My copy of iWork ’08 came in last week. It’s a fantastic piece of software and is definitely worth the upgrade from the previous installment. The new word processing aspect of Pages removes the need for Microsoft Word, Keynote’s brilliant transitions and effects make it arguably the best slideshow presentation software out there and the new Numbers program allows you to create incredibly professional spreadsheets in minutes. The cost for the full version? $79. Much nicer than the hundreds of dollars a Microsoft Office suite will set you back… Now I need Leopard…

I just realized that I bought the greatest hits from Bon Jovi and The Police a month or so ago and they are still sitting on my shelf, sealed in their shrink wrap and begging to be played. I need to get on that this week…

So the reason why I haven’t updated in a while is because I’ve been insanely busy working full time at work. Insert your pity here. ha. Of course, I’ve had some deadlines pop up with music industry work on top of that, which didn’t help any. The good news? Only four more shifts of work left, then I’m off to sunny Florida come Sunday morning! Man, I can’t wait. Less than six days to go… Hanging out inside Disney World for a week will be a blast (we’re staying on property), but I’m also looking forward to the flying portion. It’s fun traveling down to the States. Of course, it gets boring quick, but it’s still fun nonetheless. You can expect lots of pictures from the trip…

So Canadian Idol update… Canada sure got Greg’s elimination wrong a couple of weeks ago. Sheesh. But at least they got last week right with Tara. That was long overdue (as is Jaydee)… Now, for those keeping score, my pick of Brian Melo winning the whole thing is still in play as they enter the Top 5. I always like to choose one (or sometimes two: a boy and a girl) at the auditions level for who could win the whole thing, then see how far they go. It’s usually easy enough to choose once you hit the Top 10, but the auditions level is always a challenge. Brian was my primary choice, then for the girls I chose Carley Rae. We’ll see how things turn out… The last time I went all of the way was with Carrie Underwood, though I’m usually in the top few. ha.

I’m loving my PS3… I think I’m going to play some for an hour to unwind before heading to bed. I work the early shift tomorrow (story of my life the past couple of weeks) and then only three more shifts to go until Florida! Hooray!

Is this long weekend coming to an end already? Aw, how unfortunate. It was a great few days off… I relaxed, caught up on some video games, did much needed music industry work and got a little bit of exercise through biking and walking. Now I won’t have two consecutive days off in a row until my vacation on August 26th. Yikes. These next few weeks will be a fatiguing stint to be sure… But I can’t wait for that vacation. It’ll help me pull through. ha.

After my vacation, college starts on September 4th. Double yikes. It’s hard to think I’m headed back to the text books. I got very comfortable staying away from that setting. ha. But alas, a piece of paper is needed in this world today, so I’ll put up with it. Who knows, I may enjoy it. Registration is on the 23rd where, I’m assuming, I finalize my classes and then everything it is set in stone.

Oh, I posted two new interviews today over on Renown Magazine. One of which is my interview with Finger Eleven… Check them out…

Anyway, not much else to report on for now… Many thoughts going through the mind for various projects and endeavors I’d like to get into, but I’ve got to run for now…

Just a quick entry for now to bring you guys up to speed…

Things have been busy with numerous things. I’ve had deadlines for A&R scouting work, wrote some articles for both print and online journalism publications (including an interview with a top 10 American Idol finalist on Renown Magazine), had a few business meetings for a couple projects and more.

Work hasn’t kept me from playing though. I decided to pick up a PS3 to play with it and see how it fares… I have 30 days to try it and return it if I’m not satisfied. Gotta love Future Shop’s return policy. Then I’ve been playing around with more social sites and programs… Gosh, I don’t know why I find them so addictive, but I do. Obviously my favorites are still Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube, but I still constantly mingle with both new and old ones. Perhaps it’s to see what’s currently hot (the “old” ones), but I also love playing with the freshly made ones to try and find what is going to explode as the next big thing… I can be such a geek…

Speaking of being a geek, I’m toying with the idea of dipping my toes into more audio related things… Podcasts and what not. I don’t know, we’ll see. It’s always been something I’ve been interested in, but I don’t consider myself the greatest public speaker so I’ve never pursued it too deeply. You never know for sure or can work out the kinks until you dive in though… And you all know I’m always game to try something new. ha. We’ll see.

