Crazy Time

The end of August and beginning of September is probably going to be one of the busiest, if not the busiest, time of my life. Here is why:

August 27, 2011 - Kristy's going away party

August 28, 2011 - Lucky & Mika's wedding

September 1, 2011 - Closing date for my home, get my keys

September 2, 2011 - Move into my new place and clean up

September 4, 2011 - Jennifer and Wai-Yan's wedding

September 8, 2011 - Herman's birthday

September 16, 2011 - Erin's house warming party

September 17, 2011 - Dad's birthday

In the midst of all that, the company I work for, PublicInsite will be officially merged with our two partners, making our new company name, Cardinal Path, official!

Not only am I going to be broke after this, but I'll need to learn to take care of myself with the absence of my family members :p This should be fun! I look forward to the next few weeks, first starting with Kristy's going away party, then Lucky and Mika's wedding! Woo!

Life is short.

I saw this poster somewhere on Facebook a couple days ago but now I can't remember who posted it. Facebook's new photo viewer is nice but annoying at times because I was trying for the longest time how I could right click + save the image. It doesn't work that way anymore because it's in a pop-up view, so you're only allowed to save the html file and not the jpeg.

Instead, I just took a screenshot and cropped it, not perfect but the message is intact. Next time, you can copy the URL and post it in a new tab. That way you are redirect to the actual photo page where you can right click + save :)

This poster goes to show how something as simple as text on a piece of paper can transmit such a strong message. The use of small and large fonts, the type of font, the order and use of words... it's just a nice read!

Enjoy!

Cancer affects many, R.I.P. Jack Layton

It's a sad day for Canada to have lost one of its famed leaders, Jack Layton. If you know me well, I don't follow politics. It just just not an enjoyable subject to me.

When I heard the news this morning about Layton (read it on my iPhone on the way to work), I was in deep shock. Of all the speeches I've witnessed, I've always found Jack Layton's to be the most enjoyable the watch and listen to.

The most depressing part of my day, after finding out about this, was just minute after when I overheard a passenger on the bus (a lady sitting behind me) got a call from a friend who found out that someone close to her was diagnosed with cancer. I did not hear what type of cancer he got, but I just felt a shiver up my spine. I wish the best of luck to her and her friend.

Layton's final words

Layton sends out a strong message after finding out about his condition... it ended like this...

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

Let's keep Layton's words at the back of our mind! (and let's remember he spoke Chinese in one of his election commercials!)

LOVE, HOPE, OPTIMISM!

Maybe something a bit humorous to end it off, as I'm sure Jack Layton amused himself when he rewatched this speech. Dat a boy Jack!

Taking Control of the Driver Seat

I got a bit excited tonight so I'm writing a second post here...

You might already know what this post is about judging by the title of it. But hear me out...

I just finished reading a chapter in The Outliers and it read:

"Autonomy, complexity and a connection between effort and reward are the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying."

I cannot agree more to what Malcolm Gladwell says here (p. 149). I worked in the government for two years while I was studying at Carleton U. My program was business and I was going for my degree in Commerce, specializing in Information Systems. The 4.5 years was an enjoyable one; learned lots, met a lot of interesting people and hit a homerun in my last year with my good friend Nigel Kay at the Wes Nicol Competition.

But when I came out of U, I really did not enjoy what I did there, even with the pay being more than what I'm making at my current job.

I'm a strong believer that one should chase after their passion. There were a variety of reason why I left the government and decided not to pursue a career there (not to sound like I'm bashing jobs at the government, but even I have seen people come and go (layoff) in the government, even though they say "not in a millionnn years");

• Pace was slow
• Not much of a learning curve
• Behind in my time of 'technology' (laggards)
• ... but... not everything was seen as negative... because my co-workers were a cool bunch to work with!

If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desire.

While I was working in the government, I was running KayLo Marketing, a small local search marketing firm that helped accountants, lawyers and local businesses improve their presence on the web. We were the aid for their marketing needs and we did a damn good job of it. But later when things took a bad turn, I decided to look for something else. But at the very moment, I was approached by a local marketing firm who offered me a position as a consultant in their company.

I accepted that offer and looked back with no regrets. I love my job. I love where I am right now. And I believe I'm shaping my own destiny. I foresee a bright future with many goals that I want to accomplish in this lifetime.

