March 2013 Monthly Entry
Rubbout is happening April 12-14 this year. I plan to attend the Friday and Sunday events. Will write about the weekend in my next monthly entry and include some pictures so check it out! Also, I found out that in a couple of Saturdays, our "Granny-Griz" Bill Houghton is having a surprise 60th birthday party put on by his partner, David. I was told by a friend but not sure if I will be able to make it as I found out today that the Knights have to do the flags for the Dogwood Monarchist Society's "Coronation" event that afternoon. Argh... bad timing! I'll see what I can do about attending to either or both...
Winter is at its end and while we have had the occasional sunny day, the majority of the time since last month's entry has been rain. It has certainly been one of the wettest fall and winter seasons in recent years. Hopefully we'll make it up this spring and summer with plenty of sunshine. I haven't decided what I'll be doing for Easter weekend. David is going to have a Passover seder but I'm debating to be a part of it since his "friends" are going to be there, a couple of them hold very anti-Christian attitudes which David, as a Jew, feels no need to call them on it, even in my presence (he has allowed this to happen with others through the years). It frankly makes me feel uncomfortable and dread when one of them opens their mouths, spewing anti-religious shit during the seder. I may just end up going to my folks Thursday and come back Good Friday. Not sure if they will be going to church that night but if so, then I'll go with them. I can certainly use some spiritual uplifting during the holiest time of the year.
Nothing new at work either than helping out at a new building in Surrey a couple Wednesdays ago. One of my co-workers has now become a supervisor only because my manager didn't care much for his cleaning (which he revealed privately to me), has a car to get around, and because I turned down the offer quite a while ago. I didn't want the responsibility and I know that the pay wouldn't be worth it (in fact, a year or two ago my manager wanted me to become a full-time building manager and he would only increase my pay up to only $12/h!). It seems this "third" supervisor only checks in on us about once a week as I guess he is busy in other buildings. I was dreading that this would be a regular thing or that he would end up finding out I've been coming in pretty late because of my getting out of bed late, the screwy bus system out here, and the long commute to work. I'm thankful my co-workers are understanding but can't say if this guy will be if he happens to find out. Can't say when my luck will run out and my manager finds out one morning...
Chris has moved in but he didn't stay long as he went to spend over a couple of weeks with his lover in Washington State. Something he does periodically it seems. He just got back from his visit last night. He isn't that bad of a roommate but sadly, he'll be leaving in May or June. David is fair enough to give me half of the small rent Chris pays to help pay down his debt to me - though it's only a drip in the cup.
A couple Fridays ago I went to the VML Social at the Pumpjack Pub and I ran into our former roommate and criminal, Devon from the Yukon. I was surprised he was there but we completely ignored each other. I was with my fellow Knight, Wayne T. and it's been the first leather social he has been to in years. While we were with the leathermen in the back of the bar, I noticed Devon a couple of times during the night take a peak around the area but not actually enter into the area and social itself. Could have been because he knew I was there or (even better) knew he is no longer welcome in the Vancouver leather community. When Wayne and I left later that night, I didn't see him so he either left or I couldn't find him in the crowd. I found out on his profile that he was going to LA last weekend and mostly likely stopped off here. I then find out recently that he is actually going to Melbourne, hence he must have wanted to visit LA and then fly to Australia. I believe he wants to meet someone in Victoria given he has one guy on his friends list from the continent. The two burning questions on my mind: how did he manage to afford such a trip and how did he manage to get so much time off? The most likely answers: his trip must have been paid for (again! this is at LEAST the second victim, or idiot, to pay his trip to visit!) and he's not working because he's lazy and relies on Canadian tax dollars to subsidize his living. He'll be going to Smokeout in Vegas next month and claims he will be dominating (notice the small "d") some guy from SF. He can't dominate worth shit! A general rule in BDSM: if you're a possible psychopath and committed criminal behaviour, playing the dominant role is not recommended as you pose a threat to the physical and mental safety of your submissive. If any of my friends are going that weekend and know Devon, I'll give them advance warning to watch out for him. He's never learned from his mistakes and he has no right to victimize others.
