Phew, what a month!  It’s been since mid-August since I’ve posted and I’ve got an excuse, since then I’ve been extra busy with travelling and visiting friends and family.  And also eating a lot of delicious food, take the image below for example (from the Ferry Building Market):

The end of August marked my first visit back to Victoria since moving to San Francisco.  A weekend full of partying and weddings made for a very long trip back to the states.  It was great to see everyone and celebrate with them!  Surprisingly the weather in Victoria was even better than I have seen in San Francisco all summer.  However it appears I’m eating my own words on that one, as this weekend has been the hottest so far this year and there’s more to come through October.

I also checked out back-to-back San Francisco Giants games in September.  Luckily I was able to score some sweet seats at work to a Friday night game, followed up by a Saturday game in the nosebleeds.  Unfortunately the Giants fell in both tries with only few hits, which was unfortunate as they are currently making a run for the playoffs.  Still a few weeks to go though, go Giants!

September also marked my first NFL game ever!  I was lucky enough to check out the San Francisco 49ers vs. the New Orleans Saints.  It was a nail-biter right to the end, and while both teams didn’t really play their best it was a close game that the Saints ended up taking with a last minute field goal.

What surprised me (not really actually) was how passionate Americans are about football.  70,000+ people all in red yelling at the top of their lungs can be deafening!  The Saints fans in the stadium also got an earful.  I was also impressed by how seriously the fans take tailgating.  Some had been their hours before kickoff just to fire up their BBQs and slam beers before watching their favorite teams.

On another note, September marks the return of many of my favorite TV shows.  I had barely caught up on season 2 of Fringe right before the premiere last Thursday.  Following that new episodes of 30 Rock and The Office aired.  And my guilty pleasure Hell’s Kitchen also started up this week as well.  I’m also looking forward to catching up on Eastbound & Down which starts up season 2 this week!

Oh, and last (but not least) on the list, pre-season hockey has started!  It appears that the remainder of the Canucks pre-season games are available for me on the NHL Network down here (and in HD!) which is great.  However I’m not sure what selection I’ll have come the regular season and may be forced to purchase the Center Ice package.  I have been able to stream some games online via my PS3 but the quality is hardly watchable.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose.  Regardless, the team looked great against the Ducks last night and I’m eager for the regular season to start!

Stay posted as I’m hoping to have another album review come up in the next few weeks!

Dylan

Welcome back!  Review #3 on the list of DIlly’s albums marks the first time that a hip-hop is reviewed.  I wish I could’ve started out with a better album to review, but hey that’s the luck of the draw.

Today’s review for Dilly’s Albums is…

Kanye West - Graduation

Review: #3

Released: 2007

Wikipedia Synopsis: (Full article)

Graduation is the third studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios and Sony Music Studios in New York City and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. It was primarily produced by West and DJ Toomp, and features guest contributions from artists including Mos Def, Dwele, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and Chris Martin of Coldplay. The album’s cover artwork was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

Discovery:  I had both of Kanye’s first two albums in my collection.  Only natural to give this one a listen and add it.  There was also a lot of hype at the time as this album release coincided with 50 Cent’s Curtis (an album that was added and then quickly dropped from my collection).

Ranking:  Kanye’s first three albums are currently in rotation in my iTunes collection.  Out of those three, I would have to say this ranks last.

Rating: 2 stars

Favorites:  Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Everything I Am, Homecoming

I’m a big fan of Kanye’s first two albums, however I find that this album strays away from the higher standards that he had for his first two albums.

When Kanye West first hit the scene he really interested me.  Being a protege of Jay-Z instantly made me interested, and the fact that he was in a car crash and dropped some tracks with his mouth wired shut (that didn’t sound like crap) was impressive.  On his first two albums Kanye did a good job of mixing hip-hop and dance style tracks that flowed well together.

On Graduation, Kanye definitely moved towards the more dance-style tracks.  He drew a lot of inspiration from bands such as U2 to do more “anthemic, inspirational music”.  Kanye produced most of this album and included a lot of synth in many of the tracks which I’m really not a big fan of.  Also a gratuitous use of auto-tune on some of the tracks didn’t impress me.

