More company for my iPhone...my pants are so heavy right now...mang
Wednesday, June 15
Tuesday, June 14
Monday, June 13
It's pretty crazy when people actually go out of their way to hate on you in person, in real life. OK, we might not have done that well on Saturday but comon - who knew haters would come from far and wide just to disrespect the Banana Boat a little this year. I'm probably blowing this way out of proportion and completely misinterpreting the situation Haters always gonna hate, this is true, but I guess our reputation might actually be preceding us this year...
After we threw down a dismal 2:36 in our first race some dude actually went out of his way right before the 2nd race to come up to us and say, "Hey Banana Boat what happened? Did you guys throw that first heat or something? I thought you guys are supposed to be good..."
Are you serious right now? Yeah, we did well last year but our team is also about 70% new paddlers for 2011 and you're kinda pushing that all Asians look alike thing a little far. I hate to make excuses but that was also the first time we ever did a 500m piece this year and we didn't even have a finish, so cut us some slack. You don't know us *snaps fingers & shakes head side to side*.
We also got lots of comments about our new uniforms. Ok fine, a lot of it was actually just from me but our uniforms are pretty gangster this year, just have a look. I place the blame solely on our captain for that poor judgement call But so what if our uniforms don't have sleeves and look like hobo shirts? Sleeves are restrictive and how else can you show off your ripped back muscles?
That doesn't mean you have to come to our camp as we're relaxing and try to talk to us about how unique, colorful and different they are. Actually, looking back now I definitely might have misinterpreted that whole situation because the guy was really friendly and did offer us BBQ after (and I'm not talking crappy hot dogs, I'm talking real Italian sausages grilled on a real BBQ they brought in). But anyway...
The team also learned a few costly lessons on Saturday too. As far as team sports go, that whole thing about being as strong as your weakest member is a pretty reasonable motto when it comes to dragonboating. With 22 people on a boat trying to work as 1, a single misstep will cascade and throw everyone off.
But it was a good experience before throwing the noobs into the fire. With a lot of first timers it was probably first race jitters and not knowing what to expect, but now that they do have it under their belt it's time to step it up. Hamilton is in 3 weeks and we actually do have a real reputation to defend there. We can't lose, we won't lose...
Sure, we are a recreational team but that doesn't mean you shouldn't aim to win. Losing sucks, especially when you pay to play and are putting the time and effort into it - so don't let your teammates down. Hell, there are teams who practice 3 times a week and they consider themselves recreational too.
One thing we learned for sure is that you need to keep your heads in the boat. Yes, it's noisy and intense and shit's going on all around you, but every time you look outside the boat it costs us. When you don't pay attention to the people in front of you or concentrate on the calls then the boat falls back a seat, all because of you or me. With 20 paddlers, those split seconds add up and unfortunately it cost us the final race because it happened to be the case in the last few meters.
Check it out, this is how close it was. The orange buoy is the finish line. Within the last 10 meters or so, looks like we got caught up in the moment, heads turned and we lost. Story of my life...
Also, show up to practice. With only an hour on the water each week every practice counts. That's the truth, so show up and don't let your team down.
So bottom line is we got our work cut out for us, but in all fairness with only a few practices under our belt it could have been worse. Not to say that we did particularly well, but I was seriously depressed kinda disappointed that we didn't break 2:30 all day.
Here was the final race.
It actually wasn't that bad though because the weather held up, the venue was pretty nice and we had a lot of fun. We even went to Niagara Falls after.
Well I guess that's it for my disgruntled Monday, drinking crappy coffee, looking too much into things and ranting about it post, so have a nice day.
Friday, June 10
Banana Boat vs Welland tomorrow - we're going to take it to the lake river in style (maybe). Unfortunately the forecast calls for rain, so I'm just hoping it's not a repeat of last week because I might just have to commit seppuku.
