Another 5 km logged today and yesterday. So that's 20.69 km and over 3200 calories since Monday. From last Friday it's a total of 35.07 km and 3982 calories. The calorie burn is only an estimate from my Nike+ unit and doesn't take into consideration that I'm using the poles now.

I feel good and have less aches and pains in my legs since I started using the poles. I'm not getting any younger so I figure saving my joints now will pay off down the road when I'm older and still want to be active.

This morning I realized I've become much more fluid with the poles and don't drag them on the ground anymore when making the forward motion with them. I feel more confident using them and plant them properly about 98% of the time.

Other than that not much to report. Another 5 km this morning with the dog in tow.

More poling

I walked just over 5 k on Saturday, Sunday and today. I'm going to take at least one day off a week to give myself a break. My pants keep getting bigger but the scale keeps staying in one place. Well I guess as long as I'm getting smaller then I can assume I'm heading in somewhat of a right direction.

Tomorrow morning will be another 5km. I was limiting myself to 30 minutes in the morning but started getting up a little earlier to squeeze another 30 minutes in. I'm going to try and punctuate my nordic walking with occasional running and inline skating.

June 1st

Another 4 km done this morning using the poles. I can really feel it now when I use them and I'm getting a lot more comfortable using them. Best of all is that Cedar dog doesn't mind me using them. They do get in the way a bit when

I did notice that I am possibly dragging them a bit too much as the pads are already showing wear. I'll probably order a new set soon since everything is replaceable on my poles - the handles, the foot and the pads.

Now I'm feeling it

Ok, so second day out with the new walking poles and I can't feel their effect. The back of my arms, my shoulders and back are all feeling sore today.

I did 4km this morning in 40 minutes, which is a little slower than if I was just walking, but I am still feeling the effects of my recent 10km walk in my lower legs. A couple days off should fix that up.

Numbers of interest: I have approximately 120 km on my new runners now. I'm also at 323km total with my Nike+ unit.

Of note with my poles, I learned that when the roads and side walks are wet from rain I need to be more conscious of planting my poles properly so they don't slip.

Ok, so later on meant later yesterday

So I went and bought my own pair of walking poles yesterday at the Running Room. They are made by Excel and are of a mid to upper level of construction amongst their poles. I picked a length of 125 cm as 130 felt to tall and 120 was a little too short. The 125 cm length is also what the manufacturer recommends based on my height.

I can say now that without a doubt proper sizing of the poles are very important. Right away I noticed a huge difference when using these new poles over the ones Marla has. It was working my arms much more effectively and I had an easier time planting the poles to get the proper bite into the road and sidewalk.

I only did my regular 3k walk this morning but I can't give times or pace as I forgot to start my Ipod's Nike+ program. I'm fairly certain I did it a little faster than normal, but for the next little while I'm going to concentrate on getting my technique down before trying to go faster.

Nordic Walking

I have a small new pasttime now. Nordic Walking. What is Nordic Walking? Well, it's walking with poles. I guess you could call them hiking poles, except they have rubber tips for hard surfaces. It's been quite fun and gives a good workout as it uses both your upper and lower body. As of right now I've been using poles that I found for Marla and to be honest they are a little short for me. I'll be picking up some propertly sized ones soon.

All in all it's a great work out and takes pressure off of lower joints. I'm not quite in the demographic in North America that uses them however, that goes to women over 30. Nordic walking is huge in Europe though and is the biggest growing physical activity there. I haven't actually seen anyone else using them around here, but that's not a big deal to me.

Anyway, I'll keep my training with the poles updated here.

Yeah, yeah, ok, I haven't updated this in a while. I've been busy at work and it's been far too nice outside to be doing a blog;)

Anywho, not much happening. My duties at work have changed a bit. I'm now doing the mid month, monthly and quarterly credit reports along with user administration for our credit system. It's been a somewhat steep learning curve and I'm still not 100% on a lot of things, but I'll get there soon enough... not that I really have a choice as my coworker who is training me leaves on friday for a month.

Such is the work life;)

Our fence is being installed tomorrow. We didn't go with the cheapest contractor, but with one who recently installed another fence here in town. I erred on the side of caution when marking out our property line just so we don't have any issues with neighbors crying foul about encroaching on their property. I was disappointed to find that our builder dug up both steel rods that mark the back corners of our property. Luckily Marla's cousin Jeff - who lives next door - has the same size lot as us. So I measured from his marker over to where ours should be. I'll see about getting some pictures up tomorrow after it's done.

