In terms of youth culture, WakeRide has provided us with the goods in terms of summer activities and music. It's only been two years since the creation of WakeRide and they've already provided Saskatoon with acts like: The Trews, Broken Social Scene and K-Os.
Now this year they bring Canadian DJ Heavyweights MSTRKRFT and hip hop champion Chali 2na formally of Jurassic 5.
If you've been on the fence about this event, I believe now is the year to go and get down.
I spent about nine years off and on playing the second Diablo. To this day it was the most addicting. I spent my time slowly getting wealthy and made Godly whirlwind barbarian vs barbarian characters and uber smiters to reward myself with torches and the Anni. I am honestly worried about the third one coming out. It should be a lot of fun, but I am going to try and wait a bit until I buy it. What are your thoughts on this game finally releasing?
Last night I went to Moxie's for the sole purpose of ordering dessert. I chose the white chocolate brownie which also includes two scoops of french vanilla ice cream, two scoops of whipped cream and a warm chocolate sauce. The portion is large and it has a rich and sweet taste, so I recommend sharing with one or two others. If you want, you are even able to order an individual size. You can go out of your way like I did, or order this after a meal at Moxie's. Either way, it's worth a try.
On May 5th both China and Romania are having a steak dinner fundraiser at the Fez. If you just want to come and have a drink feel free to as well. The fundraiser will help us pay for kits and practices. Tickets can be purchased through the team China World Cup Facebook group. Please excuse the typos.
This is my favourite Busenitz colour way so far. Not only is it Dennis Busenitz's model but it is designed after one of adidas most iconic soccer boots, the Copa Mundial. The (optional) tongue makes the shoe unique and stylish and the colour is perfect for summer. I've never owned a pair personally, but I only hear good things about them.
Diane Herron is a photographer born and raised in Saskatoon. In 2009 she left to Edmonton to attend the Photographic Technology program at NAIT. Today she runs Diane Herron Photography and Lush Boudoir locally in Saskatoon.
Diane and I attended St. Joseph High School together and to be completely honest we did not talk much if not at all. But thanks to the magic of social media I got a chance to talk to this lovely lady about her work, iPhone camera lenses and the end of times.
Here we go.
Alright, so first off what is your photography business called?
Well I have Diane Herron Photography which is the more general couples, engagements, fashion, editorial kind of work. I am working on a boudoir business called Lush Boudoir, which would be more boudoir, glamour, and contemporary glamour type of work.
When did you decide you wanted to be a photographer?
I've always had a camera when I was younger and for some reason I had no idea that I could make a career out of it. When I graduated high school I just said to myself "If I could do anything and not fail at it what would I do?" Photography was the answer haha.
Hah, did you take Photo 10 with Mr. Lepage?
Funny story, I did but it was first period and I dropped it so I could sleep in for an extra hour every day.
Hah! Sound choice. I did the same with calculus. 4th period spare. More lunch for me.
4th and 5th... Afternoon nap haha.
Oh high school, I miss how simple it was.
I know! So simple.
So moving on, what are your tools of the trade?
Not a lot all I have is a Canon 50D & 50mm 1.4 lens... Reflectors, ND filter, Photoshop. I do have one light with a beauty dish that I use.
It does the trick I reckon?
Yes! It is perfect for portraits. The light just wraps around the skin very nicley, not harsh.
Oh you can totally tell in your work. Sometimes when I sneak peeks at other peoples' work, it seems like a lot of the work is overly done in Photoshop or something.
Yeah that is so sad. People are just destroying the quality of their work. Instead of spending all that time in Photoshop, spend time on exposing the subject properly is the way to go I think. Isn't that what photography is supposed to be? Hahah.
Haha definitely. That being said, Photoshop can help, but I don't think people should be too reliant on it.
Yeah it doesn't even look professional I think.. If they are trying to be professional I guess.
Haha well, do what they must. So you went to school for photography yes?
Yes, I took a 2 year course at NAIT
Nice and what would you say was the most important thing you've learned out of those two years?
Good question. Hmm... This may sound cheesy but to believe in myself. To not limit myself, that I can do anything I put my mind to. There were a lot of shoots I would have never achieved if I limited myself or if I felt I would have failed. I almost failed a semester because I thought I sucked, and I just changed the way I thought of myself and my abilities and everything changed.
