Learn to play guitar with JustinGuitar.com

I forgot to mention this during my guitar post yesterday, and thought it might be of some interest to anyone who wants to learn how to play guitar but can't find their instructional software under all of the dust that has accumulated on top of it. It's justinguitar.com, a site put up by a British-Australian chap by the name of Justin Sandercoe. He's a pretty cool dude and knows how to play a little guitar as well. He's actually a professional and he's got a few YouTube videos up of some of his performances (one being at LiveEarth somewhere which looked awesome).

However, what may be of more interest are his instructional videos. He starts off with the basics like chords and strumming then moves on to more advanced concepts, but I haven't seen that page yet. What may be even cooler are his videos that teach how to play actual songs. Those are my favourite because it can be quite tedious sitting there going from G to C to A to D to F that. Instead, after practicing chords for a bit, I'm able to learn something that I can actually show off to my friends. Anyway, for all you wannabe guitar heroes out there, justinguitar.com is a great place to start. Check out both his site and his YouTube videos. His song and technique videos are under different user names on YouTube, but it's not too hard to find.

Guitar player extraordinaire... someday

Finally got my guitar back today. I should have had it weeks ago, but laziness prevailed, and I never got around to the two minute drive to my friend's house to pick it up. But now I have it. I'm a little rusty mind you, but I never was really great in the first place, so I doubt anyone would notice.

I've been playing guitar since my girlfriend gave it to me last Christmas. I really enjoy it, I just wish it was as easy as it looks. I've got most of the important chords down, so I can play a few songs. Lately I've been working on "Hey There Delilah" and "Mr. Jones." There are a few others I can play too, but these ones I'd really like to get down, though I can't quite do it yet. Stupid barre chords.

Anyways, I'm going to add playing the guitar to my list of goals. I should have before, but it slipped my mind. Maybe someday I'll even get the nerve to fire up a YouTube video of me playing... maybe. So, let me know if there are any requests. I'm always stuck for a good song to learn, so I'll give anything a shot.

No better way to start the season

This is how they all should be done. Each manager sitting at their drafting stations. A keg slowly being emptied on the back deck. The coveted trophy sitting in the middle of it all as each person discreetly glances in its direction with an expression of desire. This is the way to have a fantasy hockey draft, and this is the way we did it.

It started at 8:30 on the night of September 15. There were 11 of us as one manager was MIA. It was a time to be remembered... as much as possible. It was a time to be cherished. A night out with the boys. Everything went great. There was teasing and jeering as expected. There were laughs and there were cries. This draft stuff is pretty intense. No messing around whatsoever. Well, at least for the first few rounds. The night flies by as the picks roll in, and with any luck there's still some beer left over for the after party (which turned out to be very useful for performing my first ever kegstand).

I don't know who's into fantasy hockey, or even cares about fantasy sports in general. However, if you do, or want to, this is the way to start it off. It creates friendships and rivalries all in the span of two hours, as well as stories that will be told for years to come. There really is no better way to start the season.

A great girlfriend pays dividends

I received a cheque in the mail today (awesome!)... for seven cents (not so awesome). But, I guess as a valued shareholder of Microsoft stock, I am entitled to even the smallest portion of dividends. I've never received a dividend cheque before. When my girlfriend gave me the share for my birthday, I didn't realize Microsoft even paid them out. So, I thought it was pretty neat when I received my first ever dividend payment through owning shares (or A share in this case) in a corporation.

I haven't decided what to do with my dividends yet though. I was thinking I could put it toward a house or a car, or maybe a new computer. I can't simply throw it away since this is a memorable moment in my investing career. I made this seven cents for doing absolutely nothing. They just sent it to me. The joys of passive income are truly incredible. Now, if only the value of the damn American dollar would go up a little more so I can make some real dough from this.

Fantasy sports: The silent economy (and grades) killer

The NHL season is almost upon us, and so too is fantasy hockey. My buddies and I have passion for fantasy hockey to the point that we often have to cheer against our favourite teams because we have fantasy points riding on the game. I even managed to get my dad involved this season. Not that I think he actually has a shot at winning. I just wanted to build up the prize pool a little. So, last weekend we had our annual fantasy hockey draft kegger where we all sat around and picked our teams. It just happened to be the same night that my mother broke her foot. Needless to say, I was in no condition to give her a hand (or foot) as she hobbled off of the trampoline. Anyway, that's a story for another day as I'm still trying to piece together the night's events.

