Jason's Notes About Stuff

Looking down the peninsula from Timothy Hill upon our arrival Living on the small Caribbean island of Saint Kitts The good stuff "Buddies" One of the things I truly enjoy here is being in the water. I usually snorkel at least once a week and have taken up a bit of a hobby with underwater photography. Learning to scuba dive was amazing too! I also try to hike at least once a week. The volcano on the north side of the island hosts the famous "Crater Hike" -- a challenging yet very doable climb up to about 3,000ft. There's not a whole lot to do (besides chores) on the weekends, so we often head to the beach. Beach days are great. You can often find your own little spot, or join up with friends for a beach BBQ. What else is great about St. Kitts? It's quiet -- especially outside of tourist season. And you can hang your laundry and have it dry in a few hours. The not-so-great stuff So what about the downside to living in...

Anyone who knows me knows one simple thing: I really, really hate being wrong. Everyone does. Nobody likes the feeling you get when you realize you're going to have to eat some humble pie. Mmmm... pecan humble pie But over the years, I've learned important lessons about how to handle this situation. I had one of these moments recently while registering a new car here on the island -- a long process that takes several hours and visits to 4 different places . (Traffic police, bank, insurance company, inland revenue) At the very first stop, the police traffic division, we realized that we were missing one of the two vehicle identification numbers. (Unlike American cars, Japanese vehicles have two VINs) The number had not been entered on any of the previous documentation. I had this situation with a previous car, and they went ahead and entered it with just the one number. This time they insisted they needed both numbers . I pushed back and tried to explai...

Here is the update to my post last month entitled " Losing weight is hard ". Through a program of restricted eating and intense exercise, I was able to lose most of my December "Christmas baking" weight: I'm back down to around 160lbs and about 13.5% body fat. Surprisingly, this is still on the high end of normal! Mid-range for my height should be about 155lbs and 12.5% body fat. That will be my goal after we return from the wedding. Even 130lbs would still be in the "healthy" range. I can actually remember quite well when I was 130lbs. It would have been in high school, where admittedly, I was a bit of a beanpole :-) Another interesting chart is my one-year plot (missing the period when the scale was being shipped ): When I look back and see how I was up over 170, that seems so high, but meanwhile it had become the "new normal." It's important to keep things in perspective, and I've found that our Internet scale ...

As part of my goal to be in the best shape of my life  prior to our wedding, I've vowed to lose all my "Christmas baking" weight before we leave on April 10th. Our Withings scale shows the damage and poor results so far: I was very near my goal weight of 160 at the beginning of December, but a month of eating cookies and sweets pushed me to almost 170. This approached the outside limit of a "healthy" BMI. So for the next 30 days, I'll be following a diet modeled on the Tim Ferriss 4-Hour Body diet (aka "Slow Carb"). It is similar to Atkins and South Beach and encourages high protein intake . The diet focuses on elimination of sugars and simple carbs that metabolize quickly. I made a chart to post on our fridge to show what we can and cannot eat: This is a tough diet to follow, but if you stick with it, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose weight, and more importantly, lose fat. We're combining the diet with the Insanity...

Interesting North American stats from the McGill online nutrition course I'm taking. On average, compared to 1970, we eat 11% more food by weight: 18.2lbs up from 16.4lbs. On top of that, our consumption of grains has increased 42% -- mostly wheat and corn flour. Perhaps most disturbing is the 59% increase in fat consumption -- mostly cheap cooking oils like canola and soybean. Could this possibly have something to do with the obesity epidemic? Seems more than likely.

Answer: Not very big. Above is a scale map of St. Kitts beside a small area of Toronto. That's right -- driving from one side of the island to another is roughly the same distance as heading up the DVP. Mind you, it could be a bit slower with the winding roads. Or faster if you're comparing to rush hour :) And Toronto certainly doesn't look like this: Either way, it's a great little tropical paradise. Be sure to give us a shout if things get a little cold where you are and you'd like to visit! :)

The first time I sold everything I owned was 2009, when I moved to south Texas for four months as an experiment to see if I could run my consulting business remotely. The second time, Melissa and I knew that we were only staying in Toronto for a year, so we bought things cheap and knew we'd be unloading them soon. This time was a bit different. We had planned to stay in Victoria many years, so we were buying the "good stuff" -- things we planned to keep and enjoy for a long time. That made selling everything a bit more difficult for us. Not to mention, It's always a big inconvenience, of course :) I'm working from a coffee shop today because I sold my work desk and chair yesterday. That said, we've been given an absolutely amazing opportunity that we'd be crazy to turn down, so onward and upwards we go :) Nearly everything has been sold now, and we're counting down the days until our week-long stopover in Kitchener to visit friends and ...

