well, sunday was our annual pumpkin slaying gathering to squash the... umm... squash minions of the evil spaghetti monster. It was alright I would say. I enjoyed myself as much as I could and I was glad that Izzy made it through the cold to take some pretty good pics/vids... and I was also glad that my buddy from work Rich made it out too to watch... and also a Metro photographer came out too... I was in the Metro, yay

But aside from all that, there was WAY too many people this year. Last couple of years there was less than 10 of us, and like 100 big juicy pumpkins... but this year t'was the exact opposite... 100 people, and 10 pumpkins... okay waaaay too exaggerated, but there was definately way too many people. But yea, so I was there for like 2 hrs, cut 2 pumpkins, and said "screw it, i'm cold... let's go home"

so needless to say, I was a tad bit disappointed. I had as much fun as I could, some of the people were good, most were bad/wannabes.... ugh... nothing worst than a LARP fanatic trying to talk about using swords.... no thanks, I think somewhere between the LARP group loosing a set of throwing knives, and the idiots trying to use decorative sword-like objects as swords... i.e. dorks playing sword fighter, I got turned off.... what ever happened to the good ol' days where a couple of serious sword handlers got together and sliced up pumpkins??

anywho, we're going to try to set up something again, this time in the summer (yay warmth) but I'm going to suggest that only people with REAL swords, who are there to REALLY train/practice attend.... makes it more fun for the rest of us, there's nothing worst than seeing some ditsy person playing with a sword that way too big for them... and not to mention way to sharp for them... trying to hit a pumpkin/soft target... recipe for disaster... oh yea, and to those idiots who brought that cheap shit from the house of knives... go get a real sword, and train for real, check back into reality and leave the fantasy shit behind...

Well my sister's all packed up and shipped off to Belleville. That means my parents only have me to entertain... great... I care not to talk to them really. I know it's pretty immature of me, and I like to say that I "try to do the mature thing and...", but really?? In this instance, I care not. They try to treat me like a little kid, even though I've moved out and supported myself for 3yrs now, and they really must realize that I've grown up, I'm no longer a kid... I mean even when I was 16-ish, they treated me like I was 10. Anyways, this whole thing started when they sent me an email about me not going to belleville with my sister, it's like... okay, so we wanted to go see izzy's aunt while she was visiting, we haven't seen her since last christmas.... (okay well seeing her while cleaning up izzy's grandpa's apartment doesn't count)... also the schedule was not cool either, it would mean that izzy wouldn't really be able to eat anything of substance until we'd get home from belleville... starting at 8-??? who know's what time we'd get back... but it'd be late... anyways, the schedule ended up getting even more fubar'd, and they didn't leave ottawa until 5 -ish... ummm okay so that would mean either getting home past midnight, or early the next day... yea... we'd miss izzy's aunt for sure, also since there'd be only 1 bathroom there, izzy probably wouldn't really eat much anyways until we'd get home... so no, that, and i had to be relatively rested for sunday afternoon too... but that's another post...

so anyways, my sister had asked us to meet up with her 11:45 saturday... great no prob, when izzy and i moved, we were done by lunch-ish/early afternoon.... so we get there... people are still packing her crap up...oookay... no problem... then they went to get the truck and don't return till 1-ish... oookay... pack-up all the stuff they can head out by 3-ish right?? wrong, by 5 we were finally done... like really?? wtf? i offered to help her pack up the last bit of stuff friday evening, but she said she was okay.... apparently not... did i mention she was moving out of a 1 bedroom apartment? yea, she has more crap than both izzy and i... she had 3 freaking couches!!! 3!! what the fuck is she doing with 3 couches anyways?? i only have 1 couch and we've never had issues... and all her fish crap... yea i feel really bad for the guy who had to drive with her 100gallon tank in the back seat of her car.... she clearly only had just emptied it..... grooosss... i almost threw up a little as i was carrying it down...

