Wednesday, February 28, 2007

It's over... or is it?

One day left! Only one day left in my GLent (Gamer Lent, for those not following along at home).

I've stuck to it. I haven't picked up a single game this month. In fact, I've ended up playing some older games... some REALLY old (Command & Conquer 2, to be exact, and some Warcraft 3 expansion).

I was VERY tempted to stop in to EB yesterday when I was driving past the one in Milton. I resisted though.

I'm thinking about staying away from the store until March 12. If I do that, that'll be 40 days of no new games and, hey, that would be as long as real Lent which means you goofs saying my GLent doesn't count owe me a new game.

Plus I might actually have one of the games I'm working on finished or close to being finished if I wait that extra amount of time.

To reward myself for lasting this long, I'm going to give myself a cool Transformers gif.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Call Him Mr. Chompers

Garrett went to the dentist today for his first visit. He was... unimpressed. He likes the waiting room because there's a little barn for him to play with and he liked it when he left because he got a pile of toys from the goody basket, but he definately didn't seem terribly excited about actually being in the big chair.

He did warm up to it after a while and thankfully our dentist is a pretty affable fellow, so what was probably some fear about the big weird chair had turned to just contempt for a guy who was poking his fingers in Garrett's mouth. Garrett did chomp on the dentist's finger while he was counting Garrett's teeth, so I guess that means Garrett got his revenge.

Now that he's been in the big chair, I'm hoping that he'll be a little more relaxed the next time he goes for a check-up.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Water beats Wood

Look what we found underneath the baseboards. Sigh.

 
There was water actually dripping inside the wall. I think it has probably been like that since we moved in 5 years ago, so I'm not ULTRA concerned... just moderately concerned. It looks like it's due to the water pooling in the window ledge or leaking in through the frame, which was replaced before we moved in. I've sent pictures of the damage to the condo board and we'll see whether they'll pay for the repairs or we will have to.

Sigh. Posted by Picasa

Snow Day Indeed

So supposedly we're having a snow day today at the schools. Of course, Acton seems to be getting just a light dusting compared to the drubbing that Hamilton and Toronto are getting. I think the earth must have lost some weight and the snow belt is slipping down a bit. That is the only explanation for us not getting pounded.

I guess if you're stuck at home today you can spend your time doing some origami like this guy.

It took him 10 hours and almost 1400 folds to make a phoenix but man, it's gorgeous. What boggles my mind is all of the folding he does at the beginning of the video. I can't fathom having it as planned out as he obviously does. My brain just doesn't work that way. Sigh.

WHA?!

This lady is insane. Check out this quote.
'Rather than relishing the fact that the new toy [the Nintendo Wii] has them off the couch and swinging their arms, Kelly worries that her children are equating the game version of the sports with the real-life counterpart; that is to say, the children are gaining "a false sense of what it's like to compete in the world."'

I just don't know where to start. Ars Technica has a pretty good little article about it, but man... She should be happy her kids are active instead of coddling them even more. Some people will complain about everything, I guess.

I'm Blue, ladadeeladada...

Yay! Got the old office painted! This calls for some celebratory dancing, NERD STYLE!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Treasure Hunt!

I'm on vacation! Woo!

Which means Julie has put me to work. I've been emptying my old office for the last few weekends and thought I'd have it all done first thing yesterday morning. HA!

I started carting things out of there yesterday morning around 11am or so and I didn't have the room emptied and the walls washed down with TSP until almost 8pm! Yeesh! I had hoped to get a coat of paint on yesterday, if nothing else.

The stuff I've uncovered while emptying my office is scaring me. I found a silver pocket watch, a dried up bug, a short story I'd written years ago and thought was lost and most mysterious of all, a slip of paper with the words, "Beware The Albino Apocalypse" written on it....

IN MY OWN HANDWRITING!

I'm scared now.

Oh, and next time I see the guy who used to live in our house, I'm going to swat him. He seemed to have a sick fascination for putting drywall screw sinks in the walls. There are almost more holes than wall. Now I need to find some way to patch them up because while I want to just paint over all the holes, I know that will look really crappy later on.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Last Picture, I Swear...

I just couldn't resist posting this. It's from what is probably my favourite episode of Angel.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Words Fail Me

Behold! The most awesome image ever created!
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The World's Most Expensive Grill

The PS3 is a pretty shiny machine and will eventually have some good games, but did you know that on top of playing games and fancy Blu-Ray DVD's, it also can feed a family of four?

Check out the proof!

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Meet Captain Cupid!

 
Garrett made these glasses at Tales For Twos at the library this morning and has only had them off his face for about 20 minutes since then. He's worn them around town, to McDonald's and around the house.

He says he's a superhero and has a sidekick (that cat thing in his hand) and a magic pencil.

I think I need to keep him away from my comics for a bit :) Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 08, 2007

My Mouf!

I just got back from the comic shop after spending an hour in the dentist's chair getting work done on my teeth. Got the one tooth that was crumbling a few weeks back repaired and there was another old filling that had started to crack on the other side of my mouth so that got fixed while he was in there.

The dentist in Acton is pretty cool. I'm going to get Garrett in to see him soon and I'm happy that he's one of those jovial dentists instead of the nasty ones.

Ah well. My entire lower jaw is frozen at the moment and that made for some funny discourse with the guy at the comic shop when I was trying to ask him about a few comics. I'm just glad I didn't drool on him.

I can't wait to go into work for my 3-11 shift now... Yay. I haven't eaten since this morning and will have to have some soup later this evening when the freezing comes out... which should be a treat.

Sigh. At least I'm off work tomorrow.

Doesn't This Guy Know About Online Banking?

Have you heard the story about the guy who was caught rafting across the Niagara River above the falls? He was supposedly trying to pay a credit card bill in the States.

Yeah, right.

I guess he does have a bit of an excuse. He is barred entry from the States due to a prior conviction and can't get over legitimately but I'm sure he could mail a cheque to the credit card company.

Assuming that's what he was really doing.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Avast!

My lord. I was checking the Slashdot news today and saw this tidbit.

The folks over at Techdirt just put up a great story today, with the RIAA claiming the cost of a CD has gone down significantly relative to the consumer price index. The RIAA 'Key Facts' page claims that based on the 1983 price of CDs, the 1996 price should have been $33.86. So naturally, you should feel like you're getting a bargain. Sounds an awful lot like the cable companies saying cable prices are really going down even though they're going up.

Is it any surprise that the group that has no problem suing 12-year olds and grannies thinks that we're getting a great deal on our CD's because they're NOT costing us $33US?

Yeesh. This is the same kind of rationale that Sony used for the absurd cost of the PS3. They said, and I'm not kidding, that people should want to work extra hours in order to make more money to afford their $700 behemoth. Um, no thanks. I could understand working more hours to afford a new car or pay my mortgage, but not to pay close to $1000 for a videgame system masquerading as a Blu-Ray player.

And people wonder why there is such a vast network of peer-to-peer file sharing and music swapping.

Monday, February 05, 2007

US Commercials For The Win!

Ah, sweet, sweet YouTube.

Here are all of the commercials they didn't show on Canadian TV last night during the Superbowl.

I didn't bother watching the game or anything before or after it as, well, I could care less about the Superbowl.

We watched about 6 hours of House instead and I played a bunch of WoW after Julie went to bed. Ah, fun times.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Kids...

Garrett has been babbling a lot more lately. His vocabulary seems to grow by leaps and bounds and he's even somewhat coherent in his ramblings.

When Julie picked him up from the babysitter's the other day, he proclaimed that "Daddy has ears."

Today he was looking at our wedding picture in the living room and said, out of the blue, "Mommy's a princess."

Of course, this elicited an "Awww..." from Julie. She asked Garrett if I was a prince. He said, "Nope."

Then she asked if I was just a guy and he said, "Yeah."

Sigh. I thought I was royalty.

Of course, Garrett also said that I was out at the coal mine store the other day so who knows. Maybe I get an employee family discount since Garrett's Grandma Wager (my mom) works in a coal mine (according to Garrett...) I have no idea where he got that idea...

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Coolest Firefox Theme Ever!

I finally found a theme for Firefox that has supplanted the ever-present Noia.

BEHOLD!

The Super Mario Bros. 3 theme! It's awesome in so many ways.

Actually, I just found a Megaman 2 theme. It's pretty slick too. Oh, decisions, decisions...

In Defence Of G-Lent

Hey! Stop bad-mouthing Gamer Lent. I know it's not as long as actual Lent. I also know that it's not like I'm giving up playing games for the month or anything.

Heck, I took a whole week off gaming last year. That was like 40 weeks to someone like me. A month of no new games will feel like a year to me. I'm not even going to let myself buy any games off the Virtual Console or Steam, and those things are just a click away on my Wii and PC respectively.

Trust me though. Just ask Dave or Julie. I've talked about not buying games before. Even a month where nothing huge is coming out (except God of War 2 at the end of the month) I'm still sure I'd end up in EB or Wal Mart or somewhere picking up some weird game or two before the end of next week.

I usually don't bother giving anything up for Lent. I'm greedy that way. At least I'm making a baby-step here!

Buncha nitpickers!

Final Potter Date!

This just in!
British author JK Rowling has announced that the seventh and final book in her phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released on the 21st of July this year.

There ya go. I seem to have shortly before a new Harry Potter book comes out. I guess this means no more kids for me.