Facebook Artist

“Be curious about everything in the world. Travel. Work all the time and don’t stop. Get the work out to the world in any way you can, both the physical and web worlds. Meet, talk to, and develop relationships with the right people.” – Carole Freeman

By Dorothy Dobbie

How do we choose our Facebook profile images and why? What does it reveal about us? Is there an essence of truth in the choosing that an artist can capture and reflect in an intrinsic way that can’t be reflected in a mere photograph?

These were some of the goals that Carole Freeman set out, perhaps unconsciously, to explore when she began searching the faces of her 2,000 Facebook “friends”, for personalities that spoke to her.

Not that she went to the Internet with this idea in mind. Scrabble and her mother’s illness brought her to Facebook.

“When my mother was in the hospital after emergency surgery in Winnipeg, we started playing family Scrabble games,” said Carole. “We continued when she returned home until she no longer had the energy to play.”

Carole had no other use for Facebook until she met American artist, Eric Fischl. Later, she looked him up on Facebook and had a Eureka moment. Soon she had almost 2,000 ‘friends” and she began to realize that here was an almost endless supply of faces, her favourite subject, to paint.

She began with the faces that intrigued her until she had painted over 200 images, some of them famous, some of them obscure, but each with a quality that drew the artist to explore more. She contacted the subjects, told them what she was doing and proceeded from there. Often, the painted image ended up replacing the previous photo portrait, so now Carole Freeman was virtually all over the ‘Net.

In 2011, Carole had an exhibition at Toronto’s Edward Day Gallery at which Facebook Canada’s managing director, Jordan Banks, said that Carole’s exhibit was a “unique expression” of the fact that Facebook “fosters socialization”.
Be that as it may, Carole herself is not yet convinced that the Internet and social media is the only road to stardom in the arts world, but it has brought her work to the attention of some very helpful people and has been instrumental in getting commissions and selling her paintings. It certainly brought her to the attention of the Canadian Arts Summit held at Banff this year, where she was able to expose her work to Canada’s 40 largest Arts organizations – many of them galleries and museums. “Social media has fast-tracked my work and given it a platform,” said Carole in a recent interview, “and on bad days, it has given me the support to keep going.”

Bad days in the life of an artist are not at all unusual, but for Carole they occurred with some frequency due to health issues. “My art career seems to have been tempered by death and illness,” she remarked. Her father died when she was seven which sent her ‘inside herself’ and then, as a teen, she was out of school for a year, due to a physical condition. “That was when I began painting,” she said.

Perhaps all art is born out of internalization and a desire to express a profound experience in a meaningful way. The creative gene has to be in place and Carole’s showed up early.

“My mother told a story from my childhood of the drawing I did of a girl with red eyes (children typically make eyes blue). When she asked me why the eyes were red, I answered that she was crying. Of course my mother thought this was brilliant and I was destined to be an artist,” says Carole. “She took me to a Van Gogh exhibition when I was about four or five. I remember being struck by Van Gogh’s paintings and my eyes being opened to a different way of seeing the world and people. My mother bought the catalogue, which she kept in her night table. I would sneak into her room to look at it on a fairly regular basis. It was the only art book we had in the house.”

It was an early indication of where Carole’s future lay, but not the only one. She won a prize in elementary school for a poster contest on how to prevent forest fires and she still remembers her pride. Later, in art school at the University of Manitoba, where she studied for some time under Ivan Eyre, her work was included in juried exhibitions. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the School of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London, England, and never came back to Winnipeg to live. Carole went back and forth between Montreal and Toronto a few times before settling in Toronto.

Carole started selling her art right out of school.

“The first corporate purchase was from the Continental Oil Company in London, England. I was pretty psyched and I remain excited about every purchase even today.”

Artists have to eat, so for a number of years, Carole tried to combine her career with a job. She taught art in a variety of venues including, Concordia University, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery until, illness interrupted the road she was on, forcing her back to art on a full time basis.

“I believe I painted my way back,” she says. She painted a series about her health and her pain which included about 30 portraits of doctors and health care workers. She says perhaps some day the series will be published.

A major break was when Carole had an exhibition of showbiz portraits during Toronto’s 2010 International Film Festival.

“I had a solo exhibition at a smaller Toronto gallery in tandem with work installed, at The Hyatt Regency Hotel, during the Toronto International film festival,” she explained. “Both of them received press and media.”