My thoughts...

• You will find work enjoyable when you don't look at it as 9-5 work;
• You will find work fulfilling when your community of followers are listening to you;
• You will find work exciting when time flies by you in a blink of an eye without you noticing; and,
• You will find work is not really work when you are doing what you love!

Think about this... "If I offered you a choice between being an architect for $75k a year and working in a tollbooth every day for the rest of your life for $100k; a year, which would you take?"

I hope you chose the former one :p

So take control of the driver seat, because you're in for a ride of your life! Make it count!

Volleyball Weekend!

What a weekend!

Friday

It started off with a run from my office all the way to Bubblicity to visit a friend, who then offered me a refreshing Mango Slush (my favourite). Mmmm! :) It took me about 13 minutes, running in Chucks. It was not the best feeling for my feet but whatever, I beat the bus!

Afterwards, we crossed the street to visit the Ottawa Night Market (during the day). It was tiny. I thought the night market was going to be all of Chinatown, but that was too good to be true. It didn't get any bigger at night from what my sources told me.

Saturday

The following day, I drove to Britannia Beach to play in the B2B Beach Volleyball Tournament for iSisters. The tournament started out nice, with some winds coming in from the waters. Later, we were hit with a rather crazy wind storm, from which it turned into a sandstorm. All the participants and volunteers needed to make cover so everyone scrambled into the nearby building. The rain started to come down shortly.

30 minutes passed and the storm was gone. It was as if it never happened. It was bright and sunny again, with no winds at all.

Some of the participants ran to their cars when the storm came, and some stuck around. The tournament continued after the storm cleared.

Our first game back on, I sprained my thumb after attempting to set with my thumb + index finger (shaped like a V). The ball landed directly on my thumb, pulling it back (ouch!). The pain was quite unbearable at first, but then it felt ok during our time off in between the next couple of games. Nonetheless, our team (BIG BANG - made up of Xiong, Mike, Steve and myself) did an awesome job of holding our grounds up to the finals. We played I'd Hit That for the finals where we took it to 3 games. The final game was a close one, 25-22. In the end, our defeat didn't get to us :)

Summary of our match with I'd Hit That:

• 22-25
• 25-18
• 25-22

And.... here's a picture of my sprained thumb...

Asides from volleyball, I found out that my friend Adrienne was award first place in one of the categories at the Ottawa Lumiere Festival! Congrats Adrienne! :)

Sunday

I played in an invite only practice tournament organized by Xiong and Markus at Carleton U. The teams were put together at random and overall it was a lot of fun! I just wish I had brought an extra tee to change into at the end, because it got really uncomfortable on the drive back home!

Ever tried volleying a medicine ball?

I'm starting to see results in my sets ever since my friend Minh told me to strengthen my wrist by volleying a medicine ball at the gym. I did just that, 2 days a week (3 sets of 30 - 6 lbs), for the last 5 months. It's helped me immensely with my accuracy and strength to push the ball out on my power sets. It has also helped me develop quicker reflexes when setting quicks. If your position is Setter on the court, or if you find your sets to be weak, try this medicine ball trick, but try it out with a lighter ball first. You'll begin to realize how light a volleyball really is ;)

Buying vs Renting a Condo

This should have been my first post here, but it turns out it is given its place at 8th. In my previous post, I shared a spreadsheet that helped me determine my affordability if I were to move out and buy this place. But I'm here today to talk about why it might be better to buy a place vs renting one. This is my take on it, so go nuts on scrutinizing it ;)

Before searching for a place, I knew I was going to buy and never rent. I was fortunate enough to get by living at home with my folks, but I knew the time was going to come sooner than later when I'd want independence. Until I made my decision to buy my condo, I didn't know much about the real estate market, and what state it was in. I used a supporting calculator from the NY Times' website to determine whether it was actually better to buy than to rent this condo I was going to buy.

It told me = Buying is better than renting after 2 years.

The process deemed interesting and it brought back some good/bad memories of Economic class... given where the market is right now, it doesn't look too shabby:

• Prices of homes are rising by an average of 7% in the past 10 years
• Interest rate's been a low 1% since 2009

Although we'd be jumping for joy to see such a low interest rate, it is important to know that "What goes up must come down, and what is down will go back up." So yes, I am playing the game a bit, in that I went with a variable rate.

