John Oliver Smith
Bio
Baby, son, brother, child, student, collector, farmer, photographer, player, uncle, coach, husband, student, writer, teacher, father, science guy, fan, coach, grandfather, comedian, traveler, chef, story-teller, driver, regular guy!!
Achievements (1)
Stories (114/0)
Roughriders on a Plane
Two of the earliest sports heroes in my life, were members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders - a team in the Canadian Football League since 1910. The first, George Reed, was a young American fullback with the Washington State Cougars, who, in 1963, came north to play professional football in Canada. As luck would have it, Ron Lancaster (a second hero of mine), made the move from the Ottawa Roughriders to Saskatchewan at roughly the same time. The rest was history. The Roughriders had a lot of successful seasons starting that year and on into the next decade. Reed and Lancaster were two of the main reasons why the team enjoyed such success and why they won the Grey Cup in 1966. Every kid in Saskatchewan wanted to be either #23 (Ron Lancaster) or #34 (George Reed). They were both so much bigger than our own tiny little lives at the time.
By John Oliver Smith2 months ago in Unbalanced
- Runner-Up in Tautogram Challenge
Our Home 'ON' Native Land
In the 70 plus years that I have lived on this planet, I have travelled many roads, highways, water routes and airways. Often, as I journey along these pathways, I wonder why they exist in the exact locations they do, or why they exist at all for that matter. If you have ever driven along the Trans-Canada Highway between Vancouver and Winnipeg for example, you may have pondered the same question. The highway does not exactly follow a straight line. Surely if highway designers and builders wanted to construct a roadway between two points, they should survey and follow a fairly straight path. Every good geometry student will tell you that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So, why not use that concept to lay down pavement in a manner that would prove to be the most financially viable effort, thus saving governments and tax-payers a big pile of money? The answer to this question comes from the closer examination of a tremendous time-line of natural history.
By John Oliver Smith3 months ago in Earth
While Playing with My Dog
While playing with the dog this morning, I was thinking, “What if I wasn’t here to throw this stick for this animal? What would the dog be doing if it wasn’t running after this stick and bringing it back to me so that I could throw it again?” I was thinking, “How important am I really, you know, in the grand scheme of things? How well would the world carry on without me?” Not that I don't feel important or worthwhile, but I do reckon that this is a valid question since the world did exist for quite a few years without me, before I came onto the scene. And, no matter how many brilliant contributions I make while I'm here, I also imagine that it will likely continue spinning around after I have made my exit.
By John Oliver Smith4 months ago in Earth
Thirty of the Best Song Lyric Lines of All Time
Encouraged by various posts I have seen on Facebook and other social media platforms, I have decided to compile a list of some of my favourite song lyrics from tunes I have heard and sung-along-to over the years. The list that follows is constructed in no particular order and with no definite theme in mind. In fact, I may have even forgotten some of the best ones. This list just happens to be the list from this moment. If I were to compose such a compilation in a year’s time or while on my way out of this world, the items contained therein would likely be at least a little different.
By John Oliver Smith5 months ago in Beat
Hi My Name is John and I'm a Sports Fan
Well, the competing teams for the 2022 edition of the Canadian Football League Championship game have been revealed. This year’s Grey Cup game will be played in Regina, at Mosaic Stadium (the home of my favorite CFL team – the Saskatchewan Roughriders), on Sunday, November 20. The Roughriders unfortunately did not qualify to play in the game where they should have, in fact, been the hosts. They didn’t even qualify for the playoffs this season on the wings of a dismal season. I talked to Riders’ quarterback – Cody Fajardo, back in early June about the Championship game being held in Regina and the chances of the Roughriders actually being in that game. He seemed optimistic and relayed to me the idea that, “it would be a good year for us to win it all, I guess.” But alas, I guess that won’t be happening until maybe 2023 at the earliest. In fact, my favorite Canadian Football League team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, have not won a championship game since 2013 – almost 10 years ago. The last time they won a Grey Cup game, I wasn’t yet a diabetic and I wasn’t receiving Old Age Security cheques yet. But that is not the worst of it – I am a huge sports fan and I cheer for at least one team in every major professional sports league in North America. My personal fan drought is not restricted to merely the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL.