That helped her approach the Edward Day Gallery with several bodies of her work and they chose to exhibit the Facebook portraits. The exhibit was entitled “Friend Me, Portraits of Facebook” and it received wide media attention.

Along the way, Carole has had several group exhibitions and sold paintings now hanging in public and private collections in England, Canada, Italy, Ireland and the United States. She was commissioned by producer Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) to do a large painting of his production and writing partner, Jeremy Chilnick. She has also been commissioned to do a painting of gallery owner Leslie Sacks in Los Angeles. The painting will be included in a book he is writing about his African and Contemporary Art collection. Her work will be included this November to December in a group exhibition, Women’s Art Now, at Leslie Sacks Fine Art in L.A..

Carole’s advice to aspiring young artists is “Be curious about everything in the world. Travel. Work all the time and don’t stop. Get the work out to the world in any way you can, both the physical and web worlds. Meet, talk to and develop relationships with the right people.”

Hey, nobody said it was easy.

“Being an artist can be very lonely,” Carole concedes. “There are approximately six million working artists in the world so there is a lot of competition in a very large, though challenging, international market, “ she says. “It is a lot of hard and constant work with no guarantee of recognition and success. It never stops, even when you do have success.”

In spite of these things, art is a compulsion and if it’s yours, go for it!

Landscape Architect

Some people just aren’t cut out to work inside or in an office – they need to be outdoors, to have the freedom to breathe and stay in touch with nature.

There are many careers that will provide that outdoor access, but one with a lot of creative potential is landscape architecture.

You can get involved on many levels, earning anything from a certificate in landscape design to a Master of Landscape Architecture.

The university path basically takes you through a four-year course to get a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture followed by an additional three-year course of study to get you a Masters degree.

You study everything from plant materials, plant identification, horticulture, ecology, and history to construction methods, math and the fundamentals of good design.

Some graduates will focus on urban landscapes, some on commercial applications and still others on digital contexts: it all depends on where your heart and aptitudes lead you.

Another path is through apprenticeship to a firm, but you are still advised to take a college certificate to develop the theoretical knowledge that will help you with your applied experience.

Keith Lemkey, of Lemkey Landscape Design in Winnipeg, says that his training at the University of Guelph, is what made it possible to fully express his creativity.

“You need that technical background,” he says.

For Keith, going back to school to take landscape design was a natural fit. He had spent10 years in the tax department, where he ruefully admits that he “was like a square peg in a round hole”.

“I found it so easy. It all just seemed to make sense,” he said of his courses.

That was a bit funny since, as a kid, he hated cutting the grass or doing anything outside on his family’s two-acre lot. And even after being to England a couple of times and seeing the beautiful landscaped gardens there, he still had no inkling of where his future lay.

It was a trip to Hawaii that inspired him. He was so struck with the beauty and serenity of the place that suddenly, he wanted a yard with a water feature to recapture that feeling. When he learned what he could charge to do this kind of work, his interest shot up and the rest is history. Today, many of his designs include water.

Keith also has an innate creative gift that sets him apart from other designers. His mentor, David Wagner, from the University of Winnipeg, remarked on his ability by saying that it’s like studying music; some people will always sound as if they are taking lessons, but others will have a mind’s eye for creation. Keith, he said, has that eye.

Keith himself says that after just 20 to 30 minutes of talking to a client, he has a vision of what their yard will look like. His second gift for relating to people, is just as important.

Keith’s one-time apprentice, Jason Janoske of Natural Impressions specializes in natural landscapes. He agrees that liking people and being able to interpret their dreams is a critical quality.

“I like to go through a family inventory list with my clients,” Jason says. “Do they have kids, what age; do they have pets; do they like to entertain?” And he adds, what they don’t like is just as important.

Keith says that understanding the big picture and the people behind it is definitely part of the art.

It isn’t all about being creative, though. You also have to have an aptitude for math to be able to calculate mass and volume and area. You should have a good mechanical ability and spatial sense is also required.

“I don’t like to say that landscape design is more complicated than interior design,” Keith says, “but you do have to take into account many aspects of outdoor design that don’t exist inside.”

This would include the ability to project the size of the plants as they grow, their seasonality and what they will look like when they mature. How much maintenance is required to maintain the landscape and how that work suits the lifestyle of his clients. In many ways, the plants are just the icing on the cake – functionality of the space is the first component. Knowing about construction materials and methods is important. You have to understand lardscaping materials and how to use them.