I think we only have something like 3 practices under our belt going into this one so I'm predicting that it will be a massacre. Since our attendance has been weak, we only just "practiced" starts last week and we don't even have a finish yet, I think that we'll find ourselves comfortably in the 2:08 range...
I'm just hoping that it's as casual as the totally legitimate Cogego newscast makes it out to be, because an early season beating at the hands of country folk would be pretty depressing for the new paddlers (which is like half the team) when we still have 3 regattas to go. I don't let that kind of thing phase me though because I'm used to getting humiliated all the time I'm cool like that.
It's also a brand new regatta for us so flashbacks of that one time we decided to "try out" the Toronto Cup comes to mind. We failed to qualify for the World Championships in Macau that year but it was a savage beating great learning experience.
Apparently the Welland Canal is the premiere attraction in Welland too, but despite boasting a beautiful waterfront I've never visited it before (and I've been around (...that's also what she said)). Coincidentally, its only a few clicks from my gun club which I haven't had a chance to visit yet this year either. Damn you Promag - you should get together with Apex and have beers and give each other multiple high fives...because you both like to make empty promises to your customers.
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Is that Jay Chou giving you the gun? Yes it is. Most definitely not thyme as well...
Thursday, June 9
Man, I've been on call this week dodging bullets and it's horrible. This pager might be made of plastic but the thing weighs a ton. I'm just hoping that some fool doesn't let some cheese fly on Saturday and make me have to bail on the Welland Regatta because that would be BS. Banana Boat would not be pleased either. I'm also still waiting on that Apex paddle FYI...
The only thing getting me through the day has been Deadmau5 FLAC, that Villa remix of Rolling in the Deep and this track. I discovered it on Sunday and I don't know why, but I've been listening to it non-stop ever since.
Dude's got a voice like an angel. Just sayin'...
What always ruins a band for me is hearing a bad live performance. Like how the Chili Peppers always get made fun of on the Edge because Anthony Kiedis can't really sing that well, I can't stop thinking about that kind of thing after I hear it. Tokyo Police Club recently got the axe from the iPhone too after hearing a few of their live tracks. I mean if you've ever heard me at karaoke you know that I can't sing for beans either, but I'm just a hater pirate consumer with an opinion (I guess).
Although the quotes have been updated for a while, I haven't really gotten a chance to give the background or side images a summertime refresh too...until now.
Background images by SHOHEI and more side images to be added. Hit F5 to check them all out...so far.
I also just enabled the new mobile theme view. I kind of like it - it's nice and clean and good looking. I guess it's a win.
Tuesday, June 7
First of all, I don't know much about Battlefield. I saw some vids about Battlefield 3 and it looked pretty awesome, so I bought Bad Company 2 to ramp up for it's release. I played Black Ops/COD on PC for a while but I'm just getting into console gaming now. That's where I'm at and this was the first time playing a FPS online.
Maybe it's because I'm so used to COD and the fast pace of the mouse that Battlefield seems so different to me, but I mean it's not different "bad" just different as in "unfamiliar". Pile that on top of inexperience with the DS3 Controller and I had a veritable struggle last night trying to take control of those analog sticks.
I played about 1/2 way though the Singleplayer campaign just to get familiar with the controls and ramp up my game before trying to step up to the streets, but mang, kids have skills these days.
The first two things that struck me I missed were the fact that you can't go prone and you can't strafe-run. I mean I love to dolphin dive and never ever run in straight lines, so I was running into walls like non-stop in BC2. I guess if you compare it to real life you'd look like a clown and probably break your ankles trying to do either of those things but try it, becuase they are pretty intense physical feats. Seriously, try strafe-running. I did on the track at the Y, it actually doesn't make much sense and was pretty hard. If you know what I'm talking about, strafing in COD is shifting sideways while you run and you can look around while your body is headed in another direction. In BC2 it basically means you face the direction you're running in and looking around will actually make you turn. Once you stop running, they're the same but if you know games, you're running most of the time. I thought this was craziness at first and I still do because most games aren't built that way.
