So it snowed this morning. Lots of it too.

The schools are closed and people aren’t showing up to work and meetings are getting cancelled.

I arrived at the station 20 mins ahead of a scheduled meeting to find it cancelled. The out of town visitor was petrified to drive from downtown to Richmond and nixed it.

My ride in wasn’t that bad. The conditions really aren’t that nasty today, as confirmed by an email from Grouse Mountain encouraging people to spend the day off school up on the mountain skiing.

Wait a second. Your children can’t get the 5 blocks to the local elementary school safely, but you can haul the whole family up to the North Shore to carve up a few turns? Sounds a little suspicious to me.

The truth be told, on days like today the roads suck for a couple of hours and then it’s no big deal. The plows get the work done, the traffic finishes off the job, driving the salt into the snow. By the time I got on my way at noon, I had one of the shortest commutes ever. No worries whatsoever.

Last year there was a spooky ass ride home because it was iced up like nobody’s business. Took me 2+ hrs to get home. I even picked up a woman who was so scared she pulled over on Hwy 91 and just opened my passenger door and got in. She didnt speak much english, she was just so scared about the conditions she had more confidence placing her safety in the charge of a total stranger than weathering it alone.

Those days are few and far between in Vancouver. Today was not one of those days.

I would venture to say the mountains were a little busier than normal too. It wasnt that bad, yes the sidewalks weren’t shoveled and we got a little wet when we went for our walk today, but we still troddled around, the kids could have made it to campus too. Besides, the best part about being at school when it snows, is recess!

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Sex and the City was an organic hit. It launched and gradually grew in viewership and pop culture influence.

With the writers and creators of that tv series split between two network versions this year (Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia), they’re trying to recapture the magic to fill the void left by SATC.

But that’s the problem, they’re trying.

The original was big because it was was it was. We fell in love with it gradually, it wasn’t jammed down our throats. These new shows are like a new girlfriend finding out you still long for your ex, so she tries to be exactly like her.

No, it’s over, that ship has sailed. We’ve moved on. We want something new.

Still, Lucy Liu is trying her damndest to be Carrie Bradshaw.

Lucy, I knew Carrie Bradshaw, you are no Carrie Bradshaw, stop trying so hard. You’re going to hurt yourself.

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Does anyone have a list of signs of the Apocalypse?

Is Britney back dating her paparazzo, Heath Ledger burning in hell and a stock market crash on that list?

It’s all happening. Let’s go through them back to front.

STOCKS

The stock market is taking a HUGE header this morning. Unless you’re near retirement, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re at least 10 years away from retiring, don’t sweat it. Just treat everything as if it’s on sale. It’s a chance to dollar cost average.

I get caught up in micromanaging my retirement portfolio, especially the 6 shares of AAPL I bought back in September for $138. I thought I was a Mad Money Man in December when it 200 and analysts were forecasting 300 for a high. “w00t!” Today, the stock is trading at under $137.

What happened? America just woke up and realized George Bush has been writing war checks his country can’t cash for the past 8 years. It has nothing to do with the turtlenecked one, and everything to do with crazy paranoia. But I’ve got 25 years left of clock punching, so I will BUY, not SELL, and look forward to the future.

HEATH in HELL

I admit it. I do not like organized religion. It may work for you, that’s great, I think a sense of spirituality is an important thing to have, but the blind trust that many put into the doctrines of religion really bothers me. Especially when those who do wave the flag of their belief in bold faced hate against others. Angry, nasty hatred.

Christopher Hitchens has a great read, God is Not Great, it deconstructs most religions for contradictory beliefs, perpetual corruption and the solitary source of all that is wrong in the world. Religion is supposed to be the great unifying force of peace, yet it is under a mandate from ‘god’ that most wars are waged.

Heath Ledger died yesterday. Allegedly of an overdose of drugs. While I may not be a fan of those who abuse drugs - I am not going to issue a press release condemning him to hell because he starred in Brokeback Mountain.

The Westboro Baptist Church issued a press release today, filled with crap like this:

WBC will picket this pervert’s funeral, in religious protest and warning. Heath Ledger is now in Hell and will begin serving his eternal sentence there. [source]

Yes, this is a rogue organization that routinely pulls these stunts, but they do it with Biblical quotes, on the letterhead of a “Church.”

BRIT BRIT

Oh, and Britney is back dating her papi, Adnan Ghalib. They broke up, he “sold” his story to ET for a series of weeklong interviews, and now they’re already back together and tearing things up.

Last night they sideswiped a motorcycle.

The end is near friends, the horesemen cometh.

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Okay, so I bought many of my Christmas presents online, preaching the convenience and joy in doing so from my pyjamas to many of my friends, only to have a few of my gifts arrive in January. I guess 3 weeks wasnt enough time to come all the way north from Everett, Wa.

I would have thought things would be easier doing some Boxing Day shopping from Future Shop. Uh no.

