PlentyofFish.com: Five Stars!

LOVE & SEX - Looking for love in all the wrong places?

Well maybe you haven't tried PlentyofFish.com. As online personals go (and I've tried quite a few over the years) Plenty of Fish has become "Numero Uno" in my book.

#1. For starters Plenty of Fish is free! Completely free! Its advertising supported and the brain child of a Canadian entrepreneur who realized that people needed a free personals website which offered advertising instead of outrageous monthly payments.

#2. When they say "plenty" its meant literally. Plenty of Fish is a global website with over 5 million unique visitors per month, and over 11 million registered users (that suggests 6 million people either found love or stopped looking).

#3. It is the #1 dating website in Canada, #1 in the UK and #2 in the USA.

And frankly why would anyone pay for a service which is inferior on another website when you get better quality service on "POF" for free?

And when I say quality, I really do mean it. I've tried out dozens of dating websites and the only one which comes close to the level of quality is okCupid.com (which is also free).

When using POF or okCupid I find its useful to treat it the same way you might use a Facebook profile, with the difference being that you are there to meet people.

Reputation.com Busted! Its totally bogus man!

TECHNOLOGY - You may have noticed ads online for reputation.com, a website which claims to be able to assess whether a person has a good reputation or not.

I tried searching for my own name and came up with low/mediocre results. Apparently my reputation is perfectly safe.

However to test out whether the website's function actually worked I tried testing the names of known villains... lets see my results:

Adolf Hitler (WWII Dictator)
Possible Negative Content: Average
People with Name: 2
Search Activity: 450,000

Paul Bernardo (Notorious Sex Criminal/Murderer)
Possible Negative Content: Low
People with Name: 91
Search Activity: 9,900

For fun I even tried names of other things...

Jack the Ripper (famed serial killer who was never caught)
Possible Negative Content: Average
People with Name: 0
Search Activity: 135,000

So yeah... if the worst reputations in history only come with "average" then reputation.com's schtick is totally busted. I'd argue such a website is a complete waste of time.

If someone really wanted to learn more about their reputation, just use Google News. If your name isn't in the news then its not worth worrying about.

Guinness Extra Stout

Maybe its because I've had a really long day... I mean I went bicycling TWICE today, did an hour of boxing, launched my new website (which I've been preparing for months)... whatever! After such a long day, the Guinness Extra Stout I am currently drinking tastes like pure ****ing heaven to me.

Cool.

Crisp.

Creamy.

Five stars.

My air conditioning also feels really good today.

Heck, anything cool and relaxing today would feel like five stars. :)

A Shot at Photo Books

By Fiona.

I haven't had any of my photos on print since the early 90's, before the popularization of digital cameras.

At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to try photo books from Kwikpix. And I'm glad I did! Their application was very easy to use and intuitive. The customization features made it possible to create a book well suited to the theme of my pictures and personal taste. The book was delivered seamlessly to my parents house in Toronto. And the photo book, looked like, well, a book!

It may be pricey, but its well worth it given how digital cameras are destined to be lost in folders and disappear in computer crashes. I'm glad to have rediscovered the long forgotten pleasure of photos on print!

Terminator Chronicles

Okay I know Terminator Chronicles (aka Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has been cancelled for 2 years now. Still for anyone who loves the Terminator movie series, the TV show is an excellent addition to the mythology of the story.

Despite being cancelled the show has been picked up by, as of February 22nd 2011, the SyFy channel announced it had gained the rights to all 31 episodes of the series. They started showing them as of April 7th 2011.

So ta da! Its back, sort of.

As TV shows go I give Terminator Chronicles a solid 5 out of 5 stars. Fantastic plot, good actors, lots of action, and lots of unexpected and interesting goings ons.

IN OTHER NEWS

On April 27th 2011 it was announced that a 5th Terminator movie is on its way, starring former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. Woot!

Arnold is also hoping to make one last Conan film apparently... something to do with King Conan and having to make difficult decisions as a leader. Of course this might just be a lead up to Arnold wanting to run for the White House. (Assuming he can overturn the law that says people born outside the USA cannot run for the presidency.)

Welcome New Reviewer, Vanessa

Today Product Reviews Canada gets a new reviewer... Vanessa from Montreal (aka Fiona Blue).

If other Canadians wish to join us and review products, please contact us.

All that we ask is that you follow a number of rules.

#1. All reviews must be entertaining and informative.

#2. Photos and videos help. They're not mandatory, but a good idea.

#3. The most important part of a good review is personal opinion.

Damn Expiry Dates!

I got two Cineplex tickets for Christmas 2010, but apparently I didn't notice the expiry dates on the back... March 2011.

Basically the tickets were only good for 3 months after I received them, and the movies during the Winter were all sucky so I didn't bother to use the tickets right away. I was thinking of saving them for the next Harry Potter film...

