I’m not positive that the charger made it home with me, but in the event that it did and I can locate it, I may start doing that again.

I’d also really like to start doing tech writing and video in the very near future. I really miss playing around with video editing software, and people on YouTube really seem to like the content that I was putting out.

I’ve been working really hard both at the office, and here at home as well. I’ve got a lot of projects on the go and with almost no end in sight, I’ve really been trying to just keep caught up on sleep.

I have a piece that I’m working on for my blog that I’m really excited to write. I hope that it has the impact that I think it will, because it’s a topic that I talk about with friends all the time and that really grinds my gears.

Enjoy your Sunday, and I will see you all tomorrow!

I don’t however enjoy the smell, the negative health effects, and the overall stigma associated with smokers.

About three years ago I read about something called an “Electronic Cigarette”. I did some research and found a vendor here in Ottawa that went above and beyond what I expected.

I got in touch with Shadi at CapitalNicFit and told him I wanted to try an electronic cigarette. That simple request had Shadi at my door a couple of days later with an arsenal of electronic cigarettes, different flavors and strengths of liquid, and a passion to share what he knew about electronic cigarettes with me.

Since then I’ve owned several different itterations of electronic cigarettes all of which I still have and still function 3 years later!

The truth of the matter is I like the action of smoking, and with an electronic cigarette you get the entire smoking experience without all the bad stuff that comes with being a smoker.

Over the last few years Shadi has been a friend, and a supporter. He still wants to get me 100% smoke free, and I’d love to get there in my own time.

I went from smoking a pack a day, to now being able to survive on four or five a day.

That’s significant to me, and I really prefer smoking my electronic cigarettes. Anyone who knows me has likely tried an electronic cigarette as I let just about anyone try it to see if it is for them. Some are impressed and end up buying one, and some would rather stick to smoking cigarettes (analogs).

Shadi always keeps me up to date on the latest and greatest in electronic cigarettes, and is always willing to lend a hand should I need it.

I owe Shadi a debt of gratitude for introducing me to this once foreign concept of “Electronic Cigarettes”

Check out his web site and if you want to learn more about electronic cigarettes, feel free to leave a comment or ask either myself or Shadi for yourselves

This morning I’d like to talk a little bit about aspirations.

When I was going through high school, I thought I knew exactly the job I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was going to be a paramedic, and nothing would stop me from helping people. Then I took a healthcare course at school and we got to meet a real live paramedic!

Needless to say I was floored to be able to meet and talk with a paramedic and ask him just how cool his job was!

The paramedic we talked to told us he loved his job, but it wasn’t for everyone. He went on to explain some of the things he’s seen and experienced in his line of work and my stomach turned.

Turns out I wasn’t really the type to deal with the kind of things paramedics deal with on a daily basis. Not to mention the hours are less than desirable.

Once I graduated high school, I was completely lost. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with my life and ended up taking a job at McDonalds to pass the time until I made up my mind.

After working a number of years in customer service, I realized that I really enjoyed working with people but the customer service industry has a fairly low earning cap (on average).

A lot of customer service jobs pay minimum wage and seldom lead to anything more than another job in customer service. This really frustrates me, as I feel the people on the front lines keeping customers happy are the people that deserve to be compensated the best. Sometimes they get yelled at and treated like dirt, which is becoming more and more common for people in the customer service industry.

The problem with the customer service industry now is that the people who take the minimum wage jobs are people who could care less about their jobs. Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of unsung heroes in the customer service industry, however on average they are few and far between.

In my opinion I think the customer service industry needs a little bit of a shake up. Employers need to start recognizing their employees for keeping customers happy and ensuring that the business succeeds.

A lot of huge corporations will say they have employee recognition programs, however they are nothing more than a popularity contest. If you’re buddy buddy with your manager, then your odds just improved! They typically have absolutely nothing to do with the actual work you do.

The ones who typically get it right are small businesses. I’ve worked for quite a few small businesses in my time on this planet, and I feel like they know more about proper compensation and employee recognition than anyone.

I’m much happier working for a business where the owner or manager knows you by name, and doesn’t have to look at a personnel file to figure out what kind of employee you are.

The problem with huge businesses is that everyone is a number, and everyone is replaceable. Your HR person will look at your file, read the notes on it, and make a decision based on what they read and not what they know about you as a worker. This opens you up to all kinds of corruption and favoritism.

This sort of turned into a rant, but the question I wanted to ask in all of this is “In a perfect world where you had to work, what kind of work would you like to do? If money was the same across all jobs, what would you want to be doing?”.

Leave a comment and let me know! I’m very curious to see the answers I get.

I have to have some blood work done next week as well as an ultrasound to find out just what the hell is going on inside my body, and to be honest I truly believe it’s nothing….. Likely an acid reflux or something of that nature.

My doc is sending me for these tests as a precaution, not because he believes anything is seriously wrong with me.

I was prescribed Nexium to deal with stomach acid (which is an issue I had in the past) as it may be resurfacing.

In the end I feel like once the test results come back, I’ll start to feel better.

It might also have a lot to do with stress.

Fret not lovely readers, as I am a fighter and don’t plan to let a little nausea keep me down.

Until next time!

Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

More information about the two bills is available here.

PLEASE DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AMERICA!

Press Start is a new web series put together by a couple of friends of mine in Toronto.

The premise of the show is simple. Think “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” but for gaming.

The show is fantastic and I wish the guys all the luck in the world with their new venture!

Check out episode #1 below!

The trip was an absolute blast, and we are very thankful that my folks sent us there.

The playlist below is all of the video footage we took while in San Francisco.

When looking up symptoms, I soon clued in that I could have a sensitivity to gluten.

After reading through story upon story about people who woke up one day and felt nothing but nausea and ill for months and months at a time before it was discovered that they were suffering from a sensitivity to gluten.

Tomorrow I’m going to try as hard as possible to avoid gluten at all costs and try to start eating a bit more healthy.

If anyone has suggestions or tips on how to stay relatively gluten free, I welcome your comments on this post!

I’ve been trying to find something that works for me and unfortunately for PHP Fusion, it just didn’t work for me.

I decided to come back to WordPress and really just keep it like this.

I really enjoy writing, and feel like I should probably do more writing and a lot less modifying.

I used to have a bunch of old crap here on this blog so I decided to flush it out, but could never decide on what system to use. They all have their qwirks but I think WordPress is the best and most stable solution for my blog. I really would prefer to keep working with something that I am familiar with rather than learning a new system only to hate it.

Anyways welcome back! I hope you stick around for more of my writing and ranting