I’ll not bore you with the details of what a gong show their Boxing Day Sale was, (it actually started at 5p on Christmas Eve) all you need to know is I scooped a couple great deals and I haven’t got them yet.

Once again, I was laughing at all the sad sacks who camped out 20 hrs in the cold to save $200 on a flat panel tv. Yet here they are, enjoying all their HD goodness while I am still waiting for my tiny little SD Card and iPod Shuffle.

After re-checking my invoices etc last night, I found the parcel was shipped December 27. I got a tracking number and matched it up with Canada Post, who said my item was delivered January 7. It may have been delivered, but it wasn’t delivered to me.

So what do I do? I tried to send an email to Future Shop’s customer service, it bounced back undeliverable (of course). Do I take it up with FS? Canada Post? Visa?

I just wanted an 8 gig SD card and a cute shuffle. 3 weeks ago!

Online shopping still sucks.

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I was off to the Passport Office today to get papers for myself and Le Grand Zizou to head to France this spring. (Okay, Jen’s coming too. She got her passport last year before the crush)

I filled out the forms online, got the pictures guaranteed, printed off the forms, packed a lunch, a tent, some video material and headed down to the Richmond Passport Office.

Problem #1. When I Googled “Richmond Passport Office” I got an address on Saba Rd. When I got to said address, there was no Passport Office, but there was a nice little Passport Photo Place. Asked the little man where it was, and he told me they moved around the corner, on Cooney Rd. Too bad for him, the new place was about 7 blocks away, I bet his drive-by business isnt what it used to be.

So I whipped over to the new place and saw the rows and rows of chairs and people sitting in them and thought “Ugh.” But good news, they have a couple pre-screeners to take your money, and check your forms so you don’t waste a day waiting only to find out you misspelled your name.

Who would misspell their own name? Me.

Problem #2. My middle name is MCKAY. Pronounced Muh-Kye. It’s my Godfather’s name. I’ve always spelled it McKay. Well, I guess when I filled out my Passport form 5 years ago, they assumed the capital “K” meant a new word, so it appears as MC KAY on my old Passport. I wrote it out MCKAY in my application. Hmmm. Alarms and bells and whistles start going off in the office.

When using the speedy renewal form, everything MUST be identical in the two applications. After rooting around in my bag, I found my birth certificate. It also had my name as MC KAY. Okay, so I guess I don’t know how to spell my own name.

I ask the screening agent if I can just fill out a new form and all will be right in the world. She checks with a manager, isn’t sure and doesnt totally process my forms. I will have to see the agent, she says.

Great. I come all the way down and I misspell my name, and it’s a big deal. While I’m waiting for my number to be called, I decide to fill out new forms and spell/misspell my middle name the way it is “legally.”

I get to the agent, explain the screw up. She says “no problem,” uses my new handwritten forms, takes my money and sends me on my way.

I didnt need the tent, didnt need the lunch, and only ended up watching about 20 minutes of Californication on my Creative Zen Vision: W.

Kewl. New passports in 3-4 weeks. Big vacation to France in 2 months.

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A province wide ban on smoking indoors is being upheld. That means hookah parlours and cigar lounges will no longer be allowed to offer their custormers the privelege to puff on the premises.

I’m an anti-smoking nazi. Hate the stuff. I mutter “die smoker” at the cancer kids huddle in the wind and rain outside building doors. I boycott tobacco companies and all of their subsidiaries.

Did you know Kraft is actually owned by Phillip Morris Altria? Add in all their subsidiary brands like Nabisco, Kool-Aid, Maxwell House, Jell-O, Oscar Mayer, Post…- and if you’re not careful when you do your groceries, you could actually be supporting big tobacco.

So it’s not surprising I should feel no sympathy for the hookah people now that their reason for business has been removed from them. One parlour owner downtown is trying to trumpet his business as a place for Persians and Iranians to have a bit of home, here.

I got an idea, how about when women are treated equally in your part of the world, you can smoke in our part of the world?

When in Rome Vancouver, friend. When in Rome Vancouver

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How relevant are Olympic sports?

I mean, in our ancient history discus and javelin were probably relevant measures of strength and accuracy for those who hunted and occasionally gathered, but in 2008 is the distance you can throw a spear relevant?

There are more strange ones in the Winter Olympics. Like ski jumping. Are there people sliding down cliffs and soaring over fjords in Norway on the way to school? Do we need to find out “who does it the best”?

That’s just the cynical side of me, I think it’s a beautiful sport, and one of the ones I would consider seeing live at the 2010 Olympics (but I’m really hoping to see short track speed skating).

The venues are going up across Vancouver-Whistler at an amazing rate and over the past month the ski jumping facility at Whistler was completed for the teams to test and train on. I say “teams,” plural, because Canada has a men’s team, and a women’s team. But only the men can compete in the Olympics.