I went and saw Hairspray with my sister and some friends on Friday (yes, opening night. She was adamant about that)… It was actually not that bad. For a musical, it was done really well… I enjoyed it. Everyone sung well, the story was interesting and you walked away smiling. What more could you ask for?

Man, I love OS X…

Anyway, I’m out…

I’ve decided that I am going to get a 15” MacBook Pro. Though it probably won’t be right away, I am certainly considering the jump soon (a month or two at most… or if I just can’t wait any longer. Whichever comes first). I figure that I have about $500 built up in vacation pay to cash out (it would be more if I wait a little longer), I have $100 that my mom decided to give me a while back for my passport fees (thanks mom!) that I set aside for something special, I can save $200 using an education discount, I am trying to sell my PSP, and I would try to sell my current HP laptop I bought in December with Windows Vista after I buy the Mac. So when you add that all up, it really wouldn’t be THAT much coming out of my account. Ha. I miss my Mac… And these things are so darn attractive and mesmerizing that they would even make Bill Gates drool. Step back Bill, they aren’t water resistant.

My first three days of work are finished, thank goodness. Tomorrow I need to drive myself down to Toronto for a Sony PlayStation 3 training thing from 10 to 4. Considering I can probably teach them a thing or two about the unit, I have a feeling it isn’t going to be very exciting. I’m just hoping there will be some free swag. Josh likes free swag. At least I’ll be getting paid for a regular shift while having a change of scenery and will get a nice freeway drive out of it. Nothing like blasting the tunes while having the car to yourself… Then I have Friday off and I’m back in the shop on Saturday. This will finally mark the end of a crazy week, only to have me back in for work on Monday. Eek.

The add-on I use for integrating Twitter into this site was down yesterday for some reason by the way, which is why there weren’t any updates on the right hand side for a while. I really was sending updates to Twitter and they were being posted, but you would have only been able to see them on my profile. If there is ever a lull in updates, check over there to see if Twitter Tools (the add-on) is down or not.

A certain project I’m helping with is coming along slowly but surely… About a year in the making, I’m pretty excited to have it finally in actual production. Stay tuned as the monster will be unleashed soon (and I mean it this time)… It’s quite a bit different than anything else I’ve been involved with before…

A bunch of the guys from work want to play on Xbox Live tonight as it’s been a while since we last had a big match. I guess I should get going and hop on. I’ll be shooting them down with snipers and rocket launchers while hovering above them in my oversized jetpack as the blatant product placement is flashed in front of our faces constantly. Yes, we’re playing Perfect Dark Zero. Good guess. Hey, it’s certainly no Halo, but it’s a fun FPS diversion to goof around with.

Game on.

I hate allergies. It seems like the past week, especially the last few days, my nose has been either stuffed up or like a waterfall. It’s been brutal. Then to top it all off, my eyes have been pretty screwy the past week too. They always seem to struggle with distances, but even more so now. I have an appointment with the optometrist next month, but that seems like an eternity when your eyes hurt all day at work. ha.

This week is going to be a busy one for me… I work Monday to Wednesday at the store, then on Thursday I have to drive down to the city by myself for a PS3 training thing. After that, I have Friday off and I’m back in the store on Saturday. Yikes… Thankfully most of the shifts are 8 am to 4:30 pm, so at least I’ll be out of there early. But still, it’ll be a long week. ha. Oh well, more money to put towards that MacBook Pro.

Speaking of which, I’m still trying to sort out what to do with that… It’s a lot of money, but I’ve decided I definitely want one if I can swing it. I could save some money going with a regular MacBook, but I think I’d rather spend the extra money for a Pro. I don’t know though… Either way, it’s a lot of money, especially with me having to pay for school this week. That’s three thousands dollars right there, plus an extra thousand down the road for books when the fees are due… Eek. Maybe I won’t get around to buying a Mac right away. ha.

