Afraid Not Scared

First and foremost a happy birthday to our good friend Shaz. She's an All Hallows Eve baby who will, no doubt, celebrate her birth in an appropriate fashion. Hope it's fun!

I know you're all little television skanks who just can't get enough of the boob tube. That's why I'm willing to share this information with you. Cliff.. I'm looking in your direction. Effective today at noon, to compete on Global's 'Deal Or No Deal', visit www.globaltv.com for an application. Deadline for applicants is Friday, November 17th at midnight. All I ask is whoever makes it on wears something with the overanything.com logo on it. :D

Fans of FOX's 'Vanished'.. well, it just did. On the bright side they're going to wrap up the storyline before they sail off into the sunset with it.

'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle' was a bad movie. But NEIL PATRICK HARRIS is hilarious. So if you're going to announce a sequel it's good to hear NEIL PATRICK HARRIS is reprising his role as NEIL PATRICK HARRIS.

Today's Random Links
God help her if she buys the wrong brand of coffee...
I totally need a Domino's Dessert Pizza moustache.
ESPN's Trick or Treat Regional Bracket.
They're making a prequel to 'Se7en'.
New iPod Shuffle on sale Friday.

Timebomb

A happy 16th birthday to sister Becky today. As I noted to her yesterday, I may not remember seeing her as a baby, but I do remember her as a toddler with huge eyes hugging my leg while I made a gingerbread house. Thankfully, you've changed.

'24' fans need to check out www.24trailer.com for a peek at next season, including limited edition "Unibomber in the Hills Jack" and "Hot Brunette Chloe". While supplies last.

Finally, those of you looking to embark in the rewarding and lucrative business of home brewing may have discovered that coming up with the next great name for your patented blend of water, malt, and hops is one of the harder elements of the process. For every Delirium Tremens and Neustadt 10w30 we have St Peter's Strong Ale and Rickards Pale dragging down the bell curve. Thankfully, now you have the Random Beer Name Generator to bail you out. Consider my 10 random names:

Salty Schwartzbier
Amber Fat Nun Dubble
Craptacular Shitszu Dubble
Nuclear Spiced Wee Heavy
Big Bird's Glutinous Sloth Tripel
Frisky Paul Newman Hefeweizen
Black Full Moon Bavarian Dunkelweizen
Beige Blessed Liquid Extra Special Bitter
The Hippo Formerly Known As Buddha's Transgendered Bock
The Ocelot Formerly Known As Obi Wan Kenobe's Flying India Pale Ale

The only one I could actually see on a bottle would be Amber Fat Nun Dubble, and it'd probably do well.

Today's Random Links
Marcia Cross wants her nudie shots back. Good luck with that.
KFC bans trans fats. That makes it healthy, right? *snort*
Saw III finishes first, and they announce Saw IV

Poison fish, poison fish, poison fish, tasty fish?

So I know that I haven’t been posting for a while and there are a few good reasons for that. First off I can now only seem to access OA.com from my work connection. Rick figures that its Rogers fault and has continued to send them threatening letters in the hopes that they will fix whatever the problem is. I think he is just trying to keep my liberal opinions off his site. Other reasons are more complicated and less entertaining so I won’t bother explaining, but I thought that I should at least make an appearance and give Rick a helping hand with keeping everyone entertained.

So the only real store I have from the last 2 weeks (Rick already covered the events of SNW1) is from Friday night. Friday Paul, Francis (Paul’s roommate) and I decided that it had been far to long since we went out for sushi. For those of you that love sushi as much as we do, I suggest you check out our favorite place UMI SUSHI in Mississauga off Burnhamthorpe Rd and Mavis Rd. We go for the all you can eat, which is very reasonably price and includes sushi, sashimi and other greats like teriyaki chicken and beef. All though the food is great there I must warn anyone that goes the service can be questionable sometimes, but not too bad that it overshadows the food. So we dined on a great selection of dynamite rolls, salmon rolls, crab rolls, salmon and red snapper sashimi, beef and chicken teriyaki and about a dozen other amazing dishes. We washed it down with some green tea and finished with a nice bowl of green tea ice cream, all for about $25 each including tip.