On other news, Chrysler has been sold. I'm a little iffy on what Cerebus will do with it, but they do have controlling shares in a number of other large corps. The fact that Chrysler will be a private company is both exciting and unnerving. Exciting in that they can tell the union to F-off, unnerving in the sense that they don't have to make anything public anymore about business transactions. I am leaning towards feeling that the sale will actually be a huge positive for Chrysler - which by the way is bringing back the pentastar logo=)

Facebook

Hey Scott, time to get on Facebook! (www.facebook.com) Marla is on there now, my brother, father, old friends, new friends, etc. I know your busy, but it would be a good tool to keep in contact with your friends while you're away!

So yeah, I'm not addicted to facebook but there are plenty of people I haven't talked to in years on there and I've reconnected with a number of good friends already. Such a great networking tool.

On the exercise front I've been running consistently over the last little while. This last week saw a total of 29 km run. I'll probably beat that this week as Cedar and I logged a 8.5 km walk, averaging just under 10 minutes a km. I felt quite good and would have gone further but had to go help my in-laws install a new counter top.

It's been quite the nice week here. Yesterday the mercury reached 27. Today it was in the mid 20s. Nice breeze and no mosquitoes yet. Fields are dry enough that farmers are out prepping the fields (fertilizing, etc). No snow piles left to be seen. Ahh, so nice. I did get a bit of a sun burn yesterday though as I was outside for most of the day.

Anywho, going for another walk with the doggie now.

On the road with no destination

Just stealing a lyric from U2's "Beautiful Day" for the title of this blog post because, well, it's a beautiful day here again. A subtle cool breeze, blue sky and some puffy clouds. Very nice.

On the dance front Marla and I learned the Rumba (dance steps here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumba_(dance)) yesterday. I quite enjoyed it and I find it easier to dance to a rhythm instead of trying to find a beat. We both had a lot of fun and it is the first dance we've done so far that feels sultry.

I also visited the Running Room yesterday to get fitted for a proper pair of runners. I've been getting terrible shin-splints as of late while running and my buddy Scott told me that it could be that my current shoes were worn out. Anyway, long story short: my "runners" weren't runners at all and more of a cross trainer, although not really a cross-trainer either. I ended up trying on around 10 pairs of runners and decided to go with the shoes shown below: Asics Landereth II. They are last years model so were on clearance for $99.

I had my first run in them this morning and they are so much better than my old Nikes. Way better shock absorption and I didn't get shin splints until around the 45 minute mark (vs 10 minutes in my old shoes). To be honest it wasn't really shin splints, but just my lower legs being tired.



On the home front we got some quotes to get a chain link fence installed around our backyard. Quotes ranged from $2700 to $4800 for the same style of fence. One of the contractors is coming to Stonewall on Tuesday to install a fence so we're going to go check it out and get them to come and give us a more official quote on paper. We're going with a 5 foot tall black chain link with a couple gates. Should be nice.

Now I can say Spring is here

Wow, long time since I've last made a post here. It's supposed to be 20 degrees here today, which is a bit warmer than it was yesterday. I believe it his 16 or 17 yesterday. Most beautiful day so fat this year anyway. The snow is all gone although the ground is still soggy.

Not much to report from my end. Work is going along the same. We haven't had too many dance lessons lately with us having to cancel a few and our instructor having to do the same. We did have one yesterday which introduced me to spinning Marla around. I realized I'm getting the short end of the stick in this deal ;-) When there's a mess up 95% of the time it's my fault. I have to remember the steps, lead, listen to the rhythm and adjust my timing for it, all while keeping a good solid frame. It does get a bit taxing, but 95% of the time it's still fun ;-)

I did get a new cell phone yesterday. My old Nokia wasn't holding a charge very well and my contract with MTS was up two months ago so we went to a MTS store to look at what phone options they had. We wanted free or cheap =) I ended up getting a Sanyo Katana for $19. It's bassically a cheap version of the Motorola Razor. It's a nice phone with nice options and has a camera. The camera isn't the greatest (it has a tendency to overexpose), but it's better than some others I've seen. Here's a picture of Zack that I took with it this morning:

New Racing Website is up.