You need to have the ability to draw or sketch to scale or the aptitude to run a CAD program, but ultimately it comes down to being able to envision what the finished project will rook like.

Keith’s day starts when his eyes open in the morning and ends when they close at night. He will often awaken in the middle of the night with an idea for a design element which he will get up and sketch while it is still fresh in his mind.
“It’s hard work,” says Keith. “The guys that do well are the ones with a strong work ethic.”

It’s also very gratifying. “This is one of the few careers where you are there from concept to completion,” he says, “and that is very satisfying.”

So you want to be a KINESIOLOGIST

What happens when you go to a kinesiologist?
First, you get to keep your clothes on – big bonus!
Second, the doctor reviews your lifestyle and medical history.
He then moves your arms and or legs into different positions, applying gentle pressure.
This gives him information about your muscles and how they are responding.

Kinesiology, or human kinetics, is the study of human movement.

So what, you say. How does that get me a job?

The answer is that if you’re interested in being an athletic coach, a personal physical trainer or want to design athletic equipment, kinesiology is your course of study. If you are interested in rehabilitation services, working with the elderly or cardiac patients, kinesiology should be on your learning list.

Even if your goal is computer animation, the study of human kinetics can only enhance your ability to produce lifelike images.

Most of the above postings take self confidence and leadership ability. You should be strong enough to lift fifty pounds or more if you are working with patients. And being able to work as a team is an important skill if you are interested in the medical side of the employment possibilities.

To be a full blown kinesiologist, it helps to have a background in physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, biomedical engineering, and psychology; at any rate, you need four years of post secondary education to get into the schools of kinesiology and you should enjoy scientific research.

Canada grants a professional designation to kinesiologists; the U.S. does not. The world’s first kinesiologist department was developed at the University of Waterloo. Created out of the study of chiropractic medicine, modern kinesiology was developed in the 1960s. An American chiropractor, Dr. George Goodheart discovered that muscle testing could reveal vital information about what was happening to the body.

The practice aims to restore balance in the body. According to the International College of Kinesiology, “When kinesiologists are faced with pain or a knotted-up muscle they test several muscles for equality of strength on both sides of a joint (or the spine). If they test and find a muscle tests weak on one side of the body compared with the same muscle on the other side, they work with body energy reflexes to re-strengthen the weak muscle.” Kinesiologists call this muscle balancing.

Imbalance can exist nutritionally, emotionally, physically or chemically all of which which will manifest itself in muscular stress.

There are many places in Canada that offer studies in kinesiology: University of New Brunswick, University of British Columbia, University of Manitoba, University of Alberta, Queens University, Western and McGill, to mention just a few. Red Deer College also offers a certificate course in Kinesiology with their sports program.

Although the study of this science goes back to Aristotle (384 t0 322 BC) who is called the Father of Kinesiology, kinesiology is a bit of a new-age approach to medicine, taking into account the whole body rather than just treating a specific symptom in one part. It will no doubt be at the leading edge of medical studies for the future, especially in a day of an aging population where movement and how to maintain it becomes increasingly important.

Modelling in METAL Why not try sheet metal work as a trade?

The key to the industrial revolution was the ability of men to work with metal. This a trade has been plied over many centuries largely by itinerant tinsmiths and in shops where coppersmithing and other metal manipulation took place.

Working with metal was considered something of a mystery and the metalsmith was held in high regard.

Metal was the magic material that made so many things possible: tools for farming, building and war-making were all crafted of metal.

While there were many kinds of smiths, each specializing in a certain type of metal, many of these trades were replaced by industrial manufacturing methods. Those specializing in copper and tin are often craftsmen now.

In construction and some manufacturing applications, those who work with sheet metal are still in demand as specialists who can fashion products from large sheets of metal.

Sheet metal workers are employed in the construction industry to build ducts for ventilation, air conditioning and home heating systems; to install stainless steel for hospitals and kitchen equipment; to create industrial exhaust systems; for roofing and flashings.

More recently, the wind energy sector has created a demand for sheet metal workers.

In the trade, you work with stainless steel, aluminum, copper, galvanized steel, and nickel alloy. You need to be able to read blueprints and operate computer aided design (CAD) software.

A sheet metal worker understands and practices the art of cutting and welding metals, how to develop patterns, operate shears, punhes, drill presses and an saws. A sheet metal worker must also know how to operate computerized lazer or plazma cutting equipment.

