Monday, January 29, 2007 at 4:26 p.m. | 1 comments
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI find myself totally powerless when it comes to dealing with the Wii's online virtual console. The ability to download the games of yesteryear is proving too much like gaming crack to resist.

I'd previously picked up classics like Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo along with Super Mario Bros. for the original Nintendo. Then the avalanche started. Last week it was Super Castlevania IV and now I've added Contra III: The Alien Wars and Mario Kart 64 to my growing list.

I just can't stop myself.

I think Catherine is infected with the bug as well. Though she could care less about Contra, she actually used the word 'exciting' when I told her I downloaded Mario Kart 64. I think she's becoming a Wii-zombie.

Add to the fact that a fun weekend at Paul and Vicky's new house (which is quite cool and the 70s basement is a must-keep) included a ton of Wii playing along with board games and it seems I just can't escape this thing.

That, and television. 24 is on tonight. Anyone else want to see Jack Bauer's murder another man with his mouth? That was some wild stuff.

I'm going to go play Contra. Then clean the apartment before Catherine gets home. But first, I must play. MUST.


PS. Up for consumption at Random Changes is Civil War Frontline #3. Look for a new part of Civil War to show up every day.

Here's the full checklist for what is available:
Civil War #1
Civil War #2
Civil War Frontline #1
New Avengers #21
Amazing Spider-Man #533
Civil War Frontline #2
NEW: Civil War Frontline #3
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 5:21 p.m. | 1 comments
On my way home from school just now, a girl on the street stopped myself and a classmate and thrusted Oh Henry bars into our hands.

"STOP!" she yelled. "You guys are having a HERSHEY moment!"

Insert Jamie-style joke here.

PS. Civil War #1 and #2, Civil War: Frontline #1, New Avengers #21, are now up at Random Changes with a new issue to be posted every day.
Posted by Parallel
I've often made a habit out of providing reading for my friends. Usually I lend paper versions, but I figured I might as well make things easier all around.

I have a beta-test blog that I use to track how potential changes to this template will look that I'm now using as a private storage bin for the likes of you. If you head over there, it essentially has the same look but now serves a singular purpose: comic books.

I don't talk about them in any way, simply provide you, my gentle readers, with ways to read them. I've started with Astonishing X-Men #16, with future issues to follow at a regular pace.

Click on the link or else check for 'Random Changes' in the sidebar.
Posted by Parallel
Monday, January 22, 2007 at 12:20 p.m. | 0 comments
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI went to see another doctor (a follow-up visit) who for once made a good sound when she saw my feet. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to feel good about your progress but not have anyone else realize that the disaster on your feet is, in fact, looking less disastrous.

Anyway, I told her about the rip-off artist that was the ingrown toenail guy. Her eyebrows shot up in total surprise. She then said I should see the surgeon at the clinic who would do it for $25, all of which is covered by OHIP.

And people wonder why I hate doctors and fear hospitals so much.

This whole experience has taught me a lot. For years I would avoid doctors because of the awful experiences I had as a kid. As an adult, I tried to convince myself that these fears were groundless and that I should just grow and pair and go see one.

The truth is, no doctor that I, or any member of my family, including Truffle, have seen in the past few years has actually done much of anything. I think that the internet is much more useful.

Seriously, 12 doctor visits and to this day none of them know for sure what was going on with my feet? That seems horribly out of whack, especially considering some of them were specialists. Maybe if we paid out more money to our doctors we'd keep the good ones in Canada and live healthier lives on the whole. I never thought I'd envy the States and their private healthcare model.

Other than that, things are peachy. I'm going back to Northview (my first practice teaching school) in April for my internship. Not big news, but I had to sort out all the details myself which now means I can relax a little.

A little. Not a lot.
Posted by Parallel
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 8:35 p.m. | 0 comments
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI don't know what to do anymore. I have totally and completely given up.

I went to see the foot doctor today about my ingrown toenail. This was supposed to be the day I had it fixed. I was told it would cost me $35.

My doctor left the room twice as he was trying to sell his house and kept getting phone calls. He comes back and tells me that he thinks it would be easy for my foot infection to come back and that I should have taken a month of pills instead of two weeks.

"Two weeks won't kill it off," he said.

Comforting. Also contradictory. Other doctors have said that was more than enough to kill it. Will the real expert please stand up? Then doctor #11 here tells me what he wants to do to my toe. It doesn't sound pleasant, but it will fix it. Then he says that he wouldn't do it today but he would do it at his own clinic. He said it would take an hour and cost $350 dollars. I told him that I was told it would be $35.

