NHL Game Center: Cost & Blackout Restrictions

If you are a hockey fan but don't have much love for the cost of NHL Game Center Live or the Blackout restrictions, I've got a couple of tricks to help you see the games you want for much cheaper that the actual publicized cost.

Cheaper Access:
First, NHL Game Center Live allows you to see all of the NHL games during the season, online. This includes: Android, iPhone, Web Browser and many other tools for you viewing pleasure. But for me, paying a hefty cost of $160 for the season or $18.99 a month for 8 months seems like a lot. If you would like to get Game Center for a reduced cost, use a VPN. If you sign up for Game Center from another country except for Canada or the US, you will only pay $99 for the year or $19.99 for 5 payments, a savings of $60 a year.

How to do this:
A VPN allows you to connect through the web and your IP (location) be shown as if you are located somewhere else. I use Strong VPN (see below) and it allows you a secure connection through many different countries for a very low yearly cost. Also with Strong VPN you can set your VPN up on many different platforms and systems. Once you get it installed, you will need to connect and make sure your connection is shown as somewhere else besides Canada or the US, I selected Britain. Once you do this you can now use your browser to connect to NHL Game Center site and the cost will be now be $99.99 for the year or $19.99 for 5 months. Click on the option you prefer and fill in your info. And yes it will accept your Canadian or American credit card with your North American address. 

Stong VPN - Unlimited access $55 / year.

I also use my Strong VPN for many other items as well, including:

• Connecting to the US Netflix;
• Secure Private internet access in the airport and coffee shops;
• To get Hulu in Canada;
• Download apps for my phone that are only available in other countries;
• Ordering items from sites that restrict access based on location.

But it also saved me $60 off of NHL Game Center so that last stuff is just a bonus. See how you can connect Strong to your systems.

Blackout Restrictions:

Second, if you’re like me, you follow the Senators but live in the Senators market; you are subject to Blackout restrictions, meaning games will be blocked if you are in the Senators market area. There are a couple of ways around this:

    VPN: See above on how to connect to a VPN;
    Android 4.3 permissions;

Android Permissions:
In Android 4.3 you can view and change any permissions set on an app. When you install an app it asks for permissions to do different things on your phone in the background. One of these permissions for the NHL Game Center app is to allow your location to be shared with the app. This is used to know where you are located to limit or blackout games in your area that are broadcasted on the TV.

Now since I am paying for a service, I don’t like to be limited to what I can see based on where I am located especially since I want to watch my Senator games in the Ottawa area. So in Android 4.3 you can view each individual app and choose specific permissions of that app and turn them on or off. You can use "App Ops Starter" to get to the permissions. If you edit the NHL Game Center app permissions you can turn off Location Sharing and now you will no longer be blacked out of any games. In older versions of Android you can also accomplish this if your phone is rooted.

Hydro Ottawa and I

This may seem like a strange post, but if you know me, Hydro Ottawa and I have not had the most trusting and agreeable relationship over the years that I have lived in Ontario.

Back in good ol' 2002 when my now wife and I packed up from Newfoundland and headed West to Ontario for work, we moved into a small one bedroom apartment. We got our utilities and perks installed (hydro, phone, cable, ect...). Then we moved into a house in 2006. Here are some of the issues/problems I have with Hydro Ottawa:

Problem

After receiving the first few hydro bills I was outraged about a single line item on the bill; "Debt Retirement Charge". So I called up Hydro Ottawa to get an explanation of this charge, since I did not owe any money past due, why was I being charged for this?

After listing to the representative on the phone explain to me that the Debt Retirement Charge is a charge (tax) on all residents of Ontario hydro bills to repay the debt that was incurred while hydro was managed (I use that term lightly) by the Ontario government. So why must I pay this debt? I did not live here when it was incurred. Nor was I the one who made the poor decisions to to put the organization into debt in the first place.

So back in 1998 the Ontario government decided to break from the power business and have semi-private organizations supply the power to residences and business of Ontario.

At the time, some of the $38.1 billion debt was offset by assets assigned to Ontario Hydro’s successor companies, Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation (OPG).

A portion of the debt was also covered through income the province receives from Hydro One and OPG profits, as well as what amounts to taxes on local hydro utilities.

But that still left $7.8 billion uncovered, so the province imposed a debt retirement charge of 0.7 cents a kilowatt hour on hydro bills until it is “defeased”, which means paid off."

This is where some basic math comes into play with my abacus.

1998 - 2013
Ontario Hydro Debt:  $7,800,000,000.00
Number of Households in Ontario:  4,887,510
Bi-monthly billing = ~ 90 billing cycles
Debt Retirement Charge per house, per bill: $17.00
Total for 15 years per household: $1550.00
Total for all households paid: $7,575,640,500.00

Remaining:  $224,359,500.00*

*No business were taken account for in these numbers, so the Ontario government should now be in the GREEN and we should no longer be paying this. But alas the numbers that the politicians throw out, is that the charge "should" be removed by 2015 - 2018.

Issue / Questionable Hydro Ottawa Knowledge

This only started once we moved into our house in 2006 and I really should not blame it on Hydro Ottawa, but they could have given me some advise or guidance since they are trying to get people to be "greener". Now I understand that a house consumes more power, due to its size. But when we moved we began to get power bills that ranged from $200 bi-monthly to $600 bi-monthly. That's a hefty increase from our normal $100 - $200 bi-monthly bill. I had contacted Hydro Ottawa on many occasions to try and help with my situation since all of my neighbors in similar houses were reporting bills around $150. The best they would say is that we were running too much stuff too long.

In our house we had a gas furnace and gas stove and the AC, dishwasher, dryer and other small items ran on hydro. So we began limiting the use of these items or only using them during the off peak hours when hydro is cheaper. This still did nothing (very little) for the power bills. I was convinced the wires were mixed and there was another house on our line so I hired a  electrician who in-turn charged me and confirmed I was wrong.

So at this point I was defeated and I felt like I should bend over and take it like a Hydro Ottawa customer and continue to pay up. This was up until the spring when my father visited and was wondering what fan was going at night because he could not sleep. After some quick investigation, it was the Venmar system in the house that was running 24*7. Now my first thought was a small fan in a Venmar system could not possibly be causing this increase, but I decided to turn it off and watch the daily power readings. To my surprise the daily hydro usage dropped by about 15 - 20 kWH a day. That's and average of 1050kWH over 60 days. But we needed some longer time stats before we make a conclusion.

Now I am ready to conclude that yes the Venmar system running was what was causing such high power bills over 7 years and below are a few numbers to validate my conclusion:


Date Period: 2012-06-20 - 2012-08-22
Period Usage: 3147.983333kWH
Per Day Usage: 49.97kWH

Date Period: 2013-06-18 - 2013-08-20
Period Usage: 1919.589789kWH
Per Day Usage: 30.47kWH

A whopping difference of 1228.393544kWH a month. A 39% savings.

It was further confirmation last week when all of my neighbors reported much higher hydro bills than we had for the same billing period. Now to get that number even lower. 

Hydro Ottawa's advise to customers is that by changing the small things in your house such as the time you turn the dishwasher on to turning off lights. In my opinion these things do not make a big difference to your overall bill. What I suggest is for you to look at the more non-obvious things in your house, as these things could be running 24*7 and eating up much more hydro than many small things running every few days during peak time.

Epic Journey Month 4.5

Ah, I feel like I have been slacking off lately in terms of both exercise and in this blog. But the time has come to change all of that, so this will be my second blog post in two days. Don't expect that all the time.

As for the gym, exercising, trying to get into shape and all of that fun jazz, I'm back to the gym and into the third week now. This may not seem like much, but I was not there for about 2.5 months due to a knee injury I sustained at hockey. My knee has been getting better so I have been slowly (twice a week) visiting the gym to get back into a routine and I think this is harder than what it was in the beginning to start. Next week I plan on starting to do three days a week. On top of the Epic visiting, I have been doing daily walks now that it is nice out with the dog.

Although getting back into going to the gym in the mornings (5:30 am) has been hard, the benefits from it have been enormous. I have been feeling much more alert and awake during the day, easier to sleep at night and still wake up feeling refreshed the next day. I think the below comic pretty much sums up how I feel after completing a workout.

So I guess that is the update for now, I hope to have another post up in the next few weeks, since I have been falling behind on this. But the next post hopefully will include a good progress report on the increase in Epic Fitness visits, the beginning of the running season (for me), before and after numbers, and possibility some before and after pictures (this could be scary).

Bitcoin Links and Information

This page is work in progress as I find more information.

BitCoin

I have found myself recently reading allot about BitCoins, though I have not wanted to invest my own money
into them. I have been taking a few minuets each night to click on a few links to make a small amount, though one day the small amount may be a large amount. See below for my full list of the BitCoins sites I like if you already know what they are and do not want to continue reading.


Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency first described in a 2008 paper by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, who called it an anonymous, peer-to-peer, electronic payments system. Bitcoin creation and transfer is based on an open source encryption protocol and is not managed by any central authority. The creation of new bitcoins is automated and may be accomplished by servers, called bitcoin miners that run on an internet-based network and confirm bitcoin transactions by adding codes to a decentralized log, which is updated and archived periodically. Each bitcoin is subdivided into 100 million smaller units called satoshis, defined by eight decimal places.

Bitcoins can be transferred through a computer or smartphone without an intermediate financial institution. Interested parties can authenticate the ownership of bitcoin balances by using dedicated servers (the bitcoin miners) to authenticate the bitcoin transaction log using a public-key encryption scheme. Each 10-minute portion or "block" of the transaction log also allows for a predetermined number of new bitcoins to be awarded to miners based on computational data added to the log and confirmed by other miners. The creation of a new bitcoin is thus a special case of a transaction in which the new bitcoin deemed issued in exchange for solving a computationally intensive encryption problem. The number of newly created bitcoins per period depends on how long the network has been running. Currently, 25 new bitcoins are generated with every 10-minute block. This will be halved to 12.5 BTC during the year 2017 and halved continuously every 4 years after until a hard limit of 21 million bitcoins is reached during the year 2140.

More Information

BitCoin.org - Full description on what bitcoins are and the details behind the.

Mt .Gox - A bitcoin exchange much like the NYSE, TSX, or NASDAQ but for bitcoins. See the current exchange rates and you can also store your wallet here.

BitCoin Charts - Shows the current price for bitcoins from different exchanges around the world.

BitCoin Wallets

Your Bitcoin wallet is what allows you to transact with the world. It gives you ownership of Bitcoin addresses that you can use to receive coins from other users, and then lets you send those coins onwards. Just like email, you can receive Bitcoins when you are offline and all wallets are compatible with each other.

Software Wallets

Software wallets are installed on your computer. They give you complete control of your wallet. You are responsible for doing backups and protecting your money.

1. BitCoin-QT:  

Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets allow you to bring Bitcoin with you in your pocket. You can exchange coins easily and pay in physical stores by scanning a QR code or using NFC "tap to pay".

1. Bitcoin Wallet - Android:

Web Wallets

Web wallets allow you to use Bitcoin anywhere with less effort to protect your wallet. However, you must choose your web wallet service with care as they host your bitcoins.

1. BlockChain: 

BitCoin Sites

Coin Visitor - This is the one I like the most. It allows for you to answer a simple image captcha every 10 seconds  to gain bitcoins and every so often you will get a prize.

BitVisitor - 5 minuet viewing of a page to get bit coins. 

Daily Bitcoins - Once every hour and you have to answer a captcha 

Happy collecting!

All Systems Go... Epic Journey Month 3.5

Last night I got the go ahead from my physiotherapist to resume or I should say to "test" my knee out at hockey which I plan on doing this Sunday. For the last week I have been doing light workouts at home to try and get strength back in my knee.

