We drove fifty miles last night to HP Pavilion in San Jose to watch the Canucks end their season in miserable fashion. They squandered three one-goal leads before the Sharks potted two in a row to go up 4-3, with the final goal being an empty netter to make it 5-3. With the loss, and with Edmonton’s win last night, Vancouver won’t be going to the playoffs. My hometown friends will be seeing some overpaid Canucks on the golf course in May.

Oddity that bothered me all evening: why is the giant shark head floating above the arena missing most of its lower jaw? (You can sort of it see it in the left picture.) And who thought it was a good idea to show pictures of sharks tearing apart bloody fish carcasses on the jumbotron? Susan pointed out none of the Canadian hockey teams have savage team names. Then again, she probably hasn’t seen Vancouver’s killer whale mascot, and obviously hasn’t met a Maple Leaf or a Canadien in a dark alley either.

I don’t know what it means either, but it’s the two words that popped, side by side, into my head while staring into the freezer before dinner. State of mind indicators?

Caught “Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” at the Cinerama on Friday. It was good but ultimately unsatisfying, since I had such high expectations for it. I first saw Wallace & Gromit in “A Close Shave” at a Spike & Mike’s festival a decade ago, and at the time thought it was one of the most wonderful pieces of animation ever put on film. The shot where Gromit’s motorcycle sidecar careens off the cliff only to be saved in spectacular inventive fashion left me in stunned, awed delight, which persisted for the rest of the sheep chase and the showdown at the factory - and I was just revelling in the storytelling aspect; subsequent endeavours both in computer animation and claymation have distilled in me a proper appreciation of how hard the process itself is. (Geeks who revel in all things process-related should definitely check out Creating 3-D Animation: The Aardman Book of Filmmaking by Sibley and Lord; it’s light on practical detail but it’s still a nice read about Aardman. After that, pick up more hardcore texts on stuff like armatures or model-making at the SIGGRAPH bookstore; I’ve always seen them deeply discounted there.) I rewatched all three shorts again and “A Close Shave” and “The Wrong Trousers” still hold up after repeated watchings as fantastic storytelling; which is why I was disappointed with “Were-Rabbit”. The story felt stretched, and though I don’t want to say that Aardman should have kept the characters in a half-hour short format, the last third of the film felt draggy and forced. The humor left me with dry chuckles but no out and out laughter, and the film’s climax felt like it had been done before (no surprise; the planes looked like they were recycled from “Shave”). I think what I most missed was that aforementioned moment of delight where Gromit brilliantly gets out of a jam (perhaps in conjunction with one of Wallace’s inventions, perhaps not). There’s at least two of these in “Shave”, one in “Trousers” during the train chase, and I’m hard pressed to come up with even one in “Were-Rabbit”. I feel like I’m slagging the film, but I’m not; I really love those two characters, I liked the film enough, and just had unreasonably high hopes that were sadly not met.

Watched hockey on television for the first time in over a year on Saturday - NHL only shows up on CBC in my cable lineup, so it’s going to be a once a week habit for me. It was the Vancouver vs Edmonton game. While I appreciated the lack of clutching and grabbing and the faster paced game (courtesy of the new NHL rules) it was disappointing to see Bertuzzi and Chris Pronger keeping a restraint on their more physical style style of play. (Okay, Bertuzzi is a goon, but he’s still *our* goon.) And of course, after mouthing off about the new NHL rule that I detest most - ties ultimately determined by shootout - the first game of the season I watch ends up in a shootout! My shootout apathy dates back at least to the gold medal hockey match between Canada vs Sweden in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Watching Sweden tie it up in the last few seconds of regular play, tie Canada in the first best-of-five shootout, and then break the hearts of millions of Canadians in the second shootout, has pretty much left me down on that system. This was repeated four years later, but in 1994 Olympic hockey was still amateurs only, and as a result much more fun to watch, so in 1998 I didn’t care. It doesn’t help that Cloutier (Vancouver’s goalie) obviously still panics under pressure, helping lose it for Vancouver. Hockey games should go into overtime periods as long as it takes, even during the regular season. I want to see players collapse on the ice from sheer exhaustion after five consecutive periods, dammit.

Everyone’s getting their bathroom done these days, self included. I’ve been looking for contractors on and off for the last few months, and have finally signed both a contract and a large check. Remodelling starts on Monday and finishes in a week. Here’s the project description that I submitted to a few contractors, you’ll see in-progress and after pictures here soon enough.

