Tag: Future

StartUp Weekend Saint John

StartUp Weekend Saint John

As most of you know I have volunteered at ROGERS tv for going on 19 years. Bi-weekly there is a talk show that I work on called What Matters most. A few weeks ago the had someone on as a guest from the Momentum Group to talk about a then-upcoming event for a Startup Weekend. Long story short that episode didn’t make it to air and was instead put on YouTube. Therefore you can watch the following 13-minute interview to get the idea of what it is about. Or not… I guess I can tell you what it is about. The premise is that you pay money for a ticket and choose if you are a Developer (can code), Designer (can design stuff), or Other (smart person, marketing person, money person, et cetera). Then on Friday you show up raid the buffet spread, socialize, network, and assess the competition. Then you get to listen to speeches, “The is is how the weekend is going to go down”, “we love business”, “entrepreneurs are awesome”, “there are so many services you have never probably heard of that you are going to get a taste of”, “your community needs you”, and lastly “who…

Home and Escape

I’m going to move the story along and will in the future write more hallucination stories. Once it was determined that I was going to go home, the nurse told me and I wanted to bad to leave Brampton. Mostly because I believed that the whole town wanted to kill me in the riots. I was still having lots of difficulties staying awake. I thought that so was moved onto a ship and was going to sail back to Saint John. I was stuck in a small little all-white room. We then stopped, a giant rock had collapsed the passage and this Newfie came down from the bridge and said: “She’s between not good and not so good.” I knocked over something and the ship caught on fire and sank. I was so scared I wasn’t going to make it back. Then I woke up (October 23, 2016) again and remember the nurses and air paramedic trying to switch over my breathing machine but it was the wrong size. They eventually did something but I got bored and blacked out again. I then woke up and I was outside and it was cool, they then put me on the plane…

It’s Showtime!

It’s Showtime!

Now to continue the story. The biggest point of fear is the moment before doing something. However, I have at this point completely learned my part and it is showtime for the final full rehearsal and there are a limited number of media and a few other people in the audience. It makes this effectively the first show. I’m standing behind the curtain waiting for my cue, which was in the second part of the first act, and am trembling because although I’m not on stage yet, I have no way to escape out of doing this. After two months of faking it, pretending to be an actor, I step out on stage. I don’t remember much of that show I was in character and pulled it off. The next day, the first day of paying guests, I trip on my way to work, rip open my knee and elbow, but the most tragic event happened. My coffee cup exploded all over the sidewalk and I lost it. A world without coffee is not a great world. That night I was faking it again and really was focused and didn’t even notice the audience. Each night after the show I got…

Fox, Time Warner Cable reach deal to avoid blackout – Yahoo! Canada News

Fox, Time Warner Cable reach deal to avoid blackout – Yahoo! Canada News

In the view of what may be in line for Canada over the next year in the camps of the Fee-for-carriage debate between “Save Local” and “Stop the TV Tax.” Although this seems unfathomable in the current landscape, the near future will see broadcast, cable, and satellite a thing of the past to internet based distribution methods. Why pay for 100’s of channels that you do not watch? Why can the creators of the content not just distribute themselves? With devices like the Roku player, Apple TV, PS3, Xbox 360, and many others, we can feasibly get HD to your TV. Problems with getting broadband will als be a thing of the past soon as 4G LTE cellular networks with 51 mb/s connections will make getting fast internet to people easier and cheaper. Even more so in less that 5 years with 5G “In the last 12 months talks between cable operators and program providers have become even more tense. Programmers have been seeking better affiliate fees as they have seen advertising revenue hurt by the U.S. economic downturn and remain uncertain about the future of TV advertising as more marketers turn to the Web.”  Yinka Adegoke for Reuters. Fox,…

The Future

Last weekend I received my LSAT score back and it was not what I had expected. It got me thinking about what I really like doing and to a greater extent what I want to do. Lately I have been obsessed with words of the day on various online dictionaries and one of my favourites Wiktionary had the word “tranquil” on Saturday when I first opened by LSAT score e-mail. It became a matter if irony of that words full definition in relation to the experiences of the weekend. Wiktionary defines it as “Free from emotional or mental disturbance.” which has firmly been at odds with my passions, in fact I have had to turn down many paths to make this transition fit. Paths that would have led more to the path that destiny seems to have written. In the class Modern Europe History: Renaissance to the French Revolution one of the main figures in Protestant Reformation is John Calvin. John believes that our salvation or destiny is predetermined to the extent that our actions cannot make a difference and that we can cannot fight nature. Which is interesting with tranquil or brought further tranquility the calm inspired by nature,…

