They hounded the Premier of Ontario, but he also brushed off a reporter and hustled into a building…

Personally, I am not surprised by this report. I’ve been to Ottawa many times over the last 20-25 years; my ex-wife and much of her family were from there, as was my late stepfather.

In January 2008 I began a series of about a ½ dozen business trips, one every month or so, to the National Capital Region and usually stayed in hotels in the Downtown, or Byward Market area. The Byward Market is a charming 3-4 square block neighbourhood which, by day is a nice selection of multicultural restaurants and farmer market type stands. It’s next to one of the largest shopping centre’s in the Ottawa metropolitan area; the Rideau Centre Shopping Centre.

Now being a Montrealer, I like to explore a city’s nightlife and evening culture – we have a massive choice of cafés, lounges, showbars and nightclubs in Montreal – around the market.

A few of the times I stayed in hotels (including the Econolodge and Marriott Courtyard Inn) near the Byward Market. Those are both nice hotels; granted the Econo Lodge Downtown at 475 Rideau street is pretty much no-frills motor inn more than hotel with rooms straight onto an inside parking lot that is directly onto Rideau street across from a 7-11 and in the vicinity of churches, residential homes and … well a little pic of the Econolodge :



What struck me most the first time was the number of vagrants, obviously mentally ill homeless people, drug users, congregating around the many missions and shelters in that area. It struck me as so “un-Ottawa like” which has always had a relatively pristine reputation of being a clean, if stoic, family town.

The name of the CTV W-Five episode is Capital Shame and was originally aired this spring I believe… and one revealing quote:

“One of my officers who emailed — I think at 1:54 in the morning,” recalls Police Chief Vernon White. “He said that’s he’s done, he doesn’t know what to do anymore after he drove around for a couple of hours with a prostitute who said she wanted help and he could not get her help and dropped her off at the same corner. I mean, I’ll tell you the frustration in that email — I think is what you hear in our officer’s voices everyday.”

I mentioned nothing to my business colleagues while I was there (doing IT training and coaching sessions)… but by the third trip I jokingly mentioned that I was staying in a neighbourhood that seemed “err” a bit “ghetto ish”…

I got quiet understanding nods of agreement, and people telling me that Ottawa (especially the downtown area near the market) has built up a critical problem.

Taxi drivers, with whom I enjoy exchanging the “real deal” with whenever I travel, confirmed that pretty much every night, 50% or more of people on the streets after 9pm were in some sort of serious trouble (mental, physical health, homeless, male/female prostitutes, drug addicted, or all of the above)….

This is obviously not ALL what Ottawa is about, but it’s more than a tragic reality that literally overruns the area around the Market. I have never seen such a high density of depraved and desperate souls in Montreal in the 32+ years I’ve lived around here.

I think the only Canadian city that may compare is Vancouver in certain spots?

But this is in the capital of our great country – less than 1-2 blocks from the Parliament Buildings?

Please, let’s not let Ottawa become Washington, D.C. …

See the entire CTV W-Five episode Capital Shame online (about 20 minutes playing time)

Always in their casual yet tenacious style, the B-boys want to remind all eligible US voters to get out there and exercise their right. To back it up, they’ve announced a “voter awareness tour” called Get out and Vote ‘08 which kicks off in several so-called swing (critical) states including the following shows which were just announced:

October 28 Richmond, VA at Richmond Coliseum
Beastie Boys along with Sheryl Crow / Jack Johnson / Norah Jones / Santogold
(wow what a line-up)

Nov 1 St. Paul, MN at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Tenacious D
(another nice trio of top level artists)

Nov 2 Milwaukee, WI in the U.S. Cellular Arena
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Crosby & Nash / Tenacious D
Again C&N with B-Boys ? Wonder if they’ll do an on-stage mashup ?

I love how Adam, Mike and Adam finished off with “we are very excited about obama. hope you all feel the same.”

