Where Have I Been? Being Anti-Feminist

Following up from my last post, you would think I'd be moving right into the proposal, but you see life has it's own plans, as I'll explain.

The original proposal plan was to visit Nadia's parents in Osoyoos. While there I would find some reason to go out for dinner, I would ask her father for his permission to marry his daughter (against my better judgment, I'm with all you feminists on this one) then with ring in hand I would make a grand proposal at some time during dinner.

Normally I would like to be a bit better prepared, but as Nadia and I were planning to visit her parents, I was secretly planning the proposal behind her back. Unfortunately completion of the ring had been delayed, and there was just no way of having the ring for our trip to Osoyoos.

Despite a ruined proposal, our trip to Osoyoos wasn't a complete failure. We managed to start a tradition by bring up some Panetone, how many remember last years prank? We took in a rather lack luster Osoyoos Christmas Parade, who's grande attraction was the towns addition of 3 new fire trucks (for those counting that brought the total of parade vehicles up to 7). Sorry Osoyoos, but a 7 vehicle procession just didn't strike me as parade worthy, I still love your town, just not your parades (just saying). I also managed to sum up the courage to ask Nadia's father Joe, for his blessing in marrying his daughter. Now before I get flamed for my anti-feminist views, in my defense I was merely looking to follow in a slightly more traditional/conventional approach so as to not insult Joe. Joe's response would inevitably give the feminist movement the slam dunk they so rightfully deserved, as he told me something along the lines of "you're gonna have to convince her yourself, but if she's ok with it, then I'm ok with it." Not exactly the heartwarming, welcome to the family, response I was expecting, but then again served me right.

So what about the proposal? Stay tuned...

Where Have I Been? Well.. The Ring

Since my last post, life, the coaster we know with its undulating highs and lows has had my head spinning. It all started during a dinner conversation back in mid 2017. Nadia, my girlfriend, and I had met up for dinner with some of Nadia's friend. The conversation quickly turned to the future and questions about when, if ever, would we get married. Our current relationship status has been "happily living in sin" for the past 3 years, so I found myself shying away from the whole formal wedding discussion. You can imaging my surprise when Nadia responded to the dinner table something along the lines that she, at this point would be satisfied with a ring and a trip to city hall. Thinking back, this may have very well been a Machiavellian honey vs vinegar scenario, which I may have completely fallen for.

Soon after our dinner party I began the process of sourcing an engagement ring, which proved slightly more difficult than expected. While I knew exactly what Nadia wanted in an engagement ring (we've been together for almost a decade now), I also wanted it to reflect my personality as well. While I found many styles online, that appealed to me, I wasn't comfortable with the whole online engagement ring purchase scenario. Many jewelry retailers were limited to showcasing their in house designs, and few if any could accommodate a custom made design.

I enlisted the aid of Daniela, Nadia's sister, who, as luck would have it, had recently made a connection to a jewelry broker, that specialized in custom design pieces. This jewelry broker was a "by appointment and by referral only" type establishment, which made setting up an appointment difficult, as Daniela lives on Vancouver Island.

Eventually, an appointment was established, and the brokers in house artist was able to extract the engagement/wedding ring/band idea, that had been floating around in my head. From the artists rendering, a intricate wax casting was created. A mold was made from the wax casting and finally, after a few months, the ring(s) were ready!

Now came preparations for the proposal...

Christmas 2017: Feeding The Homeless

The Servants Of Hope Society will be holding their annual "Feeding The Homeless At Christmas" event Monday December 18, 2017. This is an event that I've attended a number of times over the past few years, and each and every time I'm truly amazed. 

Traditionally at this time of year I would be encouraging our readers to contact Sean to volunteer some time. However, this years it would appear that all volunteer positions have already been filled. That's quite impressive, and I'm very happy to hear this great news.

If you still want to help, I'm sure the Servants Of Hope are still accepting donations, but you might want to contact them to make sure.

As it reads above you can contact Sean by email at sean@servantsofhope.ca or keep in touch with them via their Facebook page.

Tis The Season

I'd like to send out a special thank-you to everyone that's makes it a routine to check out the Mass-IMO site every so often. It's been about a year now since having to delete the old Mass-IMO site and re-start this new one. Just so people know, prior to being plagued with issues the old site was getting well over 5,000 visitors a month, which had taken me approximately 5 years to do. I'm not sure if that is a good number or not, but it is what it is. With the site undergoing a complete re-make, those numbers dropped to almost nothing. Within a few months of the new launch, Mass-IMO was seeing an average of 100 of so visitors a month. No that we're nearing the 1 year mark, I'm happy to say we're seeing the number of visitors eclipse the 1,000 visitor mark. 

I'm beginning to enjoy blogging once again, and I'm hoping what I do, is bringing some happiness to all of you.

Knowing how hectic the Christmas Season gets, We here at Mass-IMO would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

Trakt.Tv

One of the first things people realize when "cutting the cord", or more accurately the moving away from conventional sources of TV or Movie viewing, is the lack of commercials. Yes, one of the many benefits of cord cutting is no longer having you're TV show or Movie interrupted by commercials. Initially people rejoice at the thought of how much time is saved by not having to watch commercials. However this bliss of being able to truly binge watch TV or Movie's soon brings with it other problems. Hold on a second Mass, what kind of problems can we possibly encounter by not watching commercials? Well, for starters, without commercials you don't really know what new Movies are coming out, you don't know when your favorite TV show is playing next or when it starts up again. Heck you don't even know what new TV shows are coming out. 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a service that could integrate with the streaming programs and add-ons you use, and notify you when your favorite TV show was starting up again, or tell you new episodes are available. How about if it could also keep track of all the Movies you've watched, and let your Facebook friends know. Well not only does Trakt.TV offer a free service to accomplish the above mentioned issues, but it allows for that information to be shared between all the devices associated to that account. No longer, will you be in bed, having re-watched the first ten minutes of a TV show episode only to realize you already watched it in the living room. As if that wasn't enough, Trakt.TV will analyse your TV and Movie viewing habits and make recommendations as to future shows or Movies that others with similar tastes have recommended.

How much does all this cost? Well you can get all the features I've mentioned above with a free account, however that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out Trakt.TV's website here for a full list of features available and costs associated with being a VIP member.

So to everyone I say, stop wasting your time and head on over to Trakt.TV to sign up for a free account. Then when you're done, creep some co-workers so as to keep the water cooler talk fresh and flowing.