Whistly wind

My pasty white complexion may not have tipped you off, but unlike James, I'm not a huge fan of bright sunny days.

Every so often, sure. But give me a blustery, rainy day anytime.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, right now the wind is that nice, howly kind of wind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up if you've got an overactive imagination and it's past midnight and you've got all the lights out in the house. Nice and spooky :)

Ah... I hear tomorrow will be nice and rainy too. I love rainy days. Cuts down on the glare on the TV and monitor :)

Though I did spend a couple hours outside on Sunday once my pseudo-food poisoning passed. First I did some yard work, then I cleaned out my car (1 garbage bag full of junk and all my ski stuff finally removed).

Then I played Boktai for a good hour or so. Sneaky game developers, making us have to play in direct sunlight in order to win the game. They just want us getting fresh air. CURSES!

Sanity check

I am teaching my Driver Improvement course tomorrow morning in Kitchener and was originally going to teach the course and then go work my shift.

Then I realized that that would mean I'd be leaving my house at 7:30am and not getting home till 11:30pm.

That was when I came to the conclusion that I was INSANE! So I booked my evening shift off tomorrow which means I can get home at around 1:30ish and then get ready for the penultimate episode of 24 at 9pm!

WOO!

(Why on earth did I think at 16 hour shift was no big deal? Yeesh.)

Hiya!

I just finished Jet Li's latest movie, er, game, Rise To Honor on ye olde PS2. It was a pretty fun game, I have to say. There were some sequences that had me ready to chuck the controller across the room, but after ~10-15 minutes of constant restarts I was able to get past most of them.

A lot of the reviewers didn't like the game, but I did. It was laid out a lot like a movie and the game interface itself was like a DVD. You can go through and pick out the chapters just like a scene selection in a DVD movie. Most of them are rather short, so if you really liked a particular sequence, you can just load that up and give it a whirl. I also like that feature as I had a pretty good idea of exactly how far I was in the game.

And since it was the game equivalent of a Jet Li movie, there was lots of action and cool stunts. Oh, and the backgrounds were incredibly interactive.

There's a scene where you're running across a balcony in an atrium and firing guns at these guys across the opening in the middle of the atrium. I think EVERYTHING was smashed to pieces by the end. Very cool stuff.

Anyway, I've had a long weekend doing all sorts of crazy family stuff (had a baby shower yesterday and did a delayed Mother's Day brunch today with Julie's family) so I'm off to bed.

Zzzz...

Garage Sales ROCK!

Julie & I went out and hit the garage sales this morning and I managed to fill the car with about $40 of her money.

Now she's going to think twice before dragging me out of bed first thing on a Saturday :)

What did I get at the garage sales? Let me tell you!

1 5-gallon fish tank, with filter, light, food and other sundry equipment for $5.
1 SNES, no controllers or cords for $3
'An armful' of books for $.50
1 MS Sidewinder gamepad for $5
1 Star Wars puzzle for $1 or so
The entire Eric Wilson mystery series and some other book for ~$5
1 Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms record (yes, record) - Free with the fish tank.
1 Island of Dr. Brain puzzle game for the PC for $2

And Julie got a baby bathtub and some receiving blankets.

I think there may have been some other stuff, but I can't remember. I just know the car was full.

I did see a Sega Genesis with controllers, cords and Sonic 2 & Mortal Kombat, but it was $20 and Julie wouldn't let me get it. Sigh.

Gotta love garage saling!

Sad, what with my aspirations for forensics...

Well, never let it be said that I ride the cusp of the pop culture wave. Today marked the first time I've sat down and actually watched CSI. Sure, I've seen bits of episodes before, but only about 10 minutes tops.

I've been waiting to get the first few seasons on DVD in order to watch the show in order and amazingly my brother's friend had the first season on DVD and we had a little Buffy/CSI exchange. Today I watched the first 4 eps of Season 1 of CSI and I have to say that I really like it.

There are some things that bugged me about it but it was more along the lines of wierd pseudo-swearing than anything. I know it's not HBO or the Sopranos, but it continues to strike me as odd that one can say 'ass' but not 'God damn it' on network TV. They can say 'guldammit' though. Sigh.

Other than that, and some sort of very kindergartenish behaviour amongst some of the characters which thankfully only lasted for one episode, the science is great and the neat toys they use (which NO public CSI lab could ever afford) are neat to watch. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the seasons soon.

Why Spammers Spam

This is an interesting little article about the reasons that spammers spam.

Not that it really is any justification for clogging the pipes o' the internet with unsolicited crap, but it does let you try to understand why they do what they do.

Here are the whitepapers that article references.

Babies: Nature's Nuclear Weapons

I found this interesting tidbit about babies on the Encyclopedia of the Pointless.

"Babies have a range of cries from "Look at me" all the way to "topple buildings".

This sonic defense is well documented. In tibet in the early 60's, there was a child born whose cries caused avalanches. In the early 70's, a scientist by the name of Rodger Jugginsworth devised a complex sonic amplifier that would take the cries of a child, gently squeezed, and focus them on targets miles away, with the destructive potential of a hiroshima bomb. Unfortunatly, the project was deemed to be cruel to children. However, in the Yucca Mountain facility, the dormant remains of the baby cannon, and its smaller hand-held Infantile Sonic Amplifier, or ISA, cousins lie, waiting for the day when it again becomes necessary to load our babies into strange contraptions that turn cries for love and affection into a deadly wave of destruction."

Oh, I can't wait for our's!

It knows my very thoughts!!!

I've been trying to best the computer at a game of twenty questions.

So far it's been able to figure out giant squid, jalapeno, mosquito and video game.

I did get it to 19 questions, but I've yet to beat it.

Grr... Must figure out obscure object to confuse the computer...

Nintendo DS Revealed

Well, Nintendo has finally revealed what the DS handheld will look like.

There is also a lot of E3 coverage starting to trickle in. I won't bother yammering that much about it, as any quick glimpse of the various websites will tell you what's going on. I will probably put a few things that really have grabbed my attention up on here as the week goes on.

The one game I'm really looking forward to is Fable for the Xbox. I read a preview/interview about it today and it's looking like it's going to be rather special. Gotta love Peter Molyneaux's stuff.

Blame Noel if you don't like the new look

After looking on Noel's website and reading about his new format, I decided that it may be time to put the robot into storage and try some new templates out.

I tried a Coke template for a wee bit this morning, but while I liked the look of it, I did feel like a corporate shill.

So I went with Baby Death. What do you think? Like the new look? Hate it? Let me know!

The nice thing about doing the update is that now I've got trackback functionality in my comment area. Woo!

Hot Shrimp

I just cooked up my supper. It was this Hot Popcorn Shrimp recipe that is in next week's TV Guide. Oh my, it was amazing. I ate a whole shrimp ring in about 10 minutes.

It's essentially garlic sauteed in butter, then you add the shrimp and cook them up and after they're mostly done, add some Tobasco sauce and pepper and lemon juice.

MMMMM.... I just couldn't stop eating them, they were so good.

This is the first time I've cooked a recipe from a TV Guide, but if they're all that good, I might keep a closer eye on them!

Deep Thoughts, By Brocky

I heard a very interesting statement on the radio today that was probably one of the best reconciliations between free will and predestination that I've ever heard.

I'm probably mis-quoting, but here goes.

"25% of what happens to us is fate, destiny, call it what you will. That 25% is fate putting us into a situation where it is very easy to do either the right thing or the wrong thing. Our decisions, character and how we handle that situation make up the other 75%."

I think that's not completely how the quote went, but it's the gist of it. I thought it was a great idea. It incorporated a divine will and free will into a very simply theory. We may be put into a situation where we can very easily choose to do the wrong thing, yet it is there to see if we have the strength of character to choose to do the right thing.

I guess that from a Christian perspective, it would sort of flesh out the whole concept of God not giving us more than we can bear.

Ok. I was going to expand on that thought too, but now my brain decided that it's time to turn off. I totally have lost the coherent train of thought that was this post.

Sigh.

Kids these days...

Well, today I got to explore Acton with a 4 year old. Sherrie was over to paint the nursery and so I took her little daughter out for a walk around town.

I don't know about her, but I'm pooped. We had fun though. I think I now know the location of every bridge over every little creek in this town and I finally saw the children's section of the library.

