more from Soul Calibur

This time for Soul Calibur 3... this was created a while back, I hadn't gotten around to editing it but they are pretty close.

I REALLY need Soul Calibur 4, a friend of mine has it and I DID create another Xena... and some other ones... will have to bug her...

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny - Character Creation

So, I just got a copy of Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny for PSP and I love how the series has a character creation. The possibility is endless!

I think I'll post my Soul Calibur 3 creatives too... I don't have Soul Calibur 4 yet (I don't even have a PS3!) so, Soul Calibur 3 and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny will have to do...

407 - a love/hate relationship

There is an electronic toll route highway just north of Toronto, Hwy 407 aka Electronic Toll Route aka ETR aka 407ETR.

http://407etr.com/

It's quite stupid that the government decided to lease out the business for 99 years because this route is actually a money making road that, as usual, the government, for whatever stupid reason (Liberals or Conservative), cannot run it as a profit business (see Ontario economy budget).

Now, the company that runs 407, I believe has kept the same type of billing system. Here is how it works:

- you lease a transponder, a device that tracks your entry and exit point on the highway
- the transponder is either $21.50/year or $2.50/month
- 2 types of transponder, light vehicles (cars) and heavy vehicles (transport trucks, and bus)
- approx 18¢/km for off-peak hours and approx 20¢/km for peak hours

Toll route doesn't really exist in Canada (mostly due to the taxes we pay) and if I remember correctly, people objected to paying to drive this highway. But if you look at it now, people use it like other roads.

So, why is it so good that it's also bad?

First, it saves time. You will get a few minute extra of sleep in the morning.
Second, convenient. If you live close to 407, it makes sense to use this then to drive down approx 15min to the alternative non-toll route Hwy 401.
Lastly, saves gas. Because you get on the highway right away and it's QUITE rare to see traffic jam on 407, it's smooth sailing.

Today, I went to Oakville (two town west of Toronto) and it was about 85km drive from my house. If I had used 401 to Oakville, I would be fighting traffic around Yonge St, then around Hwy 427, then Hurontario on Hwy 403 in Mississauga, THEN on QEW Oakville where the Ford plant it. This route without traffic would take approx 45min to 55min but with traffic in those area specified, I would guess about 2 hours and that is just normal traffic congestion. If an accident or a road closure happened somewhere along the way, I would guess it would take closer to 3 hours.

My route this morning was 407 to 403 to QEW and exit Dorval. It's approximately 80km. The only problem I bumped into was on QEW exiting to Dorval. Total time? 45min. On my way back, I took a slight different route since it was lunch time, traffic was not that bad and I went QEW to 403 to 427 to 407. I had to get back to work and couldn't tell if 401 was going to be nice during lunch time, so I decided to use 407. Total travel time? 30min.

Yes, you read that right. I drive FAST and blazed 407 like it was a racetrack with one hand on the wheel and a burger in the other. I was hungry, ok?

Total distance travelled; approximately 200km.
Total time on the road; approximately 2 hours.
Total cost on 407 round trip; $25
Total time saved; who knows but I'm going to guess that I saved 2 to 3 hours on the trip.

So, for $25, I saved myself 2 to 3 hours AND the headache of stuck in the traffic...

407... why do you have to be so convenient and so expensive at the same time?

All-Blue Jays Team

I got bored and thought I should come up with a team of the All Blue Jays team...

1st Team
LF - George Bell (Always a threat with the bat, another player that I never got to watch)
CF - Lloyd Moseby (Again, never got to watch but was an integral part of the 80s team)
RF - Joe Carter (He played outfield before moving to 1B and who can forget his dramatic HR in 1993?)

1B - Carlos Delgado (I think this is a bias pick but I love Delgado, he brought out the bat and it has travelled to 500 level a few times and he's the all-time HR leader)
2B - Roberto Alomar (the soon to be Hall of Famer, you can't argue the way he played second base and hit the ball from both sides of the plate
SS - Tony Fernandez (kept coming back to the Blue Jays but he was great at his position
3B - Kelly Gruber (It was a triple play... the ump messed up)

DH - Paul Molitor (Hall of Famer, clutch hitter)
C - Pat Borders (World Series MVP in 1992 was critical in handling the 1992 staff that had David Cone, Juan Guzman, Jack Morris and Jimmy Key)

P - Roy Halladay (Cy Young, Perfect Game, best Blue Jays pitcher EVER)
RP - Jimmy Key (He was mostly a starter but was moved to the bullpen during the world series and did he dominate)
CP - Tom Henke (You know he'll close it for you)


2nd Team

LF - Rickey Henderson (even though he played just ONE season with the Jays in 1993, he was always a base stealing threat and now he's a Hall of Famer)
CF - Vernon Wells (I dont know if he should be on the list but his stats are up there on the all-time list)
RF - Jesse Barfield (one of those players I never got to watch but deserves a spot)

1B - John Oleurd (the smooth swinging 1st basement, won the batting title in 1993 with a .363 avg, I just like Delgado a bit more)
2B - Orlando Hudson (Got to love this guy, he makes things so easy)
SS - Alfredo Griffin (If it wasn't for Tony, I would have put him on the 1st team but both were great shortstop)
3B - Ed Sprague (Clutch hit in 1992 and was a decent 3B)

DH - Dave Winfield (It's a toss up between Winfield and Molitor on who's better but for Winfield, just remember 'Winfield wants noise')
C - Ernie Whitt (I've never watched any Jays games before 1992 but Ernie was an important part of the 80s)

P - Dave Stieb (Only Blue Jays pitcher to pitch a no-hitter)
RP - Mike Timlin (You know he can take over if your starting pitcher went down)
CP - Duane Ward (as good as Henke)

People I left off the list because I had no where to put them, I think a 3rd team could be put together with some names I left off
Devon White, Fred McGriff, Willie Upshaw, Todd Stottlemyer, Juan Guzman, Shawn Green

Dreams...

