Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - April 2008 Archives

April was a busy busy month. I worked a lot of overtime at work and Jenn and I had our awesome New York trip. Right after the trip I had to train people at work and had more overtime. I'm feeling a little swamped but I think it will be worth it.

Saturday, April 26th 2008

Phew. Got back to Waterloo late Wednesday night and it's been hectic ever since. First day back at work and I had to do some training. It's difficult to do that when you're on vacation for a week. I was barely remembering what I was doing. Survived Thursday and Friday and decided it would be a good Saturday day off. I ended up waking up early today and going grocery shopping. I do not miss Waterloo drivers at all...slow and steady...just ready to cause accidents.

I'm going to try to post a whole slew of auctions tomorrow. Only two more weeks until my Orlanda business trip. I'm so excited for that as well. I'm just worrying about the actual flight. I don't like the air inside the plane much. Man, this will be my third flight in less than a year. It's not that much but I'm already disliking all the checkout that needs to be done before, during and after flights. Sigh.

This week will have lots of work for me. I'm going to be heading into the office tomorrow to get some work done so it's gonna be a 6 day work week for me. I hope I can get more work done tomorrow. There will be less people to bother me and I can concentrate on my work.

I decided to document in the Journal the New York trip that Jenn and I went to. It's just the main points and doesn't list every detail of the trip. I guess it's more for me than anyone else. A written momento of the trip to New York. No booth babe pictures this time around at the NYCC. I should've because there were some great costumes this year around. More booth babes to shoot I guess :P

Alright, time to sleep. I'm going to try to fit one more entry for April tomorrow. Cheers!

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 11:19:00 PM

Tuesday, April 22nd 2008

Newark - New Jersey - Day 6

Last day of vacation. The flight would be at 6 pm so we had plenty of time to kill. We had to check out of the hotel by 1pm so we decided to stay in Newark instead of rushing to Manhattan and rushing back. Slept in and took our time packing. We decided that since there was nothing to do, we'd head over to the airport early and check-in. The Air Canada host was kind enough to put us on standby for an earlier flight. Just our luck. We caught the 3:30 flight and got home at around 5:00 pm. Much better than waiting until 6 go fly home. The only downside was Jenn's luggage was delayed and would be delivered the next day. D'oh. Got home and just chilled at my parents for the rest of the day. Got some rest and it was a good thing we both were going to take Wednesday off.

After visiting Manhattan, Jenn wanted to watch Cloverfield so we could see parts of it getting destroyed. Cloverfield sucked. The monster was hardly in the movie and the characters in the movie deserved what they got. They were perhaps the dumbest movie characters I've seen in a while. The monster was a total waste of time as these characters could have gotten themselves killed by just doing mundane things like walking off a bridge or running in front of a moving car. That would have been more exciting. I'm glad I didn't join the viral marketing hype on this movie. I wanted to see it but after viewing some clips, glad I waited until now.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 11:19:00 PM

Monday, April 21st 2008

Manhattan - New York - Day 5

We slept in again today as we wanted to skip the rush hour traffic. Busy day today, Museuem of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art and dinner at Serendipity 3. Our first stop was to the Museum of Natural History. Both Jenn and I were excited to go since seeing Night at the Museum. We would have had more time there if I hadn't suggested the wrong subway train to get on. We ended up in Queens for a brief moment before jumping on a train back into Manhattan. New York's subway system is complicated but once you get used to it, it's a damn efficient system.

The musuem was packed and even with our City Passes, we had to wait a bit in line. The musuem looked nothing like the movie so that was a little disappointing. But I'm sure the actual curators of the museum were most upset about the inaccuracies in the movie LOL. It was a shame that we were short on time because there was so much to see in the museum and all we really did was rush through the sections and take lots of pictures. There was a scary moment where my ticket fell down a floor. It was important because it had my ticket to the planterium show. This old lady picked up it...saw me...and then threw it back on the floor....WTF?! Luckily, a kind gentleman put the ticket in a safe place for me to pick up.

