Rick Bell has another good column out, but I have some questions.  And since I guess I'm lumped with the "Nenshi faithful", I can't just sit silently.  Go read Rick's column first.

"She wants her money.  We're on the same side on this one."

It's not simply her money.  I suspect Rick and I are also on the same side on this.

Not so many years ago, we had a mega problem with mega growth in this province.  Some places were getting absolutely killed by a boom that crushed their ability to absorb that growth.  They pleaded for relief from the province, and that relief came in the form of a break the province gave to those towns absorbing the worst of the growth.  The rest of us took up the slack and paid more.

Now the program is over and there is $52 million coming back to the city of Calgary.

Right here is where I split off.

First, I want to ask why that money is getting refunded to the city.  My expectations is if the program is shut down, the last of the money would be used for it's intended purpose.  Honestly, I don't know.  I feel that I should probably be aware of it, but sorry, there is no insight here today.  It does raise a few questions for me, though.

- Why did Calgary end up with a $52 million surplus anyways?  Did the program suddenly come to an end while collections were still happening?
- How much was actually collected and used in this program anyhow?

The massive growth seems to have come to an end a few years back, I don't understand why this program is coming to a close today.  Is there a year long lag between programs and collections?  Does it really take this long to process where we are at fiscally?

Second, I would like some context around the program as a whole.  How much did we pump through this program?  If we have a $52 million surplus, just what was the total amount here?  Are we fighting over $52MM in crumbs here, distracted from the loaf that was just taken from us?

The strange thing is I have no problem with the program.  I recognize the crisis some of those towns were enduring and the idea of transfer payments is well established in Canada.  I doubt they're universally loved by Albertans, but I think they're generally accepted here.  Much to my chagrin, Alberta is a still a boom and bust economy, and it won't change any time soon.  They best we can do is try to absorb the bumps and prepare while times are good.  Transfer payments even amongst towns can be a huge benefit.

A certain degree of vigilance has to be maintained, though.  We can't suddenly say, "Hey, things got better two years ago, let's stop cutting these towns a break now."  That's where some of our greatest governmental waste has historically be slid under the rug.

I want faith that programs like this are needed, that they're doing good, and that they are accountable to us all.  Refunding money already collected erodes that faith.

The problem lies in how the provincial government handled shutting down a program, then shuffled the surplus back to the city.  A surplus I think should have never happened in the first place. 

At least the city is presenting options to us.  If you haven't gone yet, it's far from referendum by website where you have a bunch of radio buttons giving you either / or choices.  I'm directly referencing the now-removed province's budget page here.  Go now, look, and express what you like and what you dislike.  And hey, tax breaks are one of the options listed!

For the record, I live in a part of Calgary that's 100 years old and desperately needs revitalized.  Hey, we never had proper alleys in the first place, we need "vitalized!"  In my heart I feel it's closest to the purpose of why the money was collected in the first place.  Although I think all the options have merit and are worth discussing.

We are not going to have perfect foresight into the future.  We're not going to escape the boom and bust cycle without a lot of work at diversification.  And sometimes we're going to have to do the best we can with the scraps that are left us.

The city is doing the right thing by at least presenting us options.  It's an attempt at transparency that was lost with the original origins of the money.  Go disagree with me and have your own say.

I picked up my BlackBerry Q10 from the post office last night. Tore it open in the parking lot in order to view it in all it's splendor, then rushed straight home to begin the transition.

It came with a letter that advised me to call my mobile provider (Telus for me) in order to make the transition. That's opposed to making the change over online. Great, I backed up my Bold 9900 then made the call from my old phone (I haven't had a landline in five years). The fellow warned me we might get disconnected, he promised to phone back on the new phone in case we did. We did disconnect, my Q10 didn't pick up the connection, it wasn't until I did a battery pull that my phone connected with my wireless provider.

After that, it was three hours of unmitigated ecstasy. I'm choosing my words carefully here. I do not want to undersell my Q10 experience.

Before I get into the Q10, let me first explain why I love all things Blackberry. I am one of the people who have felt left behind in the press of smart phone technology. First off, I'm a typist - a good typist and a relatively fast typist. Pressing glass is not typing, - I need the physical responsiveness of a keyboard, the actual click of the keys, to know that I'm typing properly and keeping my speed up. Some days I feel like a teen texting, but I know that in my world speed of getting out messages *counts* and there is no replacement for a great keyboard. A smart phone without a physical keyboard is pretty dumb for me.

Second, my calendar is my "memory in a bottle." I rely upon my calendar and alarms to keep me productive. Anything that gets in the way breaks my life, so a premium calendar experience matters.

Third, because I'm an IT professional I need email to work reliably and seamlessly. I have alerts sent directly to my phone so I know when I have a problem. Correspondingly, I have cron jobs that run at 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning and I do NOT want to be woken up nightly by an email informing me all went okay.

