The Empire

Last night Shan and I went to the Commodore and had a lovely dinner and beer while listening to the supporting act before the Cat Empire came on.

To be honest I've been meaning to get around to listening to the Cat Empire for a while. I'd heard 2 of their songs and seen 1 music video of their 2nd CD. I liked what I heard but just didn't get around to it. When we arrived at the end of July and had just missed them at the Blues festival we were a little disappointed. However a month later I was walking around the streets and saw a flyer saying the Cat Empire was playing on their own away from the rest of the festival. So I ran home to tell shan and she had seen the same flyer. So we got a copy of the first CD, we bought tickets and waited.

Fast forward to last night and we were ready for a good show as we liked what we'd heard. And boy, what a show! It started at 10:45 and was still going strong at 1am. We danced non-stop. We were in what would be considered the 4th row if you could put rows in the mosh pit. Jumping up and down and accosted by drunken Irish women, shan and I just kept going. They were quite honestly one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I would put them at number 2 in my list of live performances I've seen. They knew how to entertain and involve the crowd. I had to work the next day but who cared, we dance, we sang, we laughed. It was good to be part of the Empire for the night.

Thanks Cat Empire, we had a great night. I'm still laughing at the irony that we had to come to Vancouver to see an Australian band.

Edit: I meant to also add, while we were waiting for the band to start, I called this out just for Joe and Guy "Play some fucking Chisel"

2nd Edit: I just remembered that while we were dancing there was a Guy who I at first thought was a little obnoxious and creepy as he kept leaning on me while I was dancing. After about 1-2 minutes I turned around to see what the hell was his deal and the guy looked like he could barely stand. He was either drunk as a skunk or high as a kite. Either way he wasn't coping as he looked like he'd already sweat out half his body weight in fluid. A few seconds later a few security guys came along and pulled him out of the mosh pit asking if he was "ok". He looked like he was about to collapse. While it was a little creepy, hope he survived, he looked like his heart was about to kerplode.

The Cambie

Well my birthday was heaps of fun.

I started the day off at 5:55 am to get up to go to work. I covered the "Nestle Presents" nutritionist convention. So after supporting that for 9 hours I was ready for the Cambie.

We arrived and just as we got there, the Canucks scored a goal evening the points. While waiting for the others to arrive we then got to see the Canucks score again and win the game. It was very exciting to be in a bar when that happened. It also meant I had beaten the curse that I was having on the Canucks as the last 2 games I watched they had lost (before that they had been winning).

Then Kass and Bjorn turned up and Rob shortly followed. And thus we laughed and imbibed libations. For 4 hours straight.

Alcohol consumed by moi:
- 2 screwdrivers (which consited more of vodka than OJ)
- 3 jagermeister shots
- 2 Tequila shots
- countless pints of Granville Island Honey Larger

And then we went to Rob's and played Guitar Hero. And there was much rejoicing and passing out. A good night was had by all.

Zombie Joey Ramone can kiss my ass!

We went out to the Keg for dinner tonight with Shan's mum for my birthday dinner. Dinner was delicious and the service was emaculate as always. However just before the meal arrived a special surprise came with the waiter.

IT WAS GUITAR HERO! Shan's mum bought it for me as a birthday present. Shannon is playing it right now while I write this. I've already unlocked the first section of medium.

Thanks Christine! You rock as well!! I'll make sure I play "More than a Feeling" by Boston just for you tonight before putting it away.

Oh and Tancred, if Zombie Joey Ramone turns up I'll enact plan 9 and go for the fire axe. That'll reduce his rebellious spirit.

Score!

Just wanted to say that Shan bought me a Playstation 2 for my birthday along with Shadows of the colossus. This is completely awesome! I was no way expecting it. This opens up a world of games I've been itching to play for a while.

I find it funny as I've now come full circle. 2 years ago my parents bought me a playstation 2 for christmas (i think it was) and at the time, I wasn't really fond of a lot of the games that were available. So I went out and swapped it for an X-box. Now I got the X-box for Halo (and if Bungie had stayed Mac only I probably would have bought a mac) and that was well worth it. I had the X-box for 2 years and only really bought a few games for it. The X-box did not have the best selection but thats because I'm not overly fond of car racing or just pure action games apart from a few of the FPS's that were available. Also, most of the games on X-box were almost always released on PC, so if I actually wanted a game for X-box, i had to ask if it was better on the PC.

