Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - May 2006 Archives

May has been a fairly long month. It is the month I got my income tax return and it is the month that begins the summer holidays. The Stanley Cup playoffs are still happening and it's less than a month away from the World Cup.

Wednesday, May 31st 2006

10 000 Hits!!!

Congratulations to Jenn as she was the 10000th visitor to my website. Thanks all for visiting and reading the stuff I put on the site. This site is something to keep me busy and productive I guess. Though there are a lot of unfinished sections that I need to sort out. I've actually got all the hobby layout sections done but I need the content. Man, making content is tiring. I kept falling asleep looking at all the checklists for the different ccgs. Now with the heat, it's so easy to fall asleep hehe. Well, my summer work schedule is mostly in the mornings so that should give me some time in the evening.

I've got one more month until my first anniversary at RIM. Almost one year in Waterloo and at least a few more (I think). Jenn just got accepted into Humber (woohoo!!!!) so she'll be there for at least a year too. So what are my plans? Well, I'm going to try to get a job within RIM outside of the Service Centre. Hopefully something more IT-related. I enjoy the problem-solving but I really do miss some of the hands-on work technical support gives you. Man, I miss messing around with my computers. It was so fun taking things apart and having specific-use computers. The inner geek in me is waiting to explode.

I recently received an invite to my high school 10-year reunion. Wow. I'm old. It's been ten years since high school. Eep! I don't think I can make it due to work but I'll ask some of you guys to update me on all our high school mates! Most have developed successful careers and a few of us are still meandering near the bottom. That's okay, we're all successful in our own ways. If I always compared my achievements to those of my classmates, I'd have some pretty low self-esteem. I'm proud to have been able to mingle with some of the sharpest minds I've ever met. It's elevated my thinking and learning as well throughout the years. Hopefully, I'll still keep in touch with many of them to see what's been happening with them. Of course, they'll all be coming to me to buy their comic books when I rule the world! Mwahahahahahah!

Vacation's been approved, camping site has been reserved! Time to be one with nature and eat lots of fish! Woohoo! This summer should be very fun. We've got the camping trip planned, a trip to the States, trips to the ROM and AGO, another fishing trip, movies to watch, people to see, prolly have to organize an Engagement Party for Mark. Fun Fun Fun! I'm starting to get really excited about the summer. I think it's also the summer I'm going to launch my Internet card store. Just a few products at first and see how it will work out. It's an amibitious summer but I'm gonna be optimistic about it!

DRAGONCRYPT 5/31/2006 8:52:33 PM

Monday, May 29th 2006

Indonesia is hit hard again by another natural disaster. If you haven't heard, the island of Java was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Saturday. Over 5000 people are reported to have died so far. As the world gets more populated, the death tolls related to natural disasters will get worse. Aren't we still waiting for the next big one in California? It definitely seems like Mother Nature is exacting revenge after years of abuse by humankind. I don't even want to think what this year's tropical storm season will be like.

On the topic of weather, today has been crazy hot. Well, it started Sunday, but Summer has introduced herself quick and hard this week. With temperatures around 30 celsius and the humidity bringing that number up to around 40. Indian Summer already. Of course with such humidity and heat, we've already had two Smog Alerts. Loverly that is. I hope our governments will do something about the greenhouse gases. It's a pity that on nice days, you can't go out to enjoy them because of the smog. Time to buy those gas masks!

Related to the topic of greenhouse gases, I was watching CBC news and they were airing question period at the Federal parliment. The opposition was really pressing on the fact the Conservatives have, in principal, removed Canada from the Kyoto Accord. Steven Harper wants a 'made in Canada' solution. Now since that actual solution isn't detailed yet, it's difficult to believe that it will be any better than the Kyoto Accord. In fact, I'm willing to bet our commitment to reducing greenhouse gases will be greatly reduced by this government. In rebuttal to all the questions asked, Steven Harper and his Environment Minister, Rona Ambrose, repeatedly blamed the Liberals for signing up for Kyoto and not doing anything. Great deflections there Harper. I never really liked Harper and the Conservatives much. That doesn't mean I'm a Liberal or New Democrat though. Steven Harper is creepy and his debacle with the Parliment Press Corps, his rebuttals during question period and his overall performance in office have been lacklustre. He really dosn't have much charisma and from the looks of it, much experience. I guess that just makes for a dull Prime Minister. I hope he's competent enough to run this country well. To me, he hasn't done a good job at all. Well, time will tell and the voters will ultimately decide if Steven Harper is a good Prime Minister.

