I made it. Safe.

Hey guys, just letting you know I made it back safe and sound to Saskatoon, and I will post pictures and cartoons when I have a minute. It's so busy over the holidays, and I hope your holidays are as nice as mine! =)

Sigh. Merry Christmas.

Leaving in like, how many hours? 5 or 6? I need to sleep? What's that? Anyways, I am finally on my way, my special trip I have been planning ever since I left Belgium. Before I go to bed, I thought it best to pause for a second, and recap on a couple of things.

First, I was very sad to leave Belgium. So it will be interesting to see what I feel about it coming back, as a stranger. (Or 'een Butenlaander' I think it how you say it...) I have put a lot of time into contacting a lot of my friends in Belgium, and hopefully I will have a chance to see most of them. I probably will miss a few here and there, but I will try and see them all.

Second, travelling in a new country is always stressful. I am praying and hoping there are no plane crashes, no stolen anything, and no major stresses in Italy. Mixed language and grumpy foriegn people no problem. Lost passport or missing credit card, I will simply die. Up and hang myself from the nearest church belfry (which should be too hard considering we will be in Rome. Ha. ha.)

Third, this will be my first time in my life missing Christmas with my family. I don't know if I'll like it or dislike it, I imagine it has ups and downs attached. But I will be back to see them after the 25th, quite soon, and it has been good talking to my parents preparing for this trip. They've been really great about it.

Even though things here are falling apart around my ears here, (don't ask, and/or I'll tell you around Christmas) I am happy that I have so many good friends, abroad and even a few in Toronto, which are definitely of the strange and unique variety. (Minus Sarah D, who is probably the most normalizing individual I ever met.)

I wish you all the best in the season, and the best for the New Year. Happy Holidays, and I'll try and update photos as I go, but it'll be a challenge. I hope you all have safe holidays, and remember, everything in moderation except giving! =)

Can you believe this? Do I live under a rock?

I gotta be honest with you, I have no idea what TiVo really is, except that everyone will have something like it once tv goes completely digital.

But this article about people with PVR or TiVO guilt is too much. Seriously, people feel bad about not having enough time to watch entertainment they download? More importantly, who cares? Can I have this guy's job? Can someone please start writing slightly more interesting things about technology? Please?


More importantly, does this author not realize that TiVO is for adults in the way that Veoh, and MySpace TV and MegaUpload are for people in my generation who simply can't be bothered to pay for something when they can get it semi-legally off of their very generous high speed internet connection? I mean seriously, except for my friends earning generous salaries, who even watches tv on the tv anymore? I know I don't and why would I, when, for a hit in the video quality (Which I don't really care about, all you high-def tv nerds) I can avoid all commercials? You know how much of a bonus that is? Can I stop ending my sentences with a question mark? Can I?

Anyways, I leave for Europe on Sunday. Not much is going on here, except for the fact that where I work got broken into again, and this time they broke the lock on the door, and stole stuff from Mimi's (the director) office for the second time this year, stealing her laptop yet AGAIN. It's a real shame. Thankfully, I was nowhere near the office when any of this happened so I don't have to be involved in any of it. But it's still really sad people keep breaking into St. Mike's.

Winners!

Hi all!

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I've been a little sick all week. Anyways, the winner is:

*drum roll*

Graham!

*Wild applause*

I thank everyone who participated in the contest, special mention goes to Andrea, who threatened to beat me up if I didn't post the winners within the next few minutes!

For the answers, do any of you recognize this?

Punch Out! was a very popular back in the NES days, even if you didn't like sports games. It's right up there with Excitebike, which was also a fantastic game!

Graham will be receiving a VERY special prize which I will try and have ready by the time I visit him. Y'all know I'm visiting him in the U.K., right?

And shame on all of you who couldn't google the words 'boxing' and 'nes' in the same search box. Shame!

Will post the results of said prize on blog when I get a chance.

Happy weekend!

One of the best books I've ever read

I'm begging you. If you like academia at all, read this book.

