Well I haven't posted in quite some time...  But I have some fun news... We recently added a new member to our family...

( Read more for the details... )

Would anyone like to sponsor me as I climb the CN Tower for charity this year? All proceeds go towards the World Wildlife Fund.

Come out and show your support, or simply help by donating from the comfort of your home!

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything here, but rest assured I have been diligently reading about everyones lives.

What has happened since the Ides of March? In brief:

1. My Mother came back for the summer
2. My Brother got Married on 7-7-07
   
3. I left the company I co-founded to start a new job at Questrade

( Details behind the cut )

( This is for SmittyD )

Well, my time spent at Ad Astra this year was enjoyable, despite having the con-plague before I even arrived. In a strange turn of events I actually got better as the weekend went on. My apologies to all those I may have given my sickness to. It was really good to see my niece (strayfish) there this year, as well as some of my close friends, Alfred and Matt.

Also last Saturday Alana and I saw Frank Miller's 300. My two-word review would be "Bloody Good!". My one-word review would be "gratuitous". Unfortunately some of my friends went to buy tickets on Friday for the IMAX show but it was sold out. However, when Alana and I were in the theatre on Saturday night, there were plenty of seats available. This was a bit annoying to me.
( My Thoughts on 300 )

Last Sunday a shiny new bed arrived at the house, followed shortly by mattresses to match! This is in preparation for Alana moving in this Saturday. My weekend girlfriend will turn full time!

Recent television programs have been similar in a way I find rather disturbing:
( Spoiler Warning )

In the void where there is no BSG nor Heroes how do I occupy my time?

Well, I have been busy since Christmas watching the entire 1st season of Rome - which Alana thoughtfully gave to me as a gift. I was really in love with the show, perhaps it helps that I was a History Major and Classics Minor with more than a passing interest in historical events. But personally I think they pulled off this depiction of the fall of the Roman Republic in a very good way. When watching this show it is important to keep in mind what my curmudgeony old Classics Professor told us "you have to keep in mind that everyone in ancient Rome was an asshole". By and large this is true, with the execption of Cicero. Although even in this show Cicero is portrayed as less than savory. My favorite character is perhaps Pullo, or Octavian (I think they portrayed him in a good light). I found myself getting attached to the characters, esp. Vorenus and Pullo's relationship, the final episode of season one was pretty emotional everyone knows about the Ides of March.

As a gaming geek, I have been passing the time by playing lots of games. I have been playing a bunch of new Board Games, one of which was a fantastic epic space game (not unlike Master of Orion) called Twilight Imperium. I also got to try (and really liked) Citadels.

We also got to try out the new Karaoke Revolution - American Idol! Although I'm not a fan of the show, playing this game with a bit of a "career mode" is interesting. Not to mention the commentary by Simon Cowell and Randy "R-Dog" Jackson. Suspiciously Paula Abdul did not lend her voice to the group of judges, although her song appears in the game. Despite rumours on the internet of her being drunk, on drugs, or "crunk" this is not the case. Apparently she has Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy although I'll let you decide...

If you're not already sick of Settlers of Catan, there is finally a decent version of the Cities and Knights online (currently v.0.9.1 - which is playable).

To all the Star Wars geeks out there I suggest you read the Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III.

If you need a new game to try, the "Towers" game is pretty fun.

Also, Bilzzard released The Burning Crusade... the much anticipated expansion to the World of Warcraft. Yes, I have been thouroughly enjoying levelling again. No, I am not level 70 yet (although apparently someone did it in 28 hours). Yes, I have made a Draenei Shaman.

Work has been slowly ramping up with the anticipation of the "great client transfer of 2007" - scheduled for late February. The servers are slowly coming into alignment and I've made contact with a few new clients in the past weeks.

I'd just like to thank everyone who came out on Saturday to wish me happy birthday, and have a rockin' good time... Many, many people came, and I hope that everyone had a great time. Many people got to play a ton of fun new board games, guitar hero 2, and just socialise and hopefully have a bit of food.
Unfortuantely the night progressed onwards and I didn't really have the time nor the inclination to break out the fondue set. Perhaps I can still do it at a smaller gathering for interested parties...