Oh yeah, congratulations to my girlfriend Jenn as she was the 10 000th visitor to my website. She got the screen capture for me, but I have yet to put it up. I hope by my next post I'll have the screenshot up. Now I'm gonna try sleeping in this heat. My place doesn't have air conditioning and I have yet to buy some fants. I think it's time to get a few. Nite all.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/29/2006 11:42:49 PM

Friday, May 26th 2006

I had a day off work today as I'm working the weekend. Weather-wise, the day was pretty gloomy and crappy. It showered all morning before stopping later in the afternoon. The weather was hot and humid. The house is pretty warm already and it's not even the real summer season yet. We really need to get some fans and circulate the air on the top floors.

Since it was my day off, I decided to run some errands. I originally planned to do my corporate taxes but the people I called were too expensive. I can't believe accountants charge so much money to file a simple corporate tax return. This whole corporate thing has been a thorn in my side for the last couple of years. I'll be so glad once I get rid of it.

Anyways, I digress. Went to Costco to buy some jam. For some reason I like the big sizes for jam that Costco has. It's crazy how easily you can go over budget in the store. You just keep piling on 'cheap' stuff and suddenly you bill is 3 figures. Everything at Costco is bulk so you may be saving money per unit, but can you finish it all? This one woman was like saying how cheap 6 baguettes were. Ummm, I don't think you can reasonable finish 6 baguettes in a week. I remember wanting to buy this huge tub of pasta sauce. Then I realized that I would be eating pasta for a good two months if I bought that can. I know everytime I go to Costco, I end up spending more than I wanted to. Sigh.

After Costco, had a trip to Home Depot to buy some stuff for the house. The front door's screen panel has no screen so it has to be replaced. Rather than wait for the landlord to do it, I'd rather just spend a few dollars so I can open the front door during the summer and not be fearful of insects. From Home Despot, I went to Chapters, bought some magazines. There was one magazine at Chapters, it was Women of FHM Asia. So it had all these asian models from FHM. Most were from Singapore, Malaysia and the Phillipines. I think that's where FHM actually publishes. Anyways, looking through the magazine, I noticed that all the models look similar and it's really hard to figure out who is who. I was tempted to buy The Economist, but I didn't want to go over budget so I held back. *pat *pat.

From Chapters it was some grocery shopping and finally some lunch. Went working out, came home, bbqued some burgers and then went to watch Mission Impossible 3. I didn't really like the movie too much. Perhaps it was too much of the same thing and I found that several actors were under-utilized in the movie. Too much Tom Cruise and not enougth of everything else. I'll write a full review over the weekend, along with The Da Vinci Code. Hopefully it's slow enough at work that I can write a few more comic book reviews as well. I've realized that the layout for the comic book section is pretty confusing so I might have to redo everything to facilitate single issue reviews. Sounds like the more logical thing to do.

I was very tempted to buy the LEGO Jabba's Palace. It was available at the local Toysrus where I have some gift certificates. I decided to hold off until the Star Destroyer reaches stores. I'll probably pick up a few more gift cards and hope that my local Toysrus will have some left. I also noticed another series that LEGO has released. It's the Vikings set and there are some crazy looking dragons in the sets. There's also this cool looking fortress. Speaking of LEGO, here's a link to pictures showing the model building room for LEGOland California. Awesome!

5/26/2006 11:31:21 PM

Tuesday, May 23rd 2006

Congratulations Mark and Milana!

My best friend, Mark, proposed to his girlfriend, well fiancée now, over the weekend. It was exciting times as I knew about this a few weeks ago. Mark and I have been friends since grade school and I couldn't be happier for him. They're both great together and I know that they'll have a great future together. A great big "congratulations!" to both of them. Now Mark has asked me to be the Best Man. I'm a little nervous cuz I have no idea what to do. However, I'm honoured and will do my very best to ensure that the best quality strippers are at the stag party. It's all about quality and not quantity y'know.

