Magic Wand: From my head to yours

2007-11-07T10:18:00.001-04:00

I haven't posted in while. The main things that have happened since my last post are that we have moved in to our condo and that I started working as an Intern Meteorologist at Environment Canada. I'll probably post a more complete update over the next week or so.

I've setup this link blog (here's the RSS feed for those of you who use news aggregators), in which I will share a dozen or so news articles each day that I find worth sharing. The headlines will also appear on the left sidebar of my blog. Feel free to comment on the articles!

New Haircut

2007-07-26T16:35:00.000-03:00

Well, it seems that summer's finally arrived in Halifax which means it's time for a haircut. Normally I would just get a buzz cut, but my hair had gotten so long that I think I should take advantage of that and get a style put in. So I googled some places near here and found a place in downtown Halifax on Sackville. I brought a few pictures from my previous post. It turned out ok I think. What do you think?

Well, it seems that summer's finally arrived in Halifax which means it's time for a haircut. Normally I would just get a buzz cut, but my hair had gotten so long that I think I should take advantage of that and get a style put in. So I googled some places near here and found a place in downtown Halifax on Sackville. I brought a few pictures from my previous post. It turned out ok I think. What do you think?

Robin Hood

2007-07-26T11:04:00.000-03:00

Susan started watching this show (it's pretty entertaining) and finds the main character hot and things I should get a hair cut like him. What do you think?

Random thoughts and links

2007-07-13T08:25:00.000-03:00

I've been bookmarking interesting links for a while now and I thought I'd share some.

Anyone who's ever played the computer game Worms should get this. Here's another one about Zelda. VGCats have some pretty funny comics, although I don't get a lot of them.

Remember this? Brings back memories...

Has anyone watched Bruce Campbell's new show Burn Notice? I haven't yet, but I plan to. I'll watch anything with Bruce Campbell actually. It appears to be a hit.

Here's a little groaner for Monty Python fans and one for Star Wars fans.

I read an article a while back about Evil Dead / Spiderman director Sam Raimi opting to produce a mini-series about the very popular Novel series Wizard's First Rule Terry Goodkind. Awesome!

Looking to adopt kids? Because these kids are most certainly up for adoption now!

A few weather links: Here's a picture of a tornado that touched down not far from Winnipeg. A picture of something called Night Shinning Clouds. No one really knows what they are, but I guess they are observed more and more frequently. Here's a CBC article about recent snowfall in Argentina that Nate sent me. Next a video of a dust devil interrupting a soccer match. Note that a dust devil is not a tornado. And finally, an article about a swarm of flies so large, that it visible by radar.

Warning: The following contains BattleStar Galactica Season 3 spoilers. Do not read or follow any these links if you haven't seen all of Season 3.

Can't wait until 2008 for season 4 of Battlestar Galactica? Well get your fix in November with the feature movie BSG: Razor. From the preview, it looks like the story is going to revolve around Adm Cain and the Pegasus.
In case you forgot how season 3 ended, click here to watch the last 4 minutes of the season finale.
The song played in the finale is an adaptation of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower. You might notice that the involved characters used some of those lyrics at certain points in the episode. Are the lyrics hinting at things to come? See what some of those actors had to say about the recent turn of events. It turns out that the Final Five may not have so much in common with the rest of their brethren.

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Canada Day in Halifax

2007-07-11T10:54:00.001-03:00

I meant to post this a bit earlier, but blogger doesn't have the easiest interface for arranging lots of pictures in a post.

Susan and I had a good time on Canada Day, and I thought I'd write about it. I had a full day of activities planned out, so we got up at 6:00am that morning and were out of the door by 7am.

The first thing on our agenda was free pancakes in Dartmouth's Alderney Landing. We made our way to the ferry terminal.

It turns out that the ferry didn't run for another while yet, so we ended up taking the bus across the bridge instead. After standing in line for 45 minutes, we finally got to eat our pancakes! Yum!

Some website said that there'd be a farmers market as well, which is why we went all the way to Dartmouth for the pancakes. Otherwise we would have stayed in downtown Halifax, where they also had free pancakes. There wasn't much of any type of market though. We spent a bit of time on the harbour before catching a bus back. Here are some pictures. You know what they say the best thing about Dartmouth is...right? ;)

Next on our list was to visit the Halifax Citadel, which was free for Canada Day. On our way up the hill, we got a close up view of the clock tower, which I guess had people living in it up until 50 years ago or so.

These pictures were taken on the bridge just before the entrance to the fort.

Every hour they have a changing of the guard. These guys stand guard for one hour, then get a 2 hour break. The real guards had to stand post for 2 hours then got 4 hours off.

Once inside the Citadel, you can walk around and look inside rooms and see how the guards and prisoners lived there. You can walk the walls and get a great view of the city. There's also a military museum which I found very interesting.

We spent a quite bit of time on the walls looking down at the people below. They had the Tattoo Choir and some military band playing.

The view from atop the wall is pretty amazing. Without the buildings blocking the way, the old time guards would have had a perfect view of the harbour, which is the point of the Citadel I guess :P I learned later on in the tour that the Halifax Citadel never actually had to defend the city. Most attackers failed long before, never making it to the Citadel's firing range.

Beware! The Citadel employs an old lady who runs around blowing a whistle and yelling at people who get too close to the edge of the wall.

After our tour of the Citadel, it was lunch time. We picked a spot on the hill and had a little pick nick while watching the Canada Day parade. It wasn't all that interesting, mostly different army divisions marching. No floats.

Even the lingerie store was getting into the Canada Day and Tattoo Festival spirit!

After our lunch, I had planned a surprise event for Susan...

We went to see a musical production of the Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I like musicals and we had a copy of the VHS movie at home when we were kids so I enjoyed the show quite a bit. It's pretty much a live version of the cartoon with a few extra scenes and songs. It was a bit over the top but still lots of fun.

After the show we decided to go home for some rest and supper before the fireworks. Along the way we walked by the Nickelback concert. There were a whole lot of people.

Our day ended with fireworks at the harbour. I thought the show was pretty good. Better than most I've seen, with the exception of the ones at Disneyworld of course :)

Well, that sums what our Canada Day in Halifax. What did you do on July 1st?

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Summer time!

2007-07-07T10:01:00.000-03:00

Whew! It's been since September since I posted anything significant here! There's a bit to catch up on.

