Archives for the 'Saskatoon' Category
Jared Diamond
Wendy, myself and about 1500 people went and saw Jared Diamond at TCU Place tonight. He was what I expected. Witty, gracious, concise, and profound. He talked mostly of his work in Collapse but offered up some thoughts on the global economic collapse and global warming. Sadly for a lot of defeated Liberal candidates, he offered up the best apologetic of the Green Shift that I have heard. Too bad it came out now instead of prior to election day as it would have contributed greatly to the election debate.
I have some more thoughts on his talk and his book Collapse but that is for another night. Tonight I need some sleep.
The Sinking Liberal Ship
Tom Axworthy has a good article on what ails the Liberal Party and it isn’t all Stephane Dion’s fault. I have to agree.
In their preoccupation with leadership, media and party insiders are missing the real issue. The primary challenge for the Liberal party is that its cause is no longer compelling enough to persuade Canadians to give up their leisure time to join its ranks.
Party renewal, therefore, is not some romantic notion pursued by idealists. Renewal demands hard-headed realism that requires a Liberal party overhaul; rebuilding itself brick by brick, riding-by-riding so it is once again competitive on the ground.
On election night I watched the returns with Barney Danson, Dorothy Davey and several other veterans of past Liberal campaigns. Danson, a former defence minster, recalled that he would send his most experienced volunteers into the large apartment complexes to ensure turnout. Davey, a legendary organizer, recalled inviting undecided citizens for coffee. Others emphasized the importance of signs to raise morale among the troops and help name recognition. None of these tasks can be accomplished without active volunteers.
Jared Diamond is coming to Saskatoon
October 27th at TCU Place. Let me know if you would be interested in going.
Mayfair Community Meeting
This may be of some interest to some of you but the City is holding a community meeting about the Women’s Emergency Shelter on October 22nd at 7:00 p.m. It is open to the public and all of the details can be found in a blog post over on the Centre’s website.
Free Wifi Hotspots in Saskatoon
Saskatoon does a good job in providing wireless capability to it’s residents. The yellow areas show where Saskatchewan! Connected provides free wifi access to Saskatoon (and other Saskatchewan cities. There are also a bunch of other free wifi networks to tap into and I put a list of known public networks for you to tap into.
Downtown Saskatoon:
- Earls, 610 2nd Avenue North
- Hilton Garden Inn, 1st Ave S & 22nd Street E
- Jake’s on 21st Street
- Mulberry’s Cafe, 3rd Avenue & 23rd Street
- Park Town Hotel, Spadina Crescent & 25th Street
- Sheraton Cavalier, Spadina Crescent & 21st Street
- Spadina Freehouse, Spadina Crescent & 21st Street
- Timothy’s, Midtown Plaza, 1st Avenue & 21st Street
Hotspots around Saskatoon:
- Broadway Roastery, 614 Broadway Avenue
- City Perk, 801 7th Avenue North
- Comfort Inn, 2155 Northridge Drive
- Country Inn and Suites, 617 Cynthia Street
- Credit Union Centre
- Days Inn, 2000 Idylwyld Drive North
- Gordie Howe Campground
- Husky House, 315 Marquis Drive
- Market Mall food court, 2325 Preston Avenue S
- McGettigan’s Cafe, 616 10th Street East
- Mackenzie Cole Coffee, 815A Gray Avenue
- Mystic Java, 209 - 3929 8th Street East
- Next Level Game Exchange, 9 - 202 Primrose Drive
- Ramada Hotel Golf Dome, 806 Idylwyld Drive North
- Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport
- Saskatoon Inn, 2002 Airport Drive
- Travelodge, 106 Circle Drive West
- Yard & Flagon Pub, 718 Broadway Avenue.
Job Opening
I am hiring at the Salvation Army Community Centre. The job details can be found here. It’s a night position and the job offers a decent wage, good benefits, and a good breakfast to finish the shift with. I have worked the job and I really enjoyed it. If you are interested, let me know. If you know of someone else who may be interested, let them know about it.
Rookie Mistake
On Thursday I went to an invitation only food show at Prairieland Park that was put on by one of the Centre’s suppliers. The kitchen coordinator invited me along and since I was on vacation, I thought why not. He told me there would be some coffee but vastly understated the amount of food there was to eat.
Basically the show was put on by a massive food distributor who invited all of it’s vendors to come and show of their best products. Everyone was there and it was amazing. Booth after booth of food that you can’t buy in grocery stores, all with wonderful samples to try. We were often elbowed out of the way several times by chefs during their Iron Chef competition. They had an area where you could chill (and digest) and watch chefs compete. It was a fun diversion throughout the day.