I managed to secure a used copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii off Ebay Canada. I've been obsessively looking for this game everywhere earlier this year. It came out last April in North America to rave reviews and for quite a while, fans begged Nintendo of America to publish it here from Japan - specifically from a group call Operation Rainfall. Stupidly, it seemed Nintendo produced limited copies and while I've seen the game in a few stores, I wanted to wait for the price to go down. Well, it would have been nice if we were warned as people have been scrambling to get this game. With no new and used copies available at any stores I've been to, I had to go on Ebay as Amazon is crazy expensive. As expected, used copies are over $70 and new copies are over $90. It's even more if you include a limited edition artbook that was given to those who pre-ordered the game. I lost my first auction for the game but won a second auction on Thursday morning. I got a used-but-in-great-condition copy of the game for $96 US with no one competing in the bid. I faced a problem when trying to pay for it via PayPal: I was a wee bit short of funds. If I get the game shipped within the US, it's only $4 but to Canada it's about $17. Here's another rub: Ebay seems to have in place now a type of "customs charge" and I don't know when they implemented it. So on top of the game and shipping, they now want me to pay an extra $17 on top of it for customs! I had about $130 Cdn. in my PayPal account so after the total was added up and the exchange rate factored in, I couldn't afford it. I bet Ebay was getting wise to sellers lying on customs forms what the actual price of an item was just so they could keep their international customers happy. To get around this, I was debating most of the night which American bear buddy of mine could take the game on my behalf. There were a couple of guys who visit Washington State, namely Chris and my friend Jim but I don't think it was reliable. So I decided to have my friend Kevin from Fresno be the one to take the game and he agreed. So it cost me about $100 to ship it to his place and may be around $10 to ship to Canada - without the damn customs fee! I'll compensate him for the shipping later but I asked him to check the game out as he received it yesterday from the seller who lives in Texas. I left leave feedback for him. As for when I'm going to play Xenoblade Chronicles? Hard to say, perhaps next year would suffice but I'm glad to have the game in my collection.
I didn't see any movies in the theatres lately. I was happy that Argo won for Best Picture at the Oscars though was disappointed that Wreck-It Ralph didn't win for Best Animated Feature. I obviously couldn't watch the Oscars since I don't have cable here but I did check out the major highlight on YouTube of Shirley Bassey singing "Goldfinger" and manages so very well after originally singing it almost 50 years ago! While I've never seen a James Bond film (yes, SHAME on me!), I've always loved the theme songs. 20 years ago I believe my older brother or sister had a CD soundtrack of all movie themes at the time which my folks used to play on weekend or summer trips in the van. "Goldfinger" was certainly one of my favourites.
