Everyday Better Guy

On Mousetraps

2012-02-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

Last month, I had the pleasure of hosting (and performing in) at Oh Snap! A The 404s improv comedy show. The term 'pleasure' is used with a bit of irony, as the last scene of the show involved myself and co-performer Dylan Hillyer (a very talented actor, musician, etc...check out his Youtube page for some songs) performing blindfolded and barefoot in a stage littered with over 50 live mousetraps.

Instead of worry and fear about getting hurt - and hurt I did, for days - I felt quite giddy and excited instead, both leading up to and during this scene. You can tell by my grin throughout (I really need to work on my poker face - though I like to think I'm a decent-to-good improvisor, I readily admit I'm a horrible actor!). Full disclosure: I do not have masochistic tendencies! I am in fact a pretty big sissy when it comes to pain. Here, watch:

As you can see in the video, I let out some genuine yelps of pain. I ended up with several welts on my arms and legs that I felt for a few days after. Many fans have asked me after shows if I'm really hurt and 'how painful is it?'. The answer is yes, I'm a bit hurt...but it's not too bad and it will pass. I would compare the pain component (both during and after) to getting hit by a paintball, so long as the mousetraps don't clamp on your toes or fingers in a weird spot. But there are two main differences:

In paintball, you never know when you might get hit, whether you move or not. The blindfolds create a situation of both knowing that you are very likely to experience pain if you take a step, as well as a tinge of uncertainty and hope that you might miss one. Pain is always dependent upon your action.
In paintball, you are actively trying to avoid getting hit, and therefore, trying to avoid pain. This is a natural human instinct, and meshes with how the human brain works. In this sense, the mousetrap game messes with your brain. SNAP! An immediate instinct tells you to stop moving, to take off your blindfold, to walk away. Instead you take another step forward, verbally trying to justify the loud yelp you had just let out within the scene. SNAP! You have no choice but to continue. In fact, get snapped in as many ways as possible enhances the 'painful creativity' of the scene. Time to reach down to 'pick a strawberry' or whatever else the cruel suggestion called for. SNAP SNAP SNAP!

So it's a scarier experience than playing paintball, despite the similarity in the type of pain experienced, and the much shorter duration of the activity.

But in those moments, the audience's surreal mixture of shock, joy, and maybe a little bit of awe, just overtook my senses. You feed off of their energy, and nothing else matters. It's my favourite part of performing: giving an audience pleasure by creating a shared experience. Few things feel more satisfying, and if I were offered a financially viable job where I could perform every evening, I would jump on that without hesitation. Until then I'm happy to keep doing this part-time, for love and pennies.

2011: the highlights

2011-12-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, it had been 7 months since my last post. I would make a promise to write more, but that would be a lie. Let's just say that if I feel passionate enough about something and feel I can add even a minimal amount of value by writing about it, it will likely end up here.

That said, I recently got to thinking about the past year, and figured I could share some highlights (inspired by a Nintendorks Chatter topic named "2011 - the Highlights"):

Visited my dad's side of the family in Lebanon! I had gotten pretty out of touch with the arab culture, so after 13 years it was really nice to visit and meet my 2-year old niece, and re-meet my cousins and other family members. Visited some really cool natural landmarks (especially the Je'ita grottos), and had so much great food, yum. I still hate arabic music. And the drivers there - it's chaos on the streets.
Visited Paris! This being the more touristy of our two-part summer trip, my brother and I roamed the streets and tried to soak in as much of the main city as we could in 3 days. Getting incredibly bad diarrhea on Day 3 did not diminish the awesomeness of this trip, which aside from the regular touristy stuff included singing Sweet Child 'O Mine karaoke in a small Parisian bar on Pigalle street (the hooker district). I was also really proud of my 'Dany points at Parisian Lampposts' photo album idea, where I'm pointing at a post but there's some famous landmark in the background.
Finished my MBA and got a pretty great job! In hindsight, I paid way too much for my education and despite much valuable learning, from an ROI perspective, I wish I had gone to a different school. Moreover, my job is definitely on the lower end of the payscale compared to my fellow graduates', but at least I like what I do and the company I work for does great things worldwide, so it's pretty fulfilling knowing the impact of my work.
Got to play board games on a regular basis! A new coffee shop opened last year in Toronto called Snakes and Lattes (it's really popular, if anyone's looking for a business idea), and with its location and ginormous selection, it has become easier and ever to get together with enough friends to enjoy a good strategy board game or two. Awesome times.
It's been a good year for our improv group, The 404s! We've had some new blood join, we started a monthly gig at a Toronto bar, and more geek conventions want to book us as guests than we can handle given our lives with full-time jobs. We're very minor celebrities in a super niche community, but it's still pretty awesome to receive that treatment and to have 'fans'.
Went to a Foo Fighters concert! Best concert I've been to this year, and second best concert I'd ever been to. Dave Grohl is the man when it comes to putting on a good show. I was blown away and wish I could be even a tenth of the rockstar he is.

Having said all of that, August/September was an incredibly sad time with two deaths in the family. And I haven't had a good woman in my life for far too long. I also feel like aside from my MBA classes and stuff for my job, I haven't learned much this year, which is a bit of a bummer.

But I'm optimistic for 2012! Started Aikido classes in the last month and really enjoying so far, planning to stick with it for a while so it might be a good topic for next year's review! I also plan to move to Toronto by mid-next year, but that hinges on me securing financial stability, which I'm also pretty optimistic about. Drastically reducing my commute time and living independently again is going to be a nice fresh kick in the pants for my life. I can't wait.

As for the women...well, what are you waiting for, ladies? I'm here for the taking.

Review: A Game of Thrones: The Board Game

2011-12-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

I've been loving the crap out of A Game Of Thrones: the Board Game recently. If you can ever afford a 4-5 hour block of time to set aside for gaming with a friend or five (this is a 3-6 player game, but I wouldn't recommend it with just 3), this game is worth looking into. I had spent many Sundays playing the now-out-of-print original 2003 edition at Toronto's very popular Snakes & Lattes board game cafe, and when I heard Fantasy Flight Games was re-releasing this gem last month with updated rules, much nicer components, and gorgeous artwork, I didn't hesitate to put down the $50 for a pre-order. Now that I've had a few sessions with the new edition, I'm ready to lay down the word on what's up (or something like that).

At its core, A Game of Thrones is a military conquest strategy game in the vein of Risk, but minus the randomness, and with a strong emphasis on alliances and treachery. Each player controls one of the 6 major Houses from the A Song of Ice & Fire series, and the goal is to capture 7 castles and strongholds on the continent of Westeros, or be the one with the most at the end of 10 rounds. Each round has 3 phases:

Westeros phase: world events occur, potentially affecting the military and political status of all players vying for the isle of Westeros. There may be a Wildling attack at The Wall, that all players must collectively defend against. A Mustering event allows players to create new military units for combat. Political power is just as (if not more) important as military power in this game, and the Clash of Kings event forces players to bid their power tokens on three areas of influence: the Iron Throne, the Fiefdoms, and the King's Court, which significantly affect players' abilities and limitations.
Orders phase: players secretly assign orders to all of their units. This is not limited to movement and combat: units can passively raid other areas to disrupt their plans without direct engagement, as well as pledge to support combat occurring in adjacent areas. The support command is by far the biggest source of heated arguments and controversy, as in addition to their own armies, support units may aid battles that their House is not actually involved with.
Action phase: players execute their now-revealed orders one at a time, claiming territories with valuable resources, capturing castles and strongholds, playing nice (or betraying) their allies, and fending off their enemies. This is where everything happens and the order in which you execute your commands matters a great deal.

The rules can be incredibly intimidating at first - there is a whole lot that can happen - but after one or two rounds you find that everything makes sense, with only a few small details requiring regular clarification from the rulebook. Unfortunately, in my experience players WILL try to find every opportunity or loophole to get out of whatever situation they face, so the rulebook will often be consulted. With this in mind, this is not the right buy for a person new to board gaming. However, if you've already played your Catans, your Carcassones and maybe your Dominions, and are thirsty for something with a bit more complexity, this will fulfill that need nicely.

In addition to being a fun and smart military conquest game, A Game of Thrones: the Board Game captures the flavour of the A Song of Ice & Fire series very well. Most prominent characters make an appearance as army leaders during combat, and the forming of alliances (and breaking of said alliances at the most opportune moments) is a defining aspect of the game, leading to much treachery and controversy. Table talk is absolutely crucial in this game, so it's not for the meek...but I absolutely wouldn't have it any other way.

In conclusion, A Game of Thrones offers an engaging, noisy experience for those who can set aside several hours with at least 3 experienced gamer friends, or fans of the series who are willing to learn.

Oh, and you get to gang up on House Lannister to make sure they die a horrible death every time...that's got to count for something, right?

Toronto - Beirut - Paris Journal. Day 0 - If I'm Dyin', I'm Flyin'

2011-05-16T01:58:00.000-07:00

My dad, brother, and I decided to fly out on Friday the 13th to a politically unstable country (and my homeland from my dad's side), then to Paris during the G20 summit (which will surely involve rioting of some kind). This journal covers my daily experiences hoping to cheat certain misfortune.

7 hour flight to Paris.

First time using Air France. Seats were REALLY uncomfortable – very narrow and I have a hard time imagining anyone but skinny people having enough ass room. Entertainment selection was very limited. Watched No Strings Attached – good twist on the typical romantic comedy…Portman’s character was a heartbreaking bitch. But goddamn I’ve been starting to really notice her hotness lately. A bit of turbulence, but I’m used to that. Tried to sleep, but just ended up laying in my seat for 2 hours with my eyes closed.
Enjoyed the view of the countryside as we flew into Charles-De-Gaulle airport. Green fields, tiny hamlets and villages, little clumps of forestry… it looked like the early stages of a game of Civilization were unfolding beneath me. Nobody clapped when we landed! As a child, every summer my brother and I flew between the UAE and Ukraine or Hungary, and right as we hit the ground and the plane completed its descent the entire plane-ful of people would burst into applause. Maybe that’s a third world thing? Or a 90s thing?

3 hour layover in Paris.

Only 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi?! I manage to send a quick FB message and tweet my disappointment, and have not had internet access until the posting of this journal entry. Bumming around the duty free…damn there are some expensive liquors here, 6000 Euros! We stop by a coffee shop…chocolate croissant is fine (was hoping for superlative since this IS Paris, but then again it’s also just the airport…guess I’ll hope for better next weekend when I actually visit the city), “American Coffee” is half a small cupful…shoulda ordered an Espresso. There are free PS3 kiosks in the waiting areas, which is kind of neat until you find out all they have is a crappy street soccer game.

4 hour flight to Beirut.

This time we’re flying Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s official airline even though it’s only a small part of the Middle East. Apparently its owes its name to a first mover advantage when it came to middle eastern airlines. (I really should edit that last series of sentences). Horrible logo colour scheme and branding IMO. The most offensive part of my trip by far was the half hour of advertising that was force-fed to my eyes and ears right after the safety instructions. Basically, my screen couldn’t be turned off and the sound was blasted over the PA system. If this is the future of travel (advertising revenue to offset cheaper plane tickets, as alluded to by my marketing prof last year), then I’d like a warning when signing up, and significantly cheaper plane tickets. Hell, I’ll even fill out surveys and perform research studies if it means my flight’s cheaper. Just let me know beforehand, because this coming out of left field totally turned me off. But at least my ass fit in the seats, unlike with Air France.

This time there was clapping when we landed! I guess it is a third world thing :/. Maybe we’ve learned to better appreciate and get excited for when we don’t die.

Detailed insightful well-written article on interesting topic

2011-04-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Just kidding, I don't post anything of that sort. April Fool's!

It's a card game! It's a board game! It's...Dominion!

2011-03-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

This was originally a forum post I made on Nintendorks, which I've tried to flesh out and turn into a full article/review type thingy. While I've abandoned my initial "Everyday Better Guy" project a long time ago (though not in spirit, really), going forward I'll be updating this blog more frequently. Expect musings about gaming, improv, and anything else that comes to mind that I end up wanting to write passionately about.

Dominion, created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games, is a medieval-themed board game released in 2008 and ranked as overall #8 on BoardGameGeek.com. While I've enjoyed playing with friends in the past, I recently got hooked on playing online opponents at http://dominion.isotropic.org. This website houses an unofficial version of the game played by over 3000 registered users. The built-in leaderboard tells me I've played at least 250 registered games (and who knows how many unregistered ones) since starting two months ago - a remarkable and saddening feat considering I'm 'slaving away' on my MBA studies at the moment.

Not many card games become as popular or successful as Dominion, especially without some kind of special hook. No zombies, intergalactic bounty hunters, or monsters lure players into giving this game a chance. It's the gameplay that shines, and has players spreading word of mouth about its greatness.

One of the special things about Dominion's gameplay is that it's a card game about building a deck of cards - so meta! Each player starts off with the same 10 basic cards in their deck, and the winner is the person who builds the best deck by the end. The road to victory requires that players amass the largest kingdom by buying the most Victory cards. However, Victory cards are useless in the deck aside from at the end of the game (when points are totaled), so players must build an efficient deck that also incorporates the right balance of Action and Treasure Cards (which in turn, are useful during the game but not counted towards points at the end). The game pulls off a generic medieval theme in an oddly elegant way, cards being named after elements of medieval europe, such as Villages, Militia, and Chapels.

In trying to outline why the gameplay is so good, I decided on four elements of game design that I think Dominion pulls off exceptionally well:

SIMPLICITY: The basic mechanics are deceptively simple and fast-paced. Only three main types of cards (Actions, Treasures, and Victory Points) and three simple phases during your turn (Action, Buy, Clean-Up). This leads to a (usually) very fast-paced game: online games are usually done within 15 minutes, in-person games rarely take more than 45.
VARIETY: Each game can be different, as the available-to-buy Action cards are (often randomly) picked from a pool of 25 or so different ones (and many more become available with the expansions). As a result, card interactions and combos vary every game.
STRATEGY: Many decision are dependent on opponents' actions and often require some foresight, for good players at least. There can be a lot of interaction, and cards that seem useless in one game can be the key to victory in other card sets, so one must always consider the mechanics of the game to find new combos. There are multiple paths to victory: you can play offensively, defensively, try to rush for a quick win, or just mind your own business.
FAIRNESS: This game has just the right balance of luck vs. skill. Since there is no rolling of dice, one has a great deal of control over their destiny. And even though one can fall at the mercy of the 'luck of the draw', each turn brings about a completely new hand of 5 cards, so only the unluckiest of players (or worst deckbuilders) can get stuck in a rut of terrible draws.

