Author Archives: Stuart Hartley

Panic at the Register

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Panic buying is becoming more common as of late, we all remember the beginning of the pandemic where toilet paper, and hand sanitizer were the items to buy way too much of. Now with the recent natural disaster in the Lower Mainland cutting off roads and causing huge flooding. We are once again experiencing the phenomenon of panic buying. So it is worth understanding what causes panic buying and why it is really a weird phenomenon.

Panic buying is a weird thing, we can all agree on that. So why does it happen, well it is a response to anxiety and fear of the unknown. This fear and anxiety of the unknown is very prevalent when something massive happens such as the recent flooding. We are all scared as to what this means for us, but what definitely won’t help is panicking. Having a moment during the day where you feel scared is fine, but running out there to suck up all the gas you can is not a healthy way of coping. What seems to be the most healthy response is to buy maybe a little more, an extra bit of milk, another carton of eggs or just a little more of something. 

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/panic-buying/

So what can you do to help yourself when it comes to a situation where panic buying might start to happen. Step one is don’t panic, understand that things aren’t exactly cheery, but that doesn’t mean Mad Max is right around the corner either. Think about what you need, a little bit more is the real takeaway, stocking up for the apocalypse is silly. If you feel panicked and that you need to prepare for the end, take as long as you need and reflect on what you are feeling and how the world is not about to end. Having a healthy mindset is the best way to stop yourself from panic buying, as for other people? Send them this article, it might help.

Wrapped Up in New Music

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With Spotify wrapped has just happened and a lot of people now know just how many times they’ve listened to the same songs and albums. Nothing wrong with enjoying some great songs from an artist that you love to listen to. However, something interesting to do is to try and find music that you haven’t listened to before. Finding new music by new artists is a great thing as you get such a wider library to listen to.

When it comes to finding new music I find it great to look at some of the copyright free libraries as new artists put their music into these libraries giving up the copyright so that they can get exposure. This is obviously far from perfect as exposure doesn’t pay the bills, but this is just my working assumption as I don’t know if money is involved in these agreements. Nevertheless searching these libraries is a great way to find new music, for example Sub Urban hit Cradles was put into the Non copyright sounds library and it rose to an easy favorite making the top 20 most popular of NCS. This success has led to Sub Urban having over 4 million subscribers on YouTube and has made him a very popular artist. All of this is from his one hit of Cradles, plus a ton of work for him to make such good music and to not be a one hit wonder.

This is just one example of some of the music out there that you or I have never heard. Listening to new music by new artists can sometimes be challenging and you don’t find anything you like at first but then you might find some gems that really make you love them . I love to find new music and new sounds as it is like trying a new food, you might not love it but who knows maybe your favorite is out there waiting for you to stumble upon their hit. You won’t love it all but some of it will be out of this world.

Get a Christmas Tree

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The debate has raged on for years now on whether it is better to get a tree that is made of tree or to get a tree that is  made of plastic. This debate is much like the one around whether Die Hard is a movie, not even just a Christmas movie. Get a real tree not a plastic one, plastic is worse for the environment and this isn’t even up for debate really as getting a real tree is simply better as trees regrow and there are a lot of Christmas trees. When it comes to weighing the ups and downs of the two well that has been done to death.

https://carolinafraserfir.com/real-vs-plastic-trees/  

Here are some of the cons to a fake tree: toxic, nonrenewable, and non-recyclable. A real Christmas tree is something that is biodegradable, clean as they aren’t made of plastic, and they are renewable as when a Christmas tree is harvested 2-3 seedlings are planted in its place. To dive more into the negatives associated with a plastic tree, the Toxic aspect is in the manufacturing process as the plastic trees are made of PVC vinyl which causes toxic fumes during the manufacturing process. Emissions like this are never a good thing so one more hit to the forever tree. The non-recyclable nature of these trees makes them great for being thrown into a landfill which doesn’t really do anything as you are just moving the problem. The list of cons go on the more you dig.

The conclusion to come to here is that a real tree is a better alternative to a fake tree as you can also get a real tree locally and so you will be able to support local business while you are getting festive this holiday season. Getting a tree is easy as there are plenty of local growers here in the lower mainland, and really all over the province. So get a real tree this year.

Where is my Wage?

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There has been a lot of talk about a labour shortage, it is especially talked about in the US as they have a more drastic display of this problem. What the labour shortage narrative says is that people don’t want to do menial jobs. This is how they paint the issue as a worker issue, and that it is on the workers to fix this not the employers. A classic example of passing the buck, however to play on words employers are not passing any bucks over that they don’t have to. 

The almighty dollar or buck, this is the real issue. The problem is not that people don’t want to do the work but rather they don’t want to live to work, they want to work so they can go and do things they enjoy. The reality of people not wanting to take these jobs is that there is nothing in it for them, people are not getting paid enough for their work. This is huge in the US where an employee’s wage gets spent in ridiculous health insurance costs, inflated rent, and on you know things that people need to live like food. In Canada the situation is just a little different as we replace ridiculous health insurance with crazier rent prices. 

So what can be done?

Employers, especially corporate ones, can cut down on profits and start to pay people a livable wage. When it comes to Canada we have already done one of the solutions, granted it was for a short while. CERB. 

https://www.ubiworks.ca/blog/wage-shortage-not-labour-shortage

CERB is universal basic income, that is what it was there to do, it was during a time where work wasn’t available but the idea is a sound one. It doesn’t decrease people wanting to work, what it does is force employers to compete with it. Setting a base rate of what my time is worth. As well as it would be important for us in the future to change the idea that working is all there is to life. Maybe there is more, anyways I’ll get off my soapbox.

Halted Holidays

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This coming holiday season for some people getting back to see family is going to be very challenging. We already face the worry that comes with the current pandemic but now for the people in the Vancouver area we are faced with the reality that we can’t drive out of here. The only way to the rest of the province is through the US and thanks to quick action border officials will allow exemptions to the Covid-19 rules on a case by case basis. 

B.C. floods: Border officials to allow exemptions to COVID-19 rules on a case-by-case basis

This leaves many who have family outside of the lower mainland out of luck. With the current highway situation the only reliable way out of the Vancouver area is through the air, on a plane. This may leave some of us phoning in our holiday visits, as being there in person may be too hard. Although some travelers may be set on making the visit no matter what, for them the option is to extend their drive significantly through the US border and back up into BC. This detour can make the drive from Vancouver to lets say Kamloops go from a six hour drive to a much longer journey. 

For some this may be worth it to get to see the folks again, but I believe that for most air travel will become the best way to get to visit family for the holidays. When it comes the planning to get a ticket home it might be challenging to book one now but nevertheless it would be worth it to get back home to visit. 

To wrap things up it is important to get to see loved ones this holiday season if not by road, then by plane and if not that then by phone. Just make it a long phone call as I am sure that a lot has happened for everyone.

Water Those Almonds

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To grow one almond it takes over a gallon of water. Take a 4 litre milk jug, fill it with water, now take an almond and realize that a lot of water is needed to grow Almonds. So this begs the question why buy Almonds if they take so much water and to make it even worse they are grown in California which does not have a ton of water to go around. The word drought has been on the tip of everyone’s parched tongue. So this still leaves us with the lovely notion of Almonds taking up a ton of water. In fact, here is a fun little diagram.

Who else is about to lose it if you see another water-saving tip that doesn't address this? Pacific Institute released "…

Posted by Truth or Drought on Saturday, 31 January 2015

Wow what a graphic.

Anyways from that we can come to understand that we use a lot of water no matter what we are doing. Almonds are just one part of the equation, granted what equation has a drupaceous nut in it.  Over the years there has been on and off fuss about the amount of water that Almonds take, some people wanted Hipsters to lay off the Almond milk.

Lay Off the Almond Milk, You Ignorant Hipsters

And others want to call this alternative milk shaming article author a media spokesman for big Dairy. As always the answer is somewhere in the middle is Almond milk pure Almonds, packed to the brim with nuts, no. It is a milk alternative. The argument being made against these Almond hating Dairy spies is made by some very intense vegans, who will never miss an opportunity to say that someone “exploits and slaughters animals”, they sound fun. I am not being anti vegan by calling these people intense, in my opinion to each their own diet. 

To finish, there is no conspiracy by big Dairy to sell you more Almond milk, and Almonds aren’t the end of water as we know it. If you need this milky alternative go for it, if Almonds aren’t your style then that’s fine. Just have something that you enjoy, this article is just here to get rid of some of the ambiguity.

Are You a Human Book?

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In our world we meet so many people and the people that we meet have so many stories to tell. We aren’t all constantly listening to people’s stories, we are commuting, working together, or just passing by. No matter what everyone has had a lifetime of experiences and each one of us has  a unique view on life and a unique situation. So what if you could listen to people’s stories that you may have never heard but always wondered about. Curiosity is a powerful thing and The Human Library is working to tell people’s stories.

https://humanlibrary.org/

What is a Human Library? It is a library where instead of getting books, you get to hear people’s stories. The stories that are told are neither positive nor negative but what they are doing is defying stereotypes. The stories that they highlight on their website are stories told from the perspective of the person, an alcoholic, someone who has ADHD, a person with autism, and more powerful stories. These people are called Human Books, and they tell you about what their perspective is on their situation. The Human Libraries tagline is unjudge someone, we may think we know what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes but to hear it from their perspective can change minds and destroy stereotypes.

Another thing that the human library is looking to do is to have safe discussions between their books and the readers. They also want to be able to create a place where difficult questions can be asked. The ultimate goal is to unjudge someone and to challenge people’s stereotypes about others. The Human Library was started in Denmark and has partners in more than 70 countries across the world. Next time you see someone in a situation and think about judging them maybe take a step back and realize that you don’t know their story.

