Only two more days left of Loeb, and then it's off to the Real Canadian Superstore for me.  The change in jobs is by no means a step forward, more like a step sideways.  It has its good points and bad points.  On the one hand, I sort of have to leave all my work friends behind, and my pay will go way, way down.  On the other hand, since I will now be walking to work, I'll be saving up to 2+ hours of travel time each day, as well as the hefty cost of taking the bus.  So, it's nothing to get excited over, but at least it's a bit of a change.  I am looking forward to the saved time, so that I can spend it on more worthwhile things.



The power supply in my computer went kaput, so it had to be replaced.  Alex told me he "plugged his in, and it worked" so I expected the power supply to be some kind of cord coming out of the computer, with maybe an adapter-type box or something attached.  But when it came time to unplug the power cable on my compy, it seemed that it didn't actually have any kind of doodads on it, and the only special-looking cable was the one coming from my portable hard-drive.  So, I took the power cable in anyway, and asked the computer guys if that was the power supply, and if they could replace it with a new one.  Apparently, this was wrong of me, and those who know what a power supply ACTUALLY is, will find this story extremely hilarious.
It turns out, a "power supply" is some kind of ginormous box inside the computer itself, which has several complicated tentacles plugging into about 150 different pieces of the computer's organs.  It seemed like an insurmountable task, but I figured I could at least do the unplugging part before Alex got home from work, so that would be done.  And then he called, and told Steph to tell me that I "can't possible plug it in wrong" because whatever doesn't belong won't fit anyway.  Although this did not give me any new information per se, it nonetheless encouraged me to take a further stab at it, and in the end I successfully replace the power supply with a minimum or fuss and only a slight bit of muss!  I sort of forgot to plug the DVD-burner back in, and now it won't burn things as fast as it used to, but at least I did it!  This proves I am a computer genius!  Five points for me!!



Jon showed me this cool webcomic, called The Perry Bible Fellowship, and it is the awesomest ever.  I guess I tend to say a lot of things are the awesomest ever, but... just look at this!  And this!!  I recommend it to anyone and everyone.



Umm...  I forget what else is new with me these days.  I had a bunch of stuff to say, but now I don't remember.  Well, what's going on with everybody else?  Somebody should say something good.  Ta ta for now, until I think of a new thing!

P.S.  Check this thing out, I thought it was neat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY

The fish are not biting.  I've been dropping resumes off at several strategic locations around my neighborhood, but nobody's calling me for some strange reason.  Do they not know what a five-star employee they'd be getting by hiring me?  Granted, just because I dropped off a resume doesn't mean they are going to suddenly going to realize they need more people, but man!  How annoying.  There's even this café down the road that I applied to, and they have a sign out that says "HELP WANTED."  One would think that would mean they are actually hiring.  Hiring, my ass!  Wait, no, that's the problem -- they're not hiring my ass.  I don't see how they could hope to get better than me, frankly.  I'm not in school, can work any time, and have 4.5 years of experience in being nice to jerk-ass customers who don't deserve the time of day from me.  It's either me, or Jonny High School, who is going to work like maybe 1 or 2 shifts per week after school, if his mom doesn't call in and say he can't work because he has to study for exams (we get those at my current job, and it's pretty pathetic).
Anyways, maybe it's time to kick this whole job-application thing up a notch.  I really wanted to find a job within walking distance, but if that isn't going to happen, I guess I can still find somewhere else to work that is closer and easier to get to than Loeb.  I mean, it'd be near impossible to find somewhere worse than Loeb, so I can't lose.  Maybe I could try one of the EB Games stores, and up my nerd points a little.  I feel they've been slipping recently.  I mean, I've had Final Fantasy VI for gameboy for months now, and I'm still nowhere in it.  And Okami?  Also, nowhere.  I managed to beat FFXII, but just minimally.  I got barely any of the secret stuff, almost none of the optional summons, and Omega Weapon remains alive and well.  The old Nathan would never have allowed these crimes to occur.


