Friday, April 25, 2008

Yeah, I know...

... I haven't posted in a while... It's just that I'm still trying to process my recent escapade to Europe and didn't want to start writing about it for fear I might not stop for a long, long time.

Now, on a totally unrelated note: 'The World Ends with You' looks like it just might be the game that gets me to try a RPG on the DS. I'll see if I can find it tomorrow.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Going to London Today

What I have written on my office computer to let my coworkers know where I am, in case anyone comes by wondering:

I'm off to London and maybe France,
I remembered to pack some underpants.
It's very important to be ready,
I just hope the plane will be steady.

I'm sure I'll have fun and enjoy the sights,
I'll take lots of pictures of all the lights.
If all goes well, I shall come back
Around Apirl 21st to talk and chat.

If you're looking for me, then you're out of luck,
I'm off to Europe and don't give a... darn.

Who knows, I might have a chance to blog from London, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. :-)

Cheers all!

Monday, April 7, 2008

BattleDoctorWood: Vegas

I really have to catch up on my season premieres and finales. Last week saw the arrival of a brand new season of both Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, and I have yet to watch either of them. Plus, Torchwood also concluded its second season last week, so both my wife and I will have to commit some serious TV time in order to watch all those (plus CSI Vegas) before going off to Europe on Thrusday. Yes, I know, such a painful issue to have.

We went over to visit my mother-in-law on the weekend, and the bed we slept in was softer than a sponge. My back is still killing me today, so I'm somewhat thankful that I've been able to sit at my desk for the majority of the day. Honestly, I realize now that it might not have been the best idea to go and visit her this past weekend since the only thing I did was worry about the upcoming trip and all that needed to be accomplished before we go. That, coupled with the fact that I coulnd't do any of those things really didn't do any wonders to my mood.

In any case, one of my co-workers put up a map of France at my desk for the week in anticipation of my upcoming holiday. She's actually from France, and thought it might serve as a good idea to get me geared up for Thursday. Honestly, I don't think I need all that much help since I'm starting to get excited, but it was a sweet gesture on her part.

Thursday, April 3, 2008



We're probably going to end up at the library tonight since David 4.10's book is due, and we'll probably pick up another one for our nightly reading before bed-time. That might give me a chance to finish Guy Gavriel Kay's 'Ysabel', which has really grabbed me as of late. The book started off a little slow I found, but it was never boring. It's just that Kay has a way to build up characters and establishes the situation very well, so it's solidly rooted down and you know what you're getting into. That's why when the story really starts going, you're in for a hell of a ride. I liked his last book ('The Last Light of the Sun') but I think it was my least favorite book by him. Don't get me wrong, his worst book still stands head and shoulders above what you typically find out there in the realm of fiction, but it didn't grab me quite as much as his other works did. 'Ysabel', though, did, and still has me firmly in it's grip. I can't wait to see how it'll end, as I actually have no idea what shape the conclusion will end up taking. It's an excellent book that manages to mesh fiction and fantasy extremely well and, again something that's very common for Kay, the research into the locales and history are spot on and definitely give me a flavour of the place. I'd actually like to visit it someday thanks to this book.

On another note, I'm looking forward to 'Echochrome' for the PS3. Essentially, it looks like a puzzle / platformer type of game, where you manipulate one of those 'impossible machine' looking type things in order to make your little stick figure journey across it. I know, I'm sure that reading that description doesn't instill any type of curiosity on your part, but google it to find some videos to get a better idea of what I'm talking about. In a way, it reminds me a bit of 'Portal', since at the beginning, you're trying to wrap your head around the concept of what must happen for you to get from point A to point B, and the task itself seems almost insurmountable. However, little by little, you start to get how to manipulate the environment to get to the desired result, and what looked impossible almost looks easy in hindsight. 'Echochrome' seems to touch that vibe, and it's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to it.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Faxing Resident Umbrellas

Busy day yesterday where I didn’t have much of a chance to blog.
Today at work I’m essentially starting to looking after faxes until I leave for my trip to London next week. Typically, this is a task reserved for people who have been here at least six months or so, but a week or two after I started here, I made it a point to learn how to do so and right now, I’m the sole bearer of that particular task. It might not sound like much, but we get about two to three thousand pages of fax per day, so it can be quite the undertaking. That means I won’t be running around the building as much as usual, which actually kind of sucks, since one of the things I really enjoy about my job is that I’m constantly moving. Oh well, I can listen to my iPod if I want while sorting the faxes, so it’s not all bad.

Rented ‘Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles’ last night at the same time I picked up ‘Avatar’ at the video store and it’s pretty terrible. I have the lightgun thingy for the Wii that turns the nunchuk and controller into a crossbow looking thing, so I thought it could possibly be entertaining or fun, but it just didn’t grab me. The only positive thing I can say about it right off is that the cursor stays a heck of a lot more stable on the screen when aiming than ‘Link’s Crossbow Training’, but everything else really didn’t grab me. I got up to the first boss and promptly died, even though I was pummeling the boss pretty well and it’s life was going down by tiny increments. The big scorpion thing took three swipes at me and I was dead. Just the though of doing that over filled me with what I can only describe as an ‘ugh’ feeling, so that was pretty much all the motivation I needed to give it up. I was intending to maybe rent ‘Super Smash Bros. Brawl’, but those were sadly all out.

Oh, and on another note, when we'll be in London, we're definitely planning on checking out the London Eye and Forbidden Planet. I can't wait!