But maybe don't read it when you have insomnia. Like me.

But still, I now have a new favourite book. Even though I'll never read it again, I really loved this big, big, BIG book.

And the ending was GREAT.

=D

Contest results later this evening.

Contest Closed!

I received all the enteries, and I will sort through them all and determine a winner. Thanks to everyone who participated this time around! I will hopefully be able to determine the winner by sometime this week, Wednesday or Thursday, I imagine.

Today is World AIDS Day

I know this isn't a pleasant subject, but it's something I have been more in contact with since moving to Toronto. Before living in Toronto, I couldn't name a single person I knew that had HIV or AIDS.

I now know at least ten.

According to Health Canada, about 56,000 people have HIV/AIDS, and almost 30% of those people are not aware that they have it.

While I don't necessarily promote condom usage (I would rather you would all just get married and have babies or abstain from sex if you can, for heaven sakes) I would say be safe and get yourself tested if you do have sex with someone before marriage.

Health Canada recommends these steps to prevent getting HIV/AIDS:

• Use latex condoms to make sexual activity safer.


• Postpone or abstain from sexual activities and reduce your number of partners.


• Discuss HIV with your partner and have sex only with a partner who agrees to use a latex condom.


• Never share needles or injection equipment.


• If you are getting a tattoo, body piercing or acupuncture, ensure that all equipment is sterile.


• If you are pregnant and concerned about HIV, talk with your doctor about being tested. Early treatment with medication can prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to baby before birth.


• If you have engaged in risky behavior, get tested.

And as far as the stats go, it's mostly white men that have it. (Make of that what you will.) Most importantly, just consider sexual health to be another important part of your life. Stay healthy.

Saskatoon Flight

Hey guys,

Just booked my flight. I will arrive in Saskatoon on the 27th at 12:15AM at night, technically the 28th.

I will be leaving on Jan 2nd, 2009 at 7:05AM

If you want to see me, fellow Saskatchewanites, that would be the time. =)

Still one more day for the contest! Keep entering people!

ART CONTEST 3.5 AND ANNOUNCEMENT

Well, here it is! This is the post we've all been waiting for all week. Well, maybe you haven't, but I certainly have! I've put so much work into this sucker that I oughta be given a medal! And more importantly, I've beaten my record for the amount of work I've ever put into a cartoon. This is the biggest cartoon yet, with over 25 panels and more than three in colour. Not to mention that some of these panels required Photoshop, and some of the more...err....contest related panels had over 100 layers. Let me tell you, that was confusing. I don't know how people use photoshop on a regular basis. I can honestly say that I've spent at least 24 hours of time preparing for this contest. So you'd better like it.

Secondly, I will now post the rules for this contest, and I will make a separate post for the cartoon, so that the spacing doesn't go haywire on my post, thanks to Blogger's instability issues.


Contest Rules and Requirements

Main Challenge: Name the game that I attempted to draw in a few scenes in the cartoon posted below. Hint is in the name of my 'character' in the cartoon, and what are they doing? Should be easy. If you're around my age, you should totally know what this is. My Dad should definitely know what this is, we spent a lot of memories and lunch times playing this. Well, I did, but he was there for me. =)

I will begin accepting enteries on Saturday, November 29, 9:00 a.m. Toronto time. If you don't know what time that is, look it up on the internet. It's easy. The last time I will accept enteries will be 9:00 p.m. Sunday, November 30, 2008 Toronto time. Late entries will not be accepted, but early enteries might be if you try and bribe me. =)

-If I get a lot of draws around the same time, I will draw the winner from a hat. Trust me. You WANT to win this contest. Prize is a SURprise. I may hand out mini-prizes besides the grand prize.

-For bonus points to entice me to cheat and pick your name out of a hat and/or just give you many prizes, give me two things:

i) Name the game that I ripped the fire from. (You'll know it when you see it.)
ii) I intentionally left in a mistake in my cartoon. Tell me what it was so I can be impressed.