Speaking of nerd games and whatnot, that damn PSP is really creeping up on me as a system I wish I had.  Like, I always thought of it as a little weiner box that didn't have any  good games on it, but it just seems like I'm seeing all these cool RPGs for it...  I'll see some cool character artwork, and become interested, only to have my hopes crushed by a little PSP logo.  There's even going to be Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid games for the PSP some time in the future!  How can I not play those?!  Still, even those can't warrant purchasing a crappy little handheld system, especially when it still costs... what, like 300 dollars or something?  Screw that, I could put money towards a real system.
I have similar feelings towards Nintendo's DS thing-a-ma-bob.  It has countless games for it now which perhaps I wouldn't want to buy, but I sure damn well want to play at some point, if possible.  But how can these companies think they can get away with charging so much for portable games?  They cost nearly as much as regular (read: real) games.  With only a few exceptions, portable games are all-around inferior to home console games.  They're generally much shorter, look crappier, are less involving, have crappy music, and have generally far less effort put into their production.  But, some of them are still good fun, and what's worse, some of them are even unique, with no home console equivalent.  I suppose I should be glad that the market has such diversity, but part of me misses the days when there was only NES and Gameboy to play games on, with a only a tiny bit of barely-worth-mentioning competition from Sega Genesis, just to keep Nintendo on its toes.  Now we have Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft and Nokia and General Electric and President's Choice and McDonalds and Pepsi and Hitler and whoever else making videogame consoles, and so there are good titles spread out across half a billion star systems, and I have no hope of ever playing a fair chunk of them, even if I had the money.  Grrrr!!




Let's see, what else is new...  well, the other night I got home from work like TWO HOURS late.  One hour because none of my stuff added up correctly (if I worked in a REAL store, this wouldn't be an issue) -- the other hour because my bus was being detained by the police.  I get on, and for some reason everyone's all panicking and whatnot because apparently some kids were throwing rocks or sticks at the bus earlier, and broke some of the windows, and some girl got her face all gashed-up and bloody.  It looked like she had been hit in the eye/temple area, which I know is generally not a good place to be hit, and yet the bus driver took quite some amount of coaxing before he did anything about it or called anyone for assistance.  Anyways, we were stopped outside the hospital for a long time, and the whole process was only lengthened, I'm sure, by the fact that the bus was packed with screaming high school kids who CLAIMED not to know the kids who threw the rocks, and yet sure had a lot to say, somehow.


Anyways, I'm outta here.  Hope everybody's well!  Somebody else post something!

So, I'm having a big day so far, at least as far as Nathan Standards go.  Got up and started my day off right with some delicious burnt waffles, burnt bacon and burnt eggs (this is what you get when you can't cook), but they were still edible, so who am I to complain.  And then I polished off the ol' resume and hoofed it around Westboro a bit to shop myself around.  I applied to a few places, but nothing fancy.  Just the grocery store down the street, and the LCBO (I doubt they're hiring at all, though), and I even applied to Tiggywinkles, which seems like a weird place for a Nathan to work, but what the hey.  I thought about applying to that little café Steph said was hiring, but it looks like a creepy little old lady restaurant or something, and I didn't even want to go in there.

So now, we play the waiting game...  no one seems to be phoning yet, but you'll see....  soon the lines will be on fire with all the activity.


Now, I have a question for the anime nerds in the audience...  are there quite a few French historical animes out there?  Because of the few I know of, they seem to be really awesome.  First of all, one of my favorites ever is Gankutsuou, which is (somewhat loosely) based on The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas.  I wanna read that book some time, I bet it's super.  It's like a MILLION pages long though, so I dunno, maybe the movie version will have to tide me over for a while.  Anyways, I found another couple animes recently that are also pretty awesome, and also based in oldey-times France.
Chevalier d'Eon is also wicked so far, and is about government corruption and secret police and weird zombie death cults.  Some of those jerks killed the main character's sister, and so her spirit possesses him from time to time to do some zombie butt-kicking.  Despite how all that just sounded, it's actually pretty classy.  Sort of like if they made Final Fantasy Tactics into an anime, minus the horrendous translation.


*the following is a note from Steph*

hi there!

go on...


*so ends the note from Steph*


Okay, so finally is Les Miserables, which I guess is based on the book by Victor Hugo, another one I'll probably have to read eventually, but I'm guessing it's also a million pages long.  Anyways, apparently the boradway musical version of Les Mis is really, really popular in Japan, so I'm surprised it took this long to have an anime made about the story.  I am also a huge fan of the musical as well, and I have a couple different versions of the soundtrack, which I've probably listened to more than is healthy.  Only problem is that the people translating it have only done one episode so far, and they are being very SLOW...   *whimper*


Anyways, enough about the anime stuff for now.  Does anybody know why I can't post my picture at the beginning of an LJ post anymore?  It doesn't even give me the option to choose a picture now.  WTF is going on with that?!  I didn't order the deactivation of any pictures.  Livejournal is a jerk.



