Month: April 2012

So I’ve written in many of my posts, the retail portion of my apartment building has been taking shape, albeit incredibly slow at times. The first two levels of the mall have been opened but the third level and the most interesting to me, was still blocked off to the public until last week. The third level is now open though only on the south side, the northern part of that level is still off-limits. What was open though revealed the opening of two stores. The first was a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The second was an Ardene clothing store. I’m not really familiar with Ardene since I’m a dude and Ardene appears to only sell clothes to young women.

I was able to see the other storefronts, some of which were leased but had absolutely no work done on them yet. I was finally able to look into the windows of the movie theatre. It seems like it still needs a ton of work to be done but I have heard rumours that the theatre will be open on May 11. I was also surprised to see that the third level will contain a visual effects school. I’m not so sure about that one.

In any case, I’m looking forward to finally seeing movies just steps away from my apartment.

I’m on the verge of completing my second week at work and for better or worse, Fridays now mean something to me again. When you’re unemployed, everyday is a weekend, which I absolutely loved. If you think about it, I kinda had a four month long weekend. It was all unpaid of course but that was ok.

I’m looking forward to the weekend and sleeping in on Saturday morning.

As I did last year, I placed a bet with an online sports betting operation before the NHL playoffs began this evening. I made a bet that the Los Angeles King would defeat the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2012 NHL playoffs. Now some of you may call me a bad fan for betting against my team but it’s actually a shrewd move. I can’t lose. If the Canucks lose the series, I win several hundred dollars and I’m sure that will erase whatever disappointment I might have. If the Canucks win the series, then I lose a few bucks but I’m happy with the satisfaction they move onto the next round.

Should they get to the next round, I’ll repeat the whole thing again. Last year, I lost a bit money as the Canucks went right to the finals. I did get a fair chunk of my change back, thanks to the Boston Bruins. Given that the Canucks lost tonight, it looks like my payoff might come early this year. Can’t lose!

In every household you can generally find things that are common to households everywhere. I would put items like writing instruments in such a category. Last week, I found myself in a situation where that was not the case for my household. I wanted to write something down after I read an article on the Internet so I went looking for a pen or anything really that I could write with. Now I had brought a pen with me to my trip to New York. The pen, unfortunately, exploded on my way back from Manhattan. I guess there was air trapped in the cylinder that holds the ink. Of course that air was at a higher pressure than the cabin air so the thing just popped a seal and started to leak ink everywhere. I made a mess filling out my custom’s card and had to go to the washroom to wash off all the ink. I wound up dumping the pen inside my barf bag and I just left it my seat pocket.

That pen turned out to be the only pen that I owned at the time. I didn’t realize that until I needed to write something down in my apartment. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a single working pen, pencil, marker, or piece of chalk in my entire home but that indeed was fact. I was in school for twenty-one years if you count public school and university and for all those years, I had all kinds of writing instruments, different coloured pens, pencils with different graphite hardness, highlighters, the list goes on. I’ve now gotten to the point where I don’t even own a single pen.

The situation rectified itself when I went to the Auto Show last weekend. I picked up a free pen from a booth. That’s the only pen I currently own, a promo pen. School me would be really disappointed with me right now.

I got a haircut this evening. My stylist said my hair was quite long in the back. I’m not sure if it was mullet long but it felt long. Don’t tell anyone but my stylist has been selected to play in the Canadian Lingerie Football League. She actually plays a decent game of football. I’m really proud of her!

I replace my shower curtain this evening as well. I like my shower curtains plain and simple. My mine is see through with no artwork on it. I don’t like shower curtains that block out all the light, leaving you to shower in dim lighting. I’m not afraid of knife-wielding maniacs while showering, I just like to my bits and parts properly when cleaning them.

On Saturday evening, the NHL 2011-2012 regular season concluded play, which determined the final matchups for the opening round of playoffs which will start this Wednesday. As many of you know, I follow the trials and tribulations of the local professional ice hockey team in my city, the Vancouver Canucks. On Saturday, the Canucks were awarded the President’s Trophy, as the team who garnered the most points in regular season play. This was the second year in a row that they were able to claim this accolade. Of course, this accolade is virtually meaningless in the realm of professional hockey as the Stanley Cup is viewed as the only real and true prize.

As with almost every spring, I write a short post about how I predict the playoffs will go for the Canucks. Despite their tremendous season last year, I honestly did not believe the Canucks were on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup at all during their impressive playoff run. Winning the Cup is so unbelievably difficult that it’s foolish to think a team has wrapped it up until literally seconds before the horn blows at the end of the final game. As some of you may recall, the playoffs ended quite tragically for the Canucks last year.

I am predicting with some confidence that despite my best wishes, the Canucks will not be able to find their way back to the Stanley Cup Finals for 2012. On the surface, yes, they were, by virtue of points, the best team in the league in the regular season. Things are completely different this year though. In 2011, the Canucks were the clear leader of the pack, winning the President’s Trophy by a country mile. They had accumulated enough points well before the end of the season that the NHL had enough time to send the actual trophy to Vancouver and present it to the team because no other club could catch them. This year, the Canucks barely won the trophy on the last day of the season and they needed two other teams to lose (which they did). The playing field is much more even this year.

