Shawn Knight just sent me an article on his blog about the intense tornado activities in the Mid-South USA. The pictures are just mind-blowing. Most people in Vancouver, which is where I call home for the time being, have no idea what a tornado really is like, because we don’t have it here. However I could relate to Shawn’s article because I grew up in Missouri, USA, which neighbours the famous Mississippi River, and Kansas City as well as Kansas State, and during my 2 years there, I’ve seen my share of tornadoes.

In Kindergarten and Elementary School, we used to have tornado drills, as it was a frequent visitor in the prarie area that we lived in. The drill was to either get to the basement part of a building, or, if that’s unavailable, go to what would be considered the deepest core of the building, in order to minimize your chances of being hit by flying debris. In case of schools, those were the hallways. Classrooms would be evacuated, so as to minimize the chances of getting hit by flying glass. Once you hit the hallway, you would crouch like a turtle, with your knees to your chest and your arms wrapping your head, into a small ball, with your head directly against the walls. This was supposed to reduce the chance of you getting blown away, or getting hit by other objects, in case the intensity of the tornado rips through part of the building. Even if the roof got blown away, this covert position would reduce surface area, and help to keep you on the floor, in the building.

Tornado alarms were installed in all the municipalities, and that thing was so loud and the noise hit a large area. It was a long wailing sound, sort of like a ambulance siren except much longer in its high-low wave. When you hear that, your best bet is to hide according to your drills. Our apartment was on the 2nd floor, but in such places, neighbours are always there to help. Anybody living in lower floors would happily welcome their neighbours into their apartments to hide out during a tornado blast. All apartments were built with the first floor as half-basements, specifically for tornadoes. Most houses were built like that too, if they did not have a full basement under it! Even the architecture of such towns were affected largely by this powerful natural phenomenon.

When I went back to Korea, however, the government was not so much interested in natural disaster relief, but leaned more towards wartime provisions. There was training for bombings and other aerial attacks that may incur in our city, which was 4 hours away from the North Korean border. This was not only for schools, but it was a city-wide provision. All schools, offices, and homes were to comply when this happens. If I remember correctly, everybody was supposed to be indoors during that short period, but it was not enforced very well. It had been more than 40 years since the Korean War, and not many people took it seriously. However they would still do the military drill of emergency take offs and what not, as well as police officers being put on alert until the military took over.

And then I came to Vancouver, and went to highschool in the GVA (Greater Vancouver Area). We are located on the Pacific plate belt, or whatever it’s called, and we’re considered to be at high-risk for earthquakes. We constantly had earthquake drills, where we’d hide under a table or desk to avoid being hit by falling objects. And then, before the second wave would hit, we’d all evacuate through the designated evacuation routes, assemble with our teacher, in order to make sure the head-count matched from when the class begun, so that missing students can be easily identified and searched for.

Growing up in 3 different countries, in very distinct environments has given me such a wide array of emergency preparation training, and it’s actually quite amazing that I managed to experience all this throughout my life.

Does anybody else have any interesting anti-disaster training that’s not often seen in many parts of the world?

I think many of you have heard of the $100 laptop project - a project to research and invent a $100 laptop which allows it to be distributed to children in less privileged countries around the glove, so that they can have access to modern technology and concepts, and get better education.

Well, as hard as they tried, each laptop ended up costing about $200 a piece (which is still a great deal) and now it is available!

Here’s the concept :

One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

I was informed of this donation opportunity through Gary Lee and John Chow’s blog posts.

Being the techy that I am, I had to go check out the software specs and what not of this XO Laptop. This laptop is based entirely on open source Linux, and has custom applications pre-loaded, with the option to download additional applications. It has basic learning applications to help develop a youth’s brain in a cognitive, visual, and logical manner, and is designed to last. Hell, this $200 laptop is probably a lot more sturdier than my $1500 beast of a laptop that I bought in Canada, with Windows on it.

The cost of this donation program is $399 - you will receive one of these laptops as a recognition of your contribution, and another one will be donated to a child somewhere who needs it and wants it badly. Hence it breaks down to $200 a piece, more or less, and you get a tax receipt for $200 as well for the donation ($399 minus the fair market value of the unit you receive).

Please go and donate a laptop to a less-privileged child - it’ll make you feel warm and fuzzy.

