Friday, September 3rd @ 11:46am EDT . . .

T.G.I.F. & a long weekend!!
I picked up a cold this week. Started Wednesday morning when I woke up around 2am and my throat was all sore. I really didn't notice any problems the night before other than being tired. A couple of people have been sick at work last week but it has been quite this week or maybe picked it up at the hospital on Monday. You have no idea what goes around a hosptial. It started out as a chest cold but has since moved its way up into my head. Been doing alot of sneezing and my nose is running like Ben Johnson. This morning hasn't been too bad so far although it was been hard sleeping at night. The heat wave we are having this week is not helping either. The humidity has been very high. Off for the long Labour Day weekend so that will give me some time to recoup.

Sent back my old PVR back to Shaw Direct on Tuesday night. Dropped it off at the Staples store near me. Didn't get picked up until the day at 4:30pm or so and shipped out of Ottawa at 7:11pm on its way to Montreal?? I'm thinking why is it going to Montreal when it's suppose to be going to Toronto. Anyway it sits in Montreal for the day. It finally leaves Montreal around 5pm, Finally it's heading for Toronto. It arrives and was delivered to Shaw Direct at 9am this morning. It really is a round-about way of getting something sent to Toronto.

Watching a sports highlight package this morning and they were covering a tennis match in which a fight breaks out in the stands. I know tennis is really boring to watch but a fight by the spectators is very unusual.

Monday, August 30th @ 7:57pm EDT . . .

Went to the doctor's today and...
It turned out to be good visit! Most of my numbers were good. My kidney functionability has improved somewhat so the Kidney specialist does not see a need to look at Dialysis or a transplant at this time or over the next several months. My next appointment with the Kidney people isn't until December. The dietician is also very happy with my numbers even though I'm not big on fruits and veggies. He says he is happy with the results of the last blood work and 24-hour urine that he says... "Keep up the good work, I really don't care you don't eat another vegetable. I'm happy". My parents were happy with the news to so they treated me to some good food at Wendy's... A Baconator, fries and Sprite. The Doctor even said my salt intake was a little low so I might start putting a little more salt on things. I don't normally put salt on alot of things but I do like it on poached eggs.

My new HD/PVR from Shaw Direct seems to be working just fine now. They sent me an empty box today to ship back my old PVR. So that is all packed up and ready to head back tomorrow. My $300 programming credit has already kicked in too, so that will mean free programming until the end of the year! I like.

My Vonage VoIP service seems to be working just great also. I think I'm all set to enjoy a Great Fall... a new HD/PVR, can get faster speed on my internet now, great phone service that is loud and clear and a kidney that doesn't seem to be getting any worse. My health has improved greatly since May.

Sunday, August 29th @ 10:26am EDT . . .

A sure sign winter is on it's way.
I got the Sears Wish Book this past week. They are offering a 9-foot christmas tree for the amazing price of $1299.99. WOW! that must be some special tree. Did notice a couple of other christmas trees that are different this year and a little more reasonable in price. A "corner tree" for those who have tight space in their livingroom and also a "half tree" which goes right up against your wall. Thought these were some cleverly designed trees.

It's turning out that Ottawa is now the new hotbed of terrorism. Several muslims were arrested this past week on terrorism charges. They had planned to blow up the Parliament buildings here in town. One of those guys that were picked up was a past contestant on "Canadian Idol". Appartently he lied on the show. He was born in Canada and doesn't normally wear that weird clothing.

I LOVE the theme song on Shaytards Vlog.

Saturday, August 28th @ 12:26am EDT . . .

Just an update on my last posting.
After re-negotiating a new deal for my new HD/PVR on Wednesday it arrived by Purolator during the lunch hour on Thursday. I didn't have time to set it up before work so I set it up when I got home. It crashed/rebooted a couple of times while I was playing with it. Thought I had a lemon again. My old PVR crashed quite abit. A new firmware update downloaded yesterday morning and so far no more reboots. Figured out how to set timers finally. Totally different than with my old PVR. At first I wasn't all impressed with this unit but Friday night after finally figuring out the timer settings I am liking this HD/PVR more and more.

I broke through a level that I was hoping to achieve with my weight loss. I was hoping to get below 200 pounds by the end of the month. Well I was able to get down to 199.8 pounds Friday morning. I'm not sure if I wanna lose much more... it's a pain buying new clothes all the time. Have gone from a 48 pants down to a 40 and 42 in some pants. It has been kinda nice having people comment on my weight loss over the summer. Thank you very much.

Wednesday, August 25th @ 12:44pm EDT . . .

Today is turning out to be a Good Day!!
Re-negociated my deal I made a couple weeks ago with my satellite tv provider for a for $399. Originally, I was only able to get a $100 programming credit but today I was able to get another $200 off and trade in my old PVR. So the net price turned out to be $99 for the new HD/PVR. Can't complain too much now... get rid of the crappy PVR I've used for the last 5 years and get something that is supposed to be more advanced.

I discovered a new route to get to work that total avoids the road construction that I was trying to get through over the summer. The new route takes a couple of side streets and there is NO traffic on them and only a few stop signs to deal with. It's too bad I didn't discover this route previously. The current road construction is suppose to end next Tuesday. Oh well.

My weight loss gets ever closer to the 200 pound mark. This morning I was down to 200.8 after being up slightly over the last couple of days. I would really like to get down to 199.9 by the end of August.

Sunday, August 22nd @ 8:50am EDT . . .

"FABULOUS"... I hate that word.
It sounds soo "gay". I was watching Steven & Chris, which by the way is coming to American TV this fall, and these guys were using the word "fabulous" in about every other sentence. I know these guys are gay but man cut down the use of the word. Use "fantastic", "awesome" or "great". It makes me cringe when I hear "fabulous". This is a word that shouldn't be spoken by any man, gay or straight. I was watching Holmes Inspection on HGTV the other night and even Mike Holmes used the word "fabulous". It shocked me. It's a word that should only be used by rich high society women like Mrs. Howell on Gilligan's Island, NOT men.

Just to go further on my review of Vonage... I have read many, many articles online about how great MagicJack is and the sound quality is as good as any other phone service. I have to totally disagree with that assumption. I found the MagicJack was extremely hard to hear the caller even with volumes turned right up loud. Vonage sound level on calls is perfect. Here is another review I found interesting... MagicJack vs. Vonage vs. Skype.

Saturday, August 21st @ 11:49am EDT . . .

Vonage vs. MagicJack
Over the last month or so I have had the opportunity to try out both phone service providers. My personal recommendation is Vonage!! You've probably read my somewhat negative review of the MagicJack a couple weeks ago. I still have Vonage and it seems to work just great! It's voice adapter works really great and came configured to use with my phone number. It was just plug and play. I have my voice adapter going through a router and the first time I called someone I could hear the person but they could not hear me. I'm thinking... oh oh, another failure. I unplugged the power connection on my router for a few seconds and plugged it back in. Bingo it WORKS and works great. The sound quality is amazing. The person I was talking to didn't complain about the volume or the echo effect I had on a previous VoIP service from an old ISP. Not sure who makes the Vonage voice adapter but it sure works well. Does not cut my speed down like my old voice adapter I had with my previous VoIP service. I get the full 10 Megs as advertised from Rogers Cable internet service. With my old adapter it cut my speed down to 7.5 Megs even when I am not on the phone. Vonage also comes with a ton of calling features and 500 minutes of free local and Canada/USA long distance calling for just $19.99 a month. Yes it is more expensive than other VoIP services but so far it seems to be much more reliable. They have other plans if you make alot of international calls but I just signed up for the basic service @ $20 a month ($18 in the US). The Vonage voice adapter was cheap... only $10! One nice thing about Vonage is when I have a power failure my calls are then routed to my cell phone for free. Kinda cool since I've had quite a few power failures this year for some reason. Internet service by Rogers Cable does not stay on during a power failure. So if your looking to get rid of the more expensive land-line you presently have then I would really recommend Vonage as an alternative. An online friend of mine signed up a few days after me but I haven't asked him how is service is. It is probably pretty good too. He had Vonage once before.

I continue to lose weight. I'll be happy if I make it down to 199 pounds. I have been trying to be good about what I eat. The reduction in Salt has been the big factor in my weight loss. As of this morning I now weigh 201.0 pounds down 2 pounds from a week ago and down a huge amount from earlier this year when I was like 259 pounds or so. Someone suggested eating soup but I'm not a big soup person. I actually looked at Cup-A-Soup at the grocery store lastnight and each individual serving of Cup-A-Soup had a huge amount of salt in it. Over 700 milligrams in one little envelope. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, if I get down to 199 then I will not be as restrictive as I have been and "pig-out" more. They ordered Chinese Food at work lastnight but I passed. I sure would have liked to have some Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls and French Fries. That used to be my favorite Chinese meal. lol. One of my co-workers gave me a couple of Chicken Balls and they were soo good but alas I stuck with my low-salt diet for the rest of my supper.