My condo priced as I got it, was the average price of a property back in 2004. I thought, the price of homes are always on a rise, and properties will become more expensive further down the road. But could we reach a point where the prices of homes are so expensive that they are unaffordable?

The cost of a 1 bedroom condo in downtown Ottawa today can go as much as $334,000 (yikes!) compared to 2 bedroom condo just 5 minutes away from the downtown core going for as much as $230,000 (this is not mentioning condo feeds/property taxes).

There were many factors that affected my buying decision:

• Convenience;
• Location;
• One of the tallest buildings on Riverside, if not the tallest! (29 storeys, and I'm on the 26th!); and,
• many many more!

But there was no doubt that I'd buy over rent. Although this might not be the case for everyone, it was for me. Was it for you? Share any thoughts you might have, be happy to listen :)

Crunchin' numbers!

*this post has a downloadable template, please make use of it at your desire :)

Numbers, numbers, numbers...

Before purchasing my home, I did a lot of number crunching to make sure I would be able to support myself when I move out. After countless times of launching Microsoft Excel and speaking with my key contacts (real estate agent, mortgage specialist and lawyer), I think I've figured out what my payment schedules are, in the short term anyways.

I like to look at things from the 'worst case scenario' to ensure that I don't get screwed over, but also to know that I've got a cushion of comfort (nobody likes stress).

So like most people, I formated a spreadsheet of every step in the home buying process. To highlight a few things, the spreadsheet has the main items; income, expenses and fees. Feel free to modify it at your own desire. Here is a screenshot of what the spreadsheet looks like:

Download Jackson's Home Buying Spreadsheet.

I can see myself adding/subtracting things from the list over time, but I think this is a good start. If you think I haven't included something crucial, please let me know! Or if you have suggestions on how to improve this spreadsheet, leave me a comment and I'd be happy to respond to it :) I will likely update this spreadsheet and upload a newer version at a later time.

I hope this little piece of resource will come in handy. Please share this with those that you think would benefit.

Happy number crunching! :)

Gotta Claim 'Em All!

Most of us with smartphones do this.

If you are the social media industry, you must do this.
if you arrive at a venue, you might do this.

CHECK-IN!

I felt as though lately that Foursquare's been dying off a bit because of Facebook Places, Gowalla, and other check-in services who are competing to get users to use their tool. I mainly do my check-ins with Facebook and Foursquare, but more so Foursquare as of late... trying to get back into the 'check-in' game to see what I can make my mark around Ottawa, and other places I go. In an article I just read, checking in is like "invisible graffiti that only people in this little world can see". I thought that was a clever and creative quote.

So my goal... claim my remaining badges (even the one in the US... I will try):

Crunked - 4x or more in a single night (completed on August 17, 2011)
Player Please! - A venue that has 3 friends of the opposite sex currently checked in (completed on August 18, 2011)
School Night - After 3:00am Sunday-Thursday
Far Far Away - 3 checkins above 59th St (New York)
Brooklyn 4 Life - 25 different venues in Brooklyn (Brooklyn)
Socialite - 3x at venues tagged “socialite” (San Francisco - venue)
Gossip Girl - 3x at venues tagged “gossip girl” (New York - venue)
Douchebag - 25 venues tagged “douchebags” (venue)
Ziggy's Wagon - 3x @ venue with main category of “food truck”
Don't Stop Believin' - 3x @ venue with main category of “karaoke” in a month
Gym Rat - 10x @ venue with main category of “gym” within a 30 days (completed on August 16, 2011)
Overshare - 10 unique checkins 12 hour period
Trainspotter - Follow BART and 10x checkin at venues. (San Francisco - venue)
JetSetter - 5 different venues with main category of “airport”
16 Candles - 5 checkins that have “birthday” shouted with them
Zoetrope - 10x @ venues with main category of “theater”
Pizzaiolo - 20x @ different venues with main category of “pizza”
Warhol - 10x @ different venues with main category of “gallery”
Babysitter - 10x @ different venues with main category of “gallery”
Swarm - Check in to a venue with 2,500 people in it
Super Mayor - Hold 10 mayorhsips at one time
Swimmies - At a pool
Great Outdoors - 10 checkins at parks and outdoors venues: Hot Spring, Hiking Trail, Campground, Beach, Lake or Scenic Lookout (venue)
Ski Bum - Check in 3x (on different days) at venues categorized at “Ski Area” or “Ski Lodge”. Becoming the mayor of one of the venue types as well seems to unlock the badge.

