Hockey Gold!

And with our GOLD MEDAL in Men’s Hockey, we reach 14 gold medals in the Winter Olympics: the most gold medals any country has ever won in the Winter Olympics!!!

Here are a few clips from my wanderings downtown during the Olympics.

Olympic Prep, torch, and Seabus fiasco!

And it starts…  a suspicious package at Lonsdale Quay this afternoon shut the entire seabus system down.  I was at Waterfront Station and was herded out by a punch of police officers, as they shut the docks down on both sides.  Ran for a bus, and managed to get on and home, which was nice… just a little longer than I’m used to!

Wednesday we went down to Lonsdale Quay to watch the torch go through… lots of people, great weather, some nice pictures…. and then the torch came through!  And as it did my batteries died and my backups were dead too.  I was not impressed.

Pre-Olympics

A few pictures that I took yesterday, in preparation for the photo-glut that will be coming in the next few weeks. Trying out the new Adobe Lightroom 3 (public beta version), and I’ve decided that I quite like it!

Here are the photos…

In the middle of the harbour

Police boat, making sure everything is ok

Samsung’s display

Massive building ad from RBC

This time, from Samsung

Crotch Rockets ready to go

Public Ice Rink under Robson Street

Green Sea Slug: Animal/Plant combo!

This is really cool.  Well… it caught my attention anyway.  Apparently they have decided that the Green Sea Slug has the ability to create chlorophyll (the green stuff in plants), which is a key to photosynthesis.  After the baby slug eats its first plant, it won’t need to eat again for life (as long as it sunbathes).  What I find most interesting is that even though they don’t technically need to eat, they still do!  This just makes me believe that eating really is one of the best things in life!

(picture from CNET.com)

What a brawl!

If you haven’t seen it already, here is a link to the massive brawl that happened in the KHL (Russian hockey league).  Jaromir Jagr plays a nice big role in it.  Apparently there were over 600 penalty minutes handed out, and both teams needed to forfeit their next game because they had less than 5 men remaining because of all the game misconducts!  It’s a bit long (about 6 minutes), but the really crazy stuff is at the end.  If you want to just see that, skip ahead to like 4 minutes and watch the fireworks!  I’m not sure how much I like this.  I don’t mind a good scrap in a hockey game, but this was kind of overboard…

Soundgarden!

Well, with the news of Soundgarden’s reunification, I felt I would put up a link to “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”, two of my favourites.  The first time I realized that they actually did use spoons in the song, it took on a whole new level of awesomeness.  As to why they have come back together…  Hmm…  Perhaps Chris Cornell is running out of cash?  I have to say I was very unimpressed with his solo stuff after splitting with Audioslave… Then again, the last Audioslave CD wasn’t entirely great either.  Well, at least not compared with the others.

Spoonman:

Black Hole Sun:

Star Trek

Tonight’s film was Star Trek.  Yup; Star Trek.  Ok, I have to admit, Star Trek (the new one) is a pretty good movie.  It’s not your normal Star Trek movie, so those of you who are already rolling your eyes, give it a chance!  Go in to it thinking more of a good action / sci-fi movie, and you’ll enjoy it.  For those of you (like me) who watched the older ones, there are enough references and fun little things to make you smile.  Rottentomatoes?  94% Fresh!

And, in addition to that, I am being treated tonight to some 고구마, or Korean Sweet Potato.  Mmm… they are so good boiled and eaten like a banana   And, I suppose I can mention that my first day back at school went well.  Nothing like a little Negotiation class to get things back on track!

JCVD

Saw this tonight, after reading a bit of my negotiations textbook.  No correlation at all; just heard it was all right and wanted to give it a shot!  Before you laugh at me for watching a movie with Jean Claude Van Damme, he actually is a decent actor!  I have to say that while it definitely seemed to drag along at times, I stuck with it, and was rewarded in the end.  You can’t really fall asleep during it, or you’ll end up getting hopelessly lost.  Anyway, so I don’t end up spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it, well, you should watch it.

(Click on the poster for a link to my favourite movie review site; it got quite a high rating, actually.)

Muse – Uprising

Ok… so I’ve been neglecting my blog a little!  6 months is a little (long) time!  I suppose that is nothing new   My first semester of school is over; thankfully.  It was a little rough after 7 years of no school to start again by jumping into the deep end.  The next two semesters are going to be even worse, or so I’ve heard.

As for the blog, to keep things moving on it (or to attempt to), I’m going to start putting up songs of the day/week, etc…  Just stuff I like!

So, to start with, how about a little bit of Muse – Uprising.  I’m hearing it everywhere, and it has gotten into my head

28 Days of Western Town College

Well, great news for us came in the form of a phone call just three days ago.  I have been accepted into the MBA program that I have been trying to get into.  It is such a great thing for us!  It is going to be a lot of hard work for 1 year.  I will be studying a lot, while my wife will be working a lot!  It begins on September 8th, and runs until the end of August, 2010.  I’ll post more information as I get it!

It is a little sad though, at the same time, as I am forced to leave the school I have been working at since Christmas 2007.  I will be finishing my teaching on August 28, so that leaves me with 4 weeks of teaching left!  Who knows what will happen after my degree is finished; therefore, this may be the last 4 weeks of teaching for a long, long time.

Here are a few pictures I took from a couple of weeks ago.  We went to Steveston, about an hour south of where we live now.  It’s a fishing village in the city of Richmond, so we (of course) had to have fish and chips, and we bought 5 pounds of shrimp for $10.  Not bad at all!