Well, just thought I’d check in for now. I need to work on updating more often and when I’m not half asleep…

Tomorrow is inventory count at work. It comes once every four months and I have done the last five or six… Last time, two of the managers and I were the only three people to go the entire stretch: 1pm to 4am. Yikes. This time we are doing things differently and should hopefully get out by midnight… Knock on wood.

I went and saw Pirates 3 on Thursday with a bunch of people (Francois, his two brothers, my brother, and someone else who I don’t know)… It was a lot of fun. Great movie too… I liked it better than the second for sure. I think I still like the first the best though, since it’s the one that started it all…

I’m watching the hockey game right now… It’s 4-3 for Ottawa after the second period. Lots of goals tonight! I wonder how it’s going to end… The final period starts after this commercial break…

It looks like I’ll be going to the Kelly Clarkson and Mat Kearney concert with some friends in August… It’s at the Air Canada Center in Toronto. This will be my third show there… It’s a great venue when you have good seats. ha. Either way, should be a great show!

Hmm… I think I like M&Ms better than Smarties. I enjoy both though… Neither can hold a candle to Skittles though. Amazing candy…

I definitely need to try my brother’s Wii games in my free time over the next couple of days. I’ve been meaning to try them for a while now, but after playing Mario Party 8 with him yesterday I have decided I should give the rest of the games a go. Namely Super Paper Mario and Zelda…

Okay, I’m off for now…

What a day yesterday… The college assessment tests I took in the morning weren’t the two hours in length they said they would be on the website. Instead it was a freaking three hours. So after writing the three tests I had to scramble home, change, and run to work. I was about forty-five minutes late. Ouch. Then I had to work for eight hours and finally relaxed in the evening… I’m glad that’s over with.

Today was my day off after working Monday through Friday, then tomorrow is the store’s inventory count (which happens every three months). Last time I was there from 4pm to 4:30am… This time I’m going in at 1pm until who knows how long… I’m hoping it won’t be too late…

Ha… If you search for “U2 18Singles” on Yahoo, my review is the forth article that comes up. Interesting. I’ve been getting some decent traffic over at Renown from that one… Speaking of Renown, I actually wrote two reviews today. I wasn’t expecting to write any until next week, but I had some time to kill this morning so I thought I’d try to write them up quickly… That way there will be at least something to read on Monday. Though they probably won’t go up until the afternoon…

I’m listening to Justin Timberlake’s new CD right now. I’ve always been a fan of the singles… You know, in that guilty pleasure sort of way… So when it showed up, I’ll admit it that I was looking forward to giving the disc a listen. It’s actually a pretty solid record… The lyrics are a bit messed up, but it is put together pretty nicely musically, vocally, and production wise…

The Grammys are tomorrow night. I’m going to have to tape them since I won’t be around (no HD for me), but I have a feeling that Mary J. Blige is going to walk away as the big winner this year. I really hope I’m wrong though, as I’m not a fan…

So it ends up my new cell phone is on its way. Woo hoo! When the tracking number was last updated, it was in Mississauga (30 to 45 minutes south of me) at 11pm Friday night. I’m really hoping it’ll arrive on Monday or Tuesday morning at the very latest… The girl who knows how to activate it properly is only in on those two days until 3pm, so if it misses her then I have a feeling I’ll have to wait until the following week to activate it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

Okay. It’s past midnight and Justin finished… Bed time…

Rock on.

Wow, so a lot has been going on since I’ve last posted…

First of all, my boss has been on vacation at work for the past week, so I’m overseeing things until she’s back on Sunday. It’s not too much out of the ordinary, other than when things go wrong people come to me first instead of second. ha. Plus I’m working a little more than normal, obviously. Things seem to be going smoothly though…

About a week or two ago I was also accepted for media passes for GMA Week and the Dove Awards in Nashville come April. All I have to do is get my passport and then book the plane tickets (though, probably not in that order), then it’s off to Music City in a few months. But, like I said in the last entry, it’s going to be interesting considering I haven’t been on a plane since I was three and I’ll be flying to another country… Alone… With all of these crazy connecting flights and things. ha. It’ll be fun though.

