I did go to Chicago

I’m going to force myself to talk about Chicago. Chicago is a great city, and if you ever get the chance, GO. I had a great time. Chicago is a great city. It’s has lots to do, and the good is great, and not expensive. I remember finding a Chinese Buffet which included drinks for under $10. INCLUDING COLA? That doesn’t happen up here. In Calgary, you go to a mediocre buffet, and they charge you a huge amount for a damn Pepsi. There, you get unlimited Pepsi. I was shocked. SHOCK I tell you. While I stayed away from the Mexican food, (I’m sorry but I do not believe that the Chinese can make proper Mexican food), the Chinese food as great. I still can’t believe that I could find good food at a good price.

The same thing with a Mexican Restaurant I went to, it was run by real Mexicans who spoke Spanish. Not like up here where you find a Taco Bell run by Filipinos. Again, the food was great, and the price was good too. Why can’t Calgary be like that? Here’s it’s overpriced food and shitty service.

Anyway, the coolest part was meeting all my online friends from City of Heroes. It was a little strange using people’s real names. The first night half of us went out for Sushi. I’ve never had sushi before so it was an experience. The most interesting part was when there was a large piece of sushi, that was far to big to pick it up with chopsticks. Someone said “Just shove it in”, and this the phrase for the weekend was “Shove it like it was sushi”. That phrase is still being said today.

Eventually all 12 of us got together, and we did many things, from going to the Comic Con in Chicago, going out to dinner, and seeing the GI Joe movie at a fancy theatre with really big seats, on the balcony, where alcohol could be served. Oh, and there was a real restaurant in the theatre.

I did a lot of touring, and picture taking. I latterly took hundreds of pictures. Thank you for digital photography. I posted most of the pictures on my Facebook page, but I will post a link here.

The last day, I went to see Blue Man Group. I’ll say 2 things. The first is the show was great. The second is they didn’t hand out enough plastic ponchos. I got hit with something. I’m not sure what it was, but it came out of a spot that shouldn’t exist.

I could go on and on about the trip, but I’ll just say this. It was an experience and I’m looking forward to doing it again. We’ve agreed to meet again, in San Diego in 2011. Some people already have plans for next year. Including myself. I’m going to London next year. This will be my first time off the continent. I’ve already promised to take a lot of pictures for some of the friends that I met in Chicago.

Here are the links to the pictures.

The Friends I finally met in real life.

The Costume Contest at the Comic Con

Chicago

Chicago Boat Tour

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

My 2 Bytes

Blogging from the Terminal

I'm at the gate. My flight boards in a hour. At least the terminal has free Wi-Fi.

This is the first time, I'm blogged with my laptop, and I've decided that the only time, I'm ever going to blog with the thing is when I travel. So hopefully there will be a fair bit of blogging (and pictures) over the next seven days.

I just want US customs to explain something to me. Why the hell did I have to take my shoes and belt off? A fat guy shouldn't have to take his belt off in a line. It's not a pretty site people.

Come to think of it. US Customs was a pain in general. I am disapointed with one thihing however. NO STAMP ON MY PASSPORT. They guy just scanned it, and gave it back. NO PRETTY STAMP. Well, I expect a stamp when I go to London next year.

I have my digital camera with me, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I should have some pictures tomorrow. I might be posting some pictures tonight, but I make no promises.

Oh yeah. Don't tell anyone, but I'm smuggling Timbits across the border. I've decided that it's not fair that my friends in the US are unable to enjoy the taste of a Tim Horton's Timbit. If there's good enough for Kevin Smith, they're good enough for my friends. For the record, Kevin Smith is addicted to Timbits.

Well there are more people sitting near me now, and I don't like the idea of people looking at my screen while I blog, so I'm going to go surf some porn instead. THAT WILL CAUSE SOME SHIT.

One cool thing about the Calgary Public Wi-Fi. You can log onto it using your Facebook account. How cool is that? SUCK IT MYSPACE!!!

My 2 Bytes

Thank You, Thank You, ....NO NO NO

I am really excited that the Canadian dollar has jumped from the 85 cent US mark to nearly 90 cents US this week. Now why am I caring about this? Because I'm taking off the Chicago in 22 days, and this means a better exchange rate for me.

This will mean that I'll be able to have more buying power in the US. I can buy more crap at the Comic Con. I can get extra cheese on my Chicago Deep Dish pizza. I can do extra in getting the US economy to turn around, so to my neighbors to the south, You're Welcome.

It's actually like trading stocks at this point. Do I buy my US dollars now, or let it ride and hope the dollar goes up even more? I remember about 6 weeks, ago, the C dollar (The Canadian Dollar will now be known as the C dollar), was around 91 cents US. I then thought, I should buy my US currency now, but then I though maybe it will go higher. Maybe it could get back to par....and then the dollar dropped for 6 straight weeks. I was so mad.

Now the C dollar is nearly back at that point, I'm left to wonder...do I get my money changed now or do I ride it out and hope for a 95 cent C dollar?

