I’ve been absolutely loaded up to the gills with work (I’m at 44+ hours this week and it’s only midday Thursday), but I wanted to share with you a video that our marketing team made for Channel 9 that talks about CRM and all the stuff I work on. Pay attention to the Outlook stuff–I own all that!
I’m taking an undeserved break from my Chinese studies here to blog about one of the worse things that can happen to a traveler–disappearing off the face of the earth.
I follow various blogs of people I know in China and this was a message relayed from a friend of his:
Nicole (Vienneau) has gone missing during the final weeks of a trip to Northern Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. She was last heard from at the end of March, and we believe she was in Syria at the time on her way to Turkey.The Canadian embassies in Syria and Turkey, the RCMP and Interpol have been involved in searching for her for the past two weeks.I am sending this to you for two reasons: 1. the story will be in the media today. Since Nicole is a resident of Vancouver, there may be somewhat more media attention there than in Toronto. I wanted you to be aware of this from me before you heard it elsewhere. if anyone has any connections, or knows of anyone who does, with people in Syria and possibly Turkey, we would most appreciate if we could take advantage of contacts there to help in our attempts to track where she has been. Her brother Matthew has set up a blog entry (link below) which has a lot of the details.
Website: http://vienneau.livejournal.com/39588.html
The Live Journal has the up-to-date news, but after 40+ days she still has not been found. Though it comes in varying degrees and is exceedingly rare (remember, the only good news is bad news), disaster is a risk of traveling in interesting places.
The story was also posted on Digg. Not to detract from the main focus of my post here, but I took a few minutes to read the comments and left incredibly disheartened. I always considered the web faring crowd (esp readers of sites like Digg) to be more in touch with the system of the world and its people, but the level of demonstrated maturity in the comments here are an extreme counterpoint. Our generation is the first to be so worldly—our friends are scattered all over the globe, yet it feels that our perspective hasn’t changed from our box. So many of us do not understand or even want to understand the broader world in which we live. People need to see more of the world…whichever part is in their comfort range.
I hope Nicole will be found and applaud her choice in traveling destinations. Some of my readers will think that she was foolish for picking Syria as a place to go, but on the contrary, I commend her for wanting to experience and explore the culture of such a controversial region and country. In every country, there are members of society that will do Bad Things. And at the same time, there are members of society that are filled with warmth, genorosity, and wonder. Guess who are the ones we hear about? Don’t judge the bushel by a few bad apples. I’m sure that Nicole understood these factors perfectly well.
The Middle East is also on my list of travel destinations. A culture, environment, and people I have never really even glimsped—I’d love to go. Even Iraq, where I fully expect that backpackers will be roaming across country within 10-15 years. For a relevant comparison, look at Vietnam–30 years ago we were in a war with them, today it’s a traveler’s haven. Though I don’t plan visiting the Middle East in the near or moderate future, I look forward to the day I go and bring my experiences back to share with all of you.
If you have a moment, please pray for Nicole and her family.
As much as we hear about China sucking down the world’s resources and polluting our world, there are surprisingly some ways where China is ahead of us in environmental attitude.
One such area: light bulbs. You can’t find incandescent light bulbs. I walked into a B&Q, the Chinese equivalent of a Home Depot, and all they sold were fluorescents. Fluorescent lighting produces more light, lasts longer, and consumes far less energy. However, the typical complaint (including my own) is that fluorescent lights produce a harsh blue light that just sucks the warmth out of a room. They’re great for offices and stores, but a real mood-killer at home.
Reddit recently had an article on how fluorescent bulbs have thus far been unsuccessful in the US, but the article also goes on to mention the improvements in the technology to improve the general gripes—especially around warm up time and light color. I still wasn’t totally convinced, but I was at Costco the other day and they had a killer deal on fluorescent floodlamp blubs. $12.39 for a pack of 4, less a $9 rebate, for a grand total that’s less than a buck a bulb. Considering that The Den is filled with recessed floodlamps that tend to be left on (drives me crazy), I figure it was worth a shot. (Hey, it’s Costco, I can always return them.)
I happened to have a burnt bulb in our dining room and swapped in a new bulb as soon as I got home. And I’m impressed…really impressed! The light is pretty much spot on in color as the incandescent next to it. There’s a warm up time, but its equivalent in brightness to the old bulb almost immediately and after it’s warm it’s actually a bit brighter. I’m sold and considering there’s a limit of 6 for the rebate, I’ll be heading back for more.