Category: IRL

I would drown in your river of love

Yesterday I had not one, but two job interviews. I believe that they went rather well, and I even got a call back today for orientation. So it looks like Ryan’s a-gonna be working the night shift! Yeah, apparently that’s not such a great thing for my body, but if it puts snacks on the table, that’s all I need. I’m totally cool with the work, and the only thing I’m a little apprehensive about is how I’m going to manage to do anything else, since my whole schedule will be upside-down. In any case, it’s all good because I’ll be on the regular income train again. No matter how gihumongenormous a tax refund is, it still only lasts so long. To celebrate, I went out and spent craploads of money! First off, I scored the Hawksley Workman album Lover/Fighter, which is an incredible CD that I recommend you go and buy now on account of it’s so awesome. Next, I ran into the South Park season 7 DVD set, so I scooped that right up. On the gaming side of things, I bought Tales of Phantasia for GBA. Great game. Hell, the whole Tales series is great, and I highly recommend you give at least one game a try. The last thing I bought (and prepare yourself for this one: you’re not going to be happy with me) was a GameBoy Micro. My practical reasons for buying it just sound like excuses anyway, so we’ll just chalk it up to the fact that I’ll buy anything that Nintendo tries to sell me. Plus it’s so tiny! I was looking for Tetris DS too (actually the original reason I went shopping), but no stores have it in stock yet, so maybe tomorrow…

So that’s my tale. I’ve really got nothing else to announce today. I might finish uploading stuff to the DeviantART gallery this weekend, and there will probably be a new article soon too. Though it’ll likely be a boring game review, so don’t get too excited about that.

Oh! Hey, and don’t forget that Satoru Iwata’s giving his keynote speech at the GDC today, so expect a whole slew of Revolution-related info to be flying all about the intarweb over the next little while.

Socially disturbed

Man, sitting around the University all day is boring. There’s a three-hour gap between my classes from Tuesday to Thrusday and I’ve got nothing to do, or at least no secluded place to do it. It’s stupid to think I could find such a haven, but I really hate people. Just their existence pisses me off. If there were a room where I could set up shop and study or whatnot during the off-time, and not have to worry about passersby or door-knockers (which nullifies my washroom strategy), that would be great. But no such room exists. So I have to sit around in the computer lab all day, in the presence of putrid humans. Nowhere else is any better, but at least I have internet access there. And the best thing is the complete lack of internet blocking software. It would surely be frowned upon, and I never would, but I could potentially look up porn should I feel the need. So all my complaining aside, no real news today. But the first comic at Coozy For Hire should be up tonight. If not, we’ve got some filler. Mmm filler. So I’ve got to go off to class now. Maybe I’ll use all this spare time I have to increase article production. You’d like that, now wouldn’t you?

It’s coming right for us!

Just some minor changes to the ol’ site today. Fixed up the banner so it’s less than half the size it originally was. If you check it out, it still says GIF, but I assure you, it’s a PNG dressed up as a GIF so that I didn’t have to change each and every page from GIF to PNG. That would have been tee-dee-ous. I also went over the second Art Gallery, and fixed it up so that all the bandwidth-devouring BMP file have been converted into more friendly PNG files. On another note, Audioscrobbler has been renamed to Last.FM, so I got that changed up (on the main page only).

In other news, I posted my bio on the BBS for one of my classes, so if anyone visits that, they’ll probably click the link I provided for the site. So I might have a spike in hits. Just thought I’d mention it. And while I’m on the subject, university is pretty cool, just (as dumb as it sounds) too many people. I can’t find anywhere nice and secluded to read/draw/video games/what-have-you. Then again, I haven’t explored the entire campus, so there is still hope. A hope that’s too far away from my classes to be worthwile, but hope no less.

I’ve been working on a new pseudo-article, and it’s such a thing that it might get updated every so often, unlike the current offerings, which have become pretty much stagnant. Be ready for that around the end of the month.

Finally, I got The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (you may have heard me rant about how cool it was going to be), and I love it to pieces. It’s similar to GTA(X), but doesn’t get boring after an hour. Expect articleization sometime in the near future.

Oh, and Coozy For Hire should be getting off the ground any day now. Stay tuned for more.

Band of the Month – September 2005

Boom. Check this, kids. This month’s band is another one of those foreign ones. Also, they’re another one of those bands that nobody’s heard of, and I only came across because they were featured in a video game. And to top it all off, they play a style of music I almost never talk about, but absolutey love to listen to. Today, we pay tribute to the Asianest surf gutar band this side of anywhere: the Surf Coasters.

Yeah, they’re this Japanese surf band that absolutely rocks. Well, that’s maybe saying a bit much. You see, I’ve only really heard about a total of seven or so songs from them, but trust em on this one, they’re good. I originally heard of ’em when I found out they were headlingin the soundtrack to Musashi: Samurai Legend. Turns out they were just doing the main theme, but any publicity is good publicity, right? After I sampled the sweet tune known as “Samurai Struck”, I myself was quite struck and immediately went on a search for more. Sadly, music by the Surf Coasters is harder to come by on the internet than a website without ads. It’s out there somewhere, but you’re going to spend a lot of time and effort looking for it.

