Personal Worst

As I posted a while ago, Gary and I joined the Running Room's personal best clinic, and tonight was the first night of the ten week course. Gary wasn't able to make it because it was his last night working at the Gauntlet.

It sucked.

Not the program itself, I really can't judge it yet, but I was expecting something completely different. According to the Running Room website, the personal best clinic is "For those runners who wish to learn the specifics of training so they can improve their 5K, 8K, 10K, and/or their Half Marathon times"

There are many clinics to choose from at the running room, from walking classes to marathon and iron man training. We chose personal best because it seemed to suit us the best, being fairly new to running. The website says that you can improve 5 or 8 k (which is what I can comfortably run), and in addition there were to be weekly classes about things like nutrition, bio-mechanics and technique.

When I showed up, there were about 20 other people, all wearing spandex, and each of them had jackets reading "Honolulu Marathon" or "Vancouver Marathon". I heard some of them talking about previous marathons they had run, or marathons they were training for. But really, just from looking at these guys, I knew I was in way over my head.

We gathered around in the store, which is very small, and the group leader announced that there would be no weekly classes, since we were too advanced for them and it would be boring for us. He said we were just going to get to business. We'd start by doing a quick 5k run so that he could see where we were at, and then we'd do hill sprints for the remaining time.

When everyone exited the store, I stayed back, almost ready to cry because I had been looking forward to these classes and to learning running techniques for the past month. I talked with the guy behind the counter, trying to hold back my embarrasment with being too crappy to stay in the class. Luckily he was the manager, and he invited Gary and I to join the 10k class (already 3 weeks in progress) informally, and then formally in June when the next one starts.

Well, to make a long story less long, at first I felt stupid to have gotten in way over my head. However, since I've come home and re-read the description of the personal best clinic, I'm just kind of mad. They imply that whatever level you're at, the personal best clinic will help you to improve that time. It also clearly says that there are weekly classes. How was I supposed to know it was for "elite athletes" (to quote the store manager)?? Those running room people have been sending us emails for weeks, trying to get us excited about running. Why didn't they mention that the course was advanced or that the info on the website was a big fat lie?

Tracie - Very disapointed with the Running Room, but still going to run since we already bought running shoes

Day Off

I'm working this Saturday, and so I have today off. I spent most of the morning surfin the web, but at around noon, I got out for a jog. I went for about 6km and it only took me 40 minutes, a personal best.

The jogging is getting a lot better, and I am really starting to enjoy it. I've come to the conclusion that the reason I hated running for years is that I only ever did it about once a year, and I pushed myself way too hard. This time, I started out slowly. Tracie and I went on long walks for two weeks before I even went jogging once. Then we alternated jogging and walking for another week. Losing 10 lbs right away also helped quite a bit. I do know that I am going to have to step it up a notch if I am going to lose another 30 by New Year's.

When I got back from the jog, I mowed the lawn very closely to prepare for spring. Tracie and I bought some fertalizer and a spreader last night. Tracie is really into having a nice yard like her Dad. I'm happy if I can get around to mowing it every week. Tracie Dreams of moving into a new house with a huge yard. I just think about who is going to have to do the yard work. (I wish I would have known that being sexist was going to come back and bite me in the butt.)

I'm picking Tracie up in a little while to go test drive a couple of cars. It's looking like we may be getting a new car pretty soon. We need one pretty bad. I'm really partial to getting another Civic, but the Accord that we tested in Medicine Hat was so nice. I also think that we should probably test a few other brands. I'll post pics as soon as we make the purchase.

-Gary

Easter in Medicine Hat

Tracie and I went down to Medicine Hat for Easter. We had a good visit with my parents yesterday afternoon, and then over to Tracie's parents for supper. Tracie's mom loves to paint eggs and then roll them down the hill. We have a contest to see who can roll them the farthest. During the five years that I have been married to Tracie, her Dad has won twice, I have won once, and our brother-in-law Dann has won twice.

Tracie's sisters Megan and Becky, would probably argue those stats because this year the winning egg was thrown by Ralph (Tracie's Dad,) on behalf of Becky, who claimed the trophy. Last year the winning egg was thrown by Dann, (Megan's husband,) on behalf of Megan. I suppose that their argument would be valid, especially at Easter when we (the Christian world) celebrates the fact that something was done for us that we could not do for ourselves.

We also did the egg search, which left some of us wondering how much longer this wonderful tradition will continue. My parents stopped doing it over a decade ago. I haven't even gotten chocolate eggs from them in three or four years. Maybe we will keep doing it until Tracie and I have kids and we just start doing it ourselves for them.

I made the comment to Tracie that mathematically we could be expecting our third kid by now. My cousin Aron and his wife Joann-Marie have two kids already and they got married a few weeks after us. Their first is definitely old enough to do a search. I guess the question is when do you get to stop doing the kid things?

Don't get me wrong, I love looking for eggs at Easter and getting tons of presents at Christmas. I guess that rolling the eggs isn't really about rolling the eggs. It's about being a family, spending time together, and developing friendships.

Another major event was test driving a pair of cars. We took out a Civic and an Accord. They are both really nice cars, although I would rather have the Accord. We'll probably have a new car by the end of the month. Really, it's just going to be a matter of getting around to it.

We also got to see Eva "she gives me a feva" Liske, our five month old niece which was nice. Maybe we will have kids in two or three more years.

-Gary, can't roll an egg worth a darn anymore.

Guinea Pig

I'm the first one from the group of employees hired from the university doing the training to be a supervisor. The training materials aren't quite complete yet. I'm getting to examine how the training is being done, and offer input as to how it could be made better for the people who follow me.

I'm doing the service training right now, because it is one of the bigger supervisor roles, it is also somewhat prerequisite to know many of the service things in order to be able to complete a lot of the other tasks assigned to other supervisors. One thing about doing the service training is that because the official training hasn't been launched yet, I could be training to do something else tomorrow. Nothing is set in stone yet. For all I know, I could be so amazing that I'll be moved up to oversee other supervisors. Many people at the store constantly talk about how fast people are moved around and promoted if they are talented.

Before I really knew what was involved in the different roles, I thought that being a merchandiser was what appealed to me most, but after learning some of the customer service tasks, that area is growing on me quite a bit. I still don't think that I would want to be in charge of sales or salesmen, but merchandising still appeals to me.

After completing 12 weeks of training, I will be assigned to be a supervisor in one of those three areas, customer service, sales, or merchandising. It seems a little unclear to me as to if my 12 weeks of training has started, or if I will be starting an official 12 weeks in May. I would like it both ways, to have a four week jump on the others, and therefore be able to pick which store I get assigned to but also complete my training with the other people so as to be the best person in the group.

In any case, I'm still enjoying the job one week later. I find that my feet and knees really ache after work, so I replaced my shoes today. I was disappointed that Dr. Marten no longer sells his shoes in Canada. Really disappointed. I have had to change my brand to Hush Puppies. I hope that they will make my feet and knees feel better.

-Gary.

MISS SAIGAON

Since were on the topic of girls hitting on us I think I'll tell about an adventure of this nature when I was over in Nam. ---It was the summer of 65 during the Tet Offensive. The weather was hot and steamy. It was hot, damn hot. Well it turns out that the second week into the offensive I find out that this girl who is fighting for the Viet Cong has a pair of fifty calibre field glasses and is spying on me. Since we had out- door showers this made me a little nervous. Anyways the next thing I know she shows up wearing only a pair of black pyjama's, pretending she is a vegetable pedlar. She of coarse wasn't savvey to the fact that I knew who she was. Playing it cool I asked her to show me her wares. She misunderstands. She thinks this is a propisition and stomps off back where she came from muttering something in Vietnamese. Or it could have been obsenities in English that I just didn't understand. At that age I still had a lot to learn about women.
'

Working

Well, I am enjoying my new job quite a bit. Today, I sold 300 copies of the Matrix part 3. I don't think a single person came through my till without it. If I could make $50,000 working a till, I would be a cashier for the rest of my life. I really like it a lot, but I'm sure they wouldn't pay me as much as I want. As it stands, I am getting quite good with ringing up sales and am learning the computer system quickly.

Today, Mandi an attractive sales girl came over to me and introduced herself. She chatted me up for a little while, but there were too many customers for us to have a conversation. She asked me what time I was getting off, and said she would talk to me before I left, because she confessed, "I have an ulterior motive."

Through out the conversation, I thought to myself, "This girl is flirting with me, I'll just flash my ring" and, "Can't she see my ring? She must be in her 20's. Girls in their 20's need to learn that it's time to look for rings." Anyway, I couldn't imagine what she wanted to talk to me about, other than ruining my marriage, which by the way was pretty obvious. I spent the next two and a half hours thinking of clever ways to tell her that I would only go out with her if my wife could come too.

Finally at about 4:00 she came up to me and said that one of her customers snuck off and bought a $200 universal remote, and could she please have the sale back from me. She needed to make a copy of the receipt and have me sign it. I told her that she could, and that I remembered the guy because he was the only one that bought a $200 remote control and a matrix DVD that day.

She took my pile of about 100 credit card receipts to search through, but I guess the kid had paid with his debit card, and there was no receipt which made it way more difficult to recover the sale. She said thanks, but it just wasn't worth searching through 20 pages of reports for $4 or whatever the commission would have been.

Luckily for Me, Mandi chickened out on the whole wanting to have an affair thing because I would have just had to break her heart anyway. It would have been awkward, really awkward.

-Gary, sales girls just love my sweet sweet ace.

James' Survey

Livejournal Community-Building Research Questionnaire

This project is for the GNST 301 course at the University of Calgary (History of the Internet). Your answers will be used in both a presentation and a research paper examining the community-building aspect of blog culture. By filling out the form, you consent to the use of what you say in both projects.

This whole process is by no means scientific, but rather meant to gain informal recounts and anecdotes about how your online journal has (or has not) fostered a sense of community, and how (and to what extent) you have come to identify with said community.

Please answer the questions in a couple sentences or more. Please fill this out, and email the finished questionnaire to ********@*******.***

Thanks,
James Keller

First, some Demographics

Full Name: Gary Milner
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Location: Calgary
Occupation: Retail Electronics Manager
How long have you kept an online diary (Livejournal or otherwise): Since Oct.2002 (19 months, 3 days)
Where do you do most of your blogging (home, work, etc): Home

Questions:

How and why did you start using an online journal (or “blog”), and what motivated you to continue using it?
I started a blog because a friend of mine had one. I continued using it because it is a good way to have a website with some dynamic content that can be easily changed. I have had homepages in the past such as: Gary Milner's Super Duper Web Page, but updating it was too much of a pain, and it has remained pretty much static since I started my blog.
Another reason is that I wanted (am wanting still?) to improve my writing and develop my own style.

More specifically, what motivated the creation of a family blog?
Initially I thought that I would have a personal blog, but I didn’t think I could generate enough content, so I invited my brother to add content. He also helped a lot with the initial design. I invited my wife to join to have more people posting. At my brother’s suggestion I invited my Dad because we thought he would have good stories to write about, and then later we invited our Mother. For a while My brother’s girlfriend and her brother were members, but I uninvited them to keep it strictly a Milner family blog.
Early on I realized that posting on a blog would be a lot easier than emailing everyone. It became what BBS's of the late 80’s and early 90’s were supposed to be, a virtual bulletin board where you could leave updates about yourself and have disscussions.

How would you generalize the type of content you typically write in your blog?
I write mainly Gary-torials. I prefer to write content about myself, things that happen to me, my opinions etc. Once in a while I will write about something in the news, but I have been shying away from posting a lot of links to news articles unless I think that they are very interesting. When I do, I try to post some of my own content, possibly an insight that I have from the link.
I do not want to be a news aggregator for people that have the same interests as I do, because other people do it much more effectively than I could. Like fark, slashdot, plastic, and metafilter, as well as a ton of other sites.

What audience, if any, do you consider when writing in your blog?
First, I consider my family who are my most consistent readers. Then I consider my friends who read the blog and other bloggers who frequent milner.blogspot.com and post comments. Now that I am working, I am also considering the management at the electronics retailer where I work.

To what extent, if any, (and why) do your blogging as part of a community?
This question doesn’t make sense. I’m going to answer a different question. Why do you do your blogging as part of a community and to what extent?
Phil Greenspun, creator one of the very oldest internet communities photo.net, wrote on his blog, “an interesting idea every three months; a posting every day”.
I find it to be more interesting to read different voices and share ideas. It is also much easier for there to be at least post a day when there is more than one person writing (more content). The content of my blog is also much more varied. It is more likely that someone will have an interesting thought when there is more than one. Blog gems are few and far between. When you are writing for a community, you are more likely to attempt to write something intelligent or at least interesting if you know that you are likely going to get feed back.

How would you describe that community?
It is mainly my family and friends, there are several people who have surfed in by random chance and stuck around to post comments. I’m also getting around 20 hits a day from people I don’t know and who most likely never return.

In what way, if any, has using your blog changed the way you interact with others (both those who post on your blog alongside you, and those who simply read it)?
The main change that has happened is that now I have a more tense relationship with my brother.
I no longer get complaints about never emailing my family, because they are all updated via the blog, although I don’t use the blog as a replacement for email and find that when people use the blog as a way to replace email, the posts are very boring and somewhat dreadful.
As for people who merely read it, the ones that I know will often ask for updates or for me to elaborate on what happened. I find that a few people have already read the story that I want to tell when I see them.

BIG TIME LOTTO WINNER

Chances are you already read about this Manitoba guy who won the lottery 11 months ago. But in case you didn't, it's a must hear situation. I bought a ticket on that same jackpot---30 million dollars. 11 months ago. A guy from Manitoba won it , but didn't tell anyone and kept his ticket for 11 months and only turned it in with 9 days to spare before it expired. He is a 40 year bachelor and he farms and fixes computers. Now he says he will quit fixing computers but continue farming. The only luxuries he allowed himself in the 11 months was bought by maxing out his credit cards. In the meantime he lost 700 thousand dollars by not collecting interest on his 30 million. Think of the farm he could have bought himself for 700,000 if indeed farming is really how he wishes to spend his time. Think of all the good things he could have done with the money if he didn't want to spend it on himself. That guy is an idiot and didn't deserve to win. I begrudge him my two dollar share of that fortune.

Procrastination

Last week I finished my last ever nursing course, which was so stressful and time consuming. I was spending three days a week working in NICU without pay for the last three months. Now that I'm done I feel like there's such a load off because my time is my own, and every time I go to work at the hospital, I know there's a pay-check involved. I keep forgetting that I'm not finished school yet, though. I'm in this stupid detective fiction English class that I had to take for credit. I have an essay due Monday, but I still haven't finished the book and I work a night shift Sunday. I've been reading all morning, but my eyes hurt, so I took a break. I wanted to go jogging, but it's sooooo windy outside that my walls are rattling.

I got a phone call from the NICU instructor yesterday, and I'm apparently going to start my orientation April 12th, which will involve two weeks of monday to friday day shifts. It's such a treat to work in the day, and I think that people who work monday to friday don't realise how good they have it. They get to sleep at night for one thing. Plus, working shift work you often miss out on fun things because they're scheduled for weekends or evenings.

I feel like such a grown up now that Gary and I are both working. The sad part is that when you finish school, you're just as poor as you were as a student, and maybe even poorer because all of your cheques are now going to repayment of student loans. Oh well, at least we're all in the same boat. We're getting pretty excited to start buying stuff though, in particular a new car. We went over to some friends' house to watch a movie last night and they had this amazing surround sound. Gary and I were literally drooling. On the way home he said to me "I could go without a car for a few more months...How about we buy an entertainment system?". The crazy thing is, he almost didn't sound like he was joking. I'll admit, it would be nice. We've added it to our list.

-Tracie

Work

I've been working at the Future Shop for two days. It's weird being new, but have most of the kids acknowledge that you are going to be their boss. I don't really seem old enough to be a boss, especially since they all already know what they are doing.

My first day, I did their training cds. They were way better than the ones they have at the Royal Bank, but thankfully there were only two. I finished them both in the morning. In the afternoon I got acquainted with their point of sale system. It's relatively simple. Returns are slightly more complicated, because you have to worry about how long ago the purchase was made, etc. Even then, they sometimes make returns, so really it could be a matter of luck in some cases. Really knowing their policy really helps, but that is easier said than done.

All in all, I think that I will really enjoy working there. The people seem really fun, and it is a fast paced environment. They all say how fast the people advance which is great.

They got me all set up in the computer, so I will getting paid for my first three days on Thursday, because Friday is a holiday. It looks like we might be able to go to Medicine Hat for Easter after all.

Oh, and our TV died last night. I wonder if they will let me take my employee discount before my 3 months is up.

-Gary Milner,

Future Shop

I made one of these photos using photoshop. Two of these photos were unedited in photoshop. Guess which photo is the one that I made with the computer and which two were made using only $5500.00 worth of camera. Adam said that he was going to comment on the cost of the computer, operating system and photoshop cost.

I got a call today from the Future Shop HR person, she said that I will be starting tomorrow morning (Apr. 1) at 10:00am at the store on Macleod Trail, by the Chinook Mall. I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I make the cutoff, and can start getting paid right away.
I haven't even started and I am already looking forward to my first check.

I guess I'll mostly be starting with training cds for the first little while or what ever they have ready for the supervisor trainee people already. I'm pretty sure that I'll also be shadowing manager types for the first little while. There are probably a bunch of forms and store tours to do too. It will be really nice to be working. For those of you who don't know, a lot of large companies have purchased or made training cds to help train new staff. It involves reading long boring paragraphs and watching videos of people interacting with each other in a business setting. Now I won't know untill tomorrow what it will be like at the Future Shop, but at the Royal Bank where I used to work, the training videos were pretty dull, and really commen sense type topics. I guess that I will just have to put up with it, because personal experience has taught me that I am pretty much the only one with any sense, common, horse, or other.

POETRY by BOB MILNER

Thirsty days hath September, April June and November. All the rest are thirsty too including February which is also thirsty too.

Big News

Firstly, I got offered a job last night. I am calling to accept it when I am done this post. It's a little less money than I had hoped for but there is a 15% bonus if the store meets its goal, and there is a employee discount. If the store exceeds it's goal, there is a 30% bonus.

They also say that you can move up very quickly. They are building a ton of new stores all the time. Now that Best Buy (the Future Shop's parent company) is moving into Canada the growth is only going to get faster. Anyway, at the very least it will be great experience for me to open my own store, what ever that store ends up being.

Second Big News
I got my dual monitor set up going the other day. It's pretty sweet. I wish I had gotten it working years ago. I think I might never go back to only one monitor. Even when I get a 20+ inch monitor, having a second monitor is sweet. Especially since you can get 15 inchers for like $20 second hand. I got mine free as a hand me down from my parents. It was really nice of them.

They are also bringing me up a desk in the near future for my second computer, and possibly for Amy's playstation/TV. It will be very nice to get all that crap off the floor.

What I Am Going To Do With The Money From My New Job.
In order of perceived need.
1. New Car, probably a civic, but we're going to test drive a jetta, possibly a passat, a corolla, a mini (mostly for fun), and an accord.
2. Couches.
3. Kitchen Table and Chairs
4. Bed
5. Hard wood floor/kitchen tile
And if there is any money left over, student loans (maybe, but probably not.)

CHARIOTS OF FIRE

I was talking to a guy yesterday and he told me that one of the best movies ever made was chariots of fire. I replied, what! That was one of the all time worst movies ever made and---. At this point he cuts me off and say's, did you seeeeeee that movie, it's a true movie about a guy who refused to race on Sunday. This was the very point I was going to make had I not been cut off mid-sentence. I wanted to say that you can't make a movie out of every little issue that some goody-two shoes comes up with. Further I wanted to tell him the reason that droves of movie goers went to this movie was because of the millions of dollars that went into the marketing of it. Like myself they were suckered in by a fancy title (chariots of fire) and beautiful theme music. And then I assume that like me, they were left bitterly dissappointed when they did'nt see any chariots of fire or anything resembling something interesting. I didn't get to say any of these things because my friend spent the next fifteen minutes repeating over and over again that it was about a guy that wouldn't compete on Sunday. I'm going to mercifully end this now because I have a feeling that many readers might just be thinking that this little tidbit belongs in the same catigory as chariots of fire. I should have named this little article "Tid bits of Fire" and then maybe it would have won a pulitzer prize or something.

Weird or Boring

I was reading the forums on a stock photography website that I am thinking of joining, when I came upon a thread where people were discussing what to say when someone comes up to you and asks what you are doing. (While you are photographing something.)

Just about everyone said that they got a lot of weird looks from people, and had their own ideas of what to say.

Anyway, to get to the point, one person said, "It's better to be called weird than boring." I'm inclined to agree. I guess it depends on whether or not you equate being weird with being interesting or with being bad somehow.

-Gary Milner,

Press Conference With Ralph Klein

I went to another press conference attended by the premiere today. It was at the Petroleum Club downtown. One of the guests donated $10 million dollars to the Alberta Bone and Joint Institute to help start it up. The other millionaires in the club felt that $10 million warranted a 30 second standing ovation. I said to the PR guy, "Any where else $10 mil would have merited a lot more clapping."

As the millionaires continued congratulating themselves on being such good people a reporter for a major paper said to me, "The guy makes more than that on tax deductions alone, and he thinks he's doing so much for the community."

Here's a quote from Klein, "There are only two ways to raise money for something like this. Number 1 take money from some other government funded program, like education. Try telling that to the teachers. Number 2 increase taxes..." It was at that exact moment, I anticipated him finishing by saying to the millionaires, "Try telling that to you guys." He never did, but I think everyone would have gotten a good laugh out of it.