I may play a game or two to kill time while I'm waiting to pick up my kids or something, but really I'm more concerned with some nice productivity apps - ToDo lists that meet my needs perfectly, a better twitter client that can handle my loads, that sort of thing. I don't care about a million crappy apps, I want a handful of great apps that extend the phone to match my exact needs and desires.

The iPhone is great for many people, and I love Apple for many things but the iPhone is not for me. Apple's disinterest in a physical keyboard is disheartening for me. The non-removable battery is not normally an issue, until I go camping with my kids and can't bring a spare battery for when there are no power outlets about. I love they have an app for everything, but I don't need a lot of apps when the phone is near perfect out of the box. I want to love an iPhone and integrate it with my technology, but I can't. That saddens me.

Android has had me hopeful. Coming from the Linux world puts me in a comfort zone. I like that Google has held looser reins and allowed folks to really stretch the ideas of what their smart phone can do. The hardware has let me down so far. Other than some slide phones, there is nothing equivalent to the BlackBerry physical keyboard on offer. The slide phone that I touched wasn't very good or very responsive. It may be passe, but for me a tactile keyboard makes the difference between a usable phone and a waste of time. When I went to preorder my Q10, I could not even find an Android with a physical keyboard.

In the rush to get the next great thing in smart phones out, I've been left in the neglected demographic. I genuinely love my Bold 9900, but I'm less enthralled with the camera and it's starting to show it's age.

Doesn't anyone except BlackBerry care about us? As of today it no longer matters. BlackBerry cares about me and people like me very much. Although it took longer than it should have to deliver, they have delivered the goods in spades!

-----

Other than the network blip I was warned about, the device switch could not have gone more smoothly. I saved my settings to my SD card, took the card from my Bold 9900 and placed it into my Q10 and followed directions. It was painless and I have yet to find a contact, a wifi network, a phone record out of place. Calendar and alarms which are so essential for me transferred so smoothly I forgot to even check until the alarm woke me this morning. Move on up and GO! That was fast and easy. I love those words.

I then rearranged my icons to put my important apps where I want them. Yes, my "camera" icon is a little redundant, let's call it a placeholder until I adapt to my new phone more. The name of the game here is speed. Things I want quickly or often are available. Call this confirmation of what is important to me on my phone.

I will mention "Remember" in particular. BlackBerry has merged my ToDo list with my Notes. Given that I somewhat misused Notes on my BB9900, this will take me a while to clean up and evaluate. A really good ToDo app (I survive solely due to ToDo Task Manager on my PlayBook from www.mikesandroidworkshop.com) just may be the trick if I don't love Remember, but I won't make a decision for a month or two - complete with potentially more pleading for Mike to port his incredible app if necessary.

This is more than me just talking about icon placement, though. The BlackBerry folks have put together a great design around gestures. By swiping around the screen I can get to things fast. Everything on my phone is easily accessible, even when it's three screens deep. Drop an icon on another to group them in a folder. This phone has amazing competence to handle and organize many levels of apps and to get to what I want quickly. Not to mention the satisfaction of flicking a completed task away to start something else.

I own (and love) my Playbook, so I've had a year to really understand BlackBerry's concept. It is unique to BlackBerry, it doesn't take long to grasp, I certainly hope others appreciate what the flick gesture brings to a phone.

The BlackBerry Hub was what I was most interested in. I have heard two opinions about it: Either it is loved as something super-efficient or it has been described as a good idea, but kinda clunky. Having used it, I understand both viewpoints. If it fits your mindset, you will find it instantly useful.

I already like having one place to go to check calls, voice mail, email, text messages, instant messages, and alerts. The hub works for me very well to get a quick update on, "Where am I standing with regards to my day." Where it does not work is integration with my Twitter account. I follow about 2000 people, few of whom I know personally who I don't include as regular contacts. Happily it was easy to turn off what doesn't belong.  I go to the Hub to get my status reports, then drill down when something needs my attention.

I have only hooked in two of my 13 (*coff* 14 now *coff*) main email accounts to my Q10. My Playbook will continue to be my "Go to" for email on the go, my phone is my primary source for critical alerts and personal email.  I only had to enter basic information to get email to go. Which is great, I'm going to be entirely reliant on my phone until Google gets a 2 step authenticator working on my Q10. Let's hope it comes quickly.

The very best of my Q10 is the continuing theme of this post -- speed.  A fast processor, a fast setup, a fast way to orient, a fast way to maneuver around my screen and a fast, physical keyboard makes this phone blaze along for me. This has exceeded my expectations which I thought were impossibly high 24 hours ago. Nice work, BlackBerry!