So here’s something new to learn about me: I love surf music. Not a big fan of the sport so much, but nothing can even compare to the wail of a surf guitar. And you all know what I’m talking about, whether you think you do or not. The Surf Coasters (just like any other surf band worth it’s salt) has covered “Misirlou”, and you know “Misirlou”. Think Pulp Fiction. If nothing else, it’s the easiest SC song to find, so go check that out. You’ll recognize it immediately. The only surf song more well known is Wipeout, but that’s like the definition of surf music. Anyhow, Surf Coasters rock.

The “Misirlou” is great, but at least some of their other stuff shines too, like “Shark Attack” and “Kuroshiro”, or even the mellowed-out “Adventures in Paradise”. I really haven’t heard many songs other than the ones I mentioned, and I’m not about to make a complete list, but it’s all been good. I’d say more, but I’m not sure what to say, and I’m pretty much satisfied with giving a more obscure band a turn in the spotlight. So yeah, go download some tunes by the Surf Coasters, if for no other reason than to help me in my search for more. I’d import, but it’s damned expensive.

Also, good news for me! Planet Megaman is finally back after being down for like the whole summer. (EDIT – Or not so much…) You probably don’t give much of a damn, but it was an important part of my “daily rounds”. And on a completely different note, I go back to school in three and a half hours. After 14 months of not-learning, my brain has gotten used to being used as little as possible, so we’ll see how this goes.

A thousand years of power

Eric: Stupid little girls liking Hilary Duff.

Mom: You know they’ll go for whatever’s popular.

Dad: It’s not like she’s really talented or anything.

Eric: She probably just lip syncs at concerts too.

Ryan: And she could use a little plastic surgery…

*Awkward silence*

Mom: Ryan! She’s way too young for you!

Dad: It’s only like a year difference

*Intense conversation about adults dating minors*

Eric: Ryan, next time, just keep it to yourself.

Ryan: I was just sayin’…

That being said, here’s a decent Fark photoshop thread. I’m off to the cottage. Again.

Verbatim

Mom: It’s hard to save for a car when you keep blowing your wad.

Ryan: *laughing hysterically*

Mom: Ryan, that’s disgusting

Zack: What’s so funny?

Mom: NOTHING.

Ryan: No wonder I don’t have a car

Everyone who got it: Ewwwwwwwww! Ryan, you’re disgusting!

BOTM – July 2005 (and then some)

OK, This month is gonna be a bit off as far as Band of the Month goes. No big long review this time, just a short summary, because I have a lot of other stuff to go over and I’ll be gone until the 11th. So let’s get it on.

This month’s band is none other than German metal band Rammstein. One of my buddies turned me onto these guys some years ago, back in the day when “Du Hast” was still relatively unknown to the general public. Perhaps because I listened to them while playing Unreal Tournament endlessly (Funk Master R. Valentine loves the UT), I was hooked on them. To this day, I still love Rammstein, and I’ve wanted to use them as a BotM for what seems like forever. Just never remembered when it came time to commit to a band each month. Conevenient. For a while I was just listening to a whole bunch of new(er) bands, somewhat leaving behind some of my old favourites. Rammstein was one of them. It wasn’t too long ago that they released their newest album, Reise Reise, which brought me back to the day when I listened to Rammstein all the time. If this story is slightly confusing and irrelevant, I apologize, I’m just typing whatever pops into the old noggin, not bothering to think it out. Anyway, too much anecdote, not enough review.

The first album, Herzeleid, is good but isn’t exactly what I’d consider to be the best of Rammstein. Yes, it’s got some greats like “Asche Zu Asche” and “Heirate Mich” which I love, but a lot of it is just so – for lack of a better word – underdeveloped compared to the Rammstein I was first introduced to, that I can’t fully appreciate it. The second release, titled Sehnsucht, was the second that I owned, but probably my favourite. It’s got a lot of the songs that I was listening to when I first got into Rammstein, like “Sehnsucht”, “Engel” and the ever-popular “Du Hast”. Plus it features an awesome hidden track, “Stripped”, which is a bit slower than usual Rammstein fare, but I find to be one of their greatest songs.

While Sehnsucht is my personal favourite of the four Rammstein albums, Mutter comes in a very, very close second place. “Mein Herz Brennt”, “Links 2 3 4”, “Sonne”, “Ich Will”… Those are just the first four songs, and I might as well type in the whole track list if I were going to type out the best songs on the album. Lastly is Reise Reise. It’s about a half-and-half deal. Not that half is bad, per se, but just not quite up to par with what I’d expected. The singles “Mein Teil” and “Amerika”, coupled with greats like “Reise Reise” and “Amour” make the CD worth buying, but some others like “Dalai Lama” and “Los” seem more like filler than actual kickass metal. Oh well. They’re all excellent albums, and I own all four. I’ll probably buy the next one that comes out too. No, I’ll definitely buy the next one. Just like I buy every HIM CD that’s released. If you’ve never heard of Rammstein (they were popular for a while back there, I imagine you’ve heard “Du Hast” at the very least), I recommend looking into them, as always.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, news time. I wanted to get the article I mentioned last post (henceforth referred to as the “super-article”) done before I left, but no such luck. I suppose I have 5 or so hours before I have to get ready for work, but I should go to… (trails off). Yes, so the super-article will have to wait until later this month. I project between the 13th and 15th.

