CreelmanKid

Oliebollen with Oma

2012-01-19T23:44:00.001-06:00

At the end of each year, my Oma (Dutch for Grandma) makes Oliebollen for all of her children and grandchildren. It's a tradition from Holland to have them every year on the 31st of December.

So.. What is it exactly? Well, it's like a doughnut, deep fried and topped with icing sugar.

Wikipedia puts it this way..

"An oliebol (plural oliebollen pronunciation) is a traditional Dutch food. Oliebollen (literally oil balls) are traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve and at funfairs. They are also called smoutebollen (literally lard balls) in Belgium. In English they are more commonly known as Dutch Doughnuts.
Oliebollen are a variety of dumpling made by using an ice-scooper or two spoons to scoop a certain amount of dough and dropping the dough into a deep fryer filled with hot oil. In this way, a sphere-shaped oliebol emerges.
The dough is made from flour, eggs, yeast, some salt, milk, baking powder and usually sultanas, currants, raisins and sometimes zest or succade. A notable variety is the appelbeignet, which contains a slice of apple. The dough needs time to rise for at least an hour. Oliebollen are usually served with powdered sugar."

Because it has been a New Year's Eve tradition, I always wanted to get it on camera, just because I thought it was a cool process and didn't want to take it for granted. I finally filmed her making them this past year (2011) and this is what I came up with.

Happy New Year.

2010 Olympic Torch Relay

2012-01-11T22:58:00.001-06:00

I was lucky enough to be one of the 12,000 people, selected out of an estimated 1,000,000 applicants, to carry the Olympic Flame on its way to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

It was an awesome experience, but so were the Olympics in general; following Team Canada on their quest to Own the Podium. Need a reminder? Check out Stephen Brunt's Video Essay at the end of this post.

Here are some pictures, videos and highlights on "Vancouver 2010".

(Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day I carried the torch. I just wanted to repost this on Blogger, as I am no longer using the site this was originally posted on. Thanks for checking it out.)

Videos

Check out these Vancouver 2010 Olympic Videos.

1. Olympic Torch Relay 2010 | Day 74 | Elrose, SK - Allan filmed my torch run in Elrose, SK
2. Olympic Torch Relay - Days 71 - 77 Highlights - Weekly highlights from the VANOCwebteam. Watch 1:44.
3. Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay Preview (Coldplay - Fix You) - An inspirational video of the flame's legacy.
4. 2010 Winter Olympics Montage - Stephen Brunt Video Essay - What these games mean to Canada...
5. With Glowing Hearts - Promotional ad for the Olympics coming to Canada.
6. I Believe - Nikki Yanofsky - The Unofficial Vancouver 2010 Olympic Theme Song by Nikki Yanofsky.
7. Meet the Vancouver 2010 Mascots - Get to know the 2010 Mascots. Quatchi, Miga, & Sumi.
8. Believe - Suzie McNeil - Olympic Inspired version of Suzie McNeil's song Believe

Watch the whole Playlist on YouTube - Vancouver 2010 Olympic Playlist
Watch Olympic Highlights on YouTube - Vancouver Olympics YouTube Channel

Coca-Cola

I applied to be an Olympic Torchbearer through Coke and RBC. All because I told Coca-Cola about how I live on The Coke Side of Life, for about 9 minutes I got to carry and hold high the Olympic flame in Elrose, Saskatchewan.

When I saw the celebration in Regina, I wished that it could have been me on that stage, getting the publicity and interviews. However, during one of the greatest days of my life, I was reminded by the spirit of Elrose, that if I didn't carry the torch in small town Saskatchewan, I wouldn't have done it my way.

Life is Good.
Thank you Coca-Cola!

