I’ve been tagged by Julie Anne Bonner to do this meme for the PETLVR blog .. but, I thought it would be more appropriate to post it on the 1800HART blog.

RULES: You have to post these rules before you give the facts. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

If you didn’t know, I go by two names ..

* HART (1-800-HART) … This is what I want all my blog postings to identify me as the poster. I might use any of my 50 domains as the URL of my name, but I hope that when people see a comment from HART (1-800-HART) they know who HART is, and if I’m lucky .. will find their way back to this 1800HART site. Google shows 20,700 instances of this nickname.

* HARTLEY B SINGER .. that is how I present myself to clients and everywhere else, although ‘Hey You!’ and even ‘Dumbass’ works in case you want to get my attention~ Google only shows 146 instances of this in their searches, mainly because I really don’t want it to be too popular in the searches. Entries like these however, always add up into the search engines whenever I do ultimately mention my real name – so, I can’t help that!

My business name is based on my initials .. HBS Management Consultants .. I am not incorporated, although I do have a corporation and have been thinking about it for a long time now … and practically every venture that I am doing, is a division of HBS Management Consultants. I still feel a little uncomfortable giving out my middle name .. although I’m not using it as any reference or password hint or anything like that – so, I don’t see why I just don’t put my middle name out there.

Here we go:

B – I really don’t like giving out my middle name. When people used to ask me what my middle name was, I used to say .. “B” …. just an initial, with no name – or, as I went to University of Manitoba enrolled in the Batchelor of Commerce program, I would say my middle name is “B.Comm” .. however, I never actually would state that I was in the B. Comm program, but instead refer to it as .. HART who wanted to BECOME something eventually with my life.

R – I couldn’t really think of anything for R .. “RENT” .. (and not the movie). I have never lived in a rented apartment or rented any living quarters in my life – ever. I pretty much lived at home as long as I could, (free rent, but contributed with chores) or I owned my own house. In my 20′s, we had a family business and owned a building close to Downtown Winnipeg, and I was sleeping at the building so often, we just renovated one of the floors for a few rooms, kitchen and shower etc. I eventually bought a cheap house (repo from a client) and actually paid off the mortgage in 5 years, and enjoyed that – until I met my future wife. It was too small, and we eventually purchased and currently live in a Condominium Townhouse. I work out of my home. If I were to think of anything else for “R” .. it would have been RADIO – which, I used to listen to every night and can fall asleep almost immediately to (also, it helps mask the stress of thinking about work when trying to fall asleep).

E – I’ll just use this letter to attribute a link out to the OTHER Hartley Singer out there … HARTLEY E. SINGER. Grrrrr. I’ve got about 50+ domains registered, and this person had registered HartleySinger.com first! Here’s his BIO site .. he’s actually a musician too, although while I am a hobbyist musician playing keyboards, he is quite a professional guitarist .. check it out! I suppose since I’ve discovered this Hartley E Singer out there, I have wanted to use my full name as HARTLEY B. SINGER even more.

N – Hmm .. I dunno .. “NICE”? I think I am a nice guy, and everybody else thinks I am a nice guy and I have a lot of acquaintances who think I am a nice guy. The bottom line, is that I don’t hate anybody (except one person who tried to screw me professionally) and I don’t think anybody hates me or even has a grudge with me (except that same person who tried to screw me professionally).

T – “TRIP” .. I’ll describe the last letter of my middle name as something that has had great influence over social aspects of my life – the internet. I’ve been online since March 1995 with my own internet account in July 1995 and my own websites since early November 1995. In 1996 I went to London, UK and Sweden and met up with internet friends. I think, as a result of recouperating from my expensive trip .. it was a boost in me meeting a very nice girl online (a local internet friend) in March 1997 who eventually became my wife – Yvonne! Here’s a recap of my 1996 European Trip if interested, although I must say – it’s probably boring to you.

~~~~

So there you have it .. did you figure out my middle name yet?

I guess that I have to ‘tag’ five people, which is the length of my middle name .. Julie looked at her MyBlogLog community list .. but, I will look to yesterday’s 2kblogger list – and at the first 5 on the list ..

TAG! YOU’RE IT!

