I know lots of people are talking about this and putting the fear perspective on this. The fear campaign is happening on both sides, the conservatives are saying you are either for it or for Child Pornography, the other side is saying that if you aren't against this you are okay with the government knowing everything you have on your computer and everything you do on the internet.
The problem is most people have no clue how technology works or how the internet works so they have no clue what this bill actually means or what it will do. I am going to preface this with the fact that I do think the bill goes to far with what it allows but I also think we need a bill to allow police to better make use of technology to catch criminals that are currently getting away with crimes thanks to the police forces lack of abilities tracking things through the internet.
Lets start of with some conservative estimates for you, Canada has around 35 million people, out of that lets for arguments sake say half of those people have a home computer. That is 17 million computers at home surfing the internet during the day. Now if you also have a computer at work and surf which most people do that would probably be another 10-20 million computers surfing every day. Even if each Internet Service Provider hired a team of people to monitor everything going over the internet they would never be able to watch 20-40 million computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week and neither could the police or the government. The amount of traffic and data going across the net is so expansive that even if you took a 5 minute overview from a single ISP you would take weeks to sift through it.
Now for the second fallacy, even if they setup monitoring on the internet, they would not be able to see everything on your computer. It doesn't work like that, you need to have zero security or a virus on your computer to allow anyone from the outside to actually go through your computer's hard drive. Yes with a bit of work it is possible but that is not what Bill C30 or the software they are looking to implement is going to do. Also they are not installing key loggers on your computer so they are not going to see everything you type and they are not going to then have access to your bank records, email or anything else you do on the internet. If they suspect you of a crime all they are going to do is go to the ISP and ask that you me monitored as to what sites you are going to and what files are being uploaded and downloaded to your computer. Yes that is scarey and I would prefer that they get a warrant for that, just like a phone tap requires but I think ISP's also have to be more forth coming when the police track an IP down of a suspected criminal the ISP should give them the address and name of the person that correlates to that address.
My final comment on this is that most of the people that I see up in arms about this invasion of privacy are the same people that supported the gun registry which allowed the police and government to gather private and personal information about any person who has never committed a crime but wanted to own a hunting rifle. Why is it that you were okay with that invasion of privacy but not okay with one that would give the police a tool to catch actual criminals?
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Ramblings of the day
I know most of my blog posts can be all over the place at times but this one may actually go over the top on that.
This weekend we had a friend come visit us from Montreal. It was great to have her for the weekend and she brought us Montreal bagels, which I don't know why seem way better than Calgary bagels. As payment I took her and the kids to see The Muppet's new movie as a friend gave us 4 passes to the premiere on Saturday morning.
The movie was amazing, it brought me back to my childhood of watching the Muppet's on TV and it had humor for both the adults and the kids. The new songs they had were funny and good and the old songs they sung were nice to see in the movie. It may not be the best acting and plot you will ever see in a movie but it was an awesome Muppet movie and if you like the Muppet's I recommend you go see it.
This weekend was also the start of a huge sale in Canada for the BlackBerry Playbook. I already have one so I didn't really think to much of it til our friend started talking about wanting a tablet. The price for a 16GB Playbook was 199 plus tax which is a 300 dollar saving. Pretty amazing price for a great tablet. After some discussion and her playing with mine we decided to see if we could find her one before she went back to Montreal on Sunday. Well it turned out that price was so amazing that every store we called were sold out. This was 1 day after the sale started. To me this shows that the price point was great and means more people will have their hands on a great tablet. The more people that have it the more software will get developed for it and the better it will become. In the end she had called one store and they told her they had one on hold but if she left her name and number they would call her back if the person didn't come get it. About 2 hours later the store called back and said they would sell it to her. It turns out it was on hold for the manager and the clerk called the manager and asked if they could sell it to her, to which the manager said yes. Now that is what I call amazing customer service. We set it up for her and she had it ready to go for her flight home to Montreal.
My final ramblings is Occupy Calgary, what a gong show that has become. I really felt for the Occupy Movement when I first heard about it in the US but when it moved to Canada I questioned what it would be about here and when I found out about the movement in Calgary I was really curious. After 5 weeks I still know very little about what the people in Calgary are trying to change and I honestly don't think most of them know.
As the camps are slowly being evicted and closed down across Canada, the Calgary movement is staying strong and saying they won't leave. The mayor although giving them eviction notices has yet to go any further. Then today I read on the Occupy Calgary forums the discussion of what demands they should make of the city that would get them to leave. I was taken a back by the thought of a group of people illegally camping in a park making demands of the city where the majority of people do not support them, in order for them to leave. Then I read the list and was just flabbergasted. I just can't fathom where they possibly can be coming from to think they have the right to make any demands let alone this list. I as a taxpayer and resident of Calgary that is not a member of the 1% they are supposedly fighting will be pissed if the city gives them any of this stuff. The courts in Vancouver and Toronto have already sided with the cities saying that people do not have the Charter right to camp where ever they please so it is time to move them out and not put up with their crazy demands. If they want these items they should for a charity or a political party and have people donate to them so they can pay for this stuff themselves. If they truly are representing the 99% they should have no problem getting enough cash together.
Here is a list of their demands that they are discussing
1) That the city find a place agreeable to OC where we can hold GAs in safety and warmth.
2) That the city will cover rent for said place.
3) That the city pay for the rental of all equipment necessary to hold our GAs. For example: mics, amp’s, speakers, tables, chairs etc. Including internet access for live steaming.
4) That the city pay to hold sixteen GAs as stated above with time/date/location/format of our choosing. (Maybe even twenty to get us through our winter of discontent with weekly GAs).
5) That the city permit one tent at the plaza, or at a mutually agreed location, as an info booth to disseminate information to the public and to operate during normal park hours.
6) That the city provide electricity during normal park hours to ensure adequate lighting in and around the information tent referred to in 5) and provide assistance (CFD, Bylaw) in setting up an adequate and compliant heating system for the information tent referred to in 5). Also, that the city provide security for the information tent during off hours.
7) That the city pay for three evenings rental of the largest rooms at every Community Hall in Calgary for the purpose of holding public forums.
8) That the city pay for the rental of all equipment necessary to hold such forums. For example: mic’s, amp’s, speakers, tables, chairs etc. Including internet access for live steaming.
9) That the city pay to advertise all public forums. Including TV, radio, newspapers, community newsletters, etc.
10) That the city pay for a CPS presence at each public forum for the duration of the meeting.