During that time, a ream of good games came out for the PS2. I have a few friends who have PS2's and they purchased alot of the good games, including Guitar Hero (which I think to this date is one of my all time favourite games...next to Accordian Hero). So here I am, back with Playstation after many years apart.

Thanks Shan, you rock!

PRICE
(Suddenly enthused)
What's that, a gram?

BATEMAN
New card. What do you think?

McDermott lifts it up and examines the lettering carefully.

McDERMOTT
Whoa. Very nice. Take a look.

He hands it to Van Patten.

BATEMAN
Picked them up from the printers yesterday

VAN PATTEN
Good coloring.

BATEMAN
That's bone. And the lettering is something called
Silian Rail.

McDERMOTT
(Envious)
Silian Rail?

VAN PATTEN
It is very cool, Bateman. But that's nothing.

He pulls a card out of his wallet and slaps it on the
table.

VAN PATTEN
Look at this.

They all lean forward to inspect it.

PRICE
That's really nice.

Bateman clenches his fists beneath the table, trying to
control his anxiety.

VAN PATTEN
Eggshell with Romalian type.
(Turning to Bateman)
What do you think?

BATEMAN
(Barely able to breath, his voice a croak)
Nice.

PRICE
(Holding the card up to the light)
Jesus. This is really super. How'd a nitwit like you get so
tasteful?

Bateman stares at his own card and then enviously at
McDermott's.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
I can't believe that Price prefers McDermott's card to mine.

PRICE
But wait. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

He holds up his own card.

PRICE
Raised lettering, pale nimbus white...

BATEMAN
(Choking with anxiety)
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Owen's card.

Price pulls a card from an inside coat pocket and holds it
up for their inspection: "PAUL OWEN, PIERCE & PIERCE,
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS." Bateman swallows, speechless.
The sound in the room dies down and all we hear is a faint
heartbeat as Bateman stares at the magnificent card.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness
of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark...

His hand shaking, Bateman lifts up the card and stares at it 

until it fills the screen.

He lets it fall. The SOUND RETURNS TO NORMAL.

CARRUTHERS Is something wrong? Patrick...you're sweating.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh Yeah. I just got given my very first business card.

Itttssss my birthday

Although I've been living in Canada since the end of June, my body clock is still a little bit Sydney time so somewhere in Australia it is currently my Birthday.

Woo!

Tomorrow Canada time I can look forward to a relaxing day of Dermatology Lecture, Nursing Bursary and Dermatology Tutors. What more could I want on my Birthday!

If your in Vancouver and have nothing better to do this saturday night, come have a drink at the Cambie. I'll be the one getting drunk after a 12 hour shift at work.

2 hours and 33 minutes

I had a plan when I arrived home. A simple plan but a plan that amuses me to no end. I was getting comfortable and decided it would be really amusing to put on Shannon's pyjama pants and then mine over the top of them. Not only would this mean that I would be toasty warm and doubly comfortable (I mean one pair=comfortable then 2 pair would = 2 x comfort or comfort squared) and the 2nd part of the plan would have Shannon looking for her pants and thinking she was crazy for not being able to find them.

So she got home from a long day at the console and made chicken soup to help with my sore throat. Then she decided to get comfortable. "Honey, have you seen my pants?" (an amusing line which has stuck with us from a nescafe ad in Australia). "Ah no dear, where did you last see them?". Now I had deliberatly let the end of the pants legs slightly show just under mine. She spied it and then yelled bloody vengenance. What next could only be described as a Benny Hill-esque* of chasing around the house trying to get the pyjama pants.

Then we called Jen and congratulated her on finding out the sex of her baby.

* I couldn't actually find any actual benny hill chase senes but I did see some silly things on YouTube , but I think the silliest was this one.

Future medicine professional

Well firstly I can say, that med students around the world are the same. At least Canadian/American and Australian med students that is. The other day, while waiting for the lecturer who was late, a student ran out the front and said "so does everyone want to do a wave and I'll record it with my phone?". And they did, three times.