School
Well I passed all my courses: 1xA, 1xA-, 4xB+, 2xB, and 2xB-. 5 of my courses I got on par with the class median grade, 4 courses I got 1 above the median and 1 course I got 1 below. I'm pretty happy with that. I am now officially a Meteorologist! Well one that not currently doing meteorology for a living anyway. Soon though...

Work
Back in February I applied for a job at the Meteorological Services of Canada. Well I got the job and it starts September 5th. I'm super pumped! Too bad it didn't start sooner though. Some of my friends got a job with AMEC which started a few weeks ago. The only catch it you have to move to St. John's for 6 months :P So I decided to stick with MSC. In a few years I'd like to go back and work on a Masters degree. We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime I have to work at a sucky job. I'm currently working at a call center answering calls for Rogers Home Phone. It's not really that bad I suppose. It's better than a lot of other jobs. But it doesn't compare to what I'll be doing in September.

Condo
Susan and I decided to buy a Condo. Our reasoning is that renting is a big waste of money, since you never see that money again. Our minimum monthly payment on the condo is less than what we pay now, but we intend to overpay so we can clear out our mortgage faster. We got it for about $10k-15k less than what the other condos were selling for because it's somewhat run down. We intend on repainting, taking out the carpet and putting in laminate flooring. We figure this should bring the price back up to that the other units. Also property value in the area increases approximately 5% per year. So we should make money on this even if we're there for less than 5 years. And even in the off chance that we loose money on the condo, we still won't loose as much as if we had wasted it all on rent during that same time period. Probably.

Let's look at some pictures:

This is the view from outside. Ours is the one with the open door.

Here's the dining room and the kitchen. See how there's two entrances to the kitchen? In all the other units the right entrance doesn't exist. I guess whoever lived here wanted to open it up a bit. Eventually when we have money again, we plan on maybe building a counter there with a few bar stools in the dining room.

The living room. Notice the fireplace :) They use to supply the firewood for free (included in the condo fees) but they don't anymore because the people that didn't take advantage of this didn't like subsidizing everyone else.

The balcony. It's not a bad view. Across the highway there's a walking trail where they used to have railroad tracks. Just left of that walking bridge is a Superstore, but you can't see it in the picture.

The bedrooms. These are upstairs.
This is going to be the visitor/spare bedroom.

This is the main bedroom. It's basically one big bedroom split in two by French doors. We're thinking of making one into a small computer/tv/living room and have our bed in the other room.

From the other side of the French doors:

That's basically it. There's a washroom with a bathtub on both floors. Washer and dryer are a bit old and so we'll probably upgrade those eventually.

We're currently deciding what colours to paint. I might post some more pictures once the renovations are done.

Miscellaneous
What else have I been up to? Well I watch a lot of TV. My favourite shows are Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Lost, Heroes, and The Dresden Files. These are all currently off season though. Right now I'm watching Big Brother Australia, Big Brother US, and Pirate Master (getting kind of boring). I'm also currently going through the second season of Stargate SG1 which I have on DVD.
Recent video games purchase: Final Fantasy XII, Guitar Hero II, and God of War II.
We go to the movies pretty much every week. I recently saw Pirates 3 and The Fountain which I thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to Transformers and Harry Potter.
I've been on a reading binge for the past few months. Books that I've recently read which I heavily recommend are: Old Man's War, Accelerando, The Wayfarer Redemption.
I might start posting regular blurbs about recently viewed movies and books.

Well I think this post is long enough. It should be, it took me a good chunk of the day to write. I'll probably have a productive blog posting spurt over the next few weeks, so keep checking back!

Jay

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Great Comic

2007-01-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

http://www.xckd.com/c59.html

So it turns out this comic strip is really good. Check out the rest! Genius!

Hilarious

2006-12-21T13:25:00.000-04:00

http://www.xckd.com/c123.html

Find the error....

2006-12-17T21:48:00.000-04:00

Something in this picture (my Christmas tree) does not belong....

Fun night!

2006-09-16T03:32:00.000-03:00

So today was the Physics Society AGM (annual General Meeting). There was a free BBQ. We voted on a number of issues on the constitution. It was all fun. The nice thing about DUPS: they have a liquor license in the room. That's right, every Friday or two, the fridge is stocked and it's perfectly ok to drink in the physsoc for 2$/beer.

Around 8pm or so (the meeting started at 5pm) things started to wind down and the few of us that were left made our way to the CS building. They have some kind of lounge/bar in the basement. They have a GameCube hooked up on a projector with Smash Bros and other games. We ended up and "Joe's" or something. I can't quite remember now. Maybe it was "Tom's". It's basically a smoking bar, where you can buy tobacco and cigars. I remember having to go to the washroom and having a pretty hard time finding my way back to the table. The washroom is shared between 2 or 3 bars so I was pretty confused. Eventually I found my way back. We ended up at one of the girl's apartment downtown. Her roommate has this record spinning studio, where they spin vinyl records mix in different beats. He has a huge collection. It was pretty cool. After an hour or so we left and started making our way back uptown. I don't know Halifax all that well, but it's very strange how you can find your way home no matter how drunk you are.

The DUPS people are super nice. I had some fun discussions that usually tend to happen when a bunch of physicists get together (science, religion, sci-fi).

Anyway it's 3:45am and I made it home (bars close a lot later in NS!). Not looking forward to tomorrow's hangover.

3rd day of classes

2006-09-11T16:57:00.000-03:00

Well it's been a week-and-a-half since I moved to Halifax. I think I'm going to like it here. It's definitely cooler than Ontario. The university is pretty neat. I still get turned around a bit on campus though. I'll have to come in early some day to figure out the shortest routes between my classes.

Today was the first day of Atmospheric Dynamics. It looks like this will mainly be a fluid dynamics course. We spent most of the class doing a review of vector calculus (div, grad, curl in several different coordinate systems) which is good because I needed that refresher.

I was going to go and buy that $185 book today, but it turns out that the Book Store didn't order enough and now it's out of stock until Sept 28th. Sound like any other university book store you know? Anyhow, the prof lent his book out to a few of us so we could copy the first few chapters. I'll probably try and get it via Chapters or Amazon or something....

