The Most Beautiful Sound in the World: The Laughter of my Son

CBC News Story About Exempt Markets

A CBC news reporter, Dave Sims, contact me about a week ago for a story he was working on; he wanted permission to use photos of the Concrete Equities protests that happened in June of 2009. They weren’t my photos, so I couldn’t give permission, but thankfully Sims found someone who had some photos for his article, which you can check out here. I spoke to Dave on the phone about my opinions about exempt market funds, and it was summed up as follows:

“Jason Dunn, another Calgary investor who has lost at least $10,000 in the Concrete Equities collapse, doesn’t share that view. He wants investors to have as many choices as possible — even high-risk ones — but he does agree that investors should be protected against fraud.”

What I meant by that statement is that properly informed investors who are qualified to take the risks (accredited investors) involved in exempt markets should be allowed to do so. I believe that people should be able to do what they want with their money, even if it’s high risk.

However…when non-accredited investors who shouldn’t be investing in the first place get advice from their financial consultants to invest with a company that has financial links back to the financial consulting agency in question…when officers of the company in question engage in business practices that bankrupt the company…and when outright fraud is committed by officers of the company who take money for one investment and use it as a down-payment for another investment…something is obviously very wrong with the system. These people either believed they were too smart to get caught, or they weren’t afraid of the penalties.

I’m unsure of whether or not the current laws are strong enough to keep these types of people in check, or enough to protect investors until it’s too late – it certainly wasn’t enough to deter my financial consultant from signing paperwork saying we were except from the investor limitations because we were “friends or close business associates of the firm”. I’ve learned many hard and painful investing lessons over the past five years…the biggest of which is to never take any financial consultant at his word. Always investigate on your own; even a Google search on the names of the people involved will give you some measure of understanding about their track record in the industry. It amazes me – in a shameful way – that I spent hours researching which digital camera to spend $500 on, yet spent zero time researching the people wanting me to invest thousands of dollars with them. One of the many lessons I need to teach my son as he grows up…

Logan’s Working on his Keyboarding Skills

Logan absolutely loves banging on computer keyboards, so I decided to give him a cheap wireless keyboard I had sitting on my shelf as a toy. And now he loves playing with it – so while we’re not letting him use a computer yet, he’s at least getting familiar with the equipment. 😉

The Father/Son Perspective

One of the interesting things I’ve noticed since becoming a father – more specifically, a father to a son – is that my perception of all things “dad” related has changed. Before Logan was conceived, I looked at stories and images of fatherhood in an “Oh, that’s nice” sort of way. After we knew Logan was on his way, and especially after he was born, I’ve found my perception of fatherhood to be radically altered. “No duh!” some of you might be thinking – but, honestly, until you’re a father to a son yourself, it’s not something you can comprehend. I know I couldn’t. Not having a daughter, I can’t make a comparison, but I’m sure it’s a similar sort of thing. I find myself looking at TV commercials, movies, books, magazine ads, etc. that depict fatherhood and feeling impacted by them in a big way. I really wasn’t prepared for the way my perceptions would be changed, but I’m so very grateful for the new thoughts and feelings that come with this new role in my life. Being a father to my son is something I look forward to with great anticipation, with all the ups and downs that come with it.

This particular issue has been on my heart lately, but was catalyzed today by the passing of my friends son who was born via c-section today at six months of development. He didn’t survive, and my heart breaks for my friend and his wife.

Public Service Announcement: Stand The Hell Back From The Airport Baggage Carousel, Thanks

If you fly more than once a decade, you’ll doubtless have seen the above scenario (photographed at the Calgary airport on my way back from my CES 2010 disaster trip). People line up to get their baggage at the carousel, but rather than everyone standing back a couple of feet so more people can see their bag coming, 99.9% of people cram right up to the rail, often leaning in to see what’s coming – completely blocking the view for everyone else. What ends up happening of course is that you see your bag as it passes right in front of you, and you loudly exclaim “Excuse me!” as you lunge for your bag before it goes by. When I was at the Las Vegas airport, an elderly gentlemen and I were standing a few feet back while everyone else crammed and scurried in front of us. He exclaimed “When I was in kindergarten I learned to take my turn – what’s wrong with these people?”. Preach it old man!

People, it’s just common sense: stand back a bit and only step forward to grab your bag when you see it coming. Thank you – this ends the public service announcement.

A Message From Transport Canada

Here’s hoping that if/when I go to CES 2011, it won’t be quite this bad…

Is Social Networking Becoming Less Social?

During my hellish CES experience, I noticed something interesting: the point in time when I was hoping for some encouragement from my F&F (friends and followers), I didn’t get any. Being sick sucks, but being violently ill in a hotel room all by yourself sucks even worse. I felt quite alone and could have used some encouraging words to help get me through the day. I posted a message on Twitter about how sick I was, and I thought it also went to Facebook but didn’t. I was a bit surprised then when only one person sent me any words of encouragement – and this person happened to be someone I know only via Twitter. I imagine I would have gotten more of a response if TweetDeck had posted my message to Facebook – it didn’t make it due to a password glitch – but it still amazes me that with 530 followers on Twitter only one felt like wishing me well. Is there so much noise in the social networking space that being social with others is no longer part of the equation?

CES 2010: The Worst CES Experience I’ve Ever Had

CES: it’s the geek Mecca. This year, for me, it was a train-wrecka (har har!). Join me on my journey of unpacking the frustrations and tribulations of a CES I’d rather forget. I need some catharsis from the five days I spent in Vegas, so this is more for me than you, but perhaps you’ll find it entertaining in a “driving past a car wreck” sort of way.

When I went to CES 2009, I posted quite a few videos of what I saw there. Producing those videos in 1080p h.264 on my Dell XPS M1330 took a long time, so on December 9th I placed an order for a pimped-out Core i7-based Dell Studio 17. Plenty of time before CES, right? Wrong. Despite calling in a favour with a contact I have in Dell’s CTO office, as of December 30th I still didn’t have the laptop – the estimated ship date was January 8th, three days after I left for CES. Switching to plan “B”, I went out and purchased an HP dv7, a $2000 Core i7-based laptop with a 17.3″ screen and a weight of seven pounds. I was planning on bringing this beast of a laptop with me to CES to leave in my hotel room for video production, and I’d carry a netbook me me for day to day CES reporting. Then I started to hear about the security restrictions after the December 25th “underwear bomber” was foiled, and my already rocky start to CES prep got worse. Continue reading CES 2010: The Worst CES Experience I’ve Ever Had

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year everyone! I can’t believe it’s 2010…growing up, that date seemed like “the space-age future” – you know, complete with flying cars and whatnot. It’s amazing that the year is now 2010…the start of a new decade, a decade in which my life has changed for the better because now I’m a father. 2009 was a rough year for many people in the world, but I’m thankful for the blessings that were given to me in 2009: a healthy son, the continuation of a wonderful and strong marriage, a great writing contract with Microsoft, amazing volunteers that help me do a job I enjoy tremendously, and amazing friends and family. I couldn’t ask for anything more. May 2010 be a year full of blessings, prosperity, and good health for you and those that you love!