Making scones

Tonight I made scones for the first time! They turned out pretty darn well. Frank and Jess came over they they LOVED them which was really encouraging. :) Jess said they tasted better without jam so she could taste the flavour, and Frank said they were like "real Southern biscuits" - YES!!!!!!!!!!!

So that was an epic win for the first trial. I think next time I need to use a little less salt and maybe mix the ingredients together a little bit better. Also I left them in an extra few minutes since they weren't brown enough on top - maybe put them in a little lower down next time. Overall I was pretty happy with them though, even though my Mom makes them about 1000 times better. :)

Messy counter after cutting the scones

Clean up!!

Ready to bake

Table set with a bazillion kinds of jam, lemon curd, and whipped cream

Done!

Frank and Me going to town on the scones

Skype released Group Video Chat

This is awesome. This is a feature I've been wanting for a lonnnng time, and it's awesome that it's finally available!! It sounds like they are planning to charge for it but there is a free 1 month trial of it now. I will give it a shot next time I talk to my parents and my sister. I expect everyone will be talking at the same time... like usual in my household :)

For those iChat users, this is similar to what you've had for ages but it's only available on Windows at the moment... presumably Linux and Mac is coming soon. To finally have a usable group conference tool that is also multi-platform is just fantastic. Really psyched. Let's hope the Mac release comes with a Facetime hookup...

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/group-video-calls/

127 Hours

Looks like an amazing movie.

Google Is Testing Cars That Drive Themselves

Well, this sure is awesome!

Google Is Testing Cars That Drive Themselves

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 Launch Trailer

Force Unleashed 2 Launch Trailer

Sesame Street: Smell Like A Monster

This is genius.

Blue Valentine trailer

Man there are a lot of great movies coming out soon.

This one looks pretty intense, and basically anything heartfelt but insanely intense with Ryan Gosling in it is pretty much an epic win.

Movie Review: The Social Network

Only the people involved know the true story, for real... but man was this one hell of a cinematic experience. As with many films, characters are oversimplified for dramatic effect, trying to set the stage for a classic, epic battle between good and evil - in this case set on the (ultra) modern stage.

How much of it is true is certainly a question. But this was a very well made film. The power of Facebook and it's true pervasiveness in our modern lives is undeniable. This is a truly legendary idea, and to get a chance to even see the (even fictionalized) versions of these larger-than-life characters battle out the story was really inspiring. Facebook truly is a life-altering experience for so many of the users, and to see an "origin story" if you will, was really very cool.

The music by Trent Reznor was a strange, perfect fit and the pacing and script was top-notch. The part that was filmed in Tilt-Shift was mind-blowing. Seriously excellent job on the film. I hope at least some of the Facebook founders can enjoy it for what it is, rather than taking it for complete face value. The fact that they were (or are still) a part of such an epic story is truly inspiring. I think the public knows that there are a lot of grey areas in the film that were not truthful, not completely correct, or even complete fabrications for dramatic effect. I don't think it's meant to be a documentary, it's meant to be a twisting tale of epic proportions - where the "character" takes on more importance in the film than the truth.

Great movie, this is gonna win some Oscars for certain. Founders of Facebook: you've created a platform for the world to communicate and share their lives on, and that's certainty one hell of an accomplishment.

A History of Rap: Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake & The Roots

Awesome, awesome, awesome:

Goodbye India: Awake My Soul

I love this band.

Crazy shoes and a haircut

Two random pieces of news to report:

1. I'm still in the market for a new pair of crazy shoes. My clown-shoe Adidas Originals are getting a little worn out from overuse, and it's time for a pair of crazy Nikes or Star Wars Adidas shoes. The latest insane one I found is called Baby Bear Low, and it's so insane I should probably get it. Let's hope no one else is crazy enough to bid on these on Ebay :)

2. Haircut! I've been rockin' the crazy long hair for quite a while and I've been thinking about changing it up for a while. I still kept it reasonably long-ish, but lost a lot of the rocker look for the time being :)

And now for photographic evidence of these two news-worthy events...



