Change in #LowCarDiet Plans

The other day I posted my first blog post about the #LowCarDiet challenge I'm doing through the month of August. I was planning on doing a bunch of subsequent posts here in my blog for the rest of the month as well. However, I'm making a slight change in plans...

Instead of doing a lot of updates about my #LowCarDiet here, I've decided to start a Tumblr blog dedicated to following my progress. I figure that way I can also do a lot of smaller posts, post the odd picture and video and some other things and have it all in one easy to find place.

I'll still do some larger blog posts about the #LowCarDiet here and then cross-link them over to my new Tumblr, but if you want to follow along with all the action please follow 40deuce's #LowCarDiet.

Also, please like and share anything I post there. As well, I think it will help me to win if you like the YouTube videos I post there as well. And don't forget to tweet at me using the hashtag #LowCarDiet.

Anyways, you can find this video on my new Tumblr, but here's the first #LowCarDiet video I made, because I promised I'd share it here as well. (This was also my first time EVER editing a video)

I'm Going On A #LowCarDiet

A few weeks ago a buddy of mine pointed me towards a really cool contest being put on by Zipcar called the #LowCarDiet. The contest was looking for people who were willing to walk, ride their bike, use public transit, go to the gym and occasionally use a Zipcar. The point is promote a lifestyle where people don't drive everywhere all the time, and it sounded perfect for me. Luckily, I was one of the people chosen to represent Toronto!

The whole thing is a contest where 12 cities from across North America are competing to see which city can live this lifestyle best. Being someone who live in downtown Toronto I think that this kind of lifestyle is totally fitted for this city and I intend to win.

Over the next month I'm going to taking part in this #LowCarDiet by being more active in how I get around. I'm also going to be making videos of some of the awesome things I do with my Zipcar and other aspects of the contest. I hope you all follow my progress and support me and Team Toronto. We win just by being active; both in life and with the contest.

There are also some really awesome sponsors for the contest that have hooked me up with some cool stuff. First, I got a free membership to Zipcar so that I can use the cars when I need. I also received a bunch of Zip Car gear, a pair of New Balance shoes (which I still have to actually go and get), two tickets to The Second City here in Toronto, $200 in VIA Rail travel, a giant gift box of Pop Chips (which I was kind enough to share with some of my work colleagues even though I like them myself), a nice bag and free membership to LogMeIn, Jabra sports headphones, a whole bunch of Zevia Natural Soda (which I haven't tried yet, but it says it's no calories or sugar, so that's good) and apparently we're getting even more stuff soon. Pretty crazy for something I would have done without any of the stuff.

So please follow along with me. Check out my #LowCarDiet profile. Follow the contest progress. Tweet me about it and use the hashtag #LowCarDiet. Watch out for my blog posts and videos (I'll post them all here for you to see) and leave comments and/or like the videos. Essentially the more I participate and get other people to help me participate in the contest, the more of a chance I have to help Toronto win.

Anyways, I just wanted to tell everyone about this and ask for your help. I just booked my first Zipcar rental so I can run some errands this afternoon I haven't been able to without a car and I'll make a video to share.

Thanks again to Zipcar for choosing me to do this and a thanks in advance to anyone who helps me in my effort to win!

Happy Accidents

Have you ever set out to do something awesome one night only to have the night go a completely opposite direction? That happened to me this past Saturday, but it was definitely for the better.

Last week (and weekend) was NXNE (North by North East) here in Toronto, which is a huge music festival. The festival toutes 650 bands playing at over 40 venues across the city over six days. Every year I look forward to this week because... well, because I love music. I'm always on the look out for cool new music and NXNE is a great way to find some. Finding new music was actually my happy accident on Saturday night.

On Saturday I was wandering all over the city seeing a ton of different bands. One band that I specifically wanted to check out was Handsome Furs. I've never seen them live, but heard they put on a wicked show. I showed up at the venue just before 1am (when they were supposed to be going on) only to find that the venue was packed to capacity. There was even a crazy line up for people who had "priority passes" which had worked to get me into a bunch of other packed shows last week.

Anyways, not one to be discouraged, my cousin and I decided to stop by another bar in the area that was also part of the NXNE venue list just to check out what was going on there. We wandered over to The Dakota Tavern and walked in to find the best new band I found throughout the entire festival. We got in to catch the second half of a band called New Country Rehab. I can only describe them as country/bluegrass/good-ol-fashioned-rock-n-roll. While it's not my usual type of music they were really awesome and definitely the best find of the festival (for myself anyways).

