Lessons learned.

Well. Tired. Yeah.

Last night found Grindy and Cloudie at my place of residence to get a little Wii action on. I was excited to finally be able to share the Wii with others, naturally. Since I made the purchase, I've been saying this is THE party machine. Last night was proof. TheWife™ and I enjoyed having them here as we got our Wii Sports Bowling, Golf, and Boxing on (Sunflower being the Boxing champ.. who knew?) In summary, we had a good time and we are now bound by the strings of fate to do it again.

And then the next day came. I'm beat. I am the dead horse. Consecutively, I had 6.5 and 6 hours of sleep over the past two nights. Some of you might mock me over this. Take note, that I'm usually a seven-and-a-half to nine hour sleeper. Pooped am I. At work I still had that "just woke up" voice three hours into my shift.
Despite the pains of the lack of Viking-time, I of course will likely do this again. I think only this time, I'll only have one evening of limited sleeping hours.

8:30pm sounds like a good time to crash tonight.

Technorati Tags: My Life, Wii Sports, Warioware: Smooth Moves, Wii

I can't be a whore.

I'll admit, having more than ten hits a day would be nice. I don't have any advertising or anything, but I'd certainly like to feel the hit love, but not punch drunk (rimshot).
I thought I'd whore myself out to myspace today. I'm not going to link them. I refuse. What a freaking retarded set up they have there. How the f*** did they get to be THE service for net socializing. I hate it. I really hate it. It's slow. It's clunky. And it's pretty far from user intuitive. Of course I'm going to try to figure it out. It's a challenge. And I want hits. And I want to feel the Interweb™ love. The best way to do it now is through myspace, much to my chagrin.

Technorati Tags: My Life, MySpace

Oh, you noticed.

Yeah, a little house cleaning. Despite the anime theme, I rarely talked about it anymore. Wii, on the other hand, I seem to speak an abundance about. Did I mention I picked up Warioware: Smooth Moves? I'll talk more about it later. Old habits die hard.

Technorati Tags: New Look, Nintendo, Warioware: Smooth Moves, Wii

We have a prototype.

I would just like to officially announce that a prototype for this years CDXC has been pressed and printed. I think I've outdone myself this time. I'm even thinking about taking the ever so bold step of getting a CD labeller to complete the process. It's all about image.

Technorati Tags: CDXC, Music

Wii-kend Report Vol.2

I'm sore, believe it or not. Bowling and Boxing on LosWiicos has kicked my ass. LosWiicos is the nickname for my Wii. I am talking about the console by the way. Seriously. During the initial setup of the console, you're asked to give it a name. LosWiicos seemed appropriate, and thus it was done. I actually took a break from playing last night in the hopes I could get back into the ring tonight, but I have my doubts. I'm still feeling rather tender.

I'm really glad that Nintendo went this route with their new console. It certainly is a lot more entertaining for me, plus a guaranteed form of exercise for all the little fat kids who never go outside to play. Now that I think about it, all the Nintendo spots I've seen for the Wii weren't even geared for the child set. I guess we know who's playing then.

A change of pace.

Every company has their freak/weirdo kind of dude. Where I work is no exception. We'll call him Juan.

Wednesday morning I came in and was updated by N. about Juan. Juan had finished his shift at midnight, but had stuck around since then hoping to "mooch" a ride off of someone. Strange enough, sure, but I was willing to let that one go.

More stories came in. Most interesting to note was about Juan in the bathroom. No, this isn't a poop story, however I guess it's poop related. He was sitting in the poop box with a lighter, igniting sanitation covers for the toilet seats. From what I'm told, poop smells better than burning sanitation covers. Will Juan go postal when someone takes his red Swingline stapler? Will he set the building on fire? Stay tuned.

A Wii Adventure

You know, I don't think I'll ever get tired of that name.