Nike Baby Bear Low


Wow, so crazy


Me with less hair

Only in San Francisco

Seen today near Market St.

Last few Ottawa videos

Here are the last few videos from my trip to Ottawa in August. Awesome times!!


Biking along the Ottawa River near Parliament



Awesome changing of the guard ceremony at the Parliament buildings



Mosaika, an amazing Canadian-themed video projection onto the Ottawa Parliament buildings



Bagpiper at Rideau Hall

Big Basin Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Big Basin in Boulder Creek, CA near Santa Cruz. It was freakin' amazing, and the first self-planned camping trip we've done in California!!

We really enjoyed it and it worked out amazingly well. We didn't forget anything super important, the food was amazing, the people were awesome... we went on a sick hike and had a great time away from the city.

Word

My crazily huge new 6-man tent!!!!!!

Michael doing some verbal kung-fu

Cabernet

haha

The Brothers Parrott

Tree head

Awesome Frank & Jess Photo #1

Awesome Frank & Jess Photo #2

Awesome Frank & Jess Photo #3

Men of consequence

Spiderwebs

Another crazy spider web

At the top of the hike

Camp Awesome!!!!!!!

We are cool

O-Griz

Grits and Chiewe

Legendary

Ottawa 2010 Day 3: Rideau Hall, Museum of Civilization

Thankfully this only took a month to post all my photos from the last trip (as opposed to Japan which took 7 months) ;)

This is the last set of Ottawa pics, what an awesome time. This was from my last major wandering-around day, and I had a great time checking out Sussex Drive, Rideau Hall and the Museum of Civilization.

Parliament

Blue Skies

Park behind the Chateau Laurier

Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica

Arret!

Glorious

Spider

I'd never seen 24 Sussex Drive (the Prime Minister's Residence). Now living in 'merica, I assumed that it would be HUGE and you could probably take a tour, a.l.a The White House. Turns out, in very true Canadian understated-ness, the Prime Minister's Residence is LITERALLY the Prime Minister's Residence. There was a cute stray cat wandering around which the security guard was petting. So funny. The best part - there was a trampoline in the front yard for his kids to jump on!!

Beautiful gardens at Rideau Hall, office of the Governor General of Canada

Sweet

Cool Inukshuk

Guard at Rideau Hall

Native Canadian art at the Museum of Civilization

Awesome canoes

There was a history of Canada exhibit and they had a replica printing place with some Winnipeg Jewish Community prints

A replica of The Wildcat Cafe in Yellowknife, NWT

View of Parliament from the Museum of Civilization

The Unseen Sea

UNBELIEVABLE.

View on ExposureRoom

Star Wars R2D2/C3P0 shoes

These might be the craziest shoes yet. A "droid" pack of R2D2/C3P0 combo shoes. I want to go to there.

Alias Toronto "Happy, Healthy Workplaces" segment

An awesome segment from back in 2004 when I worked at Alias in Toronto. Avery Haines also has a discussion with David Wexler about what it takes to be a MacLean's Top 100 Employer in Canada.

Keep an eye out around 2:00 minutes in of the Part 1 video to see an excited Co-op-student-version of a certain Mike Jutan :)


Part 1


Part 2

Biking Mt. Tam

Last weekend I biked up Mt. Tam with Ollie from work and it was amazing!! Heck of a ride - about 2.5 hrs up, a short break and Clif bar at the top, and then we zoomed back down in an hour!

Ollie had a super cool GPS-based bike mapping app on his iPhone, and we got some cool data back from it. Here is the map of our routes up and back overlayed on a Google Map. Note the trip up we didn't re-start it at one point so there is a break in the trail, but you can connect the lines I expect. :)

Bike up Mt. Tam
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/3335/a670/4c4c/9898/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100829-1427.kml

Bike down Mt. Tam
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/3335/a670/4c4c/9898/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100829-1658.kml

Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles

beautiful...