Tom and the Terribly Tempting Terrific Tesla Model 3

I know I said that I had absolutely no time for you until mid-June because I had to be a slave to studying, and while that is basically true, it doesn't quite mean that I have ONLY spent my time with my nose in the books.

The fact is that my brain needs some breaks. I can literally feel my brain-strain at the end of a ten or eleven hour day of wrestling down in the depths of detail into which the Bar exams do their level best to drown my spirit. Among my THERAPEUTIC DISTRACTIONS I was lucky to count a) my interview with Nathan Body at the Peak Powersports BMW Motorrad launch up in Barrie, b) a hop, skip, and jump to visit with my dear friend Andrew in San Diego and Susan's cousins in Los Angeles, c) joining my dear friend Tom as he immersed himself in a hopefully soon-to-be-his Tesla Model 3, and d) a jaunt to Vancouver to meet our first-ever grandchild Kaia Eliora Naidoo Masse, and to fulfill my teaching obligations for Governance Professionals of Canada where I poisoned the minds of aspiring colleagues with the fascinating topics of Records Management, and the dismal, arcane art of public company annual general meetings.

In case you couldn't tell, this episode of Life on two wheels is about c) Tom and the Terribly Tempting Terrific Tesla Model 3.

I apologize for that second paragraph.

It bears a stunning similarity to my study notes for the Bar exam. The upside is, that if you're in a hurry, and don't feel like savoring my meandering prose, you can absorb the gist of this post by broadening your focus, scanning that paragraph as a chunk, and assimilating 95% of my message in mere seconds, versus the many minutes you might ordinarily have to devote to catching my drift.

Because I couldn't afford to take two weeks off from studying during my Vancouver trip, I had no choice but to purchase a brand new MacBook Pro laptop. I feel I owe you a review. WOW!!!

There is no point in going any further really. As the Bard famously had Hamlet say, brevity is the soul of wit.  If I were more witless, I would add that adding a MacBook to my arsenal along with a decent dose of iCloud, has been a productivity game-changer. Holy mackerel! Did you know that you can copy on a (iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook) and paste into any of the others (iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook)???? I certainly didn't!!!! I edited 90% of the video for this episode on the flight home from Vancouver on Sunday using Final Cut Pro X on the MacBook. WOW!

OK, that's enough witlessness on that score.

Coming in a little while, video from those other distractions.

The musical selections for this episode are Ice Cold by Audionautix which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (Artist: http://audionautix.com/) and Take You by Vibe Tracks, both made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library.

My brain strain...

... and a break, courtesy of Peak Powersports in Barrie, BMW Motorrad, and Marigold Public Relations.

This actually happened a few weeks ago, but my frantic study routine gets in the way of EVERYTHING that isn't studying for a Bar exam. Oh... and there was a whirlwind trip to visit family and dear friends in Los Angeles and San Diego. There will be, in the fullness of time, an entertaining video of that trip, I promise.

To be perfectly honest, my overtaxed brain really needed to take a step or two back, before charging ahead for the rush to the finish in a few weeks' time.

I hope that you enjoy this tiny little hiatus, I sure did. Big thank you to Katie from Marigold Public Relations for doing double duty filming with the number two camera.

The music for this episode of Life on two wheels is Cycles by Density & Time, made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library

Taking stock: truth, mayhem, and death

Taking a minuscule break from my breakneck studying routine, because it's important.

Time is running short, so I'll be brief, and then follow my nose back into the books.

I have from time to time posted about politics. Last year I posted a vlog about truth. Prior to that I posted about the risks of the Trump presidency, here, and here.

I wasn't surprised when some thought I was overreacting, that things would never be that bad. After all, lies and meaningless bluster don't kill, right?

There are elections looming now. There's still time to think carefully, and to consider the importance of truth, no matter what your particular stripe might be. And to vote.

Here are some sobering thoughts to help with that chore.

New Year, HUGE challenge

I remember the year, not that long ago, when I posted over 100 times.

Last year I became convinced that the future was video and I tied a vlog to my blog and the posting frequency plummeted.

It's sad in a way, because you get into the habit of posting, and you have an audience of loyal readers, and in some way you drift away from that mode of expression, the constant give and take, and it hurts.

The irony is that the time commitment to social media ramps up considerably when you shift from blogging to vlogging.

There's a natural equation or algorithm at play here. The busier I get, the less presence I have here. That troubles me, but, what can you do?

You gotta do what you gotta do!

This year dawns with a mountain in plain view that I must climb. Like a friend who leaves to climb Everest, it means that there is going to be absence in your life, as my life gets really, really interesting.

It's all explained in the video, so have a look.

