Ah, family…

::Preface::

This post is loooooooong, and is simply a record of the last three or four days. Despite its length, it’s still rather vague, but is mainly a personal journal entry. If you want to save a lot of time/effort, don’t read it. If you want to hear about the recent visit of my kooky cousin Sean, by all means, grab a cup of coffee, and settle in for the long ride.

::End of Preface::

About a week ago now I received notice from ma’ mom that my aunt Jean and cousin Sean would be coming by to visit. Shortly after that, I expected my parents to go into clean-the-house overdrive, but it didn’t really happen until the night before Sean and Jean’s arrival.

A few days before that I–uncharacteristically, I might add–had done the dishes, folded and put away towels in the linen closet, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned the bathrooms, and even dusted certain parts of the house.

But back to Saturday night, and our attempts to clean out the guest room: No one had bothered going into the guest room in ages. There was no reason to, as it was full o’ storage/junk. But that night we vacuumed, cleaned, dusted, moved stuff into the closet, moved in a nicer mattress/box spring, etc. We made the room fit for.. erm… a guest.

The only problem was that the room still had this awful heavy hide-a-bed couch in it that we had brought down with us from Powell River when we moved here 6 years ago. The couch, in its’ prime, used to be super comfortable. I could lie on the thing for *hours* on end, and never get uncomfortable… but that was 8-10 years ago, and now the couch had fallen into disuse and disrepair.

So we cleaned the couch out as best we could, and made sure that it wasn’t quite as dusty as it used to be, and simply covered it with a blanket. After spraying the room with raid (there were tonnes o’ bugs and what not that had made the couch their home) and airing it out after, we were finished.

The next day, I woke up around noon, and spent most of my time trying to figure out what to do ’til Sean and Jean showed up. I was told they’d probably arrive between 2 and 3 PM, but that I should also listen for them beforehand, just in case.

Ultimately, I ended up playing Mass Effect to kill time until about 2:30, when I headed upstairs to grab a bite to eat, and make sure I hadn’t been sitting playing a video game while they sat in the car outside.

After another hour of waiting (and watching Seinfeld and M*A*S*H) they finally arrived, and I took the opportunity to sort of show them around a little, and to catch up with them.

After that, Sean and I spent a few hours playing NHL 2K9 before dinner. Eventually, my dad made burgers for everyone (they were awesome, as usual) and we all just kind of sat around talking for a few hours.

Sean ended up setting up his computer to find something to do, so I went and got my laptop, and we ended up playing Age of Empires II: The Conquerors for a few hours until everyone else wanted to go to bed. After that, Sean and I watched a bit of TV, until I too wanted to sleep. I don’t know what he did the rest of the night/morning.

I awoke to the cool breeze wafting in my window. I could feel it flowing down the wall, over my head, down to my toes, and back up the wall and out the other window. It was chilly, but nice. A few moments later, the intercom started beeping at me, and my dad told me breakfast was just about ready. That meant one thing, and one thing only: Bacon.

I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, darted out the door, knocked on Sean’s door, told him breakfast was nearly ready, and hopped up the stairs. My dad then asked me how Sean wanted his eggs. This led me to pop back down the stairs, ask Sean how he liked his eggs, and receive a very groggy “over hard.”

I then raced back up the stairs, told my dad he liked them over hard…maybe, and then sat down at the table. A few seconds later Sean appeared, wide awake. It was kind of weird.

A few short moments later, we (my mom, dad, aunt, cousin, and myself) all feasted at great length upon an expertly cooked breakfast.

Now unfortunately, Monday entailed some work on everyone’s part. My father wished to capitalize on Sean’s presence by conscripting him into helping move the aforementioned couch of horrors out of the house, into the van, and into the dump.

We all pitched in–by which I mean my aunt Jean went out and had a cigarette, and I just kind of poked fun at everyone who was trying to move it–and in the end, we got it in our van, although we had to tie a rope across the back doors to keep it closed.

My mom and dad drove in the van to the dump, while Sean, Jean, and myself took Jean’s car to follow them as my dad needed Sean’s help to unload the couch, and me and Sean had some errands to run in town.

After we left the dump, me and Sean headed to the mall to do some shopping. We stopped by Shopper’s Drug Mart for a few refreshments and a birthday card for my mom (her birthday was the next day!), and proceeded to wander through the rest of the mall.