On Sunday morning, before I left for work, I called around to inquire about available Wii's. Of course, there were none to be had. Downtrodden, I want to work shortly thereafter and thought about how I might attain this amazing treasure. Other than phoning and randomly dropping by selected retailers, I had nothing. I wasn't going to eBay it. Screw that noise.
The storm blew in on Monday. Everything had turned from green to ice. Schools and businesses were closed, and the roads were a mess. I thought this may be a truly great day for obtaining a Wii! No one would be crazy enough to risk this weather. I dialled, and dialled, and dialled. It didn't occur to me that the trucks wouldn't be on the road either. Dreams were once gain vanquished.
Tuesday I went through the same drill. I made a few phone calls, I checked the internet, and no Wii's. We had to go to the Chinese market.
On the way to the market there is a Future Shop. I thought to myself, "why not." I stopped in, I asked, I was rudely treated and also received a negative answer. It was worth a shot.
After market we left. I remembered that there was also a mall we could also stop off at. To the mall we went. I popped into a Wal-Mart (sad but true), and I had just missed their last two remaining consoles. Off to EB, where I was also greeted with no Wii's. Feeling sad, and defeated once again, the proprietor at the retailers advised me in a hushed voice that Best Buy had received a shipment in that morning. I grabbed TheWife (who was still in Wal-Mart) and hustled out to the car. I drove while fastening my seat-belt off to the Best Buy across the road. I ran hurried inside (my first trip into a Best Buy.. ever.. ), scanning for the Video Games section. I saw an older gentleman grabbing a Wii from a salesman like a mother holds a baby in a windstorm. I kindly said to the salesman, "please, tell me there are more." There were. Three more. The coveted Wii was mine. Behind me was a woman of 23-ish, who received a Wii as well, while gasping for breathe. She had ran from the mall when she had heard the news.

Now my Wii is at home and set up. We have nunchuckus, and Wii-motes, and Wii Sports. Wii are happy.
Just a word of warning, Linksys and Wii don't play well together. But , to coin the narrator from Hammy Hamster, "that's another story."

Technorati Tags: Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, Future Shop, My Life, Nintendo, Wii

Louder than words.

Oh, it's on.

No Wii for Mii?

Oh woe is Mii. 

 

It appears as though (and I should have listened to Daejin about this), that I won't get to play with a Wii on Monday.   What I thought was easy pickin's has DECEIVED ME!  Bastards.  I might go guerilla to try and acquire one in the next couple of days.   We'll see.  I want to play my Wii!  I know you do, too.  So what will I do in the meantime?   Why I'll mope of course. 

 

So if you're in the Southwestern Ontario region, it finally looks a little bit like winter.   By tomorrow, it WILL look like winter.  No more green grass for us.  Break out your ice skates and skis.   I'm hoping the majority of it hit whilst we're all sleeping, as I don't wish to be stuck in my car during a snowstorm.  Snowstorms have a tendency to take your normal drive, and increase their duration by three times or more.   *shudder*

 

Strange.  I have nothing else I wish to say at this moment.   Carry on, then.

Ricos-Sama's Weekend Report Vol.1

Welcome to my first Weekend Report, brought to you by email, a lack of things to do, and boredom.  

 

This week has nearly come and gone and everything is good.  Well, almost everything.   I don't have a Wii.   To continue my aggressive acquisitions, I will go on a holy quest to find a Wii on Monday.   I have a couple of good sources of where I might actually be able to find one.  Future Shop, Best Buy, forget those man.   You'll never find them there.   I won't give away my source, lest you take my Wii.  I'm not guaranteeing that I will have one within the next four days, but know that I am most certainly on the hunt.  

 

In less than five days, I'll have been at my current job for a month.  Scrazy.   I feel quite comfortable there now.   People are beginning to know me a little better, so now I'm slowly introducing some RIcos-isms.  Heck, one guy already calls me LosRIicos sometimes.  Yup.  Comfy.   Good.   I also got paid again.  Wii!

 

I'm now officially excited for this year's CD exchange.  Everyone's onboard and pretty much ready to go to print.   We discovered that Mad World by Gary Jules had made it onto two-and-a-half playlists, and so I've decided to replace the track with something else.   I haven't decided what that track is going to be yet.   As soon as that's done, off to the presses.  I feel that this year's CD will be more conventional then my previous iterations.   There hasn't been much Asian invasion in my diet this year.   This will probably mean less track skippage for those listening.   Tee-hee.

 

I've almost finished reading Life Without God by Douglas Coupland.   As he put it (paraphrasing of course), the X-ers are the first generation to really grow up without God.   In truth, I'm really just outside of the X-Generation.   Despite this, there's still a lot that holds true for following generations such as myself.  This is why Coupland often speaks loads to me, and makes him my favourite author.   Next on the block will be either Shampoo Planet, Generation X, or J-Pod. 

 

For those interested, my schedule changes next week.  Wednesday to Sunday 6am to 2pm.   This means I'm in bed before 9pm with the exception of Sundays and Mondays.. maybe Saturdays if you ask nicely.

