Well, the year 2005 is over and there are still no Transformers raging war over energon! Only idiots raging war over energy... What a terrible year. Full of death and destruction. Kind of depressing. I don't know what else to say, except I was hoping for some Autobots to walk by.

Let's see...

Last thing I bought this year: Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome DVD
Last game I bought this year: Astro Boy GBA and Gunstar Super Heroes
Favourite console purchased this year: DS
Favourite game of the year: We Love Katamari Damacy
Favourite movie of the year: Batman Begins
Favourite thing to watch on TV this year: Doctor Who
Craziest thing of the year: all those damn hurricanes!
Thing I forgot to do this year: Would help if I could remember things all together...
Thing I still haven't done: Find a house...

New Year's Resolution: I don't make 'em! EVER! Whahahaha!

So raise your glass and sing that weird song people sing on new year's. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So I've renewed my search for a home. At first I thought Vaudreuil-Dorion would be the place to be but now I'm thinking about it and that damn bridge just ain't a pleasure to cross. So I've moved my search elsewheres. To Lachine, Lasalle, St-Henri, St-Laurent, hell even Cartierville-Ahuntsic. But they're mostly condos... And I'm not too big on condos.

My sole criteria is a nice place, preferably with a porch or balcony, and it must have a garage or someplace I can put my car. Also I'm a packrat so I would need more than one room (and that would also increase my chances of resell too). Another plus is that the place, if condo, must not be in the basement because those are the worse. If I want to live in a cave, I'll go live in a cave! And since I'm absolutely clueless about renovations, the place, if old-ish, must at least have been recently rebuilt and not falling down... Of course pictures don't really do justice. They can make garbage look like gold and gold look like trash.

My range is under 175 too. That's $175 000 please. I'll go for single-dwelling cottage, condo, row house, townhouse.

The problem with condos is they've got these condo fees... And some are rediculous. The price might be nice but to pay an extra 200 a month in fees is just absurd.

My other problem is taxes, which is why I've picked out those regions. They're low tax areas but still not crazy dangerous areas. Some of the listings on the MLS don't always give you the tax breakdown.

I like things that are quaint. I like things that are cute. I hate the ultra modern homes of the 80s. Luckily the new condos are looking cute and quaint, with this century old charm in their design.

Some places have yards, that's a good bonus. Though I don't know anything about gardening, I wouldn't mind growing some food of my own.

So I fill out the forms on our real estate pages, and I'm still looking around. A few have come to my attention, and I've printed out maybe a stack of places of interest. Don't think I'm gonna get anything yet... I still need a mortgage!

Three days in Toronto. If not for the family there, I probably would never really care to go there. But every year we do make the 6 hour drive up the 40/401 I make the conclusion that Montreal is indeed far more cozy a city. At least the restaurants are catching up on the yummy scale.

We stayed at the same place we stayed last time, Staybridge Suites in Markham, right by the highway 404 (highway cannot be found). It's brand spankin' new in a brand new area surrounded by the most delicious chinese/japanese/korea/vietnamese restaurants to have recently sprouted in that nook of suburban Hog Town. And the price is right too. One price, one room, two doubles and a seperate room with a foldout bed, full kitchen, two TVs, free internet, free parking, and free breakfast every morning (and not the lame doughnuts and coffee stuff either). Most places start charging you extra for more than two adults, and it's unfortunate that none of us can be categorized under the children fee... Downtown, they charge you up to $20 a day for parking. And if you're lucky, you might get a free newspaper or coffee. But this place is always the best place for us. It's in perfect proximity of both my cousins and it's clean, quiet, and friendly.

Which is the least I can say for downtown Toronto...

Well, ok, the drunken old men singing in the street that spontaneously say "Happy New Year, ladies!" mean no harm to you. But the Jaguar driving drive-by shooting men on Yonge street...now that's a different story.

If we had not visited my cousin and thought the stores would be way too crowded for casual visitor shopping...we might have been there. And it's really unfortunate that a poor girl of 15 years had died... It's just out of hand now, the guns, the shootings... And for what reason? A gunfight on the busiest shopping day of the year, right after Christmas, between individuals in a Footlocker. The giant city prided itself on its safety (though, I don't really know how but I guess when you compare it to other major cities then yes it is a pretty safe place). People say its because of the high unemployment rate in some neighborhoods but I don't know... My cousin's neighborhood could be seen as a poor neighborhood that's facing gentrification (it'll soon be Toronto's Plateau district) but I don't really see any of the people there looking to shoot others. The labeling of "poor neighborhoods" to find excuses for shooting people or burning cars is just halfassed. I blame the media for the glorification of the so-called gangsta lifestyle where to solve one's problems, one must shoot it dead (or try too) regardless of who is standing nearby instead of confronting the problem either face-to-face or with police help. And like the gang problems in Montreal North, it's apparent that ennui and a lack of parental or any kind of adult discipline makes these kids think that their only exit is through a gang; that their future is hopeless and goals or dreams are not within their grasp and instead of going "bullhooey to that I know I can do something with my life" they are lead to believe that these gangs are their only future...

Usually it's known. Domestic violence, drunken stupor, accident, or usually caused by an unfortunate demented individual let loose thanks to an improper system. Usually you know that walking down a certain street in a certain area could likely bring your demise. But a lame gang fight in the middle of the city? Is Toronto the LA North? I sure hope not... Perhaps a few more individuals should check themselves in to Toronto's fine mental health hospital. It's right near my cousin's house.

Anyway, Toronto's cold. It's like the mutated child of New York, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, and the suburbs of New Jersey with a few degrees celcius below freezing. I don't know if I could ever like that place, but I don't mind visiting it. Oh and wonders of wonders, Toronto drivers are WORSE than Montrealers! Or got worse anyway.

If the entire game were like this I would buy a PSP tomorrow. But nay it's not so eat me, Sony. Even the Pixelmari Damacy mini game could not get me to slap down 300$ for that machine (and the game reads 5,040yen which translates roughly to 50$CAD). Nope, not gonna happen! Not even the ability to slingshot my Prince to the King will get me there!

Hi-hoo!

This was 7am yesterday. I woke up at 6am to the first big dumping of the year and turned on the TV to the traffic channel and saw car backed up and stuck in traffic everywhere already before rush hour. So yea, I decided not to kill myself and to just not go to work. They hadn't even cleaned the streets so I doubt I could have gotten anywhere as my mom soon found out. She got stuck backing out of the driveway and then got stuck down the street. She probably wouldn't have gotten stuck if she had bought her new car (they're thinking of either a Corolla or a Yaris) since her dumb Ford is practically driving flat on the pavement but whatever, the plough came by and cleared a bit in front of her and we were able to push her out onto the somewhat cleared part. She also got stuck in the parking lot at her work.

Also, that isn't grain in the photo but snow. By lunch time I couldn't see out my window, like the city had been swallowed in white. By about 4pm it stopped a bit and 41 centimetres had fallen! I just wanna dive right into it like I did when I was 5~! I'm really glad I didn't go to work though. I just would have been stuck on the road for 2 hours each way, if I wasn't trapped in the parking lot. Tim Hortons was giving out free coffee to people stuck in traffic on the Cote-de-Liesse, since they weren't going anywhere. My mom got out of work early though, and luckily she works a few blocks away unlike me who works on the other end of the island. So we all walked to the yummy chinese restaurent for supper and since they were practically empty (save for a few families and one annoyingly loud group of two families with 6 annoyingly loud children who made my father very grumpy) we miraculously got served immediately! This is a big shock for this place because usually it takes about 2 hours to get served anything (ie. you're easily forgotten by the staff). But it looks like there are new people there, maybe it's a new management since the menu was different. Maybe the big stink my dad made last time got them to move their arses. In any case, I'm glad because that place has the best chinese food in the city, and you can get japanese food too if you don't want the dishes.

I am somewhat disappointed with the city though. They raised our taxes but the snow cleaning was the worst I have ever seen... Usually it's not so bad but man...they cut down all the streets to halves now because they didn't clear the snow all the way to the side! I dream of heated streets...

