Steve

Happy New Years!!

2006-12-31T15:37:00.000-05:00

Well i missed wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, so I'll just say happy new years instead. I hope that everyone's Christmas was great and that they were able to see friends and family.

It's been a few months since I last updated. Please forgive me. I'm just bored of blogging, email, Internet, computers, and electronics in general. It doesn't have the same effect on me as it once did. I mean, they are all great, but I'm just bored of them. I'd much rather spend time outside, eating, or sleeping, or just spending time with Karen. (Not necessarily in that order)

This year has flown by. It definitely marks one of the greatest years of my life! I have accomplished a lot this year. I got my B.Eng.Mgt from McMaster University, got married to the most beautiful, wonderful woman i have ever met, went on my very first vacation (the Honeymoon to Cuba), moved in with my wife, started my career as an Account Manager, and moved again to a really nice walk in basement. God has really blessed me this year.

I usually don't make any new years resolutions. I think that most people don't keep them so its useless. If you are really interested in making some resolutions, then you would begin them as you think about them, regardless of the time of the year. However, this year I really want to spend more time with God, (reading the Bible, praying, worshipping Him, and fasting). I haven't done that as nearly much this year as I had wanted to. Its easy to get too busy doing things at the time that seem more important than that, however, there is really nothing more important to me than my love for my God. So, I need to change my habits and make more time for that. Please pray that I may be able to accomplish that this year.

Anyway, I have some preparations to do for new years. Have a great new year!!!

Steve

September

2006-09-25T17:34:00.000-05:00

To keep up with having a post written at least once a month, here is September's.
I hope you enjoyed reading it.

An Unbelivable Tale of Two Amature Canoeist

2006-08-08T05:58:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't figured it out, the tale is actually true and the two armature canoeists are Karen and I. Last weekend we went up north to the cottage, which is north east of Huntsville. We were there about a month ago and we were told that you could travel from Sand Lake down the Magnettawan River to a few other lakes and eventually get to Kearney, a city nearby. This seemed like fun, so this time we decided to do it. We packed our canoe with the essentials: shoes (in case we went hiking), sandals, towels, a cooler packed with food and water, and our camera.

It took about 1.5 hrs to find the river after canoeing around Sand Lake looking for it. Once on the river, it was quiet since there was only wilderness on both sides of the bed. It was peaceful, and I was hoping to see some wildlife, like a bear, a moose, or even a beaver. But no luck. Soon we passed under a tiny bridge that you needed to crouch in order to get under it. We decided to wait for a short while to have our lunch, so we kept canoeing down river.

At one point we came across some pathetic rapids. We thought that it didn't look that bad and people had told us that you can canoe up and down stream, so we continued. Soon the rapids picked up and we were flying down the river at mach 4, just trying to steer the canoe the best we could. At one point steering wasn't an option and we went flying into a tree that must have blown down over half the river in a storm. At the time I was cursing the tree. However, I found myself soon hugging it. Karen went flying into the tree/log first, holding on. I ran to the front of the canoe to help her, but the pressure of the rapids spun the canoe around and I went flying into the log as well. At some point we flew out of the canoe. I managed to grab onto the canoe in the process and Karen managed to grab the log. We tried to spin the canoe around so that water wouldn't slash into it. Doing this was useless because the rapids were too great and the canoe tipped over pouring our stuff out. At this point I tried reaching for the canoe, but it took off down the river on its side. Somehow I grabbed on to the last branch I could find from the log, or I would have been sent down the river as well. It wasn't until we lost our stuff and the canoe that I thought we might be in danger. Karen was hugging the log tightly and I slowly made my way back to her. We were about 15 feet from one side of the river's edge but getting to it would be difficult. I grabbed Karen by the back of her pants and held onto to her as tight as I could while she slowly edged along the log to get to the shore. You wouldn't believe how much pressure the river was throwing at us. I felt that if I slipped on the rocks, or relaxed my legs, or even let go of the log, I would have been swept down the river. We stopped and prayed for safety for a minute before continuing.

We did make it to the river's edge, and we saw are canoe downstream snagged on another log. So, barefoot and all, we walked through the forest following the river to get to the canoe. I went back into the river to see if I could get to the canoe, but the rapids were still too great. Being thankful that we were alive, we decided to leave the canoe there and start looking for civilization. We hiked through the forest in our bare feet looking for a road or house or something, all the while thinking about "Deliverance". We didn't have any luck finding help, so we decided to follow the river back to Sand Lake. We knew it would be quite a hike, but given it was still early afternoon, we thought we would have enough daylight to make it back. Walking in the woods barefoot was something Karen never thought she would do. Remember I mentioned that we wanted to wait a while for lunch? It was because Karen didn't want to have a picnic on the river's edge because it looked like it could have a lot of bugs and animals. Well, her we were just 45 minutes later walking in the forest without feet protection. I was really proud of her, because she hardly complained. After 1.5 hours of walking in the woods, we came to a dead end. All around us the forest was thick and we couldn't continue. So we decided to jump back into the river and swim upstream, since we passed the rapids.

Soon after a boat came by and saw us. Thankfully, they were friendly and weren't hicks like the people in Deliverance. They helped us in their boat and brought us back to Sand Lake and our car. Still being drenched in our clothes, we drove back to the place where we rented the canoe and told them that we lost their canoe. They seemed angry that we took their canoe to that river and said if they knew that, they wouldn't have let us since they knew the water level had been raised 2 feet in the previous 4 weeks due to storms. Karen and I felt pretty dumb, but still happy to be alive. Then came the bombshell. They said that if they couldn't get the canoe back, we would have to pay them $1500 for the canoe, since it was a new one.