Hey nothing wrong with that. Confidence goes a long way.
It really does.. I heard a really good quote somewhere. "To be successful you need 2 things. Confidence and ignorance." Good quote.
Some how I feel that I should follow that.
Haha definitely. It's just kinda saying that you can't fail if you just go do it and have no idea whats going on.
So basically, "you'll never know until you try".
Yes basically.
Ace, alright one last point about photos. What do you think of this:
... Are those lenses?
Yes haha. This matter requires your complete honesty. I saw this in a magazine and I was like... Why?
That is so weird. I don't know what to think of it really. I just hope I am not at a wedding one day and the photographer is using his iPhone. If that never happens then it's still weird. I hope it's a fad.
Hahah its gotta be.
Have you seen someone use that?
I have not and I think I'll be ok if I never do. It's so overboard.
Favourite song currently
Don't Go by Fascinoma!! I listen to it 10 times a day. Awesome.
Nerdiest thing you own. With picture preferably haha.
My bright pink New Orleans cat t-shirt. It was $20.
Oh my god that is too fantastic.
Hahah is it bad that I am wearing it right now as we speak?
Absolutely not. I would wear that until earth collapses. So for eight more months.
Hahahahah oh yeah I forgot about that. Can't wait.
I don't know what to expect. Half of me wants something to happen and the other half would rather not die. Does that make me crazy?
I am the same way. I think it would be so cool to be alive and to see the world end, but it would be sad because we are so young.
No lie.
But if just humans went away and the earth stayed I would be okay with that haha.
Haha Earth would be much better without us on it as cynical as that sounds, but oh well.
I know! Hahah we suck.
Hahaha agreed. So any last words?
I wish I had my diary it has great quotes in there but, "If you want something you've never had then you have to do something you've never done." I don't know who originally said that.
Drina Reed?
Hahah no idea.. is that who actually said it? I guess Googling would give us the answer.
Haha that's what I did.
Awesome.
Anybody can be brilliant behind a computer.
So true. My friend worked for a studio and built the whole website because of Google... She hated it but she did it.
Hahahaha programming is a horrible awful mistress. Thanks again for letting us interview you!
Thanks! It was fun, thanks for wanting to interview me that is so cool. I am excited to see it!
Just one more week and you're free. And by free I mean, find a job. At least you won't have to worry about studying or term papers for another four months right?
And if your finals aren't coming along swimmingly, then there's always next year. I don't mean that in a condescending way at all. During when I was in SIAST I failed a programming course setting me back a year. At first it sucked, but I got over it, and you will too. Now I'm done and life is dandy.
Now that it's actually warm out, once you're outta finals mode, you can enjoy summer. Patio beer, barbecued foods, pools, whatever it is that people do during summer. The extent my summer activities is wearing a t-shirt outside and maybe the odd game of golf. But please don't talk to me about golf. I'm not avid about it.
That being said, have a summer house mix I made a few weeks ago.
Chill vibes.
You're almost outta there and for those who are done, welcome to summer.
This is a short film called "Divergence" made by Alexi Tan. The film is about Feng Shaofeng and Xiong Naijin (both Chinese rising stars) who have an affair that is based on their Fiat 500s. A pretty cool short I must say and to add, a black Fiat 500 by Gucci has already been spotted in the city.
I've been away for quite a while now so I think I should make up for lost time. On my most recent trip to California, I was able to make the trek to Skid Row in Los Angeles to help feed some homeless people. The organization that we were helping out noticed that I had my camera and asked if I could just take photos and videos all day. I jumped at the opportunity and ended up with some cool shots. These are all unedited so they aren't perfect but this is just a glimpse at some of the interesting people I was able to meet. I butchered an attempt at talking American politics with one guy, another one told me to go to Atlanta for boiled peanuts and Bud Light at a baseball game and my man Anthony Witherspoon (guy on the left in the third picture down) told me I would with the Pulitzer Prize for making a book about his story (which he never told me...). Give me a holla in the comments section!
Note: I accidentally published the incomplete review early. This is the full review.
Another game review that's a little late on the draw. Normally reviews review a game roughly in the same month it was released, this is a bit unorthodox and I can explain. The reason why this review is technically late is because it's Dark Souls.
