This is pretty wicked. Found this via Robert Scoble who found it via Jakob Lodwick, and what we have here is an incredible video that was put together by Tom Guilmette who is not only an avid video enthusiast, but his day job is being a camera man in the outfield at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

This short video is a small tour of the camera he uses to do his job, and the camera he used to make this video blog of sorts isn’t anything to sneeze at as well.

I would love to be able to do something like this with my day job, but in all honestly, radio is not as pretty and it sounds. No seriously, it sounds way better than what it technically takes to make radio happen.

Zanstorm posted about this on Waiting for Stanley some time back when he saw me in the background during the Nashville game, and he asked if I knew I was on TV. I honestly didn’t know if I made it on the TV, but it didn’t surprise me. We’re all down there doing our sports coverage thing.

It was when I got an email from faithful TCC listener GZ Expat that it was kind of fun to acknowledge that yes, that’s me in the background… the really short guy with Brad Isbister, #27. That guy is huge.

If you’re wondering why it’s been so long since I’ve posted, this is apart of that. It’s been quite the month with my day job. After Northern Voice, the pace has gone nonstop, even if we did make a weekend for ourselves on Salt Spring Island. The toughest part is coming home and wanting to do much of anything except relax.

I hope to do more soon, but the season isn’t over for the Canucks just yet (which could be an entire other post for another time). One more regular season game, then, I hope, things will slow down. Hope is the key word there.

The following video was somewhat surprising to find on YouTube, but it doesn’t do the legend of Roger Luttski justice. And thankfully, the person who posted it finally made it embeddable.

Colonial Lanes in Iowa City has made a series of commercials for their bowling ally that have been absolutely hilarious, all while keeping things on a low budget. More so, the creativity compared to production quality doesn’t even compare, but there is only so much you can expect from local commercials, no matter where you are in the world. This, on the other hand, has always been a campaign that is witty, if not completely hilarious.

The tag line of “oh yeah, bowling” is a play on all the things you can do at what is more than just a bowling ally. In fact, it’s something that I still throw out once and a while, but no one has a clue what I’m talking about. I’m not so sure that just this clip even begins to explain it, but it’s still pretty good. And the quality is far superior to the soft, grainy, yet comforting VHS look and sound of their old TV spots.

And who can forget the Tiger Woods spoof of, “I am Roger Luttski”? That one almost made me cry.

This is, or was, a long running theme in their commercials, and I hope it still is. Roger Luttski is a completely fictional character, but he has been portrayed as the same guy for a number of years now. I’m sure it’s not an easy job, but bowling for fun and then stumbling into the realm of a spokes person would be pretty cool.

Photo credit: gusgreeper on Flickr

While hanging out at Muffin’s house last Tuesday, I finally broke down and tried my hand at Guitar Hero[wiki]. Yes, it was the first edition of the game, but the bigger point is that I’ve tried my hand at this thing that has seemed to grip the gaming nation. I’ve been suckered into the Mario Kart[wiki] realms in the past and watched the disturbing rise of Dance Dance Revolution[wiki].

The Adam and Corinna are big GH fans, and I’ve never mustered up the extreme interest in picking up an axe and trying my hand at the game. The game looks and sounds like fun, but it never stuck me as something I really wanted to try. Stick me in front of a gaming console with a hockey game of some sort and you might have me asking for a try, even though I’ll have no clue how to play.

So, I’ve finally tried it. I had already thought that by knowing how to play bass and a little guitar would cause some conflict, and that was slightly the case. There is something to be said about having rhythm, and then it’s another story when you have to hit the right buttons when the game calls for it. To me, that’s more timing than the groove you kinda get when you are jamming on your guitar or bass. It kinda threw me at first, but I adjusted.

However, did you catch the recent episode of South Park about Guitar Hero? The part where they say something to the effect that it would be amazing what these kids could do if they spent all that time and energy learning how to actually play guitar versus playing a video game where they pretend. Made me laugh pretty hard.

And then Randy where he plays the game in his underwear. That was hilarious, but happened to me on the second time I tried my hand at the game, even on easy level. Of course, I wasn’t nearly naked when I did it, but maybe I should try that and see if I improve. Maybe it will make me man enough to tackle GH two or three now.

The beautiful thing about BitTorrent[wiki] is that it allows us to pretend that we have a DVR. Well, in Vancouver, they are known as PVR, but it’s that digital video box that is so much sweeter than what a VCR ever was or can be.

Anyhow, on one of the many sites that I watch for the latest torrents that I want to grab, something popped up that caught my eye. It said “Finland” and “hockey” somewhere in the title, and there was also a “vs” in it as well. I’ve heard a lot about the Swedish, Finnish, and Swiss leagues that NHL players jump ship to play in, so I thought I would download it to see what it was.