Note: This is a guest blog post from GrumpyOldMan123. Dear younger generation, As many older generations have done before, I humbly offer you some sanctimonious , unsolicited advice. When you encounter a minor obstacle , never, ever make any effort to find a solution by yourself. If you can't immediately find someone else to solve a problem for you, don't even consider researching it on your own. Instead, amuse yourself with distractions . Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all great resources for this. If anyone asks you about the problem, complain loudly that you "just can't figure it out," and ask "why is this so hard?" When you suffer the inevitable consequences, be sure to explain how you were "going to do it eventually," and say: "It's not my fault!" And rest assured, this attitude has no adverse impact whatsoever on your career and personal life . You're still entitled to the best of everyth...

I like seeing people's reactions when I tell them we are going to live in the South of France . People get the impression that we're super-rich . I've got news for you. We aren't. Not in the slightest. So how are we doing it? Well, for one, we've done something this year that few Canadians or Americans do anymore -- we've put money into a savings account. That's right -- we resisted the incredible consumer spending urge and actually put away a few bucks for a rainy day. And how'd we manage that? The biggest savings, by far, came from neither of us owning a car for 14 months.  This Globe & Mail article pegs the annual cost of car ownership between $8,500-$14,000 . Even subtracting TTC passes, tokens, car rentals and ZipCar, we each saved approximately a crapload of money by not driving. This had its drawbacks and inconveniences, of course. But in hindsight, it's a tradeoff I would make again. Meanwhile, our flights to Pari...

As some of you may already know, Melissa and I were recently accepted for a one-year working holiday to France! We had our interview (which we conducted mostly in French) on November 18th, and received our visa in the mail the following week. I've been taking French classes at Alliance Francaise 3 days a week, and Mel has been practicing her French writing her resume and calling up places in France. I will continue to grow my startup, PMRobot , as well as managing consulting projects for Syllogistic Software , working remotely and following 4HWW principles. We're leaving Toronto for Paris on January 8th. After a few days in Paris, we're kicking off the trip with a cross-country of Italy, flying south to Naples on the 13th, then slowing heading north via Rome, Tuscany, Vienna, and Milan. From there we'll go west to Nice, where we'll be planting roots for a whole 3 months. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to live in the south of France, so here co...

With all of the travelling we've done recently, we have the planning down to a science. Step 1: TripAdvisor First we hit up TripAdvisor and check out their "Things to Do" section. Step 2: Google Maps Then we map out everything we want to see and do on a shared Google Map, so we can start grouping things that are close together. Step 3: Google Docs Next, we create a shared Google Doc, start listing the attractions, and figuring out which day to do what. Once we start booking flights, trains, hostels, etc., all the times and confirmations numbers go here. Step 4:  Mobile phone/apps For this trip, I've used the Labs feature in Android Google Maps to download all of London for offline use, in case I don't have a mobile signal. I've also installed two different apps that give live train and tube schedules. Step 5: Paper As great as technology is, it's not quite perfect. Laptops and phones can break or run out of battery power. Before we lea...

Do you have any problems? I sure do. Tons of them! Everyone has problems. You might even call them "challenges" or "puzzles" or "opportunities". I use an incredibly complex, patent-pending 3-step methodology for dealing with them: Identify Plan Do This may seem like a very  simple idea, but I assure you, most people do not follow this. Everybody gets step 1. Most people know their problems. Then then add: Step 1.a) Worry about the problem. Step 1.b) Complain about the problem. Step 1.c) Make up excuses for not addressing the problem I call this the WCE problem-solving methodology -- pronounced "wuss" ;) I have news: WCE does not work. They are unnecessary steps. A few people get to step 2, the planning stage, but never complete that step. What about step 3: Doing -- the one that really matters? Hardly anyone ever makes it there. They're still too busy cranking out excuses. So next time you come across a pr...

From the December 2010 issue of Nutrition Action magazine : "...if it's an epidemic, that means it's been triggered by the environment. And what do you do if you have too much malaria? You drain the swamps. What do you do if you have too many deaths on the highway? You impose seat belts. These are public health measures. What do you do when you have an epidemic of obesity? We're going to have to impose taxes on soft drinks and subsidize healthier food. And we need safe neighbourhoods where kids can play. ... My grandmother knew that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more We're still there, but the real trigger of the obesity epidemic is the environment I couldn't agree more.