anyways, the whole thing was a mess.... i think the only thing that went well was how everything was packed nicely by yours truly =0)~ and well if something broke then it was someone else's fault

so i have this app that's due next week friday, okay well monday really (19th)... and so if you've any knowledge of the process that's required to get these things released... then you'd know there's a handful of documents that are required...

so my manager, nice guy, but total fuck up as a manager... decides to start the documents now... well yesterday... umm buddy... it'll take a week or more (even if you "escalate" it)... like when i was my own manager (literally)... i managed all these docs my self... they were started as development was starting... and were all done by the time i was ready to move things from development to staging... then to production (which required a couple more docs)...

oh yea, and the request for testing, and a users' help doc has just been made... who knows if they can schedule it in with there other stuff... the testing really would only take about a half hour... it's not that complicated of an app... but in theory we do need the blessings of the testers before going to production...

so right now, i've got an app that's ready to be tested, and no documentation... and did i mention that my managaer has only just made a request to get the database now??... yea... so no database... so i haven't done anything since umm... before meeting up with karen for coffee.... and i don't really plan on it until he's got everything figured out...

this is all fucked up and it's all his fault... oh yea did i mention that since he's my manager, he's supposed to help me develop my career and "guide" me.... yea.. so he just gets his cs02 and sends himself on course before even sending me a form for requesting courses... umm it's like i've been an employee 3 more years than him... i think i should get the training first... uhh and shoulda gotten his job too... anyways... so he sends me the form and i submit it to him... the course date approaches and i hear nothing... then when it's too late, he asks me if i sent him the form... i'm like "umm yea check your outlook" he looks... it's a read message... so naturally it's too late to do anything, and he starts going all like "why don't you update the form for new course dates, and then you should continually follow up on it with hr"... okay so first of all thanks buddy but the next course dates are in january... like fuck... and follow up with hr?? that's you job piss head... every manager should know that... it's there responsibility to look out for the people to manage... that's why they're MANAGERS... i know i should take some initiative for my own well being... but last i checked it was supposed to go through the manager... like for fuck sakes... anywho so i spoke with another manager (who looks out for his people) and he had mentioned a course that's coming up soon and that i should really get on it (and ofcourse he said, go through your manager and it shouldn't be a problem)... right... like i have faith in the guy...

needless to say, i went to my managers' manager... and he got things done... so i get to go on course the 19th... which is release day for the app... you know what? i don't give a flying fuck if it gets released or not... cuz as far as i'm concerned, i finished and was ready to deploy to staging wednesday morning... and from there i would have been ready to deploy to production anytime next week, so long as all the docs were done on time.... if i had my way they'd have been started long before production actually started, and would have been done by now...

fuck me...

So my sister's moving to belleville this weekend for her job... and i told her that i would help her move... no problem... but, we didn't really hear from her until a couple of days ago, and her schedule planning sucks... here's the plan

1. arrive at 8 to load truck


2. depart 11 for belleville


3. eat lunch at some rest stop along the way


4. arrive at new apartment at 2


5. finish by 5


6. have pizza for dinner


7. leave whenever the guy she arranged us to ride with wants to leave


8. arrive in ottawa 3 hrs later....dot dot dot!!

okay... so that's a really long friggin day, now i'm partially okay with that except for the fact that lately i need to feed every 2-3 hrs or so, so that doesn't work out too well for me... eat lots of powerbars okay problem solved... here's the thing... izzy's highly lactose intolerant... umm so she's not going to be eating the whole day... and probably wouldn't eat before leaving the house, just in case... and then pizza for dinner? then a 3 hrs drive back to ottawa... right... so the solution is don't eat or search all of belleville for somewhere that has lactose free food, like really?? and for lunch... can't have anything that may contain milk... so that leaves lots of fries...

