8 Core Beliefs - Extraordinary Bosses

Every once in a while, I read an article and can only say Amen! This is one of them...

Rox at the Fairmont tonight!

Vancouver singer/songwriter Katie Rox will be playing with her band tonight in Vancouver at the Fairmont Pacific Rim at 9:00 pm! Great music and the best part - it's freeeeee!

Here's a video Katie posted on her website on Thursday, with the song "I Won't":

Championship Rings!

(Note: The picture you see here is courtesy Vancouver Canadians Head Groundskeeper Tom Archibald.)

Vancouver will always be a Canucks/hockey town, but how about those Canadians from the Northwest League?

The 2011 champions handed out championship rings to the players in Dunedin several weeks ago, and earlier this week, it was the stadium staff who received their rings.

From game-day staff to controllers to broadcasters to groundskeepers to team physicians to everybody who was a part of the 2011 staff, everyone was handed a personalized championship ring in a special ceremony this week. (When I say 'personalized,' I mean your name is engraved on the ring!) The picture you see here is what the ring looks like (with this shot taken by Head Groundskeeper Tom Archibald). It looks terrific, and everybody was just thrilled to receive one. Talking to several people during the festivities, I learned that there were those who have been in minor-league baseball for 30 years, those in the industry for 6 years, and so on, and it was their first ever championship ring. It was just fantastic listening to everybody's story about how long they've waited for this moment. T-Mac told me the awesome anecdote about how he and I--and he and I alone--will forever be linked in Canadians' lore! What a terrific story!

When it was my turn to say how I felt about the ring, well, my first response was: "I guess I'll try to be Jeter; try to win a ring every year!"

What an interesting way to use a spreadsheet....

All I can say is: Spreadsheets aren't just for budgets anymore (courtesy this story from abcnews)! Instead of columns for dollars & cents and expense items, it's time to put in phone numbers, email addresses, and even... photos! Yikes!

Also, colour codes aren't just for "expense to avoid," "necessary cost," or "need to eliminate," but rather, "monitor closely" or "monitor casually."

I guess that date on Wednesday was very likely their last one!

"Reverse Outlining" Workshop - June 23rd

If you're in the area, something worthwhile to check out on Saturday, June 23rd... It's the "Reverse Outlining" workshop hosted by Lois Peterson, who's published numerous literary short stories. She's also the author of six children's novels and is a popular storyteller and workshop presenter.

Click here for more information about this workshop - but hurry, because there's a limited number of seats available.

Thanks to Julie Ferguson of "The Beacon Blog for Writers" for sharing the details of this event.

Feature: Singer/Songwriter Kenya Kondo

Here's a vintage video from last year of Edmonton singer/songwriter Kenya Kondo, discussing the release of his album "Wait" (uploaded by Kenya himself on YouTube). He also shares the story of how he got into music, which is just a fantastic story.

Earlier this year, Kenya was kind enough to spend some time to chat with me for a radio program I was doing for CJSF 90.1 FM. You can listen to the interview here. I absolutely enjoy his album "Wait" and look forward to more upcoming albums from him!

You can keep up with Kenya's latest happenings on his website, which is http://www.kenyakondo.com/. He is also on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/KenyaKondo.

Survey says: "That name is inappropriate!"

Well, what do they say in those marketing textbooks again about picking an appropriate brand name?

*Must be short and simple
*Must be easy to spell
*Must not be offensive...

Ah ha! I guess these guys failed the last one.

The World's First Lickable Cookie Elevator??

Is this story even for real? How unsanitary! I'll take the stairs, please...

It sounds like a stupid idea. Who came up with this? Yuck!

Vote for Katie!

Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Katie Rox, a good friend of my program "Smitten by the Written" on CJSF 90.1 FM, needs your help!

Katie is in the CBC Radio 3 competition "Tracks on Tracks: The Ultimate Canadian Rock 'n' Rail Adventure - Top 50 Artists!" She made it into the second round and is in the top 50, but needs your votes for this next round of voting, in order to make it to the next round!

For more information, go to this CBC Radio 3 / Tracks on Tracks page for more details and vote for Katie!

If you have never heard any of Katie's music, here is one of her latest music videos, "Hard to Find," courtesy YouTube:

(PS: According to Katie's website, this music video was filmed in Osaka and Tokyo.)

Coming up: "Lunch Poems @ SFU" series

If you're in the Vancouver, BC area and enjoy poetry, check out the new "Lunch Poems @ SFU" series! The SFU Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver will be hosting lunchtime readings every month featuring well-known as well as up-and-coming poets.

The April "Lunch Poems @ SFU" reading features Wayde Compton and guest poet Rahat Kurd, and will be taking place on Wednesday, April 18th, between noon and 1pm, in the Teck Gallery at Harbour Centre.

The inaugural event of the series in March featured Vancouver's Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau and guest poet Daniela Elza. Apologies for the audio quality, but here are parts one and two of the recording of that event, which I covered for CJSF 90.1 FM.