This wouldn't be a proper review without some criticism, but I'm hard-pressed to find any serious flaws with the game. If I were to nitpick, it would be that random setups of the Action cards can sometimes result in boring matchups with no significant card interactions. However, these instances are exceptions rather than the rule, and players can always choose to customize their card sets to eliminate the chance of a boring setup.

In conclusion, Dominion is an excellent game with fantastic mechanics and a generic, but well-executed theme which doesn't at all detract from the gameplay. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a deep strategic game that is easy to learn but can take time to master.

And lastly, I'd like to recommend the Dominion Strategy Blog, which contains a plethora of interesting and educational articles on advanced strategies for the game.

August in review

2010-09-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back! August was a month consisting of three major events.

Montreal
We road-tripped it up to French-Canadia to perform in 4 improv shows at the Otakuthon convention. @lartist of popular webcomics Looking for Group and Least I Could Do joined us on stage for a game and that was a pretty cool moment. Also I played in my first game of 'Mousetrap'. It's the improv game where you do a scene blindfolded and on a stage littered with armed mousetraps. And then, when your 'friends' aren't satisfied with the amount of pain you're being put through, they start throwing more mousetraps at you. Oh yeah, and you're trying to act out an improv scene.

Actually, at the risk of breaking the illusion, Mousetrap wasn't so bad. The pain subsided mere ~~days~~ hours after the show.

Also I saw some buskers on the streets of Old Montreal, and had crepes at Cafe Crepe, which by the way were totally underwhelming after Mainak claimed they were "better than sex". I've had better crepes, I guess that's because my mom makes them. Ah, crepes.

Break-up
I broke up with a girl after 3 months. She just wasn't the right person for me, and I've decided 3 months is a good amount of time to know for sure if someone isn't right for you. I've probably said too much. Alejandro said that the bad things that came my way after were all bad karma: my desktop's video card and power supply needed to be replaced and cost me about $200. Then last week I lost my glasses. But I think I did the right thing regardless. Plus I don't believe in karma. Goddamn stupid break-ups.

Goodbye Knives.

Scott Pilgrim
Speaking of Knives, holy shit Scott Pilgrim was awesome. I had gone into the movie not having read the books, and while the first 20 minutes or so I was all "What the...." at the abrupt cuts and seemingly incomplete scenes, once I got used to that it was just pure pleasure for all my sensibilities. And all my senses too, I suppose.

I just finished reading the books today and I'm not sure I get what happens at the end with Gideon. The movie ending was way less weird (which says a LOT about the weirdness of the book ending).

Okay so Scott Pilgrim shouldn't count as one of my 3 'major events'. Well actually it should but it doesn't as I hadn't thought of it until halfway through writing. Clearly this is an improvised post. Onto event number three.

Fan Expo AKA Settlers of Catan tourney that had other things going on at it that I didn't care about nearly as much.
I placed 3rd in the Catan North American Championship qualifier. If my snipers* get their jobs done on the two people who finished ahead of me, I will be going to Gencon in August 2011 to fight 31 other qualifier winners to become North American Champion. Then that person would get to go to Germany in 2012 for the Catan World Cup, or something like that. I was pretty excited about it. Unfortunately, after some very intense preliminary games, a win in the semi-final, I finished 3rd in the final game with 8 points. Actually we were tied for 2nd but the other guy had a better record than me during the prelims so officially he was 2nd place instead of me.

I also had time to stop by Felicia Day's booth and get her autograph on my Dr. Horrible DVD. Neat.

*just kidding, I can't afford snipers

Other things of note:

- Done my summer internship! Happy in some ways, sad in others. I will miss most of the people there. Hopefully I can find ways to make money during the year because I need it.
- My brother's been in Italy all month. Kinda weird not celebrating his birthday this year (it's on the 17th).
- Also done my improv class. I really wish I could afford/fit it in my schedule to keep taking them. Maybe once I get a job again. Gotta focus on finishing my MBA and getting hired at an awesome company that wants someone awesome like me. I do feel like I've improved though.
- Improv host at Bad Dog for That Friday Show was super-cute and I totally want to make googly-eyes with her. I have no way of finding out more about her without feeling like a stalker. Guess I'll be going to the Bad Dog more often on Fridays.

It's my birthday!

2010-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

...and I'm here to talk about it.

Well, actually, no.

I haven't updated since end of May. I always intended to, but two things:

- Something really really shitty happened, and I wasn't in the mood to do anything for about two straight weeks...including work. I thought I might get fired. Glad I was able to accomplish a bare minimum that is keeping me employed for the summer, and I'm now trying to work hard to make up for the shitty two weeks.
- After that, I grabbed a hold of myself, and shook myself really hard (not literally) and re-evaluated my state of being (woah, deep). While I think this blog was on the right track, I don't necessarily need to do something every week. I thought about the things that have really been making me happy recently, and decided to focus on those.

So, I've enrolled in a weekly improv class (we meet on Thursdays) and though I've only gone to two classes so far, they have been great and I feel like I've already learnt something from them. I'm also running a weekly Supernatural role-playing game for my brother and a bunch of friends, and it's been fun cooking up the story. I started dating someone, so far it's been great. I also hosted my first ever karaoke night at PK Creek, and had many surprise friend appearances, it was great :). Glad I could help Rooven by taking over one night. Also last week, I hung out with 2 Nintendorks and their SOs, one of whom lives in Toronto, the other was visiting from Boston. We went to Korean BBQ and then to Second City and both of those things were fantastic.

I'll try to update this blog about once a week with a bunch of stuff I find interesting, but I won't hesitate to post stuff even if I missed out on previous weeks. Reports of Anime North and the karaoke fundraiser and other things that happened over the last two months may never make it on here, but that's okay.

2010-06-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

I have two reports in my backlog now and a third one coming up, I'm just finding it very hard to get to writing them. Rest assured I will have them completed this week. I promise!

Week 11 was my semi-striptease at Anime North (there will be a video)
Week 12 was my MC-ing a karaoke fundraiser
Week 13 was last week, and I made a Chuck costume for a costume party.
Week 14 is this week, and I'll be running in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

So stay posted, these updates will be coming up, I swear!

The 404s Improv RPG Episode 3 is up

2010-06-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, WAS up a long time ago, I just forgot to post it here. I think it gets really good starting this episode, but I'll let you all be the judge of that. We're now posting the videos to the official 404s Youtube channel instead of my own. OK, without further ado, here it is!

Tomorrow, I will be posting my Anime North report (for week 11), and for this week I will discuss my experience emcee-ing our Karaoke Fundraiser event that we held on Wednesday June 2nd.

Will I ever write that Super Mario Galaxy 2 review? I've been so busy I'm only 10 stars in. So far, it's been magical...oh and so fantastical...

Also, I've been keeping up with my pushups/situps, though I decided to repeat pushups week 2 because I'm not building my strength as fast as I'd like. It's cool though, and I am enjoying my morning exercises.

Week 11: preview of a death-defying stunt!

2010-05-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

I know some readers of this relish the idea of watching me in pain. For example, I got several in-person commendations about my mushroom-eating video. This week, instead of reviewing Super Mario Galaxy 2 like everyone and their grandmother have done in the last week, I will up the 'pain' ante at our Saturday night improv show at Anime North.

As part of The 404s Improv Comedy, this weekend we're performing 4 shows at Anime North, Canada's largest fan-run anime convention. When I say large I mean, over 12,000 people's worth of traffic over the 3 days of the weekend (Friday night to Sunday afternoon).

But what does this have to do with pain? Well, for the first time for our group in Toronto, we will be playing a game called Mouse Trap. The idea is: two improvisers perform a usual scene, but barefoot and blindfolded. And on a stage filled with MOUSETRAPS, ARMED and READY TO SNAP. So of course I saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to do something fun, get hurt, and blog about it in the process.

~~Will there be video? You had better believe it!~~

~~And if I just gave away confidential information, to the 2 or 3 of you who read this blog AND are going to Anime North AND aren't part of The 404s...shhhhhhhhhh, keep this info on the down low.~~

Oh, I'm also hosting an anime-themed game of Family Feud, which should be fun seeing as I've never watched the show and have no idea how the structure goes. Also I don't know much about anime anymore.

Edit: Apparently, turns out we have no mousetraps anymore and won't be doing the game. So, host a gameshow will have to do. Not quite as death-defying, but I'm sure it will be painful (for the viewers at least), and I definitely won't have time to figure something else out as I'll be busy all weekend. But I'll try.

Week 10 pt 2 : Soccer has taught me I need to keep my legs shut.

2010-05-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Well that was fun - almost 90 minutes on the soccer field. The ball went between my legs more often than I would like to admit. As a goalie this is not good. But I also did a couple of dives, scored a legit goal, and ran around alternating with others in the goalie role. Lots of fun was had, but sadly no pictures were taken (cameras and soccer balls do NOT make a good combination, surprisingly). I'm going to try to make this a weekly thing - I had really low stamina so my cardio could use a lot of work and this is a great way to do that.

Week 10: Go go go, allez allez allez!

2010-05-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

I started my week going "uh-oh, I have no idea what to do for this week". It is now Sunday afternoon, and until 5 minutes ago that was still the case. Now I have two ideas: the first I'm doing for sure, and it's going out to play soccer this evening with some new(ish) friends. Last summer I tried to start a weekly weekend soccer thing, but it was too hard to coordinate mine and my friends' schedules and it only lasted for 3 weeks or so. I love playing soccer, even though I'm pretty out of shape lately (unless round counts as a shape hur hur hur).

So I just received a call from Shane, a guy I've known for a while from way back when: we went to the same UWA hardcore wrestling shows some 4-5 years ago, he works at Image Collections (the comic book store I shop at), and we hang out at karaok enights. Safe to say we're friends by this point. So anyways, he texted me to see if I liked soccer at all, and I was like 'Heck Yeah!'. So I'll be reporting on my experience tomorrow, maybe with some photos.

I also just started playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, which reminded me I could write a review on it. But I haven't played enough to write a review (only about an hour in), so maybe I'll try hard for next week.

Also, this was my first week of working, and already I've stayed late on a Friday night (yes, Friday night!) completing a proposal to the Alberta government. Now, I know that this is the modus operandi for consultants, BUT I'm an internal consultant, so I'm not exactly doing the same stuff that consultants like the ones who work at McKinsey do. I also don't get paid nearly as much as those interning at consulting firms. Anyways, this is too much whining for the extent that I stayed late for (which wasn't very long). Any other day I wouldn't have minded. But it being on a Friday night ground my gears. I guess that's part of what comes with the territory of being a summer MBA intern.

Week 9: Let's Get Physical, Physical

2010-05-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

For this week I decided I needed to get back into exercising regularly. I've made several attempts to do so over the past few years, none of them all that serious. I decided to try to stick to doing some simple exercises every morning that strengthen my core. Something I could spend 10-20 minutes on in the morning and be done with. I wanted there to be no need to go to the gym or even leave my room necessarily.

I remembered Aaron, a friend of mine from the 404s, had at one point been going through the One Hundred Push-ups program. I'm not sure how well that worked out for him, but I checked out the website and it seemed like something I could follow. Exercise three times a week, only about 10 minutes each time, and within 6 weeks, you're supposed to be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups.

"That's not too bad" I thought to myself. "I'm pretty sure I can do at least 10 in a row now".

So I took the initial test, and collapsed onto the ground after the 16th push-up. That made me feel pretty good about myself, beating my own expectations.

"Awesome!" I thought. "This puts me into the advanced bracket!"

This meant that I would do more push-ups per rep when training. So I did my exercises on Monday, and then again on Wednesday. At this point my brother passes by and tells me I'm not doing it right. So I get curious and look for how to do a proper push-up on Youtube. This guy ends up giving a pretty decent explanation.

Instead of the above, I was doing more of a half push-up, not going all the way down so my shoulders meet my elbow level. So I started trying to do them the correct way and collapsed at 4. Uh-oh. not nearly as impressive as I thought I was. So I'll be restarting the routine this week with a lighter, but proper workout.

I also joined the related Two Hundred Sit-ups program (which actually should be called the two hundred crunches program as that is what they advise you to do) and that is going really well. I have no trouble doing 80 consecutive proper form crunches at this point, so 200 in 60 weeks seems very achievable.

In case you're interested in doing crunches yourself, there are a couple of important things to remember while doing crunches that I learned from a gym trainer when I last went to a gym:

1. Rest your hands behind your head, but don't use your arms to pull yourself up. In fact, your neck shouldn't be moving. A good way to prevent this from happening even by mistake is to make sure to be staring at the ceiling at all times.
2. Make sure to tense your ab muscles while rising, the same way you would if you knew that someone was about to punch you in the gut. This ensures that the right muscles are getting the workout.
3. As long as you're following the above tip, you only really need to go up a bit to do a proper sit-up. Say, about 35 degrees.
4. Breathe out as you rise, breathe in as you descend.

This dude will show you:

Anyways, I'm determined to stick with these two programs. Exercising like this has felt pretty good so far, actually.

Week 8 went Horrible-y

2010-05-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love puns. If you were paying attention to my last post, I was working on a karaoke song. Not singing one (I do that several times a week), but creating the file.

Why? My friends and I are big fans of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog by Joss Whedon & Co. It was a musical released to the internet during the 2007 writer's strike, and stars Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser/How I Met Your Mother/sheer awesomeness fame), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), and Felicia Day (The Guild). Watch it somewhere online, it's really good if you're at all geeky and/or like musicals, plus all 3 episodes put together are about 45 minutes long. Here's a trailer:

Anyways, as you might know we are also big fans of singing karaoke at bars...so one day we got to talking about how it's too bad that none of the great songs from Dr. Horrible have ever been officially released for karaoke. Which got me thinking...as long as I could find a version of the track that lacked vocals, as well as an application that allowed me to create karaoke format files, I'd be able to figure out how to make Dr. Horrible karaoke a reality.

