I blogged on this subject recently, but thought it worth revisiting as new material keeps coming up. I spoke to a twenty•something the other day, who worked in a call centre of one of our large communications companies. I was shocked to hear of what went on in those concrete cages around which ambulances hovered
Declining Corporate Skills – part 2 Read More »
I recently read an article by respected journalist and author Thomas L Friedman in which he advocates that the incoming Secretary of State break all the rules of diplomacy, leverage social networks and go direct to the people of foreign states, and have them agitate for change over the heads of their leaders. At first
Go to the People? Tom, are you kidding? Read More »
I tried to recall life without social media. Wasn’t it just a few years ago when I walked around without a portable device strapped to my waist, a device willing to announce my every grunt, burp and fart to the external world, if I only let it? Without social media, my concentration would improve, that
Trying to imagine life without social media Read More »
I’m guessing it was around 2008, when the financial meltdown crushed many corporations that a subtle shift in social skills exhibited in the workplace began to take place. When the survivors were tasked with “doing more with less,” to an intolerable degree, the little courtesies, the “nice to have’s” as they are termed, were the
Declining Social Skills in the Corporate World Read More »
When I read the recent headline in our national newspaper announcing that Canada was opening a website where prospective employers and skilled foreign workers could date each other, one side of me was heartened and the other side petrified. I was heartened, because when I came to this country a quarter century ago under the
Dating Game for Wannabe Skilled Immigrants Read More »
This will possibly be my one and only post for December. I have been in a pensive mood of late, observing the world as writers normally do, trying to understand its subtext: another mass shooting down south, a man•made fiscal cliff looming with both sides being intransigent, an old calendar ending without the predicted ending
Year-end Miscellany Read More »
I overheard these two guys, Jim and Sam, talking on the subway. Jim: You’ve been on this social media kick for some time now. Is it working for you? Sam: Sure is, man. I’d be resenting talking to you right now if my iPad was getting a signal in this tunnel. Jim: I know, “Google
Lessons on Social Media From Two Guys on the Subway Read More »
I was trolling through the stories I have had published in various anthologies and magazines over the years and they are starting to amount to an untidy pile. More importantly, what do I make of them? After publication, and after an initial reading, they lie forgotten in boxes and bookshelves in readers’ houses, perhaps never
Lest They Be Forgotten Read More »
I was elated when young Justin took the podium recently and announced his candidacy for Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. At last, new hope, a new face, and no baggage other than for a marquee name (with perhaps some old baggage). Now, let the young people try to make some sense of this
Just-in-time Trudeau Read More »
A fellow writer asked me what it would take to write the next literary novel. I searched through my notes, gathered after wondering for many years in literary wastelands, and came up with these Ten Commandments (caveat emptor: I take no responsibility for the success or failure of your novel): 1) Do away with plot.
How to write the next literary novel Read More »