Boredom is bad for me because when I'm bored, I go shopping. Today, I thought maybe I could find something neat for my mom's birthday but nay, nothing there seemed to be useful or neat for her. Upon wandering around the shopping center, I found the very place boring as hell. No DVDs for me (I was looking for John Carpenter's The Thing, but no one seemed to have it so maybe it's not even on dvd...). No games for me. No clothes. Nada. Zip. Out I went to get my hair dye, instead, at Zellers ('cause Walmart is a bloody mess this time of year and no one shops at Zellers anymore) and so I picked up my red and purple and Exillion (Hot Shot in the US version)! He was the last one too and is pretty cool for a toy. Lots of detail on him, like the seats and steering wheel. And unlike Super Link's Hot Shot...HE HAS KNEES!

Vehicle Mode.

Robot Mode. Of course, he doesn't look like this anymore after being smashed to bits by Megatron. Now he's a army tank car thingy whatever it's kind of lame but his robot mode kind of looks the same... I don't like Galaxy Force but the toys rock. However, I saw Nitro Convoy and wanted to see if the stupid american version really made him into a woman...and they did x_x He doesn't even look remotely feminine! Maybe just 'cause his vehicle mode is curvy but not in robot mode! Besides, he hits on Lori all the time.

My brother attempted to make a Link in Soul Calibur 3. There is a sword and shield that looks like Link's master sword and Hyrulian shield... I need to check later for a pointy hat! It would be cooler if you could put Hiyama Nobuyuki's voice on the custom character, since he does do the voice for Seigfreid and Yoshimitsu but oh well.

So, two weeks and I've been hunting for Gunstar Super Heroes, yet everytime I go, the EB guy tells me they STILL haven't received it! None of the other stores carry it either, not even the newly opened Best Buy. So, I gave up and thought that I should check out the english version via ROM first to see if any details have been removed or if it will piss me off.

It did.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I hate it when companies dub video games off their nice japanese tracks to replace it with mundane english voices. And if you didn't know, now you do! I hate it more than bad translations. I particularily hate it when companies dub GBA games. I especially hate it when they don't include an option to change the track from the shitty english to the much better quality japanese. (Thank you Namco, for not removing that on Soul Calibur 3 or I might have bitten off my ears). So why did you do it, Treasure!? How could you!? Even the soldiers don't escape without their original sound bits. How can you tell me that Captain Planet reading from a book saying "Seven Force" in the same tonality as Dias' bored and horrible english "Wind Slash" is a better choice for us than the super cool "SEVEEEEN FORCE!!!" our Japanese friends get? It hurts me, it truly does. About the only one who sounds OK is general Grey... But I still say his japanese counterpart sends a chill down my spine, while his english one just sounds rather normal... And since I've given up waiting to get the game, I went over to Play-Asia and bought the Japanese version, along with Astro Boy for 12$. Screw you, US version. I'm very willing to dish out the extra cash for something I've been waiting for and want to enjoy to its fullest.

Here I've assembled some clips for you to hear.

Japanese Pink intro "I've been waiting for you, Guntars!"
Japanese Pink outro "I won't forget this!"
USA Pink intro I can barely hear her...
USA Pink outro Uh, why should I remember kicking her ass?

Japanese Green intro "I am Green... SEVEN FORCE!" I loved it the first time, and will always love it.
USA Green intro By the powers combined, I am...! Oy. Think he could be any more enthusiastic?

Japanese Black intro "Think you can beat the great Black!?" Best old-man voice, ever. He really sounds like a weasle
USA Black intro If I'm supposed to kick your ass, why would I bet on you?

Frankly who cares if no one here understands in japanese. They have the translation written on the screen~~~~! Oh, right, I'm sorry. People don't read...

I found a use for my empty Game Gear cases. I can fit 6 DS carts and 1 GBA cart! Reuse and recycle, folks.

And more proof that Capcom officially rocks. Now I want to make a Game & Watch game.

It somehow became November. I need to put my snowtires on...

As in AGGRAVATED, ANNOYED, and AWWW FOR FUCKS SAKES. I hate people, I really do. Driving to the gym today where the residential area states the speed limit to be 30 km/h and a stop sign on every corner, I get the joy of being followed by an arsehole and his wife in a big ass Dodge Caravan who was ANNOYED that I had the decency of following the rules of the road. This guy proceed to attempt to squeeze his fugly gas-guzzling monster between me and the curb (1 point, passing on the right) but couldn't fit his lard ass through. Next he nearly hit my bumper 'cause I stopped at the stop sign (2 points, hit from the rear means automatically the fault of the rear driver). Then he nearly trashed my bumper while crossing the solid yellowing line, speeding into on-coming traffic and drove right through the stop sign all while giving me the finger while his fugly wife sneered at me and an on-coming driver opened the window and gave him the "bad boy tsk tsk" finger (lemme count those points... reckless driving, speeding, crossing a solid yellow line, and driving through a stop sign equals 4 more point and maybe 5 for a bonus). Then the arsehole gave me the finger again as I passed by him at the light! RAR! I really wanted to stop and kick his door in but lucky for him, the light was green for me. May you burn in every layer of hell mr. Dodge Caravan and take your fugly wife with you for your very existence pollutes my aura.

But on to lighter things, we had no power for most of the day 'cause HydroQuebec was upgrading our grid with more lines and new poles. So we got to eat breakfast at Chez Cora :3 Along with everyone else from my neighborhood. Afterwards, what do people do when they're bored? They shop. Best Buy just opened up near me and they got some pretty nice prices~!

While my dad drooled over the six-thousand dollar plasma TV he'll never get, I found the last copy of Killer 7 (gamecube one) for 30$ cheaper than anywhere else AND picked up Shadow of the Colossus finally. My brother got Soul Calibur III at Future Shop though, since he had a gift certificate and nothing to spend it on. Already made a few characters.

Like my K'?

Un-inspired.

After months of destroying my brain/wrist/heart making video poker crap, I found I lost the ability to draw. Even stick-men! So screw it all, I'm going back to drawing. Blah.

The best I could muster today. Been looking at a lot of Capcom stuff.

After I beat Zero 4 (on EASY! gah) I got to this new version of Silver-Gospel (made-up charater). The colours actually came by accident, off the now-called "Alternate Colours" version (which is so off character).

And back to Un-inspired. I can't even draw my Monster Buster boys anymore T_T For shame!

In other news, there's something evil in my oven that will not be consumed by me...

So sue me, I lied about buying anything else. Well, I actually was seeking Shadow of the Colossus but they were sold out when my dad was looking over the DS rack and waved this by my face. I pounced! I'm nearly done Castlevania too. Already got the shitty lame ending but at least you don't have to redo the entire game to get the next ending. Let's dance, Julius Belmont!

OBJECTION!

I have fallen in love with the new The Batman show.

Oh you may shake your head and go "Oh god..." but hear me out! I didn't like it at first, myself. I thought the stories were retarded, the characters way out of wack, and Bruce's chin way too pointy... That it's only bonus was it's amazingly good animation for a prime-time kiddy toon. But then I thought about it... And I found that it's an interesting fresh take on a series people know so well. Right now, Bruce's chin doesn't seem too pointy anymore. Why? 'Cause when I look at his Batman design, I see subtle references to Frank Miller's Batman with the short ears and all. I don't even mind Penguin's kung-fu now! An insane clown posse Joker is just insane. True there are still lines of dialogue that are just bound to make you cringe and look away, but that's pretty much like every kiddy toon. I love the new Riddler though. A Marilyn Manson computer geek voiced by Robert Englund! Alfred of course rocks the house, with his Brit-talk (Poppycock!). And it's Batman year 3, so you can see he's still breaking into the Batcape. (Though, the many times Bruce says he thinks it's time to hang up the cape for good is a bit much and a little repetitive...but whatever). All it needs in season 3 is Two-Face and Scarecrow and I will be a loyal devotee forever and ever.

