WestJet Seat Sale (Thanksgiving and Christmas!)

Westjet.com has some pretty good deals on right now! They're having a Thanksgiving Sale and Christmas Day sale!
Here are some sample fares from Edmonton (one way):

• Abbotsford - $81
• Calgary -$55
• Charlottetown - $229
• Comox - $110
• Fort McMurray - $84
• Grande Prairie - $84
• Halifax - $179
• Hamilton - $144
• Kelowna - $72
• London - $165
• Moncton $207
• Montréal $173
• Ottawa $173
• Prince George $110
• Regina $76
• Saskatoon $67
• St. John's $246
• Thunder Bay $144
• Toronto (Pearson) $149
• Vancouver $84
• Victoria $93
• Winnipeg $93

Seat Sale to Canada and the U.S. - Book WestJet.com and save!

Zune Pre-Order from Walmart.com

For all the USA folks out there. You can pre-order your Microsoft Zune in any colour you want for $249.94 USD.

Zune Pre-Order at Walmart.com!

It's brand new. It's really cool. And it's called Zune. When you want more than just another MP3 and video player, get one of these. Giant 30GB storage for music, photos and video ensures you'll never be bored. Ever. Best of all, the large, bright LCD display can go from portrait to landscape mode as you turn the player. Really. So whatever you're looking at always looks good.

Key Features & Benefits:

• 30GB capacity - Keep 7,500 songs (MP3 format) or 25,000 photos at your fingertips, or even 100 hours of video
• Photo and video compatible - Sometimes you want more than music to entertain you; the Zune delivers both photo and video options
• Hard drive storage format - Integrated hard drive provides massive amounts of memory for the least amount of money
• 3" portrait or landscape video screen - Unusual 3" video screen goes from portrait to landscape mode as you turn your Zune; you always see the best picture possible
• Extensive file format compatibility
• Advanced software lets you import most music, photos and videos with ease
• FM tuner - Catch the Top 40, stay up to date with your favorite sports teams, and make sure the weather doesn't take you by surprise
• Online music store - Browse the huge selection of music in the Zune Marketplace designed to work flawlessly with your Zune.

Zune Pre-Order at Walmart.com!

The Beatles Abbey Road

I was flipping through the radio stations a the other day and came upon K-Rock, who was playing "Mean Mr. Mustard" by the Beatles, which is very odd, because I don't think I've ever heard any radio station play that song. Anyways, I kept listening, and they played the rest of the Abbey Road album, including "Polythene Pam", "She came in through the bathroom window", "Golden Slumbers", "Carry that weight", and "The End." I wish I would have listened a little sooner to see if they played "Sun King" before "Mean Mr. Mustard."

Anyways, I thought that was pretty cool. If you've never listened to Abbey Road, the last 7 songs on the album flow into each other. It's pretty neat that K-Rock actually played them all in a row so everyone could listen to how they're supposed to be heard!

BJ Penn vs. Matt Hughes

Anyone see the UFC fight on Saturday with BJ Penn vs. Matt Hughes? It was crazy good! I thought for sure that BJ Penn would win the fight after his display of dominance in the first and second round. However, he just ran out of gas in the third round and Matt Hughes dominated him when he got tired. I wouldn't mind seeing another rematch between the two with BJ Penn training a little harder with the cardio next time!

Oh, Canada Post.....

I've been waiting for a package to arrive for a few weeks now that was being shipped via USPS/Canada Post. It was originally shipped on September 6, and supposedly was supposed to arrive in 4-6 business days. Well, as you can probably guess, the package has still not arrived, and all it says in the tracking information is that the "package arrived in Canada on September 14, 2006". No updates since then.

So, in light of this, I emailed Canada Post to see if they knew where the package was and what the hold up is. I got an auto-reply message stating that they were experiencing an unexpected volume of support emails and that my email would be answered in 5 to 10 business days. FIVE TO TEN. How long does it take to answer an email?!?! Do they have too few people working in the customer service department or is their service so bad that everyone is complaining?

So, today, I went to the USPS website and emailed them to see if they knew anything else about where the package was. Their autoreply message was much better -- it said it would answer the email in less than 48 hours.

Canada Post better get its act together because that kind of customer service is just unacceptable.

The Office Season Premiere

Did you catch the season premiere of The Office last night on NBC? If you didn't, you missed out! Seriously, if this show gets cancelled anytime soon then I'll have nothing left to watch on TV. Well, that's probably untrue, but I can't stop laughing everytime I watch an episode of The Office!

Best random moment of the show: Meredith eating some sanitizing lotion --- mmm, alcohol!

OSCENotes.com Unveiled

I've been working on a project with one of my classmates, Meiling Shih, over the past couple of weeks. She wrote a book over the past year that contains notes for OSCE exams, otherwise known as Objective Structured Clinical Exam. The book ended up containing notes on over 100 stations with over 200 pages of content.

She had quite a bit of success selling hard copies of the book to the class below us, so I approached her about selling it over the internet to other medical students across Canada, and, of course, all over the world.

We setup oscenotes.com, and converted the hard copy of the book into eBook format. Our biggest challenge was to figure out how to ensure that the eBook wouldn't be easily copied from computer to computer. We solved that problem by requiring each copy to be locked to one individual computer. We also limited the software by disabling the copy function to ensure that the content wouldn't end up on someone's website. However, like all software, I'm sure a crack will end up on the internet at some point in time.

We went with PayPal for our payment method. They seem to offer the lowest rates and easiest setup.

Anyways, if you know anyone who's interested in buying our book, you can send them over to www.oscenotes.com. We're currently selling the 1st edition for $25.00 CAD, which is about half the price as our only competition.

If you have any comments or questions about our new venture, we'd be happy to hear them! It'd also be great if you could spread the word on your websites, blogs, etc. We've got to pay down our student loans :)

Halloween Costumes and Contacts

I've been always scrambling for a halloween costume like 2 days before halloween...not this year though...I've decided I'm going to buy one off the internet, where they're much cheaper and much cooler than the ones you can get from Walmart.

I've decided to buy from Buycostumes.com. They've got lots of costumes, cheap shipping to Canada, and they do all the customs stuff for you.

Use coupon code '5ALIVE' for $5 off of a $40 order...

Shop for the best costumes here. If you've got any ideas as what I should go as, leave a comment...

You can also get halloween contact lenses here:
Halloween and Costume Lenses

Weekend Update

Well, I'm half way through my emergency rotation at the Royal Alex and Northeast Community Health Centre. I've got to do a lot more things than I ever expected to do.

Last night Amanda and I went to Kelly and Colin's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and I'll put some pictures up on my website that Amanda took. She has the pictures up on her blog and Live Space if you navigate over there.

I've been working on a project with a friend of mine from medical school that's consumed most of my free time this weekend. We'll probably have most of the project up and running by the end of the week. Keep watching my blog for more updates on that front!

New Disney Vacation website

Amanda and I are going to Disney World next May for a little vacation. We've made a page for it, so you can all see the planning process. We're big time planners...

You can see the page here.

First emergency shift at the Royal Alex

I worked the midnight to 8AM shift last night at the Royal Alex. It was as busy as I expected, although I thought I'd see a few more crazy things. I did my first lumbar puncture on an adult, and stitched up a guy's hand, who cut it when someone "threw a deer antler at him." Right.

I'm working the night shift at the NE Emerg tonight, and then working the night shifts at the Alex on Friday and Saturday. Good times! The only thing I'm having trouble with is adjusting to my new sleep patterns...which will again change next week when I start work at 7:30AM...

PREVIEW: Jackass Number Two -- September 22, 2006

You heard right...Jackass Number Two, September 22, 2006. Guess what we're doing that night Amanda!

DEAL: WestJet one-day sale!

Westjet.com is offering a one day sale today! Sample one-way fare include:

Edmonton to Halifax - $197
Edmonton to Vancouver - $73
Toronto to Calgary - $142
Toronto to Fort Lauderdale - $114
Vancouver to Toronto - $117

Go here: WestJet

DEAL: Dell: Back to School Blitz! -- just like Dell's Days of Deals

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. It’s back to work and for some, back to school. If you’ve got some extra back to school dollars to spend, Dell’s holding a Back to School Blitz with 5 days of deals starting September 5th.

As with their other Days of Deals promotions, they’ll have one Software & Peripherals deal everyday until the day is over or the quantity limit is reached. They typically launch them early in the morning around 6:00 AM so be sure to check back.

Day 1:
Targus Optical Wireless Notebook Mouse - $19
Kingston Elite Pro 2GB SD Memory Card - $449
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 THX Digital Speaker System - $249
Garmin StreetPilot C330 GPS Vehicle Navigator - $49
Kodak Easyshare V570 5MP Dual-Lens Digital Camera - $299
Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Broadband Router - $49

Day 2:
Dell UltraSharp 1907FP 19” Flat Panel LCD Monitor w/Height Adjusting Stand - $249
Creative Labs Live! Cam Voice Webcam - $49
Belkin Home Office 550 VA UPS - $39
Targus Voyager 17” Notebook Backpack Bundle (Cable Lock, Wireless Mouse, USB 2.0 Hub) - $79
Kingston 2GB U3 DataTraveler USB Flash Drive - $49
Kensington USB Universal Notebook Expansion Dock - $59

Day 3:
Creative Labs 30 GB Zen Vision: M MP3 Player Black - $299
ZEN Vision: M Skin (White) - $16.15
Axim X51v 624Mhz, Intel® 624MHz, 256MB ROM, 64MB SDRAM, 3.7 inch VGA 802.11b, BT - $349
Dell GPS Navigation System with Cabled GPS Receiver for Dell Axim Handhelds - $139
Iomega 250 GB 7200 RPM Silver Series USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive - $99
Philips HN110 Noise Cancelling Foldable Headphones - $39

Day 4:
Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20” Widescreen LCD Monitor w/Height Adjustable Stand - $379
Dell UltraSharp 2407FPW 24” Widescreen LCD Monitor w/Height Adjustable Stand - $729
Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Rechargeable Mouse - $59
Belkin SurgeMaseter Gold 9-Outlet Surge Protector - $19
K-PEX 100 2GB Portable Media Player & 256MB Mini-SD Card) - $149
Kingston 1GB SD Memory Card - $29

Day 5:
Dell E177FP 17-inch Flat Panel Color Display - $159
Microsoft Office 2003 Student and Teacher Edition - $149
Dell 3201C 32” LCD HDTV - $1199
PureAV High Performance HDMI Video Cable (8ft) - $99
Harmony 550 Advanced Universal Remote - $99
Targus Wireless Laser Rechargeable Notebook Mouse - $39

Shipping is free on all items during the sale. Enjoy!

Cheap contacts available in Canada from ClearlyContacts.ca -- Free shipping over $99. Acuvue Advance, Acuvue Oasys, Acuvue 2, Focus lens available

For most of my life I've been buying contacts from my local eye clinic. I switched to Acuvue Advance about 2 years ago and have been paying $45 per box. That works out to be about $360 a year for contacts. I figured there had to be a cheaper place to buy them, and, in fact, there is. This place is even cheaper than Costco and Walmart. It's called ClearlyContacts.ca.

First of all, they offer free shipping on all orders over $99. You don't even pay for your contacts until they arrive at your door.

Their prices are what separates them apart. Here is a list of what you can expect to pay per box:

COUPON ALERT: Use coupon code 'CANADA10' for $10 off your next order.

Acuvue Products

• Acuvue Advance - $27.99
• Acuvue - $19.49
• Acuvue 2 - $19.49
• Acuvue Oasys - $39.99
• Acuvue Toric - $69.99
• Surevue - $20.99
• Acuvue Colors Opaques - $41.99
• Acuvue 2 Enhancers - $40.99

Bausch & Lomb

• B&L 2 Week (Soflens 59) - $19.99
• Optima FW (Soflens 38) - $22.99
• Soflens 66 - $21.99
• Soflens Toric - $39.99
• Soflens One Day (90 Pack) - $54.99
• Soflens One Day (15 Pack) - $17.99
• Nike MaxSight - $67.99
• Optima Toric - $85.99
• Soflens Multifocal - $57.99
• Purevision - $59.99
• Purevision Toric - $69.89
• Purevision Multifocal - $69.99
• Optima 38 SP - $38.99

Focus Products

• Focus Night and Day - $65.99
• Focus Dailies (90 Pack) - $51.99
• Focus Dailies 30 Pack - $22.99
• Focus Monthly Visitint - $29.99
• Focus Monthly Softcolors - $42.99
• Focus 1-2 wk / NewVues - $20.99
• Focus 1-2 wk Softcolors / NewVues - $36.99
• Focus Toric - $50.99
• Focus Dailies Toric 30 Pack- $33.99
• Focus Progressives - $44.99
• Focus Dailies Progressives 30 Pack - $29.99

Freshlook Products

• Freshlook Colorblends - $39.99
• Freshlook Colors (Opaques) - $36.99
• Freshlook Dimensions - $37.99
• Freshlook LiteTint - $19.99
• Freshlook Radiance - $35.99
• Freshlook One-Day - $21.99
• Freshlook Toric - $49.99
• Freshlook Colorblends Toric - $67.99
• Freshlook Colorblends Singles - $12.99

Anyways, check them out. I'm sure you'll have as good as an experience as I had with them!

7 more months of rotations left

On April 1, 2007, I'll be done all of my medical school rotations. That means that as of today I have exactly 7 more months to go.

I'm picking up Amanda tonight from the ferry. I haven't seen her in two weeks, and that's just too long to go without seeing your girlfriend.