In the meantime, I should also mention that today will be my last day working at Tim Horton’s. Boom. Dropped the shocker bomb there. Exactly why I quit is unimportant and will not be discussed, but apparently my girls are going to miss me. I may go back in September (as they keep requesting of me), but I may also have a new job and not need to go back. Clouded by the dark side, the future is. God knows I’ll visit every once in a while to keep tabs on the place and to appease the ladies, but I’m not going to lie, I’m glad to have gotten out of there. Not that it was a bad job, but I’d certainly had enough. And at the very least, I’m getting this whole “I don’t want to do this anymore” thing out of my system while I’m still young and can afford to be indecisive about my employment. Call me stupid if you must, but it’s all good for me. I learned a lot while I was there, and I grew a lot too. Spending nine months almost exclusively in the company of females is not something I ever expected to go through, but it was a good experience (for the eyes, if nothing else). Strangely, I think I might actually miss some of them. Oh well, we both knew it wasn’t going to last forever, one way or the other. But enough of this crap. You know I’m up too late when I start to write about less superficial subjects.

Anyway, here are some things you might see upon my return:

  • Thoughts on the new Span CD Vs. Time
  • Review of Meteos (DS)
  • Review of a Corn Pops box
  • Comparative review of MegaMan Battle Network 4 and 5
  • The Super-article (dun dun dun)
  • Ryan’s Sweet Cottage Adventure (see the Quest for the Cube FAQ for details)

The list is pretty much to help me remember what I wanted to do (and an excuse to make a list), but feel free to get hyped about anything there, particularly the last item. Considering reader praise that resulted from the source material, I’d say it’ll be a pretty hot ticket. Anyway, I really need to end this post. It’s gonna be a long day for me. Oh yes, and happy Canada Day. We rock, eh.

Keep your pants on. Unless you’re a chick.

Today, June 3rd, 2005 – a date which will live in infamy – my parents bought a new computer. And it is (in some ways) better than mine. But that’s only the good news.

My PC, by the by, has been acting like a total dick for the last couple weeks, and only now is it in a useable condition. Many problems have plagued the little guy, but none of them were really ever figured out, they all just kind of went away. Damned computers. Aaaanyway. Since I’ll be losing my modem tonight, I’ll have to either shell out cash for a computer… connecting.. thingy… or just use the family computer, which will be tough, because everyone will be constantly fawning over the new baby. That, and I might have to buy a sound card too, because no matter how many drivers I install for my onboard piece, it just won’t work. In the words of Johnny Cochrane: it does not make sense!

Yes, so updates might be even less frequent than they are now, not only because of the less accessible internet, but also because I can once again play games on my PC. Just thought I’d let you know I haven’t yet given up on the site. Band of the Month might not show up until next weekend, depending on the circumstances.

Viva la Revolution

The time is finally at hand. In the last two posts, I’ve showed you images of both the ugly Playstation 3 and the sleek Xbox 360. And today, you get your Nintendo Revolution. Here are some more. Bias aside, I’m not a big fan of the look, but it’s not stupid and round like the Playstation 3. At least it’s got some kickass features like being able to download tons of Nintendo games, built-in WiFi, and an online Super Smash Bros as a launch title. Assuming Nintendo sticks to their no-fees ideology, this could be bigger than Halo.

A little less exciting, I got my letter of acceptance into the Universtiy of Manitoba today. Whoopee! Now I have to go back to learning…

The last of today’s topics is a little out of the ordinary. If you’re looking for a good-as-new PSP bundle for a slightly discounted price, gimme a shout. Asking price is $300. The thing’s been used a whole of maybe two times, comes with Gretzky Hockey, Metal Gear Acid, and the Spiderman 2 movie. And for those of you who need to know, there are two dead pixels. Like I said, if you’re interested, E-Mail/phone/talk to me ASAP.

Better get ready to rock, my friend

Good news everyone! That article I promised is done. It’s a bit of a cop-out, but whatever. You’ll find it on the appropriate page, at the top of the articles list. Yeah, it was supposed to be done yesterday, but due to unforseen events, I was out all night.

On a totally unrelated topic, our store ran out of “Roll Up The Rim” cups at about 8:13 this morning. The customers are taking it pretty hard, but I think with a little time, the scars will heal and they’ll be back to their normal dumbass selves. And I think my co-workers are up to something, because they were really nice to me today. It’s not like they’re normally assholes or anything, but it was over the normal niceness level. If something happens, I’ll make sure to report. Unless I’m dead.

Another mini-review might be coming up in the next week, so stay tuned.