Alice in Wonderland is wunderbar.

Nay, I did not celebrate St. Patter's day yesterday. I drank some beer but it definitely wasn't celebratory - I even said no when the lady asked me if I wanted the green kind - my lame-o-matic meter overloaded a little more than usual for second there. I did manage to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D though. It was pretty good and although it had tons of in your face 3D moments it didn't seem nearly as 3D as Avatar for some reason. We even caught a glimpse of the new Tron trailer too!

I guess 3D movies are the trend now, but when I go to the movies these days and use those coupons I gotta carry some spare change to pay the extra for those glasses that you throw away at the end anyway. I guess that's the price you gotta pay to see tea cups and swords flying in your face.

With all the new movies coming out in 3D though, you gotta ask yourself how they do it? I'm not Johnny Depp so I don't know what its like to have tons of teens screaming my name when I go out act in front of a green screen. It's probably gotta require some skill and imagination to talk to and prance around talking to imaginary characters on a set that doesn't really exist. That reminds me, there was a lot of running in the movie as well. Alice has got some stamina.

Blogomatic3000 had a cool article explaining the process. That future technology beguiles me.

Like most things, this too shall pass...

So I knew about that other OK Go video, but to my surprise when I went to re-watch it today I found this even more awesome video (in full HD) where they made a Rube Goldberg Machine (apparently sponsored by State Farm...). Watch it now!

Totally busted...but not really...

I had a combination coolface and everything went better than expected moment tonight...

So back when I was expanding my business casual wardrobe I hit up Sears when they had a huge sale on the last day of the Olympics. Today, I go to put on one of the shirts I bought and what did I find? One of those damn ink security things. Usually I'm pretty good with keeping my bills but for the life of me I couldn't find this one. For the last two weeks I've worn every single shirt and this one was next in line but my new shirt a day plan got foiled. Totally annoyed, I decided to go to Sears and ask them to remove it instead of trying to MacGyver the thing.

How do you make yourself look guilty when you're completely innocent? Let me tell you.

I walk in carrying the only Sears bag I could find, which was the one I had gotten two weeks ago. It was huge - the kind of bag you would get if you bought a duvet or something cause I really bought a lot of stuff that day. All I had in it was one shirt. Mistake #1.

I walk up to the lady and said, "Hi, I bought this a while back and just found that it still had this security thing on it. She says, "Do you have your bill?" I didn't but I asked her if she could pull it up from the machine if I have my credit card and I take my card out and show it to her. She sort of gives me this I dunno kind of look and reluctantly says, "No...but...well usually we would never do this but I'm gonna trust you." Before she even finished the sentence I had put my card back in my wallet and into my back pocket. Even worse I leaned on the counter with my coolface on. Mistake #2 and #3.

I think she was kind of doubting herself at this point because she asked me which section I bought it in, if anyone helped me, etc. I played it cool and said, "The men's section. Over there." O RLY? Mistake #4.

She then asks me when I bought it and I'm like, "A few weeks ago when you guys had a huge sale...Canada Day!" No it wasn't, Canada Day hasn't even passed yet. I think she miss-heard or something because she was like, "Oh yeah, big sale it's easy to miss a tag when you're going through so much clothes." I'm like, "Yeah, I probably lost the receipt when I was taking the tags off all the clothes..." She didn't even know that I had lost it, just that I didn't have it there. Then out of nowhere she finds the ripped price tag from the shirt. Wtf? Mistake #5 and #6.

She hands the shirt back to me and says, "Here you go, now you can wear it." I say thanks and I'm not even sure why I did it but as she handed the thing to me I stuffed it into the bag and high tailed it out of there like a bat out of hell. Mistake #7.

Lucky #7 because at this point I probably looked as guilty as OJ and for some reason felt it. While I hadn't committed any crime, the lady probably thought that I was just some good looking scrub that took a shirt off a hanger, stuffed it into a bag and Ocean 11'd her. I can only say that the one crime I had committed was looking that good. Win!

Back in action

First, a big thanks to the Emperor for not kicking me off the blog due to my lack of posts : )

So I've been thinking about doing an Olympic recap but thought it seemed a bit silly since they ended two weeks ago...but they were just so awesome that I can't not write about them at all! I had James staying with me for the first week of the Games and we had some good times, just like back in the day. His friend Kris stayed for a few days too. We had a lot of fun going to the different houses, walking around and doing a lot of eating and drinking! The energy in the city was incredible. There were so many people in the streets at all times of the day...it was a bit mental walking around, but there was so much to see that even for someone like me who loses their patience in a crowd, you wanted to be in the middle of it! The sea of red and white was very cool to see and I miss the random high fives walking down the street.

