Support for men on Vancouver Island

Working with the ManKind Project we are often approached by men looking for support, and although we can usually help to some degree, we sometimes refer men and women to other resources.  For men (males 16 or older) in Victoria, Canada, who have experienced emotional, physical or sexual trauma the Men’s Trauma Centre offers Victim Support Services & Group and Individual Counselling.  Clients may have suffered from abuse as a child, be a victim of crime, have been abused in relationship, or experienced some other traumatic event or events.  Support staff have many years of experience in this field.  They can contacted at (250) 381-6367 (general info or counselling) or (250) 381-0493 (Victim Services), or via email.

A little further up the Island, the Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre offers a variety of services for men and women, to:

• provide support and referrals for men 
• promote connections with partners and families
• promote community awareness regarding men and men’s issues
• help men with family court/divorce, seperation, custody and access issues
• support men in learning to communicate and enrich existing relationships.

The Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre, as I posted about earlier, is also starting up the Dad’s Make a Difference program, working with families immediately after the birth of the children to instill connection and responsibility in both partners.  This program is inspired by Gardner Wiseheart’s very successful program at Healthy Families San Angelo, begun about 12 years ago, which is now in many areas. 

For men in the Cowichan Valley, the Cowichan Men’s Resource Centre in Duncan provides a place where men can connect with each other, find assistance in crisis, and access community resources.  They can be reached at (250) 732-1471 or emailed for support or to volunteer.

I support these initiatives because they emphasize personal responsibility, healing, and fostering relationships rather than confrontation and blame.

Oh, yes, that Adventure . . .

I last reported I was off to the New Warrior Training Adventure on March 29. As always, the weekend was a success, and I got to cook to my heart's content. It was exhausting, but now we have many more New Warriors here on the Island. A bunch of them have signed up for the 8-week Primary Integration Training programs we are running here.

Another Vancouver+1 Review

This review by the German site flugsimulation.com (in German) is quite thorough.  I note that the reviewer has likely not fully followed installation instructions, as he should not be getting roads across water under bridges.  That’s likely because he has not disabled Joel’s freeware BC Roads.  The tree issue he reports at CYPK is a new one, and Arno points out that it’s likely the result of using a custom tree texture.

Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote review

I recently purchased this device. Here’s a copy of the review I submitted to CNet.

Pros:

• clear color display
• sophisticated flexibility
• extensive database
• contoured buttons helpful in dark or for sight-impaired
• good telephone support

Cons:

• painfully slow web-based programming,
• not clear how to replace macro functions,
• poor email support
• no written manual included with product,
• online manual is meagre
• web manual hotlinks don’t work (did they not buy the Adobe PDF writer?)
• button text is too small for many functions (mute, for example)
• I don’t want yet another application sitting in memory all the time looking for updates
• I don’t trust Logitech to use all the personal information they collect (as the result of using a web-based application) in a way that is in my best interest
• the programming module reorders programmable button to match some paradigm, ignoring user preference, diminishing the value of programmable buttons
• the web interface detects that FireFox is not a supported browser, and since the resident process fires up the default browser, if you have FireFox as your default, this is a major annoyance
• the exit option is obscured when right-clicking on quick-access icon if the taskbar is four or more sections high (he pop-up window has lower priority than the taskbar)
• they use a proprietary rechargeable battery (big mistake!) which does not seat positively in the battery compartment

Comments

I was excited about the potential of this remote to help my Mom whose eyesight is poor and who can get confused (as can I!) when she has to deal with a handful of remotes. The clear, programmable color display (with a large-text mode) is impressive. The first disappointment was the programming process: the web-based system is very slow. The website timed out frequently (and no, my ISP was doing just fine). Once preferences were set, it took a while for the programming request to be queued and processed. Then followed a binary download and programming of the device. Except for the choice of devices, this whole process could have been a local PC application. And having to test this on my system, and do a number of iterations was extremely frustrating.

I was amazed to see my ancient Altec-Lansing audio system as the example Altec device. I’d hijacked it from an old computer system. All devices I tested (a total of 8 ) were in the database: well done.

Documentation is minimal and incomplete. Support-wise, the web-based email support was virtually useless, it took 5 days to get a response. In contrast, I found the toll-free phone support to be prompt, courteous and informed.

My mother ran into problems though fairly immediately when using the unit, it would often reset (show the “testing” screen and go back to the intro screen). Of course on/off device synchronism is lost when this happens so it’s quite a mess. Customer support immediately recognized this as probably caused by poor battery seating and recommended I stuff a strip of paper in the compartment to put upward pressure on the battery against the contacts. Eek. After a couple of weeks though, the device “blue-screened” (literally!!!), and the only way to fix it was to take the battery out and put it back in. Customer support then suggested it was time for a new unit, which I have just now picked up.

Another somewhat scary bit: the “aspect” function did not change the aspect ratio for one of the TVs I tested. With no macro programming capability there was then no way to duplicate the keystrokes needed to achieve this. So unless I’m missing something, this is a serious limitation.

Summary

I would not recommend this device for anyone non-technical or if any of the issues I outline here are a concern. It’s a remarkable product considering it’s Logitech’s first foray into programmable remotes, but their lack of experience is glaring. If there were an equivalent competitive product, I would encourage folks to look at those, but I found nothing that had the same features. So unless it continues to crash I will stick with it.

Vancouver+1 Review

Lydell Stelmack has kindly done a review of Vancouver+ Part 1 for AVSim. It can be found here.

Training coming to Vancouver Island

The New Warrior Training Adventure is coming again to Vancouver Island on March 31-April 2, 2006 weekend.  I found this intense training for men to be transformative, and the follow-on trainings and groups excellent.  Created by three men in the mid-80’s, something like 33,000 men have now gone through it.  There’s more info at www.mkp.org/vancouver and a registration link at www.mkp.org/canwest.

What I got out of it:

• a mission/sense of purpose, and how to take action in the world
• the fundamental power of accountability (both modeling it and holding others accountable)
• a better understanding of integrity and how to live in integrity
• how to balance compassion, action, mystery, leadership, self and beliefs

The training is recommended for men who are ready to let go of preconceptions and take a hard look at themselves, and push themselves to their limits.  The number of staff exceeds the number of participants, so safety is paramount.  The training is run by the ManKind Project, a not-for-profit organization.  For men who are interested but can’t make it to Vancouver Island, this training is held 125 times per year around the world.  See www.mkp.org for local trainings.