On Sunday some friends came down from Vancouver for a trip to the Seahawks vs Falcons game. With this, I’ve now completed the North American professional sports quadfecta: NFL, MLB, NBA, and, of course, NHL. Random thoughts of the football newbies? Football stadiums are huge. Hearing the roar in QWest field was intimidating. It wasn’t at full capacity of 67 thousand, but being the first home game of the season it sure felt like at least 60. Probably old hat to most Americans, but for an idea where I’m coming from, GM Place in Vancouver seats no more than 20k for a Canucks game, and even Safeco Field (Mariners baseball) seats at most around 47k. B.C. Place (home of the B.C. Lions) seats 60k but I doubt it’s ever been much more than half full for a Lions game. While huge, QWest also has the lousiest concession service I’ve ever seen in any sporting stadium. Manh and I went to get a hot dog a couple of minutes before halftime and ended up missing most of the third quarter due to food shortage, machine breakdown and sheer incompetence.

Football fans are just about as entertaining as baseball fans. Random discussion occured between us and the guy next to us about whether the Seahawks were there to dance ballet, play Canadian rugby, or play real football. Observations about the sheer bulk of Atlanta players were shared. People wearing Michael Vick jerseys were mocked and ridiculed, while fans a few rows away dressed in Batman, Superman, and Spiderman costumes were cheered. (I think the Hulk was also there, but green body paint and fake eyebrows alone do not the Hulk make.) Then there was the guy in front of us who showed up at half time so drunk that at the end of the game he topped forward head first over two rows of seats and smacked his forehead on the concrete. (I think he was okay. At least his girlfriend seemed calm about it, even though he couldn’t count the fingers held in front of his face.) As for the game itself, football appeals to me a lot more than baseball and basketball. It’s not quite up there with hockey yet, and I still don’t understand the rules, but I’ll give it a few more tries. Oh, and the Seahawks won!

Inspired by Tom Duff’s list of MLB ball parks, and having nothing better to do while waiting for renders today, I compiled a list of satellite images of hockey stadiums - courtesy of Google Maps. I’ve been inside one of these (Vancouver, of course!), hang around the outside of another on a regular basis (L.A. - it’s right next to SIGGRAPH), and that’s about it really. I think Leon’s been to eight or so nine, although his web site no longer admits it. Boy do these stadiums have silly names.

• Arrowhead Pond (Anaheim Mighty Ducks)
• Philips Arena (Atlanta Thrashers)
• FleetCenter (Boston Bruins)
• HSBC Arena (Buffalo Sabres)
• Saddledome (Calgary Flames)
• RBC Center (Carolina Hurricanes)
• United Center (Chicago Blackhawks)
• Pepsi Center (Colorado Avalanche)
• Nationwide Arena (Columbus Blue Jackets)
• Dr Pepper StarCenter oops, that’s the training rink, try American Airlines Center (Dallas Stars) - thanks Leon!
• Joe Louis Arena (Detroit Red Wings)
• Rexall Place (Edmonton Oilers) - might need to zoom out, high res not available (hey, it’s Edmonton)
• Office Depot Center (Florida Panthers)
• Staples Center (Los Angeles Kings)
• Xcel Energy Center (Minnesota Timberwolves)
• Bell Centre (Montreal Canadians)
• Gaylord Entertainment Center (Nashville Predators) - might need to zoom out, high res not available
• Continental Airlines Arena (New Jersey Devils)
• Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (New York Islanders)
• Madison Square Garden (New York Rangers)
• Corel Centre (Ottawa Senators)
• Wachovia Center (Philadelphia Flyers)
• Glendale Arena (Phoenix Coyotes)
• Mellon Arena (Pittsburgh Penguins)
• HP Pavilion (San Jose Sharks)
• Savvis Center (St. Louis Blues)
• St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa Bay Lightning)
• Air Canada Centre (Toronto Maple Leafs)
• General Motors Place (Vancouver Canucks)
• MCI Center (Washington Capitals)

This was my score Sunday on Langara golf course, if you go by the double par maximum rule. I managed to bogey one 3-par hole, triple bogeyed another 3-par (which ended up being the only hole I beat Manh on - woohoo), and as for everything else, well let’s just not go into details. Granted, it was raining for the first five holes and the course was a sea of mud, but clearly two buckets of balls at a driving range do not a golfer make. And I’m still sore today from the equivalent of playing maybe five rounds in a single afternoon.

