Being Late

One of the things that drives me crazy is when people are constantly late for things. If you accumulated the time I've spent waiting for others, I think I've wasted days so far. All of us have been late once or twice for things; unforeseen stuff comes up, like the car won't start, etc. I'm not talking about that though. I'm talking about people you deal with who are constantly running behind and seem to accept it as normal. Have you ever dealt with someone like that?

In my experience, the only thing you can do is to tell them a time earlier than you want. For example, if you want them to arrive by 8:00, tell them to arrive by 7:45 or 7:30. That way, you'll have a reasonable sense of certainty that they'll arrive by 8:00.

Are you a late person, who can maybe explain to me why you are the way you are? If not, have you ever found any other creative ways to deal with this lateness in others? Or, am I just getting worked up over nothing and should learn to relax more? Tell me what you think & thanks for stopping by.

Upcoming Music

On the weekend, I picked up tickets for the Lee Harvey Osmond show in St. Thomas on June 6. On the 5th, we've already got tickets for the Harry Manx concert @ The Aeolian Hall . What a great weekend of music with 2 diverse performing styles. Tom Wilson , who's the front man for LHO, calls their style "acid folk", whereas Manx mixes acoustic blues with Indian influences. If you haven't heard either of these performers, I highly recommend them. Tom's played solo, plus was the leader of Junkhouse and 1/3 of my favourite Canadian group ever, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings . Harry seems like he releases a new CD every year (keep it coming please) and tours constantly. Watching one of his DVDs and seeing him playing the 20 string Indian instrument is amazing.

Later on this summer, Home County Folk festival has another outstanding lineup, headlined by Jill Barber . Jill's style is completely different from the artists above, as it's almost 1920's French cabaret, but really soulful and enticing. Plus, Home County's free!

In terms of new CD releases, I'm not really seeing much to make me jump up & rush into the stores. Dave Matthews & Steve Earle both have new ones coming out and I picked up the new Bob Dylan, which I like.

Does anyone else out there have any upcoming shows or new releases that are exciting them? Or, are you like me and find existing CDs by artists you hadn't hear of to fill in your time?

I'm Soooo Confused!

Royal Canadian Air Farce used to have a skit called "The Confused Philosopher". Although I've posted one or two of these on Dan Brown's Blog on the London Free Press website , here are a few of my random observations of things that confuse me in modern life:

• When people go to Costco on a motorcycle, what exactly do they buy?
  
• If you are delivering fliers for lawn care, why would you leave one at a house whose lawn has a sign from another company already on it?
  
• If civic minded people want to "clean up" their downtown, where exactly in their town do they want all the drug addicts and homeless to go?
  
• Why does the "large" cup of soda @ Wendy's have the word,"small" printed on the side of it?
  
• If kids can't be failed in elementary school until Grade 6, doesn't that kind of make,"No child left behind" a slam dunk?
  
• I know that there is now "classic rock" and that there is very little big time current rock. So, does that mean that soon, we'll be subjected to "classic rap" and that current rap will become irrelevant?
  
• When Madonna has "the talk" with her daughter, does she just hand her that "Sex" book that came out in the early 90's & say,"let me know if you have any questions"?
  
• Are there any baseball players who DID NOT use performance enhancing drugs?
  
• Are there any rappers who DO NOT have a criminal record or is that just part of "street cred"?
  
• Why do golf commentators whisper?
  

Anyway, those are a few "top of mind" questions I've had in my warped mind lately. Do you have answers to any of these questions and/or have questions or your own? Post them here & thanks for reading.

Blues Fest

The other day, I stumbled across the Ottawa BluesFest website. It's got quite an impressive lineup of talent; many of whom I'd love to see (Lee Harvey Osmond, Colin Linden, Chris Smither, Blue Rodeo, Doyle Bramhall, Neko Case, etc.). I was wondering though if it's really appropriate to call it a "blues" festival, in view of performers such as KISS, Ice Cube, etc.? This is a common issue I believe, as festivals often play "loose and fast with the rules" in order to attract a broader audience.

What do you think? Have you ever made the trek to Ottawa for this festival? Are there any festivals that you've gone to that required a lot of travel? If so, was the attraction specific performer(s) or the overall festival? Should this festival rename itself to a "music" festival and drop the "blues" reference or is that just nit-picking on my behalf?

Work & Lack Thereof

Sorry that I haven't been posting more lately. Work has been extraordinarily busy and the weather in London is getting nicer. Between the 2, writing stuff here just hasn't been a priority.

One of the things that's occupied me is watching a co-worker get a severance package. This person is doing meaningful work, at a high level of performance and their skills aren't easily replaceable. Nevertheless, their job is being moved overseas. From a business level, I understand the rationale. Labour costs overseas are considerably cheaper and senior management become convinced that a worker is a worker (ie - skills can be re-learned and/or are transferable). Time will tell about that latter point in my friend's case.

I know that my friend is not alone. Many Canadians in many sectors of the economy are being hit with this reality. I personally think that this time, it's a little different for the following reasons:

• With most manufacturing and I/T moving offshore, where are the replacement jobs supposed to come from? In the 1930's Depression, when the economy improved, workers went back to manufacturing jobs that essentially existed before. That won't be the case this time.
• Jobs are being moved offshore because of cheaper labour costs. Unless we also export unions, does this signal the decline and/or end of much of our middle class?
• It appears that in some cases, the "bad economy" is being used as a rationale, but it's not the case for all companies. Many are still profitable, but (IMO) are using the downturn as an excuse to accelerate their outsourcing of jobs.
• Workers are not given the option to reduce their wages to compare with off shore people. They're just told that the jobs are going.
• Is it not a conflict of interest for senior management to be the decision makers that export basic workers' jobs but not their own? Surely, one could find some senior executive talent willing to work for less than what some North American corporate heads make?
• With corporations basically being autonimous (ie - not a citizen of any country), is there anything that our governments could/should be doing to retain these jobs? Should companies be offered tax incentives to retain their work force?

Tell me what you think. Have you had friends, family members or have you lost your job in the past year? Did the work move off shore, to the US or did the company just close? Does anyone have a good news story about finding new work at any sort of wage or skill level on par with what they were doing in their former jobs?

Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay in posting.