Sure enough, it was a Finnish league hockey game, and the broadcast was entirely in the native language. HD, widescreen format with sound that had some killer, stereo quality sound. Who ever did this rip, did it with passion, and the broadcast wasn’t half that bad either.

I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole game because I was going through the collection of stuff that has been accumulating for us to watch prior to recording the latest episode of The Crazy Canucks last night. I actually needed to help free up space on my hard drive, so I parsed through it rather quick. That’s not to say that I wasn’t able to make a few observations, if not get a feel for how the game went.

First and foremost, the amount of logos on the jerseys of the players should make any NHL fan rejoice that we don’t have to endure such blatant advertising. The arena wasn’t the biggest, but the home team made quite the noise when the home team scored. I think they were the ones in the blue and orange uniforms, but I don’t really know if they were SaiPa[wiki] or Tappara[wiki].

Checking into those Wikis, there are a couple of players on these respective teams from B.C. and Minnesota. Some good ol’ North American hockey kids, dontcha’ know, eh?

Both of these teams, finding this information out while writing this post, are in the SM-liiga[wiki] in Finland. Interestingly enough, this league is regarded in Europe the same way that the NHL is thought of in North America. Playing at this level is nothing to scoff at, and watching some of the action is evidence of that. International rules or not, these guys can play.

So Tappara won, and I think I’m pretty confident that they are the guys in those blue and orange uniforms, but now I’m second guessing myself and saying that the home rink was that of the guys in yellow and black. Or was it yellow and blue?

I don’t understand a lick of Finnish, so there is no way I can say for certain as to who was who, but 4-2 was the final score, Tappara was the winner. The guys in orange and blue. At least our numerics cross language boundaries.

Thank you, mysterious Finnish league hockey fan, for taking the time to put this out there for me to discover. Like I said, I’ve only heard about these leagues but never have had the chance to really get any exposure to it. On top of that, the announcers are fun to listen to, even if you can’t understand the language. Granted that it’s no Mexican league futbol match in terms of the quality and entertaining play-by-play, but these folks get just as excited.

I mentioned it in the recent episode of The Crazy Canucks, but the NHL should really do more with the technology of bittorrent. I’m not the first one to promote or come up with the idea, but it just might help grow exposure to the league if you make games available like this as soon as they are complete. Posting games to Google Video three days after they happen is… well… hmm, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, they’re easy to forget about.

Finland, you’ve got some good stuff over there. You make me want to come visit the home of Sami Salo[wiki] and stay for the hockey.

Just because I find these things so freaking interesting, I wanted to post this video. I’ve toured the studios in the CBC once with Tod Maffin, and he writes for Inside The CBC. Actually, Tod is basically the new media guru and ambassador for the CBC, at least here in Vancouver. I love that he uses the medium to share information about the substantial renovation that is occurring at their downtown location, and this video really helps to understand what’s going on and how it’s going to look when it’s all done.

Photo courtesy of the Sock Monkey Army group on Facebook

Recently getting Montelban for my birthday from Adam and Corinna, I’ve been plotting my way to take more pictures like this. I’m still trying to figure out how, where, and when, but we’ll get there. Still, this picture sums up what some days on the job can be like. It’s not all that bad, but at the end of the day, it’s all about pushing buttons and knobs.

My mom did something interesting the other day. They purchased one of the new Apple keyboards, the new, ultra thin aluminum ones that now come standard with most of their desktop machines. Taking some loonies from their last trip to Vancouver, she showed just how thin it actually is.

As you can see, the thickness of the keyboard is just two loonies.

The keys themselves stick up from the keyboard at just one thickness of a single loonie.

That’s an outstanding size comparison. I haven’t had a chance to use one of these, but the last standard that Apple sent out with their products, in terms of keyboards, is something I’m not too found of. I love the feel of the keys on Apple laptops, so this might be an investment worth snagging. I fear I’d fight Rebecca over it though.

A few days ago, Russia announced to the world that they had a new, massive, non-nuclear bomb that puts any other bombs out there to shame.

Russia unveils the ‘father of all bombs’

Russia’s military yesterday announced that it had successfully tested a lethal new air-delivered bomb, which it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear weapon.

In what appears to be the Kremlin’s latest display of military might, officials said Moscow had developed a new thermobaric bomb to add to its already potent nuclear arsenal.

Russia’s state-run Channel One television said the new ordnance – dubbed the Father of all Bombs – is four times more powerful than the US’s Mother of all Bombs. [guardian]

Then when you see the following headline a few days later, I find it very intriguing.

