DON'T BLAME ME, I WAS BORN THIS RAD!

Leftovers Part Deux

2012-01-28T22:49:00.001-07:00

I was looking at the pictures on my camera's memory card seeing if I had anything for a blog post. I still have a few things on there I still haven't gotten around to writing about yet. On a trip back to Cranbrook in summer 2010 I took a walk out behind my parent's house and took my camera with me.

This is the trail that leads from behind the house to the powerline. Remember how many trees there used to be? They're gone now! They did some logging behind the house and around some around the Southstar trails, so everything looks crappy now. Thanks! That trail looks totally different with all the trees gone, some parts I don't even recognize.

Lots more smaller trees have grown in on the powerline though. I'm surprised nobody has cut them all down for Christmas trees yet.

Wild strawberries! Too bad they are so small. If you were lost and all you had to eat were wild strawberries you would probably die because you'd expend more energy picking them then what you would get from eating the puny things. I still ate it, but it gave me a kidney stone.

The little pond and creek are still there. I was up there this August (2011) and it was dry and there was no water and no strawberries.

It still makes a good spot for dogs to cool off in.

Gross, a bug! This guy was digging a hole and it looked pretty funny as he was tossing little dirt bits out of his hole. The still photo doesn't do him justice.

Then back at my parent's I took this picture of the toad that lives under the carport. I may have used this picture before, but even if I did you can enjoy it again. He's just that cool.

Follow up

2012-01-26T20:38:00.004-07:00

Today I had my doctor's appointment with the urologist to find out what type of kidney stone I had. When you know what type of stone you have it makes it easier to prevent getting them again. Turns out my kidney stone was a calcium oxalate stone which is the most common one. These stones are formed by calcium binding to dietary oxalate and then preventing it from being absorbed by the body.

Even though the stone is made from calcium cutting milk and milk products from your diet won't decrease the chance of getting another stone, in fact drinking milk will decrease the risk of future stones. It's too much oxalate in the diet that is the main cause. Foods high in oxalate include rhubarb, spinach, beets, chocolate, nuts, vitamin c tablets, sweet potatoes, leeks, parsley, raspberries, strawberries and tea. I don't eat half those things and I hate beets, so it's good to know that now have a legitimate medical excuse as to why I can't eat them. It totally sucks about strawberries because I love them and will eat anything with strawberries in it. All my yogurt is strawberry flavored, I have two jars of strawberry jam in the fridge as well as a carton of fresh strawberries. Dammit. I am actually allowed to eat those foods, but in moderation. I can't do moderation!!

After that I went shopping and bought myself a Korean beef bowl for lunch from Safeway. Over in the prepared foods area with the sandwiches and salads they have these new Asian bowls. There are a couple Vietnamese ones, a couple Japanese ones and the Korean one which is my favorite. I'm not saying it's delicious, but it's the easiest to keep down and only goes in the microwave for four minutes.

I know I said the Korean one was my favorite, but here is a picture of the teriyaki chicken bowl. It was one of the things I was planning to write about, but never got around to. Good thing I kept the picture on my memory card, so now Mike knows what to look for.

Then I went to good old Cash Converters because I have to go there every couple weeks. The location on Macleod Trail has started taking vinyl, so they have some records. Most of it is overpriced 80's rock, and after the first few bins I lose interest in looking though all of them. I did see the original Tron soundtrack, but it was $20. For a few bucks less I did find a House of Pain 12" single for $4.99.

No fancy picture sleeve, but at least it has the Tommy Boy logo all over it. It's the On Point single and has four remixes as well as Word is Bond on the b-side. I totally listened it and it was "same as it ever was". Peace out my brothers.

Twofer

2012-01-22T21:01:00.001-07:00

PayPal and eBay are evil because with just a few button clicks you can be ordering stuff you don't need. I always seem to be doing that, like I'm trying to fill a void in my life with useless crap. Good news because that useless crap just got doubled.

I ordered the UK pressing of Modern Action's new LP from No Front Teeth Records. It's on 10" vinyl and has hand stenciled covers and such. I ordered one, but received two in the mail! I checked the postage date and they were posted four days apart, so they must've sent one then forgot they sent it and then sent another one. Even though they were posted four days apart I still got them on the same day. It is still nice to get something cool and unexpected once in a while, although next time I'd rather buy a lottery

Laundry Day

2012-01-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Damn laundry, it is so dirty.

Sup.

Oh snap, it's CHUCK NORRIS!! Wait, how did you get in here?

Here, try this.

Hmmmm...

No freakin' way!

Awesome! Thanks Chuck, you are the greatest!

If I catch you using Tide I'll snap your neck. Norris out!

I saw a commercial on TV for this stuff and at first I wasn't sure if it was for real or a joke. I looked online and found out that it is indeed an actual product, so naturally I HAD TO HAVE IT! I looked at work, Wal-Mart, and the little Safeway in Westbrook Mall with no luck. Cody found it, but I don't know where, I think the big Safeway in West Hills had it. It's Chuck Norris approved because it's guaranteed to get out stubborn blood stains, gunshot residue and the tears of your enemies. Since it's Chuck Norris approved I'm a little scared to use it because it might be too strong. I'll wash my clothes in it and they be completely dissolved.

Things I forgot.

2012-01-18T22:24:00.002-07:00

Turns out I forgot a couple items off my last blog, so here you go. Not that they are all the interesting or anything. First up, I finally got with 2005 and played me some Doom 3. I picked up the limited edition XBox version for $5 which comes in a metal case and has Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 on the disc as well as some "making of" stuff and extras. I didn't play the entire game because I'm too lazy to put in the work, but that game is DARK. You get a flashlight, but you can hold either the flashlight or a gun, but not both at the same time. I guess you cheat a bit and crank up the brightness/contrast settings. It does feel a bit dated, but maybe it would be better if I played it more. I doubt I will.

The second and last thing I forgot was this CD I bought at Inner Sleeve. I bought it, but not because I liked the music on it, but because it was a 3" CD. Any small CD like that or weird shaped CD (I have a CD shaped like Darth Vader's head) won't play on a tray loading CD player. So how do you listen to a 3" CD if you have a tray loading CD player?

You can just use the handy dandy CD adapter that comes with it! How convenient! The disc only has three songs on it, but why not just make it a full size 5" CD? Then you wouldn't even need the adapter or have to worry about losing it or the CD popping out inside the CD player. They were dumb back in 1989. I will still hang on to it for novelty's sake.

Not much

2012-01-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Isn't it weird that whenever it gets cold all everyone does is complain about the weather? Isn't it supposed to be cold as it is the middle of January? It's winter, what do people expect? That being said, it is friggin' cold here! This is probably the first real dose of winter we've gotten this year. Tuesday it's not actually supposed to warm up, but get colder with a high of -30C. If we're lucky it will warm up by Saturday.

I haven't been doing much even though I had the entire weekend off. Usually, I get Saturday off and work Sunday, but somehow lucked into getting both days off and I didn't even ask. Weirder yet, was I had last weekend off as well. I will pay for it later because I work both days this weekend.

On my last trip to Phoenix I saw a flyer about some comic/toy "blowout" on Saturday the 14th, so I went and checked it out. It was in the Sunnyside/Hillhurst community center and it had free parking, free admission and free hot chocolate. I actually didn't see any free hot chocolate, but despite that it wasn't all that bad. It had some cool stuff, but nothing that I really really wanted, but I still managed to spend $25. I bought Logan the old Marvel comics adaptation of Return of the Jedi as well as the two DVDs for the Clone Wars cartoons. I bought myself a couple comics and a original trading card set from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was eye balling a Stormtrooper bust, but when I turned my back some fat guy grabbed it. They also had lots of cheap DVDs and Blu-Rays which they must've got from some video store close out. All the used movies had some video store sticker stuck on the back of the sleeves. I'm pretty anal about that sort of thing, so I didn't even bother buying any. I don't care if the sticker is on the DVD case because I put most of my movies into binders to save space, but putting stickers on the sleeves where they won't peel off is a deal breaker. Not cool!

On Sunday I didn't do much because it snowed and really there was no place I needed/had to go. I did clear out the bottom shelf of my cupboard and tossed out an incredibly old box of cereal.

I saw this cereal at Costco and when I saw it was Cinnabon cereal I freaked because I instantly thought it would be the greatest cereal on Earth. I was wrong. I had exactly one bowl of it and it was terrible, so I put it in the back of the cupboard. It has stayed in the back for a very long time because the expiry date on it was June 2009. How can it taste so bad even though it's made with their exclusive Makara cinnamon? What's the big deal about Makara cinnamon?

On Monday I had to work, but only four hours in the morning, so I still had lots of time to go out and look for stuff I don't need. I went to Wal-Mart to look for something I did need, but they didn't have it. Then I went to the Inner Sleeve to look for a replacement 10" sleeve for a picture disc I have, but they were all out. They did have the Back to the Beach soundtrack LP!

Me and Cody watched this movie not that long ago too. It's got all your favorites like Surfin' Bird by Pee-wee Herman, Jamica Ska by Annette Funicello and Fishbone and Pipeline by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Dick Dale. Soon as I got home I put it on the record player and listened to it. Oh, the 80s!

LOOKIT ME!

2012-01-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

IMA VEGAN!!

According to Peta's website Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch is vegan and so are Oreos. While I do eat both of those the fact that I ate a steak last night doesn't make me vegan, so I dodged the bullet on that. I'm sure the only reason they are vegan is because they are made from all kinds of chemicals instead of products from animals, but I don't think that makes them any healthier. Check out the full list of Accidentally Vegan products. Good news Cam, Sour Patch Kids on the list.

The Cap'n Crunch is from the States, so you won't find it in Canada. Don't be too disappointed because it's not that great. It's absolutely nothing like regular Cap'n Crunch instead is just Corn Pops with a faint peanut butter taste and the Cap'n Crunch name slapped on the box to help them sell. The worst part is that the t-shirt offer is only open to residents of the USA. Noooooooooooooooooooo.........

Leftovers

2012-01-05T17:14:00.001-07:00

I have pictures on my camera memory card that go back YEARS and I don't want to delete them in case I might want them again one day. Yes, the picture of the toast and beans is on it because that is classic and should be framed one day. There is also a picture of Cam and his PZ3, but that one just looks funny.

He sure loves that thing.

I also have taken pictures for blog posts, but haven't quite got around to posting them. The next few posts will deal with all the things I meant to write about, but didn't get around to it. I should catch up on the old stuff and start the new year off fresh.

I can't even remember where I bought this Simpsons Kinder style egg, but I think it may have been just a little mom & pop convenience store. It looked cool, but unfortunately it didn't taste as good as a Kinder egg. The toy wasn't as good either.

One of the big selling features on the toy is that it is hand painted. The Simpsons egg comes all the way from Italy and I always thought they were big on painting and artsy stuff, but the toy still looked lame. Boring sculpts and the hand painting doesn't look like much, two black dots for the eyes. Homer just looks weird with his super dark brown five o'clock shadow. The worst part was that out of all those figures I get the one I wanted the least, Lisa.

I wanted the cat on the TV!

It's not all bad as the next leftover item was a cookie I got from Crave. As you know they make awesome cupcakes, but once when I was there they had some wicked soft cookies. They were made from the same stuff as the cupcakes, just the cake was two "buns" and the cupcake icing was the filler. I only got the one and the couple times I've been back since, they didn't have anymore. :-(

It's a sugar sandwich.

I've got a few more items to write about, so stay tuned.

Crappy New Year!!

2012-01-01T10:37:00.002-07:00

Hope everyone had a good holiday and new year's! Since I've been getting up for work at 4 am by the time 10:30 pm came around I was so tired I went to bed, so New Year's wasn't a big thing for me. Before that I watched Surf Ninjas and played BF3 and Cam don't even think of not adding me on Battlelog, it's DiesEazy BTW. Now if you excuse me I'm going to eat some Jiffy Pop for breakfast.

Back to the grind

2011-12-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

I got back to Calgary yesterday, that would the 27th, and all is good. The drive wasn't bad, still boring, but not as busy as I was expecting. I drove the north route and the park did get a little bit of snow which had melted off the roads making them wet. My dirty car is now filthy, it looks like a big brown turd driving down the road. Since I refuse to wash my car, it'll probably stay that way until spring when it rains.

Cranbrook was okay, got to see Cam which was cool. He even caved in and said he would eat at Arby's, but I let him off the hook this time. We hit all the hot Boxing Day sales and I bought X-Men: First Class on Blu-ray from Superstore and Jiffy Pop from LW. That's pretty much all that happened other than I got socks for Christmas for the 36th year in a row.

Now that I'm back I went into work this morning to see I was actually supposed to work Tuesday and have Wednesday off. The schedule got changed, but nobody told me. This is one of the reasons I don't have a cell phone. Anyway, I still worked today and now have to work 5am to 2pm the next three days in a row. I'm not sure if you know this, but five in the morning is early!! Of course I have to get up at 4am, and I'm already exhausted just thinking about it. I'm going to try to go to bed early, but I'm not used to trying to sleep at like 8:30pm. That's just weird.

I meant to post this picture with December 24th entry of the Lego advent calendar, but I forgot to take the picture. It's all the leftover pieces!

Sock it to me

2011-12-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

What did everyone get for Christmas? Any cool toys? I got a new grill piece and shiny new emblem on my car. Also I got some socks.

Two four

2011-12-24T22:22:00.001-07:00

It seems like I just started the Lego Star Wars advent calendar, but now it's already December 24th, Christmas Eve. As I predicted Santa Yoda was the final toy.

Santa Yoda knows who's been naughty and who's been nice.

Where Chewie and the Clone Trooper couldn't be bothered to be packaged with some accessories, Santa Yoda comes with his walking stick as well as a backpack full of gifts. Just by looking at those gifts they must be books or boxes of chocolate. Those are lazy gifts Santa Yoda!

