The good ol' hockey game

As most of you probably know the best spectator sport in the world is back... hockey! The most interesting part is there will be "a series of rule changes that will emphasize entertainment, skill and competition on the ice". I'm excited to see a more offensive game of hockey but worried that the game quality might not be as good. I dislike basketball because of the insane number of baskets scored and the difficulty in defending the net. I don't want to see this happen to hockey just because American fans are bored when the score isn't in the double digits.

The highlights of the changes are:
1) Neutral zone is shrinking.
2) The two-line pass whistle is pretty much dead now.
3) The notion of “offsides” is now weaker.
4) Goalies can’t dress like the Michelin man anymore.
5) Goalies are restricted in where they can play the puck behind the net.
6) No more tie games: ties end in a “shootout” format like the playoffs in the old days.

Here's a great link which explains the changes and has some nice diagrams. Next season's schedule has also been posted. I'm going to go see the Canucks play the Leafs in their only game together on January 10th. Anyone want to go? I'm sure Dan and Cam will.

One of those weeks

This has been a pretty tough week at work. My Product Unit Manager (boss's boss) requested that my group host one of the specialists from China while he learns about Visual Studio Team System. I'm the only one in my group experienced with the End to End (E2E) scenarios; thus, it's my task to make sure he gets what he needs. It's taken some serious concentration as he is still learning english and does not have much experience with the material. On top of everything else he only has 1 week to learn everything I know. Once he gets back to China he'll be the product specialist acting as a representative from us to some of the biggest companies in that area. This is no small feat. But, it's a great opportunity for me to show I know the product inside out and to help him find the resources he needs.

For the first two days of this week I've been working hard with my E2E team to get some servers setup and show him the ropes. We've had lots of problems ranging from bugs to bad setup instructions. It's a Beta2 product after all. Finally things looked good last night and I came in this morning eager to get going. As I moved around some ethernet cables in our very crowded office disaster struck. A coworkers coffee cup tipped over and spilled right into one of our servers. I cut the power immediately and opened up the case but it was too late. Four gigs of RAM, a 3.6Ghz processor, heat sinks and fans were soaked with coffee. Never... never put liquids on top of a stack of servers!

All was not lost. I found an alternate setup to continue my teaching. The E2E team reinstalled the server configuration on the three remaining machines (even though it took all day). And, I learned patience.

On the plus side my dad and mom have been visiting seperately over the past few days. My dad had a good trip down to Oregon and back along the coast. My mom's been staying at a nice B&B in downtown Seattle. We had dinner tonight and went to see 'War of the Worlds'. I wouldn't recommend it over Willy Wonka or Batman... but it's some good eye-candy.

R6 Back in Action

Last Saturday I worked on the bike. You may remember I destroyed the right side of it in a crash on the track three weeks ago. Well Ebay is my friend and I got all of the parts. Last Saturday my buddy Dan and I stripped it down, and put it all together. The only remaining damage is the dented tank but that's just cosmetic (and $350 for a new one). Sunday Chris, Cam, Octavia, Peter, Greg and I rode over the pass next to Mt.Rainier. It was really, really hot and a lot of miles but we saw some beautiful scenery and got practice on some sweet twisty roads. I'm stoked to be back in the saddle and rode to work every day this week (except today... it was pouring).

Tonight my dad arrives for a night's stay on his way down to the Snake River canyon with his motorcycle. I'd go with him but 600 miles in two days is a bit much for a sport-bike. Tomorrow I'm playing paintball. It'll be a good chance to shoot at some of my friends. Also, I'm stoked as Hamilton is going to try and get work down here in Seattle. I hope he gets a job soon so we get him down here ASAP.

July 4th

Lots has been happening over the past few weeks so it's nice to have a weekend to relax and regroup. July 4th weekend was more fun then ever. My college buddy Hamilton flew down from Victoria to visit and see what Seattle has to offer. He's another recent compsci grad and might end up working down here. It's either that or become a ski-bum for life. In any case, his future looks bright. Amanda's been in town since she hurt her ankle up at the mountain and needs to recuperate. She's recovering quickly and doesn't need crutches anymore. She's kicking butt on her school-work as well. Good job babe!
The most exciting parts of the weekend were continuing to learn to air-chair (click for video) and stuffing 9 people on the 12 foot floating island then getting towed out into the middle of Juanita bay by random boats. I don't think it was the safest thing possible but the looks we received from the huge 60 ft yachts and $70K wakeboats as we floated by on our yellow raft were priceless. Hamilton had the aviators in effect and swam over to the tie-ups, beer in hand, as an emissary. In the end we made it from the dock all the way over to Juanita beach and nobody drowned. I'm kinda scared to see what further craziness might occur if Hamilton comes down permanently. Time shall tell.