We chased some ducks and geese around at the park. One duck was missing one foot. Wierd.

I also showed her the amazing Acton Waterfall and the fish that looks like a beer can on the bottom of Fairy Lake.

I think I got too much sun today though. I'm all burned.

Goblin attack

I think I was attacked at work last night by a goblin, or pixie of some kind.

I had this red splotch on my hand when I left work. It wasn't there nigh on 10 minutes before the end of my shift, but by the time I left, there it was.

When I got home I noticed it was a bunch of scratches right in one spot on my left hand. No idea where I got them. I figured that they'd be gone come morning.

It wasn't until this evening that they finally stopped being so red and inflamed, and they're still rather sore and tender.

I have NO idea where the scratches came from though. It's like something little scratched my hand with its claws, but unless something is living in the kitchen at the group home, that can't be the case. I'm just surprised that they're still red and itchy after 24 hours... Wierd.

At least I update more often than James...

I just realized that, aside from the post below, I haven't updated since Sunday afternoon. Yeep!

Let's see. What have I been up to?

Monday I went to work and that was about it. Played a bit of FFXI.

Tuesday, Sherrie, my coworker, came over and we got most of the lines for the stripes on the wall in the nursery chalked in and started taping. Then I watched Master & Commander (very sweet movie) and went to work...

Got home Tuesday night, watched the last bit of M&C and then finished reading my book.

Today I spent the morning taping more stripes on the wall and then went to work. Got home and just had dinner and am going to go finish those crazy stripes. AAAH! Then I'm going to watch The Last Samurai and maybe play some Siren, which is crazy creepy but also insanely hard. Sigh.

Zooom!

Anyone have tickets to Seattle?

I want to go to the Penny Arcade Expo. Why?

So I can win this.

Sigh.

God has a sick sense of humour

Ok, remember the rant I posted yesterday about the 'leadership conference' I had to attend?

Today I took the guys from work to church. I get there and open up the bulletin and to my horror I see that the special guest speaker is none other than Dr. Henry Blackaby, the same old fart who I had the displeasure of having to listen to ALL DAY SATURDAY!

AAAAAH!

It just wasn't fair, I tells ya.

And that last post was just about the content of the conference!

I won't even detail the various things that happened on the logistical side of the conference.

Like having everyone locked out of the building, despite the rainstorm. Like the fact that I ended up playing volunteer tourguide since none of the real volunteers bothered to stand by the doors or knew what was going on.

Etc. etc. etc...

Did I mention I didn't really enjoy the day? Sigh.

It wasn't a TOTAL loss though. I did have a nice chat with my uncle and my cousin. My cousin Rayelle works for Mitchell Books, one of the other sponsors of the event and so I helped her out with some of her duties, if only to keep from being one of the milling herd. I also got to chat with her a bit.

Sadly, I probably talked with her more today than I have in the past two years. Not that we've all had a falling out or anything. I just tend to talk to that family when something CH related brings us into contact rather than at family gatherings. *shrug*

Ok. Now I'm finished ranting. *deep breath*

Urge to kill... Rising...

I just lost 8 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Ok. I had a day today that got me rather steamed under the collar, but I have had a few hours since I got home and also eaten and watched The Last Crusade, so my vitriol won't be so bilious, I hope...

I spent my day today attending what I thought would be a conference on leadership with a Christian angle to it all. That's fine. I'd actually declined my invitation to the CH Staff Retreat which occured on Thursday & Friday so someone else who's more into singing and such could attend it while I got some good meat & potatoes learning done today at this leadership conference.

Oh, how I regret that. Heck, if I'd known, I would have just gone and worked my shift instead.

Why am I ticked? Well, the main reason is that rather than the leadership seminar I'd envisioned above, it turns out that I was spending my day attending a good ol' Southern Baptist revival meeting, with all of the attendant rhetoric that entails.

So it essentially was teaching us how to all be good self-righteous pricks.

The sad thing was that it was paid for by and sponsored by, CH. This, on top of the 2-day staff retreat which had just taken place from Thursday until this morning. I mean, had it actually been something useful, I wouldn't have minded, but to have money which could have gone into home renovations, salaries, ANYTHING that would benefit the programs themselves go towards this... Grr...

Anyway, I was about ready to leave after the first session but I didn't. I kept hoping it'd get better. There was a round-table discussion panel that I thought would make up for the 3 hours of old man drivel being spouted at me all morning.

Wrong.

While they did have a few interesting points, it would keep getting close to verging on serious discussion and then swing right back into more self-righteous back-slapping. But when you take into account that the hostess of the day and the moderator of the panel was the lady from 100 Huntley Street, well, go figure.

Now, if the guy who spoke for 30 minutes from 5-5:30 had also spoken all morning, I might have at least felt somewhat charitable towards the day. He was the son of the guy who spoke for 3 hours in the morning but at least he was entertaining and acknowledged that not everything has a pat answer and that there are gray areas. And I must say that Henry Blackaby, the main speaker, did have a few good points and his comment that today's generation of Christians are some of the most biblically illiterate was true. But really, that's about the only thing he said that I agreed 100% on.

Anyway, it was at the Queensway Cathedral and I sat at the very back and had my MP3 player on and was trying to read a Star Wars book, just to stay awake... when i wasn't getting pissed off at the blather.

I mean, I didn't think it was possible to become physically pained by boredom, but I was... sigh.

*deep breath*

Suffice it to say, I am definately going to be stating my displeasure to my program manager and hope that there is some kind of feedback thing I can give about the day... Though I might have calmed the throbbing vein in my forehead down by then.

Now, in case you're curious as to what got me so rankled, here's a taste of the ineffable wisdom imparted today.

The main speaker posed the rhetorical question, 'How do I know when God is speaking to me?'

Now, we've been discussing this at the small group I attend after church most Sundays, and we still haven't come to a complete concensus. I mean, it IS a very personal thing, as what I interpret as God's voice may not be the same as someone else. They might experience it one way and I may experience it another way. On top of that, new Christians keep hearing older Christians stating how they have followed God's direction and voice in certain matters and may wonder exactly what that entails.

What was Herr Blackaby's response to this rhetorical question?

"If you have to ask what God's voice sounds like, maybe you're not a true Christian."

My jaw dropped. That was when I looked back in my program and saw the Southern Baptist connection and the pieces started to fall into place.

I won't even get into the altar call shenanigans :)

Anyway, that's about it for my day at 'the conference'. Time to go play some Siren to corrupt the good teachings placed there today (sigh).

Scary? You bet.

I'm so looking forward to playing Siren. Just look at this blurb about the Japanese ad campaign for it!

"Night. A young girl bangs on a window, desperate for her parents to let her in. The camera moves inside the house. Mum and dad are terrified.

A reverse shows that Daddy's little girl ain't a girl no more: bloodied, streaming eyes, twisted, undead and evil. This commercial was shown on Japanese television networks on November 3rd. Seven complaints later and it was removed.

Welcome to Siren."

Seminar

I'm going to a seminar for work tomorrow (Sat). Don't even get me started on the insanity that was me trying to arrange coverage for my shift tomorrow.

Suffice it to say, this had better be a good conference, or at least better than if I'd just spent the day at work.

Here's the website that will let all and sundry know what I'm up to from 9-5:30 tomorrow. Woo!

Mmm... steak...

Julie & I went out to Montana's tonight and used my winnings from the Feedback Lottery. We each had a 12 oz. steak with sidedishes galore and finished it off with a Chocolate Cookie Avalanche, which was very yummy. I haven't eaten that much in quite some time.

Afterwards we went to the mall to get some munchies at Bulk Barn and then I absconded with my debit card to EB while Julie looked at maternity clothes. I picked up two new games for $100, which is a very good deal, if I do say so myself.

I picked up Crimson Skies for the Xbox. It's VERY fun. I've got the original Crimson Skies for the PC but never really played it much. The Xbox version (which is technically a sequel) is incredibly fun to play on a nice large(ish) TV with surround sound.

If you're not familiar with the CS universe, it's an alternate 1930's where the US has fractured into a bunch of different nation-states following the Great Depression. Since the roads and railways have mostly been destroyed, air travel by crazy prototype planes and zeppellins is the order of the day.

And let me tell you. Zeps blow up nicely :)

It's a very pulpy kind of setting... much like Indiana Jones, but with air pirates. Lots of fun.