I've been fortunate to see over the last month highly interesting medical lectures. Some of the pictures are a little nauseating but not so bad as to remove the interest. I feel privileged to see these lectures and I won't pretend to say I understand more than 50% of what I'm seeing/hearing but I also have a handy net connection and google with wikipedia, I can usually get the gist of whats going on. However it does make me think bleakly of the future of some of these "doctors" when I see one or two of them playing computer games in the back row of the lecture theatre. Now generally I'm pretty understanding of games, I'm a gamer myself, but when the lecturer is talking, you should be paying attention especially when your above first year medicine, since this could be an important lesson that one day may save a life. Now there are other factors, maybe he could multi-task listening and playing, or maybe he was doing 2nd year medicine again and toped this section of the course. Regardless, I laughed about it at first and then decided that I hoped I never had him as a doctor.

To date, the most icky lecture I've had to sit through was diseases of the Anus, Rectum and Colon. Yuck.

Rumours of my death ....

... Never actually happened. Many appologies for being quiet for sometime. Its not that I haven't done anything blog worthy, just that I've been distracted or just not felt like blogging. As you may have noticed Shan and I have moved from our original Blog site.

So Whats been happening? Lots of things. I'll update slowly all the posts that I got half-way through and never finished. I'll make sure I blog more often.

I am now working for UBC in an AV\IT support role. I'm really enjoying it. We've just cleared our stuff through Customs and should receive it next tuesday. I'm very excited.

Irony, your name is Australia

I read this in a Canadian newspaper just this moment:

Aussies plan prison ship

CAIRNS - Australia plans to use an armed prison ship to hold illegal fishermen and "boat people" in a move that critics say smacks of the county's convict origins.

Under the plan, naval and customs patrol boats will no longer have to return to port to deposit asylum seekers and poachers detained at sea.

Terry O'Gorman, the president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, called it "an immigration prision ship". He said: "It's a delicious historical irony that Australia was founded on convicts who were moved from prison bulks in the Thames. Now we are repeating history".

The vessel, which could be operating by January, would carry up to 30 armed customs officers and two deck-mounted machineguns. It would be able to hold up to 30 detainees for up to a month.

I had a large rant originally planned for this but in the end I thought "why bother". There is no point in trying as Australia already has a tarnished image from people overseas in regards to what we do with "boat people" and illegal immigrants. I just hope the rest of the world doesn't think all Australians agree with it.

Celebration of Light

Well the HSBC Celebration of Light just concluded. 4 days over two weeks of great fireworks. You can see the pics on Shan’s flickr account (they probably aren’t up yet, will remove this bracket when done). I really liked Italy’s and Czech Republic’s fireworks (although the Czech was a little dispointing for its closing number). Mexico was average but had a nice finale, which was good enough to win it the festival. We then watched the compilation show with all countries collaborating. Really glad we managed to be in Vancouver for it.

Thurn and Taxis @ Drexoll

On friday we went down to Drexoll Games and played Thurn and Taxis. I found it to be a very enjoyable game. We had the rules explained to us and alot of it was very similar to Ticket to Ride (no surprises since it was the same creator). This helped alot as I could look at the board and know what the best stratergy would be to use in the first few turns. After 2 hours (including rules explanation) we had a winner: me :) So already I liked it. However I could say it was a really easy game, flows very well, with minimal chances for others to screw you over (plenty of chances to screw yourself if your not paying attention ... twice). Shan's only compaint was there wasn't enough bile. A great game, easy to see why it was voted best game and would be a great addition to any gaming club.

We then played a game of El Grande (plenty of Bile there). I was winning until Frida pulled out this ridiculous move (well it was completely legit but I say ridiculous) and shot ahead of everyone (and stayed there for good) making it more of a race for 2nd place. In the end I think I came third but it was a real fun game of El Grande. It took us around 3 1/2 hours and then it was time to go home.

We then went home and watch Cinderella Man, as we hadn't seen it yet. It was ok but the ending was predictable. If pushed I might be able to give it 3 stars, maybe 3.5 for the photography and production value.

