As posted on WoWinsider there is now a site counting down the release of Gamer fuel.  Sounds like a count down to a trip to Buffalo too.  Since it seems to land on my next day off. Huzzah!

And just in case you missed it, Bombardier got the contract for new streetcars.  European style Streetcars are on the way.  Question now is where is the TTC getting the money.  Admittedly though Ontario's and the Federal government were applauding TTC's choice of Canadian based Bombardier over Germany's Siemens.  Jobs for Thunder Bay and money to the Montreal company.  I suppose that means they'll be a little more willing to help out?  Time will tell.

As a Streetcar Operator I am absolutely buzzed with the idea of new streetcars.  I can tell you from my experience that our aging fleet is basically held together with duct tape and coat hangers.  This sounds like a deal could actually be made before the end of April.  An actual deal!  Here's a video I found on a Star article.  Its the future of Toronto's transit... Today!  In Brussells...  *cough*  The comments pissed me off.  People seem to think that Streetcars that carry 130-240 people each could easily be replaced by buses that carry 40 people.  Ummmmm there's a reason why King has 2-3 minute service during rush hour.  Its because every streetcar is PACKED!  In One day 60,000 people ride the King car, the bulk of that from 7-9am and 4-6pm.  Folks who complain about it blocking traffic should try to imagine how many more cars would be on King street if there was no transit.  Or how many more TTC Drivers they would have to pay to do that by bus.

So enough of that ranting.  I've taken up to listen to podcasts when I can't read or play video games.  Something that peaked my interest was apparently a very engaging remake of an old point and click adventure called Broken Sword.  Its apparently being strongly watched by multiple to parties to see whether bringing back old point and click adventures might be viable for the DS.  Its seems to make sense.  They would really fit the system.  Can you see Lucas Arts bringing back all those old adventures?  That would be cool.

Time for bed.

We had been planing this for a while.  My Dad and myself really wanting to go but my Mom and my wife not wanting to be left behind either.  So we rented a large Sedan (as our little Yaris is incredible tight for 4 adults and a baby) packed our things and got some American cash and was ready to hit the road.   But we had road bumps before we even left.

See it was the getting the American money that was the issue.  Right now with the pure exchange rate, it should cost you $1.21 Canadian for every American dollar.  But the banks put on a fee in there.  A year ago when the exchange rate was almost par, the fee was about $0.04-0.05 for every dollar.  So basically you were paying something like $1.04 for every American dollar.  Well the exchange rate is worst now and that's fine, its still better then the old $1.50 days of the late 90s early 2000s.  But I don't know if it has something to do with the recession or protectionism but that bank fee has doubled!  The absolute cheapest we could get an American dollar was $1.31.  That's 10 cents more then the exchange rate.  So basically $200 American cost $260 Canadian!  Well this put a dour spirit on spending to begin with.

Generally Buffalo is pretty dead town but the Mall still have mallrats and such and the shopping was always busy when we were there.  Not this time.  Its was like a ghost town.  Tumble weeds and everything.  Vast numbers of clerks and customer service folks would come to see us as we were the only customers in sight.  I guess the recession really has hit them hard over there.  Maybe it was that Tuesday afternoon.  But its the only time we ever go.  And it was by far the quietest I've ever seen it.

So one of the goals of this trip was to collect some of that sweet WoW loot of Mountain Dew fame.  But apparently it comes out this summer.  Should have read the small print!   So I found some stuff and made up my own...


 

Shaman's Lightning Bolt "Voltage" flavoured Mountain Dew and Orc Double Stuf filled Oreos.  Yum!  Maybe it was an Orc Shaman.  Once his mana was spent producing Mountain Dew it was off to become filling.  Orcs!  Its made of Orcs!

I think tomorrow with new Comic day I'll have to hit B Big Comics and check out whats new.

Purely on a whim I picked up World War Z tonight.  Its by Maxx Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and apparently one of the best Zombie books ever.  This is new territory for me.

I just finished another book today.  I try to get in as much reading when I'm working as I can.  A rule of Thumb, if I'm ready to go and have two or more minutes I'll crack the book open. I will have it ready on the console for such breaks.  Because of this I've read some 12-14 books since I've started working for the TTC....  All at 5 minute reading chucks at a time.

But lately its been what I call "Trashy" novels.  Not the erotic type though!  I'm talking the cheap thrills of serial Sci-Fi and Fantasy!  Yep I've been reading the Dark Elf Trilogy by Salvatore and the Horus Heresy series set in the Warhammer 40K univerise!

The Dark Trilogy was from way off in left field.  First off I've only read the first two books so my next reading should be Sojourn. I had a sudden craving because of the combination of the several things.  The recent revival of Tabletop RPGs, in fact some old high school buddies are organizing a D&D 4th Edition game.  My WoW raid leader once mentioned something cool about Drizzt and seems like there's always some sort of mispelling of his name for Night Elf hunters with a cat (fear "Drrrizzztttzz"!).  And Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik started reading Dragonlance stuff so if he can get away with it why not me?