oh and also why this schedule sucks, is because izzy's aunt is coming from out of town, and she won't be making it for xmas, although she's staying the night, we've got commitments sunday afternoon... yea we can see them in the morning, but we've gotta be at the apartment to meet up with someone too.... anyways... this whole moving thing's fubar'd so i called to say that i wouldn't be able to make it to belleville as izzy's aunt is coming from edmonton and won't be able to make it for xmas... my sister said that sucks but understood... told her i'd still help her move on the ottawa side... hey, really she did the same for me when i moved, met us at the new apartment because she couldn't miss a volleyball game... and she showed up when we've already moved 1/4 of the truck up.... which coincidently was the more heavier stuff...

anyways, that aside she understood, and i offered to help her pack last minute stuff friday evening if required in exchange for the trip to belleville... fair gesture i figured... ANYWAYS... so my father then emails me saying he overheard half the conversation between myself and my sister and started to nag me via email that if you make a commitment then you should keep it... and he admitted that he didn't hear the other half of the conversation and just decided to nag me regardless... i mean, okay what if izzy's dad just had a heart attack and we agreed to help my sister move in the morning, but wanted to stay here because we wanted to visit him in the hospital?? like my dad doesn't even know the reason, and he still jumps to conclusions...

anywho... needless to say, i'm not talking to them until maybe sometime after christmas....

i don't care

so it's bring you brat to work day today... i guess no one here really has any kids.... that or they're coming in late... i dunno...

i'm still a little sleepy... looking forward to tonite, got the self defense course tonite, i'm kinda sore from last nite tho, trained in aikido for an hour and it was a pretty good class, then did kenjutsu for another hour and a half after that... that was a pretty good class too... mostly i think due the partner i had... he was more used to good training

work's alright... moving my app to staging... that's about all that's going on... we'll see what goes on next... oh and I FINALLY get to go on training that I want and that's useful to me... like seriously i've been here 3 years and received nothing but useless crap... so i'm pretty happy about that...

really thinking about extending my back tattoo too now... i know it was kinda painful, i have a pretty sensitive back... that and i'm just a sensitive guy all-round... and it's seeming to turn into a full back piece, and i think i've got the design nailed down... now i just want to refine it... been looking online for lots of reference pics, and found quite a few... it's just a matter of me drawing it up... kinda excited

so lately i've been starting to feel un-inspired at work... it's like, i've got a deadline coming up and i've got no motivation to work. it's not like i dislike the project, i quite enjoy it actually... the clients are really nice people, and my manager isn't breathing down my neck for status reports and crap like that... i dunno, i guess i just don't really feel like doing this for the rest of my life... or atleast for the next 5-10 yrs...

i think ideally, if i could train in martial arts, and teach (and travel and teach).... life would be good...

on the flip side... i'm really looking forward to this weekend, sunday i get to practice sword cuts on some nice soft targets... well pumpkins really... 3rd year doing it and it's lots of fun... i got a new katana, and i'm really looking forward to christening it... i've really been focusing on my cuts these days, really trying to get that nice strong/powerful straight cut... we'll see if the practicing has paid off... you can tell when the cut's done properly when you cut through the pumpkin, and the thing doesn't move and slowly slides apart... kinda like in an anime...

also, lately i've really been getting along with izzy's brother... we've been playing lots of halo3 online... we generally do get along, and he's only annoying when he's talking shit and saying how the world's against him and he's the best at everything... luckily online you only have to talk to him for 10% of the time... the rest is on the battlefield (in my crosshairs) j/k we usually play on the same team... besides, i'm not that good at the death matches... usually by sticking with him i atleast get to be on the winning team, and i get the experience bonus =P

okay... i really need to poopie...

mmm not much going on today... this'll probably be much like my last post...

pretty bored at work... not that I don't have work, but I just don't have the motivation to do any of it...

had breaky with a new gang of thugs.... err... people i work with... one of them's leaving at the end of this month... kinda sucks, i learned quite a lot from him, so i'll miss him

other than that... i think i've got the idea i'm looking for to expand my tattoo on my back.... should be sweet... i'll start drafting designs, and i'll post.... we took a pic of my back to get proportions, so i'll probably go into photoshop and just draw on that pic... there's an idea...

looked up a bunch of people from work on facebook... yay facebook... no not really... i just enjoy minor distractions while at work...

