Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

Since I switched my browser to Mozilla Firefox my “title” field doesn’t tell me if I’ve already used that headline before. Doesn’t matter.

Last night we played the first session of the cartoon campaign for D&D. It went really well, even though I improvised a hell of a lot of crap. The group got farther than I thought they would. We’ll finish up the “episode” next Tuesday. And then – we get to watch the actual cartoon episode – that should be interesting.

I got an email from the guys who book bands for GenCon. Maybe…just maybe…The Thickets will be playing GenCon this year.

Also, thanks to the generosity of one Adrian Estergaard, I am enjoying season 5 of The Simpsons on DVD. Huzzah!

I was hoping to get a lot more drawing done this past weekend, but stuff kept coming up.

Thursday day: drawing
Thursday night: Ghostbusters played at the UBC theater so as part of Stewie’s birthday festivities, Marlo and I met up with Taylor and other people, had some pizza with potatoes on it, and yelled out “Ghostbusters!” along with the music in the movie.

Friday day: drawing
Friday night: Janet’s going to Asia for a year and change, so Marlo, myself, Stewie, Taylor, Chris G and Lin all piled into one car and took her up on her ten-pin bowling invite at the Brentwood Lanes in Burnaby. We had nachos and the balls were heavy.

Saturday day: The Saturday Morning Cartoon Party! Chris Woods, Stewie, Taylor, Marlo, Sylvia & friend, Nathan, Carina, Michael Beck & Bev, Jon Dawes, Jeffyboy, and little Kodos and anyone I’m forgetting came and watched a slough of cartoons with a space theme.
Saturday eve: after the party we hung out with Chris W. At the Sunshine Diner in Kits we had some proper food after all the peanut butter Cap’n Crunch and Cookie Crisp and Count Chocula of the morning. Then we visited the Comicshop where Marlo picked up some Manga and I picked up some old Dungeon magazines at half price. We came back home and watched Chris’ DVD slide show of the trip he went on with Angie down various parts of Route 66. Then we got hungry again and went to Red Onion for dinner, along with Stewie.

Sunday day: last week’s D&D session was cancelled due to illness so I didn’t want to cancel this week’s. We had to have it earlier than usual though, because at 3:30 Marlo’s uncle picked us up and took us to her grandparent’s place for a yummy Easter dinner. Sunday is the day I really started to get sick myself. My throat is still hurting and I took the day off work to day, which is bad because I need money, but good because I can catch up on all the drawing I missed. Which I will do….NOW!

As malls go, Oakridge is a good one. Marlo & I went there earlier today for some shopping. They have a Bay, a Zellers, and (the best part for me) a Safeway. The food fair is more like a food good. They have a falafel place, a pizza place, an Arby’s (!), a salad/fruit bar, a yogenfruz and an Orange Julius. All they’re missing is Flavours of India. That’s at Tinseltown and City Square, my other two favourite malls (although all Tinseltown really has for me is the food court with Bubble Tea and the aforementioned Flavours of India, and the movie theater.

The day before Stewie’s birthday we’re all going down to UBC to watch Ghostbusters on their big screen.

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Despite what it says on Stewie’s blog, we’re going on a Thursday, not a Friday.

Though Friday is Stewie’s actual birthday. It’s the kind of birthday where you come over and take something of Stewie’s rather than give him something. We have way too much crap and it’s making spring cleaning impossible.

So I entered a contest on the teletoon website some time ago, and I didn’t really pay attention to what the prizes were or anything, I just did it for kicks.

And I won!

So they tried to send me my prizes at home, but I was at work, so I called and had the box rerouted to my work on Wednesday. So just before lunch the box came and everyone came from the aisles to see what I got. And oh! Fun but stupid spy toys. Like the “Spy Vision Goggles” which purport night vision, but in fact they just have little lights on the side of the goggles that extend 25′. So, they’d be useful for when you’re looking for that screwdriver you dropped behind the couch. And the “Spy Link Tw0-Way Walkie Talkies” which look pretty cool because they’re hands-free. And the XP-6 (much better than the XP-5) model Spy Watch which is touted as the “ultimate wrist gadget” and includes a pop up telescope and a pretty cool function: motion alarm with time stamp. So if you, say, put it around your doorknob, you’ll know if somebody came into your room and at what time. The Eye-Link communicators are pretty cool – 2 keyboard transmitters and 2 headset displays. Basically they’re like text messaging but instead of a cell phone you get a cyberpunk like eye display and a little keyboard that attaches to your arm. It also came with a Teletoon note pad and pen which I’ve already put to use. The rest of the stuff I’ll probably be putting on eBay. The Spy Vision goggles are already up.

Everyone: It’s “look-see” not “looksie.” Now that we’re clear on that, I can tell you about the garage sale on my very block that netted me three new ginsu knives and a small whisk and a wooden spoon for $4. I’m pleased. They also had a brand new futon for sale so hurry – 1046 W 13th. The girl was nice, lived here for a year and a half and is now moving back to Australia. I want to go to New Zealand. I wonder if the cost of living in cheaper there.

And when I was walking across Broadway at Oak, there were two people turning left from Broadway onto Oak St. The second guy was honking at the first guy because the first wasn’t going, even though there were no cars coming. So obviously, he needed a good honking. Oh wait! There’s an old man with a cane slowly crossing on the crosswalk and he has right of way! I hope the honker felt stupid…because I hate him. Him and all honkers. I think Stewie’s with me on this one.

I just saw a commercial for Molson Canadian in which a bunch of “hot” girls are making sexy faces to the viewer. The last girl said “I am so mad at my boyfriend” and made ‘fuck me’ faces. The message? Drink beer and be an enabler for infidelity! YEAH!!! Good old TV, marching us to utopia one commercial at a time.

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This week I’ll be trying to meet an art deadline, so don’t expect much on the blog front.

Friday night was Justice League night but I was disappointed by the second half of “The Once and Future Thing.” Even though I like time travel stories they did it pretty half-baked, and in lieu of explaining anything they just showed fight scenes where the JL used consistently bad fighting tactics (silly super heroes, you can fly!).

Chris Woods came into town on Saturday night and we played Magic: The Gathering and watched MST3K. Fun! I made an elf deck for Marlo and now she wants to play more. Mwoooohahahaha

D&D was fun yesterday – remorhaz, mountain goats, and draconids. Afterwards we (Taylor, Marlo, Stewie, me) had access to a car, thanks to Stewie’s business meeting in Seattle today, so went to the Superstore where shopping is a mind-boggling experience and I bought some wasabi peas. We also ate at Red Onion where I had a chicken burger (the wait was long but the food was good) and on the way back to the car we stumbled onto a bubble tea place that I had to sample. While we waited for our food we watched George Lucas on 60 minutes comparing his movie-making choices to his choices of painting a house.

Today everyone at work was in a bad mood. My supervisor apparently got in a fight with his girlfriend (who also works there) so he was swearing and pissed off all day. Taylor hurt his thumb in the morning but despite my prompting, didn’t leave until 4pm.