Chicago!

So I just recently started a new job as a hockey trainer for a Midget AA team here in Calgary. My responsibilities are to take care of the kids on the team and attend to their first aid + sports injuries. On my very first day I was asked to come with them to Chicago! Awesome eh?! Even better is that the all the expenses (room and food) for the trip are paid for by the team! All I have to bring is spending money for miscellaneous things. It's a 4 day trip that starts on the 22nd of Nov. I hope we get to hit up the cool stuff in the city like Soldier's Field, Sears Tower, Aquarium(largest in USA), the original Chicago Chophouse, Deep dish pizza and some shopping!

It Begins!

I just checked the snow report at Sunshine...


Absolutely freakin' awesome!!!!!!

A few cool snowboarding teasers!

ACP certified!

I wrote my EMR Provincial Registration Exam through Alberta College of Paramedics last month on Sept. the 7th and have been eagerly waiting for my mark ever since. The test I took was over a span of 2 days in Red Deer. The first day was the written exam which was a 100 MC question test and the second day was a practical test where I had to stand in front of 2 examiners and go through a medical/trauma scenario within a 10 minute time frame. After a grueling 2 hours of waiting I found out that I passed the practical but had to wait 4-6 weeks before I got my written exam marks back.

So I waited and waited and waited and nothing ever came in the mail. I was about to give up and then I checked the mail on Friday after I got home and to my delight there was an ACP letter sitting in the mailbox. I was so happy yet so fearful to open it. But when I did I was so happy because I read the following line: "Dear Mr. Le: Congratulations you have successfully completed the EMR Provincial Registration Exam." Woohoo!!! Now I just have to pay them more money to Register as an EMR and perhaps I will look into getting my EMT through SAIT afterwards...we'll see if I have the time to do it though...

Side note: The trip to Red Deer was a bit stressful trying to cram in as much knowledge as I could before I had to write the written part. But it was also fun because I dragged my brother with me and we had a fun time chillin' in Red Deer's Marriot hotel that Friday night. The waiting before and after the practical exam was a killer on the nerves but worth it in the end!

VM Season 3!

Yay! The final season of one of my favorite television series is being released on DVD on the 23rd of October! It's too sad that a good show like this got booted from the CW. In my opinion it is much better than the new shows on CW such as Reaper. Oh well we (I) will be seeing more of Kristen Bell on Heroes this upcoming Monday...so the Universe is somewhat balanced again :)

Only In F'ing Canada....

I'm so mad after hearing about this story. You can read it here. Summary: the Canadian government has decided to tax all legal music downloads. Also the tax is going to be retroactive from Jan. 1996!

Why am I so mad? Because I actually use services like iTunes to get my music. I know what you guys are thinking..."he pays for his music?" Yes I do. Why? It is cheaper, quicker and overall more convenient then downloading it illegally. Also the quality is better than most illegally downloaded music and access to the music is almost instantaneous. To find a good torrent of the same album illegally is actually a lot more time consuming.

So what does this mean after it is all implemented? The price will be a bit higher for music on iTunes and could push people back to illegal downloading of music again. It will also mean more money for an already shady government that doesn't know how to manage its money in the first place. Oh, and a pissed of online music provider such as iTunes because they are now being taxed on something they sold 10 f*cking years ago!

The Importance of Stretching...

Stretching is always important :P

Snowboarding...

A brand new season of snowboarding is just around the corner and I cannot wait! I haven't bought any new gear, mostly because I don't need anything besides new pants. However I have just bought my Marmot Card and definitely cannot wait to hit the slopes again!

3:10 to Yuma

I haven't been to a movie in a while (Transformers!) and decided to catch one this past Friday with Tuyet. I Looked at the listings and nothing really caught my eyes besides 3:10 to Yuma, so we decided to go to that. And it's a good thing we did because this movie rocked! I would have to say that this has to be one of the best Western movies I have seen. The cast was amazing with Christian Bale, Russel Crowe, Ben Foster and Peter Fonda. Ben Foster as Charlie Prince was amazing. Foster sure has changed since his TV role on Flash Forward as Tucker James and he has built on his creepy bad guy character that he played in Hostage. I definitely recommend you see it if you haven't already!

Off to Seattle!

Tuyet and I are off to Seattle for the next 4 days. Why? We are going to see Daft Punk on the 29th and also catch a Mariners game on the 29th as well. For those days we aren't going to the games

I'm Back!!!

