A Vast Improvement – Happy Birthday Canada
BEFORE…
AFTER…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Updates | No Comments »
iPad 2 Otter Box Defender Case Review
I got an iPad 2 a while ago, to replace my first generation iPad.
I loved my first iPad, but wanted the one with the faster processor and built in camera.
For the first generation iPad, I had a Defender case from Otter Box. I loved it!
It was a very sleek looking, but, more importantly, very sturdy case.
Not that I would ever attempt it, but it gave me the feeling that if I were to drop the iPad from a height of 3 feet or so, that the iPad would survive intact, and probably the case too.
Well, after weeks of waiting for Otter Box to get the Defender series cases out for iPad 2, I finally got the email notifying me that they were available for purchase. I bought one and received it today.
I still think it’s probably the sturdiest case around for the iPad 2, bit this case seems a little less protective than the last case series. I was hoping for a basic clone of the last case for the first generation iPad but I guess they were going for a more stylish case this time. The iPad 2 is thinner than the first generation iPads, but that doesn’t mean that they had to make the case thinner as well. From a style perspective, it makes sense. But from a protective stance, not so much.
I like how I don’t have to remove the panel in the back in order to charge my iPad. They’ve changed that by including a rubber flap that lifts out of the way for charging. Removing the old cover and keeping track of it was a pain.
I also think the included stand is much improved. The top cover of the case, which covers the screen during transport, also doubles as an angled stand for the iPad. The new stand is much better designed than the old one and looks like it will last much longer.
All in all, I would give the Otter Box Defender case for iPad 2 a four stars out of five, maybe four and a half.
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Updates | 1 Comment »
Springtime! Fire It Up! Part Deux!
My mission, should I choose to accept it…
Turn this…
Into this…
Mission accomplished!
It took me about an hour to fire up the grill and clean it for this season, setup the table and chairs and we are now ready to cook and eat outdoors! Another sure sign of spring, which arrived uncharacteristically late this year.
I went and bought a stainless steel grill rack, made for cooking the small stuff that would normally fall through the grill. It’s basically a flat sheet with rows of very small holes in it. It’s perfect for vegetables and shrimp and things that like to stick to the grill, like kebobs.
I’m going to ease into the grilling season with some Angus hot dogs tonight and work my way up from there. LOL!
Topics: Looking Forward, Updates | 1 Comment »
Springtime! Fire It Up!
To coin a phrase from Bruce Buffer….
It’s Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!
Spring is here. We got a fire bowl last weekend, courtesy of a great Canadian Tire sale.
We’re going to fire it up tonight and roast some marshmallows.
I hope the neighbours don’t mind, cuz I ain’t sharing! 
Topics: Looking Forward, Updates | No Comments »
Election Time, Yet Again!
Another federal election is just around the corner for us Canadians. Yet again, we will be going to the polls and choosing an MP to neglect us for the next few years (if the government lasts that long).
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting pretty tired of doing my duty as a citizen, voting because I care about the direction we head into and having that thrown in my face by virtue of the fact that my concerns are largely ignored.
Regarding the leaders of each party and the parties themselves, there is very little choice these days for people who care about politics and the political process. We are presented with a choice between asshole #1, asshole #2, asshole #3 and a few other candidates who never stood a chance. The election song and dance is exactly the same each election from all major parties and leaders. They promise this and promise that, with no intention on ever following through on those promises. Then they get elected and ignore us for another few years.
We deserve better! It’s time we started demanding more of our leaders! We should be doing more to leverage the power of social networking and the Internet to force our elected public servants to serve us, with respect for us. Put politicians on notice and make them understand that their position is not a gravy train to be ridden with disdain for the public that they are supposed to be serving. I’m tired of being lied to. I’m tired of politicians who think they’re above the law. And I’m tired of being ignored after the votes have been cast. Again, we deserve better!
Topics: Looking Forward, Things That Piss Me Off, Updates | 1 Comment »
Niagara Falls
We’re in Niagara Falls today. We decided to celebrate my daughter’s birthday by getting a hotel room in Niagara Falls and going to the indoor water park here.
Unfortunately, I have such a killer headache, I can not join them in their water play. But it’s nice to have an evening of down time.
I’ve got some pictures to share too…
The Rainbow Bridge to the USA…
The American Falls…
The Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side…
The family just got back from the water park and now it’s dinner time. Wonder what we’ll be eating.
