Oops… Sorry, things have been crazy busy. If I’m not working my butt off, I’m in meetings or am out and about…

I did a couple of phone interviews since I last updated. The first one that will be going up is an interview I did last week with Finger Eleven. Their song just went to #1 in the USA, so we talked about that as well as a bunch of other things. It was actually a really good interview. The band member I spoke to was a good guy and liked to talk. It’ll be going online soon…

I bought a Canon 430EX Speedlite flash for my Digital Rebel XTi… I did my first “shoot” today for a new business venture my dad and partners/friends are starting up. They turned out not too bad considering the lack of lighting kits. The focus had issues at times though, which is the lens’ fault. Man, I wish I had some extra money kicking around to buy a nice lens…

Apparently I’m getting a three day weekend this week. Can’t wait! I have to go into work tomorrow and then that’s it…

Anyone following Canadian Idol? It seems Canada is doing not too bad for who they choose to send home… So far the ones who have gone home have been in my top two or three choices of who should go next. There are a couple who really need to get the boot though… Yikes…

I’m really digging this new Matchbox Twenty single… I’m looking forward to the “new” disc in October. It’s a greatest hits project with six new songs, including the single How Far We’ve Come. I’m most excited about the fact that they’ll be touring to support the disc. I’m definitely going to that show.

Alright, off to play some Resistance: Fall of Man…

So my Brenthaven Fusion MB Messenger Bag for my MacBook Pro arrived last week. It’s fantastic… Though it may not look like it in the pictures, there is a ton of space for all of the little accessories and gadgets you may need to bring along with you on the road. Very cool…

I went to the Apple Store last week in Yorkdale Mall. Man, I love that place. So many cool toys… I picked up a video adapter to plug my MacBook Pro into TVs through composite since the adapter it comes with only allows for VGA or DVI. Now I should be able to plug it in wherever, whenever…

The reason why we were down there is because my brother had a Weird Al concert to go to in downtown Toronto. So I figured I’d come along too since he had an extra ticket and we’d be stopping at Yorkdale. Here’s a few shots from the trip (aside from the concert)… You can check out more on my Flickr profile…

Finally, after receiving many requests both here and on my YouTube profile, I uploaded a video of me quickly showing off some of the cool features in OS X such as Exposé, Widgets, and Front Row. It’s nothing fancy, but it should give you an idea of how easy it is to use. I’ll be putting up a short video dedicated to Parallels Desktop, a program used to run Windows inside OS X, shortly…

Thanks to Brent for passing on the link! It was fun…

Yes, the rumors are true. My MacBook Pro came in on Thursday! I’m absolutely loving it… It’s considerably nicer than my old G3 iBook from, what, 2002? It’s so much faster, the operating system has lots of extra goodies, and now you have great options such as Parallels to run Windows on the unit as well. I’m going to try that tomorrow depending on if I get an extra copy of XP or not. Most likely I will from the sounds of it.

There are just so many little things that make life so much easier on this new unit when compared to OS X.2 and the iBook. When you go into a dark lighting situation, the keyboard illuminates automatically. At the press of a button, Expose displays all of the open windows at once to easily find the one you want to use. F11 slides everything away to show the desktop and F12 brings up the widgets. It’s all so seamless and pretty. Now I just have to hope certain programs work perfectly once I install Parallels, then I’ll be especially impressed.

So what’s inside the box when you open it? I’m glad you asked. Despite having to head out the door a few minutes after receiving the MacBook Pro and being bothered by my allergies randomly throughout the day, I wanted to crack my new baby open and document it right away. I couldn’t wait until the evening. I scrambled to grab the camera and recorded the process for you to see. It’s very candid and rushed, but hopefully you’ll get the gist of things. It already has had nearly three hundred views on YouTube and I haven’t even linked it anywhere yet. I guess people like searching for MacBook Pros…

First, three pictures (of eleven):

Now the video:

So the free iPod Nano that came with my MacBook Pro arrived yesterday. Since it was shipped a day before my MBP, I’m really hoping the laptop comes today as opposed to tomorrow… But we’ll just have to wait and see.

Here’s a video of what comes in the box of the iPod Nano…

On a side note, my dog got a haircut the other day finally. She always looks like a different dog after the fact…

Yikes, these past few days have been brutal… First I was hit with a pretty rough cold for the past couple of days which hindered my ability to do any sort of magazine work for Monday (so no new content next week, unfortunately). Then today I was feeling much better and went to work, even though my ears felt plugged the whole time. But once I arrived back home after my shift was done, my left ear has been doing some funky things. It feels really weird and is also hurting with a sharp pain every now and then… Arg. It isn’t fun at all…

During a time when I was feeling better yesterday, I decided to take some pictures since it had been a little while since I last played with the camera. I took a couple of random objects and landscape, but I also did a goofy photo shoot with some stuffed monkeys that were in an old box from many years ago. My sister actually helped and had fun with it, coming up with different poses and what not. Here are some various pictures that came from yesterday’s sessions…

See the rest of the pictures over at my Flickr profile. If you want to see the few monkey photos in specific, click here for its folder.

