AFC Playoffs WIll Rock
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
I don't particularly care for the NFC. But who would when these are the possible playoff teams:
Indianapolis
Denver
Cincinnati
San Diego
Pittsburgh
New England
I have no use for:
Jacksonville
Kansas City
January is going to be very fun.
posted by aforward @ 5:20 PM,
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Roots Not Doing Olympic Gear Anymore
I just found out that The Bay is outfitting our Olympic teams for the next couple of years. I was sad at first because the Canadian are always the best dressed at the Olympics in their Roots gear, but the Bay stuff is actually really nice. I got a little peak today at some of the sweatshirts.
I guess my job is pretty cool sometimes.
posted by aforward @ 4:16 PM,
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Festive Special
After giving up chicken it never donned on me that I would have to miss out on Swiss Chalet's festive special. The commericals are back and I'm having trouble dealing with the withdrawal symptoms. Here's me at Swiss Chalet "Hi, I'd like your festive special but without the chicken".
But wait, Red Lobster also has their own make your own festive special. There is still hope.
posted by aforward @ 10:50 AM,
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Another Election?
Here is what the polls are saying:
If a vote were held last weekend, The Strategic Counsel poll found (change from Nov. 7 numbers in brackets):
35 per cent would support Paul Martin's Liberals (no change)
29 per cent would vote for Stephen Harper's Conservatives (-1)
17 per cent would vote for the NDP (-1)
14 per cent would vote for the Bloc Quebecois (+1)
5 per cent would vote for the Green Party (-3)
I don't know much about politics but it seems like a lot of money and effort for campaigning to end up right back where we are now.
posted by aforward @ 9:11 AM,
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Very Dissappointed with Lebreton Flats Project
Friday, November 25, 2005
Somehow Claridge Homes has managed to ruin a great piece of land in Ottawa. I told Andrew before we went to the grand opening of the Lebreton Flats project that Claridge would somehow find a way to screw it up.
I have been waiting for 5 years for them to start building a community on Lebreton Flats, and now that it is finally here Claridge wins the bid and I can't really stand what they have planned. The building doesn't even look nice.
Andrew and I both agreed that it was the little things. We are spoiled where we are now because Charlesfort actually pays attention to quality.
Hopefully the other phases will have more to offer.
posted by aforward @ 10:33 AM,
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Milk Etiquette
Thursday, November 24, 2005
So what do you do when there is a small amount of milk left and you already have enough for your cereal and you don't want to finish it?
a) Finish it anyways and open a new bag for the next person (how chivalrous)
b) Leave it for the next person knowing there isn't enough for their cereal and that their cereal will get soggy as they replace a new bag
c)Finish it and leave the empty jug on counter
I do (b) and it must bother Andrew a lot becasue my dad used to do it and it bugged me. But my dad was worse, he used to leave a drop, I leave enough for a good half bowl.
posted by aforward @ 11:34 AM,
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Marketing Plan
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
posted by aforward @ 12:10 PM,
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Impulse Buy
Monday, November 21, 2005
So we bought a new TV yesterday, just on a whim...one of those impulse type buys. While we didn't really need a new TV there was a few things that had us sold.
-The sales guy (Sherwyn) was really cool, laid back and reminded me of my friend Clif
-It was one of those unique sales where the manager had to come out to make sure the price was correct. They were packaging this TV with the new XBOX next week and due to the fact they could no longer offer the package because the XBOX is undersupplied, they gave an extra $100.00 off the already sale price.
-You get HDTV PVR free for 6 months
-It looks more expensive than it is, it is very thin but not plasma or LCD, but looks like one from the front. I can't deal with the pixelation on some LCD TVs so it's perfect and much, much cheaper.
-Yeah, I get to watch the superbowl in HDTV
-It was the perfect size (30")...a little bigger than our old one and smaller than what our projector can show.
-Anyways I find those giant TVS don't show that great a picture, just a lot of pixelation. And I don't know why future shop has TVs on display showing such crappy pictures.
Got the sucker home...
-Andrew made me try and carry this thing from the car to the apartment. That was probably the heaviest thing I ever had to carry. At one point as we were trying to get it out of the car,Andrew said "well it feels like I'm carrying all of it". (in my head I was saying...yes that's actually pretty accurate). Anyways I finally sucked it up and after some bickering it finally made it into our living room.
-It truly is a beautiful TV, has a nice look, small foot print and a very sharp picture, which rocks cause we don't even have the HD signal yet. Of course I still have a few reservations about buying things we don't really need but...see above.
