Luckily, thanks to the Canada's Worst Driver series on Discovery Channel, they have given real good tips on how to get out of a jam and just common sense when on the road. The one tip that has saved me more than once from the idiot drivers, and what worked for me yesterday, is when not-so-smart drivers like to cut in between you and the car in front of you, with no indicator and no space of course, while the car in front of you is already breaking hard, thus taking away any breaking distance you might have had. Canada's Worst Driver showed me not to slam on the brakes but just to let off the gas and steer to retain control. That is why I'm still here and able to write this.

In December of '09, I wrote about how you can identify bad drivers on the road in the lower mainland by looking for the JRfm 93.7 bumper sticker(s) and how JR 93.7 FM listeners are the worst drivers but at least give a courteous warning via the red and white sticker(s).

Thank you Canada's Worst Driver for the tips over the last 5 seasons, they have saved myself a couple times now and would've been a different outcome had i not watched your show and paid attention. You can watch all of Season 5, if in Canada, here.

Now the previous night before this most recent incident, i was checking some stats for the blog and noticed traffic coming from searches for JRfm 93.7. Curious, i decided to Google it and see where my blog stands in the search results. To my amazement, i am ranked second only to JRfm's actual website when searching "JR 93.7 FM" and other similar searches kept me in the top 5, WIN! Maybe the listeners will see my article, read it and change their ways? Or they may just remove the bumper sticker so they can stay on the down low. This has nothing to do with JRfm 9.7 station and the music they play, rather their fan base's lack of driving skills. But you never know, the station could promote it, i wouldn't know as i listen to 99.3 the FOX on my commute, cause the FOX ROCKS!

To my surprise, it looks like we are about to get our first heat wave of 2010! WooHoo! Both Environment Canada and Weather Network show the heat is on the way!
After calming down from the shear excitement that the sun will be out and the temperatures nice and warm, I realized I live in Rain-couver where people loooove to complain about the weather. Whether it is raining too much or not enough, someone has to be a weather hater. As for me, my body works like a human barometer and whenever the weather is inclement, my body hurts. I can now somewhat accurately predict weather based on pain and its location. Now why do I mention this?? Well sun and high heat tend to be the only times I do not hurt which means little to no pain medication for my bad back = Win.

Now for my unfortunate family and friends who tend to “die” when the temperature goes over 25°, fear not for i have put together some tips and tricks to beat and deal with the gorgeous tropical weather on the way.

British Columbia has finally stepped up to take on the drunk drivers and impose stiffer penalties. This week they announced tough new measures to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road and implement stiffer penalties for those that think they are OK to drive after having a few brews, when they are in fact not OK, and get caught.

I have had friends, and most likely you do to, that still stupidly get behind the wheel after a few when they should have made a smarter choice for getting home and luckily they are still around. Unfortunately, sooner or later, their luck will run out or maybe already has. Sometimes my friends or I were able to stop them by taking away their keys. But every so often, some felt obliged to refuse or even go to the extent of offering "we''ll fight for it". Some battles are just not worth it. You can't win against someone aiming for top spot on the Darwin awards. I just hope they don't take out others in that process. We can only hope.

Everyone that drives and has a wobbly pop or two, or three, has multiple alternate options and choices to make. They can get designated driver, take a cab, call a sober friend, stay overnight, take transit and one of the best services of all, Operation Red Nose, a volunteer safe ride home service. That's 6 alternate options compared to getting behind the wheel but alas, ignorance fueled by alcohol is bliss.

Both of these tips are bookmarks, the first one gives you the ability to create tiny URL's with the click of your bookmark and uses one of the fastest short URL services courtesy of Google with 100% up time and around 1/3 of a second to resolve and process the URL. All you need to do is drag the following link into your bookmark toolbar:

If you want to see how it works, you can click the link right now to make a tiny URL for this page.

Once this bookmarklet is in your toolbar, if you need to make a tiny URL, just go to the page you want to generate the link for, click the bookmark link and voila! a popup window will appear with your tiny URL and you can copy and paste it where ever it is needed.

The next bookmark tip gives the ability to google search a site you are on and only show results for that particular site. This is useful is the site doesn't have a search box or you want to find something specific on the site and not want to go to google and add "site: URL" in the search box. The bookmark is:

Once this is in your bookmark toolbar, just go to the site you want to search, click the bookmark and enter your search key words. It will take you to Google search results for that particular site only.

