Traffic Sucks

It seems like every time I work in St. John's the traffic gets crazier, and it's not the driver's fault, for the most part, it is the infrastructure. The roads in St. John's were not built to accommodate any sort of growth. Actually its that way in most of Newfoundland, but because most of the growth is happening on the Avalon Peninsula, the problem is compounded in the capital city.

Take for instance the TCH all across the province. There is about 900 kms of highway from East to West and we're lucky if 200 kms of that is actually divided highway. A divided highway is safer and allows traffic to flow more easily because the passing lane is always available, yet most of our highway is missing the passing lane. As someone who travels across the province a lot and is often pressed for time while doing so, having to slow down and go behind a car on the highway who's maximum speed seems to be 80 km/h really blows!

Although in certain cases the two lane divided highway isn't always efficient - i.e. the outer ring road. Traffic in the morning and evening is always slow on it, in both lanes. Some of that is the driver's fault for blocking two lanes with their slow speed rather than one, but some of it is the design of the roadway. There is very little room in which to merge from an exit to the highway, therefore the slow cars in the right lane have to veer into the left lane to allow the people merging to get on the highway, which causes all sorts of traffic jams.

Basically this complaint isn't going anywhere, because it is too late. Not much can be done about existing roadways, but why didn't the Government of Newfoundland take examples from other places that have 3-4 or more lanes on the highways? Most places have carpool lanes and bus lanes (which would be awesome on the outer ring road), but for some reason our roads could not be designed and built this way. Either the people building them had no foresight or faith in population growth in Newfoundland or they were just too cheap or poor at the time to do it. Either way it is a very frustrating experience, especially when you've been to large cities like Miami and Los Angeles who have humongous populations, yet traffic on their freeways seems to flow way better.

Download:
Away From Me - Puddle of Mudd

No Wonder No Bands Come Here

Upon hearing that neither Goo Goo Dolls concerts in Newfoundland has sold out, when they have everywhere else, it made me really frustrated. It shows why no modern bands come to Newfoundland, because they can't get the support. If one of the most successful alternative rock bands in the last 15 years cannot sell 1000 tickets, then why would other promoters think they can bring bands here and expect to sell out?

I don't know if its the venue and older people don't want to go to a stand up concert, or if its the damn "scene kids" around St. John's who are too afraid to go because they're not allowed to like something that could be considered popular music, but either way I'm getting afraid that it is going to end up cancelled, and that would be terrible.

Download:
Sympathy - Goo Goo Dolls

Unprepared

*To all my followers who have been patient during my long delay in posts, thank you. For the two that ripped me on Facebook about it, please realize that this blog is something fun I do when I have free time. I do not have a set schedule or maximum time between blogs. If I do this, it becomes more like work and less of a hobby for me. I have been very busy over the past three weeks traveling across the province for work, studying for exams and with other social commitments and as a result have not always had access to a computer. Blogging is not my priority, nor will it be my priority. I will blog when I have the time and have something I want to talk about. It will be on my own schedule, so while you are free to complain or boycott the blog I will not be changing my habits for anyone for fear that it will become a duty.
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The news story about the Bay Bulls man who had barricaded himself in his home with a weapon has been beaten to death, but that's what makes it so bad for the RCMP. I generally respect and feel safe with our police force, but after the Bay Bulls incident, I can honestly say I have lost some faith in it.

When something strange like this incident or something rare like a murder occurs, most of us assume our police force probably isn't fully equipped to deal with it. And that's not a knock on the training they receive or how hard they work, it's just that practice makes perfect. In any job, you can receive copious amounts of training but until you actually get to put that to use in a real-life scenario than it is hard to be good at it. So while the lunatic escaping the house undetected is inexcusable it is not overly surprising considering how little this type of thing happens (which is a good thing).

However what really makes the RCMP look bad is that they were on the news EVERY day stating that they are ready for ANY situation, and that they have everything under control. They claim they are fully prepared for this situation and whatever occurs they have it under control but were committing for a peaceful resolution. It's great that they wanted peace (although its better TV if they didn't), but they really made themselves look like a bunch of morons when the crazy guy, who had access to weapons and had shown a willingness to use them manages to sneak away from them and get 23 km before a common citizen notices him! Someone could have easily been hurt or even killed by this man, and all because the RCMP clearly did not have everything covered. I know it was 8 days and people were probably exhausted, but when it comes to the public safety, you do not have any room for error, but unfortunately the local police force was exposed as having a lot of errors. You would think they would know every exit point in the house and have 1-2 people watching these points, just in case the guy came out. He could have snuck out and started shooting at the police and they wouldn't have even known what was happening until they started getting hit with bullets. It's totally unacceptable and my confidence level in these guys went down.

We are still awaiting official word on how it happened, and I am begging of the RCMP to not come up with excuses and to just admit openly that they were not fully prepared and that they screwed up BIG TIME. Although that probably won't happen.

So hopefully lesson learned, however if I ever find myself in a hostage situation, I won't be thanking my lucky stars that the RCMP or RNC are on the case.


Download:
Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney

Stingy

To Kim: If someone can disrespect Big Ralph then they are a jerk, especially if we was wearing his sad old man glasses.
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Today I went to Subway in Grand Falls-Windsor for my lunch. It was busy as is usually the case around lunch, and as a result the owner is usually working there on the cash. To give you the background on the type of person she is before I get into the story, the rumor is that she has her closed caption security cameras sending a live video feed to her house so she can monitor her employees when she isn't in the store.

So anyway today I ordered my sub and everything went smooth with me, however I noticed something weird with the person behind me's order. The server had put a handful of napkins, maybe 5 or 6 in with the girl's sub, but apparently the owner of Subway thought this was too much. In front of me and the other customer, she put her hand in the girl's sub bag, hauled out the napkins and removed all but two of them, and then shot a hard look at the employee who was obviously new. How stingy are you that you can't afford to give up 3 or 4 extra napkins? It's not cause you're poor, because a) you franchised a subway and b) those ridiculously white dentures you have in your mouth probably cost a quite a bit (you know the kind I'm talking about, the ones that are so white they can't possibly be real unless your Bon Jovi).. I always thought the management at that place was a little tight because they don't take points cards because that would mean giving out free subs eventually, but when I saw that it really kicked in for me. Quite ridiculous. Next time she is working I'm asking for extra napkins!

In other news, kudos to Wal-Mart employees for verifying signatures on credit card invoices. When you pay now with a credit card they hold the card and compare your signature on the back of it to the one you just put on the invoice. I don't know if they'd actually call you out on a difference, but it takes the whole squiggle your name out of the equation, unless you squiggled on the back of the card. However on a go-forward basis I suggest Wal-Mart starts using the machines that allow you to just put in your PIN number with your chip card.

Download:
Just a Dream - Nelly

Welcome Back to the Blog Tim Horton's!

So I have been doing a really good job of boycotting Tim Horton's, however yesterday I cracked because I needed a light snack to hold me over until supper time and it was the closest thing to me. Actually there were two bad experiences with Tim Horton's yesterday, so my boycott is still standing and probably even more cemented than ever.

The first bad experience came when I was bringing Burns and Kara to the Santa Claus parade. I stopped into the Esso/Tim Horton's on Topsail Rd and attempted to order Burns a bagel and Kara an original glaze donut. Not only did they not have the type of bagel Burns wanted, they didn't have any bagels at all! And then to make it worse they didn't have the donut Kara wanted either, so they created two more dissatisfied customers on that trip.

After dropping Kara and Burns off I headed towards Mark's but decided to stop at the Kilbride Tim's to get myself a bagel. When I went in, there was a man there audibly freaking out at the staff because of their super slow service, so that was probably a sign that I should have left. When it came my turn to order I went to the counter only to see 4 or 5 employees just standing around talking to each other. I didn't say anything, just stood there when one girl finally turns around and sees me, leans on the counter and looks at me and says "yes?". I was kind of blown away. What terrible service. I'm sorry that it is an inconvenience for you to have to serve me at a place that you are voluntarily working. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to work at Tim Horton's. If it's that terrible than quit and find another minimum wage job that better suits your bitchy attitude. I was totally blown away by the lack of customer service. Almost as blown away as the $4.45 I paid for a bagel and a tea!

So Tim Horton's you're lucky you put crack in your coffee to make people oddly addicted to it because your service is still beyond terrible!

Download:

Back From Cali - Slash and Myles Kennedy

Did You Really Think You Could Get Away With It?

In light of the recent arrest of the Corner Brook Gynecologist for uttering threats and being racist on a voice mail to Dr. Ganguly, I figured I would rant about how dumb this guy is.

Think about how hard it is to become a doctor. You have to toil in your undergrad, kick ass on the MCAT and smoke the interview just to get accepted into the school and even then there are no guarantees. If you do manage to get accepted, then the next 5-10 years of your life are pretty much consumed with text books and cadavers, and despite this you still think its a good idea to risk all of that hard work to send a death threat to someone? Perhaps he was dumb or drunk enough to think that he would get away with it, but did he really think that the police wouldn't check the phone logs with Bell Aliant and be able to trace it back to him? DUMBASS.

