It's Thursday...and I have zero intention of actually doing anything at work today. Nothing more than the bare minimum! In fact, as long as nobody calls me to do something, I won't do anything! Not to mention I feel zoned out and I spent 20 minutes staring at a blank screen, but that's beside the point. At least work was nice enough to buy donuts for everybody, and there was a pizza lunch yesterday (and probably another one today).

One thing struck me though...with only half the people here today, everybody was commenting on how much more work they could get done than normal. Hmm....why not have a day like this every month? Each month half the employees (say those in the top half of the alpabet) are forced to take a day off. The next month those in the bottom half take a forced day off. Hmm...no, that's not a good idea...people might actually have a chance to catch up on work if we do that (although it would eliminate the need for floater days).

But enough of my thinking outside the box...I'm going to Blue Mountain tomorrow!!! Only one day away...just one more day!!!

I have a blog??? Well with the way I've been slacking on updates lately, that'd be a good question to pose to myself. So that begs the question, what have I been doing lately? Well lets see, I've been going out of my way to do as much nothing as humanly possible. So far so good. I got a pathetic 2 1/2 day work week coming up. Seriously, is it even worth it to ask office staff to come in for 2 days? Meh, working these two days is like a holiday for me anyway since the idiots took these days off. I had the option of using two vacation days here, but I said screw it. Common sense says you take days off when work is busy, not when it's dead and you worry about job secruity by doing a good job.

Oh yeah, I'm going to Blue Mountain for New Years eve this year, and unless your a special somebody, you're not invited!!!!

FUCK YOU MR. PLOW!

Seriously, that snow plow pisses me off sometimes. As soon as I finish clearing my driveway of the white stuff mother nature splashed on me, I get some dickwad with a large double double driving by me making my life more difficult! And what's worse, that fucker didn't even clear out the right turn lane! GRrrrrrrrrr!

So yes, fuck you Mr. Plow.

This is a highlight from a conversation I've had with my good friend Ed

You know you've been living in Brampton too long when:

Tech support from India no longer has an accent.

You feel out of place when you are in a room full of white people.

You think it's odd that none of your neighbours rent out their basements.

When people say your chicken wings are curry based

Ok...I'm not good at making these lists. I'm gonna leave my tagboard for that stuff. So what have I been up to? Well I've resorted to copy/paste methods for blogging. Seeing as if I'm typing up an e-mail people think I'm doing something work related, I've decided to blog in Lotus Notes. Ahh yes, Lotus notes, it would be great if it wasn't a resource hog! It's a love/hate relationship I share with it. I'll love it when I can make some money off it, until then, I hate it!

Played a quickie poker tournament last night. That's the last you'll hear of it. I haven't been doing too good these last two weeks (ran into some really bad luck). Guess I'll have to tighten up my play a little bit, maybe catch some guys sleeping or something. I still got some christmas shopping to do. I know I'm lazy but I'll get it done soon enough.

Lets not talk about the Lions. They found a way...to lose. As long as they stay healthy, next year will be their year!

Get Out of My Blog!

I am using blog buddy right now. This is just a quick experiment.

Amazing, boss went to a meeting at corporate today, and I got work done AND left on time. Weird.

On to other things, who hates the term "moving forward". Now, I thought that was just a company thing but I've heard Gary Bettman use it at least 10 times in his last press conference. WTF do you mean moving forward...is that supposed to impress us or something??? Phrases like that shouldn't be used because all it says is your company is falling backwards while you speak. Moving Forward should be assumed.

Moving forward on my blog...do you see how dumb that sounds?!? Ack...I hate the buzzphrase of the moment. I'm sure I can ramble on about phrases like that all day, but its not worth my time.

Spent another hour today listening to my boss complain how there's no time to do anything at the office. Hmm...if he worked half as much as he complained we'd be onto something. Meh whatever, I've been free of criticism the last week so I know I'm going to get a shitstorm later this week. That's just the way it is, so I'm not going to be too concerned with things when I get yelled at...probably say "blah blah blah, I'm busy, blah blah blah, lets get a co-op, blah blah blah. are there any strip clubs in Aurora?".

Lions season is down the drain. Let McMahon play, what's the worst that can happen, a QB throws inaccurate passes and we lose? Still no hockey...maybe next year. Raptors...well it goes to show that basketball shouldn't be taken seriously as a sport.

Damm...now I wanna play some more poker. I've been picking up my tournament play a bit lately. Ever since I made the decision to play fewer hands more agressively and totally ignored trying to bluff. I've also been fortunate that people have called my all-ins when I'm holding the best hand on the table. I feel like I'm ready to go back to a casino to play. When is Casino Niagara going to get some poker tables???

That is all...don't forget to shave kids. You know who you are!

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the lack of logic in workplace. Case in point, a smoker can take 5-5mintute smoke breaks during the day and not face any punishment. That's 25 minutes of lost productivity. But don't you dare show up 2 minutes late, because that's worse than the other 23 minutes your buddy is smoking.

Or my favorite my boss:

8:15am
8:15:05am
Stu, do this, make sure inventory is done, do that, make sure this is done, order this, ordert that
9:00am

9:30am
Boss: Getting inventory does in a #1 priority, you have to finish it by today
Boss: I can't belive how much
10:45am

I'm not kidding either....I go through the same routine every day...at least 3 hours a day is spent listening to that guy talk to me about how I have to get things done...well at least it beats actually doing work.

I need to sleep more. That is all.

It's nice to see people are using my tag board once again (and shaving their chests!). Yes, the David Hasselhoff look, circa early 80's (read night rider) with a shirt only buttoned up half way and a full chest of hair proudly on display for everyone to see is out! Nobody likes looking at a mans chest hair (well...maybe Robb).

What have I been up to? Lets see, I've rolled out a helpdesk management software to the company. Basically the only reason it is here is so I can show managment that I'm actually doing something (nothing). Hopefully it doesn't blow up in my face, but only time will tell.I've been slacking with my workouts lately, only hit the gym twice this week (not to mention only once last week....but last week was an exception since I did go to California).

Speaking of California, it was a great trip, as usual. I think I'm done with my monthly vacations for a while. Time to stay at home and relax for a few months. My California contact is moving to Santa Barbara soon, which will suck because it's an hour north of LA. But good at the same time since it's a descent party town (by Left Coast Standards...close the bar at 1:30am my ass!). Maybe I'll head down there in May or something. I'm not going anywhere until March at the earliest (but Superbowl in Vegas....hmmm).

If anybody caught the late late show last Wednesday (no...nobody...I don't blame you) you would have noticed my distinct laugh at odd times (IE I laugh at something nobody else finds funny) , a couple times I did it on purpose just to get my voice on TV.

San Diego is a nice town, but on the way DO NOT STOP at Ocean's 11 Casino. While looking for parking we saw 2 pimps and a homeless guy next to a dumpster. No offence to homeless people, but I'm not parking my car at a Casino near you guys. The place did look a bit sleazy, so I doubt I would have walked out of there with any profit (provided I actually won something).That's it, come back later and post on the tag board.

It's nice to see people are using my tag board once again (and shaving their chests!). Yes, the David Hasselhoff look, circa early 80's (read night rider) with a shirt only buttoned up half way and a full chest of hair proudly on display for everyone to see is out! Nobody likes looking at a mans chest hair (well...maybe Robb).

What have I been up to? Lets see, I've rolled out a helpdesk management software to the company. Basically the only reason it is here is so I can show managment that I'm actually doing something (nothing). Hopefully it doesn't blow up in my face, but only time will tell.

I've been slacking with my workouts lately, only hit the gym twice this week (not to mention only once last week....but last week was an exception since I did go to California). Speaking of California, it was a great trip, as usual. I think I'm done with my monthly vacations for a while. Time to stay at home and relax for a few months. My California contact is moving to Santa Barbara soon, which will suck because it's an hour north of LA. But good at the same time since it's a descent party town (by Left Coast Standards...close the bar at 1:30am my ass!). Maybe I'll head down there in May or something. I'm not going anywhere until March at the earliest (but Superbowl in Vegas....hmmm).

If anybody caught the late late show last Wednesday (no...nobody...I don't blame you) you would have noticed my distinct laugh at odd times (IE I laugh at something nobody else finds funny) , a couple times I did it on purpose just to get my voice on TV.

San Diego is a nice town, but on the way DO NOT STOP at Ocean's 11 Casino. While looking for parking we saw 2 pimps and a homeless guy next to a dumpster. No offence to homeless people, but I'm not parking my car at a Casino near you guys. The place did look a bit sleazy, so I doubt I would have walked out of there with any profit (provided I actually won something).

That's it, come back later and post on the tag board.

First a big congrats go out to my Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggooooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssss!!!! Who executed beautifully and kicked some Lion ass just as I predicted (using my reverse picking psychology method. You guys all though I chose BC didn't you?!?). Anyway it was nice to see the game packed and the Argos win! Although I think for the CFL in Toronto it would have been much better if they lost. At least then they could have sold their whole off season ticket drive around getting back to the Grey Cup. Tease the fans for a couple years before you actually do win it all. That always builds up fan interest. But nothing sells like winning, so what do I know? In any event, good work boys! Enjoy the offseason and come back ready to repeat! Come to think of it, in the 4 Grey Cups I've seen the Argos play in, they have never lost. Just thought of that now.

It's Tuesday, 11:47 pm, and I haven't even started to pack yet. My plane leaves at 9:40am Wednesday morning. I have that very annoying Celine Dionne Air Canada commerical stuck in my head (be thankful, VERY thankful if you haven't heard/seen it yet). I can't wait to go to Califorina. Forecast is for low single digits all week, with snow on Wednesday evening. LA seems to be in the mid 20's and sunny!!!!!