I’d decline the city’s offer to provide planners/help to set this up. It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
And a link to their forum
http://forum.occupycalgary.ca/showthread.php?63-Text-of-the-City-s-Offer&p=149&viewfull=1#post149
If the city caves in to any of these demands it shows all you have to do is make an eyesore in the city and they will pay for whatever you want to make you go away. That is not a good precedent to set. If they do I would say that any of those that are opposed to it simply tell the city we are no longer going to pay our taxes and we are protesting the government. Let's see how quickly that one gets squashed in the courts.
These are my ramblings for the day thanks for reading.
This weekend we had a friend come visit us from Montreal. It was great to have her for the weekend and she brought us Montreal bagels, which I don't know why seem way better than Calgary bagels. As payment I took her and the kids to see The Muppet's new movie as a friend gave us 4 passes to the premiere on Saturday morning.
The movie was amazing, it brought me back to my childhood of watching the Muppet's on TV and it had humor for both the adults and the kids. The new songs they had were funny and good and the old songs they sung were nice to see in the movie. It may not be the best acting and plot you will ever see in a movie but it was an awesome Muppet movie and if you like the Muppet's I recommend you go see it.
This weekend was also the start of a huge sale in Canada for the BlackBerry Playbook. I already have one so I didn't really think to much of it til our friend started talking about wanting a tablet. The price for a 16GB Playbook was 199 plus tax which is a 300 dollar saving. Pretty amazing price for a great tablet. After some discussion and her playing with mine we decided to see if we could find her one before she went back to Montreal on Sunday. Well it turned out that price was so amazing that every store we called were sold out. This was 1 day after the sale started. To me this shows that the price point was great and means more people will have their hands on a great tablet. The more people that have it the more software will get developed for it and the better it will become. In the end she had called one store and they told her they had one on hold but if she left her name and number they would call her back if the person didn't come get it. About 2 hours later the store called back and said they would sell it to her. It turns out it was on hold for the manager and the clerk called the manager and asked if they could sell it to her, to which the manager said yes. Now that is what I call amazing customer service. We set it up for her and she had it ready to go for her flight home to Montreal.
My final ramblings is Occupy Calgary, what a gong show that has become. I really felt for the Occupy Movement when I first heard about it in the US but when it moved to Canada I questioned what it would be about here and when I found out about the movement in Calgary I was really curious. After 5 weeks I still know very little about what the people in Calgary are trying to change and I honestly don't think most of them know.
As the camps are slowly being evicted and closed down across Canada, the Calgary movement is staying strong and saying they won't leave. The mayor although giving them eviction notices has yet to go any further. Then today I read on the Occupy Calgary forums the discussion of what demands they should make of the city that would get them to leave. I was taken a back by the thought of a group of people illegally camping in a park making demands of the city where the majority of people do not support them, in order for them to leave. Then I read the list and was just flabbergasted. I just can't fathom where they possibly can be coming from to think they have the right to make any demands let alone this list. I as a taxpayer and resident of Calgary that is not a member of the 1% they are supposedly fighting will be pissed if the city gives them any of this stuff. The courts in Vancouver and Toronto have already sided with the cities saying that people do not have the Charter right to camp where ever they please so it is time to move them out and not put up with their crazy demands. If they want these items they should for a charity or a political party and have people donate to them so they can pay for this stuff themselves. If they truly are representing the 99% they should have no problem getting enough cash together.
Here is a list of their demands that they are discussing
1) That the city find a place agreeable to OC where we can hold GAs in safety and warmth.
2) That the city will cover rent for said place.
3) That the city pay for the rental of all equipment necessary to hold our GAs. For example: mics, amp’s, speakers, tables, chairs etc. Including internet access for live steaming.
4) That the city pay to hold sixteen GAs as stated above with time/date/location/format of our choosing. (Maybe even twenty to get us through our winter of discontent with weekly GAs).
5) That the city permit one tent at the plaza, or at a mutually agreed location, as an info booth to disseminate information to the public and to operate during normal park hours.
6) That the city provide electricity during normal park hours to ensure adequate lighting in and around the information tent referred to in 5) and provide assistance (CFD, Bylaw) in setting up an adequate and compliant heating system for the information tent referred to in 5). Also, that the city provide security for the information tent during off hours.
7) That the city pay for three evenings rental of the largest rooms at every Community Hall in Calgary for the purpose of holding public forums.
8) That the city pay for the rental of all equipment necessary to hold such forums. For example: mic’s, amp’s, speakers, tables, chairs etc. Including internet access for live steaming.
9) That the city pay to advertise all public forums. Including TV, radio, newspapers, community newsletters, etc.
10) That the city pay for a CPS presence at each public forum for the duration of the meeting.
I’d decline the city’s offer to provide planners/help to set this up. It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
And a link to their forum
http://forum.occupycalgary.ca/showthread.php?63-Text-of-the-City-s-Offer&p=149&viewfull=1#post149
If the city caves in to any of these demands it shows all you have to do is make an eyesore in the city and they will pay for whatever you want to make you go away. That is not a good precedent to set. If they do I would say that any of those that are opposed to it simply tell the city we are no longer going to pay our taxes and we are protesting the government. Let's see how quickly that one gets squashed in the courts.
These are my ramblings for the day thanks for reading.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Congrats on blocking a pipeline
So the US protesters have been successful in at least delaying the Keystone XL pipeline to take Canadian Tar Sands Oil down to Texas to be refined. I want to say congrats to you. You have done a great disservice to your country. Pipelines are relatively safe ways to transport oil and are monitored constantly, if they spring a leak they can be shut off and very limited amounts of oil will be spilled and can be cleaned up. Now with out that pipeline the oil will travel by ship to Houston where it can be affected by weather and once a ship springs a leak we all remember the Exxon Valdez spill. Only this time it will be on the coast of the continental US and have far worse consequences.
Other than the environmental issues, here is though take a look at everything you own and use every day, including the roads you drive on , the places you walk and the buildings you work in. Everything has some petroleum products in it in order to be made. This means if you take oil away all of that also goes away. It is more than just gasoline it is a way of life that can't just be packed up and removed.
If the US doesn't want Canadian Oil, I say cool. Lets build refineries in Canada and process the oil ourselves and sell it for 10 times as much as what the barrel of oil sells for. If that doesn't work for Canadians then why not go over to China who would be more than happy to pay top dollar for a scarce resource. The people in the US are always happy to protest and chant about one thing or another but let them really see the consequences to this pure stupidity when gas, power and every day products are no longer affordable because they either pay more or run out of oil.
Other than the environmental issues, here is though take a look at everything you own and use every day, including the roads you drive on , the places you walk and the buildings you work in. Everything has some petroleum products in it in order to be made. This means if you take oil away all of that also goes away. It is more than just gasoline it is a way of life that can't just be packed up and removed.