As luck would have it, after a bit of Googling I came across a website by a Moses Lei that featured synthesized, vocal-less versions of all of the tracks from the musical. I also found a karaoke authoring application called DART Karaoke Author, which seemed fairly simple to use. (Sidenote: I haven't exactly gotten permission from Moses Lei to use his track. But I did send him an e-mail and have yet to receive a reply either way. And I assume that in the spirit of creativity and non-profitness, that by default he would be okay with this. Also I assume Moses Lei is a he).

So after about 5 hours' worth of aligning words to music (and typing all the lyrics out, because apparently copy/pasting doesn't work in modern applications anymore), I have a slightly buggy karaoke file for the song Brand New Day. When I say buggy, I mean some of the lines don't get highlighted on the right cue, even though I've set it up properly within the program. I have no idea how to fix this, I've tried everything obvious in the program and even a few unobvious things. After working with it for a sizeable amount of time, I think the program itself is pretty bare-bones and just plain bad, and I really wish I could have found a more professional karaoke authoring tool for as cheap as I got this one (that is, free). Maybe I'll do this project over someday with a better tool. But the file works fine for the most part, and if you are a fan and know the song well, you won't need the right cues.

So I present to you first, the original song in its full glory:

Now onto the karaoke version. First, if you want to play karaoke format files on your PC, you need a karaoke player application. If you don't already have one, a free and easy one can be found here: Link to Free Karaoke Builder CD+G Player.

Once you have that installed (it's a small, compact application) you will want my (and Moses Lei's) creation, the actual karaoke file: Sendspace Link. You'll need to unzip the file using Winzip or WinRAR (if you don't know what these are...seriously?! go away) and make sure both the CDG and MP3 files are in the same directory, otherwise you will not hear the music. Then you have to play the CDG file. If you have a karaoke player installed (such as the above linked Karaoke Builder CD+G player), it should automatically open in that program.

And that's week 8. Despite the imperfections, I consider this project a success. It took me a really long time to sync all the words up with the music and I know there's room for improvement even, which has definitely given me a new appreciation for the jobs of those that do this for a living.

Also, I know this post is late and it's week 9 already! There will be a week 9 update soon...rest assured I HAVE been busy working on this week's project: it involves one of my FAVORITE activities: exercise.

Sneak peek at my week 8 project + Episode 2 of the Improv RPG!

2010-05-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is week 8. I decided exam week just didn't count for continuity's sake of this project.

Here's what I've been working on:

Also, Episode 2 of the 404s Improv RPG is now posted. I actually think it's a lot more entertaining content-wise than the first episode.

Week 7 wrap up

2010-04-28T21:53:00.001-07:00

Still trying to remember to wear that rubber band in the morning. And failing.

This week is exam week and projects-due week. I'm not sure what this means for the week 8 project. I'll try to figure something out. There's an undergrad reunion at UTM on Saturday that I might attend, does that count?

Week 7 - Dear rubber band, you're playing my tune out of tune

2010-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

This week is quite heavy for me with school deliverables and preparing for exams, but I managed to squeeze in an extra-light project.

As those who know me IRL may have noticed, I walk a bit funny. I don't fully step on my heels so I'm always leaning forward a bit when I walk. Dunno if there's something weird going on with my feet but I've been doing this pretty much my whole life, and it hasn't always been pleasant when people pointed it out (especially in school where kids can be mean). Though I've tried correcting it over the years by telling myself I'd try to walk properly, I'd keep forgetting to do so - it had become a natural thing for me.

So for this week I decided I'll take one more stab at it, by trying a method I'd heard about but always thought was silly: the old "snap yourself with a rubber band around the wrist whenever you catch yourself doing the bad thing" trick. I've been wearing this rubber band all week and it still bother me, which tends to be a good reminder for walking properly.

Anyways, I'll report back on how things are going later. Been doing it since Tuesday and will likely continue for longer than a week.

Week 1's video posted: The 404s RPG

2010-04-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here are the fruits of my and Mike's labour. Reasons it got delayed:

1. We needed some kind of soundtrack and asked for another 404 (Mike Storey of Maitre Music, who makes kickin' eurobeat songs) to create it.
2. I was lazy and busy, kept forgetting to ask him for it (he got it ready in a couple of days), then kept delaying actually finishing the video.

But, here is the clip in all its lame glory. I found iMovie to be pretty limiting (even moreso than Pinnacle Studio that I have on PC) - I definitely want to learn how to use a more comprehensive editing program in the future. Is Final Cut Express my best bet?

Week 6: Fear Conquered - Shrooms Vanquished

2010-04-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you know that I hate, abhor, loathe, despise mushrooms. Cannot stand them and actively avoid eating them. So on Monday when I noticed the Tre Funghi (or as I (mis?)translated it, Triple Mushroom) pasta on the menu at Daddyo's near Rotman, I knew I was going to have to come back and have this be my week 6 'thing'.

I headed over to DaddyOs on Friday. They have good, if a bit "overpriced for everyday lunching" pasta.

Ordered my pasta and some liquid courage (when beer selection is shitty, the answer is always Coors Light).

And here's the "delicious" looking pasta.

And here's a video of the beginning of my experience.

I finished it, I swear! No digital trickery was employed in the creation of the following image.

Rob has a brilliant idea - a post-interview. Here it is.

Later that day, in the middle of a meeting with my project team, I had a very upset stomach and spent about half an hour in the washroom. I guess I'm not used to digesting funghi. Sorry, but I did not take pictures of that experience.

And with that, Week 6 was a success! I already have some ideas of options for next week, even though it's getting dangerously close to exam week and is actually 'papers-due' week. I'll try to make sure to have time to devote to this, though.

This week I will CONQUER ONE OF MY FEARS + I finally have a follower!

2010-04-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to make this blog a bit more exciting (and to make up for last week's lack of action) I have decided that this week stakes will be high. In an attempt to improve my life, I will be CONQUERING ONE OF MY FEARS.

What fear, exactly? For that you will have to wait a bit longer.

Also, I would like to congratulate Steffa for being my first follower. As a reward for being an early adopter, she wins a coupon that grants her and her family my help with moving furniture and other belongings from one house to another, redeemable only on Saturday April 17th, 2010.

Follow my blog and you could also win fantastical prizes!

Week 5: Write-off, but a bunch of neat things.

2010-04-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Gah. Way too busy this week with schoolwork and job interviews to even think about the project, so nothing project-worthy happened. But a bunch of other interesting things did, which as a sum could be seen as worthy of being mentioned.

- On Tuesday I had two interviews, plus a repeat of my Improv workshop! I had messed up my scheduling and ended having an interview in the morning, then the workshop at lunch, and another interview at 4PM. The afternoon interview was more intense and I was tired. But as of Friday, I have a job offer from them, which I'm really happy about! I'll be assisting with the marketing of a non-profit company. I'm 99% likely to accept unless I get offered the other Marketing position at the video game development company I interviewed with in the morning, though I'm a bit less confident about that one (to be fair, I didn't think the afternoon interview went particularly well either). Next week should be interesting when I try to find out, then make my decision.

