Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - August 2009 Archives

Summer is ending. It's been an interesting summer with lots of rain. Worked like crazy and it looks to be even more crazy in the future. Looking forward to some vacation in November!

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Holy Crapola Batman! Disney buys Marvel! Disney has agreed to terms to buy Marvel Entertainment which includes Marvel Comics for $4 billion in cash and stock. Wow, from a company that went into Chapter 11 a little while back. I guess with all the success Marvel movies have had in the last few years, it was bound to attract attention from some of the bigger fish. What does this mean for the comics? Time will tell. Is it going to be like DC where Warner Bros. executives call the shots sometimes? I think it will be. I think some of the content at Marvel might not work anymore (think creator-owned titles like Kick-Ass) in the future. After all, Disney is a family company. Despite people referencing Pixar's relationship with Disney, there's a certain standard that Disney likes to keep. Could this mean the end of gritty Marvel comics? Time will tell...

DRAGONCRYPT 8/27/2009 8:53:21 PM

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Spent that last two days asset-tagging equipment. The equipment was storage devices so it was freaking heavy. Lifting, unpacking and then repacking them was tedious and mind-numbing but it had to be done. I know I'm going to feel the pain in the next few days. I haven't really been physically tired at work for a long time now and I totally forgot how it feels both physically and mentally. I was just thinking back about the times when we had the softball championships and if we made it to the finals, I would be so dazed and tired and my body would be so unresponsive. Though those were the days when I was heavier and not in the greatest of shape. Man, now I'm thinking about softball and how I want to play again...

DRAGONCRYPT 8/27/2009 8:53:21 PM

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Finally had bubbles with Dave and Larry last Saturday. It was awesome. Haven't seen the guys for a while and I haven't been to bubbles for a while either. We ended up going to TenRen's again as we were tired of the service at Go For Tea. TenRen's has some interesting new drinks and the presentation was nice as well. However, this particular TenRen's is a newer one which was also more expensive. Oh well, it was still a good place to hang out. Caught up on a few things.

My mom has been on this whole "cook your own steak" thing and they apparantly have had a few steaks over the last month. My family do not eat western food much so it was good to see them try some. To my surprise, my mom had bought some steaks for Saturday and suggested we have it for dinner. Score!!! To make things even better, she went out grocery shopping and there was cheap lobster so she got lobster as well. Double SCORE!!! It was truly a legendary dinner. Contrary to my buddy Geoff's comment regarding the use of the term "legendary" and the obligatory pause between "legend" and "dary", the god-like Barney Stinson doesn't always pause. Woot!

Sunday was even better with a bbq at the in-laws. BBQ ribs and some satay chicken wings. I really should start selling the satay powder. Summer is the best time for people to buy it. I don't think I've ever had someone tell me that they've disliked the satay. In face, more people keep wanting more. Hopefully one day, my dad will give me the secret recipe. It's awesome to have secret family recipes hehe.

DRAGONCRYPT 8/20/2009 9:19:50 PM

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Tonight I went bowling with people from work. Man I sucked. We played two games and my scores were 53 and 103. Yup...they sucked indeed. I don't think I have ever scored so low before. It was gutter after gutter tonight. Oh well. Going bowling made me want to go play snooker. The co-op at work wants to play snooker and I just want to start playing again. It's been forever since I used my cue. Matter of fact, I'm not even sure if the tip is still on my cue. I should really go check the next time I'm at my parents.

Finally saw Public Enemies on Monday. It was an entertaining movie but I really didn't get behind the movie. Depp and Bale were good but I found that they under-utilized Bale and didn't really give much for Depp to do. Not an amazing movie that I'd watch again but decent enough to watch at the movies. On a side note, when did the cinemas remove the prices for the combos? They now only state how much you save when ordering instead of the total. Sneaky.

DRAGONCRYPT 8/12/2009 9:42:50 PM

Sunday, August 9th 2009

What a weekend! Went to a wedding yesterday with Jenn. A couple that Jenn knew for university was getting married and the ceremony was at 11 in the morning. Headed to my parents early and got to the ceremony on time. A few of my friends were also attending so we sat with them. Small world eh? It was about 1:15 when we left the church and we were already pretty tired. I hate it when it rains because of the pressure changes. Though I actually like the rain and being in it. Anyways, as with mostly everyone who goes to the ceremony and then the reception, we took a long nap. The reception was a traditional Chinese banquet and man there were a lot of people. For some strange reason, Jenn and I sat with my friends. Kinda funny. Luckily, Jenn's friends were right behind us so we could turn-around an talk.