By John Oliver Smith7 months ago in Unbalanced
Self Check-out Terminals (SCTs)
The concept and subsequent arrival of SCTs in larger retail outlets has grown to be a fairly substantial burr under the saddle of more than just a few shoppers in the Western free world, and these individuals have been quick to voice their seemingly abundant self-righteous opinions on the matter on every social media platform available. I confess that I have frequently used said terminals in several different stores, including Shoppers, Costco, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot. I found all of them to be quite simple and easy to operate. They seem to expediate the check-out process and significantly untangle the cash-out queues while certainly eliminating the check-out rage that tends to build when low-item-number shoppers end up in a line behind someone who has just won the lottery and is now stocking up on some of the items needed to survive the imagined upcoming apocalypse. I have noticed that the self-check terminals are seldomly used by anyone with more than 10 items in their carts. Likewise, anyone with items of produce that need to be coded or weighed, very likely end up at the regular cash-out counters. And, to this point anyway, SCTs seem to be used less often than regular check-out counters so I don't think anyone's job security is in jeopardy yet. Self check-out terminals have always seemed to me to serve a worthwhile purpose and have not appeared to be causing that much of a problem. Why then, all the fuss? Even though self-check-in terminals and passport self-checks have been around airports FOREVER and people don't seem to be complaining at all about them, I still decided to do a little research for myself to make sure that I hadn’t overlooked some other fundamental problem with the situation.
By John Oliver Smith7 months ago in Futurism
The Darnedest Things
I was sitting outside the Service Canada Office in my home city the other day, waiting for it to open at some ungodly hour of the morning. My wife had to do a check-in on some government stuff and I was along for the ride. As the time for opening approached, activity could be noted on the other side of the glass windows and doors. When the clock finally struck the appropriate hour, two elderly and confused-looking Commissionaires opened the front doors for business and immediately transformed themselves into controlling, yet bumbling buffoons. They began directing the small sprinkling of clients, who were already waiting to speak to an agent, into various line-ups on either side of the entrance door. One line-up was for those who had previously booked and appointment. Another line-up was forming, which oddly enough, was not for those who HADN'T booked an appointment but rather, for those who did not need help with passport issues. The ‘passport’ line was eventually assimilated into the 'appointment line-up' and finally sent to a third queue which hovered around a nearby bench and which had a seemingly non-descript purpose. When we first arrived outside the office, fifteen minutes before that, we were second in line to enter the door. When all was said and done, we ended up first in line on the most-recently-formed 'non-appointment' side of the door. The family that was first in line prior to opening, was now last in line on the 'appointment' side of the door, even though they had no appointment. It was ultimately discerned by the smarter of the two Commissionaires, that this family should leave and come back at another time when the office was not as busy. Just a note on that one – there were still just seven people/groups in line in total. The problem, as far as I could tell, was that there were now four separate lines. The male of the Commissionaire species seemed visibly shaken at this point. Beads of perspiration began to emerge from between the furrows of his twitching brow. His attempts to appear as if he were in control of the situation, did not fool even the small immigrant children tugging on parent coat tails. At last he threw his hands in the air, muttered in deep frustration and went inside the office. He plopped himself down on his chair and, while drumming his fingers on his little desk, he stared off into space for several minutes. The female Commissionaire seemed a little perplexed with her partner in crime. However, in his absence, she seemed to muster some degree of coherence and clarity. As a result of her efforts, the individuals and groups in line soon became prepared to finally make their way into the office with a small semblance of order. Once inside the office they were directed to a 'common' line which merged all of the outside lines into one. This line led to a kiosk where it was discerned what the true purpose of their visit was. Each individual/group/family was then distributed to a large unified marshalling area where they could wait for one of the two working agents to become available to offer assistance to anyone with any query (appointment or not / passport or not).
By John Oliver Smith7 months ago in Humans
