A Birthday Buss for Canada

Today is Canada’s 143rd birthday. Happy birthday Canada!

I’m a proud Canadian. I love this country.

Canada is a place of small cities and large towns. Even today as a country of 34 million people. We look one another in the eye when we walk down the street, and we’re not afraid to smile in recognition.

It’s a place that allows me, my family, my friends, my neighbors to live the life that we want. It’s a country of peace and tolerance.

I don’t know anyone who owns a gun.

Canada is a country that celebrates diversity. I grew up assuming that people would come to Canada from around the world and they would continue to live and celebrate their unique heritage and culture.

Our Charter of Rights has embedded our freedoms in our Constitution. Thank you Pierre Trudeau.

Thanks to our British heritage, we have a Parliamentary system of government. Not perfect, but perhaps the best system of government. And in Canada we’ve turned minority parliaments into working governments.

We live next door to the United States. I grew up with a front row seat on the great American adventure. Thanks to our access to U.S. media, I shared my American friends’ experiences, their fears, their successes. Like many Canadians, I feel very close to America and Americans. But I’m also conscious of the differences. I like and respect everything that’s great about the U.S. And I always hope that Americans like us. Because, when the elephant rolls over, the mouse…

Here’s to the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. You give us a window on our own experience.

In Canada we have the metric system. And car speedometers that display both miles and kilometres. Because we do love to take vacations in the United States.

Hockey! Our national sport (Well, not quite. It’s officially lacrosse, but who wants to quibble.) And don’t forget the Canadian Football League (they never will in Saskatchewan)

Canadian spelling. Let’s always remember that neighbour has that “U” in it.

Here’s to our weather. Only in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, can I awaken to a sunny July 1 Canada Day morning and discover that the temperature is 12°C. You’ve got to love living in a country where you can get any or all of the four seasons on any day of the year.

Most of all, I love the people of Canada.

I’ve been fortunate that my work has required me to travel extensively. And wherever I go in this great country, I feel welcomed by other Canadians. Friendly, peaceful, happy people.

July 1. Canada Day. A day to count our blessings. A day to celebrate all the things, large and small, that make our country great.

Happy birthday Canada!

Consumer Recommendation: eBook Readers by Sony and Kobo

Knowing that I’ve been using a Sony eBook Reader for the past six months, a friend asked me whether I’m happy with it and would I recommend an eReader for personal use and as a gift.

My answer: An unqualified YES. I’ve become totally enamored of my eBook reader.

For the past six months, I’ve been using the Sony Touch (PRS 600) Reader (on SonyStyle.com; on SonyStyle.ca).  It’s a touch sensitive reader that lets me turn the pages by swiping my finger on the screen. I can also highlight passages by double tapping and sweeping my finger across the text, write notes with a stylus or use the soft keyboard. And I can look up words in a built-in dictionary simply by double tapping on them. All fantastic. But also expensive at $300. And the screen treatment that makes it touch sensitive also dulls (slightly) the e-ink screen.

Oh, and one more thing. At only about 10 oz., the Sony eReader is light enough to hold comfortably for a long reading session. This is a real advantage over the Apple  iPad, which feels like a brick in comparison.

My wife just bought a Kobo eReader – and I’ve decided that this is even more ideal for most people. You download the books by hooking the reader up to a computer – either via USB or Bluetooth (neat). It’s as light as the Sony and, at $149, a great value.

I use the Kobo eBook store to purchase books and download them to both devices. It’s a great experience. Simple to purchase and download books. Kobo’s slogan is “eReading. Anytime. Any place.” And they seem determined to deliver on this promise. You never lose them! Once you’ve purchased the books, they’re always in your online Kobo Library. So, if you break or replace your hardware reader, you can simply download your books to a new reader.

Kobo also has released a reader App for the iPad, so you won’t be forced to use the Apple book app (if you have a dislike for walled gardens.)

One great thing about both the Sony and Kobo eReaders is that they let you magnify the size of the text on the screen. Thanks to Adobe’s ePub software, the words rearrange themselves in an uninterrupted flow on the screen, regardless of whether you use the smallest or the largest font size. I use this feature a lot late at night when my eyes are tired. And I can’t imagine going back to having to squint at small print on a physical book page.

So, Yes, I would wholeheartedly recommend an eReader – and I’d suggest that you take a look at both the Sony and Kobo eReaders. And once you have it, do take a look at the Kobo book store. I use it and I love it.

Right. I'm going to fall for this one.

It’s tax season. And the scam artists are out in full force.

I received this in my email this morning:

Dear Taxpayer,

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of : $112.00
Regarding this, please complete the Refund Form and mail it to one of the addresses from the second page.
>>You will find attached to this email : the English/French version of the form<<
Your *Refund Reference Number is: Ref/12209/2009.
*Refund Amount : 112.00 $.

*(You will need it to fill the form)

NOTE!
For security reasons, remove the form from your computer after printing.

Thank you,
Canada Revenue Agency

Yeah. For sure. Canada Revenue Agency is going to send an email with a generic heading to a “Taxpayer” asking me to complete and return a form. You can be sure I didn’t bother to open the attachments.

SPAM. The nuisance that just won’t go away.

