All That Glitters…

The sun has once again decied to shine upon the Sunshine Coast, rather than hide behind a shield of clouds, rain, sleet, hail, and snow.  The last few days it has been absolutely beautiful and sunny, and it’s reminding me why I love living here so much–the spring and/or summer are fantasticly beautiful.  The winters might be harsh, but heck, who cares when I get this beautiful weather half the year.

Anyway, I’m writing this post because lately life has again been pretty damn good, and I want to have a record of these awesome times!  Today I got myself a haircut (as my last was… sometime around September 2008?) and I no longer feel as though someone has poured a bucket of hair over my head, and that it somehow just… stayed there.  But the haircutting is just one of the final steps for Cleanfest 2009–whereby I clean myself up through shaving, haircut, new clothes etc… and I also clean my room.  Currently it’s just fandabbybabulous, and pretty clean all around.  The few spots with dirt/dust are under the table I’ve got my 360, PS3, and lappy on, as it’s hard to get under there with a vaccum, let alone any other form of cleaning.

I’m also still into Magic, just as I was when I last posted, and I’m currently debating the purchase of a booster box o’ Mirrodin, as I never gave the set a chance (and now, upon looking back at some of the terribly broken cards, wish I had) because it was the first set to leave Dominaria, something I wasn’t ready to do in 2003, as I had just left Powell River and moved to Sechelt.  I wasn’t about to make any other large changes in my life, even if it was just the setting of a game I play.  Plus at least Mirrodin is tied to Dominaria, in that it was created by Karn–a former denizen of Dominaria–who is a silver golem/living embodiment of Urza’s Legacy, and is thus now a sensient being, and a Planeswalker with the memories of Glacian, Xantcha, and Urza…anyway, that’ll make no sense to anyone who doesn’t pride themselves on their Magic: the Gathering lore. ;)

… where was I?

Oh, yes, I like Magic still, and I’ve even got a way to play it twice a month, guaranteed*!  The local hobby shop, The Lion’s Den, is now running a biweekly Friday Night Magic… knockoff.  It’s not officially a Friday Night Magic tournament or anything, it’s just a time when everyone who plays Magic–and knows of the event–on the Sunshine Coast can get together, and have several large games for a few hours.

In music news, as of late I’ve been listening to a lot of Belle and Sebastian, and Apoptygma Berzerk–they’re bands that don’t really mix at all, but I’m listening to tonnes of them none-the-less.  There was a brief period between Beatlemania 2009 and this new fusion of lyrical subtlety and booming beats, where all I would listen to was Neil Diamond again.  Right now the predominant music is either APB or B&S, but with splashes of Beatles and Neil Diamond every once and a while.  Especially Diamond’s “Lament in D Minor (Dance of the Sabres)“.

In the realm of novels, I’ve recently been able to track down a book I was looking for for quite some time–”Star Trek Deep Space Nine #27: A Stitch in Time” by Andrew J. Robinson.  The novel was released in the year 2000–I just noticed that if it had been released in like.. 1997, would I say “the year 1997″? No.  I’d say 1997. So why the “the year” prefix to 2000?  It just sounds silly saying something came out in 2000–but is now out of print, and for some reason is up on Amazon and eBay for $30 at the least, and $140 at the most… it’s bizarre.  I wanted to read it just because it revolves around Garak, a Cardassian and former spy for the Obsidian Order, who resides on Deep Space Nine after it’s taken over by Starfleet–anyway, it looked like a good book, but was obscenely priced online, so I tracked down a copy at the local bookstore for $4.97.  That’s much better. :)

I fear this post has outgrown its… uh.. intended length, and I’m clealry stretching my vocabulary so far I’m running out of ways to describe even the most mundane of concepts.  Or maybe I’m not.  Either way, all things must end eventually, and it’s time for this post to end… right now.

March 5, 2009 · Filed Under Journal, Magic, Projects

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The Great Cleansing

I recently got back into Magic: The Gathering–as you can see in my previous post–and it led to me looking for a better way to store my collection of cards.  On a whim last Saturday, I decided to look in the “organization/storage” section on Canadian Tire’s website and found the perfect plastic storage tower with removable drawers, which I now store my entire collection in.  It’s nearly full, and I’ve got more cards on their way in the mail–yay for buying boxes of booster packs!–and pretty soon it’ll be full.  But until that happens, it’ll serve me well.

