November 2007 Archives

There's an add-on for Firefox that's a Canadian English spell checking dictionary. I was filling in an online form, and it suggested that "CRA" (as in Canada Revenue Agency) should be spelt "CRAP".

Poetry in motion.

As a latecomer to the Guitar Hero craze, this one is painful to watch:

A mouse was spotted at work today.

With the screaming and people jumping up on their chairs, it was a scene right out of a 50s TV sitcom.

Concert: Video Games Live, by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
Venue: EPCOR CENTRE's Jack Singer Concert Hall
Tech Snuck In: None, and regrettably, as you'll soon read.

Last night I went to see the Video Games Live concert and it was all kinds of awesome. It's one thing to hear the game music coming out of your TV, it's another thing altogether to hear it performed live by a full orchestra, and in a show that felt like a rock concert instead of a night at the symphony.

Music from all kinds of games were played, from vintage arcade stuff, to modern titles like Metal Gear Solid, Sonic, Myst, Super Mario and Halo.

Memorable Moments:

There was a costume contest before the show started and all the entrants were brought up on stage for the audience to judge. Mostly the costumes were from the Mario games, but a little kid dressed like Link from Legend of Zelda was the winner. However, a guy and his girl were in matching costumes: Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney games. They even had "OBJECTION!" word balloons on sticks as props. I thought that was inspired. But come to think of it, if you want to cosplay as Phoenix it's an easy costume. Blue suit, red tie, but you may have to fiddle with the gel to get his hedgehog-like hair.

People were brought up on stage later (including "Phoenix Wright") to play games on the big screen behind the orchestra; they got to play Space Invaders and Frogger for prizes. The orchestra would also play the music and speed up or slow down depending on how well they were doing.

A selection of music from the Medal of Honor series was also played, and to a History Channel-edited montage of World War II footage instead of scenes from the games. Rather appropriate, with Remembrance Day being tomorrow and all.

Lee Ann Leung, sister of Martin Leung (the blindfolded video game pianist guy) played some solo piano pieces from Final Fantasy and Super Mario and she was outstanding.

The orchestra and choir finished with a medley of music from all three Halo games, with show host Tommy Tallarico on electric guitar and they blew the roof off the concert hall. He then asked the audience if they wanted an encore, and not to hold up our lighters. "We're all gamers here! Hold up your Nintendo DSes, your PSPs, your cellphones, if it's LCD and backlit I want to see it!" And lots of people in the audience obliged, but all my kit was in my bag at the coat check. "Wait, the PSPs aren't booted up yet.." and he then pointed out somebody way in the back who brought their laptop computer and was holding it up. That was all the incentive that the orchestra needed to finish the show with "One Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII.

It was an incredible night of music for me and my crowd. And if "We'll see you next year!" is any indication, I will be going again.

UPDATE: Photos from the concert have been posted on VGL's site.

Is it too much to expect complete, total, and utter perfection from everybody else because I am?

Warning: you might find this morbid. And it's too bad this didn't happen a week earlier, it would be a great fit for Halloween.

A co-worker wanted my input on an issue with a tax return for one of our deceased clients. Looks like CRA was taking their usual snail's pace with some adjustments we sent in earlier, but this client's 2006 tax return said that he died in 2004. And he was still earning income from employment, investments, farming, pensions, and so forth.

Long story short, the year of death was just mis-entered into our system and it has no impact on either the tax return or this particular issue. Easily fixed.

But if this guy returned to the earth as a zombie, he's doing pretty good for himself.

"So Mr. Jones, what was your main farm crop this year?"
"BRAINS!!!"

"I see, and these slips say you're still getting CPP payments even with your... condition?"
"BRAINS!!!"

"Yes, those lobbyists in Ottawa do know how to work the system."