A week ago I got back from my most recent trip to Cedar Point. There were no new rides this year, but obviously there's still lots to do. We went on Saturday, did the starlight ticket, then 2 full day tickets on the Sunday and Monday. It had rained on Saturday, so by the time we got there the crowds were not very big. On Sunday, it was ridiculously not busy, and most rides had short lines. Strangely enough, Monday was much busier than Sunday. I had thought we went early enough in the year so weekdays would have low attendance. I had noticed the same phenomenon last year (although we went 2 week later), with Monday being more busy than Sunday. Next year, I think I want to try and do an even earlier trip.
So, here's the breakdown of this year's awesome trip: 3 times on Millenium Force (once at the front), 3 times on Top Thrill Dragster (once at front), 2 times on Raptor (once at front), 2 times on Maverick (once at front), twice on Wicked Twister, Magnum XL200, Mean Streak (twice too many), Power Tower and Sky Hawk. The others we only got on once. Also, I had a blast playing Deal or No Deal in the arcade and came home with a spiffy mug.
I say important things of importance
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Rock Band Library
So, I was thinking about how much my Rock Band library has grown since I got it. In fact, it's starting to become difficult to get an overall picture of what songs are available by using the on-screen menu. I thought it would be useful if I had a list like a Karaoke Bar of all the song I had... So, I made one up. Turns out, I have 224 songs available in my Rock Band 2 game, counting the imported songs from Rock Band 1, my downloaded songs, and my imported songs from track packs. That's a lot of songs! Want to see my list?
Here it is!
I know my list will grow by at least 1 more... because Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" is due to come out sometime, and that's going to be awesome!
So, now I just need people to come over and play.
Here it is!
I know my list will grow by at least 1 more... because Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" is due to come out sometime, and that's going to be awesome!
So, now I just need people to come over and play.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Worst Disappointment In The History Of Human Civilization
You know what makes me mad?
The fact that when Season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica comes out on DVD, it won't fit on the same row as the rest of them. Who do I blame? Universal for making the packaging too big, or Ikea for making the shelves too narrow?
The fact that when Season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica comes out on DVD, it won't fit on the same row as the rest of them. Who do I blame? Universal for making the packaging too big, or Ikea for making the shelves too narrow?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Chuck Renewed For Season 3!
... and there was much rejoicing!
NBC renewed my new favourite show, Chuck, for a third season. However, right now it's just for a shortened 13 episode season with an option for 9 more, but that's far better than getting cancelled. Now all it has to do is gain a little traction from this "Save Chuck" movement so it can get an extension and more seasons. It's going to be a mid-season show and won't start until after the Olympics... so expect to hear more from me then.
In the meantime, if anyone wants to check this show out and borrow my Season 1 DVDs, let me know and I'll get them back from Joel.
NBC renewed my new favourite show, Chuck, for a third season. However, right now it's just for a shortened 13 episode season with an option for 9 more, but that's far better than getting cancelled. Now all it has to do is gain a little traction from this "Save Chuck" movement so it can get an extension and more seasons. It's going to be a mid-season show and won't start until after the Olympics... so expect to hear more from me then.
In the meantime, if anyone wants to check this show out and borrow my Season 1 DVDs, let me know and I'll get them back from Joel.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
My Experience With Internet Telephony
Right now, for work, we're doing telephone travel surveys for Stratford. Because Stratford is long distance from Waterloo, I had to look into options to keep calling costs down. Travelling to Stratford every night wasn't an option (milage would add up), and I didn't want our surveyor names to show up on call id. So, the best option seemed to be using the internet.
I first looked at Skype, since they're the best-known service, but they charge a connection fee of 6 cents each time you call a real number on top of the 2.9 cents per minute. Bell Internet Talk is the service that I ended up using, which uses Windows Live Messenger. As a service by itself, it worked decently. Quality was good and it was also 2.9 cents per minute without the connection charge per call. The problem arose when I tried to create 5 new hotmail accounts for my 5 surveyors. After 2, Microsoft blocked my IP from creating more hotmail accounts (presumably to prevent spammers), so I had to create them from other people's houses.
Once I got the accounts created, I tried to put money on the accounts (since it's pre-paid). After the first 2 accounts worked fine, I was unable to add money with my credit card anymore. I did manage to get around that (through endless chat sessions with customer service) and set up the accounts with money and set to automatically recharge to my credit card.
Well, as soon as the auto-recharges started happening, my accounts kept getting locked, and no amount of unlocking the accounts and chat sessions with customer service would help. I think that my credit card was raising red flags, since I've never used this type of service before. But even when I tried other cards, my account would still get locked.
