Saturday, December 27, 2008

Oh joy.

After taking a Christmas break in Cranbrook I'm back in Calgary. Yes, I made it. When I drove back to Cranbrook the roads were pretty good, but not so much on the way back. From Cranbrook to Fernie they were pretty crappy and snow covered, and from Wardner all the way to Fernie they weren't even plowed. Luckily they got better after Fernie and after the Crowsnest Pass it was smooth sailing all the way back to Calgary. The weather warmed up around the Pass, so the roads were wet and here in Calgary it was +3C, so the roads were pretty messy. My car is filthy and will probably have to wait until spring to get cleaned if it rains.

I always end up getting a bit sleepy whenever I drive to or from Calgary/Cranbrook, so this time I decided to do something about it and buy an energy drink. I haven't really drank and energy drinks before except once I had a Red Bull Sugar Free which was gross. The Gold Creek Store doesn't have much selection, so I ended up going with a Monster drink. It was also gross! I've come to the conclusion that energy drinks suck. Take a nap if you are able.

I also came back sicker than when I left. My cold was getting better and then on Friday night I started to feel worse. I think I caught someone else's cold and it sucks. It couldn't been anyone like my dad, brother, Avery, Logan or even Cam because they all had colds. Come to think of it I was fine until I saw Cam on Friday and then later night I started feeling worse. Thanks a lot Cam!

I'm back and unpacked and totally not looking forward to working on Sunday. I gotta work at 7am too, so I'm going to bed super early. Since it's a stat day this week that means I can only work 29 hours. I guess the unions are good for something! I just better get three days off!

That's all I got for now. I'll post a musical update about my cousins next.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

It's still cold here and I'm still sick, so be sure to feel sorry for me. According to the TV it is going to stay cold until probably March or so which really sucks. Today I managed to go outside, but only to pick up some comics because I didn't go last week because of the snow.

Cody has been brainwashed by Burger King's TV ads for the new Angry Whopper. I think the ad is kinda stupid when that lady is screaming out the window at some truck. Anyway, he wanted to go try it, so we did. The Angry Whopper is a regular Whopper with some jalapenos, fried onions, pepper jack cheese and some "angry" sauce tossed on it. You can't really taste the fried onions because after being drenched in various condiments they aren't really crispy or crunchy but more soggy. You can taste the jalapenos though, so make sure your drink is full. All in all it wasn't anything spectacular.

The real story is that the had Nintendo Wii toys. They weren't really Wii toys, but toys of Nintendo characters. I picked up the light up Luna star which does exactly what the name says it does...lights up. They had a few other ones that looked cool like the Boo ghost, Chain Chomp, and Mario Kart Yoshi, but you can't go wrong with anything that lights up.


Speaking of Burger Kings has anybody seen these new ads they are running with the Whopper Virgins? The premise is that they go to remote villages in the world where there is no such thing as fast food or hamburgers and make them eat a Whopper and a Big Mac and they decide which is better. I'm sure to these people who have never eaten anything like that both burgers are equally as disgusting. That or the poor famished villagers who have barely eaten a thing in a week would gladly eat anything you put in front of them, Burger King included. Whopper Virgins? Stay classy Burger King.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Dammit!

Still cold and snowy here. What the hell? Where is global warming when you need it? We got past the -30s windchill and on Tuesday it warmed up to a balmy -12C. Too bad it won't last at starting again on Thursday the temperatures are going back to the -20sC...and more snow!

On Tuesday I finished my Christmas shopping, but now comes the hard part of wrapping them. I'm gonna get a gift bag for Cody's crap because it's way easier that way. For some reason my mom wanted an iPod Shuffle and I told her she could have my old school one, but decided it was too old and covered in Godzilla stickers so I bought her a new 1GB Shuffle. I had to put music on it for her and that was a pain because I wasn't sure what she would like. I had to put stuff on there that wouldn't scare her too much. I bought Logan a big Lego set from Toys'R'Us and if you spent over $50 on Lego you got a $10 TRU gift card. Yeah, $10 for me to spend on myself! You gotta buy yourself stuff at Christmas, so that way you'll at least have something you wanted. I bought myself the new volume of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, it even comes with stickers!

I really hate driving back to Cranbrook because it's always so boring. Now with the weather being so cold and snowy, I really don't want to drive back at all. The roads here in town are pretty crappy, so I can't see how the highways can be any better. Cody is heading back to BC on the 23rd, so if he says the roads are bad I probably won't even bother going back at all. It's just easier not to do it. Plus Cody has been sick for like a month and now I'm finally starting to get it. Dammit.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

I'm cold.

As I said in an earlier post, winter has arrived. Last Sunday we got hit with about 15 cm of snow. Here in Calgary usually it'll snow, then will warm up and melt most of the snow before it snows again. This time we weren't so lucky. It warmed up for maybe one day and then Friday night we got more snow and the temperature really dropped.

This morning it was -23C with a -35C windchill. Lucky for me I didn't work Saturday, so even though I wanted to go out and do stuff I figured it was better not to go out driving around. I wanted to go to Co-op and use my free orange juice coupon and get some chicken flings, they're two for one! In case you are wondering chicken flings are chicken fingers. I didn't want to drive down there because it is so close, so Cody dropped me off on his way to work and then I walked home. It is a short walk, but when the sidewalks aren't shoveled and I'm walking face first into a -35C windchill that short walk becomes painful. I was just wearing plain old cords too, so my thighs were totally numb about half way home. I did make it back and then proceeded to shovel our walks. Shoveling wasn't bad because I was moving around keeping warm and was away form the wind. Once that done I went inside, ate some warm food, watched the end of Blackbelt Jones on TV and had a nap.

The cold weather is making it hard to use to computer. The computer is down in our basement right under this flimsy little window. When I came down in the morning, the window was actually open! It doesn't slide, but swings up into the basement. It was open about a couple inches, probably opened by the wind. I closed the window, but later in the afternoon when I came back to the basement, it was open again. I think we'll have to nail it shut or something, because having a window that opens by itself when it's -30C out is just plain stupid. Even when it's closed, it is super drafty. You can be sitting at the computer and fell a cold draft blowing down on you. In fact my hands are starting to get cold, so I'm gonna bail. Later!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Konichiwa



In a follow up to watermelon cat, here is Japanese cat. Sayonara!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Still here.

Once again there is nothing new or exciting to report. It snowed here about 16cm on Sunday, the first real snow of the year. It was warm today and I think it'll be warm Thursday, but by the weekend it's going to be cold. I think the high is supposed to be -15C which isn't that cold considering it is winter, but we haven't had any really cold weather yet this winter.

My parents came to town on Monday and then left on Tuesday. I took them to the newer Costco way up Sarcee Trail in the NW because it's not as busy as the NE or SE locations. There is a brand new shopping area up there and they are still working on it and putting in stores. In fact they were laying down sod when we there. Yes, there was snow on the ground and it was -4C but they were still putting it down. There were like eight guys shoveling snow, so they could put it down. It was stupid funny.

