Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - Month Archives

May was a really fun month! We saw the weather finally getting better and I received some good news regarding my job at RIM. All in all a decent month and I'm looking forward to the summer. Lots to do, so little time though!

Tuesday, May 29th 2007

Okay so yesterday I was checking scores online and didn't realize that Ottawa was only leading after the 2nd period. It turns out that Anaheim came back and won game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Woohoo! Glad to have such a demoralizing defeat against the Senators! Yeah, maybe I'm pushing this anti-Senators thing a too far but I've heard worse against the Leafs (and they weren't even winning at the time). As for the countless rumours that Kitchener/Waterloo might have a NHL team from Jim Basille's pending purchase of the Nashville Predators...I say this. Nashville? WTF were they thinking? I don't understand the NHL...pick a place like Nashville when there are other prime markets out there. If the Predators do get purchased, I hope they move to Canada. Kitchener/Waterloo? Probably not...but you never know.

Marvel's summer crossover, World War Hulk, is coming soon. Woohoo. Yeah right. I'm getting a little annoyed with these crossovers. Countdown hasn't been that interesting and it will most likely lead to the "third crisis" that has already been mentioned. Wow. Another Crisis. My enthusiasm for the second Crisis was great but they better execute the third Crisis correctly or it's gonna be a major suckfest.

Miss Japan was crowned Miss Universe over the weekend. She beat Miss Brazil, Miss Venezuela, Miss Korea and Miss USA. She was a skinny-ass Japanese chick too. Oh well. Miss Universe doesn't really have too much meaning when you have the Reef competitions and other various pageants that have thongs, thongs and more thongs. Of course, the Miss Universe pageant is about class, style and true beauty. Just like how Playboy is great for the articles and non-hardcore material. No thank you. There's funnier and more x-rated material on What Would Tyler Durden Do? Well congrats to Miss Japan anyways!

DRAGONCRYPT 5/29/2007 10:32:48 PM

Monday, May 28th 2007

I think it's slowly starting to hit me that I'll be turning thirty this year. Wow. It doesn't seem like a long time but it also seems like it should be a long time. Being around so many university students...I keep forgetting how old I am. With my best friend Mark getting married this year and a few of us "single" guys left it's just getting weirder. My mom was talking to me about how I was getting older. LOL. I got the mother/marriage talk. Too funny. Luckily my parents already have a handful of grandchildren that are terrors so they don't have the urge to have more. Hehe.

So the date for the Star Wars 30th Anniversary cards have been pushed back for a few weeks. Prolly to give some more time for the sketch cards and autographs. Still looking forward to this set. It's gonna be sweet. Star Wars Celebration IV took place over the weekend. What is this? It's where all the Star Wars fans get together along with companies and hold a really big convention. There are some excellent pictures floating about from this convention. I'm a closet Star Wars fan so I don't attend conventions that are strictly Star Wars. Yes, I still like Star Wars (prequel only) and yes...I still dislike George Lucas...sigh. I suck.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/28/2007 10:05:12 PM

Friday, May 25th 2007

Wow, the school shooting in Toronto was kinda scary when you think about it. Sure the media had really hyped it up but to think someone came in a shot a kid inside the school. Sure the school is in a bad neighbourhood but you wouldn't think someone would get shot inside the school. Especially a 9th grader. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of something more serious.

It's amazing...over the last two years, I feel like I've lost touch with many events in Toronto. Just from the few times I've walked around downtown, there's so much happening. I'm really glad to see the Dundas and Yonge area finally taking shape. The northeast corner is looking much better now. So hopefully there are more phases where they move the rest of the crappy stores from Dundas to College out and replace them with some really nice places. They should close off Yonge from Dundas to Gerrard. That would be sweet. Or even Queen to Gerrard. Make it pedastrian only and you'd really have a great tourist area with some prime shopping venues.

Prime Minister went to Afghanistan to visit the Canadian troops stationed there. I'm really glad to see him support our troops. I know lately, I haven't kept up with what's been happening in Afghanistan. There have been casualties but thankfully the number has not been as high as last year. Let's hope the casualties are kept to a minimum for the rest of the year.

Jenn is coming up this weekend! Woohoo! It's gonna be fun! No renovations to deal with. No parents to nag us and best of all...no stupid Toronto traffic. With this heat and no air conditioning in the car, it's killer weather. Suffice to say, there will be no posts over the weekend unless I've got lots of time.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/25/2007 12:54:20 PM

Tuesday, May 22nd 2007

Working a later shift this week so I best put an entry down now otherwise I'd be to lazy to post anything. Last week was a big week for comic books. All-Star Batman and Robin finally came out; Ultimates 2 #13, Paul Jenkin's Sidekick and Warren Ellis' Black Gas 2 also came out. These are all really late books that should have been released last year some time (with the exception of Sidekick). The All-Star Batman is still a very interesting take on the DC universe. I'm beginning to enjoy it more. Ooo, I also got the Mouse Guard hardcover. It's a great book. The story is interesting and the artwork is fantastic. I'm looking forward to the new series coming out later this year.