What a way to spend Thanksgiving!!! But more importantly, we got the Lions-Colts game Thursday afternoon. Anybody who's seen the Lions play lately knows they have no business winning this game. In fact the media in Detroit is already saying this will probably be the biggest stinker since that brutal 35-0 Monday night loss to St. Louis (the last time the Lions played on Monday night...and with good reason). Now, anybody who knows anything about Thanksgiving and football knows the Lions ALWAYS play hard. Now they don't always win (See Lions-Packers circa 2001 when Mike McMahon's comeback fell inches short on the 2 point conversion) and the ref's don't always do their job (who can forget Phil Luckett and his infamous:

Luckett: Call the toss in the air
Jeromoe Bettis: Tails
Luckett: Heads has been called. It's tails, Detroit wins the toss
Bettis: But I said Tails.

Or Barry Sanders amazing run 1998 I believe when he tottally undressed the Patriots safety (he's been embarassed enough in highlight films, no need to mention his name) by faking right, way, going left, turning the safety around and then cutting back right again. By far and away the best way to embarass your opponent.

So my Thanksgiving Prediction:

Colts 31
Lions 17

No, this is an actual legit pick, not like my reverse psychology pick from the Grey Cup. I swear this one is real!

It's Saturday!!! In just a few shorts days I'm heading back to California!!!! I can't wait!!!! Does suck that it won't be much more than 5 or 10 degrees warmer down there (thank you very much mild November weather!!! I hate it!).

Arrrrrggggooooooooooossssss!!!! Grey Cup is one day away, I can't wait for it. Maybe it's the lack of hockey, maybe it's an addiction to football, or maybe it's just that the CFL is more entertaining since they put that new turf in Skydome, but I can honestly say I'm excited about this Grey Cup! Every year the CFL manages to put on a fantastic show that ALWAYS outperforms the Superbowl and at the end of every Grey Cup things look soo up for the CFL...then June comes around and nobody could care less about it. Well at least up here, I know the story is different in Saskchewan where they have nothing else to do. Man, how much would it suck to live out there. Nothing against the Rough Riders, personally I love to see how they can always fill up their stadiums with tons of Saskchewonians (or is it Saschewanites?) I don't know, but when your capital city rhymes with Vagina, you don't have much going on. Although I'm sure they're nice people. Hey do I have any readers from Saskchewan? If I do and they're visitng the GSA (Greater Stu Area, which really means the center of the universe because we all know the world revolves around me) I'd gladly buy them a drink or two. And if they have younger sisters, all the more better so long as their sister hasn't been corrupted yet.

But back to the Grey Cup. Go Argos Go! It'll probably be the only time I cheer AGAINST the Lions in a football game (btw BC fans, tell the jerks that own your stadium to get some new turf. that old school astroturf is soooooo 1980's. FieldTurf is where it's at right now! or astro play, or nexturf or whatever the turf is that looks like grass. The carpet turf needs to be retired).

Yes, I can't wait to see my Argos lay a whopping on those losers from BC. Hey BC, why don't you call yourselves Vancouver? How ghey would it sound if it was the Ontario Argos? What about the Alberta Eskimos. Saskchewan Roughriders (bad example...what is a rough rider anyway??? Saskchewan readers, I'm looking in your direction).

Ok, this rant probably killed the Argos chances of winning as fate will always deal you a kick in the nuts. (Write that one down). So my Grey Cup Prediction:

Lions 26 Argos 15. Of note the Argos score 1 TD and 8 singles in this game (see, this is how I confuse the American readers, they don't know what a single is in CFL football, but then again, they didn't know that they are able to vote for a 3rd party in their elections, yay 2 party system, FUCK YOU ROSS PEROT!)

What a way to end off a blog,

FUCK YOU ROSS PEROT!

I've been slacking a bit with my updates lately. I'm not going to let this blog die, I've worked too hard to let this go the way of the other blogs I link to! So with that, I bring you random musings from the past week of my life. But wait, first I have to send a special birthday shout out to none other than ME! Yes kids, my birthday was November 10th (and I'm still pushing for it to be a national holiday, but dammed oposition wants it to be November 11th. Beats the crap out of me why they chose that date).

Birthday weeks are always fun. For one, my contract at work gaurantees that I get my birthday off! What kind of idiot company gives you a day off on a Wednesday is beyond me. Espically since I was forced to call in sick on Thursday due to food posioning (hey, alcohol is a type of food). So that left me with a 3 day work week and feeling more secure about my position at work than ever before. You see, on the 10th while I was in line at the post office, I get a call from shipping:

Shipping: Stu, you're killing me here, MRP is down and the phones aren't working
Stu: Damm, was there a power outage or something?
Shipping: I don't know, why don't you check the server room?
Stu: Server room? It's my birthday today, I can't check that!

Well turns out my boss was there until 7:30 sorting out the mess. I feel bad for the poor guy, from what I hear, he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown by the end of it all. Kinda funny when you think about it. I couldn't have planned for a better day off. Add in my California trip in 1 1/2 weeks and I wonder what will happen while I'm gone. Hopefully nothing major.

Here's another shocker to my loyal readers: I'm going out west...again. That's right, for the 3rd time this year, I'm flying to the Pacific Time Zone. Hitting up LA and probably San Diego for a few days. I had 3 vacation days left so I might as well use them for something productive and what's more productive than getting out of here?!? Dunno what else I plan on doing down there, but mainly relax and get away from the cool fall we've been having here. Sure beats spending my vacation at home.

Well halloween has come and gone. I dressed up as a gangster for a halloween party at Afterlife. Actually it was pretty fun, brought back memories of being a child (espically since the bar was covered in candies). I saw one great costume. It was a mexican, complete with mustache and poncho. His buddy was dressed like a donkey. They were Juan Val Dez and his donkey...ok so maybe he was really columbian, but that's not the point. It was the most creative costume I've ever seen in person and the best by far for the night.

Anybody ever notice how much smaller halloween size candies are getting?!? I used to think it was just because I was growing older that things were appearing smaller until I looked a halloween sized package of skittles this year. They've gone from regluar sized to the mini skittles and the pacakge is about half the size it was last year. WTF is up with that?!? And why do they never make Skor halloween sized?!?

Bust...err Bush got re-elected. HAHAHAHAH to you stupid Americans. And a big YOU SUCK to Michael Moore. Actually not really, because he did make a shitload of money off Bush and will probably make another shitload soon. But do you think with all the money he's getting, that he gets ANY action at all?!? I mean seriously....has the guy seen his dick in the last 10 years??? Maybe he should try the super size me challenge. I've got $20 that says he'd eat LESS fast food then he normally does!

It's a beatiful fall Saturday morning. I've got a ton of driving in this week so I can say I've seen enough of the fall colours to move on to the next season. I hate this weather purgatory we're in. Soon enough it'll be winter and we'll be covered in a sea of white. I miss that feeling.

On to gripes. I'm positive my boss is a man with a woman's mouth. He just doesn't stop talking. 2:30pm yesterday he calls one of the people from his old job (yesterday afternoon we were reduced to fucking the dog since the top 4 people in the company were all away). But anyways...the dude talks for 2 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!! And what's the kicker....he starts talking to me for half an hour...thank god my plan to get out of there worked.

Boss: blah blah blah blah work or else blah blah blah
Secretary passing by: Stu, you're still here? Shouldn't you have been gone 20 minutes ago
Stu: Oh shit, you're right...sorry boss gotta run!

I gotta start finding new ways soon.

You know what sucks? Harvey's doesn't serve breakfast anymore. At least at none of the 4 loctaions I've seen. What kind of bullshit is that?!?

Another Monday and another update. I've been slacking lately with my updates I know...I should be better...but ahh well. Work is quiet today. In a strange coincidence I actually showed up on time for the first time in 2 weeks! Not a bad streak eh?!? I've changed my focus from doing a whole lot of nothing at work to completing a few things and leaving many other things alone. Probably just an organizational problem.

On to better things! Lions are 4-2! Time to get a Roy Williams jersey! Now...do I get blue or white? Blue looks good...but the white ones look pretty sweet! I'll probably go with Blue though.

Where or where have I been? Two weeks without an update?!? Damm I've been busy. Two countries, 4 airports, 3 hotels and more restaurants than I care to remember. Vegas was good. MGM Grand is HUGE! Takes you easily 10 minutes to get from the casino entrance to your hotel room. But it's soo nice on the inside. Much nicer than New York New York or the Luxor. However the sheer size of the place turns me off. I think I wanna stay in something smaller like Paris or the Alladin next time if I'm staying on the strip, or the Palms if I'm going there to party!

I got a chance to play at Binions Casino (home of the World Poker Tour) That was a thrill unto itself. Walking up to a table, winning your first hand and buying the pot the second time made it even better. Getting cleaned out really sucks. Ahh well, that's Vegas for ya! I managed to win $40 playing poker for the first time in my life at the Boardwalk Casino! Maybe I should switch games...ahh fuck it!

What else happend. Went to another football game. Yes I'm one of the few idiots who'll sit outside in 5 degree whether to watch to winless teams play football. But then again it's always fun to watch an NFL game in person! And being drunk sure does help fight the cold!

My new boss loves to keep quiet until 5:01pm...that's when he suddenly won't stop talking for at least an hour. I've resorted to having people call me at that time so I can get out of work. It's the least rude way of excusing myself from a room. That's all I'll say about the new boss. At least things are being sorted out at work and we haven't had any arguments yet.

