Sky Captain or I Gots my Money

So the situation with Earls was resolved quite easily, as I phoned them and related my tale of minor woe only to have a quick check done and my money refunded. The total amount back ended up being 12$, so it wasn't like I threw a stink over nothing... I mean 12$ is almost an hour of work for me! When hours and money are tight, you just can't throw it away to random hot girls who serve you food... Unless they adequately serve you that is.. :)
Last night I checked out "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" with Ryan, Tina, and Andrew. I really wanted to see "Shaun of the Dead" but Ryan thought it "looked too silly." This from the guy whose favorite movies are "Dead man on Campus" and "Hot Shots." Sky Captain was a little iffy on the whole... I can appreciate what they were going for; an homage to early sci-fi serials and books, and I can appreciate the visual style, but as for being entertained... I can't say that it did anything major for me. It was neat but the whole thing looked like the cinematics from Wing Commander 3 and 4 for the PC. All the artificial bloom lighting and smoothed out features had me continuously waiting for Mark Hamill and John Rhys Davies to pop on warning about the Kilrathi invasion. Strange how the newest thing in movies was done 7 years ago in video games... One thing I can give Sky Captain was that the visuals were 10 times better than the past 2 Star Wars movies. Those were CG that was trying to be real and looked fake while this was CG that was trying to look fake that ended up looking far more real. Oh yeah, and before I forget... I wholeheartedly disagree with all the reviews that claim that Sky Captain is the movie that Guy Maddin would make if he had 40 million dollars... First of all, it was too straightforward, second of all, there were no bizarre sexual undertones, and third of all, it was WAYYYY too Hollywood for a Guy Maddin movie. But I guess even being mentioned at all has his stake rising in the biz...

The Dominator or Stupid Earls

In keeping with tradition, I dominated Andrew and Ryan and video game sports last night. First giving them a schelacking in NHL 2k5 and then following up with a last minute victory in NFL 2K5. Needless to say, Ryan was not impressed.
Prior to that we went to Earls for a drink. I had a chicken sandwich and white russians... tasty. I agreed to pay for Andrew's meal, as I owe him some money from the Bomber game. Using my credit card, I told the girl that I would be paying for the two of us. When the bill got back to me, I signed it and added a tip. Then, during the middle of the night, I woke up realizing that she had overcharged me! She had given me a billl for the whole table! (Ryan and Tina only had one drink a piece) I paid about 10$ too much! Not wanting to assume that she did it on purpose, I can only gather that it was an accident... The only problem is whether or not I can get the bill fixed at this point... With money soon to be a tad tight, I can't afford to go handing out 20$ tips to attractive waitresses... I guess I'll give Earls a call to see if anything can be done... What worries me is that Ryan paid cash for him and Tina so there is seemingly no record that I have that he paid (other than my word). It's possible that the Earls girl just pocketed the money... That will make it my word against hers. Not knowing how Earls handles this sort of thing leaves me thinking that I might be out 10$... Oh well, you never know unless you try!

That's Just Pathetic or Red and Black Attack

So last night I was playing some NFL 2K5 with Ryan and Andrew. It was me against them in a Eagles vs Raiders showdown. With 40 seconds left in the game, I was winning 16-0 which had pissed them off to no end, after all I know nothing about football... In order to be bigger dinks they switched to my team and took control of my quarterback, ran all the way to my own end and got tackled; giving them some points. They then tried to take over for me and give themselves better field position for a comeback... It became a button mashing affair... luckily I managed to still win, but still... talk about lame... not being able to stand the humiliation of being dominated thoroughly by me.... Still though, I can say that I schooled 'em.
This afternoon was filled with me being at the hair dresser's for 3 and a half hours as they totally gave my hair a makeover. I now have black/dark brown hair streaked with bright red. The two chicks working there thought it was awesome, as do I... but my mom's comments were akin to "why'd you do that?" " who did that to you" "why wouldn't you do blonde?" and "it looks like you have food colouring in your hair." Judging by those remarks, I know that it rules. Anything that annoys my mom that much can't be bad! The hairdresser's also promised that the ladies would be all over me now (as if they weren't before!!!! ..... :( I guess we'll have to wait and see! You will, however, pardon me if I don't divulge the cost of all the work I had done....
Working through Otogi: Myth of Demons for Xbox has been fun, but a challenge... Sometimes that game can be freakin' hard! I also started Voodoo Vince and Fatal Frame as well... Usually I like to stick to one game at a time, but clearly not this time... I would still like to be playing Panzer Dragoon Orta, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, and Beyond Good and Evil, but I can only do so much at one time!

The Wind Tunnel Effect or Working Too Much

So basically I have had no time to do anything substantial for the past week or so... I've been working late almost every night (ie) till midnight ish). The sucky thing is I have no real choice here because I will lose all my hours in a few weeks. Greyhound is cutting some express clerk shifts so those people get bumped down into my classification, thus pushing me further down the totem pole... I will be on call, but not the top of the on call list... that means I will only get shifts that the people above me turn down... which means few, if any... That will change come Christmas time, when there's hours a plenty, but I'll have to scrape by until then... But who knows, things could all change again and maybe I'll be rolling in the cheddar soon. Either way, to be safe, I need to work as much as possible now.
While driving home last night, I rolled down both front windows. Doing this usually creates a sweet wind tunnel effect, but last night's was especially insane. There was a crazy wind going on anyway, but combined with driving fast made my hair go all super sayan. It was neato!

Pondering or God Damn It!

Having unsuccessfully tried to get into the Filmmaking class at the U of M four times now, I was pissed (but happy) to hear that Ritchie from work got in easily. You see, I had originally been accepted in during intersession last summer but the class ended up being cancelled... Then I tried during the regular session and it was full. (I got a shitty registration time because I am a transfer student). Over the summer I tried for the U of W one, but got dicked around with paperwork and whatnot... I attempted the Film Group course, but it was full... Then I tried again this year at the U of M and it was full again... Then I hear from Ritchie that he just happened to get in when he registered (after me I might add). I guess someone had dropped it... Thinking that I might get lucky, I tried yet again and it was still full... THEN I hear that this year, the University finally bit the bullet and upgraded all of its equipment... we're talking brand spanking new digital cameras and a top of the line editing suite.... ARGH. Luckily I signed up for, and was accepted into the Film Group's basic training course, which is similar (and perhaps more useful, according to one of my profs) but still! It sucks when you try for/want something really badly and don't get it, only to see others get it easily... Maybe if the stupid Universities had made filmmaking a course with pre-requisites.. you know... to keep first years who want to dick around from taking all the spots from people pursuing film for a degree... DOUBLE ARGH!
Venting aside (did I use a lot of "then" and "again" ???) I have been pondering doing something radical with my hair. Being easily bored and prone to wanting to change my looks at various times, I am currently considering dying my hair a crazy colour... I'm thinking bright neon orange or something along those lines... It would be most helpful to hear feedback/suggestions from the people whose opinions I care about that read this blog (you know who you are!)... then again, ANY opinions would be kick ass... You have no idea how exciting it is to find comments on this thing. That just might say something about me....

Seriously, What the Hell Did I Do? or Outfoxed

A somewhat uneventful past couple of days filled with school, work, and the completion of both Crimson Skies and Max Payne 2 for Xbox...
Today however, was a tad different. Jay had a free pass to see "Outfoxed" a documentary about how the Fox News Channel spins the news and misrepresents the truth so I tagged along. On the way there we bumped into a bunch of people he knew, including a cute girl (which is semi-inconsequential) whose name escapes me. We all talked a bit while waiting for the movie box office to open (it turns out one of the staff no showed at the Cinematheque, so the projectionist had to do everything) and nothing was out of the ordinary. Making eye contact was considered meaningless by me... Anyway, once in the theatre she sat two seats away from the right end and Jay sat on the next seat over (to the right). That would have left me on the very end of the row and having to turn my head through the whole show... Not wanting to do that I sat next to the girl on her left. After only having asked one question (were you in arts or science at the U of W) she asked Jay to switch seats citing a need to possibly have to get up during the show. Immediately I could sense her wanting to get away from me, perhaps due to being creeped out... Why, I have no idea... I didn't smell bad, I hadn't even begun to even think about trying to hit on her, and as far as I can tell, I don't have two heads... Am I creepy or something??? Jay said he sensed the same thing and had no idea as to why.... Mystery of the ages I guess...
Oh yeah, the movie was pretty good too... Nothing I didn't already know (Bill O'Reilly is a twat and a liar, Fox is crazy right wing, etc) but still well put together. For four bucks, you can't go wrong... Afterwards, we ordered some Chinese food from some place that had left a menu in Jay's mail slot and watched some Sealab 2021 and TMNT 2K3 with Rob.