The second thing is the pace. The maps are big, you have to wait to respawn, you can destroy buildings/cover and you run with 3 other dudes in a squad. The whole thing is definitely more team based compared to COD - where everything just boils down to TDM - so it makes for much different gameplay. You get rewarded for helping out your teammates and you run around a lot or take vehicles. There's also a lot of snipers. I still haven't decided whether sniping is a legit tactic in this game or it's just camping too, but with the maps being so big they seem to work.
COD is by definition of a twitch shooter - usually whoever sees the other person first wins. While this is pretty similar experience you do have more of a chance to react to fire even if you get turned on. You do have "health" in this game, but I haven't figured out if it's BS or getting healed will really help you out in the long run. It also took me a while to realize that it's actually helpful/rewarding to run with your squad instead of solo.
In any case, one of the most important things for any game when you play online is map knowledge. When you get familiar with the maps you know where to expect to run into people and have certain routes you like to run. It usually helps when you have a general idea of where you're going but I honestly don't even know what maps I played last night and basically just started running in a random direction whenever I spawned. So while I'm not pulling any t-mart jumps, I'm pretty happy with being solidly in the middle of the scoreboard not being dead last with those tactics.
I also expected a lot more trash talk on the PSN since there's no keyboard, but you really do get a lot more spam on PC via chat and even speech. Of the games I played last night no one had a mic (or decided to talk I guesS). There's no text chat either, so there was pretty much zero trash talk or strategy, which I kind of don't like. I'd imagine if you get a party of guys running mics they would easily clean up in and team game against randoms. Not sure how common it is, but I thought I'd be arguing with dudes hearing nonsense like all day.
I'll admit that I barely knew what was going on most of the time and the maps are fraken huge and you just end up blowing up buildings, but it was fun and a real change of action.
Anyway, that's been the experience 2 hours into PSN. Check this out: first game ever.
Other than aiming, I also have a hard time pushing in the stick to run and using the damn 2nd triggers. Mouse is so much easier (for now anyway). And load times, WTF.
Man, I really need to get that bike up and running...
Monday, June 6
Re-re-re-reeeemix!
It was pretty easy only having to go through an hour or so worth video and throwing together a quick edit for a change. And because I was in the zone I actually started looking back at the Jay Peak/Revelstoke/Kicking Horse videos too. We'll see how fruitful this will become with another regatta on Saturday.
Rest of the race videos in the usual spot.
What a day Saturday was. It started off smooth enough, but then shit got real. Too real.
I don't know when then the last time I was outside during a thunderstorm was, but sitting through that was just about as enjoyable as sitting through The Adjustment Bureau. I think we only managed to get through 15 races before lightning started hitting and they had to call it quits put a hold on it.
That led to a couple hours of tent confinement as Gaia poured it on without prejudice. It got to the point where all I wanted to do was just stand there and be miserable endure it because everything was cold and wet and generally not pleasant. Anyway...
When the weather did clear up it became downright peachy. They made some revisions to the schedule and things got back on track (somewhat).
Despite some resourcing challenges, we managed to throw down 2:18, 2:19 and 2:21 in the Rec A Consolation Final. I can only assume that if the rain didn't bring down my our morale so much we would have just won it all outright. Legit prediction.
It's also pretty crazy how "competitive" the Rec divisions were. I'm not sure how teams get placed in the sport/rec divisions, but if you ask me practicing thrice+ a week and throwing down a 2:05 vs practicing once a week and then eating burritos after ain't exactly fair competition.
Just saying...
It was also pretty crazy how many young teams there were. I'm not even talking about university teams, I mean like children. I'm used to getting waxed by 12 year olds online, but real life is a different story...
Anyway, yesterday was another challenge...after practice in the sweltering heat, I wasn't sure if I was just sunburnt or sick from the day before, but in retrospect I kinda regret drinking that bottle of red wine for dinner. I don't know why I thought it would help, but after eating only a banh mi all day it was a real noob move.
