Fly Guy is a really relaxing... thing. Not sure if it's really a game. Just a thing.

So I'm looking at getting an MP3 player for to take on my bike rides. I'm looking at a few, but these are the ones I'll likely be picking up.

I'm leaning heavily towards the RCA Lyra 1070 model. It's the best bang for the buck. I just hope I can find it on sale at some point. $200 is not that much for a good player, but I'd rather not spend that much.

Hmm... after reading though, the cheap little Samsung might be a better deal... or maybe I'll save up for the pricier Samsung... or maybe I'll just keep researching till I find the one that is the best!

Hmm. I wonder what kind of training you need to become a taxidermist.

I went to the library today and picked up Stephen King's IT.

I think it's part for enjoyment, and partly for the exercise. 1200 pages in hardcover. WOO! I'm gonna look like Ahnold when I'm done.

Beware the Time Travelling Inside Trader!

I pity people who only watch CNN for their war coverage (and news in general).

Yeesh. I was stuck in the doctor's office waiting room for about 5 hours yesterday and they had CNN on the whole time. I was about ready to ram my head through an MRI unit by the time I left.

Primal's pretty nice. Beautiful (for a PS2 game at least) and it looks like it has a well developed world. I have only played about 10-15 minutes of it, but it looks promising.

And Amplitude rox my sox. I love it. Any game that'll tear me away from Zelda is a good game.

Hegemonia is purty. That's an ingame screenshot.

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

Hee hee.

Ok. Debit card is now locked up. Since yesterday, I picked up Project IGI and Hegemonia for the PC, Deus Ex, Primal and Amplitude for the PS2 and the original Gameboy Tetris.

AHHH!

Man... Amplitude is FUN.

It's definately a good evolution of the Frequency gameplay. It's definately a lot more 'rocky', ie. more emphasis on guitars rather than synth. There are, however, still some really good and trippy hip hop and techno tunes in the mix.

I'm going to enjoy digging into this tomorrow when I get home.

I also have to get up at 6:30am, which is just over 6 hours away. Bleh. I get to hang out in a medical lab with one of the guys from work ALL DAY LONG. Yippee.

Good thing I've got a good book to read.

I should not be allowed to leave the house with my bank cards.

I went to get my totally paid-off copy of Amplitude today at EB. While I was there, I saw Project IGI for $10. Cool. Good game, and it's cheap.

Then I see Super Mario Sunshine for $29 new. Uh oh. I liked Sunshine, but I traded it in way before I finished it. It's cheap. Well, on the pile it goes.

Then I see that Primal is out. It's only $55 new. It's supposed to be pretty neat. Can you see where this is going?

Sigh. So $115 later....

I also stupidly stopped off at Blockbuster on the way home and picked up I Am Sam, Frailty and A Better Tomorrow 2 for about $35 for the lot. Card is being locked up.

The nice thing is that I don't have any games on pre-order now, and all the ones I'm really looking forward to are not going to be released until at least August. Phew.

Happy (sort of belated) birthay James!

Zelda is supa-sweet. I have only just begun, but I'm loving it. Anyone who babbles about it looking like crap needs to have their head examined.

AH! My mitochondria!

I took my bike out for it's inaugural ride today. Biked across town to Subway to get some lunch.

I think I was about to die when I got there. And concidering how un-far away it is, that's sad.

But the nice thing is that I can still ride a bike, and my new bike (to be named at a later date) is not too bad. I have to adjust the seat a bit but otherwise it's pretty nice.

I did find the ride back to be much less deadly. I also had something to drink whilst biking back.

Adopt a blob!

Wow. Zelda: The Windwaker (henceforth known as Celda) is one gorgeous and very funny game. It's so nice to have a brand new and very good game to play and a day off to play it on.

I just hope it's really rainy so I don't have to take my bike out today/tomorrow :)

There are some really sneaky dogs in the neighbourhood.

The 4 feet of snow piled up in the front yard has finally melted away and there are not one, but two piles of dog poop sitting there.

What I don't understand is how they go there. They're definately not fresh, but I would have seen them and cleaned them up had they been left before the snow came.

Which leads me to believe that a dog went out, dug a deeeeeep hole, then left his present for us and covered it back up.

Creepy.

Picked up Celda today. Mmm... Celda...

Rise up, my brothers and sisters!

If you stand for truth, if you stand for justice, if you stand for all that is right, rise up!

There has been a travesty in this land of ours. A travesty that must not go unpunished!

What is this travesty, you ask? It is horrible, unspeakable and unfathomable. It is the thing we have dreaded for many a long week.