Good times.

Today is a holiday in Canada, so I have the day off but still get statuary holiday pay. Score. I’m just taking it easy and doing some work on the computer. I guess it’s not a completely work free day then, is it?

It looks like things may be finally in motion for the “big changes” coming to Renown Magazine that I’ve been mentioning for a while now. Things could be materializing very soon… Stay tuned…

Speaking of Renown, the second interview from GMA Week went online today. Check it out here…

I’ve been playing with Skype this morning for the first time. It’s pretty cool. I made a little cartoon avatar thing through their site for free, he’s even holding pizza! I’m not sure how much I’ll use Skype right now, but I have a feeling it’ll come in handy in the not too distant future…

I’ve also been experimenting with Jaiku for a while now. It’s almost up there with Twitter, but not quite. If they could add in an update-via-SMS for North America and a code to integrate your updates into a website/blog without the feeds, I’d consider moving over. But until those two things happen, I’ll be using Twitter primarily…

Tonight is the season finale of Heroes! Can’t wait to see what happens…

I’ve still been fooling around with my new digital SLR camera. I like it. I still want to eventually pick up a lens or two, some filters, a monopod, a flash, maybe a remote control for the shutter and lighting/umbrella kits… It’ll be expensive, but if I upgrade overtime it won’t be too bad. Who knows, maybe it can help bring in some extra cash if I freelance some pictures… Here is a couple more from my testing stage:

Well, I’m starving. Time to grab some lunch…

So it is Jordin and Blake in the finale… Next week’s American Idol should be a good one. Since about the Top 10 or Top 8, I picked the two of them to be the ones who will make it to the finale and have chosen Blake as my pick to win the whole thing since his very first audition months ago. So hey, at least I’m guaranteed to have him come in second. ha. Either way, my little games aside, I’m glad these two made it through. Should be a lot of fun…

Both Heroes and Lost end next week as well. Three shows in one week — everything is coming to an end! These two are really getting good too…. I can’t wait to see what their season finale’s have to offer. There is always a good cliffhanger.

I received a check in the mail today for some print work I do here and there. It came at a perfect time too as I also received my Visa bill today. ha. As much as I love the internet, it’s always cool to have an article or two in print… It gives yourself something physical to hold, plus a tiny bit of cash. ha.

I tried taking a some pictures with my new digital SLR camera this morning before the day went chaotic. I also got the chance to shoot some tonight but I haven’t uploaded them yet. Here’s a couple of shots from this morning for now:

I finally got the chance to listen to the new Linkin Park CD once today (I had heard a few songs last week, but that’s it). It’s certainly a lot different… I’m not sure what to think of it yet. I definitely liked it, but I’m thinking I like their older material and style better. Who knows what will happen to my opinion after a few more spins though…

Okay, enough rambling. Off to play some Halo 3 beta for the first time with some friends from work…

Well, the rumors are true. We’re going to Disney World! I booked it last week after waiting for a while for a special deal on Expedia to pop up… It was worth the wait though. We’re all pumped!

We’re going to be there from August 26th to September 2nd. It will be my sister’s first time traveling/flying, let alone her first time going to Disney World (I went when I was three, so I’m sort of in the same boat). We’ve got two rooms at the All-Star Movies Resort right on the property… Can’t wait! You can bet there will be pictures from there…

Speaking of pictures, I made a big purchase tonight. After lots of contemplating, I decided to pick up my very first digital SLR camera thanks to a huge discount Canon was offering on the specific camera to Future Shop / Best Buy associates. Since I have been wanting to get a digital SLR for a while now, I figured I should get it while the discount was on or else I’d regret it later. So what camera was it? The Canon Digital Rebel XTI. Yeah, I’m pretty excited. It’s charging now, so I probably won’t get to play with it too much until tomorrow since it is dark…

I received a cool package in the mail today. If you remember, I won the grand prize at Word Label Group’s first annual New Media Networking event down in Nashville during GMA Week. While I got some cool swag from it already, the main prize had yet to arrive until today. It is a silver 1gig iPod Shuffle! Cool. It is engraved with “WordLabelGroup.com” on the back and came with a congratulations note from Word on Apple stationary. Big thanks to Word for this!

