Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - Month Archives

November was another quick month for me. It was Jenn's first month trying to commute from Waterloo to Toronto via Greyhound. There was a lot of adjusting on both our parts to the longer days and just living with another person. I'm just happy I get to see her everyday now instead of the 5-6 days a month.

Friday, November 30th 2007

Last day of November and I have the day off from work. It's been pretty relaxing except for the cold chill through the house. Did a little bit of house cleaning and caught up on some reading on the Internet. I still have Robert Jordan's Knife of Dreams sitting here unread and it's starting to bother me. I really need to start reading all the books that I've purchased over the last couple of years. I know Jenn's been harassing me to read them and she's got a point. Besides Knife of Dreams, I have some Star Wars novels, a few Nick Hornby books, Bruce Campbell's auto-biography, and some books Jenn got. Too much reading, not enough time.

Marvel Masterpieces is supposed to be out next week. Let's hope it is coming out. With Heroes pushed back to January, Pirates of the Caribbean cancelled and a few other card sets pushed back, there haven't been any significant releases lately. Although I still need to look into Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. With one auto, pieceworks and sketch each box, it's a pretty good deal for the price of one box.

Speaking of AvPR, there are some other movies that are still coming out this year that look awesome. After watching their trailers, The Golden Compass, The Mist, Hitman, Juno and Sweeney Todd look awesome. Glad we bought a few of those HBC movie packages cuz we have a lot of movies to watch this holiday!

DRAGONCRYPT 11/30/2007 4:36:38 PM

Wednesday, November 28th 2007

The Leafs barely gained a point yesterday when Sundin tied the game late in the third, only to lose in a shootout. The under-achieving Leafs continue to blow games although they play well for almost 60 minutes. Costly giveaways, stupid penalties and lack of scoring have really killed the team so far. Of course, the season is still young but you have to remind yourself that the Leafs didn't get into the playoffs by one point last year. All those overtime losses are going to haunt us again this year. I'm still hoping they break out of whatever funk their in and start playing some kick-ass hockey, which I think they can do.

So this morning, the pilot light for the furnace was off. I couldn't get it to work again. No heat for the rest of the day...that's gonna suck. Got home and called the landlord and he came by later (I think) and luckily the pilot was relit and we have heat again! Woohoo! That just means I suck at starting pilots. The damn instructions said to push down and wait but nothing happened. Sigh. Could have been bad though if there was no heat for tonight. The house was freezing cold (more than normal) when I came home and I could barely do anything. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like if the weather was colder. I miss my body fat....used to keep me warm....

DRAGONCRYPT 11/28/2007 5:12:46 PM

Tuesday, November 27th 2007

Eep...just the fourth entry for November. I'm doing another certification thingie at work and my brain has been fried for the last few days. The weekends back to Toronto have been really hectic. Jenn and I are running around town looking for gifts and running errands. However, on Saturday, my mom taught me how to cook her famous curry! I now know how to cook her chicken curry and will attempt to do it for the Christmas dinner. It's gonna be great!

Due to the writer's strike in Hollywood, the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica has been put on hiatus. However, a new movie was released as a bridge between season three and season four. Titled Battlestar Galactica: Razor, the movie is about Lee Adama's command of the Pegasus after Admiral Cain is murdered. It goes into more depth about what happened with the Pegasus and the steps Cain took to save her crew. Razor introduced a new character, Kendra Shaw, who was the XO for Lee Adama. We all know her fate but it was great to see the Pegasus flashbacks. Dammit! Need more BSG!!!!

The Leafs play Montreal tonight. They've lost four in a row (I think) and hope to get out of the current funk they're in. If the Leafs continue to underperform, especially with the amount Ferguson spent for goalies, you'll probably see Maurice or Ferguson fired. The off season acquistions haven't made the Leafs any better than last year and only the play of some of the veterans and rookies have really allowed to Leafs to win a few games. The clock is ticking....

Hopefully, I have a half-day at work tomorrow and I have a full day off on Friday. I'm working the weekend so it's good and bad (working from home). This will give me some time to get some updates up on the site.

DRAGONCRYPT 11/27/2007 8:41:26 PM

Sunday, November 18th 2007

The Leafs finally solve the Ottawa Senators yesterday night and ended a fairly horrific home losing streak. We'll see how they do when Boston comes to visit them. I don't think the Leafs will be spectacular but Saturday's game definitely showed promise for the future of the Leafs. No Stanley Cups yet, just a better record maybe.

Gonna try to do some work today. I might finish off the rest of Jessica Alba's Into the Blue. She really doesn't have a very large role in the movie so far but the underwater shots have been...nice. The story so far is a little light, but it doesn't really matter does it?

Alright...let's get to work...

DRAGONCRYPT 11/18/2007 10:47:52 AM

Saturday, November 17th 2007

Was going to write an entry today but I suddenly didn't feel like writing about anything in particular. I do feel like complaining a bit about everything but there's no point to it I guess. I'll just write about the RIM Christmas party...dubbed RIM Rocks this year. I didn't go because of several reasons. Awhile back, at another party, there was surprise entertainment of Aerosmith and the Barenaked Ladies. Cool, I thought. This year RIM decided again to do a mystery rock band at the Air Canada Center. Wow. I was on the fence for this. It was on a Thursday, you had to drive to DOWNTOWN Toronto when there's construction on the 427, pay for your own food and then drive back to go to work the next day. On top of that, you didn't have a clue who the bands were. I wasn't going to take the gamble and waste my time (if the band sucked) and money (transportation). On top of that, RIM forgot about the environment by generating all that traffic to Toronto.

So it turned out the bands were the Tragically Hip (bleh) and Van Halen (bleh). Now I'm SOOO glad I didn't go. I don't know who came up with the idea of this RIM Rocks, but honestly, it wasn't a very good idea. I think the money spent on the event could have been better spent on something that ALL employees could enjoy. Not the ones that could afford the trip to Toronto. It was half and half. Some people enjoyed it, others did not. Too much of a gamble for me.

I remember when I worked at Procter and Gamble, there was the Christmas dinner and on top of that, everyone got a basket worth of Procter and Gamble products. I could trade the Pampers for some Pringles and vice versa. Those were fun times and it didn't really cost the company much. Simple idea, great execution and lots of happy employees. Right now, I can't even purchase a BlackBerry for a friend with a discount. Not what you would expect from the company that manufactures them. I guess I am sort of complaining about the extras...I don't want to cuz RIM is good to work for, but it's the little things that will change the perception of the employees. The grass is always greener on the other side no?

DRAGONCRYPT 11/17/2007 9:05:40 AM

Tuesday, November 13th 2007

Wow, it's almost the middle of the month! Jenn and I have been so busy adjusting to this new schedule which includes dropping her off at the bus station, picking her up, going to the gym and cooking. Phew! Haven't been able to do much around here except clean and re-organize our room. We haven't even begun to touch the office which has a ton of stuff that was moved over from my room. This is gonna be fun!

Work has been fairly busy. It's amazing how two weeks of not working can really knock you out. It has taken me a while to get back into the groove at work. Glad to know that I'm not built for long vacations. Well maybe not an IT job and a long vacation. I'd rather have a no-brainer job and take time off in chunks. That would be awesome.

My brain is much right now so I don't have much to right. Hopefully more will come this weekend as I'm going to stay in the loo for the weekend and Jenn is gonna head back to Toronto.

DRAGONCRYPT 11/13/2007 6:53:52 PM