April 11/03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	The Canucks' utter failure in their first game Last year's losing ways continued in the first game of this year's playoffs with the Canucks being totally embarassed by the Blues 6-0. It's hard to explain such a total breakdown as what happened last night. Only a handful of players really stood up to the challenge that the Blues checking presented to the usually high flying Canucks. The old warrior Linden, the hard working Sedins (who unfortunately are just not strong enough at this level it seems) and the spark plug rookie forward Brandon Reid. The rest of the team seemed to be in shell shock from the first few minutes of the first period when the Blues went up 2-0 on a powerplay goal and a defensive breakdown. The Canucks defense was extremely disorganized. The missing element of the injured Mattias Ohlund was exposed again as it has been on several occasions since he left the lineup. Almost every member of the Canucks failed in their assignments, being slow to get on the puck and second-guessing their opportunities. The only solace from this complete defeat was that every other team with home ice advantage (excepting Boston) were upset in their first games.

	April 10/03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	Hit and Run pics showing Flash / AE Here are a handful of screen captures showing the Flash and AE work I'm doing to spruce up the "Hit and Run" video. I feel I can put another good weekend together and finish off a decent edit. Click on the images to see larger versions. My playoff pool picks Had the pool picking last night. Seven guys sitting around a table. Each of us picks a number out of a hat and pick once going down the order and then another time going up the order. We redraw the order again. Ten players to pick. Two of them must be defense plus one goalie. Scoring system: 1 point for goal or assist. Goalies: 2 points for a win, 3 points for a shutout. Interesting experience. Haven't done that since high school and I was totally into it by the end of the hour and a half of going through stats sheets, making fun of everyone else's picks and thinking strategically. Keith's picks Player Team 1) Federov 2) Checkmanek 3) Sundin 4) Tanguay 5) Stevens 6) Chelios 7) Arnott 8) Niewendyk 9) Datsyuk 10) York 11) Foote 12) Friesen Detroit Philly Toronto Col NJ Det Dallas NJ Detroit Edmonton Col NJ One part of the pick strategy that I didn't get right away was that you are miles ahead if you pick a goalie who will go all the way since the Cup winning goalie will win 16 times for a total of 32 points. I had first pick and I went with a scorer on a team that could go all the way: Sergei Federov of the Red Wings. I made my first mistake in the second round after I realized I had to pick a goalie and unfortunately went with regular season stats rather than playoff longevity. I doubt Philly will make it past this round so bad move. However, I did get decent scorers and kept to the safe picks of the Cup favourites. I would have liked to pick some Vancouver players but they were all taken in the first four rounds. Finally, I got three playoff veteran defensemen which should give me some good assist points. I was surprised Foote was still available by round 11. So far: After one game in which half my teams played, I have four points which makes me #4 in the pool performance.

	April 9/03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	The fall of Baghdad I woke up this morning to the radio broadcasting what sounded like the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. People pulling down statues and cheering. What a relief. If only the manner in which the war was brought on the world could be redone. The consequences for unilateralism have yet to be measured. Another playoff campaign begins... With more serious events resolving half a world away, I get to turn my attention on more pleasing news. Around this time last year I was touting the fortunes of my beloved Vancouver Canucks who at that time had squeaked into a first round meeting with the #1 Detroit Red Wings. This year, the Canucks were one of the top teams in the league and finished #4 in the jampacked Western Conference. Their placement is better but really their chances are only slightly better than last year to advance. Hardly any points separate their opponent this time, the St. Louis Blues, and the Canucks did not finish the season well, losing their grip on the Pacific Division in the last game of the season. Like last year, the Canucks have one of the top lines in hockey, the Bertuzzi-Morrison-Naslund line. Vancouver has a 2-1-1-1 record against the Blues and both teams play a skating, rushing style which should make for an entertaining series. Also, this playoff marks the first time I've been part of a hockey pool since high school. The playoffs begin tonight with the Canucks-Blues game #1 happening tomorrow.

	April 7/03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	Future sexy projects 'Hit and Run' nearing completion and future projects After this weekend's solid bit of work (finished almost half a minute of footage) I'm confident that at least a rough cut of the video will be done by the end of next weekend. A lot of Flash, After Effects work is putting together the clips nicely. After that, it looks like I will be helping Dylan Couper with the Lady-X project. The Lady-X project is a worldwide Internet series of linked films all beginning and starting with a mysterious lady. Also this month I've committed to a DVDA challenge for a continuous shot (a tribute to The Russian Ark?) Iraqi news overdose and Paul Wolfowitz Sometime last week I reached my overdose limit for Iraqi war news. It was around that time that I reconnected my cable. Actually, I got TV so I could watch the hockey playoffs but of course I saw my share of coverage. Thankfully, it looks like Saddam and his forces are going to turtle sparing his country any more bombing and fighting. This is a mixed result. While no one wants to see that nation suffer any more (after three wars, UN sanctions and Saddam's dictatorship), many of the Bush administration will probably see it as a vindication of a strategy to remake the Islamic world. One person is assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz here says that the governance of Iraq may be years. Wolfowitz was one of a group of advisors who behind the scenes began the campaign against Iraq in the wake of September 11th. The Washington Post has a good article about what Wolfowitz means to this administration.

	April 2/03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	More Iraqi war photos There have been many striking photos to appear in the past couple weeks of the war. Here are just some of them. All photos taken from Yahoo News photos. Click on the images to see larger versions. The time lapse clip from yesterday has been edited down I changed the fonts to make them more readable and edited the clip slightly shorter at the end. Thanks for all the comments.

	April 1 /03                                                                            More in weblog archive
	Time lapse clip taken from Destiny's offices Today I finally compiled some time lapse footage I took from the offices of Destiny Media Technologies into a short clip. It shows a nice view of where I live. You can see Burrard Inlet, Stanley Park, Canada Place and North Vancouver. It was nice to take a break from the war to do something creative. See it here in Clipstream format >> Material from last week If you've come here looking for my anti-war video and / or my Canadian rant in response to the U.S. ambassador's chiding Canada for not participating in their war, you can find them in my archive for that week >>. Dylan Couper in the 24 Hour Film festival My buddy Dylan participated in a 24 Hour Film Festival shoot a couple weeks ago and the results are up. Look for "People Dust" in the gallery section >>