Not bad for a Friday night meal.

Oh and time for some random links
If you aren’t playing trials yet I have on question for you, “Why the heck not?!?”
Trials Bikes
Trials Bikes Pro

Let's Spend the Night Together

I guess there doesn't need to be a good reason to meet up with friends, but it helps. And Disney's re-release of 'Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas' in 3D is just that reason. Catching this film between Hallowe'en and Christmas every year is a tradition for me and Craig, and it so happens that next Sunday falls between those two events.

I'm hereby inviting all y'all to join me and some friends at a showing of the film. Where isn't important yet I suppose, it appears to be playing for sure at Colossus in Woodbridge so that might end up being the best place. It's right where 400 and 7 join so it should be easily accessible to most. Who's in?

In other news I dropped my cell phone the other day, separated the top half of the flip from the bottom. Oops. Decided to go ahead and sign back on for a few years (I've been off contract for a while) in order to snag the Nokia 6265 in black. They're hard to find but I just tracked one down in Orangeville where they're holding on to it for me. Those who've missed texting me shall be happy in mere moments.

Atomic Power

Good news for my fellow "beer enthusiasts" (quotes because I know Mark would refer to us as "rummy") - the LCBO have announced both their winter seasonal release and their gift box release for the holiday season. I've included links down below for those who care. The seasonal releases are a good collection of British ale, if you're a fan of them. The gift boxes seem very nice, many including the official glasses, and not altogether unreasonably priced.

I can't believe in under two months Christmas will be over.

Duran Duran have announced that due to an "unworkable gulf between us" through which they could no longer "effectively function," guitarist Andy Taylor has left the band. It took them 28 years to figure this out? Duran Duran is still around? How will they possibly replace his legendary sound?

Anyone watching 'The Nine'? It just got signed for the rest of the season but there's a strange incident surrounding the series. The same number of people (about 8 million) tune in at the start of every episode, but every week two million tune out half way through. This happens every week. Those that tune out half way through, most return the next week.. for half an episode. I've been watching it, but I'm lost to come up with any reason why people tune out. Unless ratings are done in 30-minute intervals only and people are tuning in at 10:00PM because 'Lost' actually runs until 10:05.

Powers Boothe is the new VP on '24'. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA CRAIG.

Finally, 'How I Met Your Mother' has announced they've signed the actor who will portray NEIL PATRICK HARRIS' (so cool he gets caps lock) brother in the show. Wayne Brady. Please discuss.

Today's Random Links
LCBO's Winter Seasonal Releases
LCBO's Hoilday Gift Packs

Transformers DVDs coming out.. again. Hopefully cheaper this time.
Advertise on a Red Hot Chili Peppers roadie!
'My Name is Earl' goes stop-motion.

Dead Promises

Sorry for the absence, things are hectic again. Outside the "day job" I continue to act as a campaign manager for the Tony Viola campaign and an advisor for the Annette Groves campaign her in Caledon. Last night was the culmination of a fair amount of prep work - the debate. The local candidates all met at the community centre for a few minutes of talk, some Q&A, and some questions from the audience.

Working on these two campaigns has been interesting in their differences. Annette is the incumbent, well-liked, and thus needs only ensure people know of her accomplishments and answer to any possible complaints. We were more than ready for what was sent her way, and in fact too ready, as half the things we had canned answers for weren't even broached.

For Tony, it was a different story. By his own admission he has some trouble in speeches because his native language was always Italian, and when he gets nervous or anxious he trips over his words a bit. He once again went out to attack the incumbent and opposition (with 9 and 17 years experience on council, respectively) on their inaction over the years. The highlight for me was watching the incumbent stumble in the face of the first head-on attack she's experienced in this, her fourth election. The normally calm and collected Nancy Stewart got to the point of angry yelling and putting her fist on to the table top in response to accusations from Tony and the third candidate, Richard Whitehead. Sadly, although Tony got his points across well and was congratulated by a number of people, Nancy did have a plant in the audience to ask an unfair question saddled with an untrue accusation. I think Tony handled it well as we'd anticipated it might come, but hoped it wouldn't.

