Mmm - Frozen Concoction Maker

So you were wondering where I was for the last month or so. Well my buddy from Chicago sent me the "Maragaritaville - Frozen Concoction Maker" and I guess the rest is history.

We re-outfitted the backyard and it is pretty close to being a piece of paradise, with no annoying sand in the shorts, and all I need is the straw hat.

So, spending a lot of time slurring my words and sitting in the backyard.

WOW and other assorted video games

Haven't played regular WOW in ages. I was on the Beta for a bit and after that last patch it won't let me log in anymore. So to hell with them - I stopped playing that. Been playing Diable III a little bit (since it was free) but even then I haven't been on the computer much.

The Bear

Well as a family, we completed a full year without our beloved dog - Bear. I miss him so much, I took some time today to wash his statue we put in the garden. We talked about getting a new puppy and I think we will be getting one in July. We agreed that he won't be a Golden because it would be a little too hard on the family. So in about a month I will be introducing to you - our new German Shepard puppy. We already have a name for him (my daughter came up with it) - his name will be "Toast".

Have to go, my glass is empty - it's Mojito day.

Cheers

/facepalm - The Screenplay

It's like a broken record. I write something then a couple of months go by and I write some more. I usually say that I am busy. Well in addition to the number of hats I wear at my day job, I also took the time to participate in a 7 week film course. I learned a bit about all aspects of the film industry - camera work, lighting, editing, screenplay writing and all the rest of the jobs. Our instructor is planning to offer a 2 year college course for people wanting to get involved in the industry.

That being said I was out doing my infamous health & safety audits at our local school board, when I happened to stop at a local donut establishment. What ensued inspired me to write a 5 minute film short. If you like it and want to produce it let me know. Spielberg - I am looking at you.

/facepalm

Screenplay by
Alt37

 

Current Revision
March 8, 2012

FADE IN

EXT. PORT COLBORNE – DAY

Opening Credits

“Pinball Wizard” music plays.

Views of a silver Aveo are seen driving around.

INT. AVEO – DAY

Driver singing along with “Pinball Wizard”

View from vehicle as if first person (see hands on steering wheel).

Looking out to right at Tim Horton’s

Music continues from radio (classic rock).

Turning into the Tim Horton’s

EXT. TIM HORTON’S PARKING LOT – DAY

Walking towards entrance

Reaching for door

INT. TIM HORTON’S – DAY

Standing in line, six patrons ahead

EMPLOYEE #1
(loud voice)

                                Next!  I can help the next person!

First person in queue nods and indicates to the second person that they can go ahead.

EMPLOYEE #2
(loud voice)

                                Next!

First person moves forward, satisfied he will be served by his favorite Tim Horton’s staff member.

Camera view pans around restaurant, scanning the patrons.

Camera is jolted back to the left of the store as patron screams excitedly.

EXCITED PATRON
(squeals with happiness)

                                I won! ...              I won! ...

Excited Patron stands up, clutching a Tim Horton’s cup.

Excited Patron moves around the store hugging other patrons. Times stretches.

INT. TIM HORTON’S – DAY

Excited Patron moves to counter, pushing First person out of the way.

EXCITED PATRON
(almost hyperventilating)

                                I won! ... I want my prize! ... I won!

Excited Patron thrusts cup towards Employee #2.

EMPLOYEE #2
(trying to calm things down)

                                You need to tear the rim...

Excited Patron continues pressing the cup forwards.

EMPLOYEE #2 (CONT’D)

I can’t accept the cup; you must tear the winning rim off.

Excited Patron tears the winning section of the rim, presenting it to Employee #2.

EXCITED PATRON
(on verge of heart attack)

                                I won! ... I want my prize!

INT. TIM HORTON’S - DAY

Excitement grows amongst the Queued Patrons (did she win the car?).

Employee #2 takes the torn rim and reads the words on the rim.

EMPLOYEE #2

Your prize- what would you like?

EXCITED PATRON
(muffled by the buzz of the crowd)

EMPLOYEE #2
(even more questioning)

What would you like?

Queued Patrons are becoming confused, First person beginning to look annoyed

EXCITED PATRON
(very loud)

                                An oatmeal raisin cookie!

An audible groan can be heard from the Queued and sitting Patrons, many bringing a palm to their foreheads.

Excited Patron accepts her cookie and retreats back to her table.

The queue begins to move again.

CREDITS ROLL

FADE TO BLACK

Happy Easter

Sound Bite

Ok, so I didn't manage to get myself writing another article last weekend. Just very tired after doing three weeks of high school health & safety inspections. I wanted to rest over the weekend and clear my head or it would just turn into a rant session.

