He’s famous for a reason

It’s tradition for me to take a couple trips down to either Grand Forks or Fargo in a year. The last few years it’s been for our anniversary in April, and then once again just for fun in the fall. Whether we’re going to make it down again this year is unclear (though unlikely), but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m jonesing for some Famous Dave’s.

Oh yeah, that looks so good. If you haven’t been to Dave’s, I recommend you make it a priority. There aren’t many restaurants I’ve been to that serve so much food that I have trouble cleaning my plate, but Dave’s is one. Actually, it might be the only one. One time I took home the lasagna from my Tour of Italy, but I suspect that was because I was saving room for dessert.

If you’re still not sold, every time any of the members of my immediate family go down to the states, at least a couple bottles of Dave’s BBQ sauce come back with them.

Jenga 2: Jenga Harder

Quite often Edwin and I will sit in his apartment and play Xbox 360 game demos for the duration of an evening. Retail release, XBLA, indie games, whatever. One night I noticed that he had Hasbro Family Game Night in his game library, and that it didn’t say “demo” or “trial” anywhere. So I booted it up.

As it turned out, Hasbro Family Game Night is free, but you only get about two and a half minutes to play any given game before you’re prompted to shell out about ten bucks to unlock the game. Buying them all is a terrible idea, since you can get the disc version with all the games for as low as $20 on eBay (Incidentally, that copy is being sold by a user named “pnpgames.” Hmmmm).

Anyway, after screwing around with the trial of Jenga for an entire evening, Edwin finally decided to bite the bullet and unlock the full version of Jenga. You actually get two Jenga games when you make the purchase, but that’s besides the point. We didn’t want to play Jenga. We were out to break Jenga.

Mr. Potato Head stands on the table next to your Jenga tower, oohing and aahing as you play. He’s kind of an ass, so I was very excited when I noticed that knocking the tower over in Potato’s direction would send him flying off the table. Our goal then was to knock him off repeatedly. It was fun, but wore out once we realized that if you jiggle the blocks around just so, you can cause physically impossible things to happen with the Jenga tower. After spending some time creating ca-razy configurations, we decided it was time to move the tower.

The physics in video game Jenga aren’t exactly how they should be, and you can manage to drag the tower along by moving blocks the right way. We set a goal of dragging the tower over to the potato, and then to pull it off the edge of the table. If you’re feeling generous, Edwin managed to accomplish both feats, and I have video evidence; behold the best Xbox Jenga related videos on YouTube! Or, one of them. I can’t figure out how to embed the playlist.

Okay, so maybe only one block fell off. But it still dropped off the table! I’ll note that I find it kind of amazing that the wonderful music I chose for the background ends just as the game does. Mmm, coincidence.

Also the Potato Head glitch was pretty cool. Guess QA didn’t really take much time to screw around with the game. Live and learn, guys.

Pointless potential

So I’m mostly just doing a test here to see if I can post through my Wii. If you’re reading this, I totally can!

Proofreading from here is going to be a bitch though. The Wii’s tiny little text input window was totally not meant for this kind of work. So if you notice lots of little typos of the “jsut” and “anythign” variety, assume it’s a post written from the comfort of my bed. Which might make this worth it. Now unless I need to post an image, I have one less major reason to turn on my computer. Poor, neglected compy.

In related news, I’m on my third Wii console now. Not because I’m Nintendo’s bitch and keep buying each new colour or anything, but because Netflix is a horrible Wii murderer. Well, maybe it’s not Netflix, but all the evidence points to that conclusion. Let me start from the start.

Once upon a time, little Ryan was super excited that he got a message from Nintendo (via WiiConnect24, which is otherwise useless) that said he could now download a Netflix channel for his Wii. Little Ryan downloaded that channel with all the gusto, and immediately dove in. The first movie that queued up, completely by chance, was Confessions of a Nymphomaniac. Little Ryan felt a different kind of excitement and watched it. His love for Netflix bloomed instantly. Life would be wonderful from now on.
After watching more movies on the Netflix channel for hours, Ryan turned the Wii off and left to do other things for a while. He came back even later on, but when he turned on his Wii, it showed a horrible message:

“System memory has been corrupted.”