Crash and Ball

I decided to go to the park today for lunch. The weather outside was a delightful temperature, Sun not too warm and pleasant breeze flowed lightly to be cool but not "grab your jumpers, its gonna be freezing". I walked to the curb and waited for the passing cars to travel by. One person decided to slow down and let me cross, which was very nice of them. Canadians are quite polite I must say, and Vancouver (can't say much about the rest of the cities) is very pedestrian friendly, so this while a typical occurrence, is still a nice surprise. However, the people traveling behind them did not obviously see them slowing down and ran right into the back of them. I just stood there dumbfounded that this had happened (in Sydney its a give, usually involving a taxi). Thankfully no one was hurt, but when the offending party got out of the car they were complaining bitterly and sure enough, were American. I gave my details as a witness (and partly because I felt in some way I was the cause of this accident) also because it was very obvious what had happened.

Tonight is drop-in Indoor Soccer again. I started playing last week, Shan and I went to Coal Harbour Community Centre and the group that play are quite nice. Its good to be playing Soccer again and its different to be playing Indoor after 9 years, I'm surprised I don't suck. Although I get quite puffed at the moment, but that's to be expected, give me a few weeks and I'll be fighting fit and taking numbers. Both Shan and I have executed some lovely goals already that are good enough to write home about ... In fact I'll do that right now :)

Happiness is a warm couch

What a week. First I feel that I've overheard some diabolical alien laughter. Next I win 24 dollars on a scratchie (yes!). A day or two later I walked past the same lumberyard and hear a Kookaburra call. Obviously its not aliens, but an international bird smuggling ring. Or at least thats what the aliens want me to think.

However the best part of the week was the weekend. Shan and I went and saw A Scanner Darkly on Saturday. I really really enjoyed this film. It kept me interested with fine actors on screen (Winona Rider wasn't annoying for once, still a little whiney though :P). Also, I still haven't got around to seeing Waking Life yet so the Rotoscope technique was really good to see in a film again, giving it the surreal effect which I haven't seen since Wizards.

Then on the Sunday we went back out to Richmond for house shopping (or I should say outfitting, we aren't going to buy little tiny houses... that would be silly). We took back the TV we originally bought as it was not everything we had hoped for and got a better deal. And they were nice enough to deliver it for us for free as they had no models they could sell us on site. Also we went back to IKEA and got the couch that we saw last week. It gets delivered tomorrow so when I get home from work I'll have something comfy to relax on in the evenings as apposed to the chairs we borrowed from Christine (which we appreciate none the less). And then we sat back, ate dinner and watched the last three episodes of Doctor Who from the current season.

T'was a good week.

Weird occasions bring plenty of dollars

Some people would say "why are you taking pictures of lumber yards?" and I would like to answer that question. For the last week I've been walking past this place on the way to my skytrain station in Burnaby. Everytime I've walked past it after work I have heard evil cackling. The first time I thought "no I just heard something from off the Trance track I was listening to, thats nothing" and I went on my way.

The second time I heard maniacal laughter I stopped. Took off my headphones and was completely convinced I could still hear it...it stopped and then I went on my way, keeping a wary eye over my shoulder.

The third time I noticed something calling out in pain. I say something 'cause it certainly didn't sound human. And then it got drowned out by an electric saw. I then sped off.

And then, I won $24 CAD on a scratchie!

I wonder what will happen when I leave work today

Come on honey, lets smash the state tonight

Argh, this is the second time this has happened to me. Last friday we noticed that my Credit Card was "missing" after I went to use it the other day. We traced back to Milestones that it was the last place that I had used it. They were not overly helpful and it was finally decided that they could not "find" it. So we canceled the card.

Today, I went to take some money out from an ATM today and it got seized. I was so angry! We've just called Australia and discovered that the idiots canceled the wrong card! So I'm without an ATM card nor a Credit Card for a few weeks. Thankfully this time shan's around so we still have some money.

The last time this happened to me, Shan was out of the state and I'd had my ATM card not returned to me at Coles (and didn't notice as it was rather busy, but partially my fault). I rang the coles later and they said they didn't have it. I still had my Credit Card, which promptly got eaten by a machine the next day. Thankfully I had friends I could borrow money from (those zombie dollars got me quite far).

So what does this mean:

1. Always make sure you get your card back
2. We should return to a bartering system and just herd Sheep everywhere. I know I'd accept Sheep over Visa any day. I can see the sheep are right there!