Well, I am hungry so I’m going to grab some pizza before Heroes comes on. Pizza and Heroes… What a great mix…

With less than two weeks to go, I’m beginning to work full force on material for my trip to Nashville on the 22nd. I’ll be covering it live through blog posts, vlog posts (though, again, they may come after the fact), Twitter entries, and Flickr entries. But don’t worry, it’ll all tie together.

Of course, I won’t be able to update during the blocks of time I’m doing interviews though. And I have a lot of interviews. Because I have so many interviews, I’m beginning the process of prepping them in advance to make sure they all go smoothly. I have about fourteen or fifteen to prep before I leave, but because of working at Future Shop I really only have Wednesdays and Thursdays to work on them during the week. That leaves me with four days to prep fifteen interviews (including today) and I only have four finished so far. Yikes. I need to pick up the pace tomorrow…

My Mute Math merch arrived today. I was pretty happy. The picture is below.

I’m really liking my Tumblr account. It is quite handy… I am always posting things I find on there; usually a few links/pictures/videos a day. I could post more, but I’m afraid to sometimes in case readers lose interest. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about it and just let it all out. ha. Either way, I hope you’re following it too because there are some good reads/views on there. Check it out.

So how do you like my various profiles? For example, is there a point to having a Tumblr account or would you prefer me to have it all bundled on here (links, pictures, and videos I find)? I was under the impression that most seemed to enjoy having the two separate, but that can always be changed. Just want to double check to see the response.

Okay, Lost is coming on soon… Time to run…

Rock on.

Recently Added on Flickr:

It seems the added social features to my site are generating a fair share of interest. Last month this site had over a thousand more readers than past months’ totals, so welcome to all of the new readers! Thanks for dropping by…

So Avril Lavigne’s new music video… After hearing a few things about it yesterday, I thought I’d YouTube it. First of all, the song itself has always driven me crazy due to its simplicity, so needless to say that I wasn’t a big fan of the song going in. But it wasn’t the song that I wanted to watch the video for, it was the content. As you know, Avril has had a tom-girl image since the beginning of her career and repeatedly stated her dislike for pop girls or anything else related to being a “pretty girlie girl.” However lately it seems she has had a change of heart by dressing up in dresses and now doing a synchronized dance in her video. Ha! It’s so funny… If you are interested in seeing it, head over to the entry on my Tumblr account. It’s around 2:34 in the video.

As I said on Twitter earlier, the Junos weren’t all that exciting this year for me… I wonder if Nelly Furtado knew what sort of crazy antics they would force her to partake in. ha. That mock video of Promiscuous was brutal. The sound during the performances was kind of funky too… Though I’m Canadian, I’ll take the Grammys over the Junos any day…

I have quite the week ahead of me. My work schedule has shifted because of the holidays so I don’t have as much free time to prep for Nashville. But I’m going to have to start working on it soon or else I’m going to fall behind and will get tight on time. I have at least fifteen interviews to prepare alone… Yikes.

I’ll worry about that in the next couple of days though. For now, I’m heading to bed…

Rock on.

Recently Added Picture:

So far so good, I’m digging the new layout. Things are so much smoother and easier to maintain from a behind the scenes point of view. It’s all under one roof, Wordpress, so I like it. Thanks for all of the e-mails expressing your opinions on it, I appreciate them. Feel free to comment as well and share your opinion.

Have you been following my Tumblr account? I’ve been having fun with that one. I have it set up in Firefox that if I find something cool I want to share, I simply have to click one button and it is posted in a matter of seconds. I actually think I’m going to keep it now… So continue to check the site or subscribe to its RSS feed.

As you can see, my Twitter updates are now integrated right into the sidebar on the right. As I said a few times, I was never a fan of that old gray box. This new software also has the option of posting an entry that will list all of my Twitter updates for the day. I think I might turn it on and try it out, just to see how well it works. So if you see entries that say “My Twitter Updates,” you’ll know why.

American Idol… Not much of a surprise for the results this week. I wish Sanjaya would just go home already though, and hopefully before some of the really good talent get the boot. Gwen Stefani’s performance was rather rough too, wasn’t it? Her voice isn’t normally that low and off… Usually she sounds much better. It’s too bad the contestants weren’t limited to only singing her songs (both solo and in No Doubt), now that would have been really fun.

Lost… Crazy episode. Pretty creepy too. But it seems a number of people missed out on a few references and comments throughout the episode, causing them to think the opposite of what they should be. ha. People can’t blink when watching this show or else they’ll miss something. It needs your full attention!

I just noticed a black spot on one of my LCD monitors. I think I have a burnt pixel. That’s the problem with stinkin’ LCD technology. Oh well, if it is I don’t really care…. Actually, now it is gone. Odd.

