Well actually, Jen and I did it… not that! We finished the star-field last night! It is ready to install! So far it looks pretty good, we should get it in place on the ceiling tonight, then all I have to do is add trim and patch 5 holes, cut the fibers to the same length and done! I should have pics and a video up sometime next week!
2 Comments »Wow, I did it!
March 10th, 2010New Vacation Movie
March 5th, 2010I liked those old vacation movies from the 80′ with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, I thought it was the end of the series until I stumbled across this mini movie this morning. It is really an advertisement for HomeAway.com but I got a few cheap laughs out of it. Anyway it comes in two parts, so check it out!
No Comments »McDonald’s vs Tim Hortons Breakfast Sandwiches
March 4th, 2010
Tim's VS McD's
McD’s:
What we liked:
- Real whole egg
- lots of grease on the egg
- Tasty well seasons sausage
- Greasy well seasoned sausage
- Real egg, with grease
- Overall sausage McMuffin was moist and tasty
- Though cheese was processed it was tasty
What we didn’t like:
- Sausage was not for those who don’t like greasy meat
- Found bacon dry and minimal
- Processed cheese
Bacon yumminess factor: 2 / 4
Sausage yumminess factor: 4 / 4
Tim’s:
What we liked:
- Egg patty thing was seasoned
- More bacon than McD’s
- Sausage was seasoned
What we didn’t like:
- Egg seemed fake being formed into a patty type thing
- Bacon Seemed dry
- Sausage though greasy, not a moist as McD’s
- Processed cheese, and not as tasty as McD’s
- English muffin seemed to lack flavor? or maybe it was the whole combination.
Bacon yumminess factor: 2 / 4
Sausage yumminess factor: 3 / 4
Before we started I really believed that Tim Horton’s would have one this one, but in our test it was unanimous that the McD’s Sausage McMuffin was the big winner here. Now all the sandwiches were great but we found that the McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin had the best ratio of grease, salt and egg. Who can resist that salty grease!
As you can see we didn’t test all the option, I myself like the Tim’s biscuit over the english muffin, and McDonald’s has that McGriddle, which I have tried and was disappointed in the omelet egg thing and the overall salty but super sweet flavor of it, our intention was to compare just the english muffin versions. I think you can get your breakfast sandwich on a bagel at Tim’s as well… maybe another time hen I starve myself and have a longer coffee break we can test them all and maybe come up with a grading sheet of some sort, though that seems like a lot of effort.
Have a good weekend.
February 26th, 2010Still working on those posts I promised. I was busy this week so I didn’t have much time to work on them. next week should be better. Enjoy the weekend!
No Comments »Upcoming posts
February 19th, 2010Just to keep you posted, here are some upcoming posts:
- McDonald’s vs Tim Hortons (breakfast sandwiches)
- Update on Master bathroom (with pictures)
- Update on Panasonic ZS3 camera
Nice long weekend
February 16th, 2010A couple of great things happened this weekend. I finally chose a camera and I roughed in the tub in my master bath and tested it!
First off i ended up buying the Lumix DMC-ZS3 camera! I finally was on sale so i went and bought it. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to play with it but have discovered a few things about it. The battery life really does suck, and so far I am a little disappointed with the amount of noise in the pictures that it takes. The LCD is crystal clear which may be one reason why I am noticing the noise. The camera is made in Japan rather than China, it feels well built (but time will tell). It takes pretty impressive video for a camera.
Now about the tub. I purchased the Maax Urban 32″ tub over a year ago and finally tried it out. It is loud! I’ll have to accommodate some sort of sound dampening into my tub surround design. Other than that it warms up your back and blows air bubbles, that’s about it. It looks nice and I’m glad it works, that’s all that really counts.
New Game!
February 11th, 2010It’s been awhile since I posted something fun, so here is the lates game from Free Web Arcade.
Click here to play Gluey
Lumix DMC-ZS3 vs Fuji F70EXR
February 9th, 2010I’m still trying to decide between two camera models for purchase, the Lumix DMC-ZS3 and the Fuji F70EXR. There are advantages and disadvantages to both cameras so I thought I would do a side by side comparison to sort out which I should purchase. Side by side specs
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3
Pros
- Takes overall better photos (but only minimal because it is still a compact)
- can take 720p HD video at 30fps
- uses AVCHD Lite compression which eats up less memory during recordings
- has 460k pixels LCD making picture and video play back easier to see on the camera
- 12x zoom with wide angle lens 25mm – 300mm
- larger better Leica lens
Cons
- uses AVCHD Lite compression possibly creating playback problems for media players.
- goes through batteries like there is no tomorrow will need a backup battery for day trip photo shoots
- must use Panasonic battery which is chipped or down grade the bios
- Also heard that you need a Panasonic SD card? (I don’t believe this is true but haven’t proven otherwise)
- Slightly larger in size 103 x 60 x 33 mm 229 g
- Price! $460 in-store here in Winnipeg or i can get it for $250 on amazon.com, if I ship it to the states and drive to pick it up and it would still be $150 cheaper. I would feel like I am being ripped off a little if i purchased it in-store.
Fujifilm F70EXR
Fujifilm F70EXR
Pros
- great low light photos, lower noise than other compacts, ISO 400 & 800 could actually be usable
- Has interesting EXR features such as Dynamic Range, which I find would be the most useful function though I haven’t seen any hugely noticeable results
- Smaller in size 99 x 59 x 23 mm 205 g
- 10x zoom with wide angle lens 27mm – 270mm
- Cost less and seems to be more consistent in price throughout Canada and the States (I don’t feel ripped off paying a consistent price)
Cons
- no HD video. Though I have read reviews that the difference is minimal between 480 and 720 the one thing I’d miss out on is wide screen video format.
- menu system is complicated and any manual features are buried deep within them (I haven’t heard too much about the Panasonic menu system either but believe it to be less complex)
I will list more as i think of them but that is all for now. Don’t forget to post you comments/suggestions.
Soda Stream
February 8th, 2010
Stainless Steel SodaStream
I picked up a Soda Stream over the weekend and I can now make my own pop. Basically all this thing does is take plain old tap water and carbonate it, then you add flavoring to it to make cola, root beer or a variety of other drinks. My wife and I drink a lot of canned soda water so for us it made sense. The unit cost $199.99, we picked it up at Organza (it will most likely be on sale next month). For that you get the air dispensing unit (picture on the left) an 60L CO2 canister (which slides inside of the unit) and two 1L bottle for your drinks. For a CO2 refill Organza will exchange your canister with a full one for $19.99, I don’t know how long they last. For drink favors, there are quite a few, I only picked up the unsweetened flavor pack which consisted of Lemon Lime, Orange, and berry. I found the berry tasted a little like cough syrup but the other two were great. I plan to pick up so cola ones tonight to try out.
For flavors, machine styles and other fun filled facts on the Soda Stream visit their website at SodaStream.ca.
No Comments »Suggestions please
February 4th, 2010I’m playing with the layout of this site, and was hoping for some suggestions.
So far I have widened the whole site. I have wide screen monitors everywhere I use the internet, so I need to know if this fits your normal browser window, it fits mine no problem. I also enlarged the font which should help readability.
I was thinking of also:
- added a horizontal menu
- changing the header up (possibly adding graphics)
- changing the sidebar (don’t know what though)
- dropping the ‘blog.’ an integrating the blog with mardena.com a little more seamlessly. This way you’d only have to type http:///mardena.com instead of blog.mardena.com or does that really matter?
possible look for new blog (most likely better)
Let me know what your thoughts are or any other suggestions you may have. You can also email your suggestion to me at .
UPDATE:
OMG! I forgot to add pictures to the last two posts! I’ll add them right away!!!