I may be getting a new cell phone shortly. It’s not for certain, but I may be getting one early next week if it works out. More on that if/when it happens for sure…

So Lost started up again tonight… Hooray! Man, was it an awesome episode too. It feels like we are getting somewhere in the story. Lots of things happened, we learned a significant amount of new tidbits, and it was all around suspenseful in a Lost sort of way. I’m looking forward to next week…

Heroes was a really good episode on Monday too… Lots of action The show is becoming considerably popular too, which is cool to see. That Niki chick drives me absolutely crazy though… My only complaint…

I must admit, Rick Mercer can be quite funny… Thanks to YouTube, I’ve been able to watch some of his older stuff online (such as his Talking To Americans special that was on a number of years ago). Plus he’s obviously still on TV, so his new material is on CBC on Tuesday nights. I liked watching his six minute segments with current prime ministers… Namely, Paul Martin and current prime minister Stephen Harper (attached below). So funny…

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I haven’t been able to get Renown stuff done because of the lack of time and available material. I’m getting more CDs worth looking at now though, so hopefully I’ll start getting back into the swing of things next week… I’ve had the new John Reuben for a month or so, the new Toby Mac for a couple of weeks, and a few others that are coming out very soon that I’ve been able to chew over for a little while. Stay tuned for reviews of those…

And just like that, I run away into the sunset… Or maybe just fluorescent lighting in a big box retail store. Close enough.

Rock on.

I sent in my application for media passes for GMA Week and the GMA Music Awards in Nashville on Friday. It’s a four day event at the end of April and I figure I might as well go this year… It should be fun. Chances are I’m going to be accepted, but I don’t want to book my flights until I get the official confirmation. Better safe than sorry. I just hope I get it sooner than later so I can get the ball rolling…

I’d be heading down there on the 22nd of April (a Sunday) and coming back that Thursday. Now, considering I haven’t been on a plane since I was three years old, it should be an interesting experience considering I’ll be flying alone and will have to hop on a connecting flight both ways. Eek… Anyway, I’ll let you know the status on the passes when I hear more…

Tonight was a mandatory meeting at work to discuss how things are, what can be made to improve working at the store, and so on… It’s pretty much useless for me though, because they never say anything about my department. Before it used to be a few different categories of associates that didn’t get any love, but now it just seems like it is my department. ha. I might as well not even go. Oh well, at least I got paid for going…

So a song I’ve been really digging as of late is Christina Aguilera’s power-ballad, Hurt… I came across the video for the track on YouTube and it is actually done well. The song is already rather touching and epic on an audio level, but when you throw in a melancholic visual story and have it turned up on a decent speaker system, you get quite the video. I’ll admit that the first word to come out of my mouth as it faded away was “wow.” I’m a big fan of music videos that actually tell a story and not just feature the band standing there and singing/playing, so props to whoever directed it…

Anyway, I promised a friend that I’d play on Xbox Live with him tonight. So off I go…

Rock on.

Last night and tonight I watched the Spider-man movies again. I had forgotten how much fun they were… They have a positive message behind them too, which is always a plus. I’m looking forward to seeing the third one in May…

There has been quite the surge of new readers on this site in the past couple of months. Welcome to each and every one of you. Try not to fall asleep as I ramble… heh.

Oh, right, pictures of the room… Sorry for taking so long. Things have still been quite busy. If I’m not at work then I’ve been running around and doing countless other things… For example, a friend and I drove down to the city on Wednesday to check out a school. We had to take the subway, street car, and walk a few blocks. It was pretty crazy since we didn’t know what we were doing exactly. ha. But we got there and back okay, and that’s what matters.

