John Parillo Blog

24h to go before i take on the 24 hour stair climbing marathon to benefit cancer research!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:58:00 +0000

What seemed impossible at first is now within reach! I am only, as of this morning, $154 away from $1000 to benefit cancer research. I can't thank you enough! I never though at first I could be so close from this goal. Thanks to all the supporters! I think we can reach this goal together!

This event is for an important cause. In our family, our neighborhood, our circle of friends or our co-workers, we all know people who have been touched by cancer. Uncles, Aunts, Grand parents, close friend, we don?t have to look too far. Cancer touches everyone. It touches all of our lives

This is one of the reasons why I?m taking on this huge challenge. Cancer is becoming more and more present in our lives and we need to support the efforts in finding treatments and a cure. I also hope, by participating to this challenge, to spread the message among my colleagues, friends and family that it is equally important to lead a healthy and active living.

Step Up For The Cure starts this Saturday September 26 at noon and ends noon on Sunday at Percival Molson Stadium (475, ave des Pins O, Montr�al, QC). And yes! You can come and cheer me in person! Your presence will be greatly appreciated! But be warned, for those who come, you might be forced to climb some steps with me :-)

Show your support and donate to this great cause! Spread the word!

Ways to donate
* Online : http://bit.ly/stepup and click � Donate Now � ;
* In person: Fill the donation form and hand it over me before 16h00 Friday

* For all donations of $10 or more, a tax receipt will be issued provided that the form has complete information

For more information about the event, please visit: http://www.stepupforthecure.com/

Step Up For The Cure Update

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Little less than 2 weeks to go before the event! I have been training hard everyday to get ready and endure this physical challenge. Fund raising has been going strong. I have collected, as of today, $346 online on my fund raising site and $165 in person for a grand total of $511! Thank you all for your support and generosity! I'm hoping to raise over $600 for the event, I have less than 9 days to achieve that, i think it's a realistic goal.

For all of those who have asked, YES! You can come to the event to visit and cheer for me. But be warned, for those who come, you might be forced to climb some steps :-)

The event takes place in Montreal @ McGill Molson Stadium (475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H2W 1S4 ) on September 26-27 from noon to noon. Will be a pleasure to see you while I run the marathon.

For more information of the event, please visit my fund raising site.

For those willing to make a one-time contribution, your donation will be greatly appreciated and it is for a good cause. To donate, visit my fund raising site.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting videos and pictures of my training and the Step Up For The Cure event.

Step Up For The Cure

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:36:00 +0000

I'm participating to "Step Up for the cure", a 24-hour stair climbing marathon to benefit cancer research. The mission is to climb one stair for each of the estimated 11 million people who will be diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2009. Every step counts, and honors the life of someone battling this devastating disease.

The event takes place in Montreal @ Molson Stadium on September 26-27 from noon to noon.

I have to run 15 sets of stairs (76 steps per set) per hour...for 24 hrs!! Ya i know, it's nuts!

Event goals for 2009

* One step for each of the 11 million people who will be diagnosed worldwide in 2009;
* Raise crucial money and awareness for cancer research and our beneficiaries.

My goals for this event :
    * Help raise cancer awareness;
    * Engaged to help raise funds for cancer research, a minimum of $240 CA;
    * Advocate healthy and active living among my colleagues, friends and family.
    * Run 15 sets of stairs (76 steps for sets) per hour

I need all of your help! If you support this cause and help me conquer this event, please visit this website to make a donation : http://bit.ly/stepup

I'll be posting pictures and videos of my training leading to this event and, of course, pics and vids of the event!

I'm off to train those legs!

Your support is greatly appreciated!

Please spread the word! Thank You!

End of an Era, New Era

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:06:00 +0000

A Blog post by John!? No freakin' way! After over a year of inactivity, I am somewhat resurrecting this blog. :)

It's a time of change in my life. I'm embarking on a new era filled with new opportunities and challenges as I am now unemployed after being laid off. I am welcoming this change, I'm positive, excited and ready to face any new challenges coming ahead.

It definitely feels funny not have to get up and go to work. The routine is completely gone and I love it! After updating my resume, cover letter and my web portfolio for the past weeks, I'm finally enjoying this time off. My mind is at peace?well for now at least?and I get to do all activities that I love and enjoy, such as Biking and Hiking, and get to try out new ones like Kayaking which I'm starting to love.

That's it for now, look for my job hunt experience in my next post... :)

Earth Day 2007

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 03:43:00 +0000

Today I walked the Kyoto rally under a blazing sun in Montreal. It was a beautiful weekend too. Warm weather, blue skies, shining sun, spirits are high. Spring is finally here! :)

Here's a few snapshots i took during the rally.

