Video Games Make You Lose Weight

There is a video game called Dance Dance Revolution. They have it at the University arcade. The idea of the game is that you have to step on different combinations of buttions on the floor of the game. You do it to the beat of the song that is played along with directions as to which button you have to step on. The music and button combos get faster and more complicated as the game progresses. Thus making you dance faster and faster. Here is the story of one girl who became hooked on this game.

"I started playing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) at the age of 17 with the very first version that was released to the United States, DDR Version 1.5. The first time I saw the game was at Gameworks arcade in Seattle, where tons of people were crowded around the DDR machine to watch different players dance. At this time, I was a senior in high school and weighed about 235 lbs. Four and a half years later, I now weigh close to 140 lbs and I would’ve never guessed how much that trip (OR a video game) would affect me with my health/weight, and in growing to be a better, more self-confident person."

continued...

I'm personally not a big fan of the game (no pun intended), but this girl's story just goes to show how much doing a little exercise will affect your body.

-Gary Milner, just dance dance away the pounds.

Job Hunt

I applied for two jobs today. The problem with a job search after University is that it is completely different from any other job search you have ever done before.

In highschool, if you wanted a job, you would just go to the place where you wanted to work talk to the manager and they would hire you, or you would just move on to the next business where you would like to work.

Blockbuster not hiring? Go to Video Update. Wendy says no? Go talk to Ronald.

It's different now. You don't get to talk to the guy who does the hiring. They might not even let you onto the elevator to his floor. It's almost a gaurentee that you won't be getting past the secratary. Yet thousands of people work in those towers downtown, and they make a lot of money doing it too. How did they get in there? Why am I getting discouraged by the process. I know that I'm at least as smart as they were when they got their first job, so it should be easy.

It gets worse for me, though, because when one company turns me down, I don't know who the next guy to talk to even is. He could even be in the very same building, but I may never even know.

-Gary Milner

TALKING DOG FOR SALE

One day, a guy see's a sign in front of a house: TALKING DOG FOR SALE. The owner tells him the dog's in the back yard, so he goes around to the back and sees a black mutt.. . You talk? he asks the dog. "Yup replies the mutt". "So whats your story?" The mutt says: Well when I discovered my gift, I wanted to help the government, so I told them about it, and in no time they had me jetting around the world, sitting with spies and world leaders. And because noone suspected a dog, I was their most valuable spie. Then I wanted to settle down so I signed up to do undercover security work at an airport. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and earned a pile of medals. I got married , had a mess of puppies, and now I'm retired. The guy is amazed. He goes inside and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says $l0.00 . The guy asks, why are you selling him so cheap? The owner replies:
Because he is such a liar--- he didn't do any of that stuff.

Colder Than a Witch's Tit in a Brass Bra

It is so cold here in Calgary. Really cold, so cold your words freeze in mid-air like Get Smart's cone of silence, or Batman's "bam-pow's"

Our car wouldn't start at the university last night. Luckily we were within pushing distance to a plug-in. We were able to plug the car in, and after 45 minutes of pure engine thawing, we were able to get it going. I'll have to go out to the car every few hours to start it up, from now on.

One of the first things I'm going to buy when I get a job is a new car. A nice silver civic, with an automatic transmission and air conditioning. I'll also get a Japanese kid to put some of those cool lights underneath the running boards, on the "H" insignia, where the windshield washer fluid shoots out, and a some big ace bass speakers in the back that make the car bounce up and down to the beat. It's going to be a really sweet ride.

-Gary Milner

Butter, Butter, Butter

Some people in the office ate butter this afternoon. A stick of butter each. There were six of them. One quit before he even got halfway through. He was the unlucky one. The others all ended up "purging" because eating a pound of butter is very bad for you. I think the guy who gave up early still has a 1/4 pound of butter in his stomach.

The official stance of the Milner Blog is this: Don't eat a stick of butter.

Well, the redesign is going along rather well. Some of the tables are a little messed still, I got rid of the grey bar on the right hand side, but I think it will be better without it, and I don't have everyone's links back up. I don't know what I will be linking to in the future. One of the main benefits is that I was able to clean up my code quite a bit. The HTML was a real mess before, with lots of stuff that was un-necessary.

Oops

I had a little accident, and I guess the redesign that I talked about before will be happening a little sooner than I had planned. Luckily, only the template got messed, not the database. If you think I should change it back, or have any suggestions for the new layout, just leave a comment.

-Gary

GETTING THE SHAFT

As everyone knows by now an inmate fell to his death in an elevator shaft in an Edmonton courthouse. Also everyone is wondering just how this came about. Here's my theory: We know that he was raising a fuss and asking for food just before the incident. I think that the guards misunderstood that he was asking for food to eat, not "food for thought."

Belinda Stronach's Web Faux Pas

You may be wondering who she is. She was the president of Magna International and is a multi-millionaire and possibly bilionaire. She wants to be the leader of the PC party. Her campain website is Belinda.ca, which is fine as far as domain names go. However, the .com version of her domain name does not belong to her. It belongs to someone in an industry even less savory than building car parts and even less savory than politics. It's a pr0n site.
What this means is that if she gets thousands of supporters who want to come to her site, but forget that it's belinda.ca not .com, they will all be getting an eyefull.

-Gary Milner, Internet Superstar who advises a domain name change

THE DEVILS SERIAL NUMBER

The devil has a serial number other than 666. It's 370H55V-0773H and it has an encoded message . To decipher the code, write the number down and read it up side down.

A LESSON ON GRAVITY

Here's something you never thought of. What if you fell into a hole in the earth that was pretty wide and went all the way through the earth. What effect would gravity have on you at the centre of the earth. The answer is no effect at all. You would go shooting past the middle at about two hundred miles an hour and then pretty soon you would come shooting back the other way at about the same speed and back and forth awhile and then stop in the middle. You better hope somebody has a rope a few hundred miles long to rescue you.

Me In a Nutshell

Help! Help! I'm in a nutshell!!!

But seriously folks, things are going good. I'm looking for a job. People at the Gauntlet have started placing bets on my job search. Adam thinks I'll get a job by Feb 2, and Alan thinks I'll get a job by Mar 2, in either case, thanks for the vote of confidence guys. I seriously hope at least one of you is right. Feb would be better, but I'll take what I can get.

Nat bet that Daorcey will get a job before I do. I can't remember who bet on me. If Daorcey wins, I'll be a little disappointed, but only because I want to find a job pretty bad. I'll actually be quite happy for him, because it isn't as if him getting a job will have any effect on my getting a job at all. He has actually given me quite a few good tips for my job search. Around the office, he seems to be the guy who knows the most about getting good jobs. He worked for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra last summer which is somewhat impressive. I'm not the only one who thinks his chances of getting a good job are quite high.

Well, that's enough for now. I should be doing more productive things.

-Gary Milner, Unemployed Internet Superstar

Ps. If you get a line on any jobs suited for a Commerce Degree holder, let me know. I specialized in Management of Information Systems.

Not A Winner After All

I was more like a victim. Tracie and I stayed up really late watching one of the DVD's that we won. It was called "Shocker". If you ever see it on the shelf, run, don't walk away. It was quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. For the first half an hour, they are chasing a mass murderer. They catch him and send him to the electric chair, but through some sort of voo doo, the electricity gives him supernatural powers. The next hour and a half are spent trying to defeat him.

-Gary Milner, regrets watching "Shocker"

Second Time a Winner

Faithful readers may recall that awhile back, I won a copy of "About Schmidt" from the Globe Cinema. You may also recall that Tracie and I went to the Globe Cinema to watch a movie on New Year's Eve, and further that we once again entered the draw. Well I have good news to report. I once again have won a prize. This time we received two horror movies on DVD and three free rentals from Casablanca Video.

-Gary Milner, Winningest Internet Superstar Ever

Super Store Continued

Gary didn't even mention the half of it. This new superstore has everything....I mean everything. On top of all the stuff in the store that they already had- only in way bigger quantities (four aisles worth of lamps for example), they also have a ton of crap around the edge of the store. On one wall there's a portrait studio and an eyeglass store. Upstairs there's a gym and something else I think, but we never actually went up there. It was disgustingly crowded though and I didn't know where anything was, so unless it dies down I won't be going there again anytime soon.

Megalo-Mart Opens In Country Hills

A huge Real Canadian Superstore opened up in the neighbourhood just to the north of us. It is one of the largest, if not the largest grocery store I have ever seen. Here is my review.

Product Layout: C-, with chance to appeal grade. I'm giving this grade for one reason only. The layout is completely different from any other Superstore I have ever been to. I'm giving the store a chance to appeal the grade because the isles are a little wider than normal, they put the treat isle right next to the cashiers, and because once people get used to the layout it will be way better. In one year, I predict an A.

Quantity of Crap to sell: A-, this store has a lot of crap. This is facilitated by the rather large size of the store. It would have gotten an A+, but they continue to put crap in areas people need to walk. (I hate it when they do that, but it sells a lot of crap.)

Checkouts: A+, this store has five self serve checkouts. I like this. It separates the dumb slow people from the smart fast people. It will only improve as people learn how to use the machine or as people learn that they are too dumb to use the machine. There are also 20 other tills that were open when we were there. It doesn't quite approach the 40 or so tills in *every* large grocery store in Argentina, but it comes close.

Quantity of Customers: F, there were a lot of people at the store. Too many really. I know that I dislike crowds, but the ambiance of the store will be way better when the opening week crowds die down.

Availability of Yoga Equipment: A+, just check isle 15, "Yoga Mats and Supplies". I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it, an isle dedicated to yoga crap.

There are now two huge Real Canadian Superstores in Northern Calgary. Hopefully, they soften the crowds a little bit. I'm pretty sure from the crowd I saw tonight, that we could use a third with in a year or so.

-Gary Milner, Real Canadian Internet Superstar.

STREAKERS IN SPOKANE

By now you've probably heard about the two streakers in Spokane who when they were finished streaking at a fast food restaurant discovered that their getaway car (which had been left running) had been stolen. When the cops got there they found the two hidden between two cars. The cop said he didn't think they were hiding to avoid capture, they were just concealing themselves. Well here's the part of the story that you probably didn't hear: The first thing the cop said to them was: "I can clearly see your nuts".

President's Choice Mastercard

Today, after a month of waiting, I received my President's Choice Financial Mastercard. Boy am I ever excited. I've been checking the mail everyday for the last two weeks. Let me tell you, they gave us a pretty high limit too. They bring our total credit limit to pretty much $10,500.

I don't mind saying that crazy thoughts have been going through my head. Thoughts like, "I should get 30 credit cards max them all out with cash advances and move to South America." I'm sure that we could live happily for a long time with $100,000 or so.

It is likely a lot more fun to think about it than it is to do it.

The biggest legal benefit to us will be the PC points. We already have enough money to pay Tracie's tuition this semester. We plan to pay it with the new credit card, to get the PC points. With this one transaction alone, we will get enough points to go to the movies and for snacks.

The Superstore bank has seemed great to me for the last 8 months. They pay way more interest and charge way less fees. It's not for someone who doesn't do internet banking or has a dislike of ATM's, but that doesn't matter to Tracie and I because those are our preferred manners of banking.

Gary Milner, Internet Superstar who's about to have a ton of credit card debt. (Just kidding credit card companies hate us because we use their cards like debit cards)

Comments Updated

I found a new comment system. It's free from Haloscan. They ask that you put a link on your page, so I put one on the bottom. I don't know why the old one broke, but I like the new one better anyway. If you want to post a comment, feel free, you don't need to post an email address, but if you have a blog or other such home page, feel free to put it in to the url section so that I can come and see your site.

I'm itching to redesign the blog. I guess after a year and a half, you get sick of looking at the same page all the time. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

-Gary

Gary's Life

My goal was to apply for at least one job every day. At least I am averaging one job application everyday. It seems like I have a very hard time writing cover letters. This problem is compounded by the fact that many places would like you to apply via email. This means that you write your resume and cover letter in word, attach it to your email, but still have to write an email on top of you resume and cover letter.

I generally attach read receipt requests on my emails, and I had two sent to me the first day after I sent out my first applications, so at least I know that two people saw my emails. I just hope that they bothered to open the attachment and read my cover letter and resume as well.

Daorcey, a communications and culture major, says that because there aren't very many communications jobs advertised, he has sent letters to a undisclosed number of companies asking for informational interviews. He plans to ask them questions about their various industries. What they are looking for in employees, what they think others are looking for and other things along those lines. He has 6-7 interviews in the next week or so. He knows that none of them have any openings, but the idea is that by meeting these people, he will save them the trouble of having to advertise an opening when one does become available. They will remember his glowing personality and call him to offer a job. Or at least tell their friends about him when their friends are looking for someone. I'm thinking that I should be doing some thing like that.

-Gary Milner

Ps. I wrote an editorial for the Gauntlet. Unfortunately, it's not being printed, it's going on the website. While it may get the same number of readers, and we tell the volunteers that it is the same, it isn't really the same. Here it is in all its glory.

Being the first person murdered this year probably wasn’t anything like being the first baby of the New Year. Being a New Year’s baby is a good thing, while being a murder victim is not. I am neither, so I can only assume.

There have been six murders in the Calgary area in 13 days. That’s well on pace for over 168 murders this year. But don’t worry, the murdered generally know their murderers in Cow Town even when there is nearly 1 murder for every 5,500 people.

While I don’t know very many people, I am both nervous and unconcerned at the possibility of record number of assassinations in the Calgary area. I know that I am not going to kill anyone, and I would be willing to bet on myself in a life or death sort of confrontation with any of my friends. Even if they had a weapon, I could at least make a hasty retreat.

Mr. Lawrence Bailey, the editor of the Gauntlet would be the one exception. He’s a little bigger than I am, he seems to have connections inside the SU, and he’s been looking at me in a weird way lately. His eyes are glassy, sort of dilated, and he wants my Doritos. I think this editorial might push him over the edge.

I might be the one exception to the rule about knowing your murderer. This paper has a circulation of 12,000. My name is in print all the time and my photo from time to time. I could be developing a stalker, maybe someone so devoted to me that she (or he, I don’t judge my stalkers) might start thinking that if they can’t have me, no one can.

Manny, the stunt guy from the anti-movie piracy advertisements might be a person that doesn’t know me but who would like to kill me. He risks his life all the time to make movies, and then I come along, press a few keys and reap all that benefit. I bet he is feeling the sting of my nefarious downloads. The funny thing is, I just keep doing it with impunity. Come at me! Try and murder me Manny.

After every thing is said and done, Calgary is a pretty safe place. We stick to ourselves and don’t kill the people we don’t know and love.

COMMENT BUTTONS NOT WORKING

Sometimes I like to comment on what other guys are saying. Most of the time these comments are not worth putting into prime space such as the space I'm now putting this comment. So I suggest you get the comment section working again. Anyway here is my comment about "Big Fish". I give it toes up.