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Archive: November, 2003

----- 11.25.2003 --------
This weekend was full of fun and excitement. Friday night was the famous streetcar party. Yes, that's right, a streetcar party. Mike, a friend of mine, organized an amazing bash once again. We all pitched in and rented a TTC streetcar :) Basically it was a pub crawl, only the only place we had to crawl was between each bar & our streetcar. There were 80 of us, so it was a little snug on the car. By the time we hit our last destination, it was a good thing it wasn't 2nd last :) One can only handle so much. After sleeping in a little on Saturday I got up to do my "Grocery Shopping". And by that, I mean my groceries were delivery from GroceryGateway.com. What an awesome service! I love getting my groceries online :) Continueing on with my weekend, I went to The Guvernment on Saturday night with my buddy Ron. We went and listened to Paul Oakenfold spin. That guy's amazing! That's typically not my type of music, but I found I really got into it once I was there. Anyway, Sunday was a needed day of rest :) And that brings us to Monday night... last night. Which, as you know, is pool league night. And finally... yes, finally, we won out match! It was a 5 - 4 win, but a win's a win! I was really glad since it will be my last night until February. Why, you ask? As you may have read earlier (probably every post since the summer...), I'm going to Australia with my Sister in January. We're going to do some diving in the Great Barrier Reef and the cruise I booked requires a PADI referral. I underestimated what that "referral" was all about. Anyway, I got myself signed up for scuba classes just in the nick of time. So, now my Mondays & Wednesdays for the next 3 weeks are tied up. Mondays are classroom days from 7 - 10 and Wednesdays are pool days from 6:30 - 10. I'm really looking forward to the course! Anyway, after testing with them, I'll have a referral in hand to brind with me to the great Oz so I can do my Open Water diving test out on the reef. Wow! I can't wait!!! Anyway... now I've got to reschedule my workouts and my weeks are about to get even busier until my Jan. 2nd finally comes, where I can get on the plane and not ignore time for a while :) There are some many aspects about this trip I'm looking forward to that I'll just have to rattle them off in another update. Speaking of which, time for this one to be over. Seeya!

----- 11.18.2003 --------
Friday night I went over Sean & Antoinette's place for a game of Monopoly. First of all, it had been forever since I've last played. Secondly, the rules were a little different this time around. This version of Monopoly had some drinkin rules to it :) There were 4 of us playing. We decided that a sip (playing w/ beer) was equivalent to $5. So, when it was time to pay someone rent, just drink it away. Need to get out of jail? Drink your way out. It was great except the beers were going down just a little too quick. Obviously the sip = $5 was no good after the houses and hotels started coming out. So, we decided that a full beer was good for the first $500 and then it was money after that. Monopoly money of course. Anyway, I think the rules needed a little refining, but we're on to so something! It was great. Anyway, Saturday & Sunday I took it easy. Last night was pool... and we lost again. On the bright side of it, of the 5 teams we played 4 of them are in the top 5. In fact, there is 1 team leading (who we played), and then 4 of them tied for 2nd. We played 3 of those... just our luck! Anyway, it's still early in the season... we'll pull it together I'm sure. The fact that we played some of the better teams earlier only means we have an easier season ahead :) Tonight I had a squash ladder league match. I won! I ended up winning 3 - 1 in some really long, close matches. I was glad when it was done... it was really starting to hurt. Anyway, I guess that's all for now. Wait, there is one more thing. This Friday is a street car party. It's basically a pub crawl except we rent a TTC streetcar to bring us everywhere. Tickets are $30 and if you let me know really soon, there may still be some left. Anyway, it's been a blast the last few years and I'm hoping for the same this year. So, if you're interested, shoot me an email. OK, that's all for now. Wait, no it's not. I just remembered one more thing. Laura & I are actually starting to nail down our plans for Australia. We arrive in Brisbane really early (5:05 AM) Monday morning (jan 5th). On Wednesday, we're going to fly up to Cairns. On the Thursday we're on a 3 day live-aboard diving cruise in the Great Barrier Reef. OK... I'm excited! This is going to rock!!! It even includes night diving!!! OK, no JAWS for me before I go!!!!! We'll be back on land on the 10th and start making our way down the East coast. This will be awesome! We don't intend to be in Sydney until about the 18th or so. So... we can take our time, camp along the way and pretty much do what we want, when we want. I can't wait! And I'm going to do it without a watch if I can. Why? Just because I need to know the time all the time. I'll be on the longest vacation I've ever taken... I just want to know when I have t get back on a plane. Anyway, plans are still nice and loose. I've bought a couple more 128 MB smart media cards for my camera. I'll be taking TONS of pictures. Look for them sometime in February after I get back. If I can, I'll upload some while I'm there, but it's doubtful. Anyway... that's all for now :) I hope everything's groovy with all of you. Take it easy...