Topics: Updates | No Comments »
Tax Time
Yay! It’s my favourite time of the year… TAX TIME! 
It’s that time of year, when I get to go through the million receipts I’ve collected and add them all up, organize them, double check my addition skills, factor out the taxes from the totals, add the taxes back in to some totals, reorganize the receipts, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum!
Can’t we just skip the whole concept of paying taxes? Please?
Topics: Things That Piss Me Off | No Comments »
Selling Stuff On Kijiji
I have a bunch of stuff up for sale on Kijiji.ca. It’s mostly just some old electronics stuff (DVD Recorder, CD Player, Stereo Receiver, 36 Inch CRT TV, USB External Hard Drive) and an apartment sized dryer. Kijiji is pretty much like craigslist.
(Maybe I should try craigslist too, but that’s another topic)
I looked around at similar items on Kijiji before listing my items. I’m not unrealistic or stupid, so I wanted to price my items accordingly so that they were reasonably priced and would sell.
In every case, the potential buyer wants a lower price and it doesn’t matter what the item is priced at. And I’ve deduced that the reason they want a lower price is not at all about spending less money. It’s about the buyer setting the price on their own terms.
Of all the items I’ve listed, I’ve only sold the stereo receiver so far. I bought it years ago and barely used it. It was top of the line in it’s day and cost me over $500 new. I listed it for $75 and it was a steal at that price. The buyer and I exchanged e-mails back and forth before he came to my home to pick it up. Price was never mentioned in our exchanges. It was only after he came to my home to see the item and had already decided to buy it that he offered me $70 for it. At the risk of wasting that time and having to go through all that again with someone new, I let him have it for $70. He bargained me down $5 on an item that was already a deal and he already knew he wanted. I guess he wanted to feel more in control?
Whatever.
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Things That Piss Me Off, Updates | No Comments »
Snow? In April? Really?
Could someone please tell Old Man Winter that his services are no longer required?
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Updates | No Comments »
Smirnoff Vodka Speakers
Just got an interesting gift…
Friends of ours brought over a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. It was a very nice gesture, although not so interesting on it’s own.
What’s interesting is that this bottle of vodka has a second function. It’s got built in speakers that plug into a standard earphone jack on any iPod, iPad, iPhone or other MP3 player.
And you know what? The speakers actually sound pretty good!
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Updates | No Comments »
Blogging From My iPad
I got the WordPress app for my iPad and have started blogging with it.
Hopefully, it will encourage me to blog more often and help facilitate that.
Since getting the iPad, I’m spending may more time on it and a lot less time on my laptop.
Thankfully, WordPress realized this and created an app for me.
Topics: Looking Forward, Updates | No Comments »
Blog Crashed
I went to upgrade WordPress for my blog yesterday.
Simple operation, right? Especially since WordPress now offers upgrades in a fully automated process.
Unfortunately, not so.
The upgrade rendered WordPress inoperable and fucked my database!
I was able to salvage some old posts and repost them, after deleting the old install and installing a fresh copy with a fresh database. As a result, the old posts all have yesterday’s date on them and there are no longer any comments on my blog.
That really sucks! The blog was 5 years old!
The only saving grace was that I barely blogged at all over the past 2 or 3 years, so there went a ton of posts lost.
Better get back to posting!
Topics: Learning Experiences, Things That Piss Me Off, Updates | No Comments »
Joe Pesci Only Told Us Half The Story
Joe Pesci only told us half the story in that Lethal Weapon movie. It’s the movie where he is complaining about the Drive-Thru experience. “They Fuck You At The Drive-Thru”. You know the rant.
You go to the drive through and they never get your order right. Well, it seems like never. Actually, they DO get the order right about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, something is wrong with the order.
Odd, when you think about it, really. I would think that if you’re going to screw up an order, then you would want to be screwing up an order of someone who is eating inside the restaurant. That way, when they discover that they got fucked, they could calmly go to the counter and get their order corrected. It’s an inconvenience, but a minor one.
When they fuck you at the drive-thru, however, it is usually later on when you discover that you got fucked. You get your food and then drive back home or to work or to wherever you were headed with your meal. You finally get to your destination and then realize that the food that you ordered is NOT in the bag that you’re holding. To correct the situation then, requires another drive back to the restaurant you just came from. Quite often, you don’t even have time for that crap.
