Alistairs of the world: Unite!

I have it on good authority that a young man by the name of Alistair came by to inspect the site today. I hope everything was to his liking...I hate to disappoint other Alistairs.

Having lived with the name Alistair for my entire life, I've had mixed emotions on my uncommon moniker. When I was a kid, my less-than-normal name led to some teasing. For a while I considered changing my name, although with the choices I had created, I'm glad I stuck with the original. I've grown up to really like my name.

It's particularly great when I run into someone who I haven't seen in a while. If I say, "Remember me? It's Alistair.", most people don't have to sift through too many before they match the man to the memory.

Just in case you're wondering, Alistair means: defender of mankind. An important job, but I think I'm up to the task.

The perils of popularity

A few years ago, when I was trying to learn Gaelic, I decided to create a very simple search engine that would make looking up words in Gaelic faster. I used it for my own purposes at first, but a friend convinced me to add it to my web site.

For a few months it just sat there, virtually unused. Then, someone happened to come across it and posted a note on a site somewhere and I was getting hundreds of hits a day.

Soon after, I was contacted by the Gaelic Society of America, inquiring if they could feature the search engine on their home page.

Fine with me.

Just recently, a representative from the BBC contacted me to say they are creating a special Gaelic section, and could they use my search engine on their site.

Sure!

Now I'm starting to get requests from people to translate things into Gaelic, which is a little ironic, considering I don't know how to speak any Gaelic.

So, to all those who have contacted me hoping that I could translate their wedding vows, a name for their villa in the country, an inscription for a ring or any number of other requests: Duilich (I'm sorry).

Spare Change?

Lately, I've noticed a marked increase in the number of panhandlers out there. It used to be that Granville and Robson had the lion's share of people seeking spare change.

The term panhandle comes from the beginning of the 20th Century as a slang for people holding their arm out:

panhandle, n.; from the extended forearm

So it's nothing new. But it certainly seems to be more prevalent these days. Last night as I walked by the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on my way home from work, I saw 4 panhandlers aggressively working theatre-goers as they approached the theatre. I would have thought the management at the theatre would not be a supporter of this kind of thing, especially when some of them were standing right outside the front doors.

Recently, I was approached by a slouching, sorrowful-looking lad about 40 who very submissively asked: "Uh...excuse me, uh, sir, but...um"

Well, knowing what he was going to ask, and the fact that I had no money at all, I said "Sorry, man. Got no change."

His attitude changed instantly. He stood up, got a mean look on his face and said "Yeah? Well, FUCK YOU man!"

I just kept walking, quite suprised by this outburst. This guy was seriously angry that I didn't cough up any change.

The way I see it, panhandling is like sales: A numbers game. The more people you ask, the more chances you have to collect a couple bucks.

I'm not sure what to attribute this increase in spare change hunter-gatherers. The cold weather? Poor economy? High cost of living in Vancouver?

What is the solution for this kind of thing? We can't outlaw panhandling, certainly, but how can we cut down on it?
I think we need to ask: What are they panhandling for? Food? Shelter? Drugs? Or just money for the sake of having the cash?

What do we do if we find the answer? More drop-in centers? More halfway houses?

I guess there are more important things to worry about these days.

At least we're better than New York. For now.

Sunny Day!

What an incredible day it was here in Vancouver! The sun was shining, the sky was beautiful blue, and the day was pretty great!

I have no idea why I'm in such a good mood...I just found out that my teeth need some serious dental work. Sure, I knew that already...but in generalities. Not the specifics that I got out of the endodontist today.

Why and I so happy though? Must be the denial.

The evils of a faulty OS

In the last 4 months, I have had to install Windows 4 times because of one screwup or another. This time, it's because Win2000 Pro locks up approximately every 45 minutes. Just freezes the screen and waits patiently for me to hit the reset button.

Evil.

Now I have to copy all my files to another drive, delete what's on this one, format the drive and reinstall Windows. Except this time, I'm rolling back to Win 98. It was just mildly more stable than Win 2000 proved to be.

But what KILLS me about the whole thing is that I have to reinstall all of those programs again. I have to log in to all of those websites again, I have to set all my preferences again. Crap! It might seem insignificant, but imagine if someone stole your computer right now. No planning, no warning, just *poof* and it's gone.

It ends up taking weeks to get everything going again because you forget that you didn't install this app or that plug-in.

What a freaking hassle. I should create a site that saves all your preferences, passwords, application settings, fonts, cookies, bookmarks...everything. I could call it recover.net or something.

What do you think?

Dry Spell

Haven't posted in a while. Sorry. I'll have more to say tomorrow.

19 Million Dollars

This week's lottery is up to 19 million bucks and, as happens every large lottery, I think about what it would be like to win a mountain of cash that big.

Sometimes I think of those old Richie Rich comics I used to have when I was 8 or 9. He had swimming pools of money, fountains of coins, and dogs with gold and diamond collars. It made money seems like something tangible, like wood, water or concrete. There wasn't a lot of discussion of economy or world monetary funds.

It's interesting to think about what money actually is: A guarantee. That $10 in your pocket (new or old, older, even older, older still or ancient) is really just a guarantee that the Government of Canada will guarantee the bearer the amount printed on the face of the bill.

In what? More bills?

Well, originally, Canada (like England) was on the 'silver standard', which means that the bills were exchangeable for the equivalent amount in Silver. Hence the English currency was called 'Pounds Sterling'. The currency even had a strip of silver in it for the longest time.

The American system (called the Gold Standard) was similar in that it promised that your dollars were equal to the equivalent amount in gold. WHen the economy started to overtake the US gold reserves, they had to come up with another way to ensure that the money they were printing would be

Like the US and England, Canada went of the precious metal standard some years ago, creating an interesting situation.


An interesting article: These two economists are famous for their views.

High Tech Roller Coaster

Reading Sam's blog today about looking for work in a depressed marketplace. Bummer.

Then I was over at flamingseagull.com reading about
Marlas and the many decisions she's trying to make.

Of course, I mentioned that Derek was let go yesterday.

Chris was let go a little while ago too, and he's still looking around.

So many people that I know are out there looking for work right now, the web design market is just a brutal place to be. Sam said it: "...those companies that are not laying people off.. are not hiring.. they are frozen in fear!"

There's a lot of talented people pounding the pavement out there these days. I just wish I could hire some of them.