Of course it wasn’t all perfect. I now know how much food costs restaurants (yes I know overhead and wages are huge). I tried one product (and brought Wendy home a sample) of food that had been passed off as a family recipe by one restaurant we go to. It isn’t. It is a off the shelf product that isn’t available via retail channels. I also saw many, many mass produced products designed with a “random” from the oven look.
The other bad part was that I made a rookie mistake. I didn’t pace myself well and I didn’t block my tiny plate well enough. I may be big but I am only mortal and I only made it 3/4 around the trade show before I was feeling full and we had two more times to go around (first found was talking and tasting, second round was negotiating, third round was dessert). It was a pretty good experience. My office is right next to the food services coordinators so when salespeople bring by good food, I often get a nibble and a chance to meet some of the people so they knew me. I was also introduced as the kitchen’s greatest critic but I think that was just because I keep requesting we serve Kraft Dinner sandwiches.
Here is what I learned while I was there.
None of the booth’s were that extravagant. Just a lot of samples, information sheets, and sales people. However a couple of booths had dried out samples, no sales people or even worse, uninterested sales people. The problem was that there wasn’t a company there that didn’t have a competitor and if you competitor is “wow”ing people, I think that is a bad thing for you.
I also learned that the food industry is a tough one to be in. A lot of bad mouthing of competitors was going on there. They have a lot of people to impress. The distributor, the wholesaler, and the restaurants while the whole time another company with a very similar product is telling everyone how inferior your product is.
I learned there is such a thing as “liquid coffee”. Coffee from concentrate. I think that should be against the law. One salesperson said it tasted as good as Starbucks while another salesperson said “Maybe coffee that Starbucks rejects as flawed.”
I also learned that one brand of fish is caught on the east coast of Canada, frozen and sent to China to be processed, frozen again and shipped back to Canada. I wonder how many Newfoundlander’s lost their job over that change.
I was smart enough to bring Wendy home some samples and recipes and she forgave me for attending and not faking an injury and sending her instead.
Offer accepted
The owners of the house we wanted to buy for the women’s shelter accepted our offer. We take possession November 1st which is a little behind schedule but is within an acceptable time frame (the schedule was done up months ago and we did pretty good in getting it this close).
Day off
Several months ago we started working on a plan to start an emergency shelter for women and families in Saskatoon. There is a significant need. Many days one can walk through the lobby of the YWCA in Saskatoon and see women and children just sitting there hoping a room opens up. The Salvation Army EAH worker puts families and women in crisis in hotels each and every night. I have worked that desk and it is hard. You want to do more but the resources are not available many times to really deal with the problem.
In many ways it has been an excellent project to be a part of. It was a lot of work and a lot of questions had to be answered. Tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. I am in a meeting where there will be more questions from the federal and provincial governments. Along the way the project has "died" a couple of times where we would go home and the next day just stare at a spreadsheet and try to find some new way to make it work. Our boardroom was full many times with us just looking at numbers, trying to figure out trends, or arguing with each other over operational plans and a philosophy of ministry. We had a three day argument over a building and I came back to work after a day of debating with my colleagues to say, "I agree with you guys now." They looked at me and said, "Actually we are agreeing with what you said yesterday." Our whiteboard was full of advantages and disadvantages, budget numbers, and a way we could figure out how to slip a hot tub and spa by our boss (not much luck on that count but then again maybe we shouldn’t have written our secret hot tub plan out on the whiteboard). Slowly all of those debates, plans, arguments, more plans, coffee, and work all started to pay off. We got approval from the people we needed to get approval from in the Salvation Army and the government. We found a property that is amazing and could a place of hope, safety, and healing to those that need it. We were preparing for one last series of meetings with the feds…. then we got a phone call stating that our house was about to be sold. We didn’t think we were ready or would have time to counter offer and we all left the office feeling pretty low and frustrated. Yeah other houses would become available but this one was ideal.
Today was my day off. I went in to deal with a technical issue and to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting for an hour. I left feeling pretty frustrated. Around noon I got a phone call saying that someone from headquarters wanted to see the building and could I go with her. I agreed and we went over. She liked the building and I had faint hope that maybe we could persuade the owner to give us a little extra time but didn’t expect the tour to take more then 20 minutes. As I was anticipating us leaving and thinking that this was a blown day off, the realtor and her started talking about making an offer. The next thing I knew is the deal was being made and the Centre was putting a conditional offer on the house.