www.biztipsblog.com

www.blacklooks.org

www.bleedingespresso-sognatrice.blogspot.com

www.blessedmadness.com

www.bloash.com

WARNING: Meme Ahead .. you know what that means! (I don’t spell check :p) [RAMBLE ON]

I was tagged by Starbucker a while ago … in a meme that was originally started by Jeremiah Owyang.

If you do a Google search asking what Media Consumption is .. a definition something like this pops up: … a phrase referring to an individual’s usage or consumption of specified media or a media vehicle

There is waaaaay too much “information overload” that is placed on my plate, and I tend to find my own means and way to getting (and retaining) only the media information that I want. As a result, others call this your individualized Media Consumption Diet because everybody does things differently .. and is happy doing things different .. and I am no different!

WAIT-A-SEC .. But – DO WE REALLY DO THINGS THAT MUCH DIFFERENTLY?

Well, this MEME might find some interesting results down the road if someone ever wants to accumulate all the data and write a book or review of it all. In fact, feel free to write your own Media Consumption Diet on your own blog, with the tag “Media Consumption Diet” and get counted!

call HART crazy .. (again) but .. it’s my blog – and since I’m in RAMBLE MODE .. and I’m probably watching a movie or listening to musicmatch as I type this and definately multi-tasking (how media consumption is that, eh?) .. let me describe how I think the results will eventually turn out. I think a pattern will emerge with many similarities among the generations of people out there. Let me describe these generations as I see them.

* My Father’s Generation – These are the people much older than me, like my own folks, who might call me in the middle of the day to ask me where the “ANY KEY” is on their keyboard that they have to press. They are capable of searching for information, doing their online banking, forwarding jokes to everyone on one big massive email list and although they’ve heard of Ebay, they probably have never seen anything on the site in their lives. This generation gets most of the news either at 6pm or 11pm on their local TV station, while reading their daily newspaper or listening to the AM radio talk show all day in their car or at work. For some reason, at least once an hour they will stop everything to listen to the sports report or weather report at a specific time after the hour. They do not live on the internet, and do not rely on the internet for information. In fact, I still think some of this generation do not really believe this ‘internet’ will ever catch on .. or quite the opposite .. is so fascinated by the simplest things the younger generation and my own generation have come to get used to – like sending messages via email without paper.

* The Younger Generation. These are the people that are younger than me. However, as old as I am in body .. I am young in spirit of mind – so, I am talking about the people born in the 1990′s or later. They not only grew up with computers, they grew up with the internet and windows 95. They don’t get it .. but WINDOWS IS REALLY DOS! (Alt-Tab). I’m not sure they’ve even seen a 33-1/3″ Record LP or beta video tape, but I know that if you think your kids are not listening to you .. they are – and learning. These kids know how to multi-task and quite aware of their surroundings. Most of them are okay too .. although, I wonder if they have any common sense at times. I also wonder if there will be problems in the future, because I think this generation believes that ‘if it’s on the internet – it must be true’. In some ways, that’s quite naive .. but, if everybody thought that – and stop spamming everybody trying to make it the other way – the world will become a better place online. This generation doesn’t realize that there never was an internet and takes it for granted, just like soccer practice, allowance and text messaging. I don’t think the kids of the future really ‘want anything specific’ from the internet – it’s just part of their daily lives in how they live and access information.

* My Generation – naturally, is in between the above two choices .. and now I will begin the Meme, and tell you all how I consume media into my life and daily routings. Although I think I’m unique, I would like to think that there are a lot of people out there around my age who pretty much feel the way I do about this ‘media consumption’ stuff. This generation, (maybe a little too much), relies on the internet and spends way too much time trying to figure it out, or trying to get it to do things FOR them, to make it a better world out there for themselves and immediate family! Well, that’s at least what I’m trying to do

HART’s Media Consumption Diet

Background – Learn All About HART!

If you read the ABOUT-HART section at 1-8-0-0-H-A-R-T .. you will find a background post about me, called: HART’s Computer Background – History. According to the article (and it’s on the internet, so it must be true!) I was first aware and introduced to computers back in 1976 and actually owned a computer and did the Accounting Records of our family businesses on it, since 1979. I first heard of the internet in January 1995, and when I saw a statistic about how popular the internet was growing in a March 1995 CBC news report .. I signed up with Compuserve. They pretty much ripped me off and by July 1995 I had a dial up service with a local firm here in Winnipeg and spend hundred’s of hours online. My cousin was a beta tester for that new “windows95″ since June 1995 and I had upgraded my computer well before anybody else did, and ran my computer on windows95. Before that, was windows 3.1 if you recall. Win95 eventually came out in August 1995. By November 1995 I had a website and ‘homepage’ on the internet .. and the rest is sort of history!