If the US doesn't want Canadian Oil, I say cool. Lets build refineries in Canada and process the oil ourselves and sell it for 10 times as much as what the barrel of oil sells for. If that doesn't work for Canadians then why not go over to China who would be more than happy to pay top dollar for a scarce resource. The people in the US are always happy to protest and chant about one thing or another but let them really see the consequences to this pure stupidity when gas, power and every day products are no longer affordable because they either pay more or run out of oil.
Monday, November 7, 2011
OccupyNothing
Today I write about the Occupy Movement that is sweeping the globe, it is the in thing to do, go out and occupy some piece of land somewhere to protest how evil the world, the government and corporations are.
I will start off saying I think that the people in the US do have some justification to do this and seem to be well organized and actually have goals as to what they want to change but as it spreads to Canada I think the message and the reality is lost.
In Calgary the OccupyCalgary movement has taken over a very nice space called Olympic Plaza right across from city hall and are causing tons of damage by camping in area not meant to support camping. I would not have an issue if they came everyday to protest but I do have an issue when they are breaking City bylaws and are not being charged or ticketed for said offenses. There are laws and they need to be enforced. It is not against the law to protest but it is to camp overnight at the Plaza. Why can't they come back everyday?
Perhaps they could even take a few days off and actually figure out what they are Occupying for, the standard lines of corrupt government and corrupt corporations and they are the 99% and the 1% has to pay doesn't really work in Canada. The majority of taxes are paid by those earning over 80,000 a year which is not 1% it is more like 40-60% of the population and they are supporting the rest of the people that are not paying the taxes and make less than 30,000 a year. If any of these so called protesters had ever filed a tax return they would now if you make below a certain amount in Canada you actually get all your taxes back. They also need to look at how Canada has many social service programs to help the poor, the homeless, and the sick. In Canada you can walk in to any clinic or hospital and get help. That is not the case in the US. That is why they are fighting so that they can get access to equal care. In Canada we already have it.
An anti-protester was ticketed and had his truck towed with in 3 hours of starting his own protest in the same Plaza, yet the mayor, police and by-law officers say they can't enforce the law in Olympic Plaza because it would trample on their Charter rights to protest. I call BS on the mayor and the rest of them. It is time that they enforce the law and remove these squatters and get our space back. If they want to protest I say go for it but do it with in the laws which means you are not allowed to camp out over night.
I would like to really know how many of the OccupyCalgary movement are professional protesters (IE that's all they do is find things to protest about), homeless people that are camping simply because other people are, or have ever had a job and paid taxes. I am personally very busy with work, family and life to sit day in and day out breaking the law because I don't like something. When I want a change I go out and I talk to politicians and I vote for the guy I think will support the changes I want and I talk to my friends and family and help get that person elected. That is how you get change, not by camping out in a park and trying to figure out what needs to be changed.
I will start off saying I think that the people in the US do have some justification to do this and seem to be well organized and actually have goals as to what they want to change but as it spreads to Canada I think the message and the reality is lost.
In Calgary the OccupyCalgary movement has taken over a very nice space called Olympic Plaza right across from city hall and are causing tons of damage by camping in area not meant to support camping. I would not have an issue if they came everyday to protest but I do have an issue when they are breaking City bylaws and are not being charged or ticketed for said offenses. There are laws and they need to be enforced. It is not against the law to protest but it is to camp overnight at the Plaza. Why can't they come back everyday?
Perhaps they could even take a few days off and actually figure out what they are Occupying for, the standard lines of corrupt government and corrupt corporations and they are the 99% and the 1% has to pay doesn't really work in Canada. The majority of taxes are paid by those earning over 80,000 a year which is not 1% it is more like 40-60% of the population and they are supporting the rest of the people that are not paying the taxes and make less than 30,000 a year. If any of these so called protesters had ever filed a tax return they would now if you make below a certain amount in Canada you actually get all your taxes back. They also need to look at how Canada has many social service programs to help the poor, the homeless, and the sick. In Canada you can walk in to any clinic or hospital and get help. That is not the case in the US. That is why they are fighting so that they can get access to equal care. In Canada we already have it.
An anti-protester was ticketed and had his truck towed with in 3 hours of starting his own protest in the same Plaza, yet the mayor, police and by-law officers say they can't enforce the law in Olympic Plaza because it would trample on their Charter rights to protest. I call BS on the mayor and the rest of them. It is time that they enforce the law and remove these squatters and get our space back. If they want to protest I say go for it but do it with in the laws which means you are not allowed to camp out over night.
I would like to really know how many of the OccupyCalgary movement are professional protesters (IE that's all they do is find things to protest about), homeless people that are camping simply because other people are, or have ever had a job and paid taxes. I am personally very busy with work, family and life to sit day in and day out breaking the law because I don't like something. When I want a change I go out and I talk to politicians and I vote for the guy I think will support the changes I want and I talk to my friends and family and help get that person elected. That is how you get change, not by camping out in a park and trying to figure out what needs to be changed.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Daily thoughts
Two men are walking in the forest and they see a rock and a stick in front of them. They quickly look at each other and run over to the two items. The one man picks up the rock and is so happy and impressed with it, at the same time the other man picks up the stick is equally happy and impressed. They then proceed to tell the other why their item is so much better than the other one.
What is the point of that useless story? It simply shows you that two people can see different items and have different opinions of said items.
How does this relate to you? Well it's simple lets change those two phones. You find an iPhone and a BlackBerry, some people will always pick the BlackBerry and other's will always pick the iPhone. It doesn't mean one is better than the other it simply means you have a preference and will choose that device.
Here is another story. As a business person you have a Smart Phone and you come in on Monday and realize you have lost your phone. Like most people you don't actually put a password on your phone because you find it annoying to have to enter that password in every time you want to use it. You call the phone company and cancel the phone right away, which will prevent people from using it to run up large amounts of calls on your bill but what about all the confidential information on it. Whether it is emails, contacts, notes with personal information or perhaps pictures that should not be seen, you have a serious problem if someone decides to look through your phone. If your phone is a BlackBerry on a BES, no problem. You tell your IT guy and he sends a wipe command from the BES server and all your data is gone from the phone. If you have an iPhone or Android you may be in trouble.
Does this make the BlackBerry better? Not really but it does make it more secure for businesses and governments and that is why they use them.
With that in mind pick the device that you like the best and use it but don't attack the guy that uses the other device. They have reasons for picking their device just like you have your reason. Play nice with each other because you never know when you may be forced to switch and may need some help.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Red State comes to Calgary
On Wednesday August 17th Kevin Smith brought his new "horror" movie to Calgary on his cross Canada tour. I brought a VIP ticket so that I could sit in the first 8 rows of the theater as well as getting a copy of the DVD when it is released.