These workouts included:

• Exercise Ball: Lying on the floor with legs on the ball then lifting my body off of the floor by pushing down on the ball;
• Exercise Bands: Attaching the band to a door or something than moving my leg in different directions (positions) and holding;
• Balance Box: Try to stand on the box to keep it level;
• Squats: This is self explanatory;
• Sit-ups: This is self explanatory;
• Push-ups: This is self explanatory;

These are not much of exercises but it has helped me put strength back into my knee and legs as my knee is not giving out now and it does not feel so tight. I will continue with a couple of more days of home exercising and one more day of physio before giving hockey a go on Sunday. Than hopefully fully back to Epic Fitness on Monday to keep this journey going.

Epic Journey Month 3 or is it a Epic Disappointment ?

So this is now my third post of my road to better health and fitness and to document my path there from my gym visit perspective. But I think this month has been more of a disappointment than a journey.

During the end of January and the first week of February we took a winter trip to Florida to get away from the cold of Ottawa this time of year but also to visit my parents since they live in Florida six months of the year. Its a great way to break up the winter and make spring seem like its arriving quicker when you return. As with all or at least most vacations that I go on I tend to gain a few pounds from the lack of exercise and the gain of food eating and beer drinking and this time was no different since I went back up to about 195lbs after it was all done.

But during my visit I did purchase a neat new scale, the Withings wi-fi scale. This scale will weigh up to eight different people and keep track of their body weight, lean mass, fat mass and BMI. It will also send that data securely over wi-fi to each persons account so they can keep track of their weight loss progress. It gives you a nice little graph of your progress and you can set goals to where you want to be. You can also share the data with your doctor, trainer, friends or even on your website. I have posted one of the many sharable widgets below.

You may be reading this and wondering where the disappointment of this month is, well here it is. We got back from Florida on Saturday the 9th of February and had a nice relaxing night. I was planning on going to hockey on Sunday and right back at the gym Monday morning. I headed off to hockey the next night only to go hard into the net and hear a snap from my knee and I went down like a ton of feathers. I knew this sound all too well and I knew it wasn't good and I was finished for the rest of the game. After icing it that night, it still did not feel the best the next day so I visited the doctor and got confirmation to my suspicions that it was a torn meniscus in my left knee.

Even though I have been unable up to this point to go to the gym I have still been doing light exercises at home that has been given to me by my physiotherapist and continuing to eat healthy and I have been able to get back to my pre-vacation weight of 189lbs. But as of tonight after my physio appointment I have been given the green light to resume light carido exercising so now I must look forward to the upcoming month of March to get fully back into the gym, back on track, to heal my knee back to normal and to back to my goal of getting back into shape.  

Epic Journey month 2

Well just hours after writing my first Epic Journey blog to follow my progress of weight loss and fitness I got the worst stomach bug I have had in many years. It was the first time I have, for lack of better words, tossed the cookies in about 15 years that has not been self induced. Although having a 24hr stomach bug did result in loosing 6.5lbs over night but this is not the proper way to weight loss. I'd like to report that this only lasted 24hrs and I have regained that weight back quickly which is nice.

I must admit, I missed a few days at the gym and it really makes it hard to jump back in. During the second week of January (BTW my weeks start on the Monday), I was on work training on the other side of the city from Epic so I did skip a week due to this, though I keep working at home to make sure I done some sort of physical activity each day. This was also the week when I wrote the first Epic Journey blog as a motivational way to push myself to achieve this goal.

Now as I begin to write this blog post at the start of the third week, (I try to write my progress has it happens, daily/weekly, but post monthly) I will say it was so difficult to drag my ass out of the bed this morning. I like to do my workouts in the morning, it makes me feel refreshed and energized for the day ahead, so as I lay there this morning and hit snooze the first time and think to myself I'll just sleep in and go to the gym later knowing full well that would not happen. Knowing I would end up going to work, and at the end of the day I would be tired and head home, missing the gym again. So painfully I hauled myself out of the bed, drove across the city at 5am and hit the gym. And do you know what? It was a pain to convince myself to get up and go, but I felt awesome once I done it and I had a productive, energy filled day. So rule number 1, if I'm going to commit to something like going to the gym, I need to have the internal strength to push myself when no one else is available or awake for that matter to push me.

So it is now day two of week 3, this morning I woke up at 4 am I am not sure if I was wanting to go to the gym in my sub-conscious but I was up and ready to go. I also set a new way to wake in the morning and it seems to be going quite well with good results. You can read more about that here. This morning I done my core body routine. It was a great workout but each time I do the core body I find it hard during the routine but I lack feeling the pain later as I do with my other routines. Now I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing... guess I'll have to bring it up with someone else.

Week four started off not too good. I have once again come down with a bug of some kind and has removed all motivation and energy from my body. But on the good side it seems it has almost run its course. Also this week its the end of the month and I will be heading to Florida for a week vacation with the family and heres to hoping that the warm Florida sun can clean my system of the bugs that I came down with in January.

So my rule to live by or at least for the gym: Set a schedule: Set reminders and alarms for that schedule, for you will only disappoint yourself for breaking your schedule.

Next Month: Before and After pictures. Prepare to be scared.


Weight: 189.6 lbs - Down a full 10lbs since November :-)
Body Fat: 24.6% - Down 1.3% :-)

Idle No More? Why are we falling victim.

I will preface this blog post with the caveat that this is mine and only my point of view. I am entitled to this point of view. You may agree or disagree with what I have to say and you are free to leave comments. Also be aware that there may be some images in this post that may be disturbing.

Should I be questioning this?

Am I wrong in asking what Idle No More is? I have read and heard more about Idle No More in the last two months than I have heard about most any other topic and that would not be a bad thing if Idle No More was a genuine cause with a clear common focus with clear goals. But and I say this with a capital B that the movement has not had any of this in the two months. Further more the media continues to give these people the attention that even a mother of a two year old screaming for candy in the store knows better than to do.... Give in and answer to there beckon call to shut them up.

Now I may seem harsh and possibly be called racist and other terms since I am speaking out mainly about one group of people here but I can honestly say I don't take myself as falling into that category because I am speaking about a movement and not a people but please read all of this before you make judgement on me.

