DarNat

I miss you all too

2011-03-30T11:48:00.000-06:00

Natalie took this photo with
our fancy new camera.
Hopefully there'll be more shots
to come on the blog.

Hey all!

It's sad to see DarNat languish so. A quick flip down the page show posts from months ago. And while pictures of great Korean food are fantastic, those shots are from June 2010!

But we do have good reason. As Natalie noted in her last post, 2010 became a bigger year for us than expected. The campaign to elect Mayor Nenshi led us to become way more involved than we already were. Whether it's volunteer or work, we're made ourselves super-busy. Here's just a brief list of our most active files:

- Mayor Nenshi (Daorcey)

- Carshare (Natalie)

- Alberta Party (Natalie)

- The Review Crew (Natalie... and Daorcey helps from time to time)

That means a lot of time spent online writing stuff other than updates on our daily lives. Plus, now that we're both more active on the Facebook and Twitter, we tend to give our personal updates more there.

So, that's all to say: DarNat won't die, but it may languish a bit.

Peace out!

2010: DarNat in Review

2011-01-04T21:25:00.003-07:00

Since we didn't send out Christmas cards or anything, how about DarNat highlights from the year that was 2010?

January
Well, we went to CES much to some people's dismay. I don't blame her for saying so after going but it was an experience. If you like gadgets, gambling, and going for deep fried oreos, CES is the place for you.

I also reviewed Mass Effect 2, a game I had been looking forward to since I finished the original. I got to play at CES but also I got to review it.

March
We celebrated on year of carlessness. Check out the post that details how we feel about it.

June
If you know anything about us, you know that we love video games. Because of The Review Crew, we headed to LA for E3, a video game conference.

Besides eating good and bad food, we spent four days immersed in video games. We saw so many cool things and picked up some decent swag like a Bethesda hoodie that is the envy of many a gamer we meet. We also got to attend two Microsoft parties that included free alcohol, food, and video games. It was as fun as it sounds.

July
We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. I have to admit it's a little weird to be married for that long. Daorcey wrote a cute and touching post about it.

We also went to the Calgary Folk Fest like we do every year, but this time I went early for the Saturday tarp run. I lined up early enough that I brought a sleeping bag and slept in a lean-to with Tony. This city may love Stampede, but it's the folk fest for me. A beer, good tunes, friends you haven't seen in a while, and sun make for a much better time. Also, no need to wear a cowboy boots.

September/October
I'm putting these two months together because they basically blended together for us. For those two people who don't know, we volunteered for the Nenshi for Mayor campaign. The sharper folks will recall that Daorcey now works for Nenshi. So I think we did our job.

It was a lot of fun getting engaged and spreading the word about Naheed (the mayor and I are on a first name basis. I'm cool like that). I was a door knocker and I estimate conservatively that I knocked on 1,350 doors in 30 hours.

I don't think I can say a bad thing about anyone I met on the campaign. My time volunteering has been a highlight and I'm glad the mayor is turning out. Also, I made a lot of new friends which you don't really do as you leave school.

December
I joined the Alberta Party and I sit on the constituency association board. Yes, I've gone politics crazy.

But if I learned anything on the Nenshi campaign (other than eye contact is your friend), if you want change to happen you have to go out and do it yourself.

So those are the highlights of 2010. I'm not sure what other exciting things will happen. I know we are heading to E3 again and my high school friend is getting married in a castle in Scotland in May so that will be fun.

Three weeks with a Kindle.

2010-11-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

I've had an Amazon Kindle, latest generation, for about three weeks. What is a Kindle, you ask? It's an e-Ink reader which means it mimics paper and ink pretty well. A very cool thing about e-Ink is that the reader only uses power when you turn a page or move the cursor. So when you're reading, no power. That means you can use a Kindle for like three weeks without charging it.

I have to say reading on the Kindle is easy on the eyes. Yes, it takes like half a second for the page to refresh, but if you time it just right you can hit the page turn button when you have two lines left and by the time you're done reading and at the top of the page, the refresh has happened.

It's also light enough to hold in one hand, either sitting or lying down. It's not a shiny or slippery plastic so fingerprints don't show up and it's easy to read on the train while keeping one hand on the pole.

So that's great. You can also buy books through Amazon.com and it's not a bad selection. What does get me is the price for books. There are eBooks priced at $10 when the paperback is $15. Now, why would I pay $10 for an eBook that I can't loan, can't back up (because of the DRM), and can be yanked back by Amazon at any time? So either, they up the features of a book when you pay $10 or somehow discount it. You know what would be awesome? A Netflix for books.

Well, what about the library you ask? Good question. The Calgary Public Library has a sizeable eBook collection and it's available in the popular .epub format. Unfortunately, to read these books on my Kindle, I download the eBook, strip the DRM, convert it into the correct format, and then put it onto my Kindle. This process involves a PC and a Mac, and emailing myself the books. Not ideal, but it's a ready source of free books that I will read once.

You can also leave notes in the text for yourself with the keyboard or bookmarks where you left off.

My only other major complaint is the file directory system. When you plug the Kindle into your computer (and it's not synced to your computer which is nice, unlike iPhones and iPods) the file structure opens and you place your books in the documents folder. Unfortunately, that folder system does not show up on your Kindle. If you want any sort of organization to your Kindle and don't want to scroll through your books, you make collections. Except there is no quick way to add them to collections. You have to physically go to each book and add it to the relevant collection. Lame.

I love my Kindle and would recommend it for those interested in reading books electronically. When I'm reading with it, I feel like I live in the FUTURE. Seriously, I named my Kindle PADD. The e-Ink is great, the form factor comfy, and the selection of books is good. But here's a caveat. If you want to read eBooks from the library, get a reader that handles them. The Kobo, Nook, and Sony eReaders all can. But they do offer a subpar experience. I've seen the Kobo and Sony eReader and I'm glad I went with a Kindle.

Last, you can now gift Kindle books. Hint hint.

10 years ago...

2010-11-24T22:15:00.002-07:00

Amongst the election hubbub in September, I forgot to note an important occasion.

I've known Daorcey for 10 years.

I know, round numbers are a big deal to our brains when it could easily be 12 or 6 that are big deal numbers had we evolved to have just 12 or 6 digits. Anyways, yes, 10 years. And I can tell you exactly the first time I met Daorcey.

It was Sept. 6 on the pages of the Gauntlet sports section in Adobe PageMaker, probably very late. Exact, eh? I think I can even picture where the computer was.

I was laying out this story and I asked Jan, the co-EIC at the time, who was this Day-orcey kid? I mean, his name's all funny and he's from Edmonton. The piece is well written, but he's kinda odd. She explained he had written for the Gateway but was coming to Calgary to do his degree.

If you click on the story, you can see the illustration and this is going to sound really odd. I thought for about two weeks that's what Daorcey looked like.

So that's how I met Daorcey for the first time.

We ate LA: Good Stuff

2010-08-30T20:21:00.008-06:00

Umm... so it's been a while since we posted. I blame The Review Crew, but it might also be fair to blame a bit of laziness. Either way, I'm sure you've been wondering about that cliffhanger we dropped on you with the last post: what was that good food they ate in LA?

It's notable that our trip to E3 was filled with either horrific or boring food not worth mentioning. Sad, really. But I guess that's what you get when you spend the vast majority of your time in convention halls. To stave off malnutrition, we were treated to Cliff Bars by the lovely ladies of the media room. Those little bars were nice at first, but even free food becomes less enjoyable as you eat it for more than one meal a day.

But let's get back to the tasties.

Two days sit in my memory as the most flavourful. The first was our only free day as we walked down Melrose Avenue. Our goal was to see Darth Vader helmets, but we ended up doing a rather full day of shopping and walking in the LA heat.

As the hours passed, we realized it was get fed or get cranky time, so we decided to search out some chips and salsa and perhaps a drink. A store clerk recommended a place eight blocks back toward where we came, so we turned around to make our way up the other side of the street.

And that's when we saw the fruit stand.

Well, not really a fruit stand in the "BC Cherries" sense of it. Rather, it was more like a cart with a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies. As we walked past, a couple came up to the cart's owner and asked for a regular bag. And in a flourish of knifery, the owner chopped up a whole bunch of stuff, put it in a bag, added fresh lemon and lime and a few dashes of chili spice.

When you see something like that, how can you not get it yourself. So we ordered the same thing (orange, coconut, watermelon, apple and a few other things I can't seem to recall). It was just the right amount of sweetness, spice and sour. Ridiculously tasty and refreshing.

A "regular" sized bag of fruit.

(Since we've come back to Calgary, we've tried to recreate this masterpiece. We've not been completely successful yet, but a new chili spice was just given to use today. Perhaps this is the detail we've been missing.)

So while we're scarfing down a full bag o' spicy fruit, we look just half a block down the street and see something we've NEVER seen before: a Korean BBQ taco truck.

Intrigued, we move closer to the truck with our bag of fruit. Not only was this truck the home of the never-before-discovered kimchi tacos, but it was also the maker of vegetarian-friendly tofu kimchi taco. I don't care if I have a massive bag of fruit in my hand, this taco is about to be consumed!

And, yes, it was awesome.

It's possible we were getting a little full by now. The fruit and tacos were digesting as we moved further up the street. And then we came upon that Mexican restaurant that was our original destination. Well, maybe we'll just pop in for a quick visit.

An hour later, we'd consumed more than our fair share of some excellent homemade salsas and guacamole. As we nibbled away, we watched the foot traffic travel in front of us on the street. It was a pretty great ending to our mini-marathon of food.

Two days later, we found ourselves with an evening partially free enough to let us go out for a nice dinner. A quick Yelp search from the convention centre turned up Beverly Soon Tofu Restaurant. Because of this experience, I will never doubt the value of Yelp as a restaurant recommendation engine.

Sure, our half-hour walk to the restaurant into Little Korea was a bit, um, unsettling as the sun set and the streets became not so busy, but once we found Beverly Soon Tofu, we realized the sketchy trip was worth it. If you ever get a chance to get there yourself, I strongly recommend it.

Since we had no idea what to order, we asked the friend waitress to help us out with my vegetarian needs in mind. The result was a cheap meal that had us filled to the brim with flavourful appetizers (all of our appetizers--which were included in the meal--are in the photo at the top of this post) and main courses including the following:

Tofu "steak"

Tofu Soon

Tofu appetizer

Kimchi

Yeah, that was a pretty tasty trip.

We ate LA: Bad stuff

2010-07-10T13:43:00.007-06:00

I had two meals I had to eat while in LA.

1. A Double Down. It's KFC sandwich that has two fried chicken filets instead of a bun. Inside are four different types of cheese, a sauce of unknown provenance, and some bacon.

2. A pancake layered with cheesecake. At IHOP you can have a pancake-cheesecake-pancake creation or a pancake stack with the cheescake embedded in the pancake.

We achieved both and were poorer for it.

IHOP Pancakes

I didn't have high hopes other than to be full and slightly grossed out. Mission accomplished.

This is what it should look like. It's "close". Also we opted to go for four pancakes instead of the two. Even with the extra pancakes it was only $6. The taste? Well, the cheesecake adds a creamy heavy flavour. None of us who were brave enough to order this were able to finish. Also, I don't think we ate again until dinner.

The Double Down

Our last full meal in LA we went to KFC for the infamous Double Down. Sadly, it didn't live up to the hype. I didn't even finish mine as it's just a bunch of chicken breast with some stuff in the middle. One of group ended up eating my half in addition to his full one. He later paid for it in the bathroom.

Daorcey didn't have many options at KFC. He settled for two corn cobettes and a bowl of coleslaw.

Our next post will detail the good food we actually ate.

Five years in the adventures of two geeks

2010-07-03T10:29:00.010-06:00

Wow, that went by quickly.

Five years ago this morning, Arone and I were running around Canmore picking up flowers, putting up directional signs, and being mistaken for groom and groom (yup, that was awkward). We stopped in at the spa where the girls were getting their hair and makeup done so Arone (not me, 'cause, you know, that would be against "tradition") could drop off my surprise gift of a diamond necklace to Natalie. Upon doing so, Arone was mistaken as Natalie's fiance (also awkward). That was an interesting day with a few stories that could be told years later. Maybe that's for another post.

So, a half-decade has passed--what are my thoughts on being married for that time?

Twelve years ago, I was standing by myself in the gardens of Versailles. It was a cold spring day and the full garden wasn't in bloom, but some of the flowers were out. Despite doing that trip with a school group, I had spent a lot of time on my own getting lost and exploring. This was one of those times.

I wasn't feeling particularly lonely (I actually don't mind being alone), but I do recall that I was suddenly struck by the urge to share this experience. This didn't mean I was to return to Canada intent upon finding a partner, but it was a moment when I realized an important requirement for future relationships: sharing is good.

Since that time, we've been to Versailles together. But, we've also been to other places and had shared experiences we'd never expected. From a Canadian cemetery in Belgium to a gamer-filled conference hall in Seattle to an ancient forest on Vancouver Island to a Viking settlement in Sweden. All ridiculously cool experiences made even more unique and important to us because they are shared.

It's been five-plus years of experiences that make this adventure a great one. But it's not just travel that I cherish. It's the shared experiences of daily life: playing video games, reading our iPhones in bed, and even writing together are important. Our recent hobby of writing about games and gadgets with The Review Crew has been a lot of fun. Of course, the trips to Vegas and LA were cool, but even just writing beside each other on our computers at home or on separate laptops from the comfort of a hotel room is unique experience I wouldn't want to give up.

In five years, we've grown together through our experiences that we've had as a couple. I guess this is a predictable process, but it's something you tend not to consider while it's happening.

It's an odd experience to reflect on five years. Time has moved quickly, yet there's been a definite progression in our relationship. We continue to learn more about each other as we grow individually and as a married unit.

I can definitely say that life together has only become better the more time passes. We first came together as friends and now we continue along as even better friends. I've often joked about how being married is just like an extended sleep over with late nights, movies, video games, good food, and hanging out with friends.

It's more than that, of course, but it's still a good, fun time nonetheless.

Happy Canada Day

2010-07-01T13:16:00.002-06:00

Living in China for three months was obviously a cool experience for a variety of reasons. One of them was I looked like everyone else pretty much--minus my toque and bike helmet.

But I felt like I was missing something--it wasn't homesickness--and I couldn't put my finger on it. It wasn't until I flew back and was chilling in Vancouver for our Calgary flight. I saw an Indian-Canadian couple. The woman was dressed in a sari and the man had a brightly-coloured turban. When I saw them, that's when it clicked. I missed seeing the faces of Canadians.

It's something Douglas Coupland wrote in his first Souvenir of Canada. He went to Scotland to a little town where pratically anyone could have been his relative which he found creepy.

"And this is the point where being Canadian really hits home, because what you want, and what you're missing, is the variety of people you see in Canada... I know we're all supposed to love being multicultural and all of that, and we all know how that works and how to play the game and talk the talk--but to crave it and feel deprived without it is another sensation altogether. It's one of those things that lumps your throat and makes you realize that things will probably work out in the end."

And then we watched hockey playoffs and drank beer.

So, happy Canada Day. I'm extremely glad my parents decided to move to Canada.

Darth Vader and salsa in the City of Angels

2010-06-12T20:18:00.005-06:00

Hi from LA!

We got in late last night but that didn't stop us from staying up even later. Our hotel is right beside a neat open-air bar that had live independent bands playing well into the early morning.

So, needless to say, I'm glad we had a free day today. We slept in and then wandered outside. We found that we're close to a downtown market so we had a late breakfast of tacos... yeah, the Mexican food is a theme today.

Then we hopped a bus to Melrose Avenue and Orange Street half an hour away to go see an art exhibition called The Vader Project (explained in more detail below). After that, it was a great day of shopping, walking and people watching. We purchased some fresh fruit (garnished with chili spice and lime) and our first kimchi tacos. At the end of the afternoon, we snagged a patio table at a Mexican restaurant and ate fresh salsa and quacamole. Yes, it's been good.

So, while Natalie naps, I've decided to update the blog(s). Below is what I've just posted on The Review Crew, but I figured it was so awesome I should post it here too.

Dark Art: A Trip To The Vader Project

There are a few things you could do in LA during your free day before E3. But in between theme parks and celeb-seeking, might I suggest a trip to The Vader Project to see 100 artist interpretations of the classic black dome of the Sith?

Running now until June 20, this exhibition is the public's free glimpse at all the works of art before they are sold by Freeman's Auction House in Philadelphia on July 10.

We spent over half an hour touring the Darth busts in the one-room makeshift gallery at 6812 Melrose Avenue. It was fascinating to see each artist express their different takes on the well-known helmet. Some went for decorative high art while others opted to explore the humour of having the chosen one's head to do what they will. Helmets ranged from beautiful to frightening to ridiculous.

Currently, each helmet is priced at $3,000 - $5,000 in advance of the auction next month. Whether they'll go for that much is yet to be seen.

Freeman's is also selling a catalog of all the helmets for $4o. From a quick flip through, it's a high quality book that would make a good addition to your coffee table (if your coffee table is the kind that has a Salacious Crumb action figure within a 2 meter radius). It had great pull-page photos of each helmet with a series of detail shots and alternate angles so you can really get the full view of each artifact. You can purchase it on their website (link below), at the exhibition or at many of the nerdier shops along Melrose.

