Shanta R. Nathwani, B.Com., MCP

Category: Commentary

  • James Burchill Follow Friday

    James Burchill Follow Friday

    This article contains affiliate links.

    If you’ve been following my Escape the Castle posts as of late, you’ll know that I’m taking a course in how to build an RPG Chatbot with James Burchill. If you’ve been following me longer than that, you’ll know that I love his stuff and he has been a big supporter of mine since I met him in 2012. I wrote a Follow Friday post on him a few years ago and I figured it was time to update it. He has done a lot for me, especially when I started my company and wanted to show my support for him. He has always taken my calls and has always listened to my ramblings. For those that have heard some of these ramblings, you must know then that he must be a saint to sit through those conversations.

    I met James just over nine years ago at his first Social Fusion Network meetup in Burlington, only a week after I moved to Hamilton. Since then he has been helping small businesses with networking, marketing and doing it all for free. His Social Fusion Network events were all over Southern Ontario and not only helped the small businesses meet each other but also gave the venues a full house when they weren’t busy.

    He also gave of his time to help our students at Sheridan College, coming to speak to them and spreading the word when we needed clients for our Capstone Course. He didn’t hold back, usually giving our students his entire plan for his marketing funnel and deep discounts for his courses, which range from teaching Evernote and Scrivener to building your own course.

    Lately, James has developed a number of courses on Chatbots and is a co-founder of ChatBot Forge. He’s been running a workshop on building an RPG using chatbots (FOR FREE) and I’ve been absolutely loving it. It has revived my love of coding, even though there is no coding involved. It’s making me think in containers and variables again while giving it the creative edge that I really enjoy. I’ve wanted to build a text-based game for quite a while but hadn’t considered writing it in a chatbot. This not only helps me understand how chatbots work but gives me a portfolio piece that I can use to show potential clients.

    His YouTube segment, SmartCar Coffee Confidential, became very popular before the pandemic started and was even picked up by the local television station. In it, he interviews small business owners about their business while driving around in his Smartcar and drinking coffee. He even interviewed candidates in the last municipal election.

    But as many of us know, no good deed goes unpunished.

    He has recently been named in a lawsuit and has to mount a defence. I have personally donated to his campaign and wanted to share it in the hopes that he will make his goal. These types of ridiculous lawsuits should never be allowed in court, but unfortunately, if it goes unanswered, there will be a default judgement against him.

    While the purpose of this post is to increase the donations to his campaign, you could also go and purchase one of his courses so that he has the money to mount a defence. I’m sure that he could come up with the money, but he has done so much for the community that I felt that I needed to do something about it. Please donate if you can or buy one of James’s Courses

    And of course, you can always follow him on Twitter @jamesburchill.

    https://twitter.com/jamesburchill/status/1364686915258224643?s=20

  • Wonder Woman is a Great Choice for Special UN Ambassador

    Wonder Woman named a special UN ambassador, despite protests

    This is the poster I had hanging on my wall for years of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Photo Credit: Everett Collection on People.com
    This is the poster I had hanging on my wall for years of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Photo Credit: Everett Collection on People.com

    I read this article on CBC a few days ago with respect to the UN choosing Wonder Woman as the icon for the young women, showing strong women everywhere, and the protest that was displayed by the members of the UN staff.

    I am under the impression, based on the research that they provided here, that many of the totems or representations that they choose for these positions, is usually someone fictitious. Now, the argument that the UN staff gave, was that of the idea that a woman or the young women around the world should be represented by a real individual, who should be given that honour. There are plenty of them, with which I agree, however the idea that all of the idols that they have chosen for these types of positions have been imaginary or not real representations, should follow suit along with everything else.

    Now, these staff that protest obviously have not done their homework with regards to Wonder Woman, when they talk about a woman flaunting around in a skimpy outfit. I’m sorry, Wonder Woman is, in my humble opinion a wonderful representation and it’s one of the biggest influences that I grew up on as a child, and has made me who I am today. I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I am a very strong woman, and part of that was growing up looking to Wonder Woman as someone I looked up to and swore that I would be one someday. Today, I’m a martial artist and like to pretend that I am Wonder Woman. Even as an adult, many of the young women in my dojo look up to me as I once looked up to her. That is a real honour!