If you want a complete list of badges, and how to claim them, go here: http://mattersofgrey.com/foursquare-badge-list/

So let's see how many I can clear in the next year, hopefully all of it! Ohhh and make sure you add me on Foursquare! - https://foursquare.com/jackson_lo

Happy checkin' in!

Where to find deals!? How do your organize them!?

One of the toughest challenges I foresee living alone is $. For a while now, I've been looking for ways to save and there are probably more opportunities to scope out those savings now than ever before. I'm strictly talking about deals that you could find online, and not those cut out coupons, although they can come a long way but the process of finding and cutting them out and extremely time consuming. Groupon, Teambuy, and Living Social are probably some of the ones you've heard of, but the jungle of deals is much bigger.

I came across new deal sites every day/week and signed up for them all (subscribe by email). I received daily deals by email and very quickly realized that it was flooding my inbox (yup, I know how you feel). The most annoying part is getting pinged with a new email (from these sites) on your phone throughout the day. It is to me because I sync up my personal + work email on my phone in case something important needs my attention, and often email is the best communication medium, or Twitter (follow me here: @jackson_lo). Another pet-peeve, is knowing that these deals that come in are probably similar or the same... spas, yoga, etc. Although they are good, repetitive deals get a bit too much for me. Tell me if it does to you too...

One day... a friend of mine referred me to Cake Deals and it appears to solve this problem of 'deals spam'. In fact, I had an idea a few months back to do exactly what Cake Deals does today, but never implemented or thought through the plan, oops! Anyways, Cake Deals is a deal site that aggregates deals from other deal sites Here is a list of some of the ones that it picked up for Ottawa:

Blissmo
DealCanada
Dealfind
Dealicious
DealTicker
EveryBodyBuys
Groupon
Kahoot
KijijiDeals
Koopon
LivingSocial
MadDeal
MeTwoPlease
neerg
RedFlagDeals
Royal Coupon
StealTheDeal
SwarmJam
TeamBuy
TownHog
Tuango
Wagjag
Zozi

Here's a link to the actual Cake Deals site for Ottawa: http://www.cakedeals.com/deals/show/Ottawa

Cake Deals sends you one email per day with a summary of all the deals from approx. 100 other deal sites.

Some cool things about Cake Deals:

• City specific so you can subscribe to just your city, and/or other cities too.
• They have an iPhone app!
• Sorting; most recent, most savings, most bought, expiring soon.
• Ability to subscribe via RSS instead of email (would not recommend, would go with email but your choice!).

So Cake Deals look like the 'shit'. Try it out and let me know if there are any other deal site aggregators out there and I'll be able to share it! :)

Some other sites that I subscribe that 'may' be of interest to you:

• GAP Canada - they have some awesome deals from time to time, keep an eye out for them.
• PRIVE - another clothing site; got some good deals with their Levi's jeans.

Tips for managing deals in your inbox:

One useful tip I can share with you for managing your deals is using the Filter option in Gmail (this only applies if you sign up for all your deals with the same email account, specifically a Gmail account). Filters will help you categorize emails as they come into your inbox, so you can easily focus in on the emails that are important rather than seeing ever email as the 'same'. After you set it up, you don't need to do anything, except delete the ones that may be clogging up your inbox.

Here is how you would set it up...

Click 'create a filter' at the top and set up your filters like this:

then...

You're done! When an email comes in from anyone at @cakedeals.com, it will automatically be labelled with "Deals". Now you can manage your filters and edit them anytime you like. Label as many emails as you want with 'Deals' but keep it relevant.

Emails will still show up in your inbox, unless you specify to skip it. When you click on the label on the left, you will see all your active emails. Here's what my Deals section looks like (yeah... I haven't cleaned it out for a good week and now it's flooding...):

That's how I've been able to keep my inbox clean, and I can assure you that it will help checking your emails easier! That's all I have for today. If you have any local deal sites that you think is worth signing up for, please let me know at the bottom of this post :)

Happy deals hunting!