Follow up

This is just a quick post to get some feedback from you guys regarding your Christmas gifts.  It's been over a month and I'm wondering if you've had to time to check out any of the stuff on your USB flash drives.  I know it's a lot of stuff to go through and it might take some time, but I'd like to know what, if anything on there you guys liked.  I'm sure out of the 8 GB of stuff you found at least one thing on there you didn't hate.

This is totally off topic, but I just noticed that Kristian (remember that guy?) posted a comment on the Thrill Seeker Rules post, so "Hey dude, what's up?!"  I'm sure Mike pointed it out to him via Facebook or something. 

Whaaaaa?

This quote was taken from an article in the Globe and Mail on January 23rd.

Better late than never?

For Christmas 2011 I did a holiday countdown with the Star Wars Lego advent calendar.  It was an easy was of getting posts done and was a little fun.  Everybody loved it...I think.  This past Christmas I didn't bother doing it again because I was too cheap to buy the $40 set.  On Saturday I was at Chinook Mall and went into the Lego store there and found the Star Wars 2012 advent calendar on the cheap!

 It's back!

Yes, it's late, but think of it as being early for next year.   It's nice to find something cheap as everything in that store is expensive as I almost bought an A-Wing Lego kit, but it was $30.  I didn't even bother looking at the huge kits for the B-Wing and Executor.  I'll just wait until I find their empty boxes at the recycle bins.

It went from $39.99 to $12.48, that's the kind of markdowns I like.  It looks like this is the second markdown too as the $12.48 is on top of another sticker.  I wonder if I go back in a month if it will be any cheaper?

There is flap that folds down to reveal and big snow scene with spoilers of some of the kits you are going to get.  From this and the front I see a lot of vehicles from Episode 1-3 and I'm not liking it.

The good news is that there are two exclusive holiday themed figures in the advent calendar!  I will take guess that the Darth Maul in the Santa suit is one of them.

The put this disclaimer on the 2012 box, but I don't remember seeing it on the 2011 advent calendar.  Last year's calendar opened up to show a space battle scene and multiple tie fighters, but I was bummed when I only got one inside the calendar.  "But the box clearly shows three tie fighters, but I only got one inside my calendar.  I demand three!"  Maybe they had a bunch of complaints, so put that on there to avoid the wrath of angry mothers.

So be prepared because starting this Friday, February 1st, the 2012 Star Wars Lego advent calendar will commence.  Don't miss a day!

Cake walk

I was out buying some groceries and I grabbed a Dr. Oetker's pizza for dinner.  BTW does anyone know exactly what Oetker's doctorate is in?  Anyway, I was reading the back of the pizza box and it had a coupon for some new Dr. Oetker's product.

So it's a cake that you make inside a coffee mug and "cook" the microwave all in five minutes?  Awesome, I gotta try this!  Of course it turns out I waited a bit before I ate the pizza then I cut out the coupon and set it on top of the microwave and forgot about it for a bit.

Eventually I did remember my coupon and picked up my Dr. Oetker's Mug Cake.  Each box contains packets to make two mug cakes and comes in Chocolate Sensation and Caramel Sensation.

The instructions and pretty simple, but you don't need me to tell you that I screwed it up. I know you know I did.  The first step is to "grease a standard mug" but it doesn't say what viscosity or grade of grease to use.  I wasn't sure what to do, so I just used margarine.

I greased my mug, added my milk, mix and stirred it up.  Now to "bake" it.

It doesn't look as fancy as it does in the photo, but I followed all the directions, so it should work right?  It still looks so plain, it needs something more.  But what??

Bacon icing from Gummi Boutique!  Since the box contained two packets I made one and then had Cody eat it first to see if it killed him or whatever.

Good thing I made Cody try his first as only half the cake was actually cooked.  The top half was cake and the bottom half was brown goo which is probably why it didn't rise much.   The instructions said to microwave it for 1:15 minutes, so when I did mine I put it in for longer.  Unfortunately, I still didn't put it in for long enough as the bottom quarter of it was all goo.  Also, I thought the bacon icing was gross, it tasted too bitter.

What a letdown!  The mug cakes didn't turn out and even the bacon icing was gross.  Dammit, I need some Crave to cleanse my palate.

Cool as ice

While I was at Another Dimension last week I picked up some goodies and I already wrote about my $6 paper Superman figure.  The other thing I got was Star Wars themed and you could say it's really "cool".

It's a silicone ice cube tray from Kotobukiya. As you can see it's Han Solo frozen in carbonite, so it seems pretty fitting.  They also had a few other ice cube tray designs of R2-D2 and X-Wings.  Kotobukiya is a Japanese company that usually makes kick ass figures/statues, but they also do fun things like these ice cube trays and even light saber chopsticks.

The tray makes six small Hans and one larger size Han cube.  Kotobukiya also makes a tray that makes just a single giant Han Solo cube that is about 10 inches tall and 6 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep in size.  You must need a BIG glass to put that in. 

The idea is pretty awesome, but the small Hans don't show much detail once you take them out of the tray.  They just had a few raised bumps and that is all.  The larger cube, shown above, is a little better as you can actually make the details and see Han in there.  Maybe if some colouring was added to the water it would help make the details stand out more?

A few Han Solo cubes will keep your Galactic space drink nice and cold.  They also work in Hawaiian Punch.

Refreshing!

Gutterball

Every few years I regale you with stories and pictures of a new rad pair of my shoes.  First it was my Marky Ramone Vans, then it was my Converse Ramones and then...well that's it.  That short list just got a little bit longer with my recent acquisition of a sweet pair of bowling shoes.

I found these at Value Village today and while they are used they are still in extremely good shape.   They look almost brand new with little to no scuffs and good thing they have the anti-bacterial liners.

A classy pairs of Dexters who are considered to make the Mercedes of bowling shoes.  Okay, I don't know, I just made that up.

I think they are a size 11.

Rentals?  Does that means someone rented them at the bowling alley and then stole them?

The biggest disadvantage to bowling shoes is that they have no traction all at.  If wore these outside right now it would be a death sentence.  I'll have to wait until summer or figure out something I can do with the soles.  After a little research online I've seen you can get replacement soles that glue on from smooth to ones with actual traction.  My shoes just have felt under the toe area, so anything would be an improvement.

I am one step closer to becoming a hipster with these bowling shoes, but don't worry it will never happen because there is no way I'll ever be able to fit into a pair of skinny jeans.

Shock it to me

This is one of those posts I've meant to do, but never got around to it.  When I say I've "meant" to do it, that means I've meant to do for five or six years.  I think may have mentioned it on my old MySpace blog, but I can't remember and I can't double check as that blog is officially history.

I saw this at Giant Tiger and thought it was absolutely hilarious, but I didn't buy it at the time.  Eventually, I caved in and had to have it, so I got my sister to pick it up for me.  I had all the intentions of Cody and I trying it out and I would write an amusing entry on my blog about it.  Once I got it, it just sat on the kitchen table and the longer it sat there the more I didn't want to use it.  I've had this thing for a long time too as I first got it when we lived in our old place on 35th Street.  When we moved to our new place I put in a box and I put that box in a dark corner of the basement.

 A technical schematic of the Shocking Liar.

The Shocking Liar is dome shaped and you strap you hand in and then "calibrate" it to yourself.  Then your friends (or enemies) ask you questions and you get shocked if you lie.  Sounds like fun right?  The Shocking Liar is powered by three powerful AAA batteries.

I don't want to try it out because I don't want my hair sticking up like that guy's.  Yes, it looks funny, but it's not something you'd want to happen to yourself.  Sort of like how dude's never want to get hit in the nuts, but when they see some other dude get hit in the nuts it's hilarious. 

The Shocking Liar is supposed to be for fun, but it can still be dangerous.  Now that I read that, for some reason it seems a little more appealing to me.  I still won't try it though!  I can't help but think the Shocking Liar is so inaccurate and well...shitty that it will shock you no matter what responses to you give.  It's a "damned if you, damned if you don't" scenario.

On the back of the box there is a quote that says, "The UK's best product of 2004!".  Really?  Is this the best that the UK had to offer in 2004?  There must've been slim pickings that year.  Or they're easily impressed.

Well, now that I've written about it and you've all seen it I think it's time to put it back in the box in the basement with all my other boxes.   It's probably better to have it down there, nobody will get hurt.

Hot or not?

While I got socks, underwear and a Godzilla Blu-Ray for Christmas, I also got Buffalo Nickel Wingers, the original potato wing snacks, courtesy of Cam and Cara.  I haven't seen these type of snacks before , so I was excited to try them out.  They got me the Nacho Chilichanga flavour, and according to the bag they rate a 3 out of 5 on the heat scale.  That is perfect for me, as I like some heat, but I don't like it really hot.

At first I thought the shape of the wing snacks was weird, but then I liked it because it was different, but then after eating some I didn't like the shape again.  First of all, it doesn't even look like a wing, more like a drumstick than anything else.  It doesn't matter which one it looks like because I don't like wings or drumsticks.

As far as taste goes they were...okay.  That's about as much of a recommendation as I'm going to give.  They were crispy, but they weren't actually that hot.  They definitely weren't a 3 on the heat index, maybe more like a 1.5.  I made Cody try some and he agreed with me that they weren't very hot.  I tried them and I guess they're not for me.  I'm just boring and old fashioned, so give me a potato chip, not a potato wing please.

I tried to find out more the company, but it's pretty hard as they have a blog that was last updated January 2010 and the link to the website is dead because the domain name expired.  I'm wondering if these guys are even still in business.  Cam and Cara, where did you guys buy these snacks?  Maybe I should check and see if they're expired.

A bag of possibly expired potato wing snacks from a possibly bankrupt company isn't the only Christmas gift I got from Cam and Cara, but that's a post for another day.

They did it!

 My life is now complete.

I'm an idiot

Today I didn't work, so in the morning I had to do boring stuff like go to the the banks, take in the recycling and buy groceries.  After all that lame stuff was done I went to the comic book store!  I went down to Another Dimension in Kensington, a cool place, but I don't visit enough.  I went to pick up a few back issues I missed and since they have so much rad stuff I ended up going home with a few extra goodies.

I got myself a 4" build-it-yourself Superman kit from mixo!  He's all square and funny looking.  Mixo also has other kits in 4" and 9" sizes of DC Comics charaters as well as Masters of the Universe.  The 4" kits look more cute and cartoony while the 9" ones look more like the comic book book versions, but both kits look pretty neat.

The innards of my Superman kit, but where are the assembly instructions?

First, the instructions are on the back of the box and are pretty self explanatory.  Second, I paid $5.99 for 2 cents worth of paper!  I am such an idiot!

The finished product!  It didn't pose any problem putting it together, although I had some trouble with #3 on the instructions.  I was trying to have fun, but it would've been more fun if it wasn't so expensive.  Supes does look nice and I like that he came with a Daily Planet vending machine. Plus I can say I made him all by myself.

There was some hype on the internet about paper crafts a while ago with people making figures and stuff, but at least they were putting them out for free.  You just downloaded the pattern and could print it out on your printer at home and put it together.  Mixo just does that, but charges you for it, but least it's on nice glossy cardstock and I guess you are mostly paying for the licenses anyway.  It is still only paper and prone to being easily damaged.  Right now it's up on my shelf on top of my Blu-rays, so it should be safe.  Till next time I waste my money on something silly!

Totally awesome video games!

I know I've said this before, but I have a lot of stuff, too much stuff.  I'd need to have every wall in the place lined with shelves to display it all.  Most of the stuff includes DVDs and CDs, some I haven't even watched or listened to yet.  Pretty much all of my DVDs are either in boxes in the basement or in media wallet/books so they take up less room.  I have movies I want to want again, but I still have a pile of movies I haven't even seen at all.  I've decided to try and watch a DVD every day, either a movie or at least a TV episode.  Hopefully, I can start making a dent in my "too watch" backlog.

Last night we watched Dredd, which just made me want to watch the way better version with Stallone and Rob Schneider.  Then tonight I watched 80's teen comedy, Joysticks, which is about video games so you know it's awesome.  It's also awesome because it has boobs in it. 

80's boobs!

NERD!  He wouldn't even know what to do with those boobies.

Joysticks also has a fat sweaty greasy guy named Dorfus.  He farts in like four scenes and I laughed every time.

Joysticks set the bar pretty high, the next movie has a lot to live up to in terms of boobs and fart jokes.

Blah.

Hey everyone, what's up?  I'm very lazy, uninspired, tired, burned out, inattentive, apathetic and lethargic felling lately on top of my chronic procrastinating.  I've got three posts in the pipe, all food related for some reason, but I'm having trouble getting them started.  As I said I'm just...blah.

So I'll give this picture of an awesome cookie!  Hey, that's also food related.

I bought this cookie a while ago from Crave.  I actually ate it in my car and took a picture with my phone as I was eating it.  It was killer soft gingersnaps cookies with a vanilla type icing in the middle.  I took one bite and it squished all the icing out from between the cookies.  I wish I could eat these every day!

One of these days I'll get around to doing a real post, but in the mean time enjoy some cheap cop out posts of mainly pictures.  Which reminds me I need to get back to my "photo op" series.

Getting my rocks off

When we were cleaning out the basement to make room for my mom's new freezer I found some rocks, but not just any rocks!  I found a bunch of rocks that I took from the top of Fisher Peak.

You'd think I would only take a couple rocks, not enough to fill an entire jar of Ragu, but by now you guys know how I roll.  I needed some extras in case I lost one...or twelve.  Besides I was already at the top and the extra weight was no big deal because it was all downhill anyway.

I decided it was finally time to part with my Fisher Peak rocks and since there were no takers on eBay I ended up just throwing them out.  But I'll always have that picture to remember them by.