Here’s the full PR:

From: Beastie Boys [mailto:BeastieBoys@artistnews.capitolmusic.com]
Sent: October 10, 2008 8:07 AM
To: majumdar@rtm.net
Subject: GET OUT AND VOTE ‘08 TOUR

my fellow americans,

we are going to do a few shows in hopes that we can remind people to vote. this election is too important, too much is at stake to stay at home. we hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote. if they have early voting in your state then ask people to vote early, lets get everyone we can out there on election day.

we are very excited about obama. hope you all feel the same.
see you shortly,
adam, mike and adam

BEASTIE BOYS & FRIENDS ANNOUNCE SWING STATE VOTER AWARENESS TOUR
Selected Dates in Battleground States

Beastie Boys have confirmed selected dates through the crucial swing states of the upcoming election. Joining the band in various markets will be Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Crosby & Nash, Santogold, Tenacious D, and special guests, as well as representatives from the Rock The Vote, who will be on hand to distribute information on local polling sites, including early voting locations where available.

The first three shows to be announced are:
Oct 28 Richmond, VA - Richmond Coliseum
Beastie Boys/Sheryl Crow/Jack Johnson/Norah Jones/Santogold

Nov 1 St. Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium
Beastie Boys/Ben Harper/Tenacious D

Nov 2 Milwaukee, WI - U.S. Cellular Arena
Beastie Boys/Ben Harper/Crosby & Nash/Tenacious D

Off to continue reading Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins…

The top legislators in Alaska have approved the release of a report that finds Sarah Palin guilty / responsible for the unjust firing of Walter Monegan who was the Public Safety Commissioner in Alaska - essentially the highest ranking law enforcement position.

Apparently, the firing resulted from Mr. Monegan refusing to fire an Alaskan State Trooper (Mike Wooten) who was going through a bitter divorce and custody battle.

Supposedly, the Palins (Sarah and her husband Todd) put intense pressure on Commissioner Monegan to fire Wooten…

The McCain campaign had released its own 21 page report on the incident which concluded

“It is tragic that a false story hatched by a blogger over drinks with Trooper Wooten led the legislature to allocate over $100,000 of public money to be spent in what has become a politically-driven investigation”

Can we say smear campaign..

The sad thing in all this is that it is the (real) family that really suffers…

Info and source: BBC News about Sarah Palin

So for anyone who’s noticed, I installed a little widget on the right side of the site that shows my most recent twits on Twitter. Twitter is basically a microblogging platforum for quick messages up to 140 characters (no tags, titles, formatting, etc.), easily used from multiple devices in multiple locations (usually mobile, but it’s becoming hugely popular in the general desktop Web as well.) I’ll write more in my tech blog.

You can also grab an RSS feed for my Twitter updates.

Usually rush hour on a Friday morning in the Greater Montreal Area isn’t so bad, but I’ll be setting my alarm for 6am nonetheless.

I get to eat breakfast (yay) …

Hopefully this time I will actually get to the OR on surgery day (in less than 2 weeks!) and not be bypassed for more serious vascular surgery cases (ie… cardiovascular emergencies!)

Stay tuned for the most in-depth photo blog on varicose vein surgery you have ever seen on the net

OK, enough with the jokes about how everyone is sexy and fit and charming (and works for the police) … I know only one such police officer (and I DJed at his wedding :P) …..

But I really liked Gary Dourdan as the blue eyed black african-american mulatto cool dude with passion and style on the show.

According to most reports his departure from the show was “mutually acceptable”…..

It was a great premier episode in finding out who killed him :)….

So, CSI and CSI:NY are still in my top 10 fiction TV shows…. along with The Unit (which has been shuffled to Sunday nights at 10pm boooooo)

Nonetheless, I’ll be looking into his report on kids separated from their parents following the parents’ separation and how the system tends to prefer alienation (willing, unwilling, but systemic) of the father.

It’s not a new issue, but I’m wondering about what his approach was…. in comparison about societal (judicial) jurisprudence in the matter (i.e. Canada’s Family Law on parental alienation…)

I was actually tempted to buy the Dunn’s smoked meat package (huge of course, probably about 2KG).. and now there are reports that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning consumers not to use the individual smoked meat packages sold at Costco.

These are the 1KG packages separated into 6 pouches each weighing 175g.

The UPC code is 4 00007 55699 7 and the expiry dates range between November 1 and November 8, 2008.

They’re reported to be sold in Costco Wholesale outlets in Quebec - but also in Ottawa and the Maritimes…

Interestingly enough on a side note, the product is not really made by Dunn’s directly, but apparently under license by a firm called Les Salaisons Desco Inc located in Boisbriand, Quebec.

