Head Tale

Music Monday – “I don’t practice Santeria, I ain’t got no crystal ball/I had a million dollars but I’d, I’d spend it all.”

¶ Posted 11 February 2019 § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Travel § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: allinclusive, holiday, music

Some Insight Into All-Inclusives (Yay – We Leave In Two Weeks Today!)

In my reading and research about all-inclusives, I’ve come across some interesting articles about the changes in the industry – from the early days of Club Med in the 1970’s pioneering “pay one price” vacations that featured mid-range accommodation, bland buffets and watered down drinks right on through today when all-inclusives are an ever-expanding success in the tourism sector with all sorts of specializations and features – from five-star restaurants to eco-themes to full on water parks.

These articles also provide some insight into how all-inclusives maximize their profits by taking advantage of the psychology of people paying their full invoice months in advance so guests often feel that “extras” such as premium wine, spa services, excursions and much more are more “affordable” since they haven’t paid out anything else for the trip (and it works – Shea and I have used spa services, souvenir stores on site, and even paid to go to exclusive parts of the resort, in the past!)

There’s also mention how, in some ways, guests who stay longer (14 days instead of 7) are often less desirable in a way because they’re more likely to go off-resort to spend money on restaurants, tours and shopping then short-stay guests who are more likely to keep their time (and money) on the resort!

It’s a really fascinating industry – I’ve looked but never found a behind-the-scenes book that gets more into these types of details. (Maybe I should write it?) 😉

¶ Posted 10 February 2019 § PopCulture § Travel § Wisdom ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: allinclusive, book, economics, history, travel

Saturday Snap – Black Forest Beer?

I’m a big fan of black forest cake and I’m a big fan of beer so when I saw a post online about “Black Forest Beer” made by combining a dark beer like stout or porter with cherry mead, I couldn’t wait to try it.

To add to the appeal, I thought it’d be a perfect cold weather drink after spending half an hour outside shoveling snow earlier this week.

But in the end, it wasn’t horrible but didn’t really grab me the way I hoped it would.

Oh well, always worth trying something new. (Now where’d I put that recipe for the Paloma which one guy online said was a drink that “changed his life” when he went on all-inclusive vacations?) 😉

¶ Posted 09 February 2019 § Humour § Photo § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: allinclusive, food

Friday Fun Link – Hyatt Ziva Cancun as seen from a drone

Have been spending a lot of time thinking about one of the great curses of tropical holidays – you usually book them six months or so in advance so you have no idea how the weather will be when you go!

We don’t leave for a couple weeks but right now we’re in the midst of a snap of record-breaking cold and I keep thinking it’ll probably be -4 when we finally leave. 🙁

Oh well, still warmer in Mexico than here!

¶ Posted 08 February 2019 § FridayFunLink § Travel § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: allinclusive, travel

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – How Did I Get Here? #2 – My Friends

In last week’s post, I said your parents are your first formative influence who give you so many of your basic life lessons and core moral code.

If that’s the case, I feel like your friends are the ones who exist to test, question and expand that moral code as you grow. Your friends are the ones who you have playground conversations with where you learn everything from the truth about Santa to facts about sex (well, “facts” in quotation marks might be more accurate!) to all-night discussions about the deepest philosophical questions.

The photo above, taken last fall at the funeral of the brother of a former classmate who was a year older than my grade. A few friends had decided to drive out to Indian Head for the funeral to support our classmate after her brother had died suddenly.

In this photo, there is:
* the friend who was born two days after I was, spent time in the same nursery at the hospital with me and is therefore technically my oldest friend in the world
* the friend who stood up with me at my wedding (uhm, my third one. My cousin stood up with me at our very small legal wedding in Calgary, my dad stood up with me at our small “ceremony” wedding in Mexico. But it was one of my best friends who stood up at our “party” wedding back in front of a couple hundred people back in Saskatchewan!)
* the friend who matched my early interest in computers and technology and was one of the first people who introduced me to BBS’s (Bulletin Board Systems) which were an early conduit to the Internet (that friend also met his wife online, long before dating sites were a thing!)
* the friend who challenged me more than anyone growing up in a variety of ways. He challenged me physically as he was the person who taught me to ride a bike. When he was fighting another friend and winning, said “Who’s the toughest?”. The person he was beating on said “You are!” and he replied, “No, Hammond is!” because at the time (grade one?), I could still take him!). He also challenged me mentally and is the person who I credit to this day for making me an atheist and giving me my science-based, skeptical view of the world.
* the friend who was the daredevil and most likely to take risks – jumping off roofs, driving too fast, etc. which helped me define my own limits.

This is a snapshot (literally!) summary of the influence of some of the friends I’ve known since kindergarten (or longer) but I have friends from throughout elementary school, high school, university (both undergrad and grad school) and since then who I may not see as as often as when we used to regularly share space in a classroom or dorms or whatever.

But those people continue to influence me in so many ways – from books I read to changing my core ideas of how I view the world (as I’m obviously a very different person now than I was at 10 or 20 or 30.)

Social media has been a factor in how I’m able to keep up with this wide range of friends but there’s an unfortunate flip side – friends who I used to hang out with, have sleepovers with and tell my darkest secrets to – are now online sharing ideas I fundamentally disagree with – how much they hate Justin Trudeau (I mean, I’m not a fan but some folks have a visceral hatred that’s alarming) to out and out racism.

On one hand, I get it – that’s the environment we all came out of and their influences have shaped them differently than mine (that’s part of why I’m doing this series – how come I turned out to be this progressive-minded, NDP-supporting librarian and one of my best friends growing up is an anti-immigrant conservative???)

