Rogers has released the iPhone plan pricing and I’m disappointed. With only two GSM carriers in Canada both owned by Rogers (Rogers and Fido) there is no competition. This in turn means there is a GSM monopoly in Canada and firm pricing plans. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be activating a new contract with Rogers at those price points. I will outright buy the phone and use my existing SIM card/plan. There are rumors Rogers will only allow people to purchase the iPhone with a contract as AT&T in the US has done. If this is the case Rogers has lost a sale. It’s not that much effort to travel to the US and purchase a 3G iPhone, unlock it, and use it in Canada as many thousands have done with the previous model iPhone.

There is growing resentment online against Rogers for their stifling iPhone pricing. At these prices I am in their corner.

The new iPhone rolls out 11 July 2008 in Canada - will be interesting to see if anything interesting transpires.

My lack of blog posting is due in part to being in Montreal for the past few weeks learning SAP Accounting Software. I met many amazing people from around the world and local Montreal area. I experienced what it was to be a Montrealer for a few weeks - something I could get used to! Poutine, night life, entertainment, business, people, everything about Montreal leaves something to be desired after returning Halifax. However, as great as Montreal is couldn’t give up the sleepy/slow paced life of Halifax (well maybe).

Slide show of my walk through downtown Montreal:

eHarmony’s online dating advertisements claim a unique personality profiling system matching people according to personality traits. Being a Psych major, I decided to look into it. I quickly recognized eHarmony was modeling their personality profiling system off the “big five” personality traits found in psychology.

The Big Five factors and their constituent traits can be summarized as follows:

Although these trait clusters are statistical aggregates, exceptions may exist on individual personality profiles. On average, people who register high in Openness are intellectually curious, open to emotion, interested in art, and willing to try new things. A particular individual, however, may have a high overall Openness score and be interested in learning and exploring new cultures. Yet he or she might have no great interest in art or poetry. Situational influences also exist, as even extraverts may occasionally need time away from people.

(source: Wikipedia)

In completing the eHarmony personality report and comparing it with that of the traditional “big five” personality test versions I’ve found the eHarmony personality report has an extremely high degree of accuracy. Honestly, I was blown away with how dead on it was compared with other personality reports. It is free to take the eHarmony personality test and view the detailed reports.

Understanding ourselves, knowing our strengths and weaknesses, is an excellent way help ourselves in all aspects our lives. People with different personality types are more compatible with others. Understanding how we react to people with differing personality traits helps us better understand each other. The list goes on about how valuable knowing your personality is.

Something to note: eHarmony refers to “neuroticism” as “emotional stability” in their report. This change is more appropriate given the negative connotation often associated with “neurotic” and the this report being targeted at the masses.

I’m not advocating the dating portion of the service; my emphasis is on the free personality profile report. Go take the eHarmony personality test now - you won’t be disappointed! I guarantee you’ll learn something about yourself you didn’t know.

Wearing a gun depicting t-shirt maybe more than meets the eye…well according to flight security staff in the UK anyways…

An entertaining article which pokes fun at the idiocy and overall stupidity of what our society is coming to. A man was denied access to boarding his flight in the UK because his t-shirt depicted a Transformer robot with a gun. Of course he must be a terrorist…a Decepticon maybe…but terrorist I think not!

Let’s take a look at the new comer: Diet Pepsi Max weighing in at 46 milligrams of caffeine per 8 fluid ounces. Regular Diet Pepsi contains 24 milligrams of caffeine per 8 fluid ounces. Not a bad taste, has a bit of kick, not expensive…but do we need another energy drink?

Our society is bombarded with advertisements for energy drinks including but not limited to Redbull, Tim Horton’s coffee, Rock Star, Pepsi, Coke, etc. First off, this is horrible because are putting liters of chemicals in our bodies everyday. This isn’t to say a cup of coffee or tea in moderation doesn’t have it’s beneficial effects. When our bodies are so over stimulated synthetically we lose our natural ability to produce energy as our bodies become dependent on the effects of these stimulants. As time goes on, like any drug, tolerance rises and more of the drug is need to give the same desired effect. It’s not uncommon in many offices to have people running to the coffee perk every 30 minutes for the entire day. This translates into 600 - 800 milligrams of caffeine per day - this is just for the coffee drinkers. Others will drink 6 - 8 Redbull energy drinks per day (well over the max recommended limited of 2 cans per day). This over stimulation increases Cortisol (also known as the stress hormone) to previously unknown heights. This combined with the modern day lifestyle is linked to dozens of mental illnesses.

This being said, I think I’ll go enjoy myself another tall cold glass of Diet Pepsi Max! Bottoms up!

I paid $6.31 and drove all week - can you say the same? I’ve been riding my Piaggio Fly 150 scooter around Halifax for three weeks and love it! Everywhere I go people ask me about the mileage and price I spend on gas - the guy across from me with the SUV at the pump said he’ll be driving one soon enough. It’s fun to drive into a gas station, fill up, pay, and leave all the time the guy with the big SUV is still pumping gas.

Most people assume scooters aren’t very fast. Yes, this is true if you go with a 50cc model. Most 50cc scooters only achieve 60 KM/hour. However, my 150cc has gone as fast as 120 KM/hour. It’s a perfect machine for commuting in the city (and even out of city). Low purchase price, cheap insurance, cheap gas price, great for the environment - I think you’ll see more of these zipping around the narrow streets of Halifax come this summer…I know I already have!

However, my experience in using EXT2 is as follows:

Nothing but problems…unrecoverable drive errors that not even fsck can fix. A full format/wipe/reinstall is needed - not a fun task 11:00PM the night before you have a meeting first thing in the morning.

When using the EXT2 file system and things are “working correctly” the responsiveness compared to EXT3 is more delayed and sometimes freezes the system altogether. I now use the to use EXT3 file system exclusively on the Asus EEE PC. The life may be decreased on the solid-state drive - but what good is a slow and unresponsive system? It’s unusable! I normally upgrade to a new notebook every year - if my little EEE PC fails I’ll upgrade to a new model or buy a replacement solid-state drive. In this case, quality of usage is more important than longevity of usage.

Another night of engaging intelligent and interesting people that love what they do! Tonight we had guest speakers from The Halifax Hub getting the message out about who they are and what they do in the community. I found tonight had a bit different of a feel for me. The first Halifax Social Media Meet Up was the first time many of us had met outside the virtual world. It was a time for introductions and getting to talk to as many people as quickly as possible in the time given. With the introductions primarily finished at the first meet up this time around the core group spoke more openly and in more depth to each other - more as friends than acquaintances. There were definitely some news faces out tonight which was great to see. But we have a core group of goers who will continue to support these meet ups and ensure it’s future success.

Meet Up Points of Interest / Website Links

We have a home on the web at Halifax Social Wiki courtesy of Greebie. Join up and be an member of the wiki to stay posted on the most up to date Social Media happenings.

Help support the great folks over at The Halifax Hub by taking their survey. This information helps them gauge the community allowing them to impact the community in the most positive way possible.

Take a look at Ted’s site HalifaxInfoMonkey to connect with local Halifax bloggers and see what’s going on in the HRM area. You can list your blog on his site to allow others in Halifax to find and connect with you!

Tonight I spoke a lot about the online video streaming services at YouStream and Stickam. Both of these sites allow an audio/visual level of interactivity/intimacy not experienced before as per e-mail or instant messaging. I primarily spoke of it to engage and connect people in an easy to use flash web interface with no software to install or firewalls to configure. Other applications of these services we discussed tonight were a more open/free alternative to Go To Meeting video conferencing. A neat experiment I may try for Halifax Social Media Meet Up 3 is having a notebook computer with webcam using the Aliant Wifi hotspot to broadcast the meet up online for those who couldn’t otherwise physically be there with us. They would be able to see hear everything going on and also chat/video conference back with everyone at the meet up.

Lastly, check out the photos from tonight. Thanks to all who came out and hope to see everyone at Halifax Social Media Meet Up 3!

My Before Photo (February 2006 at 254lbs):

My After Photo (February 2008 at 155lbs):

Recently I’ve been putting in a lot of hours at work leaving me exhausted when I get home. The last thing I have on my mind is getting into the gym and putting in a good effort. By the time I get home there is no fuel in the tank. My challenge this summer is to maintain my fitness level I’ve achieved over the past few years. Making time for training is one of my priorities.

For those of you who don’t know my story - here it is. I graduated from high school five years ago and wasn’t in amazing shape. I was “average” in terms of fitness level with the general public. After high school I didn’t have the positive sports influence of playing basketball/football with friends during the school lunch break or on evenings/week ends. Over the next three years I ballooned out and completely let myself go. I went from 180lbs (end of high school weight June 2003) to 254lbs (Feb 2006).

Watching the 2006 Winter Olympics something changed in me. Local athlete Sara Conrad went to Olympics competing in snowboarding. She didn’t win any metals - the fact she went to the Olympics in itself an accomplishment. She was inspirational in this accomplishment. I was amazed with the ability of these athletes. I was sitting in my chair watching Olympians compete while eating entire large pizzas to myself. I’m sure I put a few kids through university at the local pizza shop with how much I ate. I was on a first name basis with the pizza staff and they said “hey Justin, the usual?” when they saw my number come up on their caller ID. In retrospect this is horrible.

Watching Sara in the Olympics made me look inward at myself and the state of my life. I was in the worst shape of my life, never went back to finish my degree, was socially isolated, working in a dead end job with no drive for future career aspiration. In other words - rock bottom. I wanted an education, a good job, friends, health, to live again. At this point I decided to make a change - it was all or nothing regardless of what anyone said. Like many people I had tried “mini diets” with poor success in the end gaining more back than I lost.

Frustrated and confused by the many infomercials, claims, and “self proclaimed” fitness experts I decided it was time to educate myself with the basics. I needed to know to accomplish my mission: to be my best! I read many articles about advanced fitness techniques - starving myself with idiotic diets and rabbit food. This was no good. I came across the website John Stone Fitness. John is a regular 9-5 guy who decided to take health/fitness seriously. He and his Forum Community was the first place I came across that wasn’t a load of marketing hype trying to sell me a “weight loss” product. They are a community of fitness novices, fitness professionals, from all walks of life from all around the world providing a positive experience to people wanting to better themselves. It was this straight forward no hidden agenda community that gave me the information and support I needed to continue walking down the road of reaching my goals. There are a number of common sense guides to explain health/fitness 101 to everyone. These guides offer straight forward information on fat loss, building muscle, and nutrion not with drugs or pills - but with healthy foods, a positive mental attitude, and determination. John has been the biggest positive influence in me achieving my goals.

John Stone’s Progress Photos:

Before:

After:

From February 2006 to September 2007 I went from from 254lbs to 152lbs. I currently sit at 162lbs as I have been “bulking” in recent months. That’s over 100lbs fat lost and muscle built/maintained. It was an uphill battle since the beginning. Many people said I couldn’t do it, there were times I felt like giving up - but I pushed on. I didn’t become a 254lbs monster over night. It was a combination of consuming far to many calories and next to no physical activity. It was going to take the reverse of this time to get myself “back in shape”. Rome wasn’t build in a day, I expected this was going to take a number of months - and it did. Since the loss of my weight my life has changed for the better. I found myself more confident and sociable. People pick up on positive energy - my social life skyrocketed! Through meeting people I wouldn’t otherwise have met by being more social I landed a great job, have gone back to finish my degree, my entire life has changed for the better!

There is too much information to say in one blog posting, but if people want to know more about my “story” I’d be happy to share. Carbs, fats, deadlifts, squats, protein - these words are misunderstood/confusing to most people. I challenge anyone out there who isn’t happy with the way their life is to change it. Life is here now. Take advantage of it and go get what is out there belonging to you! Only by YOU taking ACTION will things HAPPEN.

Conclusion: Diets don’t work! Plain and simple. Diets work when you’re on them, once you go off that specific diet and back to “real world” food the fat is gained back (plus some). Fitness and health doesn’t involve starving yourself or living in the gym. It’s all about eating in moderation and training in the gym a few times a week (45 minutes per session/twice a week) to reach very achievable goals. Fitness/health needs to be something you can live with day to day for your entire life! I still enjoy a big greasy slice of pizza and pint of beer. Living without the joys of life isn’t sustainable! This doesn’t mean I sit down and devour an entire large pizza and flat of beer - again, I can’t stress moderation!

I want to thank a few people in no particular order who have made a positive impact on my life/assisted by towards my goals: Andrew Bailey, Mary Eileen MacLean, Jimmy Smith, Kevin Larrabee, The Fitcast Crew, John Stone, Katie Rose, Sara Conrad, Brian Cho, the great community at John Stone Fitness. If I forgot your name I thank you for everything!

Although I don’t like to share my progress photos because they come across as narcissistic, it is a reminder to myself what has been accomplished and I can be accomplish. If this blog post inspires just one person to make a change - it’s done its job. Introduction/Beginner Guides Found Here courtesy JohnStoneFitness Community. This is the starting place if you chose to take the journey.

“If you want to be a champion you can’t have any outside negative force come in and affect you” -Arnold

Digg! this article to let people know about my story. It might help change a few people’s lives.

I thought I’d take a few minutes and blog about the upcoming Halifax Social Media 2 Meet Up this Thursday 22 May 2008 6 - 8pm @ The Argyle

As per Ben’s e-mail we are having a few guests from local Halifax creative project The Halifax Hub. In addition, there will be a few other guest speakers and all the usual suspects (too many to list here). We are expecting between 30 - 50 people and have The Argyle booked in case there is overflow!

Come out for some drinks and meet some intelligent people to discuss everything Web 2.0. See you there!