Category: Uncategorized

After work on Friday I came home and checked my mail. To my delight, my new credit card had arrived. As I detailed in a previous post, I was eager to use this new card as its cash back reward system offered much more money back than my previous one. I immediately transferred as many accounts as I could to use this new card, things like Netflix and Amazon. Over the weekend, I went grocery shopping and also took my Mom out for dinner for Mother’s Day. I tried not to spend more than I would usually. Though this card definitely gives me more cash back, just not spending money in the first place puts a lot more money back into your wallet.

I wound up spending about $180 over the weekend but over $70 of that was just for dinner. Nonetheless, that amount already qualifies me for a cash reward of $4.64. Under my old credit card, I would have received $0.90 back. If you must spend your money, you might as well spend it in a smarter way.

Late night legend David Letterman is retiring this month, with his final Late Show with David Letterman scheduled to air on May 20th. Until then, I thought I’d make a series of posts, highlighting some of his work that I think are amongst his best.

The clip above is taken from early on in his tenure at CBS. Dave works the drive-thru at Taco Bell in New Jersey. It’s a chance to showcase his quick wit and his penchant to not give a damn in getting a laugh.

I’ve just completed my first two months of my year-long contract at EA. By my math, which may or may not be that good now, that’s one-sixth of my way through. Despite passing the two-month mark, I have yet to update my Facebook nor my LinkedIn accounts with my new job. The reason for this is purely superstitious. Though there is absolutely no logic behind this, part of me believes that if I update my accounts too soon, I invite bad things upon my employment status. Perhaps this stems from my first stint at UFG, where I was laid off just two months into a six-month contract. Whatever the reason is, I always wait several months before letting everyone know where I work now. If there’s a probationary period, I’ll wait until it passes or I’ll wait until I feel like I’m relatively safe from being fired or laid off.

On Halo, I waited until I realized there was so much work to do and not enough people around to do it before announcing to the social media world I was on that project. For my current job, I’m still not sure when the right time is. No one has mentioned a probationary period to me, so it’s possible I won’t have that milestone to work with. I could also wait until my project is announced publicly, then it’ll be easier to talk about without needing to be vague. Most likely, I will wait until I feel comfortable and secure in my role. I think I’ll need a few more weeks before that happens.

Now if you’re wondering why I’m discussing all of this on my blog without any worry, good for your observational skills. My blog has been with me since 2002. It was social media before I knew what social media was. I feel comfortable writing about anything here. Plus, I like giving you fine people, my loyal readers, the scoop!

Microsoft debuted a new web site today that tries to guess the age and gender of people from a photo. The results can vary wildly and from my experience, it seems that when it gets it wrong, it thinks people are older than they are. I am sure that makes people really happy. In the example above, I picked a photo of a young Canadian male. It correctly determined his gender (make your own jokes here) and guessed his age was 24. The person in the photo is actually 21.

I tried it with a few of my own photos, I received ages of 45(!), 38, and 27. It’s a lot of fun to test and more fun if you use other people’s photos. Give it a try!

In late 2014, YouTube announced they were going to start supporting videos with a playback frame rate of 60 fps. Initially, they were starting to roll that out with videos that showcased lots of motion and only on Chrome. It looks like they’ve now opened that up to different types of videos and also to other browsers. I’m on Firefox and this evening, I saw the first sets of 60 fps videos available to me. When I clicked the “quality” button for a video, I saw surprised to see 720p60 as an option.

The one above is the first 60 fps video I had the pleasure of viewing. Yes, that’s right, Jimmy Kimmel is interviewing actress Patricia Heaton in sixty glorious frames per second. Even in a very stable, motion neutral video like a sit-down interview, the difference is noticeable. I hope more of these will be offered, especially sports videos. Having said that, film clips should stay at their current frame rates.

The Apple Watch was released to the public recently and if you weren’t paying attention, you’d think that Apple was the first company to make a smart watch. Deadspin wrote an amusing article on which celebs are now sporting these timepieces now. I didn’t see famous people clamoring to get a Pebble or a Moto 360 when they came out. Now some people might argue that they were waiting for the “superior” Apple Watch to come out before getting a smart watch. Something tells me Bey wasn’t sitting on the sidelines, pouring over smart watch specs before deciding, yes, the Apple Watch’s battery life finally won her over. These people got the watch because it’s a status symbol, not because they needed a smart watch.

In the video above, you will see someone kneading dough for about one minute. There is no audio. Enjoy!

