Party at Siloam's place

I've been after Siloam Mission a little bit recently about their ramped-up mail campaign, including aluminum tasting soup made from deadly chemicals, and their sad little ornaments that Charlie Brown would be ashamed to hang on his tree. However, they still do good work over at the mission and are a worthy cause.

This Thursday they are hosting a benefit concert featuring local talent Jodi King. I will not be able to make it, but I was at the Christmas concert two years ago (my God, have I been blogging for over two years already?) when Jodi performed along with Keith and Renée, and enjoyed the show. I encourage you to go, support the mission, and take in some tunes. If you're really lucky, somebody might come by with cookies. As noted on Ace Burpee's blog, tickets are available at Hulls Bookstore and McNally Robinson Grant Park.

Call Centres, Christmas Ornaments & the Friday Video

The pending closure of the Convergys call centre in Winnipeg has been reporting by the mainstream media (and over at ChrisD's), but one thing that I never saw reported was the closure of the IBM customer service centre earlier this year.

About 15 years ago or so IBM bought Manitoba Data Services, which became ISM, and later just IBM. The helpdesk and IMAC services groups grew to a substantial size, supporting customers all over North America including DOW Chemicals and Nissan, as well as local customers like CWB and the Provincial Government. The helpdesk peaked about five years ago, and began to decline as IBM outsourced as much as possible to Bangalore, India. Then this year they shut down what was left of the operation and moved it to a larger consolidated centre in Toronto, one of four IBM "Global Delivery Centres" in North America . The job loses weren't quite as great as the Convergys closure, but I have seen news stories about much smaller cut backs at other places.

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Hey look! I got another letter from Siloam Mission, three weeks after asking to be taken off their mailing list. This time they were kind enough to send me a cardboard Christmas ornament.

Ooooo, that's exactly what I was looking for to finish decorating my beautiful tree!


They also gave me a lovely note signed by John Mohan. So nice of him to continue spamming me even after quitting last month.

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Ok, now on to the video ...

I give you the song "Hit", the The Sugarcubes. You might recognize the lead singer.



I was at the Pyramid Cabaret recently and was happy to see that they still have the giant Sugarcubes poster up on the wall. Don't ever take that down, guys. Unless it's to give it to me.

Friday Video, getting harassed by John Mohan and other things

Happy Friday, everyone.

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Hey, question for you. If the H1N1 vaccine supply is set to run out today, why did they open up the vaccine clinics to people who weren't high risk just one day ago? The WRHA seems to need to sharpen up their forecasting...

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Less than one week after I posted about receiving aluminum/chicken soup from Siloam Mission, I got yet another letter from them asking for money. That's 2 in less than 2 weeks, and three in the past month. Good grief guys, I gave you money .. get off my back already!

I sent a letter back asking to be taken off their mailing list. Just watch, next week John Mohan is going to come to my door with a pellet gun and force me to turn over my wallet.

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I'm digging the new Mercedes SLS:


It's sleek and retro, with gull wing doors, two seats, and tons of power. Fast and totally impractical, just like a supercar should be. (click picture for full view)

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Thank you for sitting through my little non sequitur rants. As a reward, I give you the Friday Video: Weapon Of Choice by Fatboy Slim, starring Christopher Walken (sorry about the intro. All the other ones had embedding disabled.)

Opportunity for Selinger (and soup for me)

It would be easy to write off Selinger's leadership of the NDP as "more of the same". I know because I've done it. It was very easy. Took almost no effort at all. However, today I am in a good mood (see what a warm sunny weekend can do?) so I am going to give Selinger a chance, and some free advice:


The Manitoba PCs are weak, but the retirement of Gary Doer has opened a door for them and given them new hope. Still, the PCs need to differentiate themselves from the NDP and make an impression with the people of the province. If the average Manitoban has any impression at all, it's a vague notion that the PCs fancy themselves as being more fiscally responsible and pro-business than the NDP. There's that, but the unfortunate "bring back the Jets" campaign blunder has also put a big sticky "Gimmick" label on them. If they are to make a comeback, they really need to get back to basics, expose the economic, social and environmental ineptitude of the NDP, and propose real conservative policies to address those areas.

