Breakfast of champions?

A friend asked me to have breakfast with a political candidate. Within five minutes, it was clear time was being wasted.

The candidate didn't get it. He could spew numbers and statistics. He understood the political landscape. He had four things he was supporting. He was trying to figure out tactics for his campaign. He wanted great ideas that would propel him to a win. His ideas including giving away coffee mugs, and using signage.

Excuse me while I yawn. He was so boring, I almost fell asleep. He has no chance of winning with that mindset.

Here's what I told him. Political campaigns were run like high school popularity contests. The person that was the best known gets elected. Or the person that was second best known wins because everyone was upset with the incumbent. If it's a popularity contest, then its a branding problem.

I don't understand politics. Branding is my baby...

According to Karen Post, a brand is a story embedded in the mind of the market. So if you want to be properly branded, you start by telling stories that are remarkable. Stories get shared. Remarkability initiates memorability. Memorability creates top of mind awareness. Top of mind awareness generates popularity. The equation is easy. He/she who is best branded, wins in both business and politics.

The problem with most people is they don't have the guts to step out of their comfort zone to be remarkable. My advice to this candidate was to stay in the muddy middle. We don't need another gutless politician. We have enough of them already.

Raven mad

Oh vile raven with menacing dark eyes that have no soul. Breath like a glass of milk left on the counter for 4 days. You try to beat me. I do everything I can. I will not lose to such an insolent piece of organic death. I must keep going on.

You have hurt many loved ones along your path of destruction and defiance. I refuse to be one of your victims. Drugs delay the pain. I lay and I sleep. I sleep and I lay. Nothing seems to remove me from your morbid clutches. I will prosper. It hurts to move. It hurts to breathe. Cough causes nerves to explode in the forehead, upper back and in the legs.

Wretched beast, you are sinister. With every passing day, I'm either getting accustomed to your hold or I'm getting better. My soldiers are strong. There have been many casualties, but we are moving forward. Tonight, the general has asked the special forces to put a stranglehold on your demonic influence once and for all. The Captain has accepted the mission. Soldiers sleep, she will fight this one alone.

My Mecca

Mecca is a city in Saudia Arabia in which the Muslim prophet Mohammed was born. As part of the Muslim faith, every true believer makes a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Christians and the Hebrews have Soloman's wall in Jerusalem.

My pilgrimage was just before my 37th birthday. It was the first time I saw the real Mickey Mouse. Disney World is a magical experience that brought everything from my dreams to life.

My whole life I had friends who told me about the shows, the sights and the sounds. I grew up with the Magical World of Disney every Sunday night on CBC. The TV shows, the movies, the characters, and the cartoons made this place my mecca for 30 plus years.

We were told that the kids would enjoy themselves once they reached 3 and 4. We booked 10 days, stayed at one of the Disney resorts and shuttled back and forth to the four different parks.

The first day we spent at Magic Kingdom. Rightfully named, the first thing you notice is Cinderella's castle right slap dab in the middle of the park. 

I was excited. I had to see everything. My kids were so young. They were lucky. They were witnessing things that I had waited half my life to see. My wife literally had three kids on her hands. It was so great that we made the same pilgrimage a second time the next year.

The last trip was three years ago. I have friends who visit Mickey every year. Now that's a religious passage.

The happiest place on Earth is paradise. It is commercialized to the hilt. But I can overlook that because the positive traits far outweigh a bit of capitalism.

Thanks to a cartoonist who was a dreamer, and a little black and white mouse, we can have happiness for a couple of fleeting days. Happiness comes at a price. But it is worth it.

Springtime finally...

Spring cleaning time is here again. Out with the crap we no longer use.  My job is the outside stuff. Aline's got the inside crap. I prefer my job.

Open the pool. Put the summer tires on both cars. Clean the flower beds. Trim the trees. Fix the roof. Clean the garage. Pressure wash the driveway.  Vacuum the glass from the shattered patio table. Set up the trampoline. I could go on but you get the point. There's a lot to do, and I haven't started thinking about the garden yet.

It's days like this one that I avoided for seven years. People use to caution me that working 6 days per week wasn't healthy. Ever since I sold the business I still work six days per week. None of them pay very well.

The one thing which I did look forward to is the burning of the bush. After we trimmed the trees, we had a massive bonfire in the back yard. At first, smoked rolled off the green branches like mercury in a broken thermometer. Then a flame emerged. A single flame that creeped ever higher in that mound of wood, as it tried to touch the sun. Then a second flame was born, cracking its shell of smoke. In no time, the flames rejoiced into my personal towering inferno.

I sat in silence for three hours, tending the flickering ballet. It was therapeutic listening to the whisper of the creek, the dancing lights and the singing robins.