Made a few bad box purchases over the weekend. I got 2 boxes of Rittenhouse Archives' Spider-man 3 and 2 boxes of Bench Warmers 2006 Series 2 (yeah, I know). Bench Warmers was okay, I picked up a few autographs that I needed. Nothing spectacular though. Spider-man 3 was horrible. I was short one autograph and the inserts were dismal. With 40 packs in a box, there are a total of 7 inserts. Wow. Talk about crappy. I never liked Rittenhouse's insert scheme. With so many basic packs, it increases their box prices. The inserts themselves are difficult to collect. You would need to essentially buy a case of the cards to try to complete a full set and that's not even a guarantee. Well I hope that they decide to change their ways soon or we'll see a lot more of their product dumped on the market.

Aight...time to head to work. Woohoo!...

DRAGONCRYPT 5/22/2007 12:49:06 PM

Monday, May 21st 2007

Happy Victoria Day!

Hope everyone had a good long weekend. The weather was kind of wacky with it being nice on Saturday and frackin' cold on Sunday then all nice again Monday. Gotta love it. I didn't do much over the weekend except for help my parents with the renovation. Well I didn't really help but I had to pack all my books, magazines, CDs, etc. I can't believe how many boxes I needed. I think I still need some more banker's boxes to finish packing everything up. I figure that most of the books and magazines will go into storage as it's not being used at my parent's place.

The renovation is still going on...it's scary and interesting at the same time. I don't know how the renovation was planned out but it seems that the entire project will take well over three weeks...possibly more than a month. The finished areas look decent...but nothing spectacular. And the stories I hear from my sister regarding the contractors...sigh. You get what you pay for I suppose.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/21/2007 11:04:44 PM

Thursday, May 17th 2007

I'm heading out to TO tomorrow so I wish everyone a great Victoria Weekend! I have to work Monday but I don't mind with the extra OT that the job pays you. It's too bad June has no long weekend, otherwise it would be awesome. The weekend weather is looking good so far. I was supposed to be going to the zoo on Saturday but plans have since changed. It's a shame. I was looking forward to seeing all the funky animals. Which reminds me, I think the Royal Ontario Museum is opening it's newly renovated wing up this weekend. Was it this weekend or last weekend? Too lazy to check.

We're getting a new driveway! Our landlord has decided it's time to repave the driveway. Gone is the old bumpy and very crappy old driveway. I'm not sure how smooth the new driveway will be but anything is better than the old driveway. Larry's car has also been removed finally and outside doesn't look like a run-down house anymore. Too bad inside the inner portions need some work. That's mainly due to us not cleaning the house much.

Okay, done for the day. Busy week ahead. I have to book some go-kart racing for Mark's bachelor party...probably some restaurant as well. Also need to book an optometrist appointment and an appointment with an accountant. Shudder. Too many appointments, so little time. Off to bed for me. It's a long day tomorrow.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/18/2007 1:04:37 AM

Tuesday, May 15th 2007

I decided to take a few days off last week as Jenn starts her internship this week. Gave us some good quality time to spend together before we both get busy with work. Spent all day Thursday downtown and we had lunch at Mel's. Smoked meat sandwiches and poutine. Boy, did I MISS that stuff. I just remember the days of playing snooker with the boys until 2-3 in the morning and then heading on over to Mel's for some early morning chow. Then of course going home, sleeping on the full stomach and waking up with that oh so gross feeling. Awesome.

If any of you watch Holmes on Homes, you would know how there are a lot of shady contractors out there and that the home owners have very little protection if any. Contractors lie about their work and in many cases, are in way over their heads. Many are not professionals and are just "winging" the renovation. Many homeowners do not hesitate on hiring these type of contractors as they usually offer those really "cheap" deals. Well, you get what you pay for right? So my parents are renovating their place and since they're Chinese, they do very Chinese things. One such thing? Cheap renovations. Sigh. My dad is a do-it-yourself for cheap kinda guy and the contractor they got was cheaper than the other contractors and willing to do more work then the other quotes. Sigh. A recipe for disaster. We'll see in the oncoming months. On a side note, after watching Holmes on Homes I really want to build my own house. Those new houses are HORRIBLE. It's salt on the open wound when you find out how much new homes cost nowadays and how poorly built they are.

In non-sport card news, Harrison Ford has been officially announced as a signer for the 30th Anniversary Star Wars cards! WOOHOO! I won't be expecting his autograph to appear in any packs of mine, but the sheer possibility is fun enough! The really difficult pull? The Adam Hughes sketch card. I am sooo wanting a Star Wars sketch by Adam Hughes and he's only slated to do around 50 sketches. This may be rarer than a Harrison Ford autograph. Although I would expect some crazy prices for the Harrison Ford autograph on Ebay. I'm not sure if I would see it if I got one (which I won't).

