Vegas, day 2

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

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."

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

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

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.