And now the movie, Batman VS Dracula! That's like someone making a big-screen, live action Castlevania that's true to the game and doesn't star Keanu Reeves! (But it could always use Gary Oldman, for whatever reason :D) I watched it twice since Sunday. Charlotte, APPROVES! *stamp*

I got them all now. All the remastered tracks! And because I pre-ordered this one, I got the mini calendar full of sweet lovely Zero series drawings. Though the end of this game is *DOESN'T SAY ANYTHINGGGGGGGGGGGG* I hope this series continues. And I hope they continue with more Easy Modes to play in! Oh, and I believe it's official. To work at Capcom, you must have a certain level of insanity.

Now, how would you like walking into your office one bright morning only to be attacked by a giant plastic Zero doodle? Hmm... Actually I think they should make a game with the Zero doodle. Would be a puzzle type, yes... (And if you don't know what the Zero doodle is, click this. I believe it's a level design but I'm not sure).

It hurts, but only for a little bit! I had some credit on my EB card for bringing in two PS2 games that I don't really play much. Yes, the world has ended, hell has frozen over, and the sky has turned purple! I TRADED IN TWO GAMES! Ahem. Anyway, it was Okage and Under the Skin, and while I adore the designs and the look of Okage, I just never really cared to play it. Bought it for 12$ too. While the alien game was just sitting there, as quirky as it was, I just never played it after stage 1. So back to my story, I had credit! And with that, I got a discount on my TWO items.

Huzzah!

I said I'd wait but...who could wait? It's Zero and Castlevania!!! They're both beautifully made too. Charlotte APPROVES! *stamps*

On the subject of not being able to wait... Let's go Gunstar Super Heroes! I might have binged today but I did have this justification that I wasn't really gonna buy anything (uh that's non-DS and non-used) for a while until Okami and Gunstar comes out. Gunstar Blue~♥

Eat sassy smirk, Green. I beat your Seven Force with my pea shooter ~(^^~)(~^^)~ Though I was almost dead... Then I got my arse kicked in the boardgame stage.

Because deep down inside, I believe I am a nerd... Geek on Stun posted the Mario 64 thingy. And well...I was bored yesterday...

Guess 'em all and get a prize!

Yes, I was too lazy to turn on my laptop to update. Between being sick like a dog and working like a dog, what else can I report...

Friday. Pet Science? Justin and Yannick ponder that very subject. But we all agreed that the cat was definitely the brain of that pair while the dog was the incredibly stupid side-kick.

Saturday. I have to say though, I have NO IDEA what I'm supposed to do in Stretch Panic and the game came manual-less (it was used). The design is awesome though. Saturday was also the day Justin and Yannick came over for a day of gaming and pizza/cheese bread/cinnamon bread! We played We Love Katamari, some Advance Wars DS, and Four Swords (yea I finally got a cable).

Sunday. Um...

Monday. In memory of working on Asphalt 2 (I think, I don't remember working much on it) we all got Mercedez-Benz! Now the princess from Voltron has ditched Blue Lion and opted for the snazzier wheels.

Tuesday. Nada.

Wednesday. Finally got un-sick.

Thursday. Nada, stayed late to finished stuff on video poker but I didn't get to finish it all.

Friday. The worst day of this year. Oi. I think people woke up stupid today. I was planning on getting in at an earlier-than-usual time to finish up for the build we were sending, but the forces of everything all turned against me. I left home at 7:30 AM. Rain somehow caused a bunch of accidents on every single highway going into the city and top it all off, amongst those accidents was a jack-knifed truck on the 40 right where Decarie and the Met start (just like last year's) and they closed down the highway. So, ok, I said I wouldn't take the 40 but couldn't take any other highway either 'cause there were accidents on them as well, some were fatal too. I took Hymus. It took me 30 minutes to get there because the traffic lights were out at the corner of St-Jean and highway 40. RAR. Finally on Hymus, I ended up in the wrong lane and had to turn on to the 40's service road. Ok, fine, I would take the exit to Henri-Bourassa instead of driving right into it.. No. RAR! Another accident with 3 cars kissing each other's bumper. And with 4 rows of people trying to crowd into 1, yea that backed things up a bit. And while we were all waiting, some moron in a rented truck couldn't wait an instant and drove on the sidewalk and weaved in and out of the parking lots from all the businesses. He then disappeared behind the Tim Horton's (which had no way out, so I have no clue if he was in a rush for some coffee or went into some secret underground passage or jumped the fence and took the train tracks or whatever). On to Henri-Bourassa which just had some annoying cellphone drivers and slow trucks. Oh and one light near the Bois Franc train station that I swear lasts 5 seconds. It takes trucks 1 minute to get moving. It started pouring when I reached Acadie. Rather than miss Berri, I turned there since it was a big street that I couldn't miss. Oi. RAR! Who the hell puts grade school bus stops on ACADIE!? This isn't a dumpy road, it's a busy major artery for god's sake! So yea, a yellow school bus picking up clumsy kids made us all stop. And he has more stops. And more. Zrrroooooon. I reached the circle but the lane I went into did not lead me to the service road of the 40 east... So I got a little lost, but luckily all roads lead to Jean-Talon. Hurray, I get to work at 9:30 AM and its just raining buckets.

I'm so tired from today, it's not even funny. And with that, I kick my download for some Gunstar Super Heroes!

After a week of moving into the new place on the 10th floor at work, I've been subjected to a constant draft from the vents. Well, more like a jet of ice cold AC air, 8 hours a day... Unsurprisingly, this has made me sick. Today I woke up, and just toppled back over with a "No way in hell am I dragging my ass to work today." And what a day to take a sick day! Just as I flopped back to sleep with near misses of vomiting whatever is clogging my throat, a storm that appears to be remenants of that undevelopped hurricane whips through the town. Thanks to that, my plans of contacting my colleagues at work via MSN were blocked by the fact that my internet's DNS server was out. The power was also rather unsteady, as the lights flickered on and off. I also found out that contacting my boss via telephone is an equal pain in the ass, thanks to the new floor plan of separating us via projects! Now the 2D art team has no phone nor permanent extention number! Geniuses... Thankfully Gameloft Montreal now has a secretary, so she just emailed him for me.

And so the storm has passed thanks to a cold front pushing it east. We were pretty lucky that the semi-cracked tree in our front yard was removed a year ago or it probably would have toppled over and crushed my car... However, our front lawn appears to be strewn with tiles from someone's roof. The backyard was where we could see just how strong the winds were. Our swinging-chair that we bought my dad for his birthday was pushed on it's face. That things weighs a ton! The tent thingy mom placed over the table was also leaning and the spokes that anchored it down were pulled out of the ground. Other places showed downed powerlines and toppled trees but they were more south of the city, in the rural areas. Traffic was also pretty slow, so I'm glad I didn't go anywhere today...

We were most pleased! But we were not amused by the price. Oh well, We deemed it worth every penny.

Huzzah!

On September 17, 1980, at 6am I was born. And now on this day at 6am I turn 25 years old. That's 1/4 of my life gone, assuming I live to a hundred (but most likely with my family history, that's 1/2 of my life gone). Of course you all know I plan to turn myself into a robot and travel through space, so 25 years is most likely not even a speck of dust on my lifespan! Ho ho ho!

And after 25 years, I've come to say...

"I'm such a dork."

So finally the juicy juice of the Revolution has been revealed and oh my yoshi they are absolute geniuses. I spent 30 minutes before my work computer blue screened watching and listening to Nintendo's koopa talk about the history of gaming, the factor his company has on it and the future and all the reasons why, where, when, what, how. In fact, his words were a golden shining light over the gaming wasteland. Like sipping the red potion, his words cured every pain and tribulation illustrated in the Death to the Game Industry article. Nintendo's Revolution is indeed the crown of the Next Gen consoles.

Don't believe me? Are you an elitist Sony-fanboy/Xbox-fanboy? See for yourself. This speech is all the proof anyone needs to show that Nintendo does indeed understand business and gaming, and how to apply that for the future.

After all, you look at these Next Gens. The Xbox 360 is a graphical powerhouse, but is literally just that. Nothing new there, nothing innovative. The PS3 is similar, but it's controller now looks like a boomerang. Nothing new here, nothing overly innovative. They both boast the ability to have zillions of things on the screen all at once. Crystal clear high res images. You can see the sweat drip off your fighters, the blood splatter in slow mo, control a massive army, etc etc etc. But does the sweat dripping off my fighter pertain to the gameplay? Is the game designed so that the more sweat they drip equals how fatigued they are and therefore perform poorly? Not that I've seen yet... A video of the player's hero zapping a swarm of army sentries made me think of Where's Waldo on a shoddy plain background. It's yawn... PC games have these. I have more fun up close with chibi Windwaker-Link, thank you. Sony and Microsoft's consoles appeared to have hit a brick wall. Their Next Gen supports nothing more than a marketing ploy with a heafty price tag. And unknowingly to the average gamer, these consoles are practically useless without the uber-expensive HD television that you need to really experience these graphics. Microsoft already had a Dreamcast on steroids (the regular Xbox). Now it's got an uber-Dreamcast on steroids with an uber pricetag, and so does Sony!

Nintendo, on the other hand, gives you a space conscious box with a stick that lets you BECOME the game. Instead of jumping the marketing wagon and going all graphics and power, they looked at the industry and saw that it's really in the dumps and decided "Ok people, it's time to give the industry an enema". And I applaud them. I applauded them when the DS came out. Thank god for the DS! It's the most entertaining device I've ever owned. The Micro is a tool to lure those iPod sporting folks out there that think a GBA SP or DS is too bulky or fugly. But to Nintendo, the system isn't what carries the price tag. They lure you with something reasonable in the price range, so parents won't be too wary buying their kids a 300$-plus-games-and-addons portable system that could easily fall through a sewer grate. And once you got that reasonably-priced machine, you're off to buy some games that range an average of 50$ a piece.

Of course there's that fear that developperes are all talking like they're excited but will probably crap out when it comes to deliver (like the DS; see Ubisoft's Star Wars EpIII gba port to the DS and gameloft's Asphalt...). It was hilarious to read all the comments on 1up and IGN and every other message board. You can smell the tired old skool gamers or the tired raised-on-dad's-commodore from the born with an xbox and raised in Halo types. Category 2 types start their posts with a WTF!? while category 1 types begin with praise and excitement. A few 1s did their posts with WTF!? as well but it was all in praise of the stick and scorn for the 2s.

At first, I was also thrown off a bit, since it's such a drastic change and I didn't know what it was. But now, wow... I'm totaly sold. (Not that I wasn't already sold on the Rev. It's the only NG console that had ever interested me...)

Finally, people, we're getting a game system that carries all the fancy graphics and power and innovation AND lets you play the old games you wore out the cart batteries on. I hear Sega wants to line up all their old games next to the NES games too :D

I'm so sick of graphic hungry games with no purpose or substance or that look the same as every other FPS and street brawler. But that's the start of another rant. One that I think I'll save for after my birthday...

Fortune cookie today says, "Spoil yourself a little". I hmm... There's a Game Boy Micro Famicom plate with my name on it...

Just added Mr. Driller DS (Driller Spirits) to my DS stack. It continues the air tight adventures of the Hori ichizoku, Hori Susume ("Forward and Drill"), brother Hori Ataru ("Precise Drill"), and father Hori Taizo ("I want to Drill"), but on duel screens. I love how DS games work the DS into the title. Well most, anyway. Companies that give it any thought... Drill Spirits, Dawn of Sorrow, Duel Strike... What could we have done for Asphalt...hmm... DIRTY STREET! DUMP STREET! Down the Street? Yo.

What's next on my list of Games to Buy? For PS2, We Love Katamari and Okami. I doubt Oz would come out here...and if it does, it will probably horribly DUBBED ;o; I liked Devil Kings too but I dunno if I'll buy it. Of course there's Y's and Shining Tears and Atelier but they're too expensive T_T For DS, Castlevania obviously. I also want Another Code. A few other games I don't remember the names of but they'll have to be imported. Hey, it's 85cent to a dollar now! I'm still searching for PSO for my Game Cube. Obviously waiting ever so IMPATIENTLY for the new Zelda game. Watch them hold it back and shove it on the Revolution. Not that it matters much, since it's backward compatible. I saw Killer 7 used for 47$. Ooooh 10$ less than new... On GBA I'm seeking Drill Dozer (previously titled as Screw Breaker). Weighing it, video games first, transformers second... Will I ever move out? Maybe.

A few days ago, I brought my perfect condition Intellivision II to work so we could play REAL games. Well, all we played was Burger Time. But still a REAL game. (Do you care how sweaty your high-res 3D character gets? Well how about how sweaty your palms get when you're being chased by a very determined and very evil EGG! HA!) It all inspired my friend Randy to draw how he sees those old sprites. You can see his awesome rendition on his site. The rest of us drew them in MSN :D I don't have Julia's ( I did make a sprite of it, I just left it at work) but I got the ones Yannick and I did. Evil Sausage and Haggard Pickle! (Why else would those pickles flip?)

For a while now I've been making fakes for a new Dig Dug (GBA sized). Ever since Namco VS Capcom, I've been inspired to draw that little guy. He's so studly in NxC though :O Who knew he actually had a name! Ta-dan! It's Taizo Hori~! Taizo Hori, yatsu o horidasu no da!

My company, Gameloft, has bought the rights to make cellphone versions of Lumines and Meteos for a very large sum with many zeros at the end. I hope I can work on one of them... I'd rather port them than work on video poker T_T Will this be the closest I ever get to working for a wonderful Japanese game company such as Q?? So close to Namco... Let's see: Q?'s games seem to be published by Bandai, which are now Bandai:)Namco! Now to figure a way to weasle myself over there...

Because gas hit 139, there's no way I'm wasting my fuel to wander around on this Labor Day weekend. So I took my bike everywhere. I went to Mourelatos on Saturday to get some tarama, feta, and crackers. Today, the family biked to Cap St-Jacques park and back. Luckily it was a nice, sunny day but not TOO hot to spoil it!

The orange line is the path we took to the park and the blue is the return path. First I wanted to show my parents some really cute houses that sprouted suddenly on a new street called Mirabel.

There's a farm in the park with many smelly but cute animals. Click to enlarge.

A pig that could have easily escaped but seemed too afraid to do so.

Rabbits! There were monster rabbits in the house as well, caged by the pig. They were the size of cats.

A twitchy horse.

A bull in the shade. Later, he walked out into the sun and was one creepy monster.

Goats or sheep. I'm not sure what those curly-haired shade hogging things were.

El burro!

Lots of sheep!

Look! It's supper!

Devils! I mean, Demons! Nah, just cute and hungry goats.

That wire fence so wouldn't keep these guys in if they REALLY wanted to eat more...

This little chocolate coloured goat was so adorable.

A goose heads toward the light.

A goose egg. Not golden.

Raptors.

One giant spider waiting for meals.

Later we made our way to the river's edge. The water from Riviere des Prairies is pretty low... I saw lots of minows and a few tadpoles.

You can now walk to that island fairly easily.

Where I stand, the water should have technically been under my feet if not higher.

Walking with my brother. Plenty of freshwater mussel shells around too.

Lac des Deux Montagnes (Lake of Two Mountains that are really mole hills) sparkles in the distance.

Mom and Ben check out a pocket of water among the rocks.

The A-Typical photograph of my dad.

When we came home, I passed out on my futon. I think I was called by someone but I might have been dreaming... Now that I'm wide awake, everyone else is snoring away.

Huzzah! I forgot to change the page of my calendar. Happiness! Namco put Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy on my birthday month \o/

In other news, I brought up my Intellivision II and hooked it up to my TV. I swore I had more games for it, though... Probably hidden away in the unfinished part of the basement that's behind the wall, catering and housing to the colony of potato bugs we have in there. Everything still works, though I changed the player one joystick to the player two's since the disk was a little sticky. OVERUSED AND ABUSED!

Guess this game's title and you win nothing.

Hey kid, wanna make video games? Read this. Click on Death to the Game Industry, first.

"It's not the glitz. It's the gameplay." Ahhh... Something many of us in the industry have been trying to tell the usually foolish marketing and producing folks at our jobs. (Usually, marketing).

"...in gaming, we have no indie aesthetic, no group of people (of any size at least) who prize independent vision and creativity over production values."

Hmm, ok I can't say I can totally agree with that. If you just look on Insert Credit, you'll find the doujins, the retro, the quirky, and the awesome indie game among the bashing of flashy new upcoming titles. So they are out there, but they probably won't make you a lot of money. Unless you're lucky to get published by Namco who seem to have an eye for games like that (Sigma Star Saga, Rebelstar, etc...) and are the wonderful people who took the grand chance and brought us one of the greatest game ever, Katamari Damacy; or you go King of Shareware, and duke it out with Bejeweled. But yea, typicaly, Ubisoft, EA, hell even Gameloft... it's all run by marketing who go towards sequels and licenses instead of creativity. It's laughable, sometimes. We look at each other at work and go "THE OC GAME!? FOR A CELLPHONE!?" (Sure it's a popular show, but that was 2 years ago, not now when it's teetering on the edge of cancellation that they have to physically injure characters to get people to watch). Cellphone games cost maybe 5$, some have subscriptions, some come with your phone. Yet we go through the same crap a console worker does. You get one 3D phone and everyone goes crazy. Never mind the screen is 176x208 and renders something like an N64. Tiny~!

Sega used to be somewhat of a golden gem for creativity. They still are, somewhat, despite hanging themselves. Now, other than the rare Sony title that comes out and doesn't go on the Used Shelf pile in a week, it's all Nintendo. Thanks to the DS, it's forcing developers to do something unusual, creative, and WOW MOST OF THE GAMES ARE 2D! Sure, Nintendo's lifeblood is the old library that garners sequels on every machine. But contrary to Prince of Persia, they are mostly reinventing classics and are actually good games. (Sorry, Dark Prince, but Wolf Link is teh win). And they're not really sequels... more of another time, another place, but same or similar characters.

Wario Ware was Nintendo's F-U to the industry :D

I remember at E3, my friend Justin saying how he will beat the next person who says, "It looks AWESOME!". In fact, he was supposed to make a website about that... Where'd that go, yo!?

In other news, my lovely silver Toyota Echo Hatchback is presently 2 years old and precisely hit 25000KM! Yay!

Since I finally bothered to take them off the camera, here are some photos from my cousin's extravagant wedding last Sunday.

We were only in here for maybe 20 minutes. Fastest wedding I ever saw! Back to the fooding...

When we sat down, we were wondering why there were 4 forks on the table. First course was a slab of salmon with melted cheese in the center. Second was pasta and cheese-balled pasta. Third was salad. THEN came the meal which was veal chops. By the time it came, we were full (and not just of wine). There was enough food to feed the city. Oh and prior to the service, there was a hall of food and drink, from sushi and garlic shrimps to meats and salads... I called it the Jewish Grandmother Wedding. "Eat! Eat! You're so skinny! Eat! I'll make some more!" @_@

And a dessert ROOM to kill the city. This was the wedding cake, courtesy of Willy Wonka. Also available were various pastries, other cakes, a table of fruits, and chocolate fondue fountains (+ more wine, including ice wine).

Fruit moth.

A big mother trucker. But one that raises very well-known issues.

1- What do you expect when you live in a hurricane zone that's below sea-level?
2- Ever wonder why the french built the old city on relatively higher ground?
3- When your city lies in ruins and you are left with nothing but the soggy wet clothes on your back, why loot a case a beer, pepsi, or obviously broken electronic devices?
4- When water gleams a shiny mother-of-pearl, get yourself a door to float on...
5- Beachfront property in said area where homes are practically built on sand are about as safe as areas of San Franscico which are built on a sandy landfill.

Seriously people, where are your brains? I've been watching these reports with amazement, though I'm not really surprised. When I studied meteorology back in the day of still figuring what I wanted to do with my life, I vocally expressed my concern, opinion, and anger over people who built settlements in flood plains. With the proper houses, you can live all you want in a hurricane zone. But to try and fight back the water from going where it naturally wants to go is just asking for it. Every year a monster hurricane rears itself into the Gulf, the people of the New Orleans area cringe.

"Is it gonna hit?"
"Is it gonna flood?"
"Is it doomsday?"

Zaboom. The loss of life and property is tragedy that had hindsight. And with the way the Earth is now, there will probably be more like this soon. The best thing for that city is to let the water go where it wants, clean up the area (since that's one nasty contaminated swampland) and just rebuild the city above the water line, on higher ground. If they do manage to dry it all out again, the buildings that have soaked for a week or more not only face foundation damage, but will also give rise to lovely mold on the wet rotting wood that makes people ill. So the entire watered sections have to be bulldozed anyway.

Save nature the trouble of pounding you again. Go up, higher.

And gas hit 135 (per litre) even though our own supply is well and above. Stupid government with their 5 taxes for the Montreal area. It's the most expensive place in Canada to fuel up. Yet despite all this I still saw one Hummer today. Every time I see one I want to egg it. Man do I really want to win that Smart car lotto...

Thanks to the very kind and generous Volfogg, who so graciously supplies my group with some lovely Dagwon raws, I am now the proud owner of Skyfire-S (S for Sonic, the Primus powered repaint). It was an early birthday present =^^= I'm so happy~! Thank you Volfie~! The difference between the two show just how superior Takara's Transformer toys are in comparison to Hasblo's. For one, he's got ball joints where his legs connect to his hips so he's able to stand and pose WITH GREAT JUSTICE and grace. Seigi to TORANSUFOOMA! I wonder if Skyfire would be able to Super Link with himself now... >o> Scandalous!

Shuttle mode.

Robot mode, facing off with his old cheap American self.

ICO came in the mail yesterday as well but I was dead tired from only having two hours of sleep the night before... I just turned it on to see if it worked and went to bed.

This guy is my new hero. And frankly, I don't mind the new look to the characters in the Castlevania DS. Kind of gives one hope that someone might pitch an idea to make an anime of it... (NO I won't sub it ~_~ Busy enough...) It really worked well in the animations they had during the Konami previews at E3. Bonus, I think Sakurai was voicing Soma too ho ho.

So... I broke down and bought ICO off Amazon.ca since I was sick of looking through the shelves at all the EBs in the city. Hopefully it'll pass through the credit card, since I didn't get my bill for my laptop yet.

Narita Ken, voice of Sesshoumaru, SINGS LIKE GACKT! </drools> If anyone has any other songs by him, please please please contact me T_T I've been listening to this remix of Gou from the Inuyasha image cd on repeat for the past few days.

Huzzah!

After almost a month waiting, it's finally here! Immediately upon startup I deleted AOL and Norton and told Dell's uber anal XP to shutthefuckupandletmecompute! Also got some katamari desktop on it :D ALMOST done adding things...

Went to Ottawa today and saw the Renaissance exhibition. It was OK but then I got to see their Group of Seven collection and it rekindled my goal to search for the ghost of Tom Thomson. Couldn't take photos in the museum but here's some of the nation's captial. Oh did I mention how much I *HATE* driving around Ottawa? (Click to enlarge)

War of the Worlds!? BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Or not. It was just some art of some kind...

Up close and personal with Champlain.

National Gallery mirroring Capital Hill.

Someone gift wrapped Parliment.

The American Embassy, which I swore was either the mint or another museum.

Woo! I finally beat Haro no PuyoPuyo! In stupid easy mode of course. Mind you, even on easy mode, psychic girl Lala moves quickly with her super psychic abilities. And the sub-boss, mr. Dracula (is what I call him 'cause he looks like Dracula) also pummels you in the dirt. BUT! I beat him. Miraculously. Somehow. My Haros were almost at the top, but I managed a triple shot which dumps a pile of dead Haros on him.

Amuro: "This is something to be happy about!"

Now I can play with mr. Dracula. I thought he was the final boss but he wasn't. The last boss was...

Amuro VS the Pot! And what a nasty little pot he was...

I'm taking the week off of work. It's a good time to do so, since a lot of people are on vacation, projects are in limbo, and I'm really not doing much to begin with... But I have three weeks of vacation time so I may as well! My car could use the break, driving from home to work and back everyday through the city's worst highway sections. And ARGH! I found more scrapes on my car! I don't get it!

Today I felt like playing Star Ocean: Blue Sphere. What a nice game for a Gameboy Colour! Of course it is Tri-Ace in the Enix before it became Squenix. Played with Ashton (my love~!) and burned a bunch of bushes with Gyoro and Ururun, but not one word about barrels! SHOCK! And I purposedly ran into a few. Well... I think they were barrels. Eventually I was just wandering around, not reading the dialogue 'cause I was lazy. My party was with Dias and Celine who did absolutely nothing while poor Ashton got the snot kicked out of him by a big dog with a bone. Stupid AI. I think Dias did his Wind Slash once... I also found myself getting beaten up by a dot.

Kill that dot!

I thought it was a bug in the rom. Then I read the text and apparently it was an actual bug! (An ant to be exact). I ran into four of them, too.

I introduce to you the most hilarious, most incredible item I have ever spontaneously received! My friend Yannick said he picked this up for me from a garage sale over the weekend. Kick arse \m/

Megatron Bobblehead!

I had to bring him home to show my family :D Tomorrow, he'll go back on top of my crowded monitor-top at work. I would put him in the back window of my car but... I'm afraid if I slam on the breaks, that he'll a) Fly across the car and smack me behind the head b) Fly across the car and smash through my front window c) Fall down and break. Or that someone equally admiring his coolness will smash-n-grab him away.

Thanks again, Yannick! (^^)b

Indeed it's out! I played it last night before bed (ie. 1am) and it's absolutely adorable. Though I find the play area a little tiny so you're completely screwed when you have 5 or more levels of Haros... I'll illustrate my early morning playtime with pictures!

After a flock of SD 1970s Gundam folks bounce across the screen to the famous robotic "Haro Haro" voice, you get the HARO GENKI title screen with that vintage 1970s Gundam music!

I picked Char. Who else~? I'm not sure if they're using the original voice cast, since he sounds like Morikawa Toshiyuki. I seriously doubt he voiced Char at age 12...

SD Char is already laughing in his opponent's face... "WATASHI WA DAI MAOU CHAR!"

And promptly handed his ass back on a HARO GENKI platter.

But like all other PuyoPuyo games, oppenent #2 beat the snot out of me. He was already laughing in my face in the pre-game dialogue and then pummeled me with a HARO GENKI fury... Twice.

HARO GENKI GAME OVER DA! I should play with Amuro...

Tetris just got blasted into space by strange dancing aliens.

I'm talking about METEOS, the best puzzle game of the year. (Though, I'm assuming Lumines is in the same boat, being made by the same people, but I only own a DS so tralala~). And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you can play the dumbed down flash version someone made right here. It's so simple too, moving things vertically only to create your lines, or tossing them up to create lines or nudge tops of meteos onto the top screen to blast away at the planet. Yet it's not simple at all. It's fast paced and with timed levels... sometimes the blocks are too heavy to blast away without the right timing. I can't stop playing it, though. My hands are numb from playing. My BRAIN is numb from playing. And for me, a good game numbs the brain!

My dellPod finally came in a big ass box with a small box inside it... The laptop comes next week. "Please do not steal music", says the MP3 player.

Val-David hosts the 1001 Pots festival every year. I went last year as well and bought myself a tea cup and a noodle bowl while mom bought a nice tea set, very japanese. This year I found myself the soup bowl I had wanted (a shallow bowl) and mom got two more sake cups. I didn't realize they had interact so I only got ONE bowl. Well, not that I would have gotten a set of 4 since the one I picked was the only one in the batch that had sufficient depth to actually be functional as a shallow soup bowl. Later we had 'lupper' (supper-lunch) at Saint-Sauveur, though I didn't eat much except my garlic bread 'cause it was extremely filling and quite tasteless alfredo pasta. They were out of ribs. (sign that the ribs were their specialty)? Oh well. Here are some photos! (click to enlarge these ones)

I loved this set, especially the square teapot.

There's a hummingbird in here somewhere!

Egg cups.

We thought they looked like bread people.

A bowl I was thinking of buying. It's really beautiful, but I don't think I would want to eat from it because of that.

How disturbing... They look so peaceful, though that kind of adds to its creepiness.

Close up of those weird flowers.

I saw it at Globo of all places (a shoe store where I just bought some non-kid's summer footwear for 20$). It's basically a cheap black umbrella with Batman Begins' Batman on the handle, looking like a rather shocked Pez dispenser. I don't even think it was automatic, but then again what would you uh press?

Then we have the Atari Asteroids watch. Don't think it's playable. I do wonder if those hollowed out asteroids move. They should, for 125$ US!

What's a matter, mister Terrorist? Didn't kill enough people a few weeks ago in London that you had to try again? Are people stupid or what? (Hmm... Guess that doesn't need to be answered). To quote my French teacher, "You people you piss me off!" Thank whatever god they screwed this one up and no one got killed or hurt. Big sigh...

Well, I was planning to go to the gym today but my leg still hurts from a massive cramp in my calf that woke me this morning. Can't walk too well on it. Guess I'll go tomorrow.

Canadians are not meant for hot, humid weather. Canadians prefer white frosty snow that hovers the mercury around -10c. Canadians are rather bitter when exposed to prolonged heat. Do not over-cook Canadians.

I beat Four Swords! Those last few levels were pretty intense. LOVE the side scrolling parts in the game. Reminds me of a certain trouble making Zelda 2......

Or Not-Very-Scary-but-Rather-Cruel Stories for Rotten Kids. Let's see, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Danny Elfman singing, lots of chocolate in a Candy Land factory, Oompa Loompas... \m/(^^)\m/ I enjoyed it immensely.

I splurged and bought myself a Dell laptop. Actually it was quite a splurge 'cause with the tax and warranty, I kind of broke my credit card's limit... But it was accepted so I can't see why there would be a problem. It just makes me nervous. Not that it matters, since I always pay my credit card bill on time. I doubt I'll be going to Japan in September, though. I doubt I'll be buying my house soon, though. I can afford to save up another year. That is, after I buy myself a small Wacom. (It's a necessity)! The Dell comes Friday, and I get to find out if it comes with an english OS. If it doesn't, and if the keyboard is french, I will bite someone at Dell. It also comes with a nifty 5-gig dPod (what I call Dell's imitation iPod, the dellPod).

Kick Their Ass! Thank you, Gungrave! I have found the cure for every stressful day. Found it used at EB the other day and made use of my EB Credit (T_T PSOoooooooooo). Though I have the 2nd one, this one still rocks well above it. AND IT'S IN JAPANESE! YAY! Chuu~♥! Now I just need Killer 7 to be less expensive...

I have seen my future, and it's this guy's grandma. I swear, this will be me when I'm her age. Old Grandma Hardcore is probably the best blog ever put up. Love the PoP accounts :D

Forgot to put this up. MSN is great when it works. This is a collab between myself and my coworker friend Yannick (he drew the dancing princess). I don't know why I drew the dancing prince in the first place. I guess I was super bored at work and I've been listening to the Katamari 2 soundtrack on repeat.

I started noticing the strange things people put in these games. I *STILL* haven't taken a picture of Link hoisting up a big-ass pot from the bottom of the ocean yet... But here's some stuff from the Ghost Ship and some room in Four Swords.

When you look up close...

When you look from afar...

It freaked me out... Almost as much as the elephant shrieking zombies.

After everything in this room throws itself at you, you get a strange old skool pixel face that resembles Link's from Zelda 1~!

Ok, so that was extremely nerdy of me. Let's see what else I took pictures of... Fake cows in front of Le Bifth鑷ue stakehouse/butchershop!

This sign has been here for ages. I don't even know why :O There's no rink around there. Maybe it's goes hand-in-hand with the Econolodge sign next to the Bifth鑷ue, even though there is no Econolodge...