It turns out that FORTRAN and Matlab are not installed on most campus computers. I talked with the Computer Help Desk and they say that I can access a FORTRAN compiler on the UNIX machine. That sounds like too much trouble to me. On top of learning FORTRAN, I would have to learn UNIX and VI commands. They said that Matlab is installed on only one lab on campus. I'll have to go check that out and try out a basic program to see how it works. Once I figure out how it does stuff like if, then, else, while, for, etc, I should be ok.

Susan sent me an email from home which means that we must have internet now! Not that it's been too boring with all the unpacking we had to do. There is still lots, but a lot of it is done. The apartment is still a mess though.

Oceanography

2006-09-08T14:35:00.000-03:00

I had two oceanography classes today.
physical Oceanography seems interesting. I've never taken this material before so it should be a fun learning experience. The professor is quite something. If I had to compare him to a prof I've had before I would say he is most like Stephen Ross.
The other class is Numerical Modeling. I hated Numerical Methods at UNB. Hopefully this course will be better. I'm going to have to brush up on my programming. The prof would like us to use either C, Fortran, or Matlab. I used Matlab a bit at UNB, but not enough to remember anything. I did a course in Java, but he didn't seem to keen on us using that. I suppose I'll give Fortran a try since it seems to be the one people tend to use the most.
I ran in to Clark in my classes today. He his working on his PhD in physical Oceanography and he was in both of my classes.

Synoptic Meteorology

2006-09-07T14:01:00.000-03:00

I haven't been to all my other classes yet, but I think this will turn out to be my favorite. It's a 2.5 hour class (twice a week) which is basically talking about weather patterns and maps. The first part of the class is a lecture, the 2nd is a hands-on lab, and the third is a map discussion of today's weather and how they came up with today's forecast. The first term covers mostly observations and analysis while the second term will be on diagnosis and forecasting. The course is not taught by a Dalhousie instructor but by someone from Environment Canada.

Hello Nova Scotia!

2006-09-07T10:47:00.000-03:00

Well I am here. The move went as well as expected with the exception of a delay with our furniture which should actually be arriving today. I am currently writing from the library on campus.

We arrived in Halifax around 10pm on Friday. Artemis was ok with the travel but Nike meowed and howled anytime she was in motion. On take-off she let out this blood curdling scream I had never heard a cat make before. I actually thought it was a small child throwing a tantrum for a second or so. Once we got to cruising altitudes she calmed down a bit.

Our apartment is nice. It's a 2 bedroom but somewhat smaller than the one we had in Guelph. The beauty of it though is the location. Our building is attached to the Quinpool Market, which has a Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Wendy's, and Rogers Video among other things. We don't really even have to exit the building to get to the grocery store. Also the building is about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, and 30 minute walk from downtown.

Nathan and Rebecca came to see us on Saturday. They had some shopping to do and showed us around town. During the evening we played Settlers of Catan which is a pretty fun board game. It's strategy, but pretty easy to learn.

The rest of the week we spent time by sleeping, playing my Nintendo DS Light, and going out for walks. Downtown is pretty fun. I'll definitely have to bring my Ontario friends there if they ever visit.

Had my first class today. Atmospheric Physics I. It's actually an intro Thermodynamics course. I'm pretty happy about that. Since I've gone through 2 of these courses at UNB, it should help me ease back into Physics.
I got in the class room about 15 minutes early. I was the first one there. The next three other people to come into the class were all girls. At this point I'm wondering if I'm in the right class or not. I mean at UNB, the number of girls in an advanced Physics class averages at 1, maybe 2. It turns out that in this class about 9 or 10 are girls our of a total of 15. Crazy!
I was a bit taken aback by the price of the textbook for this class. It's $185+taxes at the campus book store. And it's only this little puny book with barely 400 pages! I'll have to see if I can find a cheaper copy online. It's "Atmospheric Thermodynamics" by Bohren and Albrecht.

Well, I should head home to have lunch and see if the movers have come yet. This afternoon I have a Synoptic Meteorology course followed by the lab.

Good bye Ontario!

2006-08-30T07:58:00.000-03:00

Well, that's it. We're moving out this week. We've got things mostly packed. The movers are coming in 2 hours. After their gone we have a few things to do: clean, buy a few supplies, get my driver's license renewed so I can get on the plane...

We have to be out of the appartment on Thursday evening, so we'll be staying at my friend Dawn's house with our two cats. She has two cats as well, so it should be quite the evening. Cats can get very mean when they get a stranger cats smell, even if they're locked in a seperate room. They tend to hiss and attack at pretty much anyone. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

We fly out of Toronto on Friday evening and should be getting at our apartment around 10pm or 10:30pm. Our phone will be hooked up on Monday with Eastlink. We would have had to wait until the following Friday had we gone with Aliant. It's incredible how much better Eastlink's service is. More about that on another post.

My classes start on Thursday ~~July 7th~~ September 7th. My classes for the first term are Intro Physical Oceanography , Numerical Modelling , Atmospheric Dynamics I , Atmospheric Physics I , Synoptic Meteorology I, Synoptic Meteorology I (LAB)

Second term: Atmospheric Dynamics II, Atmospheric Physics II, Synoptic Meteorology II, Synoptic Meteorology II, Radiative Transfer, Atmospheric Chemistry.

Yep, it's going to be a busy year! Hopefully Susan will find a job so I don't have to!

Anyway, I have to get to packing. I'll try to update in another week or so.

2006-08-19T01:03:00.000-03:00

Guy's website:
http://www.videogamepianist.com/

Check this out!

2006-08-19T00:52:00.000-03:00

Check out this guy and his Super Skills!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y64rhuGwB9k&NR

Doki Doki Panic

2006-07-20T11:56:00.000-03:00

Most serious gamer know that Super Mario Bros 2 wasn't originally intended to be a SMB game. The Japanese thought that the REAL SMB was going to be too hard for Americans and instead made some modifications to an existing game Doki Doki Panic and exported that as SMB2. The original SMB2 became known to us as Lost Levels (although I do remember playing a pirated SMB2 on the SNES when I was young, and it WAS lost levels).

Anyway, Slashdot links interesting article pointing out the differences between the two games.

Battlestar Galactica

2006-07-19T22:04:00.000-03:00

...The new show, not the one from 1978.