I do have one sound bite to share to sum up what I went through. This is from a teacher at one of the schools, "I don't have time to be safe. I haven't been trained to be safe. If they want me to be safe they will have to provide me with more prep time."

Outstanding. If Ronald Reagan were alive I think we need him to come up here and take care of these teachers. Fire the lot of them and hire new ones. Out of the 45 or so teachers I met during that time only 5 or so were in it because they loved it and it showed.

So, last Monday was the start of a new week. My alarm goes off, I am tired, I have a shower and get dressed and go to work. Report writing, playing a bit of catch up etc. Half dozen coffees and a trip to the bathroom. Standing there, fly down, rummaging around looking for the little guy. Then it dawns on me. I have my underwear on backwards. No opening to be found. Panic sets in, must (pause ) drop (pause - work it like Shatner) pants. Made it.

Now you know you're tired, when you mess up getting dressed in the morning.


WOW Stuff

During the three weeks I was away I didn't have much time to play. Leaving at about 6:00am and returning on some days at 10:00pm. I noticed that when I did play it was to do more relaxing stuff. I managed to get all my toons through the Darkmoon Faire stuff. Happily, I have another week to do the "Love is in the Air" stuff.

My pet peeve about that holiday boss is the drop rate on the good stuff. I think it is non-existant. If anyone has received the "Love Rocket" from the holiday boss let me know.

Have a good one.

Yes - I know

I know, where have I been all month. I have been busy, from spending the last 3 weeks doing a health and safety audit for a school board to finishing up the martial arts program I have been working on for the City of London's Parks and Recreation Department. I am absolutely beat.

So this really isn't going to be my blog. It is really more of a notification that I am still alive. I hope to write a new article this weekend and get back to a more reproducible schedule.

Going to bed now. G'Night

Karma

Two days till Christmas and I am sitting at the dining room table wondering how I am going to pull it off. I even stared out the window for a bit to see if I could see the brunette in the red bathing suit jumping into my imaginary pool. Nope just dreary wet weather - green this year for sure.

During my pondering I noticed something interesting. We have two cats. We got them to keep our dog company when he was in his twilight years. Also, if we went out and forgot to feed him he could eat one of them. The interesting bit though is that when they sleep, one curls counter clockwise and the other if he wasn't too pudgy and could actually curl, curls clockwise. Like a furry Ying Yang, and not where you were going with it.

This brings me to the karma bit. I believe in karma but does it always have to come around at Christmas? Like really? In the last couple months the Kingdom of Alt37 seemed to be turning it around. The bank called a couple of months ago to tell me that one of our mortgages was paid off, a letter from Dell notifying us that our computer was paid off and on the horizon a payday for the martial arts program I am writing for the parks and recreation department of an Ontario city.

Things are looking up. Then in the last few weeks - the Queen of our kingdom's car needed repairs, our royal ice box needed repair and the people that we agreed were not getting presents this year suddenly made it into the good books. On top of that, the bank calls back and informs me that the mortgage that we paid off was the mortgage that had the property taxes built in.

So I had to contact the city to get set up for automatic withdrawal (I figured I would just continue to put the "mortgage" money in the account). Makes sense right? Wouldn't miss it. Well, the confirmation letter back from the city had a monthy payment greater than the mortgage payment that I just finished paying off. How does that work?

Paid "X" on the mortgage which was to cover Principle, Interest and City Taxes. We'll say $180.

Now on automatic withdrawal property taxes are "Y". We'll say $242.

Scratches Head

When the accounting is done, this month still comes out in the red, /facepalm. I guess I will have to raid the peasants piggy banks. I am allowed, I am the King.

One day - Karma will swing my way.

Merry "Insert politically correct statement for whichever festive occasion you participate in"

Sunday Morning

It has been a blur since my last posting. I am trying to decide if the old saying, "Times goes fast when your having fun." applies in this situation. There has already been Christmas lights up for the last couple weeks. Why are people trying to rush these things?

For those who know me I changed my status last night to read - "Bake at 400C for 25 minutes or until desired colour is achieved". Well that was off - it should be 400F. If the temperature was 400C then the desired colour I guess would be "black". I just thought it interesting. When one eats pork one hopes that the internal temperature of the meat reaches the "salmonella is dead" temperature rather than a pleasing exterior colour.

For those that read this blog for humorous anecdotes, I have none today. I think it is more due to my "oldtimers", rather than there being nothing funny happening in my life. I guess I just need to carry a pen and paper around to document them. Those of you that follow this blog for a glimmer into my exploits in WOW, your in luck. This posting is going to be for you.

Patch 4.3

IT SUCKS

I am not going to delve into the specifics of different class mechanics, I am going to stick with the big picture stuff.

• Void Bank
• Transmorgification
• Darkmoon Faire
• Raid Finder

I am going to lead off with the good, then go to the bad, then the ugly.

