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The Lost Patrol Band – automatic kids

The Lost Patrol Band is the side project of Dennis Lyxzen[wiki] that has gone from a solo thing to a full fledge band. Name doesn’t sound familiar? Try his previous stint with the band Refused[wiki], and if that doesn’t ring a bell, then The (International) Noise Conspiracy might trip your trigger. Fear not, T(I)NC is still alive and kicking. This is just what Dennis does during the off season.

This is a recent discovery to my musical knowledge. It’s a noticeable departure from what you’ve seen from the previous things that Lyxzen has been apart of. I’ve often read about his guitar playing abilities, so I’m not too surprised to see him with one strapped on. A far cry from his stage dancing, rocking out that I’ve come accustomed to at T(I)NC shows, and the music is a tad more laid back as well. Kinda poppy, a little post-punk, almost power pop. I can dig that.

If you want more, check out the video for “I Don’t Understand” and “Golden Times“. And if those videos aren’t too much for you, gander at “Alright” which features Swedish pop singer Lisa Miskovsky[wiki]. I like it all, and there is some strange flash of Bryan Adams that goes through my head when watching them. Must be that hip, retro thing.

After that, watch the video for “Capitalism Stole My Virginity” and “Reproduction of Death” by T(I)NC. Then for a full circle trip, “New Noise” by Refused. You may want to systematically turn down your speakers as the rock increasingly progresses.

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Downer to the Canucks post-season

I know that I am so late to the post, but there is not an easy way to approach the end of the Canucks season. I’ve been busy with some projects at home and having some job opportunities to explore that getting time to get The Crazy Canucks gathered and the studio pumped up to record has been a hassle.

Am I depressed? Kinda. No one wanted to see the season come to an end like that, and I doubt that anyone wants to see their team in any sport get booted out of any sort of elimination process like that. It’s the way the game is played, and you can’t forget that.

Saying that, I was prepared for the season to be over for the Canucks, but the beam of hope is something I never gave up. In fact, in the second period of that game five against Anaheim, I was was calling for a 9-1 victory for Vancouver. A bit of a stretch, but hasn’t the whole season been that way?

So here comes the excuses, and this is only because there are those out there that would call it that. I like to call it facing the truth because the fact is, we went from a painful season last year, to a clueless start to this one, and wound up with something no one in their right mind thought was possible. Sure, the dedicated ones will tell you that they always knew, but that’s just the legacy of a fan.

At the end of last summer, so many people knew that we had a good goalie. How good remained to be seen, but we all get the picture now. Alain Vignault was… well, no one had a clear picture other than what could vaguely be recalled about his previous experience as a NHL coach.

And don’t forget the new faces. So many fans we’re trying to figure out, “Why the hell did we toss down money for Mitchell?” And now we sit here saying, “Oh… right.”

There were other things that I am really lazy as to listing off, but for a season that was often viewed as a rebuilding year, we whooped all the predictions, aside from those few who called it a long time ago (good for you, now shut up and get over yourself).

The Canucks fell short? I don’t think so. I know that this season was a blast to watch, and Luongo probably had a large part to do with that. The rest of the chips fell into place, but not enough to push the team further than what all of us fans wanted to happen. Yet, I can’t say that I am disappointed at all.

When Luongo let that absentminded goal go in, I wasn’t upset or angered by his sudden drop of the guard, not that it’s excusable. But after everything he did in that game five, not to mention the entire season, I can truthfully say that I was not let down. If anything, I am more excited for next season and can care less about the rest of the playoffs.

Well… almost.

Go Sens

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Building over the SkyTrain

We take the SkyTrain quite a bit to visit Rebecca’s family in Surrey, and it’s no secret that I have a fascination with it. Not so much that the obsession of wearing overalls and an engineer’s hat overtakes me, but I am a consistent gawker as the world passes by. That and trains are pretty cool.

