Three Brief Thoughts…

1) Facebook is a stalker’s dream come true

2) I passed a little person smoking….

3) Did I mention that Conan is an awesome movie. The soundtrack rocks…

Spring is here….

Yaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!

Robot Chicken

My sister’s husband lent me this. Basically it involves dolls that get animated, and it’s from the same group that does Family Guy. Lots of interesting cameo voiceovers. I just saw Voltron get served. It was damn funny. That is all…

Studying for CMT and surfin’ eBay

I’ve only really had a month off since finishing my MBA as January was crazy at work and my “vacation” was spent with family. My real down time started in February, but it’s time to crack the books again. I don’t particularly relish it, but it is what it is. Time to erect the Great Wall while I still can…

Okay, here are some tips for newbies to eBay.

1. Feedback is everything. Check the seller’s/buyer’s RECENT feedback, not just their overall history. You could catch someone with a rgeat history going down the tubes (learned this one the hard way)

2. If it sounds too good to be true, it is

3. Sign up for a Paypal account

4. Be patient for the item you are looking for, it will come up again…

5. Zone in on keywords that sellers use to put the item within a certain bracket. The real bargains are to be found when the seller doesn’t use those keywords

6. Look for combined shipping. Some sellers make money by charging you for each item independantly

7. Look for mispellings of common words…

 

8. Search alternate selling sites (e.g. barter sites, such as Craig’s List)

9. I buy cheap items and books on eBay. I would NOT buy jewellry or electronics. That is a disaster waiting to happen (just my 2 cents)

10. You can take advantage of large exchange rate fluctuations to do some spring cleaning!

11. Always, Always, Always, open up your bidding to the market. It’s not 1356, it’s 2007. The greater your audience, the greater your price… 

Played in the Edgestone Capital Poker tournament today…

Placed ass, I think 15 out of 30 or something like that. I went in with JJ and lost to a Queen or something (King)? I lost most of my stack on an interesting play which I will outline. I was BB and I had K8o. Call, Call, I check. Flop comes j?d8?8d. What do you do?

The workout for 300 and life in Capital Markets

Adjusting to my new (9 months) job has been more of a physical challenge than a mental one. Always being “on call” elevates your cortisol levels. Plus there is the impetus of alway having to know something right away. When amongs the “normal” world everything moves in slow motion. I was talking about this to an I-Banking friend of mine. He related the story of listening to his girlfriend recount a tale, and wishing she could just give him the excerpts!

Everything does move slow motion in that world. It’s good that most of my friends are in that world as it helps to keep me rooted and on track. Being surrounded with just people from that environment would be unhealthy I think. There is nothing more that I enjoy than being able to unwind after a productive day at work. Unwinding to me means relaxing with a good book, watching a movie, or chatting with a friend about my latest obsession. It does not involve forced social interaction. That if anything stresses me out. But I digress…

Anywho, here is a link to a cool site that helped the actors for 300 get in shape.

 300 link

That’s closer to the look I am now going for. The bulked up action figure look, though cool and very fun, took a lot of energy and effort to maintain, both physical and mental. My main goal over the next two years it to maintain optimal physical conditioning, while slowly replacing muscle mass. Thanks to muscle memory the process won’t be that hard, it’s just that I foresee significant barriers to me focusing on this in the near term. And that’s ok…

 

  

Tired and Grouchy…

Long day, going to just hit the sack and read. I saw this Slaine grpahic novel recommended somewhere so I am going to check that out. When is summer getting here!?!? I played poker on Friday night at a local neighbourhood bar in Toronto and went out for Tournament Specialists birthday dinner on Saturday. Relaxed Sunday. More details to follow when I am not as tired… 

P.S. Looks like 300 (aka The American version of Alexander Nevsky) is priming the public for war with Iran. Wonder what the excuse for this one is going to be… 

Time Change + Sunday AM infomercials…

Had to get up early to get my bodyclock in gear today. I was longing around for 15mins so I flipped on the idiot box to verify the time. This was around 8AM on a Sunday morning. Wow there are a lot of informercials on. My favorite has to be Hip Hop Abs with Shawn T. I had to order this as there was some sort of countdown clock and I didn’t want to miss out on my chance to get world famous Shawn T’s workout routine. And the awesome music. The best thing is that all the people doing Hip Hop Abs are white. That would make for an awesome video, just pulling some of these people in to be in the infomercial and dance.

 For your viewing pleasure: Hip Hop Abs with Shawn T

Actual Quotes -

“Who wants to just sit on the floor and crunch, it hurts and it’s not fun”

“I’m doing a cool dance move but I’m working my abs”

“It just feels like I’m dancing, it doesn’t feel like I’m working out and then you get these results”

“The music is incredible, it’s the stuff you hear on the radio”

“You can’t help but to want to shake your thang”

Well ,that started my morning off on the right tone, I can’t wait for it to get here and start practicing my Hip Hop moves…

It’s cold in Toronto

It’s been freezing the last couple of days. I started studying for CMT level 1 on the weekend. Looks like I’ll be busy until early May with that. Not much else to report.

Not much time to post!

Sorry lots of things going on in my life right now, so posting has been relegated to the dustbin. Summary

1) My favorite new term: Asshattery. I am sure to be using this alot soon.

2) Busy with stuff, the e-mail some of you will recieve tomorrow will let you know

3) Had some major stuff going on in my life. Many thanks to Lane and CP for their help. I really appreciate it guys.

4) Props to Lane for the attitude: WWLD indeed!

5) Props to Thumbs for recognising my addiction before it started. What can I say?

6) Props to my family: Thanks for being so great. Sometimes you never really appreciate your family until…

(It’s best to leave this part unsaid!)