yay...

so had some breaky with the usual gang, went to the usual spot... Dunns, on bank and albert...

been back at work for about an hour now.... i'm pretty bored... nothing really much to do... boss is gone, new build went up... suppose i can continue working on the bug list... been playing minesweeper for the past 40 mins or so...

i just really want to go home now...

maybe i can go grab a coffee...

okay really... the idiot contractor who sits next to me really bugs me. all he does is talk on the phone in stupid russian, and talk to some other lady in stupid russian.... and really loud too... his fucking cell phone rings at least 10 times a day and REALLY loud... loud like you'd be able to hear it at the back of a crowded 95 and he was at the front loud...

and everytime i past by his cubicle (on my way out of the room) he's fucking surfing the internet....


fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

ooow

So I had this meeting on Monday. The whole purpose was to discuss bug/fixes required for my current application to be up and running when released into maintenance mode.

Yeah, this was about the most unproductive 2hrs and 20mins I had in a long time. Basically it boiled down to: "Give it to Justin to do..." could had called in sick that day and the end result would have been the same... mind you I left shortly after that cuz I was actually sick.

Which brings me to today... I had something to say, but I turned around to take a bite of my sandwich and forgot completely...

hmmm... can't quite remember... ah well next time maybe

toodles

i'm so wasted.... okay maybe not anymore... but lunch was great... needless to say, it's Alexander Keith's b-day today... 212 yrs.... go Cock 'n Lion for suckering us in to winning free stuff.... now if you only delivered on that promise...

Okay, so I finished the game last night. It was about 7-8 hrs playing time... includes dying every now and then... there are a couple of difficult spots. I bet if I played on easy, I'd finish in about 4-5 hrs. Needless to say, I'm slightly disappointed. I mean, it's a good game and all... just VERY short. It seems that the whole emphasis is on multiplayer... with all the "cool" new features they've added. Y'know... they really should have made that part a downloadable feature to save disc space so they can have more story. PS3 definately had it right... with only 7 gb of space, it's really hard to cram in a nice long story arc, with movies, and all the multiplayer stuff in there, as opposed to the 50 gb BluRay disc.

Anyways, well the ending kinda sucks. I really must say, it's VERY anti-climactic... mind you, it does wrap things up and leaves room for another Halo game/story arc. So I guess they did it right in that respects... people will right books/graphic novels and Bungie will make a fortune.

Right now, I'm playing it over on Legendary, which is crazy hard... maybe there'll be a slightly extended ending.... hopefully...

we'll see

I have feet!! And I can shoot them!!

Well, I must say I'm very disappointed to hear that Stranglehold will not be released on PS3 until mid-october? Like really... can you (PS3) get you shit together and release anything on time? XBox360 does... why can't you? Also, what is this bullshit that the Special Edition of Stranglehold won't be sold in Canada... or atleast that's the current story. Apparently Hard Boiled wasn't licensed to be sold on BluRay in Canada, but it is in the States?? like really wtf?! Note, they also took it down from the Futureshop website... I wonder what would have happend if I had pre-ordered it. Anyways, needless to say, i'm very disappointed at this news. I may as well just buy it for the 360 since it came out almost a month ago...

Anywho... more important news. Uh... Halo 3 rocks... it's quite a lot of fun. All the characters are super detailed, and the levels (albeit somewhat short) are nicely detailed as well. The AI is definately harder, I'm playing on normal for now and I'm dying in many places... although sometimes I indeed do some dumb things... like run out into a pack of Brutes with out checking things out first. Guilty Spark's nicely rendered too, he's got some real-time reflections, and same with the water effects. It behaves accordingly when you (or someone else) runs through it. They've greately improved the draw distance, and the detail in alot of the background elements are nicely done. And not to mention the load times, they did a really good job with that, they're nice and quite and don't impede in the gameplay. You really only see the load screen between chapters.

Anywho... more to follow, perhaps when I finish the games... there be spoilers most likely...

now if only i can speed up time so i can leave work earlier...

Okay, so well unless you've been living under a rock for the past 48 hrs (at least), everybody knows that Halo 3's out today. My copy is coming in the mail hopefully today. Well, it's in Ottawa at least, so in theory it should be out for delivery later today.

But here's the real question, is it going to live up to the hype? Well, I certainly hope so... I don't really have any doubts, I'm just a little concerned with how they're planning on ending the "saga". For some reason, my intuition is telling me that Master Chief may actually get killed... I hope not, I'm personally a fan of good endings. Who knows maybe Master Chief will be in quite the bind, and his other Spartan buddies show up. Well should be interesting nonetheless.

I'm likely to post something when I get it, and then finish it...

But in the midst of all the Halo hype, I'm also looking forward to getting the game Stranglehold. I've really been paying attention to that game for quite a while. It's a collaborative effort of John Woo (Hong Kong/Hollywood action movie director) and Chow Yun Fat (Hong Kong/Hollywood action movie star). They're reprising their respective roles for the first "true" sequel to the movie Hard Boiled. This game mimic's John Woos' famous gun play style, and is very Max Pain-ish, which ironically enough is a throw back to the movie Hard Boiled... funny how these things run full circle. Anywho, the game came out beginning of Sept on the 360 and PC, and is actually out today for PS3. I'm definately going for the PS3 version, it comes with the original movie on BluRay. I'm looking forward to that for sure, I haven't seen the movie in ages, it came out in 92, and I think I only saw it when I was finishing High School.

So lot's of gamage to play...

oh and for Izzy...
Dear Hummanity,
We regret being alien bastards.
We regret coming to Earth.
And we most certainly regret the Corps blowing up our raggedy-ass fleet!

Hoorah!

So I've finally gotten my ass in gear, and signed up for Aikido lessons. I've really been meaning to ever since I moved in to my current apartment, since it's really just down the street. I really wanted to do it earlier but then I had my laser eye surgery... which got put off till recently... and then I didn't want to start and then stop for a while, while i recovered... so now I'm gonna finally start.... again...

Really, this is my 3rd time strying to start up Aikido... I started up when I was first going to Ottawa U, and did it for about 4 semesters... Then I left there and left Aikido. Started it back up again while at my last apartment(again at Ottawa U), but left after the session ended cuz I didn't like how they trained... they kept sticking me with beginners or complete idiots or with someone who really didn't want to be there (to which i'm confused at why they're there in the first place)... anywho, they wouldn't let me train with the advanced people... so i ended up leaving... i mean, it's not that i'm an advanced aikido-ist, but really, i'm no beginner... i've been training in martial arts for more than half my life, and i think i've done the basic moves more than 2000 times (the minimum req'd amount for muscle memory)... i mean, i teach people how to do the basic stuff!! apparently the teach didn't really care... well it's her class so... she makes the rules... so i left

at this new place, the sensei told me that he'll never stick 2 beginners together and that i'll usually have the opportunity to train with someone more advanced (determined by the number of people training) which is good... atleast i'll be able to train at the level i want to... and not have to dumb it down cuz my partner doesn't know how to step forward with their left foot...

anywho... so yay for aikido

Okay, well work's picked up a bit now, but atleast I get to do some more enjoyable stuff. They stuck me on a project that's nearly complete, and they just really need me to make things look pretty... works for me, apparently I'm good at that stuff...

so that's good!

sooo.... here we are... third day back from my 1 month break... maybe I can actually start working?

what a novel idea... *sigh*

so apparently they're supposed to be hiring my exact double... first thing that comes to mind...

"Oh my god! This man's my exact double.... oh my god! There's a dog with a curly tail!"

...

go homer!

So here I am, at work... after a month off, I'm ready to go... however, what do I find... both my bosses/supervisors are gone!! One called in sick, and the other "might" be on vacation?

So no one's here to tell me what to do, so I'm thinking of asking the big boss if I can just go home... likely he'll say no tho...

like wtf?? no one left word of what i'm to do... great... just great