When we passed through New Westminster a little over a week ago, I noticed that the development going up near the New Westminster Station had a portion of the building hanging out, above the track. At first we thought, they’re building a balcony over the SkyTrain? Since that hardly made sense, we only could come up with the conclusion that they are building around the track, making this building straddle the elevated track. Note the following picture.

SkyTrain overpass near New West. Station 2

This isn’t anything new in the wide world of mass transit, but I think this is going to be a first for the SkyTrain. When we went passed it again this recent weekend, Rebecca was sure to grab the website address for this fortress, Azure at Plaza88.

I can’t grasp all the details of how this will affect the New Westminster SkyTrain Station or the line itself, but it looks like there will be a series of buildings being constructed there with the SkyTrain “underneath”. From their site:

With the SkyTrain underneath, you are constantly connected to the best of the Lower Mainland. No more traffic hassles or parking stress. Downtown Vancouver in 26 minutes; Metrotown in 12.

No, I’m not being sponsored to post this, nor to I endorse the development. Still, I wonder how many people are aware that this is happening. How much of the line is going to be covered? About a year ago, this area was a mess of land preperation and pile driving. It’s only a matter of time until these suckers are shooting up into the sky. How very Tokyo of the SkyTrain.

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Andeles restaurant on Davie Street, Vancouver

Something new to try with my blogging adventures is to review places to eat. More so, the places that Rebecca and I find ourselves exploring. We recently discovered that we’ve been getting into a little bit of a rut, so we’re trying to branch out with new places from time to time.

Andeles on Davie Street in the west end of Vancouver was a pit stop on a long day we had about a week ago. We were searching and searching for someplace to eat, and after plenty of wandering, we stumbled into Andeles.

Recently, someone said there is no good Mexican food in Canada, and it’s something I have attested to but hold hope that somewhere… somehow… I will find it. Gladly, I can say that Andeles has some really good food, not to mention that they throw in some Spanish cuisine as well. And trust me, there is a difference.

Dinner at Andales We both ended up getting the special for that evening, which consisted of two pork enchiladas in a verdes sauce, one (so messy you could only eat it with a fork because it was busting at the seams) beef taco, rice, beans, and a salad. $11.95, and this sucker was enough food to be twice that price. Not to mention, it was tasty.

The only thing that caught the both of us was, and you know we had to try them, the margaritas. It’s one of those rare things that I have become a snob about, and the carbonation in their recipe caught me off guard. I had never tried such a thing, and it very well could have been Fresca that was added in with the drink.

Don’t get me wrong, they did the trick, but I find it curious to have such good food with “odd” margarita concoctions. Won’t stop me from coming back, but the help wanted sign in the window almost persuaded me to apply so I could help fix this, at least in my mind, error. Although, it could be a west coast thing, maybe even a Spanish influence of some sort. Not knocking it, just saying that it caught me by surprise.

Fear not. We’ll be repeat customers.

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Oranges and bananas and running

When my parents came to visit, they brought something into our house that we haven’t seen enough of around here. Fruit. What they left behind has been a incredible discovery that I should have seen or been aware of for a long time. Oranges and bananas are great post run foods.

I thought about looking around to see what I could find out about this, and here is my “duh moment” for today.

In general, most endurance athletes should eat a diet that is composed of 55 to 65 percent carbohydrates. Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, fruits, energy bars and vegetables are excellent choices for your post workout meal. Potassium rich foods such as bananas and oranges will help replace lost electrolytes. This is important, because low electrolytes have been linked to muscle cramping. Consuming protein along with carbohydrates can stimulate glycogen replacement. Active individuals should consume 10 to 15 percent of their calories from protein, or 0.5 – 0.8 grams protein per pound body weigh It will also help repair damaged muscle tissue. If you are staying away from animal products, you can get protein from beans, legumes and soy products. In addition to carbohydrates and protein, be sure to consume plenty of fluids in the form of either water or fruit juice. [mamashealth]

Sure, it’s a women’s health site, but I’ve found more, useful information that has aided my health from sources like this. Regardless, I’ve also noticed a slight increase in craving fruit during and post run. I think since I’ve made the conscious link to the source of goodness for my body, my brain is yearning for the nourishment as soon as it can get me directed on the route home.