[The Vader Project]

Where I won't make an obvious horrible pun

2010-06-05T19:03:00.003-06:00

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is an Internet-only musical created by Joss Whedon during the writers' strike. Here's a link to the first part. Altogether it's about 40 minutes and great for lunch hour entertainment.

We went to the world-premier of the first professional mounting of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I guess there's been a smattering of high school productions but this was the first one that was properly licensed. The creator had to phone Joss Whedon to get the deal going and in fact they didn't have anything set up for stage licensing so they had to whip something up.

Was it good?

There were very good things. They did a great job casting the singing part of the roles. Even the background singers like Hammer's fanboys were solid.

The actor who plays Dr. Horrible has a great voice, easily the best in the cast. My favourite songs, Everything You Ever and Brand New Day, from the musical are Dr. Horrible songs and he did them justice. In fact the last scene of Dr. Horrible sitting in front of his webcam was executed very well and was a good piece of stagecraft.

But there were a few questionable things.

The set is simple and I think there wasn't enough money because there was a huge cast to pay. There were even choreographers, two of them! And this is a minor complaint but the set could have used another coat of paint. I know we saw the play at the end of its run but there chips on a lot of the painted props. Also, the lighting was strange especially on the Bad Horse chorus. The actors would peek around the walls of the set but weren't lit at all so it was difficult to see.

My one major beef was with the actor who plays Captain Hammer. He is just too unlikeable. He comes off creepy when the character is meant to be just this endearing side of smarmy. You should be able to see why Penny would like him. In fact, he ruined "the hammer is my..." by pitching it to the audience and not Dr. Horrible.

I'm not complaining about the $44 ticket. It was enjoyable and Whedon gets a cut. Hopefully he'll realize that people still love this musical and that he should start on a sequel soon.

We are BW

2010-05-26T20:00:00.007-06:00

Life in an office is monotonous. It doesn't take much to liven it up. Whether it's a cube wrap, finding a box you fit in, or even free donuts, you take what you can get.

But when a video such as this drops into your lap, the day is looking pretty much up.

A former co-worker sent this video with no further information denoting its provenance. All of us at the office are immensely entertained by this video. We're not sure why things appear backwards or who made this.

I'm hoping we get a bunch of corporate shirts with the BW logo done with hands.

Rap with me now:
We are BW
Wear Yellow Work Safe BW
We Take care of you BW
Full Warranty service BW

Nom nom nom: Bacon chocolate bar

2010-05-22T19:29:00.004-06:00

I have a rep at the office. I am the nerdy, video game playin' girl who loves bacon. I don't mind it and in fact I embrace it. I readily tell people that I'm taking a day off to play an anticipated video game. A few years ago I wouldn't have but most of the engineers I work with like video games, even playing themselves when they have time.

So, yes back to bacon. A friend went for training down in Lincolnshire (or the Shire as we like to call it, sadly there are no hobbits). He came back with this, Mo's Bacon Bar. I guess my eyes lit up when I saw it.

I didn't eat the whole thing, sharing it with office mates and later at an America's Next Top Model viewing party. People weren't enthusiastic about it.

Me?

It's not bad. It's very comparable to salty chocolate which enhances the "chocolatiness". The bar doesn't have a strip of bacon in it but rather specks of bacon and bacon salt spread about. I have to say it makes me savour the chocolate rather than nom my way through it.

Happy birthday sister, she who shares 50% of my DNA

2010-05-13T18:26:00.007-06:00

I have a tradition for people's birthdays. Well mostly for my sister. I make e-cards and usually it's a last minute thing and typically involves an inside joke. One co-worker, the one whose cube we wrapped, was turning 26 this year, the age referenced in this Patton Oswalt skit. I made him a card that included the quote about a 26-year-old not getting any presents and instead should go to work. Really, it was funny at the time.

For my sister, I typically whip up something that's Doctor Who related. I think last year also involved a Dalek. She liked this year's card so I thought I'd share it here.

In this episode of Doctor Who, the Daleks--the Doctor's arch enemy--have returned to Earth during WWII. Typically, they're all about exterminating their enemies but this time they're helping humans, even offering to get them tea. So watch the quick clip below and then you'll see where her card comes from.

Honest, I do work.

I guess Dean is Daorcey's grandfather

2010-05-11T19:51:00.002-06:00

We got a new iMac. It's great to be back in the Mac environment. If only it would let me properly load Windows 7.

Anyways, I wanted to post all the kitty pictures I've taken in the Beltline. Instead of boringly emailing all my photos from my iPhone to myself, I decide to import the photos into iPhoto.

A very cool feature in iPhoto is that it recognize faces of people. Seeing as Daorcey shows up in 4/5 of my photos, I figure it would pull all his photos right up.

Sorta.

Two outta three aren't bad, right? And Dean is Daorcey's grandfather so I can't be angry at the Mac for thinking they're the same person. I mean, it's so hard to tell all these white people apart.

"You should save this": Mac and Cheese Pizza

2010-04-14T20:16:00.004-06:00

My brother and I have been known to appreciate food from time to time. And, for some reason, we were talking about the perfect carb-load that might just be oh-so-tasty: The Mac and Cheese Pizza. I'm not sure if this already exists, but we needed to discuss how best to make it. We still haven't produced it, but I wanted to share the conversation with you...

Daorcey says:
there was a discussion the other day about mac and cheese pizza. Can it be done?

QA Monkey says:
I suppose it could be done. The problem with putting it onto a pizza is that you need to worry about cooking time. Too long, and you overcook the pasta, making it a dry pizza. Too little, and you just have dough with mac and cheese on top.

The trick is in the toppings, and the cooking time.

For a tofu dog, it is much more simplified, because you are using it like a condiment.

Daorcey says:
ooo! it could be just like baked pasta, I bet... I'd suggest pre cooking the crust (half way), then putting on the mac and cheese, sprinkle on more cheese and then bake until melted.

OMG

QA Monkey says:
I would suggest an alfredo-based sauce for the pizza, as opposed to tomato. Tomato would be too overpowering, while alfredo is saucy and garlicy enough to provide a suitable lubricant.

However, you should still add fresh diced tomatoes, and possibly even some basil, to the final product.

For the break in the monotonous cheese flavour, and to make it really pop.

Daorcey says:
this will happen, I guarantee it.

QA Monkey says:
You should save this conversation for next time we come down, so we can remember these ideas.

Consider it saved.

Henry Hudson would be ashamed

2010-04-03T17:03:00.006-06:00

We went back to Hudsons because it was finally time to use the food coupon we received the first time we were there. Hooray! It may be the last time we go there even though we still have another $20 off coupon.

Tuesday is East Coast night which means $4 Keiths (a miserable IPA) and 25 cent butterfly shrimp. We order 2 Keiths and 20 shrimp and put in an order for Cesar salad and a buffalo/cheddar/bacon burger.

The good: The butterfly shrimp are great. Crispy batter and the spicy chili dipping sauce is a good choice. Also, $4 for a bottle of Keiths is not a bad deal--even if it's a bad IPA. Normally I hate drinking IPAs because of the hoppy taste. But there is barely any in Keiths, so good beer for me, terrible beer for IPA lovers.

The bad: Everything else.

It took a long time for our non-shrimp food to show up. Hudsons was full but not crazy busy so I'm not sure why the delay. Perhaps they're still working out the kinks in the system? Daorcey's salad was meh but he had little choice on the menu (it was either that, nachos or fish and chips). My burger? Remember how excited I was in the previous post that they had buffalo burgers in addition to the beef? My buffalo burger patty was as tasteless as making Hitler jokes while visiting Aushwitz. There was no flavour in the patty and the bacon was so-so. How can a restaurant mess up bacon?

We're probably not going back, unless it's for $20 worth of butterfly shrimp on Tuesday.

Release the Kraken!

2010-04-02T22:04:00.004-06:00

My father shared some important things with me growing up: learning how to deal with fractions, several concepts in physics, and the sheer goodness of schlocky movies. I come from a family where we have fond memories of Wrath of Khan, the entire series of the Planet of the Apes movies (we've seen them all), and Clash of the Titans.

I can't really remember the story of the original Clash of the Titans. I know of the important set pieces like the Medusa fight and the whole solve-a-riddle-to-win-the-hand-of-the-princess scenario. The plot is jumbled up in my mind, but I imagine a lot of our favourite childhood memories are like that. We only remember snatches of good things. Anyways, I was fond of the Ray Harryhausen effects (staccato skeletons and that creepy Medusa) and the fact the movie has the immortal line "Release the Kraken!"

So it was with great nostalgia that my sister, Daorcey and I headed to the theatres to see the remake of the movie. Daorcey hadn't seen the original--a shocking knowledge gap--while my sister was young enough to remember the movie but not the finer details.

The movie isn't bad, but not bad enough to become a cult classic. Neither is it good enough to pass as superior action movie. Sam Worthington, an actor who is bland enough to be in two other recent blockbusters (Avatar and Terminator 4), is passable as Perseus. (For some reason, he seems to be doing a weak Jason Statham impression for this film.) It's the others around him that are much better.

There's the guy who played the villian in Casino Royale (Mads Mikkelsen) and, unfortunately, he's much more interesting than Worthington. There's the guy who looks like Bill Bailey, and has a faint copy of his humour, that provides all the decent comic relief. Finally, Liam Neeson steps into Sir Laurence Olivier's shoes as Zeus. Neeson gets to wear a shiny suit of armour (no togas here) and gets to say THE LINE. He does it well and matches my memories enough that my sister and I chuckle out of fond remembrance.

This remake wasn't a Episode I atrocity--although I suspect there won't be another movie in my lifetime that achieves that level of awful... unless they make either a She-Ra or Jem movie (for which I would be first in line to see even though I know it'll be aweful). But, the movie was just good enough to convince me that the original is a movie worth showing to Daorcey. If only for the opportunity to giggle at Olivier slumming it and yelling "Release the Kraken!"

Hudsons, a bar full of Canadian kitsch

2010-03-20T18:47:00.003-06:00

We just enjoyed a pint or two at Hudsons, former home of Husky House and Gerry's. First, let's have a moment of silence for that location. Some of us have fond memories of that place, others... well I don't want to dwell on it.

Now, there's a brand new wooden bar at the corner of 5 St and 12 Ave--you can still smell the saw dust in the air. Hudsons is an Edmonton institution. Or at least, that's the only city I've ever seen a Hudsons. It's a generic bar/club that has kitsch on the walls. It tries to replicate the feeling of pubs in the UK. Pubs that have seen a few decades and as a result have collected a load of crap to display.

However, those bars in the UK have history on their side. One of our favourite pubs that we discovered in London was a bar that Christopher Wren built for his employees. It was just after the fire in 1666 and the workers were rebuilding St. James but thanks to the fire there was nowhere to drink. Wren, the smart man that he was, built a bar to keep his employees happy. Flash forward to today where patrons can drink at the very same bar a stonemason wetted his whistle after a hard day's work.

So back to Hudsons. Obviously, no history so it'll have to rely on other features to sell it. I have to say, if you want to watch an important sporting event, my choice will be Hudsons. There are many screens there. I think half the lighting was from the glow of the LCD screens. Also, the burger menu features a choice of bison or beef. Awesome. Sorry, vegetarians, there isn't much on the menu for you.

The last interesting feature is the crap on the walls. Most bars in Calgary go for the faux Irish feel. So you'll see farm equipment, milk jugs, and other Irish-y things on the wall. I'm sure it's "similar" to the real pubs in Ireland. In Hudsons, you've got Canadian stuff on the walls. Mostly pictures, like Terry Fox, guys working on the rigs, hockey, moose, etc. But some lobster traps and snowshoes too. So I get they're going for a Canada aesthetic but the bar feels like it was a generic bar that could have gone Irish or Canadian had it been filled with different stuff.

The beer selection is alright. They do have two house beers that are brewed by Big Rock. We had the Beaver Tail Ale that was basically a watered down version of Big Rock's Traditional Ale.

We didn't try the food but thanks to some $20 coupons, I'm sure that will be in our future. But I don't think this will be our new watering spot. It just feels generic, even with its interesting Canadian knick knacks.

Getting to know the neighbour

2010-03-19T20:52:00.004-06:00

We've lived in our condo for nearly three years. And, despite being in a building of 41 suites, we rarely hear our neighbours. I attribute this to both the concrete construction and that we share our half of the floor with only one neighbour (they're across the hallway). We don't hear conversations, TV, or parties. And no one has ever told us to turn down the Rock Band or that Natalie needs to stop swearing at her Halo squad mates. Yup, it's been pretty nice and quiet.

Until the other night.

Let me set the scene for you: It's 3 am on a Tuesday morning. We're sleeping with dreams of sugar plums, Assassin's Creed, and whatnot. And then, suddenly: laughing.

And not just far away laughing, but laughing like it's right there in the next room. The laughter of people sharing a somewhat tense moment leavened by alcohol and fatigue. Laughter that may not be genuine, but does the trick nonetheless. And then it stops.

"I just don't think you appreciate me..."

"Sure I do, baby. I..."

And I'm riveted.

I mean, I've NEVER heard my neighbours before, yet somehow I'm hearing conversations. Sure, I'm not hearing full conversations, but I can clearly make out key words and phrases and that's fascinating. Drama that I didn't know could be shared with me is about to occur!

After a while the conversation starts to disappear. All I can get now is a sense of tone. An argument seems to be happening. She seems upset. He seems frustrated with her somehow. And, after a few more minutes of this, I'm actually rethinking the excitement of my new discovery of being able to hear this particular neighbour. The fascination wains as the conversation disappears and I start to drift back to sleep.

And that's when things started to get coital.

I'm back to being wide awake. Not because I'm interested in the "dialogue", but because this girl is really loud. She's totally rocking the airwaves and he's doing his best to keep up.

Fortunately, after five to ten minutes, the two-person party concluded. But, of course, I'm wide awake again.

You try drifting back to sleep after two people aggressively get it on right next door. It's not easy. And sleep was made even more difficult as the conversation started back up again.

"...the look on his face when..."

"Hehe! you know I always loved..."

The laughter is back. It sounds more fluid. Drunker maybe? Endorphins likely.

And then the sex again.

We're pushing into 4 am as she moves into her second crescendo of the evening. I'm starting to realize that I've been up for one hour because of these two, and I'm beginning to get a little bitter about the situation. Not so much because I'm being kept awake, but more because I'm being kept awake by someone else's sex which is decidedly less interesting than a dramatic conversation.

They finish for a second time.

This time around, the conversation seems less congenial. He seems agitated about something and she's giving off a similar vibe.

"I bet you couldn't..."

"Whatever. I'm really busy.... back at the office..."

"Oh, come on... it's not that late..."

OK. Now I'm confused. It's getting to be, like, 4:30 am. What kind of guy is talking about the office at 4:30 am? What kind of girl thinks that 4:30 am isn't that late? When did I get so old and crotchety? How come I haven't heard these people before? Why am I not asleep?

"Look," he says very clearly, "the guys need me at the office. I should go."

"...but just a bit longer... come on..."

And then they did it, loudly and angrily, one last time. And this time around, no one seemed really happy about it. And while I'm really tired by now, the drama had been upped and I was hooked.

Now it's 4:45 am and the escapades of the neighbouring suite have come to a close. But the climax of the evening is just around the corner.

"Look, I really have to go... the office..."

"No... please... stay... if you don't..."

"What?"

He had asked the question. I had been straining to hear the original statement myself. What had she proposed? Was his question rhetorical or had he not heard her either? Maybe we were both having a hard time hearing her.

"So that's it then?" he asked. "We're breaking up?"

WHAT?! How could they be breaking up? They'd just spent the last two hours destroying my sleep pattern and now they were breaking up? To tell you the truth, I felt a little used.

"Fine. I have to go anyway... the office..."

"No don't... I didn't mean..."

"No, I have to go."

A door closes. Another door slams. And now I can hear the familiar soft rumble of the elevator being called to a higher floor. And he's gone.

"I'm SORRY. I'm sorry..."

And that's it. All I can hear now are her sobs. She repeats her apology to the wall, her pillow, and me. And then she cries. At first loudly and then softer as she falls asleep.

But I'm still wide awake. Shocked at the drama. Emotionally drained by the experience.

It was 5 am. I haven't heard her since and I hope I never connect a face to the voice.

My new obssession

2010-03-18T19:20:00.006-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, we were up in Edmonton visiting Daorcey's grandparents. Because they contributed 1/8 of their genes to Daorcey, we ended up talking about food. Specifically, Cream of Wheat.

I guess that, growing up, Daorcey ate Cream of Wheat quite a bit for breakfast (Daorcey's Note: Not ALL the time... jeeze). I had never eaten it.

We get back to Calgary and we buy a box of Cream of Wheat. What do I discover? Holy crap, this stuff is good! Why didn't anyone tell me? We I have finished the box and am now on to my second. It's really good when you cook it with milk and add some honey. And look! It's a good source of iron. I love iron.