Idle No More seemed to have popped up out of no where back in December, though it was in full swing much prior to this. You see in December was when one person decided to be the star in this slap stick comedy that we now know as Idle No More. This star was none other than the Chief of the Attawapiskat  reserve Theresa Spence. Since Parliament was now convening for Christmas and there was going to be not much political news on the hill for a month Chief Spence decided to set up on an island a short canoe ride from Parliament Hill, perfect since the itchy typing fingers of the reporters would be near by. Chief Spence couldn't just sit there and wait for reporters because that's not news, she decided she was going on a hunger strike.

Now if you have ever heard of a hunger strike you will certainly know it can and is a dangerous thing you are essentially saying that you will die for this cause. Again problem one, what is the cause Idle No More is fighting for? We don't know, no one knows that has not be announced or relayed. Chief Spence is continuing to call her so called protest a hunger strike and the media continues to portray this term. I find this to be a slap in the face to all other people around the world who have taken on a hunger strike. A hunger strike is when you are on a water (H2O) only diet, with water only you will begin to wither away to nothing in about a week and death usually ensues within a few weeks. Chief Spence is not on a hunger strike she is on a liquid only diet, which I can assure you many other people are on now especially after Christmas and trying to loose a few lb's. With a liquid diet you are still receiving all of the essential nutrients that the body needs to survive and live. I may be 60 by the time Chief Spence would die for her cause on a liquid diet and it would not be from the diet but because of old age for her at that point. Below are few images some of Chief Spence over 4 weeks on her so called hunger strike and the other is of a young man after 7 days on a Tibetan hunger strike. As you can see these hunger strikes are not the same.

Week 2

Week 3

7 Days

Week 4

Now as you can see that is not much of a hunger strike that Chief Spence is on. But it is getting the attention of the media and some politicians. Chief Spence has demanded that she will not stop her hunger strike until she has a face to face with the Prime Minister and the Governor General. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has gone much further than I would have given this temper tantrum two year old, he has agreed to meet with the Chiefs of the First Nations including Chief Spence. This seemed to appease Chief Spence for a few days and she agreed to attend but not stop her "Hunger Strike" until after the meeting. Wow great we gave into the child, maybe we can continue our days without her name in the news for a day..... Wrong. She has since said she will not attend since the Governor General would not be there. 

More Chiefs acting as two year old's

Up to this point I was getting ticked off to turn on one of the daily three to four newscasts that I watch, CBC, CTV, SUN national news and CTV and CBC for the local news and time-shifting for the CBC Newfoundland news. As you can tell I am a news junkie so seeing day in day out Chief Spence acting like a two year old for not getting her own way to getting a meeting with the Prime Minister and Governor General for a cause the is non existent is really annoying. Finally and not to my approval the PM agreed to meet with the First Nations Chiefs, they seemed happy and all was well. Not so fast, the Manitoba First Nations Chiefs have decided to back Chief Spence and not attend the meetings unless the Governor General attends. So we now have a class of two year old crying for attention for that sweet candy treat. What does this show to anybody? Adults and children? The more you have a temper tantrum and the louder you scream the quicker you will get results.

The Governor General had no plans on attending these meetings, he has now just recently agreed to meet with the chiefs Friday night for a meeting and essentially giving into their demands.  Again setting a precedent on how to resolve issues in our society no matter how silly the demands.

Time for the people to speak out

Please take this with a grain of salt but this is a saying that I have heard many of times in many different situations, Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Now I know you are reading this and saying holy shit did he just write that, yes I certainly did and I do not mean it in a bad way. Right now many of the reserves are very closely knit with the same group (family) running the band council. This council much like any town council within this country is elected and different levels of government sends money which the council spends on the appropriate things. But here lays a major difference: The band council does not need to produce any financials or prove for an audit where and how the money is spent. This is a major problem, as where any normal city council across the country would be up on charges, locked up and booted off of council, within the bands the money is spent with no questions asked. And I am not speaking of small amounts of money here people. I am speaking of millions and millions to reserves that are as small as 300 people. Some of the chiefs are making 200 - 300 thousand dollars tax free for running a town of 300. Most small towns across the country get little to no money for being on the council or mayor, they do it for the love of their community.

Now where was I going with this heading? Ah yes, the people of these communities and I do not mean the band council, must and have to stand up to your council first and not the country. Your band council needs to answer for you how your money, the people's money, is getting spent with most of your residential peers suffering to survive. Because this country and all the people of this country cannot continue to send money to a black hole with no accounting has to where and how the money is spent, as that will not solve any issues even the non existent ones that the Idle No More cause is fighting for. All I ask is to please speak up to your leaders (Band Council) first, ask questions to where all of the money is going and has gone.

More to say, just no time

I do have much more to say but I don't have that much time to write more. Maybe I'll do a part two to this to outline some other items of concern but for now this will be all, you may like it or you may hate it, but like I said in the beginning, this is mine and only my point of view, feel free to express yours below.

Epic Fitness and my road to a better health (Epic Journey #1)

So I joined a gym, but before you laugh and think this is a new years resolution you'll be wrong. You see just because I am posting this in the first couple of weeks of 2013 don't mean I just started the gym as a new years resolution what it does mean is I am still lazy in posting blogs.

I joined a new smaller, privately owned gym near work called Epic Fitness near the middle of November. My main reason to joining was to get into a better shape other than round and to also continue my fight to lower my cholesterol. You see last spring prior to beginning running I was told I had high cholesterol and being the off-spring of two families where heart disease runs rapid, having high cholesterol is not a good thing. So I began running and started watching what I was eating much more to lower my cholesterol and it worked.

So now you ask where Epic Fitness has come from? During the summer I had a goal, to run in the Sears Great Canadian Run to End Kids Cancers in October, that is now over and I have reached my goal. I was now noticing myself doing nothing again because I had no goal and fall/winter months in Ottawa are quite cold to be running in.

So I decided to visit Epic Fitness and get an overview and have some questions answered for myself:

1. How large is the gym?
2. Are the trainers there to help you or just take your money?
3. How clean is the gym?
4. How much does it cost?

1: The gym square footage wise it not as large as some of the major gym brands out there, but they also have a limited membership so they are not trying to pack the place full just to get more money. They also do not have a lot of machines that do the workout for you, what you will see is a lot of weights to help you do any exercise you may want to do.