... I think is a window to our subconcious; our wants, desires and needs.

Or maybe I'm thinking too much about it. However, if I wake up with "OMG... WTF?" it kind of makes you think.

Cottage weekend

Pictures from the Cottage

So here's some pictures from the weekend at the cottage on Parry Island First Nation just about 30min drive west of Parry Sound.

We left Toronto around 6 and stopped in Coldwater to pick up groceries and arrived in Parry Sound around 8:30 - an approximate travel distance of 250km and about 2.5 hours.

I think I have a love for the cottage now. I love the dark night where there's no light pollution to block out the stars. I did see the Milky Way and possibly some comet/metero.

On Saturday, we went on a 3 hour boat cruise, Queen Island Cruise around the Parry Islands (some 30,000 islands) and saw a lot of islands... lol I would love to someday buy one of these island and build my own cottage. After the cruise, we did some swimming and the played Balderdash on the boat. We had bbq for dinner and some of us took a night boat ride. It was interested because we couldn't see anything except for these reflective markers telling you where to go around some narrow waterways. We decided to start singing...

On Sunday, we took one last boat ride and we got to the middle of the lake for a swim. On our trip back, the engine decided to "give up." It sounded like someone had put the car into neutral while stepping on the gas. We went from 10 knots (approx. 20km/hr) to 1 or 2 knots (3-5km/hr). So, we were drifting our way back against the wind. We were able to yell at someone at the dock who, at first, we thought were unwilling to help us. Then as we drifted away and 200m away, they came to the rescue and towed us back to our dock. And the tow was faster then how we were moving. A few of us took one last swim at the lake before we went for clean up and pack up. Our original plan was to leave Parry Sound at 3... and hour awesome engine trouble pushed that time back to 6pm. But it was still fun. And we got back into town around 9:30.

Ontario International (aka Scam)

Yes, this is a double post edition...

If anyone sends or calls you claiming you're a winner and they refer to you as "Award Winner" or "Mr./Mrs. Last Name" DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

Last week, I had someone called asking for Mrs. Yip to which I replied "Who's calling?" They just proceeded to tell me that I won a choice of 5 prizes and claimed that I entered a contest back in Dec 09 at a supermarket (Loblaws or Wal-Mart). I can say for certain that I DIDN'T enter anything. I thought, hey, let's entertain these people. I'm bored anyway.

They asked if I was in this age range and if I was married. I answered yes and no to those question. The next question was "do you have a boyfriend or someone?" I said, "No."
"But that's ok, you can still claim the prize. Because we just establish our business in Canada, all you need to do is to just tell your friends and family of how great we are. Now, I'm going to transfer you to my manager and he will tell you how to claim the prize."
Somehow that was enough info and he passed me onto "Steve Tark" who is a senior manager with the company. Predictably, Mr. Tark repeated the same thing "Congratulation, Mrs. Yip. You have won a wonderful choice of 5 prizes. Are you between the ages 23-65" (I think that was the range)
"Yes"
"Are you married?"
"No."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"No."
"That's ok, you can still come in and claim the prize. Just come to our office Thursday at 6pm. Our receptionist will answer all your questions. The receptionist will take you to our back room and you can pick your prize there."
Just so you know, this has already gone on about 15min by the time the call was transferred to Steve Tark.
"Do you have a first name?"
"I don't have the ballot with me, ma'am." (brilliant)
"So, who are you looking for? I have other people living here with the same last name."
"I understand ma'am but you can claim the prize."
"But you can't tell me who you're looking for?"
"As I said ma'am, the call was transferred to me and the ballot is in a different department."
"That's not my problem."
"I understand ma'am. But you can still claim the prize with the ticket number my staff gave you earlier. You can come in Thursday at 6pm."
"I'm busy."
"Not a problem, you can come in Saturday at 6pm or next Tuesday at 6pm."
"Nope, busy."
"When are you available?"
"Only Thursday from 3-4."
"Well, that is our business hour but let me see what I can do and I will give you a call back."
"Ok."
"Thank you and congratulation."

That's the rough conversation. It's been a week and they have not called back. It's kinda too bad I didn't write the number down... But here's the information of this "company" - Ontario International, 6175 Hwy 7 Unit 6 in Woodbridge.

Ironically, I do drive on Hwy 7 and specifically that area 2 times a week... So, I took a glace as I drove by on Hwy 7. AND as expected, there it was 6175 Hwy 7 Unit 6. Two cars parked in front. Front office light on. NO SIGN. I do not buy the "new building" argument. There are other businesses beside them and THEY have company sign.