"I waited a thoouuuuusannnnd yeeeeeeears...."



Ok, so it's not Odin... but I guess it's close enough.

How's it going all? I just though I'd do us all a favour and fire up another one of my delicious blog updates before I get swamped with pictures to put up. I don't really have a tonne of them, but I'd really like to put them up, and tell a few stories. I'm sure that most of what I've said here has already been mentioned in some way, shape, or form, but I'm totally down with a recap of the last few weeks, even if it is for my own greedy sake

HAHAHAHAHA

***** DAMN IT! My 5 minute off-on-a-tangent search for the Astro Boy soundtrack yielded nothing. I'd shit myself if I had that thing *****

My search did turn up this baby, but it was a sample listing or something. But, FUCK it would be cool to own that. I'd for sure be the envy of me, at this moment in time, if future me had that. Listen up future me, if you're there reading this: "EAT SHIT! ENJOY THAT THING WHILE IT LASTS! CHUCK IS GOING TO STEAL IT THE SECOND HE FINDS OUT YOU HAVE THIS".

Ok, now that that little tangent is over with...

It's about 10:30 right now. It's kind of funny to think about how close Christmas really is at this point. I think a few posts ago I was talking about how well I was doing for my shopping, and I maintain that I'm doing quite well for myself in terms of having gifts/ideas ready to go. It's good to be done early. I'm not saying that I'm done, but I know how crazy shit can get once December rolls around (and if you live in the states, there's always Friday). I mean, at my other job, it's already fucking crazy. People were waiting in the store for over an hour for the purolator guy to show up, so I could go through the stock as it came in, and watch them fight over WiiFit games as they arrived. It wasn't that bad, we had enough for the people there, but fuck. I can only imagine what it's going to be like in two weeks. But the frothing at the mouth people that were in the store today weren't as bad as the shitwads that were calling in, after we had sold out of those games. We had people calling in and freaking out, saying "well why did you tell me to call at this time instead of an hour ago when you were going to be getting your stock in and how many did you get and it's not fair to me because I'm too lazy to come down to the store from my office to wait like everybody else but you should secretly put one aside for me because I'm pretty cool you know but you can't so you're an asshole and you ruined christmas so fuck you!", or some punctuation devoid variant of that. I forgot how fucked up and frustrating retail is, and I completly forgot what it's like to deal with people in Bedford, because they all think that they're better than the person next to them and that they deserve whatever they want because they have money and want it now.

Fuck

Also, the other temp guy quit at the store last night, esentially dooming me from enjoying the casual pace I was working at there. Now I'm going to be pulling more hours (which is fine, don't get me wrong) for the next few weeks, so I won't get to have my usual sit around and play videogames until my eyes bleed time. I have goals people, and they include finishing game that I've purchased. I guess to sum it all up a few words: People are jerks.

At any rate, work at the office (my "real job") has slowed down again for the month, so all I have to do for work is sell people shit that they probably don't really want to buy for their bratty kids for a few weeks until I'm back in for the double dip.

Fuck, enough about employment.

So, as I said in the beginning, I've got some shots that I've taken with the ol' cammermobob, and I'm going to put them up damnit.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, that is, unless you don't live around here or you live under a rock in a cave that is hidden from the elements, there was a huge storm that came along and kicked everyone's collective ass this weekend past. I was working that afternoon at the store, and it was really busy. I guess people were out and about preparing for the worst of things, you know, buying shovels, snow blowers, hundreds of dollars worth of videogame equipment... so my shift went really quick. My 'break' consisted of me sitting in the back room receiving and counting the biggest box of random crap I'd ever encountered. I was pretty excited to be off though, because I was going home to a rumored delicious supper and then finding even more delicious beer in my stomach. So, I hopped in the car (I think it was around 7, so the snow had not even started yet) and drove home, singing along to my music all the way home.

(side note paragraph: I'm using my iPod more than I was ever using my other mp3 player. There's just so much ROOM for my stuff. It's really good. I've also restarted my Last.FM account, so anything I'm listening to in the car, or at home is put up on my profile, so everyone can see how cool I was circa two hours ago.)

When I arrived home, I was greeted with a delicious smell I had never encountered before, and Danielle was in the kitchen putting some finish touches on some homemade posole that she had whipped up over the afternoon.







Holy shit, it really did look that good, but it tasted BETTER.