Friday, August 20th @ 11:47am EDT . . .

Summer is coming to an end in Canada.
Summer doesn't officially end until September 22nd or so but sign of its end are everywhere right now. Back-to-School Sales are everywhere. Day after Labour Day (Sept.6th.) all the schools re-open for another exciting year. Ya right. I was reading an article the other day about how many students in Ottawa now own laptop or notebook computers during the last school year. The number was really high... 87%. The Ottawa School board predicts that 100% of it's students will have a laptop/notebook for this year and are making sure every one of their schools is wireless this fall.

Another sign that summer is almost over is Sears Snowblower Event coming up this weekend. I even heard that Costco already has their Christmas decorations out for sale. Yikes. Finally, another sign that summer is coming to an end is the SuperEX. This is the final year the EX will be at its current location after 122 years. They have to move to a temporary location for a couple of years and then move into their permanent new home at a race track and casino not to far from me. It means much more traffic going by my place as people use the side streets to get out there. Blah.

Sunday, August 15th @ 10:56am EDT . . .

It's like Back-to-school shopping for me!!
Had to go for some blood work at the hospital very early in the morning on Friday and it was a cool morning. I was going to wear some long pants but I don't have a single pair that fit me anymore! I have been wearing shorts all summer which I shopped for back in June but no reason to have long pants all summer until this week. Even wore shorts at work all summer. I ended up wearing my shorts but it was very cool at 7am that morning. Gonna have to head to Walmart this week and start shopping for new clothes... long pants, boxers, shirts even my belts are way too big. Going to feel like I'm going back to school. LOL. This morning I'm down to 203 pounds from a high of about 259 at Christmas.

I have decided to go with Vonage as my home phone provider. It's a VoIP service. It's abit more expensive than my old VoIP provider but offers alot more calling features and free long distance calling time. I just signed up for the basic service @ $20 a month. I'll give it a full review once it's up and fully functional. My phone number is set up already and forwarding calls to my cell phone until the VoIP box arrives this week.

I also pre-ordered a new HD/PVR from my satellite service provider, Shaw Direct. I had been thinking about switching back to Rogers Cable TV but decided to stick with Shaw Direct. Rogers I could probably get a Free HD/PVR out of them but it's the programming that is ALOT more expensive compared to my Shaw Direct programming package. I managed to get a couple months of free programming out of them for pre-ordering the PVR. It will be nice to finally have a PVR that has dual channel recording. Shaw Direct was about the only provider that used a single channel recording PVR. They tried to develop a firmware update that did dual channel recording for my old PVR but it turns out it failed. They say the new HD/PVR should ship in early September. Someone I work with has already showed interest in buying my old PVR.

As I mentioned in my last post I have gone back to Webcam32 webcam software. This was the first webcam software that I ever purchased back in 2000 or so. It sill works on my Windows 7 computer and from what I've seen the webcam images seem to work in most of the major browsers and operating systems. The streaming cam requires Java. I think most of you already have Java or can easily be downloaded.

Saturday, August 14th @ 11:22pm EDT . . .

I'm back again.
Just can't keep me from webcamming. I have changed my webcams back to an old-school webcam program called "Webcam32". It's about the only webcam program that still works for me and easy to use. Unfortunately it's not available anymore. May try WebcamXP at some point in time. There is no longer any audio on the LIVE streaming feed. I kinda prefer the privacy.

Thursday, August 5th @ 9:17pm EDT . . .

Don't buy the MagicJack.
I've had the MAGICJACK phone service for about a week now and I am now taking it back to the store. For some strange reason no one can phone me but I can phone out. I restart the computer and it works alright but when another call comes in they get a busy signal. As I mentioned in my previous review it is also hard to hear the person on the other end. I therefore definitely don't recommend the MagicJack. It's going back to Future Shop this weekend.

I've decided to just use my cell phone as my main phone now until I can find a good replacement home phone service. Thinking about Vonage.