I have been reading a lot of material lately from people who are preparing their 2012 business plans. I realize that it's important to have a plan and define my goals. If you don't have a roadmap, how will i know where I'm going blah blah blah etc. etc. It has occured to me that 2012 is going to be a shorter year since the world is going to end on December 21st (according to the Mayans anyway - and Mayans have never been known to be wrong). This means that the last 10 days of 2012 will be a free for all. Not a lot of work is going to get done. Despite the fact that the year is going to be 2.73% shorter than usual I have decided to shoot for the moon and actually aim for a higher year in production than 2011. I know that you probably think I'm nuts for doing this, but I firmly believe th... 12/15/2011

Am I the only person who has become tired of the phrase thinking outside the box? Every time I hear someone say this phrase I want to let out a scream. It's becoming too bloody crowded outside of that box. Apparently all of us have fled the box and we are roaming around outside of the box. It's probably pretty warm and cosy inside the box. It seems very strange to me that people who would like to express something original would use a hackneyed and overly familiar phrase to do so. In a lot of cases I suspect that people who do use this phrase are not capable of "thinking outside of the box", because if they were, they wouldn't be employing a worn-out cliche to express themselves. I would be quite happy if I never have to hear or read this expression again. It's definitely time for a new... 12/12/2011

Spam was first introduced to the world in 1937 by the Hormel Food Corporation. I was surprised to discover that Spam is an American invention, it looks unappealing enough to have been a British culinary creation. The name "Spam" is derived from Shoulder Pork Ham. 2007 was a big year for Spam as the 7 billionth can was sold. That is a lot of Spam. About as much as I receive in my junk mail folder in an average week. Austin, Minnesota is known as Spamtown, as most of the Spam consumed in North America, South America and Australia is produced there. Spam that is consumed in Europe is produced in Denmark. Sadly enough, there is a Spam museum in Austin. Spam is very popular in Hawaii and Guam. Both  McDonald's and Burger King have Spam on their menus at these two places. Spam has been called... 12/09/2011

Black Friday is over.Whether you like it or not, the Christmas season is now underway. I feel that it's a bit early, but it's not something that I can fight anyway, so I might as well just join the crowd. This will be my 46th Christmas, and I must admit that I'm getting a little bored with the music. I have been listening to the same carols and songs for years now. So have you. If the Christmas season wasn't so long, perhaps I wouldn't be fed up of hearing them, but frankly I feel that I have heard them so often that they have lost just about all meaning. I repeat the words by rote now.This year I have decided to shake things up a little, re-energise myself in the Christmas music department by finding some new material to listen to. I'm sick and tired of "jingle bells", "silent night" e... 11/26/2011

The annual Santa Claus Parade in Trenton will be taking place this upcoming Sunday. It's one of those events that are especially important in smaller communities. There is usually a fabulous turn out in Trenton every year no matter what the weather is like. It's not just kids who look forward to this event, adults are quite happy to attend as well. It gives us an opportunity to see people who we don't see all the time and to say hello. It's fun to see the town transformed for a couple of hours and to see people milling about in a good mood. There's always lots of hot chocolate and candies for the kids. If you are particular about getting a good spot, then it's advisable to show up a little early to secure your place. The parade route does get a little crowded. Century 21 has a float in ... 11/22/2011

I don't know for sure, but you probably get a lot of emails. I know I do. Most of them I just delete without reading. When I fire up the old laptop every morning I dread logging into my email simply because of the sheer volume of correspondence I get. It seems that I'm subscribed to the newsletters of every real estate organization on the continent. I also get the usual solicitations to buy viagra, bid on cheap Chinese manufactured goods, purchase real estate related trinkets, join linking networks and buy domains and build websites. God forbid I should have posted anything witty on Twitter the previous day. Some days I just feel inundated with things to read. Some days I will have more than 200 emails in my in box. The emails I despise the most are the ones that are simply entitled "Re... 11/17/2011

