hired by a call center

It's not all bad, I have a job, it pays well, especially since I like afternoons and they give shift premiums for afternoons.

2 years later and Distributel still sucks.

So today my wife and I finally got thru to Distributel's customer service.  We've been trying every day for the past 2 weeks, hanging up after every 2 hour wait.  Now I realize that there needs to be some back story so here goes:  I cancelled my Distributel Internet in May 2011 because I lost about $1000 in NSF fees due to the nature of their billing and President Choice Financial's No Fee Bank Account.  In other words: I got paid on the 1st, PC held the government cheque for 7 days, so when Distributel tried to take out $40 on the 4th, it bounced and PC charged me a $45 NSF fee, so Distributel would try again on the 15th of the month, but because I need to pay rent and buy food and pay the ridiculous NSF fee there wouldn't be enough in the account.  Every month for almost a year Distributel would cost me $90.  Neither side would claim ownership, neither side would help me.  I'd call every month over the same damned problem, just to get the cold shoulder and the response "Just pay it."  So when I sent back the modem I only had about $20 cash with me, and that was really all the money in the world I had.  I went to the Post Office downtown with Distributel's Modem, in a plain brown box, and the $20, put them on the counter and asked them to send it to Distributel's address, with my address as the return.  The post office told me that $20 is not enough money to get a tracking number, and I just did not have any more money, and no one was answering their phones, and I wasn't about to go pan handling for $18 more, so I told the Post Office to just mail it.  I called Distributel and told them to note on the account that I posted the modem.  When Distributel asked for the tracking number I had to tell them that I simply didn't have enough money (what with all the billing problems I had), and so didn't have a tracking number.  Little did I know that Distributel would NEVER believe I sent the modem.  Bunch of lying thieves........

Now jump forward to a couple weeks ago... I'm on my Honeymoon with my new wife and Gatestone Collections calls me.  Of course we answer since we're only in Niagara Falls.  Gatestone says we STILL OWE $236 FOR DISTRIBUTEL, FROM TWO YEARS AGO.  RIDICULOUS!  So since then we've tried every day to get thru and today was the day.  When we talked to the first CSR she told my wife and I that the modem HAD been returned, but hadn't been credited off the account, but there were administration fees on the account that are the reason for the high price.  When Christina asked what those were, the CSR said "I don't know but I'll transfer you to a senior representative".  The senior rep Bryan said that the modem really hadn't been returned, and without a tracking number there's no way to prove that we even sent it (sounds like he's trying to get my money to me).  I've now asked him for a copy of my entire account including any notes, so that I can see EXACTLY what they see.  It's my thinking that this whole problem is because someone has put a note on my account that I should be screwed over for every cent I have because I'm on ODSP or just happened to be rather upset (or irate if you rather) when they started costing me $90 a month in NSF fees.

Now this has been the MOST painful experience with a company I've ever had.  If you ever think "Hmmm... maybe Distributel is a good idea." just remember that they don't really want to HELP you, they'd really rather see you poor.

Life Update

So this is the 4th day of being married.  Every day I get up early, and every day my wife sleeps in.  It's not really a big problem, and it's only me that has to get over it.

Married Life

It's awesome!

I'm Married!

woo hoo!

My wedding is on Saturday

My house is dirty, I haven't done my laundry, there's almost no food in the house, and I need to change the sheets on my bed.  I have about 3 hours a day at home when I'm not sleeping and all that time is taken up with cooking, eating, and checking my e-mail.  I still haven't hosed down the kitchen.  My wife will be moving in in 6 days and I want it perfect for her.

Ancient video games

I'm a collector of many things.. bottles, Lego, classic books, board games, and even video games.  I'm not about to list all of them here, but in this house I've moved into, there just isn't any room for them all here.  I need more shelves, or higher shelves, or something.  I really don't want to have to let go of my old video games, and classic computers.

18 days left

So I've had to replace one of my groomsmen, because of money troubles.  It only seemed like a huge deal, but luckily I had an understudy.  I'm not going to start naming names, but all will be revealed in good time. Well in 18 days.  Life has otherwise been all right, and I plan on having a good time until the bills for the wedding roll in.