The ongoing debate between Canada’s role in Afghanistan is one of the hot issues in this country, and the opinions vary quite a bit. Many, led by the Liberal Government, feel that Canada’s role in Afghanistan has gone beyond that of peacekeeping and that we should pull out. Others, led by the Conservative government, are quick to assert that Canadian troops do belong there to quell the militants of the opposite side of the Axis.

I’m not writing this article to debate whether our role in Canada is right or not, but I’d like to point out what we should and should not be criticizing. Recently an anti-war group in Ontario wrote letters encouraging soldiers to NOT join the mission in Afghanistan, but instead, desert the military before they end up in Afghanistan. Other critics are blatantly criticizing the military itself for its actions in which Afghanistan civilians are killed.

Soldiers are meant to obey. They are trained to obey. People who are well educated and well opinionated do not belong in the army, and will not join an army unless drafted upon because they cannot handle the idea of being in action killing people without completely agreeing to the mission themselves. They will question the authority, and question the motive of their missions, hence reducing their capacity as a well-equipped, finely-tuned combat machine.

Do not criticize the soldiers. They are not the ones you should be criticizing when you are against the war in Afghanistan, but you should be criticizing the government, including Stephen Harper and O’Connor. The soldiers are not the ones to make the decisions on where to fight. They simply do as they are told, with the utmost belief that they are serving their country. They are courageous, self-less, and they endure many risks and loss of lives to accomplish what they feel is right.

Regardless of whether you are against the mission or not, sending letters to soldiers and their families and criticizing the military personel is a stupid, misguided act. By sending those letters they spat on the faces of soldiers, who, regardless of politics, are willing to put their lives at risk for what they believe is right.

If you have a problem with the war in Afghanistan, write letters to the Conservative MPs, or to Stephen Harper, or O’Connor, the Minister of Defense. Don’t write to the soldiers. They are doing what they feel is the best, regardless of how un-opinionated or brainwashed they may be. They genuinly feel that they are doing this for their nation, and for you, and are brave beings.

1. You can buy a nice high-rise condo in downtown Vancouver, mortgage free.
2. You can buy 3 Lamborghinis with that (depending on model and price, but I found one brand new at 133,xxx GPB).
   
3. At the current stock value, you can get over 1,500 shares of Google. (Right now, $515.49)
   
4. Or. You can get this ugly ass logo.
   

Look at it. That’s the official logo for the London 2012 Olympic Games, as revealed on Monday. Since its revelation, here are the results :

• 50,000+ have signed an online petition to scrap it.
• It’s been condemned as “hideous” by the public and politicians, and even the Mayer of London Ken Livingstone said he wouldn’t have paid for such a thing.
• Several members of the British Parliament signed a motion to ditch the design.
• To add, the campaign video contained too much flashing of light, which has already caused 23 reported case of seizures (epileptic).

Yes, $800,000 or so in Canadian dollars can go quite a far way…

A recent survey in Canada found that most Canadians are alert and aware of global warming and say they acknowledge the severity of it, yet they decline to make personal financial sacrifices (such as higher gas prices, toll on local bridges and highways, excess tax or higher hydro fees) in order to help the case. OK, so be it - dishing out cash from one’s own pocket is no easy feat. So let’s look at the little things we can do to help - the very little things. Here’s what you can do to help :

1. Avoid using plastic bags when possible. When I buy 1 or two items at a grocery store, or when I buy a big bottle of laundry detergent etc., I ask them to not put it in a bag when it can be helped. If I can carry it without a bag, I will do so. Also, I re-use my plastic bags to take out small garbage (such as from the bathroom or bedroom). Don’t bother using them as poo-pickup bags for your dog though - a lot of them will already have holes in them and may lead to a not very sanitary scenario at the dog park.
2. Cell Phone Chargers apparanlty use energy while not in use. Yes, I know it’s not that much energy, but while the adapter is plugged in, it still is converting your 110V input to a 3.5V output - you can tell the energy drain by the heat generated by the cellphone/ipod charger’s adapter after it’s bee plugged in, regardless of whether the equpment is on the other end or not. I haven’t been aware of this until today - my Blackberry charger is always in the wall, but I will take it out right now. Besides - I always charge my blackberry by connecting it to my laptop with the USB - I could almost put the charger away!
3. Switch your lightbulbs to low-energy fluorescent lightbulbs. They may seem to cost more, but they last much longer that it’s cheaper to use them at the end anyhow.
4. Plan your day so you don’t drive too much. I always do this, so that I don’t drive more than I need to. I plan a journey that allows me to hit all the spots in the city while avoiding rush hour traffic jams. This not only saves your own gas, and reduces mileage on your car, but it also reduces emissions a lot.
5. Don’t idle in parking lots, or when you’ve pulled over to the side of the street to pick someone up or whatever.
6. Reduce paper use. I write my grocery list on my blackberry. I’m not kidding. Also I rely more and more on online invoicing and billing. Not only for my cell phone bills etc., but also when I bill my clients, I often bill by online invoicing if they’re OK with it. Of course, a lot of them still prefer paper invoices and there’s not a lot I can do about that.
7. Try to turn the tap water off when you can. I know some people leave it on while they brush their teeth (and I’m guilty of it once in a while). But look at Australia right now - one of their reservoirs dried out so much that they can now see traces of the old town that used to exist there decades ago before it was emptied to make the reservoir over it. I bet they wish they hadn’t used up the reservoir water so quickly now!

