UberJournal

For the Zimmer Fans

Thu, 03 May 2007 20:02:09 GMT

http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=231

This is sweet. May 22nd can't come fast enough.

But I don't want to go to Game 7 :(

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:57:56 GMT

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.

Pirates

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:20:14 GMT

This could be either really good or really bad:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/781/781506p1.html

Lost Humor

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:03:44 GMT

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.

Candy Rant

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:42:01 GMT

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.

Festivities and such

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:31:29 GMT

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.

For Edwud

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:56:34 GMT

As I approach 30 (less then two weeks to go) I have realized something very profound that I thought I would share:

Jeff Cowan has become an awesome pickup for the Canucks. I like the toughness he adds to the roster plus all of sudden he's got the scoring touch. Was at the game on Sunday where he scored two crucial goals in a highly spirited match against division rivals the Minnesota Wild and the fans were enthralled by his heroics. Fans love the improbable scenario.

Anyways Ed assuming you're still reading here's a treat for you: http://dvd.ign.com/articles/767/767712p1.html

The Pursuit of Cheap Sentiment

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:08:22 GMT

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.

Why my job is difficult:

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:20:23 GMT

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.

Truely Lost

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:13:49 GMT

Witness the highpoint of Josh Holloway's non-Lost career (also includes Billy Dee Williams and Tricia Helfer):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nk8Xp2FOjB8

Music to my Ears

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:40:09 GMT

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:

464 Albums
7404 Songs
16.8 Days worth of music

152 Artists (There 44 albums which are classed under Various Artists which shows how much repeat business individuals get from me)

Top Composers by Most Albums
Hans Zimmer 24
John Williams 23
Jerry Goldsmith 20

Top Composers by Run Time
John Williams 26.4 hours
Hans Zimmer 21.2 hours
Danny Elfman 17.5 hours

Top Film series
19.5 hours from the James Bond films
12.3 hours from the Star Wars films
11.6 hours from the Star Trek series

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.

My Second Job

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:26:49 GMT

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.

Wiiiii!

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 06:46:52 GMT

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.

More Wonderous Casting

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:22:25 GMT

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

Last Two Months

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 04:40:59 GMT

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.

Casting from the Twilight Zone

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:24:48 GMT

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

Pod People

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:17:00 GMT

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.

Jovo we hardly knew ye

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:03:20 GMT

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

Toronto Trip and other stuff

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 19:25:50 GMT

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:

I found the movie to be in many ways more of the same which isn't a bad thing in any way really. I loved the audacity of the set pieces (especially the sword fight towards the end) and Depp still has some good snappy dialog (as well as another good entrance). Davey Jones is very well done as his squid beard could have been handled poorly. While I liked the surprise at the end I think it would have been nice to not have a cliffhanger ending and give the film its own conclusion. I'll be ready and waiting for the third one when it shows up next year.

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.

Mine Eyes! Ze Goggles Do Nothing!!!

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 15:54:46 GMT

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.

Do the Hustle

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 02:15:01 GMT

Fans of MI:5 might want to keep an eye out for Hustle when it starts on the CBC Wednesday the 21st. I caught an episode of it last year when I was in England. Its by the same director/production company as MI:5 and has a similar style although it focuses on a group of Con Artists. It will probably be edited heavily with Ads but should be very high quality summer TV.

Harry Potter and the Soundtrack of the Week

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:15:11 GMT

I think the Harry Potter movies have gotten progressively better (significantly so since Chris Columbus was dropped as director). While no substitute for the books they are a nice visualization for a subset of the events that J K Rowling dreamed up. The other thing you get alongside this is the music. Here again I think the scores have gotten progressively better which is why Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the Soundtrack of the Week.

The score was composed by Patrick Doyle and he has produced an interesting mix of music handling the movies light and dark moments with equal style and innovation. The album has ominous tracks, delightful marches, mischievous tunes and multiple waltzes and that hardly covers things. John Williams’ previous themes are used but only very sparingly so that the album doesn't sound like its predecessors but still fits the universe well.

Some track high points include:

The Quidditch World Cup - Have to do a nod to this one if for no other reason than today marks the start of the real world cup. Track starts off with Irish fiddles before giving way to percussive sounds of the Bulgarian team. A great way to kick things off.

Potter Waltz – Of the two waltzes on the album this is my favorite. Delightfully simple and soft, the strings spin round and round with grace and aplomb. This is also one of several pieces of music that are actually played by characters on screen.

Hogmarts March – This is a fantastic brass band piece that seem to evoke a sense of British boarding school life more so then anything else. Not your typical score music and well worth several replays.

Magic Works - At the end of the album are three songs from the dance sequence midway through the movie. They are performed by Jason Buckle, Steve Claydon, Jarvis Cocker, Jonny Greenwood, Steve Mackey and Phil Selway whom I'm afraid I know little about. These songs remind me very much of high school dance (like the ones I have no fond memories of :P). The last song in particular, Magic Works, is really reminiscent of this. Technically I shouldn't like this song given my musical tastes (and personal experience) but I have even found myself skipping to it if I have to cut short my listen through the album. If you can figure out why this is do let me know :D

A sample of musical queues from the album can be found here.

Can't Take the Sky From Me

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 21:31:45 GMT

I don't think there isn't anyone reading this who already doesn't know where its going so I might as well cut to chase. The Soundtrack of the Week is indeed Firefly that short-lived beloved series that Fox killed because they didn't understand it.

Releasing an album of an axed show is remarkable rare but never-the-less here we are. The album itself is very good composed by Greg Edmonson, drawing on ques for the entire series running the gamut from twangy guitars, to fast passed percussion, to quiet somber piano and violins.

Some track high points include:

Main Title - The theme song in all it glory. Lyrics by Whedon himself it the opens the album. Short but sweet.

River's Perception/Saffron - Often in the album a track will cover several different ques from different episodes. Here we cover music depicting River's odd view of the world followed closely by music highlighting the actions of the treacherous Saphron. The album skips around a lot like this but never becomes uncomfortable.

Running short on time right now and haven't been able to find any sample clips. Anyone interested can let me know and I'll see what I can dig up for you.

Subtle Flaw

Wed, 31 May 2006 20:06:15 GMT

So I'm in one of the seemingly infinite number of meetings I have these days going through a long list of cell phones to establish which phones need further investigation and which have already been launched.

To indicate that a phone is in need of work a checkmark is made next to it.

To indicate that a phone has been launched a capital L is made next to it.

I have to be the one to point out that these two marks are effectively identical and that it could perhaps exteend the meeting for hours with comments like "Does this look like an L to you?".

Sigh.

UT

Question from an LJ noob

Mon, 29 May 2006 18:19:48 GMT

What is the purpose of tags on Live Journal? I notice plenty of people using them and have read the help which explains how to use them but I still don't get an idea of what they are for.

Thanks in advance,
UT