2: This is a difficult question to answer since all trainers and gyms will want your money, its how they make their living. But what I will say is that the gym owner has called me personally before when I missed a couple of weeks to see where I was. I take this as going the extra little bit to help motivate someone to get there ass back in the door. 

3: The gym is spotless is the best and easiest answer I can give for this. It is well maintained, well lit, free of obstacles, and the members seem to keep the place clean.

4: Epic Fitness has two different options for monthly memberships depending on what time of day you would need access. For full hours access it costs $45 a month and I think a time limited access is somewhere around $30. When/if you do first sign up you need to also purchase three training sessions with a trainer to get an understanding of the gym and equipment. This actually works out to four sessions and costs somewhere around $240 for the four sessions and the first month membership fees. Visit Epic Fitness for further information.

So after you have now read this I guess its safe to assume that yes I did sign up and was lucky enough to have the owner of the gym as my trainer, Neil Frotten who was also on the Red Bull Crashed Ice. I have done all of my training sessions with him so far and I have learned a lot. At the time I could not afford to keep Neil as a personal trainer but I hope to change this in the near future. In the meantime I have been using an Android app called JE-Fit to help keep track of my progress and stats. 

In case you are wondering, below are my stats that were recorded in November. I am already down to 193lbs so I have some progress. Once I receive my initial pictures from Neil, I will also post them.

Waist @ bellybutton: 40.5"

Hips: 45"
Right Quad: 25.5"

Chest: 43.75"

Right Arm no flex: 14"

Weight: 199.6lbs

Body Fat: 25.9%

I will be posting progress reports here monthly on how my progress is going at Epic Fitness with Neil.

Christmas and New Years 2012/2013

I seem to say it every time I post a new post here that I haven't done it in a while and I will try to write more, so here I am saying it again with a new post full of a lot of information.

So where do I begin, December was a busy month with the typical work/personal Christmas parties throughout the month, I was also able to score myself a new phone the much hyped and difficult to get, Google Nexus 4. I was able to get a order placed on Google through much F5ing to get the page to work properly. I think Google will need to get their act together the next time they decide to do a product launch. After waiting two weeks after the order was placed I received my shiny new +Google phone and I must say it rocks and it is quite speedy. I hope* to do a full review of this in the near future but in the mean time do a quick Google Search to find more information on it. 

Christmas & Traveling

Santa has arrived

This Christmas we decided to do a bit of traveling and a short trip to my sisters in Bowmanville. We left on Christmas Eve after leaving work at 11 and made the short trip of three hours. We spent two nights and one day there since we had to be back for work on the 27th. Christmas day was fun to spend time not only with my own family but with my sister, her boyfriend Ken and her kids (my niece and nephew), Hope and Ryan. Christmas is so much more fun where there are kids involved and now that Paige is stating to get to the age where she was having fun opening gifts and playing with all her new toys and did she ever get a lot of toys. As for Jodi and I we mainly got clothes but we also purchased a new Kitchen Aid Mixer, which is awesome.

Paige excited opening her gifts

Boxing day we arose early to hit the road back to Ottawa early. A storm was coming and we didn't want to get stuck or to be driving through it on the 401. We got on the road at about 10 am hoping to make a stop in Trenton and Sterling to visit friends and family. After making the first stop in Trenton and getting back on the 401 we decided to truck on through since the traffic was getting heavy. We made it back to Ottawa safe and sound at 3 pm.

New Years and Resolutions

Now its that time of year again, you know, day 365 the end of our calendar year, time to reflect on what we have all done in 2012 and what we would like to achieve and accomplish in 2013. Every so often at work we will watch a few different Ted Talks and a multitude to topics which are often very interesting and informative. The one below I watched in December and got me thinking about something that I do all too often, but that will change this year, take a look at the video, its only 3-4 minuets long and it may change your outlook on resolutions.


Oh and its also time to party and celebrate with friends and family to enjoy all we have and love around us. It is different this year for us, we have yet to make plans due to the lack of a babysitter and wanting to spend time with the family, so this year may be a quiet one where we will sit home order in some Chinese or Indian, and watch a few movies together.

Since I have been slow in actually finishing up this post, New Years has now passed and we managed to get out for a few hours and to see some friends, Paige was all dressed up for the occasion and here she is below ready to party.

New Years day was spent relaxing and taking down the Christmas decoration and preparing a Turkey with all the fixings and having a few friends over for a nice supper. After taking down the tree and seeing a neat idea on the internet, I have decided to start a new tradition for us. To cut a small 1 cm piece from the bottom of our tree each year and make an ornament for the tree the following year with the date burned into it. I'll post pictures in another blog when this is done.

QSSDJMRME

My Christmas Rant

So this will kind of be my re-released version of the Rick Mercer Rant, about Christmas. Every year rolls around to the Christmas time and I'm always feeling discussed about the same few things each year. Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and I'm sure I will always, maybe its the way I was raised, the time period I was raised in, the location or some other outside factor. But there are three main things each and every year lately (last 5 to 10 years) that annoys me, read them below and let me know if you feel the same way:

1. Politically correctness during Christmas: Its Christmas people, not the festive season, the holidays or anything else. This time of year was made a holiday for a reason...... that reason is its Jesus's Birthday, its Christmas. Don't be giving me a "Happy Holidays" Mr. Wal-Mart greeter, say Merry Christmas. I don't want to see a winter scene on my Tim Horton's mug, I want to see a jolly ol' Saint Nick kissing mommy under a Christmas Tree. More and more we are giving in to all things to make them politically correct, but guess what Christmas should not be one of those times. So I think I am only going to shop at stores that support Christmas for what it is. Unfortunately for my wife the only store I have seen so far this Christmas that says Merry Christmas in their ad's and in store is Canadian Tire.
   
