R2-D2
Well something cool in the news. For a Star Wars promotion (Star Wars is coming to a US stamp near you!), the US Postal Service is going to dress up some of their mailboxes as R2! How many SW fans are gonna wanna steal one?! Federal offense but ya know, tres cool.

Reflections
So today wasn't a particularily good day. Got some terrible news and I'm struggling with it.

Then tonight I was going through my old email and came along a very old one. It made me laugh. Seems so long ago but I can recall the trip quite well after reading this and so for memory sake, I'm posting the old email here. A laugh is always good.

Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 13:56:50 -0700 (PDT)

"Well, Mcleod and I are officially in Firenze (Florence for you uneducated...just kidding!). And so you know, NORMAL KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't have a lot of time though, this stupid place closes in 20 minutes.

Anyway, train to Italy went very smoothly. Seems we always have problems coming into to France, never leaving. First class on these babies! For the record, Milan may be the capital of the world... but it is sure one boring city. So little to do, we actually caught up on a lot of sleep there. We were there for 3 days, counting day of arrival and spent one of those in Venice. Ah, Venice. Beautiful indeed. Actually arrived during the Regatta so have to also mention, Millions of people there this weekend. It was like being in a mob you just couldn't escape from. But so much to see and so not like Milan, just loved it.

Been here in Florence for about 10 hours now and have to say, gonna like it here. Haven't seen anything in particular and already love it. Walked around all day, seeing the stores (ie: buying stuff) and hanging with the locals that are super friendly. Went out tonight to shoot some night shots, and it was like walking down a huge movie set. Nothing seems real but looks so amazing. Hard to describe.

Earlier found a street market and Mcleod was in heaven finding all these t-shirts he'd been searching for. Heard some rumbles, looked at the sky: totally clear.

Heard more, looked around, nothing. Heard more and more, ignored it. Then at some point started to hear it get louder, saw clouds (dark suckers) and knew that we were screwed. Whistled at Mike (our signal that we're stopping/see something or changing direction) and told him that maybe we should go eat. He ain't hungry but I'm like it's going to rain soon. He looks around and shrugs, naw... So I'm kinda arguing, kinda trying to convince him that it's going to get wet soon and then he hears people yelling so we both look behind him and there's all these tent people (for lack of a better word) running up ladders and putting up tarps. He just looks at me and smiles. Then.... within seconds, shall we say the heavens opened up and God dumped buckets on our heads. No little drops, no sudden streams of rain. NOOOOO!!!! Gotta have a bucket. So as we're laughing and running under tarps people are trying to sell us umbrellas. By this time there is no point and we are just soaked. So we had some pizza and waited most of it out. When it calmed down, we shopped some more. Hey, we're from Vancouver and it's only water. Good thing I brought the jacket though because it's cold tonight. Looks like tomorrow will be sunny again. It was beautiful when we arrived so I expect that tomorrow will be the same. Hope so, acutally left the camera at the hotel earlier when this all happened. No soaked shots I'm afraid.

Well, should go or I'll run out of time to send this. Hate to type all this and the damn time run out (you prepay for these computers and if your time runs out
it just kicks you off). So hello to everyone for me.

Don't think I'll be emailing again as Rome is going to be busy. I'm back in less than a week. How sad is that? Wish I was here for a little bit longer... even though some of you are dying for me to get back... Or are you all just saying that? :)

Ciao!!!!"

Food
I miss food. I've been home most of the weekend and we haven't gone grocery shopping in forever.

Ever just go through the cupboards and find all those things that you've never gotten around to eating... like the low fat granola bars or no name spicy chicken strips (suck)? Or you're not sure why you bought them in the first place? Better yet - the stuff that needs other stuff to make a meal? Like taco shells. I got at least 2 boxes of these useless things - no meat, no cheese, no tomatoes. Do have taco sauce though. Yum.

We have bacon and eggs but no milk. I don't like scramble eggs without milk. I thought about it just now and I guess I could have had sunny side-up eggs. Hmmm. Stupid me.

