Please be aware that I will be out of office from December 18th until January 13th. I will be back in the office on Monday, January 14th. For any technical support questions, please contact THQ tech support. Otherwise, I will be responding to e-mails and forum posts when I get back in the office on the 14th.
I wish everyone in the community a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
Well, one of our favourite fansites, RelicNews, has their Yearbook open again this year 
Go check it out, meet some of the faces behind the names on the forums…
http://www.relicnews.com/yearbook/2007
:)
I’m back from vacation. It was fun… got to see all my old friends on the east cost. I took some cool pics too but you know me, I never get around to posting them. (I’ll still try!)
I’ll be getting to all your e-mails and questions shortly. There may be a bit of delay since there’s quite a high volume of e-mails in my inbox right now so please be patient!
Thanks everyone, I’m glad to be back!
Hi everyone,
Unfortunately I’m going to be out of town with limited access to a computer for my vacation. I’ll be back Monday, September 10th and I can answer your questions and concerns that were e-mailed, posted on the blog, or on forums, etc.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
See you all soon
(I’m going to Toronto, Montreal, and London Ontario to visit old friends from university!)
76 new e-mails in exactly 2 minutes… 744 e-mails in the past 2 days… this beta is out of control! I had 1000 keys to giveaway for the beta and they are all gone now. Still waiting for e-mails to filter in.
Nah, it’s under control. Beta is expected to start next week. And yes, anyone who got community keys will get theirs before Fileplanet subscribers.
I’ll be sending out the keys as soon as I receive them. Thanks for your patience. And yes, anyone who participated in all their games for the official tournament WILL get their keys (I’ll send those out first)… so no need to e-mail me if you were in the tournament!
See you all in the beta soon 
What do you guys think would be some good ideas for contests I can run to give away beta keys?
I have some ideas but it can’t hurt to have more!
Cheers!
P.S. This weekend I went BUNGEE JUMPING for the first time! Pics soon.
… why do the guys at Relic always insist on accompanying every e-mail thread with an internet cat photo? LOL.
One of the hardest things about being a community manager is the lull between game releases. Right up to game release there is a lot of content to post, and right after game release there is a lot of information to post. But what about in between? There are contests, concept art, tournaments, etc… but what else can be done to keep the community happy?
Yep… a 7′10″ Al Merrick hand-made longboard… MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
I don’t know why, but I’m completely obsessed with surfing right now. (P.S. the pic below is from the deck of my new apartment!)
Click below to see more (AWESOME) pictures
This past weekend I had my annual clan meet. We played Xbox 360 all weekend long. It was awesome.
Plus, I’ve found my new favourite game! Guitar Hero II. OH MY GOSH. So addictive. I played it for about 5 hours straight. I think I have a mild case of tendinitis now (no, seriously). I know what I’ll be playing over the next couple weeks. ^___^
Last night I couldn’t sleep with all the songs going through my head…. TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I just moved into my new apartment downtown Vancouver. It was nice to move out of home, even though I’m pretty close with my family. I lived in apartments for 4 years in Ontario when I was going to university, but this is completely different! New pad, a roommate from work, and lots of space!
It’s got hardwood floors, a great big deck, and really nice views. It’s an older apartment building but the place itself is completely renovated. For anyone who knows Vancouver, it’s at Haro and Jervis near to Robson. I’ll try and post some pictures once I get the place furnished. It’s been tough work moving everything around, unpacking and assembling furniture, etc. Fortunately I have some great friends who have been helping me
In other news, I’ve started golfing again this season. I really suck… I started a couple years ago but am determined to get good this year.
:)
Urgh… remind me not to play floor hockey on Friday, snowboard on both Saturday and Sunday, and then workout all in one weekend when I was supposed to be recovering from a cold. *sniffle* My body’s a total disaster right now!
Anyway, good morning… it’s Monday! A new week… hope you all had a good weekend
Well… you guys know I am a big fan… but there are also big Canucks fans at Relic.
Here are some AWESOME shots done up by artist Shawn Woods, a good friend of mine.
Many of us here are cheering for the Canucks…. and all I have to say is one thing….. BELIEVE!
For those of you in the rest of the world who don’t know what I am talking about, check out this link: http://www.canucks.com
GO CANUCKS GO!
