HObbEs TRaNsMoGRIFiED

Kinesio Taping

2011-10-04T21:17:00.007-04:00

Just completed the KT1 and KT2 course, so I am now qualified to do Kinesio Taping. For anyone living in and around the Montreal area who need or knows someone that needs kinesio taping, feel free to contact me.

Kinesio Taping gives support and stability to your joints and muscles without affecting circulation and range of motion. It is also used for Preventive Maintenance, Edema, and to treat pain.

Kinesio Taping is a technique based on the body's own natural healing process. This Kinesio Taping exhibits its efficacy through the activation of neurological and circulatory systems. This method basically stems from the science of Kinesiology, hence the name "Kinesio". Muscles are not only attributed to the movements of the body but also control the circulation of venous and lymph flows, body temperature, etc. Therefore, the failure of the muscles to function properly induces various kinds of symptoms.

Consequently, so much attention was given to the importance of muscle function that the idea of treating the muscles in order to activate the body's own healing process came about. Using an elastic tape, it was discovered that muscles and other tissues could be helped by outside assistance. Employment of Kinesio Taping creates a totally new approach to treating nerves, muscles, and organs. The first application of Kinesio Taping was for a patient with articular disorders.

Kinesio Taping is a therapeutic taping technique, not only offering your patient or athlete the support they are looking for, but rehabiliting the affected area as well. This technique uses a highly specific designed tape that works with the body allowing full range of motion (ROM). This technique will not adversley affect the bio mechanics of the patient. This latex free product makes it hypoallergenic and safe to use from the pediatric to geriatric populations. No compression to the skin makes it "light to the feel" allowing comfortable wear over a 3 to 5 day period. The water resistant fabric wisks away moisture and gives the patient the ability to bathe as normal. Kinesio Taping works with the lymphatic system to increase circulation of blood and lymph in order to rehabilitate and relieve pain. Used for virtually all clinical conditions.

For more information about Kinesio Taping you can check out the official Kinesio Taping site and the Kinesio Taping Canada site.

KinFit Episode 46

2009-11-15T01:09:00.001-05:00

This week, unhealthiest foods at popular food chains, Japanese wellness cell phone, 4 common myths about exercise, and rehab with omega 3 fatty acids! www.kinfit.tv

KinFit Episode 39

2009-06-01T12:17:00.000-04:00

This week, Montreal's new Bixi Bikes, 33 healthiest foods on earth, tech tools to get you in shape, coffee and espresso's, and a tip on why you should strength train for golf!

Don't forget to check out our show notes www.kinfit.tv

Now playing....

2009-03-15T03:05:00.002-04:00

Uh ya....I don't really post anything anymore....guess I'm really lazy or busy...thats up to you to interpret...hehe. But having a Wii and PS3 hooked up to a 1080p HD tv can take up alot of your time LOL

Now playing....
1) Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
2)Street Fighter 4 (PS3)

Still playing....
1)Little Big Planet (PS3) - still got a some trophies to achieve!
2)Rock Band 2 (Wii) - hey, it's still pretty addictive

Started playing again...
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - you'll know why below.

So far looking forward to....
1)Ghostbusters (PS3 or Wii....haven't decided yet)
2)Resident Evil: The Dark Chronicles (Wii) - sequel to Umbrella Chronicles

I WANT YOU!

2008-07-17T00:43:00.001-04:00

Decepticon Army Recruitment
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron

Took a picture of my Masterpiece Starscream and made this Decepticon army recruitment poster out of it. Pretty neat.

You can check out more of my Transformer pics on my Flickr page.

Snake Eyes! YOOO JOE!

2008-04-20T23:59:00.002-04:00

Snake Eyes
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron

Here's a sweet pic of Brad Park playing Snake Eyes in the live action G.I.Joe movie coming out next August (2009). And if you didn't know about the live action G.I.Joe movie, then where the hell have you been?

Can't wait for this movie to come out. They really seem to have stuck true to the original look of the characters from the comics and cartoon. NICE!

Posted another Snake Eyes pic and one of Rachel Nicols as Scarlett on my Flickr page!

Wii..!!!

2008-01-20T18:39:00.000-05:00

If you're wondering why the lack of updates on my blog and flickr page it's because I've been spending most...mmmm ok all of my free time playing on my...wait for it...NINTENDO Wii!!. Yep thats right, got myself a Wii in December. It was actually a family purchase (my mom plays Wii tennis and bowling all the time).

So far I've completed Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in December (great game). I'm currently 85% through Trauma Center: New Blood, just started Super Mario Galaxy (can never get tired of saving a certain princess), and I'm still Rocking like a Rock Star with Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Very soon, I too will be the "God of Rock" lol.

Well hopefully the writers strike will be over soon so I can get back to watching my shows; How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Scrubs, and Grey's Anatomy (luckily I still have Law & Order and certain animes to occupy myself with). Anyhoo thats if for now, got some other new toys recently, when I have time I'll take some pics and post them on flickr, but now time to go save Princess Peach (Toadstool for us old school folks) and then go ROCK OUT!!

Squash or badminton anyone?

2007-11-03T13:40:00.000-04:00

Just a little update. I work full time now at Sani Sport (a tennis, squash and badminton club) in Brossard. Basically I'm the Kinesiologist in their fitness centre that does fitness evaluations everyday and educate people on health and fitness in my nice little office (yes, I have my own office! hehe). As an employee I can play for free (squash, badminton, tennis) but the problem is I need to find a partner to play with. So if anyone is interested in playing on the weekends give me a shout.

Just A Nice Guy

2007-10-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

Here's another short film by Wong Fu Productions called "Just A Nice Guy". It's a 3-part series/romantic comedy exploring the "problem" with "nice guys". For more info about Wong Fu and to check out some of their other video productions go to www.wongfuproductions.com

Just A Nice Guy (Part 1 - The Problem)

Just A Nice Guy (Part 2 - The Lesson)

Just A Nice Guy (Part 3 - The Risk)

Mario Frustration

2007-09-07T00:07:00.000-04:00

I found this pretty hilarious. There is a bit of swearing so I suugest to not play this around children or at work with the volume at high...Haha!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Optimash Prime

2007-06-15T20:52:00.001-04:00

Optimash Prime
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron

Just when I thought no Potato Head can be cooler than my Darth Tater, Mr. Potato Head has done it again. I present to you OPITMASH PRIME - "Autospuds, transform and roll out!"

ZONE (1999-2005)

2007-05-30T14:24:00.000-04:00

This is another Japanese J-Rock band called ZONE. Unfortunately they mutually agreed to disband in 2005.

Boku no Tegami

Akashi

Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~

Tsubomi

2007-05-26T18:48:00.000-04:00

Not exactly the same rock/alternative type of music that I usually listen too, but I've always been a fan of musicians who can play their own instruments. This song is called Tsubomi by an all girls Japanese Rock band called Maria.

KinFit Episode 23

2007-05-20T15:10:00.000-04:00

On Episode 23 of KinFit, The Survivor's Handbook on eating right for cancer survival, what do 300 calorie meals look like?, Toronto's running lounge opens, healthy snack tips, and our friend Shaun drops by with a FitTip! www.kinfit.tv

Montreal Canadiens - 1993 Stanley Cup Champions...

2007-05-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

Boy, watching this sure brings back memories, kinda nostalgic...Montreal Canadiens, 1993 Stanley Cup Champions (10 straight OT wins, 24th Stanley Cup)...

Seinfeld - Puerto Rican Day

2007-05-08T15:21:00.000-04:00

The Puerto Rican Day episode was the second to last episode of Seinfeld, I thought it was one of the funniest ones ever made. They never showed it again after some Peurto Rican's got insulted by it. Here is one my favorite scenes from the episode, gotta love Kramer...

WB Promo's

2007-05-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

WB Promo 1999

WB Promo 2003

Scars and Souvenirs

2007-04-29T00:17:00.000-04:00

"People have scars. In all sorts of unexpected places. Like secret roadmaps of their personal histories. Diagrams of all their old wounds. Most of our wounds heal, leaving nothing behind but a scar. But some of them don't. Some wounds we carry with us everywhere and though the cut's long gone, the pain still lingers."