Anyway, after we cleaned up a bit from supper, Danielle took the liberty of getting ready to go out. That's right, even though we knew there was a full-blown storm on the horizon, we thought it a good idea to venture out to Dartmouth to go to our friends Scott and Megan's birthday party. Hmmm. How did that turn out for us, I wonder???

Well, after we had stopped off to pick up some gifts for them, we drove the rest of the way into the middle of nowhere (no offense) to get to the party. Once we arrived, I started drinking, and we hung out, talked, then busted out some rock band 2. It was a pretty good time, Megan invited some people that I'd not met before, so that was kind of cool. Anyway, the drinking continued and it looked like it wasn't snowing too bad, so we just kept on rocking and drinking (well, not Danielle [the drinking that is, she does rock and it is often]). I took some shots with my mixel-pixel generator.























Video game characters humping???











Statsies, what whaaaaaat? (We are lame)









My mom saw this picture on facebook and wrote :"Call me you big loser.and stop using the middle finger!" She's so hip and current.



Now, which of these two do you think are staged shots?

#1:



#2:



And that was inside. Scott was pretty trashed. I had eight beer before it was time to drive home. And a good thing too because, little did I know, I was going to need a fairly thick Liquor Jacket.

Once we stepped outside (it was around 1:15am) we realized that maybe this whole storm thing was for real (we knew it was, but had been oblivious to how bad it had gotten). After trekking through the snow to find the buried car, I started to dig out, and once I got into the car, calmed Danielle down as best as I could for the drive home. Again, remind you, I was eight beers into the night, so it seemed like something we could do no problem.

(Yes, staying at Scott's was an option, but Danielle didn't want to, because she doesn't like staying at people's homes if she doesn't know them very well. Don't ask me about it though (the funny thing is that Sean pointed out how close his place was in proximity as opposed to our home, but in a freakout not every option surfaces outside of "home please".)

So off we went. The road that connects to Scott's street wasn't plowed at all. Danielle's all seasons we're barely able to keep a grip, and we were able to coast by at a ripping 30Km/h. This was a good choice because we couldn't see any more than, ummmm... maybe 5 feet ahead of us. So we got onto the highway, which was another stellar idea... and by stellar, I really do mean crazy. The wind was blowing harder, and the snow falling faster out there. The only plus side to that choice was that there were no other cars on the road. So after about half an hour, we finally made it to Burnside, where we decided that we weren't going to take the bridge and that we were taking the long way back into Halifax. We considered going to one of our parent's places in Bedford, but after some quick calculation, decided that any attempt to get up the massive hills protecting both homes would end in failure. So we went up the Dartmouth Road, followling a plow (which saved us really) until we got to Bedford. Again, the roads were the slipperiest I'd ever driven through (at least in a passenger seat), but we kept a good pace. Things took a turn for the worse, however, once we got to Windsor Street. After exiting the Bedford Highway and turning on to the street, the car got stuck on the slope. Danielle lost it. I was worried we were done driving for the night. But, I sucked it in, told Danielle to fucking punch it while I pushed the car up the hill to Connaught Street. After Danielle got some traction (about 3/4ths of the way up the hill), she was able to make it over the crest, and wait for me while I ran back to the car. I hopped in, and as we proceeded to breeze home (we didn't stop at any red lights or stop signs, but we coasted through after checking thoroughly for other cars) I decided that it would be fun to kick into an asthma attack. So I'm coughing, Danielle's freaking, and the car is dodging all the crazy people that are walking in the middle of the street trying to hitch a ride for the rest of the 10 min ride home, where I grab my puffers and all is good. I'm glad we made it home safe, that's for sure.

Nothing sobers you up faster than a nice, relaxing asthma attack.

Man, this thing is getting longer by the second.

(that's what she said)

Anyway, Danielle and I just kind of kept a low profile for the rest of the weekend, until yesterday (Tuesday). After work, Sean, Omar, and Chuck came over to hang out for a bit. We sat around for a while, and talked, and then Chuck said he was hungry. He suggested hummus and pita bread. Everyone agreed. After 10 minutes of thinking about the idea of preparing to leave, we got up and drove over to the grocery store to pick up supplies. We got back and ate like champs, having the requisite lewd conversations. After that, we rounded out the Astro Boy series, which was awesome. I think it was like two years in the making. I'd go back and check the archives, but man am I lazy.

Today, I got up and worked. BUT THEN I CAME HOME AND MADE PIZZA WITH DANIELLE!

LOOK AT HOW GOOD IT IS







Mmmm... Peperoni, onion, broccoli, and cheddar.

I also made a colour salad.