The other game I picked up is the new horror game, Siren. I've only just started playing it, so I can't say too much about it yet, but from the little bit I did play it's looking to be pretty creepy. I've read that it's actually supposed to be scarier than Silent Hill and Fatal Frame, which both were at the top of the list, scare-wise.

Siren does have an interesting storytelling device though. You play as about 10 different characters over the course of 3 days but the game is very non-chronological in its storytelling. Heck, there's a huge flowchart just so you can get a sense of what exactly happened when in the game. Should be neat for a crazy story geek like myself.

Granted, I also posted at length about a car wash, so who knows what my state of mind is. I also seem to be writing like Yoda, I am. Mmm... yes...

Coolest thing EVER!

Megaman Vs. Metroid

It's the first Metroid, but you play as Megaman! Very sweet.

A saga of woe in the Mushroom Kingdom

There is an excellent Mario Bros. flash animation series over on Newgrounds that you should check out.

It's neat, because it takes the usually upbeat and happy world of Super Mario Bros. and turns it into a tale of death, genocide and revenge. They're up to part IV already, but you can check them all out. GO DO IT NOW!

Here's the link to part one, where Mario loses his brother and cries.

Here's part two, where an epic battle taken straight from The Lord Of The Rings movies ensues.

Here's part three, where Mario grieves his fallen brother and vows revenge on King Koopa.

And lastly, here's part four, where the Toad army sallies forth to meet the Koopa nation in battle.

It's not over yet though! One more episode is coming. Cool stuff though.

It's like you're being swallowed by a giant worm...

So today, in the midst of gas prices at the 84.3 cents/litre mark, I found my favourite car wash in the GTA.

It's at the new Esso at the corner of McLaughlin & Highway 7 in Brampton.

Why is it my new favourite car wash? I'll tell you!

Nowadays, most of the car washes (around the GTA at least) are of the touchless variety. I've never really liked them because:
a) I miss the wiggle-woggles and huge spinning brushes that used to wash cars when I was a kid and
b) you always get stuck behind the person who insists on taking 5 minutes to drive out under the blowers at the end of the wash to ensure that every last drop is blown off their car.

Not any more my friends.

This car makes you drive into a little chain-boot assembly before you even get a chance to enter your wash code. Then you put your car in neutral and it starts to pull you in, but not in a smooth motion. As my title implies, it's like you're being swallowed. Very peristaltic, I must say.

A nice touch is that they have all these neon signs indicating which stage of the car wash you're at.

And the best part is that you'll never get stuck behind a blower-hog. The track continues under the blowers (and there are about 5 of them to blow everything off) and then right outside of the car wash proper, so even if you wanted to just sit there, you'd be back outside and no longer blocking traffic.

I still miss the good ol' fashioned wiggle-woggles though. The only car wash I can think of that still allows things other than bubbles and water to touch your car is the one in Sarnia at the Petro-Canada station.

Wow. I can't believe how unbelievably dorky this post was :)

Baby Mush

I've heard of sympathy tummies that husbands will get when their wives are pregnant, but I've never heard of husbands getting baby brain.

My mind has been full of swiss cheese all day today. Well, maybe not my mind, but I'm sure my brain looks like some kind of dairy product at the moment. I've been so out of it that I actually thought I'd left one of the guys at Tim Horton's tonight, until one of the guys in the van reminded me (while I was panicing) that he was actually out with one of the other guys at Friendship Club.

Time to go to bed and sleep! I can't even blog well tonight :P

I am trying to wean myself from the incredible amounts of caffeinne I have been consuming over the past few months, so that could be making me go cheese-head at the moment... Sigh.

Why does this sound familiar?

This is my new favourite Bash.org quote.
---
[Radz] Should I replay FF (Final Fantasy) 7?
[spiderbait] Nobody's stopping you.
[Radz] That's like another 90 hours I'd be away from you guys though. :(
[payne] Do it.
[spiderbait] Do it.
[xCell] Do it.

---
Ooo! A banner...

The 18th Time Is A Charm

Well, I just beat Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the Gamecube.

Excellent remake of an excellent game. It's scary that a game that is 6-7 years old still holds up so well. Sure, the graphics in the remake are a LOT better than the original PS1 version and the new cutscenes are insanely sweet. But the main game is still the same and even though I've now finished the game about 5-6 times, it still rocks.

It was interesting to see how far the controls for stealth games have come though. After playing the two Splinter Cell games, MGS's controls are downright clunky. It still works though. It's just not as silky smooth as the control you have over Sam Fisher in the SC games.

Of course, this now means that I have to actually go back and work on Ninja Gaiden (eep!).

My new web addy

Oh, thanks to Hugeurl, I now have a new URL for Notl33t.

Here it is. Get your pencils sharpened...

http://www.hugeurl.com/?Y2Q5YmFjYmQxNDUzM2IzMThkMDFjOWZjY2UyMDZiY
jgmMTImVm0wd2QyUXlVWGxXYTJoV1YwZG9WVll3W
kc5alJsWjBUVlpPV0Zac2JETlhhMUpUVmpGYWMySkVU
bGhoTWsweFZqQmFTMk15U2tWVWJHaG9UVmhDVVZ
adGVGWmxSbGw1Vkd0c2FsSnRhRzlVVjNOM1pVWmF
kR05GZEZSTlZUVkpWbTEwYTFkSFNrZGpTRUpYVFVad
1NGUlVSbUZqVmtaMFVteFNUbUY2UlRGV1ZFb3dWakZ
hV0ZOcmJGSmlSMmhZV1d4b2IwMHhXbGRYYlVaclVsUk
dXbGt3WkRSVk1rcElaSHBHVjJFeVVYZFpWRVpyVTBaT
2NscEhjRlJTVlhCWlZrWldhMVV5VW5OalJtUllZbFZhY1Z
scldtRmxWbVJ5VjI1a1YwMUVSa1pWYkZKRFZqQXhkVl
Z1V2xaaGExcFlXa1ZhVDJOdFNrZFRiV3hYVWpOb1dGW
nRNSGRsUjBsNFUydGthVk5GV2xSWmJHaFRWMVpXY1
ZKcmRGUldiRm93V2xWb2ExWXdNVVZTYTFwWFlrZG9
jbFpxU2tabFZsWlpXa1prYUdFeGNGbFhhMVpoVkRKT2M
yTkZaR2hTTW5odlZGVm9RMWRXV1hoWGJYUk9VakZH
TlZaWE5VOWhWazVHVjJ4U1dtSkhhRlJXTUZwVFZqRmt
kRkp0ZUZkaVZrbzFWbXBLTkZReVJrZFhiazVxVTBoQ1l
WUlZXa3RoUmxsM1YyMUdVMkpGTlhwWlZWcHJZVWRG
ZUdOSWJGZFdSVXBvVmtSS1QyTXlUa1phUjJoVFRXNW9
WVlpHWTNoaU1XUlhWMWhvWVZKRlNtRldiWE40VGtaa2
NsWnRkRmhTTUhCNVdUQmFjMWR0U2toaFJsSmFUVlp3
ZWxreWVIZFNNVkp5VGxaT2FWSnRPVE5XYTFwaFlqSkZ
lRmRzYUZSaVJuQnhWV3hrVTFsV1VsWlhiVVpPVFZad2V
GVXlkREJXTVZweVkwWndXR0V4Y0ROWmEyUkdaVWRP
U1dKR1pGZFNWWEJ2Vm10U1MxUnRWa2RqUld4VllsZG
9WRlJYTVc5bGJHUllaVWM1YVUxWFVraFdNalZUVkd4YVI
xTnRSbGRpV0U0MFZHdGFXbVZIUmtoUFYyaHBVbGhCZ
DFkV1ZtOVVNVnAwVW01S1QxWnNTbGhVVmxwM1YwW
nJlRmRyWkZkV2EzQjZWa2R6TVZZeVJYaGhNMlJYWWxo
Q1MxcFZXa3BsVmtweVdrWm9hV0Y2Vm5oV1ZFSnJUa1p
zVjFWc1dsaGliVkp6V1d0YWMwMHhXWGxOVldSb1lYcEd
WMVJzYUhkV2JGbDZZVVJPV21FeVVrZGFWV1JQVWpKS
1IxcEdaRTVOUlhCS1ZqSjBVMUl4VFhsVVdHeFZZVEZ3YU
ZWdGVHRmpSbFp4VW10MFYxWnNjRWhXVjNSTFlUQXh
SVkpzVGxaU2JFWXpWVVpGT1ZCUlBUMD0=

Thankfully, I've got it memorized :)

Space done cheap

Found this cheap space documentary whilst toodling around today. It's rather informative. The best thing is that you don't have to bother learning about most of the planets because they're boring, according to the documentary.

Enjoy!

Gareth Keenan is my hero (not)

I watched all of Season 2 of The Office today. I swear, it's like watching a train wreck.

The thing I like the most about The Office is that for most of the scenes, it's not the actual dialogue that is so funny. It's the stunned and horrified looks on the faces of everyone around the office that are the real stars. They're just fascinating to watch, if only because in all likelyhood YOU are making that same face while you're watching.

I was kind of depressed by the end though. A lot of things I thought were going to work out one way didn't. Sigh. Supposedly there are two Christmas specials that haven't been released on DVD yet. They tie up some loose ends... supposedly.

They're going to be doing an American version of The Office, to be released sometime soon. Unlike the disaster which was the US version of Coupling, they might actually be able to do The Office right. They'd likely just remove most of the ambient shots of the office where nobody is doing anything. Ricky Gervais is also being directly involved in the translation across the pond, so we'll see how it does.

Shall we shag now, or shag later?

Oh man. The carpet guys show up here and the first thing they say is, 'We don't have enough carpet.'

Not what you want to hear first thing in the morning.

They're currently installing the carpet now. We'll see if they actually DO have enough carpet. They said it's going to be REALLY close, but so long as they cover everything they need to, I'm happy.

From here you can get an excellent view of my foot.

Kill Bill volume 2 is great. I just watched my DVD of the first part the other day and so seeing the story through to its conclusion right away was a lot of fun.

The fight with Pei Mei is great... In fact, the whole training sequence is probably one of my favourite parts of the whole thing.

If you like your chop sockeyed, you'll love this movie. (that should be on the movie poster)

Go Leafs Go

4-1 baby... WOO!

Amen, brother

I liked this quote from a Gamespot game reviewer.

"Let me be frank: I like violent games. I prefer them. And I think games involving lots of violence might as well be gory, because violence is and should be depicted as an ugly thing, not a neat and clean thing. I think all of the violent T-rated games out there that let you shoot droves of people in the face without anyone shedding so much as a drop of blood are, in a way, more offensive than something like Manhunt, which unflinchingly depicts all kinds of grisly acts in full, gory detail."

Just something to think about.

THE Hacker

When I was out with the guys tonight at work, I saw that my dream license plate was taken.

This guy, driving a beat up old car, had the license plate, "H4X0R"

Sigh. I guess I can always get "SPIGOT" or "NOTL33T" for my vanity plates.

Well, I'm off to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1. Don't even get me started on Canada Post... grr...

VaCATIOn Wrap-up

We had a good vacation. Didn't do too much. On Friday we went for a hike over at Hilton Falls, which was really nice. We even got to see a little blackbird divebombing a hawk for about 10 minutes on our way out of the woods. Very cool.

Saturday was my game day. I just sat up here playing FFXI for probably close to 12 hours. Now my arm is sore... I hope it's not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from my playing on the keyboard all day!

We also watched the first two Indiana Jones movies during the week and just generally lounged about, with brief periods of activity thrown in whenever Julie got an idea for what I needed to do to improve the house next :)

Back to Work

I had a good day at work today. I was sort of amazed to see that it hadn't burned down in my absence, but that's a good thing. One of the guys was convinced that his old workshop had burned down though, but since there wasn't really anything else special going on, we drove over and confirmed that it was very much not burned and indeed for lease.

I also found out on the way home that the Roll Up The Rim contest is more or less over... at least at the Timmies I stopped at. No more special cups :(

Today was also the first day of the year that I got to mow the lawn. I'm not sure if I should be happy or not...

The Nursery

Well, my friend from work came by today to start working her decorating magic on the baby's room. If you've ever had the pleasure of staying in our spare bedroom, well, it's now borderless and yellow. Soon it will be even fancier, but only Julie knows what it'll look like as I wasn't paying attention. I just roll paint.

More Movie Madness

I just finished watching the excellent movie, American Splendor.

I loved it. It's a wierd mix of movie narrative and almost-documentary with some other interesting things in it that I've never seen in a movie before. It's got memorable characters and having the narrator be the real-life person that the film is based on and actually showing him in the film, talking about the film while the film is going... it's just cool.

Go rent it. It's definately worth the watch.

Now I need to see if I can find the comics it's based on at the library.

Ants ants ants ants...

Well, it's official. Spring has begun. Our house is now infested with ants.

We had a couple run around the house the last few weeks and I was squishing them when I saw them run across my arm while I was playing a game.

But today they seem to have decided that we're not welcome. I walked into my office and there were about a dozen or so all over the carpet. I squished them all and then I saw more in the living room and squished them too.

One just crawled on my neck just now. How do they get up there?!

Anyway, I found one ant repository. The cup we had bubble tea in was full of ants and, lo and behold, also in my office garbage can. I dumped it outside.

Now I'm going to have to go buy some ant traps. Hopefully they're just in here because it hasn't been that warm out OR because it was pouring rain most of the day here so they decided to come inside and get dry. Just so long as they all die when I give them the ant-trap poison, I'll be a happy man.

It's my lucky day!

I got a letter today from Montana's. I figured it was just the usual little PR mail designed to make me think that they actually read my comment card that I put in the feedback bag every time I go there.

So, I opened up the letter and lo and behold!

I'm the monthly winner of the feedback contest at the Montana's in Mississauga! Woo!

I won a dinner for two with a maximum value of $50! Gotta love that.

Now, if only my luck will hold out and let me win the Super 7 this week :)

me so smart

I just did an IQ test online and got a score of 136. Is that good?

I also got my true calling pointed out to me.

"According to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is a Visionary Philosopher.

This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others - and at anticipating and predicting patterns."

Yup, sounds about right.

Brrrr...

Ok. I was just outside today, raking up dead leaves and grass, putting out grass seed... in the semi-warm sunshine, no less.

I just looked outside now before I went to bed and there is a good 2-3 inches of snow all over the ground and on my freshly seeded backyard. Grrr...

Those seeds better still be there. Under a layer of ice, knowing my luck.

Stay Away From The Pregnant Lady!

Speaking of food fiascos, we had another one later in the day.

We went out to see The Ladykillers this afternoon.

[Short review of the movie: It was good. It seemed kind of sub-par for a Coen Bros. movie until the second half, in which case it was back to the usual kind of Coen Bros. wackiness. I think it was that Marlon Wayans' character was just swearing for the sake of swearing for the first half of the movie that made it annoying to watch. I just wanted to punch him... So I recommend it, but it's not anywhere NEAR as good as the cinematic perfection that is O Brother, Where Art Thou?]

ANYWAY, we got in and Julie was hungry and looking forward to some popping corn. We went up to the snack bar and I picked out a relatively mid-size bag of Twizzlers and Julie asked for a small popcorn.

The girl then said, 'Well, this is the size of a small. Are you sure you don't want a regular?' and held up a bag that was smaller than a paperback novel.

Julie flipped out. "THREE SEVENTY NINE FOR THAT!?! AND A REGULAR IS ALMOST $5?!?! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!"

Then she saw how much the Twizzlers were. "FOUR TWENTY FIVE FOR THAT!? THAT'S ROBBERY!"

I just ran to the theatre to avoid the fallout. I did get my Twizzlers, but Julie held onto them like they were pressed latinum and carefully rationed them out for the whole movie so she'd be sure to get her money's worth.

Check Your Watch!

I was out this morning with Julie as we had our first visit with the OB/GYN. He's a nice guy but he said the words that Julie was dreading... "Woah. That's a bigger baby than usual at this stage." He does seem like someone who knows what he's doing though, so that's good.

Afterwards, we decided to visit McDonald's as we were both having Egg McMuffin cravings. We pulled into the drive-through at 10:24am, according to our clock. When I started to order, they then said that breakfast was over. I was puzzled and they went on to say that it's finished at 10:30 and that I'd have to order off the lunch menu. I said that it wasn't 10:30 yet so we should get an Egg McMuffin, thank you very much.

The lady then said that it was 10:34am and that they aren't serving breakfast anymore. Now, if I was in the store and just had my watch to go by, I'd figure that maybe my watch was slow. However, since I was in my car and listening to the CBC, I knew that my clock was right. Sheilagh Rogers was still yammering on with her guest and they hadn't yet done the 10:30 newscast, which is about as accurate as you can get.

I mean, it would have been one thing if I was a half hour late or even 10 minutes late, but for them to insist that it was actually 10 minutes later than it really was, thus denying me the Egg McMuffin and Hash Brows that I so craved... That was just criminal.

So I left in a huff. Hungry.

It reminded me of the scene in Falling Down where D-Fens ends up shooting up the burger joint when HE can't get breakfast. Sigh.

I'm OOOOOOON Vacation

Today is the official first full day of my vacation. Woot! And while I do have to head to Sarnia in about half an hour to do the usual Easter thing, we are coming back on Sunday and the only real grunt job I have to do next week is install the baseboards in the washrooms.

That's it! No flooring to be redone. No rooms to paint. No toilets to install. Yay!

It is going to be like a real vacation, albeit one where I'm still at home.

Double hooray!

Here Today, Pandora Tomorrow

Well, I just finished Splinter Cell. I got stuck on the second last mission, oh, about a year ago (according to the date on my last save file) and since the sequel just arrived at my house on Friday last week, I figured it was a good idea to get cracking and finish off the first game.

So I spent the last couple evenings on Spinter Cell 1 and lo and behold! I finished it! Woo!

Now to start Pandora Tomorrow. I've heard that it's good as a single-player game, but the multiplayer is where it's at. Sigh. If only I had Xbox Live...

Games make surgeons better!

This just in.

Surgeons who play console games for at least 3 hours a week make 37% fewer mistakes than non-gaming doctors.

Gotta love that. Maybe when I get my MD in 30 years I'll have the manual dexterity of an angel...

CSIS Alert!

The local library is starting to scare Julie. It's gotten to the point now where I just walk in and go to the counter and the librarians hand me my books without seeing my card or asking my name. They even let me know if new graphic novels have come in or if there are any new sci-fi/fantasy novels that might interest me.

Since they seem to know me by face now, they must be wondering about my latest batch of books. I've been getting mostly fluff Star Wars novels and whatever graphic novels they get in, but then this week my books have been, well, odd.

I've got "Weapons Of Mass Destruction", a book on WMD's and their imminent threat, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Philosophy", a book on the deeper themes touched on by the Buffy series, and then the book that goes nicely with the WMD book, "When Religion Becomes Evil", which lays out 7 basic guidelines that show that a religion has been co-opted by those with darker intentions.

Too bad they didn't have the History Of Heavy Metal book in at the library. That'd really scare them!

Title Fight

Gamespy has been running a huge round-robin Title Fight for videogames for the last month or so. Today they announced the winner. Half-Life won out over Super Mario Bros. 3, but not by much.

There's a pretty good wrap-up by the editors and I had fun voting. It was like American Idol for geeks.

I was surprised by some of the winners though, and also happy to see how close some contests were (the Chrono Trigger/Final Fantasy VII match had less than 70 votes separating them).

The first signs of spring

Well, today I saw the first slugs of spring. Yes, the lowly slug has come out from its winter burrow and is now looking for love.

I found a small ooze of slugs (an ooze being the proper term for a group of slugs a la a murder of crows, etc.) under a piece of cardboard in the front yard. I had to flick them all into the front driveway as Julie would be rather ticked if they all started crawling out of the garbage can in the kitchen. Oh well. One day I'll grow a really big slug and keep it as a pet. Yeah!

Which Island Was That, Exactly?

So my co-worker has returned from her sojourn to lovely Newfoundland (but not Labrador) and brought me some treats. First off, I have about a pound of moose meat. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to prepare it, but she did mention that I could just cook it like a steak, so I guess I'll really have to go get some propane for the BBQ now.

Secondly, she brought me a bottle of Screech. The last time she went to Newfoundland, she promised she'd bring me back a bottle of Screech but it was drunk (dranken? drunken? I hate the past tense of drink) before it arrived back in Ontario :P

So this time she was able to safeguard my bottle of Screech and I got it back to my house intact. I was looking at the label and something struck me as odd...

"REAL NEWFOUNDLAND SCREECH" the label bodly proclaims. It's even got a picture of a little clipper ship and an unemployed fisherman (hee hee). But a closer look reveals the startling truth.

"MADE IN JAMAICA. IMPORTED BY THE NEWFOUNDLAND LIQUOR COMPANY."

So rather than some crazy moonshine from backwoods Newfoundland, I've got Jamaican rum with a Newfoundland label on it. Maybe they concecrate it by dancing a jig around the casks when it arrives from the Carribean, but still...

Sheesh.

It is good rum though :)

Fever Bugz!

I found something yesterday while getting the prescription for my crazy eye filled that made me really glad we're having a baby soon.

Fever Bugz! These look so neat. I want to get some for myself and then get sick so I can use them, but I guess I'll have to live vicariously through the wee Spiglet. Sigh.

Making your dreams come true...

This is a neat little flash video by some guy at MIT. It's Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" with images to go along with all of the historical landmarks mentioned in the song. And it's got some funny banter by the guy who made it.

He's trying to hit a million hits before June 11th and he's almost there, so I may as well add a few more to his counter by way of this page :)

Poor Authors...

I was at Chapters with the guys this afternoon and saw that somebody was signing books. I walked past the guy's table about 4 times, not wanting to talk to him lest he be an author of disrepute who will just try to shill his tawdry wares and not leave me alone.

On the other hand, I feel bad when I see authors that nobody has heard of are trying to do a book signing and have nobody talk to them. I figure that could be me if I ever get my mythical novel written.

So I went over and chatted with him for a minute or two. He was a nice older gent who writes what he called 'family reading mysteries'. Ie. A mystery on par with what you'd find at your average Christian bookstore, minus the heavy-handed religiosity. He did have one book called The Pastor which looked interesting as it was a fictional account of the trials & tribulations of a pastor and his church over the course of two years.

I didn't buy any of the books though, as they were at Christian Bookstore Prices [tm], by which I mean it cost about $25 for a 250 page trade paperback... But I wouldn't mind reading them from the library.

April Fool's Roundup

Today was probably the best April Fool's day ever from my Pranker perspective.

First off, I didn't really do anything to Julie except play around with her mind. I knew she'd be reading my blog when she got up and thus start trying to figure out exactly what I did... which was nothing...

Of course, I played it up for at least an hour while she kept pestering me this morning and went back and forth between thinking that I really had done something one minute and then that I was just pulling her leg the next... mwahahaha...

Now, the BIG PRANK came in the afternoon when I was at work. I'll set the scene for you first.

They are starting a new program in our region sometime this year. Since March 31st is the end of our fiscal year, we had to store a lot of their stuff in our garage while we wait for them to get our new house. So there's a lot of stuff in there right now.

Ok. The scene is now set.

When I got into work this afternoon my manager called me and told me that I had to call the lady at the district office responsible for doing all the purchasing for the house. She wanted me to tell her that someone had left the garage door open overnight and several items were missing.

I proceeded to do this and got the lady's voice mail. Now, I'm the master of messages on voice mail, so I left a rather urgent one stating that several items, including a TV, were taken sometime overnight and that my manager wanted to talk to her right away.

I then called my manager to tell her what I'd said on the voice mail to make sure we had our stories straight if she called back.

About 2 hours later I get a call from my manager, who has the lady at district office on the 3-way call. The lady said she was feeling just sick that this happened and questioned me as to what exactly happened, what was missing, the whole nine yards.

My manager and I played along for about 5 minutes, acting as concerned and worried as the lady obviously was and definately ruining her day. I mean, she was going to be coming down to the house the next day with all her receipts (which she'd dug up) to itemize everything, incident forms were going to have to be filled out, an investigation may be pending... This was definately a big deal!

It was a great testament to ad libbing if ever there was one, since we were just making it up as we went along :)

So after toying with her for 5 minutes and just ruining her entire day, if not week, we finally decided that it was time to end her suffering.

My manager: "Brock, tell her."
Me: "Ok. What day is it?"
Lady from district office: "Thursday, April Firs... OH YOU GUYS!!! AAAAARG!!!"

We all laughed... She said that she'd fallen for it even though she'd been warned that I'm a practical joker by one of the staff from the other house... Mwahaha...

But now I'm worried that I'm going to get something really nasty dropped on my head when I least expect it :)

Nothing like causing an ulcer with the higher-ups at the district office and being able to get away with it :)

More April Fool's stuff

Here is a list of everything you wanted to know about April Fool's Day, including the top 100 April Fools hoaxes.

The rest of the Museum Of Hoaxes is pretty neat too.

April Fools!

So, today is April Fool's day. Did anyone play (or be the victim of) any elaborate tricks today? Since I'm up so late while Julie is sleeping, I was able to set up a pretty sneaky trick on her, but she probably won't find out about it till she gets to work and I'm safely far away :)

Oh, and here's something that has bothered me since I moved to the Sarnia area back when I was in grade 4.

When is the proper time to stop playing pranks on April 1st? When I was in Thunder Bay, we would play tricks all day long. The tricks didn't stop till the sun went down and you went to bed. When I moved down to Sarnia, come noon, the tricks stopped.

Is this some SW Ontario thing or is this the way it really is supposed to go and we just liked tricks too much up North? And if it does stop at noon, why? I figured it was just because the teachers didn't want to have to put up with an entire day of kids doing silly things. *shrug*

Another nice thing about April Fools day is seeing how much effort the various websites put into their pranks. Supernova is saying that they're going to only serve Japanese downloaders now, and I'm sure a lot of the game sites will have some amusing stories to tell (Half-Life 2 in stores!).

Don't adjust your set...

I almost freaked out when I went to Homestar Runner today. Never fear though. Just wait about 20 seconds and THE CHALLENGE WILL COMMENCE!!!

Geek Post #99923

Well, I've been really busy playing FFXI the last couple days. I'm doing rather well given that I've only had the game for a week.

I finally figured out how to take screenshots today so here are a couple shots of Spigot, FFXI-style.

Spigot as Black Mage


Spigot with his fancy new hat


Spigot as Thief with full gimp attire

This is so me

Given my recent enjoyment and subsequent addiction to Final Fantasy XI, I figured I'd put up a couple good strips that RealLife Comics has had up over the last week.



And thankfully this isn't me... almost, but not quite.

Best. Dream. Ever

I had a dream that my alarm clock went off, so I just got up and realized that my alarm clock doesn't go off for another half hour. Gotta love those dreams.

I guess I'll go get ready for work and leave early enough to stop at Timmies.

In the meantime, I'll just daydream about this car.

The Old Man and the Couch

Just in case James doesn't update his blog for the next 4 weeks, here's a quick rundown of what he did for his birthday upon his arrival in Acton this morning.

1. Ate yummy breakfast at Andy's, the best of the local restaurants.

2. Helped me move all of the books from the spare bedroom and filed them away on the bookshelves in my office. The floor is starting to creak a bit but it's otherwise structurally sound (I hope).

3. Watched me play a bit of FFXI while reading my Penny Arcade Year One anthology book.

4. Watched a cool movie called Better Luck Tomorrow while eating some Kielbassa snackers in place of an actual lunch.

5. Went out to the Thaietnamese place in Guelph. We had lots of food and it only cost $55 for the three of us to eat three huge main dishes and 2 appetizers. Gotta love great food for cheap.

6. Came back to Acton.

7. Watched Final Destination 2 and then watched all of the special features.

8. Watched me play Ninja Gaiden for a bit and then fell asleep on the couch, where he still remains to this day...

So that's what James did on his birthday, with a little help from Julie & myself. Woo!

Language r fUn

Found this link on the Penny Arcade site today.

It's American, but it is still interesting. It's a bunch of language graphs. They break down how people say various words by region and also has the variations of various words (ie. is it CRAYfish or CRAWfish) broken out by region and popularity.

Good ol' geeky linguistic nonsense :)

Screeeeeech THUMP

Another cool thing happened to me to day at work.

I was in the kitchen having some leftover soup when I heard a loud squawking noise coming from outside and growing steadily louder. Suddenly I hear the aforementioned "SCREEEEEECH" followed by a thump.

I figured that a bird must have flown into the dining room window so I went to the back door and looked outside.

Lo and behold, there's a bird in the middle of the backyard, flopping around. I watched it for a few moments to see if it was ok or not and then it sort of sat up straight.

"Wow! A peregrine falcon! In our backyard!" thought I.

I was just about to go outside to see if it was ok when it started to flap its wings as though trying to fly. I figured that it would only get a little ways since it had probably drilled the window pretty hard on its flight into the side of the house. Then I notice something even more interesting.

It's got another bird in its claws! The screeching squawking noise wasn't the falcon, it was the bird the falcon was chasing. I figure that the other bird was trying to get away from the falcon when it slammed into the window and knocked itself out, thus becoming easy pickings for Herr Falconheimer. The falcon made it over the fence and flew down into the neighbours yard, probably to have a nice breakfast away from my prying eyes.

So that was my cool story. Gotta love watching nature at work, deadly ninja style.

Best birthday card ever.

I got a great birthday card from my mom today.

On the front it has 6 panels showing this guy in his chair, playing some kind of game system.

Each panel has one word that the guy is saying and the sun rises and sets during the course of the card.

What does it say? "Must... Pause... Game... And... Celebrate... Birthday..."

The inside says something to the effect of "There will be time to save the world, build the city and rescue the princess AFTER you celebrate your birthday."

Hee hee... Nice to see my parents have finally accepted my gaming habits, or at least acknowledge them.

This link is for Doug

Here is a guide for how to build a wicked fast gaming computer for very, very little money.

"There is a mystique surrounding computers - we are led to believe that they are sophisticated and complicated pieces of equipment that need to be built by trained experts using special tools such as 'screwdrivers'. This is simply untrue."

And remember. Every computer needs a good heat sensor...

I wish I wasn't working days...

I want to stay up all night and play FFXI. It's incredibly good. I was able to hook up with some pretty nice guys and we spent the evening trying to figure out how to actually play the game as we were all brand new to it. I also spent a lot of time dying.

Dying aside, it is a very fun and very deep game. It also looks like it'll suck a lot of my free time away :) Hey, as long as it keeps me distracted from other games and the purchasing thereof, that's always a good thing.

Vana'diel, here I come!

Well, today I took the plunge and picked up Final Fantasy XI. I'm still installing it, but once it's done updating all 8000 files and the retinal scan is complete, I should be able to start playing it.

I've heard nothing but great things about the game since it came out, so I'll let everyone know if it's actually as good as they say or not. I've been really impressed just with the extent of the ingame help and information. Very extensive.

I'm planning on being a Tarutaru, if anyone cares :)

Rrrrr

I have had a good year for Rrrroll Up The Rrrrim at Timmies so far.

I actually have won two, count 'em, two free donuts. Mmm... And both in the same week. And one of them was on my birthday!

Granted, it's no 37" plasma TV, but it's still better than the usual nothing that I win for the 20 cups of extra coffee I consume during the contest.

Casshern

As Tycho so succinctly put it in his post on Friday, drop what you're doing and check out the trailer for Casshern.

I want to see this NOW. I have no idea what it is. Looks sort of like a live-action Final Fantasy meets Last Exile meets Underworld meets who knows what else. But it also looks like a gorgeous version of all these things.

This is the text I got when I ran the page through Babelfish.

"The first supervision work of period village valley Kazuaki's who manages the music video and the like of Utada ヒカル. Popularity was gained in seventies, with this work which it takes picture on the spot converts "new structure human キャシャーン", genius of the image boundary is many participation. In the back, キャシャーン which has the body of immortality (Isetani friend mediating/helping) with pattern of the fight where the enemy which schemes mankind fall is extreme is drawn visual that it is beautiful. "

Er.. yeah. Well, suffice it to say, it still looks sweet, whatever the Engrish translation is.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well, yesterday was my 28th birthday. I had a good time, even though I was so tired and busy in the morning that I forgot it was my birthday till around 11am!

I had a little birthday cake at camp for the lunch send-off. Afterwards I had a pint of Guinness when I got home from the camp. Then we got to go see Mason Tyr Wager, the previously shown nephew o' mine. Then my buddy Noel came over at 4am on Saturday (today) to visit and we had a great time playing Mario Kart: DD for most of the morning. Unfortunately Yvette couldn't come and join in the fun, but we made due without her :P

He also took me to the most evil store since the invention of Electronics Boutique. I am trying not to remember the name of it, but I know where it is now and that's just as bad. It's down in Milton and is a great place to get all sorts of cool figurines. There was this amazing 6 foot tall Jack Skellington in a Santa outfit that I wish I could afford ($250ish) but I decided that I'd let myself get one thing.

So I got a Nekosama bobblehead from Trigun. It was only $19 after taxes, so that was a pretty good deal.



Then after Noel left we went over to the grocery store and hit the videostore while we were there. This place has the most ridiculous prices on used games. I'm talking used games that cost more than new ones at EB. However they did have a great deal on movies. Buy 2, get 2 free. Sure, the movies are a little more expensive than most places ($17.99ish) but I was able to get 4 DVD's for $40, so it worked out in the long run. I picked up Adaptation, Final Destination 2, Bend It Like Beckham and Open Range.

And that was the end of my birthday shopping spree and my dip into my bonus pay. Now I just have to stare at my Nekosama whenever I feel the need to spend money and it will shake its head.

BABY!

Here's a picture of Julie making my little nephew Mason cry...

Wait... she's declaring her innocence and said Mason is only yawning... You decide!



Here's me making Mason not cry and practicing my l33t b4by holding skillz. Notice the contented smile on Mason's face as he appreciates the nuances to my technique.

I'm too old for this stuff...

Long story short, I had a really great week at camp but I'll NEVER do it again. I punched through the exhaustion barrier by around mid-Tuesday and was running on reptilian brain functions for the rest of the week.

It was nice to see the new guys' wing and seeing a lot of the old guests who I remember from back in the day when I worked at camp.

And having the Queen's own chef working at the camp was phenomenal. I might go back on my earlier statement of never working there again just so I can sample his fine cooking some more. I mean, homemade chicken cordon bleu and rice pilaf? At CH camp? Pinch me!

I've got lots of picture from camp so I will probably post some soon. I'm just too tired to do it now.

Uncle Brock

Hi Everyone....

Brock's youngest brother Grant and his wife Suzie had a baby boy yesterday afternoon. Mason Tyr Wager came into the world weighing 8lb 2oz at about 3:20 yesterday afternoon. We won't get to go and visit until Friday though since Brock's away at camp all week :(

Camp time for Brocky

Well, I'm heading up to the wonderful world of Paisley tomorrow morning (7am!!) for a week of fun and frivolity working at the CH camp! Woo!

I'm not sure if I should be looking forward to this week or dreading it. It's been a while since I've done the camp routine, but it is March Break, so it shouldn't be too crazy.

The scariest thing is that all of the teenyboppers I'll be working with were only about 5-7 years old when I first started working at the camp. Eek!

Anyway, barring some mysterious access to the internet over the next week, there won't be any updates till I get back on Friday the 19th aka my birthday! I'll let you all know how camp is then.

And yes, I am bringing my Gameboy, but I'm seriously doubting I'll get much use out of it. Just think of it as the videogame equivalent of a security blanket :)

Pad Thai for everyone!

We went out to Guelph today to have some Thaietnamese for lunch. I had a great chicken & shrimp pad thai and Julie had some kind of Vietnamese chicken and beef with a rice ball the size of my head. Well, close to it.

We also got two appetizers. Vietnamese springrolls, which were huge compared to the ones I'm used to getting from the Vietnamese family in Sarnia, and an order of chicken satay which was enough for each of us to probably have a full meal and still bring some home. Heck, my Pad Thai was easily enough for two people or one VERY hungry James.

Oh, and a lychee flavoured bubble tea.

The best thing about all of this was that after taxes and tip it only came out to around $40 for all that food.

It's my new favourite restaurant. Well, Yo-Yo is still my favourite, but more for being able to go there and relax. The Thaietnamese place in Guelph (I think it's called Pho Khan Du) is my favourite place for the sheer amount of good food at cheap prices.

All Ninjas, All The Time

Do you have Real Ultimate Power? Do you want to learn how to commit seppuku with a frisbee?

This site is hilarious. I want to be a ninja even more now. Why? You can't argue with these facts, as taken from RUP.net!

Facts:

1. Ninjas are mammals.

2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.

And just check out the Ninja sightings.

Crazy stuff, I tell ya.

He's not dead (yet)

I talked to James briefly tonight, for those of you thinking that his computer had been overrun with mice and the neighbours were gnawing on his bones.

He's still alive and is currently in the process of installing a new DVD drive in his system so he can watch movies that aren't Region 7. Gotta love having a Region 1 DVD drive here in North America :P

Hopefully he'll not hurt himself too badly and will update his blog shortly. If not, I have threatened horrible things be done to him with my spinny saw-like toy.

Who likes spark sparks?

I like spark sparks! Especially really huge ones like the one in the video here and discussed on the site below.

Nothing like seeing a 500,000 volts of electricty arc through the air with the greatest of ease.

I need to get me one of these relay switches at work. I'd just install it on the top of the house and scare the neighbours. Or I could put it across the doorway in the office to keep people out if I'm busy doing my paperwork... The possibilities are endless!

Games are bad...

Gamespot has done up a pretty decent and comprehensive look at Videogames and Controversy. I haven't had a chance to read through it all yet, but as clunky as the site has become, they do tend to have some good editorials.

The nice thing about a news item like this is that it is a lot more fact-based than my rants :)

And speaking of painful stuff...

My little brother and his wife are going to be having their baby ANY day now. Actually, today's the due date. Supposedly they'll induce her in a week if she hasn't had the baby by then, but otherwise we'll just have to wait for the first Wager grandchild to make an appearance.

Woo!

Shuriken Are Your Friends

Speaking of flailing about, I got the new Ninja Gaiden game for the Xbox yesterday and man, is it ever hard.

Granted, I didn't get to start playing it until after 11pm and I had been up since 7am and gone skiing and worked a 9 hour shift. So maybe my reflexes weren't quite up to snuff.

But still. MAN! Is it ever hard! The reviews aren't lying. I'm getting my butt kicked by Joe Average Ninja as it is. I'm scared to go up against the dreaded level 2 enemies. Eeek!

As Tycho over at Penny Arcade put it, "It's also completely great - once you've gone a few levels, just start a new game real quick and take a look at the guys you thought were bad-asses before. Those guys are feather pillows compared to the beasts and murderers you rub up against later."

I did fight the first boss and managed not to die immediately, if that's any consolation. I did die after about 30 seconds, but I think that's a good starting point.

It is an excellent game. It's made by the guys who did the DOA games and the boss fight was like a Soul Calibur match, which was pretty neat. But like I said, it's crazy hard!

Just don't!

Pick up the phone booth and die.

There is a way to win the game. I've done it. Can anyone else figure out how to win?

The challenge has been issued. I will be amused by your pathetic flailings about...

MWAHAHAHAHA!

Steeereeetch

Man, I'm well rested today. I ended up going to bed at the insanely early time of 9:30pm last night. Julie was monopolizing the videogame TV and I was tired from my weekend and so I just lay down on the bed and started reading. Next thing I know it's almost 1am and Julie's asleep in bed. So I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

I got up around 7am, so I guess that means I got about 9 1/2 hours of sleep. Yeesh! That's almost double what I usually get in a night. I'd better be packed full of energy today!

The nice thing about being up now is that I can go down and catch the first runs of the day on the ski hill, now that we have snow again. Woo!

The bad thing is that I have a staff meeting to be at by noon, so I can't spend too much time on the slopes. Oh well.

If the lemon doesn't squirt you...

Then the skunk will. We were cleaning out the garage at work (a job that is about 4 years overdue) and lo and behold, who is paying us a visit but the friendly neighbourhood skunk!

We ended up getting rid of it by moving everything between the corner where it ran and hid and the open garage door out of the way. Then we used very long rakes and shovels to pull the filing cabinets where it was hiding away from the wall.

I must have been overcome by stupidity as I actually had to chase it away from the pile of stuff we were keeping since the last thing I wanted to do was have to move piles of garbage around the garage all day just to chase a skunk.

Finally we were able to herd the skunk out of the garage and it ran off into the wilderness of NorthWest Brampton. Hopefully it ran down the permanently open side stairwell of our neighbours. That'll learn 'em not to leave their doors open all year round!

The funniest part of this whole fiasco was when one of the guys came back out to the garage brandishing a can of strawberry scented air freshener. He was going to spray that on the skunk so it would go away.

Thankfully we were able to avert that tragedy!

The Old Ones Are Coming And They're Full Of Stinging Juices!

Check out the HORRIBLE LOVECRAFT/WOODRING MUTANT LEMON.

Further proof that fruits and vegetables are evil, twisted byproducts of extradimensional beings bent on our destruction.

Book Time

I just started reading the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, as recommended by Liam.

It's pretty good so far. I'm only a little into it, but from what I've read so far I really like it.

More to follow...

It's A New National Holiday!

I hereby declare today, March 5, 2004, to be National Update Your Damned Blog Day.

Everyone who currently manages a blog of some kind must, under penalty of me doing nasty things to them with my Spin Saw, update it.

Especially people like, oh, James or Blitzy who haven't updated since Wiarton Willie saw his shadow.

This'll cost a lot of postage...

Well, I guess it's now time for me to send back all my MP3's. I've seen the light.

Now, I hope I can get enough stamps for this...

I'm No Superman

I hope everyone is very familiar with the wonderful hilarity that is Scrubs. If you're not, you'd better rectify the situation before I start thinking of unique uses for my spin saw... (hint: It's on Tuesdays on NBC & CTV at 9:30pm!)

That said, I highly recommend the full version of the theme song. It's by a guy named Lazlo Bane and it's very catchy. It's on the Scrubs soundtrack, which is actually a very good soundtrack. Lots of catchy songs that you probably won't hear on the radio, but should.

"There's no emoticon to express how angry I am right now... "
Dan Grace, after realizing he left his square at my house tonight...

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

I got the first of hopefully many birthday presents today, a mere two and a half weeks early! I can get used to this!

Julie, after regaining conciousness from the shock of my not wanting a DVD or game for my birthday, decided to run, not walk, to Canadian Tire and pick up the Mastercraft 24-piece Spin Saw Kit (AS SEEN ON TV!) before I could change my mind.

I must say, it's pretty funky. I spent the evening trying to figure out everything that the thing did. I really like the fact that it will pretty much do anything I could think of doing in the house, plus it has a little baby Dremel-like detail tool that hooks on too.

A very cool gift, if I do say so myself.

And if you're sick of me talking about games...

Just be thankful I'm not regaling you with the tales of my latest games of Spider Solitaire, the most evil game known to man...

It's about time

Well, my good friend Mr. Manhunt has finally drawn the ire of the Ontario Film Review Board, which today slapped an 'R' rating on it. That means that nobody under the age of 18 is supposed to be allowed to buy or rent it and that people need to be carded.

You might think that this would piss me off and that I'd start getting on my high horse about it. No. Frankly, I'm happy. I'd rather they start taking a more serious approach to how games are sold, much like movies. I know that there is the ESRB rating system, which I think is perfectly understandable and makes sense.

But for some reason, people seem to have a hard time realizing that an M (for Mature) means that maybe your 8 year old shouldn't be playing it. Of course, these same people then turn around and blame the videogames if their kids start swearing or misbehaving.... sigh.

Anyway, I am glad that they've decided to slap the R rating on Manhunt. It's definately not a game that kids should come anywhere near. Plus, if they start actually enforcing and carding kids and informing parents when they buy games, it hopefully will cut back on a lot of the ruckus. Sure, kids will still get their hands on the Mature games, but it won't be because of an evil conspiracy by the vendors to sell them to them and thus corrupt their impressionable minds.

[rant]

I am happy about this move to start enforcing the games' ratings because it allows adults (such as myself and the 75% of the gaming population that is between the ages of 24-35) to choose which types of games we want to play rather than having the usual knee-jerk reactions from politicians whenever a controversial title such as Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto comes along.

If a game is good, players (for the most part) will gravitate towards them. I'm just as happy to play a crazily violent killing simulator such as Manhunt as I am to play something which is as insanely 'kiddie' as Mario Kart or Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg.

The ones (such as Postal 2) which just use graphic violence for the sake of graphic violence instead of weaving a compelling but brutal tale such as the GTA games or Manhunt do, tend to disappear after about a month since the games themselves aren't that good and won't keep people interested once the initial shock value of the game wears off.

Sure, this move will piss off retailers since they won't be able to easily sell little Bobby a popular M-rated game when he comes in with his grandmother who knows nothing of videogames, but I think in the long run it will help, since developers can continue to make the mature games for those who appreciate them and also make the ones aimed at younger audiences just as fun.

When I hear about people complaining about games being too violent, etc., I find that it is mostly a lot of misinformation coupled with inappropriate games for younger kids. Think about it though. If people treated movies the way they want to treat videogames, the only movies we'd get would be rated PG at best, and even then that might be pushing it.

Sure, Finding Nemo is a great movie, but so are Lord Of The Rings, The Godfather and American History X. Just because something is disturbing doesn't mean it's bad.

[/rant off]

Soooo Gooood!

New Teen Girl Squad! New Teen Girl Squad!

The Passionate Eye Is Swollen Shut

Julie & I went to see The Passion Of The Christ today.

Wow. It was an excellent movie, just as a movie, let alone as a graphic depiction of Jesus' final hours.

Brutal is about the only word I can think of to describe the movie. It just doesn't let up for the whole 2 hours or so. Julie said that since she'd heard so much about how graphic it was she was able to watch a little more than she might have had she thought it was just the Jesus video with a budget. That said, she still had to turn away a few times.

I, the gore-hound that I am, didn't. But I must say that it was very, very powerful, just in how brutal (there's that word again) it was. For me, the hardest part to sit through wasn't the crucifixion, it was the scourging. That was probably the most disturbing part of the movie. Very well done, mind you, but very graphic. I mean, they are using metal tipped whips that make large chips in a wooden table on a person.

As for all the controversy, they can just shove it. I'm waiting for the Roman Anti-Defamation League to start a protest. The soldiers are just vicious, but if you use your brain for 3 seconds, you realize that bloodsport is about the only entertainment half of the population has, and the Roman Legionaires (esp. in a backwater like Jerusalem) would not be the pick of the litter. They'd be bloodthirsty soldiers who got to vent their boredom and frustration on a guy who didn't even fight back.

Probably the only bit I could have done without was having the devil wandering around so much. I guess it was ok, but I think the film would have been just as powerful had there just been the one scene near the beginning with the devil and that was it. But what can ya do?

So, I heartily recommend it. Oh, and I was also really impressed by the fact that they didn't subtitle everything. A lot of incidental stuff was left just being said in Latin or Aramaic with no subs, but it didn't matter. I would love to watch the movie without subs just to see if it really would have worked like they planned it.

Ted, The Zucchini

Check out the commercials on Turnpike Films' site. They're great. I liked Ted, The Best Bottle Of Beer Ever and The Yawn. And I Feel Great!

Games

Oh, just in case you're one of the two people (including myself) who actually cares what games I'm currently playing or beating, I finished Metroid: Zero Mission Thursday evening and am now currently working on The Getaway on the PS2.

The Getaway is pretty neat. The best way I can describe it is to say that it's Snatch (or Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels): The Game. From a gameplay perspective, it's probably closest to Mafia in terms of the basic layout. Drive around a realistic city, in this case, South London, arrive at a mission, shoot a bunch of people, get away in your bullet-riddled car and then watch a very well produced cut-scene advancing the story.

It also is an interesting game as it tries to do away with most of the usual game conventions. There are no health bars, ammo meters or even in-game maps. You have to watch how your character acts after getting shot a bit (limps, bloodstains on the suit) and then lean against a wall to catch your breath and heal (if only bullet wounds healed this easily in real life).

I must say that these changes to standard gameplay technique are really disconcerting at the beginning of the game. They're probably what lead to me trying the game out last year when I got it and then leaving it on the shelf until now. However, once you've finished the first mission and have a better sense of the layout of the streets and how the controls work, it just sucks you right in. It's not an easy game, but I like it!