I'm a bit tired, but very relaxed.

The world is changing

50 years ago, in any small town you could find a general store. Walmart revolutionized retailing efficiency. They compete on price. They expanded markets. If your market got a Walmart, it meant you were special. Some markets rejected the opportunity for a Walmart rationalizing that it would hurt their economy. I understand the thinking behind such decisions. The community has concern for the local operators worrying about culture and the local economy.

Walmart promises jobs. Not high-paying jobs but jobs nonetheless. Jobs are the key to stimulation in any economy. Walmart opens up and within a few years all the small competitors close their doors. Does the economy improve or deteriorate? Profits are moved out of the region into Walmart's bank account. Yet jobs are created.

Here's the interesting thing. We no longer need Walmart for retailing. With more more people having access to the Internet, the access to online retailing can get you anything you ever wanted online. No worries about transportation, it will be delivered to your door. The prices are usually lower due to a lack of overhead costs like rent. If you shop online you save money. Everyone loves to save money.

I recently bought a hot tub on-line. The price of the hot tub was $3000 cheaper than any other hot tub I could find in the local community. Because I bought it through Costco.ca I'm very confident the warranty will be respected by the amazing retailer by the same name.

Here are the problems with spending money an on-line retailer. The economy is stimulated through job creation and the recycling of money. When you buy something online money leaves your community and it doesn't come back. It may be cheaper. With every positive, there is a negative. You save money, but you're neighbor may lose his job, which means he doesn't support your company anymore. Enough of this stuff going on and you're out of a job.

Buying cheap stuff on-line is a short term gain. We all lose eventually, unless we play the same game.

Most of us don't, so we have a problem.

I wonder about my kids future. I wonder what the world will look like without these retailers. We are in the information age. The greatest commodity isn't energy. It isn't food.

The greatest commodity in this new age is knowledge. The phrase, "Knowledge is power" has never been so accurate as it is right now.

It's not my fault

Responsibility is a difficult characteristic to teach. I notice my kids playing the blame game constantly.

It's not my fault.
She started it.
The teacher is to blame.
I couldn't listen because there was too much distraction.
The dog is the problem.

Then the best yet,

I'm tired because I couldn't sleep in. I have to go to school.

This thinking is the result of a fixed mindset. My kids blame everyone and everything else for the consequences of their own actions.

In trying to teach my daughter about responsibility, I explained that every time she points the finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at her. The little bugger opened her hand and motioned toward her brother. She responded by saying, now all the responsibility is on him. Problem solved.

Remember the Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding figure skating debacle of 1994. As part of ESPN's 30 on 30 series, they reviewed all of the events, with current interviews from Harding and other people involved with both athletes. It showed Harding as the trailer park trash and Kerrigan as the ice princess. What was the most shocking was that Harding has never taken any responsibility for anything that has happened to her. She was hated by the US Olympic Committee. The media wouldn't leave her alone. She didn't get enough sleep the night before the Olympic competition. Her skate lace broke and she lost her focus. Her estranged husband was pointing the finger at her for the assault on her teammate. It went on and on.

How sad is it that someone who was one of the best in the world does not believe that she was the problem?

I see it a lot. People, organizations, governments and nations who blame others for their woes. When in fact, if they looked at their own policies and actions, they would find the solution to the problem.

Shit happens. It's how we deal with it that makes us better for it. Forget about what others did. You can't control others. You can only control yourself.

Analyze what you did wrong. Look at what you could have done better. Learn from your tragedies. The greatest tragedy is not learning from your mistakes.

Take responsibility for your life. The next time you feel like using an excuse, be honest with yourself and with the person you're talking to.

You'll find the roses smell better, the sugar tastes sweeter and the sounds activate your soul.

When the mice are out, the chats will play

My wife and I have let our kids play around on the computer since they were about 4 years old. Always supervised, we limited their exposure to the harsh outside world. As we try to protect our youngins, they venture further and further from our nest.

We've been spying on them waiting for the first visit to a site that wasn't appropriate content. Today we found our chicks on a site marketing toward their age bracket. Yet the content and interaction is not right for any child. Concerned for our children's well being, I logged onto the site using my son's profile. I was able to have conversations with supposed other kids his age. The conversation sent back my way was too sexual for me and most definitely for my kids.

I proceeded to Google what other parents were saying about this website. None of it was good. As of today, my computer is blocking this site. Worst part of the whole story, my kids were given permission at school to log onto it.

Moviestarplanet may have been set up for young kids to socialize using avatars and games. It is nothing more than a chat room where kids no longer act like kids.

I feel sick to my stomach.