You know I’m not dead

Anyone who reads this blog regularly or even semi-regularly has probably noticed that I haven’t posted in quite some time. It’s not because I haven’t had any shortage of things to say, it’s just that there have been recent developments concerning an illness in my family that has taken precedent over all else in my life.

With that in mind, my reason for not writing here is twofold. The first of all being that nothing else happening in my life really affects me the same way since finding out about said illness and I’m afraid it would turn a relatively upbeat blog into a depressing collection of cancer digressions. Secondly, as public as I am with my thoughts, I respect that a situation like this is best kept in the family. In time, I’ll write about it at length, but I need more time to get my head around it.

Finally, I’m on my way to Nova Scotia for my summer job. My internet access is sporadic there, so I doubt I’ll be keeping up with this thing much during that time either.

Don’t despair though, I’m sure I’ll be blogging again someday soon. I love the attention too much to stop forever.

Stay loose.

Alright, you’re not so bad

My last few years of flying have been absolutely disastrous. Snow storms, bumped flights, etc., have made up a pretty impressive flight resume of being completely and utterly screwed over.

Air Canada has treated me like dirt for years, which is what makes this trip so enjoyable.

‘Cause I’m comin’ home

I’m flying back to Newfoundland for two weeks today, so I doubt I’ll be writing here much.  I can’t wait to smell the sea air and see all my friends.  Playing two shows as well, which should be a lot of fun.

Not much more to say, just really excited for my trip!

The chicken wing situation

It is nearly impossible to find good chicken wings in Quebec. They do a lot of food right, but for some reason seem clueless when it comes to this staple bar food.

Tonight, Andy and I are going to Ottawa to visit some friends. We basically planned our trip around staying in the hotel with Don Cherry’s, so we could get the world’s best wings (in our humble opinion).

Screw the scale, this is going to be a good night.

GTA IV

Holy shit.

GTA IV might be the best game I’ve ever played and I’m not even into the bulk of it yet. I just get so lost in the world. Previous GTA offerings got me bored pretty quick because I never got much out of the missions and free roaming was somewhat unsatisfying. This one, however, is a whole other ballgame.

Any little issues I had, like the map system or avoiding the police, were improved tenfold and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The game is gorgeous as well and I imagine it will take up a fair bit of my time this summer. Maybe it’ll even help me save money, considering I’ll probably stay home playing it a lot.

In fact, I’m going to go play it right now.  Why waste time reviewing it, when I know that anyone who wants to play it is undoubtedly doing so already?

I don’t give a hoot about what you think

The new Weezer single is out. With a title like “Pork & Beans”, my expectations were incredibly low at first, but were luckily surpassed. The tune is very reminiscent of their first album and I’m incredibly excited to hear a return to form after 3 straight lackluster efforts (although I felt like Make Believe was a push in the right direction).

The sad thing is, we’ve got to wait another two whole months before the album (self-titled, yet again) actually comes out. Word on the street is that it’s already surfacing in torrents, so I don’t know how long I’ll hold out before just downloading it. The fact that Rivers shares songwriting/singing duties on this one has me a little nervous, but I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

You can stream the new single at weezer.com.

Raptors vs. Magic: Game 1

Final score: Toronto 100 / Orlando 114

The score is not even a good indication of how much Orlando dominated this game. It felt like they couldn’t miss a shot in the first quarter. I almost turned off the game after the first 10 minutes, and that’s saying something.

Awesome possum

I lucked into an awesome deal at EB Games. I went there to trade in some old GCN and DS games towards a new copy of Guitar Hero III (the old disc got scratched to the point that it doesn’t play after a toppling XBox incident) and left with both that game and a pre-order of GTA IV for only $60.

They had a deal on where trading in 3 games got you GTA IV for free. For some odd reason, an old GCN game, a DS game, and the damaged copy of Guitar Hero III all counted towards that. With my remaining GCN game and $60, I then bought a new copy of Guitar Hero III.

That’s basically a $140 value in premium games for $60, taxes in. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.

Now I just have to wait until April 29th to bask in the next-gen GTA goodness. Game on.

Ballin’

I’m an avid basketball fan.  I spend at least an hour every single day reading articles on NBA.com and watching highlights from the night before.  I don’t blog about it much, but that’s likely to change now that we’re entering playoff season.

With that said, here are a few of the things that made this season one of the best from my 15 years of following the game.

Here comes the sun

23 degrees Celsius, the smell of BBQ in the air, shorts on my legs, and a cold beer in my hand.

Welcome back, summer.