After the Museum of Natural History, we rushed over to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It was another tourist attraction in our City Pass. I'm so out of the Art loop that it wasn't very entertaining for me. I saw the Van Goghs and the Picassos but I really wasn't that interested. The abstract stuff made my head hurt. I'm just not very good with appreciating art. I'm more of the realistic/photo-realistic art admirer. There was one hallway that was illuminated with yellow lights. Everything was yellow and that really hurt my head. There were some really interesting pieces, I particularly liked the art mixed in with modern technology. That was very interesting.

We ended up leaving MOMA fairly early so we walked over to Central Park to FAO Schwartz. It's a very impressive toy store and yes it had the piano floor thingie. However, there was no Star Wars LEGO in stock. That was just disappointing. Though I wish Toronto had a toy store like this. I'd visit it every month or even try to get a job there. Though they'd probably not want to hire someone who actually love toys...I'd never get any work done.

After FAO Schwartz, we headed over to Bloomingdale's to kill some time before dinner. Bloomingdale's reminded me of the Bay in Downtown Toronto except everything at Bloomingdale's was much more expensive. There seemed to be more workers than actual shoppers and most of the shoppers were tourists. Dinner was over at Serendipity 3. This restaurant was used in the movie Serendipity and both Jenn and I really wanted to go there for the dessert. The restaurant itself had this tiny little basement entrance. We missed it the first time around. People were outside taking pictures. We had reservations so we had no issues getting a table. We didn't get to eat upstairs and instead sat in the lower level but that didn't matter much. I was a little nervous about the food as the reviews I read were bad. I decided to try a blue-cheese burger honestly, it was really good. I was more than surprised at the food and also the price. Jenn and I shared dessert as we kept watching these huge sundaes being brought out to other people. It was a good thing too because neither one of us would have finished one of the desserts by ourselves. Another great restaurant pick.

We decided to walk around a little and walked up Central Park. Midtown Manhattan looks like an expensive place to live. Central Park looks a lot nicer and different than what you see in the moviers. Afterwards we headed over to the Empire State building to see if there was a line-up to go upstairs. To our surprise there was no line-up. So getting up to the viewing area took less than 15 minutes. The view was pretty good and Jenn got some great city shots. It was a little cold so after the pictures we lined up to get back downstairs. It actually took us longer to get back down than to come upstairs.

Time to go home and get some rest as it was our longest day in New York.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 11:19:00 PM

Sunday, April 20th 2008

Manhattan - New York - Day 4

We decided to sleep in a little on Sunday morning as there were less things to do. We were going to the convention later in the day to meet up with Jenn's cousin so we wanted to walk around Manhattan for a little while beforehand. Our plan was to hit Soho first.

Soho was quite nice to walk around. There were a lot of little shops there, although the main streets had all the big name stores. It was a very interesting mix of stores and everything looked very trendy. We were in Soho early in the morning so there are a lot of artists starting to set up their sidewalk displays. We were finally able to get a New York pretzel from a food stand. It was our breakfast/snack and we had it with mustard. It was pretty good. On a side note, I had a sausage from a stand the day before and I was really disappointed. The sausages from the stands are just like hot dogs. Toronto's hot dog vendors have better hot dogs and sausages for the same price. It was pretty disappointing. I didn't want to try the kebabs since there looked expensive LOL.

Lunch was at the famous Katz's Delicatessan. Home to Meg Ryan's famous fake orgasm. There's a sign showing where she sat and there was this dude sitting there reading the newspaper. Kinda funny. Took a while to figure out how the ordering system worked but we figured it out. The sandwiches were surprisingly expensive. A sandwich was almost $15 with no sides. I had a brisket sandwich and Jenn had a chili burger. The meat was simply amazing. I think we both had an overdose of meat that day.

After lunch we headed back to the convention and met up with Jenn's cousin. We walked around for a bit. I was so tempted to buy more things but I controlled myself. I saw Jeff Chandler, who is another sketch artist. He's got some great work and we ended up talking for a bit. Maybe I should sign up for a Scoundrel Art Community account. I wish I could have purchased something from Jeff but I had already reached my budget.

We had reservations as Esca, one of the restaurants back by chef Mario Batali. The food was amazing and surprisingly filling as well! The appetizers were kinda small but the main courses were awesome. I had a sea urchin pasta and also a whole yellowtail fish. I was sooo full afterwards which I didn't think I would have been going to a fancy restaurant. It was a little unnerving having the waiter standing there all the time. After Esca, it was time to head back to the hotel.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 2:57:37 PM

Saturday, April 19th 2008

Manhattan - New York - Day 3

We got up a little late today as we were really tired. We headed out and went over to H and H bagels. It was just a store front for bagels so we ordered some and had breakfast near the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier port. The Intrepid was away for repairs so the harbour was empty. It's a shame as I would have loved to see a huge aircraft carrier.

