April 9th, 2010
Well with everything going on lately staying in shape and exercising has been low on the priority list. But now we have decided to stop the excuses and get back into the routine. Right now the plan is to exercise in the mornings before work. So the first challenge to be able to accomplish this goal is to get up at a time that allows us to complete a workout and still have enough time to get ready for work, a tough balancing act for many. So right now we decided to be able to accomplish this we will be getting up around 5AM, this is a big change especially for my wife, I can manage with a few hours of sleep, I used to do it all the time working at the airport, getting up at 4AM and going to bed at midnight or later. But my wife on the other hand has a hard time without enough sleep, so the challenge for us is to get to bed at a reasonable time to be able to get enough sleep.
So right now this is the first challenge just getting into the rhythm of going to bed at a decent hour, and getting our bodies used to it. next will be the workout schedule.
We will be re-visiting the P90X workouts. we had done them several years ago, the beauty of them is you can do them at home, you don’t need much equipment if any, and they are fairly intense. With that said the drawbacks are the commitment you have to make, basically your working out for an hour to an hour and half for 6 days a week, which is more than most people are used to, especially if you have not done any exercise routine for quite some time this can be a challenge in itself to stick to it, and is probably one of the reasons why many people quit the program early on.
Right now the plan is to start things off on Saturday….will let you know how we do.
April 7th, 2010
As Many who have arrived here will quickly find out I am not the Ricky Martin that made the announcement of coming out of the Closet and openly Admitting he is a homosexual. I think many people have found my blog as a result of his announcement and doing a search on Google or any other search engine would bring you here as has been very apparent with the amount of traffic my site has been receiving, I think last week I hit almost 20000 page views according to Google.
I appreciate all the traffic and hope that you do stick around as a result of reading what I have to say. Last week was a stressful one, which I will try to elaborate on in other posts, but wanted to take a minute and write a short post, just to update everyone and clear up any confusion.
Best of luck to the other Ricky Martin as well you can find his site here WWW.Rickymartin.com
March 15th, 2010
Anyone who knows me well enough, knows I am not one to blow my own horn. But I figured this was appropriate given the information.
Well according to the latest news Best Job in America I have been working in the best job in America. Well According to this research it states that the best job is a Systems Engineer. Which is roughly the job I have held for the last 8 or so years, with different naming conventions from Company to Company.
they don’t provide too much details about typical job description but if your looking for one this description job description here is pretty accurate.
I also found it funny how they color code the jobs by stress level as well, very interesting…
March 13th, 2010
I was recently reading an article in mens health magazine which the reporter came to the epiphany while talking with celebrity Mathew McConaughey that many successful people have a way of looking at the world and not dwelling on the negative, or better put there are no successful cynics. Where as the opposite is true of cynics they focus on the negative and enjoy getting together with other to have a “bitch session” or as the reporter put it a “Bitch spiral”.
I find that there is a lot of cynics out there and it is easy to make excuses and blame others for things that happen in your life. It is very easy to get dragged into that frame of mind. You have to make a conscious decision to not engage in that type of thought.
But I agree with many of the comments in the article that reflect the best way to deal with problems is to always keep moving forward in life and growing and bettering yourself. If not you are not really living, as we are only on this earth for a finite amount of time and we need to make the most of that time, otherwise we are just going through the motions and not really living life to its fullest.
As the article stated if you look at many of the most successful people in entertainment, business,or politics you see a common theme, they all have a positive focus in life and what they do.
That is one thing I have embraced, with all the things that have happened so far in my life, I try as much as possible to not dwell on the negatives, and especially not on the past. The way I see it is it has already happened, nothing you do now can change that outcome, it has happened for whatever reason. Now you have to focus on the current situation at hand, and the future and how to best make the most of it and move forward and grow as a person.
those are my thoughts, I would love to hear your take on it?
March 12th, 2010
Well I have slacked off!