The Dead shift: a week in progress

This week I undertook my job in the funeral business. I'm working for Alderwoods in Canada in the Network support center. I am supporting most of the US and Canada for their networking needs. So far I have learnt how to call ISP's and reboot routers, riveting stuff I'm sure :) However it is giving me experience in and area of IT I have not had the chance to work in before and making sence of my CCNA studies that is quite useful. You could say the job is just like 6 feet under, but with more gigs.

The most amusing thing on the job this week so far has been the number of sites around america that have been hit by lightning. 27. 27 alone this week! I know for most of the USA thats nothing, but the fact that 27 funeral homes have been hit by lightning which have blown out their DSL links makes me think one of two things. One, their doing something to piss of a deity of some kind. Or two, their attempting to bring back the dead, ala Frankenstein. Sure you could say theres a third, they are in hurricane zones and its that time of season, but I'd just say your taking the logic path and go home and play with pythagorus :P I'd like to think there are 27 frankenstein monsters running around America ... ah the American dream.

Also if you've read Shan's blog, you would know that we have just got a new appartment in the "Kitsalano" area, which is similar to Balmain. We have a 2 bedroom appartment which was advertised as a "1 bedroom with den". Its soooo good, we have room for visitors and still plenty of room for a circus ;) I think we really lucked out. We're not really paying much more than we would have payed for our appartment in Sydney after the price hike we would have gone through had we stayed in Sydney.

Due to our new appartment, we went shopping in IKEA today. We arrived at 11am and litterally shopped til we dropped (true story). It was 4pm by the time we got out. But we successfully bought most of the things we need to set up a place and got sweedish meatballs to boot (we ate them, not kicked them ... I know you were thinking it!).

So so far, Vancouver is looking up, I miss everybody terribly, but I reckon this is all going to be worth it :) Catcha on the flip side.

Yo ho ho and a bottle of Bikini Martini

We went to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest today. What a film! From the moment the film started to the end of the film I was watching one of the best pirate, swash-buckling films in ages. The movie had a few corny turns but who cares, there was sword-fighting, betrayl, capture, torture and home for tea and medals... or so you think. Surprises all round we shot down the red baron ... i think I've wandered off topic. I better go see the movie again just to be sure. 4.5 Stars from me.

After that we went Milestones for dinner to celebrate my finding a job. I've only applied for two jobs since arriving and the second one came through. I am now employed by Alderwoods, the 2nd biggest operator of funeral homes and cemeteries in North America. Finally I get to support the enternally interned with their connection beyond the grave. Finally I've found my medium .... I am soooo sorry.

Turn the dang music down and get off the damn lawn!

We went to Frontline Assembly last night at Richards on Richards. It was really cool once we got inside and saw that this is one of those bars that features in almost all TV and low-budget films shot in Vancouver.

The bar was filled with Industrial fans and punk enthusiasts. Every 5 minutes I expected to see either Leon or Goggles Medway in the crowd, but they were nowhere to be seen. I kinda missed them for an event like this.
We arrived while DJ? Acucrack was playing. His music was nice industrial music which near the end of his set almost became happy hardcore, which was a little odd.

Next came Urceus Exit, who played an awesome set. The music wasn't that danceable (apart from the last song) but it was some of the best live industrial music I've heard.

After them was an act called Conjure one. Apparently they are an offshoot from Frontline Assembly ex-member. Unfortunately they were nothing special. The female singer was trying to sound like sinead o'conner. The music was nice but nothing new.

Finally FLA came on. I was really looking forward to their show and sadly I was a little disapointed. I've only just got into FLA over the last year and really have loved their music. To be honest, the music could have been the best in the world last night, but I would have like to have heard the lyrics and enjoyed the music without my ears bleeding. We stayed for 20 minutes of their set and just left. I had been warned by a few that FLA are not as good as they used to be, which was indeed a fair call, but I would have thought the noise level would have been sussed out so they could have played at their best.
However that didn't ruin the evening. I was happy to go out and here some good live music with Shan, which I haven't done in ages and not even the loud music and partial deafness after leaving could have ruined that :)

Wacky city

Shannon has claimed rights to blogging about our day out. However, there are two guys down on the beach as I right this, having a lightsaber duel! There on the beach and yelling "the force is on my side" ... if I didn't have a job interview tomorrow I'd have real difficulty in not going down there and joining in. It looks pretty cool from up here on the 24th floor. I think I could like it here :)