I 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
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.
I 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.
I 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.
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.
It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, Window in the Skies. It's actually a pretty amazing video and to save you the trouble of looking for it (as I know you were all eager to do), I've linked to the youtube video below.
My feet are actually starting to heal. I can't believe it. It's been so long that I almost forgot what normal feet look like. They still look awful at this point, but I can walk on them again after nearly two weeks of having to hobble and shuffle. The pills I'm taking are doing a number on my stomach, but at least I'm getting better.
Nicole sent along pictures of little Izzy just a short time ago. I can't get over how much she looks like Jamie. She's getting bigger and her hands look eager to roll dice and pick up video game controllers. Like my own future children, this kid is going to be spoiled.
Aaron's blog is lacking all sorts of personal details these days (I haven't linked to his crime blog yet, I don't believe), so I'll fill in the blanks. He's doing well at The Ontarion and has finished up for the holidays. That's he's not only surviving his tenure as EIC but thriving should come as no surprise. He is king of editing.
Jer is the court jester. Jer gets the endurance award, however, for that conference of his.
Chris is doing fine. He just won a million dollars. Actually, I don't know what Chris is doing at all. I've been a bad friend. But seeing as how he's got a new house and a new family I'm sure he's plenty busy. I got him a Christmas present back in October but it now occurs to me that he's probably too busy to pay his annual visit to my Dad's house on Boxing Day.
I've got most of my shopping done at this point. A few odds and ends and then I'm set. At least in theory. There's going to be something more that I buy at least.
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
I've been missing my friends, though. I haven't seen Paul in too long, Jer's visits are to pick up gaming hardware, and I rarely see Josh. So many others are lost in limbo... Nate, Pushee, Chris. Oh well. I've got the Wii to comfort me until I try to actually make plans. Nate and Pushee will likely enter the scene again come baseball season. Though I'm scared to death to try to go to a game with Nathan. I've never been arrested before and this is likely to happen when you go out with Nate.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
I'm assuming I picked up some kind of infection when I was in China. Within a week of my return, I developed blisters on one of my feet. I chalked it up to switching shoes when I got home, but these were angry, angry blisters that left my feet swollen.
It kept getting worse. Over the course of FOUR doctor visits, the last being just yesterday, my foot condition spread from a few blisters to the near inability to walk. My left foot has lost so much skin on the bottom that there are raw red patches. It's not pleasant. When wet, it smells rotten.
The good news about all this is that the last doctor finally gave me an oral antibiotic. He described it as potent and the pharmacist echoed this sentiment. That's good, because it's slowly spreading to my hands.
If I die, Catherine gets the Wii. That's just the way it is.
But seriously, four months and four doctor visits and only NOW are they taking it seriously? What is wrong with our medical system? I arranged a dermatologist appointment and was told I'd have to wait a MONTH. This is actually impressive because my doctor said the wait could be months.
I'm all for public healthcare and I think it's a great system. It's times like this, however, when a private model could be brought in sparingly to help address immediate concerns such as this. If you saw my foot, you would see that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately, not months from now. As much as I appreciate seeing the doctor for free, I'd find it much more valuable to pay a couple of bucks and be treated now.
As it is, I can barely walk. I have bandages and creams to look forward to in my stocking this year (assuming I've been a good boy).
Most of my Christmas shopping is done. There are a few odds and ends, but what would Christmas be if you weren't trying to get something at the last minute?
I suppose it's the price you pay for having a life. This blog was a constant source of amusement during my time at FMG and one might say that it kept me from going insane. Since then, I've been busy enjoying myself. Hence the lack of posts.
My time at FMG ended months ago and since then I've actually been enjoying myself more and more. In case you missed the subtle hints, I hated my job. The only two things I miss about it are hanging out with Nathan and the paycheck.
The past few weeks have largely been uneventful. After my practicum, I needed to decompress. Having the Wii helps in that area tremendously. It's an incredibly fun system that Catherine and I both play on a daily basis. I'm especially pleased that Catherine is using it so much, though she does tend to get carried away.
Earlier tonight we were playing Wii Sports. During one bout of the home run challenge in baseball, Catherine thought it'd be a good idea to let go of the remote. Well, the wrist strap broke, the remote went sailing through a glass candle holder (with a light candle inside) that resulted in wax being sprayed on the wall, the battery cover on the remote flying off, and the controller looking like it might be broken.
As luck would have it, Nintendo made these controllers to laugh. This particular controller has hit several people due to wild swings. Once I hit my mother so hard in the arm that I'm sure I left a massive bruise.
But that's the price you pay to play.
And it's good. For my 29th birthday (man, am I old) my father bought me Red Steel. Not much to look at at first, but the game picks up quickly.
Other than that, I'm back in school. What was make work-type of assignments before is now painfully make-work and I'm starting to get annoyed. Why do you need three people to make a 10 slide Powerpoint presentation using only pictures you can find on Google?
