The wheels on the bus go round and round.

I never rode the bus much in junior high or high school. I've never rode the bus in university. I've been lucky that I've never had to. I'm down in Calgary right now doing an elective and rather than pay the $10 to park each day + gas, I decided to ride the bus for $4.50 a day.

Here are my observations about riding the bus:

Good things:

1. You don't have to think/worry about traffic.
2. You know exactly what time you'll get at your destination.
3. It's cheaper than parking.

Bad things:

1. Some people smell really bad.
2. There often aren't enough seats for everyone on the bus.
3. A 15 minute car ride takes 45 minutes on the bus.
4. If you finish work at 4:00 p.m., and the next bus doesn't come until 4:30 p.m., you add 30 mins to your trip for nothing.

All in all, the bus wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I certainly miss driving my car to work though, which I'll be back at next Monday.

DEAL: American Eagle Coupon

Here's a coupon from American Eagle, worth 15% off your purchases until November 2nd, 2006.

http://app.ae.com/coupon2/EXKEVT/HYF7R/7AKGK/2YYOLO/CPEFL1/

DEAL: Day 13 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 13:

Sony 1GB NWS203FS Walkman MP3 Player - $119
Freestor Mini 310 3.5” USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure with SBC Backup and Restore Software - $49
Sony MDRNC11AW Noise Cancelling Headphones - White - $69

10 Business Days of Deals!

DEAL: Day 12 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 12:

Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse Combo - $59
Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP 20.1” Widescreen LCD Monitor - $389
Dell Ultrasharp 1707FP 17” LCD Monitor - $189

10 Business Days of Deals!

DEAL: Day 11 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 11:

Dell 5650 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System with Subwoofer - $59
Targus Voyager Backpack Bundle for 15"+ Display Notebooks (Cable Lock, Mouse, USB Hub) - $79
Kensington Travel Plug Adapter with USB Charger - Power adapter (External) - $19

10 Business Days of Deals!

New Clearlycontacts.ca Coupons

Clearlycontacts.cahas some new coupons available for your use until the end of October. As stated previously, they have great deals on contacts (cheaper than Costco or Walmart). They're the only place I order from.

They new coupons are:
15OFFOCT - $15 off $150 or more
20OFFOCT - $20 off $200 or more

And, of course, you get free priority shipping on orders over $100.

Check out their Most Popular Products.

You can also get a free trial pair of Acuvue contact lens here.

Day 10 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 10:

DiscGear Selector 100FX 100-Disc CD/ DVD Storage System - Black - $29
Kingston 1 GB Secure Digital Card - $24
SlingBox — Personal TV Broadcaster - $149
ViewSonic NextVision N4060W - LCD TV - 40” - widescreen - HDTV - black - $1599
Sling Media - SlingLink Powerline Ethernet Adapter - $79

10 Business Days of Deals!

Day 9 of Dell's Days of Deals

Big LCD monitors on sale today! Free shipping on all.

Day 9:

Dell E207WFP 20” Widescreen LCD Monitor - $299
Dell Ultrasharp 2407FPW 24” Widescreen LCD Monitor - $749
Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP 30” Widescreen LCD Monitor - $1599
Startech External USB 2.0 TV Tuner with Remote - $49
Targus Optical Wireless Notebook Mouse with Charger - $19
Solidtek GT-504 5” x 3.75” USB Graphic Tablet for PC or MAC - $49

10 Business Days of Deals!

AIRMILES -- Oh how I dislike you.

Oh, Airmiles, how I loath you. I've been saving up Airmiles for quite a while now and have accumulated around 4000 air miles in the process. I'm going to Kingston, Ontario for an elective in late November, and my plan was to use them for a flight there. Since it's low season, it's around 2200 airmiles to go anywhere in Ontario. A flight to Kingston at that time costs around $1450 round trip. So, it's a no brainer right? Right. However, Airmiles, as per usual, threw a wrench in my plans.

I called Airmiles about a week ago to book my flights. I asked to fly to Kingston from Edmonton on November 18 and to return home on December 2nd. I checked the Air Canada website and saw that they did, in fact, have three flight plans going to Kingston from Edmonton that day. Cool right?