So now we wait to find out what the papers will write and how to respond to it. That's followed by Tony campaigning in the northern reaches of this ward, while I'll tour through my subdivision here in an attempt to get them out to vote. We'll know in a few weeks if it's all been worth it!

Today's Random Links
Dixie Chicks set up a "fan" blog. Not sure this is what they intended.
Dude got moves! (Thanks, Paul)
Super Monkey Poop Fight
Line Rider

oa.com Podcast v2.02

Simul-posting this over here today as I think many of you still don't know about the podcast. If you've got iTunes you just need to click and drag that orange XML button below into it. Easy ways are press and hold, then ALT-TAB over to iTunes while still holding down the left mouse button. Another option is to shrink the window size so you can see both on the same screen.

Welcome to the Best of Singers/Songwriters II, a second hour of some of the best singer/songwriters of the past 15 years. There's an interesting mix here but hopefully it's entertaining to you. We're still looking for more listeners, remember to tell your friends about it!

Subscribe to the Podcast:

01 January Rain - David Gray
02 Turn On Your Radio - Marc Cohn
03 Train Carried My Girl From Town - Kelly Joe Phelps
04 Small Wonders - dog's eye view
05 I Know Where The Summer Goes - Belle and Sebastian
06 All Of Your Might - Jay Farrar
07 Skinny Legs - Lyle Lovett
08 Mud - Richard Buckner
09 Sunrise - Mark Lanegan
10 Birds And Ships - Natalie Merchant w/ Wilco
11 Cure For This - Golden Smog
12 Parable - Ron Sexsmith
13 When The Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
14 All The Things I Wasn't - The Grapes of Wrath
15 Question - Old 97's
16 Among the Living - The Thorns

Ten Years Ago

Courtesy of Shaz:

1. Ten years ago: Starting the third and final year of college, online for two years with Rick Jessup's Webnest.

2. Five years ago: I had just tendered my resignation from CryptoLogic and putting in my last two weeks.

3. One year ago: I was still reveling in the Son Volt concert.

4. Yesterday: I made my wife a celebratory dinner for her first night after work.

5. Today: Will be a boring day of effort.

6. Tomorrow: Dinner with Matthew and Gayla!

7. Five snacks I enjoy: Chocolate, Yogourt, Mixed Nuts, Beer, and Chocolate Milk.

8. Five bands whose songs I know most of the lyrics to: Extreme, Wilco, Son Volt, The Jayhawks, and Josh Rouse.

9. Five things I would do with $100,000,000: Set my family up for life, set up a home recording studio, move out of this neighbourhood, travel the world, start a restaurant.

10. Five locations I’d like to run away to: Arizona, New Mexico, Memphis, New Zealand, and Halifax.

11. Five Bad Habits: Concentration, nail-biting, talking, compassion, and trying to please f'n everyone.

12. Five things I like doing: Travel, guitar, socializing, television, and rating beer.

13. Five TV shows I like: Survivor, The Amazing Race, How I Met Your Mother, The Biggest Loser, Lost.

14. Famous People I’d like to meet, living or dead: All of them. There is much to be learned.

15. Biggest joys at the moment: Rating beer appears to be my addiction du jour, often replaced sporadically by cooking, meeting friends, and writing songs on guitar.

16. Favorite toys: Guitar Hero .. too bad I can't play it.

Perfectly Good Guitar

As part of the process of becoming addicted to a game I can't even play I came across this site yesterday. They're accepting submissions for songs to be included on the way-forthcoming 'Guitar Hero III', not expected until the fourth quarter of 2007 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Beyond that it was a good time to compile a list of excellent guitar songs that hadn't been used on the first or soon-to-arrive second edition. Without further ado, my list:

Alive - Pearl Jam
All Along The Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
American Woman - The Guess Who
Andy Warhol - David Bowie
Angels of the Silences - Counting Crows
Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
Baba O'Riley - The Who
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Banditos - The Refreshments
Break On Through (To The Other Side) - The Doors
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin
Come As You Are - Nirvana
Dream On - Aerosmith
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
Dust In The Wind - Kansas
Everybody's Talkin' At Me - Harry Nilsson
Get the Funk Out - Extreme
Helter Skelter - The Beatles
Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
No Rain - Blind Melon
Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
Painted Ladies - Ian Thomas
Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Rockin' In The Free World - Neil Young
Somebody To Shove - Soul Asylum
Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman
Sting Me - The Black Crowes
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
Thunderstruck - AC/DC
Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers Band

Any takers on their own "guitar god" lists?

Today's Random Links
Stella art on display at Bloor and Avenue in Toronto.
What will you submit to the Yahoo! Time Capsule?

Nothing But the Blood

Mary and I took a drive up to Barrie last night to catch the baby sister, Becky, in what I think was her first big acting gig. She's dreamt of acting for a while and I hope she keeps at it, and it was my pleasure to get a chance to catch the show last night. Held at her church - Mapleview Community Church - it was a performance of "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames" and featured Becky as one of the two angels guarding the entrance to heaven. She got to hold a big sword, which of course, made me jealous. All went well, she did a great job, and in the closing moments I'd suggest no less than 50 people re-committed themselves to God at the front.

A Google search of the play itself shows a bit of polarization in thought and opinion. The show itself is a series of vignettes that show people dying in various ways, then allowing the audience to find out if they're going to heaven or not. Situations such as two ladies trapped in an elevator, two construction workers killed by a collapsing wall, partying kids drinking and driving, and a six-person car accident between a devoutly religious family and a two guys on the way to a sports match relay a story before either Jesus appears to welcome them under the swords, or the devil appears to drag them kicking and screaming into the bowels of Hell. Interesting.

Naysayers are angry over the depiction of the "nice" people not always making it to heaven. Or that the depiction of people actually going to hell is unsettling to children. Also, interesting.

Congrats, Rebeccy. ;)

Today's Random Links
The group that puts "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames" on.
A two-year-old discussion on the play.
Former outreach member gets angry.
Wiki defines.

Smooth Talkin' Walter (The Fire Engine Guy)

Well, I suppose there's no way around it: the merging of Social Wars and Network Wars was a failure. Too much social for most, not enough network for everyone. On the bright side it's usually Rob getting mad at us for not focusing on the network games, while this time he found himself addicted to the same thing half of us were.

Guitar Hero.

Vince brought his brother's Playstation 2 along and a copy of the game. Think Dance Dance Revolution with a five-buttoned guitar controller instead of a dance pad. The game is insanely addictive and a few of us just took turns going at it over and over again. Kudos to Rob for being the one to actually finish "Bark at the Moon" on Medium.

The brewery tour was highly entertaining and very informative, I'd strongly urge anyone with even the most remote amount of interest in the production of beer to head to Nobleton and meet up with Phil DiFonzo at King Brewery. He took a lot of time with us, showed us all there was to see, and even cracked open a fresh bag of dark Munich malt for us to taste. Rob and I snagged some official King glasses and I picked up the new Ontario Craft Brewers book as well.

So now it's back to the grindstone for a bit, but I'll definitely have to book a proper Network Wars before the end of the year to make up for this debacle.

BTW, Mary started her new job as a Human Resources Pharmacy Associate today for Zellers/HBC. The new co-workers sound very nice, and it'll be great to see her working for a company that respects their employees rather than the previous one who worked her to death for years only to let her go with no reason given. I'll refrain from saying the things I want to, but suffice to say, anyone familiar with said company knows exactly what I'd say anyways.

Today's Random Links
Wiki offers up the song line-up for 'Guitar Hero II'
Sony PS3 vs Nintendo Wii (semi-NSFW)
My Dallas Cowboys CMT commercial

Out On The Weekend

Rogers is the devil. I have to say that this last week has proven one thing, that the company founded and run by Ted Rogers is a joke. One of the drawbacks in today's world is that many people, such as myself, find our jobs completely dependent on reliable internet. If you have options, use them, Rogers isn't worth it.