We decided that Jenn should skip the convention today since nothing was really interesting for her. Instead she would go to a few places she wanted to see and we would meet up afterwards. I had to seminars I wanted to attent. The first was the Battlestar Galactica (Grace Park woohoo!) and the second was the Wanted preview. I went to the convention and sure enough there were line-ups already. I was lining up for the theatre (where the seminars were held) and overheard someone mentioning that Grace Park had to cancel and that she was replaced with a few other cast members. I decided that I didn't need to attend the seminar any more so I headed up to the main show floor and started to line up.

Heard all this cheering and clapping and noticed someone was walking along the lines with a camera crew. I went to the side and tried to figure out who it was. It was Stan Lee! Woot! So I stood on the side and got to shake hands with Stan Lee! It was awesome! It was really funny cuz the guy in front of me got snubbed by Stan Lee. His friend shook Stan Lee's hand but he didn't and he was loudly proclaiming Stan Lee had snubbed him. LOL.

The line-up was fairly quick but the show floor was PACKED. Good thing Jenn and I got all our freebies the day before. I decided to start looking for some items to purchase. I also had a list of comics for Faiz, my comic book dealer. I wanted to pick up the Secret Invastion #1 Midtown Comics Variant. I ended up picking up the hardcover for the Black Dossier at 25% off. Woot! Sucks we can't get this in Canada. I also picked up some Zenescope exclusives, Black Summer Auxiliary editions, Starship Troopers trade, and some of the books for my dealer. I also bought two boxes of Harry Potter Goblet of Fire Retail boxes. They were so cheap that it was worth it. I was starting to get tired but I decided to walk around the artist alley.

It was great to see all the artists in the Alley. Ethan Van Sciver, Billy Tan, Patrick Gleason, Steve Epting and tons of others were there. I saw Brian Kong there and I decided to pick up one of his sketch cards (of Pyslocke). I love the sketch and it's much easier than trying to pull one of his cards. After this I decided it was time to leave as I was pretty tired.

I ended up walking over to Times Square and a couple of the street markets that were near buy. The markets had a lot of cheap items but nothing that really interested me. I eventually met up with Jenn and we headed over to Grand Central Station for dinner at the Oyster Bar. This was a bit on the expensive side but man, was the food good. We had some baked oysters and I ordered the Sturgeon. Soooo goood. The variety of fish and seafood on the menu surpasses what is available in Toronto. After dinner we walked around a little more and headed back to the hotel.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 2:57:37 PM

Friday, April 18th 2008

Manhattan - New York - Day 2

The PATH train to 33rd street took a lot longer than expected and we actually walked through Times Square and then headed to Pier 33 for the tour cruise. We were trying to look for breakfast and we had pretzels in mind but we couldn't find a vendor (go figure). The boat tour was scheduled to be two hours long. It was part of the City Pass package that's available for a lot of different cities (including Toronto). This particular tour took us around lower Manhattan. We got to see Ellis Island, Liberty (Bledsoe) Island and the Statue of Liberty, the gorgeous Manhattan skyline and a glimpse of the United Nations. The pope was arriving during our cruise time and was going to visit the United Nations so we had to turn back a little earlier than expected due to the security perimeter.

After the cruise, Jenn and I were starving. We walked over to Hallo Berlin, a restaurant/pub that specializes in wursts of all varities. The wursts were awesome! and the prices were pretty decent. This was a good choice and was a great lunch meal.

After Hallo Berlin, we walked to the Jacob Javitts Convention Center and proceeded to line-up for the Comic Con. That was a good 2 hours of lining up. The good part was that we met a chinese dude who was from Delaware (Chris) and we started talking about comics and shooting the shit. Well, mostly Chris and I since Jenn didn't really care about comic books hehehe. Chris told us his wife came with him but she's doing an all-girl thing with her friends in NY. Jenn thought that was a great idea and we thought it would something that she could do the next time we go to another convention. Chris also mentioned a frozen yogurt dessert place called PinkBerry (I thought he said PigBerry) and said it was pretty good. Jenn and I decided we'd go there after dinner and the convention.