No, no, not cool. The operator said that she didn't have any flights available on November 18, 17 or 20. Sucky, since I know Air Canada has flights available.

So, my next choice would to fly from Edmonton to Ottawa and take the train or bus to Kingston. I checked and Westjet had 3 flights going out on that day to Ottawa. Once again, Airmiles kicks me in the midsection. They say they only have one flight available and it doesn't get into Ottawa until 8pm at night, which is no good for my bus or train plans. Airmiles foils option #2 for me.

Finally choice number three works out. A flight to Toronto and then a train ride to Kingston. It's the best I could do, and it's unfortunate that Airmiles doesn't get its act together and start offering more flights. What good are miles if you can't use them?

So, anyways, a round trip ticket to Toronto is around $500 including taxes at that time. Booking through Airmiles cost me 2025 airmiles + $166 in taxes and fees.

Anyways, that's my rant...they'll get what they deserve someday....

DEAL: Day 8 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 8:

LaCie 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - Design by F. A. Porsche - $89
Linksys DGS-1005D 5-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch - $29
Seagate 400 GB 7200 RPM Barracuda 7200.10 Internal SATA Hard Drive - $159
Kensington Combosaver Lock and Cable For Laptops - $26
Dell Classic Leather Case - $399

Day 7 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 7:

• IOGEAR Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Headphones and Microphone with Wireless Audio Transmitter - $69
• Targus Port 3.1 Notebook Backpack - $49
• Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA6 Weatherproof Digital Movie Camera - $399
• Kodak C643 6 Megapixel Digital Camera - $179
• Targus 8-In-1 Card Reader and 3-port USB 2.0 Hub - $19
• Intuit Quickbooks Easystart 2007 - $69

10 Business Days of Deals!

Day 6 of Dell's Days of Deals

Day 6:

• Dell 1200MP SVGA DLP Projector - $599
• IOGEAR Optical Memory Mini Mouse with 128MB Memory & Retractable Cable - $19
• Sony NVU70 nav-u Portable GPS Navigation Device - $399
• Kensington Wireless Pocket Presenter - $49
• Bretford 6570M Manual Wall Projection Screen - black, matte white - 70’X70’ - $99
• Belkin 9-Outlet SurgeMaster Gold Series Surge Protector with 10 Feet Cord - $19
  

10 Business Days of Deals!

Another windows error..."STOP 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" Error Message When You Restart Your Computer

This was a new one for me...

I came home tonight from dinner with my parents and Amanda, and I started up my computer to do some work, when I noticed that it kept restarting halfway through booting up after showing a blue screen (which was there for less than 1 second). After watching this process a few times I was able to read a few words on the blue screen, which said:

STOP 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

So, yeah, that wasn't a good sign.

So, I find my Gateway System Recovery CD to hopefully boot up Windows and correct whatever has happened to the drive. However, upon starting the CD, I find out that you can only use the CD to format your whole hard drive and re-install Windows XP. That's no good. I have EVERYTHING on my laptop and haven't backed up anything (which I will be doing as soon as I get this fixed.....).

So I actually find a solution on the microsoft website, but my problem is that I can't access the Windows Recovery Console without a Windows XP installation CD (which didn't come with my computer...just the "recovery cd".)

So I do some searching and find a whole bunch of things that don't work. I actually find how to make Windows XP boot floppy disks off the Microsoft site, but my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, and I don't even think I have 6 3.5" disks around.

So I do some searching and finally come across a Windows XP Boot CD ISO file that is hopefully going to solve all my problems...it actually let me access the Recovery Console and I'm now running "chkdsk /r" in the hope of it solving all my problems....stay tuned for the latest...

UPDATE: 11:41 p.m....finally finished...and everything works again! Whoo hoo. Took 5 hours to get it all fixed...what a waste of a night!

DEAL: Dell's Days of Deals - Day 5

Day 5:

• Kensington Shredmaster SC170 Strip-Cut Paper Shredder - Metallic Gray - $59
• Kingston Elite Pro - Flash memory card - 2 GB - 50x - SD Memory Card - $43
• McAfee VirusScan 2007 Plus with Spyware & Firewall Protection - $29
• Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Deluxe - $49
• Belkin Dual Form Factor Small Enterprise UPS - 830 Watt - 1500 VA - 8 Output Connectors - $149

Dell's Days of Deals

DEAL: Dell's Days of Deals - Day 4

Lots of goodies today...

