It's nearly December and I still haven't turned on my heat in my apartment. A crazy part of me thinks I might actually be able to go through the entire winter without turning my heat on. Of course, now that I typed that, watch the temperatures go near freezing soon.
On winter coat front, I've managed to get away with not wearing my heavy wool coat. I've added a scarf to my ensemble but I'm still getting away with a lighter jacket.
So last week Activision released Tony Hawk's new game entitled Tony Hawk: Ride. Because of some weirdness with apparent distribution issues, review copies of the game were not sent out in advance to reviewers (as is the usual case). As such, reviews are now only trickling into print and the Internet.
So far, it hasn't be a spectacular reception from reviewers. On Metacritic, Ride is garnering a 53 on Xbox 360, while on PS3, it's coming in at a 49. As this franchise is really our only competition in the marketplace, our team has been following this game and its reception. We actually have two copies of the game for the team to try. Last week, everyone had a chance to play Ride including myself. I thought the board was really well-made. It feels solid and sturdy. It never gave me the impression it was a toy and I believed I was on a real skateboard (minus the wheels).
I played the game for about 15 minutes or so. In light of that, I don't think that's enough time for me to make an honest and fair assessment of game. I won't make any more comments until I've had a chance to really play through a large portion of the game. At more than $120 though, I just don't see myself buying it at that price.
My belief is the game will probably sell well among parents who will buy the game for their kids. I'm not sure how well it will do with older gamers who do all their game buying themselves.
Like a lot of my readers, I get a lot unsolicited mail in my mailbox. Amongst the flyers and catalogues, I also get coupons. Sometimes the coupons are for things I have absolutely no interest in. Other times, the coupons are completely related to items I would purchase, coupons or not. The coupons from KFC fall into the latter category.
A few weeks ago, I opened my mailbox to find a series of KFC coupons in there. Some of them were no use to me. As an individual, there really is no justification for me to use any of the "family meal" coupons. Even at a paltry $30, I shouldn't be ordering 10 pieces of chicken, fries, gravy, 3 sides, and a whole cake. Thus, the single meal coupons fit my lifestyle better. Of these, there are only two or three I would really use. Knowing this, I was about to take the coupons and go, when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. There was another set of identical KFC coupons sticking out of the mailroom recycling slot. I looked around and then quickly grabbed it out of the slot. Now I had two sets of coupons for glorious fried chicken.
If things went as I expected it to, my very first letter to my building's strata council was addressed this evening in this month's strata council meeting. As a relatively new homeowner, I'm still quite new to a lot of procedures and issues regarding owning a small bit of real estate.
In my letter, I mainly asked for clarification on two potential changes I am thinking about making to my apartment. The first entails replacing the blinds that were originally installed in my windows. These horizontal blinds are fairly cheap in quality and to top it off, they weren't installed very well. As such, they let in a lot of ambient light. I am thinking of replacing those blinds, ideally with vertical ones. I have been told doing so might require permission from the strata council. I guess I'll find out.
My second change involves getting rid of or at least altering that damn fireplace that I have to keep my TV on top of. I was at a house this weekend where they had a TV stand on the floor in their living room. Even though their TV was smaller than mine, it was just so much more enjoyable to watch it without having to crane my neck upwards. I wonder what strata will say about that change.
Since I've never done this before, I don't how and when they'll get back to me. I left my e-mail address in my letter but I'm not sure if they officially respond in that manner. The most likely scenario is that the property management company will draft up a letter and mail it to me.
This weekend, the new Twilight movie, New Moonbroke the single day box office record, taking in over $72M on the Friday. The previous record holder, The Dark Knight, clocked in at just over $62M. Now, there's been some disappointment among the mostly male "comic book" fans that the record was lost to a movie about teenage vampire angst. I personally don't see a problem with that. I think it's great that tween girls have something they can put their support behind and call their own. I only wish I had written the books myself because had I done that, I'd be taking dumps on solid gold toilets in my mansion right now. I digress however.
Kevin Smith appears to have the same attitude that I have. In the clip above from Comic Con 2009 held last summer, Smith opines on the whole Twilight thing. He uses some strong language at times, so if you're offended by potty mouths, you might consider skipping this one. Nonetheless, he is quite funny.
