Happy Halloween Everyone

For Halloween I thought I'd share a video from the one celebrity whom I would like to invite me to his halloween party, Mr. Rob Zombie.

My First Flickr Group

I finally joined my first Flickr group. It has taken a while but I hadn't seen a group that suited me (hadn't looked for one either to be honest). Then I came across the Rusty and Crusty group and it seemed a perfect fit. See some of the great pictures from this group here. This group is one of Flickr's largest (over 16,000 members) and has some really interesting photos as corroded subjects usually have such amazing character.

Happy Halloween

Here is my halloween photo for this year. The photoshop work makes this old pup look a little more menacing than he was. I guess I thought it looked creepy because his stance looked a little suspicious of the camera. All this picture needs is a full moon photoshopped into the sky behind the trees and blood dripping from the dogs mouth. Okay, I may have went a little over board with the blood idea.
Anyway, have a happy halloween and make sure your parents check your candy.

New Streetheart Double Disc Set

Yesterday I bought my copy of the new Streetheart double disc set "The Hits / Anthology". Since I started working here at Polar Bear Productions, I went from being aware of Streetheart to becoming a fan. This double disc set is for both casual listener and fan. Designed by my talented co-worker Loren Stevenson, this package includes one disc of Streethearts hits and a second disc of the bands favorite gems. It also comes with a sixteen page booklet containing personal insights on the songs written by the band. It is available for purchase at their shows or by ordering it off of their website, www.kennyshieldsandstreetheart.com.

Fat Elvis

Rob Peters of Circle Design in Winnipeg recently blogged today about this cool Japanese site called Fontpark 2.0 on robertlpeters.com under the news section. You can follow my link to Rob's blog under Best of the Blogosphere in the column to the right. Here is my attempt below titles "Fat Elvis" or see its creation here.

Lower Fort Garry

This past weekend, Rae, K-Jin, and I went to Lower Fort Garry. It was my first time there and I'm sure not the last. I'd really like to go in the summer to take photos when they have all of the period actors there living in the time of the fur trade. Above is a photo that I took of a York Boat.


It started as a blustery day, as you can see by K-Jin's headscarf, but turned out to be pretty nice by afternoon.

Hydro Tour

Late last September, Rae and I took a tour of the new Mainitoba Hydro building. Here is a photo of the main entrance of the building that I have recently posted on my flickr page from this, our second tour of the building. I like the way my wide angle lens skews the people in the photo below.


When I get some time I will post the first tour pictures form last year and some more of the ones from this tour.
You can see the building on this live camera that is updated every two minutes here.

Neil Young at the MTS Centre

Last night the show was more than any Neil Young fan could ask for. Neil was in top form and played a wide variety of electric favorites like Cinnimon Girl, Cortez the Killer, and of course Rockin' in the Free World, and acoustic greats like Heart of gold, Old Man and Needle and the Damage Done. He then topped it off with a great rendition of the Beatles, A Day in the Life. All the while he had an artist painting canvases behind the drummer and backup singers.
Above is a picture of his gear taken with my cell phone.

Read a review on this show from canoe.ca here.

60 Days Without A Smoke

Ich bin stark. To use todays German word of the day. It's been 2 months, no butts, and doing alright. This months reward is tonight. I am celebrating by going to Neil Young at the MTS Centre. I have been at this point before in an attempt to quit smoking before, so I'm not taking anything for granted.

Old One Room School Houses

Hope Everybody had a great Thanksgiving. This past year I have been trying to take HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) photographs. I was initially inspired by a friend and fellow designer Bryan Scott who has a blog devoted to capturing Winnipeg in this photographic treatment. You can find his blog in the best of the blogosphere in the column to the right or by clicking here.
These are my most recent attempts, taken this past long weekend, on a trip to Raelene's family farm in Saskatchewan.


This is the Hope School that Rae's dad attended near her family farm. It was constructed in 1903 and closed in 1961 and now sits in a cow pasture. Rae has an interesting story on how, after her great grandfather first arrived in Canada, he spent his first night in Saskatchewan in this building during a snow storm with only a small jacket and a coal stove to keep him warm.


This old school house was opened in 1920 and closed in 1961 and seemed sturdy enough to survive an earthquake.


This old yellow farm house shows the cool effect that the HDRI treatment has on clouds. I will keep trying to improve my ability in HDR and post more of the ones that turn out on my flickr page. You can find more of the talented Mr. Scott's photos on his flickr page here.

It's Pool Season

The weather may be getting a little colder out there but many Canadians are jumping into pools. Hockey pools that is. Last night I entered my regular pool that I have misses only once in the last seven years. Sidney Crosby wast the first to go and then Alexander Ovechkin but I had no such luck being that I had the tenth pick. Here is a list of the 13 players that I ended up drafting.