...or I hope I am. Where have I been? I've been around. Mostly on the evil Facebook and when I'm not on that I'm doing other things such:

-Finished my spring EMR class with flying colors at the end of June. Probably one of the most enjoyable experience of my academic life.
-Preparing to write my ACP test for EMR in September (So I can be a fully certified EMR in Alberta).
-Taking Abnormal Psych in the Summer Semester at the U.
-Start working as a lab assistant tomorrow at the U for credit and a reference letter!
-Went to a ton of Weddings in May and June.
-Going to Seattle this weekend with Tuyet to go and see Daft Punk in concert! I will also be catching a Mariner's game too! Go Ichiro!
-Playing Flag Football on the Venga Bus through the CSSC Recreational League.
-Playing Soccer on the Crazy 88's through the U of C Intramural League.

That's all I can think of now...

Spiderman 3: Looks Awesome!

JLH: Fantastic!

The commercial


Behind the Scenes of the commercial

Canon TX1

I want! I'll see how the reviews go and if they are good I'm definitely selling my 2 existing cameras to get this one! See specs on the Canon TX1here.

Weekend @ Fernie

Wow am I ever a ski bum this year! Since I've bought my board (early January) I have gone boarding 4 times and I am going again this weekend! The 4th time was in Fernie and I went there with Christian and Andrew. We decided to go there after I found a great deal online at Resorts of the Canadian Rockies. The deal was $99/person and it included a single day lift ticket and a one night stay at a hotel at the base of Fernie. Considering a lift ticket is around $70 this was a steal for lift ticket and one night accommodations.

We left Calgary at about 7PM and after a fun 2 1/2 hour drive we were at our lodgings at the Wolf's Den (or known to Chris and I as the Wold's Den). The room was your bare minimal. It had two double beds/bathroom and a mono tv. We had a great view...of the parking lot from our window since we were on the ground floor. The hallway wreaked of chlorine since the hot tub was only a few doors down from us. That night none of us had a good sleep due to uncomfortable mattresses and an alarm clock that always makes that noise when a cell phone receives a signal (I really don't know why we didn't pull that thing out of the wall!).

After what seemed like only a few hours of sleep (we were in bed for at least 7 hours) we showered, donned our boarding gear, checked out and headed for some expensive breakfast at the main lodge. For a bagel/egg/bacon/lettuce/tomato breakfast sandwich+bottle of orange juice it was $9.75!!! Good ol' rip off ski lodge pricing. But it was actually pretty good and filling ...I don't know if it was $9.75 good though. Then we met up with Chris' friend Brian and went boarding for the rest of the day!

Boarding at the top of the mountain was insanely fun. There was so much powder everywhere and the view was incredible. We did have difficulty navigating our way through the harder blue runs, but it was also a good learning experience. By the end of the day I was so tired and sore that I couldn't even make simple turns from heel to toe!

We called it quits by about 3PM, dropped Brian off and had some eats at A&W. After that we headed to Frank Slide. It was way too windy when we got out to explore the slide, so we just took a few quick pictures and drove off. It was a really amazing place as there were rocks as big as a house on the side of the road from the slide!

I got home at about 6PM (another 2 1/2 hour return trip) and basically passed out at the end of the night. What a great trip, I think I will definitely have to do this again next March (hopefully the special will be on again). Perhaps get a convoy of friends out there for a 2 day trip even. That would definitely rock the Kasbah.

P.S. I will upload the trip pictures to Flickr in a few days when I am less busy (or lazy)

Beyond.ca on TV!

Has anyone been following the Silver Acura RSX hit & run story in Calgary over this past weekend? Well if you haven't then here is your chance. Read it here.

Basically a member on beyond.ca posts a thread for his friend because his friend was rear ended by a Silver Acura RSX and the driver of the RSX drove off (hit & run). A few hours later another member posts pictures that he took of the guy in his RSX driving off from the scene of the accident! The thread starts to get Diggs and the news is spread all over the internet! Look at the traffic increase for Beyond.ca since the thread started by clicking here. And click here to see what Shelton did to prevent the beyond.ca server from crashing due to the "Digg effect".

Later Shelton aka Rage2 (owner/operator of beyond.ca) was interviewed on CTV. Wearing shorts for an interview...classic!


Here are the original pictures the member photographed of the criminal:






And then people started photoshopping the originals and this is one of my favourites:

RAWR!

Half the size of my w810i and seems to be made of anodized metal (sexy!). I want it! Only thing holding me back is the $700 price tag!!! Maybe there is a MUCH cheaper one on ebay (I doubt).