I showed up at the theater an hour and forty five minutes before the doors opened so that I could get in line and hopefully get a good spot. I was right near the front of the line of the Will Call group. My friend Matt showed up shortly after that and stood in the line for people with tickets and was also near the front. We figured with two different lines we would have a good shot to get good seats.
When they finally let us in it took a bit longer for the Will Call people to get tickets and in so Matt managed to get in and get us 2nd row from the stage.
Before the movie began Kevin came out and did a little intro for the movie and talked to the crowd for a bit.
The movie itself is classed as a horror movie, but after seeing it I would say it is more a thriller than a horror. It had some gory pieces to it, it had lots of action, and a great story line. The acting, writing and directing was all great. I was never bored, lost or confused. I was just simply kept at the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next as you could not predict how it was going to go at any point in the movie. Normally when you here that, it means the movie is rough and makes no sense but this movie flowed perfectly and followed a great story, it just kept you guessing.
I own every movie Kevin Smith has made (except Jersey Girl) and love his comedies, but I have to say this ranked up there as one of his best movies. It is not a "Kevin Smith movie" as you would think of them but he does a great job with this new genre and shows that he is a great director and writer.
The crowd cheered and reacted loudly (quite possibly because Kevin was in the back of the theater) and it added even more to the movie viewing experience.
Once the movie was over Kevin came up and did a Q&A. He didn't get to many questions because when he answered he did so in story form and it was amazing. Kevin is a great speaker and kept the audience intrigued with stories about this movie, his family, his life and his new movie that he is currently working on.
It was a bit pricey if you look at it as going to see a movie, but so worth it considering you got a movie as well as a Q&A with Kevin. The whole night was amazing. I would recommend seeing Red State as soon as you can, it is a great work of art and shows that Kevin can do much more than just penis and fart jokes.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Do fan's have the right to boo?
I am a fan of the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Stampeders and have been thinking about all the games I have been to and how when the home team is playing poorly how the fan's begin to boo either the team or the player that is playing badly. With that in mind it raised the question do you think home town fans have the right to boo their team or a player when they are playing bad? I know if I do a bad job I get talked to or yelled at by my boss and I am sure the players do as well, but can the fans be considered bosses as it is our money from ticket and merchandise sales that pay their salaries.
Habs fans have a history of booing players that are playing badly and although they get paid millions to play the game, they are just people and I can't imagine it make you feel very good when 30,000+ people start to boo you. So when a player gets mad at being booed what can they do? Not much really, because if they do react it ends up all over the press and fans react even more to what they have done. So players are in a tough spot, yes it is their job to play the best they can but as a fan you don't know everything that is going on and maybe they are having a bad day, an injury or something personal that is affecting their game. So should they get a free pass?
One of the big reasons I bring this up is Rob Maver of the Stampeders was booed off the field a couple of times during the Stampeders home opener. He missed a couple field goals that should have been made and seemed to be having issues kicking in general. After a while some fans realized the reason he was kicking so poorly was injured, but most didn't realize it until the coach came out and said he re injured himself in warm up and that is why he was struggling. I personally felt very bad for the guy. It showed amazing courage to try and kick even though he was in major amounts of pain and could have done even more damage to himself. So were the fans right to boo him off the field?
It's a tough call and I don't know the answer, I know I have booed players and teams when I am watching a game and get frustrated with their play, I have called for players to be benched, traded or moved around to see if that will help the team, but as a fan I know I don't know everything that is happening with the team or the players so perhaps I should take a step back and look at the bigger picture that they are playing for my entertainment and I should stand behind them no matter what and always cheer my heart out in hopes that it will help them play better and bring home the win.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The Premature death call of RIM
I am an avid Blackberry user, I have gone through many upgrades and currently have the Bold and a PlayBook and I love these devices. That being said I also am not such a fan boy that I don't see the odd issue with them or won't admit that there are flaws.
With that being said I am quite saddened to see all the RIM bashing that is going on in both the technical and financial markets right now. Some are saying that RIM is now dead and can't recover from where they are. That the loss of market share is massive and they are done as a company. To those people I would like to say that I think you are looking to profit from a hiccup and that your call of their demise is very premature.
RIM was the first smart phone maker and as such had a 100% market share. When the iPhone came out guess where they took the market share from? When the Android came out it had to take a market share from someone as well. Just like Apple was the first to push out the iPad they had 100% of the market, now there are several tablet devices that have taken from that market share but no one is saying that Apple will die because of it. It's not that RIM is dying as much as they have competition now and have to adjust marketing practices to make sure they compete with the new technology. That being said they are also the only devices that are authorized for use by military and governments due to their security. That is a huge market that they hold, and that alone can sustain many companies.
With all technology when new items come out they will take a share of the market from the big boys and it is how they react that matters, RIM has been slow to react to market change and it is costing them but the technology they are building is solid and is very good at what it does. They are not the best "toy" on the market but I do believe they are still the best business device on the market. I know the consumer market is where you want to be but consumers are fickle and will constantly change to the newest best marketing pitch that is presented to them and not what is necessarily the best device. I know lots of people that have iPhones and most of which are Apple fanboys and will buy anything (and line up) that has that Apple logo on it. It doesn't matter the cost or the functionality they will always buy it because in their eyes Apple is better than everyone else. RIM will never win those people over no matter what they try. So why not stick to the market that they have a shot at keeping and converting? The business user will take whatever device their IT person tells them is the right choice. So in my opinion RIM needs to show the technical market that their devices are better.
This brings me back to the days I started working in the computer industry. I found an amazing operating system that was GUI, stable and had the ability to multi task. It was called O/S2 and was made by IBM. It was far better than anything Microsoft had at the time but in the end went the way of the dodo because no one ever heard of it. IBM had the best stealth marketing team known to man at that time. RIM is in the same boat right now, you see Apple advertisements every where. Ask anyone on the street and they will know what an iPad or iPhone or iPod is. Ask them if they know who RIM or BlackBerry is and you will get some strange looks. If RIM can fix the marketing situation they will be back better and stronger than before.
As a disclaimer, I do not work for RIM, I am not a sales guy, and I have no affiliation with them. I just like their devices and wanted to put my thoughts out to the world.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Radio contests
So this week the media in Calgary is up in arms over a new contest that Amp radio in Calgary is having. They are giving away a 10,000 breast augmentation prize to one lucky winner. The media has portrayed it as a contest that is sexist, disgusting and disturbing. In actual fact it is a prize that several people will want to win and they will enter it and will listen to Amp in order to see if they get the "big" prize.