After Sean bought some CDs at The Source by Circuit City and I grabbed a booster pack at The Lion’s Den, we stopped by the Upstairs Downstairs Shoppe to buy my mom a birthday gift. (Or four. Or five.)

After much debating over what to get, we decided on some candles that looked like stones, a stained glass ship that held a candle, a squirrel wind chime… thing, and a base for the aforementioned candles.

We had them wrapped, and placed in a box, and then Sean suggested we get a flower for the top of the box, much like a ribbon or other such gift accoutrements. We then headed back to the car, and went back home to give her the presents. (Albeit a tad early.)

As far as dinner was concerned, our original plan was to have steak, barbequed to perfection in the hot summer evening. Instead, it was raining, so we all went out to a Chinese buffet, and ate a lot of various dishes.

After that, Sean and I played more Age o’ Empires, and then he drove me in to work, where I spent the following 5 hours doing various paperwork for the store–most of it to do with receiving new stock.

Once I was done e’erything at work, Sean and Jean came to pick me up, and they took me home, where we all sat and chatted for a few hours until Jean went to bed, and Sean and I went downstairs.

We watched the latter half of Transformers, on one of the movie channels, and then went our separate ways, to sleep.

Tuesday morning was a lot like Monday morning. There was bacon, and the bacon was good. This time Sean turned his meal into a sandwich, and we ran out of Five Alive.

The first order of business for the day was..nothing, really. For the most part, we all sat around chatting for a few hours. Later my mom and dad took my aunt in to see where I worked. Sean and I once again followed in his mom’s car, and after a quick bit of shopping, our parents all headed home.

I had some errands to run, so Sean drove me to the post office to sort a mail issue out. After that, Sean remembered he had to stop by an ICBC branch to pay off a speeding ticket he had been written in Golden, BC.

I told him where it was–in the Trail Bay Centre, where we had gone on a shopping spree the day before–and after a brief tour of the parking lot, we found a space near it, and went inside.

After speaking with a friendly woman who worked there, Sean realized that ICBC had made a mistake, and were still charging him for insurance on a vehicle that had been stolen and them impounded. The Nanaimo branch ICBC he had dealt with had promised to cancel the insurance on said vehicle, but had failed to do so.

ICBC now said that he owed $635 in payments, and that he had “faulted” on said payments, meaning he would be unable to get a car insured for 2 years, and even when he did so, his premiums would be outrageous.

After receiving information about how he could contact ICBC’s main offices–they were unable to do anything at our branch–we headed to the mall’s pay phones, which are conveniently located near the BCLC booth.

Sean had me redeem the winnings from a few Scratch & Wins, and purchase more, redeem, purchase, redeem, and so on until he had won over 10-15 tickets, and was up $14. (All the while on the phone with ICBC!)

After getting off of the phone and redeeming more tickets, Sean scratched a few more until he had lost it all again. I tried my luck at one of the deluxe $10 tickets, a Monopoly one, but I didn’t win anything.

After that we headed back to the car, and back to the house. A little while later I began installing Windows XP on my aunt Jean’s new (to her) computer that she had gotten from her brother (my uncle), Frank.

After installing all the updates, and replacing the Norton 2003 Trial with AVG, we headed out to the Grasshopper Pub in Pender Harbour, where things would take a turn…for the weird.

First of all, on the way to the pub we stopped by my Mom’s friend Ada’s house to pick Ada up. When we made it to the pub, Sean met his friend Katie there, whom he had known in Powell River.

We all sat together, and then moved, and than sat together again. Sean ordered himself a pitcher of Budweiser, and it all went kind of downhill.

Sean had invited Katie, and had planned on meeting her there, so they talked for quite a bit, catching up and what not. My mom, Ada, and my aunt Jean were having an in depth discussion about…well, I don’t know what actually.

My dad was playing the Pacific Hold ‘Em province-wide electronic poker game, as well as Keno. I was talking mostly to Sean, Katie, and my dad, all about various subjects.

Eventually our food came, and for a little while our tables went quiet. But once the food had disappeared, we all began conversing once more.

Sean, being Sean, had found out that Katie was in a relationship, and immediately went and played pool with a woman named Michelle. Michelle was … well I’m not going to use that kind of language on ma’ blog, but people seemed to consider her quite promiscuous.

