Separated at Birth?

It looks like some of our haircut-ees for the Cuts for Cancer of March 24th, 2007, were separated at birth from their twins. Have a look and tell me if I'm wrong...

First up, Yana looks a lot like Natalie Portman during her "V for Vendetta" period, and she carries it quite well don't you think?





Then the Old Timer Brian, and his twin, Grandpa Munster...




Then Rick (sorry, awful picture, you'll have to blame Corina for that one...) was called Fester by a couple people.





Finally, your's truly, Peanutgnome, was noticed to be like one of his favorite characters, Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss...





It's been a few days since the cut and my hair grows like a weed anyway, but it is more noticable when it is only a couple of millimeters long, and it doubles it's length. So now I've had a new nickname given to me (gee, thanks Tammy!). I don't have a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine "Chia Plunk", and since I'm growing stubble on my chin, I look A LOT like this:




Again, thank you all for your support in this - not only for me, but for all 17 of us that got our head shaved and allowed us to raise so much money - over $22,000 and growing as people are sponsoring us after the fact. Thank you!

Cuts for Cancer Re-Cap

As many of you know I had my hair shorn to raise money for Alberta Cancer Foundation in a fundraising drive that they call Cuts for Cancer. It's not a once-a-year drive like some of their fund raisers, but several people within Crosstown Chrysler Jeep Dodge have been touched by cancer and decided to have their heads shaved. They felt they should also include their head office, AutoCanada, so four of us took up the challenge as several of us have been touched by cancer within our lifetimes.


Fortunately the weather was warm as a good sized crowd gathered to see all of us getting our head shaved. It's also fortunate that it was indoors because things were a little breezy after getting the noggin shaved! I think that this is probably the shortest my hair has ever been since before I was born.

In all it turned out there were more than 15 of us getting shaved, including 2 women. In today's society where stars become so superficial, it's good to see people , good people, raising money for a worthwhile cause. Okay, it's not like the stars don't donate a lot of money too, but these are real people who've raised over $10,000. AutoCanada has chipped in too and is matching what the staff have raised!

I have to thank all of you who have donated for this or any other charity that we have asked you about. It seems that with even though the economy is strong, funding for research has been reduced so more and more people are depending on our charity. I like to help where and when I can, especially when I see someone giving time, effort, and especially a personal sacrifice - whether it's getting your hair cut, having a skipping rope marathon, or spending 5 days for the homeless - I prefer this kind of interactivity and interest over door-to-door canvasing. Not that that doesn't have a place in life, and thanks to the canvassers large amounts of money are raised. I am still more willing to support someone who is enduring something though. Please do the same when you get a chance, or take that sacrificial step outside of your comfort zone and do some fundraising yourself. Believe me, getting my hair chopped is DEFINITELY outside my comfort zone! But thanks to friends and family, it's quite bearable.

Though a little chilly! I think I'll have to start wearing a cap again...

The AutoCanada team are Brian Telford, Yana Porter, Darryl Plunkie (aka Peanutgnome), and Rich Murch:


The whole group (sorry, I can't name everyone, so I won't name anyone...):

Support Me, Support Research

As we get older, more and more of us have our lives touched by some sort of disease whether it's heart disease, cancer, Aids, or any of the millions of diseases that are out there. As things seem to get worse, it's very important not to focus on the diseases themselves, but on prevention and research for cures. That's why I'd like you to support research for whatever pleases you or has affected you the most.

My choice this time is to support the Alberta Cancer Foundation in their ongoing quest in the field of cancer research. I'm going to do this by having my friends, family and co-workers pledge money for me to get my head shaved!

Several times in my life I've been touched by the effects of cancer research. Years ago there was often not much that could be done once someone had been diagnosed with cancer, but more improvements are being made in both the areas of treatments and early discovery. Of recent note is the development of a vaccine for HPV, certain virii (viruses?) that have been linked to 70% of the cases of Cervical Cancer. Without your research funding, who knows when this would have been brought to market?

Another interesting development are the first non-toxic tumor eliminating tests in mice. This technique is incredible in that it doesn't use chemicals, but rather nanotechnology and lasers! Basically, tiny, microscopic lenses are created and injected into the bloodstream. They gather in the tumor and then a specific frequency of infrared light is shone through the skin via a laser so that it can be focused on a specific area. Just like burning an ant through a magnifying glass, the lenses fry the cancerous cells. Where did I hear about this? Interestingly enough, Michael Dell, of Dell Computers, had Naomi Halas at CES this year. Michael has been a large supporter of research, and Naomi and her team use Dell computers in all their work. Coincidence???

Now I understand that some of you do not have the time or money to support research - but there is another way. Have a look at the World Community Grid! I'm assuming that most of you reading this have computers that are not busy for some portion of the day. The World Community Grid has a program that can be installed as a screen saver and when your computer is not busy doing things for you it can be used to help with various types of research. Right now they are doing research on cancer drugs, HIV medications, muscular dystrophy research and the human genome folding project. By using the spare cycles on your computer and everyone else that is running it, it act's like a giant super computer and processes things at an incredible rate. It's said that in two years that have done the equivalent of 60,000 years of computing power!