I decided to fast track the new website and have it up now at the root address of http://www.pozernickracing.com

Still a couple of things to finish/fix, but it's there now.

The Racing website

Due to an issue with our service provider the website for our racing team is a little messed up. They offered no explanation as to what happened and for some reason the older version I uploaded doesn't display properly. I've been working on a new site over the last few days and have a beta version up now. You can check it out at http://www.pozernickracing.com/test.php

If you have firefox or internet explorer 7 it should display properly. If you're using an older browser it may look a little messed. I believe I've found a way to fix that, but since I'm at work as I write this (yeah, busy day) I'll have to wait until later to try it out. For the final "version 2.0" of the site I may implement the same banners that are found on the old version (total of 4 images with the selection being a random one each time the page loads.

Since Grant's Daytona should be ready for the opening weekend in May I'll be working to get some newer pictures than what I currently have. I spent too much time before filming the car instead of taking pictures.

I have another movie to recommend: 300. It's an adaptation of Frank Miller's adaptation (nice, adaptation of an adaptation) of the Battle of Thermopylay in which 300 Spartan soliders led by Leonidas stood against the Persian Army controlled by Xerxes. Considering Xerxes army at the time is anywhere from one million to 2.6 million in strength... well, that shows you what kind of fight the Spartans had on their hands. Now mind you the fight took place in a pass that was around 50 feet wide, so only so many Persians could get through at any one time. The battle lasted ~3 days before the Spartans were betrayed by a man telling the Persians about a path that lead around the Spartans.

Anyway, the entire movie was shot against a green screen and all the scenery was added in after using computers. The cinematography is stunning, while the story is really a simple one. Lots of action, lots of violence (hey, they did fight in hand to hand combat back then), but not a lot of story. Then again, the story of what happened is told, so I guess that makes it ok. It's not Gladiator or Braveheart quality, but it still stands on it's own merits. I'd watch it again.

Spring has Sprung?

Sorry for ignoring the blog so much as of late but I haven't found the desire to write as much as I was in say January ;-)

Spring does seem to be on it's way here in Manitoba, although winter doesn't want to go without a fight. Two days ago it was -28 with the windchill when I went to work and when I went out for lunch is was +5. Yesterday was warm, then turned to snow, then to rain and this morning's commute was a slippery one as the said rain decided to turn to ice.

With all that said, the snow is still melting and there is lots of bare ground showing now. To top it off I saw some Canada geese yesterday on my drive home. That's a pretty good clue that Spring is here. The number of people out walking in the evenings has quadrupled at least. Cedar is very happy to see other dogs on her walk.

On the entertainment front I have some movies to recommend:

Children of Men: set in the UK in 2027 all humanity has for some unknown reason become infertile. I'll leave it at that as I don't want to ruin the story. Cinematography was good and the acting suited the feel of the film.

Layer Cake: Staring Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), Colm Meany and a host of actors who have done time in other british "gang" films. Daniel plays the part of a drug dealer attempting to retire from the business. If you like the gangster films, especially the british style (ie: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), then you'll have to see this one.

Trailer Park Boys: the Movie: Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the rest of the Sunnyvale crew in their first feature length film. If you love the show, you'll love the movie.

Eragon: Don't bother. The best part of the movie is when the dragon hatches. Other than that the entire movie is set up for a second part (whenever that arrives). Boring.

Casino Royale: The newest James Bond movie is simply one of the best. Daniel Craig plays the best Bond since Sean Connery. Hands down, bar none. A "real world" story line, believable action and Craig has just the right amount of cockiness/arrogance to play an effective James Bond. I look forward to more from him.

And in closing, I'll show a recent picture I did from Gran Turismo 4 of a Mercedes SL300. This is one of the best and more realistic shots I've done in this game (the full size image can be found here: http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7822/01vw0.jpg):

Words from a Soldier

One of my best friends, Cap. Scott Lang is currently stationed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. Scott is a very eloquent writer and I let his words do the talking here.

Fallen

A deployment to Afghanistan for myself has been one of many firsts. This past week saw one I had hoped to never experience. It was my first ramp ceremony. All available Canadians- soldiers, and civilian collected at the airfield. There was conversation and light banter, and an avoidance to discuss the reason we all gathered.