An interesting side note was that we got to take home the centerpiece (this tall vase) because both our birthdays closest to the yesterday's date. So August 8th is exactly equidistant in days for both Jenn and I. That could be a good sign no? Regardless, a neat factoid that doesn't really have any relevance :)

Today, we decided to go to Wasabi to finally try out the buffet there. We were surprised at the selection and we were both happy with the food. It was a little pricy for lunch but with the sashimi and other goodies, it was worth it. Not something I'd go to all the time but perhaps with a larger group of friends. It was also one of those actual buffet style places, where you go and get your own food. I enjoyed that much more as I can go at my own pace and not worry about the waiter not seeing me to order my food. It also gave me a chance to actually see the food that they're serving prior to me taking some.

Some freak thunderstorms today. Pretty violent at times no? This summer has just been a weird one. Lots of rain and cooler temperatures. Then a freakishly hot and humid day with lots of rain. People couldn't enjoy the hot weather with all the rain today. Me? Well, we went to Chapters for a bit before heading to the gym and then home. I just don't like humidity, gives me migraines.

Okay, done rambling for today. Cheers.

DRAGONCRYPT 8/9/2009 10:31:18 PM

Thursday, August 6th 2009

Ever since Brian Burke came on as the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the fans have been anticipating his every move. Burke has toughened up the Leafs with some players like Mike Komisarek, Colton Orr, Garnett Exelby, Francois Beauchemin and Wayne Primeau. He's signed some good prospects and tried to fill the hole in the goaltending. The only area that's left is some high-scoring forwards. We'll see what else he's got in store for the Leafs. I just want some good games to watch (like last year) and maybe the Leafs making the playoffs this year. That would be great. Go Leafs Go!

I was talking about non-sports yesterday and there are a few releases coming up that are of interest to me. The first was mentioned yesterday, Bench Warmer Limited 2009. The second is Breygent Marketing's Ghost Whisperer. Ghost Whisperer is a tv show starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. It's got a solid following so the cards have the potential to do well. The Ghost Whisperer license was originally with Inkworks but after they ceased operations (which sucked, btw). With the loss of one company and the growth of another in Breygent, I really hope that they do well. I've dealt with the owner, Tom Breyer and he's a great guy and the sets he produces are awesome. It's a shame that I don't have the funds to get this set, otherwise I'd support this release as well. I'm pretty much done with non-sports sets for a while until I can sell some more of the old sets. There is just way too much in my room now. The main thing to get rid of is base sets. Perhaps with Ebay's free listings, I can take advantage.

DRAGONCRYPT 8/6/2009 9:00:15 PM

Wednesday, August 5th 2009

Has everyone been liking the eerie Toronto weather? It's been raining in spots all over the GTA over the last week along with some severe thunderstorms. Definitely not like a regular Toronto summer. I don't mind since we don't have air conditioning and this actually is lowering the amount of power that people consume in the summer. Also, there haven't been many smog warnings either so that's nice to see. Imagine the garbage strike when the temperatures are an average 30-32 degrees? That would have been horrible!

We got ourselves a Nintendo DS Lite. Well it's mainly for Jenn and I'm glad she's finally got a game system. We're looking into some of the flash carts that are around to see if they're any good. So many different ones and there are even fake ones now...so sad. Still getting used to taking pictures with the new camera. I love the many features. I especially love the great pictures it can take without the flash. Gone are the days of blurry (unless it's caused by me) pictures. Woot!

Hmm...Bench Warmer Limited 2009 is finally released! Took them long enough. Looks like they delayed the release a little for the Nationals in the States. Bah! At least the two cases are coming now. Hopefully I get some good hits to put on Ebay. My Ebid store isn't really getting many visitors although I need to really stock the store up I think. Just a pain to scan and edit all the cards and then upload them individually. I think I might take advantage of the free listings from Ebay each month as well. Although their final value fees still are a pain in the ass.

Anyways, gonna go take a shower. Hopefully August will be a better update month than July. Cheers!

DRAGONCRYPT 8/5/2009 10:10:16 PM