Best of all, I have all those lovely BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts back. Skip the apostrophe and "cant" becomes "can't" magically before your eyes, now with a splash of colour so I know when "Hell" becomes "He'll" against my wishes. Click on the screen and it gives a target circle with a cursor in the middle so us fat-finger-folk can actually point to exactly where we want to be. No one has ever put the kind of foresight into keyboard convenience like BlackBerry has. I am loyal if only for that.

The keyboard is absolutely that good. I'm typing this entire post on it right now. I wouldn't consider it pushing glass.

No upgrade comes without compromises and I have two worth mention.  I seriously loved my Bold 9900 and losing the trackpad still has me reaching for that space just above the "t" and "y" keys. The reason is a cost in speed. It was just easier to reach a little above the keyboard and be able to move the cursor or click "okay" without slowing down to move my fingers up the length of the screen. A compromise I'm willing to endure thanks to the larger screen and the vastly improved screen navigation BlackBerry has created for this phone.

The other compromise has been Bridge between my Q10 and my PlayBook is nowhere near the experience I enjoyed with my BB9900. I know, the PlayBook is considered the red-haired step child, but as a companion to a BlackBerry smartphone it is a spectacular device. I still enjoy the instant Internet tethering, but I most used my PlayBook to display my calendar by week or month for strategic analysis of my week ahead. I've lost that until the new BlackBerry Bridge comes out which can not happen soon enough for me. Please, guys, take some of the profit from my preorder and throw some resources into making that great again.

Most people read poor reviews of the PlayBook and have not experienced the power hidden there. As more Z10 and Q10s are sold, I truly hope BlackBerry fans at least consider a PlayBook as a companion to their phone. They work beautifully beautifully together and increases the usefulness of my phone immensely. Get the Bridge perfect soon so people can enjoy this please!


Overall, I hope I don't come off as too much of a Fanboi here, but this is the phone I've been waiting for. This is very much the promise of BlackBerry's magnificent keyboard, their email infrastructure and their creative melding of physical keyed entry and gestured touchscreen navigation. There is nothing else like the Q10 available from anyone other than BlackBerry. They really do care about power users like me who rely upon our phones as tools to get us through our day. This is a serious phone with a solid feel and speedy, speedy operation that makes it a joy to use. BlackBerry has delivered an amazing phone that fills my needs. Thankfully someone has.

I should have clued in a lot earlier in the day that it was going to be one of those days that was something special.  I really need to remember the entire week was a little magical, I just have to remember to look where I want to go.

I'm not going to wax all that poetic, this is a business lunch blog.  In fact, I'm starting at the end.

"I didn't realize you were involved with the Lions" says Naheed.

"I didn't either."

I don't entirely know why not.  Service clubs play a crucial role world-wide in getting good things accomplished.  Seems to me they were once the staple, and I felt like they were falling a little out of fashion amoung my generation.  I think I'm far past due at least getting somewhat in touch.

I got to meet Tony Tighe tonight as well.  Just for the record, meeting the mayor is pretty blase as far as my kids are concerned, but meeting Tony Tighe?  That's just about one of the coolest things ever.  It makes sense, they've watched him for as long as they can remember.  Meeting him in person, well of course he's as nice as you'd expect.  Granted, it helps to be in a room of awesome people.  There was a very high bar set in there tonight.

Going back a little earlier in the evening, I was felt a strong affiliation when Judge Stevenson described the Lions's drive for community service.  I really sensed I was surrounded by people who get stuff done.  Who make a real difference around them.  It felt good, and I want to keep things driving forward.

I told Mayor Nenshi that it was especially nice to meet up with him tonight of all nights.  I joke that he "ruined my life" from that of a quiet, unassuming complainer who did nothing to whatever this is that I've become lately.  Citizen that actually cares?  Calgarian who wants to make the world a little bit better?  Sure, it was always there, but it's only been the past three years or so where I've been able to say I've made a consistent, intentioned effort to do something positive.  But on a night dedicated to those who really do something good in the community, it was awfully nice to see a friend who inspired me to be more targeted and overt in my actions.  I don't meet their standard, but I aspire to do more.

And on the topic of friends, my friend Nargis Dossa became a grandmother today!  It made the day just a little more special to have shared celebrating such a wonderful moment in life.  I met Nargis during the last civic election, I'm pleased to say we've remained friends and I'm extremely pleased to work with her on her campaign this year.  She's been a positive influence around me, a joy to talk with and I have to thank her a thousand times for making me her guest tonight and introducing me to such an amazing group of dedicated people.

Oh, and the music.  The McKenna Family Quintet were captivating.  If you really know me, you know I love music above just about everything and they were terrific.  They are so incredibly lucky to be able to play alongside each other on stage and just perform beautifully.  I was incredibly lucky to be able to hear it.  I enjoyed it very much, the night would not have been anywhere near as magical without them participating.

Which puts me back to walking into the Polish Canadian Cultural Centre and all the great memories of the visits there with Mom.  I missed her very much and had to take a breath or three to compose myself.  It is a place for good memories, tonight added to them significantly.