3 and a half weeks

This marks three and one half weeks from my wedding.  The few things left are buying the pocket squares for my groomsmen, picking up some more ribbon and feathers for the cake, and paying for everything.  The photographer is set, the DJ has his list, and we are just waiting until the end of the week for everyone's RSVP.  We see the hall owner and give our final numbers on the 12th of August, so whoever hasn't responded by then isn't coming.  Our biggest problem is the same problem we've had all along, and that is how do we pay all this wedding stuff off?

What a horrible jerk I am!

I was in such an uproar...

The troubles of no high speed. This edition Forza 5

Read this article today.... http://kotaku.com/not-gonna-say-but-thats-just-dlc-but-i-will-say-i-t-809103005

It's not inconceivable for my avid game playing aunt to be without high speed because she lives in northern ontario.... are you telling me that she has to travel 2 hrs to the closest city, set up her XBOX in a Tim Hortons, complete with TV, and download something to play a game she just bought?  Do you think Microsoft even cares that people who have to drive snowmobiles 4 months of the year to get anywhere also have to drive those snowmobiles to check their e-mail?  Forza has been a mostly single player game, and that's how I would play it, but I spent 2 months without internet the last time I moved... I played a lot of video games, and spent a lot of time in Timmies checking my e-mail on my phone.  The one by my house doesn't even have a plug for customers to plug in their laptops... do you think they'd let me hook up an XBOX?

MacMiner

of all the rotten luck, here I think I have a good little app to try to mine litecoins on an older mac and this happens

oh yeah...

I bought a car two weeks ago.  Only told people in person, forgot to blog about it.  2001 Cavalier 2 door, they call it silver, but it's little a bit champagne.  Christina's the only driver though, so it's her car too.

Nerdvertising

 Yes, I said nerdvertising.  It's a word I've made up to categorize commercials that are epitomized by the Axe Apollo "Nothing beats an astronaut" ads.  This last one really made me sick, the one in the coffee shop, where the girl just starts rubbing the "nerdy-looking" guy's face... gross.

Pay me with bitcoin

Pay me with bitcoin: Please send payment to bitcoin address

Wii U and the trouble with slow starts.

It's not that I'm worried, in fact I'm not I know that the Wii U will sell well just as soon as the Wii stops working... but see that's the problem.  Nintendo made such a good system with the Wii that it just won't die. So many have been sold that almost everyone has one.  I don't, but that's because I could borrow my parent's Wii if I want to play it.  The Wii U isn't just fighting against the PS4 and the unfortunately named XBOX, but it's fighting with the Wii as well.  And for some people it's fighting against the 3DS and the PlayStation Vita.  My mom said this to me: "Why would I go out and buy a Wii U if I have a perfectly good Wii sitting here, unused?"  Of course this is the same woman who said: "What's the point of spening so much money on a 3DS if I  have a DS, an iPad, an iMac, a TV, a PS3, and a Wii in my living room?"  Smart lady, get use out of what you have, and you don't have to keep buying every new console right when it comes out.

Anyway my point here is that the Wii U will have a slow start, it's expected, but Nintendo gave it a good start by releasing it well ahead of the Playstation 4 and the unfortunately named XBOX.  They've also got some really good games that I am looking forward to trying.

Flowers

The creator of Gran Turismo 6 likes Bad Piggies

http://www.gtplanet.net/kazunori-yamauchi-interview-track-design-bad-piggies/

It would figure that Kaz Yamauchi would like bad piggies...

