More sad news

I found out yesterday, one of the coolest, longest lasting styles that ever existed... the Converse All Star (ie Chuck Taylors) are no longer. You can still buy them, they are still making them, but they have been relegated to the blacklist.

They were always made in America, quite ethically... well... Nike bought Converse last year... I just found out. They moved production to one of their Chinese sweat shops.

Nike is evil, and Phil Knight is destroying the world with his brand.

I wont sell my soul to look cool.

I have awesome ideas

Everytime I have a great marketing idea, someone else does it. I came up with an idea for flip flops with christian symbols embossed into the bottom so they leave tracks when you walk after seeing similar spam sandals... now you can buy them online.

I started reading No Logo a while back... by the end of the first chapter I had an idea for an unlogoed brand, focussing primarily on making great quality products fairly, and marketing against 'being branded'. Well, now a few weeks later I see that Adbusters has created just such a company (despite the fact they do indeed have a brand name and logo to go with the shoes).

I gotta learn how to actually market an idea.

Sad Sad News

It would appear, my favourite band of all time... heads and shoulders above all my other "favourite" bands is "on hiatus". The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are more or less broken up. After much searching I can't find much information on it, except that the lead singer dickie, is the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live now and likes the job. They haven't said they've 'broken up', but my hopes of ever getting to see them live seem to have crashed. It seems too many of their fans were trendwhores and left when ska became less popular.

Anyway, its sad... I hope they get back together

An Ethical Dillemma

I was debating with Erin the other day on the ethics of amateur sports. We didn't resolve anything but it expanded into lots of issues.

Basically the question is this... If a Canadian Olympic athlete (we'll say medal contender so they are invaluable to the team) refused to wear a "swoosh" (Nike logo) on their uniform (I have yet to see an athlete in a sport without one), what would team Canada do? Would they be allowed to compete, should the be allowed to refuse a logo on ethical bounds. The nature of branding aside, Nike is notorious for human rights violations in it's sweatshops (and in the same breath promote equality and harmony through sport). So if an athlete in good conscience wouldn't wear that (or any other logo depending on which companies they choose not to support on moral grounds) what happens?

But it lead to my thinking. I'm working away on the masters degree, and NIST is interested in it. Now whether or not I like NIST, my research can be used by them cuz the thesis belongs to the U of C. Now NIST is funded by the US military, and they are developing robots that use real time 3D scanning for navigation. These would concievably be used in combat. I can't do anything about it, but it bugs me something I've researched could be used on a battlefield. Anyone with thoughts on that topic?

Just some ponderings.

Dean 1, Ryan 0

Just got back from youth leader last week. It was fantastic. It's a week long leadership training program that St. Bon brought a group to. The kids were fantastic, and so were the facilitators, Dean and Anne. I enjoyed it quite a lot. I was expecting something similar to Meitheal (an Irish program I used to lead) and in some ways it was, but I loved the spiritual aspect to it. I also really got to know some kids well and made some great connections.

The score comes from a game we played... graveyard. You have to lie still and not laugh as people try to without touching you. I was doing good until I got to Dean... man, that guy is a rock.

Also this weekend, Devin's wedding. Fantastic. Everything about it was great. The prep, the ceremony, the chilling, the pictures, the reception... it was really... really........ really............. good. I got to do the toast to the groom, I really liked that, and I think I gave devin a good one. In the end I was just super honoured to be part of the wedding and to be there to celebrate with them. It really was awesome. Only downside is it made me want to be married to Erin now... like... right now. Sigh.

Anyway, now I'm back to procrastinating... er... I mean working... yeah... working... that's what I mean. I gotta clean my office, then start on my annual calendar, and get the finances in order for september. Should be a good amount before I get rolling for the year. I'm really looking forward to september. I'm excited to work with the youth leader crowd and I really hope I can get Sr. High ministry and the cafe program off the ground.

That's it... back to procr.... er... work