Yesterday, EA released the first trailer for skate 2 that showed in-game footage. This is what my co-workers and I have been working on for months. Though there's a lot of new features and improvements to point out in the trailer, I'd like to highlight a few. First, you'll be now able to play as a female skater. This was easily one of the top requests from fan feedback. Second, the ability to do one-foots. Yes, we've nearly doubled the amount of tricks but I personally love doing the one-foots. Third, skaters can now do hand-plants. Yes, it's rather old-school but when you're doing vert, it is rather fun.
So there's a little taste of what we have for everyone. Trust me, there was a lot we kept hidden for later.
So this evening I tried to post a video to this blog via the YouTube site. As you might know, Google owns both Blogger and YouTube, so I thought this cross-posting might work. After I clicked on "Post", it said, "your video will appear shortly". I waited all night for it to show up. It hasn't so far. This kinda screwed up my posting intents tonight because I wasn't sure if I should write another one or just wait for it to show up.
So because of that, you're getting this awarding-winning post tonight. I saw another apartment tonight, this time with my replacement realtor. My full-time realtor is on a vacation that's lasting over a month, actually closer to two months. I can't wait that long, so thus the fill-in realtor. Susie is a nice woman, though I got some contradicting suggestions. My old realtor doesn't want me to buy in New West because she thinks it's full of drug dealers, instead she thinks I should buy in the Collingwood area. Susie doesn't want me to buy in the Collingwood because she thinks it's full of drug dealers, instead she thinks I should buy in New West. I think the reality is both places are full of drug dealers.
Anyways, the place I saw tonight was cheap, dropping $10K just this week, down to $205K. I thought the interior was nice but the view was horrible. Susie thought it looked and felt like living in a prison. She's gonna go find some more places for me to look at it. She also said the market is really changing. It's clearly a buyers' market now as prices are dropping from "stupidly expensive" to just "way more than anyone should pay for small shack of a condo".
Lastly, I will never, ever take a Greyhound (or similar company) bus anywhere again.
I've written about my hair quite a bit in this blog. As some of you know, when I get a haircut, the freshness date on it lasts about two and a half weeks before my head starts looking like I have a pile of hay on it.
My last shortening of hair happened on June 23, now five weeks ago. At that time, I didn't get it cut very short, so its been five long weeks of hair growing. If you've seen me in the last week or so, you can tell I've given up trying to figure out what to do with my hair. There's a big wall up front that has pretty much no where to go, other than perhaps up. I look very awkward.
I tried getting an appointment with my haircut lady early last week. I was told she didn't have an appointment open until the 7th of August! I had to wait another two weeks! So while I wait, I look more like "the Donald" as each day passes. Please, if you see me before the 7th, refrain from making comments.
In a previous post, I detailed the journey a few of my friends are currently taking. They are riding motorbikes from Europe to the southern tip of Africa. While in Africa their travels caught the attention of a reporter from Agence France-Presse. The reporter wrote a story which wound up being published on Yahoo! News. It's a good read.
The group was in Ethiopia where they encountered an extremely serious situation. They were riding with two fellow Canadians whom they had met earlier in Africa. Unfortunately, one of the new riders hit a young boy who had darted out in front of the bike without looking. It was an unavoidable accident but the boy sustained serious injuries.
Tyson's blog post describes the incident better than I could, so if you're interested, please read it there. Stay safe boys.
Near the end of my vacation in Hawaii, I decided to hike up to the edge of the Diamond Head Crater. I'd been to Diamond Head eleven years previously but my parents weren't interested in the hike up to the crater summit, leaving my sister and I just to take in summit floor. This time around, I wasn't going to miss the whole deal.
Joining me on the hike was John, my travel partner, the best man for the wedding, and fellow EA software engineer. The hike itself was great and I recommend it for anyone who's into hiking. It's about a million times easier than the Grouse Grind with a view that's about a million times better too. I'll post picture when I get the chance.
To get back to the hotel, we decided to take a taxi since we didn't feel like waiting for the bus nor did we have exact change on us. Since it's a pretty touristy area, there's always taxis waiting for people, so we jumped into the first one in the line.
After getting our destination out of the way, our cabbie asked us where we were from. We said Vancouver and he mentioned his fondness for Canadians. He also immediately launched into what would become a fully narrated ride back to our hotel. He started giving us statistics about the ethnic breakdown of Oahu. It sounds plausible but I didn't check his numbers afterwards. Did you know Asian ethnic groups outnumber white people on Oahu?
By this time, I knew this guy was no ordinary cab driver, so I looked at his taxi license on the dashboard so I could get his name. Our tour guide for this trip was named Rudy. He was older, perhaps in his 50s and had salt and pepper hair. As with most locals, he had a pretty nice tan. Rudy went on to give us a rundown on the great influence the Japanese had on Hawaii. He listed the number of Japanese colleges on Oahu and what each one specialized in teaching (mostly tourism related areas). Rudy then said that most of the large hotels in Honolulu were owned by Japanese companies with they Hyatt, I believe, being the only one not Japanese-controlled. I could be wrong about that.
I was rather amused by Rudy as he was clearly the most entertaining taxi driver I've had on the island. Rudy then gave us a glimpse of his own personal life. I believe he was born on another island, Maui I think but then moved to Oahu when he still young. When he was four years old, he climbed a mango tree just outside his home. A neighbour, a woman, saw him up in the tree and yelled for him to climb down. Rudy fell trying to adhere to her wishes. He hit his head badly. Help was summoned but as he put it, there was very little to no signs of life in his young body. They were about to declare him deceased when one of his relatives began a prayer to a Hawaiian god. Now, as Rudy tells the tale, when the prayer was finished, Rudy began to stir. I'm sure he took him a long time to heal but I'm just relaying what he said to us.
Now the story of his fall doesn't end there. Rudy then had a most odd request for me.
"Give me your hand."
Without taking his eyes off the road, Rudy had reached back behind his seat with his right hand, just behind his head. I was speechless for a second and I really wanted to say...
"Um... no."
The words didn't escape my mouth however and all I could do was look at John briefly with a WTF look. A second later, I realized I was on vacation and this would probably wind up to be an interesting anecdote, so I thought why not. I placed my open right hand into his. He took my hand and moved it onto the back of his head. I felt my hand mat down his hair and then I touched his head. With my palm and fingers, I felt a sizeable depression in his skull. It was not deep but definitely noticeable. It must have measured almost four inches square or so.
"Wow."
With that, he released my hand.
"You, you give me your hand as well."
Having seen my hand returned to me safely, John decided it was ok, so he outstretched his hand as well. John got the same feel as I did.
Moving on, Rudy extolled the virtues of noni juice, crediting it with enhancing the health of all who drink it. He also quoted the prices of noni juice for both on and off the island. It's much more expensive on the mainland by the way.
In an extremely rare lull in the conversation, I asked Rudy if he had any kids. He pointed to a picture on the dashboard. He was a father of several children but the picture showed a grown daughter with her own daughter. Rudy was a grandfather as well.
Soon afterwards, we arrived at our hotel. Since Rudy had been such a pleasant and memorable taxi driver, I decided to tip him well, perhaps around the 30% mark. He wished us a pleasant rest of our stay and we returned the gesture.
If you're ever in Honolulu and you get in a taxi with a Rudy, ask him about his head.
In a previous post, I detailed what it was like for my friend Ron to get married in a church in Honolulu, Hawaii. In this post, I chronicle what went down at the wedding reception.
After the ceremony was over, John and I headed back to the touristy area of Waikiki. We then had lunch at an excellent Italian restaurant. We had time to spend since the reception didn't start until 8pm. I forget exactly what we did for the rest of the afternoon but John had to depart early for the restaurant since he had best man duties to attend to.
The venue for the restaurant was Roy's Restaurant at their Waikiki Beach location, just a block away from the sand and surf. Not only was it just a block away from the beach, it was nearly next door to our hotel. As such, I was still sitting on my hotel bed in my underwear just ten minutes before the 8pm start time. After a short stroll of less than 100 paces, I arrived at Roy's.
After a short delay in setting up our private room, we were led to our dining area. The reception party was only about 20 people so we needed just three large tables. I was graciously seat at the table with the married couple Ron and Miho, the best man, the maid of honour, two of the Miho's friends, and Miho's cousin. The other tables were split along family lines.
I would soon discover the service was phenomenal at Roy's. We have several waiters dedicated to just our party for the entire evening. Not only were they dedicated, they were attentive, professional, and nothing short of impressive at taking care of us.
Unlike many wedding receptions, this one started off right on time. There was very little delay in waiting for the food. In short order, the dim sum style appetizer plates began arriving. In no particular order, they were: lobster ravioli, ahi tuna poke, crab cakes, beef shortribs, and sea scallops. The appetizers were absolutely incredible. Each plate was so good. You can view pictures of the plates here. I admit that is a public Facebook gallery but I can't help it, their uploading and interface for pictures is top notch.
Anyways, it was during the appetizers that a somewhat humourous event occurred. Ron was trying to pass the plate of shortribs to his new wife when I don't know what the hell happened but the end result was that he tipped over a glass of red wine with the plate. Red wine spilled all over the table cloth and more importantly, over Miho's dress! She jumped up in horror and her friends came over to lessen the damage. Somewhat fortunately, she had something in her lap that took a bit of the wine. The waiters came outta nowhere with towels and napkins to absorb the wine from both her dress and the table. Miho had a choice word for Ron, while I could only say, "this is an excellent start to the marriage." Ron himself just sat there stunned.
Luckily, the dress survived without too much staining and the waiters were amazing with their repair of the tablecloth, you couldn't even notice anything had spilled. John, the best man, then got up to say some nice words about Ron. It was a good speech that he wrote in a short amount of time. Sadly, the speech did not contain the phrase "true love is hard to find, some times you think you've found true love but then you catch the early flight home..."
Anyways, the salad came soon after. It was the best salad I've ever had. It was this fusion of Hawaiin cuisine with traditional caesar salad. I'm not sure if I can describe it properly. Just look at it! Then came the main courses. It was a real struggle to choose mine. I chose the scallops. They were tasty but in retrospect, I shoulda had either the rack of lamb or the filet mignon. You can see the menu here. After the mains, Miho and Ron got up to address the whole reception. They thanked us for coming all this way to celebrate their special occasion. Miho gave everyone a set of lovely gifts. They were all nicely wrapped and consisted of peach tea, a tin of delicious cookies from Japan, and a Japanese bowl and chopstick set.
Then came the dessert which combined two of my favourite things: chocolate and ice cream. By now though, you must know I was extremely full. Having had so many appetizers and the main course itself, I was having trouble mustering the courage to start my dessert. The chocolate souffle begged to be eaten though, so I managed to devour all the ice cream. Then came the chocolate cake part. I busted it open to reveal this "chocolate lava" which was this warm chocolate sauce.
As if this wasn't bad enough, then Ron and Miho cut the wedding cake, which served up to 40 people, double the number we had. As one of the waiters placed a piece in front of me, I had no idea how I was gonna eat it. I was busting at the seams. It was their wedding cake though, so there was no way I wasn't gonna at least try it. I tasted a bit of the sponge cake and some of the whipped cream before nearly collapsing at the table.
By this time, it was getting late and people were getting lethargic from all the food. We packed up our gifts, said our goodbyes to everyone, and left. On our way out, we thanked the staff for a wonderful evening. After arriving back at our hotel, I briefly thought about hitting a bar with John but both of us were so full, all we could do was get changed into our jammies and watch TV. John is a complete lightweight when it comes to staying up late so he fell asleep almost immediately. I managed to become fascinated by a few A&E shows before I decided to hit the hay myself.