Then there are the deadlines. One of which is I must have an artist for my A&R Scouting gig by Wednesday… Eek. I always try to have an artist or two handy in case I need them suddenly, but I don’t really have anything concrete or that blows me away quite yet. So either I have to try to find one before and after for the next two days or I’ll just have to go with one that I feel lukewarm about this time around. We’ll see…

Anyway, back to the pictures… Here they are:

Fear the wallpaper
The before shot (though things were already moved a bit)
What was under the wallpaper
See the new room (taken with a flash, which is why it looks brighter)
I love the hardwood floor

So, what do you think? Not bad for only five days of work. Thanks to my dad for helping a lot with it… I likey.

Alright. Time to run again…

Rock on.

So we finally finished my room and it looks fantastic… I’ll try to get a picture or two up soon. It only took us, what, five days? I still need to get a little carpet or something for our dog though as she is slipping and sliding away on my new flooring when she tries to lay under my feet. Poor thing…

I just got wind that a newspaper/magazine from Alberta might be publishing my stuff regularly. But the good news is that I’d actually get paid for the articles. Wow, me getting paid for working in the entertainment industry? Has it finally happened? I should celebrate with a pizza. ha. It’s not much cash, but hey it is still something…

I’ve been trying to sort out in my head what exactly I’m going to strive to achieve in life career wise. I definitely don’t plan on doing music journalism for the rest of my days. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but you get the feeling that people in the industry don’t always want to get too close or personal with you in case you’re just digging for a story or will tell the world about the things you have discussed. It’s kind of frustrating because I’m not in this for a story, I do it to help the artists and industry folk out as well as the experience. The only time I ever consider something “on the record” is when we’re doing interviews or when they ask me to publish something, otherwise I just automatically assume everything is off the record. End of story. I’m not out to get people, as much as they’d like to think so…

Anyway, so I’ve been really trying to figure out where my place is. Do I want to work at a record label? Do I pursue artist management? Is there something else in the industry that I should try? Yadda yadda yadda. I just want to do something that will make a difference… Something that people can look back, see and remember. If I just had a mundane 9-5 job for the rest of my life, I think I’d go insane…

I’m planning on checking out a music school on Wednesday with a friend to possibly attend their 12-month industry course starting in the fall…just so I can have a diploma under my belt that is relative to the industry. Though, being out of school for a few years now sure has been nice and I don’t look forward to going back. ha. Of course, if some other great opportunity came up in the meantime, then I would pursue that first. But I have to assume that there won’t be and hope that a diploma and my six years (and counting) of industry experience will help me chase the dreams in the end. I’ve had a lot of amazing opportunitites to add to my resumé, and it’s hard to believe I’ve done them all without being on any sort of payroll. ha. I just hope they will all work together for something bigger in the end… We’ll see…

Okay, enough rambling. It’s time to go eat…

Rock on.

So we’re in 2007 now. Funny, it feels exactly the same as 2006… Isn’t that false advertising or something?

Anyway, it’s been nice to have today and yesterday off from work. Unfortunately, the entire two days have been spent stripping layers of wallpaper from my bedroom’s wall. Seesh, the previous owners really didn’t know what they were doing. They even covered a fairly large open hole in the wall with wallpaper… It was quite the surprise. I never would have guessed it was there.

It’s been a long process though. Steaming, ripping, steaming, scraping… Repeat. Thank goodness all of the wallpaper is down finally though… Now the carpet is up, sanding of the walls is taking place, and painting will most likely commence tomorrow morning before I go to work. There will be two primers and two coats of the main color on the walls and trim when all is said and done. After painting is finished, the new hardwood flooring will go in and my furniture will be put back into place. Phew. And I want to get this all finished by Thursday… What was I thinking?