A few official links about this:

Official CFIA Recall Information about the Dunn’s / Salaisons Desco recall

Les Salaisons Desco: this is mysteriously mysterious. A quick scan of several online research tools seems to preclude any obvious website for this company but some other info:

They are SERVICE ALIMENTAIRE DESCO INC. at 97 Boulevard Prevost, in Boisbriand, Quebec with a postal code of J7G 3A1 and phone number (450) 437-7182…

They also seem to have numbered company as 9027-8672 Québec Inc. and Les aliments Q’Rico…

None of this is unusual as foodservice provider entities are generally low profile.

Now, I have the urge for a medium smoked meat at Schwartz!

Lesley was just at an IT event (mainly marketing stuff, not really technical) *but*…. went up when her name was called during drawings and….

John Lennon on the box… and on the rear…. 16GB iPod Touch. Yes, a 16GB 2nd generation iPod touch mp3 (and video, of course) player ….. OK, not sure it it’s black or white but regardless… pretty seriously nice prize booty/swag, considering it’s $280 US + taxes at BestBuy and about $329 in Canada….

The irony is that we were both at the Apple Store on St. Catherine street near Crescent (impressive typical glass and minimalist store) admiring the iPhones, Mac AIR, and in particular she was checking out the iPod Nanos (pouah! nano schmano)….

Amazing prize, but sigh…. I’m happy with my HTC Touch device (ok, I don’t even have a 4GB storage card for it yet, and nothing beats the touch interface of Apple iPods or iPhones… so now sour grapes from me. :)

(For the uninitiated, Nurburgring is a race track that is also officially part of the Autobahn (highway) network in Germany and is used by most manufacturers to test the limits of their new performance cars. It’s undeniably one of the most challenging and lengthy courses in the world.)

Who would have thought doing a motorcycle like stoppie in 4000+ lb car? Nice brakes. German, of course.

I did one of those high speed investigative bits on Yahoo!, Ask, Live and Google and found out it’s Mi Ne Sushi at 7315 St Jacques Street and she had a large Maki combo of 12 pieces (2” in diameter!), a Miso soup and small salad for $10.11 taxes included. Sounds like a real steal considering the quality.

Now I’m itching to try it out myself.

This Google map showing the address of Mine Sushi is interactive (i.e. drag it, zoom it, etc..)

View Larger Map

Obligatory tech comment: the Mi Ne Sushi website is decidedly Web 0.5 with (!) frames…. but alas, it has the requisite information including a scan of their menu!…

Yesterday I wrote about Scott Pelley of CBS 60 Minutes doing a pretty fascinating interview with “Dalton Fury” a Delta Force commander who lead a team of 40-50 elite Delta Force commandos to attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks.

Of course, the interview was partially in support of the new book Kill Bin Laden : A Delta Force Commanders Account of the Hunt for the Worlds Most Wanted Man which was released today… it seems like it would be an interesting read.

$18.24 on Amazon.ca

All those sites also have the book in other formats (such as Audio CDs, etc.)

So off we went into the heart of (ahem) downtown Varennes… just past the Mikes Restaurant on the 132 / boulevard Marie-Victorin one finds Restaurant Azie in a small strip mall. See the map below for details:

The exact coordinates are 2444 boulevard René-Gaultier, Varennes, QC J3X 1X7 and their phone number is 450-929-3222.

View Larger Map
The restaurant is next to a now-closed International Video Club rental place, a Valentine greasy spoon and (brand new, extremely clean) Pharmaprix store.

At first I saw the prices - $16-22… I thought, hum, that’s not that cheap! But then I saw that that was for a 4 course meal including soup, salad or spring roll, main course, and dessert - nice price.

So we went in, and within 5 minutes there were about 20 other people who filed in and pretty filled the small resto to capacity.

The waiter (who was also cashier and server and maitre’d ) brought us menus and cold lemon water promptly. The water glass was never empty for too long, something I always appreciate, but more so when I’m nursing a nasty flu / cold / throat infection.

Lesley went for the Miso Soup, Spring Roll and General Tao Chicken while I chose the same but with Canard à l’orange.

The wait between services was just a bit long at times, but in general service was excellent. The General Tao chicken is devoid of the usual drenched in sauce presentation (which some people actually prefer) although I thought it could have been somewhat hotter to be truly genuine General Tao.

My *very* generous plate of Orange Duck with a beautiful mix of mixed fresh vegetables perfectly steamed in the center was excellent.

We both finished all on our plates and had to skip dessert (fried bananas, pineapple or ice cream) because of an appointment.

