dictionary goes on vacation selling rhubarb

I was giving some thought to AXY3 yesterday.

Also, to the idea of taking up vacant city downtown mall space to put out tables and chairs all aimed towards a central stage where music performances take place at lunch times.

Also, about sailing to the 17 or 18th northern latitudes during the winter.

With respect to AXY3, 2023 is not far away, so if I was going to do something I'd need to get started soon. I would want to give as many of the 2023 birth year cohort the opportunity to become a member. At the age of zero there is no cost nor obligation; however, as that cohort ages and as the AXY3 Foundation accumulates funds and experience, the foundation can be there to assist this youngest cohort. It is daunting, but the idea would be to staff birthing centers from midnight Dec 31 2022 until midnight Dec 31 2023, and hand to each family member of a new born a pamphlet that describes the AXY3 foundation and ask them to register. The pamphlet would offer that as the child grows, assistance can be available to that child, and as the child grows, mentorship and leadership will be provided/taught as well as educational assistance, job seeking and career development. The ideal member then contributes to future AXY3 cohorts; though there is no obligation. For current AXY3 membership we'd need to find a way to touch the hearts of membership to open their wallets for the purposes of helping future cohorts. In principle a small monthly contribution from a large membership could really add up. The other way that current AXY3 members could help is in the help of each other - helping someone move, helping them find a job, an older member mentoring a younger one, members that are handy can help those who aren't, members who are tech savvy can help those who aren't. Another thought that came to me was the idea of helping family members of the AXY3 members - my vision does not include this. By raising the AXY3 member through assistance to that member, the member him or herself will be presented with the skills and abilities to help his or her family. Perhaps this is strict, but if the family members want to start their own AXY? for a different birth year, it is up to them.

For the music in the city; have very small tables with single chairs in a semi-circle closest to the stage, and depending on the size of the space, a second row of small tables and single chairs. In the next one or two subsequent rows, have slightly larger tables with two chairs each; in the next row, a single row of larger tables with three chairs each and then finally, with whatever room remains, have tables with four chairs. In the cases of the single chair and two-chair tables, all chairs face the stage. In the case of the 3 and 4 person tables, have the table in a semi-circle shape and have the chairs all around the semi circle, facing the stage. The principle is that often there are people I see in the food courts that are eating all on their own; so give them the single seats at the front. There are also small groups of two, three or four and occasionally larger groups. Imprinted on the table is a QR code with a brief description about paying the musician. When they scan the QR code with their device, it brings them to a site where they can easily make a fixed donation of 1, 2, 5 or 10$ or some 'other' amount, and 90% of that money will go to the musician, the remaining 10% goes for administrating this online system and any transactional fees incurred by accepting the payment. Other additions to the space would be acoustical elements to help with the sound. Specifically, I would want to have the space visible from the outside, but only in gaps where there are sound deflecting curtains hung. To get the musicians or performers, scour music schools across the city. Go to high schools that have music programs and ask the faculty there if there could be room for higher achieving music students to gain experience by pulling them out of school a few times during the school year to perform at one of these places. Another idea I had, though I am not sure how it would work; would be to have two similar performers take turns, and then people could vote for their preference with the donations they make. The largest obstacle is raising the funds to rent the space in the malls and paying for the renovation required to get the stage, tables and chairs in place. I do not have a solution for this, presently.

With respect to sailing south in the winter; I'd have to start with a small sailboat, gain experience, and then upgrade, and then upgrade again. I don't know if a Quidnon would really work for me unless I had three to five additional crew mates that stayed with me. Perhaps I could post an ad asking for crew mates and see what comes of it. There is still the house to sell, and before that, the house to prepare for sale, so all of this part of the conversation is moot until that happens.

There is more I could write about any of the above three topics, but for now I think I will leave it as is.

selling soilless dirt

I watched all ten episodes of 'Lost in Space' on Netflix.

So often through the episodes, they would bring the viewer to the brink of a calamity or catastrophe only to turn out okay in the end. It got to be that even though the principal characters were in peril, there was less stress as it was clear they would survive.