Before that, the community clean up, getting the community association's computer back on it's feet.  A day of doing good.  A day of accomplishment.  A very special, important day.

Thanks to Nargis, to Naheed, to Tony and to the Lions for letting me sit in on such an amazing night of recognition for such amazing people.  I simply must figure out how to fold them in with my life.  I feel like I'm a better guy today than I was yesterday.

Tomorrow's going to be cool too.  At some point in the day tomorrow I'm going to figure out how to apply what I learned today.

The longer today goes on, the odder it's become.

It started off fantastic with a beautiful ride into downtown on Earth Day.  No one can take that away.

I explored and learned a small ton of awesome stuff at work.  Load balancing?  Yes, please.  I'm more than ready to take it on.

Tonight I got invited to a ContainR update.    This is beyond cool, they're trying to create the most amazing space imaginable in an otherwise fenced off, vacant lot.  Amazing.

And then I come home to bad news, loads of frustrations and anguish.  Seriously?  It just isn't worth it.

Out of my frustration of everything that seems to be wrong, seems to be slimy behind the scenes, everything that stands entirely against my beliefs and principles...  Then:

"you signed up to do a Jane's Walk, you are engaged, you care, you...."

"The sun has recently set, dusk has past, night shall pass, and the sun will rise again. Tomorrow. Relax and sleep well."

"I’m wearing pants, for the sake of world peace."

Some days the world doesn't make sense.  At the end of the day, you're going to find me standing beside those that wear their hearts on their sleeves.  I'll be standing beside those that will say, "I disagree with you, I think you're wrong.  But I'll debate you openly."

I'll be standing with those that say, "We can do something better.  We can create something amazing out of something that would otherwise be rejected.  Together we can make something that has intrinsic value where there was no value before."

Anyone can destroy.  I'm putting my effort into people determined to create something better.  But first, I'm going to relax.  Hopefully sleep well.

Tomorrow I'll create something good.  Then I'll ride my bike to Kensington and look at a little triangle of land at lunch.  Perhaps I'll even buy lunch from someplace along the way.

Life is amazing when you take the time to notice what actually matters.

(Please note: Photos can be seen at http://tiny.cc/aprhphotos )

"This is intriguing.  What's a neighbourhood photo walk, Mark?"

A) Anything you need it to be.
B) A pictorial record of your neighbourhood
C) A good excuse to meet your neighbours.

I need my Albert Park Radisson Heights Photo Walk to fill several of my neighbourhood needs.  The first two answers are listed above, but there are several others.

One of the primary needs a photo walk fills is to gather a pictorial record of the neighbourhood.  To quite literally amass a database of photos that records what is normal in the neighbourhood and what differentiates the unusual that does not belong.  This is very much a long term effort that will require a collective effort over a period of time.

The magic of having a collective effort is that it opens up the ability for everyone - EVERYONE - in the neighbourhood to be able to contribute their perception.  This derived from when my kids were very young and were interested in getting their hands on my camera and taking their own photos.  Sometimes the photos I got were not very good, sometimes the photos were amazing representations of their view on the world.  It is another way for everyone to be able to start a conversation about what they see around them.

Having a pictorial record will also create a pool of photos that can be used to represent your neighbourhood and show it's story.  In my case, part of the germination of the idea was when Heather, our newsletter publisher, asked if she could use some of the amazing sunset photos I've taken of downtown.  Our neighbourhood has one of the best views in the city of the downtown sunsets - we should share them more often.

Having a record of "normal" vs. "unusual" is important from the aspect of community safety.  I want to collect images of the good, the bad and the ugly of the neighbourhood.  Sure, I'm most interested in showing off the beautiful things around me, but I want a record of how things are.  Sure, I have a photograph of the unappealing alley behind my house that I did not publish - part of what I need is simply establishing what you would normally see.  Should there be an accident or vandalism, hopefully I could provide photographic evidence of how things ought to be so we have a target for our restoration efforts.

Showing patterns - or deviation from patterns - makes a photo interesting.  One of the shots I tried to get was a row of blue and black bins in a perfectly straight line -- except for one that was pushed slightly ahead of the others.  I imagined the 'volunteer stepping forward'.  It expresses something about the people here, through the visualization of the place.

A guideline that I gave to my neighbours was that we don't necessarily want to give away where every photo was taken.  (Other than Albert Park / Radisson Heights, of course!)  There are beautiful house numbers on a fence I plan to eventually shoot.  Sure, it may identify the house, but you're going to have to go find the street or avenue on your own.  It creates a reason to explore - can you find the place I shot the photo on your own?  Do you recognize this spot in the neighbourhood?  What made it special enough to capture?

