a bucket of symphonies

Being as old as I am, around 19500 days, I wonder sometimes how my life would be different had I

joined the CAF as part of the navy, this would have had me travel more, take my basic training away from home, perhaps be retired already from the forces, be out at sea at various times for perhaps long durations, but with the crew. I don't know if this existed back then, but what exists now is a one year program that begins with basic training in either the east or west coast of Canada, and then over the next year I get placed into a large variety of different positions to learn which ones are available or are in need, then I suppose I would pick one or two and then get the training for whichever one I would then be assigned to do. There would be X number of years subsequent to receiving training that I would have to commit to remaining in the forces, but I would have committed to stick it out until I retire, perhaps moving up some ranks.

even in the career path I followed (doing mostly software support for various enterprise level software packages) I could have join the reserves at a young age which would have put me into a group of people annually with whom I train, but this never occurred to me until much later in my life

trained to be an STM bus driver - earn a pretty good salary, but have shift work that would make having a family more challenging, maybe also retire by now, or within the next few years. I would be unionized and after a certain number of years I would reach the max salary which as I understand it is double what I am earning now (though my job now is an easy 9 to 5 weekdays). I could have applied for this job soon after high school, though, my french language skills would have to have been perhaps better than I had at the time.

trained to be a nurse - with this being a very female dominated domain, I would have more quickly overcome my discomfort in interacting with the girls in the training program with me. I would work in hospital settings until perhaps my mid-40s and then get a job at Hema-Quebec where I simply take blood donations from people, an easy and stable job, though also an occasional Saturday and evening I would have to work. This might have been the easiest thing to have done, since the CEGEP I went to in Sciences, had and continues to have a nursing preparation program.

trained to be a teacher - my middle child C-Ling is doing this now, to become a primary school teacher. This has also become a very female dominated role where having a man do it would be welcome. I would aim to be an early year secondary school teacher and see if I could teach at the school I went to. I know that in various jobs throughout the last thirty years I was placed in a position to provide a five day training to customers to use our software, and I quite enjoyed that aspect of my job at that time. I would have enjoyed having summers off, perhaps to see about having a small cottage to spend summers in.

trained to become a psychotherapist, I knew even at that young age that I was a good listener and as this comes naturally to me it would have helped in this role. Being an English speaker in Quebec, a province with a large minority of English language speakers, I think I could have found a place to work in a location where there are many English speakers, or, I could have moved anywhere else in Canada. I believe there has always been a shortage of people in this role; I just hope that I could have succeeded in the training.

become a Jesuit Priest - the high school I went to was a Jesuit Catholic school so this possibility was front and center, but I didn't have it in me to make that committment at that young age. If I did, my housing and meals for the rest of my life would be managed by the parishioners for whatever church I am pastor. Being a part of the Jesuits, I could be placed anywhere in the world that the Jesuits decide to place me. Also, there isn't really a retirement age as many of the priests that I have encountered have practiced well into their octagenarian years. 

If you happen to read this, do you ever think about what alternative careers you might have considered at the start of one's life given the knowledge you've learned since then?

oh the ways that tumble

I have been paying closer attention to politics lately, including watching House of Commons on TV. I have learned that on some days they start at 10am with just a handful of MPs in the House, where they take turns making 10min speeches followed by questions and feedback for perhaps another 10 minutes. Other MPs trickle in over the next few hours until at around 2pm the House is full, and now it is shorter debate between mainly the prime minister and the opposition leader, though different government cabinet ministers can respond too. This portion of debate is sometimes childish, and it disapppoints me this way that these elected officials behave this way.

As an example, Pierre Poilievre as opposition leader insists over and over that the indistrial carbon tax is causing food price inflation. For the longest time, PM Mark Carney wouldn't address this directly, he would tout a different benefit that his government has provided to address affordability. I think over and over Carney needs to point to specific studies that show that the industrial carbon tax has extremely small impact on food costs, that climate change has the biggest impact.

This week they are debating the Budget 2025 that the government published last week. When a Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), the governing body, has an MP who stands to do a speech for 10 minutes, they use concrete examples of how the budget improves the lives of the people in their riding. When a Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the opposition, has an MP who stands to do a speech for 10 minutes, they talk about the rise in people going to food banks, the affordability problem of housing, food price inflation, too many regulations and the $78B deficit for this budget.

I agree that the budget doesn't do enough around income inequality that could benefit people in the lowest income bracket to remove their need for accessing a food bank. However, I disagree with the CPC that the deficit is problematic. Much of the spending of this deficit is going towards projects that will create jobs, grow the economy and as a result, gather more income tax that can help pay down the deficit and eventually the debt. A lot of the projects have a 3-5 year timeline, or longer, and so unfortunately not a lot of what is in the budget addresses directly the issues that the CPC are raising, but there are no easy and quick solutions to address the concerns the CPC raises.

