June 27th, 2008 by Romelda
Last night I was watching the Food Network, periodically while channel surfing through my “favourite channels” on the remote. The show “Unwrapped” was on and the focus of the show in that episode happened to be all things “grape.” Now, I don’t watch this show on a regular basis by any means, but I have often stumbled on it, and found it interesting to watch how some of the common things Americans (and Canadians too) eat, or how historical treats they still produce today are manufactured. Some of their “trivia” is quite interesting as well. Mundane tidbits like how many pounds of grapes Americans consume per capita on an annual basis. (The answer is 8 lbs/person/year). Who’d have thought Americans like grapes THAT much?
So the show highlighted grape candy, called “grapeheads” and several other grape confections, but then they started talking about apples. Yes, apples – apples that taste like grapes. What the heck (I didn’t think the word heck exactly)? I thought “who thought up this idea and more importantly, why exactly?” The product is called “Grãpples” and they “make” them in Wenatchee, Washington, USA.
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June 18th, 2008 by Romelda
I was listening to the radio this morning and caught some of the news. Now I normally don’t listen to radio. This morning was an exception because I was in a car (thanks to my mother being in the city). The news was reporting on a new system/technology developed somewhere overseas I believe, (I can’t remember where – that’s not what left an impression on me), that can scan the face, and, using muscle structure, response times and other factors can determine if the person is too fatigued or impaired to drive a vehicle. “Brilliant idea,” I thought to myself! They then began discussing the possible implementation of such technology for drivers of TTC vehicles in the future. Again, I thought to myself, “brilliant idea!” (Note: You might need to know that when I am not driving a borrowed vehicle, I do ride the TTC and experience the TTC, and its drivers firsthand.)
Just as I thought: “brilliant idea,” the reporter went on to talk about how the Union objected to the introduction of such technology saying that it would infringe upon an employee’s privacy. (my shortened summary of his words – but that was the gist if the comments.)
Scanning a person’s face to ensure they are capable of performing their job to the utmost safety level thereby ensuring the safety of all their passengers, is an infringement on their personal privacy? “What, did I hear that right?”
I couldn’t figure out how that computed for the Union. What are they worried about when it comes to personal privacy? And how does THEIR right to privacy OVERRIDE the RIGHT TO SAFETY of millions of riders everyday?
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June 10th, 2008 by Romelda
I have two dogs, one Miniature Schnauzer, named Fynnegan and the other is what we believe to be a Tibetan Spaniel – her name is Impulse. In just about every way she resembles her name. She was actually an impulse-buy at Christmas time about 8 years ago now. Hence her name.
She has lived up to her name and does indeed have an impulsive personality and often surprises me with the things she does.
She is fairly independent for the most part – much like a cat – we often call her “kitty” which she actually responds to, along with all her other nicknames, imps, pulse, pulserama, pulser and of course pretty girl, princess, Queen of Sheba, oh and of course Alpha dog! She thinks in our house, she is the Alpha dog – and we have let her think that (so it is our fault she can be so demanding at times). Her least favourite nickname is Impulse Morson; when I use her full name she knows she’s in big trouble. She isn’t much of a lap dog, unless she is jumping on you to give you the ball to throw again and again and again (as long as you have an arm with which to throw the ball, she will continue to jump into and out of your lap) At night she tends to hang out at the foot of the bed, but when she really wants to get a good night’s sleep she heads off to her crate and stretches out, wanting her beauty rest undisturbed.
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