There is still some obstacles to overcome and conditions to be met but what a difference a day makes. It was a pretty good way to "waste" a day off. It will open a little later than what we had hoped but by it will be up and running by the end of the year and well before hockey tournament season (when hotel space gets tight in Saskatoon). The end result is up to 12 more families and 8 single women will be safer, warmer, and better fed each night.
The Long Weekend
After working this last long weekend and then seeing too many doctors, we got away to the cabin for a couple of days of nothingness on Monday afternoon. Wendy packed the car while I got a couple of hours of sleep. We got away a little later than normal and I had thought that we were coming back Thursday (more about that later).
We arrived at the lake and unpacked some stuff. While Wendy was arranging things and taking care of Oliver, Mark and I went outside and put up our new gazebo. I hadn’t thought we needed a gazebo but we got one at the Centre to provide some shelter out back. The one we got was a heavy duty one and quite nice. By the time I realized we could set one up at the lake, Superstore was out of them. We later saw some temporary ones at Jysk but decided that $119 was too much to pay for something that was wobbly even in the store. After talking about it, we just decided to wait until next spring and get one as it wasn’t that high of a priority. While getting something from Wal-Mart the other day, they were blowing out the same kind of gazebo for $40. After thinking about it, we decided to try it out and if it only last the summer, we would only be out $40. After seeing it had some guy wires, we also decided to pick up some heavy duty plastic tent pegs so the total cost was about $45. It does give Wendy and I some shade to have a coffee in the morning and relax a bit at night. It also gives us about 90 more square feet to live in.
Mark and I had it up in about 10 minutes. Wendy joined us for some of it but I think one person could get it together pretty easily. It said in large letters that it needed to be taken down in extreme weather conditions but what is extreme weather? A good gust of wind or a typhoon? I am still not sure what the answer is but the next day when a blustery thunderstorm blew and rained quite a bit on it, it held fine although I think part of it was because those tent pegs were not going anywhere.
That night I finished James Howard Kunstler’s novel, World Made By Hand. I don’t know if I would recommend it or not. It was supposed to incorporate the ideas from The Long Emergency and depict a life after the oil had run out. It kind of does that but it also shows life after nuclear bombs have been detonated in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (after a war in Israel) and a couple of coup’s have happened in the U.S. In the end it is a kind of post apocalyptic novel that describes small town life after a nuclear war, after a series of epidemics, and the oil having run out. While the book was interesting, it reminded me a lot of Pierre Burton’s book, The Great Depression which may be a more accurate look at what life would look like in a devastated economy. While I agree with Kunstler that our belief in technology may be naive, I think he underestimates regional ingenuity to deal with some of the problems that we are facing. You can find more about the book on it’s website or check out the trailer for the book here.
The next morning the Pederson’s all came out for a day of exploring, eating, swimming, and chilling out at the lake.
Of course Mark also showed of his incredible fashion sense while at the beach.
Of course even after I showed him this photo, he still thought he looked pretty cool.
That night we managed to use our washer drum barrel fire pit. After burning some holes in our lawn, I realized that if I put it on a cinder block, the grass does better and Smokey the Bear can calm down and get off his stress medication.
While we were up there, we installed a replacement to the antique cabinet that was hanging on the wall in the kitchen.
The shelves weren’t that hard to install but I did have to do a bit of painting to replace the brown void where the cabinet used to be. With the shelves and the storage containers under the table, Wendy feels as if she has enough space now to work and maneuver. I needed to pick up some more screws but the next time we go up I plan to add a couple of book shelves but the interior is coming along. The big thing now is to keep painting an interior wall or two every time we go up.
Before we left, I made Mark help me barbecue some hamburgers. This was kind of life changing for him as last week he wanted to be some sort of eXtreme sports star, now he wants to be a chef. Tonight he offered up all sorts of commentary on Wendy’s cooking while trying to figure out how to make salad like his mom.
We got back in the city on Wednesday night. I had thought we were staying until Thursday but Wendy only packed enough stuff for two nights. The end result was we came home and got up this morning ready to go to the Saskatoon Exhibition. I generally end up enjoying the Ex when we go but in July when I think of the carney’s, the crowds, pickpockets, and the heat, I think that there is a better way to spend a day. It is a big deal to Mark so I promise Mark that we can go every year and we have a good time. This year was no exception.