Tomorrow the Federal government and the Alberta government are having an announcement event in Calgary about an MOU that aligns the two governments about a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the Prince Rupert area of British Columbia. CBC has reported that some regulations will ease to allow for the pipeline, but that there are some environmental conditions attached. The government of BC and First Nations on that part of the coast are vehemently against a bitumen pipeline, and as I understand it, the MOU releases the federal government from trying to get them onside for this pipeline, that the responsibility has been given to Alberta. As I see it, this improves the relationship between Albertans and the federal government, as it is in indication that the federal government has gotten out of the way. It is a win for Alberta Premier Smith as she can go to her party's convention this coming weekend to say she got a qualitative win from the federal government.

Given the conditions and the resistance, I think the probability of this bitumen pipeline getting built is actually very low, and so Premier Eby in British Columbia won't have to deal with this issue apart from opposing it; and all of the environmental people across Canada will be pleased that this pipeline doesn't get built.

I am against this pipeline being built. There is already a methane pipeline project on the Major Projects Office (MPO) that will go to the northwest coast of BC with a floating LNG terminal there. Additionally, there is a TMX pipeline to Vancouver that can be optimized to allow for a greater flow from Alberta; let's do that rather than build a new pipeline.

There are some economists who say the need for fossil fuels will continue for decades, while there are others who say that the peak of demand for fossil fuels will happen within the next five years and will make a new bitumen pipeline from Alberta to Prince Rupert a white elephant. Both power generating wind mills and solar panels have dropped in price below the price of fossil fuel electricity generation and their uptake has been exponential in the last two or three years. At that rate they will greatly reduce the need for fossil fuels.

Anyhow, I am interested to see how the MOU works out tomorrow; and if there is eventually a private proponent for a pipeline project that most of Canada doesn't want.

We remember

It isn't every November day that reminds us of the past, but this one does.

It was originally called 'Armistice Day' to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m.—on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Then in 1931 it was renamed as 'Remembrance Day'. This is a day to honour and remember the men and women who have served, and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace.

I don't personally know any such men or women, but today is a day to think about all of them anyhow.

On this day at 11AM I took a pause to remember the sacrifice and service that these men and women have provided.

there isn't much to say

Okay, well then.

It is raining on this day of Halloween.

Municipal elections across Quebec are happening on Sunday.

An STM strike is starting tomorrow to span all of November. I have an opinion about this; bus drivers in Montreal earn on average 114k$ (the average salary in Montreal is between 50-70k) and are asking for a big pay increase while at the same time the ARTM is under extreme stress due to not having enough income for the operations of the transit agencies. I do support the idea of labour unions to combat the excess of corporate greed; but in this particular case I am on the ARTM's side.

The Blue Jays are playing the LA Dodgers in game six tonight; if Toronto wins, they win the world series. If they don't, the deciding game 7 is tomorrow night.

On Tuesday the Mark Carney government will be releasing their budget. He is dividing the government finances into operations and capital projects with the goal of lowering the cost of government operations and increasing the investment in capital projects. As I understand it, the government expenses have been rising about 7% per year; if that can be reduced to 2 or 3% per year it would be more in line with inflation. 

Felix Auger-Alliasime is playing in a quarter final match in Paris, his match begins in about half an hour from me composing this post. It is an indoor tournament, perhaps in the future I will see if I can attend this tournament in person.

Over night this weekend we are to change our clocks to move back to standard time. I am of the opinion that we should do away with the time change. I am indifferent if we should keep standard time year round or day light savings time year round.

The Quebec government introduced a reform to how Quebec doctors are paid and the doctors are very angry about this new law. At the same time the Alberta government introduced a law that affects teachers, and in that province there is talk of a general strike.

Ontario premier Doug Ford had his government pay for a TV commercial to play in the United States with a minimally edited speech from Ronald Reagan touting the advantages of free trade; this in opposition to the Orange Cheetoh Buffoon's tariff heavy trade policy. There has been back lash, the ongoing talks between Canadian and US trade negoticators were terminated, and now it isn't clear what will happen. I have an opinion about this. I feel we should ignore the US, continue to trade under the CUSMA deal, do nothing about the sectoral tariffs affecting aluminum, steel, automotive, lumber and so on but do what can be done to support those industries from projects built in Canada.