Now. Some environmentalist/hippies simply go overboard, and they seem to completely lose the sense of praticality in their lives as they simply fall into a complete lack of balance in their lives.

1. No, I will not make my own ice-cream or cheese at home all the time because I don’t want to waste the packaging. Give me a fucking break, I cannot waste my own time for those things especially when I have a business to run. If you’re a David Cunningham-type of hippie loser with no proper job because you “refuse to be part of the machine” and you have 12 hours a day to burn (and another 2 hours to burn weed), maybe. But I’m not making anything at home.
2. Re-using garbage bags? Disgusting. I saw this couple on the CBC news channel, and they empty the garbage, bring back the garbage bags, wash it out, and then they tie it up to an electric fan to dry it. That’s gone overboard, and is completely disgusting, and a total waste of my time.
3. No, I will not get rid of my car. It’s part of my life and my convenience to own a car to have mobility across the city. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s the 21st century. And no, I cannot nor wish to bankrupt oil companies, you short-sighted hippies. I have stocks in them and they drive the global economy. Unless you want to start paying $12 for a loaf of bread instead of $2, let the oil industry survive.
4. I want to keep getting my newspapers in paper. It gives me the freedom to take it to a coffee shop, a restaurant to read it at. Yes, I go to restaurants alone because I’m too busy to ever cook at home (unless it’s a snack) and I’m not some insecure loser who thinks it’s weird to sit at a restaurant alone. Besides, it’s made of recycled paper. Give me a break.
5. No, I will not decline ownership of things, I’m not a communist - I just want to care a little bit about the environment. I really don’t see how it makes me evil to own stocks, real estate (not that I do yet, but if I were rich enough I would) and what not.
6. Not flush the toilet unless it’s #2? No way, that’s gross. I flush each time, and that won’t change. Ever.
7. No, I will not give up take-out food in order to avoid the plastic/styrofoam packaging. It’s part of my convenience and a time-saving (which is ultimately money-making) scheme.

Facebook has re-connected me with many old friends, or people I used to at least know in some way or another. And while I’m somehow finding all these clowns and adding them to my list, I found a very surprising thing. I was born in 1985, and I am 21 right now, turning 22 in October. My highschool grads are a year younger than me because I got a year behind in the midst of moving from Korea to Canada and what not. A lot of these kids are engaged already, at the age of 20, or even less.

I’m the single bachelor guy living in downtown Vancouver, pursuing my dreams as an entrepreneur of some sort, meddling in many different businesses spanning from web design, marketing, as well as foreign HR solutions for skilled labour etc. I’m very busy handling my business, as well as my health and other personal obligations with friends, and I still haven’t figured out myself yet at a truly spiritual level. They say people don’t know who they are exactly until the age of 25. I try to imagine myself engaged to somebody, and it gives me the chills, and it is such an uncomprehensible reality for me.

Another shocking thing about this is that, from what I observed, it’s mostly the Church-going type of Christians (not the spiritual, self-practising type of religious people, but the people who actually contain themselves more in the realms of going to structuralized church, attending youth groups etc.) that are getting engaged just like that. As much as I care for them and truly wish them happiness, I just cannot see how people have that mentality.

The truth is that it is a trade-off, and from an opportunity-cost perspective, it’s either a sell-out to be married that young, or it can simply lead to a shaky marriage. Maybe it’s hard to understand from my perspective. Getting a decent corporate job that pays $50,000 a year in salary, settling down, getting married, and putting money away into a pension plan is not my idea of life. I want to be more involved in the world, I want to try different businesses, make enough money to allow me to travel as I wish, and live a comfortable life without having to worry about how to make the next mortgage payment. I often worry that these friends of mine are simply settling for what they can get, at the whim and the temptations of romance lasting forever, and rushing into such situations. They seem to think that they need to “seal the deal” so to speak, and do it fast to make sure it lasts.

Oh, also, the no premarital sex part plays a huge role, I suspect. If your rules are to not have sex before marriage, well, unless you want to be a virgin til you’re 30, I guess you’ve got no other option but to get married now.

I see some of my friends living a fabulous happy life. They are 30+, living it up, living free, travelling, having fun, and developing their businesses hard. And then there are the people who are already tied down with the burden of marriage and the kids that follow with it, and not even half of them are perfectly happy.

I guess the 50% divorce rate in this country is speaking of the changes in life that people go through these days. The world is changing faster than ever, and young people are obviously very much likely to go through turbulent changes in life. I honestly cannot guarantee if I will still be living in Vancouver in a few years. You never know any of these things. What you want in life also changes. Your deepest philosophies can change, and your goals in life can change. In fact, they will change. As you grow up (and this never stops) you see the world differently each day or each year, and that pace of fast change does not slow down until later on in life.

It’s not that I wish misfortune upon my friends, nor see them as test rats, but I would very much like to keep an eye on them throughout the years and see what the survival rates are for these type of marriages. I’m very curious how they will turn out.

I was reading my daily fix of the National Post the other day, and a small article caught my attention.

Men : lost in the supermarket

U.S. [also applies to Canada just the same] me are doing more grocery shopping, both for themselves and their families, but retailers are still not doing much to make the trip any more enticing, retail consultants and industry experts say.

“Men do represent a large part of grocery shopping dollars and they aren’t being very well accommodated.  Sales are being lost,” said Mandy Putnam, vice-president at consulting firm TNS Retail Forward.

In a recent report titled Men in Grocery Stores, Putnam said that men shop inefficiently, which leads to missed sales for retailers.

“They never ask for help, except maybe from the butcher, but they always say they never had problems finding anything when the cashier at the register asks,” she said. Unlike women male shoppers typically focus more on convenience than price, and retailers will need to cater to that need, consultants said.

Men also tend to bristle at the overwhelming number of choices, Putnam said.

“One guy I thought was going to have a nervous breakdown in the cereal isle,” Putnam said.

 Well DUH.

I could have told you this a long time ago.

I moved out of home at the young age of 18 (got kicked out actually) and since then I’ve been holding my own for shopping etc. I’m 21 now, almost 3 years since I moved out of home (October marks the 3 year period) and I still have trouble at the grocery stores.

First of all, the inefficiency part is completely true. I rarely write down all the things I need, and I often come home and realize I forgot something. Do I necessarily go back the next day to get it? No. I just live without it unless it’s absolutely critical (like milk - I make protein shakes out of milk every day).

Secondly, I still don’t understand why, but I never ask for help finding something anyhow. The only way I get help is when I have a lost look on my face looking for something, and a store assistant feels pity for me and offers help. Otherwise, while I look for that something I need, I get distracted by other things, and then I forget about it.

Third, it is completely true that men look more for convenience than for cheaper prices. I could go to Costco, or the Great Canadian Super Store, which offers goods for a much cheaper price, in bulk. I never do that. The stores are too damn large, it takes me too long to find. I could probably save about $100/mth at least if I got into the habit of going to Costco, which is actually even closer than the Safeway or Marketplace IGA that I go to, but I still shun Costco for everyday goods. I’d rather go to a smaller store where I can get from one end of the store to another within 20 minutes and get it over with.

Lastly, the overwhelming number of choices is irritating. Trying to buy laundry detergent, yogurt, toilet paper, etc. is so fucking difficult you have no idea. I just stare at the shelves full of all sorts of brands and types of product and I am in complete shock. I often do mutter out loud, “why do they have to make 5 different brands?” at those aisles. I remember going to Shoppers Drug Mart to get sunscreen (and once again, Shoppers Drug Mart is much more expensive than Costco), and I thought I was going to freak right out. I can comprehend with that guy having a nervous breakdown at the cereal aisle.

Now, is this something we should blame the retailers for? No, men are just stupid at these things.