Good intentions

I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. Heck, I was all excited by it. Everything was set up, I began the process, only to find I'm simply not disgruntled enough. I like the video podcast. I enjoy doing them. My problem when it comes the whole process is a reoccurring theme, which is easily summed up by the word content.
When I created my previous masterpieces (I do use that term loosely), I was bored and dissatisfied with my current station in life. A rent-a-cop with aspirations to be something more, but feeling hopelessly stuck in the status quo. Between that, and the "sleepy crazies" of working overnights, I always had something to say. Something was always edging me the wrong way.
Today, I'm happy. I've been happy since December. The pendulum is swinging on the positive side again and so content is me. It's pretty hard for me to be funny and/or entertaining when I'm feeling pretty Zen about everything. All is right in my microcosm, and thus I have nothing to say for the camera.
Meanwhile, my regular joe blog is much easier to fill. I can drop the drivel down and not give it second thought. This is a prime example. Given that my VLOGs at least have a limited amount of production value to it, I can't bring myself to sully them with crap. And thus is the story of my good intentions.

Technorati Tags: My Life, Video Podcast, VLOG

Considered, yet unspoken.

We love music. We are a society that spends millions upon millions on it. We download it legally, we download it illegally, we share it, we simply enjoy it. In the car, on the home stereo, on the iPod (or reasonable facsimile), we can't get enough of it.

It's been spoken of individually, but not as whole. So I'm just gonna say it plainly. It's time once again for the CDXC (my cool acronym for CD Exchange). I've already gave it tons of thought, and I hear others have been giving it thought as well. Same rules as always. Put together a music compilation of music that has mattered to you, or in some way tells a bit of story. Give your playlist some thought, compile it, pump it out. For the graphically inclined, make a cool CD leaflet.
This project always excites me, as it's interesting what people pull out of their pocket and surprise you with. You learn about new artists, re-discover artists from your past, plus you get to put together some great tunage yourself.

All in?

A Shortie. Vol.1

Just a quick post. I feel like I should. TheRoss is getting ahead of me. This is bad form on my part.

Work's wiping me out this week. 10 hour shifts from noon to 10. A lot of number crunching. Brain getting slow.

What?

Oh. Bed time.

The best of 2K6

So the man made marker of 2006 ended a short time ago. And what comes with the end of a year? Why, the best of whatever for that 365 day period.
So without further adieu, I bring to you my own personal list of:

2006: The best Of

Favourite Album: I have to give some serious thought to this one. There were a couple of albums that I found had played numerous times into my desiring ears. The runners up would probably be Jurassic 5's Feedback and Blue October's Foiled. But after all is said and done, the Deluxe Edition of Barenaked Ladies Are Me probably takes the cake for this category. After the disappointment that was Everything to Everyone, this double disc collection was fantastic. Not a track I didn't like. Way to go BNL. You won me back.

Favourite Movie: I didn't see a lot in the way of movies this year. After Chinese Customs didn't return the DVD's which they stole from me, I kind of lost interest in rebuilding my collection. Despite that, I did get out to see Silent Hill, the horrible 3D remake of Night of the Living Dead and Clerks II. None of these movies really deserves the title of favourite movie. So I'll have to go with the DVD I most enjoyed watching this year, regardless of when it was made. The rediscovery of Donny Darko easily takes that category. That movie is fucked up, and I love it.

Favourite Anime Movie or Series: Like the Favourite Album category, this one is a little hard to decide on. Death Note and Kanon are both great series, but I think Nana has me by the balls. Sure it's a chick series, but I'm hooked.

Lastly and most importantly...

Favourite Moment: Unarguably, 2006 was a difficult year for me. Stumbling block against stumbling block career wise, some horrible car expenses, personal conflicts, and an overall uncertainty about my own future. All problems aside, there were some great times to be had as well. The Oilers made it to the cup final, which no one would have guessed. High up there would also be the marriages of two of my closest friends. I also discovered ChinesePod.com and their podcast for learning Chinese. However, in the name of selfishness and pride, I'd have to say the best moment was getting the phone call on Wednesday December 13 to tell me that I was back into the world of careers and salary. Goose-bumps, people. It gave me goose-bumps. After trying for over a year to land myself back into a career, it finally came to fruition. It really was quite the way to finish off the year. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas gift.

So there you have it. The best things about 2006 according to me. I hope to read the opinions of this year according to some select others. Hopefully I'll get to read them soon.

Technorati Tags: Best of 2006, My Life, Year in Review

First monies.