Well, that pretty much puts a cap on this update. I had a lot of fun writing this one up. I liked reliving the horrific two hour journey that was the drive home on Friday night. Lesson Learned. We have to drive faster and more dangerous next time. My story will be better. HA! This weekend brings a bit of work, mixed with some fun at Chalice's place. Oh what fun, I can't wait for another potluck! That's it for tonight!

GFY,
Tony I

WELLA WELLA WELLA!



Look who's back on the internet! It's MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Right on, right on.

Obviously, it's been a little over 2 weeks since I got around to updating this thing, but I've been busy as FUUUUUUCK. Is that an excuse? FUCKING RIGHT IT IS. There's been a lot going on these days, and to be honest, this is really the first chance that I had to sit down and really get back to typing on this old keyboard, sitting next to Danielle, while we catch up on some TV that we've had saved up on the DVR since we left last week.

For those of you who don't know, I picked up a second job last week at the EB in Bedford, which is pretty sweet. I started last week on Saturday, I learned the basics of the job over the course of a few hours. I've had a lot of retail experience before, so it's not like it was a major task for me to learn the basics of the computer system, and how to do most of the tasks required to help out customers. It's taken me a few days, but I'm now able to do pretty much everything, and I've learned it so well that the manager bumped my status on the computer system from "temporary" to "keyholder" (although I am not a keyholder, and I know my time there will be temporary) so that I could do things like check store quantities, and receive stock. It's pretty cool, but I guess the other temp guy is sloooooooooow and can't be left alone because he's still working through how to ring someone in. It's not really his fault though. I mean, he is 60-something... and he handed in his resume in pencil-and-paper format... and he's a black belt... and he's also crazy as shit. The store has been consistently busy every time I'm in, which is kind of surprising, seeing as how a lot of the customers I'm talking to are doing their Christmas shopping. It's early (I know, I know, I'm one to talk), but I really do think that it's better to start to get things out of the way before it's too late. In terms of where I work, buying early is better because some most of the hotter items we sell probably won't even be available to buy come mid-December. So yeah, that's the new job.

So, Danielle and I (up until last night) spent the last week in Bedford "house-sitting" for my Mom (see: eating free groceries). We basically ran everything out of the house for a week, which was great for me once I started up at EB. Danielle only had one day worth of classes while we were there, so that made it easy on her too (at least I'm pretty sure). While it was nice to stay in Bedford, it was pretty stressful at times too. My sister can be a TOTAL shit to look after, but it just took a tonne of patience to deal with her. It's not to say the week wasn't without it's crazy points, but I'm going to get to that story later.

I guess it's time to go back into the PAAAAAST. I've got some photos to post from that last couple of weeks (although, not many... I'm kind of falling behind on my personal promise... I've got to get into it... next time you see me, ask where my camera is) that I'd like for people to see.

So, before Halloween, we had a bit of a pumpkin carving party here at the house. Omar, Chuck, Alice, Sean, and Maria all came out for the festivities (although Chuck and Alice did not carve anything), and we just kind of dove into it, especially Omar.









I'm pretty sure Danielle is looking for a steak...





Nobody would carve a Steve Irwin pumpkin...



GUTS







Sean was really working away...



SEE??





Poor poor pumpkin.









Danielle's pumpkin was cute (like her)...



Sean was really just getting started after everyone was finished...



Rudeness... hahah





All guts, no glory...



So, after we did all the carving, we lit everything up for the PUMPKIN SHOW

Sean's pumpkin:



Danielle's:



Maria's Jesus pumpkin:



Line up (Omar's is in the back, all the shots I took close were too blurry):





Obviously, I became obsessed with both Sean's and Danielle's pumpkins:











That night was so much fun, it was great to just sit around and chat and make a mess (then clean it up). After everyone left, and Danielle went to bed, OMAR AND I PLAYED LITTLE BIG PLANET until super late. OH GOD THAT GAME IS FUCKING AWESOME. I honestly don't know how I got by for a whole week without playing it. Perhaps I got through it by simply selling ANYBODY that had a PS3 that came into EB a copy of the game. I just want people to see how fun a video game can be. Baah, I can't talk the damn thing up enough.

But in keeping up with the theme of things, I've also got some shots from Halloween night! Danielle dressed as a Loufa (shower foamy ball thing) and I dressed up as soap suds. We were pretty damn awesome. Here are some of the shots we took before we left the condo...