Bathrooms are very clean and nice, and I almost got stuck because the handle on the inside was loose (yikes)…

I would definitely go back – and I’m not alone!

One side note that I normally discuss in my tech site: because the official website for Restaurant Azie in Varennes seems to be done entirely done in Flash… it’s almost impossible to find their site on the search engines. Just a note to their web design company A bit of link love here should help

I was just watching a pretty fascinating story on 60 minutes with the commander of the Delta Force unit (about 50 top commandos) sent into the hills of Afghanistan via Tora Bora to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden. They had heavily disguised the Delta Force commander, who has just written a book about the mission under the pseudonym Dalton Fury, and had first time video of the mission, which was to approach the 14,000 foot summits in the Afghan mountains where Bin Laden was suspected to be holed up.

Previous strategies to approach by surprise from the top side of the 14K mountains and another one to litter the path through the mountains with air-dropped landmines by unknown sources higher up, either in Central Command or even higher (i.e. POTUS)…

Anyhow, they engaged the service of local Afghan militia men (ranging in age , according to the Delta Force Commander Fury from 14 to 80 and dressed in the usual garb…) … but these militia would leave at night!

So at one point, Dalton’s team of 50 men learns from CIA intelligence that Bin Laden is some 2KM (2000 meters) ahead of them. However they are only 50 in the Delta Force, no Afghan militia with them and the CIA intel reported that Bin Laden was protected by about 1000 hardened fighters.

Ultimately they decided not to play cowboy and go forward with just 50 men, and Dalton Fury (the Delta Force commander) regrets it to this day as he mentions in his book as he feels he somehow let down the American people by losing that chance at getting Bin Laden…

So, the interview is 2/3 of the way through the usual 15-20 minute duration and suddenly POOF… it switches to The Amazing Race. Obviously, our local simulcast broadcaster (CTV?) for CBS decided that The Amazing Race was a better show than 60 minutes.

Grrrrr.

I had learned not to care. I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though.

Guess who that quote is attributed to in a just-released book…

The team went on to win gold in the World Championship in Marlborough, MA as well as gold in the World Sledge Hockey Challenge held in Kelowna, BC.

It covers the usual locker room coaching and rallying the players, but it’s even more touching when you realize these people have to overcome both the physical and emotional demons that come with living with a serious disability and going on to practice a sport.

For those who don’t know, sledge hockey is the sport that is a variation on standard ice hockey, but allows for disabled players to participate on an even playing field. They sit on a small butt-sized platform under which there is the skate and form which a support extends forward to keep their legs and feet. They play in what could be called a sitting position on the ice skates and have appropriately shorter sticks to do the puck handling.

From the scenes showing their medal performance (and game ejection penalty of one of their key players) suffice it to say that these guys have serious sports talent and it includes checking and the whole bit.

I definitely have to find a copy of this show to watch (at least highlights of) with Tristan, who is no doubt a seriously motivated athlete but also has those moments where he is easily frustrated be it with himself, the game, or his teammates….

Ça pourra être pas mal pire.

I wonder if you can get the flu vaccine if you’re already sick. I know from previous years that it makes you feel slightly flu-like for 2-3 days afterwards…. which is supposedly normal, since they are in essence injecting you with a variant of the influenza virus itself (what the &&@*&??) …

Anyhow, I suppose the nurse on Monday will be the one who decides… hopefully I’ll be better off and not so feverish by then. Having cold fingertips is a weird sensation.

Well, the current promotion to see Anthony Robbins for 50% the second ticket ends on October 10th. This deal lets you buy the second ticket at 50% when you buy the 1st one at regular price. Considering that the event is already almost sold out (no more VIP tickets available) this is a pretty good deal.

Some people have asked me if there will be an even better promotion… I doubt it. Considering that Tony will be in Vancouver on October 17, the people who wait until the last minute will have to pay the full price (if it doesn’t completely sell out by then.)

As for the Orlando show, there may be more discounts…. but … for now, the 50% is a sure thing.

Now, back to nursing my fever in bed (with laptop hehe) … I’m trying to decide in which city I’d rather see Tony Robbins; Vancouver or Orlando… hmm.

Alas, c’est la vie. The irony is that I’m getting the work-sponsered flu vaccine once again this year in just 7 days.

oh, and a date for my vascular surgery!

Woohoo! ZachaWii !