Little Ryan was devastated. His best friend had suffered from an apparent brain aneurysm, and he didn’t know what do to. The next day he turned on the Wii, just to see, and to his delight it worked! Little Ryan jumped for joy! For a while, everything seemed perfect, but then the Wii stopped working for real. It did not recover from the memory corruption, and had to be sent away to be replaced with a new console.

Little Ryan was depressed for the two long weeks his Wii was gone, but he was ecstatic when it returned, still loaded with all his Virtual Console and WiiWare purchases. Only while the license to download them was retained, they refused to play on the new console. Little Ryan set about re-downloading them all, painful a task though it was. At the end, he downloaded the Netflix channel again, and set about to watch him some River Monsters. Man, Little Ryan loved him some River Monsters.

Days and weeks went by uneventfully. Little Ryan and the Netflix channel were living happily together until one morning Ryan woke up and his Wii said

“System memory has been corrupted”

Little Ryan was devastated. Again. His Wii was dead again! But it pulled through the crisis, and Little Ryan continued to Netflix. Over the next few months the error came up again. At first it seemed to happen randomly, but as the fall set in, it started to happen every time Little Ryan tried to turn on his console. He eventually gave up and sent it in for repairs.

When Little Ryan received the second replacement Wii, he vowed to never download the Netflix channel again, because it was the devil. Four years, Little Ryan and his original console had spent together, and never had a problem. Now Little Ryan and his third Wii get along just fine, and there is no Netflix to be seen.

The End

So yeah. That’s what happened in a nutshell. The really sad part is that I loved the Netflix channel. Yes, Canadian Netflix lacks most of the AAA movies, but who cares? There’s so much on there to watch anyway! I felt like a kid in a candy store every single time I booted that channel up. I always found something to watch, and ended up watching tons of stuff that I’d have never even heard of without it. I owe Netflix a great deal, and I’m sad that I can no longer use it through my TV.

I do still subscribe to Netflix, and occasionally use it through my iPhone (mostly during workout time), though I’m a little skeptical about loading it up on my 3DS. Who knows what it’ll do? I’m certainly not signing up for Xbox Live Gold just for Netflix. One monthly fee is enough. I intend to find a cable that can make my iPhone do TV-out soon so that I can watch stuff on my TV, but it’s still not the same. The Netflix Wii interface was a little clunky, but it was nice. Better than the iPhone interface anyway. Oh well, those days have passed, and for now I live with Netflix being more a fond memory than anything else.

It’s just a box

SPOOOOKY!

Tim Horton’s has had many themed timbit boxes over the years, but I’m going to go ahead and say this one is the best. It’s just so adorable! The ghost’s mouth is strawberry jam! I don’t know if they’ve used it before, as I don’t usually take note of this kind of thing, but I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of this one. Also I am reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, and it is so great. I don’t do much reading these days (which really is a shame), so you know I’ve got something special if I find it worth mentioning. So good.

Wow, it’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged about anything Tim Horton’s, hasn’t it? Reading those old posts from when I used to work there really takes me back…

Gentleman, yes. Scholar? Not as much.

I had a job interview today. It was for a position that seemed like it would fit me to a tee. And the interview went well! I’ve done a lot of them this year, so I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at the art of talking myself up. Prolly not going to be getting it though.

For as good as I think the interview went, there was one big sour spot in the middle which I think really killed me. Like in many interviews before, I could feel the interviewers give up on me as soon as the subject of education came around. It’s not even that I need a degree or whatever. The education requirement is two self-study courses, and they would give me time to complete them if I got the job. You know that look in someone’s eyes when they know they’re not going to hire you? I’m getting to know it a bit too well, and I’m pretty sure I saw it this morning.

I made sure to note that I was more than willing to enroll in the courses though! So hopefully that will save me. And for the first time I’m not stressing out trying to figure out how I could honour that commitment. The basic courses are less than $1000 combined, with some rather expensive optional study tools available. I’d have six months to complete the harder one, and 18 for the easier of the two. The passing grade of both exams is 60%. This is something I could absolutely do. Even if I don’t get the job, I’m considering taking one (or maybe even both) of them just so that I can put something in the “education” portion of my resumé. It would be my best spent $1000 in quite some time.