Did you guys know it's almost Christmas?! I have actually started my shopping and am kind of almost done. Tomorrow I'm going to go out and get two things then I'll only have to get something for my brother and Logan, but I have no idea what. I'm tempted to get Logan a drum kit because they have them at Toys'R'Us and they look cool, but my sister would probably kill me. My parents bought Matt, Julie and Logan a Wii for Christmas, so Matt and Julie both get games and a wireless router. That was easy. I even bought my dad a game, so hopefully he can figure out how to play it.

I think Cam needs a XBox 360 so he can spend more time in front of the TV and less time in front of the computer. Think about it dude, me and Cody need your help. You'd love it if you got one, that's why you are scared. It's okay to love.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

A little off the top

Yeah, another post! I thought I'd just post to complain about how I went to Taco Bell today because I keep seeing this commercial on TV about the new fully loaded nachos. They look good, but when I went into the restaurant they didn't even have it! I was all excited to try them and then I was totally devastated. If you've ever been Taco Bell I'm sure you've noticed that they are usually pretty filthy. There is always food on the tables and stuff spilled, it's gross. The one by my place looks like it's been cleaned up a bit with new table and chairs, it almost looks appealing, but still doesn't make up for not having fully loaded nachos. Jerks.

I had sorta planned on trying to get some Christmas shopping done today because I only worked in the morning. I wanted to do it until I actually got around to doing it then I decided to forget it. It's easier not to do it, right? Instead I messed up Cody's XBox avatar. The latest XBox Live update had introduced avatars similar to Nintendo's Miis, but only better. The Miis are very simple and not that detailed, but XBox versions are still cartoony and stylized but offer more customization. I was bored to gave Cody's dude a new hair cut. What do you think?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New shoes

Another post! Today was my day off and this morning I had go to the dentist. I was at then dentist a couple weeks ago, but had to go back because one my old filing was cracked and needed to be replaced. Yeah!! Before I went my breakfast consisted of a yogurt and that's it. My mouth was numb afterwards and it wasn't until after 4pm before my mouth felt normal enough to eat....chicken fingers! I actually don't mind going to my dentist in Calgary because I never have to wait to get in and once I get in they get the work done fast.

Before I went to the dentist I bought a new pair of shoes for work. My old shoes are actually still okay on the inside, it's the outside that looks hideous. After getting them wet with water, salt water, fish crumbs and stuff they turned from black leather to more of a cracked yellow leather. I actually bought the exact same pair of shoes as my old ones, I won't have worry about if they'll fit or not. Plus for some reason I got some Crystal Light single packs and two pedometers. I'm not sure why the cashier girl thought I'd need two pedometers, I guess one for each leg. I usually give my old clothes to the thrift store, but my new shoes are going straight in the trash.


They've been playing Christmas music on the PA at work and it totally sucks. I only have to listen to it for another 22 days. I thought I'd share my pain with you and update the boom box with some Christmas tunes. I wasn't sure if I even had any Christmas albums, but after digging in my CD boxes I found some that I forgot I even had. All this Christmas crap reminds me I've barely even starting my shopping yet. It doesn't help when I have no idea what to get anybody. Maybe Giant Tiger gift cards?

Monday, December 1, 2008

I'm still here.

Don't worry, I'm still around. I know it's been over a week since my last post and you'd think that in that stretch of time I would have something to talk about...but I don't! I still have posts I've been meaning to write for while now and maybe one day I'll get around to it.

Cody went back to Moyie on Saturday and will be gone a whole week. Par-tay! Our place just got new doors and both doors are keyed differently and for some reason we only have keys to the back door and not the main door on the kitchen. That's convenient! They might replace the locks this week, so Cody might come back to find his key don't work anymore.

If he doesn't like that, then he'll really hate how tonight I was playing Halo 3 online with his account. I was playing with Dennis, a dude from work, and while we didn't play ranked matches I still managed to throw Cody's kill/death ratio out the window. I was playing way worse than usual and in every single match my K/D spread was negative. Usually I don't rack up the kills, but I can usually not get killed much and end up with positive spread. Even though I sucked we still managed to win every match except one, so at least Cody got some EXP points. Sorry Cody!

I also grabbed a few screen captures from this Japanese movie called The Machine Girl. It's about a girl who get revenge on a yakuza family who's son killed her brother. That sounds pretty basic, but it's pretty nutso. The girl gets her arm sliced off then gets a new machine gun arm kinda like Rose McGowan in Planet Terror. The blood and gore is pretty insane with blood spraying EVERYWHERE! There were so many pictures I could've done, but then this post would be five pages long. The movie has actually been released on R1 DVD, but I picked up a bootleg of it in Chinatown. If you want a copy (and you totally do!) let me. Christmas is coming.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Can I have some nachos with my cheese?

On Thursday afternoon we went and watched the new Bond flick, Quantum of Solace at Chinook. I guess I liked it. It had a lot more action than Casino Royale, but it was hard to see. It seems cool for movies now to use jerky camera shots and fast editing, so you know something is happening but you just can't see it. It's like two guys are fighting, but the edits are so quick you can't tell who is hitting who. But forget the movie, the real story was at the concession stand.

I got my usual movie snack of nachos. I always get cheese, salsa, and jalapenos, so when the guy asked if I wanted all three I said "Yes". The nacho tray has a reservoir in one corner and another one in the opposite corner. Usually, they'll fill one spot with cheese, the other with salsa and then sprinkle the jalapenos right on top of the nachos. The guy that did my tray obviously likes to do things a bit differently as when he brought the tray over I couldn't even tell if it had any nachos in it. Both spots were filled with cheese, the nachos were covered in cheese, then salsa and finally like half a pound of jalapenos to top it off. It was beautiful and horrifying at the same time.

I went over to the supply area to get a straw for my drink and grab a pile of napkins. I had to wipe cheese from my tray as it was already dripping over the edge. Once we sat down I starting eating nachos right away. I didn't even have to dip any of them in the cheese as most had cheese or salsa or both already on them. I had to shake jalapenos off a few chips as I had way too many. Even though I was eating them pretty fast after a while the nachos were all soft from being drenched in cheese. I did eat the all the nachos, but left both cheese reservoirs full and a ton of jalapenos in the tray. The best part was that I ate that huge mess without spilling anything on myself. That's an real accomplishment for me considering today at lunch I spilled blueberry yogurt on both my shirt and tie and had to change. The shirt can be washed, but the tie has to be dry cleaned. That sucks.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

TOYS!

After visiting the comic book store this morning I decided to check out Chinook Hobby again. They had so much cool stuff last time I had to have another look. This time I actually bought something too!


They had some opened Star Wars figures that were a lot less than boxed ones and I ended up getting a couple like the Rebel Commando. He looks pretty cool and the detail is pretty good. They had a few different figures including a couple different rebel soldiers, Luke Skywalker w/medal from the end of A New Hope, Leia/Boussh and a Han Solo. I did some early Christmas shopping for Cody and got him the Leia/Boussh and Han figures. The Han Solo is from Empire where they are inside the giant worm monster and he has the air mask on. The Leia is cool because she comes staff, thermal detonator, backpack and extra head. One head is the Leia head and the other is the Boussh helmet. Each figure also some with display stand and they were only $19.99 each. I only wish they had a Stormtrooper or better yet a Scout Trooper.

Don't tell Cody!