2. Kids want it all: Now this just may be me, but Christmas is a time for spending time with family, friends and loved ones. Yes, a gift is nice to receive and I love giving them more than I love receiving them. I donate to the food bank each year and also give toys to needy families so they have something. I hear some kids asking for more and more each year, costing hundreds and even thousands of dollars, and I shake my head, than shake it more when their parents give in. Teach your kids about how many more unfortunate people are out there with nothing, teach them the meaning of Christmas, spend time with family and friends and the people you love. These are this things that matter the most in life, not the material things. To this day I do not know of one Christmas where I have wanted something and was mad that I did not get it or ask for so many things that would make Mackey Cram poor (I think that was his name. Some rich old fart I heard dad talk about many times), and I'm sure my parents would agree with me on this one and so would my wife since my answer each year to that question of "What do you want for Christmas?" my answer is simply nothing. I have all I need.
   
3. Christmas ad's running earlier and earlier: Each and every year the TV ad's, Sears Wish book, and decorations in the stores come out earlier. It seems every year you now see decorations popping up before Halloween is even over. Why can't retailers wait until at least mid-November before bomb-barding us with everything. By the time Christmas day actually arrives your sick of it all. We received our Sears Wish Book this year in August, yes, August, five months before Christmas and just seven month after the last. When I was I kid that thing would not arrive till the end of November unless my parents were hiding it away from me.

Please feel free to add comments below or add to the list of stores that will still say Merry Christmas during this time of year and think about all of this and do some reflection, or soon Christmas will be forgotten for what its meant to be. I know, I for one, will not forget and I will have a happy and joyful Christmas as always. So Merry Christmas to all!

One week complete

Just over one week complete in my change of habits and lifestyle on the path to run in the Sears Great Canadian Run to End Kids Cancers. It has been a tough week and I have been making progress each and every day to get my stamina back. Each time I go for a run now it seem I am able to go further or faster to achieve another goal. I have been trying to get out at least three or four times each week to do some kind of activity, be it running, biking or hockey. It has only been just over a week and I am now noticing a difference when I play hockey on how much better I feel.

I did learn a few lessons in this first week though:

FuelBand water belt

• Don't run just after eating. I done this on my first run and nearly got sick multiple times while running;
• Bring water. This is a must, I didn't do this the first time and it made it a hard go, so I went out and got a FuelBand as seen to the right;
• I need a new pair of sneakers;
• Make sure the GPS is turned on. I lost half of one because of this;
• Stretch before and after the run. I got leg cramps half way into a run and had to walk back because of this;

Next will be go out and get a new pair of sneakers to be using solely for running. As I write this post I just got another email for a donation to my run of $200. Thanks so far to anyone who has donated and anyone who plans on doing so, you have been a great support and your donation is going to a great cause.

After playing hockey tonight I have noticed in just over a week on how much easier hockey is and how much I am not out of breath in pain after a shift of after the game.

Remember I am doing this to raise money for kids cancer research and you can always donate. The more donations the better to keep me motivated. Read more about the run and visit the Sears Great Canadian Run to End Kids Cancers page to sponsor me! You can also view my training status at any time by viewing the training stats on the right side of this page.

First training run complete

Tonight I went out for a run. The start of many over the next few months to gain the stamina and strength to compete in the Sears Great Canadian Run to End Kids Cancers on October 13, 2012.

What I looked like not long into my first run

Since knowing my area where I live, I had a good idea of the route that I would take and a semi-rough estimate of the distance. I thought this would be a good start to see how I can do. I have done this same type of route many times before but only walking with the dog. The route works out to be 2.65KM's, I know this does not sound like much, but for someone who has never done this before, it feels like death.

After this first run though, I have quickly learned a few different things:

1. Do not go for a run shortly after eating dinner. It causes food bouncing around your stomach and causing you to nearly barf multiple times;
2. Bring water. I did not and I really could have used some shortly into the run. It felt like I was breathing fire;
3. I will need to get a new good pair of running sneakers sometime soon, my older daily use ones are not the greatest.

I am using an Android app called Endomondo to track my training to give me route stats, time among other things. It seems to work fine and I love how it talks to you during your run to give you updates. On the right side of this page you can see my past runs and how I have been doing in my training. Click on any of the runs to see a map and more details of the run.

Remember I am doing this to raise money for kids cancer research and you can always donate. The more donations the better to keep me motivated. Read more about the run and visit the Sears page to sponsor me!

My new motto

Sears Great Canadian Run

So I have decided to run in the Great Canadian Run this year. It is a 100KM run from Ottawa to Montebello, QC in support to end kids cancer on October 13, 2012. This is something that I have never thought of doing before, since I find it hard enough to gather energy each day to take the dog for a walk. So not only is it a great cause, hopefully it will get me off of my ass to get back in shape and not a round shape. As a participant, my goal is to raise $500.00 for local pediatric oncology research initiatives at CHEO and hopefully break that small goal.

Andy

Team Smile's for Andy is running again on behalf of a brave little boy named Andy. Andy is my neighbor and has been battling T-call ALL (leukemia) for over a year now.  He has 2.5 years left in his treatment. Every single night Andy takes chemotherapy drugs, every 3 weeks Andy takes mood altering steroids, every 3 months Andy has chemotherapy injected into his spinal cord, and every single day Andy smiles.  He is beating this disease but it is not easy.  There are many physical and psychological side effects from chemotherapy/radiation treatment that will be with Andy for the rest of his life because just having cancer is not bad enough. And yet he is a fortunate boy because many pediatric cancer patients don't continue smiling and many others don't continue living. Help us end this ugly disease. Sponsor team Smiles for Andy as we run 100km in support of all the little hero's fighting cancer

This Run will not only benefit thousands of kids that are diagnosed with cancer every year, but kids cancer research also helps adult cancers. Your dollars, your support, and all our efforts are making a world of difference for so many. Please help me change the lives of children who are fighting for theirs everyday. Your generous contribution will help me raise money for an incredibly important cause. Every dollar counts. You can donate right to my personal page here: Sponsor Me.

I have also made the pledge that that from now until the start of the race on October 13, anyone who opens a ING Direct bank account with my Orange Key (14477247S1), I will donate the $25 bonus that I receive to this cause. I have sent ING Direct an email to see if I can find out who signs up than I will donate the $25 in their name. Read more about ING Direct from my review.