Anyhow, wherever our personal journeys take us, there’s no denying the massive influence your friends – especially in your earliest years but continuing on through your life – play on who you are and how you see the world.

¶ Posted 07 February 2019 § MemoryLane § Photo § ThrowbackThursday § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: education, history

Happy Anniversary, Shea!

I look forward to raising a toast with you in Mexico in a couple weeks (preferably champagne, not tequila!)

¶ Posted 06 February 2019 § Family § MemoryLane § Shea ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: allinclusive, holiday, travel

I Mean, There’s A Lot You Could Say About Trump’s “State of the Union” Address…

…but this really sums it up:

¶ Posted 05 February 2019 § Humour § Meme § News § Politics § United States ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: education, language, unitedstates

Music Monday – “And there’ll be sun, sun, sun all over our bodies/And sun, sun, sun all down our necks/And there’ll be sun, sun, sun all over our faces/And sun, sun, sun, so what the heck”

Hey look! I went through an added an “allinclusive” tag to all my posts about various aspects of our all-inclusive holidays over the years to make them easier to find instead of just using the “holiday” tag which is a bit broader.

I’m clearly getting excited with three weeks to go (and songs like the one below are helping me get in the mood too!)

“5 Years Time” – Noah and the Whale

¶ Posted 04 February 2019 § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Travel § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: allinclusive, holiday, music

Paths to Victory for 2020 Democratic Hopefuls

So it looks like there could end up being a few dozen people running for President as a Democrat in 2020.

Based mostly on my own reading and research plus a fair bit of gut feeling, here are quick summaries of who I think could win (and how), ranked roughly by how I see their chances.

Kamala Harris
– early favourite who blends a few strengths including multicultural background, XY chromosomes, powerful base in California plus a strong legal background. Lots of debate about whether she’s centrist or progressive. (Full disclosure: My first introduction to Kamala Harris was some time during Obama’s second term when I realised he would soon be out of office and the Democrats might be ready for someone who combined some of the main characteristics of Obama and his main opponent, Hillary Clinton. I did some Googling and Kamala Harris seemed to fit the bill so I’ve had a soft spot for her ever since!)

Bernie Sanders
Recapture the energy (and fundraising) of his first run with young people and grassroots activists, continue to be strong with independents and the working class plus those who may have “buyer’s remorse” about Hillary being the nominee instead of Bernie and “what might have been”. He could possibly counter arguments about weakness with people of colour by naming someone like rust-belt state senator Nina Turner a prominent role (some have suggested even naming her VP but that seems a bit extreme for a state senator.)

Joe Biden
Combine fondness for Obama years with his “regular guy” working class persona and high likeability ratings.

Dwayne Johnson
People have joked about it but given our society’s emphasis on name recognition and celebrity, the highest grossing movie star in America who has very broad appeal across the political spectrum could be a dark horse (though he’s said he’s not running.)

Elizabeth Warren
Keep pushing progressive policies and try to position herself as a blend of Hillary and Bernie. Try to put that DNA test debacle behind her.

Cory Booker
Booker is another potential Presidential candidate that I don’t have good feelings about though I’m not sure why – he’s got a reputation as a centrist and a fairly corportist politician for one thing but I also know I’ll never like anyone who cuts libraries (and even gets usually neutral library associations to make public statements criticizing him!) But as for winning, maybe try to come across as Obama 2.0?

Beto O’Rourke
Continue to build on his close-but-no-cigar Senate campaign in Texas which positioned him as another charismatic young leader in the mold of Obama but with potential to turn Texas blue. (Beto is my top pick to end up as the VP nominee for a lot of these people.)

Sherrod Brown
Progressive senator from Ohio, he was one of the top people I thought Hillary should’ve picked as a better VP candidate instead of Tim Kaine.

Amy Klobuchar
Raised her profile during the Brett Kavanagh hearings. Midwestern woman with legal background. Some have suggested she’s got the best combination of attributes to dump Trump though she feels like a bit of a long shot right now.

Kirsten Gillibrand
Personally not a huge fan of Gillibrand but not sure why. To be fair, I also don’t know as much about her as some of the others on this list.

Julian Castro
Another Texan who has potential to reach Hispanic communities and is probably more likely to end up in the VP sweepstakes then as a serious Presidential contender.

Tulsi Gabbard
Tough one – she was an outspoken Bernie supporter last time and also has a military background but gets a lot of criticism for being anti-LGBT and having some other views that aren’t those of a traditional Democrat.

John Delaney
First candidate to declare but doesn’t stop me from saying “Who?”

Pete Buttigieg
Get some name recognition and hope everyone else gets really bad food poisoning at a debate or something? 🙂

Edit: From MetaFilter, a good comment about how no candidate will be perfect:

Gabbard isn’t very liberal. Harris championed some insensitive positions as a prosecutor and, as a Californian, wouldn’t deliver a swing home state. Klobuchar may have been insensitive to workers. O’Rourke hasn’t won a statewide office. Warren caught flak for her blind spot in her familial pride at having an ancestor of Native American heritage. Bernie Sanders isn’t a Democrat and would be 80 in 2020. Kirsten Gillibrand has a muddled history on immigration and, like Harris, wouldn’t deliver a swing home state. Julian Castro hasn’t won a statewide office. Cory Booker will have to answer some uncomfortable questions about his time as mayor of Newark. Sherrie Brown is rumpled. Biden would be 78 in 2020 and has a record of centrism on some key economic issues.