Not bad at all...

My coworker Jon recently created a new site that allows you to easily search UsedPEI, Kijiji, and Craig's List all at the same time. It only searches for PEI ads and you can sort them pretty well anyway you like. It is really very useful and a time saver if you frequent these sites! Good job Jon!

On the subject of fonts...

Never, ever, ever set a script font in all caps! It is a major pet peeve of mine. I have seen this dozens of times on menus of local restaurants. It is an automatic strike against them in my books! No matter how good the food is, I will most likely avoid that establishment because in my opinion they don't care about fine details!

A Myriad of Fonts

I work with fonts everyday. Over the last 18 years I have seen and used thousands of fonts. I find it fascinating that our alphabet can be displayed in so many creative ways. I have had a few favourites over the years, but I really come to love Adobe's Myriad Pro font. It is simple, elegant and legible; all good qualities in a type face. It may be slightly overused, but I truly appreciate it's clean simple lines. It's a great sans serif font. Now if we are talking serif fonts, I would have to go with Century Old Style...a timeless classic!

What fonts do you love? Let me know....

I have a bad feeling about this....

Well, with a 12 minute wait and an over $3.00 price tag for a Grande Café Americano Decaf, I doubt that the new STARBUCKS will be putting our local coffee shops out of business anytime soon. That being said, this is by far the best damn coffee I have had since I was in Florida, back in April. It was worth the wait and worth the price!

If you don't mind high prices, fancy names, long lines and slow service; and you enjoy a fantastic full flavoured, high quality coffee, you should definitely check them out!

Wii Fit....Not a game!

The Wii Fit is a ton of fun! We recently picked one up with the intention of losing a few pounds before our upcoming wedding.  If we continue to keep up our current work-out pace we'll be able to pull a sled full of our guest through 3 feet of snow to assure they arrive to our New Year's Day wedding.

This "game" is a serious work out tool. It presents exercises in a fun and engaging way that encourages you to challenge yourself to push just a little bit further. The Wii Fit board is one cool piece of tech that senses your weight and balance and it works in combination with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to also track your motion and location. With exercise mini games ranging from boxing and snowboarding to yoga and hoola-hoop there is something for everyone.

We have worked out every day since we purchased it (now 7 days) and so far I am down 2lbs and every muscle in my body is aching. Perhaps video games finally are good for you! Let's see if I can get that 15 lbs off before Jan!

Look Who's Talking

I have noticed a new social dilemma that has resulted from the iPhone.

The headset on the iPhone looks exactly like the famous iPod headset with one minor difference...it has a tiny little microphone and button embedded in the right earphone cord. So when I am walking down the street with my iPhone, on a call, people look at me very strangely because I seem to be carrying on one end of a conversation but they don't see a phone anywhere...not even a bluetooth headset or anything. They assume I am talking to the voices in my head I guess. (see post below to see that that I really do have voices in my head)

Today it took a new twist. I was at a store picking up something for Carla and was speaking with her on my iPhone to be sure I got the right thing. The cashier at this store knew I was on the phone so she didn't think I was talking to myself, but because she couldn't see the "phone" she couldn't tell when I was talking to her and when I was talking to Carla...

I never realized how important a social gesture the phone to your head has become...it is a clear sign for no one to talk to you because you are talking to someone else....remove the "phone to head" gesture from the equation and mass confusion ensues.

It's strange and I never noticed it before the iPhone. Anyone else having this problem?

We Stand On Guard

I often get songs stuck in my head. In fact it's sort of like a radio station in there, there is almost constantly a song playing. Friday night after the Rocket game I had Oh Canada stuck in my head. Does that mean I should have remained standing at attention until it was replaced by another song?

Tweet Tweetly-Tweet

OK, I consider myself fairly tech-savy but I must be missing something about Twitter.

Everyone seems to love it. The tech industry seems to think it is a big deal. Tons of companies are quickly jumping on board the Twitter Wagon. However, as far as I can tell, it is just an app that does glorified status updates. Isn't it pretty much exactly like updating your status in facebook? What am I missing? What is so special about Twitter?

Help me to "get it".

An open letter to all drivers

Dear driver,

I really have a few favours to ask. Please understand I am not trying to be judgemental, we all make mistakes out there and there is a lot going on in everyone's lives these days. I think if you take the time to read this and give it a moment or two of thought, you will agree these requests are very reasonable.

• Please be courteous to other drivers
• Please watch out for school zones and crosswalks
• Please look both ways before pulling away from that stop sign
• Please don't run the yellow light if you have time to stop
• Please put your cellphone away while you drive. If you really must use it get a headset or pull over
• Please never, ever text while driving
• Please realize there are no right hand passing lanes on PEI
• Please realize that right hand turning lanes are marked. If it isn't marked it isn't a lane.
• Please stay on your own side of the road at all times, unless you are safely passing another vehicle
• Please slow down if only a little
• Please concentrate on driving while you are driving
• Please never drive while impaired. That includes many prescription drugs as well.

I guess that's it. I realize that's a lot of favours and some of them are rather large. I hope you will consider them though. A friend of mine lost his life very recently because someone didn't take the time to
think about these things. Now, with many Island children back in school and everyone rushing a little more, it seems even more important that we try a little harder to drive safely and watch out for each other.

Thank you so much and I promise to do my best,
Dale

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News

Back in January, people on the PEI Patient Registry List received good news.  Seventeen new doctors had been recruited to work in PEI. I received a phone call to let me know that Dr. Wayne Cox would begin practicing in Cornwall at the Medical Clinic, and he would become my new family doctor.

I am very pleased to say that Dr. Cox has turned out to be an excellent doctor. He took my very painful, and long standing stomach issue seriously. I was sent for the necessary testing, and he was then able to prescribe a solution. Since then, I have been visiting his office every 3 months and for the first time in years, I can honestly say I have been feeling great.

That is why I am so disappointed by the news that Dr. Cox is leaving PEI and moving back to his former home in the United States. Later this month he will leave the Cornwall Medical Clinic, and the rather large patient load he was caring for will return to the bottom of the PEI Patient Registry List. The advice I received from the clinic was that I will need to call and get my name back on the registry, and in the meantime I should go to walk-in clinics to make sure my prescription does not run out.

I can't blame Dr. Cox for leaving, I know for a fact that he had a house that he was trying to sell and he has a wife and children who have to try to acclimatize to PEI life. In short, he has his own life and concerns to take care of.  However, our government has been promoting the advances they have made in health care and has been working to convince us that doctor shortages are being looked after. It is great that we managed to recruit 17 new doctors this year. My question is what are we doing to keep them?

I suggest that as part of new doctor recruitment we set up a contract that guarantees recruited doctors will stay in PEI for a minimum of 3 years. If they leave early, they pay a monetary penalty. The penalty should be large enough that the decision to come here would be one that was well thought out and the likelihood of their leaving would be low. At the end of the contract if they wish to renew there would be a suitable incentive for them to stay for another 3 year term. This could be extended to offer larger incentives for longer terms.

That's my complaint and my idea towards a solution...I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I should be too old for this...

I am excited about the news that Disney has bought Marvel! I have been a huge fan of both Walt Disney and Marvel Comics for as long as I can remember. I will never forget the excitement I used to feel when we would gather around the TV on Saturday mornings to watch Spiderman or Sunday evenings for Wonderful World of Disney. I wanted to be Spiderman and I wanted to live at Disney.

This past April I was fortunate enough to finally visit Disney World (and I still think I would like to live there). It was like stepping back in time and revisiting those wonderful memories. All the familiar characters were there.  They will now be joined by Spiderman, Iron-Man, the X-Men....I can't wait for my next visit!

It's been a long time coming, but my dream of Spiderman living at Disney seems to have happened....I wonder if there will be an attraction where I get to feel like I am swinging from rooftops?

IRAC...there's just nothing funny about it.

While I won't be contacting Oliver Stone to make one of his famous conspiracy movies just yet; it's becoming difficult to believe that IRAC is looking out for the best interests of consumers.

I can't help but notice that Island gas prices took a considerable jump at the pumps of approx. 3 - 4¢/litre only days before visitors began arriving for the Canada Games. At that time I made a prediction that the Commission was attempting to gouge visitors with higher gas prices and that we could expect a drop once the games concluded and everyone returned home. Sure enough, this morning, 2 days after the closing celebrations, we receive a 1.6¢/litre gas price drop.

These sort of price hikes are becoming all too common. It may not be a conspiracy, but cons and piracy are definitely involved somewhere.