They had a lot of discounted toys like new Indiana Jones figures for only $5 and the deluxe Indy figure for $7.99 and the 12" Indy figures were $15. I dug around in a bin of loose figures and also bought a Kubrick styled Venom figure and some guy I think is a Power Rangers villain. I just liked the way he looked even though he was dusty. They even had a Go Bots model kit! Chinook Hobby is my new favorite store.

It's not the most exciting post, but it's all I feel like writing about now. One day I tell you all about our new windows and doors. I've also been putting off the Halo online post too. I did buy Call of Duty: World At War for my Wii this week. I like it so far, it looks pretty good and controls well. It was a pain to throw grenades in Medal of Honor but it's much easier in COD, but using secondary incendiaries like Molotovs or smoke bombs is lame. I'm not co-ordinated enough. I played a match online this morning and killed like 20 guys. My team won the match and I was best on my team which is pretty sad because I totally suck. The online is not bad for the Wii (best yet?) and much better than Medal of Honor. Anyway, more later...maybe.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

They're so cute!

A while back I posted about the Star Wars Mighty Muggs figures from Hasbro that I had gotten. They are like all cutesy vinyl type figures. So far Hasbro has done Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and some Marvel characters and now they are planning on doing Transformers. The first wave will contain four G1 figures of Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime and Soundwave. Check out this link to IGN to read the article and see pictures of the figures. They look pretty cool and my favorite would have to be Soundwave. But how come they all have guns except Bumblebee?

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Made it...back.

I'm back in Calgary after an exciting few days in Cranbrook. Did I say exciting? That's not right! Cranbrook is the usual. 10th Avenue is all fixed up and by fixed up I mean new sidewalks and road which actually sits lower than adjoining streets. When I was back I even went in OJ's Antiques and he still has some of the same crap he had 15 years ago. Giant Tiger is your one stop shop for all your novelty t-shirt needs. I picked up another one for myself that says "I know talent when I see it and you don't have it" and I got one for Cody that says "I heard you the first time". Cody's shirt was $3, but I had to shell out full price for my shirt at $5.97. At those prices they're pretty much disposable. Buy them, eat some dinner, wipe your mouth with them, throw them in the garbage.

The drive back was pretty quiet, even for a Saturday. I went the north route and didn't really experience any traffic until I hit Hwy 1 at Canmore. Going through the park I nearly ran over some critter, but totally swerved at 90km/h missing him. At first I was like "That squirrel is HUGE!" Then as he ran right at my car I realized it was a squirrel, but whatever it was it's lucky to be alive. It was a raccon because it all brown, I'm still not sure what it was.

In other critter news the deer in and around Cranbrook are still a pain in the ass. It's a slalom course on the road going into town from my parents house. The other day I drove up and got out the car and there is a deer in our front yard just staring at me. I yelled at it and then it just went back to eating grass. Then I let the dogs outside and Shadow chased it away. My parent's are looking after my brother's dog, Shadow, because dogs aren't allowed on his current jobsite. My parent's dog, Aspen, doesn't even bother to chase the deer anymore, she's given up on it. They're so many and they just come back anyway.


Thursday, November 6, 2008

Made it.

I made it back to Cranbrook and the roads were fine. Turns out Calgary had the most snow and the roads there were just wet. The good thing about driving back on Wednesday means the roads are pretty empty. It was a boring drive.

In Fernie the weather was really overcast with low laying clouds and a bit of fresh snow on the ground and it was kinda dark, making everything look black and white. Up on the hill they were burning some slash piles from logging and the flames were huge, like over the tree line. With everything looking so drab and dark the bright flames looked really cool. Yeah, fire, yeah!

I think there is an election or something in Cranbrook coming up. Driving into town on the strip there are elections signs literally every five on the side of the road. It totally looks like crap, but then again it's Cranbrook, so that's the norm.

My parents old Sony TV finally died, so they replaced it with a new Sony Bravia 42" LCD. I was watching regular cable on it and regular cable looks ugly. They hadn't hooked up the DVD player yet, so I had to go down to Wal-Mart and get a HDMI cable. Before I left Calgary I stopped by Best Buy and picked up the new Futurama movie, Bender' Game, which is good so check it out. I watched Bender's Game on the new TV and it looked pretty sweet. The colours were really bright and it was widescreen! Although the aspect ratio of Bender's Game is only 1.78:1 so there still was some black bars on the TV.

When I went down to Wal-Mart to get the cable I had to take my mom's new Toyota Matrix because my dad parked behind me. It's not brand new, but a couple years old. It's weird driving a car you don't know for the first time especially when it's dark out and you can't figure out how to turn on the headlights. The automatic gear shift isn't on the floor or on the steering wheel column, but kinda mounted on the middle of the front dashboard. It takes some getting used to.

That's it, I'll fill you with all my other exciting finds.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Oh, snow!

A couple weeks ago I decided I should get back to Cranbrook so my dad can put my winter tires on and get my car ready for winter. So far Calgary has been pretty warm and no snow...until today! The day I drive back to Cranbrook!


That's just my luck too. It looks like the snow is only on the ground and did stay on the pavement, so hopefully the roads will be good. I'll post later tonight to let you know if I survived the drive or not.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Saturday, November 1, 2008

NOVEMBER 1ST!!!

Yeah, it's November 1st and you know what that means? Half price Halloween candy! Oh and it is Cam's birthday too. Happy B-Day Cam! I uploaded a birthday song to the boom box, so click play and enjoy you old bastard.


Halloween was kinda lame because we had a whopping two kids show up. I thought we we going to have lots of kids. Only two came and they didn't show up until 8:45pm. We were playing Halo 3 online and were losing, so Cody left to get the door and gave them like handfuls of candy. Now we have two boxes of chocolate bars and a box of Cheetos leftover. I guess we can save the Cheetos until next year.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Aooooh, scarrrry stuff kids!

From what I'm told tomorrow, or Friday, is Halloween! It was never a big deal before because living in the old basement suite we never had to worry about kids coming to our door. In our new place we obviously are going to have kids banging on the door begging for candy. There a few kids living in our complex, plus there is a school right across the street from us, so lots of kids in the area.

I hope we have enough candy to last, but it doesn't help that I've been into the Reese's already. We got a box of Oh Henry, Reese' PB Cups, and Reese's Pieces. Reese's Pieces are awesome, but if you go into a convenience store you rarely see them on the shelf with the other candy bars. I guess they don't get the props they deserve despite E.T.'s influence. Anyway, we also got some other little chocolate bars and some Cheetos. I don't like Cheetos, so those will be the first to go. I just grabbed a box of what I thought were chips at Zellers as the box had a Doritos logo on it, but waiting in line I discovered they were Cheetos and was too lazy to go back and switch it. Behind me in line was some old lady who was telling me she is giving out cheezies and raisins because she wanted to give out something healthy too. Yeah, like the kids are going to eat the raisins.

It also turns out that Cody had to work until 8pm leaving me the task of handing out the candy. That sucks. Stupid kids.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hey, what's up?!

I've been lazy with the posts again. I cheaped out with my post consisting of a picture of some Transformers Animated Eggos. It was the most delicious post I ever wrote! I've been meaning to write something about playing Halo 3 online, but it can really be summed with a simple "I suck."

I also was going to post a picture I scanned with my new scanner, but haven't gotten around to figuring out the damn thing. I bought it last Thursday, but didn't get around to hooking it up until Monday night. On Monday I opened the box for the first time and noticed my "new" scanner wasn't exactly all that new. The bottom of it was all scuffed up and the lock button that keeps the scanning dealio from moving around was already unlocked, when it should've been locked. I didn't even bother hooking it up because when I buy something new, I expect it to be new. I exchanged it for a new one and then hooked it up. My old scanner was actually a printer/copier/scanner/fax/bunch of other stuff and you could preview the image before you scanned it and select the area of the image to scan. With this new Canon one you can't do that, you just put whatever on the scanner and press scan. If you only wanted a certain area, then you have do the ol' cut and paste. The image then opens in the fancy image program that came with the scanner. It has tons of effects and stuff to use and you can apply layers to the image like in photoshop. I'm used to the simpliest of image programs, so I'm way over my head. I can't even figure out how to crop the image yet.

Instead of cheaping out with a picture of eggos, I'll leave you with a picture of a cat and his watermelon! Haha, what does a cat need a watermelon for anyway?! And why is playing with it in the water at the beach?! That is one kooky cat!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Do you hear that?

That whistling sound? That's the Canadian dollar falling, crashing and burning! I'm not one to follow politics, the financial markets or anything relatively important, but it's hard not to notice the fact our dollar has recently taken a major nose dive. Ever since the US banking situation the global economy has taken a major dip, yeah thanks a lot United States! A few weeks ago the Canadian dollar was at 95 cents to the US dollar and today it's 79 cents. It's a understatement to say "that totally sucks". Who cares if the US economy is in the toilet, shouldn't our dollar get stronger then?

I'm just bummed because buying crap on eBay just got a whole lot more costly. I found this CD I wanted by a Canadian band, but it's not a major label so there is no way HMV would ever stock it. I didn't want to risk not finding here in town because I HAVE TO HAVE IT! I bought it on eBay for $17.99 plus $8 shipping for a total of $25.99. I thought the dollar was at 84 cents, but to my surprise it was actually 79 cents, so my $26 CD turned into a $32 CD! Ouch. I know the CD is gonna kick some ass (hey it was recorded live in Coaldale!) but $32 is pretty expensive. I probably should've waited to see if I could find it in town, but it's a little late now.

That's okay because I just got a major payday! Since we settled on a new contract at work I'll be getting more money and this week they paid out all my backpay which amounted to $2686. So I got my backpay plus my regular earnings, but I'm scared to find out how much the government took. With a bit a extra cash the big decision is what to blow it on! I did buy a $50 Canon scanner today and a new jacket. I've been meaning to buy a new jacket since last winter, so I don't think that counts. How about a new TV? I don't know, maybe a new scanner and $32 CD will be enough...for now.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hey

I was going to make this post a few days ago, but distracted by sleeping. Here is what I've been up to lately. On Thursday afternoon I headed down to Chinatown in search of some Pokemon crap. Logan is into Pokemon, so I thought I'd see if they had anything cool. Back in the day when Pokemon-mania was in full swing you couldn't walk five feet without tripping over some Pokemon crap in Chinatown, now...NOTHING!

Since I was there I figured I should at least get something since I went all the way down there. At this little snack/candy store I picked a can of Qoo and some weird Japanese seaweed snacks. At the front of the store they had boxes of seawood snacks and for some reason I still don't understand I wanted some. The boxes hadn't been unpacked yet, so the guy had to go through them to get what I wanted. I felt kinda bad making him do all that work, so I said I'd take two bags. They had five flavors; spicy, wasabi, original, thai, and something I can't remember, but I ended up getting original and wasabi. Unfortunately, later when I got home I tried the original and it was horrible. I took one bite and instantly hated them. I still forced myself to eat a few strips, but after that the bag went in the garbage. I still have the unopened bag of wasabi flavor, so if anyone wants it, it's all yours.

That's the wasabi flavor and you can tell it's hot because there is smoke (or steam?) coming out of the dude's ears.

While looking for the Pokemon stuff I looked at these two toys stores and found some cool Japanese toys, but they were pretty expensive. The toys are a few years old and unavailable pretty much everywhere, but still "mark it down"! At the one place I think I may go back to pick up the Kamen Rider Todoroki figure from Bandai. It's pretty poseable and he comes rocking out with his guitar.
I might have to go back and pick this guy up. I'm sure it'll still be there covered in dust, so there is no hurry.

I also had to check out the movie stores. I went to Far East Video (or is it Go East Video??) which I usually buy from. Most movies are $6 each or 3 for $12, so I went for 3. I got this Vietnamese martial arts flick called The Rebel, some Japanese movie, and Speed Racer. Yeah, they bootlegs of Speed Racer. I'm sure nobody is gonna care if they sell bootlegs of the newest Twins movie, but once you start selling bootlegs of North American movies you might be in trouble. I didn't see Speed Racer in the theater and buying it for $4 is cheaper than renting it, so I figured why not. All I gotta say is the monkey stole the show! Just fast forward to the monkey scenes and you're golden. The rest of the movie was a fast, blurry, brightly colored and over the top cartoon. I guess it was okay.

Thursday night I was flipping through the channels on TV and caught something quickly on the local news about a movie costume sale in Calgary. I was intrigued, so I googled it and found out a wardrobe place for movies and TV in Calgary called Momentum Design was having a sale. They have done wardrobe on such big time Hollywood pictures as Hellboy, Blade II, and Fantastic Four. Fast forward to Saturday and we drove out to Springbank to their warehouse which is actually right across the street from Calaway Park.

There were quite a few people there and they had a lot of stuff, but not all of it was for sale. The roof was probably 75 tall and one half of the inside had racks of clothes going right to the ceiling. We didn't buy anything, but only because we couldn't afford anything. Most stuff was pretty boring, but there were a few standout items. The classic red Mountie uniform, a mint green tuxedo, the Mars Discovery Force suit, and the Nazi Bear outfit. The Mountie and green tuxedo are pretty self explanatory. The Mar Discovery Force suit was this one piece snowsuit looking thing probably from the late 70's or early 80's. It was red with yellow trim on it and the patch on the front that said "Mars Discovery Force" and basically it was straight out FUGLY. They had a kids sized version that was green and some little kid was trying it on and he actually liked it! Sorry kid, but if you wear that, you are going to be ridiculed and beat on.

I was hoping to find a big monkey suit, but had no such luck. I was close when I saw what I thought was a bear suit, but upon closer inspection noticed it had pants and sleeves with Nazi symbols on them. The bear part of the suit was the furry back and bear head. It was pretty bizarre, I mean a Nazi bear? It's a Jewish hiker's worst nightmare! Unfortunately, they didn't list what movies/TV shows anything had been used in, but I really whated to know what the Mar Discovery Force and Nazi Bear suits were from. Too bad they cost like $175, but when you think about it when else are you gonna find a Nazi Bear suit.

