It's a girl!

Hey! We had a girl!

Check her out!

I'll post more later.

How To Be A Bad Husband: Tip #389

Julie woke me up last night at around 3am or so, handed me her watch and told me to time the contractions.

I said, "Sure!"

Then I rolled over, put the watch down on my bedside table and fell back to sleep.

I figure that if Julie WAS in labour last night, I would have received a few sound kicks to my head and had the watch firmly pressed into my grasp.

Sigh. Suffice it to say, there wasn't any actual labour. Julie's been feeling a contraction here and a contraction there, but nothing to actually indicate that Kid Furious is actually ready to make an appearance yet.

Of course, this has given Julie some stories to tell the various ladies around town that we've bumped into about how bad a husband I am :)

We're hoping that she goes into labour this weekend as Julie's doctor is going on vacation on Monday. Don't worry... We'll keep everyone posted.

Happy Birthday!

It's my mom's birthday today!

Happy birthday, Mom!

I was hoping we'd have a new grandkid for you as a present but it looks like that's not in the cards. Maybe it'll be a day or two late... It had better not be much longer or else Julie is going to start smashing the house apart, Hulk-style.

I'm Running Out Of Tricks

Ok... I'm running out of tricks to try in order to get this baby to come out. We tried the Swiss Chalet sauce theory... Julie even had the spicy chicken and fries (and they were pretty spicy!) to no avail. I even finished Zelda on the Wii tonight, which was one of the things I had told myself that I wanted to finish but didn't expect to get through before the baby came.

Sigh.

Julie has been having a lot of trouble sleeping over the last few days (more like a week) and has been feeling pretty claustrophobic too. I think we both want the baby out if only to help her feel a bit better in this regard. Julie thinks it's a girl because she's been so emotional lately :)

Ah well. The due date isn't until Wednesday, so technically we're still early. I think it's just that she's been off work longer than she was before Garrett came and we've also been sick and such. The fact that the baby isn't early like we thought it would be doesn't help.

Now, if I'm still typing things like this NEXT week, I'll be worried.

I've Heard Of A Computer Mouse, But A Computer Beaver?

This is the coolest (and most surreal) case mod I've ever seen.

And I want it... NOW!

This Guy's Eyebrows Deserve An Oscar

There's a pretty cool commercial out for Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. (Of course, I finally tracked down another copy of the Cube edition a few weeks ago prior to the announcement of the Wii version...)

Anyway, the acting is horrible, but it's still pretty cool. That said, why doesn't Julie ever act like this when watching me play games? Granted, I'm not sure that I would WANT her to act like that...

Wha?

Garrett's wierd.

He was standing at the sink 'doing the dishes' and I went over to help him finish up and get going so we could go out.

I squeezed out the cloth he was playing with in the sink and as I did that, he exclaims, "Oh! It's Team Canada!"

I have NO idea where that came from...

Sign Language

Ok, this is too fun. There's an LED sign up in Brandon, Alberta that lets you input text or pictures onto it via the internet. I'm going to use it to announce the baby's birth.

Upgrade, Shmupgrade

Arg.

I don't know why I bother. Sympatico recently announced that they were upgrading the security on their e-mail and also bumping the e-mail space from 2-3 megs to about a gig or so.

Hooray, I thought. Less spam and a chance of not having all of my e-mails bounce back because they've got a picture attached? Sign me up.

Yerg. While I haven't really had a huge problem since I upgraded, Julie's having some major problems. She can check her e-mails... it's just that nothing seems to be actually going through to the server that she switched to.

Sigh.

And I wonder why I'd rather just use Gmail.

Still No Baby

Yeah, no baby yet. We had a LONG weekend though, since Garrett seemed to have colic, or at least acted like he had it. He was up crying for a good hour on Saturday night and I was ready to take him to the hospital since he seemed in pain. Thankfully a few loud farts (from him, not me) calmed him down and he eventually settled down. He has been doing this fake cry/temper tantrum thing over the last couple days but we just carry him up to his room and plunk him down and a few minutes later he'll stop and come down and be in a relatively good mood.

Sigh.

Anyway, today we went to Springridge Farm down near Milton for their Easter On The Farm shenanigans. It was fun. Garrett got his face painted like a bunny, searched through hay for an egg, went for a wagon ride around the farm and got to paint some eggs and a basket while eating the yummiest chocolate chunk cookie ever (we had to buy a few for ourselves after lunch). I also picked up some yummy onion dipping sauce for dipping my crackers in at snack time.

Um... anything else? Nah. That's about it. I'm trying to finish Zelda on the Wii before the baby comes. I think that I'll get it finished tonight or tomorrow if all goes well, which would rock. Super Paper Mario is out this week for the Wii and looks like a lot of fun, but that's about it.

I'm feeling better than last week too. I've still got an annoying cough that sounds like a death rattle but aside from that, I've been sleeping a bunch and am almost able to get through the day without feeling like a vampire has drained my blood every 2-3 hours. I'm so glad that I didn't have to go to work on the weekend as I'd probably still be sick.

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted when the baby comes. I'm hoping that I'll get a couple of days of work done this week and then I'm off for two weeks as of Friday night, so hopefully the baby will come Friday or later! It hasn't dropped yet... but then again, Garrett didn't drop until Julie was in labour, so that's not much of a barometer...

I'm HOW sick?!

Well, after being run out of work by germaphobic coworkers yesterday, I figured I'd rest up and see if I felt better for today's shift.

We all ended up sleeping in until almost 9am (unheard of!) but I felt worse than I did yesterday. Gah. So I went to the doctor.

Turns out I've got at least a sinus infection if nothing else. I'm on a pile o' meds (blech) and still feel crappy.

The upside of things is that I was able to get a note from my doctor for work so I don't have to go back until next week. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in and I'll be good to go by next week. I only have 3 days to work next week and then I'm off for another two weeks, hopefully with a new baby to look after. I just don't want to be super sick when Julie goes into labour!

It was funny to go into work today to drop off my note and have my manager tell me to get lost because he didn't want whatever I have. I've never felt the love like that before!

Typhoid Brockie

Yeesh.

I actually got sent home from work today because I obviously sound and look a lot worse than I feel. I actually had one of my co-workers chasing me around with Lysol disinfectant wipes to sterilize any- and everything that I touched. Yeesh.

Not that I was going to complain. I do feel better than the last few days of cold-induced misery but I'm not 100% yet. I just got sick of being cooped up in the house all day long and needed to go to work for a bit.

