macapinlac.com

Photo by B Rosen

I’m sorry for making my first post in a while a rant.

I just spent a few hours driving around Vancouver trying to figure out an upgrade for Cheryl’s iPhone. Let me sum it up: When buying or upgrading iPhone hardware with Rogers in Vancouver, you have 3 options:

1. Go to a Rogers Plus store
2. Go to the Apple Store
3. Call Rogers and have it shipped directly to your house

Now that I’ve given up the ghost, let me tell you a story that led me to this conclusion. I got a call from Cheryl this morning and said that she had called “Rogers” and that this particular store had a stock of white 32Gig 4s’. So I get in my car, drive over, enter the “Rogers” store, and ask the clerk. The guy looks up my account and says, “No problem” at which point he goes to the back and gets the phone. He starts processing the order and then whips out a contract.

He then proceeds to explain that this is a contract to say that if I cancel my contract 7 months from now or reduce it to a rate below $50 then they’re allowed to charge my credit card $500. I asked, “Is this Roger’s contract cancellation policy?”, to which he replied, “No, this would be a charge on top of the cancellation fee to the franchise that owns that store.” Apparently this is a CellMart policy to prevent customers who have been buying iPhones, cancelling and selling the phones overseas.

So I decline and walk out of the store. Cheryl (still hopeful and excited) calls another store, and I go. Only to be met with exactly the same contract (at least it happened 3 seconds after I sat down)! I sit in the car, a bit defeated and call Rogers. They advised me to go to a Rogers Plus store which is their store (they direct me to the one in Brentwood mall). I explained my experience in the two stores to the Rogers agent. He said that he has never heard of this happening with any of their partners. At the same time Cheryl calls Apple, and they said no problem, come in and they’ll handle it and they were pretty baffled at what was happening.

The challenge in my particular case is really around the perception of the store. In both cases, I walked into a “Rogers” store. Meaning, it had a Rogers sign in the Rogers red displayed quite prominently without any other logo. It was my own assumption that I was entering in a Rogers establishment and dealing with Rogers.

Also, shouldn’t there be policies for Rogers partners to prevent this type of double hi-jacking of customers? I mean, really if I cancelled my contract with Rogers; I expect them to charge me (whatever crazy amount we agreed on in my contract) but not a 3rd party who just happened to be involved because I so happened to walk into their store and definitely NOT for an extra $500 dollars.

Shame on you Cellmart!

Update: As you can see below in the comments Melanie from Rogers contacted me and we’ve sent a couple of emails back and forth. Roger’s has been incredibly responsive. I’m actually pretty impressed.

Photo by josef.stuefer.

Yea, I’ve been a bad blogger lately. I haven’t really been keeping up with things here at macapinlac.com.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought about it (on a few occassions) and felt a little bit guilty that I haven’t been writing. The reality is that I’ve been a bit preoccupied. With what you ask? Well, it’s been a great life and I’ve really been trying to enjoy the tiny things that make it up. As corny as it sounds, trying to be as “in the moment” as I can be.

Less TV! I’ve minimized television. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to completely remove TV from my life but since Cheryl still needs it and Mackenzee enjoy’s Barney and Super Why; I don’t think I can completely cut it out. The trick is to ignore it, be with them and enjoy their company rather than immersing in the show. In the last fall season round up, I allowed myself to look through the different shows and choose 1 that I’d enjoy on a weekly basis. Queue up the recordings and marathon through it at some point in time.

Less social media! Social media, includes the following: Facebook, Twitter, Email, SMS/Texting, Meetings and Blogs. Take a page from the Low Information gurus, it clutters the head and prevents progress. I know that I get stuck executing because I get distracted with checking twitter / Facebook. I get discouraged when I read about information on a blog about someone who executes better than I do. Now, I’m not saying cut this out completely! No, no, no! I’m suggesting manage it so that it takes an hour a week (total). Also, don’t even think about installing those apps on your phones.

Learn something new. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with exercise, nutrition and the art of fitness. Reading everything that I can get my hands on, asking people and trying to hone my own style and tweak what works. I worry about my exercise momentum and how to keep it going through these dreary months (the perils of starting a fitness program in the late summer). I’ve also been trying to hone in a new programming language and get reacquainted with an old favourite.

Get a system. Look, there will be times when you’re out, enjoying life and an idea comes to mind. That one great blog post that will change the world. Trust me, having a system that you ultimately trust (trust and system being the keywords in this sentence) is key. I use GTD and carry my iPhone around which acts as my InBox for anything. I do my weekly reviews religiously and trust that I won’t miss anything.

So there you go. Now go out, stop reading this and find the sun!

This last weekend a few friends and I went into the Dirty Apron cooking school / shop and gave our culinary muscles a flex. Cheryl and I haven’t really done much and it was very much a date thing. The class started at 11am and went on for a few hours. The goal was to learn and cook brunch for ourselves.

Our friends Aileen and JJ picked us up. On the trip there, JJ issued the challenge of presentation and taste. Me thinks JJ has been watching too much Top Chef.

Once we arrived at our destination, we noticed the restaurant beside it was packed and people were overflowing. I suppose if you don’t want to cook your own brunch you could make a reservation at the sister restaurant and just eat (instead of cook and eat).

At the class, we were given a folder with the day’s recipes, told to wear the given apron and Chef David told us to find a seat in the demo area. One thing that Cheryl noticed was that each station had top of the line equipment: Wolf appliances, nice knives and top of the line ingredients. Off to the demo, 4 pans going off the bat for the Eggs Benedict with Sun-dried Hollandaise. Not to mention the stove top and oven. Have to admit, palms were a bit sweaty for a second there. Nice and awesome tips on how to poach eggs, how much water to use and how hot. You’ll have to try it out for yourself I’m not going to give away any of the lessons here. Let me just say that if I was able to poach 2 eggs and get consistent results; that speaks loads for itself.

After cooking the eggs benedict, we brought it to the eating area, took some pictures and wolfed it down like homeless kids getting free McDonalds.

Back into the demo area for Brioche French Toast with Grapefruit Sabayon. French toast was simple; but really who can screw up french toast. The challenge was making the sabayon (sidenote: did you know that sabayon is a linux distro? now you know, thankyouverymuch) which required a lot of whisking which my arms are not made for. Thank god Chef Takashi was there to help out (although he did catch me off guard earlier with his ninja-esque skills).

Have to admit, didn’t think I’d like the grapefruit french toast. It was great! It wasn’t too sweet, and I wouldn’t think I’d ever order it off a menu so bonus for expanding on my experiences. Overall, the class was really great. We’re thinking about doing it for our annual friends Christmas party but it definitely isn’t our last time.

So here are some pictures that we ended up taking of our food. You can decide who had the best “presentation”

Mackenzee and Me

I’m actually not sure if all of you (the 3 people who still read this blog) know that I went on a 3 month long parental leave. I started my leave in April 18th, and it just recently ended. I’m very sad to be away from my little baby girl. However, during this 3 month long process I did accomplish quite a bit. Some business stuff that is still in progress, but mostly a lot of learning.

When I started I tried to do a bit of research on activities to do, its surprising how many tips people had on Maternity Leaves but not much for Parental or Paternity Leaves. I just wanted to write and reflect on what I’ve learned during this (very short) time off. Hopefully it helps others.

Plans are made to be broken. Yea, for someone who like to schedule things and to-do items in to his calendar this was the first big rude awakening. I’m very InBox Zero and GTD OCD. Mackenzee is a very good sleeper, and takes very scheduled naps but things change and being flexible is key to surviving this time. Make plans around her time, but make sure that you don’t get frustrated when things change without notice. When you’re taking care of baby, you go by their schedule and unfortunately not yours.

Day 5 of Eggos for breakfast? Probably not a good idea. Unfortunately, the creativity stops at the computer for me. Unless I have some sort of cooking show as inspiration or a friend to help out I tend to stick with a few staples and Eggo waffles were easy to prepare; especially when you’re half awake and baby is hungry. Need help cutting it up into bite sized pieces? Use scissors! But do some surfing before hand and get some ideas for some quick meals that you could either prepare the night before or quickly in a half woken state.

Play dates are great. Why? Because baby can interact with other babies. Plus, you get to have an adult conversation and possibly a decent cup of coffee not one that you managed to piece together through used coffee filters.

Community centers and libraries are a great source of activities, but be prepared to be the only man in the pool / room. Mackenzee and I took some swimming lessons. It ran for 6 weeks, twice a week. It was a really nice way to get her used to the water and get me used to being the only man in the swimming pool. All mothers and nannies with their babies.

Learn your nursery rhymes before you go to any of these activities. I learned something about myself. I actually don’t know / don’t remember a lot of nursery rhymes. So when you’re asked to go into the middle of the circle in the pool and do “Red Rover”, you won’t look as scared as I did (actually, it was more like a deer infront of the headlights of a screaming 18 wheeler truck) and blurt out some non-sensical babbling that kinda sounds like what Barney would sing.

And lastly, enjoy it! This time is precious. Realize that not everyone gets to do it, and just be in the moment. Get down on the floor, throw toys around, eat breakfast with them, talk and play with them. Try to just watch them interact with the world and see things from their eyes. It’s actually pretty amazing!

Mackenzee in Mexico

Before I leave for another technology disconnection. I wanted to leave this blog on a positive note. My last post was so negative and I don’t want people to just think that this was me.

You see, the reason why I haven’t been posting much here was because I’ve been on parental leave. Why? Well, Cheryl had to go back to work early. Why? (My you guys are the inquisitive types aren’t cha?) Well, it’s because we’re expecting our second child and she has to accumulate a certain amount of hours to be able to go on another maternity leave again.

So there you go.

The last 11 weeks have been amazing. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve really enjoyed spending time with Mackenzee. I’ve gotten a small glimpse of what Cheryl worries about on a day to day basis. Things like, “What am I going to feed her? She’s had Eggo waffles for 3 days straight; I’m pretty sure she’s going to start looking like an Eggo pretty soon!” Arranging play dates with fellow mommies and daddies and just being able to spend time with them and seeing Mackenzee interact with their little ones.

During the time I spent with her, I’ve seen her develop her crawling, standing and babbling at an exponential rate. I’m really impressed! If I picked up technologies at this rate, I could be writing code in any language within a year. It’s amazing! She’s also starting to develop a personality and knows how to scare the living crap out of me. She’d wait at the base of the stairs, scream for me to come and start her way up.

I’ve also made some strides in doing a lot of clean up in my own business and started development, and launched a few projects as well. We also all went to Mexico for a week, got a tan and came back 20 lbs heavier.

Overall, I can’t complain of my leave time. I’m sad to go back, knowing that I would be spending less time with Mackenzee but I’m happy that I got the opportunity to be in this role for the last 11 weeks.