Finally, the guy uttered DEATH THREATS and RACIST comments, and guess what his name just happens to be....ADOLF Hamann! That's right, a guy with the name Adolf is doing nazi-esque things...that really doesn't help your cause. Plus the guy is 53, meaning he was born well after World War II, why did his parents name him Adolf? That is some harsh punishment no matter where you are growing up, and speaking of harsh punishment I hope the guy gets some for his Hitlerish acts. At the very least he should be stripped of his medical license because I wouldn't want this obviously unstable dude around anyone's vagina anymore!

Download:
Found Out About You - Gin Blossoms

Racism at it's Finest

If you're ever heading westbound on the TCH from St. John's towards Whitbourne you should take note of a sign on the side of the road for a little craft shop in Dildo. The shop is called: Kountry Kravins & Krafts. Why is this blog worthy? It's because all three of the above words are supposed to be spelled with the letter C, which still provides you with the alliteration that the alternate spelling does, so why switch to the K's? I have to assume that it's racism - putting three K's in a row...seems a little shady to me.

So Kountry Kravins & Krafts I shall boycott your business for fear that I would secretly be funding your cross burning activities. I suggest everyone do the same.

Download:
Being Here - The Stills

The Threat to Leave

Based on a few customer service experiences I've had over the past few months, I realize that you are eligible for much better deals or incentives to stay with a company if you threaten to stop being a customer with them, which in my mind doesn't seem right. If you can offer incentives to a person who is leaving, why can't you just offer these to all your customers, then maybe they will stay anyway. I have a few examples here:

This wasn't a threat to leave, but basically sometime last year there were some problems with the quality of the cable service here in Grand Falls-Windsor. A co-worker of mine had a friend who called in and complained, and as a result got a 10% discount for a 12 month period on her bill. Realizing this, my co-worker decided to call in with the same complaint and was offered a 5% discount due to the inconvenience she was facing. Realizing her friend got double, she had the call escalated to a supervisor and ended up with the 10% discount herself. This is an example of word getting out and discounts not always being the best way to deal with situations. Word could have easily spread throughout the community, and probably did, and a lot of 10% discounts were probably handed out. (Note: I was not having cable difficulties, and have too many principles to call in and lie to get the discount).



When I purchased my car last year it came with a free subscription of OnStar for one year. When that free year was up, the cost became $24.99 per month to keep it. I did want to keep it because it has a lot of cool features and offers a security blanket in emergency situations, and with me driving a lot that isn't a bad thing, however apparently I don't value my life at $24.99 per month because that seemed way too steep for me, so I called in to cancel it. I didn't call in to negotiate a new price, but as soon as I said I was going to cancel it, they offered me a discounted price of $14.99 per month. So just $10.00 off per month because I was going to unsubscribe. I guess it makes sense because $14.99 per month is better than $0 per month, but once again if word spreads about this, OnStar is going to be out of $120 per year from a lot of customers, or they are going to piss a lot of them off if they don't offer them the same discount.



Just a few minutes ago I called VISA and decided to cancel my Aerogold card. Basically I am not getting enough benefit from it to justify the $120 annual fee. I'm more likely to get a flight out of the $120 I save annually vs. the amount of aeroplan miles I get and the amount it takes to fly anywhere decent. As soon as I say I'm cancelling, the customer service agent offers me more bonus reward miles as an incentive to stay. I didn't take them, but all I had to do was say I was going and BOOM I get a better deal.

In summary, it is good customer service to offer people incentives when they are having difficulties, and good job to all the above companies for being decentralized enough to allow a front line employee try to resolve my problem rather than just let me leave, but really in the end you're making things harder for yourself. Word of mouth is a powerful thing and if word leaks and you're not willing to offer these deals to everybody then you're going to have a lot of pissed off customers on your hands rather than just the one with the complaint. Sure $14.99 seems better that $0 to OnStar, but potentially losing that extra $10 of revenue from all your other clients who get a hold of the news doesn't seem worth it.

So my advice to everyone who reads this, call all your companies and threaten to leave and see if you can get some sort of reward or incentive to stay. Who knows you might get a great discount or a free gift out of it!

Download:
Get Free - The Vines

Not Meant to Be

To the replies in my previous post:

I thank you for sharing your opinions with me, however as one responder put it, it was an observation. While most of the blog entries I write are frustration fueled rants, I am not always mad about something, so sometimes I will write a "Seinfeld like" entry that is inspired simply by my outlook on something, but will not necessarily be created out of anger or resentment towards that topic.

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It is very rarely that I venture to the flea market at the Avalon Mall on Sunday evenings. For me, there isn't much point as I never buy anything and it is always the same old crap there (with the exception of this time of year because the place is packed with people selling Christmas items). I don't understand how people make any sort of profit from this as they provide the same goods week in and week out, and I have never really seen anybody purchase anything there. I guess the mark up is enormous so that if they sell 2-3 things then they have at least broke even, but I digress.

I actually went there last night with the full intent of making a purchase. You see on the few occasions I have gone I have noticed that someone has "Turtles in Time" for Super Nintendo for sale, and this is pretty much my favorite game of all time, however the cost was also near $40 for a game made in 1992, so it was hard to justify purchasing it. However I have been on a recent old school Nintendo kick lately and I decided that I was going to go ahead and dish out the cash to pay for it, only when I get to the table it had finally been sold earlier in the day. What a kick in the junk. I finally decide to go purchase it and it is no longer there. Ouch.

I've come to the conclusion that maybe I am not meant to have this game as I have ordered it on eBay before only to have it not show up in the mail  and now this latest debacle. However I will keep trying as this game can provide me with unlimited hours of entertainment as no matter how many times I play it, I do not seem to get bored with it (yes this is a wide open place for a masturbation joke). No Mercy for N64 has the same effect on me. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed to come across Turtles in Time in the near future before I talk myself out of buying it again.

Download:
Not Meant to Be - Theory of a Deadman

EDIT: Alley just purchased me the game on eBay so I should have it relatively soon. Hopefully it actually arrives this time.

Exact Change

On the rare occasion when I go to a store and I have cash, I always try to make a habit of paying with the exact change, but after doing this a couple of times lately I noticed it makes things very awkward.

A typical shopping experience involves placing the object to be scanned, handing something to the cashier, whether it be money or a card, and the cashier handing something back to you, whether it be change or a receipt. Either way there is always an exchange at the end where the cashier gives something to you. When you pay with the exact change, this does not take place and it really leaves an awkward void in the entire process. You're sort of left just standing there and questioning yourself on if you actually did count out the right change, and you can't just give them your money and walk away, because if you didn't get it right then you owe them more. Basically there is no closure to the whole process. You don't have a defined exit point which makes the situation very uneasy. From now on, when paying with cash, no more exact change for me.

Also while talking about money, for some reason I think pennies carry the most germs, but maybe that's just the stigma because they are worth less and therefore seem dirtier.

Download:
America's Suitehearts - Fall Out Boy

Skeet vs. Skeet

The increase in violent crime in Newfoundland has been kind of alarming lately. I mean you have people getting shot over land disputes on the West Coast, women getting punched in the face by men, at least one armed robbery every night in St. John's, and most recently a shitload of stabbings.

Here's why I don't worry about the last one on the list. I'm not a skeet. All these stabbings are not random, not for the intent of robbing someone, but skeets resolving their skeety arguments in skeety ways. What happened to the days of a beer bottle in the side of the head when you couldn't pay your drug dealer, or the days of throwing down with just your fists when two skeets were arguing over which one was gonna get to have unprotected sex with the fat chick? Now all of a sudden these guys are carrying knives and they are deciding it's a good idea to stab each other. I don't want to see anyone die, but it looks like the skeet population is trying to take each other out. It's a skeet civil war if you will. So my advice, don't mess with the skeets cause they have knives. If you avoid them, you should be able to still go outside at night and steer clear of all these stabbings.  But boy this province has certainly gone downhill in a lot of ways. The times I wish I were Clark Kent...

Download:
All Hail the Heartbreaker - Spill Canvas

Welcome to the list Dell

I just experienced the worst customer service ever from Dell.

Basically my new laptop has a mind of its own. It starts sometimes when it randomly wants to and most times it will not start at all, so I call them before my 30 return warranty expires, but attempt technical support first. I go online and type in my service tag, which for some reason directs me to the United States support. The online guy chats for about 3 minutes then says he can't help cause I'm in Canada and gives me a number to call. I call the number and its an American technical line, so I talk to a dude for 3 or 4 minutes, then he realizes he can't help me either and transfers me. Where does he transfer me? To another American line where I talk to a chick for 3 or 4 minutes before she realizes she can't help me either. Finally she transfers me to Canada, where I find out they put me in the wrong department so this guy needed to transfer me to another technical support person. Although before he did he mentioned my best option would be returning the thing and getting a new one. So in mid transfer I hang up on that and call Canadian Customer Service myself.

So I get the representative on the phone, and I tell her all the info she needs, but for some reason my service tag number is not registered in their system yet even though I ordered the computer 16 days ago. So basically I have to wait 24-48 hrs and call back AGAIN, and then start the process of getting it returned. I have 14 days left to get it returned and I'm kind of afraid I'm gonna get screwed here.

