The cycle of life was on display on our front patio this weekend in the form of a neighbourhood cat toying with and subsequently killing a field mouse (seen here)

 

I first noticed the cat at about 1:30pm with a mouse in his mouth traversing the patio and jumping into the side bushes.  My announcement to Moe is met with disinterest.

Fifteen minutes later the cat is back, mouse still in mouth, heading back the other way.  In a few more minutes, the cat is back and settles on the patio with the mouse.  She puts down the mouse looking very pleased with herself.  Then I see, the mouse isn't quite dead.  Oh dear.  What to do?

Do I open the door and chase away the cat?

The mouse is clearly already a goner.  

Do I really want the cat to run away leaving this for me to clean up?

We observed the scene play out for the next 5 minutes or so.  The cat intently batting around this poor doomed mouse.  The circle of life.

Anyhow, that damned cat! He left the mouse corpse beside our front doormat anyway!

 

Of course, I've heard cats will do that for people as a "gift", some form of respect.  So, maybe we should be pleased by this.  I remember a story from a friend whose farm cat brought her dead bird after dead bird when she was done with flu.  Maybe this cat really respects us.

Well, today further evidence shows there could be yet another possibility.  I saw the cat using the welcome mat like a scratching post, basically, sharpening her claws on it!  That mouse wasn't a gift!  She was just leaving it beside the cutting board!

The circle of life.  Cue the carnival music! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Enjoy.

 

It can be tough to buy for "dad".  But now and then the perfect thing comes along.  And sometimes, it's actually Made To Order.

That's the case this year thanks to the amazingly creative husband and wife team of Amanda and Sean Siska AKA Bread and Badger from Portland, OR.  

Bread and Badger makes super cool etched glass beverage consumption facilitators!

Here's the Bagpiper they made for us!

They are going to sell a million of these things!  

The attention to detail and the styling is great and dad was thrilled!  Thank you Bread and Badger!

Here's a pic of dad with his new glass.  

In this pic, he's 18 and was just appointed to his first Pipe Major gig.

Rock and roll!

Thanks again Bread and Badger.

You can follow them on twitter as well here: @breadandbadger

 

 

I heard a great story from someone who had been encouraged to free-ride on a neighbour's broadband.  

"It's Freeeee", he was told, "it's frrrreeeeeeeee!!!!!"

 

Indeed.

Here is Seth Godin explaining what's bad about being a Bus Company

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/05/becoming-a-bus-company.html?u...

Some of the elements that make an organization feel like a bus company:

- Aging equipment in need of a functional and design refresh

- Tired staff, punching the time clock

- By the book mentality, with no room for humanity or initiative

- Treating all customers the same (poorly) and knowing (and caring) little or nothing about them

- Acting like a monopoly, with no easy substitutes in sight

- Lack of eye contact (between employees or customers) 

- Attitude that tomorrow will be just like today

- No one to complain to, and if you persist, you'll get a form letter

 

He then states emphatically that American Airlines has officially become a Bus Company.  

 

No arguments on that.  Air travel is a chore (maybe with the exclusion of Toronto's Porter Airlines).

But I actually think domestic air travel SHOULD be like the bus.  None of these airlines can consistently make any money.  It's a brutal business, it's NOT EVEN a business.  They are in and out of bankruptcy every 5 years.  

We need a bus system for the sky.  Something simple, routine, without a bunch of eggheads trying to make money on it.  Just a reliable public service.

At this point, it would be a huge step up.

A byproduct of having The Olympics in the city is the proliferation of cool art installations that have popped up.  These pics are from around Science World just east of the Athlete's Village and just south of GM Place, Home of the Canucks.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Have a great weekend and, "don't waste, instead create"!

Enjoy!

This morning I wrote on Going Concern blog about the fallacy of looking for a business software cure-all.  I equated the matter with the old-timey Medicine Show.  Amazing cures for whatever ails you!

Everyone knows the only REAL cure-all is Funk!