Well it's offical! I'm heading to Vegas for the weekend on Friday. What a way to spend thanksgiving! 3 nights at the MGM Grand. Best part is I got the players advantage price (I saved about $300 USD over the course of 3 nights by doing that) because I signed up as a member 2 months before I booked (The MGM Grand does not need to know I never spent $1 in their casino). Watch out Vegas, here I come!

They finally had a new guy start yesterday. It's actually refreshing to work with somebody that is smarter than me (I know...I didn't think someone like that existed either). Anyways it LOOKS like we're going to rebuild the network from the ground up and it LOOKS like things will be running smooth in 3-6 months. That being said, when I started it LOOKED like things were going to get done. Basically I'm not going to get too excited about anything until it's done, because for all I know his work ethic could be non-existent just like mine!

I never thought it would come to this, but unless people see me die, I'm not dead. I don't care if I nobody has seen me in 10 years (hey...I'm sure there are plenty of guys that haven't seen their penis' in 10 years but that doesn't mean its dead). This is the second time this week that somebody who was thought to be dead has come back. That is all. Oh yes, and as a final wish, my funeral must be big (don't buy an expensive coffin), 21 gun salute and I'm to be buried with my head pointing north. Yes those are my funeral plans, anything else I don't care about go with whatever is cheaper.

I've been put on an MRP committee and we had a meeting today (and how convienent was it that I didn't get an e-mail about it?!?). Well meeting went fine and they were discussing how to better use the MRP systems and how we should send people out for training and have those people train the rest of the in house workers. That's when I posed a question to the group "What do we actually use our MRP systems for right now"

Naturally I got vauge answers and blank looks followed by "Alright, so next week we're going to review training procedures and evaluate the support contract and possibly look at other vendors for support". Wow what a waste of time and money that will be! Good thing my name is attached to the comittee (not that I care because before any training starts, I'm probably #1 on the list of people to get trained which means free lunches and less work for Stu!)

Well I'm full time now at work. The only difference I'll see is more money (in addition I'm getting a 3% raise in January), my phone is paid for, in a month I get full benefits (they wanted me to wait 3 months, but I put up a fuss) and I get to take part in profit sharing next year. Work wise, I'll be doing the same, but they are hiring a new boss for me next week so I should have some of the workload taken off my shoulders (as well as somebody to cover for me and I don't have to answer any questions about purchasing anymore because it won't be my responsibility).

End Of Week One -- Wrapup

Well the first week of being in the boss finished with an interesting Friday to say the least. I find myself in a job interview for a position I already have (but was not originally interviewed for). I get a suprise visit (well I thought it was a suprise...I should have read the invitee list for the ERP meeting first) from the ERP admin. Now after the ERP meeting (where I was sheltered from any sort of blame...odd because usually they take it out on IT) I figure it's time to take a nice drive to Staples to get some toner (we were out...now that's a shocker). Anyways I spark up the rental Corolla (which I had to give back at the end of the day) and notice the tank is on empty. WTF, get some gas since I'm on company time. Fill the tank, head to staples pick up toner when I get a call. Seems like our e-mail server has locked up on us. Ain't that grand?!? And not just a regular lock...we're talking hard lock where you can't do anything. D'oh! Ahh well...head on back to the office hold down the power button and 5 minutes later we've got e-mail! So, that's probably the last time I get gas during work hours (pause for laughter).

In Charge: Day 2

I have settled into a nice groove here. The inital onslaught of work yesterday was taken and things have settled down a bit. Sure the e-mail server nearly died on us today (yay for hardboots!) but so far so good. Nothing noteworthy really happend, I weasled my way out of coming in to work early tomorrow. Somebody seemed to have it in their head that I'm a database programmer. Well regardless of what they think, I've changed 2 lines of code on a database, user is happy and now I've offically added something to my title of IT Support/developer. Still no sign of a boss for me. I think this is going to be an ongoing thing for at least the next 2 weeks. But at least I can bitch at corporate if I need help.

Day One of being in charge:

They already asked me if I wanna stay fulltime but I got to go through an interview, which is complete bullshit because when I started working at that place I didn't need an interview. In fact, HR didn't know I was starting until 3 hours into my shift -- no joke either!

Morning was busy, I had to arrive 1/2 an hour early to setup a laptop and projector. I promptly wrote up instructions on how to do it yourself so this is the last time I'm coming in early mark my words!

Afternoon wasn't bad...got some quality MSNing in as well as message board posting. Oh yeah, I also did some work. I'm hateing having a non IT guy in the office across from me, because he keeps bugging me about buying him stuff. Little does he know I'm one cheap S.O.B. even with someone elses money...ok not really because I am getting a 17inch LCD for myself as well as my new boss/assistant but you get the idea...I'm not buying shit for anybody, not without a good fight at least. And these people better know it within my first month.

When you're lucky, you're lucky. Simple as that. Last night, I had an incridble run playing 2/5 holdem in Brantford. To show you how lucky I got the follow hand came out, I had

A/9 and the other guy had K/10 (or something like that). Flop comes out 99K. So me and other guy start betting in. Turn comes out and it's another K. So we're both holding full houses, and it's not clicking in to me that I'm beat. River card comes out, and what do I get? Another 9 naturally. So we're showing

9KK99 and I've got the fourth 9. Knowing I've got him beat I start betting in. Finally he calls. I've never seen a guy turn so white before as this guy when he saw the 4th 9. Sure dude looked like Stone Cold before the he saw my cards...but when he saw that...man. Even the dealer was shocked...she had to call the room manager to see what just happend, that's when I knew it was my night.

I also saw a royal flush for the first time in my life. Dude next to me got it on a small pot (he had a flush draw going into the river, and the then Queen of Clubs comes out. He didn't even realize he had it until the guy next to him spoke up. Needless to say, the table was shocked more than anything else.

Just for the record, I don't always win when I go to casinos. I've been to a few this year to play poker, here's a short recap:

June 9th, Casino Rama -- Down $26 my first time out.
July 3rd, some casino 3 hours north of LA -- Down $20 USD
July 6th, Luxor -- Down $40 USD
Mid July, Brantford -- Down $80 but won $88 playing Sic Bo
Early August, Brantford -- Up $70 and up another $20 playing video poker
September 4th, Brantford -- Up $150

So when all is said and done I'm up $37 for the summer. If you include the total casino numbers yeah I'm up $17 (that includes a few casino niagara trips that evened me out). I know, stick to my day job.

If you don't believe me that this company is fucked up consider this: 7 weeks and I go from new kid to acting IT head. Also consider that in January they had a 3 person IT staff. Now, they have Stu as their IT staff. Yes I'm doing the job of 3 people. Scary isn't it? All I can say is there are certain cars with balance shafts and flexplates that I never want drive.

Something is fishy around here. My boss is being transferred to another division on Monday and that leaves nobody to check up on me. I guess Stu is in charge now...for a few weeks at least. Cue up creepy music....my contract is up October 11th, I've got to talk to the controller about an extension/definition of duties/severe pay raise. This situation doesn't seem right.

Also I tried watching the world cup of hockey last night. It was a good first period and all...when Canada scored I had absolutely zero emotion. Maybe I need to get into the tournament a bit more, but as it stands, I was pretty impartial to the whole situation.

WHERE THE FUCK DID THE SUMMER GO?!?! Man, it seems like just yesterday I was boarding a plane for LA. Now it's August 31st and the summer is essentially over. The worst thing about this summer? It's rained almost every weekend. Add to that it hasn't been hot (we've had only 3 or 4 days over 30 degrees). Man now I'm going to have to take another vacation because of this bullshit. Ahh well, there have been highlights. Los Angeles and Las Vegas, getting a job, winning $100 at a casino, visiting 4 Casinos in Ontario alone as well as one in California and more than I can count in Las Veags. Hmm...oh yeah weekend trips to Niagara, one night in Ottawa, beer fest, rev fest, outdoor movie night, and wings at TJ's. Not bad by my standards. Lets see what the fall brings me. This is going to be weird because it's the first Fall that I'll have nothing to do with any kind of educational institution (hmm...maybe I can go back to school in a year or two).

On to other things, work is well, fucked up. I lost a puncher for the wiring closet. Had a talk with my boss and the AGM about getting a 15 inch LCD for the KVM so I can do work on the servers without remote desktop. As it turns out me and my boss are getting 19inch LCD's at our desks and the KVM gets an old 17 inch. Yeah, this company sure is wise with it's money.

In an update to yesterdays blog, seems like some of my questions have already been answered. The answerman is cool.

If you need any more proof that judging in fixed in the olympics. Here you go. I really feel bad for the families that have to put up with these atheletes and have to cheer them on knowing outcomes are virtually pre-determined. I think I should take up equestrian...you don't have to be an athlete and there's no judging involved. Now...only if I had a horse.

Also on a side note use firefox as your new web browser. I've used it and it just seems less sluggish than internet explorer. No real difference other than the built in popup killer (buh bye popup ad filter...you served me well) and tabbed browsing. Definetly worth a download if you wanna try something new. Also it's not vunerable to the same security flaws that IE is (although I'm sure there's a bunch that just need to be discovered).

Blog -- Olympic Edition

Boys and girls, it's that olympic blog time. Just some observations I've picked up from this years fixed drug fest...err olympics.

