Not a Journal

Hi Everyone. Been a while... We live in interesting times right now. There is a global behavioural shift happening all because of this nanoscale warrior that barley classifies as a living thing. Covid-19 has disrupted the world faster and more efficiently than almost any other thing in the last few decades. All of the news and social media out there about the virus is scary, and rightfully so. But it's important to stay informed about the facts, and I'm here to help arm you with them through this pandemic. Below is a report that highlights Covid-19's Global, Canadian and Ontarian reach. There are plenty of visuals out there tasked with doing the same, but this is mine. It's a static report because I'm not rich enough to afford a license for the software I use (thanks work!). Data is accumulated daily from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the Canadian government's outbreak update site and Ontario's Data Catalog. Take a look an...

I almost made it a year without writing one of these. I'm terrible at this, but please accept my attempt to highlight my whole year in a reasonable amount of words for an internet blog with 25 readers. Looks like my last update was about my fundraiser for the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I reached the goal thanks to so many amazing people. We hosted two public events and raised over $2800. That was truly a feeling of accomplishment and made the ride all the more satisfying. The ride itself was, well it was a few things; fun, painful, did I mention painful? But overall, absolutely worth it. Participating in that event with 4500+ other people is a special feeling, especially since they try and get the waterworks going before the start. Over $18 million was raised this year. Approaching the finish line, that 220th kilometre, after 11+ hours of riding, with crowds lining the streets gives you such a rush of adrenaline. I'll remember that experience forever. I also had the opport...

Hiya friends, So if you follow me in some of the other corners of the internet, you'll have noticed I finally began my fundraising for The Ride to Conquer Cancer ! A big big thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and to a good friend of mine for helping me make my initial fundraising video . I'm over $400 after only a couple days, which is pretty amazing. You all rock! For anyone who would like to donate, click on over to this link and enter any amount you'd like in the "Freewheeler" option. Keep your receipts for your taxes! I'll be posting some video and blogs about my training journey, which is off to a slow start, but it's a start! I've also adopted a " STOP EATING SO MUCH " strategy, we'll see how long that lasts. Other than that, life's been pretty routine since starting my career. Work a lot, eat a little, sleep a medium amount, and gym when I can. I'm planning on doing some fundraising events once the ...

First of all, I did not forget about my wonderful readers, and I know, it's been a while... but here's the quick 3-minute recap of my last few months! After my almost viral (177 views!!!!) Tim Hortons blog which you should read (or reread) because it's just artistry level blogging, I let the fame and fortune go to my head... okay well actually, I got a job. If you follow me on any other platforms, I fell off the grid pretty much as soon as I began working, but I have a lot to fill you in on! After a long and stressful job hunt, I received a phone call from a consulting company. Fast forward a month and I'm having a great time working as an energy management consultant. Not to brag or anything, but my office view is pretty sweet, check it out! I also had a birthday during this mysterious, radio-silent time. I had said I'd write a blog then.... we'll just move past the fact that it's been almost 4 weeks since. My biggest news and I'm excited ...

As I sit here pretending to be a scriptwriter at a budget Starbucks  Tim Hortons, feeling slightly out of place, I write this review. This will be an attempt at a new series on my blog, since I've been dry with ideas since returning to Canada. Tim Hortons is a Canadian classic coffee shop turned fast food restaurant while still retaining its coffeeshop status. Apparently, it used to be excellent until they changed coffee beans, but that was before my coffee drinking days so I and most people around my age probably feel the same (we don't feel anything about the changed beans). It also used to be cheap, but since high-status coffee shops like the aforementioned Starbucks and Second Cup somehow get away with charging 10$ for a drink, the friendly neighborhood Canadian brand jacks prices to compete. At least it still has its loyal customers. Fun fact, the first Tim's restaurant was in my hometown of Hamilton! It's also the usual go-to spot for a quick bathroom brea...

Polarsteps is done tracking my trip, but the journey is still  here  if you'd like to check it out! If you missed any of the series, check it out on my social media feeds or on my blog homepage. The last post is  right here! I can't say that this finale will be very spectacular. I do however want to share some of the things I learned through my time in Europe and coming home after such a trip. Venice, my final stop, is something special. It's unique, and after so many big cities and subways and buses, the uniqueness of taking a boat around the city is just fun. I never took the overpriced gondola ride or boat cabs, and I don't feel that you need to because the boat-bus was awesome. A 48-hour pass is relatively cheap and I had a blast boating around the city. It does take a long time to get around though, so you need to keep that in mind! The city is unfortunately sinking and eventually will cease to exist. About 1000 locals leave the city each year. So if you...

This series ended up being far longer than I anticipated. I could make an ebook about my travels! Who am I kidding, no one would want to read that... let alone buy it. Also, side note: Polarsteps was so great up until a couple days ago when it went haywire and threw a bunch of phantom travel paths on my map. Support said it has been fixed however, there was no way to remove the phantom lines. This all makes for a ton of work for me to redo all of the travel steps. It's unfortunate but I understand these things happen. Anyway, it's all updated now and working as it should, sorry to my 7000  7 followers for any inconvenience. Now that it's all back to normal, here is the link if you'd like to check out my trip! If you missed any of the series, check it out on my social media feeds or on my blog homepage. The last post is right here! July 22 2017 Wow, am I ever behind on this. [Left off in Florence] So I went up the massive dome of the Florence Cathedral...