The *NEW* XBOX

So... here's my thoughts on the new XBOX:

1. I won't call it by that unfortunate name they've given it for a publicity stunt, I've got an xbox 1 in my closet gathering dust already why would I need another?
2. When I asked my fiancee what it looked like she told me "It looks like a Playstation."  When I showed her  a Wii U, she told me "That's a Wii U" and when I showed her the picture of a PS4 she said "That's definitely a Playstation."  A picture of an XBOX 360 "That's an XBOX".  She knows her consoles.  My point is that XBOX looks like a Playstation, not an XBOX.  The soul is gone in the design.
3. The specs of the controller say it's bigger and heavier than the XBOX 360 controller, which is already too big and too heavy, and it puts my left hand to sleep with that awkwardly placed thumb stick.
4. I already have a tv box from bell, why do I need another?
5. Most of my family and friends already have a Playstation 3, and so do I.  If I switch to XBOX Live, I'll have to get new friends and family to play video games with....
6. My fiancee panics that when I am watching a livestream people can see and hear her, how do you think she'll feel about a video game console that sees and hears her?  (she has spent more time with skype and phones than livestreams, she expects it to be a two way conversation that way)
7. XBOX 360s UI was so hard to figure out that I usually just gave up and gavve the controller to someone else and told them what to find for me.  Most of the time they couldn't find it either.
8. They are using DDR3 for the system memory.  Now this isn't a bad thing, but DDR3 comes in 6 different flavours, how much would you like to bet that Microsoft will cheap out and buy the slow one?
9. AMD APU. Again not a bad thing, in fact it's a pretty good idea, having CPU and GPU on the same chip means less worries about bus length, latency, and timing.  The less you have to worry about differing clock speeds between PCI-e bus and CPU-RAM bus the smoother the operation.  But it comes at a cost, less room for GPU and less room for CPU.  They share space, so are therefore smaller.  An APU just simply won't perform as fast as that Intel i7 and Nvidia GeForce GT 680.  I have the same beef with PS4
10. Operating system:  XBOX 1 came with Windows CE, XBOX 360 came with Windows CE, what do you suppose they will put on the new one? Windows 8 I'll bet, with no desktop, make it look more like a windows phone so more people will try to buy one of the 3 windows 8 phones out there. Or a surface.  Blech, I'm tired ot people complaining to me that their new computer doesn't work how they want it to, go buy a Mac at least then you expect it to be different.
11. I don't like XBOX to begin with, so I'm already biased against it.  There's only one or two titles I actually enjoy playing on either XBOX and that was the  Forza Motorsport games, and Fusion Frenzy.  I'm not a Halo fan, I don't like Madden, I dislike how Call of Duty is okay for teenagers to play even though there's a big white M on the box, and I find it quite uncomfortable to have to give a thumbs up with my left hand and a thumbs down with my right hand in order to play anything on that huge controller they have.  I have pictures showing just how bad it is in my hands, I can't reach X or Y with my thumb if my index and middle finger are on RB and RT at a comfortable place.  In order to reach those two buttons I have to choke up on the controller so I'm pushing RT with the inside of the second knuckle of my middle finger, and RB with the inside of the second knuckle of my index finger.  Now to move the right thumbstick I have to reach down further than before, arching my wrist, and giving my hand a claw-like appearance.  Trying to hit the B button like this is a nightmare, so I usually have to pretty much let go of the controller with my right hand to tap it.  My left hand has to do all the heavy lifting then, so I need to grip it harder with my left hand, which in turn means due to the wedge shape of the XBOX 360 controller I have to grab low and really reach high with my thumb the move the left stick around. I can't reach LT with my middle finger either, because it's holding up the entire weight of the controller.  All in all a very uncomfortable design, and it looks to be more of the same this time around.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Bitcoins, a talking about, not like last time...

So I've been mining bitcoins for a little while now, and, yeah, it's not easy to make bitcoins.  Litecoins are neat, with a cryptography back-end that is intentionally hard to decrypt with current hardware.  In fact it's even hard to decrypt using a purpose built processor. which is supposed to extend the lifetime of mining.  Because of the way transactions in bitcoin and litecoin  work, they seem to be somewhat self-defeating, there is a point in time in the future where we can no longer make any new blocks at the current bit depth, and so no knew transactions can be completed.  This will be the complete and total end of bitcoin, and it's getting closer and closer with every hash created.