Not sure what I was thinking there, but at least I managed to get my edit on/feel like trash today. Monday, monday...
Saturday, June 4
Friday, June 3
Despite Apex's empty promises, they were not able to fabricate my paddle in time for tomorrow's regatta. To say that I am thoroughly disappointed would be an accurate statement. What a bummer.
Anyway, Pickering is tomorrow and I've never raced there before so it'll be a new course - no big deal because I'm a boss. A lot of other teams have thrown it down at races already, so we'll see how Swordfish stacks up for the first time.
Let's also see how many people bite my styles this year and picked up a GoPro (that they don't really know how to use). Last year, I hated the awkward conversations with randoms who wanted to talk because they thought they knew something about my camera. Back off hater, get your own sandwich.
Thursday, June 2
I saw a girl wearing a "I ♥ Nerds" t-shirt at the Y the other day, then I started to wonder if she would dig me. Then I started to wonder if she ever watched Battlestar Galactica. Then I started to wonder how many hours I had spent actually watching Battlestar. Turns out that it was a lot, but not as much as South Park...
Total time minus commercials:
SOUTH PARK: ~78 hours / 3.3 days
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (re-imagining): ~52.5 hours / 2.2 days
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: ~50 hours / 2.1 days
CHUCK'S DAY OFF: ~6.2 hours
Same old movie, new setting. Still pretty funny though, but I think Bridesmaids would have been a lot funnier. Save your cash if you're thinking about seeing it in AVX 3D - not worth it. Now, as a result I'm totally burnt out. I just want to sleep.
Man, we ate so much crap last night even I'm not that proud of it - lobster, crab, fish, peking duck, ice cream cake, dippin dots, on top of some other crap. Big baller birthday dinners FTW? It's like I'm moving in slow motion today...
These chips were also brought to me as a challenge. Hater please, step up your game.
Frak. Softball tonight too. Alright, enough complaining. Need coffee.
Wednesday, June 1
I don't plan on buying that Escalation map pack because Zombies is full of haters and the new maps look like they suck. I bought the last one and what a mistake that was. Most Canadian servers that I ping well with don't even run the new maps anyway and I didn't really enjoy playing them either.
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that the most annoying thing about TDM is that you can get a lot of bad spawns, especially in smaller maps. I just hate dying and then re-dying instantly because I get randomly spawned with my back to some dude's AK-74u. Or even worse, the spawn flips and you get thrown into a group of enemies (perfect).
After playing a lot of DEM and DOM recently, I can also tell you that pretty much every game type is just TDM anyway. People don't play objectives. I'm pretty sure that they just join these lobbies because spawns are more reasonable and you also know where guys are headed, so rather than having to wander around and react hunt them down you just spam the objectives for kills.
Also, if you want to get any Pro Perk just play DEM. Last time I did it with TDM and it took forever to get anything, with DEM it's just a few hours (if you actually play the objective). Sure, your KDR might suffer a bit but I'm one plant away from Ninja Pro and a few more offense medals for Lightweight Pro after just recently buying them.
I look forward to pro ninja sound whoring and not playing the objectives either after this.
Anyhow, check this out: the top 10 games in Steam. Crazy.
| CURRENT PLAYERS | PEAK TODAY | GAME |
| 43,832 | 66,373 | Counter-Strike: Source |
| 43,258 | 65,469 | Counter-Strike |
| 23,006 | 35,524 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Multiplayer |
| 18,372 | 30,695 | Football Manager 2011 |
| 17,135 | 27,362 | Call of Duty Black Ops - Multiplayer |
| 14,177 | 23,342 | Terraria |
| 11,386 | 16,030 | Team Fortress 2 |
| 9,593 | 15,738 | Sid Meier's Civilization V |
| 7,546 | 11,191 | Left 4 Dead 2 |
| 6,278 | 10,061 | Total War SHOGUN 2 |
It's also pretty surprising that peak gaming time is 12PM. Guess a lot of people prefer to game at lunch?
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