Saturday, March 31, 2007

They call it pain(t)ball for a reason...

Played paintball yesterday and I got the bruises to prove it !

I could finally tried my gun yesterday. My brother in law was kind enough to wait at my home in the morning for our second Canadian Paintball order. We waited more than 2 weeks for it but finally got it. So I was able to try my new mask as well.

This paintball marker is so much better than a Tippman 98 ! But it cames with a price so for an amateur the Tippman is still good. Not everyone is willing to spend more than 600$ for paintball gear. For that I thank all the people that bought from me on eBay recently.

The only issue I had with my gun is that I had to clean it afterwards. When it's a rental gun, you don't really mind getting it dirty or having to clean the paint out of it, it's not yours ! So I spent around an hour and a half cleaning it. The paint get's really hard to clean so now it looks like my gun is dirty all the time. Sme of the paint got stuck on the gun itself. Not pretty. I have to find something to clean it !

But let's talk about the game !

We had a surprise when we arrived : They had changed the setting of the bunker. So it was like a total different game for us, which added to the fun. I was lucky to be with Simon and Ghislain again. This time we really tried to have a strategy and it paid off. At one point we had 5 or 6 consecutives winning streak. I got hit almost all over my body. I still feel a couple of the hits, especially the hand. Got it so hard it bled a little.

My brother in law was the only person that was not from work so he didn't know everybody. I'm really happy that he enjoyed himself anyway and wants to come the next time we go. He speaks only French so that was a little hard for him to communicate as a good part of his team was English. But he did great and he had a good time.

I'll post more pictures as I get every pictures that were taken yesterday. So I leave you with a great headshot Alexandre did on me:

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I freaking want that !




Isn't he cute ? I just love him. http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html . I can't wait to see it in store !

CCJVQ meet in Montreal (the joy of feeling complete)

Good thing I stayed at home on Friday night and slept like crazy (first time int he whole week I was sleeping correctly).

The drive to Montreal was insane ! So much snow on the road... almost lost control once. One big snow plow was moving the snow on the left side of the road, with the wind going to the right. For a good 10sec, I could not see a damn thing. Freaking nothing ! At least, I was able to pass it quickly.

Always nice to see a lot of good friends all at once. I can say I represent mostof the Outaouais capter of the CCJVQ. Through my 3years and a half of collecting, I established a good reputation in the club and am a well known member. It's always nice to see another member asking me a question of advice or hear someone says : "Weirdguy always find cool stuff in Ottawa". I do find a lot of cool stuff, it's true. I tend to stay away from buying video games on eBay as I never known when I'll get it locally.

I did get some pretty good stuff at the meet. Two faily rare Dreamcast games and a set of Rayman Raving Rabbids figures that was exclusive to Ubisoft employees. I you love those rabbits, you'll want those figures, you can bet on that. Also got some PS1 and NES games. And some other stuff I don't remember (it's amost been a week !).

But the real find was this really nice tamtam. My half brother makes them with his dad. They are made by hand, totally custom. You can request any color and size. They come with a price tag tho. This one is my birthday gift but I mgiht order him a bigger one next year (that I'll have to pay). Maybe something with a stand, like 3 foot high. I like the deep sound of those. I'll have to learn how to play too, there must be a technique for that, not just bashing the thing with your hands...

On a side note, I am ready for paintball ! Got my air tank during my sick week. Tested it with my friend Simon, who came to the same conclusion as me, the electronic board inside the gun is stuck in there really hard. Compared to his gun (same model), mine might be a little bit more trouble to clean. But I guess I'll have to live with it. I really like the look of the gun. Look mean with all the accessories. Since I'll be moving it a lot, I decided to get a bag for it. Got one for cheap at Wal-Mart tonight so I can finally store it somewhere safer than the top of my futon in the game room. I can't wait for next Friday !

Another thing that got completed is my hit and run on my car (see first post ever). My GF step father came and fixed it on Thursday. I can finally drive the damn thing. Still 8 month and it goes to the scrapyard... Can't wait for that too.

I hate being sick

Even tho I write this one week after feeling better, I really hate being sick !

It started on Sunday night and ended on Friday. I tried to work on Thursday but could only stay 2 hours and these 2 hours felt like hell. I don't even remember what I did during that time.

The big problem here is that I feel guilty... Guilty of not being at work and actually doing something worth the salary I get every two weeks. Don't get me wrong here, these 4 sick days didn't felt like vacation at all. I spent most of my time in bed without any freaking energy. Even watching TV seemed painful.

The only positive side in all of this is that I could get a little advance in my DVD backlog. I was able to finish the Chick'n Swell third season, which was very good.

On Saturday, I was feeling good enough to go to Montreal, where I had to visit my sister and go to a video game swap meet. More about thatin the next post.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Weekend haul !