- Saw Wolf Parade in concert at The Phoenix on Wednesday. Wolf Parade is a pretty good band that I wish I had followed more. The songs I did recognize were particularly epic when played live, and their other stuff makes me want to listen to their new album when that comes out. If you were to listen I would recommend checking out I'll Believe in Anything (their biggest hit to date - music video linked), You Are a Runner and I am my Father's Son (which they opened with, live video linked), and California Dreamer (which is long and epic). A particularly amusing bit was when the lead singer called up his mother and we all sang her Happy Birthday over the phone. Hey, looks like someone filmed it!

- I went to karaoke with Ramy, Vanessa, and Dave on Friday night, for the first time in quite a while. We each got to sing 4 songs, which is pretty good for a packed bar! Some particularly good performers, and then just some strange people (some in a good way, some not so much). Here is one of the not so good ones:

Yes, that IS an old guy singing 'I've Got a Feeling'. No, he didn't do a good job.

There was a short lady in sunglasses who totally rocked some Stone Temple Pilots songs. One of her arms was about half as long as the other. I did NOT take a photo of that.

I sang Superman's Dead by Our Lady Peace, You Don't Know What Love Is...You Just Do As You're Told by The White Stripes, and The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room by Flight of the Conchords. Oh, and the crew backed me up for some Bad Romance (and it was good!). In fact, every single person in our group gave some of their best performances that night (that I can remember, anyway). Everyone's become a better singer than when they started doing karaoke, which is a pretty cool thing to watch people progress.

As for the venue, the place we visited had a ginormous selection...almost everything conceivable, even Enormous Penis by Da Vinci's Notebook! No Raconteurs though, sadly enough). I suspect the host pirates her karaoke, because buying all of those songs would have been really expensive. But whatever, it's all good for us.

Night ended well. I leave you with a video of Enormous Penis, which I will sing one day. These guys do amazing harmonies. Too bad they disbanded, but two of them went on to form Paul & Storm, another great group in their own right.

Wood for Sheep aka random thoughts

2010-04-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just want to say that April Fool's Day was very disappointing with no good pranks other than some neat internet ones (Ecco the Dolphin Wars, anyone?). I tried to trick Liz into thinking I'd sold the JoCo ticks for profit, and I think I may have gotten her for a little while, but that was the extent of my pranking.

10 word review of Hot Tub Time Machine: Craig Robinson was funniest. Boobs! Could have had less puke.
Seriously, first movie I've watched in theatres since Star Trek. So sad. Can't wait for Kick Ass.

Had lunch at the Mandarin yesterday for my Grandma's birthday - had to nap afterwards and my stomach still hates me for all that food. Ugh. Never again...is what I say everytime.

I haven't yet decided what next week's big project will be. School is keeping me busy, I'm running the improv workshop again, and have two interviews scheduled, so it's going to be a big week. I'll figure something out by the end of it though, definitely.

I've been singing a lot lately. Like, more than usual - which is a lot to begin with. Damn, I wish my voice were good enough to do it professionally. I love to sing. I think I have 'Superman's Dead' by Our Lady Peace down pat now.

Week 4, Day 2: Improvving Lives

2010-03-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here goes another try, again on the bus. If the battery dies on me or I forget to save or Word crashes again without Auto Recovery I’m officially giving up on writing this report.

Monday evening was my first ever instance teaching an improv class. Well, that’s a semi-lie: Back at AC-Cubed ’06 in Ottawa, I helped Mark (leader of The 404s) run a workshop. But since I only had an ancillary role I think this qualifies as my first foray into teaching an improv class myself. …Okay, so I didn’t do it completely by myself, as I recruited Michael C., fellow 404 improvver and good friend, to help me out with showing examples and playing some games.

I want to start with a big thanks to Mike for commuting down to Toronto and helping me out. I don’t think the session would have been nearly as effective without him helping me show examples of good improv vs. bad improv, and wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without some of his side quips to complement some of my serious points. On that note, it was kind of weird seeing Mike in the Rotman building. Noone from my outside-Rotman life had ever stepped in, so it felt a tiny bit jarring for a moment – like someone invading my bedroom back when I was a teenager – but of course, no big deal and I snapped out of that quick.

We had a bit of a low turnout: of the 9 people registered, only 4 showed up. This is understandable since MBA students tend to get busy with last-minute assignment submissions and other stuff coming up. Still, a bit disappointing, but it allowed those who did show up to get a lot of value out of the class by being able to participate a whole lot more.

I based the structure of my workshop on Mark’s AC-Cubed one, which as I understand was inspired by Wayne Brady’s own improv class (link to video below). For the first 20 minutes or so, I lectured about what improv is and the benefits of practicing improv to an MBA student (of which there are several!). Several attendees had no clue what improv was, for which I prepared a Youtube video link of the masters of short-form comedy improv: the case of Whose Line Is It Anyway.

Once we got over introductions and demonstrations of several improv concepts (offers, listening, yes-and, blocking, gagging, wimping, and steamrolling), I had the group pair up and practice “Yes-And”ing, which really got them going. After playing a warmup game of “Da-Da-Da” (which I now agree with Mike is a great warmup game), we got into the meat of things: playing a bunch of improv games.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that all 4 students picked up the concepts quickly. More importantly, there was plenty of laughter and smiles and positive feedback. My most pleasant surprise was that even the participants whose English wasn’t as strong as others’ were able to effectively participate and create good scenes (with the exception of “One-Word-at-a-Time”, which I realized all too late requires a strong knowledge and familiarity with grammatical sentence structure).

Some highlights from the workshop:

- In Moving People (which took place at The Grand Canyon), Robin kept moving Justing in ways that got him to flip-flop between contemplating suicide or running away from the tide.

- “That’s Integrative Thinking!” and “Can You Diversify This?” were two of the highlight Rotman-related phrases given to our improvvers for a game of Two-Line vocabulary. It’s amazing how incorporating them into a scene resulted in the innovation of brushing teeth with Coke.

- Every Other Line with business textbooks resulted in what Mike called “the funniest Every Other Line he’d ever played”. Kudos to Mike for being able, as the straight actor, to cope with the lines thrown at him.

- I only played one game, but it ended with our hiring of Mexicans to carry my gold, which I consider a proper, successful ending to any story.

- Lots of other moments I can’t recall: the hour and a half passed by far too quickly.

And that’s the report! Due to the positive feedback and interest from people to do it again, I will be holding the session again next Tuesday, this time during lunch. Hopefully more people show up this time, but I’d be happy with 4 again, so long as we can play more games.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures but I was too caught up with running the workshop. So instead I leave you with a link to the first part of Wayne Brady’s improv workshop, which covers a lot more than mine did. Follow the related links to watch the entire thing.

Week 4 of Everyday Better Guy – success!

Frustration!

2010-03-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Whoever said that Macs don't crash has clearly never tried to using a Microsoft product on one, in this case MS Word for Mac. I had a nice long workshop report typed up on the bus home today and now it's all gone. The system didn't even do the usual 'recovery' so I didn't even salvage part of the write-up. Microsoft, you will be the end of me.

I will write this up again later :(.

