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Thursday, March 30, 2006
  Losing Weight

I'm on a diet and I've started a new fitness regime, I'm feeling great and very positive and I'm committed to losing about 20-25 pounds, getting back to a much more reasonable weight and size.

When I weighed myself for the first time in a long time last Wednesday morning, I was 226.5, this morning I'm 222... So I've already lost 4.5lbs in just over a week, so I'm quite pleased... If I can lose approx. 5 lbs every 2 weeks I should be at 200lbs by the end of May.

I'm going to get into a few little friendly competitions with friends Roger, Pete and Jason, to ensure that I keep up with my cardio and weight loss, take a good look at my gut the next time you see me because it's going away, for good! :)
 
Friday, March 24, 2006
  Prodigy Toronto Kool Haus Tuesday March 21st 2006

What a totally amazing show this was... This was the first high energy club gig I've seen in maybe 10 years?... Probably since seeing Nitzer Ebb at the Pheonix or something like that... Arlene and I went to C'est What for dinner and drinks, one in particular at the moment is very special there, the Black Oak Pale Ale, Cask Conditioned, Dry-Hopped, OMFG! then headed down to Kool Haus at about 7:45pm, tickets said 8:00pm.

We arrived a Kool Haus, there was already a line-up wrapped around the building... We waited out in the cold for probably close to an hour, finally make it in, checked out coats then headed to the stage area. There was this young geeky looking dude performing a DJ set. I have no idea who he was, but it was pretty groovy and he was enjoying himself, then after about 1/2 hour, another DJ guy came out, didn't know it at the time, but it was Adam Freeland. Since I'm really not 'in the scene', I hadn't heard of him before. But since then I've read a bit, and downloaded some of his mixes and stuff, really cool, he's from the UK... If you want to check out one of his tracks, this is my personal fav - I WANT YOUR SOUL - Anyway... So this guy was up there for over an hour, and as the time wore on, of course the crowd got bigger and bigger and tighter and tighter... Arlene decided she'd had enough and went to the back to get some air and space... The set was totally awesome, included mixed/mashed-up versions of the Cult, White Stripes, Nirvana, AC/DC and even Led Zepplin! It was definitely a good opener, he did a great job warming everyone up... One cool thing about a DJ opening instead of a band is once he was done, it too only about a minute or perhaps two to unjack his stuff, move the table out of the way and Prodigy came on... When they flew out onto the stage the crowd went MENTAL... I've been to shows like this (Albeit not for a number of years), but I think I'd forgotten what it was like to be right up by the stage, the crush, the pushing, the almost falling over, the HEAT... the ENERGY... It was awesome... I stayed up there, pogoing away for about 3 songs and then even I'd had enough (Yeah, ok, I'm getting old...), and by the time I got out of the crush, grabbed a bottle of water and found Arlene I was EXHAUSTED... I'd gone to the Gym and worked out with Roger earlier in the day, in hindsight that probably wasn't a great idea, I needed all my energy for dancing! We stayed til the encore and I did manage to dance some more near the ended, but I was wiped. It was neat seeing some of the differences in shows, namely how it seems like every other person has a camera or camera phone and is taking pictures and/or video of the show... Pretty bizarre...

I've been wanted to go to a drum'n'bass club for a few years now, but have never really gotten around to it, we've been out to clubs a few times, but it's always been Alternative clubs, playing the music that we're used to, but ever since I've first heard Firestarter by Prodigy about 8 or 9 years ago I've really gotten into electronica, drum and bass, jungle, etc... I love Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Autechre... There are so many cool bands making great electronic music...

So after the show, we were handed some flyers for other clubs and parties, and I'm planning to go to one... It's called THEORY next Friday night (March 31st) - , and it's at the Guvernment... Should be pretty cool, Mr. Bond is coming with... We'll head down after the kid's soccer grab a few jars from C'est What and then head over... Should be an experience! Whoop!
 
Saturday, March 18, 2006
  Happy St. Paddy's Day
Here's a nice GUINNESS Wallpaper, the classic art, love this stuff...

http://www.guinness.com/a/img/craic/downloads/wallpaper/1024x768/myGoodness1024.jpg
 
Monday, March 13, 2006
  Am I a Transhumanist...?
Need a new badge to stick on your sleeve? How's this one:

Transhumanist

from Wikipedia:

Transhumanism (sometimes abbreviated >H or H+) is an intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to increase human physical and cognitive abilities and improve the human condition in unprecedented ways.

Am I a Transhumanist? I think so yes... After reading Kurzweil's Singularity, and following-up by reading a number of other articles, I am absolutely excited about the future, about the changes that the progress of technology will cause. I'm very excited to think that assuming I don't get hit by the proverbial bus, I won't die anytime soon (Geez, I might even live long enough to see Newcastle win something! ha!), I certainly don't want to get zealous over all of this, but anyone who knows me knows that I do tend to get obsessive about things, I like to use the word passionate... Whether it be about Technology, or a Band, or Newcastle, or whatever, I don't tend to just get a little interested in things, I go whole hog...

In the same way that it's fun and exciting to watch a Science Fiction movie, and see all the cool gadgets, I'm finding it enthralling reading about and thinking about these possibilities that don't appear to be fiction, but appear to be increasingly likely within my lifetime...

About Desktop Fabrication / Molecular Assembly...