I'm a little sad though, because one of the people who is looking forward the meet up might now be able to go due to medical reasons. It's really sad because she and I were the organizers of this meetup. She was looking forward to it, and she might not be able to go. Oh and she has already paid for her flight and hotel. I hope the doctor has better news for her when she sees her again. I think she needs this little holiday more than most of us. Especially now, that she's having to deal with this crap.

I don't want to go into the details of her medical problem because....it's none of your business, and she's trusting me not to blab it all over the net.

Some of my online friends have gone through a lot of crap lately. The one person with the medical issue. I also had another online friend loose his house due to a fire. Luckily he got his wife and kids out in time. I think God might have had a hand in getting them out to safety. He's a Reverend after all. Still I wonder why fire would strike the home of a man of God. Now if anyone needs some fun, it's this guy. Oh for the record. Even though he's a married Reverend, he's still a big flirt.

I keep focusing on the trip. Everything is about the trip, because it's something different. It's not the same old, same old. I just hope that my friend can go, and that the dollar keeps climbing so I can buy everyone breakfast at Ikea.

My 2 Bytes

If I need to blog about my cool phone to get back into blogging, so be it

So let’s see, I blogged three times as much in June than in May. What that really means is that I blogged three times instead of once. Pffttt. Still sucky but I’m trying,

I’m down to 35 days until my vacation. I really think that this trip will “recharge the batteries”. I’m going to try and blog every night of the vacation, but I make no promises. I’ll be taking lots of pictures, so maybe I’ll be posting with a little blurb instead.

I’ve been resisting the urge to blog about my new smart phone, but dammit, it’s a Google Phone, and I love everything Google related. As I once blogged long ago, there should be a tattoo that says “Property of Google”.

Anyway I picked up the HTC Magic (Google) Phone a few weeks ago and I LOVE IT. Like the Apple Phone, you can download a bunch of cool application, but unlike the Apple Phone, you don’t have to wait for some control freak at Apple to allow them to be sold/given away on the I-Tunes Store.

I’ve downloaded some cool apps for my phone like Weatherbug which gives me local weather information, and a movies app from Flixster, which gives me local movie listings, theatres and show times. Of course there’s some cool apps that came with the phone, like the GMail reader, the Google Maps applications, that works with the GPS on the phone.

Then there are the less than useful apps which I like anyway like the Swartz saber (from Space balls)app, and the Beavis and Butthead soundboard. Because you never know when you to have Beavis say “10-6-90, 10-6-90, we’ve got whores on the street, we need backup NOW”.

Now knowing my readers (all three of you), you’re probably thinking that my phone is just a cool high tech toy, and to you I say “and, your point is”. Yes my phone can do some cool things, that a normal phone can’t do, and I can download cool apps, from my phone. Yes I have a GPS on my phone, and yes smart phone are becoming, an all in one device. I could add more memory to my phone. I can upgrade the 2 gigs into 4 or 8 at a low cost, and turn my cell into an IPod, like the IPhone. The point is, my phone reflexs who I am.

There’s a person who worked HR in my old job, and she had a pink Razr. She loved it because it was pink. She told me that she could have gotten the same phone in black for free, but paid extra to get it in pink. These days our cell phones are a badge of who we are. Being a Blackberry owner will say something about you, as being a IPhone owner will say something else. My Google Phone will say something about me.

Bottom line is I love my new cell phone despite the sudden price drop after I bought it. Oh yeah, I bought it for $199, last week and now it’s $99. Needless to say, I was not impressed, but I did call the Rogers, and they gave me a $100 credit, so everything is good.

My 2 Bytes.

Food is just suppose to be food

I found this at the Consumerist, and I thought it was blog worthy.

So Burger King now have the new “BK Super Seven Incher”. Right away, I’m thinking this is not a good thing. Especially when the poster for the burger says “It’ll blow your mind away.” Also, on the lower part of the poster it starts out with. “Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled “. Now I do not have a desire for something long and juicy; especially if it’s the Burger King’s Super Seven Incher. NO WAY. Oh and the poster doesn’t help either.



Now what I want to know is who approves these things? It’s the Saskatchewan Pork “Pork: the one you love” billboard all over again. Personally, if it were up to me, I’d create a company that consults with advertisers, and other organizations over the possibility of a double meaning in their advertisement. I believe this service is needed for executives, and politicians who are obviously out of touch with the real world.

A perfect example is the “tea baggers”. The idea was to recreate the image of the Boston tea party, but when you mention tea bagging today. It has a totally different meaning. Tea Bagging is the act of putting ones testicles onto another person’s face. Now I know this because, this was something that became popular in the video game called Counter Strike, which is a shooter type game. I’m not going into “special” bars, and witnessing this action. The point of this was that I knew what it means and the tea baggers didn’t, so now they’re thought of as a group of people who rub their “boys” in each other’s face.

Now if I had been there, this Burger King Seven Incher would not have been happening. I mean seriously, some alarms should have gone off with the poster. I look at it, and think, there’s no way, I’m going to have this sandwich. A picture of a woman with her mouth over, the long sandwich near her lips and the work BLOW underneath. Also, it doesn't help that the woman looks like a sex doll. Uggg.

My 2 Bytes