Some Ones and Zeros

This is post number 100 in my blog. A small milestone. It's more amazing I've actually kept this up since March;-)

Some more ones and zeros as well: Our department lottery pool won $1000 on the extra in friday's Super 7 draw. With 17 people that doesn't equal a lot of money each, but it's definitely better than a kick in the pants. My Vision Credit coworker is also in another pool and they got 6 of the 7 numbers and won around $3000 I believe. With only 7 in that pool he's doing pretty good.

I picked up Guitar Hero II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero_II and http://www.guitarherogame.com) for the PS2 on saturday while we were doing some shopping at Walmart. I don't know why I've waited so long to pick up the game as it is a lot of fun. The game comes with a guitar controller that's styled after a Gibson SG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_SG), a strap and some stickers. The idea behind the game is fairly simple. Five different colour notes scroll towards you on the screen and you have to hit the corresponding coloured notes on your guitar controller and "strum" the guitar at the appropriate time. Do it right and you'll be rocking out. Do it wrong and you'll here lots of annoying noise and the audience will start to boo.

So far I've played it mostly on easy which only uses three of the five "notes". On easy I've made it up to the "Furious Fretwork" section where I managed to make it through Anthrax's "Madhouse" but not without some mess ups. I did decide to start playing only on medium as of yesterday and that will keep me occupied for a while. My favorite songs to play so far are "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas, "Woman" by Wolfmother and "Cherry Pie" by Warrant.

Overall it's a very fun game and I've had trouble wiping the grin off my face when I play. Marla doesn't mind it either since she likes a lot of the songs on the game, which means I can play it with the volume turned up (which of course is needed when you're rocking out). One of the cool little features is using your "Star Power" by putting the guitar vertical and shaking it. Or if you're working through a faster section by just pressing the select button.

For a closing shot, this is the controller. The only difference is mine has a red body instead of the white.

I also purchased another game called Okami in which you play the part of a Japanese god in the body of a white wolf. I'll write about that one in a later post. Below is a screen shot of the character you play (Amaterasu).

First Curling Win!

WooHoo! We won our first curling game on friday 10-3. I figured we were off to a bad start being down 3 in the first end but it just clicked after that. I could attribute it to my early set up as lead, but that would be stretching it a bit. I made some good shots though if I do say so myself. The only time I messed up was when listening to my skip ;-) I saw where he wanted the rock and then when he signalled to do an in turn I was confused on how the rock was supposed to get where he wanted it. It was a mix up of course and he had meant for me to do an out turn. Again, I was doing what my skip told me to do =)

Other than that the weekend was a lazy one. I'm still not 100% but feeling better than I did on friday. Still have some aches and pains which I'm thinking is still that flu hanging on. We finally got around to watching Ice Age 2: the Meltdown on saturday night. It was quite entertaining... but then again Marla and I like watching the CGI animated movies., so it may not be in everyone's tastes.

The Nintendo Wii seems to be selling extremely well still. Toys R Us was getting a shipment in for Saturday and I had thought about seeing if I could pick one up. That changed however when I read on a local forum that there were already people in line up at 11:30 pm the night before. Two guys sold their spots in line for $400 each. Personally I would do that if I was there as well. Just wait a month or so and they will be readily available. The Playstation 3 is available if you know where to look as well. Perhaps when it takes a price cut I'll look at getting one.

I finished up Stephen King's latest paperback offering this weekend as well. Cell is an ok novel but felt a little short and almost incomplete. The idea behind the story is that a "pulse" is sent out over cell phones and any one using a cell phone has their brain "erased". Initially people are raving mad, killing and destroying anything they see. Eventually they evolve into something different. We're never told who initiated the "pulse" and the ending is almost a cliff hanger. It would have made a better short story in a collection than a novel by itself. If I had to compare it to another King story it would be The Long Walk, although that story is much better. Either way, it's a good read to pass a night or two if you're a Stephen King fan.

I'm still sick. I believe I may have a touch of bronchitis, but I'm not sure as I'm not coughing. Just some chest discomfort in my tracheal area and I can feel some mucus... Mmmmm... mucus. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to see if I can get some meds to get over this as it's been over two weeks now.

The basement work has come to a standstill as of late. I'm in the position where I don't really know what to do when it comes to building bulkheads and my father in law has been busy with other work. Our Christmas target isn't going to be met so I'm aiming for the end of January now.

Other than that I'm here at work this work for the late shift (9:30 to 6pm). Nothing really happens after 5 pm anywho so it's basically an hour to do productive work like write in this blog and listen to some music on my ipod.;-) The only thing that I don't like about it is that it's so quiet here in the office from about 4:50 to when I leave. I'm most likely one of two to four people here after 5 this week. It's not so bad since I only have to do it every 10 weeks.

Since I haven't posted up any video game pictures in a while, here's one from GT4 that I recently completed. The car is a Mercedes McLaren SLR. The real world car retails for around $450,000 US and has a top speed of 209 mph. If I ever won a large lottery I would definitely get one=) This picture had a motion blur added and the colour tone changed to a nice blue (well duh, you can see that right).

Ughhhh...

I haven't updated in a while due to fighting with the flu... or a nasty cold... or perhaps both. Last thursday night I woke up with an itchy throat and it's been downhill since. I'm feeling a little better today but still have some rough chest congestion going on. I can't remember being sick for so long in a long time.

So I've been taking Buckley's pills and downing some Buckley's Mixture (does one ever get used to swallowing that stuff?). Last night I bought some contac syrup and it seemed to help me sleep a lot better. I will be making an appointment with my doctor though as I think I may have a touch of bronchitis. I'm not sure what he can do for me, but it's better safe than sorry.

Insurance woes

So I've been in corrspondence with my insurance adjuster and offered logical proof that my story makes more sense than that of the gentleman I had the collision with but I have been told that they are not changing their decision. His words were that the onus of responsibility lies upon me under the highway traffic act. I didn't realize that I'm supposed to leave sufficient space when I'm in one lane and another driver is in a different lane. If that was the case then the whole idea of having two lanes with one as a passing lane makes no sense.

With that he told me my only option would be to take the other guy to small claims court. They would stand by the courts decision if they ruled in my favour. I did find out however that there is another option. It's an Independent Review by a retired judge. Basically I pay $25, make my case in written form to the judge and they make a decision based on my point of view and the file from MPI. If they uphold MPI's decision then I lose my $25, but if they change it I get my $25 back. What this also means is that if the judge chooses to not find me at fault I would get back my money for the deductible plus not have a $200 surcharge on my license.

If that doesn't work out then I still have the option of going to court. I then have to weigh the time needed to file a claim, take time off work, and the other time needed to prepare. I'm trying to be confident it won't come down to that and the logical proof that I can offer in the Independent Review will show that the other driver was at fault.

In other insurance news apparently MPI is looking at adding a premium to cars that are on the top 100 stolen list if they do not have an immobilizer installed. That's bunk if you ask me as I use the club 100% of the time on my car. That's more of a deterent than a blinking light if you ask me. That and the fact that the car goes from home to work and that's it. I have thought about getting one as they are free, but with the command start on the Neon it will cost me at least $75 to get the immobilizer set up to allow the command start to work.

On the running front... well, there hasn't been a running front for the last week. I've been dead tired and decided to take a week off. I'm going to start running again come sunday.

Video game madness

While making a trip to Walmart last night we noticed a handfull of young people sitting in lawn chairs and a tent set up. At first I didn't know what was going on but then I realized - Sony's Playstation 3 was going on sale today. It must have been nice for them as we received freezing rain last night.

Apparently there were some fights at other locations in Winnipeg involving people in line and one guy was beaten up and robbed outside a Walmart after he had picked up his Playstation 3. That last part is a little bit second hand knowledge and may not be 100% true. However in the US there was a shooting and confirmed robberies and fights in many different areas.

Why you ask? While many people would be waiting outside a story for a day or more to buy the PS3 for their own use, I suspect the majority were buying them to resell on ebay. A couple recent auctions ended with the PS3 fetching $9000.00 US or more. The selling price is $549 CDN for the lower end version and $649 for the high end version. That's a pretty good profit for a couple hours in the cold - or a quick robbery of someone who legitmately paid for a system.

You can also blame this "game" on Sony for not providing enough consoles at launch. Apparently 400,000 were allocated for North America and approximately 32,000 of those for Canada. Nintendo is not going to be playing the shortage game and estimates say there will be 10 Nintendo Wiis for every one PS3 at launch. I figure that if that number is correct there won't be any worries about a shortage of Nintendo systems and you won't have to camp out overnight to get one.

I've been contemplating as of late on whether or not to get a Nintendo Wii. Everytime I see videos of people playing (http://us.wii.com) I remember back to how excited I was when my parents bought me the original NES with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. I keep telling Marla she would have fun playing the Wii with me (lol). It looks very user friendly and more focused on having fun that using overpowering graphics. The price is also a bit easier to swallow as well at $279. That would be cheaper than the original NES when it was released in Canada.

Yes, I refuse to let go of my childhood;-)

On another note I met my goal of walking/running 80 km in four weeks last night. I had slacked a bit on my goal but made up for it in the last week. Next run is planned for tomorrow and I'm aiming for 5k.

Mario gets robbed and football fever

First off, Mario Lopez was robbed of the "Dancing with the Stars" trophy. He was clearly a better dancer than Emmit Smith and sometimes I even felt like I was watching two pros as opposed to one pro and an actor. The judges seemed to pimp Emmit more anyway and never actually commented on his dancing a lot but instead focused on his smile and charisma. With Mario they were the other way arround, and any small mis-step was pounced on - especially by crotchety old Len.

Oh well, Mario is the champ in my mind and has set the bar for performances for the upcoming seasons.

The 94th annual Grey Cup is being played in Winnipeg this sunday. What does that mean for me? Staying the hell out of Winnipeg, that's what. Normally Sunday is our shopping day and it's crazy enough trying to get shopping done when a regular Bombers game is on. This weekend will be pointless. Oh well, we'll probably watch the game on TV in a nice warm house as opposed to freezing our butts off.

Little guy is home

I took a quick shot of the Neon last night. It looks a little better than in the last picture I posted.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

As you can see I've made some changes to my blog today. I upgraded the blog itself thanks to the crew at blogger which makes it easier to customize the templates. I believe this look is good for the blog.

I got my Neon back today. It's nice and sparkly with it's new parts and paint. I'll get some pictures up soon.

New Personal Best

Now that I have my Nike+ unit properly calibrated I can actually run and get a correct reading while doing so. The Nike+ unit is within a couple seconds +/- the treadmill's pace. I know running on a treadmill is not the same as outdoors, but since it's gotten colder and there is ice on the streets I'd rather mill it than risk slipping and falling or something.

Anywho, I set a new personal best mile tonight at a time of 9 minutes 14 seconds. I know that's not an amazing time, but for me it is =) My first run with the nike unit showed a pace of 7m31s per km. This latest run was 5m52s per km. That's a pretty good increase in the last two months.

I know I'm making progress since I can run at consistent 7mph on the treadmill without a problem whereas last year when we first got it 7 mph was my "burst" speed.

WooHoo for me! =)

Wow.

Marla and I were at Superstore today picking up some items for a dinner we're having next week with some friends (seafood night) when what do I see in front of me? Purity Syrup! WooHoo! I also spotted some savoury that's made in Newfoundland (clear plastic bag with a white label and red print - uses a caribou as a logo), but I can't remember the name on it right now.

After finding the syrup I decided to hunt around to see if they had any other purity products, but unfortunately I could't find any. Of well, the syrup is enough:)

We also saw the largest lobster we've both ever seen at superstore. The thing was huge. If it wasn't 2 feet long then it had to be darn close. Each of it's claws was longer than most of the lobsters that were in the tank with it. It was sad to see such a large, old creature cooped up in a small tank. I'm surprised that the fishermen who caught it didn't release such a large guy. I think he would have deserved it.

We're also on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer kick as of late and bought the first three seasons at walmart a month or so back. Future Shop had a sale on the complete series box set so we decided to pick it up today. Very nicely packaged, and it's 40 DVDs. I believe that will keep us occupied for some time.

The rental car is nice, but I'm noticing a few flaws. Power is the first one. It's a 115 hp 2.0 L 4 cylinder and while peppy enough in town it lacks highway passing power. There are also a few rattles, which is surprising given the car only has 2000 km on it now.

Oh Snap!

Marla and I went to Enterprise Rent-a-Car yesterday to pick up my rental while the Neon is getting fixed. The "Auto Loss of Use" we have with MPI gives us $39 a day for a rental which typically means you can get an economy car without having to pay extra. Their economy models are "Chevrolet Aveo's and similar." I wasn't looking forward to driving an aveo "or similar" and was pleasantly surprised when they had a 2007 Volkswagen Jetta ready for me. The rep asked if I wanted to try a Ford F150 for $5 more a day but we both figured that would also add up to more gas a day.

It's a VERY nice car. Power everything and heated seats! I'm trying to not like the car too much because it is quite a step above the Neon.

I had tried uploading more of the lomo shots yesterday but to no avail. Here's one I did last night. This was taken a couple years ago at out old house in Winnipeg after some hoar frost had settled in. I really like the lomo look on this shot.

Shoop de shoop... I mean shop

I received a call from "The New" Pembina Dodge yesterday about the parts for the Neon. They were in and they wanted the car in this morning to start work. Uneventful drive in except that I'm pretty sure all the power steering fluid has leaked out now so I got a good work out when steering the car. They didn't give an e.t. on when the car would be ready but I figure a week is to be expected.

With respect to the collision I believe I may have found a way to show that the guy who cut me off failed to tell the truth to his adjuster about what happened. I'm going to have to take some measurements this weekend and I'll update here if it works out (or even if it doesn't). I just have to get a picture of the back of hist truck and where the damage is on the bumper. I know he is claiming no damage, but there has to be some evidence of the collision on his truck.

The painters are almost done at the house now. It is looking really good. I'll get some pictures up once we get everything back in place. I'm quite happy with the color choices and it makes the house look much more warm and inviting.

I did some "lomography" pictures last night in photoshop. True lomography uses a lomo camera.

Basically it's got a funky lense and takes pictures that look old... and well, the camera design itself is old, so that makes sense. Anyway, photoshop does a good job of emulating a lomo camera.

Cory on Signal Hill

Cactus in Arizona (Marla took this shot last year)

Just some pictures

I was messing around with some pictures in photoshop this week. The first one is Bo driving the Satellite at a high rate of speed.

The second shot is of Grant's Daytona. I like the color tone of the shot. It received some major photoshop work so far as I had to remove a truck and trailer from the left side of the picture. I still need to clean it up some more.

Well that's a totally different animal

My slider that is. Who would have thought that teflon would be slippery on ice. By the way, that's also called sarcasm.

It's going to take a number of times on the ice to get used to moving around fluidly while using my new curling shoes. Delivering a rock was a much better experience however. I could slide pretty much to the hog line without a lot of effort.

The only time I did fall was when I was wearing both grippers. Apparently the heels don't hold as much grip as the rest of the shoes. Anyway to make a long story short Grant said I looked like a gingerbread man falling over when I did fall. I don't think I could have fallen more flat on my back if I tried. The only thing I didn't hit was my head.

Either way it still hurt.

I'm ok today and managed to run 4.5 km this morning before work. I need to pick up the pace as I slacked off last week due to the snow and ice on the roads.

Sucks

Well, good things first. The neon is repairable. MPI assessed the damage at $5200. The kicker though? The guy I hit told a totally different story. He says he was in the left lane the whole time and I rear-ended him. I'm not denying I hit his rear bumper, but he did cut me off and wasn't completely in the lane.

Either way, there are no witness' and it's my word against his. He's claiming no damage to his truck and the onus is on me to prove he cut me off which is going to be impossible given there are no witness'.

So now I have to pay a $200 deductible, be without a car for a few weeks AND pay a $200 surcharge on my license the next time I renew it because I'm considered at fault.

Why can't people just own up to what they do?

Nike+ update

Well, the snow has put a damper on my walks as of the last couple of days, so I've had to resort to using the treadmill. I've also started following a 5K training course for novice runners. Essentially it starts off at 1.5 mile runs, to 1.75 mile, to two miles, etc up to three miles. It's going ok so far and 1.5 miles isn't trouble at all for me to run on the nice cushie treadmill we have.

What I have noticed however is that I need to calibrate my nike+ unit for running. At 5.6 mph on the treadmill and lower my nike+ unit is pretty much in synch with the treadmills numbers. Once I go to 6 mph (5.7 to 5.9 is really wonky) the numbers my ipod gives me are out of synch - by a big margin. 6 mph is a 10 minute mile. If I run 6mph on the treamill my nike+ tells me I'm doing an 11:40 mile. If I go down to 5.6 or 5.5 my pace picks up per my nike+ unit.

That tells me I do need to calibrate the ipod for running. I've since found out that the accelerometer in the transmitter determines how long your foot is on the ground and calculates a pace from that. When I run faster I am actually striding longer and my foot must be staying on the ground a short time longer than when I'm running a little slower. Or at least I guess it is.

All in all, running a little longer than what my nike+ says isn't a bad thing. If I actually run 1.6 miles instead of the 1.5 my unit says, I'm ok with that.

Poor Neon

For those not in the know yet I had an accident yesterday in my Neon. It was storming here and the roads were slippery and, well, when a person slides into your lane you try to do the best you can to avoid them, but unfortunatley I couldn't. I'm pretty sure it's a write off now, but I won't find out for sure until Friday.

All set now

Marla and I dropped by Asham's (http://www.asham.com/) today to see about getting either A: a full slider and gripper for our running shoes or B: a pair of proper curling shoes. We ended up going for option B as they gave us a really good discount for buying two pairs of shoes. We both bought the same type of shoe (called the Ice Walker - oooohhhh ;-) ) except mine has a teflon slider and Marla went with a "red brick" slider (not as slippery). Apparently the other choice is a stainless steel slider but that adds $100 to the shoes.That's mine in the picture with the teflon slider showing. Both pairs came with a slide on gripper (that sounds kind of funny - a slide on gripper). Both grippers are better for beginners when sweeping and the slider for when delivering a rock.

Asham's is a Manitoba company that sells curling supplies world-wide. Excellent service and the equipment is pro. We also got our brooms there a few weeks back. I can't wait until our next game this coming friday.

TGIF!

Friday is here again and I'm looking forward to the weekend. It's going to be busy with more work on the basement, cleaning the cars and doing some shopping, but that's all good.

I believe I may have overdone it this week with my walking and running. My nike+ unit has a total of 40.02 km clocked since last thursday and my legs are not happy with me. The last couple of times I've been out the muscles in my shins have started to get tired very quickly. It's not exactly shin splints, but what feels like an excess in lactic acid building up in the muscles. I'm going to take today off and possibly tomorrow to give my body some time to recover. The 5k run is definitely out this weekend and the one I did last week was most likely the culprit for my lack of recovery this week.

For the time being I'm going to follow an 8 week training schedule that will work my up to running 5k. It starts with 1.5 mile runs the first week and works up to 5 k in 1/4 mile increments. I could run further than 1.5 miles at a time but I'm determined to not injure myself.

On another topic I've been listening to some new (for me) music over the last week. For my walks and runs I've switched to some Crystal Method and Prodigy. I used to have Prodigy's first CD but have no clue where it is now. Somewhere between Newfoundland and BC I figure. Both bands have good beats for running - especially Crystal Method. I downloaded a 45 minute mix from itunes that was developed for the nike+ system. It's pretty good.

On the rock front I also downloaded some songs from Electric Six, Wolfmother, The Raconteurs and Rockstar: Supernova. Electric Six is fun. It's somewhat retro and cheesy, but cool nonetheless. I first heard them on the website www.rathergood.com.

Wolfmother is total old school rock. The singer sounds like Ozzy Osbourne mixed with Robert Plant and the rock is very late 70s/early 80s inspired. I really like it. Again, a bit cheesy, but easily likable. I think Cory would like them ;-)

The Raconteurs are four guys that are already in established bands. The most famous right now being Jack White from The White Stripes. It has a good feel and very White Stripish - if that makes sense.

Rockstar: Supernova is of course the latest band formed from the reality show Rockstar. They ended up with the name Rockstar: Supernova after a band in California - called Supernova - refused to let them have the name. So they just added the "Rockstar:" to the beginning and the judge said that was fine. The lead singer is Lukas Rossi from Ontario. I liked him from day one on the show. The two songs they have released so far ("It's All Love" and"Be Yourself and Five Othe Cliches") are somewhat generic rock, but still catchy. Lukas was definitely a good choice for them. His previous band, Rise Electric, is also a good listen although a bit depressing at times.

Tuesday update... which means I couldn't come up with something snappy as a title

Did another 2 mile walk with Cedar this morning on top of one last night. Currently I'm 14.9 km ahead of my target for 80 k in 4 weeks. I'm going to do a full 5 k run this weekend and keep doing that for a couple months (walk during the week and run on weekends).

Spent some time helping Ron put up some drywall in the barn for the new "engine and part room." Only took a few minutes and is nothing compared to the time he's devoted at our house. We'll start mudding and taping in the basement later this week or on the weekend. I'll try to get some more pictures of our progess up soon.

Oh yeah, and my belt buckle is pointing more straight ahead than down now=)

HURRY! HURRY HARD!

I actually heard that a few times last night during curling and a few times it was even directed towards me. Once I tossed the half-slider I was wearing and just went with the running shoes I had I actually started to have fun. I made some good shots... or as good a shot as leads can really do. Grant was the skip and told me that I'll probably go to third next time we play since I seemed to have some success with my delivery and "good weight" on my shots. All around it was a very fun experience and I only fell twice;-)

On the walking/running front I did my first 5km run today... well actually more like 4.25km run and a couple short walking stints. It took me a little longer than I thought it would at just over 30 minutes, but I'm still happy with that. Overall I'm 19k into my 80k challenge over the next four weeks and 1182 calories into my 10k calories challenge. I love this nike+ipod.

Oh and one final thing. The basement is pretty much completely dry walled. We just have to do the bulkheads now and install a central vac line. Other than that she's ready for mud.

Second impressions on the Nike+iPod

Cedar and I went for a 30 minute walk today using the Nike+iPod gear and I can say that I'm as impressed as I was last night. We covered 2.01 miles in 31 minutes and some change and when I ended my "workout" on the iPod I received a congratulations from Lance Armstrong. Well, not in real time, but a recorded message from him congratulating my on my new personal best in a one mile distance.

I also set a goal of 80 km in 4 weeks, which given my current pace will be more than attainable. I may have to modify the goal a bit after a week.

Tonight I will be curling for the first time in my life. Marla, Grant, Laurie (Grant's girlfriend) and I joined the "fun" league for the winter. I'm all set with my slider and broom and "curling" clothes. It should be a fun time.

New Toy

With all my walking and some running lately I decided that I wanted to keep track of distances and times. What better way to do that than with the Nike+ipod set. I picked it up today at a store called Runner's Corner for $38. This is what I got (along with a manual and Apple's typically sweet packaging):

The oval portion goes in the sole of a Nike+ shoe, or in my case velcroed and under the laces of my current pair of Nike runners. It's not going anywhere with the way I have it:


That's the transmitter which has an accelerometer in it. The small rectangular part is the receiver and attaches to my iPod Nano. It's the same size as the end portion of the USB cable that I use to connect to my computer.