All this said, Graduation did receive the Grammy for Best Rap Album.  But we all know that music awards in this day in age are stupid and pointless.

The albums first single, Stronger, is a remix/mashup/whatever of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.  The song got massive airplay and was a staple in many bars and clubs.  Because of this, I grew tired of it quickly.  To be honest, I didn’t find it to be different enough from the Daft Punk track.  Mostly it just seems like he’s rapping over the same track.  Lame, in my opinion.

This album also contains probably the worst hip-hop song in my library, Drunk and Hot Girls.  The content of the song is exactly what the title says, Kanye rapping about Drunk and Hot Girls.  What’s worse is that this track features Mos Def.  Considering some of the awesome songs they’ve collaborated on in the past, this was a huge let down.

The album does have it’s bright spots.  Can’t Tell Me Nothing is an awesome track over a classic Kanye hip-hop beat.  In the retrospecitve track Everything I Am, Kanye raps:

Damn, here we go again / Everything I’m not made me everything I am

Kanye also collaborates with Chris Martin of Coldplay on the track Homecoming.  I’m not a fan of Coldplay at all but I am a big fan of this track.

In general, I just find this album boring.  Aside from a few tracks mentioned above it doesn’t really flow well.  Considering how well his first albums flowed (including skits, intros, etc. that you find in most rap albums), Graduation seemed like a thrown-together piece of work after Kanye spent a week in a studio with a synthesizer and a bunch of old records to mix up.

I’m looking forward to having either of his first two albums show up for review as I believe they are much, much better offerings than Graduation.  If you’re considering adding some Kanye West to your collection, try his rookie and sophomore albums before testing this one.

Dylan

Last week was a full week of extra-curricular events at the Atlassian office in San Francisco.  One of the great things about working for this company is that there always seems to be something fun that part of (or the entire team) is taking part in.

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

About 20 members of the Atlassian team participated in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge.  The event is a 5KM race in downtown San Francisco that is geared specifically to corporate teams in the Bay Area.  Check out the photo of our team below!

This isn’t the first time Atlassian has entered the race, as I believe we’ve participated a few years past.  Last year we actually one the Best T-Shirt Competition but unfortunately did not this year.  That being said I love our shirts!  Not only is it another great shirt to add to my growing Atlassian wardobe, but they’re also made from organic cotton and printed with earth-friendly ink.  Win!

It was a cloudy evening for the race but that didn’t stop nearly 6500+ people from participating.  Teams from larger companies like Genentech, VMware and SalesForce definitely dwarfed our small Atlassian team.  The race started and finished just south of the Embarcadero, completing a loop around AT&T Park.  I was excited to finally be able to check out McCovey Cove where the San Francisco Giants infamous Splash Hits into the water occur.

It was an awesome race and I’m looking forward to next years event!

Atlassian EOFY Event - The Go Game

The following day was our EOFY (End of Financial Year) event which was kept a secret to the entire staff.  The only things we received were some really cool Atlassian windbreakers and instructions to meet up at Washington Square Park by 1:00 PM.

What ensued was an epic Amazing Race style competition between the entire staff!  We were split into 8 different colored teams and proceeded to explore North Beach for clues, challenges and contests to try to come out on top of the competition.  And guess what, our team did!  See a picture of team yellow (cleverly named The Golden Showers) below:

The event was put on by The Go Game, a company that specializes in team building events such as the one we had that day.  It was organized really well, with each team needing to take photos/videos and complete challenges via mobile phones.  At the end of the event all teams met up at the Bocce Cafe and photos and videos were voted on to determine the winner.

Personally it was a great way for me to explore a part of the city that I have yet to see.  I would recommend this activity to any company that’s looking to have a great team building exercise that’s also super fun at the same time!

Shameless Plug

I’ve mentioned this in a few other posts as well, but Atlassian is hiring!  We’re trying to ramp up our San Francisco team as we’ve got lots of work ahead of us in the next few years, and lots of capital to back our awesome plan!  If these events seem like something you’d like to do as part of your work then why not submit your resume!?

Dylan