Internet – Network

I need internet and the best. I started back in 1995 with dial up and always upgraded before any of my friends or work to the ‘better’ modem and 56k modems .. I switched to DSL as soon as it was available in my area, and even when it wasn’t .. I was on their waiting list trying to speed up the process of getting DSL cables into our neighbourhood. Now, I still have DSL, but on an upgraded personal 3MB modem which, seems good enough for me. I wanted the business 5MB speed modem, but I don’t want to pay extra cost. My main computer is a Dell Dimension 8200 which has everything and was a super computer with the components I put into it, when I bought it back in 2002 .. but, it will probably die soon. I have an older Compaq laptop, but it sucks. By summer I will be buying a new laptop. I also purchased a second Compaq computer for my wife to play SIMS2 on it, so not to affect the usage of my computer. Everything is connected on a network and wireless G broadband router and I backup this hard drive on my dell over to the Compaq every day as a safety backup.

Internet – Email

I use Eudora Lite as my email client, and receive about 900 emails every day, although about 700 of them are caught automatically by my Spamnix Filter or sorted to the trash folder directly by filters of my own making. About 100 emails a day seem to be from blogs, that I never look at .. like Spam Killer warnings, moderation of comments (which I never moderate), tag-board entries, submission reports of pre-posted articles and stuff like that. And, I do get about 100 emails a day that I look at and take care of immediately, just so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. For instance, these might be notices from CRA that I post in here, some MyBlogLog conversation notices, replies to comments on blogs that I have commented on, stuff like that.

I keep my Eudora up and it is automatically checking every 2 minutes for new email. Once, I decided to turn it off and someone emailed me 7 .mp3′s that were about 3MB each and it held up my email .. and I ended up having to wait about 9 hours to download about 5600 emails one time! This affected my business greatly because, because I also use Fax-To-Email. I have a toll-free fax line number 1-800-613-2087 that goes directly to email and is good anywhere in North America (as far as I know – maybe in Europe too .. but dial 011 etc for international exchange). It’s really a toll-free line in Ottawa, Ontario actually. I wanted a toll-free fax-to-email and I’m using Telus for this, and there wasn’t any lines in Winnipeg at the time I signed up in 2003.

Internet – News

I pretty much ‘hear’ everything that is happening in the world from the internet, although I might not pay attention. I subscribe to Bloglines.com that keeps track of all my news and information related to the network of sites that I have .. and in my Email, I do receive some newsletter daily updates from CTV and other TV News stations. If there is something that peaks my interest, I click and read it. Before I started blogging in May 2005 .. my ‘startpage’ used to be either Excite or MSN start page, which I still have active, but rarely visit .. and that has links to all the world news, internet and technology news, my horoscopes, movie reviews, etc etc. What news I don’t get from the internet .. is the local news, which I do catch up occasionally from the newspapers.

Online and Offline Programs I use

* Browser – Internet Explorer v7 90% of time, Firefox 10% of time
* E-mail – Eudora Lite v7 soon to be open source!
* Bookmarks – I randomly post automatically to 19 social bookmarks sites around my sites .. I am trying to be active at MyBlogLog and the only one I have been reading bookmarks of other people – are at Reddit .. As for ‘bookmarks aka favorites’ .. I don’t add any more bookmarks – I just subscribe to RSS feeds!
* Starpage – http://Bloglines.com >> it’s my start page in IE, in Firefox, 62-151.com/links/ is my startpage
* Groups – Don’t join them.