So instead I've had a bunch of peanut butter cookies, mini eggs and an apple.

Strangely though, I'm not that hungry. The PB cookies were damn good. Would have been better with milk but watcha gonna do?

Update
Quick update on the rat bastard selling his fake 180+ shot collection on eBay.

It reached $8,600 US on Friday morning.

However, by the sheer number of emails he received from my yahoo group of collectors, he panicked and took it down.

Score a small 1 for the good collectors.

Daylights Saving Time
So DST happens early tomorrow - 3 weeks ahead of schedule. All 'cuz the Yanks want to save some $$ and energy in some dumb ass scheme that they think will prevent people from turning their lights on an hour early.

Of course, I don't think they took into consideration the time and $$ its taking to make this time change 3 weeks early. Tomorrow, my health authority will have a considerable amount of people on-call and on-site checking servers and testing time accuracy on thousands upon thousands of medical equipment. Forget the hundreds of hours its taken to patch servers and time sensitive equipment with coding to change the clocks early. It has probably cost more to make this change then there would be in any savings from not turning the lights on.

I guess what makes it most amusing to me is this energy "savings" that this is supposed to do, is coming from the one country that wastes its energy and resources faster than any other country on the planet. The sheer excess of waste and want of the USA is not going to be saved by turning the clock ahead three weeks early.

It boggles the mind that this was seen as an energy saver. And that the rest of the world, for the most part, are having to comply with this US government change. US reliant on oil? Apparently, the rest of the world is reliant on US time.

How f*%^#d would they have been if the rest of us had stayed on the regular DST schedule? Alright - some chaos for everyone but could have been fun. And temporary - 3 weeks long before all was right with the world again.

Anyway, lucky me is on-call and gets to log in at 4:30 am to check all my servers. The one time of day I can sleep ...

No Life Afterall - 88
Well I guess this just proves it. Apparently, if you’ve seen over 85 movies in this list, you have no life. I have seen 88 of them. I actually had to look some of them up and sadly once I read the description, knew I'd seen it (i.e. The Skulls). How bad is that?

Anyway, there are 239 movies on this list, so put x’s next to the movies you’ve seen, add them up and discover if you're a lowlife like me or full of life like some other people. I'm going to say I cheated slightly - there are 3 on the list I'm not counting. I started to watch them and have never gotten thru to the end (so they don't count) - Hannibal, Walk to Remember and She's All That. I counted Waterworld as I saw the whole movie but it shouldn't count as it sucked that bad. I don't ever recall seeing the 2 Ewok movies so I'm not counting them either. Hey - I can't look like a complete movie addict!

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
(x) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
Total so far: 13

( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 15

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 19

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 26

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 35

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 39

( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 47

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2
Total so far: 59

( ) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Kippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 61

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 67

( ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 68

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
( ) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 71

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 75

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 78

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 83

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total so far: 88

Faker
So as posted a few times now, I collect Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses. I have a lot but I don't have them all. There are a few, near impossible shots that I don't actually believe I will ever own. The rarest, in my opinion, came from Taichung, Taiwan. This cafe was open just under a year - Dec 22, 1995 to Dec. 1996.

Unfortunately for most die hard collectors, the cafe didn't have the shot in stock most of its existence and because that was so short, very few people own it. I know of exactly 2 collectors that have one.

So imagine the shock to my collecting group when one shows up on evil bay (eBay for those not in the know).

When I first saw the auction I was skeptical for 2 reasons. This seller had put up the auction with no pictures and had included 179 other shot glasses in the auction. Out of the remaining 179 shots, at least 10 were hard to get and expensive shots (Tel Aviv, Amman, Shenzhen, etc). Most people with this size of a collection would know that the shots are worth more as individual auctions than as a group. One can understand not doing 180 separate auctions but you'd at least put the hard ones up on their own - to not do so is just stupid.

For example, Taichung, being so rare is estimated to fetch a minimum of $1000 US in auction. I'd bet it would go for double that as too many collectors are missing it and have deep, deep pockets (too deep for me).