In other news, the Caledon Citizen ran the press release I put together for Tony Viola as a headline story in their Election 2006 subsection. The Enterprise continues to take their sweet time with things, as they are apt to do. If I was rich I think I'd start a paper solely for the purpose of putting the Enterprise under. Tony's signs now litter my subdivision, which was a welcome surprise, but that doesn't always equate to votes. I remain cautiously optimistic.

This weekend is the merger of Social Wars and Network Wars - Social Network Wars I. Folks will start to arrive later this afternoon and stay through Sunday night. Tomorrow morning we have a tour of King Brewery booked in Nobleton, a stunning microbrewery located only a short drive from my house. Utilizing the rare decoction method - commonplace in Germany but not in Canada - it takes more time to brew but the results are in the bottle. I'm looking forward to a chance to see it from the inside. Brewmaster Philip DiFonzo takes things so seriously he actually re-mineralizes distilled water to recreate Czech Republic water for his Czech-style Pilsner. For those unaware the only beers truly allowed to be called "pilsener" are those from that region of the Czech Republic where a specific local water creates the unique taste. So by matching the make-up of the water from a mineral level the King Pils becomes as close to the real thing as you'll find in North America. No, sorry, Labatt Blue is not a pilsner. But then again nothing Labatt makes is anywhere close to true to style, including their pale lager Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale.

The rest of the weekend will be gaming for the guys and Hostex for me on Sunday. My latest personal project will hopefully get a bit of a head start this weekend with some of the contacts I'll make, but we shall see. Won't be the first time I've hit roadblocks if things don't work right.

Before I go, let us all thank Mark and Rob for their continued efforts and posts here as guest bloggers.

Today's Random Links
Make your own Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader commercial (for Cliff)
7-11 sponsors the White Sox - all home games at 7:11PM
I'd *love* to do this to my neighbours. They're evil.
Trudeau finger or abstract cactus?

I Believe In You

Who wants an election update?

I've almost finished www.annettegroves.com, but it was completed enough to launch. I'm wanting to add an events calendar to the right side of the main page before I'm comfortable calling it done. Annette has also asked for my assistance in writing her first debate speech, scheduled for this Thursday. I still feel she's as close to a shoo-in as they come, but she does seem to be treating this election with more care to her platform than in previous years.

For Tony we've already received his flyers back from the printer and will get the postcards tomorrow. They look like this:

I should note most text is provided by Tony, I've brushed it up or added things where needed. As noted here, getting Tony elected will prove an almost unsurmountable task under current circumstances. My strategy for him has been twofold. First, we don't fight his reputation as a stubborn, hard-nosed businessman; we embrace it. Try to get it across that he's successful for the same reasons he'd be successful as an elected official. It's the classic example of turning a negative into a positive, but getting that message to enough people is where things prove difficult. Second, I've advised against the current trend of ignoring your opposition and concentrating on yourself. Tony wins this election only one way - by placing enough of a bad taste in people's mouths concerning the efforts of his competitors. Between them they have somewhere around 25 years local council experience, and the problems that plague Caledon remain the same. I've advised he ensure, whenever possible, people are aware of this.

Can't say too much, it's possible competitive forces are reading.

Today's Random Links
Who wants to trick-or-treat as a video game?
Sign up for the oa.com companion podcast!
"Once I pop, I truly cannot stop.."
Google buys YouTube

...overanything Podcast: Season 2

A quick update that I've finally launched a second season of the podcast, just in time for the fall. Singers/songwriters this week, hopefully you'll like it.

Those of you without the ability to use iTunes can e-mail me for a special URL that will allow you to download it as an MP3.

More information here.

NHL 2006/07 Preview

So it's that time of year where I predict the future. No long drawn out analysis this time around, just quick and to the point. Awards picks have a top three, italics indicate my winner pick. Notice the lack of Suglobov, Toronto fans; he's a defensive liability and won't finish the season on the big team. He may not finish this week on the big team.

