It's not easy being green

As readers of this blog, and maybe even my good friend CindyDianne's blog you know that I'm trying my darnedest to get "greener". I say trying because I'm really not there yet. I own two large vehicles with 6 cylinder engines, there are still a few incandescent light bulbs in my house, I haven't taken to composting yet, I buy non-organic, non-locally grown produce most of the time, and if my brother were here he'd say there isn't a granola bar to be found in my cupboard, and I don't own a pair of Birkenstocks. (I meant silly humour and not harm with that generalization, please laugh and don't anyone be offended) The list of things I'm not doing goes on, and on, and on for sure.

Some things are just hard to adjust to, or "inconvenient" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge); I'll whole heartedly admit to that. My hats go off to the diehards out there that devote so much time and energy to this cause, and make the necessary sacrifices to save our planet. It's not easy, and it's not cheap, and people even have the gall to dismiss your efforts and extremism and call you a granola bar eating, Birkenstock wearing, tree hugger. They're mean and wrong. You're saving our planet. The world needs more of you. Please keep it up.

Where it gets a little tougher is for guys like me who aren't yet "all in". No matter what you do, you're still not doing enough, and you can't even really talk about all the good you're doing because someone is just waiting to point out all the good you're not doing. Suddenly, you're a hypocrite. And that hurts, and leaves you wondering why you even bother.

What makes being green the hardest though? The most tiresome part I find is knowing what bandwagons to get on, and which ones to avoid. For example, most recently there was a report published by CNW Marketing Research called the "Dust to Dust Automotive Energy Report" that suggested the Hummer H3 is actually "greener" than a Toyota Prius. The premise is that when you factor in the total impact to the environment, right from the extraction of raw materials, through manufacturing, useful life, and disposal, Hybrids actually are less environmentally friendly than a lot of other old fashioned gasoline cars. Imagine that. Actually, imagine the controversy that this has generated! The arguments both for and against the findings of this report are equally compelling. So who do you believe? What car should you buy? Then there's the topic of "carbon credits". If I support green efforts with cash because I can't or won't make the necessary changes to my lifestyle and be greener, but can afford to support the efforts of others with money, than am I really green? Tough question. It can be argued both ways. So what is one to do?

Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer. Here's what I do know though. Apathy won't get us anywhere. We have to take responsibility for ourselves, and participate. There's strength in numbers, and the more we put our heads together, the more we'll figure this out. We may not get 100% of our efforts right 100% of the time, but it's better than sitting around pretending no action is required. By participate I don't mean just replacing light bulbs, and walking to work. I mean engaging in the research, the debate, and the promotion of this issue. Care enough to argue about it at least. Don't be pig-headed about it, or jump on the latest bandwagon because you were "sold" on it by a master of persuasion, but care enough to take some form of action. Please, if not for us, for your kids, or your grand kids, or their kids.

As for me, I know it's hard, and I'm actually energized by that. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite if I'm not 100% converted or fully informed. Rest assured I'm better today than I was yesterday, and I'll be even better tomorrow. To me, that's about all we can really ask of each other. If we keep pointing out our shortcomings, or worse yet give up, we won't do so well at encouraging others to join us. That just makes me more sad and depressed.

The Assault On Reason - by Al Gore

I know what you're thinking - please Steve, don't get into politics on your blog. I know, it's bad enough that my posts are so few and far between, if I start writing about politics, my readership might go to zero from the handful that I have now. So I won't. Please read on.

I really enjoyed this book. Should you read it? Well, that depends. If you believe that the state of democracy in the world today is "fine", and you're open to being challenged on that, read this book. If you believe it's not "fine" you don't need to read this book, but it might get you more fired up about it, and that's not a bad thing. If you think democracy is just about voting in elections, then please, please read this book. The only political statement I'm trying to make is if you live in a democratic society (and most of us do) you have a responsibility (not a just a right) to participate in it, and the book might help you in understanding that. You can accuse me of jumping on the Al Gore bandwagon, but only after you've read the book.

Unlike his famous movie (An Inconvenient Truth) only one small chapter is about the environment. That chapter motivated me to take more action. You might see more "green" posts from me in the future. For now, enjoy the book.

It's golf season, hand me a tea!

No, that's not a typo in the title of this blog entry. More on that later. Yes summer is officially here, and golf season is well into "swing", and I did play my first 9 holes yesterday. I can't tell you how well I did because we didn't keep score. I did play all 9 holes with the same ball, which is pretty remarkable. The weather here in the GTA has been awesome and it was great to be outside swinging a club again. Back to the title.....