DDR Fun or Banjo Bowl Victory!

The past couple of nights have been filled with an unusual amount of video game playing. Not just any game either, but Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix for Xbox. Never having gotten into the DDR craze before, the whole thing was largely new to me. Taking a chance on fun I picked up the game and two mats on ebay. Starting out slow and shitty, I have progressed to moderately ok at it. It took a while to really figure out the best way to play it; bouncing all the time, or stepping and leaving the foot on the spot. I do the stepping and leaving thing. The game has found some fast fans with my friends; Ryan and Tina especially. I think it's been fairly obvious that Tina doesn't like being forced to play what Ryan wants to all the time, so to play something more attuned to her interests seems like a breath of fresh air.
At the official TV christening last night, Ryan, Tina, Stobes, Lee, and Andrew's brother and sister all came over and did some dancing. Andrew's sister was a semi-pro at the thing and put us all to shame. I was impressed to see everyone give it a shot. Some had more success then others, but at least they tried. You can really get into it and start to sweat like a pig as most of us were doing. Calming down a bit, we then moved to NFL 2K5, Chu Chu Rocket and NHL 2K5, wrapping things up at about 3 am.
Today was the inaugural Banjo Bowl between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Seeing as how the Bombers have sucked ass this year I went in with low expectations, but they managed to surprise me and play really well. The final score was 27-24 Bombers. There were a few really nice runs by Roberts and the new quarterback Glenn totally made Khari look useless. He actually threw the ball to his own team! The only downer was the continuing suckage of the kicker Troy Westwood who managed to blow an easy field goal that could've provided some breathing room. All in all it was a fun little time.

New TV Alert! or Damn, That Thing is HEAVY

Last night was the illustrious receiving of the new TV. I was supposed to get Ryan's help (and van) to transport the thing from future shop to my basement, be had to work and could not spare any time until Saturday morning. Not really wanting to spend my Saturday afternoon setting the damn thing up, I decided to try my luck at fitting the thing in my car. Racing to the store after work last night (I worked till 8:30 and the store closes at 9) I, with the help of an unlucky stock boy, managed to squeeze a 32" TV into the front seat of my Elantra. The best part of that was how the TV was so big that it was half in the driver's seat as well. It certainly made for an interesting and unsafe drive home. with one arm out of the window and a strangely twisted foot, I managed to get home without incident... although I DID drive uber-slow to compensate. Knowing that the weight of the set was too much for my mom and I, I contacted Stobes for his aid. During the wait for his arrival, I built the stand (only having 1 leftover piece! Woooooo!) Once he arrived, we were able (with the help of my trusty work gloves) to get the thing out of the car and into the basement. It took a water break though. Once everything was set up (and after we ate some pizza) we enjoyed the fruits of our labours (and my paycheck) by playing some Xbox. Once again I lost to him in ESPN football. Seriously, every game we play I lose... usually by about 3 points. One of these days..... one of these days......
I would say that the TV rocks (and it does) but I was a touch pissed about one thing. The box mislead me about the amount of inputs it had. the box counts an s-video port as TWO ports because it can do s-video OR video... Clearly this still only counts as ONE input, but NOOOOOOOO, not to Panasonic who think that it's TWO. So instead of the mighty 5 inputs I was expecting, I have 3... Now I have to do the old switcheroo... At least there is a front port to speed up the process. Then again, the stand swivels, so it's not like it would be all that hard to switch wires at the back anyway....
I plan on having the official christening of the set this saturday, so if you want to join in for some drinking and gaming, let me know! Oh yeah, I have DDR for the Xbox too! Drunken dancing never gets old!