It's almost the middle of November and these silly geese have decided not to go south this year. I have noticed that more and more geese decide to stick around for the winter each passing year. This may come as a relief to many people south of the border who feel that Canada Geese are a huge nuisance. I can sympathize. They are a noisy crew, they can get a little belligerent and they leave their droppings all over the place. On the positive side though, they are strangely graceful animals and I admit to having a soft spot for them. Perhaps this is a sign of global warming or perhaps it's easier for them to find food up here than it used to be in the winter. I really didn't notice as many geese flying south this year as I usually do. Hopefully they know something that we don't and that w... 11/13/2011

I had the pleasure of eating at Captain George's Fish and Chips in Trenton the other day. It just opened its doors a month or so ago, so I was anxious to go in and see what it was like for myself. I knew there was a Captain George's Fish and Chips in Brighton, and I had assumed that it was the only one and that it was now expanding into Trenton, but I was wrong. Apparently there are over 20 locations all over southern Ontario. You can check the map to see if there's one near you. They seem to be a growing chain. If the restaurant in the picture looks vaguely like a Tim Hortons, it's because they moved into the old Tim Hortons building right across from Fraser Park Marina. Great location, right next to the water - perfect for a fish and chips restaurant. I hope they have the patio open i... 11/12/2011

Trenton is a very logical place for this proposed memorial site. The repatriation of the bodies of the men and women who have sacrificed everything starts here at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. The stretch of highway between Trenton and Toronto is now called "the Highway of Heroes" because this is the route the motorcade takes to transport them to the coroner's office in Toronto. Thousands of people line up along the way every single time to pay their respects. Their final journey starts right here in Trenton, and this is why Trenton is the logical choice for this memorial. So far we have repatriated 155 soldiers, and I truly hope that there will be no more. However, should there be, I know that the people of Trenton will once again line up along the highway no matter what the weather i... 11/11/2011

I'm a bit of a news junkie, so I'm constantly reading the news. One of my biggest observations in the several decades that I've been doing this is that some people are truly messed up. Perhaps this doesn't come as a surprise to you. I like to think that I'm a fairly well rounded holistic thinker, and that I try to understand the full story, not just the little snippet of the story that the press reports. People's motivations and environment have to be taken into account to gain a fuller understanding of the situation. Sometimes it's not possible to comprehend what goes on inside people's brains even if all the information is laid down in front of you. I came across this article in the National Post. The photographs are reason enough to check it out. A 45 year old man in Nizhny Novgorod,... 11/08/2011

Yesterday the Rick Hansen 25th anniversary Relay rolled through Trenton. I was very lucky, I didn't plan on being there, I just happened to be stepping out of the Skyline restaurant after having lunch when the commotion started. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rick Hansen, he rode his wheelchair on a world tour 25 years ago in his Man in Motion tour, raising awareness and funds to make the world more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities.  In 792 days he spanned the circumference of the earth riding through 34 countries on 4 continents. It was an amazing achievement. This year, he started another tour, this time across Canada, and this time 7000 Canadians will participate. I will be absolutely honest, I had heard about it and seen snippets on the news, but it ha... 11/02/2011

Sometimes simple things can make a huge difference in the lives of other people, and oftentimes it doesn't have to be too complicated. I got a huge kick out of the following video, mostly because I am a supporter of The Partick Thistle Football Club, but also because it demonstrates that we don't have to rely on huge organizations to make changes. I can only imagine the delight that the girls and boys in Ghana would have experienced when they got their own real football strips. It's all too easy to take a lot of things for granted in North America. I think my dad will get a kick out of this video as well (although the music might be a little annoying). 10/29/2011

Seeing N.H.L. players in Trenton isn't really all that big of a deal, there are a few players (past and present) who are from the Quinte area. Seeing an entire N.H.L. team, however, is a huge deal.Thousands of enthusiastic spectators turned out to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs practice at the C.F.B. Trenton arena. I didn't get a chance to get there myself, but the town was buzzing about this event. There is nothing bigger in small town Canada than hockey, and in this area the Toronto Maple Leafs ARE hockey (to the discerning fan anyway).The Leafs are off to a good start this year, and now that they have come to Trenton and spent some time here, I see nothing preventing them from absorbing some of our winning ways and winning the Stanley Cup next spring. 10/13/2011

