Here is a funny video mocking Microsoft’s new “Surface” computer, which is basically a table with a touchscreen:
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Review: Sharkwater
May 7, 2008 – 12:01 am
Bound to bring even the most hardened of people close to tears, Sharkwater is an international award-winning documentary by Rob Steward that looks into the world of sharks—uncovering not only the myths about these amazing creatures as blood-thirsty killers, but also the billion-dollar finning industry that is wiping them from our planet.
“For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.
Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.
Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world’s shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.”
—Sharkwater.com
This is a documentary that every person should watch and every scuba diver should appreciate. It is, without a doubt, one of the best underwater documentaries of our time and its message is clear—sharks are not crazed killers and by keeping the underwater food chain under control, they manage an area of the world that produces 70% of the oxygen on Earth (the oceans). By killing these amazing creatures, we are destroying the ability of future generations to survive on this planet.
Head on over to www.sharkwater.com for more information.
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Flying to Cuba
May 5, 2008 – 4:30 pm
I’m likely on a plane heading for Cuba as this post is released. I scheduled it on Friday night just as a pre-celebration, since I won’t be able to express my excitement here from the plane :-p. Anyway, I’ve also got a review post of the award-winning documentary Sharkwater coming out in a couple days, so stay tuned.
Be back in a week!
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Packed for Cuba
May 4, 2008 – 9:37 pm
Well, we leave for Cuba tomorrow and I’m all packed and ready to go! I just had to take a picture of my luggage since it so wonderfully reflects my priorities for this trip. The largest bag is dedicated to my scuba equipment, the carry-on is dedicated to my camera equipment, and the medium-sized bag is for everything else. I went with a minimalist theme in terms of clothes and accessories. I figure I can wash some essentials while I’m there and then re-use them :-). I’m pretty excited; be back in a week!
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Reduce Cell Phone Charges in 5 Minutes
May 2, 2008 – 1:46 pm
I received my cell phone bill from Rogers today and I was charged an extra $24 for using 80 extra minutes over my weekday limit! Considering I already pay ~$45/mo. for my plan and all of the company’s stupid fees I was pretty upset. Without hesitation I called Rogers and was connected with a billing representative.
I told her that having to pay $24 extra was pretty frustrating considering that I never go over the limit and that 68 of those 80 minutes were spent on a 1-800 number setting up a bank account. I told her I would like to have the charges removed so she put me on hold for a minute while she “went over my history”. She came back and offered to meet me half-way, cutting the charges to $12 instead of $24. Since the charges really were my fault I couldn’t complain much more so I took the offer.
In less than 5 minutes (surprisingly I didn’t even have to wait on hold), I reduced my charges by 50% through one simple phone call. I’m a true believer that if you want something, you’ve got to ask. A lot of people don’t want to put in the effort to ask for what they want; but if you don’t ask, it’s pretty likely that you won’t get it. This doesn’t only apply to companies, but life in general. Don’t be afraid to take a risk and ask for what you want; you’ll be surprised at how often you get it. Besides, usually the worst thing that can happen is the person/entity says no–then you just move on (or try harder).
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New Camera and Underwater Housing
May 1, 2008 – 10:57 pm
Today I received my new Canon Powershot SD750 along with it’s underwater housing! I’ve been wanting a point-and-shoot camera for a while now for those times when bringing the DSLR just isn’t possible or practical. At the same time, I wanted to buy one that had an underwater housing available that I could use to take pictures while scuba diving.
I decided on the SD750 and its housing (WP-DC14) for many reasons:
- Canon is obviously one of the best manufacturers of point-and-shoots
- Canon offers a great line of underwater housings for many of its cameras
- The Canon housings are competitively priced
- The SD750 was released in 2007 so isn’t hot off the press, but at the same time offers me a great camera with lots of features for a reasonable price
In the end I ended up getting an underwater photography solution (meager, but at least I can take pics underwater now!) for under $400. Considering the housing cost as much as the camera (and in some cases, the housings can cost thousands of dollars), I am really happy with my purchase. I could have gone to a local scuba shop and boughten one of their underwater digital cameras for about $150, but the quality would be nothing near what the Canon offers.
