You can now find it by either visiting www.eagleinbc.com or going to blog.eagleinbc.com.

For those of you who read my posts via Facebook, this will have no impact on you!

Thanks!

Cam…

About 3 years ago, I was looking for a growth chart to mark my kids growth, but all of the ones that I found did not appear to be very durable — usually made of paper or fabric.  I decided to make one of my own.  When my family and friends saw it, they were impressed and started asking for one for their families.
Here are the details on the growth charts:

• They are 48 inches (4 ft) in height. I usually design them to start measuring kids at 2 feet (24 inches) up to 6 feet (72inches).
• The backboard can be Painted in White, Light Blue, Light Pink, Light Purple, or Pale Yellow (Other colours may be available).
• Backboard made of Spruce wood
• Includes 5 Figures/Letters/Picture Frames – Your choice of figures!  Chunky are 3/8″ thick and Thin are 1/16″ thick (see below for list).
• Any additional letters, figures, or picture frames, if required, can be purchased.
• The growth charts I make are easy to clean, durable, and can be uninstalled/reinstalled easily, if needed.
• If being shipped, comes in 2 parts, for easier and less expensive shipping.
• Includes four 2 1/4” wood screws and four wall anchors.
• Usually ships within a week of ordering. Confirmation e-mail of shipping and tracking number provided.
• Price – Starting from $23.00
  (Canadian Funds)

If you are interested in these, please check out my website http://camscraft.eagleinbc.com or e-mail me at camscraft@eagleinbc.com

Thanks!

Over the last few weeks, my wife has been going to meetings about the proposed school closures in SD42 (Maple Ridge (MR) & Pitt Meadows).  While I haven’t been able to go to these meetings (someone has to watch our kids!), she and I have been talking about the process and posibilities, and digging up information to present (and combat) the school board with.  (Click on Keep Reading for more!)

First, there were the information meetings that parents could attend.  This is when the school board presented their information, and then had a Q&A session.  A reporter from Maple Ridge’s The News was there and interviewed Colleen. (Click here to see the article!) The school district (SD42) presented all sorts of information saying that the population in west MR was declining, while in the east it was expanding.  It is true that the amount of new construction out there is on the rise, but I’m not so sure about the west side being in a decline.  Part of their stats were of the number of births in the local hospital.

Umm..  I see some problems with using that! We just moved out here with our three kids.  That wouldn’t count as part of their statistic. Surely we aren’t the only ones moving from Vancouver/Burnaby further east to more affordable housing.

The other arguement that SD42 made was that 40% of students go to schools outside of their catchment area.  I have two issues with this:

First, why are the schools/school board allowing this?  It’s there own fault that some schools are at 120% capacity, while others are at 75%.  If you want your children to go to one of the new, more technologically advanced schools, then move to that area! 

The second issue is a little more complex. 

My daughter goes to a French-immersion school.  French immersion catchments are considerably larger than english ones.  While we are within the French catchment, we aren’t within the English one.  Is SD42 considering my daughter part of the 40% going to a school outside the catchment for Riverside?  She shouldn’t be, considering that she is within a catchment that they set the boundaries for.  That appears, to me, to be a question left unanswered.

Now, SD42 claims that it *may* be necessary to close schools, in order to receive funding from the provincial government to build new schools.  According the school boards’ own numbers, enrollment at existing schools, as a whole, are going to decline over the next couple years, but by 2012, enrollment will be “at or above existing levels” with the future looking like that enrollment will continue to climb from there.  Now for the kicker.  One of the parents, Kevin Day, discovered that SD42 isn’t eligable to *apply* for addition funds to build school with until 2012. And there is no guarentee that they would be approved! So one would ask, why close schools that you will need in 5 years? Second, why sell off buildings that you have now, to risk not being approved by the provincial government for additional funds for new schools?  To me, that would be like selling my car now, and then in 6 months hoping that I would still qualify for a vehicle loan to replace what I previously had.

