how do YOU feel?

Originally uploaded by miss604.

I’m trying to set up a hockey pool at work, and it crossed my mind that it would not be too difficult to do one for the site here that would include interested readers and authors.

So before I go through the work to set it up, anyone interested? It would be free, but there would no big cash prizes either. It would just be for fun, bragging rights and winners would get their name in digital lights on the blog. If you’re into it post in the comments and I’ll gauge interest. Then keep watching this space for more information.

Also anyone know of a good (cheap) online pool manager that allows players to modify their teams so that the pool manager doesn’t need to do all the trading?

You gotta hand it to the Canucks organization. They were able to create hype ALL summer about these new uniforms and also managed to get almost 10,000 people to GM Place, mid day, during the week, for the unveiling of the new jerseys.

Early reports from the blogosphere note how “busy” and “cluttered” the jersey is. Honestly, I love the colours, I don’t mind the orca logo, and I like the words “Vancouver” across the front - which is sort of the throw-back to the Millionaires’ days. But put them all together? And yeah, slightly less than impressed. You know what though, they could be worse. I’m just ready for the puck to drop this season, I’m seriously missing hockey this summer.

Bumper sticker reads: “Dane Driving. Thanks for not laughing.”

Seen at the intersection of Braid and Brunette in New Westminster, near the Coquitlam border.

At first I suspected it was Vancouver blogger Dane. Then I saw the Danish flag.

So, um, are the Danish supposed to be bad drivers? Maybe our Vancouver Great Dane blogger, Mr. Jan Karlsberg can answer that.

PS Check out his post on our lame Vancouver attempts at prank billboard modifications.

Other than stopping all kinds of traffic around downtown and smearing a few shop windows with blood, I think the majority of the zombies were well behaved. I just went to take pictures and it was pretty fun as some people seriously got into the whole zombie act.

The most common questions of the day were, “What is this for?” and “Why are these people doing this?” The only answer to why, was, “for fun”.

There was a great turn out. I believe there were about twice the people compared to last year. I haven’t checked the news yet or anything, so I’m not sure if there were any “incidents” or anything. I didn’t see any.

In other news, I did see the very tall Will Sasso walking by the Vancouver Art Gallery as the zombies were all posing on the steps, but didn’t get a picture (bad timing. I had put my stuff away as I was heading home).

Spock Trek

Originally uploaded by GALE47.

Posting about the Techcouver map yesterday [mbv] got me thinking of Web 2.0 stuff, and I realized I’ve got a few invites for a few new services kicking around my inbox. So even though these aren’t Vancouver specific sites, I’m going to put the invites out there for any readers who are interested. If you want either of these invites just shoot me an email [jks].

The two services, Spock and Pownce, are described after the break.

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With the European leagues starting their seasons, the Vancouver Whitecaps are heading into the tail end of their season with their last four games all of which are at home. Tonight they’re up against the Charleston Battery at Swangard and looking to break a 13 game winless streak. Of course the official Whitecaps site is pretty positive about the situation [wc], but it’s hard to tell why since none of the news articles are loading.

Hopefully the team can tighten up at the back and add a few more goals today, thus beating Vancouver’s long time rival Charleston. Okay, so it’s hard to get a civic rivarly stoked against Charleston compared with say Seattle but a win is a win and its especially important when the team is mid-table [usl] and looking to improve its standing before the season’s close.

Also note that the game today was moved from tomorrow, so even though your tickets say August 26th, it’s actually today. Don’t let this change screw you up like it did me who left his ticket at home because lied to him and told him the game was tomorrow.

1) The Annual Vancouver Zombie walk tomorrow starting at 3:00 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I just happen to have a picture of last year’s event right here:

2) The World Championship Sandcastle Competition at Harrison Hot Springs. It starts September 4th, but the displays are up until October. Lots more information on that here.

3) Apple picking at the Apple Barn in Abbotsford tentatively scheduled for September 15th. My choice of apples are Elstar at the moment for no other reason they look like Macintosh apples. And you can bake them. Also, the Apple Barn is home to some farm animals - including a donkey who’s “a bit bitey.”

4) I have been continuing to pester the Vancouver Guardian Angels for photos and a short interview. Unfortunately our schedules have yet to jive, but I I’ll keep bugging them on facebook until they tell me they don’t want to be my friend anymore.

Originally uploaded by eyeye.

Story #1: Not enough people want to join the VPD [cbc]

Apparently despite my inability to find work Vancouver has a hot job market which is keeping people away from applying for the Vancouver Police Department. Understanable given that the job does not pay as well as others, and you have to fight firemen [mbv]. Hmm…. I wonder if the VPD is looking to hire an out-of-shape chubby fellow with a heart condition who’s afraid of loud noises.

Story #2: Hey there’s a strike on [cbc] & [cbc]

Wait there’s a strike going on? I just thought those people outside the libraries were there for some sort of jobs fair or perhaps because they really want to stop children from reading books. It’s stupid that it has gone on that long, but on the plus side it does allow protesters a chance to completely discredit their causes. For example The Anti-Poverty Committee has taken credit for dumping garbage in front of Mayor Sam Sullivan’s condominium building. The message, “We’re really lacking in creativity.” Or maybe it’s “People who are against poverty litter.”

But yeah, this isn’t ending any time soon. Hopefully the theatre of the idiotic will continue on both sides, otherwise we’ll probably just forget about it once the Canucks’ new jersey is released.

Techcouver.com

Originally uploaded by DBarefoot.

If you’re looking for a quick guide of some of the most famous / active of Vancouver’s Web 2.0 companies, and you were needing that guide in map form then your long dark wait is over with Techcouver [tc]. Based on the Translink zone map of the city it’s got twenty-five internet companies linked.

It is not really surprising how many web companies sprout up in Vancouver, but this is a nice visual representation of that. According to the site there will be more maps on the way, though I’m not sure if that means the maps will just be different skins of the same information, or if they’ll have new locations to search through. If you try to add yourself (or your company) to the map it wants to send an email to Rob at Techvibes [tv], so I’m reading into that and assume that Techvibes is largely behind this project. Update: Darren Barefoot also had a hand in this, so check out his post on the subject [db].

* Thanks to Darren Barefoot’s flickr [dbf] for the notice.

Penny Arcade

Originally uploaded by BlueBeetle.

Wired [wm] has a photo feature preview up of the new Penny Arcade [pa] computer game. The game looks fun in an old-school RPG sort of way, and the PA strips are always funny so if some of the humour can get translated to the game I’ll be happy.

Why the mention here? Well the game is being developed by local developer Hothead Games [hg]. It’ll be sold as episodic downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux which means that even me and my OSX centric world will be able to enjoy it.