They did have some "big name" costume on display like Ron Perlman's Hellboy wardrobe, Wesley Snipes' Blade stuff, and Samuel L. Jackson's rags from Resurrecting the Champ. They also had some b-star wardrobe like James Van Der Beek and Ashton Kutcher's cowboy stuff from Texas Rangers. Did that go straight to video? Anway, sorry for the lack of pictures. I took my camera, but you were allowed to take pictures. If you did, they'd sick the Nazi bears on you.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Once again I'm spending Thanksgiving by myself, so I have no other choice but try to make something other than my classic dishes of cereal or PB sammiches. Unlike other years (like Swanson turkey TV dinner & turkey dogs) I tried to make something a little more "traditional". I had the pumpkin pie, stuffing, veggies, scalloped potatoes, and turkey. I wasn't too sure about the turkey, but it did say "turkey" on the can, so I'll take their word for it.

Thank god there weren't too many leftovers.



Thursday, October 9, 2008

HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!!

Okay, maybe we will. We were THIS close to going on strike at work. I'm kinda disappointed we didn't because I was looking forward to sleeping in. We've been working without a contract for over two years now and finally they decided to try and get something done about it.

A couple weeks ago the union held a vote on a contract offer put forward by the company as well as a strike vote. The offer was voted down by 95% which sounds like a lot but it's not when only 16% off Calgary employees showed up to vote. I know I didn't vote because I really don't care, but anyone that did show up were union supporters, so of course they want to strike. Last week the union served notice that we would go on strike Oct 7th, but before the weekend the company put a new offer on the table.

The vote for the new contract was Oct 8th and if the offer was rejected then we were on strike. Since only 16% showed up to the previous vote the Superstore actually went out and rented buses to take employees to and from the vote and even paid them to do it. Again, I didn't bother go because I still didn't care. Sad to say, we accepted the new offer and we aren't going on strike. It barely passed with only 58% voting in favor of it. Now the employees have a new contract, but all the supervisors are going to be pissed off because the employees make more than they do. I'm sure we get some other stuff too, but I don't know what.

Anyway, I'm gotta get to bed early because I have to get early to go to work in the morning!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Shields up, nerd alert!!

Today was the annual Calgary Comic and Toy Expo which is not to be confused with the much larger Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo. The Comic & Toy Expo has always been a bit small which is a little nicer because it's easier to talk to and meet the guests. I went by myself because Cody said he forgot to ask for the time off, but really I think he didn't want to go. It's not like I cared, but he didn't even tell him until I was waiting around for him to go this morning. Of course I still went and I ended up spending more money that I had planned, but I only got a few comics. By the end I was carrying a bunch of stuff which made it pretty hard to flip through comics, so I just gave up on that. In fact I looked at every table, but hardly looked at any comics, I was just too lazy. I did buy a couple though. Most of my money went to original art.



I got those "Best of Spider-Man" books volumes 1-3 for only $25. That's a sweet deal because usually a single volume will go for $30. They are also hardcover and look really sweet, but unfortunately were heavy and kept getting heavier the longer I had them. The other picture shows the only comics I bought(the other Spider-Man ones don't count because they are "trade paperbacks"). I couldn't say no to the "Married...With Children" comic and it's #1! It's from defunct publisher Now Comics who also put out such classic titles as The Real Ghostbusters and Ralph Snart. Remember Ralph Snart, Cam?

I spent most of my time waiting in line to get a sketch and some books signed from artist Todd Nauck. His line wasn't that long, but he was only charging $25 for a sketch and for some reason everyone in front of me was getting two sketches. What a bunch of greedy jerks!




Those are the books I got him to sign and that is my sketch of Spider-Man I got done. Todd does the sketches while you wait and cranks those things out in about 15 minutes, sometimes less. Most of his work has been with DC like Young Justice and Teen Titans Go!, but recently he's done some Marvel stuff with some stories starting in Amazing Spider-Man Family this month.

I spent the rest of my money at David Hahn's table getting a sketch, original art, his artbook as well as some comics signed.



I was complaining to him that on his Marvel work he doesn't get to the covers. He said he was gonna ask them about that and then said I should e-mail them and tell them that too. The picture on the bottom is of a couple art cards and his art book. The art book has sketches, character models, landscapes, tech, and for some reason food. The food was funny, he did some illustrations for a cook book, so the food pictures got stuck in there. The art cards are just reproductions of comic work except the Spider-Man and Mary Jane one I hadn't seen before, so I'm not sure where it is from. It looks cool though.

This is his Firestar character model sheet he did as prep for drawing Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. He'll draw the character and then submit it to the editors for approval.

I also got a page of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #16 patch shots. He said he drew some stuff that didn't turn out they way he wanted, so on a seperate sheet he drew these pictures and then when the pages were scanned into the computer he removed the old pictures and put in the newer versions. It's a cool looking page because it's got like five different Spider-Mans on it and they are all different angles and stuff.

Finally from David Hahn it's the everlovin' Thing! I should've asked him to put a "Yancy Street" sign behind him, but totally forgot about it. Bummer.

I almost forgot, but before I left I stopped the lady that sells the homemade chocolate pops. I've mentioned her stuff a couple times before. She had the regular choco pops, but this time also had cupcakes with chocolate characters on the top. I already had too much stuff to carry (damn Spidey hardcovers) so I went with the chocolate pops because they're easier to carry.


That's it! The show was okay, I'm happy I got some cool stuff. There were some total nerds there, one guy was talking to Todd Nauck and everytime he opened his mouth I wanted punch him. The guy was so annoying, I'm sure every comic book show those artists visit has those guys at it. I don't know how they put up with it. There was also this guy who is apparently an "artist" and he's always at these shows even though his stuff sucks. I think he is just some guy who reads comics and likes to draw although he's never done any professional work or anything. He was wearing this Iron Man costume, the kind you can buy at Wal-Mart. It was even more pathetic because he didn't have the mask on, the back of the suit wasn't zipped up and he was wearing a pair of black ski boots. You think he would've at least painted the ski boots yellow and red to match the rest of his costume.

They had a costume contest and some of the costumes were pretty cool, some more than others. I don't think the Iron Man loser was in the contest though. The girl that won third place was super hot although I had no idea who/what she was supposed to be. She had green hair, green clothes and pretty much everything was green, so maybe some anime character? Some little kid was running around with a ninja mask waving a plastic sword around and being insane. I also saw some other kids dressed as Batman, Spider-Man and Bumblebee.

I'm already looking forward to the other big show in April 2009. They've already announced a guests like Frank Cho, Terry Moore, Darwyn Cooke and Bryan Lee O'Malley. O'Malley had better show up because he was supposed to be there last year, but cancelled. I've got a stack of crap for him alone.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Yes, more Star Wars merchandise!

I know I cheaped on my last post by not making an actual post and basically just posting a link to another site and well I'm going to do it again. George Lucas has made trillions off the Star Wars licenses and the newest additon is a line of clothing from designer Marc Ecko. That is the dude with the rhino on the clothes. I don't get it, but the kids eat it up.

Ecko had made some Star Wars theme t-shirts and jackets. I don't own any Ecko clothing and I probably won't because it'll set me back $38US for one of the limited edition Star Wars t-shirts. Yikes! They are kinda cool, but the Boba Fett inspired hoodie is wicked awesome.


