Mountain Equipment Co-op: You ROCK!

Just got back from a visit to MEC.

MEC is the mountain equipment co-op – a store that sells outdoor gear, clothes, rock-climbing equipment, tents, snowshoes, fire-starting kits, etc etc etc.

I’ve been a shareholding member for about 12 years. To buy stuff there you need a membership. THough everyone and their brother’s best friends have them. At the till you tell them your phone number and that’s how they know who you are – from what i saw there were about 15 people with the same phone number as me.

Today i picked up a nice “freeriding” shirt. It’s for biking. Not that i bike, i just really liked the fit and the colour. The shirt also has no logo on it, so it’s nice.

The best part of my visit was going to the cash register and the cashier asking me if i needed a bag.

I quickly thought – “hmmm, this is a granola like store that cares for the environment, i certainly can do without a bag – yeah, i’m a guy who doesn’t need a bag.”

So i said. “No”

And the cashier goes, “Thanks.”

I see on my bill that something says 5 cent donation.

I ask about it.

Every time you don’t get a bag at MEC they donate 5 cents to a cause.

THis month’s cause is a food bank.

I think this is awesome!  First off, not only is MEC looking out for the environment, but they’re rolling the cost of the bag into another great cause.

What i loved most about this: they didn’t tell me about it.  I had no idea they were doing this really cool thing with the 5 cents and bag thing until i got to the register.

That’s great PR.

Compare how another company might have handled that. THey would have spent a lot of money to tell you about their great program where they’re helping people because they care blah blah blah etc etc etc… There’s nothing worse than that kind of giving that has a camera flash going to capture how “philantrophic” a company is.

That’s what makes the MEC example so great and genuine.

They’re not trumpeting the fact they’re doing something really awesome to impress people. They’re just doing it because they believe in it.

That’s the way it should be.

Great work MEC.

Two New marketable faces for the FC

If you haven’t heard, Toronto FC has a coach.
Mo Johnston.

I was more excited that at the press conference there was talk about the team going out and signing some prominent Canadian players.

That’s what I like to hear. Good Canadian players is exactly what we need. Well, almost.

I’m going to go one step further and suggest that Toronto FC exactly needs two guys – who come from a little place which just about 50 minutes north of the city.

I’m talking the corner of Davis Drive and Yonge.
Hangin’ at the Upper Canada Mall food court,
Or having a pint a the Goat on Main street…

Two Newmarket boys who can really play soccer.

First is Canadian national Jim Brennan – who’s been in England playing for Forest, (in the premier league with) Norwich, and then Southhampton.

He can play defence, but I think he’s deadlier as a left-winger in mid.

He’s the guy, if you’ve been following the story, has been linked to Toronto FC next year. They’ll be stronger if they get him.

The second guy plays for the Toronto Lynx.
David Diplacido is a solid playmaking midfielder.

As I’ve been out watching the lynx over the years, David has been one of those players that make things happen and would be a valuable asset to the FC.

So Mo, get on – get both of those Newmie boys. You can’t go wrong.

Thanks for keeping it clean.

The good workers of Toronto who pick up our trash, green bins and recycling every week (or rather in the case of trash and recycling – every other week) don’t get enough cred/shout-outs/props/thanks.

Thanks.

Two weeks ago I arranged for a BBQ to be picked up for recycling – and it was picked up yesterday.

Not a monumentous moment in the history of western civilization I know, but it just got me thinking how they make the city run really really well.

People who clean up after us messy city folk are awesome.

Today the toronto sun had a headline  to the effect of  “Janitors run the schools”.

Having not read the article, I have no problem with that statement.

They keep the schools clean. You ever cleaned up after two or three kids? Now imagine a school. No thanks, you can’t pay those people enough.

Every morning we come into a cleaned office here at work. For that to happen someone comes in late at night and cleans up.

Now most of us here are not as messy as schoolkids with cookie hands, but i can imagine how quickly it would get gross around here without the cleanup.

Same thing with schools. Kids leave the grossest things lying around – like open containers of milk to go sour. Bleck!

So, on a day when they’re facing a negative headline in the sun, i want to say a huge THANK-YOU to the people who keep our city, school, and this little office space i am sitting in – clean.

Free Newspaper? – no thanks.

I just renewed my Toronto Star subscription.

But it got me thinking, now that i’m reading the newspaper in the morning i’ve stopped picking up the free Metro and (i can’t even remember the name of the crappy other one).