Also, there is no video footage, but here's a vintage clip of Evelyn Lau discussing narrative point of view for short story and novel writing, courtesy a YouTube video uploaded by OpeningLearningTRU:

Feature: Singer/Songwriter Chris Ronald

Several weeks ago during spring break, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Chris Ronald, who is also a school teacher, was kind enough to spend a few minutes to chat about his life and songwriting.

Here is the interview.

Here is the photo that Chris was referring to during the interview! You can tell he was certainly into music even at a young age!

Chris also performs live in the Vancouver area throughout the year. For more details about his upcoming gigs, click here to find out and be there to listen to his great music*.

Several of his performances will be at The Naam on West 4th, which he described to me off the air as a terrific and cozy place for a night of live music, so don't miss out! All the details, such as dates, locations, and maps, are available on there, so check it out!

*PS: Chris had a gig on Friday, April 13th, the same night as the Canucks' Game Two tilt against the Los Angeles Kings. I wasn't at Chris's gig at Cuppa Joy Coffee House that night, but I'm certain he gave a much better performance than the local hockey team did! :)

Here is also one of the several YouTube videos of him inside the CJSF studio that I was referring to in the interview! This video features the song "Best Place on Earth" from his album "Turning Tides." Terrific stuff by Chris Ronald. Looking forward to his new album coming out in 2013.

Guest Author: Mystery Novelist Frank Say

Today, it's a pleasure to feature Frank Say, author of "Nine Lives." He is currently working on the second book in "The Lake Pontchartrain Mysteries" series (with "Nine Lives" being the first book in that series). Here is some information about Frank, and the story behind how he became a writer:

Frank Say has spent most of his life in South Western Pennsylvania. Some years ago, Frank had a strange but exciting idea for a story and would tell his future wife about his idea on occasion. After hearing the story several times, she finally said, "Well, why don't you do something about it?" With no formal training in journalism or writing and no one else interested in the idea other than him, Frank began compiling an outline. The outline quickly grew into three handwritten marble composition notebooks with scenes, characters and chapters. That was back in 2001.

The name of that story was "Nine Lives" and after completion of that process, Frank came to a wonderful conclusion: He absolutely loved writing!

"Nine Lives" was published in 2008. Not slowing down, Frank began work on his second novel, "The Thirteenth Sign," which will be the second book of the series, "The Lake Pontchartrain Mysteries." Overindulging in late-night horror movies as a child, Frank has a love of all things supernatural and paranormal and that is where you will find his writings.

Recently listed in the 2010 edition of "50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading" produced by The Author's Show, Frank is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and currently lives in South Western Pennsylvania with his wife and cat.

"Nine Lives" is available via Amazon Kindle here.

To keep up with Frank's latest happenings, please visit his website: http://www.franksay.com/. There should be more information coming soon regarding his second book, "The Thirteenth Sign," as well.

Click here for an interview UCW Magazine conducted with Frank recently.

What happened to getting it right?

An interesting story found on Yahoo! News' Daily Brew, about the Bunny/Cop traffic sting. We can presume from the context of the story that it happened during the Easter weekend, but you couldn't tell from the Yahoo! story itself because it wasn't reported. It did mention "9:30 a.m." and the total number of tickets issued, but nowhere did it mention anywhere about when it happened. You don't know for sure unless you click on the original source itself, where it states when it happened.

But why can't the Yahoo! News site get that right?

Then in the story about KFC Thailand, Yahoo! News' Daily Buzz reported that the company used Twitter to post an inappropriate message, whereas other media outlets were reporting that KFC Thailand had used Facebook. Hmm. Yes, I know it's still social media, but don't they check their facts on Yahoo!? Also, multiple sources indicate that the earthquake magnitude was 8.6. Yahoo! News had it as something else.

Whatever happened to getting it right?

Easter Bunny a part of the police operations!

Kudos to the Nanaimo police for recently coming up with a creative way to catch drivers using their cell phones. According to news reports, they were using an Easter Bunny for their traffic sting!

Yeah, apparently, on Good Friday, they had a sergeant dressed up as a giant Easter Bunny and standing at several intersections known for having a lot of accidents. His job was to spot violations and radio ahead to officers waiting down the road! You might think people were upset about the way the police went about it, but apparently, quite a few drivers waved, honked their horns, and even approached the Bunny for photos once they realized it was part of a police undercover assignment!

A pretty creative method for an undercover sting, so kudos to the Nanaimo police for that.

PS - Guess what the "Bunny" got as a reward afterward?

Feature: Toronto composer/guitarist Roger Chong

One of my favourite composers, Toronto's Roger Chong, recently made Tandem Magazine's "Music Feature of the Week." Roger's a terrific person and a wonderful composer, so I'm super happy for him. Check out the interview here!

I already have a copy of his new CD, "Send a Little Love," which is scheduled to be released in May! It's a fantastic CD, and you can check out a few samples here.

Roger was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me earlier this year. It was a big thrill speaking with him as he shared some interesting stories about his life and song titles. Click here for the interview.