I recently switched from brewed coffee to tea - two in the morning, one in the afternoon. I did this on May 29 - the day the Tea Association of Canada announced that Health Canada had approved several claimed benefits of drinking tea. You'll find the press release here: http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/May2007/29/c5790.html

I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon, but had been worried about the caffeine I was getting from all that coffee, and what adverse affects it might be having on my blood pressure. Some had also claimed that I was addicted to coffee, and I wanted to prove them wrong. And hey, if Health Canada says there are health benefits to tea, maybe that was what tipped the scales (or tea cup as the case may be). I won't get into the health benefits here, I'm not a doctor or a scientist. If you're really curious, you're only one Google search away.

Earlier today, after explaining my switch to tea with someone, he told me that tea actually had more caffeine than coffee. You can imagine my reaction! So I immediately devoted my lunch hour to research on the topic. Turns out I wasn't able to find anything to support this claim, but I did stumble upon alot of websites that support the selection of tea over coffee. The most hilarious one I found was this blog entry: http://www.donotremove.net/archives/003827.html. It's great for a laugh!

So how's it going? Well 2 weeks into this experiment, I don't feel any different. I'm not more tired, more alert, and I don't feel more healthy, but the tea is going down just fine. The one nice thing about it is the variety. I'll usually have Orange Pekoe, Earl Grey, and Green Tea. Thanks to the DaVinci Code I know which ones to put milk or lemon in. No two teas taste the same.

To be clear, I haven't completely banned coffee. I have had 3 cups in the last 2 weeks, 2 over breakfast with some friends last week, and one on Sunday morning over breakfast with the inlaws. So call it "consumption for convenience" - because it was there. Also, being Italian, there's no way I'm going to ban espresso based drinks (like espresso straight up, cappuccinos, and lattes). Call that "social consumption" because I never drink it alone, and only occasionally, and apparently thanks to the brewing technique it has less caffeine than your standard double double from Tim Hortons. But I can safely say that tea is my new sidekick, and so far, it's okay!

RateMDs.com

Finally, a site where people are talking about their health professionals. After having been read the riot act by my Mom on Mother's Day to go get a physical, I stumbled upon RateMDs.com while searching for my doctor's contact info. After moving to Oakville a few years ago, my wife and I got a referral to a doctor who was accepting new patients but so far we aren't all that impressed. The "reviewers" on this website agree with us. It also gave me leads on other doctors who were reviewed more favourably, but sadly, after looking them up on the CPSO website, I learned the good ones aren't taking any new patients. Go figure. Both of these tools are great nonetheless if you're "shopping" for health care in Ontario.

Facebook Fridays

If you haven't figured out I'm a geek yet, this is either your first visit to my blog, or I'm sorry, you're just not very observant. Either way, this post should clue you in. Every Saturday morning, I wake up (usually to the sound of a hungry crying baby) and reach for my BlackBerry (right before I go rescue the aforementioned crying baby of course).

For the last couple of months my inbox on a Saturday morning has had at least 1, usually 2 or 3 "friend requests" from Facebook. A couple of weeks is a coincidence - a couple of months is a trend. I'm not talking about the obvious "Facebook is growing in popularity" trend but I'm identifying the "Friday night is Facebook night" trend. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just my geeky friends that are building their social networks on Friday nights? The sharpest of my readers will note that most of my blog entries, this one included, were also posted on a Friday night. SO, maybe it's not just about Facebook. When did we all start spending our Friday nights in front of the warm glow of a computer monitor? I thought Friday nights were supposed to be for relaxing, unwinding, socializing, having drinks, dancing, etc. I knew real human interaction was being replaced with virtual interaction when the guy beside me at work starting sending me email and IM instead of turning around and engaging in a verbal conversation. Now it's taking over our personal lives too?! This really getting out of hand! What's next? Second Life Saturdays?

Loan sharks and onesies

Every once in a while I come across a website I just have to talk about. Thank goodness I have this blog now, so there's an outlet.

First, I need to brag about my wife again. Have I mentioned just how creative she is? Well, now you can not just take my word for it, but you can see for yourself. Check out In My Jammies - it's Kristen's own store for custom made, one of a kind, and super creative baby apparel. She's taken her artistic talent (and in many cases her sidesplitting wit) and put it on t-shirts, bibs, and of course, onesies. If a you're still not a parent and don't know what a onesie is, don't worry, I didn't either until about 7 months ago. If it fits the baby's whole body, and has buttons on the crotch, chances are, it's a onesie. There you go, you learn something new everyday.

