I've been a big fan of the LINE's Traveling Circus since the beginning of the series and now that Season 2 just finished, I have to say that it's lost a lot of its pizazz.
After Season 1's success, LINE gave the gang a dedicated camera man, supposedly to get more skiing footage out of it, but since then the videos follow mostly his style of editing and music (I think). What I miss most is the random/awesomeness of Will and Andy's editing and the different styles they brought. I do like seeing a lot more of Garrett Russell though, that guy's a laugh.
On a related note, I'm having a hard time finishing off the conclusion to the Hosers Go To Vermont series - you really gotta be in the right mindset to try and be creative and get editing. I keep changing songs and can't seem to get the right cuts going. I was initially pretty "stoked" because some of the best footage is still left (and by footage I mean us falling), but now that it's been a few months out of Winter and into Spring I'm in Spring Fever mode. Jon's still putting together his 1st edit as well.
Summer here we come.
Friday, April 30
Thursday, April 29
I've been driving stick now for a little bit and I'd like to think that I'm doing pretty amazing good so far. I went stall-less around town in traffic to the movies and sushi yesterday, but I did rookie it and stall today in the heavy stop and go traffic. Since it was at pretty much a walking pace, it only resulted in the guy behind me giving a stern face palm through the rear view mirror. At least he didn't have a hot daughter sitting next to him to see how smooth I am.
Turns out traffic is my enemy.
I drive in it to and from work, all day long and it's a lot more work than I'm used to - but I'm guessing cars these days are built to handle this type of every day wear and tear cause if not I'm screwed. Today was the first time I've stalled in it traffic, but I've been brave/dumb enough to drive in it since Friday. So here's the question: What's the best technique?
Other than leaving ample room and taking it easy, I want to reduce clutch stress and unnecessary shifting as much as possible. I don't think neutral is a good idea but I don't want to be slipping in and out of 1st doing a crawl either...It seems like just a ton of shifting between 1st and 2nd and stop.
Another smooth thing that I've been doing is starting out in second, that's pretty lazy right? It requires a little more gas than 1st but
I hear people skip gears like 1-3, 3-5 because they're lazy too, but then I've also heard of a guy buying a new Civic Si because he went from 6-2 coming off the highway during a test drive...FTW!
Anyway, I think there's only one main hurdle left to conquer on my way to manual transmission competency...or rather adequacy: The Hill...I'm not talking slight slopes but a legitimate crazy ass hills like in Montreal. We'll see how that goes...
Wednesday, April 28
We now interrupt your regularly scheduled program...just because I thought this was awesome.
Enter the Mushroom Kingdom by *lastscionz
Tuesday, April 27
Unless you're Derek Zoolander or don't really have anywhere in particular to go you know you're going to have to turn at some point. At a stop sign making a right, traffic light making a left, whatever you got, you're going to have to turn.
I guess I'll concentrate on sharper turns where braking and down shifting is necessary because the other types are pretty easy manageable. The kind of thing I'm talking about is when you actually have to brake and down shift to turn, for example making a right turn at a green light.
I think in the most extreme cases there are 3 ways to approach a turn:
- Approach the turn, shift to neutral, brake to slow down, coast around the corner, shift into the appropriate gear during or after the turn and accelerate out.
- Approach the turn, brake or down shift to turning speed and appropriate gear, turn the corner while in gear (clutch out) and then just accelerate out.
- Approach the turn, brake or down shift to slow down to appropriate gear, when getting close to the corner clutch in, round the corner, release the clutch and then accelerate out.
I guess the big questions is if you turn with the clutch in or out. I don't think neutral is a wise decision because it doesn't seem like you really have any control just coasting, especially in the winter when the weather gets shady. Personally, I think its best to have both hands on the wheel while turning so you shouldn't be shifting mid turn either, but I'll admit that I've been doing that...at least for now. I also hear that in BC that will get you points deducted on your driving test....
