2011 Avening and Glencairn Cleanups.... NOT!

I haven't been to Avening or Glencairn parks much this year and hadn't done any cleaning so I decided last week to check out he status of the 2 parks. Below is the results, what a contrast.

Avening
This park is always a dream to clean. It is maintained by the community and they have people that care. I haven't  cleaned this park since last year and was impressed with how little garbage there was. After going through the entire maintained area I only ended up with a very small amount of garbage. It was hard to even find a cigarette butt ;) This community should be proud of their park, it is very nice.

This as all the garbage I found in the entire park. Next to nothing ;)

This is Avening park. One of the cleanest parks around.

Glencairn

And now for the other side...

This park is not maintained at all or at least not regularly. Like Avening I haven't cleaned this park since last year(cleaned both parks on same day). What a mess. If you read previous years entries on this park you will remember I already removed over 10 tires from the woods and water. Guess what.... there are now 6 more tires in the water and garbage throughout the park. I was so frustrated I just took pictures and left. I spent so much time to keep that park clean and it was destroyed by only a few people. Here are some pictures of the crap that is everywhere... Keep in mind this just shows the big stuff, there are a lot of cigarette butts and beer bottle tops as well...

Might be able to excuse this junk. It was at least in the fire pit.

 Tire #1

 Tire#2

 Tire #3 & 4

 Actually quite a solid table. would be great for putting heavy plants on in a greenhouse.

 Part of a tent just thrown in the woods.

 Very large plastic tarp stuffed away.

 Somebody decided to create their own firepit.

 This is what virtually the whole property looks like now... garbage everywhere ;(

 Tire#5

 Tire#6

 Lots of hidden garbage around every corner.

 Even the small beach is a mess.

 If I had a truck I would have taken this table. Looks in great shape.

 Some kid is looking for their chair right now ;(

 Just more crap in the woods.

The biggest stock market screw over

So you thought Bernie with his $50 Billion dollar scam was taking advatange of poor investors? Have a look at just one of the things brokers can do to investors LEGALLY!

How many of you know what "shorting" is and how is it allowed? Read below and you will get upset over how this works and even madder that it is even allowed.

"Shorting" a stock is selling a stock that you don't own anticipating the stock will go down so you can buy it cheaper later... but how can you sell a stock you don't own... That is illegal isn't it???? Well technically you can't sell stocks you do not own, that is called naked short selling and that is illegal. So how do the brokers do it? THEY LOAN THE STOCK THEIR CUSTOMERS BOUGHT!!!! For a fee of course.

So here is how it works... The brokers charge you fees to buy a stock for you and they hold the actual stock certificates. The broker then "loans" those stock(for a fee of course) to someone else who wants to short the stock. The broker is making money off BOTH customers and the broker has no risk!
 
 So now you gotta ask... What the F*(&*&**^!!!!! .... Your broker is actually using the stock you bought against you. Allowing others to "borrow" your stock to short in effect drives the price of the stock DOWN! That is totally against your best interests. 

Are you a littl upset now? You should be. What can you do? If you purchase indiviual stock you can request the actual certificates which ensures the broker can't loan your shares. This unfortunately creates headaches for you to manage your stock certificates. When it comes to mutual funds you can't get the individual stock certificates so you have no control.

If this ticks you off start asking questions of your brokers. The reason I got on this rant is one of my mutal funds is applying to be able to do this for the entire fund of stocks. If you are wondering which company.... AGF is about to do it on all their funds.

Supporters of shorting will tell you it stops irrational exhuberance of stock going through the roof. However, they don't mention that shorting causes stocks to drop much faster because it is almost a self fullfilling prophecy. Shorting can easily take a company with a little difficulty and wipe it out. Look at what was going on with AIG nd CITI during the crash. There was huge volumes of shorts almost causing both these companies to collapse. 

SHORT SELLING SHOULD BE ILLEGAL FOR EVERYONE!!!!!

Kinect Games - EA Sports Active 2

Other than a heart rate monitor this game is junk as far as being Kinect enabled. You need a controller at several points which defeats the benfits of Kinect.

I did not find the program itself to have as many features as Your Shape and if possible I would have returned this game because of it's cost($100) and my disappointment in the quality.

Of the 9 games I have tried this was the one I felt I really over paid. I do not feel it has been worth the money.

However, if you need to integrate a heart rate monitor into your exercises this is still better than the WII and Move versions. The reporting on heart rates was interesting ;)

Kinect Games - Your Shape

If you don't care about the hearrt rate monitor this exercise game is much better than EA Sports Active 2 game. You can see it was built for the Kinect and really helps you perform exercises properly.

It will show you exactly which parts of your body are positioned right for an exercise(they show in green) and which are not(shown in red). From the start a controller is not needed. It also provides several exercise games, TiBo and Zen exercises. There is a lot to this exercise game.

If you want to get into shape this is a good game to get. It is much better than EA Sports game except it doesn't come with a heart rate monitor.

This was the frst game I purchased and it still is very good. Expect to sweat and feel good that you are performing exercises properly.

Kinect Games - Kinect Adventures

This game came with my Kinect controller. It is simple yet a lot of fun, especially for multiple people. None of the included games require any special skills.

When I show people the Kinect quite often I use this game first because it is easy and fun. Anyone can understand the games yet they are challenging for experienced players.

I like all the games but I prefer the white water rafting as it provides a high level of interaction. Although it can be frustrating when playing with 2 people for serious gamers(One person goes left, the other goes right ;) It is just so much fun.

However, if this game did not come with the Kinect I am not sure I would buy it. I prefer the games that specialize in one thing because they are much more detailed and the quality is usually better.

Kinect Games - Kinect Joy Ride

Of the 9 games I tried this was the simplest to play yet among the most fun. Since I like racing games anyway me liking this is no surprise.

If you are looking for an advanced racing game this is NOT it. You do not control brakes, gas or shifting. However you do get Turbo boost, and you can do tricks when in the air.

I am not sure if it is me but I notice no difference in upgraded cars in regards to performance or handling. Maybe I should read the manual(that thingy no one reads) more about cars ;)

This game is just fun. Especially with 2 or more people. You can compete against each other in certain races and need to work together in others. There are lot's of race types including tricks, run over stuff, race each other, race online, race computers and more.

Getting into tricks can really rack up the points and I found this takes up a lot more energy and makes you glad you don't have to shift, brake or accelerate.

Of all the games I have played I have spent the most time on this game. I have virtually every car now and most tracks I have gold. Sometimes I wonder why... then I play it again ;)

This game could certainly benefit from being able to control braking and acceleration but I found I got used to it. Also I found standing all the time does get tiring. I never tried sitting down while playing it might have worked.

Kinect Games - Deca Sports Freedom

Of the games I tried this was the cheapest and quirkiest of them all. Although several sports are similar to the other 2 all in one sports games there just seemed to be a lot of delays and problems in movement recognition. Further I found the quality to be lower than the other 2 all in one sports games. However it does have a lot of sports to try and probably had the best selection of interesting sports.

Overall I found the all in one sports games to be good for group playing because of their simplicity but not very good for the serious gamer. Regardless, they are all still more fun than stupid controller games.

Kinect really makes you feel you are part of the game.