To enter this trade, you must have a precision-based personality, as close enough is not good enough. Sheet metal workers work to very precise tolerances.

To become an apprentice sheet metal workers you also need Grade 12 in Manitoba (10 to 12 in some provinces such as Ontario) and 9,000 hours of apprenticeship at 1,800 hour a year over five years. In Manitoba, you can begin your apprenticeship in high school when you reach age 16 or when you are in grade 12, followed by four years of apprenticeship. Earnings range from $16.78 an hour for first year apprentices to $28.52 an hour for fourth year apprentices.

Employment prospects are good as the baby boom generation begins to retire.

Conservation Officer: safeguarding the planet and its creatures

By Scott best

Do you want to make your province a safer place to live? Do you also love nature? Are you trying to determine the kind of careers that would suit these natural inclinations and interests?

Law enforcement may seem to be at the opposite end of the career spectrum from work in the natural world. A career as a conservation officer, opens the opportunity of combining these interests. Conservation and fishery officers enforce federal and provincial regulations established to protect fish, wildlife and other natural resources. They also collect and relay information on resource management.

Summer employment is a great way to get your feet wet in this type of work. The more experience you have, the better your chance of progressing to more senior positions. Conservation and fishery officers are employed by the two senior governments.

A large number of positions are in rural and northern areas.

To work in that field, you will need to complete a one- to three-year college program in renewable resources management. The governments provides on-the-job training as well as law enforcement and resource management courses. Depending on where you want to work, you may need a Class-5 driver’s licence, pesticide applicator’s licence and explosives licence.

Becoming an Electrician

If you are colour blind, chances are that a career as a electrician is not for you because wires are colour coded. However, if are good at math, able to focus well, love paying attention to detail, are a methodical and meticulous problem solver, have good hand to eye co-ordibation, believe in following rules, thrive on challenging physical labour and are a good multi-tasker, then maybe you should consider this work.

For one thing, it pays well. The minimum wage for a journeyman electrician under the Construction Wages Act in Manitoba is $31.95 an hour, but many employers pay higher than that – in Ontario, it’s even higher at $37 an hour – it all depends on demand and where the work is needed in each province. Apprentice’s wages are tied to the journeyman rate. In Manitoba, a first year apprentice might earn 13.16 per hour, but a fourth year apprentice will be pulling in $26.32.

The future for electricians is also very bright. Demand in the U.S. is predicted to grow 900% (labour study by the State of Colorado 2009) over the next few years as electrical contractors become energy contractors thanks to the emphasis on green construction. While this trend is being mandated by governments, contractors and developers also see the advantages in constructing buildings with lower operating costs.

Demand is also being driven by the trend toward electric cars – some American jurisdictions are requiring parking lots to be refitted with plug-ins to accommodate these new vehicles.

In Canada, a number of provinces are looking at banning incandescent light bulbs, just another indication of the trend toward green construction. Communications growth including video streaming is continuing to fuel demand for the installation of coaxial and fibre optic cables for high speed Internet. Demand for electricians with skills in data voice and video wiring is expected to grow 12% by 2018. Robotics and the automated manufacturing process is also driving demand. This new world of energy will want recent electrician grads with a knowledge of solar panels, wind power and biomass.

Being an electrician is not for the weak at heart. It’s a tough, demanding job that demands good physical endurance and dexterity. You may find yourself working in inclement weather under difficult conditions, on your feet for hours in an aerial basket in high winds and rain or freezing cold, in constant danger of electrical shock. Many times you will be hot, dirty, wet or cold. In addition to electric shock you are subject to falling from scaffolding, to burns and cuts and you may have to travel to distant job sites.

If all this hasn’t discouraged you, then you are a likely candidate and here’s how you go about getting to your goal.
You need anywhere from grade 10 to grade 12 depending on where you are living. The IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) demands grade 12  or equivalent  with math 405 or 300, physics 40 or 300 and English 40 or 300/301 from its apprentices.

Apprenticeship entails working with or under a journeyman as well as attending classes to learn trade theory. You will need to be able to read blueprints and work with computerized tools.

Apprenticeships last four to five years and you have to find an employer who is willing to work with you through your apprenticeship. Manitoba Hydro often looks for apprentices.

In Manitoba the course is four years or 1800 hours per level. In Ontario and through the union it is five years. You can begin your apprenticeship while you are still in highschool and are 16 years of age.