This past Wednesday, there was a final public input meeting.  Parents were able to put together a 3-5 minute presentation for the school board to listen to.  My wife and I put together one.  Okay, she really wrote it, and I encouraged her to add a couple things.  Here is her presentation:

William Butler Yeats wrote that education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. It is this fire that stands to be extinguished if schools in our district are closed. Consider the upheaval to the lives of our children that this process would cause. New schools, new routines, new teachers and classrooms, new classmates. Parents scrambling to find new childcare to accommodate their children, explaining to them that the figures on the page simply did not add up. That their being and their existence was not enough to justify the preservation of their school.I question the accuracy and relevancy of statistics presented at previous meetings. There are still large gaps that need to be further examined before any decisions should be made. For example, in the document titled “School Closure Process, Housing development statistics and projections” it states that the population of children, aged 0-14 in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows has declined by 3722 between 2001 and 2006. In reviewing Stats Canada figures for this same period, I found that the population of children in these areas, aged 0-14, has declined by only 145 (and of these, by only 20 youth in Maple Ridge).Discrepancies like this one are cause for alarm and for further questioning information presented by the board.A school should be a safe haven for our children, a place where the focus is on building knowledge, self esteem, and life skills. It is not a question of fulfilling ministry requirements for squishing as many children into one room as possible. Indeed, there are advantages to that space in a school – for increased activity, for more individual attention for our children, for adequate space for our special needs children.A school is not simply a building – like your local 7-11 or McDonalds. It is a gathering place, daily, for our children. It is where they receive their education, make friends, and learn the lessons that will stay with them throughout their lives. Moreover a school ground is where we take our children to play on weekends, where we fly kites on a windy day. It is where our children learn pride in their environment. It is where your local beavers, or brownies meet, and where we vote our officials into office. Why would we consider closing such an essential part of our communities?And what would the impact on our children and our community be? The obvious safety concerns with simply getting children to and from school, less one-on-one time for our kids, the possible economic impact for parents, disruption of routine, the abandonment of the culture of those closed schools, possible negative impact for the whole community, and the over-all lesson that our children will take away – we didn’t matter.There is also the question of our French Immersion programs. The decision to enter my child into French Immersion was not made lightly. There was research involved, discussions with other parents, as well as current and former students. Similarly, the decision for my husband and I to move our 3 girls from Burnaby to Maple Ridge early this year was only done after much research and soul searching. Our happiness was infinite. A new home, a beautiful neighbourhood, an excellent school with excellent teachers.So perhaps you ask what is wrong with this impending change? Our daughter adjusted to a new school already, a new home, new friends. But this was for the BENIFIT of our daughter and her sisters. This was done to enrich her educational and life experiences. Increasing numbers in a classroom, potentially abandoning the French Immersion program, moving schools in order to meet ministry expectations is not enriching – it is detrimental to her and her school mates, and every child within this district.Amidst all of these numbers, graphs, and figures it is easy to forget what is truly at stake here. Remember the spark you see in a child’s eye. That ah-ha moment when they begin to understand a new concept. Please let’s let their fires burn; do not close Riverside (or other schools in our district). These children are our future, and we must be their biggest advocates – their biggest supporters.

So, the only part I encouraged her to add was the statistics and the part about schools being used to elect officials, used by beavers and brownies, etc.  But..  here’s the thing. 

After the meeting, Seamus Nesling, school board spokesman approached Colleen and asked her where she got the stats. He said that he was responsible for those numbers in one of the many reports presented at the inital meetings.  She told him that it was from the Stats Can website and that she could provide him with the links.  He gave her his e-mail address, and that night she sent them off. 

Here was his reply:

Hi Cam and Colleen
I checked them too. You are absolutely correct. I somehow got the Maple Ridge number wrong. I have corrected the chart.
Seamus Nesling 

So this would seem like some great victory!  I mean, the number of kids in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, between the age of 0-14 is REALLY only 145 less than 5 years ago!  Not 3722!  That’s peanuts! 

Here is article in The News that includes his “official” answer:

Parents poke holes in school board’s case for closures at meeting

By Robert Mangelsdorf
Staff Reporter

Oct 13 2007

Parents, students, and teachers accused the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board of fast-tracking the school closure process and distributing misleading information at the board’s meeting at Thomas Haney secondary on Wednesday night.

Chief among their concerns was that the board is pushing ahead too fast with the process, and not taking into account the many alternatives to closing schools.

“Closing a school should be last resort,” said District Parent Advisory Council chair Kathy Froelich. “Their deadline is very tight and I just hope they look at all the options available.”

The board voted to close up to five schools last June based on the recommendations of independent consulting firm, the Cornerstone Group.

Kevin Day, whose daughter attends Riverside elementary, was one of the many parents on hand to plead with the board to spare their school from the district’s school closure process.

He accused the board of ignoring the process laid out by the Cornerstone Group in that report, which states that prior to determining which schools are to be closed, there should be a study process which would “take approximately one to two years to examine the best local strategy for each [area].”