Last year, the Canucks won many of their games by simply dominating their opponents, denying them goals while scoring many of their own. Many a night, the term “ass-kicking” was an apt one to describe the outcome of a game. This year, the Canucks were in many more tighter games. They scored less and they gave up more goals. Many victories were by one goal. Now many in the Canucks organization would probably counter that a win is a win. Technically yes, but is that really true? By beating teams so handily last year, the Canucks were gifted a psychological advantage, as most teams knew the Canucks were more than capable of winning in a very convincing fashion. This year, the tighter games meant that teams probably thought they were able to keep up with the Canucks on most night. Save for perhaps a few unlucky bounces, they might have even beaten them. I don’t think teams fear them as much as last year.

The team’s star players also had less impressive outings this year. The Sedin twins, whom were league points leaders for the last two seasons, were not able to repeat the feat this year. Though, I must admit, Henrik did finish with the most assists in the league with 67. Ryan Kesler who scored an impressive 41 goals last year, scored about half that this year, while also scoring about 20 less points in total.

The team also lost a few players from last year. Most notably, defenseman Christian Ehrhoff bolted for Buffalo for about a billion dollars. He was an offensive talent on the blue line and I wonder if he had something to do with the more limited goal production this year. Though many people think his departure was a non-factor this year, the loss of Raffi Torres meant the Canucks were less tough. Torres brought a real physical presence to the ice, with his hit on Seabrook in the first round as a classic example. Some would argue that his departure was off-set by the arrival of Zack Kassian but with all due to respect to Kassian, he hasn’t done much in the way of anything since his arrival. Not only that, he was injured several games before the end of the season and his status for the playoffs is unknown.

The Canucks also showed an alarming breakdown in defensive play during the last bit of the season. Last year, they gave up the fewest amount of goals in the league but this was far from the case this year. During the last few games of the season, the Canucks seemed content with giving up high quality scoring chances to opponents. If this behaviour were to repeat itself in the playoffs, an early exit would be an easy prediction.

Last but not least, I have to mention injuries. Currently, Daniel Sedin is recovering from a concussion which he received before the end of the season. It’s been almost two weeks since he played last. Now there are reports that he will play on opening night but I have concerns about how he’ll do given his absence for the two weeks. Will he able the same player he was before? Can he take a hit like before. There are also concerns for the hidden ailments that might be plaguing other players. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa was given several days off for “maintenance” which was ridiculous as I’ve never seen a player given more than a day for “maintenance”. What injury was he hiding and how bad is it still?

For the reasons stated above, it is my unfortunate belief that the Canucks will most likely not return the Stanley Cup Finals. They might advance a round or perhaps two but it just seems very unlikely they have the required pieces to get back into the big dance. I will say this though, I am cannot account for the single yet quite impressive intangible factor that exists… Cory Schneider. The so-called “backup” goaltender for the Canucks was phenomenal for the Canucks this year, playing consistently well throughout the season. Could he be the piece that tips the scales in favour of the Canucks? I don’t know.

Still, my feeling is this will be another spring of disappointment for Vancouver Canucks fans.

Hey, if anyone was wondering if a shot of bourbon is a good follow-up to chicken wings, the answer is a resounding yes. By the way, on Wednesdays at the Back Forty, wings are $0.30 each, meaning my twenty wings cost me only $6. This place used to be the Atlantic Trap and Gill but that’s gone now.

Having a full-time job again sure cuts into your free time, especially your blogging time. I almost forgot what it’s like to have a regular job again.

In the last few days, at least two people have stumbled upon my site with the Google search phrase “pooping clear fluid”. Whoever you people are, good luck with that.

I’m also enjoying the various lunch options available to me. I’m located in a good area that places in Yaletown, near Rogers Arena, and Granville are all quite close by which provides me with a lot of choice.

I’ve noticed I collect a lot of coupons from the mail but for the majority of them, I just let them sit there and they expire. Why do I do that?

I have now experienced enough first days on the job at video game companies that I believe they will never deviate from anything other first days I’ve had.

I arrived at work this morning where I signed some papers and was shown to my desk. From there, I spent some time setting up my workstation to my own personal preferences. I then had to download, install, and configure most of the applications that I will need to be productive. From there, I read some documents and the company wiki.

At this point, I had enough equipment around me that I was able to play the game that I’ll be working on. I was able to try it out on an iPad, Xbox 360, and my PC. Since you’re absolutely useless on your first day, that was pretty much all that was expected of me today, just play the game.

Of course there was all the rest of the normal stuff as well like being introduced to a whole bunch of people whose name I instantly forgot. Before long, it was time to go home. Hopefully, in a few more days I’ll feel a little more useful.

 

Before I embark on my next journey with a new studio tomorrow, I’d like to briefly praise the last company I worked for, Radical Entertainment. I know I wrote some kind words about them when my contract ended in December but they’ve continued to impress me with their professionalism and classy ways. I received an e-mail a few weeks back from someone at Radical who told me I’d be getting a free copy of Prototype 2, the game I worked on for them. Some companies don’t give contractors a free copy of the game, so this was a nice gesture. Not only will I get a free copy, I’ll be getting the collector’s edition of the game which is not cheap at $80 USD. I believe Radical could have saved a lot of money by just sending out the regular version of the game but they decided to spend the cash to ensure everyone who worked on the game got all the extra goodies.

Radical’s generosity doesn’t end there. I was also invited to the wrap party later this month. As a now departed contractor, they didn’t have to include me in their party plans but they did anyways because they’re good that way. A certain EA Sports team that I worked with last before I got laid off did not extend an invitation for me to attend their wrap party even though I was on that game for a significant amount of time. I won’t say which team that was but it’s an example that not everyone is as nice as Radical.

I know that my experience with Radical is my own but in my opinion, if you have a chance to ever work there in any capacity, it would be a good move.