Either way, this was brutal customer service Dell. Worst I have had in a while. This almost makes me want to by a friggin' Mac, and I HATE macs!

Download:
This is Your Life - Switchfoot

F*ck Off, I'm Cleansing My Aura!

I went to Yoga class last night. It was a relatively easy class as I was able to do all of the stretches. Wasn't able to do them very well, but was able to torque and keep my balance on all the poses that we tried. The instructor started off by calling me muscular in front of all the women in the gym, so immediately I was hooked!

I was again the only male there. But apparently they average 1 per class so maybe next week there will be two, who knows. Either way I enjoyed it, however it became too religious at the end. (Side note: I really shouldn't be concerned with having more men there, that sounds kind of gay now that I think about it).

I realize its about emotional health and the soul and all that jazz but it creeped me out at the end when the instructor was talking about divine light and that we all come from a divine power who watches over us, etc. It was just a little too religious, and I get uncomfortable when people openly express their religion for some reason.

Either way, I suggest going to Yoga people. I may take this back when they really start stretching me out, but for now it's all good @ cyberdude.com

Download:
With Me - Sum 41

I'm not the expert on relationships, nor am I an expert on break ups, but one thing you can be assured of is that when a girl breaks up with a guy, the guy is hurt way worse than the girl would be if the guy broke up with her.

Crazy? Maybe. I mean girls are known to be more emotional and sensitive and all of that stuff, but when you think about the reasons that guys or girls break up with each other it sheds new light onto it.

There could be SEVERAL reasons why a guy would break up with a girl:

1. She's gotten ugly/fat.
2. They fight a lot.
3. She doesn't get along with his friends.
4. There is too much distance between them.
5. He has found someone else.
6. They don't have sex enough.
7. He is bored.
8. Her friends are bitches.

It could be any of these reasons or more, and yes some of them would certainly hurt to hear if you were a girl getting dumped because of it. However, the ONLY way a girl will dump a guy is if she has another guy waiting for her! (Note: This does not include the douchebags who get dumped because they beat women). If your girlfriend breaks up with you, you can rest assured that she has a safety net behind her. It doesn't mean she has cheated on you, but within a few days she is gonna be out with another guy, or else she wouldn't have broken up with you. Chicks hate being single. So yeah, when you're a guy and you just got dumped, it's gonna hurt because you KNOW that your ex-girlfriend is now spending time with another dude and before long they're gonna be going out.

It's like Sean Ambrose said in Mission Impossible II:[Said in a rad Scottish accent] "Women, like monkeys they are. Won't let go of one branch until they know they've got a hold of the next".

I know this is an incredible sexist entry, but I'd like you to give me 5 examples that you know of where the girl dumped the guy and didn't have another one on her arm within a week!

Download:
I Don't Care - Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier

Work-Life Balance

I really want to avoid making this blog personal or diary-like, but this time I feel the need to get something off my chest that is personal.

I figured that someday there might be a time where I'd have to choose between work life and personal life and which one is more important but I didn't think it would come so soon. Basically living out in Grand Falls-Windsor has drained me emotionally, and somewhat physically (from all the travel). I'm finding a very hard time creating a balance between what I do for work and what I want to do in life on a personal level.

I want to live and spend most of my time in St. John's because it's where all my friends and family are as well its where there are a lot of things to do, and while I do get to go into St. John's on a semi-regular basis, having to take the time to do so and spend my own money to do so most times is very exhausting.

Another thing about my job that I liked at first but has now worn thin is getting to travel across the island. Once you've seen it, you've seen it and now it's just become an inconvenience and makes working on certain things in my personal life very difficult.

So right now I'm torn with what to do. I work for a great company and do not want to leave, however there doesn't seem to be any opportunity for a move into St. John's at the moment or anytime in the future, so if I am gonna do what I really want to do on the personal level then leaving is the only option at the moment.

It's a hard decision to make and I have no idea what to do.

But on another note, I started back at the gym tonight. I have decided to do exercise classes because that way I can't cheat myself and I have more motivation to go if someone is monitoring me. However I was the only dude there as expected and it really sucked when at the end of the class the instructor said "good workout ladies", but I'm gonna try to go back because it was a great workout. I figure that's why guys don't go to these classes, because they are too hard and it sucks when the women can do the workout twice as good as you! Yoga tomorrow night. I'm the most inflexible person I know so this should be painful!

Download:
Alone - Bee Gees

Controversial Ads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqqk87W4tic

My immediate reaction after watching that ad was that it will never be allowed on TV for any length of time. You may get a little bit of time out of it, but it will eventually be pulled. It is ridiculously sexually suggestive, and that makes it good in my eyes, but it probably is not deemed appropriate for TV. However Axe is smart by doing this. You pay to get a controversial ad put on TV once and then you get free advertising after in the form of Youtube.

Someone told me about the ad, I looked it up on Youtube and then linked it to more people. So even if this TV ad is pulled or has been pulled from network TV, it still gets a lot of views and reachers a way broader audience than an ad that is actually able to be played on TV would probably get.

So in the advent of social media I expect that we will be seeing a lot more of these types of commercials. GoDaddy.com is a prime example. They have commercials that are racy, but not too racy to be cut from TV, but they provide the extended versions of their commercials online. Good job Axe. Way to take advantage in the shift of culture around the world into the social media sector. I assumed that's what your plan was all along...maybe I'm crazy.

In other news, I am down to 178 - lost 4 pounds so watch out Paul.

Download:
It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty

The Argument Against Kids

I have expressed my displeasure with the idea of having children of my own for a while now but I figure since I have a forum to do so, I should document it and see if my views actually change over the course of the next couple of years.

I can see why some people would want to have kids. There is the whole genetic predisposition to do it and save the species, plus people with really boring lives and big houses need some way to occupy their time, so having a kid seems like the way to go. Not for me though as I do not have a big house and my life is only moderately boring.

At this point in my life, I just see kids as a total burden. I enjoy being able to spend my money freely, not having to save it up, spend it on someone else, and more importantly I enjoy my free time. Being able to sit back, watch whatever you want on TV, go where ever you want on vacation and go out with friends on weekends is very important to me, and honestly I cannot see that changing anytime in the future. Having at least the option to do these things is crucial to me living a high quality of life. If I ever have kids I might as well throw my dream of seeing every Major League Baseball team live in their home city down the drain because it isn't going to happen. I have to be financially responsible, and the kid is gonna wanna go somewhere fun like Disney (already been there, twice), and might end up being a total dork and not even like sports so he or she will be all whiny when I'm trying to watch the games!

The only way I can see me changing my views on this is if all my other friends start having kids and as a result are not around to do fun things with me. Then I might have to reconsider, or get new friends. But that might not be so bad cause some of them are dicks anyway (coughGregcough). Right now I just see children as a complete life ruiner, even after they turn 18, if you're lucky enough to have money left, you have to spend it on their college education, then their wedding, their first car, etc. It just never ends.

In summary - having children would suck. This would be a funny thing for my kids to read though if I ever have them in the future. If that happens, hopefully they aren't total weiners and they can find the humour in it.

Download:
I Like It - Enrique Iglesias ft. Pitbull

Goodwill

Last night as I was unpacking from my two week hiatus from Grand Falls-Windsor, I rummaged through my closet and drawers and found a lot of old clothing that I no longer wear, and Megan advised me that I could donate it to the Thrift Store here, which I did not know existed in GFW despite driving by it every day on my way home from work.

So I packed up all the old clothes I didn't want anymore and gave it to them to sell and make some money, and I realized that they do not give you any recognition for it. And that is fine. I do no want/expect to be recognized for donating things that are headed for the trash anyway, but the fact that the thought even crossed my mind really makes me admire those who make large donations and wish to remain anonymous.

A lot of people or corporations make donations because they can regain the cost through tax write offs and it also provides a lot of goodwill for their company in addition to the goodwill they are providing to the charity. You'll often see big donations with recognition given to the sponsors, and while it is great that they are donating to charity, it really takes away from the generosity aspect because they are getting something in return. The true generous people are those who make donations and do it anonymously, getting nothing in return except that satisfaction that they are helping those who are less fortunate.

Now I have heard the argument before that people want to remain anonymous to avoid other charities knocking at their doors soliciting donations for every cause you can think of because they know this person/company has given generous donations in the past, but I don't really buy into that. Charities are going to solicit donations from everywhere possible so there is no avoiding that, especially if you are a company or known to be wealthy.

In summary, I think it is great when any person or company makes a donation of any kind (money, volunteer time, etc.) to a charity or persons in need, but I truly admire those people who do it and refuse to get recognition for it. Personally I do not know if I'd be able to do that. Imagine donating $1,000,000 to the Janeway and then just not telling people you did it. That's tough to do as most of us long for recognition and acceptance. But apparently people do it, so my hats off to them. (Note: I'm not actually wearing a hat)

Kudos.

Download:
Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers

Fees for the Sake of Fees

So it was decided that on the 23rd that we are going to go see Super Dogs at Mile One Stadium (only later to find out that Greg said it sucked and there isn't really anything super about these dogs), so I go ahead and purchase the tickets online. The first ridiculous fee was that there was $7.50 surcharge on each ticket, and the tickets only cost $16.50 each! Quite absorbent if you ask me. But the charge that really got me angered was when I found out it is going to cost me $4.00 to pick up the tickets at the box office...the same price it would cost to have them mailed!