New Year’s Eve was nice and relaxing. I played some Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas for the 360 over Xbox Live with my man Mike (friend from work), then I just chilled out with the family and watched TV. We mostly watched Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, but we did flip back and forth between a few channels at times too. Then the big ball dropped and pretty much everyone went to bed. ha. I stayed up until 1 AM or so though since Ryan was on the air until 2 or 3, I believe. He’s a night hawk, that guy…

There were lots of bands/artists playing on the various channels too… Mostly with Ryan on the Dick Clark special though. Over the course of the night we saw Hedley (especially amusing due to the rain and slippery stage), Rascal Flatts, Christina Aguilera (such an amazing voice. It was funny when one of the dancers accidently hit the camera), Rihanna (ugh), Fergie (twice), Goo Goo Dolls, KT Tunstall, Natasha Bedingfield, RBD (I’m pretty sure they lip sync) and a ton more. It was a pretty decent lineup, actually…

Tomorrow night my sister and parents are going to the High School Musical tour at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. ha. I got tickets for them when they went on sale a couple of months ago, so now the big day is finally here. It’s my sister’s first arena concert too… She doesn’t have the best seats in the house or anything, but I’m sure she’ll have a fun time nonetheless. I doubt it’ll beat my second-row U2 experience from September 2005 though… ha. My next big show is almost a month away: Barenaked Ladies on February 16th… Sixth row… Nice.

So that’s what I have been up to this holiday break. I suppose I should get back to working on my room now. I’ll post pics from this memorable occasion (or should I say renovation?) later…

Rock on.

Seesh, this past week has been a long haul. I’ve learn to appreciate sleep more after these last seven days. I’ll bring you up to speed with what has happened…

Thursday (16th) - I had to go into work for a little bit to train on the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3, then it was off to the city for the evening. It should be noted that about ten guys lined up at 8 AM for the PS3… That’s about 24 hours before launch. We only had ten units, so no one else lined up. They tried to, but the guys in line outside turned them all away during the night/morning.

Friday (17th) - PS3 launch. I had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5:30 AM to get to work by 6:30 AM. Not only was there the PS3 launch, but Future Shop bumped their Xbox 360 boxing day sale to a today-only sale to hopefully sell a lot of units for those not scoring a PS3. It worked. I was running all day without stopping (except for fifteen minutes to eat). Finally my shift ended at 4 PM (ugh, long day) when I price protected my Xbox 360 purchase and received Gears of War, Ridge Racer 6, and $56 back. Score. I have so many games to play now though… ha.

Saturday (18th) - I went in to work at the regular time of 8 AM… Once again, it was pretty busy because of 360 sales (though you didn’t get fifty bucks off, you still got the two extra free games). Thankfully I was able to take off earlier (3 PM), however we pretty much went straight down to Toronto for Audio Adrenaline’s final Canadian show and second last show in their career. It was a great concert… Lots of fun, the band had a blast (they said it was honestly the most fun they had in a while), and the venue was packed with at least 1,000 people. During the encore the band even took some requests from the audience, including a song they hadn’t played in a long time (DC-10). They joked about how it’s time to perform a song they actually know how to play. heh. They closed with the emotional song, “Goodbye.” By the time I got home it was 12:30 or 1 AM…

Sunday (19th) - Now it’s time for the Nintendo Wii launch. This was a bit more crazy than the PS3 launch itself (if you don’t including the 360 sales from that day)… People weren’t lined up quite as long, but there were still as many people out there as we had units by the time I arrived at 7:30 AM (we had 27 units). All of the staff seemed to have a late night though, so we were all half asleep and running on a max of 4 or 5 hours of sleep, though usually less. My work day was long yet again though, as I didn’t get out of there until 5 PM. Eek.