Art Ross
Jonathan Cheechoo
Sidney Crosby
Alexander Ovechkin

Calder
Phil Kessel
Evgeni Malkin
Gilbert Brule

Norris
Chris Pronger
Rob Niedermayer
Dion Phaneuf

Vezina
Tomas Vokoun
Henrik Lundqvist
Martin Gerber

Order of Finish - Eastern
01 Ottawa
02 NY Rangers
03 Buffalo
04 Carolina
05 Philadelphia
06 Boston
07 Atlanta
08 New Jersey
09 Tampa Bay
10 Florida
11 Pittsburgh
12 Montreal
13 Toronto
14 Washington
15 NY Islanders

Order of Finish - Western
01 Anaheim
02 Nashville
03 San Jose
04 Calgary
05 Minnesota
06 Detroit
07 Edmonton
08 Columbus
09 Dallas
10 Phoenix
11 Vancouver
12 Colorado
13 Los Angeles
14 Chicago
15 St Louis

West Playoffs
Ottawa over New Jersey
Carolina over Boston
Buffalo over Philadelphia
NY Rangers over Atlanta

Ottawa over Carolina
NY Rangers over Buffalo

Ottawa over NY Rangers

West Playoffs
Anaheim over Columbus
Calgary over Detroit
San Jose over Minnesota
Nashville over Edmonton

Anaheim over Calgary
San Jose over Nashville

Anaheim over San Jose

A Saucerful of Secrets

I promised to discuss FAN points today. Those of you who are regular FAN590 listeners will remember the Secret Seats contests of old, when they would state a "seat" and you had to be a specific caller at a specific time to qualify for bigger prizes. Some of you old-timers may even remember that I won a trip to WrestleMania in said contest, way back in 2000.

The FAN has now started a new online club, titled the FAN Club, that works on some of the same ideas. You listen to the station at appointed times, pick the right Secret Seat on their website, and earn points. There are frequently other ways to earn points as well, for example, a trivia contest I won recently. I wagered 100 points on a difficult trivia question, and they drew a name from the correct answers for 10,000 points. As of today I now have 30,689 points, which may make me the only person with enough points for a Mexico trip they're launching any day now. Cross your fingers.

FAN fans who want to know more, click here. JackFM does one as well: click here.

Get your picks in for the pools! I see Mr. Coleclough and Mr. House are already in - what about the rest of ya?

Today's Random Links
Pregnant teens take up smoking to avoid pain of childbirth. (Thanks, Rob)

NHL Fantasy Pools 2006

Oh yes, it's that time again. Get your fantasy picks ready, we're back at it for another year. As always, the official pool is:

sportsnet.ca LG Fantasy Hockey Pool
League: overanything
Password: moocow

I'll also be in whatever others I can find - if you know of any just message me or put it on the Zonk so I can add them here:

CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Fantasy Pool
League: ...overanything
Password: moocow

Mobile Parts 1 & 2

I took a trip to Fort York last night to catch Alex's third(?) Mobile Monday meeting. He's done a great job in launching a new industry networking group from scratch, and pulled off a great event last night. A good turnout, excellent speakers from Google and Yahoo, and even some top-notch catering by The Busy Bee, an old friend of his from Stockhouse. Anyone in the GTA with little time and some extra money may want to look into having the Busy Bee provide some weekly meals for you, her blinis were the hit of the night.

One thing of interest to just about everyone I spoke with during the closing networking segment was Google's "transcoder". Their presentation revolved around what Google is doing in the mobile segment, and it's quite insane and has applications well beyond mobile moving forward. It seems Google has created something they call the transcoder that, at the most base, recreates content into something readable on platforms and devices not typically capable of reading that content. An example would be that you can now view any website, PDF, Excel spreadsheet, or even javascript application on almost any mobile device through a Google search via that device. Google takes the item, transcodes it, and spits it out in a form that's readable to the device. Crazy.

I'll be doing an interview with our friend Alex shortly to discuss his successes and goals with the Mobile Monday group. In the meantime, anyone doing any type of business in the GTA should keep November 6th free and join me at the next meeting.