Sunday I watched Disney's The Rescuers 35th Anniversary Edition on Blu-Ray. The Rescuers was something I originally watched in 1992 or 1993 from the first VHS release and I've always enjoyed it. I saw it's sequel beforehand but I'll get to that below. I've found that this was one of the more popular Disney animated movies during the 70's decade though seems underrated in recent years. It's a shame but I believe it mainly has to do with it not being based on fairy tales and was in a more modern day setting. I love the late 60's to 70's style artwork, especially since a lot of the backgrounds use a lot of dark tones and watercolours. I found out that this was the first animated movie that famous animator, Don Bluth, worked on (instead of as an assistant animator) before going off to do his own projects. He was the creator of the animated arcade games Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II Time Warp and Space Ace but still worked for Disney on and off. This was also a time when Disney's "Nine Old Men" were working with and training a new generation of animators that the studio hired at the time. It was the first successful movie for Disney since the Jungle Book and they wouldn't emulate that success again until the Little Mermaid. I also liked the few songs, especially it's main song "Tomorrow Is Another Day". Sometime ago I read that at the very beginning of the movie, "The Journey" (known as "Will You Rescue Me?") when Penny drops a bottle into the bayou with Brutus and Nero looking on, the assumption is that it's Penny singing (not the same voice actress, of course). Actually, it's the bottle that's singing to be rescued! For years, I was under the assumption that it is Penny who is singing the message written in the bottle. But I just discovered that toward the end of the song, it does give away that the bottle is singing to be rescued. I liked the look and - as Miss Bianca puts it "insane... utterly mad" - personality of Madame Medusa who is voiced by Geraldine Page. I also liked Mr. Snoops but he would make a great, leather-bound bear slave LOL! Sadly, Joe Flynn - the actor who voiced Mr. Snoops died after this movie and was his final role. Oh yes, actors Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor voice Bernard and Miss Bianca extremely well and the chemistry between the two is very good. With all that said, it's one of my favourite Disney movies from the pre-Little Mermaid era. Either than a deleted song, there isn't much more for extras. And yes, I'm quite aware of the nude lady controversy. Honestly, why is it no one noticed it in the original VHS release but in the second release that prompted Disney to recall and edit the material? I've never noticed it all when I first saw the movie... I guess some people have no time on their hands to seek this shit out? To see Doug Walker's review of the movie - though I'm sad to see he didn't care for it - go here or below:
Yesterday I watched the sequel (also on the same Blu-Ray disc), The Rescuers Down Under which is certainly one of the most underrated Disney animated movies! I was fortunate to have gotten to see it in theatres in Richmond. I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade while my sister was 6 years old. It was around mid or late November 1990 on a sunny fall day and my parents had my Uncle Erv and (mom's younger sister) Aunt Gilda take us to see it as they had something important to do (sadly, they would eventually divorce sometime in my junior high or high school years and I would never see Erv again; I think the last I saw him was around the time of their divorce, probably around my high school years though a part of me thinks I last saw him a decade ago at my grandfather's funeral). I remember it began with the short Mickey Mouse version of The Prince and the Pauper and thought it was enjoyable. I remember liking the movie itself and would continue watching it through the years on VHS. I found out years later, and suspected even when I first saw it, that the movie did poorly at the box office and only just made under $10 million in profit after paying off their budget. A shame as I prefer this to the original, which is a rarity considering how shitty the forced Disney sequels that came after. Speaking of Disney sequels, this movie was the first one they made and is part of the Disney canon of animated movies compared to the majority of others. Too bad this movie gets brushed off and Disney doesn't give it the honor it deserves (same as the original Rescuers) because the production values are high. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles though with Gabor, this was her final film role as she later retired from acting and died in 1995 (she did one more TV role though). New to this movie is the woofy John Candy who voices the albatross Wilbur, the brother of the original movie's Orville (get the joke? the Wright brothers... the ones who pioneered flight and aviation). Candy does an awesome job in this movie and it would be his last major voice-over role as he was supposed to voice a character in Pocahontas but he died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1994 and his character was deleted from that film. And George C. Scott as the villian, Percival C. McLeach is spot on and enjoyable. The artwork and use of computer animation was amazing for its time and most didn't know that The Rescuers Down Under was the first animated movie to use "digital paint" for it's colours. Backgrounds were scanned into a computer and the animation frames were also scanned and then coloured. In fact, the movie used a lot of computer effects in it's composition and even the young company Pixar had a hand in it. All the animation was used by the CAPS process (Computer Animation Production System). As for this Blu-Ray, there is old footage of "The Making of The Rescuers Down Under" that was likely produced in 1990 but that's it for extras. For Doug Walker's review and praise, go here or below (he accidentally gets it wrong in his review - Miss Bianca is voiced by Eva NOT Zsa Zsa Gabor):
I'm obviously still early in Star Trek: TNG Season 7 but that might be done in April I'm hoping. Dissidia: Final Fantasy I've haven't made much strides in but it's coming along. Very early in Final Fantasy XIII-2 but I don't think it'll be done until April or May and it all depends on post-game side-quests and how much time it will rip from me.