And there you have the entire contents of the advent calendar. I didn't actually bring it back to Cranbrook with me, so cheated and opened the last day early, so I could take pictures. The Legos are arranged on the chair in my room with t-shirts from my laundry hamper as back/dropcloths. Maybe next year I will plan a little more in advance for nicer pictures, but probably not. Merry X-Mas!!

23

2011-12-23T21:29:00.002-07:00

Today's Lego kit was a Christmas tree which is kinda to be expected, but it did surprise me. Silly me, I was expecting something Star Wars related.

In other non-Lego related news I am now back in Cranbrook. The drive back was boring as always. There were more cars on the road than usual, but not as many as I was expecting. It was pretty mellow. Before I left I got some mail in the form of my free t-shirts from Post. They are a little more XL than I was hoping for, so I hope my dad likes Honeycomb and Alpha Bits. Merry Christmas Dad!

22

2011-12-22T10:03:00.005-07:00

I'm early today and in today's door was the A-Wing. Only two days left!

21

2011-12-21T22:24:00.001-07:00

The Millennium Falcon! For something so small and made up of so few Lego pieces they got it looking spot on. I just hope they fixed the hyperdrive.

20

2011-12-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a TIE Pilot, so it makes sense that today would be a TIE Fighter.

Isn't it cute?

Here is another picture this time with it's bigger brother, a non-Lego Japanese 1/144th scale version. The Japanese ship is pretty cool as it's pretty detailed for it's size. The hatch on the top opens and it comes with a display stand that has the ship specs on it. Japanese toys are awesome. Sayonara!

19

2011-12-19T22:14:00.001-07:00

Today's toy was another minifigure, but it was a good one, a TIE pilot.

Now there are only five days left in the calendar, so it's almost done, but it feels like I just started. On the box it shows an A-Wing, TIE Fighter, and the Millennium Falcon which haven't even show up yet. I already stated/guessed that the Santa Yoda would be on the 24th. Now we know 4 of the next 5 toys we'll be getting, but what will be the 5th? Will it be good or lame? Tune in to find out!

18

2011-12-18T21:32:00.002-07:00

I will make this quick because I have to get up early tomorrow morning for work, so I want to go to sleep! Sleep is good. Anyway, it's a Y-Wing!!

Merry X-Mas!!

2011-12-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of Lego yet? Well too bad because here is some more of it! I got a Christmas tree in the form of a Lego holiday kit from the Lego Store. Around different times/seasons of the year they do different themed kits. At Halloween they had a bat and spider kit, so it's only natural that at Christmas there is a Christmas tree kit.

It doesn't take up much room and it doesn't leave needles on the carpet. Putting it up and taking it down is a snap, but there isn't much room under it for gifts. I plan on putting the instructions and all the pieces into a Ziploc bag after Christmas, so I will reuse it in the future. Save a tree!

Looks like I'll heading back to Cranbrook on Dec 23rd for a few days and head back to Calgary on Dec 27th. It sucks because now I'm working nine days in a row at the busiest time of year before I get to drive back to BC. Cam says he'll be around, so hopefully I'll get to see him.

Now for something completely different! I always meant to do a post about the two comics that are pictured in the background of the Christmas tree picture, Leave it to PET! and Detroit Metal City. They are both Japanese and are pretty funny, although totally different. Leave it to PET! is actually for kids and is about a young boy who recycles a plastic drink bottle only to have it return as helper robot. Of course the robot is always there it help him, but most of the time doesn't actually succeed or just makes things worse. There series is only four volumes, but I thought the first two books were the best. They're full of short stories that are actually pretty funny. Other recycled robot characters show up to "help" out too. I should have an army of recycled Diet Pepsi bottles.

Detroit Metal City is definitely NOT for kids. It's a music comedy about a shy musician who moved to Tokyo in order to become a pop star. Unfortunately, it doesn't go so well and he ends up being the front man for the heavy metal band, DMC aka Detroit Metal City and like KISS the band dress up in costumes and make-up when performing. It's very funny and the main character gets into all sorts of crazy situations as his alter ego Johannes Krauser II and the two very different personalities. Sometimes it seems be making fun of the heavy metal genre, but I think it's mostly just having fun with it. This is one series to check out. I was originally a manga, then a anime and then a live action movie. The books are out here, the anime series still hasn't been released, but the movie is out. I haven't see it yet, but I want to.

Go to your local public library and ask about these two titles!

17

2011-12-17T17:11:00.001-07:00

Today's Lego kit wasn't a vehicle, droid, monster, minifigure or even a barrel, but it was pretty close.

It's a weapon rack! It's like for coats, but instead you put weapons on it. This one holds a lightsaber, two blasters and some binocular things. It's cool it comes with the nifty accessories, but I don't remember seeing it in any of the movies. Since it's in the Advent Calendar maybe it was featured in the Star Wars Holiday Special? Watching the Holiday Special once was enough for me, I'm not going back to try and spot it. Life Day my ass.

16

2011-12-16T19:18:00.004-07:00

Another minifigure as today's Lego kit, a Clone Trooper with no gun. This guy should totally have a gun as he's pretty useless without one. What Clone Trooper doesn't use a blaster? Does he work in an office? Maybe he's in HR?

15

2011-12-15T22:20:00.001-07:00

Well, we had a decent run of some "good" Star Wars kits from the Lego calendar, but today it's back to the new Star Wars stuff.

This one isn't that bad, unlike the picture. I'm pretty sure it's a Republic troop transport. I don't remember the green thing on there in the movies though. Then again I've only seen the newer Star Wars movies once.

14

2011-12-14T19:26:00.002-07:00

Behinds today's door on the advent calendar was the mouse droid aka MSE-series general purpose droid. I think it's actually neat, way better than the weird monster thing from December 3rd. As with most kits this one came with some extra parts which turned out to be a good thing.

I had dumped the little baggie out on my bed and started putting it together and I went to pick up one of the "wheels" and my finger caught the edge of it sending it flying into the air and it landed behind my dresser. I currently have all my Christmas gifts piled up in front of my dresser, so there was no way I was going to move all that just for some little Lego piece. Luckily, there was an extra wheel included. It's not really a wheel as it doesn't actually turn, it's more like a peg. Chewie can fix that.

PMPeed

2011-12-13T17:41:00.002-07:00

Time for an unrelated Lego blog post that I've been meaning to do for a while now. You'll remember I wrote about the media player I got for my birthday and how I broke it in less than a week. I finally got around to getting a replacement for it. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought because every time I picked out a brand and model I wanted, it was no longer in stock. I ordered it from a Chinese website called Ownta and they liked to have items on their website listed as "In Stock" when they were out of stock or discontinued.

I ordered two personal media players, a Ramos T11 Pro and an Ainol V8000 HDS. The plan was to keep one for myself and give one to Matt as a Christmas gift. They both had HDMI out which is what I wanted, but when I received them the Ainol didn't have HDMI out, but only a RBG composite video out. Dammit. I tried the HDMI on the Ramos and it looks pretty crappy and the TV out on the Ainol doesn't even work, although the sound does. I was really hoping the HDMI would work just so I could plug it into my TV and watch videos off the player. Oh well.

Other than that they both work fine, playing videos and music. I've tried both just to see which one is better. The Ainol loads video files faster than the Ramos, but they both play just as good. Both models are able to play multiple video and audio formats as well as image files and .txt files. Also, both units have a 5" touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480. And both hold 8 GB, but have a micro SD slot for up to 16GB. I gotta say, why do micro SD cards have to be so small? They are too small! I already broke one. :-(

I'm keeping the Ramos T11 Pro for myself and giving Matt the Ainol V8000 HDS. The touch screen is bit too finicky on the Ramos, so I'll give the Matt the Ainol which is a little more responsive. The touch screen works better on the Ramos if you are using a stylus or at least something pointy. My fingers are too fat and pudgy I guess. I usually take mine to work when I work a 9 hour shift so I can watch it on my lunch and my other breaks. I've already finished watched Kamen Rider OOO (all 48 episodes) and am now working on Kamen Rider Decade. It beats socializing with my co-workers.

Day 13

2011-12-13T14:40:00.002-07:00

I'm going to start putting the date in numerical format instead of spelling them, so as to avoid any spelling mistakes. I don't want to upset anybody. You know who you are. Anyway, today's set was another minifigure in the form of a black R2 unit.

He's black, so you he's a total bad ass and way cool. Either that or he's evil, but I don't think he's evil because he doesn't have a goatee. Anybody know what this unit's designation is? I tried to look it up, but gave up after 30 seconds. It should be R2-FU, now that's bad ass.

Twelfth

2011-12-12T22:45:00.001-07:00

Since it snowed it's only fitting that behind December 12's door on the advent calendar is a Rebel snow speeder.

Is that really how you spell "twelfth"? I don't know, but it sure looks weird.

Eleventh

2011-12-11T19:41:00.001-07:00

Behind December 11's door is another minifigure. It's a droid dude and since he's blue I'm guessing he's a commander or something.

The most pieces for a minifigure yet, this could get complicated.

Or not. Turns out there were a lot of pieces because he came with an extra set of arms. How come he comes with a blaster, but the other figures come with nothing? Instead of extra arms, why not throw in an extra blaster?

I know I had originally said that I would be doing regular blog posts in addition to the daily Lego advent calendar posts, but that quite hasn't been happening. Anyway, I'll get you caught up on what's been going on lately.

First I finished my Christmas shopping! This is both good and bad. It's good because I'm freakin' done, but bad because I'm already seeing stuff I bought on sale for cheaper than I paid for it. Dammit. All that is left is to wrap gifts which is made much easier by a trip to the dollar store for some gift bags. I can only wrap small things if they are rectangular shaped, anything big or a weird shape and it turns out all sloppy and ugly. The gift bag is the lazy man's way of wrapping presents, just drop it inside and you're done.

This afternoon me and Cody went and watched The Muppets which was pretty good. I'm not a fan of songs in movies, but being as how this was a Muppet movie AND a Disney movie there were a few of them. The movie itself was pretty funny and you don't have to be a little kid to enjoy it, although the theatre was packed with them. Before The Muppets was a Toy Story short that was pretty funny. It has a Condorman reference in it! You do worse and end up watching the new Twilight movie, although there were a LOT of chicks going in to see it.

We went to the movies even though it snowed a bunch. It's snowing, but the temperature is just barely above freezing so the snow is heavy and packs down to get all slippery. Plus soon as there is snow on the ground and you can't see the road lines or parking grids in the parking lot, it's nuts. People are parking all over the place and parking sideways and angle parking in straight stalls, they're all a bunch of idiots. I just don't want to move my car and give up my spot that is all notched out in the snow bank.

Day X

2011-12-10T16:15:00.001-07:00

Opening today's tenth door on the advent calendar reveals a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle. You'll all recognize it as the same type of shuttle as the Tydirium shuttle that was used to infiltrate Endor in ROTJ. Going back the old school PC game X-Wing, I blew up many of these.

HOLY. CRAP.

2011-12-09T19:12:00.001-07:00

Watch this video and be amazed. I don't even know how the hell he pulled that off. I can't fly at all, so that guy is like a god. The A-Team music was a nice touch.

PS ~ If it didn't work you can check it out on YouTube here.

Nineth

2011-12-09T17:00:00.001-07:00

Today's kit was a X-Wing fighter, but the colour scheme is weird. It's white instead of grey, so maybe it's Clone Wars era or whatever. It's still better than barrel. I do like how they put a R2 unit in it. Speaking of which I got an extra R2 in the leftover pieces.

R2?

Eighth

2011-12-08T15:56:00.001-07:00

Rebel pilot, yeeeeaaaaahhh. He doesn't have an accessory though, but I guess since he's a pilot a ship would be his accessory. I don't think I'll find one his size in the advent calendar.

Seventh

2011-12-07T18:47:00.001-07:00

I open December 7th's door on the Star Wars Lego advent calendar to find the lamest toy yet, a barrel! Really, a barrel?!

I've seen all the Star Wars movies, the Ewok TV movies and even the Star Wars Holiday special, but I don't remember seeing that barrel in any of them. Yes, it does have an wrench, an axe, and Chewie's missing bowcaster, but it's still a barrel. What's with the axe? They didn't use axes in Star Wars and it they did it would be a laser axe. I could give the bowcaster to Chewie, but then the barrel set would be incomplete and I just can't do that. I can't believe they are bringing out the lame sets this early, it's only Dec 7th!

Laugh it up fuzzball.

2011-12-06T17:45:00.001-07:00

Day six in the Lego Star Wars advent calendar is another "oldie, but a goodie" in the form of a Chewbacca min figure.

Chewie was even easier to put together than the other mini figure as he was a whopping three pieces. Even though he's completely assembled he still doesn't look quite right. Maybe it's because he has no accessory? Where is his bowcaster?

On the front of the box it shows Chewie with bowcaster in hand, so where is it? This is false advertising!

But on another picture on the side of the box it shows Chewie with no accessory. Make up your mind Lego! Chewie SHOULD come with a blaster or at least a hydrospanner for fixing the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon, it what everyone expects. Fail.

Fifth

2011-12-05T22:40:00.001-07:00

Finally, all that complaining has finally paid off as the advent calendar has given me something cool from the good Star Wars movies.

Boba Fett's Slave II!! It looks pretty cool and the "wings" pivot too. I wonder if they'll get lazy and have a Slave I in there just with different coloured pieces? That's what I would do.

Leftovers!

Fourth

2011-12-04T20:10:00.001-07:00

It must be getting closer to Christmas because it's another entry in the Lego Star Wars advent calendar and it snowed. I left work yesterday and it was a blizzard outside. I went on break about 3:30 pm and it was all fine outside and then I left at 5 pm and it was crazy outside. It was snowing big fat heavy snowflakes plus the wind was blowing pretty hard, so when you went outside you were getting smacked in the face with huge snowflakes. It snowed about 5 or six inches overnight, but the weather finally cleared up this afternoon. Of course the snow does nothing to deter people from shopping. Don't they have anything better to do?