Rulz to live by

When I was digging through my stuff last time in Cranbrook some McDonald's coupons and movie receipts weren't they only surprises I found in that pudding box.  I found a copy of "The Original Thrill Seeker Rules".  The Thrill Seeker Rules were sorta like the Ten Commandants, but with less God and more rad.  Steve, Kristian and I came up with these "back in the day" as to help guide us on our quest of becoming gnarly shred heads.  We typed it up at Steve's house because back then that's how you had to write stuff...on a typewriter!  I hold the last remaining copy in existence!

Looking at the "rules" now, yeah most of them are pretty lame, but some still hold true like #24.  Never ski with Scott.  The rest are questionable and embarassing like #1. Always show off for the BABES!

I even went on to break rule #8. Always have POM-POMs on your toque.  When we wrote the list I used to wear a toque with ear flaps and two pom-poms, but then moved onto a beanie style toque.  I realized that a pom-pom was just slowing me down with all kinds of crazy wind resistance, so I cut my pom-pom off to be more aerodynamic.  Since then all my toque's have been pom-pom free.

I'm too lazy to list the full set of thrill seeker rules, but I've included a large size picture, so you should be able to read them and have a laugh at our expense.  Remember, "Don't be square, bust an air."

Peace out!

Good news everyone!

There has been a major break through by world scientists in Oreo packaging technology.  It is now easier to get into a package of Oreos.

Now you can eat your Oreos easier and feel good about yourself because the new packaging uses 25% less packaging and remember Oreos are vegan.

I can't wait until they bring this new packaging over to Fudgee-Os.  What a glorious age we live in!

Hot dawg!

I got the weekend off and instead of sitting around watching movies and playing video games I actually went outside.  Of course, all I did was go eat greasy junk food, but I still had to go outside to do it.

I have been aware of Nathan's Famous for more than two years, but haven't gotten around to eating there because it's way out in Airdrie.  Those couple times I went out there to work I could see it from the highway on my drive and thought I should try it out because they don't have in Calgary.  Nathan's is that hot dog place that started on Coney Island and also have that big hot dog eating contest.  The location in Airdire is co-branded with Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips, so you get both menus in one place.

I got the Cowboy Dog which has bacon, ground beef, beans, onions and barbeque sauce on the dog.  It was a bit messy eating, but I didn't get any on my shirt so that was a plus.  I surprised myself on that.  The hot dog itself was a bit of a let down especially coming from a place that is supposed to be "famous" for it's hot dogs.  I guess I can blame it on Airdrie and hope the real deals dogs out in NY are better.  I liked the fries and like that they come with a plastic fork too.

I was still hungry so I went back for dessert and looking at the pictures on the menu I asked for a sundae.  The kid taking my order told me they don't have sundae's so I asked him what was the thing on the menu that had whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry on it.  He said it was funnel cake and that's all they have for desserts.  Then I asked him what funnel cake is and he didn't even know, so some other lady working there told me it's a deep fried pastry.  I figured I might as well try it, and since this story has gone on too long already, it wasn't that good.

All in all, I was disappointed in Nathan's as it wasn't that good considering the drive all the way out there.  The items on the menu look pretty good (except the dog with sauerkraut) and they even have lemonade and orangeade as drinks.  Isn't orangeade just orange juice?  I did like the fries and even though mine were plain you can get them with chili, cheese and other toppings on them.

I would eat there again if some one else drove all the way out there, I drove all the way out there and someone else paid, or they opened one in Calgary that wasn't so far.  If I wanted to eat a real man's hot dog I should just go to Tubby Dog down on 17th Ave where you can get a hot dog with Cap'n Crunch cereal on it.  It's in the heart of hipster territory, so I think I'm not even allowed in there.

 

PS ~ When I got home I played video games and then watched a movie.

Dumpster diving

FYI, I didn't actually climb into a dumpster or garbage bin anything I just took something that was placed on top of it.  I probably wouldn't ever take something out that was already inside a dumpster unless it was REALLY cool.  Normally, I just pick up stuff that is placed on the side of the road.

On Thursday I was taking in our stuff to the recycling depot and the bins were getting pretty full as it was the week after Christmas.  What always annoys me is that people see their boxes are too big to fit through the bin slot, so they just leave them on the ground or on top of the bins.  It's like they're too stupid to know you can break the box down and then it will fold flat letting you put in in the bin.  I guess that's too much work for some people, especially people who can spend $500 on a Lego set.

Some spoiled kid got the Star Wars Death Star set for Christmas and at 3803 pieces it retails for $500, but I got his empty box.  The box is in good shape with only a couple tears in it, but it will do the job and that job would be pranking Logan.  Logan like Star Wars and Lego, last year I got the Millennium Falcon kit, so he is going to flip when he sees this.  Too bad it's just a box!  It's not going to be completely empty when I give it to him, I'll put a Lego minifigure inside.  I'm not that mean.  Am I a great uncle or what?