Last Movie: Les Miserables (Theatrical), The Rescuers Down Under (Blu-Ray)
Last Book: What Have They Done with Jesus?
Last Game: God of War III (PS3)
Current Book: Beyond Opinion
Current Games: Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3) & Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)
Winter is at its end and while we have had the occasional sunny day, the majority of the time since last month's entry has been rain. It has certainly been one of the wettest fall and winter seasons in recent years. Hopefully we'll make it up this spring and summer with plenty of sunshine. I haven't decided what I'll be doing for Easter weekend. David is going to have a Passover seder but I'm debating to be a part of it since his "friends" are going to be there, a couple of them hold very anti-Christian attitudes which David, as a Jew, feels no need to call them on it, even in my presence (he has allowed this to happen with others through the years). It frankly makes me feel uncomfortable and dread when one of them opens their mouths, spewing anti-religious shit during the seder. I may just end up going to my folks Thursday and come back Good Friday. Not sure if they will be going to church that night but if so, then I'll go with them. I can certainly use some spiritual uplifting during the holiest time of the year.
Nothing new at work either than helping out at a new building in Surrey a couple Wednesdays ago. One of my co-workers has now become a supervisor only because my manager didn't care much for his cleaning (which he revealed privately to me), has a car to get around, and because I turned down the offer quite a while ago. I didn't want the responsibility and I know that the pay wouldn't be worth it (in fact, a year or two ago my manager wanted me to become a full-time building manager and he would only increase my pay up to only $12/h!). It seems this "third" supervisor only checks in on us about once a week as I guess he is busy in other buildings. I was dreading that this would be a regular thing or that he would end up finding out I've been coming in pretty late because of my getting out of bed late, the screwy bus system out here, and the long commute to work. I'm thankful my co-workers are understanding but can't say if this guy will be if he happens to find out. Can't say when my luck will run out and my manager finds out one morning...
Chris has moved in but he didn't stay long as he went to spend over a couple of weeks with his lover in Washington State. Something he does periodically it seems. He just got back from his visit last night. He isn't that bad of a roommate but sadly, he'll be leaving in May or June. David is fair enough to give me half of the small rent Chris pays to help pay down his debt to me - though it's only a drip in the cup.
A couple Fridays ago I went to the VML Social at the Pumpjack Pub and I ran into our former roommate and criminal, Devon from the Yukon. I was surprised he was there but we completely ignored each other. I was with my fellow Knight, Wayne T. and it's been the first leather social he has been to in years. While we were with the leathermen in the back of the bar, I noticed Devon a couple of times during the night take a peak around the area but not actually enter into the area and social itself. Could have been because he knew I was there or (even better) knew he is no longer welcome in the Vancouver leather community. When Wayne and I left later that night, I didn't see him so he either left or I couldn't find him in the crowd. I found out on his profile that he was going to LA last weekend and mostly likely stopped off here. I then find out recently that he is actually going to Melbourne, hence he must have wanted to visit LA and then fly to Australia. I believe he wants to meet someone in Victoria given he has one guy on his friends list from the continent. The two burning questions on my mind: how did he manage to afford such a trip and how did he manage to get so much time off? The most likely answers: his trip must have been paid for (again! this is at LEAST the second victim, or idiot, to pay his trip to visit!) and he's not working because he's lazy and relies on Canadian tax dollars to subsidize his living. He'll be going to Smokeout in Vegas next month and claims he will be dominating (notice the small "d") some guy from SF. He can't dominate worth shit! A general rule in BDSM: if you're a possible psychopath and committed criminal behaviour, playing the dominant role is not recommended as you pose a threat to the physical and mental safety of your submissive. If any of my friends are going that weekend and know Devon, I'll give them advance warning to watch out for him. He's never learned from his mistakes and he has no right to victimize others.