"What's worse, new wounds which are so horribly painful or old wounds that should've healed years ago and never did? Maybe our old wounds teach us something. They remind us where we've been and what we've overcome. They teach us lessons about what to avoid in the future. That's what we like to think. But that's not the way it is, is it? Some things we just have to learn over and over and over again."

- Greys Anatomy Episode 318

What I've Done

2007-04-28T09:17:00.000-04:00

Linkin Park's newest single for their new album Minutes to Midnight coming out May 15, 2007.

Hey There Delilah

2007-04-17T18:17:00.000-04:00

Listened to this song by the Plain White T's while driving home. Really nice...check out their MySpace

Favorite TVB show of all time - 刑事偵緝檔案

2007-04-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

Recently I decided to start watching one of my favorite TVB shows from the 90's again, Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) 1,2 & 3 starring Michael Tao (陶大宇), Kenix Kwok (郭可盈), Joey Leung (梁榮忠)...even Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) was in the 2nd one. The show was really well done from the story, acting, directing and the attention paid to the little details made you appreciate it even more, especially when it came to the police cases that they had to solve. It had action, drama, comedy, and it always kept you wanting to see what happens next. The first and second one were by far the best, the third not so much since I found they didn't finish off the series very well (I think it had something to with Michael Tao's contract with TVB ending at the time). The 1st theme was by Leo Koo (古巨基) and the 2nd & 3rd by Edmond Leung (梁漢文)...Anyways, check out the intros below.

"Swans" - Unkle Bob

2007-03-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

Song featured at the end of Grey's Anatomy episode "Some Kind of Miracle"...

KinFit at MEC!!

2007-02-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

For Episode 18 of KinFit, we got a chance to film at the Mountain Equipment Co-op store in Montreal. In this episode we show you how to lose 9 lbs in 6 weeks with the Nintendo Wii and Patrick Tremblay, the store manager even came on the show to talk to us about Snowshoes!! You can view it below or visit KinFit.tv for the higher quality version and show notes!

New Life for Sale!!

2007-01-29T00:02:00.001-05:00

New Life for Sale!!
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron.

Ever felt like getting rid of your life for a new one? Well this guy (Nicael) from Australia did just that, he sold his life on eBay. No kidding he really did! The winning bid ended up being $7500 AUD which is roughly $6850 Canadian.

What he wrote in his eBay bid was pretty damn funny and he even has his own website and mySpace account. This guy is so random, it's hilarious! I guess you really can sell just about anything on eBay...hmmm...anyone interested in my life? hehe

KinFit - BOSU's & DSL balls!! And it's FREEZING!!

2007-01-27T18:34:00.001-05:00

KinFit - BOSU's and DSL balls!!
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron.

Tiffany and I just finished taping our latest episode of KinFit (#16) and it was freakin FREEZING in Montreal AGAIN, -22!! Luckily though we were able to tape the majority of the episode indoors so we didn't turn into human popsicles. Be sure to check back this Monday for the new episode and if you haven't already, go watch our last one, Episode 15 where we filmed at the Can-Fit-Pro conference and got a chance to play with lots of BOSU's and DSL balls (check the pic)...oh and we we had a BOSU challenge!

Happy New Year!! KinFit Blooper Reel!!

2007-01-01T17:46:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!! We've compiled a bunch of our favorite bloopers so we hope you enjoy our Blooper Reel episode!! You can watch the flash version below or visit our site KinFit.tv for the higher quality version (MPEG4 or WMV)!!

KinFit #13 & Team Canada goes for three peat!!

2006-12-24T19:32:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays so far. Go check out KinFit Episode 13 if you already haven't, this week Tiffany gives us some healthy holiday eating tips and our friend Jordan joins us on FitTip to do a 101 ski workshop for beginners. Be sure to check out our special bloopers episode next week. It's a compilation of all our bloopers from this year, most that were never shown. Should be a good laugh!

In other news, Team Canada's National Junior team is off to Sweden to try and win its 3rd straight Gold medal. Tournament starts Tuesday (Boxing Day) vs host nation Sweden. We got 11 returning players from last years championship team so we should be in fine shape but the US have a strong team this year and are one of the heavy favorites. All the games will be broadcasted on TSN (check schedule) but it you don't have TSN don't worry, for the first time TSN will broadcast all Team Canada games live for free on their website (streaming video) so you can watch it online on your computer!! GO CANADA GO!!

Thats it for now, happy holidays!!

Super President Lance Armstrong and KinFit.tv

2006-12-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

I found this Robot Chicken skit on YouTube of Lance Armstrong becoming Super President of France after winning his 7th Tour de France. It's hilarious and I can't seem to get enough of it so I thought I'd post the video below for everyone haha...

Tiffany and I are currently working on our special Christmas edition of KinFit which will be out next Monday. For that episode we're going to have some friends helping us out and we'll have an indepth Ski workshop/report for everyone so be sure to check back next week for it!! For now check out our latest episode(Ep12) (one of our best episodes to date) on the YouTube vid below or go to KinFit.tv for the other formats and Show Notes.

Spelling with buildings!

2006-11-15T19:21:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder what your name would look like if it was spelt out with buildings that look like letters from an arial view? Well now you can at geoGreeting. Just simply type in your word or name and it'll put it together for you, pretty cool eh? You can also do the same with Flickr photos at Spell with Flickr...

Also go check out KinFit Episode 10 if you haven't already done so. A new episode will be up next week, so keep watching!!

Maple Leafs - Losers since '67

2006-10-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

Before I go ranting about how much I hate the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans, I'd just like to remind everyone to check out KinFit Episode 9 if you haven't. In our halloween episode, we update you on My Food Phone, show you how to do a proper lunge, some pumpkin cooking tips for your halloween party, and I dressed up like the Mac guy from those Get a Mac ads...

So the Habs lost to the Leafs last night in shootout, which sucked especially since I was at the game and had to listen to stupid Leaf fans afterwards. It's never great when you lose at home to one of your most hated rivals but it was only a shootout lost and it wasn't like they whooped our butts the same way Ottawa whooped theirs earlier in the week (6-2 and 7-2), so I would like to remind all those Maple Laugh fans out there that the Leafs still suck, will always suck and have sucked since 1967.

Leaf fans are a bunch of bandwagoners, who only come out of their hiding holes when their team wins a game or two and start announcing to the world that the Leafs are the greatest team ever and that they will win the Stanley Cup.....hahahaha...I pity you Leaf fans...how easily you have forgotten how crappy and horrendous the Leafs were after winning their last Cup in '67 (40 yrs ago)...seems that a couple of decent seasons here and there have given all of you delusions of grandeur....

So why don't we refresh our memories with a little history lesson...
Total Cups won: Habs 24 - Leafs 13
Last Cup won: Habs 1993 (color) - Leafs 1967 (black & white)
Cups won since '67 : Habs 10 - Leafs 0
Hall of Famers: Habs 43 - Leafs 35
Divison Champs: Habs 21 - Leafs 5
Conference Champs: Habs 8 - Leafs 0
Franchise scoring leader: Guy Lafleur 1246 Pts - Leafs Darryl Sittler 916 Pts
Total individual awards won: Habs 106 - Leafs 31

There are tons of other stats but I figured this is enough embarrassment that a Leafs fan can bear without having to poke their eyes out or jump off a bridge...oh and the Habs also have a winning record against the Leafs. Have a great week...Go Habs Go!!

KinFit Episode 8

2006-10-14T15:19:00.000-04:00

Go check out our newest episode of KinFit today if you still haven't. For episode 8 we show you the Geek-a-cycle, cool free exercises you can get online and some funalicious ideas with apples and squashes. You will also notice that I put the YouTube video player on the episode posting, so now you can watch/stream the episode directly on the KinFit site. The direct download file is still there like usual for those who want to save it and watch it later on their computer or video mp3 player. And don't forget to leave your comments on the site! Enjoy!