$4.00 to have them mailed locally is bad enough considering the cost of sending an envelope that size is $0.65, but $4.00 to go to the stadium and pick them up? What is the purpose behind this fee other than trying to grab extra money from people? It's not like they have to call in an employee to specifically be there when I want to pick up my tickets, because I have to go down during the normal operating hours, so it is of no extra cost or burden on them for me to pick up the tickets at that location.

I know it is a very small cost, but to have to incur in repeatedly and for many others to do the same just does not make sense to me. So St. John's Sports and Entertainment, please revisit your policies so that people like me aren't pissed off at you.

Download:
Hook - Blues Traveler

Goals Met/Unmet

When I was younger I always thought that life would be a certain way by the time I was 25. Well I reached that age as of 12:00 a.m. and here is what I always predicted my life being like when I was 25:

-Engaged
-Steady Career
-Have a House
-Have a dog
-Have a car

3/5 isn't too bad I guess, and technically I was engaged before so that one kind of counts I guess. Stupid housing market being ridiculous, but that's a blog entry for a later date.

Oh well I'm happy with life, so let's celebrate it this weekend.

Peace out.

Download:
Crash - Cavo

Give Him Some Credit

For years not, at least 8 or 9 I have heard the discussions about how Ottawa always chokes in the playoffs, yadda yadda, and usually there is a constant theme that people point to...the goaltending...Patrick Lalime in particular. People always say he isn't a playoff goaltender and that he always blew it. I always tried to defend him but to no avail. I pointed to the series against Philadelphia where he had 3 shutouts and the Flyers spent a majority of the series running him in an attempt to injure him, including bodychecking him twice when he was out of his crease, or to the low scoring series between the Maple Leafs and Senators, that sure the Leafs always won, but never at the fault of Lalime. But people point to the game 7 against the Leafs one year where he choked letting in 3 soft goals, a few being to Joe Nieuwendyk, and then they stamp him as a guy who couldn't perform in the playoffs. Well I just read a trivia question and perhaps this will finally put to rest the idea that Patrick Lalime sucked, especially in the playoffs:

"Which goalie has the best Goals Against Average in NHL Playoff History with 1.77 (With a Minimum of 40 games played)?
ANSWER:
Patrick Lalime.

Go #40. Best goalie we have had between the pipes in Ottawa, and best goalie in playoff history!

Download:
Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5

Brief Synopsis

Here is a brief run down of the trip thus far:

Tampa:
-Smells like St. John's Harbour
-Rays games was fun. Rays won. Bought a jersey and got a free autographed baseball when I did. The stadium was amazing, had so much to do in it, could definitely spend a day in there.
-Football game was ridiculously hot - probably reached over 120F in there, Kara got all woozy with the heat. It was a great experience though. Kara and Burns played beer pong with some real rednecks, Burns ended up getting loaded because well they lost. But they played with weird rules which involved them leaning over the tables and stuff.

Orlando:
-We ate at IHOP 3 times in Orlando...all for breakfast, so if I don't see an IHOP again for a while then that will be fine with me. When we were there once there was a chick who would not shut up, yammering on and on all morning...she belonged on Maury Pauvich. I will leave it at that. One other time right next to us some chick was crying. She was either getting dumped by her boyfriend who was with her or he was her pump and was demoting her from Top Bitch, either way the crying really ruined my meal. I was pissed.

-Went to Universal. Never had the balls to get on any real roller coasters, but got on 3 simulators including the Harry Potter one which was super intense and had about a 3 km line to get into it. Worth the line though, and we got a picture of it.

-Disney. After shopping in the morning we went to Disney. We were there for about 20 minutes when the skies just opened up with rain and thunder and lighting which shut down all the outside rides. Did a few of the inside ones, but I had done those last year so it was kind of lackluster. My shoes are still trying to dry from Kara splashing everyone in the puddles. Good times though.

-Gatorland. Wasn't expecting a whole lot from this, but it was great. Got to sit on a gator and feed a bunch of huge ones up close inside the fence. That was kind of unsettling, but I'm still alive and with all my limbs so it's all good.

Miami:

-Arrived today, did some beach hanging, and tomorrow is jet skiing and scuba diving. Should be fun.

Restaurants:
-TGI Fridays had such a friendly atmosphere and good food. Go if you get the chance.
-Popeyes - good chicken, good biscuit, but not as good as Mary Brown's.
-Olive Garden was brutal. Bad service, bad food.
-Medieval Times was also awesome. It was like watching pro wrestling live. One of the knights even stopped and pointed his sword at me because I was cheering for the other guy, it was awesome!

Well that's a brief summary so far. It's been a great holiday, with still a lot of good activities to go!

Download:
Story About a Girl - Our Lady Peace

Storm Preparation

To Paul: Thanks for the support, but are you calling me fat by referring to me as muffin top?
================================================================
In wake of Hurricane Igor and all the damage it caused I wonder how prepared we are here in Newfoundland for events like this. I'm probably not the best to be discussing this as here in Grand Falls-Windsor we didn't really feel the effects of the storm outside of some high winds and a lot of rain, whereas some people (perhaps due to karma about their Creed bashing) have been without power overnight and probably still into today and have suffered extensive property damage.

Fortunately, only 1 person has lost their life during this storm and that was a freak accident in itself with a driveway just crumbling out of nowhere. However I dropped by the office last night around 9:30 only to see that the calls about the outage were still pouring in to Newfoundland Power, and resumed doing so overnight and are still going crazy today. I'm not directly involved with the outage, but the amount of people calling and wondering how fast the power is coming back on makes me wonder how prepared people generally are for a storm like this?

How many of us keep stocks of batteries, non-perishable food, coleman stoves, portable generation or first aid items on hand in case something like this happens? I personally do not, but am considering it after this. Customers do not have power, and not due to a lack of effort in restoration, but of some impossible obstacles such as washed out roads meaning crews cannot access the trouble spots. Until these roads are fixed, people will be without power, and they need to be prepared for situations like this, but I get a sneaking suspicion they aren't.

But can I really blame them? Well it'd be the pot calling the kettle black. But in terms of how often we lose our power or how often a natural disaster strikes us, we are very lucky. But that luckiness has led us to be sheltered and perhaps under prepared when the time comes. I know I'm going out to get emergency supplies soon, hopefully the rest of the province does too so we can ensure that the next time a hurricane or winter storm comes through, the casualty count does not rise.

In summary, F*ck you Igor!

Download:
Drowning - Saving Abel

Cheap Buttered Muffin

To Jugigatame - There was nothing cliche about it. Went to a pond and fed ducks with microwaved hamburger buns. As well Creed was a staple of the late 90's, early 00's. I dare you to honestly tell me there wasn't a time you enjoyed the song "Higher".
===================================================================
As anyone who drives by a Tim Horton's en route to work in the morning knows, the lineups are insane. Well at least the drive-thru lineup is. Cars packed bumper to bumper, even lined up on the street disrupting traffic all in the name of getting a coffee. Well in Grand Falls-Windsor, McDonald's is pretty much next door to the Tim Horton's, and while all those cars are idling and killing the environment at Tim's, the McDonald's lot is close to empty. So wanting a hot beverage in the morning, I decided to give it a whirl and head over there to get a tea. To my pleasant surprise, the tea is way better than Tim Horton's and its only $1.19 for any size. I usually get large which costs $1.63 at Tim's. If I average 3 per week at a savings of $0.44 each time I get one, that saves me $68.64 per year! That's pretty sweet. Extra groceries, a UFC pay-per view, etc. In addition to this, I decided to get a muffin there today. A Muffin at Tim's would be $1.12 in addition to my tea cost, whereas at McDonald's I was able to get tea and a muffin for a grand total of $1.59 - and the muffin was also delicious and came with free becel butter and plastic knife for buttering!

To summarize, good job on your pricing McDonald's. Also Tim Horton's is helping to contribute to global warming with their slow service/long lines of idling cars. Shame on you Tim Horton's, shame!

Download:
Hero of War - Rise Against

New Music My Ass

To Jugigatame, you're welcome for the knitting tip. The owners and operators used to leave in Whitbourne right across from where Pop used to live when he had the funeral home.

So I heard a new Alice in Chains song on the radio today, or so they say new, because it sounds identical to all their other songs. I know bands are supposed to have a sound or something distinctive about them but this takes it to a whole new level. I challenge someone to name me 3 separate Alice in Chains songs that don't sound like all the other songs they have ever made. Can't say I thought I would ever blog about Alice in Chains.

After working two trade shows in the past two weekends, you run into a lot of crazy people and mentally challenged people and I learned a valuable lesson...never make eye contact with these people. They're just like wild animals! If you make eye contact they are going to come towards you in all their awkwardness/craziness and then there is no getting rid of them. So what do bears and retards have in common? Making eye contact with them is dangerous.

Watched MacGruber last night...so so so disappointed. The movie was terrible. I love Saturday Night Live and the MacGruber skit but this was not even funny at all. I was so disappointed. Never watch the movie MacGruber. Didn't think I would say that, but Kristen Wiig wasn't even funny in it.