I would say this show is not only the best Sci-Fi on TV, but probably the best shows overall. I would recommend the DVDs to everyone. There's a 3 hour mini-series / movie and then it starts with episode one. It's a good drama, and the overall story arc is very well paced. I'm always satisfied with the information revealed in a show (unlike Lost), yet still excited for the next one . The space battles are just awesome and the effects are pretty good too. They're done by same group that did Firefly, which is another great Sci-Fi show (after I watched all the episodes, I bought the DVD and watched them all again). There's virtually no technobable or flashy scifi stuff (like Star Trek or Stargate). Like Firefly, the technology looks mostly like present day stuff, simply in space. I guess they call that "naturalistic Science Fiction".

Anyhow, you can look at a preview of the show at youtube. Here's the mini-series preview, and here's the teaser for Season 3.

You might recognize the blond hottie (Tricia Helfer) from Canada's Next Top Model. She's a really good actress and her character is also very interesting.

Lobster!

2006-07-19T21:52:00.000-03:00

I had some fresh lobster for supper tonight. It was good!! Hadn't had any in a year or two. I had some at a restaurant in Ontario, but it's just not the same over there. It's not nearly as good. I've met a couple of people in Ontario who've never had lobster. It would be interesting introduction someone to it. I've got to say, it's not the most graceful food to eat. I guess most people who like it were introduced to it at a young age.

Innocent looking bird...

2006-07-18T19:39:00.000-03:00

...Until it starts sucking on your blood!!

In New Brunswick...

2006-07-18T18:11:00.000-03:00

...but I almost didn't make it. I was taking GOTransit from Guelph to Pearson. The bus was arriving at 10:00am and the plane leaving at noon. The only problem is for some reason I missed my transfer in Brampton so I had to wait to get off in Toronto. From there I cabbed to the airport. It took me a little while to figure out that the driver dropped me off at the wrong terminal. I had to take a shuttle to the right one. It's 11:15am by this time. I finally made it to the luggage check line. It was HUGE and they only had one person servicing it. After a couple of minutes they asked if anyone was supposed to be on a flight for 12pm. There were a few of us and they let us skip the line. I made it to the gate at 11:40am, just as they started boarding.

The flight itself was really smooth. I was on one of those smaller planes (about 40-50 seats or so). Skies were clear all the way. I'm pretty sure I saw what I think was Fredericton as we flew over. It looked liked the St. John river, Westmorland and Princess Margaret bridges right before we started our descent.

My dad picked me up at the airport and we spent the night at my sister's who just started working as a nurse at the Moncton Hospital. Drove to Balmoral today. There wasn't too much traffic.

If anyone's in the area and up for something let me know. I've already talked to Dave who's up for some video games Thursday. Only problem is that might be the only time available for everyone up here to make it to the pre-wedding gathering. Oh well, well see.

I'll be in the Maritimes this week

2006-07-16T21:10:00.000-03:00

For anyone who doesn't know yet, I'll be moving to Halifax in order to study for my Diploma of Meteorology at Dal. Susan's on the lookout for a job, but she's not having much luck finding anyone who wants to hire someone with a Masters in Botany. If anyone knows of anyting, let us know.

The main reason for me going home this week is that 2 of my very good friends, Sebastien and Manon are getting married on the 22nd. I've known Manon since kindergarden and Sebastien since 7th grade. I'm going a bit early so I can spend time with family and friends that I haven't seen much since moving to Ontario. Frederictonians: If you have a bit of free time let me know and I might come down for a night or two.

After the wedding, I'll be catching a drive with 2 of my other very good friends Frank and Markita to Halifax where I'll be looking for apartments. Since I don't have a car, I'm looking for something fairly close to the university. Unfortunately, that means we're going to end up paying more. We're looking for a 2 bedroom under $900/month, since our income will be somewhat lower than what it is now. Most seem to be around 1000-1200 or so, but I found a few within our range.

This Video is Awsome!

2006-06-29T22:35:00.000-03:00

Pictures!

2006-06-29T01:11:00.000-03:00

Here are the pictures we took on our trip. There are currently no descriptions to go along with the pictures, I plan on adding those this week. We also took some with a submersible disposable camera but we haven't got those developed yet. I will add them to the gallery once we do.

Kodak Gallery.

No need to sign in, just click on the picture.

The cat just puked...

2006-06-29T00:14:00.000-03:00

...all over the floor. I hate it when they do that.

Anyway, Susan is in Montreal for the week. She's attending some sort of conference and giving a talk there. So I'm on my own which means I have more time on my hands, hence the updating. It also means I have to cook for myself! Susan and I have the household chores divided so that she does the groceries, cooking, and dishes where I do pretty much the rest. The reason for this is that she usually gets out of school at least an hour before I get out of work so it makes more sense that way. She usually does a pretty good job at keeping me well fed. On the other hand I'm sure she'd say that there are some improvements to be made on how well I keep the apartment tidy. Here's what a couple of days in the life of Jason. It's not very exciting. You've been warned.

Had a company BBQ on Sunday. Nothing too exciting. We were the first ones there.
Sat and chatted a bit. Then more people arrived. About 100 or so overall. Ate hot dogs and salad. Then they had games: Pie in the face, tug-o-war, water balloon toss. They were drawing a few prizes but I didn't win anything.

Got home around 5 or so. Sat on the balcony and read my book. I am currently reading Druid's Sword by Sarah Douglass, which is the final book in the Troy Game series. You might remember me mentioning this series last year. If you haven't read anything by Sara Douglass I would heavily recommend you do. She writes nice solid books. She does tonnes of historical research which makes it all the more interesting. The Troy Game is about Ariadne. You know, the girl who helped Perseus escape from the Labyrinth her brother the Minotaur? Well, if you know your Greek mythology, you'd know that Perseus thanked Ariadne by dumping her for her sister and then abandoning her on the first island they came by. The series deals with Ariadne's revenge and the consequences it has on future generations.

Anyway, back to the telling of my day. I had a few beers on the balcony while reading. I then came in to nap around 6. Slept until 9. Watched CTV and read until 12 then went to bed.

On Monday I did some groceries. Bought 1 kg of steak (enough for 4 days), broccoli, onions, chips, fries, mozza cheese, poutine sauce, 2 types of marinade, 4 cans of chunky soup. Got home around 7 or so. Put a load in the laundry. Tidied the kitchen a bit, cooked 1 steak 1/2 portion of Lipton Sidekick. Surprisingly enough, I ate a lot of steak last year when Susan was away as well. Steak was ok. I didn't marinade that one but put the rest in the fridge for the rest of the week. By the time I ate, showered, read a bit then went to bed. I stayed up late reading, probably went to sleep around 1am.

