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Doom 3 Finished!

I finally finished Doom 3 today! Woohoo! I was trying to finish it on the weekend, but it just kept going on and on. While it had its moments, they used the "monster popping up behind you" type of thing way too often. Once or twice, it's a surprise. Hundreds of times over the course of a game? Tedious. I hated the Guardian, I kept shooting the seekers, thinking eventually he would stop respawning them and fight me mano-a-mano. But no, they just kept coming. Hours later, I figured out what to do. Doh! The big boss was cool, he kinda looked like the boss critter from Diablo. It was pretty easy defeating him, I knew almost right away what to do. After the BS I went through with the Guardian, I'm glad it wasn't too hard, I didn't want to deal with that kind of frustration again. I played most of the game with headphones on. For some reason, it wasn't as immersive with just my computer speakers. Anyways, good game mostly, but I'm glad it's over!

Amazing Race in Calgary

Hey, The Amazing Race did a leg in Calgary, of all places. I haven't been watching this season, but I just might check out tonight's finale to see out what happens when they come to cowtown. They ride mountain bikes down the hill at COP, apparently. I've done that before, it ain't that big of a hill. They should have dragged them out to a real mountain bike hill, like the Little Elbow/Big Elbow run, now that would have been a challenge! :)

Update: I watched it, they rode downhill in the winter, in the snow! Ahh, I see now, a bit more difficult. Only one team chose to ride the bikes, Brendan and Nicole. Nicole spazzed out halfway down, threw a total tantrum. They had to do the luge instead. I'm glad they didn't win, a couple of flakes, I hated them. They also went to Sunshine, my favourite ski hill. Cool.

Open Bike Locks with a Bic Pen

Eeek! You can open certain U-locks, specifically the Kryptonite Evolution 2000, with a Bic ballpoint pen! I saw a bit about this on the news the other day, didn't really catch what the story was about, but then today a courier came up to me and was asking if my lock is openable with a Bic pen. Shit, I was kindof scared somebody would rip off my bike all day, I mean they sell those pens to just about everybody! Well, when I got home, I dumped out all my pens on the floor and went about trying to jimmy my cheapo MEC U-lock. Most pens wouldn't even fit, and the ones that would, barely, wouldn't open it. And I tried, I was wiggling it around and jamming it in there, but nothing I could do would turn the tumblers and open the lock. Cool. I know it's still pretty easy to break just about any U-lock, so I know I'm not totally safe, but still, it shouldn't be that easy.

Update: shit, I just did it! If the pen barrel doesn't fit right because it's too small, use a box-cutter to cut a couple slits and try again. My lock is kind of stuck in the half open position. Fuck, I wonder if MEC is still open...

Update 2: MEC was just closing when I called and the girl there said they just had U-locks with the round keys, no flat keys. I think she was full of shit and didn't have a clue what I was talking about, so I will just have to go in there tomorrow when they open. And if you're planning on trying this with your own U-lock, be sure you're ready to throw that lock away because it was hell getting the lock back into working order. It was stuck in the unlock position, I couldn't get the pen to rotate back to the starting position. And the key won't go in because of the nib at the top, I had to grind the nib off with my dremel type tool. Even then, I had to spray oil in there and wack it with a hammer before I could get the damn thing turning properly again.

U-lock with 2 "keys" on E-bay

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

It's been fairly busy at work this week, but when I do have a break now and then, I've been playing Golden Sun: The Lost Age on my GBA. It's a pretty cool RPG in the Final Fantasy mold, and a sequel to an earlier game called simply Golden Sun, which I've never played. So far, it's been pretty easy, I kind of wish it was a little more challenging. Although it does have all these mini puzzles that you have to figure out, usually involving moving block A to get to block B, moving block B to get to block C etc. and then reaching some kind of chest to get a new goody. It's fun and if I get a call, I can usually finish the puzzle before I have to shut her down and get back to work. You also get new psy-powers from time to time which aid you in progressing in the game. Again, not very challenging, I've only encountered two boss-type characters, a scorpion, which I easily dispatched, and a couple pirates, who beat me the first go-round, but I creamed them after leveling up and making sure my hp/pp was full up. The story is fairly well done [a lot of text to read on me little GBA screen!] and the graphics are very good, I really wish Nintendo made a GBA with a bigger screen, this game could really use it. The sound effects and music are also very well done, reminds me of the classic NES Final Fantasy's.

In short, if you have a GBA, I would definately recommend this game if you're at all interested in Final Fantasy-type RPGs. A quality title, I hope there's a sequel. If not, I'd like to pick up the prequel, if I can track down a copy so late after its initial release.

Brachypelma boehmei

Here's my Mexican fireleg. She's almost getting too big for her container!

Oooh! Look at the pretty colours!

Wanna see something gross? This is my wounded shoulder/arm after getting doored. Ick!

Too poor for pizza

There's this pizza joint downtown where I usually go for lunch, it's one of those places where you can get pizza by the slice. I was getting a slice of pepperoni and a coke for $3 but I didn't quite have enough, [yes, I'm poor] so I decided to use my bank card. I'm waiting for the transaction approved go ahead, but instead I get the insufficient funds take down. For three fucking bucks man. How embarissing. I managed to scrape together $2.90 and they let the dime slide till the next day. I really thought I had a little bit of money in there, at least enough for a slice of pizza dammit. Then it dawns on me. Bank charges. They always take out those damn bank charges right at the end of the month, right when I have like no money. The bank charges sucked out enough cash to make my rent cheque bigger than funds available, but luckily for me, they didn't bounce it. I really must keep more money in that fucking thing.

Feel the pain

After going so long without any accidents, I got into two of them in the past week. Last week, I was pulling into the Stock Exchange loading dock when another bike courier riding on the sidewalk cut right in front of me. I had no time to react and I ended up T-boning him. Not much damage, but I did get a nasty bruise on the side of my knee. Then today, I was just a couple blocks from home at the end of my day when some kid whipped his door open right in front of me. I didn't even realize there was somebody in the car, no time to react again. I bounced off the door and fell back on top of my bike. My shoulder is a little sore where I hit his door, and my wrist feels a litlle wonky. But worst of all, when I fell back on my bike, I bent the rotor for my rear brake. I tried flattening it out, but it's no good, I need a new rotor. The kid gave me his name and phone number, but I doubt I'll actually be able to get any money out of him. I hope that's it for me and this accident thing, can't say I like it very much. :(