I’ve been following the local professional ice hockey team here in Vancouver since I was about seven or eight years-old. Had I known how much disappointment embarking on such an endeavour would entail in years between then and now, I might have chosen something else to do. On Saturday evening, the Vancouver Canucks were facing elimination in game six versus the Flames of Calgary. They roared out to a three-goal lead in the first period, silencing the crowd in Calgary and putting doubt in the Flames team. Good hockey teams have killer instinct and won’t let the foot off the gas. A good team knows the best way to protect a lead isn’t to sit on it but to go out there and continue to score and dominate. The Vancouver Canucks, however, are not a good hockey team. They gave the Flames a sliver of hope and that’s all they needed. Well before the second period ended, Calgary pushed back and riding on confidence and hope, managed to score three straight goals to tie the game at three.

Championship caliber teams would manage to hold onto to a three-goal lead and win the game. That’s what champions do, they win, especially when gifted such an advantage. Vancouver was far from being anything to close to a champion last night. They folded like a fragile house of cards, tumbling down as the Calgary teams chipped away at the three goal deficit. I don’t think a single person watching the game didn’t realize that it was just a matter of time before Calgary would tie it up.

When the game was tied, to my surprise, the Canucks managed to find a modicum of redemption. They somehow managed to score another goal, briefly halting the Calgary momentum and taking the lead once again at 4-3. It seemed like a fluke though, a random bit of luck, like a gambler finding a lost chip on the casino floor, giving him one more chance to make a bet to save his skin. So this fragile Vancouver team ended the second period, perilously holding onto a one goal lead. Now, if you were to pour over the nearly century old statistics from all the played NHL games, you would find that the team entering the third period with a lead usually wins. I don’t have the exact percentage but here’s some current relevant data. Of course, that data doesn’t account for a Vancouver team that seemed afraid to win and a Calgary team that refused to believe they would be beaten by a fragile Canucks players.

So when the third period started, I had zero expectation that the lead would hold. I only had to wait about six minutes to for the Canucks to surrender the inevitable tying goal. It was at this point I knew that Vancouver would lose the game and everyone was just waiting until the Calgary would take their first and only required lead of the game. It was clear to everyone that the Canucks were just not determined enough to score one more goal to save their season. It surprised me that it took until the 15 minute mark of the third period for Calgary to take their lead. I was sure they would have done it much earlier. Once it was done, I’m not even sure if it was necessary to play the five remaining minutes. They could have played another three periods of hockey and none of the Canucks would have mustered up a goal.

The Vancouver Canucks lost the game in a spectacular collapse, in a way that history remembers the worst ways for a sports team to lose. The Canucks had to win this game and they should have been desperate. They somehow managed to secure a three-goal lead but in a manner befitting of a non-championship team, they bungled that. Then, given a chance of redemption with a 4-3 lead, they again frittered that away.

Failure is disappointing but it’s even more disappointing if you don’t learn from failure. To that end, I’ve learned to bet against the Canucks as that’s usually a pretty good bet. As some of you might have remembered, I wagered weeks ago that Calgary would win the series. I won that bet easily and my wallet is slightly thicker tonight because of the incompetence of the Vancouver Canucks.

As per my previous post, I inferred that the Vancouver Canucks were fragile and mentally weak, and thus ripe for elimination in their Thursday night game against Calgary. All the signs pointed towards that, as their last two games were a disaster. So this afternoon, I ponied up $200 and bet that Calgary would win. I’m not sure what happened but a very different Vancouver team showed up and were all business tonight, out shooting the Flames by a 2 to 1 margin. They were rewarded by a 2-1 victory, staving off elimination and sending the series back to Calgary on Saturday.

I am $200 poorer for this. There is a reason why I my last sports bet was in 2013.

The local professional ice hockey team in this city, the Vancouver Canucks are currently facing elimination from the 2015 NHL playoffs. They are currently down three games to one against the Flames of Calgary. As you might remember, I already bet $20 free Bodog dollars that Calgary will defeat Vancouver when the series is over. That will net me a cool $24. Is that outcome likely to happen? Let’s just say that I’m pretty confident that I’ll be $24 richer in the next few days. It’s just a matter of exactly when that becomes a reality.

This brings me to my current dilemma. The daring and adventurous side of me wants to make another bet, this time on the outcome of game five. Calgary has won the last two games handily, dealing Vancouver a crushing blow on the scoreboard and to their confidence. I’ve watched a lot of hockey in my years and these last two games were not tightly contested affairs. Calgary has all the momentum and from a metaphorical standpoint, they have a very fragile Vancouver team down on the mat. The Flames will be looking to deal the killing blow on Thursday evening.

To that end, it seems like a safe bet to put some money down on Calgary to win. Strangely, the bookies haven’t changed their odds on the game as they still have Vancouver as the favourites. I believe this is the right time to make a significant bet as all the signs point towards a Flames victory. Knowing my luck though, the Canucks will find a fluky way to win just to screw up my bet.

I have most of tomorrow to make a final decision. I shall report back.