We are the North

Well… the Raptors sure captivated my interest during their playoff run. So much so that I was watching them over NHL Playoffs. What? Yup. They played an incredible game seven yesterday. Unfortunately they were chasing the game from halftime to the final buzzer. They fell behind and clawed themselves back into the game. The Raptors kept pushing and it paid off with having a shot at winning in the final seconds of the game against a much lauded Nets team. It wasn’t meant to be however. The ball was in Lowry’s hands with a chance to win if he made a shot. But he didn’t get the shot off, as it was blocked by Nets defenders. Crushing. Heartbreaking. For an admitted b-ball noob however, I found it really entertaining. So much so that I’m entertaining the idea of going to a game next year. I’ve read a lot of Internet comments saying the reffing was especially bad. Perhaps on a few calls. I don’t claim to understanding penalties in basketball like I do hockey. What I do understand is the Raptors missed a ton of shots and the Nets did not. Make your shots and win? *shrug* Anyway. I hope Lowry signs with the Raptors. I think he’s an incredible spark-plug and if he can get the Raptors to the post-season again, I’d wouldn’t be surprised to be on the winning side next time. The support by the city, as exemplified by Jurassic Park, was awesome… once again however… failure for MLSE.

Saturday was rain. Sunday was sunny. So of course we choice Saturday to drive to Barrie to see my Sister. The rain was pretty nasty and it rained the entire drive up and home later in the evening until we were close to Caledon. Meh. We left mid-afternoon without lunch so by the time we got to Barrie we were both getting hangry. This resulted in bdot assaulting me with a shoe. Before rioting occured with met at Pie for pizza. We have eaten there before. It is usually quite good. We started with Meatball sliders, which were incredible, they disappeared in what seems like seconds. I ordered the Slow and Low Pie. It sounded good. It even looks decent on their website:

Slow and Low

But this is what arrived:

What actually arrived...

It looked like a cat barfed up a vanilla grass sundae on my pizza. The volume of slaw was overwhelming and made the pizza soggy. Shame. It was otherwise decent but I probably wouldn’t get it again. My brother is law was also underwhelmed by his pizza. *shrug* I often get pizza from the Fortino’s by work. Their thin crust pizzas are easily as good, if not better. We went back to my sister’s place after lunch. (Which ultimately became dinner I guess…) We had Tanga with us. She had never met my sister’s new cat Cobalt, so that was interesting. Tanga took quite a relunctant interest in the cat. Curious but afraid. Strange dog. We ended up chilling out and watching Thor: The Dark World. It was okay. Kat Dennings played, what seems to be her only character, the same personality from 2 Broke Girls. Good for a few laughs but unrealistic as a research assistant. Portman was typically solid and Chris Hemsworth’s smashed all the badies as Thor. It was pretty standard superhero smash evil monster/save the Earth from destruction fare. Loki was good in his limited screentime, the visual effects were impressive but the story was pretty bland. So it gets ⭐⭐⭐. A fun evening. Thanks for the Chai JP. Sunday was primarily housework. Nothing to see here.

I’ve been in the cellar for most of the first round of the hockey pool I’m in. But those who know are aware that a pool isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Now in Round Two I’ve pulled up to the middle of the pack, and I’m the only guy with all his players left… So… who knows…

Child of Light

I bought my first game off the Playstation Network for my PS4. The quirky and beautiful Child of Light for a paltry $15! The art style is really incredible. It looks like you are playing on watercolour paintings. I have not played many JRPGs. I’m certainly more of a Western RPG fan. So I’ve had a bit of a struggle with the combat in Child of Light. For me it is quite different than what I’m used to. Last night however I played combat after combat to try and get it. It seems to me that CoL combat is all about getting the interrupts and watching that zippy cast bar at the bottom. I think I finally have the hang of it now and combat is actually really engaging and interesting. I’m only a few chapters into the game but I’m really enjoying it, even the curious platformer puzzles, which I’d usually hate. More on this game later. The image above is off the web… I’ve captured a few from my own gameplay screenshots but I haven’t figured out where they are accessible online.

And even with Defoe back, TFC was same old, same old. Losing to an inferior team late in the match. Fortunately I was only able to watch the first 20m which was pretty good. I used the new chair in the bedroom for the first time to watch. Huh. It is a pretty comfortable setup. The dog pounced on the opportunity to snuggle immediately.

Should be a quiet week at work. A lot of sick staff or staff away on vacation. Zzz. Bdot has friends over this weekend so might be looking to escape.