576 Mile Commute To Work

Being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, it doesn’t happen very often that you get to see two of the top teams in the league battle it out but that’s what happened when I saw the Bruins play host to the San Jose Sharks. After a minor ticketing fiasco, we ended up sitting in box seats for the game which was a much better result than the nose-bleed section. The game had a couple of fights, plenty of scoring opportunities to get the home crowd excited but the result was a disappointing 2-0 loss. Take away that shutout loss for Boston, and they have scored 19 goals in their last 4 games – it just happens they don’t score anything the night I am there. It was my first ever game at TD Gardens but the arena is definitely worth a visit with all the memorabilia inside of the legendary Celtics, the Great #77 for the Bruins and even jerseys of Brady and Manning during their rivalry years.

On the other end is Green Bay – By far the smallest city to have a professional sports team is once again the champion. This marks only the second time since I moved out here to North America that a professional team out of the four major sports that I root for has won the championship – it was also the Packers in 1997. As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Blue Jays have not made the playoffs since 1993 when they won it all for a second year in a row, while the Leafs and Raptors have struggled just to make the playoffs this past decade, never mind being a contender to win it all.

I think I moved maybe once or twice from my seat once the game began and even tortured myself through the god-awful half time show just so I wouldn’t miss the beginning of the 2nd half especially since Pittsburgh had just scored to the end the half and the momentum was definitely beginning to shift. Most definitely the worst quarter to watch all season was the 3rd quarter. Packers struggled to do anything, punted on every single drive while gaining only 17 yards in the entire period.

What arguably feels like the longest week in a very, very long time is about to end. Last Friday I flew into Boston for the weekend to visit a friend to watch a hockey game and then the Super Bowl to see my beloved Packers play the Steelers. I was initially scheduled to come back from Boston Sunday night which I fortunately got changed to Monday morning. After having gone to bed after midnight, waking up at 4:30am and taking an hour and a half commute to the airport followed by a 100 minute wait and a 90 minute flight from the greatest airlines in North America (maybe outside of Jet Blue) and I was at work in Toronto at 11 – a lovely 576 mile international commute.

I don’t know how people in the US make those long commutes in NYC and Boston on a regular basis but I could never pull that off on a regular basis. Having spent the rest of the week playing Left 4 Dead 2 much later during the night than I really should have has really compounded my lethargic week. At least tomorrow is Friday which hopefully means I can sleep in at least one of the two days but knowing how my weekends go here, I really doubt it.

My Trip Home (12/24 – 12/28)

A blizzard wasn’t exactly what I was looking forward to when I went home this past weekend but it sure made things interesting.

The drive down there Friday afternoon was really good since I guess not too many people drive down to the United States on Christmas Eve. The border, which didn’t have too many cars, ended up costing me over an hour because I was classified under “Document Control” which required further inquiry on their end. It turns out that since I am no longer actively residing in the US, I will need to apply for USCIS – I-131, Application for Travel Document or otherwise risk losing my permanent resident status. A slightly confusing point was the agent telling me I need to apply for any travel over 6 months (which will be in January for me) but the application instructions say the permit is required once you have elapsed over 1 year. I figure I should get that cleared up as soon as possible since I am traveling to Boston in February.

It was good to see our new house fully furnished for the first time and I did sleep in my bedroom for the first time as well. The huge driveway, which is quite useful for the tons of relatives that come to visit, is also a very big pain to clean storms that dump 18” of snow on you. My mom had prepared lots of good food which obviously included Kofta (of course) but we ended up eating out most of the days – Popeyes, Chicken Guy, Kabab Paradise and Sun Tavern. Let it be known for the record however, I did not leave New Jersey without eating Kofta at least twice – because that would have been unacceptable on my part.

