Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - Month Archives

March was supposed to be the month Spring would come in and wash away the dirt and salt stains of Winter. Instead we were teased with a few weeks of warm weather and with long periods of unusually cold weather. March was a great month for movies with 300 and TMNT both being released.

Thursday, March 29th 2007

Wow. I am dead tired this week. It's been a mentally draining week for me. My project at work has been extended for another week so that's really cool. I get to be off the phones for another week! Woohoo! I've been contemplating buying a Wii and then getting it claimed since the department has been unable to get a Wii. I have an evening shift coming soon and it would be awesome if I was able to pick one up.

Just listened to the Leafs lose in overtime. Glad to see them get the point but a win would have been better. Let's hope Montreal and the Rangers lose their games. Toronto better do well against Pittsburgh. Those 2 lost points against Buffalo last Friday look even more important than ever. The Islanders are floundering but it won't matter unless the Rangers and Canadiens start losing their games.

The three weeks out have been long. I'm looking forward to heading back to Toronto for the weekend. Jenn and I are going to try out a restaurant mid-town. It's time to enjoy some of the good weather we've been having. Although it's going to be a little colder this weekend. It's still warmer than a few weeks ago. Besides going to lunch, I've got to pick up my books for the last 3 weeks, the last of the Benchwarmer cards and groceries. It's gonna be a full car coming back.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/29/2007 10:13:26 PM

Sunday, March 25th 2007

The weekend is almost over. Man that sucks. I cannot believe how quick that was. This weekend was the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. No...I have yet to watch it. I'm dying to find out what's going on. However, I'm prepared for more cliffhangars. There's supposed to be a two-part special between season three and four. The good news is that there will be a season 4. Imagine if there was no renewal....gah.

Managed to get a slew of work done. I have to mail my corporate tax stuff to someone to look over but I'm hoping it's laid out okay. Went and did my preliminary personal income taxes and luckily, I'm not owing the government any money. I've heard from co-workers that they are either owing or breaking even. Ouch. I think I should be getting a refund. A refund is good, no matter what the amount is.

The Kitchener Toy and Hobby Show was kinda fun. There wasn't much I was interested in but there were a lot of sports cards and toys. I've never seen some of the die-cast toys before such as the Coke cars or even some of the Hot Wheels. I did purchase a few packs of Benchwarmer 2006 S2 and a box of hockey cards. There were no discount bins. I was hoping to pick up some more Planet of the Apes cards for 50 cents a pack. They were pretty good cards and I'd like to finish a set if possible.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/25/2007 10:41:34 PM

Saturday, March 24th 2007

Wow. I witnessed another collapse of the Maple Leafs yesterday. Leading 4-1 in the third period, the Buffalo Sabres somehow scored 4 unanswered goals in less than 7 minutes. It was kind of embarrassing. If any team could have accomplished this, it would have been Buffalo. Their offense is sick. Although the Leafs are mostly to blame for this. They started to get greedy with some poor, high-risk passing which resulted in turnovers. You don't do that with Buffalo. You have a 3 goal lead, you keep it. Even if the Leafs are going to make the playoffs (which I am worried about now), they're going to be killed with stupid mistakes like this. If the Leafs lose to Buffalo again tonight, I'm not keeping my hopes up for much success for the rest of the season. It may be too little, to late.

First week off the phones is done. It was nice. Stressful but nice. Today is a psuedo-relaxation day. I'm planning to do all my taxes...or at least get them together to submit to an accountant. I just want this whole ordeal done with. It's going to cost me a fortune but there's nothing I can really do about it. Consider it a lesson learned. Do not incorporate unless you NEED to.

Tomorrow there's a Kitchener Toys and Collectibles Show at Bingeman's. It's probably not going to have too many things that would interest me but I'd stil like to take a look at what's there. It's a bi-annual event but it would be cool to see what kind of things people collect. It's funny, I've noticed that Toronto really doesn't have many of these shows. Sure it has the large conventions, but I don't see many of these smaller shows around. I for one like these shows because the admission is low whereas Paradise or Toronto Comicon are quite expensive and very limited in terms of dealers.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/24/2007 9:48:09 AM

Thursday, March 22nd 2007

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I'm getting a Nintendo Wii! For free! Woohoooo! I managed to win one from work as they are having weekly prize draws for people who work overtime. It's going to take a few months for us to get a Wii but OMG it's so awesome! Nunchuks! Woohoo! I have yet to play the Wii but it's something that will be fun to do now that we don't have television. It's been good without TV. I've been able to concentrate a little more on work. However, the past week I've stayed late at work almost every day. The project is an awesome experience and I'm glad I was chosen to be a part of it. It does drain the brain though.