I can't stop playing Four Swords! Help meeeeeeeeee! These are the latest to join my Game Cube collection. Because I had to give PSO back for being defective (T_T)I got Four Swords instead. Playing it is like having an overdose of really incredible candy. I find myself going "One more level... One more level... Then I'll stop for the day...". Wrongo. Can't stop. Must play. Production will go down. I got a pile of fansubs to clear out! I have to hide my joysticks or something.

Thank god they put the option to switch to Japanese for this version of Soul Calibur. I couldn't bare it without them!

I'm not going to talk about London... It's too sad. But I will say this: Stupid terrorists.

Today I bought PSO for my Gamecube (used) with a used controller but neither work. PSO doesn't go past the bootup, and the controller has a hard time going up. So, I think I'll just give em back and use my GST check to buy a new PSO with a controller. There's only so much Soul Calibur that you can play solo!

New pixelation: The main character, Drew, from my 'game' The Pit. I want him voiced by Hiyama Nobuyuki!

Tales from the MSN. This was from yesterday when the AC went on vacation at work and I felt like my computer was sitting on my head.

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah~

I think the foghorned didgeridoo will now be synonymous with death, doom, and destruction.

Effects aside, it was wonderfully crafted. Favourite scene was when they escaped the fire and the screen was just black for a good minute or two and all you hear is the little girl ask if they're alive still. Hell any film with Morgan Freeman narrating the prologue and epilogue rocks in my books. Though I have to say... PEOPLE! If you see a giant mecha tripod rising out of the ground, whirring its engines and readying it's arms WHY THE HELL DO YOU STAND AND STARE!? And yea, after all that, a ferry across a water way is really the best way to run.

Oi.

Then again, people are numbed and brainless during disasters. Like zombies. Who needs the undead when the living are just as dead. Under the story of a jerk trying to protect his children from hell and becoming an un-jerk, we are given this nasty portrait of just how terrible people become in said situations. Cranky. Violent. Self-sentered. Greedy. The what-about-me complex. It can't be helped, though. It's the way we are.

If I hadn't seen the movie, I probably would have been stuck on the highway, up to my windshield in water... Crazy thunderstorm flooded everywhere, including the Acadie circle which flooded only a few weeks ago. The lady on the radio doing the traffic report said that she lost all her cameras in Decarie and the Met. It's 1987 all over again! And that one's anniversary is only 8 days away. Same conditions too. Massive heat wave and then BOOM it rains like hell. Even the shopping center under the Paramount was flooded.

Because my parents are going away for the weekend, I won't be going to see fireworks tonight (bou!) so I'll show off my new toy! It's DagShadow with Guard Hawk, Guard Wolf, and Guard Tiger! Together they gattai and form SHADOW DAGWON who's full of poses and loves to cross his arms (even more than Volfogg). But the toy doesn't have much articulation so there probably won't be any crossing arms. I haven't done the kijuu gattai yet to see what poses I can make.

And we finally got some rain! I looked out my window, and there was a rainbow~

Happy birthday Canada~!

The latest 3 in my DC sprites:

And just so you know...This guy rocks.

Three and a half new sprites for DC vs Capcom. Aquaman flirting with Wonder Woman, and SHAZAM! it's Captain Marvel and his child half, Billy Batson. Captain Marvel is due for a movie. It should star Bruce Campbell, but if he gets too old by the time it actually (or ever) gets made, then that guy who played the Tick on TV would work. As for alternative costumes, I think I'll make the characters in their different eras instead of pallet swapping. Though Batman has a zillion...I really gotta make an anti-crime Batbot :D

Yoinked out of my MSN window:

Yay! Bruce Campbell!

Today, I was so tired that not even a brain-sucking alien would wake me...

Started my new pass-time series. It's DC Comics VS Capcom (a fighter). Decided to use a style that's something akin to Bruce Timm and Al Bigley, and the sprite style something more like Vampire Saviour and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I sketched a bunch today and only pixeled Batman and Robin (I guess in their 'victory' or 'intro' poses). In the works are Captain Marvel (+ kid form), Aquaman (got an awesome idea for his intro, but we'll see how much time I wanna put into it XD), Spectre, Superman, Wonder Woman, Atom, Catwoman, Penguin, and since I was using an Alex Ross book, I drew good ol' Sam. I want to draw Joker, Scarecrow, Gordon, Alfred, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow (and that girl, forgot her name). Hell, maybe throw in Lois Lane to be a fighting sprite :D

And this is just sick... Apparently because someone farted in Iran, the oil companies had to raise the price for some strange reason JUST IN CASE there suddenly falls an oil crisis even though we don't get our oil from them at all. Luck for me my Echo was almost at a full tank of gas for 30$ straight (it was right under the Full line). Unlucky for the two guys with the Jeep and an SUV who didn't seem too happy that they didn't fill up the night before.

So this is what happened in the afternoon today at work. I'm not sure if there was a real fire. Probably a machine in one of the sweat shops sparked the alarm again like last time. (Only last time it was -40 outside while today was +40). But you know, climbing down from the 11th floor with that mass of people just won't work... If there's a real fire, we're so dead. (Even if the fire station is almost across the street). Because it was too hot outside, we went to Coin Cidence (ho ho) bar 'cause they have AC. No way we'd get back up to the office anyway with thousands of people trying to scamper up in the shitty elevators.

Those curious as to how the Gameloft Montreal studio building looks (or more the building the studio is shoved into), here it is! Unofficially called the Grey Cube of Sadness. That row of silver windows marks that 11th floor domain, soon to take over most of the 10th floor domain. The majority of the building is sweat shops, and I swear they're throwing around heavy machinery on the 12th floor (or maybe bowling with cannonballs). By the way, someone jumped out of an 8th floor window and landed on a car in the parking lot...and LIVED! The car...did not.

Long weekend = extensive means to spend lots of money and sleep strange hours. And next week, I get to do it again! Hail Dominion Day!

Actually I didn't spend that much. I didn't buy the VCR/DVD (or just VCR) that I was wanting to get for my room. Guess I'll just keep wrestling with the PS2 about playing DVDs when I'm bored at night and not in the mood to fansub.

Me: "I'm bored."
Mom: "Wanna go to the shopping center?"
Me: "Ok!"

She wanted to get a white summer sweater but couldn't find one that was nice, not expensive, and not granny looking. Why is it the older you get, the uglier your clothes have to be? Screw that. When I'm over 50, I'll still be shopping the Old Navy and Stitches.

The brakes on her car fell off while turning into the driveway. Thank you Mr. Ford! So other than shopping, I've been playing taxi with my poor car...and used up my gas for the week driving back and forth downtown and around. Ahhh...soon they'll get a new car. Though I don't think this car will last much longer for my brother to get. Who would want it anyway. I declare it dangerous!

While at the shopping center, my dad ran into one of his former students.

Dad: "What happened to you?"
Guy: "Ahh... Cegep."

Apparently the guy failed 3 times, got kicked out, then got re-accepted! Comp Sci ish fun~

Say hello to my new cellphone!

Well, Dreadlock finally got his episode...sort of... >_> He just is no comparison to the coolness of Skyfire but oh well. Series needs the 'Jetfire' guy, and in Japan, the 'Jetfire' guy is 2nd in command and is usually left back at the base, where he babysits, gets neglected, rusts, etc. Anyway, it consisted of him trying to break the ice to free Convoy and some others. Zzzz...

These are Transformers by the way... Meet Teleboothtron and Trafficlightron ho ho uh yea... These guy will make Takara/Hasbro a fortune!

That could have summed up the Top 100 Best Lines from a Movie special (that was the #1) that I watched more than half of last night on TV. (Yes, a miracle indeed! I watched TV)! Most of the entries came from Casablanca, which is pretty much a film that consists just of those crafty lines. I didn't find it fair. They should have lumped it in to it's number 3 slot or something and just showed them all there. I mean, I'm SURE there were more to enter. Also the special was teetering between Best Lines and Most Memorable Moments. I didn't see Batman's "I'm Batman" or "Where does he get those wonderful toys" (must have been near the beginning). Nor did I see "scruffy looking nerf-herder" either. And where was "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!"!? For Star Wars, they put in "May the force be with you" which, OK, is fine but come on! Show more! Han Solo had all the good lines too. ("Laugh it up, fuzzball"). Ah well...