When I got home on Tuesday I cooked some steak and ate the other half of the
Lipton sidekick. The steak wasn't that good. It's too tough. I ate it anyway.
Put in a load of laundry. Spent a bit of time on the internet, then the rest of
the evening reading. I finished off tmy book. It was probably
12am by the time I was done and went to bed.

Today when I got home I did the dishes. I then cooked 2 more steaks and steamed the broccoli I had bought. This steak was tough as well. I ate one but didn't bother with the other and threw it out. It was REAL tough. I noticed that when I was marinating it, but I thought that maybe it would tenderize a bit while marinating. I guess not. I have 1 more steak left in the fridge and I'm debating whether I'm going to bother cooking it tomorrow. I probably shouldn't cheap out next time I buy steak. Anyway after I ate I cleaned up the dishes I had dirtied. Went on the internet, and here I am!

I'll probably do more groceries tomorrow even though I probably have enough food to last me until Susan get back. I want to do some real cooking. I think I'll make shepherd's pie. I'll get the groceries tomorrow but maybe I'll just make myself some poutine since it'll be late by the time I get home and then I'll save the good meal for Friday.

There you go. If you've been wondering what I've been up to in the past year, that's more or less how my days go. I usually watch more TV when Susan's around though. We also go to the movies every other week or so. Saw X-Men last week. I liked it but I'll save the discussion for another post. We'll most likely end up seeing LOTR: The Musical this summer. It didn't get that good of reviews but whatever.

Anyhow, time for bed.

Update

2006-06-29T00:06:00.000-03:00

Hey look at that. An update. And only a month after the last one too! Hrm. I should really update those sidebars...

Well, we're back from the DR obviously. It was fun. It's not really an exciting vacation, but it is fun and relaxing. It's one of those vacations that you don't feel more stressed coming back than you did leaving. Time didn't go by too fast and it was satisfying. I kept a travel log while away which I updated every day. I gave up on it half way through the vacation though. It was kind of time consuming to write all that stuff by hand and I was too lazy. I'll type it up at some point. Overall I enjoyed myself. I'd definitely go again. For variety's sake we probably won't do a resort for our next trip, but when we do I might try Mexico.

From the Caribbean

2006-05-28T13:17:00.000-03:00

Hola from the Dominican Republic!

We've been here since last Sunday, but just getting around to using the internet now. We're actually leaving today around supper time.

We flew in last Sunday. The flight was nice and smooth. We had 2 inflight movies, Chronicles of Narnia and Nanny McPhee.

As soon as the plane doors opened we could feel the humidity and heat, despite it being late in the evening. We had a 45 minute bus ride to our resort, the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro. Our hotel room is nice and big. The fridge is stocked with water, pop, and beer. Our room as a complimentary bootle of rum.

The water here is really blue, and the sand really white! There are many pools on our resort and they have swim up bars which are really nice. All the food, drinks, and alcohol is 'free' since it's included in our resort fee. I don't think I've ever drank so many 'girly' drinks before. The beer is ok, but it's light. They have so many different mixed drinks here that it's be a crime to pass them up! There's nothing like getting up in the morning, having breakfast, then going to the beach and sip on a Pina Colada or a Blue Hawaiian at 9am.

The food is ok for the most part. It's all buffet food. There's quite a variety to pick from, although I'm looking forward to home food and snacks. They also have "a la carte" restaurants. We get to pick 3 suppers. We picked French, Mexican, and Japanese. They were all pretty good, but my favorite was the Japonese.

We also went on 2 tours. One was a 'Safari' in which we're in a jeep like vehicle and take a day long road trip through part of the DR. It was great fun! We also went on a snorkling tour. A boat takes us out to the reef where we get to swim with fishes, sharks and stingrays. Both tours served us drink all day.

I've been keeping a travel log and I might transcribe that into my blog at some point.

My internet time is up, 6$/30 mins.

See ya later!!

Blog update?...Blog update!!!

2005-08-12T22:27:00.000-03:00

It is currently May 28th. Here's a post I started writting in August that I never finished nor published.
______________________________________________

Well, not *quite* a month since I last updated.

I'm kinda hung over right now....Why are you hung over at 9:30 in the afternoon you ask? That's because I've been drinking since noon today. You see, Snowbear, which is the company I work for, has this annual golf "tournament". And by "tournament" I mean let's drink a shitload of bear since the company's paying for it and "try" to hit the ball. Considering that Susan and I have about oh, about ZERO experiencing in golfing, "try" is an over estimation. Anyway, the highlight of golfing is driving those golfing carts while being drunk. Personally, I like zigzagin between the trees as if they were pilons in a driving test. It's quite entertaining. They have this "refreshment" cart that goes around the course once in a while, so you're never short of drinks. At the end of the day, we even had a steak supper paid for by the company. I had mine medium rare. They had a well done left over and no one wanted it so I had that one as well. At the very end of the evening, they were drawing prizes. I won a $50 cash card for Rogers and Susan one 2 tickets for the Blue Jays / Indian Games. First row seats. I think we got pretty good prizes. Especially since we were being paid our regular salary during the afternoon. Here are some pictures...

Links

2005-07-13T20:31:00.000-03:00

I know I know. It's been more than a week, and I said I would finish up my SW Concert review and I still haven't. The thing is, I'd have to sit down and spend time writting down a well thought out post, which I don't feel like doing right now. So the conclusion of the SW Concert review will be delayed until I have time to kill.

In the meantime, I highly recommend the following links:

http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/index.php/rant/single/moron_of_the_year/

http://www.entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,15912361-7485,00.html

http://www.eskimo.com/~spban/bread.html

~~http://www.nata2.info/humor/flash/bowman.swf~~
http://nata2.info/?path=humor

And I figure I should throw in an actual interesting link in here as well:

http://www.numberspiral.com/

Batman Begins

2005-07-04T16:20:00.000-03:00

Susan got back from Miami on Saturday which means I get to go to movies again, among other things. So we saw Batman Begins.

