Sunday, August 27, 2006

Paintballing anyone?

Lock and load... Let's rock!

I love the smell of paint in the morning... Gun's, camo and sand. Our well oiled combat machine was ready to roll over all comers, yeah most of us had only ever practiced on first person shooters at work. But that didn't mean that we weren't ready to mix it up in real life.

Loading the guns

We were using up a voucher from Jeff's birthday last year, and it was due to expire within a couple of days so we were forced to use it, not that any of us were complaining, at this short notice though we managed to get 7 of us: Brian, Ram, Jeff, Myself, Jez, Steve and Darryl. I think we all intended to start off slowly and find our feet. But I knew that, that wouldn't last too long.

Arnold's Paintball is actually a warehouse on the outskirts of Montreal, and with the warzone being inside there would be few places to hide, it was just a matter of time before we would get some decent bruising. On top of that there was a load of semi-pro paintballers looking for some target practice, we were told that they would be the ones with the big guns and no paint on them.

At a cost of $13CAD (£6.18GBP) for 100 balls, it was quite expensive, but worth every penny as the feeling of hitting someone (especially one of the pro's) was a lot of fun. All of a sudden we all felt like combat experts. Ram seemed the most fearless, which saw him during one game throw his gun to Jeff and run gunless to the flag, he managed to capture it before anyone had even noticed.

The winner for the most impressive bruising goes to... Ram

Friday, August 25, 2006

Interview on Expat website.

My blog seems to be reaching more than just my friends and family, and an interview I did for a website for ex-pats from around the world has just gone online, if you want to check it out click the link and it'll send your straight over there. The site is designed to help people looking to live in another country, and can be quite informative.


Expatinterviews.com

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Vic's "Birthday"

Jez wants a kiss of the cheek, Vic has other ideas.

Maddhatter's for drinks on Saturday, Jaggerbomb's and other hi-jinks, even pretend hooligans made a reappearance. We ended up getting there a lot later than we said we would, but that was nothing to do with me... Seriously. I'm getting better at being on time now.

We all knew the reason for this little gathering, but that isn't for me to say on the blog... At least not yet, but it was fun to get everyone together at the dieu and hatters, no frills, no fuss just plenty of drinking and a lot of fun.

Quick... action poses!!!

Kris's action pose was delayed, check out Jolyne's new hair do

No comment is probably best in these cases

Yay for pretend hooligans...

Julie came out, think she drank a little less than the night before.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Julie's Birthday

Julie's birthday, and it was off to an Afgan resturant, none of us really knew what Afgan cuisine consisted of, so it would be a suprise for all of us. Karine found a place on Duluth called the Kyber Pass, which turned out to be an amazing find. The bonus being that it was a BYOB, so no over expensive alcohol charges.

Julie didn't know who was coming out but as far as I'm aware she was aware of something happening, about 17 of us overall, see seemed really happy with the turn out. Happy Birthday Julie.

Julie and her flatmate Isabelle, Not sure if Blake knows whats going on.

Some more of Julie's friends

Paul with his massive can of Sapporo

Isabelle and Karine, 2 of the most photogenic girls I think I've ever met (apart from Saima of course)

Karine and Julie after they started their water fight, other people got caught up in the onslaught.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Level up...

Evaluation time again, I've now been at Ubisoft for over a year and things are going very well. The project is coming together, I finally have a big chunk of work to get my teeth into instead of bit's and bobs to fill holes, we have a good idea of what needs to be done and how long we have to do it.

To top it all off, I've managed to level up as an animator. This basically means that I'm getting the recognition from Ubisoft I've been after, there are 5 levels at Ubi, level 1 being a junior/graduate, level 5 meaning that you are a producer or you pretty much run the company.

With me now being a level 3 (finally) I can get on with my work safe in the knowledge that I'm getting recognized for my contribution to the team, this has given me my second wind and I feel like I'm proving that coming to Ubisoft over here is going to be great for my career. I'm enjoying animating again, but I'm feeling the itch to go back to being a lead... Will have to see what happens over the next 6 months of the project.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Dinner Party relocated

Look at the lovely fishes.

So we were looking for something cheap to entertain us on Saturday night, and Jeff suggested that we just have a dinner, watch some films and of course drink. That would usually mean that we eat around Jeff's place and we all bring something to the table... A nice cake perhaps?


Only problem was that after all the effort Jeff had gone too with the fish, going to Atwater market to get all the ingredients he fell at the last hurdle when his oven packed up...

So we decided that we would take it to my place, i've never had more than 3 for dinner before so then 6 could of been a push, but we seemed to manage it pretty well. Paul even started knocking out picture of Count Duckula, as well as Dangermouse and other various characters he worked on.


So a couple of bottles of wine, Lisbon turning up, some beer, a bottle of port, some english tea, and some chocolate eclairs later and everyone full. We sat down to watch a film next thing we know everyone's fallen asleep... Saturdays seem a little quieter now I'm a little older now.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Climbing Mont Royal

Mitchell, Tanya and Blake???

Mont Royal has featured a couple of times on the blog, but I've only every been driven up there, by either bus or car. If I had a bike, sure I'd bike it. So it was about time I walked up.

So feeling energetic, I met up with Blake, Tanya and Blakes twin Mitchell from Edmonton and walked up the side of the Mountain/Big hill. About half way up though there is some conveniently placed stairs, which actually seemed to make the walk a lot tougher, and on a day as hot as this the last thing you want to be doing is walking up some steep steps.

Anyway we get to the top and the view is still breathtaking (for a cityscape at least).

Friday, August 04, 2006

Men in Black

Alex and I after he spent the day beating the living daylights out me.

First week back in work after holiday is usually a bit of a downer, it can take a while to get used to a daily routine again, but this week we were shooting reference material, and obviously I can't say much about it except that hitting a crash mat in many creative ways is actually a lot of fun (if a little bit painful). But it was taking one for the team, and I think it was worth it as we managed to get some great stuff. Note the reflective balls caught by the flash, this is how the cameras see our movement.

The suits are so hard to get on that it wasn't worth taking it off before going to lunch so, I just put on my jeans and walked around the supermarket, that seemed to draw a few choice stare's but it could of also had something to do with the fact the 1st Outgames were in town...

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