Waiting on my wife.....

Since Leita started her new job in Airdrie we've driven together. And 95% of the time we get to work on time. But 97% of the time she's WAY late getting done, so I never leave Airdrie (work) till between 5:30 and 6:00. At least she gets overtime pay....

The coolest thing about buying a 360 almost two years after it comes out is that a few friends of mine have had theirs forever, and have built up significant libraries of games that I am now free to mooch! I've got about 10 games sitting in a pile, waiting for me to play them... FOR FREE! Talk about being a good budgeter! After I dropped $400 on a 360, $1300 on a 42" plasma, I saved $600ish on games by borrowing from mini-blockbuster (my friend T).

PS Collecting 'points' isn't as much fun or as appealing as I read about in articles when the 360 first came out, fyi....

Halo3 FTW!!!!!

Went to the Futureshop by my house late last night. Not late really, 11:30'ish. Jordan came with me, to spare Leita the cold and bored-ness of standing in line for an hour waiting to be one of the first to buy Halo 3 on release day.

I decided to get the regular, non-snazzy version because I knew that Jordan was going to pick up the UBER-AWESOME helmet pack, and I thought I'd borrow all the 'making-of' documentaries off of him. That's a money saving tip, and a free one at that.

We played the first three campaign levels co-op (normal difficulty) until about 2:30 AM. Then he went home, I went to bed, and the bloody cats kept both of us up ALL FRIGGING NIGHT! Sometimes....... but I'm not angry, I love Thor and Odin.

I was tempted to call in sick, but I decided to be the good employee and stick it out. Hopefully I can get some quality game-time in tonight, after driving home, picking up paint, painting the roof, stencilling our wall design, and making food. Never mind, I'm never going to have time.

Long time no see....

First off, sorry blog. I haven't given you any attention in....... FOREVER!

I have been rather busy lately, you know, getting married, moving, painting, buying house stuff, getting another kitten.

I'd like to get back into some semblance of a routine concerning updating this. If I can make it a goal to do at least one post a week (to start off with) and add more when I feel particularly inspired. Deal?

/spit on palm
/shake hands

Done! See you soon

YAY A HOUSE!!!

This weekend Leita and I spent most of Saturday condo-hunting, looking at about 15 different properties in ~4 hours. We saw some decent places, some that needed a little TLC, and some dumps...

Our VERY last property, a 'bare land condo' in NW/NE Calgary, turned out to be absolutely perfect. It is a 4-level split condo, but the building is not attached to any other dwelling, making it a free-standing HOUSE! We walked in, fell in love, and rushed like mad to get our offer. As soon as we decided we wanted to make an offer our realtor (Dave Rose, a great guy) phoned the realtor selling the property and asked what was going on. The selling realtor said TWO offers were already on the table and he was just about to present them to the sellers. Dave asked if he could wait for half an hour so we could get ours in too, and he agreed. We scrambled like mad to one of his company's offices, rushed through signing everything like a bunch of crazy-people, and got it faxed. The realtor said they'd decide within an hour, so we drove back to our home, waited for 10 minutes, and got a phone call from Dave. He said we beat the next highest offer by $1000 and the place was ours.......... :O

Or, as Leita says sometimes, "WOOT!"

All I can say is, "Whoa..."

Can't think of a good title

I think I should make it a goal to write a post at least once a week, so all three people (my parents and Leita) who check this on a regular basis can at least see new content weekly.

We're officially down to less than two months till the wedding. To be exact..... 58 days. Wow! Our reply cards were SUPPOSED to be sent back by last Monday, the 7th. But up to and including mail yesterday we got back just under half of everyone's replies. Come on people, get with the program! Leita loves mail, I love plans, and parents love to know how much money we'll be trying to squeeze from them! :)

(just kidding guys, we're gently milking, not squeezing)

Anyway, haven't had ANY time lately to veg out and play Zelda: Wind Waker. I got bored (read: died over and over) trying to beat the last boss on Metroid Prime, then realized that I'm sure my little 11 year old cousin Jordan likely beat him the first or second time he tried, then I threw the controller, then I pouted, then I decided to play Zelda again. The graphics are a little cartoony, but there is something inherently addicting about exploration and 'completing' something, even if it is jsut exploring the whole map and getting every island charted out. Then I'll probably try to get EVERY bottle, then EVERY heart piece, then maybe I'll try to finish the game.

But likely I'll get distracted by another newer and shinier game. And the cycle continues ad infinitum....

Gotta love those cheap-cheap games...

Leita and I went to Market Mall (Calgary) the other day to do some impulsive shopping (uh oh....) and she let me go into EB Games after I took her to the pet store to look (momentarily) at kittens and puppies. They (EB) ended up having a big sale on that day where they were trying to get rid of some of their bloated inventory of used games.