My other guility reading pleasure is the Horus Heresy series.  I just finished up Fulgrim which is the third and biggest book of the series to date. They really seem to be milking this for all its worth.  The story could probably be well told in like three to five books but it looks like its going to be 12.  Every grizzly detail of each of the Traitor Legions fall from grace will apparently be played out.  Now unless you play Warhammer 40K (or Dawn of War) this really won't interest you.  But this occurance which takes place 10,000 years before the game's setting in probably the most significant occurance in the games lore.  And since I play Chaos Space Marines it basically dominates our entire motivation of why were Chaotic (but not really, more just evil).  It just feels like its going to take forever for final showdown between Horus and the Emperor to happen at this rate.  I don't even know if the next 3 being released over the year will actually be wraping it up.  Maybe there's another three next year!

After watching some PoG I'm feeling like going back and re-reading though Lord of the Rings.  I need to get this all out of my system before the fall because I'm planning on doing a University course and that will require reading something a little more heavy.

I really liked what commanderteddog  was doing with Week of Toronto and decided to take my camera to work and sneak some photos as I went.  Tragically the day went overcast and I was never really given the time to set up nice shots so these are all from the hip, gritty photos.

Day 4!



Roncesvalles Streetcar Yard Part 1.  This is looking north across the Queensway just west of Roncesvalles and Queen Street West.  Here you can see the Carhouse.  In a another hour the only Street cars that will be sitting there are the broken down ones.  At night the yard is packed and there's hardly room to fit any more.



Roncie Yard Part 2.  This photo is just to the right of the previous.  You can see the beginning of the platform to catch the Queen car running into the downtown.  The brown building is our division.  Its where I report everyday, chat with the other drivers, get lectured by the management and sign my work every six weeks.  As you can see parking is precarious and basically you park where ever the streetcars don't go.  There's little dotted lines to let you know if your car will be crushed or if it will be safe!




Humber Loop!  Not very photogenic.  My Monday work is only Humber to Neville Park and back again three times.  You can see people waiting for the Long Branch car which goes further west along the Lakeshore.  You can see the tail end of my Streetcar to the right!  No time to stand around I got to move!



Neville Park - This is looking West down Queen out in the The Beach.  The Beach!  Bah I like the name The Beaches more.  Look at any historical map of Toronto and that huge beach strip use to be multiple beaches each with their own name.  So historically is The Beaches. But a neighbourhood referendum several years ago decided that it would just be the Beach.  There's my streetcar.  It was a good car.



When I turned around from the previous photo I see the back of the famous R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant!  This guy was nuts.  He was head of Public Works back in the 30s and 40s and comissioned this Art Deco Cathedral to water treatment!  Featured in the novel "In the Skin of a Lion" by Michael Odaatje which is where I first learned about it!  I read it for a course at UoT.




Driver's View, looking Westbound over the Don Valley towards downtown.  My streetcar is stopped waiting for the cars to turn left onto King.  I took it quick and poorly and it blurred.  I wanted to get the skyline.  You can see the big red button on the bottom right which is my Emergency Propulsion Shutoff.  To be only used in Emergencies!




Queen and Spadina.  Facing west.  I'm waiting for the light.  I took this so you can switches and all the changes of directions you can do at this intersection.  This is one of the few intersections where you can come from and go in any direction as a streetcar.  Very few of these. King and Bathurst is another one like that.

And that's all I could get!  Since I start in the afternoon I don't have that much light in my shift.  Hope you enjoyed this Streetcar edition!

Well not really.  Instead I just read about WoW.  But seriously one of quiet resolutions has been write more (In LJ or other situations) and I'm bombing.  But I'll keep at it.

So I've completed my first week as a full time employee of the TTC.  I got my probation signed off last Monday and it seems like it took forever.  Forever of course being ten months.  But now I'm stuck in there, unionized and ready to hit Taxis like a game of Frogger!  Well not really but its nice to know that I wasn't too insane taking out a mortage before I finished my probation.

I think commanderteddog should organize more Saturday morning retro-raids!  BWL anyone?

This Wednesday is my sign up.  I get to pick work from mid February to end of March.  I'll probably doing something similar though I'm hoping some day work that's not a split that I saw might just slip down.  If not that then nights on Bathurst.  If the guy above me in senority takes my Bathurst then I guess I'll be causing trouble somewhere else.  Since I have to travel all the way into Toronto on my off day, I'm going to make use of it.  I'm grabbing the digital camera and hitting a few stores.  I'm doing my part for the economy at Comic book and games stores.  Watch out!  Anyone up for lunch?

Things have been tumultuous to say the least.  With a baby now in the house and my job I've been living on like 4-6 hours of sleep a night.  I'm starting to get a handle on it but one thing I've notice is that with lackluster energy I'm sinking back into playing WoW way too much.  Its too easy to just sit around and farm some honor or do dailies.  But I'm starting to feel annoyed that there other things I've wanted to get done and I've been letting slide because what starts out as a quick Daily run turns into 3 hours of wasted time in WoW and a lost of what little free time I have.

