http://www.92citifm.ca

As we get closer to the start of the Manitoba Quits contest, I can feel myself winding down and getting my head around returning to a smoke-free life.  I just started Day 8 of the starter pack of Champix (and my fifth bottle of water today).  The last two days I have cut down to 10 cigarettes a day (going from a pack a day) and am feeling that I can cut that down even more in the next couple of days.

My “quit coach” Aaron and I have been communicating quite regularly and he gives me the straight goods about things like withdrawal symptoms and such… That’s what I wanted to discuss today.

Aaron explained to me the 15 minute delay, where when you are feeling a craving, try and delay it for 15 minutes, and there is a good chance the feeling for that cigarette will have subsided.  After a little bit of time you’ll find, like I have, there are many daily cigarettes you can avoid having.

What’s helping me with the cravings as well is the Champix, I already feeling less desire to light up and the smokes are starting to taste bad… which is what non-smokers have been telling us for years!

Have a great day! Talk to you soon.

Joe.
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Air Canada troubles…….they gotta get that fixed…….a lot of great people work out of Winnipeg for AC that we’ve dealt with over the years, but as soon as you leave our airport it often goes in the crapper on the other end..

The proposed waterpark downtown?…..I think they should have looked at other options for the location. Of course I’m not a city planner, but if I were I’d find a way to get rid of half the traffic lights…..we’re known as the ‘city of lights’ for the wrong reason

Provincial budget tomorrow……….how much will it cost us personally?….we’ll let you know Wed, cuz that’s all that really matters!

This will be an interesting Friday. It’s April 20th, better known as 4/20 day, so you know what that means. Listen for a visit from our favorite rocker-chopper traffic guy Tyrone to pay us a visit on the morning show. Shadoe will also spend some time broadcasing from the Leg on his show in the afternoon. Stop by and say hi to him if you can see through the smoke!

Keep rockin! Hear ya in the Morning with Joe, Nesta and Bubba.

It’s Friday morning and I’m getting a little closer to my quit date.  I’m on day 4 of Champix, which means I start taking two pills a day.  Took my first one at 7am and plan on my second one at 7pm.  I have upped my water intake, which seems to help with the drymouth feeling I’ve been getting.  I have already dropped down to about 15 cigarettes a day. Not bad for a pack a day smoker.

My quit “coach” Aaron Ladd from Drake Health Solutions worked with me before I started on Champix and I want to pass along a couple of his methods to you… 1) Start smoking a different and stronger brand of cigarettes  2) Take a minimum 7 drags and put it out (do not smoke the whole thing)  3) Light it and smoke it with your opposite hand.

One other great tip was no smoking in your vehicle! That was a tough one, but I’m happy to say I haven’t in 8 weeks.  Now working on the other big humps of smoking while on the phone and smoking in a group.  One step at a time I guess.

My plan this weekend is to set up a “quit smoking” bank account that will automatically withdraw $15 a day from my chequing account. That way I can see how much money I would be saving by not smoking.  It will be nice to see the account swell up as time goes on.  A friend of mine suggested it as an incentive that you can see daily.

Have a great weekend and good luck!

Joe.

The Manitoba Lung Association is putting on their Manitoba Quits contest for a smoke-free life! Like many smokers, I have tried to give up the habit many times, but have always seemed to fail or come up with an excuse on why to start again.  Over the past 25 years, I have tried accupuncture, being hypnotized, laser therapy, nicorette, the patch, cold turkey, but I guess I just didn’t have enough will power or want to really quit.

This time, I feel ready to give it another shot and thought this contest would be a fun way of doing it.  There is always incentive in quitting because of the money you save by not having to buy cigarettes, but in this case you could even win cash prizes!

You have to register by April 30th at ManitobaQuits.ca or call 1-888-566-5864.  Maybe we can do this together and help each other out.  That’s what the program is all about.

Over the next few months, I will blog regularly and keep a diary of the ups and downs and what has been happening.  I can tell you I am using a “quit coach” as I like to call him.  He’s Aaron Ladd from Drake Health Solutions Inc and he has been helping me get set up and counselling me.  More on “Coach” and his methods in days ahead.  He also suggested I use a smoking-cessation aid and both agreed on trying Champix.  I took my first pill this morning.

If you decide to jump on board and try this out… if you enter before April 14th you could win Van Halen tickets!

Have a great day!

Joe.

it’s finally here. The Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor opens April 8th; this Sunday and, when they say rapid, they mean it. Buses will travel at up to 80 km/hour so it will only take them about seven minutes to cover the whole transitway, including the three stops.

The way it’s going to work is rapid transit buses will travel down diamond lanes downtown and along Graham Avenue before meeting up with the specially designed corridor. That 3.6-kilometre transitway starts where Queen Elizabeth Way meets Stradbrook and runs to the Jubilee overpass at Pembina. The city already has some big ideas about how they’d like to keep on expanding it.

 This Thursday, Winnipeg Transit is going to give us a free taste. Buses will run every 15 minutes between the University of Winnipeg and Pembina Highway at Windermere. It will be free for travllers from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Will Rapid Transit make a difference in your commute?

Schedule information for the 13 rapid transit routes is now available at winnipegtransit.com

~nesta

The federal budget was announced yesterday, along with the decision to get rid of the penny. Now, it makes sense – it costs 1.6 cents to make a coin that’s only worth one – but I was a little confused as to how this would work.

The Canadian Mint will stop making pennies this fall. They’re still going to be legal tender, so no stressing about the change jar at home suddenly being worthless. If you still have pennies on you when you’re shopping, you can use them, but if you don’t prices will have to be rounded up or down. So, $1.02 will become $1 and $1.03 will be $1.05. Payments with debit, credit cards (or cheques if you’re stuck in 1983) will be paid out to the penny.

Some people think it’s about time the penny disapeared. Some are not so thrilled. I had to giggle at this tweet from the Canadian Penny itself though: 

 Listen, the Maple Leafs haven’t been valuable for a long time and THEY’RE still around. How does THAT work?

~nesta

Love and Paint - Alexander Esguerra

If you guessed have two people pour paint on each other and have sex on a canvas, you got it!

The artist, Alexander Esguerra, woke up after a very active hook up, took a look at the chaos in his bedroom and wanted to capture it in a painting. He’s since had almost 50 different couples bump and grind to create his series Love and Paint.

I love this advise from one of the “painters”, Natalia:  “Put your hair up. It’s easier to get the paint off your body.”

Everyone knew it was coming: the new iPad. Not an iPad 3 or iPad HD; just an iPad. (A lot of people are making a big deal about that, but think about the iPod. No matter what updates they roll out, they just usually call them an iPod.) Pre-orders for the new iPad started yesterday and it will be available on March 16th.

It doesn’t have any substantial changes from the iPad 2, but there’s definitely some upgrades. It has a ridiculously high-resolution screen. In fact, the “Retina Display” out-pixels your HDTV at home. There’s voice dictation, 4G LTE capability, which means very fast download speeds, and it can also be used as a wireless hotspot. It also has a better camera at 5-megapixel, illuminated sensor with a 5-element lens, face detection and IR filter, plus HD (1080p) video capture.

Instead of going smaller, it’s actually a bit bigger, but you probably won’t even notice it at 0.11 pounds heavier and 0.37 inches thicker. Battery life stays the same at 10 hours; 9 on 4G. And, they didn’t add Siri on to the iPad, like it had been rumoured earlier this week. Also the same, it will run on Rogers, Telus and Bell in Canada

Basically, what it boils down to is if you have the iPad 2, there really aren’t any huge reasons to rush out and pick up the new iPad. Unless you’re really into shooting video with your iPad and editing it on the fly, you’re not going to notice a whole heck of a lot of difference between the two.

Which is handy to those cheapskates among us – myself included – who might just want to pick up an iPad 2 since they’re dropping that price by $100! ~nesta~

Set your clock for five minutes, don’t peek at the answers, and see if you’re smart enough to be a quarterback. Tom got 60%, Joe 67%, Nesta 93% & Bubba 73%. Looks like it’s time to make Nesta the “moneyball” behind the scene!

The Wonderlic Personnel Test ™
WPT ™ Sample Questions

1. Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next?

2. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one:

The boy plays baseball. All baseball players wear hats. The boy wears a hat.

3. Paper sells for 21 cents per pad. What will four pads cost?

4. How many of the five pairs of items listed below are exact duplicates?

5. RESENT RESERVE � Do these words
1. have similar meanings, 2. have contradictory meanings, 3. mean neither the same nor opposite?

6. One of the numbered figures in the following drawing is most different from the others. What is the number in that figure?

7. A train travels 20 feet in 1/5 second. At this same speed, how many feet will it travel in three seconds?

8. When rope is selling at $.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for sixty cents?

9. The ninth month of the year is

10. Which number in the following group of numbers represents the smallest amount?

11. In printing an article of 48,000 words, a printer decides to use two sizes of type. Using the larger type, a printed page contains 1,800 words. Using smaller type, a page contains 2,400 words. The article is allotted 21 full pages in a magazine. How many pages must be in smaller type?

12. The hours of daylight and darkness in SEPTEMBER are nearest equal to the hours of daylight and darkness in:

13. Three individuals form a partnership and agree to divide the profits equally. X invests $9,000, Y invests $7,000, Z invests $4,000. If the profits are $4,800, how much less does X receive than if the profits were divided in proportion to the amount invested?

14. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one:

Tom greeted Beth. Beth greeted Dawn. Tom did not greet Dawn.

15. A boy is 17 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 23 years old, what will be the age of his sister?

These are sample test questions and are intended for demonstration purposes only. The Wonderlic Personnel Test is published by Wonderlic, Inc. via ESPN.com

Answers
1. 1/8
2. true
3. 84 cents
4. 1
5. 3
6. 4
7. 300 feet
8. 6 feet
9. September
10. .33
11. 17
12. March
13. $560
14. not certain
15. 40 years old