Now for those who wish to support my in my quest, please email me and make arrangements to have a cheque payable to The Alberta Cancer Foundation in my hands by Friday, March 23^rd. Then, come on down to Crosstown Chrysler Jeep Dodge on Saturday, March 24^th at Noon to watch Peanutgnome get his head shaved.

The week that was - Mar12 to Mar 17

It's been a busy week! Derek's Birthday party was last weekend, busy all week at work, went to a concert on Tuesday, met with Corey and Jaimes, Derek's actual Birthday was Thursday, but Ruth was working, so we went out for supper on Friday, and Saturday was St. Patty's day.

To honor old St. Patty, I've written limerick's to summarize the week...

Twas a young man named Derek
On turning 14 became hysteric
I want some of these
and one of these, please
So that life doesn't become barbaric

Then twas the father named Darryl
Went to concerts wild and feral
"Nay" were his pleas
"You'll need one of these
And get it on your latest apparel"

We'll talk to everyone later, have a great week!

Excellent Customer Service - from Microsoft?

Being in the IT world I have a frequent love/hate relationship with Microsoft - sometimes they do things well, sometimes they drive you mad with the things that they think they can get away with. But this week I have to conclude that I am once again impressed with their Customer Service for the Xbox and Xbox 360.

When the Original Xbox came out we had one reserved and picked it up that first morning and took it home. My son, who was only 10 years old in 2001 when it came out, did okay considering the garguantian controllers that the original came with. It didn't take him long to learn to beat me in Amped: Freestyle Snowboard, but I could hold my own in Project Gotham Racing. And for a young kid, his hand/eye coordination was pretty good for Halo. After a few months we had some troubles with one of the controllers and had to send it away for repairs. They replaced the controller and had it back to us in under 2 weeks. Then eventually the unit died - and 2 weeks later we received the new one by courier.

When the Xbox 360 came out, once again we picked one up on opening day. It hooked right up to the hi-def (well, medium-def, 720p, component interface) TV and was light years ahead of the PS2 and GameCube (both of which we also own). The new, smaller controllers have a different button configuration than the original controllers (which we still use on the original Xbox!), but were light, wireless, and rocked! My son, now almost 13, had significantly increased his gaming skill and it was tough to beat him on almost everything - except racing games.

Flash forward to just a couple of weeks ago. My son said that the 360 was acting up and doing strange things. I gave it a try and received an error - E74. Couldn't find much on the internet about it, so resorted to calling the Xbox Support line...

Several of my son's friends have had terrible luck with Xbox customer service, claiming that it took almost two months to get their unit back from repair, so I was dreading calling - I know how my son can't live without his console! But I gave it a try anyway.

Went through the troubleshooting steps with the young man online, and determined it was faulty. Considering it was a first-gen 360, I wasn't surprised to hear that it was out of warranty and I would have to pay in advance to have the repair done. I was fine with that, so pulled out the credit card and he started to process it. He put me on hold while it did that as it was taking a while.

And put me back on hold again.

And asked for me card number again as he had to try it once again...

Finally, before we both got extremely frustrated, he asked me to call back the next day as there was obviously a problem.

Again, I was fine with that. (I'm pretty easy going anyway)

I called back the next day and ended up talking to a young lady out of the Texas call centre - I believe that Carmin was her name. She couldn't find my info, so I had to provide it again. When I mentioned that I was from Canada she became very surprized because I was her first Canadian customer (I failed to ask her how long she'd been in that role though, it might have been her first day!). She asked me if I lived near "The Falls", and I sort of both amazed and disappointed her when I told her I was a couple thousand miles away and hadn't been there myself. She used to live in Chicago as a young girl and their family visited Niagara Falls several times. It was really nice to strike up an enlightening conversation with someone who was so bubbly and personable while waiting for the system to look up the details about my system. As she was giving me the details of where to send the system for repair, and how to package it for the courier, I asked her if she needed my credit card number. Confused, she asked me why? I said that the unit was out of warranty and I explained my previous call. She told me it was still in warranty and that there would be no charge. Wow! Coincidence that the credit card transaction didn't work the day before - or just Karmic Payback? I'm thinking Karma - or The Secret at this point.

The next day I sent the unit off via Purolator who said it would take a few days to get to it's destination - I went with the less expensive Ground option over the quicker Air option. Then I wished it to be returned to me promptly, and put it out of my mind.

My wife was sick on Friday and stayed home from work. In the afternoon a courier showed up with a drop off. Fortunately she was home to accept the delivery - and it was A REPLACMENT XBOX 360! Now, let me count. I dropped it off on Monday, March 5th, and it was delivered on March 16th! That's 11 DAYS, less if you don't count the weekend. This is nothing like the 2 month wait that others have had.

Thank you Microsoft, your repair/replacement team in Ontario, and especially Carmin in your Texas call center! And Carmin, I'll try to get to "The Falls" this year as long as you keep your promise of trying to visit the Canadian Rockies this summer.