Anyway, I’m off for now. Thanks for hanging in there in the midst of the changes. Don’t forget to subscribe to (and/or keep checking) this site and McTumblr. I’ll try to keep it interesting.

Rock on.

I’ve been toying with the idea of trying some new web browsers instead of using the old IE7. The problem is there are so many… There are the major ones (Internet Explorer, Firefox) and some that aren’t as high profiled (such as Flock or Maxthon). There are just too many to keep track of!

So any suggestions? I’ve noticed by checking this site’s statistics that you guys all use a variety of browsers and I’d be interested in knowing what you think of your browser and why you use it. Either post a comment or shoot me an e-mail… I’d love your feedback.

Rock on.

P.S. I got my passport yesterday!

Three more interviews booked for Nashville. I only wanted two of them, but I was suckered into the third. ha. Oh well…

I think I’m at thirteen or fourteen interviews now at least. Yikes. Hopefully I have lots of water… I’m considering picking up a digital voice recorder so I don’t have to carry a bunch of tapes around, but we’ll see.

My business cards came in today. They aren’t anything fancy (I quickly whipped them up myself), but obviously they’ll achieve their main purpose which is to give people my name and contact info when networking. I expect to do lots of it in Nashville…

Also, here’s a picture of my new dual screen monitor setup that I spoke about a little while ago. It’s awesome and great for multi-tasking during a busy day…

So American Idol… Blake was awesome last night. Easily my favorite of the evening. Again, he’s been my pick since he first auditioned and it seems like he’s going to go far when looking at the quality of his performances. Jordin has been solid too as of late… I’d be perfectly fine if it was her and Blake in the finals. That would be a great finale for a rather boring season in terms of talent.

Lost was awesome tonight. Wow. I love that show… Easily one of the best episodes in a while. I loved the banter between Locke and Ben…

Okay, now here is some exciting news. Mute Math posted their first music video today on YouTube. It’s really trippy, but it’s awesome. I originally embedded it below, however it has been taken down for some reason. Once it goes up again, I’ll post it here right away. It’s quite the video.

Instead, I’ll put in Blake’s performance from last night… It was great. I was really impressed. And again, Mute Math will be posted once it is available again.

Rock on.

I think I know why I am so fascinated by networking sites and projects that revolve around staying connected. I’m a big fan of transparency with people. I enjoy having that sense of knowing the person is real and tangible, someone you could contact and find they are exactly the same as what you read. What you see is what you get. No strings attached and no need for fancy writing or false publicity hype. You can hear or see things straight from the source, taking a walk in their shoes.

This is why I could spend hours on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, and so on. Whether it is people I know in person, over the internet, or perhaps just through television or music — if they have a personal profile on these sites, I can get to know them and see life through their eyes. And I love that…in a completely non-stalkerish sort of way. ha. I just love meeting new people and getting to know them. Plus if you happen to meet these people in person or shoot them an e-mail, you already know what to expect because there isn’t some fake facade that you might find through other mediums (depending on the person and their job).

This has always been what I’ve tried to achieve through my website and various profiles on sites around the internet. I’ve always strived to have a level of transparency so what you see really is what you get. And I suppose that is why I have been so intrigued by these various networking websites over the years. They are new ways for me to communicate myself to other people online so they can get to know me and make our relationship more personable.

I really don’t want to be just another name in cyberspace. And now, thanks to the various sites, look at what I can get across:

- This blog lets me speak my mind and tell you what I’m up to. It also allows me to share with you various things I find throughout the web.
- Twitter lets me share with you what I am doing up to the minute/hour, every day.
- Flickr lets you see what I have seen through photos.
- Networking sites like MySpace and Facebook allow us to communicate quicker and easier while allows us to meet each other’s friends in the process.

With the exception of Flickr, which I pay $30 a year for unlimited everything (well worth the upgrade from the very limited free version), all of these sites are completely free. And with them at my disposal, plus a few others that I am currently considering trying, anyone who has interest can see what I’m like as a person with no strings attached. Of course, whether they like it or not is a different story altogether. ha. That being said, I can also get to know others in the same fashion. It’s awesome. It’s like we are all connected and now anyone can have their own personable presence online should they choose to.

Anyway, that’s my rambling for now. Hopefully it gives you an idea as to why I keep experimenting with these new sites and love trying them out. Sure, I love playing with them, but it is also so you guys can learn more about about the guy behind the screen. There are literally thousands of you who read this site and I hope these new tools give you some extra content to have fun with.

Rock on.

P.S. I uploaded pictures from the U2 concert I attended in 2005 on my Flickr profile. It was an amazing show and we had great seats. Check them out and comment away. Here are a few teaser pics: