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.

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!

Transform and roll out!

INTO MY STOMACH!

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.

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.

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.

nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

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!

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.

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.