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May. 3rd, 2007 @ 01:01 pm For the Zimmer Fans
http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=231

This is sweet. May 22nd can't come fast enough.
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hypnotoad
Apr. 23rd, 2007 @ 11:13 am But I don't want to go to Game 7 :(
After buying playoff tickets last year and not being able to use them, I have been hoping all season long for a trip to the post season. Now with tickets to game 7 in my hand I'm finding I really don't want to go. I will of course and am basically I'm faced with a situation that is either going to be:
a) Totally and utterly awesome or
b) Soul-crushingly depressing
There is no middle ground to speak of which I find a very odd sensation. I don't ever recall being a situation that was so extreme. It's going to be a real interesting.
In any case my main goal for the evening is to steer clear of the ensuing riot.
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hypnotoad
Apr. 20th, 2007 @ 11:19 am Pirates
This could be either really good or really bad:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/781/781506p1.html
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hypnotoad
Apr. 12th, 2007 @ 12:59 pm Lost Humor
Here's a "Lost" themed comic I found that was fairly amusing:

http://www.pvponline.com/article/3257/wed-apr-11

I haven't yet seen last night's episode as I was compelled to endure 5 hours of hockey before I could get the smooth statisfaction of a Playoff victory. After the 3 year wait its so good to be back.
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hypnotoad
Apr. 4th, 2007 @ 12:05 pm Candy Rant
My team members brought back from the candy repositories of the local LD a new derivation of Easter candy: Popping Mini Eggs. These are Mini Eggs infused with Pop Rocks (which are effectively lumps of sugar infused with CO2 at a high PSI) .

Now I can only assume that the candy industry is a willy wonkaesque dream factory filled with endless childhood delight and diminutive service people with a bad union however I still must ask the question: is this really the best they can come up with? Inserting candy into other candy?

Easter is easily one of the top 4 candy based holidays in our calendar. You can't go with the half-assed ideas. You gotta break out the A material.

Jesus must be rolling over in his grave.
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hypnotoad
Mar. 26th, 2007 @ 11:25 am Festivities and such
So this past weekend I had my 30th birthday party which went really well. I went through a number of different ideas and incarnations to try and figure out that best way to commemorate the rolling over of the second digit ultimately deciding on a games afternoon.

So I secured some space at the Vancouver Public Library and went about the sizeable task of sorting the whole thing out. This involved game selection, dividing everyone into teams, figuring out a points system, acquiring prizes and trophies etc etc. I had a couple of last minute cancellations but was able to get 14 odd people out for games of Perudo, Frank's Zoo, Category 5 and For Sale. Sadly my team came in dead last but only by a narrow margin. Plus I had to shave off the last round due to time constraints.

Afterwards we went to a nearby restaurant. While the service was a tad slow the area they had provided for us was a tad removed from the bulk of the restaurant and so the privacy was nice.

Everyone who was able to attend seemed to have a really great time and I was very pleased with how the whole thing went. I'm sure I could make some improvements if I was to repeat such an event.

There would be photos except that my poor camera which languishes in its case for months on end had drained its batteries and this was not discovered until it was far too late. Sorry.
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hypnotoad
Mar. 6th, 2007 @ 09:23 am For Edwud
As I approach 30 (less then two weeks to go) I have realized something very profound that I thought I would share:

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Canucks
Feb. 13th, 2007 @ 09:50 pm The Pursuit of Cheap Sentiment
So I go to the London Drugs after work because I need milk and some audio cables and I find the place absolutely overrun with people snapping up chocolates and cards like there is no tomorrow. And I mean I have never seen it this busy even when there was the water shortage late last year. Are people so forgetful as to have to do things at the absolute last minute? Does the acquisition of hallmark crap really drive people into this kinda unneeded feeding frenzy? It boggles the mind.
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hypnotoad
Feb. 7th, 2007 @ 01:15 pm Why my job is difficult:

My email:

It requires a fairly simple client change. A search result contains more info then a locale but you should be able to increase it. I would steer clear of triple digits but any other change should be accommodated by any device that can run 2.2

Thier reply:

Would that be a client change as well?

My reply:

It requires a
fairly simple client change.
If this is in anyway unclear let me know and I’ll increase the font size some more.

Cheque please.

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hypnotoad
Feb. 5th, 2007 @ 09:10 am Truely Lost
Witness the highpoint of Josh Holloway's non-Lost career (also includes Billy Dee Williams and Tricia Helfer):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nk8Xp2FOjB8
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hypnotoad
Jan. 9th, 2007 @ 09:40 pm Music to my Ears
With the possible exception of the building of the pyramids or the great wall there has been no project more daunting to the human soul as the process of ripping my CD collection for use on my iPod. I have been working on it bit by bit since August and it is now finally complete. There is still the process of tweaking track names, correcting spelling mistakes and other organizational tid bits but the bulk of the work is all done.

For those interested here are the vital statistics:

Stats )

While its very nice to have all my music in the palm of my hand I don't see myself stopping buying CDs until they flat out stop selling them. I have only bought a single track off iTunes (the song from Casino Royale was not included on the album due to rights issues) and really view my collect as the hard copies more then the soft.
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hypnotoad
Dec. 18th, 2006 @ 02:25 pm My Second Job
So I'm in the FutureShop today (as I often am) finishing up the last of my Christmas shopping when a lady approaches me and we have the following discourse:

Lady: Excuse me I was wondering if you could help me?
Me: I'm sorry I don't work here.
Lady: I know but you look like someone who knows about games.

Touché!

In turns out she was looking for Blu Ray DVDs for her brother's PS3 and thought the PSP UMDs were what he wanted. I explained the difference and directed her to the proper section. I don't recall being on FutureShop's payroll and think I should at very least get the commission on that purchase. At very least I think it’s funny that interests can be identified by looks alone.
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hypnotoad
Dec. 12th, 2006 @ 10:46 pm Wiiiii!
Thanks to my network of informants I have been able to secure a Nintendo Wii which is similar to the Tickle-me-Elmo of this holiday season due to its difficulty in acquiring one. (It differs from the Tickle-me-Elmo by being less fuzzy and generally kicking ass). I have two games for it thus far: Zelda (which is awesome) and the included Wii Sports. I'll write about Wii Sports (not to diminish Zelda which as previously mentioned is awesome) as its one of the most innovative games to come out in ages. For those not in the know the Wii has a really nifty controller with all this motion sensors. This means it can feed the game input simply by waving the controller around. So for the collection of sports games Nintendo has cooked up the controller functions as a racket in tennis, a club in golf or a bat in baseball. My favorite is baseball thus far. What's really cool is while waiting for a pitch, holding your controller like a bat any kind of movement is transferred to the onscreen char. So if you stand there waggling your bat so does the batter on screen. Its really quite something and a lot of fun once you start hitting dingers out of the park.
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hypnotoad
Oct. 27th, 2006 @ 11:20 am More Wonderous Casting
This link offer a minor casting spoiler for an upcoming episode (I think Nov 9th) of Lost. It's wicked cool but read at your own peril:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/742/742108p1.html
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hypnotoad
Oct. 24th, 2006 @ 09:40 pm Last Two Months

OK so the last two months or so has been something of a blur for me and my free time has been limited which has precluded me from posting. Not everything that has chewed up my time is worth reporting but I’ll cover the nifty bits.

 

The biggest drain on my time has been work. I’ve been in charge of this big project for the last couple of months and there has been a lot of demand from upper management to get it done. My team is pretty young (I think the average age is 23) which means I spend a lot of time helping them out and doing code reviews and such. I’ve had to deal with changing specs, stealthed features, and components delivered from other teams that don’t work properly. Hours were long and weekends often shorter then usual. However the difficulties and frustrations are now coming to a close and the project is getting rolled out. Ultimately they seem happy with it as they gave me a nice bonus and recently stock options. So that’s all good now.

 

In the midst of all this I did get a one day reprieve as HR asked me to come with them to UVic to do some recruiting. I hadn’t really been back to UVic since graduating in 2000 (which is kinda odd since I spent 5 years of my life there) and I was surprised by how much it had changed. A huge multi-story building had been added next to the ELW with labs, offices, a talking elevator and shockingly classrooms. I guess the modern engineering student doesn’t have to leg it between class and labs quite so much. The trip was pretty whirlwind but I did get to say hi to some of the Profs and staff I knew from back in the day. Unfortunately the recruiting didn’t yield much (its probably the worn time of the year to be honest) but we should be able to get co-ops and grads from them sometime in the future.

 

At times when I wasn’t working I kept myself pretty busy with various social stuff such as board gaming, hanging out with friends and playing badminton at the local community. The one large social event I arranged myself was interesting to say the least. I’ve wanted to have people over to enjoy the BBQs my building for some time now and this year I actually sent out invites. However the first weekend I chose had to be canceled (due to work). So after the postponement I chose another weekend. While work co-operated that weekend, the weather didn’t. It was sorta drizzly so we could dash out and cook stuff ok but we had to spend most of our time in my apartment. Turns out you can fit a dozen plus people in the space I have available. Which is good to know!

 

When I die of heart attack at the age of 32 devoid of hair and fingernails you can point the finger of blame squarely at the Vancouver Canucks. They are back and although the team has changed considerably in the off season they still manage to keep me freaking out and shrieking at the TV. My various pools are a little Canuck-heavy this season which just adds to the strain. Me and a buddy have half season tickets this year so I’ll get to see even more of the action in person. Also picked up a PVR so I can record Lost and other shows (and catch the occasional HD game) while I’m watching games and such. For PPV games a group of us go to the local bars on Robson to watch. Should be a fun season!