Even though I finished dinner, I'm still thinking of cooking up a bowl for dessert. At least it's mildly healthy, right?

Still carless, still happy

2010-03-11T17:55:00.004-07:00

Well guys, it's been one revolution around the Sun without a car, and life is still good.

Last year, we sold the Echo to Arone and Kristi. We were sad to see her drive away to the cold city of Edmonton, but she had to go.

Prior to sending Echo away, we did a trial-run of not using her but still having her close. What we found was that, when we did want to use a car (fewer than five times, I think), the Echo was never very healthy. I guess, to keep a car at its best, you have to drive it more than once every three months. The sediment in the gasoline and oil settles and then gets churned up when you turn it over. So, it made more sense to get rid of it altogether than just keep it handy "just in case".

So in the past year since Echo left, not much has changed. I did have to give up floor hockey, but not because people got tired of picking me up or the cost of renting the co-op car. The team actually disbanded... and I don't think it was the car's fault.

We do use a carshare from time to time, and I used it quite a bit for going to floor hockey. Now that I don't use it for hockey, I find I don't miss worrying about getting the carshare car back before my reservation ends.

We certainly don't visit Edmonton any less. In fact, we may have been visiting even more lately. We rent a car to go up for the weekend and that only costs about $20-$30 per day (insurance is covered by our Visa).

We do find that we put off some errands so we can rent a car for a day and then run around town getting those errands done. So, those days aren't too restful, but we survive.

Probably the biggest sign of how comfortable I am with our car-less lifestyle was during my business trip to Lincolnshire, a suburb outside of Chicago. When my department boss phoned me to inform me that I was going (I had to write a manual) she said I had to rent a car. I asked if there was public transit, she paused and said no.

And she didn't lie. To be fair, Lincolnshire is a suburb and I saw mainly the business park... but there were no sidewalks--not a pedestrian/public transit-friendly town.

So I buck up and rent a car. My second day there I had already tired of driving around to get to dinner or lunch.

I guess I'm a bit spoiled with regards to where I work in Calgary. There's the delightfully named Short Pants Plaza next to my work and it has a Subway, a shawarma place, a Jamaican place, and a Filipino place that specializes in digestive troubles. So if I don't bring a lunch, I just pop over next door. No such luck on my business trip. I had to get in the car and become irrationally frustrated that I had to drive to pick up lunch. I had to drive 10 minutes to some bagel place and the entire time I'm fuming.

I didn't have a problem with driving but I enjoy not driving. I like looking out the window during my 20-minute LRT ride. I like reading the Globe and Mail online or observing my fellow passengers.

I'm glad we were able to take the plunge and get rid of our car.

Don't bother calling me at work on Wednesday

2010-01-26T00:00:00.003-07:00

So, my review of Mass Effect 2 will be up the same time this post goes live. You can read the review (which is good because it bumps up the page views) and I basically say it's an awesome, awesome game. I've been hearing about this game from Arone (you'll recognize him from the game's QA credits) for about a year and every tidbit I've heard was really exciting.

The last time he and I spoke (before I had finished the game) Arone said this is the first game he's looking forward to play after it's published and I honestly didn't believe him. The man has spent countless hours testing this game and he still wants to play it? When we went to CES, we spent an hour talking to Jesse, an associate producer on the game. He confessed he was on his fourth playthrough. Again: really?

After 22 hours, I can say these guys are right. I booked this Wednesday off and Daorcey was skeptical that I would want to play the game for 12 hours more. I'm even more excited for Wednesday even after all the hours I've put in for the review.

We, meaning all Canadians, should be proud that we have such a great game development studio in Canada--even if it's in Edmonton. (Cheap shot, I know.) BioWare could have just made the same game with new areas and some new guns, but they didn't. Daorcey and I could go on and on about the things that bugged us. I practically nagged Arone to fix one minor detail (which fought for and it did get changed--awesome). And they fixed pretty much everything that was wrong with the first game. How's that for customer service? It's an odd feeling to beat a game and feel pride in your country rather than thinking how awesome it was (which it was too).

For those that gripe that Canada doesn't make kick ass action games, they should play Mass Effect 1 and 2. There is so much action and story, that it's much better than most Hollywood movies.

Anyways, since my review says that in about 1900 words plus a bunch of photos, here is a tidbit I couldn't put in the review because it didn't apply (for now).

In my brief time with the game, I found some Canadiana. I'm sure I'll find more soon.

On a prison planet, I encountered a prisoner in a cell. Talked to him and nothing amazing happened. Go onto the next cell and there's another prisoner and no dialogue happens there. But I notice the prisoner's designation--Prisoner 403. Thinking there's something to this I go back to the previous prisoner and he's Prisoner 780. Yeah, they used the Alberta area codes.
There's a set of armor called Blood Dragon. The description of the armor says it's based on the armor of the Edmonton Blood Dragons team. Whether it's hockey or football, it's unclear. Cute.

The last night in Vegas

2010-01-10T20:33:00.003-07:00

Edit: The photos have been added.

There are photos to go with this post but they are trapped on my phone and the wireless at the airport is not playing nice. Check back tomorrow for some snaps.

We decided to head out to Freemont St where old Vegas lives. We liked it much better as drinks were slightly cheaper and we got to gamble with nickels.

Daorcey enjoying a drink. It was pina colada.

Our first stop was Mermaids where they have a free money draw every 30 mins. We didn't win at all. Then gambled with nickels. When you win, you can have the coins rain down in a bucket! That's Vegas. Of course your hands are grimy.

The coins!

Mermaids also had deep fried Oreos which were just okay. We were looking for deep fried twinkies but they were out.

Then we watched the light show which was inexplicably a five-minute ad for Kiss. Deeply cheesy.

Daorcey is entranced by the Kiss light show.

Then we went to the Golden Gate Casino. Played $5 blackjack where I won $2.50. Golden Gate Casino is also the home of $2 shrimp cocktails so the boys (we were hanging out with 2 fellows from Montreal) each bought one. After that delicious treat it was back out on the street where we met the owner of the Golden Gate Casino. Or so his business card said. Also, the dealers in the Golden Gate Casino that are female and young are made to dance every 2 hours in the evening.

While waiting to decide what to do next, we saw a guy run by, quickly followed by security personnel. The security personnel were then followed by a crowd of civilians. Lastly, a girl from Mermaids (dressed in a garish neon green and yellow pantsuit) ran by.

This guy wasn't involved in any shenanigans. He was just being sculpted in clay... posed like that.

We finished the night at the Golden Nugget where one of the Montreal journalists won $100 on a big slot machine. It was huge this slot machine. It took two hands to pull the lever and it dropped massive $1 coins. It was a poetic end to our week in Vegas as we had hung out with the journo pretty much every night and he decided he would only play large slot machines, and there were quite a few.

So now, we're sitting in the Vegas airport and I have to say I'm ready to go home to my bed and vegetables.

Vegas, day 2

2010-01-05T21:41:00.006-07:00

It's about 9 pm. I'm sitting in one of our hotel rooms and the room is filled with music and laptop typing.

We just finished our first CES event. It was CES Unveiled and it was filled with people. So many people hovering over the coolest gadgets.

But there was food, although we did not touch the free sushi. And there were free drinks. We had rum and cokes in the style of Cuba. Rum, rum, rum and a splash of Coke for colour.

There were some cool gadgets. There was a UK gadget that promised to stop all spam calls.

Daorcey was particularly enamoured with an analog Duck Hunt. Sadly, there isn't a dog to taunt your bad aim.

Tomorrow is a full day of press conferences. We'll see what comes.

This photo we took was a hovercraft that was more impressive when you realized it was part of a VR game. On your iPhone you would see this hovercraft surrounded by enemies which you had to blast away. If you convinced a couple other friends to spend money on this foolish thing, you could also battle them. It's an upgraded Pokemon I guess.

On an unrelated note, we stopped by O'Sheas, a divey casino. Mike told us that during the day they have an angry midget berating tourists but at night there's nothing. Inside O'Sheas is a beer pong area. They also run beer pong tournaments. I feel old but I felt concerned that these ping pong balls are in dirty hands, on dirty floors, and then thrown into beer which is then consumed. Gross, gross. Ah, Vegas.

Real art like real adults

2009-12-21T20:59:00.005-07:00

It seems that ever time I visit someone else's home, I get the feeling like somehow we don't live in a real adult condo.

Real adults have sound systems, not an Xbox 360 and an HD tv purchased just for said Xbox.
Real adults have straight-backed chesterfields placed with care around a coffee table, not plush and lumpy massive couches perfect for napping and watching Joss Whedon marathons.
Real adults have original art on their walls, not posters of DaVinci's City Hall and the Chinese fight against SARS.

Well, let's be honest: none of that's really going to change. If our life together isn't real adult, I'm happy with the fake adult lifestyle we've been living until now.

But, that doesn't mean we can't appropriate a bit from that other lifestyle--that one that seems so proper and refined like wine and cheese.

That's what I was thinking as we walked through this weekend's Box Social event hosted at the opera centre down the street. Local artisans with their wares: clothing, glass, painting, ceramics and random art you just don't see anywhere else... like the stuff created by Colleen Rauscher.

In fact, when we came across Colleen's Polaroid transfer prints, we couldn't help but stop and stare at her display. Her special series on historic Calgary felt like a special glimpse of the city through a much older eye. Photos of the Bay, Herald gargoyles, and early 1900s facades made this city we live in feel suddenly heavy with its own history in a way that is rarely felt in western metropolises.

So we purchased this... we just couldn't help it.

Here's how she describes her unique process:

An image from a 35mm slide is exposed onto Polaroid film using a Daylab slide printer. Before the photo has time to develop, it is peeled away from the black backing, and this negative is placed onto a damp receptor sheet. After a few minutes, it is carefully peeled away from the sheet, leaving the image. During this process, some of the emulsion may lift up with the negative, leaving a unique pattern of bluish patina where the darkest areas of the image were. Each print is an original, and it is practically impossible to achieve the same results twice.

So, yeah, now we have a real adult piece of art. Sort of... it is still a picture of the skeeziest pub in Calgary after all. Yes, a classic piece of history.

"Use the loofah."

2009-11-20T21:29:00.004-07:00

Unfortunately, I really don't have much more to say about this than a suggestion you watch it. It's hilarious and has had me laughing all day long.

There's a larger discussion to be had (thanks to Jeff and Alan, of course) about the efficacy of public service announcements. Do they simply exist to show off great creative or do they actually make a difference?

After watching the video a few times, I can't say I'm any more an advocate for the message than I was before I watched it. But am I in the minority? Hmmm... a question for a broader population research, I suppose.

And maybe I'm just getting way too deep for a blog post about a video that makes me giggle. So, go ahead and watch it and discuss amongst yourselves.

Remembrance Day photo

2009-11-11T19:39:00.002-07:00

We went to the ceremony at Memorial Park. I didn't expect so many people there. The highlight of the ceremony was the bugler that was on the balcony of the a nearby building. He played the Last Post and it was perfectly quiet so you could hear the echoes. It was weird to hear almost complete silence downtown.

Anyways, I snapped a photo of the cenotaph and people's poppies and I tweeted it (see my tweets to the right). CBC saw it and put in their story. Cool beans, no? It's the second photo.

We've joined the crew

2009-11-06T17:37:00.003-07:00

Yar, there be a pirate joke in that headline... something about Natalie not being a wench.

For those who haven't heard, Natalie and I have joined a crew. It's like a gang, but geekier... much, much geekier. It's the type of crew that appreciates a photo of Natalie with a character from Katamari while at PAX.

This new crew is The Review Crew: an online magazine/blog of cool things and, well, reviews of games and gadgets.

It's lead by CityTV journalist and Gadget Guy Mike Yawney and we originally connected through work. It seems that, during a talk about a client, I may have mentioned some of the geekier aspects of my lifestyle that may have tipped him off that we might be fit to join the crew.

We're currently contributors to this little project. That means regular articles that are both pretty brief and kinda neat. Aside from the news briefs, we also produce some original stuff. For example, I recently wrote a story of a trio from Edson who are trying to break that world record for consecutive hours playing first person shooters. Natalie, on the other hand, was the first in our household to review a game: Dragon Age: Origins. She's still playing it, so I guess she liked it.

And what do we get out of this? Well, for one, we get to do some writing we don't normally get to do. A blurb about a cool ad campaign for a game is a change from writing news releases (which I like, don't get me wrong) or technical manuals. Plus, we do get a chance to get our hands on new games (and the odd gadget) that needs reviewing. There's no money in it, but there may be... we'll see how the advertising strategy pans out.

But, bottom line: it's fun. Not exactly world-changing literature we're creating, but fun. We play games, write in a different style and hang with a cool crew. Just like pirates.

A Glorious Dawn

2009-10-20T19:17:00.004-06:00

Before you click play, a little intro. Obviously, Carl Sagan never sang any of this stuff so the creator, John Boswell, ran Sagan's voice through a vocoder. The singing is a little cheesy, a little weird, but the lyrics are awesome. The chorus gave me the chills.

Nick Sagan, Carl's son, posted on his blog regarding this video: "So, yeah, my dad put out a new music video."

And the sound Sagan does at the beginning of the song is a whale song.

I can't get this song out of my head so it's been on repeat for the last week. An awesome, awesome song.

Upside-down Pear Gingerbread

2009-09-13T14:22:00.001-06:00

Courtesy Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking On Our Own. I was going for a CBC exploded pizza logo effect.

In which we visit that bridge

2009-09-09T20:58:00.010-06:00

Our first partial day with Nicole we finally rode the cable cars.

Here we are waiting for the cable cars. This is Nicole's waiting face. See, I don't need a Facebook account to post goofy pictures of people.

Going up

Nicole had scoped out a wicked restaurant to eat at and on the way we saw the picture below (a restaurant we did not eat at). The concept of the wicked restaurant is that you share each dish. We had an amazing halibut, scallop, and a tomato salad. We also had goat cheese which not everyone liked and, in my opinion, an overdone yellowtail. But wow, it was great and definitely the food highlight of the trip.

The next day, we wandered through Haight Ashbury, where I bought an awesome fall coat, and then went to Golden Gate Park and saw these animals.

Then we headed toward the bridge and took a billion photos.

I'm not sure what prompted Daorcey's confused face.

You'd think with the three of us and two cameras in our possession, we'd have many photos with the three of us in them. Here is the only one.

Finally on the bridge, we have the following.

It is a loooong way down.

And up.

Which beach did you go to? Ocean Beach

2009-09-09T06:15:00.003-06:00

No, really that's the name of the beach.

After dumping our stuff in our really small hotel room, we rode the bus for an hour to reach the beach. San Francisco was suffering through an uncharacteristic heat wave so it was a sweaty bus ride.

I guess that explains our scowls.

Lots of people on the beach, surfers, and dogs.

I think he belonged to the lifeguards. But he would plop himself down near the water and only move if he was about to get wet.

Hey, another picture of us.

Some Cthulhu-esque seaweed thing.

Sashimi sampler. The snapper is usually chewy at most places, but here it was soft.

It seems the homeless in SF are crazier than their counterparts in Calgary. Is it the warm weather? Or the fact that people consistently give money to panhandlers? Anyways, in Japantown we ran into a guy who wanted us to buy him a chicken dinner. He was an older guy, with a cane but it looked like he had a home.

At first I apologized for not having any change to which he replied he wasn't asking for change but for a chicken dinner. Then he tried this tact:

Man: I was drafted into the Vietnam war but don't hold that against me. I could have gone to Canada but I did my duty to this country and her citizens. I protected this country.

Me: But we're not from here.

At this point, we've probably run through his two rhetorical points that usually work on people. I'm not sure why we didn't walk away. Too rude? I offered him a bottle of water which he refused. Then we just started moving very slowly away from him.

Thankfully, in Canada you don't see many homeless veterans. It could be fewer vets or hopefully, we just have better social programs to help those who fought.

Chinatown in SF

2009-09-07T17:52:00.011-06:00

One of our quests for San Francisco was to have dim sum. A friend recommended some restaurants but we naively assumed they would be in Chinatown. Luckily, some helpful ladies at the Chinese Cultural Centre pointed us to a good restaurant, City View.

So here we are at the Chinatown gates. And for those of you keeping track at home, we did find the location of a safe house in GTA: San Andreas. Nicole did not scoff as much as I thought she would every time we pointed out a GTA safe house.

Found a coolie hat.

And now to the food. It was really good dim sum. Better than Calgary sadly and more expensive. We couldn't have had more than 15 dishes and it was $60 USD. But soooo tasty.

Shanghai dumplings, rice rolls (although not as good as Calgary's as the hoisin and peanut sauce was missing, and bean curd thingys. The bean curd thingys were the only duds of the group.

Anyone who's gone to dim sum with me knows my love of cream buns. The topping was crunchy and sweet. And the inside, so delicious.

In the foreground was an interesting dumpling. I think it had bamboo and mushrooms?

And then we found a store with my name.

Landline PSA

2009-08-17T18:37:00.003-06:00

We are dropping our landline effective Sept. 3. So if you've been phoning us on that line (we're looking at you, parental units) you will be forced to phone us on our cells. If you don't have our phone numbers, drop a comment here or an email and we can update you.