NOTE TO SELF: Must remember to sneak into 2 Cineplex movies for free sometime. Jerks! Its their own fault for sticking expiry dates on their tickets.

Kudos to Walt Disney World... their tickets NEVER expiry. They're good FOREVER.

Faxe Beer, not so good

Last night I went to a BBQ with friends, and thought it was BYOB. I misread the invitation however and it was only BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat).

But whatever.

En route (and under the impression it was BYOB) I popped by the LCBO at Yonge and Dundas and browsed their impressive selection of beers, trying to decide which beer to try and review.

I chose Faxe Brewery's "Extra Strong Beer", a 10% brute from Denmark which had an "okay" taste, but left me feeling queasy despite a normally cast iron stomach which was full of meat, bread and potato chips.

This leads me to believe Faxe's beer isn't so stellar (I would have been better off buying Stella Artois, from Belgium/UK)... so I give it a dismal 2 stars out of 5.

The queasiness later wore off and I slept like a baby, but my opinion of Danish beers has been significantly hurt.

I like the viking on the logo, but that just goes to prove vikings will drink any crappy beer.

My Hunt for Summer Sandals & Sunglasses

I HATE SANDALS.

There, I said it...

That done and over with, my reasoning for wanting a pair of sandals may seem flawed.

Its going to be hot this summer. I don't want to be walking around in socks and shoes when I could be barefoot with nothing but sandals between my feet and the sidewalk.

Now as to the reasons why I hate sandals...

#1. I hate plastic shoes. Crocs, flip flops, anything like that is complete crap. The plastic gets too hot and they end up feeling sticky. Any sandal I buy will have to be made of wood and leather.

#2. I hate the straps that go inbetween the toes. They're damn uncomfortable. My goal therefore is to get something more like a Roman sandal, with two strap that goes over the top of the foot and one that goes around the ankle. Anything else will be "pootahed" as absolute garbage.

#3. Sandals get sand and dirt in them too easily. You keep having to remove them to get rid of any grit that has gotten under your foot. I am hoping that whatever sandal I buy its easy to take off when needed.

#4. Sunburned feet... nothing I can do about that except wear sunblock on my feet.

After the sandals the other thing on my agenda is to find sunglasses similar to the blue 'John Lennon' esque sunglasses I had back in 1997-1998. The blue lenses were shiny and tinted in a way that they changed colour slightly depending on the lighting and the angle you were looking at them.

I remember when I first got those sunglasses my friends tried them on and EVERYONE looked good in them. They were the most perfect sunglasses ever. Sadly they were later stolen by an ex-girlfriend (that bitch Kristin Greeniaus, who also stole my favourite bandanna from New Mexico) and I never saw them again.

So my goal is to find sunglasses exactly like them. A challenge I admit, but one worthy of attempting. I did at one point a couple years ago find purple sunglasses similar to the blue pair, but they just didn't look as good. MUST FIND THE HOLY GRAIL OF SUNGLASSES!

Air Conditioners and Keeping Cool

It was so gawd awful hot yesterday I decided to go over to Canadian Tire and buy a new air conditioner.


For $135 (tax included) I think I got a bargain. A Garrison air conditioner with 5,250 BTU. Admittedly 5,250 BTU doesn't seem like a lot when there are other air conditioners on the market that go up to 12,000 BTU, but those are frankly outrageous and overkill.

5,250 BTU doesn't just keep my apartment cool, I don't even have to run it all the time to keep the place cool. It works so efficiently I frequently find myself saying "Its too cold in here!" and I turn it off.

The point I want to make is that you don't need a big expensive air conditioner to get the job done efficiently. Modern ACs are already very energy efficient and assuming you keep it clean and in good working order it will provide years of coolness even in the height of summer.

The beauty of the air conditioner I bought is that it comes with a remote so I can adjust the digital temperature, fan speed, timer, etc from a distance. Sweet!

Now some people out there might be cheapskates and decide they don't want to buy an air conditioner.

In which case you will be looking for a nice fan and other tricks to keep cool.

#1. Buy a fan that is BIG and LOOKS NICE. Speaking for myself I got a stainless steel fan years ago and have loved it ever since. Its fast, does the job and doubles as an object d'art.

#2.Freeze Pops... This is more of a nostalgia thing for me. I remember growing up and eating ice cream, Freeze Pops, sundaes, etc a lot during the summer. Last summer I got the small ones and they made for a nice cool snack, but I found I kept eating more than 1 at a time. This summer I opted for the extra big ones. Each 150 mL Freeze Pop has 100 calories so I don't recommend overconsuming them since they're essentially just flavoured water with sugar.

#3. Run cold water in your bathtub, sinks, etc. This is for the ultra cheapskate who doesn't pay the water/electricity bill.

#4. Add wooden shutters to the outsides of your windows and curtains on the inside. Close them when its super hot out. Some super cheapskates might also block the sunlight out using tin foil on the window.