The sun had set a while ago but it was still warm, relatively so. There was a continuous breeze blowing, and if you believe in such things it could have easily been taken as prophetic. We gathered and formed with a bit more purpose than I’ve usually seen of large groups of soldiers gathering, there was little complaining, little noise.

Things progressed quickly and soon we found ourselves on the march to take our positions. We made the solemn, and quiet march through the hazy darkness. The only sound was the mild and continuous wind in my ears, and the muffled staccato of hundreds of combat boots on the tarmac. We marched from the weak light of the hanger through the darkness towards the looming brightly lit beacon that was the Hercules waiting.

As we Canadians formed, tightly packed, shoulder-to-shoulder-to-shoulder three deep in a long line, we formed a corridor that would act as the final Kandahar road for a fallen comrade. As we shuffled into position, quietly, reverently I heard something that surprised me; though it shouldn’t have. Row after row of soldiers from other countries, marines, Brits, Aussies, Dutch all formed row after row behind us.

I was positioned in the front rank about 30 feet from the yawning open end of the Herc. We waited for what seemed an eternity, lined at attention. The precision, formality, and ambiance reminded me of ancient Viking tributes, or final tributes to fighting Kings. It made me think in that moment, that it is only in death we soldiers, we average Canadian men and women are Kings and Queens, if only to our peers.

Then there was a whine from a microphone, as it itself caught the wind. The Padres spoke their lines, and they were no longer the trivial platitudes of Remembrance Day of yesteryear. The words reverberated, and stuck. They were quick, efficient, and articulate.

The emotion was thick and palpable. And then the command sang out. “Task Force Afghanistan to your Fallen Comrade salute.”

I have always been moved by the haunting skirl of the bagpipes, but hearing it here, under these circumstances was like an emotional punch in the gut. I think we all stood there steeling ourselves, but still the weight of it hits you like a tidal wave. It was a slow moving tsunami that started at the far end of the lines, and then progressed as the slow cadence brought another Nova Scotian son his last 500 meters across Kandahar Airfield.

The procession was slow, as if purposely driving the point home, building and building. I watched the Padres, then the coffin itself pass in front of me, so close that I could have reached out and touched it. Then world was then like a kaleidoscope, colour and light blurry and refracted. The wave passed me by then, and I hitched in a deep breath. A few minutes later there were the muffled footsteps inside the belly of the aircraft.

I watched the faces of those across from me. Many of which I knew were like me, and did not know Cpl Megeny. But he was Canadian, he was young, and he may only be the first of our rotation. So, there etched on many face were grim looks, made even more fierce in the weird shadows cast by the spotlights, and there were the telltale glistening sparkles of tears in eyes and cheeks.

You haven’t seen anything until you have seen soldiers cry. I hope I never see it again.

I should start taking advantage of the MTS Centre

Winnipeg has a very nice arena called the MTS Centre. It was opened in November 2004, seats up to 16, 345 people and is very high tech. I've been there four times. Three Manitoba Moose Hockey games and once for the Professional Bull Riding show that came through.

Lately however the MTS centre has been attracting big name musicians. One of the reasons is supposed to be the excellent acoustics (they designed the arena for good acoustics), and the other is that Winnipeggers love music. A few famous musicians and bands have come from Winnipeg. Here's a short list of some famous singer/bands:

Bachman Turner Overdrive
Crash Test Dummies
The Guess Who
The Watchmen
Bif Naked
Chantal Kreviazuk
Neil Young

Back to the MTS centre, Van Morrison (brown eyed girl) just recently played and Meatloaf was there last weekend. Some more notables in the upcoming three months:

Christina Aguilera (Saturday)
Heaven and Hell (which is really Black Sabbath minus Ozzy) with Megadethon Sunday
Eric Clapton on the 28th

Next month:

IlDivo
Rod Stewart
John Mayer
Jann Arden

May:
My Chemical Romance
Daniel O'Donnel

June:
Gwen Stefani
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd)

In between those concerts there is a number of Manitoba Moose hockey games, the IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship, Figure Skating and a Motocross show.

I really have to start jumping on this as these are some shows to take advantage of.

