Did I Miss Something?

Did I miss something, or when did we, the television viewers of the world, decide that it was okay for the networks to cover a quarter of the screen with advertising during the programs that we are trying to watch. I mean, I understand that advertising is a big part of television. Some go as far to say that the the customers of television are the advertisers and the product is the viewer, and I can go along with that.

All that aside, enough is enough! I already pay way too much to get my sports, Simpsons, and Jeopardy! On top of that, over a quarter of the time that I spend watching programs is filled with commercial advertising. On top of that, we deal with product placements and the like, some subtle and some not so subtle. Now I find that more and more time is spent watching advertising over top of the programming. This is stuff that actually covers up the thing I am trying to watch. I don't get it. Even worse is the fact that these are almost always of the form "On Now ... " and "Later ..." things that aren't even paid for by advertisers. Now why would I want to stay around to see what's on later if it's going to be covered by more advertising? Isn't this defeating the purpose? Maybe no one really cares. We've become so trained to look around advertising that we are unfazed when it is there in our faces.

I want my TV back!

Crazy Spam

Is it just me, or is spam going crazy these days? I am using Google to manage my mail, so I don't really have much concern about spam. Their filters are very good at catching most spams, without too many false positives; and they give me tons of storage space so I don't need to worry about deleting it.

My spam is automatically deleted after 30 days. When I first set up my mail account last year, I would get somewhere around 2000-2500 messages in that period of time before they started getting deleted. Recently, I have noticed that the numbers have been climbing higher and higher. I now have 8010 messages in my spam box, and I have no idea why.

Carbon footprints

I was browsing the New York Times today, and I came across this interesting column: "Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints?". The idea is that people need an appropriate nudge in the right direction in order to reduce their carbon footprint. People are notoriously poor at planning for abstract events somewhere in the future, especially when we don't even understand the situation. Something like climate change is something that is difficult to see, understand, or deal with. I particularly liked this commentary in the middle:

A study in California showed that when the monthly electric bill listed the average consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption.

Meanwhile, the people with the below-average bills reacted by significantly increasing their consumption — not exactly the goal of the project.

That reaction was avoided when the bill featured a little drawing along with the numbers: a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that simple nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.

What we need is a way to deliver the message to people when they are consuming more than their fair share, as well as a way to give people a pat on the back when they are doing something good for the Earth.

Take our house. Although I know how much electricity we use at our house, and I have a vague idea of what the average is for the entire city, I have no idea how that compares to other households in our demographic, and I also don't know whether we are doing a good or bad job with our energy usage. I feel that we've done a lot to reduce our energy consumption, but it has been mostly low-hanging fruit. I'm always looking for ways to do more, but there are limits to the level of inconvenience I am willing to live with. I might be more encouraged if the system had more feedback built in.

I'm ready for spring already

Nathan and William shovelling snow together
Originally uploaded by Tim Coleman

William and Nathan were outside playing in the snow the other day, and I think that it's about time that we have some spring already. Except for the brief warm spell in January, it's been a pretty long winter here. The snow is slowly melting, but there are more cold temperatures in the forecast, and snow coming again this week.

Enough is enough! It's time for some nice weather. My bike should be tuned up this week, and I want to go for a ride.

Where has the time gone?

Yay! Can I eat it now?
Originally uploaded by Tim Coleman

It's amazing to think that Nathan is already two years old. Two years! Where has the time gone? I miss the baby boy that we had, and now he's a full-fledged toddler (although he talks like a preschooler). I still can't get over the fact that William is three (almost four!), and now Nathan is on his way to that age as well.

Time marches on, and we just have to remember to enjoy all of these moments because we only get to go through them once.

To the Woman I Met at the Mall on Friday

You don't know who I am, and we will probably never meet again, but I hope that you are able to get the help that you need. I met you on Friday afternoon at the entrance to Conestoga Mall near the bus terminal. I had just gotten off a bus to do some shopping. You were obviously in distress as you reached out to take my arm and asked me for help. You were staggering and stumbling and I tried to do the best I could to support you.

Outwardly, you seemed to be a kind, older woman, and at first I feared that you were having some sort of physical attack. As we walked down the main hallway, I realized that you had been drinking a lot. That is not the kind of thing I expected to find 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon at a busy shopping centre. As we walked, your talking was mostly incoherent, but it seemed that you were going through some sort of crisis; I surmised that you had been drinking as a means of coping, but I can't really pass judgement. We arrived at Guest Services safely, and Security was able to help you to contact a family member.

Even though I'm sure you'll never read this, I hope that you were able to make it home alright on that day, and I hope that you are able to deal with whatever problems you are going through. I'm glad that I was able to help you in some way that day.

Regional Transportation Master Plan

Last night I attended a workshop related to the Waterloo Regional Transportation Master Plan (RTMP). For those who don't know, the Region of Waterloo is trying to come up with a plan for what to do about transportation for the next couple of decades as part of something called Moving Forward 2031.

I must say that I am very impressed. We have come a long way since the last plan in 1999. Transportation is now seen in a very holistic way. It's more than just cars; transportation is about cars, bikes, pedestrians, transit, trucks, and so much more. Roads aren't just ways to get cars between home, work, and Wal-Mart. There are so many opportunities for roads to build communities, and they do a great deal to affect our outlook on life.

The main point of the workshop was to get input from residents on a number of questions related to transportation. There was a lot of interest in making it easier and nicer for people to walk, take the bus, ride their bikes, in addition to driving their cars. Of course, the topic of big-box stores came up, but I think that comes up in just about any public forum. I realized last night that what we really need is more integration of different types of development; it's very difficult to do anything here without a car, and I have limited shopping opportunities between my home pod and my work pod. The other thing I got out of the workshop was the understanding that there are a lot of other people out there that feel the way that I do.

Cars have come first for a long time in this area, and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but pedestrians, bikes, and buses don't need to be second citizens. The transportation planning that is going on is really trying to address these concerns, and I am very excited about what we are doing here in Waterloo. And that's a very good feeling.

I encourage those who live in the region to attend one of the other two workshops taking place. Last night's was in Waterloo, but there are two more, one in Kitchener and the other in Cambridge (Events Schedule).

Thursday, February 21, 2008
Regional Administrative Headquarters
150 Frederick St., Kitchener

Thursday, February 28, 2008
United Kingdom Club
35 International Village Dr., Cambridge