One of the coolest things was on the day of the gold medal hockey game. I watched regulation time in a bar (which is the best way to watch a big game) and then had to work at the store...which I was very unimpressed about since most of the people I work with are gay and don't care about hockey and they had the afternoon off...anyways, I worked at 3 so the game was in overtime as I'm heading to work. The streets were dead, the city is so quiet except for the occassional "ooooh" since everyone was watching the game. Then all of the sudden the city errupted!! I couldn't see anyone but I could hear so much yelling and cheering I instantly knew Canada won! It was a neat experience. Then a few minutes later the streets filled and it was madness. The store manager was worried that we'd get "rushed"...seriously, but everyone was too busy drinking and cheering to be shopping for housewares!

The games came and went so fast and the city was in a bit of shock after they were gone. I'm glad the clock is still up, since it was counting down to the Paralympic games. The atmosphere isn't the same even though the Paralympic games are on. Some of the country/provincial houses are still open so I may check them out as the line ups will be way shorter. All in all, I think Vancouver and Canada did a kick ass job!

Now all of you come visit me in Vancouver!!

illScarlet was...ill?

So I went to a concert the other night and it's been a while since I was surrounded by so many teens - I think it was called high school. You know the crowd is going to be different when kids under 19 get to walk straight through security while you wait in line. There were also a fair bit of parents there but to be honest if I were to let my high school kids go to a place like that I would probably have to be there as well getting crunk and letting them student drive me home as a chaperone.

As an aside, I don't even know if kids use that anymore, crunk? I know they say ill a lot, but can I step that up and say that something is Ebola or the Plague? Or does it not work like that? Kids these days...

I wasn't too familiar with the headliner illScarlett other than having seen a couple YouTube videos and I had completely no idea who the other bands were, so I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into. You know there might be some sort of generational gap when some group called StereoKid comes on and everyone rushes to the stage, goes bat-shit, crowd surfing, throwing beach balls and screaming lyrics only 2 songs into the set...and you have no idea who these scrubs are or that wearing wife beaters in public became cool again.

Is this what's cool now? Cause I have no idea. My definition of cool is based on what I see in the mirror. Thank you, thank you.

Anyway, it was fun to check out a another scene than the usual, the music was pretty awesome as well and all the beer didn't hurt either. Us old folks like to cut loose every now and again too you know.

On a different note, I got a hold of a Blackberry Curve. It's an older model but at least it was free - gonna see what all the fuss is about...maybe.

It's concert time in Toronto!

Ladies, contrary to popular belief the Alicia Keys concert that you attended last night was not part of the great Canadian Music Fest. Not by a long shot.

Let me share a little personal info with you: although local Toronto hero Danko Jones is one of my idols, I have yet to see him in concert. This is my secret shame. I'm not a huge concert goer but I do make exceptions every now and again to see bands that I really enjoy...or if I just want to get out. Part of it is because the bands that I like usually play on weird weeknights and the other part is that I'm horrible at getting tickets to anything. Logistics are something that I usually leave up to my so called friends. Also, I still haven't figured out whether or not I enjoy getting into a mosh pit. Just for the record, the last few concerts I went to were Jon Lajoie (if you can even call it a convert, see video below), Sloan and Bedouin Soundclash - no mosh pits, FYI...lol.

Time to break out some leather and get my shake on. Weekend here we come.

So much ski video to edit...

So I've finally decided to have a go at the 72 gigs of video we took with Jon's GoPro on our epic ski trip. Well it's been a few weeks now so what's been holding me back you ask? Ok, you didn't but I'm gonna tell you anyway.

Here's the deal: the GoPro HD takes ready to view HD video (duh!) but that's not the tricky part. Here's some info from their site.

HD Video Resolution Modes:

• 1080p = 1920x1080 pixels (16:9), 30 fps, 15 Mbit/s data rate
• 960p = 1280x960 pixels (4:3), 30 fps, 12 Mbit/s data rate
• 720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 60 fps, 15 Mbit/s data rate
• 720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 30 fps, 8 Mbit/s data rate
• WVGA = 848x480 pixels (16:9), 60 fps, 8 Mbit/s data rate

Video Format: H.264 compression, saved as Windows- & Mac-compatible MPEG4 (.mp4) file

While it's impressive, that's the killer: H.264 .mp4 file

If you've download HD videos off YouTube before you'd know that the file is also an mp4 which is more or less the same type of video the GoPro takes.

What does that mean? Well, I guess to save space on your SD card the GoPro exports highly compressed video like that to save space and so you can upload/watch it right away. The bad news is that this type of video isn't really meant to be edited, and that's the problem.

So what's the solutions? Well we have to convert it into a format recognized by Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro so we can edit it. That's sort of counter-productive, but there's no other way to directly edit it...that we know of.

Oh well, gotta get it started somehow. It's too bad Jon's overseas or we could have split the video conversion half/half.

Spring is here? ICWTPOSS (I can't wait to put on some shorts)

One of the things that I'm still getting used to at work is the intense use of acronyms. When people talk I have no idea what's going on it's sometimes hard to follow because every second word out of their mouths is some sort of abbreviation

It ain't no joke. On the employee portal I managed to find a 7 page document with some of the most commonly used acronyms. I printed it out, and being part of a technical group I find myself adding to it daily. No shame here.