Or you can just take corners like this guy...
Who you got?
Monday, April 26
So the purpose of this stuff I guess is because I don't really know the best way to approach some of the new techniques associated with manual. I hear a lot of different things but I don't really know whats right, wrong, safe or dangerous. I'm in no position to tell anyone what's right or whats wrong yet but this is the way I see it. People often say, you just feel it when you drive manual so I can't tell you exactly what RPM I shift or launch at....I'm not exactly there yet.
So for sure I think one of the hardest parts about driving manual is getting moving smoothly from a stop. I'll have to admit that I've probably stalled a shitload of about dozen times or so moving from a stop at lights, stop signs and especially reversing out.
Let me tell you that stalling on a left turn is not cool whatsoever - there's definitely a lot more going on than when driving stick.
Once you get actually do get going you know you'll have to eventually stop, hopefully not into the car ahead or behind you. But how do you approach that? The way I see it there's a few ways to do it:
- No need to brake too much - keep down shifting to lower gears to slow down the car with the engine, but potentially trick the driver behind you (especially at night) since they can't tell that you're actually braking (no lights!). Ghost rider styles?
- Do it easy - Shift to neutral, get off the clutch and brake using your...brake. Is this coasting?
- No need to shift - Brake in current gear until you're about to come to a complete stop, then clutch in and down shift just before coming to the stop at around 5kph. Stalling danger?
But what if you gotta cancel the stop and get going again, for example in stop and go traffic or if a light switches green right as you're just about to stop. What offers the best/smoothest transition?
Once stopped there's also a couple of different ways to handle that:
- Sit in neutral then shift when you're ready to go.
- Sit in 1st and work your left calf muscle.
- Sit in neutral but then when you see the opposite light go orange then shift to 1st and get ready.
But what if all hell breaks loose and for some reason shit happens behind you/you get hit, will you be thrown into the intersection and t-boned because you weren't in gear? What if your foot gets too tired and it slips/stalls cause you were holding it in 1st too long? You didn't have time to move because you had to shift it in gear?
Admittedly, at the moment I'm doing whats easiest, but you get what I'm trying to say...hopefully. Right now I think the most important thing is just staying calm...and not dying.
Saturday, April 24
Here's something new: I've just started to drive a manual car...and I stall...a lot. Reverse parking, left hand turns and moving from a complete stop are still sketchy to me. At this point I'm afraid to tackle the ridiculous slopes of the underground parking lot at the YMCA and I don't have tinted windows to hide my shame. I'm also just a few hours into it.
While it's not totally true that only the internet has taught me to drive manual, nobody in my family owns a manual car anymore and it's been years since my dad taught me to drive stick in the old CRX (PIMP, btw). While my dancing skills are simply amazing, the footwork doesn't seem to transfer as I'm no Takumi Fujiwara on the pedals (yet). I can't wait to GTFO of work and drive around.
Turns out there are a lot of great resources and some watchable videos, but I guess there's no substitute for practice. Just hold out on the getting into an accident part. It's definitely different from auto, and my dad just laughs at me when I tell him how I keep stalling the car I just bought.
Anyway, there's a lot of nuances with driving stick and things you gotta worry about. At first the 3rd pedal and the shifter seem like a LOT more work than I'm used to but hell, if my friends can do it so can I. So I'd like to introduce this new series as I burn the shit out of my new clutch.
Wednesday, April 21
So theshady and I recently joined my company's softball team, and in an effort to shake off the rust we hit the batting cages today. Other than T-ball, when I was like 10, I haven't played in a legitimate league in years - playing softball at camp with your friends doesn't count because it usually involves beer and quickly becomes...less competitive.
Anyway, you could tell that my status was less than pro when I showed up at the Pladium wearing smart business casual thinking I would Babe Ruth the thing. Turns out legitimate teams were even practicing there with their own helmets, bats and batting gloves (theshady included, see below).
 |  |
At this point I'm not even sure I can hit a softball 400 feet for a home run. The season should be fun anyway because its rec, but I still want to beat the hell out of co-workers I don't even know.
