Jack Campbell

I was watching the end of The Family Man the other night.  Nick Cage plays jack Campbell is this wonderful "what's important in life" story.  The next morning I overhear that Jack Campbell had a great game as goalie for the US junior hockey team.

The Drake Hotel

My brother and sister-in-law will be arriving for Christmas in a few days and we're going out for dinner and drinks.  So I'm thinking about West Queen West, with a stop at The Drake Hotel for drinks later in the evening.  Today, with no direct connection, The Drake Hotel added me as a contact on Flickr.  They follow the Toronto group so that's probably where they found me, but still, too much of a coincidence.

DJ Hero

My son got DJ Hero for the 13th birthday gift last week.  A few nights after his birthday I was winding up the day channel surfing and I picked up the DJ Hero box to review the game features.  Just as I did that, the DJ Hero commercial appears on TV (and I'd never seen it before).

Gladwell goes Private

I'm really enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's new collection of articles - What the Dog Saw.  The article I was reading today discusses the invention of The Pill and more interesting the mistake the inventor made.  In true Gladwell big brain thinking style, the article delves deep into related fields, in this case, cancer.  He also talks about the circular design of The Pill's case and it's significance.


I pop downstairs in the evening and catch a few minutes of one of my wife's favourite TV shows - Private Practice.  There's a scene where one of the doctor's slyly hands the familiar looking, circular Pill case to a Jewish lady for medical and perhaps contraceptive reasons.


Haven't thought about The Pill for a long time and there it is "popping out" twice in one day. 

Sweet child of mine - not

My son started to learn Sweet Child of Mine on the guitar tonight.  His friends picked it for their talent show song slated for the Spring.  Unfortunately, I've always disliked the song, but it wasn't so bad with his guitar teacher singing.

I get in the car to head to my ultimate game and the track CFRB 1010 use as an intro to the next segment after the commercial is Sweet Child of Mine.

My daughter's school is having an 80's charity night as well tonight.  My wife had quite the outfit and hair, I preferred to sweat it out on the ultimate field rather than the dance floor.

Rush and Massey Hall

A good friend of mine enthusiastically recommended the movie I Love You Man a little while ago and I got around to watching it last night - really funny. In the movie, the two lead guys hit it off when they discover they are both huge hands of Rush. Great to see one of Canada's classic rock bands feature so prominently in a Hollywood movie ! I'm a fan too and have seen them play a couple of times. So today, I take my burrito lunch over to the free TIFF (film festival) tent set up at Yonge Dundas Square and there's a few short movies playing, including an interview with Geddy Lee from Rush talking about Massey Hall. Now I come to think of it, I'd just seen a beautiful shot of Massey Hall (one block South of the square) just yesterday on BlogTO.

Thinking of you

I ran out for a very late lunch break today and while passing through Atrium on Bay, my good friend DA popped into my head as he works in the building and I hadn't seen him for a long time. I run back across the street to return to the office and I get a tap on the shoulder and there's DA. We had a nice catch-up and promised to get together soon. The power of thinking of friends.

My Mom's crazed namesake

I was rather shocked to see my Mom's name (under a picture of a smirky 43 year old Wisconsin woman) on the front page of the Metro today. My Mom's namesake had been involved in a bizarre lover's quadrangle resulting in a rather humiliating outburst of female revenge on their lover. Come to think of it, my cousin shares my Mom's name and is much closer in age and looks to the crazy lady ! A rather unsettling coincidence.

The Shepherd's Song

We were talking about jazz tonight and Dad was remembering going to to see "trad Jazz" in Britain in the early 60's. Dad got one of his favourites out and played us some Acker Bilk. We then bounced around music genres for a long time and I then played one of my favourites of the day - Pete Doherty. So as Pete's singing, I pick up the Acky Bilk CD and I'm scanning the song titles and just as I'm reading the title of track - The Shepherd's Song, Pete sings "as simple as The Shepherd's Song". Wow.

Joe

I had to do a double-take on the latest comment on my Flickr pictures...the name of the person providing the comment (also from Toronto) was almost the same as my next door neighbour. The best coincidence is that the second picture in his photostream is of a baby (born July 4th) and our neighbour brought home his new son yesterday (born July 3rd).

Branded golf shirt

Without really thinking about it, I donned a bright green golf shirt this morning for work. I got it a while back from a charity golf tournament. The logo is simply the company name and not really recognizable outside the financial industry. It has a few snags and a splattering of chalky dog medicine from this morning, but it does the job.

This morning I'm going through my flagged inbox items, seeing if there was a follow up I'd missed or needed to try again. So I give this guy a call and finally reach him and get some updates. As we're talking I realize, hey, I'm wearing a shirt with this guy's company name on it !

So, I have a few logo'd shirts, not surprisingly some overlap with companies I do business with. However, to pick this day to call this one person (which I hadn't tried in quite a few months and only ever talked to once in about the last 5 years), the same day I pick the shirt (and a have a few different shirts), well that's a pretty interesting coincidence. Maybe wearing it and subconsciously seeing the logo made me seek out that old email ?

Sidenote - this financial services company recently purchased a software company, my contact was actually at their offices this morning. Without going through stacks of old business cards, I'm pretty sure the acquired company was one I'd targeted for a new job a long while ago ! Small world.

Role Models

I was in the waiting room of my physiotherapist's office and a father and son walked in from the elevator and the son was wearing a t-shirt with Role Model written on it. I couldn't see the logo or a clue to the inner meaning, but fair enough, maybe this kid really is a role model, say for other students at his school. Anyway, I was enjoying reading a novel called No Time for Goodbye as I'm waiting for my appointment, and a few pages after I see the kid, I read "I'm not the best role model". Which is rather an understatement coming from this criminal character in the book. Just as I'm writing this I remember a clever mass email I got around to reading today from my brother-in-law in Manitoba. It was entitled Who is your Role Model ? It goes something like this...