A couple of years back they changed the format of the Metro. I’m not sure i noticed THAT much of a difference, but i miss this cartoon.

It was funny. And at times it was really, really dark. Which is exactly the thing that, when you’re a commuter, appeals to you in the morning.

So they upped their crappy Canadian Idol coverage, and dumped the good cartoon – and so i went and started paying for the newspaper.

The Dirk, the dork, and the doctor

August always flys by. It’s sad to see the summer come to an end. One of the ways that it’s noticeable is that my soccer games have earlier start times.
But that got me thinking… soccer games!
The english premiere league starts again!

Liverpool look good again this year. (Though in my mind they look good every year.)
Heck, they’ve already beat Chelsea thanks to the header of the dork, Peter Crouch.

I’m just not a big crouch fan. I seem to have the same conversation about crouch every time his name comes up in soccer conversation. I admit – Yes, he’s got passable skills for a big man, – how could he not? He’s playing in the premiereship – just like NHL players, at some point you have to admit that even the worst professional sports players (like peter crouch and mike craig) are good enough to play SOMEWHERE.
I’d just prefer that somewhere not to be liverpool (in the case of crouch – i’m perfectly fine with mike craig continuing his hockey career in liverpool if that is a possibility)
Who i really want in a liverpool shirt is michael owen.
The doctors say, however, that he’s likely going to miss the entire premiereship season. Bad news for newcastle.

Liverpool do have a new stiker – Dirk Kuyt – who comes by way of Feyenoord. (He’s Dutch, isn’t that weird?)

So putting all this together – another striker means that ‘pool don’t have THAT much faith in Crouch. Good.

Now to get Owen back for next year…

This year’s fun begins saturday.

Sand, Guitar, No Work.

Well, as of right now i’m off on vacation for a week.

Before getting a “job” – back when i was a student – i never realized how little time we have away from our jobs.

So i’m off for a week at a lake, with a guitar, some stuff to BBQ, and a ball for beach soccer. it’s gonna be good.

Helping NYC deal with their heat…

Matt writes and tells me it’s hot in NYC.

Extreme heat goes hand in hand with power outtages. Which sucks for people with air conditioners, freezers, or who like playing gamecube in their boxer shorts.

i heard that NYC had a power outtage this week – here’s three ways they could have avoided it or at least made things better.

a) DON’T SELL YOUR HYDRO TO ONTARIO WHEN YOU NEED IT. Really, i heard ontario bought some hydro power from NYstate the other day when we had record demands. I know we must have given them a good price for them to cut power to NYC to sell that to us – or we bought it before you realized that power was out in Queen’s or wherever. It’s fine, we can get some from our friends in Quebec. They love to share with english canada. right? right?

b) just turn down the lights at times square. I’ve been to new york. once. i went through times square in the daytime and it hurt my eyes. hell, even the police station has a giant neon sign. there are signs upon signs. people in queen’s go without power so people in downtown manhattan can see giant billboards for – i dunno – Talladega Nights or something. just go a few days without the giant lights. who knows, you may see the moon for a change.

c) bit the bullet and convert your temperature to celcius. Yeah everything sounds hot when you say “it’s 104 degrees outside.”
Toronto is damn hot too – the other day (AUgust 1, 2006) we hit 114.62 or 117 fahrenheit when you include the “Humidex” – or how hot it feels. Man those are big numbers. In celcius water boils at 100 degress. We were over boiled on August 1.
But we weren’t.
That’s because it was only 45.9 or 47 decrees Celcius (or centigrade).
Try it.
I put it sort of like how in the old days people would go and watch movies about snow and ice in the middle of summer.
Yeah they weren’t cooler, but they sort of thought they were and that could make all the difference.

oh one more,

d) when you name a town in your state: “Hell’s Kitchen” you’re asking for trouble.

First of all, i’ve worked in a kitchen in the summer. it’s hot in there. never mind that there are walk in freezers – those are just quick visits to grab stuff for chefs. The bulk of the time is spent among ovens and hot pans and (cuz i was a dishpig at the time) cruddy plates that need washing with – you guessed it, scalding hot water.
second, for all i know, and have heard, hell is hot.
Look at any gary larson cartoon. in hell’s cafeteria those plates are HOT!
change the name of hells kitchen to, chill zone or something.
Alberta’s way ahead of this – they’ve got a place called “Cold Lake”
yeah it sounds freezing.
actually, a trip to cold lake doesn’t sound to bad right about now.