Does anybody know where I could get a Playstation 2 adapter that will let me plug a controller into a little USB doo-hickey that will go into my computer?  I really want one so that I can play all those awesome DDR-type games on PC, with like a billion gazillion songs on it.  Then I could have the compy hooked up to the TV, and have like a killer DDR party or something.



I guess that's all from me for today, so until next time...  Nathan out!


P.S.  Who's gonna go see Grindhouse with me?  I must see this movie, it will be 200% wicked awesome.

Alright, jerks, here's a friggin' poll that I can finally beat your sorry asses at.  Put an X beside every SNES game you've played.

Alright Holly, here's my movies list...  I'm totally gonna beat you at this.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
Total:6

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
(x) White Noise -- I'm, like, 55% sure I've seen this movie...?
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 13... damn, I'd better step up my game

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 19!  We're tied so far.

(x) Harry Potter 1 -- I saw 99% of this movie, in bits and pieces...
( ) Harry Potter 2
( ) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 25... still a tie.

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland -- damn, I want to see this one, though.
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots -- uh, I THINK I saw this...?  If I have, it SUCKED.
Total so far: 31... still a tie.  But I will pull ahead soon.

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) KING KONG
Total so far: 35... damn, I took a major hit on that round.

( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 38... this is getting shameful.

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x)Chicago
( )Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 42... okay, I made up a little bit...

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 44... ouch, that one hurt.

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin -- I TRIED to watch this, but the DVD wouln't work!
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog -- I will never, NEVER watch a horror movie about FOG.
(x) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 47... this is embarrassing.

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 49

( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That -- Not fair!!  What male would be caught dead seeing this?
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz -- WTF Holly, Wizard of Oz???  WTF WTF WTF.
(x) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 57... like the ketchup.

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 66

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
(x) Krippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 68

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 74

( ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
( ) Three
Total so far: 75

( ) The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x)Monsters Inc.
(x)Titanic
(x)Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard -- Ooooh, I keep forgetting about this thing.  I wanna see it.
Total so far: 80

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x)Waterworld
Total so far: 83

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 88

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage -- WTF is this?!  This isn't real, Holly, and you haven't seen it.
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 94

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal

Grand Total: 102 Movies

SCREW!!!!  @%#@$!!!!  You beat me!!  Just by a small margin, though.  Those last few nerd-movie categories really helped me catch up.

So, nuthin' much new to report, which is why you haven't been seeing any LJ posts from me lately.

There's been some excitement at the ol' grocery store lately, though!  A few nights ago, some scuzzy kids came by and hung around for a while.  They sometimes swing by to vandalize our washroom, but  we sent a dude in there to keep an eye on them, so I guess they got discouraged and gave up.  So, they set a fire out behind the store.  Yes, they are certainly some cool folks...  :-S
Then a couple nights after that, there was a robbery!  Well, more like some random guy grabbing some food and running out the door with it.  He's on our security cameras, of course, and we got his license plate number.  The police came, and apparently they know who he is and that he's been doing this at a couple of stores.  They expected him to be in jail within a few days, max. 

CASE CLOSED.
*cue DragNet theme song*


I want a dust buster!!  Do they still exist, or what?  There's this really sketchy store down the street from us, called "VACUUM CLEANER CENTRE" (no joke, that is the name of the store, which is displayed in huge, nondescript lettering), and it is weirdly gray and green and shaped like a box.  The windows of the store are all barred up and covered in signs that say mysterious and vague things like "SALE!", but they don't say what there is a sale on.
I went down there on Sunday, which I suppose was foolish, because they were closed.  But they didn't have any business hours posted anywhere or anything.  Their main entrance was off to the side, around the corner of the building in some alley-like parking lot, with a little sign that says "Entrance" on it.  There is a door on the front of the building, but apparently this door is just for show, and is not meant to be used.  So I went up to the "Entrance" door, which was on the side, but there were garbage bags taped to the inside of the door, so I couldn't even see in.  I was beginning to suspect this wasn't even a real vacuum store, but merely a front for the mob.

Even when I went back today, when it was open, it still seemed sketchy.  There was some couple in the store talking to the guy about some vacuum, and they were going through the motions of trying to haggle for a better price, as predictably as can be.  I don't think they were real customers, I think they were hired actors or something.  I asked them if they had any hand-held, dustbuster type things, and he was like "No, we've been trying to get those, but they haven't come in yet."  A likely story, Al Capone!  I sure bet they have a lot of carpet shampooers, to wash the blood out of their back room floor.

Anyway, Alex downloaded some game I have to play, but it doesn't look very good yet...  we'll see.

