Flecks of… Gray?

pic from easyvigour

When I watch almost anything on tv, I’m generally comfortably lounging on the couch soaking it all in, but yesterday when I was watching BSG, a couple of minutes in, I did a check and noticed that I was perched at the edge of the couch! What an amazing episode yesterday, up there with my favorite episodes which are the series premiere (jumping every 33 minutes) and the finding of New Caprica. I can hardly wait till next Friday!

Picture from Adrian Eden on Flickr via reddit

I had the pleasure of driving through this fog a few times – it was nice to get to Aldergrove where it had lifted. Sure is beautiful from above though!

I’ve done a little changing around on my website.  I’ve moved the core over to WordPress from MovableType, I tried for a little while to keep the general style but gave up when I got tired of trying and just went with what you’re seeing now.

The url should now autoforward from mennoboy.com/matthew to matthew.mennoboy.com which isn’t a big deal but if you are an RSS subscriber to this blog, you may want to resubscribe at this new address. I’ll be slowly changing things around on here to make it prettier and awesomer but for now, welcome to the new site!

Mom playing Apple Panic, originally on the Apple][e

This Christmas at my parents place was held a bunch of classic video gaming. It seems that almost everyone had a favorite from when they were little and it was my job to hunt it down so it could be played. Dan played NES based L'Empereur and Trish played Lode Runner of any variety. Heidi wanted Oregon Trail where she did her best to avoid dysentery.

My favorites were Mega Man, Karateka, Lode Runner and the new to me Championship Lode Runner (guide and map pics) (some notable mentions to Super Monaco GP and Super Hang On for the Genesis). I was also reintroduced to Raiden for the Turbo Grafx which was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures to refresh your memory:

Apple][e Lode Runner

NES Championship Lode Runner – one tough game!

The beginning to SMB3

The end of Raiden – accomplished through the extensive use of state saving.

Ad lib style – skip to 0:50 for the good stuff

Thanks for the link Andy

From scifi.com

Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for! SciFi.com even dedicated their entire front page to BSG’s season premiere happening tonight. I’m pumped!

Awhile ago, I remember my friend from Montreal talking about this shirt that he saw on someone with the caption, “Saskatchewan: Easy to Draw, Hard to Spell” Turns out he’s had his eyes on the prize; he recently found one and sent it off to me in green machine t-shirt awesome-ness. Thanks Dude!

FYI – If you go to pretty high level of detail that eastern side of Sask is actually kinda tricky to draw.

from cbc.ca of course

My fair city of Chilliwack has made the front page of the CBC! I feel so lucky!

The flooding has not been bad in our area of town at all – we notice if we drive around, but our section is totally fine. We also don’t have a basement and our crawl space has nothing to extraordinary in it (outside of the creepy crawlies).

The weather did play a toll on our house, though. Over Christmas when we went home to Saskatchewan, our pipes froze and burst. Fortunately, our kind neighbor who was watching our house noticed and turned off the water but that’s how our water had to stay when we came home until we found a plumber to fix the whole thing (not easy to do!)

We found it surprising how often we use water and don’t even think about it; flushing the toilet, washing your hands, drinking water, washing the counters, wiping kids hands – all chores without running water. It was so nice to get it fixed and turned back on.

Using a few helpful websites, I was able to find which stations I should be able to get with bunny ears and which ones I would need a more receptive antenna for (and where to point it!)

TV Fool – has detailed information on what stations are nearby and what strength they’ll have at your house
Antenna Web – has less detailed and slightly more readable information about what stations are in your area

Note that both of those websites don’t support entering Canadian addresses, so instead, enter your latitude and longitude. You can get that information easily from google maps, typing in your address, select the Link button and your see the lat and long numbers in that extended link (just like picture).

I also found this nice list of tv stations for the Fraser Valley to fill in any other gaps.

Now, I’d like to go and buy a roof antenna to get some clearer reception but I don’t have a clue where to find those things in Vancouver area – anyone have tips?

from npr

I found this story of a man, Julio Diaz, who got mugged at knifepoint in NYC and when the assailant was leaving he said, “If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

This action puzzled the thief, he decided to join Julio for supper at his favorite place and ended up paying for supper (he had the wallet, right?!) Happy endings all around; wallet returned, knife relinquished, enemy loved – a great story.

Nice to have a practical story to tack on to some Jesus teaching:
Matthew 5:40-42 (The Message)

If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.