After Michelle beat Sean at pool once, and Sean had beaten her once, he ended up playing a game with a woman named Dana. Katie remained at the table with Ada and ma’ family, occasionally leaving to answer her phone.

After a while, Katie realized that she had to work in 7 hours and 45 minutes and decided she best go home to bed. She said bye to Sean, to which he replied: “I don’t have to walk you out to the car door, do I?”

After Katie told Sean that no, he didn’t have to do that, he said something along the lines of: “Good, ’cause I don’t want to.” and then went back to play pool with Michelle again.

It was around this time that Michelle grew tired of Sean, and started to screw with him. She led two other guys out onto the deck with her, Sean followed shortly after, and apparently she burned him with her cigarette…or something.

After that, Sean seemed to have two options left: A) Hit on the waitress who was working, and seemed extremely busy. Or B) Go back and see Dana and her friend.

It was around this time that Sean bought a shot of Tequila for himself and Dana. He later mentioned that it was a bad idea.

Sean then took perrogative and invited Dana and her friend Shannon over to our table, to meet his family I suppose.

Now let’s just say the whole night got bad after that. The man showed no shame if he felt any, and he was hitting on Dana like there was no tomorrow. He was also very drunk.

He eventually … licked Dana’s hair, and tried to guess the shampoo. He stole her ring, but eventually gave it back… (It was a ring that she received for working for 5 straight years at the local RBC branch.)

There are other things that happened, most of which I don’t care to remember. Suffice it to say, they were all drunk, and no matter how many times my dad and his mom tried to tell him it was time to go, he wouldn’t listen. Instead he made puppy eyes at Dana, and howled like a coyote. Repeatedly.

After a while, my parents, Ada, and Jean all went out and got into the van, leaving me to coerce Sean out of the pub. After Dana and Shannon had shaken my hand around 4 or 5 times, and given me a few hugs, Sean was finally heading towards the door.

After some mutual… well, groping between Sean and Dana, she walked him to our van. I said goodbye once more to Shannon on my way out the door, and got Sean down the stairs and to the van safely. He then started making out with Dana, before he /finally/ got in the car.

Dana and Shannon had exchanged phone numbers with Sean, and when we were driving away from the pub, he was trying desperately to remember their names.

Due to the excessive amounts of beer, Tequila, and Jack Daniels Sean had imbibed, he really had to pee on the way home. He made some remark about how now-a-days a phone is as, if not more, important than a condom. We pulled over off the highway so Sean could relieve himself, and he did so… while yelling “woo-hoo!” or something similar.

After getting back in the van Sean, no longer having to concentrate on not peeing his pants, started to hit on Ada. A lot. Like a /lot/.

We eventually made it to Ada’s, let her out of the van, and tried to keep Sean in it. As we drove away, he asked if she was married. My mom told him she had a partner named Rob, and all Sean cared was that she wasn’t married.

Sean then reassured my mom that he would never screw her friend in our house. I’m sure that helped her sleep that night.

Once we got home, I decided that since I had to get up in around 7ish hours, I should go to bed. Sean stayed upstairs and talked to his mom and my parents.

The next morning (which was this morning, actually.) I awoke, got ready for work and headed out. By the time I get home he will be gone again, but it was sure nice seeing him.

I hope we’ll do this again when he gets back from Afghanistan between February and May 2010.

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

July 8, 2009 · Filed Under BlackBerry, Journal, Work

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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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9 Days Ago…

9 days ago, this blog turned 4 years old.  And that’s only in its’ current iteration–it was alive without WordPress for a short period before that, too.  That’s just quite the thing to swallow–to think that I’ve been posting random crap to the internet for 4 years.  I’ve spent around $10 on domain fees each year, that’s only maybe $45… That’s so worth it.  (I have free hosting from a friend of mine.  Thanks, zeebsie!)

Anyway, it has come to my attention that i never ever post anymore, and while that’s still going to remain true (it’s hard to write something when you just aren’t in the mood, y’know?  I have like blogger’s block.  I can write a short-ass quip for Twitter or a Facebook status, but a whole … post?  About what I had for breakfast?  Naw.) it’s nice to know that I’m here, now, writin’ something up.