Thankfully one of the workers owned the area around the river and knew it well. So we went in to the forest by 4x4 and then hiked the rest of the way in to where we lost the canoe. The canoe was found and dragged out of the river and then we brought it back to the store. Instead of paying $1500, we had to give them $100 for the lost paddles and the damage to the canoe. So our sum total for the day was around $500, since we lost our camera, shoes, sandals, cooler, the paddles, and the canoe damage. Some people pay big money for adventures like that, so we didn't care too much. We felt really blessed to both be alive. I would post some pictures of our trip, but yes, you guessed it, they are somewhere in the bottom of the river somewhere.

Wedding Photos!

2006-08-01T07:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I've finally got around to it. I know it took some time, but with everyone wanting to borrow the wedding photos, it was nearly impossible to scan them. But, I had the opportunity yesterday and I scanned about 80 or so photos. This took quite sometime, but worth it. The quality of the photos are not that great, since my scanner isn't the best. However, it does the job. What I tried to do was to scan the pictures that I thought that best described the whole day. We had 2 photographers. One that took colour shots, while the other took black and white photos. The company is called, "The Art of Weddings" and are located in T.O. We were pretty happy with the photos, in case any one is looking for a photographer. I can't remember the prices, but they are on the company's website. The package included 500-700 photos. We had about 600. It also included the negatives, 30 or so photos online, and many candid shots. I prefer these over posed photos. There was only one cheesy posed photo that we did that I thought I'd never do. That was during the signing of the registry. However, it kind of came natural, since your sitting up there doing nothing but listening to the song. My old time friend Sarajit Banarjee played guitar and sang, "Love of my Life" for us during the signing. He did a great job!!!

Anyway, I linked the official scanned wedding photos on the right side bar, entitled, "Wedding Photos". I hope you enjoy them, and comments are always welcome. In case you want more, the link to the 30 or so photos that the photographer put online can be found here.

Forgiveness

2006-07-26T08:50:00.000-05:00

This is a respose I made to a post by Josh Wong, entitled "For When You Mean It: But Have Trouble Expressing It". I thought it would serve as a good post on my blog.

... There is a lull time between the apology and the forgiveness. My suggestion is not to wait to give an apology. If you mean it, give it. Don't wait.

Now, because we are human, forgiveness may take some time. This is different than what the Bible says about Christ's forgiveness. When we ask for forgiveness, God forgives us without question. But even though women (and men) strive to forgive and forget, it’s much more difficult to do. Why? Because feelings were hurt. This is not just restricted to women. What women most desire from men is love. What men most desire from women is respect. When men mess up, women see it as unloving. When women mess up, men see it as not showing respect. If you don't believe me, think about it the next time something happens.

Back to my point about that lull time. After you (a man) gives an apology (and mean it), use that lull time to show love, instead of trying to figure out why they are not responding the way you would want. Some may have heard of it, but there is something called the "Five Love Languages". They are:

1) Word of Affirmation
2) Quality Time
3) Acts of Service
4) Gifts
5) Physical Touch

The key is figuring out what your woman is most receptive to (by communicating with her and asking her, preferably before any problems) and full-filling this language during that lull time. I know this sounds like it came out of a book, (probably has) but this is something I heard from women. Eventually, the woman will forgive (and mean it) when she can understand her feelings correctly and do whatever else they do during that time. The same thing goes for men. Except they are driven by respect. Their lull time is much shorter, for whatever reason, but the principle is the same. If they are shown respect, they will forgive and respond with love. It’s an endless cycle that needs to be met, even if only one sided for a short while. Ultimately, when you’re married, you’re supposed to live for the other person, and fulfill your spouse's needs before yours.

Tiger Cats - Greg Marshall Fired

2006-07-11T09:48:00.000-05:00

You must have heard by now that the head coach for the Hamilton Tiger Cats has been fired. Greg Marshall, former head coach for the McMaster Marauders, headed 3 seasons with the Tiger Cats from 2004 to the 4th game of 2006. He won the CFL coach of the year award in his first season as a head coach in the CFL. If I remember correctly, he beat out Pinball Clemons for this honour. (Does anybody really know his first name?) Even though I am a huge Tiger Cat fan, I thought that Pinball Clemons deserved this title since he was an outstanding player, turned coach and brought his team into the Grey Cup to win the 2004 title. Either way, firing coaches in mid-season is totally a PR move. Since it is very easy to fire a coach when a team is doing badly, that is what usually happens first. As a player, losing a respectable coach in mid-season is hard since new relationships will have to be made with new coaches. Fortunately for Hamilton, Ron Lancaster has a history with the Cats. Lancaster has done great things for Hamilton, as well as bad things. He had a great playing career, arguably dubbed the 'greatest CFL player of all time'. He brought a team that was 2-16 in 1997 to Grey Cup contenders the following year. However, his loyalty to Danny McManus, served to be his vulnerability in 2003, starting him in 15 games, despite being one of his worst seasons of his career.

Regardless, the 2006 Tiger Cats have a lot of talent. Hopefully, Ron Lancaster can turn the team around and start winning games. In my opinion they should start with playing smarter and stop giving the ball over on stupid penalties. I hope Bob Young knows what he is doing.

Wedding Pictures

2006-07-10T06:17:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but the wedding photos have arrived. We got about 600 or so photos with our package. My ultimate goal is to scan them all and post them for all to view on my blog. As you can understand, this will take sometime. But come back often and check for updates. Our first goal is to select a photo to use for our thank you cards so we can send them out.
In the meantime, the photographers have posted a few photos to view on their website. They can be viewed from this link: The Art Of Weddings. Just click on "Karen and Steve". Comments are welcome.

Enjoy,
Steve

Monkey Bites

2006-06-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

If you ever hear me talking about something cool or interesting that the internet provides and wonder how I know about it, I'll let you in on my secret. Monkey Bites is a blog from Wired News that provides information on the web, technology, and websites that you can view. It's pretty informative if you are interested in a good read or want to find out websites that may become popular, before they come popular. And best of all, you can view the link from this blog!! Just click on the "Monkey Bites" link from the tab bar.

