Category Archives: General

How to avoid redundancy

My abhorrence of redundancy resides in its superfluity. Redundancy is a condemnation which goes beyond mere lack of necessity. It signals lack of assertion, an unfortunate corollary to the uniform deprivation of both utility and capacity.  Redundancy is normally a casualty of evolution, such as no more work being available or the obsolescence of gunpowder.  Redundancy acquires an especial fungus when it attaches to someone who persists – usually with a shameful degree of arrogance – in pretending to fulfill an empty function.  Sadly the person is either unaware of (or determined to ignore) their superfluity.

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Perfect day for bicycling on the beach

As much as I esteem Herman Melville for his detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil in Moby-Dick, “the greatest book of the sea ever written”, I trust I can be forgiven for limiting today’s account of bicycling on the beach to my personal experience without the benefit of specialized explanations.

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Episode at Whole Foods Market

In the context of Canadian grocery shopping I have discovered that Farm Boy is in the category of superior food products. As for the run-of-the-mill grocery stores I prefer Sobey’s mainly because its aisles are wide and the imported cheese selection is excellent. From there the trajectory of quality is about the same for Loblaws, Metro and other similar stores.  I exclude from this global account the specialty food stores and “health food” stores where one can sometimes find extraordinary locally-made foodstuffs for example.

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Money and capital

Recently I met a young professional who just got married. I was astounded to learn that he is carrying the burden of $100,000 debt from his education.  What however was more depressing was that he has resigned himself never to be out of debt. Everything he imagines about his future includes living in the shadow of that debt.

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Recovery from the holiday

Vacation is work.  The initial packing is not a frightful obligation but it is a boring chore at the other end of the trip, sorting piles of soiled clothing, reallocating items to specific drawers and cupboards and closeting the remainder, restocking the bathroom counter with the necessary paraphernalia.  There is hauling the stuff in and out of the car, in and out of hotels along the way and repeating the same routine of unloading and repacking at each stop.  And when you finally get to your destination there is a frenzy to get on one’s horse and ride off in all directions – to see the place, check out the resort, schedule times for spa treatments and dinners, arrange bicycles, perhaps have some laundry done and often to call the front desk to complain about one thing or another, get robes or more soft pillows, plug in the various devices to charge their batteries and figure out the electrical switches and heating/cooling system (not to mention having to straighten the lamp shades and secure the finials).  All perfectly exhausting! Even having to endure formal dining night after night, listening to the performance of the staff, addressing the customary pleasantries, waiting to pay the bill.  Whew!  If ever there were a reminder that it is man’s fate to labour, holidaying is it!

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Jupiter Beach

The Jupiter Beach Resort and Spa is unique in a number of ways. Foremost it is a boutique venue. It is likewise located in a small, lesser known community  of Florida, below Daytona Beach and above Fort Lauderdale. When I met a former employee of the Resort today (she was visiting for old times sake) she told me the Resort was the only one located directly on the beach in this area.

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21 years less a day

Many things are arbitrary. Only recently for example I discovered to my initial displeasure that a pair of Oliver Peoples spectacles I had purchased at a local optometrist’s boutique were described on the manufacturer’s web site as for “Women”.  Seriously?  How did they decide that?

(Ezelle) inspired by the original metal OP-4, the distinctive curves and glass lenses of this feminine sunglass offers a progressive, polished look.

I wrote to the “Concierge” on the manufacturer’s web site enquiring about the designation (and also to confirm where the frames were made in light of their noble proclamation of being a Californian company).  Below is the reply I received.

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Software and Hardware

What propels people is the same thing as a computer – a combination of software and hardware.  I liken the software to our brains which are capable of two kinds of gymnastics – intellectual and spiritual (the real and the unreal). The hardware, like the case that surrounds the computer, is the stuff that surrounds each of us – people and things (the real and the unreal).  Each of these four elements – intellectual, spiritual, people and things – routinely interact to create the world in which we live, a world which on one level is the same planet for everyone but which on another level is an immensely diverse experience. The software and hardware of our respective lives define us.

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Drawing the line

It is fatuous to pretend we haven’t been brainwashed. Years of reading the same stuff and listening to the same people leads to indoctrination and does little to engender hesitation about the truth as we already know or believe it. We may occasionally stumble upon an event which momentarily at least precipitates an epiphany but it isn’t long before we lapse into conformity. The narrowness of our thinking is predicted by the routine of our experience. As necessity is the mother of invention, there is no more need to change unless we must. By contrast living in a state of perpetual doubt and analysis is not the norm. It is so much easier not to have to adjust to new or different external indicia. Seeing the world clothed in the same fabric, colour and spirituality is by far more convenient.

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