Monday (20th) - I was back in Monday for 8 AM to 4:30 PM. I was hoping for it to be a nice, relaxing day, but it was actually fairly steady… A sudden drop shipment of 12 Nintendo Wii’s also didn’t help any. It made things pretty chaotic for a while, to be honest. After work I finally got the chance to play Gears of War. Fun game overall… The graphics look pretty sweet. It’s not quite as good as I thought it would be (I guess that’s just what the hype machine does), but it’s still really enjoyable. It’s friggin’ hard at times too. I’d recommend it to those who aren’t offended by violence and swearing (there is a lot of both, but you can turn off the really extreme content). I haven’t had the chance to play it since then though. Bad me. Oh, I watched Heroes too… Awesome episode. Definitely my favorite so far. This show is really getting good. I’m glad I can say I’ve been watching since day one and didn’t just jump on the bandwagon, as it’s becoming rather popular now…

Tuesday (21st) - My final day of work and then I get a day off. It’s about time. ha. I was doing the regular 8 AM to 4:30 PM shift and it was really nice…not too busy, so you could just relax and do tasking. The afternoon was rather tedious though, as I had to go through pretty much all of our console gaming aisles and make sure there was at least one of everything on the shelf, that they all had header/price cards, that they were organized, and that the entire aisle looked smooth all of the way down. Needless to say, it took a few hours. But that’s okay, it was time to go home and relax…

Wednesday (22nd) - My do nothing day. I just hung out with my sister, caught up on some work, played the 360, and that’s about it from what I can recall. My sister wanted me to start my own Viva Pinata profile, so I did that. I’m actually getting pretty addicted to it. It’s a fun game. Oh, I went in and bought NHL 07 for the 360 with my $56 that I got back on Friday. It’s not too bad… The new control scheme can be frustrating and has a steep learning curve, but I think I’ll get the hang of it eventually. We’ll see how long it lasts until I get frustrated and just trade it in at EB Games or something. ha.

Thursday (Today, the 23rd) - Another do nothing day. Well, sort of. I played the 360 for a bit in the morning and early afternoon, then I needed to set up some sort of conference call with a popular actor for Monday (more on that in a future entry)… I also did my weekly guitar lessons and went to the city to do some Christmas shopping. That’s two members of the family down, just two more to go…

So there you have it. That’s what I’ve been up to for the past week. Well, that’s the basic overview anyway as there was a lot more going on. I’m a pretty busy guy. ha. On top of all of that I’ve had my regular Renown tasks, I had some A&R Scout work, etc. There just isn’t enough hours in the day I am finding…

Anyway, now things should hopefully be heading back to a normal state since the console launches are out of the way. So, in theory, I should be posting more often again. Count that as a blessing or a curse, depending on how you want to look at it.

Rock on.

Seesh, just when I thought last week was going to be a crazy week, this one is even crazier. All this week I have to get up at 5:50 AM-ish to make it to work for 7 AM, three hours before the store opens so we can slowly tear apart and rebuild our department. But though it’s brutal waking up at that ungodly hour, it does mean that I’m out at 3:30 PM (except I didn’t get out until 4:30 today) and I have the rest of the day to do other stuff…

For the record, despite me smack talking work a lot on here, it’s honestly not that bad. For being a temporary semi-full time job until I officially kick start my career, I don’t believe I could think of a better place to work at. Sure, the merchandising tasks can be daunting and tiring sometimes, but the staff is awesome, the pay is good, and the environment is great (music and electronics, my cup of tea). But let’s be honest, work is easy to complain about, especially on the days that I really don’t feel like going in. Like at 6 in the morning…

So obviously everyone is aware that we turned the clocks back an hour on Saturday night… I don’t know about you, but I liked getting that extra hour of sleep. I needed it. The only downside is that the power went out overnight, so when I woke up it said 6:15 AM on my clock, yet I couldn’t get back to sleep no matter how hard I tried because I wasn’t tired. It ended up it was really 8 AM. heh. Silly power outages and their attempts to confuse me…

It’s almost two weeks until the PS3 launches. Crazy. I requested my vacation payout the other week, which means it should come out on Friday’s pay. But I don’t know, I’m almost having second thoughts about buying it… Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want it, but $659 plus tax is a lot of money, even if it all should be paid for with the significantly large vacation pay (I’d just have to pick up games and accessories). That’s exactly the problem though, I’m thinking about other things I could get with the money instead, such as a new computer monitor (my clunky CRT is finally going), a new guitar amp, a USB thumbdrive (I’ve always wanted a one, preferably large), or I could put it towards a laptop… I just don’t know. I certainly enjoy gaming, but I’m trying to decide whether the money is justifed considering I only work part time. Then again, it’s essentially a free PS3, and the other items aren’t as expensive nor exactly needed yet. We’ll see what happens…

You know, it’s been over a week since I last updated and I don’t really have anything else to report. I’m just that exciting I guess. And tired. I’m definitely tired.