I’m going to have a banana now. The 10k this morning in this beautiful Vancouver weather was astounding.

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Crazy Canucks Outsider live on Ustream.tv

Attention Canucks fans! A first time event for myself, but Dave will be taking the Canucks Outsider live again tonight on Ustream.tv. In addition, Rebecca and I are partaking in the event this evening, expanding our conquest into the realm of new media and tossing in some representation from The Crazy Canucks at the same time.

Check out the goings on here or just come back to my site because this goes live tonight at 7PM PST. You can watch it on this page, but you’ll really been interested in going to the Ustream site to get in on the live chatting action.

For those of you within viewing shot of the game on TV, here’s a neat little tip. Bypass the crap that comes at intermission and commercials with keeping the Ustream going on in the background. What I did last time Dave went live with the video feed is to have my computer hooked up to the TV and then switched over to him during said times. His hi-jinks gave you all the Canucks love that you need in these feverish playoff times. Hopefully we’ll be able to add to that.

Go ‘Nucks!

Update: Depressing end to a game that saw the Canucks start out looking so strong. Anaheim takes the series to a 3-1 lead. Hold hope. We can win three more.

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The clever marketing of Nine Inch Nails

Let’s really date myself, ok? I was talking just yesterday with Rebecca that I was one of “those kids” in high school. One of those folks who would sketch the Nine Inch Nails logo in my notebook as study hall would tick along. Was I a social outcast in the midst of a goth phase during my adolescence years? Nope. I just dug the tunes, and that hasn’t changed a whole lot today, minus the notebook doodles.

Nine Inch NailsWhen I think about it now, my mind starts to contemplate the marketing genius that Trent Reznor[wiki] conjured up when he formed this music project, and this is outside of the realms of creating music. He’s not afraid to say that the reason that he created the whole “NIN” branding is because it is just that. Instead of needing a name for recognition, he has garnered a symbol.

Of course he’s not the only guy to do this. Off the top of my head, Prince did the same thing. It was a little later in his career that this happened, but that squiggly, male/female thing will be forever branded with him and his fans. Other bands do this from time to time, mostly as a branding for their album. I’m sure that someone else can chime is with examples of both of these methods.

I have to extend a little more credit to what Trent Reznor is doing right now. Some would call him washed up, but say what you will. Every time I hear something new, I have the thought in my head that I used to listen to that when I was 16 and that seems soooo 1995 now. Then, I find that I actually like it. Am I afraid to admit that? Not really, and there are so many other things that I listen to that would probably throw you for a loop, not to mention if you even heard of them before. So, whatever.

Anyhow, it was this piece of news that prompted me to say anything about our conversation from yesterday.

Nine Inch Nails, who are proving themselves one of the most daring and forward-looking artists on a major label today, have released three tracks from their brand new album, Year Zero via BiTorrent, and more astoundingly, have done so via the controversial giant BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay, a wildly popular BitTorrent site, has earned the scorn and more than one lawsuit from law enforcement worldwide, but has proven to be astoundingly successful. The planned leaking of music by a major label artist on a site which exists in – at best – a legal grey area is truly remarkable. In this case, Nine Inch Nails released full multi-track versions of three songs from the album for users to remix or listen to at extremely high sound quality. They are promising that the entire album will be available over the next few weeks. [punknews]

I like forward thinking, plain and simple. This also makes me more than likely to get my hands on a free copy of this new album. You can argue if that’s wrong, but if I tell you where you can download this as well, and then you like it, what’s the chances that you’ll check out more of their stuff or go to a show? Take that concept away from Nine Inch Nails and apply it to someone else that you are a fan of.

This is close to where I would like to see the music industry go, but there has to be some certainty to the formula. Harvey Danger has tried this, but I can’t be sure about it’s success. Their website is still up, so that’s a good sign.

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Security vulnerability: myGallery plugin for WordPress

The other morning, Rebecca told me about some problems with the RadioZoom site. Essentially, it didn’t want to load at all. There was a consistent error with some PHP in the myGallery plugin that I have been using on the site. I don’t use it extensively, and it was mostly to showcase some photos of a soundseeing episode that I did while wandering through Stanley Park.

Mark Ghosh made a post yesterday that answered a lot of my questions about the problem I ran into.

MyGallery Plugin for WordPress If you are using the myGallery plugin for WordPress to display your pictures, please follow the link above and update your plugin to the latest version. A pretty serious remote code execution vulnerability in the plugin has been found and disclosed and there have been scattered reports of hack attempts. [weblogtoolscollection]

I thought it was fairly strange for a plugin to just stop working, and there was a hunch inside of me that was fearing a hacker trying to get into the site, not that there is a whole lot to really get into. This is why I do regular backups to the site, not to mention keeping an archive of all the episodes that are released.

Even though this “error” completely crippled the site, I was able to remove the plugin physically on the server and gain access again. It disallowed me from getting to my dashboard as well. Everything is updated and appears to be running smoothly. If you use it, I would seriously consider upgrading ASAP. I’m fairly sure that my problem was the result of a hacker, so it can happen.

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The Crazy Canucks #35 – GetConnected interview

As I mentioned previously, The Crazy Canucks were invited to the GetConnected radio show over the past weekend to talk about podcasting on their program. Overall, it was a fairly successful event, but there are always things that could have been differently in hindsight.

We had no idea what to expect from the moment we agreed to be there, so we were just as surprised that the interview was over at the time that it ended. Would have been a lot better to get some perspective from Rebecca on the topic, not to mention to talk about non-tech related aspects to the benefits of podcasting. Such is the time constricted venue that is radio. This recording gives you a more behind the scenes look.

This is an out of the ordinary episode of the podcast. We completely step away from all things hockey to have the GetConnected radio show interview a couple of our crew from TCC on April 28th, 2007. For the most part, this episode is pretty geeky and laced with a lot of tech related topics. GetConnected wanted to talk to us about podcasting in general, how to get started, and what to think about when you have a podcast.

We’ll be back with our regularly filled episodes in the very near future. Hopefully you enjoy this behind the scenes look at what goes into creating a podcast like The Crazy Canucks.

24:38 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Gearing up to get my landed status

Something I’m going to try and start doing in the next few weeks is to talk more about the process of immigrating to Canada that Rebecca and I have been going through. And it really is a conjoined process for the person who is sponsoring someone to immigrate as well as the person who is immigrating. Basic, simple low down to what that means is that you need time, patience, money, and attention to detail. A good lawyer doesn’t hurt either, but there are those that have done okay without.

I have my appointment this week with immigration to finalize the landed status of my permanent residence process. I won’t have citizenship(because that’s another long, somewhat expensive process), but that means that they can’t kick me out of the country unless I really screw the pooch.

One thing I had to get is my own pictures for the PR card I’ll be getting issued this week. Basically, that’s the same as a green card in the U.S., and London Drugs has been a really good resource for getting any official photography done for this entire process.

However, be aware that with all of the madness going on for Canadians applying for passports (mainly due to the new travel restrictions for going to the U.S.) will cause you to deal with slow processing of getting said photos. London Drugs does the passport photos as well, and there must have been ten people in there today going for the same thing. I held up the place with my little PR card photos because the requirements are slightly different than that of passport photos, and they only had one camera at the location I went to.

At this point, I’ve got everything in place for my appointment. This will be the first time I will meet anyone face to face at Canadian Immigration, so there is a tad bit of apprehension. More so, just that nagging feeling that you want to make sure that you have everything you need. The way that immigration works in Canada, which can feel very lazy at times, it might be a couple weeks to a month before you can make another appointment if you forget something. Here’s hoping!