Selinger has an opportunity to simultaneously step out of Doer's shadow and put a bullet to the brain of the PCs by beating them to the punch. Suppose, if you will, that Selinger decides to reign in government spending, reopen the debate on the routing of Bipole III, cut corporate taxes, over-haul the administration of our health care system and index personal tax brackets. What would the PCs have left? Selinger could define himself as a pragmatic and responsible leader, leaving Hugh McFadyen with nothing but more cheesy gimmicks to win over voters.

Mayor Sam recently suggested that Selinger is open to re-evaluating the province's requirement that the city spend $350 million on nitrogen removal in their new sewage treatment plant -- a policy that, like Bipole III, actually wastes money while further damaging the environment. "He definitely has an open mind" says Sam. That's good news, if it's true. Perhaps he is willing to take a fresh look at all of the government's policies. Is it true though, or is he just faking it? Is he actually feigning open-mindedness, while secretly plotting new ways to spend money, destroy the environment, drive away private investment and sacrifice health care delivery for bloated health care bureaucracy?

I hope that Selinger really does have an open mind. An open mind and fresh perspective are mandatory if we hope to achieve anything close to our potential here in Manitoba. However, I feel that I am asking a leopard to turn himself into a zebra. Selinger is not a conservative. If he were, he'd be in the PC party, not the NDP party. Even still, many of the sort-comings of the previous administration were a result of laziness or political expediency rather than flawed ideology. Even as a moderate progressive, Premier Selinger could make a huge difference, should he choose to be a real leader instead of a Doer clone (without the grin), while at the same time making it all the more difficult for Hughy and the PCs to gain traction with voters.

Will it happen? I don't know. I'm not optimistic, but I'll give him a chance ...


bonus post: Siloam Mission gave me soup

I have given money to Siloam Mission because I am fortunate to have more than I need to get by. Imagine my surprise this afternoon to discover that Siloam Mission sent me soup!

It was a little foil packet of soup along with a letter asking me to sign the packet and mail it back along with a donation so they can feed it to their patrons. This is a silly idea. If you just bought the soup in bulk instead of individual foil packets, you could save enough money to buy a bunch of food right there. Plus, I looked at the ingredients and found this as the top three: maltodextrin, salt and flavor. High in sodium, low in energy and vitamins. This is not good food for a starving person.

Plus, I hate gimmicks, so I refuse to play their little "game" this time. I am sipping on the soup as I write this post, and I am disappointed but not surprised to inform you that it tastes like tin.

Siloam Misson's Acoustic Christmas

I don't do a lot to help the less fortunate. I am not one of those people who think that poor people do not exist in Canada (Kathy ..) or that they all deserve to be where they are. Some do for sure, but not all. And so I don't mind giving a little money to local food banks or doing other little things here and there to help them out. Well, today I did one of those little things, and in the process I got to see an intimate performance from some fabulous local musicians.

The event was a sort of Christmas kick-off for the spiffy new Siloam Mission on Princess Ave.. (yes, that's right -- I called a homeless shelter spiffy. Watcha gonna do 'bout it?) Performing were Keith and Renée (formerly Easily Amused) and Jodi King. Keith and Renée always put on a great show. I highly recommend going to see them if you have not yet. Jodi is not quite the entertainer that Canadian Idol finalist Keith and his partner are, but she has an outstanding voice and is an easy listen. The audio mixing seemed a little off unfortunately, but hey ... I'll make the sacrifice to help the poor!

With all of the big label crap on the radio these days, an evening like this is a reminder that you are missing out on 99.9% of the talent in the universe if the only artists you listen to can be heard on Bob FM.

Keith and Renée:


websites:
http://myspace.com/jodiking
http://www.easilyamused.ca/