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A Simple Productivity Tip That Can Change Your Life

January 25, 2016 By Antonio Cangiano 2 Comments

All the successful people who have ever lived shared one common limitation: they only had 24 hours available in a given day.[1] This is de-motivating and exciting at once. It certainly makes me feel like an underachiever when I compare myself to some of history’s greatest. Thankfully though, it also hints at the possibility of achieving extremely worthwhile and ambitious goals in what appears at first glance to not be anywhere near enough time.

A common and rather obvious productivity tip that will help you take advantage of this temporal hardcoded limit is to avoid wasting large blocks of time on activities you don’t find rewarding. For example, if you spend four hours a day on Facebook and you believe that your time could be better spent elsewhere, you can force yourself to avoid the site or use software (such as Self-Control on Mac OS X) to aid you in preventing wasting time on that activity. [2]

That’s certainly a low hanging fruit worth picking. However, many people already cut out/limit TV and Facebook, and still find themselves with no time to achieve the goals they set for themselves (especially true for responsible parents who are taking care of their children’s needs).

Luckily one simple productivity tip[3] can help with that (provided you’re not already doing this).[4] I call it the Fill the gap technique and it really helps me fight my natural tendency towards being an “all or nothing” kind of person when it comes to how I allot my time.

I noticed one day that I have a natural aversion to working on a task if I can’t spend a reasonably long block of time (just) on it. So the day gets fractured in blocks of productivity, which leaves many natural gaps in between such periods of work.[5]

For example, if I need to leave the house to get to an appointment at 7pm and it’s 6:30pm, left to my own devices, I will often kill that half an hour surfing the web, checking Facebook, or watching a video instead of tackling one of the hundreds of available items within my todo list.[6] Deep down, I suspect this has to do with my flawed expectation of demanding the perfect conditions before committing myself to something (typical of perfectionists and procrastinators alike).

Now, many of such tasks can’t be accomplished in half an hour. Looking more closely however, I’ve found that several tasks can be. More importantly, and this is really the key insight, half an hour is plenty of time to get started. Sure you can’t read a whole book in half an hour, but you can delve into the first few pages or even a couple of chapters (depending on the size of the book and your reading speed).

Objectively, it is not hard to fill that gap with a productive task. It’s just that unless I consciously make the effort, I tend to naturally default to more distracting options.

These days I remind myself to “fill the gap” and reach for my todo list to see what would be a good fit for my current energy, amount of time, and mood. I’m not perfect at it, but am getting into the habit of consciously choosing what I like to call “tidbit progress”. I’ve found that, a the end of the day, week, month, and ultimately year, all of those 10, 15, 30 minute gaps compound into a huge deal of extra time and productivity.

Interestingly, ever since adopting this technique, I find myself adapting it beyond the traditional domain of time management. If I can make some progress, I’ll happily take it instead of giving in to the all or nothing natural instinct.

Case in point: today I found myself by the Walmart parking lot after completing some errands. I knew that my wife and I would go grocery shopping tomorrow, but I still decided to take advantage of the proximity to Walmart to pick up a few few heavy items (cat litter, canned beverages, etc). I could have said, “eh, we are going groceries tomorrow anyway” and just waited, but instead I “filled the gap”. Tomorrow, we’ll have a lighter load to carry after we hit the grocery store. Small progress compounds.

I realize that many people out there are already doing this, but it really made a difference in my case, so I wanted to share it here in the hopes that other may benefit from this technique as well. I personally consider it to be a small victory in the bigger goal of letting go of perfectionism. Conditions in life will never be perfect, so we might as well just dive in and make as much progress as we can now.

It could be argued that some people had more time than others thanks to a longer lifespan. Yet another argument in favor of prioritizing our health.
Facebook is not necessarily a waste of time. Contrary to what most folks will tell you, I believe that you are the only person who is able to honestly assess whether the time you invest on that site (or any other area of your life) is genuinely worth it to you or not.
The phrasing here reminds me of those shady “one trick” ads with headlines such as “Productivity experts hate him”. 🙂
In which case, great job!
On top of properly scheduled breaks, that is. I am not, of course, advocating being productive every second of your life. That’s as a good as a surefire recipe for burnout – or worse!
These days I use the excellent, but not perfect, Omnifocus.

Keurig vs Tassimo: Which Single-Serve Coffee Brewer to Choose?

December 3, 2014 By Antonio Cangiano 13 Comments

Over the past decade the coffee industry has experienced a drastic change. Namely, we witnessed the emergence of single-serve pod coffee brewers for home and office use.

Statistics show that 40% of Canadian families use this kind of machine in their homes now and that number is only going to continue to grow as time goes on.

Pros and cons of Single-Serve Coffee Makers

Why would you buy a single-serve coffee brewer? Why do so many families today?

The answer lies in the pros and cons of this technology in which the portion of coffee you place into the brewer has already been selected and pre-packaged for you.

Pros

Extremely easy to use and clean.
No spillage of coffee grounds all over your counter.
Specialty drinks (e.g., mokaccino) at the press of a button.
Faster than most regular brewing machines.
No need to brew an entire carafe when you only need a cup of coffee.