Congrats Mr. Gushue

Congrats to Team Newfoundland and Labrador tonight on the second place finish in the Tim Horton's Brier. No, he didn't win but Brad and company have shown that they aren't just a flash in the pan. Considering Brad's age (26) we'll see plenty more of him in the future. He's got some real talent and a maturity beyond his years.

Go Gushue!

Month end wrap up

Yeah I know, it's not officially the end of February yet but I couldn't come up with a snappy title to this post and I didn't want to leave it blank like I've been doing lately.

Anyway, February is almost over. It's taken the cold weather with it apparently and just dumping snow on us now. I would guess we've received about 25 cm in total over the last week or so. I don't mind though as I'll take some snow and a slower drive to work over the extreme cold... or would I? It's a bit of catch 22. Either it's cold and clear or warmer and snowing. Canadian weather at it's finest I do believe.

On the Automotive front there are credible rumors that GM is looking to purchase Chrysler (including Dodge and Jeep) from Daimler. Given the dollar amount needed to seperate the companies (rough estimate of $70 billion which includes legacy costs associated with UAW workers) I figured it was just that - a rumor. Now however the talk is that Daimler will get a share of GM in lieu of the exchange of cash. Great, another company Daimler can try to suck dry. I believe Dave at Allpar.com says it best:

"Any merger would be fraught with problems as Mercedes relies heavily on Chrysler for its revenue. There’s the consulting fees, the royalties, Chrysler Financial, and the engineering work done in Auburn Hills (presumably at no cost) for Mercedes. Daimler would collapse without Chrysler, regardless of what the Germans and analysts like to say, because it survives by sucking cash out of its American industries, and Freightliner is drying up fast. Mercedes’ thirst for ill-gotten dollars could be quenched pretty quickly, though, with another “merger,” and a deal could include some provision for a cash flow to Stuttgart via royalties for a certain number of years, as well as the use of DAIMLERchrysler Financial for a certain number of years, to allow the Daimler parasite time to find another host. "

On another topic I gave Live for Speed another go online yesterday and was pleased to finish 8th out of 23 racers in a 6 lap race. The first lap was spent avoiding other collisions and even getting spun out by an overzealous fellow racer. I could make a report to a race steward but I figured that it didn't actually cost me anything in the end and I only have 40 miles logged online. I'll take some of the rough stuff to start just so I can handle the learning curve of racing online. I almost squeaked out a 7th place but didn't have the right gearing on the car for the track I was on. The track had a very long banked turn and my car topped out at 150km/h. The guy who took 7th place from me on the last lap could get up to about 160km/h, which in racing - even over a short distance - is hard to make up. Even harder when he can take turns as fast as you as well.

I guess I should show the car I've been racing. Live for Speed has no real production cars (there is a BMW Sauber F1 car and a two other one off cars) but the cars are based on real world counterparts. I'll give you a guess at what the UF1000 is based on. Hint - Mini ;-)

It's quite fun to drive and handles very well. My online forays have been to the STCC servers (Sim Touring Car Cup) where you earn licenses for racing. Racing clean, fast and finishing on the podium helps you obtain advanced licenses a bit quicker. They start at copper and go up to titanium. I've raced on the "New and Bronze" server and have to work my way up to the Silver and Gold server through clean racing. Poor and/or aggressive driving is no tolerated and if you do not follow the rules you can get suspensions or even banned.

Here's my little graphic I can use on forums and whatnot:

Now that I've bored you all to tears I figure I'll sign off ;-)

So the first dance lesson was more fun than I thought it would be. Our instructor said we move very well together and that we are fun to teach (so far anyway ;-). We just have to work on me leading ALL the time and Marla being willing to follow. I believe it's going to be a good thing for us and I felt really connected with Marla once we got our steps down.

The cold snap has finally broken. It's been warmer for the past few days and it's nice. We did get a few centimetres of snow last night but it's quickly turning to slush and just making cars dirty. It's nice to be able to go out without having to bundle up and look like the Michelin Man. Another month or so and the snow should be gone... or most of it anyway.