Each of us is the result of the influence of many people. However some individuals have played a significant role in our development, They are often called "role models" that we consciously or unconsciously imitate. Perhaps you know who that person is, or perhaps you don't. The world renowned Sir Trevoir Rigelsworth, Ph.D, has given us a simple way to determine our role model. It is easy and only takes a minute and it may surprise you.

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL???*

Be sure not to peek! You don't want to skew your answer.
Try this - it's really neat ..
Don't look at the answers:

1) Pick your favourite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3 then

3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the Calculator....)

4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number....

5) Add the digits together


Now Scroll down ..............



With that number, see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Mother Teresa
4. Randubius Raji
5. Bill Gates
6. Johann Von Stueckenberg
7. Brad Pitt
8. Babe Ruth
9. PJMixer
10. Barack Obama

I haven't done the math, but the simple logic is there somewhere, but these games are still a fun.

Loyalty ?

My wife was blogging and ranting about customer loyalty today (Bell vs Rogers). I stopped in at World's Biggest Bookstore (not sure if it truly is, but it is the closest bog book store to my office, and it is big and has a great selection) after work and the first book that caught my attention was Loyalty Management.

Coincidence versus Fate

Woman who missed Flight 447 is killed in car crash

Unfortunate coincidences

We hear about car crashes all the time when we're dialed in to traffic reports, and over our lifetimes we are all involved in at least one car accident (I've had three I believe). But sometimes we forget how dangerous driving can really be.

This week, I talked with a customer who I hadn't heard of for a few weeks. It turns out he was involved in a serious accident with his family on the 401 and is suffering from back and neck pain. Today, I learned that the family of a work colleague in Ottawa were involved in a serious car accident yesterday and his daughter is in the hospital. My thoughts are with them.

I once heard that the car, most times, our comfortable and loyal "friend", can turn into your worst enemy in a blink of eye when things go wrong. Please drive safely, for yourself and fellow travelers on the road.

Lightening strikes twice

I was having a great little drawing session with my daughter after work today and out of the miscellany of items we were drawing I asked if she knew how to draw lightening bolts. Then on Twitter shortly after I follow a link to art work on my sister-in-law's Flickr page - whatja know - lightening !

The Bike

I decided to ride my bike to work yesterday. Get the heart going (especially for the up hill return), be green, save $5 subway fare, all good. I haven't done this for years and probably only ever done it a couple of times. As it happens blogTO posted Sustainable Commuting: the Bicycle the same morning. I really like the soundtrack to the video, anyone got a helmet cam I can borrow for the next ride. BTW, I didn't walk my bike up my 25 stories.

UNICEF

I watched the Champion's League final this afternoon. Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0. Barcelona have an unusual "sponsor" of UNICEF. I actually did a little googling and was pleased to see that Barcelona actually donate a minimum 1.5M euro per year to UNICEF. A nice story in times of greedy sports teams and players ! Anyway, on the dining room table there's a tax receipt from UNICEF. I didn't know my wife donated any money to UNICEF and today was the first time I saw the paperwork. No biggy, but nice.

Kooper

We are about to get our first dog. We saw him this past weekend and we should be able to bring him home next month when he's about 8 weeks old. When our plans were solidifying last month, my daughter came up with the name Kooper. She liked the name from perhaps a past memory and it kind of went with kanga and roo (our puppy is an Australian Shepherd). It turns out that the puppy's mother's name is the same as my daughter's and she had previously had a puppy called Cooper.

I did a quick google on Kooper yesterday, just to see if anything weird popped up. Nothing really, a musician and a photographer etc. Then when I was browsing in Indigo after work yesterday I glanced at a book featured on one of the aisle displays - Blood Sins by Kay Hooper. I just went to her web site and what do you know - she's a dog lover and there's a picture of a dog on the site that looks pretty close to an Australian Shepherd.

Rosy and Grey

The other night my wife and I were talking about letting our friends know about possibly seeing a local band We Are The Take. The Next (random) song on iTunes starts and it's our friend's favourite (all time) track by The Lowest of the Low called Rosy and Grey.

Incredibles

The other evening my son was enthusiastic about The Incredibles, one of my favourite Pixar movies. When my wife is looking at Indigo.com a little later in the evening, there's a special Pixar ad on the landing page and Mr. Incredible is part of the graphic.

First Post - Pakistan and Journalists

I got around to watching A Mighty Heart last night, the true story of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Really well made, riveting actually, Jolie was barely recognizable and her acting was superb. Although the plot with its myriad of foreign named characters was very hard to follow, it didn't take away from the key messages and emotions of the movie.

Anyway, getting to the coincidence. I record The Hour every night and it usually takes me a while to catch up but I don't really have any rhyme or reason on which one I watch first. I had previewed a few intros and I do recall glimpsing something about dangerous jobs, and maybe I did hear "journalist" but I think I filed it away*. I've been watching a few this week and chose to watch another before going to bed after the movie. The first one I clicked on was from May 13th and it included a fascinating interview with Terry Gould, a journalist who's been working in some of the most dangerous places in the world.

I just finished a book and have been considering what to read next. My wife who is part of at least 2 book clubs recommended Three Cups of Tea. I knew a little about the story, but wasn't certain about the geography. I started it when I went up to bed. The story is set in Pakistan and is written by Greg Mortenson and journalist, David Oliver Relin. In the introduction, Relin talks about journalists being drawn into his [Mortenson's] orbit.

Perhaps just a common thread or only coincidence ?

*clue into one way coincidence happens
you observe something, but it doesn't sit in true memory,
but rests somewhere behind a curtain
and then is only revealed
when it connects to something else you observe at a later time