I'll end off with Mark Carney being in south Korea presently and has met with the Chinese president. At this moment we have 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and China has set tariffs on Canadian canola very high also. I have an opinion about this; if we can lower the tariff on incoming Chinese EVs to 50% and lower Chinese tariffs on our canola and other goods, we can increase trade. Ontario premier Ford would hate this idea, of Chinese EVs coming in to Canada; but with the US trying to break up the integrating automotive sector between Canada and the US, I get the sense the days of a Canadian automative industry are beginning to close. 

I guess that's about it for now.

Orion up in the sky

The Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday is just around the corner.

I am not certain what corner it is around; perhaps in a calendar, since the days are often marked in squares, the corner being referred to is the corner of the date that Thanksgiving is.

Or, more likely, it is just a manner of speech stemming from the idea that something that is just around the corner is literally, just around the corner so it isn't too far away, but not immediately evident.

In some city blocks, depending on the city, the next available corner can be quite a distance away, so 'around the corner' in that specific scenario is no indication whatsoever that what is going to happen is going to happen anytime soon.

Growing up my nuclear family didn't do much to celebrate Thanksgiving. In my own nuclear family we didn't do much with it either; would occasionally eat at my mother-in-law's house, but we'd have the habit of doing that on a fairly regular basis anyhow, so it wasn't anything really special.

Well, if you are reading this, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving (yes, I know I'm early, but let me be the first).

that it wouldn't be too far to

There isn't much I can say about serendipity, or the colour of my left shoelace.

It is also impossible for me to know the correct time of day to consider what time of day ought to be the best time of day to do something that is best done at that time of day.

That the top of the bottom is not related to anything at all is up to this author.

bucket of sludgeless spa mint

If you haven't yet flossed your ankles, you can put it off to another day.

If you don't know what day of the week it is the moment you first awake in the morning, worry not, you are not alone in this blissful ignorance.

If you recognize that this post contains only sentences that start with 'If you', then it shows that you are reasonably attentive.

If you didn't recognize that this post contains only sentences that start with 'If you', you are remarkably inattentive.

If you have read to this last sentence, you will have read to this last sentence.

boo, pp

So, Pierre Poilievre has been elected in a safe Alberta riding to resume his role as Opposition Leader for the Conservative Party of Canada.

In his media appearances since the election, he again has claimed that inflation and immigration are still issues and that the Liberal government are responsible.

He also has begun his character attack on PM Mark Carney. I have no problem with the Opposition Leader being critical of the policies of the current government, but personal attacks on politicians, there ought to be a way to curtail this behaviour. 

why all of the vacancies are made of

Everyone else thought that youth, when applied to a pancake, would relate sideways to the cistern that is not equitable with a vote to the nary.

That a sentence devoid of any words that contain the letter 'Q' would be used as a first sentence of a post comes as no surprise to the author. If you found a 'Q' in the first sentence, consider yourself rewarded with that fantastic ability of letter recognition.

One would have to have been made delirious to understand the fast speaking unnaturally emotive existential professor who spoke often in epithets using anagrams. Not all of the rhymes rhyme.

The strangest of all things seems only to be compared to strange things. Comparing a strange thing to something perfectly natural or normal (like an apple, or a chair) is much like using a shoe horn to mimic a tenor horn.

All of the cryogenically frozen people who (before they were frozen) were predominately right-handed ought not to count the number of Mickey Mouse t-shirts they would have owned had they not frozen themselves at the time they did.

Microbial insects, if that is what they can be called when such a creature is that small, are occasionally felt on odd surfaces of my skin and I immediately scratch or rub it or them away.

Strength as a function of length as an aptitude of stench while being measured on a bench is observed by a wench using a wrench.

If the YMCA was to have been spelled the JQPF, it would have scored much higher in a Scrabble game.

Communal living in Generation Forward

I have had more thoughts about getting a pro-natal non profit going in a communal way instead of the individual condo -> house method I posted about a few days ago.

I would use the same applicant / candidate / selected method previously described, though I would revise it as an ad for young men and women, in couples or single. I learned that asking for specifically aged 18yo women and 24yo men could be age discriminatory. Also; I am not to specify gender roles in terms of the man having the bigger income; I will allow for the couple to work out for themselves this arrangement. Though, in the selection process I will look for situations where the guy is safely employed as most likely the woman would stay home due to pregnancy, maternity leave and child rearing.

At the first presentation, if there are any existing couples, who, after the presentation are interested in participating in the program, they will be part of a cohort that can be selected first. Couples that are selected, up to five of them, will be given the choice to follow the individual condo plan I outlined previously, or to enter the communal plan I describe below.