Those ten episodes made up the first season; there is not yet an additional season. I enjoyed the series and would like to see more.

I'm aiming to raise 2000$ by June 22nd. I wonder if I will succeed. It would take only 40 people to donate 50$,
or 50 people to donate 40$,
or 100 people to donate 20$,
or 200 people to donate 10$.

If I can get enough of my coworkers to contribute, my company will match; so that will be one way to get the donations going. After composing most of this post and before submitting it I received my first donation of 29$.

It has rained today, and the rain is not yet over.

I am wearing an analog wrist watch.

I still think of AXY3 sometimes.

I've stopped thinking about aardvarks and what is their preferred type of soup.

I participate in my one and only Spartan Race of 2018 in sixteen days. I'm looking forward to it.

When reactivists solemnly pantomime

A western dirigible once flagged me down, asking what the correct pencil length would be to raise a ringworm from the sheep stall used by a doting catfish. I answered that three or four sevenths of the length of a standard pencil should suffice, so long as it was a 3B pencil. An Athenian from ancient times tried downloading Angry Birds onto her tablet but the version numbers didn't sync.

If a Cartesian value system was applied equally among people born in even numbered years, and applied unequally to those born in odd years, would the stifles that AXY3 members feel be quick to surrender, or mirthless in its equanimity? An extremely finite view of a broad range of options is what is called for. I should know.

Squeak the beak, quake the bake and claw the straw. Melt the kelp, cringe the syringe and eye-ball the dust-bowl.

There's a volume talker dividing the key clicks and rail noises. Though it isn't an étage tranquil, it can be seen as disrespectful that this volume talker carries on. Curiously, adjacent to the volume talker is the violent key-presser. The volume talker's voice is penetrating while the violent key-presser sounds are insidious.

This sentence marks the three sevenths mark of my rail trip to TO. Though seated next to me is a stranger, I am on this train with eight coworkers; we are attending the 'Great Place to Work' awards ceremony this evening. I was one of the lucky ones to put my name in and I got selected to go. It is a short trip, we attend the ceremony/banquet/party this evening and tomorrow we take the train home again.

Riding this train makes me wonder what riding a Hyperloop will be like. More G-Forces at start and stop, for sure, but for the stretch in the middle; will it rock and bump as long distance trains do?

Four types of dandelions wept bitterly as their brethren were sliced away, only moments later to be sliced themselves. Those lawnmowers are callous machines; they don't discriminate. De-weeding is a little more compassionate; though the end result is the same.

Without with and couch the soap

It is the very last day of the very first month of the very first year that follows the year that precedes this one.

There are no Christmas Carols that would use a straw to melt a cream puff made of internal digital watch components. I should know.

Two limericks walked into a bar and told a joke to a pigeon.

I haven't given any thought to the AXY3 idea that I had quite a while ago. And yet, I did think about it yesterday when I was debating about purchasing a web domain. Instead of purchasing a new domain I decided to use a different one that I had access to.

My wife and two daughters and I (my son was busy elsewhere) went with almost 200 other people into a Mosque last night to participate in a meeting of solidarity for the six Muslims that were killed in Quebec City the previous night. This was the first time I had ever been in a Mosque. The spirit of solidarity and cooperation was very strong in the room with people from many different faiths taking part. This same event was being held in many places across Canada at the same time.

Baking bread using one's armpits isn't the least likely of things to happen on a Tuesday at 11AM. Still, it is pretty unlikely.

On Netflix last night watched the movie 'Horns' as recommended by some people at a party I was at over the weekend. It was quite entertaining and had me rather captivated.

When a limerick crashes into a parakeet

Today is the very last Thursday of the month of November.

We just booked a vacation, going to Cancun in March next spring. Well, technically it will still be winter as our travel dates, in March, precede the arrival of spring. We had a little over 18,000 Airmiles that were set to expire on Dec 31, so we used them, plus some additional funds, to get the five of us on this trip.