Got paid on Friday. Sweet. First pay check from TheNewJob™. The first pay cheque is always the bestest. Especially when you see the huge jump in salary. So what did I do with this pay? I bought things! Christmas is over, and now it was time for MeMas.
First and foremost, I knew I'd have to get myself in better shape. Driving so much and sitting on my at-dollarsign-dollersign all day isn't going to do my weight and figure any good. My solution? The Pro-Form 750 CardioCrossTrainer. It was 50% off at Canadian Tire (praise Allah). I tried other local retailers, but nothing else seemed to compare to the value I had found at Crappy Tire. Into the car it went.
I lugged the brute home and assembled it over a three hour period. Just like IKEA, I had a bunch of parts left over!! Not really. Come the evening, I thought I'd hop on for a twenty minute workout. HAH! Try six minutes and thirty seconds, brother. Yes, I am grossly out of shape. I'll work up to that 20 minutes though. Give me time. Friends, the cross CCT wasn't all.
Today on the way home, I slipped over to Long and McQuade's for some distortion pedal goodness. Long and McQuade is really a magical place for musicians. So many good good things there.

So, now the year is at it's end. 2007 Begins in this burb in a mere six hours. Sunflower and I will be spending it with Grindy and Cloudie, and twelve cans of Maclay's India Pale Ale. I doubt I'll be driving home tonight.

PS TheRoss is blogging again at Slow Down, Martha. Give him some love.

Technorati Tags: guitar, Money, My Life, Exercise, Eleptical Trainer

Fingers on Fire - A Merry Christmas Indeed

And so Christmas has come and nearly gone. New years, and then the rest of Winter. Perhaps Christmas comes too early. Everyone, let's write Palpetine.. I mean the Pope.
I came home shortly after 1am and scurried off to bed. Nick had already been by. I missed him again, just like Polkaroo. Regardless, I went to bed for my night time rest. My mother ended up getting TheWife and I out of bed around 9:30. I probably would have slept another hour at least. Funny how waking up early on Christmas is no longer a priority.
Breakfast was the first on the itinerary, mainly to help drive Sunflower nuts. She truly is like a kid on Christmas. The suspense kills her. She doesn't care what's in the gifts, she just wants to know what is in there-- if that makes sense.
After a most delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and breakfast sausage, we made our ways to the living room and we began to open our gifts. Given the limited nature of my fundage, i couldn't give as much as I would have liked to. Even still, I was able to give the wife a Sens jersey, and we bought some coat, a couple sweaters, and a two unit cordless phone set at 5.8ghz. She was pleasantly surprised.
The highlight of my receiving, and what is currently set my fingers ablaze would be the Yamaha Eterna ET112 electric guitar and accessory kit. As an entry level guitar, it comes with pretty much everything you need to start playing, including an amp, electronic pitch pipe, pics, extra strings, along with some other goodies. You don't realize how bad your other guitar sounds until you have something that plays a lot nicer. Now that I have been inducted into the modern world of music, I now need to get a Macbook and some sort of input device, perhaps the MXL Desktop Recording Kit (D.R.K) so I will be, you know, all up in there. I hope to finally be able to enter this new realm in 2007. Ah yes, 2007. I believe it will be a fruitful year.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Christmas, guitar, macbook, My Life

Christmas Eve

And so it's upon us. Tomorrow is Christmas day, it's practically here. I think it's safe to say that I'm ready. I finished my shopping earlier this week. Everything is wrapped (not saying I'm the one who did the wrapping). All that's left is my last security shift tonight (I didn't want to turn down $15/hour), some sleep, and then opening up Pandora tomorrow.
Once again, I've overspent. It almost seems like a Christmas tradition, really. I don't mind though. I still like to go shopping for other people. Of courses I haven't had the capacity to buy as much as I've been known to do in the past, but it appears that'll be different next year. I better start saving soon, 'cause I might go nuts. It's a good thing I've opted out of getting credit cards. It's a lot safer for me that way.
I'm actually writing this whilst I wait for a short video I made to finish compressing. This old iBook G3 takes it's time when doing these types of activities. This video comes courtesy of the iSight I bought from TheRoss during the fall. Such a nice little gadget.

So, without further adieu, here's the Merry Christmas video. I'll be pumping the link out via email as well.. just so you knows.



More Christmas goodness later.

A week almost under my belt

Tomorrow, in case you've lost track, is FRIDAY! It's also the Friday before Christmas, which in case you haven't noticed, is on Monday! Scrazy, folks. I hope your shopping is done. You're running out of time!
After being completely enamoured on the first couple of days of the job, I have calmed down a little. I still like the job though. I forgot I had a brain. Best of all, it still works, though it does feel like mush at the end of day. More importantly though, I'm enjoying being a part of a team atmosphere instead of working as mindless drones just doing a job. Ultimately, it's just great to be back in career mode. I am smrt.

With all the excitement of the new job along with busy schedules, we finally found the time and energy to put up the Christmas tree last night. Even in China, it's a task that I always enjoy doing. This may well be this tree's final year though. Artificial trees have come a long way since we got this one somewhere in the neighbourhood of twenty years ago. Although I'd never do it, you can buy them pre-decorated now. Aside from that, there are those that look more real than real trees-- just without the smell and falling needles. You don't have to worry about a waking squirrel either. Artificial vs. Real - what's your pick?