Woooooo

So I guess I discovered yesterday that walking isn't as scary as first imagined. After roughly 6km yesterday (taking into account that I parked at University/Richmond and met my coworkers at Yonge/Queen), I decided this morning to walk to the subway station, about 1.6km. And then on the way home, I decided to walk again, so there's another 1.6km. Thank goodness I have comfy shoes.

I'm happy to announce that since I started Weight Watchers in June with Crarie that I've lost a total of 30.6 pounds. This is the first time in about 5 years that I've been under 300 (297.0!). I'm sort of wondering if I'm going to run into the same plateau at 290 that I did last time I tried this in Rick's Weight Loss Challenge (which I won, yet strangely never collected my dinner, whatupwiddat!?).

I've run into some adversity lately in wanting to stick with the weight loss plan. Not that I don't want to lose, as I do, but losing the willpower to stick to eating the right things. Care and I switched from WW's Core plan to the Flex plan (she switched last week, I switched this week) and it looks like it's going to be a little easier, as you're not really lulled into being limited by the 'free' food in the Core plan - now I can eat whatever I feel like by spending my points on it. Crappier food = more points = less other food. But at least there won't be the same kind of cravings that I had before. Hopefully this will get me back focused on what I want to be doing.

Just to put that into perspective... at my current weight level I'm assigned 31 points per day. Most healthy things like fruit and vegetables are 0 points, low-fat meats are 2-4 points per serving... and a piece of Jack Astors' Pan Bread with Cheese? One serving (which would be one of the six 'puffs' in the loaf)... 27 points. Even their Greek Salad is 27 points. Quite disgusting, really.

Have a good one!

And the Winner Is...

At the crack of 10 this morning it was made official - I'm a campaign manager for the Regional Councillor run of Tony Viola. This might be a lot more entertaining and enriching than actually running myself, and it's certainly going to be more challenging. Misinformation has abounded in this town for years on Tony, to the point where he's likely one of the more disliked people in Bolton. Having him win this election is not only a matter of convincing people he can get the job done, but effectively changing his public image. It's a huge uphill battle but I'm ready for it.

I've finished his flyer and postcard, they've already left for the printer. Check the postcard out here:

And later today I'll complete the Annette Groves website to do my little part to help her with her campaign as well.

In other news, anyone planning to head downtown for the Mobile Monday Toronto meeting tonight?

Man, What a Day

So today was the CIBC Run for the Cure, and what a day it was. My wife Crarie and I were walking on separate teams, but in the same location. We got downtown this morning at around 9:10 or so, and the streets didn't seem too busy... until we got to Queen and University. What can simply be described as a "sea of humanity" greeted us - a crowd of who knows how many showed up to participate in the 5k Run or Walk.

170,000 people participated across the country and raised $23.4 million. $23.4 million. That's a metric buttload of money for a good cause. I have such a feeling of accomplishment today... I know it's only 5km, but I lead a rather sedentary lifestyle (though I'm trying to change that) and 5km is a lot farther than I've walked in ages. Throw in that I was able to raise $1030 through the generosity of my friends and family (Crarie raised a further $325) and today was truly an amazing day for me.

I once heard that there were two types of women: ones that have breast cancer, and those that will. I believe it, and I'm going to do what it takes to contribute to a cure.

In A Future Age

It was truly down to the wire for me but, in the end, I decided against putting my name into the campaign this time around. There's a lot of things I want to do with my life and my thoughts were that I could better utilize the next four years, and more importantly, the next two months than going door-to-door again attempting to convince people who don't care the value in putting the right people in. Instead, I'll be lending some support (usually paid) to some current candidates I believe in. I'm working on a website for Ward 5 Regional Councillor Annette Groves and some brochures for Ward 3/4 Regional Councillor candidate Tony Viola, and offering help where I can here and there. I even threw my expertise on web forms (thanks, Rob) to the guy that beat me, Garry Moore, who'll be attempting to become Mayor this time around.

So, in the spirit of things I want to get done in the next four years, does anyone have any good contacts in television production companies? Please? :(