Transmorgification

Haven't tried it. So no comment.

Darkmoon Faire

The games were fun however; the one game where you have to shoot the targets. Why do the Tauren players have to stand pretty much on the counter. Be courteous. You can barely see what is going on. Blizzard should have made that booth bigger and had an invisible wall so you can't get too close. Other than that - this is a good.

Void Bank

This is bad - Open it up and it costs 100G to open the account, then it is 25G per item I think to deposit (Wasn't able to actually deposit anything so not sure if there was a discount for multiple deposits). I guess Blizzard wants to match the service charges of the Bank of America, or the Royal Bank of Canada depending on your locale of residency. How about no service charges and they call it the "Void Credit Union".

Oh, so about the depositing. I went to my player's bank when I logged in all a giddy with anticipation of clearing out a pile of stuff that I wanted to keep but was taking up a ton of space. I brought it all to the Void Bank and paid my 100G. Only to be told that I can't deposit anything that is "Unique". Well that is about everything in my bank. Six years of celebratory steins, and other assorted world event trash. I could deposit nothing. So other than tier gear which I don't collect what use it this?

Raid Finder

This gets the designation of ugly. Again I was all excited to log in and queue up for a Lich King. I never did get my Kingslayer. Completed up to the second last boss several times then the raid fell apart. I figured awesome, finally going to get it. What do I see? Only 2 raids available and you need something like an ilvl 370 to get in. Blizzard, if I had an ilvl of 370 don't you think I would be raiding that content with my guild. UGH!

I thought that all the raids would be represented. Eg. If I was a level 70 or higher with a minimum ilvl x, I would be able to queue for Karazhan, or Black Temple etc.

Two raids, what a waste of energy on their part. The only way of pulling this out of ugly is some plastic surgery. I hope in the next few months they open it to all raids.

That's it, going to the faire.

Time

It's November - Christmas is about 53 days away and the local department stores are setting up their displays. This year seems to be just flying by. My daughter turned 13 and showed me a photo of her kissing her "boyfriend" at the halloween dance a couple days ago. I almost had a stroke. Everything is moving too fast.

Even in WOW, Blizzard announces a new expansion and all you see everywhere is Panderia this and Panderia that. It's like they put up the Christmas decorations and we still have to get through Thanksgiving (US) still and Patch 4.3. I know there had to be the hype element, but seriously - do you think it will be released in July 2012 like the polls at WOW Insider are suggesting. I guess Blizzard needs to make their money before the end of the world - JK.

I am also trying to come to grips with my advanced stages of "oldtimers". Where I think to myself, "What just happened? This would be a great blog article.", only to forget it in a blink of an eye. I guess I will have to start taking some notes on my travels.

So I am going to try and list the things that have happened in the last few weeks that I thought were somewhat interesting to me (in no particular order - Oldtimers).

Halloween

From my Facebook status, "Ok - Halloween night - So what does it mean when the lights get turned out? Oh yeah - the candy is gone. Some kids need to learn some Halloween etiquette."

I turned off the lights and I was still getting the odd group coming to the door for candy. Really? Use your Tim Horton job money and buy your own candy. One "kid" that did come to the door was standing 6'4". At least he came at a reasonable hour and had a full understanding of Halloween etiquette. The knock, the "trick or treat", the passing of candy, the "thank you". Good job - now go out and get one.

Another woman brought her 2 month old to the door. Again, really? Pretty sad.

Martial Arts

A couple of weeks ago I got a pretty good "George Horse" to my left knee. I say "George" because it was way more severe than a standard "Charlie Horse". Almost a full 3 weeks of hobbling around, apparently with the "oldtimers" there is a slowing of the physical healing as well.

My program that I am developing for a city in Ontario is going well. A lot of the drafts are done and I am working on the instructors guide. Working on getting some photos done because there is only so much you can describe without a picture being required for that extra thousand words.

Looking forward to the submission and the people who hired the expert, telling the expert how he should be doing it. Should be interesting.

WOW Stuff

One word, "overwhelmed". Patch 4.3 is coming out and I have barely read any of the patch notes. I am not even sure what is happening in it. Then the expansion announcement comes and really causes a cataclysmic upheaval to my WOW world. The talent changes alone were giving me a headache. Remember, I am the guy with the 37 alts. I rely on cookie cutter. I guess time will tell.

With the "Mists of Panderia" coming, and the new race and class, have you parked any names for your new monk toon? Let me know. I wanted to use "TheyCallMeBruce", but lo an behold I was 3 characters short, so I parked, "CallMeBruce". The original movie - "They Call Me Bruce" was screened in 1982, I think I enjoyed it, what 29 years ago.