HOLY CRAP? IT'S HOW MUCH?!!!

Being in Cranbrook I'm pretty bored, so I was looking around on eBay tonight and stumbled across something that totally blew my mind.

http://cgi.ebay.com/KNIGHT-RIDER-BELT-BUCKLE-VERY-RARE-MINT-CONDITION_W0QQitemZ290193086448QQihZ019QQcategoryZ2622QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Some guy is selling a Knight Rider belt belt buckle on eBay and the bidding is up to $162.50! I have that exact same belt buckle. Mine is actually from the Gray Creek Store on Kootenay Lake and I think cost $10. I also got an A-Team belt buckle from there as well. They also had Atari Asteroids pajamas which were unfortunately too small. It originally came with a red belt attached to it, but I cut it off as it's too small and then had a new belt custom made for it. I've since put on weight and the belt doesn't fit anymore. But hey, it's not like it cost $162.50...haha what a sucker! The guy selling it will be laughing at the way to the bank.

Boxing Day!!

No, I didn't go boxing day shopping. Not like there are that many places to go shopping here in Cranbrook. I know some stores have sales with some items having limited numbers, but boxing day sales last all week, so why get up early to buy some crap you don't really need. I may check out Wal-Mart tomorrow, but only because I'll be bored and will need something to do.

The X-mas haul was relatively small this year which is good because I already have enough things I don't need and don't use. I got Super Mario Galaxy and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 for my Wii and a few DVDs, it's not like I was going to leave the house anyway. I also got a few items of clothing, maybe they'll even fit. My brother got lots of clothes and like 10,000 pairs of socks...haha! I got a couple books, and they have lots of nice pictures, I haven't gotten around to actually reading the one book yet...so many words!

My Puchi Puchi arrived on Monday too. If I had left like five minutes earlier I would've missed it, but I got it in time and it's a real Christmas miracle. As for the Puchi Puchi itself, it's a little bigger than I thought and the actually "popping" doesn't live up to the real thing, it does feel a little fake. Maybe because it's not loud enough, but I think you can adjust the volume on the back. Remember I can't read the instructions, so I'm just guessing.

Well I'm off to have a nap or something similarly productive.

Twas the night before Christmas...

I'm back home in Cranbrook right now as I drove down Calgary today. The roads were okay up until the Crowsnest Pass where it had snowed. The roads had some snowy sections, but mostly were just wet. I went through a ton of windshield fluid and I got like three new chips in my windshield. Dammit! I think I should start flying back just because I'm getting to hate the drive. It's not that I don't like driving, I just don't like driving that road. I've driven it too many times and it's so damn boring it's starting to put me to sleep and that's not a good thing.

I'll be in Cranbrook until the 28th when I head back to Calgary. I'll definitely be bored, so I brought DVDs with me to help pass the time. I burned the first 18 episodes of GekiRanger on DVD. I burned it as just a plain data DVD, but when I tried it on my DVD player at home it played, but the sound was all choppy which was weird because it worked fine on the computer. I brought it with me and when I tried it out on my parents' DVD player (which I bought them) it worked perfect! Damn, I'll have to swap my old cheap player for a new cheap player. Even thought it's a data DVD it loads to a menu screen where you can select which ever file you want to watch. And the files look awesome! The video quality is really good, better than some DVDs I have. I don't want to buy a new player, but maybe next time I come home I'll just swap my old one for my parent's. They won't mind!

I'm off to bed cuz Santa is coming!

It's what kids want!!

Do you really want to eat something called "Chokies"? It's almost just asking for trouble. I went back to T&T Supermarket to get some more 3+2 and saw these cookies and couldn't resist getting them on their name alone.

They're actually similar to Oreos and come in three flavors Irish Mocoa, French Vanilla and the ones I bought, Swiss Choco. The packaging is kinda weird as it's a package with ten packages inside each containing three cookies. I guess this type of packaging is good for lunches. The cookies don't really taste the good, they're just some inferior Oreo knock offs and taste like it. But the name is funny!

I couldn't resist looking at the movie store and all it's bootleg DVDs. I saw the Simpsons movie and 30 Days of Night which isn't even on DVD yet! They always like to sell DVDs sets based on prices like $3/disc. I bought this CSI: NY set which was 3 discs and set me back $9. I'm not sure what season it was, but it looks like they manage to cram lots of episodes on the discs, even though when I try to select some of them they don't even work. The video quality was crappy, kinda like a VCD but the funniest part is that the episodes bear the network watermark down in the bottom right hand corner of CTV HD. Haha, it's recorded right off TV and made into DVDs. Classic!

'Tis the season.

I officially finished my Christmas shopping a week ago, although I'm still waiting on one thing to come in the mail. Now that I'm all done my shopping comes the hard part...wrapping! Yes, I suck at wrapping gifts. Even it's a square I can do it, it just looks sloppy, but it if anything but square then it just gets ugly. I went about bought some gift bags this year to make it easier and faster to get things done. I did buy this huge gift bag to put something for my parents in, but when I got home the gift for the bag wasn't quite as big as I thought it was, so the bag is still way over sized. Check out this picture in which I put a box of Cocoa Puffs next to it for scale. BTW the Cocoa Puffs are choco-tastic!