Jenn came up this weekend and we've both decided that it's too early to be thinking about marriage in our relationship. Phew. Not that I wouldn't want to, but I don't think we're in that stage of life right now. Besides, I'm still trying to rig the bets up properly so that Andrew Ma will be next...hehe. Anyways, Jenn came up and we had a blast on the weekend. I didn't have to work so we ended up going to the Farmer's Market and Outlet Mall. I ended up buying some new shoes (40 bucks!) and some of the new LEGO that has been released. I got the new A-wing and TIE Interceptor. At the Outlet Mall I saw the new Star Destroyer and Jabba's Sail Barge. I WANT THEM!!! WANT! WANT! WANT! hint hint...

I wanted to make my own pizza from scratch. I used a recipe from a cookbook that Mark got me for the pizza dough and then we piled on the toppings. The pizza was slightly overcooked but it was delicious! I say a good first attempt for me. My next challenge? Salmon Wellington! My local Sobey's has the Phylo pastry so it should be fairly easy to make and prepare. We also watched Serenity at home. It was a most enjoyable movie to watch. I can see how the audience could get a little lost if they didn't follow the Firefly TV series. However, the movie gets a little better later on. Of course, the snappy banter is evident in the characters. Josh Weldon does seem to have a talent of snappy banter between cast members. Saturday night was also Risk night at my house. Brian, Jee-young, Jenn and I played Risk. I ended up winning by claiming three sets of cards, thus giving me this obscene amount of armies. Master of the Universe I am.

Sunday afternoon, we all headed out to watch The da Vinci Code. I never read the books so I watched the movie from a movie perspective. The movie was highly entertaining and easy to follow. It's great that the film can mix in real elements and many fictional elements to create this mystery of mysteries. I just don't see why it is so controversial to so many relgious groups. Chalk this up to another one of those things I don't fully comprehend. I'm interested in reading the book now. Maybe I'll borrow it from Jenn. Hehe.

I worked Victoria Day so I had to drop Jenn off at the bus station early in the morning. Work was busy as it was not the holiday in the States. Since RIM has a large US customer base, we operate almost like a regular working day. I don't mind working with the extra pay that you receive. Same amount of work, just more money. Woohoo! Overall a busy and fun weekend. Not very productive, but well worth it.

5/23/2006 12:28:01 AM

Wednesday, May 17th 2006

So The Da Vinci Code is coming out this Friday. It looks like an interesting movie and Jenn and I are planning to watch it. I haven't really been following the controversy that the novel had generated. It's a work of fiction that religious groups oppose? Sometimes I think some religious groups are a little too sensitive. Well, I want to watch the movie because Ron Howard directs it so it should be good (despite the harsh reviews).

Jenn is coming up this weekend and I have the weekend off. It should be pretty fun. We're planning to go to the Farmer's Market and I've decided that we're going to make some homemade pizza. I found a recipe for making pizza dough from scratch. We'll see how well it goes. It should be a fun. A while back, I brought up some boardgames for parties and stuff. One of those games was Risk. Brian went nuts and really wants to play Risk. I remember playing Risk and getting really mad at my friends. It always starts off well and ends up with some heated words. It will be interesting playing with our girlfriends as well.

Another Canadian soldier was killed in action today in Afghanistan. Capt. Nichola Goddard of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Shilo, Manitoba was killed while engaging Taliban forces. She is the first female soldier killed in action since World War II. Unlike the United States and Great Britain, the Canadian Army allows female soldiers on the front lines. There was also a debate on whether or not to extend the Canadian mission in Afghanistan for 2 more years to 2009. Personally I think what Canada is doing in Afghanistan is important. We can't ignore the reponsibilities of overthrowing a regime. We should be taken responsibility for providing stability until Afghanistan can properly govern itself. To do otherwise is irresponsible. Of course this is just my opinion. My sincere condolences go out to Capt. Goddard's family.

Well, Edmonton just knocked the San Jose Sharks out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. So the matchups are Edmonton vs. Anaheim, Carolina vs. Buffalo. These are gonna be some awesome games. Fast, explosive, hard-hitting hockey. No trap-crap that we've seen before. Four small markets may not have been the semi-finals NHL brass were hoping for but it sure does generate some exciting hockey. Edmonton fans reacted with class to the American national anthem and cheered during the anthem. Not like San Jose fans who decided to boo the Canadian nation anthem. When will Americans learn? Do they forget that many of their most favourtie players are Canadian? Fools! Fools I say! Okay, now off to scan some comic books.