I have to admit that most of my Batman knowledge comes from watching Batman: The Animated Series when I was a kid. I loved that show! So I was pleasantly suprised to find Dr. Crane as one of the characters in the movie.

The car chase scene was enjoyable, but this is all I could think about while watching it! :P

Also, what's the deal with Liam Neeson playing all these mentor/father roles lately??

I could have done without the whole love thing with Rachel. It didn't really bring anything to the movie, but I guess you have to expect that of Holywood.

Overall, it was a good movie. he best the franchise has yet to offer in my opinion.

Star Wars Concert Review - Part I

2005-07-01T13:44:00.000-03:00

The show was pretty good! There's nothing quite like Stars Wars music being performed by an orchestra of 50+ musicians accompanied by a choir of at least 40 people.

The lights go out. To everyone's delight, the orchestra starts off by playing the Fox Fanfare. I have to say I would have been disappointed had they not. There's just something nostalgic about it. It gives me shivers almost every time I hear it.

Anthony Daniels then walks in, talks about Star Wars. We chuckle at his C-3P0 impressions. You have to wonder what the man is thinking. Does he think: "Man I hate my life, but hey, it pays the bills". Or does he do it because he enjoys it. I'm guessing it's the latter but who knows. Anthony's normal voice doesn't sound much like C-3P0's. To play the droid, he makes his voice higher. It's also modulated in the movies.

The remainder of the show consists of Anthony Daniels narrating the Star Wars movies from Episode 1 through Episode 6. At certain points in the story he will stop his narration to let the orchestra play. The narration is very general since it's only a two hour show, most of which is taken up by the orchestra. That being said, you still get a good feel for the story for all six movies

Lighting effects were also effectively used. The stage would be splashed in a specific colour, depending on the theme of the song. E.G., Tatooine = Yellow, Yoda = Green, etc. Nothing really flashy, but it really adds to the atmosphere

The orchestra was conducted by Erich Kunzel. He will also be conducting a repeat of the Star Wars concert in Cincinnati next week. I have to say that the Cincinnati version looks a lot more fun with lightsaber battles and aerial stunts. Although there's a bit of trade-off with the narrator I guess. Instead of Anthony Daniels they have Daniel Logan who plays the young Boba Fett in Episode II.

Next time on Star Wars Concert Review: An overview of the songs that were played.

RIP Google Theme

2005-06-30T00:13:00.000-03:00

Well it was a neat theme at first, but got old fast.
I'm changing over to this for a little while.
RIP Google Theme.

Star Wars Concert Review - The Preshow

2005-06-29T22:21:00.000-03:00

The concert was held at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. I guess this is usually where they usually hold these type of concerts. The building is pretty neat. It's a huge circular building. The lobby basically forms a ring around the actual auditorium. It's great to keep things from becoming too crowded during intermissions as people don't tend to pool in any particular place.

There were lots of people dressed up. I think most of them were part of the event but there were some fans too. The costumes were really good. I felt like I was at a Star Wars convention.

We had lots of Storm Troopers, Clone Troopers, and TIE Fighter pilots. Someone was dressed as Jek Porkins. Well ok, it could have been any Rebel Pilot, but his physique suggested this is what he was going for :P. There were some Imperial Officers and of course there was Darth Vader himself. They even had Artoo rolling about, beeping about and chasing kids. I think that was the coolest of the characters.

I've got to say I'm pretty proud of myself. I kept my composure and the SW nerd in me under control. I could feel it though. I know it's just people in costumes, but I couldn't help but being excited being surrounded by all these characters from the movies. It's a good thing I didn't have my camera I guess, I would have ended up with many embarrasing pictures.

Back from Toronto

2005-06-29T02:14:00.000-03:00

Well, I just got back from seeing the Star Wars concert. It was pretty good! I'll post something a bit more lengthy tomorrow...

In the meantime, take a look at the teaser for Peter Jackson's King Kong! It looks pretty good!

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Doctors 'find dead foetus in boy'

2005-06-26T19:10:00.000-03:00

I find myself compelled to report this.

I wonder if I had a twin....

I'm a mid-rank nerd

2005-06-26T12:35:00.000-03:00

Not bad. High enough to show good intellect, but low enough to imply that I might retain at least some social skills.

Speaking of nerds, has anyone watched Beauty and the Geek? (What the hell? TVTome changed their site? I liked the old one better...) Anyway it's pretty funny show...poor guys. Poor girls too!

So on Friday I had to ask my supervisor if I could leave work early on Tuesday to attend the Star Wars Concert. I didn't mention the exact reason of course, I just said I was attending a concert in Toronto. Of course she was curious as to who was playing. So I say it's some classical symphony music. "Oh yea? What kind". To which I reply:" Um... Star Wars...?". One person burst out laughing. I'm sure they were thinking: "Wow, what a nerd" :P I don't think any of them have even seen Star Wars.

Hehe oh well, at least I don't go to country music concerts :P

Eye of Sauron?

2005-06-25T11:56:00.000-03:00

What is this picture? Although it looks like the Eye of Sauron, it's actually something real.

Nope, it's a newly formed solar system. Neat, huh?

The New Look

2005-06-24T08:09:00.000-03:00

Welcome to look! I didn't really like the old skin and whatever changed I had made to it didn't translate over well to Firefox, which a lot of people use. So I decided to look for a new one. When choosing a skin, you are not limited by what's offered by Blogger. You can of course make your own, but there are plenty of websites out there with already made skins that you just need to copy/paste into the dashboard template. I think I'll keep this one for a little while.

Warning!

2005-06-23T20:14:00.000-03:00

If you are updating your template and you suddenly hit ESC (just because you hadn't used the button in a while so you thought you'd give it some attention), all changes made will be lost! In my case this mean I'm going to go get another beer or two and start over....grrr....

YELLOW

2005-06-23T18:37:00.000-03:00

The colour yellow has been brought to you by:

Dave

and

Ali

YELLOW

You are very perceptive and smart. You are clear and to the point and have a great sense of humor. You are always learning and searching for understanding.

Find out your color at Quiz Me!

Ha! Told you it wouldn't be purple!

This is what you should see when you look at my blog!

2005-06-22T21:09:00.000-03:00

Sidebar

2005-06-22T19:49:00.000-03:00

I've updated some of my links on the sidebar, and I've added a list of blogs that I regularly check. I wasn't going to add Dave's, but I kinda have to now since he's added me on his.... j/k ;) Anyway if you want your blog listed, let me know!

omygodomygodomygod!