Now I’m going to go watch Heroes and then head to bed so I can wake up at 5:50 AM again tomorrow… Hooray!

Rock on.

I forgot to mention something in the last entry… Some friends from the States sent me Trix cereal the other week in the mail. I was surprised and skipped with joy. But it was a manly skip, of course. I used to eat Trix all of the time, but then I went to buy it at the grocery store a few years back and suddenly it wasn’t on the shelves anymore. Perhaps one day it will return to Canada. Until then, I shall savor what little time I have with it now and enjoy it immensely… Thanks to my friends south of the border!

Oh, the Scooby Doo game I bought for the PSP game is actually quite fun, by the way. It’s nothing amazing, but the purpose of the game is that you are on a reality TV show and are trying to solve mysteries against another team. The cool this is you actually solve the mysteries by finding clues, deciphering them, putting them together, and so on. It’s great fun, especially if you are a Scooby/cartoon buff. Besides, it was nineteen bucks, how can I complain?

I forgot it was pay day today, so that was a nice surprise. Days and months all seem to run into each other now, which basically means I tend to forget the day of the week let alone which week it is. Apparently it’s nearing the end of October or something…

My (department’s) boss is gone next week, which means I’m in charge now. Hooray! She gave me the keys today since she doesn’t work the weekends, so the responsibilities begin tomorrow at 8 AM. Okay, I take back that last hooray. I don’t mind responsibility, but I’ve been so tired lately, so doing it half awake isn’t the most appealing task. Then again, we usually tag team a lot of the responsibilities anyway, so it’ll probably be fine…

Anyone watch Lost this week? Man, that was an awesome episode… I’ve heard a number of people say they were disappointed with it, but they’ve never really had a good reason when I’ve asked why. I thought it was great to learn more about Locke, see others from the hatch fiasco alive (though I knew they were), and plus we got some action with the poloar bear. The previews for next week look awesome too… I can’t wait.

I can’t help but wonder how long Lost will go on for though. As great as it is, I have a feeling it’s only going to last for maybe four or five seasons, simply because there is only so much you can do with a show like this and for so long. So I’m holding out on buying the DVDs until after it’s all said and done, because then I can buy a big fancy box set with all of them in it. At least I imagine they’ll do something like the upcoming Alias box set anyway, since it’s the same creators…

So there was absolutely tons of new PS3 information released yesterday at a “Gamer’s Day” event put on by Sony. They announced the launch titles, what comes in the box on launch day, what sort of accessories we can expect, what you can expect with their online service, and lots more. I’m getting excited. Only four weeks from today! I hope there is enough so I can get one…

Ooh, Segway scooters are being tested for use in Ontario. I wouldn’t mind trying one sometime. Apparently you can ride one at Epcot in Disney World, but you have to pay for training first and then you can ride around the park for an hour or two. That would be interesting…

Billboard.com has a front page story about life on the road with Switchfoot. It’s actually written by frontman Jon Foreman. He’s such a great guy… Always very well spoken and articulate in his article writing too.

Sony Canada has a job posting for a “Playstation Field Representative” in the Richmond Hill, Markham, Brampton, and Vaughan area. I’m pretty sure that’s the same job as the Sony rep that comes into my store with the free swag. It’s only thirty to forty five minutes south of me… If I had a car, I think I would probably apply. But alas, I don’t, so no job at Sony for me. This is when you let out a sympathetic sigh.

Anyway, I need to head to bed, so that’s all for now.

Rock on.