Anyway, the camera has come just in time for our trip to Cuba, so I’m really excited to use it while diving and snorkeling! I’ll be sure to post some pictures when we get back to show how it performed.
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Scuba Hits the Video Game Scene
April 30, 2008 – 11:41 pm
As an avid scuba diver, I am super excited to see that a new game called Endless Ocean has been released for the Nintendo Wii. In this game you are a scuba diver able to “interact with underwater sea creatures to reveal encyclopedia-style descriptors–educating them on its species and habits.” In Endless Ocean, you can teach dolphins tricks, swim beside blue whales, and sail the open ocean on your very own yacht. Check out the video below to watch a preview of the game. I’m not a gamer, but I can’t wait to get my hands on this!
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Now What?
April 28, 2008 – 5:11 pm
Well, it’s over. I wrote my last exam of my undergrad today and I am officially in self-creation mode. Other than holding down a part-time job, I am pretty much a free man. So, here I am asking myself “now what?” It has come to that point where my future is pretty much an open canvas. During the past four years I have known that I would need to make a decision about what to do next, but it really didn’t hit me because I was always thinking about the next essay, exam, or set of readings. Even during the summers I knew what was coming–another year of school. Well, now all of that is done… I think.
I really don’t know what the future holds for me, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make some decisions this summer. The plan is to head out to Vancouver and think about what’s next. I want to take some time to reflect, hike, camp, scuba dive, and take lots of pictures. I’m hoping that this process will clear my head a bit, allow me to shake off the mindset of being a student, and give me a chance to make the next step.
It’s a very weird feeling, not knowing what is coming up–yet it is very exciting at the same time. For my whole life, up until this point, I have always known what was next. It was almost like a security blanket, and now it is gone. At the same time, I know I am very lucky to be in this position. So many people who are settled tell me that they wish they could have the same freedom–something one of my professors called “old man’s envy.” It is an exciting time and I am going to try to make the best of it.
In the very near future I do have a few plans. On Wednesday we are taking Rita’s little brother and my little cousin to the Toronto Zoo. This will also give me a chance to take some pictures :-). Then, next Monday, Rita and I are flying to Cuba for a week. We’ll be staying in Santa Lucia at an all-inclusive. I’ve never been to an all-inclusive and I’m a bit hesitant about the idea (I like to be a bit more entrenched when I travel), but I’m going to give it a shot (rough life, eh?). I’m sure it’ll be great and I’m really looking forward to doing some scuba diving while I’m there–Santa Lucia is home to the longest reef of its kind in the Western hemisphere.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at right now. It’s a pretty cool time to be me and I’m excited to see what develops over the course of the next year or so. You can be sure that I’ll be posting all the news here though, so stay tuned!
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Is Obama Too Good Looking?
April 27, 2008 – 1:03 am
This has actually been asked of him; whether he thinks that he can relate to working class people even though he looks like a model for the cover of GQ magazine. The best part about this whole thing? His response; it’s hilarious. Take a look.
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Super Spidy
April 26, 2008 – 3:19 am
Rita found this cool spider and I just had to take some macro shots of it. Spiders are not one of my favourite creatures by any means, but when getting up close and personal with them you can’t help but see their personality. Can’t you?
Seriously though, this little guy would stop and look up at us as if captivated by our strange facial features. You could tell it was interested in our eyes because it would look at us when we stared at it and then move away once I tried to take a picture–as if it lost interest since we weren’t making eye contact. Maybe (s)he was just camera shy. Anyway, here are the pictures; click on the thumbnails to see (and make a comment on) the full image.
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Craigslist Scam
April 22, 2008 – 12:51 pm
So I was trying to sell my laptop on Craigslist and received an email from a guy named David who “lives” in Waco, Texas and wanted to buy my laptop for his son who was doing work in Africa. The offer was a good one and he even said he’d put in an extra $150 for the shipping costs. He said he’d pay through PayPal and said I should be getting a confirmation of the payment soon. I was trying not to get my hopes up because this deal sounded a little too good to be true. Well, I did get a PayPal confirmation and it had a nice PayPal logo, confirmation number, and everything else. However, the “From” address didn’t have the @paypal.com domain; it was @accountant.com. I logged into my PayPal account and sure enough, no money.