A Trivial Pursuit

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Did you know that dolphins have larger brains than humans. Hmm, isn’t this an interesting fact? A nice pointless thing to tell someone else, spreading these fun facts far and wide. I am a sucker for trivia, fun facts and little tidbits that I can tell people. Something interesting to throw into a conversation. Now this isn’t to say that I know a lot of trivia, I am rather bad at trivia games. I love them nonetheless, and there are some local trivia spots here in Burnaby and by extension the lower mainland.

When it comes to trivia there is a lot out there. From the classic introduction of Jeopardy, which is specialized trivia that is not well known. The contestants on Jeopardy take their trivia very seriously, they train for it and getting onto a show is a big deal even if it is just once it can really mean a lot to these trivia pursuers. Most of us are not that interested in trivia to try and pursue it full time but we do have a natural curiosity to these quite interesting things. These quite interesting things are very small to very earth shattering.

That was QI, a British panel show that is all based around quite interesting facts. This is another part to learning trivia and fun facts. Although once again for most of us getting on TV is nearly impossible. So how can we enjoy trivia? Well trivia nights, either hosted at home by you and your friends or hosted by someone else. I personally get my trivia fix at the Smarty Pints Trivia Night at the Grand Villa Casino. I get together with the team of misfits and we get to losing, that night of trivia. Getting into trivia is easy, so look local and if you really want to get into it there are plenty of good places to start.

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Christmas Lights, too Much, too Many, too Soon?

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Tis the season for everyone to get out their old rickety ladder and struggle to put up the Christmas lights. Just like last year when you struggled then, and swore to buy a new ladder. Well this year won’t be any different as many people are now decorating this is to say that like all the years previous it is time for bc hydro to tell us about how much energy we are using with these displays.

Bc hydro brings up a good point as all of these lights can really use a lot of electricity. Bc hydro is letting us all know that when it comes to what type of lights we should be putting up we should be focusing on the LEDs’ as they are by far the best for efficiency. In their 2018 report on Grinch to Griswold they mention that when you compare incandescent, with LEDs’ the difference in one of their examples was that the incandescent would have cost 14.10$ to power whereas the same configuration with LEDs would have just costed 0.18$. That is a huge difference when it comes to efficiency. This means that when it comes to what type of lights you should be putting up LEDs are the right answer even if you have to invest in a new set of lights the power efficiency is unmatched.

https://www.bchydro.com/content/dam/BCHydro/customer-portal/documents/news-and-features/report-grinch-to-griswold-trend-toward-bigger-holiday-displays-increasing-electricity-use.pdf

Some people think that the displays are getting to be too much, and too early. We are in the middle of November and the retail stores think that Christmas is tomorrow so we may as well start putting up some lights, maybe don’t go all out just yet. Also it is important to remember that when you are getting ready to put up your decorations that you do it safely. BC Hydro’s Grinch to Griswold has a list of things to do to make sure that you are safe this holiday season.

○Stay three meters away from power lines when putting up decorations outdoors.

○Use a fiberglass or aluminum ladder when hanging lights outdoors and check it for defects before using. 

○Inspect electrical decorations for damage before use—cracked or damage sockets or bare wires can cause an electrical shock or start a fire.

○Protect cords from damage—avoid them being pinched by furniture, placed under rugs or near a heat source and do not overload electrical outlets. 

○Never connect more than three strands of incandescent lights – this can not only blow a fuse, but is also a fire risk. 

○Turn off and unplug all decorations before going to sleep or leaving the house (or use a timer so they turn off automatically). 

○Mashed potatoes on the stove or apple pie in the oven? Stay in the kitchen while they are cooking. Unattended cooking equipment is a leading cause of house fires. 

○ Use battery-operated candles rather than the real thing.

Stay safe this season.

How to Improv Speaking Skills

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When it comes to weird things to do and to enjoy, Improv theatre is something that is fun for everyone. You might not be too sure as to what it is that I am talking about? So here is an example of what I mean by improv comedy and what great improv comedians do.

That was Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles in a game called “Greatest Hits” where the two of them have to sell the audience CDs based on an audience suggestion. So for example the audience could suggest “Tax Lawyers” and then the two performers would have to talk about these great CDs with songs all about tax lawyers. It could then cut to the two other performers who would then have to sing and perform these non-existent tax lawyer songs, right off the top of their head. Ryan and Colin have been doing improv forever and so they make it look so easy but when you are starting off it isn’t easy but it is definitely fun.

Locally we have some improv places, the main one that I know of is the Improv Centre. Improv doesn’t have to be practiced in any special place. It can be in your living room with some friends, just reading the games off your phone and giving them a shot. Improv is something that I love doing, I started when I was sixteen and it is one of the best tools for working on conversation, public speaking, creativity, and so much more. It can really help you to see just how fast you can come up with crazy things that you never thought you would think of. It doesn’t have to be funny, all it has to be is authentic and fun for you. That is why people love improv is that it is always a good time, because you have control over what you do in the game.