* Blog Platform – WordPress –
* IM – Google Talk … 1800hart (at) gmail (dot) com
* Skype – do not skype
* Graphics – Adobe Photoshop 7.0 filled with goodies (that’s why I never upgrade)
* Screen Capture – 5-clicks
* Music listening – MusicMatch v10
* FTP – WS_FTP_Lite
* Blogging Software – I enter stuff in the blog, do not use Scribe or Blogdesk or anything like that
Anti-Virus – Zone Alarm (free to sympatico subscribers) .. used to prefer Norton AV Professional but hated Norton InternetSecurity
* Spyware Removal – Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware SE, Adaware 2007 beta, Pest Patrol, Spyware Blaster
* How many programs and tabs do I have open RIGHT NOW? – 8 tabs in my taskbar, of which 3 are IE and each has more than 10 tabs in the individual browser itself! The rest or tax return related programs and data directories
* Background Picture on My Computer at the moment – Well, Maxxie and Sophie of course! – I do not believe in screensavers anymore

Newspapers

We are a daily subscriber to the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper here, but I never see it. My wife takes it to her work and reads it every day on her breaks, and leaves it for her co-workers. Sometimes, if there is a local story of interest, my wife will email me about it and I will go online to the link I put earlier and read it. My parents keeps me informed as they read the Obituaries every day. I still browse the Saturday Paper .. but on Sundays .. reading the color comics, then the entertainment section, maybe the classified section .. and then the first section for the local stories. But really, I am not interested in the news from newspapers at all.

T.V.

My wife and I have different tastes in T.V. She is constantly watching murder mysteries, dramas, re-enactments, and stuff like that .. and I hate that with a passion! I hate A&E .. and pretty much all Dramas! Unfortunately, my wife wakes up early to work and goes to bed early, so to maximize my time with her after work, I “LET” her have the remote after 6pm. God forbid that I have the remote at that time, because I do not know how to randomly switch shows between commercials and miss beginning of shows that we are watching after the commercial, as well as she does :p .. and when I do, I’m never flipping to shows that I like to watch!

I am a sit-com person. I like to laugh, and watch mindless trivial stuff that is NOT to be concluded next week. There’s a start, and an end to the show. I don’t care if I’ve seen it before many times either .. it’s all good for me! The shows that I like to watch are: Seinfeld, Family Guy, King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Futurama, Sons of Butchers, and stuff like that. I am a big fan of everything Sci-Fi, like Star Trek, Andromeda, Enterprise, Eureka, Stargate, etc. Unfortunately, during Prime Time as I have no control over the remote, I’ve grown attached to watching Survivor and Amazing Race. I walk away at other reality shows that my wife might watch .. like Geek, Batchelor, Flave, etc.

During the day, I don’t really watch TV except for Stargate, Andromeda and stuff from the Lone Star Channel ..Have Gun will Travel, Rifleman, Wanted, Bonanza, and Rawhide. But, these are rotating and on about 4 times throughout the day, so it’s not like I watch a particular episode at any time. If I miss it, I just watch it at another time. If I miss the other time, I never really miss it – because it’s not like I have to watch last week’s episode to find out what’s happening on this week’s episode.

I do not watch the News on T.V .. During the day however, I probably never watch anything – but the TV is on. I have preprogrammed my little TV in my office to jump from show to show every hour during the day, so I can see the screen change, and I know that another Hour has passed away while I work. The volume is on mute, except around lunch time or after 9-10pm when my wife goes to sleep.

I am also not a fan of Entertainment Tonight type of shows. Can TV get any worse? It’s like they are copying the A&E model .. tell you a hundred times what will be happening after the commercial, and wasting everybody’s time with about 15 minutes of content squeezed into an hour showing. It’s not only mindless drivel to me – it’s deeaning to my time. I would rather be banging my head against a wall – or watch Judge Judy! And, don’t get me started with that! My wife likes Judge Judy, I do not – yet we probably watch her every day during dinner. If I had my choice, I prefer People’s Court – at least it APPEARS that judgements are based on the law.

Music

I used to collect records and CD’s and had about 200+ CD’s … I actually started to put it up on the internet but stopped updating it back in 1996. I was a big fan of Napster and shared all my music and increased my library quite substantially. I still use Limewire occassionally, but I have almost 4000 .mp3′s .. which, may not all be songs .. some are text speeches and crap that is registering in the count in my Musicmatch – my music program of choice on my computer. I have Winamp, and iTunes and Windows media .. but I prefer MusicMatch. I had subscribed early on to the lifetime upgrades and I am always updated with the latest software and goodies, at no extra charge.

Comunication

The best thing to do is to leave a message on my home phone. I have a cell, but if I’m in the car, I’m listening to tunes and can’t hear the phone ring. If I’m with a client, I turn it off or do not answer it. It’s more or less to know if there is urgency for me. My call display shows me on my TV who is calling, and sometimes .. if I’m in the middle of something else I will decide to let the answering machine take the message, and will return the call as soon as I am able. All my files in my house are in the basement, and I work on the 2nd floor .. so, there are many legitimate times I just miss the phone calls as I am in transit getting files and coming back.

Online – I used to have MSN Messenger and about 50-60 clients and friends set up, mostly blocked or I would be in private mode. But, then I updated to LIVE MSN messenger and it keeps crashing my system, so I am now on Google Talk. I only have about 6 people on there, but just recently I have setup my wife on it and we talk on google talk instead of emailing back and forth now during her working hours.

I do not skype, nor chat online with voice on my computer .. just text messaging.

Movies

My favorite movie from all time is The Fifth Element. I can watch any action movie and enjoy it, as well as Sci-Fi movies. I grew up living in the basement of my parents house, watching late-night CBC ‘classics’ .. so I am a sucker for these type of movies … “They don’t make them like they used to!” .. that’s for sure! For some reason, I keep tearing up everytime I watch Armageddon or It’s a Wonderful Life .. and since I stopped smoking I can’t use *that* excuse anymore (smoke in my eyes etc ). In 2003 and 2004 I was pouring in all my proceeds from Ebay sales to buying DVD movies .. and my collection is growing, but I don’t have time to watch these DVD’s! I have all the Star Treks, the Family Guy series, and my favorite action movies, and other series like ‘The Tick’ etc .. plus a lot of old movie musicals I like (Jesus Christ Superstar, Benny Goodman Story,

Radio

I do listen to some online music stations – which I only like from the sidebar from The-Singers.com .. the one that I’ve been listening to most lately though, is .. www.musicovery.com/ .. check it out! It’s like a music 2.0 that I can’t remember where I first heard of it .. maybe Duncan? I find a lot of neat stuff in my bloglines! My wife listens to 181fm.com at her work .. I’ve listened to it a few times (the Eagle Classic Rock), it’s not bad! But, there is talking occassionally.

But, mostly when I listen to music, I’m in a certain mood and I pretty much have the right playlist in my Musicmatch ..e.g. fast toe stomping lists, rock and roll, classic rock stuff, pink floyd or porcupine tree’ish psychodelic stuff, instrumentals, or even classical or medieval stuff. Sometimes, I listen to comedy skits ..like SNL skits, southpark stuff, Denis Leary, etc. It’s all good, in its time.

I hate radio with commercials. I burn .mp3 CD’s for my car stereo and never listen to the radio.

Magazines and Books

Sometimes people will suggest that I read stuff .. and I not only say “Sorry, I’m Illiterate” .. but I think it’s my policy. I just do not have any interest whatsoever to read any paper magazines or books or novels at all! I was always the ‘computer guy’ at work since 1985 and the ‘Network Admin Guy’ and I can’t tell you how many manuals I have read. I read a lot of stuff online in the forums, especially between December and February relating to income tax as well as stuff from the Canada Revenue Sites itself .. and It’s like information overload. At times, I feel like if I try to bring in more information into my brain, some stuff will leave to make room for the new. Also, having all these blogs – I do read – people’s blogs and news and google searches and commentaries and .. well, if you are reading this – you know too! I just can’t read all of this stuff all day, then go lie in my bed and read a murder mystery novel. If I want something like that – I’ll rent Pay-Per-View movie and enjoy it in my couch potato position.

[/RAMBLE OFF]

Well .. I have been writing this for about 2 weeks or whenver I was first tagged .. I had to drudge my way through this .. how long did it take you to read this? I hope you are not too bored.

PEOPLE I WILL NOW TAG: … EVERYBODY! Now go ahead and write your own Media Consumption Diet in your blog. Then link back to me here at 1-800-HART

// Thanks in advance

Thord Daniel Hedengren’s Digital Playground has tagged me this morning with one of those MEMEs you hear about. Basically .. it’s another chain letter out here in the blogosphere, and if I don’t respond within 24 hours .. something horrible will happen to me .. like I’ll fall down the stairs, get hit by a bus, swallow a marble, or some other wierd curse placed upon my family! Just kidding~ If you are really curious how this works, click on the link to Thord’s site, and just follow all the links back to whoever links the current person back to the previous person and so on and so on.