Hopefully you will find these two quick tips useful. Let me know if you have any tips you want to share that helps making your web surfing more enjoyable.

We decided we would start by crossing the suspension bridge and then head in a northerly direction and loop around to the Baden Powell trail. With one of the best ways to start a hike, we made our way across enjoying the view from the suspension bridge and the rushing water below. After some quick pics, we were on our way. Our first section took us along a gentle winding path running parallel with the river. After about 10 minutes or so, we were greeted by a rather daunting set of stairs. Hmmmm....

Now before going any further, a bit of background info. Both of us have the goal of getting back into shape and trying to get outdoors more often. I'm trying to gain weight and Robotrogue is trying to lose some. We decided to ensure we packed all the required equipment for a day hike, even though we were still close to civilization and a bit harder to get lost. Yet again, the expected terrain, anything can and could happen and always better to be prepared than not. This included a first aid kit, space blanket, change of dry clothes, water, food, mini stove (more on that later), whistle...well, you get the idea. We planned for the worst expecting the best, which is what we got. We saw a lot of people on the trail with nothing but a jacket but i guess they are either using the multi-use wide trails which have inherently less risk or just being ill-prepared for the outdoors and banking on someone else for assistance. This also gave us a decent weight in our packs to test our fitness level on a more intermediate hike than compared to our trek through Pacific Spirit park.

I ask myself, what is wrong with the Catholic religion? It seems to be the only religion facing these accusations as well as being just as diligent in covering them up. All you need to do is search the net or read the paper and voila, you have articles about child abuse occurring for decades, priests and bishops covering up the allegations, moving the offending priest to another location thinking that would solve the problem at hand (and in a lot of cases re-offending). On top of that, they were/are not reporting it to authorities, or if they did, the authorities in some cases would turn a blind eye, which i can only assume religion had a hand in that, which hindered this situation even more.

Seriously, WTF?

Does this religion not state the fact that child abuse is a sin as is homosexuality? Regardless of anyone's religion, i doubt many would accept child abuse as a privilege or right. The fact that for decades, or possibly centuries (one can only hope not), this has been going on and being covered up, just astonishes me but they still let it happen.

Now before i go any further, i am not for organized religion but i am for everyone's right to choice for the religion they believe in and sexual preference. It's your body and as a consenting ADULT, you should have that choice. But what grinds my gears is when people abuse their privilege and power to cause harm to innocent children and then hide behind their religion.

In my opinion, this shows me a couple things about the religion:

1. It is two faced depending on the issue at hand and what suits its needs, with morality and common sense thrown out the window.
2. It accepts violations of its own guidelines, principles and beliefs instead of condoning the actions and being pro-active in preventing it. What ever happened to practice what you preach? Religion or otherwise.
3. It is willing to cover up issues instead of identifying them, addressing them and being pro-active in preventing them from re-occurring
4. For anyone who was aware and did nothing to stop it and/or aided in the cover ups, they indirectly supported these actions of child abuse for not speaking out and are just as guilty.

Now why do i say that? Well, let's look at a couple examples and you can decide for yourself?

Around 1 week ago, i wrote about earthquakes and the frequency that they are occurring, how the Northwest so far has dodged the bullet and if British Columbia is in line for the next big one. In the last couple days, we have had two 4+ magnitude quakes of the coast of Oregon and now this morning, Los Angeles gets hit with a 4.4 magnitude quake. Luckily, no reports of damage or injuries have been reported.

As a little background to this, RobotRogue and I, like many techs, sit at a desk all day long. As with any sit down job, over time you get lazy and de-motivated and some people get fat as well as an indirect outcome of sitting all day and snacking. Now RobotRogue's goal is to get in shape and lose some of weight and eat healthier. He has traversed the net and found various useful sites such as Couch to 5K, which helps lazy people slowly get back into the work out routine and nerdfitness.com, who's slogan is "Helping nerds and average joes get in shape the right way, one day at a time."
Over the last couple weeks, i hear of his improvements and motivation. Now me on the other hand, i've gotten lazy over the years due to a back injury 10+ years ago and working more with less time to workout. I am lucky that i have a metabolism like a race car and don't gain weight really no matter what and how much i eat (yes, you can hate me now). I am at the other end of the scale for being under weight and standing over 6'1", i am commonly referred to as a stick, bean pole, someone who should eat more....well, you get the point. So when most people are losing weight, i want to gain it. This tends to tick off the weight loss people...