As with most of Christmas periods, I'll try and blog throughout and give updates as to what's going on around the house.

A Christmas without snow.. how depressing.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, My Life, New Job, career

Hoo-rah!

Started the new job. HOT DAMN! I know there's a whole novelty aspect to starting higher calibre position, but still, my first day was awesome. My team seems über friendly. People I've talked to seem to really enjoy the company and what goes on there. I talked with the company co-founder today as well. He was also a friendly guy. The drive is a bit long, but I can live with that.
In the staff kitchen you'll find a cooler filled with juices and pop. You'll also a find a coffee maker that makes individual cups using a variety of coffee selections. On top of these fringe benefits, I also start off with three weeks of vacation per year, an expected to happen stock option plan, employee bonus and employee benefits package, not to mention employee pension fund. ScoobyDoooooooooooo!
Also, now this is super special, it looks to be that every seven weeks I'll have a five day weekend because we'll normally be putting in 40 hours within four days. This is just cool.
In conclusion, I'm happy with the new digs.

PS A Very Merry Christmas Video C/O YouTube

Doesn't sit well - Marriage With a Fool

Today was TheWife's birthday. Happy birthday, baby.

We watched a Cantonese movie tonight called Marriage With a Fool (Duk ga si oi) - a romantic comedy about a young couple who get married and separate soon after. The reason for the split was because the guy, Wah, was spending some time with his childhood neighbour (Josephine) whilst his wife (Bobo) was at work. She wasn't aware of these meetings and she happened to read a message on his cell phone from this woman, she lost it on him despite the truth of Wah not having committed any sin (kiss or otherwise) with Josephine. Wah should have told his wife about spending time with this woman, but Bobo over reacted by saying they were now splitting up.
Wah went to the arms of Josephine that night (after getting loaded), and the next morning when he conceded to Bobo's declaration of a split (which she was pretending never happened), she once again went ballistic when she's the one that wanted it in the first place.
Fast forward to the part that didn't sit well with me after some introspection nearly 90 minutes later.
Both Wah and Bobo had at least somewhat of a romantic encounter with someone else during their split. It was obvious that both of them were still in love with each other. An emotional conversation and a floodgate of tears later, they re-unite. All happy, right? An undetermined amount of time passes (not too much, maybe a few months to a year) and Wah is playing some PS2 when he receives a text message for Josephine saying that she missed him. He replied in kind. After paying attention to his transaction, he decides to erase the message lest his wife read it. Bobo on the other hand, goes off to their bedroom (not knowing of the text message) and begins a letter to her interim fling using paper he had made for her. Fade to black. Credits role.
Instead of the theme that love conquers all, we're left with a theme more along the lines of love should be distributed to more than one person.
Although there's a certain realism to that ending, I'm finding it rather hard to stomach. Somewhere there are people doing this to themselves every day. Why? This whole concept is really bothering me. I'm not longer feeling entertained by this movie. I now sit disgruntled with the entire thing. Probably because there's more truth to that movie than fiction.

Technorati Tags: movie, review, Marriage With a Fool

Creepy Dreamy

Woah.
Just woke up from a nap, which will lead into my last overnight shift as a Security Guard. That's cool in itself, but I also just had a creep ass dream.
I can't remember what lead up the dramatic scene, but I was being chased by a mob boss and he cronies. After locking myself in a garage where a couple of swords were held the boss gets in, but I was able to keep the others outside.
With a sword in my hand, I offer him the other one (with sheath). He accepts and we begin to sword-fight. He tosses the sheath under the slightly open garage door for his cronies and we continue to battle. Both of us have a series of cuts, but eventually I take the upper hand after slicing his neck. He falls to the ground as his gang break through the garage door again. I stab and slice a few of them while I break for one of their cars outside. From the passenger's side (key's already in ignition), I start the car while on my stomach and use my right arm and hand as a leg, evading those who are after me. I win.
I come back to the garage after dark, thinking I'm going to have to dispose of the dead body that I left behind when I hear the sounds of an old truck driving slowly, and men obviously sitting in the back. They come into view as I go hide in a shed. Keeping the door open enough for me to see what goes by. The truck is decorated in Christmas lights with the men in back singing Christmas carols. There are two guys on either side holding sniper rifles looking for me. One of them suddenly speaks out saying "wait a sec," as he looks over my way. I know I'm doomed. I wake up. I lose.

This dream just creeps me out. Eesht.

Technorati Tags: dream, dying, My Life, mob