December 4th wasn't any kinder in terms of weather or Lego calendar toys. Today revealed yet another vehicle from the newer Star Wars saga.

I have no idea what it's called, but it's some Separatist Army thing from the Clone Wars. I think you can drive one and blow up stuff in the Star Wars Battlefront game on the Geonosis level. The front of the box of the advent calendar shows A-Wings and Tie Fighters and I want to know when I get to put those together!

More left over pieces. Am I even doing this right?!

Third

2011-12-03T20:37:00.001-07:00

So it's the third day in a row I've opened the door on Lego advent calendar to be greeted by something totally not cool. I'm not even sure what I got, but it's one of these.

I think it's not a vehicle just because it has claws, they usually have wheels or treads. I'm just guessing but I think it's one of the monster things from the end of Attack of the Clones right before the big battle royale. Anyway, it's lame though whatever it is. December 4th had better bring something cool.

And I got an extra toe nail!

Second

2011-12-02T14:29:00.001-07:00

It's a new day and time to see what the Star Wars advent calendar has in store. Once you open up the front flap the goodies doors are behind it, but it also makes a mini poster of Lego ships in battle.

December 2nd's toy was pretty easy and I guarantee I did not screw it up. Also, no missing pieces today.

It's just a mini figure and only four pieces. I can't believe they still make you put a figure like this together. I was expecting any figures to be pre-assembled. You feel a real sense of accomplishment putting four pieces of Lego together. I did it! I can do anything!

Another let down as it's just some Trade Federation(?) dude from the new Star Wars films. How about some stuff from the classic (ie. good!) Star Wars movies?

I did go to Zellers today and managed to get myself a SpongeBob Squarepants advent calendar. I got to eat two chocolates, yesterday and today. I remember that back in the day the 25th would be a double doored extra large chocolate. These chocolates seem smaller and no XL sized chocolate for Christmas. I guess they still use the same about of chocolate, but in smaller portions to stretch it out all the way until New Year's Day.

The Final Countdown

2011-12-01T21:52:00.001-07:00

It is December 1st and the countdown until Christmas has begun. Has everyone started their holiday shopping yet? One good thing about being a miserable loner is that you don't have many gifts to buy at X-mas. Despite that it's always good to have something to remind you of the dwindling shopping days left until Christmas. That's why Jesus invented the Advent Calendar.

I was going to buy one from work, but all we had were lame cheapo ones. I want a licensed advent calendar like Spider-Man for two reason. First reason is that Spider-Man is cool, and the second is that the licensed advent calendars go all the way until New Year's Day. That is 32 days of chocolate! I'll go check out Zellers or Wal-Mart and hopefully they'll still have some left.

I'm not sure if you knew this, but advent calendars aren't just for chocolate anymore. They're also for Lego and Star Wars, more importantly, LEGO STAR WARS!

I picked this up at the Lego Store in Chinook Mall, but this can also be found at Toys 'R Us and maybe Wal-Mart. I hope you guys aren't busy because you'll be tuning in here everyday until Christmas to see what Lego surprise awaits.

The calendar even comes with a cool Santa Yoda. I'm going to take a wild guess and say he will be on the 25th. I'm getting ahead of myself, as we're only on the 1st. Let's see what is behind the calendar door for today.

What is that?! It looks like some lame spaceship, so I'm assuming it must be from one of the newer Star Wars movies. I thought it looked funny and maybe I put it together wrong, but being how it's so small and has so few pieces, how could I screw it up?

Yeah, that LOOKS like what I did.

Somehow with a kit that small I still managed to have two extra let over pieces? I must've messed it up. We're off to a great start. Be sure to check in to see how I mess up other kits in the coming weeks. Don't worry I will be doing regular posts in addition to the daily Star Wars advent calendar ones. I should be getting paid for this...

This Fish

2011-11-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

I'm finally catching up on a post I meant write last June. I had some stuff written on a piece of paper, but didn't find it until recently. I just looked under the mess of stuff on my computer desk. I also found a gift card I didn't even know I had. Time to clean/organize my room more often.

When I was filling in at the Airdrie store I was putting a shipment of lobster into the tank and found one that was tagged. I checked out the tag and it had a website address and a serial number on it. To get the details head on over to thisfish.info and enter the code L162811. ThisFish is a website that is designed to help you to get to know your seafood. You can find out when it was caught, where and by who. It's kinda cool. That was the first tagged lobster I've seen and I haven't seen one since that either.

Wassssupppp!!

2011-11-28T19:11:00.001-07:00

Did you miss me? I know at least Mike did, so thank you for you concern Mike. Here is the whole (boring) story of why I was absent for so long. I was lazy! That's not entirely true, but it all goes back to my back pain I was experiencing last spring/summer. Turns out it wasn't anything to do with my back, but the pain was from a kidney stone aka urinary calculus.

I had been to the doctor a few times about the back pain and eventually he sent me for a x-ray which showed nothing. I had some pain in the back again, but it wasn't as painful as before, but this time I had some blood in my urine. I pretty much knew then it was a kidney stone, but I'm no expert. I went back to the doctor and he sent me for an ultrasound which showed it was a kidney stone. They went back and looked at my previous x-ray and it showed the kidney stone too which they missed the first time. Thanks a lot!!

The doctor sent in a referral to see the urologist. He marked it "urgent", but it still took me two months to get in to see him. I had my appointment with the urologist on Nov 17th. I had to go for another x-ray before I saw him though. Anyway, when I met him he said the stone was too big to be passed the old fashioned way, so that left two other ways to get rid of it. He was originally going to use lithotripsy which is a shockwave treatment meant to break up the stone. That was the x-ray was for, but it didn't show up on the x-ray. It was probably hiding behind a pelvic bone.

That left an ureteroscopy which the doctor guides a fibre optic cable up your existing "plumbing". This is a day surgery option meaning you go to the hospital, they put you out, do the procedure, and you go home the same day. I've only been in the hospital twice, once when I was born and later when I diagnosed with my diabetes. The plan was to go in and place a stent in my ureter and then laser the kidney stone into smaller fragments, so they could pass. The stent dilates the ureter and allows the stone fragments to pass into the bladder. The stent would have to stay in there for a week, then it would have to be removed. This would require going back to the hospital to be put out again. I got lucky and they removed the kidney stone via basket extraction and no stent was needed.

My original appointment for all this was April 24th. I don't want to have to wait five months! Somebody cancelled their appointment, so I went in on Nov. 22nd. A five month wait turned into five days. I took it because I didn't want to wait five months, I just wanted to get it over with ASAP. My parents came up on Monday and my mom took me to the hospital and stayed with me cuz that's what moms do. My surgery was at 7:40 am, so I had to be there at 6 am. It went pretty smooth I guess because I was in the room ready to go at 7:40 am.

When they put the "gas mask" on me I was thinking this stuff smells funny and how come it's taking so long to work. Of course next thing I know I'm waking up and a nurse is telling me that my surgery is all done. The doctor was hanging around the recovery area waiting for the next patient and he told me it all went good and they got the stone out and didn't have to put in the stent, so I happy to get some good news. I got wheeled back upstairs to the day surgery unit and I could leave soon as I felt able. They make you drink a lot of water because you can't go home until you go to the bathroom. Yeah, one side effect is that it will burn when you urinate, but luckily that went away fairly quickly.

My back was hurting a bit because having the thing in my ureter can bring on pain similar to the kidney stone pain. I asked for a pain killer and I was given the options a Tylenol 3, something I don't remember, or a morphine suppository. I said "Hell no!" to the suppository. I already had something shoved up my penis and didn't anything going up my ass. Leave my orifices alone! I got the stuff I don't remember put in my IV and it worked. I also got a bit nauseous probably from the anesthetic, but got a shot of something and didn't puke or anything, so it was all good. After that I went to the bathroom and got dressed because I wanted to get out of there and get home. I hoping to go home earlier, but didn't leave until 2:30 pm.

Once at home I just laid around and was super lazy in general for pretty much the rest of the week. Another side effect of the procedure is you'll have blood in your urine for a few days after. It was always scary to look in the toilet and see red because it's not supposed to be that colour. Anyway, I survived the whole thing and have an appointment to go back to see the doctor in two months. They can analyze the kidney stone to see what it's made from because it could be caused by certain things in your diet. I'll let you know what happens!

I was planning on writing this a lot sooner, but I was super lazy and not really doing anything the whole time besides watching stuff on TV or my PMP. Yeah, I finally got my replacement for the one I broke, but that will have to wait for another post. I haven't been at work for 7 days days and I'm almost looking forward to going back because I've been doing nothing the entire time. I'm bored! I wish I could seen my kidney stone or gotten a picture of it.

Chocolate sandwich

2011-11-19T18:19:00.001-07:00

It took me a while, but I'm finally eating Nutella. I don't know what took me so long to jump on the Nutella bandwagon as it's basically a chocolate spread. I'm sure I've tried it before, but for some reason I wasn't that impressed with it. A little while ago a thing came in the mail from Nutella and attached was a sample packet. I quickly grabbed it and hid it, so Cody couldn't have any. I tried it and this time I liked it. Chocolate!

I've bought it a few times and now it's usually part of my breakfast. Nothing gets you going in the morning like a chocolate sandwich. It's nice to take a break from peanut butter, plus Nutella has less fat. Look I'm eating healthy! Although, I don't like the weird shaped jars Nutella comes in. It makes it hard to scrape out the last chocolatey bits. I bought this jar of Nutella the other day, but it had a more conventional shape. Also, they were out of the other sizes, so it's not like I had a choice.

It's cool because it's basically a glass cup with Nutella in it, so once you are done it can be washed out and you have nice new drinking glass. Unfortunately for me, I rarely drink from a cup. Why would I unnecessarily dirty a glass when I can drink straight from the carton or container? I'm just doing Cody a favor, so there will be less dishes when he washes them.

Doctor's orders

2011-11-17T21:48:00.001-07:00

Things on the Battlefield 3 front are mixed. Sometimes I do good and sometimes I do bad. It doesn't help that I'm constantly put on the worst teams. The other day I joined a game of Conquest (aka Capture the Flag) already in progress where my team held no flags at all. I was only in the game for five minutes before it ended and I went 4-1, but was number one on my team in terms of points. What the hell was everyone doing before I got there? If I'm the best player on the team then doesn't say much about the other 11 players.

My biggest annoyances with the game have to be some of the spawns. I've literally spawned into bullets and getting killed before you even get a chance to move can be frustrating. Also, you can unlock tactical flashlights and laser attachments for your gun that will blind your enemy. I find these pretty cheap, but they do work. I don't use them, but that's just the way I play. The worst is when players on your own team are shining them in your face. Me and some guy on my team were across from each other in front of a door and he kept shinning his stupid light in my face, so I couldn't see anything and when two enemies walked in the door and I was blinded. I did the old "spray and pray" and managed to kill them both. Then I got out of there because next time I might not be so lucky.

So far I pretty much usually play the Engineer class because I like that you can carry a RPG and anti-tank mines. What can I say, I love blowing stuff up. I throw down mines all over the place and somebody always runs over them. I just like sitting back watching and waiting as a tank drives over my mines. I'm getting good with the RPG too as one match the other day almost all my kills where with mines or RPGs. I kept kept launching rockets across the map and killing snipers. The engineers use carbines which lack accuracy at range, so I will just shoot rockets at guys I can't get with my gun.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is for you guys to give me your Dr. Pepper PIN codes. EA and Dr. Pepper have a deal where you can redeem PIN codes from Dr. Pepper for goodies to be used in EA games. They did this back for Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor, but it was only open to residents of the USA. Luckily, now it's been brought to Canada too, so you can unlock game gear for Battlefield 3, Need for Speed: The Run, The Sims and some older titles too. I unlocked some camo for my guys from a 500ml bottle I bought this morning. Also available are some avatar gear and dog tags. I don't bother to equip my guy with dog tags, but I will get them anyway because I'm OCD like that. That's why if you happen to buy a Dr. Pepper send the PIN so I can redeem it for some game swag. Thanks bros.

Free t-shirt update

2011-11-14T21:10:00.001-07:00

I finally got around to redeeming my PIN codes for the free Post cereal t-shirts. For the past Kellogg's free shirt offer, you redeemed your PIN then picked which shirt you wanted. Post did something different in when you redeem your PIN you get the shirt from the cereal brand the PIN came from. So when I redeemed my Alpha Bits PIN code, I was only allowed to pick a Alpha Bits shirt. The other shirts were not available. I didn't mind because I only wanted the Honey Combs and Alpha Bits shirts anyway, and those were to the two cereals I bought, so it worked out. If you wanted a Sugar Crisp shirt without having to actually eat some Sugar Crisp then you are SOL. But why would you want one, Sugar Crisp is gross. Now I just have to wait the 6-8 weeks for my shirts to arrive.

I'm also just finishing off the leftover Halloween candy. The peanut M&M's are still a big rip off. I opened a bag that only had three M&M's in it! And I was complaining about only getting four M&M's before, I was lucky to get that many.

Also, yes I had a shower.

This stinks!

2011-11-09T13:07:00.001-07:00

Today the resident manager of the complex we live in came over to look over some repairs we had given him. Of course we had given him the list back on Sept 1st when we gave him the rent, but he just got around to doing it now. I'm sure the second list of repairs we gave him with on Nov 1st reminded him. Anyway, I was out this morning doing stuff and buying $180 Lego sets and when I got home I saw the note he left us on the kitchen table.

I can't shower until Friday?! It's not that I don't mind, but I can't speak for anyone in closer proximity to me. I only work a half day on Thursday and I don't work at all on Friday, so it probably won't be too bad. That still seems like a long time without a shower.

Vote!

2011-11-07T20:32:00.003-07:00

If there was ever a time to weigh in and be heard on an important ground breaking decision, that time is now. Your vote could affect people all around the world, so make sure you cast your vote, it's your right and your duty. What exactly are we voting for? Why the next Star Wars figure to be produced by Hasbro!

VOTE

Yes, believe it or not, there are still a few Star Wars characters that Lucas hasn't made money on yet, so the all important choice is left to us, the consumer. You can choose one from 20 twenty characters from all mediums of the Star Wars universe from the movies, books, comics and cartoons. After looking at the characters I recognized a few, most of them I didn't. I think a couple of the movie characters you have to pause the movie and go frame by frame and then pick them out of the background or something. I also find it funny that you can vote for an action figure. So we can vote for an action figure to be made into an action figure? I also find it hard to believe the Emperor w/throne figure hasn't been done yet. Chances are that will be the one that gets made. I know I'd rather have that than a Sim Aloo figure, that dude is a scrub. If for reason you want a Sim Aloo figure or a Jaxxon figure, then go vote already.

Free bars no more!

2011-11-03T20:39:00.001-06:00

I keep forgetting to mention that a few weeks ago I received my free Kashi bar sample in the mail. If you didn't get one when I told you too then you are SOL. The free bars are all gone! I actually took a picture of the box, but accidentally deleted the picture off my memory card. The box has since been recycled, so you'll have to use your imagination. I'll help you out, it was rectangular.

The box the free bar came was pretty big, it seemed like a waste of packaging to put only one bar in it. Cheap skates! I got my bar and I ate it. The whole deal behind the free bar was some guy said healthy food can taste good and if it doesn't then he'll eat the box. You can vote at the Kashi site on weather or not you liked it, disliked it or just was to see that schmuck eat the box. Everyone takes enjoyment in the misfortunes of others, so I say make him eat the box. Make sure you vote for him to eat the box because right now it looks like he's not going to do it. If he ends up not eating the box I'll never eat another Kashi bar again. They don't know how to have fun. Hey, the box has more fibre anyway! Get it?!

Is it just me or does that look like a cross between Jarod from Sub-Way and Galen Weston?

It's Candy Day!

2011-10-31T16:51:00.002-06:00

If I read my calendar right this morning then today is Halloween. I had to work today and it was ridiculously busy, nothing like people leaving things until the last minute to get candy and costumes. If you'll recall last year at Halloween I went all out and made goodie bags, but then only a few kids showed up. I was disappointed. I still bought candy this year, but I wasn't going to make goodie bags if no one is going to show up.

At least I got the name brand candy, but the peanut M&Ms are a let down. There are only four in a bag! I remember back in the day Cam was showing me his Halloween loot and complaining about this chocolate bar he got. It wasn't chocolate, but "chocolate flavored". A chocolate flavored chocolate bar is still a lot better than getting raisins. What kid wants raisins?!

GET YOUR WAR FACE ON!

2011-10-25T11:39:00.003-06:00

If it's October 25th, then that means it's time for Battlefield 3. I almost didn't even get this game after playing the beta. For some reason EA/Dice released the beta which was months old and full of bugs even though it didn't represent the game in terms of graphics and gameplay. I didn't mind the graphics, I just didn't like the gameplay, but after reading a hands on of the final multiplayer things sounded a little better.

I pre-ordered it, so I got the LE with the Back to Karkland map pack which will out later and I even got a free shirt. The shirt you can see above and for some reason all they had were size L, so it's a little tight. That's cool because black in slimming.

Good thing I have to day off today because I went out this morning and got the game and then got some groceries. I came home and popped the game in the 360 and then had to download a 167MB patch and then had to install a 1.5GB texture pack, so the game wouldn't look like crap. The 360 version is two discs, disc one is multiplayer/co-op and disc two is campaign. Disc one has a streaming texture pack on it to make the game look pretty and you pretty much need it. I saw some pictures comparing the game with and without the texture pack and it's a big difference. With out the texture pack the game looks like something off a last gen console.

I'm off to the the battlefield, let's hope I get as much replay out this as I did Bad Company 2. That one I played the campaign twice and logged almost 400 hours on mutliplayer, so at least I got my moneys worth.

Free t-shirts part 10 + a major milestone!

2011-10-24T10:16:00.000-06:00

I was wondering the hall in the back stockroom at work yesterday trying to look busy when I spotted a pallet of Post cereals. What caught my eye was that they had a picture of a t-shirt on them and after looking at the box, it's time for more free t-shirts! Just like the Kellogg's free shirt offer they are "retro" styled tees, but unlike the Kellogg's offer you only need one PIN number to get a shirt, not two. When I left work I bought a box of Honeycomb and a box of Alpha-Bits and the offer is only on the family size boxes. I paid $7.19 for the two boxes of cereal, plus I'll be getting two t-shirts out it, so that's not too bad.

Go check out the Post site to see all four t-shirt designs of Shreddies, Sugar Crisp, Honeycomb and Alpha-Bits. I'll be getting the Honeycomb and Alpha-Bits shirts because I don't like Sugar Crisp and I hate yellow shirts. Remember that one? On the box it actually says "Collect all 4" so I'm assuming there is no limit and you can get as many as you want. Get yours today!

This morning I had a bowl of Alpha-Bits and it's been quite a while since I've had some. As I was eating my cereal I noticed that there was a lack of actual letters in my bowl. For some reason there were a lots of A, B, D, X, P and sometimes Y shaped letters, but that was about it. I'm pretty sure there are more letters in the alphabet than that. I guess that is where the "bits" part of Alpha-Bits comes in because most of the cereal were pieces and crumbs. You know I almost expected it to be mostly Os, but there weren't even very many of those. False advertising!

If you are wondering the major milestone I was talking about this post itself because it is my 500th post. I was hoping for something a little more exciting than a filler post, but here we are anyway. Don't forget to congratulate me and shower me with praise for all my hard work.

I heart me too

2011-10-20T16:55:00.002-06:00

When I was back in Cranbrook Cara ordered me to stop by Scarff HQ to pick up some Scottish goodies. I love free stuff, so I had to stop in and grab it. Thanks guys! I also got the news that Mike and Sandy had a baby boy named Eli. Congratulations! Fun fact, Jeff P. named his son the same name.

Wait, it's a couple of brochures? That's boring! At least it has my name on them. On the front of the "Welcome to Keith" brochure it lists some "highlights" like the world famous distillery, traditional shops, scenic whisky railway AND the secrets of the kilt revealed. I read the brochure, but there was nothing about secrets or kilts which is a bit of a rip. Does this mean I'll have to go all the way over there to find out? Don't worry, I figured out the secret of the kilt myself. It's a dress!

Okay, the brochures were nifty, but the real treasure was hiding inside the brochures, stickers!

Awesomest stickers evar!

The stickers are rad, but why stop at just stickers? The town of Keith should be slapping that slogan on all kinds of merchandise like key chains, shirts, hats, posters, shoe laces, wristbands, posters, antenna balls, window flags, reusable bags, socks, jackets, pillows, tooth brushes, drink coasters, etc. It would be a goldmine.

Unfortunately, these stickers are too cool to ever be used. If I used them, then I'd have to go all the way Scotland to get new ones. They must be preserved and go in the to sticker vault. The sticker vault is an old Nike shoe box I have back in Cranbrook. I did a post about it a while ago and the various skate, ski and mountain bike stickers contained within. Some of the stickers are over 20 years old.

Hey, Cam and Cara did you guys go to Tooty's while you were in Keith? I would go there just because the name is funny, almost as funny as Keith. I wonder if they have stickers too? Can you go back and get me some? Thanks!

Feel the BASS!

2011-10-11T22:29:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I did a post about freebies like the free Kashi bar, free Sloan download and the free Pringles speaker. When I got home from Cranbrook last week my Pringles speaker showed up in my absence. On the Pringles website it said it would take 10 - 12 weeks for delivery, but mine showed up in only three weeks. I guess demand for the free speaker wasn't as high as they had expected. I guess people couldn't be bothered to print out a sheet and go to the post office to mail it in. Lucky for me I have nothing to do.

What a sexy envelope! Who cares about boring brown envelopes when you get something in a cool red envelope. I like it. I opened it up to find the speaker packed in it's own Pringles box.

The box isn't anything flashy, but not too bad. The backside has a sticker that lists the box contents; 1 X Speaker built in amplifier and 3 X Duracell AAA batteries.

The speaker is amplified, so it needs those three AAA batteries to output a thunderous 1 Watt of power. My neighbors are going to hate me! I do like how they give you the batteries and they are actually decent brand name ones and not some cheap crappy ones that only last 30 minutes. Now I just have to read the instructions on how to use it.

Holy crap those are the instructions?! And it's double sided?!! Okay, only one section of that are the English instructions. The instructions come in 18 different languages because the world love Pringles.

After learning 17 new languages and reading all the instructions I finally knew how to use my new speaker. Of course I had to go out and buy another can of Pringles so I could have the can to put the speaker in. The speaker pops in the top and it's a bit of a tight fit, but at least you don't have to worry about it falling out. Plug the cord into your mp3/media player and turn the speaker and you are read to rock. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't very good and the speaker sounds pretty much the same out of the can as it does inside the can, so what's the point?

The idea of free speaker that fits inside a chip can is pretty cool. It's too bad getting one is a bit of a hassle and it doesn't sound that great.

Gobble gobble

2011-10-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

Another Thanksgiving goes by and I'm totally turkeyless! I never make it home for Thanksgiving and can't even remember the last time I was back. I'm thinking at least 8 years? If you read my blog you know I try and do something turkey related at Thanksgiving like a Swanson turkey TV dinner, turkey pepperoni, canned turkey (that was nasty!), pumpkin donuts (huge disappointment) and last year I actually cooked a turkey. It was a cheater's turkey because it was boneless, but it was pretty easy to cook and it had to be because I was cooking it. It was supposed to feed 8-10 people, but only I was eating it, so I got a tired of turkey pretty fast. This year is a bit different because I got nothing! I've worked 9 hours shifts the past three days and after being at work for 9 hours the last thing I want to do is buy groceries, so this year Thanksgiving is even more boring than usual.

I don't have turkey, but I have Jiffy Pop!

I'm surprised they still make Jiffy Pop because it just seems everyone makes microwave popcorn. I don't have or need an actual popcorn popper, so before I've just bought microwave popcorn. I saw the Jiffy Pop and decided to buy some because I don't think I've had any since I was a kid. It's fun to make, so I think I grab some more.

Now for something completely different! I was playing Rush on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 tonight and managed to snipe the pilot of a helicopter. I shot him and it ejected his body out of the helicopter which then crashed and exploded. Yes, it was awesome! I'm surprised I pulled it off as I was quite a distance from the target and he was moving. I just pulled the trigger and hoped for the best. Our team still lost the match though. I know it's not exciting to you guys, but it's awesome to me. I wish I could've seen that guy's face when I sniped him. PWNED!

thud

2011-10-05T22:21:00.001-06:00

This afternoon I had to look after Logan and Avery for a couple hours because Matt and Julie were at work. Logan is pretty easy, because he will do his own thing and play video games, watch TV or play with Lego, so he doesn't need constant supervision. Avery requires more attention because he always wants to do something with you. We were outside riding around on scooters when some guy pulled into the driveway next door. Next thing I know he was like, "Hey, Keith!" I was like, "Uh, hey how's it going?" I went over and talked to him for a bit and kept trying to figure out who he was the entire time. He looked familiar, but I was drawing a blank. It wasn't until later that I finally figured out it was Mike Detta. I probably haven't seen Mike since high school, so it has been a few years.

Julie came home after 5pm, so I headed back home to Gold Creek. I was driving up 37th when out of nowhere this deer jumps over a fence, out of the ditch and onto the road right in front of my car. I stood on the brake and the car skidded on the road. For a second I thought I was going to miss it, but it bounced right off the front of my car, rolled on the road, then jumped up and took off. I was little in shock, but the deer was okay and so was the car, so I drove home. Once I got home I checked out the front of the car which sustained a little damage.

The grill on the front was broken and the shiny Toyota logo was missing. It is either lying on the road or embedded in that deer's ass. Luckily, the damage wasn't that bad and could've been a lot worse. If I broke the headlight or the bumper it would've been a lot costlier to replace. The grill is just held in place by some screws, so it is no big deal to replace it. Still, deer are stupid.

There was an article in the Townsmen about the deer cull they are planning. I guess they decided to kill 25 deer in town. I'm not sure how they came up with that number because it seems kind of small. When I drove up to the house yesterday I must have seen 8 or 10 deer.

SURPRISE!!

2011-10-05T10:07:00.003-06:00

It's an outhouse!

I'm back in Cranbrook for a short impromptu visit, I'm only here for three days. A couple weekends ago my parents were in Calgary and my dad was saying he wasn't feeling well. Turns out he wasn't feeling well because his heart was all discombobulated. He has "atrial fibrillation" which is cause by messed up electrical connections that causes the heart to beat too fast. He was in the hospital for a few days, but he is out now and doing better. He has to take a pile of pills to help regulate his heart rate.

I came back just for a few days because that's all I could get and I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it home next. I drove home on Tuesday and went the north way through the park. Now that summer is over that route was pretty quiet. Normally, I drive straight through, but stopped this time because I had to go to the bathroom. Note to self, don't drink so much. I stopped at Numa Falls and while I've driven by it many times I've never actually stopped.

You already saw the shot of the outhouse which is one of the classy ones with no light inside, no running water and a hole in the ground. They did try to class it up a bit by putting a hand sanitizer dispenser on the wall. I walked over to check out the falls.

