Dog On A Root

 

 

- jim Young A lack of transparency results in a distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” - Dalai Lama An election will soon be held here in Canada and to be 100% honest, I’m not sure at this time who I will or should be voting for.  The problem is, I don’t believe any of the people or parties that are my available options, best represent me and  ALL of the things that I believe will be the most important issues over the next few years. (Come to think of it, when rereading that last sentence, I just realized I could  have just as easily ended it at the second comma.) I feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel and may be left with the lesser of the evils as our choice for Prime Minister. That’s not a particularly good feeling. We deserve to have the luxury of deciding among the cream of the crop, not the lesser of the evils. I don’t believe in the adage that EVERYONE should vote. Mike Wolfe, an economics teacher I had in college once suggested, “Democracy is a gr...

 

School Days - jim Young "It wasn't just school to me, it was the chapter I never wanted to end." - anon Some of you probably know by now that I grew up in the small communities of Stroud and Painswick. Not unlike some of the local rural schools in the Argyle areas today, the schools were small and each classroom would be filled with 2 or 3 grades. It wasn't uncommon that we would find ourselves in the same class as an older sibling or cousin. In the first grade, the school I attended in Stroud was a two storey building that accommodated Grades 1 to 8. There were 2 entrances for grades 3 to 8 whose classrooms were on the main and upper level. One entrance was for the boys and the other for the girls who all had to line up and wait to enter the building before literally marching in upon the teacher’s command. Stroud School on the corner of Highway 11 and the 10th line in Stroud. Built in 1923. The lineups for Grades one and two however, weren’t segregated by sex. But it...

- jim Young "To him that will, ways are not wanting. (Or Where there's a will, there's a way. - from Jacula Prudentum by George Herbert, 1640. I don't know who Kenneth Simon is, nor do I know his Uncle Art. However, Kenneth recently posted this photo on Facebook with the following caption. "My Great Uncle Art in 1957, proudly showing off his invention: the TV remote. A pole with something on the end that fit around the dial and changed the channel. Life was good!" This was a good hack that Uncle Art created in the early days of TV; however it had its weaknesses. While Uncle Art could now change channels from the comfort of his arm chair he still had no remote control for the on/off switch or volume. I never really considered not being able to turn the television off or on from my spot on the couch a hardship. I figured it was just as easy for me to turn the tv ON before I sat down and then simply turn it OFF as I walked past the tv on my way to bed. Having a ...