Worst case scenario, I just keep hoping that Great West Life will hire me (not that I’ve put in an application). I have no issue with Cambrian (lack of promotions aside) and fully intend to continue my career with them, but I’ve heard from multiple sources that GWL pays incredibly well for work that untrained chimps would be overqualified for.

In other news, the old posts that I’ve been uploading seem to be a little quirky where lines are concerned, and I’m pretty sure that’s due to the fact that I was writing them up in Angelfire’s page editor. At least, that’s my current best theory. If you’re looking at archived posts between July ’04 and January ’06 (I’ve only re-archived up to October ’04) and you see funny line breaks, help a brother out. It takes like five seconds to post a comment that says “there are funny line breaks here.”

180

I posted before about my weekend of being told how great marriage is and that it’s the best thing I’ll ever do and that more people should be doing it. Today I was re-posting some archive stuff, and came across a blog post with a link to a site called Don’t Marry. I was thrilled about it back then, because at the time I had a firm belief that I’d be single forever, and a website telling me that marriage is dumb anyway made me feel better about my solitude. Clearly I no longer agree.

The original link is broken, but I did find a new address that contains some very familiar content, I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing. I actually took the time to read through the first few paragraphs and skim the rest, and I’ve gotta say that I’m disappointed in myself for ever thinking that this is a good website. It’s not giving smart reasons not to marry, it’s basically just a page of calling women uptight spendthrifts. It victimizes men, though not in a prticularly reasonable way. The writer makes the assumption that every woman is a huge bitch, and will leave her boyfriend/husband if he doesn’t spend enough money on her. He says that women will, without exception, throw away their careers and make the husband support the family. It goes on an on like that. It’s just terrible.

This fellow must have either really deep mommy issues, or he got dumped and hates all women for it now. I know that out there, women like the ones he describes do exist. There has to be at least one. I know one woman who is a terrible example of a wife. But the thing is that not all women are like that. Surprise! Stephanie likes to spend money, and likes even more when I spend money on her. But she’s otherwise responsible with money; she has no debt, and always makes sure to have enough money for bills. The very last thing she wants is to be a stay-at-home wife/mom. I know this could change with time and kids, but I have a feeling it won’t; she loves having a sense of purpose and would go crazy being at home all the time. Our parents are other great examples or marriage done right.

Go ahead and read it yourself, but unless you hate women, I think you’ll probably stop reading in disgust before he starts to make his second point. The whole thing makes out women -and western society on the whole, for that matter- to be selfish, materialistic monsters. I hate the usual relationship double-standards as much as the next guy, but us men have them too. Really, the dude who wrote this is just as, if not more selfish than the women he’s describing. Marriage is supposed to be you sacrificing your life to your partner and vice versa. Or something like that, I can’t describe it properly.

No relationship is going to be perfect, and I’m sure that for every point this fellow likes to make, a woman could counterpoint with a reason men don’t make good partners. That doesn’t mean marriage is a bad idea! If you meet someone who thinks ill of you because you aren’t spending enough on them or they want you to do all the work in the relationship, maybe that’s a hint that you should find someone new. Marriage is only a bad thing if you’re getting married to the wrong person.

I suppose I’m being unfair here in that I didn’t read the entire article, but it’s far too long. It comes off as mysogynistic right away, anyway. I just feel really bad that there was a time in my life where I would have touted this as the most brilliant, forward-thinking website I’d ever seen. It’s not. It’s dumb, and marriage rocks. At least I really hope it does. But I’ve heard good things! And my wife-to-be is the best, so I can’t imagine that being married to her could be anything but awesome.

In summation, don’t write off marriage. Not until you’ve failed at it a few times, at least. At that point, you might be able to start considering that marriage may not be for you. I guess if you really want to live your life for yourself, that’s fine, but I’ve found that life is so much richer in every way (except video game time) now that I have someone to live for.

November reigns

Well sir, I’m gonna have to call it: November 2011 is going to be the best month ever. I’m sure that my wedding day will still be the best day of my life, but May is going to have to work really hard if it wants to compete for month.

