I did another post commemorating Canada Day and Independance Day in the U.S. but you won't see that yet. Ours comes first on July 1st, first, so this one gets posted first 1st. All over Canada today, fireworks will be displayed, special events will abound and everyone will be celebrating our 142nd birthday. Everybody it seems, except Toronto, (known to the rest of Canada as the "center of the universe"). Seems most of the festivities are cancelled there due to a strike by city workers. (Wonder if they get double strike pay for picketing on a statuatory holiday?) To everyone today, spend some time with your families, watch the fireworks and have a great day off!                            Have a great Canada Day-EH! I'm posting this a little early; our company has a float in the parade, ... 06/30/2009

How many of you out there are into branding? No, not this kind; I mean your image. Do you even have an image? Years ago, I took one of several motivational courses. His name isn't important, but his image was. All his material, books, cassettes, (yes, they had cassettes back then), everything, and I mean everything, had his picture on it- wearing the same outfit-every time! I asked him about this and he told me it was his "branding". Also called a "signature". It's what people relate with you; it's how they think of you and identify you. Personally, when I go out on business, I ALWAYS have the same outfit on. (Check out my profile picture). It's always the same. Blue blazer, gray flannel slacks, burgundy shirt with matching tie. I bought 10 of everything, and had the shirts monogrammed.... 06/30/2009

There is a great debate going on in the United States right now, about trying to reform health care in that country. Barack Obama has been studying several options and models including the system we have in place in Canada. The new plan, once implemented, is expected to cost upwards of $1.5 TRILLION! This is a blog, not an essay, so I will touch on the salient points only and try to keeps technicalities to a minimum. First, the Canadian system of health care: By 1966 all Provinces in Canada had a universal health care plan in place. The Canadian system is known as a single payer system, where services are provided by private doctors, with the entire fee paid for by the goverrnment at the same rate. EVERYONE IS COVERED, and, no one can be refused coverage. Our medical plan is universal; ... 06/30/2009

PROFESSIONAL: Displaying a high level of competance or skill. Watching a professional, we sometimes get the feeling that it's easy and that person is gifted or maybe just lucky. Tiger Woods spends more than 8 hours a day working on his golf game, mentally, physically and spiritually to maintain his high level of achievement. There is a theory that to become the best in the world at anything, you need to invest 10,000 hours practicing and doing whatever your field of expertise is, and after that, continue to work on your skills to maintain that high level. To be a professional realtor, it takes the same kind of commitment: Hours and hours of lead generation, educational classes, open house tours, seminars, and on and on it goes. Sometimes people's attitudes rub us the wrong way and some... 06/29/2009

I'm always prospecting leads, far and wide. Turns out, I was looking too far! The house right next door to me has tenants. Last evening, I was talking to one of the tenants and of course, real estate came up. She told me she was paying $1,200 a month for half a house! The alarm suddenly went off in my head. A few more questions and it became apparent, she      had sufficient funds for a good down payment and closing costs.           I knew what she wanted and the area. A quick phone call to my                  favorite mortgage broker and today, we sign a buyer's                        agreement and start the search. I'm expecting her landlord to be over soon to give me hell for selling his tenant, but I can live with it. As long as keeps putting rentors in there, I'll keep selling them... 06/29/2009

Some time ago, I wrote a post on an incident that happened at Vancouver International Airport. I'll re-cap the story briefly. Robert and his mother in better  livelier times. Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, arrived at Vancouver Int'l Airport. Apparently, he was confused, disorientated and, spoke no English. After HOURS of wandering around the airport, he became agitated and started throwing things around the room. The RCMP were called, and within 23 seconds of the police arriving, he was dead. Tasered 5 times! A spectator at the scene got the entire drama on film! Good thing and, you'll learn why. The previous post is linked below. (It's important to read it to get the context). http://activerain.com/blogsview/964171/tasers-and-mounties-and-video-tape The first post was pretty ta... 06/28/2009