Thought Piece

When reviewing the subject of the course I am reminded of when I started to research something a while back. I started writing and entry for my blog on whether the “Digital Revolution” was really or not a revolution that lead to a bigger philosophical question of other revolutions throughout history. Then, I started to ponder the question about revolutions in general. What does it take to make enough people to take the big jump to start the revolution? The larger question that also I keep asking myself if it was considered before a revolution begins: “Will the king end up dead, and do we really care?” I then proceeded to start an introduction that was never finished. It is suited to be used here since these are some of the questions that I am hoping to be able to answer by taking this course. Over the course of recorded history, revolutions have changed the course of the future to countless Peoples. To these ends certain questions would be asked, and answers pondered. The first question is why would people change the comfort of the things as they are to instate change. How bad do things have to get for…

Open Letter to my MP on Fee for Carriage

Today I checked my e-mail hand found this letter from my cable television provider Rogers Cable. Dear Rogers Cable Customer: {snip} I am now writing to inform you of yet another broadcasting policy proposal that is under consideration by the CRTC After rejecting it twice, the CRTC has reintroduced the idea of having a fee-for-carriage: a payment to Canadian over the air broadcasters that could ultimately end up costing cable and satellite TV subscribers between $5 and $10 per month!The proposal is being championed by over the air television networks such as CTV and Global (Canwest Media). These companies also own highly profitable specialty channels, such as TSN and History, and therefore overall are financially healthy.Furthermore, the CRTC has suggested that if the cable and satellite distributors don’t go along with the fee-for-carriage scheme, the television signals of American network stations, (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS) which we have distributed since cable TV began, will be taken away. The “fee for carriage” proposal is strongly opposed by Rogers and most other cable and satellite distributors.You as a cable TV customer can take a definitive position to oppose this new tax, called “fee-for-carriage”.To do so you should contact the CRTC…

Saint John Transit and Google Transit

I sent an e-mail to Saint John Transit offering a suggestion : I recently read on CBC News the plans to incorporate an text messaging system which is great, however the currently the method of displaying the schedules in PDF remains unreadable by 90% of cellphones.The new Google transit system works with most cellphones (minus the maps for some) and for people with GPS Enabled cellphones it can use the Google Transit to find the closest bus stops an times. Best of all it’s free. And here is the response from  Chris Campbell at Saint John Transit: Good morning Mr. Frees-Melvin. The system we will be using is from a company called Grey Island. There will be an interface with Google Transit, but not immediately. You will be able to text a 5-7 digit code from any cell phone and we will be adding a 5 digit numerical code at every stop in the city. Text that 5 digit number specific to the stop and the next bus arrival time will be sent to your phone. This will be in real time, not scheduled time. We hope that in the future people with a PDA will be able to access…

Dead or alive…

I was just uptown and thinking about the talk of recent in Saint John about the growth and prosperity about to hit the city. I don’t really want to be a neigh-say-er but I just can’t imagine Saint John ever living up to its potential. The mentality of the people is one of the biggest drawbacks. It is the greatness of the “littlest city” syndrome the keeps the rose colored glasses, from seeing the realities the global economy is going to be in recession very shortly and I feel that the current growth can sustain and are set the repeat the last boom “Urban Renewal” / “Super Block” / Millidgeville / Shopping Centres projects from the 1960’s – early 80’s.

Again another post and another year!

While since it is a new year it just seems different. 2006 was a very bad year as I posted a year ago now that I look back at the posts I made and 2007 went by without many successes or failures. But, now it ’tis 2008. I can’t wait this looks to be the year that every thing seems to be heading to. This spring there is another one of those municipal elections. Not to say that I would run again seeing as how things are going, but who knows what will happen. On the political side of things I don’t see me doing much this year as there is still uncertainty as to where I will be come the end of it. I’m, along with Tony Tompkins are working on a web cast series titled “The Badger Hunter” the editing of the pilot episode is almost done on that and is slated for release on February 29th. We are currently about to begin filming of the second episode. I’ve been going over some of the code for my photo gallery and seem to have it fixed despite the unknown reason that the background of the main section disappears on…

Saint Johners I thought you were smart!