We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty

2009-08-06T19:30:00.002-06:00

Back in January, I wrote I would like to do a 1 chin up by myself.

Today, I did two by myself.

I have to give credit to my co-worker for helping me train. My next fitness goal is to do five chin ups in a row.

I have to admit I'm pretty proud of myself. I've lost weight (I think) chasing this goal although my grandmother thinks my face looks better with more weight on it.

And, I've also read 22 books so far. The average Albertan read 19 last year but British Columbians read the most at 33 in a year.

On the ridge

2009-07-13T19:40:00.003-06:00

Not once, not twice, but three times we have been to Vimy Ridge. We've seen it in each season except winter. And it's still awesome.

View from the front of the memorial. It was a gorgeous day and you could see for miles.

Yep, it's high.

The memorial smells like sheep. The use the sheep to trim the grass as it isn't a big deal if the sheep steps on an explosive.

When they restored the monument, they recarved a lot of the names. According to a video we watched in the interpretive centre, the stonecarvers came to treat each letter with such reverence.

On our tour of the tunnels the first time around, the guide pointed this out. The story goes that while waiting to attack above ground, some industrious soldier carved this out of the soft chalk. We didn't get a proper snapshot then. This time around, we were in larger group so we were herded around the tunnels quite quickly. Luckily, we both kept an eye out for this, ducking into each room.

There's a small band of metal that terminates at either end in a maple leaf stone.

I'm not sure what this statue is about in Lille. We went from London to Lille, and then Lille to Vimy. It was a French holiday so nobody was around in the morning.

Look at how skillful the stone is carved to resemble cloth.

Even in the icon, the figure of Canada mourning is kept. They could have just designed the icon to have two columns but I guess they felt it was important to have the figure there too.

George Devloo would pick up stranded Canadians at the Vimy rail station. See, the village Vimy is near the monument but it is way more convenient to go to Arras. He would drive wayward tourists and student guides to the memorial out of the kindness of his heart. He died last year. The photo was in the interpretive centre and the text came from an MP's speech in the House of Commons.

We took a lot of photos. I guess to prove that we were there.

Birka

2009-07-09T18:40:00.008-06:00

Here are some photos of Birka. The one bad thing about the trip to Birka was that we only had the Viking sights pointed out to us near the end of our stay. We climbed the hill with the cross and saw a church which looked very picturesque. So we assumed those were the only sights to see. Fast forward to our tour and our guide points everything cool we didn't get to see. Thanks. Oh well. It was sunny and we got to make boat jokes.

This was a church honouring a monk who had come to the island to convert everyone. The door had scenes from the Bible.

Close-up of the church door.

Sign on the path that leads to the church. I like the dragon.

A cross honouring that same monk. Guess he was a big deal.

These are obviously Viking boats since they are boats on a Viking island.

Every summer archaeology students come to Birka to do some house building Viking style. I guess they discover how the Vikings built houses using tools and materials from that era. Looked pretty good for construction done by BAs. Thatching on the roof

I guess the students slept in the buildings? And had to have this because they ran fires?

DarNic

Bad bad pony. The museum had dioramas of what the town looked like back in its heyday.

This was a sleepy table on the way back.

Technically, this is not from Birka. This is a photo of aquavit. You eat it with the traditional Swedish appetizer of herring and bread. They keep it in the ice to keep it cool and pour a little bit into the glass. It's a bit licorice-cy.

What is the traditional fourth anniversary present?

2009-07-02T19:38:00.001-06:00

I have a feeling it is not iPhones. Thanks honey for grouping up with
me in this epic quest called life. Here's hoping we reach level 60.

A crowbar in every home

2009-06-20T14:24:00.000-06:00

You have to love a husband that buys you a crowbar for your birthday.
You know, for the coming zombie apocalypse. Right?

Vacation = Nap Time

2009-06-12T21:14:00.000-06:00

After a week and a half, I've had many chances to explain what made the latest vacation so fantastic. After a few tries, I think I've figured it out.

I rested.

Or, more importantly, I finally realized that a good vacation doesn't need to be a constant rush; it's not a bad thing to sleep in or people watch or chill in a park. So, this time around, we were quite comfortable sleeping in (or to a reasonable time), leisurely visiting a museum and then spending the rest of the day wandering, eating and resting.

That's a vacation I can get behind.

Of course, there probably is a difference between a restful trip and a trip when I nap all the time... hmmm... places I slept this trip include:

Planes
Trains
Taxis
Buses
Boats
A proper bed
A friend's couch
Brighton beach
St. James' Park

Panoramic Sweden

2009-06-10T20:57:00.004-06:00

Not a lot of writing in this post just a few interesting images thanks to Autostitch.

You know when you first get to a city and you have to take a lot of photos of the first thing you see? Well that was what created these shots in Stockholm.

Birka was once a fortified Viking settlement that saw much trade during the height of Viking influence. It is now a beautiful heritage site and museum that you can only reach after a couple of hours on a boat from Stockholm. The first view is from the base of the hill that served as natural fortifications. The second is from the top.

Maybe we didn't need a bigger boat

2009-06-08T08:54:00.000-06:00

Our last day in Sweden, we headed to the Vasa Musuem. Basically, the monarchy built this huge ship in the 17th century and on her maiden voyage, it sank... 20 minutes after launch. So it sat at the bottom of the Stockholm harbour and was only recovered around the 1960s. Then they built a musuem around it, commemorating this engineering fail.

The boat was too top heavy and when a strong wind push it over, it wasn't able to right itself and water rushed into the open gunports.

Some of the photos are blurry because it was super dark. I guess the museum is keen to preserve the boat.

Also, I had originally titled this post "We're going to need a bigger boat" and then realized I already made that joke. Oddly, we didn't quote that line to each other while at the museum.

An overview of the boat.

Another overview. There are five levels to the museum, because the boat is that big. The boat didn't have the sails because in the winter, you wouldn't have it rigged up like that. Also, those are not the original ropes. They did find some of the original canvas sails in the bottom of the boat.

I think this is the bow. Or at least the front of the boat.

This was a reproduction of the space at the top of the mast. It creaked ominously as you got on it.

The back of the boat was carved beautifully.

About 95% of the boat is original. The lighter colour wood (ie the statue holding the flag) is new. The restoration crew purposefully kept the new stuff smooth and lighter coloured so you could see how much of the boat was intact.

I think this is on the level second from the bottom.

Apparently, the boat was painted pretty brightly. Would you be afraid of this boat?

This is one of those gun ports that was left opened.

I wish this was in focus. But it's a gun-axe. I'm not sure how you reload it. Carefully?

The second in celebrity WTFs. This was in a section explaining the crew? I'm not sure.

If the boat looks waxy because the preservative stuff they used. The chemical replaced the water in the wood. Apparently, that's not the best way to preserve the wood. And the way the boat is resting is placing a lot of stress on the hull so they'll have to figure out a new way to present it.

Sweden

2009-06-06T19:58:00.008-06:00

If you're Facebook friends with Nicole, chances are you've seen some of these photos. Oh well. These aren't really in any order.

View of the sunset from our boat.

On our way to Birka. I'm not sure what's happening.

You gotta love foreign snack foods. It's a whole wall of spreads, in a tube, that you put on crackers. Bacon, fish, who knows? And look at Nicole's lovely teeth!

This picture really doesn't show how tiny our room was. I think it's smaller than my cubicle at work. Daorcey was not very skilled at getting to the top bunk at night.

Cool Pirate Party sticker. We also saw ads for the upcoming EU parliamentary election.

Nicole in a park.

We're standing in front of a river, but behind Daorcey is the palace. I'm not sure why we didn't take the picture there.

Dudes fishing in the river that runs through the city. You'd think with a giant net that you would catch a ton of fish but they caught one or two. I guess, just like the Bow and the Elbow, you can eat the fish you catch in the river. I would not do that with the fish you find in the Thames.

All the pubs had blankets for their outdoor seating. It's brilliant and all the pubs in Calgary should do it.

I think it's a prime minister or a king. Either way, he has a bird on his head and he's telling it where to go.

This photo was taken on our last day. The weather wasn't as nice as the two previous days. Anyways, Sweden has awesome infrastructure for bikes. Separate bike lanes, separate crossings so you don't interfere with pedestrians. It's great. We saw entire families biking around. I was jealous.

At first, I thught it was a movie poster. But it's for an airline. Also, Father Time has taken a tire iron to his face.

Daorcey was very excited to eat this fishburger.

Why is the fridge so empty?

2009-05-29T08:59:00.001-06:00

Home again and it's nice except for the piles of laundry and empty fridge. Pictures to come soon.

Brighton and Cambridge

2009-05-25T16:18:00.003-06:00

Friday we went to the National Gallery and Portrait Gallery. National Gallery was obviously the more interesting one. Had we not slept in we would have been able to go on two guided tours at the National Gallery but hey, we're on vacation.

Saturday we went to Cambridge, did a little punting (flat-bottomed boat on the River Cam), gawped at the college buildings, and did a ghost tour. The ghost tour included a tour of the back of the colleges on punts. Sadly, this was more interesting than the ghost tour part. The tour didn't have the right presentation.

Sunday we went to Brighton and sat on the pebbly beach for a couple of hours. The pier was expensive and boring. For the three of us to go on one ride, it was £12. I didn't think Brighton was all that great but the beach is very nice. It's a good place to people watch. There were three guys heading to the cold water in their underwear and we knew hilarity would ensue once they spent a few seconds in the cold water. One of the guys was wearing white underpants and when his friends had gotten out, he was still in the water, wondering how embarassing the next few minutes would be. He eventually got out and didn't look embarassed.

Today was a bank holiday and after a lie in until noon, we did a river tour and then another ghost walk. It was not as scary as the one we did in Victoria but the guide offered up interesting facts. Today also marked our first day of inclement weather. It was sunny for most of the day but in the late afternoon it started to rain.

Tomorrow we'll do the British Museum and a guided tour of Christopher Wren's London.

Third time's a charm

2009-05-22T03:35:00.002-06:00

Well, we finally made it.

The first time we traveled to the Vimy Monument (a brilliant suggestion from Natalie) in 2005, they had just closed access to the monument for a major restoration program. (As an aside, the monument really needed the work. We watched a video at the interpretive centre that explained how the monument was literally falling apart.)

Still, we were amazed by this massive piece of art commemorating Canada's unknown soldiers and the battle of Vimy Ridge. So, given the opportunity to go back as a couple of hangers on to a high-school trip in 2007, we tried again. This time, fewer of the barriers were there, but we were still blocked from getting to the monument. It was only two weeks before it would be opened to the public as part of the its 90th anniversary celebration.

And finally now, on our third attempt, we made it. Yesterday, we took an early Eurostar train out of London to Lille and then Arras for a taxi to the Vimy monument. While train transportation is relatively cheap in Europe, our taxi doubled the price. Still it was all worth it. We were finally able to get on the monument... to touch it and experience it as the architect and sculptor (Allward) intended.

It seemed like everything aligned to work out as well: we had as much time as we wanted to tour the monument, trenches, park and tunnels; the weather was excellent providing great views; and, well, everything was accessible.

More Vimy musings and photos to come when we get home. But in the meantime:

At the Canadian embassy

2009-05-19T09:40:00.002-06:00

Just finished up at the Imperial War Museum. The WWI and WWII exhibits were boring as we've seen a lot of museums that cover that period. The Holocaust artwork and the exhibit commemorating the 90th anniversary of WWI were interesting. If anything, I would recommend the Churchill War Rooms instead as it benefits from a better focus.

Now, we're sitting in the Canadian embassy checking the Internet and reading photocopies of the Globe. Well, we're just waiting until we can meet Nicole at the pub.

I just had to go to Stockholm

2009-05-19T01:59:00.002-06:00

I bought a similar shoe to this one last year and promptly wore them out. The right shoe is starting to show a hole in its heel and both shoes' soles are not looking well. In short, I loved those shoes. I loved them so much I even dragged my mother-in-law around West Edmonton Mall looking for those shoes. I even had a dream where I went to a store and found them and was so incredibly happy. When I woke up I was so happy until I remembered it was just a dream and then I was sad.

When it came to start thinking of what to bring to London, I thought of those shoes since they were so comfortable but left them at home since they would fall apart and I would have to buy other shoes. I know some of you are thinking, oh no shopping in London how horrible. Well, I'm cheap.

In Stockholm, yesterday the weather was sort of drizzly and after the Vasa museum, we started wandering downtown. We popped into Nordiska Kompaniet because it had Nicole's initials. It's like a much nicer bay. On the fourth floor, I saw a whole wall of Adidas products and thought maybe they'll have the shoe.

And they did!

And I found out why the shoe was hard to find. The shoe was part of a 2006 fall/winter collection. But maybe if I keep on going to European capitals, I'll keep finding my shoe.

We're going to need a bigger boat

2009-05-18T06:56:00.001-06:00

Leaving Stockholm today. Saw the Vasa, a large warship that sank 20
minutes into her maiden voyage. Let that be a lesson to you to
properly load your ballast. We're heading home soon. The weather has
been good the past two days although today it's raining. Our
traditional Swedish meals have been excellent. We'll probably post
some photos tomorrow.

In Stockholm

2009-05-16T14:20:00.003-06:00

Short recap of our day in Stockholm

- Got up early, although thanks to jet lag it didn't feel early, to get to the airport.
- Ryanair, the airline we flew, is essentially a bus with wings. There are ads on the overhead bin covers
- Wandered around Stockholm
- Toured the Swedish parliament. A little dry but did discover they only have one chamber, not the bicameral system common in other parliamentary democracies
- Decided we are going to visit Birka, a UNESCO world heritage site. It's an old Viking town. Hope to see Vikings
- Had delicious meal of elk meatballs with a cream sauce and ligonberries. The wine with our meal was double the price of my meal. Alcohol is expensive
- Hostel room is small but clean. Showers look okay

So vikings tomorrow!

Welcome to London

2009-05-15T10:56:00.004-06:00

All is well and we need to eat. Just popped into the home we're staying at before finding something to eat. Nicole is trying to explain to us how Londoners don't eat on Fridays.

Will be tourist--I need food.

View from our new "home".

Reputation

2009-05-07T18:44:00.007-06:00

How can you not laugh at this? Well, I guess you could not have been listening to hip hop in 1990... that would make the above photo a stop sign with graffiti.

In other news, I've been giving a fair amount of thought to my online reputation. "Reputation" is a critical feature of the work I do. While public relations is essentially story telling with purpose (more to it than that, but that's not what this post is about), at its core is an understanding that the reputation of a person, organization or idea is a powerful and valuable part of that person, organization or idea.

Your reputation is developed over time by what you do and what you say. It is measured by how people think about you. And sometimes your ideal reputation is not your actual one. For clients, that's often where I come in. You see, if you can identify how you want to be seen, you can take very specific actions to bridge the gap between your ideal and your actual reputation. And for those who worry that sounds a bit too Orwellian, it takes words and actions to get there.

Our reputations are typically produced in the public sphere. If you're doing something and others can witness it, your reputation is being formed. Furthermore, as those people talk to other people about you, your reputation is at their mercy.

But enough of the lecture.

The online world is essentially one massive public sphere. And while that may be obvious to some, it is easily forgotten... and to others: never realized.

Which brings me to my point: over the past 15 years, I've been building my reputation online. And up until five years ago, I didn't realize it.

Every photo, article, video, news release, blog post, tweet, podcast appearance, CRTC intervention... it's all there creating an image of Daorcey. It's my reputation for those who know me and those who don't.

Should I be worried? Possibly.

Because the next part is about realizing what that reputation is. What have I created for myself? Based on what you can find online about me, here are a few attributes:

Goofy
Thoughtful
Unthinking
Critical
Amusing
Self absorbed
Volunteer
Panda-eater
Gun-toter
Traveler
Sap
Jerk
Geek / Uber-Geek
Cynic
Party-er
Stick-in-the-mud
Manipulator
Soulless
Gamer
Reader
Flack
Writer

While that might not be all... it's enough. Clearly, some I'd like to keep and some I'd like to throw far, far away.

It's hard to wipe some of the stuff off the net. Sure, a few photos on Facebook can be untagged, but I can't ask the National Post to remove that editor's blog entry that calls me out for being PR support for a client (nor, can I have them remove the comment from a paranoid reader that suggests I'm part of a much larger conspiracy).

I've realized that all I can do now is be as vigilant as possible as I continue to have this very public online presence. Yes, keep it honest. But also keep it within the realm of that reputation I'd like to cultivate.

Blogging? Don't vent about the stupidity of... (fill in the blank here because as soon as I type in something like "colleague" all my coworkers will want to kick me in the junk)

Tweeting? Don't tweet about what you ate for breakfast, unless, of course, breakfast is a key feature of your identity. Then, by all means, give me the rundown.

MySpace updating? Don't update your closest friends about that new, secret client project. Even if you're just talking about "Project Gold Father" it will bite you in the ass.

Facebooking? Don't call it Facebooking... you'll just sound like a n00b who thinks the internets are made tubes and facebooks are like scrapbooks but with more faces.

In the last year, every time I go to write something in the online realm, I think twice (sometimes more than twice) about the long-term ramifications of my words. In many cases, they're there for good and even if you can delete a misstep, a phrase uttered can never be truly recovered.

(Don't get me started on Outlook's "recall" feature... what a stupid feature... I'm comfortable saying right now that should you ever send me a "recall" email following your original email, I will judge you... I will judge you harshly.)

So, here I am armed with my knowledge of online reputations and it has brought me to this point: self censorship. I guess I don't really mind. I am shaping my reputation after all.

And, I'm not exactly sanitizing my whole life. At this point, I'm comfortable with the complexity of reputation I have for myself. So, for now, I'm not scrubbing the internet of my dumb theatre "citicisms" from university. Nor am I deleting the photos of me in various Star Wars uniforms. Sure, maybe somewhere out there someone really hates me because of the online reputation I have. But for now, I'll stick with what I've got.

My nerdiness is getting in the way of my geekiness

2009-04-15T19:08:00.004-06:00

I apologize if our blog is suddenly "OMG VACATION!!11!" But when you get to see Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in a play, you can't help but want to tell people. Needless to say, we I've been making X-Men/Star Trek jokes. Nicole says I should be more excited because they are excellent thespians.

Anwyays, they are appearing in Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot (sorry for the Flash intro). Last time we were in London, we saw Patrick Stewart in A Life in the Theatre, so we're starting a trend.

Below are two classic videos from Extras starring McKellen and Stewart. We will be quoting them all week when overseas. Sorry Nicole.

Sir Ian:

Patrick Stewart:

No, Stockholm is not in the Netherlands

2009-04-05T13:43:00.004-06:00

We're going to Stockholm while visiting Nicole!

Thanks to actual airline competition, Ryanair had cheap flights. So we'll be flying to Stockholm for $53.85 CAD!

Sadly, Nicole won't let me visit an Ikea.

Not looking forward to Paris

2009-03-30T20:36:00.003-06:00

Let me tell you a story about why I am not enthused about returning to Paris.

We're in Paris after our tour of Belgian battlefields. Our tour guide, Barbara, has been wonderful and really accommodating (I think we asked about seeing German cemeteries every day while in Belgium). We're waiting for the tour bus to appear outside of our hotel. I am not sure why Daorcey does this, but he suddenly places his index finger in my left nostril.

Figuring he just wants a reaction, I don't do anything. If he discovers "something" it's his own fault, right? However, he keeps his finger in my nose long enough for Barbara to glance over and be totally horrified.

Since then, when Daorcey threatens to place a finger in my nose, I tell him he can only do it when we're in Paris. I just didn't think we'd be going back so soon...

I just hope he washes his hands first.

Away with us!

2009-03-22T15:10:00.003-06:00

For me, London occupies an important part in my heart. Thanks (for a large part) to Nicole, we spent some great days there being tourists. This a was a few months before we got married, and, although it certainly wasn't a honeymoon (honeymoon's aren't spent sleeping on the floor of a friend's one-room flat), it was an important vacation.

It was our first big trip together. From giddily sitting in the Calgary airport to figuring out transit in London and Paris to just walking around together and sharing in the surprise of seeing new things, it was all so exciting and new and wonderful. During periods of vacation and travel on my own or with family, I was often beset by moments where I wished to share it with someone else--someone who might just hold my hand and feel the same amazement of the gardens of Versailles or the view from a mountaintop. That trip to London and Paris and Vimy was filled with those kinds of moments--each one reinforcing that we could easily spend the rest of our lives together.

We don't travel enough of it, but it has featured significantly into our lives together. Whether it's making a long distance relationship work between China and Canada at the height of the SARS crisis or taking a quick road trip to Seattle to watch a made-for-tv movie, travel has been a notable and wonderful part of our relationship.

Photo from the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Shot by Nicole.

And so, we're quite excited to be planning another trip to London for later this spring. History, food, architecture, art... there's a lot we're looking forward to and we're finding that, even though we'll be there longer this time, we're going to had to make decisions on what things MUST be done and what things can wait until we return again.

We've taken out almost every London travel book from the library, but that's not making things any easier. I guess, as we get closer to the date, we'll be more motivated to make the tough decisions on a somewhat flexible itinerary.

So far, our plans include spending most of our time in London with a couple of day trips and a quick jaunt out of the country to return to Vimy Ridge via Paris. And now it looks like we might also do Amsterdam for a couple of days. This could become another whirlwind tour, but I think we can handle it.

I've made sure to work out more regularly so I can carry Natalie around as much as I can a la this photo from our first trip.

Even though we're doing a bunch of research on what we'd like to do for this trip, we'd welcome any suggestions from our readers. Any must-see, of overlooked, gems in London?

This is going to rock.

Carless and Fancy Free

2009-03-11T16:34:00.005-06:00

We did it.

We'd talked about it. There was some musing. A bit of discussion even. But then we just went ahead and did it.

We sold the car.

Emotions, at this point, are mixed. I was excited to finally take the plunge and go carless in Calgary (something that's been done by a few others, so why not us?). Finally dropping the car might be quite an adventure and lead to many new experiences as we find other ways to get around the city.

But, on the other hand, it was sad to see my taller little brother (the purchaser) turn the corner and drive the car out of sight... to be parked and driven in other city in the far North. That little green Echo had brought us places (like Moosejaw and Seattle). We've been looking for photos of it on our many trips with it, but all we can find are ones that include the inside of the vehicle.

So, yes, we'll miss Echo (creative name, right?), but we'll always have the memories of long rides and mid-trip naps. And, of course, I'll never forget that Echo was my "reason" to get Natalie out to a secluded spot in the mountains south of Canmore so I could surprise her with my marriage proposal.

On a Saturday afternoon in 2004, I convinced Natalie that she should come with me on a small road trip to Canmore so I could test out my newly purchased 2000 Echo as we take it onto some secondary roadways (some bumps, hills and rocks). So we went on our little drive listening to music and enjoying the scenery (although there are moments of heights were neither of us was very pleased). Eventually, we came to a small lake further off the beaten path that still had ice on it despite the warm May weather. The sun was out and I surprised Natalie by pulling off the road and suggesting a quick picnic of strawberries and sparking apple juice.

Personally, I think she was more surprised that I pre-washed the strawberries.

And so, as we sat our our blanket at the side of this small lake snacking and drinking, I said "oh, I also got you a present" and I took out a small green glass box. And inside of that glass box, resting in folds of velvet was a diamond ring.

"willyoumarryme?"

As we drove home later that day, we were both excited and even anxious about the adventures that lay ahead. The Echo isn't part of that story any more, but it did have a role to play those few years ago.

We gave the car a big hug when Arone took it to its new home on Sunday.

Blurg... V-D

2009-02-14T11:52:00.004-07:00

Let's take a moment to, once again, celebrate this made-up holiday with candy hearts and recycled romance.

Good grief.

I had a conversation the other day with someone who works at a high-end restaurant in Calgary. He told me how much he hates Valentine's Day. Why?

The restaurant is filled with people who rarely go out and who've never come to (name withheld). A few couples stare lovingly at each other while not buying more wine or food and the majority are in a bad mood. Either way, no one tips very well and it's an overall crappy night.

Yup, sounds about right. And here's my rant to go with it:

If we are going to create a SINGLE day of the year to show how much we care about someone, chances are the 364 days of ambivalence and bitterness are going to win out. If romance and love are so important, why bring them to the foreground for only one day a year? Doesn't that suggest that that majority of relationships don't have any love or romance? Isn't that a problem? Hello? Hello?

Maybe it's just me, but I'm annually offended by the suggestion that I MUST BUY something for the woman I love (Natalie) because I clearly don't do enough of it all year round.

Wow. Thanks, Hallmark. I've suddenly realized that I'm a boorish man living in the shell of a relationship that can only be revived through some easy-to-do consumer actions. Yes, thanks a lot.

But, maybe I'm wrong. Are you living in a relationship where the acknowledgment of your flagging love for each other happens once a year on February 14th? If you are, I'm sorry and you have the right to cuss me out in the comments.

This is also linked to my thoughts on birthdays and Christmas... Why be nice to each other, give gifts, have meals together, and celebrate our shared humanity only once a year? Is it so hard to do that more regularly? To give gifts when you see that perfect something for that special someone? To share how you feel when you feel it? To eat good food with good friends when you're hungry and want to talk? Can't we do that more often?

Sigh... maybe we can.

In the meantime, here's a Valentine card that makes me smile.

Island of Misfit Toys

2009-02-04T10:06:00.003-07:00

Sometimes when you see a box, you can't help but get in.

What you can't see from the photos is my new-ish boss laughing at us And I wasn't the only one to give the box a try. One girl fit better than me and the other guy, the one whose cube we wrapped, couldn't fit his shoulders in.

No, really, we do work.

What's in our fridge

2009-01-19T19:39:00.005-07:00

As I was putting away our containers of carrots and celery for lunch tomorrow, I looked in my fridge and noticed this:

Ten (10) containers of Liberte yogurt that don't hold yogurt and one (1) that does. That eleven does not include the two in the freezer holding pasta sauce. Judging by this photo, it appears pear is my favourite flavour, followed by raspberry.

Besides excellent yogurt, the containers are pretty robust. They can hold a peach and prevent smushing and they're not too big so you don't overeat at lunch.

I usually bring a couple of these to work to hold munchies and if someone hasn't seen them before, they ask "How much yogurt do you eat?" Apparently, the answer is a lot.

Border security with zest

2009-01-10T19:31:00.004-07:00

Bringing fruits and vegetables can be complicated... Fresh fruits and vegetables can carry plant pests or diseases into the United States.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Some time ago, a car-load of geeks decided on a trip to the home of the "Northwest's largest value mall" (Auburn, WA) to take in a special showing of... a made for TV movie. That story's elsewhere.

A 15-hour drive requires some serious planning, especially in the area of snack foods. A half-day with Twizzlers and Starburst sustenance will not end well. If history has taught us anything, it is that citrus is the way to go. Prevent scurvy--eat oranges.

One kilogram of oranges later, we're ready to rock and roll. We've also picked up a few other "healthy" snacks for the drive, but those were really incidental since we were more concerned with our "Seattle or Bust" t-shirts.

Not quite sure how the topic of appropriate border-crossing foods came up, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't from me. A keen little trick I learned from Dad is an ability to do an instant personality change around border security: he gets flustered; I get stupid.

I'm the guy that once attempted to have a debate with a border guard over the government's definition of plants versus cigars. I'm the guy Natalie has to remind to "just shut up!" when we get in the security lineup. I'm the guy that almost made a solid "flavour explosion" joke in LAX.

So, you must understand that I would never be the guy to bring up a discussion on whether oranges can go from Canada to the USA via the land border. (That's my way of absolving myself from what was to come).

Upon buying the aforementioned one kilo of orange-goodness, someone might have mentioned that oranges might not be safe to cross the border.

"Could we eat them all?" Possibly, but that's a lot of oranges to consume in one day. Scurvy's always a credible threat, but... that's a lot of oranges.

At this point, someone else recalled a relevant orange anecdote. It seems that the last time they crossed from the USA to Canada, the topic of oranges in the car did come up. Fortunately, nice Mr. Border Guard said "No worries, kind Canadians, it is just the orange peel that is restricted. If you simply peel those oranges, we'd be happy to let you through with that tasty snack."

"Thank you, Mr. Border Guard."

And so, we were very confident that oranges would not become a problem, and we didn't give it a second thought until we started to near the border.

"Hey, how many oranges do we have left?"

"Um, like, nearly all of them?"

"What? Hasn't anyone been eating those?"

"Were you?"

"No."

"Well..."

Of course, we now know that peels are clearly verboten, so we had only one solution. Rather than gorge ourselves on fruit, we would peel all one kilo of oranges. Fortunately, we had a giant Ziploc bag for just that possibily.

So, we set Vanessa on the task of peeling.

Forty-five minutes later, we had:

One garbage bag full of peels
Ten fingers stained (permanently?) orange
One car filled with a zesty orange flavour
One LARGE clear plastic bag filled with peeled oranges

I've since learned one interesting thing about oranges: when together, they naturally juice themselves. Amazing, really. With just the help of gravity, a bit of light friction and the help of an enclosed plastic bag, they quickly begin creating a pool of fresh juice.

Tasty.

Of course, we'd never want to pull anything over on nice Mr. Border Guard, so we made sure to store our one kilo baggy of juicing oranges between Natalie and myself at the front of the car. He won't be able to miss these!

As the sun sets, we near the border and start to get excited. We're getting closer to our destination! This trip is so cool!

We pull up to the booth where nice Mr. Border Guard is standing and I roll down my window.

The man instantly wrinkles his nose as he's met with a blast of hot, orange air from our car. I'm smiling like an idiot.

"Are those oranges?" He points to the one kilo bag of oranges that seem to be squeezing themselves to a pulpy mess.

"Oh yes! We peeled them!" I reply and I hold up the bag for his inspection. I might as well have held up a gun and proudly proclaimed we'd left the bullets at home.

"I'll have to take those and throw them out." There was a lack of humour and good nature in his voice and face. I'd seen this before.

"But we peeled them..."

No dice. I quickly resigned myself that this was only going to end with me handing over that sweet, juicy bag of orange. I briefly contemplated asking if I could eat them all before we crossed into the States.

I guess the peeling rule isn't as consistently applied as we thought. And so ended our plan for healthy snacks and staving off scurvy. Our trip back was fed with energy drinks and chips.

2009-01-09T18:51:00.003-07:00

My goals for this year:

- do 1 (one) chin up
- read 50 books

Progress is slow on the chin up front. I have a co-worker helping with this goal. It's just going slowly and seems to involve a lot of pushups. And why the goal of a chin up? It started with "I don't want flappy arms" and then went to "I'd like to do one chin up". I used to have wicked arms after tossing around fish in my last year of university but pushing a mouse around all day is not conducive to musculature.

Books are going much better. I've finished three books and I'm quickly running through my library holds list. So if you had any suggestions, they would be appreciated. The last book I read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A man and his son try to survive post-apocalyptic America. I started reading it because it's going to be released as a movie soon and the adaptation is never good.

Rockin' with the 'rents

2008-12-30T16:14:00.005-07:00

Among the suitcases, plastic recycling, and presents we brought up to Edmonton, we also packed our Xbox 360 and Rock Band.

The parents only started playing because we had dragged all these plastic instruments up from Calgary. We then proceeded to play for 2 HOURS. At best, I thought we would play for 30 minutes and then move onto something else.

Update: I figured there should be a goofy photo of me. Arone and Kristi bought me this monkey hat. I am enjoying it very much.

"I am a black belt in wrapping"

2008-12-22T10:53:00.006-07:00

My co-worker was inspired by this:

And thus this happened. We even got people to fill out gift tags. The pranked co-worker left on Wednesday so it gave us some time to wrap. He's back the same day as me in January so I'll be there to record his reaction.

If you want to know why the walls, chair, and desk were not wrapped, send me an e-mail. It's not a super interesting reason but I'd rather say over e-mail.

Not a body in a dumpster

2008-12-12T17:32:00.004-07:00

It's kinda nice to have our street in the newspaper not because they found a body.

But recently the snowman has taken an ominous turn as it slowly leans forward and its celery nose droops. And one of the eyes is missing.

It might be just me...

2008-12-03T22:32:00.001-07:00

But every time I hear the phrase "Harper wants to prorogue
Parliament," I think Harper just wants to invite all the MPs over to
his house for some good ol' fashioned perogy making.

Am I the only one?

2008-12-03T07:53:00.002-07:00

To all those upset about the current political situation:

This. Is. How. Our. System. Works.

If we don't like how it works, we can:

a) Move away
b) Become involved and change the system/the constitution

Upset about the potential policies that might come out of this parliamentary upheaval? Fair enough. 'Tis the nature of democracy.

But we can't be indignant about appearance of a coalition within a minority government environment. Sure, it hasn't happened all to much, but our system allows for it to ensure the representation of the majority.

This is a situation we (and by "we", I mean all those who voted in the last federal election) created. Our votes and the election of our candidates created the government we have now.

You can be upset. But, please, be upset for the right reason.

(There. That was cathartic.)

Apparently, sick kids love Barbie movies

2008-12-01T19:09:00.004-07:00

Our Christmas charity for this year is Child's Play. Child's Play is essentially gamers buying video games, books, and toys for children's hospitals around the world. Calgary's hospital finally got on the boat this year so we were very excited to buy them stuff, including Arone's Sonic game. Fine, Bioware's DS game but Arone worked on it.

If you're interested in purchasing something here are some links:

If you're keen to buy us a Christmas present (if you were planning to, no pressure) and don't know what to buy, we'd certainly endorse this option.

Turkey Day

2008-11-29T19:15:00.003-07:00

Instead of visiting our families for Thanksgiving, we decided to visit James.

One of the highlights of the trip was the delicious turkey dinner James and Christa cooked up. It was delicious. James graciously bought Daorcey a tofurkey and thus a vegetarian was able to participate in the carving of a faux-meat product.

Here are some photos.

Luckily James' cookbook provided instructions to carve a turkey. I think that cookbook helped with every dish James had to cook this fine meal.