Actually, that's not really true. Catherine and I went out to celebrate with a lovely meal.
It's strange to be finished. In many ways, I really didn't want to go. The students were great and they thought I was great, too. The staff were amazing and by the end of it all, I had a class.
It's like building up momentum, hitting your stride, then hitting a brick wall.
At least I'll have the Wii to comfort me on Sunday. Before then, however, plans abound. There's no rest for the wicked. Maybe next week I'll get a moment or two to rest before I turn the dreaded 29 years old.
Soon I'll hit 30. That just can't be good.
Jer, finish up your trade show so you can come over, play games with mii, and then take home your lovely new Gamecube.
Good lord it's been a long time since I last posted. No real reason for the lack of updates, just that I've been preoccupied with school. It's a one month "internship" that has me teaching grade 9 english and grade 11 sociology full time.
The first week was brutal, but manageable. The second week I suddenly emerged into the light and all was well in the world.
According to my AT, I'm doing unbelievably well. He's already done my evaluation and it states that I should be hired now and that I'm "the best teacher candidate he's ever seen."
I'm still stunned.
It's not that I doubt my ability to teach, but getting high praise from someone who is well respected in the educational community makes it seem surreal. I have miles to go and years to cover before I'm anywhere near his league, Nicole's league, or the many great teachers I've had in the past.
What I will take from this is that it's a sign that I've made the right choice. Hopefully ;).
Otherwise, things are looking just fine. The Wii comes out in less than a week and I'm going to try to rope in Jer to have some launchday fun and games as afterwards he'll take home his spanking new Gamecube (seeing as I'll no longer have use for mine).
Then next week I turn 29. I'm getting old. Not Nathan old, mind you, or even Jer old, but old.
You know how I know? I always feel ready for a nap.
Sorry for the incredibly lame joke. It just seemed like the right time to make one. Time for a quick post to let you guys know how things are going.
I'm tired. Damn tired. I mean, I KNEW how much work being a teacher was, but actually doing it, even on this strange practicum, it's REALLY hard work. Totally mind blowing. I have a totally new level of respect for Nicole and Lindsey. Less respect for Jeromy, but that's just because I have to balance out those cosmic scales.
I'm teaching Grade 9 Applied English and Grade 11 Sociology. So far so good as my associate teacher thinks I'm ready to teach now, but that still hasn't stopped me from spazzing and stressing out. Catherine says I put too much pressure on myself and she's probably right.
I just need more sleep. Week 1 is done, Week 2 (now) is going to be easy, then I've just got two weeks more to go. To reward myself at the end of this whole thing, I'm going to get a Wii.
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Friday night was no exception. My unanswered call to Jeromy to spend some quality time together left me with nothing to do. Catherine had gone home to Brantford and I was procrastinating on doing my first lesson plan.
Instead, I wound up watching Deadwood, playing Megaman X4, and hanging out with Truffle.
Then I heard a very strange sound. I muted the television to listen for it and within seconds a "whoop" sound, very similar to an 80's-style video game lazer, came from my radiator.
Truffle freaked out and hid in a tube. I, on the other, got closer.
"Whoop!" Again, I had no idea what this sound was. I could hear a scratching, so I figured it was an animal of some sort. I called my dad who promptly suggested "racoon or squirrel." It was an emotional conversation.
I had two problems with this. One, after the mouse that invaded our apartment a year or two ago I swore never to put up with an uninvited guest again. That mouse was LOUD and it was tiny. I'm fairly certain that both squirrels and racoons are smaller.
The heating vent it was currently in was secure against the floor and wall. The problem was that the vent goes through the living room wall into the bedroom and the small pipe that connects them has an opening four times too big for it. The heater in the bedroom is secure against the wall, but NOT against the floor. In other words, that squirrel could soon be among us.
So I decided to fight back. I was going to plug that hole as best I could, then try and scare off my house guest. I was talking to my father on the phone at the time who found all of this amusing, because I had to move my bed out of the way in a very small room to access the pipe.
This failed because I broke the bed.
I was pulling on it and one of the support joints creaked then broke. Part of the bed collapsed. I was not pleased at this. The metal pin holding the two sections together was badly bent and I couldn't remove it. I also couldn't think because my dad was laughing at me.
I hung up on him.
Then I got a hammer and fixed that bitch. I straightened out the pin, set the frame in place, then called Catherine because I needed an alan key to tighten the joint and I didn't know where they were.
I quickly explained to her and David what the problem was, and once they stopped laughing, I was told where the key was.
I got the bed fixed, the hole plugged, and all was well. Although all the hammering, yelling, stuffing, and everything else in between scared off the squirrel anyway. I plan to tell people that this was my expected outcome all along.
I found this great program online as I was making up my lesson plan in short fiction next week. It's just a filler exercise should I need to make up a bit of time, but it's handy anyway.