The women argue that for a new sport to be admitted to the Oympics now, it has to have both male and female editions. BTW, ladies, it also has to have a reasonable base of people in the world participating in the sport.

Guess how many women, on the entire planet, are ski jumpers.

86.

86 women in the world are competitive ski jumpers. You could argue that if they had the chance at Olympic glory, more would enter the sport, I would argue do we even need ski jumping?

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Last week the recording industry released sales figures showing the sales of physical cds is plummeting.

I argued that with digital sales rising, the books should really be balanced because of the decreased costs in manufacturing and transporting music that’s digital. All you have to do is upload a song once and you’re done. You don’t have to burn cd’s, print artwork or stuff jewel boxes, all you do is throw the song on a server and cash the cheques.

I’m a fan of Sia. She’s done work with Zero 7, has her own solo career and has a beautiful quirky style that I find magical.

I was in Starbucks yesterday and saw her new album. A total impulse buy, I thought about getting it until I flipped it over and saw the price was US$13.95 / C$16.95. Hmm .. a little steep, and throw in the exchange imbalance and I said no. Now before you chastize me for wanting to buy music in a coffee shop, you need to know my life does not revolve around a mall. I’m in Starbucks more than HMV, so it’s convenient for me.

So I put the CD back, too expensive (mind you I did pay $6 for a chai latte and a treat), reminding myself to check iTunes later.

I just looked up Sia on iTunes. The CD, the whole album, is $9.99. It’s not a part of iTunes +, so that means the tracks have Digital Rights Management attached to them, and I won’t be able to move them between my devices easily, so I checked Amazon MP3. Sia - Some People Have Real Problemsis $8.99 and totally DRM free.

Almost HALF of what a CD would cost me.

That’s why I’m not buying CDs, cause y’all are screwing us!

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It’s tough being in mainstream media broadcasting. And by broadcasting, I mean speaking to a broad audience.

When you’re in a niche format, like so many online broadcasters, you can assume your audience has a certain understanding of issues and its easier to communicate on a deeper level.

Seth Godin has a piece about the dumbing down of the world in his blog today.

Think about the stuff you hear on the radio or read about in mass market publications. When they attempt to cover something you really know about, they seem pretty stupid, don’t they? Oversimplifying to the point of getting it completely wrong. They’re busy pandering to the masses, dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.

The thing is, when you dumb stuff down, you know what you get?

Dumb customers.[link]

Strombo does a good job of not “dumbing down” the news, although that’s what he’s been accused of often times. He gives a background, a scene set for his audience, and then gets into deeper issues of the stories with his guests, now that the crowd is on the same page.

But on the radio, I have difficulty trying to break deeper topics with my audience. We’re a Top 40 radio station that’s really just background noise, I have 15-30 seconds to get in and get out. People don’t actively listen and hang on every one of my words, so I try and keep things as basic as possible.

Which is a shame. I did a bit yesterday on the HD DVD v Blu Ray battle and I tried to set the scene, but I think it went over a lot of people’s heads, or they changed the dial.

That’s the thing about mainstream radio, if people don’t understand, don’t “get it” or don’t like what you’re talking about - they’ll punch out. They’re gone. That dial is just 24 inches away from their ears, it’s an easy thing to do. So you have to be broad and encompassing in your topics.

That’s why you get a steady diet of Britney and relationships on the radio. It’s easy to understand. I mean, just listen to Battle of the Sexes with Nat and Drew and hear the type of questions that are regularly punted and butchered. (dude today called it Hollenday sauce. I’m serious)

I’m not saying I dumb things down, but I am broadcasting, so the lowest common denominator gets the focus. Imagine being in a classroom and the lecture is constantly targeted to the kids who are failing. That’s what I feel like sometime.

I don’t want to do that, but I struggle with how to do it differently.

American news is the classic example of how out of hand this mentality can get. Watch the 5p news on KOMO and then the 6p news on Global. Night. And. Day. KOMO is fluff and car chases and live hits from restaurants where someone walked out on their bill, Global tackles issues, not with the vigor I’d like, but they still present something that’s deeper, for 15 minutes before going to sattelite stories about floods in the US.

If you watch the shows from back east in prime time on the American networks, you’re hammered with “Action News! On Your Side!” type of promos for their news shows that sell nothing but sizzle.

Steak is hard to digest, sizzle is easy to get excited about. I’ll try and give you some steak today.

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Okay, GW is a very simple man who loves his drink and cattle. A damn scary piece of flesh and bones to be walking around with the keys to the bomb.

He couldnt find “The Iraq” without “The Internets” and some help from Uncle Dick and Daddy.

Obama and Hilary and The Ken Doll could give a little bit of hope that things will get better. But wait, we thought the same in 04, and the Damn Yankees went all Republican on us again, despite Michael Moore’s better efforts at stating the obvious.

So, with the chance the Americans might stick with the GOP for years 9-12, let’s have a look at the man who could be President, Michael Huckabee.

pwned.

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