If the t-shirts cost $38 then the hoodie is gonna cost over $100, but that doesn't matter as it's already sold out. That's too bad because I was going to order two. FYI now you guys know what I want for Christmas.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Hip to be square

I was checking out Bryan Lee O'Malley's website the other day looking on any new info on Scott Pilgrim. I know I've mentioned it before but Scott Pilgrim is a cool comic and soon to be movie directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera. Anyway, he had a post about a website called Cube Craft that had a Scott Pilgrim paper doll.

Cube Craft is a website that has action figures that simply print out. Print out the page, then cute and fold them together. It's a pretty cool idea with the characters from movies, cartoons, video games, TV, etc. Some figures even come with accessories like the Stormtrooper has a blaster, Flexo has a bottle of beer and Jason Vorhees has a bloody machete. The Meatwad one is funny as he is just a box.

I would totally give it a try, but I don't have a printer. Well I do have a printer, but it's in a box under the stairs wait to be taken to the electronic recycling place. I don't work. But if I did, I would totally do it and so should you.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New music

It finally dawned on me that I hadn't changed the music player for a while, so decided I better get on it. It's easier than making an real post. I couldn't really decide what to put up, then I got a Pointed Sticks live CD in the mail a few weeks ago and decided to go with the awesome but little known Pointed Sticks.

The Pointed Sticks formed in 1978 in Vancouver and released a few singles and the album "Perfect Youth" but then disbanded in 1981. Sudden Death records re-issued "Perfect Youth" and a singles, outtakes, rarities album called "Waiting for the Real Thing." The reissues have sold pretty well in Japan and the band reunited to play shows in Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Japan and more recently the power pop festival in Austin, Texas. If you read anything about the Pointed Sticks they are usually referred to a new wave, but they seem a bit poppier I guess. Maybe because they had an organ? That is the abridged Pointed Sticks history. They are pretty cool, so check them out and support some Canadian musicians although it is like 28 years too late.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New crap

Hey, I've been lazy with the posts lately but it's only because nothing worthwhile has happened. My uncle Cam is in town from Taiwan for a visit and it's good to see him. He needed to get a few things done so on Thursday I drove him around in hopes of getting a few things scratched off his list.

First we went to the RCMP office because he needed a criminal ID check to apply for a permanent residency in Taiwan and when I was waiting I found and took this cool pen.

The terrorist tipline pen! I didn't know terrorism was so widespread in Canada that we needed to distribute pens with tipline numbers on them. Maybe there reason there is so little terrorism is because of the pens. It's a cool pen in a triangular shape with the tipline on one side, RCMP logo on the second and on the third side it says "Prevent Terrorism, Share Responsibility".

After the RCMP office we went to Inglewood to Kane's Harley-Davidson to look for a motorcycle helmet. Right across the street from Kane's is Crown Surplus, so I went in there to have a look. Remember my "Kill Em' All..." t-shirt? Cody got it from Crown for my birthday, I'll have to do all my Christmas shopping there. I'd really like to get a hand grenade, but they're pretty expensive, so I had to settle for a .50 caliber cartridge.


After Kane's/Crown we went looking for another motorcycle shop because they didn't have the helmet and on the way there we drove right by Bianca Amor's Liquidation Superstore so of course we went in. They still had a pile of DVDs all for $5 each and for some reason I bought Urban Legend. I saw this once like 10 years ago in theatre. It's funny because the cast was somewhat hip young stars ten years ago, but now not so much. Still I liked it in a cheesy sort of way.

Bianca Amor's had tons of pictures and stuff for cheap and most of them were of movies and celebrites and none of it officially licensed.

This Return of the Jedi picture was one of the best, they had a Rocky one that was kinda cool also. It's little small, but the picture is mounted on a piece of wood and for $3 is pretty cheap. They also had super big ones and had a Revenge of the Jedi and Raider of the Lost Ark. The Raiders one looked really crappy because it was obviously blown up from it's original size and the picture quality was pretty bad.

As I was waiting in line to pay for my purchases they had some snack food on the front tables and I saw something that looked too funny not to grab.

Wow, kinda like Toffifee only spelled different? The package was a rip off having only four pieces of Toffifay in it, but surprisingly it actually tasted just like Toffifee. Even the package is ripped off to look like Toffifee. The package is sitting on my bookshelf because I think it's funny.

Moving on... Elaine had told me about a used book sale for the MEOW Foundation which is a cat rescue organization. It was Friday and Saturday and as usual I didn't have anything else to do we went and checked it out Saturday morning. It was a little busier, but hearing from some other people it was a lot busier on Friday. I did find a few books, but I usually try to buy books that don't have that many words in them because it's not like I'm going to read them or anything.

Two X-Files books! I still haven't seen the X-Files movie and I guess I'll have to wait until it comes out on video now. I got volume 4 of the official guide to the X-Files and a X-Files novel. I also It Happened in Canada and Landforms which is a geography/geology type book. It Happened in Canada is book from the early 70's and full of weird trivia and stuff about Canada. I'm sure you've read this book or similar volumes in school.

Recognize it now?

In the picture of the books you'll also notice the Jackie Chan Thunderbolt DVD. Thunderbolt is the car racing one. The used book sale was near a Cash Converters and CC was having a sidewalk sale. Find some crap you want piled up outside and then spin the wheel to get 30-50% off your purchase. I found that Thunderbolt DVD for only $4.99 and ended up getting 30% off it. Not bad considering the DVD was still sealed. The nice thing about CC is that the usually sell old original XBox, GameCube and PS2 games for pretty cheap. I guess they older so therefore they are no good. I was tempted to get a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor GC game, but I'll hold off for now.

I had better take it easy or the new place will starting filling up with more new crap in no time.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Brothers gonna work it out

Last Tuesday saw the release of Brotherhood, a Chemical Brothers singles collection. They already issued a singles collection five years ago, so basically it's a cash grab. Of course the Bros throw in two new tracks and it's available in two versions, standard and a deluxe version with bonus disc. I think they just did the deluxe version to sucker in the fans who already have their previous albums and the other singles disc. Well it worked you bastards!


The deluxe version comes not in a jewel case, but a box which is kind of cool. Inside the box there is the album, booklet, a square postcard, and the bonus disc which contains the tracks Electronic Battle Weapon 1-10. I have a couple of the Electronic Battle Weapon tracks on other discs, but not all them so that is what suckered me in for this set.

Anyway, if you don't want to spend the $20 for the set I've uploaded the entire bonus disc and two new tracks for you at this link.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZKGTWVNV
The tracks are ripped as mp3s at 192kps and is around 80 minutes of music so it's a fairly big file, like 106MB big. That's not a problem because I know you all have hyper speed internet. In addition to the this, head on over to the Chemical Brothers website where you can download a free remix of Hey Boy, Hey Girl for free. Did I mention it was free?

Keep this on the downlow because I don't want to go to jail or pay some billion dollar fine for breaking copyright laws. I think as long as it's not Metallica, I should be okay. Lars spends his days visiting every single website on the internet looking for people distributing Metallica music. That guy was always weird. Cam are you gonna get their new album? Didn't they say "it's our best album yet"? I heard on the radio that it's out Friday which is weird and dumb. They were also boasting that they were gonna break the law and sell the album a day early at the Megatunes 17th Ave location only. That's it I'm telling Lars!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I don't get it.



I picked up that t-shirt at Giant Tiger when I was back in Cranbrook. I really wanted the "BEAM ME UP THIS PLACE SUCKS" shirt, but all they had left were size small. This shirt was my second choice and only $3, plus the phrase was stupid so I picked it up. I didn't really dawn on me until later that it didn't really make any sense.

If it had said "I'M LEAVING MY BODY TO SCIENCE" then it would made sense, but the science fiction part is just confusing. How can you leave your body to genre of fiction that spans multimedia like books, TV, art, movies, games, etc? Maybe that's the really funny part I just don't get. Can somebody explain it to me please?

Monday, September 1, 2008

Our crap shack just got crappier!!

Yeah, I got back to Calgary on Saturday and meant to do a post, but I got lazy. I came back and worked Sunday and then I got the holiday Monday off. This would be cause for celebration except they are putting new windows in all the units and Monday they were doing our windows! I don't know why they couldn't do this before we moved in. So we had to move everything away from the windows and take down any window coverings because if we don't and stuff gets broken it's our own damn fault.

This really screwed me up because I was planning on sitting around watching DVDs and playing Buffy and Black on the Xbox. Now I can't because we had to move the TV out from the window. So I spent the whole day pretty much doing nothing. I walked over to Canadian Tire and bought a duster and went to Home Outfitters and bought a pepper grinder or mill or whatever they're called. That took about half and hour. I wanted to buy this huge wooden pepper mill that was like a foot and a half tall. I mean you could beat someone to death with this thing, it was massive. The $30 price tag was a bit steep, but really you are getting a pepper mill and a baseball bat. I settled for the $13 pepper mill which isn't as cool but it still grinds pepper.

I went to Phoenix Comics and as I was walking by the dumpster I saw that they had thrown out some records and a stereo! They put the stereo on the ground by the dumpster probably so if someone wanted it they could just take it. It was a bookshelf sized stereo and I think it had a record player on it too. I considered taking it, but noticed it was a Memorex brand and then thought it would be best not to. It's not like I actually needed it or anything.

Back to the windows! I got home at like 2:30pm just as the guys we started working on the windows. I mean like generic "guys" because they weren't professionals or anything. I mean they took out the windows and put in the new ones. They didn't level or shim the new windows, they just put them where the old ones were and screwed them in. Plus they're not even sprayed foamed in the gaps between the window and the wall. I'm also wondering who is going to fix the drywall, paint it and put up new trim? Damn, it looks so ugly. I guess it's still not done yet as they still have one more window to install which will be done Tuesday. Hopefully, they'll clean up the ugly and spray foam the void around the sill or we will be freezing to death come winter.

I just want to watch TV again and shoot things...

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hey, everybody!

I'm in Cranbrook right now. I came back on Wednesday as my car needed an oil change and a muffler strap. Remember how the old one rusted through and broke? I had to come back before school started because if I didn't I wouldn't be able to get the time off.

Before I left on Wednesday I had to go to Toys'R'Us for my sister and since I was at the Market Mall location I went down to Play to look for a new CD to listen to on the drive to Cranbrook. Well, $60 later I ended up getting three CDs for the drive back to Cranbrook. First I got the new CSS album, Donkey, which is pretty good. Then I got Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff, the new remastered version with second disc of live tracks. Last I got the Weezer Blue album deluxe edition. The deluxe edition has been out for a few years now, but it's always been pretty expensive, but Play had a sale on all the similar deluxe albums so I picked it up. The main album has been remastered and the second disc is full of b-sides, live tracks, live acoustic tracks and demos. I listened to both discs on the drive back and forgot how much I really like this album. It just really shows how good old Weezer is and how much of a giant steaming turd the new Red album really is. I also got two free buttons with my purchase, a CSS and a Sup Pop button. That's $60 well spent.

For some reason whenever I come back to Cranbrook I always end up buying more crap and taking it back to Calgary with me. Today I bought some stuff at the thrift store, I got these cool vintage glasses which I'll post a picture of sometime in the future. I got two DVDs and bought some vinyl CD-Rs from Staples because for some reason the Staples near our place doesn't have them. I also got like five packages in the mail since I had them sent to my parent's place because when I was moving I didn't even know what the address for the new place was. From Blockbuster I got two Xbox games for $5 each! That's cheap and I actually picked up another copy of Black. Cody has it for the PS2, but it's all boxed up so I bought the Xbox version to get my shoot up fix. Cam, if you haven't tried this game then you should! It's not perfect, but it's all about the guns and blowing stuff up. The sound is killer loud on it, I love going nuts with the AK-47. Plus you can shoot dudes in the groin. Check it out. I hear they are working a sequel, I sure hope so.

I was walking downtown and saw this new place called the Redneck Cafe. What an appropriate name. I guess next we'll need a Whitetrash Diner. Oh wait, we already got Denny's. Oh snap!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Good Luck Chuck

While I was packing up stuff for the move I discovered a few things I totally forgot I even had which was a nice a surprise. Cleaning out our closet I found some posters rolled up in the very back. There was a Daredevil poster that I think I meant to give to Willie, but never actually did and now it's in the recycling bin. Sorry Willie! The real hidden gem in there was a Chuck Norris poster. I had bought this LONG ago from the Movie Poster Shop when it was marked down to only $1. A Chuck Norris poster for only $1? Nobody can resist that! It's super cheesy and somehow cool and I knew I had to put it up at the new place. I went out and bought a (cheap) frame and now it resides on the feature wall of the TV/living room.


Not just any Chuck Norris poster, but a Braddock: Missing In Action III poster! That's the one where Chuck goes back to Vietnam to rescue his wife and son and his gun has a knife that pops out of the barrel. I had originally just hung the poster up, but Cody took it a step further by mounting the gun next to it for some extra kick (so to speak). I guess now I'll have to put my Chuck Norris crystal under it too to complete the ass kicking set. For more Chuck Norris fun visit ChuckNorrisFacts.com and make your own custom Chuck t-shirt!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Take a guess

Here is a picture from my kitchen cupboard that is full of cereal. Only four of those boxes have cereal in them. Can you guess which ones?


Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure which boxes have cereal in them. I'll have to go check...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

BARF!

Things are going okay in the new place. It is still insanely hot at night, but today and for the next few days it's supposed to cool down. Thank god summer is almost over. Still haven't unpacked much in the way of CDs, DVDs, book, etc. I'm not sure if I actually will either.

With my Wii now online I went out and bought some Wii points and the first thing I downloaded was River City Ransom for the virtual console. It plays exactly like the original NES version except now it has a save feature, so it's even better! It always had a save feature in the form out a password that was huge and exhausting to fill out. I actually have a password somewhere that has my character's attributes maxed out and has all the good techniques like stone hands, dragon feet, and grand slam. Unfortunately, it is written in a notebook that is packed up somewhere. It ia a classic game that deserves a reworking on the Wii. It's perfect for the motion control because you can swing with Wii-mote like a bat and beat people down. That would be fun right??


I also downloaded Dr. Mario Online Rx from WiiWare. The virtual console offers game from previous systems like NES, Neo Geo, Sega, and N64 while WiiWare offers new games for download. Dr.Mario is pretty much the same game as the classic NES version with some crisper graphics and a couple new gameplay modes plus the addition of being able to compete against people online. After I downloaded it I played it for the first time in many years and it started on level 10 and I was totally screwed up after about 30 seconds. I had to quit and start back on the level 1 and work my way back up I was so out of shape. The music is still catchy though!

There aren't that many other games to download that I'm interested in except maybe Paper Mario from the N64. There is a WiiWare game coming out soon where you have to kill zombie zoo animals that sounds promising. Killing zombie anythings sounds promising. They are also working on Mega Man 9 which will be done old school 8 bit style, but I think that game will be available on all systems .

Cody got the wifi adapter for his XBox 360, so he is now on XBox Live. I gave Halo 3 a try and it was fun for a few minutes, but after getting repeatedly killed it started to be less fun. I did kill more guys on Halo than I did playing Medal of Honor on the Wii. MOH can be frustrating because you can empty an entire Thomson clip into a guy and he is still running around and then he shoots you once and you're dead. Not cool.

XBox Live is nice because you can set your playing style or level from family to recreation or to the more hardcore. That way if you are a newbie you won't have to worry about being thrown into a deathmatch with hardcore gamers who can kill with a single pistol shot to the head before you take two steps.

I also just found this on eBay check it out.
River City Ransom auction
I still have my copy of the game and the box, but managed to lose the instruction booklet. I wonder how much I could get for it, not like I'd ever sell it.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

We're in

We got all moved into the new place on Saturday and it was surprisingly easy. Cody and I had moved everything over before hand that we could cram in a car leaving only the big items. My parents came down Friday night, but showed up on Saturday morning and it only took four trips to move everything. We are all in and trying to get unpacked and organized now. Also it is friggin' hot in here!

The weather has been pretty warm the past few days and the new place is pretty hot. I guess I've spent the past five years living in a nice cool basement suite, so it is a bit of a system shock to be in a hot stuffy townhouse. I'm really looking forward to winter.

As I said we now have Shaw for our cable, internet and phone. We have a temporary phone number until Telus releases our old number, but I won't bother giving that out because no one is going to call me anyway. I did get a new e-mail address though. Shaw gives us a couple e-mail accounts, but I didn't know that and it's in Cody's name. Elaine sent me an invite (thanks!) for a gmail account so I got one of those. My new e-mail address is originalkeef@gmail.com. It was a pain in the ass coming up with an account name that wasn't already taken, but in the end I came up with a good one. Who cares about keef272 or keefguy69 when I'm the originalkeef? Wannabes.

Since we got the fast Shaw internet I finally got around to hooking my Wii up for online play. I basically only really did because I wanted to download River City Ransom for the virtual console. I can also play Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 and Super Smash Bros online, but I totally suck and will get my ass whupped. I bought a wireless Linksys router and after some fiddling it actually worked. I haven't gotten any Wii Points yet, but tried out MOH online and totally died, but I managed to kill a couple guys. I totally sniped this guy in the head, it was sweet. Anyway, when I was setting up the connection the Wii system searches for access points and like 6 came up! Living in a bunch of townhouses I guess lots our our neighbors have wireless too. One place even didn't make their wireless secure, so you can connect to it without a signon/password. Smart!

With everything in place here now comes the hard part of unpacking. I've got like three sets of empty shelving units, but don't want to fill them up right away. I want to put out some stuff, but only certain DVDs/CDs/books. The other stuff can stay boxed up in the basement. The thing is I just don't want to do it, it's too much work. It's just easier not to do it. Right now the basement is the biggest mess with boxes and crap everywhere. Some of it is garbage, cardboard, boxes that need to be unpacked and empty boxes that have already been unpacked. It'll get all sorted out probably when we move out.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Moving target

It's been a week since last post and it's been a mix of laziness and moving. My eye is fine and I used it to go watch The Dark Knight at the IMAX. The movie was pretty good and yes , Heath Ledger was good as the Joker. Still the movie has been over hyped and Ledger won't be getting an Oscar for it. Nobody would be saying anything if he hadn't died, sorry dude.

Moving is going slowly, a little bit gets moved every day. This Saturday is when we completely move everything. At first I was packing certain things in certain boxes as to not mix stuff up, but now it's like "whatever" and just throw everything/anything in a box together. I think most of my stuff will stay boxed up in the basement leaving my shelves empty to be restocked. I'll take out certain CDs and DVDs, but the bulk can stay boxed up.

We are dumping Telus and switching to Shaw for our TV, internet, and phone. We still get our old phone number, but we have to wait a couple weeks until Telus releases it. Until then we have a temporary phone number, but I'm not sure what it is. Cody wrote it down somewhere. I'll also lose my old telus.net e-mail address, so after Friday I won't be able to get e-mails to that address. Use my Hotmail until I set something else up, I'll see what happens.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I got something in my eye.

This afternoon at work a guy was in from Display Fixtures (refrigeration repair/maintenance) to look at the ice machine in the department. Apparently, somebody said the ice machine chute needed work or cleaning or something. He asked me about it and I said they always think it's moldy, but it's just calcium build up. We went back to chute and he was under the chute looking up saying he can't see anything. He gets out of the way so I can have a look. I get under there and look up to see what's going on. Little did I know the guy had sprayed a bunch of degreaser cleaning agent up the chute a few minutes earlier. Of course when I looked up a single drop of degreaser falls down right under my glasses and directly into my eye!


Funny story is that ever since the store was built like 10-12 years ago or whatever there hasn't been an eyewash bottle station in the department. Lucky for me they installed one last week! I got to be the first one to try it out and it even works too. It stung pretty good and turned my eye instantly bloodshot red. I flushed it out for a minute and it started to feel better. Then I had to fill out an accident report on myself.

Even though my eye was feeling better I decided after work to go see the optometrist just in case. I don't want to wake up Thursday morning with my eye falling out. The doctor said my eye had some superficial surface irritation which means I'm gonna live!! She did give me some eye drops to keep my eye moist. I'm not one to be touching my eyes which is why I don't have contacts, I've never even given myself eye drops before. So at home I'm trying to put the eye drops in and I'm blinking or missing my eye altogether. It's pretty stupid or I'm pretty stupid...whichever. After a few tries I manage to get a drop or some of a drop in there. The doctor said my eye should be fine tomorrow and I hope it is because we're planning on going to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX. I'll be needed both my eyes to see the HUGE screen!

Did you like my picture up there? It's totally fake suckers! I just made my eye look red with my amazing MS Paint skills. I'm getting good. It's also a blooper of sorts because I made the left eye appear red when it was my right eye that got the stuff in it. Oops.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Not again!!

It begins again!! Welcome to my 101st post which is me complaining about ripping another pair of pants. I'm sure you all remember last time I ripped a pair of pants at work. After that I went out and bought the exact same brand of pants, so I was shocked SHOCKED I tell youwhen they ripped again. Damn you Old Navy!


Yeah, another ass rip. I went over to the meat department and borrowed their duct tape for a quick fix. I had another hour left at work, but it did the job and I don't think it's that noticeable. Right? I guess I'm shopping for some new work pants after the weekend, just not at Old Navy. You won't get me again!

I was bored, so I made this picture that recreates how the rip happened. It's pretty stupid which is why I think it's funny.


MS Paint rulz!