As I said, that’s only half the story…
The other thing that really pisses me off about drive-thrus is their NEED to upsell me. I order a burger and a drink because I want a burger and a drink. If I wanted fries, I would have ordered them. Simple concept. Right? Not to the people running these places.
There must be some sort of standard training video that drills into the heads of the staff, the concept of upselling other items to me. That really doesn’t bother me. It’s inconvenient, but only in a minor way.
The thing that really bugs my ass about it is that they are rude about the upsell process. The person on the other end of that drive-thru speaker can’t even wait for me to finish placing my order before trying to sell me fries. In fact, they are SO concerned with selling me those fucking fries, and interrupting me to ask if I want them, that they inevitably have to ask me to repeat my order because they weren’t listening to me when I was ordering!
Here’s a tip for anyone who works in a drive-thru. Wait until I completely finish ordering. Then, and only then, ask me if I want more than I ordered. And, get my order right!
Topics: Things That Piss Me Off | No Comments »
Toronto Area Gas Prices
The day after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the price of a litre of gas in Toronto was at $1.30! (For any Americans reading this, that is $4.30 USD/Gallon!) There are a few problems with the stories the gasoline companies are trying to feed us.
First, they say that the price of a litre of gas at the pump is directly tied to the price of a barrel of oil. They further state that when there is a drop in the price of a barrel of oil, the effects take approximately 90 days for the price to finally trickle down to the price at the pump. Why, then, when the price of a barrel of oil goes up, that 90 days is reduced to 90 minutes? And how is it possible that the price of a barrel of oil skyrockets on the Wednesday before every long weekend in the summer? Wednesday is, of course, the day before Thursday (when the majority of people get paid from work). And why, in a country like Canada, does the price of our gasoline jump when there’s a hurricane in New Orleans?
Canada exports more oil than it imports.
Translation: We produce enough oil to sustain ourselves as a country. Why, then, do we even give a shit how much the US is paying for their oil? Because we’re tied to the global economy, blah, blah, blah. Well, have you noticed that many of the gas stations in the Toronto area still have price signs that are only capable of displaying 3 digits. So, when the price of a litre of gas goes above $1, they often turn the sign off and you have to guess what they are charging as you are driving by at 60kph. Or, they set the sign to 03.9 (to tell us that the price is 103.9). We should fight back with what little power we have. They already know that we can’t stop driving, and therefore, won’t stop buying their gas. But, if we are coordinated and selective about what we do as a group, we can at least stick it to the gas companies a little bit at a time. Write to the gas companies and tell them that you are not going to buy their gas until they update their signs. Then follow through. Only buy your gas from stations that have updated their price signs to 4 digits. I know, it’s not much, but at least we can force them to spend a little bit of money at each gas station. It’s really our only hope of winning any kind of war with them. We have to fight the little battles and choose the right little battles to fight! Sooner or later, we’ll win the war, one battle at a time.
Screw the gas companies!
Topics: Strike Back! | No Comments »
Pssssst! Pass This On…
I really despise the typical “pass this on” e-mail. I get far too many of them and I NEVER pass them on. I don’t care if I won’t get good luck. I don’t care if “something amazing” or something “really cool” will never happen to me because I didn’t pass the e-mail on to everyone I know. I really don’t give a shit if I will supposedly have “bad luck” for the rest of my life. (If “God” is going to punish me for the rest of my natural life because I didn’t pass along a fucking e-mail, then I have a few choice words for him when I die.) Who the fuck makes these things up any way? Don’t you people have anything better to do than to clog up my e-mail box with useless text? I get enough SPAM! Now I have to deal with SHIT coming into my e-mail box from people because they’re too superstitious to just let the e-mail die?
I have news for everyone. You won’t get good luck. You won’t get bad luck. SHIT HAPPENS. Sometimes people get what they deserve. Sometimes they don’t. It’s all a roll of the dice. And, since everyone seems bound and determined to pass crap along to everyone else… Feel FREE to pass this along to whomever you feel like pissing off today!
—————————————————————————————–
For those of you who hate chain letters or don’t believe in them, this one is REAL. It works. I’ve seen it happen. Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know, even if they don’t have an e-mail address.
If you forward this message to 5 people, you will get an e-mail within 1 week!
If you forward this message to 10 people, you will get an e-mail within 5 days!
If you forward this message to 15 people, you will get an e-mail within 3 days!
