I really wanted to talk about Koodo with you, but I wanted to test things out for myself first. 

First let me say, this is a Canadian service just for us people. 

Hype about Koodo Mobile has been popping up all over the place.  Posters and ads claiming no contracts, no hidden fees, free phones, free activation...all seemed pretty good.  But are they as good as they claim?

I picked mine up from London Drugs.  They currently only have 4 models of phones to choose from, but each is different and very decent. I personally picked a slim Motokrzr.  It has a 1.3 megapixel camera in it, as well as a MP3 player.  The others available are the LG Shine, Motorola W385 and a Samsung U410.

The TAB

Now, once you've picked your phone you can two one of two things.  You can buy the phone outright (which costs $75 to $250 CND) or you can put up a Tab.  A tab is not a contract, but a way to get your phone for free.  It's $150 attached to your account. Basically, you talk your way out of your tab.  Every month, Koodo takes 10% of your bill and applied it to your tab.  They continue to do this even when your tab is paid off, leaving you extra cash a new phone later on if you like.

Now that's cool.  My tab is already down to $144 and I've only been with them a month. And they do plan on adding new phones in the future.

The Plans

Plan time.  No contract, but no pay and talk crap either.  You pick how much you want to spend and pick a plan that meets your needs.  Don't like them? Make your own damn plan! They have 3 ready made plans at $25, $45 and $65 a month. But you can mix and match all you like. You can add all the goodies like voicemail, call display, long distance, five essentials...whatever you like.

There is the best part.  You can change your plan once a billing cycle and change your features whenever you like! When I played with the feature cycle, I added voicemail and it took 2 minutes for the system to set it up and I could access it.  Impressive.

Coverage and Clarity

I was really worried about dropped calls and clarity of the phone.  My Telus phone was less then impressive when it came to cutting out and dropping calls.  I haven't had a problem with Koodo yet.  They are surprisingly clear and easy to hear.  I have only had one spot where I could not get service and that was down in a valley near the river.

Their coverage map is decent for a new company. They could use a bit more in BC and Ontario, but they are new and they have plans for expansion. They does cover 96% of our population though.

No Fees

When the bill came, it was nice to see that they were true to their promise.  I paid for nothing but my plan and features.  They suck up the costs of the System Access Fee, the 911 fees...all that crap.  But you still get the service for it all.  I like that.  A lot.

It's worth checking out if you are not happy with your current cell service.  So far, I haven't been so happy with my cell phone in years.

KOODO MOBILE

You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars.

~Gary Allen~

Oh, the full moon always creates an interesting night for me.

It has been bloody hot here lately.  I'm talking 30-35C degrees the last few days.  And after a long and hot day yesterday, we decided to go down to the river to cool off. 

Of course, it was too hot to go in the daytime and by the time everyone was ready, it was after 9pm.  Josh and I grabbed the dogs and his mom and hopped in the car.  His dad got in the Mustang with Cory, and we followed Ryan and Jessica in the Jeep and headed down to the park in the dark.  When we got there, it was 10pm, so we had a good hour before the gates closed. 

The moon was huge, full and hanging in the sky that night.  I made a comment on the way to the river that something was going to happen.  It sure did.

Ryan drove his Jeep right down to the river and did a bit of driving around.  He wanted to go across and take a trail across the river.  So after he shined some light for us to walk back up to our cars, he took off.  Cory took off to go home and we followed shortly after. 

To get to the river, you take about a 5 minute drive down a long winding hill.  We got not far up when the car ahead of us started having flickering lights.  What's going on? The car stops and as we get closer we see it's the Mustang.  Cory gets out, slams his door and starts cursing his car.  It's dead. Again.

And Ryan with his tow rope is no where to be seen and none of us have cell phone service down there.  Well we can't leave it on this narrow little road in the middle of the hill, so we decided to turn it around, coast it down the hill and park it at the park entrance. We get it part way turned, taking up half the road when a truck comes racing up.  We manage to make sure they don't hit Cory's front end and they did stop.  A little drunk, but 4 big guys who helped us get that car turned in no time.  Cory tried to jump start it down the hill, but no go.  So he coasted down to the park.

Now the lady was getting ready to close the gate and told him he couldn't leave it outside or it was a $500 fine.  We managed to convince her to put it inside the gate and we'd be back the next day. 

It was a long night...that's for sure.

I want to introduce you to Cuil (that's pronounced "cool"). A new rival for Google.  A new way to look at searching the web.  If you haven't heard about this, it's about time you did.

First, lets take a look at the team behind Cuil.  The CEO and Co-Founder created Xift and worked for IBM.  The President/Co-founder worked for Google on their search index (TeraGoogle).  She was also the manager for GoogleBase and Google's ad-matching technology.  The VP of Engineering/Co-Founder also worked at Google on web ranking and spam detection.  There are defiantly some brains behind this operation.  The rest of the team is just as impressive.

Cuil believes that the Internet is huge and they want to create the solution on how to index the whole Internet and how to analyze its pages.  Did I mention they boast to have indexed more pages then Google already?

They have also adopted a Privacy Policy worthy of today's standards.  You'll have to take my word on that one, or take a look for yourself.

So let us go a bit deeper.  A Drilldown helps you explore your search a bit deeper.  Perhaps you are searching a new topic and are unsure about it, this will help you learn more.  See a word you are unfamiliar with? Roll over it...pop up definitions are a big part of Cuil. Tabs have been integrated into the page for better result categorizing and it will try and suggest things as you are typing in your search.  It's defiantly something new.

Now, don't expect to like it right away.  It is an odd set up.  It's different and can be hard to get used to.  I backed waaay off when I first heard about it, but the more research I do about the more I want to give it a chance.  Read the FAQ.

What does the name Cuil mean?

Tom Costello, our founder and CEO, comes from Ireland, a country with a rich mythology around the quest for wisdom. Cuil is the Gaelic word for both knowledge and hazel, and features prominently in ancient legend. One famous story tells of a salmon that ate nine hazelnuts that had fallen into the Fountain of Wisdom and thereby gained all the knowledge in the world. Whoever ate the salmon would acquire this knowledge.

A famous poet fished for many years on the River Boyne hoping to catch the Salmon of Knowledge. When he finally caught it, he gave it to his young apprentice Finn McCuil to prepare, warning him not to eat any. As Finn cooked the salmon he burnt his thumb and instinctively sucked it to ease the pain. And so it was Finn and not the poet who gained all the wisdom of the world. Finn went on to become one of the great heroes of Irish folklore. Any time he needed to know the answer to a question, he sucked his thumb.

As a child Tom poached salmon from the same spot on the Boyne where it is said the Salmon of Knowledge was caught.

http://www.cuil.com

Another trip to the doctor today has resulted in multiple more blood tests.  One very new and slightly scary one, of which I'm not going to share quite yet.  Once I see the results, we'll talk more about it.

I've always wondered why I was chosen to be the sickie.  I've been sick in some way for as long as I can remember, and no matter what I do, something else just arises that has to be taken care of. 

It defiantly stresses other people out too...Josh is always worrying about me and doesn't understand...same with the rest of my family. But you take it as it comes.  Or at least, that's what I try to do.

I don't have a lot to say because I have so much on my mind.  I'm not sure which things to express here and which not to. 

Josh and I took a day trip with his parents down to Jasper, to let them see the mountains before they head back to the island.  There are no words needed...and truly not even the pictures do Jasper justice.

He just turned 3 years old...and he must feel like a man now.

He's a tall, wide cat and makes our other cat, who is 6 years old, look like a kitten.  But as much as he likes to think he's the man, he's always been just a little sook.

Loves to stretch out on the leather or in your legs in bed and just purr.  Sure, he has to pee in the dirt in the summer.  Cause he's a man, you know! And sure he walks with a strut and woo'd the little black cat of the neighborhood.  But still a sook.

But now.  Well now he has reached his peak! Or at least he thinks so.

A couple days ago I woke up to a Chaos standing on my chest talking to me.  There were purrs and little meows and rubbing...I pet him and went back to sleep.  I figured he just needed some food or something and he was going to wait.  So an hour later, I got up and wandered out to the living room, where Chaos promptly woke up, stood up and began to make noises at me again.

Okay, okay, I said.  I went to his food dish.  But to my surprise, it wasn't empty! Inside was a dead mole. (or at least I believe it's a mole, looks a little different then a mouse.  Could be a big old mouse though too.)

Well now, imagine that! He kept on meowing, so I reached over and scratched his head.  He was so proud of himself.  He strutted and rubbed my hand.  I sat down and gave him some love and he fell right back asleep.  Must have been a long night!

Now forward on to last night.  Why am I up at 2am? What is with all the noise? Why is the dog whimpering?

*squeek squeek*

Ugh, dog is making his cage squeek. I wake again about 4am.

*whimper* *squeek* *SQUEEK* *thud*

Ok what the hell? I look up and Chaos is sitting near our closet, looking at a pile of dirty clothes.  Uh oh.  I quickly realize that the squeek is not the cage and is in face some sort of rodent lurking in our house.

Now I have the heebie jeebies.  It's in my clothes. In my bedroom. *shivers* I watch Chaos, hoping he would get him right away, but no luck. I poke Josh until he wakes up.  We proceed to watch Chaos for an hour. He chases it out of the room and into a seat cover that is on the floor outside of our room.  He likes this game.  The cover moves, he pounces.

Finally, some more squeeking ensues, and Chaos has the mouse.  Josh starts to laugh, but he won't let me look.  Chaos is throwing the mouse in the air, letting it fall and then chasing it again.  I guess it still has some kick in it.

Later on I look and watch him carry off the little mouse.  Wondering if he put it in the food dish, Josh gets up to look where he finds the mouse beside the bowl.  Chaos is eating.  And once he makes a whole in the food, he drops the mouse in it and comes back to us to let us know.

Now, the hunter is sleeping.  Josh has nicknamed him Killer.  He certainly has discovered something he likes.  Now if I could just find out where the damn mice are coming from....