There's a program on T.V. in Canada;  you probably don't get it in the States.. It's called "Mythbusters", and has to do with proving or disproving popular beliefs.       I was watching the other night and saw this episode I thought was strange. Everybody has seen a similar cartoon of an elephant being afraid of a mouse? Well, they thought they would see if this was really true. They actually flew a team to Africa and tested the theory on wild elephants. What they did was take a large mound of dried elephant dung and hollowed it out, (picture something similar to half a large walnut shell). They tied a long string to this  and placed a mouse underneath. When the elephants came by, they pulled the string, releasing the mouse. In EVERY case, the elephant abruptly stopped, backed up severa... 06/28/2009

The English have an expression "Walkies", and the Aussies use the expression "Walk-about": Going on an exploration of "self-discovery" for days on end, exploring the outback region, the nether-regions, getting in touch with nature.  Apparently, that's  what one U.S. politician with a poor sense of direction did. He went hiking on the Appalachin Trail for several days, and somehow made an errant turn and ended up in Argentina. Quite a trek! What would that be good for? A couple of sets of hiking boots?  Carson got his "side-kick" back; I can almost hear Carson saying, H-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-e's Eddie! Farrah became an angel for real. She was the ultimate icon of youth and vitality and became a grim reminder of our own mortality.   And the "gloved one" did his last moon-walk. And of course, th... 06/28/2009

 What legacy did Jackson leave behind? Jackson was the 7th President of the United States, and for years dominated.... Oops, sorry-wrong Jackson. The one we want here is Michael, The "Gloved One". There will probably be million posts done on this subject this week with the untimely passing of this icon. Whether you're a fan or not, everyone has an opinion on this guy. Michael Joseph Jackson Born: August 29, 1958-Died: June 25, 2009  Michael hit the scene in 1969 with his brothers calling themselves the Jackson 5. At age 11, he was clearly the star of the group.                    1976-1984 The Jackson 5 leave Motown and signed with CBS records in 1975 and  renamed themselves The Jacksons. The group toured internationally and released 6 more albums. By now, Michael's star was taking off ... 06/28/2009

As I write this post garbage collection in Toronto is a thing of the past. They are entering the 4th day of a strike. In these recessionary times, one might think that striking for more benefits, pay and                     perks doesn't make for very good optics. But, as usual, union entitlement trumps all else. Never mind that mountains of garbage are piling up everywhere in the hot sun. This is all about them!     Jeez! Makes you want to turn to the drink. No wait! Can't do that either. Now the Liquor Control Board workers are planning to go on strike as well. Ah, unions! Ya' gotta' love 'em. 06/24/2009

THE DOCTOR IS IN AND TAKING QUESTIONS. Q. Doctor, I have heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is that true? A. Your heart is only good for so many beats. Don't waste time on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart does not make you live longer. That's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap. Q.Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruit and vegetables? A.You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism for delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass. (Green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop  can give you 100% of you... 06/23/2009

This is a true story. Recently in England, the attendant at a parking lot at the zoo in Bristol, England failed to show up for work. He had shown up every day, 6 days a week, for 23 years. The  one day he did not show up for work, the zoo management phoned Bristol City Council to ask them to send a replacement attendant. City Coucil had no idea what the hell they were talking about. The "parking attendant" wasn't on their payroll. Gone missing from his home is a very polite, and charming car park attendant, who basically, created his own job. He was charging about $2.00 a car and $10.00 per bus, which amounted to about $800 a day, or $280,000 a year. All tax free. So, the next time you're looking at your car-park attendant, and he appears to be as thick as a bag of hammers, don't be so ... 06/23/2009

O.K., I admit it. I'm a bit of a dinosaur. I was originally in this business back in the 80's for a number of years and  left to start different businesses which I ran successfully for a lot of years. Recently, I'm back and everything changed since I went away. The biggy is the advent of the cell phone. Prior to coming out of retirement to re-enter real estate, I never owned a cell phone; in fact, I resisted them! I relented because I need one now, but got the basic. No Blackberry for me. I couldn't text messages if my life depended on it. Forget about Twitter-haven't a clue. But today, everybody's got the damn things. I see people, all of all ages, teens texting and twittering, business people talking-everybody's phoning someone. I see people pulling out of their driveway and on the ce... 06/23/2009

