Cam I Am

I came across this Esso station tonight. All I could think was “So what?”

Tonight, I found my 196th geocache.  Meghan and I went down to Washington for a couple hours to go to Bellis Fair, but along to way we decided to find the cache “Why Didn’t The Chicken Cross The Road?“.  I saw this cache listed on geocaching.com several months ago and quickly discovered that no one has ever put an answer to it.  So, I placed the answer to it on the Canadian Side, “Because A Border Was In The Way”  back in the summer..

Today was the perfect time.  We crossed over the border (yes, at a legal crossing!) and then proceeded to the B&B that the cache was located at.  We quickly found it and logged it..  As we got back in the car, the US Border Patrol pulled up and asked us “What did you guys pick up?”.  We explained that it was a geocache and they smiled and let us go on our way.  As we left, two other border patrol vehicles made there way to the cache location.

I have to say, I was quite impressed with the speed that they responded.  Yes, I did see the cameras all around the border area, but their response time was in less than 4 minutes of us arriving on site.

So, I finally got this cache that I’ve passed by several times and never could easily reach..

It was a good day..   Only four more caches to my 200th find!

At this moment, I’m watching the geocaching.com site. I’m waiting for the final approval and listing of a series of geocaches that I’ve started.. Actually, it isn’t really me behind them.

Very often, my daughters come with me when I go geocaching. They love looking for them and have even helped me hide a couple. Recently, they helped me pick out the location for “I Understand” when that gave me an idea. Why not devote a series of caches to them?

And so, the Three Daughters Series has begun. Each of the girls helped pick out the location and the cache contents, and even the kind of cache they wanted to place.

One of the caches (Cache “M”) is located by a restaurant that is a favourite of daughter “M”. The name of it is the Frog Stone Grill, but she always ends up calling it the Frogs Grill Stone. That cache has a frog theme to it and we even have a FTF prize that she is going to personally hand to the person that finds it first. This is why I’m watching the listing. People move quick on new caches in the area, especially easier, urban ones.

Cache “E” is located in a favourite park of the girls and Cache “A” needs to find a home. We found a couple spots that were possible, but due to the rules of geocaching, placing it where we wanted it would not be approved.

So, that is the plan for the weekend. We’ll probably go looking for a couple, but we are very excited about the new ones that we’ve hidden.

Have a great weekend!

Well, after a little more than a month of my site being down, I’ve got things taken care of with my webhost and I’m online again!

So, where to begin..

First, I’m transferring offices starting this Monday morning.  After over 7 years out of the Vancouver office, I’m going to the Abbotsford office.  While the distance to my new reporting station is the same, the commute will go from 75 minutes to 35.  It’s hard to argue with that.  I’ve been out there before to help out when they’ve needed it, but this will be a permanent change.

I had a blog that I started to write on Christmas Eve that I still need to post (and will be backdated to that date)..  It’s funny, even though the Christmas season is over.

Now onto the reason why my site was down.  Back in November, I received my semi-annual notice that I was going to be billed for the next six months, but I needed to update my credit card info with 1&1.  I didn’t do anything about it, and then I simply didn’t have the money.  But thanks to a certain someones generosity, I’m back up..  well..  until May anyways.  I had considered letting it lapse completely, but I came to the realization that I like this as a tool to vent..  or comment..  or whatever.  If no one reads it, I still find it a creative outlet.

I’ve been busy geocaching recently too.  Just today, I found “The Hunny Pot” out in Vancouver’s West Side.  Total found: 168.  Total hidden: 4 now!

Now, since I’m online again, I decided to continue my annual tradition of changing the picture on the home page.  This year, this is a shot of an eagle flying right by me when I took the kids up to Brackendale to see the eagles.  I find it ironic that EagleinBC was taking pictures of eagles in BC.  :)

Have a great weekend!  I plan on being a lot more active on my blog this year..

I just find this amusing.  

Just in time for Christmas, I’ve decided to post another blog. Yes, I have been quiet recently.

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m lucky enough to work a half day today. I looked at my route when I got to the office this morning and it looks straightforward. So, I proceed to my first call of the day.

I arrive and find out that the customer would like to have TV service in his bedroom, where he already has internet. Great! No problem!

So, I start my work. I go to plug in the digital box that I’ve brought to hook up when I see a used condom entangled in the wires that I am working near/around.  The guy is sitting nearby and I know he sees what I see, but does nothing.  WTF?!

So, as I gingerly pick around the area, being careful to not touch it and on the lookout for other rogue condoms that could be lurking in the collection of wires and dirty socks.  Meanwhile, this guy is chatting away with me either ignoring or oblivious to the fact that I may find the situation a little disgusting..

I finished up and booked it out of that call.   Fortunately, the rest of my morning was uneventful..  :)

And on that note, Merry Christmas!  :)

Last night, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to tag along to Russell Peters book signing of his latest book, Call Me Russell. So, I agreed and went to Chapters in Surrey.

We got there around 5:30pm to see how things were and decide whether we would eat dinner before or after. There were about 100 people in line, so we decided to wait in line. Around 6pm, the staff led us into the store and started us snaking through the bookshelves to line up to get our books signed. They had a DJ there who was playing some decent music and we waited.. and waited..

Finally at 7pm, the book signing starts with 250-300 people in line waiting. It wasn’t until 8:30 that we got up to the table where Russell was sitting. He said hi, asked how we were doing and signed our books while the staff of Chapters used our camera and took candid photo’s of us at the table. And then that was it.. we were done.

Now, I do enjoy Russell Peters comedy routine.. But if I were a die-hard fan, I would have been pretty disappointed with the whole thing. He was nice and polite, but didn’t seem too engaged in the whole event. Of course, if I was meeting that many people and signing my name that many times in a night, I might not be either..

So, I have a copy of his book.. It’ll probably be a good read and then sit on the shelf..

On the bright side, it was a good excuse to not go home after work and clean my bathroom..

Around the end of July, I posted about two geocoins that I have released into the world for a race around the world. Here’s the latest update.

Eastbound Coin: This coin has done well! It’s currently moved east very nicely and is in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia.

Westbound Coin: This coin has moved even further than the Eastbound coin! The problem is that someone took it east! Doh! It’s currently in the US Virgin Islands. Hopefully someone will pick it up soon and start moving it in the right direction!

That’s all!

If you have tried to call me recently on my cell, no doubt you’ve heard my message that says, “My phone doesn’t ring, so leave a message and I’ll call you back when I’ve noticed that you’ve called.” Yes, I get comments about how I should get my phone fixed/repaired. But it’s not for lack of trying.

I currently have an iPhone 3G that I bought about a year and a half ago. Sadly, I’m a little hard on cell phones, partially because of my job. About 2-3 months ago, I had my cell phone in my hand and went to put it on the kitchen counter, but missed it and it fell on the floor. This hasn’t been the first time that I’ve dropped the phone, but I usually have a case on it. I didn’t this time. The result was that the phone completely functions, short of the fact that the speaker on it no longer works. This means that I can’t use the speaker phone or hear the phone ring.

So, I decided to wait for the iPhone 4.. I knew that there would be hype about it and that it would be hard to find. I have a friend that went to the Apple store in Toronto the day it came out and had a prolonged wait even after the store opened just to get one. I’m eager to get it, but not that eager!

So, since then, I’ve been popping into various Fido retail locations to see if it’s been in. The first couple weeks I expected it to not be in. But it’s been a month since it’s been released and stores are getting very few in.. And there seems to be no sign of a mass release in the near future..

I went to school for marketing, so I understand the rationale behind building demand and hype about a product such as this. But seriously! For me, this is now becoming an annoyance. Here I am, a customer willing to give money for a product that is being withheld by the manufacturer. I like Apple products, but I’m getting a little pissed. I tried asking the rep in the Fido store in Coquitlam Centre today when did she think that they would have a regular supply. Well, she kept cutting me off and not letting me finish my question. I tried to say that I have no problem waiting, but am I likely waiting a couple weeks before the market is adequately supplied with the phone or am I looking at 3-4 months. I’m sure she gets similar questions all day and every day, and I don’t envy her having to explain it over and over.. But I just need a new phone. One that rings!

So.. If someone from Apple happens to read this, I just want a damn iPhone 4! Stop withholding the product and release it outright. Demand doesn’t need to be built up for a product that you KNOW is going to be in high demand. You are just pissing off a lot of people and wasting their time by going to various retailers looking for it. I do have better things to do with my time than to chase down a product that you apparently want to sell.

START SELLING IT!

Okay.. This has been on my mind for the last few weeks, so I’ve decided to vent..

I recently bought a new truck. The sales guy told me that the tires were filled with nitrogen. So, of course I asked him what the benefit of this was. He was going on about how it gives you better mileage on the tires and treadwear and blah, blah, blah. I asked him what happens when I need to add air. He said that I could fill them with air, and then the next time I brought the truck in for service they would drain the tires and refill with nitrogen.

Since then, I’ve seen a number of places that advertise this “amazing” product! NITROGEN FILLED TIRES! A MUST HAVE!

But wait… Something doesn’t add up here..

Now, I don’t remember that much from high school science, but I do remember that air is already 78% nitrogen. How much more benefit could having that extra 22% really provide..

I decided to ask my landlord who is a mechanic. I haven’t known him more than a few months, but I’ve come to learn that he’s pretty honest about all this car stuff. And when it comes to vehicles, I’m dumb as a post.. He said that there may be a slight benefit to putting pure nitrogen in there, but not enough to warrant the cost.

So, I’m just going to put air in there. Seriously! I can find better ways to spend/waste my money than on that..

This is just another fine example of a marketing ploy. Much like the box of saran wrap here that says “BPA Free” (with in very small letters above it saying “As always”). Or olive oil bottles saying that they are now “Cholesterol Free”.. umm.. Olive oil never has had cholesterol in it..

That’s it.. A short rant from me.. for once..