It might be funny to put a pair of socks in it for someone. They'd see the huge bag and get all excited until the picked it up and it's basically empty. Ha ha! For Logan's birthday I wrapped up his DVDs and a toy and put them in a cereal box. When I gave him it to him he just looked at it and put on the table and took off. I was like "Hey, aren't you gonna open it?" Then he opened it and said "This isn't cereal!" I feel so smart tricking a five year old. Maybe I should put his presents in it!

Speaking of Logan's presents I got him a commissioned piece of art (how ritzy!) from Takeshi Miyazawa. It was originally supposed to for his birthday, but Tak didn't get it done in time, so now it's his Christmas present. I got myself a picture too and they're not just sketches, they're inked and toned and all that and look super sweet. I want to put it in a nice frame, but something with some flash to it because he'll be bored with a plain old black wooden frame. I bought this frame with a red border from Ikea, but it is the cheapest piece of crap ever! I'm telling you the entire thing is made of card board and a picture that nice deserves better. I'll hold on it as a last resort. Oh, check out the picture below. The upside down Spidey is Logan's and the Spidey bust portrait is mine.

Click pictures to embiggen.

This weekend YTV will be airing a bunch of cartoon Christmas specials from years past. There are two that stand out that are worth watching. On Saturday the 15th the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special will be on and Sunday the 16th is the Smurfs Christmas. The website lists air times, but doesn't say what time zone, so check your local listings. I'll be setting the VCR to tape both of these. I'm kinda scared to see how Smurfs stands the test of time as I have not seen it FOREVER! For a complete listing of cartoons airing checking the YTV site:
http://www.ytv.com/programming/zapx/

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without an advent calendar. I almost bought of those cheap 99 cent advent calendars with 24 days in them, but was holding out for a good one which I found a Toys'R'Us.

Turtle power! Oh yes, 32 days of chocolate! It has Christmas AND New Year's. The good thing about the small chocolates is that they are too small to get a real good taste of the chocolate because if you did you probably wouldn't want to eat any more. I remember once upon a time when the advent calendars had the small chocolates for all the days leading up to Christmas and then on Christmas the door was twice as big and so was the chocolate. They need to do that and then need to make advent calendars every month of the year not just December. Then I'd more pay attention to what day it was.

In other Turtles news I downloaded these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Japanese OVAs that were fan subbed. The show in general was a little weird, but the turtles themselves still looked like the US versions. April was a little more anime-d which made her look better. The fan subbing was probably not a direct translation as in the second OVA one of the turtles calls this ninja guy a "dumbshit". I know that's not what he said, but it was still hilarious.

Smurf ya later!!

Bestest movie ever?

Check out this trailer for a new Japanese movie called The Machine Girl. It looks pretty insane like only the Japanese can do. I can't wait for this to get released here.

I tried posting this with a different embedded video player, but for some reason the stupid thing wouldn't work. Below is the link to the same trailer with slightly better video quality.
http://www.lolitron.org/2007/12/09/the-machine-girl/

Mix it up

I've been trying to make a mix CD which is pretty hard because I really suck at making mixes. I can never get the songs to flow, so the finished product just feels awkward. In an effort to try and offset that I decided to make a cool intro and outro for the mix and I think I really out did myself too.

Some thanks go to Cam who helped me with this. Way back when I had Cam hook his tape deck up to his CD recorder and record some old school storybooks on tape onto CD. I got Droid World, Planet of the Hoojibs, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Tron all put on CD. I actually have way more tapes than that, but at the time of recording I only had access to those ones.

I downloaded a trial sound editing program called WavePad, so I could trim out whatever bits I wanted. I ripped ROTJ as a loseless wav file, sad thing is that out of all the files the ROTJ file sounded the worst. I trimmed it up the way I wanted, WavePad had some nice feature like normalize and one that would remove any hiss which really helped clean it up.

I only took a few minutes and I had my new intro and outro files saved as mp3s. I thought the outro file was a bit long, so I made another one from the end of the Indy file. It's much shorter and I think maybe a better outro. I need some help on this one, so check out the files and let me know which one you think is better.

intro.mp3
outro.mp3
outro2.mp3

Enjoy, and if you want me to make something similar out the other "books" just let me know and I shall do!

It's cold out

Holy crap, it is cold out. For some cruel reason it seems the coldest place in our suite is on the couch in front of the TV. Why oh why?! Plus I'm sick, so the cold isn't helping much. Today was my day off, so I went out to try and get the last of my Christmas shopping done. All I have left is to get my sister something, but unfortunately I have no idea what to get here.

Christmas shopping has been costly this year because I seem to spending more on myself that on gifts for other people. Today when I was out trying to my sister's gift I ended up buying more crap for myself. I went to the Pacific Place mall to check out Utsuwa-No-Yakata, a Japanese tableware store. They have lots of pretty stuff. I saw this bowl and couldn't resist buying it for myself.


Haha, a monkey dance bowl! I wasn't sure what I could do with it as it's too small for me to eat out of, so it's my new change bowl. Yo Cam, yeah this is the same mall across from where you stayed. Did you get a Monkey Dance bowl too?

In the same mall there is a Chinese grocery store called T&T and I went in looking for these crackers called 3+2. Kelvin, a Chinese guy a work brought some and they were pretty good. I'm not sure if they're called 3+2, but it was the only English on the package.

