Cell Company Swap

While on Marketing magazine's website (looking for jobs) I ran across this article about how in the near future Canadians will be allowed to switch wireless providers and take their current phone number with them. The date is March 14, 2007 and thats when Wireless Number Portability (WNP) will come to Canada. Apparently many other countries, including the United States, have already implemented this.

I have to say I had not heard of this before. Needless to say, the cell phone companies don't seem to promoting this upcoming change, however many of them are ramping up their marketing campaigns to keep existing customers in their contracts. It's funny, because Telus my cell phone provider sent me via my email, all about their new marketing campaign about "keeping their promises". They are offering up things like a brand new cell phone every so many years ( I forget, I think its every year or three years). However, when you read the fine print its only for those on contracts, so those of us on non-contracts (like me) the offer doesn't apply. They do suggest however that they would be happy to assist me (and others) switch to a monthly plan. Apparently those of us not on monthly plans are considered second-rate customers. Maybe I should switch.

You can read about WNP at http://www.marketingmag.ca/magazine/current/feature/article.jsp?content=20060828_69460_69460.

Emmy Night

So tonight is the Emmys. My fave, The Late Show with David Letterman is up for five Emmys. They are nominated in the following categories:

• Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
• Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
• Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music or Comedy Program.
• Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing For A Series
• Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video For A Series

I think Dave will be in tough, going against the likes of Jon Stewart, but you never know with Emmy. I will be watching and rooting.

Millbrook

Last night I rented David Cronenberg's movie A History of Violence. I had wanted to watch for a while now and finally decided to see it. It's a great little film. But was even more interesting was that the small town in the movie is actually Millbrook. In the movie, the town is Millbrook, Indiana, but I could see that it is indeed Millbrook just about 15 minutes away from me. It was kind of neat seeing it in the movie.

For those who know Millbrook, you will recognize the post office in the movie and their is a scene where they hold up the local paper and it is the local Millbrook paper, not some mock-up for a movie.

I know they are always shooting movies in Millbrook, but it was cool to actually recognize it in the movie.

Quiz

As many of you know, I am a news junkie. I love watching the news on television, reading newspapers, checking out news online, etc. So at work I have been checking out The Toronto Star and CTV news online. I like being able to check the news online during the day, so I have some sense of what is happening in the world.

Well, over on ctv.ca every Friday they post a little news quiz about the week. It's ten questions and it tells you what percentage of people get the answer correctly for each question. I find them quite neat. I have been doing them for numerous weeks now and usually get like eight out of ten. However, today I finally got the perfect news quiz score, ten out of ten.

You can check out the news quiz every Friday on http://www.ctv.ca.
Have fun taking it!

The Ousider

Pluto is out!
That's right, today Pluto got the olde heave hoe from the Galaxy. As an added insult, it has been down graded to a "dwarf planet". Its now the Mini-me of planets. Don't ask me about the scientific explantation, but because Pluto's orbit overlaps with Neptune, its now a "minor planet". Damn that Neptune.

Personally, I feel bad for Pluto. Of course growing up we all were taught that Pluto was the 9th planet, in fact I think I remember doing a report on Pluto for some class in public school. I picked it because it was the smallest of the planets and I thought the most interesting since very little was known about it.

You can check out this news article on the Pluto decision http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/
20060824/pluto_definition_060824/20060824?hub=TopStories

Lunch

Today, I decided to return to the scene of the crime. I went to Dairy Queen for lunch. As you all might recall, the last time I ate at the Queen, I became very ill and thought I was going to die. I had been toying with the idea of eating there again, but had been hesitant because of that whole food poisoning thing.

So it appears lunch has been fine. I have not become deathly ill and I am not running for the bathroom.These are both good things. I do have to say that I had a salad with chicken in it and not a hamburger, which is what I ate before. I might need to work my way back up to hamburgers.

For now, I shall stick with salads and ice cream of course. Mmmmmm, did someone say banana creme pie blizzard!

Work Update

I thought I would do a brief work update. Well, work is getting very busy. The office has people coming and going all the time and people are calling even more now as we get closer to the Plowing Match.

As for myself, I am presently co-ordinating the Tim Hortons order (they are supplying product for our volunteers), so I will be working with Julie from head office. I am also managing the Pepsi order for our volunteers, making sure we don't go over our in-kind contribution (last year they racked up an $8,000 bill above the free product) and finally helping with Volunteer Orientation Day on September 9th. We are planning for about 1,000 people (actually have something like 1300 volunteers for the IPM). So, its good that I am busy, its also interesting to see the dynamics of some of the committee people you end up working with.

The site is apparently coming along (I will be visiting it on Friday), the hydro is pretty much in, water is in and the tents start going up next week. Soon enough I will be working out of a trailer. Yes, I will be trailer trash, yahoo!

Prison Break

So apparently my audience awaits my comments on the season premier of Prison Break. Here it goes.

Well, of course I loved it! I mean, I really wish this show was on every night. You can see how this season is going to be this kind of battle of the brains, Michael vs the FBI guy. One of my favourite scene's was when Sara is in the hospital and unfolds the origami bird and reads the message from Michael. My heart did a little pitter, patter. Also, Veronica getting killed (I hope the actress enjoyed her one year on the show), and T-bag wanting his hand back, yikes! Of course there is the question of why the FBI agent is popping pills and the fact that Michael saw it.

Wentworth Miller is actually on the cover of Starweek magazine this week and the article talks about how this season will follow the individual cons as they go their separate ways, and that basically their is a role reversal, where Lincoln will help Michael, because he has the greater street smarts then his brother. This show is a little different then 24, the creator was saying that they plan out an entire season, whereas 24 is written as it goes along.

So, the writers have this season already planned out for us, now we just have to go along for the ride!

It's Coming....

One week from today, one of my favourite shows will be returning to television: Prison Break! Yes, its back next Monday, August 21st. I can't wait to see what they have planned for us this season. Oh yeah, did I mention that Wentworth Miller is "easy on the eyes".

Going to the Chapel....

Last night I went over to my friends Heather & Will's place in Peterborough to catch up with them. I hadn't seen them in a while, so a little get together was well over due. We had some food and drinks and caught up with one another. Well, the big news with Heather & Will is that they are enaged. Yes, engaged! Will popped the question about a month ago. They both meet each other while they were co-workers at the United Way in Ptbo, and of course thats where I know them from. Eventually their friendship turned into romance and well the rest is now history, as they say.

I am truly excited for them both. They are two of the nicest people I know and I wish them both the best as they go on this journey together.

Also a shout out to"manland". For those reading this out there in cyberspace, "manland" is the affectionate name given to Will's garage that holds a pool table and is the play space of grown men. Yes, I got to peek behind the curtain and as Dorthory discovered, its really all just smoke and mirrors.

Congratulations Will & Heather!!