My theme this time around was "Spring" and "Emerging Beauty."  I love shooting to themes, it becomes more challenging and a reason to hunt for the 'right' photos to take.  It's pretty broad, but gives the feel of a special purpose to the group.

And, of course, there's the group.  Getting others to participate is important and special.  Meeting your neighbours matters.  Building connections through the neighbourhood helps make a neighbourhood strong.  People here have beautiful mail boxes and lawn ornaments - I want to tell them in a photo, "Hey, I really love what you've done here.  You've helped make our neighbourhood special."  Having friends with you gives a chance to laugh and chat, but gives them an opportunity to share their perceptions of the neighbourhood and collectively you want work to move towards shared visions.

So let me finish with some basic rules:

1.  A neighbourhood photo walk is about place, not people.  Photos should primarily be capturing the area.  However people are part of the place - when it enhances the view of how people are using the space it's fair game.
2.  A neighbourhood photo walk is about your perceptions of the place around you.  Shoot what grabs your attention.  There are no bad photos.
3.  Because it's about your neighbourhood, respect it while you shoot.  Don't trample someone's flowers just to get a shot.  You should be able to take photos from the sidewalk and demonstrate the curb appeal.

I'm a man of many passions.  I very much enjoy staying busy and having a finger in a lot of pies.  (I like pie.)

Some of my passions make complete sense.  I'm a geek.  I love technology, computers and gadgets.  I love throwing a network together and making things work.

Some of my passions take a moment to think about, but suddenly make sense.  I love astronomy, I love space exploration and I love astrophysics.  Yes, I'm a geek - I got it from my Dad and once my kids demonstrated the gene I jumped right back in with both feet.

Some of my passions take a little longer to explain.  I'm Blockwatch director - (Community Safety) for my neighbourhood.  Just as I love throwing a network together and getting all the pieces talking with each other, I have found a joy in building a community and having the members be excited about creating something a little better than the way things were the day before.

Winding up my neighbourhood Blockwatch program has been fascinating as the official Calgary Blockwatch program has wound down.  It has lead to some bumps along the way - eventually we're going to have to choose a better name.  But the need for a safe neighbourhood hasn't gone away.  The need for a good interaction with the Calgary Police hasn't gone away.  We simply need to find better ways to engage, involve and excite each other.

And let me diverge just a moment to the police.  I am far from a "Law and Order" kind of guy.  But let me be completely clear, the officers I have worked with have been exceptional across the board.  It has very much affected my view of policing and I want to  carry that experience in a bucket and dump it on anyone who doubts we have great people policing in Calgary.

It was at one of our meetings at the District 4 office that we got discussing the light pollution guidelines that were adopted yesterday.  It's not very often my passions collide so wonderfully.

One of the concerns stated was that city hall was bound and determined to turn off the lights in Calgary.  Perhaps a little gleefully, I jumped in and started correcting misconceptions.

Back in the 1980's Calgary began to change our attitude towards lighting and light pollution.  We began installing sodium vapour lighting with shields that directed light downwards onto the streets.  The light was put where it was needed, not glaring up into the sky.  The difference was noticeable.  The skies turned from a whitish haze to a glowing orange.  When I went down to the US for a year I got to experience just how much better Calgary's lighting was compared with other cities.  Calgary has very good coverage, and our attempts to direct the light down to the roadway meant less glare in the skies and more light on the streets themselves.  It was much better than one blaring bulb on a corner expected to provide light for the entire block.  I hope it's changed for them, even so I'm confident Calgary's example lead the way.

The very status of lighting that was being passionately supported actually came from the redesign of our streetlights 30 years ago.  It was accepted as a great status quo and something that shouldn't be changed.

That is precisely why the new guidelines spearheaded by Brian Pincott are so valuable to Calgary going forward.  It is very much the next needed step for lighting in Calgary.

The guidelines do not target the light on the streets, it is specifically focussed on putting the light precisely where we want light to be.  It will retain well lit, safe streets.  It is aimed to keeping our neighbourhoods safe and navigable at night.  But it keeps the light down where it's needed, not glaring everywhere.

Anyone can go out and notice the difference the sodium halide lights have made.  Go out tonight and look around the city.  Observe the orange glow and try to spot a white lamp amongst them.  The white will instantly catch your eye, it will likely be unshielded, and it is simply wasted energy putting light to where you're standing instead of getting the light where it was intended.  The new guidelines are all about getting proper lighting and instead of spreading it everywhere focussing it properly.

The benefits usually get shrunken down to, "The astronomers love it."  Yes, yes we do.  The wildlife appreciates it as well, as does any of us that sleep better without a light glaring through our bedroom windows. 

There are many more clear benefits that every citizen experiences.  The biggest is that more efficient lighting saves us a boat load of money.  Putting light in one direction and not 360 degrees of coverage inherently makes sense - it also means you can significantly reduce the power needed to light the streets.  Lower wattages also means more efficient bulbs at lower temperatures and that brings about longer bulb life with less need to replace them.  More savings, and more safety because there is less downtime when a bulb burns out!

This is truly a good thing.

One last thing to note, the photo Chris Hadfield took over Calgary at night has been mentioned many times over.  It's so pretty but it's so bright!  Oh dear, will we lose such beautiful views?

Probably not, to be honest.  What we will lose is the bright glare going directly to space.  The view we will keep is the reflected light bounced from the ground.  Nose Hill park will remain dark because there aren't many lights at all up there.  It's a little tough to spot the glare because there are clouds in the photo, but the white glare of concentrated, unfocused lights are really what we want to lose.  If you share my desire to someday go into space, our view will be very similar to Chris's - perhaps a little clearer and without as much bright glare being a distraction.

Our city's new regulations are nothing but good for our safety, our streets, our wildlife, ourselves and our pocket books.  This is a great move forward.

I'm ashamed to say I've raged on this topic before and I'm saddened that I'll rage on it again.  And so it goes on, and once more I blather into the void that is blogdom.

And I'm okay with that.

I'll point out again when I started this blog it began as a place for me to throw up photos to share with my family.  It's went through a whole lot of change since then - now instead of my Mom being my target reader, the me of the future is my own target reader.  This serves as a sort of journal to my life these days in that uncomfortable, self-absorbed kind of way.

The major point is that I am going through another significant round of transition right now.  As I go through a more significant change I certainly draw from previous experience and some of the lessons I've learned along the way.  I'm drawing strength from that knowledge, it is through learning to apply it in new ways that we grow.

I'm five paragraphs in and I have yet to actually say, "Yet another tech conference.  Yet another uproar over comments perceived as sexist and inappropriate.  Yet another escalation of an otherwise insignificant event."  In reality, my favourite response came from Ken Fisher at ars technica.  I liked it so much I gave it a link and recommend you go read it too.

The last time I recall addressing a similar issue was a few years back at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference.  For context, I was working in a Ruby on Rails environment at the time with an exceptionally talented Ruby on Rails coder as our lead programmer.  She brought it to my attention and it became formative to my life's plan.

Simply stated, I have become a huge admirer of some of the people involved and they have influenced me to both become a better person but also to increase my abilities.  Sarah Mei was one of the first to draw my attention, Mike Gunderloy has become a massively inspirational figure to me from his integrity and thought.  I have remained distant fans of both - from afar and in a very non-creepy manner I hope.  Along with Lori, they inspired me to tackle the Ruby route.

No, it hasn't went as smoothly or as quickly as I had hoped, but I have found a whole world of abilities within myself that I did not know existed.  Last week I met with a recruiter in downtown Calgary who mentioned that I sounded like a huge fan of Agile.  "Not really," I thought out loud, "I found it very disruptive on occasion when we had a set of pair programmers that simply didn't fit into the environment too."  A true, good Agile programmer ought to recognize which of their Agile methodologies are working and which ought to be de-emphasized based on the feedback around them.  And it clicked in my mind.

Being a generalist means I love to learn from the environment around me and to try to understand everything I possibly can in order to bring improvements around me.  I've discussed this while reworking my resume last week -- it's a talent to recognize that CRM "A" needed upgrading, when CRM "B" languished from disuse we had to find a new solution that solved the problems of the first and wasn't so cumbersome that it would actually be used.  I have to understand appropriateness.  I don't quite know how to best explain it, but that's why I hash out ideas here.

So when inappropriateness occurs at a Python conference, my ideas line up again.

It is completely and entirely inappropriate to fire off sexist jokes at a technical conference.  Period.  It has been too much of a problem for far too long, too many people have been uncomfortable about it, too many people have been upset by it.  At this stage ignorance is no longer an excuse (and let's be honest, it was never a good excuse in the first place).  Go to a conference, act professionally.  If I go to a comedy club and hear a racy joke I won't be upset, if I'm at a professional conference it's fair to say, "Not cool."

Saying "Not cool" is, in fact, very cool.  When people like Mike stand up to express their opinions in a public forum it becomes inspiring to people like me.  Bringing that inspiration to others makes those around us even better than before, we all need to maximize our talents.  Some times we all need our own reality checks.  If you accept it as constructive criticism and improve, all the better.

Escalation is very uncool.  I've learned long ago that disciple involves correcting a mistake, an error or a misbehaviour.  Escalating by means of degradation, humiliation or even by giving ultimatums ('Shut up or else you'll be escorted from the building!") has little to do with disciple.  Set the standard, when people do not abide by the standard then it's valid to point it out and offer an opportunity for them to redress themselves.  Usually things stop there and positive outcomes result.  When it doesn't, that's the time to firmly and politely ask the offender to leave.

Ultimately, we ought to be looking towards the positive outcome.  Even in the negative of GoGaRuCo 2009 I'd argue the positive came from my inspiration from Sarah and Mike.  Learning and applying those lessons are key.  Improving myself, increasing my knowledge and skills base, and actually becoming a better person are incredibly important outcomes.  The ultimate result must be an increased drive to help each other improve ourselves.

From a coding perspective, we want to provide opportunity for women to apply their skills.  Right now they are under-represented in technology fields.  Any barrier to recruiting or retaining a skilled woman willing to participate needs to be eliminated.  We need every person we can get.  We need every diverse viewpoint we can get.  It enriches us all, we are not in a position to be exclusionary in the slightest.  Only positive outcomes will come when we encourage everyone to work to the best of their abilities.  Programming as a career is one window into the wider issue of gender balance we need moving forward.

There's a flip side to this, too.  When I attended university there were more men than women graduating.  That's now reversed and the gap is increasing.  As a society we cannot afford to have an entire gender ghettoized.  We gape at the prospect of keeping a woman "..in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant" as an anachronism today.  It would be equally unacceptable for men to fall into the same role in 20 years.  We need each other to succeed.  We need to recognize professionals in every field.  It is fundamental to being a complete society.

We need to recognize that bringing and end to the lame jokes is more than just Political Correctness run amok.  The outcome needs to be about working together and letting every person bring their best to the table.  We need to understand that we need educated men and women for tomorrow's society.  We need talented men and women to excel in skilled trades.  We need to encourage everyone to contribute.  We do not have the luxury of floating - especially with a shaky economy and an infrastructure deficit, an environmental deficit and where the gap between Haves and Have-Nots is increasing.

If treating each other respectfully is a part of the answer, I'm all for it.  I'm not so trite to believe it's the complete solution.

Back to myself, I need to remind myself that ultimately my endpoint needs to include basic survival, but also I need to explain that I bring with me the ability to distinguish what is ultimately essential for business success.  I know appropriate infrastructure, I know appropriate staffing, I know appropriate business models (yeah, that was hard knocks).  I can improve my skills appropriately to fill business needs.  Applying lessons from around me and applying them to other situations is a skill I need to apply daily.

I'm still growing as a person.  It's amazing what you can accomplish when you apply your best to get better.  Don't let the cruft get in the way, learn from the lessons and drive forward.

Hey Tom, sorry to hear the news today.

Honestly, I'm lost in that horrible mix of feeling sad and feeling grateful.  Sad because I won't get to see you again.  Grateful that you are such a big part of my life, and always will be.

I first had the Stompin' Tom experience when I was in my 20's.  I was working with another fellow, he was driving us to the job site.  We got rolling and this amazing song started playing.  It was your Snowmobile Song.  I was stunned.  It was incredible to me that someone would write a song about snowmobiling, but it was twice as cool when the song had the sense of all the fun, the dips, the rises, the turns of actually riding.

Shawn lunged with horror to eject the cassette, I stopped him and made him keep playing it.  All that day we listened to that tape over and over again.  It was the start of my love of your music.  Of *our* music.  For it very much belongs to each and every Canadian who embraces it.  It's about us, written by one of us, telling ourselves about us, and I will never forget it.

You know, Tom, that was 10 years after you gave back your Junos.  I didn't know about your childhood.  I didn't know about how you started playing in the Horseshoe.  I was told about you bringing plywood on stage - that was a pretty common story of how you destroyed the stage with your Stompin' so you always carried a piece of wood with you that you were free to crush under your boot.  Over the years I collected two fragments of your plywood - both left at an ex-girlfriend's house along with your DVD.  They don't matter as much to me anymore, but the music - the music means everything!

I saw you live twice.  Once was at the Jack Singer.  I got a single seat on the end of the third row and it was a show I will never, ever forget my entire life.  Wow, you kicked up a great show.  The first five or ten rows were CRAZY with fans.  It was wild, it was a party, it was Canadian.  I bought $200 of CD's I love more than anything.

The second time was when you came to the Jubilee.  I will treasure that show more than the first time, though.  That was the show I went to with my children.  The music they knew throughout their whole life was played right there in front of them.  My kids were at that age when they could just enjoy it.  They sang along with the songs (along with me, of course!) and we clapped and stomped and had a great time in the crowd.  We drove home together singing together and remembering just how incredible your music is.  Just a side note, Tim Hus opened for you that night and played right along with you that show.  Tim's another friend of ours, when I last met him we told him we were at that show and Tim had a little twinkle in his eye and said, "Oooh, you were at *that* show."

Tom, every Canada Day I listen to your songs and remember why I love our country.  I remember why I love you and your music and how it makes me a better person, even a better Canadian.  I'm proud to carry that torch you're passing, Tom.  Your version of the Maple Leaf Forever will always be my favourite.