Hooray, it’s Friday. At least that’s something to cheer about. Sorry for the pessimism.. it’s just that the Canucks had a change to win the series last night but lost, and now we are going back to Dallas for Game 6. I’m a little disheartened but I still believe we can do it. Don’t worry, you can’t discourage this fan for long!
Friday’s have gotten even more fun at Relic. Aside from donuts on Friday mornings, the Relic Cultural Committee has created something called “Game On.” So at the end of the day for a little bit, we give out some drinks and snacks and the employees get together and play 360/PS3/Wii/pool/foosball etc… it is pretty fun. Recently there has been a big Guitar Hero craze. I’ll post some pictures from our Game On session last week.
Crazy emergency stairwells in our building
A little playoff action at Tristan’s place
Guitar Hero during “Game On” last Friday
More Game On action
More Guitar Hero
Hacky sack outside the office
Canucks up in the series 2-1!
Holy, man I wish I was running down Robson right now!
As promised, here is my recap of last night. Vancouver-Dallas Round 1 Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs ^___^.
There are a LOT of pictures, videos, sound clips etc so click below to see the rest.
So guess who I met yesterday? Trevor Linden…. my hero for the past 16 years
I was at Vij’s restaurant with a friend when he sat down right beside us for dinner. I was freaking out the entire time and somehow managed to ambush him outside after and get him to sign my jersey (yes, the same jersey I am wearing all day every day). He offered to take a picture with me… and also, I am never showering again.
Expect a VERY cool announcement from me sometime this week on the blog… ^_^
Also, in other news… I’ve been getting a bit better at boarding but I’m still having a terrible time on the flat parts. Strangely enough, the steepness on harder runs doesn’t really bother me as much. Tomorrow I will be taking a vacation day and hitting up the local Cypress mountain. (Relic employees get free ski passes here). They’ve been closing at night but suddenly today they got a whole whack of snow (18cm!). Should be good grounds for practicing. I’ve really got to get in a LOT of practice before the season runs out if I’m going to be able to keep up with the Relic guys on the next Big White ski trip. I don’t want to be left alone on the bunny hills 
This long weekend I’m planning on going to Mt. Baker in Washington for some more practice on the way to Seattle to visit and hang out with friends. Should be a great weekend and I’ll make it back on time for Easter dinner with the family on Sunday.
Some other cool news at Relic… we recently got 46″ plasmas installed in the office… 2 out in the 16th floor lobby, and then a few scattered around the office in the team areas. It’s actually really cool. They’ve made all the corner offices into team meeting areas, instead of having producers or higher-ups in them. They’ve put in couches, TVs, computers, gaming consoles into them… it’s great for testing out new games and for having team meetings. Much better atmosphere than before. Just another reason why Relic is soooo fun to work at ^_^
Edit: Here are some pictures from recent events
Entrance from the elevators on the 16th floor of the Relic Offices
When Adrian and I went to the Canucks game
Gotta love the orca whale…. LOL… man, I can’t wait till they get a new logo/mascot next year…
After the game, me jumping outside of the Relic offices…. I got some good height! ^___^
My new snowboard!
Yeah, yesterday for three hours I tried snowboarding. It was a lot harder than I thought! Fortunately Chris Degnan (a designer at Relic) also came up with us for the day to Whistler and gave me a lesson. He was a really good teacher and I learned a lot.
Here’s a funny video of me noobing it up at Whistler on a snowboard for the first time ever! (I’m so sorry Skiing, I’ll have to forsake you for now…)
Noob Snowboarder (Right-Click Save As to download, ~32 MB)
Will post pictures later today.
I totally sucked the bag today at Relic floor hockey at lunch time. Boourns. I was a sieve. (I was playing in goal)
In some more positive news, one of my roommates who I lived with for four years and who also happens to be one of my best friends is flying up today from San Francisco to visit I have to pick him up from Seattle tonight, we’re going to rush back to try and drink with the Relic folks who are going out tonight for Carota’s birthday, and then go skiing at Whistler on the weekend, and go to a Canucks game on Sunday night. Then I gotta drive him back to Seattle overnight. It’s going to be a crazy busy weekend but it should be fun