At this point I'd advise you not to go into bitcoins if you plan on only mining them for money.  They are money, don't think of them as a means to an end, I don't care that they are currently trading for $100 each, unless you invest thousands of dollars you won't be making thousands of dollars off of bitcoins by joining now.  Litecoins are a different thing entirely,  it is still early in it's mining so there's plenty of blocks out there to be found.  Solo mining of Litecoins is not working well any more, could take you a month or more, while pools from around the world will find a couple dozen.  I'm not going to tell you which pool to join (there's lots) but I will say this find a PPLNS pool for litecoins not PPS.  My reasoning isn't about  You can find all sorts of explanations of PPLNS and PPS on the interwebs somewhere, but my reasoning is that if the pool creators are concerned enough about how we are getting paid, they must be rather hands-on.

Bitcoins

What are they? Where do they come from? Are they valuable?  Most of these questions are easily answered:

1. They are a made up and digital only (with one exception) virtual currency.
2. They started at MIT as a simple idea, that blossomed to a full worldwide currency.
3. They are only as valuable as we (the people using them) decide.

These answers are both what's cool about bitcoins and what makes them a volatile, and risky, currency to invest in.  Because there is no backing to the currency, beyond the work put into mining, there really is no reason not to accept a single bitcoin unit (or 1.0BTC) for any monetary amount.  They have only the value we set for them, much the same as anything else.  A dollar is worth half a loaf of bread because we say it is.  same with the loaf of bread being worth $2.  Does this seem fair? Not when you aren't making the decisions, but of course you are because you still pay those $2 for a loaf of bread. Is a single bitcoin worth $100 CAD? Well, yes right now it is.  Why? because it's accepted as such.

I'd like to go on a rant and complain about the cost of bread, milk, cheese, even wine, but I won't.  You know just as well as I do how bad greed is, so I don't have to tell you.

Get Mac OS X in virtualbox.

http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/07/mountain-lion-virtualbox.html

So I was following this guide and a couple others, but for some reason or another all I get is a black screen when I try to get the installer open.  Anyone know of a working guide?

The job hunt continues?

So it was recently released that where I live has the most cut throat job market.  For every 1 job there are about 100 people for it.  If I am but one of 100 how can I stand out?  In a good way....  

I've heard those with jobs say "Just suck it up and do anything". This sentiment is shared by all sorts of people, young and old, but mostly they are people who never had a problem finding a job.  They go out, drop off a few resumes, and the next day everyone calls them.  They had a choice of jobs, and just went out and got one.  Well to all these people I say this:

I have applied to all sorts of jobs, as well as most Computer stores, department stores, EB Games, Best Buy, and all sorts of other places. DO you have any idea what it's like to hand out 100 resumes to 100 different stores and shops in 2 weeks to not hear anything from any of them ever. Even Tim Hortons won't even call me back... I've applied to restaurants, tourist traps, and construction sites, no one is hiring me.  It's to the point that I just don't know what employers want from me.  Why aren't they hiring me?  Is 32 too old for fast food? is my practicality of not driving because I have no job a hindrance? Does my goatee, or my love of computers keep me from getting the more menial jobs?  What about my resume? My online presence? My clothes? What is it that's keeping me out of work?

I still don't have an answer, but I feel that changing my very being just for a job is not a good idea.  Eventually I'l revert, or hate myself.  I need to be true to me, and I guess that means I need to do something other than "have a job".  I need another solution, if this recent study is correct.  So I've decided that I need to either have a home business or a paying hobby.  The difference? A home business you can live off of, a hobby you can't.

Want to help me pay for my wedding?

Click the button above to donate $5 to my wedding.  You can get a ticket to a Cafe event (like a stag and doe) we are hosting to help us pay for the wedding.

Se an overview of my life so far. I was born.... no wait not that far back...  I've been dating the same girl for what will be 10 years in july, and just last year she finally accepted my proposal for marriage.  If you read back to march of 2012 you can see some of the drama I had around that.  In 3 months I will be getting married, but I don't have a job anymore.  I lost my dream job of fixing computers back in October and my job hunt has been fruitless so far.  I've decided to dedicate my time towards more fruitful objectives, and thus I am teaching myself (thru online and free resources) how to 3d model using blender, and how to put my models together into a game using UDK.  I know these aren't the best solutions out there, but I am trying my best with free tools first.