2005-06-21T20:30:00.000-03:00

SOAD IS PLAYING IN TORONTO on SEPT 1st!!! I can honestly say that no matter what the ticket price is, I will be going to that show.

Being so close to Toronto is great, if expensive. Next week I'll be attending the Star Wars Concert, narrated by Anthony Daniels. I will be going by myself, and the ticket wasn't cheap, but who am I to pass up on seeing Star Wars music being played by a full-fledged live orchestra??

El Cheapo Camerrra

2005-06-16T23:20:00.000-03:00

So I mentioned that I wanted to by an inexpensive camera so I could take pictures while Susan's gone. I find this one at Zeller's for like $20. It's pretty simple and I figure you can't go wrong for $20. If it would work that is. I made two mistakes here:

1. I did not read the instructions before using it
2. Had I read the instructions I would have seen the warning: "Do NOT plug camera into computer before installing drivers!".

It's kind of stupid, but whatever. So now, no matter what I do, the program won't detect my camera. I've followed the Troubleshooting, but it doesn't work. The only thing I haven't tried is this "Run Clear Registry". It makes it sounds as if it's a program that came with the package, but it's not. Regardless, I've combed through the registry and deleted any reference I could find to the camera or it's software. No results. Well, I decided I can't be the only once who's done this before, maybe I can email them and ask. So I fill out their form and send it. A few minutes later, this is what I receive in my mailbox:

Reporting-MAT: dns;BAYC1-PASMTP03.cez.ice
Received-From-MAT: dns;JASON
Arrival-Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:58:33 -0700

Final-Recipient: rfc822;info@sharkcamera.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 5.1.1 ... User unknown

Oh well, guess I got shafted. Any suggestions?

Hofstadter's comment on Godel's Theorem

2005-06-16T22:05:00.000-03:00

Undecidable propositions run through mathematics like threads of gristle that criss-cross a steak in such a dense way that they cannot be cut out without the entire steak's being estranged.

Douglas Hofstadter

I'm not too sure what that means, but here's my take on it: There are lots of singularities in math and to try and take them out is impossible and would be a bad thing anyway because then we will have destroyed all of our steaks in the process.
So beware!

I've had to fend for myself since Susan's been gone. She usually does the groceries and cooking while I do the dishes, laundry, and other cleaning... mostly anyway. So I've been eating lots of Kraft Dinners and Lipton Sidekicks and stuff which are easy to make. About once a week or so I'll cook something a bit more complicated such as shepherd's Pie or Lasagna. This is time consuming and usually results in more dirty dishes, but I get leftovers for the better part of the week.

I've discovered the perfect ratio of Taste/Effort: steak. Now you can get some really good and tender steak's at the grocery store for $20 or so. But the $3-$5 steaks are still pretty good if you prepare them right. So yea, I've been eating steaks a few times a week since Susan's been gone. If I'm in a hurry I just slap some steak spice and I have supper within 10 minutes (I like my steak rare). If I'm not as lazy I'll experiment with some recipes and marinate the steak over night. I've found some pretty good sauce at the grocery store too.

Worse show on TV

2005-06-15T22:54:00.000-03:00

This has got to be the absolute WORSE show on CTV's lineup.

I usually like to have the TV on in the background when I'm on the computer or reading a book. I usually don't care too much what's on, as long as it's mildly entertaining. I would rather have pretty much anything else playing in the background than Dancing with the Stars. It's some [enter nationality] Idol knock-off but with dancers instead of singers. I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but when it's on I just have to turn the TV off (I only have one channel).

Cold Front

2005-06-15T22:34:00.000-03:00

Well the warm spell is finally over, with dewpoints going back below 15-20 degrees. There actually was a tornado warning for Guelph yesterday. I was on the bus to the mall to do some groceries and I hear on the radio that people should go inside and take shelter because a Tornado has been reported not too far from Guelph. It was bright and sunny out at the time. I was wondering whether I should head home or not. Meh, I figured it'll be a bit before the storm gets here yet. I should be safe enough in the mall. When I got there, I could see far away this HUGE Cumulonimbus. By the time I got back out of the mall it was overcast but not raining yet. There were no tornadoes. Quite a bit of thunder and lightning though. I love that!

New Cat

2005-06-13T23:25:00.000-03:00

Since we're away for most of the day, we figured that Artemis could use a playmate. We read that taking care of two cats is not much more work than taking care of one. So on Saturday we decided to adopt another cat from the Guelph Humane Society.

1 - Friend in a box

2- Artemis Investigates

She was quite angry on the walk home. She was meowing furiously, wanting out. She would stick her paw out of her carrier and try to swat me. She also tried to chewing her way out, as seen in picture #1. Artemis was immediately curious. Once it was discovered that the newcomer was also a cat and possible contender for her ressources, Artemis proceeded to defend her territory. A lot of hissing and swatting ensued.

We named her Nike. We were going to go with Athena, but you should see the weird look people give us when we say one of our cat's name is Artemis (you wouldn't believe how so few people(none) know who Artemis is) and we'd figure we go with something simpler. Now people just assume we named her after the shoe company, which is fine by me since it requires less wasting of my time explaining something that people don't care about in the first place. Besides, the shoe company is actually named after the goddess of victory. That "swoosh" logo represents Nike's wing. I just learned that today while reading wikipedia.

3- Say "cheese" for the camera!

4 - The Shoe: A cat's best friend!

The hissing continued for a day or two. Artemis spent those days chasing and stalking Nike. Nike never really defended herself, appart from hissing. Artemis would pounce on her back and bite a bit. Nike would wiggle her way out and run away.

5 - Cats in shock after a forced bath

This is about the only time on the weekend that they didn't fight. I think a pure hatred of water is about the only thing the cats agreed upon that day.

As Artemis started accepting the fact the Nike was here to stay, things started getting a bit better. By the end of the day yesterday, Artemis would still pounce on Nike but she would lick more than bite...mostly. The hissing had ceased. By the time I got home from work today, things were even better. I took a break from playing Insaniquarium earlier this evening to find them both cuddling on the window sill in the spare bedroom. I had left the window opened a bit and so cooler air was blowing in. I guess they decided on a non-agression pact so they could share the spot. I would have taken pictures, but Susan took the camera with her to Miami. I think I may go and buy a real cheap one that I can use as a spare in times like these.