Anyway, after I got what has been dubbed my “Magic Storage Tower of Power” I set out to clean my room a bit, instead of just plopping it atop old garbage/dust and other messes.  When I was just about finished cleaning out that one corner of my room, I decided I might as well go ahead and clean the entire thing.  And so here I am, in a very nice and clean room.  There are a few spots I’ve not yet gotten to–under the table my computer is on, for instance–but I’m nearly finished, and am really happy with the way it looks.

I’ve actually kind of gotten “storage tower fever”, as it were, as I’ve gone and bought another smaller tower for console controllers, my DS in its’ case, my camera, errant USB cords and chargers, et al.  I’m even considering getting another “tower of power” for clean laundry–currently my clean clothes sit in a translucent trash bag inside of a laundry basket.. I don’t know why–or even more Magic cards, etc.

I’ll have to take some pictures, or a video or something to show off my new room, and you can bet when I do, I’ll link to ‘em/it in this post.

February 23, 2009 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Magic, Projects

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Once more, just as before.

Last time I took a week off of work to attend school (that way I get really into it, and also retain the knowledge I’m gleaning from the pages of various textbooks) I had hardly any money at all.  I never realized how much I really rely on the crudly small amount of dosh I make at my job, but without it, it’s hard to do anything!  Currently I want to spend an exorbitant amount on some pieces o’ cardboard with some ink on them (read: Magic the Gathering booster packs) but I can’t afford to buy them and afford lunches at school this week, so I’m forced to find another source of cash.  I can either take an advance on my pay from work, so when I go back on the 17th I’m earning the lunches I ate the week prior, but that’d make it harder to pay my rent.  I could try and find someone’s computer to fix, but I don’t want to call people up and be like: ‘Is your computer working?  No!  I’ll fix it!  Pay me!” (which, incidentally, is the reason I can’t rely on computer repair as a main source of income… sometimes I’ll have a huge rush of work and make money hand over fist, and then I’ll have a 3 month dry spell) and the final way of getting money is to borrow it from my parents, if they can afford to lend me some.  But that’s almost the same as getting an advance from work (it gives me more rent to pay off later) but without bugging my boss, I suppose.

I still have money, just.. not enough money to both buy lunches and the cards I want.  Now sure, I don’t need the cards right now, but I want them right now.   I could always just take sandwiches to school for lunch, but that’d not only be super jenk, it’d detract from the amount of time I can hang out with my friends during lunch.  Y’see, I’m a guest there, so friends of mine like Ty and Quin still have to adhere to their break schedules, and the best time to get some conversation in with them is on their lunch break!  I can’t go to whatever restaurant or coffee shop they frequent and pull out a cheap-ass ham sandwich I brought from home… that just isn’t kosher.

And as if that wasn’t worse enough, me wanting these cards that I know in the end I’ll not even care about so badly… I also need another iTunes card!  I can’t go very long without buying music from the iTunes Store, as every week there’s more and more music Iwant, and I refuse to pirate it… but I’m down to $1.97 on the iTunes store–that’s enough for one song, as I’d be $0.01 short of another after the purchase..  I can’t go over a week with only buying one song.  Damn my consumerist ways!

Currently I’ve paid off one third of this month’s rent… so my plan is to take back that money from my parents, use it for lunches, and then take the money I make next Wednesday and Thursday and.. the Wednesday after that, and use that for my full rent.  (I can’t go back to work after having been broke for a week and not spend some of the money I make on Tuesday.. and the other Tuesday will be the same deal, I’ll undoubtedly want something by then.  I need to learn how to save money!)

The whole reason I’m in this mess is because I spent too much money online the last few weeks… I bought “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” on DVD from Amazon.ca (which I already own via iTunes… just wanted the extra features…) as well as the third trade paperback in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 series of comics, “Wolves at the Gate“, the 3rd trade paperback of the Y: The Last Man series of graphic novels, “One Small Step“, and a new novel in the Magic: the Gathering universe known as “Agents of Artifice“, which insofar is fantastic.  (sidebar: I currently own most of the MTG novels out there, I’m only like.. 6 to 8 short… a few of the ones that came after The Brothers’ War, and the Lorwyn block, as I hated Lorwyn.)

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough already.  Enjoy this picture of ze books I was just talking about!

Geekdom reigns.

February 8, 2009 · Filed Under Buffy, Journal, Magic, Projects, School, Work

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Twitter is destroying the blogosphere.