Just so you know, I am trying my hardest to refrain from swearing whilst writing this review. You will understand in a bit.
If you've heard anything about this game, it's that it does not care about you, it hates your stupid face and it wishes you were dead. It wants you to realize that you're an idiot for spending money on this frustratingly horribly hard game. But this is good. It's good because nowadays video games hold your hand too much. Name one game in the past year that doesn't have some sort of regenerating health bar or ammo every second corner, or some sort of upgrade that will help you win everything and become obscenely over powered throughout the entire game.
It's every game.
Okay, maybe not every game, but a lot of games.
This game is the exact opposite.
Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls but not a direct sequel. It has a very minimal plot that is more explained by talking to the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) rather than cut scenes and even then, everything is left up to the player's interpretations. I won't lie to you, I had no idea what this game was about.
All I know is that I played a human who had died and the world I traverse, humans who have died will eventually turn hollow, essentially a thoughtless, violent undead being. You then learn of the prophecy of the chosen undead that escapes from the Undead Asylum will be the one that liberates the oppressed undead from the age of fire. Low and behold, that's you, because you escaped from the Undead Asylum. Which was the first stage of the game. Yeah.
Anyways the plot isn't what matters.
What I Did Like.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay, it was quite addicting. Usually in most games, everybody hates grinding (running around killing things to gain experience to level up). I hate grinding. A lot. But thanks to the gameplay, grinding wasn't too much of an issue.
Also the nice thing with grinding was that the monsters you kill will always be in the exact same spot. If you make a round trip, run up a hill, kill so and so monster, you can head back to a bonfire, the bonfire respawns the exact same monsters in the exact same spots, rinse and repeat, so on so forth. Eventually it becomes a method that you just get used to. Tedious, but I never noticed.
The controls were basic enough. The top buttons control what's in your hands. Left top buttons control what's in your left hand and the right top buttons control what's in your right hand. You also got your standard move, sprint, action button, item use buttons, etc. Why complicate that?
The bonfire system is something of a throwback to old school video games. Bonfires are more or less safe zones in which here you can level up your character's stats, store away items, warp to other bonfires, etc. On that note, if your character dies, he/she will be warped back to the last bonfire they sat at.
This can be a gift or a curse in that these bonfires are checkpoints. You can be running along for what seems like hours and if you make it far, die, you will be transported back to the last previous bonfire. Similarly, if you've been running around and you come across a bonfire, it's a bloody miracle on 34th street.
The levelling system is reliant on souls. You obtain souls from killing monsters, as you proceed in the game, monsters become stronger thus dropping more souls. On the flip side, souls are also the currency in this game. So with the amount of souls you gained, you have to choose on whether or not you wanna save them up to level up further or to buy crucial items.
I liked this idea because it added to the sense of urgency in this game, everything was a bloody decision in this game that could either be something great or lead to your imminent rage quit.
If you die, whatever souls you had collected become lost and the only way you can retrieve those souls is if you return to the exact location you died at. Granted if you die again, the souls in your previous death location will be lost and you will have to start from zero.
But if you got some souls while going to your old souls, the souls will be retrievable at the spot you last died. It's on going like that. Many-a-times I've wanted to jump out my window and rob a bank because I lose a substantial amount of souls. But it's all in good fun right?
This game throws you immediately into the dumps. The only tutorials you receive are little hints on the ground that only tell you the button schemes on the controller. "R1 to attack" or "Hold O to sprint". The rest is up to you to figure out. Honestly.
If you have online capabilities with your Xbox 360 or PS3 (very soon PC), other players can leave hints on the ground that you can read. Granted they are quite vague and most of the time you'll have to make a judgement call on whether or not these hints are credible.
E.g. you will see a hint at the edge of a cliff that will simply say "Try Jumping". Should you? Maybe it's a secret path to some treasure. Chances are it's some bloody tosser sitting in his dank basement dropping these hints to get a chuckle. Never again will I listen to hints by a cliff.
I'd like to think that Dark Souls gives us a fresh take on the whole fantasy world. I'm talking about monsters, weapons, armours, environments, etc. Every time I find new things in this game, I always manage to utter something out of my useless mouth and for a game to make me actually talk while playing is a rare feat. Granted half the time it's just non-sense with swears jumbled in there.
