Observations from an outsider - The Mayoral Debate and City of Thunder Bay

After attending the YPN mayoral debate on Thursday I made some observations and developed the question I never asked.

THE QUESTION I NEVER ASKED

I will start with a statement, make a two-pronged question, and end with a clarification.

The statement: Thunder Bay is not unique

The question: What will you do to differentiate Thunder Bay from other places and how will you do it?

Clarification: This is not a debate whether Thunder Bay is unique or not. Canada is a beautiful country from east to west, many places with similar challenges and opportunities as Thunder Bay. Our own biases clouds our thinking and we don't understand why others don't see what we see in this city.

OBSERVATION #1: PEOPLE OF THUNDER BAY DON'T LIVE IN THE CITY
Wintertime, people in Thunder Bay hibernate and during the summer, people escape to their camps on the weekends and during the week they don't hesitate to drive back and forth. They live at camp, wake up every morning to the beautiful nature surrounding Thunder Bay. I think therefore, many (older) people of Thunder Bay actually don't see the need for developing an active city centre with arts and culture, a nice city landscape with maintained buildings and green spots. Myself, I'm missing a street with no cars and outdoor cafes, sales racks, artists drawing caricatures and street musicians.

OBSERVATION #2: IT TAKES A WHILE FOR NEWCOMERS TO INVITED IN
For years you have done the same thing, with the same group of friends. When lunch hit on Friday you skip out of work and get in the car to drive to camp, where you meet with your childhood friends that has the camp next to you. Your new colleague is left at work, staying til 5 and with nothing to do on the weekend. I find people in Thunder Bay to be nice, very friendly, but it sure takes time to “break into their lives”, I know, I've been there. I've spoken to others that have been there and we ask the question “What do you do in Thunder Bay?”

OBSERVATION #3: THE MAYORAL CANDIDATES THINKS IT IS BAD THAT YOUNG PEOPLE LEAVE THE CITY
Encourage the kids to leave the city! Have them go out there and get some experience, let them see there is a world outside. However, Thunder Bay should focus on developing a city the youth would want to come back to. One with job opportunities, entrepreneurial support and exciting activities. One with a safe environment for growing a family, with affordable housing, day care and comprehensive health care.

They are back - Paper Lions in Thunder Bay

October 16 last year I wrote about Paper Lions and today I write about them again. They are back - in Thunder Bay on Wednesday, October 13 at Jacks. Don't miss this opportunity to see this awesome, energetic, and entertaining band live

http://www.myspace.com/paperlionsmusic

Norge sin versjon av BPs Oljesøl

Ser at norske media mer eller mindre daglig dekker oljesølet forårsaket av BP og leser med glede at dette bidrar til utsetting av oljeboring lengre nord i Norge.

Håper også etter hvert at dette vil bringe tilbake diskusjonenen om Norsk deltagelse i Canadisk oljesand boring.

"Tar Sands will prove to be a greater environmental disaster than the BP spill"

Last end rapporten Canada's Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth

Kilder
VG Obama: - Katastrofen viser at vi må satse på fornybar energi
Dagbladet BP skal betale, uansett hva det koster

In case of fire, do not use elevator - Inscribing action

Before the days of using credit card sized, plastic card as a key for a hotel room, they used regular a key.

Very often the key would be accompanied by a massive key chain. The chain would be so big that it made it awkward to put the key in any pocket or small purse. You wonder why?

Because, people lost hotel keys. Replacing keys are more expensive than replacing plastic cards and the hotels were eager to have you leave the room key with them when you left the hotel, wether it was for a dinner, an errand, or for good. They added a key chain that made the majority of hotel guest choose to swing by the customer service desk to have the key stay with the hotel while they were out. Without saying to you, leave the key with us they inscribed the action by adding the key chain.

Last night I stayed at Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown. Early night, after I had fallen asleep may I add, the fire alarm went off. I jumped! High, fast, and out of bed. Quickly threw on a pair of pants, a shirt, grabbed by jacket and headed out of the room and to the stairs.

I thought I would be in good company running down those stairs, but oddly enough, there was only another gentleman and myself. We arrive at the lobby and was met by three staff occupied answering the phones, which were ringing of the hook. There seemed to be no evacuation taking place, so we decide to wait in the lobby. As we’re waiting more people enter the lobby, some in pyjamas - via the elevator.

There is it at least one place I don’t want to get caught stuck, and that is, in an elevator, during a fire. What’s with people?!

It made me wonder, why elevators continue to operate during a fire alarm. Technology has come so far that cars are now practically driving themselves (some more than others), so why aren’t elevators automatically brought to lobby level and halted at the sounds of a fire alarm and thereby inscribing the action - in case of fire - take the stairs?

Making up other people's life

I was sitting at Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto last night, having a meal and a drink in solitude - enjoying it.

Right next to me was a table of four women, in their mid to late twenties I’d guess. As I am studying their faces and interactions I am all of a sudden spinning up their life stories.