Retrouvailles de secondaire!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:41:00 +0000

Salut tout le monde,
Les retrouvailles de secondaire nous approchent a grand pas... mais il nous manque �norm�ment de monde alors si jamais vous connaissez des gens qui ont gradu� du COLL�GE FRAN�AIS DE LONGUEUIL EN 1996-1997, le message suivant nous a �t� envoy� par MANON GIRARD:

"Salut tout le monde,

Suite � notre r�chauffement du mois de septembre dernier (merci � Pierre-Luc), il est maintenant temps de passer aux choses s�rieuses! Et oui, �a fait d�j� 10 ans que nous avons gradu� et c'est maintenant l'heure de nos retrouvailles officielles! Donc, un travail de longue haleine commence... �tant donn� que je suis en cong� de maternit� et que j'ai un peu plus de temps, je me lance dans l'organisation de cet �v�nement...mais j'aurai besoin de votre aide!!! Il reste quelques confirmations au sujet de la salle et de la date mais j'aurais besoin de votre collaboration d�s maintenant. En fait, j'ai cr�er cette adresse hotmail pour faciliter l'organisation et pour que �a soit facile � retenir. Le bouche � oreille, c'est bien beau mais c'est pas toujours efficace � 100% ...alors pour recevoir l'invitation (qui sera envoy�e par la poste, avec un feuillet de r�ponse), vous devez absolument m'envoyer votre adresse postale � cette adresse e-mail avec votre nom. Pour ceux et celles qui ont des adresses internet cod�es, n'oubliez pas de m'�crire votre nom et pr�nom car je ne sais pas toujours � qui je m'adresse, �a fait quand m�me 10 ans! �videmment, je n'ai pas le e-mail de tout le monde et c'est l� que votre travail commence! J'aimerais que vous m'aidiez � rejoindre le plus de gens possible...si vous avez le e-mail de finissants du CF, faites passer ce message SVP et si vous avez le num�ro de t�l de certains, SVP appelez les pour leur dire de m'envoyer leur adresse postale � ce e-mail.

Et si vous en connaissez qui n'ont pas internet chez eux, envoyez moi leur adresse postale SVP. Je prendrai en note les adresses � mesure que je les recevrai et j'enverrai les invitations par la suite. Donc le seul moyen d'�tre invit�, c'est de me transmettre votre adresse postale au cf10ans@hotmail.com. Pour ceux ou celles qui habitent � l'ext�rieur, vous pouvez m'envoyer l'adresse d'un membre de votre famille (ou ami) � qui je peux envoyer votre invitation, en esp�rant que vous pourrez �tre des n�tres. Je vais donc �valuer � partir des adresses que je re�ois les personnes que je dois officiellement rechercher et je vous en ferai part pour avoir votre aide � nouveau. SVP, m�me si �a fait longtemps que vous n'avez pas parl� � quelqu'un mais que vous ne voyez pas son adresse e-mail dans ce message, appelez-le pour lui dire, �a me faciliterait beaucoup la t�che!!!

�tant donn� les nombreux bals de finissants en juin, il est probable que �a se passe au d�but juillet mais tout �a reste � confirmer. �videmment, j'ai peut-�tre le temps d'organiser tout cela mais �a veut malheureusement pas dire que j'ai les fonds pour r�server salle, DJ, buffet, etc... pour 125 personnes...alors avec votre r�ponse, il me faudra un d�p�t de chaque personne pour r�server votre place et m'aider � l'organisation de cette soir�e, j'imagine que vous comprenez cela. Alors en esp�rant que ce sera un super travail d'�quipe, j'attends de vos nouvelles et je vous en redonne bient�t. Si vous voulez me contacter pour quoi que ce soit concernant les retrouvailles, faites le � cette adresse car je ne veux pas embourber mon adresse personnelle et ce sera plus facile de savoir que le message concerne les retrouvailles.
Merci beaucoup tout le monde!.......................Manon Girard...xxx
"

Pour faciliter les choses en ligne, j'ai cr�e un groupe pour les retrouvailles sur facebook, nous avons jusqu'� pr�sent 10 membres inscrient au groupe apr�s une semaine et 12 en total sur facebook. SVP, joinez-nous sur facebook d�s maintent!

A bientot!

Condo Search Update

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:42:00 +0000

I found more and cool Google Earth addons to help with my searh for condos. :)

First one is the addition of condos listing from Groupe Sutton. Now I can see Remax and Sutton listing on the Island of Montreal with Google Earth. It's Pretty neat!

Also, since I'm looking for a home that is walking distance from a metro station....I figured I should check if anyone made an addon for subway stations for Montreal...and someone actually did one here!

I now can view all condo listings from Remax and Sutton with all the metro stations exits on the island of Montreal. Now that's cool! ;) Here's a screenshot:

This helps me plenty because I also search for condos with MLS.ca. When i find certain places I find interesting, I can verify if it's very close or not to a Metro station.

Condo Hunting!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:47:00 +0000

As you all may have noticed, these days are quite insanely busy for me. The blog posts number here has fallen and my free time is very limited. If you don't know yet, I'm hunting for a condo in Montreal!!!

This is an extremely exciting time in my life, and I am really looking forward having my very own place i can call home!

And being tech oriented as I am....I am using the different tools to find a place. :-)

One of my favorite is Remax's integration with Google Earth! I can have an aerial view at the neighborhoods and properties that interest me a lot. All I simply have to do is rollover on the remax signs to see the price and click on the sign to get more information on the property.

Although, only remax properties are displayed....it would be very awesome if all the properties were shown on Google Earth. I find this a great alternative way of searching for properties especially if you are looking for specific locations.

For the past weekends, I have visited many condos / lofts under development. Some are really really really nice......however, all of them end up to be too expensive for a 4 1/2. But it's all good ...the more I search, the more my needs become specific.

This week, I'm hoping to visit my first set of condos with my real estate agent. We have found quite a few that have caught my eye. I can't wait to visit :)

Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:06:00 +0000

I just joined Facebook . What is facebook? Facebook is a popular online social network primarily used by collegians. It was originally developed for university students, faculty and staff only till recently... but now, it can be used by entire networks of people.

I find Facebook very fun and interesting , more interesting than Hi5 or Tagged. I find those services bloated and slow. Facebook is fast, has a nice design plus it has many nice cool features to play with. You can fill out your profile with photos and interests, work and education history, your favorites and more. We can also Upload Photo albums and Write Notes. What's cool about the photos is that you can tag them. When you tag your friends in photos, the photos show up in their profiles.

In addition, When you log in to Facebook, it shows all the latest news and activity from your friends on Facebook in what they call the News Feed. The service also contains good privacy controls. For instance, you can set that only your friends and people in your networks can see your profile.

According to some sources, Facebook is the seventh-most trafficked site on the web and is the number one photo-sharing site. As of February 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 17 million members. Some reports confirm that 85% of College Students, in the states, use FaceBook.

Come in and give it a try!

My cousin is crazy

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:05:00 +0000

I Freakin' Went Flying!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:55:00 +0000

Last week, our company held it's annual world wide company meeting. After the meetings, we were treated to a surprise that was kept secret during the entire week. We got to go flying! We had the chance to actually fly a plane and tour the Montreal island. Take a look at some pictures i took:

Night Shooting - Jan 9th 2007

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 04:11:00 +0000

Another wonderful "winter" night in Montreal! Mathieu and I went strolling the streets of Old Montreal at night. We started taking snapshots behind city hall, where we have a fantastic and impressive view of the city skyline. Following that, we went through the old port and finishing our night downtown in Montreal. Here's the rest of the pictures I took that night:

Sunday Photo Shooting - Jan 7 2007

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:01:00 +0000

Photo by Mathieu Douville

I went photo shooting again with my buddy Matt around the Montreal Plateau. It was a nice sunny and relatively warm day for January. So we decided to enjoy this nice welcomed weather and went photo shooting! Here's a glimpse of some shots i took.

History of the Ipod

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:48:00 +0000

Here's an interesting documentary about the rise of the iPod.

Happy New Year 2007!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 07:26:00 +0000

Night Shooting: December 19, 2006

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 15:11:00 +0000

I went on my first night shooting of the city this week with my friend Mathieu. It was a relatively cold night, given the fact it's been a pretty warm month, with periods of snow fall which made a perfect setting for a nice night of photo shooting! :)

Mathieu

Construction in front of the Grande Biblioth�que

McGill College Street

Rachel Street

Mount-Royal

The Amazing Race 10 Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:29:00 +0000

Well it appears my prediction has come to a reality! Tyler and James have won the 10th, and mediocre, edition of the Amazing Race! Congrats to them and to me! :)

I didn't find this season's Amazing Race very exciting for some reason. The new rules were a welcome addition, but i still found the whole season to be bland. Maybe it was the teams' personalities that was lacking, i really didn't get attached to a team like I did in the past seasons. Maybe that's why the season finale was only 1 hour long.

Hopefully next season will be more interesting.

Overall, I'm still hooked to the show...I enjoy it very much and I always have this huge urge to travel after watching an episode :)

In other news, sorry for the lack of updates on my blog... I've been extremely busy with some web contracts during the past few months. It has really chewed up my time! But things should get back to normal soon. I'll be posting regularly again.

Tata!

Jagshemash!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 03:48:00 +0000

Borat's movie is coming out this Friday! If you are unfamiliar with Borat, Borat is a fictional Kazakhstani journalist invented and portrayed by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Teaser Trailer

Full Trailer

The first four minutes of the movie if you like spoilers.

Dzienkuje!

Cat wheel

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 03:07:00 +0000

Cat wheel

lol, cute.

Hiking: Parc du Mont-M�gantic

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:22:00 +0000

We were once again treated to nice and cool weather on a Saturday a few weeks ago. My buddy Matt and I decided to kick it up a level in our hiking adventure. This time around, we drove down to the Eastern Townships (Cantons-de-l'Est), heading towards Parc national du Mont-M�gantic.

At 1,105 meters (3600 ft) Mont Megantic is the second highest peak in all of Quebec and the highest mountains in Quebec's Eastern Townships. It's located west of the city of Sherbrooke and about two and a half hours from Montreal. It's a spectacular area to hike as there's over 50 km of hiking trails where we can criss-cross the mountain to each of its four peaks. There's quite a few point of interest at this park as there's an astronomy observatory located near the summit of Mont Megantic. There are quite a few other activities you can do over here, such as: mountain biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing,

Matt and I were feeling particularly great for this day as we have decided to take on the hiking trail des trois sommets. The first summit would be Mont St-Joseph at 1065 meters in altitude with a difference in altitude of 500m. Afterwards, the trail brings us to the summit of Mont Victoria at 1055 meters in altitude to finally finish the loop at Mont M�gantic at 1105 meters in altitude. From there, it's an easy stroll back to the reception area.

The difficulty level for this trail was ranked as EXPERT, with a total distance of 15.2 km of hiking trails estimated to take between 5 to 8 hours to complete. Boy, were they right about classifying this as EXPERT!

The first leg of our journey started with us taking on Mont St-Joseph. Right from the get go, it's rough on the cardio and our legs, as the trail didn't stop going up and straight up with no end in sight! We were both flabbergasted! We couldn't believe our eyes as we stared at each other while climbing this mountain. Holy Freaking Saint Joseph! ;)

We adapted the hiking trail at our own pace and of course took some time to take lots and lots of pictures as the scenery was incredible! At one point, we were literary hiking in the clouds! It was an incredible sensation. It was windy, the weather was cool and we couldn't see anything all around us!

Here's a list of photos taken chronologically, from start to finish:

Parc national du Mont-M�gantic

The adventure begins!

Ready to take on Mount Saint-Jospeh!

Don't take another step forward Matt!!

Man! We still have to climb ...

...and CLIMB!!
Man! I can sure use those hiking sticks just about now...

...Oh thank god! Stairs!

Still climbing up...but the surroundings are amazing.

More shots while heading to the first summit.

Wow, nice view!

Almost at the same level as the clouds!

We were at 1000 m in altitude at this point. What a view!

We've made it in about an hour an half (If i remember correctly!) at the first summit.

Towards Mount Victoria:

Do we take a left or a right? Or is it forward or back? Where the heck are we ??

We're in the clouds!!

This was my favourite part of the hiking trip. It was a thrilling sensation to be in the clouds. Click the image below to see a video while we were at this observation point. (Please be patient, the file is 6mb. It will only play when finished downloading)

Onwards to Mont-Victoria!

View from Mount Victoria

Me and Matt, the two little rascals, heading towards our final destination, Mont-M�gantic!

View from Mont-M�gantic. Which wasn't as impressive as the other summits IMHO.

Picture of a tree taken while we were strolling back.

Picture of Mont-M�gantic as we were heading home.

It was a fun filling and exhausting day. It took us a total of 6 hours to do the whole trail Not bad! As the estimated time was between 5 to 8 hours.

I hoped you liked the all the pictures I posted. I have lots more if you want to see them. Just ping me, and i'll provide you a link to them.

I can't wait for our next adventure! Till next time, TaTow!

Hiking: La Montagne Noire, St-Donat

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:26:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, on a nice clear and sunny Sunday morning, I went up north with my good friend Mathieu for a friendly hiking-photo trip. Meeting time was at 7:30 at Matt's apartment. Yes, bright and early! We headed up north to hit our first hiking trip of the season in St-Donat at Montagne Noire. We also didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to do some photography as the colors have started to change.

Here's a little info about Montagne Noire:

According to Matt, it's the highest summit in importance in the Laurentides region, just after Mont Tremblant. The trail is pretty light and easy. We get to see magnificent maple groves along the way as well as an observations point of lake Archambault and Mount-Garceau. We also skirt along the way Lac L�zard and to finally reach a memorial site. The Liberator Harry B-24 bomber plane crash site. Finally, after another 5-10 mins, we reach the summit of Montagne Noire, at 875m altitude. From this observation point, we have a nice view of Mount Kaa�kop and also downtown Montreal (on a clear day).

Total distance: 12,8km.
Time to complete at a reasonable pace: 4 hours
difference in height/level: 485 meters
Difficulty: Beginner.

More information, in French, can be found at the tourism St-Donat website.

One of many observation points

Another one, near the summit.

Matt hiking away!

Pretty interesting crossing trees.

A little friend joined the fun!

Don't those remind you of pancakes?? Ummm Mushroom Pancakes!

More info: Liberator Harry B-24 bomber plane crash site

Here's the memorial

At the top, near the memorial, gray jays come eat in your hand. Sweet ;)

We made it!

Matt is king of the world!

View from the summit

Downtown Montreal. Click the picture to see it bigger.

The two buddies at the summit, super happy about their first hiking adventure together.

I encourage you to go visit Mathieu's blog to see more pictures and stories about our adventure! :)

Till next time...TaTow!

Company Offsite 2006!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 12:34:00 +0000

It was a nice, quiet, bright and sunny September day in St-Agathe. This was the location for our yearly company offsite! This year was even crazier compared to last year! :)

All the employees, where I work at, made the trip to St-Agathe at my boss's country house. We focused this year more on team building activities and we had a better mix of intellectual and physical activities. We hoped to build and emphasize on good communication, problem solving skills, trust, taking advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of each team member.

I was able to take nice pictures when I was up there. Here's a close up of a dragon fly:

It was a successful, fun and playful day! We had many other activities to choose from such as kayaking, boating, and go on the pedalo, play soccer or shoot freesbies.

But the most fun was obviously the tubing! It/s exhilarating to do it and to see people holding for dear life and taking bumps and finally fly off their tubes and splash into the water :)

For lunch, we had a big BBQ. Hot dogs, hamburgers....

.....oddly shaped corn, chips, beer, etc... yuuummmmmy!!

Here's a montage video I did for this year. Oh! By the way, the guy flying in the air was me! :)

(The video is 11mb, please be patient. Double click on the video to see it in full screen)

Contact me and i'll give a link to the picture albums.

TATOW!

My Dad's 60th Anniversary!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:49:00 +0000

After a long hiatus...I'm back at sharing my news with you all! :)

Back in August this summer, it was my father's 60th Anniversary! Reaching the 60 year mark is a very special occasion for anyone. To celebrate, we planned a big BBQ birthday bash for my dad as we invited all our family. Even my dad's cousin from Ohio came for the week for this momentous and special occasion!

Here's the cute birthday banner!

Ummmm italian sausages

Food for everyone

We all had a great time as we all shared and told funny stories.

The birthday cake!

My Folks! Happy Birthday!

Update!

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 02:57:00 +0000

I finally found the time to update my rusty blog! :)

In the next couple of days, i'll be posting stuff i've been doing over the past of couple of months. So stay tuned for that!

I finally got my Canon Powershot A620 camera fixed. Even though it took me a month to get it back from FutureShop...it didn't cost me a dime....that's great....I just hope it doesn't crap out on me again! That will certainly suck!

My team is doing pretty good so far in this season's of The Amazing Race. Tyle & James have finished 1st, 2nd and 2nd. Keep it up! ;)

Here's a funny clip from the Dave Chapelle show: What if the internet was a place you could go to?

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The Amazing Race 10

noreply@blogger.com (John Parillo) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:24:00 +0000

The four-time Emmy Award-winning reality adventure series returns TONIGHT for its 10th season this fall, when Teams will travel over 40,000 miles in under 30 days, spanning four continents and 13 countries.

The 12 Teams, including the first Indian-American team, a coal miner and his wife, reigning beauty queens, an amputee and a high school teacher, will compete against one another in a race around the world for a $1 million prize.

For more information, visit the official site.

My Pre-Series Prediction Winners are: Tyler & James