Anyway, thanks to theshady and his all you can hit batting cage card, my left hand is mangled with huge blisters and feels like a truck ran over it. Season opener here we come.
Shady/Emperor double play FTW!
On a sort of related note to yesterday's post, if you ever thought you partied hard you're probably wrong....very wrong. If you haven't seen this yet:
20-year-old Laura Hall is thought to have become the first person to be banned from buying or drinking alcohol anywhere in England and Wales.
She had already been banned from pubs and clubs in her home town of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, under the PubWatch scheme.
‘This is the first [drinking banning order] issued on a nationwide basis,’ said Sgt David Roberts, of Bromsgrove police.
‘We chose to use this new legislation as a way of helping address Laura’s offending behaviour. We very much hope that, rather than seeing it as a punishment, she will use it as an opportunity to get her life back on track.’
That chick must probably have a shit ton of awesome stories to tell...or is a complete disaster in real life. Compared to her at a bar we're all kind of like Keanu Reeves in The Replacements - we just don't cut it. Ok, so I don't even remember what happened in that movie but you get the point.
Tuesday, April 20
Kids,
For some people post-secondary education was probably the best time of their lives, for others it was awkward, hard and they couldn't wait to GTFO. Either way, unless you do some sort of graduate work you're gone faster than two shakes of a lamb's tail.
It is what you make of it so have fun while you can...because once you join The Machine it's all over. Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic but the fact is that once you're done school and you get a real job you also get real responsibilities and can't pull that same shit anymore and your lifestyle changes as you transition from amateur to pro.
You lose things like pancake keggers, $2.50 Thursday nights and kids wearing AE/Hollister. Your worries consisted of optionally attending class and finishing that assignment - life was just a little different. To be honest I think what people enjoy about school is not actually the schooling part but rather the student lifestyle and hot bodies. There's nothing wrong with that, just don't flunk out. Word to your mother.
You do gain a lot after you get that degree, and that ain't no lie. You can afford nicer things, you don't microwave your meals, the scenery changes and people part ways. Now you wear blazers and shirts with buttons, jeans are only for Fridays and going to Toronto is an effort in itself. People also have legitimate house parties at their homes or apartments (that aren't shared with 4 other people) and because you're 9-5/M-F you try to make every weekend count.
Some things never change - you still like to unwind after a tough week, you still have to study and learn new things, and you might have to be DD every now and again. I still enjoy PBR, eating ramen and don't have any problems crashing at a friend's place. With that said, I still love to party like I'm in school when I get the chance.
Let's face it, Asians are magic.
Seriously, I have aunts and uncles who still get carded at the casinos and they're like 50. Even now when kids get in at 17, I can still pull the I hate my psyche prof card when I need to and in the worst case someone asks me for homework help because they think I'm a super-knowledgeable grad student. Having fun with other university students may not happen often anymore but its nice when you get the opportunity.
Enjoy it while you can because if you're hanging out at school bars without other students because you weren't invited by one of them, or if it's not an alumni event, before you know it you might just be that old creepy guy standing in the corner of the bar with his striped shirt untucked, staring at girls, with one hand in his pocket and a warm drink in the other.
Groups of girls posing for pictures with half smiles, one hand on their hips and slightly angled towards the camera FTW!
Sunday, April 18
I can't tell whether my allergies are in full effect or if my body is just malfunctioning from the past weekend or if not wearing a jacked in the messed up weather is doing me in, but it's really cramping my swagger style. Either way my face is overflowing with awesomeness, and by awesomeness I mean all sorts of snot and tears.
Not sure, but after I skipped the country a few years back during allergy season I thought I had magically rid myself of it, and hadn't really had it bad since. But fast forward to this year and all of a sudden it's going all Wrath of Khan on me. What up with that?