Yes indeed.

The local IGA has changed the sour ju-jubes from the god-like juicy ones that are beloved by all to the cheapo Bulk Barn style ones that are merely OK.

This saddens me to no end. Suffice it to say, I let the clerk at the checkout know my disappointment. Now I must scour the area looking for ju-jubes deserving of the sour moniker.

Hee hee. I don't play Battlefield 1942, but these propaganda posters are funny. (Warning: Must understand basic online game terms to find them funny.)

Hmm... this is another interesting thing I found on CBC.ca. How to talk to your children about war.

Heh. Looks like Michael Moore might have ticked off a few people when he got the Oscar for best documentary for "Bowling For Columbine".

Well, I think it was worth it :)

This is an interesting little web documentary about Psyops and the role it is playing in the current war.

I wonder what award they're giving out on the Oscars now. I came upstairs after the second award, presented by Keanu Reaves for best use of the word "Whoa" in a screenplay.

WOOHOO!

Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature. Finally, Miyazaki got his due.

Take that, stupid Jimmy Neutron.

So... should I watch the Oscars or not? It'll be kind of interesting to watch them, what with the war going on and everything. And I would love to see Michael Moore win and give a nice ranting speech. That said, I don't normally watch the Oscars and I'll be more than happy to just see what wins tomorrow. And I'm sure that if Michael wins, I'll be able to see him rant tomorrow in the news.

I'm still sick. My head no longer feels like it's going to explode, but my temperature is about 3-4 degrees cooler than it should be, and I'm just exhausted. Good thing I took today off. I'm going to veg and just take it easy. Hopefully I'll be rid of this thing by tomorrow.

Battles like this are what make ZOE2 so cool.

And yes. I'm still sick. I had to work today because none of my illustrious relief staff were able to come in (or reply to my plaintive cries for help) until I'd already spent about 3 hours at work. Oh well.

I kind of hope I am still sick tomorrow so I can actually take a sick day! I've been sick since Wednesday and haven't had a chance to take a day as sick time (though I did have yesterday off, but I'd already had it booked off :P )

GASP!

CBC Radio actually had non-war coverage on the drive home from work tonight. *swoon*

I like to be kept informed, but to have 24-hour babble just gets grating after a while.

Just break in if something major happens. Don't just yammer on to fill time, thank you very much.

Ever notice that while you may get about 4 messages about going over your daily quota of e-mail on Bigfoot, the spam never seems to have a problem getting through?

Woohoo! They're doing a TV series of Tremors! WOOOOOO!

You know you're reading a small town newspaper when the top headline on the front page is "Local Man Rolls Up The Rim To Win $1000".... hee hee... gotta love it.

And yup. My birthday cold is really nasty. Bleh. Oh well. I'll just relax tomorrow... and maybe even go to bed before 5am tonight!

Ok. Happy Tree Friends is one messed up site, but I love it :)

Ug... I think I also got a cold for my birthday. Bleh. At least I already booked tomorrow off. I'll see if I have to use it as a sick day or not at the end of my shift tonight!

Ever wonder what the world would be like had Gore won?

Sigh. There's the makings of a good alternative history novel. I bet Harry Turtledove is already half done the book :)

It's funny though. I have yet to actually talk to anyone about this anywhere who actually thinks it's a good idea. I hear them on the talk radio shows, but not the people I talk to online or in person.

I figure a couple of the main reasons behind this war are that

a) there are all these neato toys that the US has been working on that they're just itching to try out in a real combat situation, and

b) you actually have a villian with Saddam. He's a proud SOB, he's got that evil dictator mustache going and he's not a nice guy at all. And he's not white. Nor is he black. In the Balkans and Rawanda/Somalia, there really weren't villians, and if there were, they were either politicians that looked a little too much like your average senator or they were impoverished 3rd World citizens. Hard to get your average American riled up about either (though I'm sure they'd be willing to attack a senator :)

And there's the oil, of course.

Did you see Georgey-boy on TV?

What boggles my mind is that he can say, with a straight face, that it's ok for the US to go and bomb the snot out of Iraq because then that will preclude the possibility that maybe, sometime in the future, assuming this goes according to plan and everything is hunky-dory after we're through, someone will attack the US again a la 9/11.

It's like what he said the other day.

"We have done nothing to deserve the hatred directed at us."

(or something along those lines)

Suuuuuure...

Looks like I got a war for my birthday.

Sigh.

Well, my copy of Tenchu 2 was buggered so I had to take it back. Instead, I got 2 DVD's for $5 after the exchange. Following, by the guy who did Memento, and Ginger Snaps, which is supposed to be a pretty fun little werewolf movie.

I went out today and got Insomnia and The Royal Tenenbaums on DVD... 2 for $15! woo!

Also found a used copy of Tenchu 2 for $15. Deal!

I wonder if I'll have a war for my birthday today. Sigh...

Hey Mitchells!

Thanks for the fudge!

Ok. Go to the Uplink website and download the demo. It's only 3.7 MB's and then you'll know the coolness of which I am speaking about.

I got nailed again last night trying to hack into a bank. I didn't get traced during the hack, but I'd tried to hack in enough times that they got me due to the fact that I didn't delete my logs. Sigh.

Happy Vitamin G day! Er, St. Patrick's Day.

I wish I had a pint of Guinness today. Sigh. Maybe I'll have a belated one for my birthday.

Man, Uplink is fun.

I had a real nail-biter. I was trying to scrub the access logs and had 3 seconds to log out before they traced me. JUST avoided it.

I 'died', as it were, with my first attempt... got caught on the first hack and charged and then couldn't pay the fees for the computer rental. Sigh.

I had a good time this weekend. I went bowling on Saturday and actually got a winning strike at Rock N' Bowl. WOO!

Yeah, it's sad. I won a neon glowing necklace and a foam cup holder. Woo. But heck, I won :)

I also picked up the very cool hacker simulator, Uplink: Hacker Elite, which I have been waiting for. I'm off to try it out now.

And tonight we went out to our friend's ordination party. Much yummy food was had by all.

Ok. This is a first. I got a piece of spam today that had SNAIL MAIL instructions on how to get off the list. YEESH!

Well, I'm heading home to Sarnia for the weekend. Should be nice to see the whole famn damily. Now, what game systems should I bring...

Heh. I seem to be in a real political mood this week... let's continue!
---
Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 300
employees and has the following statistics:

30 have been accused of spousal abuse
9 have been arrested for fraud
14 have been accused of writing bad checks.
95 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
4 have done time for assault
55 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
12 have been arrested on drug related charges
4 have been arrested for shoplifting
16 are currently defendants in lawsuits
62 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

It is the 301 MPs in the Canadian Parliament. The same group that cranks out
hundreds of new laws designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Which one did you vote for?

Hmm... Does this remind you of anyone? *whistles innocently*

This just in, courtesy of The Onion.
---
Bush Orders Iraq To Disarm Before Start Of War
WASHINGTON, DC�Maintaining his hardline stance against Saddam Hussein, President Bush ordered Iraq to fully dismantle its military before the U.S. begins its invasion next week. "U.S. intelligence confirms that, even as we speak, Saddam is preparing tanks and guns and other weapons of deadly force for use in our upcoming war against him," Bush said Sunday during his weekly radio address. "This madman has every intention of firing back at our troops when we attack his country." Bush warned the Iraqi dictator to "lay down [his] weapons and enter battle unarmed, or suffer the consequences."

I love my local EB. I was in there today getting ZOE2 and I saw a cool lithograph from Xenosaga stuck to the case behind the counter. I just said, "Man, I love that lithograph."

The manager said, "Really?" and then proceeded to turn around take it off the case and give it to me! WOO!

Check it out.

Fanta Shokata is pretty fun. You make your own subtitles to go with some wierd ads/movies. Hee hee.

Westwood games had the coolest installation programs ever. It's sad that even C&C: Generals has gone the way of Installshield. Sigh.

I picked up my Zone of the Enders 2 and then decided that, hell, the first game did rock and I may as well have them both, so I got the first one again :)

I also got C&C: Renegade for $10! Woo! And Pokemon Puzzle League for the N64 for $20... all in all, 4 games for $100

I'm leaving my credit card here when I go to Sarnia though :)

Ug. Just got home from work and I have to turn around and go back for 8am. Bleh indeed.

Oh yeah. I saw Daredevil tonight. Now, I've never been a huge DD fan, but it's just because I have never really bothered to follow those comics. That said, I liked the movie. It wasn't amazing or anything, but it wasn't bad either.

The biggest problem were the fights. They were neat, but they were also of the 'super-fast-quick-cuts' school of film editing, so you only get a glimpse of something then it cuts to something else faster than a kid with ADHD on Jolt. That, and the fact that Daredevil must have been THE darkest (as in hard to see) movie I've seen on the big screen made figuring out what was going on a chore.

Though I guess that since Daredevil is blind, it did make it a little more like the disorienting world he must inhabit... hmm... now that I think about it, the sound was excellent and if I watched the movie again I'd probably appreciate the fights more.

Bullseye rocked. Colin Ferrel was just too nutty as Mr. Targethead. Heck, even Affleck was good both as Matt Murdoch and DD.

Horseface, er, Jennifer Garner, that is, was rather boring, as usual. I don't get her. She can't fight, she looks like she got hit in the face with a board and her acting was just as wooden. Why does she get all these good roles? *shrug* Oh well. At least she doesn't ruin the movie. She just doesn't really add much to it either.

Maclean's QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"We cannot be a bully in the world's schoolyard and expect co-operation, friendship and support from the rest of the world"
-- Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy

Amen to that.

Wow!

The original Grand Theft Auto is now freeware! Pretty snazzy.

Well, I watched The Bourne Identity today. It's not bad. It's not the super-ultra-amazing movie that some of my friends and relatives seem to think it is, at least not in my opinion. Good, yes. Amazing, no. Worth the $15, sure.

Heh... just what the world needs. A USB Coffee Warmer.

Yeah! New T-shirts for the Brockster.

I finally broke down and picked up the three Homestar Runner t-shirts I've had my eye on for a bit.

We've got:

Trogdor, The Burninator


Stinko Man


and Strong Bad!!!!

Roads were nasty today, as there was a nice blast of snow overnight. But I made it to and from the camp with the guys.

Didn't get home until 7pm though. Bleh.

In about 10 hours or so I will be on the road up to Paisley, taking the guys to camp. I just hope it's not a blizzard this time. And I don't want to get a death fever. That is bad too.

I just want it to be nice, sunny and dry on the roads. Then I'll have a nice trip :)

I watched One Hour Photo again, but this time with my friend James. It's just as good the second time as it was the first. Creepy though.

I was driving home after dinner tonight and there is a pinball machine sitting out at the curb just down the street from my house.

I went over to check it out, but it's been gutted and the top is completely wrecked, so as much as I'd love to bring it home and try to fix it up, there is no way Julie would let me and I don't think it's salvagable either.

But man... a free pinball machine. That would have rocked.

I picked up The Bourne Identity and One Hour Photo today for $30. I love the video store here in Acton. Nothing like dirt cheap used DVD's.

This is too funny.

You can now search Google in l33t sp33k. Just go down to Languages and select HACKER.

Thanks to Kavik for pointing this out to me!

Hee hee. I'm not sure if everyone has seen this, but it's funny (and true! :) so have a chuckle.
------
Apology to Americans

From: A Canadian Friend

On behalf of Canadians everywhere I'd like to offer an apology to the
United States of America. We haven't been getting along very well
recently and for that, I am truly sorry.

I'm sorry we called George Bush a moron. He is a moron but, it wasn't
nice of us to point it out. If it's any consolation, the fact that he's
a moron shouldn't reflect poorly on the people of America. After all
it's not like you actually elected him.

I'm sorry about our softwood lumber. Just because we have more trees
than you, doesn't give us the right to sell you lumber that's cheaper
and better than your own.

I'm sorry we beat you in Olympic hockey. In our defence I guess our
excuse would be that our team was much, much, much, much better than
yours.

I'm sorry we burnt down your White House during the war of 1812. I
notice you've rebuilt it! It's Very Nice.

I'm sorry about your beer. I know we had nothing to do with your beer
but, we feel your pain.

I'm sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you're going up
against a crazed dictator, you wanna have your friends by your
side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in
against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons.

And finally on behalf of all Canadians, I'm sorry that we're constantly
apologising for things in a passive-aggressive way which is really a
thinly veiled criticism. I sincerely hope that you're not upset over
this. We've seen what you do to countries you get upset with.

I just finished Xenosaga. 52 hours in just over 7 days. WOO!

Great game, great ending and now I just have to bide my time until Episode 2 comes out! ARG!

I'm going to take a picture of my frontyard today so everyone can see exactly how insanely deep the snow is. I have split rail fences that are about 3-4 feet high.

The entire front yard is full of snow up to the top of the fence. I almost want to just jump in it and make a fort!

Regular mass-market paperbacks should not cost $11.99. Even if they are close to 1000 pages long.

I miss the good ol' days of $5.99 paperbacks. Sigh.

And I went a little crazy today. Bought a bunch of books at the bookstore. Only 5, which worked out to close to $60... of course the people kept trying to sell me an Avid Reader card, and besides the fact that I used to work at the chain and know all about the stuff, and the fact that I'd have had to pay an extra $15 on top of the $60 in books I already had, they seemed to think that was a good deal.

And it would be, if I actually bought books with anywhere near the same frequency as I used to. As it stands, I'll buy the occasional book on a whim, but I'm mostly filling out series now. Sure, MAYBE over the course of the year I might spend enough on books to make my $20 for the card back, but since I would rather buy my books at Bakka which is the only place in Canada NOT part of the Chapters/Indigo cult, my card wouldn't really do me any good anyway.

The even scarier part is that my bank account is STILL in the positive... though not for long. Time to put the cards away now. Sigh.

Hmm.. I just realized that I've spent more time on Xenosaga than I have actually at work since last Wednesday. Yeesh!

Are you supposed to burn those jelly-based candles? I've been burning one all day and I think I'm getting high on the fumes.

Man.

24 is just so good. Tonight was no exception. They keep pulling out the stops.

And I heard that our man Kiefer just signed on for another 6 seasons. AH! That's both good, and horrible, since that means 6 more years of this unending torment :)

Heh... I was just going over the archives for this site and saw that a year ago today, I was just sitting down to get to work on Front Mission 3. Man, that was just a year ago? It feels like a lot longer than that.

It's scary to think of how many 50+ hour games I've done in the last year. Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Kingdom Hearts, FM3... to name but a few.

And now I'm on track to be finished Xenosaga in a week at the rate I'm going. I just got it a week ago Wednesday and I'm already 35-40 hours into it... And from taking a quick peek at the strategy guide, it doesn't look like there are a lot of areas left to go to... granted, I still have all the sidequests to do, and let's not forget that this is the game with 45 minute cinematics... ah...

Death cold 2003 isn't as bad as the last two years worth. It must be this fresh country air.

Suffice it to say, I took today off work. I did work yesterday, but I spent most of it just slouched in a chair feeling cruddy, so today and tomorrow will be nice recuperating days!

I've got the stuffy head, congested chest, dry cough like usual, but thankfully I've either avoided or just barely had the usual 3 day fever. If anything, my temperature has been a little too low of late. *shrug*

I did get to just veg today and play Xenosaga while drinking tea (which is pretty much all I've had the last two days).

So I was at church today and I pondered this.

How does your brain decide what data to keep and what to turf? Why can I remember useless facts and trivia from days of yore but I can't remember the answer to a test I have to take? I'm just kind of curious as to the exact workings of the filing system in the 'average' human brain. Hmm... gotta go ponder this some more.

Well, it looks like I'm getting bonked by DEATH COLD 2003.

So far, it's not as bad as it usually gets. But we'll wait and see.

In the meantime, listen to this funny song :)

Got this from Something Awful as well. Just in case you didn't get it by now, Mr. Presidente is not high up on my list of people I think highly of (oh man, that's one bad sentence).

ew... they put a nasty picture up there.. sigh. I guess SA doesn't like it when you link to their pictures. I heartily apologize to anyone who actually saw that thing... ew...

I'll have to find the picture again and just put a link to the one I liked. Suffice it to say, it was a magazine with George W. with all sorts of spelling mistakes and such :)

EB's getting a new return policy as of March 12. No returns of opened software. Only trade-ins...

Though I guess if it's defective they'll take it back, but to me it bites. Not that I return a lot, but I think that the way they have it now is great, at least for console games. For PC games, sure, if it's open, then tough.

If I'm dropping $90 or so for a console game though, it had better be damned good. The nice thing about the EB policy is that at least I get one chance with my dud purchase to redeem myself. Then if I get a crappy game, it's my own fault the second time.

Oh well. I wonder if they'll see their preorders drop now that you can't take an overhyped game back if it sucks.

Well, I finally watched all of Jin-Roh. Great action sequences, but there was way too much filler and downtime.

I guess there was a moral to the story, but what it was, I'm not sure...

Next to:

Don't Piss Off The Guy In Full Armour And Toting Anti-Tank Weaponry.

Have I mentioned just how yummy Xenosaga is?

This is an ingame graphic. In fact, as far as I can tell, all of the screenshots and cutscenes you'll find are ingame. If they use CGI, it's very discreet.

SA's also got this great GUIDE TO RPG's. Hee hee.

'The "..." is a valid form of communication no matter where you go, and can denote anything from surprise to happiness to death.'

HAPPY MARCH FIRST!

Something Awful has a great little article on the 3 types of evil customers at your local Gamestop (or EB). I sympathize with the game store employees. I don't work there and these customers drive me nuts. I wonder how they handle ME!

"This man has no idea what he wants, but he is convinced that if he doesn't find it immediately it will be a calamity of epic proportions. Also he is upset that Gamestop does not sell Star Trek novels and ham."