I got around to playing Live for Speed online a few nights back. It's quite cool being able to race against people from all over the world. My only problem is I was SO SLOW compared to the other people on the server. Afterwards I realized that it was most likely because my car had a regular street suspension setup and wasn't tuned for racing. Given I was only 3 seconds or so slower per lap than those with a good setup, I don't believe I did too badly my first time out. I did have a spectacular single vehicle crash at one point though. Poor old car wouldn't move much after that. Managed to limp back to the pits for repairs;-)

The basement is still coming along. The fireplace is finished now (with the exception of stone of course) and we've built the bulkheads needed for the main part of the basment. I drywalled it last night and it looks ok. Just have to put on the round corners and then some finishing mud to finish it. Then we'll be putting up the primer and then paint.

The Job, The Dance, The Life

It's still frickin' cold here. There's no getting used to -30 and below. The weatherman is calling for -4 come Friday, but we were told a month ago that this cold would only last a few days as well. Can't trust 'em ;-)

At my job I've been placed back in "lease activation" to "clean things up." Apparently the process had slowed down our funding department and was causing issues. So far I've streamlined the checklist we have (from two pages down to one) and have been given leeway as to what we actually need to do when reviewing files. The whole point of lease activation was to protect against fraud, but for some reason it had turned into something much larger than that and was growing out of control. I'm fairly sure everything is ok now. I'll be here for a few more weeks and then will train a new employee in credit to take over. It's not a difficult job but you do need to be able to pick up on subtle hints to prevent fraud.

Marla and I signed up for dance lessons, which will start this coming Saturday. I'm not sure how I feel about that and honestly I do feel a little uncomfortable about it. More due to the fact that I don't feel I have enough coordination for it. We'll given it a go though and I'm sure I'll grow to like it. We'll be focusing on Latin dances and do some Ballroom stuff after. I'll keep you posted on our experiences ;-)

Bugatti veyron Top Speed test

One of the guys from the British Automotive show, Top Gear, takes the world's fastest production car for a top speed test at Volkswagen's test track in Germany.

407 km/h. Yes, 407. That's 253 mph in a road legal car.

Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8cqgInEPcY

Not much to report as of late. The Colts won the Superbowl rather decisively... after the initial touchdown return by the Bears on the opening kickoff. The weather here is cold... very cold. Winnipeg came close to setting a record a few days ago. It was -42 without the windchill and with it was -54 or something absurd like that.

I've still been messing around with my video games. It's split now between Guitar Hero and a PC game called Live for Speed. Last nights guitar hero session was particularly intense with songs such as Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendancies, Hanger 18 by Megadeth and Free Bird by Lynard Skynard. Free Bird is rather crazy near the end and is very long compared to other songs on Guitar Hero.

Live for Speed is a highly realistic racing game. While it doesn't feature real life cars or tracks, the actual physics of the game more than make up for it (many of the cars do look like real life cars, but are different enough to not need licensing). Compared to other racing/driving games I've played, this one feels most like driving a real car. It was quite disappointing when I tried playing Gran Turismo 4 after a spell of Live For Speed.

Marla is back on Friday after her month long trip away to Florida and New York. It's going to be quite nice to have her back and I'm sure she'll be very happy to be back at home =)

Wanted to wish my friend, Scott, good luck while he's in Afghanistan. He left last Sunday for his 6 month tour. I'm looking forward to updates on his own blog (http://scottyswords.blogspot.com) and wish him all the best representing Canada.

The new computer is working fine... fine is an understatement of course when compared to the old computer. I have more USB ports than I need, programs don't lag and the display is amazing for working in Photoshop.

I've installed some of the older games I have and run them at max settings and the computer handles it with ease. I've even been able to max out some of the new demos I've downloaded over the weekend. I'm quite sure some newer stuff would tax the computer but for games the weak point is the video card I have. It's quite capable for the stuff I own, but new games would most likely push it too far. At lower graphics settings it would be fine though.

The only thing I don't like so far... well, two things I don't like so far. Dell has far too much preinstalled software on the computer. They should have an option for people who already have software they need to not have the preinstalled stuff on it. I would do well enough with just a clean install of XP and then add what I want to that.

The second thing is the card reader built into the monitor. Once you turn off the monitor you lose the connection to the card reader since the monitor is powering it. They could fix that by allowing the USB uplink to power the card reader by itself, or at least give the user that option.

I'm really nitpicking with those two things though. Overall the computer is great. The media center part of the XP media center I have is kinda lame. I guess if it was hooked up to a tv it might be different. I don't see using it very much.