This was the first year Mark was tall enough to ride on the adult rides. He was DEVASTATED last year when he wasn’t tall enough to go on the bumper cars and had to suffer the indignity of riding with his mom. Him and I scouted out the rides and all he wanted to go on was the bumper cars. After I assured him that no matter what happened, I would get him more tickets to go on the bumper cars, he went on the Tilt-a-Whirl with Wendy.
Then it was off to the bumper cars because the rides either scared him a bit or he heard stories of kids tossing their cookies on them and he didn’t want to risk not going on the bumper cars.
After a couple of times of him trying out the bumper cars, I realized that he will never ever drive a vehicle I own. He gets too much joy out of hitting other drivers. We then made our way to the food area where all sorts of really unhealthy and tasty things were being offered up.
The Ex was a lot of fun but the acclaimed Canadian Pavilion was a little odd. RCMP and military recruiting plus a big display on how the borders are being patrolled. I couldn’t figure out if this was Canada or a police state. What happened to celebrating multiculturalism, diversity, and making fun of ourselves? We did get a big map of Canada and a 1-800-O-Canada ruler out of it though.
The Cult of Cool
This was a part of a different post I decided to split out to it’s own idea. It’s going to offend some of you but that’s okay once in a while. If you are offended, I am sure you can figure out the comments.
Apple iPod 3G
I have been asked recently by some pastoral friends of mine if I have one of the new 3G iPhones that are now in Canada. The answer is no I don’t. I agree with Dion Oxford’s writing on the iPhone. I don’t even have a iPod Touch. I have purchased three of them and returned them before I had a chance to get them home. Without being able to articulate what I was thinking, I was reacting to the idea of how much money one of these cost and where I work. I am painfully aware that I go home at 4:30 p.m. to an amazing wife, sons, a great dog and a really stupid dog. All of this is in my own home which I pay a lower mortgage rate than what you can rent a one bedroom apartment for in this city. Walking in and out with a iPod Touch seemed to be sending the wrong message when that money could be used that much better.
I didn’t dismiss the idea of owning one lightly. The idea of having one even in the building where I work at to check e-mail, research online, and keep track of notes in meetings appeals to me. Considering our future integration with Google Apps, it would be a lot of help. Many of the people I work on projects with have job responsibilities all over the building and a iPod Touch would make life easier. It would also be easier to get e-mail wherever I am at home and at the lake because we all know how absolutely indispensable I am right?
A sober second thought reminded me that I am not indispensable, nor am I that important, and at the lake, my focus should be on the dogs, the boys, Wendy, or a good book to read. The last thing I need to be doing is walking to the lodge so I can get my e-mail when I could be sitting in front of a fire. (I also have a notebook computer that works really well if I need to work there).
I live a pretty good life already and the question is, will it remain a good life if I don’t have the latest gadget from Apple? My other question is why do so many pastors I know have this love affair with technology? I used to be like this and as far as I can tell, I liked it because it signified to others that my life was so important, I needed cutting edge gear to keep track of it. I am not trashing technology but how much more productive was I when I had church names in my Palm instead of right beside it in the church directory. Was my schedule so packed that I needed software to sync it in numerous places, plus make a backup to Yahoo! Calendar that a paper calendar wouldn’t do? Do I really need to be accessible to the people in the church 24/7 by phone and e-mail that I need a Blackberry or iPhone 3G? Is my parish so large that I need Google Maps and GPS software built into my phone so I can navigate to see them?
Of course not. So why was I fixated on it? It was one way I could keep up to other wealthier people in the church. They had nice cars, bigger houses, better vacations but I had a cool phone and that is what we can afford. Somehow I think we think that cool technology equates with cutting edge culture and this comes from a weird understanding of culture.
Culture and coolness is local. It’s all local. When I am in rural Saskatchewan, a leather John Deere ball cap is cool and a very important part of culture. Yet when I hear people in the church talk about culture, we talk about “emerging culture” (there is no such thing), or global culture (sorry, culture is awfully localized). The thinking is what is cool in San Francisco or New York is going to be cool in Saskatoon or Calgary is incorrect. I always cringe when I read my blog as being listed as an important blog to read for understanding culture. That is totally incorrect, you don’t understand culture by reading a blog about culture, you learn about culture by observing it or living in it. Now there are those that are completely oblivious to popular culture but they aren’t trying to be cool anyways.