There is a bridge that goes over the falls and it looks pretty cool. The weather wasn't very good and raining a little bit. The bridge was made of wood and since it was wet, was all slippery. Somebody is gonna slip right off the edge! I don't know why they didn't use a metal walkway and use wood the railings.

Looking up the falls...

...and looking down the falls.

Since I'm only home for a few days I won't have time to do much or see anyone else. Sorry Willie! You can still expect a House of Pain though.

Nevermind

2011-10-04T09:06:00.000-06:00

Last week I posted about the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind and the CD and DVD release that came with it. I haven't picked it up yet and if you haven't, but were planning on it you might want to read this first. It doesn't sound good.

http://www.lostturntable.com/?p=1271

Made in China

2011-10-01T15:36:00.001-06:00

At work my shifts usually end being 9 hours with a hour lunch and two fifteen minute breaks, but usually lump those into a half hour break. Sitting in the break room can be excruiatingly boring for an hour and it actually makes you want to back to work. That's why I would usually take my GameBoy Micro of Nintendo DS and play games. Sometimes I would be too lazy to actually play something and would rather just watch instead. That's why when parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told them "The Bomb".

My dad asked if you got it from Al-Qaeda and I said, "No, from China!". I'm talking about Cam's favorite electronics site, China Vision. The Bomb is a touch screen 8GB personal media player (PMP) with a 4.3" screen and it seems inexpensive. There aren't many small PMP devices out over for some reason with the iPod Touch probably being the closest, but it's too expensive and I still don't want it because it's Apple. The Bomb also plays more media types. Anyway, my mom went online and ordered me one.

Check out the crazy plug that came with this thing!

It won't fit!!

It's looks a bit cheap, but it does work. There is no software, just plug it into your computer via USB and drag and drop which ever files you want to it. I put some music and some TV shows from TV Nihon on it. You can just put whatever files you want on it, but the files always show up no matter what you are doing. If you pick "Video" then all the files on it will show whether they are video files, audio files or something else. It wasn't like I had thousands of files on it, so it wasn't a problem for me.

I had only been using it for watching videos while at work or sometimes I'd lie in bed and catch an episode of OOO before I went to sleep. The resolution was okay, sometimes you would see some artifacting and you had to tilt the screen a bit to get the best picture. It was still working out pretty good for me until I was taking it out of my locker at my break and I dropped it. It didn't fall far, but it was hard enough to put a crack across the screen. It still turns on, but the crack on the screen throws all the touch screen controls out of whack...as in they don't work. It sucks because I just got it and it's already broken.

Oops.

I already miss watching OOO while eating my lunch, so last night I did some looking online and bought myself a new PMP. The new one is another Chinese brand, but it's all little fancier than The Bomb. It costs more, but it does have a better UI, more features and better screen resolution, so it was worth the extra. This time I made sure to buy a shock proof case. Once I get it you can expect some kind of review.

Since I used the words "bomb" and "Al-Qaeda" in this post I am no doubt now on the Homeland Security, FBI, RCMP, etc terror watch list. That's cool because it just means my blog now has a few more readers. Sorry guys, I'm not a terrorist, but I sure am radical. Dude!

Tuesday

2011-09-27T21:46:00.000-06:00

With the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind what better way to celebrate than release a bunch of stuff to get more money from the fans. The biggest cash grab is the Nevermind Super Deluxe Edition, yes that's what's called, of 4 CDs and a DVD. You get the album, plus a bunch of different mixes, studio sessions spread over two discs while the fourth disc is a live set from the Paramount Theatre. The DVD is the concert footage from the Paramount. It only costs a mere $128.

I that is too much for you then try the plain old regular Nevermind Deluxe Edition of 2 CDs. You get the album which has a bonus of added live tracks plus a second CD of rehearsals and studio sessions. This set is $20 and probably the way to go because you can also buy the Live at the Paramount concert separately on DVD or Blu-Ray if you felt you need it. It makes you wonder how much other stuff they are hiding away. I have the Geffen Deluxe Editions for Weezer's Blue Album and Pinkerton and they are pretty cool.

Also out today is the Battlefield 3 multi-player beta. Last fall I bought the reboot of Medal of Honor hoping it bring the franchise back to greatness. It didn't quite succeed with an average campaign and a flawed multi-player. I still put in a dozen hours or so online and while it took me a while to get accustomed to the play flow, I liked it more than Call of Duty. The one bonus was that if you bought MoH you got in on the BF3 beta. This morning it launched and I got my code e-mailed to me. Of course I worked all day, but downloaded it after I got home and played it for about half an hour and then decided I didn't like it. I like the Battlefield: Bad Company series as I have more the 362 hours invested in online play alone. The beta played nothing like BC2. I knew it wouldn't be the same, but I just don't like the feel of the game. Mostly getting killed by guys you can't even see. Also, I'm a big crybaby and hate "prone". I'm almost considering not buying the game. Anyway, the MoH code only give priority access for a whole two days (big whoop) and then it's out for everyone on the 29th on 360, PS3 and PC. You going to try it Cam?

Ohyes

2011-09-25T20:11:00.000-06:00

But it tastes more like "ohmeh".

I was walking by the Korean grocery store that is near our place and thought I'd go in for a look. I was hoping to get some some Pocari Sweat, but they didn't have any. Instead I bought these choco cakes because the picture on the box makes them look so good. In the picture they are a light brown colour, and I was thinking they would be a fudgy, but when I opened a package they are a more darker brown. They're weren't bad, just not as good as I was hoping for. I also picked up some grape and mango Hi-Chew. I like the grape, it just smells awesome.

I haven't been to T&T, the Asian supermarket for a while, so I'm thinking it time for a trip across town to load up on lots of weird snacks. I sure hope they have 3+2! I'll let you know what happens.

Freebies

2011-09-20T09:53:00.002-06:00

I know you guys like free stuff, so here's another post about various giveaways. Way back when I got my free cereal sample from Kashi I gave them my e-mail, so they could contact me about future offers. Last week I got an e-mail from them about their new Cardboard Challenge. It's something about giving away granola bars and some guy eating a cardboard box. Go to the Kashi website and you can choose from four different varieties of Kashi bars. I thought I was special because they sent me an e-mail, but then I saw on ad for the promotion on TV. I guess I'm not special. I do want to see that guy eat a cardboard box though.

Next we got a free album download from Sloan and the website NoiseTrade! If you are on the Sloan mailing list (Mike?) then you've already heard about it. It's a "select singles" album probably because they had to narrow down the track list or else it would be like a 30 song track list. I already have all their albums and such, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get it or not.

This last one isn't actually free because you first have to buy stuff to get your free item. If you buy four cans of Pringles Super Stack cans you can get a free speaker which actually fits inside a Pringles can. I bought my four cans of Pringles, but getting the free speaker is kind of a pain in the ass. It's not like most giveaways now where you go online and enter a PIN from the product. For the Pringles speaker you have to go Pringles.c a and print out a PDF form and then fill it out, enclose your receipts from your Pringles cans and then mail it off. That is so much work, especially when your printer is almost out of ink and then you have to go the postal outlet and buy a stamp to mail the letter. On top of all that it will take 10 to 12 weeks to arrive. By then I probably won't even care, but you can still expect a blog about it.

PIZZA PARTY! For real this time!

2011-09-14T22:22:00.000-06:00

Today I finally got around to getting the Toyota inspected (it passed!), so I can switch it over to Alberta plates. I dropped it off at the Certiguard near our place and then walked back home. As I was walking home I saw this squirrel on the front lawn of this house eating some pizza. He wasn't eating a little crumb of pizza or a piece of pizza crust, but an entire slice of pizza. He was holding it with both paws and munching on it and then he saw me and took up up a nearby tree with the pizza in his mouth. It was pretty funny, but got me thinking. "Where did he get that pizza?" "Who the hell throws out an entire slice of pizza and on the front lawn?" While those are good questions the most important one is "Why the hell does this squirrel get pizza and I don't?!" "I want pizza!" Then tonight I went to Little's Caesar's and got pizza, a whole pizza, not just a slice. Ha, in your face squirrel!

Twinkie the Kid

2011-09-10T17:12:00.001-06:00

Fin.

I've actually been waiting to do that since June. It's not that I've been busy or even lazy, it's just taken me that long to actually find some Twinkies! I actually haven't eaten a Twinkie since I was a kid, so I just assumed you could find them anywhere.

Near the start of June I found that Twinkie the Kid twinkie caddy at the Co-op on MacLeod Trail. They must've been sitting around in the back room for a while because they were all dusty and the packaging certainly looked a little dated. Co-op didn't carry twinkies, but Superstore does, or at least they did. I couldn't find any Hostess stuff at work even though I remember that at one time we did. I checked 7-11 too, but they don't sell Hostess stuff because they replaced them with their own 7-11 brand knockoff snacks. FYI, they are gross, so avoid them at all costs. I was close at Wal-Mart because they had Hostess King Dons, Cupcakes and Vanilla Cupcakes, but no Twinkies. How can you have those three items, but no Twinkies?!

My parents went to Oregon in July and I asked them to look for some while they were there, but they came back empty handed. I don't think they looked too hard. They went down to Coeur d'Alene in August before I came home and I asked again if they could look for Twinkies and again they couldn't find any. What is going on?! They did bring me back some cereal though.

A couple years ago my sister went down to the States and I asked her to bring back some US cereal, so she brought me back mostly Pebbles and Cookie Crisp. I didn't like the Pebbles very much, in fact the neon colour of it was pretty scary. This time the Marshmallow Pebbles weren't bad, it must've been the addition of the marshmallow. Anyway, back to the story...

I was bummed out because I had this cool Twinkie caddy, but no Twinkies to put in it. Then when I was back in Cranbrook I was at the Superstore there and was walking by the bakery when I noticed TWINKIES! I guess Superstore used to carry Hostess, then we didn't, but now we do again. The waiting paid off and I finally found my Twinkies, so I can write this post and be disappointed. Yep, I said disappointed because Twinkies are nowhere near as good as I remember them tasting. In fact they are kind of gross and now I'm stuck with an entire box of them to eat. Too bad the cool Twinkie caddy didn't make them taste better too.

Goodbye summer

2011-09-08T12:17:00.000-06:00

There goes my tan and I just got it too.

FINALLY!

2011-09-07T21:55:00.003-06:00

Today during my lunch break at work I finally finished my game of Pokemon HeartGold! I first started the game on March 30 , 2010 and just beat the final opponent today. It only took 111 hours and 25 minutes of play time for me to do it. If I was a ten year old, it probably would've taken only half that. I finished most of the game a while ago, but there was still one guy left to beat, but his Pokemon were at higher level than mine, so I spent quite a bit of time level grinding my guys. Beating him was actually pretty easy and I only used three guys from my team (you get six) and only used a couple health/restore items. I also managed to log in over 1 million steps on my Pokewalker. Still, there is a lot of stuff I haven't done and hundreds of Pokemon I haven't caught, but I think I'm pretty much done with this game for now. It's time to go back to playing Pokemon White.

In other Nintendo stuff here is the picture of my Mii off my Nintendo 3DS.

Looks just like me right?

This one doesn't look so much like me. It's the QR code of my Mii. What the hell is a QR code?!

Oh yeah, I'm back

2011-09-06T19:52:00.001-06:00

I officially got in to Calgary last Friday, but I'm just getting around to writing about it now. I was going to do a post on Friday, but then I unpacked and ended up watching a movie that I got in the mail while I was gone. Then I was going to do it on Saturday, but then for some reason my back flared up and I couldn't even stand up let alone sit in a chair. I called in sick to work on Sunday, so I got an extended vacation, but not really in the way I wanted. Anyway, I'm back.

Cranbrook was okay. I never did meet up with Willie due to some bad timing. I was supposed to meet him at his place at 2pm, but I got there (on time!) there was no answer at the door. I figured he was in the shower or getting ready, so I left and came back half an hour later and still no answer at the door. Then I left forever! Turns out he was stuck in the drive-thru at Wendy's and was just pulling up as I was pulling out. He waited a bit then went to check out some of the "stops" to see if I was there which was probably when I was back at his place. As I said, bad timing all around. I did see Willie though as I was leaving Cranbrook on Friday morning I spotted him at the traffic lights in front of the Superstore. Hi/bye Willie!

On Thursday night I went for a short bike with my dad, Logan and Avery on the Rails to Trails. I didn't have my bike, so I rode Matt's old school Raleigh bike. I don't know where he got that thing. It only had 18 speeds! Not that you even need them as I used the same gear the entire time on the trail. My dad had an equally old school Stumpjumper that he bought used somewhere. Avery didn't actually have a real bike, but he wanted to bring his Stryder which is a bike with no pedals. He says it's faster than his real bike, but since you push with your feet it's a lot more work. On the ride back there is a dirt road that runs beside beside the Rails to Trails, so I rode on it. It's not flat, but it's still not that hard, but I did get to try out some of the other gears on Matt's Raleigh. There were a couple little hills, rocks, roots and other things to make it a little bit fun. The Rails to Trails is a pretty cool trail (flat and easy!) and maybe next year I'd like to see if I could ride it all the way to Kimberly or Marysville or wherever it ends. I'll just need a bigger softer seat for my bike.

Once I got to back Calgary I got to see all my mail that came while I was away, and some of it was even good. I got some movies I bought off Amazon.ca as an early b-day gift to myself. I always know just what I want. I got my other towel from General Mills, but since I was disappointed with the first one, I'm just going to leave in the package for now. I also got my vintage Tony the Tiger t-shirt from Kellogg's.

The General Mills towels come vacuumed packaged, so they take hardly take up any space. Nifty!

The shirt is printed on a Fruit of the Loom brand shirt. When I ordered it I thought it would be gray because in the pictures they looked like a light grayish colour, but it's actually white. Also, is it gray or grey?