I managed to secure a used copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii off Ebay Canada. I've been obsessively looking for this game everywhere earlier this year. It came out last April in North America to rave reviews and for quite a while, fans begged Nintendo of America to publish it here from Japan - specifically from a group call Operation Rainfall. Stupidly, it seemed Nintendo produced limited copies and while I've seen the game in a few stores, I wanted to wait for the price to go down. Well, it would have been nice if we were warned as people have been scrambling to get this game. With no new and used copies available at any stores I've been to, I had to go on Ebay as Amazon is crazy expensive. As expected, used copies are over $70 and new copies are over $90. It's even more if you include a limited edition artbook that was given to those who pre-ordered the game. I lost my first auction for the game but won a second auction on Thursday morning. I got a used-but-in-great-condition copy of the game for $96 US with no one competing in the bid. I faced a problem when trying to pay for it via PayPal: I was a wee bit short of funds. If I get the game shipped within the US, it's only $4 but to Canada it's about $17. Here's another rub: Ebay seems to have in place now a type of "customs charge" and I don't know when they implemented it. So on top of the game and shipping, they now want me to pay an extra $17 on top of it for customs! I had about $130 Cdn. in my PayPal account so after the total was added up and the exchange rate factored in, I couldn't afford it. I bet Ebay was getting wise to sellers lying on customs forms what the actual price of an item was just so they could keep their international customers happy. To get around this, I was debating most of the night which American bear buddy of mine could take the game on my behalf. There were a couple of guys who visit Washington State, namely Chris and my friend Jim but I don't think it was reliable. So I decided to have my friend Kevin from Fresno be the one to take the game and he agreed. So it cost me about $100 to ship it to his place and may be around $10 to ship to Canada - without the damn customs fee! I'll compensate him for the shipping later but I asked him to check the game out as he received it yesterday from the seller who lives in Texas. I left leave feedback for him. As for when I'm going to play Xenoblade Chronicles? Hard to say, perhaps next year would suffice but I'm glad to have the game in my collection.
I didn't see any movies in the theatres lately. I was happy that Argo won for Best Picture at the Oscars though was disappointed that Wreck-It Ralph didn't win for Best Animated Feature. I obviously couldn't watch the Oscars since I don't have cable here but I did check out the major highlight on YouTube of Shirley Bassey singing "Goldfinger" and manages so very well after originally singing it almost 50 years ago! While I've never seen a James Bond film (yes, SHAME on me!), I've always loved the theme songs. 20 years ago I believe my older brother or sister had a CD soundtrack of all movie themes at the time which my folks used to play on weekend or summer trips in the van. "Goldfinger" was certainly one of my favourites.
Sunday I watched Disney's The Rescuers 35th Anniversary Edition on Blu-Ray. The Rescuers was something I originally watched in 1992 or 1993 from the first VHS release and I've always enjoyed it. I saw it's sequel beforehand but I'll get to that below. I've found that this was one of the more popular Disney animated movies during the 70's decade though seems underrated in recent years. It's a shame but I believe it mainly has to do with it not being based on fairy tales and was in a more modern day setting. I love the late 60's to 70's style artwork, especially since a lot of the backgrounds use a lot of dark tones and watercolours. I found out that this was the first animated movie that famous animator, Don Bluth, worked on (instead of as an assistant animator) before going off to do his own projects. He was the creator of the animated arcade games Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II Time Warp and Space Ace but still worked for Disney on and off. This was also a time when Disney's "Nine Old Men" were working with and training a new generation of animators that the studio hired at the time. It was the first successful movie for Disney since the Jungle Book and they wouldn't emulate that success again until the Little Mermaid. I also liked the few songs, especially it's main song "Tomorrow Is Another Day". Sometime ago I read that at the very beginning of the movie, "The Journey" (known as "Will You Rescue Me?") when Penny drops a bottle into the bayou with Brutus and Nero looking on, the assumption is that it's Penny singing (not the same voice actress, of course). Actually, it's the bottle that's singing to be rescued! For years, I was under the assumption that it is Penny who is singing the message