how to get a five star rating (or, not)

Someone asked me why I gave five stars to a recent chat with a company.  Were they really worth five stars?  This is how I give out my stars.

One for responding within the time frame I required of them.
One for understanding the issue and not confusing it with another.
One for being knowledgeable.
One for finding a solution.
One for explaining, teaching, showing well in a meaningful, polite, non-robotic way.

If you’ve done all this, then you get five stars out of me.  If not, then not.

tiny ideas

I’ve written before about the tiny home idea previously – how it might work, what impacts it would have on a town or city, how if might help various people, etc.

Something occurred to me while going to a student’s house in a mobile home park.  There were several older mobile homes (or manufactured homes, if you will, since they’re not exactly mobile).  As these older models become less livable and their worth diminishes beyond the threshold of acceptability, they would need to be removed.  Why not use that space to install two, three, or four tiny homes?

The tiny home would fit nicely into a mobile home park.  Benefits:

  1. The infrastructure for accommodating movable homes is already there.
    1. The use of numerically numbered houses are already in place, rather than grid street addresses.
    2. Utilities electrical, gas, cable, telecommunications, and plumbing hookups are conclusive to movable homes.
    3. A non-standard placement of buildings already exist (the footprints of mobile homes are often kind of random).
  2. Lots in a mobile home park are for the most part rented, not owned, contributing for lower homeowner costs.
  3. Relocating a tiny home would be simpler in a mobile home park than a normal city street lot, allowing for easier sales and purchases of them.  Allowance could be made for shorter leases if a one-year lease isn’t desirable.
  4. Community centres are often part of a mobile home park, a facility that may be of greater benefit to a tiny home owner than the owner of a full-sized home.
  5. It would not impact the neighbourhood as negatively as the monster home crowd.  That is, not as many NIMBY complaints.

I’m sure I could continue to find reasons that this would be a good fit.  What say you?

snow

It started snowing again today.  Yay!

I actually don’t mind snow.  I don’t mind walking in it, driving through it, or shovelling it.  I certainly enjoy looking at it.  People sometimes say, “When it’s winter, I complain about the cold.  But, in summer, I look forward to winter.”  I don’t think I do.  I actually enjoy winter.  No noisy hot-rods driving up and down the roads, coffee tastes better for some reason, and I look forward to meals much more than in hot weather.  On the down side, I don’t get to work on any projects, and daylight disappears pretty quickly.

architecture on Ritalin

Holy cow.  How true.

This Is Your Brain on Architecture

Sarah Williams Goldhagen presents scientific evidence for why some buildings delight us and others—too many of them—disappoint.

Can anyone design a more depressing looking building?  Maybe Arthur Charles Erickson?  (The University of Lethbridge resembles a prison inside its halls.)  I thought for a moment – “What else has that cold, lonely, depressing look?”  What popped into my mind was Robson Square in Vancouver.  Oh – Mr. Erickson again.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not really into hobbit houses, either.  But surely some warmth can enter architecture, can it not?  We’re creating environments to be in.

food poisoning (or, crap)

I had some food poisoning today.  Well, not sure if poisoning is the right word.  I made some soup and included some dried foods left over from Korea.  Bad thing to do.  I rushed to the toilet several times.  Unfortunately, I had to cancel one class today but caught the second one.  On the way home, the fuel light turned on in the van.  It reminded me that I hadn’t eaten much today, so I stopped at Wendy’s for a wrap.  When I arrived home, Mother asked, “Do you have to go again?”  I took this the wrong way, thinking “the toilet”.  I replied, “Not sure yet, but thanks for asking.” She meant, “Do you have to teach again?”  Ah, then “no”.  Then Floyd asked, “Did you get rid of all that crap?”  Again, I was thinking “sitting on the toilet”.  “Uh… not sure yet,” I again replied.  He meant if I threw out the dried food in the cupboard.

to SIN or not to SIN

Good gravy.  I’ve been contacted four times in the past 24 hours by a machine claiming to be from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.  The recording states that my Social Insurance Number has been compromised.  Good gravy!  How gullible do you think I am?  Here’s an announcement from the actual OPC.  Don’t be fooled, people!  Hang up!