We're coming to a close here soon, just about half a month left before I fly home! I realise I got a little behind on blogging so this may be a tad long. You've been warned. Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here ! Attempt to get more views : If you missed  Part 5  of the series, you can find it  here . You can find all the other parts of the series through links in each of the previous posts or on my other social media platforms! As a preface, I left off in Barcelona on day 2 of 5. July 11, 2017 The rest of Barcelona was both really great and a little annoying. It was the definition of mixed feelings. The weather was hot and humid but no rain, except for a 5-minute downpour while I was on top of a castle. Great view of the city though! It seems like in every city I try to get as high (ha.. in terms of altitude) as possible to get a birds-eye view of the place. Those views usually pay off. I also ...

Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Attempt to get more views : If you missed Part 4 of the series, you can find it here . You can find all the other parts of the series through links in each of the previous posts! Let's jump right in. July 1, 2017 (continued) I met an American woman in my hostel room who was thinking about doing the Game of Thrones tour. Belfast and Northern Ireland is home to most of the filming locations in the series, and hence offer tours of some key spots. It's also a great way to get out of the city and see some of the sites along the coastline. We ended up going on the tour. It was well worth it too! We drove up the Northern Ireland coast, which is absolutely beautiful. The guide was fantastic and a huge fan of the show. He even showed clips of the show at the filming locations! I saw another Wonder of the world UK which was the Giant's Causeway. The Giant's Causeway has a great le...

I think I needed a new title for this installment. I hadn't originally planned to write so much in the previous ones, but hopefully you read them. Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Attempt to get more views : If you missed the first part of the series, you can find it  here . Now that the administrative stuff is out of the way, let's get down to the real business. That's a lie, businesses are profitable, this blog is not... So I think I left off at Stonehenge, let me check my book here. Damn, that felt like a long time ago. June 26, 2017 Stonehenge was, I mean realistically it's just a bunch of big rocks standing up (some fell over) in a circle that line up with the sun a couple times per year. But, still they are over 4500 years old and built by some ancient, well organized humans. The stones are built intricately for the time, and weigh tens of tons. They actually fit together and some were brought from...

Hello again! Please forgive me for my spelling mistakes in the last two posts, which have been corrected. I rushed writing them due to writing on a bunk bed in a room that must have been as hot as the inside of a car on a hot day. I also realize there are mixtures of tenses (past and present) but that is by design as it is how I wrote it at the time. So if my high school English teacher is reading, sorry Ms Butera!  If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Also, Part 1 of the series can be found here! Where did I leave off last time? Ah, Paris. Alright, going to stick to the script (mostly) of my notebook here. &quote Just kidding, quoting myself is just too much.  Also, the dates listed are not representative of where I was on that day, but the day I wrote in my journal. Perhaps that wasn't clear before. MY BAD FOLKS. June 22, 2017 I blogged while in Paris but didn't "journal" anything. Now I'm too ...

Welcome back! I'll be continuing my travel notes here. If you missed the first part, you can find it here . If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check that out here . I think that covers the administrative stuff so sit back, relax and enjoy the movie... I mean, blog post. I know, not as cool as a movie. June 9, 2017 Prague was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a quieter, hipster area of Prague, a short tram ride from downtown. There were so many people, but so far one of my favourite cities.  We went to an Irish bar and watched the Champions League final and the bar was PACKED. People went crazy, singing, yelling and cheering. It was neat to experience a soccer game in a European sports bar. Nothing like when Canada wins the hockey gold medal though. We met up with Tom and Anja, 2 great friends of mine from back home. We spent way more time with them than I thought we would, but it was so so great to have them there to explore and hang out with. Prague ...

Bonjour fellow internet people! I'm currently writing this from my Airbnb in Paris. It's been a while and I've been jotting notes down on paper (like a prehistoric, I know) and I figured it was a good time to share the progress. I'm also tracking my trip with Polarsteps. Here's my trip link if you want to take a peak at my adventure! Okay so I wrote these sections whenever I had some free time. Hope you enjoy! May 29, 2017 Landed in Munich, spent the day there. Went to some famous restaurant for lunch, explored the Olympic park and walked around the city. (We were only there for an afternoon so didn't do too much). We travelled back to Liechtenstein, where my travel buddy lives, and hung out for a couple days. Visited some mountains around there, had a MASSIVE schnitzel in Austria (like a 6-minute drive from his house), went out drinking with his friends (locals) and took a cable car to the top of Santis mountain in the Alps. Six hours on a train la...