“They’ve accepted [their recommendations], but not the process they laid out,” said Day after the meeting.

Embattled board trustee Nel Joostema, who flew in from Nova Scotia to take part in the school closure process, agrees with Day’s concerns.

“I do feel we are going about this too quickly,” she said after the meeting.

Colleen MacDonald, whose daughter also attends Riverside elementary, accused the board of distributing misleading population figures.

Earlier this month, the school district distributed a chart which stated that while the population of Maple Ridge had increased by more than 5,700 people between 2001 and 2006, the number of children between ages 0-14 had decreased by 3,597.

However, As MacDonald pointed out, census figures put the decline at only 20 children in Maple Ridge and 125 children in Pitt Meadows.

School board spokesperson Seamus Nesling took responsibility for the mistake but insists the numbers have nothing to do with the data the Cornerstone Group used in making their recommendations to the board, and had no bearing on the district’s decision to adopt those recommendations.

“We included that information to illustrate the point to parents that the population is changing,” said Nesling. “It still makes the point that the number of school age children is declining while the population is increasing, just not as dramatically.”

For MacDonald, it’s just another disheartening reminder that parents have little control over the decision.

“The speed of this process terrifies me,” she said. “I feel they are making every effort to include the public in the process, but ultimately, they’re only looking at numbers on a page.”

The board will vote on which schools are to be slated for closure at the next school board meeting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 24, at the school district office at 22225 Brown Avenue.

 ————

What???  The numbers have nothing to do with the data?  What the hell is data then? 

It seems to me that the school board made up their minds long ago.  They know what is going to happen and are merely jumping through legislative hoops.  They know what schools are going to close.

Well, the bottom line is this.  On October 22, 2007, there will be a meeting that SD42 will be holding to announce “their findings”.  This will not be an interactive meeting, but parents are allowed to come to “observe”.  October 24th, the board votes on which schools should be (“if any”) closed.  On December 19th, they will be finalized.  At that point, it will be known to all which (“if any”) schools will be closed June 30, 2008.

What a load of crap….

First of all, I wanted one that still allowed me to use the picture of Megan and the duck in the header.  A lot of the ones that I found either didn’t have a banner picture option, or simply wouldn’t allow me to crop the picture the way I wanted..

Secondly, change is good!  While I was content with the layout of what I had, there were a few changes that I wanted to make.  Firstly, I wanted to better highlight another page on my blog “Canadian Recalls“.  Aside from a little thing down the side of the old layout, there was no way with the previous layout that I was using that I could highlight when changes were made to it..

Thirdly..  well..  I guess I just thought it would be nice to try something different..  it goes back to the “change is good” idea, I suppose..

Anyhow, I hope that everyone is having a great day..  I’m trying to have a more positive outlook on things..

Things are not going well at all..  It seems that I have to wait for appointments to do anything with my back.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t see a neurosurgeon until April 2008…  But there was still hope!  I was supposed to be getting a Cortisone shot sometime by the end of October!

Apparently not….  I got the call for the appointment today.  I was informed that it will be just for a consult about the shot.  Guess what!? The consult appointment isn’t until December 5th of this year..

So, what’s my problem??

Money..  plain and simple..  I am virtually out of money…  Colleen recently got a notice from Human Resources Canada to inform her that she owes them over $600 because of undeclared income while she was on maternity leave (by no mistake on her part!).  That’s great?!  We don’t have enough problems!

Not only that, but I haven’t seen a payment from my short-term disability benefits since the end of August..  it’s now mid-October..  Apparently, they are still evaluating my claim..  To Pacific Blue Cross, I’m just another claim number..

As for WorkSafeBC (WCB), they just recently received all the information from my doctor..  And they tend to take 4-6 weeks to make a decision.. 

All this equals one thing…  No Money…  No idea how to pay my mortgage in two weeks..  I’m going to the bank tomorrow to pull out what little I still have in my RRSP’s (which I’m going to regret around tax-time!), to try and get by..  but that’s it..

I called the union hall today to see if I could get some sort of emergency funding..  I haven’t heard back yet, but if I don’t by noon tomorrow, I’m going to be calling again to find out what’s going on..

This isn’t just affecting my wife and I..  My oldest daughter, Lizzy, who is going to be 6 years old next month came home today with a notice that they are going to have a Subway lunch at the end of the month.  I looked at the form, and smiled and said that I’d send the form back with her tomorrow with a cheque (for a whole $4.00 for a mini-sub and chocolate milk)..  She looked at me and said that she could pay for it with her money in her piggy bank..  It took 10 minutes, but I eventually assured her that she doesn’t need to worry about that..  It’s my job to provide for her lunch!