I managed to grab the last two minutes of one of their songs on video. Check them out bellow:

New Country Rehab @ The Dakota Tavern from 40deuce on Vimeo.

I wish I got to see more of them and got more of their stuff on video to share with you. Luckily, they're a local Toronto band, so I'll have my eye out to see them again.

In the meantime, here's another (full) song of theirs I found on YouTube so you can get a better idea of the band.

Can't wait for another happy accident at next year's NXNE!

I'm Starting A Collection... Of People

A wise person (I have no idea who) once said to surround yourself with people whom you'd like to be more like.

I hope that my current roster of friends don't take any offense by this, but I need to listen to that wise dude's advice.

My current friends are fantastic people and each of them has brought something awesome into my life and made me who I am today. That said, I'm also always looking to constantly improve myself and my life and I need to start surrounding myself with more awesome people that I'd like to learn from and be more like.

So, I'm starting a new on-going series that will appear here on my blog that I'm calling Collecting People. In this series I'll be highlighting people (hopefully mostly through interviews) that I think I could stand to be more like. Each individual I feature will have some characteristic that I think I could use (and hopefully you can too) in my life. Sometimes it will be people who I admire as business people, sometimes it will be interesting thinkers or interesting people, sometimes it will just be people I really admire. Think of it as a mentorship program with many mentors. That's how I'm going to think about it anyways.

I already have a first candidate to "collect" in mind, but I'd love to hear from you (all 3 of my readers ;)) about what are some areas of your life you think you could stand to be better at or more like someone else at? Also, who are some of your personal mentors (whether they know they are or not)?

The Striking Truth Contest Winner Is....

Before I start, I just want to thank everyone that entered into my The Striking Truth contest. As well, everyone who helped spread the word of the contest was a great help as well. I really liked doing my first ever contest on the blog and I hope I can do more in the future. BUT, now for the real news....

Late last night we (and by we I mean me, but we sounds much more formal) closed the entries for the contest and took all the entries and ran them through Random.org. That way I had no influence over who won the pair of tickets since I did have a couple of friends enter the contest. Here's what we came up with:

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So, congrats to Heada Cooper!! You won a pair of tickets to see the world premiere of The Striking Truth on Friday night!!!

For those of you that didn't win, I'm sorry, but I have some good news for you. If you still want to attend the screening there are tickets on sale, and I have a promo code for you to get a 20% discount! Just head over to Ticketmaster (use that link) and enter the promo code: TWITST

Congrats again to Heada and I hope to see you all (and GSP) there as well!!

I'm Giving Away Tickets to the World Premiere of The Striking Truth

I grew up a huge fan of wrestling. Yes, the WWE kind (although, while I was growing up it was the WWF). I loved watching these athletes do crazy things all in the name of putting on a great show. I know that wrestling isn't all real, but there was still that satisfaction I got of watching someone get dropkicked from the top ropes. It was like an action movie, but done live where the people involved had to get it right every time.

As I grew up I moved a bit away from wrestling. I still like to watch it on occasion, but I just don't see it as often as I used to. I still like watching people get beat up though. Especially when it's done right. Like wrestling, there's a real art to knowing how to properly beat someone up (now that I've written that I realize how weird it sounds, but it's true at the same time). I think that's why I became a fan of MMA.

If you know anything about MMA, especially if you're from Canada like me, then I'm sure you know the name GSP. George St-Pierre is the current welterweight champion in the UFC and in my opinion, one of the best mixed martial arts fighters EVER. I'm probably not the only person to think so. In fact, someone else who thought so made a documentary about him called The Striking Truth. Check out the trailer here:

If that trailer got you as pumped up as it did for me, then I have great news for you: I'm giving away tickets to the world premiere of The Striking Truth here in Toronto!! That's right, I have tickets to give away to see the world premiere of this documentary on Friday February 25th at 9pm at The Sony Center For Performing Arts.

So here's the deal; I thought I'd have a little fun with this contest. Let me know why you're the biggest GSP fan and the tickets are yours. Leave me a story in the comments section. Make a video and leave a link in the comments. Do something awesome to prove to me that you're the biggest GSP fan and you could be on your way to see the GSP documentary before anyone else.

Oh ya, did I mention that GSP himself will be there? Cause he will! And he'll be doing a Q&A session with his fans.

Soooooo, what are you waiting for? Start submitting your entries for this contest!!

I'll announce the winners one week from today (the evening of Tuesday, February 22nd).

Good Luck!!

PS- If you don't win, you can always buy tickets here.