There is what, inside where?

I got back to Calgary on Tuesday and it wasn't exciting or anything, so there isn't anything to report.  Except right before I left the price of gas jumped like 7 cents in Cranbrook from 120.0 to 127.9!  Then I got back to Calgary and the price was still the same as when I left.

Anyway, my sister made me some cookies to take home with me.

Chocolate chip!

They look pretty big and lumpy, but there is a good reason for it.

There is another cookie inside that cookie!  She made chocolate chip cookies with Oreos inside them. but they are so big you can only eat one at a time.  You are actually eating two cookies, not just one.  The cookies are soft too considering there is an Oreo inside them.  The bottom line is that they are pretty good.  I should talk to my sister about taking it a step further and using Double Stuff Oreos.  Pure awesome!

Gaze into the future...

As I said in my previous post I was digging around in my many boxes of crap and found one my old electronics projects from high school.  In Grade 12 for the first semester I took Electronics 11, then for the second semester I took Electronics 12.  In Electronics 11, I had Kristian for my partner and Willie was in our class too who got paired up with Mark.  I still think swapping out Mark's solder with a bare wire was pure classic.  We just sat there watching and waiting as he's trying to solder with the wire.  He's heating it up with soldering iron, but nothing is happening and then like minutes later he goes, "Ow!" and drops the wire.  I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, the first semester we had Mr. Stevely as our teacher, but for the second semester Stevely was out on medical leave, so we had some clown of a substitute teacher.  Nobody really listened to him and everyone just did whatever they wanted, so very little learning was done.  I liked to go through some of the project kits and schematics to see what kind of cool stuff we could make.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the components to make anything cool like a FM transmitter or fish attractor, but I did make a fortune teller.

I actually didn't make the case for it.  I found the case in the electronics room, I guess someone had planned to use it for something and didn't get around to it.  I just took it because it was the perfect size for my kit to fit inside it.  I did all the other stuff though...with some help from Cam.

I was a little scared plugging this into the wall and turning it on to see if it still worked after all these years.  I wasn't sure if it would blow up, electrocute me or both.  The electrical tape on the power cord and the fact that it doesn't have a ground wasn't helping.  Since I'm here writing this you know that I'm okay and not in the emergency room, also it works!

The toggle switch on the right is the power switch or as I like to call it, the "on/off" switch.  The button on the left is the "destiny" button.

I really dressed it up with some "YES" and "NO" labels and a cut out of some lady with a crystal ball.  I cut that lady out of an ad in the World Weekly News.  Nice, right?

It's all powered up and ready to work it's magic.  Once you plug it in and turn it on, both lights will light up.  Once you push the button the front only one light with light up, hence your "answer".  Let's give it a try and ask some questions.

Q: Is tomorrow Tuesday?

Q: Will Cam eat at Arby's in the near future?

Q: Will Cara think Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is the greatest movie ever made?

Q: Will Willie ever get out of bed before noon?

Well, so far it seems to working, so let's keep going and get to the good stuff.

Q: Will I meet a hot girl soon?

Q: Will I meet a hot girl eventually?

Q: Dammit! Will I ever meet anyone of the female persuasion?

Q: Double Dammit!!  Will I at least win the lottery?

Q: What the freakin' hell?!  Do you want to end up like the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Maker set?

I guess it told me everything I already suspected, I was just hoping for some good news to help keep me going.  If you have anything to ask just let me know!

Can I have your autograph?

I went skiing again on Sunday and the weather was a little better.  It wasn't foggy, but after lunch it was really windy and snowing ice crystals, so going up the quad sucked.  Of course I had a toque and goggles on, but with the wind driving the ice right into my uncovered face, it kinda hurt.  Then we went to the backside where it was sunny.  The Easter triple is still there, but there is also the Tamarack double chair in the back which is lower down than the Easter.  The back isn't bad, still a lot of traversing, but it was like that back in the old days.

I had to go through all my crap because I had like seven Star Wars comics I wanted to put in my box.  Of course the box with all the other Star Wars comics was under the stairs at the back and on the bottom of all my other stuff.  I had to pull a bunch of crap out so I could get to it.  I did get it out and I only need 4 more issues to complete the run of the old Star Wars comics from Marvel.  Since I was pulling out stuff I had to look at the boxes to remind myself of all the cool stuff I got.  Here is some stuff I have that is autographed.