I'm working the 11:30 to 8:00 pm shift this week so my days are a little off. I can't do much in the morning and I can't do anything at night. Though I find that sleeping at 2 am isn't good when you automatically wake up at 8. I'm just too used to the morning schedules I guess. Oooooo! I got a new cell phone too! The Samsung A720. I finally signed up for a cell phone plan with Telus. The plan is 15 dollars cheaper than my current plan and it lacks only the Caller ID portion which I don't even us. So who cares? I might as well get a good free phone with a camera, microSD capability and MP3 playback! So essentially, I have a new MP3 player! Woot woot! Aight time to go do some more work...

DRAGONCRYPT 5/15/2007 10:21:31 PM

Sunday, May 6th 2007

Wow, three posts in a row. It's a new record I think. I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not going to check. I have noticed that Canadian and US postal rates have gone up recently. I guess costs are higher but it's now more expensive to do business online. Sure, the costs are higher to the seller but when the larger companies have bulk shipping rates and can offer free shipping, it's difficult to tell customers that they have to pay 6-10 dollars for shipping.

It does amaze me how people are willing to pay for items online. Coming from an area that is greatly deprived of good non-sport trading cards, I am familiar with the temptation to buy items online. In fact, I'm getting some Star Wars cards from the states and it's cheaper than my cost from a distributor here in Toronto. I really don't understand the dynamics of import/export sometimes.

With the release of Spider-Man 3, Rittenhouse Archives has also released a card set to coincide with the movie's popularity. Rittenhouse managed to get enough autographs to offer 2 autos per box. Consider there are going to be 7000 boxes, that's at least 14 000 autographs. The list of signers is pretty good but I'm sure there will be a lot of the "common" autographs. A Toby Maguire did show up on Ebay already and is already at around 350 US. We'll see how much it gets in the end. Toby's signature is a scribble so I'm not sure how many people will want to pay for a scribble. Some of the famous stars have some terrible signatures. Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp are a few that come to mind. It's difficult to justify spending so much on a few scribbled lines. I really like the actors who add a little personal touch to each card or take the time to autograph each card. Sure it's tedious but at least they're considerate of the fans. Kudos to these actors/actresses.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/6/2007 10:14:57 PM

Saturday, May 5th 2007

I barely survived yesterday night. I was going good until 6:30 am and then the wave of tiredness hit me like a brick wall. I left promptly at 8:30 and was in bed by 8:40. It was so sunny today but I barely noticed with most of the day spent sleeping. The wind is still a bit chilly though.

Larry has been up here taking apart his old car. After speaking with him regarding car repairs, I think I'll be able to fix a few of the outstanding repairs on my car. The stablizer links have to be replaced in both the front an rear suspension and the front exhaust is loose. I may get the mechanic to work on the exhaust system but I'm hoping the stablizer links will be easy enough.

Let's hope tonight will be better than yesterday night/morning. I'm still sore from running and playing the Wii (suprisingly sore) so walking has been a chore as of late. Still need to schedule Mark's bachelor party. There's only been a 50% response level. That sucks. Go-Karts are still a go but I have to find an appropriate restaurant and then a nice round of pubs/bars to go drinking or chilling. It may just be easier to stay at someone's place any buy cheap booze. I'll do some more research this week and make some calls next weekend. Anyways, it's work time. Bleh.

DRAGONCRYPT 5/5/2007 11:09:18 PM

Friday, May 4th 2007

Playing with my Wii

Finally got the Nintendo Wii last Friday! Woke up early and lined up at Future Shop. I was first in line so I was guaranteed one. Woohoo! Brought the Wii to TO and unpacked it with Jenn. We actually went and bought Rayman Raving Rabbids as well. I had picked up an extra Nunchuk and the Wii Play (with a remote). Damn the Wii is really fun. Sure the graphics are state-of-the-art but they were good enough. Jenn had a real blast too. That's what I love about the Wii. Anyone can play and it's different. Raving Rabbids is hiliarious. I love those wacky games that just don't make any sense. I can see why everybody wants a Wii.

Been fighting off a cold or something and also working overtime for a few hours each day this last week. I still haven't heard anything about that job interview I had last week. It's a good or bad thing I guess. It's amazing though, other guys have just heard they were promoted or got other positions and the work ethic goes out the window. Just a few mind you, most of the guys I know still work hard but it's still annoying to see.

Working the midnight shift this weekend. I need to take a nap before going to work tonight. The weekend midnights are the worse shift. Your schedule is completely fubar for two days and then it's reversed back to days with only a day off in-between. I couldn't imagine how some of the guys doing the 12 hour shift work can handle it. Although they get 2-3 days between the shift changes, it would still be so taxing if you do it for years. Dammit, it's too sunny to be sleeping!

Spider-Man 3 came out today. I heard good and bad things about it. It's got Sandman and Venom in it. I really hate the fact they have multiple villains in each movie just like the old Batman movies. It really takes away from each of the villains. Doc Ock and Green Goblin were good in the last two movies, but Venom really deserves his own movie. They should have put Sandman with Electro and Scorpion...or even do a Sinister Six. Anyways, I may see this at the theatre or not. I'm really saving my movie tickets for Pirates of the Caribbean 3. That looks AWESOME!

DRAGONCRYPT 5/4/2007 1:55:29 PM