Monthly Archives: January 2007

Believe the shirt.

New Shirt

From Dinosaur Comics! And an ancient CBC news report!

We sit and we sigh, and nothing gets done

Next Gen Trifecta I paid a visit to EB today to see if my pre-order of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All was in. The Manager saw me come in and said “Did you ever get a Wii?” “No.” I replied, thinking she was just making conversation. “Oh, because we just got a bunch in.”
“No shit.” I said, looking over the counter. Sure enough, there were 4 Wii boxes sitting on the floor. I immediately bought one, as well as Warioware: Smooth Moves, Zelda Twilight Princess and Rayman Raving Rabbids. When I got back to work, I told my project lead and he and 2 others went out and bought the remaining 3 systems twenty minutes later. So yeah… these things are still pretty hard to get.

I played around two hours of Warioware this evening. I’ve played every Warioware Nintendo has released, and they’ve all been pretty good, although very short. This looks to be no exception. I’m fairly sure I could have finished the game tonight, but my feet were getting pretty sore from standing infront of the TV for so long, so I turned it off for the night.

Games in the Warioware series are basically a collection of mini-games, tied together loosely by having stages themed by various characters who live in the same city. Dribble and Spitz, a taxi-driving dog & cat team have a stage set up around a taxi-cab, for example. Each mini-game requires you to hold the Wiimote in a different fashion. One game might have you hold the Wiimote like a broom, and then give you a game where you have to sweep a bunch of leaves. Another game might have you hold it like a handlebar, and make you pump up a balloon with a bicycle pump. The best part is the little introduction they give you to explain each new Wiimote grip. An announcer with an extremely mellow voice gives a funny little “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy”-style speech before they throw you into the game. I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow and then start unlocking the mini-games I missed.

I’m also looking forward to downloading some of the Virtual Console games. Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past is coming out this week, and that’s an amazing game. There’s also a few others released in the past that I’d like to get, like Gunstar Heroes and R-Type III.

I also picked up the Silversun Pickups CD “Canvas” based on the strength of the single “Lazy Eye” that The Edge is currently playing to death. I’ve heard SSPU compared to the Smashing Pumpkins, and they kiiiind of do sound like them (mostly stuff from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) but the vocalist reminds me of Kevin Kane from Ginger/Grapes of Wrath. I guess that’s not a bad thing, but it’s a bit weird to be thinking of a band I haven’t heard of in almost 10 years.

The CD isn’t that great, but it should give me something to listen to until the new Bloc Party CD comes out in a couple of weeks. I heard another track off it today, and it should be a very strong album. “Hunting for Witches” is absolutely fantastic.

Track of the Day: Compliments – Bloc Party

Yarr, it’s drivin’ me nuts!

Galiana the Shaman

Spence Diamonds, What are you thinking?

There’s a jewelery store here in Canada called Spence Diamonds, and they regularly purchase air time at my radio station of choice, 102.1 The Edge.

Now! Spence originally started pissing me off this past Christmas with ads that inferred if you didn’t lock your girl down with a ring, you were destined to end up lonely and alone. They weren’t even doing it in a “don’t you love her so much” way, they said it with “other guys are looking at her naked hand and smiling to themselves.” Never mind that I’m a bit sensitive about rings anyway, those kind of tactics are pretty uncool.
Recently, they’ve gone the other way. Spence Diamonds proprietor Sean Jones is coming up with the most ridiculously sappy garbage. Before I continue, I should add that they’ve also been doing something bizarre in the middle of their spots. Guitar riffs. Whenever Sean pauses in his sales pitch, some dude with two guitar lessons under his belt will wail something out for no reason. The end result is something like this:

Sean Jones: Some things in this world are mass-producible. But not love. It’s made from the twinkle of the January stars, the smell of fresh Strawberries and the laughter of children

Guitar: Byyyyyyyyyyeoooowww!

Sean Jones: That’s why each Spence Diamond is mined from the heart of Love mountain by a team of Teddy Bears and puppies, before being nestled in a bed of pure white dove feathers and carried by a pair of Cherubim to our showroom! Show her you’ll love her forever with an Eternity Necklace!

Guitar: Scccrreeeea!! Bwoop, bwoop! Screeeeeeeeeeaaa!

Sean Jones: And if you don’t buy it right now, Greg from accounting is going to sleep with her at the Team-building exercise in Ottawa next week. OBEY ME.

Guitar: Scribbidy-bippidy-boo!

Some people are really into Golden Globes

Jessica and Diddy

This is the best picture I’ve seen in a long, long time. I don’t blame him – Jessica Biel is gorgeous – but it’s still goddamn hilarious.

Image originally from What Would Tyler Durden Do.

If I’m not back in 5 minutes… Just wait longer!

Apprehensive of the Box

What’s all this? It appears suspicious.

Contemplating the Box

I am right to be suspicious. This appears to be the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Collector’s Edition. How did it get in my house? Puzzling…

Late Night

I’m not going to use this blog to talk much about work, since that can get you in a whole mess of trouble. I will say that I have no real content for the blog tonight because I just got home from work, and that sucks.

How about that new iPhone? I love my Motorola RAZR, but I’ve been waiting for an iPod with video since the original touchscreen rumours were circulating nearly a year ago. I just got an iPod shuffle for Christmas, which is a really convenient device, but omg that iPhone interface! It remains to be seen whether we’ll get it in any form up here in Canada, but I’ll be keeping an eye out.

In honor of the iPhone
Track of the Day: Flathead – The Fratellis

Sick Day

Today was spent sleeping and watching DVDs of Naruto on the couch. I’m feeling pretty awful, but work is about to get busy again so I figured taking one day off now was better than feeling awful for the next 4 days, or maybe even getting worse.
This is only the 3rd sick day I’ve used in all my 7 years at the company. Pretty crazy, huh? I don’t usually take vacations either, although I’m beginning to get to the point in my life where I would rather have the time off, rather than the extra money. I wanted to take a few days off at the end of last year, but we ended up working so hard that I totally forgot to book them.
At least the extra vacation time gets paid out, which I was going to use to buy something extravagant, but I also received notice of my upcoming house insurance today, so that’s probably out.

One of my friends from University and High School got married yesterday. I doubt he reads this blog, but congratulations anyway, B!
Track of the Day: Hunting for Witches – Bloc Party

Does anybody else smell that?

Say, does anyone else smell burnt toast?

No? Nobody? I really smell some burnt toast… you used the toaster oven at lunch Rich. Did you burn some toast?

Are you sure? Oh, you didn’t have toast? Hmmm, well someone must have burnt some toast because the whole floor smells like it! Weird.

Okay, can no one else can smell that? It’s like someone burnt a whole loaf of toast. Wow…. so I’m the only one that can smell it? That is so odd.

All right. I’ve had enough of this smell. I’ve got to get out of here. I’m going to go pick up some coffee in my Ford Excursion, does anyone else want some? Jen, Brad, Ken… Seriously! Is someone wafting burnt toast at me, because that is not funny.

Nobody else? Paul? A large regular? Got it. Say Paul – you’re into cars. The brakes on my Excursion seem to require a lot of effort to push, should I get that looked at? I should? Okay, I guess I’ll do that tomorrow…

So no one else wants a coffee? Not even to dunk their burnt toast in? Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I’m the only one who can smell that!

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A Dilemma

How does one throw out a garbage can? I have this step-pedal contraption I bought for 14 dollars at Wal-Mart, and the fucking thing has never worked properly. But if I put it on the curb on garbage day, they’ll just “empty” it into the garbage truck and then put it back.

The best idea I can come up with is to buy a bigger garbage can, and put the old one inside of it.

Track of the Day: Special – Garbage