Actually now that they get along, it's even less work taking care of two cats than one since they entertain each other.

Insaniquarium!

2005-06-13T01:05:00.000-03:00

I don't think I've ever played such an addicting game. I've been playing the web version on and off over the past few years. Yesterday I decide to download the Deluxe version. You have like an hour of play. I DARE you to get the deluxe version and not pay the $20 afte your time is up. I couldn't resist, and it's well worth it. You get 2 more aquariums than the web version and the graphics are much better. I started playing at 3pm today and it's now midnight and I'm pulling myself away from the computer because I have to get up in 6 hours for work...

In other news, Susan left for her 3 week trip to Miami this morning. I'm somewhat of a loner, so I'll adapt fairly easy. I get to read a bit more, play a bit more video games, more time for my blog... I'll still miss her though :(

I've got tonnes of stuff to say but I guess I should spread it out over the week instead of making one big post and then not post for 2 weeks.

Hot Day!

2005-06-05T20:32:00.000-03:00

Finally nice weather is here! It's been warm all week, but today's been the best: 30C and 35C Humidex. I love it! I prefer cool nights though. I sleep best in a cold room with lots of blankets!

I've been having an uneventful week. Susan's been in Iowa for the past two weeks. She gets back tonight. I've spent most of the day cleaning the apartment so it's nice and tidy when she gets here.

We don't have cable so I just have one channel, CTV. They tend to mostly play Law and Order and CSI. It's not that I don't like the shows, but I'm starting to get pretty saturated with them. I think there's what, 4 different Law and Order s now? Add 3 CSIs to that and other cop shows such as Cold Squad, Cold Case, Sue Thomas FBEye. And these are only the ones that air on CTV.

A lot of the shows I normally watch I didn't because I normally follow them with Susan (Doctor Who, and anime such as: Tsubasa Chronicle, Sosei no Aquarion, Basilisk, and Naruto). Instead I've been watching old (and new) episodes of The Family Guy, The Daily Show, Conan O'Brian, and Bullshit(great show by the way).

I've also been doing some reading: Darkwitch Rising and Nameless Day both by Sara Douglass. I've also been re-reading the Shannara Series. Right now I'm in the middle of Wishsong of Shannara. I find Shannara good solid classic series. It's consistent, as opposed to Sword of Truth and Wheel of Time that start out really good with 4-5 books, but then just drag on, and on, and on...

International Readers

2005-05-30T20:56:00.000-03:00

So, I was surprised to have found a lot of people from other country went to my Blog today. I had a hits from the US, Ireland, Philippines, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia.

I wondered "what the hell"? I looked at the pages they came from and they're all other blogspot pages. I went to those pages and I didn't see any links to mine. Then I noticed that "next blog" button on the top left of the screen. So I figure they just came to my page at random.

There was one exception though. Someone had found my page by doing a search for "Doctor Who" on this webpage called Technorati. It searches the web for your keyword, sorting the entries by date. It's great if you're looking for recent discussions on a particular subject.

Doing a similar search myself, I came upon this interesting article on Daleks censorship.

The Star Wars Concert

2005-05-30T19:53:00.000-03:00

I'm a big fan of live orchestral music. Make that live orchestral Star Wars music and... well let's just say I might have to bring a lot of tissue.

Now normally Susan would come see this with me. The only problem is she'll be in Miami at the time. Having failed to meet any Star Wars geeks in Guelph, I'm faced with a decision: Be a true nerd and take the 1.5 hour bus ride to go see the show by myself (did I mention Anthony Daniels will be there?), or maintain some form of self-control (and perhaps dignity) and stay at home.

What do you think?

Doctor Who

2005-05-29T21:03:00.000-03:00

I love the new Doctor Who! This show is as hilarious as it is (at times) scary. I've never watched the old series. I remember seeing on YTV when I was a kid. I remember thinking it was kind of boring. Well, maybe I was too young to appreciate them or maybe they were really boring but regardless, the new series rocks!! Even if you know nothing about the old series, you'll still love it.

Basically there's this character called "The Doctor". He's part of an alien species who call themselves Timelords. I don't know much about them. I guess they do a lot of time traveling and stuff.

Anyway, The Doctor travels through space and time in the TARDIS. The TARDIS has this kind of cloaking device which enables it to camouflage itself as an ordinary object. The only problem is it's stuck as a 50's police box.

Another important plot device is that The Doctor can "regenerate". I'm not too sure of the specifics of this, but from what I can gather whenever The Doctor dies, he regenerates into a new body and gets a different personality. The current Doctor is in fact the 9th. The first 7 Doctors stared in the TV series (1969-1989), and the 8th Doctor stared in his own movie (1996) which from what I read sucked pretty badly.

Anyway, The Doctor appears to be the last of his species, the TimeLords. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case in the olds series. Something must have happened "in between series". They make mention of the Time Wars. The Daleks were somehow involved.

From what I've determined, other recurring bad-guys are the Cybermen, and The Master.

Make sure to watch Doctor Who on the CBC!

Doctor Who Links:
BBC's Doctor Who - The official page.
Outpost Gallifrey - The latest Doctor Who news.
A brief history of time (travel) - A list and synopsis of all the episodes. A prof. from MUN created this page.
Doctor Who Chronology - A very good read for people new to Doctor Who (like me).

HTML

2005-05-29T11:22:00.000-03:00

I'm playing around with the blog HTML template, so things might not be aligned properly today....

New Blog!

2005-05-28T14:22:00.000-03:00

Well everyone else seem to have a blog, so why not? I figure it's a good way to stay in touch since I hardly use MSN or email :P Like everyone else though, I imagine that I'll update my blog less and less over time until it dies. Oh well.

Well, nothing too exciting has happened to us since we've moved here. I've been to Toronto a few times. There's lots to do there.

Until a few weeks ago, I sort of let everything grow out. It was a bit warm for spring though, so I decided to go back to short.

A few weeks ago we got a cat. She is 11 weeks old and we named her Artemis after the goddess of the hunt( not the cat in Sailor Moon, even though we own all 5 seasons on DVD).

Hrm. Well that's it for this post. I'm sure I'll have something else to say later.