On another note, my parents have provided me with a few updated photos. Recently they went on a trip to Jordan, they have lots of great pics from their trip there. But also my father has sent updated photos on the Atlantis Hotel and Palm Island in Dubai.

( A couple of images behind the cut )

It's that time of year again to commemorate the death of the great classical writer, Cicero. Nope, that's not it... it's MY BIRTHDAY. This year will be a casual gathering of friends at my place. This year I'm thinking of having a casual gathering of friends at my house for games and mingling in the afternoon. For dinner I think I will fire up the BBQ and cook a few steaks, accompanied by a cheese fondue. I would appreciate it if you intend on coming for dinner to try and bring a small potluck contribution. For dessert, fruit and chocolate fondue. After dinner we can do some more of the same. I know a lot of you have busy schedules so feel free to just drop in and say "Hi".

Feel free to bring your favorite game to play and share with others. Also I know some of you live out of town, so I am offering up crash space as it is needed.

Don't feel obligated to come for the entire thing, just stopping in and saying Hi would be nice.

If you can, please view the e-vite: and respond there. http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=TGPRVQOEYUOHVUITZSAG
Also feel free to invite significant others, etc. that may be outside my realm of immediate contacts.

Looks like this weekend will have lots of turkey in store for me. I wish the very best to everyone out there in this time of thanksgiving. I'm thankful that my indoor soccer season has started up again, Lord knows I need the excercise. For those of you who get the Monday off, enjoy it!

A couple of great things people should be aware of:
1) Guitar Hero II track listing: http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/10/05/guitar-hero-ii-38-new-songs-revealed-by-mtv.htm

2) South Park's latest edtion that apes WoW... I laughed, I cried, I fudged my undies and had my mom clean it up... If you're a gamer, you'll want to watch this. Go and grab the torrent somewhere, the title is "Make Love, not Warcraft".

Looks like there are a lot of things planned for October, I should be a busy little bee.

First off, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to SmittyD! Have a good one, and good luck on the game show!!

I suppose a lot has happened since last I updated, but I will summarise the main points:
Both my parents came to visit, my mum will be styaing until Aug 25th, and Dad has only been here a short 10 days and is leaving tonight.

Dragonboat season is done and over with for the year. It was a good run, and I'm really glad we decided to go to Montreal this year instead of the Toronto Island races. Montreal good, but I wish I had a bit more free time there. We came away with a gold medal (in an underqualified division - due in some part to sleeping in on Sunday), but a gold medal nontheless. We also got to have a nice dinner and take in a show at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. I got to see Kelly Osbourne's twin sister preform standup, and it was as horrible as you might imagine. Hehe, the other acts were good though.

Last weekend I went paintballing with a few friends from work and others. It was a great day overall, but I managed to get an interesting welt that looks much like the Helix Nebula. The welt could have been avoided had we enough people to completely lock out the field... we were a few short of 20 people, and alas had to allow a few with their own guns on the field. Getting shot at point blank with a high powered paint marker was not my idea of fun. After lunch, we re-distributed and everyone had the rental equipment.

Yesterday I went with chanilye to watch Spamalot. It was much like the one in NYC we saw almost a year ago, and I think some of the delivery and dancing was actually better in the Toronto show. At times King Arthur sounded like Tim Curry, and others a bit like John Cleese and Eric Idle. Overall, very good and worth seeing twice!!

In a couple of weeks I will be visiting my friend in NYC for a guys-weekend birthday celebration. I will also be off camping in the back woods of Algonquin for the first weekend of September, and possibly the last weekend of September. So looking forward to that.

I feel I need to get away from creating programs, and administering websites for awhile. I'm craving the solitude that only the vast Canadian wilderness can provide.

Yeah, I've been seriously lax at updating this thing, but rest assured I have been lurking from time to time.

( Cut for length mostly. Follow the link for goodies inside! )