Durian came up in conversation at work the other day, and my coworkers are all intrigued by my description of a spiky, intensely flavoured fruit that is banned in hotel rooms and public transportation in various Australasian countries.

If money grew on trees... I'd spend it on durian

I did some research on the net and found some extremely comprehensive information about the durian at durian.timtyler.org.

My coworkers want me to bring in some durian for them to try, but I'd probably get fired for bringing it in.  Heh.  I'd better wait til after my probation period.  :-)

Durian on sale in the market

Just looking at these pics are making my mouth water... I haven't had any in a long time, but Chinese New Year is coming up and I expect to be having a durian treat back home soon!

Darn cold this morning, with a windchill warning in effect.  It was a very uncomfortable wait for the street car.

Ten minutes passed as I watched three street cars pass by in the other direction before one going my way showed up... and wouldn't you know it, it was full.  Luckily, there was a street car following right behind... but it was also full!  Didn't even open the doors.  Seven minutes later, the next street car showed up but it was also full and didn't even stop.  In all, four street cars and twenty five minutes passed before I was able to stuff myself onto one.

Twenty five minutes of shivering on the street corner is not the best way to start the day.  At least I came in to Bagel Breakfast today.  Novator has free bagels every other Wednesday, and free lunches on alternating Fridays... plus I got a quick lesson on how to use the cappuccino machine in the kitchen - there's even flavour shots here!  Gonna be cappuccinos everyday from now on... hoo-wah!

Waaaay back on October 8, I opened up a brand new tube of toothpaste and I predicted that it would last for 137 days.

I finally finished it last week on Wednesday Jan 19, which means the tube lasted for 112 days.  That's a difference of 25 days from my original prediction.  Not bad for an uneducated guess... then again, 25 days is actually 22% off, which is actually very bad, educated or no.

In any event, I can expect my new toothpaste tube to last about 3 and a half months...

Minus 25, windchill of minus 33... these are just numbers.  A truer measure of the cold is when you walk outside for a mere 5 minutes and your eye lashes freeze together.  If I had been outside for 5 minutes more, I'm sure my eyes woulda been frozen shut.  All this after last week's plus 10 and rain.

I have a huge collar that I duck into, and luckily I've overcome my adolescent resistance to wearing toques ("Stupid toque, messes up my hair"), so it's only my eyes that  get exposed to the elements.  Some of my coworkers were not quite so lucky - reports are flooding in of nose hairs getting frozen.  Nose hairs.

What's worse: your eye lashes freezing together, or your nose hairs?  I vote for nose hairs...

Note to self:  never, ever, ever use such a password and then accidentally send it via MSN... to a female coworker... who started 2 weeks ago...

Hahahahhahaha.... true story, happened to someone I know... name witheld to prevent dooceage.

All you turn-based, real-time strategy, huge epic battle, Sid Meier, wannabe "General" fans, here's the game for you.

ROME: Total War.   more »

Hiroshi Yamauchi is the ex-CEO of Nintendo and has led them to the top of the gaming world.  He's 77 and retired now, but he still kicks serious ass.

In a recent interview, he revealed some great insights into the gaming industry's future and had some amazingly hilarious comments on Microsoft, the Xbox, and the PSP.

I won't provide any spoilers here.  Read the full interview (courtesy kinezo.com).  I guarantee you'll be laughing your ass off at least 3 times.

Go.  Read.  Enjoy.  And then buy a Nintendo DS.


[ Update.  40 minutes later. ]

Not even thirty minutes has passed since I posted the above article and somebody's notified me that the Nintendo interview is a fake.  After a bit of web research, I finally got confirmation that it is, indeed, a hoax.

Oh well, it's still an extremely hilarious article...

Hoffa's puttin' some fear in Raptor opponents

I'm loving that Hoffa is getting some playing time now (though he did sit down pretty quickly last game).  He's knocking people around and that's exactly what we need. On top of adding interior toughness to our team, his physical play will free up some space for Bosh to operate - have you noticed Bosh's numbers playing alongside Hoffa?  Hopefully Rafael quickly learns the fine line between legit thuggery and foul-a-minute thuggery.  We need him to stay in the game.

I see that Vince went off for 31 points tonight, shooting 15-23.  I can't even remember when he last had those kind of numbers for Toronto.  The Nets lost again, however.

So with Vince in the lineup, the Nets have gone 2-3 while the Raptors have posted a 3-5 record après-Vince.  The Nets are currently 11-19 and the Raptors are 11-21.  The Raptors can breathe easier now that their horrific early-season schedule is behind them.  Some practice time, a little home-cookin', and maybe, just maybe, the Raps can get out of their doldroms.  (Wait a minute, what am I saying??  Of course they're going to get out of their funk!  I did predict that they'd make the playoffs, afterall.)  The Nets can look forward to getting more practice time with Vince and tailoring the offense for Vince a little more... (they can also look forward to Vince sitting on the sidelines "injured" for at least 10 more games).  I predict both clubs will start to play better, but the Raptors will finish ahead of New Jersey in the standings, proving all along that the Raptors are a better team without Vince.

In related news, the NBA store is selling authentic VC Raptor jerseys at half price.

So I was out for a walk today and popped into C-3, Al's comic book shop on Spadina.  I wasn't more than a half-step into the store when I spotted a Winnipeg Jets logo amongst the various toys and action figures.  I made a beeline for it and look what I discovered:

Teemu in a Jets jersey? Thank you, Todd McFarlane

 
That's right, a McFarlane Teemu Selanne figure in his old Winnipeg Jets jersey.  Whhhhaaaaaaaaaat.  I had to buy it, of course: how often do you see an action figure for the dearly departed Winnipeg Jets?

I did a bit of research on the net, and it turns out that this exact Selanne package is a bit of a collector's item.  The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that this package has a Colorado Avalanche insert rather than the correct Winnipeg Jets insert.  Apparently the Avalanche insert is a mistake, so you won't find them in wide circulation... sure wish I had read that before I cut up the box and insert to get to The Finnish Flash...  oh well, I'm not much of a collector, anyways.

Here's Selanne, taking up prime real estate on my desk:

The Finnish Flash takes flight... on my desk

One thing I would definitely collect is this figure in the number 13 jersey.  When Teemu first joined the Jets as a rookie, captain Randy Carlyle was wearing Selanne's preferred number 8.  Selanne chose number 13 for his rookie year and turned in a record-setting season, netting 76 goals as a rookie.  Selanne smashed several records along the way, including most goals and points by a rookie.  His 76 goals was also tops in the league (tied with Alex Mogilny).  McFarlane decided to honour Teemu's performance by creating 13 figures wearing the number 13 jersey.  I wonder just how much those rare puppies run... and how many of them are actually owned by The Finnish Flash himself.

I can't find any pictures of the 13 on the net; if someone out there knows where I can find/see it, please let me know!