So, my conclusion is that phone calls over the internet aren't a bad way to go... just don't try and get 5 accounts going at once.
I first looked at Skype, since they're the best-known service, but they charge a connection fee of 6 cents each time you call a real number on top of the 2.9 cents per minute. Bell Internet Talk is the service that I ended up using, which uses Windows Live Messenger. As a service by itself, it worked decently. Quality was good and it was also 2.9 cents per minute without the connection charge per call. The problem arose when I tried to create 5 new hotmail accounts for my 5 surveyors. After 2, Microsoft blocked my IP from creating more hotmail accounts (presumably to prevent spammers), so I had to create them from other people's houses.
Once I got the accounts created, I tried to put money on the accounts (since it's pre-paid). After the first 2 accounts worked fine, I was unable to add money with my credit card anymore. I did manage to get around that (through endless chat sessions with customer service) and set up the accounts with money and set to automatically recharge to my credit card.
Well, as soon as the auto-recharges started happening, my accounts kept getting locked, and no amount of unlocking the accounts and chat sessions with customer service would help. I think that my credit card was raising red flags, since I've never used this type of service before. But even when I tried other cards, my account would still get locked.
So, my conclusion is that phone calls over the internet aren't a bad way to go... just don't try and get 5 accounts going at once.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
New Star Trek Movie
I went to see the new Star Trek movie this weekend. My verdict is that it is all kinds of awesome! And it looks like it raked in a tonne of money this weekend. Here's hoping that it will bring about a sequel or two with this "rebooted" version.
I so have to see it again.
I so have to see it again.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Matt Needs Your Help
Hey everyone. Can you do me a favour? Can you test out a web-based survey I created for a work project and see if it's worded clearly and the options make sense? The survey was here.
What we're doing is asking people about their travel habits to get an idea of demand around the city. The survey isn't live yet, so responses you give now won't be included in our data and won't skew our results, so go nuts.
Thanks for your help, if you did it.
Update: I took the link down because the survey will be going live soon. I made a few changes based on your comments... thanks.
What we're doing is asking people about their travel habits to get an idea of demand around the city. The survey isn't live yet, so responses you give now won't be included in our data and won't skew our results, so go nuts.
Thanks for your help, if you did it.
Update: I took the link down because the survey will be going live soon. I made a few changes based on your comments... thanks.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Watching Chuck Tonight
Tonight is the season finale of my current favourite TV show, Chuck. Without the cable, I've been resorting to either waiting for the online streams or torrents to watch the latest episodes, but tonight I'm going to suffer through my staticy reception of CityTV to watch it at 8.
It's a show on the renew/cancellation bubble. It gets average ratings, and most years that would be enough for another season but next year NBC is getting rid of a third of their primetime lineup to be able to keep Jay Leno. I would suggest watching it, but in reality, any of us here in Canada won't have any influence on whether or not an American network renews a show. So, I highly suggest watching it from the beginning since it's only 2 seasons old (and the first was shortened by the writer's strike) and it can be considered a serial. For those who do follow the show, enjoy tonight's episode.
It's a show on the renew/cancellation bubble. It gets average ratings, and most years that would be enough for another season but next year NBC is getting rid of a third of their primetime lineup to be able to keep Jay Leno. I would suggest watching it, but in reality, any of us here in Canada won't have any influence on whether or not an American network renews a show. So, I highly suggest watching it from the beginning since it's only 2 seasons old (and the first was shortened by the writer's strike) and it can be considered a serial. For those who do follow the show, enjoy tonight's episode.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Last Asked For ID - Yesterday
Reset the clock. As of writing this, it's officially been 1 day since I was last carded for the purchase of alcohol. Apparently the lady at the Beer Store in Hamilton thought there was a chance I wasn't at least 19 years old.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Post Season
Last night was the first game of curling playoffs. We finished in 6th place (out of 7) and had to play the 3rd place team. It got off to a bad start with the other team scoring 3 points in the first end. We got 2 back next, but they scored another 3. So we were down 6-2 after 3 ends. We've been known to blow leads like that, but we've never came back from that far before. This time, we did. Here's how the scoreboard looked (baseball style, for your convenience). We were yellow.
Red | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7
End | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total
Yellow | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8
As you can see, we had to steal twice including 2 points in the last end. Next week is the last week for curling, win or lose. Hopefully we can go on an improbable run right at the end of the season.
Red | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7
End | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total
Yellow | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8
As you can see, we had to steal twice including 2 points in the last end. Next week is the last week for curling, win or lose. Hopefully we can go on an improbable run right at the end of the season.
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