It Begins Again! or Dreams

I wish that going back to school was more like in that movie.... Back to School...

A Hot Girl or Getting Up Early Doesn't Agree With Me

So last night I went to a "drinking party" at some girl who I don't know's house with Andrew and Ryan. In attendance, there were some of Andrew's friends that I sort of knew and a really hot girl. She was super gorgeous and apparently single. She also did not participate in any games or conversations. In fact her and her moderately appealing friend avoided the group at all costs, sitting on the outskirts and shooting dirty looks at almost everyone, especially Andrew's drunk friend Brian. I can understand that part, because he was saying bizarre things and generally being an idiot... It would have been nice to actually hear this girl speak to know if she was intelligent, annoying, or whatnot. After she left, all the guys were commenting on just this fact which gave drunken Brian the bright idea to phone her. (this was about an hour after she had left.. approximately 2am) He apparently woke her up which made her mad. Not that I blame her... The highlight of the "drinking party" was the "box-head" rule for the drinking game. Who ever draws the ace has to put a beer bottle box on their head. For some reason this becomes incredibly funny when it's late and you've had a few. Stobes got pictures of all the victims, which he plans to post on his site soon.
Not getting home until 3:00 ish means that I was in bed late. I don't like being woken up early by my parents asking if I could sign an anniversary card for my brother and if I wanted to come to breakfast... I can be a little grumpy and ornery if woken up by someone else... I need to get up on my own. The past couple of weeks of having to work weekends at 7am has sucked too because I've been stuck in the mode of sleeping in till noon-ish and going to bed around 3am. My body doesn't want to fall asleep before then, which has given my about 3 hours of sleep before each shift. This would be ok if the work load wasn't insane...
On the plus side, I received an email from Jane a couple of days ago. Never having discussed her on here before, readers (the few there are) wouldn't know the story around her. It's not too long so I'll mention it now. She was a girl who Dave's ex Carrie wanted to set me up with. Apparently I was "totally her type." Everytime there was a planned meeting, something would come up and one of us wouldn't be able to make it. When Carrie and Dave broke up, I sort of forgot about the whole thing. Once I started taking some film classes at the U of M, I would see her around every so often, but she didn't really know who I was and vice versa. When Dave and I attended Oktoberfest last year, we bumped into her. She secretly told Dave that she thought I was cute, but I didn't find that out 'till later. When I did though, I actually approached her in class and started up a conversation. It turned out that she was pretty cool, being a film nut and a huge Dylan fan. We kept up some correspondence, both in class and through email, but every time I would ask if she wanted to hang out, while accepting, she would be super busy with plays and school. Towards the end of the school year, I wasn't able to talk to her as much because I came down with mono... I was in no condition to try to woo a girl. Then the summer came and went and I hadn't really made an effort to keep in touch... Out of the blue I sent her an email but didn't hear back. A few days ago, she sent me a reply asking if I had received her earlier email. Apparently SHE had sent me one before, asking how I was doing, etc. So the correspondence has begun again. I would like to finally get a chance to hang out with her, as she was pretty, cool, and insane (in the good way). She seems like someone who would be fun to be around. Keeping up my hopes has always been a recipe for them to be dashed, so I will avoid getting any excitement brewing.

New TV or 6 Weeks of ZERO Spending

So I ended up buying a new TV today at Future Shop. I had been eyeing the sales flyers for quite a while from the various electronics retailers around town and noticed a pretty sweet deal on a 32" Panasonic Tau Flat Screen TV this weekend. The TV that is currently being used in my parents place is an old 27" Zenith that is really starting to die. Text is very hard to read due to blurriness, and overall image clarity is sub par. A while back it would go through a weird phase where it would turn all green and the flash back to normal. We were thinking that it was going through its death throes, but then suddenly it reverted back to normal... well maybe not normal, as the resolution appeared to have decreased since then.. at least as far as I can remember. I hadn't really planned on dropping such a large chunk of change right now, but this is going to be the TV I move out with, and as such needs to be both good and able to last. I wanted something that could do component video for the Xbox and had multiple S-Video and Video ports for all my other systems. The Tau has a component, 2 s-video, and 3 video ports. Almost perfectly matching my systems count. (DVD player, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Playstation, SNES). We are going to set it up in the basement so that it can be used when my parents have claimed the main TV (which happens a lot). It's going to redefine how I play games... no more squinting at blurry in game text, no more trying in vain to avoid glare, and no more below quality resolution.
While talking about the money I am spending on "stuff" I am reminded of how I was trying to reduce the amount of stuff I had... I was on a mission for this year to "simplify" my life. I have greatly reduced a lot of my "stuff" but still manage to spend money on things. Instead of collecting a little bit of everything (toys, movies, games, etc) I am now focusing on movies and games. I'd like to think that I've been a touch successful in my mission... maybe not as much as I had hoped when I began it. Hopefully I can do better from now on... In fact, I am going to go on a buying fast again (as I did once before in the year). I will not spend any more money on "things" for at least 6 weeks... the last time I did this, it was 4... Saying this, I know that I will not be able to get Fable or some of the awesome DVD releases that I am sure will be out during this time... but I think that this is important. I need to do this again, to atone for falling off the wagon so to speak...
I guess I am a little weird, in that I occasionally will "punish" myself when I fail to do something that I think I should have. Usually this involves cutting myself off from some "vice" whether it be spending, food, drugs, etc. I'd like to think that it reinforces my willpower. In striving to be a better person, there are things that I can do and things that I should do. Its making those things second nature as opposed to needing exertion that can be a challenge.

Trying a New Template or Leave Comments!

I was getting bored of the old template so I decided to try something else. Squawkbox comments are gone and blogger's are in. This should at least make Lee happy! With that in mind, please leave comments! It's always interesting to read what others think and who knows, maybe it might lead to more info coming my way!

Rock Opera Wedding or It All Hinges on Jumping Through a Paper Circle

While hanging out with Ashley and Lee post "Napoleon Dynamite" (which was amazing... touching, funny, and real) I revealed my inner most fantasy for the perfect wedding. Ashley had brought up how her boyfriend didn't want to do anything traditional. He was considering Vegas with Elvis as the preacher, to which Lee responded that doing that is almost traditional now because it's so common. Well, what I want to do for my wedding (if I ever get married) is beyond non-traditional and treading into the realm of crazy and silly. I want to put on a wild rock opera complete with the bride and myself singing rock duets and jumping through paper circles. I figure that one character could be a black southern Baptist preacher going all "fire an brimstone" while singing like James Brown. I'm thinking heavy rock 'n roll, funk, and 50's style do-wop... almost like the Spider-man rock opera but about the lives of the bride and myself... or maybe about something totally different... that far ahead I have yet to think. Ashley thought it was cool (and I think Lee did too) although they both proclaimed that it would be up to the bride if that were to happen, as weddings are traditionally the domain of the bride. I figure any girl that would want to marry me, would have to be used to crazy and stupid ideas by then, so she should have no problem going along with a rock opera wedding. Think about it man! Dancing, singing, and good old fashioned loud music. It would be a killer time!

Thanks! or Canada Takes on the World!

Thanks to Toastmaster who posted what the colours in Hero meant.

Red - imagination (Nameless made it up)
Blue - perceived reality (what the King THOUGHT happened)
White - truth (obviously what really happened)
Green - enlightenment or peace (Broken Sword attained a higher level of understanding through practice and study)

That is so awesome. Take that American cinema!

On another note, the World Cup of Hockey started yesterday and Canada takes on all comers! We've got a pretty sweet team this time out with great veterans (Lemieux, Sakic) and promising youngsters (St. Louis, Lecavalier). Hopefully the embarrassment of losing to the U.S. in '96 can be erased this time out. If you go by game one, where Canada won 2-1, things look good (knock on wood :) ) While hockey may not be that big of a deal south of the border, here in Canada, it's huge. Pretty much EVERYONE plays it as a kid and the game itself is a sense of national pride. The media is ruthless on losing teams and everyone has high expectations for success. Beating the U.S. at anything always gets the nation excited as well. It's not that Canadians dislike America, it's more like the thrill of a little guy beating up a big guy. Or a soft spoken individual showing a loudmouth how its done. Speak softly and carry a big stick!