Life of recent

What’s been going on, chronological order be damned!

• Gavin, Div, and I went to see Video Games Live in Vancouver back on… May the 6th (yowza, ages ago). It was our first time going, and it was fun. Not as good as I expected, but enjoyable nonetheless. Plus they played “Scars of Time” from Chrono Cross, which was just about worth the cost of tickets itself.

• Work had another movie day! Last year was Iron Man, so this year we did Iron Man 2. And while it wasn’t as good as the first, it was still entertaining, and definitely better than doing actual work. :)

• I recently bought my first PS3 game, 3D Dot Games Heroes. The style of the game appeals to my inner kid who could play through all of the first Zelda (though I never played much of the second quest). I have a few gripes about the the angle obscuring enemies behind walls, but otherwise I’m having fun. I had to borrow Gavin’s PS3 to play, heh.

• Also on the videogame front, I bought Super Mario Galaxy 2. Hopefully I’ll actually sit down and start playing this weekend. I got ridiculously into its predecessor, so… w00t.

• And also while talking about videogames, I’ve been crazy-addicted to Picross 3D for the DS. It hits too many sweet spots: can play anywhere, can get to a puzzle in seconds, can stop or resume at any time, and can play in fifteen minute chunks (which inevitably string together into too late at night). I had a hard enough time weaning myself off the original Picross, which I played to completion at least three times.

• And also while talking about the DS (wow, I’m on a roll), mine broke down. So I took it to Nintendo of Canada. After looking at it for ten minutes, they gave me a new (almost certainly refurbished) one. They’re in Vancouver, which is both awesome and convenient and groovy.

• Jumping back to concerts, I saw Our Lady Peace. But I’ve already talked about that. :)

• I’ve been in my new position at work for about a month now, and things are going okay. The work is different and interesting, and I don’t think I’m floundering too much. My only real beef is that I still don’t feel like I’m contributing that much, and I’m still a little intimidated to speak up (which is an endemic problem of mine). We’re also working under the scrum methodology, which has been kinda ridiculously dysfunctional this iteration. I dunno if we’ll keep it up after the current sprint is done, but it’ll have to go better than this time.

• I’ve seen another movie, too: How to Train Your Dragon. I had high hopes, and it was better than I expected. Some bits were oversimplified and glossed over, but not enough to detract from the sheer pleasure of it.

• Another one of my friends got fired from work. A few months ago it was H—, and last week it was D— from my gaming group. Unlike H—, there was no real warning; he doesn’t know why he was canned, it just suddenly happened. That said, he seems to be doing okay.

• Another bullet: We got together on Friday and lived the high life on Main St. Dinner at Crave — delicious! Then went to a hole-in-the-wall chocolate cafe with some of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever had (and only five to six bucks a pop). I should hang out in the hood more often.

• Two of my aunts were in town to visit. We went to The Naam for Sunday breakfast, then over to the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens over in Chinatown, and then a drive around Stanley Park before dropping me off at home. They really enjoyed it all. It was a very Vancouver-y experience, right down to walking through a TV set for a random TV show (in this case Psych).

• Dinner with my godparents. We talked about the unfortunate situation with my brother, of course (I think that precipitated the meet). But it was really good just to see them again. In a way, they’re the closest thing I have to family around here.

• Last weekend was Eat Vancouver, a sort of culinary trade show in the new convention centre. Interesting, but… too many people, and much more focussed on food than food preparation. And why were there travel booths?

• And yesterday I went to a web developers meetup in Gastown. It was in the basement of Steamworks: we had a round table, ten of us sitting around it, and multiple pitchers of beer. It was a lot more fun that I expected.

I’ve probably left much off, but yarr!

bows

Comments

nfg: Someone reads this? I mean, uh… soon!

Marc: When are you going to relate your stories from Paris? All I know is that — at least when you weren’t sick — you enjoyed the food.