 Donovan Tildesley, Canadian olympian and record holder in swimming. On this particular winter morning, he and his skiing companion James Peters are on one the slopes at Whistler. The metal chairlift banks a corner and scoops them airborne for the ride to the top. This morning they will ski a run called, the "Blowhole". This is a chute so steep and narrow, from the top it looks like the rabbit hole that Alice fell into.  Only 1 or 2 per cent of expert skiers do this run. It's treacherous, to say the least. Off they go, Donovan first, then James. You see, James is Donovan's guide, and he tells him when to turn and what to avoid.   Donovan needs a little help navigating the hill, you see, Donovan, who was born without retinas, is totally blind. 06/22/2009

 Many economists will tell you that container traffic on the high seas is the single best barometer of the state of world trade. If this is so, then the scene unfolding off the coast of Singapore is sobering. Approximately 735 ships are moored there because they have no shipments to carry and nowhere to go. It's cheaper to drop anchor and wait than to head for shore. Some time ago, I did a blog on this very subject, and while I don't wish to be right on this one, it's starting to look prophetic. (I included a link to that blog below) http://activerain.com/blogsview/923878/horribly-boring-article-but-alarming-   06/22/2009

Another week starts and it did not get off to a brilliant start. I got an email from the "powers-that-be" at Active Rain reminding me of the rules for posting. In the past, if I found a humorous internet joke, I would tart it up with a little clip art and post it. (And, I wouldn't think any more of it). I have seen others do this as well, and figured this was acceptable. Apparently, if the content of your post is not original, you need to click that little box that says: "This is not my content, but I have permission to repost it". I did not know that, and I will now smarten up. Also, a lot of my posts are inspired by newspaper articles and off-beat stories I come across. I read several papers every day, and this usually keeps the creative juices flowing. I don't copy anything verbatim ... 06/22/2009

How do you measure the competance of a teacher who is teaching your kids day in and day out?  How do you know if they're doing an adequate job? How do you know if they are even competant? The short answer is-YOU DON'T! In Canada, once a teacher passes probation, he or she is home-free! No testing for compentancy, (except every 5 years). How often are YOU evaluated? Yup, I thought so! The biggest obstacle to this- the teachers unions. They resist testing at every instance it's brought up. Recent testing in universities found that countless students were functionally illiterate! Their grasp of writing, etc. was abysmal! The biggest problem is not the small number of incompetants,                 and the system has a major problem getting rid of them.                                    The... 06/22/2009

 I don't know if it was just a slow news day, but out national paper, The National Post wrote two full pages on flies in the White House. The also did a follow-up article the following day, and today, I see yet another article on this. Apparently, The White House is supposed to be a "no-fly" zone. Well, maybe not. Flies are reported to be swarming all over the place, pestering aides and confounding the staffers. It's not quite clear why there are so many flies in the White House, but staff have been issued official White House swatters complete with Presidential Seal. During an interview last week, a rather large obnoxious fly was buzzing around Barack Obama's head. He managed to swat the little bugger and the event got caught on tape, which instantly became a YouTube sensation. This pr... 06/22/2009

Calgarians by the score are hitching up their wagons and heading south for buying opportunities in Arizona. People from Calgary, Alberta are mavericks and have lots of money to invest and CBI Group is pitching a scheme that only a maverick would love. One of the worst-hit sub-prime cities in the United States is Phoenix, Arizona.      As of February, prices there had fallen 35.2% in a year,           and by slightly more than half their value from the peak                in June 2006 according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Here's how the scheme works. CBI's Arizona Acquisition Fund of Alberta is aiming to raise $12.5 million dollars to buy 175 single-family homes around Phoenix. It uses local intelligence who scout homes slated for auction. When purchased, the homes are rented out, som... 06/20/2009

WE CAN BUILD RELATIONSHIPS: Whether in business or socially. It usually means rising above the opinions of others; these are the people who are often termed as having a "grasshopper" mentality. These are the people I personally avoid like the plague. They are the "nay-sayers", the glass is "half-empty" type of people. They constantly talk about life's injustices and about how bad they've been mistreated or misunderstood. They feed on normal people. They also make excuses, justify or rationalize for not succeeding at work or in a social environment. These are the people that complain about what they do not have rather than focusing on what they do have. STAY AWAY FROM ME PLEASE! The key is to change "Grasshopper" mentality to "Giant-Killer" mentality! We can improve our listening skills.... 06/20/2009