Month: May 2009

In earlier posts I mentioned I was a big fan of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. According to reports from late Sunday night, it appears the show has been canceled. There is no official word from Fox yet as the actual network announcement was supposed to be made on Monday. As such, by the time you read this, the official cancellation announcement might have already been made.

It’s such a shame the show could not have been saved. It appeared to have a lot of viewers and followers. In the end, I’m guessing the Nielsen ratings mattered the most which I find to be an archaic way of assessing a show’s popularity. In the age of PVRs, torrents, web sites like Hulu, and other non-traditional ways of watching shows, is it fair to measure the popularity of a show at that exact hour it was on?

Fox was able to do what no other Terminator could do, it managed to stop Sarah Connor. Perhaps bittersweet is the premiere of Terminator: Salvation this week. John Connor will live to fight another day but I’ll always remember what Sarah brought to TV one week at a time for two all too short seasons.

After The Shawshank Redemption, I have decided my next movie to watch will be Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. I am hoping it will be as good as “The Shank“. I wonder if I’ll be wrong.

Image courtesy of droneteam.com

Being a fan of science fiction, science in general, and technology, you can understand why I find the UFO phenomena to be fascinating. As a kid, I read all the material that I could about the “Roswell incident“. It’s a cliche but I truly want to believe.

Most UFO reports or sightings don’t come with compelling evidence. Other times, when there is evidence, it’s so clear that it’s some sorta hoax that used Photoshop or CGI. This is why a series of reports and sightings that happened about two years ago really caught my attention. I only read about it last week and I’m surprised I didn’t read about it earlier.

Around May of 2007, people in mainly the western part of the US started photographing a strange but certainly distinctive object in the sky. It would appear suddenly where there was nothing there before and did so almost silently. The object linger in the sky for a bit and then it would disappear as quick as it appeared. Multiple reports came in and in many cases, witnesses were able to take considerably more than one photo. The object also appeared to have strange markings on it. For you sci-fi fans, the markings looked like symbols in the Matrix rain or the Galactic Basic Standard in the Star Wars universe.

Before we continue, look at the various reports and photos for yourself:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six

After the various pictures made their way to the Internet, the object was dubbed as the “drone”. Now I found the pictures to be fascinating for several reasons. First, the drone was captured in near crystal clarity in several of the photos. In years past, there have been so many fuzzy and blurry photos of supposed UFOs that even an insect on the camera lens could have accounted for the “UFO”. The drone photos though show so much detail, down to the thin spires. Secondly, the photos supposedly come from different people in different locations. It’s just not one guy who just happened to snap some great photos. The drone photos came from locations that were significantly far apart.

Now if that weren’t enough, there is also the last but perhaps the most interesting part of this mystery. After the photos came to light, a man who identified himself as “Isaac” revealed that he worked on portions of the drone in the 1980s. Isaac wrote a detailed report on his involvement but I’ll summarize the important bits here. First, Isaac was apparently employed by the US government on a very secret project called CARET which stood for “Commercial Applications Research for Extra-terrestrial Technology”. Isaac worked out of a non-descript building in Silicon Valley that just happen to have alien technology in it. When he first was brought on board, he and others were told plainly that the items they would analyze were not of this planet. Isaac’s task was to examine, analyze, understand, and exploit the alien technology in the hopes it could be used on Earth for our own, possibly commercial, purposes. I encourage you to read Isaac’s own report here. He goes into great detail and also includes pages from a quarterly report, diagrams, and several photographs of items that have the same markings found on the drone. In short, Isaac claims the drone is US government property that is utilizing alien technology.

Now if you’re finding this all too much to believe, I can certainly understand. The type and quantity of drone “evidence” is astounding, compared to what was out there previously. The pictures are crystal clear in some cases. Then comes this “Isaac” guy to explain away a large portion of what supposedly is going on. Also, all of this happened in a span of just a few months in 2007. After a while, no other reports came in and no other photos were taken by any more eyewitnesses. Does this seem a little too convenient? Possibly.

The Internet, of course, has taken sides. On one side is the “drone research team” which appears to be leaning slightly towards believing the drone might be real. On the others side, are the drone hoaxers who believe someone is laughing their ass off at all the fuss being made from a couple of Photoshopped photos.

What do you believe? No matter what you think, you have to admit, there’s some incredible photos to look at and a pretty far out report to read.