Day 3:

• APC Back-UPS ES 750VA UPS - $59
• Dell Axim X51v 624Mhz - $349
• Dell GPS Navigation System with Bluetooth Wireless Technology for Dell Axim X51/X51v Handhelds - $139
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250GB SATA-300 Hard drive - $89
• Kingston 2 GB CompactFlash Elite Pro Card - $69

Dell's Days of Deals

DEAL: Dell's Days of Deals - Day 3

It's monitors today.....

Day 3:

• Dell E197FP 19” LCD Monitor - $189
• Dell E177FP 17” LCD Monitor - $159
• Dell UltraSharp 1907FP 19” LCD Monitor w/Height Adjusting Stand - $249
• Startech USB 2.0 to VGA Dual Display Adapter - $69
• Logitech V450 Cordless Laser Mouse - $29
• Ergotron Neo-Flex LCD Flat Panel Desk Mount Arm - $69

Dell's Days of Deals

DEAL: Day 2 of Dell's Days of Deals

Here we go. Free shipping on everything!

Day 2:

• Trendnet Wireless G Camera - $129 ($170 off)
• Netgear Skype WiFi Phone - $89 ($60 off)
• Belkin Wireless Desktop 130 - $24 ($35 off)
• Dragon Naturally Speaking Standard 9 - $89 ($10 off)
• Belkin N1 Wireless N Router - $149 ($30 off)
• 7-Port High Speed USB 2.0 Hub - $29 ($20 off)
  

Dell's Days of Deals

DEAL: Dell's Days of Deals - Day 1

Here we go. Free shipping on everything!

Day 1:

• Plantronics Discover 645 Bluetooth Headset - $80 (was $199)
• IOGEAR 2 Port Mini-View Switch - $20 (was $49)
• SONY DSC-S500 Cyber-shot - $170 (was $199)
• Dell 23" LCD TV - $699 (was $799)
• Dell 1800mp Projector - $699 (was $999)
• KPEX100/1GB 1GB Portable Media Player with Mini-SD Slot - $100 (was $149)
  
  

Dell's Days of Deals

4th year of hockey draft

Here's my team for this year's hockey draft...we'll see how I do...


crosby
sundin
datsyuk
gagne
p bergeron
malkin
modano
hejduk
morrison
stoll
lang
j carter
conroy
murray
comrie
m johnson
ribeiro
getzlaf
brule
hunter
cullen
o'sullivan
bulis
carle
markov
cajanek

Dell's Days of Deals starts tomorrow!

Dell is having it's Days of Deals starting tomorrow. Check my blog all week for the daily deals!

Why is everything spinning....

Thanks for everyone who came out to my birthday last night! I think I made it to about 1:30 a.m. before I went home. And I never threw up! Whoo hoo. I must be getting good in my old age.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a good time. I certainly did. I saw a lot of people who I haven't seen in years, which is always nice!

Eat lots of turkey this weekend...

Birthday Plans

I turn the big 25 this year. A quarter of a century. Uhhh.....

Anyways, my actual birthday is on October 9th, which is a Monday. In fact, it's Thanksgiving. Due to the fact that no one would choose my birthday over turkey, I've decided to celebrate my birthday in grand fashion on Friday, October 6th, at the Thirsty Turtle on Whyte Avenue. Although I didn't make it past midnight last year due to my, umm, over indulgence into the EtOH, I promise I won't start quite so early this year so that I actual make it past midnight.

Hope to see you all there!

REVIEW: Jackass Number Two

Oh man, was it sweet. It was like 2 hours of glory. Although Amanda notes on her blog that she almost lost her dinner a couple of times, I know she loved it.

I mean, who can't love this movie. It was just pure madness. I couldn't stop laughing the whole movie. It REALLY out did the first Jackass. They stepped it up to a whole new level.

Now I wait for Borat in November. Oh yeah.