So first thing I had to do was update my version of iTunes and the firmware for my nano (from 1.0 to 1.3 for those curious). With that I had a new option in my nano's menu: Nike+ipod. With an easy calibration (1/4 mile walk on the treadmill) everything was set.

Voice prompts aid you on your workouts and you can set your works based on time, distance, speed or calories burned. All this information is uploaded to the nike+ website where you can track your results as well as set goals and make challenges to other people.

Here's a graph of my first "official" walk using Nike+ (click to make it larger):


I'll keep you updated as I use it more. My first impressions are good and I can see this being a useful tool in my quest for fitness and health.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Just a couple things tonight that I figured I would post here in the old blog.

Cedar and I walked 5.5 km tonight in 50 minutes. That's 6.6 km/h (or 4.1 mph for those metrically challenged) on average over the 50 minutes. While I'm not breaking any records it used to take me just over an hour to walk the same distance a few weeks back. I figure a 15 minute mile is pretty good walking speed. A couple nights back I was doing 10 minute miles on the treadmill and ran just over 3 miles in 30 minutes (had a warm up in there on the timer). I'm quite happy with my results so far.

Another thing I found out tonight is that the seamstress Marla and I use for our clothes is a Newfoundlander. She's from Trinity and has been here in Stonewall since 1988. She told me there are a dozen or more other Newfoundlanders in town here. We had quite a good chat.

Last thing has to do with my photoshopping skills. I believe I'm getting a little better manipulating pictures now. Here's an example from my Gran Turismo 4 game.

I started with this:

An ended up with this:

So far so good

The basement drywalling continues and should be done come this weekend. There's not really a lot left to do but Ron will be busy for most of the week. I could do some myself if I get time. I also have to pick up some items to install a central vac line in the basement since, you know, the hose isn't really long enough to reach from upstairs. After that it's just do the bulkheads and then mud and tape... and sand. We can see the finish line now =)

Marla and I spent part of the weekend organizing the basement as it has become quite messy and unoriganized since we started the "construction." There is actually a lot of room in the unfinished part and plenty of empty space for my workshop area. It feels good to get it cleaned up and realize we don't have as much "stuff" as I thought we did.

On the fitness front I am proud to say that I am getting closer to 240 lbs now. I weighed myself this morning and I was ~ 243. I'm very happy about that and seeing the scale drop keeps me motivated. I have postphoned running for the time being however as it was getting too hard on my knees. Once I get a little lighter I'll start it up again. The walking has been going well though and I've noticed I'm walking faster than before. From rough estimates I average around 4 mph on my walks, which is a really good pace.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Yes friends, it is snowing in Winnipeg right now. Nothing like a good dump of the white stuff on October 10th.
It should be a fun drive home as everyone will be going 30 below the speed limit because, you know, we don't often get snow around here. That last scentence was heavy with sarcasm if you didn't know;-)

Mmmm... drywall

So the vapour barrier inspection was ok. The inspector said it was a very thorough job and only had one suggestion before installing the drywall: there is one window where I missed a small amount of concrete (that was left over when they were pouring the basement floor) on the sill and he was worried it might perforate the vapour barrier; so he wanted some tuck tape put over it to help strengthen the poly.

Ron came over on Saturday and today to help with the drywall. It's going pretty good so far. We have I would say half of it done as of today. I'm thinking two more days should do it. It's been a - dare I say - fun experience. Here are some pictures. Please don't mind the mess as we have a lot of stuff down in the basement.


This shot is looking at the "tv" area. The part at the left is going to be where our fish tanks will be located and most likely surrounded by book shelves.

This is the computer/office area with a shot at the entrance to the gym . The gym will have double doors so we can move equipment in or out if necessary. It would also be nice for a bedroom for any future owners should we ever sell or move.

This is looking down the hall to what will remain unfinished in the basement. You can see the doors we have leaning on the wall on the left. The hallway looks narrow, but it is 40 inches across which would be fairly standard width.

D day tomorrow

Or well, inspection day. The building inspector is coming by, quote "sometime on friday" to have a look at the insulation and vapour barrier. I'm positive everything will be fine, but you never know with these building inspectors;-)

I'll update what he says when I hear it tomorrow.

Vapour Barrier Finished

Finally.

I finished up the three remaining windows in the basement today which means I'm set for the inspector to come by. Since I have never done this before I'm a little apprehensive, but still confident that it's done correctly. I guess I'll find out soon=)

I started running every second day starting last saturday. Or trying to do it at least every second day. With me being a bit overweight... let me rephrase that... with me being a lot overweight I'm taking it a little easier so I don't injure my joints or strain myself un-necessarily. That combined with not snacking and cutting out caffeine and chocolate over the last few weeks has certainly helped on the scale. A month and a half a go I was 265, today I was at 250. I'm quite happy with that. The last time I was at 250 was when I had tried the body for life program. I should note that the days I don't run I walk twice a day for 30 minutes with Cedar (the dog). Although yesterday we ran for 40 minutes in the morning and then did a 50 minute walk in the evening. Today we did a one hour walk. It's a bit easier to fit the longer walks in on the weekends.

With the walking I guess I'm following in my mother's footsteps =)

some stuff

We went to see a NHL preseason game at the MTS center this past Sunday. All I can say is that I'm happy that we didn't spend the money for the tickets. I know it's preseason but it was boring. The third period was ok, but I expected more from the pros. The game was between the Oilers and the Coyotes with the Oilers handing a sound 5-0 defeat to the Coyotes. The biggest name there was behind the Coyotes bench in the way of Wayne Gretzsky.

On the home front, I feel proud to show this painting that Marla just completed. She has done a couple courses where they have a painter help them copy a sample, but this one was done completely on her own from looking at a picture. I think it came out very well and I'm quite proud of Marla.