I have not made any updates to the Blog all week. I do have a valid excuse. We (my wife and I) have been really busy this week with work and all the extra “stuff” going on in our day to day lives has not left much time for updating the blog. Although things are looking better for next week and I should have some time to set aside this weekend to write a few posts that should be useful. please check back next week for the latest and greatest. Otherwise have a great weekend and enjoy!
March 12th, 2010
well as fallout from the 2010 Olympics comes to a close an interesting story about a little bet that was had between the heads of Canada and the USA. It is great to see that we can get along so well, for someone who has spent time on both sides of the border and has many friends on each side this was a great thing to see.
Basically as the stories explain there was a bet between President Obama and Prime Minister Harper on the outcome of the Gold medal Mens hockey game, depending on who won the loser would have to deliver a case of beer from the respective country to the winner. So as the stories seem to be a little inconsistent as to what is to be delivered basically Prime Minister Harper should be getting a case of Yuengling lager from Pennsylvania which is reported to be the oldest brewery in the USA, I can actually say I have tried it and it is not bad, better than Bud or Bud Light, sorry 
On another note there was another bet between the the White house Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister. As the outcome of that bet he had to wear a Canada hockey Jersey on Camera for one of his briefings. you can read the US NEWS Version of the story here or the Canadian Version here for both sides of the story.
March 5th, 2010
Well As Promised I am giving you all an update. Unfortunately things did not go as well as planned with my Exam. I did not dedicate enough time to study and prepare as I should have or have done in the past and the results show it. I again missed it but not by much. As far as writing the exam I did it quickly as I usually do, only took about an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. the longest part of the 40 questions was the initial 10 or so were all simulations which were a little hard to gauge as they didn’t allow you to click on many options and it was hard to know when it was completed for those items.
At least it is Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to now. I can plan on how to schedule my time to dedicate enough time to preparing to write this exam again.
March 4th, 2010
Well I was an early adopter of the apple TV and tweaking it with Boxee. Now there is no official release of Boxee beta for the apple TV as of yet but some creative people out on the net have taken what is available and tweaked it to work with the apple TV.
I have to say I liked the alpha version but really love the interface of the beta version. I find it a lot more polished and user friendly. The UI really takes advantage of the resources available you get access to online content for TV shows if they are available or local content as well if you have it mapped out.
Now From the alpha to the Beta there was not an easy way to get it installed. For the initial install of Beta on the Apple TV you had to follow these instructions which involved using SSH to log into the apple TV and run several commands to install various components or with the script linked above managed to automate most of it. Which is how I got it working at first, but now the great people that work on the ATV patchstick and Launcher have managed to get it working from the launcher, so if you have the Alpha installed on your apple TV you can upgrade the launcher and then you can update Boxee from the launcher as was done in the alpha versions.
Now this install method does not install some of the additional features such as flash or Firefox which run in the background and allow you to use some of the Apps that are designed for the Mac version that this is ported from. you can get the additional instructions by clicking on the link if you use the Launcher method to upgrade to Beta on the apple TV.
March 3rd, 2010
Well the Olympics have come to a close and as many would agree they have been a great showcase for Canada and Vancouver.
And surprisingly the ‘Own the Podium’ Program that was introduced in Canada seems to have paid off as we have set a new Olympic record for most gold medals in an Olympics and most gold medals by a host country as you can see from the table below. Although we don’t have the most medals overall but we do have the most Golds, and as most Canadians would agree we got the all important Gold in men’s and and women’s hockey, in an especially dramatic fashion for the Men in overtime against the USA on Sunday.
March 3rd, 2010
Well As I had mentioned Previously as part of my goals I have scheduled my Exam for this Friday. From the report from my last attempt on this exam I missed it only by a few points so I am brushing up on the points that were a bit weaker according to the report. Right now I am going through all the documentation I have on those topics and reviewing them and any scenarios where they may be used in the exam.
Will post an update this weekend after I complete the exam. Wish me Luck!