I was up in Vancouver over the weekend for my sister’s birthday - technically yesterday - and for tomb sweeping day - which technically is today. Rosalind (the other sister) makes the trip every year, I’ve been derelict in the last few years going to Forest Lawn to clear the weeds from the graves of my grandparents, lay flowers, and burn money and incense. As Roz pointed out, it’s a little sad that none of our other relatives ever seem to beat her to it, year after year. I underestimate her sometimes.

We celebrated Mimi’s birthday with dinner at Rubina Tandoori, which has been at the intersection of Vancouver and Kingsway for as long as I can remember. Apparently it was to close on April 1st, perhaps it’s reopened under new management? The service seemed tentative and the food was lukewarm, but it was still quite good. For dessert Rosalind presented cake frosted with chocolate ganache. Vancouver residents, and possibly other Canadians who live near Loblaws, take note: Superstore carries Callebaut chocolate in the bulk foods section - and cheap too! 1 pint of whipping cream mixed with 1 pound of this stuff (gently melted and mixed together, left in fridge overnight, mixed with spatula until spreadable) makes ganache to die for.

One benefit of living in Seattle is that you get CBC via cable quite easily. The first episode of the new Dr. Who has just been Tivoed. Ok, I just had to say that to make other geeks jealous. Of course they probably have all the episodes by BitTorrent already..

The NHL hockey season has been cancelled. This is sad to any Canadian no matter how unsurprising it was. In the final negotiations, it was just math - but a strange math from another planet which I don’t understand. Apparently the major stumbling block was salary caps since everything else had been conceded to. The owners wanted team salaries capped at $42.5 million, the players wanted $49 million. Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, tried to highlight this as a major difference.

“We weren’t as close as people were speculating … We were still very far apart,” Bettman said, noting the gap of $6.5 million multiplied by 30 teams is close to $200 million. (from the CBC)

Excuse me? What kind of half-assed extrapolation is this? Did Gary suddenly expect every team in the league to start using the entirety of the cap all of a sudden? According to 2003-2004 NHL Team salaries (from USA Today), only a third of the 30 teams had salaries over $42.5 million, and only 4 had salaries over $49.0 mil. (By the way, Vancouver would have missed both caps. Go thrifty Vancouver!) Take into account the 24% salary rollback both parties agreed to, and the number shrinks to 7 teams over $42.5, and the same 4 teams over $49.0 mil.

I quickly crunched some numbers in Excel, and it looks like both parties were off by just $41 million. Chart below. That’s still not chump change, but that’s definitely not $200 million. All we had to do to keep the season was to get rid of one of the redundant Detroit goalies (Joseph or Hasek: $8 or 6 million, your pick), force early retirement on aging New York Rangers (Leetch: $6.6M, Messier: $3.3M, and thrown in Lindros since he’s one concussion short of permanent brain damage: $3.3M, and yes I know Leetch is now an ex-Ranger, but bear with me), and for good measure, get rid of the expansion Nashville Predators since there’s no ice in Tennessee ($21.9 million) - and that alone would have saved the season right there (total: $41.1 - 43.1 million).

Never underestimate the greed of the owners and players of the North American sports leagues, and how much they just don’t care about the fans.

My sole interest in sports while at UBC was asking for my “recfac” fee back during the first week of school. Someone had the bright idea of funding the recreation centre by negative option billing: adding a “optional” fee to everyone’s tuition, and then obfuscating the fact that you could actually ask for that money back. Obviously I wasn’t very sports oriented then, and had little interest in varsity sports; and even then, I defy any Canadian reader (other than Leon) to name more than two university teams belonging to the CIS, the closest thing in Canada to the NCAA. We’d rather watch Hockey Night in Canada.

So you might understand how weird I still find the American enthusiasm for college sports.

Nonetheless, Susan and I went to Bayside Sports on Saturday to watch Georgia Tech (her alma mater) play at Clemson. I spent the last bar football outing talking to Karen, but this time was different. Surrounded by noisy Tech fans, fueled by an entire pitcher of beer, it wasn’t possible not to get caught up in the momentum. We watched a close game get very exciting in the last quarter with five touchdowns taking place in the last eight minutes. Then with less than thirty seconds left it was GT 21, CU 24 with Clemson setting up a field goal. Snap - and it was botched! The punter fell on the ball! Tech took possession, scored a touchdown with 11 seconds left on the clock! Bar went nuts! “Rambling wreck” chant at high volume!

I think in the end I’m still a hockey fan, but with the NHL lockout looming - well, I may have a backup sport to get interested in.