Putin dissolves Russian government, names new PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted the resignation of the country’s prime minister and named the head of a financial market watchdog as his replacement, the Kremlin said. [...]

In his place, Putin nominated Victor Zubkov, an little-known economist who has headed the country’s financial monitoring service since 2001.

The move sets the stage for Putin to set up a favoured successor in the high-profile prime minister’s office before upcoming legislative elections in December, followed by a presidential election in March, the CBC’s Nick Spicer reported Wednesday from Moscow. [cbc]

Makes you think a little.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Just one of those other things that I toil away on. I wish that I could say that I understand more of what I see on this screen, but it’s really a trial by fire situation. This issue, on the other hand, has been a pain in the ass to figure. To put it simply, GD library support on a Apache web server running in the Unix environment can be a nasty thing to deal with.

Yeah, nerdy. Eat me.

I’ve seen this talked about here and there, but it wasn’t until Robert Sanzalone made mention of it in a Twitter post that I’ve actually watched this video.

Spoon recently released their sixth album, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”, and this video appears to be a collaboration of technology and music in its best form. There is also a lot of Tokyo spread throughout this, and it triggers a lot of happy memories for me. Lead singer Britt Daniel[wiki] makes a brief cameo in a shot going up the escalator, just behind the scientist guy who is carrying the little, bopping robot.

The Reverend Don Deeley sent me the link to this cartoon. With all the jersey talk, Trevor Linden getting signed on for another year, and The Crazy Canucks getting geared up for another season, I had to share this. It made me laugh.

overcompensating.com

Thanks, Don.

I posted this photo of the F-117 Nighthawk[wiki] that I took a picture of at the Abbotsford Airshow a week or so ago, and it prompted some questions about the description that I made about it. The plane is soon to be retired from service, blowing onto the scene in the first Gulf War. So many people simply refer to it as “the stealth fighter”, but the time has apparently come to replace it with something better.

Now, I’m not the most prolific, all-knowing individual about military aircraft, or much about things that fly in general, but what I do know is that the plane will be replaced by the F-22 Raptor[wiki], another jet fighter with stealth capability. Compared to the Nighthawk, this new aircraft follows the general principle of being bigger, faster, and stronger, among other things.

Even though I’ve been on the job like mad these past few weeks, it’s taken me to some pretty neat locations. Still, it’s tough to really enjoy events like this when you still have a job to do.

You can see more of my photos from the airshow on Flickr.

One of those rare occasions where Rebecca and I get to walk into work together, I asked her what “F.O.B.” stands for this morning. This is in reference to those keyless entry things that are becoming the standard for getting into many secured buildings. You wave it in front of the pad, something beeps or the light goes green, and the door unlocks to let you in.

The one for our building is smaller than my thumb. It’s too small to act like a key chain ornament, but the one I had in my old apartment in the states was big enough to hurt small children. Actually, it was more of a credit card in size, but you get the picture.

Turns out, and thanks to Wikipedia, this isn’t an abbreviation. It’s the given name of the device.

A key fob is a decorative item many people often carry with their keys, on a ring or a chain, for ease of tactile identification, to provide a better grip, or to make a personal statement. Key fobs are often mistakenly called “key rings” or “key chains” in colloquial usage.

Fobs vary considerably in size, style and functionality. Most commonly they are simple discs of smooth metal or plastic, typically with a message or symbol such as that of a logo (as with conference tchotchke) or a sign of an important group affiliation. A fob may be symbolic or strictly aesthetic, but it can also be a small tool. Many fobs are small flashlights, compasses, calculators, penknives, store discount cards, bottle openers, or USB flash drives.

Electronic key fobs are used for remote keyless entry systems on motor vehicles. Early electric key fobs operated using infrared and required a clear line of sight to function. These could be copied using a programmable remote control. More recent models use challenge-response authentication over radio frequency, so these are harder to copy and do not need line of sight to operate. Programming these remotes sometimes require the automotive dealership to connect a diagnostic tool but many of them can be self-programmed by following a sequence of steps in the vehicle and usually requires at least 1 working key. [wiki]

So now I know, and in case you didn’t, you do now. For the longest time, I thought it stood for something but never took the effort to find out until now. Sadly, it’s not “frequency operated bobber” like Rebecca thought, but I think it should be from now on.

I’m jealous. She got these for bike riding. With my shin splint, I’m reduced to walking for a few weeks. The pain is just too much, but these are completely the type of shoes I’d want for working everyday. Can’t wear the flip flops when hauling stuff around, not to mention with all the rain we get in Vancouver.