For months now I’ve been debating getting an xbox 360 and when I got all my birthday gift certs and cash I finally decided it was time. Boy was I glad that I did! The 360 in two words: Kick ass.
Jim aptly points out that with most large purchases (and the 360 is no small purchase) you get a bit (or a lot) buyer’s remorse. I haven’t for a moment questioned this purchase even when Tammy looks over at me with that “you spent money I’m going to slay you in your sleep” look.
Playing Burnout on xbox live has just been awesome and let me tell you, playing 20 year old games on the xbox live arcade? Good times.
So to Jim and Chris who convinced me to get this beast, kthxu sirs. For those of you on the fence of getting one? Just do it. You could get one of these things and buy no games and just play demos and xbox live arcade games and be happy.
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So I am on vacation this coming week and I think it is time for a rjoworld revamp and a CMS switch. So over the next week you should start seeing some changes in design and a migration to Wordpess.
I want to again thank Evan again for this design and CMS as it is honestly fantastic. The Opus system he designed (currently powers this site) is awesome and I think the design speaks for itself (even with my widget clutter).
So.. stay tuned for RJOWorld 4.0 
The last weekend in June is always my favorite time of the year for several reasons… Of course my birthday on the 26th (You did get me something for tomorrow right?) and there is also the Don Victoria Softball League’s Championship day!
Yesterday was the 2006 Championship day and it was a lot of fun! Talk about a tiring day all around though!. The day starts at about 6 in the morning with us arriving at the baseball park around 7. We set up the diamons, a consession stand and get the announcing booth (at the big diamond) and the announcers table (at the smaller diamon) setup. Setting up the diamonds take a bit as we do a full rake on the diamond and then chalk the lines (TBall takes even longer as there is a whole lot more lines to chalk (lines for the “call line” and infield foul line).
We had a lot of fun yesterday, I was really proud of Tammy who although has helped in the past got right into it yesterday even announcing for two of the games.
I’ve put pictures up on m flickr, you can check out the album for the day here
Also for a more full account of the days event’s check out Tammy’s Blog
I’ve uploaded quite a few pictures to my flickr account this morning including photos from Florida, of my cat, of me as a kid… lots of quality stuff…
Check it out…
I’ve made two new Nijikon posts for everyone to check out:
Spore fact sheet release
Buying A DS-Lite? Get Brain Age Free!
Check it out on Nijikon!
The Toronto Transit Commission has always been a focal point of debate in the realm of politics in Toronto. Do we raise the rates? Do we make it more accessible to the poor? How will we fund a system that’s load grows exponentially on a yearly basis?
As someone who is in business and loves business it is a no brainer to me that these are times for STRONG leadership in the TTC. There are many questions that need answered and many concerns to be addressed (from restoring the relations between the union and management to figuring out a viable finance model that will keep the TTC afloat without being a heavy burden on the city) if the TTC is to become the prominent part of the GTA’s transit strategy that it needs to be.
But there is a problem…
I previously said that the TTC needs strong leadership, and at the moment the TTC does not have it. The current chair of the TTC, Howard Moscoe, IS NOT THE MAN FOR THE JOB. Moscoe is not a business man; he has not proven to be competent in running anything, let alone one of the largest transportation systems in the world.
Let me give a little context that will give a glaring example of what I am talking about. What has prompted me to make this post (and don’t get me wrong, I’ve been wanting to see Moscoe removed for many years, and remember I come from a family of commission workers (including my grand father who was in the management ranks), I’m rather close to this and I understand the dynamics) was the resignation of TTC Chief General Manager Rick Ducharme due to “political interference” from no other then Howard Moscoe. Now to give greater insight this is not the first chief GM to leave the TTC. In fact during Moscoe’s time as chairman of the TTC board three GMs have left citing political tension with Mr. Moscoe. Before Ducharme was David Gunn who is one of the most respected minds in public transportation. After he left the TTC (again citing Moscoe more or less directly) he went on to become the president of Amtrak.
So here we have a chairman of the TTC board driving off these respected business men (it should be said Ducharme has not had an easy go but he has done a solid job of building the TTC’s business). So what has Moscoe contributed since coming on board the TTC in 1998? Not much. He’s been playing politics. His contributions can be summed up in two categories 1) Bringing the TTC to the under privledge and special needs and 2) Fighting fare increases that were inevitable (mostly because while he was busy fighting these fare increases no one on the board was focusing on the real problem, the operating effeciency short falls at the TTC).
Now I won’t try and take away from what he’s done for the poor or in trying to keep transit affordable BUT as a left wing member of Toronto City Council (there is another sort?) he was clearly representing an agenda.
The TTC needs a manager, someone who understands business and will be willing to fight the good fight to rebuild the TTC to reach its potential as A BUSINESS. Sorry Mr Moscoe, it is time for you to resign…
And I’m back. I’ve now got the new server for Worlds setup and I’ve also got my own PC back in order (there was some hardware shuffling, I was moving my HDD over to the server to go with the new mobo/cpu I had installed over on it and then I put a new hard drive with a new OS install on my PC, thus the AFKness). It’s good to be back and fully on the PC…
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My company had a very good fiscal year last year and to celebrate HR put on a big party in our parking lot at the office on Friday. Wow, it was a great party and it felt really good to be part of a success story and have the powers that be recognize it. My CEO knows how to bring people in for a party!
We had great food (from Ubrban Fare Catering) and also music performances by Andy Kim and a popular Canadian reggae group The Sattalites.
Really nice to feel appreciated…