So I got new glasses the other day.  Two days ago, to be exact.  They’re spiffy beyond all belief, especially because they’re the RIGHT prescription.  When I got my old glasses, they were completely wrong, and my old optometrist refused to acknowledge that fact and replace them or even give me a discount on a new pair, or something.  But now that my eyes are adjusting to the new prescription, I find I can see more details in certain things every day.  It’s awesome.  I can read all sorts of signs that are far away that I couldn’t even tell were there before. ;)

In other news, my shifts at work have changed.  I used to work Monday night from 7PM ’til 11PM/12AM, Wednesday from 3PM ’til 6:30/7:00PM, and Thursday from 7PM ’til 1 or 2 AM.  Now I work Tuesday from 9:00AM ’til 6:00PM, Wednesday is the same deal, and I have the same Thursday shift as before.  So basically, I have to get to bed real early Monday night, so I can get up Tuesday, have a few hours after working Tuesday to go to bed/have dinner/relax, get up, go to work on Wednesday, and after work Wednesday I get to try and stay up late, so I can get up late enough on Thursday to stay up ’til 3AM working.  Then I get to try and fix my sleep over the next 4 days so I can get up on Tuesday again.   It’s good pay, so I can’t complain, I guess.  (And by good pay, I mean minimum wage stretched over more hours than before.)

Now that I have my new gaming laptop (yay!) I find myself drawn to purchase more and more games, but also I’m going back and playing games I haven’t in done so with in ages.  I bought Red Alert 3, and have been playing it, but I’ve gone back to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and have started playing it religiously.  I’ve been playing tonnes of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (which is a damn shame, since it seems that Ensemble Studios has gone kaput–I’ve been playing the Age series since its’ inception in 1997.) as it seems the only reason I had gotten bored with it before was due to my inflexibility–I was unwilling to play anyone but the Ottoman Empire.  I had dabbled with the Iroquois with the release of The Warchiefs and the Japanese with The Asian Dynasties, but I always went back to the Ottomans.  Then one day, on a whim, I tried the Russian Empire.  Turns out they suit my play style perfectly.  Ultimately though, the reason I play so much AoE3:TAD is because it’s the only game me and Ben can play with Ty, since he doesn’t have any of the others we play.

Ben has been trying to get me back into Company of Heroes, but I’m still so not in the mood for any game set in the World War II era.  That’s what’s keeping me back from buying Call of Duty: World at War (other than the fact that it was developed by Treyarch, whose CoD3 was an utter disappointment, except for the main theme from the game) since when I see the World War II-themed commercials, I get sick to my stomach. CoD4 moved me forward from WWII into Modern Warfare, and I don’t want to go back.

Anyway, finally, I will share my thoughts on Left 4 Dead, Valve’s new 4 player co-op zombie apocalypse shooter:  I don’t like it very much.  I don’t have 3 friends to play it with.  If I did, two of them wouldn’t take it seriously, and would get us all killed.  It only has 4 or 5 levels or something–I’ll wait for a few more map releases, and maybe a price drop.  (Or I’d play it if I got it as a gift, that’d be aight.)

November 30, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Projects, Weatherlight, 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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Snake? SNAKE!? SNAAAAAAAKE!

So I suppose I haven’t posted since I got my PlayStation 3.  That’s understandable though, as I’ve spent all of my time away from friends/family/work with said PS3.

Anyway, I got the 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, and it’s awesome.  The first week of owning it, I could only play it in SD (480i) on my RCA 24/27″ CRT TV.  (Can’t remember the size.. it’s one of those two.) and as such, didn’t play a lot of games other than demos.

After I got a Neoya X2VGA2 and some Sony component cables from Toys R’ Us, I hooked my PS3 up to my monitor, and am now gaming/watching movies in glorious 720p.  Yes, it’s not 1080p, but feh, I’ll get a bigger monitor/an HDTV in the next 6 months.

Ah, but I have not explained the title of this post yet, have I?  I mean, I did mention Metal Gear Solid, but I didn’t really say why it would weigh so heavily on the post that the title would be a reference to a famous line from said series of games. (For the record, this post is so long, that I had to split it up–click the ‘More’ or ‘Continue Reading’ link to read the rest of it… but be forewarned: it’s a doozy.)

Read more

August 1, 2008 · Filed Under Draupnir, Gleipnir, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects, Ullr, Work

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