Week 4, Day 1: Run an improv workshop

2010-03-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today I will be teaching 8 MBA students about the art of improv. I've been doing improv with The 404s for about 4 years now, and with the entire cast had the chance to help our leader Mark run a workshop at a con (I think it was at ACCubed '07 but I could be wrong).

This time however, I will be the instructor, and I've invited Mike C. to come along and help me out. The workshop's happening in 4 short hours and while I'm not really nervous right now, I'm sure I will be all shaky during the 5 minutes before it officially starts. No matter how often I perform, how confident I become on stage, the moment just before I give a presentation all the same 'butterflies' return. I hear this is not uncommon. Ah well.

Here's a screen of my presentation deck intro - I think my title is particularly clever. Excited!

Week 3: Papercraft (FAIL)

2010-03-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Due to schoolwork I kept putting my papercraft project off to the weekend, since I had time on Friday and Sunday to do stuff. Turned out I had limited access to the family car, so after finding out that Staples didn't have the right type of paper to print on, and after experimenting at home with our own printer and not being happy with the results, I was stuck. I went to Kinko's on Sunday and thankfully, it worked out well there with the printing. So I officially started my project on Sunday, which is cutting it close.

THIS is the papercraft I decided to try: http://ninjatoes.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/the-legend-of-zelda-hero-of-twilight/

Daunting, yes? I may have been slightly overconfident, considering I've never papercrafted before.

Here are some photos of my project:

Notice how much better Kinko printing looks.

Some of the tools I used. I protected the table with newspapers!

Took me about 20 minutes to get here, and another 5 to finish this boot. Jesus Christ this is boring.

Then at around 2PM, I get an e-mail from Robin, head of the Rotman Public Speaking club. He reminds me that I'm holding an improv workshop tomorrow for our membership, something I'm doing for the first time ever (Hint: it's Week 4!). Then I realized I had forgotten to prepare for it, so I tidied up and began readying that. I WILL finish the papercraft, though it seems like I underestimated the amount of time and effort it would take to do so, and how mind-numbingly boring it is. I'm almost willing to go for a run every day of the week instead to make up for not finishing it. If anyone can think of a better punishment, I'd love to hear it.

Week 3 - Papercraft

2010-03-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine pointed me to this site: www.nintendopapercraft.com and I'm going to try some papercraft this week. I haven't picked a particular figure yet but if you have any suggestions I will definitely consider them.

Also, cooking week (week 2) I've extended to more than just flavour of the week - I will try a new recipe whenever I am home on a Wednesday morning, as that is the best time for my family to teach me.

Week 2 Day 1: Pörkölt beef even better than mama!

2010-03-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

This week I decided I needed to improve my cooking skills, with a focus on family recipes that I've loved for years.

Here I am, getting sexy in my chef’s apron.

Tl;dr version: Pörkölt(roasted) beef & mashed potatoes turned out awesome, I learnt quite a bit, and the two women I live with drove me crazy.

Even though I only asked for one of them to help, it turned out both my mom and grandma had nothing better to do on Wednesday morning than harass me as I learnt how to cook a chunk of beef "Pörkölt" Hungarian-style, which is a kind of roasted beef using paprika for flavor.

Ingredients used for the braised beef:
- ½ kg of beef (the tastier part of the cow, the better, I can’t remember what kind I had bought)
- 2 small onions, chopped up just fine (this is the part I hate the most, onions always make me cry)
- 1 tsp. each of your preferred spices (for Hungarian-style, I used red paprika, ground black pepper, and salt in equal amounts, then tasted near the end and added more as appropriate. But 1 tsp of each is a good base to go off of).
- 3 tbsp. Corn oil (there was a big argument between the ladies over whether this is enough, my grandma prefers to speed up heart disease in the family)
- A couple of pinches of flour
- Water

That’s all you need! Here are the directions I followed:

Step the first: Chop up the onions and toss them into the pot to sizzle slowly on low heat
Step the second: Wash then cut up the beef. I sliced fairly thinly which reduces cooking time. Look:

Step the…3: Add your spices to the pot, stir a little, then dump the beef in. Stir some more, add a bit of water (like ¼ of a glass) and cover. Leave it on medium heat for a minute or two so the water is nice and boily, then reduce to low heat so the food doesn’t get burned.
4. Cook for around 2 hours (this would be a good time to work on the mashed potatoes, salad, or whatever side you’re into…in my case I worked on a school assignment), checking every 30 mins or so for tenderness and adding water if needed (and it will most likely be needed). Toward the end, taste to check tenderness and add spices if needed.
5. (Optional) Make the meat saucier: Now that it’s pretty much done, sprinkle a few pinches of flour, add a little more water, and stir. The sauciness is especially good with the starchy side you’re serving the beef with (potatoes, rice, bread, etc.).

I’m not going to go over the making of the mashed potatoes in too much detail, since it’s pretty simple: peel the potatoes, boil ‘em, drain ‘em, mash ‘em, then mix in my secret ingredients: milk, butter OR sour cream, and a tiny bit of paprika. I didn’t use paprika this time since it had gone to the main dish.

Served! Sup Ramy. He liked it and so would you.

Note that this is a pretty easy dish to make, and really it tastes awesome. You can make it your own by using different spices, and different meats, although cooking times will vary depending on what meat you use and how chunky it is. As a general rule, cooking time for beef > pork > lamb > chicken. Might I recommend chicken mixed with Montreal steak spice? One of my favorite combinations.

This weekend I will likely get my grandmother to guide me through preparing some kind of awesome home-made cake recipe.

Week 2: Ch-ch-changes.

2010-03-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the last post, this week has been crazy busy for me school-wise. Also, 5 things a week is both limiting and excessive. Limiting because I don't get to explore any of the improvements in depth, dedicating only an hour or two to each, and because it means more planning time is required leaving leaving less for execution. Excessive because while it was relatively doable during my spring break week, I can't see myself doing 5 new things a week during this busy course schedule.

So rather than blow my proverbial load of improvements in two months,

I have decided to modify my mandate. Chris V of Nintendorks suggested the following:

You should reconsider and pick 52 things to try, and do one per week, with 1-3 posts per week updating on the process, or just one really good post.

and many agreed. This also lessens the load for me. So I will be going with this from here on out. It feels a little bit like giving up early on but this is my blog and noone reads it anyways, so I don't care. Maybe I should rename this to Every Week Better Guy instead. Hmm.

Anyways, this week will be cooking! The ladies love a guy who can cook. I will be getting my mom & grandma (but hopefully not both at the same time) to guide me through the cooking process, preparing some awesome home recipes.

Week 1 Days 4-5: Road Trippin'

2010-03-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the late post, first week back to school has been crazy busy.

Thursday morning I went on an impromptu road trip to Montreal. First, a photo of some Llamas we met on the way:

Things I learnt about Montreal:

- Road tripping is hella fun, even without The 404s as company. MBA classmates Mainak, Khaled, Alejandro, and Ricardo provided some interesting conversation topics such as: "If you had to stick a bottle up your ass, would you prefer Coke or Pepsi?". We mostly had very different tastes in music so we would alternate between classic and not-yet-too-classic rock (from Alejandro & I), Egyptian pop (from Khaled), club anthems (thanks a bunch, Mainak), and Spanish versions of western songs (yep, that's Ricardo). Unfortunately the Ipod FM adapter had broken on the way back, so we settles to flipping through the various radio channels which was an adventure in itself.