Who says that a meritocracy is a bad way to go? So long as the ministers involved are magnanimous, wise and benevolent, I think it ought to work.

I didn't light a match today.

I wonder how many men get manicure/pedicures. There is a shop very close to my work that does this and I've seen only one time a man in the chair being 'cared for'. Maybe I would go.

I haven't given any thought to AXY3 since I first posted about it. This is often how ideas flow through me - fleetingly.

echo echo echo echo

With the Chevy Bolt coming out in the next 18-24 months and the Tesla 3 coming out in the next 18-24 months there will be a tough choice as to what electric car I end up buying.

There may even be additional electric cars at that time that I would consider that I am not even aware of yet.

I doubt I'll be in the financial position to buy such a car 18-24 months from now, but one can dream, yes?

If there is anywhere one can dream, it has got be in a blog that almost no one reads.

I thought of one more thing about the AXY3 club I'll never start - soon after formation of the group I think a leadership committee would need to be elected to help make decisions about what the group does and to set up any rules.

I had lunch today with three coworkers at the second closest food court. All three are immigrants into Canada, one from Syria (immigrated before the trouble started that is happening now), one from China and the third from Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, I think. Whether by virtue of English as not a first language, or introversion of which likely all four of us share this personality trait, conversation was stilted. I attempted to start conversations by asking questions and attempting to involve each person, but this did not, apart from a few fits and starts, lead to any prolonged conversation, so I ended up being the one doing most of the talking. This is good for me as it exercises my weaker extroverted side, but it is also draining.

Current temperature: -3C.

AXY3

I had a vision on my commute home last night about creating a club or group or organization called AXY3.

The A in AXY3 can be 1 or 2.
The X in AXY3 can be 0 or 9.
The Y in AXY3 can be any number.
The 3 in AXY3 is 3.

The idea is anyone born in 1903,1913,1923,1933,1943,1953,1963,1973,1983,1993,2003 or 2013. I'd include 1893 and 1883 but I don't think anyone that age would be up to joining this club or group or organization.

My idea is to make it so that everyone in the group makes offers to help everyone else in the group in any way that help can be provided, and also, to raise funds from all members of the group to offer scholarships to the young ones in the group.

I know how busy people are so I would want this group to meet quarterly. In the very first meeting I would have a paper questionnaire that I would ask people to fill out. Questions on it would include:
Name?
Your birthday? To get a sense for which decades are represented.
Address? To let AXY3 members know who in the group lives close to them.
Occupation? If there are any professionals in the group who can offer their services to the group.
How can you help? A list of ways that a person can help another, including giving lifts, doing translation work, handy man work, lawn and garden help, tutoring, event planning and anything else I can think of, including an 'Other, please specify'

On the questionnaire I would propose a mission statement and ask if the respondent agrees to it or has any suggestions for modifications.
On the questionnaire I would ask about frequency of meetings and location of meetings as, my own vision is quarterly, but others may have different ideas.
On the questionnaire I would ask if the respondent would agree to a very nominal weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual donation to a completely transparent fund that would be pooled that then as a group we would decide how to use it.

For the first meeting I would out of my own pocket try to get some media publicity and rent a space in an easy to access location in the city and then wait to see how many people show up.

I don't know how we would manage it, but in the year 2023, give a pamphlet to all of the children born at all of the local hospitals throughout the entire year, welcoming the child to join AXY3 as a 'child-member'.

I would get a website called axy3.org and also create a montreal.axy3.org with the idea that other places in the world could create their own AXY3 clubs. If the idea took off and there were many different AXY3 groups around the world, there could be a whole world of options as to what could be done.

Sadly, with much regret, I would also join FB to promote AXY3 through social media.

All of this stems from the fact that I was born in 1973 and that using birth year is as arbitrary as any other method of grouping people together to pool resources.

Who knows, perhaps an AXY2, AXY5 and AXY9 all get created, patterned after my having started AXY3.