Secret Locations on Google Earth!

It's pretty neat. Here are the co-ordinates if you want to look it up on Google Earth yourself.

01. Google Pool: 37°25'20.41"N 122° 5'6.00"W
02. Airplane: 50°12'47.26"N 8°52'7.31"E
03. Tent: 28°29'43.15"N 81°34'50.07"W
04. Indian 1: 6°42'51.37"N 42°11'42.82"E
05. Black Line & Fire on ice: 69° 3'7.72"N 41° 8'29.66"W
06. BAR: 39°49'21.77"N 3°28'44.50"W
07. Star: 37°24'1.66"N 116°51'58.85"W
08. Pyramid: 37°37'38.49"N 116°50'26.44"W
09. Eddie drat: 53°32'18.35"N 1°20'44.17"W
10. Nude Dutch People: 52° 4'43.34"N 4°19'58.12"E
11. Nude German Woman: 52°30'31.46"N 13°20'6.90"E
12. English Crop Circle: 53°31'54.33"N 1°21'24.93"W
13. Firefox-Logo: 45° 7'25.87"N 123° 6'48.97"W
14. Nazi-Building: 32°40'33.83"N 117° 9'28.36"
15. Reversed Ship: 35° 9'18.21"N 129° 8'51.37"E
16. Bomber: 52°20'10.98"N 0°11'43.17"W
17. Indian 2 (with i-pod): 50° 0'38.19"N 110° 6'48.31"W
18. Donut Store: 25°57'0.25"N 97° 8'50.29"W
19. Giant of Tarapacá: 19°56'56.86"S 69°38'1.81"W
20. Italian Crop Circle: 44°40'52.79"N 10°19'6.39"E
21. Radar Station: 18°20'39.01"N 66°45'8.79"W
22. Sailing/Pirate Ship: 33°51'13.07"S 151°13'59.47"E

My Boobs are OK!

Chain Reaction...

U + Me = Us

My math skills are that to be envious of.

McSqueeze!

Katharine McPhee (runner up of American Idol 5) on Tyra Banks Show...talk about sexual harassment!

Click on picture for larger image

The caption reads "I squeezed her boobs and they are real! They're jiggly and soft" - Tyra Banks

...geeze I should see how I can become a talk show host!

You can find more pictures of Katharine McPhee here

Genie in a Bottle

Christina is on this months cover of Maxim Magazine. Holy Aunt Jemima!

Multiplicity

Just fooling around with photobooth and my isight while wearing my "sub-zero" snowboarding mask heh!

Snowboarding @ Sunshine

So I sucked it up today and went out snowboarding at Sunshine. I left my house at 6:30AM and arrived in the Sunshine parking lot at about 8:10AM (hehe, I was slightly speeding). I managed to get second row parking arriving at that time and was stoked that I was one of the first few at the hill. I quickly put on all my gear, bought my lift ticket and headed for the gondola. After putting my bag up in the lodge I headed for the Angel lifts. For some reason I was really nervous. I am guessing it was because I was nervous going up by myself. After riding the chair by myself all the way to the top I got off the chair and didn't fall... SUCCESS! I was 7/7 (for successfully unloading from the lift chair) for the day and quite proud of myself. I was also quite proud that I did so many runs in so little time. My first run didn't go so well, but they never do (for me). The runs were freshly groomed and I found it hard to find an edge, it was discouraging but after relaxing a bit I managed to get my first run down the hill unscathed. Anyways I had a lot of fun, but its just not the same without friends being with you. Next time I will definitely find some peeps to join me in my snowboarding escapades.

A day of Wii'ng

Reading Week: Wednesday

Played Zelda: Twilight Princess for most of the day.....SWEET! (Makes up for chickening out on snowboarding by myself).

Single Rider

So I woke up this morning at about 5:55AM. The plan was to leave by 6:30AM. However I had reservations about going up to Sunshine to go snowboarding by myself. I basically didn't want to Sunshine to snowboard all by my lonesome. I didn't go back to sleep but instead just caught up on a few shows that I have fell behind on. At about 9AM I was having regrets not going, and then even more so when I checked the Live Mountain Cams that they have at Sunshine Village (pretty neat, check it out). Anywho I am going to MAKE myself go tomorrow and put inhibitions aside so that I can quench my craving to go carve (my mediocre attempts) up some green runs on Sunshine. The forecast seems pretty good:


What really made me regret not going was seeing this picture on their mountain cam...absolutely awesome...

