Leaps.com

The Toronto Blue Jays clinched a spot in the postseason for the first time since 1993 (when they won the World Series). Despite a formidable offense, they had a ho-hum season until August, when they became red-hot. General Manager Alex Anthopolous' trades for ace pitcher David Price and all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki lit a fire under the rest of the team, propelling them to the top of the American League standings due to strong pitching, an explosive offense, and solid defence. There are still 8 tense games remaining. But if the season ended today, the Blue Jays would have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. This is critical, because the team has a 52-28 win-loss record at home, but is only .500 on the road (37-37 win-loss record). There's a feeling of excitement in Toronto that hasn't been felt in a generation. When the Jays last made the postseason, I was still an undergraduate at university! Let's play ball!

Canadian media giants Rogers and Shaw launched  shomi this week, which is positioned as their answer to Netflix Canada . With a free 30 day trial, I signed up yesterday. Overall, it seems Netflix has a greater inventory of TV shows and movies. But, shomi does have some more recent TV shows like Modern Family which aren't on Netflix. I like that shomi works with my cable box, as it means that none of my internet data usage limit or bandwidth is affected when watching in that manner (although watching via an iPad or other device would use up internet data). This is especially important for HD content, and for 4K content in the future. Netflix has a more mature user interface. For example, they allow users to mark shows they want to watch in the future, by adding it to a list. shomi should copy that feature eventually.  shomi supports this feature via their shomi_later system (I couldn't find it on the cable box interface, but it exists on the web and tablet interface, ac...

Today is Mother's Day. It has been criticized for having been overly  commercialized . Indeed, one should be grateful to moms everyday, for all that they do. That being said, I believe it doesn't hurt to have a special day to reflect upon and honour the great contributions to our lives by mothers everywhere. I am certain that I would not be half as successful had it not been for the good upbringing and values instilled in me from my own mom.

Sometimes it pays to keep an open mind, keeping alive the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised. Several recent movies that didn't give me great first impressions turned out to be better than I initially expected. Gravity  - The first trailer for Gravity was terrible, in my opinion. When it was shown in the theatre, I think at least half the audience was laughing at it! But, subsequent trailers were a great improvement, and the actual movie was wonderful (perhaps the best film of 2013, so far). Rush  - I'm not into Formula 1 racing, and the trailer didn't impress me. Taking a leap of faith, since  Ron Howard  was the director, it turned out to be a great film (even for non-racing fans), one of my favourites this year. Metallica Through the Never  - Heavy metal music isn't my cup of tea, but the film was showing on the  retrofitted IMAX  at Yonge/Dundas, so I thought I'd give it a chance. The film was very loud, and I'm still not a fan of heavy met...

Today is  Canada Day . More than just a holiday or a day off from work, it's an opportunity to reflect what it means to be a Canadian. When my mother left Greece in the 1950s in search of a better life, she considered moving to either Australia or Canada. While I'm sure that Australia is a wonderful place, I'm glad she chose Canada. We're blessed to live in a free country, whose citizens are tolerant and where multiculturalism is embraced. Rich in natural resources and situated next door to the world's richest economy, we have advantages that are the envy of much of the world. We're also quick to adapt to technological change, which has made us more connected to each other within Canada, while also being confident global citizens. While we should not be complacent, and indeed there are many things in Canada that can be improved (e.g. a lower tax burden, better treatment of First Nations ), we should be thankful to past generations that they've done so ...

It was 15 years ago today that I registered my first domain name, the dot-com that corresponds to my surname. I was fortunate to register it before others who share the same surname caught on to the importance of the internet and owning domain names. Fortunately, my surname isn't "Smith" or "Jones" as I'd have had no chance to register those as dot-com domains in 1998! Indeed, it wasn't until a few years later that I acquired, via my company, some domains that most others would consider valuable (including math.com and school.com).

Cineplex  has been running a great promotion in conjunction with  Pizza Pizza  lately. The top player in the  Timeplay  movie trivia competition (which precedes the trailers) wins a free medium pizza. The remaining top 10 players get a free slice of pizza. In 5 competitions, I've been the top player 4  times, and came in 2nd place the other time. Here's what I've learned: You can't have more than one of the same prize be redeemable within the "My Stuff" folder. For example, I had 2 free pizzas (because I didn't redeem the first pizza, before winning the 2nd free pizza), but once I redeemed the first free pizza, the 2nd one disappeared from the "My Stuff" folder. So, it's important to redeem the reward quickly, or at least before you win again. You can't win more than one prize per day. Sometimes I take in two movies in a single day. I won a free slice in the first movie, and a free pizza in the 2nd movie. But, since I'd already ...