This is some very exciting news for the people of Trenton. The Toronto Maple Leafs will be coming to Trenton from October 10th to the 12th. They are going to be holding three open practices at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in the RCAF Flyers arena. Positioned between the three NHL cities of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, it would be fair to say that Trenton is a town with very divided NHL loyalties, and I would hazard a guess and say that it's a pretty even three way split. Now this isn't to say that two-thirds of the population aren't too bright and are fairweather glory-chasing hockey fans, it just makes the point that it takes a special sort of person to follow the Maple Leafs year in and year out, and frankly most people do not have that kind of intestinal fortitude. I'm sure the aren... 10/06/2011

Many people in Ontario love the Fall season. The air is cooler and crisper, the leaves are now a multitude of colours, there's all kinds of Fall fairs around the province to entertain us, the kids are getting excited for Halloween, Tim Horton's unveils their line of pumpkin donuts and related products, and there are less tourists wandering around the waterfront areas. I'm not one of those people. I have never liked pumpkins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin flavoured coffee, or anything having to do with pumpkins. At best, pumpkins are a mediocre fruit. I actually do enjoy a variety of squash (squashes, squashi??), pumpkins not being one of them. Of all the gourd-like squash, pumpkins are my least favourite. Pesonality-wise, pumpkins are gaudy and crass. Fall fairs. They are a consol... 09/30/2011

I recently had to stop working with some clients. I don't want to sound casual or flippant about this, it wasn't a decision I made lightly, but I had had enough. They were a very nice couple, but they had completely lost focus, and I sensed that perhaps they might be better served by working with another agent. They just had started taking up way too much of my time and we didn't seem to be getting any closer to finding them anything. It all started simply enough. They were looking for a specific type of house in a specific area. As we viewed all the homes that matched their criteria (easy enough, they didn't seem too picky) I began to notice a lack of enthusiasm on their part. They had no urgency to make a decision. Soon after getting back to the office I'd recieve an email from them. ... 09/23/2011

I have always liked roundabouts, they seem to allow traffic to flow a little faster, and you're not stuck waiting at an unnecessary red light in the middle of the night struggling with the temptation to drive through it. Roundabouts are far more common in the U.K., but lately I have seen a few being built in and around the Toronto area. Here in the Quinte region, Picton has two of them. They are quick and easy once people get used to them. Initially they will cause a bit of confusion to the uninitiated who might be a little hesitant when they first encounter one, but really there's nothing to worry about. Just look to the left, and if the coast is clear, just go go go. Remember to exit on the correct road though, otherwise you'll have to turn around and do it all over again. The road ar... 09/19/2011

Sometimes solutions to problems can be amazingly simple. I sometimes believe that we in the western world are hardwired to look for more complicated methods to solve problems we may have.The following video will show you an example of something that will leave you saying "why didn't I think of that?". Many people in developing nations live in dimly lit buildings with corrugated metal roofs. Imagine all the light that can be brought into their lives and all the 2 litre pop (soda for you Yankees) bottles that can be kept out of landfills. I think this simple idea is a winner on many levels. 09/16/2011

The following weekend will be one of the big signature weekends in Trenton. Every year Trenton puts on the Scottish Irish festival in September. I do enjoy the festival, there's something about the sound of bagpipes that I love. The festival has been an ongoing tradition since 1990, and it features Highland Games competitions, marching bands, pipes and drums, Irish dancers, and lots of people milling around and watching the events. There's also a lot of vendors selling all kinds of Scottish and Irish things. Personally, I'm going to fill up on a few meat pies and some Scottish tablet. There will be people there selling maps and tartan ties and sweaters and things of that nature. It's fun to come out for a few hours and watch the events. The featured entertainment this year will be Poor ... 09/06/2011

Every blogger knows the importance of being visible on the internet. This is why most of us blog in the first place. One of the reasons why we blog regularly is to provide links to our websites. Links are a very important part of our SEO (Search Engine Optimization - as if you didn't already know that) strategy. One of the criteria that the search engines use to determine which sites are going to rate highly is to check the number of inbound links to the site. Sites with a large number of inbound links are considered "authority" sites, and as such, rank well. There are other criteria that the search engines also use, such as the age of the domain, how many pages your site has, the consistency of fresh content (another reason why blogging is important), and traffic to your site among oth... 09/04/2011