If you know of any other informative websites that provide information on technology or whatever interests you, feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy.

Sandals Royal Hicacos Cuba

2006-06-20T09:04:00.000-05:00

As promised here is my review of the resort we stayed at in Cuba for our honeymoon:

This resort was amazing! I had such a great time. We were there from May 14th to May 21st. We couldn't have picked a better place for our honeymoon. The staff was friendly and went out of their way to make the experience that much better for you. The facilities were in great shape and the beach was amazing. Cuban beaches are top notch. The best part was there were no kids!!! It’s a couples only resort, and many people were there on their honeymoon.

To make things easier to read, I'll lay it out in topics.

Flight:
We flew with SkyService. As this was my first time flying, I was just excited to take off and fly in the air. After the novelty wore off, I realized the plane was too small for me. But you can't complain too much about budget airplanes. And the fact that it was only a 4 hour flight. Much to my amazement, we received dinner on the flight.

Cuban Airport:
Our flight landed about 9:45pm or so. Since it was the last flight of the day I thought the wait at customs would have been short. In fact, it was a 2 hour wait. I'm not sure why they took so long. It would make more sense if we were leaving Cuba. One tip to mention at the airport is to hold on to your luggage when you walk outside the airport. Not that anyone is going to steal it, but people are going to want to help you to take it to the bus, which is only about 50 feet away. Some people got scammed into giving them $20 CND for a tip, since they demanded $20. I just gave them a few dollars. The bus ride to the resort was about 1/2 hour.

First impression of the resort:
We arrived at the resort about 12:30am. The staff was friendly, and they served us wine while we waited to check in. After checking into our room, (we were in block 15), we walked the beach. It was a nice warm breeze and the sand was like butter. At 1:15am we decided to go get some pizza from the Italian restaurant. Never being at an all expense paid resort before, it was weird not paying for the food. But I eventually got used to the idea.

Hotel:
The hotel was very nice. (Pictures of it and the rest of the trip can be found on the side bar, entitled "Honeymoon Photos") Since we were honeymooners, we expected to have our fridge stocked with drinks, but it wasn't. It took 4 days before we actually got our honeymoon package. But we didn't care too much. My wife and I were just happy to be together. One thing we thought was odd was that the blinds to the windows were on the outside of the building, not the inside. It was controlled and locked from the inside, however. Each room had a really big bath tub and nice size balcony. Satellite TV was supposed to be hooked up, but there were mostly Cuban stations. There was 1 sports channel, but I was not able to watch 24 on Fox. I'm not bitter.

Security Issue:
Late on our 3rd night, we were in our room and as I looked at the window, I noticed one blind was turned open. As soon as I looked at it, it shut quickly and I heard someone run away. Since we were on the ground level, it could have been anyone. Since there is not much activity at that night, I expected it to be security, but cannot be certain. Either way I went to the front desk and demanded a new room. One that was not on the ground level, and one that did not have a blind broken were it could easily be turned. The next day we were moved to the 3rd floor. This was a much better location, since we now had a view of the ocean!!!

Beach:
As previously mentioned, the beach was perfect! The sand was white and felt like butter. Sandals had a lot of little huts for 2 or so people on the beach to provide shade. Depending on the location on the strip there was a lot of room to play frisbee. They also provided water activities such as Catamarans, windsurfing, kayaking, pedal boats, water trampoline, snorkeling, waterskiing, and banana boat rides. However, these were dependent on the weather conditions. If it was windy, as it often was, the activities were closed. I believe in the 7 days that we were there, for only 2 days the wind was subsided enough so we could play with them. Since we were there from May 14th to May21st, the windy conditions may have been in season. Either way, it didn't bother us too much.
My wife went for a walk along the beach strip to the tip of the peninsula. She said that Sandals had the best beach along the strip because it was groomed the best. Other resorts had some twigs and rocks along theirs.

Pool:
The pool was great!! The water temperature was perfect. Although we did notice that the temperature of the main pool was warmer than the pool at the swim-up bar. The pools were not connected, even though they were right beside each other. The month of May seems to be a perfect time to go to this resort. No matter what time of day it was easy to find a chair and go swimming. There really weren’t a lot of people at the resort. The swim-up bar was really good. The bartender would often make a ton of drinks and walk around the main pool and hand them out to people. Some guest would often do that as well. It was a great atmosphere.

The Grounds:
The quality of the grounds was good, but not perfect. There was construction going on in one area of the resort. I believe they were working on a tennis court. It didn't bother us at all since our hotel was on the other side of the resort. The walkway from our resort to the main lobby (which we often used as a short cut to get to the main area of the resort), was covered overhead by bush. In order to get through you would have to duck. By day 5, they eventually trimmed it. The rest of the grounds were well kept. One of the ground workers would stop us as we would walk by him and ask us if we wanted a coconut. He would then proceed to cut down one from a tree and clobber it with a knife so we could drink from it. It was a really cool experience.

Food:
Much to my surprise, the food was amazing. At the resort you would register to go to a restaurant for dinner, if you chose to. If not, the buffet was open. The buffet had lots of options, but the food was just good, not great. The A la carte restaurants were awesome, however. They had Italian, Seafood, Caribbean, and the Beach grill. The Italian was my favourite. By the second course you were stuffed, still a long way from the main course. We found that booking the restaurant for later in the evening (around 7:00pm) was best since it wouldn't interrupt your daily activities at the pool or beach.

Service:
I would rank the service 10 out of 10 at the resort. The workers really want you to have the time of your life while you are there. Only once during the whole week did I need to ask for a refill of a drink. Most often it would be filled without you even realizing it. The staff was friendly, and if you took the time to talk to them, they would tell you their life story. Some of these workers come from far distances, and travel over 2 hours to get to work. A few of them actually stay in homes that the resort provides, since they live too far away. Even more, some of the workers would only see their wife and kids 4 days out of a month. The service that you would get did not depend on giving tips. I really think that they are grateful for being able to work at a resort and in the tourism industry. As I was told, they would make more money than doctors and lawyers since they often receive tips. We brought items, such as soaps, deodorants, sandals, tooth-brushes, and toothpaste to give to them. They seemed really appreciative to get these since it cost them a lot to buy in Cuba. I know they also like to receive hats, shirts and shoes. You couldn't help but tipping the waiters and waitresses a few pesos or so at the A la Carte restaurants since they served you so well.

Trips:
Signature vacations had a variety of different trips that they offered. There was a trip to Havana that if I was staying at the resort longer, I would have taken. We did, however, go snorkeling off a catamaran on the south side of the peninsula, destination Caso Blanco Island. I was kind of disappointed with the time we were allowed to go snorkeling. We were only given 10-15 minutes. The wind picked up, so it wasn't perfect conditions, however. The crew of the catamaran were really entertaining and friendly. The island was really tropical; a little too tropical in fact. I went into the ocean off the beach and got stung by a jelly fish. I took some cool pictures of the bite. It wasn't jelly fish season, but it was suggested that since the heavy rain we had the day before, some of them could have been washed up. Either way it felt like a thousand bees attacked my arm. But I now have a really cool scar to show people! After getting bit by the jelly fish, I had a crab run over my foot. I took many pictures of that too. They run sideways!! It’s funny to watch. To end the day trip, they took us to a dolphin show. It was entertaining, but I wouldn't just go see that if it wasn't included in the day trip.

Cuban life:
I didn't get to see much of the country, pertaining to living conditions. Just traveling to and from the airport we were able to see the housing. It looked pretty ghetto. The houses didn't look very accommodating. Many of the people would be sitting outside since they didn't have air conditioning. Varadero is a poor city, as I was told. So, perhaps other parts of Cuba are nicer. I wouldn't mind going back one day and seeing the rest of Cuba, and learning more about the culture. Staying at the resorts, you wouldn't get a feel for the culture.

Entertainment:
One thing about this resort was the entertainment was lacking. Often activities were scheduled, but when you would show up to it, no one would be there. I think this had to do with the lack of interest from the guests. The nightlife was dull. You could count the people in the night club on 2 hands. Again, this may have been like this due to the May season. Not a lot of people at the resort compared to other times of the year. The nightly shows were really boring. But I find that stuff boring anyway. I know of people there that really enjoyed it. The resort next to Sandals, the Iberostar, had much better entertainment. At least by first impression. The only time I saw people playing volleyball was at the Iberostar. So I joined them. They didn't seem to care that I wasn't from their resort. They would have known since every other resort has to wear a different coloured wrist band. The Sandals resort we were at didn't have wrist bands.

Leaving the Resort and flying home:
Signature Vacations offered VIP service. For $25 Pesos you could get to wait in an air-conditioned room with free drinks at the airport. We didn't purchase it, but in my opinion it is not worth it anyway. The airport is air conditioned anyway. At least in the area that everyone waits. One thing to be aware of at the airport is the guy trying to convince you to go up stairs to the sitting area to wait. He told us that it’s better than going through customs and waiting on the other side. This was crap. He worked for the place upstairs and just wanted you to spend your money at ridiculous prices. After doing that and going through customs to wait on the other side, we felt cheated. But it did make us laugh after seeing the prices were cheaper for food once you were on the other side of customs near the gates.

Tips:
* Bring plenty of sunscreen. The prices at the resort are ridiculous. $20 pesos for a small bottle, which works out to around $25 CND.
* If traveling with a group of people, the Iberostar would probably be more entertaining.
* If traveling with a spouse, Sandals Royal Hicacos rocks!!!
* Bring plenty of items to tip. See the "Service" heading for possible items to bring.
* Book your A la Carte restaurants the day you arrive if possible to get a good time. Later in the evening is the best time to eat in my opinion.
* You can purchase Cuban cigars on both sides of customs at the Cuban Airport (Varadero). Probably best to first go through customs. Although I know some of the people that bought the cigars wouldn't get receipts, even after asking for them.

Internet Has Finally Arrived

2006-06-14T08:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally have received internet at my new appartment. It only took 6 weeks for Bell and 3WEb to get their crap together. Even though it took them that long and that they started billing me 6 weeks ago, i'm just happy that its now working. Don't worry about me having to pay them 6 weeks ago. I got that straightened out. Its good to have access again and not feel so alone during the days.
Since I was not able to access the internet, the posting of our pictures from our honeymoon have been delayed. I will start that soon. In the meantime people are asking for my convocation pictures from Friday afternoon. In case you don't know, I am no longer a student. I just graduated from Electrical Engineering and Management at McMaster University. 5th year, (actually 6th for me since I opted to do an internship for 16 months), was my best year. I made the Deans Honour List. Anyway, thats enough boasting. If you look at the side bar, a link to the pictures from the convocation is there. I'm using BubbleShare. One really neat option they now have is that you can download all the files to a zip file. I don't believe I have seen that before. It's a great way to share your photos with your friends!!
Originally I wasn't going to go to my graduation. However, I'm glad I decided to go. Not because the ceremony was a blast, actually quite boring infact, but I was able to see my friends, some perhaps for the last time in a while. Hopefully I will be able to see most of them and keep in touch with them for many years to come. Besides the stress and crap students put up with in school, it's the memories of friends that I remember looking back at all those years. Even though most of my friends graduated last year, while I was on internship, I became close to a new group. (Not quite that new). Memories of working with Dom, Josh, Tabarak, Deniz, Nima will never be forgotten. There are many more memories with other friends, but I don't have the time and patience to go through all of them. Just trust me that there is. Ok, uploading of those graduation photos are 98% complete. Click here to view. I'll go add the link to the side bar now.

Post Wedding Thoughts

2006-05-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since the last blog posting, but a lot has happened since then. My life changed for the better on May 13th, 2006. I married my beautiful bride Karen. For those that were there that day know how hot she was in that white getup she had on. And for those that weren't there, she was HOT!! We got married at Hockley Valley Resort and stayed the night at the hotel in the executive suite. It was pretty neat having balconies on 2 different levels. The wedding was amazing. I had a great time, and it sounds like others had a good time too. The ceremony was quick and dirty. Bryan Vaughan had the honour to marry us. He did a great job not only for the ceremony, but helping me remain calm while we waited for the bride. I'll never forget the moment Karen walked into the tent to begin her march down the isle. I won't need photos to remember it, as it is plastered in my memory. I think i managed to fight back tears as she came in. Her dress was gorgeous. I was a proud and happy man that day.
Leading up to the big day, Frank, Eric, Trevor, Alan, Dom, Joel, and myself stayed in the deluxe room at the resort. We played in the hotel's indoor pool and the hot tub. Afterwards, Alan used his wit and charm to score us a projector so we could play some X-Box in the hotel room. Saturday morning, Trevor, Alan, Eric and myself played 18 holes at the resort. The course was amazing. It was probably the longest course i've ever played. Some holes were easy 500 yards plus. Looking down the fairway, I would wonder if I'd ever get the ball to the hole. It only took 2 holes before the first bagging. Of course Alan was the perpetrator and I was the victim. The day before, my bag flew off the cart and Eric ran it over with his cart behind us. Later I found out that Alan loosened off my bag. This was of course after I complained to the club house that their golf carts were a piece of crap and that they should fix their straps to avoid this happening in the future. I ended up shooting a 99 with a couple of footwedges. A good day to start off my wedding.
I'm all over the place here. The reception was great. Joel did an awesome job in MCing the wedding. Everything went smoothly and it was quite humorous. Thanks a lot Joel!! The speeches that were made were great and I enjoyed them. Even though Eric's speech left me having to explain somethings to Karen! Thanks Eric! Oh, and thanks to Frank's childhood stories, everyone thinks i'm gullable.
The wedding dance was great. Karen and I were quite happy that many people stayed and boogied all night. The chicken dance is classic.
There is a lot more to tell, but theres things that must be done. Keep checking for updates on our honeymoon to Cuba and for pictures of the both the wedding and the honeymoon.

1 More Day of Freedom

2006-05-12T05:39:00.000-05:00

So today is my last day of freedom in the single world. I plan to go golfing this morning. I'm waiting to see if the course is open due to the rain we have received as of late. I'd have to admit that it does look promising as I look out the window of my bedroom. I just slept the last sleep in my parents house. It was a good sleep. I will miss my mattress. So comfy and warm. I had many good sleeps on that bed. Its been a while since I had to use my alarm clock. I figured staying up last night to play Halo 2 on X-Box with Allan, Eric, Trevor, Frank, Joel, Dom, Nathanel, would keep me from waking up early for a morning tee off time. I forgot that I usually set my clock 20 minutes fast. So, now I sit here waiting for the club house to open so I can call them to see what my fate is.

Tomorrow I get married. I've been looking forward to this day for quite some time now. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Karen, the woman I adore. Everything seems to be planned from my part. Thanks must go out to Karen and the bridemaids, and Karen's mom, for making 300+ cookies yesterday. And then tying them together in a ribbon. Thats alot of cookies.

Anyway, the sun just poked its head out and my room lite up. I just looked at the thermometer and it reads 11 degrees Celsius. Not too bad.

Probably the last time I write this:
Days to the wedding: 1

Wedding Update

2006-05-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

Before I go to bed, I thought I'd give an update on the wedding preparations. We are down to last minute things like creating programs for the ceremony, getting gifts for some people involved, songs to play at the reception, ect. Only 4 more days left until the big day. I'm hoping it will be nice on Friday and Saturday, as the guys will be playing golf both days. Also, we are praying that the weather will be nice for the wedding. Karen and I are going to Cuba for the honeymoon, so I'm getting ready to pack for that trip. It will be my first time in Cuba, and my first time at a resort. I have high expectations, but don't have anything to compare it to. Be sure to check back after the honeymoon to hear my review of the resort.

Saving Faith Means Loving God and Loving What God Loves

2006-05-03T10:28:00.000-05:00

I heard a good sermon by Pastor Don Horban last Sunday. It was based on 1 John 2:15-17.

1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, (16) because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (17) And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. (MKJV)

The Message describes these passages well.

1 John 2:15-17 (MSG)
Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. (16) Practically everything that goes on in the world--wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important--has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. (17) The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out--but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Generally there are two ways Christians try to get closer to God and sense his love and presence. The first way is used most often and not that effective. When gathered together in corporate worship, usually on Sunday's, people try to dwell up feelings and try to sing or worship 'harder' to sense God. They pray harder to feel love for the Father. They may then feel God's presence but throughout the rest of the week get bogged down with life's demands and the world's ways and forget to spend time with Jesus.

The second way, and used less often, is to rid themselves of the world's ways. John clearly states all that is in the world is not of God. You can not serve two masters. If you are a slave to the world, and its ways, then you can't love the father. Going to church on Sunday and trying to stir up feelings of love for God before going back to the work week and searching for things in the world and its pleasures will not bring peace. Again John clearly defines to have love for the Father means not loving the things of the world. What does he mean then by the things of the world? The Message lists some of them as: "wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important." You can add on things like not serving others, showing favoritism, and lying. Paul talks more about things of the world, which he describes as works of the flesh in Galations.