You can follow along on this blog all summer long to track my progress, read more about Andy: http://www.smilesforandy.com and please remember to sponsor me. :-)

Pool Tournament

Wednesday nights through the year I am on a pool team. The four of us play each Wednesday night as a way to get out and socialize and have a good time.

So after a long year of playing pool on Wednesday nights we descended on Tailgators last Friday evening for the start of our year end Pool Tournament. We have been doing this now for a few years and have come away with money each time, though every team receives some money. I wouldn't say we are the best or the worst players in the league but we can have our on days and off days like any team. The tournament is played in a double elimination format, meaning that once you loose two games you are eliminated. Here is our year stats.

Friday Night

We were going into the tournament sitting in sixth place out of eighteen teams and our first opponent was Honk on Bobo who were placed in eleventh but their players had an overall better handicap than us. All 16 games were very close and it was down to the last four games. On my last game, on my first shot just as the game started, I made a risky shot that even the opponent stated they would not take. I was making a long shot at the one in the corner right next to where the eight laid. I took the shot, missed and hit the eight sending it towards towards the corner pocket where it bounced around a bit and came to a stop on the edge of the pocket before dropping in. Wow that was a close one and I now have to watch out for that pocket for the rest of the game. My opponent stepped up to make his first shot, which he made, but the cue ball continued to bounce around the table striking the eight and dropping it giving me the win in that game 10-3. The rest of the final games continued and we beat Honk on Bobo by just 4 points overall. I don't want to take credit for those four points, but if I didn't take that risky shot we would have lost. By the end of the weekend this was known as the TSN turning point of the weekend and Honk on Bobo would be our most difficult matches of the weekend outside of the finals.

Saturday

Saturday morning we were back at Tailgators at ten am to take on the third place team 3 Sticks and a Rack on the "A" side of the tournament. Everyone on both teams were a little hungover from the play the night before holding their Tim Horton coffee's, wondering how the day would unfold. On our side we were expecting our first defeat of the weekend and being relegated to the "B" side of the pool knowing this team has beaten us all times through the year even EROing (10-0 wins) most of us (I've only had one against me and it was from this team). All this while scenes of candy canes danced in their heads knowing it was going to be a easy win for them like my guarantee of getting a apple and orange in my stocking at Christmas. But has we know now they got nothing but a big lump of coal, at the beginning of the fourth set they conceded to a lost since their was no way for them to gain back the points in 3 games to beat us. Well holy crap the Chalk Rings are 2-0 and still in the "A" pool. We were now off for a few hours and were not due back to the pool hall until 7 pm for our next match.   

Our match at 7pm on Saturday we were taking on FELT. FELT finished on seventh place just below us in the standings. FELT is a father and son duo with two others. They have been coming up the ranks for the past couple of years and seem to have different extra players on the team each year. We felt going into these matches that we were capable of beating them but we would have to be on our game. Through the 16 games we were called multiple times by them accusing us of not calling shots or making fouls. But if they don't call a ref prior to the shot being made than no foul can be committed. Again we stayed to our main game plan to sink balls first, win the game second and it proved to work. Heading into the 13 game they admitted defeat since we were up too many balls for them to come back to win.

Having won 3 of our matches and still being on the "A" side of the tournament we were starting to wonder what was in store for our 10pm match up. Clearly there can only be a mighty team left for us to compete against knowing the winner would be in the finals on Sunday and the loser would be dropped to the "B" pool. Lo and behold the next team for us to compete against was Rack and Roll a team that finished in first place over with some very mighty stats. This also the same team who should not even be competing in this league. The max handicap for a team in the league is 28 and with their players they stood at 30. This was going to be the David vs. Goliath match up of the weekend and maybe the year. Going into the 16 games they were giving us a mammoth 28 points before we even started due to the handicap difference. These 16 games we would play on two tables and it was great to watch and play next to each other. After the first four games, we had won 3 of 4 and were up about 40 points on them. By the start of the third game in the third round we had won 8 or 11 and were up over 65 points on them, at that point they folded, we had defeated the top league team and were headed to the finals on Sunday. For the next hour we had drinks and were in awe of how we made it this far. Now tomorrow we would be back for the finals and what made it better was knowing that who ever we took on, had to beat us twice but we only had to beat them once because of the double elimination.

Tournament ladder showing us in the finals

Sunday

Here we are again, back at Tailgators on Sunday. We showed up at 3 today, with our finals starting at 4pm. There is still no decided winner in the "B" pool, so we don't know yet who we will be facing but there is a good chance that it will be Rack and Roll the first place team from last night. Sure enough Rack and Roll would be moved back into the "A" pool and we would have to play them again but not once but twice. We got started our first matches at about 5pm and they came to the table a different team, with their foot on the gas and not letting off. They took the first set of 16 handily so we would now have to play in the second set for all the gusto, who ever wins this wins it all. We went back to our game plan of sink balls first and try to win second. This ended up not helping, we were not on our game and they were having awesome games. It came down to the second last game before they won it so I think we gave them a run for their $4000, but we just couldn't do it. We came in second overall for the weekend and won $2000, so not to shabby for the team that could. Pool is now done for the year except for the end of year banquet where we will receive our trophies. It was a great year and tournament overall and I did not expect to make it that far. A wonderful showing by the Chalk Rings: Andrew Boyle, Danielle Boyle*, Justin Clouthier and myself. *Richard Steeves subbed in for Danielle from February till the end including the tournament since Danielle had a baby. Take a look at the pictures below. 

Justin, Andrew, Me and Richard

Me, Richard, Andrew and Justin

Android app Review #2: Google Currents

Google Currents is a news reader with a twist. News organizations or anyone for that matter can create their own customized Currents portal that users can add to the Currents app, but users can also add their own RSS feeds. I have been using the Currents app for about 4 months now. It was first only available to the US but in recent weeks has opened up to a whole new list of countries including Canada. It is available on Android and Apple devices.

I am a news junkie and have been looking for a good useful news app for some time now. I have tried Pulse, News Republic and a few others but they all have been off the mark.

