Viewing Recent Posts

I have a lot of random stuff I should be writing about but I'm usually working or out enjoying the weather.

What I'm really excited about is how iTunes Music Store beat out p2p when I was trying to find a song.  It's called House Correct by Da Gunners and I spent a good week trying to find it on p2p networks.  After nearly giving up, I decided to try the iTMS and immediately found 4 version that I could download. Needless to say, I was impressed. 

They may end up getting my $0.99 more often.

I enjoy most genres of music, but my soft spot can best be described as Euro House Disco music.  I know it sounds strange but the people at Hed Kandi have captured it best with the Twisted Disco series.  They released the 2007 compilation and they have sample clips on their website and I strongly encourage you go give it a listen.  It's a solid mix.

Whoever is responsible for Safari 3.0 made a very bad call in the way that it handles textareas in web forms.  (FYI: Textareas are the big boxes that you can enter text into in an online form, not the one-liners) 

The functionality makes sense with allowing users to use a bigger text editing area for people to use.  OmniWeb does it well.  There is a little box in the top right corner for you to click on and a pane comes up with more room. Apple decided to allow the box to be resized on the fly.  This goes against any common sense because now all these neatly designed web interfaces (including my own) get screwed by this uncontrollable box!

Hopefully it gets removed but it does have a lot of other great features such as the amazing search and improved tab usage.

I woke up this morning and was reading Slashdot, CBC and a few others a when I came across this story.  While I'm all for the rights of aboriginal people and I agree they got pretty screwed a few hundred years ago, this is rediculous.  I'd rant more but I have a job and I need to go make money the old fashioned way. 

One of the neatest things of being a MINI owner is that it has some sense of community.  When I first got my car two summers ago, I was thrown off by other MINI owners waving at me.  Since then, I've come to realize that they all get excited about their cars the way I do. 

Today was the 2007 MINI Launch Event which involved a MINI parade from the dealership around town ending up at the Cresentwood Park with a few stops along the way.  There were roughly 45 cars including two original MINIs.  It was lots of fun and I ended up winning a pass for 4 people to Speedworld Indoor Kart Track. 

I also hear that my friend Shawna also just picked up a new 2007 MINI in British Racing Green.  Congrats!

I used to get really excited about long weekends.  It was like a mini vacation during school or a summer job.  Since I've started working for myself and from home, I've noticed that long weekends aren't exciting anymore.  I'm not complaining but it's interesting since I'm at home every day, the joy of staying away from work for one more day just isn't there.  I've actually had a more productive weekend for work than most workdays.  Just food for thought.

I went for my first rollerblade of the summer this morning.  I haven't had a chance to find my new route since moving in the Fall.  My old route in the suburbs was around 3km and it did me well. 

I set out deciding to go to the 7-11 (that's where I always go for a Gatorade) on Corydon.  I got there only to realized that I wasn't that tired, so I kept going to the 7-11 on Stafford and Lorette.  Upon returning home I use a google maps pedometer to calculate my route.  As it turns out it was 3km exactly.  Perfect!

I haven't written here in a while and that's mostly due to a mix of lazyness and busyness.  Most of my time was consumed by the 2007 IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship.  It was an amazing experience start-to-finish.

My original role with the event was as their graphic designer.  I've been working with the event since this summer and I've learned a lot and I've produced artwork that has appeared in places I never thought I would see it.  From ads on the sides of buses and on street lamp banners to logos in Cheerios ads and on the sides of brand new chevy SUVs.  It was crazy and worth every second.

During the actual event I was also a volunteer in the Event Operations Centre for the event. For those of you that don't know me too well, I tend to go hard when I volunteer so it should be no surprise that I was there much more than my schedule said I should be. It was a great time and really exciting.  I got to see the inner workings of an international ice-hockey tournament.  I also really became close friends with many of the folks from the event and Hockey Canada.

Alongside the tournament and everything that went along with it I started a side project with James and Greg (Event Manager for the WWHC).  Greg had a genius idea in his head for years and James and I were able to help him make it happen.  Our company is called JoGoPo Fan Entertainment and we had our first successful test run of our product at the tournament.  It was a huge hit and we are excited about taking it forward in the upcoming months.  Check out the website for more details.

When I wasn't creating last minute graphics or volunteering, I found time to catch most of the Canadian games with my friends Paul and James.  I had seats for two below the John Labatt Lounge and James was seated in the media overflow, running the JoGoPo Software.  It worked out beautifully.  There are too many moments to list but the Gold Medal game was certainly a highlight.  The arena was packed and it was quite the experience.  After the game, we all went to a reception in the Exchange Restaurant in the MTS Centre.  That eventually spilled out to Tavern United where Polly Craik and Bob Nicholson convinced the manager to keep the place open until 4am.  Considering the entire gold medal team was there partying, it was hard to say no.  The evening eventually ended around 6am when a few of the guys from Hockey Canada had to catch their flights.  It was good timing since the hotel was trying to kick them out for too many noise complaints. 

The whole thing was an amazing experience and I need to end this by thanking Greg Paseshnik, Polly Craik and everyone else involved for taking a chance on me and allowing me to be a part of it.  I owe them a great debt.

My design site was in need of some much needed TLC. I haven't been able to find time for most of the changes but I have updated my Portfolio section with a new look, new interface, and new back-end.

I'll be slowly putting up all the work I've done in the past while. The custom module for my admin is making things much easier and quicker. Drop me an email if you have any suggestions.

I realized that I haven't made a new blog post in a while. My life is on a consistently busy but enjoyable streak. That being said, nothing new or exciting is really happening.

Most of my work time is spent working on the World Women's Championship or St. Paul's High School website. I've been working on a few smaller projects here and there but these two take up the bulk.

The World Women's is about 30 days away and the marketing is really ramping up. I sit on the Marketing Committee as well and I'll be volunteering in Event Operations during the actual event. It's going to be a great time.

Outside of work I've been spending a lot of time with my friend Paul and James. We go out most weekends and some weekdays and it's great. The usual mix seems to be bars, wedding socials, or random restaurants. Next Saturday the three of us have floor seats to the Christina Aguilera concert. You heard it right. . . deal with it.

I'll attempt to update more often.