So, there was a fire in my house.  Yup.  We were making some kinda scalloped potatoes thing, and I guess the dish was too full and some of it spilled over, so it fell and the inside of the oven burst into flames.  Much like the last fire I experienced, we were all kind of calmly apathetic about the situation.  I suggested water, which according to most videogames I play is the opposite of fire and will exploit its elemental weakness.  Apparently grease fires are only strengthened by water, however, so I dunno, maybe it was a fire from outer space, because that is not at all how a fire should behave.  Other people suggested baking soda, which must be some kind of crafty "sciencey" solution, and I have no idea why that would work, unless it created a baking soda volcano effect and blew the fire up through the roof and out of the house.
Alex came up with a much easier and surprisingly more successful plan, which was "Leave it alone, and it'll burn itself out."  I've never known a housefire to just "burn itself out" -- that sounds like Homer Simpson's short-lived boxing career whereby he would just stand there and take a pummelling until his opponent tired himself out by over-punching.  Or, I just thought Alex was confusing fire with bees... like, you know, don't bother them, and they won't bother you.  In both cases, that is normally an old wives' tale, but in this case, it worked.  The fire got tired, and eventually puffed-out from over-punching, and then we cooked some beer steaks in there, and they tasted really good after.  So, that's my anecdote about that.  The moral of the story is:  fires are cool.


Also, I got back from my little trip to Peterborough.  At least, I tell people it was Peterborough, because that's the nearest civilized colony to where I really was, which was Ennismore.  I went with Chris and Brenda, because Chris and I have know each other since kindergarten, and we both grew up there, and we were visiting some old friends who still live there.  I'm not sure why Brenda would want to go there, because it's not a fun town or anything (maybe she lost a bet?), but it was good to have her along anyways.  :-P


Let's see, what else is new...  well, Marnie seems to have sent me a condom in the mail today.  Thankfully it was still in its package, and not already used or covered with human secretions.  I'm not sure why I'd mention that, but it seems newsworthy.

What else... um, I'm glad February is overwith.  Talk about a crappy month!  Freezing cold weather, Valentines Day, and me not being able to go to Chris's birthday are just some of the highlights.  Bring on March, I say -- I get St. Patty's Day, at least, and the weather is good.  It's both my sister's, Marnie's, and Louisa's birthdays, too!  Talk about excitement!

...Oh!  I got this awesome phone call at work today.  It went a little something like this:

Me: Good afternoon, Loeb Stafford.
Guy:  <in a raspy voice>  H-hello?
Me:  Hello.
Guy:  Hello, is this Loeb?
Me:  Yes.
Guy:  Who am I speaking to right now?
Me:  Uh... well, I'm... Nathan?
Guy:  Oh, okay.  Well, um... hello.  This... this is a courtesy call, and I just....  hello??
Me:  Hello.
Guy:  Ah.  This is... this is a courtesy call, and I just wanted to say... the.... the Asian girl in the bakery...  I was in the store a while ago, and... this is just a courtesy call...  the Asian girl in the bakery... I just wanted to say that she was very helpful.
Me:  Oh, well that's good to hear.
Guy:  Mmnnnnggg-gyyyyyyy!!  <this part can't be transferred through writing, as it was almost an inhuman sound>

And then he hung up.  I don't know whether this was a prank call or not.  Immediately afterwards I suspected it was, but considering the kinds of people we get in that damn store, I'm not so sure.


Well, that's all for now.  Hey, somebody else make a post on LJ or something, okay?  It's like I'm the only one on this damn internet anymore.  Facebook has stolen you all away, and that is not good!



P.S.  You know what, guys?  During that fire incident, we totally missed an AWESOME opportunity to make a gag about Aurora Borealis!!  Damn it, why didn't one of us think of that?!  We really dropped the ball on that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsxFOH8PvA4

Well, there is now significantly less of me.  I finally got a haircut.  It's been a long time coming, too, though I think now it'll stay short for a while.  I still don't believe I look better with short hair, despite what everyone I know says.  :-S

