My dad, Bill Ritchie, was a great story teller who never seemed to be at a loss for a relevant story to drop into the conversation whether it was around a campfire or the dinner table. In the shot below, taken by my brother Al on one of our family moose hunting trips, it seems to be a funny story, likely of some misfortune that happened to him as he was often the brunt of his own humorous tales.…

I must admit that I am becoming preoccupied with Artificial Intelligence as of late. I absolutely loved the recent movie "The Imitation Game" in which Alan Turing invents one of the first electro mechanical computers to help win World War II. A was also amazed by "Interstellar" in which several computer AIs were portrayed as fairly key characters.

But Artificial…

Greetings and Happy 2015!!!

Three years ago, I started blogging on this site. I have written of some more serious topics and I have shared lighter and hopefully enjoyable stories and experiences. My New Year’s wish this year is somewhat of bridge between more serious topics of faith and…

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!!!…

One of the nice things that starts to happen as the nest begins to empty out is that you are able to start turning your attention to "the bucket list". This past October, Loreen and I picked San Francisco and the Northern California wine region of our list and we certainly were not disappointed. While our San Fran tour was very nice, save for this shot from the bay, I want to focus this posting on our wine country visit.…

The CBC has long been a source of great content with shows like As it Happens, Quirks and Quarks and now the infamous Q.

I would LOVE to see or hear the CBC host an interview show where Jian Ghomeshi is interviewed by his "lovers". Now this would be great Canadian programming :-)

P.S. I'm not judging whether he is guilty or…

As you may have recognized by now, my postings come from emotional experiences that I have gone through. It is pleasant and convenient for me and for readers is when the emotion is positive, heart-warming, experiential, or exiting. 

Unfortunately, the emotion that I have been dealing with over the last few weeks has been anything but positive. However, another underlying premise in our community is that we can help one another through experience sharing, even when these experiences…

For me it began on the Labour Day weekend in 1966 when I realized, there was no getting out of this, I was going to go from my life of freedom, playing and hiking…

Nothing philosophical today, just a couple of shots of my quick visit with Mom (Hilda) this Friday and Saturday.

It was a really nice visit as usual. Went for chicken at Swiss Chalet and ate way to many fries but it was yummy. Mom even had a glass of wine.…

It was with shock and heavy hearts that we heard yesterday that Robin Williams has made his last curtain call and left this world behind. It is even more shocking to hear that it is suspected that this fabulous actor/comic took his own life. If you are a follower of my blog, you may recognize that I write/post from an emotional standpoint, inspired by things that happen…

We hear this mantra or suggestion a lot these days and I guess it can have many meanings. Perhaps in today's busy life with so much media streaming at us, it makes even more sense to try to bring ourselves to understand and appreciate this key to really living life. But…

Okay, it is not a 'best trip ever' or an amazing lifetime experience, only a great place to chill and have a lunch in Ottawa.

I was lucky enough to be traveling for work to our capital with a colleague who knows the Ottawa area fairly well.  He suggested we take our guests to the Dows Lake Pavilion which is at the base of Preston Street where it meets Queen Elizabeth…

Last week, Amanda asked "What are you doing after work?".  I commented that I wanted to come back to that topic when I finished my next post and this is that follow-up.

I had two separate conversations recently and a common theme came up; that of becoming so good at or…

Last week was an amazing week for us as far as being…

Happy Mothers Day to all those special people out there.  Here's a great posting from a business blogger I follow but this one is dedicated to the leadership qualities of Mom.

9 Leadership Lessons from Mom

And of course, Happy Mothers Day to my beautiful Mom.

(If you wish to post to (my) Mom's page, you can find here…

Life is a ride and we’re all aware the ride has its ups and downs and this has been a roller-coaster of a week. From my last posting, you may know our family is dealing with the effects of dementia on our mom who is in a seniors’ home in Northern Ontario.…

We're being called the sandwich generation; but I think there has always been a sandwich generation, maybe even to a greater extent before than now; I think it is more of a sandwich phase of life. My siblings and I now find ourselves dealing with dementia in our family. We are very fortunate because our mother is in her 91st year and still doing very well but her short term memory is challenged and this, and other things, cause her confusion and anxiety.

Even though I'm not yet…

I was recently at a conference known as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  I would say that this has become the defacto standard for the show to see if you work in the telecom industry.

While it has evolved to become more than just a conference for mobile technologies, mobile phones and networks are the roots from which this show started. As I looked rode the shuttle to the conference one morning, I looked at all the attendees and I was amazed by the immensity of…