I bet you can see why it's called 3+2, three crackers plus 2 layers of icing. It's weird because they're soda type crackers with icing, but it's surprisingly good. They have different flavors like a chocolate/vanilla, yellow (it's not a flavor I know), and the pink which I hope is strawberry. Bonus is that the strawberry package comes with a metal pencil case? which some boy band on it. I think it's a boy band, a couple of those guys look more like girls. Still good crackers though...

After that I went downtown to Chinatown and ended up buying yet more crap for myself. I got a Kamen Rider Ryuki figure in Rider Kick pose and a Kamen Rider watch.

The watch is a replica of Kamen Rider 2's henshin belt. That little logo thing flips open to reveal the digital display. It's actually kinda cheesy and cheap, but it was half price because the battery was dead. The Ryuki is cool, I like the display stand. It was in this store on the bottom of a display stand with some other Rider figures and monsters that were covered in dust. The monsters were only $2, so I may go back at some point to get some and judging by the amount of dust on them they aren't going anywhere.

So what's with all the Asian stores I was checking out? Well, I was looking for the newest toy fad from Japan called Mugen Puchi Puchi. You know that plastic bubble wrap and how we all love to pop the bubbles in it? Bandai has come out with toy that replicates exactly that. Mugen means "infinite" or "unlimited" while the puchi puchi is the sound it makes. Totally useless that you will no doubt be bored with in five minutes, but still you know you want one. It does mix it up a bit as every 100 pops it will make a different sound like a bark, meow, fark, or door bell. Sad thing is that I wasn't able to find one anywhere, they all looked at me like I was some crazy. I found some online at Yes Asia, but they're $15.99US. That isn't bad considering you get free worldwide shipping plus depending on what the dollar is doing you get it for more or less than 15.99. Check out the official website and the commerical via YouTube.

Keith's Big Score Part 2

Last weekend was Thanksgiving in the US and Friday was the biggest shopping day of the year also known as Black Friday. My sister went down to Kalispell to get in on some the crazy deals. Deals so good old ladies get trampled! It did happen I saw it on the news.

Anyway, I sent her a list of important stuff to get for me...cereal and Diet Pepsi! I asked her to get me a bunch of cereals and some Diet Pepsi flavors that aren't available here in Canada. Check out my haul.


You used to be able to get those kinds of cereal here in the old days, but not anymore. I guess the Canadian Food Inspection Agency put a stop to that as we don't need anymore super sugary cereals. My sister said all the kids cereals down there is all sugary crap, no wonder all the kids down there are getting fat.

For dinner I had some Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles (not pictured). I wasn't bad, it was very fruity, you can really smell it. I have this image of my innards turning all pink, yellow, and green as it gets digested. Yummy! I remember Pebbles used to be round shaped, but now it's in flake form. Looking at the picture on the box I was expecting Frosted Flake sized flakes, but these flakes were puny. The crumbs at the bottom of the Frosted Flakes box are about the size of the Pebbles flakes.

I was disappointed she couldn't find any Diet Pepsi Max. It's an energy drink soda with ginseng and more caffeine. Hey, it's got ginseng and that sounds kinda healthy. My parents are going down this weekend and they'll gonna look again. I needs my ginseng! And more caffeine!

In other food news I picked up a bag of Old Dutch's Crispy Bacon flavor chips. I got them because I wasn't sure how they could pull off the "crispy" flavor. It tasted slightly more bacon-y than regular bacon chips, but I can't say it tasted crispy.

Keith's Big Score!

This Tuesday saw the release of Live Free or Die Hard on DVD, so I picked the two disc version. The DVD offers you the option to watch the theatrical or the unrated version of the movie. Is there really a difference between the two? In the unrated version McClane gets to drop a few more f-bombs and that's the way it should've been. I read a review that said the unrated version also was bloodier, but I didn't notice any difference in the violence. The movie should've had a R rating to begin with. The original Die Hard had more violence, more swearing, and was more exciting. Don't mess for the formula!

I was out today and had no plans at all to buy anything, but I ended up buying Bender's Big Score! We were at Wal-Mart and they had it out for sale even though the official release date isn't until Nov. 27th. It was nice watching it again, since there hasn't been a new episode for a few years now. If you're a fan of the show, then you'll like the movie and I won't much more than that. I was a bit disappointed that Zap Branigan didn't get more screen time, but the Hanakah Zombie made up for it.

The DVD is packaged in a digipak style case and when the envelope style case slides out it has a lenticular Bender on it. My biggest problem is with the way the disc sits in case, it actually just slides in a slot. If not firmly pushed in place it could easily slide out, and if pushed in too hard it could scratch the disc. Not cool!

Oh, snow!

I just went outside to take out the garbage and there was snow on the ground! Say it ain't so! I was out this afternoon and it was cool, but at least it was sunny. Now there is a thin layer of snow on the ground. It didn't seem to be snowing at the time I went outside, so that's a good thing. There will probably be like a 100 car pile up on Deerfoot tomorrow morning, there usually is the first significant snowfall of the year. I'm glad I don't have to drive that anymore. I did get my winter tires put on when I was back in Cranbrook.

The snow and cold weather also reminds me of another thing I need to do...buy a jacket! I've been wearing a plain old hoodie so far, but it gets like -30C I don't think that'll cut it. I also need a haircut, but if I get it short like I always do, I'll get brain freeze literally.

