Modern banking

I was in the car with my son when he reminded me that he needed some money for school. With a theatrical flourish I whipped out my Blackberry and transferred the funds right on the spot using my bank's app. (Don't worry, he was the one driving).

He was suitably impressed. So am I... when I started my career you had to plan your whole day around getting to the bank before the branch closed. We have indeed come a long way.

Too cool for the room?

Santa brought me an iPad for christmas. Does that make me one of the 'cool crowd'?

Not according to my eldest son: "Dad, it'll take a lot more than an iPad to do that".


Perhaps so, but I am having a lot of fun playing with my shiny new toy.  I've never owned a laptop (though  everyone else in the family has one) and until recently my smart phone wasn't very smart because I was too cheap to pay for a data plan.  I am a late-comer to the portable computing party.

The Project

My wife and I both work in the IT business, so we sometimes tend to view things through the lens of our profession.

When our first child was born, we referred to him as "the Project".  The objective of this multi-year endeavor was to raise a fully functional human being and good citizen who would eventually become a middle class taxpayer.  Is that not the duty of every parent?

Less than two years later we were affected by "scope creep" when our second child came along.  As Bill Cosby once said, you do not become a real parent until you have more than one child.  "Why?  Because if you have only one child, and something is broken in your house, you know who did it!"

Additional funding was not forthcoming as a result of this change.  We found the money by reducing other expenses such as dining out, exotic vacations, and by eliminating most adult social activities.

Current Status:  Green.  We anticipate a +15% variance due to unplanned educational expenses.

RUT?

Like many parents, I used to cluck disapprovingly when I saw the silly short forms and tangled syntax used by my kids as they chatted with their friends.  "What a waste of time!" I thought. But I never hassled them about it because I knew there were much worse things that they could have been doing on the Internet.  And besides, if they didn't have chat they'd be tying up my phone line or running up their cell phone bills.

I had zero (0) interest in using chat for myself.  After all, grown ups communicate in full sentences and we try to get our spelling and grammar correct.  (With varying degrees of success, as any reader of this blog can attest).

Email is a much more refined method of communication; it is both fast and thoughtful.  I've been using it for many years, even in prehistoric times when the corporate email system ran on an IBM mainframe.  I am no Luddite pining for the days of typed memoranda* and carbon paper.  I was quite happy when all of that stuff moved into the electronic age.

But chat was for kids.  It was easy to avoid; every company I worked for forbade the use of chat anyway.

I recently joined a company that not only allows chat, it encourages you to use it to talk to co-workers.  At first I ignored it, figuring that the only reason they allowed chat was to allow  the under-30 crowd to coordinate their lunch plans.  Or perhaps to save money on phone expenses for its geographically dispersed work force.

What I didn't realize is how productive chat can be when you are closely collaborating with others on a complex task.  Chat eliminates a lot of phone calls and greatly reduces the amount of shouting over cubicle walls in the office.  And, if you can't remember what somebody said 10 minutes ago, you can look it up.

Call me a convert.  (It's okay, I've been called far worse).

* This word is so outdated that my spell checker flags it as an error.

Rules for young drivers

Ontario has a graduated licensing system. The initial stage is G1, where the new driver must be accompanied by fully licensed driver. G2 is the next level, where the driver is allowed most of the privileges of a fully licensed driver, with some restrictions.

We've had two sons go through this process, and I'd like to share some of the rules that we imposed, above and beyond what the law says.

Here are Mom and Dad's G2 rules:

• No solo highway driving (ie freeways and other major highways)
• No solo night driving (not very practical in the winter, but workable in the summer. We eased this restriction after a month or two)
• No passengers other than family members and a few trusted friends. In the case of trusted friends, only one of them at a time.
• The 'Trusted friends list' is subject to parental approval.
• All passengers MUST WEAR SEAT BELTS. No excuses, no exceptions. Anyone who refuses to co-operate must be refused a ride, and will be dropped from the 'trusted friends' list.
• Passengers must also have 0% blood alcohol. A young G2 driver is not ready to be a designated driver.
• Never, ever, take the car without permission.
• We reserve the right to veto time, destination, and passengers.
• You will run errands when requested. This includes driving siblings and getting gas.
• At our discretion, you will check in with us when you arrive at your destination. (This is a good time to get him a cell phone, if he doesn't already have one)
• Any ticket, no matter how trivial, will result in the suspension of driving privileges. No excuses, no exceptions, no appeal.
• Ditto for accidents. (We never had to put this one to the test...thank goodness. This may seem unreasonable, but the rule reminds them that they have had defensive driving training and should know how to avoid accidents, even if they technically are not at fault.)
• No eating or drinking while driving. Young drivers need to pay attention to the road at all times.
• No cell phone usage while driving. (Now illegal in Ontario).

Clockwise?

I remember when I first taught my son how to use a wrench. I had to explain to him the difference between "clockwise" and "counter-clockwise". It was not obvious to him because of digital clocks.

He must have understood the lesson because he is an engineer now.