This past weekend was a blast at Big White. For the past couple years, I have been organizing a Vancouver video game industry/tech industry ski and snowboard trip. We usually go to Big White, and every year I look forward to hanging out with friends, past and current coworkers, and meeting new people. Here are just a couple pics from our trip, but I have a pretty awesome video coming up with snowboarding footage and some funny moments… but I still have a Kicking Horse video to edit so that will come first.

Here we all are heading up on the bus… sold out again this year! 56 peeps.

Friends on the chairlift… Crista, Trevor, Allan, Greg, and Mozy.

Here I am on the chairlift looking all covered up. It was a bit chilly.

We had a big get-together on Saturday night after boarding… about 80% of the bus showed up which was pretty good! Lots of fun to have everyone together and have some drinks. You can see Rielly (thejerk) in the background here. He got some hilarious footage which I will edit into our video.

Many drinking games were played that night…

And I think we all had a great time!

There was also tequila…

… and then we headed out our “usual” bar there, Snowshoe Sam’s. It’s always a great time, and like every year, I ended up playing on the foosball table half the night.

The walk back from the bar is never a pretty one.

Allan somehow managed to find Christmas lights and he tied some randoms up. Haha.

Hanging out on the chairlift…

The snow was really great at Big White even though we didn’t have a dump of fresh snow. It’s so cold and dry up there that it stays really nice.

Crista looking cute!

Me and Trev vs. the dog. Not sure what it was doing up there!

We got some great video footage from the two days at Big White… we found tons of natural jumps and jibs… here’s a little teaser for the video… check out that awesome tree jib!

More to come soon. Thanks for reading!

Thanks to everyone for entering the contest for the Westbeach Outerwear… we ended up having 142 entries!

Last night Allan and I drew a random winner from the contest on video… watch the video to find out if you won! Please excuse our silliness… it was late at night

Congratulations to the winner! This $420 value of Westbeach Lady Racer Jacket and Rendezvous Pants will be mailed to you. Please e-mail me at allie@vancityallie.com to claim your prize. If the prize is not claimed within 7 days, another winner will be drawn.

——-

In other news, every year we organize a group ski and snowboard trip through Canadian Outback Adventures… this year we are going to Big White. Leave Friday night on January 29th and come back Sunday night on January 31st so you don’t miss any work.You get 2 nights accommodations in luxury condos with full kitchens, vaulted ceilings, and private hot tubs on the deck… also included is round trip bus transportation from Vancouver, 2 days of lift tickets to Big White, and an apres ski party with free appies.

Last year we sold out our trip, and this year promises to as well. There are a few popular Vancouver bloggers going, not to mention tons of rad people in the Vancouver video game industry, tech industry, and cool guys and girls from all over the world who are flying in for this.

If you are interested, please e-mail allie@vancityallie.com and I’ll send you details.

——-

I’ve got a few posts to catch up on… coming up on the blog… some photos from our dinner party on the weekend with the parents meeting the parents (Eeek!), a Christmas party with our friends, and an outerwear round-up post with some reviews and recommendations for snowboard gear this winter. Not to mention our upcoming trip this weekend to Kicking Horse in Golden, BC and Sunshine Village in Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta!

Okay, so it’s a little early… but for those of us working office day jobs, many workplaces are celebrating Halloween today… so, I dressed up today instead of tomorrow. I don’t have any particular Halloween plans this year. I think I’m going to enjoy taking a little break at home, as it’s been a mad rush the past few weeks. With starting the new job, apartment makeovers, party planning, and events with friends, my life has been crazy hectic.

Anyway, back to Halloween

This year at work I recycled an old costume and dressed up as Minnie Mouse. I don’t have a photo of me in costume today, but it looks kinda like this, except with bright red pumps. I know, lame right? I have to admit I was feeling a little uninspired.

Here are some of my costumes in previous years, which were a little more creative.

My absolute favourite costume, Cortana from Halo. It’s a little nerdy, but it’s works well at a video game company

Some sort of fairy with wings. Okay, so maybe these aren’t creative at all. I believe this is now called the “duck face”.

Trevor Linden! My all-time favourite Canucks and hockey player.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day today and of course, night out tomorrow for Halloween… hope you all stay safe and have a lot of fun!

Well, at least it seems so in my life!

I mentioned I had a big announcement to make today, and since then I’ve been getting Facebook messages and MSN messages asking me if I am pregnant or engaged. NO PEOPLE, no. Goodness!