So I need to remove myself better from the game.  But that's REALLY tough, for me a least.  I've developed a lot of relationships with Guildies (and ex guildies).  I have 3 level 70s with various levels of gear, faction levels, professions and many more toons on the way.  The new expansion is apparently just around the corner.

And then there's Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.  Good to hear its turning out well.  Even worst is that I'm a Warhammer/Warhammer 40K junky (in fact I'm trying to finish painting my Chaos Space Marine Army, one of those neglected projects).  Yet another game that will not only drain hours, but days weeks and even months!

In some ways I'd be happy to go back to playing Japanese and non-Massive American RPGS and other games (Orange Box and Halo 3 is collecting dust.  And total tangent, Portals is WICKED and commanderteddog will have to come over and try it out sometime).  But its hard to let go.

So I'm mulling over what I want to do with that.  Do I try to exercise a large amount of Will power and just reduce my play time to a couple of hours a week? I have friends who can do it.  Or do I go cold Turkey and cancel accounts.  The up side to canceling accounts is that we could go for Digital cable.

And totally random, do folks make their own Icons or do they find them somewhere?  I'm think I need a better Zorak Icon and a proper Dwarf Rogue one.

So not to be one to be kept down I went on as Heandra today, got a group together, got her Arc key frag then headed for BM.... and I healed it with only the mage dying on the last boss!  Huzzah!  I got the Infinite Scarah trinket which is a great one.  So now with a little more gear, a nether for her goggles and some snazzy enchants she'll be ready for Kara and Gruuls.

Even crazier news is that I got my placement for my new job with the TTC.  I start training on the 31st of this Month.  I will be training to operate a...

So our guild finally downs Gruuls. 



This guy has been plaguing us for Months, and mainly because we didn't have the best dps.  So finally we tell this is the night for success because somehow we got all of the guilds best dps together, including some old guildies who had left some time for greener pastures.  We one shotted HKM for the first time.  Amazing.  We were estatic.  We fail our first three attempts but we were undanted.  I'm on fire, my dps is good, I dodging damaging others during shatters (arguely quite easy for a rogue though) and genreally avoiding cave ins.  Finally on the fourth try I die prematurely to a cave in but half the raid is gone and he's still at like 40%, ends up being like 29%.

I think its the fith attempt.  Shortly after the first Ground slam/shatter is when I wait to start my cooldown rotation because it gives the hateful strike soaker time to build aggor plus you don't have that much time before the first ground slam and thus would lose some of the precious 15 seconds of increased ap, energy regen, etc that I have.  So I get back to Gruuls as both tanks are already back on him.  I start popping trinkets and cooldowns and dodging two Cave ins.  Suddenly I'm walloped by a 15k hit.  I just ate a hateful strike and the boss is still over 80%.  Well instead of might I'll get salvation for the next try I think to myself.  I'm really annoyed though.  I should of watched my aggro more.  But the raid keeps chewying away.  I ask if a brez is avaiable but just then one of the Resto druids dies and she gets it.  At around 30% our MT bites it.  The Feral druid who was taking the hateful bolts becomes MT and another Feral because the OT.  He's down to 20%, but I figured it was over because all it would take was one Crushing blow to end it.  But the Druids live.  10%, people are shouting in vent, heals are being spammed, mana bars draining fast.  5% And the Feral Druid tank is still up.  Suddenly he hits 1%.  It looks like hardly anyone is alive.  It seems to take an eternity.  Suddenly he drops and the cheers ring out.  What fight!  What an accomplishment.

And I hate it.  It was my poorest showing of the night, and that's when he dropped.  It was kind of sad, I almosted wanted a wipe just so I could get back in and do a better job.  But now I couldn't nor wouldn't for a long time.  Next Gruuls in two weeks is full on dps and Thran's not going.  When it came time to looting, I grabbed my Earthen Signet for the (now defunt) SSC Attunement quest and checked out what he had.  Two Rogue/Shaman/Pally leg tokens and a rogues best friend, the Dragonspine Trophy.  And I passed on it all.  I didn't want loot from that boss fight.  Oh I wanted that trinket but I want to actually earn it.  Sure our guild had downed him, but I felt little part of it.  I had contribute the least to it in the end and I felt horrible.  How stupidly emo of me.  People talked about going and trying Lurker or Void Reaver a try, some organized a run into Heroic SP to hand in the quest.  I left quietly with a little "Night" in raid chat.

That night I had hard time falling asleep.  I kept trying to blame other people but in the end I knew it was my fault.  I was upset with myself and really upset that this was my showing for the downing of Gruuls.   But in the end its a silly game that I invest too much time into.   And I didn't post it gain sympathy (and I doubt anyone would, as I said, it was rather stupidly emo of me).  But its nice to get it off my chest.  So I will say this.  Congrats Blades of Light!  You are amazing.