Any single individuals who come to that presentation who end up forming a couple with two prescheduled dates in the subsequent three weeks, we will touch base with them for three weeks. For couples still together and still interested in participating in the program, we will get all of them together to attend weekly homemaking lessons for things like cooking, what to expect at child birth, what to expect after birth in the first few months, personal finance, budgeting, RRSP, RESP, TFSA, etc. that will last another three months or so. If after that they still want to participate in the program, they will become cohort 2 using a selection process to get five couples.

From the original individual plan, once the non profit organization owns 15 condos and a few houses that we own outright and for which we receive rent payments, we use that to assist in getting a loan and to finance (with some of our own money) the construction of a purpose built communal building of about 15 storeys.

The ground floor will be a gym and pool and a locker room between them as well as the main entrance, mail boxes, access to the elevators and perhaps a management office.

Each residential floor above will be constructed in the form of a U shape with residential units all along the outside wall of the building on three sides, but having an opening in the middle with floor to ceiling windows on the fourth side. This communal area in the middle will have things like laundry machines, a large kitchen, and folding chairs and tables so that they can be moved aside outside of eating times to allow for the space to be multi purpose. Perhaps too there could be a balcony sticking out of the building on that fourth communal side.

Levels 1 and 2 will have a mix of two bedroom condos and what I'll call family units. The family units will have four or five bedrooms and be generally larger to accommodate families with 4-6 children. There will be 15 two bedroom condos so as to have a cohort of five couples move into units 1-5 as cohort 1, a year later cohort 2 moves into units 6-10, a year later cohort 3 moves into units 11-15 and during that year, the families of cohort 1 who ought to have two kids by now, move into a family unit where they will stay for the remainder of their time in the building. So the fifteen two bedroom units will have new couples cycle through about every 2-3 years.

Levels 3 to 15 are all family units, still in that U shape, though, mixed among the floors are two lounges that are to be of use for the whole building, rather than just that floor - one, a teen lounge and another, an adults lounge.

As with the individual condos, we will charge each family 30% of their income to rent their condo which will include electricity and internet. They will need to pay for insurance and food and with respect to food, all of the families on the floor are to work out how they will use the communal living area - is it every meal every day? Is it only dinners? Who takes charge? Do different families take different nights? How is the communal food paid for?

When a family reaches having four children, they will be advised that at any time between that time and having been in the communal living building for 20 years, that they will need to form an exit plan so as to make room for new cohorts. As a non-profit we will help them by paying up to 70% of a house that they move into; and they pay the remaining 30%. The candidates will be advised of this exit program at the time they are offered to join the program so that it does not come as a surprise.

As an option, the non-profit could build another building with a similar communal setup, intended for families that are no longer having young children, so it could be a mix of family units to take the families as they are from the first building, and also a mix of one or two bedroom or studio units that the kids can move into, to eventually move out and for the parents to move into, as their kids move out. Of course, it is possible that kids of the communal living from two different families end up forming a couple, these would automatically join a cohort since they already know what communal living is about. Once the very first few cohorts get to four children, we can survey them to find out if continued living communally was of interest to them; if it is, this will direct us to build the new building.

With respect to construction, I had the idea that the structure and the envelope and the first five two bedroom condos can be built at the start of the construction all together, but then a small construction team can be hired long term to build all of the remaining units one at a time for the entire building as our population grows.

For the pool I had the idea that once it is opened, I would hire a lifeguard to provide mom (or dad) and baby pool sessions. Then, once the kids are aged 3 or 4, start giving them weekly lessons. Once the oldest kids are aged 6 or 7 start having a free swim period and now hire two or three lifeguards to watch the pool. Eventually, teach all of the children not only the full swim lesson suite, but get all children (perhaps with the exception of any that are handicapped or willfully dislike the idea) to go through the certification necessary to make them lifeguards, so that not only can we start to hire them inside our pool in our building, but, they can get jobs outside of the building as lifeguards.

Once I am sufficiently advanced in this, and can show how effective my plan is to increase the birth rate, I can do two things. First I would contact the provincial government, present to them the findings from my program, and find out if they can help subsidize this program to help to expand it. Second, I would start a charitable foundation to accept donations from other individuals or corporations to as to promote this pro-natal program.

Then, I can expand this program to other cities in Canada with an ultimate goal of having 5000+ births per year. In 2022 there were 351,679 babies born in Canada, in 2023 it was 351,477, so adding 5000+ births would be a 1.4% increase in births which would indeed have a measurable impact on the national birth rate.

plaid rug under the carpet

A twig, a ranch hand and an 8x13 envelope crossed the train tracks (two pair owned by CN Rail), like a 

Unknown by anyone who doesn't read this post, 29c isn't the best time of day to lick a ceiling panel

It was such a great day to experience 15h21, that it jumped up and down like a

Incomplete the sentences, like it isn't, or it may not kept to have been undone.