• Pulse seems to be pre-installed on a lot of devices but its layout is a bit lacking when trying to view the news you want.
• News Republic allows you to select topics and it will provide you with news results, not allowing you to add your own sources. 

 

Google Currents has mainly US news sources right now for you to pre-select, I think this is mainly that it has not been available in other countries for too long. But don’t fret, it is as easy as adding a RSS feed and the Currents app will create a nice looking edition for you. News, Sports and everyday users can just visit the Google Publisher and create their own custom Google Currents edition to publish on Google and their website. It took me 15 minutes to create a Google Currents edition for myself. You can use the Currents publisher and add different elements to it and it will all get updated when anything changes on your sites. I have added my blog, Google+ Feed, Twitter Feed, Picasa Photos and a few other things. Anytime the Adam Sooley Current edition is opened it syncs for the newest information. Since Google Currents is linked to your Google account, all devices you have will be synced with the same sources.

Add my Google Currents Edition or browse some editions online.

Overall the Google Currents app does everything I need it to do for a news app and in a clean, intuitive way. Download it now from Google Play for Android or iPad and iPhone.

Visit the Google Currents homepage.

ING Direct: 1 Year Review

Its been just about a year now since I moved all of my banking needs to ING Direct. It was a easy process to complete and ING Direct was there along the way to help when there was a problem. You can read that review here: Operation Bank Switch: Complete You will notice above that I said all of my banking needs, well that all does not mean all I will explain a few of these below.

What has changed in the year:

• ING Direct now offers Interac E-Mail money transfers at $1 each. This allows for faster money transfers to people who do not have an ING account. ING still does their free email money transfers though it will take a couple of days if the receiver is not an ING client.
• ING Direct gives more than the 20 free cheques now. First when they launched the account you would receive 20 free cheques and would have to pay ~$10 for an additional 50. Now you will receive 50 from the get go but you will still have to pay after the initial 50.

What they still need to work on:

• A Visa or MasterCard; I have said this in the previous posts and I continue to say it. Right now I use a RBC West Jet MasterCard and I have just come to learn that the interest rates will be going up in June for all account holders of this card. So here I am again having to look for a good credit card to get. I know if ING did get into this it would be a huge blessing for allot of their clients.
• A RESP; ING does offer RRSP's and do have children's saving accounts (CSA) but have no RESP so parents cant take advantage of the Government of Canada's grants available when investing into RESP's. This is just recently become an issue for me since Paige was born we have been putting money aside for her in a CSA but now we would like to invest it further.
• A Line of Credit; If not a Visa or MasterCard, a line of credit would be nice when need access to funds for repairs and such. Though this is not high on my wish list.
• Save the Rest; This more of a wish than anything. It is something that ScotiaBank offers. When you purchase something with your debit card, you can have the amount rounded up and the rounded up amount be placed into a savings account. So if you but something for $8.62 you can have it rounded up to the nearest dollar or five dollars. That way $0.38 or $1.38 gets deposed into a savings account. 

Overall I would still give IND Direct a 8.5/10 since it is free banking after all and they pay you to be a client. So here's hoping they can improve on some of the things above.

What other bank in the industry pays you to become a customer? Well the answer to that is easy, NONE. When you sign up for an account at ING Direct and use another customers ORANGE KEY you will both get $25, no strings attached. But the FREE money does not stop there, when you are ready to move your payroll into your ING Direct Thrive Chequing account, they will give you an additional $100 just to say thanks. Now I'm not saying you have to sign up with my ORANGE KEY but I would certainly love to get the bonus $25 just like you. My ORANGE KEY is: 14477247S1. http://www.ingdirect.ca/referafriend   

Long time coming

So it seems this post has been a long time comming since I seemed to have forgotten about my blog for quite some time according to my last post time. It seems like I slip into this much too often where I do a bunch of web posts and than forget to do a post. So here is goes for my first post in 6 months.

Paige was born at 4:29pm on September 15, 2011 weighing in at 10lbs 10oz, below is a timeline view of the last 6 months in picture format:

 

Arriving home for the first time. September 18, 2011

Her Christening. October 1, 2011

Heading to Edmonton for her first ride on a plane. November 4, 2011

2 Month Needles. November 28, 2011

Close to the first Christmas relaxing with Mommy. December 18, 2011

Its the new year. January 4, 2012

Mommy reading a book. February 2012

At Nanny and Poppy's house in Florida. February 15, 2012

Sporting her Google hat. March 2012

Sporting her flower. 

 So has you can see she has grown up quite a bit over the last 6 months. Since that time she is now rolling, crawling and has two teeth coming out. Also got a little bit of ink done on my right forearm to remind me of her all of the time.

So hopefully I will continue to keep this blog updated in the future now that I have started again.

Android App Review #1 - Instagram vs. Camera Zoom FX

Many months ago I purchased the Android app Camera Zoom FX when it went on sale. One of the selling points for me of camera zoom was the ability to download plugins for the app to do different effects with your images. Once you place the effects on your images you can save them and share the image on mutiple social media sites with ease. I had heard about Instagram but to my dismay it was only available on iOS so Android users were SOL for trying Instagram. That was up until two weeks ago when Instagram released a Android version of their popular app. So we Android users finally have had a chance to see what all the hype was about.

Ease of Use

Instagram has this hands down. Once you take a picture, you are shown a preview and you can select the different filters or none that you like and hit go to have it uploaded to the web. While with Camera Zoom FX you will have to take extra steps to apply the filters.

Cost

 Instagram also has this one won hands down since it is free, while Camera Zoom FX will cost you $2.79.

Conclusion

Over all I like the ease of use of Instagram, but Camera Zoom FX has many more features and abilities overall. If you are looking for a camera app to share all of your photos use Instagram but if sharing is not your main deciding point go Camera Zoom FX. While writing this post, news just broke that Facebook has bought Instagram for 1 billion dollars. So I don't know if this information will change anyone's view. For me I am not a big fan of Facebook so I may stop using Instagram in the future if Facebook messes with the quality of the product but for now I will continue to use both.

Downloads

Camera Zoom FX
Instagram