The first woman is eccentric and well-off. Well, her fiance is sponsoring her expensive habit. She demonstrates her new purse purchase and raises her foot to show off the latest boots. She got big ear rings, laughs loud, and has a very intense look. She is beautiful, seems easy going, and have absolutely no worries.

Next to her sits the Asian rebel, I bet she does not have a boyfriend, or husband to be. She is into her career and very smart. She is a bit of a drama queen though, adding to her story-telling with body language that underline the key points. She gets her friends attention when she looks like she is about to cry while telling a story. Seconds later, she is smiling and laughing at something else. She is a small, beautiful woman, and she knows it.

Then you have the one that strives to keep up with the two first, She is a bit bigger, but dresses very well to “compensate.” I think she just got married. She is showing her friends a photo a frame, and I think it is her and her husband on a beach somewhere nice and warm. They all go ahhhh.

The last one is the jealous one. She does not have a boyfriend, she does not love her job, she does not have the beauty, and she thinks her friends are all superficial. She feels like they don’t care - about her. She does not smile once, does not engage in the conversation, she looks bored.

Wonder what story the other guests made about the woman sitting at a table by herself, drinking a beer, gobbling down her sandwich, while laughing and smiling to herself.

March 8 - International Woman's Day

On March 8, Miss Hanne Nabintu Herland, a research on religion won’t be marching in support of International Woman’s Day. She suggests that “Today we [women], need to turn off the TV and give him a sexual surprise.”

Miss Herland says a lot of things, among what she claims is that we do have have equal pay in Norway, even though SSB indicates a NOK 15 in difference. She bases this on the following: “As women, we are not interested in leading careers, and choose lower pay positions.”

I do see that Miss Herland has a point that as women we (in the western world, mostly) have the right to choose our career, but I think Miss Herland misses the point. Why is ok for typical women’s careers, for example, nursing, to be a low(er)-pay career?

I would imagine that when the highly paid male CEO comes in with a heart attack, he prefers to have a top notch, highly qualified, and professional nurse on his team - so god darn it, pay her what she is worth when your life is at risk!

Source and Inspiration: http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/03/08/nyheter/innenriks/kvinnedagen/mannedagen/sex/10751219/

CORRECTION:

Not NOK 15, but rather 15% difference in salary between men dominated professions versus women dominated professions - big difference!

Testing MacJournal

The other day I bought MacJournal as a part of the MacHeist package. I had been looking for an affordable and functional note taking software for a while. While I had not tried MacJournal yet, it was definitely a bonus for me that it was included in the package.

Anyway, I wanted to try how MacJournal work with posting articles to my blog. If you read this, it is because it succeeded.

And, it was very simple. I set up my various journals, including the one I want to use for blogging. I clicked on the Inspector, from the Journal menu, I selected Custom where it said Blog, and next edit.

I chose to enter my blog URL and next, e voila, it populated the configuration with what I presume are the necessary entries for making this work.

So, now that I have written this, I guess I need to figure out how to actually post. Updates to follow.

Ok, I’m kind of looking for a publish button. Maybe I’m getting this wrong....

Oh found it...

Under topic, right click on the journal entry you want to publish, click “Share”, select Sent to ’name of blog’.

I’m gonna try it now.... here we go.

Progressive Norway jumping backwards

Holmenkollen, is a ski jumping hill in Norway with a lot of history, nationally as well as internationally. The hill raises proudly above Oslo, reminding Norwegian's of the many proud memories in the nations ski history. Another history was to be made tonight, Wednesday March 3, 2010, however there were some old minds that decided otherwise.

Holmenkollen has undergone renovation and the official opening was scheduled for tonight. There were some heated discussion in Norway as to who should get the honour of being the first one down the hill. The committee landed on Anette Sagen, one of the women that was behind taking VANOC to court for not allowing women to jump in the Olympics.

I don't really care who was to go first, but then a name is announced I respect the choice. As a woman and Norwegian, I was happy and proud that they had chosen Anette.

However, last night, Bjørn Einar Romøren, a member of the men's national team and 11 other men were the first to jump. It is claimed that this was done for Sagen's safety.

This is wrong - for several reasons:

1) Media got hold of the news and pictures to show Romøren making the first jump. Which makes the event a PR stunt.

2) Members from Kollenhopp, who were against Sagen being the first were present. Obviously endorsing the jumping.

3) If you are concerned about safety, don't have a member of the national team jump first!

Norway is a country that is known for it progressive social and equality policies, however I think this act shows the country is by far progressive.

It's also sad to see Romøren and the other agreeing to jump, that they have such disrespect for Sagen and the committee.

When the world cup comes to Holmenkollen later this year, I wish that all international ski jumpers would choose not to attend. In solidarity. Forget the gender of Sagen, if somebody had promised YOU to get the honour of being first, what would you feel if a colleague beat you to it?

Kan ikke tro vi har så smålige ledere i hoppsporten
Romøren førstemann utenfor i nye Kollen