And sticking with the Transformers Soundwave mp3 player, check this out. It's an Optimus Prime iPod docking station. The trailer hold the speakers and iPod, while Optimus can remain attached to the trailer or separate and transform him to robot mode.

I know it's not a very interesting post, but it's all I got right now.

I did it!

After neglecting my Wii for almost two months now I fired it up tonight and finally finished Super Paper Mario. I was on the second last level of the final chapter, but I was running out of restorative items and I kept dying. I managed to scrape through and finish the game, but it's not over! Now the main game is done it unlocks the Pit of 100 Trials or better yet two of them which are supposed to be harder than the actually game itself. I'm scared!

I guess I should move onto Resident Evil 4 as I'm getting close to finishing that one as well. The stupid suits of armor keep chopping me up and it's annoying. I wish I had a Game Genie.

COOLEST THING EVER!!!

You are looking at a Transformers Soundwave mp3 player made by Takara and quite possible one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It even plays mp3s in both cassette player mode AND robot mode! It needs a 1GB (a 2GB card won't work) SD card as it has no internal memory, but the card goes in the cassette deck. It is pretty expensive as it's only availabe in Japan and comes in the classic blue version and a white variant version.

As if that wasn't cool enough you can also Frenzy and Rumble head phones!


These are really cool, but looking on eBay the cheapest I saw was $65 which may sound cheap, but the shipping is $65. I saw some guy selling a set of the blue Soundwave, white Soundwave and the Frenzy and Rumble headphones for $254. Holy crap. I bought a scratch ticket today and if I win this is so going to be mine.

OVERDRIVE ACCELERATE!

Question: "Am I too old to watch Power Rangers?"
Answer: "Most Definitely!"

But I do anyway and I like it! For Logan's birthday I bought Volume 1 of Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive which I then copied at my sister's so I could check it out. All the shows over the years are pretty much the same with the rangers fighting the bad guys using vehicles that combine to form a giant robot. The FX have improved from looking really nice to still looking cheesy. For a half hour kids show it looks pretty cool, plus has some huge fiery explosions. Kids love explosions!

The Power Rangers shows are borrowed from the Super Sentai ("team") Japanese shows and then new footage with new actors is shot and re-edited to make the Americanized version. Operation Overdrive was originally Boukenger in Japan. I read that the fight scenes in the American show are actually better than the Japanese version. The fights are really good and feature some nice use of wires for jumping and flipping. It's all pretty fast paced and fairly entertaining, plus the Pink Overdrive Ranger is crazy cute. I haven't really seen any of the other PR shows much after the classic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but I wouldn't checking them out.

Here are bunch of screen caps I quickly did. Look at the explosions!

Black Overdrive Ranger with his giant hammer, the Overdrive Slammer.

Pink Overdrive Ranger flippin' out

Rider Kick! Oops, wrong show!

Fire is pretty.

Giant robot!

Does this pose make me look cool?

Rose, the pink ranger.

Ah, fighting, weird monsters, giant monsters fighting giant robots and explosions. I could watch it all day long. More Pink Ranger goodness with a couple shots from the transformation scene because I'm not only a geek, but a lonely geek.

Deal of the day

I made my trip to Phoenix Comics today to see what new comics came out on Wednesday. I got the new Buffy and Astonishing X-Men plus some other goodies. Over in the section between Phoenix and Meloydia there are a bunch of toys and tons of $1 comics. In the toys there was a box of VHS tapes and some DVDs from which I got the above movies.

I got the X-Files movie, X-Men United, Street Fighter V2, and the Arnuld combo of Eraser/Collateral Damage for the low low price of $1.95 each. That is cheaper than renting! For some reason whoever brought them in took them out of the original cases and taped up the cover sleeve with masking tape with the movie instead. Kinda dumb, but whatever. The tape peeled right off the Street Fighter sleeve, but I wasn't so lucky with the Arnuld double feature. Hey, it was only $1.95 so I don't really care about the sleeve anyway because it's going straight in the DVD binder after I watch it.

I bought the X-Files movie because I've been meaning to get it for a long time to replace my VHS copy. I haven't watched this in so long, so it will also be nice to see again. If you have been meaning to get this on DVD...DON'T! After almost ten years since the first movie they have actually begun filming the X-Files sequel. Hopefully, it will be well received since everybody has since forgotten about the X-Files, David Duchovny, and Gillian Anderson. I believe I read it will even be out this summer, so there will definitely be a re-release of the first movie in some double disc collector's edition. It's how they make $$$.

I also bought some magazine called Otaku USA which I've never heard of before. It's about anime, comics, and the likes and comes with a free DVD with three different anime episodes. Until I got home I thought it was an issue of Newtype USA which is basically the exact same thing, a magazine about Japanese anime, comics, toys and comes with a free DVD. I was one the bargain side of the store, so it was only $1 and I bought pretty much because the DVD had an episode of the orginal B&W Astro Boy cartoon on it.

That is all!

Canadian Destroyer!

Rather than bore you with something lame I did or saw, I'll entertain you with a video clip. It's off You Tube, so the quality isn't very good. It's from TNA Wrestling and has Petey Williams performing his finishing move, the Canadian Destroyer, on Chris Sabin. It is sweet!