And for all you aspiring loan sharks, check out Prosper.com. This concept is brilliant in my opinion. People helping people. I love it.

What does one site have to do with the other? Not much really. But come to think of it, if you can't afford to buy anything on In My Jammies - and I know you will want to buy a lot - you might want to try and see if anyone on Prosper.com will loan you the cash! How's that for resourceful?

BlackBerry or underwear?

Hey readers, thanks for the comments! It's good motivation to write. Yes, it's been over a week, but it's been one heck of one. Oh, and don't forget, you can't rush perfection!

Part of the madness that was this week was the "BlackBerry Blackout" (BBB). If you suffer from the same addiction as millions us out there, you know what I mean. The madness started at about 8pm on Tuesday (yes, as wrong as it may sound, if you have a BlackBerry, you're likely checking your mail at 8pm on a weeknight). I happened to be reading an email from the president of the division with which I'm employed. It was a long message, and I got to the point where "more" was required (for those who don't know BlackBerry splits up long messages, and gives you the option to request "more" when you get to the bottom of the first chunk). Well, at 8pm, "more" was just not coming. At first I thought it must be a glitch, just request "more" again, right? No such luck. Four "more" requests, a power down/up, antenna on/off, a hard battery in/out later and still no"more", I knew something bigger was up. My next clue was no new mail, after 2 hours, then 3, then 4 etc. Panic set in by about midnight. Needless to say, it was not a restful sleep that night.

Morning came. Still no new mail, and no "more" of the message from the president. This is now bordering on catastrophe. For the record, I'm not THAT important, and neither is my job. Yes, I need help, I'm addicted to BlackBerry and was suffering from email withdrawal - if you can recommend a therapist, comments are welcome. On the drive over to the commuter train station in the morning, the radio announcer confirmed my biggest fear - the BlackBerry network had suffered a catastrophic failure. I'll never forget that 35 min train ride Wednesday morning. There was an eerie silence - no clickety clack of the BlackBerry keyboards that usually occupy over a third of the seats on the train in the morning. Instead, more newspapers, more novels, more sleepers, and a few people (me included) staring into nothingness just praying for the soft vibrating sensation on my hip to signal message flow had resumed. It was the longest 35 mins of my life.

I know what you're thinking "so what?" or "Steve! Get a life!" Fair comment. Here's my point. If you think I was alone, or even the minority, you're wrong. Just do a Google search for BlackBerry and you'll find a ton of news articles and blog entries from all over the world. On the day of outage, news anchors were on the street interviewing bankers in the financial district asking them how they were "coping" without their BlackBerries. Four days later, the media is still talking about it.

As Cindy mentioned on her post about me, I started my career at RIM working the phones helping what few customers we had with any technical issues they had with their "pager" back in 1999. Back then, we dreamt of that day, way off in the distant future, when we'd hit the million BlackBerry milestone. Now they add a million new subs in a quarter. I haven't been on the RIM payroll for over 6 years now, but I couldn't be prouder of that organization, and I'm not afraid to say it. What a Canadian success story. Few brands in the world can claim as big an impact to our daily lives, in such a short time frame.

Later that night, I was on the phone with technologically illiterate Dad (I'm sorry, but he works in construction, and can count the number of times he's used a PC on one hand) and he asked me "hey, how's your BlackBerry, did you survive today?" We laughed about it, and I assured him that all was good now, but man, what an uncomfortable 12 hours. Imagine going without underwear for 12 hours - I don't care who you are, that would be rather uncomfortable. I'm sure you don't really have to worry about going without underwear on any given day, but if it suddenly happened that one day you were all out of a fresh pair, I'm sure you'd panic. You might even take the day off or go to work late while you wait for the laundry cycle to complete. Well for many of us, having to go a day without our BlackBerries is almost the same. Imagine that.

So congratulations Jim and Mike, and the rest of RIM. You've gone from a little tech nobody in Waterloo to become a prominent player on the world stage, and in millions of homes around the world (for better or worse). You've become as essential to many of us as air, water, and yes, even underwear. Tuesday was pretty catastrophic, and we hope not to see another outage like that anytime soon. I'm sure it was even more hellish for you, and you may have even gone as far as firing one or more for not doing their job properly. But hopefully you've stopped for a second and relished in just how important an organization you have become to society. Amidst the chaos that was Tuesday, some of us cheered quietly for your accomplishment, and can only aspire to achieve the same kind of greatness.