Like this thing:
God that's creepy.
Once in a while you'll run into hints that say "Gorgeous View". If you take moment to just take a look at the landscape, it's rather breathtaking.
With the vagueness of the plot, there's really no back story with any of the areas you traverse. Maybe I'm the only one, but I wanted to know the story of each place. One part you're in some crappily lit Mordor looking hell hole, next you're taking an elevator to a castle. Why? WHY? Why are these places connected? But of course, Dark Souls doesn't care about your feelings and it's not here to sate your curiosity.
But probably what tops it all is the world you're in. Although there is no map to guide you anywhere in the game, you learn to traverse this world solely by memorization. Every area is connected one way or another and it's beautifully done. You might be running in an unfamiliar area and when you open up a door, it might lead to somewhere that you know and with that, you know where the bonfire is located. It's like a well oiled machine.
What I Didn't Like.
Off the bat. I hate the online players. I've mentioned this several times, but this game is unforgiving. It allows the ability for other players to "invade your world" engaging you in pvp (player vs. player). 89.5% of the time the guy is some ridiculously powerful player that absolutely crushes you in a few swings. Once defeated the user takes all your souls and gains humanity. Granted you can return to your point of death and retrieve your souls. So that's nice.
But there were so many bloody times where I've been invaded / inconvenienced by these guys. I just wanna get my souls back, but no, you gotta come in my world, crap in my pool and leave. I hate all of you.
Granted the only time other players can invade your world is if you are human. Your character has two states, "undead" or "human". Majority of the game you'll be parading around undead. There are really only two benefits of being human and those are: you can "kindle your estus flasks" meaning you can up the limit of number of health potions you carry and you can summon other players to help you on your journey. Summoning other players helps a lot, especially with the bosses.
At times when I'm getting reamed on by enemies, I need to drink my potions and I swear to god that my character never registers the fact that he needs to heal when I press the "use item" button. So in a frenzy I jam on the □ button to heal. Finally when the stupid guy figures it out, he chugs everything. I only wanted one. Now you have no more potions and you're gonna die anyways.
Similar things happen while rolling to dodge attacks. I only wanna roll once, but the character tends to roll twice, thus draining my stamina, thus unable to block, thus taking damage, thus dying, thus losing all my souls, thus freaking out.
Boss fights drove me up the wall as well. I'm used to the whole notion that spamming attacks at the boss' face will kill it. Unfortunately that's not the case. It will take several tries to figure out how to kill a boss. Some boss fights are just a puzzle. Some are just attack to win. After a while you grow a sort of paranoia when entering a new area. You never know what's around the corner. But I suppose one can argue that this is a good thing, because too many video games with bosses are simply "press X to win". True. This point is morally grey.
Every time I ran into this thing, I trembled in fear and anger.
If you're dissatisfied with the difficulty levels of video games nowadays, this game is for you. If you like to be hit for sexual gratification, this game is likely for you as well. It's truly a beautiful game that requires the player's patience in order to recognize this as a wonderfully put together game. Hell, it's taken me three tries to get into this game. After realizing the character class that I had chosen was the hardest one, I re-did the game with a slightly easier class and that did the trick. I love this game. I would honestly say that this is one of the best games I've played all year.
I believe this is Saskatoon's third time hosting a World Cup tournament. It gives players the chance to play for their country and show pride. Players from the city and even from around the world come to Saskatoon to compete. It all takes place on May long weekend inside of the Sasktel Soccer Centre.
24 teams are competing this year. Games are played on half of the turf field. Each half is 25 minutes with each team having nine players on the field at a time (including a keeper). There will be tons of fans supporting friends, family and their country and celebrations by players are encouraged. Games will be played all day, so swing by the soccer centre and be a part of the action.
Rules of the Tournament:
-22 players on a squad, but only 20 can dress per match
-Minimum of five master players (35 years of age or older)
-Must be 15 years old to play
-Maximum 3 import players (players of a different nationality)
-Sliding is allowed
Group A
Colombia, England, Italy and Iraq
Group B
Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria and Palestine
Group C
Canada, Chile, Ireland and Morocco
Group D
Caribbean, Peru, Romania and Ukraine
Group E
China, El Salvador, First Nations and Norway
Group F
Germany, Mexico, Serbia and South Sudan
I am very excited for the tournament this year. Teams have been preparing by practicing and fundraising for a while now. Many friends that I have made through soccer will be involved with the tournament as well. JJ will be playing for the Caribbean's this year and you can catch me playing for China (#9). I hope to see you guys there!