Pants

2011-08-31T11:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I didn't have to wait because the new Wendy's is already open. Like any new thing in Cranbrook everyone has to try it out, so it's been pretty busy. I guess line ups have been out the door. Other than not much going on here. I'm just being lazy, so lazy in fact I've hardly even played my new 3DS I just bought. I managed to drop off the Spin Art and I'm supposed to be meeting Willie this afternoon. He says he'll be ready at 2pm, but we'll see. I'm a bit doubtful. The weather has been nice, but today it's cloudy and a bit cold. I had to put on socks and pants. As usual I was going through one of my many boxes of crap in the basement when I found this.

My old letter from when I won the Nirvana Aneurysm CD single from YTV News. I like how Exan signed the exclamation point with a heart. I'll pretend she only did that to my letter. Haha, Cam!

Now what?

2011-08-29T10:53:00.000-06:00

Hey! I made it back to Cranbrook on Thursday in time for dinner. The drive wasn't too bad and they FINALLY finished the bridge loop in the Crowsnest Pass. The billboard says "Completed Fall 2010", but it still wasn't done last time I came home in June. Your tax dollars at work! Friday I didn't do much except buy a nifty magnet from the thrift store. After my parents finished work we went over to Kootenay Lake with Logan and Avery. The weather was nice and sunny and by Sunday afternoon when we came back my pasty white skin was a nice bright red. It's not sunburned, just VERY red.

My dad bought Logan this little plastic kayak and I thought I would give it a try except I was a little bit over the weight limit. You just sit on top of it in a little indented seat, you didn't actually sit inside it. When I was inside it, the thing sat so low in the water you almost couldn't see it. I decided it would be better if I didn't give it a try.

I'm back in Cranbrook and now have nothing really to do for the next five days. I'll try to meet up with Willie and I need to drop off some Spin Art, but that's it. Maybe I go to the new Wendy's and sit outside and wait for it to open. What else is there to do in Cranbrook?

Art Fart II

2011-08-24T19:20:00.001-06:00

First we had the Pig Wearing Sunglasses picture, then Chuck Norris, the the kitten poster, the clown painting and now Pee-Wee Herman. Our place is turning into a regular museum of fine art. We're going to have to start charging admission. Oh, and spin art too.

I know nobody picked up on this but in the first spin art post I mentioned that I made 19 spin art pieces. In the follow up post I only posted pictures of 18 spin art pictures. The 19th piece of spin art was defective, so I had to put it down. The paint wasn't adhering to the paper and just peeled off. The spin art paper is coated on one side to make it more smooth. The instructions said to put the paper coated side up and I'm just assuming this is so the paint spreads evenly over the smooth surface. I sure hope it doesn't lead any more defective pieces of spin art. I apologize for the 1970's not being to produce quality paper.

Just now I was packing up my stuff, so I would be ready to leave for Cranbrook after I finish my shift at work tomorrow morning. I was sorting out the Spin Art into the "Wants" and "Not Good Enough" piles when I noticed Cara's pick had some paint chipping off. This totally sucks, but it could be worse. Only the ends of some of the black streaks flecked off. Cara, if you want another one, and why wouldn't you, let me know. Sorry!

Art Fart

2011-08-23T13:50:00.010-06:00

Get ready to feast your eyes on the complete collection of my spin art series. Comment if you see one you like because you'll probably end up getting one that I don't like.

I call this one "Number 7"

This one is called "????!!!!!"

This one is titled "Keep trying"

This one is called "Barf"

I call this one "Fail"

This one is titled "Splat"

This is a "Disappointment"

I call this one "It'll do"

This one is "Why doesn't this look like the ones on the box?"

This is a "Headache"

I call this one "Reject"

This is titled "Try Again"

I call this one "Dave"

This one is called "These all look lame, I just don't care anymore"

This is "Pink + Black = Lame"

This is called "The one Cam gets"

This is called "Why can't I ever do anything right?!"

This is titled "Thank God, the last one!"

You Spin Me Round (Like a Painting)

2011-08-22T17:14:00.003-06:00

When I was at Chinook Hobby West a few weeks ago Tasco's Official Halley's Comet Watching Kit wasn't the only thing I bought. I also bought myself a Spin Art Painter Set from Rapco! Having no artistic talent at all, I figured a spin art set was the best way to "create" something as most of the work is done by the machine anyway. The set including the spinner, paint, paper and frames all for only $6.99. If I managed to screw something up it would be no big deal because it was cheap.

This thing is totally old school, gotta be late 70's. I got to thinking that since it was so old that maybe the paints including might not be good. As always I was right.

I took this picture after I had already shaken the paints up! I guess they had been sitting in the box for so long that the lead had separated from the paint. A spin art set without paint is pretty useless, so I went to Michaels to pick up some more paint. Once I got there I end up buying a pack of paint in primary colours AND a set in neon colours because the neon ones look much cooler. The two sets of paint set me back $17 plus the $6.99 I paid for the actual Spin Art kit. This cheap craft kit is starting to get expensive.

Inside the box is the actual spinning thing and the black cross shaped thing holds the paper while it spins.

Then you have the actual paper for the spin art, 19 pieces all together. Plus the "frames" which are total crap because they're just folded lumpy paper. The set included 19 pieces of paper, but only 3 frames. They must think you are gonna screw up a lot and have many frame worthy pieces. BTW, what is up with only 19 pieces of paper? Why can't they make it a round number and give you 18 or 20?

I also had to buy a D battery to run the spin art machine. I can't even remember the last time I bought a D battery. The instructions also included a wiring schematic in case the wires came loose in transit. I flipped over my machine and saw that two wires had indeed come apart!

I instantly flashed back to Electronics class in high school and pigtail wrapped those two wires like it ain't no thang! The other two connections were pretty crappy, so I fixed them too.

Now that I got paint, a battery and the wiring is up to code it is time to get down to business...art business. I even read the instructions and they said to put the paint on the paper first and then spin in. Then you can add paint later as it spins. I just thought adding paint to a spinning piece of paper was a messing waiting to happen. I had the brainstorm to put the spin art machine inside the lid of an apple box to prevent any paint from flying out. When I was done there was a lot less mess than I had anticipated. Only a single drop of green paint was on the inside of the apple box, everything else stayed inside the machine.

Since I had 19 pieces of paper I decided I might as well use all the pieces, it was art madness. Once I started I noticed my spin art didn't look like the ones on the cover of the box. Dammit, why can't I do this?! Some pieces I just laid down one or two colours as a base and then came back later and layered more paint hoping it would look better. It didn't! Once I finished up I had 19 pieces of spin art and I wasn't happy with any of them. They just turned out "meh". Now I'm stuck with all this lame spin art, but what am I supposed to do with it? That said on Tuesday night I'll be posting the entire spin art collection, so if you see something you like you should let me know because you're getting one whether you want it or not! I will sign and remark any art at request, my fees are quite reasonable.

Forget the spin art, the actual spin art machine turned out to look the coolest. I didn't bother to wipe out the inside because it just looked too cool.

So many colours!

And then there is this thing. I do not know what it is or what it does. There is no mention of it in the instruction booklet. You can see it on the cover of the box, but it's just sitting off to the side. I still managed to make my spin art without it.

FYI

2011-08-21T20:16:00.001-06:00

Now that summer is almost over I'm finally getting a vacation. I finish work at 11am on Thursday then I'll be heading back to Cranbrook for a week. Cam and Mike are you guys going to be around? Will your parents be home? I will probably go to Kootenay Lake on the weekend, but other than that I don't have any other plans except to "kick it". I will be leaving my Lucky Charms towel at home!

And big post Monday night, don't miss it.

Free towel #1

2011-08-20T20:31:00.002-06:00

I came home on Friday to find that I received one of free towels from General Mills already. That was pretty fast considering it had said 8-10 weeks for delivery. For some reason it was sent Fed Ex ground which seems pretty expensive for something that is free.

I opened the package and saw that I got the Lucky Charms towel. And it sucks! Yes, the towel looks cool, but that is about it. The fabric is so thin and cheap, I could probably rip it in half. Some sections of the towel you can almost see right through. I'm not sure how good this would work at drying you off if you are wet, but it would probably dry out pretty fast. It's like they used the same threat count as a hand towel, but enlarged the size to beach towel. I am disappointed! I am so glad that it was free. Maybe if they didn't spend so much money on sending the towels Fed Ex they could've been better quality.

Useless as a towel, maybe it might make a better cape?

Update: After work today I came home and threw my laundry in the wash, but forgot I had my crummy Lucky Charms towel in my basket. When I took my stuff out of the washer all my colours had little white bits stuck all over them because my cheap towel had shed in the wash. I put them in the dryer and hoped they would come off. When it was done there was literally a pound of lint in the lint trap and it was all white. Most of the white bits came out, but I had to throw a few items (mostly black ones) back into the wash in hopes the remaining white pieces would wash off. Also, the towel looks a lot smaller now.

Zapped

2011-08-18T14:02:00.002-06:00

A little while ago I went and bought myself a second Nintendo Game Boy Micro system. The Micro was the last iteration of the Game Boy Advance system and didn't last long due to been launched only months away from the Nintendo DS. Still it was a great handheld with a good library of games, small compact design, and bright display.

What a Game Boy Micro might look like.

I went and bought a second system because my first Micro was the Japanese limited editon version celebrating Mario's 20th anniversary. I didn't want to end up getting it all dirty and whatnot (I'm OCD like that) so I bought a back up. I got this one used on eBay and while it came with a USB charger, it didn't have a wall charger. I had been using the USB charger, but decided to pick up a wall charger for it on eBay because a new one would only cost $3 and that included the charger plus shipping from China.

I finally got around to using the wall charger the other day and when I plugged in sparks were flying and there was a loud popping noise. Luckily I survived, but more importantly so did my Micro. Of course my cheapo charging cord from China was toast. Damn you China!

Now I have phobia of plugging things into electrical sockets.

It snowed??

2011-08-15T22:00:00.000-06:00

Just before lunch today a thunderstorm rolled in and dropped a bunch of hail and a downpour of rain on our part of the city. It was nice because it cooled things off and in the afternoon it cleared up and the sun was back out. Still when I got home there was a bunch of hail in the weeds by the back door. Despite falling almost six hours ago the stuff was still hanging around.

Shut up about the weeds already. We are only responsible for "maintaining" the lawn inside our fenced yard, so anything not inside that isn't our problem.

Am I cool yet?

2011-08-13T21:57:00.005-06:00

Because look I got a cell phone!

I know I'm not cool because that phone wasn't even cool when I got it almost six years ago. That is my OLD phone my dad bought me when I started working in Airdrie because he thought I needed a phone because I would be driving a lot. It was "pay as you go", so I just bought air time as I needed it. Turns out I never needed it, so I didn't use it much. I think I texted Cam twice. When I quit working at Airdrie I quit using the phone, so I quit putting money on it. Eventually, the number lapsed because I didn't use it, but Telus gave it back to me for free just because they are so nice. Then later I went to add money to it, but I couldn't remember my PIN, so I couldn't add the money and that was that. I'm assuming the number lapsed again, but whatever.

I just started using it again because it makes a pretty good alarm clock. When it goes off in the morning I don't have to reach all the way over to my actual alarm clock I just reach down beside my bed for the phone. Sometimes I just put the phone right beside me on my bed. It's loud, but I just roll over and turn it off. Plus I can program in different alarm times and just pick what time I need to get up when I go to bed. That is nice if my schedule is different day to day, so I don't have to manually change my alarm every night like a chump. I wonder if the iPhone has an alarm on it?

Friendly neighbourhood Keith

2011-08-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

Haha, good clip, but the picture quality needs some work. I would expect Cam to have a camera capable of filming in HD. Maybe Cara messed it up? Anyway, check out this because apparently some people think it is a friendly town, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-dgA-_51Kw&feature=related.

Look to the stars

2011-08-09T21:29:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I went to Chinook Hobby West which sells toys, die cast cars, models and train stuff. If you go upstairs they have a clearance section which I know you've heard about before because that's where I bought my Go-Bots Spa-C model kit.

In addition to models, die cast cars and train crap in the clearance section they also have have all kinds of craft and hobby kits. The kits are totally old school and some of then look like they are from the 70's. They have stuff like a rock polisher, bird house kit, macrame, decoupage, chemistry sets, painting kits and all sorts of retro stuff including the official Halley's Comet watching kit!

All I need now is a time machine, so I can go back in time to 1985 to use it!

I actually picked this up for Avery because when you are four year old, binoculars are awesome. It was only $4.99, so if it gets broken, and it will, it's no big deal. In addition to the binoculars there is also a "Return of Halley's Comet" booklet, a Halley's Comet map and log book. I love how it says "Get 7 times closer" on the box like it's going to look like it's right in front of you! Anyway, if Avery takes good care of it he can get some use out of it in 2061.

Taste of Canada

2011-08-04T21:48:00.000-06:00

If you're wondering exactly what that is, it's a maple leaf shaped gummy candy and it's your patriotic duty as a Canadian citizen to go out and eat one. I found these today at 7-11 and they're actually pretty good, not sour alien head good, but still good. The wonka factor is that these are the big 25 cent gummies. Real men eat the bigger gummies. My guess is the points on the leaf are too hard to do on a smaller size, so they went with the larger gummy. They nailed it because the shape of the maple leaf is pretty recognizable. Nice one, eh!

Rabbit

2011-08-02T22:02:00.000-06:00

The crazed rabbit is back again! Ever since it actually got hot here, the weird local rabbit has taken to sitting in his special "dent". He sits in the same place every afternoon and the grass there is all dented and squished out into a rabbit shape. The first few times I would come from work and walk by and he would just be sitting there looking all creepy. After a while I just started to expect him to be sitting there, so I wasn't as freaked out.

After I took his picture he jumped out of his dent. Look out, he's on the attack!

Back in business (sort of)

2011-08-01T21:40:00.000-06:00

A while ago I wrote about my old Bruce Lee clone website, BRUCEPLOITATION, disappearing off the web as Yahoo shut down Geocities. I attempted to keep it going by starting a BRUCEPLOITATION blog, but that didn't pan out too well. As usual I got lazy and didn't really update it at all except for a few times. I have movies, DVDs, and toys to write about, I just find it hard to do. I even wrote a DVD review, but never posted it. I was going to add some screen captures, but my lap top won't do that and I'm too lazy to go down to the basement computer to do it. You see my dilemma?

I got an e-mail from an old Bruceploitation reader who informed me that the old website was not dead, but still around! Turns out the entire Geocities network was archived and BRUCEPLOITATION right along with it. I was browsing around the site checking it out because it had been a while since I've seen it like that. I forgot how bad it looks, but I only took one HTML web course and that was back in 1997, so it's not entirely my fault. I also got an "Incomplete" in that class, so it's not like I passed. I'm not sure why because I handed in the final assignment! So the website is not very flashy, but it has some decent content and (I think) it is pretty easy to navigate. You could go check it out and get all nostalgic, but don't! I was reading some stuff there and noticed a few spelling and grammatical mistakes and it's driving me crazy because I can't fix them! If you read my blog then you are probably wondering why I'm getting so worked up about spelling and grammar, but hey you gotta start sometime.

Check Your Head

2011-07-30T21:55:00.000-06:00

I was at Phoenix Comics on Thursday as that is my usual day to check it out. I had decided I wanted to buy a Beastie Boys record, so I was on a mission. They had the new album on double LP, but it was cool because it came with other goodies like an iron-on, download code for the album on MP3 and a bonus 7" single. Still for the nostalgia factor I went with Check Your Head.

It's like high school all over again. Wait, that is not a good thing. Anyway, the album is the new remastered edition and it's pressed on the heavier 180 gram vinyl in a double LP. One of the reasons I like it is the larger cover art.

I listen to records. I'm a cool indie hipster!

Vitamin fail

2011-07-28T21:19:00.000-06:00

I don't exactly eat a balanced diet, sometimes I try and sometimes I just don't care. I saw the health nurse who went over my diet with me and told me I don't get enough fruit/vegetables, protein or drink enough water. I'm trying, but protein seems to be hardest thing to get on a regular basis. My doctor told I was vitamin D deficient too. To make up for my malnutrition I am taking vitamin D and have been taking a multi-vitamin.

I've always taken a multi-vitamin, but haven't really stuck to just one kind. Usually, it'll be one of the Jameson varities, but I just started taking a different kind of multi-vitamin. I picked this one strickly on the fact that it's a gummy! Gummies rule!

Yes, they cost more than regular vitamins, but they are gummies and the bottle says the are "great tasting". I was pretty jazzed about these and thought they were gonna taste so awesome and I'd eat the whole bottle in a week and end up in the hospital ODed on gummy vitamins. Don't worry because that's not going to happen because they don't taste good at all. I was hoping for a gummy flavor like dinosours, cola bottles or juice berries and instead I just get a funny tasting gummy with a funky aftertaste. I never thought I'd have to force myself to eat anything gummy.

The stupid thing is that you're supposed to take two gummies per day! Most vitamins you just take one pill per day, but now I have to take two gummies a day which don't even taste good. That is a total scam because you go through them faster requiring you to buy another expensive bottle. At least I will run out quickly, so I can go back to the plain old boring "regular" pill vitamins.

Cereals

2011-07-24T16:51:00.000-06:00

In a follow up to last years post about my Saskatchewan Rough Rider's cereal from Co-Op, I picked up this years version in Darian's Darios. Last year it was Fantuz Flakes which is just a rip off of corn flakes, and the Darios are just Cheerios rip offs. Don't worry though, I won't actually eat them, I will just put them in my special cereal cupboard.

Thanks to Cara, I now have two free towels headed my way. On Saturday I was buying groceries and saw the free towel offer from General Mills, so I grabbed two boxes. Unlike the Kellogg's vintage t-shirt offer which required two PIN numbers to get the shirt, the towel offer only needs one PIN per towel and you can get up to 10 towels per household. I have the Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios towels coming my way. I got home from the grocery store and immediately opened the boxes to redeem the codes, I haven't even started eating them yet. Too bad it's supposed to take 8 - 10 weeks for delivery and by that time summer will be long over. What use is a beach towel in October? If you are really generous you can donate your towel to some kid's charity thing, but like I'd ever do that. Because it's all about ME! ME! ME!

Free shirt #1

2011-07-19T22:13:00.000-06:00

A while ago I wrote about two free t-shirts offers and I just got my first one in the mail. I got my CCM shirt and a copy of the Hockey News from Honey Bunches of Oats.

The shirt is black, but for some reason I thought I ordered a blue one. Doesn't matter because I don't like the fabric, it feels all scratchy, so I'll give it to my brother or Matt. Also, I don't really care about hockey, so I'm not going to read The Hockey News, I'll give that to my dad. I'm such a nice guy giving all those things away right? I'm just hoping my "vintage" Tony the Tiger shirt gets here soon from Kellogg's.

I'm sure you'll also remember how I got the free sample of Kashi cereal? Well, they went and sent me a sample Kashi soft-baked bar. It wasn't bad, I already ate it, but I won't be be rushing out to buy any. Also, the free Kashi cereal sample is still sitting in my cupboard. I'm scared to eat it.

I will eat it, but I will not buy it.

For Cam

2011-07-17T20:03:00.001-06:00

Well, I FINALLY got my room cleaned, vacuumed and organized. I've only been planning on doing it for about three months now. In addition to that I also vacuumed the stairs and the downstairs and washed the dishes. After I was done that I went out to Phoenix Comics to pick up a record I asked them to order for me and then went to Cash Converters where I picked up the Smashing Pumpkins single box set, The Aeroplane Flies High for $10. Phew.

After all that I was getting hungry and thinking about where I could go to grab something to eat. Then, I was thinking Arby's. YES! It's been forever since I've eaten there, so I was looking forward to it. As I was eating my lunch I was thinking, "I wish Cam was here." But really I knew even if he actually was there, he wouldn't be there because he would be sitting outside in the car pouting. Don't be hatin' Cam.

This one is for you Cam!

Oh Canada, eh

2011-07-12T19:34:00.000-06:00

I should've been more partriotic and posted this back on Canada Day, but I didn't pick it up until July 3rd. It is what every self respecting Canadian comic book loving geek should have sitting on their shelf, a Vindicator bust.

I'm not really an X-Men/mutant guy, but how can you not love this statue? He's got the red and white costume and huge maple leaf right on his chest! That being said, yes he's Canadian, he's Vindicator (later known as Guardian) the leader of Canada's premier (or only) superhero team Alpha Flight.

I have actually wanted one of these for quite a while. I remember seeing one at Phoenix Comics years ago, but then they went and sold it. They only made 2000 of these, so I figured I was pretty much out of luck. Then out of nowhere I went to Phoenix and there it was sitting on the self with all the other statues and busts. I had to get it. Mine is number 1133/2000 and I ended up paying $40. This might seem like a lot, but it looks super cool and is collectible. I looked on eBay and someone is selling one of these for $140, so I think I made out okay.

My only complaint is that the red is actually like a shiny chrome paint, so you have to been careful not to get greasy fingerprints on it. It'll be ruined. Other than Wolverine, Canada doesn't have many other cool superheroes. Why not?

Seven years bad luck?

2011-07-11T23:55:00.000-06:00

In the dairy section at any local grocery store you'll find many different flavored milk and milkshake type drinks starting with the classic chocolate and strawberry to something a little more different like orange. They even started making name brand drinks like Rolo and Coffee Crisp. I've tried them and they're okay, just a different flavor of chocolate. But if you're looking for something really different then you'll have to try the new Bubblicious milkshake.

Bubblicious, everyone's favorite chewing gum is finally a drinkable treat. It does actually taste like bubble gum, but let's hope it doesn't take seven years to pass through your digestive system. When I first drank it I kept thinking it tasted a lot like bubble gum ice cream. In fact I think they just took some bubble gum ice cream, melted it, strained out any gum bits and then bottled it. As long as it tastes like bubble gum then it's all good and gets my stamp of approval. Not like making pink lemonade ice cream that doesn't even taste like pink lemonade!

Ice cream post

2011-07-06T21:50:00.002-06:00

As I promised here is a post about an all time favorite ice cream treat, the Nestle Drumstick. I remember walking down to Barney's back in the day on a hot summer afternoon to either get a slush, ice cream sandwich or drumstick. I usually got a drumstick and I usually got the caramel flavor because that was my favorite. The other day I was watching TV and caught an ad for these new Mini Drumsticks. I was out driving around on my day off on Tuesday and it was hot out and I kept wanting to stop for ice cream and eventually I did at Safeway. You see where this is going.

In the box you get two flavors and I got cookie dough and vanilla caramel, but you can also get chocolate and fudge brownie. The big hook is that they are mini snack sized versions of regular drumsticks. They taste the same, but if I was going to eat one I'd rather eat a regular sized drumstick because there is more of it. You could eat two small ones, but then you'd look like a slob.

It's so tiny!

Okay, it's not that tiny, but what's the point of just making it smaller? They do this with a lot of other things like ice creams bars and cookies. I think they should be going in the opposite direction and making them bigger! How about making an ice cream sandwich with three layers? Or an Oreo the size of a small plate? These little snack sized treats seem more like kid food then stuff for adults. When I was a kid I didn't eat a mini sized drumstick, I just ate the regular one like a real man! I think kid's would rather be eating more ice cream anyway.

MY DRUMSTICK!

Previously on last weeks episode...

2011-07-05T21:25:00.000-06:00

I can't help but notice nobody made a single comment on my last post which I which is probably because "normal" people actually get summer vacations, so I'll assume you're all out having fun. To which I say, "You suck." Remember those three days off I took a couple weeks ago to go to Cranbrook? Apparently, that was my summer vacation.

It seems like people I work with get to take weeks of vacation time, some lady took 7 weeks off at Christmas, then another guy took 5 weeks after Christmas. I complained about it saying "Why don't I get to take a month of vacation?" My supervisor says, "No one is stopping you.", so I asked for the last week of June and all of July off and I all I got was a "NO." Then she goes at gives almost six weeks off to another lady instead. Yeah, thanks for those three whole days off you gave me. <-----Sarcasm

Also last post I talked about how I was going to clean my room and take in the recycling and stuff, but none of that stuff really happened. I ended up hurting my back (again) while I was sleeping (AGAIN!). I've actually done this a few times now, but usually I wake up my back is in pain (only the left side for some reason) and take some Robaxacet. It settles down and I go back to sleep and my back is sore for a couple days then I'm all good. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't so lucky as the pain didn't go away and was there for almost a day. It hurt when I walked, sat down or even lay down, so I was pretty much in pain all the time. Eventually, the pain and the possible "over medication" got to me and I ended up puking and I'm talking about fire hose strength puking with stuff coming out my nose. It sucked, it was gross, but at least for a brief moment I forgot my back hurt.

Since Friday was Canada Day, the clinics were closed so I pretty much had to wait it out until Saturday. I finally managed to get to sleep around 3am Saturday morning, and when I woke up my back felt better. I told the doctor about my back and his idea to treat it is to stick needles into it! Wha? Yeah, it's the same guy who stuck needles in my wrist back when I hurt it. He did his acupuncture thing and I went out and bought some groceries and went home and my back which was feeling a bit better started to flare up again. I ended up going back to the doctor and he gave me a shot for the pain which actually worked. Call me old fashioned, but I'll take pills and shots over needles any day.

I've been popping plain old over the counter muscle relaxant ever four hours since Saturday. Although, I should ask for some heavy duty stuff because it doesn't feel like it's doing anything at all. My back comes and goes and can be fine one moment and then a few minutes later it will hurt like hell for no reason. Anyway, I have to wait a 9 hour shift tomorrow, so we'll see if I survive. Sorry, the last two posts have been pretty boring. Next post will be about ice cream!

Previously on last weeks episode...

2011-06-30T22:55:00.000-06:00

A little late, but not as late as the post about my Co-op frying pan. Last week's trip to Cranbrook was very short, so I didn't get much done. I made it back with the Matrix, but it's still registered in my Mom's name and still have BC plates on it. I seem to remember it being a lot easier when I brought the Cavalier from BC to AB. Back then my mom signed it over to me and I bought 2 weeks of insurance from ICBC so I would have plenty of time to get it inspected and what not when I brought it back to AB. This time they would take the plates off and only get me three days of insurance which sucks. Since I was only back for three days I didn't have time to get it all figured out. I signed the Cavalier back over to my dad before I left, so that is his problem now! It needs work, probably more work that it's worth.

On the Tuesday I stopped the Scarff homestead and got the rundown what's going on lately because nobody tells me anything. Mike and Sandy are expecting a baby this fall? I may have heard this last time I was back, but just forgot, so anyways congratulations Mike and Sandy. Cam and Cara are going to Scotland/England for a month? Are you guys going to go to Keith? You should go there and walk around loudly saying, "It's not THAT friendly." Be sure to grab me a fridge magnet or something. Thanks guys! I also saw some newly painted parts for yet another motorbike. Your dad is starting a motorcycle gang!

I also quickly stopped by Willie's to drop off a copy of PCU for him that I meant to bring back last time. Turns out Willie has not one, not two, but three jobs. What the hell! Hell has frozen over, it's mass hysteria, cats and dogs living together, etc. Who would've thought Willie would be such a workaholic? Responsibility sucks doesn't it? He also looks like he lost some weight, so good for him, I guess he really is working hard.

When I drove back I drove back the north route because I wanted to avoid all the road construction on the south way. The road was pretty quiet and I took it easy on the drive because I didn't want to get caught speeding especially when I have an AB driver's license and I'm driving a BC car that's not in my name. As I was going up the pass after Radium they had a sign up warning of bears on the road and I actually saw two bears. They were both small ones and I saw one on the opposite site of the road and he was just chilling out in the grass. I kept driving and just down the road there was some guy riding his bike up the other side towards Radium heading right for the bear. I was like "Haha, that dude is in for a surprise!" There is nothing like a bear scare to ignite the old turbo boosters. Once upon a time, Steve and I were riding out mountain bikes down this old dirt road and were going to stop to take some pictures when we heard some crashing going on just off to our right. It was a mother bear and her two cubs. We both yelled "Keep going!" and I remember we were just flying down this road, bouncing all over the place and rocks flying out from my tires. When we stopped we were like, "Holy crap!" and laughing. That is my story.

I've been driving the Matrix around and it's not bad, but I'm still getting used to it. After driving the Cavalier for 5 years, it's weird to be driving something different. That black interior gets pretty damn hot which sucks after working all day to go hop in a car that is 35C inside. Is summer over yet?

Since getting back from Cranbrook I worked seven days straight to get three days off in a row. I don't really like have that many days off in a row because I will just do nothing and sit at home like a loser. Today I was going to take in the recycling, buy groceries, get gas, go to Phoenix and get a hair cut and I didn't really do any of those. I did get some groceries, but not everything I needed because I walked down to Co-op and couldn't carry everything home. Hopefully, I will get a few more of those things done Friday and Saturday as well as doing laundry and cleaning my room. The XBox keeps distracting me.

Think pink

2011-06-27T21:18:00.001-06:00

Last year I wrote a post about the root beer ice cream from the Superstore. As much I hate to promote products from there, I liked it and would buy it again. This summer they have some new ice cream flavors including Pink Lemonade which sounds pretty good.

It sounds good, but doesn't really taste that good. It doesn't taste bad, it just doesn't really taste like pink lemonade. The root beer ice cream tastes like root beer the first taste, but pink lemonade you have to take a few spoons and if you close your eyes and imagine real hard it kinda sorta tastes a little bit like pink lemonade. But not really.

Since this turned out to be so disappointing I had to go drink some pink lemonade just to get my fix. I also saw they had a mango ice cream that looks good. Right now I liking lots of mango flavored juices, so hopefully the ice cream will do it justice. I just have to force myself to finish the rest of the pink lemonade ice cream first.

Enough already!

2011-06-23T21:45:00.000-06:00

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2011/06/22/nirvana-nevermind-20th-anniversary-reissue/

I thought they ran out of new material when they did the With The Lights Out box set? The stupid thing is that I will probably be a sucker and buy it anyway. RSVP me if you want a burn.

Yikes.

2011-06-22T22:10:00.000-06:00

I meant to come on to write a wrap up of my very brief trip back to Cranbrook, but I got distracted by the XBox. I will leave you with this until tomorrow.

I drove back to Calgary on the north route because there is too much annoying road construction through the south. The road wasn't that busy and despite some bridge construction is was relatively smooth sailing until I got to this.

This was on the Scott Lake Hill and not that far from Calgary. According to the news it was a collision between a semi and a truck and horse trailer. I saw the truck and horse trailer, but couldn't even tell exactly what it was. As I was getting closer to Calgary I could spot faint black smoke in the air and then as I went up Scott Lake Hill the very top was just thick black smoke and I could see tail lights of backed up cars. Traffic was moving, but very slow. I managed to dig out my camera and quickly snap that picture. I past the wreck and continued driving towards Calgary where I passed two firetrucks who were on the way there, so the accident must've been recent.

After the accident most cars seemed to drive safer with less speeding jerks passing cars left and right like they were playing Pole Position. Well for a least a few kilometers anyway.

Back in C-brook

2011-06-20T19:44:00.001-06:00

I finished serving my time of three weeks out in Airdrie and I have to admit I liked it and wish I could've stayed longer. When I worked there before I was just stressed and burned out and couldn't wait to leave, so I was a bit hesitant about going back. This time it was very laid back and "chill". I mean I getting paid over $20/hr to do less than half the work I'd do at my regular store, so what's not to like?

I'd had originally planned to take a week off after Airdrie, but apparently when I told my supervisor that I'd be back to work on the 26th she ignored that and assumed I said 19th. I managed to get three days off, and while it's not much I still had to come back to Cranbrook to drop off the Cavalier and pick up this.

The only time I get a new car is if my dad buy's a new one for my mom then I get my mom's old one. My dad knows I'll drive whatever I have until it dies. I get my mom's old Toyota Matrix while my mom gets a slightly newer Matrix. What? Her new car is a couple years newer, but it has power doors and locks and most importantly air conditioning. Her old Matrix didn't have AC and that was one of her big complaints about it, but now she has AC so she's happy. At least the Cavalier has AC, but the Matrix I get doesn't. It's got the tinted windows, black interior and gray paint with no AC, so it's basically a sweat box on wheels.

Remember last time I was back and I talked about cleaning up the basement of my parents'? It got cleaned and I helped my dad put in some dry wall. He got some new shelves installed and then filled them with all my crap.

Yep, pretty much all those boxes are mine. The ski boots and a couple of the smaller boxes aren't but everything else is. Logan spied a box that said "Star Wars" on it, so I let him look through it. I gave him this Darth Maul figure that came with a chip that when placed on the chip reader (sold separately) would say certain phrases. Of course he wanted to know where the chip reader was and I had no idea at all. I let him look in another box that had some Star Wars crap in it, but he didn't find anything. I did however find a postcard that quite possibly may be autographed by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. I remember writing to the show in the first season and getting a form letter and a postcard back. I can't quite tell if the signatures on the back of the card are real or just copied, I'll assume they are real and totally awesome. Don't ruin this for me and say otherwise!

Holy Shat!

2011-06-17T22:01:00.004-06:00

It's that time year, time for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and this year's premier guest is William Shatner. Other notable attendees are Jonathan Frakes, Matt Frewer, Summer Glau and a ton of comic book guests, but I still won't be going! Yeah, I'm taking this year off mostly because there is nobody who I'm really excited to see. Previous years always had a couple guests I was totally jazzed to go see, but this year I'm just like "meh". It's hard to believe but I just keep getting lazier.

Yes, it would be awesome to get Jonathan Frakes to sign my Commander Riker collector's plate and Matt Frewer to sign my DVD of Senior Trip, but I'm also cheap! All those genre actors all charge an autograph fee, so you are going to be paying $25 just to say hi and get an autograph on a DVD. I'll pass. The comic book dudes sign for free!

In past years the Expo was at the end of April, but this year they moved it to June because they needed to book even more room at the BMO Centre. It's cool that they are adding more events outside of the regular Expo. George Romero was supposed to attend and have a special screening of Night of the Living Dead, but he hurt his arm and cancelled. Instead they got Linda Blair who will introduce a screening of The Exorcist at the Plaza Theatre. Other events are the Macabre Masquarade, a cabaret hosted by Ed the Sock, Superheroes vs Zombies rollerderby and finally the 2011 Shuster Awards. The Joe Shuster Awards are an annual awards presented to Canadian comic book writers and artists. Local legend Fiona Staples is nominated this year and despite her lack of pocket change (see last year) I really hope she wins.

I'm sure I would've liked if I had gone, but I'll be sleeping in and relaxing. Next year I'll be back with a vengeance.

Maybe another time...

Better late than never?

2011-06-14T20:09:00.003-06:00

I had planned on writing this last year, but then just kept putting it off for various reasons. For various reasons as in I'm just lazy. Even though I work at Superstore I usually buy my groceries at Co-op or sometimes Safeway because Superstore is too busy and the employees are jerks. Last year at Co-op they had a promotion running that when you bought groceries you earned stickers and could cash in your stickers for different kinds of cookware by Thomas Rosenthal.

Basically how it worked was that spending $10 would earn you 1 sticker. The rewards I think started at 65 stickers and went all the way up 120 stickers. A small saucepan required the least amount of stickers and 110 stickers got you a big roasting pan. I think, that was a year ago remember.

I saved up 90 stickers for the 11" stir fry pan with lid. I think Thomas Rosenthal is a good brand, so I though I made a good choice. Out of all the sauce pans, frying pans and roasting pans the one I got would probably be the one I would use the most. Am I going to be roasting turkeys on a regular basis? I don't think so, so a stir fry pan it is.

I thought I made a good choice until I stopped to actually think about it. I used 90 stickers to get it, so that would mean it cost $900 to get those 90 stickers. Damn, what $900?! Luckily, I found 5 stickers in the alley behind Phoenix Comics, so I saved some money there. Still I could've just bought groceries at the Superstore and I would've saved enough money to buy a couple of those pans.

Fast forward to this year where instead of pots and pans they have kitchen knives from Thomas. Okay, knives are something I can use! Maybe even for cooking!

So many shiny knives and they all look so pretty! I had decided to get the cooks knife and the large santoku which both cost 35 stickers.

So I filled two cards with 35 stickers and the forgot to redeem them! Oops. Yeah, I kept putting off redeeming my cards and when I actually got around to it I was three days too late. How I going to cut/chop/slice stuff now? If I did get the knives I probably wouldn't have even used them. See below.

The picture of my frying pan (above) is the picture I actually took last year and this picture of the frying pan is one I took half an hour ago. As you can see I'm not really putting it to good use. It's hanging out under the kitchen table with other past blog post stars such as the severed leg and the Little Caesar's pizza bag.

PIZZA PARTY!

2011-06-11T20:51:00.003-06:00

On one of my trips back to Cranbrook, in February I think, Willie and I visited Liquidation World. While checking out the toy isle I found something I couldn't resist picking up. It only cost $10 plus was 70% off, so it was pretty cheap. Behold the Chuck E. Cheese's EZ-2 Make Pizza Maker!

Yeah, you know you want one too! Me and Willie figured that it had long expired, but I checked the back of the box and it was still good until October of 2011. Since it was so cheap and still "good" I bought it. I dragged it back to Calgary with me with plans to get around to writing a blog about it eventually. Welcome to eventually!

After getting it back Calgary I finally got around to reading the box and that was then I got my first disappointment. I thought the big Chuck E. Cheese thing was an oven, like an EZ Bake oven with a light bulb in it. It's not an oven, in fact it's not actually anything at all! You can put some of the "cooking" utensils inside it and the cooked pizzas sit on trays on the top in front of good old Chuck.

Here is what is inside the box, mixing bowl, utensils, Chuck E. Cheese stand and the all important ingredients. That's right you have to make your own dough, sauce and even cheese. Since the mixing bowl is so small, I used a real bowl in hopes it would be easier.

So far so good.

Well, it didn't take me long to screw that up!

It wasn't easier, I couldn't even make that damn dough! I put the packet in the bowl and added the correct amount of water and mixed it by hand just like the instructions said, but the stupid stuff just stuck to my hands and was all messy. Needless to say that was the end of the pizza party! Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Maker I hate you!

Fuck you!

I was extra pissed at this damn thing because I was hyped to make my own pizzas and I even went out and bought some sliced pepperoni, green pepper, and more shredded cheese to put on my pizzas. Then it all went in the crapper. Probably a good thing though because the sauce required you to add ketchup to a powder and the cheese wasn't actually cheese, but a powder that you added water to and then added to the sauce mix. Yummy?

Refills? Screw you!

I didn't get my pizza and got stuck with a bunch of pizza ingredients that I didn't even get to use and then I had to eat cereal for dinner. Good old cereal, never lets me down.

KOOLOWNA

2011-06-08T20:56:00.002-06:00

This was on my internet the other day. I've never heard of the place, so maybe I should've clicked the link.

I know it's nothing special, but it gave me a reason to try out my new Firefox add-on. You can take a screen shot of a webpage and add notes and most importantly add ARROWS! I doubt it will be something I'll use on a regular basis or maybe ever again. The drawing tools are very simple and you can text, but can't change the size or font. Hey Mozilla, how about a new version with that in it please?

It's your right to vote.

2011-06-04T20:59:00.001-06:00

I didn't vote in the recent federal election, but I might vote for this. Although, I won't because it's on Facebook, so Mike you'll have to go vote for me.

That picture is funny.

Cam and Mike on a Sunday drive

2011-06-02T20:37:00.002-06:00

Not this shiat again!

2011-06-01T20:54:00.000-06:00

Remember how I used to be the department supervisor out at the Airdrie store? Well I'm back! Luckily, it's not a permanent thing as I'm just there for three weeks helping out while the real supervisor is on holidays. I started on Monday and so far it's going okay. I forgot how boring it is out there and a 9 hour shift seems to drag on forever. Especially in the afternoon when I've already done everything, I have to look for stuff to keep me busy. I could do a lot more, but then the kids who close would have nothing to do and I'd rather I have nothing to do then them.

The drive is still as crappy as I remember it. I don't mind the drive out in the morning as it's pretty mellow, but the drive home sucks. It doesn't help that the cooling system in my car is acting up too. As long as I'm driving it's fine, but once I stopped for periods of time or getting into slow moving traffic it's starts heating up. Maybe the cooling fan isn't working or what, I'm not the mechanic. I keep forgetting to have my dad look at it and it's not really a problem because usually I'm not stuck in traffic. Yesterday, I had to crawl through six blocks of downtown gridlock with my heater cranked on to help cool it down. At least they are paying for my gas, so that means I will be filling up with PREMIUM!

Back at my old store I was working part time, but out at Airdrie it's full time, so I'm getting a few more hours. I'm also working Monday to Friday with weekends off, so that's kinda weird. I never get weekends off unless I ask them, now I'm getting three off in a row. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. Once I finish here I'm going to go back to Cranbrook for a few days. I'll just tell my supervisor that they need me for another week and then take that time off. Hopefully, nobody will notice.