Dogs at the Table

...or to put it another way, "Perish, priest!"

Monday, August 29, 2011

Once a year?

Surely I can do better than once a year. Maybe once a month? Once a week? Probably not every day.

Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about blog entries.

I don't journal very well either, but as part of a spirituality workshop that I'm part of, I am being reminded about journaling. It is a worthwhile practice if only to keep track of oneself. As I read some of my earlier (albeit sporadic and intermittent) posts, I have some appreciation of the people, places and activities that have captured my attention even if only for a moment or two.

So here goes, in no particular order, from the last month or so:

- Jack Layton died, leaving behind a legacy that will, I hope, appreciate in the hearts and minds of Canadians (or at least voters). I don't necessarily support the NDP (New Democratic Party of Canada -- liberal social democratic leanings) in all things, but their values resonate with me. Jack's parting words to Canadians, from an open letter published after his death: "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." That is a change I can embrace, or as I said in my twitter feed: Jack Layton has made us all better Canadians.

- My three-year-old computer had hard-drive failure. The symptoms were repeated blue-screens-of-death and Safe-Mode restarts. A tech at Staples in Kelowna was able to give me all the data on a 500 gb portable drive. But when shopping for a new computer, I discovered something unpleasant. It wasn't the price, it was the keyboard. In Canada, it has apparently been mandated that all computers have a "bi-lingual keyboard." What this means is that an international accent key replaces the right side of the left-shift key. Or, if you touch-type, it means a huge pain-in-the either ass or little finger. To find a keyboard in Canada with a full left-shift key meant several different stores until (finally) a Sony Vaio had a keyboard I could live with. What I can't find out is the provenance of this mandated keyboard change. As a consumer, I resent that choice and preference are being taken away from me.

- And not to depart from the theme of computers, Windows 7 takes me farther and farther away from comfort and familiarity. Fewer and fewer of my legacy programs work, and I have had to find new Bible software, upgrades to my browser, security and productivity programs, and, in the second worst twist of all, nothing that remotely resembles "Outlook Express" which had all my message rules and categories. Of all the inconvenience of Windows 7, however, I have discovered that my favourite Bridge game will not run under it, and the author does not intend to upgrade it. Interesting, isn't it, that the smallest things can be the most annoying.

- I need a haircut.

Today's weigh-in: 235 I also need to pay attention to my diet.

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