If you are older and do not have all the above qualifications, you may still qualify by going through a prior learning assessment program which will take into account all prior experience and trade related activity or training.

There are very many job opportunities in the electrical trades. Everything from home construction, maintenance and renovation to work on highrises, in the oilfields, on hydro projects and in industrial settings. Electricians also have the option of setting up shop for themselves, so if you are an entrepreneur at heart, your final options may be unlimited.

Keeping the peace in the community

By Scott Best

Serving your community, making your province a safer place to live, dealing with challenging situations, preventing crimes from being committed—these objectives and more can be pursued with a career in law enforcement. Jobs in this field are as varied as they are interesting. You could have a career as a police officer, correctional officer, security guard or private investigator and there are many additional jobs to choose from. Law enforcement can be demanding, but few careers provide as much satisfaction and the ability to make a difference in the community.

Police Officer
Police officers perform diverse duties, ranging from enforcing the law and apprehending criminals to promoting traffic safety and resolving domestic disputes. They also provide testimony in court, prepare reports, assist victims of crime and work with community groups. Because officers maintain law and order and work with a wide variety of people, honesty and integrity, ethics and good judgment, patience and intelligence, good listening and observation skills are all essential for police work, or any type of law enforcement for that matter.

In Canada, police officers work for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as provincial, municipal or First Nation police services. (They are also attached to the defence department and a few private companies, such as CN and CP railroads.)

To be considered for a job with a police force, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, know English or French and have a high school diploma. You may not be required to have a post-secondary degree or diploma, but education in law and security or the social sciences can increase your chance of being accepted. You must also be physically fit, meet minimum vision and hearing requirements and be in good health. You’ll likely be asked to provide character references and complete some type of psychological testing. Prospective police officers cannot have any criminal convictions or charges pending before the courts. You will also need a valid driver’s licence and a good driving record. The minimum age for applying can be anywhere from 18 to 21.

Following induction, officer recruits complete a basic training program made up of classroom lectures and field training, lasting from three to nine months. If you’re training to be an RCMP officer, you must be willing to relocate to any urban or rural detachment in Canada. With few exceptions, new RCMP officers aren’t posted to Quebec or Ontario.
A municipal police officer starts out as a patroller or constable in a mid-sized municipality, and may move to a similar position in a larger police force, and then to detective or investigative work. Extensive experience gives some police officers access to inspector, chief inspector or commissioned officer positions leading a military unit.

The outlook for this occupation over the next few years varies depending on the province. The number of jobs being created is below average in British Columbia, Alberta and the Atlantic provinces, well above average in Saskatchewan, good for Manitoba and the Yukon Territory (which means the forces are actively recruiting officers) and average for Ontario and Quebec. On a national level, turnover is expected to increase over the next few years, especially for the RCMP, as members of the baby boom generation retire.

Correctional Officer
Correctional officers guard prisoners or detainees and keep order in correctional institutions. If you have the type of character that’s well suited for police work, you may also do well in this type of position.

Correctional officers in Canada are employed by the provincial and federal governments. To work in corrections for the federal government, you must have a valid driver’s license, pass a medical exam — the correctional officer physical abilities test — as well as security clearance requirements, such as fingerprinting. You’ll also need a high school diploma, along with CPR, automated external defibrillator, and first aid certification. Post-secondary education in correctional services, criminal justice, police studies or the social sciences is recommended, and work experience with people in crisis is considered an asset.

When you apply, your skills and abilities are assessed in an interview. If it’s felt that a correctional officer position is right for you, you’re invited to attend Correctional Services Canada’s correctional training program. You will usually be required as well to complete a basic training course to work for provincial or territorial institutions.

Correctional officers are in particularly high demand in British Columbia because new jobs are being created as new facilities are being built and there’s a shortage of officers in the northern part of the province.

Security guards and private investigators
Security guards protect property against theft or vandalism, control access to businesses, maintain order and enforce regulations at public events and businesses. They are hired by private security agencies, retail stores, museums, industrial facilities and other organizations. Private investigators conduct investigations to find missing persons, obtain information, for use in civil or criminal courts or for other purposes. They may also conduct polygraph — lie detector — tests for clients.

To work as a security guard in any province, or the Yukon Territory, you must be licensed by the department of justice and, in most provinces, complete a training course. You will also need a licence to carry firearms if that is part of your job. Employers usually require a high school diploma and may want a college diploma in law and security or police technology.The licensing process for private investigators is often the same or similar to that which prospective security guards must go through. Private investigators are employed by investigation companies and security agencies, which must be licensed by the provincial justice department. Some investigators start their own agencies and must apply for both business and individual licences.

In recent years, electronic surveillance equipment has replaced traditional security jobs, but there is more demand for security personnel in areas such as public transportation, shopping centres, parking lots and foot patrol, in larger urban centres. Security guards and private investigators are both high-turnover occupations. Job opportunities become available as current employees leave for other jobs, self-employment or retirement.

Turning adolescents into fiscally smart adults

As children blossom into young men and women, most insist on planning and running their own lives. Parents worry about all the basic essentials for their kids’ independent living, like housing, eating properly, staying warm, being careful at night and more. But most parents forget to teach young people one of the most important lessons of all – financial responsibility. The resulting turmoil can spell disaster.

Consider this: The average young adult amasses $45,000 in debt by the time they turn 29, according to a recent report by a U.S. bank.

“This generation of 20-somethings was raised during an economically-thriving period,” says financial expert Mark Hansen, author of Success 101 for Teens. “Undisciplined spending habits, student and car loans, and a tough job market have stymied their financial growth. Perhaps the worst culprit is financial ignorance, but we can count this as a lesson for future 20-somethings.”

For young people, organizing finances can be intimidating to the point of prohibitive, he says.

“We need to have a curriculum in schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade, that ensures our kids graduate with financially literacy,” says Hansen. “From balancing a checkbook to understanding what it means to pay – and earn – interest, kids need basic money management skills to survive in the world, and most aren’t getting them.”

Hansen says all teens should know and practice so they can control their financial destinies:

• Saving for dreams – the three-envelope method: Use the first envelope for your day-to-day expenses: gas or lunch money. Pause before blowing this money at the movie theater or a fast-food restaurant. Envelope No. 2 is for short-term goals, which might be clothing or a new laptop. The third envelope is for long-term goals such as a car, college or a “future millionaire club” fund.

• How to create a budget: A budget lets us know what’s possible, and not possible, with money. There are six steps to creating a budget. 1. List all of your expenses. 2. List all income. 3. List monthly expenses. 4. Add up these lists separately. 5. Tweak your budget so you can meet your expenses with money left over for savings. 6. Review your budget every week.

• How to set and follow through on goals: First, figure out what your current finances are, then determine what they will be in the future — one year out, then two years out, then four years later, etc. How will you get to your one- or two-year goal? You need a plan, and most of the time that means either earning more money, spending less, or a combination of the two. Finally, you have to stick to your plan in order for it to work.

• Understanding interest rates, such as credit cards: Interest is a fee paid for using someone else’s money. Simple interest is straightforward: 5 percent accrued in your bank account with $100 yields $5 in interest at the end of the year. Compound interest, however, means ever-increasing amounts. This is crucial to understanding debt you may take on from lenders. Know what you are borrowing, and the terms. Just as your money can work for you in a bank account, money borrowed can work against you if it is not paid back in a timely manner. Debt can grow at an alarming rate.

• How to write checks and balance a checkbook: These days, it’s easier than ever to review accounts online, which automatically tracks exchanges. However, banks do make mistakes, which is why it’s wise to track your accounts independently. Ask. Don’t be embarrassed. Banks are putting a premium on service and want to establish a positive relationship with young customers.  If you have a question, speak to someone at the bank. As you take control of your money, you’ll also take control of your life.

About Mark Hansen
A successful businessman, a former Palm Beach County, Fla., elected school board member and motivational speaker, Mark has dedicated his life to helping young people overcome obstacles and deal with the challenges of daily living. Struck by a car and nearly killed as a child, Mark fought back through positive actions and reactions to all that he had to overcome. As a result, he relates to teens in a very special way. Through his books, “Success 101 for Teens: Dollars and Sense for a Winning Financial Life,” and seminars, Mark Hansen is driven to make an impact on teens and young adults and to empower them to rise above and triumph over life’s obstacles.

Keeping watch on Hackers

By Scott Best

With roughly 3.5 million Canadians using mobile banking apps, mobile security company McAfee says the amount of malicious software threatening mobile platforms is growing, too. But smartphone users in Canada aren’t that vulnerable to attack . . . yet.