I personally don't care what radio stations give away as a prize in any contest, if it is something I want to win, I will listen to try and win it. If it is something that has no interest for me then I probably won't listen but for sure I will not enter the contest.
I will never look down on someone that enters a contest that I don't like because they obviously want to win that item or they wouldn't enter it and if you are one of the people that complain about contests on a radio station I think you probably need to find more things to do with your life because in all honesty it is not going to affect your life so you shouldn't care one way or another.
Just my two cents on this whole thing.
I personally don't care what radio stations give away as a prize in any contest, if it is something I want to win, I will listen to try and win it. If it is something that has no interest for me then I probably won't listen but for sure I will not enter the contest.
I will never look down on someone that enters a contest that I don't like because they obviously want to win that item or they wouldn't enter it and if you are one of the people that complain about contests on a radio station I think you probably need to find more things to do with your life because in all honesty it is not going to affect your life so you shouldn't care one way or another.
Just my two cents on this whole thing.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What if we all had Riders?
The other day I was reading a couple riders from singers as to what they needed in their dressing rooms in order to perform at concerts and it got me thinking. What if everyone had a rider that was had delivered before you would do any work? What would different professions riders look like? Is there one thing that you had to have in order to do your job and if you didn't have it would you refuse to go do it?
Sample Rider for your IT Professional
Must have bowl of candy to snack on while working
Must have a case of coke, Pepsi or Jolt Cola chilled
Must have one large pizza if job will take more than 4 hours
Computer keyboard and mouse must be clean
No magnets or post it notes stuck anywhere on the computer or monitor
Need detailed description of what you did (I didn't do anything is not the correct answer)
Need all admin passwords for the computer and network
Once IT Professional shows up user must leave the office and not talk to said professional until he/she initiates conversation to say the job is done or is asking for more information.
What you put in your rider?
Sample Rider for your IT Professional
Must have bowl of candy to snack on while working
Must have a case of coke, Pepsi or Jolt Cola chilled
Must have one large pizza if job will take more than 4 hours
Computer keyboard and mouse must be clean
No magnets or post it notes stuck anywhere on the computer or monitor
Need detailed description of what you did (I didn't do anything is not the correct answer)
Need all admin passwords for the computer and network
Once IT Professional shows up user must leave the office and not talk to said professional until he/she initiates conversation to say the job is done or is asking for more information.
What you put in your rider?
Saturday, April 23, 2011
BlackBerry Playbook
So after having my PlayBook from BlackBerry for the last 48 hours I decided to do up a review for it.
I will start off saying that I won my PlayBook from RIM at the PlayBookTO Party and flew out to collect my prize. The party was a lot of fun with everyone taking pictures in the photo booth, getting to play with several PlayBooks scattered around the bar and drinks and food everywhere.
Upon leaving the party I was given a bag with my 32GB PlayBook inside. I went back to my friend Sam's place to crash for the night as I had to fly back home to Calgary the next day. Before going to bed I unpacked the PlayBook and plugged it in so that I could have it fully charged for my flight the next day.
I turned on the PlayBook and went through the initial setup. During the setup you need to connect to the Internet so I hooked to her WIFI and away it went downloading the OS and setting it all up. Other then the initial Demo that I didn't really want to do or pay attention to but was forced to the setup was quick and painless. Once setup I then used the BlackBerry Bridge to hook it to my Bold 9700 (I had already downloaded the Bridge application on BlackBerry before I left home knowing I would use it once I got the PlayBook). This was a little more difficult than originally thought as it wouldn't scan the Bar Code properly. I simply selected manual connection instead and it hooked up reasonably quickly.
I played around with it a little that night but was pretty tired and just went to bed knowing I would do a lot of playing with it during my 4 hour flight home the next day. When I woke up I went right to the PlayBook and signed in to my wife's KoBo account and downloaded her purchases on to the PlayBook to do some reading. While I was doing that in another window I downloaded a couple apps from App World. All went extremely fast and was quite impressed with the ability to do multiple things on the device at once.
I got to the airport early so plugged in the PlayBook and hooked up to the free WiFi (wasn't sure about battery life and didn't want to kill it before I got on the plane). I played around on Twitter and Facebook (links already on the PlayBook for both), I found it fast, responsive and easy to use. Then I played Need For Speed Undercover which comes standard on the PlayBook. The graphics, sound and playability of the game was amazing.
Once on the plane and up in the air I once again went to my PlayBook instead of turning on the TV in front of me. I browsed through the items on the PlayBook, tested some different things, read a bit of the books on the Kobo App and played Tetris and NFS. Everything was responsive and the only complaint I could think of was that I should have checked out App World a little more before I left to see what else I could have.
Once I got home I didn't really play with it much as I was tired so I just sort of relaxed but I did notice that it automatically pulled my home WiFi info off of my BlackBerry and automatically connected to it (very cool feature). On Friday I woke up and saw there was an O/S update available so I set it to download and jumped in the shower. When I came out, it was downloaded so I chose to install it and went to get dressed. By the time I was done the O/S was updated and after a reboot was ready to go. I played around quite a bit with it on Friday including going to App World and downloading several apps and games. I know people have been complaining about there not being enough apps for the PlayBook but in reality it has almost as many apps as what the iPad had when it launched a year ago. Now that it is out more apps will be developed and released for it so comparing how many apps the iPad has now to how many the PlayBook has right now is asinine. The iPad has been out for a year and a half so of course it will have more apps. Not to mention Apple is actually a software designer on top of that where as BlackBerry is not.
As for the apps that currently are on it and available I have been impressed with it. There is Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF reader all native on it thanks to Sheets To Go. There is Bing Maps, which all though not ideal as you have to connect to the web to use it, works reasonably well with the GPS on the PlayBook. The camera's both work well, the music player sounds amazing and video play is unmatched by anything I have seen out there.
The couple things that I wish they had on release and don't is a Skype type program so that you can take advantage of the dual camera's, and BBM would have been smart to either include or at least have in the Bridge App. I am sure these will come out soon but it is a deficiency for sure. The only other complaint that I could really think of is that I use a Bluetooth headset on my phone so I have to disable the Bridge to the PlayBook while that is on which means no sync for my email, calendar and contacts during that time. If they could set it up so I could hook my PlayBook directly to my BES server then I wouldn't need the Bridge and would probably be a bit nicer feature wise.
All in all I am extremely impressed with the PlayBook, I can see my self using it quite often when I don't have my laptop with me or if I just need to do something quickly and don't want to boot up my laptop. The .9lb's and overall size makes it nice and portable and with all the functionality makes it a great device. It will not be a full laptop replacement (no device really is) but will make for a great addition to my technology capabilities.
If you have a BlackBerry that is always attached to you I would recommend the PlayBook for sure, if you don't have a BlackBerry but are looking for a tablet that you can take with you and use when you don't always have your laptop with you then this is still a great device, you just need to make sure you have WiFi capabilities if you want to do anything online with it.
I will start off saying that I won my PlayBook from RIM at the PlayBookTO Party and flew out to collect my prize. The party was a lot of fun with everyone taking pictures in the photo booth, getting to play with several PlayBooks scattered around the bar and drinks and food everywhere.
Upon leaving the party I was given a bag with my 32GB PlayBook inside. I went back to my friend Sam's place to crash for the night as I had to fly back home to Calgary the next day. Before going to bed I unpacked the PlayBook and plugged it in so that I could have it fully charged for my flight the next day.
I turned on the PlayBook and went through the initial setup. During the setup you need to connect to the Internet so I hooked to her WIFI and away it went downloading the OS and setting it all up. Other then the initial Demo that I didn't really want to do or pay attention to but was forced to the setup was quick and painless. Once setup I then used the BlackBerry Bridge to hook it to my Bold 9700 (I had already downloaded the Bridge application on BlackBerry before I left home knowing I would use it once I got the PlayBook). This was a little more difficult than originally thought as it wouldn't scan the Bar Code properly. I simply selected manual connection instead and it hooked up reasonably quickly.
I played around with it a little that night but was pretty tired and just went to bed knowing I would do a lot of playing with it during my 4 hour flight home the next day. When I woke up I went right to the PlayBook and signed in to my wife's KoBo account and downloaded her purchases on to the PlayBook to do some reading. While I was doing that in another window I downloaded a couple apps from App World. All went extremely fast and was quite impressed with the ability to do multiple things on the device at once.
I got to the airport early so plugged in the PlayBook and hooked up to the free WiFi (wasn't sure about battery life and didn't want to kill it before I got on the plane). I played around on Twitter and Facebook (links already on the PlayBook for both), I found it fast, responsive and easy to use. Then I played Need For Speed Undercover which comes standard on the PlayBook. The graphics, sound and playability of the game was amazing.
Once on the plane and up in the air I once again went to my PlayBook instead of turning on the TV in front of me. I browsed through the items on the PlayBook, tested some different things, read a bit of the books on the Kobo App and played Tetris and NFS. Everything was responsive and the only complaint I could think of was that I should have checked out App World a little more before I left to see what else I could have.
Once I got home I didn't really play with it much as I was tired so I just sort of relaxed but I did notice that it automatically pulled my home WiFi info off of my BlackBerry and automatically connected to it (very cool feature). On Friday I woke up and saw there was an O/S update available so I set it to download and jumped in the shower. When I came out, it was downloaded so I chose to install it and went to get dressed. By the time I was done the O/S was updated and after a reboot was ready to go. I played around quite a bit with it on Friday including going to App World and downloading several apps and games. I know people have been complaining about there not being enough apps for the PlayBook but in reality it has almost as many apps as what the iPad had when it launched a year ago. Now that it is out more apps will be developed and released for it so comparing how many apps the iPad has now to how many the PlayBook has right now is asinine. The iPad has been out for a year and a half so of course it will have more apps. Not to mention Apple is actually a software designer on top of that where as BlackBerry is not.
As for the apps that currently are on it and available I have been impressed with it. There is Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF reader all native on it thanks to Sheets To Go. There is Bing Maps, which all though not ideal as you have to connect to the web to use it, works reasonably well with the GPS on the PlayBook. The camera's both work well, the music player sounds amazing and video play is unmatched by anything I have seen out there.
The couple things that I wish they had on release and don't is a Skype type program so that you can take advantage of the dual camera's, and BBM would have been smart to either include or at least have in the Bridge App. I am sure these will come out soon but it is a deficiency for sure. The only other complaint that I could really think of is that I use a Bluetooth headset on my phone so I have to disable the Bridge to the PlayBook while that is on which means no sync for my email, calendar and contacts during that time. If they could set it up so I could hook my PlayBook directly to my BES server then I wouldn't need the Bridge and would probably be a bit nicer feature wise.
All in all I am extremely impressed with the PlayBook, I can see my self using it quite often when I don't have my laptop with me or if I just need to do something quickly and don't want to boot up my laptop. The .9lb's and overall size makes it nice and portable and with all the functionality makes it a great device. It will not be a full laptop replacement (no device really is) but will make for a great addition to my technology capabilities.
If you have a BlackBerry that is always attached to you I would recommend the PlayBook for sure, if you don't have a BlackBerry but are looking for a tablet that you can take with you and use when you don't always have your laptop with you then this is still a great device, you just need to make sure you have WiFi capabilities if you want to do anything online with it.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The NHL has gone Crazy
I wasn't going to write this blog because so many people have been blogging, twittering and commenting everywhere about the pure insanity of the NHL over the last two days but my outrage and disdain needs a place to go. So here it goes.
As a Habs fan I am slightly biased about the Chara/MaxPac hit, but as a hockey fan I can move that bias to the side and look at the whole picture of this season and of all teams. The NHL has gotten to the point where bad hits, from marginal players is at an epidemic proportion. What does the league do about this? Nothing. They throw out the odd suspension here and there to teams that aren't that important or not that high in the standings or to the odd player that makes league minimum salaries and mean less to their team then the equipment guy, but as soon as a star player does anything remotely serious it is swept under the rug.
I wasn't looking for Chara to be gone for the rest of the season and the playoffs, it would have been nice since MaxPac is gone for the season and possibly next depending on how his rehab goes, but I thought the NHL would at least suspend the guy for a couple games due to the fact that his arm and hand drove Max's face into the turnbuckle.
Then today they suspend Kubina for 3 games for giving a guy an elbow to the head, I agree they should have. In fact anytime any player targets another players head (Chara did) he should get at least three games. The NHL, however cannot consistently ever get that right. Look at Crosby (who I really dislike ass a player) he gets targeted twice in two games and hit in the head and has not played a game in two months. Both of those hits should have been suspended. They targeted Crosby and may not have hit him with an elbow but still hit the head with a should pad that is hard plastic body armour that is more or less like hitting a guy with a brick.
To top that off, the NHL gets a letter from a sponsor saying that they will withdraw their sponsorship of the NHL if it can't clean up the league. Instead of taking it under advisement, worrying about losing money, or just acknowledging that something has to be done, Bettman comes out and says thanks for all the money Air Canada but if you don't like this sport you can take your money and leave. So not only does the NHL not care about it's players safety, enforcing rules or looking at dangerous equipment but it doesn't even care about it's sponsors concerns.
You think to yourself, no worries, the NHL and owners only care about their own pockets. The players have the NHLPA that are there to protect the players and make sure that the NHL keeps safety and players concerns in the forefront of the NHL but instead of taking this seriously they are looking at the turnbuckle and saying that is the issue not the players out hurting each other.
So where does this leave the fans? Well we can petition the NHL to clean up it's act but if they won't listen to their sponsors they aren't going to listen to the fans. We could go to the NHL's big sponsors and have more of them put the hurt on the NHL, eventually they have to listen to that right? Or finally we can write lets to our team owners and get them to take action by removing Bettman, Campbell and all their cronies from the NHL and hope that new blood will correct the mistakes of old. What really needs to happen is for the owners, the NHL and the NHLPA to stop dragging their feet and get serious about change. Change the equipment so players don't get hurt by that, change the attitude of the players by suspending a guy for a year if he targets the head no matter who he is and finally get players to take responsibility for their actions on the ice.
Will it ever change, I don't really know but this year has been one of the worst years I have seen for injuries, bad hits, bad calls by refs and even worse calls by the NHL. Make your voice heard where it will make the most effect, contact your team owners and unfollow the NHL on Twitter and Facebook and finally don't buy anything that the money goes to the NHL. Eventually they may wake up and hear the complaints.
As a Habs fan I am slightly biased about the Chara/MaxPac hit, but as a hockey fan I can move that bias to the side and look at the whole picture of this season and of all teams. The NHL has gotten to the point where bad hits, from marginal players is at an epidemic proportion. What does the league do about this? Nothing. They throw out the odd suspension here and there to teams that aren't that important or not that high in the standings or to the odd player that makes league minimum salaries and mean less to their team then the equipment guy, but as soon as a star player does anything remotely serious it is swept under the rug.
I wasn't looking for Chara to be gone for the rest of the season and the playoffs, it would have been nice since MaxPac is gone for the season and possibly next depending on how his rehab goes, but I thought the NHL would at least suspend the guy for a couple games due to the fact that his arm and hand drove Max's face into the turnbuckle.
Then today they suspend Kubina for 3 games for giving a guy an elbow to the head, I agree they should have. In fact anytime any player targets another players head (Chara did) he should get at least three games. The NHL, however cannot consistently ever get that right. Look at Crosby (who I really dislike ass a player) he gets targeted twice in two games and hit in the head and has not played a game in two months. Both of those hits should have been suspended. They targeted Crosby and may not have hit him with an elbow but still hit the head with a should pad that is hard plastic body armour that is more or less like hitting a guy with a brick.
To top that off, the NHL gets a letter from a sponsor saying that they will withdraw their sponsorship of the NHL if it can't clean up the league. Instead of taking it under advisement, worrying about losing money, or just acknowledging that something has to be done, Bettman comes out and says thanks for all the money Air Canada but if you don't like this sport you can take your money and leave. So not only does the NHL not care about it's players safety, enforcing rules or looking at dangerous equipment but it doesn't even care about it's sponsors concerns.
You think to yourself, no worries, the NHL and owners only care about their own pockets. The players have the NHLPA that are there to protect the players and make sure that the NHL keeps safety and players concerns in the forefront of the NHL but instead of taking this seriously they are looking at the turnbuckle and saying that is the issue not the players out hurting each other.
So where does this leave the fans? Well we can petition the NHL to clean up it's act but if they won't listen to their sponsors they aren't going to listen to the fans. We could go to the NHL's big sponsors and have more of them put the hurt on the NHL, eventually they have to listen to that right? Or finally we can write lets to our team owners and get them to take action by removing Bettman, Campbell and all their cronies from the NHL and hope that new blood will correct the mistakes of old. What really needs to happen is for the owners, the NHL and the NHLPA to stop dragging their feet and get serious about change. Change the equipment so players don't get hurt by that, change the attitude of the players by suspending a guy for a year if he targets the head no matter who he is and finally get players to take responsibility for their actions on the ice.
Will it ever change, I don't really know but this year has been one of the worst years I have seen for injuries, bad hits, bad calls by refs and even worse calls by the NHL. Make your voice heard where it will make the most effect, contact your team owners and unfollow the NHL on Twitter and Facebook and finally don't buy anything that the money goes to the NHL. Eventually they may wake up and hear the complaints.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Canada Post Sucks
This blog has been brewing for a while now and I need to post it now.
I live in a newer neighbourhood in Calgary and as such we no longer get door to door delivery from Canada Post. They have "super boxes" placed all over the neighbourhood and you have a specific box and keys to get your mail. I have no problem with this as I realize the city is bigger and to save time it is easier to have a truck full of mail and place it in the right box instead of going door to door. It would just be nice if they actually put things in the right box. Yesterday I picked up the mail and there was a key (the key is to one of two bigger boxes that they can put a parcel in to) I opened the parcel box and it was a parcel for an address on the other side of the street from me. This wouldn't bother me so much except for the fact that they never get anything right. Over Christmas they were actually doing door to door delivery of parcels. My house number is 55. There was a package on my doorstep (they don't ring the doorbell or wait for someone to be home they just drop it on the door), the issue was that is was for 7966 on a completely different street. I can understand wrong street as everything starts the same name but to look at my house being 2 digits and this being a 4 digit house number wasn't a big red flag? Not to mention my house numbers weren't even in the 4 digit number.
Put that on top of my mother in law sending a package to us with gift cards that never ever arrived. It had a tracking number and was supposedly delivered to us at 10:30 one morning. Problem was I was home and the postal contractors never actually get to our neighbourhood until at least 2pm. Nothing ever came of that one.
I also still have not received my package from the US that was sent to me before Christmas. At this point I don't think I ever will get it.
So with Canada Post being useless, it comes down to the fact that I don't know what tell people that want to send me things.
I live in a newer neighbourhood in Calgary and as such we no longer get door to door delivery from Canada Post. They have "super boxes" placed all over the neighbourhood and you have a specific box and keys to get your mail. I have no problem with this as I realize the city is bigger and to save time it is easier to have a truck full of mail and place it in the right box instead of going door to door. It would just be nice if they actually put things in the right box. Yesterday I picked up the mail and there was a key (the key is to one of two bigger boxes that they can put a parcel in to) I opened the parcel box and it was a parcel for an address on the other side of the street from me. This wouldn't bother me so much except for the fact that they never get anything right. Over Christmas they were actually doing door to door delivery of parcels. My house number is 55. There was a package on my doorstep (they don't ring the doorbell or wait for someone to be home they just drop it on the door), the issue was that is was for 7966 on a completely different street. I can understand wrong street as everything starts the same name but to look at my house being 2 digits and this being a 4 digit house number wasn't a big red flag? Not to mention my house numbers weren't even in the 4 digit number.
Put that on top of my mother in law sending a package to us with gift cards that never ever arrived. It had a tracking number and was supposedly delivered to us at 10:30 one morning. Problem was I was home and the postal contractors never actually get to our neighbourhood until at least 2pm. Nothing ever came of that one.
I also still have not received my package from the US that was sent to me before Christmas. At this point I don't think I ever will get it.
So with Canada Post being useless, it comes down to the fact that I don't know what tell people that want to send me things.
Monday, January 3, 2011
What to do with a teenager?
Well this is a tough blog for me to write. I have two children one is a 14 year old girl (about to turn 15) and the other is a 10 yr old boy that has Aspergers Syndrome. My daughter is a step child but I have been raising her since she was 2.
With the mixed family there have always been issues but we managed to go get through most of them fairly well. Last year my daughter was failing school and was hanging around with some bad kids. In an effort to wake her up (after finding out the school would not fail her) we talked it over with her and sent her to her grandparents home for the remainder of the school year. Her marks didn't improve greatly but she seemed to be passing everything and had lots of friends and even got a job at McDonald's. We thought things were turning around and she was maturing.
My wife went down for a vacation just after school let out to discuss with her parents about my daughter staying for another year of schooling. They did not see enough effort put forth in school and it was causing them some hardships having a teenager living there so they said no and it was decided she would move back home. At this time we also found out that she had been drinking several times with her friends (we had asked her not to drink til she was 16). After my wife left my daughter had a week to quit her job, pack and get ready to move back in with us. In that time we found out she had a one night stand with a boy without using any protection.
Move forward to this year, things have actually been going fairly well, she was getting along much better with her brother, we were letting her go out with friends, giving her limited computer and cell phone time with the chance to increase her privileges based on school work. Just before Christmas we got her first report card. She was failing three classes, mainly because she wasn't putting any effort in them. We were very disappointed but after talking to her and the teachers we think things are going to turn around on this.
Then comes last night, she had asked to go hang out with a friend yesterday and we had no problem with it as we know this girl and didn't think a big deal of it. She came home on time (after having asked for a sleepover and denied because we needed her to babysit). When she got home she was acting somewhat strange, ran upstairs before even talking to us and changed, was talking about how she had to shower because her friend had put ketchup in here and in general not getting to close to us. She was also wearing a lot of perfume, which she never does as she knows it causes us migraines.
So after a little sleuthing work, looking at her eyes getting close and smelling her hair I was pretty sure I knew why she was acting strange. So I let her shower and then confronted her. No I didn't know for sure but I had my suspicions so I simply said "Do you want to tell me what you really did?" She had that shit look of a busted teenager on her face and said no. This when I knew for sure what happened. So I sat down and talked about why, who, where and if she knew what the consequences of doing pot was or could be. She wasn't very open and was avoiding eye contact and didn't really want to say much so I asked her is she wanted her mom brought into this conversation. She said whatever. So we moved to the living room and had a family talk.
We talked about trust, dangers of drugs, why she did it and who she did it with. After that we sent her to her room so that we could figure out what to do. I thin called the parent of the other girl to let them know what we had found out. She dismissed it for the most part saying my daughter doesn't do that but was still going to have a talk to her about it. She said things like that don't happen in our house and I hope this won't stop you from letting our kids hangout.
The problem with this is I know it was her daughters friend that supplied the drugs, it wasn't her daughters first time and it was under her watch that they did it.
So now the conundrum, what to do with my 14 year old daughter that thinks it is okay to drink, do drugs and have sex because as she puts it "All my friends are doing it and they all say how awesome it is".
I knew growing up was hard but this is ridiculous.
With the mixed family there have always been issues but we managed to go get through most of them fairly well. Last year my daughter was failing school and was hanging around with some bad kids. In an effort to wake her up (after finding out the school would not fail her) we talked it over with her and sent her to her grandparents home for the remainder of the school year. Her marks didn't improve greatly but she seemed to be passing everything and had lots of friends and even got a job at McDonald's. We thought things were turning around and she was maturing.
My wife went down for a vacation just after school let out to discuss with her parents about my daughter staying for another year of schooling. They did not see enough effort put forth in school and it was causing them some hardships having a teenager living there so they said no and it was decided she would move back home. At this time we also found out that she had been drinking several times with her friends (we had asked her not to drink til she was 16). After my wife left my daughter had a week to quit her job, pack and get ready to move back in with us. In that time we found out she had a one night stand with a boy without using any protection.
Move forward to this year, things have actually been going fairly well, she was getting along much better with her brother, we were letting her go out with friends, giving her limited computer and cell phone time with the chance to increase her privileges based on school work. Just before Christmas we got her first report card. She was failing three classes, mainly because she wasn't putting any effort in them. We were very disappointed but after talking to her and the teachers we think things are going to turn around on this.
Then comes last night, she had asked to go hang out with a friend yesterday and we had no problem with it as we know this girl and didn't think a big deal of it. She came home on time (after having asked for a sleepover and denied because we needed her to babysit). When she got home she was acting somewhat strange, ran upstairs before even talking to us and changed, was talking about how she had to shower because her friend had put ketchup in here and in general not getting to close to us. She was also wearing a lot of perfume, which she never does as she knows it causes us migraines.
So after a little sleuthing work, looking at her eyes getting close and smelling her hair I was pretty sure I knew why she was acting strange. So I let her shower and then confronted her. No I didn't know for sure but I had my suspicions so I simply said "Do you want to tell me what you really did?" She had that shit look of a busted teenager on her face and said no. This when I knew for sure what happened. So I sat down and talked about why, who, where and if she knew what the consequences of doing pot was or could be. She wasn't very open and was avoiding eye contact and didn't really want to say much so I asked her is she wanted her mom brought into this conversation. She said whatever. So we moved to the living room and had a family talk.
We talked about trust, dangers of drugs, why she did it and who she did it with. After that we sent her to her room so that we could figure out what to do. I thin called the parent of the other girl to let them know what we had found out. She dismissed it for the most part saying my daughter doesn't do that but was still going to have a talk to her about it. She said things like that don't happen in our house and I hope this won't stop you from letting our kids hangout.
The problem with this is I know it was her daughters friend that supplied the drugs, it wasn't her daughters first time and it was under her watch that they did it.
So now the conundrum, what to do with my 14 year old daughter that thinks it is okay to drink, do drugs and have sex because as she puts it "All my friends are doing it and they all say how awesome it is".
I knew growing up was hard but this is ridiculous.
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