Thanks to you many children's wishes will come true

Every November, friends and family cringe as I engage in the annual Mustaches for Kids campaign. Through Mustaches for Kids, men around the world band together to raise funds for charities such asDonorsChoose.org, the Make-A-Wish FoundationChildren’s Hospital of New Orleans, and San Francisco’s Legal Services for Children.

The local chapter I participate in – Mustaches for Kids Ottawa – raises funds for the Make-a-Wish Foundation – which uses the money to make a sick child’s wish come true.

This year, the mustache-growing men of Ottawa raised over $32,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation. That brings our five year total to $82,000.

Several people noticed my hirsute appearance and contributed as a result. Big thanks to Terry Fallis, Dave Fleet, Guy Skipworth, Eden Spodek and Dave Hicks. Somewhere there is a sick child who feels a bit happier thanks to your generosity.

And thanks to to M4K’s Ottawa organizer Brett Tackaberry for keeping this effort growing for the past five years.

So, for now it’s back to being clean shaven. But don’t worry, I’ll give everyone reason to chuckle at me when I start the whole process over again November 1, 2010.

Turkeys of America, Canada offers you sanctuary

Tom TurkeyIt’s a bad day to be a turkey in the United States. All across the country, turkeys are losing their heads and ending up in roasters.

But, there is a sanctuary for American turkeys. Look north. Look way north – to Canada. Our doors are open to you.

And when you come here, rest in peace knowing that our Thanksgiving is another 11 months away. And even then, you can be sure that we’ll ask permission before we wield the axe.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

🙂

Make a child's wish come true through Mustaches for Kids

Joseph-Thornley-M4K-091120Once again this year, I’m annoying my wife and providing amusement to many others by growing a mustache. And as I hear people chuckling as I pass by, I take comfort in knowing that it’s all for a good cause – helping make the wish of a sick child come true.

Yes, I’m participating again this year in Mustaches for Kids. During the month of November, I join other men in cities and communities across North America in a desperate plea for your attention. And once we have it, we ask you to make a contribution to a most worthwhile cause – the Make a Wish Foundation.

For years, Make a Wish has been bringing a smile to the face of seriously ill children. And I want to help them do this. And you can help too.

How can you help?

Simply go to the Mustaches for Kids site that I’m registered on and make a contribution.

Make your contribution count double

Here’s a bonus. If you indicate on the M4K Website that you’re making your contribution in support of me, I’ll match your contribution. I’m hoping that people will make a total of $1,000 in contributions associated with my ‘stache. I’ll match all the contributions up to that amount.

So, please open your heart and your wallets. Help make a sick child’s wish come true.

@DoctorJones gives a teacher something she can use for life

DavidJones 091017At the most recent Third Tuesday Toronto, MeshMarketing organizer Mark Evans donated a ticket for us to give away to one of the attendees. We decided to offer it to the person who gave us the best tweet about why they wanted the ticket.

And the best tweet came from @DoctorJones:

“Buy a man a mesh ticket, he’ll learn for a day; Give me a ticket and I’ll give it to a prof who can teach social media for life.”

So, we took him up on his offer.

Now, David has followed through and passed the ticket along to Andrea Tavchar, a Professor in the PR program at Humber College.

Good move, David Jones.

TaxiMe.ca takes the guesswork out of taxi fares

Have you ever been at the far end of the city from your home and wondered just how much a taxi ride home would cost you? It’s always nice to know the price of something before we decide to buy it. Taxi rides are one of those things that you can’t really estimate until the meter is running. Until now.

One of people I work with at 76design, Jordan Boesch, came up with the idea for TaxiMe – a Website widget that uses Google maps and the taxi fare rate structure to estimate the cost of a taxi ride from any place to any other place. An elegant idea. A simple idea. A useful idea.

Jordan initially developed the site using thetaxi fares for Ottawa, where the 76design office is. But he also included a straightforward way that anyone can customize it to calculate fares based on the city you live in.

This past week, TaxiMe has become a particularly useful site for people in Ottawa. We’re in the grips of a transit strike. So, many people who usually would take transit are finding they must call a taxi. And TaxiMe lets them figure out how much the trip will cost before they place the call. Neat.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free? Like FriendsRoll and TopLinks and a lot of other Web 2.0 apps, TaxiMe has been developed in the spirit of exploration and the culture of generosity.

Use it and enjoy.

Thank you for helping make a child's dream come true

5 weeks without a shave

5 weeks without a shave

After five weeks of looking increasingly seedy, I’ve completed my Mustaches for Kids fundraising campaign. And readers of this blog and followers of thornley on Twitter contributed $450 for the Make a Wish Foundation. I’ll add my own donation to that amount. So, together, we raised a total of $1,000 to make the wish of a terminally ill child come true.

I continue to be impressed with the generosity of the people I meet through social media. You had no reason to contribute. You could have remained anonymously passive. Yet you chose to contribute to this cause simply because you were asked to do so.

Thank you to the people who contributed to Mustaches for Kids and the Make a Wish Foundation: John Wiseman, Dave Fleet, Parker Mason, Francis Wooby, Michael Seaton, Terry Fallis, Eden Spodek, Shawn McCann, Aimee Deziel, Andrea Clarke, Todd Van Hoosear, David Magil, Angela Kryhul, and Shel Holtz. You’ve earned my respect.

The morning after - clean shaven again