General

The Weekend, The Book and Other Things

Saturday was hotter in London, Ontario than it was in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Dubai, that over-populated, but-it’s-a-dry-heat, desert playground, where 40C+ is the norm. Where millions of people hustle through the world’s tenth-busiest airport on their way to spend their wealth at luxury stores while the sun beats down with a relentless burn. No wonder we didn’t want to go outside. …

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stacks of packed boxes by Ari via Flickr

A New Method for Decluttering

Forget the KonMari method – deciding to keep only the items that bring you joy. Don’t buy a bunch of baskets and sort your stuff. That only helps the basket-makers and doesn’t do enough to reduce the amount of stuff you keep. No, I’ve developed a new way of looking at your stuff that will make you want to get rid of anything you don’t really need.  …

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Thankful Thursday – The Ultimate Garage Sale

It’s difficult to find an audience for your online wares. When people found Lisa’s Pieces, they liked our tables, lamps and found treasures, but translating that into sales wasn’t easy. We ended up with a lot of unsold stuff simply because we couldn’t find enough of the right people.  …

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Bot and Sold

I suppose I should feel flattered. Scores of Twitter bots, those automated, pre-programmed fake accounts, started following me last week. I didn’t even realize it was part of a trend until London’s Medical Officer of Health tweeted about it. Then CTV London did a story about it, explaining that ‘prominent’ Londoners were being targeted by these sinister little twits. …

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Throwback Thursday – At Your Service

When I was a kid, I loved the poems of Robert Service. They told stories of the Yukon gold rush in a musical cadence that included lots of alliteration and rhymes. Service didn’t bother with subtleties in his most famous works. You knew what you were getting with The Cremation of Sam McGee, The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill and hundreds of others. He also wrote six novels, two autobiographies and even acted in the 1942 film, The Spoilers, with Marlene Dietrich. Visiting his restored cabin in Dawson City, Yukon – a preserved historical site – is on my bucket list. 

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scan as you shop gizmo attached to the handle of a shopping cart

The future is always beginning now ~Mark Strand.

While I check out my items at the grocery store, I can’t help but think about the last time I went through a cashier’s lane. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. She asked how I was. I responded, fine, how are you. And then she launched into the reasons why she shouldn’t be there. It wasn’t her shift. Someone called in sick and she was summoned at the last minute. She was really tired.  …

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Thankful Thursday – A Life of Bounty

One of the great privileges of my career has been to meet so many people and hear their stories. It’s fun to meet the rich and famous, sure, but it’s the ordinary folks fighting various battles who have made the most impact on me. As Amanda Marshall sings, “Everybody’s got a story that could break your heart”.  …

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