Regardless, nothing on that list compares to my favorite acronym of all time: Phil Mickelson's nickname, FIGJAM (F*** I'm Good Just Ask Me).

Beautiful weekend...now back to my cube.

Injury free since...2010!

Well, major ski injuries anyway. I had my fair share of spills, especially in Vermont, but I can safely say that there was no Season Ender this round. That extends my streak to 1 year! *knock on wood*

Anyway, we took it relatively easy today as the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius - it was pretty choppy and the snow was real heavy and we sucked. None of us wanted to be that guy who fractured/dislocated/sprained/cut/concussed + any body part on the last ski day of the year. Having taken almost a month off since this year's ski trip, we were a little rusty/struggled like pros.

Spring here we come.

Weekend high five!

Made it through my first week of work alive. Now time to hit the slopes...or what's left of them.

Thanks to Clinch for the image.

Not so casual Fridays...

It's no surpise that I had to spend a few dollars on a new business casual wardrobe and to be honest I've probably done more ironing this week than I've done in the past year. What was a surpise though is that I wasn't quite sure how to approach today. Casual Fridays anyone?

I'm still getting down with the policies around here so I totally did not know if every Friday is casual, last Friday of the month or just never. I asked a co-worker and they said they like to keep it pimp tight pretty casual all the time, but I wasn't quite sure what that means. I don't want to be that guy as I walk through the cafeteria wearing dress pants with hundreds, if not thousands of people staring at me...but at the same time I don't know if my Tupac tshirt would be frowned upon either.

It reminded me of the time I had to go to a client meeting on a Friday and it just happened to be the first time I was going to meet them, so I wore dress pants/dress shirt only to discover they took it real casual on Fridays...awkward.

I'm definitely not the kind of guy that tucks anything into his jeans or wears dress shoes with them. I'm not exactly sure what's going on but it seems that the higher the floor you're on the more business you dress...all the time. I'm gonna have to play this one by ear and see what I can get away with. To give you some perspective, Friday's in the summer at my last job meant some of us wore shorts.

I also have to get used to the fact that I have to carry all my associated security stuff EVERYWHERE or I might get locked in the 6th floor stairwell again. While most people opt for that sissy string pully thing I've opted to buy my own metal chain one - the kind that janitors use to carry all their keys and knives. It also doubles as a choke wire in case I have to assassinate anyone on my way to work. Just sayin'.

Tequila Taste Test

Take it from a lady who has 35 types of tequila at her bar, unless it says 100% agave then you can be drinking just about anything. If it doesn't say 100% then its probably %50 agave + 50% sugar water, watered down rum or donkey urine.

We did a tequila taste test in Stowe at the Cactus Cafe, and by we I mean not me because I was DD. How's that for responsibility?

Here's a video of some guys who came in hating on tequila and knew nothing about it, but were lucky enough to get schooled on it's finder points by an old pro. I totally spy cam'd her.

This ain't your lame old Sauza.



On a technical note it took about 28 mins to encode this video (while I was playing Tetris and watching a movie at the same time), so it sure beats what would have been 3 hours on my old machine. But what was surprising is that the computer hit 68 degrees C while doing so -  too hot to handle!

Multiple types of withdrawal.

Now that the Olympics are over I think I'm suffering from Olympics Withdrawal.

Seriously, for the past two weeks you could basically turn on the TV at any given time, there would be live (high-stakes) sports going on and people would cry. Now, it seems the best I can do is watch Ricardo and Friends. No more snow bunnies!

And its true what they say: you don't know what you've got til it's gone. This corporate firewall ordeal is really sucking the life out of me. I got rid of Buzz the other day but then I re-enabled it tonight just because I felt I needed something more to look at when I get home.

And that brings me to this: Blackberry Bold 9700 vs iPhone 3GS

At this point I'm going with the Blackberry just because I've never had one before - it intrigues me. I'm somehow led to believe that typing on it is going to be awesome. Because of my iPod I don't think apps are a big deal, so there's no love lost there and typing emails or long messages on it is a struggle at best.

They say that iPhones are for people who want something to do and Blackberries are for people who think they have something to do, and by they I mean me. How's that for perspective?

New job, new blog.

Another first day of work and what a coincidence that I'm writing the bdddlog's 100th post about it. Well I'm glad I made it this far, with some help (of course) along the way.

I can't say much about the new job but I can tell you one thing about going corporate: being behind a firewall blows. It's a total cock-block from the outside world and because of it I'm now in the market for a Blackberry or iPhone just so I can check my email and message my friends. Seriously.

Anyway, here are a few crazy post-processed photos I edited using some of Aperture's presets.







That is it, I'm going to bed now. I have a feeling it's going to be a long week.