So .. without further delay ..here are five things you might not have known about me .. HART

1) I was a Beta Tester for Win95

Yes .. I have been online since March 1995 and quite interested with this “internet” thingy, but sorry .. this is just a lie that I used to tell people in 1996. I wasn’t actually an official beta tester, but my cousin was and at the beginning of June 1995 I ‘borrowed’ his beta win95 CD and installed it and felt superior over everyone! Of course, the official release was August 1995 I believe, so it was pretty much in its final stages and I had no suggestions or comments or any input to its development. Although, I do recall asking my cousin to put in a “chit” comment that asked why that BLUE screen kept popping up periodically. (I don’t think they ever fixed that really, did they?)

2) Hi. My Name Is HART. Please Send Me a Dollar!

I still have 100% of all my websites ever created online at this very moment. The stuff since 1995 is mostly sitting at HARTandYVONNE.com/gatewest.net/ folder … but I’m afraid I haven’t really spent much time making some of the useful stuff into part of my current sites, nor have I found the time or desire to edit all the pages to fix the links. I did try to go down memory lane in my call HART crazy blog (those Get-Rich-Quick pages are a hoot!). Back in 1999 I was planning on writing my memoirs .. *cough,cough* but got writer’s block or something .. you can read HART’s STORY by clicking on the link, but .. perhaps you should be reading it with a shot of whiskey or a glass of beer .. because it’s quite pitiful.

3) I consider myself to be a musician

I grew up playing the piano, and currently attribute all my typing speed and skills to my ability of playing the piano. If memory serves me correctly .. I went as far as grade 8 with the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano and Grade 9 with Theory. For some reason this morning, I can’t recall exactly .. that was in the late 1970′s and early 1980′s. When I purchased a few synthesisers (Roland Juno 2 and Korg DW) .. I became quite popular and asked to join several bands .. because I was the only keyboard player they knew. I did it more for basement/beer bash reasons .. and actually only did 2 gigs in my life. One gig was as a keyboard player at the Tyndal Motor Inn on Halloween Weekend (which, I’ve got on DVD). I also happened to play bass guitar and had a Rickenbacher .. and played a gig at the New West Hotel for a week with a band. In addition, I was backup keyboardist on 2 songs of a heavy metal band (that disbanded long ago) on a Record Demo produced by one of the original Guess Who members. Since I met with wife, who goes to sleep early every night, and have been living in a Condo since November 1997 .. it’s been hard but, I rarely even bother to set it up and jam anymore.

4) I met my wife online you know!

In 1996, I flew to London, UK and Stockholm, Sweden for an internet party meeting about 30 great people. In 1997 I was pretty much grounded trying to pay for this venture paid by my newly MBNA Mastercard! I still was chatting online, and was jointly using ICQ, mIRC and PowWow chat software. During late February 1997 .. my future-wife messaged me out of the blue on Powwow, based on my geographical location, and we type/chatted for a while. She was great and we had a lot of things in common, including it being a local call to each other! I met her in person on March 12, 1997 (a day before her birthday) and I practically moved in before the end of June 1997. I think she thought I moved in around September 1997 though We purchased our condo in November 1997 and got married on August 31, 2002. It’s boring, but if you are interested in more than the readers’ digest version that I just gave you .. you can read how we met According to HART and According to YVONNE

Btw .. that’s my passport picture in the sidebar from 1996 .. if you want to see more current me.. there’s always our Wedding pictures and videos .. up on our HARTandYVONNE site

5) My Brothers And Our Family Businesses

I wouldn’t say that we were successful in business, but I do not consider our business ventures as failures. Even the ones that ended prematurely helped shape who we are and helped us in the way we operated our next business venture. One of our first businesses was called SOLID TIME INC. (STI) In the late 1970′s .. and early 1980′s .. we credit ourselves as the first company who marketed those Pen Watches to Shell Canada gas stations across Canada. That was a big sale for my younger brother brad, Who was mostly involved at the time. We also sold and warrantied digital watches sold in Safeway Canada. We were an importer company. We then started a newer company, called STI Merchandising Corporation (STIMC – name derived out of the watch company) and began merchandising novelties and confectioneries throughout Manitoba, North West Ontario and Saskatchewan. We had contracts selling meat snacks and other confections at all 7-Eleven Stores in these areas. We also were selling refrigerated products, like Hygaard CO2 packed sandwiches and Little Debbie Pastry treats among various other candy confections and novelties, local and imported. I started working for my father in his Chartered Accountancy firm in 1985 as an accountant, and except for the years 1989 to 1992 when I was working full-time with my brothers, I have worked with my father up until his retirement in 2003. Since 2003, I have been working on my own out of my home.

Now it’s my turn to pass along the torch .. to pick 5 people and “TAG” them, and hopefully they will write 5 things we don’t know about themselves!

And .. even if they don’t follow suit and write 5 things we don’t know .. I hope you check out these sites and add their feed to your reading list .. they’re great! And, if any of you five have already been tagged and blogged already .. um, okay .. just leave a link to your post Thank-You!

* Jon (Art of Money)
* Neil (NeilMcIntyre.ca)
* Darren (Blog-Republic)
* Eileen (Increase Your Reach: Infuse Your Marketing with Technology)
* Michelle (Golden Practices)
* David (David Maister: Professional Business, Professional Life)

This will be my last post in my MEME section

However .. don’t worry! I still plan to participate in them .. but will be posting them over in my other blog at this location:

hartandyvonne.com/blog/category/meme/

It was precipitated by a comment suggesting that personal items (such as this) do not belong in business blogs … and it is probably a good idea anyway

TOPIC CATEGORY – CLOSED!

From: musicmemoirs.blogdrive.com/ blogsite:

Top Five On Friday – Week 41

To continue with Fallen’s “emotional” lead:

Top 5 “Crying” songs (Interpret as you wish…)

Crying could be anything .. in the title, in the lyrics .. it could be tears, sniffles, and the list goes on… I have limited my selection to my “inventory” of mp3′s .. (to let you sample them) however – I will add my “Honorary Mentionables” at the end …

As with previous weeks, I have removed last weeks selections and tossed up this week’s Top Five .. You can rename them accordingly .. Don’t miss out on these ones!

In No Particular Order:

1) DESTINY’s CHILD – “Emotions”

2) AEROSMITH (WITH LED ZEPPELIN)- “Sweet Emotion” (Apparently- a rare Live version)

3) FUGEES – “No Woman, No Cry” (Cover of Bob Marley song)

4) HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH- “Let Her Cry”

5) THE SPECIALS – “Tears In My Beer” (NOT the Hank Williams Jr version)

My Honorable Mentions … (Sorry – don’t have them in my collection … * hint,hint * …if you wish …

6) ROY ORBISON – “Crying”

7) JIMI HENDRIX – “Wind Cries Mary”

Update: 2006 songs removed from server

From: www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Thursday Challenge NOW POSTING for 13OCT05

CURRENT Theme is “SMALL”
(Undersized, Miniature, S. of the Back, S. Talk, Fine Print, Microscopic, Miniscule, Diminutive, Tiny, Unpretentious, Itsy-Bitsy, Teensy-Weensy,…)

I submit this URL with two “PET RELATED” pictures for this week’s Thursday Challenge, given the fact that I have two pet related blogs …

* PetLvr.com – [The Blog]
* PapillonLvr.com – Blog

A PICTURE THAT I TOOK

(and think that’s cute and small – “SOPHIE” THE DAY WE GOT HER)

You can see her and our other Papillon dog Maxxie here in our PetLvr.com – Blog Gallery .. In this picture, taken in 2002, Sophie was 7 weeks old.

A PICTURE THAT I DIDN’T TAKE

(and think that’s cute and small – called “FOUR AMIGOS”)

I have this listed here in my PetLvr.com – Blog Gallery although, it originated from this website here.

From: musicmemoirs.blogdrive.com/ blogsite:

Top Five On Friday – Week 40

Silly things reign supreme.
We did “Silly songs” once, but this week I’m doing a twist on it.