The Comic Con was HUGE. The first booth was the Dark Horse booth and they were giving out these really big Hellboy 2 bags. These bags were a godsend as we got tons of free things. Surprisingly, the convention wasn't that packed so we walked around a bit. I decided not to buy anything until Saturday when I had more time to hang around. Jenn's feet started hurting so we decided to cut it short and rest a little then head out to the John's Pizzeria. John's Pizzeria is near Broadway and it was definitely a tourist trap. The pizza was expensive but it was really really good. I was very surprised how good it was and that it was filling.

After dinner we walked around more and decided to walk to Korea town to check out PinkBerry (PigBerry!!!). Took us a little time to find it but we did. Jenn and I each ordered a frozen yogurt with different toppings. The fruit toppings were a little unripe so they weren't as good as the nuts. It was still pretty decent. Korea town was interesting. Lots of sushi bars, Korean bbqs and a ton of people walking around. I loved the fact that the night was so alive. Toronto is always so dead at night.

We went home after dessert and we were completely exhausted. Another long day tomorrow. Woohoo!

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 12:44:24 PM

Thursday, April 17th 2008

Manhattan - New York - Day 1

Jenn and I woke up way early to get to the airport. We parked our car at the Economy parking lot. I was nervous as I wasn't so sure about the security of the parking lot. The last thing I wanted was to come back to a car that's been broken into or worse yet, a missing altogether. Took the Link Train from Viscount to Terminal 1 and went through check-in and security. Y'know they always say not to smile and laugh at customs but the guy asked me where I was going and I said I was going to a comic book convention. He then started talking about his cousin who collected comic books. Gah! I thought customs guys weren't supposed to get into conversations. It was weird too because I was laughing and he was all straight-faced...they still let me through though :D.

The flight was the shortest flight I've ever been on. It was less than an hour. We spent more time waiting for the flight than on the flight LOL. Once we got into Newark airport we found that we actually had nothing to do. We called the hotel and the earliest check-in was at 12:00 pm. DOH. So since there was nothing to do at the airport and we had no transportation, we decided to head to the hotel early, eat breakfast and wait for check-in. It was good because it gave us time to rest so we could go walking in Manhattan in the afternoon.

Today was our lower Manhattan exploration. We took the New Jersey transit to the PATH station which took us to World Trade Center. The train actually goes through where Ground Zero is. It was a very large gaping hole. We walked all over, down to Battery Park and then back up through Wall Street and headed to our first food destination, Alfanoose, which specializes in Middle Eastern food. It was a little pricier than expected but it was still good food. We then walked back down and checked out the Brooklyn Bridge and the seaport area. We had great weather so we took tons of pictures. It was getting dark and it was already a long day so we headed home. The commute back to Newark was roughly between 90 minutes to two hours depending on the time of day. This was longer than expected so we had to re-adjust our schedules.

We got back to our hotel and just crashed. We had another long day with a cruise tour and the comic book convention.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/26/2008 12:44:24 PM

Monday, April 14th 2008

Couple of days more to go and I'm going to New York!!! Woohooo! I'm getting really excited now about the trip. Time away from here and to a city that should have a ton of things to do! It's also my first comic book convention in quite some time so that will be exciting as well. I've got a list of things I want to get but we'll see how much of it is affordable.

Places I want to go see? FAO Schwartz, Museum of Natural History, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Soho and probably a few other things I forgot. We'll see how much of this Jenn and I will be able to visit. We're staying in Newark so we also have to factor in the commute time. Jenn and I (mostly Jenn) have already planned out the restaurants we want to go to. I'm definitely looking forward to eating well for the next week hehehe.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/14/2008 10:27:50 PM

Sunday, April 13th 2008

Staying back this weekend since I'll be heading back home on Wednesday. I decided to work on Saturday and didn't get a chance to finish much of my work as I was helping others and ended up in conversations with other co-workers who were working. I really need to get more work done. I feel like I'm falling behind on all my cases and that I haven't really resolved anything in a while.