The Next Generation

Last post, I talked about Giant Tiger and the junk I bought there. Cam got his cool new toy I bought him there, so now I can show everybody else.


It is the next generation gaming console known as the PZ3. It's funny because it looks just like a PS3 just smaller, even the controller modelled after the PS style controller. I'm sure that is all just coincidence. Running on a three AA batteries, the PZ3 doesn't even require it to be hooked to a TV as it has it's own screen that pops out from the side. You also don't need to worry about buying games as the PZ3 only plays one game. The one I got Cam plays Formula 1, but you can get Street Fighter, some Tetris style game, a Submarine one and many more! It is a considerable deal at only $9.98! Everyone will be wanting one this Christmas!

Cam made it Calgary even though it snowed and we decided to show him a good time by sitting around in front of the TV playing XBox 360. Cam is such a nice guy he bought pizza and we ordered it off the internet! It's crazy I know, but it totally worked! We have lived here for a while now and not once have we ever ordered take out, so we didn't even have any menus for pizza places. We dragged Cam to Phoenix and stopped at a Pizza 73 on the way and grabbed a menu. When we got back and decided what pizza we wanted Cam went online and ordered our pizzas from Pizza 73. It was super easy and got here pretty fast. I think I'll do it again sometime. Maybe I'll try Domino's next time.

More CBK + a fix

When I was packing up to go home to Cranbrook it all went so smoothly I knew I was forgetting something. I couldn't figure out what I was missing, but I had the essentials so that was it. Just as I driving into Cranbrook I finally remembered what I what I forgot! I had a couple comic books and a colouring book to unload on Logan and I had a few LPs I was going to take back. Oh well, next trip for sure. Then when I came home I forgot my Gillette Fusion razor there! Oh no, now I have to use my old Mach 3 razor. Only 3 three blades is like so primitive.

When I was in Cranbrook I had to clear my busy schedule to check out the new store that is taking the town by storm, Giant Tiger. What? The name is weird, yet pretty cool. Giant Tiger is a Canadian department store chain that is similar to other small town staple stores like Fields or Saans. Cranbrook actually had both of those stores at one time or another plus a Woolworths, Red Apple, and Bargain Shop. Let's see if Giant Tiger can stick it out.

It's located in what's left of the Cranbrook Mall. The stores isn't all that big and it has a confusing lay out. They have a little bit of everything, clothes, general merchandise and food. For some reason all the clothes aren't together, the womens/kids clothes are on one side of the store and mens is in the opposite corner. When they had an item they don't have a large selection of it, maybe like one shelf. Even for food, the cereal section was like 5 different cereals, but bonus was that they had some weird cereal I've never seen before with Looney Toons characters on it. I bought a box with the Tazmanian Devil on it for Cody which was basically just frosted flakes, they also had a Tweety rice krispie box too. The clothes are no name cheapie brands, but some of it didn't look too bad. $4 for a plain t-shirt is pretty cheap.

I even spent some money in there as I felt I should for some reason. I Cody the Tazmanian Devil cereal and I got myself the Terror of MechaGodzilla DVD for $4.99. I also got something for Cam S. that is too cool for words. I would post a picture, but he might see it and that would ruin the whole surprise. He's coming here on Sunday, so after he gets to see it then you all can too.

For more info on Giant Tiger you can check out their website. Find a location near you! Cranbrook is their only location in BC though. Overall the store gets a passing grade, even if it's hard to find stuff, but the mascot is funny looking and I like him.

When I was back I also went to Pages and CD Plus. I always hit these places when I'm back and always end up buying something there. I guess I feel some need to support local businesses especially Pages. At Pages I bought this Frank Cho Illustrator artbook which is out of print and goes for $45 on eBay, so that was a nice deal. CD Plus actually has a decent selection for a small town store. I've found stuff there that I haven't been able to find in Calgary. When I was talking to Cam on Sunday night I was telling him about the new Fatboy Slim mix and how I haven't seen it at any stores in Calgary. The next day I go to CD Plus and they have it! But I didn't buy it! They also have a nice section of used CD/DVDs, that is where I got my Probot CD. I've seen other cooler CDs in there too which makes me wonder about the people buying cool stuff only to get rid of it. Even their DVDs are cool with a section for Tartan DVDs which are Asian horror type movies. I haven't seen any of those titles for sale in Calgary. Next time anybody is back in Cranbrook be sure to check out CD Plus you might find something good.

The fix is in! Mike e-mailed me to let me know that you couldn't post anonymous comments, you had to be member. I thought I set it up so you could when I set up the account, but I guess not. But you can now! Thanks for the tip Mike.

Tales of Cranbrook

Okay, here is a quick update on Cranbrook...not much! Well that's not totally true. I was back from Sunday to Wednesday. My brother and his two buddies were there because they were in Kimberley building a house. The whole time I was there, none of them had a shower except my brother on Wednesday morning. Showers are free, so take as many as you want! I guess that's the norm in Greenwood.

I saw my sister, Matt, Logan and Avery. Avery is just like six months old, so he just sorta crawls around and that's about it. Logan went as Scooby-Doo for Halloween and the costume looked pretty good. He wasn't going to say "Trick or Treat", but "Rick or Reat!" because that's Scooby style.

After driving from my parents house to town (and back) a few times I noticed the amount of deer on the roads is insanely dangerously. It's a slalom course of kamikaze deer both ways and they are actually on the roads all the way from the house up until city limits. It's an epidemic! I came literally inches away from hitting a deer, it was too close. There were four deer eating our lawn on Tuesday and Aspen won't even bother chasing them away anymore because they just come right back. We live out of town, so that is expected. My sister's neighbor was downtown at the CIBC bank Wednesday morning at like 8:30am and she got out of her car and then was run down by a deer! Deer vs human collision! Everyone will have to start packing rifles to fend off crazed deer. Since all the deer are hanging around town, that means all the predator types are coming into town too. A cougar killed a horse in Jim Smith on the weekend. All I gotta say is...DAMN GLOBAL WARMING! WE ARE DOOMED!

More tomorrow!

Yeah, I back.

I think I said I would post something when I was back in Cranbrook and I meant to, but I couldn't. Sunday night I went to write a post, but I got on Blogger I forgot my sign in name AND my password, so I wasn't really able to do much. On my computer here at home I clicked the little "Remember Me" box, so whenever I get to Blogger all the info is automatically filled in. It's so convenient, except when you're on another computer and can't remember your sign in information.

I'm lazy and tired, so I'm going to bed right now and tales of Cranbrook will have to wait until tomorrow. I did buy a new fridge magnet, to add to the dozens I've already got. It's shaped liked a t-shirt and says, "I'M GOOD IN BED, I CAN SLEEP FOR DAYS!" Haha, it's funny!

BRB

I've been a bit lazy with posts this week. I was meaning to write something, but couldn't bring myself to do it. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Anyway, I'm just letting you know that tomorrow (Sunday) I'll be heading back to Cranbrook for a few days. Probably not doing much, or anything at all, except taking back that tub of CDs. Friday was Logan's birthday, so I think we're having a family dinner Sunday night. I just bought him some DVDs, a Pez, and a die cast Mystery Machine because he is die hard into Scooby-Doo right now.

I had been searching all over town for the G.I. Joe Sigma 6 DVD for him. G.I. Joe relaunched a couple years ago with a new cartoon by Japanese cartoon studio Gonzo and when I heard about it I was pretty excited. G.I. Joe with done anime style? The mech designs would be nuts! It was a disappointment, it was a bit too kiddie I guess, but the mech designs still were pretty good. Nothing beats the classic Joe cartoon as it was pretty much all action and shooting all the time. After going to Best Buy, Future Shop, 2 Wal-Marts, 2 HMVs, and a Zellers I still couldn't find this Sigma 6 DVD! I bought Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive V1 and a Scooby-Doo movie at Wal-Mart because it was looking like I would never find this movie. On my last stop I looked in this Blockbuster and as I was leaving I walked by a rack of previously viewed DVDs and there it was for $5.99. I bought it and was glad it was cheap as I already had two DVDs for him.

I'll be returning for Calgary on Wednesday, but will keep you all posted on the news and happening in Cranbrook. Basically I won't need to post at all while I'm gone!

Oh check out this link too. It's an Atari 2600 label maker. You can put in a picture of your choice and add your own text to make a picture just like an Atari 2600 cartridge. I haven't tried it, but I will and I'll post it here if I turns out to be cool. If it turns out not to be cool, then I won't post it, but will just tell you all how cool it is, so you'll have to take my word on it.
Atari 2600 Label Maker

KILLA 4 LIFE!!

At work I Sunday night, I killed a mouse with my bare hands. Well, not my bare hands, but a box that was being held by my bare hands.

I was had a load of garbage and was throwing it out and Aida, the apparel supervisor, was sitting on a stack of pallets watching and then she starts screaming. This little mouse was walking across the floor in front of her. Usually when you see mice they run around and avoid people, but this guy was out for leisurely stroll. I was holding this box full of garbage, so I walked over to where the mouse was and let it drop. I wasn't sure if I got him or maybe he ran under pallets, so I finished throwing out the rest of my garbage.

I went over and picked up the box I had dropped and sure enough I totally got him. The mouse as all squished kinda flat with guts and gore hanging out him. Oh yeah, he was dead. I did have gloves on, so I picked him up by the tail and dropped into my box of garbage and then dropped the box down the compactor. So long!

Can't say I've had a part in killing that many critters. I killed a snake once, but hey IT WAS A SNAKE! Snakes ask for that kinda stuff. I also think I ran down a gopher too. He ran under my car, but I wasn't 100% he was killed. It wasn't like I was gonna stop and check or anything.

I thought I had a point to make or a lesson to be learned here, or at least make one. I'll go with classic "Can't we all get along?" and "We must live in harmony with nature." cuz killing ain't cool. ...And now you know!

More money down the tubes.

Back again! Two posts in two days must mean two things, that 1. I bought more stuff and 2. I didn't work. You remember my post last week about not buying anymore stuff on eBay, while it didn't last long as I bought a movie poster for The Cat From Outer Space (odd I know) and a DVD. I was bidding on something else, but I lost. With the Canadian dollar actually worth more than the US dollar right now, it just makes buying stuff all the more easier.

Some of my eBay packages have started to roll in, I got two yesterday and three today. I bought J. Scott Campbell's 2007 sketchbook and it came in the mail today. It's a little book, but came in this huge box. Looking at the box I was like, "What could be in here?" I also ordered this CD from Christy Brigette Darlington (Yes that's a dude's name!) and his band Darlington. He recorded a live concert and pressed 1000 copies on CD. I ordered one, but he sent me two copies! Haha, I got #182 and #167 out of 1000.


Back in the olden days when I was a kid I had the Transformers Soundwave figure with Ravage and Laserbeak. I loved it and it holds a special place in my heart. Then I think my mom sold it at a garage sale with out Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures. I also miss Shockwave (laser gun dude) and Zartan. So when I saw this I knew it had to be mine. Check it out:


That is the Toys'R'Us exclusive Commemorative Edition Soundwave figure with Ravage and Laserbeak. Hasbro has released a few figures made from the original molds or something, so they are exactly as the same as the originals. Being an "exclusive" means they can charge more money for it, $40 to be exact. Is it pricey? Yes. Is it cool? Hell yes! I'm torn between putting it on my shelf or opening it up and playing with it. I mean for $40 I should take care of it because if it breaks I'm boned. But I'm so itching to open and transform Soundwave and stick Laserbeak in the tape deck. Aaaahhhhh!!! What should I do?!

In related news Transformers the movie came out on DVD this week and I did not buy, nor will I ever.

Grindhouse

Tonight I finally got around to watching Robert Rodriquez's Planet Terror, one half of the Grindhouse double feature. I didn't see it in the theatres where it totally bombed. I'd blame it on the idiotic audiences that didn't quite get the whole grindhouse gimmick. I read online that people were leaving after the first half because nobody knew it was a double feature.

I'm not a Tarantino fan, so I didn't really feel like watching Death Proof even though it stars the coolest dude in the universe, Kurt Russell. From what I heard it's lots of the acclaimed Tarantino "dialogue" which I can't stand because nobody talks like that! The only people that talk like that are people in Tarantino movies.


Back to Planet Terror which is on DVD in an extended and unrated version. I tell you that I was slightly disappointed, but it was still pretty good. The movie started out a bit slow, but when something happens it happens in a big way. It has some Juicy kill scenes and I mean Juicy with a capital 'J'. How can you not like a movie that has a chick with a machine gun leg?! Did I mention the zombies? It's a winning combination that everyone will enjoy.

Part of the vintage grindhouse feel to the film is that it has been "aged" with degration, scratches, hairs, missing frames, tinted color, etc. You can see what I'm talking about just looking at some of the screen captures. In a few shots I thought it was a bit too much, especially in some of the action scenes, but for the rest of the film I liked it, the look worked.

The theatrical release of Grindhouse tanked, so when they released it DVD each film got it's own DVD release with Death Proof first and then Planet Terror. I bought this on DVD and I was a little apprehensive about buying because I'll know that sooner or later it'll be re-released again on DVD is some super special ultimate edition. While watching the second disc of special features my suspicions where confirmed. At the end of the 10 Minute Film School featurette RR mentions that there will a 2-disc Grindhouse DVD release. Damn it, thanks for telling me that after I already bought it.

Definitely rent this for some WAY over the top zombie killing action. We need more of these kind of movies because zombie movies rule.

Rejoice!

Scott Pilgrim Get It's Together (SP Vol. 4) is soon upon us! In case you've been living under a rock Scott Pilgrim is written by Canadian Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim is the coolest hippest comic book on the block. Set in Toronto Scott Pilgrim is an 23 year old unemployed slacker who plays bass in his indie rock band, Sex Bob-Omb. Scott is dating American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but in order to date her, he first has to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

I totally dig this book, and how can you not love a comic book the references the greatest NES game of all time River City Ransom. If Scott Pilgrim sounds vaguely familiar it's because he's named after the song by 90's indie girl group Plumtree. I have their CD with the song on it and have a hazzy recollection of them being interviewed by Sook Yin-Lee for the Wedge while all lying in a bed. Scott Pilgrim has also been optioned for a movie by Universal Pictures and Edgar Wright(Hot Fuzz), so here's hoping!

I could go on about how superbly awesome it is, but you can read it and find out for yourself. Check out your local library for it. The libraries in Calgary seems to carry the first 3 volumes, so maybe yours will too, unless you live in Cranbrook. It's so good I have three copies of volume one and two copies of volume 2 and 3.

Check out the newly revamped Scott Pilgrim site for more goodness.

Ramblings(poorly written) about music and eBay

On Tuesday I went to A&B Sound in the NE mostly just to see if it was even still there as I had completely forgotten that place even existed still. I was looking for a couple CDs that no one else seemed to have. It was actually still there, so I went inside only to find they didn't have what I was looking for. I went all the way across town, so I had to get something so I picked up the new Pipettes and Flashlight Brown albums. I almost got the Pointed Sticks CD, but it was the most expensive of the three, so I put it back.

Now, I know why people start downloading music, they're too cheap to buy something they might not like. I like the Pipettes and Flashlight Brown CDs, but it seems everything I've bought lately has only been like "so-so". I need to buy a total kick ass CD to get excited about.

Though I probably shouldn't be buying more CDs as I have way too many as it is. I bought a 30L Rubbermaid container to put all the extras in so I can take them back to Cranbrook next trip. My dad will love that. Some of the CDs are the $1 deals from Cash Converters that I bought because I liked a song or two on the CD. The bin is about 3/4 full and I've still got another box of CDs to sort through. I don't want to get rid of any of it because if I do then I'll regret it.

As if I still don't have enough stuff I bought some junk off eBay like more CDs, a Punisher Meets Archie comic, and a J. Scott Campbell signed sketchbook. With the Canadian dollar kicking the American pesos ass, buying stuff from the US is looking pretty good. I bought the first Soviettes CD off eBay for $5.99 brand new, shipping was $6.99 and after exchange it came out to $13.19 Canadian. $13 for a CD is still pretty good considering it's out of print and even if HMV could order it in, it would cost like $23.99. I promised myself I wouldn't order anymore stuff until all my packages arrive in the mail. I might last until the weekend or maybe next week...be strong! I've already two things picked out that I want to order though!

To prove you can really buy anything online or on eBay check this out:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=ketchup+chips

Now all the poor deprived people of America can buy the ketchup chips they desparately need. If you scroll down the "Buy It Now" section there is some guy selling No Name ketchup chips. Disgusting! Anything No Name is horrible tasting, so that guy is going to get some negative feedback.

FF2

Ah yes, Jessica Alba in some geeky glasses, SO nice. It's a pic from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I'm not a huge FF fan which is why I probably like the first Fantastic Four movie. If I was a die hard fan than I probably would've been a lot more critical. I took it for what it was, a cheesy big budget superhero movie, and it works. FF2 is more of the same with the super cool looking Silver Surfer. Galactus is just a monstrous cloud, but it would've been pretty laughable had they made him the giant dude decked out in a purple suit with crazy hat. Check it out you'll probably like it and if you don't, then not my problem!

I was gonna wait and buy it previously viewed on DVD, but I totally geeked out and bought it at Future Shop where it was packaged in a steel book. It's a two disc set with one of the cool extras not even being related to the movie! In the "Trailers" section it has a preview of the new Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score. The preview starts off with the Professor talking about them getting cancelled and then uncancelled, it was pretty funny. Classic bits from all the characters, even though it hasn't been on the air for years, they haven't lost a thing. Can't wait for this. I'm sure you can find it the preview somewhere online if you look.

BUY IT...BUY IT...BUY IT...BUY IT...BUY IT

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey, it's Thanksgiving! I haven't been home for Thanksgiving for so long and it's been maybe 6 years since I've eaten a turkey dinner. I miss turkey, I want turkey. Turkey is good. This year I ended up eating the following as my Thanksgiving dinner.


A hot dog! When I told Cody I was having hot dogs for Thanksgiving he asked if I got turkey dogs. I said no and honestly never really thought of it. I missed out on that, but I'll make sure to get them for my Christmas dinner.

I did have some pumpkin pie though. I was at Safeway last Tuesday and they had pumpkin pies on sale, but I didn't want to get one because I wanted it to be fresher. On Thursday I went back to get a pie and the ones they had out had a best before date of Oct 9, and that's fine. I grabbed one off the bottom of the stack. Later at home I was looking at the box and it had a best before date of Oct 6! What?! Man, don't they rotate stock! They new stock goes on the bottom and old stock on the top! So my Thanksgiving dinner consisted of hot dogs and expired pumpkin pie. The pie still tasted good.

Second post evar!

In my "first post evar" I promised that my second post would be something interesting, but really that's all a matter of opinion. As usual when I'm bored I like to look around for eBay at stuff I really don't need, but would like to buy anyway. I was looking around one day and entered a search for "Cranbrook" to see what kind of stuff would come up. There wasn't much, but for some reason lots of old car stuff and there is also a Cranbrook in Kent, England. I did end up buying something as I always do. I bought a vintage postcard of downtown Cranbrook. It sounds lame, I know, but looking at the picture was so weird because it totally doesn't look like that anymore. The best part was when the postcard came in the mail, the seller also gave me another vintage Cranbrook postcard for free. These will probably end up framed as a gift for my parents, so don't tell them.


Yes, that is Cranbrook, but I'm not sure what year it is. It doesn't have a date on the postcard and all it says is "The business district in Cranbook, BC." You can see the original clock tower there too.

Now this is Gyro Park and the swimming pool. Wow, Gyro Park looks so cool and that pool is massive. I guess it is true that things were better in the good old days. FYI, click the pictures to embiggen.

So that's my "interesting" post, a glimpse of what Cranbrook used to be before it turned all butt-ugly. That's progress for ya.

First post evar!

Hey, this is my first post on the shiny new blog. I decided to abandon my crappy MySpace page as somebody had found who I didn't really want reading it because they're nuts. I won't go into it anymore than that, so forget it.

I never really looked around and checked out other blogging sites. I was checking out this other guy's blog and it's on the same site, so I clicked the sign up button and like 5 minutes later I had a new blog. I'm not sure if I'll snazz it up and make it look more interesting. It'll probably require me to do some reading and learning, so I doubt it. I changed the colors and stuff. If you'd like to see some other colors, let me know and I'll change to something more appealing the eye. You don't have to e-mail me because now you can leave comments. This new blog can spell check! That is actually helpful, but too bad it can't fix grammatical and punctuation errors.

That is all for now, but tomorrow I will work on a new post and for a change it will be somewhat interesting, I promise.