Addicted to TV...ack!

2006-10-03T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got addicted to a new show called Heroe s. It's another one of those shows thats dramatic, mysterious and always ends with a cliffhanger, kinda like Lost, and by the end of the episode I was like, "Holy smokes...!". Below is a synopsis about the show from their site,

"Heroes," an epic drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities.

As a total eclipse casts its shadow across the globe, a genetics professor in India is led by father's disappearance to uncover a secret theory -- there are people with super powers living among us. A young dreamer tries to convince his politician brother that he can fly. A high school cheerleader learns that she is totally indestructible. A Las Vegas stripper, struggling to make ends meet to support her young son, discovers that her mirror image has a secret. A fugitive from justice continues to baffle authorities who twice have been unable to contain him. A gifted artist, whose drug addiction is destroying his life and relationship with his girlfriend, can paint the future. A down-on-his-luck Los Angeles beat cop can hear people's thoughts, which puts him on the trail of an elusive serial killer. In Japan, a young man develops a way to stop time through sheer will power. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world…

The problem now is I am getting hooked on too many damn good tv shows. I'm already obsessed about Grey's Anatomy, Law & Order still going strong, Amazing Race is back, started to get back into Prison Break, trying to get back into Lost (but i'm pretty lost so I'll wait for dvds) and now freakin Heroes. Oh and 24 and Scrubs haven't even started their new season yet....oh boy...I've got a feeling I'll be spending more hours watching tv than working this year hehehe...

Scott Livingston on KinFit Episode 7

2006-09-25T22:18:00.000-04:00

Finally, Episode 7 of KinFit has been posted. We had a chance to interview Scott Livingston, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Montreal Canadiens and Certified Athletic Therapist. Go check out episode 7 to see what he had to say!

I would also like to mention that once again I was able to get hockey tickets this year, woohoo!!. I managed to get 2 games online and a third game I got for free for being one of the first 40 people in line at a new hockey store behind my house. So these are the games I got, Oct. 28 vs Leafs, Jan. 29 vs Ottawa, and Feb. 20 vs Washington (woohoo Ovechkin!). Go Habs Go!!

Damn CTV!!

2006-09-22T14:20:00.000-04:00

Thursday was the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy....WRONG!! In Canada, most of us have 2 choices, we can either watch it on CTV at 8pm or on ABC at 9pm. I like some of my friends couldn't be home to watch it so of course I taped iton CTV. When I watched the episode I was like, "Wow, what a great episode"...Yet somehow some things in the show just didn't click, but it was so good that I didn't think much of it until today when I horrifyingly discovered that the episode I watched was not the season premiere, instead it was the second episode to be aired next week!!! How the hell can a network like CTV be so idiotic?!? So now, next week they will show the season premiere...ACK!! Whoever was in charge should be fired, stripped naked and tar and feathered, or have "Dr. Broom" pay them a visit....

Episode 6 and KinFit on YouTube!

2006-09-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

Finally we were able to edit KinFit episode 6 at my friend Andrew's house on his Mac using iMovie, which meant we we were able to put in proper screenshots of stuff we were talking about. I have to say its probably our best episode up to date in visual terms and we're getting use to presenting in front of the camera, but we still want feedback from you guys to help us improve the show some more. In this episode we want you to keep your eyes open, if you do you'll notice something familiar in each segment...hehe...Anyhoo go check out Episode 6 and tell us what you think, its now in MPEG 4 format so you'll need Quicktime to watch it or if you don't want to download we have posted all the episodes on YouTube as well so you can watch/stream it immediately without having to wait for the download. Enjoy!

Habs ticket sale and Kinfit #5

2006-08-27T22:28:00.000-04:00

For all you die hard hockey and Montreal Canadiens fans out there, it has been announced that individual ticket sales will start September 16th at noon. So get those lawn chairs and sleeping bags ready or if you're not that crazy then get those fingers ready to click and dial at home cause I'm sure it will be insane like last year when most of the games were sold out the first day, check out the game schedule here.

And don't forget to check out KinFit Episode 5 if you haven't already done so last week. We shot this episode on Mt. Royal but quickly lost our natural lighting due to a quick sunset and damn rain clouds....In this episode some of the things we talked about were the Nintendo Wii, chocolate milk and the BOSU. Keep watching and send us your ideas that you'd like us to talk about for future episodes. Be sure to check back next week for a brand new episode! Have a great week!

KinFit episode 4 and countdown begins!

2006-08-09T23:51:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, KinFit Episode 4 has been posted. We shot this episode at the Highland Games in Pierrefonds and you can see some of the stuff happening around us in this episode. The weather was super nice that day and we had tons of fun watching Scottish people throw big objects around and play bagpipes all day. Go check it out at kinfit.tv and don't forget to leave us some comments or feedback!

Seeing how it's now August, I've begun the countdown to the start of the new NHL season and Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. The Habs start training camp in September and tickets should go on sale around the same time too, so get ready to buy some tickets early cause they sell out fast. Grey's Anatomy starts Sept. 21 and I can't wait to see what craziness Meredith and the gang get into this season and who actually left the show. Also, season 2 dvd will be out on Sept.12!!

Tragic Flaw

2006-07-29T07:42:00.000-04:00

"The more things change, the more they stay the same. At the moment, it's the sentence that best explains my tragic flaw: my inability to change.

Staying exactly the same for as long as possible, standing perfectly still...It feels better somehow. And if you are suffering, at least the pain is familiar. Because if you took that leap of faith, went outside the box, did something unexpected... Who knows what other pain might be waiting out there. Chances are it could be even worse.

So you maintain the status quo. Choose the road already traveled and it doesn't seem that bad. Not as far as flaws go. You're not a drug dealer. You're not killing anyone...Except maybe yourself a little.

When we finally do change, I don't think it happens like an earthquake or an explosion, where all of a sudden we're like this different person. I think it's smaller than that. The kind of thing most people wouldn't even notice unless they looked at us really, really close. But you notice it. Inside you that change feels like a world of difference. And you hope this is it. This is the person you get to be forever... that you'll never have to change again."

KinFit, CGI Ninja Turtles & Hard Gay...Hoooo!!

2006-07-26T16:12:00.000-04:00

Episode 3 of KinFit has been posted and this week we talk about heat illness, exercising in hot humid weather and antioxidants in your food and why you need it. We filmed it at Lachine canal right behind Chateau St.Ambroise where my new work is at. Check out this weeks episode at kinfit.tv.

Wow, it seems like 2007 will be a great movie year. Just when I'm about to get all exicited about the next Spider-Man movie and the live action Transformers movie, it turns out that they are making a CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie!! I loved the original cartoon back in the 80's and the original live action movie from the 90's. They have a teaser trailer out already and it looks great, even has that comic book feeling to it.

Here's a funny video below for everyone. It's a segment from a show called Bakuten in Japan where a comedian called "Hard Gay" goes out and helps a Ramen (noodle) restaurant owner get more business. There are tons of other Hard Gay videos on YouTube so go check those out as well, they're freakin hilarious!!
[Bakafish] Hard Gay Ramen English Subtitles

KinFit Ep 2 and I get to meet Scott Livingston!

2006-07-12T17:29:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, ya I haven't had time to post anything lately cause I have been busy working on my video podcast KinFit and playing Naruto: Clash of Ninja and Legend of Zelda on my gamecube. We just posted up our second episode and this week we talked about the difference between Gatorade/sport drinks and so called energy drinks, what to look for when buying an athletic shoe, and some neat training videos on the Nike/Bauer website. Go check out Kinfit when you have a chance.

In other interesting news, next Tuesday I'll have a chance to meet Scott Livingston at his High Performance training studio!! For those who don't know, he is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Montreal Canadians and he also trains Canadian Freestyle skier Jennifer Heil (Olympic Gold Medallist in Torino). It should be alot of fun and hopefully we can get him on KinFit one day!! Thats it for now, have a great week!

Chocolate by Snow Patrol

2006-07-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

This could be the very minute
I'm aware I'm alive
All these places feel like home

With a name I'd never chosen
I can make my first steps
As a child of 25

This is the straw, final straw in the
Roof of my mouth as I lie to you
Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it at the time

You're the only thing that I love
It scares me more every day
On my knees I think clearer

Goodness knows I saw it coming
Or at least I'll claim I did
But in truth I'm lost for words

What have I done it's too late for that
What have I become truth is nothing yet
A simple mistake starts the hardest time
I promise I'll do anything you ask...this time

KinFit Episode 1 & Spider-Man 3 trailer!!

2006-06-27T23:13:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend and is looking forward to Canada Day weekend. Our first ever episode of KinFit has been released and you can check it out at our site kinfit.tv. It's basically like a pilot episode so we welcome any kind of feedback that will help us improve the show. We are already planning our second episode and it should be ready for July 10th or 11th so be sure to check back regularly to the site for any news or info during that time.

In other news today I discovered that the Spider-Man 3 teaser trailer was officially released on the Apple website. All I can say is "Wow"...if this is just a teaser trailer, I can't wait for the official trailer. You see our favorite wall crawler in action in his black symbiote costume, the Sandman, and Harry Osborne as the Green Goblin 2...only thing missing was Venom who may only make an appearance near the end of the movie, as rumors have suggested. In anycase, the trailer was cool so go check it out now.

kinfit.tv!!

2006-06-07T20:50:00.000-04:00

Yep, finally got a domain name for our video podcast (www.kinfit.tv). The page is up with our banner but there are still a few things that need to be added, like the About us page and other links and info. While we finalize the site we are hoping to have our first episode shot and posted up within the next week or two. You can keep checking back to the site www.kinfit.tv for updates.

For those who still aren't sure what Kinfit is about, here's a little description that I posted on the Kinfit site as well.

Kinfit is a video podcast that covers the latest trends in health and wellness and physical activity. There will be various segments on nutrition, athletic therapy and fitness training, as well as personal reviews on some of the latest products out there and one on one interviews with various professionals in the health and fitness industry. Each 15-20 minute episode is produced and hosted by Tiffany Moey (B.Sc. Exercise Science), a Certified Athletic Therapist in her 2nd year of studies in Nutrition and Dietetics at McGill University and Michael Choi (B.Ed. Kinesiology), a Certified Kinesiologist. Both live in Montreal where each episode will be shot at various locations in and around the Greater Montreal Area.

That's all for now, be sure to check out kinfit.tv for our upcoming first episode!

Super Mario Bros LIVE and Firefox Flicks

2006-05-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

For everyone who played the original Super Mario Bros. game for the original Nintendo, you're going to love this video clip I found on Google Video. Someone does a live reenactment of the first level in the original Super Mario Bros. game. It's pretty well done and funny, check it out at the following link http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2139555376132383479

Here's another site called Firefox Flicks where you can view video ads made by Firefox users promoting Firefox. If you still use IE and haven't switched over to the Firefox browser, I suggest you do so. Here's a couple of videos that I liked below

Meanwhile, we got a tripod for the camcorder and I discovered a couple of hidden neat little places in Old Montreal that'll be cool for shooting future episodes of KINFIT once it gets going, which hopefully will be soon. Anyhoo be sure to check back for more updates

Freakin' Cam Ward, freakin' Ribero, freakin' frigg frigg...

2006-05-05T16:43:00.000-04:00

Well now that freakin' Cam Ward single handedly helped the freakin' Hurricanes eliminate the Habs from the playoffs I'll now be rooting for Ottawa and Edmonton, and hopefully the New Jersey Devils will destroy those damned Hurricanes swiftly and to a bloody pulp in the next round. Let's hope that somehow Patrick Elias's slap shot will end up ricocheting off Cam Ward's dingelberries and have enough force left to give Eric Staal a face full of volcanized rubber.

Although the Habs lost, it was still quite an entertaining and exciting game to be at. At one point our entire section and the sections next to us started yelling out, "You suck Cam Ward!", which then prompted one of my friends to yell out, "Who sucks Cam Ward?"... it was freakin hilarious. We even got 2 free habs towels, woohoo!! Gotta love getting free stuff especially when you've paid $$ to go see a game. The best though was when Tiffany and I got tickets in the Club Desjardins section ($$$) at a game back in January. Our tickets included all you can eat free food and a private entrance...woooo...we basically stuffed ourselves all game until we felt like puking it all out, haha.

Let's hope the Habs can do something during this offseason to make the team better, because honestly we seriously need some offence and freakin' Mike Ribero is an underachieving piece of garbage. The freakin' guy probably had the most chances to score or do something with the puck out of all the other players on the Canadiens in the last 2 games but he'd freakin' screw up most of the time. I don't see him back on the team next year and freakin' Rivet is beginning to become like the next Brisbye (Brisbois) and we don't need that on defense.

Anyhoo, I finally got a page set up for our video podcast KINFIT on Typepad but there's nothing really on it other than the banner and adding a Creative Commons License badge. I still need to register for a domain name and Tiffany and I still need to finish finalizing the shows content and go out and get ourselves a tripod before we can officially start doing our first episode. We're also still looking for someone that can help us design graphics for the shows opening and for each segment so if you know anyone that could help us in that department please give us a shout. It's not that crucial but it would definitely help make the podcast look better and professional.

Star Wars Lego and Geek + Jock = "GOOK"

2006-04-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

Many of my friends know I am one of the biggest Star Wars fans out there, so the fact that I collect Star Wars Lego wouldn't be much of a surprise to any of them (I even have a Force Fx lightsaber but I'll talk about that another day). I literally have a whole shelf full of Star Wars lego and if you had read my blog not too long ago about cool toys you would know that I have a lego version of Princess Leia in her skimpy bikini from the Jabba palace scene in ROTJ. At one point a friend and I thought about recreating a scene from one of the movies with my lego using a stop motion camera that Lego was selling at the time, but a lack of $$$ quickly ended that idea. Star Wars lego has become super popular, so much that they made 2 great video games out of it, Star Wars Lego (based on the Ep. 1-3) and the soon to be released sequal Star Wars Lego 2 (based on the original triliogy...YEEESS!!!). Although I haven't bought any in the past year or so I still have quite a collection dating back to my days in cegep and my main problem now isn't really a lack of shelf space but "dust". Trying to dust lego is just as annoying as trying to paint stucco walls, both are tedious to do and time consuming. This afternoon while watching hockey I actually sat down with a box of Q-tips and tried to clean in between the lego stubs, but after maybe 10 minutes I gave up. Not only was it ridiculously freakin hard but I was making more of a mess from sneezing every 2 seconds, so if anyone knows a better way to clean lego or to keep it relatively dust free please tell me. You can check out this nice CG mini movie made last year by Treehouse based on lego Star Wars called "Revenge of the Brick".

Today I also realized that I'm a "Gook", a hybrid of geek and jock. A smart jock though, not dumb jock. Dumb jocks are pin headed athletic buffoons that can't tell the difference between an orangutan and a cow or do grade 1 math. I in the other hand was an athlete who graduated in kinesiology from McGill with almost a 3.5 GPA. So what makes me part geek also? Well I love tech stuff & sci-fi/fantasy related stuff, I buy toys for fun, I have 80's cartoons and movies on DVD, Red Dwarf & Blackadder are hilararious, I read Spider-man comics, I can probably beat most of my friends in either Star Wars or hockey trivia, I have a 1:18 scale replica of the Delorean Time Machine, and heck I've even been to a Star Trek convention (I still don't consider myself a Trekkie though)....So if you're a hybrid like me then you're a "Gook" too.

Anyhoo, turns out my friend Tiffany and I will be going to Game 6 after all. Let's just hope this doesn't end up being the game that the Habs lose the series in. Oh and for those who still wanted our extra tickets we already sold them to friends last week. GO HABS GO!!

Stanley Cup playoffs begins..Want tickets?

2006-04-21T14:35:00.000-04:00

After suffering a whole year without NHL hockey, I am super duper excited and revved up for the NHL playoffs. The road to the Stanley Cup begins tonight, everything that happened in the regular season is gone...it's a whole new season where boy's become men, the pace gets faster, the hits get harder and the smallest mistake can cost you a shot at getting that coveted silver cup, the hardest trophy to get in all of sports. What's even better about this year is that the Toronto Maple Laughs (Leafs) didn't make it and so their Stanley Cup drought continues at 39 years...muahahaha..."67...67...67.." HAHA!

Meanwhile in Montreal you can literally feel the excitement in the air with the hometown Habs playing the Hurricanes tomorrow night in Carolina. Hockey is a religion here and everywhere you go you'll hear people talking about hockey, people wearing and waving Habs colours and randomly yelling out "GO HABS GO!". If there is anyone that doesn't follow hockey in this city they will have already been sucked into the excitement and jumped onto the bandwagon. By tomorrow night every single bar/restaurant with a tv will be packed with crazy hockey fans cheering for the Habs. It will be even more insane when game 3 and 4 comes to Montreal...

Luckily my friend Tiffany and I managed to get tickets to Game 6 this year, let's hope the Habs don't get pulverized and manage to play game 6 and pull off a miracle upset. For anyone who wants tickets she bought 4 extra tickets in the Blues and are looking for buyers. I can honestly say that you haven't been to a hockey game until you have gone to a "playoff" game...it's even more exciting and louder, especially when the hometeam scores & wins. So for anyone that hasn't gone this is your chance now, cause all 3 games in Montreal are SOLD OUT. Just give me a shout if you like to get any of the 4 tickets we still have....

Chocoreto san mai kudasai

2006-04-20T23:28:00.000-04:00

If anyone was wondering why there was no post last week it because I was busy stuffing myself with Easter chocolate (mmm...chocolate). Speaking of Easter, who actually celebrates Easter (I hear cricket noises)? I'm only asking cause my patients at work all asked me what I did for Easter and whether I celebrate it...which made me realize that I don't actually know anyone that actually celebrates Easter. For most of us it's just another holiday and an excuse to buy a pound of Cadbury chocolate mini eggs...

In other news, I got a whole new computer + 17" LCD monitor last weekend at Best Buy. I eventually settled on a HP AMD Athlon 3800+ 2.4GHz, which included 1GB of RAM, 200GB hardrive, nVidia 256MB GeForce video card (hoped it had a ATI Radeon instead), a DVD writer, a snazzy new keyboard and a bunch of USB and Firewire ports (front and back). So now I have the hardware to edit my videos with...now I just have to wait to get the software (Premiere Pro 1.5 or 2.0 and After Effects) and learn how to use it before we go film our first episode, which will be soon..hopefully.

So right now all we have left to get is a tripod, a domain name and site to host our podcast (most likely Typepad). Right after we get those we'll finalize the structure of the show and hopefully shoot our first episode in late May or June, so stay tuned for more updates!

Anyhoo I discovered a site, "flagrantdisregard.com Flickr toys" where you can take your digital pictures and make all kinds of personal posters, movie posters, magazine covers, calendars and a bunch of other cool things with. They have 3 sizes you can choose from after you made it, 8x10 ($12), 11x14 ($14) & 16x20 ($30) and shipping is free. I personally like the movie poster option. You can check out a Motivation poster I made for fun while playing around on the site posted on my Flickr photos page.

Wanna own your own town? & Chinese stereotypes

2006-04-06T23:15:00.000-04:00

Wanna own your own town?
Originally uploaded by Michaeltron.

My friend Eric, who is the biggest fan of eBay I know (I wouldn't be surprised if that's where he got his girlfriend) sent me a link where someone was actually auctioning a small town (Bridgeville) in California. I thought that was pretty hilarious. The starting bid was $1 750 000.00! I took a screenshot of the page which you see above, posted on my flickr photos page.

Meanwhile another friend of mine, Yuju, sent me this funny video called "A Chink In The Armour" that talks about Chinese Stereotypes. You should definitely check it out. I must admit I thought the beginning and the end was hilarious. You'll know what I mean when you watch it, LOL.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd talk about Michael's (my friend, not me) cat Shadow, that had to be put to sleep this week cause it was sick (cancer). I was told he already lived past his life expectancy. He was the funniest cat I ever knew and I had known it since highschool. He was greyish, furry , had a flat face with his tongue sticking out all the time and no teeth, so when he ate he would just plant face first into his food. He would also try to attack you with his paws cause he didn't know he had no more claws hehe. I liked how he would just sit in front of the fridge and meow until he got fed, and I remember one time he kept meowing at me to follow him to the bathroom shower..to this day I still don't exactly know what he really wanted. Rest in peace Shadow...

Cool Toys and "Web 2.0 or Star Wars" quiz

2006-03-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, let me just start off by saying that there is nothing wrong with my Flickr badge on my blog menu. For all of those who keep telling me it doesn't work it is because you're still using crappy Internet Explorer which I've been ranting about in previous blogs. So please switch over to "Firefox" (it's FREE) and avoid all these dumbass stupidities that IE is known for causing.

Alright now that I've gotten that out of my system lets get back to what's important here and that's toys...Yes...toys. My patients at work were laughing at me cause I told them I still buy toys if they're cool. Honestly, has anyone check out the toys kids play with these days? Most of them are freakin cool. Now nothing can ever beat G.I.Joe's, Transformer's and Ninja Turtle action figures from the 80's (those rocked!!) but when you look at some of the stuff coming out nowadays you can't help but say "Woooooo", such as my superposable Spider-Man action figure that has over 30 points of articulations!! Seriously, who can resist?? Let's take Lego for example, back then you had the basic themes, Space, City and Medieval....BUT now we have Star Wars Lego, Spider-Man lego, heck they even got Batman lego now!?! I'm not afraid to admit that I actually collect Star Wars lego (c'mon it's freakin Star Wars in lego form!!), you can all laugh but really how many of you actually wished they had something like this back when you were kids? Besides how can I give up the chance to own Chewbacca, Darth Vader or Han Solo in lego form? I even have Jabba's Palace set with Princess Leia in her skimpy bikini in Lego form, haha. Even Transformers have gotten cooler with Takara (Japanese toy manufacturer) coming out with the Binal-Tech series where they took original Transformer characters but now made them transform into modern cars that you and I drive or see (I actually have Smokescreen and Bluestreak, both turn into Subaru Impreza WRX's). They're 1/24 scale with multiple articulations in robot mode and are diecast (not cheap ass plastic) which jacks up the price making it definately an adult toy/collectible. So toys aren't necessarily made for kids even if it does say "For ages 8-12". I'm pretty sure some of the people who makes these toys had our generation in mind when coming out with new products.

Anyhoo check out this neat quiz called Web 2.0 or Star Wars Characters. It's a quiz where you have to be able to distinguish between Web 2.0 names and Star Wars names. I actully got 42 out of 43.

KINFIT Update and Mario Kart Madness

2006-03-24T21:29:00.000-05:00

I got my new external mic (Sony ECM-HST1) and Sony "Professional" headphones for my camcorder Tuesday. I have to say the delivery was freakin fast, I got it the day after they emailed me saying it was just shipped. So I tried it out Thursday at practice (I looked liked a professional cameraman) and I was really impressed, the mic was small but very powerful, you can seriously hear a pin drop from across the room. It also came with a wind screen that looks like a lump of fur and when you put it over the mic it looks like a "Tribble". I was also able to find a friend that helped me fix my Kinfit logo, so now it looks professional and not like something I made with Microsoft Paint.

In other news, I ended up buying that GameCube that I was talking about in my last blog. I couldn't help myself, I got too addicted to it when my cousin brought his from Ottawa. Yes, I know, my will power is weak, but now everyday after work I play Mario Kart: Double Dash and its sooo much fun, zipping around, hitting other cars, exploding (BOOOM!), falling off cliffs. So much fun that I only turn it off when I have to eat dinner and I can feel numbness in my thumbs (no blisters yet). I'm already thinking about what other Mario game to buy next cause they're so much fun to play and they make great party games. I just like to note/make a reminder to all my friends that my birthday is in July...hint hint...hehe

Anyhoo, for those from kung fu/lion dance, I like to announce that we are now officially on Wikipedia if you search under "Lion Dance", thanks to Wong Tao for adding it. I also updated my flickr photo page and for those who ever wanted to know what their dreams meant, you can go check out the Dream dictionary website which I have also tagged on my del.icio.us page.

Microsoft's Origami project & Firefox vs Internet Explorer (IE 7 Beta preview)

2006-03-18T23:57:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't already heard about Microsoft's Origami project, Microsoft is coming out with a "Ultra Mobile PC" which is a tablet PC with a 7" screen that you can touch and write on, one model will even have a swivel out keyboard for you to type on and it will run on Windows XP. It'll have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in as well. You can check it out on their official website or from this community website. You can also view an unofficial preview/commercial for it that was leaked out on YouTube. Note in the video how you can also use it as a wireless remote for your desktop PC...Now I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, even though I use XP only cause I still prefer PC's over Mac's and I haven't quite gotten use to Linux yet, but I have to say this is a neat little gadget.

Recently I found out that some of my friends are still using Internet Explorer (gasp!), so for those who are still using it (god forbid), I suggest...no I highly recommend that you switch over to Firefox, cause it's just such a better, faster and safer/more secure browser. It uses tab browsing (so no more gazillion windows opened on your task bar) and the fact that you can add all sorts of extensions makes it so cool. I even recommend that you dump Outlook Express as well and use Thunderbird. Both of these are by Mozilla and you can download it for free from their site. (Microsoft recently released a Beta version of IE 7 that uses tab browsing but I still prefer Firefox).

Meanwhile my 6 yr old cousin came down from Ottawa this weekend and brought his Nintendo GameCube with Mario Kart: Double Dash and Super Mario Strikers, which prompted me to think about getting a GameCube again. I thought about getting one last fall after I saw it on sale and got hooked on Mario Tennis again, but I never got it because it didn't make sense for me to buy it for just one game. Now I haven't bought a game consol since my Playstation, and thats Playstation 1 not 2, so maybe its time to get one again. If you're wondering why it has been so long since I got one, well it's cause 1) I prefer playing PC games and 2) it didn't make sense for me to keep buying game consols when they're just gong to come out with a new one in 3-4 yrs, and 3) its way cheaper to just upgrade your PC than to buy a new console. In any case though, after today I got this urge to go buy a GameCube($99.99) to play all these cool Mario games but that would mean spending almost $200 total, which I sorta have but can't spend cause I'm still saving up for stuff for my video podcast and possibly a pair of hockey sticks before they discontinue my model. So many things to buy with so little money...ACK!...days like these are when I wish I won the lottery...

Random blog - nifty gadgets

2006-03-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

I seem to have stumbled upon bloggers block if there's even such a thing. Not much has really happened lately thats worth writing about and I don't have any updates about my in the works video podcast. Although I did somehow get mentionned in Glen's blog about sexual predators, not sure how or why but I find that hilarious. If Glen wants to make some big bucks we can go shoot some porn with my high def camcorder and sell it on DVD or the internet. It can be called "Glen's Shaggalicious House of Whores" haha.

So has any of you ever wanted to make your own "Sausage Egg McMuffin" at home but could never get the poached egg to cook into that disc shape properly like McD's or it was just too much of a hassle to even try? Well there's this really cool toaster called the "Egg and Muffin Toaster" that you can get at Walmart for $50 or so. I bought one back in January and yes it's really cool and it toasts your english muffin, cooks your egg in that disc shape and reheats your precooked sausage, ham or bacon all at the same time in separate compartments. Total cooking time is only 4 minutes! You can check it out on their official site and view the demonstration video that they have to see for yourself how easy and cool it is. I've been using that to make my breakfast for the past 2 months.

For those Star Wars fans out there like me (ya you guys know who you are), Master Replicas just released their Force FX Darth Maul doulble sided lightsaber ($119 US). Yes you read correctly "Double sided lightsaber"!! It comes out to about 7 ft long, and the cool thing is that it can actually break into 2 seperate battle damaged lightsabers like in the movie when Obi Wan cuts it in half. Check it out on their official website. If you're wondering what's so cool about a Force FX lightsaber, well its the closest thing to a real lightsaber.

Anyways I uploaded new pics on my Flickr photos page and posted/tagged some new links to some cool websites on my del.icio.us page so go check those out if you like and I'll leave you with ths funny video on YouTube that you can check out about white guys and asian girls called Yellow Fever. Asians will find this particularily funny...

Hockey Night in Ville St. Laurent

2006-02-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

After 2 weeks I was finally able to bring my camcorder to hockey Friday night. Bonnie, my friend's girlfriend that comes and watches us play all the time was kind enough to film about 50 minutes (in high definition) of the game for me. So I pretty much spent most of my afternoon today playing back the video and taking screen caps of myself in action. Watching myself on the tv was kinda neat, its not very often I see myself on video playing hockey, but now I actually have action pics of myself. I posted all my screen caps on my Flickr photos page so you can go check those and my other pics out and leave comments there if you want. The screen cap below is one of my favorites out of the batch, I'm the guy in RED...

While were on the topic of hockey, I just found out that the #1 ranked McGill Redmen hockey team just won game 3 of their best of 3 OUA Eastern Semifinal series with U of Ottawa. This means they will now play in the best of 3 Eastern Conference Finals (Mar. 1-5) against UQTR. If they win that series, they will go on and play for the Queens Cup (Finals) and earn a berth to Nationals for the first time. I'm hoping to go to one of their upcoming home playoff games and take some pics while I'm at it....

Anyhoo moving along now, I'm just about done making a list of accessories I'll need to get for the camcorder for my video podcast (KINFIT). Next thing is to figure out what hardware upgrade I'll need for my computer but I'll probably end up getting a brand new one seeing how cheap it is nowadays. Software I'm pretty much set, still need to get one more, Adobe After Effects 7.0. My friend and I started to discuss more about the content and the structure for the show so everything seems to be on schedule. Still gotta decide on a host site and a domain name but that can wait. Thats it for now, I'll keep updating our progress in my blogs as we go along...

Car anniversary, Mathesis puzzle box and my del.icio.us

2006-02-21T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well today my car (Black 2005 Mazda 3 GS) officially turned 1 yrs old. I thought about going out and getting it washed and waxed and taking some nice pictures of it, but then I realized I washed it last week so it would be a waste of money (money that I need to pay for my super expensive camcorder for my video podcast) and I have my winter rims and tires on so it doesn't look as nice as if I had my 15" alloy rims on. Maybe when spring/summer time rolls along I'll take some nice pics then, so for now you can just click this link and check out reviews and pics identical to my car. After a year I can say that I am very pleased with it, it really is a cool car, semi-automatic transmission, good performance (148 HP), nice exterior and interior. No major accidents yet (thank god), although I do have slight scratches on the front and rear bumper caused by incompetent drivers/parkers...but luckly they're not noticable. I also have a paint chip on the left rear passenger door handle caused by some idiot who hit it with his car door at hockey, and some small little chips at the bottom of the car from highway pebbles..but again these aren't noticable either, so I've been lucky so far hehe...

Moving along now, my friend Geoff Brown (some of you from may remember him from high school) who graduated in Industrial Design decided to make some extra money by making and selling a project he did when he was at Dawson. It's called the Mathesis Puzzle Box...its pretty neat and is a really good gift to give someone. He already sold about a dozen but I was lucky enough to have gotten 2 for free (gave 1 to a friend) since I helped him buy and pick up wood one day. You can read all about it on his Official Website, his contact info is there too.

Finally I just like to mention that I added links to my del.icio.us page (a bookmarking page with all my favorite links/sites) and my Flickr photo album with all my digital pics of my recent adventures, so go check both of them out. Both Flickr and Del.icio.us are free so sign up and start your own accounts too!! Later!

Free bandwith, testing my HDV camcorder & where's Michael Franks?

2006-02-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

For anyone who wants to do a podcast or video podcast (the next big thing to blogging) like me and is worried about storage & bandwith, then you should definitely check out Libsyn. I was researching on which blog site (Typepad or Wordpress) to host my video podcast when I heard about them on commandN (the Hak.5 guys use it for one of their podcasts). At Libsyn, all you have to do is to pay a small monthly fee to get storage space and unlimited bandwidth. Yes, "unlimited". I'm not entirely sure how they do it (apparently no one does either), but that they do it well. Aside from storing your files, Libsyn also allows you to start a blog, it manages your RSS feeds, and it even allows for easy BitTorrent file creation. You can even play/test it out yourself for free before signing up. I'm actually considering it since the last thing I want to worry about is paying for extra bandwith if more people start downloading our video and the fact that they take care of all the other stuff like RSS feeds and yada yada is a bonus...

In other news I finally tested my new Sony HDR HC1 camcorder today (didn't have a bag to bring it to hockey Friday) and I must say filming in high definition is really nice, and when you convert hi-def into standard-def it still looks way better than recording in standard definition. The sound quality is really good too. There are also a bunch of other neat features with the camcorder which I'm not going to go into detail about except for that it can also function as a digital camera too (2.8 megapixels) with a built in flash. I can take still pictures like any other camera or the neat thing is I can also take still pictures from a video recording. I just replay what I just filmed and click on the photo button when I want to make a still pic of that particular video footage. To see how well taking still pics were using the flash I decided to test it on one of my favorite Patlabor models I built from 3-4 years ago (you can view them at my flickr photos page). I wasn't able to get many angles since I had already placed it on a display shelf and I didn't want to disturb it but I have to say I was really impressed with the quality, they came out nicer than I expected, especially for something that was a built in feature, but then again this was a +$2000 HDV camcorder hehe. In anycase so far its really living up to its value. The next thing now is to see how well it does when you film (in HDV) people running and jumping, so I'm going to bring it to my martial arts/lion dance practice this week and hopefully get some video at hockey next week with some action pics too...

Last but not least for all those from Centennial and/or Dawson, hopefully you guys still remember Michael (Franks), one of my best friends. Well if you do and are wondering what happened to him, well he ran away to some boonie hick town (Prince George) in BC. I recently got him to start his own blog with Blogger so if you want to read up about what he's been up to (hanging with the natives...literally) you can. He did a pretty good job summarizing the last 2 years there and what he's going to do next. Anyhoo time to play more with my new HDV camcorder....

The Asian glance & my Sony HDR HC1

2006-02-10T00:36:00.000-05:00

If you guys read my New Years blog you may recall my peeve about how most asian people will 99% glance at another asian even if they didn't know them at all, as if by some chance they did (seriously, do we all look alike?!?). In any case this happened to my friend while she was waiting for me at McGill. Some Asian guy who was walking towards her did the glance (a long one at that) and then continued on his way. Now the funny thing is that, when she was telling me this we stopped at a light to cross the street and this mini tour bus filled with Asians stopped right in front of us and I swear everyone starred at us as if they were surprised to see other Asians ("Yes we're yellow and wearing winter coats, and no we're not Inuit")...Some man and woman actually waved at me...so to be nice I waved back while repeatedly saying in my head, "Why me..why me..??"...

Well after the Asian starring fiasco my friend and I went to Future Shop to buy my new Sony HDR HC1 camcorder, which we'll be using to film our Kinfit (video podcast) episodes. It was on sale for $400 off. We pretty much gave the salesperson the easiest sale of his life, walked in, told him I want to buy this and aurevoir...well sorta...he did try to sell me additional stuff and yada yada. I eventually agreed to take the 3 yr warranty only since he took off another $200 from the discounted price so I ended up getting $600 off on the camcorder, which is pretty good if you read the specs on it (I can film in Hi-Definition..wooooo). A friend of mine said if Kinfit doesn't work out we can go shoot porn and make millions haha. Anyhoo, I might test it out when I go play hockey Friday night...let's hope it doesn't get smashed by flying pucks on it's first field trip...

Happy Birthday Redmen & Pocky Mania

2006-02-02T00:14:00.000-05:00

The McGill Redmen, the oldest hockey program and the world's first organized hockey club celebrated its 129th anniversary Jan.31 and on the same day were ranked 1st in the nation on the CIS top ten for the first time ever in their history. The Redmen who are 15-1-2 are first in their division, 3 pts ahead of #10 ranked and hated rival UQTR and have a record 9 shutouts this season thus far. At least one hockey team in Montreal is winning..hehe.. and hopefully this regular season success carries over into the playoffs and get the Redmen to nationals this year. Next home games are Feb. 3 & 4 against Ryerson and U of T, if anyone wants to go give me a shout, college hockey is always fun to go to, love the atmosphere, plus they're better to watch than the Habs right now thats for sure...can't wait till playoffs start hehe.

So I was watching an episode of commandN, a favorite video podcast of mine about tech news and they were filming in a Japanese store in Toronto called Sanko and it had every possible Pocky flavor, over 40 varieties I believe...that's alot of Pocky...there's even a flavor called Men's Bitter Chocolate. For some of my friends who don't know what Pocky is, they are this sorta pastry snack (sticks) dipped in chocolate or other flavors, addictive and good hehe. Also, here's 2 online quizzes I found (http://www.blogthings.com/pockyquiz.html & http://sugardew.com/bloggalicious/quizzies/pocky/pockyquiz.htm) that you can go to and see what Pocky flavor you are...have fun!

what flavor pocky are you?
[c] sugardew

Anyhoo, for those who noticed, I have media player on my space now. It was playing Best of You by Foo Fighters before but I just discovered I can play The Kids Aren't Alright by The Offspring which is one of my all time favorite songs. Enjoy and I'll try to change songs every now and then but seriously, who can ever get tired of this song?

Fartigated

2006-01-30T23:45:00.000-05:00

Well, after lion dancing for 5 freakin hours in Chinatown and then going to do 2 more 20 minute shows at Casino for Chinese New Year on Sunday I now feel like I have a headache in my entire body. Honestly, typing this blog is exhausting...I mean not only are my arms and legs tired but I can feel it in my tiny eye muscles too. I feel like I've been run over by bulls and forced to watch 48 hrs of the incredible bearded woman banging Paris Hilton with my eye lids held open. Anyhoo, the positives was that I ate tons of food over the weekend, enough to feed an entire island occupied by savage monkies and I got to be on CTV (CFCF) news for those who didn't see it hehe...Thats it for now, time to go dunk my face in ice...

Year of the dog

2006-01-23T00:43:00.000-05:00

So as most of us know Chinese New Year is offically a week away (Jan. 29th), and for most of you non yellow folks who are wondering whats the big deal? Well if you're Chinese that means food, food and more food and getting lots of money from relatives (YEESS!!). Anyways, while I was cleaning up my desk I came across this placemat I got from a chinese restaurant from Toronto a few years back that talks about the chinese zodiac. And since its the year of the dog I thought all you dog people would like to know a little about yourself, according to this piece of paper hehe...

"Dog: Loyal and honest, you are generous and work well with others though are sometimes critical. You are well-suited to the horse, the tiger and the hare, and ill-suited to dragon and ram."

Oh and I gotta add this little bit about the Monkey since I'm born in the year of the monkey, hehe I love this line, "Monkey: Clever and skillful to the point of genius, practical and given to detail..."

Well thats pretty much it for now, for those who are interested, our next lion dance shows (Casino - Dragon only) will be:
Jan. 26th at Jet Club (1am so its technically Jan.27th but whatever)
Jan. 28th at Casino (6pm, 8pm, 10pm)
Jan. 29th Chinatown street show/parade (12pm - 4pmish) & Casino (6pm, 8pm, 10pm)

Hopefully I'll see some of you at the Chinatown show/parade or maybe Casino gambling your lifesavings away haha...oh and more news about KINFIT to come in the near future. Later!