Yes, today is my last day at work at a wonderful company. Since graduating university, I’ve been working in the video game industry here in Vancouver. While I absolutely loved games, since March I’ve been trying my hand at working at a software company as a Product Marketing Manager. I was blown away. I can’t say enough good things about this company, my boss, and about my coworkers. In all honesty, I could have seen myself working here for another 5+ years. I’ve been extremely happy here.

And so… if it was any other company that called me three weeks ago, I would have said no. I would have said that I couldn’t make a change now. But, it was that company.

Growing up, one of my closest relatives was my uncle who was working in software at the time. He was a programmer, and when he set up a 486 computer for my family… I fell in love with computers and technology. As I mentioned in my blog post here, I’ve always been a huge nerd. Although I grew up into the arts and playing sports, I wanted to be a programmer when I grew up. Yes, I had a copy of Bill Gates’ “The Road Ahead”. My childhood dream was always to work for Bill. Yes, I know I’m the devil. I took AP Computer Science for a couple years in high school, and I got accepted to Waterloo for Computer Sciences. At the last minute, I made a drastic decision and decide to go to Western and Ivey instead for Business. I’ve always loved video games and in university I joined an Xbox 360 clan and pretty much played dozens of hours a week. And so it was natural that I ended up working in the video game industry after graduation.

Yep, I actually like Windows Vista. I’m excited for Windows 7. I drove down to the States to buy a Zune. I’m probably the only person I know who has a Zune. I use MSN Messenger exclusively as my messaging platform. I own an Xbox 360. I think you can tell where my loyalties lie.

So, as my boss likes to call it, I’ve “crossed over to the dark side”. Next Tuesday, I will be starting my new job full-time at… yup, you guessed it.

I’ll be working at their game studio here in Vancouver, part of their Games Division. I’m nervous, excited, and very happy. I feel like I’m taking a big risk. I can’t believe my childhood dream is actually coming true.

Back into video games!

————-

In other news, this weekend Allan and I have been invited to stay for two nights at the Wickaninnish Inn in our favourite place, Tofino. We’ve eaten there before and it was fantastic, but never stayed there. We feel very grateful and fortunate for the opportunity (hurray, no camping in the cold this time!). It’s a Relais & Châteaux property, and in my opinion, the most beautiful luxury hotel in Tofino. It couldn’t come at a better time… a little mini long weekend getaway for surf and relaxation before the new job starts to clear our slate is exactly what we need. We leave tomorrow morning and come back Sunday night. I’ll definitely have some photos and videos for you!

There was a time, when being a nerd was not cool at all. These days, it seems like being a “nerd” or a “geek” is pretty socially acceptable. My whole life I’ve pretty much been a nerd of some sort, and while there were times when it made life hard… but mostly I am glad for it.

I think most people in the social media space, or bloggers, consider themselves to be nerds of some sort… I mean writing about yourself on the internet was pretty nerdy at one time! With Facebook, Twitter, etc… I think it is safe to say that it’s mainstream now.

There are many different kinds of nerds…

Computer Nerds: Programming geeks, internet geeks, forum geeks, hardware geeks etc…

Social Media Nerds: Bloggers, Facebook power users, Twits, Dating-site geeks, the social media nerds that join every social networking site…

Music Nerds: Piano geeks, musical geeks, musical theatre geeks, composers, DJs etc…

MacGyver Nerds: DIYers, LEGO geeks, Robotics geeks, A/V geeks, etc…

“Fandom” Nerds: Sports geeks, WoW guild members, Twi Hards, Star Wars geeks, Trekkies, etc…

Gaming Nerds: Board game geeks, Xbox, Playstation, PC… you name it…

Academic Nerds: Book nerds, Smart geeks, PhDers… etc…

—————

I think I’ve been a geek in just about every category there at some point in my life… I’m not really embarrassed of it anymore, but let’s face it… it used to be hard to be a nerd!

So, this blog post is for all the nerds out there! I want to explore some of my nerdy past, and I hope you share yours with me

—————

Let’s start backwards with those categories.

I’ve always been an Academic Nerd. When I was younger, I used to read a book a day. I spent most of my days in the school library. I was a Librarian’s Assistant at one point, haha. I still love reading even though I don’t have as much time for it anymore. I cared a lot about school. I studied a lot. I got straight As. I was made fun of in elementary school and high school like most nerds. I graduated from university with an Honours Business Administration degree from Ivey at Western. I generally preferred studying to partying.

I love Science World, the Planetarium, the Aquarium… anything science-y and geeky!