I owe Andrew a movie because I fell asleep last night before we could "test movies on it".
posted by aforward @ 1:03 PM,
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My First UFC Pay-Per View
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Andrew was nice enough to take me to a Sports Bar last night so that I could watch UFC 56 on the big screen.
Wow did we ever have a lot of fun.
UFC is no longer about brawling, it's about highly skiled martial artists specialzing in a number of disciplines. I'm sorry it gets such a bad rap for being brutally violent, it really isn't. And when you see skilled fighters like Canadian Georges St. Pierre with such smooth transitions and actions it's really neat to watch. Georges beat on Sean Sherk for a round and a half before Sherk gave in under a relentless pounding. Big cheers from the crowd for a local Montreal Guy on the big stage. Way to go "Rush".
Anyways all my guys won, so that's probably why I was so excited.
In an uneventul title match. Matt Hughes submitted Joe Riggs via Kimura. Basiclly bent his arm backwards in a very nasty way. I say uneventful because the challenger didn't make weight and it was no longer considered a title match
Rich Franklin used Nate Quarry as punching bag before finally knocking him out cold midway through the first round. First he broke his nose and then crushed him with a right cross. Quarry went down like a rock and we even saw a little bit of a leg twitch as he lay there unconcious. Well maybe it is a bit violent.
UFC 56 gets an official: I Love It!
posted by aforward @ 11:28 AM,
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It's not the White Bread
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The low carb craze is getting on my nerves. The fact that Dr. Atkins died of heart failure says a lot.
North Americans are obese because we eat crap, not because of "bad carbs". It's not the potato or the pasta that's the problem, it's the Double Big Mac Combo.
posted by aforward @ 9:48 PM,
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New Line Of Manulife One Mortgages
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Andrew and I decided to go with a line of credit mortgage instead of a traditional one and it has paid major dividends for us. While on paper Manulife One made sense to us, after actually seeing this product in action it makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to have a traditional mortgage. Well I guess it is not really for people who don't manage credit well.
I guess once you understand how mortgage interest is calculated you can get a better idea of why Manulife One works so well. I would say a lot of homeowners aren't clear on how their mortgage interest is calculated. In a nutshell the bank gets paid first, way before you start paying down any of the principal. Manulife works the opposite way, you pay down principal with every pay cycle.
We are paying down our principal at an accelerated rate, while still being able to invest in side projects.
Anyways they just launched a few new Manulife One products and I was excited about it:
One is for people who have less than the 25% down payment
One is for Small Business Owners
One for Investment Real Estate
Manulife Ones gets an "I Love It" seal approval.
More info here: www.manulifeone.ca
posted by aforward @ 9:48 AM,
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Words I Can't Spell
Monday, November 14, 2005
Excersize...should be exercise
Definately...should be definitely
Accomodations...should have two "m's" this one sucks the most because I use it a lot where I work.
I'm sure there are others but these ones always get the better of me.
I also can't type the word "from" it always comes out as "form".
And I mix up my "h's" with "w's" a lot ie: was becomes has and vice versa.
Now that I'm not in school I find it funny how bad my grammar and spelling are getting. The worst is catching myself writing "are" instead of "our". "are family is going to the movies"
posted by aforward @ 12:18 PM,
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Gee-Gees Women's Soccer Settle For Silver
Well the girls made the final but once again had to settle for silver losing 3-0 to Victoria.
I have two of the silver medals listed below (1997, 2000), but something has to be said for a program who has reached the final of 5 of the last nine CIS championships.
"The Gee-Gees, which dropped a lopsided 5-0 decision to UBC in 2003 in their last appearance at the national final, have settled for silver four times (1997, 2000, 2003, 2005) since winning their sole CIS title back in 1996, failing to score a single goal on all occasions."
There is always next year!
posted by aforward @ 11:27 AM,
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Ottawa Museum Crawl: Stop 2
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Visited the National Gallery of Art on Thursday. The Gallery is free after 5:00 on Thursdays and it is the only night the museum is open until 8:00pm.
My favourite part was the little pool area (I am sure there is a classier name for it.) Anyways it is just the perfect place to reflect or meditate or whatever. Picture an open area with a really high open cathedral ceiling and what looks like an indoor pool, surrounded by stone benches and sculptures. We made wishes by throwing pennies into the pool and mine already came true...woo hoo.
Ever since I saw the Group of Seven in Western Canada exhibit while I was in Victoria a few years ago I've enjoyed their pieces... so I enjoyed this display as well.
The Gallery is such a beautiful building I am still not sure why they put that spider out front. While it may be art I find it an eyesore that doesn't fit with the architecture of the building or any of its surroundings.
We purposley didn't see everything so we could go back another day.