----- 11.11.2003 --------
On Sunday I went to see the Matrix: Revolutions on IMAX with my buddy Jamie. Simply put, it ROCKED! I thought they did such an amazing job with this movie. Not only was the eye-candy brilliant, but I loved the way they ended the story. Because you may not have seen it yet, I won't get into any details. Being a big fan of the whole Matrix universe, this 3rd one really lived up to my expectionation. Now, if you look what people had to say about it on IMDB.com, you will see most people liked it. What I find strange is the break down of votes. The most popular vote to give this movie was a 10. After that, an 8, then a 7, then a 9. And after that.... a 1 ?!?!? Now if there was a -10 available, these people would have given it that. Why? I haven't figured that out yet... but there's no way they saw the same movie I saw. No way! Now, if you didn't like the movie, you'd have to give it a 3 or 4 for special effects alone. Then again, these people that gave it a 1 hated it before it came out. On the day it was released, more 1's flooded it then anything else. Why? Simply because the movie wasn't out yet!!! That was the first available chance to vote. I don't understand why people waited by their computers until they could rate this a 1 without even seeing the movie?!?! They couldn't have seen it based on the times the votes started coming in. Anyway, I think this movie must scare them. Their close-minded world is being threatened. If nothing else, this movie suggests you open your mind. Maybe some felt violated by this. That would explain their 1's. Anyway... enough about it. I'm only happy a movie was made that I can enjoy so much. Thanks Wachowski Brothers for your gift to us!!! OK.... enough about it for one post. On an unrelated note... I needed to put a call into Microsoft at work yesterday. A problem cropped up and their "solution" made it worse. You'll never guess how long I waited on hold to speak with someone. 3 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES!!!!! Un-friggin' believable! I think that may be the longest I've waited on hold. I've waited longer for callbacks, but never that long listening to the crappy music being played. Fortunately I could put the phone on hands-free. The beauty of that is sharing the painful music with my co-workers :) No need for me to suffer alone, is there? ;) Tee hee. Anyway, that's about all I got to say. Everything else is going well. Even pool is. Although we lost 4 - 5 last night, we're getting better and more importantly, the team is starting to shape into a commited team of 6 that will show up every week. That's harder to find then you think!!!! OK, bye for now! Hope all is well with everyone else....

----- 11.06.2003 --------
I feel there's a new me just around the corner. I've been following my 12 week workout plan for almost 5 weeks now. Almost half way there. My most immediate goal is to get in better shape for Australia. However, even after I get back, I'm going to move into phase II for another 12 weeks. After that, finish it off with Phase III. And dammit, if I don't look like the guy on the cover of the book by then.... then that's fine by me. Why? Because I'm feeling better then ever! If you've been reading this for a while you'll know I went from someone getting no exercise to a guy who's exercising 5 days/week. Sure, I may never turn into the "Hard Body Man" on the cover of the program, but that's going to stop me from trying. Whether I've even changing physically or not doesn't really matter as long as mentally I'm feeling good. And I am! OK... I know what you're thinking... he comes the cheese. Nope. That's about the extent of it. I don't know if it's the quitting smoking, which has been just over 27 weeks now, or the new vitamins? Is it maybe my new workout plan? Maybe it's just that time of year.... I don't really know, I don't really care, and I don't want to change a thing! My energy levels are through the roof and I wouldn't have it any other way. So, I guess you could say things are going well :) Anyway, I'm off to meet up with buddy of mine I haven't seen in a while so I'll leave here. Later!

----- 11.02.2003 --------
I decided to post some of my pics I took of Vancouver last week. Actually, most of the pics are from the plane on the way to Vancouver. You can see them through my pics page, or click here. I've got the more detailed originals (3 megapixel) if you're interested. Just email me what pic you like and I'll send you the 2048x1536 version. I shrink all my pics down when posting them, so that gooes for all my pics (mostly). I hope everyone had a good weekend. Halloween (friday), I went down to Aquadisiac's halloween party. I had a blast! The place was packed! It's one of the few times I've actually seen a line up to get into the bar downstairs. I didn't take many pics this year so I won't be posting any. Sorry. Anyway, friday turned into a really late night (what else is new) so I slept most of yesterday away. I crawled out of bed around 4:30 or so. It's been a while since I slept in that long! Oh well. After I got up, my buddy Sean came over and we watched a movie & played some XBox. I just got "28 Days Later" on DVD. What a great movie! It's got all the elements of a perfect horror/doomsday movie. I find the realism of it all kinda frightening. I won't get into any more detail since you may not have seen it yet. If you like a good horror/suspense flick, check it out! Later on Ron came over as well with a beer beer beer bubba of beer beer beer beer :) I think we stopped playing sometime around 4 or so. I guess you can only take so much Xbox before you eventually need sleep... Anyway, work's coming tomorrow and I've got some work to get done tonight. So, with that, I'll leave you here. Enjoy the pics!

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