END CONTEST RULES


Begin Announcement.

Ahem.

I have officially booked my trip to Europe, and I will be spending Christmas there. I will be in Europe until the 27th, and I will fly back into Toronto on the 27th. After that, I will probably fly directly to Saskatoon as long as time allows. I might come back for five minutes to meet with a friend and change my clothes, but that's it. Which means I will be in town in S'toon for a couple days after Christmas, most likely. But the majority of time I will be overseas, so please send happy little don't-die-in-a-foreign-land prayers for me. Or foreign airway, etc. I have two little details left for trip planning, and then that's it, I've practically maxed my credit card. LOL. Not really, but it will still be an expensive trip, but I think I made really good use of my resources that I had. Well, Graham will decide that. Oh, Graham is coming with, didn't I say? We'll be touring Europe for two weeks. I can't wait for Italy!

Happy Contesting!

Centipede!

Look at the post above this for contest rules and announcements.

And yes, this was a real life incident.

=)

Contest Update

OK.

Here's the thing.

The hope is that I have everything ready for the contest tomorrow, along with my big announcement. (I bet you all can't wait!)

So, sometime tomorrow (Or early in the monday hours) I will post something so great, so exciting, that you will just lose your minds over how great it is. (Assuming you still read my blog. I just had a very stern conversation with someone who forgot I even had a blog, and she's one of my best friends, GINNY...but not to mention any names, thanks to those who are still my loyal blog readers. Alex and Elizabeth come to mind in particular.)

I could lie to you and tell you I was waiting until the end of the week to post everthing, but the truth is, I have been swamped, again, this week. My laundry pile has grown eyes. =( And I am supposed to go to church tonight. I'm kinda already late. =( =( =(

*cries*

Anyways, wait for it. It will be up very soon. So soon you won't know what happened and how awesome it really was! =D

Ow

I have been going to the gym for the last two weeks.

It's starting to hurt. But I am liking it.

(But I'm in pain. LOL.)

I found a pretty hilarious facebook parody of what would happen if facebook was real life.

This is one is an action movie preview. Awesome.

This is part of why I'm sure most people should hate facebook.

This is both a parody of internet dating, and what's wrong with social media.

Watch the action one for sure.

Cartoon/contest update coming soon this week! Stay tuned!

Exciting Stuff!

Hey Guys,





I just wanted to let you know that next week sometime, I will be starting another blog contest. =D





So, stay tuned. I'm really excited about it, because as per usual it's an easy question, and I'm working really hard on it. So wait for it! More cartoons and pictures and life updates are coming! It's going to be an exciting couple of weeks! For my blog, I mean!

Futility

Remembrance Day

This man is 112 years old.

He's the oldest WW1 Survivor alive today.

For my civillian-minded friends, war isn't just scary, it's a life-changing incident. I have pretty good understanding of what a soldier's life is like, but thankfully I don't know what it's like to be a veteran, and I certainly didn't have to find out between the ages of 16 to 18.

We have been lucky to have been born in a country that is mostly peaceful, and has had few, if any, major political uprisings that resulted in massive deaths in the last 20 years.

Don't forget about peace.

Saskatchewan News featured on MSN

Wow, this is kinda exciting. MSN featured an article about how Saskatoon will be using a spanking new chip from IBM to help create green technology.

I find it surprising how scientific Saskatoon is, considering that it is not exactly a big city. There's a Vet College, one of the few in Canada, and there's the Synchrotron, which does....um....whatever it does with teeny particles...and we have a TON of agriculture research that happens in and around Saskatoon.

Eventually, Saskatoon is going to be a really interesting place on the Canadian map.

You Are Eggs

Traditional and totally grown up, you truly believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You don't skimp on nutrition or quality. You're likely to take the time to make yourself a decent meal each morning. You're a great cook, even if you aren't a showy one. You can make a feast out of simple ingredients. The food you eat may be basic, but you prefer to think of it as classic.

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?