Next stop: The Currency Museum and Mint
posted by aforward @ 8:14 PM,
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Building A Career Path
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
So I'm trying to decide if I should start on my path towards becoming a Certified Financial Planner.. I guess I'm struggling with a few things. I don't want to sell people mutual funds or insurance. I'd love to write about saving money or teaching/coaching people to save money rather than sell, sell, sell.
I don't want to work in a bank, because if you decide to leave you can't take your book with you.
Many companies are hiring independent financial advisors (ie; Investor's Group I have already met with them, Clarica and BMO) But they are start from scratch type advisor programs which are commission based. So starting out is a real struggle and you sometimes don't come home with a pay check some months.
The outlook for the industry is incredibly positive:
Canadian economic developments indicate enormous growth for the financial security
planning market.
- 87 per cent of Canadians want financial planning
- 55 per cent of Canadians know little or nothing about investing and are actively seeking to learn more about it
In 2008, there will be a large population of echo boomers in Canada, born between 1977 and 1997. The oldest among them will have just begun to think about their financial needs.
The combined financial force of the baby boomers and echo boomers - 70 per cent of the Canadian population - is about $9 trillion.
Echo boomers are my peer group and I would be more comfortable dealing with clients my own age so this trend is good.
Research indicates that as the baby boomers start retiring, Canadians can expect a trillion-dollar transfer of wealth from one generation to the next.
Between the years 2000 and 2010, annual inheritances are estimated to double from $14 billion to $28 billion. By 2015, this number will reach $33 billion.
"It will take about half a century before nearly all the inheritances will be completed but peak periods occur and we're starting to enter them now."
posted by aforward @ 3:52 PM,
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Unfinished Projects...
I did a little exercise the other day and simply wrote down a whole bunch of projects I was working on that I never did quite finish. The good news is that most of them are pretty close to being done.
I will try to spend Friday tying up some loose ends...
Work is really busy right now and will be until at least December 10th. We are hosting a World level event in Waterloo, thank God this one is only a weekend. The last one was two weeks. We are also short staffed so I am doing two jobs and running back and forth between desks. This should mean that November and December will fly by and Christmas break will be perfectly timed.
posted by aforward @ 3:42 PM,
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A Weekend on The Couch
Monday, November 07, 2005
So I would have to say I spent the entire weekend on the couch. While normally this would be a result of laziness, I can say that this time I was injured.
I tried a boxing class on Friday night and I think I strained some of the muscles in my left shoulder. I guess I have a lot of pent up anger...or whatever. Anyways I was abnormally sore on both sides... shoulders, triceps etc. The right side was mostly from not having worked those muscles in a while. But I definitely ripped somthing on the left side because it is still hurting today. Anyway lets just say maybe boxing is not for me. Will have to find something else to do with my ever increasing "spare time". I am actually not being sarcastic there, I am one of those people who have a lot of spare time. Busy Body...I am not. Anyways next "semester" I have cooking classes, financial classes, and rec badminton lined up for so I won't have the luxury of spare time that I do now.
Dolphins were televised this Sunday which makes me happy... win or lose (lose in most cases).
Great Monday night game on tonight Indy vs New England...ahh more couch time.
Wouldn't it be funny if Eli made the Superbowl before Peyton?
posted by aforward @ 2:48 PM,
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Got To See The Senators Game
Friday, November 04, 2005
Andrew's work got tickets for the Senator's game last night and after a little poking and prodding he finally decided to take me along.
The Sens beat the Lightning 4-2. As soon as we sat down Havlat scored a nifty sitter, so at that point I knew we would be good luck.
Even though we scored 4 goals the biggest cheer from the crowd came when the Leafs score was broadcast on the screen (they lost to Carolina).
Anyways I had a fun time, but I was eating everything in site...it was odd. Pizza, poutine, nachos and I would have shoveleld down an icecream bar had it not been for the little self control I had left.
posted by aforward @ 10:39 AM,
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Kiva - Loans That Change Lives
Thursday, November 03, 2005
This is a fantastic concept where you can make a loan to a business in a developing country. I heard the idea once beore recently on a documentary. We are most likley to end poverty starting from a microeconomic level. Giving people a sustainable means by which to build an infrastructure to earn money is at the heart of ending poverty. Loans start at as little as $25.00.
Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world.
By choosing a business on our website and then lending money online to that enterprise, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive monthly email updates that let you know about the progress being made by the small business you've sponsored. These updates include reports on loan repayment progress, photos of new capital equipment, narratives on business growth and standard of living improvements, and more. As loans are repaid, you will get your original loan money back.
posted by aforward @ 4:08 PM,
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Mediocrity
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
This site is funny: dispair.com
posted by aforward @ 2:13 PM,
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