And really, soap and water is 99% of cleanliness, and is all that’s needed.  Spend a few days watching all of the kitchen and cooking shows on TV. No-one wears a hairnet.  Not even Gordon Ramsay.

Somewhere around the time when people started to panic about AIDs, you started to see people in fast-food joints wear rubber gloves when cooking.  And of course, lesser establishments always had a fetish for hairnets.

Today though Costco took this all to new high.

At the hotdog counter (much beloved to all BC Place employees) the folks behind the counter wore:

• a hairnet
• rubber gloves
• and, for the guys, a second hairnet over their beard.  Including one guy with a goatee.

Let me be blunt.

If you force your employees to wear rubber gloves to make my hotdog I have to assume that you think they have dirty germ-ridden hands.  Does Costco assume that their people never wash their hands after using the toilet?

If you insist on hairnets it’s pretty obvious that you’ve never worked in a kitchen.  Hairnets don’t really keep hairs from falling off of people’s heads.  In fact it seems that the places with hairnets are usually the ones that have MORE hair show up on plates.

If you insist on hairnets for beards… my God you’re just crazy.

Olympics are coming!  To celebrate, and to demonstrate to the hordes of tourists that BCers are indeed a totally illiterate bunch, VANOC has removed ALL newspaper boxes from the Seabus terminal, but HAS installed these informative signs!    A total of about twelve boxes have been removed – probably due to anti-terror paranoia – and these new info boards have been empty for two weeks.

I’m honestly expecting gun-toting commandos to appear outside the terminal, just as the army suddenly became a presence at every airport after 9/11.

Wow – H1N1 mania has swept the nation – or at least has swept the media.

Well, except for Olympic Torch mania I guess, which had it’s own dedicated section of the Globe and Mail this weekend, and many pages in every other print publication.

Actually I don’t find that anyone that I know cares too much about either of these high-profile causes célèbres.  Some people are getting immunized, some aren’t, and few seem all that worried about getting the swine or any other flu.

Maybe it’s just that with the ongoing recession (or jobless recovery if you wish), global warming, terrorism, and road rage fueled cel phone distracted street racers all over the place, there just isn’t room in our fear calendar for a few aches, pains, and vomiting.

Besides, it’s pretty much impossible top know whether or not you can actually get H1N1 vaccine.

The North Shore News reports that shortages of H1N1 vaccine mean that many health care workers can’t be immunized:

This is the time of tests at Cap College – with Stats two weeks ago and Business Information Systems tonight.  I prepared extensively for the former, and totally forgot about the latter.

Guess which one will likely get me the higher mark?

Truth is I busted my ass on the Stats work, did ALL of the questions in the textbook, and generally knew the material inside out.

That was because I also knew that the test would be a real bit of work, and would require that understanding to even break even (the average in the class apparently was not much more than 50%.)

I went in confident, felt that I had answered most, and possibly all questions right, and slept well knowing that I was doing my best.

In the end I managed 43/50, or 86%, which at Cap will give me “only” an A mark.

The Business Information Systems test tonight was entirely multiple choice, 55 questions.  Prep for this test pretty much amounted to paying attention in class, highlighting what we were told to highlight in the text, and then skimming the yellow bits.

It didn’t hurt that twenty years of working with computer systems and following the computer press had made me very familiar with 90% of what was covered.

The rest was largely jargon, or so subjective that the obvious choice of A, B, C, or D jumped right out.

I hate to say it, but somehow I felt cheated.  There was no challenge, and consequently no sense of accomplishment.

(Yikes, most of the class finished twenty or thirty minutes ago – as I did, even after carefully reviewing all the answers – but some people are still working on it!)