I got this Weezer autographed picture when I joined the Weezer fan club way back in 1997.  I think it was '97.  Rivers' signature is a little smudgy and you can't even see Patrick's because he signed it in black pen over top of himself in black shirt.

Jeff got this for me when he met Craig Kelly(RIP) at some ski store in Idaho.  This is from WAY back in the day.  If you read the inscription it says "Rip it up Kieth".  He spelled my name wrong!  It was more Jeff's fault than his, damn Jeff.

This is a picture of the Vancouver band, The Smuggles, signed by their signer Grant Lawrence.  The Smugglers were signed to Vancouver label, Mint Records and I knew that a couple of them even worked there like Grant and Beez.  I knew this because I was watching  Much West one day and TDM went the Mint Records offices and was talking to Grant.  I had sent in a mail order with letters, money orders and stamps because that's how we did it in the old days.  I asked Grant if he could send me a Smugglers picture which he did!

The Smugglers aren't around anymore, but you can still catch Grant on his CBC Radio 3 show.

I dragged Kiki to see a spoken word thing from X-Files superstar William B. Davis aka Cancer Man at the U of C.  I wasn't that bad as he talked about the show and his view about some the stuff from the show like aliens and did some Q and A.  After it was over he was signing stuff, so we got in line which was pretty long.  Just as it was about our turn to meet him the fire alarm goes off and we all have to leave.  He was cool about it and suggested everyone leave and he would return after it was cleared up.  About 30 seconds after we got outside the fire alarm was turned off and we went back inside and back in line.  After all that we were almost the last people to get to meet him and his signing hand must've been pretty tired.  He's got that entire ffwd paper cover to sign on and only does a little tiny squiggle under his chin.  I also got him to sign my ticket.

SLOAN!  Signed stickers and ticket stub from when we went to Edgefest.  Chris Murphy didn't sign my ticket stub, what a snob.  We went through the tent and I got them sign the back of some Navy Blues promo stickers then we went around and back through the tent again and got my ticket stub signed.  Jay looked at me funny because I had just been there a couple minutes earlier.  That trip was funny because Willie got totally sunburned.

I found my William B. Davis signed ticket in a different box with the Sloan stuff.  I knew I had one.  The date is Tuesday Feb 23, 1999.

Just for the hell of it, the highly prized Brenda Walsh rookie card!

Detailed Report #1 of 10

As I said in my last post that on Friday I planned to hit all the Cranbrook hot spots and I hit them HARD.  I went to AABCO and I also went to the other pawn place down on the end of the strip by Sandor Rental.  I actually don't even know what the place is called, but I like it better than AABCO.  The biggest reason is because it's cheaper.  XBox 360, Wii and PS3 games are only $10.  Blu-Rays are $5 or 3 for $10 while DVDs are $2.50 or 10 for $20.  Also, the place and merchandise doesn't reek like cigarette smoke which is always nice.  I went looking for the ever elusive Star Wars Battlefront II for the original XBox, but I was outta luck.  I did get Red Dead Remdeption: Undead Nightmare.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it, but I'll give it a try.  I don't have the attention span for open world video games.

I checked out the brand new thrift store which is just down from my dad's shop in the old Atlas Parts building.  It's one of  those Bibles For Missions thrift stores, they are chain or something.  There is one of those over near where we live in Calgary.  I go there once in a while, but think it's pretty lame that they actually charge you GST.  That's the first thrift and only thrift store I've been to that's charged me GST.   I also went to Liquidation World, but they were all out of Jiffy Pop.

My dad and I went to Spice Hut for lunch.  It's located in what's left of the Cranbrook Mall.  We ate there once previously for dinner and the place was pretty dead for being dinner, but lunch was busier.  I can't remember what I got, chicken something, but it was pretty good and it seemed pretty spicy even though I only  asked for medium.  I would be scared to eat something "hot" there.

I also went to the Hospital Auxiliary and bought a couple new magnets for my fridge and a Beastie Boys CD.  I found the Ch-Check It Out promo single that only has two songs on it, the clean version of the song and an a cappella version.  Then I drove all around town blaring the a cappella version.  Listen to that awesome bass man!  People who drive around with music cranked up always listen to rap/r'n'b or something bass-y.  Don't you think it would be funny to drive around with some classical or jazz music cranked up and look all ghetto?

I didn't go to Giant Tiger or Pages, but only because I'll need something to do on Monday.  It went and started snowing Friday night and then into Saturday, so there was a few inches of fresh snow Saturday morning.  It's not that cold, so it was a bit heavy.

I still went skiing and it was pretty busy in morning, but after lunch it died down a bit.  I guess everyone wanted to get there early in the morning and get in some powder.  I haven't been to the ski hill since they changed it all up and I have to say I don't like it!  I liked the old days when they had three lifts at the base, but now since they moved the base down there is only one quad lift.  Also, there is only one way to get to that quad, so it's a big bottleneck near the bottom.  The quad goes to where to the old double chair used to go, but if you want to go down the Dreadnaught or Rosa you have traverse over to it and then cut back over farther down.  I just want to ski down the hill, not be cutting across it all the time.

I had to use my dad's skis and boots since I don't have my own.  I survived and I'm surprised that I'm not that sore.  Well, my legs aren't sore, but my feet are from the ski boots.  It's been a long since I've had to wear them and my shins aren't liking it.  I'm going up again Sunday and if they get the powder all groomed down the runs will be pretty good.  Carveable bro!

Later!

Road trip!!

I drove back Cranbrook yesterday and I'll be here until Tuesday.  It was supposed to snow a little, but it didn't so the roads were fine on the drive down.  I came back in time for my dad's birthday dinner.  He is old.   I don't have any plans for today, so I'll be checking out all the hotspots like the thrift store and pawn shop.  Look forward to detailed report.  Then, Saturday I'm going skiing at Kimberley.

Here is a pro-tip for everyone out there with two things you need in your car for an extended drive anywhere.

Red Bull!  It keeps you "sharp" on those long boring drives.  Too bad it tastes so bad.  Try not to drink the entire can at once or else you could crash(ha!) later on.  Also, you'll need to go to the bathroom.

I keep these Pepto Bismo pills in my car after I ate a gas station sandwich once with disastrous results.  I should've known better, but I ignored my better judgment and bought a sandwich from the gas station in Nanton.  Lesson learned and I will never buy another sandwich from a gas station ever!  EVAR!

My brother went out and bought a PS3, so now I have something to play with when I'm home.  He's got Netflix and Apple TV, so I got stuff to watch.  He does have COD: Modern Warfare 3, but it's not like I want to play that.  Instead I bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 from the discount rack at work.  There aren't many people playing it anymore with BF3 out, but it's still fun and there are a lot of things I miss about it.  Surprisingly, the destruction is way better and more satisfying in BC2.

Also, not one person wants any of my free stuff?  I thought at least a couple of those items were pretty cool.  Apparently, my stuff is so lame I can't even give it away.

Up 4 Grabs

I've been going through a bunch of my junk trying to get rid of a few things.  So far I've set aside a few things, but mostly small stuff, so it doesn't look like I'm getting rid of too much.  Still every little bit counts!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but probably pass it onto my sister who will sell it at a garage sale or something.

I just want to get rid of it and would rather give it to someone who would appreciate it and use it then sell it for a couple bucks.  Here are a few choice items, so if you want something speak up!

Discmaster DVD player - my uncle got this for me in Taiwan.  It's a small DVD player that only has RCA hookups because it's so damn old.  It is an all region DVD player, so it will play DVDs from anywhere, even PAL discs.  Remote is in Chinese, but if you have two brain cells to rub together you can figure it out.  I even have the instruction book for it.


Philips DVD player - another DVD player!  This is a set top player and it does have HDMI outputs.  I've hacked it so it's an all region player and plays PAL discs.  This player is so awesome I have two!  Download video files from the internet, burn the raw files to DVD and the player will play them.  Also, I've had some used discs that wouldn't play on my main DVD player, but the Philips would play them.  If this player won't play your DVD, then nothing will.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky DVD - a classic!  I've upgraded this cinematic masterpiece to the breathtaking beauty of 1080pee Blu-Ray.   The way it was meant to be seen!

Apple iPod shuffle - I have to give this away, but nobody would actually pay money for it!  A old school stick style shuffle complete with Godzilla stickers all over it.  Nice!

Misc crap - Fight Club DVD, Cody bought me the Blu-Ray, so the DVD is no longer need.  Sorry old chum.  Shogun Assassin 3 - Japanese flick.  There are samurai and blood, that's all you need to know.  Cromartie High School Vol 1. - Weird/odd/funny anime about high school.  It's hard to describe.  Space: Above and Beyond the complete series.  One of those FOX tv shows that only lasted one season.  The effects are dated, but the series was enjoyable.  The finale really pissed me off when I learned there wasn't going to be a second season.  Damn cliffhangers!  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The original film all fancied up and comes in a swanky metal case.

Let me know if you want some of this crap and if you pass my background checks then it's all yours.

Stick 'em up

Cam and Mike, I hope you guys are enjoying your Monday, working hard and all that.  I'm kicking it because it's a holiday here in Alberta.  Haha, stupid BC!  To help make things a little better here is a post about something everybody likes, stickers.  Before I've shown you my old old school stickers from when I was a kid and then my regular old school stickers from my skating and mountain biking days.   It's time to update with a look at the current stickers I have.

My old skate stickers are housed in an old Nike shoebox while my new stickers are sitting in a plain white envelope that won't even close because it's so full.   I never said it was exciting!

They may not all be cool, but the best part about them is that they were totally free.  I've picked these up from records stores and from stuff I've ordered online.

Some cool Canadian Space Agency stickers and some puffy Canada stickers.

Touch and Go Records!

I wish I remember where I got this from because I'd like another one.  Scooters are cool, deathtraps but still cool.

Bands!

More bands!

Don't get mad, get free Scott Pilgrim stickers.

Even more bands, Japanese ones this time.  The red one is a Guitar Wolf sticker that Murray got me when he saw them play in Seoul.

Maybe I sorta paid for these stickers as they came on a pair of Vans and Gordini ski goggles I bought.  Still I bought the products, not the stickers, they were just a nice bonus.

I saved the best for last.  While this one is definitely my favorite, but I would be willing to trade it if you had something really good.

Do the robot!

A couple weeks ago I was watching TV and since it was 6 pm I was watching CITY TV.  Weekdays at 6 pm on City they the video game/entertainment news show called EP Daily followed by the video game review show Reviews on the Run at 6:30 pm.  I could watch the news, but instead I choose to watch something important!  Head over to EP website to see the segments for yourself.

I was watching EP Daily and they had a piece on a company called My Robot Nation.  At their website you can sign up and use their robot creator software to make your own robot right from your browser.  Note: The robot creator software wouldn't run in Firefox, but works with Chrome.  The cool part is that when you make your robot online, My Robot Nation makes the robot in real life.  They use 3D printers to physically make your robot.  Awesome!

Since I'm writing about it then you know I had to go make my very own robot.  While I had seen 3D printers on TV,  I've never seen the finished results in real life so I was interested to see how it would turn out.  The prices range from $14.99 for a 2" robot to $169.99 for a 6" robot.  Since I'm poor as dirt I went with a 3" robot for $24.99.  You can choose from several different styles of bodies, heads and appendages.  Then you can more parts, stamps and colors.  When I was making mine I kept adding all sorts of crap on it, but then decided he looked too cluttered and took most of the stuff off.  Choosing the colours was pretty hard, so went with good old blue and black.  I have no sense of style.  Once you done you get to name your robot and save it to My Robot Nation where they start making/printing it.

Once your robot has been made and shipped they send a picture of the finished product.  At the naming stage I came up with the totally lame and unoriginal "Coolbot".  Please go to My Robot Nation and "like" him.   I should've named him something cool like Walter.

Coolbot arrived in the mail today and I have to say they package the robots pretty well.  He was all rolled up in what looks like a roll of toilet paper.

Yes, there is a robot in there somewhere.

There he is!

Fun in the sun!

The robots are basically made from plaster of paris.  After they are made and cleaned they are covered in a couple layers of coatings to help make them stronger.  Still, don't drop in on the floor or it's toast.  Coolbot does have bit of granular texture to him.

After I finished making Coolbot and had him sent to be made I was looking at other robots people had made and thought "How come my robot doesn't look that cool?"  I still love him, he is one of a kind and I designed him myself.  Eventually I would like to make another one.  If I do I will probably go a bit crazier with the design.  A robot with a bow tie?  Oh yes!

Right in my eye!

On February 23 I'm planning on going back to Cranbrook for a few days.  While I'm there I'm hopefully going skiing.  Logan and Avery are getting pretty good and I hear Avery is a total maniac on skis.  He gets off the lift, starts going and doesn't stop until he either crashes or gets to the bottom of the hill.  He doesn't wait anybody.  I still don't all have my own equipment, so I'll have to use my dad's skis and boots, but everything else I do have. 

The one thing bugging me about going skiing (other than breaking my legs) are my glasses.  I can't wear my glasses under my goggles because they won't even fit and I'll look totally uncool.  Yesterday I went to Iris, the most expensive glasses place ever, and asked about getting some contacts.  They tested my eyes and set me up with some disposable contacts because they are something I don't plan on wearing all the time.  I have never had contacts before just because I'm not all that exciting about touching my eye balls.

When I got around to putting them in or trying to put them in for the first time it was a little frustrating.   The guy at Iris explained how to do it but I was blinking at the last second, or the contact was catching on my huge eye lashes.  I started with the left eye and it seemed like it was taking forever and I couldn't get the damn thing.  I almost gave up.  Then I switched to the right contact and after a couple tries I actually got it in.  Success!  I went back to the left side and managed to get it in too.  They felt okay, but my eyes were tired now from all the poking.  Getting them out was a piece of cake and I wish putting them in was that easy.  I took me about 20 seconds to take both contacts out.  Well if putting them in is so hard, taking them out has to be easier.

They gave me a few trail pairs to see how I like them.  If they work out I can get some more, if not I can try a different type of contact.  I'll be attempting to put them in later on today, so hopefully I can pull it off.  At least I know taking them out is easy.

Happy Valentine's Day

Chips Ahoy!

I was getting groceries the other day and walking down the chip aisle because I was feeling like a snack.  I was going by the Doritos when I saw this shiny bag and thought, "That looks gross, I'm going to get it."

Onion Ring N'Ketchup?  That is a rather odd flavor.   Doritos seems to be running out of "normal" flavors, so it seems like when you see a new flavor it's something weird like this.  They must have some super computer that runs the Doritos flavor randomizer to help them come up with new flavors.  The computer probably takes up an entire room, uses the power consumption of a small town and takes a full day to to process commands, but in the end you get stuff like onion rings n'ketchup! 

I'll admit it actually wasn't that bad.  I couldn't really taste the onion rings, but the ketchup was there and they left your finger tips all red.  I won't buying another bag again, but I did manage to eat them all, unlike the PC Hotdog chips.

Cody got these Doritos and I liked the old school look of the bag.  The back of the bag talks about how they're back for a limited time in a retro bag.  I didn't even know the Taco flavored Doritos had left, but it's nice that they're back because they taste (and smell) just as I remember they do.  Get some!

RC

Back in November when I had my kidney stone removed my parents came up to Calgary and they were at my place for a bit.  They were watching TV, but weren't quite sure how to because of the pile of remotes I have.  You have to use three remotes just to turn on the TV and start watching cable.  Despite that fact that I could just use a universal remote to control all my electronics and make things a lot easier I opt not to have one and have a pile of remotes littering my coffee table.  Then at Christmas my parents gave me a remote control caddy to keep all the remotes organized. 

The remote caddy in action and as you can see it is already full.  It holds remotes for the TV, cable box, DVD player, Blu-Ray and receiver as well as Rambo.  Yep, Rambo!  Rambo is hiding out behind the cable box remote.

There he is, all snuggled in the middle with the Philips DVD remote.  I'm assuming he is Rambo II: First Blood era Rambo because he has the jade necklace on.  I guess he could be from Rambo III because he didn't give the necklace away until the end of the film, but I liked Rambo 2 better, so we'll say he's from Rambo 2.

Arial recon view.

I should get one of these.  For that price I'd expect it to work all my electronics, start my car, do my laundry and get me a drink and popcorn.  Now you guys know what to get me for next Christmas.