Hmm... that should have been the first sign that I wasn't feeling good as I definitely wouldn't go to work voluntarily if I was feeling ok :)

Ah well. I got to hit the comic shop and get my weekly stack o' books and I'll be able to go to bed at a decent time tonight now that I'm not stuck at work until 11pm.

I wonder if I'll have them out with pitchforks and torches when I show up tomorrow.

Hey You?!

This is a fantastic acoustic version of Hey Ya by Outcast. I'm not sure which impresses me more... The song or the guy's massive beard.

I'm still sort of sick but I'm going to trundle into work today and see if I can't stay awake for the whole shift. I went to bed really early the last couple days... I think this cold was my body's way of telling me, "HEY! GET SOME SLEEP!"

Unfortunately, now Julie seems to be sniffling and snurfling like I have been for the last two days. Sigh. I just hope we're all over this cold before the baby comes so that we're not fighting sleep deprivation AND a cold!

Garrett, the walking petri dish that he is, seems to be doing just fine. He's still got a cough but otherwise is bounding about with all of the energy that Julie and I are lacking at the moment :P

[Transforming Noise]

I've been keeping myself from getting too excited about the upcoming Transformers movie, mainly because I'm worried it will suck. Plus there's the fact that they've radically changed the style of the robots so that they're no longer blocky and boxy like in the 80's cartoon.

That said, I saw what looks like the latest trailer and also saw these awesome pictures (thanks Extra Life) and man, I cannot wait. I've heard the movie had received an R-rating just from the insane amount of action but that Spielberg (or was it Michael Bay) talked the MPAA rating board down to a PG-13 without having to make any cuts to the film.

Woo!

While it looks like I probably won't get a chance to see TMNT in the theatre (sigh) 300 was amazing and this summer looks to be pretty sweet, movie-wise. We've got Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean 3, The Simpsons and a few other cool movies that escape me at the moment. That makes up for last year's rather lackluster parade of movies.

You Tube Makes The Day Go By

What's a guy to do when he's home sick and can't snooze any more?

Look for silly things on the internet, of course.

Penny Arcade linked to this funny trailer of 300: The PG Version.

And if you want to feel as ill as I do, check out Alanis Morrisette's version of "My Humps".

I must be sick because I actually like her version of the song, even though the original makes me want to retch whenever I hear it.

Oh, I also found the ultimate Rock Paper Scissors chart.

Sick and Tired

Garrett had a pretty nasty cold over the weekend and it seems like it's my turn to get it. I know I must be sick because it took me 2 hours to debate about calling into work sick tonight. I was going to tough it out and just go in and be a sad sack at work, but given the fact that I felt worse after an hour or two of taking a Contac Daytime pill instead of better, well, I didn't want to chance it.

Julie just wants me better so that I'm not sick when she goes into labour. Gotta rest up today then!

Slimy Monkey

Want to know how messed up my brain is?

I was watching Curious George on TV with Garrett this morning and suddenly it hit me.

Whoever does Curious George's voice also did Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon back in the day.

I did some digging and lo and behold, I was right! Frank Welker did both voices.

The thing is, I haven't seen an episode of Ghostbusters since the late 80's or early 90's. Why does something like that stick in my brain?! ARG!

Bejeweled For Dorks

I've been caught up in the Puzzle Quest craze that is sweeping the nation. I picked it up last week (it's quite cheap at Walmart) for my DS and I don't think I've played anything aside from a few rounds of Command & Conquer 3 since then.

Not that I haven't tried... I just can't stop playing it.

It's a pretty deep RPG by the guys who did the Warlords series on the PC that uses Bejeweled for the combat engine. Sound nutty?

Try the PC demo and tell me that's not insanely addictive.

If you can find it, grab it, preferably for the DS since it doesn't have the bugs that the PSP version has. Of course, finding it might be a bit tricky since EB seems to have sent back most of their copies a week after it was released and it's just a matter of tracking it down at less game-oriented stores.

Codeboy & Blitzy were down to visit yesterday and I almost had to physically pry the DS out of Blitzy's hands at the end of the night. She spent the 4-5 hours after dinner just bejeweling her way across the land of Eternia. Crazy.

Flashing The World

So I was at church this morning, running the video stuff like usual and just before the service when I thought, "Hmm... I wonder where I left my flash drive."

It wasn't in the usual pocket but I figured it was just on my dresser.

Later this afternoon, whilst giving Garrett a bath, Julie walked into the bathroom and asked if I had any important info on my flash drive.

"Not really."

"Good, because it just went through the washer and dryer."

Sigh.

Luckily the thing still works, though I was almost hoping it was wrecked so I'd have an excuse to go get a 1 gig or so drive that wasn't oddly shaped like the one I have. Ah well.

Here's some of the funnier April Fool's jokes on the net today.

Gmail Paper

Loney Guy Dream Vacation Digital Photo Frame

Americans Defeat Russians In First Space Quidditch Match

8-Bit Tie (I think Dan should wear this to work)

Surgestix

Power Outlet Tester

Wheatonix

Laser Fish

Heck, anything on ThinkGeek today...

I Don't Wanna Work

Well, Julie is off work now until January. We put the baby car seat in her car today and I've been charged with ensuring that I always have the cell phone with me now when I leave the house, just in case.

Julie was in to see the doctor the other day and when she said, "See you next Wednesday," the doctor said, "Maybe you will, maybe I'll see you a bit sooner."

AH!

I'm scheduled off work from April 14th to the end of the month and while I'm not holding my breath that the baby will wait until then to come, I'd like him/her/it to wait until at least this weekend, if not Friday the 13th...

We're still trying to pick out a boy's name. I have one that I really like but Julie hates it. The rest of the ones she floats by me either seem too trendy or I know people who have that name and I don't like them :)

We're settled on a girl's name though, so we're set if it's a girl. Who knows...

April Fool's!

Here's a pretty spiffy list of the top ten April Fool's pranks.

Sadly, I haven't thought of any good jokes for this year. Our luck, the baby will decide to come today for its April Fool's prank.

Otherwise, Garrett's got a cold (he's all stuffed up) and that has made him such a pleasure to deal with over the last day or two. He's alternating from sucky sicky to abominable monster way too fast. It's kind of cute to watch the medicine kick in and have him go from crying and yelling at us to asking for stories and being rather pleasant :)

Sigh. Kids...

And speaking of April Fool's, I can't believe it's already April. What has happened to this year? CRAZY!

Paulo Lies....

So, who else loved last night's Lost? It was very cool to see all of these various momentous occasions from the last three seasons through the eyes of someone who wasn't wrapped up in the mystique and mystery that the main characters are so involved in.

And it also sucked to be Nikki & Paulo... I loved the ending.