No instructions required here.

The carcass. There's no such thing as off the record.

While James and Christa were slaving away in a kitchen, we scampered about Granville Island. We found penguin puppets. Also outside the Emily Carr Institute was an adult-sized seesaw.

It's a Thanksgiving miracle. A picture with Daorcey's eyes open.

Sadly, a real penguin would not be this accommodating.

Don't let the fiberglass exterior fool you. I had to protect Daorcey from this bear.

No thinking required

2008-11-27T18:48:00.006-07:00

Being a non-Conservative voter in Calgary means you don't have to think at election time.

Really. The MP could be, say Rob Anders, and they're still elected. I've almost started thinking of my vote not as a vote for an MP but which party best deserves $1.95. As of this moment, each party receives money based on how many votes they collected, although the government might remove that.

Visiting James in Vancouver during the election drove home how lazy us non-Conservative voters are in Calgary. James faced a real dilemma in his riding.

He had two choices:

Vote for the Green Party candidate, a person who would represent the riding well and represented the Greens' best hope to elect an MP.
Or vote strategically and unenthusiastically for the Liberal candidate to avoid a Conservative majority.

Not much of a choice, in my opinion.

I think the only time I ever faced a real decision was during a university student government election. I voted for the safe candidate instead of who I really wanted. Not only did I deprive myself of giving my vote to someone who I thought deserved to win, but also a really interesting year for the News Editor.

Anyways, here are some non-Harper images we found in Vancouver.

According to Daorcey, the Danny in "Go Danny Go" is a reference to Danny Williams, Newfoundland premier.

A late Obama post

2008-11-22T19:40:00.001-07:00

I'm sure you've all seen the now iconic Obama Hope/Progress poster.

I was hoping when we went to Seattle we would see some election material. We spotted the Obama poster at a tiny coffee shop in Seattle. I love that it's beside a Bobby Kennedy poster.

And if you haven't read Newsweek's behind the scenes account of the election, go now. It's ridiculous how much the reporters' were allowed to see and report.

"American money smells funny"

2008-11-18T17:22:00.003-07:00

Of all the things we did at PAX, meeting Wil Wheaton was probably the only one that met our expectations.

Watching Next Generation, I did not have a crush on him. So I didn't think I'd be overwhelmed. I really enjoy his blog and he seems normal.

Wil did a book signing the day before his one-man panel (how does one person be a panel? He's kinda awesome that way). I had left Daorcey behind at the Penny Arcade Q&A. As I waited in line I realized Daorcey had no idea where I was and had to leave to find him. Luckily the couple in front of him saved my spot, or so I hoped as I left.

Found Daorcey and found my spot was also saved. I bought Wil's chapbook for the couple who saved my spot as a thank you which Wil said "was sweet."

I'm giving the impression here that I was a smooth operator when I met him and I was not. We go up to him and all I can say is "Hi..." That's it. Just several ellipsises full of silence. Daorcey jumps in and asks Wil about his various books for sale and I think Wil is relieved I'm not going to just stand there and stare at him. When I finally mention I would to purchase a book I blurt out "American money smells funny. Canadian money doesn't smell." I don't think Wil found it too odd but replied that Canadian money smells like good government and health care.

So about for two hours later I berated myself for acting like a dork. Especially since there was a ready made topic to talk about: his velvet painting of Wesley Crusher paid for by one of my favourite authors. But there's always PAX 2009.

What's the message?

2008-11-11T17:41:00.002-07:00

It's been a somber day in Canada as many of us observe Remembrance Day on the 90th anniversary of the armistice of the Great War. I was fortunate to have the day off and spent the morning at The Military Museums with 10,000 other people as part of the Remembrance Day ceremonies.

There are a few posts on this blog about past wars and the nature of war today. This fits in with it.

Throughout today's ceremony, I was struck by seemingly central message to the surrounding crowds about the reasons for war: these soldier's died so that we may enjoy freedom, democracy, security, etc.

It's not a particularly surprising message. In fact, I'm sure many of us would say it's something we've heard many times before. "The fought and died for us..."

Now, I'm not intending to be disrespectful toward those who serve in our military, but I just don't buy it. But, why shouldn't I? If this message has been around so long, why doesn't it resonate with me? Not only does it not resonate with me... this message also makes me uncomfortable. I'd say it even rings hollow when I hear it.

Does it bother you?

The communicator in me thinks that the message about the protection of our liberties is an old one meant for a different audience perhaps 30 years ago. It is a message meant for persuading a populace that their military is needed because "the hun" (whoever they may be) is at our door. Any military action at home or abroad is meant to truly protect us from certain destruction.

That just isn't the case any more for today's Canadian citizen. Or, then again, maybe I'm wrong... maybe Canadians are worried that Al Qaeda is just waiting to take over our country... maybe they are concerned that a Taliban-run Afghanistan is a serious threat to our democracy, freedom, existence, etc.

But for me, that just doesn't seem realistic. And so the messages I heard today at the Remembrance Day ceremonies worn... they couldn't hold up to how I see the world and our role in it. Instead, throughout the hour-long ceremony, I found myself silently rephrasing the reasons for war--re-articulating our military raison d'etre.

Military action, for me, is about protecting the human rights of those who are at risk. It is about stopping/preventing genocide. It is about ensuring an international standard of humanity and equality.

I have Romeo Dallaire to thank for that one.

But does anyone else out there see it that way? My government representatives seem confused because their messaging seems to move back and forth. But, as soon as you suggest we have soldiers in Afghanistan to protect my way of life, I get suspicious.

Is it because the protection of other people isn't enough to get a populace to support it's military? Is it easier to gain political points by saying it's about protecting ourselves?

I'd like to think we're more humanistic than that. I'd like to think the protection of human rights (including the right to exist) is more important than that... even if it isn't our own human rights we're protecting.

So, the next time my elected official makes that argument, I'm with them. Until that, I'll just assume they're not speaking to me.

Overheard while playing Fallout 3

2008-11-10T16:08:00.001-07:00

"I'm going to eat your arms... when you're dead!"

"... and that's how you get to llama school."

Quick no-car update

2008-11-09T16:26:00.001-07:00

We're waiting for the #2 by Crowchild Trail to take us home.
Conclusion: transit is super convenient when you have a planned route
to your destination ( as we had for out trip to visit a friend at the
hospital today), but it's not as great on a Sunday when you're waiting
for that connection that only comes on the half hour.

Fortunately, the weather is nice and we don't have anywhere to be
(except for the post-apocalyptic wastelands is Washington DC).

Still, we're thinking the no-car lifestyle remains doable. Transit is
working, we have only had need of a car a few times, and cabs are
always an option (which we haven't been taking since we might as well
use our car if we have it--something we've only done twice).

I was pleased to find out that a co-worker of mine hasn't had a car for
a few years and she lives in our neighbourhood. Interesting...

Is that the bus I see?

Sent from my iPod

By the power of blogskull!

2008-11-09T14:21:00.001-07:00

It seems I have the power to blog on the run with fancy updates via
email. And, now that I have the power of the iPod touch, I can do it
anywhere there's wifi. Cool, eh?

The only assumption is that I'll have something to say.

I get paid to write, yet...

2008-11-06T20:17:00.002-07:00

The curry is cooking and Natalie is on song three of a six song "hard" challenge on Rock Band 2. She's rather pleased with her mad skillz...

I have a Facebook account and a MySpace account and I'm beginning to think I could really care less about them. I really don't have the time or energy to devote to them. Nor do I particularly care to do so.

But it's funny that nearly every other day, I lament the fact that I have seriously neglected the blog. I has been more than a few times when I mention that I miss the old days when I was inspired to write a couple of times a week. And it's not that I don't have anything more to say, it's just that I seem to be that much busier writing material for which I get paid. I think there's some irony in there somewhere...

I miss the blog.

I miss expressing myself in random ways. I miss spending two hours thinking of the most effective way to share a certain thought whether it be humourous, serious or banal. I miss conversations via comments.

Through work, I hear about the evolution of the webz and that what was in just a few years ago (say, around the time of our wedding) is moving on. I should be twittering, not devoting thought to a long and boring post. And that trend makes me wonder if this is what it's like for me to get old... Am I yearning for a comfortable medium when I should be switching it up and running with the pack? Am I about to start yelling at the kids to get off my lawn while I plug away at a blog post about yesterday's news? Sigh... the things that concern me...

I'll get over it soon enough. And I'm hoping it'll mean I'll be back to DarNat more often. I mean, I have thoughts and stories and useless information to share. And there's this whole thing about not driving, which is into it's third month. There's news to be shared with the... zero people who check this little space of the online world.

You know, once I had google analytics on this site and I was so enthralled that we had readers in China, Australia and Texas.... ah, how things have changed.

This has been cathartic. See you again soon... after Natalie and I play some more Fallout 3.

PAX: Something like this

2008-09-15T20:25:00.012-06:00

Geeks like to line up. Movies, games, Wil Wheaton book signings. We shouldn't have been surprised, but to have an entire room devoted to a line up seems excessive. It wasn't. They actually needed that room to accommodate the lines that formed for game demos, the keynote, and the Q&A with the Penny Arcade creators .

Welcome to PAX. This was the LINE UP ROOM.

PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo.

(Editor's Note: for those who haven't chatted to us in a while, this is how we spent our one vacation of the year... at PAX... in Seattle... playing games... with 40,000 other people...)

Ahem. PAX: The creators of the webcomic Penny Arcade thought it would be awesome to have a place where gamers could come together and do gamer things. However, PAX is way more than just video games. There are panels (eg: advertising versus PR - Daorcey was keen on that one); tournaments based on video games, card games (like Magic), and tabletop miniatures; free nighttime concerts featuring nerdcore artists like the Freezepops and Jonathan Coulton; playable demos in the exhibition hall. It's also a place where you can flop down on a giant bean bag, break out your DS, and play a game.

Something odd about the creators is that many people only know them as their comic characters: Tycho and Gabe. And they seem perfectly fine with people using their real names and comic names interchangeably. (Editor: this was something I learned at the first day's Q & A in a theatre that was filled with at least a few thousand people.)

Shockingly, I thought the level of cosplay would be much higher as such a festival of nerdocity but it was kept to a very sane level. Still, the costumes present were cool like the Prince from Katamari Damacy (below). Let me explain the game (Katamari) although it might hurt your brain. It might also help to explain it is Japanese. The Prince's father the King destroyed all the planets in the cosmos (Editor: "destroyed" in what can best be explained as eventful night of partying) except Earth, and it is the Prince's job to gather enough items from Earth to replace them. He does this by rolling a giant sticky ball in mundane places like a house or backyard and then eventually graduates to rolling up skyscrapers, continents, and giant Godzillae. I really love this game.

Naa, na, na, na, na...

We also had three days in Seattle which did not involve nerdage. The public market was an awesome source of snack food, coffee, and fish throwing. The flying fish did not disappoint although it must be hard to run a bakery near the pungent seafood. Also during the three days of the convention, you could tell who was a nerd and who wasn't. Typically, nerds traveled in packs of two to four, maybe with one female, and nerd shirts (Editor: if you're confused about what a nerd shirt is, see Natalie's wardrobe) were always involved. It was a fun game to pick them out.

Is this sign famous? We kept seeing postcards of it everywhere.

We did an underground tour that chronicled a bizarre time in Seattle history. The founders of Seattle thought it would be awesome to build on a flood plain. It wasn't. When toilets were installed, owners had to be aware of the crapper geysers that would happen when the tide rolled in. Luckily, a fire came along and wiped out most of Seattle that sat on the tide plain. The business owners immediately started building, but the city said: hey, let's build the city up 30 feet and then start rebuilding. The businesses ignored the city planners and were in for a big surprise when the city came along and started building 30-foot walls on either side of the existing roads. Then the city began to take dirt from the hills higher up and rubble from the fire and throwing it into the middle of the walls to fill them up and make 30-foot high roads. To get around, people would climb up on a ladder, cross the street, and then climb down another ladder. Two years later, it was deemed unsafe as people and horses randomly fell into the sidewalks 30 feet down. The city covered over the sidewalks and the underground was born. (Editor: and now we tour it... thanks, James, for coming to visit and tour with us!)

Two fun facts:
1. Because the city did a horrible job of filling in the roads, the roads are still settling.
2. I'm not sure Seattle demolished most of the hills around it to get dirt to fill in the roads. The city is still hilly.

Although this now takes us back to PAX, I think this picture speaks for itself:

Event of interest from PAX: Us waiting to see Wil Wheaton speak. He was probably the highlight of the entire convention. We waited two hours to see him speak... so I guess I'd better explain: The previous day we had waited 1.5 hours to see the Fallout 3 demo. Part of it was excitement to see the game but also to participate in a demo with a large crowd. Unbeknownst to us, and many others in the LINE UP ROOM, the viewing theatre had filled up way before we joined the line, so we had wasted our time (ie: 1.5 hrs). Learning our lesson, the next day we lined up 2 hours early for Wheaton's panel and were rewarded with second row seats. He was brilliant, funny, and way more than Wesley (Editor: Crusher). There will be another post where I detail meeting Wil.

This picture of us at the Wil Wheaton session also looks like another picture... oh yeah:

Here's Wil. He's a lot more animated but this was the only good photo I could find. Everything else was blurry because he was bopping around stage.

And I also made a new friend.

I call him Metally.

After our first day of PAX, we were greeted by these musicmakers. (Editor: OMG, this post is totally NOT in chronological order.) They are making music with the old school GameBoys and the sounds from the games. It was awesome.

We're thinking of going back next year but we're also thinking about a biking trip through Belgium. We'll have to give this some more consideration. But, a week away to go to a gaming conference and shop in Seattle (Editor: and chill at a fantastic downtown hotel courtesy of a PAX discount) was really enjoyable. I guess we'll see.

And that was PAX.

Walkening: The Update

2008-08-27T21:20:00.002-06:00

So far there have only been two times we wanted to use the car and one time where we did.

Time #1 August 1
We saw Jeff's fringe play and this time the walking was a bit more extensive. We had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant and walked to Inglewood.

Walking time: 25 minutes
Driving time: 6 minutes

Plus we saved on parking, so let's say $5. The walk there was fine as we saw the new Stampede Casino, walked by Elbow River, and saw the remains of an old maternity hospital. The play was excellent.

Now getting home we expected to be a bit tricky. We could get a ride home or walk. As we are old and married, we went home early and walked to the City Hall train station with Ben. The path to the train station would takes us past the areas where the homeless bed down for the night but Ben reassured us they were all sleeping. I wasn't worried about being attacked but more about the long walk.

But nothing happened and we caught a shuttle bus as the C-Train is down for some maintenance.

Time #2: August 17
Nicole was back in town for her sister's wedding. Day before she left for Las Vegas, we met up at Tim Hortons in Avenida. I think this was the only time I've wanted to take the car. We didn't leave the house until 8:30 p.m. And it being a Sunday night the trains ran infrequently and we didn't arrive until 9:30., Then the Tim's kicks us out because the close at 10 p.m. Apparently, this Tim's was no longer 24 hours. Also, Nicole was severely annoyed that the teenaged employees joyfully tossed the food into the garbage when we bought very similar food 10 minutes ago.

Luckily the Boston Pizza next door was open and we had surprisingly lovely spinach and artichoke dip. Unluckily, we were catching a train at 11 p.m. and it was a Sunday night and they run... as frequently as C-Trains on a Sunday night. Needless to say, we were tired Monday morning.

And the time we used the car
Went up to Edmonton Fringe on Aug. 16. We tracked our mileage but due to work schedules we haven't had time to figure out our cost. But it didn't help our costs that we stayed with Daorcey's parents who live 30 minutes outside of the city and had to pay for parking. Next year, and we always say this at the end of Fringe, we'll stay in the city and make a long weekend of it.

Conclusions:
Taking the C-Train is fine when:
- it is not under maintenance
- it is not Sunday night

It's going to be a month Friday and I don't think we've seen people less or done less. In fact, the thing that may keep us inside is the release of Force Unleashed. But there's only been one time where I wanted to use the car so that's pretty good.

Day 1: Tonight we meet at Al's!

2008-08-03T19:15:00.001-06:00

Aug 29: Day 1

My pal Al was in town and this was my first chance to put no-car transit to the test. Al lives down south and it is usually a 30 minute drive. I biked to the 8 St. C-Train stop, hopped on the train, and got off at Shawnessy; pretty much cake. I had a couple of technical issues with the bike when I got off. The kickstand was in the way of the pedal and the back wheel wouldn't go backwards. However, it was solved by wrenching the kickstand into place and moving my back fender.

My next challenge was negotiating Macleod Trail/162 Ave. It's not great in a car and on a bike it wasn't as bad as I predicted. The trick was just catching the crosswalk lights to so I'm not cooling my heels as cars endlessly turn. And I cheated by riding on the sidewalk. There was no way I was getting mowed down by a truck. Once I got to the intersection Sun Valley Blvd. and Sunmills Drive, I hopped onto the road and made my way to Al's down Sun Valley Blvd. Then I had a lovely time chatting with Al.