5/18/2006 12:28:01 AM

Monday, May 15th 2006

Indeed there was something awry with my car. It turns out that there was a sensor that was malfunctioning in the car. The good news? The sensor was still covered under the Mazda warranty so it was free to replace. The bad news? I still had to pay a hundred bucks for the diagnostic tests. Also decided to flush my fuel injectors (is that right) so I ended up paying around three hundred bucks for everything. I got a free cooler bag and a car wash out of it. Woohoo! Grumble grumble. So the car wasn't as bad as I thought but it still sucked spending money on the car. That's three bills that could have gone to something else. Hopefully my insurance is gonna go down when I change companies later this month.

Jenn and I are planning to go fishing this summer a few times. Does anyone know some good fishing spots in Ontario? We've decided to go to Cook's Bay in Lake Simcoe but we wanna try some other places as well. Places that are easily accessible by car and that are free. We do plan on a camping trip at a paid camping site sometime this summer too but we're having a difficult time deciding where. I haven't gone fishing in over 10 years so I'm definitely out of the loop when it comes to fishing. Any help would be nice. Cheers all!

Man I was gonna write some reviews up for some of the new issues of comic books but I'm tired again. I've realized that I've been making reviews of each title. Not the greatest thing to do since creative teams switch all the time. I guess I have to write some more issue-specific reviews. Speaking of reviews, I hope everybody is going to watch X-Men, Superman and the Da Vinci Code. I still don't understand all the hype but it does look interesting to me. Dammit! My eyes are getting heavier. I think it's time to go. Nite everybody!

5/15/2006 11:55:43 PM

Tuesday, May 9th 2006

Cars suck. I hate my car. I hate cars in general. If I had a choice I wouldn't have a car. I hate mechanics. I'm sure many are honest but I just get the feeling that I'm being ripped off. My car hates me. It knows when to break down because it always does when I have a little bit of extra money. So I'm driving to Toronto and my Check Engine light comes on. FUCK! So something's wrong with the electrical system in my car right? I dunno. I'm fucking clueless when it comes to cars. The funny thing is that the same light came on early last year and then disappeared after a day. WTF? So I figured it might disappear after a day or two. No luck. Tough shit. So now I have to take the car in to diagnose the issue. They'll probably hook it up to some machine and then charge me some absurd amount of money. Fuck. There goes money for the summer.

So let's see, I've spent 11 grand on the car, almost 10 grand in insurance, already 2600 in repairs and maintenance. Wow. I hate my car. I hate it with an absolute passion. It's nice to get around but it's a big money pit at times. Sigh. I'm really hoping that this is not going to cost me the 500 bucks I think it will. Really does bring a damper to one's day.

In related crap news, I still have to do some corporate taxes for my stupid corporate company. So I have to pay some accountant to file my taxes. The dumbest thing? I didn't even get the benefit of enjoying cheaper corporate taxes because I had no money left at the end of the fiscal year. BLEH. I better get on that soon too as it's already been a year. FUCK.

Damn, when it rains shit, it downpours the shit. Well I'm hoping the summer will be kick ass and many things will be done. Primarily some outings with Jenn and my online store coming up. Nothing fancy since I can't afford to buy any stock, but just clearing out the old stuff to make room. Hopefully by the end of this summer I'll also be out of the contact center and into a new position at Research In Motion. The trick is to find the right job that I won't get sick of after a few weeks. Anwyays, going to bed. Cheers everybody.

5/9/2006 11:44:37 PM

Wednesday, May 3rd 2006

Well, I just got home from working out at the gym. I just finished my forty minutes on the cross-trainer and I went to get changed. To my surprise I discovered that someone had stolen my shoes (I wear workout shoes). Yup, someone decided to take my six-year-old pair of nasty shoes. I'm not pissed or anything, but I find it odd that somebody would steal such crappy shoes, especially when there are pairs of shoes in the lost and found. When I informed the gym attendant he mentioned that somebody's wet shower slippers were stolen not too long ago. That is so gross, the thief has got to have a shoe fetish or something. Well, it just means shoe shopping for Steve!!!!