 

Anyhoo that’s my life in a nutshell at the moment. Pretty sweet all things considered.

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hypnotoad
Oct. 18th, 2006 @ 11:04 am Casting from the Twilight Zone

Now I know I haven't made a new post in over two months. There are various reasons for this that I shan't go into. I had hoped to do an update to transcribe all the has transpired in the last little while but I'm afraid you'll have to make do with a little mini-post prior to that as I ran across some news that is just too weird not to share.

The new Command & Conquer game is being prepped by EA and is due to be released sometime next year. Those that aren't pc gamers bare with me and you'll get a present at the end. C&C games are well known for having live action cut scenes. They are basically there to reward the player after completing a level. The tend to be shot green screen with minimal props and such. Previous actors that they have managed to coax into appearing in the C&C series include Michael Biehn, James Earl Jones, and Kari Wuhrer to name a few.

This time however they seem to have outdone themselves. The cast of C&C3 will include the following actors: Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Josh Holloway and (the coup-de-grace) Billy Dee Williams. I'm not sure where they will be filming this (EA has a studio here in Vancouver) but I guess for those actors dedicated to hit shows it should be something quick they can do during hiatus. You can read the news article here: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6159992.html?tag=latestnews;title;0

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hypnotoad
Aug. 8th, 2006 @ 08:16 pm Pod People

After six years of loyal service across two continents my Discman has been forced to retire. It started skipping or refusing to play altogether and as such I have been looking for a replacement. I was actually very surprised to see that prices were still kinda high for these things and looked at all (or at very least most) of my options. So it was that last week through a combination of astute shopping and impulse buying I picked up a 60 gig iPod. And I’m thrilled with the thing.

 

Rest assured this does not mean I am abandoning the CD. I still fully intend to fulfill my destiny as the last person on earth to pay money for a CD. But the idea of having my entire music collection with me eventually became too hard to resist.

 

Obviously it’s going to take some time to get it fully operational. The arduous task of ripping all 500 odd discs is going to chew up some time. But even in the meanwhile I’m finding interesting ways to perfect my collection.

 

For example I have two different albums for the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” which have a certain amount of overlap. Rather then having them exist separately I merged them into a single super album. Even reworked the tracks so that the title song came after the score for the opening sequence the way nature intended.

 

I don’t actually know how much music I actually have or how many albums I have of each composer. It will be quite interesting to find this out once it is fully uploaded.

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hypnotoad
Jul. 12th, 2006 @ 05:53 pm Jovo we hardly knew ye
So Ed Jovanovski has moved on from the Canucks (and there was much rejoicing) and apparently on his way out he complained that the move caused him to lose the deposit he had paid for his kids private school. This is the best quote from the Canucks boards:

Screw Jovo, he's an overpaid hack. I'm sure the 6.5 million he's making will cover the loss of any deposits to a private school, hell for that kind of cash he can buy his own private school and call it "Jovo's school of brutal giveaways and groin injuries". 

Classic
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Canucks
Jul. 8th, 2006 @ 11:51 am Toronto Trip and other stuff
As most of you know I've returned from my trip out to Toronto.  Had a great time out there and thanks to everyone who made that possible. Toronto Islands were nifty to see.

In particular it was cool to play games with listersgirl, pipesdreams, sanity_clause, and sarcasma. It is shame distance prevents this from happening more often. My cousin in cambridge and I have lately been circumnavigating this problem thanks to handy website (http://www.spielbyweb.com/) that offers a number of actual baord games available for free play over the web. It emails you when its your turn so games are usually played out over the course of several days. If anyone is interested I could easily set one of these up.

Went and saw Dead Man's Chest last night. For those who haven't seen it yet I will just say this: I liked it :) For those that have:

Unsurprisingly the Soundtrack of the Week (which I appreciate has been on something of a hiatus) is also Dead Man's Chest. While carrying over a lot of themes from the first movie it contains plenty of new material. The score makes use of some more obscure instruments (the pipe organ in particular are great) as well as lots of chorals pieces. The only tragedy is the god awful techo track at the end of the album which has nothing to do with anything. They really should have just have the end credits music from the film cause that rocked.
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hypnotoad
Jun. 18th, 2006 @ 08:45 am Mine Eyes! Ze Goggles Do Nothing!!!
So I went to get my eyes checked the other day, which I hadn't done in two years or so, and they put those eye drops in that force your irises open. I had forgotten how brutal that is and it wasn't even a particularlybright day. And I had slated a whole bunch of errands to run afterward so I wound up walking from store to store with my eyes shut. Then I had to shut all the drapes when I got home. So glad when they were back to normal.
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hypnotoad