TOW: Mindblank!

I wish I could say I've been thinking about something this week, but I really haven't.  Well, nothing related to work stuff, or life stuff.  I have sort of re-found a passion for some of my hobbies, which is really nice, and I'm working on a few side projects, that I really hope that I can share with you guys soon.  I guess the one thing I have been thinking about lately is the comment, "Being passionate means you would do things even if you had to do them for free."  I've sort of been thinking about that, and how I do a lot of things for free, but I really like them.  (Heck, I think if I charged money for certain activities I wouldn't like them as much...)

But generally, my thoughts for the upcoming weeks are:  Work, side projects, sleep, Liz is here, exercise.  It helps that I was out till 5 a.m. last night so that would explain why I'm not really in a thinking mood.

VOW: Happy Halloween

Bahaha

Found here:  http://jakethelab.com/

Liz and I halloween 2011

Eating Dinner with Liz at Joy Bistro

Liz terrified of the streetcar

Hur hur. 

One of my Best Friends is in Toronto! =D

Liz is here!  She's LIVING here!!!! =D


Afternoon and evening hijinx to follow!  =D

TOW: Taking Chances

"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?" ~ Frank Scully

I've been doing some things lately that are very risky.


Anyone who knows me probably knows I'm a very risk-averse person.  (Er, now that I think of it, maybe people don't think that.  Actually, now I just wonder what people think....) I like to manage all my risks and not go out too far into the unknown and be eternally screwed, that sort of thing.  But lately I have been working with the attitude, especially in business, that risk is a good thing, and with bigger risks will come bigger rewards.

Er, well maybe!



=)

And while I might not be singing "Taking Chances" by Celine (although, full disclosure, I may be listening to it...) I'm certainly interested in pursuing activities that allow me to take chances and feel good about myself.  There's a big world out there, and it's tough to just look over a chasm of opportunity and not know what's around the corner.  (I'm the kinda guy that likes knowing what's around the corner...)

I think a lot of people are scared about taking chances where they might lose out, big time.  I've never been scared of things like that (although there are times I'm scared while doing such things) and I rather enjoy going out and trying new things, it really lights up my life most days.  Because sometimes the most interesting thing about life is knowing that you can change in an instant, if only you're open to the idea of doing something differently.

VOW: Chocolate Weetabix

I effin' loved this.

At Small Business Forum 2011

TOW: Getting Older

Between all the bad news friends got this week, and going to very business-y conferences this week, not to mention the ridiculous weekend antics my friends got into, it's been a bit of a weird week.  I'm realizing that I'm getting quite sick of the 'social scene' that Toronto has to offer, not to mention all the drama that people my age often have.  My friend Derek was actually quite depressed because we walked into a bar for a drink and he realized he was surrounded by people in their 40s out to party on a Saturday night.  I suppose it had never occurred to him until that moment that that could be his life in 10-15 years.  It freaked him out a little bit and he said to me, "Can you imagine going to a bar when you're 40 in a suit like these people?"

Of course I can't.

The point for me is that as I get older, I get interested in different things.  These days, my career and my love life are a big focus for me, especially because dating only gets harder as you get older.  I'm starting to think about the future, and what I want for myself, and for my family.  I'm sure when I'm 40, I'll be interested in fibre content and heart health, but until then, bacon for breakfast is a magical thing.  Oh, and eggs.  I love eggs.

My joints aren't what they used to be, and now I try and take care to not injure myself because I take a lot longer to heal these days.  I can see my hair isn't as full as it used to be, but I've still got a pretty good mane, so I count myself among the lucky (and the vain).  Life changes as you get older.  And most people say, getting older sucks.

 I'm not entirely sure about that, but I am sure that I will try and enjoy my life for what it is, not for what I wish it would be.  I don't really need a lot to be happy, and I think I've actually pared down my expectations and needs for what it takes for me to be content.  I don't need a lot of 'things' although I will admit I can't get enough of new technology and new toys, but I like simple things, like hanging out with my friends, being creative on my own time, and volunteering.  Stuff like that really gets me in the right frame of mine.

I'm sure that if/when I make it to 40, I'll be just as happy then as I am now.  Or maybe even happier.  Because for me, my happiness expands as the number of good, trusting people in my life expands.  And slowly, that number is growing, here in the big city.  I'm learning ways to protect myself from the sort of problems people experience here, and I'm also learning how to love myself, as someone who hasn't really lived in English Canadian culture as an adult for a very long. (technically, for me, I grew up in a foreign country, all by myself.)  But I'm learning to love it in my own way.

I know some things won't be good about growing older, but there's a lot of good things in life to enjoy, no matter what age, and what ails you.  I only hope that I can face age with grace rather than vanity, and hope rather than despair as things change and my younger years get left behind.

VOW: BeenerKeeKee19952 With Glee Cast.

Apparently this kid, named Keener Cahill has a disability, but he's lip synced famous videos with a BUNCH of celebrities, and they all seem to be having a lot of fun. It's cute to watch. The one with Jason Derulo is also pretty cute.

Wow, Blogger finally came out of the 1990s....scary thought.  I've updated my template...let me know if you think it's too much...I kind of like the wider style, I'll have less problems with the updated CSS and HTML I think, so here's to new things!

Being Employed

I got texts from two friends within two hours of each other that they had been laid off.

I thought about saving this until the weekend, but I wanted to talk about how I feel about things like this.

Being unemployed sucks.  It really sucks.  Being let go, especially when you've been working hard really hurts.  And all those feelings you have about work, about how hard (or not hard) you've been trying come up out of nowhere and attack you when your defenses are down.  And all you can do is say, "Well, here's to the future."  For some people, that transition into something that is 'the future' is going to be really easy, and they won't spend more than several weeks unemployed.

