How much does this look like?

Would you believe that is $177.50 in just coins? I guess I don’t use as many coins as I thought I did. They usually sit in my pocket and get tossed into the dish at the end of the day. Over time, this adds up to a lot of money. I was most surprised that I had $70 in quarters alone. I gotta go hit up an arcade…

I figured I would roll up the coins to get a bit more organized, and I was surprised that I had over 1000 pennies! Having one thousand of anything is a lot, but when it’s money, it seems a lot more exciting. Here’s what $10 in pennies looks like:

Later on, when you come back to retrieve your bike, the machine finds it and just whisks it right back to you. In the video, it only takes 23 seconds for the bike to be returned, which is probably less time than it would take to unlock your bike.

I went without a car for about a month, getting drives to work with a coworker who lives near me. It was nice not having to buy gas or pay for parking, but after a while, I started to get annoyed at not having my own wheels. I was in contact with a guy who was selling his truck, but he wanted to find a replacement vehicle first. After a couple weeks of waiting, he finally found a new car and he sold me the truck.

It’s a 1998 Ford Ranger, and had about 173,000km on it when I got it. It’s a nice little truck, only 2 wheel drive, but has a lot of power with the 4.0L V6 engine. It took a bit of getting used to, since it’s a bit different than driving a car, but I’m really enjoying it now. I hope to put it to good use and I hope it lasts me a long time.

I recently read an article about tea’s healthy benefits, with all the flavonoids and antioxidants and stuff, so I decided I would try it out. The only tea I’ve ever really had was iced tea. At my work, we have this fancy Flavia machine that makes single serving coffee and tea. I don’t really think the drinks it makes are great quality, since it’s pretty much just instant coffee/tea. But it’s decent enough to get by.

While I was cleaning my room the other day, I found a bunch of fancy teas I got from this crazy girl I know. I’ve decided I’m going to do a little experiment and try a different tea on different days to see if I like any of them. The teas I have are all jasmine green teas and fancy stuff like that. They are produced by Choice Organic Teas, and they look expensive, so they are probably fancy, proper teas.

Over the next little while, I’ll try out these fancy teas, and we’ll see if I become a tea connoisseur.

“one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion”

Basically, people take pictures of themselves or others, while holding up a record sleeve to cover up part of the image, creating a neat effect like this.

It’s a pretty simple idea, but I’m impressed at the quality of a lot of them. Some are very clever, some are straightforward and some are just plain weird.

There’s a lot of neat angles and perspectives used in some of the photos, which creates some pretty cool effects.

It’s a cool, creative idea, and it’s well executed. I suggest you check it out.

Once we got home, we hung out in front of my house for a bit and then went inside for dinner. During this time, Albert’s bike was left in front of my garage, behind my brother’s truck. We came back outside about an hour and a half later, to find the bike was gone. So sometime between 6pm and 7:30pm, the bike got tooked. In broad daylight, in a nice little subdivision in Whitby. It was very disappointing.

Albert was extremely mad, so we took a drive around the neighbourhood looking for any signs of the bike. We didn’t see anything, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen next. Unfortunately, the bike is probably gone forever, but we’re hoping we’ll spot it out and about somewhere near our house soon. If we do, some kid is gonna get the beat down of his life.

I was surprised at how lax the rules are with the sale and consumption of beer. We each got a medium beer, which cost about $9 or so. They didn’t ask for ID from either of us, and we were free to carry the beer around wherever we wanted. This goes against anything I’ve experienced at almost any other event where alcohol is served. At concerts, alcohol is only served in roped off or designated areas, away from underage kids, but at the hockey game, you can freely drink your beer anywhere you want.

I was also surprised at the amount of advertising presented. There were commercials on the big screen between plays and during intermissions, and the outer screens that surround the arena constantly cycled through various ads.

I wasn’t really surprised about how overpriced everything was, because everybody already knows that’s just the way it is. However, there’s no way in hell I would ever pay the $146 my ticket was worth to watch the Leafs play. I would much rather go see the Oshawa Generals play, where I can get the best seats in the house for $25, and see a much more exciting, action-packed game.

My first NHL game was fun, but I won’t be going back unless I get free tickets again.

Doors opened at 8pm, and we got there close to 9. Fancy was supposed to be there to start off the show, but I’m pretty sure the opening act was some DJ I’ve never seen before. Does this guy look familiar to anyone?

Busy P played an awesome set and really got the crowd jumpin’. He did drag on for a while, and there were a few lulls, but overall he had a good energy and kept the crowd excited. Busy P has the craziest French accent I’ve ever heard.

After Busy P finished up, there was probably the longest wait I’ve ever experienced for the next band or performer to come out. I would say this is where they fucked up big time with the flow of the night. Everyone waited around with the house lights turned up, while they played classic rock for at least half an hour until Justice finally came out on stage.

Justice finally took to the stage at around 11:15 and the crowd went craaazy. Their stage setup is amazing, with the glowing cross and Marshall stacks everywhere. They were so fucking LOUD! The Sound Academy has probably the best sound system I’ve ever heard at a live show. It was ridiculously loud, but still crisp and not distorted or hissy like the sound quality I’ve heard at other venues. And when they dropped the bass, it hit hard!

We saw Justice play about three songs and then we had to leave so we didn’t miss the last train home. Bunch of fuckers! I mean honestly, doors opened at 8pm, Fancy didn’t even show up, so I don’t think it was too much to expect the show to be done by 11:30 or so. Especially considering it was an all ages show on a Monday night. The kids have school in the morning, the adults gotta work, and I’m sure a lot of people came from out of town and didn’t want to miss their trains and buses home.

Anyway, here’s a couple blurry pics of the stage during Justice’s set:

In each dream, there was some invisible force or something that was keeping me held down in my bed. It was one of those weird cases where I woke up in my dream, but I was really still sleeping in real life. I thought I was awake, but I was paralyzed and couldn’t untangle myself from my sheets or get up out of bed. The whole time, there was this feeling of impending doom and a sense that I was facing my death.

My very last nightmare of the night started out the same way, but this time I was able to sit up, only to see the Grim Reaper sitting at the foot of my bed, with his long, bony finger pointing at me. I recall trying to punch him and yell, but I was paralyzed, just looking at this dark figure pointing at me and not saying a word.

When I awoke, I was freaked out, but I had a sense of relief that I wasn’t dead. I’m counting on it just being my imagination going crazy while I slept, but is there a hidden meaning? Was I visited by Death himself?