Tel Aviv will go as high as $150 - $350 depending on the version of the shot (there are 4). The others previously mentioned fetch a minimum $200 - 300.

So, the pessimist that I am, I contacted the seller requesting pictures.

The original Taichung is known as a Asian yellow logo. Unlike present day HRC shots, the circle is a bright, bright yellow. The seller sends me a 3rd generation orange USA logo Taichung picture to my inbox. He also sends another 10 pictures of other shots.

Know what? All fakes. Counterfeit. Reproductions. No mistake. Taichung closed in 1996. 3rd generation orange USA logos didn't come out until 2002 - and never for an overseas shot glass.

eBay auction currently sits at $1500.00 US.

So the problem becomes that the seller has never posted pictures of the shots in the auction. eBay cannot verify that they are counterfeit. eBay also has secured themselves against pulling auctions of bid shilling by hiding all bidder names when an auction hits $200. So it is impossible to warn the buyers that they are buying fakes and eBay will not remove the auction.

I mention the bid shilling as I believe this is also going on. 3 out of the 8 bidders have had 33 - 57% prior bidding history with this seller. He doesn't sell that much on eBay and now he's bidding up his own auction of fake merchandise. Rat bastard.

Buyer beware still stands true.

Canucks
It's been a great season so far. Went to the Lightning game last night with Periop - Canucks kicking up the game with a 5 -1 win. Most of the season they've been playing very close games and they lead the league with most wins by a goal. Yesterday though, whole other hockey. It was fast, it was full of energy, all 4 lines were playing hard. Good hits, great goals, some terrific plays.

So this is great hockey. Unfortunately, we return to playing teams like the Wild. Although these games against Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado and so forth can get exciting, they lose some appeal after what... the 6 times we've already played them and have 2 more to go.

Although this has been hashed everywhere - the NHL has got to change up the schedule. Playing each West vs East once in a season can't be that expensive. Its far better hockey and we could still see Calgary come out 4 times. Really, that's enough for most fans. Its not so much about the players - albeit seeing Crosby, St Louis, Ovechkin etc... would rock - its more about seeing different teams. Teams play different styles of hockey - last night, 2 open ice teams played each other and what a difference it was!!

But then if the West had Crosby, St Louis, Ovechkin... I bet the schedule would have changed.

And enough with Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Do they not play other nights like the other teams? Give some different teams exposure for a change - and if you really have to show it - start putting it on PPV like everyone else. You want to grow the NHL TV coverage - you have to show some other Canadian teams playing. Who wants to watch the Laffs vs Atlanta when Ottawa is playing Philly? 11 goals in that Ottawa game and 2 fights - 1 with goalie on goalie! Come on! Tell me that wasn't the game to watch!!

Amazon vs. Local
So LittleMouse wanted a CD - Nelly Furtado. I'm not a fan but I owed her a CD and went out to get it.

Funny thing, no one seemed to have it. Went everywhere - A&B Sound, Future Shop, Best Buy, London Drugs, HMV Downtown... you get the point. I hit different ones of the same franchises. Nadda. The world was sold out apparently. So has to be some freaking great CD, I guess.

Checked a selection of these stores over the course of 3 - THREE - weeks. No Furtado.

So now, either she's sold enough of her music that she doesn't need to bother any more or someone is seriously dropping the ball. And I'm not even a fan so I can only imagine the frustration of the people who just-have-to-have-IT.

Anyway, on Friday I'm in A&B Sound yet again and they still don't have it. I talk to the clerk (same chick I've talked to the other weeks) and she again, looks it up in the computer and mentions that there's 1 in inventory. Before I can say anything, she goes to the section where it should be - why didn't I think of that??

Huh. No CD.

So I'm somewhat annoyed now. I've worked retail and although you'd think a music store would carry more than 1 copy of a newly released CD, I can honestly say why at least 1 CD isn't getting replenished. If the computer has 1 in stock - but someone has obviously chosen to steal it rather than pay the $12.99 - you ain't going to get another one until you drop the inventory to ZERO.

