Musing

Mark, I hope all is well with you. I have to say I appreciate your daily notes when I have a chance to read them, but nonetheless time for that indulgence seems to be less and less frequent. For that reason, and to help me reduce the growing flow into my email, I'd like you to take me off your distribution list. Thanks, JR, High River

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Hello Mark, I've certainly enjoyed reading your emails...from someone else in the office. I was wondering if you could add me to your list, I'll take SD's spot! XXXX@YYY.com Your Monday feelings are certainly true......thx, EH, Calgary

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Hi Mark, thanks for remembering to add me to your list again. I've had a chance to catch up on e-mails since I got back from my wonderful adventure, and I was pleasantly surprised to find your "musing" when I came to work this a.m. What a great way to start the week! we went to Brazil (took in Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro - spectacular; spent a week on the island of Ilhe Grande - a paradise; did a Pantanal Trek out of Campo Grande – an amazing experience), Bolivia (visited Santa Cruz, La Paz, and Copacabana) and Peru (visited Puno, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and Lima – Peru is a beautiful country). The only thing we had booked was our plane ticket to Brazil and our plane ticket home from Lima, Peru. Nothing else was planned/or booked – we were spontaneous on the whole trip. We had a wonderful time and have brought back many great memories, LW

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Mark, some time ago your Musing of the day included the quote from Mark Twain"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.". A profound verse. Well, I have done my version of what that other Mark intended. I have resigned from my current employer and will let the trade winds take me where they will as long as they take me to Wet Coast (Victoria) by September! Regards, BM, Calgary

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EVD may say: "On Wednesday this week, at two minutes & three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06". However, this is not technically correct in Canada, since officially dropping the mm/dd/yy (and dd/mm/yy) format 30 years ago. Back around 1976, Canada adopted Metric (the implemenation to SI was actually phased in over several years), and with it we adopted ISO dating. For 30 years, Canada's official date format has been yyyy-mm-dd. With time added, the format adds hh:mm:ss to the indicator. At best then, one could abbreviate the year (although not technically correct) and say on May 4, at 1 second and 2 minutes after 3:00 AM we will be at: 06-05-04 03:02:01 For those interested in the transition to SI or Metric, there are now 3 countries left in the world not currently switching to metric. They are Liberia, Burma and some place called the United States!, . . . and . . on the Ralph Klein issue: Let's remember a few facts here: In the 2004 provincial election, the PC's only received 47.07% of the vote. Hardly an overwhelming approval rate. Had it not been for the way seats are allcoated in Alberta, the PC's would have a 'minority' government (no wonder the PC's aren't interested in proportional representation). I read that an opinion poll puts Klein at 70% support - but polls have their problems. The widest opinion poll numbers we have are from the last election. So, if the population of the province gives him 47.07% support, and his own delegates gives him 55%, perhaps the party is finally listening to the public! Personally, I believe Klein is an embarrassment to the province, and always has been. Several articles reviewing his purported achievements have determined that his activities had virtually no impact on the growth of the economy in this province. What Klein had was control over the media and the ability to quash opinions contrary to his (or at least relegate them to the back pages of any news paper). Who can better pander to the desires of big business yet have media constantly quote his self described image as a "man of the people"! Time to move on Ralph, KW, Calgary

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Could you add my mother who lives in Vancouver and myself to your email list please? Thank you Mark, I have been really enjoying your emails., JB, Calgary