I was hoping to see a lot more friends from high school on Monday but the blizzard took care of that. However, the day wasn’t a complete waste as roads cleared up a little so I saw a couple of friends from Milltown before wheeling and dealing decisions took place to relocate the 222 Secret Santa Tres over to Justin’s house so Jolly White Giant could also grace us with his presence because 30” of snow is too much for him to drive in. I will also neither deny nor confirm the fact that a vast majority of that time was spent playing/yelling/screaming at Mario Kart.

Work is pretty light again this week as we all anticipate/dread the YE stuff to start next week. One coworker next to me answered her phone this morning by saying, “Alien Headquarters, Guadalajara. How can I help you?” – all in joking of course, we don’t really host reception services for the Alien HQ… as far as I know.

Fight Night Round 4

I played the demo for Fight Night Round 4 and it was truly amazing even though you couldn’t choose from more than 2 boxers (Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton). I had always wanted to buy one of the earlier games in this seris but never got around to it although I think I may finally get it this time around. The cover alone with two of the most iconic boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali (Greatest of All Time) and Iron Mike Tyson, being features makes me want to play that fight right now

It certainly helps that GameStop is running a Fight Night Round 4 Trade-In Deal which allows you to trade in 3 games (in working condition) to save $59.99 off the game.

It seems like a pretty good deal but it would help if I had any of the games on the list. I have no problems trading away Left 4 Dead because ever since the free DLC update, the game is no longer as enjoyable as it once was. I can’t remember how many hours in a night I would spend just trying to beat the game but minor tweaks in the game just don’t make it very fun anymore.

Two other games that I have which can be found on the list are Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. A couple of months ago, I probably would have traded away CoD4 without a problem but I have started playing it recently and there’s no way I’m letting go of that … until Modern Warfare 2 comes out.

I think my brother might have a couple of sports games that are on the list and if he is willing to part with them, I think I’ll go pick up a copy. The offer is set to expire on July 12th which is 3 day so if I’m going to do it, I need to decide before I leave for vacation. That doesn’t really leave too much time left but we’ll see what happens.

I have attached the link for a list of available games here, be sure to check it out. Also if you are getting the game, let me know and I’ll be sure to play against you sometime:

[download id=”2″]

Pokemon On The iPhone 3G?

I think a large market was missed by Nintendo when they decided not to develop some sort of a Pokemon game for the iPhone. It has been quite clear for a long time that the iPhone has become a gaming platform and Pokemon by no means is a graphically intense game that could not be played. You see the games (via roms) available through Cydia.

This guy over at “Loot Ninja” has obviously gone bonkers and if the editor-in-chief’s screen name (drunk pandas) is any indication, they must have obviously been intoxicated on something to make the following claim:

Pokemon on your iPhone is pretty interesting, but I think that this game is a bit silly seeing as the people that own an iPhone are not in the right age group to enjoy Pokemon.

I don’t understand how anyone in their right mind can state that? People with cell phones (including the iPhone) are getting it at a younger and younger age. You see kids as young as freshmen or sophomores in high school with the iPhone and you can’t say that that is not the “right age group”.

Pokemon was became a transcendent game when it came out in 1996 – which was 13 years ago! Let’s just assume that a kid was 10 years old (4th grade) when he started playing at the time the game came out. Today he would be 23 years old and I can tell you from personal experience, that a kid that young at the time would still be very interested in playing Pokemon for the iPhone.

I guarantee that I am not the only one who shares my sentiment. What do you think? Is Pokemon too childish for a mobile device that already has such games as “Wheels on the Bus” and “Toddler Flashcards” amongst countless other children applications that already exist. People need to get away from making excuses for why something should not be done and Nintendo should find a way of getting Pokemon on the iPhone — before I defect to the ways of Cydia and get it myself.

iPhone-Children

Shopping Cart Hero

Started playing this game for a little while yesterday. Definitely not as addicting as other flash games but this could have the potential depending on the right person. I had a request last week or two weeks ago to maybe feature some embedded games and I guess you can say this is a reply to that request. 

Good luck being the hero.

Allow the game to load, it can take a couple minutes if you are on a slower connection.