Thanks, Tom.  I'll try to do a little stompin' of my own in your boot prints.


Tom's message to us:

 "Hello friends, I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin' Tom."

"It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with it's beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world."

"I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the Patriot Canada needs now and in the future."

"I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done."

Sincerely,

Your Friend always,

Stompin' Tom Connors

If you know me, you know that I'm a big fan of cycling.  Cycling is my favourite way of getting around by far.  It's my favourite exercise.  It's my favourite way to enjoy a warm summer evening.  It's my favourite way to put serious miles under my belt.

It's not my favourite sport.  That's football to watch, curling to play.  I take my football CFL, thank you very much.

So people who casually know I love cycling have been asking my opinion on Lance Armstrong.  Lately it's been happening a lot.  Enough for me to notice, and once I've noticed I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with it.

My interest in competitive cycling was short lived.  Yeah, I loved the time trials in the Olympics.  The Tour de France is really a pretty cool idea.  I don't know if I'd want to do it competitively but I wouldn't mind having the time and money to do it on my own.  But I'm not much of a spandex guy.  And I'm not so sure I 'get' the peloton idea.  Or more precisely I don't get the team peloton idea.  I fully understand drafting and pushing each other forward, but I'd have a read problem riding in support to make some other guy win.

But it was those Tour guys that started really turning me off.  Maybe it's back to the team peloton concept or something in their collective attitude, but somehow they just tweaked my nose the wrong way and I said to hell with them.  Once doping was clearly demonstrated in 1998 I lost all interest.  I've never watched anything on the Tour since then other than highlight reels on sports coverage.  Precious few of those lately, too.

By the time Armstrong made his astounding comeback I had mostly lost interest anyways.  However his story was compelling enough to almost make me want to believe.  It was a pretty hard sell to put away my skepticism, but I tried.  The more riders and their teams pulled out after sketchy drug tests the less I sought out any kind of coverage.  I never fully bought into the lie, with the more I heard the less I was even willing to give the benefit of doubt.

The tipping point was when someone tried to convince me Armstrong had a superhuman metabolism.  His body had some amazing power to break down lactose or process oxygen or some stupid thing.  Citing a sketchy paper with questionable data, no less.  Say what you want, I'm still a scientist at heart and I'm not afraid to get down and dirty in the research.  I was not convinced.

So tonight I got home, let the dogs out to do their business, and opened my laptop in order to start getting on top of the things I need to get done.  I opened up Google News and at the top:  "UPDATE 3 - Cycling - Lance Armstrong finally admits to doping"

Rather than read anything about it, I decided to write a quick blog instead.  It's worth more of my time than to read up on a cheat and a liar.

Lance Armstrong, just go away.  Don't ruin anyone else's life.  Go fade away.  Not that I'll care, I won't be paying attention.

Change the name of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  Tomorrow.  Give it back to the people who cared enough to build it with genuine work and effort.  I feel bad enough I let one of my kids take one of those yellow bands out of a geocache.

To organized cycling, you've lost me, forever.  No amount of pissing in a cup will ever restore my faith in your sport.  No gimmick will ever bring me back.  I hope you accept how much harm the systemic doping did and the unwillingness to take it on.  Same goes to every other sport that looks sideways at the severity of doping.  CFL, don't let me down.

But I refuse to end it on a scumball.  I'd much rather end this thinking of an athlete worthy of mention.  If you've lost a hero today, here's an athlete worth knowing:

To Clara Hughes, I TOTALLY love you.  I saw you once in person at the Olympic oval and you were a scary incredible athlete.  I look up to you as a person, I admire you as an athlete and you almost brought me back to cycling.  You were the last to draw me into competitive cycling and tonight I most want to remember you as a speed skater.  No matter, I still find you an inspiring person.  If I've done nothing but introduce one more person to someone I genuinely care about and admire, it was worth so much more than reading about someone I don't.

If you don't know Clara, go visit her or find her on facebook.  Make something positive out of today.

As for me?  I'm not going to read that coverage.  Instead I can't wait to get out on my bike and go ride someplace unimportant.

@NASA:  Want to wish the crew on the #ISS a happy holiday? Send them a postcard: http://go.nasa.gov/hOuaAI

Dear ISS Crew,

Every single day you inspire me.  Every single moment you are up there I am grateful for your work.  Your effort.  Your science that makes my life better.  Your photos that make me gasp with amazement.  Your videos of playful personal time.  Your efforts to reach out to children and excite them to learn about our beautiful world.  Your efforts to reach out to adults like me who crave the experience of being with you.  Your efforts to reach out to every citizen of earth with the peace and understanding you exemplify among your crew.  Thank you for making my world better.  Thank you for being amazing role models.  And thank you most of all for being true heroes I can look up to.

Always waving as you pass over

  - Mark "Zarquil" Zaugg
    Calgary