• Female beach vollyballers are hot. End of discussion.
• If the female gymnasts weren't sooo young they'd be included in this group.
• If they had medals for 4th place, Canada would find a way to finish fifth.
• We need more...*cough* more *cough*...less chokers. Where do I begin??? Oh I know, the curse of the dude that carries the flag (the separatist got booted out first round)...of course look back at past Olympics...this isn't the first time we found a consistent choker. Night like our track and field athletes. Sure, we've got Perdita Felicien following in the fine footsteps of Micheal Smith (yeah the triathelete dude), Mark Boswell and Ben Johnson...wait check the last one off the list, he was the only one in that race to get CAUGHT. Nevermind the fact that 5 of the 8 people that started the race later on tested positive in their careers for steroids. What gets me is that the coach of the dude that won the 100 meter title this year (no, I don't care what his name is) was the one that blew the whistle on THG. Yeah, like it's a coincidence his boy had time to get cleaned up and have a new designer drug in time for the Olympics. Ahh well.
• On the topic of choking, how about that rowing team?!? Undefeated in 2 years and still no Olympic medal! That diver who choked her way out of a medal. Canada doesn't need more training, they need more sports psychologists.
• You think a country with as huge a coastline as Canada could at least win one medal in swimming.
• Why is shooting an Olympic sport? What about equestrian. Why not auto racing or golf then?
• And what's the deal with ping-pong and badminton? What about pool and darts?
• If pro boxers are always dodging other fighters, why not let them fight in the Olympics where they can't dodge anything other than a punch?
• Sports that are judged should be demonstration sports only.
• Who else would like to see football as an Olympic sport? Not rugby, which would favor Europeans, football. Come on, at least give us arena football then.
• What about lacrosse?? There's no way Canada could choke there!
• If whining your way to a medal was a sport, Canada would be #1. The figure skaters from Salt Lake, The rowers who launched FOUR appeals after they were disqualified, the fag....err gymnast who wants answers (well...he's got a legitimate beef, the other guy did fall)
• What is an amateur athlete anyway?

Well...that's it for my blog -- Olympic edition

*UPDATE*

No joke, 2 minutes after posting this blog, I come across a blog of last place finishers at the Olympics. It's made by a Canadian. Go Figure.

Fucking backups can't work around here. We've got gigabit ethernet here, and I still get connection timeouts. WTF is up here?!? Now I have to call they ghey Veritas people and find out why their software is shit. Add to that we've got a user who likes to move folders because s/he is an idiot. Now try telling some engineer that one of their peers is an idiot (actually it's pretty easy because we've got a few suspects that we can make fun of) and due to horrible software our backups may/maynot have backed up the files. Well I was lucky today, but who knows about next time.

I gotta say, I'm proud of myself for telling managment what to do when it comes to hiring new employees. A new hire comes in Monady morning and within 5 minutes of walking through the door, management somehow expects us to have a PC ready for him. Nevermind the fact that I wasn't notified about it. So being the genius I am, I hide behind SOX and tell management to sign papers before I get ANY work done. Yup, I put the blame on the manager who told me to do something and I hide behind SOX (auditing basically) if they try to bitch at me. The controllers here are afraid of being audited so the second they hear SOX they're on my side.

Went to a charity casino in Brantford on Saturday night. They've got Texas Hold'em tables there. The only other place in Ontario where you can find them is Rama, and I'm not driving two hours to get on an Indian reservation. I did pretty good, up $70 at the end of the night. Took me 3 hours to get to that point but I made it. The thing I'm realizing more and more is if you want to win at poker, you gotta spend a long time at the tables. Espically if you're playing low limit hands where you can't really bluff because there's always one or two players who will just pay to see what you've got. Poker is a game of paitience after all.

Life has a weird way of turning for the better. One day you're working for a company that seems to be abandoning it's core business, next day your president says "I don't care if we made $100 million last year, there's no need to waste $40 on speakers for me!". Who knows where next year will take me?

Well here's an update to that lovely post I had yesterday. Seems like the controller who was brought in to turn around our division has resigned from his postion. Nice that I find out about an hour before it actually happens, although in hindsight, a conversation I was listening in on a few days ago should have tipped me off. Long story short, the asssitant general manager is moving away from the IT section and into the (former) controllers office! Woohoo, I only had to put up with that guy for 3 days and already he's gone! Now I'm back to staring at an empty office and I wouldn't have it any other way!

I think I've got an eye infection, so it looks like I might be forced to take Friday off. What a shame. You know, I never realized how cool your eye looks when it's all bloodshot.

Phonecall of the day: I got this popup in lotus notes that says a certificate has expired, do you wish to accept a new one? Does that mean I got fired???

Yes it does seem that with the whole restructuring going on, there are more than a few hires/fires happening at work. I think I've counted 2 new upper management hires, 1 resign, 1 mutual get the fuck out of here agreement since I started -- 3 weeks ago. Not to mention 3 office workers have been fired along with 4 new hires. It's actually getting to the point of being rediculous around here. Now when we need new hardware, the joke going around is "oh just wait until somebody gets fired, it should happen within 2 days, then you can have his computer". Sad thing is I'm one of the most secure people there because my contract runs until October 12th! Yay me!

What kind of bullshit is this?!? We got a new assistant general manager at the office and guess where the place him??? Right across from my office!!!! Grrr...that was supposed to be for the IT employee we were never going to hire!!!! Well...the good thing is my office is too small to share with anybody so I don't have to worry about anybody invading my turf...but still...what kind of crap is that?!? Just put the 2nd most important person across from me so he can see me sleep!!! Meh...it's not too bad...gives me a chance to kiss managements ass directly without leaving my seat.

Another weekend, another set of good times. If you guys wanna hit up a club downtown without much of a dress code, I strongly recommend Joe. I've been there twice and both times I've had a good time (even while staying relatively sober).

I've got a bitch of a sore throat right now, cut into my cardio time at the gym. Luckily I was still able to lift weights so this week won't be a total write off. I gotta clean up my diet though...I'm still eating way too much crap...but the wings and ribs combo at TJ's is soooooooo good.

We were talking about names at work today....Anthony Daniel DaLuca (ADD). Thomas Anthony (T&A). I've came to a decision, once a little Stu is brought into this world his name shall be Stewart Todd DeNiro (STD)! *rimshot*

Alright, bad jokes aside, my arms are sore and preseason football is on ABC...later!

Wow I was tired today...could barely stay awake on the ride home. Thats when you know you should be getting more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep at night...or at least start drinking cheater fluids (errr, coffee) in the mornings.

I can't believe the summer we've had here...hasn't been hot at all, and when it does get warm, it only lasts for a day or so before it starts raining. What a rip off. Sounds like I may have to go on vacation again to get some heat in my system.

I saw Harold and Kumar go to White Castle last night. It was alright...nowhere close to Dude Where's My Car though. One cool thing about the movie was seeing a bunch of locations that were around my house. Who needs Hollywood when you've got Brampton?!? Does this mean I can visit the Licks at the corner of Hwy 10/Eglington and take pictures??? I did the same thing when I went to Universal Studios Hollywood...so I gotta do it here..and plus...it's free!

Wow, today was actually busy at work. I barely sat down for more than 20 minutes before lunch. Kinda refreshing to be busy actually, makes the day go by MUCH quicker. I also found out that I was allowed to keep the speakers I borrowed for the weekend trip to Niagara. Sweet, brand new Atec Lansing Speakers!!! I didn't see that one coming...of course I didn't see the point in giving me a laptop with a gig of ram either, but the company found a way to do it!!! Yeah, I'm still having trouble figuring out who approved some of the purchases there. Like the $5000 plasma TV that does nothing other than show excel spreadsheets....sure it's nice to have a spreadsheet on a 40 inch wide screen...but plasma?!? Or how about the fibre optic cable that stretches half way across the plant floor and leads to a wiring closet NOT EVEN IN USE?!? Man it's going to suck telling users that the day's of 21 inch monitors are over! Ahh well, they should have took advantage of it while they had the chance.

But anyways, this wireless internet in the summer kicks ass! Sooo much more comfortable then it was in the fall. Right now I'm living the life, playing on http://www.partypoker.com and drinking a beer.

Well the long weekend is just about wrapping up...it's been a good time for me. Hit up two casinos on Saturday/Sunday. Ok, so they were both in Niagara Falls, but who cares?!? I tried playing blackjack...lost $40 and confirmed to myself that there is no point in playing that game. Played Sic Bo, lost $60...then came home researched the odds and realized there's no point in playing that game.

Came home Sunday night...tried watching Van Helsing. I don't know what it is about that movie. It looks sooo cool, the set design is great, but the movie just sucks. Anyways I only lasted through 15 minutes of it before I crashed out. Got a whole 12 hours of sleep Sunday night, which felt great!

Work has been going pretty smooth. No complaints from my end...could be better but could be much worse. Even with all the politics that are going on from the office stand point, I've been involved in none of them. So as long as I keep my nose out of it, I should be able to stay relatively clean.

Friday I went to Universal Studios Hollywood. My impressions of the place were this: Wow, you know you're in LA when even the theme parks have parking garages. Parking inside one of those was suprisingly confusing. Because of the garage setup and crowd control measures they got in there, the available space to park in was rather small (since most of the other spots were sectioned off on different floors that you couldn't access. It's tough to describe. Anyways up the elevator and into the restaurant/shop area. I must admit, Universal did a good job creating a night spot there, lots of restaurants and shops plus a movie theatre. Good place to spend a night out.

Anyways once inside the theme park, I headed for the one and only thing I wanted to see: The studio tour. Yeah I know, $35 for a studio tour is a bit rediculous, but hey, I was in hollywood, I HAD to see the studio!!! Anyways, the park is built into a large hill so half of it looks over the other half. From the upper part of the hill you could see a lot of whatever that valley that LA is in is called. The best part...you had a CLEAR view of the Warner Brothers Studios!!!!

The studio tour was pretty interesting, got to see some famous sets from movies like pyscho, the truman show, old western movies, as well as other generic sets that were used for tons of movies. My personal favorite was the western sets...I pictured myself having a gun battle with some evil looking guy at high noon. Shooting him, stealing his wife, taking the other pretty girl and...wait...its not that kind of movie set.

So after the studio tour, we went on the Back to the Future ride...exactly the same way I remember it as when I was in Grade 5 at Universal Studios Orlando. In fact if you looked closely enough, on the safety video, the dummies even had the old pepsi can (despite the fact that coke is served throughout the theme park....hahaha, wouldn't that be funny if they changed the video around based on this blog?!?) Went on the mummy thrill ride next. What a ride...the excelleration was pretty sweet...the ride only lasted about a minute which really sucked because the wait for it was about an hour and a half.

The waterworld live show was incredible...much better than the movie, of course that doesn't say much. The T2 3D show was pretty sweet as well. The Van Helsing haunted house was pretty funny if for no other reason than the terrified 15 year old girl (is it wrong if I say she was hot?!?) infront of me...had my sister not been there I would have...ahh nevermind.

After universal we came back to the apartment, grabbed a couple of drinks, watched Vegas Vacation and headed out to a bar at Hermosa beach. Now this is the one thing I noticed about California that I'll never be able to get over...THEY TURNED ON THE FUCKING LIGHTS AT 1:30am!!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THAT?!? The party was still going, and last call isn't until 2am. Evidently more than a few places in LA do that...infact most of them do. So I came back, had a drunken chat with some hottie online and went to bed.

My last day in LA was spent in Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. Beverly Hills wasn't impressive to me...well the shops weren't at least. Seeing an Enzo parked on the side of the road almost made me wet my pants. Needless to say a picture does exist with me standing next to one. Fuck that car is sweet. I also saw a 355 but that's nothing compared to the Enzo.

Venice beach was nice and the shopping was pretty good. Funny to see stores line there ledges with spikes to keep away the birds...stupid birds. My redeye flight home sucked. It was supposed to leave at 10:30...we bored the plane and evidnetly these fags can't fuel a plane right. What's there solution?!? Turn it on and off! Yeah, they had to call Toronto to do that...evidently LAX doesn't have any mechanics. Well they try that and sure enough, it didn't work. So we have to swtich planes, wait another hour and get back on. This time it worked fine. As compensation we're offered one alcoholic drink...yeah that's a good idea, give tired and angry passengers alcohol.

Well the flight home went by without problems...I couldn't sleep for the first 2 hours, but watching enough of the Whole 10 Yards will put anybody to sleep. By the time I do get drowsy I see the great lakes which means I've essentially stayed up the whole night (with the help of a 3 hour time change). Yeah my schedule was fucked and work that week was good.

And that concludes my summer vacation 2004. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Wednesday was pretty...meh.  Left Vegas around 12pm or so.  Destined to see the Worlds Biggest Thermometer.  Pull out of the parking lot and into the gas station...nothing like grabbing a slim jim and a can of Arizona Iced Tea for the road.  Now there's something you must understand about these people we call americans...they can not make a normal sized can of iced tea.  Nope, it has to be SUPER SIZED!  I think the can my sister bought from the kwik-e-mart was at least a litre.  The thing was massive.  Fortunately her center console support it, or else I would have done some serious chugging.  Well anyways...within 45 minute I am out of the state of Nevada and back into (relative) normal land...relative because we are in California. 

Anyways, so there we were driving in relative comfort, when I head into a traffic jam...great!  Well at least Paris and Nicole are sleeping so I don't have to put up with whining.  That's when I spot it...the worlds biggest thermometer!  To be honest, I always pictured it bigger...but ahh well.  There's an Arby's next door...maybe I can get a beef n cheddar and stand next to a landmark of sorts.  I get into the Arbys, but before I go inline, I must make a pitstop inside the washroom.  Now, this may have been the WORST washroom I have ever been in.  For starters, the urinal was broken, which is no big deal to me.  Head into a stall when I notice there's no door...thank god I don't have to do a #2.  I seriously had thoughts about pissing on the floor in this place and I don't think I would have been the first..or last.  I didn't even bother washing my hands as this water couldn't have been to clean...high 5!

The rest of the ride was average...except for the fact that we had to drive right through LA during rush hour in less than an hour...we were cutting it really close because Paris and Nicole both started work at 7.  Of course, with Nicole in the car, you can't stop for gas unless you have nothing better to do.  By the time I pulled into the complex, the needle was firmly planted on it's resting thingy (and anybody who's been in the car with me knows I HATE TO SEE THE FUEL LIGHT ON!

Wednesday night was a relaxing night.  Drinking beer overlooking the waves.  I managed to watch Vegas Vacation afterwards too (a must see for anybody that plans on a...vegas vacation). 

Thursday things slowed down.  I slept in.  The afternoon was spent visitng beaches along the coast...Hermosa and something else north of it...well the name isn't important.  That night while my sister was at work, I relaxed, took a nice walk along the beach, saw the sunset.  Very relaxing, although I still couldn't believe how unwarm the weather was. 

Shit, a week goes by quick when you're not sleeping.  Lets try to piece together the rest of my Vegas Vacation.  Umm...woke up that around 12...checked out of New York New York, got valet to bring us back our car when I noticed something odd.  Hmm...Nicole...isn't the A/C in your car broken?  Hmm...might just have been in an underground parking garage with cool air...once we get outside it should be back to normal.  It never got back to normal...cool air kept coming out of the A/C....ain't that a kick in the nuts?  Drive all the way from LA to Vegas in 100 degree heat and the A/C was working the whole time...ahh well.

Go to some mall in Vegas on the strip...yes you can't go into ANY store with Paris and Nicole without wasting 2 hours and seeing neither of them buy anything.  Well lunch was good there (it turned out to be the only meal I had that day).  We checked into the Luxor (that uber cool pyramid).  I think I lost $2 during check in.  Check into the hotel, get changed, check out the pool.  I gotta say, they make some shallow pools in Vegas.  It wasn't deeper than 4 feet anywhere in the water.  Really weird.  After the pool, it was a walk through the mall inside the hotel before we got back to the room.  Get changed out of my bathing suit and into my poker pants!  It's poker time baby! 

At the poker tables..what's the wait for 2/4 hold'em?  About 1/2 an hour, but we get a 1/2 table if you wanna play.  Hmm...1/2....my money would last longer there....I'll take it!!  Well to make a long story short, I get dealt the following losing hands, Ace-King suited, pair of kings, and Jack King. 

So...I get back to the room around 10pm...Paris and Nicole aren't ready.  They are doing their girly things.  Line of the night was:

Stu:  "What's taking you girls so long, you've been getting ready for two hours and I still don't notice a difference"
Paris:  "A girl always has to look her best"
Stu:  "Better try harder then"

We finally leave the hotel room at 12.  Down to the casino floor of the luxor...no Sic Bo...lets try New York New York....They've got SIC BO!!!! Although the table is closed :(  Maybe tomorrow (yeah...like we'll still be around).  Alright, maybe no gambling tonight...lets check Coyote ugly.  Get past the bouncer, but it's a $10 cover charge, so Paris, Nicole and Stu turn around...turns out the bouncer can hook us up with free admission!!!! Sweet...although the place is rammed like you wouldn't believe (honestly, you couldn't move in there) so we get the fuck out after 5 minutes in there....saw one flasher though!!!!!

So it's off to various other casios for free booze.   After a few slots and a tram ride, we manage to stumble our way into the MGM Grand where a question is posed:  Do they have a Sic Bo table?  The answer is no, but they got Studio 54.  Well, it's ladies night...and Stu being the genius he is decided to pull a Coyote ugly and get free admission.  Stu got told by the cash girl, so in my infinite wisdom I say to Paris and Nicole "Have a nice time inside, I'm not paying $10 to get in!"  And I walked away.  Now the only regret I have was I didn't see the look on the girls face when I said that right infront her.  Well a few more drinks, a walk around Vegas and I find my way back to the room around 3:30am.  A good night was had, probably would have been better if I went inside the club...but ahh well.  For the record, Paris and Nicole showed up at the room around 9am.

I'm too tired (lazy) to update today.  Maybe tomorrow.

I'm a realist. I don't expect anybody to read my full vacation recap. So yeah, I know you're scimming through...I hope you catch hidden references and jokes.

Sunday night was one of those cool days in California. I did absolutely NOTHING at all. Well except for a couple walks up and down the pier and watching 4th of July fireworks but that was about it. And what's the deal with fireworks anyway. Am I the only one that gets bored after 5 minutes. They are sooo bloody repetitive. Meh, maybe I'm just an exception to the rule.

Monday...now that's a day to be proud of. Wake up at 7am, shower and on the road by 9 (keep in mind, I had to wait for my sister and Paris Hilton (well at least her clone) to come back from working a nightshift. Come to think of, that's the only thing that made the ride bareable. LA to Vegas in the July heat with no A/C. And to be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have had it any other way for my first voyage through a real desert. Feeling the heat while driving got me to thinking. I put my hand on the windshield...damn that's hot (think car sitting in the sun hot, except the car was at highway speeds). Anyways, just a short 6 months ago, I was driving from Toronto to Boston in air so cold, the rear defrost was essentially useless because it couldn't keep up with the outside air. Well anyways, after one stop at an outlet mall at the halfway point, I figured alright...they've had their shopping fill, we've got enough gas (yes, I was still anal about the gas...those who've driven with me to Montreal know how I can be). Well with about 90 minutes to vegas I make the mistake of saying "I'm hungry". Stupid me, because the second you mention stopping for food around Paris and Nicole you must make a stop at the next area for food.