Galations 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, (21) envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (MKJV)

Basically, if the only thing that separates a Christian from a non-Christian is that the Christian goes to church, says grace and prays sometimes, but lives for things in the world and its ways, then both people have no love for God. This is a dangerous thing to be playing with and shouldn't be taken lightly. We all fail sometimes, and sometimes more often than we would like, but to have love for Jesus means to repent and turn from your sinful ways. The struggle that you go through, while consistently praying for help from Holy Spirit is all part of getting closer to Jesus. A mature Christian will always have struggles, but moves beyond struggles that they had when they were just a babe Christian.

If you would like to study further into this topic, please visit Horban's sermon notes:

My prayer is that God reveals to people, including myself, things in our lives that push our love for Him away.

Days to the wedding: 10

Random Thought #2

2006-04-27T09:21:00.000-05:00

I don't understand why when applying to rent apartments, the landlords want to know your SIN. I thought that SINs were just for income reporting purposes. Not that I'm paranoid, but it is easy for anyone to steal your identity given your SIN. And not just personal information. People can use your number to apply for credit cards and renting, leaving you responsible to pay for the tabs. These are not just old wives' tales either. I personally know people that this happened to. They get their wallet or purse stolen with their SIN in it and then a few months later, they have to pay for enormous bills since it is always easier to spend someone else's money. If you want to learn more about the intended use of SIN and how it is important to your personal identity, you can view the Canadian Government website.

Either way, you are not obligated to give your SIN to landlords. However, they are not obligated to rent out their apartment to you.

I hope you found this informative.

Days to the wedding: 16

Post Exam thoughts

2006-04-22T10:08:00.000-05:00

Its been a little over a week now since I've finished school. I've done lots of things like travel up north, hitting some balls at the driving range, apply to jobs, look for appartments, plan a wedding, ect... You know the usual things. I refrained from posting earlier in case some of my friends still writing exams got jealous. But most of my friends are done this afternoon. Good luck guys!!
I'd like to give a shout out to Josh who will be going to China for a while. Have fun and bring me back something.
Yesterday I bought my wedding band from a wholesaler in Toronto. I payed $100 less buying from a wholesaler than from a retailer. No joke. I checked a few retail jewellery stores and they all were $100 more than it cost from a wholesaler. Also, there are no sizing fees like most retail stores try to con you into paying. In case any of you are looking to buy some diamonds or jewellery, let me know. I can save you tons.
Finally, I'd like to give a happy birthday shout out to Jody and Roger.

Days to the wedding: 21 !!!!!!!

Sniiiiff - Last Day

2006-04-13T06:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm about to leave my house for what will be the last day of my university undergraduate career. 6 long years behind me and 1 month to go until I get married!
I have 2 exams today. One is Operations Management and the other is International Business. I've never been more ready for an exam, as I am for Operations Management. IB on the other hand is a different story. My exam schedule prevented me from studying for it, but I have a few hours after my first exam to study for it.
Either way, I'm just about done and no one is happier than this guy!!! I'm sure I won't miss school too much...

Random Thought #1

2006-04-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about birds as pets. My family has a cockatiel named Sonny. I call him Joey or Pete, in honour of our past buggies. Either way, when you go up to his cage, he looks at you and says, "Whatcha Doing" in clear english. He then proceeds to jump on the side of the cage and slides down the vertical bars like a fire man. If you don't do anything, he'll start chirping or whistling "pop goes the weasel". All the while, you're thinking he is doing this for your amusement. This brings about my random thought. What if, perhaps, the birds purpose is not to provide amusement to us, but for us for him. This is evident when you're not doing anything but looking at him, to which he starts doing random things to get us to talk to him like a baby. You know what I mean, that crazy voice you get when you talk to things smaller than you. Once you're doing something amusing to the bird, they stop doing stuff and start watching you.
Does anyone know where I can get a monkey?

Days to the Wedding: 32

Kipling 2006

2006-04-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

After 6 long awaited years, I finally received my Iron Ring. I'll have to tell you, it looks pretty good on my finger. I can't mention much about the ceremony, but I can tell you about the break between the presentation and the ritual calling of the engineer. Someone so brightly scheduled a class picture of about 800 people right after the presentation. The problem was it was already past lunch time and we had empty stomachs. The hotdog vendor, Willy Dogs already had about 50 people in line in front of me. The coordinators told everyone they had to be in the picture, but many people didn't want to lose their spot in line. After much persuasion, about 30 people in front left their spot to be in the class photo. I made the executive decision and determined that even if I was in the class photo, only my shoulder would be in the picture, since there were ~800 people. So, I decided to stay in line for a hotdog while my friends took their picture. Now when my grandkids ask me where I am in the picture, I'll have to tell them and point to a shadow and say, "You see that shadow? Thats mine from the hotdog line". I knew I made the right decision because right after I got my hotdog, it started to rain.

The Kipling reception was pretty awesome! Karen was my date and we partied it up until it closed at 12:00am. It was good to see all my friends one last time in a different setting other than school. We have lots of photos. I'll upload some when I get the chance. We sat with Dom and Ashleigh, Josh and his women, Tabarak, Faisal, and the Lorie's. It was a good time. We had salad, pasta, chicken and potatoes, and some chocolate dessert. Bob Lorie so generously gave me his dessert.

If you have any photos, please send them all!!!

Kipling Approaching

2006-03-30T01:06:00.000-05:00

There is 1 more school day before the Kipling Ceremony, also known as The Iron Ring - the ritual calling of an engineer. The whole ceremony and process seems a bit sacrilege, but I guess they really want to stress the importance of responsibility. I don't think there are going to be any sacrificing of any animals, but one would have to wait to see. Its a private invitatio, so only engineers wearing their ring can attend. That means no family members or friends can attend that are not engineers.

Either way, the ring also signifies to me that 6 years are coming to a close. Thats what excites me.
Anyway, keep your eye out for Kipling pranks on Friday morning. We'll be out all night like little monkeys causing havoc. Should be fun!