Allergies, this one's dedicated to you.
Is it Friday yet?
Friday, April 16
It's been a long and crazy week: I bought a baseball glove, bought a car, bought veal and dragon boat, softball, golf and YMCA are ramping up. It's been interesting/tiring to say the least.
I've also finally decided to man up and wear jeans to work on the not so casual Fridays. I regret the decision immediately...button fly was a horrible choice. I don't know why, but I feel like a bigger square tucking anything into jeans and wearing dress shoes with them. I'll have to admit, the dress pants I own are way more comfortable than most of the jeans and there's always ASBS (Asian Saggy Butt Syndrome).
On a different note, I still suck at text messaging. I can't pull the just learned how to use t9 card anymore because it's been a couple of months now. I've just come to terms that I legitimately suck at using my $5 text plan. But with email not an option and having chickened out of a data plan, it's all I got.
Here's what a conversation I had yesterday looks like.
| ME | JOHN |
| Yo you still wanna in sat? Foot know if evan mentioned the situation to you with timing and sides lisa is hating dinner too | Ure writing is soo wack,lol..cudnt understand wat urr trying to say..i'll talk to evan tonite to get the details |
Yeah, brutal I know. But with zero privacy in the cubes here, texting on my t9 is the only option...unless you want everyone to get all up in your business like all the time.
TGIF...
Wednesday, April 14
Nissan is doing some sort of something here. I've watched a couple of them and let me say that their viral marketing is exactly going viral...
I like this one though.
Tuesday, April 13
So yesterday I made a rookie mistake - I accidentally closed my MS Outlook application...for like half a day. No biggie right? Wrong. What I thought was a super slow/smooth sailing Monday afternoon turned out to be a Where the hell have you been kind of ordeal.
We use the super powerful Windows XP here and you know how it uses the super clever hide my icons on the system tray? Well, when I thought Outlook was hidden it was actually closed. When Outlook is open you'll get a nice notification (like Gmail Notifier) when incoming mail arrives. When it's closed you don't. Because I like to have about 46 different applications, folders and web browsers opened at once my taskbar gets pretty crowded. I didn't realize that Microsoft Outlook was missing all afternoon while I was reading comics working feverishly. There's no confirmation when you close Outlook - unfortunately for me I realized this at 5pm.
Luckily, there are many Outlook users here who spend their free time moving and organizing their emails into different folders (don't even act like you don't know) and learning new tricks to share.
PRO TIP: Create a new message without any recipients, save the draft, move the draft to your Outbox and that's it. Since it isn't addressed to anyone it can't be sent.
Now when you try to close Outlook, you'll get a confirmation about it which is better than nothing. It doesn't affect your incoming/outgoing traffic so you shouldn't worry about that (much).
Productivity FTW!
Monday, April 12
I don't know if you've been following the news but if you've wondered where the Double Down is, The Toronto Star is reporting that the new KFC self-proclaimed Legendary Sandwich won't be available in Canada (yet?). Riots soon to follow!
If you're unfamiliar with the Double Down it features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled - because bread is full of carbs don't you know! What about extra crispy?), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!
Honestly, it just saves you the trouble of having to assemble it yourself anyway. Extra gravy should be included by default. Here's the commercial.
Sandwich | Calories | Fat | Sodium |
|---|---|---|---|
| KFC Original Recipe® Double Down | 540 | 32 | 1380 |
| KFC Grilled Double Down | 460 | 23 | 1430 |
If you've been craving a heart attack I think this is it. In the words of the Colonel: Taste the UnHungry Side of KFC!
Saturday, April 10
I don't know what they're selling but they've made a series of amazing mini-features - sort of like Pixar shorts but with killing and robots and all sorts of other awesome stuff. Each one is only a few minutes so your boss won't catch you...
See there all HERE.