"I don't do anything for $35," he said. "$40 is the cost of this consultation."

What's wrong with my foot? He thinks eczema is likely as well but possibly fungal. What did he do? Gave me a cream.

As for my toe, he told me I could go to emergency and they'd remove the problem part of my toenail but that it might grow back and repeat the problem. He said that was the 'cheap fix'.

To make matters worse, I have two small blisters forming, one on each foot. Nothing big yet, but worrying. I have a dermatologist appointment next week and she wanted to do a scraping, so I won't take the old pills again. If I choose to do that, I have to take a month's worth. I went to see the people at Toronto General and they thought eczema as well and one doctor talked as though I wasn't there to two of his colleagues explaining how the lamisil pills may have functioned as a placebo. I wanted to punch him.

This is why I hate doctors. Months and more than a dozen visits and doctors and nothing has happened concretely. It's a cruel damn joke.
Posted by Parallel
Friday, January 05, 2007 at 9:10 p.m. | 0 comments
Catherine's rabbidIt figures.

I just spent 15 minutes writing up an interesting blog entry and my computer crashes for the first time in ages. I even had a feeling that it was going to do this and still I delayed in hitting the 'publish' button on my blog.

Oh well, it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't update more often. I make the daily journey from my beg to this desk to meander about and check out the silly sites I like to visit and yet there doesn't seem to be enough time left over to write on this blog.

I'm in the throes and woes of vacation time. Catherine says that I should just relax and enjoy the spare time when I have it, but I'm all too often consumed by the horizon and needing to get everything on my plate taken care of. I'm starting to realize that this may be an impossible goal.
One oddity of my surfing habits is that every day I always click on the link for my blog. I don't know why I do this because I know I haven't posted. Maybe I'm looking to see if someone has made a comment on an entry that's three weeks old. Sometimes I use it as a launching pad to check out what Jer and Josh are doing because I'm too stupidly lazy to call them and find out for myself. This is something I must rectifiy because they are too cool and I think they need my guidance. Especially Jer.

Christmas went well, overall. We left with a lot of gifts to take home and brought back even more. I don't think people understand that we live in a shoebox. Somehow we make it all work, but soon I think I'm going to have move Catherine and some of her things out onto the balcony.

Catherine got a new Wii game (Rayman Raving Rabbids) which is the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while. You have to trap bunnies in outhouses, fling cows, and generally abuse these stupid looking creatures. It's actually quite entertaining and Catherine loves it. She gets annoyed if I play it at all without her around because it's "her game."

We also got several DVDs between us. I got season 1 of The Office (US version) and Catherine got all three seasons of Arrested Development. We also saw a lot of movies. Casiono Royale, Night at the Museum, Little Miss Sunshine, even Flushed Away. It's been busy.

The new trailer for the Transformers movie looks pretty good and I'm encouraged to want to see it. I would have seen it anyway, but at least it's looking pretty nifty. Check out the trailer online if you haven't already. I'll wait for your opinions while I play with the Starscream figure Catherine got me for Christmas.

We got a new printer (so I no longer have to wait 10 minutes to print a single grainy page). This printer is unreal. It also scans, faxes, copies, and makes french fries. Really. Crinkle cut.

We had a good New Year's Eve. We went to see Blue Rodeo in Hamilton and enjoyed watching the drunk people around us.

Best of all, my foot appears to be healing. The crippling (and no, I'm not exaggerating) condition that my foot was in seems to have halted itself and my foot is actually repairing the massive damage it suffered. For a while I could barely walk and to date I've been to see more than 10 doctors. It's been stressful.

Other stressors include school. I know I'm on vacation and Catherine says I need to relax and enjoy it while I can, but I'm cursed with forever looking to the horizon for my next problem. I need to apply to get my license, then I need to apply to school boards, get my resume together and all sorts of other nonsense I feel not at all prepared to deal with.

But it's a new year and it's going to be full of interesting events. I hope to spend more time with Jer, Josh, Jamie, Nicole, Nate, Aaron, Chris and several others while working towards getting that first teaching job. Life could be much different by this time one year from now and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

In the meantime, I think I'll get my drink on. Where's Jer, anyway? It's Friday night at 9:21pm and I'm blogging while Catherine is out with her friend, so where is mine? I'll pretend I called Jer and then yell at him tomorrow for not returning said ficticious call. I expect the ruse will work beyond my expectations.
Posted by Parallel
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