Phendrana Drifts

Another conversation:

Duncan: Hi, I pre-ordered Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow for the xBox and was hoping to pick it up after work. Is it in yet?

Electronics Boutique: Uh, no. And my computer says it hasn't shipped yet from the warehouse. Once I had a game show up when the computer said it hadn't shipped yet, so I guess it is possible. Call us back before you leave work. But I doubt it will be in today.

Grr.

I'm playing 20 Questions with Allie this morning, and I have thought of a Hyundai Tiburon. She is on her sixth question.

Allie: Is it something you play with?

Duncan: Well, you can. It isn't the first thing you think of when you think of it. Well, playing with it might be the first thing you think of.

Allie: [Thinks for a second] Is it a carrot?

Pandora Tomorrow turns out to not be today, but... tomorrow. Sigh, and I had high hopes. And sadly, I am busy tomorrow night. Unless I develop a mysterious illness. Hmm. Splintercellitis sounds suspicious when spoken (but looks convincing written down).

Flames have now lost two in a row. I hope I haven't jinxed anything, gulp. Go Flames Go! Don't rest now, we need the momentum. Remember, you can lose 12 games in the playoffs (if timed correctly) but it would be better if you won every game for the rest of the regular season. Six games to go! Then 16 wins.

The U of C Students' Union has now joined the ranks... well of various Caribbean states and the United States of America in that they can't elect a government despite trying really, really hard. Wow. I am astonished. The Review Board at the U of C has declared the election invalid. No one is elected. Just a big ass empty gap and at best a month to fill it.

Wow.

I can't sleep. Sigh. I don't even really feel tired. Of course everyone else does. Even my cat. Well, she is always tired and sleepy. But she gave me quite the look when I went to go see if she would rather play than sleep. I wonder if Allie would give me the same look?

So we all know - yes. I caved. I didn't really mean it, but after a week without video games I played this weekend. Not a lot mind you, but enough. And I loved it. Grand Theft Auto was what broke the rut - and I feel lots better about it.

Allie and I also cleaned my desk, worked on another blog, cleaned most of the rest of the house, had lots of fun, and watched some anime. A great weekend. I don't want to go back to the U of A - but alas, my bosses are finally back so I need to go in. But I got some time off the following week and we are heading into the home stretch of one term of elected officials. Also I have library books due tomorrow. Yup, need to go to the U of A tomorrow.

Tenth-Muse has a very... interesting new skin for her blog. I think it might be the dirtiest thing I have ever seen in the more mainstream internet that isn't explicitly trying to be about sex. If you click and don't see Peter Rabbit, change her skin to "Easter Basket".

I know someone else who has a blog - Steve Smith - a Business councillor at the University of Alberta Students' Union. I am of course excited because I know he writes well (highest poster on the SU Webboard).

Got drunk last night. Played Lord of the Rings Risk. Won my first game. But Quynn did all of the heavy lifting. And now it is the weekend. And a good weekend it will be.

Calgary 2, Columbus 0

The excitment builds. I was pretty happy when we beat Detroit, but now I think I am at a fever pitch. I look forward to reading the Sports page every day. I cut out a picture of Lanny MacDonald hoisting the cup over his head and put it on my billboard at work. I can't wait for the magical words: "Your 2004 Stanley Cup Champions, the Calgary Flames!"

Thanks to Quynn, I learned of the great quotes Alfonso Gagliano gave the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons:

"A minister does not run his department � he has neither the time nor the freedom to do so... I acted as a spokesman for my department."

If the Minister does not provide leadership, who does? And if the Minister is the spokesperson, what does the spokesperson do? Hmm...

posted by Duncan @ 9:09 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 16

If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

Wisdom from my calendar. Seems appropriate today.

I came back to my computer to find this:

HI DUNCAN!!!!!!!!!

We miss you so much!

-your games

Oh games, I wish I could say I miss you too, but I don't. I miss the feeling I have when I play you. The thing is, that feeling wasn't there the last time we were together. I believe in you games, though. I believe that our brief absence will make me remember why I play you. You are not a time-waster. You are an art. I stopped appreciating your art. I need to find that again before I can come back. That, or Splinter Cell's release. Which ever comes first.

- Duncan

posted by Duncan @ 6:44 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 14

And for the final post of the day... it is holiday, but a little known one today. But still one very much worthy of celebration.

I think I need a break from video games. It isn't as.. fulfilling as it was a little while ago. Now that I finished the Hearts of Iron game and Metroid Fusion (a second time) I think we will now wait for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow to pick up a game. That is a week and a half. That would be officially the longest I have gone since... well maybe 1986. No, not true. I went a month long trip when I was 11. Hmmm... I went about a week when my Mom passed away. Wait - I played no video games when I went to St. John's and Fredericton when I was a SU Exec. That was summer of 2000. I would suggest I could go longer this time, but it would be torture to go past Splinter Cell's release.

Dear Drew,

Allie and I have decided the same offer open to Nicole is open to you too. And isn't a first come, first served deal - just because Nicole has agreed doesn't mean you can't get in on it. In fact, if Nicole had agreed, I imagine the offer would look even more attractive. Sadly, Nicole has yet to get back to us, but we have high hopes. I suppose in the ideal world you would give up your nasty smoking habit before coming to Edmonton. But we would make do.

And ignore the state of our basement, I would clean it up for you and make you a room if you chose us. In fact, we'd even look into getting a four-bedroom place if you called us up.

Duncan (and Allie)

PS: I still haven't seen 50 First Dates - is it any good?