Here is a song that is expected to be on Theophilus London's next album. I want to play this song on the way to the casino. All jokes aside, I really like the instrumental and I feel like these two (especially Rocky) did the track justice. Now all I have to wait for is "Ridin'" by A$AP Rocky and Lana Del Rey.
Everyone has been quite excited about the NHL playoffs lately, I have instead focused on soccer. Champions League semi-finals begin on Tuesday where Bayern Munich will play Real Madrid and Wednesday Chelsea will square off with Barcelona. I am hoping for a Bayern Munich and Chelsea final, but we will see what happens this year. Be sure to check out the action!
This film was directed by Ice-T to educate and show the viewer, what hip hop is and why it is around. Many different artists (Dr. Dre, KRS-One, Nas and Kanye West) from different eras are involved with the documentary so we will get to see the progression of hip hop as well. I am excited to see the perspectives of hip hop and its culture from many different artists. It is expected to release on June 15, 2012
As you can tell by reading some of the Just a Taste posts, I get a craving weekly for a good vermicelli bowl. It's great how people of all cultures can enjoy the same dish. The high demand for Vietnamese food has been supplied in Saskatoon. There is a large selection of both new and old restaurants across the city. When choosing a Vietnamese restaurant I am always looking for a large portion. Ideally, I would like the dish to have uncooked vegetables, spring rolls, charbroiled pork, pork meatballs and Sriracha sauce. But then again, I am open minded to trying new things.
I talk to people often about where they like to eat vermicelli. A lot of people tell me Minh's Garden, Nutana Cafe, Summer Roll and Thien (haven't yet written a post on them, but delicious place).
For those of you who are stressed with school and finals, we are right there with you. I personally have only written one of my five final exams. Studying in all of your free time and writing exams until your hand hurts is the worst. So I want to wish everyone in school the best of luck.
Location
It's address is 510 Circle Drive, in between Faithfull Avenue and Quebec Avenue.
Environment
It was the only Vietnamese restaurant that was open on Good Friday that my family and I drove by. We decided it would be a good place to go, considering that it has been almost two years since I last ate there. It was actually quite busy during lunch and the staff was extremely generous!
Menu
Like usual I just looked at the vermicelli dishes, but they had about four daily specials. All of them sounded delicious. I had the beef, shrimp and spring roll on vermicelli but the beef tenderloin on fried rice was quite tempting! I found out after I ate my meal that all vermicelli dishes are the same size except for the Jasmine Combination Special (grilled pork, pork balls and spring roll), which was larger.
Food
The food was great. It came out at a reasonable time and was fresh. I generally don't order the beef, but after that dish I should definitely consider it. The shrimp also had pre-peeled tails which saved me the hassle, thanks to whoever thought of that. The spring roll was nice and crispy as well, I kind of wish I ordered a serving of those on the side.
Conclusion
Staff is friendly, food is good and prices are fair. I honestly do not have one negative thing to say about the restaurant, I also am very thankful that they were open on Good Friday. Jasmine gets a thumbs up from me.
With the movie market saturated with explosions, car chases and gun fights, it makes you wonder if any action movie out there is original. That's why I love martial arts movies, nothing can top a well choreographed fight sequence.
That's what The Raid: Redemption was. Just a well choreographed Indonesian fight sequence.
The plot was simple enough: there's a bad guy at the top of this apartment building, go get him.
And really, that's all I need to know. I just wanna shut off my head when I watch action movies. Everything has to be about political intrigue or conspiracy sprinkled with some explosions and horrible fight scenes. I'm talking about those stupid fight scenes where it seems like the cameras are taped to each persons fists and there's a camera man smushed in the middle. Can't see a bloody thing. By the end of it you're vomiting from motion sickness.
The Raid: Redemption has none of that. The camera guy is backed up far enough so you get the two (or more) guys throwing down.