Balance vs. Harmony

Okay, it's been a few days since I've blogged. I'm overdue. For those who missed Kristen's play "A Bad Year For Tomatoes" you missed a great show, and a great performance. I'll be sure to give you ample notice before the next one, in case you're interested.

When I setup this blog, it was meant to be a random collection of observations, rants, lessons, and just general "stuff" I pickup along this journey I call life. Well, it's a busy time of life right now for me as I'm sure you can imagine. A new son at home is all the newness I need to turn life as I knew it upside down. Even though it has been about 6.5 months now, I'm still adjusting. Loving every minute of it of course, but wow, life is different in every way. The one thing that has been the most challenging for me has been finding the right balance working on being a good dad, a good husband, a good employee, a good friend, a good family member, and in general just being a good person. Good is a pretty weak word. If you know me, you know that it's in my nature to accept nothing short of 'absolutely outstanding', not just 'good'. The reality is, those 6 things are often naturally at odds with each other, and not being absolutely outstanding at all 6 is really stressing me out, and is even a little depressing at times. This week, I had dinner with a really good friend who shared some perspective on "balance" with me that I found really insightful and refreshing. I feel compelled to capture, and perhaps share it with whom ever cares to read about it right here on my blog.

Picture a balance scale. It's a very simple mechanical device with two sides that are naturally opposed to one another. One side goes up, and the other one goes down. Therein lies the problem. To achieve balance, one thing needs to suffer, for the other one to benefit. It's a zero sum game. For years, I've been running around trying to achieve a "balanced" lifestyle. I say trying because I never really have ever pulled it off, and I don't think I'm alone on this one.

The other night I realized what I really want is not balance at all, it's harmony. Harmony implies that the different parts of my life (career, parenthood, marriage, friendships, family, and my personal well being) actually co-exist well together. In fact, they co-exist in such a way that one supports the other 5, to the point that all 6 co-exist better together, than if they existed on their own. Simply put, the whole needs to be greater than the sum of the parts. It's not a zero sum game, it's a game where the sum has no bounds at all, and unlimited potential.

If you have had the stamina to read this far, you probably think I'm on some really good drugs, and you may even be inclined to ask me for some. This harmony idea for certain sounds either really obvious, or like a pipe dream. Well I think it's neither. It's perspective. I feel grateful to have received this perspective the other night, because it's changed how I think, and how I approach each aspect of my life.

As a final way to illustrate my point, I'll leave you with an example. Theatre fits harmoniously with the rest of Kristen's life. If you haven't seen her on stage, you don't know how amazing she really is at it. And I can tell you, being involved with theatre has made her a better friend, a better mom, a better wife, and in general a better, happier person. I now have stopped trying to achieve a balanced lifestyle, and seek to establish harmony instead. I'll let you know how it goes...

A bad year for tomatoes

No, I’m not quoting the farmer’s almanac. The Oakville Players theatre group is on stage at the Oakville Centre for Performing Arts and that’s the title of the show. I had the privilege of attending the opening night performance last night. Since my wife Kristen is in the show, I’m a little biased, but I will say it’s good entertainment value if you’re up for a good laugh. I had a great time, and the whole production is the same high quality I've come to expect from the Oakville Players. It’s about a crazy community of neighbours in the “sticks” who manage to make a lot of drama, and whole lot of silliness out of pretty much nothing. Krissie Rutherford from the Oakville Beaver wrote, “everyone knows those nosy neighbours who won't mind their own business” and that is a good summary of the plot foundation without giving too much away. I’m no professional theatre reviewer, but the comedy comes from the nutty characters (Kristen being one of them) that make up the cast. If you laughed at Three’s Company, or Gilligan’s Island, you’ll probably laugh at this show too. Show times, ticket prices, and availability are all available at the Oakville Centre for Performing Arts website.

For great customer service, try going online

Maybe it's because I spend more than half my day in front of a computer, or maybe it's because it's partly my job to come up with ways to serve customers better from the web, but I can tell you if you're frustrated with picking up the phone and trying to navigate the automated menu system, try going to the web. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I'm surprised with how few people actually do this. So I feel compelled to write about it. For example, back in July I needed to get my passport renewed. I barely knew where to get started so I Google searched "Canadian Passport". A few clicks later I ended up here: http://www.pptc.gc.ca/can/pol_on-line_form.aspx?lang=e. It's an online Passport application form. Unfortunately you can't submit the form online, but you can fill everything out, and then print it and sign it. That made me happy since it meant I didn't have to track down paper forms, and didn't have to manually fill out all the boxes with a pen. Once I had that done and printed, and had my photos ready and signed, I booked a whole afternoon to go the Passport office to get the forms processed.

