Devauld.ca

It's that time of year, where good fun loving people can dress up like complete idiots, and people barely as why. I decided to imitate the main character in some of the funniest, stupidest and seemingly silly horror movies ever made. The character recognition only seems to be among males around my age, and in particular those that would have been nerds in the mid-nineties.

The debut of the costume was the annual Hallowe'en scavenger hunt put on by some friends. The entire night was a pile of fun, with us having to acquire about a dozen items in a couple hours before having to rendezvous for the judging. Our team won in the 'bigger better barter' department where we managed to trade a pack of post-it notes up through lighters, and packs of cards, until we reached the jackpot in a Graco baby carriage.

On Sunday we carved up some pumpkins and tonight is going to be spent handing out candy to the kiddies when they come by to Trick or Treat.

When I saw the title of this week's PhotoFriday challenge, I knew that the topic was broad enought to cover a good chunk of anyone's photography. That's really where the problem is, in pruning out the not-quites and coming up with something great.

This photo was taken during a day at Rotary Park with one of my favorite families. Lauren was pretty happy to be outside at the start of the adventure, and I think this is one of the cutest photos I have to show off Innocence.

Some of you know that I purchased an X-box 360 in an attempt to move away from PC gaming. I've been really happy with the decision, now being able to just sit and play a game when the desire strikes. I never realized how much time I spent just making my computer work, until I stopped using it.

One thing that makes the 360 rock, is the Live network that Microsoft has in place and which their competators are going to take a stab at replicating and improving. On the basic level it connects you to the internet, but it really delivers so much more than that. You can see what your friends are doing, and compare your scores and achievements against theirs. Live has a fully functional messaging and chat system, as well as an online marketplace. The way it is all integrated makes the entire experience seemless.

The level to which this type of system has changed gaming hit me last night. Over the last couple of days Live has been down for maintenance, but upon it's return Lumines could be found in the online marketplace. It was only a couple of minutes from the time I decided that I wanted it, to the time I was playing it. I didn't have to get dressed leave the house, I had almost instant gratification, and it just worked. While it was downloading I was able to puruse the marketplace and find other things that I wouldn't mind downloading including strategy clips, free game demos and a couple music videos.

Anyone who really knows me, can understand what I have to go through to say: This time, Microsoft really got it right.

So the City of Calgary: Development & Building Approvals Corporate Planning Applications Group finally got back to me regarding decision DP2006-3046. As it turns out my application for Development has been approved, and now I need to finish the next step to finally have this monster put to bed.

I would have hoped that this would have been the end, but as would be expected the city isn't done dipping into my pocket. I need another permit, and I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what's involved there.

This week's PhotoFriday challenge was an easy one to fill. All I had to do was grab a favorite from a Smashening session. This one was manufactured at Jeff's place, using a air canon pneumatic accelerator, pushing a battery through a wine bottle. As is usual we caught the explosion a few milliseconds after impact, and here is the result.