Apparently, my friends and I aren't the only fantasy sports fanatics out there. Actually, we're far from it. There aren't any solid participation numbers out on fantasy sports, however there are some estimations as to how much it's costing. According to some sources, participation in online fantasy football can be costing businesses in the vicinity $275 to $435 million a week. That's potentially more than $7 billion for the football season alone. That's a shit load of money and they haven't even considered fantasy baseball, basketball, dog fighting... the list goes on (it's an American study, so I doubt hockey would make much of an impact). They've also assumed the average person only spends 10 minutes a day checking their fantasy team. That scared me a little. 10 minutes a day is nothing. I spend 10 minutes every hour checking out my team, and the season isn't even started yet. So, it's a good thing I'm not the average fantasy football player. Because if I was, it'd be costing closer to $60 billion. It's also a good thing I'm still in school and not out in the workforce full time. This way, at least for now, I'm not being a burden on the Canadian economy, it's just my grades that suffer.

Set it, and forget it

So, I saw a Lamborghini for the first time ever in my life about a month ago while I was on vacation in Montreal. And, being the biggest car fan who knows the least about cars, it was a very exciting time to say the least. What wasn't so exciting was that these magnificent vehicles can cost somewhere in the vicinity of $200,000. Needless to say, putting a few of dollars away here and there simply won't cut it if I'm ever going to own one. That's about the time I stumbled upon house flipping.

Have you ever seen TLC's, Flip That House? Well, the show, as well as plenty of others like it, is basically about people buying houses in order to renovate them and sell them for a profit. At first I would never consider such a venture for the simple fact that I'm not the greatest handyman out there. I mean, give me two boards, a hammer and a nail and I can finish the job and still have most of my thumb remaining, but that's about the extent of it. However, when I saw the profit these people were making, I decided then and there that I would have no trouble learning to put up a few walls, or replace entire bathrooms. Of course there were some people who didn't profit at all from these ventures, but obviously I wouldn't make the same mistakes as they did... the show pretty much lays out what to do. How hard can it be?

So, I've got everything figured out now. All I have to do is ten houses for an average profit of $60,000 each. After splitting with two other partners, I'll have enough for my lambo. No problem to it. I generally try not to be this naive, but these shows are able to exploit every ounce of naivety in my body. There are certainly hints of a "set it, and forget it" mentality throughout each episode. Come to think of it, the show does work in much the same way as an infomercial, just without the live audience who is left in disbelief with every stroke of a paint brush. Either way, I'm still convinced it can be done. I just wish they'd run though how to get a mortgage without having a job...

On another note, I've discovered the secret to doing well in school: Not skipping class. Who would have thought?

The beginning

So, here I am, writing my first post ever on a blog. It's a little more intimidating than I would have expected since it seems everyone is blogging these days, but it's something new to me, so a few butterflies are understandable. As time goes on, I'm sure blogging becomes second nature. So instead of wasting more time, I might as well get right to it.

Alright, my main reason for doing this is to get all my goals out there. Ok, not all of them. I'd end up spending all my time blogging and I'd never accomplish anything. So, I'll just put some of the biggies up. Of course I'm sure my goals will change, so that means the list will grow, maybe shrink, and possibly do some other crazy stuff at times. I really don't know how it will go. I've just heard that if you write things down, or in my case blog about them, they're more likely to happen. So here goes: win the lottery, win the lottery, win the lottery... nah, I'm kidding. I doubt it's as easy as that. Here's the real list of things I want to do(in no particular order):

1. Flip a house to sell for profit or rent for more than the mortgage cost
2. Increase my weight to 180 lbs.
3. Ace my courses in university
4. Write a novel (or at least create some sort of entertainment for people)
5. Win my fantasy hockey league
6. This other list (I'm kidding I already have a beautiful girlfriend)

There aren't many things here so far, though I'm sure that will change as time goes on. Maybe I'll even start knocking some off once in a while. I'll keep posting on any new developments with each of these items. I'm hoping this may even be a help to anyone attempting some similar feats. There isn't any better way to learn than from someone else's mistakes. I'll probably rant on at times about other things of interest to me too, so I'll just have to see how all this goes. But for now, I've gotta get started on this list. Later on.

7. ...win the lottery (just in case).