MSN Spaces

2006-03-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

Since Blogger does not have a photo section, I obtained an MSN space so that I can link pictures to my blog. You can add pictures to Blogger, but it's only included in the blog posting. If you want to share a whole album, then you have to find alternative ways of doing so.

So, the plan is to use my MSN space only for pictures. Currenly, I have been using bubbleshare, but it requires to keep account information in your inbox if you wanted to update the album. Its a good concept, because it doesn't require viewers to have to register to view your pictures, like Snapfish and Shutterfly (Although these sites are good if you want to order prints and such.) But there has to be a more efficient and friendly way to share albums. MSN Spaces is still not the greatest for uploading pictures, since they have to be done manually, 1 at a time. If anyone knows of a photo sharing website that does not require visiting viewers to register, but has as a user friendly uploading system that allows you to select multiple picture files at one time to upload, please let me know.

Currently, my MSN Space is not updated, but it does have a few pictures from last years Kipling. I was using them as a test. Here is the link: ertlsg spaces
You can navigate to find the photos.

Days to Wedding: 44

Team Monopoly

2006-03-23T21:47:00.000-05:00

At the end of year 8, Team Monopoly earned cumulative profits of $158,000,000. The last year alone, we earned $48,000,000. Eight years ago Team Monopoly was only an $80 million dollar company. After taking over and investing heavily in plant capacity, R&D, Marketing, and TQM, among other things, Team Monopoly is now over a 1/2 billion dollar company. The stock price grew from $27 to $111 in 6 years! Team Monopoly captured the highest market share over 48 competing teams. This was contributed by earning 1.1 billion dollars in sales in the last 3 years.

If your company is looking for a new general manager, or perhaps a CEO, look no further. I love making executive decisions and acting on opportunities rather than reacting to missed ones.

This simulation took over my life for 2 months, waking me up at 5am every morning that the decisions came out. One thing that I really enjoy is seeing results from decisions I make. This is the reason why I'm going to be competing in the Capstone Business Simulation Olympics! The Olympics brings the best players from around the world to compete. Again this time the simulation runs for 8 years, however, all decisions will be made within 8 days. Every morning new decisions will need to be made. The Olympics actually run during my studying for final exams, but I'm addicted to it. I did a quick calculation and realized that I will actually gain time to study since normally I wouldn't wake up at 5am. After the qualifying round, the top 6 teams in the world will then compete head to head in the finals. I can't wait!!!

Tomorrow we will be presenting the results of the simulation, as well as the strategy chosen for success.

Wind Energy In Hamilton

2006-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

My friend Omar is working on an Inquiry about wind energy production methods for the Hamilton Area.

Here is his email. Please fill out the survey, as he will need substantial feedback. It will only take 2 minutes.

Hey Everyone,

As some of you know, I'm working on an Inquiry to determine which (if any) wind energy production methods would be most sustainable for the Hamilton-Wentworth or Ontario area. Therefore, I need to get some feedback from people about what they think of having windmills put up around their local area. Think of places like escarpments and valley that are around Southern Ontario.. Some of you clearly don't live in Hamilton, but I could use the feedback nonetheless. The link for the survey is:

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=jl3hvg1862rh49e171789

Well, if this thing suggests 'yes', I'm going to try and pitch it to Peter Gearge (the president of McMaster University) to put up a turbine of some sort around McMaster. In addition, with the help of the Engineering and Society faculty and Society's Challenge (an Eng Soc student created non-profit organization), I'm hoping to work with some developers over the summer to set up a subdivision where smaller turbines are widely implemented.

Monopoly Monopolizing

2006-03-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

So, my midterms are almost done. I have one more tomorrow and then I get a week off, just to start midterms all over again. I wonder why they call it 'midterms' when they aren't really in the middle. Especially when there is more than 1 of them. Either way, I've been doing really well this semester. I'm quite pleased with my results.

A little update on our company simulation. Last year we made almost $8,000,000 in profits and are stock prices are doing much better. I'm anticipating much higher profits next year. Hopefully I'll get a big fat bonus!

Just a note: There are up coming birthdays. One is my fiance, who is turning the big 29. Happy birthday Karen!!! And the other is Dom, who is turning 25.

Days to the wedding: 72

Team Canada

2006-02-23T11:44:00.000-05:00

In the wake of the Canadian men losing 2-0 to Russia, many Canadians are disappointed, including myself. However, I will be first to go against the critics that blame Gretzky for our defeat. Sure, he selected some players that weren't having as good of a season as some others, but they did have the experience winning past cups and olympics. My only critism would be that Sidney Crosby was not on the team. They guy is sitting 12th in scoring in the NHL with 65 points. Its not a question if he will play in the next olympics. He will be there. But why not give him some more tournament experience now?
Either way, since Gretzky took over Team Canada, they have won the 2002 Olympic gold medal, ending Canada's 50 year Olympic gold medal drought. Since then, Team Canada has won the 2004 World Cup. Gretzky's not the problem. One thing that many Canadians underestimate is the fierce competition and the talent that other national teams possess. In my opinion, either Canada, Russia, the Czechs, Sweden, Findland, Slovakia, yes and even the US, could have won the tournament.
On the bright side, we have a killer Women's hockey team!

Days to the wedding: 79

Reading Week

2006-02-20T15:34:00.000-05:00

So this weekend was the first shower that I've ever been too. I know showers are for women, but the perk about me going was that I was able to get some garage/shop presents. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed. Karen's family were really generous. I'd give them a shoutout, but I'd doubt that any of them would ever read this.

In case you hadn't noticed, I added a couple of more blogs to the site. My buddy Joel, who will be the MC at the wedding, and my fiance's brother in law, Brandon. Both these bloggers usually have interesting things to say, so it would be worth a peak if you find mine a waste of time.

