Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Exporation on the Side Effects of Being American

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream."

Last night the Wiz and I sat down to enrich our knowledge (after the previous night's debacle over The Day The World Stood Still) Bigger, Stronger, Faster did not disappoint. Filmed in a style similar to Morgan Spurlock (of SuperSize me fame), Chris Bell exposes some of the inconsistencies in steroid use, and the reasons behind some of the use. He also sheds some doubt on the lethal effects of steroids, but manages to pose the questions, and build ideas in a way that doesn't necessarily endorse steroid use... it's a slippery slope.

It's a particularly ironic production, in that Chris' older brother, Mike "Mad Dog" Bell recently passed away this month (December 2008). Both of Chris' brothers provided significant candid commentary and personal experiences with steroids for this film. The underlying message of the film centres around the American ideology of winning at any cost. Chris manages to weave the competitiveness of the American spirit into the hypocrisy of major American spokespeople's messages of playing fair and good sportsmanship a la Arnold Schwarzenegger's stance on anti-steroid use, Major League Baseball's scandals and pro wrestling.

Neither the Wiz nor I have had much exposure to this irony, and this documentary was an excellent thought provoker. A+

Watching Your Digital Footprints.....

Seth Tee got his first Hotmail account in Grade 4. By high school he was posting content on the Web. Now, at the sober age of 22, the University of British Columbia student realizes his teenage musings are just “a Google search away” for the rest of the world, and there is not much he can do to take them back.

This is a situation I seem to come back to again and again —- paying attention to what you put on-line for the internets to find.

Twentysomethings, and younger, high school age webbies are just starting to realize the long, so-very-long ramifications of throwing their whole life out there for the internet to see.  I am continuously baffled by folks who think it’s ok to publish drunken party pictures, or other juvenile hi-jinks.

Um, hello? When I am part of an interview panel, the first thing I do is google people.  I check to find them on facebook and I shake my head at the *limo booze cruize photos* they’ve posted.

You want to get into grad school? Know that someone is going to check into your internet life first.  Same wth a job interview, same with even getting a first date.

Yes - be on the internet.

Yes - have a digital personal.

Make it be a positive reflection, though.  No one needs to lose opportunities because of something ridiculous they posted to Facebook.

:-(  Sigh.

globeandmail.com: Where everybody knows your teenaged musings

Blogged with the Flock Browser

General Motors Twitters Back.....

I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Krystyn Heide blogs about how GM has decided to halt the construction of a new plant in Flint that would produce GM's new Volt. Blog is picked up in Twitter. GM responds via Twitter to retract the statement...

"just because they aren't going to build the plant, doesn't mean the Volt is not going to be produced." (right, elves under the bridge in Detroit will cobble the Volt together).

Is it odd that GM is battling back via Twitter?
Is it an innovative marketing tactic?
A waste of time?

Perhaps it's the fact that GM is trying to do damage control via Twitter?
At this point in time, is it worth the effort?

On a lighter side (I've always got a lighter side), it's refreshing that dinosaurs are getting plugged into social media.

Online Shopping: Some Merchants Just Don't get It

It’s been one of those years, time gets away from you, weather drags you down, and all of a sudden it’s the middle of December and you’ve got to shop on line, and swallow the expedite charges.

I L-O-V-E shopping on line. I can browse for hours. The warm fuzzy feeling of clicking the shopping cart. It’s a little slice of heaven.

E-commerce and online shopping isn’t new, it’s not even novel. It *should* be table steaks for any bricks and mortar shop. For EVERY bricks and mortar shop. Why is it then, that there are so many screw-ups when it comes to online shopping.