Welcome Back, Commander

Command & Conquer 3, baby. I had a $15 off coupon for anything from Electronic Arts since my birthday was a week or so ago and so I pre-ordered C&C 3 a few weeks back. It came out yesterday and while I was down at EB, I saw a stack of boxes for the game and was kicking myself for ordering it from EA directly.

I expected it to take a good week or so to arrive, given that it was shipping from the States. I also figured I'd end up getting dinged for duty or some such nonsense. Imagine my surprise when I showed up home after work today to see a great big box in the front hallway. Lo and behold, my copy of C&C3 was inside! Woo! That was pretty fast, especially given that it was shipped from Kentucky yesterday.

Command & Conquer is one of my favourite game series of all time and from the demo that was released a few weeks back, I have high hopes for this game. Plus it has some pretty big name stars in the full-motion video bits. I'm talking Billy Dee Williams, Josh Holloway, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park and Michael Ironsides, amongst others. Yup. Two people from Battlestar Galactica and Sawyer from Lost are in my game (plus I just noticed that Billy Dee was in Lost tonight as well, which made me chuckle).

Can't wait for Lost to finish so I can dive into the green glow of Tiberium that is Command & Conquer.

Oh, the one sad note is that the installation program is a boring Installshield loader instead of the awesome ones from back in the day.

Zombie Alert

I had a VERY long weekend this past weekend. Work was fine, but the shifts were long and BORING.

The kicker was that after working a 12 hour shift on Sunday, I had to be up bright and early yesterday to do some training. I made it through, somehow. My biggest problem with the day was that when we broke for lunch, I suddenly realized that I didn't have my house keys with me. That meant that I'd either dropped them in the parking lot or worse, left them in the front door...

FOR THE PAST 4 HOURS...

I got on the phone with Julie and had her call a neighbour and thankfully they were able to get the keys out of our front door and secured in a safe spot, but man... I was worried my TV or some other piece of electronics was going to have sauntered out the front door because I was half awake when I'd left in the morning. Sigh.

Now the funny thing is that last night I received a phone call from some company trying to sell us a security system. I wanted to say, "I just left my keys in the front door for half the day and everything is fine." Gotta love small towns.

Happy Birthday Eve!

Wow, she's one already, eh? I was thinking about it last night and thought she must be turning two... but that wouldn't make sense.

Crossing the Uncanny Valley with a Jetpack

Check out this video.

Now, aside from the fact that the guy is missing THE BACK OF HIS HEAD, would you have guessed that he was a robot? Yeesh!

There's a theory called The Uncanny Valley which basically states that the closer something artificial gets to looking like a human, the more unnerving it gets for people to see. You can have something that looks just like a live person but it's the little things that are missing, such as facial tics, the way the eyes move, etc. that cause someone to think that there's something off about that robot or animated model.

This 'guy' really seems to get past that stumbling block... the fact that he's NOT creepily realistic is the creepiest thing about him!

Don't say you never learn anything while reading my blog. It may be geeky, but it's also educational!

The Saga Continues

Remember how my tooth was deteriorating on me about a month or two ago? How I went in and got it looked at and fixed?

I'd concider a deteriorating tooth to be an emergency. Obviously the dentist didn't, since it got put through as a normal check-up, even though they only looked at two teeth (they found a cracked filling while they were in there).

So here I am, knowing I'm on a 9-month wait between examinations but as far as I know, the last time I was really examined was early 2005. Now I find out that the emergency check they did in February wasn't billed as an emergency and now I have to foot the cost.

Oh, I'm going to give someone a tongue lashing... when they get back from lunch. I just hope they can sort this out and I won't have to end up paying the full cost of today's check-up.

Crappy Day Just Gets Worse

What is going on today?!

First I have the whole glasses issue. Then the optometrist is closed.

Now I go to the dentist, get a check-up and examination done and thankfully have no cavities. It turns out that I grind my teeth a lot, so I might need one of those fancy mouth guards, but that's cool.



So anyway, no cavities, cool mouth guard, what's not to love?

Well, it turns out that my insurance company is saying that they're not going to pay for my 'new patient exam' as it is too soon after my last one.

My last 'new patient exam' was in 2002!!!! I mean, come on! Given the fact that it's been almost 2 years since my last check-up, you'd think they'd cut me some slack and pay for this, since it's a new dentist in a new town and all.

Sigh. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find someone to yell at up at ye olde insurance place, but it still sucks that I had to pay the full cost of the visit. No wonder I don't like going to the dentist. I can handle the pain, just not the cost.

On the upside of things, I did get my glasses fixed. There's another optician in town and I stopped by her office and she put in a new screw, replaced the nose-pads and even straightened the frame out for free! Woo! No more squinting for me today.

Ah well. At least someone is having a good day today.

Oh Come On!

So I take Garrett to the babysitter and on the way back I stopped by the optometrist to get that screw replaced.

Only one snag.

THEY ARE CLOSED TODAY!

TODAY! TODAY OF ALL DAYS!

ARG!

Julie just let me know about a little screw replacement kit that she had, but of course, the screws don't fit my glasses.

Sigh.

Death by Chocolate

This is a cool site. You can figure out how much caffeine or chocolate or mints it would take to kill you.

According to their stats, it takes somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4500 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to kill me :)

I've Got A Screw Loose... Literally

I picked up my glasses this morning to clean them and suddenly *poink* out popped one of the lenses.

Annoying, yes, but not the end of the world. Julie has a little screwdriver kit on her dresser so I headed over there to get it.

That's when, for some strange reason, my butterfingers dropped my glasses. Of course, when I picked them back up the screw was missing. ARG! I spent the next 10 minutes rooting around under the bed and through her pile of books, etc. to try to find it, even enlisting Garrett's help to shine the flashlight under the bed. All to no avail. Sigh.

So now I have to drive over to the local optometrist and get a new screw. On the upside, I have a dentist appointment this morning two doors down from the optometrist, so it's not like it's out of my way. I just can't wait to drive Garrett to the babysitter and then back to Acton without my glasses. My head is going to kill me.

Cod of War

Wow. I just finished God of War 2. What a fantastic game. There are a few annoying bits near the end of the game, but all in all it is one of the best gaming experiences I've had in quite some time.

I'm not usually happy when I am able to finish a game in a week, especially if I paid full price for it, but that said, this was worth it. Plus I can go back and play through it again at a harder difficulty to unlock more goodies, so it's cool.

The only downside to finishing it is that it sets up perfectly for God of War 3, which will inevitably be on the PS3. Sigh. Of course, GoW3 won't be out anytime soon, so I'm in no rush.

Post #3000!

Yup. I hit my 3000th post on Not L33T today! The sad thing is that it only took me 2 years to hit close to 7000 posts on Evil Avatar, sigh.

That's kind of why I was posting so much today. That, and I had some interesting stuff to yap about AND it is my birthday, so I can do whatever I want!

Except show up late for work tonight. Sigh.

The Incredible Colbert!

 
Found this image on der intertron and thought some of you would get a kick out of it.

It's Getting Rotten Here...

How long can you keep salami in the fridge before it goes bad? I've got some german salami (the best and only kind, thank you very much) that has been in there since March 7th. It looks ok, but I don't want to die young... but it's salami... arg!

I just don't like the idea of throwing out perfectly good meat but on the flip side I'd rather not eat rotten food. It's hard to tell with a spiced meat like salami if there's no slime or fuzz growing on it.

L'Hopital De La Rue Mort

We went for our pre-natal hospital tour at Credit Valley Hospital tonight. Woo.

What did I learn?

There's now a 24 hour Tim Horton's in the hospital (woo) and the pictures of the ol' Wager farmstead seem to have vanished. I figure that'll give me something to harass the old ladies at the info desk about when I'm back in there in a month.

I'm Going To Die

The only way I could get something approximating a day off for my birthday was to sign up to work the overnight shift tonight. That means I'm going into work for 11pm and staying up until 7am tomorrow. ARG!

On the upside, I have a nice little stack of movies to watch and some games to play. On the downside, I still have to try to stay awake until 7am tomorrow and I've been up since 6:45am and going all day!

Ah well. I've got some yummy fair-trade coffee beans (thanks Codeboy & Blitzy), a nice mixed bag of candies from Bulk Barn (thanks Julie) and a sub for supper sometime overnight (thanks Quiznos). I'm going to come home tomorrow and crash for the day.

I will be quite angry at the sky if it's sunny tomorrow. I need a nice grey day so I can veg out for the day while Garrett is at the babysitter's place.

Border Issues Resolved

Found some wood glue, slapped it on the back edge of the offending sticker/banner and voila. So far, no fallen borders.

I think that the sticker adhesive got a little worn from Garrett manhandling it yesterday and that, more than a systemic flaw in the sticker itself, was the reason for the collapse this morning.

It's a pretty sharp looking room though, now that we have all of the borders and posters up. Garrett's room looks like, well, Garrett's room, not a room we made for Garrett. My little boy's all growed up!

Border Issues

I hate adhesives.

We picked up a Cars sticker border for Garrett's new room a week or two ago when we were doing the whole renovation dealie. So yesterday was the big day and Garrett and I spent a bit of time putting the border up in his room. Hooray!

Until an hour or two later when Garrett realized that it was fun to pull the border OFF of the wall.

Anti-Hooray!

Now, it wasn't a HUGE deal as the sticker was made to be easily removed from the wall if you want to reposition it. The problem is that for some reason this border REALLY wants to come off the wall now. I guess it fell down overnight while Garrett was sleeping. Sigh.

The wall is clean and dry and more or less smooth. The border also seems to be sticking up on the other side of the room, just not over his bed. I am trying to figure out what I can use that will help keep the border up without having to take it down and exchange it. I also want something that will keep it up without my having to worry that the paint is going to pull off when/if we ever decide to remove the border. As I said before, I hate adhesives...

God of Freakin' War!

Oh man. God of War 2 is spectacular. I know Dave has played the first one and I'm sure Grant has too. If you want to play the BEST action game on any system, period, play both of the God of War games. I'm a good 6 hours or so into the second one and am absolutely loving it. I'm finding it requires me to actually block, dodge and use more strategy than slash slash slash like the first one did, but man, it's still a huge pile of fun.

How fun? Check out today's Penny Arcade. That about sums it up. I mean, what would be a final boss fight for almost any game EVER is just an intro/tutorial level for the God of War games.

My only beef is that everything I'm hearing from people on EvAv who have finished the game say that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Not Pirates of the Caribbean 2 cliffhanger, not Halo 2 cliffhanger and not Matrix 2 cliffhanger, but a cliffhanger nonetheless. Sigh. You know that means that a PS3 will likely be in my future (unless the series goes multiplatform to the 360, which I can see myself getting a lot sooner than a PS3).

Ah well. I don't know if I'll get much playtime in tonight but I'm definately spending most of tomorrow slashing my way through ancient Greece. It's rare that I'll have a game that I can finish in a week after purchase and feel that it was worth it, but even if it ended right now, it would be worth the price of admission.

Red Plastic Pants Are Bad For You

I have video proof!

Yikes...

I just noticed that as of Feb. 13 of this year, I've been blogging for 5 years. Yikes!

I could have written 3 books with the amount of text I've plopped down on this thing...

ZEUUUUUUUS!

You have to see this.

It's a bunch of LARPers (Live Action Role Players, for those of you not nearly as nerdy as me) who are dressed up as characters from the God of War games. The site is set up so you can do little Mortal Kombat-style battles between characters. It's pretty funny and extremely nerdy.

The interviews are pretty priceless, especially Chubby Kratos. He likes violence, but doesn't want to hurt anybody. Hee hee.

Midnight Party! (In July)

Well, I preordered my copy of Harry Potter #7 today. I am buying it at the same place I bought the last book, The Freckled Lion bookstore in downtown Georgetown. They're having a midnight release party (much like they did with book 6) and this year they're closing down the whole street and are going to have about 4-5 stations set up to hand out books instead of forcing everyone to cram into the tiny store. Woo!

It's Mason's Triannual Saleabration!

Happy Birthday Mason!

We got you a moose for your birthday... not just any moose, but Bullwinkle!

Enjoy!

Tune In For Spartan Week!

What a week to be a shirtless warrior of ancient Greece.

First we had 300 hit on Friday (and in case my last post wasn't clear on the subject, it's 18 kinds of awesome!) and today I got my hands on my copy of God Of War 2! Woo!

The release of GoW2 is kind of bittersweet though. It's great that it's out and I'm sure it'll be at least as amazing as the first one, if not moreso.

The sad fact of the matter is that God Of War 2 is essentially the last major release to hit the PS2. Now, the system HAS been around for 7 years now and it has a fantastic library of games, so it's not like the PS2 is going the way of the Dreamcast and disappearing years before it should. That said, the PS2 was the first console that I had ever picked up on launch day and it was basically the system that got me back into console gaming in a hardcore fashion.

Hmm... maybe I shouldn't be sad that it's seeing its final game. I'm afraid to think about how much money and time I've poured into it (and the other consoles I've picked up since)... yeeps!

Ah well. I'm counting down the hours to Garrett going to bed. Once he goes to bed, the TV is all mine and I'll be slicing up harpies and destroying the Colossus of Rhodes like nobody's business!

TONIGHT WE DINE AT MCDONALDS, er, IN HELL!!!

Go see 300.

Go see 300 NOW!

Oh my, that movie was awesome and I already knew how it ended.

Just know that you'll walk out of the theatre 38 times more manly than you were walking in.

And you'll have a strange urge to poke things with sticks for a few days.

What Did YOU Do On Your March Break?

We were bored out of our tree this morning and had nothing to do. Garrett's music lesson was canceled for the week and the Early Years Centre wasn't open either. Grr...

I was chatting with Doug and explaining our plight and he suggested Mountsberg down near Campbellville. It turns out that they are doing their sugar bush thing all week long, so 10 minutes later Garrett & I were piled into the car and on our merry way.

It was a pretty fun few hours that we spent out in the bush. I've put together a little Web Album with the pictures from our trip and you can see the stuff below.



I tell ya, it was worth going just for the monstrous pancakes and maple syrup and delicious butter (best butter I've had in ages). I'm still full.

Mapletowne 2007

Movie and a heart attack

Man, I really want to see 300. I was almost going to drive down to Mississauga to see it at the IMAX last night at midnight, but I didn't think I'd make it since my shift finished at 11pm... I also don't think that they'd look too kindly upon me bringing Garrett in to see it during the day today.

Speaking of movies, I found this recipe on the net and it is mighty tempting. I need someone braver than me and less prone to keeling over after eating this to try it and let me know if it's any good.

Behold: Bacon + Popcorn = pure awesome in a bowl.

Caturday!

There are a few threads floating around out there with some really funny cat pictures. I think this one is the best I've seen so far, and some of them are really funny...



And this one is just too cute.

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!

So, Civil War, the comic mega-event that ate up WAY too much of my time and money, is finally done... well, as done as it'll be for me. Of course, what do they do right after it finishes? They KILL CAPTAIN AMERICA!

Well, I doubt he'll be dead for long... He did get rather shot up in the latest issue of Cap but it's nothing someone like Cap couldn't live through. Still, he seems rather dead to everyone in the Marvel U.

Ah well. I'm just happy that Civil War is finally over. There's a new ongoing series called The Initiative but it seems to be going the same route as Civil War... ie To get the whole story, you have to buy 300 issues. Sigh.

Now that we have the kid coming soon, I'm scaling back my comic purchases significantly. I'm also very happy that this whole mega-event is finally finished so I don't have to read so many comics every week. I'm actually reading a real book these days! Eek!

---
What I'm Reading: Going Postal, the wrap-up issues of Civil War
What I'm Playing: Hotel Dusk, Chulip, SSX Blur
What I'm Watching: Lost, some crappy movies

Hop in the Way-Back Machine!

Ok. I spent too much time tonight on YouTube playing Find The Obscure 80's Cartoon with my buddy.

Behold! The TV shows that messed me up as a kid and also ensured that I'd never need to take psychotropic drugs since I'd already seen what an acid trip was like! (I'm looking at you, Dr. Snuggles...)

Willo The Wisp!

Dr. Snuggles!

Read All About It (not a cartoon, but I loved that show)

Jeremy The Bear! (Who it turns out is called Barnaby Bear in the UK... who knew? It's scary how fast I had the words to the song running through my head when the song started even though I haven't heard or seen that show in about 20 years...)

and Homer & The Sugar (not an obscure 80's cartoon, but man, that's probably my favourite clip from the entire run of Simpsons :)

Ah, this was just what I needed after work.

Darth Maul's Last Stand

Thought to have perished in the firey fusion furnaces on the planet Naboo, Darth Maul lived on, relegated to a series of menial tasks on several backwater planets. After several years spent guarding a treasure trove of broken knick-knacks and junk in the basement vault of a local politician, Darth Maul took his last job.

He was Darth Maul: Guardian of the Giant Junk Pile of Acton.

We will miss him and his delicious taun-taun steaks.

Psstt... Want A Free Piece Of Wood?

So I'm sitting here tonight at 11:30pm and the doorbell rings. I'm thinking to myself that at this time of night I either have a crazy heroin junkie on my doorstep who will kill me where I stand OR maybe my neighbour lit his house on fire and is coming to warn me so I can grab my DS, PS2 memory cards and the Wii and run out the door and then go back in and wake up Julie and Garrett... I KID I KID!

Anyway, I get close to the door and behold and lo, it IS my neighbour. This is good because I doubt I'll be getting gunned down tonight, but I'm really curious about why he is ringing my doorbell at 11:30pm.

Turns out the guy had a spare interior door in his house and wanted to know if I wanted it. You'd think that kind of question could wait until DAYLIGHT. Sigh. Obviously not.

To be fair, the guy was hauling a lot of junk out to the curb for our BIG JUNK DAY and he figured he'd be a nice guy. This IS the same guy who walked over one day and handed me a box containing a Dreamcast, controllers and a bunch of games with no prompting whatsoever. It's just weird to be offered a door in the middle of the night.

Oh, by the way, this is the first post on Not L33T to get the NEW BLOGGER treatment. They finally figured out a way to accomodate my 2900 or so posts. There's not much of a difference that I can see, though I like the inclusion of labels.
---
What I'm Reading: A bunch of comics and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
What I'm Playing: Chulip, Rogue Galaxy, The Restaurant Game, FFVI Advance, Lumines Plus, a bunch of games on the Wii with Dave
What I'm Watching: My eyes droop... I'm tired.

Brock Wager: Game Designer

This is really cool!

There's an independent game called The Restaurant Game. You can check it out here.

What is so cool about it is that the developer has made some great games like F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever AND everyone (that means me and you) who plays it gets a credit in the game as a game designer.

Sa-weet!

This project attempts to address two frustrations I experienced as a professional game developer. 1) Convincing human social behavior is difficult to model with existing hand crafted AI systems. 2) Play testing by people outside of the development team typically comes too late to have a major impact on the final product. This experiment aims to generate AI behaviors that conform to the way players actually choose to interact with other characters and the environment; behaviors that are convincingly human because they capture the nuances of real human behavior and language.

29-30 days is still pretty good!

So I snapped today. Blame it on the rain, ya ya. Or on the snow or my lack of sleep from last night or something.

I went to EB and picked up a couple games. On the plus side, I got 3 games for ~$100, which is a bargain. On the downside, I just couldn't keep myself 'clean' until March 12.

Oh well. Of course, I should never have mentioned that whole "March 12" thing because Julie is insisting that I'm a horrible person for raising false hope in people. Puh-lease :)

I picked up Final Fantasy VI Advance (my favourite of all Final Fantasies, for those of you keeping track at home), Chulip (a very rare and wierd sort of RPG/Adventure for the PS2 where you have to go around kissing people)and lastly, but not leastly, Lumines Plus for the PS2. Ah, sweet, sweet Lumines. I've been waiting for that game for months and it's finally in my hot little hands. I'm going to concider it an early birthday present to me as I'm hoping not to buy any more games for another while. It'll be hard though... God of War 2 is out just before my birthday, as is Command & Conquer 3. I need to stick to my guns and rent GoW2 before I buy it and also wait on C&C 3 until I've finished C&C 2 and the expansion.

So there ya go. I have SOME willpower, but not quite as much as I hoped. On the plus side, I didn't do any impulse buying today, although the 'sport accessories' set for the Wii was mighty tempting.

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.

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.

Happy Valentine's Day!

  

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. 

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!

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.

Last Picture, I Swear...

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

Words Fail Me

Behold! The most awesome image ever created!
  

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!

  

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 :) 

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

Gamer Lent

Well, I picked up Rogue Galaxy today for the PS2. It is probably going to be one of the last 2 or 3 games I get for the system (Lumines Plus and God Of War 2 being the other two).

I've been looking forward to Rogue Galaxy almost as long as I was looking forward to Final Fantasy XII. It's by the same guys who developed Dragon Quest VIII (and Dark Cloud 2) and looks to be a spiritual successor to one of my all time favourite games, Skies Of Arcadia.

It's basically a cel-shaded RPG romp through the universe as a band of space pirates. Garrett saw the case when I got home and wanted to watch me play it more than he wanted to watch Backyardigans. Yes, it looks that cool. All the 2 1/2 year olds in the neighbourhood want to watch me play!

I had ordered Rogue Galaxy from Amazon a month ago and was hoping to get it sometime next week or so. Yesterday I got an e-mail stating that they'd delayed shipping for 4-6 weeks and I wouldn't be getting it until close to my birthday. Thankfully EB got copies in today so I grabbed one and cancelled my Amazon order. I don't even know why I bother trying to order games from Amazon. They're ridiculously fast for movies, CD's and books but use a herd of frozen turtles to ship their games.

Anyway, the reason I was trying so hard to get a copy today is because I'm taking Gamer Lent starting tomorrow. Gamer Lent is when I swear off buying any new games or game peripherals for an entire month. Thankfully there's not much coming out until March anyway, so it shouldn't be nearly as hard as if I tried doing this in, say, November, but I still need to try and actually stay away from game stores for a month.

I told the manager at EB today when I was in and I think he had to lay off one of his staff. Poor fella.

Julie's In For A Surprise!

Have you heard about this case in the States?

Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.

The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.

Holy crap! The article goes on to say:

"When the statute is named 'Patients Right To Know,' I don't know how it could be clearer," Hyman said.

The hospital's lawyers wrote back, "Ms. Mejia's request may require legal resolution." In other words, according to their interpretation of the law, Mejia has to sue them to get information about herself.

I guess there is some legal loophole about how she had asked to know if any other patients on her floor had streptococcus and that would violate their privacy, but come on...

Julie made me promise that she'd come out of labour with all her limbs intact. I guess she did pay for the Wii and has been rather understanding of my game purchases of late, so I'll do my best to keep the hacksaws away.

Creeeeepy...

I found one of the creepier, yet interesting, websites on the internet today. It's mydeathspace.com and it basically compiles obituaries of people who had MySpace pages.

I loathe MySpace (1997 called and wants its website back) but I have to say that this site is really neat. There are the usual bevy of teens wrapping their cars around trees, school buses and other immovable objects, but then there are the stranger cases that tickle that forensic nodule in my brain and make me wonder exactly what happened (since the stories often don't tell the entire story).

I've always wondered how the big network of friends I've built online would ever find out about my death if/when I ever were to shuffle off this mortal coil. I guess I need to write a will and put all of the websites and MSN contacts that need to be notified :)

Wow. What a downer of a way to start the day. I found that site and was also talking about my experiences being a pallbearer with some people on Evil Avatar (someone there lost an uncle and wanted to know what to expect from the whole pallbearer experience).

All I need to do to cap things off is to sign my organ donor card and my morbid morning will be complete!

Maybe a coffee will brighten my day a bit.

Like An Arrow To The Heart

Did you hear that Feb. 14th is Caring And Friendship Day?

WTF?! Since when has Valentine's Day changed names? Is this just something some weirdo at Treehouse has implemented or have schools done away with Jolly Old St. Valentine and implemented a sustainable action plan on caring and/or friendship?

What next? Easter will be known as Chocolate Omelette And Sacrifice Day? Christmas will henceforth be known as Present And Fat Guy Appreciation Day?

I hate when people rename holidays, esp. when they're basically secular celebrations these days. If it's not Valentine's Day because of the ties to the ancient church, I'm even more annoyed. I can understand if it's Friendship & Caring Day because of the connotations of love usually implied (esp. for small kids) but even there it's pretty lame.

Dresden: Take Two...

Well, tonight was episode 2. I know that I wasn't alone in my disappointment in the first episode. None of the characters acted like their literary counterparts, the tone of the episode didn't ring true to the books and the casting seemed rather off too.

I have to say that after having watched episode 2, my hopes have risen significantly. The self-depricating Harry voiceover from the books is back, the characters (especially Bob) are acting like themselves again and the intricate (to a point) schemes that Harry has to come up with to save the day are back. It felt like an episode written and directed by someone who had actually read a Dresden story instead of just reading a Coles Notes list of character names (which the first episode felt like).

It still feels a bit like a low-budget show, but I can see the potential now that wasn't there last week. They still haven't introduced a lot of the more interesting characters/factions/plot points from the books, but if the series lasts longer than the initial batch of episodes, hopefully the Vampires, Faeries and Wizards will all make an appearance.

I'm just glad that things seem to not suck so badly after the first episode. I wonder if I'm alone in my optimism.

You can be TOO much of a Leafs Fan

I came across this picture today and had to share it.

Why? Because it is the single creepiest piece of Leafs clothing ever...

Enjoy!

RUN AWAY!

I found the link to this on Extralife today.

Behold! The scariest shark on planet Earth!

RUN! Er, SWIM!

Very cool, yet disturbing shark, if I do say so myself.

Oh, I'm feeling much better now. I'm THIS close to being over this stupid cold. I have tomorrow off and hopefully that'll help me recover the last of my strength. I've been WAY too tired the last few days.

We Need A Shot Of Self-Deprication, STAT!

Well, that was interesting.

I'm on the fence about The Dresden Files series. It wasn't bad but I'm not sure if it really captured the essence of the books. That's not a good thing. I can handle changes to characters and particulars if you're at least getting the same feel as the books. This had the baseline mechanics of the Harry Dresden universe (mundane world with supernatural elements at work) but it seemed to lack the sense of humour that makes the Dresden books (and Harry himself) so endearing.

Surprisingly, I didn't mind Bob. He actually DID live in the skull (yay) and even though he was a little more brooding and a little less capricious than in the books, I actually didn't mind the way he was portrayed.

The changes to Harry's backstory were acceptable and having Justin (or whatever he's called in the TV show) alive instead of dead like in the books could prove interesting, especially if he remains behind the scenes for some time.

It was only the first episode, so I'll keep watching and see how it progresses. It definately wasn't a bad show. I'm just not sure if I'm 100% on board with the translation from book to TV series. Hopefully it'll find its feet and get a bit of the levity from the books.

Speaking of TV shows, I've been watching the first 6-7 episodes of House over the last few days. I haven't really seen more than one or two episodes from the recent season and while I knew the show was good, I wanted to watch it from the beginning. Man, this show is awesome. Hopefully I'll get the other discs from first season soon so I can get caught up on Season 2 before Season 3 comes out on DVD :)

I'm Alive!

Hmm.. I guess I haven't updated my blog for a day or so.

FLU REPORT!
My fever broke sometime yesterday. I obviously was on the mend as I was able to play some Zelda in the afternoon. I actually was thinking about going into work around 5ish or so to help relieve the evening staff (obviously a sign that I wasn't quite right in the head) but after getting Garrett fed and standing up for a period of more than 5 minutes, I realized that I was completely tapped out and had to go lie down for a while.

I had another good night's sleep last night but Garrett woke us up around 4am. Why? He was afraid of a box in his room. Of course, there wasn't actually a box in his room... at least not anywhere near where he was pointing. My kid is afraid of imaginary boxes. Sigh.

Unfortunately, by 4am I'd had my 6 hours of sleep and couldn't do much more than toss and turn for a while before just giving up and playing some WoW and Zelda till 7:30 when Garrett and Julie wandered downstairs.

I'm still on the mend today, but I've actually left the house TWICE and even took Julie out for her belated birthday lunch... which we'll be eating for a few more meals as we have lots of leftovers. Curse you, bottomless Italian Wedding Soup at East Side Mario's!

Anyway, gonna scoot now. Now you know all there is to know about me as of today!

Happy Birthday Julie!

It's Julie's birthday today!

We were going to go down to Casey's to take advantage of their birthday deal (the birthday girl gets $15 off an entree) but alas, I'm dying so we just had some pizza and souvlaki from a local place.

I hope this crazy cold/flu thing clears up so I can take her out on Saturday.

Exploding Head Man!

Ug. I've been home sick for two days now and I'm not going in tomorrow either. I think I've got the flu. I barely slept last night and while I did spend most of the day in bed, I still feel like a truck ran over my head.

My fever has wavered between 100.2 and 102.5... I did finally get some food in me today and hopefully that'll help me feel a bit better, but yeesh...

Of course, the worst thing is that I've got the new World of Warcraft expansion to play and aside from a bit of playtime yesterday, I haven't been able to muster up the energy to play.

Same with the Wii. I would love to play some Zelda, but just thinking about gaming makes my eyes hurt and my arms ache.

I did watch the last 5 episodes of Band of Brothers today. I think I'm going to have some freaky fever dreams tonight, if the wacky thoughts in my head this afternoon while I dozed are any indication.

I just hope I can fall asleep before midnight tonight and not be up tossing and turning from 3am onward like I was last night.

Stupid Sympatico (again)

So I'm sitting here, running a fever of about 100.2F and feeling miserable. I ALMOST fell asleep around 8pm tonight but nope... I'm still awake.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else out there a) uses Sympatico and b) has noticed that there's something wonky going on with the mail servers (and some of the other servers).

Julie couldn't check her e-mail earlier today. Now I can't check my e-mail OR log into their website to do any self-help or even check my online e-mail.

I CAN send e-mail though... which is odd. I guess the PoP server is down but the SMTP is still up. Or is it the other way around? I do find it kind of odd that I can't even log onto their account info site.

I really hope that it's just some weird server outage tonight and that it'll work fine in the morning.

Double O Tom

This just in!

Tom Hanks is the new Bond!

Don't believe me? Check out the trailer.

I'm going to go back to being sick. I think I got whatever Julie & Garrett had last week. Blech. I can't even muster up the energy to play on the Wii :(

I still think it should have been Spike

I've been meaning to post this for a few days but keep forgetting. It's mainly for Dave and James, but maybe Suzie will watch it too!

What am I talking about? Oh...

The oft rumoured adaptation of The Dreseden Files to the TV screen is a reality.

And it's coming soon! Like, this Sunday at 9pm, soon.

The nice thing is that it's not all swords and sorcery. If you're new to Dresden, it's about a private eye wizard living in contemporary Chicago. He has to deal not only with the seedy underbelly of the city, a police force that has a love/hate relationship with him and his crappy car but also with werewolves, rogue wizards and much, much more. I really hope they don't wreck the series by translating it to TV. The Dresden Files is probably my favourite contemporary fantasy series and I'd hate to see something bad happen to it!

James Marsden (Spike from Buffy) would have been an awesome Harry Dresden, but I think the guy they have playing him might work. He looks REALLY familiar...

Edit: WAIT... WHAT?! Bob's an actual person? Feh. He's a skull... well, a spirit who lives in a skull. He's not a funny looking guy with white hair. Grr.

The guy playing Dresden was in 24, which is where I recognize him from.

I'm not sure I like the casting of some of the people but I'll try my best to watch the first few eps unless they thoroughly suck. And I watched the entirety of Blade: The Series, so that'll take some pretty intense sucking.

The Mario Diet

I was joking last week that if I keep playing the Wii Sports fitness test every day for a year, I'll probably lose 100 pounds and have a 6-pack and huge arm muscles.

Turns out I might not be too far off the mark. This guy actually tried doing his usual activities and eating his usual food with the addition being a 30-minute play session of Wii Sports every day for a month. He lost 9 pounds and about 2-3% body fat!

I tell ya, that first week with the Wii almost killed me. I was playing it pretty aggressively for several hours each day and coupled with not getting a lot of sleep, I was feeling pretty run down by Sunday. I only did a bit of Wii Sports yesterday (and a lot of Zelda) and I don't feel like a truck ran over me. That said, I'm going to keep doing my daily Wii Sports regimen and see if I can lose some weight like this guy did. It's nice to see it's achievable.

I want some armour like this for work

Maybe Grant can hook me up with this suit of armour. It's made by the same guy who did the bear suit a few years back and this time it's aimed at the military.

I love how it looks and it seems to move pretty nimbly. Very cool stuff.

Water Poisoning?

Well, I learned something new today. You can die from excessive intake of water over a short period of time.

How did I learn this?

Jennifer Strange was found dead on Friday at her home after taking part in a contest named “Hold your wee for a Wii” at the studios of radio station KDND 107.9. The competition involved drinking large quantities of water, with the last person to go to the toilet winning a Wii console – currently out of stock in most of North America.

Yeah. A woman died from drinking too much water and not peeing in order to win a Wii. Yeesh. Even I'm not that hardcore. I don't care how happy it would make Garrett to get something, I wouldn't put my life on the line for it. Granted, I'd never heard of the term, water toxicity, before today, so maybe nobody involved really knew there was any danger. Crazy stuff. I feel pretty bad for her kids though. Maybe Nintendo can send over a free system so her death wasn't in vain.

Lost Is Ending!

Don't worry... it's not being cancelled. They've just announced that ABC and the producers of the show are sitting down to set a final date for the show. I've read in the past that there would probably be 5 seasons total, which would be great. We're already halfway into the 3rd and we could see a definite ending instead of having it just lurch on past the point where it gets boring (I'm looking at you, X-Files and Millenium!)

Here's the quote:

The date will set a limit to the number of "Lost" seasons to come and will be announced to fans. The show's producers, speaking at ABC's Television Critics Association press tour session, said having a conclusion date will bolster fan confidence in the series' narrative. A timeline for making the decision was not announced.

"It's time for us now to find an endpoint for the show," said executive producer Carlton Cuse. "JK Rowling announced there were seven books in the Harry Potter series and it gives fans [a framework for understanding the arc of the show]. 'The X-Files' was a cautionary tale for us. It was a great show that ran two seasons too long. 'Lost' has a short-half life."

Lord Of The Brocks

My name in Cirith (The Moria Dwarf Runes from LOTR)

Thanks for the linky to the rune generator, Doug!

My Tooth! It Crumbles!

I was playing on the Wii with my friends tonight when it happened. I noticed something that felt like a kernel of popcorn was stuck in the gap between my back two molars. I couldn't get it loose with my tongue so I poked in there with my finger and what came out? A little chunk of my back molar. I couldn't believe it until ANOTHER little chunk of molar fell off!

Now, I had a root canal in this tooth a few years back (at least, I'm pretty sure it's that tooth) and it's already 90% filling as it is, but man, it's annoying. Thankfully it doesn't really hurt (though the gum seems to be somewhat sensitive).

I'm just annoyed that a) it happened late on Friday night and won't be able to see a dentist until at least Monday or Tuesday and b) I have an insanely long weekend ahead of me and I really don't need dental emergencies on top of all the other stuff I have going on this weekend.

Of course, this had to happen to me not too long after playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids and doing the "Worms In The Teeth" minigame... I think it cursed me.

I guess this is a sign to stop eating candy canes... I think that the crunchy candy canes I've been munching on this week and the grinding of my teeth in annoyance and frustration while at work are likely culprits in this deterioration of my dentition.

That and the fact that I haven't been to the dentist in a LOOONG time... I guess this is God's way of telling me it's time to see the dentist. And here I was thinking that I'd just spent a pile of $$ on my car this week and thankfully hadn't had to pay a dental bill for a while. Sigh.

Where'd He Leave His Cane Today?

It's Tony's birthday! He's now officially older than me for the next two months or so. Mwahaha.

I love razzing him on his birthday. I need to make a Mii of him as an old man to scare kids away from my Wii.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Holy Hannah, the end times must have arrived. Much to Julie's delight (I'm sure), I finally have a Wii.

I went into my regular EB yesterday after dropping Garrett off at the sitter's and whined about how I was getting sick of stalking the Electronics departments in every store in the tri-city area.

"Hey," said the manager, "You're our best customer. The next time a shipment comes in, I'll put one aside and give you a call."

I almost jumped over the counter and kissed him, but instead I thanked him very much and went on my merry way.

So today rolls around. First, I had to go to get my oil changed, which turned into a $400 job to replace my front brakes and get the bird's nest out of my air filter (I kid you not! There was an actual nest in my air filter!) but the upside is that I don't have to worry about dying the next time I come to a stop sign.

Afterwards, I got home. No messages from EB. The phone rings. It's Julie. She headed off for lunch and left me alone with my thoughts again.

Then the phone rang.

Could it be? Was it... EB?!

No. Just the same lady asking to speak to the person who pays the hydro bill. I told her that Julie was STILL at work just like every other time they call me at 11:30am. They hung up.

Sigh. So I go to check the mail. I walk back in and "RING!"

Could it be? Was it... EB?!

"Hello, Brock?"

"Yes."

"It's Grant down at EB. We got one." (Yeah, the manager at EB has the same name as my little brother... go figure...)

"I'll be down in a flash."

A flash later and I was down at EB getting the second last Wii that they had received that morning. A guy behind me picked up the last one they had. What was really a kick in the gibblies was that this guy walked in and saw us buying these last two Wii's and was almost in tears. He had been at the EB earlier in the morning, walked outside for all of 20 minutes and by the time he came back they had sold out of all the systems. Poor fella.

Anyway, I'm back home now and have the system set up. I haven't even played a game yet. I've been too busy configuring everything, making a Mii that looks like me and checking out the forecast channel. Very spiffy.

It's a good thing I have Friday off or I'd be calling in sick for the next couple days. I can't wait to play some Zelda, Elebits, Wii Sports, Excite Truck and Rayman: Rubbing Rabbits.

Wii!

Er, Whee!

I should have top marks on the driving games

Given that my brain is just starting to recover from driving back and forth to Kingston today for Eve & Mason's Christening (which was just smashing, if I do say so myself... it's a gorgeous cathedral they have there in Kingston!), I have an excuse for only getting 88% on this really good game quiz. I wonder if anyone can beat me!

The sad thing is that some of the shooter questions that I got right I just guessed at while some of the ones about games I'm intimately familiar with I got wrong.... grr...