I'm adding this composite of three photos that I took of Klein last week. Adam put them all together. Everyone in the office got a good laugh out of it. Adam did a really nice job of it. I liked it so much in fact that I made one of myselft. Chris Tait did the photos for me, and Adam showed me how to do it.

The one I made has a lot more frames, and I didn't align my face to my head as well as Adam did for Ralph, but I am entertained by it anyway. If the rest of you don't like it, you can lump it.

Nothing classes up a website like a good animated gif.

-Gary Milner,

How To Lose Weight Redux

Your body reaches an equilibrium weight using the amount you move around and the amount you eat. If you eat less than you normally would, the equilibrium is not balanced, and you lose weight. If you move around more, the equilibrium is not balanced, and you lose weight. If you do both, the balance is even more off, and you lose weight even faster.

Some people have to literally work at being as fat as they are by constantly eating. If they went from super overeating to just plain overeating, they would lose weight. Tracie has told me about people who are so fat that it takes 4 firemen to get them onto the bed in the Hospital. They lose up to a hundred pounds LAYING IN BED! Where's the exercise there?

A person who drinks a big gulp every day would lose weight simply by walking to the 7eleven to get the big gulp. They wouldn't even have to give up the big gulp if they did it consistently. This isn't even out of the question, because there is a sev on every corner. One wouldn't even have to go for that long of a walk.

My complaint is that more people whine and complain about being fat than actually do a single thing about it. In reality, I would rather eat than be skinny as well. This is why if I lose 40 more pounds, I am taking my credit card and spending $4000 on a new camera for myself. I would rather be skinny and have a camera than continue eating too much. If Tracie does it, we are going to Europe.

I am down 6 or so lbs. Tracie is down 3lbs. We only have to lose a pound a week to make it by New Year's eve.

It is a physical impossibility to eat less and not lose weight, it is also a physical impossibility to exercise more and not lose weight, cet. par.

The Elvis Diet

I think your face looks thinner. Are you losing weight or what?
-Bob milner

Yes, I am losing weight. On March 8th, I wrote that I was starting a diet. I am the type of person that tries to avoid talking about dieting unless I am actually going to be losing weight. Like Elvis says, "A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action."

It is my opinion that people who talk about diets, but don't actually ever lose weight are bores. What's the point? Really what I'm trying to say is a cross between, "put up or shut up" and "show me the money!" possibly with a little "Just do it" and "talk is cheap".

I've lost about 6lbs since I started my diet. If I pace myself at one lb per week, I will reach my goal by New Year's eve. I started by eating less than I normally would. For example I have not eaten any potatoe chips in 16 days, I have only had 500ml pops instead of super big gulps, and at the Gauntlet I only had 4 pieces of pizza instead of 6, and 1 piece of cake instead of 2.

Tracie and I have been going on walks almost everyday for the last two weeks, for about an hour a day (between 4km and 6km). Today we went for a 6km jog. We'll probably go for a 4km jog tomorrow. We joined the running room and are taking a running clinic in two weeks.

-Gary Milner

Hot or Not?

Tracie and I went to the mall this evening. I saw a couple of shirts that I kind of liked, and went in for a closer look. Tracie convinced me to try on a green shirt. I had reservations about it, but went ahead and put it on. While I was in the change room, the clerk came up to Tracie and asked if I was trying the green shirt on. Tracie replied that I was, and the clerk went on to say, "No guys try that shirt on unless they are with girls. Guys don't seem to like it, but girls just love it." She figured that guys should clue in and buy it if the girls like it so much.

Anyway, it passed the Gary test for coolness, so I bought it. The judges have had their say, now it's your turn Canada. The polls are open. Am I hot or not?

-Gary Milner, Hot

GTA3

I finished Grand Theft Auto 3 just now. I feel a real mix of satisfaction and emptiness. I played the final level about 30 or 40 times before being successful. It's such a fun game. When I'm finally getting paid, I'm going to seriously consider getting GTA3:Vice City. It's the same style of game, only set in the 1980's, they've added motor bikes and stuff like that as well. The sound track has real songs from the 80's as well.

Looking back, I haven't really had very much luck finishing video games. I have finished Dragon Warriors 1&2, Hydlide, Mario Brothers 1&3, and like I just said, GTA3. I've come close to finishing a few other games, but I usually lose interest before I finish. Maybe my attention span is just too short to be able to finish most video games.

In any case, I won't be playing GTA3 much anymore.

-Gary