Friday, April 9
The Tiger is black back with a creepy Nike commercial and everything. Masters coverage continues with Tiger 2 shots behind Fred Couples' 66, putting them at -4 and -6 respectively. Also, 16 year old Matteo Manassero is at -1! Go get your golf on!
Even back in 2007, Tiger still had his sexual predator gaze going on in Shanghai.
Thursday, April 8
We all enjoy them, don't deny it. I read this on The Star today and decided to stack some similar sandwiches up against each other.
| NAME | SERVING SIZE (g) | CALORIES | FAT (g) | SODIUM (mg) | CARBS (g) | PROTEIN (g) |
| Tim Hortons Breakfast Sausage Sandwich | 167 | 529 | 33 | 1,169 | 40 | 17 |
| McDonald's Sausage McMuffin | 159 | 440 | 26 | 980 | 32 | 20 |
| McDonald's Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddle | 198 | 550 | 30 | 1500 | 49 | 20 |
| McDonald's Breakfast BLT | 162 | 440 | 20 | 800 | 52 | 13 |
| BK Sausage & Cheese Croissanwich | n/a | 380 | 24 | 780 | 26 | 14 |
| BK Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit | n/a | 930 | 29 | 2300 | 60 | 34 |
Wow, the BK Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit is a real killer. Deliciousness FTW!
Wednesday, April 7
Seriously. I couldn't stop hearing about him from the moment I woke up to the moment I finished dinner. He has a strong brow, not to be mistaken with a uni-brow.
I subscribe to that channel btw...
Monday, April 5
So I finally caved and installed Boot Camp over the weekend...yeah I know, funny that one of the first things a Windows user wants to do when they get a Mac is something like this, but I couldn't resist. The fact is that although Tetris Friends is my favorite game (EVAR) I can only play so much of it. Let's face it, I don't plan on buying an XBOX or PS3 anytime soon and people probably consider gaming on OS X using Photoshop or something. I've tried VMWare Fusion but it isn't that great for newer games (if they even work all) considering that the iMac is a pretty decent machine why not use it to game.
Boot Camp is easy, all I did was fire up Boot Camp Setup Assistant, create a new partition and then insert the Windows 7 DVD and run the install. But before you start, there's a few things they don't tell you: yourr fancy Bluetooth keyboard and mouse won't work until Windows is fully installed and your monitor may fail at some point during the process as well. Well, they might mention it if you read the setup guides or something but I'm a pro and jumped in head first and decided to face the consequences later (which most of the time leads to epic fail).
In the end things went down without any major problems but only because I have a secondary external monitor.
So why is that? Well I believe they don't actually have a supported driver for the 27" iMac monitor in Windows 7 out of the box. So on the final steps of the installation when you're ready to window it up Windows style your iMac goes black and stays that way. Luckily if you have a secondary monitor installed it clones the primary one so you can see what's going on (it works!) and only after running Windows update will the primary monitor come into action. But what if you don't have an external one.
Well, the way I see it there are 2 ways to get out of this sticky situation:
1. Boot up in safe mode then run Windows update - the monitor should work with a lower ridiculous resolution until you can run the updater
2. Get an external monitor (lame I know)
Just don't panic and try to re-install the thing, it's there.
Another thing they don't tell you is that after you install Windows 7 it will become your default OS on boot up. Don't poop your pants yet, OS X wasn't uninstalled, it's just that the boot up menu doesn't appear by default. If you press and hold the Option (alt) button when you heard the startup sound you'll see the nice little Boot Camp startup selection screen come on, but if not then it's Windows.
There are 3 ways to change the default boot os:
1. Start up in OS X, go to System Preferences and change the Startup Disk to select the OS X HD.
2. Start up in Windows, install the Boot Camp Utility (instruction below) and change the Startup Disk in the app located in the system tray.