Fed some ducks today in GFW. In comparison to MUN ducks they are snobs and not friendly at all...much like everyone else in Grand Falls-Windsor! OUCH. Well naw there are some good people here but a lot of them are dicks.

Download:
Overcome - Creed

Bench

This won't be too long of a rant, but I have to blame "Bench" for trying to make the popped collar popular. First it was the polo shirt, but now I see everyone (well at least in Springdale and Grand Falls-Windsor anyway) wearing their Bench jackets and they have the collar popped. And why? It's because the damn company decides to write their brand name on the inside of the collar of these jackets! Normal companies just write the name on the chest, maybe on the arm, but nope, Bench has to write it on the inside of the collar, so if you want people to know you're wearing Bench (not sure why you would), then you have to pop that damn collar!

Had yet another bad customer service experience. This time it was yesterday at McDonald's waiting for breakfast. It was so slow and they screwed up my order. However I got some inspiration from it as I believe my thesis is going to be on the decrease in customer satisfaction within the service industry due to an aging workforce population.

Also if you have a dog, support Valley View Gourmet Treat Shop. I met these people at the Trade Show and they are really nice. Bought some product to try out with Lady when I go to St. John's. Go here

Also if you like wool:

Marie's Knits

Download:
I See the Want To in Your Eyes - Conway Twitty

Long Time No Write

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in a week. I must have been busy or something, but I'm glad that people missed my commentary.

So as you might be aware, I've been dating a girl and its going well (as far as I know), but that got me thinking of a bunch of different stuff that I am totally unsure about because its been a while since I have been in this situation. I wondered about some of the following things, in no particular order:

- Do people go steady anymore? Or rather, do you ever ask someone to go steady? At my (old) age is that required or is it just assumed at a certain point, and if so, at what point.

- When do you meet each others friends? It's kind of a big deal to open that door because if your girlfriend doesn't like your friends or vice versa it can be a pretty bad time for all parties involved.

- When do you meet each others parents?

- When do you give her a key to your apartment?

- How much money are you supposed to spend on Christmas gifts, etc?

Maybe I'm getting way ahead of myself here which I tend to do but all these things are foreign to me at this point so I don't really know the rules/guidelines...not that I ever did to begin with!

Onto other things though.

Egg Rolls are definitely my least favorite thing about Chinese food. No wonder nobody liked me when I brought cold egg rolls as my contribution to a potluck one year!

When you go out to eat and you order a sandwich (ex. a half club), and you ask for no mayo you get hard looks. You get even harder looks when you ask for Mild wing sauce as the substitute to the mayo. Now I know how Mark D feels asking for wing sauce with everything, or Greg and his Hollindaise. Some people just don't like mayo, I don't really know why people are so shocked by this!

Something that enrages me though is that Paddy Daley is the host of VOCM's Nightline. The guy is such a turd. It's hard to not listen to him because he is that big of a turd. Always talking like a "true newfie" with his colloquialisms and the like. I can't picture him having any valid opinion on any subject, including sexting which he was talking about while I was waiting for my Chinese.

From radio to TV - I also hate NTV because they claim that the shows they broadcast are their own! On the radio they were all like "Jimmy Smits gives an interview to the Herald about his new NTV show..." I was like really? a) You're stealing the interview from someone and b) It's not an NTV show...you're stealing it from another network and probably not even paying for it! I understand stealing American TV because they do it a lot better than we do up North, but stop stealing all the credit...and put in some GD American commercials because they are way better than the commercials shown on NTV, especially during the Superbowl. Just sayin' NTV, you're not fooling anyone by claiming that "House" is an NTV show!

Started my Master's Course yesterday, seems challenging, better get crack a lackin.

Also football season starts tonight. Awesome.

Download:
Breaking - Anberlin

EDIT:
I also hate women who call their boyfriends "my man". Seriously, fuck off.

Penal

I am glad I got to use that title. It stems from an article I read on cbc.ca that had the headlines:

"Irishtown man arrested 3 times in 5 days"

I was thinking, how is that possible? Then I kept reading to realize how ridiculous the justice system is at times. To summarize the article, a man went to jail because he assaulted an 80 year old man. He appeared in court the next day and was released under condition that he "keep the peace". The very next day, he gets his ass hauled back to jail for uttering threats to someone. So he has now committed two crimes AND violated the conditions of his release, and what does the judge do? He sets him free again the next day! And keeping with the pattern guess what happened? He ended up back in jail for violating the conditions of his release AGAIN! What was this judge thinking? You already gave him the chance to behave and he obviously couldn't do it, and you let him back on the streets with yet another chance? Not only did he threaten people before, but he had a prior assault charge which means he is well capable of acting on his violent threats!

It's hard to believe that we could have judges on the bench who lack common sense. The guy is now in the "Pen" in St. John's, because 3 strikes and you're out apparently...except when it comes to crime you should start with an 0-2 count. The penal system is sometimes insane. At least I ended up with something to blog about today.

Download:
Stars and Boulevards - Augustana

P.S. You should start following me so I seem cool - it's at the top of the page.

Lowered Expectations

Bonjour Amigos.

I went to see Salt last night with very low expectations. The reason for those were that Kara called it disappointing and I was seeing it in Grand Falls-Windsor with the crappy seats that make your ass cheeks go numb and a terrible sound system. The movie was about an 1 hr 40 minutes long, but it felt like 30 minutes. It went by really quickly which would lead me to believe I was entertained, and I think I was, despite there not being any Jolie boob in it. Very entertaining, but also very predictable (SPOILER ALERT) - From the beginning I knew that she was going to be on the good team. How did I know this? Because Lee Schreiber was in the movie and that was a red flag for me that he's gonna end up being the bad guy! Might as well have put Eric Roberts in there in terms of obvious bad guys. But either way, I recommend seeing it. (Then again Lee Schreiber kind of does have a penance for being the obvious bad guy who turns out to be not so bad at all - Wolverine, Scream)

(SPOILER ALERT OVER)

When it comes to customer service, I'm starting to wonder if my expectations, and the expectations of society as a whole have become too high. Let's face it, nobody likes to wait anymore, and with online options and fast pay options available for most things, we really don't have to. But when you're put in situations where you do have to wait, your expectations need to be lowered (cue the Lowered Expectations theme from MAD TV circa 1997). A prime example is my "FAVOURITE" place in GFW, Tim Horton's. After the movie last night, myself and Wavey (inside joke) went to Tim's to go to the drive-through so I could get a tea. However after literally not moving in the line up for 5 minutes because the service was so slow I decided to pull out of the lineup and just leave. The tea wasn't worth the wait for me and I was pretty pissed and impatient with their consistent lack of fast service (not to mention the environmental repercussions of idling my car so long), so pissed actually that I'm sort of refusing to go there anymore unless its necessary (not that they will miss my business or anything, but it's a moral issue). However, when I thought about it, perhaps my expectations are just simply too high. I have to remember, and this is not meant to be an insult, but places like Tim Horton's don't exactly have the shining stars of society working at them. It's usually high school kids, high school dropouts, or old-slow people who are working there, so really what is to be expected besides lazy, stupid and slow customer service? And really what other options do you have? No matter what coffee or fast food joint you go to you are going to have a majority of the employees who:

a) Do not want to be there.
b) Are getting paid shit money to do shit jobs.
c) Are un-educated
d) Have no sense of politeness or awkwardness (possibly due to c))

I know not all people in these positions fit these categories, and some are probably working through school and provide great service because they just have good work ethic, however I'm stereotyping here and for the most part it's not an incorrect stereotype.

So should I lower my expectations when lining up for get my tea or burger? Absolutely. Will I? Doubtful. I'm just so used to the fast paced life at this point that it's hard to revert. I won't ever lose my patience and snap at a customer service rep (because I worked at a call centre, so I know how hard it can be), but businesses sure are going to miss out on my money if it doesn't start getting better!

Few Final Notes:
- Bought a Nintendo DS on Friday, should keep my occupied whilest travelling for work.
- Someone definitely banged into the back of my car. I looked yesterday, thought maybe its a lot of dirt, it was. However when I wiped that away my back bumper is scratched to shit, looks like someone did a mild hit and run on me - good thing its not a lease!
- If you aren't currently signed up for e-bills with Newfoundland Power, make sure you do so. Any new e-bill sign ups between now and mid-September get their names put in to win an ipad. However you can't cancel and then sign up again, you won't be eligible if you do.

Download:
Afterlife - Bush

God Damn Killer Whales

After seeing another video of Orca whales killing a Minke Whale, it made me think of a South Park episode. To me it's kind of the like episode where they got the only Chinese guy in town to build a Great Wall around the city, except every time he tried to build the wall Mongolians would come out of nowhere and break it down, making him say "God damn Mongolians, trying to break down my shitty wall" - shitty being how he pronounced city cause he was Asian. It just reminded me of it cause it seems like every time someone films a Minke whale swimming, the Orcas just come out of nowhere like the Mongolians in the episode, so I figure the Minkes are just thinking "God damn killer whales". Gotta find humour in things somehow.