Driving distance: 19.3 km (according to Google Maps)
Driving time: 30 minutes

Biking time (including C-Train): ~45 minutes. I didn't pay attention on my way to Al's but the return trip was about that.

Observations:
-Sun Valley Blvd has subtle hills and valleys. Something you don't notice coasting in a car and makes it challenging to sustain. When you bike downtown, you're catching stoplights constantly so you always have time to pause. I think I'm about to see that everywhere.

-Elevation kits for trucks have their place... somewhere, but not in the city. On the Canyon Meadows/Macleod Trail overpass, I spotted from the train a truck that was easily the height of two sedans. At first I thought it was on top of another truck but then I noticed the gigantic wheels. It easily dwarfed another truck in front of it and that truck was not small.

-Very few pedestrians out in the 'burbs but a couple of bikers. I think that Superstore/Safeway/Co-op/Home Depot area, "a power centre" is about as pedestrian-unfriendly as you can get. It's featured quite negatively in Radiant City.

The Experiment

2008-08-03T19:00:00.009-06:00

If anyone could make it in Calgary without a car, it should be us.

Background: We live downtown, seven blocks from the C-Train, eight blocks from Daorcey's work, and four blocks from the Safeway. Obviously, we use our car very little. The last time we filled up was three weeks ago... in Nanton. And the last time I drove was to Anna's in Signal Hill. But the tank is half full and it doesn't look like we'll fill it anytime soon.

Experiment: To forgo the use of our personal motorized vehicle for two months, starting July 29. Yeah, it's arbitrary.

So can we be free of car ownership and what are the associated costs?

Benefits:
-Savings in insurance, maintenance, and gas. We'll have another post that outlines savings and expenses.
-More physical activity.
-Reduced environmental impact.

Challenges:
-How to attend our evening activities outside of the downtown core? Daorcey teaches an evening class in Killarney and I might start up floor hockey again.
-Poor weather. Our experiment doesn't encompass a true Canadian winter.

Unknowns:
-How do we define "success" and what happens if we do determine this is a success? Do we sell the car and rent our parking spot?
-If we had a kid, how would we get Junior around? What if Junior played soccer or did extracirricular activities? I don't think we would be considering this if we had a Junior.

The Rules (so far):
-No car (This is Daorcey's contribution).
-We'll try to track the distance to the destination by car and our method (bike, walking, transit). Time to make the trip will also be recorded.
-We'll also track our transit costs like bus tickets for Daorcey and taxi cabs. My transit pass will not be included because I would buy one regardless if we had a car.
-In the event we need to use our car, we'll track our car usage as if it were a car-share car. So distance, cost per hour, insurance, etc. -When taking longer trips that would require a rental car, use our car but calculate the exact price for a rental. Look for this when we hit up the Edmonton Fringe Festival.
-Keep the ride mooching to a minimum. This isn't an experiment to discover how many friends we can lose. Besides, very few friends have cars.

Why are we so crazy: I bought a bike and then Daorcey started whining about how he wanted to ride too. Then, at folk fest (so I guess the hippies are at fault), I proposed getting rid of our car. Today, I couldn't remember the last time we put gas in the tank and Daorcey had to refer to his credit card bill. Obviously, we're not using the car that much. So what would it take to eliminate the car completely and is it cheaper?

We promise we won't get all preachy about how environmentally decadent your pollution wagons are. Sometimes you need a car. How else do will we get Rock Band 2 home?

Fringe 2008: Shameless Plugs

2008-07-29T20:42:00.006-06:00

Let's start in chronological order... from there, who knows where we'll go?

Do you know Jeff Kubik? If you don't, you should... or, at least, you soon will. Fresh from his first year of the playwrights program at Montreal's Concordia University, Jeff has already seen two of his comedic works produced this summer (Unsolicited Mail at Edmonton’s NextFest and Die, Mrs. Veenstra, Because You Are Old at Calgary’s Ignite! Festival).

Next stop: Use Me: An Undead Musical at Calgary's evolving Fringe Festival, running from August 1 to 9. Check out the website--it's got photos and music clips too.

I'm stoked. Music, the undead, romance... how cool is that? I've been fortunate to have been a small part of this project by playing the role of PR/marketing strategy and support, which seems to be paying off with a TV spot, CBC radio exposure and a couple of previews (so far). As part of my involvement, I've had the chance to read the script, visit a couple of rehearsals and be involved in discussing the show as it evolves. From what I've seen, heard and chatted about, I'm looking forward to the show. Our plan is to go opening night.

Go to the Calgary Fringe website to get tickets. (Don't worry if they say it's sold out... 15 per cent of tickets are sold at the door.)

Next up: from the people who brought you one of the best and critically acclaimed shows of Edmonton's 2006 International Fringe Festival is the original show: Occupied by Arone Le Bray (otherwise affectionately known as my taller, younger brother).

Here's the blurb from Basic Acid Theatre's website:

Public washrooms are a necessary evil. They're smelly, kinda drab, always dirty, and the people inside them are complete and total strangers. But we use them every day. Everyone does, from the high-powered lawyer on her way to a business meeting, all the way down to the penniless homeless man, covered in filth. "Occupied" is a snapshot of the downtown LRT washroom on any typical weekday morning, and asks the question that has plagued mankind for centuries: out of margarine and cream cheese, which is the healthier bagel topping?

While I haven't been as involved (i.e.: at all) with this as the show, I'm equally stoked about this one. Arone has always been a solid writer and creative story-teller and I'm excited to see what he's cooked up with Occupied. Likewise, his production partners (Patrick Pilarski and Joel Bazin) are ridiculously talented and both friends from high school. (I might even be so crass as to say they were my friends first before Arone decided to become grand usurper.

So, if you're in Edmonton between Thursday, August 14 and Saturday, August 23, go see this show. You can only get your tickets online at Edmonton International Fringe Festival. We already have our tickets (along with tix for the parents and grandparents... we're assured from Arone that there will be no nudity this time) for Saturday 16 at 8:15 pm.

Dear Stampede, you suck.

2008-07-07T21:34:00.004-06:00

Bad news: I need to reschedule my physio appointment.
Good news: Back onto the bike, baby.

The therapist called and said due to a schedule mix-up he had to move my appointment. This same conversation gave me an opportunity to ask if I can ride again. And as long as we don't "huck a jump" I'm good to go. This is very good as my new bike's been taunting me every time I open our balcony doors.

About the only good thing about this elbow was I achieved 100% completion in GTA. Had I been able bodied this would have been very sad but, really, with a busted elbow there's very little you can do.

Also, I made it through a long weekend without visiting a hospital. I may have cheated slightly by staying inside but, you take what you can get.

To make up for this, we drove to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump last weekend. I had gone there as a kid (and I fondly remember the HSIBJ poster that graced my bedroom walls) but Daorcey, living so far north, never went. It's a small museum and it's really too bad that you can't hike above the cliff but it's still neat to see. When you see the actual cliff, the drop doesn't look that great until you read the sign that states the height has decreased because of the buffalo bone accumulation.

We also had lunch in Fort Macleod. I don't know if all small towns are this desolate but there was nobody walking the streets. It might have been the heat, it might have been Stampede, but nobody was out and about.

Ah, lunch. Daorcey has this bizarre fascination for pointing out Western/Chinese restuarants in small towns and suggesting we eat there. I, on the other hand, was strongly advised never to eat in Western/Chinese restaurants when family road trips took us through small towns. I had a BLT and Daorcey had some vaguely curry fried noodle thing. Both were decent but I felt uneasy. Like I had gone swimming after eating and not waiting an hour.

Last, about the only thing good about Stampede, beside fireworks, is that the papers get a chance to post this photo. You know what I'm talking about.

It's more of a Veebow

2008-05-30T20:06:00.002-06:00

It's been two weeks since the accident and I'm finally rid of the splint. I've also started physio. I'm not able to straighten my elbow 180. It's more 150 degrees. It also gives the illusion my arms are different lengths.

Speaking of bizarre elbows, some of you may know about my hypermobile elbows. They bend past 180 and have the power of freaking people out. Why, I don't know. The therapist says my hypermobility is probably why I dislocated my elbow instead of breaking a bone.

Arone and Kristi are on their way down from Edmonton. Tomorrow we may see a cute baby elephant. And congrats to Alan and Megan for their new baby, Elinor.

Long weekend? How about the hospital?

2008-05-20T18:24:00.001-06:00

I am typing this post one handed.

I've been on a real biking kick lately and I usually ride 2 to 3 times a week with Tony. Jeff has moved back to town and we've added him to the mix.

Thursday, we're going to meet Jeff at the Bridgeland LRT. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself since my biking ensemble is appropriate for the weather. Usually I'm over dressed or under dressed, but the long sleeved shirt, windbreaker and shorts are working great.

Tony says we should take 1 St. which passes under the railroad; downhill one side and up the other. He's been really good at slowly easing me into traffic and I wasn't worried. We start our descent when Tony notices there's traffic and it's not pleasant to get stuck at the bottom and slows down to ride on the sidewalk. I, however do not notice and our tires rub.

I'm not sure what happened but I fall over. In a bid to fight the inevitable I stick my left arm out behind me and land right on it. I shout "Tony!" and thankfully he hears me over traffic and a very nice passer-by helps me off the street.

I'm in no condition to walk and looking at my elbow there are definitely lumps where there shouldn't be. Tony calls an ambulance and we sit in front of Bill's. I really am thirsty at this point; it really sucked sitting in front of Bill's. I'm feeling light-headed although it could be the car exhaust.

Ambulance arrives and they hustle me in. They take some vitals and offer me hits of NO (laughing gas) to dull the pain. It doesn't work great but it was fun to huff on it. And my shirt! They had to cut the sleeve so now I have a nice-sort-sleeved shirt once I get the other sleeve to match.

We go to the Sheldon Chumir Centre which just opened. It's a lot nicer than their former digs at 8&8. Go through the processing and am left to wait. The only person of interest to look at is a prisoner in full leg and arm chains, white booties, and two cops.

Go to X-rays where I start crying like a baby because it hurts so much to move it. X-rays are done but the radiologist never offered me a lead shield. I'm hoping future babies have cool mutant powers.

The orthopedic consult on duty tells me I've dislocated my lower two bones but they'll try to fix it. I then question their use of the word "try". Another doctor comes in and introduces herself as Dr. Tran and I snicker a little. The docs prep me with some drugs that will sedate me and make me forget. They also gave instructions to Daorcey as he was waiting outside of the room. I may cry out for help but don't come in. Daorcey also reports hearing a snap and then giggles. I can neither confirm nor deny.

I come to and their "try" did not work so I'm whisked off to the Rockyview Hospital which we learned has a special nickname among the medical community. Just before I pass out again from the sedation, I apparently said "Now my fucking husband gets to ride the new bike." That scandalized people who routinely deal with other people's poo. I discover one of the doctors pulling on my arm also helped me out when I sprained my ankle. I promise not to see her again.

After, we head to Humptys where I eat the best BLT evar.

The arm is not sore now and I get the danged soft cast off tomorrow. I start physio on Friday with the same guy who helped me out with my ankle. On the upside we missed the mudslide in Golden and we played a ton of GTA. And my co-worker made me a great card that incorporated Comic Sans and a pink Hello Kitty bike.

I think for the July long weekend, I'll stay inside.

I have my X-ray a few lines below, if you're curious. The autograph at the bottom is from my ortho consult. He said it would be worth more with it.

Meet the newest member of our family

2008-05-15T10:30:00.001-06:00

And no, its name is not Bikey.

I had a bike left behind by Meru's old roommate, and I've been tooddling around on it. My eventual goal is to ride to work so the beater wasn't going to do. It's a performance hybrid ie mountain bike frame and road tires.

Check the stats out here.

Now to find those fluorescent click-clack things that go on your spokes.

That's as exciting as...

2008-05-12T12:30:00.001-06:00

Not sure how to describe the simile in play here. Free free to comment on what you see.
(Thanks to Crap and Arone)

Did I ever tell you the time I won $3000?

2008-05-08T18:48:00.003-06:00

It was the summer of 2002 and I was working at a crap phone surveying company. At the orientation, the team leader told us proudly this was their first non-jail call centre. After I heard that, it was hard to shake the idea a prisoner in Bowden was doing a better job than me.

I worked the 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift. After negotiating the train from downtown to the bus home, I was usually home around 10:30 p.m. I’d check e-mails, look for better jobs, watch Star Trek: Voyager, and play Diablo II. I was depressed that my job was so awful. I had had high hopes, applying to the City. I needed the money as I was applying to study abroad in China in the new year.

At the same time I was using a website to gather intel on potential scholarships. You’d fill in the info fields and the website would spit out a list of scholarship you could apply for and not win. I was hating my job, hating the university, and doubting I could scrape up enough dough to get to the motherland.

Then this survey from the scholarship site drops into my inbox. It was a survey about universities and it encouraged us to rate our university. In exchange they would reward $3000 to the lucky winner. I wasn’t very kind to the U of C on my entry. I pressed send and forgot about it.

A couple weeks later, I received an e-mail from that site stating I had won $3000 and all I needed to do to collect my cash was send my name and address. Of course I was suspicious and e-mailed back how could I know they were legitimate. They sent their address in Toronto. What good that would do me in Calgary, I don’t know. You can insert your Nigerian e-mail scam joke here. My mom said not to answer back but it was hard to turn it down. However, I had a friend living in Toronto where the website office was located. I sent him the address and a couple days later, he was standing in front of the office. He went in, asked if they were said company and if I was really a winner. I think they reassured him and he sent an e-mail to me confirming their legitimacy.

I quickly e-mailed them back, got my $3000 cheque in my mitts. And then I got a job at the City which paid $13/hr which allowed me to save up for the trip. With the cheque and new job, I was able to pay my way to

China

without asking the folks for a dime.

As for GTA, it's slow going. This is the first time Daorcey and I have tried to play a long video game as "adults" ie with real jobs. Inevitably, one of us is never home in the evening due to working out, biking, or meetings. And if we are both home, we only get one or two hours in because there's stuff to do. Did you know that entropy is a fact? I can't imagine trying to play this game and having a family. I'm not complaining but it marks a sure difference from the last game where we had marathon sessions and we weren't living together. Cue "I'm an adult now".

Silent running

2008-04-19T10:31:00.002-06:00

Quick ankle update: I am done with the physio and now I can concentrate on practicing sprinting. And I can definitely play floor hockey in 3 weeks. My therapist said that it's healed up nicely and I'm glad, obviously. People were telling me it would be weeks and weeks before I was able to do anything.

Most of you know that we like video games. A lot. So it will be of no surprise when I say there will be no new posts as of April 29. I don't know when we'll resume posting but spring's coming, so shouldn't you be outside?

Oh, and here's the reason: GTA IV.

In the meantime, here are some places you can visit in lieu of reading DarNat.

See you in a couple of months!

Dear naked man in the gym change room:

2008-04-05T13:42:00.002-06:00

There are a few things I know:

It's great that you value a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise
It's awesome that you think that value should begin at a young age
It's nice that you bring your 2-year-old daughter for mid-day swim at the gym
There's no way on this earth that you can make me comfortable changing in front of naked you and your 2-year-old daughter

I mean, honestly, that's not cool. Maybe I have issues with our natural bodies and society's irrational taboos with nudity... when you are in the process of changing and your daughter is sitting on the bench right in front of my locker, I can't bring myself to wedge myself around you, reach for my clothing and start changing myself.

Am I the only one that finds the prospect of that a little "off"?

So, do you know what you forced me to do instead? I tried to busy myself in the change room by washing my hands a couple of times and then casually chilling in a far corner of the change room away from you. And when I realized that simply hanging out amidst the lockers was a tad creepy, I decided I'd suck it up and leave the change room to sit outside in my sweaty gym clothes and casually read through the spring fitness schedule like that's something everyone does instead of changing into their street clothes after a workout.

As I was walking out, I did consider possibly sucking it up and going to my locker since you must be close to being ready to go by now... but now you're daughter is naked too as you're changing her diaper or something. Yeah, no way I can change now.

So, I read through the spring schedule in the lobby of the fitness centre like anyone would as they wait for naked father and child to move away from their locker. Eventually, you left, but it seemed like I'd really exhausted the contents of the schedule before you finished up...

And you know what? After this whole ordeal, I'm the one who feels awkward and embarrassed. How is that? Maybe I should find another locker space or something.

Have a good weekend.

My purple ankle

2008-03-31T21:06:00.004-06:00

So, if you've been wondering (and I can't imagine you have been), here's what my ankle looks like.

The swelling has gone down a lot so I now possess an ankle and calf. Also, the physiotherapist said I no longer require crutches.

Photos courtesty Anna

Some stereotypes are true...

2008-03-30T12:37:00.003-06:00

I hate proving some stereotypes true but...

Daorcey doing his own taxes results in $3,000 owed to the government.
Natalie doing Daorcey's taxes results in $3,000 refunded from the government.

Because of Daorcey's* sheer incompetence with income taxes, I had to do his taxes in addition to mine. So when you do your taxes, don't forget to include the taxes you've already paid to the government.

*This is also the person who passed an income tax course in university.

Lame update

2008-03-23T19:52:00.004-06:00

I saw the doctor today and have learned the following

I injured the ligaments/tendons on both sides of my ankle which would explain the bruising on either side. This is bad but it doesn't hurt.
I can start physio on Thursday and perhaps even start walking with the help of an Aircast.
I can't play any sports for a month at least.

This was a very info-heavy, post so I'll direct your attention to this link which I'm sure everyone has seen.

I couldn't resist the pun.

Floor hockey: I'm doing it wrong

2008-03-21T13:34:00.004-06:00

I am the proud owner of a cankle (where the calf and ankle have merged) on my right leg. I sprained my ankle playing floor hockey and my ankle has swollen in retaliation.

I'm not sure what happened all I know is I could feel or visualize my ankle rolling inwards on me and it was almost a 90 degree ~~ankle~~ angle. Then I'm flat on my back in incredible pain.

A trip to 8th and 8th reveals that they would like to treat me but since there's no X-ray machine there's no way to confirm that it's not broken. I interjected it didn't hurt that much but the nurse said when she broke her ankle, she was walking around on it for a day. And the nurse was very insistent to say that they could treat me and they were not turning me away, but without X-rays to confirm, the clinic would eventually send me to Rockyview Hospital.

To the Rockyview and after three hours, one X-ray, and a pair of crutches we're on our way home at 2:30 a.m.

So I skipped work on Thursday, and since I'd been at training the past three days at Mount Royal College, and Friday was a holiday, I haven't been to work since. And I can't say I've missed it.

Basically, I'm just hobbling around asking Daorcey for help getting stuff and food. Although if you ask Daorcey he'll say nothing's changed, har har.

For the next piece of news, you need to know we're going to PAX, a video game expo in Seattle and Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) is going to be there! Nerd up and roll out.

Fatty wins!

2008-03-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

There's this picture of me the circulated around the office a couple months back. It was my face pasted on a running Forest Gump. The implicit title: Run, Fatty, Run.

You see, I love food... and eating. And so it didn't take long for me to get a reputation at my office for being the first person to the coffee room should free food be announced. Because of things such as this (along with the source of the problem: my love of eating), I started going to the gym last year.

My gym is a block off of crack alley--where we use to live. It's a part of town that homeless people have told me they steer clear of because it's not safe.

I remember that we were once walking to the gym at 6:45pm on a Tuesday to come upon the aftermath of a drive-by shooting. We'd just missed the action by 5 minutes. It's a very classy street.

Anyway...

A year or so ago, I got it in my head that if I was to continue enjoying food the way I want to I was going to have to do two things: portion control (I'm working on it) and regular exercise (it's coming along).

So, I went down the the gym and bought a month pass, calculating in my head that if I was to get my money's worth (ie: make each visit cost less than a single visit price) I'd have to be at the gym four times a week. No problem.

Day One: Aquasize

Let's start with something easy. Sure, this some may say this is exercise for elderly, overweight women, but I'm at least one of the three, so it shouldn't be weird. I convinced Natalie to also come along (she is also one of the three).

So, suited up and sucking in my gut, we arrive at the pool. We are quickly identified as the newcomers as we join a group of nice older ladies preparing for their workout. I struggle to put on a flotation device. Out comes our instructor/lifeguard and that's when things become surprising.

In retrospect, I think we had our asses handed to us by aquasize. I've never sweat so much in a pool. I was huffing like an asthmatic. I cramped up in the middle of things. I don't think I ever did figure out the proper underwater movements. I swallowed a lot of that sweaty water.

Natalie and I have never been back to aquasize.

Day Two: Weight Room

Ok, I can leave Natalie at home for this one. I can handle wandering around a weight room on my own for a while.

I get to the gym and change into my gym outfit of cargo shorts and heavy t-shirt (I've paid money to be here, I'm not about to buy a whole now wardrobe!). As I arrive in the weight room, I realize that I may have underestimated the my own insecurities. There seem to be so many people here who know what they're doing... I have to appear confident.

So, I confidently avoid the weight machines. There's no way I'm going up to one of those machines, staring at it for a couple minutes as I figure out how it works and then reaching to move the pin from 20 pounds to 3. Plus, there seems to be a scary short man lifting 200 pounds with his forehead in the corner.

Instead, I confidently move toward the cardio equipment. Specifically: the stair machine. Now this is something I can use. I know how stairs work, I have them at home. So I grab both arm rests and hop up onto the "stairs".

SNAP! BANG!

One of the "stairs" loses resistance an my foot plunges to the floor. The "stair" doesn't return to its natural position. I've broken it.

I sheepishly move away, making an effort not to catch the gaze of my fellow gym-goers. I'll have to tell the staff that the machine spontaneously rejected me.

With less confidence, I move to the bike machine. Bikes are cool, I use to ride one. In fact, there's one chained up in my building that belongs to me but that I've never unchained since I moved to Calgary.

I sit on the bike with my feet in the little pedal booties. I push the buttons on the display... it doesn't turn on. I look around the body of the bike... no button to turn things on. I start looking for anything that might resemble a switch... nothing!

I'm starting to panic. People are looking a me. Already fatty has broken the stairmaster and now we can't even turn on the bike machine. I'm flushed. Oh, god, I hate the gym. What do I do now? Help me! Help me!

So, as cool as I can be, I step off the bike and walk over to the treadmill. That has an on/start button and it won't fool me.

I did get some sort of workout that day... I just wish I'd realized that the bike machine "turns on" when you pedal it. Same with the elliptical... I like that one... it's fun.

Day Three: Beginner's Boot Camp

I have this weird romantic idea about enforced physical activity. Military boot camp, hard labour, working the rigs, gardening...

There's something about being required to do use your body that seems appealing. I think of it as "I wouldn't get a workout any other way" and "I bet my body could handle being pushed like that".

So, when I saw that my gym pass could get me into Beginner's Boot Camp at the gym on Sundays, I jumped at it. Bring it on!

I jumped out of bed at 7am, told Natalie I'll see her in time for breakfast, dressed in my khaki shorts and skip down crack alley to the gym.

I arrived in the gymnasium to find myself the youngest person there by 20 years or so. Furthermore, I was the only person who didn't know everyone else. No problem. I was pumped and ready to show these old folks how a young punk can endure Beginner's Boot Camp!

Our instructor/drill sergeant for the morning was the game girl who was our lifeguard at aquasize. I hoped she didn't remember me.

"Alright everyone. I hope you're stretched. Let's warm up with a 1 km run outside."

Pardon? I stifled my surprise. I mean, it was boot camp and I should expect a bit of running, even if I've never done a 1km run before. To be honest, I was a little more worried about getting my new indoor runners dirty. But, it's not like I could change into my outdoor loafers for a run.

I soon found myself at the back to the pack trying to pace myself and thinking about the consequences of just running home. Before I could make a decision on skipping boot camp, a nice man about my father's age slowed down in the pack to run beside me.

"First time at boot camp?"

Oh god, you're kidding me?! I can't talk. Once I start talking, I'll start choking as I try to figure out how to take heaving breaths while forming coherent phrases.

"Yeah..."

"Well, it's a lot of fun. Most of us have been coming to this for a few years. We always notice a new face. My name's Jerry." I picked that name since I recently watched some Seinfeld... like I'm going to remember this guy's name... I'm trying to run here.

"uh huh"

And he continued on and I continued grunting responses. I may have even said something about working an office job and not wanting to be called Fatty by my coworkers. Either way, I made it to the end of the run and to the gym with the emotional support of Jerry. In fact, I was feeling pretty good about myself at this time. I was surviving Beginner's Boot Camp (at least, the warmup anyway). I was the man!

Upon our return to the gymnasium, we found that the instructor had set up stations around the floor. We needed to break off into pairs and start making our way from station to station to in timed intervals. Fortunately, Jerry took pity on me and left his friends to be my partner.

Each station involved something like jump rope or medicine ball tossing or stairs or sit ups. There was a fair amount of variety and with dance music playing, I was feeling pretty optimistic. I wasn't about to let these senior citizens show me up. I was going to survive Beginner's Boot Camp, dang it! And I was going to benefit from it!

So, I matched Jerry's (and everyone else's) pace and began Beginner's Boot Camp proper.

And one round in, I started to feel a little weird. But, I can handle a little weird so I push through it. I start to feel a little tired, but I push through it. My legs aren't responding as well as they should, but I push through it.

I am a machine! I have used my mind to best my body! I have become one with Beginner's Boot Camp!

"Hey kid, are you ok?" Jerry's looking at me funny. I go to answer, but my lips feel kinda tired.

"Imau mah... sit down."

And just like that, Jerry and the instructor are on either side of me, propping me up as they move me to sit against the gym wall. The colour in my face has drained and my legs are jelly. The instructor seems a little worried.

"Did you have something to eat before you came?" No... don't be silly.

"How about to drink?" I'm not about to give myself a cramp, now. Jeeze.

And then the whole class stopped as my eyes rolled up into my head and I passed out.

I wasn't out for long... maybe just a couple of seconds, but it was enough to get my body back on track. Jerry suggested I go and drink a Gatorade or something. I said it might just be best if I went home and rested. The instructor agreed. Jerry said I should really come back and try it again.

"It's a good group. You'd have fun."

I think I lied to him as I left and never returned to Beginner's Boot Camp again.

---

I don't think I got my money's worth out of that month pass to the gym. But I still do go... I've just learned how to work the machines and I've dulled my romantic notion of enforced physical activity.

And I'm still working on not being called Fatty at work.

Presents rant

2008-02-27T10:28:00.004-07:00

This one has been simmering since December. Now that I'm incapacitated with sickness at home, I might as well let it all out. It might be cathartic...

Since I was young(er), I've had a growing hate-on for holidays that are linked to gift giving. Birthdays, Christmas, Valentines, etc, etc. This is mostly linked to the obligation one feels to give presents to others--as opposed to the genuine desire to give someone you care about a gift.

In the obligation scenario, you MUST give ANYTHING to someone do demonstrate that you don't dislike them. This often leads to pre-holiday panic as you search for something to get them and end up grabbing something random that they may like/hate, wrapping it up and then acting like you really had them in mind when you picked it up. What does this lead to?

Waste: your money, they forget about it/chuck it/re-gift it.
Tension: "Gee thanks... you shouldn't have."
Continued obligation: "Guess we should do this again this year"

And the cycle continues. I haven't even touched on the gift obligation you may feel when someone gives you something at Christmas when you had no intention of getting them anything:

"Oh yeah, wow, thanks... yours isn't here yet... but it'll be awesome... you'll love it..." Sweet Jeebuz.

But, I don't hate gift giving all together. I just argue that it should be natural and not restricted to any specific time of year. You see something someone you like would appreciate and you get it. Sure, you can wait until a special occasion to give it to them... or why not give it to them right now? Wouldn't that be awesome! Plus, there's no sense of reciprocity obligation because there isn't some social convention like Christmas bearing down on you with the whole give/receive dichotomy. It gets me excited just thinking about it.

Of course, it's easier said than done. Fortunately, Natalie and I are on the same page when it comes to the whole Valentine's Day sham, but it's a delicate process telling friends and family that Santa isn't coming this year. We have cut down on the gift giving in my family by instituting a gift exchange for Christmas. And we're doing more "sure, how about I get this for you now and we don't have to worry about a birthday present." I love it!

Example: Arone had my name for Christmas this year and for a low cost-high value gift specially tailored to me, he nabbed an original Knights of the Old Republic movie/game poster signed by Executive Producer Greg Zeschuk, Producer Casey Hudson, Art Director Derek Watts, and Senior Writer Drew Karpyshyn. For my birthday, mom and dad paid to have it mounted.

And now it has become a main feature of our green room. Behold!

OK, I admit, this present and that rant aren't that closely related... but, I do want to summarize that I'm against giving just because you feel obligated. Give someone a gift because you know they'd love it... and it doesn't have to be an object. It can be as inexpensive as a signature from they guy down the hall or as intangible as a donation to the food bank. So, if you don't give me a present at a designated period, I really don't mind... but I also don't mind receiving something at random because you thought I'd like it. And don't worry, I won't feel obligated to get you something back.

Rant off... I feel kinda faint... I should lie down.

Overheard in the living room...

2008-02-23T15:32:00.003-07:00

Baby, could you could you upgrade me to tungsten? We're going to be fighting geth.

Ah, a full day of Mass Effect in our household.

With love from me to you

2008-02-14T07:28:00.003-07:00

This is quickly becoming a Valentine's Day tradition (see here and here).

To my love, to my everything, to my best friend... may our special day be filled with memories.

It's never too soon.

You know what I hate?

2008-01-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

I really can't stand it when people make a meaningless blog post in some sort of effort to indicate they haven't given up on the whole blogging thing.

Face it: you have given up. You've stopped trying and for some reason you, even though you have stories to tell and points to be made (many of them moderately humourous) you've decided to not share them with your blogging audience.

For two-plus years you worked your way up to a point where nearly tens of people read the blog. Now, because you're too lazy, you've thrown that all away. And for what? Extra achievement points on Star Wars Lego? Reading the Mass Effect prequel novel? Going to a party with real friends?

Pathetic.

You should be ashamed of yourself. That's right, go pout. You can start again now, but who knows who'll read it?

Sigh.

Maybe it's time we tried again. Let's give it a fresh start. Once a week? Every time something new/funny/exciting happens? We'll see. We'll see...

Not quite Seattle

2007-11-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

In previous posts, we referenced a nerdgasm of sorts: Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect together at last. A TV show we enjoy and a video game we're looking forward to. The only hitch... to participate we need to get to Auburn, Washington, just a half hour south of Seattle.

Road trip, anyone?

The special showing was on Monday, November 12... that involved taking a day off on Tuesday to drive home. We would have left on the Saturday, but we had tickets to another geek-fest, Video Games Live, which was brilliant and we couldn't miss it since we'd bought tickets more than six months prior.

So we (Natalie, Daorcey, Vanessa and Tony) left at 6am Sunday morning for a 14 hour drive through BC to hop the USA-Canada border in Abbotsford. It was a fun trip that involved visiting Tony's dad in near Salmon Arm and listening to too many hobo names courtesy of John Hodgman.

Snow, mountain roads and Tony's had enough of us already.

Coming up on the new mountain pass near Golden. It's pretty amazing.

Crossing the border was a little interesting. I've never driven across the border before, so I was a little nervous. When the American border agent asked me what we were planning to do, my response was that we were driving to Auburn from Calgary to watch a made-for-TV movie two weeks before it's release date... on tv. Not only did he look a little incredulously at us, he responded with "you know, that's a pretty lame excuse to be coming to the United States."

What do you say to that? I mean, it's not like his statement was incorrect.

"Yeah, I see what you mean," I responded. And then he let us through. I guess people wouldn't make up such a sad reason to cross the border.

The hotel was nice (as nice as can be when you're being cheap and making four people share two beds... I may have kneed Tony in the back) and we spent all of Monday shopping at a sad mall (the largest in the northwestern United States... meh) and waiting in line for the EVENT.

The mall had a seating area with giant bacon! Natalie was excited.

And this is where I rant: I won't complain about the trip... the road trip was nice, the company was good and no one was seriously injured. But as far as the "Battlestar Event" went, it was a non-event. Granted, they probably didn't intend for giant geeks like us to drive down from Calgary, but someone at Microsoft or SciFi or whoever was in charge could have tried a bit harder.

We started lining up (front of the line, baby!) to register our attendance at 3:30pm. At 5pm, we were registered and moved to another line where we would stay until 6:30pm. The theatre employees had no idea what was going on and even had an argument with the single (!) event coordinator (a contractor who wasn't keen to let me know who was paying the bills... fine, do your job) over where to put the lineup of 100+ people (most who made me feel rather young... didn't expect that, but I guess I'm not the only target market for BSG). Tony left us in the line while he went to go watch another movie for free... there was nothing else to do anyway.

When we were eventually let into the theatre, we sat watching the same 2-minute music and logo loop over and over again until the movie started. And the fanfare? Well, there was none. The event manager (not joined by two assistants who didn't seem to know what was going on either) told us to enjoy the movie and then let the movie role. It was rather underwhelming.

Now, I don't think I had unreasonable expectations. I mean, a fairly significant tv show and an equally significant video game (see the Globe and Mail review) are having a co-sponsored event. Maybe there'll be a special preview, maybe some swag, maybe a special message from the creators of either product... something... anything. But, no. Instead we are treated in a way that feels a lot like "watch your stupid geek movie, enjoy the uncomfortable companionship of other sad fan bois and grls, here's a series of ads you can see on TV... sucker".

And we even made special t-shirts.

Vanessa's t-shirt design

I'm still glad we did it. It was a fun, spontaneous trip that involved some cross-border shopping with good company and a bit of geekiness thrown in. And the drive (when it was light out) was pretty nice.

Here we are at a gorge/dam in east Washington... I'm sure it has a name... Natalie's not in any of our shots.

Here's the gorge in panoramic view. Click for large image.

I might still write a letter to someone at Microsoft recommending they try a little harder next time they host and event to promote a new game, music machine, etc. How Canadian, eh?

And I will make an effort to NEVER drive through Montanan mountain passes in the dark and snow again.