Top 5 Silly Song Titles
And if you’re feeling frisky a bonus:
Top 5 Silly Album Titles

I have lots of crazy and silly songs! I could have filled this list twice .. and still be in the “A”‘ section… but, that would include stuff like .. Arrogant Worms (Kill the Dog Next Door) and stuff like that … So, I thought I would keep it light and funny .. and less of the Dr. Evil – type of silliness!

As with previous weeks, I have removed last weeks selections and tossed up this week’s Top Five .. You can rename them accordingly .. Don’t miss out on these ones!

In No Particular Order:

1) DENIS LEARY – “I’m An Asshole”

2) BENNY HILL – “The Man Song”

3) MONTY PYTHON – “The Lumberjack Song”

4) SOUTHPARK – MR. HANKY’S CHRISTMAS – “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel”

5) SIMPSONS – HOMER SIMPSON – “The D’oh Song”

And .. sure .. I feel frisky ..so, here’s five silly albums … (pssst.. and links to them in Amazon! )

1) BRUCE WILLIS – “The Return Of Bruno” (1987)

2) LEONARD NIMOY – “Highly Illogical” (1994)

3) IRON BUTTERFLY – “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” (1987)

4) SMASHMOUTH – “Fush Yu Mang” (1997)

5) WEIRD “AL” YANKOVICH – “Alapalooza” (2000)

From: www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Thursday Challenge NOW POSTING for 6OCT05

CURRENT Theme is “GOLDEN”
(gold/golden or yellow things, harvest, autumn, prosperous, advantageous, fortunate, coins, bananas, corn, canaries,…)

The only ‘Golden’ picture I could think of, was a picture of my wife on our Wedding Day .. BEFORE the ceremony .. not this one (while she was weighing the pros and cons to go through with the wedding) but THIS ONE! (after deciding to go through with the wedding!) …. The “Golden” being her Medieval Wedding Costume that is.

So, this is the picture I submitted to this week’s Thursday Challenge .. borrowed from my friend Tina ..

Compliments of:

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Peppermaster Hot Sauces

And, if you need a good Chili Recipe to go with these “Peppermaster” hot sauces … try HART’s Famous Chili Recipe too

PS: If you want see more pictures of my wife in her ‘Golden’ Medieval Wedding costume and mine too .. feel free to check out HARTandYVONNE.com – Photo Gallery

From: musicmemoirs.blogdrive.com/ blogsite:

Top Five On Friday – Week 39

Top Five “Acoustic” songs

Because I was married in a Medieval Themed Style Wedding, I can say that I have almost 200 different classical and acoustic songs either with guitar or strings only, or is medieval or a renaissance styled song .. but, I only included one (#4) into my “Top Five” – so I don’t bore you with them!

1) BEATLES (George Harrison) – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – Acoustic solo

2) DAVE MATTHEWS BAND (Blind Melon Cover) – “No Rain” – Live Acoustic

3) FLEETWOOD MAC (Lindsay Buckingham) – “Big Love” – Live Accoustic Solo

4) MICHAEL PRAETORIUS – “Renaissance Dance Music”

5) GUESS WHO (Local Winnipeg boys) – “Undun”

Update: 2006 songs removed from the server

From: www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Thursday Challenge NOW POSTING for 29SEP05

CURRENT Theme is “BEAUTIFUL”
(Picturesque, Attractive, Pretty, Harmonious, Beautiful Soul, Graceful, Exquisite, Ideal, Healthy,…)

This is the picture I submitted to this week’s Thursday Challenge .. It’s actually a screen capture of the .pps “Power Point Slideshow” link indicated below. I think it is breathtaking.

The Millau Viaduct

Paris – Barcelona

Some Facts:

Under Construction is the highest bridge in the world. This bridge will be part of the A75 to link Paris with Barcelona.

This suspension bridge has a total length of 2.5 km and crossed the Tarn River. It is 343 meters high, a world record. The road, with two lanes on each side, will cross the river at 270 meters above ground. At the highest point, the viaduct is even higher than the Eiffel Tower. Conceived by Norman Foster, this suspension bridge is supported by seven pylons, instead of two that are common for this type of construction.

It was expected to be opened January 1, 2005 (construction began in 2001)

This picture was taken around April 2004.

Click Here to see a slide show that I have of this entire bridge! Absolutely Fabulous!

Click Here to go to The Millau Viaduct Website