Damn I found so many stuff tonight, can't complain !

A little trip to one of my usual place got me a SNES with 6 games ! Picked the other one at another place. Also got myself a PS1 games (looked like a cute little RPG).

The 2 main things I got are easily visible in the picture :
- A Commodore PET computer. That thing is older than me. See how Stewie is plotting to take over the world with this machine.
- A Star Wars : A New Hope laserdisc, widescreen edition. I know it's not the rarest LD ever (it's not even rare) but it's the little grail of my LD collection.

Painball gun this weekend ! I'm getting it tomorow just after lunch ! Can't wait !

I'm off to watch Star Wars !

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Think about the future !

Just came back from seeing Les 3 Accords in Orléans.

I was pretty frustrated at first because I could not join the 2 people I was supposed to go with. Finally got a hold of one that had totally forgot he was supposed to come... At least he's paying me back his ticket since I already had paid for all 3 of us. So my girlfrind went free.

One hour before the show, I finally got a call from the second guy while Ièm going to his place to pick him up as soon as possible. I knew he was working and was finishing at 6:00, but he should at least left a word to his parents saying if he was coming or not, etc. Anyway we were able to get there in time and get s small table with a good view.

The show started on time (surprisingly) and was really fun. Everybody was singing and the band made a lot of jokes (you have to be there to understand the title of this entry). They sang most of their popular songs and the new one they made for Amnesty International.

In summary, a great show worth the 25$.

Planned for the weekend:
- Pick up an old Commodore PET computer for a friend.
- Hope to receive my paintball gun
- Do some cleaning
- Finish my taxes paper !

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Ouch, my feet...

So I was off for 2 days this week, Thursday and Friday to celebrate the 6 years I spent with my girlfriend. Just for the fact : we met on a March 14th, so technically it's not 6 yers yet.

We starded our day on Thursday by a litle breakfast at the restaurant La Fiesta. Quality of the meal was lower that what we were used too.

We followed that by a "little" walk on the Rideau Canal. By little I mean we walked from the Congress Centre to Bank Street. Since we both suck as skating, we walked the whole way. It's weird how the drive on Colonel By Drive seems so short in the morning when I go to work. Walking on the Canal makes everything look so different.

We did a little shopping after that, walking on Bank Street up to Wellington and back to the Congress Centre (wwhere the car was parked). That's where I got my Giant Microbe and the Mario figure. Not an easy thing to carry this for a couple of kilometers.

Then we went to the War Museum. It was my first time there. We got there at 3:45 and were told that the museum would be free at 4:00... Guess what we did ? Took a small lunch at the museum cafeteria while we waited. Got a free pizza piece since the guy would have thrown it
anyway.

The place is freaking huge ! So many things to see in there. And we only saw the permanent exhibition since the new one only started today :( But since we took almost 3 hours to visit, I don't feel like I got ripped of for my free entry. If you're ever coming to Ottawa, be sure to visit this one.

On Friday we visited another museum. The National Gallery of Ottawa (in french : Musée des Beaux Arts d'Ottawa). It was actally my idea of going there since I knew a new exhibition was starting that day. Some Ron Mueck works were showed, some for the first time in Canada. I strongly receommend at least checking the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck) about him. His works is truly unbelievable. The details of his work is so well done. Unfortunatly, as I know someone will ask, the "Boy" was not there, only a small version of it. Another link with many good pictures will help you understand what I'm talking about (http://www.crazyrussian.com/02/entry_1872.php).

I'm sure I walked close to 15 kilometers in these 2 days. But it was worth it since I spent two amazing days with my love.

My weekly hunting haul

Went for a little game hunting before my little vacation (more on that later).

I picked up some nice stuff, most notably:

-80 gig hard drive for 10$. Nice secondary hard drive.

-Settlers of Catan for 4$. The game is band new !

-Some NES games to use as trade bait.

-Two PS1 games.

The best of it is that I finally received my package from Play-Asia. I finally got Last Hope, one of the last Dreamcast game ever (only 2 released after that, one of them bering release next week). What's funny about it is that it's a game developped in Germany, the text in the game is in English while the cover is in Japanese. Talk about multicultural...

I also got some big stylus for the DS. My GF loves them.

And on Thursday I got the biggest ever Maro Bros figures. It is freaking cool. My girlfriend found it at a local comic book store. She made me buy it... can't complain. It's 30cm tall and came with a small mushroom. The quality is really good.
I also came back home on Thursday with the Polio. Not the real sickness, just one of thoses giant microbes (http://www.giantmicrobes.com) I fint the giant microbes to be an interesting concept. While they are cute and cuddly (the common cold/Rhinovirus is so cute), each plush includes an info card on the sickness, which makes it educative. For now I have the Common Cold, the Sore Throat and the Polio.
It's always weird to tell someone that I got Polio recently. ..