"Now this is what I want y'all to do.  If you got faults, defects, or shortcomings, y'know, like arthritis, rheumatism, or migraines.  Whatever part of your body it is, I want you to lay it on your radio.  Let the vibes flow through.  Funk not only moves, it re-moves, dig?"
- Lollipop Man (alias The Long-haired Sucker)

 
But your motto doesn't have to be "make my funk the p-funk" to understand the Medicine Show.

There are a couple other examples I found in Pop Culture that do a great job illustrating this relic of a by-gone age.

First

Here's Grandpa Simpson's pitch for his no-fail Looooove Potion:

"Step right up, folks, and witness the magnificent medicinal miracle of Simpson & Son's patented revitalizing toniiic. Put some ardor in your larder with our energizing, moisturizing, tantalizing, romanticizing, surprising, her-prizing, revitalizing tonic.  And for the minimal outlay of one dollar, you can take home a bottle of liquid Lothario, distilled Don Juan, catalytically-carbonated Cassanova.  Lock old Rover in the shed, 'cause man has a new best friend in Simpson & Son's revitalizing tonic."

Second

Here's Paul McCartney and MJ in a duet that, in my view, sums up the 80s in a nutshell.  AND has the Medicine Show featured front and centre.

Enjoy!

This is a great video!

Only Dead Fish goes into a more detailed synopsis here, but I feel like this thing speaks for itself.

WTG! IBM!  Inspired work!

Enjoy!

I don't agree with everything Janet Tavakoli says, but I do think she brings an important perspective to the debate swarming around Goldman Sachs ($GS) right now.  The SEC investigation is just the opening salvo to a massive offensive against $GS. 

She was on CBC's Lang and O'Leary Exchange last night to talk about the ABACUS case, the SEC, and the American Experience in general.

The whole situation reminds me of a comedy bit from waaaay back by a guy named Jeff Marder.

During a gig on HBO, Jeff rolls the conversation around to the fact that "shit happens".  He says, "you cannot buy 'non-shit happening insurance'.  It hasn't happened yet.  Someone will invent it.  You'll find it in the airports first; Mutual of Omaha's 'non-shit happening insurance.... oneeee, dolla'. 

It's a really funny act actually.  If anyone can find a clip, that would be great.  Email me and I'll post it.

Back to Janet, she brought the funny as well. You bet I was entertained! 

< insert Goodfellas quote here >

She leads off the interview with a blunt assessment of the SEC:

In sum, her view is that accounting fraud was widespread in all of these complex derivatives for years and the SEC was, is, and always will be in outer space.

When she launched into her "herd of cattle" analogy, I said to myself, yep, this girl's from Chicago alright.  And then continuing on to her compliance views, it was shades of Eliot Ness.  The Eliot Ness of CDO's.

On the #SECFAIL, she says they turned a blind eye to these "financial Meth labs."  That, back when the brew was on the stove (so to speak)... looking back (easier than looking forward, but I do recall hearing her talking this same story years prior to the... unpleasantness), looking back, lots of these prospectuses had the markings of the "tail end of a ponzi scheme".  I guess there's no new information there.

IMHO, I think the Buyers wrongly assumed (as Amanda Lang would say) that they would, "have a chair when the music stopped".  They were wrong.

But my view is that, if $GS is culpable here I say, fine.  But, then so are all the buyers of the products too.  All of them were working the same Medicine Show, with derivatives of the same Snake Oil.  Non-shit happening insurance.  Precisely.

Janet manages to end on a light note though saying,

"Basically, we live to entertain Canada!"

Well, this Canuck appreciates your efforts Janet!  Always leave 'em laughing!

Thanks.

The wifie and I have a little tradition whenever we make the trek up British Columbia's Sunshine Coast to visit the in-laws. 

It's a visit to Powell River's institution of a used book store called Kingfisher Used Books right on the main drag.  Of course, there's not much more to Powell River than the main drag.  Location, location, location.  Correct?

 

Getting to Powell River is a trick in and of itself.  From Vancouver it's 2 ferry rides and and a couple hours in the car.  And that second ferry, well, you can expect to wait.