"I love the smell of napalm in the the morning..."

Stolen from SomethingAwful.com. The most brilliant way to tell someone that it's game over and its boldness reminds them that they SUCK! All the bad guys are laughing at you~ This is currently my MSN avatar.

A fire at the Sherbrook metro put a halt on the metro system today. Yay for me having a car! Boo for my friends having to rely on the public transportation :( Busses were over crowded, even with the Special service shuttle. Who knows if it'll be back tomorrow. Only half the grid was really working today but it wasn't near work at all.

New in the CG bin: Katsuhiro and his 'shadow', Cain.

Basara: Ore no uta o kike~!

Yup I saw it again and it was just as good as the first time. Been a long time since a movie came out and I had the want to see it more than once in the theatres. And I have to give a big thank you to the Hour magazine, for printing an actual intellectual review of the film; unlike the guy in the Gazette whom I'm sure didn't see the same movie I did. May there be more Chris Nolan Batman movies to come! This is the real Batman, not some stiff-necked guy with a yellow target on his chest standing amiss in a flurry of over-the-top and poorly portrayed (well, the Joker was fine) bad guys.

"Scarecrow..."

Seeing it twice, I do have to say that it confirmed for me that Christian Bale is indeed the perfect Batman. And I hope he plays him more :) And finally! Not only does Gary Oldman play a good-guy for once (SHOCK!) but he totally emulated Gordon to perfection. Looks like the DC Gordon a bit too. I hope he stays too...

They came! I got my pepsi twist Nintendo bottle cap and my Minish Cap mini figurine! It's a 30 Coin and Vaati (uh... Gufuu in Japanese). They're random items and super cute~~~!

It was amazing! They covered everything! And I'm just in awe... I wanna see it again! I love Batman, I love Scarecrow (though mayhaps there will be a sequel with more Scarecrow than Jonathan Crane~? :D) and yea, I'm just so happy... The last one disgusted me so much in concept that I didn't even see it. I'm sorry, George Clooney, but you're not Batman. You can play Sam Fisher though... (I wonder who will play Sam in the Splinter Cell movie). I'm happy that the real Batman is back. And the ending... haha you should have seen me. I was so giddy during that scene before the credits~!

I'm hoping that the success of Sin City (which I didn't see yet...but I don't know if I can stomach such a film...) will make someone think about adapting Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns book into a movie :3 Batman in his crusty old fart form who, despite his age, can still kick Superman's arse. And Robin as some girl who bought the costume with her lunch money... Ahhh I used to read it at school a lot since it was in the library~!

And I picked this up today before going to see Batman. GUYVER!!!! A day of awesome is what it was...

So I had this weird dream... Maybe it was my only eating creamy tomato soup for supper after a day of Montreal roadway chaos (floods, accidents, and construction, oh my~!) and hearing about the tsunami warning for practically the entire west coast area and thinking about how the weather is acting weird ever since that big one in Sri Lanka... Maybe I play too many Zelda games... (Yes I do, and)? I dunno. Anyway, I dreamt aliens came down (pretty normal looking, too; not bug eyes) and said that the Earth was gonna turn itself inside out in about a year and that I was one of the people who could help change that. They gave me this weird spear weapon saying it was mine and a hawk that I had to name (I named it Gil and it could talk, too) and sent me to a group of other chosen ones (12 in all, including me, who also had various animals with them) in the middle of a field. They then told us that we had to split up in groups of 3 and go through an elemental tower to light that towers' element and then we and various people that were in the vicinity of our real bodies (it had a certain area but I forgot it) would be transported to a New Earth that they built and was waiting for us. We had to go through this test to prove to them that we were all worthy or creating a new world 'cause humans screwed up the current one, which was why it was about to impload... And then they left us to go for it, and reminded us that we had about a year to do this. One of the guys there took charge to divide us up (so that all the brains weren't in one group and all the hot shots weren't alone). Also to divide us so we would have an elemental balance between the three of us. I was apparently an Earth element, which I guess is because I'm a Virgo. So I had a group with a fire-element guy (who had a big cat with him) and a water-element guy (who had a big wolf with him) and we were picked to go into the Earth Tower.

...And I don't remember the rest.

I guess I'll make a game out of it!

Things you find on Google.com! Don't these look like Daleks? It's the fearsome Furnace Daleks! I don't think they should be touching them...

Ok I'm off to watch some retarded anime show.

Medli got a box appear under her feet.

In other Zelda news, I'll slowly add the translations I'm doing of the mangas as I make them. They'll go under the "scrap" section. Currently working on the Wind Waker 4-panel koma book.

I hate Grand Prix Week! It's that time of year when Montreal hosts the Formula One, and a bunch of streets are closed for things, and every asshole and his pinto thinks he's a racecar driver and loves to race particularily during rush-hour traffic... I had two near misses with a damn Mini who thought he was Villeneuve on the Met. GAH! (9>o<)9

Huzzah! It's been ages since I got this cheese!



Yesterday I've confirmed that I will never ever look for a condo to buy downtown ever again. The bedrooms were so small my futon wouldn't even fit in there. I'd have to sleep in the bloody living room! Besides the fact that the parking space was an extra 30k cough choke die wtf people!? I can buy another car for that price @_@ So, when I set out to buy my place next year, it will most likely be a condo in Lachine or Lasalle, maybe Ile Perrot (ie. Bellevue Island!) or I'll just look for something like the house I grew up in over in Pointe-Claire. That would be a perfect small house with just enough space for me, my crap, and I. Though it might be near the train station, I don't know yet... Gotta look around. But for the same price as a tiny "affordable project" condo downtown, I could buy something bigger out West where there's air, trees, quiet, and no smell. And I'd wake up every morning to sky, instead of a red brick wall.

Nature Pet Center had a Shiba-Inu~! Ho ho ho...I want.

Bernard Landry quits the PQ. Indeed there is a god somewhere... Now we don't need to hear his useless robotic reports on separation. Well, at least until the next guy takes up the lead -_-;

Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts and Ice Climber (for 9$!). And I bought a summer dress.

(9>o<)9 何てこと！
He survived E3, but kept falling off the chain. Now, finally, Maito has run off...

Fox found someone selling PSO:BB things on Ebay. One for a mag, another for stats materials. I don't know what's more sad... The fact someone is selling those on Ebay, or the fact they actually have bids. For the mag: "Shipping and handling is 25 us dollars. Please take this into account when you bid. I will not lower my shipping and handling charge. Please do not bid if you do not intend to pay the shipping and handling charge." How do you pay shipping for a non-tangible item? :O

I beat Horsehead! I feel truly accomplished. The fact that I've had this game a few months now, and that it probably only took me a zillion tries. Well, considering I'm up to 150 deaths in Zelda 1, so maybe I'm on the right track (still stuck in the last dungeon on that one). And now it's time to crush this feeling of victory as I die a thousand times into the next dungeon! Hurray! T____T

Meanwhile, I finally got that damned Megaton Hammer in Ocarina >_> Now that game is going to annoy me with the final parts of the Biggoron Sword Quest. They just CAN'T give you things... No no, they give you 3 minutes to run from the Zoras to Lake Hylia, then 4 minutes to run from there to the top of Death Mountain, and if you run out of time, you have to start again from the Zoras. Even with Epona to run me into walls and not jump over fences, I get stuck right under the Biggoron because there are spiders crawling on the wall and Link decides it's much more fun to shoot arrows at the wall instead of where I thought I was locked on. I really hope Twilight Princess doesn't have annoying quests like this. Wind Waker was so much more relaxed... I'll trade floating on an open sea fishing out treasure any day over the pains they put me through in Ocarina. I like treasure hunting more, anyway :D

In other news, 'woot' now appears as #3 in Merriam-Webster's What's Your Favorite Word (That's Not in the Dictionary)? Contest, beaten out by ginormous and confuzzled. I wonder if it matters that most people spell 'woot' as 'w00t'...