1. I’ve ordered things and never received an email confirmation.
2. I’ve ordered things only to find out (via PayPal) that the order has been canceled (with no reason given).
3. I’ve emailed on-line shops to find out the status of something, only to be ignored for weeks on end.
4. I’ve been sent to confirmation pages that end up displaying a web server error (not a 404) that made me think the order was lost. [it wasn’t and now I’ve got too many ShamWOWs]

I’m still struggling with a boot company in the US, trying to find out if my order was accepted, lost or cancelled. Paypal isn’t any help any more, since the payment has been accepted, rejected and now on hold.
Cripes folks. This isn’t rocket science any more. E-commerce has matured, why haven’t the e-tailers kept to a minimum of service for on-line shoppers?

The Big Wind-Down

Police in the Philippines use water cannon to break up a protest in the capital, Manila, against politically-motivated killings.

… it’s that time of the year. When, in theory, there are only a handful of days of paying attention to work. A handful of assignments and projects to tidy up before a few well deserved weeks of relaxation christmas chaos. This year, it *is* going to be more relax, less chaos.

Sure. I say that every year. Already I know I’m a liar. I’ve got 5 days to get my ducks in a row. 5 days to finalize shopping for the Wiz, the dad and maybe a kid or 2.

5 days to figure out one of the hardest problems at work I’ve ever come across. Whew. Maybe we could push christmas back until the end of January? I’ll be in better shape by then.

Colossal Waste of Money: 2010 Olympics

The Games’ biggest sponsor, Bell Canada and affiliates including The Globe and Mail and CTV, is in for at least $200-million. That represents the largest corporate sponsorship in Canadian history.Bell and its affiliates are paring back, slashing thousands of jobs this year as they struggle to increase longer-term profits. But there is no risk to VANOC, said Loring Phinney, Bell vice-president of Olympic and corporate marketing: “We are a very stable organization.”

globeandmail.com: Can the 2010 Games avoid a financial crash?

Um… helloo?

I’m going to say it right now:

THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Alec has got a few awesome things going on - one is how to deal with a bloated inbox. I've really got to organize by conversation. There's nothing worse than responding to somethin that's got 3 new updates to it.

Next, I read the remaining messages using “conversation view”.  That way I can simply read the last mail in the thread, respond and delete the rest.  It’s fast, and very efficient.   It’s even faster, more efficient and easier on the wrist if you ditch the mouse and learn to use the keyboard shortcuts in Outlook — CTRL-R to reply, CRTL-SHIFT-V to file, DEL to delete.Alec Saunders SquawkBox, Oct 2006

You should read the whole article.

Plus - Alec's also got this wicked widget that lets me write my *own* blog article based on a quote from his blog. Zemanta. I want more people to use it!!! ;-)

A Little Sad About Ted...

So very many better writers than I have already written such interesting and thoughtful pieces on the death of Ted Rogers. Mark Goldberg, Mark Evans, and of course, Macleans has a huge, huge section dedicated to Mr Rogers. (I didn’t know him to call him Ted).

Whether you loved him or cursed him, he really was one of the most significant driving forces in Canadian Telecommuncations. He pushed his competitors, the government and his own teams into creating, investing and innovating the Canadian communications industry. Really, no one in Canada has not been touched by Ted Rogers in one way or another. There’s few people who can be described in such a manner. Sigh.

Thanks Mr Rogers.

Westman Communications: A Good News Story

In Canada, there really aren’t all that many independant cable (tv) operations left. The vast majority have been gobbled up by the likes of Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco and Mountain Cable. Manitoba might be a different story

There’s a neat company doing its own thing out there: Westman Communications. Last week they announced a new product to their portfolio of TV, Radio and Internet services…. Home Phone Service.

In a world of corporate giants, Westman is very much an entreprenneurial organization, working quickly to stay ahead of the curve, and yet maintain focus on family, community and quality. I had the pleasure of working with some of their technical folks last year. It was a good experience. Heck, all things considered, it was great, who am I kidding. Their teams were nimble and dedicated and always had the best interest of Westman and their customer base at the core of everything they did.

I’m thrilled that they’ve been able to launch what sounds to be a very exciting service. If you are in the Western Manitoba area, you are lucky to have some great choices and options for home communications services. Congratulations guys! :-)