Kinfit video podcast

2006-01-16T21:37:00.000-05:00

So after watching all these video podcasts people have been doing about tech stuff I thought it would be cool to start one of my own but on health, nutrition and fitness trends. Basically its gonna be me and a friend talking about whats new, giving tips and stuff weekly...oh and the occaisional interview. But everything so far is just on paper...Gotta get a camcorder first but its so freakin expensive. Probably going to buy a domain name soon, I just discovered someone already owns KINFIT.com, DAMMIT!! whats worse is that they don't even use it..so now I have to go with something like KINFITONLINE.com...ah well, better than nothing. Building a website from scratch takes time so I'm probably going to use a blog site, like Blogger or Typepad since it'll be easy to set up and stuff...I'm leaning towardsTypepad, since I know it offers a decent amount of space and more bandwith than Blogger. As for the video's I'll probably have a streaming version provided by Audioblog or VideoAddon and downloadable formats (mpeg4, H264, etc.). Also gotta figure out RSS feeds, but all in all I've pretty much figured out most of the technical aspects required, just some little things left to go over but now we can more or less focus on the content and structure of each episode now. Hopefully by early or late sping we'll have our first episode up and running and later find some sponsors. In the mean time if anyone has anything to suggest we would love to hear it, we could use all the help we can get. We also need someone to help redesign our logo and someone to design an opening graphics intro and segment graphics so if you or someone else you know can help us we'd love to hear from you. That's it for now, hope everyone has a great week!

Highlights of the night

2006-01-01T20:58:00.000-05:00

So here are some of the "interesting" and not so interesting things that took place the night of Dec.31-Jan.1..

Going to Andrew's house party, ditching it after only 60 mins to go to another house party at a loft on St.Laurent in Montreal (Sorry Andrew...peer pressure hehe..it was Steve and Glen's idea hehe)

Reunited with a couple of old friends from highschool (Steve, Glen & James) for the night

James splashing his drink all over his face and "cashmere" sweater when a air hockey disc flew at his face, hahaha

James who kept freakin saying "French Toast" the whole freakin night....

Being the last customers of the year at the Dep on the corner of Milton and Durocher to buy some last minute beer cause James left the liquor at Andrew's...idiot...

Steve & Glen writing their names in the snow in some alley on our way to the loft....(if you don't get it, think real hard and you will...hehehe)

Being the token asian guy of the group....

3492 Saint-Famille Street...hehe

Almost got ran over by a police car crossing the street...yeesh...

The loft on St.Laurent was on the top floor and was really really nice and big...

Steve wussing out 3 times with the same hot chick that was all over him at the loft...

After wussing out the 3rd time, Steve just gave a high 5 to the hot chick...wtf?!?!

Me slapping Steve behind the head for wussing out 3 times with the same hot chick...

Steve threatening to kill me if I didn't stop slapping him in the back of the head...hehe

Drinking lots & lots of beer and eating lots & lots of cookies and seeing lots & lots of "nice" girls...hehe

Guys who decided to go pee on the rooftop cause the lineup for the washroom was too long to wait...

Seeing a urinal and a toliette in the same washroom at the loft....who else can say they have a urinal at home??...

The countdown and then more alcohol...haha

Big freakin dog drooling and slobbering all over my jeans cause it wanted the bowl of popcorn I was eating....

Why do fobby or nerdy asian guys automatically feel the need to go talk with another asian guy at parties?? I mean seriously, it's like once they spot you its over, you know they're coming, no point in hiding cause they'll find you eventually...it's like walking down the street or on a bus and 99% of the time if you pass an asian guy they will glimpse at you with the corner of their eyes...wtf?!?...sorry buddy I'm not your friend John Wong from Chem 101 or your cousin Peter Chang...sheesh...why does this only happen with guys and not girls? DAMMIT!!!...

James and I ditching the loft for a bit to go to "3492", only to discover the occupants were gone so we went back to the loft to rejoin Steve and Glen...

On our way to the loft we came across 4 really drunk white girls from Toronto in front of Belle Province who were looking for a strip club and wouldn't shut the hell up...

An intoxicated Glen dancing with a really hot girl in a sexy red dress who wasn't wearing any panties...thats right folks, she went commando...we all got the visual confirmation...

Finding out from one of Glen's friends that the hot girl in the sexy red dress has a boyfriend who was the big tall bald guy at the party that could bench press me....

James standing in the same spot, with the same drink, talking to the same girl, for almost 2 hours thinking he was gonna score but he wasn't...haha

Steve and I cracking remarks and making bets that James wasn't going to get anywhere with this girl...

Analyzing if the email the hot chick gave Steve was real..."april.rose@mail.mcgill.ca"... hmmm sounds fake to me....

Steve having regrets and second thoughts about wussing out with the hot chick with Glen and I confirming to him what an idiot he was, near the end of the night...

Intoxicated Glen can still walk in a straight line and appear somewhat sober...hehe

The 4 of us walking back to my car parked on Prince Arthur at 5am...

Go for GOLD!!

2005-12-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again folks, and no I don't mean Christmas or New Years...It's World Junior Hockey Championships time again. Vancouver is hosting the tournament this year which means Canada will be defending its gold medal on home soil!! Goodluck to the boys, time to play some good old Canadian hockey and lets win another gold for Canada!!

(Dec. 26 - Jan 5, live coverage on TSN)

Goalies:
Justin Pogge, Devan Dubnyk

Defence:
Cam Barker, Luc Bourdon, Kristopher Letang, Ryan Parent, Sasha Pokulok, Kris Russell, Marc Stall

Forwards:
Daniel Bertram, Michael Blunden, David Bolland, Dustin Boyd, Kyle Chipchura, Andrew Cogliano, Blake Comeau, Steve Downie, Guillaume Latendresse, Ryan O'Marra, Benoit Pouliot, Tom Pyatt, Jonathan Toews

Follow the yellow brick road...or not...

2005-12-18T18:33:00.000-05:00

Choices...that's what life's all about right? It's about making decisions and hoping that you make more right ones than wrong. You can say life is like a multiple choice exam...some answers you know, some you're not sure of and some you just don't have a clue. That's when you ask yourself...Is it A or B?..C or D?..All of the above or none of the above? In the end we just take a deep breath, pause, and circle B, cause it's always B...well, at least we hope it is. Then we dwell, and dwelling is bad..very bad. What if we all had a yellow brick road to follow like Dorothy, maybe life would be much easier...but that's not to say Dorothy had it all easy. Even she had to decide whether to turn left or right at one point. But if we all had a path already laid down for us maybe we wouldn't have so many tough choices to make, but then again whose to say that that path will lead us to where we want? At the end of the day we just have to build our own path, go our own direction and hope that it takes us to where we want to go, to the people we want to see and be with....

Fear

2005-12-08T00:27:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder why we put things off? If I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is of just making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? "He who hesitates is lost." Now we've all heard the proverbs, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. Until we finally understand that knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying...

Something to talk about

2005-12-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

At the end of the day, there are some things you just can't help but talk about....some things we just don't want to hear and some things we say because we can't be silent any longer. Some things are more than what you say. Some things you say because there's no other choice. Some things you keep to yourself and not too often, but every now and then, some things simply speak for themselves...

Lightsaber color

2005-12-03T19:31:00.000-05:00

Your Lightsaber is Blue. Blue is often associated with depth and stability.
It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, and truth.

What Colored Lightsaber Would You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Fate

2005-11-28T19:43:00.000-05:00

Maybe Romeo and Juliet were fated to be together...but for just awhile, and then their time passed. If they could've known that before hand maybe it all would of been OK. I once told someone that when I was growing up I'd take fate into my own hands, I wouldn't let anyone drag me down. They said that I'd be lucky if I ever had that kind of passion with someone, and that if I did we'd be together forever. Even now I believe for the most part love is about choices. It's about putting down the poison and the dagger and making your own happy ending..most of the time. And that sometimes despite all your best choices and all your best intentions, fate wins anyways...