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.