I really do feel that I am letting you down by not posting more blog posts or vlog episodes, so I may decide to shift gears and come back here to let you know that all is well and give you an idea of my progress.

Once thing is certain: I am more committed than ever to my Life on two wheels so, when I return from that mountaintop, I will return here.

Happy new year to all!

Ephemera circa 2017

As I struggle to wrap my mind around YouTube and my barely nascent career as a YouTube 'creator', there are still mysteries in the blogosphere that are curious puzzles I am likely never to solve.

Among the puzzles are messages that 2017 has floated into my inbox praising this blog as a top-rated go-to moto-blog. As much as I can't help lapping up the praise, I remain skeptical.

There was a Dilbert cartoon I stumbled on that I have alluded to in the past where the punchline was "will work for recognition".  Since I don't get any financial reward for the work I do here, in the Dilbert spirit I have posted my 'awards' in the sidebar.

Most recently, I received a very nice email from some kind folks informing me that science and statistics had rewarded me with a fresh accolade:

I apologize for this evil display of pride, justly ranked among the seven deadly sins. Yet, I just can't help myself. In my defense, I feel that the kind people who went to the effort to find and list my blog deserve to have me recognize the recognition. There's that, plus, as the internet evolves as it must, this ephemeral praise will evaporate like the gasoline I often manage to spill when I gas up the Vespa. In that spirit this post is where the recognition belongs, where it will get buried as time passes and future posts pile on, eventually sinking into Google's bottomless basement storage locker until it gets dredged up from time to time in response to some random search.

Oh well, that's all for now.

It's time for me to get back to my 'studio' to grind away at the YouTube challenge cum mystery. I've got to crack 10,000 views on my channel to unlock some prizes in the shape of enhanced permissions and the shadowy possibility of some monetization that may or may not ever materialize. In this respect I'm like a teenager toiling away at a video game in the basement hoping that today is the day that I unlock the Sceptre of Ottokar (no... wait, that was a Tintin story...).

The Great Post-it Tab Hack

I am writing a book.

The subject is ultra-dry, and potentially crushingly boring.

It's about document management. More specifically document management for governance professionals.

I am working hard to inject as much wit and humour as possible as I plod along. With a little luck, my students and readers will come to share my passion for organizing the heck out of a potential maelstrom of information.

The book is to support a records management course I'll be teaching as part of the Governance Professionals of Canada professional education certification program.

Governance is a fascinating field because you work at the highest level of the organization you serve. The nature of the beast is that you find yourself responsible for a broad range of activities spanning the gamut from running the Board of Directors, to corporate and securities law compliance, ethics monitoring training and compliance, and a bunch of other stuff, as well as the mundane range of responsibilities that come with management responsibility including staffing, budgeting and the rest.

The result is that in no time you find yourself surrounded by records: minute books, corporate files, insider reporting files, mergers and acquisitions files, stock exchange compliance files, and the list goes on, and on, and on.

The key to taming the beast is to develop strong records management skills.

More or less in that vein, a trivial little skill I taught myself is to make quick-and-dirty custom-printed tabs to label files and books.

When a file becomes thick with documents, and grows into one volume after another, being able to find the four or five key documents in a hurry is a real blessing. The same goes for the key sections of the numerous weighty books sitting on the shelf. Thick heavy books like "everything you need to know about UK corporations law but were afraid to ask" (a thousand-plus page tome, and not its real name).  You get the picture.

In the context of working on the book, studying for Bar exams to come in March (yes, life is like a huge game of snakes and ladders after all), and organizing my home office, I remembered my little Post-it notes hack.

It occurred to me that some of you might benefit from this little trick as well.

Hopefully I managed to convey the gist of this trick in the video.

The music for this episode is Santorini 2 by Vibe Mountain made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library. 

Vespa, TREE-ed!!!

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Here is my desperate bid for YouTube viraldom!

Well, not really. I mean, don't get me wrong, I aspire to viraldom, but I'm not into kidding myself, I'm nowhere even remotely close to that. Seriously.

In this episode come along as a fetch a Christmas tree as a favour to my daughter Lauren.

This is where you learn that when you ride a Vespa, no errand is beyond reach.

The music for this episode of the vlog is Swipesy Cakewalk by E's Jammy Jams made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library.

If you've been living under a rock, and you've never heard of Steve Williams and Scooter in the Sticks, by all means go have a peak at what Steve's up to.

If you were hoping that this episode was going to be Five-0 in the 6ixI I'm afraid it's still in the studio waiting for more bits and pieces to come together. Hopefully when it finally sees the light of day you won't be disappointed. Also in the works are Vespa maintenance videos including an oil change, hub oil change, and yes, a cooling system flush and thermostat replacement. Exciting stuff indeed.

Thanks for watching, and stay tuned!