We do come by this obsession with tech gadgets naturally, it comes along with being obsessed with the new and the next. I still am signed up for too many conference mailing lists. Too many of them are peddling the next idea in church that will change everything. We all know it won’t but too often we sign up anyways. I wonder if the current culture of non-stop conferences has made the church lazier and too dependent on experts. Instead of exploring solutions internally, we wait for the consultant or expert to lead us. The “consultant class” replaces the Bishops, Superintendents, and denominational officials.
So why don’t we ever give up the perks that come with the job and spend some more time doing what we are called to do? How come everytime a new iPod or a Zune (heh) comes out, we need to upgrade? How many times do we need to see the same talking heads say the same stuff they wrote in their last three books to get the message? How much of the stuff we carry is a financial or physical (time and energy) distaction from what I am called to do?
As Oxford painfully reminded us
After too much time online, I think I figured out the pricing. Rogers will be the sole provider in Canada (monopoly?). You can get the 8G iPhone for the low price of $199 or the 16G iPhone for just $299. Oh, did I mention you need to sign your life away for three years on top of that? No other options available.
Then there’s the monthly fees that you commit to paying for those next 3 years (with the occasional letter from Rogers telling you that they’ll be generously raising your prices so they can better serve you). $69 + applicable taxes and random arbitrary fees per month for voice services. Then $20 + applicable taxes and random arbitrary fees for data. so $89 + … per month; for THREE years. So this inexpensive toy will run each user in the course of three years over $4000.
What else might $4000 pay for?
- It would cover close to 2000 meals in the shelter I work at for folks who live on the street
- If you don’t believe that people locally need to be going hungry and don’t deserve your charity then
- It would allow you to sponsor 3 children per month for three years through World Vision
- It could purchase 50 school kits per month through the Mennonite Central Committee, each school kit helps one child in Bangladesh get through school for one year
- It could provide the necessary labour and materials needed to provide 10 families the clean drinking water they need for the rest of their lives, for THREE years totalling 360 familes.
Or, you could buy a toy that you will fill a void in you for a few weeks or months until you grow tired of it and feel empty again or until someone makes a better toy.
I think i’m feeling grumpy about this. Forgive me for sounding pious, but the world is falling apart and we need to stop being seduced by the man and start waking up to the needs of people who are dying all around us.
Amen
You have to see this place
to believe how bad it really is. I have no sympathy for the landlord on this one at all. The smell walking by it is enough to make one gag, even in winter.
Evacuation
I am not going to be blogging much as the next couple of days are all going to be spent at the SaskTel Soccer Centre dealing with the almost 1000 evacuees coming to Saskatoon from up north as they flee the forest fires. Most of the evacuees are women and children along with the sick and the elderly. Most able bodied men are still trying to save their communities from the fires.
The Salvation Army is serving food in two different locations. The SaskTel Sports Centre and Cosmo Civic Centre. So far it has been going okay and despite the heat at the Soccer Centre, people are handling it well. At both sites, there are people from the Heath Region, Social Services, the Red Cross, and us. On top of that, a bunch of Saskatoon City police officers are volunteering. On top of doing whatever needs to be done, they are a hit with the kids giving out free stuff which has been quite the hit with some of them down there.
My job this week is the equivalent of the guy who wore the red shirt on Star Trek, I do whatever I am told and if there is an alien attack or a warp drive malfunctions, I get killed first. I was a little surprised that was in my job description but they insist it is.
If you are in Saskatoon and would like to help us out, please contact Crystal down at the Centre at 242-6833 during 8:30 and 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Crystal will give you some idea of when we need help, what location, and help get you registered so you can gain access to the facility.
More funding for affordable housing
The Government of Saskatchewan made my work a lot easier with an announcement today that they were increasing certain aspects of Social Services funding, especially for emergency shelter rates and per room rates, both which have a huge impact on what we do around here. For us who are working extremely hard in getting an emergency shelter open for women and children, this is a wonderful step forward. I was at the announcement today at the Saskatoon Cabinet Office and around the table, several other agencies knew what this meant for us (and them) and many of us left with a bounce in our step. Tomorrow will be a long day finishing up a lot of projects but it will be a long day in the best possible way.
Here is the CBC’s coverage of the announcement. The Star Phoenix has more.
I’m hiring
I am looking for a night position at the Centre. It is a stable 32-40 hours a week (actually 40 hours one week and 32 hours the next week) and is from 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. The wage isn’t bad and the benefits are pretty good. The details can be found online and if you have any questions, drop me a line at jordon.cooper AT salvationarmyscc.com
If you are interested, send in your resume. If you know of anyone else who might want the job, let them know about it as well.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
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