I looked into it a little more and this “David Collins” was trying to get me to send my laptop to his “son” Fowowe Ademide Ezekiel in Nigeria. Also, a short while later I got another offer on my laptop from this girl name “Maria” who also wanted the laptop sent overseas for an extra $200.00. Wow, what a scam. Here are the email messages I was sent. Take this as a reminder to always be careful when dealing online and never send out goods without having the cash in your hands.
Email 1 (Building a relationship):
I would like to know if the above item is still available for sale if so please do get back to me with the asking price
and probably more pictures….
Thanks
david.
Email 2:
Thanks for your response.I am located at Waco,tx i gat my cell fone stolen,if not would av rung you,This Item is a replica of what i want for my son who is in Africa at the mo. sorting out his project …I will add $150.00 as shipping charges confirm from http://www.usps.com for international shipping making it a total of $1,350.00 …….I will make the total payment if you’ll kindly help me handle the shipping.You can send me the paypal info and i’ll make the payment right away.
Email 3:
Thanks for the message, i will like it shipped to my son in Africa,here is his address:
Name: Fowowe Ademide Ezekiel
Address: Left out for the security reasons–why protect a scammer? Because two wrongs don’t make a right)
I will let you know when the payment has been confirmed made,Thanks for the help………Dav.
Email 4:
Thanks so much my friend,Paypal just contacted me that the payment has been confirmed made,you can check in your paypal email address for the confirmation,as i have got my confirmation here to……Thanks,Get back to me soon.
The “PayPal” Confirmation:
-click on the image for a larger view.
The internet can be a dangerous place if you’re not careful. Let this be a reminder to always double-check and verify claims. It’s sad to say that you can’t really trust anyone, but sometimes this may be true. This experience also brings to mind the phrase: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
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How To Make a Budget
April 21, 2008 – 11:57 am
Tired of not knowing where all your money disappears to? Spending too much on things you really don’t need? These are some of the things that I have been trying to stop lately and creating a budget seems like a pretty good way to do it. How exactly does one go about creating a budget? Well, there are many guidelines out there so I’ve put together what I think to be a basic introduction.
First, you need to know how much you make on a monthly (or weekly) basis. Next, go through your bank and credit card statements over the past couple of months and find out just how much you’re spending–and what you’re spending on. How does your income compare to your expenses? Do you spend a lot of money on fast food? Paying too much for your cell phone plan? These are some of the things you want to look for during this process.
Once you have an idea of what you spend your money on, you can begin to set limits on your spending–this is what creating a budget is all about. Since everyone makes different amounts of income, there is a general guideline on how to split up your budget and it looks like this (source: Get Rich Slowly):
- 60% to Committed Expenses such as taxes, clothing, basic living expenses, insurance, charity (including tithe), and regular bills (including things like cable).
- 10% to Retirement.
- 10% to Irregular Expenses such as vacations, major repair bills, new appliances, etc.
- 10% to Long-Term Savings/Debt — money set aside for car purchases, home renovations, or to pay down substantial debt loads.
- 10% for Fun Money to be used for dining out, hobbies, indulgences, etc.
Of course, this is just a guideline. In my case I currently don’t have many committed expenses because I live at home so I would put more money into paying off my debt. It may be different in your case as well.
Now that we have a guideline on how to budget our money, the tough part is actually abiding by these limits. There are many ways to do this and, ultimately, you are the one who knows what will work best for your situation. One of the most basic ideas out there is the envelop system, where you put alloted amounts of cash into envelops each month (for example, there would be a “fast food” envelop with $50 in it and once the money in the envelop is gone–no more fast food for the month). Another method involves buying gift cards for places where you know you have to limit your spending (buy a $50 Starbucks card and allow yourself to buy coffee only with that card for the month). Or, you could just use plain ol’ discipline.
There are an infinite number of ways to create a budget since people and their lifestyles vary. However, the most important thing you can do is start tracking your finances and set guidelines to ensure that your expenses are lower than your income–anything else equals debt. For a list of great financial tools to help you track your finances and get a budget set up, see my post: 6 Reasons to Track Your Finances.
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