Omar was a mexican trying to get over the border:



"OH MY GOD HE DOESN'T HAVE A GREEN CARD!!!!!":



Anyway, we had a few drinks to warm up, and then headed off to Queen St. for a bit of a party. There was a whole lotta people there, and of course my camera died the second I got there. After a while, Danielle and I headed up to shoppers for some batteries, and then back to the party. It was COOOOOLLLLLLLD. I gave Danielle my towel. I looked so cool in my shorts. Ha! There was a lot of METAL being played, and it was really loud, so a few people found refuge in a bedroom. It was pretty fun, we all hung out and talked and drank. It was pretty fun. Here are the rest of the pictures from that night!

















STEVIE WONDER! AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

















This one rules





















On the Sunday after Halloween, I had to head over to my moms house for supper. And also, to fix (or at least try) my old dell desktop. It was on it's last legs, and I guess my mom's friend who replaced the fan a couple of months ago said that turning the thing off could be the end of it. Of course nobody told me, so on Saturday I got curious about upgrading the ram and turned the thing off. This was after I went through the trouble of transferring all of my sister's pictures from my portable hard drive to the old dell. Anyway, after fiddling around with it, I tried to turn the thing on, and BOOOM! That was it. All I could hear was beeping. I couldn't figure it out. But I decided to leave it until the next day (we were planning on going over for supper) to fix. I had to enlist the help of Omar and Barry's son, Colin. We opened up the case, and quickly decided that it was the best case ever made. Look at it!



As you can see, it SWINGS open and stays in one piece, but keeps all of the components separate and easy to access. DAMN! Sorry, I had to nerd out for a second there. After testing things out, we discovered that it was 100% for sure that the MOBO died, which fucking suuuuuuuucks. It would cost my mom more to buy a new MOBO than to buy a new computer, so that looks like what she was going to do.

But that wasn't the problem.

We needed to figure out how we were going to get the data off of the old computer so that my sister could go through it and make up a portfolio so she could apply for school. We tried some various techniques so that my mom could still have a computer, so we first tried to swap the hard drive into Danielle's old computer tower, which should have worked. Of course, it didn't because there were too many hardware conflicts or something, so we thought it'd be fun to try running the dell drive as a slave to Danielle's drive. THAT didn't work, because HER operating system was *shudder* windows Millennium Edition. BAAAAAARRRRRRF. FUCK.

So we took road trip number one, which was to get OMAR's tower, because it'd be more compatible. Being XP and all. So we tried running the drive alone on Omar's computer, which half worked, but the drive always crashed from trying to figure out what the deal was with the new hardware, so we couldn't drag any files around. FUCK. Oh by the way it's about.... 8:30 at this point. We try doing the slave thing again, but it doesn't work because we're either too tired or we're doing it wrong. Here's how it looked (sort of) before we started hitting our heads with hammers.



So we all but give up. Then I call my mom's friend and he suggests the best idea we never had all day: a hard drive enclosure.

So began road trip number two. We drove into Halifax to drop off Stephanie (Colin's wife), and then into Dartmouth to pick up the enclosure. We got back at 10:00, and got ready to hook the dell drive into the enclosure. BUT IT WAS TOO BIG. FUUUUUUCK. Okay, so we put stuff together on the outside of the enclosure AND IT WORKED!



Once we made a connection, it was time for a break and some beer.

Of course, once we got to trying to get the files off, we ran into a MAJOR problem: we couldn't access some of the more important files (we were using Omar's computer). I tried everything to fix it, but we were all but frustrated. So, I consulted the INTERNET! While we were waiting for responses (used my lappy to communicate with an army of nerds), we talked and hung out. So I took some shots of the operating room.

Here's my frustrated face:

















So, the solution came in, and it was to "take ownership of the files" which we couldn't do on Omar's computer. So WE DID IT ON MINE! MINE! Oh God the relief. So we celebrated while the transfer worked it's way through, we had a beer and a laugh and then FREAKED OUT WHEN MY BATTERY WAS ABOUT TO DIE. We needed those pictures that night, so WE DROVE back into Halifax for the third road trip to pick up my power cable. We got back, and finished the transfer. We celebrated again, and after it was all done with, we headed home. I was in bed around 2:00. FUCKING HELL.

At least it's over with now.

Here's what the final setup was while we waited for the transfer.



I was going to write more tonight, but this little story took me longer to describe than I thought it would. I guess I'll have to put together another update next time I get some pictures to put up. I'm working on it, I swear. I'm working tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning and then again at 3:30pm. So that's it for tonight!

GFY,

Tony I