Anyway if you live nearby (Niagara Region), and want to come to my wedding cafe you are welcome to join us.  It'll be at 1136 Vansickle Rd. N. St. Catharines ON, on July 6th at 5:30pm.. There will be games and prizes, you can pick up some baked goods and have a coffee with us.  Here's a link to the Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/256729154460219/ so you know where to get tickets.  Love Facebook for this stuff, everything gets encapsulated, and updating everyone is so easy.

Content creation

This has got to be the slowest bloody part of making a video game....  What on earth could have posessed me to think that after only a couple oblivion mods and skyrim mods I was ready to make a game from scratch?  UDK is nothing like Creation Kit, it reminds me very much of the old UnrealEd from Unreal Tournament.  Ugh how I hated that thing.  I never knew how to use it, the help file was nearly useless, and I didn't even know how the units worked. How anybody was able to use that thing to make such awesome looking levels was way beyond me.  Granted, I was never much of an artist, what I put on the canvas was never quite the same as what was in my head.  And for some reason I could never get it to look the same as what I wanted.  Frustrating...  I've since tried to learn both patience and acceptance when it comes to drawing.... I know now that I will never be able to draw something exactly how it looks in my head.  Some call this giving up.

Any way on to what sort of content I am creating....  This week I was working on the player model, nothing fancy just a placeholder for testing purposes, but I can't seem to rig the thing.  I apply the childOF modifier to an arm and it jumps out of place, and I just don't know what is going on.  I will get it but this sort of stuff shouldn't take so long.

UDK, Blender 2.66 and The GIMP

These are the tools I am using to create assets for my first Video Game.  I'm not going to fall into the trap of creating a Unreal Tournament clone, or even another Jazz Jackrabbit (though I did enjoy those games quite a bit).  The world doesn't need more shooters or more running games, what I want to do is mix an classic PC type RPG using weapons and armor pieces and maybe even magic, with a an old school River City Rampage style Beat 'Em Up.

I realize that these two genre's have been put together before, and I also realize that like the Shmup before it, the Beat Em Up is primarily a 2D game, but that's kind of my point, why not render in 3D even if it's only 2D or limited 3D movement anyway.  I will be adding to this later, so keep checking in from time to time.

Wedding Cafe or Stag and Doe?

Either way it will be a circus.  How many games are too many? 6 or 7 seems about right, what with loonie toss and twoonie toss, 50/50 draw, Sjoelbak, guessing jar, a hula hoop competition and maybe even corner-shot hockey.

I'm just not sure that my Bride-to-be's friends understand the duality of my personality enough to get what I am trying to go for.  I want a both a swanky cafe, with mocktails and special coffees and teas, and a room full of games.  I want people to dress up and have fun.  I want the cut the stuffiness with some good old fashioned Dutch Sjoelbak.  I want to see people in suits trying to get a puck in the five hole.  I want to wear a goofy hat with my wing tips.  I want both worlds represented in my Wedding Cafe.  I would like to show both of my heritages, and let Christina's shine as well.  My Canadian heritage can be seen in hockey, coffee, the twoonie toss, and probably the guessing jar, while my Dutch heritage shines through in the Coffee, the Sjoelbak, and the desserts.  So coffee is a major thing in both sides, so why not showcase that?  I'm not looking for a harvest festival, or a carnival, or a circus, or video gaming theme, or even a wildwest/country theme, even though those are all things I love too.  I want something that's a little bit country and a little bit city.  Like a sidewalk cafe with a pinball machine in the corner.  Or a gelato bar that serves good Pierogi.  Or a diner that serves out of this world pie (ok that's not really a dichotomy).  It's a cafe.  It's a games night.  It's a me (mario)!

Do we need to give a buffet at the beginning of the night?  Probably, or most of Christina's relatives will be really put off.  I hear they expect food early at any function.  I had not even considered that, I just assumed everyone had tea and cakes at 4 and dinner at 7.  I hadn't even thought of serving a full meal, I just assumed it would be nibbles and appetizers, like bruschetta; and chips; and a meat platter; and little sandwiches; and no soup; and a veggie platter; and fruit; with coffee and pastries throughout.  I would like there to be a few large tables and a couple more intimate tables (like a sidewalk cafe), with chips and cheezies and such on them (like a party).

Now I think I've said nearly enough on this subject tonight, really I just needed to get all of this off my chest.

Star Trek inspiring design choices.

Just one look at www.freshco.com tells you that the Charcoal and Green of it's website is very modern. They are the colours chosen for the recently minted (3 or 4 years old now) Sobey's brand grocery store Freshco.  It seems to me to be inspired by the starfleet uniforms protrayed in Star Trek.  Dark charcoal, bright green thin bands, and lots of round corners just screams Star Trek The Next Generation to me.  Do you suppose this will bring about more of an LCARS style User Interface in our smartphones, even more so than the windows phones below.

And just to see what I'm talking about you can to drag up an example of LCARS from http://www.lcarscom.net/ I know it isn't really the official Star Trek website, but that website dropped the LCARS look ages ago.  I'm not even sure the wayback machine web.archive.net will take you back far enough to find it.

Anyway, just to drive my point home even further, watch this next round of new graphic design after this star trek movie comes out.  You'll notice some correlation between what's on screen there and what graphic designers come up with.  I know art often imitates ART, but it has to come from somewhere.  Does this mean that the designers for Star Trek are more brilliant than everyone else so we all have to follow suit? Or does it even matter?

Testing, testing, test 1, test 2, test 3

YUP! brand new logitech k120 works quite well, but I am missing the wrist rest.

qgw xwe wn ehw qrwnf hwraw (I've bet on the wrong horse)

my SteelSeries ZBoard has finally failed me.  I think it is time I retired her and found something a little less temperamental. Maybe another steelseries keyboard, I did quite like my z-board ever since it came out, despite the few issues I had.  See my first zboard was an ideazon, the first one out, and it came only ps2 and didn't work with half the keysets because they were all made for the second version and up, all USB devices.  Well aft 4 or 5 years that one finally bit the dust, and so i contacted steelseries who bought up all of ideazon, but couldn't receive the 50% off ideazon had promised me the year before because of my issues with getting  new keysets to work with my old zboard.  Still I loved my zboard so i bought a new one.  It cost me over $100 all told with delivery and duty.  Now it has lasted again only 5 years and I am actually considering other types of keyboards.

World of what?

If Pern is the world of dragons, and Nirn is the world of The Elder Scrolls, and Xanth is the land of magic, and Mars is the Red Planet, and Jupiter is a gas giant, would that my Earth the world of frogs?

There's frogs on nearly every bit of land mass in all of the world. I might be a little biased, but I think the best looking frogs are the little brown tree frogs found in the Great Northern Rain Forest on the hills and mountains of BC.  Some of the ugliest frogs are the bullfrogs and leopard frogs we find here in Ontario. Nasty little things with horrid songs.

http://frogsaregreen.com/3220/the-10-weirdest-and-most-unusual-frogs-on-earth/

3 years after fixing my inguinal hernia

Ok, well it's 3 years and 5 months later, but I would still like to tell the world how I feel.  90% of the time my right testicle doesn't hurt, which is a huge improvement over those few months when I had the hernia.  The other 10% of the time it's like I've been flicked down there when nothing has actually happened.

Ever regret something you learned?

I've tried to mold myself into a modern renaissance man, trying to learn enough about everything to hold a conversation for longer than "Oh, you do that? cool."  I want to know it all, but I know I can't.  Now here's a small list of the stuff I've learned (most of the time the hard way), but never really needed.

