New Year’s Eve is a weird juxtaposition for so many. Goals, celebrations, endings, beginnings. Too much to drink, too much to think about. The kiss at midnight and expectations rarely met. Auld Lang Syne. New York’s Times Square. Fireworks. And too often, disappointment. Resolutions, a countdown, and then what? After last night many are thinking […]
It’s not very Christian of me. It’s not very kind of me. God knows it’s not very Canadian of me… but every time I hear or see another news story about the Syrian refugees I scream “Fuck off” and change the channel. In the next breath I say, “What about the others?” I can’t imagine […]
Music was on my mind this week but a few other thoughts kept creeping into my writing. So… I love music. I love Christmas music. My iPod’s Christmas playlist is 4 hours and 38 minutes long. That’s a great deal of fa la la’s. We are surrounded by people doing jobs that make our lives […]
We were at the right place at the right time. They were at the right place at the right time. What happened was it little bit of Christmas magic. I think it was 1991 and the ad agency, Bryant Fulton and Shee (aka TBWA Vancouver) was at its peak. One of our clients, BC Children’s […]
There was never any doubt I would be running the Salvation Army Santa Shuffle again this year. I also knew it would be the topic of my blog this week. As I sat down to write the piece I realized there was no way I could top what happened with my story last year. The […]
Symptom or cause? One of my biggest pet peeves is the focus on symptoms and not a search for the cause. I don’t know if we’ve just become a society of whiners or if there’s a deeper underlying reason for our emphasis on what should be done about our multitude of symptoms. Sometimes it feels […]
Monday was a reminder that days can be bombarded with too many emotions. Ian Rankin was giving a talk in Vancouver and there was never any doubt I would be there. It was September 19th, 2006 when I first met Ian on a hilltop in Edinburgh. Oddly enough he looks about the same even though […]
Do you talk to yourself? I mean do you talk to yourself out loud? And I don’t mean that internal dialogue we all do, but a real, full voice conversation with yourself. I’ve been watching what I do during a normal day at home or in the car between clients. Yes, I yell at other […]
Why do others get to decide when “too much”, isn’t? I have never understood this premise. An aspect of my personal trainer life is working with people with terminal illnesses. I bet you didn’t know they sometimes hire trainers. Odd but true. Why wouldn’t a person want to be at their best for as long […]
I have to give a speech tonight. Well not really a speech, just some opening remarks at an event at the SFU Centre for Scottish Studies. The nerves are setting in. Public speaking is tough. The task seems even more daunting because this past Sunday I heard a truly masterful speech by Terry Fallis. When […]
Recent Comments