“In the first quarter of 2012, we had already detected eight million new PC malware samples, showing that malware authors are continuing their unrelenting development of new malware,” says Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs. “The same skills and techniques that were sharpened on the PC platform are increasingly being extended to other platforms, such as mobile and Mac; as more homes and businesses use these platforms the attacks will spread, which is why all users, no matter what their platforms, should take security and online safety precautions.”

According to the Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, less than 10 per cent of the population was using a smartphone in 2007. Thanks to the iPhone’s rise in popularity, there are now over 10 million smartphone users in Canada.

Doug Cooke, director of sales engineering for McAfee Canada, says because smartphones and other mobile devices are still so new, users aren’t thinking about security.

“With new toys, you’re mainly concerned with playing with that new toy, not thinking about security,” says Cooke. “Security is something you think about down the road.”

McAfee researchers collected 8,000 new mobile malware samples in the first quarter of 2012, compared to a year ago when there was almost no malware targeting mobile devices. In that period, they colleted nearly 7,000 samples of malware meant for the android platform, a 1,200 per cent increase from the number collected by December of last year.
“The primary reason is that Apple is doing a much better job in terms of monitoring the applications that get into their world,” says Cooke. “The marketplace in the android environment, it’s a little bit more of the wild west. There’s numerous places where you can get apps for the android.”

Mechanisms used by mobile hackers are nowhere near as sophisticated as those targeting PCs, but as the number of users increase, so will the amount of malware. Mobile banking is also on the rise, and Cooke says hackers particularly seek out opportunities to access financial information.

“So much of what the malware writers are trying to do is to be on your system but stealth, so they can gather information about your mobile device and send it out to the Internet so someone can use it.”

Cooke says the main thing hackers are able to accomplish with mobile devices is keystroke logging. If a financial transaction is being completed on a mobile device, the user often enters a personal information number to validate it. A hacker can log the user’s keystrokes, send the pin number to a command and control server, and gain access to the user’s mobile banking account.  Cooke says, however, he’s not aware of any Canadian mobile banking apps being attacked in that way.

“There’s a lot of this activity in Asia, a little bit in the United States, but not much in Canada because we don’t have the same level of transaction activity happening through mobile devices…yet.”

Looming start of post-secondary studies puts young people under STRESS

By Scott Best

No matter what your age or the kind of school and work experiences you’ve had, stress has probably been a part of your life at some point. For students, stress can come from many sources — planning for post-secondary education, parents’ expectations, school projects, grades or exams, just to name a few. However, stress is not impossible to conquer.

Last spring, education and career-planning website, myblueprint.ca, surveyed over 500 middle and high school students to find their key sources of stress. They published the results in the MyBluePrint Canadian Student Stress Index.

“What we found is 81 per cent of students said they had a moderate to high amount of stress resulting from planning for post-secondary,” says Gil Silberstein, president and co-founder of myBlueprint. “We did believe that ‘teens thinking about their future’ would be a number one stressor, and it was interesting to have that verified.”

Carmela Giardini, head of guidance and counseling for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, says students feel this kind of anxiety because they feel they’re facing an uncertain future. “They’re thinking in terms of, What’s out there, what’s the post-secondary experience going to be like?  Will I get in? Will my marks be good enough to get in? Will I like it when I’m there? To some degree it’s the unknown that’s potentially stressful to them.”

Giardini adds the expectations students place on themselves and the need to have the approval of parents, teachers and peers can also be a stressor in their lives.

When asked about their top source of pressure, 75 per cent of the students surveyed on myblueprint.ca cited their own expectations. Parents’/guardians’ expectations came in at 71 per cent, teachers at 66 per cent, friends at 39 per cent and siblings at 22 per cent.

The survey was open to all users of myblueprint.ca across Canada, and the sample was split equally between male and female students.

Myblueprint.ca is an education and career planning website that can be customized to help individual students plan for their future. Students can set goals, plan their courses interactively, track their progress towards graduation, and browse post-secondary options across Canada that match their interests and high school courses.

The survey also asked students  about digital devices and social networking. It found only 43 per cent of teen participants saw the rapid growth of communication channels as a source of pressure, ranking lower than family, post-secondary education and exams.

“Those that think [communication tools] make their lives less stressful are learning to use them judiciously and be in control of them, rather than have the tools control them,” says Giardini. “The more control we have over something, the better able we are in handling the stress.”

Giardini says identifying where stress is coming from, breaking problems and goals down into bite-sized pieces and creating a calendar to help manage deadlines are all effective ways of coping with stress.