 

 

This particular visit to Kingfisher was EPIC.  The thing I like best about the used book store is that you don't tend to find the hidden gems, they find you! 

 

 

The find of the day this go 'round is E.L. Doctorow's first novel, Welcome to Hard Times. 

 

 

I've never read any of his stuff before, but his name seems to be floating on the wind these days.  This one jumped up and bit me.  The story is right out of HBO's Deadwood although Doctorow's writing of it predates the series by 40 years.  Set in the Dakota Territory back before it was part of the Union, it's a tale of hope, fear, life, and death. 

 

I could not put it down!

Here's my 'best of' quotes from the book:

Human Nature

"This town was in the Dakota Territory... Really there was no excuse for it except that people naturally come together."

What's in a Name?

"Always the ghost city is one with name full of promise.  Is that not so?  We must have care in our naming not to make this mistake..."

Definition of an Optimist

"Well now Blue I always liked you, yessir.  If you was hanging by your fingers from a cliff you'd call it climbin' a mountain."

Importance of Courage

"Mayor, all the soft yellow spines in the world stack up to nothing when the Bad Man comes.  I'll tell you that, I know it."

Human Error

"A person cannot live without looking for good signs, you just cannot do it....if a good sign is so important you can just as soon make one up and fool yourself that way."

Turn, Turn, Turn

"... but words don't turn as the earth turns, they only have their season."

Seize the Day

"Really how life gets on is a secret, you only know your memory, and it makes its own time.  The real time leads you along and you never know when it happens, the best can be is come and gone."

Talk is Cheap

" 'Oh, Lord,' she wailed, 'oh, Jesus God, spare me from this man, this talker--' "

Human Nature redux

"I walked... my eyes on the town.  It had no earthly reason for being there, it made no sense to exist.  People naturally come together but is that enough?  Just as naturally we think of ourselves alone."

Well said!  And well done!  Viva Kingfisher Used Books!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Not much has been written lately about Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat”.  Anyone who wants to learn about Infosys, Brickworks India, EDS (Ross Perot's old company), UPS and their laptop maintenance operation, and the now-maligned Satyam can do so within the pages of this tome.  Recently though, I think his detractors have largely outnumbered his fans.  I’m not going to wade into that debate; however, even if you don't subscribe whole hog to his thesis I think we can all agree that the stories contained within the book are informative if nothing else.

For the purposes of this post, I’m just going to assume that most people haven’t read the book.  After all, it’s crazy long and a difficult read.  Add to that the tremendous amount of repetition in the writing and you have the recipe for a book rarely worn cover to cover. (It bogs down A LOT after Part 1, The Ten Flatteners)

Today, I'd like to briefly highlight a piece from later in the book. 

When I look around the social media space, various entrepreneurial ventures and even at Indicee, I find myself continuing to return to this list of jobs that Friedman believes will characterize the next iteration of The Middle Class. 

How many of you see yourself in this list? (mixing and matching allowed!)

From Chapter 6: The Untouchables - Finding the New Middle

Friedman asks, “What kind of good middle-class jobs are successful companies and entrepreneurs creating today?”

For his answer, he “went out to successful flat-world companies around America and asked a simple question: ‘Obviously you have a lot of good middle-class jobs here.  Who works here and what sorts of things do they do?’”

Friedman counsels, “here is what the ‘HELP WANTED’ ads look like in a flat world.

1. Great Collaborators and Orchestrators

2. The Great Synthesizers

3. The Great Explainers

4. The Great Leveragers

5. The Great Adapters

6. The Green People

7. The Passionate Personalizers

8. Math Lovers

9. The Great Localizers

 

If you find these passages intriguing, I would suggest reading the book - that part at least.  Believe me, no one knows the pain involved in reading this book more than me! 

I don’t agree with all of it.  Like anything, there’s room for all of us to have our own nuanced view.

Where I agree is that I’m really having a tough time defining “what I do” at the moment and I keep coming back to this list.

If you had to pick from this list, what would you pick?

Enjoy!