We have an LCBO that just finished being built at the end of our street, and it looks as though it'll be ready to open soon.  I'm actually really hoping they'll let people apply to work there, because that'd be a pretty sweet job for me, and I could quit that damn store I'm in now.  However, another LCBO is closing not too far away, so they may be simply moving existing employees to this location.  I looked up on the LCBO website, and the only way to apply to one of their stores is either online or by phone, through an automated process.  But you need a store reference number, which will be posted on the door of the store, if that store is looking for people.  It's a tricky store to get into, that way.
Anyhow, working there would be sweet for several reasons, including but not limited to:
i) My pay would not decrease very much, as I believe their starting rate is $10.50/hr.
ii) Much less travel time, since it's a 5 to 8 minute walk there.  My job now can take up to an hour to get to, so that's potential 2 wasted hours per day where I am now.
iii) Much less hassles, bureaucracy-wise and customer-wise.  Not so much a pro as it is a lack of cons that I currently have to put up with.
iv) Since I wouldn't be taking the bus to work everyday, I wouldn't need to buy a bus pass every month, and would therefore be rich!  :-P
v) I wouldn't have to tell people I work at a grocery store.
vi) Better hours, with none of this getting-home-at-midnight crap.

The only bad thing about moving there, if it were to happen, is I'd have new coworkers, and much fewer of them.  And while, honestly, I wouldn't miss most of them very much, there are a few of 'em that I'd miss, especially my best bud Holly.  Besides, who knows what LCBO people are like...  I'd wager a lot of middle-aged or old people that I couldn't really relate to anyways.  But, no use thinking about it at all unless that stupid store puts a darn sticker on their door with a reference number!!   Grrrrr....  already they're acting like snooty jerks, and they haven't even opened!


Sooo, let's see.... what else is new...   oh!  So you can officially call me a nerd now, for I have a new website I'm gonna work on from time to time.  That's right, I made one!  See, from time to time, I like to just make up crazy articles about this and that, or go on a rant-page about whatever issue I feel like grumbling about.  So, this website will be for those purposes.  Livejournal will be more about what is going on with me personally, and the new site, Dragon Power!, will be for more wacky and off-the-wall craziness.
I just started it last night, and it sure as heck ain't gonna be pretty to look at, but here's a link to it!  I only have one article so far, and it's not about anything in particular other than the fact that the website now exists.  I can't promise you'll like it, and it'll be an acquired taste, and maybe you should keep the younger folks away from the monitor for a while, but I think it'll be pretty down the road.  I'll try to have another thing up on it in the next couple of days.

I gotta start doing my comic soon, too.  I'm gonna make a webcomic some day too, I swear!  I've been drawing a lot lately, planning it out, and I think it's gonna be swell.  Busy times for Nathan!


Anyways, that's about it from me for today's post.  Hope everybody's having fun, and...  oh!  Me, Steph, Alex, Anna and Jon are supposed to all go do something on Saturday afternoon/evening I think, most likely skating on the canal.  Or, if you're like me and my roomies, walking on the canal while others skate around you, because we don't have skates.  My understanding is we're supposed to invite others to joing our posse, so if anybody reading this would like to come hang out and have some wintertime fun and then hang out at one of our houses later on, please do so and speak up accordingly!  Okay!  Sooo...  buh-bye for now, and have a good day!

You know what Alex has me eating now?  Eggs!  Honest to god, eggs.  Those who know the old Nathan of yesteryear will be able to tell you, "Nathan does not eat eggs, it goes against his religion, something.  He doesn't like 'em for some reason.  He's a dummy."
But, no more!  I have eaten eggs on several non-sequential occasions now, and they're pretty alright.  Especially Eggs Benedict, Alex made that a couple of times, and I like that stuff very much.  Puts me in good spirits for the rest of the day, it does!
So, there you have it, it's a new Nathan for a new millennium.  And seeing as how we've been in this new millennium for like 7 years now, it's about time, I guess.  I still don't like the yolk part, though.  It's pretty gross.


Ummm...  what else is new...  well Chris, I listened to that Opeth album I got from ya, and I'm still not sure about it yet.  It's good music, but I still have issues with the growling parts.  Not that I'm against the growling in and of itself, but just the fact that the growling is, by nature, without melody.  He might as well be just saying the lyrics, like... dare I say...  a rapper.  A rapper is not someone you want around, at any time, for any reason.  There is a time and a place for everything, except rap.  There is no time and no place for that.  I mean, it's a bit different, but...  yeah, I'm still not sure yet.   ...Oh, but don't forget to let me know if Ian and Derek are coming down for the weekend!  I work until 2:00 on Saturday, but I don't have my schedule for Sunday yet.



Hmmm, not much is going on around these parts lately.  I'm kinda bored, actually.  Maybe we should have a party again...?  What is this, January...  um... not really any excuses for parties on the horizon, but we can have one without purpose, right?  Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

Anyways, I have to go to work in a bit, so this is Nathan, signing off for today!  Hope everyone's doing well and is knee-deep in candy or gold or something.  Ta!