- I will never be too old to shoot kids in the face with a laser. "What does one do on a road trip to Montreal?" I asked the Twitter-verse. @MzScarlett was the only one who responded, and of all things to do in such a culturally rich town she suggested: "Laser Tag on St. Catherine & Peel Ave." Well, we just happened to be there and the guys were gung-ho about it, and it seemed like fun. We were the only ones over 12, and screaming at little 5 year old French girls as we shot them was even more fun than it sounds. I got 5th place, my personal best Laser Tag record. Alejandro shot me 13 times, mostly since he kept betraying our unholy alliance.
- There are way too many Montreal facts, and I can barely remember even one. Clara, a friend of mine whom I met while doing improv a few years ago in Montreal, was my personal tour guide on Friday. I really wish I had taken a photo of her (I'm still getting used to this taking photos of everything thing). She took me to the lookout point on Mont Royale and drizzled me with random facts about the city (did you know the 1976 Olympic stadium structure was unfinished during the Olympics themselves?), and came laser tagging with us too. Of all the things, the only one I snapped a photo of was the Ubisoft campus building, which I didn't even get to enter.

- The food is awesoooooome: the Montreal Smoked Meat heaven called Schwartz's, Ben & Jerry's ice cream (which we don't have stores of in Toronto, and was particularly significant since we had done a case about them in Strategy class), even La Belle Province which I'm told is crap by Montreal standards, was awesome. And the apple crumble we had at THE BIG APPLE on the trip was delicious.

Night life was a bit lame since Peer pressure dictated we go to a strip club, and I didn't really want to wander off alone. Although the ladies were beautiful and the place pretty swanky, it was a pretty meh time. We did check out Casino Montreal at 2AM and holy shit that is a fantastic building, originally built for the World Expo in the 60s (or 70s?).

And that's the report!

Week 1, Day 3: Edit some video!

2010-03-10T16:13:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, today Mike & I edited some video footage of the 404s improv troupe (that I belong to) playing a pen & paper roleplaying game. Back in mid-January, we had shot 4 hours' worth of footage of us playing an RPG and goofing off. That is getting condensed into 5-6 under 10 minute episodes. We're trying to make sure that the story comes through, and that the funniest bits are kept in while the not-so-entertaining parts are left out.

Tim does an amazing Wookie impression that we kept replaying and had us ROFL-ing all day. Once the episodes are done I'm sure we'll have a highlights reel.

This was my first big video editing project, as in the past all I did was convert straight video from my camera to a Youtube compatible format, while in this one I'm making cuts and transitions. I only had the one stationary camera angle to work with, so that kept things relatively simple. By the end of it I was pretty comfortable with iMovie, though I'm sure I'll be wanting to graduate to Final Cut sooner or later. We pretty much finished cutting and editing the first 2 episodes, now I'm just waiting for a high-res image of The 404s logo to slap on and the first episode should be out by the end of the week. I'll make sure to post the fruits of our labour then.

Also, I just found out that I'm going on an impromptu road trip tomorrow morning. A bunch of university friends will be driving down to Montreal for a 2-night stay. Not sure what shenanigans will ensue just yet, but it surely qualifies for my Day 4 improvement.

Week 1, Day 2: Get some exercise!

2010-03-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this may sound like a lame 'improvement', but for me it's a big deal! I haven't gotten any dedicated exercise done since last summer! Back when I was working full-time (and not in the MBA program) I joined our work gym's running club. Even then I found it hard to stick to schedule, but I'd go for a walk/run at least twice a week, and my ability to run longer was improving. So I figured I would start again with a 30 minute run, alternating between running and walking at my comfort for the first time. Next time it'll be 1 min walk/1 min run and I'll be building up from there.

Anyways, here I am, wearing my running shoes for the first time since August as well.

Oh, the running shoes didn't fit in the picture. I swear I am wearing them. Also my blackberry didn't flip the picture even though I swear I told it to, and I can't be bothered to fix this.

I didn't see anything too interesting, but my street's name always makes me snicker, and now you can snicker too.

So one might say: but Dany, you only ran for half an hour! Didn't you say you'd spend at least an hour on improvements every day? And to that I respond: I spent at least two hours today transferring videos and reinstalling video editing programs (that I had neglected to reinstall since installing Windows 7), then updating said programs so that I can do tomorrow's improvement. Mike will be coming over and we will be editing some 404s video footage. Of what exactly? Depending on who you are, that is a surprise that will be revealed tomorrow.

Week 1, Day 1: Declutter my drawers

2010-03-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so today's 'improvement' was really simple, but important and essential if I'm going to become a better person: it was time to get my bottom drawers cleaned out and organized. Okay so this is lame, but they've been in a major disarray ever since I moved in over a year ago. Here's a photo.

A relatively easy improvement, but one that I have been putting off long enough and now it's all tidy and organized. I'm sure the tops of my drawers will become cluttered with mess again in no time, but hopefully it'll take longer for that to happen with the drawers themselves.

I will try to make tomorrow more exciting, I promise.

Jon & Jon - Some of my inspirations

2010-03-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

While I'm a fan of many things, a pair of Jons (no, not Johns Linnell & Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants) inspired my idea for this blog.

First is Jon Lajoie, who raps about being an Everyday Normal Guy and is the inspiration for the name of the blog. He's arguably a comedy genius - while his videos are on the surface pretty low-brow in their delivery, his deadpan intelligent satire appeals to me very much. Also dick jokes. He's pretty much a self-made success who became popular over the internet. Check out the rest of his stuff on his Youtube channel.

And then there's Jonathan Coulton, another self-made successful musician, whose geeky songs also gained popularity over the internet through his embrace of a Creative Commons copyright license, allowing people to use his songs in their own projects without requiring permission or charging royalties. He ran his project Thing-a-Week for a year straight, recording a song every week. This model sort of serves as the basis for the structure of Everyday Better Guy, doing something specific every day. I love his music, and if you like awesome geeky things you will too. Some of his more well-known hits are Still Alive, Code Monkey, and Skullcrusher Mountain. You can listen to all of his music (and download some of it) for free in the music section of his website. Here's one of my favorite fan-made videos:

The beginning of the Everyday Better Guy movement

2010-03-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

I am LAZY. I have many interests, most of which I pursue half-assedly. I'm part of an improv troupe but never practice. I love music and to sing but all I ever do is go to karaoke. There are so many things I could be doing, but instead I'm addicted to playing Settlers of Catan online at games.asobrain.com.

So I've set myself a mandate: Starting today, I will use at least an hour of free time every weekday to achieve one thing that makes me a better, more well-rounded person. It could be something small like improving my cooking skills or actually doing all of my school readings, or bigger like taking guitar or improv or vocal lessons or something else that I normally don't do. Then I will post about it here, with photo/video evidence if possible.

Why now? I don't think the reasons for wanting to be a better person matter as much as actually following through with it. And I will do so through small steps, one day at a time.

Wish me luck!