As luck would have it, that next place was right on the California/Nevada border. Of course as soon as you cross inside Nevada, there's a Mall/Casino waiting for you. So a quick half hour stop turned to a 2 hour snooze fest topped by Paris buying something and Nicole trying everything on in the store and walking out with nothing. So what's a guy who's been inside Nevada for no more than 2 hours to do while waiting? Gamble of course! Do the customary casino walk. Find no poker tables. Hang head in shame and begin to leave. On the way out I figure WTF...let's put $1 in the slot machine. First pull: Nothing. Second pull: Nothing. Third pull: Nothing. Well that's a waste of a dollar that could have been shoved into a stripers panties. Let me just pull the lever one more time, maybe get a quater back and be on my way. CA CHING! In an only in Nevada story, $20 spits out of the machine!!! Now what you may not have known is in some Nevada casinos they no longer use tokens. It's either real quaters or printed recipts. I gotta say, I'm a fan of both those methods.

$20 richer and 2 hours behind schedule we continue on our fantastic voyage to Vegas. One sight that I'll never forget is driving up a hill...making it to the top and seeing Vegas below. Ahh yes sin city...now lets go gamble!!! While waiting for Paris and Nicole to check in, I figure...hey, I'm up $20, lets try another pull! $1 later I'm up $21 for the vacation! Woohoo. Print recipt and assume Paris and Nicole are done with the check in...nope..so I wait around longer...nope...3 minutes pass...compulsive gambling takes over...I'm now back to $20 profit for the Nevada leg of my vacation and my total to -$7

Later voyages into the casino consist of losing $5 scattered amongst 5 different casinos, finding out that casino's actually do serve free booze (I was unware of that) free valet parking and the monorail is free. Then we make it to the New Frontier casino where they have mini mechanical horses racing. Down $10 now. Lets head back to New York New York. Scattered along the voyage back are pirate shows at Treasure Island, the Fountain at the Bellagio and a cab driver who told off Nicole after she insisted on getting exact change in return for cab fair (no, I did not make that up...of course as soon as the cab pulled into the hotel I used the excuse that I was out of money and bolted like fat boy to a buffet).

Well stumbling around New York New York, what do I find? Sic Bo!!!!!! Oh yeah! On the hottest streak since I've arrived in vegas I manage to make it up to the +$40 point!!! No sooner do I hit the $40 point than Paris and Nicole get hungry. Figuring that it's only 2:30am, I comply and get some pizza. Hmm...I'm sobering up...time for the Bellagio and some poker! Well I make it to the Bellagio but never find the poker room. They had Price Is Right slot machines. Slot machines lack the mental focus that Sic Bo has and I quickly lose interest and fall asleep (inside a casino might I add). Wake up, walk back to New York New York and fall asleep sometime after sunrise.

Crap, it's been a while since I've posted, lets recap the events of the last 11 days in brief. Hmm...well July the 1st was Canada Day and for the 2nd straight year I was working on my nations birthday. Yeah, national holiday my ass. You wanna know what's bullshit, us hard working Canadians work Canada Day, get the Friday off and have a 3 day weeks. Our neighbours to the south have their nations birthday on a Sunday and they STILL get Monday off. WTF is up with that?!? Ok thats the end of my rant.

Anyways July 1st was my last day at the corporate office. I had some nice plans in store for that day, mainly booking a flight to LA. Well as luck would have it, doesn't Mr. IT Director/bigshot offer me a 2-3 month contract position and wants me to start Monday? Hmm...well yes, I do want the job, but there ain't no fucking way I'm going to start it without taking a vacation first. So I deeply dig my feet into the ground and demand 2 weeks vacation or I'm going to walk out. Long story short I get one week. Note to self, next time book flight BEFORE last day of work, or at least say you did to ensure a full 2 week vacation period.

Well next comes my "get the fuck away from us lunch". And what better place to take me than Korean BBQ? Well I'm not a big fan of it, but Asian people seem to dig the place. Personally I'd rather have gone to a Texas BBQ. I don't give two craps about the all u can eat, the company was paying, I would have got all I can eat either way.

Fast forward to Friday. Yay time to book a flight to and from LA. Hmm...if you book two one way flights, it's cheaper than booking a round trip flight when you fly Tango (by Air Canada). Why, because of STUPID GOVERNMENT TAXES. GST MY ASS! No wait, the Federal Liberals said they'd scrap the GST...that was back in 1993. HAHAHA, why do people keep falling for the Liberals non existent agenda...wait the conservatives have a hidden agenda...I think they found it...yup it's hidden right behind the weapons of mass descruction in Iraq. Anyways I book the flight Friday.

Saturday I arrive in LA around 12pm local time. Mmm, Baha Fresh. If you're ever in the LA area, that's one fast food chain I highly recommend visiting. Simply the best burrito I've ever had (although that's in comparison to Taco Bell so it doesn't say much). That was around 2 I guess. So I get enough time to eat lunch, settle in when my sister tells me we're heading to Santa Barbara, but first we're picking up one of her nurse friends. Pick up nurse friend at 6pm LA time. Nurse friend isn't ready. Wait 15 minutes, then attempt to take a nap while 2 nurses go into Pier One Imports. 30 minutes later, no nap and nurses emerge from store with bags of crap. Arrive in Santa Barbara at 8:30pm to meet another nurse friend. Here's a shocker, she's not ready.

Leave apartment at 9 for dinner. We went to some fancy (in California terms that means an excuse to jack up prices) Italian restaurant. Finish dinner at 11pm. The pizza was good, but definetly not worth the $14 my sister paid (she insisted so I allowed her to). Go for drinks. Leave bar at 1am. You see, people in California are cool...they close down their bars\clubs at 1:30 so everybody is out by last call. 1:45 (now, keep in mind, according to my body, it's 4:45am and I've been up since 7am) back at car...I wanna go to sleep, but 4 nurses and 1 doctor want to go to the casino. The lonely IT vote is discarded as we drive an hour north to some Indian reservation in California. (You know, if I had to tell you which one it is, I wouldn't know). I take an hour nap in the car and wake up in Dutch town (since when did they have a town, and why is it inext to an indian reservation?). Wake up, it must be 3am by this point at a casino (wait...Vegas isn't until Monday...ahh fuck it). So I figure why not, I grab a coffee and head to the poker tables. Yay, no wait. Give me $40 worth of chips. 3:30am...I'm down to my last dollar...all in on a pair of jacks. Luckily everybody folds like the French at the sight of a gun. I manage to win a couple more hands to put me above par ($47 worth of chips at my highest point). Thats when the doctor checks up on me. Naturally I fall to the $23 and it's time to call it a night...at 4am...actually is that calling it a morning by that point, because it's 7am according to my...ahh fuck it).

Back in the car at 4:15. Asleep at 4:17. Wake up at 5:30 in Santa Barbara...say goodbye to nurses and doctor. 5:32 back to sleep. 7am...back at apartment in Torrance. Yeah, that was one day of my trip, this blog has gone on too long, I'll update again later with stories of Vegas, Santa Monica and a certain friend.

Just to show you how far up to date with things, I missed the second anniversary of my first blog. June 24, 2002. Wow, it's been 2 years already. Most people said it would never last. It did. Sucks though that it never became popular like I dreamed it would be (check that like I KNEW it would be)...but meh, so what? It's out lived just about every other blog that it has been linked to before. Gone through 1 redesign (a second one will be done once I find somebody willing to do it). Yes happy birthday to my blog! What will the next year bring?

Well, I got another two months at my present company. I'm being transfered out of the corporate office to a plant. So I'm getting a raise and 2 months more of work. I think I've earned a vacation!

Rumor mill:

1 - Stu may be getting full time job at present workplace -- possibly true
2 - Stu is rich - not true
3 - Stu has a big penis - true...very true
4 - Stu is going to europe - completely untrue
5 - Stu is going to California - very possible.

Naturally the day after my last post I find out my run is coming to an end. I knew that was going to happen. Ahh well, not like I plan to do ANYTHING this week. About the full time position, doesn't look like I'm going to get it, but that doesn't mean that the higher ups won't hear about it. Why go to the director when you can go to his boss instead? Needless to say this is going to be fun week at work, where my only goal is to have fun.

For some sick reason, I still have a job. Sometimes I wonder who is more suprised, myself or the other employees in the building. I'm always moving around for one reason or another, be it scavenging for food (we had stir fry with rice and potatoes today, side salad and some fruit for desert...this was all leftovers btw), running around fixing a printer problem or just walking around to pretend I'm busy...u know...walk at a fast pace, give quick, short answers to the "how's it going?" question. So today, I'm doing my cardio (ok, I was just really walkiing around the office but every step counts)...and one of the users (who I took an order for lunch last week..don't make fun, I got a free lunch out of it) says "Wow, you're still here, I thought you were supposed to be gone by now"...to which I really want to reply with "Yeah, you didn't say that when I was getting your food last week you idiot."

Of course, I know my days are numbered around the office...offically I think I'm down to 5 working days (factor in Canada Day as a holiday), so for me to be motivated to actually DO work is a bit rediculous. And no, regardless of what some people might say, staying late does not really equate to actually showing dedication, it only counts if you're actually doing something while you stay late, not screw around. But yeah, that's life at work..who knows how it'll turn out. The only thing I'm concerned with is getting paid.

Well I came, I had a descent interview and I managed to keep the boneheaded comments to a minimum. I asked a few questions, appeared confident (although, I think it came off as appearing TOO confident) and I had them laughing at times. I was never speechless. Yes that was a quick summary of my job interview today. Sadly, having said all this, I still don't believe that it will be enough to land the job. Not when I'm going up against a family connection. But hey, why blame a guy for trying right? I think it was better there was a better chance of an Olsen twins sex video appearing on the open market (ok, that is a slight bit of exageration...but their 18 now!!!) than of me getting the job, but who knows, stranger things have happend.

I did a whole lot of nothing at work today...got what was required done, but that's about it. I disappeared from the office arouind 9:45...didn't come back until 11:30...nobody asked where I was. I streched a 30 minute lunch run into a 2 hour lunch because I could..and to top it off, I got a free lunch out of it. I took the last slices of pineapple from the fruit tray because I'm a badass, then I took the last ricecrispy square from the desert tray becauseI I can. That's pretty much my whole day. My phone rang a total of 4 times.

Other than working out a lot, playing poker some and going to work wayyy too much, nothing much has happend since my last blog. I almost throttled the VP yesterday. 4pm my boss told me to have a talk with the VP after his meeting to see if he needs any help setting up his laptop. 5pm rolls around, meeting is still on, 5:30...those guys are still yapping, 5:45...somebody walks out, but the meeting is still on, 6:00...still going, nothing outlasts Germans in a meeting, 6:30...meeting ends, time for a quick chat with the VP...6:32...turns out the VP isn't taking his laptop with him after all, he's going to call his secretary to see if anything important is in his e-mail box...6:33...I think about choking the life out him until I quickly realize he's twice my size so he would probably throw me across the building should I lay a finger on him. So the moral of the story is don't wait for the VP to get out a meeting. Ahh well, I got overtime pay at least.

Went to casino Rama Tuesday night, played the poker tables there. I've never done it before and I was going in expecting to get cleaned out. Needless to say, after an hour I was down to my last $15 from my original $70. So I figure, WTF, I'll probably have one more good hand to win back my money or leave cleaned out. What happens? I get dealt two jacks...figuring this is my only chance...I post blind...let other people raise...and just match their cards. River card comes and boom...another jack...I go all in on my last $2...and BAM, win $50!!! Another time I was able to buy the pot to get myself back to even. In the end I lost $27 but had a good time doing it!

Oh yeah, I also had a dream last night about the focus being stolen. I don't remember if I was happy or sad. I woke up before I found out where it was. I still don't know if that's a good thing. Ahh well, the CEL is on..the theifs couldn't have gone far!

I graduate tomorrow...I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to be impressed. I hate graduation ceremonies...2 hours of name calling, boasting about ones accomplishments and some horrible dressers. What else is a graduation ceremony? It's boring, and if I had my way, I'll sleep right through it (don't tempt me...it might actually happen). Actually my goal is to let the biggest fart rip ever on stage as I'm getting my diploma...leave them with a gift and see what happens...that would actually be funny!

Man...it's Friday...I'm a bit sore from working out...but I gotta tell you...I haven't had this much energy on a Friday evening in a long time! Noramlly I'm about to crash out...but today...I don't know...I feel full of beans and ready for action!

Well I finally did it, I joined a gym. Yes I know what you are all thinking, and it's true, I was putting on a few extra pounds around the edges. But that's going to change (for a week at least) as I'll be working out a little bit more often now. To those that think it won't last, my example is exhibit A, this blog. It's been going strong for two whole years! Take that critics!

You know, one thing I never thought I'd see in my lifetime is a traffic jam at 3am on a Saturday night. But sure enough, after getting out of the Phoenix, I was in one. Some genius thought it would be a great idea to close the Gardiner and not tell me. A 20 minute drive took over an hour. It was kinda funny though because I can count at least 20 different occasions where I honked my horn for no apparent reason (somebody changing lanes...somebody driving a focus, traffic stopping). On the plus side, I did see the sun rise for the first time in a couple of months.

I've been slacking off with my updates, but that's my own fault. It's kinda hard to keep blogging after almost 2 years (hey, that reminds me, the birthday blog is coming up soon...what special suprises will be in store? My best guess is none). So I can stand here and start preaching on how my blog has outlived most of the others on my list, but I'm not here to do that.

I saw supersize me last night, and I gotta say, damm that movie is good. Pretty sick to see what a steady diet of McDonalds can do to a person. I guess this is the part where I say I've been inspired to eat less fast food than I normally do (I think I only get it about once a week anyways...never during work days, only when I'm out with friends). I was at McDonalds on thursday...couldn't even finish my Big Mac combo, felt sick half way through. The weird thing was, it tasted soooo good on Saturday when I was hammered. Maybe that had something to do with it....

I'm not going to appologize for the delay. My brother was digging up the backyard, sliced right through the interweb cable and I went 3 days without an interweb connection. I got to watch a few dvd's in that time. Van Wilder, Saving Silverman and of course Old School. Yeah, I've been busy, I know it. Actually the Kingdom on Friday wasn't bad...wasn't good either. Same story for the Phoenix...although I was more intoxicated that night since I wasn't driving.

Damm, the long weekend is coming up. I was tottaly caught off gaurd by this one. I've lost all sense of timing according to the calender. All I know is what day of the week it is...that's what work does to me. I think my coop is coming to an end at the end of the month, so that means I actually have to speak with the department director about my status. Whatever happens happens, I'm cool with it either way. I think I've done a good job there over the past 4 1/2 months, but who knows. We'll just wait and see.

I'm loving my new phone. So much fun. The say cheese feature when I take pictures of people is hillarious because they are stunned when the picture is taken...ensuring a good display. I still don't know how many pictures my phone holds...but that's not important. I'm having fun with my new phone!

Got the Sanyo SCP-8100. So far, so good. No complaints at all! Phone is really solid. You can just feel it. Camera quality is acceptable (ok, it could be better), but I'll get by. There's an offer for a free data cable that I filled out yesterday, just gotta wait 6-8 weeks for it to come in now! But once it's done, I'll be able to sync up my contacts with outlook (you normal people won't care, but us geeks like that stuff!).

Saw Troy (the movie) last night. I thought the fight scenes in it were incredible. Sure the parts where they talked left a lot to be desired and the movie could have been a half hour shorter, but over all, I liked it! Best movie so far this year (that doesn't say much though).

It's poker time, if you're ever interested in playing with me call me up on my new phone!

Well, I tried to buy my phone last night. Almost bought it, however Bell naturally was being a bunch of idiots. Here's how it goes.

I pick out a phone I like, get ready to pay, tell the guy I need to speak to customer service first to get my account changed over (I'm still under the LCBO plan...but in case you haven't noticed, I don't work there anymore). Anyways, first customer service rep says I can't change plans until I have the new package code. Doh, screw you, I'm calling back. I call back, get another agent and tell him I left the code at the office. No problem says Francois, he is nice enough to look up the code for me (I always told ya customer service agents with French accents are the best). So anyways we get the code, but evidently since they are "moving buildings next week" my account can't get transferred over until the 26th of May. HAHAHAHAHAH, that may be the worst excuse I've ever heard. Anyways I'm like ok...that's fine with me, are you guys going to be nice enough to waive the hardware upgrade fee for me then? No...grr....fine! (As it stands right now, I'll be saving $7/month on my wireless package anyway...but that's not good enough).

So anyway, I agree to buy a new phone when to my suprise, the $150 rebate applies to me, but not the extra $100 they are having as a promotion. Unless I sign up as a new account and lose my number. So I'm like fine, my phone number isn't worth $100 to me (it may be to a telemarketer).

I say I'll take it. The customer service rep informs me that it's too late to activate my phone and I should come tomorrow. ROFL! They actually think I'm going to come back. HAHAHAHA. I saw an ad at best buy today...same price, but I get a $50 gift card. Looks like round two will be later this afternoon, except this time, I'm going in saying I don't want to keep my service.

Add sports illustrated to the boycott list. They have a list of top 50 highest paid atheletes and wha? No Micheal Schumacher?!? Hmm, they should edit that title to Top 50 highest paid American atheles because we choose to ignore those that are better than us. So Sports Illustrated, I've clicked on you for the last time (I'm so happy I never bought an issue of their magazine).

Today I will buy a new phone.

Today I will buy a new phone.

Today I will buy a new phone.

If I say it enough, I might actually do it.

Those of you that know me well know my cell phone has been Fubared lately. I've got two choices down right now.

1, stick with bell, pay $22.50/month for 200 mins/voicemail/call display and keep my number plus $150 for a new phone.

2, go with rogers, pay $20/month 200 mins/weekends/voicemail/call display get a new number, and be charged $99 to get out of my bell contract.

What do I do...what do I do?

Hmm....a narcissistic schizooid (loaner that thinks he's greater than everybody else)...hmm...that's me :D

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Moderate
Schizoid:	High
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Moderate
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Low
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

Ack...blogger changed their interface. I'm so confused now. WTF is a dashboard and how the hell do I post? Ahh too many questions, not enough time. Hey why is it, when there's a product you don't like you can return it, but when you see a movie you don't like, you can't get your money back?!? WTF is up with that, and those losers have the nerve to tell me piracy is wrong?!? Bah, not that'd ever actually pirate a movie, I don't believe in that, but still, these guys seriously have their heads so far up their asses it isn't even funny anymore. Thats what happens when you let people control their industry from La La Land. Has any stable company ever even come out of California? Silcon Valley seemed to have a good run until they blew their .com bubble. Microsoft is based in Washington with a buffer state inbetween. Vegas is pretty close, but at least they got a state line. I mean seriously, who would want their world headquaters in California? I know I wouldn't.

Did an oil change on the focus all by myself today. For the first time I didn't tip the oil filter while I was taking it out either! I'm shocked!

Woohoo, employee meeting to be "formally" introduced to the new president. You know what that means: free breakfast and a half hour break before I even start work! Had black pepper beef on rice for lunch today. I love that stuff. Mid afternoon snack consisted of 2 crossiants and a bottle of water. Oh yeah, I think I had some work to do inbetween the time I wasn't eating.

Got in trouble for using MSN at work today. (Damm, wish I came up with a better excuse than one of my friends works at microsoft...WTF is a business case for using it anyway?) -1

We've got a new president at work +1

The old president is now vice-chairman -1

New president is a nice guy +1

I had a free lunch today +1

The chicken was dry -1

There were wraps in the fridge +1

I didn't see them -2

I let a nice one rip in the hallways +1

Nobody heard it -1

Leafs are out of the playoffs +1

Well it looks like everything balances off in the end.

I got the bad news about Arthur on Wednesday morning. I've tried to update my blog a few times since then, but I haven't been able to properly say what I want to. I'm still in a state of shock over the whole thing. I can't believe he's gone. It seems just as things turn the corner for me (I got a one month extension at my job) bam, I'm hit with this. It's worse than a kick in the nuts. Such a young life full of promise. Arthur was a great man, well liked by everybody that knew him. I don't remember anybody ever saying anything bad about him. I'm going to miss him. It's always tough when you lose a friend, it's really tough when you lose a friend that had his whole life ahead of him. Remember to keep him in your thoughts.

See...I told you I would let that happen again (yeah, we both know this isn't going to last, but hey, lets try). Went out for wings today....MMmmm, wings. Talked to my boss about the last day of work. We're going to talk to the director tomorrow. It might be this friday, might be next friday, nobody knows. I also might be going to California in 2 weeks if I'm not working. Road Trip here I come! It's something I really wanna do...see the lesser of the two North American countries from coast to coast (I've already driven to Boston...so driving to LA would complete the trip. Of course I think LA is secondary to Vegas as part of the road trip. Chicago also sounds like a good destination along the way, as well as parts inbetween those two cities (umm...yeah). So who knows what the month of May holds for Stu. We'll just have to wait and see.

Wow, almost went a whole week without blogging! I know I keep saying this will be the last time I got this long, but I know it won't. Hey at least I'm not letting my blog die!!! So I'm really going to get a new phone today. I know I've been saying that for at least a week and a half (my current phone's behaviour has been nothing short of bizzare), but to be honest with you, I don't know if I like the phone's have offered to me. Sure bell has great coverage but their phones are shit. I can get a great deal with rogers, who have good phones, but their coverage is shit. So I'm fucked either way. Ahh well, I'll figure something out.

It's been really nice outside the past few days. I've managed to drink a lot of beer (thank you NHL playoffs!) and install new speakers in the focus. Many thanks go out to the professor for his help with installing those speakers, I couldn't have done it without you. As per my end of the agreement, I offically declare Wednesday April 28th as the next offical SRL event, SRL: Spring Stampede (wait...that's been used before?!?) Ok, then SRL: Angry April! If you're coming out post on the tagboard, because I'm not hunting anybody down to come on out. Race time will be 8pm, and a trip to H(.)(.)ters will follow the race. Hope to see you there!

Played some poker today. Won $40. Oh yeah! I'm ready to take on all challengers.

I've got a picture of the damage the Dammed racoon did, and my patchwork job. I never got a chance to take a picture of the proper job we did. Ahh well, maybe another day. Until then these two will have to do.


That's the hole the fucker made. (In an unrelated story, I found Boost Monkey trying to have sex with that hole).


That's my lovely patchwork job. Keep in mind, we actually have real shingles over it right now (and aluminum underneath) so what you see is not actually what is on the roof right now.



Anybody wanna redesign my blog? Just keep the silver/blue colour scheme and tag board on the side and I'll post the best one submitted (which will probably be the only one).

Round two of my war against the raccoons is going to be waged today. The raccoon seemed to have won the first battle putting a 2 inch hole in the roof, but I'm determined to prevent it from happening again. We've upgraded our defenses from rubber to aluminum. My plans for a motion sensing electric roof have been shut down by upper management (my mom). My second plan to have video surveillance was also shut down, again by upper management. Along with my idea of an armed security guard on the roof to blow that fucker away should he return. Who will win this war? Stay tuned!

I love short weeks. Leaves me more time to update my blog. Have a few interesting things at work happen. One was the IT lunch yesterday where most of the discussion revolved around which employees may not be around in 3 months. Second was somebody asking me out of the blue how my "probation period" is going. I didn't know I was on probation. Then there was the Chief Operating Officer telling me that all I have to do is ask the director and there probably is an opening within one of the divisions. Some strange stuff happening at Tesma right now. I dunno...I'll just wait and see what happens. The director went on vacation to Bali for 2 weeks, so I'll have a talk with him when he gets back.

I've been addicted to party poker. I love that game. It's great to play too while chatting on MSN. Went to the Casino Saturday evening...won $40 at sic bo, spent it all one booze and a poutine and promptly threw up somewhere between home and Niagara Falls. I feel sorry for that poor parking lot attendant that had to clean up that mess. Saw Walking Tall Friday night. A bit short, but a good movie.

I've created a new Stu knowledge quiz for 2004! Yes I know there's been one before and these are old, but it's always good to have another.

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

I finally figured out how to deal with those annoying sales people that seem to call me every day.

Case #1 last night:

Bell Canada Rep: Hi, we'd like to speak with the homeowner regarding a quick survey.
Stu: He's not here right now, can I take a message?
Bell Canada Rep: We are just doing a survey on your current service with Bell Canada, can I ask you instead?
Stu: Sorry, I'm just a house guest, I don't really live here.

Case #2 today @ work:

Somesales chick: Hi, do you have an influnece on your companies purchasing decisions?
Stu: No
Somesales chick: Who controls the purchasing for your company?
Stu: I don't know actually, it's my first day here.
Somesales chick: Oh ok...could you transfer me back to the switchboard then?
Stu: Uhh, I don't know how to do that yet, it's my firstday
Somesales chick: WEll have a nice day then.
Stu: Bye.

Got my DVD burner up and running. 3 hours to decode 2 hours worth of Xvid and burn it onto a nice DVD-R. Even works on my basement DVD player which didn't like any VCD's or SVCD's! Not bad at all! A great way to spend $113.

Went out last night with the shirt. Got to the club. Karl was wearing the same shirt. The shirt has been retired.

Saturday night...time to drink. I can't believe the last time I wore the shirt was New Years Eve. I gotta get out more.

Saw Dawn of the Dead last night...more funny than anything else. But I was never into horror movies too much, so I wasn't expecting anything good. Apprentice today was another great episode. Man it's good to see Trump firing people. I love watching people in the boardroom try to weasle their way out of things. Espically since Trump isn't affraid to pin them down with the tough questions, then call them out on their answers. It's great to see the men made a comeback after being down 8-4 it's now 4-1. 7 straight women have been eliminated, man that's a huge number. I think Troy is going to take it all...dunno why, he just has the most charisma by far out of anybody.

ESPN just had a "high definition preview" during the Colorado - Detroit game. Basically they put on widescreen and put a red box around what you'd normally be seeing. To be honest, it didn't feel like I was missing much by seeing the area outside the red box (well except the top and bottom of my screen). But hey I like putting a round peg in a square hole. Which essentially is what the whole widescreen on a square (4:3 actually) tv idea is.

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I guess that means I should have a long update here. Guess is the key word because I don't know what to put up. Lets see: Friday - did nothing. Saturday - Shot some pool. Sunday - Went to the casino...was down $65 at sic bo before i made a rally in the last 2 shakes before they upped the limits..got back to even, promptly lost $15 at video poker. Monday - wing night. Tuesday - updated blog.

Fucking VCR can't tape fucking shit. Now I don't get to watch the apprentice! If it wasn't for the internet I'd be mad right about now, but instead I'll just have to let off steam with a bunch of words you can't say on TV.

Saw Monster yesterday...not a good movie, but I don't like it (ok, the lesbian scene with Christina Ricci was hot...well she was, Charlize Theron really looked like a piece right out of the trailer park). Funny thing was when my friend asked me if I wanted to see it, I was like sure, Monster...yeah I know that one (naturally I was stupid enough to think it was some kinda horror movie)....the first 3 minutes were funny (I began to think it was a comedy)...then it started getting depressing and shit. Meh ahh well, I didn't pay to see it, no complaints (there was partial frontal nudity). So today is St. Patricks day and naturally I didn't have any green beer (despite saying I would). Maybe next year (that's what I say every year).

Survivor was on today (dammed NCAA tournament). Sucks that Ethan got voted off instead of any of the 3 females on that tribe (no I'm not a woman hater...the Christina Ricci comment proves it)...I just find some women annoying. Those 3 all fall into that category and Lexx must be on strong man to be able to put up with the 3 of them...willingly. Ahh well they are redrafting the tribes next week so it looks like there'll be a shakeup. Boston Robb deserves to be voted off. What's up with that facial hair? He looks like a high school kid trying to grow a goatee.

Hmm...nothing much else to say....Stanley Cup playoffs are just around the corner which is cool, it's nice to see the Flames make it back to the post season (even though I am not a Calgary fan).