Time to Move Forward

Well, it's the last day of the year 2010. How was your year?

Mine was pretty awesome. I got an awesome new job that I love. I moved to new apartment that I really like. I made a ton of new amazing friends. I generally had a pretty decent year if I do say so myself.

BUT, I think next year is going to be even awesomer (that is a word because I said it is). I have a lot of things planned that I'd like to do next year. Now we just need to cross our fingers that everything goes according to plan.

One of the big things I have planned I'm going to tell you now as it involves this blog:

For the past few months I've been taking a beginners web design class. I've been learning how to build my own site because I've finally decided I'm ready to take the plunge and buy myself my own domain to host a 40deuce web page. This blog will be one of the things to move over to that new site.

I had been thinking of learning web design for a little while. Not because I want to change careers or anything, but I just thought it would be helpful to know since I work in the online space. I always tell people, "I can use the hell out of a computer, but when it comes to anything backend related I don't know jack." Luckily, one day a random tweet caught my eye...

The tweet said that Bnotions (a web design and strategy company here in Toronto) was offering a free 9 week course that they call The Yorkville Media Center. I looked a bit into it, and frankly the price was right, so I signed up.

We spent the next 9 weeks learning how to build a site from beginning to end. We started with planning and went through design, html, CSS, Javascript, Wordpress, uploading the site to a server and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was kind of a lot to take in and moved quickly, but I think I have enough to do this thing on my own.

If I can't though, I know I can always go back to the Bnotions guys for some help. Before I started the classes I knew one person who had just started working with Bnotions, but now I know most of the guys that work there and they're all really awesome people who are really dedicated to what they do. I think it's safe to say I made friends with almost everyone that works in that office and I'm really happy about it. While everyone who was there and taught and spoke were awesome people I just want to give a special shout out to Mark Reale who taught us most of the design stuff and will be helping me work on my new site's theme.

So, if all goes according to plan, I'm hoping to get this new site up and running sometime in January. However, I may be lying to you since I'm going to try to tackle this thing on my own.

Happy New Years to all who read this!!

Leave me a comment and let me know how your 2010 was or some of the awesome stuff you have planned for 2011.

Oh ya, and have fun but be safe tonight!

Lo-Fi Decision

A few months ago I downloaded the Hipstamatic app for my iPhone. I absolutely love it! It takes the most amazing looking pics (as you'll see throughout this post).

It takes the pictures digitally in my phone, but adds filters to them to make them look much more analog.
The best part is that you can play around with how the pictures are going to turn out by (fake) changing around the camera lenses, flashes and film. Each have their own unique properties and it's really fun to mix and match them and see what you get.
One of my favourite things to do is actually randomize the settings and then just see what kind of picture I get afterwards.
As much as I love being able to just whip my phone out of my pocket and take these awesome pics, I always thought it would be fun to be able to do it with a real camera as well. Well lucky me, because a Lomography store opened just around the corner from my house.
Lomography cameras are modled after very old school cameras, but are new and made of plastic. They are almost as analog as you can get in terms of a camera. I wouldn't want it for everyday use, but I think it would be fun to bring one out on occasions.
The first day I saw the store I walked in right away and started looking around. My eye was immediately drawn towards a big box on the wall. The box was Diana F+ kit. It caught my eye because the kit came with the Diana camera plus a whole bunch of accessories. I was most excited about the multiple lenses it came with. But I didn't buy it.
I decided to go home and think about it. And I thought about it and I still want it. I was pretty much prepared to go and buy the kit this week, until yesterday.
Yesterday a friend said to me that maybe the Diana isn't the place to start, but rather I should start with a Holga (another type of lomography camera). He said that this camera has less options to play around with and would probably be better for a beginner.
Never the one to let me hold myself back I decided to do a little research on the subject. I started looking up comparisons of the Diana F+ and the Holga. The problem is, people who love lomography seem to love both the cameras. It was no help to me.