On the topic of shopping, the Conservatives have just released their budget for 2006. Lots of tax cuts, including a one percent decrease in the GST. The Conservatives are saying that they want to give back some of that budget surplus so that are more fiscally balanced. To be honest, I don't like these new tax cuts. I don't want to be saving a few thousand dollars here and there only to be paying more taxes later on if the budget goes into deficit. I want the government to give more money to cities, farmers and other areas that need it. I totally disagree with the 1200 child allowance for children under 6. I don't have kids and that's MY money going to people who don't deserve it.

I saw on news clip on CBC where a high middle income family said they couldn't afford to raise their two children in Vancouver. TWO CHILDREN. The mother was complaining that not enough money is being given to them to help raise their kids. They spend 800 dollars on child care for one of the kids. Of course they didn't say what kind of child care it was. WTF?!!!!! If you can't afford to raise kids, don't look for handouts! Maybe plan your finances better. Don't buy that SUV I saw you driving or that nice big house you have. I fucking hate people like this. I understand that some families need the money, but for middle-class people to complain about not receiving enough from the government to raise their own kids? FUCK OFF! Why are my tax dollars going to you when you double my fucking income? Another bad thing about this is that now the low-income families who fuck like rabbits and are totally irresponsiblew will receive money for children they probably don't want. More of my tax money going to worthless shits. Fund more quality child-care spaces and spend some money on other things. Fuck the idiots who can't raise their own children. You know their children will be fucked up anyway.

Phew. Okay. So I don't like some aspects of this budget. I feel that the Conservatives are buying voters with this money. Then again, all budgets are like that I guess. For more information about the budget, check out CBC's detailed web site with this link: 2006 Federal Budget

I've already mentioned the Calgary Flames. Now the 2nd round of the Stanely Cup Playoffs begin soon and we have some great matches coming up. It's funny, the top four seeds in the Western Conference are gone and the bottom four seeds in the Eastern Conference are gone. Weird. So the matchups are San Jose vs. Edmonton, Anaheim vs. Colorado, Ottawa vs. Buffalo, Carolina vs. New Jersey. I'm definitely looking forward to the Buffalo/Ottawa game. If any team can beat the Senators, it's Buffalo. Okay enuff bitching and complaining for tonight. Cheers!

5/4/2006 12:24:31 AM

Monday, May 1st 2006

May has arrived! I've got two more months until I reach my one year anniversary with Research In Motion. Time has been flying by and I am slowly seen the light at the end of my financial woes troubles. It's been a tough year but the next few years will be even tougher. With the one year anniversary coming up, I'll be eligible for internal transfers. I know that I'm slowly getting sick of answering phones all day so I need to get out of the support center. Perhaps some actuall Desktop Support would be nice. Anything that pays a little more and gives me 9-5 hours. That way I can apply for a second job at like Future Shop and make a little more income. The one thing that sucks about shift hours is that you can't really schedule part-time jobs around it. Normally you'd work the weekends but my weekends are for Toronto so that doesn't cut it either. We'll see.

My roommates both bought new computers from me. It's amazing how cheap dual-core chips are from Intel. They may not be the best in the market but dual-core chips give you advantages that single-core wouldn't. Not everyone is a gamer that needs the next greatest piece of hardware. I was tempted to get myself a new dual-core system but then the geek in my want's the dual opteron chips instead. Dual dual-cores baby!!!! AHHHHH YEAH!!!!!!

Well, building computers from components has always been fun. The new cases are amazing. I can't believe that cases have really evolved this much in less than two years. They are more user friendly and they are much more pleasing to the eye. The only drawback? There are also some really ugly cases out there. I really don't like some of the abstract stuff that's being manufactured. It's also a shame that it's fairly difficult to buy a normal case nowadays too. Here's a cool acrylic case.

While I'm writing this up I've noticed that the Edmonton Oilers have beaten the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 and have clinched their series in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Congratulations to the Oilers. The game was exciting and to come from behind against the Red Wings is a great feat itself. That's two Canadian teams advancing so far. Woohoo! Alright, time for some shut-eye. Nite everyone!

5/1/2006 11:08:48 PM