Sunday was a day of rest. After an entire week of overtime, it's been pretty exhausting. I spend pretty much 12 hours at work a day and then I head to the gym afterwards so I get home at around 9:30-10:00. Not the greatest routine that can continue. Hopefully I won't need to do this for long. The extra cash is good, helps pay off those debts swirling around I guess.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/13/2008 11:18:19 PM

Monday, April 7th 2008

Jenn's mom told me about the rise in flour and rice prices globally. I haven't really been keeping track of the news lately and I went searching online about the increase in flour prices. For those who do not know, the price of flour has almost doubled in the last few years. Rice has also steadily increased in price. Why? There are lots of contributing factors. Many of the poorer nations subsidized farmers to switch over to corn farmer for the big bio-fuel craze. More money made by the farmers. The problem with this is that it diverted farmers who once supplied the food chain and left a void that went largely went unnoticed. Thus, the poorer countries that rely heavily on rice and flour started imported more of these basic commodities from other countries. Then you add in bad crop years in all five of the world's top-producing regions and you've got yourself a food crisis. The crisis really hit home in the countries where rice is staple food. You can notice here that the price of flour is double what it used to be. One 10 KG bag can be found for 10-15 dollars. It was half that price not too long ago.

It's amazing how corporations and governments can quickly jump on a political bandwagon like the environment and utterly ruin it for everyone. The big craze in bio-fuel has contributed to the global food shortages and as long as the eco-economy is the "new economy", expect some dire times ahead. It really does suck that with all the attention the environment is getting, it really does attract the wrong type of people at times.

Take Earth Hour. It really was just another excuse for people to make themselves feel better. To join that big cause to turn of the lights and save energy. Wow. Big whoopee. Toronto say a 9% reduction in power consumption. I'll bet you most of those people who turned off the lights for that hour went back to driving their cars to work, leaving their computers on, buying the non-biodegradable packaged food items, etc. Hey I do the same shit. But I try not to delude myself into thinking I'm doing a lot for the environment by turning off the lights for an hour. Sure it's awareness...but did power consumption reduce days after Earth 60? Chalk this up to the likes of the 30-hour famine and those other feel good drives. Bleh.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/7/2008 10:45:55 PM

Sunday, April 6th 2008

Got back from my weekend in Toronto. The snow has almost melted away both here and in Toronto. The weekend weather was awesome despite the chilly wind. It's almost time to shed my really old winter jacket for a nice spring jacket. Man, only 11 days to go before heading out to New York for the New York Comiccon! I've gone through the iternary for the show and there are few things I'd love to go to. The Battlestar Galactica and Hellboy 2 sessions look good. I'm going to skip the big ticket items because the crowds are going to be huge. I've never really gone full blown convention styles and usually just like to walk the floor. Besides, I'll be in New York and there are other things to see while I'm there. Woot!

So who's going to win the Stanley Cup? I don't know but I'm betting on a team in the Western Conference. What is with the west? They're amazing in hockey and also basketball. I find it amusing, especially in the NBA, that there are some really good teams that are going to miss the playoffs, while mediocre teams (like the Raptors) are going to get in. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy the Raptors got into the post-season, but their play has been mediocre. I think more was expected of this team this year. Well, I'm hoping they make it past the first round. Get some playoff action in any sport in Toronto!

DRAGONCRYPT 4/6/2008 10:50:53 PM

Wednesday, April 2nd 2008

Dammit. Stupid Canadian dollar keeps getting lower and lower right before our trip to New York. I'm going tomorrow to get some US cash. I guess I can't complain too much. It's still better than the old 60 cents exchange rate. Why the hell is it so cold again? It's a good thing I didn't pack away my winter stuff already. It better get warmer in a few weeks for our New York trip!!!! Grrrrrr.

Happy belated April Fool's Day everyone!! Did anyone do any pranks or had pranks played on them? I didn't have the energy to do anything this year. Well, I haven't had the energy to do it for the last few years. Maybe it's something I'll do next year. Should be fun to plan something devious...

I re-watched the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Man, I've really got to re-read the books. I forgot how good they were. Douglas Adams was a pure genius and he was definitely taken from us way too early. Rest In Peace Mr. Adams, your work is still enjoyed by millions today.

DRAGONCRYPT 4/2/2008 11:43:03 PM