Before flying an airplane, multiple checks are done to ensure the fuel is pure , is the correct type, and has no  containments, like sediment or water. How often do we check our own fuel ? Do those "multi-grain" muffins actually contain any significant amount of whole wheat or bran? How much salt does that "low sodium" soup really have? Remember: You are what you eat! Read those labels, learn what they mean, and make your own good decisions about your personal fuel. In the meantime, check out the Nutrition Action Healthletter for some great information to help you out. More on this topic: http://www.cspinet.org/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lrjk4 http://www.tv3.co.nz/Shows/WhatsReallyInOur.aspx

On Thursday, Mel and I took our first ZipCar for a spin. For those of you who don't know, ZipCar is a company that rents cars by the hour or day, all inclusive of insurance and fuel. The Good - Cheap! Our 1.5hr trip to Ikea in a new Honda Civic cost a grand total of $18.23, including gas, insurance and all taxes. - Easy! Reserve online, walk to the car, swipe your card, drive away. The Not-So-Good - The previous renter had left the has tank only 1/8th full -- contrary to ZipCar's policy of leaving it at least 1/4 full. - The rear seat wasn't super-clean, and there was junk in the glove box. Summary Overall, it was a good experience and we'd certainly use ZipCar again for any short trip around town requiring a vehicle.

You hear it all the time. "I'm soooo hungry!"  "I'm starving !" But stop and think for a moment. Are you truly and actually hungry ? Here's one way to tell: Pick a food you really don't like , but something healthy. Like spinach. Or broccoli. Or turnips. It'll be different for everyone. Now pretend that's the only food available. Still want some? If it sounds appetizing and you could see yourself eating it, you're probably hungry. If not, you're not hungry . You're likely upset, bored, or otherwise distracted. In this case, try getting up and doing some sort of physical exercise. You'll probably forget about food altogether and start doing something productive instead!

Click above for more pictures We've arrived on the small, tropical island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. After a few days, my initial impression is very positive. The Thai people are very polite and clean. Shoes need to be taken off before entering any building. Prices are cheap, but not massively cheap. Our small furnished house, with air conditioning in the bedroom, a living room, a kitchen with gas range, and hot water shower, cost 15,000 baht (about $500) for a month, plus about another 3,000 baht ($100) for water, electricity, and ADSL internet that is probably better than an average Bell connection. A load of laundry can be sent for washing, drying, and folding for 120 baht ($4). That's cheaper than when we did it ourselves at the hostel in Australia. Western (imported) products cost nearly as much as back home. Food-wise, you can get cheaper stuff when it only has Thai writing -- if you can figure out what it is. A 1.5L bottle of drinking water costs 15 baht (...

I recently watched an enlightening documentary called " We Live In Public ". It made me completely rethink   my previous notions about online privacy . I'd like to believe that we can all be adults about things, and accept people's differences, but I could be wrong. The  1999 "Quiet" experiment documented in this movie almost seems like a visionary warning to "future us", a decade later. Although some may think that people can live together in truth and harmony , it didn't seem to work in this particular setting. How does this relate to the online world? Well, for one, having your opinions and interests public certainly makes you think a bit more about what you post. For example, I "like" the television show Weeds  on my Facebook profile.  Does that mean I support the legalization of marijuana, or simply that I enjoy the show? (It's a hilarious dramedy , by they way -- highly recommended) Different people could...

These days, I'm seeing more and more people who have trouble differentiating between things that are urgent , versus things that are important . I was reminded about this by a recent posting over at Business is Pleasure . Software and devices generally have a "do not disturb" setting that silences them and sends calls to voicemail. Use these features! If you're having lunch with someone and talking to them, don't try to answer emails and texts at the same bloody time! Urgency does not necessarily imply importance! In fact, they can often be inversely correlated. The most important things in your life often have little urgency attached to them, so it's up to you to keep track of them and make sure they don't get smothered and forgotten in the minutia of the day-to-day. So every day, take some time to turn off your cellphone , shut down your email , stop tweeting and twittering, sit down, and do something that's actually important ! Or...

First flight: November 5, 2009 Obtained PPL: July 10, 2010 Total Duration: 8 months Flying hours: 70.7 total Learning to fly. What an amazing adventure. I have to admit, I originally thought it would just be a fun little hobby, but rest assured, it takes a good bit of time, money, and determination. My initial estimate was to complete my training in 5 months, finishing in March. This was extended due to two major holidays and a nasty flu bug near the end. A very important consideration in flying is the concept of "currency" or "recency". In fact, for your flying license to be valid, you must have flown a certain number of hours within a certain amount of time. This varies from country to country. It's amazing how quickly you can forget things. Even taking a week off from flying can set you back a lesson or two. If you want to learn to fly in the least amount of time possible, it's important that you don't have large breaks between y...