For everyone who doesn't know (and I'm assuming that everyone that reads this doesn't), this company makes the vast majority of it's profits from buying used games from people for peanuts and then reselling the used games for almost-new prices. The great (for them) thing about that is that the whole price difference (between buying used and reselling) is profit for the comapny, whereas only a fraction of the sales price of a brand-spanking-new game is profit. I think their rule of thumb is that they buy a game for 1/4 of what they can resell it for, so they'd give someone $10 and sell it for $40, reaping an easy $30 profit...

I usually avoid buying used; call it elitism, snobbishness, whatever, but I don't like someone else's grubby hands being on something before me. I think too much of the time I like new and shiny; be it gadgets, games, clothes, or any other piece of... anything. Yeah, I'm a snob, and I like it like that.

Anyway, Leita let me get a couple (3) games, and the total was less that I'd usually spend on one new game. $19.99 (Pheonix Wright - DS), $9.99 (Prey - PC), and $4.99 (Act of War - PC) YAY! So if I can learn to love the 'previously loved' section, we can save a good chunk of coinage. Of course, these used games were more the exception than the rule: popular games or newer games usually go used for only $5 or maybe $10 cheaper than the brand new. My mom would be so proud of me for finding such bargains; but come to think of it, she'd probably give me shit for spending money on video games in the first place. Actually, it would be dad to give me hell for buying video games, he thinks they are a waste of time (right, dad). Meh, you gotta do what you gotta do!

Got a Wii last night...

from my buddy Ryan, who is going to Europe for ~ 5 weeks. Technically I rented it because I agreed to buy him a controller (if I can find one). Hooked the power and video connections up, placed the sensor bar BELOW the TV (as placing it on top is a good way for it to fall off and break), then turned it on and started pointing away. I really like that there is a dashboard when you turn it on, letting you pick what you want to do each and every time.

I created Mii's for Leita and myself, then checked out the weather channel, news channel, and the internet. The internet channel is a little unwieldy, zooming and navigating and inputting site names is much more difficult than on a computer, but I was still impressed. I officially am loving the fact that most new tech toys are connectable wirelessly, doing away with cords of all sorts is a wonderful thing.

Haven't tried any games yet, went to bed early, but within the next couple days I want to invest some time in Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Or should I finish God of War? Or should I rent Super Paper Mario? Or should I get farther in S.T.A.L.K.E.R? Too many games, too little time...

HELLO????

Does anyone even ever come here to read this? If you've ever been here to see my ramblings, write me a note in the comment section of this post or in the Cbox on the lower right portion of the screen

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(over there and down near the bottom, black box, can't miss it)

GOW FTW!

Borrowed God of War from my brother last night, played it till the wee hours of the morning (but don't tell Leita that), the succumbed to a sleep full of demon-slaying and twirling SWORDS OF DEATH!!!

If you haven't played the game, go now! Buy (or rent or borrow) and you'll love it. I guarantee! If you don't, you must be a zombie. After this I'll try to borrow the sequel from my brother too, if he manages to buy it soon.

PS If you don't know what FTW means, google it. I'm behind the times because this is the first time I've actually used it, but I can now say I'm part of the real geek-internet culture...

It's been a while

It's been a while since my last update; over a month. I think it'll take a while for me to get the hang of uploading on a regular basis.

One of the very best sites I've come across lately is Pageflakes. What this is (for anyone that doesn't know already) is a customizable homepage that easily allows RSS feeds to be collected and organized however the user wishes. I've got feeds from Digg, Joystiq, Gizmodo, Consumerist, and a whole bunch more. I love the fact that all feeds update in (relatively) real-time, giving me up-to-date info on everything I've bookmarked on my homepage.

They have flakes (links) for TV programs, games, and seemingly any website you can imagine. I'm relatively limited in access during work hours, but I seem to obsessively check all the feeds i get whenever I have time.

Check the program out, it's pretty cool...

The wonders of music

I finally re-installed my deck in my car this weekend. I've had absolutely no tunage during my daily drive and too-frequent trips to Edmonton, caused by the misalignment of the CD reading laser. I think the bass in my car contributed to the failure because of the frequent and significant vibrations.

I took it in for warranty work in the middle of December (two weeks before the warranty expired) and it took over two months to get it back from them. Then, when I picked it up and used my parents garage to install it, I remembered what a pain in the ass putting in stereos by hand actually is. I had forgotten to take a picture of or write down what wires from the car corresponded to their equivalent in the deck. Hmmmmm, time to guess and check.

3 hours later and NO progress I said "Screw it" and we drove home. I tried for the last week to find a wiring diagram online or in Canadian Tire or at Futureshop, but nothing is available (or, in the case of Futureshop, they won't tell me because it's 'proprietary info'). I was just about to cave in and pay Futureshop $50 to install it for me when my buddy Jordan tells me he has a multi-meter that I can use. YES!

So this weekend I ripped open my car dash, destroyed 5 fuses through inadvertent wire crosses, and finally found the power, accessory, and ground wires. Then it was simply a matter of twisting wire pairs, much electrical tape, and SHOVING everything in place. It doesn't look elegant, but it certainly worked.

Now, sweet tunes are heard, sweet bass is felt, and my car is once again whole.

Stupid free iPod/MacBook/Gift Card scams...

A couple days ago I decided to look deeper into the so-called 'free iPod' websites that pop up with some frequency if your pop-up blocker isn't as stringent as it should be. Once curiosity gets the better of you and your mouse cursor clicks on the "FREE!!!! NOW!!!!! NO WAITING!!!!!" (or similar) link, you are taken to screen upon screen upon screen of offers to complete, hoops to jump through, etc. before you can claim your 'prize'.

Then, and only then, is the real hook: you have to refer people (via their email address) and 1/2/5 people must complete the offers as well for you to receive your gift. They have to follow detailed instructions on using you as a reference or you won't get credit, they have to complete the same amount of offers and refer others, and it all has to be done WITHIN 60 or 90 DAYS!

Oh, those bastards! Now I know how the scam works, I vow NEVER to do any more of them... EVER! Good thing I assumed (correctly) that they would also share my email address with spammers, and I used my junk hotmail account.

Last night I actually attempted to complete some offers in the hopes of getting a $500 Futureshop gift card, and it took 6 applications at websites for various things before it said I was close to getting my gift. They have to wait for the websites I signed up for to verify that I wasn't just signing up and cancelling right away, then I also had to refer one person and get them to do 6 offers themselves, and THEN I would receive my reward in the mail. No where while I was looking at the offers available was it mentioned that I had to sign someone else up, and I blindly hoped that I wouldn't have to... nope, not a chance.

So I spent some time today cancelling what I could immediately, but I'm still stuck with a couple offers: I've got an Entertainment Book coming that my fiance and I might be able to use for romantic dinners and trips to the zoo, we are receiving a 7 day trial of a tooth whitening 'system', and I think we have some Entertainment Weekly magazines headed our way.

I call my experiment a total failure...

Not enough hours in a day

I was thinking the other day about how much time and money I've spent on video games of all forms. I know I've easily got over 100 games for various systems at my house right now; some bought new, some used, some rented, a couple borrowed, some free (demos).

And the thing about that is I don't think I've actually finished more than 5% of them! I have great intentions to devote myself to playing through a game when I get in, but I always find something newer and shinier within a few days or weeks. Is that a sign of a short attention span, a sign that the game isn't good enough to keep me interested, or just a sign that I am like every other person in the world and never have enough time in a day to do everything on my plate.

For example, I received NWN 2 for Christmas 2006, and have put no more than 5 hours into it so far. I was drooling over it for the longest time, and played through the original more than once, but I haven't been able to devote time to it for any number of reasons. I love RPG's, loved the original, and yet... meh. (PS Cam, if you're reading this, I loved getting it as a present, promise!) ;)

The same story applies to almost every single game on every single console I own; a couple games I finish, most I play for 5 - 7 hours, and a few I hardly touch at all. It seems like every time I find a game I enjoy, different and equally enjoyable games seem to slowly draw my attention, withering it like a dying tree (okay, a little over the top)...

One of these days I plan to write in here as many games as I can think of and find that I have, have played, and have walked away from. Goal: don't know, but who cares!

HOLY HELL, I'M A DOG!

How does one go through their ENTIRE life thinking their zodiac sign is the pig, when in fact it is the DOG! I missed the cut-off for the Pig by two days... Google and Wikipedia just told me.

What a paradigm shift.

Anyone know if I need to change my life in light of this development?

(just thought I'd share this with you, I just found out myself)

(except no one is reading this yet... I guess I'll go tell my woman.... except she's asleep... yeah, so lonely)

The Beginning....

Sounds ominous.......

In reality all I'm doing here is getting something on the page. I decided to start a blog because everyone (and their dog and cat and fish) is blogging nowadays, and I want to join the crowd.

Not a leader, but strictly in the middle of the pack...

I want to focus on things that I like, things that are of interest and importance to me. We'll see what happens, but at the moment I'm WAY too tired to think of anything cool to say.