I still think that most of you don’t have a brain in your head sometimes. But, we will see. Come the next election I hope that there will be enough good candidate running in every ward so that we don’t end up like Miramichi. Doesn’t anyone remember why in 1980 the ward 198 years of a ward system was brought to an end? Because the council was too focused on the day-2-day of the city rather than setting policy and advancing the city forward. We were doing that, this is going to be another nail in the coffin of Saint John. This is going to strip away the progress foreseen in the last 4 years. The next council is more likely than not going to pit one against the other for; who gets a rink, I want my sidewalks plowed. And attention is diverted away from the future and placed on the present.

The foggy path to…?

It is very peculiar how many opportunities pose themselves all at once and yet you need to make a decision is this the right road, do you go aimlessly strait or do you sit and wait on the trail for a better option to come around then doing nothing. If you wait that opportunity might come or you might be on a deserted foggy road just waiting to be rained on. Like the old saying “When it rains, it pours.” Is it time to take the diversion from the path and when you do it is always a massive suffocating web, a web so sometimes scary that it is often overwhelming not only in size but in magnitude (I always wanted to use that word in a post). Right now I am approaching that there are 4 options to the future. All diversions could be challenging, costly, very risky and possible overwhelming, but in the end (I love that phrase too) it could be so overwhelmingly rewarding that words could not describe. Earlier this week, and last week too I saw “The Nanny Diaries” (CEFM Rating: 4.5/5) which I must recommend as a very rewarding film to see. It is…

Goals… and the Future.

Okay, so if you know me I really hate people telling that I can’t do something. As an example someone told me that it was too complicated to make a moving background for a TV show, and I did. Someone told me that programming an RTX program required lots of coding that I could not do, I bought a book on VB and within two weeks had a functioning TV Bingo program that basically changed all the dates, and played the animations and that was it. Now my pride in joy pinnacle of accomplishment, the Too Close to Call graphics, is very close to being complete. It pretty much does pretty much everything but a few very advanced features that I am still working on. While that being said, this week I was told that the fact I am not bilingual was affecting my ability to get a better job. So there for I have now decided that by May 12th, 2008 I will study hard and become bilingual, and that by this summer I will get my Drivers license. So to these ends I have decided to make a webpage called “My Goals” to track my progress.

4 more days!

The conservative national convention next week should be very interesting. I’ve been looking forward to it for so long. I am leaving Saint John on Wednesday and will be returning on Sunday.I’ve been busy reading all the amendments and there are some I really disagree with but it should be interesting to hear what others think while I am in Montreal. To finish off I am going to add a letter that I sent around last week about the creation of the Young Conservatives of Canada, which I think with slight amendments in the future should be the best youth program of all the political parties in Canada. Greetings Fellow Conservatives, It is difficult to make a decision on this resolution. Clearly option “C” of maintaining the things as they are is not acceptable. It is defiantly very important to have strong youth involvement in the party. Option “A” of creating a Young Conservatives of Canada seems to be a reasonable proposal and better than option “B”, but has several obvious flaws. The first flaw is that it places the President as a voting member of the National Council, this further diminishes the impact of the provincial elected councilors, and…

Last day of Classes

Wow it finally came the last day of classes. It has been a very long and hard 13 weeks but now I am glad to be through it. I am looking forward to my exams over the next few weeks. I just got paid my first pay so now I HAVE MONEY! again (to pay bills 🙁 ) Also I had my second in-car driving lesson, I think that I am getting better at it then last time. Also today I am going to start in Radio Shack at McAllister Place for my Rogers Wireless job. I am very excited to work with the people there. Future Shop was great in regards to the people, but there was not a steady flow of customers like I think there will be in the mall. gtg to my last class MATH1853 so post later.

After the election

Many people have asked me what was it like to run for Mayor of Saint John. The answer was that it was a time of a life time. I was privileged to meet everyone that I did meet. I now have a greater respect for Saint John and the issues about it. I thought that I knew a lot about Saint John from reading the news, and watching council, and working in the community. There are others that thought I would have been better off running for council, but with the total number of people running, and the fact was there where much better people who were running for council with the knowledge and ability to do this city well. To be quite honest the councillors that were elected were some of the best of the crop. Out of the 50 there was actually only about 17 that I thought were the best suited for the job and 9 of them were elected. Now back to the Mayor’s seat. Running for mayor provided me with the best exposure. I was mentioned on the Newspapers, Radio, and appeared on TV. Also, I had many people who would stop and talk to…