But more and more people my age are getting laid off, and being unable to re-employ themselves. I should know because it's happened to me.  It's not pretty and you feel like an arse throughout the entire process.   There are plenty of people in the baby boomer age group that complain when they are laid off because they say young people are taking all their jobs.  Haha.  Yeah right. 

I have a hard time feeling sorry for these people.  You've had a life to make yourself a living and savings.  You have a nest egg usually and you, baby boomers, and sub-prime mortgages, are the reason people my age can't get employment anywhere.  I've seen people 10 years too old to be in junior positions and working them like the next hot intern off the press.  In other words, no matter what happens in the next twenty years, my generation is screwed.  We don't know it yet, but having followed the labour stats around the world, and it's not pretty.  In Spain, youth unemployment, ages 15-24 is 45%.  It's higher than Greece, which is 42.9%.

Basically half of Spain's youth are unemployed.  And the 'regular' unemployment rate of Spain is 21.3%  That means there are about 5 million people unemployed in Spain.  Think about that....Canada only has 33.7 million people.  If we had that many unemployed, where would we be??  Our unemployment number say that we're at 14 per cent youth unemployment, and the overall unemployment rate is 7%.  It's going down, but it doesn't mean people are employed full-time it just means they're employed.  People are age are stuck in terminal, part-time or entry level positions.   

The real employment stat that no one wants to talk about, but has been featured in the media for over a year, is how many unemployed college and university grads there are...and let me tell you, there are a lot of them.  But no one is counting them as a separate group unless it's a university, and they inflate their numbers for marketing purposes.  When was the last time Stats Canada ever did anything that helped people ages 25-30 or counted them as a separate group?  Because that's my generation, and we've been referred to by Macleans as 'Generation Screwed.'

And I believe it.  Other than my friends that have government or bank jobs, I can't think of anyone my age who isn't hopping from ship to sinking ship.  Because no one can afford to employ people in my age group.  We don't have enough experience, we don't have enough connections, and we don't have enough opportunity.  It's a bit of rant, but when will people our age be granted middle class opportunities that were available to the generations before us?  And I'm not saying, "Where's my piece of the pie?"  I'm saying "Where'd the freaking pie go?" 

 
If and when I ever run a bigger business, I hope I employ plenty of people my age, from my generation, and plenty of people younger than me.  I wish more organizations would put effort into hiring younger employees.  They're cheaper, they will generally work hard or even harder than more senior employees and they honestly want to get experience.  I'm really sick of seeing what has been happening to people I've gone to school with and other friends lose their jobs over economic conditions they can't control.  When a friend loses their job, it just makes me really, really sad.  Employment was bad in the 90s as well, but this...this is the fault of a bunch of bad decisions and bad debt.  I'm fine with both of those things, but when are people older than me going to start making smart decisions for themselves and for their own children instead of complaining that they don't understand why their kids can't find jobs.


Ugh.  I could rant about this all day.

TOW: What I'm Thankful for in 2011

Well, it's been a year.


It's been a really long year in some ways.  In fact, it's been a tough year.  But it's been a liveable year.   Year before that, not so much.

What I'm thankful for this year is a pretty good list:

• My health
• My family, my really, really great family.
• My best friends.  The people who call me several times a day just to tell me they're stressed or bored or wondering what's going on in my life.  For the people who climb stairs with me or push me to be sillier, smarter, calmer, stronger than I would be by myself.
• For the peace we have in Canada.  
• For the safe access to food and water that we have in abundance.  There's plenty of places this year (Haiti, Africa in general, Sudan, Somalia) where social injustice, poverty and famine are literally killing the people.
• For the (relative) financial stability of Canada and myself this year.  My life sometimes feels mirrored by the world's financial state at the moment.
• For all the tough situations this year that have made my life harder, but have got me working to create a better life for myself.

More than anything, I'm thankful for anyone in my life that has tried to make me smile and be happy over the past year.  So cheers to those people who have been there for me during the rough times, and laughed with me during the good times.

VOW: Crazy Russian on the Beach

TOW: Dreams

A long time ago, a wise Asian philosopher has a very realistic dream that he was a butterfly.  When he awoke, he wondered, was he a butterfly that was dreaming he was a human, or a human that dreamt he was a butterfly?

Descartes continued along this line of thought, and asked, what's to stop us from assuming our version of reality is made up?  Perhaps there could be some sort of demon-like conspirator, who keeps us tangled up in what we think is reality, which is really just a dream-like state. 

More than anything, the dreams we have at night not only make us question the reality we have, but can  colour our perceptions of reality and our day-to-day tasks.  


There is nothing worse than dreaming you'll fail an exam or an important task the night before said task actually happens.  But those dreams make a difference in how we perceive our reality and how we deal with certain tasks from time to time.  Sometimes I've had feelings change towards an individual that I don't know very well simply because I had a dream where that person was one of the main characters, so to speak. Jung wrote a very interesting line about dream analysis, and said that we often take for granted the power of our subconscious mind:


The dream shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is."  (The Practice of Psychotherapy)
 

And this is the beauty and also the danger in having dreams.  Dreams seem to us to be an alternate reality:  a place where physical laws need not be obeyed, nor regular societal standards, and dreams to us often forebode tellings of the future or reminiscences of the past.  And the few times that dreams do speak to our present, the dream is rarely a more pleasant version of the reality we have--it is often alien, and seemingly strange to the way we currently live our lives.

What really matters in life is that we take dreams to be part of us--part of those crazy and wild desires we ignore, part of our 'shadow self' that we repress, part of ourselves that sometimes we didn't even know existed.  But dreams can change the way we think about people in real life, and change the way we think about ourselves.  Dreams are not necessarily there to guide us, but often to show us something hidden that we have yet to consider or discover.

VOW: Dynamic Baby Dance Lessons

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Hilarious.