*cough!*
*sneeze!*
*blow!*

Hewwo, eveybuddy...  I hab a code!  My node id all stubbed up, ad by throde id sore.

...but not anymore!!!  Wooooooo!!!!  I was sick all this week, in case you can't tell what that stuff up there says.  And while I did appreciate the whole stay-home-from-work part of things, I did not appreciate the "feelin' like a bag of snot" side of it.  At least I got a whole lot of quality time with the ol' Final Fantasy XII in there...  :-P

So, due to the whole being sick thing, I haven't been doing much with myself since last post.  Oh, before I forget, Brenda and Chris, thanks again for Astroboy!!  And yeah, you'll have to borrow it soon, maybe I can bring it next time I'm over there, if you wish to rip some.  Did you guys watch the rest of Aqua Teen Hunger Force?  I think I saw a second season of it at the store, but I'm not 101% sure.


For the nerd set, perhaps you'd like to direct your attention to 1UP's recent article on 101 Free Games.  I haven't had the chance to try many of them yet, but it seems quite promising.  RayHound is really quite fun, once you figure it out.  It looks really nice, and it's just so damn fun to say "RayHound."  That's a title you can set your watch to.  It sounds like the title of some Japanese anime or something...  just two random English words, that don't have anything to do with each other, strung together as one.  I mean, I supposed it *sort of* describes what happens in the game...  there are rays...  and when you hold down the mouse button, they "hound" you...  Anyway, I love it.  "Take off every RayHound...  for great justice!"   ...yes, that's "All Your Base" reference #374 for my LiveJournal, now.
Anyway, I'm more excited about this recent King's Quest III remake they made, because I played through the KQ1 and KQ2 remakes, and they were just stellar.  They stayed true to the originals, but fleshed them out a lot more and made them easier to play.  I dunno, I'm probably the only person here who still carries a torch for Roberta Williams's long-defunct series, or even remembers it at all, but it's a neat little piece of computer nerd history.  It comes from a simpler time, when all the artwork was hand-drawn, and every part of the production was put together by maybe a small handful of people, rather than the teams of 100s that are employed today.  I think the original King's Quest was pretty much all just made by Roberta Williams herself, with her husband doing the programming to make it all work.  ANYways, you don't want me to go off on THAT tangeant right now, because then I'll start lecturing y'all on the whole "PC adventure games" issue, and how it's really sad that the genre died out because of commercialism and whatnot.  I mean, you got your King's Quest series, which I guess Sierra didn't want to publish anymore because it wasn't "actiony" enough (the final, 8th installment tried to save the series by being "darker" and "edgier" and shoehorning a battle engine into the gameplay, but that didn't work).  Then you have your Tex Murphy games, masterminded by a couple of guys (Chris Jones played the main character himself), and they were just brilliantly written and full of great humour.  The puzzles were cunning, creative, difficult, and well-crafted enough that you could figure them out with the right amount of effort.  And all the story scenes were acted out by real people on the screen, not just computer-animated models.  Sure, the acting was campy and amateurish, but when you're portraying an homage to 1940s private eye stories, and the setting of the game is closer to 2040, you can't take yourself too seriously.  Anyway, the company that published the games, Access Software, got bought out by Microsoft because apparently they also made a successful golf game that competed with Microsoft Golf.  So, as soon as that was out of the way, the company was destroyed and that was the end of that.   ...And, of course, there is the third great adventure game company from back in the day, LucasArts.  Manian Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Sam & Max, Monkey Island... they're responsible for all kind of great stuff that got more than a few chuckles out of me, as well as a fried brain at times.  But, naturally, their Star Wars games because more of a priority for them.  Now, all LucasArts makes is Star Wars this and Jedi that.  Not interesting, but I guess Lego Star Wars 2 must be making them some money, or they wouldn't be doing it.  I think I heard most of their creative talent sort of left the company gradually, so I doubt they could make a good game puzzley game anymore if they tried.
So, I guess you DID get to hear my "PC adventure game" speech after all.  Man, I sure get fired up about old videogames, eh?  I'm like some crazy old man in his rocking chair on the front porch, trying to figure out how they can cram a 3D character onto a two-dimensional DVD.


Anyways, before I start up another crazy tangeant about how 3D technology has forever poisoned the gaming ecosystem, or some such thing, I'd better go see how Alex is doing in FFXII now.
...oh, and by the way Anna and Jon, I still say Vaan sucks, and he's the cruddiest character EVER.  :-P