Life has been eventful; this blog has not reflected that. Random noteworthy happenings from the last few months:

High school friends visited for a Sonics game a couple of months ago, and I was dragged out to the golf course for the first time in my life. On a beautiful Saturday morning, I shot 68 - albeit on a short 9 hole course. The one shot I managed which actually had any loft to it was ironically out of a bunker; picture perfect, with barely any sand flying. Otherwise it was a lot of ugly short hacks, but it was still fun - I feel like some time spent at the driving range might be in my future.

Two good friends from university got engaged. It’s spring, and matrimony is in the air.. anyways, congratulations Greg and Agi, and Jeff and Cathy!

Susan introduced me to horse back riding a couple of visits ago. I remain convinced that I radiate an aura that broadcasts loudly: “here is a man uncomfortable with animals larger than a cat”. My horse - a resident of the Sea Horse Ranch - completely ignored the annoying human on his back, and proceeded straight for the hay bales or pawed his hoof in the tall grass rather than trot along the trails. We were forced to get a guide, whom the horses obviously respected; and it was fine after that.

Speaking of transportation modes: after the first two awkward sessions (where I had difficulty with turning radii), driving lessons have been surprisingly smooth. I’ve had four and a half lessons and will be hopefully passing the test soon, and that will draw to a close a ten year era of forced transit and mooching of car rides. Apparently, this will be disappointing to some; not at all to me, especially with the renovations I’d like to start soon, the climbing and taekwondo that I’d like to get back into, and the general frustration I have with wasting so much time waiting for the bus on weekends.

I spent last week in London, mainly to talk shop with customers. After three days interacting with the UK studios (who, by the way, do excellent work - go watch Troy or Harry Potter 3 for evidence of that), I had just one day to myself which was spent in Westminster Abbey, the Victoria and Albert, and the Tate Modern museums. I’d been to London, when I was twelve and still in orchestra; we dropped into London for a couple of days after three weeks in and around Bath, Wales, so I’d already been to some of the landmarks in England as well as the British Museum. Lasting impressions? Well, London has the greatest museums on the planet, a pretty good subway system, real CG production jobs, and friendly people (as evidenced by an animated chat with the ex-CEO of Scottish & Newcastle who was sitting next to me on the Heathrow Express) - but the sheer population in the city and the cost of living is just astronomical, even by Bay Area standards. No, I don’t think I could live there.

Susan bought a house!

Finally, PRMan 12.0 was announced today. Yep, work was computational geometry and data structures for a very long time. If you have any questions about Loop subdivision surfaces.. well, at the very least I know what papers to point you at.

Sunday I pushed the bike down Phinney to FreeRange Cycles, where the very nice people adjusted my rear derailleur (for free!) to stop the chain from popping off while in 7th gear. They also told me what was wrong with the hub gear: the front shift lever was broken and needed replacement. As they didn’t have the part the guy pointed me at another store close by.

To get there, I jumped onto the Burke-Gilman trail; I could get on to it by going down the hill for another couple of blocks. The trail is great riding. It was a sunny day, refreshing given we had hailstorms and sleet on Thursday and Friday. The trail goes right next to the canal - the banks were bursting with greenery and the kayakers were out. It finally felt like spring, and I felt glad to be alive. And I was breezing right along the trail after not going near the bike for over a year.

So I biked two and a half miles over to Recycled Cycles in the University District, where the not-so-nice people found the parts for me but seemed to expect me to install it myself. The parts now sit on my washing machine staring at me accusingly; given my recent experiences with home renovations, I’m not keen on trying this install myself any time soon. And besides, at the moment if I’m persistent, I can shift the hub gear into second and keep it there. I’ll probably ask the FreeRange people to do it, but no rush just yet.

I biked home, stumbled up the stairs, and felt pretty good the rest of the day. Later I also went out to REI and splurged on a Arc’Teryx jacket for myself. So armed with new gear and a sense of accomplishment I was feeling hyped enough to try to bike the four and a half miles to work Monday morning. This didn’t work out though since a bout of (ice cream induced?) insomnia kept me up Sunday night.

I did end up biking to work today. Unlike Sunday it was cold and drizzly, and I found out quickly that the slight inclines along Dexter between the Fremont Bridge and downtown were much more difficult than the level surfaces of the Burke-Gilman trail. By the time I got to Dexter and Olive, I felt like throwing up and had to stop for a ten minute breather. Fortunately I was basically downtown by that point, and it was all downhill going along Second Ave. to the office from there.

I didn’t bike home - the biggest hills are in the downtown core and I didn’t feel up to that, nor assaulting the gradual uphill slog of Dexter. But I’m going to try to attempt the trip tomorrow evening. We’ll see how that goes.