1. What's inside a modern golfball.  I've learned this lesson the hard way 2 or 3 times now, and every time it's been the same.  Oh and I've never actually needed the information.
2. Telnet.  Now with the prevalence of http and html I will never ever need to know the divine intricacies of telnet. However it did teach me about IP addresses, which springboarded my knowledge of the internet, ethernet and networking as a whole.
3. FTP commands. It taught me UNIX commands as well, but I just don't use command-line FTP anymore.  With all these great programs like CuteFTP and FileZilla, I don't have to Telnet into a server in Toronto in order to access FTP in order to get a demo disk for a new game which then takes all night to download and doesn't actually work because of noise on the phone line.  Things just don't work that way anymore.
4. AT commands.  Modems are automated pieces of separate hardware now.  They have their own brains and don't need me to post commands to it manually.  In retrospect it was a waste of time to learn these commands.
5. QBASIC.  I will cherish those years I spent learning the logic behind programming, even if it was only BASIC that I learned.  It's taught me many things about programming, ranging from program flow, inheritance, and sub-routines, to global constants, run time variables, and type structures (which started me on the path towards more and more object oriented programming, just like everyone else). unfortunately I now have little use for QBASIC but I don't really regret learning it either since it did start me on course for other languages.
6. how to shave my legs.  I've needed this skill only twice in my life and both times were for a sleep study.
7. how to darn a sock. I know how but that doesn't mean I do it.

Testing the waters.

There's something to be said about finding your niche in society.  For the longest time I've thought my niche was as a technician, fixing other peoples problems with technology for money.  I'm not so sure I want to continue in this vein.  My dreams have always been to program video games, since the first time I saw a video game in use.  I've deferred this dream for years and years, and it seems I've made it into something bigger than it really is.  I want to run my own studio, have my dreams published into successful games, and be able to go on Electric Playground, like most of my heroes have done already.

Now back to the topic at hand, testing the waters.  I've had some fun modding Oblivion and Skyrim, changing textures, building rooms, and using the tools provided.  I quite liked it.  This is leading me to believe I would enjoy working in the video game sector.  Now all I have to do is learn how and just do it.  Any suggestions?

Sherlock Holmes and other observations

1. Deduction is only as good the knowledge you have, Sherlock Holmes couldn't tell you where you've been by the mud on your shoes, if he didn't know anything about mud or shoes.
2. If it weren't for the sun in the sky we wouldn't know that we had to tell time, much less how to tell time.
3. I like large chunks of meat roasted slowly, but without vegetables nearby they just don't taste the same
4. 17 people agree you can't tell the difference
5. Microwaves have gotten better and cheaper over time, just like every other technology.  Except the bow and arrow and the concrete sundial, those things are expensive now.
6. You have no idea what i'm talking about in number 4.
7. The next point is a lie
8. that last point was the truth
9. number 7 and 8 make up a paradox
10. there had to be 10 points or i just didn't feel good about calling this a list.

A month in the new place

Technically i've been living here since Feb 1st, but really i've only been in here since Valentine's Day.  So after a month here, I realize a few things.  Apartment buildings are noisier than houses, the garbage room is not too far away, laundry is expensive, and I don't like sleeping on my new couch.  I've been sleeping on a pull out couch this whole time, because I don't have a bed yet (I had to throw out mine because of the mould problem).  I'm still looking for a good place to go, my cousin suggested a place where I can get a whole queen bed for $300, but finding that much money is nigh impossible.

The Waiting (Is the hardest part)

I know posting lyrics has go to be one of the lowest forms of communication, but hey if you are hooked on a song why not revel in it!

By Tom Petty

Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
Don't it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I've never known nothing quite like this
Don't it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one coulda ever told me 'bout this
I said yeah yeah

Chorus
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Well yeah I might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I'm feeling right now
Baby you're the only one that's ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah

Chorus
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Oh don't let it kill you baby, don't let it get to you
Don't let it kill you baby, don't let it get to you
I'll be your bleedin' heart, I'll be your cryin' fool
Don't let this go too far

Website Design

It's been pretty fun getting back into creative design.  I'm making a website for a non-profit group based here in Niagara Region, and it is so much fun!  I'll be posting on here when I'm done...

House hunting.

The worst time to look for a house is now.  I found one that was willing to take me, but I just could not afford the monthly rent.  The biggest problems I've been having is credit checks and inflated prices.  The prices here are so high because a landlord could rent a 2 bedroom apartment to 2 students for $500 a piece, so why should they take in any less than that.  It's been a thorn in my side this whole time.