Oh, and by the way, I’m basing this on the fact that the new Muppets movie is in theaters on November 23rd. Officially I’m very excited, but I also can’t help but wonder who opens a movie on a Wednesday? That’s just crazy. Nobody goes to the movies on a Wednesday. I’ll likely be too absorbed by Skyward Sword to remember to go right away anyway.

Anyway, The Muppets. I can’t imagine that it’s going to be a bad movie; the trailer alone is awesome. Especially that first one from a long time ago, where they faked you out into thinking it was a romantic comedy and then Kermit showed up. And it’s co-written by Jason Segel, which should be more than enough. If you watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall (and there’s no reason not to have), you’ll remember the Dracula puppet rock opera. I still wonder why that hasn’t been adapted into something bigger. That little five-minute scene is more than enough reason to sit through the whole rest of the movie. If you still can’t make the commitment, look up “A Taste for Love” on YouTube.

I don’t have a taste for musicals. Every time I watch a Disney movie and the characters stop what they’re doing to sing a song about how it’s awesome to be completely irresponsible (The Lion King) or how much they yearn for true love (anything with a princess), I get annoyed and wish I could skip to the next scene. Somehow, the Muppets always manage to get around it. I’m not sure why I’m so much more open to music on film when Muppets are involved, but I am. Maybe it’s because they do it so well. Head back on over to YouTube and poke around there for Muppets music video covers. There is tons of it, and for the most part, it’s all golden.

So now, really, the only way I can think of that could make November even better would be for there to be no snow. And/or for me to be able to find some time for (non-portable) video games. Things had been so good over the last few months, but in October I think I’ve logged maybe two hours in Darksiders. That’s it. 🙁

Sacramental

Marriage Preparation Weekend was pretty fun, actually. Even though it ate up almost the entirety of said weekend, I don’t feel like it was a waste of time.

The majority of the weekend was listening to speakers about what we’d need to consider and how to handle the changes in our relationship once we’re married. Things like finances, communication, family planning, and (quite hilariously) sex were all discussed at length. There were a few worksheets that we filled out between presentations, but they were all just to stimulate conversation between the couples. It was kind of like taking a really, really short semester of university without any tests.

Being that it’s a church-mandated course, there was of course a way for God to fit into everything. And that’s cool with me. I actually feel kind of bad that I neglect my faith as much as I do. The really nice thing that they did though was to really demystify some Bible-related stuff. I learned a lot about what really goes on in there. Turns out it’s not nearly as restricting as the loonies want you to think. Most importantly of course, is that God intends for a husband and wife to really enjoy each other, if you know what I mean.  The Bible’s a lot easier to stand behind now that the Catholic church has mellowed out and uses it as a way to help people enrich their lives, and not as a tool to control them.

I feel that I probably shouldn’t be getting to into that kind of stuff here. I don’t feel like making myself an even bigger target for intolerance than usual. The end result of the weekend is that we’ve taken in a lot of information, and certainly have a few more things to consider within the next few months. Also, sevenish months is starting to seem like it might not really be that far off. We’re just working on little things at a time for the wedding, as the big stuff (dress, venues, photographers) is all taken care of, so it’s not really a concern whether or not we’re prepared for the celebration itself.

What I’m fretting about is our living situation. We’ve decided that we will not flush away money and live in apartment, so it’s condo or house for us. Condos seem to come and go very quickly though, and houses are in pretty high demand in the areas we’d like to live, driving bidding wars up by tens of thousands of dollars (or so I’ve heard). I’ve been poking around some real estate websites over the last few months, but we haven’t started looking for a place in earnest yet. Which is okay for now, because the stress of just thinking about it is almost more than I can bear.  Still not as sacry as babies though.

Oh well. I knew getting married was going to bring with it a few complications. It was just nice to have a weekend of people saying that despite those complications, it’s the best decision I’m ever going to make. Also they fed us like royalty. That was awesome. Best weekend course ever.

NB: Despite how this post may sound, I’m very excited for both marriage and moving out. I just wish they were a little easier.