Cons

Significantly more expensive on average for each cup of coffee.
Environmental impact of non-recyclable pods.

In short, it’s a battle of convenience vs cost. In the past decade, we’ve collectively decided that convenience was worth the extra cost. Coffee producers rejoiced at our choice, as they managed to get us to pay up to five times more, gram per gram, for the same amount of coffee.

A brief history of increasingly expensive coffee

How did we come to accept this compromise? Our tolerance for expensive coffee has changed. Brewing coffee at home was dirt cheap. [1] A cup of coffee bought from your trusty java joint also used to be very affordable. $1.00 or less a cup, cheap.

Then Starbucks happened, and it’s now socially acceptable to charge $4–5 for a cappuccino.

So while yes, your single-serve pod is still five times more expensive than the dime you’d spend per cup with a traditional brewer at home, compared to the alternative of grabbing a coffee on your way to work, it looks appealing and even downright inexpensive.

As an Italian, born and raised, I’m passionate about coffee. I own three machines, a fancy espresso machine, a Kitchen Aid brewer, and recently, just in time for the holiday season, a single-serve pod coffee brewer.

Guess which one I use all the time? That’s right. Convenience wins out over price, unless the price is so high that it starts impacting your ability to buy necessary things in life.

Making coffee used to be a potentially messy and somewhat time-consuming chore. Now however, whipping up a cup of joe takes no more time or effort than inserting a pod and pressing a button. Quick, easy, satisfying. So despite its cons (chiefly cost per cup), I would absolutely recommend that you buy one of these magical coffee makers.

Keurig VS Keurig 2.0

Having established that you want to buy such a brewer, which brand should you go for? In order to best answer that question, I prefer to talk about systems, rather than individual machines.

Two such systems – the main competitors in this market really – are Keurig and Tassimo by Bosch. Keurig is the leader (40% market share), and Tassimo is the second place runner-up (25%).

Keurig makes a few different types of pods, depending on the machine that they are intended for use with. The most commonly known is the original K-Cup, which is a plain pod that’s fed to the brand’s non-espresso brewing machines. It could (and can still be) be fed to licensed third-party machines as well, such as the excellent Cuisine Art, Breville, and Mr. Coffee options.

Keurig themselves have created a vast variety of such K-Cup pods in collaboration with other brands of coffee makers. Numerous third parties began producing them as well, without being directly involved with Keurig. The whole ecosystem is huge.

If you buy a brewing machine that’s able to accept the original K-Cup pods, you’ll have a virtually unlimited amount of choice in terms of coffee, specialty drinks, and tea pods to feed it.

Okay, so why are we even talking about Tassimo here? Well, Keurig didn’t really like that arrangement. They didn’t like the idea that third parties could make their own pods. They wanted to profit off each individual coffee that was ever made in one their machines.

As a result, Keurig 2.0, a new system of K-Cups arrived on the scene (they now have K-Carafe pods to brew larger quantities of coffee, too). These new K-Cups differ from the original ones because of the addition of a barcode on their lids.

The newer Keurig 2.0 K-Cups. Note the white border.

In theory this is a good idea. The barcode of sort (which doesn’t look like a bar code) tells these intelligent machines exactly how a particular pod should be brewed, resulting in better tasting coffee, cappuccino, or cup of tea.

In practice however, it means that if you buy one of the new Keurig machines you won’t be able to use all the original K-Cup pods that are available on the market at the moment (those that are sans barcodes, I mean). Instead you’ll be forced to stick with Keurig 2.0 K-Cups. The selection is decent but nowhere near as vast yet as that of the original K-Cups. In addition, so far at least, unlicensed third parties won’t be able to produce their own new K-Cups. And of course, the new K-Cups also cost more than the old ones.

Keurig is really taking a page from the printer manufacturers’ playbook (as they’ve been giving you printers for a song for ages now, but charging you a small fortune for the ink).

So you have a choice to make. You can buy one of the few remaining original K-Cup machines and risk seeing K-Cup be discontinued in two or three years time, [2] or you can buy a future-proof Keurig 2.0 machine and live with the limited, and even more costly, selection that’s currently available for it. [3]

Depending on your stance, you might find all this par for course – or you might be outraged.

The K500, a top of the line Keurig 2.0 brewer.

If you look at the reviews of new Keurig machines you’ll find that they are full of one stars. They are political one stars from people who are pissed that they bought a new machine and realized that they can’t just grab any K-Cup at the supermarket. They can’t use their own coffee through refillable pods either. They need to buy the more expensive ones with a white border instead (i.e., the Keurig 2.0 K-Cups).

Keurig vs Tassimo

The third choice would be Tassimo. Tassimo uses a system that they call T-discs, which also happen to utilize bar code technology. Unlike Keurig, there is no 1.0 and 2.0 at the moment. These pods are only available for Tassimo machines, but will work with any model of machine from this brand.

The selection is decent, [4] and there is definitely more than enough drink choices to satisfy most people’s tastes. That said however, the variety is objectively inferior to that of Keurig (the original system).

The machine that I bought for my own kitchen is actually a Tassimo T55. On top of the whole Keurig 2.0 controversy, I found it to have the following advantages:

Smaller footprint. Counter space is at premium in my kitchen.
Quieter and faster than Keurig. Coffee brewing starts immediately with Tassimo.
T-discs tend to be cheaper than Keurig 2.0 K-Cups.
Tassimo comes with a water filtering mechanism that introduces another cost (for the filter replacements), but should aid with the purity of your beverage.
I did a comparison tasting and found the taste of Tassimo to be much closer to that of gourmet coffee.
Less selection, though each one I’ve tried so far has been excellent. With Keurig it’s hit and miss.
Perceived to be of better build quality.
2 year warranty in North America, instead of the standard 1 year.
Currently significantly on sale. I got mine for $90.

There you have it. I’m extremely happy with my choice, but either would likely serve you well. I just wanted to give you more insight before you commit to one system or the other.

A few fancy brands aside, which hipsters knew of before they were mainstream, of course. 🙂 ↩
Third parties might help here, since they may continue to produce original K-Cups for years to come. The original Keurig system also allows you to use refillable pods with your own coffee, but that sort of defeats the purpose behind them, if you ask me. ↩
In fairness, both selection and price should adjust over time as more people acquire Keurig 2.0 machines. These machines also allow you to brew espresso, unlike the original Keurigs. ↩
Brands include Gevalia, Carte Noire, Kenco, King Of Joe, Maxwell House, Nabob, Tim Hortons, Yuban, Twinings, Corner Coffehouse, Suchard, etc. ↩

How to Get Your Canadian Citizenship

May 18, 2012 By Antonio Cangiano 84 Comments

Yesterday I took, and passed, the Canadian citizenship test. Much like obtaining the G1 license in Ontario, I didn’t find enough information online about the process, so I thought I would share some details regarding my personal experience here.

The process to obtain your Canadian citizenship

Before delving into the details of preparing and passing the citizenship test, I want to provide you with a quick overview of the entire process:

First you’ll need to determine if you are eligible to apply and then, if you are, apply for Canadian citizenship. You’ll need to be a permanent resident who’s been in the country long enough in order to do so.
Wait a long time. The current processing time is, on average, about 19 months. After several months, the status of your application will change to reflect the fact that your application has been received and is now being processed. Thankfully you can check the status of your citizenship application online. At some point you might receive a notice in the mail stating that your application has been accepted. This notice doesn’t mean that you’ll become a Canadian citizen for sure; just that the CIC has verified that your application was prepared correctly and will now be further processed.
Some time later, you’ll receive a notice to appear at a local citizenship and immigration center. This notice will tell you exactly what documents you need to bring, as well as the date and time of your meeting.
Once you pass your knowledge and linguistic ability test, you’ll be invited to a citizenship ceremony, which will is typically attended by yourself and your family and friends. Here you’ll receive a citizenship certificate, which (it’s worth noting) cannot be used for identification purposes (as the government wants you to apply for a passport instead).

Since most people already have citizenship from a different country (in my case, Italy), it’s important to note that Canada is happy to give you citizenship even if you plan to keep your original citizenship. Dual citizenship is allowed in Canada.

Other countries however may not allow you to keep your original citizenship or may require you to go through a process to let them know about your new citizenship. Either way, this has nothing to do with Canada, and you should contact your country of origin’s consulate in Canada for questions related to dual citizenship.

Back to the topic of the citizenship test itself, in this post I focus on the third step in the process outlined above, which is the least documented one. The fourth step is really straightforward. It’s just a formal ceremony where you’ll recite the oath of citizenship, sign and receive your citizenship certificate.

On the day of your citizenship test

You may wondering what things are going to be like on the day of your citizenship test. The notice you receive in the mail prior to this day will include details of where and when you need to appear. If you foresee not being able to attend on your scheduled test date, contact the CIC (by telephone) immediately to let them know and to reschedule your test.

It’s important that you arrive on time. In my case I arrived half an hour beforehand, and I suggest you do the same to be on the safe side. Nevertheless, in my case arriving early turned out to be a moot point because the appointment was at 1pm, and the office was closed between 12pm and 1pm for lunch. (At my local Kelowna center the opening hours were 10am-12pm, and 1pm-3pm, but I’m not 100% sure that your local center will have the same hours.)

You’ll be asked to provide your notice to the clerk at the window, and then to have seat. After a while you’ll be called in for registration. This is an informal interview that should not last more than 10-15 minutes. During this interview you’ll be asked to provide the original documents of the photocopies you sent in with your citizenship application, as well as a photocopy of your passport’s biographical information (basically the first two pages).

They won’t really tell you right there, but during this short interview you’re actually being tested on your linguistic skills (whether you opt to have a conversation in English or French is up to you). The interviewer may ask you generic questions about your life, why you moved here, where you work, and so on. They should not ask you knowledge based questions at this point. This step is primarily done to figure out if your English or French is good enough for you to to become a Canadian citizen.

If your English (or French, if you chose French) is considered to be poor, you won’t be taking the written knowledge test. Instead, you’ll be scheduled to meet with a judge who will ask you knowledge questions and then make a final decision regarding whether your linguistic skills are good enough for you to be granted citizenship.

If your English (or French) is poor to the point of not being able to communicate with at least a certain degree of ease, the immigration official is, in theory, allowed to fail you as though you had failed the knowledge test (more on this topic in a moment). I don’t believe this happens very often though, as they are very understanding of linguistic challenges, but you should be able to communicate in one of the two official languages in order to obtain your Canadian citizenship.

Once this registration/linguistic test is over, you’re asked to take a seat in the waiting room. After everyone (in the room with you) has registered, you’ll be invited into a different room where the actual knowledge test will take place.

The Citizenship Knowledge test

The knowledge test is aimed at verifying your understanding of:

The rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizens
Canadian knowledge (history, geography, culture, political system, etc)

All the information you need to know in order to pass the test is contained within the Discover Canada guide, which is available for free in print, online, as an ebook, audiobook, and even in iPhone format. This guide is only 50 page long, but it contains a significant amount of details, names, and dates. Do not wait to open up the guide for the first time the day before the test, as this will most likely not give you enough time to adequately study and go on to pass the test.

Key Federal Government Figures

The citizenship knowledge test contains 20 questions, and you are provided with 4 possible answers for each of them. You need to circle the correct answer for all of these questions on the sheet provided. If you get five or less questions wrong, you’ll pass the test. If you get six or more wrong, you’ll fail. Each applicant gets their own completely randomly generated set of 20 questions, so there’s no way to base your own test questions directly off of those someone else may have had.

The fail rate has increased over the last few years. This used to be a trivial test with a mere 5% failure rate. Today however that number has climbed to over 30%. This is to say, you’ll probably pass, but you need to actually study in order to do so. Your average Canadian citizen polled at random on these questions would not pass the test.

You are given 30 minutes to complete the test, which might not seem like that long, but to be honest, it should be plenty of time for most people. I had 19 of the 20 questions answered within two minutes of sitting down. One question’s phrasing was a bit ambiguous so I spent some time thinking about which answer was “more correct” in their view.

I don’t remember all the questions that I was presented with, but there was definitely a mix of both very basic and somewhat harder ones on the test. For example, among the basic questions, they asked me about Canada’s winter and summer sports (hockey and lacrosse, respectively), who the Prime Minister was (Stephen Harper), and who sits at the House of Commons (MPs elected by citizens to represent their electoral district).

As well I remember questions about things such as which are the Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick), and which provinces formed the Confederation in 1867 (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick). Topics such as what the highest honor in Canada is (Victoria Cross), who the first Prime Minister (Sir John A. MacDonald) was, and where the majority of Quebec’s population lives (St. Lawrence’s river) were also covered in my sampling of test questions.

I don’t remember the exact questions for the, supposedly more advanced questions, but I believe they delved into such things as when Nunavut became a territory (April 1, 1999), Vimy Ridge, D-Day and Juno Beach, and the names of early Canadian explorers.

Once you are done answering the questions, you leave the room and wait outside. After a little bit someone will come out to inform you regarding whether you passed or failed the test (but no score or feedback on the specific questions will be provided). If you pass, you’ll also receive a notice in the mail inviting you to attend a ceremony where you’ll take the oath and receive your citizenship certificate. In my case this will take place at the end of next month, six or so weeks after the knowledge test, but I’m sure these dates vary a lot depending on your own location.

The whole citizenship test process took about an hour and a half, but this too will depend on the number of people attending the test, how many government employees are working that day, etc.

If you fail the knowledge test, they’ll schedule an interview with a judge on a different date. The judge will ask you to prove your knowledge to see if you’re ready to become a citizen yet or not. If you are, you may receive your citizenship. If you aren’t, I believe you’ll have to reapply for citizenship from scratch (a process that takes at least a year and a half).

Preparing for the Canadian citizenship test

Since the stakes for failing the knowledge test are high, I really recommend that you study the guide in-depth before attempting the test. Personally, I made the mistake of starting to study the guide only a few days before my test. As a result, I had to cram a ton of information into a very short amount of time. Thankfully, I ended up being over-prepared for the test, which I found to be quite easy compared to some of the obscure facts I had learned (from the official guide) in preparation for the citizenship test.

Ideally you’ll want to start studying from the day that you receive the notice onwards. If you do, hopefully you’ll find the test to be easy and will save yourself a lot of last minute stress.

If all you do is read the guide through once, cover to cover, you’ll probably fail the test. Read/study it at least a couple of times and then take as many practice tests as you can. Also, don’t forget to look up information about key government figures in your own province or territory. I personally made sure I knew even the names of the leaders of the opposition parties at both the federal and provincial level (I knew the federal ones already, having a keen interest in politics, but I had to look up and memorize the local ones for British Columbia, the province where I now live.)

Key B.C. Provincial Government Figures

I have found the following citizenship practice tests to be beneficial. 90% of the questions on my actual citizenship test were not new to me, as I had encountered very similar ones before through these practice tests.

Canadian Citizenship Test iPhone/iPad app by Jonathan Lum
Citizenship Flash Cards iPhone/iPad app by Tip Top Good Studio
Practice Tests by V-Soul
Practice Tests by Richmond Public Library
Workbook Canada Citizenship Test

Keep in mind that some of the answers for things that change may be slightly outdated on these tests (e.g., who the leader of the Opposition Party is), but generally speaking they do a terrific job at helping you prepare.

I truly believe that if you can pass the practice tests with ease, you won’t have a problem with the real one, as many of the sample questions are extremely close to the real deal.

Should you face a question for which you truly don’t know the answer, you can start by excluding the answers that you feel are obviously wrong. Usually you’ll instinctively feel that 2 out the 4 possible answers are wrong. If you can narrow it down to two choices, you have a 50% chance of picking the right one.

Many non-profit organizations provide free classes to help you prepare for the test as well. I went to the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Service center for the first time a couple of days before my test, so there was no time for me to take an actual course. However I did get to have a volunteer test me on my knowledge (by asking me sample questions).

Similar organizations exist all across the country and if you contact your nearest one as soon as you receive your notice to appear (or sooner, if you want to get a lot of prep work in), you’ll be able to attend classes on the material you need to learn and will feel less like you’re on your own throughout the study process. (A list of local organizations of this kind are provided on the pinky-orange colored sheet of paper you should receive with your notice to appear.)

In conclusion, if you prepare for the test, you stand a good chance of coming out just fine. Best of luck to you, soon to be, fellow Canadian citizen.

Comparing Six of the Best Penticton Gyms

May 5, 2012 By Antonio Cangiano 8 Comments

Update (Jun 21, 2012): For the past three weeks I’ve been going to Riverside Fitness and I’m very happy with it so far.

Update (Aug 8, 2013): Some of the details contained within this review are now outdated. For example, Riverside is no longer offering a $60 month-to-month plan. You either sign up for a full year or opt for an expensive month-to-month plan (I believe $95/month at the time of writing). Nevertheless, reading this post will still give you plenty of general information about the gyms at hand. For the record, I now lift at The Gym.

Despite being a small city, Penticton has a variety of gyms to choose from. As I want to find one for myself, I decided to do a bit of footwork and go visit six such facilities, asking for a tour and information about membership at each.

In this article I share my first impressions of each of these gyms, as I hope these thoughts will help others in the same spot and perhaps lead you to find the best gym in Penticton.

In the order that I visited them, the gyms that I considered were:

Riverside Fitness & Health Pros

The facility is very new and clean.
Free parking is available immediately next to the entrance. (The irony of including parking distance in a review about gyms doesn’t escape me.)
This gym is the only truly 24 hour facility in town, once you’ve purchased a key fob (for a one time payment of $49.99). With that key you can let yourself in at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year (holidays included). This aspect is very appealing to me, and I’m sure it is to others as well.
The receptionist, Katy, is friendly and professional. Of all the facilities I’ve visited, she was the only person who offered a tour voluntarily. They took my name and a few details, and then offered me a couple of free sessions in exchange for my feedback in an email survey. From a marketing standpoint they were the most proactive in trying to get my business, yet were not obnoxious or overly pushy at any time.
Riverside Fitness & Health is very quiet and doesn’t appear to be too busy. According to Katy, “There are at most 8 people here at any one time”. When I was there, preciseley 3 people were working out.
The facility does not include any stairs (having arthritis in both of my legs, stairs are not the kind of exercise I need).
A few classes are included in the basic membership, allowing you to take one class of your choice per day. These are Yoga, Spinning~~, Bosu, and TRX Body Blasts~~. Additional classes are available for those who’ve opted for more expensive memberships or for an additional fee in the case of specialty classes such as crossfit. In particular, they have an excellent Pilates studio/room, however availing of which requires their most expensive (over $200 a month) membership.
Free towel service. Got to like that.
Affordable: $60/month pay as you go, or $49/month on a 12 month contract. (Yearly gym membership contracts are rarely a good idea, unless you really get into working out frequently after a few months of paying as you go.)

Riverside Fitness & Health Cons

The facility is pretty small compared to some of the other gyms in town. Although not busy, there are just two treadmills, two ellipticals, etc.
There isn’t a circuit available, such as the Nautilus system.
No pool.
Basic Plus membership ,which includes all standard classes (so no specialty classes, for which you need to pay individually), is a bit expensive at $120/month pay as you go, or $99/month on a 12 month contract.

The Gym Pros

A very nice, clean facility that’s centrally located.
Free underground parking (hard to find above ground parking during most daytime hours otherwise).
It’s a 24 hour facility, sort of. It’s continuously open from 5am on Monday until 8pm on Friday. Then it’s open from 8am to 6pm on Saturday, and 8am to 5pm on Sunday. On holidays they are open from 8am to 12pm. So essentially, you won’t be able to work out between 8pm on Friday and 8am on Saturday, from 6pm on Saturday until 8am on Sunday, and from 5pm on Sunday until 5am on Monday. If you are a weekend night owl, this may not work for you, but otherwise it’s close enough to being 24 hours.
The Gym is fairly large with a variety of up-to-date equipment in the weight and cardio department, including a Nautilus circuit for quick, safe resistance workouts.
Tanning and child minding services are available for an additional fee, unless you get their gold membership ($300 for 3 months or $91.74/mo on a yearly plan; there’s no monthly plan offered at the gold membership level), in which case they’re included. I personally have no need for either, but they’re worth mentioning as an advantage of this Penticton gym over some of the others. The gold membership also includes classes and two free shakes per month.
Ionized air to reduce the spread of microbial contamination.
They have a bar with healthy choices, should you need to recharge after your workout.
It looks like The Gym is the place to be if you’re serious about bodybuilding, judging by the clientele.
An Infrared sauna is available for free on premise.
There’s a ladies only section of the weight room.
Affordable: $60/month pay as you go, or $50/month on a 12 month contract. A three year contract drops the membership fee down as low as $42.67 per month.

The Gym Cons

The Gym has a strong “Bro” culture. Think, “You gotta work on your quads, bro. Here have a protein shake, bro” level of broness. The crowd frequenting the facility seems to be young and testosterone laden, including shirtless Hulk-like individuals. This in turn makes the place much more intimidating for regular folks, when compared to any other gym in town.
Classes are not included in the basic membership and they cost a lot (from $45 and up a month) if you don’t opt for the gold membership (which is expensive in and of itself).
This place is probably the busiest gym in Penticton. Thankfully they have lots of equipment available so this shouldn’t be a massive problem.
Free clean towel service is not included in monthly pay as you go memberships.
They don’t have a swimming pool.

City Centre Health & Fitness Pros

Less flashy than the previous two gyms, but still a large facility located on the third floor of a downtown building.
Decent hours (5am – 10pm Monday to Thursday, 5am – 9pm on Friday, and 8am to 6pm on the weekend.)
Free towel and locker key service.
Free weekly yoga class on Friday.
In summer, spinning classes are held on top of the roof.
Quite a few classes are available for an extra fee.
Good mix of people attending the facility.
Not overly busy with plenty of cardio and weight equipment (which is pretty advanced and new). A circuit is available as well.
Cheap: $50/month for pay as you go, or $40/month on a yearly contract.

City Centre Health & Fitness Cons

Unless you buy a membership that’s three months or longer, you don’t receive free parking on the pay as you go plan. This means that you are faced with the challenge of parking downtown. The options are parking a couple of streets away (on Winnipeg Street) or sticking to the free parking that’s available on Main Street, in which case you need to be in and out in less than an hour. Not cool.
Classes are not included in the membership.
They also don’t have a pool.

Penticton Racquet & Fitness Club Pros

A very large facility with more than just cardio and weight rooms. It includes squash and racquetball courts, as well as a few special amenities like the possibility of booking a massage therapist on site.
Free parking right next to the entrance.
Decent opening hours (6am – 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am – 6pm Saturday, 8am to 4pm Sunday.)
Quiet and idle.
There’s a ladies only room.
Affordable: $60/month pay as you go, or $50 on a yearly plan.

Penticton Racquet & Fitness Club Cons

Clientele mostly comprised of old men, if that matters to you. 🙂
There are a few stairs to get to the weight room.
Use of both court and equipment requires an all-inclusive membership for $80/month (or $65 on a year contract).
Despite the presence of quite a few machines, both the cardio and weight rooms combined were not as big as one would expect in such a large facility.
Classes are not included in the membership.
They don’t have a pool.

Lakeside Fitness Pros

Decent sized facility which includes a small, but adequate sized, pool and whirlpool.
Large class/activities area.
Nautilus circuit available.
Free parking with membership (but only on the second and third floor of the parking structure, otherwise it’s pay by the hour).
Decent opening hours (6am – 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am – 6pm on the weekend.)
Child minding available.
Quiet and idle.
They offer a complementary orientation or personal training session to get you familiar with the facility and equipment.
Cheap: $50/month pay as you go, or $30/month if paying for a full year in advance. The price includes use of the pool and whirlpool as well.

Lakeside Fitness Cons

Much less flashy or new looking than the other places in town.
For some reason it’s also darker than other gyms in Penticton.
There are some stairs to get to the weight room.
Located next to the Casino, so it’s in a pretty busy area (including a busy parking lot).
Cardio equipment is available in 10 minute bursts, for which you need to put your name down for a given machine on a schedule that’s available on the wall (which limits you to 40 minutes maximum per machine).
Classes are not included in membership and are relatively expensive ($55/month).

Penticton Community Center Pros

Stunning pool and whirlpool facility. The pool is huge and includes 10 lanes, plus there’s a lifeguard on duty at all times. It’s the best facility in Penticton from this standpoint.
Plenty of parking available near the entrance.
The weight and cardio room all has the essentials you’ll likely need.
Large changing rooms.
Decent hours (between 6am – 8pm weekdays on the summer, 8:30am – 4pm on the weekend.)
Affordable: $54/month with pay as you go, or $379 (the equivalent of $31.58/month) if you opt for a yearly membership.

Penticton Community Centre Cons

Tons of children running around in the pool area. It’s not exactly a calm, quiet environment.
There are a number of concrete stairs in order to get to the weight and cardio room.
Less furnished than other Penticton gyms. In particular, I didn’t see a circuit or a huge number of machines.
Showers are completely open in the men’s changing room, which means you really don’t get much in the way of privacy.
Pool not included in the standard membership. Pool and Fitness (combined) rates are $89/month, or $629 if paying for a full year in advance.
The whole facility smells like chlorine everywhere (not just in/around the pool).
As is often the case with community centers, they tend to attract a, how shall we say, diverse clientele. As I was touring the facility I was approached by a well-meaning but completely crazy in the coconut man who asked me if I was a bodybuilding instructor. Trust me, I look nothing like one. He then engaged me in a very weird and very creepy conversation, from which I bailed out as politely as I could. Of course, you can meet a guy like that anywhere, but I think you’re less likely to face that problem in gyms that are not operated by the city.

At the end of the day, I feel it’s remarkable that there are so many gym options in such a small city. Which of these is the best gym in Penticton? Hard to say. It really depends on what you want and need.

To me, the possibility of going to the gym anytime I want is really important. During the day I’m very busy, so I can really see myself randomly showing up to work out at 4am sometimes. This would pretty much limit the field to the first two options, Riverside Fitness & Health and The Gym.

At the time of writing I haven’t decided yet between these two. The good news is that with no yearly commitment, I can always try one and switch to a different gym the following month, if I’m not happy with my first choice. I’ll post an update here regarding which one I opt for within the near future.

A few updates from the Okanagan

April 24, 2012 By Antonio Cangiano 3 Comments

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It’s a warm, quiet night so I thought I’d spend a couple of hours catching up on my blogging. In particular, I thought I’d post a brief update on what’s been transpiring in my life as of late.

It’s worth nothing that in my personal blog I haven’t adopted a particular blogging strategy when it comes to the type of content I opt to publish (such as the ones I advocate in my book.) Rather I aim at writing interesting posts regardless of subject, and offer family, friends, and “followers” a way to keep up with various going-ons in my world.

The big news at the moment is that my wife and I recently moved to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia (specifically Penticton) from Toronto. It’s hard to believe that it’s been only two months since we left the hustle and bustle of urban Ontario. We went through so much stress/work/change, that it feels like half a year has gone by since then.

Our new house

Our new place is a stunning little house on two levels (plus basement). It has 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, and a good sized area that we’ve utlized as a craft room for my wife’s scrapbooking and vintage addiction. Decorating the house the way we like wasn’t cheap, but people can’t stop complimenting us on how nice and classy it looks, so evidently that was money well spent. Suffice it to say, it was a fun and crazy shopping spree. I’ve never spent so much money in so little time. Thankfully that has come to a halt now, as we have all our bases covered. 😉

I even acquired one hell of a BBQ which has seven burners in total and can cook up to 37 burgers (or something like that) at the same time. I’m quickly becoming a master of outdoor cooking — and I’ve never felt so North American before. 😛

The actual renovation (which came before we arrived and started decorating and adding fancy furniture) was done by my father-in-law’s renovation company, who did an amazing job. The place looked brand new the second we arrived. I’ll try to take some pictures soon and post them here for you to see.

What really strikes me as being different is that our new home is located in a cul de sac near a creek and therefore is much quieter than the 23rd floor apartment directly above the busiest highway in Canada where we used to live in back in Toronto. In fact, all I can hear right now is the sound of the water babbling a mere 200 feet or so away. Very zen-like, I tell you.

My office is smaller than it was at our old house, but I love it nevertheless. Living in such a quiet environment enables me to better concentrate on work and other productivity tasks when I’m on the computer.

Penticton is beautiful

Penticton turned out to be bigger than I expected. Before coming to live here I’d thought of it as a small town, but it’s really more of a small city. There are very few things that it lacks and I love that any destination is just five minutes away. Even for things not available locally (e.g., the upcoming arrival of Target in Canada), there is a larger nearby city (Kelowna) located less than an hour away which usually gets you covered.

This town is stunning. It’s located between two lakes and it has an amazing mountain backdrop. It’s hard not to fall in love with this place and I can see why it’s one of the number one destinations in which wealthy people choose to retire in Canada.

In my experience people are very friendly around here as well, much more so than in Toronto. This can likely be attributed to the fact that Penticton is a much smaller city. It’s nice to see a more upbeat and relaxed approach to life by the locals, as this outlook helps puts one in a good mood.

As one might assume, it’s a much less multicultural area as well, so people may find my Italian accent to be somewhat of a novelty, and they may be more prone to ask about my background, how I ended up here, etc, and to show a genuine interest in talking to me.

I’m truly enjoying this little city, and I absolutely love and cherish being so close to my parents-in-law. They are kind, wonderful people who care about my wife and me, and I genuinely love to spend time with them.

B.C. driver license acquired

I got my B.C.’s drivers license and can now drive on my own. It turned out that my Ontario’s learner license (G1) was not transferable to British Columbia. So I had to restart the process from scratch and retake the theory test. I did it on the spot upon learning about this setback, without studying, as I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t be too different from what I learned in Ontario. I’m happy to say that such was the case and I passed on my first try.

As a result I immediately regained my status as learner and was able to amply practice driving with my in-laws and their cars for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait for a full year before being able to take the actual driving test, as they were able to credit the time I spent practicing as a learner in Ontario towards my B.C. license. I took the driving test in mid-March and passed on my first try as well. Now I’m an N driver, which carries a few limitations, but essentially allows me to drive on my own everywhere I wish.

The B.C.’s driving test is definitely more challenging than the Ontario one because it tends to last much longer (30-60 minutes, at least here in the Okanagan.) The streets are less busy, but they also have more oneways, school zones, roundabouts, and other occasions to fail as an inexperienced driver. I’m glad I beat the incredibly high rate of first timers who fail at this examination center.

Another difference is how afforable insurance is in BC. In Ontario it would have cost me several hundred dollars a month for a basic package. Here I only pay less than $250 and get full coverage, including vandalism, theft, etc. This was a pleasant surprise which enabled me to consider the purchase of a nicer car than I expected.

My new car

Truth be told I had a major incentive to get my driver license right away. Sitting in my driveway was my new car — a nice Jaguar S-Type. About a week before, when I was still a learner, I went to North Vancouver to purchase the car and drove it all the way back to Penticton (250+ miles) with my in-laws.

What an amazing experience it was to suddenly be driving surrounded by mountains, lakes, and nature in general. I was afraid of crashing the car before even getting it home, but thankfully nothing bad happened.

My father-in-law, who was a mechanic for ages, could not believe how new the car was under the hood. He told me point blank, “If you are not buying it, I am. This is a steal.” With only 40,000 miles on it and being the third luxury vehicle of an elderly gentleman (single owner), the car is virtually new inside and out and I can’t believe my luck in having scored such a wonderful car. How many people who don’t have wealthy parents can claim that their first car was a Jaguar? 🙂

Jokes aside, I love how comfortable and smooth the car is. I can really tell the difference when I’m driving someone else’s non-luxury car. Even newish cars feel bumpy and uncomfortable by comparison. The heated leather seats are even more comfortable than my couch or office chair.

Diet on hold

The bad news is that I’ve put my diet on hold during this period. I shouldn’t have, but I did for convenience sake. We spent several weeks at my in-laws, while our new house was being prepared and as we were waiting for our belongings to arrive from Ontario. Having to measure grams and calories (well, Weight Watchers points) for everything when you are staying at someone else’s house and eating out frequently, was a bit too much.

I decided to give myself a break from the diet to make these two months be a little easier, as they were exciting and stressful enough without having to worry about diet, weight, etc. Despite being much more active, I have gained back a little bit of weight as a result of being more lax with my diet.

But I’m not going to bullshit you. It’s still an excuse. I could very well have decided to stick to the WW plan. Thankfully, not all is lost. I’ll be back on the horse in a matter a days (I’m restarting my diet in May).

Getting back into photography

Now that I’ve a car for the first time in my life (growing up, my parents didn’t have one either), I’m discovering how many opportunities it opens up. I still catch myself thinking, “Oh I can’t do that, you’d need a car… Oh, right, I have one.” Photography has always been my main non-work-related hobby. I love it so much that I’ve even considered making it my profession at various times throughout my life.

I discovered that having a car changed my perspective on photography. In an old article I mentioned how I bought a compact camera because carrying around the DSLR and lenses was such a hassle. Imagine taking the bus and having to carry a heavy backpack laden with expensive photography equipment with you. Not having a car definitely affected the amount of use I got out of my pro-level equipment.

Now that I have a car, taking my camera and lenses with me when I’m out and about is a no brainer. I’ve also found that the Lowepro backpack I use works beautifully as a bag when opened up in the trunk of the car. Before I felt it was useless for my needs.

Practicality of carrying the equipment aside, the car allows me to scout better locations (for portraits), and enables me to photograph a greater variety of interesting subjects and locations.

My burning passion for photography, which never waned, really wants to take advantage of my new found mobility and freedom. I also tend to wake up quite early in the morning as I tend to start working at 9am EST (which is 6am here in B.C.), so my work day is generally over by 2 or 3 pm, which leaves me with plenty of time to go out and shoot. Of course, the downside is that I can’t go to sleep at 3am like I used to. But all in all, I feel that this new arrangement works well.

I’m including three pictures here which I’ve recently taken sine getting back into photography. They are respectively my beautiful wife Jessica, my beautiful mother-in-law Lynn, and the location spot near Skaha beach at the Okanagan Falls where I took Lynn’s portrait.

Equipment wise I’m still pretty good, even though my 30D is starting to be a bit old at this point. I bought it 6 years ago and it has only 8.2 megapixels, not a great number if you need to crop and make big prints like I do (megapixels are not so important per se, but the camera has other shortcomings as well). So I’ve been eyeing the Canon EOS 5D Mark III like crazy lately. With all the expenses we’ve been dealing with recently however, I’ll probably hold off for a few months before acquiring it. But it’s definitely on my wish list.

I’m also happy to have found a solid color management workflow thanks to the recent purchase of a Spyder4 Pro and a ColorChecker Passport. The first one calibrates your monitor, while the second one effectively helps you calibrate your camera so that the RAW images have a custom profile applied to them which makes the recorded colors as close to the real colors as possible. It’s micro-optimization stuff for sure, but as an engineer I like this kind of exact geekery. I should blog about this type of stuff soon as I’m sure others are considering these kinds of tools and wonder if they’re worth it.

OK, this is enough of a narcissistic fix for now. I don’t usually talk so much about myself, the things I own, etc, but they’ve been such large changes in my life lately that I felt they were worth sharing.

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