Other than that I also picked up the newest Dune book, entitiled Hunters of Dune. It's the first or a two part series finale created from the notes left behind by Frank Herbert, which originally had been entitled Dune 7. His son, Brian and another writer have already written a number of other Dune series books in the past few years based on other notes from Frank, but this is the story that all Dune fans have been waiting for. I've already finished it and have to wait for the concluding second part sometime down the road. It was an ok read and started right where Frank's last book, Chapterhouse: Dune, ended. For those who have read the series, I will let you know that two clones of Paul Atreides have been created and one is being mentored by a clone of Baron Harkonnen. Some characters from the Legends of Dune Series (The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin) have also shown up in this book and I assume will play prominent parts in the second book. I'll leave the rest at that=)

Just an update since I've been focusing on other stuff in my blog as of late.

Marla and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday. It's been a quick four years with lots of changes: new jobs, new house, new everything pretty much. The amusing thing is that we bought each other the same card. I guess that shows that we're on the same wavelength =)

Also have some news about a friend and a cousin of Marlas. Marla's friend, Kim (and mine as well of course), who was her maid of honor is making a move to San Francisco to work with Genentech. She was nabbed by recuiters while on a conference there a couple months back. The offer they made was too good to refuse so she's off in a few weeks. That also made us contemplate a move out west (maybe Calgary or even the Northwest US) but we'll hold off as Marla has some opportunities here in Manitoba currently.

Marla's cousin, Jennie, has taken a years leave of absence from teaching and is currently on a trip across the globe. So far we've received pictures from India and most recently Khatmandu. She'll be going to Russia, then through the Baltic states down through Turkey and if Israel is stable there. After that it's onto Egypt then across the Atlantic to South America and then on to Antarctica. She's backpacking it and staying in hostels while on this trip and from what we can tell from her emails having a lot of fun.

Basement finishing is still going on. I'm just finishing up the vapour barrier which should be completed tomorrow. I'll try to get the building inspector out this week (trying for monday) so we can get started on drywall as soon as well can. Ron will be finished farming come this week (finishing up corn silage) so he'll be able to lend a hand. Once the drywall is up on the walls we can work on the bulkheads we need to put in place, then it's on to the mudding and taping.

Bo and the Art of Relaxation

His Highness is very adept at finding the best places to relax and take a snooze. Sometimes he will wake up from a nap to find another spot to take a break from his nap and... well... take a nap.We can learn a lot from Bo about how to relax.

King of our house

All hail King Bo.

Some graphic work... not that kind of graphic.

I was asked by my friend Scott to design a crest for his group (soldiers? brigade? Scotty, help me out here). It need a dragon a crystal ball and a latin phrase meaning "we see all." I didn't think my craftsmanship was up to the task but I pleasantly surprised myself with the outcome.

The following examples are a second draft after some input from Scott. The only difference between the two is one has a globe in the crystal ball and the other has a maple leaf.

If you read this before I send them to you on Monday Scott, let me know if you need other changes.

Judging a book by it's cover

Had a little reminder today to not judge a book by it's cover. I've receive MANY credit applications from National Vehicle Leasing for guys in the money industry (ie: investments, money managing, etc) wanting very expensive cars to keep up the facade of "having money."

Well today I received an application for a $71000.00 2006 Lexus SC430 (see picture below) for an investment guy. Based on previous experience I figured since he's young he's not going to qualify. I obtain his credit report and see a couple clean credit lines but what a shock when I looked at the "High Credit" column: $1 million dollar line of credit opened a couple months back at a major bank. Now I know I'm dealing with a guy who should know what he's doing. After that I noticed the $150,000 Porsche Financial Services credit line reporting.

Anyway, I had no problems approving the guy for his Lexus (which he plans on using as a winter car - we should all be so priviledged).

Other than that it's been a slow day at work.

Little change to the house

We got our garage doors painted to match the trim on our house. No more ugly white doors taking center stage when you see the house now. The painter will be back to paint the front door (Mayflower Red) and will be doing the interior of our house in a couple of months. He had a computer color match done to a piece of the trim to save us some agony trying to match the color via paint chips.


Before:

Falling

Fall is on it's way, so it's falling. What a wonderful summer we have had though. It certainly makes me forget about the last couple of crappy ones. A few of our neighbours are putting down sod and getting trees since it's getting a bit cooler. We haven't decided either way about anything in the yard yet and may just wait until spring to do the grass. We did weed our entire yard this last weekend in preparation for some work in a few days. We're getting some berms added and our backyard leveled a bit more. The weeding was not fun - especially when it was 36 degrees on sunday. However the job is done and we're sore to prove it.

Farming is almost done here in the interlake, or should I say harvesting. That's about a month earlier than normal. The ag industry in Saskatchewan and Alberta has also picked up a bit here at work. I'm seeing a few more apps than normal for items such as grain bins and augers. Nothing like last year from Saskatchewan, but still busy.

Marla and I have decided to hold off on buying a new computer until after the end of October. If anything we might just upgrade the one we have because, hey, it still does the job. Other than that everything is pretty much status quo.

This is totally going in our dining room

I'm trying to find a larger version of this picture to print and put in our dining room. I find it very amusing and I believe it's very "us" (and in Marla and I).

Glass lined lungs

That's what it feels like anyway. Or more like a glass lined throat. Doing the insulation and vapour barrier in the basement now and I've come to realize that I don't believe insulation is in my future career path. I tried wearing a mask but with every exhale I was steaming up my glasses. I know, I know, inhaling fiberglass vs. steamed up glasses should be an easy choice.

Anywho, like I said, it's almost done. Just being held up by a part of an exterior wall (ie: one we did not do - the builder did it) that's bowed a bit. Once that's fixed we can finish it completely and get the inspector in to have a look. Once he approves, then it's on to drywall.

You have to check this out: Travis

Travis Pastrana double back flip at the X-Games last night.

Awesome.

Cedar dog

Not much to report today, so here's a picture of Cedar. Took it this evening out on the front walkway. Fixed the levels using photoshop and added a very muted sepia toning to it (just enough to give a slight brown filter). I think it came out ok. It's really hard to take a bad picture of Cedar anyway as she is very photogenic.

Satellite is sold

So our buyer for the Satellite picked her up today. It was bittersweet for both Marla and I. For me because I had wanted to fix it up to have a nice cruiser and for Marla since it was the last link to her youth.

I did finally get to drive it yesterday. For a car that hasn't been driving since 1993 it really didn't seem that way. No doubt the motor would be a lot more peppy with a good refresh, but it was still plenty torquey when I gave the gas some blips.

Either way now, the car is not in our possession anymore and we have enough money to sod next spring and do some other stuff around the house.

On another topic, funny thing about my glasses. I went to get my eyes tested a few weeks back and the eye doctor told me that the prescription I currently had was going to change quite a bit. So I say ok and go and buy some new glasses. When I got them I could barely see. Everything that wasn't a foot or closer to me was nothing but a blur. I gave them a few days since it was a different prescription, but nothing changed. I went back to Lenscrafters where I had purchased them and they checked them and said they were to the requirements specified by the doctor.

So it was back to the doctor... who of course was on a two week vacation. Finally got to see him this past tuesday and he was befuddled. He tested each eye and for each eye it was the prescription he gave me. However, my binocular vision with the prescription was no good. He did some more testing and found out that while with each individual eye the prescription he had given was in fact better, my currently prescription was actually better when I use both eyes.

Considering I typically use both eyes at the same time, he figured it was best to use my current prescription. I agreed with him. My currently prescription actually gives me better than 20/15 vision when I use both eyes, but each eye by itself is only 20/20. Weird.

Well, I guess I do know a second language

So today I'm out bbq-ing and I saw our resident ground squirrel out foraging through the grass (aka weeds). I called Marla since she hadn't seen him (or it could be a her) yet. I then proceeded to "chatter" like a squirrel and he came running over to the deck and stood about 2 feet away from us. I say stood, because he was standing on his back legs looking at me like I was going to give him orders. Well, after receiving nothing worth listening to he went off again on his merry way.

I came back outside to check on the bbq and decided to see if I could repeat my ground squirrel calling routine. I started chattering again and in the back yard three houses away I saw him stand up. A few more chatters and he ran like, well, like a ground squirrel running fast. It was quite cute. He came right back to where he was before, except this time he tried climbing up the deck. Again, either I bored him or said the wrong thing and he left.

Anywho, here's a picture of the type of ground squirrel we have around our house.

Shed's done

All together now. Took about 3 hours total. Of course there was no wind at all when we were wheelbarrowing the 3/4 down over and lifting all the patios stones, but as soon as we start putting up walls, the wind showed up. It matches the house colour fairly well.

So... hot... ughh...

So it's 30 degrees here today with the humidty in the mid 60% range. Of course today would be the day we decide to put together the new storage shed we bought. I get ahead of myself there however but first we had to build up a level base of 3/4 down and then a subfloor using 2'x2' concrete pads. So the yard and a half of 3/4 down is... down and so are the pads. Makes a nice 8'x8' patio... again I get ahead of myself.

Just taking a break right now and having some food. After that the shed gets started. It's a nice one. Plastic, two windows that can be placed on any wall and a skylight. All for under $800 at Costco. It was more than we wanted to spend but we need to stop using the garage as a shed.

So, I'm tired, sweaty and sunburnt. So here's a picture. It was actually taken a few minutes after the one in the previous post. I feel that it has a more surreal look to it than the other.

Severe Storm Warning

So we were issued a severe storm warning tonight with the possibility of tornadoes. A tornado touched down near my brother-in-laws place last night and as they say, "tis the season." Anyway, here's a pic of one part of the storm taking from our deck (and modified in photoshop of course) about 15 minutes ago. I figure it's about 20 miles away.

Plain and simple: A Picture

Took this picture tonight after a huge thunderstorm we had.

Little Boy Happy

Well, the visit today with the prospective buyer for the Satellite went well. He and his friend were quite impressed with the condition of the car. We must have spent a couple hours just talking about it and other mopars.

We do have some of the original documentation for the car in the way of the owner's manual and original warranty slip showing a delivery date of May 15, 1972 from Midway Chrysler in Winnipeg. There are a couple other not so cool documents as well.

We also heard from the repair guy for Future Shop. They are covering the entire repair with no cost to us. Yay!

Here's to hoping the car does actually get sold and less burnt out lamps for the TV!

In other news we are kind of in the market for a new computer. We've spent some time looking around at macs, but determined they are too expensive, so we're going to go with Dell again. That being said, we are waiting until the end of this month when the new Intel 2 dual core processors hit the market. They are supposed to be noticably faster than anything out right now and, if news is correct, sell at a price less than the current Pentium D (Dual Core).

Little boy blue...

Feeling a little blue today. Work has been nuts since last Tuesday as my coworker has been out on vacation. That means I get double the work. Unlike doublemint gum, it isn't double the fun.

We also had the lamp on our Sony Grand Wega TV crap out this last weekend. We bought the extended warranty based on the salesguy telling us the lamp is covered, but we have the warranty people and the repair man saying it isn't. The price for the replacement lamp? $472 plus taxes. The repair guy said anywhere from 16 to 24 months is the average lifespan of the lamp if the TV is used regularly. If we had known then what we know know we wouldn't have bothered buying it.

Anyway, that's not resolved yet. The salesguy actually handwrote a note on the warranty slip saying that the lamp was covered, so we should be ok.

There's a guy coming tonight to look at the Satellite and he seems serious about buying it. It's a little sad knowing that we won't be able to get an old mopar like that in the future without having to spend some serious cash on it. Oh well, the need for grass and a fence overcomes the need to burn gas and rubber.

Another photoshop example

I was happy with the way this picture looked so I decided to do a "cross-processing" effect in photoshop. True cross-processing occurs in photography when different chemicals are used to develop film (chemicals for slides used to develop 35mm and vice-versa), but photoshop is capable of delivering a fairly faithfull rendition.

The only thing I would change is having the picture without the background interference from the tractor, wood pile and stairs (although the color of the stairs came out nice). I did have to tone down the tractor as the color from cross-processing made it the focus.

Dodge Challenger is a go!

The extremely popular Dodge Challenger concept from this year has been given the official green light for production as a 2008 model. Final decisions as to volume and price have not been determined. Either way, Dodge will have a hit on there hands.

For Scott

How's this for a castrol ad? ;-)

Threw it together in about 5 minutes in photoshop.

Satellite up for sale

So it's officially up for sale now. Marla's 1972 Plymouth Satellite Sebring went into the Winnipeg Free Press yesterday at a price of $5500. I'm surprised there have been no phone calls yet, but perhaps putting it in the paper at the start of a long weekend wasn't a good idea.

Here's a pic I snapped yesterday after we had washed and waxed it.

Crazy Crash

Take a gander at this video: http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/27/and-they-walked-away-department-joey-hands-mid-ohio-adventur/

Just Crazy .

Photoshop work

Just wanted to post up a picture I did from Gran Turismo 4. First is the untouched original image. Second is my work done in photoshop. For those wanting to know, the car is a Shelby Mustang GT350. I'm quite happy with the results.

updating...

Well, not much going on as of late. Deck isn't quite finished but should be next week as I'm taking a week's vacation. I'm planning on getting the wiring finished in the basement as I've been putting it off for too long now. Work is busier than normal for this time of year, which is great, but can be stressfull when there are 10 things to do at the same time.

Anywho, other than that, not much happening, so I'll finish with a picture of the newly introduced 2007 Chrysler Sebring. Not a huge step forward in design, but still has a bit of the Crossfire influence.

Dance Dance Revolution

Well, some of you know that I have a couple different Dance Dance Revolution games for my PS2 and Scott has had the luxury(lol) of playing the game with me. Well, this five year old makes the both of us look like monkeys

http://www.break.com/index/boycandance.html

Sad News

I was quite shocked to come home today and find that my Jack Dempsey Cichlid, Ham, had died. He was almost 5 years old and quite the spectacular fish. I'm not 100% sure why he died but it may have been caused by the new filter I bought which may have caused the tank to cycle. I tested the water and while ammonia and nitrate levels were low, nitrite levels were a bit above where they should be.

It's a little strange because Ham has had no problems with being in a cycling tank before. Hell, he's been through seven moves in his life, each time cycling the tank himself. I guess this time was too much. I noticed a few days ago he started twitching a little. Then two days ago he got pale (yes, fish can get pale) and this morning he was looking a little better.

RIP Ham

More deck

Stairs are on now. Just have to finish the landing (ie: put in the concrete patio stones). It took almost the whole day yesterday to do these stairs. We bought pre-cut stringers from home depot and they were a pain in the ass to push and pull into alignment. They did eventually go into place. The second picture is what you see when sitting on the deck. Yes, I know, I need to cut down the weeds. I started today but my trimmer broke.

So final steps now are to finish the landing, add stair rails and balusters and then skirting.

Now I'll say it's almost finished

The railing is up on the deck now and almost all the balusters are in place. Next step is doing the stairs and then figuring out what to do for skirting. Sorry for the picture quality as it's not the best. It's a nice thing to be able to go out on the deck after work and relax.

Along with the back of the house we've also attempted to do a little with the front. We're not going to be putting any grass down until next year so we need a little something. Just some river stone, a few big rocks that we had in the lot, a plant, some lights and a couple trellis'. We like it.

Free in the Harbour

Well, it's blackfish at play in Hermitage Bay
From pushthrough across to Bois Island.
They Broach and they spout and they lift their flukes out
And they wave to a town that is dying.
Now it's many the boats that have plied on the foam,
Hauling away! Hauling away!
But there's many more fellows been leaving their homes,
Where the whales make free in the harbour.

It's at Portage and Main you'll see them again
On their way to the hills of Alberta.
With lop-side grins, they waggle their chins
and they brag of the wage they'll be earning.
Then it's quick, pull the string boys, and get the loot out,
Haul it away! Haul it away!
But just two years ago you could hear the same shout
Where the whales make free in the harbour.

Free in the Harbour; The Blackfish are sporting again
Free in the Harbour; Untroubled by comings and goings of men
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea,
Hauling away! Hauling away!
Now they Calgary roughnecks from Hermitage Bay,
Where the whales make free in the harbour.

Well, it's living they've found, deep in the ground,
And if there's doubts, it's best they ignore them.
Nor think on the bones, the crosses and stones
Of their fathers that came there before them.
In the taverns of Edmonton, fishermen shout
Haul it away! Haul it away!
They left three hundred years buried up by the Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour.

- Stan Rogers
Found on Northwest Passage

Nurburgring webcam

Above is an up to the minute photo from a webcam set up at the start gate at the world famous Nurburgring track in Germany. From what I've read it costs around $8 to do a lap of the track. Track is around 12 miles in length and I would love to drive it someday. Due to the time difference you may not see anything here, but over the last few days I've seen Ferrari's, Porsche's and other exotics lined up ready to go. There's even a guy in a yellow Ford GT who keeps showing up.

Pandora

Take a trip over to http://www.pandora.com for a great music website. Basically it's a computer DJ that creates a "radio" station for you. Enter the artist or song you like and the site will choose music that matches the selection you entered. It's a great way to find new artists to enjoy.

Check it out=)

Pictures of the almost finished deck

Just have to cut the excess 2x6s (we had planned on a 12'x12' deck first but went with 10'x12' after we had purchased the wood. After we get the excess cut I need to rip a small piece to go at the end, add stairs and then do the railing.

Decking done

It's late and I should be in bed, but I just wanted to say that the deck boards are on the deck now. We ran into a few other small snags that slowed us down, but it's all done. I did find out that joist hangers are very sharp.

Anywho, until I get some actual pictures of the deck (it was almost dark when we finished), here's one of us working on the joists. I have my hand in my pocket because I'm reaching for a nail, not because I was standing around doing nothing=). Good shot of the ground hogs sticking up there as well.

The deck is 10'x12' for those wonding.