    When I say that they have a look at their history, they obviously have not looked at the fact that Wonder Woman was an Amazon. The Amazons are bound to no one, especially men. They were fighters, they were hunters, they were warriors. These are the types of people that in my opinion women should be looking up to and should be given a chance to show women, because they are not typically as strong or take on roles where they are meant be docile, and I think it is a great choice to have somebody like Lynda Carter who embodied the role of Wonder Woman in the TV series (in my humble opinion), who has been an outstanding member of the community and representation of strong women everywhere, and has never wavered from that, even though she probably hasn’t played this role in almost 30 years. She is an amazing individual, and has always stood up for less fortunate than herself, those around her, and I think that it is a great choice. I think it is well deserved that she should speak and accept it, at least on behalf of Wonder Woman, because I think that she will be one of the best representations that they will have.

    Women and staff of the UN, while I appreciate the idea that you’re trying to bring about, may I suggest that before you do a protest of this kind, and try and change things, that you do it in such a way where you show that you are an informed individual/s especially when it comes to just showing that a woman is a piece of meat, because if anybody is not, it’s Wonder Woman.

  • Speaker’s Corner – London Style

    Speaker’s Corner – London Style

    Originally posted on Facebook during my trip to England with my mother, May 13, 2009

    My mother and I decided to take a stroll through Hyde Park this past Sunday on our way back from having toured London most of the day. We’d heard something about this speakers’ corner and thought it might be fun to just watch what happens. So much for that!

    As we went through, there were crowds around various people who were ranting on top of their step ladders, going on to anyone that might listen. I stopped to listen to one older woman who looked like she was about to go head to head with another man on a stool and wanted to hear what was being said. Her argument: England for the English. Another man who was obviously from another country, argued with her and was light spirited about this. I had to take a line from one of my recent favourite comedians, Papa CJ, as turned to my mother and said “Watch this.”

    I pleaded for everyone’s attention when I addressed the crowd around when I claimed that if England was for the English, they should have thought of that before they invaded everyone else, like India and the West Indies and brought all of the people back to be slaves. They should have realized the consequences of their actions when they did so and then it might still be England for the English. She then said, “Well then, why do you live here?” (since most of her argument had been about foreigners coming to the country and living off the backs of the hard-working English). I replied: “I don’t! So you can’t blame me if you don’t like the way this country is. I have English influence everywhere from Canada where I was born, to my British mother and my Indian father.

    She had nothing to say against it, so she attacked my heritage instead. “So, you’re Indian then? Go back to India!” After arguing that I was Canadian, she claimed that I was who my father was, even if it was my mother who carried me for nine months. “Well, that was her mistake!”

    I lost it! “Mistake? You want to tell her that? She’s right here!” Then she started telling my mother how it was her problem if she gave up being British and married an Indian. No one attacks my mother like that and before you know it, we were both in the mix. I made one maybe two other points and then left the crowd as everyone there applauded my statements, which apparently were the best ones to shutting her up for a good part of the day.

    It made my day. The pot is being stirred, even on this side of the pond…;)

  • Remember, Remember the Fifth of November… Guy Fawkes Day

    Remember, Remember the Fifth of November… Guy Fawkes Day

    V for Vendetta drawing
    Remember Remember the 5th of November…
    Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
    The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
    I know of* no reason
    Why the Gunpowder Treason
    Should ever be forgot.
    Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
    To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
    Three-score barrels of powder below
    To prove old England’s overthrow;
    By God’s providence he was catch’d
    With a dark lantern and burning match.
    Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
    Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

    Also remember: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

    Happy Guy Fawkes Day.

  • Open Letter to All The Guys That We Single Girls Have Dated (Or At Least Tried To)

    Open Letter to All The Guys That We Single Girls Have Dated (Or At Least Tried To)

    One of my students asked me to repost this, and I like it a lot, so please enjoy.

    “Open Letter to All the Guys that We Single Girls Have Dated (Or At Least Tried To)”