It’s been hailed as one of the best movies of all time. On IMDb.com it’s sat at the number one spot for several years running now. Despite all the accolades, it took me until this week to finally watch The Shawshank Redemption.

When it was released in 1994, it did not originally garner all the critical acclaim that it has now. Over the course of fifteen years, people have seen this movie via cable TV, DVD, Blu-ray, and the Internet (ahem). Though it managed to snag several Academy Award nominations when it was released, Shawshank lost out in every single category to Forrest Gump. Time has been kind to Shawshank. It now regularly rates higher than Gump on many movie lists.

Was it as good as I thought it might be? Yes, it certainly lived up to my expectations. The story wasn’t complicated but it was uplifting. It was wonderfully acted. I think this remains Tim Robbins best work. As always, Morgan Freeman makes any film that much better. I believe its universal appeal lies in the themes presented by the movie. The concepts of prison, freedom, good vs. evil, and redemption can resonate with all people.

I wish I had seen this movie earlier. What other cinematic delights await my discovery? What is this Waterworld everyone speaks of?

Tonight the Vancouver Canucks were defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks by a score 7-5, thus bowing out of the playoffs and yet again, ending another disappointing season. If you had told me at the beginning of October 2008 that the ‘nucks would make it to the second round of the playoffs, I would have not believed you. I predicted they wouldn’t even squeak into the playoffs. Instead they won the Northwest Division, swept their first round opponent, and made it six games into the second round. So based on initial predictions, they did alright this year.

Having said all of that, it’s my opinion the team as a whole can’t be very proud of how they ended their season. Despite being initially written off by many critics, they survived a huge mid-season losing streak and were one of the hottest NHL teams to finish the season. They entered the playoffs with no major injuries and even managed to land the biggest free agent signing of the year with Mats Sundin. In the first round, they battled fiercely with a good St. Louis team and probably were a bit lucky but managed to sweep the series. Then came Chicago.

Against the Blackhawks, I am still at a loss as to what happened. People should have been really worried even after the first game. In game one, they had a three goal lead which they managed to let evapourate in the third period no less. Only through some bad luck on Chicago’s part were the Canucks able to win game one. The precedent was set however and a common theme (or an Achilles’ heel) had been established.

The Canucks managed to score the first goal in every single game of the series except for one. They managed to establish early leads, sometimes leads by multiple goals, yet the common theme was a Chicago comeback which by game six appeared to be something you could bet your life savings on. It was really ridiculous. Chicago was able to come back from deficits in nearly every single game like clockwork. In tonight’s game, after Mason Raymond scored, I instantly knew Chicago would tie it up. It wasn’t a question of if but when and it turned out to be pretty damn quick. The same thing happened when Sundin scored to put the Canucks up by one. I didn’t have time for my neurons to process the goal before Kane tied it up again.

I have never seen a team play so poorly with a lead before. As a team, their inability to play with a lead was their ultimate downfall. The better teams in the league know how to win with a lead and that’s with “pedal to the metal”. The Canucks didn’t even know they were in a car.

I’d like to mention one positive thing to come out of all this. Kyle Wellwood now knows how to play like a playoff warrior because that’s what he was for the last ten games. In October, he was criticized for his fitness and nearly waived by the Canucks but he perserved. This spring, he did everything you could ask for in a hockey player. He took hits to make a play. His face got bloodied and battered as he battled for pucks. He won faceoffs. He made simple plays out of his zone. He was strong and responsible defensively. Last but not least, he scored goals. Kyle Wellwood deserves another contract with Vancouver and I’ll be sad if he signs elsewhere this summer.

Before I end this post, don’t you think I won’t make a comment about Roberto Luongo. Bobby Lou is undoubtedly a great goaltender. By the time he ends his tenure with Vancouver, he’ll probably hold almsot all of the team records associated with goalies. He is probably one of the main reasons why the Canucks got into the playoffs. Luongo is a proven regular season performer. Having said all that, if this is the extent of his accolades when it’s all said and done, his name will be just a large footnote in Canucks’ history. Consider this for a moment. While Bobby Lou already holds many team records, one that he doesn’t is career playoff wins which currently stands at eleven. The record still belongs to Kirk McLean with thirty-two wins, who garnered fifteen alone in the spring of 1994 (oh man, keep it together Erwin).

Against the test of time, people care less about what a player did in the regular season. In the end, players are easily remembered by their playoff performances. If I mention “The Save” and Roberto Luongo in the same sentence no one knows what the hell I’m talking about. If I mention “The Save” and Kirk McLean, everyone and their Robert Reichel knows what I’m talking about. McLean managed to win fifteen games in one single playoff season, putting on playoff performances that have yet to be matched by any other Canuck goaltender. Yeah, you read that right.

So this is for all those young Canucks fans (and fans with short memories) who weren’t even aware that the team had goalies before they signed Luongo. It’s dumb for you to say “zomg! like luongo is the best goalie evar!” Kirk McLean remains the best goaltender to play for the Vancouver Canucks. If you want proof, please watch the video below which I know I have linked to before. For you youngins who want context, this is from game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, not round one against a bottom feeder team, not round two either, it’s the Finals. This is from 1994 where McLean was spectacular stopping 52 shots when some stupid Canuck fans were barely an uncomfortable twitch in their father’s testicles.

Behold, a demonstration of how the best Canuck goalie did it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEgrFCIJPvo&hl=en&fs=1]

A few days ago I mentioned I wanted to do a “best of” post where I listed some of my better posts from the last seven years or so of blogging. I solicited you, my readers, for some suggestions to help me find some fan favourites. Over the weekend I tried to sift through as many of my archived posts as possible. I have to say, going over seven years worth of posts can be quite time consuming. Since I wasn’t able to read all the previous posts, I am convinced there’s still a few gems left to include in a part of “best of” post. One thing I want to point out is commenting prior to 2007. This blog orginally used a third-party commenting system that sucked. Unfortunately, five years worth of comments were lost went that system finally kicked the bucket. If you’re wondering why some posts have no comments that’s why. Well, without further ado, let’s get to it!

Wang Flies

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know what this is about. Years ago, I read a news report about a young Indian boy who was suffering from an extremely odd and disturbing medical condition. The original post I made was simply a link to the story and nothing else. That link has since been made invalid so it’s not worth showing again. There were subsequent updates to the story, which I also blogged about. After the story died down, “wang flies” became a term that always came up if I blogged about a weird medical condition.

Wang Flies Update
Ewwwwww

The Stripper Incident

In 2003, I wrote a post that led to very first bit of drama on my blog though at the time, I didn’t think anything of the sort was going to happen. A friend of mine told me that a mutual junior high school classmate was at the time, working as a stripper in Vancouver. I decided to blog about it by showing her stripper promo picture which was readily viewable on the Internet. I also showed her junior high yearbook photo as well. I didn’t reveal her real name in the post nor did I even mention what school we went to.

I thought the post was ok but one of my “readers” took exception. He was a guy I used to work with when I was testing games at EA. When I worked with him he seemed really easy going and he admitted to me and a lot of people he smoked a lot of pot. Well colour me surprised when he sent me messages accusing me of being a dick for revealing my classmate’s occupation and personal info on the Internet. He conveniently forgot that I didn’t list her name nor did I even mention what junior high I went to. He also seemed to gloss over the fact she was stripping in the same city she grew up in which to me was an indication this wasn’t a big secret for her.

I tried to take the high road but he continued to accuse me of being the bad guy. Another person told me my former co-worker was going through some extreme stress at the time and that I should just ignore him. I never did delete the post.

Read now what caused the kerfuffle.

Now and Then

Taxi Drivers

Over the years, I’ve taken a fair share of cabs, either through going home late from work or from my travels around this hemisphere. Some of the drivers I’ve met have led to some interesting encounters.

Head Taxi Driver
Fight for Cabs
Bad Cabbies
Taxi Driver

Brush with Greatness

Early on, I started a series of posts where I detail my run ins with famous people. Actually, these people don’t even need to be famous, they just need to be somewhat Googleable.

BwG
BwG
BwG
BwG
BwG

Top Five

I am a big fan of David Letterman and his comedy has had a great influence on my sense of humour. Dave is well-known for his top ten lists. In this blog, I’ve made top five lists because it’s hard to write a list ten funny things, five is just easier.

Top Five Punchlines to Unfunny Jokes I Made Up
Top Five Reasons Why I, Erwin Tang, Should Try Internet Dating
Top Five Things I’ve Discovered Since I’ve Been Sick

Andy the Fur Salesman

In late summer of 2003, I took a trip to New Orleans before my second year of grad school started. It was a fun, eventful trip for many reasons. One of the things I will always remember is meeting Andy, a man who decided to come to New Orleans from Dallas, to sell furs to women during the hottest week of the year.

Meeting Andy
Andy and I go to Coyote Ugly

Medical Adventures

I am extremely thankful for my good health (knock on wood). I don’t even wear glasses and being an Asian male, I know I’ve had some good luck. Despite this, I’ve blogged about the various very minor ailments that I’ve encountered in the past few years.

Thumb I: Birth of the Capstarian Warrior
Thumb II: The Omega Gambit
Thumb III: The Final Showdown

Tooth
More tooth
Even more tooth

Randoms

The following posts didn’t really fit into any unified category, so I’ve just included them here.

My Teachers
Computer Club
Cabin Pressure
Credit Card Solicitor
The Bet
Hawaiian Wedding
Letterman Wish Fulfilled

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for your continued support and readership.

Looking at pictures of Megan Fox really does nothing to dull the pain of tonight’s tough Canucks loss. They were less than minutes away from being up three games to one in the series. Unfortunately, a costly (to understate it) error by one of the Canucks sent the game to overtime. In overtime, yet another mistake by the Canucks led to the winning goal. I took the loss in game two much easier. Game two was a blowout so it was easier to divest yourself from any emotional attachment. Losing in OT after playing a near-perfect game is another story altogether. I was still swearing up a storm an hour after the game ended.

Shifting gears for a second, the picture you see above is from a trailer for Transformers 2, the Michael Bay directed sequel starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. If you watch the trailer, it appears that Spike (LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Fox) are still a couple. The interesting thing is, it also seems like Spike has gone away to attend university somewhere, leaving Mikaela behind. The two are trying the lost distance thing. Now this maybe just me but if I had a girlfriend that looked like Mikaela and also knew cars inside and out, I’d probably think twice before deciding it was a wise decision to take Calculus I at a school hundreds of miles away. Oh if you’re interested in seeing another picture from the trailer, click here.

I’m still disappointed the Canucks lost.

First, I’d like to thank everyone for their suggestions for a “best of” post. I’ll be perusing the archives and take into consideration your input. Look for the results next week.

In other news, my employer, Electronic Arts this week released the results of its latest financial quarter. The less than good news is that we’re still losing money. The slightly better news is, however, we’re losing less money now. Almost lost amidst all the financial talk was that Skate 2 has now sold over a million copies in combined sales across the Xbox 360 and PS3. It took a lot longer for us to get to that milestone on the first game, so I’m happy to see a stronger response to our second offering.

Looking to the future, maybe we’ll turn a profit next quarter!

In TV land, TV shows of years past commonly did one thing when writers ran out of ideas or were just too lazy to write something new. That one thing was to make a clip show or a show that just replayed excerpts from previous shows. Networks do this far less often now but when I was a kid, you could rely on this showing at least once a year from your favourite shows.

Because I wanna be lazy too, I started thinking of what a clip show equivalent of this blog would be. Now some of you might think it is laughable my blog would have a “best of”. I admit I have written perhaps a stinker or two of posts over the seven years but I also believe there have been a few gems here or there.

My question to you, my readers, is what posts of the past would you include in a “best of”? Would you vote for the post where I posted pics of a couple having sex in front of their hotel window? How about the classic series pertaining to “wang flies” incident? Perhaps the one where I told everyone how my lactose intolerance explosively manifested itself?

I’ll make up the list myself but feel free to add your own input to this list. Comb through the massive archives to the right and leave your choices as a comment below.

After leaving a team meeting in the late afternoon, I looked out the 12th floor windows and saw many police cars just below the office tower I work in. In fact, even before I left the meeting I remembered hearing the wail of police car sirens.

I couldn’t see what was going on, so I went back to my desk. Ten minutes later, I went to the Vancouver Sun web site and saw this story. Apparently an armed jewelry store robbery had occurred just a block from my location. Not only that, an armed woman, supposedly one of the robbers, ran right past the hotel that’s just next door. Adding to the drama, the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell was in the hotel for an interview when the armed woman ran past.

All of this led to some nervous moments for a lot of people. Almost two hours later when I left work, there was still a very heavy police presence downtown. I also got to walk past the jewelry store in question. Outside of it, I saw a man who appeared to have gotten into a fender-bender with a police car parked outside the store.