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Why 30 is not the new 20

By Frank W on May 15, 2013 in Life, Personal Development

Meg Jay, an American clinical psychologist, tells us in a very interesting TED talk that, contrary to popular belief, your 20s are not a throwaway decade. In other words, 30 is not the new 20. I couldn’t agree more.

Her three main pieces of advice:

  1. Get some identity capital – do something that is a step in the right direction towards where you want to go, something that adds value to who you are and who you might want to be next. You don’t need to know what exactly you want to do, but don’t just do nothing. Waiting tables while you think is a waste of time.
  2. Use your weak ties – build your network, meet new people, and leverage the people who you know through other people, rather than relying purely on your inner circle.
  3. Pick your family – the time to start picking, or at least start thinking about what you really want. You should be consciously choosing who and what you really want, rather than making something work or killing time with who happens to be choosing you.

At the end of the talk, Meg used a plane analogy to reiterate what I have believed for a long time  - it’s more about moving in the right direction, rather than having everything exactly figured out. A slight change in course is most definitely worth doing and can make a huge difference further down the road. In other words, when you know what you really want to do, stop procrastinating about your life like one 20-something I had this conversation with last year, and instead change something small (and stick with it) to change the direction of your whole life, one step at a time.

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Mill St. Brew Hall biggest pub in TO?

By Frank W on April 27, 2013 in Life

I am moving down to the Distillery District very soon and am very excited. My condo building is attached to the Mill St. Brew Pub, which is pretty well known and respected in Toronto. Interestingly, the Mill St. Brewery have expanded into the ground floor of the Condo with a new bar – the Mill St. Beer Hall.

From outside, it looks pretty small, kind of sports bar-esque: TV’s above the bar, high bar tables, etc. We followed the hostess inside and then turned the corner and were blown away. It literally is a beer hall – the largest pub I have ever seen. That’s also aside from the Brew Pub, which is connected via a stone-paved hallway! Anyway, we walked and walked and eventually got to our table. I would estimate it is around 4 times the size of the Brew Pub next door, and actually stretches all the way under the condo building so I’m wondering if there is a private entrance for residents…

The beer menu is pretty large and has more selection than the pub next door if memory serves me correctly. There must be at least 20 types of beer on the menu. We ordered some beer and as we were sitting there next to the window taking it in, we noticed the under-construction patio. This thing stretches the entire length of the beer hall and you can’t see it from the front at all. Upon querying our server, a cool British dude called Rob from West Sussex, we were informed it should have a 150-person capacity and it was opening at the end of May (around this area everything is under construction).

Aside from that, the beer hall has been open for 3 weeks and was a hive of activity, I would say 70% full, and there was a loud buzz. They still have some things to iron out though – the menu leaves something to be desired, and the quality the food was sub par. We ordered a Bacon Jam appetizer and sent it back as it was so drastically different from what we expected from the menu and didn’t even taste good – a melted pot of jam and cheese with 4 slices of french bread for $14. Uhm no. The oven flatbread with Chorizo sausage, mozzarella and salsa with guacamole crème fraîche was passable – but again, toppings were sparse, it was very “bready” and over-priced at $16. The flatbread things at 3 Brewers on Yonge St are way better.

The overall verdict was the food was way better at the Brew Pub, but if you’re interested TheBuzzToronto has posted their menu and some pics. I can’t imagine what this place is going to be like in the summer when the patio is open and drinking season is in full swing – let’s hope they get their kitchen in order before then.

Going to be a crazy summer living above a ginormous beer hall…

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Rob Ford faceplants a camera

By Frank W on April 17, 2013 in Politics, Stupidity

I’m sorry, but this is just too good not to share. I laugh every time I rewind.

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Tyent USA – a great example of customer service excellence

By Frank W on October 25, 2012 in Business, Electronics

I like to write about companies that are amazing – either amazingly crap, or  amazingly good. Today I want to talk about Tyent USA. These guys make water filtering and ionizing equipment, which produces clean, filtered, and alkaline pH water.

You can read more about the benefits of drinking alkaline water online, I’m not here to talk about that. However, what I do know is that I’d much rather drink filtered, alkalaine water than pH neutral Toronto tap water. And because of that, I purchased a Tyent MMP-7070, I think around 4-5 years ago now. It’s worked flawlessly ever since.

One time I broke the connector on the back, and I sent it back for repair. I just had to pay for shipping, and it arrived back shortly after, as good as new. Perfect service.

This time around, I had lost one of the screws for the water diverter that attaches to the kitchen tap. This meant that the lever you turn to divert water into the unit kept falling off in the sink – not a huge problem, but annoying nonetheless, and I couldn’t for the life of me find one that fitted despite trying several times. Eventually I decided to send them an e-mail, and ask if they could send me a replacement screw, and to call me if there would be any charges.

The next day, I got an e-mail that a replacement diverter was on its way by UPS. They had sent me an entire replacement diverter, for free, and by international courier, all without any charge. This, ladies and gentlemen, is outstanding customer service, and I applaud you Tyent USA. When my water alkalizer reaches end of life, I’ll be sure to buy another one from  you.

Footnote: This was a perfect experience, right up until the last minute, when the package arrived at my door. Tyent had marked the package as being worth $50, even though they had not charged me for it. Fair enough. There was $3 in GST to pay to the UPS driver, and for my convenience UPS had “kindly” paid the $3 in GST to Canadian Customs. However, UPS were going to charge me a $23 brokerage fee to pay $3 the day before, for a total charge of $26 owing to UPS. This is 766% on $3, and can only be described as daylight robbery. Shame on UPS.

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Mitt Romney now a “thought leader” says LinkedIn

By Frank W on October 11, 2012 in Blog

I had to laugh at this when I signed in to LinkedIn today.

“Thought Leader” Mitt Romney

LinkedIn, please fix your algorithm. Mitt Romney is certainly no thought leader…in fact, I don’t think he actually has any specific thoughts except for “What can I say today to win this election?”

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