3. Install some sort of 3rd party app (like I did).
They don't tell you this, but on your OS X install DVD there is a folder named Boot Camp with the app you need in there. So instead of running setup when you insert the DVD, Open folder to view files, go to the Boot Camp folder and run the setup file located there. That tool will enable a lot of things like your Apple keyboard controls and Magic Mouse support (if not just to remind you that you are using a Mac anyway).
Turns out there are lots of guides for this kind of thing like the Apple Support one or the Simple Help one: Using Boot Camp to install Windows 7. Neither of them seem mention the monitor driver problems though so it might just be with late model iMacs.
On a side note I had a pretty good streak going while it lasted, but those days will soon be over with this dual booting...17 days!
As it's getting warmer outside, the temperature in the office is getting colder. Seriously. It's like 21 degrees outside now and it's probably 15 degrees or so sitting in my cube. This is somehow the exact opposite of my last job where it got so hot I had to wear shorts some days. If I were to wear shorts here I'd probably get a cold on top of a firm backhand from upper management.
Because of this I now have an office cardigan - a cardigan that I bought specifically for keeping at the office for when it gets too cold. No, I don't keep it on the back of my chair (like the ladies around me who I stole got the idea from), I keep it in my mini cubicle closet (to hide my secret shame).
Sometimes, in the mid afternoon when hell freezes over I need to bust the thing out. Male co-workers are never impressed.
This leads me to my second point. I don't know if its because of the temperature change or maybe dust or something blowing around when the HVAC kicks on, but there's a lot of sniffles and sneezing going around. I'll admit it I'm a victim, and in an attempt to play it cool I've pulled the sanitary sneeze into my shirt's elbow pit but got snot in it instead card but that's not that point, the bless you protocol is.
When someone sneezes, you say bless you or gesundheit even if they excuse themselves - it's just manners. Today, I went on a sneezing rampage and usually the person next to me will say something but since she's away someone else did, so naturally I thanked them.
Trouble brewed when they were the one sneezing? ...and that was the problem: I couldn't tell if they were sneezing or coughing. What the hell, was it a cough? No one else said anything. Should I say something just in case, it can't hurt. But its like 10 seconds too late, I can't say somehting now.
I didn't say a thing.
Fast forward and I'm pretty sure it was a sneeze now. The fact that I didn't say anything the next 2 times they coughed/sneezed, they were blowing their nose and they didn't say goodbye back to me when I left....yeah I'm pretty confident they were sneezes.
Saturday, April 3
So everything in OS X usually comes packaged up nicely as a DMG file - double click to mount it and you're off to the races. Well I came across a situation where I wanted to burn an ISO for something Windows (oh I know).
Anyway, it's easy but not too obvious so I'll save you the 10 seconds it would take you to Topeka Google it:
1. Open Disk Utility
2. Open the file image you downloaded of The Piratebay - File > Open Disk Image (Option + Command + O)
At this point you should see the image mounted on your list just under your Hard Drives and DVD drive.
3. Click to select the disk image (The top level title, not the indented one)
4. Click the Burn button (aka the nuclear warhead symbol)
5. Wait
That's it!
I don't follow that many TV shows (although I'll watch a lot of shows if I happen to catch them on, like Man vs Wild or basically anything on Food TV) so the list is pretty short: South Park, How I Met Your Mother, Top Chef, TUF, Entourage and Dexter.
Since I had nothing better to do last night I decided to finish off this latest season of Dexter. I've heard the warnings and like any other season I expected a lot of twists and sketchy characters, but seriously wtf with how this season ended.
Just a couple notes...Warning: Spoiler Alert?
Debra is ripped!
Ever since his days as the bad guy from cliffhanger, this guy makes a pretty good villain...unfortunately he likes to get nekkid a lot this season...
Forget Lundy, I still miss Doakes...seriously, who doesn't like a badass black guy.
Sure she's hot and we found out she's the daughter but a little more back story would have been nice...
LIKE WTF! You know what I'm talking about...
I don't even know what type of questions to ask after that since it was so unexpected. Season 5 here we come...