I also hooked up my business continuity system (IE: Work computer) to the monitor last night and it worked flawlessly. I picked up a new power bar yesterday as well since I still want to run the old computer and network it with the new one. I'll most likely set it up as a print server so I can get rid of one of the printers we now use and just use the laser printer from work. The new power bar has 11 outlets on it with space for 6 large adapters. It's nice.

WooHoo! New Computer is here

Well, it better be or I'm typing using my imagination only. It's pretty sweet so far. So much faster than the 1.7 Ghz P4. The monitor is HUGE!

Here are some pics:

Old monitor vs. New (look at the viewing area)

And the monitor and CPU together. Apparently the computer has a an optical sound out. Sweet!

Beautiful Day

Well it looks like our cold snapped finally snapped... at least for today. It was a balmy -4 with clear skies. Given our recent lows -4 felt a little like July ;-) I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and went for a nice walk. I covered 7 km in one hour. Not bad given the snow on the sidewalks from a snowfall we had a couple nights ago.

On another topic, here's hoping we see a Colts vs. Bears Superbowl after today;-)

Computer on its way

So the computer was shipped out on Wednesday morning. Since it's coming ground from the US it most likely won't be here until Monday or Tuesday. Again, I'm looking forward to getting it. First thing will be the removal of all the un-necessary software Dell installs. Perhaps a clean Windows install as well just to make certain. Or maybe not. I'll see when I get it.

There's talk of a new football stadium to be built on the location of the current CanadInns Stadium. David Asper (Son of Izzy Asper - think CanWest Global; Global TV and National Post et al.) is willing to put up $60 million of his own money for the construction of the stadium. The total cost would be $120 million with the remainder of the money coming from government and private investors. The catch? David wants the ownership of the Blue Bombers. Personally I think it's a good idea and would be a good replacement for the aging stadium.

Here's an artist rendition:

You can check out the website for the potential stadium at http://www.blueandgold.ca

blap

Just a quick post here tonight. Per the Dell website the new computer is "in production" so the estimated delivery date next week should be met if it gets shipped out tomorrow or Friday. I'm looking forward to getting it:)



So the last post had real pictures, while this one will have a picture from the game Tourist Trophy. Remember I was fascinated with that one near the beginning of my blog? Anyway I still play it occasionally and edit pictures from the game in Photoshop. This one came out quite well and looks fairly realistic for a video game don' you think?

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A picture update!

Yay! We all like pictures! I took some pictures of the inside of our house tonight as Marla wanted some to show her coworkers and to remind her of home while she's away. We recently had it painted and I had promised a long time ago to show some here on the blog. Well, here they are, along with our new dinette table and chairs. The table finish is actually the sister pattern to our countertop and when we were picking out our countertop prior to building our house it actually had come down to what we have now and what our table is finished in. Neato they way stuff like that works huh?

This is just a test. In the event of an emergency

Just trying out a new extension for Firefox 2.0. It's supposed to let me add posts to my blog without actually having to go there. I can drag and drop images:

and some other stuff. Seems quite neat so far. Now to see if it works... *hits save*

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*bleepity bleep* It's cold

When I wake up in the mornings I check my little weather station for the outside temperature. Today it read "--.--" That translates to "it's really frickin' cold out." I forgot the weather station only goes to -29.99. That's the coldest it's been since I got it last christmas. Previous to that the coldest temp was sometime last february when it got down to -26 for an hour or so.

Anywho, I looked online and the temperature reporting for Stonewall was -38 and with the windchill it was -48.

Minus 48.

What the hell is up with that. Apparently that's the coldest it's been here in two years.

I wonder sometimes what the voyageurs were thinking when they decided to set up shop at the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine River. Summer not so bad. Winter... not so good.

Then again it's like this across the prairies, except in Calgary they get their little chinooks to help out.

Oh well, it's cold and we deal with it. Just try to remember it's a "dry cold.". Still cold enough to take your ***** off.

Brrrrrr...rrrrrr... did I mention Brrrrrrrrrrr

After driving through white out conditions this morning on the way to work we have a blue sky showing and a nice balmy temperature of -38 with the windchill! I saw a brass monkey and yes, his wedding tackle was frozen off. Tonight it's supposed to be an incredibly warm -43.