I never know how I feel about posting these types of blogs. It's the equivalent of someone posting anything on facebook and me completely ignoring it because who still posts things on facebook? Oh, the irony... This will be a "let's catch up with Jay" post as I usually do when a big change is coming. So if you care as little as you should, I won't be offended if you don't stick around to read. So I'm down to my last week in Thunder Bay (I hope) and wow, what a ...lack of a feeling I have about it. I'm kidding, I actually liked this place, more than I thought I would. It's been a crazy ride. I can't even remember much of the summer I spent here back in 2015, or much of the first year now that I think about it. It seems like so long ago, but two years went by quite quickly. I made some great friends and hopefully some good contacts for the future over the last two years. I wish I got to explore the city a bit more, but like a friend said rece...

So as you may know,  my last post  was a social experiment proposal. I can't even believe all the success and feedback this post had. Thank you all. ... I'm obviously kidding because not one comment was made about it. Ready for the catch? And I'm not making this up as I type because I want to make myself look good.... not that at all... I promise.... The post was not meant to be an experiment for you to carry out. It was meant to test you! That's right friends and audience, it was a test. You all failed, miserably. Kind of like I did on every thermodynamics test I took (that's a joke, I nailed that class... 64%). I learned a valuable lesson about this blog. Regardless of how many views I get per post, and regardless of all the pennies I make on ad revenue (seriously, like 2 cents so far), it really doesn't matter. I don't write this blog for views, or earning money. I'm not that great a writer. I write it so maybe that one person who reads it will...

I'd like to propose an experiment. As a member of society, I have an obligation to have at least a basic understanding of what is going on in the world right now. And even if I don't, I try to use common sense to be skeptical. But does everyone? Now I know in today's society, you can't just go walk up to a stranger and ask them a question because well, people suck nowadays, but maybe you can get to some people you know. And trust me, I realize the irony of asking the 10 people who read this thing to go out and do a social experiment, but I'm going to ask you anyway. So, what's the best way to achieve results? First of all, what's the experiment? I propose you tell someone a fictional news story, mentioning you "saw it on the news". I know, fake news and all. However, the catch is you tell them a recent, true news story first. I also realize this involves actually talking to another human being, in person...yuck... But I want to know how...

This was originally going to be solely a discussion on time travel. However, discussing the timeline is a rather good starting point before or while discussing time travel. I've always wanted to write about my thoughts on time and time travel. It is one of those obscure enough topics where anyone can theorize about the generalities of it. But are those theories based in any realm of realism? There are well-respected theorists like Stephen Hawking who have gone into great detail regarding time travel. There are a ton of TV shows and movies which go to great lengths to be as accurate as possible. In our current understanding of physics, time travel is mathematically allowed. But the reality is that we just don't know, yet. Perhaps there is another law of physics we have yet to discover which proves time travel is fundamentally not possible. But it's fun to think about regardless. Let's start simple. If I were to build a time machine right now, would I be able to use i...

So if you understood my lackluster title, this post is about stars. What are they? Where do the come from? How big are they? .... I was asking you... you.. you don't know? Well, I have bad news for you........... GOTYA! Why else do you come to this corner of the observable web? That joke probably went right over your head because it was completely unrelated to anything I may or may not mention later in this post which of course you haven't read yet. Okay, that's enough of that intro... Stars are, well, pretty simple actually. If you look at a periodic table, you know the one that's kind of a weird shape and has a bunch of letters and numbers on it and you probably have no idea what they are? Yeah, that table. Well, we're in luck. We really only need to look at the first two elements on it. Hydrogen and Helium. Now a star usually contains other stuff too, but for simplicity, we'll stick with the basics. Hydrogen is the 1st element on the periodic ...

Ladies and gentlemen! We are in a state of emergency. Okay, I'm overreacting. But still, I feel it is my duty to make this blog, even though it will likely never reach the people who this post is targeted to. Nonetheless, hopefully it's a little interesting for the regular readers, all 6 of you and the accompanying 40 bots and web crawlers I assume my audience includes. So I was made aware that it might not be common knowledge, or it is and this person just missed the 80 science classes I'm sure this was discussed in over the last 10 years of their education, that our solar system is NOT THE ONLY SOLAR SYSTEM OUT THERE. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAD TO WRITE THAT. I ALSO FORGOT TO TAKE CAPS LOCK OFF and didn't want to retype any of that. Now I'm not trying to make fun of anyone, but let's go back to square one here. Next time you're outside at night, not you fake audience, just the real people, look up! Those twinkling white dots, those are stars! On a...

I wrote my highest viewed post a year ago.  Here it is if you missed it.  Look how helpful I am! That post was a discussion of the potential of solar power. We've made significant strides since then. Solar is now the fastest growing renewable energy production method in the world. Ignoring President Trump's public statements, solar has generated over 50,000 jobs in the US, Elon Musk - founder & CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is investing a ton in solar with his Solar Roof initiative and PowerWall tech, and China is increasing their solar energy generation capacity by a great deal and abandoning coal (*cough* take notes, USA *cough*). That's pretty exciting if you ask me. In the post on solar from last year, I mentioned only one type of solar tech - where the solar panel acts as a concentrator of light to generate steam. Due to improvements in material science and electronics, there is another type of solar technology which is driving this upbringing of large-scale solar a...