#1 Eric Staal (CAR)

#2 Patrick Kane (CHI)

#3 Alex Tanguay (MTL)

#4 Miroslav Satan (PIT)

#5 R.J. Umberger (CBJ)

#6 Alexander Steen (TOR)

#7 Claude Giroux (PHI)

#8 Tuomo Ruutu (CAR)

#9 Milan Lucic (BOS)

#10 Mason Raymond (VAN)

#11 Mattais Ohlund (VAN)

#12 Fredrick Modin (CBJ)

#13 Christian Ehrhoff (SJ)

New Widget Added

I have a new widget added to the bottom of this blog. It's a German word of the day widget made by Transparent Language, I added it to help me increase my vocabulary for German class.

And now... a snake regurgitating a Hippo.
Enjoy

Insecta: Hemiptera: Belostomatidae.

Upon arriving home from German class last night Rae and I came across this large bug and had to exclaim, what the hell is that!


Thanks to the internet I am confident that I found out precisely what kind of insect it is. It is a giant aquatic bug of the Lethocerus genus. These guys are predators who eat other insects, tadpoles, small fish,and even frogs. It injects an enzyme into its prey that liquifies its insides into a soup that it sucks out. They are said to have one of the most painful bites of any insect.


They are also know as Toe-biters, Giant water bugs, or Electric light bugs. They can be found on most continents and are considered a delicacy in Thailand.


This one in particular, was so large it had another bug living on it. It was found in almost the exact spot that friend and fellow designer, Adrian Shum, caught a picture of a large moth, blogged about here.

St. Norbert Trappist Monastery, Fenced In

This past weekend I went to the St. Norbert Trappist Monastery to take some autumn photos only to find it trapped (no pun intended) behind a chain-linked fence. This is unfortunate for photographers who like to take pictures of these old structures without modern clutter like telephone lines, firehydrants or chain-linked fences showing up in the background. That said, I realise that it is a necessary evil. Just last year, while taking there pictures with Rae, there was a couple in the ruins with two small children. The children were in amongst the ruins, throwing rock around and hitting the old stone structure with sticks. The parents really should have taken this opportunity to teach there kids a little about respect for such a historical site rather than use the ruins as a babysitter. Children aren't the only culprits destroying the ruins. Years of being a popular drinking spot for St. Norbert's youth has also taken its toll. Safety to the Monastery's visitors is also a motive for fencing in this historical landmark.


On this visit I also made a friend with this dog that, I believe, lives at the St. Norbert Arts Centre near the ruins.
See more pictures of this outing at my Flickr page.

My 3-D Birthday

I celebrated a birthday last weekend and for it, my girlfriend took me to a presentation by Frantic Films at the Silver City theater near Polo Park. Frantic displayed some of the process behind the work they did for "Journey to the Center of the Earth", a new film in a list of 3-D releases in an attempt to get people back in theaters, starring Brendan Fraser. Then we watched the film after the presentation. The work that Frantic did was amazing and the presentation by Kert Gartner of Frantic was interesting and well presented. One of my favorite parts of the screening (besides watching Fraser suck in 3-D) was in the previews. They showed a trailer for an upcoming 3-D film called "Coraline" which is directed by Henry Selick (directer of The Nightmare Before Christmas ) and it looks visually stunning.
See the preview in the embedded video below.

It Finally Arrived

Yes the DVD I ordered in early September has finally arrived. The long awaited "The Animation Show, Volume 3" came in the mail yesterday after a good 3 weeks, which I know isn't a long time to wait, I just live in a generetion of instant gratification. The era of download. I had ordered the "Sombrio" video even earlier from Manly Media in Vancouver and to my surprise, The Amination show arrived before it and the Animation Show came from the states. One cool thing was that the Animation Show came with a discounted T-shirt that has become an instant favorite. See below.

The Cosa Nostra Provides My Cellular Service

Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs, when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion (definition from Wikipedia). Recently I had to complain to my cellular provider about my $80 phone bill because of extra text charges and browsing, when, since I've owned my phone, I had the idea that my texts were unlimited and never intentionally did any browsing. Whatever, I made the texts, so I paid it and had an extra $2 a month added to up my texting allowance. The next bill came and there was an extra $20 charge for browsing and this time I knew I hadn't done any. Well it turns out that I have a $20 button on my phone and if I accidentally push it, it connects to my providers server costing me $20. So I called to have browsing disabled to avoid such problems in the future because I don't browse with my cell phone. Apparently they can't do that so their solution was to charge me an extra $3 a month for unlimited browsing. I know that three dollars isn't a lot of money, it's just the fact that I have to pay for a service that I don't use. It reminds me of the Mafia's practice of collecting protection money from businesses to "protect" them from the Mafia's own thugs. Also, it bothers me that every time I call to complain about an extra charge, their solution is to upsell me a more expensive package.
Bastards!

Best 80s Cover Ever

I think everybody remembers the short success of the 80s band Europe and their hit "The Final Countdown" but I don't think anyones heard it quite like this. Complete with the early 80s (bottom of the line) keyboard, Deep Sunshine's multifaceted singer who actually handles both vocals and backup vocals, and the mastery in which the lead guitarist nails that solo. It's a wonder why there appears to be no audience. That said, it's better than I could do, but that's why I don't. Thought this was good for a chuckle.