written in the bottle. But I just discovered that toward the end of the song, it does give away that the bottle is singing to be rescued. I liked the look and - as Miss Bianca puts it "insane... utterly mad" - personality of Madame Medusa who is voiced by Geraldine Page. I also liked Mr. Snoops but he would make a great, leather-bound bear slave LOL! Sadly, Joe Flynn - the actor who voiced Mr. Snoops died after this movie and was his final role. Oh yes, actors Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor voice Bernard and Miss Bianca extremely well and the chemistry between the two is very good. With all that said, it's one of my favourite Disney movies from the pre-Little Mermaid era. Either than a deleted song, there isn't much more for extras. And yes, I'm quite aware of the nude lady controversy. Honestly, why is it no one noticed it in the original VHS release but in the second release that prompted Disney to recall and edit the material? I've never noticed it all when I first saw the movie... I guess some people have no time on their hands to seek this shit out? To see Doug Walker's review of the movie - though I'm sad to see he didn't care for it - go here or below:
Click to viewYesterday I watched the sequel (also on the same Blu-Ray disc), The Rescuers Down Under which is certainly one of the most underrated Disney animated movies! I was fortunate to have gotten to see it in theatres in Richmond. I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade while my sister was 6 years old. It was around mid or late November 1990 on a sunny fall day and my parents had my Uncle Erv and (mom's younger sister) Aunt Gilda take us to see it as they had something important to do (sadly, they would eventually divorce sometime in my junior high or high school years and I would never see Erv again; I think the last I saw him was around the time of their divorce, probably around my high school years though a part of me thinks I last saw him a decade ago at my grandfather's funeral). I remember it began with the short Mickey Mouse version of The Prince and the Pauper and thought it was enjoyable. I remember liking the movie itself and would continue watching it through the years on VHS. I found out years later, and suspected even when I first saw it, that the movie did poorly at the box office and only just made under $10 million in profit after paying off their budget. A shame as I prefer this to the original, which is a rarity considering how shitty the forced Disney sequels that came after. Speaking of Disney sequels, this movie was the first one they made and is part of the Disney canon of animated movies compared to the majority of others. Too bad this movie gets brushed off and Disney doesn't give it the honor it deserves (same as the original Rescuers) because the production values are high. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles though with Gabor, this was her final film role as she later retired from acting and died in 1995 (she did one more TV role though). New to this movie is the woofy John Candy who voices the albatross Wilbur, the brother of the original movie's Orville (get the joke? the Wright brothers... the ones who pioneered flight and aviation). Candy does an awesome job in this movie and it would be his last major voice-over role as he was supposed to voice a character in Pocahontas but he died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1994 and his character was deleted from that film. And George C. Scott as the villian, Percival C. McLeach is spot on and enjoyable. The artwork and use of computer animation was amazing for its time and most didn't know that The Rescuers Down Under was the first animated movie to use "digital paint" for it's colours. Backgrounds were scanned into a computer and the animation frames were also scanned and then coloured. In fact, the movie used a lot of computer effects in it's composition and even the young company Pixar had a hand in it. All the animation was used by the CAPS process (Computer Animation Production System). As for this Blu-Ray, there is old footage of "The Making of The Rescuers Down Under" that was likely produced in 1990 but that's it for extras. For Doug Walker's review and praise, go here or below (he accidentally gets it wrong in his review - Miss Bianca is voiced by Eva NOT Zsa Zsa Gabor):
I'm obviously still early in Star Trek: TNG Season 7 but that might be done in April I'm hoping. Dissidia: Final Fantasy I've haven't made much strides in but it's coming along. Very early in Final Fantasy XIII-2 but I don't think it'll be done until April or May and it all depends on post-game side-quests and how much time it will rip from me.
Last Movie: Les Miserables (Theatrical), The Rescuers Down Under (Blu-Ray)
Last Book: What Have They Done with Jesus?
Last Game: God of War III (PS3)
Current Book: Beyond Opinion
Current Games: Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3) & Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)