I was trying to describe some of the concepts of things that will happen in the near future recently, and how with molecular assembly we'll be able to build 'stuff', pretty much anything we need ourselves, and therefore the cost/value of 'stuff' will be insignificant. It's sort of hard to fathom, especially in this current land of consumerism, if you can't get a decent 'shopping high', you'll need to just get a 'fabrication high', whip off a new set of duvet covers or martini glasses... then when I was in the Dollar Store, picking up a cable (to connect my iPod to my car stereo), I realized that dollar stores are in some way one step towards that... I'm still AMAZED when I see the variety of products that are now available in these places... Many of these items of similar quality would have (and in some cases still do) cost easily $5-$10... So despite inflation, the cost of manufacture, and of transport, has fallen 90%... Sure, some of these products are liquidation, but from what I can see the bulk of the stuff is probably able to be purchased wholesale and sold for $1 and a profit still be made... That's what really blows my mind, that these products are PROBABLY manufactured for closer to 10-25 cents... By the time the manufacturer makes his money, then the product is packaged, shipped (99% of the time from China), trucked across the country, held in a Warehouse somewhere, transported again to individual stores, placed on shelves, then sold, and a profit made by each of these parties - again, has to be a minimum of 3... AMAZING! I'd love to see the numbers... Anyhow, what I'm getting at is we're already moving towards a world where material things will become more or less FREE, the information, the designs, the intellectual property will still have value, but stuff will become incredibly cheap, there will be abundance, and this will be a good thing...

The tres cool image above is from Mondolithic Studios -> http://www.mondolithic.com/galleries.htm
 
Friday, March 10, 2006
  Talking to God... Thought provoking article...
Jeni forwarded this very interesting, thought-provoking article to me... I strongly recommend giving it a read, it ties in very nicely with the Singularity stuff that I've been getting into lately... Check it out:

Talking to God...

Also interesting, a watched a documentary the other night:

The God Who Wasn't There
http://www.thegodmovie.com/ -

Bowling for Columbine did it to the gun culture.

Super Size Me did it to fast food.

Now The God Who Wasn't There does it to religion.

Holding modern Christianity up to a bright spotlight, this bold and often hilarious new film asks the questions few dare to ask.
Your guide through the world of Christendom is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming, joined by such luminaries as Jesus Seminar fellow Robert M. Price, professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and historian Richard Carrier.
See the movie the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative - to put it mildly."
Hold on to your faith. It's in for a bumpy ride.

Mininova link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/139662

 
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
  Church Sign Generator
Another top notch time waster brought to you by GeeksJournal! This is pure quality...

Make your own funny Church signs...

http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

Here are some that I just whipped up...




 
  CN Tower Climb for WWF - Event Info
http://wwfcentral.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?&pid=231&srcid=229
Saturday April 29th, 2006 6:00am-11:00am

If you haven't done this before, then I think you owe it to yourself to give it a shot once... I've done it I think 2 or maybe 3 times all together now... It's really freaking hard, but the feeling of accomplishment is AMAZING...

You can register online... Who's in???
 
Friday, March 03, 2006
  iPod Quest - Received!

Sorted! Here it is, the proof, and yes, I did 'doctor' the photo... But not the iPod part, that's real!

I got an email from Canada Post with the shipping tracking, and picked it up from the Post Office today at about 5:30pm...

I've only just started to play with it and load songs it, but it's so damn cute... It's like 2 inches by about 3.5", and really thin, I guess not as thin as the nano, but about the same as my pinky...

Looking forward to playing around with it, getting to understand the iTunes software, figure out exactly how I want it configured, I want to try getting some videos onto it as well, and album art... Yeah... Well for all you skeptics, I laugh in your general direction, but don't be sour, go ahead and get one yourself, I'm sure Smrogos, Edwardson, or Hudson would love you as a referral for them...
 
  iPod Quest - Shipped!!!

Ooh, yeah! after about 2 weeks, my status in FreePay (for my iPod) has now changed from "SENT TO VENDOR" to "SHIPPED"! Whee! I guess I'll be getting in next week... Then the decision as to whether to go whole hog for the XBOX360 (now that the 90-day restriction has come in...)
 
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
  FreePay - 90 Days to Complete Offers...
NOTE! Not great news... But Freepay has announced the following:

Important Change to Terms & Conditions
With a start date of March 1, 2006 – users of FreePay websites have 90 days to complete all offer requirements.
Upon completion of all offer requirements, existing users will need to print a “Redemption Form” that must be filled out in its entirety and mailed with a postmarked date no later than 30 days of completing their offer requirements. You will find an indication of how many days you have left to complete the requirements on the Status page. When you have completed the requirements you will be able to download the redemption form from the Status page.

So 3 months to get everything sorted, for iPod folks, not a big deal, you only need 5 referrals, but for XBOX 360's, you gotta really get busy to get your 10 sign-ups within 3 months... I guess I better get busy!
 
A personal blog by John Walter.

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I think a lot. Some people say I think too much... However, I don't want to be seen as being aloof or pretentious, it's just that I really enjoy philosophical questions and deep thoughts. That's not to say that I don't find pleasure in more down-to-earth or trivial things, like beer and soccer :) I'm happily married with 3 wonderful children. I'm a partner in a technology services company based in Toronto. Myers Briggs says I'm an ENTJ

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