Now, Colleen and I aren’t trying to make her aware of the dire financial situation that we currently are facing, but how can she not know?  It doesn’t take long to be around us to see that we are very stressed.

I did have a slight glimmer of hope today though..  Three friends, all independently, offered to loan us money until we got some payment from somewhere..  Not an option that I want to face, but if it comes to it…..well..  desperate times call for desperate measures..

I’m hoping that something comes through soon..  I’m hoping that I am able to return to work soon, on light-duty, at what I would consider reasonable pay (70% of what I was making before at least).  I’m hoping that something changes for the better soon..  After all, in the back of my mind, I’ve got Christmas to think about too..  Yes, I need to take care of the bare essentials first (food, shelter, etc), but I can’t disappoint my kids, can I?

That simply is not an option to me…

So, this is for recalls that I come across.  By no means is anyone to assume that this is a complete list.  Also, this will be mainly a Canadian List (But very often, Canadian/USA ones are the same).

If you have one to add, please feel free!  My main source will be from Health Canada, but I may use others as well..

Overall, I think that awareness is key.  The more sources that list the info, the more likely that it is that more people are going to  get the message.

Thanks!

Cam…

(Please note that this list is effective as of today, October 9, 2007.  I may refer back to older ones though)

We left Maple Ridge early Friday afternoon to drive up to Penticton.  The kids had a great time with Papa and Grandma.  And aside from witnessing a high-speed police chase (click here for details!) of which we saw a very small portion, and certainly not the most dangerous part (we saw him driving EXTREMELY dangerously, narrowly missing two other vehicles), nothing interesting happened.

That’s about it..  I didn’t do much aside from reading Harry Potter (now reading the 4th book.  I only started reading them about 3 weeks ago).  Colleen and the girls visited a friend, Cathy, and her two boys.  I was feeling kinda blah, so I went to Cherry Lane for some retail therapy! (It worked better than Physio!)

Overall, it’s nice to be home.  I enjoyed getting away, especially after being stuck at home for weeks and weeks, it was nice for a change of view, but it’s always nice to come back home to your own bed.

Why don’t people greet each other the way they did 20 years ago?

Seriously..  I remember as a kid when I was introduced to adults, I always was told, “This is Mr. So-and-so.”.   It was only polite to say hello to Mr. Wilson down the street.  I NEVER would have said, “Hi Bob!”.

Now that I’m an adult, I don’t find that level of courtesy.  Well, that isn’t entirely true..  I do hear “Here is your receipt, Mr. MacDonald” at Safeway, but that isn’t courtesy… that’s what they’ve been trained to do.  None of my daughters friends say Mr. MacDonald.  The funny thing is that they don’t say much.   At best, I get “Lizzy’s Dad”..  They always seem awkward at the front door..  

I do admit, that I have not taught my daughter to call people Mr./Mrs. either.  Somehow, we (society) have become lax on this..

One of the things that annoys me about it is when Chip (Jim Carrey) “flicks the switch”.  THERE IS NO SWITCH!  At least not here in Canada!  The number of times when I’m working that I here “Don’t you just need to flick the switch?” is astounding! 

Also, you get the “clever” people.  I’ll get to a home, someone answers the door, and then they turn around and yell into the house, “The cable guy is here!”.  Then, they’ll look at me and think that they have just realized some incredible thing, and make a joke/reference to the movie.

The best/worst one was when a customer asked me, “You’re not going to try to be my friend, are you?”  I assured them that I had no interest in that..

Anyhow…  enough about dumb movies!

Other than that, I’m doing okay, all things considered.  With the modification to my meds, I “feel” a little better.  But, I still have to be careful, because all that means is that I don’t feel myself overdoing it…  at least not until later..

I wish I was able to go back to work… 

Overall, I am not impressed with Alarmforce’s service or technology.  The system (at least in Canada), is a joke.  It’s a small box that plugs into the phone jack.  It isn’t integrated into the phone system to ensure that it has priority over the dial tone.  (I work for Shaw Cable. Part of my job entails hooking up phone service for customers; I know how alarm systems SHOULD be hooked up).  It’s very “mickey mouse” really.

In short, if you live in Canada at least, I would NOT recommend AlarmForce as an alarm company.  You can be sure that when my contract with them is up, I’ll be switching.