I'm going to go back to the store this week and talk to the people who work there to help me make a decision, but I figured I could also ask you sweet people of the interweb.
If you've ever played around with any of the lomography cameras I'd love to get your opinion. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Now, take a look at some more pictures that were taken from my iPhone (as were the ones above):







So, what do you think? Should I go with the Holga or the Diana F+?? Let me know.

Mo' Money Mo'staches

Dearest friends and family and random strangers that read my blog,

I never really ask much of you, especially through my blog, but this month is different. This month I have donated my beautiful face to help raise money for charity. That's right, I've donated the part of my face between my upper lip and my nose to grow a moustache in hopes of raising a little bit of money for prostate cancer research.

The whole idea of moustache fund raising is called Movember and was started in Australia a couple of years ago. It has since spread into a worldwide month long fund raising campaign. For the month of November men try to grow moustaches (no matter how ridiculous it makes me look) in hopes that people donate to show their support (and to hopefully help us feel like we're not looking like this for nothing).

BUT WAIT! Before I ask you donate, there's more.

So you know that I'm not cheating on this and that I actually look as ridiculous as I think I do, I've set up an account on Dailybooth where I will be taking a picture everyday to document my moustache's progression. You can watch it grow by clicking here. Feel free to leave hilarious comments on the pictures so you really feel like you're getting your money's worth.

Now comes the hard part for both you and I. This is where I ask you to please donate and support me and where you part with a couple of bucks. You can donate any amount you want, from $5 to $5,000,000. Any amount can help and is appreciated.

Please click here to help me out and donate. Thank you!

And, if you need another little laugh; a friend was kind enough to point out that my new moustache has made me into a celebrity look-alike:

Thanks again!

BEST.HALLOWEEN.COSTUMES.EVER!!

Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year. Everyone likes to go out and have a good time. Even better though, everyone dresses up to have a good time. This year I saw the best costumes I have ever seen!!

If you're wondering, that's me at the top of this post in my Wolverine/Logan costume. I was pretty happy with it.

I was supposed to spend the night at a friend's house party, but I got a last minute invite to roll with Sean Ward, Michael Nuss and some other folks to the Silver Snail Halloween party. For those of you that don't know, the Silver Snail is huge famous comic shop here in Toronto, so I knew the costumes at their party were going to be awesome. So, I went by the party before heading to my friend's house party.

Here are some of the awesome costumes I saw on Saturday night (and this is just Saturday night):

Obi Juan Kenobi

Jango Fett

Bender

Me & X-23

The movie X-Men

The cartoon X-Men

old skool Captain America

Mega Man

A Star Trek Red Shirt with a target on his chest (geeks will understand)

Steam Punk Ghostbuster (this had moving parts and everything)

The Sorceress (from He-Man)

Bed Sheet Ghost (no one really does this costume, that's why it was so awesome)

Roxy (from Scott Pilgrim)

Barf (from Space Balls)

Freakazoid!

Deadpool

Scott Pilgrim & Ramona Flowers

Ganesh

Robin

Orko (from He-Man)

Reverse sex Joker and Harley Quinn

Noheart (from Care Bears)

Han Solo & Chewy

Death? (iduno, but looked awesome)

Dexter

Daft Punk

Green Arrow

Sheldon meets Sheldon (best pic ever!)

Super Girl & Evil Super Girl?

Cobra

Muppets dressed as super heroes

Mario

Lelu (from The 5th Element)

Hit Girl

Kick Ass

I think this guy is getting raped by death

Captain Spaulding (from The Devil's Rejects)

Beavis

Butthead

Beavis & Butthead

Jack Skellington & Sally

Candy buffet (not a costume, but worth noting)

Ace Ventura

Jem

Dom-Ballerina (or something like that)

And that's it bub!!

Actually, I'll close this post out with Sean Ward's vlog of the Silver Snail party:

Tell me in the comments what you were for Halloween. Better yet, leave a pic (if that's even possible).