The fight scenes are particularly brutal. Lots of stabbing, throat slashing and bone breaking, but if you can get over that, then this just might be your cup of tea.
Should you go watch it? If you're into action movies, by all means go see it. If you don't like action movies, by all means go see it.
Case and Point The Raid: Redemption is: Deep Blue Sea but the sharks are machete wielding crack heads.
I met a friend through a friend, his name is David. We actually met through Facebook (social media is crazy), but we had the chance to talk about a whole bunch of things from fashion, to hello saskatoon, to even our personal hobbies.
Dave was one of the idea generators to Ten Tree Apparel. The idea came to them when they were in Hawaii experiencing the land and everything else it provided. They are huge on nature and sustaining the planet we live on. For every sale they make, they promise to plant ten trees. Great idea right? I have only known about it for over half a year but have been able to seen it grow, their social media sites are blowing up and they have landed some deals with musicians and athletes.
I am looking forward to receiving some of these goods in Saskatoon stores. Just by watching this look book, you can get a good look at many pieces. They seemed to have out done many streetwear brands this season. I am specifically attracted to the tank tops, leaf camouflage coat and denim jacket. 10 Deep never seems to disappoint.
You've had one, I've had one, your dog has had one, my unborn self has had one, everybody's had one.
You can't go to a convenience store without seeing an entire fridge filled with energy drinks. Be it your regular Red Bull, Rock Star or Monster with Vitamin 0x10c to replenish the white blood cells lost from doing too many tail whips on your ski-doo or whatever.
It almost seems like the energy drink take over happened over night. It's everywhere. Freakin' everywhere. I remember my dad used to drink the OG Thai Red Bull or Krating Daeng when he played soccer and I always used to sneak a sip because the taste reminded me of banana medicine. If he caught me he'd give me crap because I was too young for it. He'd always say "you will never need these until you're an old man like me."
True, I guess.
Even to this day he still frowns upon me when he sees me drinking a Rock Star with Triumphant Sun Vitamin Milk from the Omega Volta Fruit Berry.
"Don't drink that, you're young and it will give you nose bleeds," he would say.
He's right in a sense (both the age factor and the nose bleed thing). I'm 21 and from what I'm told, we're in the prime of our lives. Do we really need to shove this stuff down our gullet because we yawned once today? I wouldn't think so.
I almost think it's out of control when I see elementary school kids drinking it. Like, what do you need that for? Times tables making you sleepy? Don't be daft, go get some water dude.
Just from observing, the majority of people who do drink energy drinks, drink it for the taste. You can't really find carbonated pineapple juice out there, the only way to get that tasty flavour bang is from a can of *insert energy drink brand here*.
That being said, would it change anything if, say for example, PepsiCo made Pineapple Soda? Who knows. Maybe not. So as long as energy drinks are an option, it's likely that people will choose the energy drink for whatever reason it may be.
But I'm a hypocrite. I find myself drinking energy drinks once in a while when I'm yawning out of control on a gloomy overcast skied Saturday afternoon. I don't need it really, it hardly even works on me. All it makes me do is become jittery; can't focus on anything. Some days I don't want to drink coffee, I want a different flavour of energy.
Absolutely do not let me stop you from doing what you want to do, I just wanna raise that point that we don't need to become reliant on things we don't need. But it happens. I like coffee in the morning and I'm a smoker so frankly you can tell me to can it.
Ransom Holding Co. and Adidas always take advantage of nature and different habitats when making their look books. This video was shot entirely in Panama. It makes it fun to watch, while still getting a taste of what their collection is all about. For example, we get to see the models utilize the "Pier" on the beach and the "Army Trainer Mid" in the forest. This video displays the Spring and Summer 2012 collection.
Jeon Soccer is a YouTube account that my brother just showed me recently. They are a Korean soccer school that trains players at all levels. They have videos of young players doing drills or demonstrations of intense tricks. First it will show a player doing the move on their own, than against a defender and then a combination of moves with the original trick in mind. They are difficult and may be unpractical, but they are fun to watch and would be cool to learn. I would kill for this artificial turf training room they use.
I am very impressed with how creative and accurate this video is to the original trailer. Being a Lego fan as well, gives this extra points in my books. Check it out, this movie is going to be tight!