When I got to the Passport office, I was in for the customer experience surprise of my life. Yes, that's right a Canadian government office was about to "wow" me with a customer experience, and it was the last place I would expect it. When I got to reception, they thanked me (yes thanked me) for using the online form, and rewarded me by putting me at the front of the processing line!!! Instead of waiting there all afternoon like I expected, I was in and out of there in under 10 mins!! All because I used their online process. I've since shared this experience with others, and they all reported back the same experience.

So what's the lesson? Always try going online first for customer service. It makes sense for smart companies (or in this case a government agency) to reward customers for going online because it makes their processes run more efficiently. So in return for helping them, they just might help you, and everyone wins!! I'm not saying it will always work out, but try it!!

Being sick sucks

Okay, so I'm telling you something you already knew, but I just had to say it. It totally screws up everything, and there's nothing much you can do but wait. For the average control freak, it just sucks. For the record, I tried Cold-FX this time around, and I think it made my heart race. So I went back to the tried and true - OJ, chicken soup, vitamin C, zinc lozenges, Advil cold and sinus for symptom relief, lots of water, and lots of rest. Today is going way better than yesterday. With any luck I'll be back up to normal by Friday.

One less thing to do

I was relieved to read this morning that there's one less social networking site you have to keep up to date. About a week and a half ago, in my "I'm now on Facebook" post, I talked about how it seemed impossible to keep all these sites up to date. Well, according to Ivor Tossell over at the Globe and Mail, My Space is dead - so cross that one off your list. Not to be confused of course with Windows Live Spaces (kudos to Facebook with being a little more creative with the name). In case you missed it, My Space is that "other" social networking site that was all the rage about a year ago. For the record, I never had a My Space page. In fact, I think I visited the site all of 2 times. I tend to agree with Ivor's points about it being too loud, and messy, and I thought I was a minority - apparently not. Will Facebook last longer? While it is prettier than My Space, I think the Facebook team will have to work really hard to keep it fresh because clearly the social networking crowd is fickle. I wonder what that means for LinkedIn and YouTube?

Why does travel have to be so hard?

So I flew into Austin yesterday morning, and apparently this is one difficult place to get to. To get here from Toronto, you basically have to connect through somewhere. I connected through Chicago. Others connected through such places as Dallas, Washington, and Denver. Connecting is always a risky proposition. To get technical, it's a study in probability, where the likelihood of one event happening (getting to your ultimate destination) is highly dependant on the outcome of previous events (your connecting flights). If a statistician is reading this and wants to propose a formula for fun, be my guest. Bonus marks if you can also somehow factor in the probability of your checked baggage arriving at your ultimate destination with you (I won't get into what it takes these days to ensure you can carry on your luggage and eliminate this particular element of probability altogether). Thankfully, my travel was actually right on schedule (including de-icing in Toronto, and Chicago) but others are reporting nightmare stories of delays, cancelled flights, and missing luggage. Why would anyone in their right minds make it so difficult to get here? It's really nice here! The weather (this time of year) is awesome, and the landscape is quite hilly for Texas, which makes for some beautiful views. I also hear the golf is some of the best in the world. If I was in charge of travel and tourism for this city, I'd make sure the airlines were working on more direct flights. Better yet, if I worked for an airline, I'd consider introducing more direct flights. I'm sure they would fill up. The only thing that would make this place better is if I brought my golf clubs, and my family with me.... Next time for sure.

I'm now on Facebook

Kristen said it best yesterday, "how am I supposed to keep all these sites up to date?". What she's referring to is everytime you turn around, there's a new online "community" to join. Windows Live Spaces, LinkedIn, My Space, etc. Well, if you're interested, you can check out my Facebook profile. Write on my wall or something! Add me as a friend! Join my network! Whatever. I'm apologizing in advance if it's not up to date, or if I haven't added you as a friend - yet.

Graduating from Windows Live Spaces

I've just spent the better part of tonight trying to get this blog up and running. Windows Live Spaces is so much easier to use, but I somehow feel like I've graduated to something a little more sophisticated. I feel accomplished, so far. We'll see how long this lasts..

On the couch

IMG_3587
Originally uploaded by steve_and_kristen.

His belly is not his favorite position...

I was just testing out the "Blog this" feature in Flickr with this post. It seems to work well.

Look how cute my son is....