Re: Homeless

From: Jason Joel Thompson (jasonjthompson@home.com)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 00:11:09 MDT


Wow, Ankara, it really sounds like you were living in a different city than
I am.

Point in case:

> You'll perhaps miss Vancouver's male to female ratio (something like 11:1)
> which has given it a reputation as a 'bachelor's' paradise.

11 males to 1 female? What, were you in a bike gang or something? Yikes.
You seem to be consulting some interesting stats. Actually, it's very close
to 50/50.

A nice quote to liven up your day:

"In March 1995, the Corporate Resources Group in Geneva, Switzerland,
released a ranking of 118 major cities in the world based upon living and
environmental conditions. The City of Vancouver won a silver medal as the
second best city in the world. The City Administration ranked sixth for
public service, efficiency and infrastructure. The top five cities were:
Singapore, Auckland, Wellington, Vienna, and Dusseldorf. This placed
Vancouver first in North America.

In December 1997, the same group rated Vancouver as the most livable major
city in North America and the world. Auckland, was ranked 2nd, Toronto 3rd
and Montreal 15th."

For the record, I have yet to witness yellow haze, public suicides, rampant
violence against women and children, and depressing crime-infested
underwater twilights, although I'm certain that all of those things are
happening somewhere.

One wonders why you stayed here for 11 years...?!

I think this is indication of another trait of big cities: 2 different
people can have extremely different experiences of them.

> I noticed a vast difference btwn Canadian, (esp West Coast Cdn) and US
(esp
> Californian) personal ethics and business practices - eg. the Vancouver
> stock exchange is an insider joke. My best adivce is to do business only
> with enitites solid enough to sue.

I happen to know several stock brokers in this city and they are among the
finest people I know. Honestly. And they're *stock brokers*!

I *really* doubt there's an appreciable difference between the moral
integrity of the business community of West Coast Canada and West Coast U.S.
I know many who would disagree, but I'm not certain they'd be pointing
north.

The fact of the matter is that, in general, Vancouver is a pretty damn nice
place to be living on planet earth. It's got ugly parts, I'll grant that.
East Hastings is a nasty little heroin capital. And L.A. has some big
advantages as I've already noted. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say
that L.A. can -also- be a pretty damn nice place to be living on planet
earth.

> >I'm a -little- bit afraid of who I might become once I move there - I'm
> >hoping to do >some good fortification to my personality before I make the
> >jump.
>
> Care to share your tactics?

#1) Focus on the work, not on the audience.

That's the big one.

--

::jason.joel.thompson:: ::founder::

www.wildghost.com



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