one little cog

I just got back from Philly yesterday night after dropping by Buzzy’s on the way home.  Buzzy’s is THE best place for buffalo wings and pizza if you are passing through Niagara Falls, NY.  It’s a small family-owned restaurant that isn’t exactly the most smoothly-run restaurant in the world, but the food makes it all worthwhile!  I wish I had a photograph for you but definitely recommend a slice of their chocolate peanut butter smoothie.  Among all the desserts that my sweet tooth aches for, that ranks number one on my chart.

Top Five Favourite Desserts

1.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie (Buzzy’s)

2.  Fried Ice Cream (ranks slightly higher than pretty much any other ice cream related item)
3.  Sweet Potato Pie

4.  Soft-baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Farmer’s Market)

5.  Pecan Pie (ranks slightly higher than the rest of the other pies and all other desserts which I find amazing regardless)

What does this have to do with schooling?  Well, nothing but I thought I’d start off sweet and then throw out the hard stuff.  I think funniest things about desserts and school is what I remember as a kid.  What I would do for some chocolate or something to soothe that sweet tooth.

Now what am I taking a school-ing for?  Because I love learning (sans the exams of course).  Of course this will mean that I am ultimately very busy for the next few months but hopefully it will all be for the best and I will come out with some newfound skills and abilities.

While I was travelling through Pennsylvania and its many beautiful cities and small towns, we often stopped for a bite to eat at diners, fastfood chains and the odd tourist attraction.  I admired the number of small businesses that were able to thrive in small town USA, many of which would not be able to in Canada.  These towns were only a mere one or two hours apart but the landscape was different as were the people.

Small towns in Canada should not need to depend on resources that larger cities demand.  One thing that I definitely noticed was the fact that people from all over Pennsylvania would travel through smaller towns, something that does not happen frequently in Ontario.  It’s the unfortunate consequence of our geography when a massive majority of our population lives within the core areas of southwestern Ontario.  There are major implications for Canadians and Ontarians in general when majority of employment is located in southwestern Ontario and people must live near where they work.  I look forward to the time when employers promote and consider telecommuting seriously.  Just commuting alone to downtown Toronto, I lose four hours a day.  That’s four hours I could do whatever else I wanted to keep me being happy me.

Back to school-ing.  Notice in school, we were graded by the exams we take, the projects we finish, and the assignments we hand in?  Perhaps there was a small participation mark but the large percentage of credit was given for work completed.  If school is like that, why isn’t work?  If employers and employees wanted to get the most of their work or free hours, being paid per project is the most efficient and effective manner of operating.  Add on performance measures and you’ve got an operation that will nearly ensure things get done on time or as efficiently as possible.  I wonder how long it will take for companies to start realizing that hourly and salary based work is not the best way to make use of time.

Now why the connection between desserts and school again?  Well, it means less time for me to enjoy and make the desserts that life brings to the table.  Only for the meanwhile …

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