Transformers

Friggen cool Revoltech PVC poseable Optimus Prime! (First seen on Jim Smash!). I want it!

Happy Year of the Pig!

Like the title says, Happy Year of the Pig everyone! May everyone have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

She's losing it!

Looks like Britney Spears is losing grips on reality (Check out pick of her shaved head below). You can check out more of the story here. I however am unsure of how credible this source is...

Optimus Voice Changing Helmet

Sweet! I can't wait till this comes out in the summer, I'm totally getting it (if it fits my fat head). Article here It would be sweet if there were a s0undwave one (right Chris?). Hehe also would be cool if you could wear it for snowboarding, haha.

300!

300 is coming March 9th! It's based on Frank Miller's graphic novel 300. It's about 300 Spartans who fight to their death against the Persians. The trailers look fantastic. Check it out!


Also you can get the graphic novel from chapters.indigo.ca at a decent price. Click here

I've read it and now I can't wait to see it in theaters! It seems like a long time since I've wanted to watching something at the theater.

Bora Bora

While studying for a midterm this past week I came upon a mention of the Island Bora Bora (one of many Islands in French Polynesia). The picture was amazing and so I googled it and found other pictures and instantly fell in love with the place. I then looked up flights+hotel (for fun) on cheaptickets.com for a two week stay in March and the cheapest was $8000USD/person...CRAZY! So I guess I won't be going there anytime soon but I definitely will go there at least once in my life!

Click for Larger Image

Great Idea!

Don't know what to give your lady for that special holiday occasion? Try this idea!

Snowboarding Pt 2.

Chris and I went boarding again on Saturday and it was amazing! The weather at Sunshine was an amazing -2C (Calgary was -17C when we left) and the conditions were pretty good with 10cm of fresh snow from the night before. The plans were to meet up with 3 other people at the McDick's by C.O.P.@ 6:30AM but they were all sleeping by the time we showed up, so we decided to head out there first and meet up with them later. We arrived at Sunshine at about 8AM and and got on our first run on Angel at about 8:45AM. We were able to get in another run on Angel before Carla and Miguel showed up at about 10AM. After that we did a few runs on Strawberry and Standish before they called it quits and headed home. I finished the day off with one last run on Angel, while Chris decided to go on 2 runs of Angel before he was done. I would have gone up one more time but didn't think that my legs would be able to handle another run.

Overall it was a really good day for the enhancement of my boarding skills. Doing the runs on Strawberry helped me a lot with my carving technique and I was able to transfer that experience over to my last Angel run. My heel/toe transitions are a lot better than before, though I do manage to catch an edge from time to time and manage a nice big spill as a result. But I am confident that a few more times out on the hill this year will really help improve my skills and perhaps by next year I will be able to take blue/black runs without being scared shitless at the very thought of it!

P.S. I bought a helmet for this venture and it really helped a lot! I recalled hitting my head pretty hard about at least 3 times on this trip. And who would have thought I could find such a big round helmet, haha!

P.P.S. I posted some of the pictures on Flickr (link on sidebar --->)

Chocolate Collon

Michal was back in Canada this past Wednesday and left early Saturday morning. During his brief stay, a few of the guys and myself were able to meet up with him for a night. We decided on going out for a steak that night, so I made reservations for the Chicago Chophouse since I felt that the Keg just wouldn't suffice for such a rare occasion. The reservation was for 7pm, but traffic was horrible that day due to the snow and lack of good drivers in this city so everyone arrived a bit late (730ish). I presume that we all enjoyed the steak as everyone clean their plates and at the end of the dinner Michal presented us with a few gifts that he brought back from Singapore. They were mostly treats but the ones that stood out the most were the Chocolate/Vanilla Colon...err Collon that Tim and I snatched up:P I haven't tried them yet, but will definitely report back on how good Collon tastes...hehe.

Chocolate Collon...AWESOME!

We ended the night off with coffee/hot chocolate + stories of the past at Beano's and called it a night by midnight.

It was good seeing you again Michal! Hope you had a good/safe return trip!

What a Break!

I'm back after a super long break! Where did I go? Well I have been back from my trip to the States since the 5th of January but have just been way too lazy to write on here. Since then I have been on a weekend getaway with Tuyet to Banff, bought new snowboard gear, and went on a trip to Sunshine with Chris & Tim! With the new gear I'm hoping to get out on the slopes a bit more this season. Our next trip is in another 2 weekends (after superbowl weekend), and we'll be heading to Sunshine. I'm so excited!