My orientation days at the school went quite well. My associate teacher, Scott, is fantastic and assures me that I won't feel any stress at all. I accepted his statement and wondered where my intense stress headache was coming from.
"Don't be stressed," he said. Pfft. He doesn't know me very well.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
You need to reserve the car, but included in your hourly fee of roughly $11 is gas and insurance. It's great for local trips because if you want anything longer or farther you're better off with a traditional rental.
At any rate, we got the membership several weeks ago, but only yesterday did we exercise our newfound power. Catherine finally got to driver her Mini Cooper.
She's obsessed with the make. There's a car lot around the corner where one is parked all the time and we booked it for a round-trip to Ikea yesterday. For three hours, we acted like Mini Cooper owners.
It's a pretty cool little car. The break is super sensitive, and the "go" as Catherine calls it needs a bit of coercing at first, but it's fun. As you can see, we had to take a few pictures.
We have no need for a car (usually) but having the option to drive one around is nice. Besides, how else we were going to get to drive one?
Tomorrow, the practicum starts. Or at least the orientation. I already have a bit of insider info and I'm approaching the whole process with a mixture of excitement and dread.
I've been in hiding. Well, no, not really. Just busy with busy work. Teacher's college, for the two or three of you who know, isn't really about tough work, tons of essays, and late nights. What it IS about is a lot of busy work. You're always busy with some little assignment or another.
This doesn't always mean the assignments make sense. My first week I was asked to bring in a poem to read to the class. The next week, I was asked to write a poem about myself. I tried going the angsty-teen route, but it didn't work.
The third week, we had to bring in newspapers to tear up and create found poetry. Then my prof sent me home to put my group's poem on paper. Well, one of them I did properly. The other one, well, see below. In my defense, it was mostly my idea.
I know that's not a defense. The REAL defense is that I'm friends with all of you people.
Or am I still? I wasn't able to go to Jer's housewarming which I'm sure was a lovely time. I still need to get my butt over there as soon as possible. I'm also going to invite Jer and Megan (as well as anyone else who is interested) to join Catherine and I for a candlelit tour of Casa Loma at Halloween. We did it last year and it was fantastic. Much better than the day time with a focus on the castle's ghosts.
Aaron at least is coming down this weekend. I need to write him about that as it seems that depending on when he gets here, I may not be able to spend as much time with him. On Saturday, Catherine's aunt from England is going to visit us. There's only so much of me to go around, but I feel a tremendous need to share all things geek with Aaron. Besides, out of everyone who reads this blog, I get the feeling he needs a break more than most.
Aaron, don't give up your blog. I read that thing. You're depriving me of minutes a day as I invest in your life. Think about ME before you make such decisions.
My back hurts and I'm hungry. Tired, too.
But Heroes is on tonight. You guys should be watching that show. It's quite interesting. Lost is looking interesting this year, as is Veronica Mars. But the winner of all the premieres is Battlestar Galactica. I promise I'm TiVoing all the new eps for those of you who aren't caught up. It's just SO damn good. Season 3 is kicking my ass already and they've only aired the first two episodes.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
The internet will crap out for no reason whatsoever. It's not the cable box, it's the computer. All of a sudden, it just won't recognize the internet. I have to reboot.
Then there's the harddrive. If it isn't having some catastrophic failure it's slowly eating itself. During a marathon session of photoshop crapping out on me and my deleting a ton of things off the drive to free up space, the new issue is that after having freed up more than 2 gigs of space it now seems to have all disappeared.
Nothing new was put on the drive, but I'm down to 400 mgs of free space.
My hard drive is eating itself.
The easiest thing to do, I suppose, would be to wipe the whole thing and start over again. However, seeing as I am not possessed of a great deal of funds nor do I have a copy of Word readily available, I'm not about to do this now that I'm actually dependent on my machine to help me produce works that will enable me to graduate.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the source of my frustration this week.
Catherine keeps telling me I need to relax. BAH to that, I say. BAH.
October And the trees are stripped bare Of all they wear What do I care October And kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on
Is anyone else astonished that it's October already? How does that happen? How is it possible that I've been in school for three weeks, not had that job for three weeks, and all the other crazy life changes that have been going on lately.
And why is no one else blogging?
I know Aaron has no life any more considering he's pulling the reigns at The Ontarion, but Jer has no excuse. Nor Josh. Nor Nicole. Heck, what does SHE have to do all day?
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only you really get me?
There's something so sweet, so powerful, about going out and hunting for that one, elusive figure and the evil denizens (store employees) who try to stand in your way but fail miserably.
I 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 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.
I don't know what to do anymore. I have totally and completely given up.
It figures.
It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, 
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
I suppose it's the price you pay for having a life. This blog was a constant source of amusement during my time at FMG and one might say that it kept me from going insane. Since then, I've been busy enjoying myself. Hence the lack of posts.
...And all I got was this lousy blog post.
Iza-pumpkin!
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
Hell, I am too.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only 