Calgary Flames 4, Ottawa Senators 2

We may have tied with the Oilers on Tuesday, but we won again tonight. And Sarah got to see it all. Lucky girl!

That jersey turns out to be $197 with customization. A bit steep... especially with that t-shirt that will come with the Stanley Cup win and trip down to Calgary for the parade.

Dear Nicole,

Have you heard the news? If not, then you should check it out - 45% of women willing to let husbands sleep with Nicole Kidman. I'm sure that in light of this news, you are receiving some interesting e-mails and proposals. You might be asking yourself what makes mine best.

First, I have already asked and indeed Allie falls within that 45%. Naturally, there is a bit of a catch. She would like to be there. In fact she wants to be more than there. Much more. But really, I figure that is ok, because, well, we are better as a package than separately.

45% is high number. But I know why they picked you. Not just your beauty, but mostly because you likely are picky. Those wives know you won't pick their husbands. For them, it is a safe choice to say "Sure, you can sleep with another woman, so long as it is Nicole Kidman." But for Allie and I, it extends much deeper. Ever since Days of Thunder we have thought you were an amazing actress. It is true that not even you could save the third Batman movie, but at least you got out from that dreadful fourth one. But honestly, we are a wholesome couple that think you would make a great occassional addition. We like wine, movies, and walks. Edmonton is cold, but you will get used to it.

I hope you will consider putting us on your short list, and remember - we are a couple deal, you get us both.

Duncan (and Allie)

There will be generations because of what you've done.

The library is the most dangerous place on campus? Maybe I should rethink my degree in Library and Information Sciences. I didn't think stabbings would be common.

Calgary Flames 7, Colorado Avalanche 1

It will be even better when we kick their ass in the playoffs. And sweeter still when Iginla raises that cup over his head. So sweet. Sweetness will not even begin to cover it. I can taste the beer from here. Too bad I will be watching Schindler's List tomorrow (favourite all-time movie) and won't see them make the Edmonton Oilers bend over. I will have to go and find out how much it will cost to dye my hair red for May and June. And I may need one of those snazzy new home jerseys. With WOJTASZEK on the back and number 7. Maybe that is going too far.

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Allie
Happy birthday to you!

To be fair, I had the best of intentions. I didn't mean to invade Japan. I merely wanted to show Allie how I was doing. I don't know what happened.

I have found the 51st state... I will call it "Germany." Ah, Hearts of Iron, how fun are you. Over 250 American divisions in central Europe. Full liberation of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. An Iron Curtain that is much more to the east than happened in real life.

A great empire. Of course, I am the United States, so I will free the German, Yugoslavians, Bulgarians and Romanians once the war on terror is finished.

Now let us just hop over to Japan and see how that front has been progressing while I focused on Europe.

Hmm. The Japanese have been busy. Hmm. Maybe I should ask if they want peace. Nah. But they will have to wait for after Allie's birthday. That, and they will also have to wait for my armies to go on a long ass walk to Asia.

I recently had the task of going through my Mom's computer. I decide I don't want to fiddle around with hooking up a monitor and keyboard etc. to it, so I take the hard drive out and throw it in my computer. Boot my computer... all is going well. I copy the entire contents of her drive onto mine, restart the computer and open up the folder. Naturally mostly it is the bits of Windows and stuff that everyone has on their computer. I delete everything extraneous and move to the nuts and bolts of the operation. The internet history, as voyeuristic as it would be looking through some people's stuff, was pretty ordinary. Internet banking, news reading, a couple of online groups, nothing telling or even really personal. I wonder what you would all think if you read through mine?

I then go through her documents, and again, nothing really important for me to make note of. A good deal of work from her bible studies, some clever jokes, some other stuff for her small business on the side. I saved all that in a folder in my documents.

Then I setup Outlook Express to open her e-mail. It took a bit of effort, because I too use Outlook Express. I wanted the folders to be intact the way she used them, so I wanted the trash, sent items, everything. Her death was very sudden, so we didn't have all the time in the world to clean up any loose ends (or even discover what loose ends there were) and I thought we might glean something from her e-mail. Her inbox, trash and sent items folders were fairly large, so I knew there was bound to be lots in each.

I open it up and swallow hard. Her inbox had every single e-mail Allie and I ever sent her. That is it. Over four years of my e-mails to her and nothing else.

You too can have Clemenceau's moustache! Just ask Toby how it worked for him. A hit with the ladies? All signs point to yes.

I really meant to blog - a couple of posts in a row about what a bad blogger I am. Interesting.

Saw The Passion of the Christ last weekend - it was interesting. I don't really know what else to say other than it was interesting. Did I like it? Not nearly as much as The Last Temptation of Christ. I cried briefly when Jesus falls carrying the cross and Mary goes to help him. Gibson intercut that with a similar scene from Jesus' childhood. But other than that The Passion of the Christ was something I endured rather than watched. The reviews floating around that compare it to the experience of watching pornography are very astute.

The big reason I haven't blogged however is Hearts of Iron. What a great game. The United States will hopefully prevail. And Allie is helping. She says no other girl in the world would be able to watch someone play Hearts of Iron. She might be right.

So... Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won! I feel very good about that choice, unlike some of the academy's past horrors. Despite the brilliance of both Lost in Translation and Kill Bill Vol. 1 (which was not even nominated) I think the academy made the right choice. And I was also happy that Master and Commander was nominated. But the Lord of the Rings trilogy deserved more than just a pile of money as appreciation for the creation of its art.

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