That means frozen tires on the car tomorrow morning (even with it parked in the garage) and no possibility of the car even warming up... until I get to work of course. Then it will be nice and toasty. Murphy's Law at work right there. I'll have to remember my extension cord as well so I can plug my car in at work or else it might not be starting tomorrow afternoon.

It wasn't that bad this morning, just stormy. We got another 5 or so cm of snow and plenty of wind. It wasn't fun running through snow that was shin deep in places this morning. Cedar wasn't impressed either with snow up to her bum... especially when she was trying to do her bathroom duty. Tonight I guarantee she won't even want to go out and I can't blame her for it.

We also ordered the new computer last night. Called Dell and spoke to a guy in India. Very nice guy and easy process. The estimated delivery date is in a couple weeks.

Hump Day

Not much new going on. We had another dump of snow today. I believe the total was supposed to be between 5 and 10 cm. It was enough to make the drive to work today more enjoyable. I just pretend I'm Colin McRae doing a rally stage;-)

We didn't curl this last friday night. Not due to anything we did, just the other team didn't show up. We called the head of the league to see if he knew what was going on and after he placed a call to a member of the other team they told him that we had called to say we weren't going to be playing! He did tell us they were two players down and were supposed to find some more players. I guess they didn't, but to say that we called to cancel was a bit childish. Why would we be at the arena calling him if we had called them to cancel? The organizer agreed. People are strange and we'll call it out second win.

Starting monday I'll be living the bachelor lifestyle for a month as Marla is heading for Florida for a week long sales conference. After the conference she will be going to New Jersey (new Joyzee for the locals I guess ;-) ) for 3 weeks of training for her new job duties. I don't like the amount of time she'll be gone (nor does Marla), but it has to be done. Cedar dog will be going to her grandparents for the month while the cats and I will be doing the guy thing.

Marla and I have decided to go through Dell again for a computer. I've got a nice one spec'd out and we just need to call Dell to see if they can give us a deal for being a repeat customer. Basic specs are as follows:

Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz

2 GB Ram

250 GB HD

256 MB ATI X1300 Pro video card

24" widescreen monitor (Dell 2407FPW to be specific)

Yes, a 24" monitor. I wanted something with which I could also hook my Playstation 2 up to so I don't have to use our Grand Wega. The 2407FPW has DVI, VGA, Component, Composite and S-Video connections. It also has 4 USB ports and a built-in card reader.

It is a monster though compared to average monitors. It should just fit on the desk that we have. A 19" looks puny compared to it:

More photoshop fun

Yesterday I read a photoshop tutorial on how to turn a regular automobile into a Cars (the recent animated movie) character. I could have spent some more time perfecting these shots but I believe they came out looking ok. Ramper is Grant's truck and P Tooner is well, my PT:)

Doesn't that look like fun?

Here's a youtube clip of two guys having way to much fun playing Guitar Hero. The song is Iron Man by Black Sabbath for those who don't know it;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVUgd8ot6BE

And a video of a really good player. This one actually makes me dizzy trying to follow all the notes. He does do little skits at the beginning of each of his videos so the song does come a little later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf3PyopvxIs

While we're here I'll post some more youtube videos from Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live:

Dick in a box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WOwRQ3Iib4

Homelessville: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KS865kF3vo

Punk'd parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhTCzO0LCMQ

Happy New Year!

I know I'm a day late with that, but there it is;-) I hope everyone's new year was a good one. Marla and I spent a quiet weekend at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. We went to the spa (www.tenspa.ca) on saturday morning, which was very nice and went to see the latest James Bond movie, Casino Royale, on sunday night. All in all it was a nice weekend.

We did get a lot of snow on saturday evening. Offical reports are now saying 29 cm in Winnipeg and I would say that we got more than that in Stonewall. I'm glad it was only light fluffy snow and not heavy stuff as it still took me an hour and a half to shovel the driveway yesterday when we got back. The PT was a trooper though and pushed through the snow that was up to the bumper to get into the garage=)

Recently I've been contemplating getting my own domain name for this blog as I'd like a bit more creative freedom with the layout. Not to mention a shorter URL as well. Not that taking out the .blogspot. will make it that much shorter, but hey, having my own domain would be nice. However I'm not sure I want to keep the name field behind the plow. Leave your ideas in the comments if you like=)