The Brave New World Of Unemployment

Back in the bad old days, finding new employment seemed to revolve around scouring the want ads in the daily newspapers, visiting the Canada Employment Centre or Unemployment office and asking one’s friends, neighbours and associates for job leads.
That’s all changed today.

For one it’s Employment Insurance not Unemployment Insurance. Now we can debate the meaning of this expression along with the foul line semantics in baseball.

And we have the Internet with its job search sites, government websites and all of the self-help information you can shake a stick at for resume writing Cover letters and if you’re lucky all the tips for a successful interview.

But it’s not all roses in this brave new electronic world. While some job applications allow applicants to simply email their resume and cover letter, more and more of the employment big boys make you jump through some complicated hoops in order to apply for a newly advertised position.

First you have to sign up, log-in create a user name and password and remember those elements for future use/perusal. Then you need to upload your bits (resume, cover letter, head shots, etc). Then fill in all of the same information in their somewhat easy to fill-in-the-blanks.

Welcome to Redundancy City!

So with these streamlined systems, all of that effort to create a stylised resume is lost in the one text file fits all format these mega job sites require, which defeats the advise those job hunting books are dishing out.

Well the battle continues and tomorrow’s another job hunting day.

Wish me luck!!

A Bicyclist's Dilemma

Over the past month, bicyclists have been under attack from all sides for their at times immature, insensitive and selfish actions while riding their bikes.

This latest attack began with the injury of a pedestrian crossing on a Toronto city crosswalk by a careless bike rider going the wrong way on a one-way street. With this single action all people riding bikes have been tarred with the same brush, vilified for all the ills on our city streets right up to but not including the cause of the ongoing city deficit. The Toronto Sun, The News Of The World for Toronto The (not-so) Good, even printed a headline "Axels Of Evil" on the cover of their print edition the following day.

It is obvious to anyone observing most activities by bicyclists that they don't generally adhere to the rules of the road. Some believe it's a simple case of ignorance and that licensing all bike users will solve the problem. Toronto council person, Denzil Minnan-Wong stated (and here I paraphrase) "We have licenses for cars and boats, bicycles are machines they should be licensed." Later he stated that the licensing process would force bike riders to take a test on proper road safety and will follow those rules.

Minnan-Wong's logic is a bit specious. All car drivers should be licensed and many of those users of the road fail to follow proper rules of the road. Also, should we then license lawn-mower users, weed-eaters, golf carts, electric table saws, jacuzzis... those electric vehicles people with mobility issues use (they may be licensed anyway??) but you get the point. Isn't this just adding another level of bureaucracy to an administration striving to cut government not increase it.

There's a dilemma that occurred to me today, if all of those car drivers want us bike riders to obey the rules of road (without always having to do it themselves), what happens when our activities just cause them delays. Here's an example:

Eglinton Ave. east of Yonge Street has signs restricting the use of the right (inside) lane to buses and taxis between the hours of 9am to 4pm. This doesn't include bikes. So to follow the proper rules of the road, bicycles should ride on the far right edge of the left lane (centre lane) during this period. The problem is drivers, ignorant of the road signs, easily become irritated by all bikes (because we don't follow the rules), honk at me by following the strict rules of the road.

What am I to do?

Oscar's Best 'Unoriginal' Songs

With the 81st Academy Awards being doled out at the end of this month, the politics and backroom deals, the full-page ads in every Hollywood rag for half-deserving performances in major films, the one category that always irks me is the Best Original Song category.

Outside of the Hustle & Flow win by Three 6 Mafia in 2006, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in 2001 and Isaac Hayes' "Them From Shaft" in 1971, the category is a competition for some of the worst songs ever recorded. Here's some the recent winners: Melissa Etheridge's vomit-spewing "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, "Into the West" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003 (I can't even remember this being in the film!) and Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. in 2001. Before that seven Disney animated films won Oscars in 12 years from 88 to 99. Can anyone out hum the melody of any of these songs outside of "Under The Sea"?

Here are a few of the good losers, the title track to That Thing You Do lost to "You Must Love Me" from Evita. Elliott Smiths' "Miss Misery" lost to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Gone On!" in 1997. Jonathan Richman's important contribution to the 1998 film, Something About Mary wasn't even nominated. Here's a list of all of the nominations in this category going back to its introduction in 1934 with "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee.

What would be more interesting is to reward the original and artistic use of previously recorded material. There are many famous songs that have made movie history like Tom Cruise's air guitar romp to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock And Roll" in Risky Business, Otis Day & The Knights' "Shout" in Animal House and Martin Sheen hotel room breakdown to The Doors' "The End" in Apocalypse Now.

One nominee from this years' crop of films includes the use of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" at a key dramatic moment in Milk, the use of Ten Years After's "I’d Love To Change The World" while Downey Jr. et al wander lost through the jungle in Tropic Thunder.

These are only two examples that pop into mind. There are at least five great examples each year.