I was just about to head off to the gym when I found my old lock that I used during high school. I was going to use it at the gym, but I forgot the combo. I decided to dig up my old agendas to see if I wrote it down in one of them. It was a trip down memory lane to say the least.

Littered all throughout the notes of what pages to read for homework or what project was due where scratching about what video game is coming out when.. or when to bring some cds to school so that Gord can play some games.

Ahhhh....

If I have more time... I might scan in some select pages/covers from the 3 agendas that I kept from school.. so classic.

Wow! This is a rare! The car insurance company is paying *me*! I got a cheque in the mail today for just over $100. Sweeet.

My dvcam also arrived today. It's a Sony DCR-TRV17!

Nothing else new really. No plans this weekend.. supposed to rain according to the weather man.

Bruce Willis is in town shooting a movie called "16 Blocks". Mark was able to catch a glimpse of some of the shooting. The comments on IMDB about this are so funny. Everyone is super star struck that he's shooting in Toronto. Kinda lame really..

There are still some things that are broken... but I will let you know when that part of the site is done.

Please feel free to leave comments :)

I've been to two concerts this past week: The Shins, and Moby. Moby was by far one of the best concerts i've ever been to. Some people posted pics and reviews on Mobys website. All of the other lighting directors out there should learn from this concert. Stage lighting was great and actually complemented the music as opposed to being a distraction or boring. He even did some covers of a few Canadian bands ("Suzanne" was one of the songs).

The weather lately has been great, way above seasonal for this time of year. I'm hoping this summer is going to be long this year.

I've been spending the last three days trying to find an important piece of paper in my room. Where is it?!

Melissa pointed out that she wasn't getting any of the notification emails when my website was updated. I did recently upgrade the code and it must have broke.

They are now working properly.

If you are using hotmail, and you still dont see any of the emails, check your spam folder... it might have put it there! :)

ahh.. The internet is a wonderful thing.. Over the weekend i've been noticing odd behavior with my car:

- Door locks would engage automatically after unlocking them (after a 30 second timeout value) even if the door was open.
- If my headlights were left on, and the driver side door opened, the warning tone wouldn't sound.
- If my keys were left in the ignition, and the driver side door opened, the warning tone wouldn't sound.

It looks like the car thinks the door is closed, even if it is opened. My Haynes repair manual had nothing about this issue (or even a detailed dissection of the door/lock modules).

I found a forum of users who had the exact same problem! Apparently this is a problem with the 99-01 models. Two main issues arise. First, the soldering job on the circuit board that handles the logic for the 4 micro switches (to detect: key position in door lock, lock status [engaged/disengaged], and door status [open/closed]) is shoddy and can crack, breaking the circuit. A simple re-soldering job usually fixes this issue. The other issue can be with the fourth micro switch - the one that detects the status of the door, if it is open or closed. If the micro switch is broken, then the entire locking module will have to be replaced (posts in the forum suggest costs of about $100 for the part).

I'm debating about cracking my door open and seeing what the problem is. If its the soldering issue, that I can fix on my own. However, from the posts on the forum and with the symptoms I have, it seems that my problem is with the micro switch. I'm also going to see if the dealer will replace the locks in both the passenger and drivers side doors to the new models used in the 2002+ cars. These ones are much quieter and aren't susceptible to this problem (you can really hear the car lock the doors when they are engaged)

This weekend, i'm also going to attempt to change my oil and oil filter. :D

Had a pretty active weekend. The usual poker game on Friday. This was the first time Melissa played, for some crazy reason she was nervous. She's playing again this Friday. Saturday involved washing the car. I went to a new car wash in town. They use smelly soap that changes colours/smells as you use it (a new colour is dispensed every few seconds). The last thing I need is my car smelling like grapes :P Then I headed to the bowling alley with Gavin, Brian, and Melissa. Played for an hour and a half.

I booked my flight for Europe on Thursday (I think). As well submitted my passport for renewal. The plan for London (as it stands now) is to attend a BBC Open House (with my friend James - who works there), possibly visit Toni (a brit I met when I was in Australia), then jaunt off Rome for the remainder of the week. This will be happening in the second week of June.

The third week in May will be spend in South Carolina (specifically Myrtle Beach) with Melissa. It was a toss up between New Orleans and Camping. Due to financial reasons (read: melissa is poor) we decided camping at Myrtle was the best bang for our buck.

Rafting is on again this year too!

New website is stalled.. :( I want to get it done... need motivation!

The past few days i've been doing research on flights to various locations around the world. To you I bring my findings on how to find the cheapest flights.

1. Book In Advance, even if that means *right now*. Domestic discount airlines (like WestJet and CanJet) have an interesting fee scale: As the plane fills up, the cost per seat does as well. This means that the price of a seat at 9am could be cheaper than a seat for the same flight at 3pm that same day.

2. Ask for a refund! I've learned quite a bit from reading the fine print. In some cases airlines are willing to give you a refund for a portion of the ticket if the fare has been *reduced* (to entice selling) since you purchased your ticket.

3. Online/Agent/Flight Company.. they are all the same. From my experience you will get the same prices whether you use an online service like Expedia or a Travel Agent. Rarely will you find a cheaper flight by booking with the airline directly, however, in some cases this may not be true.

4. It's cheaper to fly to and from a US city. If you live close enough to the US/CAN boarder, it will probably be *much* cheaper to fly from a city in US to another US destination. This is because you can save a lot of money on taxes and fees as this is no longer an International flight, but a US Domestic Flight. Take this example fare from Toronto/Buffalo to New Orleans for a booking 60 days in advance:

Toronto -> New Orleans: $442 + $109.54 (Taxes and Fees) = $553.54
Buffalo -> New Orleans: $178 +$55.59 (Taxes and Fees) = $233.59

5. Stay over a weekend. Most airlines will give you a discount if you have a "saturday stay". This means that if you stay at your destination for a weekend (say, for example leave thursday, come back tuesday). The same flight as above with a Saturday stay:

Toronto -> New Orleans: $404.50 + $109.91 (Taxes and Fees) = $513.41
Buffalo -> New Orleans: $178 +$82.24 (Taxes and Fees) = $240.24

6. Leave on a Wednesday. Discounts can be had if your departure/arrival dates are mid week. Same flights as above, but leaving on a wednesday:

Toronto -> New Orleans: $367 + $109.31 (Taxes and Fees) = $476.31
Buffalo -> New Orleans: $145 +$63.46 (Taxes and Fees) = $208.46

As you can see, by changing my departure time to leave on a Wednesday and leave from Buffalo instead of Toronto, i've saved a total of almost $345!

There are other options you can follow as well. If you are flying overseas, flying as a courier is a possibility. Usually you need to be able to leave last minute and contrary to what you've probably heard... your flight is not free. I've seen people get anywhere from 25-60% off the cheapest flight. Another option would be to fly stand-by, which again, usually requires you to be on a really flexible itinerary.

My mom sure knew how to pimp me up when I was a wee lad.

Add another one to the list: Avril Lavigne on July 15th.

Saw Hitch last night with Melissa and Brian. The funny thing is, they both wanted to see Sin City instead but didn't say anything. Brian didn't say anything because he thought Melissa wanted to see Hitch. Melissa didn't say anything because she thought Brian and I wanted to see Hitch. So because of that miscommunication, there are tentative plans to see Sin City on Sunday. We'll see if that materializes.

I have to keep an eye on the phone this weekend incase the Pope dies. Some things need to get done at work (which I can do from any computer attached to the internet really) when the story breaks.

I got up at 10 am today, and it's already 12:30. Damn time is flying today.