Something else I have learned is that internet radio, like all other forms of radio is so repetitive. The ads annoy me too, but I could just pay for it and avoid those, however I refuse to pay for it because I have been listening to it for quite a while now and they always use the same rotation of songs. It's like I know what's coming next. Stupid radio. I should start my own station and get sued for playing unreleased songs!

I haven't watched Jersey Shore the past two weeks but I did last night, well most of it anyway, but I didn't learn much. I guess two small things I learned from it are:

1)It's ok to have sex with a girl even if your buddy is in the same room as you as long as the lights are off. (I find it so weird that they have no problems having sex with a girl while their friend is in the same room doing the same thing, or sometimes not doing the same thing).

2)If a hot chick brings her "hippo" friend over with her, you can't go for the threesome. You have to extract the hot chick from her friend. The Situation did a magnificent job of this last night, although it was pretty easy since the "hippo" chick just wanted to go to bed (I'm thinking, why the hell are you going over to the Jersey Shore house at 3 am just to go to bed? Why not stay home and go to bed. You know your friend is going over there to hook up, so if you want sleep just stay home. That sounds much better then going on national TV to be called a hippo! Things frustrate me sometimes).

Banana is the best fruit.

Download:
Hunger Strike - Temple of the Dog

Labour Day is Gonna Be "A Time"

Well things turned around for me on the horseshoe front - I think we are going to do the tournament on Labour Day so now I can play. Hopefully people still drink even though there is work the next day. I know a few of us definitely will, but hopefully everyone does to put us back on an even playing field. Although my horseshoe playing has declined. I peaked two years ago when I won the ringer trophy, and now like a homophobe I seem to stay as far away from the pole as possible. Gotta meditate or something to get my mind focused and bring back my game so I can lead my team (whichever team I'm on) to victory this year...although that would mean I have to pay for the name tags again this year, and they are so not cheap.

Because we changed the date of the tournament, I get to participate in the softball playoffs as well. Hopefully I can get off on 9/11 to play the final few round robin games, but its looking very doubtful. Stupid trade shows. F you Springdale! I also have another trade show in Lewisporte the week after. They are so boring to work. Bleh.

I wish I had a scale to make sure I wasn't gaining any weight for this competition. Perhaps I will buy one, but I'm spending money everywhere it seems lately. That break on my insurance is going to waste!

14 days until school starts, 38 days until we land in Tampa though! Here's a preview of what we plan to do:

Sports - 2 baseball games and 1 football game.
Amusement Parks - Disney, Universal, Wet n Wild
Beach - South Beach, possibly jet ski/snorkeling.

That pretty much sums up what we're doing, although we are definitely going to a Zaxby's in Orlando or Tampa so I can get that Birthday Cake Milkshake I see advertised on TV. I think I'm gonna vomit because it's going to be so good! (Definitely going to be disappointed).

Not my place to judge, but the only commentary coming out of the Samantha Goodyear case is that she had some sort of medical condition that nobody knew about which caused her to go missing...I don't buy it! I am fully confident that there is no criminal activity, but the family is trying so hard now to protect their reputation. You know why she was disoriented and dehydrated? It's called a hangover, and it happens after you've been partying for about a week like this chick probably was. Although she is a douche to not let anyone know where she is for a week, probably had to hear at some point that there was a missing persons case for her. Once again a waste of time/effort from the police to have to search for this girl who probably was at a cabin somewhere. So no, I do not believe there was some medical condition involved here, I think its all a sham to protect the girl from ridicule. And that's my last commentary on this.

Download:
Broken Hearted - Eighteen Visions

Back to Solitary

-Got back in "the dub" yesterday. Felt like an eternity of a drive because I really didn't want to come back, plus my joints and muscles were all stiff as holy balls from playing over 3 hours of basketball (bump specifically) on Saturday. St. John's was fun, really makes me want to move back, and I think work wise it makes more sense as there is way more for me to do in there, but I guess they do not see it that way at this point.

-On a whim me and Kara went to Backstreet Boys on Saturday night. It lived up to expectation. They played most of their old songs and some new ones, which weren't quite as catchy. They had a really cool entrace where a video of them walking down an alley was playing and they start running towards the camera at the end of it, only to fly out through the screen. Best stage entrance I've ever seen. They did something similar at the end as well, leaving through the screen again.

I wondered who would get Kevin's few lyrics when they came up in the songs...they promoted Howie to new Kevin. I also wondered what went through their minds when they played such a small stadium considering the large venues they used to sell out no problem. Must be kind of depressing, but I guess money, drugs, booze and strippers makes you forget about it pretty quick. I know it works for me when I get down!

-I was out for a drive Friday night in the downtown area, only to see a drunk guy on the side of the road who had obviously just pissed his pants. He seemed none the wiser nor had any shame. Just walking up the road with a huge piss stain on his jeans. It really grossed me out, I hope I don't ever do that when I'm drunk. But I mean how do you do that? If you have to go that bad and you're that drunk you figure you'd just whip it out on the side of the road and go. I think I'd rather an indecent exposure charge then walking around in my own urine until I got home! Maybe he was cold though, who knows?

-My interest is peaked with what happened to this 20 year old chick who was missing. Since she sent a text message to her cousin on Thursday that was "casual" according to the news sounds like she was out on one hell of a binge! But I doubt that's the actual story behind it. I assume she was drugged or something. I dunno it's all really weird, will be interesting to see.
*UPDATE: My initial theory on binge may have been correct. Oh you college kids, what won't you do.

-More road raging. There are a few (many)things that irritate me while driving, But one I hate the most is inconsistent speeds. Drivers are going around 90 km/hr in front of you until you hit a passing lane, when suddenly they decide to do 120 km/hr, only to slow back down after the passing lane is over. I assume every male who does this has a small penis and is trying to compensate for this. Douchebags. It also messes with my ability to use cruise control, we need a divided highway across the province.

-In a huge waste of our tax dollars, the RCMP is now detecting speeders in the air from a helicopter across the Atlantic Provinces. They have yellow markers on the highway and they calculate how fast you're going by the time it takes for you to get from one marker to the next. I assume they radio it in to cops who are on the ground, but this really seems like a giant waste of money and resources. Couldn't these cops be doing something else? You know like stopping armed robberies or finding missing people? What a total waste of money just to catch an extra few people who are speeding. A better investment would be radar guns/cameras and having it done automatically rather than putting a helicopter manned with two officers in the air doing random flyovers. I'm usually all about policing the shit out of things but this is just ridiculous. Boo to you RCMP, boo to you.

Also, car insurance went down to $80 per month from $150...turning 25 isn't all bad I guess!

Download:
Don't Forget Me - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Game On!

So myself and Paul Dawe (I was gonna write his middle name, but I can't remember it, but for some reason it seems like it should be Milton) have officially started our weight loss bet. So as a recap, the person who can lose the highest percentage of weight (rounded to two decimal points) when we weigh ourselves on November 30 wins 20 bucks.

Starting weights:
Keith: 182 lbs
Milton: 190 lbs

We're pretty similar in the starting weight so it should make the competition more intense. I was pretty confident after I made the bet that I would lose, cause I mean Paul has a gym bag, which means he must go to the gym, where as me? Not so much. However I went to Kim's to watch Big Brother last night where Paul ate an entire large bag of Salt and Vinegar chips by himself in the span of 1/2 hour, so that gave me a little bit of hope that maybe I can at least make it close. I figure I can get down to 170 or 175 by November, and if not I'm just gonna hit the sauna hardcore before we weigh in. So if I get to 175 I will have lost 3.85% of my weight, and if I can get to 170, 6.59% of my weight. I think 170 is a bit of a stretch but I think 175 is doable. However Florida is going to be bad on me for this.

In other news due to work and softball commitments I'm going to miss the horseshoe tournament this year which really sucks. We really should have had this earlier in the Summer. I feel kind of gypped that one of the regulars for shoes such as myself has to miss out when we delayed it the summer because some of the not so regulars may not have been able to make it. That sucks but that's the way it is.

Download:
Home - Goo Goo Dolls

On the Hunt

So apparently Killer Whales are making their way around the province taking out Minke whales. These guys ain't fuckin' around.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/08/18/nl-trinity-orcas-818.html

Lesson Learned

Well I quickly learned my lesson about the importance of buying movie tickets online on cheap movie night. On Tuesdays Empire offers movies or $5.99, a big time reduction from their usual price of $11.50, and apparently people really respond to it. The plan was for me and Erin to go see The Other Guys at 9:30, but when we got there, say around 9ish it was sold out. Not only was that movie sold out but so was:

Inception
Eat, Pray, Love
Dinner for Schmucks
The Expendables
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Since I had already seen Despicable Me and Grown Ups that left my options to Salt and Step Up 3D (because Cat's and Dog's 3D had already started).

I do want to see Salt, but I'm going to see that in Grand Falls next weekend, and well I would never be able to drag myself into the theatre to watch Step Up, especially in 3D. I am not the manliest of men, but even I have a line and going to see that movie would be on the other side of the line.

Since we couldn't see the movie and we had run into Kim and Paul there, we ended up having a lot of time to talk about random crap which led to a bet between me and Paul. I stole the idea from Mark and Kara the other night at Swiss Chalet, but basically we're going to have a 3-month weight loss competition. Details are still yet to be worked out. The original plan was whoever lost the biggest percentage of weight would win, but Paul wants to do the biggest percentage of body fat lost...which I don't mind doing, except I don't know how we're supposed to measure that. And since it's only a $20 bet I don't want to pay the money to get it done at the gym. Anyway should be interesting...I predict I will lose.

Me and Kara also volunteered labelling boxes for the Sparkles of Hope bracelets yesterday evening. Always a good time doing things for a good cause.

Download:
Monkey Brains - Our Lady Peace

The New Diss

Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone dislikes you. They might make the occasional comment where you question their intent, but you can't really tell if they are joking or not, or they may blow off plans with you all the time, or you may have found out they were talking behind your back or something. However, while most of these are probably indicators that someone doesn't like you very much, thanks to the Internet we now have a new method which totally confirms someones lack of tolerance for you as a human being:

The Facebook delete.

When you think about the average person's Facebook account, they have anywhere from 100 to probably 1000 friends on it, and realistically they probably only pay attention to 10-25 of those friends' profiles, meaning that they ignore about 95% or more of all their other friends profiles, yet they still keep them there as friends. However there is the occasional person that they might delete totally instead of ignore, and this is a definite sign that this person does not like you. To go through the effort of finding a person's profile and deleting or blocking them, rather then just ignoring it, that shows some true disrespect. It is the new, more modern diss.

So if you're ever wondering if someone still thinks you're at least a half decent person, keep an eye on your friends list. If you dropped for 505 to 504...somebody decided they hate you. If you don't have Facebook, well you just have to look for other signs, but you'll never really know for sure. What a wonderful age we live in eh?

Download:
These Are The Days - The Exies

Been A While

It's been a while since I've had the chance to write on this. I don't have anything important to talk about so just give a recap on whats been going on lately I guess.

Came out to St. John's on Thursday, and around Clarenville an ambulance came behind me so I pulled over for it and ended up behind it. Turns out I'm one of a select few people who actually pullover for an emergency vehicle. It was crazy. Its a two-lane highway and cars on neither side of the road would pull over so the ambulance could get around them. Sure hope someone didn't die because some people were being stupid drivers.

I won $2.00 on Lotto Max...gonna put that on Pro-line and try to get some money, not going to happen. Picking sports winners is so f'n hard.

Friday was Erin's birthday, and her party was that night at West Side Charlies. I was not planning on getting drunk, but the beer was going down really smooth and before I knew it I wasn't in a state to drive anyway so I decided to just keep going with it. I had a good time, despite Erin being TANKED! Tanked to the point of finding it hilarious to poor every drink she could get her hands on over me...however I guess she did have some sort of conscience when she grabbed one and poured it all over her new dress so it kind of evened out. I like that I have a variety of personalities in my friends. It makes hanging out with all of them different which is nice.

Kim got my car for me and brought it to her house, so I decided to crash there in the spare room that night. Apparently Paul had no idea I was coming over until I showed up and said "I'm here for the threesome". I had watched Paranormal activity earlier in the night and the idea of sleeping in a strange place was kind of unsettling, but I got through the night...alive...and there wasn't actually a threesome.

Saturday was Norman's Cove/Long Cove days. Sometimes I think Burns' over hypes it because he is proud of where he came from but this time it definitely lived up to expectation. I paid for it severely this morning when I was hungover as balls, but it was a great night, ran into some people I haven't seen in a while, and when you're drunk that makes it way less awkward!

Today I went to the cinema and saw The Expendables. Great fucking movie! It was exactly what I expected. A lot of pointless action and explosions and over the top violence. I highly recommend it to anyone, and Eric Roberts was fantastic.

Sorry for the lame entry to the people who read this, but I'm still not fully recovered from last night, I'm sure I'll have something to hate on sometime soon!

Download:
Dreamland - Our Lady Peace

Getting Out More

Based on my experiences tonight, I have learned that if I just get out of the house more I will not have any trouble finding things to write about on here, and here is what popped into my head this evening:

Firstly I went to get gas, cause I need to fill up before heading to St. John's on Thursday and the Irving here offers 3 cents off per litre for no reason other than getting more customers. No other gas company does it around here. But that isn't a complaint. My issue is that I was behind a motorcycle, and that motorcycle passed another one coming the opposite way and it reminded me of something I have always hated which is how motorcyclists feel the need to give an obligatory wave to other motorcyclists when they pass by. Really, why is this necessary? Chances are you don't know this person, you will probably never have a conversation with them in your life, so why the wave? I don't wave to everyone who passes by in a 2 door coupe, or a Chevy Cobalt, etc. Just because you're on a motorcycle does not mean you HAVE to wave at each other. ATV operators do the same thing. If I could change this little convention I definitely would. Or at least all of us who drive 4 wheeled vehicles should start waving to each other as well.

My second issue is the frustration poor customer service causes. I am wearing a plain black t-shirt today and I thought, you know what, this looks pretty good on me, but it is kind of faded, I should go to Wal-Mart and buy another one, however for some reason they don't have any 100% cotton t-shirts, they all have at least 5% polyester or spandex, and it just doesn't feel right. I probably should have made another issue about the lack of cotton in the world, but this was just an aside. Since I could not find a shirt I wanted I decided to buy two pairs of pants for playing softball in, only once I got to the register it took me 20 minutes to get out of there. First the items would not scan so the cashier called someone from men's wear 3 times to get a price check...except of course nobody came. So after that I just said, I'll do it. So I leave the register and grabbed two different pairs. I come back, and one of the pairs won't scan because apparently it hasn't been logged into their system yet. So basically they have things on the shelves that aren't registered. For one this is very inconvenient, and secondly that makes shoplifting very easy. So I have to wait for the woman from men's wear to FINALLY show up and figure it out, and eventually I got out of there with two pairs of pants. I wish I was the type of person who complained to get free stuff because I definitely could have walked out of their with at least a $10 gift card!

Thirdly, is the hours of the Grand Falls-Windsor mall. Still in search of my plain black tee I decide to search the rest of the mall. This is approximately 8:00 pm...yet in the whole mall the only other two stores open besides Wal-Mart are Bargain Giant and A Buck or Two, and go figure, the selection of clothes at Bargain Giant isn't exactly eye catching. I should have known the mall was basically closed considering I went to go there to buy a hat at 5:30 on a Saturday this Winter once, and it was already closed...such terrible hours.

Lastly, I went to Tim Hortons (which is always really slow here) and was reminded of how annoying it is when people in the line up are CONSTANTLY looking behind them. I don't know if they're paranoid they are going to get shanked or what, but the counter is in front of you, stop being nosey and trying to figure out who is behind you. What's even worse is when someone in front of you starts having a conversation with someone who is behind you in the line. They are right in your face, just talking to this other person. It is brutal. I don't usually want to punch people, but if I ever did punch someone it would probably be one of these line talkers.

Anyway those are the things that frustrated me tonight. It's good to get them out. What you need to take out of this is that if I ever go to jail for murder know that the victim drives a motorcycle, works in the customer service industry in the Grand Falls-Windsor mall, does a bad job and loves talking to the people behind them in the line even when there is at least a one person buffer zone between them.

Goodnight folks.

Download:
Collide by Dishwalla

St. John's Is Not a Hockey Town!

Not having anything to do at work, and my boss being on vacation for 2 weeks, I've been doing a lot of web-surfing lately, which includes news headlines. I got very frustrated this morning when I read on VOCM (again) that St. John's is looking to have a hockey team occupy Mile One (again).

Councillor Dan Breen (I know, I'm also thinking who the hell is that?), says St. John's is a hockey town and he believes the residents will support a hockey franchise. Really? What proof is there of this? They want to bring in another QMJHL team, a team from the same league the debunked Fog Devils played in, and suddenly they think people will support it?

Maybe I am being a little cynical here, because part of the reason the Fog Devils did not work were the economics of the deal, the travel costs, etc. but some of it was definitely a lack of attendance. People complained that they weren't good enough (despite have several NHL drafted prospects), that there is nowhere to park downtown so they don't bother, and some people even boycotted because they had "Devil" as part of their team name. Really a lot of excuses to not go see a hockey game for a so called "hockey town". Whenever I hear that phrase about St. John's, I just cringe. I'm sick of people calling the town that when there is absolutely no proof to support it. St. John's doesn't even have a team in the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League, and nobody attends their Junior League games. It's ridiculous for a "hockey town".

I for one would love to see a team back here however. I would support it whenever possible, because no matter what the cost or the parking obstacles, I enjoy going to see a game of hockey. However, this team would have the same problems as the Fog Devils and it would lose A LOT of money. It'd be great if for once the council of St. John's actually provided a new service for its citizens that didn't have the primary goal of turning a profit, and hell the loses could even be covered by additional revenue if they would actually agree to develop downtown. But that's a different rant.

In conclusion: Would love to see another hockey team in Newfoundland, however it is not going to work because St. John's is not a "hockey town".

Gonna try a new thing, recommending a song to download after each blog:
"Ache" by James Carrington (Smallville introduces me to so many good songs)

Weekend in the Dub

Not being able to go to Stephenville this weekend I decided to save some money and stay in Grand Falls-Windsor, and it has been boring like I thought it would be. I certainly have watched an unhealthy amount of Smallville though...just starting Season 6 as I'm writing this (no I haven't watched all 5 Seasons this weekend).

Friday night I didn't do much so when I got up today I decided to try to do something. I ended up going to the theatre here (which reminds me of Carbonear cinema and its horrendously uncomfortable seats), where I watched "Grown Ups". In my opinion, it is not a good movie. Remember how I mentioned that The Bounty Hunter was good because it had a decent plot to fall back on? Well this was the opposite. This movie just went nowhere. It had a few funny moments, but not moments I really related to. Maybe if I was 40 or had kids I would have been able to relate but at this point, just wasn't able to. Oh well, got me out of the house and I got to experience the theatre here so not a total waste of time.

After the movie I went to get ice cream where across the road was a wedding reception. I saw a Mom go out to her van with three teenagers where she handed out cigarettes to them all and started smoking with them...real classy lady she was. Great role model. Some people are just plain idiots. She is one of them.

Got some free NL Power merch for the Fam too that I'm gonna bring out next weekend.

Have to decide if I want to buy UFC tonight, but $50 is kind of steep.

Attempting to give up eating anything that is deep fried until I go to Florida. I will probably crack soon, but if I manage to make it then I am going to end up going ape shit for some grease as soon as I land in Tampa!

Last but certainly not least....it is Lady's birthday today! She turned 2. I hope she enjoyed her presents. Happy Birthday! If only she could read this...guess I'll have to get her a laptop next year.

What I've Learned From Jersey Shore

I used to think "creeping" was a term used to mean you're freaking a person out. Like if you're acting weird and someone says, "dude, you're really creeping me out". Then the meaning of the word transformed with the launch of Facebook, and suddenly "creeping" meant you were looking at people's profiles without them knowing, getting information on them, etc. which in a way has the same type of freaking people out ability. However the word has transformed again thanks to Jersey Shore. It now means hitting on women/trying to sleep with them. They keep saying how they're always "creeping" on girls and stuff, and it really "creeps" me out cause it sounds like they're just sort of stalking these chicks, and who knows maybe they are, but it seems to work for them! But alas, I've been fortunate enough to witness the evolution of the word "creep". I wonder where it will be by the time I die?

Another thing I learned from last night's episode is that it requires very little training to work in an ice cream store. The manager showed them how to scoop ice cream onto the cone and then they left. No training on cash or the prices, or the opening and closing operations? What is this, The Simple Life? Also I found it quite amusing that the name of the shop owner was Enzo, thereby leaving me to assume he is Italian. Considering only 0.16% of the Miami population speaks Italian, what a coincidence that they managed to find a shop owner who is also a "Guido". Oh Jersey Shore, I still love you so far.

Movie Review: 12 Rounds

My pick this week for mine and Erin's movie thing was 12 Rounds.

If you're a REAL man, you'll enjoy this movie. It is constant action with a lot of pointless carnage. It kept me entertained the whole time, and there wasn't a WHOLE lot of the really far fetched stuff in the movie. So while I am always doubtful when WWE and its employees are involved in movies, this one was actually good. Way better than The Scorpion King.

So if you have a scrotum, go rent 12 Rounds.

Welfs

So after much deliberation and many sleepless nights, I finally figured out why most of my relationships do not work. I'm simply looking for the wrong type of girl. I need a welfare chick if I'm gonna be truly happy. Here's why:

1) They are always very loving and protective of "their man". If you try to get near a welfare chick's boyfriend, you're just asking for a shit storm. If there is one thing they take pride in, and there probably only is one, it is their man. I gotta say that display of love would be a great feeling to wake up to. I can just picture coming home from (I was gonna say work, but I will have to stop working if I want to make this happen) buying lottery tickets and telling my Welf Girl that my ex girlfriend was there talking to me, and then boom she goes and tries to shank the bitch for stepping in her territory. What an exciting life!

2) Livin' on the dole. Let's face it. I enjoy sleeping, and with both of us living off the government I can sleep in all the time.

3) I assume they are appreciative of finer things. If you give a chick who grew up with money a nice necklace or bracelet, it's not really a big deal, but if you give a chick who lived off Mr. Noodles the same thing...it's going to be a happy ending for you, if you catch my drift.

4) From what I can tell, welf chicks are always boning. Once again the not having a job thing probably plays a big factor in this, but based on the number of kids they have popping around they are always having sex...condomless sex. Really, who doesn't want that?

5) And since they have kids who they don't really care about, you have someone to take all your frustrations and failures out on. I'm not talking about just physical abuse, but you can tear into these kids mentally as well, and if they try to fight back their Mom will beat their ass. Why? Cause you don't mess with a Welf chick's man, that's why!

So that's my little spiel on the benefits of dating a chick who requires Government Assistance. Lock down the jewellery box Mom, cause I'm finding one and bringing her home!

Movie Review: The Bounty Hunter

Watched The Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston yesterday, and I must say I enjoyed it. It wasn't a laugh out loud funny movie, but it was highly entertaining. Unlike most romantic comedies it has a decent plot to fall back on for when the comedy is lacking in the movie, plus it had the evil guy from The Mask (Peter Greene - who apparently I share a birthday with, thanks IMDB) in it as the bad guy, so that's always a bonus. Sure he is a terrible actor, but he has that sort of Eric Roberts effect on me where you know he's terrible but you're just happy to see him anyway in almost a comedic type way. Speaking of which, can't wait to find out E Rob's role in The Expendables!

One thing I noticed though is that whenever Gerard Butler eats in a movie, it grosses me out. The way he chews and talks with his mouth full, it seems like it happens in most movies he is in (well at least this one and Law Abiding Citizen), and it's kind of gross. But on the plus side I would still totally do Jennifer Aniston, she still has it from her Rachel days, and anything with Jason Sudekis or most of the other SNL actors in it gets extra points from me, because they can make anything funny (think Kristen Wiig).

So if you haven't seen it, watch The Bounty Hunter. Good time.

Always Trying To Learn

In order to justify my recent decision to watch Jersey Shore Season 2, I have decided to try to learn at least one thing from each episode I watch so that I'm not just voluntarily melting my brain, and since I blog now I figure this is a good place to put what I learn.

Well the first thing I learned, but I should have known this already, is that they are a bunch of douchebags; yet I am oddly jealous of them. They are pretty much living the life, and they do whatever they want, so I figure maybe being a douche is the way to go, but I think I'll hold off on the transformation to complete douche for now.

The second thing I learned:
Grenade = Fat Ugly Chick
Landmine = Skinny Ugly Chick

See I'm already being educated. That is all I have learned from one week of Jersey Shore, can't wait to continue my education on Thursday 11 P.M. Eastern/10 Central.

In other news my Shin Splints (old man legs) have picked the worst possible time to return since I'm supposed to play in a National Qualifier this weekend, but now I can't run and the doctor suggests taking at least 3 weeks rest. I might have to pass on the tournament, but if we do not have enough players then I will be doping on pain killers all weekend and hoping I don't cause more damage. Fun times...

Glory Days

Came to St. John's for the weekend, and like usual tried to make the best of my time in here, and I would consider it a job well done.

Thursday night was George Street Fest for me and Our Lady Peace was playing. Started out with a BBQ at Kim's which was good, then we headed down and got there just in time for OLP. Despite being late we all managed to get into the second row of people for the show. I've never been that close for a concert before I don't think. The only issue I had with it was it was hard to hear Raine's voice, the instruments were over powering it because of our proximity to the speakers. However, great show as always. This marks the 4th time I have seen OLP live and I have never been disappointed, and for only 30 bucks you can't go wrong.

So I figured we'd be going home shortly after OLP, but Erin wanted to stay downtown for a while...I didn't realize a while would be until after 3 a.m. I didn't drink much, but not getting to bed until 4 am (not an OLP reference), was kind of brutal since I had to get up at 8 and had a meeting at 9. But I had fun downtown, made a new friend and well saw pretty much my entire history of ex-girlfriends on the street.

Speaking of which, Friday after I went to Boston Pizza with Erin (had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich), I went to Yuk Yuks with Kara, Burns, Mark and William and it was a great show. Especially the host for the night, he had me doing my seagull laugh all night. It was fantastic. Not so fantastic however is when I see Angie, who is sitting in the chair right behind me, so when we both turned towards the stage, we were basically sitting next to each other. Hella awkward but I did not let it ruin my good time, which I am proud to say.

Saturday, played some softball, had the pizza party where we shared a lot of old stories about our "Glory days". It's crazy to realize all the things we used to do and how much we used to drink. Makes me miss those days a bit. It's easy to forget you're almost 25 sometimes!

Also saw Dinner for Schmucks today. It was funnier than I was expecting. I have high expectations for Paul Rudd but low for Steve Carell, but it worked out well. One of two sentimental moments, but other than that a decent comedy. I would recommend seeing it, and well obviously my taste in movies is great. Anyone who has seen my collection of DVD's might disagree with that though.

Anyway that was a summary of my weekend. Back to GFW tomorrow. I'll miss hanging out with my peeps, even my often annoying best friend, but I will be back in two weekends so hopefully that weekend will be just as good.

Gone to watch the rest of this UFC card, take care.