If you forward this message to 20 people, you will get an e-mail within 1 day!
SUPER SPECIAL BONUS…
IF YOU FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO 50 PEOPLE, YOU WILL GET AN E-MAIL WITHIN 1 HOUR!!!!!!! GUARANTEED!
My friend’s neighbour’s brother’s dentist’s assistant has a dog that bit a woman in the park who mentioned that she forwarded this e-mail to 50 people and she got an e-mail in 15 minutes!
My sister’s friend’s boss’s husband is a police officer and he said he stopped a vehicle being driven by a woman who’s cousin’s mother’s neighbour’s housekeeper forwarded this e-mail to 1000 people and she got an e-mail within 3 minutes!!!
Another man who received this e-mail didn’t forward it, and he died an excruciatingly painful death almost instantly! But, as he was falling to the floor, his hand accidentally hit the keyboard, which forwarded the message for him. HE RECEIVED AN E-MAIL WITHIN 1 MINUTE!!!!!!!
Don’t let this happen to you! You MUST forward this e-mail to everyone!
—————————————————————————————–
P.S. We’ve all seen e-mails like this one. I especially like the one that says that some company is “tracking” e-mails and will pay you for each person you send it to. It’s a crock of SHIT! Don’t waste your time or your bandwidth! Tracking e-mails is not even within their ability, and they are definitely not going to pay you to send e-mails!
Topics: Things That Piss Me Off | No Comments »
First Snowstorm Of Winter 2007-2008
We’re getting dumped on as I write this.
We had a good snowfall about 2 weeks ago, give or take, but it was nothing like this and we still have a lot more snow coming. This could be called the first official snow storm of the winter, except it isn’t winter yet.
This is fall weather.
Topics: Amusing Stuff, Updates | No Comments »
Major Computer Network Overhaul
I just went through a major computer network overhaul. Well… it’s pretty major for my home.
It’s been a while since I have been able to add any systems to my home network and my server crashed a while ago. That left me with no backups of my data so it was great to finally get my hands on some used computer gear. The price (free) was right, too.
So, now I have a functional server again with a decent sized hard drive so that I can backup my data across the network while I sleep.
I managed to piece together another workstation too so there will be less waiting to use a computer at my house. That’s always a good thing!
Topics: Updates | No Comments »
Groundhog Day Is Approaching
Check out the blog of one of my friends HERE.
In 1887, a spirited group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney dubbed themselves “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.” One member of the club was an editor of Punxsutawney’s newspaper. Using his editorial clout, he proclaimed Punxsutawney Phil, the local groundhog, to be the one and only official weather prognosticating groundhog. He issued this proclamation on, appropriately enough, Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney Phil’s fame began to spread, and newspapers from around the globe began to report Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day predictions. Today, 20,000 fans come to Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day to experience this unique—and fun—tradition. For more information about the evolution of Groundhog Day and the story of Punxsutawney Phil, visit Punxsutawney’s official Groundhog site. http://www.groundhog.org/
–>Will the Groundhog catch his Shadow? Find out! –> Watch it live here – http://groundhog.visitpa.com/expandedcam.html Here you can see Phil’s year round home at the Groundhog Zoo – http://groundhog.visitpa.com/zoocam.html
Topics: Amusing Stuff | No Comments »
I Got A New Remote Control
I haven’t been blogging here in a while. It’s a long, boring story that basically boils down to a lack of time for quite a while.
Anywho…
I got me a big ass remote today and I just had to post it. This thing is so large it made me laugh just to look at it and I decided then and there that I was taking it home with me. The thing only cost me $15 and it will provide me with years of entertainment in the form of a good laugh every now and then. It was probably the best $15 I ever spent.
It’s a universal remote, so I can control more than one piece of equipment with it. Big remote for big jobs, I suppose.
It’s a good thing I don’t have to feed it.
Topics: Amusing Stuff | No Comments »
What’s For Dinner?
Loading …
Looking for some dinner ideas?
http://www.chefs.com/recipes/default.aspx
We’re always looking for new things to eat at my house. Every night, it’s the same thing…
“What’s for dinner?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do we have?”
“Chicken, Beef, Fish.”
“So, what’s for dinner?”
“I don’t know.”
Thankfully, there are places like this out there. Lots of ideas to make that chicken special and that beef sing. And, there’s lots of recipies for freaks who like vegetables too.
Topics: Amusing Stuff | No Comments »