All this training has really reminded me of my Second Cup days when I was training people almost every other week. It was so fun to train the new people but it was also stressful when you ran into roadblocks. I remember the one thing I couldn't stand when training newbies at Second Cup is when they said "yes" or "I understand" to things that I have said and two minutes later, they don't understand. Argh. Just say no and I'll re-teach it. If I'm not getting through to you...maybe it's my method of delivery! That was probably the most frustrating thing. I was asked if I wanted to be a trainer when I apply out of my current position. I was thinking about it but I hear now that they're going to be travelling lots so I don't think I will. Which reminds me! My six months are over! I need to start the job application process again and see if I can find some other positions at RIM.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/22/2007 9:55:41 PM

Sunday, March 18th 2007

Finally got to see 300 in the theatres on Friday. I lucked out and went to the digital screen. The film was great and I loved how Zack Snyder translated Frank Miller's work onto the silver screen. Check out my review of the film in the Movies section. It was Marck Break but since the movie was rated 18A there weren't any pesky high-school kids in the theatre (they were watching other movies).

Jenn forwarded me a link to an article at BBC World News regarding 300. The article talks about how American-Iranians are protesting 300 and the way the movie portrays the Persians. What?! Man....I didn't even think about that. I loved the Immortal costumes and I definitely wasn't thinking "Man, damn those dastardly Persians". I've also read articles regarding the historical validity of the movie. Jeez. Frank Miller took a real event and decided to tell a story about it. If you haven't read the graphic novel, then you wouldn't know that 300 is a loose work of fiction based partly on true events. Honestly though? Who cares?! It was an entertaining movie.

Worked this weekend. I'll be off the phones for a few weeks as I'm helping with a project. It will be nice change of roles, if only temporary. Too bad the role didn't take place when I have my next midnight shift. Not sure yet if the project will add more stress or help alleviate some stress. We'll find out in the next few days won't we?

DRAGONCRYPT 3/18/2007 11:10:14 PM

Wednesday, March 14th 2007

Well it finally had to happen. After almost a year and a half of free cable, Rogers finally put a filter on our cable. I was leaving for work when I saw the guy and he asked which house was installing satellite. Hmmmm. Maybe our neighbours ordered satellite or something but at the end of the day, we got a notice that our cable was disconnected. I was surprised the free cable lasted for this long. So are we going to subscribe to cable? Hell no. I was looking up the prices of the packages and they suck. I cannot believe how expensive television is. Between the Internet and Cable, people could be spending nearly 100 dollars on average monthly. That's ridiculous. I cannot believe that it costs this much. Rogers and Bell continue to gouge their customers and we keep coming back for more. I loved when Rogers sent us a notice advising that Internet prices will increase due to "network costs". Riiiight.

Well, without the devil-box entertaining me, I've been left to my own devices. So it's movies and more movies for me! Too bad I've been working overtime lately and working out that I rarely watch the TV. Perhaps I'll be more productive without the distraction of the television. Although I will miss the NHL playoffs this year. Sucks to be me I guess. No more CSI marathons on Spike TV while eating my lunch/dinner.

I'm hoping winter is officially done. We've had some rain and warm weather the last few days here and that has created the ICK. The ICK is unfortunately unavoidable and must be endured so we can have a bloomin' Spring. Let's hope we have a fantastic Spring, short Summer, awesome Fall and mild Winter again! Well, not too mild a Winter, the poor squirrels outside are so fat and slow. All that excess weight with has gone to waste for those poor squirrels. I'm hoping the rabbits are just as fat, then I can go catch one and have rabbit stew! Woohoo!

DRAGONCRYPT 3/14/2007 11:30:52 PM

Wednesday, March 7th 2007

Man, the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica have been pretty boring. They were good character-driven episodes, but they really didn't have a lot of action in them. Okay, I guess you can't have every episode with action, but I'm just itching to continue the whole Cylon thingie. I've pretty muched missed the entire season of Rescue Me as well. After missing the first few episodes, I decided to skip the entire season until I have the time. Ditto for 24 and CSI. There haven't been many new shows that I've been interested in. America's Next Top Model is slowly losing my interest as is some of the other shows.

I think the current playoff race in the Eastern Conference is gonna be better than the actual playoffs. I've never seen such a tight race. Will the Leafs make it? Hard to say. How about Pittsburgh and their recent surge? The Penguins are sick. Crosby, Malkin, Staal and several other rookies and sophomores. Add in Recchi, Roberts and Gonchar. Holy crap. How the hell did people miss out on Jordan Staal? That guy has some crazy hands. Imagine what a time like that would do in an actual hockey market. It's a shame that the team is threaten to leave Pittsburgh.

300 is coming! Woohoo! I SO want to see this movie! Ghost Rider is ruined with Nicholas Cage in it and there are hardly any other movies to watch. Although I want to watch Pan's Labyrinth. Jenn told me about it and I watched the trailer. So cool. I heard the Number 23 is pretty good too so I'm interested in seeing that.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/7/2007 11:18:35 PM

Monday, March 5th 2007

I should have done this sooner, I've put some links to comparisons for vehicles. Drew and I have been exchanging shots (check February 2007) at each other regarding fuel efficiency of cars so I've decided to look things up. Below is the link:

www.fueleconomy.gov

You can choose and compare the vehicles (SUVs, hybrids, regular vehicles) side by side. You will see the greenhouse gas emissions, fuel economy etc.

For people concerned about the batteries in hybrids, or want more information about batteries, please see the following links:

www.hybridcars.com
EV World
Wikicars

I hope that this will help dispell some "myths" about hybrid batteries. The majority of them are Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and are warrantied for 8 years and above (depending on the manufacturer). New battery technologies are already being developed as are possible recycling options for current NiHM batteries. These batteries are still less toxic than the current lead batteries that are in standard and hybrid cars (used to start the car, etc).

From Andrew's comments regarding how I think I'm great for not buying an SUV. Well I don't think I'm great. I just think people who buy hybrid SUVs are fooling themselves. I think the ENTIRE class of SUVs is shit. It should never have been created. I understand how people need trucks in rural areas. But SUVs in the CITY?!!! Total shit. Same with high-performance cars and luxury cars. Someone once told me they wanted a BMW because of how it rides. I do not spend enough time in my car to care about how it rides. I hope most people don't. We can't change the fact that Canada is this huge expanse with only 30 million people. It's ridiculous to even suggest the notion of only having supercities where "rapid transit" is the answer. Sure, if I had a Utopia, I'd ask for transporters too! What about cold fusion?

Whenever I speak out about the environment, it's usually out of frustration for the lack of caring we have. It's great that the environment is in the minds of so many now. It's not so great that it's become a political subject. I know I still pollute but I can honestly say I'm trying to reduce the amount of waste I produce. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to abandon all my possessions and go completely ape-nuts. I still need a car to get from Toronto to Waterloo. Taking a bus doesn't work for my groceries and such. My current compact car doesn't produce nearly as much greenhouse emissions than a SUV, luxury sedan, or sports car. I lucked out on that. However, if I had to money to do so, I'd trade in this car and buy a Prius or Civc Hybrid. I'm hoping that when I have a family and need a larger vehicle there will be alternatives to a van.

When I speak about the environment, I'm not just talking about cars. How many people actually dispose of their computer parts correctly? Who throws out their expended batteries in the regular trash? How about those flourescent light bulbs? I'm not an environmentalist, tree-hugger, or some crazy nut who spikes trees. I'm just frustrated at the total disregard our environment. Buying a hybrid doesn't fix the problem. Being more conscious of how we affect the environment does. Just because I speak out doesn't mean I'm an environmentalist. We ALL should be thinking like this.

I remember a long time ago in junior high school, I had a friend who was really into saving the environment. I mentally labelled her an environmentalist and brushed her off at times but I should have realized the importance of what she was saying (which I do now). We are wasteful everywhere and despite the fact that our "governments" are concerned, we still overpackage our products, waste our energy, and pillage our limited natural resources. For what? That new iPod every year or that new LCD or Plasma TV? My friend was right and that was over 15 years ago. The most frustrating thing to me is that in 15 years time, we'll still be talking about helping the environment and having these same arguments. So maybe perhaps I am better than others. I've realized that we all SUCK and it's pretty shitty. If I've bruised anybody's ego or made them enraged. Good. We're too complacent nowadays anyways ....baaaaaah ...baaaaah.

DRAGONCRYPT 3/5/2007 11:28:37 PM