It’s sad, but true.  It’s been 11 days since I last posted on my blog, but only an hour (or less) since my last Tweet.  It’s just so much easier to be able to post “7-Up + Beef Jerky = YES” than write a whole post about why together they can form the world’s greatest dinner.

Anyway, as of late, all I’ve been doing is working, watching movies with Quin/Jeff, and playing an obscene amount of Soulcalibur IV.  I’ve unlocked every character, and have completed every character on Story Mode except two of the bonus characters, “Angol Fear”, and “Ashlotte”, simply because I’ve grown quite weary of the game.  I spent over 6 hours playing it today, so.. it’s time to take a break, I think.  (Still haven’t even tried it online!)

The upcoming camping trip is no longer upcoming.. as it has been cancelled.  It’s a shame, but it’s also true.  Quin no longer wants to go, and is instead going on a trip around B.C./Alberta with his dad, and since him and his father were everyone else’s transporation… no one is going.  Jeff didn’t really seem to want to anyway, Ben is fine working, Ty never wanted to go, Christa obviously wasn’t going to.. the only two people who seem to be upset are me and Jeff from Powell River.  It’s ghey, but at least I still get the time off from work to.. do.. .. nothing.

My parents are holding a party on their anniversary this year, and inviting all of their friends.  Me, Quin, and at least Jeff (maybe Ben if he’s not busy) will be stopping by to get some burgers before we all head back to Quin’s to watch some movies, and try our hand at mixing drinks.

So those are my plans for the upcoming week and a half.  One party at Quin’s.. and.. oh, yeah, me and Jeff are going to try to go to Vancouver to play Magic: the Gathering at a cardshop somewhere.  So I’ll need to save some of my money for that.

August 12, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Draupnir, Journal, Magic, Projects, Work

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Naming Conventions

As a lot of you may already know, I try to stick to a norse mythology naming convention for technological items I own–my older PC was/is Freya (it now belongs to my father… or is at least used by him.), my main PC is Mjolnir, etc.

But I’ve recently renamed a bunch of stuff, as the old titles just made no damn sense.  What follows is a list of the names of my current gadgets/computers, etc:

Freya – My dad’s computer, used to be mine–a Hewlett Packard I bought from N20.<br />
Mjolnir – My main gaming PC–I don’t seem to use it as much as I used to as a few parts are currently being replaced.<br />
Nasir – The only non-Norse thing in the list–my Dell Inspiron 1300 which I got for use with school studies, etc.  It currently is used by me every day in lieu of Mjolnir.<br />
Yggdrasil – My Linksys WRT45GL router running DD-WRT.  It gives the wonder that is the internet to all of my gadgets, consoles, and PCs.<br />
Ratatosk – (New as of July 8th 2008) – My hacked Fon La Fonera 2100 router running DD-WRT, and serving as a wireless bridge to hook my Xbox 360 up to the network and ze internet.<br />
Gleipnir – My PlayStation Portable–It used to be called “Ragnarok”, but that just made no damn sense, mythology-wise.<br />
Iðunn – My Nintendo Wii–I don’t use it nearly as much as I should, considering how much trouble I went through to get it.  Still fun for parties/gatherings of a lot of people, etc, but my friends and I usually end up just playing Rock Band on Quin’s Xbox 360.<br />
Ullr – My Xbox 360–Was originally Odin II, since Odin was my Xbox, but I’ve retroactively removed the name from my old Xbox, as it was sold on eBay to a new owner.<br />
And finally, Draupnir – Draupnir will be my PlayStation 3 when I purchase it.  If all goes according to plan, I should be doing so sometime around the 17th of July or later.  Just need to find an 80GB MGS4 bundle first.  (Easier said than done!  Most people claim they’re as rare as either a Wii or Wii Fit as of late.)

So there you have it–the list of gadget names.  Why?  Because I wanted a place to write them down where I could remember them, honestly.  It gets confusing, especially when I rename a few.  I’m pretty sure I’ll unconciously refer to my PSP as “Ragnarok” for a while still, but it really made no sense as a name.

(P.S.  As an off-topic note, I’m really back into Magic: the Gathering as of late.  Can’t wait for the Eventide release on the 25th!  Booster box, here I come!)

July 7, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Draupnir, Freya, Gleipnir, Iðunn, Journal, Magic, Mjolnir, Nasir, Projects, School, Ullr

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