I played innertube waterpolo in university. Haha!

I’ve always been a Gaming Nerd. When I was little I used to play Pacman and Hangman on my old 486 computer. I played King’s Quest, Monkey Island, and all the old Sierra Adventure games. I played Math Blaster.

Eventually, I got an Xbox, and then an Xbox 360. I was part of an Xbox gaming clan for many years. Yes, I even went to Xbox gaming conventions. I pretty much played my Xbox 360 all through university, even when we’d have parties over at our place.

I love all kinds of games. Fighting games, shooters, music games, MMOs, RTS… you name it. The game I’m looking forward to most right now is Gears of War 3. I worked in the video game industry for several years.

I even got into shooting rifles because I loved gaming so much. No, not at animals or people. Just targets.

I love trivia games. I pretty much live for Cranium.

I dressed up as “Cortana” from Halo for Halloween.

I’m a bit of a “Fandom” Nerd too. I’m a big Twilight fan (a “Twi Hard”)… I set stalked, I blogged about it, I read Twilight sites every evening.

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge Canucks fan since I was little.

I’m a bit of a Star Wars geek. I own Star Wars LEGO. I decorated our kitchen in university with Star Wars comic books.

Yes, I even visited the Star Wars store in Aberdeen, Washington. I think the store owner’s Carrie Fisher tattoo is pretty rad.

I thought getting a Star Wars 3D puzzle for Christmas was awesome.

I’m a bit of a MacGyver Nerd.  When I was little, my dad cut the telephone line to our modem in my room because I surfing the internet too much. I found his soldering iron in the garage and I soldered all the wires back together and got on the internet again.

I used to patch cables from my computer to an old TV and an old VCR to do old school video editing. Yes, I was even part of the Robotics club in high school. And yeah, I loved the LEGO Mindstorms kits and frequently built robots with my little brother.

Believe it or not, I was also kind of a Music Nerd. I played piano and went to piano theory classes. I got up to Grade 7 RCM in piano. I kinda hated it though. I was a big Musical Theatre geek too. I played dress up. I played silly roles for musicals in high school. I was a geek.

I consider myself to be a bit of a Social Media Nerd. I started a home grown blog (no Wordpress or anything like that back then) in 1998 when I was 14 and had my own photo blog for several years! I had a 6-digit ICQ number. I met my first boyfriend in a Yahoo! chat room when I was 12. That was kind of awkward. I still use IRC, and of course I’m on the mainstream social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc. I’m not as much of a power user anymore, but it’s still fun.

And last, but not least, I am definitely still a big Computer Nerd. My computer is still my most valued material possession in my life. Here’s a shot of the old computer I built when I was younger. I had a blast going and getting all the parts and putting it together myself. I still build my own computers (I need a picture of my new one!).

I buy shirts off ThinkGeek. Yeah, I have a “No, I will not fix your computer” shirt.

When I went to university, I actually hand-packed my hard drives for my carry-on so I could bring my desktop computer, instead of buying a computer on the East Coast or getting one of those new-fangled laptops

I thought visiting Microsoft was the coolest day of my life. Bill Gates is my hero.

I drove all the way to Portland to pick up a Zune when it launched! I love my Blackberry, and I own a ton of different gadgets and techie tools. I even owned a Palm LifeDrive at one point… haha. I’ve gone through 4 different sets of the Logitech diNovo Keyboard/Media Pad.

I usually have 25+ tabs open in my Firefox. I love video editing. I love PhotoShop. I used to design and build webpages and graphics for money. I used to FXP and I still FTP. I’ve been a member of several internet forums since I was 12 years old.

I’m a bit of a photography nerd too.

I met people from internet forums when I was only 14 years old. I still meet people from the internet and internet forums. Hopefully I get to meet all of you soon too!

—————

Phew! That post turned out longer than I meant it to. Guess I’m a bit geekier than I thought. I’m sure most of you reading this are pretty geeky yourselves. As you know, it can be hard, especially when growing up. But these days I think it’s easier to be a nerd and easier to be proud of it!

I’ve had my lunch stomped on, I’ve had people break my glasses, I’ve been called four-eyes, I’ve been called a bookworm, and I’ve definitely been made fun of for all my nerdy things throughout my life. I’m sure most of you can relate… it just makes us stronger! While I’ve had my share of self-esteem issues because of it… today, I feel very comfortable and strong in my own skin. I’m really thankful for all of those experiences growing up.

So let’s celebrate our nerdiness! Who else is a nerd? What kind of nerd are you? Please share your story!