Author: Kim Siever

This summer, we travelled to Ponteix, Saskatchewan, for a family reunion on my mother’s side of the family. It was 100 years the Cloutiers had been on the family farm.

I brought my camera along becase I felt going to my mum’s hometown would present some nice photo opportunities.

One of the photos I took was after Regan and Aisling had been playing on a playground near our hotel. They wanted to check out the creek that runs through the city, and we had to cross the train tracks to get there.

While we were on the tracks, I saw the elevators off to the east, and the gorgeous colours the setting sun produced. I had the children sit on the tracks, and snapped a few photos.

I was pleased with how this one turned out. So were others, and I had multiple suggestions to submit it to a photo contest.

So I did, albeit nonchalantly.

Today, I received a package in the mail from Tourism Saskatchewan saying this photo was given an honourable mention in the “people” category of their Great Saskatchewan Photo Contest. I received a 2010 calendar as a consolation prize.

I thought that was kind of neat. Winners should be posted on their site next week.

Posted via web from hotpepper’s posterous

A lot of people have the idea I am some sort of environmentalist or hippie. After all, I compost, take the bus to work, live in a 798 sq ft house with my family of six, use a reel mower, have a tankless water heater, use grocery bins instead of plastic bags, and recycle. The list goes on.

The funny thing is, however, that none of that has anything to do with the environment.

You see, I’m Scottish. And Dutch. Which means I’m cheap.

I compost and recycle because it means I don’t have to buy as many garbage bags. I use a reel mower because I don’t have to buy more gas or spend more on electricity.

I take the bus to work because I don’t have to buy another car, which means a car payment, more insurance, and more gas.

My family of six lives in a 798 sq ft house because we bought it for $75,000, reducing our monthly housing costs at the time by $150. I use a tankless water heater because it saves money on gas usage, and we don’t run out of hot water.

I use grocery bins instead of plastic bags because I can pack them faster in the store, and my store charges for plastic bags.

I don’t hate environmentalists. Some of my best friends are environmentalists. Just realize that most of my seemingly green choices are generally just simple practical choices.

This afternoon, I sat in a teleconferenced workshop about how to communicate with finesse and tact. I don’t know if I learned anything or if I will be a better communicator; I guess time will tell. I did notice something though that made me wonder what kind of person I am.

Among the pages of the workbook we had to print out prior to the workshop was a quadrant chart. Along the top was “open”, along the bottom was “closed”, and “direct” and “indirect” were on the left and right respectively.

As the speaker continued with this part of her presentation, I realized the examples she had on the left and right quadrants were transposed: the two on the bottom and top right should have been on the left, and the two on the bottom and top left should have been on the right.

Over the next 5–10 minutes, everyone else in the room picked up on the error. Now here comes the interesting part.

As far as I could tell, everyone in the room fixed it by prefixing “direct” with “in” and removing “in” from “indirect”. When I looked at my chart, I had used arrows to indicate each example should be on the opposite side.

So what does that say about me that I made my change graphically while everyone else in the room did it by editing words on the page?

Received this today via email.

Please find below my suggestion for fixing Canada’s economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to banks and car companies, that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan:

There are about 20 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1. They must retire. Twenty million job openings. Unemployment fixed.
2. They must buy a new Canadian car. Twenty million cars ordered. Auto industry fixed.
3. They must either buy a house or pay off their mortgage. Housing crisis fixed.
4. They must send their kids to school/college/university. Crime rate fixed.
5. Buy $50 of alcohol/tobacco/gas a week. There’s your money back in duty, tax, etc.

It can’t get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances.