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My Marathon Info Wednesday, September 24, 2008 23:39:11 My Name: Ian Service My Race: Marathon My Number: 1666 Sunday is the big race that I've been training for all summer long, The Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon! I'm getting really excited. Only one more training run left and a lot more carbs to absorb to give me the energy to finish in my goal 3 hours and 45 minutes. Since it's my first marathon, (first race actually) I'm not too sure how well this will go so I won't be heart broken if I miss my goal time. I think as long as I finish under 4 hours I'll be really happy with my time, other than that it's going to be the time to beat for my next marathon in Ottawa in May. (That's right, I've already picked my next race (Around the Bay) and my next Marathon. Here's the race info that they sent out for those who are coming down to cheer me on... LIVE Results Once again www.sportstats.ca will provide the LIVE tracking of all participants in the Marathon and Half-Marathon. Splits will be at 10km, 21km, 30km and Finish line for the marathon and 10km and finish for the Half-Marathon. LIVE SMS Text Messaging New this year, you will be able to track participants in the Marathon and Half-marathon via text messaging. For $2.99 you can track 1 participant to up to 3 cell phone numbers. Splits will be at 10km, 21km, 30km and Finish line for the marathon and 10km and finish for the Half-Marathon. Click the following link to sign up now for this service: http://sms.eventsonline.ca/sms/crs_scotia/index.html Where to watch your loved ones: #1 Recommendation : would be on Bay Street from Queen Street south to Wellington #2 Recommendation: We have 11 Neighbourhood Cheering Sections with live Entertainment, food and much more! Check out our website for more information on exact locations: http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/nc.htm#map #3 Recommendation: There is also limited space on the Nathan Phillips Square walkway above the Start and Finish line- get there early to claim your spot- with 14,000+ participants and all their family there to watch, it will fill up fast! Where to meet your loved ones after they have finished: We will be having a Friends and Family Zone located on the south side of Nathan Phillips Square. We will have flags set-up and you will be able to meet your loved ones underneath their letter (Bob Smith, wait for him under the "S" flag)

Stu Saves a Politician from Foot in Mouth Disease Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:26:46 This article in the National Post explains it all. Here's the blog article that lead to the story.

Why Jean Machine Sucks Friday, May 2, 2008 19:07:51 So I went to Jean Machine today and the entire experience left me with a whole lotta rage... This is the subsequent letter that needed to be sent. Today my fiancee did me a favour by picking up a couple pairs of jeans for me to try on. I only wanted one new pair, but she couldn't decide and purchased two so once I got home and tried them on and we picked one then tried to return the other only a few hours after they had been purchased, we were told that returns were not permitted. The cashier told us that it was Jean Machine's policy not to allow returns but that we could exchange for another pair. Having no need for two pairs of hundred dollar jeans, I was quite upset by this news. She offered us a gift card instead which was better than looking for second pair of jeans that I can't really afford but still infuriating. I can only recall meeting with such a harsh return policy when I'm buying "what you see is what you get" antique computer parts from a small vendor, but even then they always double check with me verbally to confirm that there are no returns on this product. It strikes me that Jean Machine is probably the only large retail chain that I've ever shopped at that has given me a hard time with returns, especially when the original form of payment is present to be refunded and I was astonished that the date stamp hadn't even changed on the generated receipts yet we were still given such a hard time. I could understand if it had been over thirty days like any of the competition or if there was as shadow of a doubt that the jeans had been worn for more than a minute, but I find it truly ridiculous that my money is now being held hostage in Jean Machine's accounts only to gain interest for the corporation instead of me for a matter of a few hours with no wear of an unwanted product. On top of all of that the cashier told us that the gift card has a two year expiration date. I'm not sure if your staff has been briefed on this fact, but Ontario has outlawed the expiration of all gift cards. I do appreciate that companies need to protect themselves from fraudulent activity and that a company's goal is to turn a profit. However it is quite possible to do both of those things without causing undue stress and aggravation with an honest business practice. If it is Jean Machine's policy to not allow returns on any product and that all customers consider their money completely nonrefundable once it has passed through your registers you may want to post that in big banners all around the store because that is not the normal method of operation. Managers should be training their staff to verbally confirm that there are no refunds on any product as a simple 8x10 sign mixed in with all of your other eye-catching desktop merchandise is not nearly enough when every other merchant in the same building will be lenient with you and return the product to inventory. We were also told that it's printed on the receipt, but I guess by following that logic, by the time you've read that it's already too late. I would truly appreciate it if you would contact me so that we can come to some form of resolution on this matter. The number one rule of retail business is that the customer is always right and I did keep, and am quite happy with the other pair of jeans. I would like to continue to consider Jean Machine as a good place to shop. Thank you, - Ian Service

What's with the American Beer? Monday, March 31, 2008 23:55:05 Watching one of the last episodes of Dexter and then later today, watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and reflecting upon my lovely summer excursion to Florida this winter... have you never heard of a 2-4? Another reason Canadians have words like two-four and double-double. Americans just can't take the goods. The most I ever found down there was a one-two and that just doesn't work as a thing. Honestly... they have giant pops (aka: sodas) and fries but not beer, that just doesn't make any sense.

St. Patrick is Immovable Tuesday, March 18, 2008 22:42:42 Awesome St. Patty's Day celebration! All the regulars were in attendance and an excellent night was had by all. We rocked out at Molly Blooms until 6 and then rocked out our place on Rock Band. Too bad there isn't a Celtic Band. All this despite the fact that the Catholic Church tried to move St. Patrick's day to the 15th. It's just not possible. St. Patrick's Day isn't a day until it disrupts a work week.

Is this thing on? Thursday, March 13, 2008 15:40:00 I made a bunch of changes over the course of the day today to the server because I finally brought it upon myself to change the register_globals flag to Off in PHP. Unfortunately that means finding little bugs all over the sites I've built. Mostly it's just the really old code, but even so, lots of little stuff needs to be changed so it continues to work.

Happy Leap Day! Friday, February 29, 2008 08:57:17 I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy leap day! February 29th only comes along every once in a while (they tell me every four years, but I don't believe them). For those of you born on February 29th, happy birthday, hopefully you feel good about yourself for being so young.

US Customs is on Crack Wednesday, February 27, 2008 21:40:10 I went down to West Palm Beach to visit Brianne and I obviously set off some alarms. Something about an IT guy going to visit his fiancée just sounds so very unbelievable... IT guys can’t have fiancées, that would be preposterous. Also, the fact that she’s working down there, that’s just far too confusing, we better take him aside and interrogate him because it is highly suspicious. You know, I thought the whole bulking up of the borders is supposed to protect Americans from mean people, I don't understand why they find me so threatening, if you've ever met me, you'd know exactly what I’m talking about. So yeah, they hauled me aside, asked me questions in the little room and even tried to call Brianne to make sure she was real. They wanted to know what her boss does and why he does it and blah blah blah. Talk about a rewarding career pissing people off. Anyway, I'm flying right now, the sun above the clouds is a marvellous thing. Watching The Big Lewbowksi on my iPod, great little device, don’t leave home without it. I wrote this on the plane down here last week but totally forgot to post it when I got here. I think I'm going to ship as many of my belongings back to myself as possible so I don't have to cross the border with them, less suspicion the better.

Not Amish... on a Mission Wednesday, February 13, 2008 21:20:03 Over the last two days, two people have asked me if I've gone Amish and that's why I've got my beard on. Once people know that I'm on the March Mutton Chop Mission, they're much more supportive of the mission... once they know that such a mission exists. This St. Patrick's Day is going to be legen... PS: On a side note, there are others out there operating Mission Mustache March, so no matter what your beliefs, you better believe that March is a month which men devote to various facial changes.

Tobogogganing Sunday, December 2, 2007 17:53:44 Since we had some lovely snowfall today, after I dropped Brianne off for work, I got home and Sean, Jayme and I went tobogganing. The logic there was that we had to enjoy the snow while it was around. It had already started misting out and it really hasn't stopped all day. Here's some pictures of our antics...

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