Now don't think me insane. It's just that this same chick has told me the computer is showing 1 in inventory, and has checked the section at least 3 times for me, personally. At no point has it occurred to her that they have been out of stock for some time on a new CD and it might have something to do with the inventory showing they have 1.

Brav-freaking-o.

Anyway, don't distress. Apparently the HMV at Metrotown has the entire BC Mainland inventory of Nelly Furtado. We were there on Saturday. If you've been looking like me - they have hundreds of copies. They're everywhere - #1 shelf, in the POP "F" section, on the rack at the front of the store... almost as if they couldn't get rid of the darn thing. So knock yourself out and get it there (I'm hoping that'll happen before I have to listen/download to LittleMouse's Nano).

So anyway ... the point. I came super close to just buying it on-line at Amazon.ca. In the end, it would have been faster. They had it and although I would have had a shipping cost, it would have been worth it. And again, faster. Local businesses are always whining that they are loosing so much business to the Internet. Well guess what - if you don't have this stuff in stock, I'm going to go somewhere else to get it. I love Amazon and if Amazon.ca gets up to Amazon.com levels (of inventory and selection), I'm going to be shopping there more often. I do shop at Amazon.com a lot during the holidays but lately, friends of mine have been getting duty charges on .com purchases - which will bite if Customs is going to do that.

Seriously though, compare the 2 sites, they aren't created equal which is a rip off. Hopefully that will change.

WHAT THE FRAK TO SAY??

No promises but let’s give this another sincere try.

The problem I have is that I don’t normally have anything interesting to write about. My life is basically work, TV and hockey. Sometimes work and hockey on TV. And I only watch one team – the Vancouver Canucks, in case you didn’t know.

I have multiple jobs and not a lot of hobbies. I use the Internet a lot. I read a lot of other blogs and have really wanted to keep one going. So far, hasn’t happened but we’ll see how this goes now.

Normally at this time of year I’d be finishing the shot glass design for the Hard Rock Cafe shot event. I’ve done one for the last 3 events – 6 official shots and 4 unofficial shots. However, I’m not doing one this year and this is due to me being opinionated... a little too much. The guy “running the show” doesn’t like me. Yeah, I know, hard to believe. Someone doesn’t love little moi? And it had nothing to do with the designs – they all sold well at the cafes – far better than most of the unimaginative one’s that HRC commissions, I might add. No, this guy didn’t like being told he’s an ass. Go figure.

I complained about his bad attitude at the last event. During the charity auction he continued to complain that we were taking too long to bid on things. Yeah. In front of the Charity group – which was in shock at some of the bidding (a few shots went above $200). We raised over $1500 at each of the TWO cafes – less than 25 people!! – and this ASS was complaining about it.

However, when I complained, I should have verified that the person receiving the complaint

wasn’t the Ass’s Best Friend in Corp. So much for people knowing who was who in Corp. So the email got to him and this year, well I’m out. But I’ll be at the next event and we’ll see what they come up with for the 2 shot glasses. If it’s anything like Las Vegas, well, it’ll be some half clad chick with a mountain scene. As usual, the guys see no problem with that, LOL.

Shot glass collecting is a crazy hobby. I only collect Hard Rock Cafe 4 inch shots and have A LOT. My last official count had me at 897. Closing in on ONE THOUSAND. And if that’s nuts to you, I know a lot of people that collect shots from anywhere!! I can’t do it – no room! And LittleMouse would kill me. Or make me move.

The hobby has a bonus - I've met a lot of great people and I get to see most of them once a year at a Hard Rock Cafe shot collectors event. This year it’ll be in Denver. Never been to Colorado so it feeds my travel bug.

Normally we go to 2 cafes in a weekend, but that’s changed this year unfortunately. So to counteract the Corp decision, a bunch of us are going to hit other cafes prior to Denver. I’ll be hitting Phoenix and Salt Lake City. What other reason would I have to go to Utah anyway?

So at the moment, this is what I'm looking forward too - a trip to stinking hot Phoenix, not sure what to do in SLC and too much drinking and food in Denver.

Some of my shot designs: