I'm On Staycation!

Woo! I'm on vacation (finally). My first day off was supposed to be last friday, but I ended up getting called into work on Saturday and also had to pop into work this morning and ended up doing more work than I wanted to.

As of NOW... (Do you hear me, work!?) As of now, I am on vacation and am not going to deal with work-related headaches until I get back. I almost wish I had call display so I could just screen my calls.

Anyway, we had a good day on Sunday. We went to church, then headed over to Kitchener for the day. I was the first out of the inaugural Basmentio Poker tournament (and Tim almost won the same game, which is frightening). I got to swim in Dan & Faith's new pool and then we went over to Mongolian Grill and stuffed ourselves with stir-fry. Not a bad start to vacation.

We're going camping from Tuesday to Thursday in Rockwood with Dave & Kate & Conner. We're only camping 10 minutes from home because it's Garrett's first camping trip and we want to make sure we're not going 8 hours away if it's a total bust (weather-wise or Garrett-wise).

Afterwards, we'll just be chillaxin' around Acton for the rest of the week. And we have a day at the African Lion Safari planned on the weekend with the Wager clan too!

I just need to avoid that pesky work monster that likes to leap out of my phone and kidnap me for hours at a time.

Mahna Mahna

So, today Garrett and I were watching the first season Muppet Show DVD and what is the first skit they have?

Manamana.

Garrett's made me watch it a good, oh, 20 times in the last hour... ARG!

So for all of your edification and enjoyment, I present:

Mahna Mahna.

The Ultimate Mentos & Diet Coke Experiment

We tried the ol' Mentos and Diet Coke trick a few weeks back and it was kind of cool.

Not The Bellagio Fountains cool though. My lord, these guys are amazing.

My Office Has Reinforced Shelving Too!

I love Unshelved. This comic is a prime example why. Nothing like great library humour to brighten your day.

And speaking of Game of Thrones, I need to read the fourth book in the series still. I think I might take some time during my overnight shift and read a summary of the first three books online so I don't have to reread the 4000 pages prior to A Feast For Crows.

Oh, go download this documentary off of BitTorrent. It's about the push by fans to bring Firefly to the big screen (by way of Serenity).

This Isn't The Next-Gen You're Looking For...

You'd thing that as a rather rabid gamer I'd be all excited about the next-gen stuff that's coming out (PS3, Xbox 360, etc.).

I really haven't been terribly excited about most of it because a) I've finally got a PC that can run anything coming out for a next-gen system and b) there aren't a lot of really interesting or unique gaming experiences that have been showcased on the new systems aside from prettier graphics and some extra physics in the game engines. Heck, the 360 has been out for close to a year now and people are using it mainly to play enhanced versions of Flash games that I can play for free online or old arcade titles.

That said, this video has got to be one of the first bits of next-gen footage that really has me interested.

A Matter Of Perspective

 
Here's a look at the Mushroom Kingdom from another angle.

I can't remember where I found this picture but I'll put the credit/link up when I find it again. I couldn't pass it up though. 

TURTLES!

Ah, finally done work for the week.

I was going to have a few choice words about the people shown on TV yesterday getting off the boat in Cyprus after being evacuated from Lebanon but I'll refrain from calling them anything more than a bunch of ingrates.

There. Got that out of my system.

In other news, TURTLES! Yes, they're doing a CGI TMNT movie and I have to say, I like what I see. A lot of the animation looks almost hand-drawn (especially the backgrounds) and while I don't recall Leonardo having two katana, I'll let it slide.

All I ask is that they work in the theme song from the old cartoon into the movie. I've tried watching a few episodes of the newer one and while it's not half-bad (and it does hearken back to the original Eastman & Laird books by having all the turtles wearing the same colour bandana) I just couldn't get into it. It didn't have the fun factor that the earlier cartoon had (before it got too cartoony).

Bah. As long as Donatello keeps on using his bo, I'll be at the theatre on opening night!

Real Life Space Invaders

No, we're not being attacked by aliens from Mars or anything. I just wanted to point everyone to this awesome live-action, stop-motion video of a game of Space Invaders that uses people as pixels. Very cool.

If only they had a soundtrack for it :(

On a related note, I might have some slightly big news, somewhat game related, somewhat life related. I'll post more once I see how things go.

The Amazing Screw On Head

If you like your Lovecraftian alternate history on the goofy side of the spectrum, I demand that you go and watch the pilot of The Amazing Screw On Head.

The writing is awesome. Lots of one-liners zinging back and forth and, heck, David Hyde Pierce (Niles from Frasier) is the voice of the villian, Emperor Zombie.

The art style is great too. It's by Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. Very distinct and surreal.

The Internet Is A Series Of Tubes

The scariest thing about this is that the guy who is in charge of deciding the fate of the internet (in the US at least) knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how it works.



Oh, by the way, Garrett's doing much better today. No more fever for that guy!

Beware the Botulism!

Something is definately making the rounds in the Greater Acton Area.

The capper to my shift on Monday was having one of the residents at the house puke about half an hour before I was set to go home. The next day two of the staff call in sick with some kind of crazy GI distress. Then yesterday I get a call from Julie in the evening and it turns out that Garrett has spent the better part of the afternoon/evening puking his guts out and running up a fever of 102F.

He's spent the day today living la vida loca, lounging about the house in his diaper and basically viewing the world through a Tylenol-soaked haze. Thankfully the diarrhea and projectile vomit hasn't come back today but he still has a fever. Whatever this is, it really hit him hard and fast. He was fine yesterday morning when we were out at the Early Years Centre and was just zooming around the place like he was high on caffeine or something. Not 4 hours later and he is the shuddering wretch that lay before me today.

At least he seems to be getting a litle better. He ate some applesauce, which is a vast improvement over the one cracker he's had since yesterday. When he's awake he seems to be in a good mood. He's just exhausted.

At least I only have to work a half shift today since I'm going to wait for Julie to get home before I head into work. No babysitter for the G-Man today!

Japanese Cops Are Better Than Vader

Watch and learn how to defeat a dark lord of the Sith.



Then watch a guy make a glass Mario!



I'm not sure which is more impressive.

THE PEDDLE ON THE LEFT!!!

I'm very afraid now. If Garrett gets wind of this, I may never be able to let him go near the car again.

Kids these days, running over their fathers at the ripe old age of two. Yeesh.

Thanks to Jenn for the linky.

A mind of a child is so fun and squishy to play with

Garrett is convinced that his daddy can make thunder. I'm going to have to get him to start calling me Thor. During the big storm yesterday we were both sitting inside watching the rain and the lighting and listening to the thunder. At lunch time, it was still thundering and lightninginging around here but Garrett was sitting at the table away from the window.

Whenever I saw a flash of lighting out of the corner of my eye, I'd look over at Garrett, tell him to listen carefully and then point my finger at the ceiling at the same time as the thunderclap hit, saying a little, "Boom!" for emphasis. He'd laugh and say, "Daddy boom!" and tried pointing his finger at the ceiling but alas, no boom.

Kids are so fun sometimes.

Today was a different story though. Garrett was a man on a mission. He was going to have pizza for lunch if it killed him. He didn't want to play on his bike, he didn't want to go for a walk, he didn't want to do anything today except go to the store and get a pizza. He didn't even really want to look at the lobsters. He just wanted his pizza. He even carried it through most of the store, but eventually it got too cold for his hands so I had to lug it the rest of the way home. He's quite the little helper these days.

I blame all of his recent demanding behaviours on the subversive writings of Douglas Coupland. 2-year olds should not be reading his stuff. Wait until you're four, I always say.

I might not be around much for the next few days...

A little package arrived in the mail this morning.

Within it lay a treasure I've been trying to get my hands on for nigh on 10 years now.

Behold!



If I don't happen to say much for the next few days/weeks, it's because I'm going to be doing nothing but playing Chrono Trigger when I have a spare moment of free time. The best thing about this was that I just traded a few of my old games with a guy who had CT lying about his house gathering dust. Woot!

'Tis The Summer For Movies

I've been out to more movies so far this summer than I usually get to in a year. There's a brand new theatre in Milton now so it's not going to be quite the excursion to see flicks in a decent venue anymore.

I caught Superman Returns last week and Pirates Of The Carribean: Dead Man's Chest this past weekend. I really enjoyed them both.

Superman was astounding and really brought back the first couple of Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Kevin Spacey just chewed on the scenery for the whole movie as Lex Luthor and would easily have made the film great on his own but the entire cast AND story was well done. Even the nameless henchmen are fascinating to watch. It's a shame that it hasn't done as well as they thought it would have given the quality of the movie. Compared the the lacklustre X-Men 3, Superman really showed that it was Bryan Singer's direction that made the first two X-Men movies so good. My only complaint is that there is a string of false endings that tack on about 20 minutes or so to the ending of the movie and it kind of drags there. What happens is all worthwhile, it is just a lot slower than the rest of the film and given that the movie clocks in at around 2 1/2 hours, your butt may not be able to take it.

Pirates, on the other hand was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a theatre since Serenity. The characters are all there from the first movie, even a lot of the secondary pirates from the first one that end up featuring prominently in the sequel. Depp is fantastic as Sparrow, natch, and Bill Nighy does a fantastic job as the squidilicious Davey Jones. I want to see this movie again just to get a better look at the design of the Flying Dutchman and all of her crew. I'm a sucker for cephalopods and things that live in the sea, so there wasn't much they could have left out of this one aside from a possible ninja attack. I don't understand where the people who aren't liking it are coming from. If you spend a lot of time looking to poke holes in the plot, sure, it might work, but if you just sit back and hang on for the ride, it works oh so very well.

Oh, sit through the credits if you do see it. There's a nice little treat at the end of them :)

Anyway, I'd recommend seeing both movies, and Cars if you're able. Pirates 2 is definately the one to see if you only have one movie dollar to spend though.

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What I'm Reading: The Stupidest Angel
What I'm Playing: Blood Will Tell, Trauma Center
What I'm Watching: A news report on how to toilet train my kid in one day.

Yo! Ho! Ho! And a bottle of rum...

A Crumpled Up Piece Of Wood With A Nail In It

We've been playing Balderdash lately and I remember now why I love that game so much.

I can be as silly as I want and still win (or get close to it).

Last night we had an exceptionally silly game and it ended up leading to my new signature. Enjoy!

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Always wear your darby in the spog.
Darby: A hat festooned with lights. Mainly used to make the spog less scary.
Spog: A spooky fog.
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So help me if they make an online version of Balderdash. I'd never buy another game again (actually, that wouldn't be a bad thing).

And remember, don't fleep your thripple.

Toilet Training the Anime Way

I love my anime, but do we really need to have a toilet training anime?

Actually, after watching it, it is pretty cool. That's the happiest poo I've ever seen.

The song's pretty catch too. I'll have to show Garrett this in order to help boost his toilet training regimen.

Now You're Playing With Big League Chew

How many ads from the 80's can you name in this video?

I remember those crazy octopus things, actually. I'm surprised they didn't have an ad for Army Ants though. That was one of the coolest (and most mind-numbing) ads that I can recall from childhood.

Please Tell Me This Is A Joke

For tonight's "Is this real or not?" quiz, I point you to the venerable folks over at Huggable Urns. *shudder*

I really hope it's not a real site because if it is, it's probably one of the creepiest things ever.

T-Minus 30 Minutes to Launch

If you're reading this at 2:08pm on Tuesday, July 4th, click here to go to NASA's site and you can watch the shuttle launch live in about half an hour. I hope they got that crack in the foam fixed properly. You'd think they'd have some kind of super spackle they could slap on there concidering they've spent about a billion or so dollars to try to fix the problem.

NASA really needs to mothball the shuttles (they're getting rather old now) and start rolling out the next version of space planes.

On the upside, this will probably be the first shuttle launch I've had a chance to watch live in many years. Woo!
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What I'm Reading: jPod, Transmetropolitan: Vol 3
What I'm Playing: Titan Quest, Ouendan, Star Ocean 3
What I'm Watching: What It's Like To Be Alone, shuttle launches!