I'm also changing the layout slightly. No longer will I have a wedding day countdown in the title. People, including myself, have found this to be confusing if the blog isn't updated for a few days. So, the title block will now include mind stimulating quotes and the wedding countdown will now be placed at the end of every posting.

Cheers.

Days to the Wedding: 82

Hey! it Snowed!!

2006-02-15T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I can finally come out of my cave for the time being. In case you haven't heard from me, I've been studying for midterms. I feel pretty good about them too.

Valentines day has come and gone. Karen and I went to the Failte Irish Pub in Mississauga. It was a nice evening, although our waiter wasn't. I guess pubs don't like Christians because we don't drink that much. Sure an occasion beer here or there, but in reality they aren't making that much money from us. So to punish us, he put another couple right beside us so we could share our conversations. Upon eaves dropping we learned that they were getting married too. I thought that was pretty interesting. We talked and made friends.

Our Policy group made our first decision yesterday. We blew our competitors out of the water capturing the top market share in 3 out of 5 segments. We are looking forward to our next decision so we can get big fat bonuses!!!

15Mb vs 2.6Gigs (You do the Math)

2006-02-11T00:42:00.000-05:00

Google is now offering email accounts to Universities by hosting them through school domain addresses (google). It will provide large storage (does not say how much, but I imagine it will be atleast 2.6 Gigs). The ramifications of this is huge because most communication between university students is through MSN Messenger. With Gmail also adding the new chat feature, I anticipate many students using it to "chat" instead of MSN or in conjunction with it. Searching for information in saved chats is instant through Google's indexing.

I figure McMaster would never go for this offer. I really think they like limiting student email accounts to a whopping 15Mb. This was adequate for the 80's and 90's, but now? I can think of many occasions where my email account was full because I didn't clean it up for 2 days and missed important emails from professors and fellow classmates. Hopefully this matter will be resolved soon.

This would be a really good campain strategy for upcoming MSU president candidates. In fact, if I wasn't graduating this year, I might have run.

Superbowl

2006-02-05T23:48:00.000-05:00

Is it me or is the Superbowl overhyped? The first half once again sucked. Just like the 3 of the last 4 Superbowls. At least the commercials were once again good. Thanks to Eric for picking up the Buffalo feed so we could watch the American commercials. Even though Budweiser paid way too much for their advertising, they had some really funny commercials.
They can be view here: (most of them were really funny. Follow the link to "Ads from the big game"Bud
At the top of my list is the CareerBuilder commercials. In case you missed it, you absolutely HAVE to check these out: CareerBuilder
This will definitly be added to the "Monkeys" section of the blog.
Other great commercials were from Ameriquest Mortgage. Both of these commercials are worth the view: Ameriquest
Don't bother wasting your time watching the pepsi commercials. They were horrible.
Anyway, back to the Superbowl. The second half was a great game. Pittsburgh pulled it off 21-10, in a turnover infested game. If the NFL changed the rules to CFL rules, then NFL would rule. You can quote me on that one.
Hope you enjoy the videos!

Yes, I'm a Geek

2006-02-03T23:33:00.000-05:00

After spending 3 hours going through tutorials and papers on making decisions for a company based on marketing, production, finance, and R&D information, I'm ready to take over any company. I'm pretty confident that our team, "Monopoly" will prevail and take the top 3 overall companies this semester playing the Business simulation for Policy class.

Yes, this is how I spend my Friday nights. Reading financial statistics, cash flow statements, production information, balance sheets, income statements, and market share analysis statistics.

Only if I can spend more time concentrating on Operations Management for an exam next week. (Not to mention digital communications). Does communicating with digital signals sound interesting to you? How about if I add quantization of signals, pulse code modulation, intersymbol interference, pulse shaping, equalization, partial response signaling, synchronization? Does that still interest you?

700th year Anniversary

2006-02-02T21:48:00.000-05:00

So, it’s February 2nd. While some may be ranting on about how it’s Groundhog Day, a handful of people know it’s also Kiwifruit Day. I think this amazingly tasty fruit deserves some of our attention.

A little bit of a history lesson about Kiwifruit:

Kiwifruit originated in China
People have been eating it for over 700 years. (This date may be off by +/- a few years).
Its real name is Actinidia Chinensis

Also known as the Chinese Gooseberry

After it reaches full size, it takes 2 months to ripen.

The ripening process is accelerated by bagging them with bananas or apples, or ethylene gas.

So, that’s all I know about Kiwi. I bet you learned something you didn't know before. Now, I wonder if Wiarton Willie likes Kiwifruit.

24 Episode 6

2006-01-31T18:11:00.000-05:00

Did anyone watch 24 last night? I'd have to say that from one of the biggest 24 fans around (that's me); I thought the episode lacked 24 caliber. I've been watching 24 since the beginning, even when Palmer was running for presidency the first time. I thought there was too much relationship stuff going on. Don't get me wrong. It was still a great show. Perhaps more women will allow their husbands to watch the show if there is more girl stuff in it. If you missed it, you can read about it here, Fox 24.

So, I'm doing a country project for International Business on India. It should be a really interesting project. Especially with Bangalore, better known as the Silicon Valley of India, growing at an exponential rate. Lots of opportunities for foreign investors.

My group for Policy class is now getting ready to start to take control of our company, "Monopoly". We thought it was a clever name. It's an economic term, and a game! This class will take a lot of time, but it should also be a lot of fun. The goal is to act as general managers of a company and make major decisions for the course of 8 years.

That's all that's happening for now.

2006-01-27T23:21:00.000-05:00

First Posting

Ok. Here is my first official posting. I'm just trying to figure out how to add features into my blog. Notice the new photo section. This will be a place where you can view photos from time to time. Right now you can check out our engagement photos. I hope you enjoy!

2006-01-27T20:38:00.000-05:00

2006-01-27T19:34:00.000-05:00

This is just a test before setting up my blog