Open Happiness Song Download: http://bit.ly/OpenHappiness

Pictures
My Google+ Photo Album of the big day, plus other Torch related events.
Elrose Picassa Photo Album by the Saskatchewan Pavillion (Tourism Saskatchewan)

Top 10 Olympic Moments

10. Gretzky saying that playing Germany in the Men's Hockey Qualification Round would be exactly what Team Canada would need.
9. Chris Del Bosco's attempt in Men's Ski Cross to push for second as he wasn't content with a Bronze Medal. Men's Ski Cross
8. The entire country holding their breathe in the hope that Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir could strike Gold in Ice Dance. And they did. Ice Dance
7. Charles Hamelin winning two Gold Medals in Short Track Speed Skating, most notably the finish in the Men's 500m race where America's Apolo Anton Ohno was disqualified. 500m
6. The Netherland's Sven Kramer climbing through the stands to hug his family after winning the Men's 5000m Long Track Speed Skating with an Olympic Record. 5000m Record
5. Joannie Rochette's Bronze Medal figure skating performance after the passing of her mother. Joannie Rochette
4. The fans at the Men's Curling game who burst into the Canadian National Anthem in the middle of the game. Twice. Men's Curling
3. Alexandre Bilodeau winning the first Gold Medal on Canadian snow. Freestyle Moguls Gold Medal Presentation
2. Jon Montgomery getting handed a pitcher of beer while walking down the streets of Whistler to his CTV interview after winning Gold. Men's Skeleton
1. Crosby's goal. Gretzky was right. Gold Medal Hockey Game

Honourable Mention: Morgan Freeman's Visa Commercials: Hope you like pancakes, Norway.

Canada's Games

An inspirational Olympic video essay about what these games mean to Canada...
By Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail.

Beauty.

Canadian Internet

2011-12-03T13:15:00.001-06:00

When I heard this story on CBC Radio's news program This is That, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Apparently there is a group out there, the Association of Canadian Content, who wants to make only Canadian sites available to people surfing the Internet in Canada. A Canadian Only Internet.

I was hoping this was a joke but I'm even more worried about this now that these previews of Canadian only sites have surfaced online.

Hill BSS Poster Boy

2011-10-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

In the 2010 Fall Semester at the University of Regina I joined (well, I guess I was accepted or "made the cut" so to speak) the Paul J. Hill School of Business Students' Society, the Hill BSS.

My job? Poster Designer. Not the most prestigious position, heck I think I was the last name listed on the BSS Depth Chart, but it was definitely the most fun. I got to work with pretty much everyone on the BSS at least once to design posters, flyers, tickets, and web banners for various events and activities.

Looking back, it was just a lot of fun to get involved, in my second year at the U of R, with an awesome group of people who will no doubt dominate in the near future.

One of the posters that I happened to get a lot of positive feedback from, which was also one of my favourite posters to create, was for the Halloween "Moster Mash Bash." So, since it's that time of year, I thought I'd use Halloween as an excuse to showcase some of my work with the BSS.

Check them out and let me know what you think.

Google+ Album
or
Facebook Album
and
Hill BSS

Follow my Year at VanArts

2011-09-11T13:44:00.003-06:00

On September 6th, 2011 I started the 1 year 3D Character Animation program at VanArts (Vancouver Institute of Media Arts) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

If you want to see what my life is like in the "big city" and what I'm up to at VanArts you can keep up to date by following me on my various social media sites.

YouTube
(Videos! Check out my VanArts Vlog playlist here
and my Animation Project playlist here)

Twitter
(Tweet me! @CreelmanKid)

Tumblr
(Thoughts and pictures, mainly pictures)

Google+
(You can send me an email from here)

Facebook
(Great if you're on the Facebooks)

If you're not into that sort of thing, but still want to know what I'm up too, don't worry!
Just check out the VanArts Page here on my Blogger blog for a weekly digest.

Here's my first vlog, check out the YouTube Playlist to see all of the videos.

Shades of Pixar in Parade Floats

2011-07-25T00:11:00.002-06:00

For me, the Creelman Fair (put on by the Creelman Agricultural Society) is the biggest event of the year and in 20 years I haven't missed one.

One of the highlights of the annual fair is the Parade that goes down the service road, adjacent to Highway 33, turns down Main Street, and then heads to the fair grounds. When I was younger, my dream was always to build a float and one day be a part of the Creelman Fair Parade.

One day, about a week before the fair in 2003, on an old flat bed trailer in my Oma's shed, my brothers, cousins, and I got to work on what would be our first of many parade floats. "Hockey Night in Creelman" was a success, it was our "Toy Story".

So what are the other connections to Pixar Animation Studios? Well...

Just as Pixar has reoccurring themes in every film, we used the same style of lettering on each float. The same letters that we traced and cut in 2003 were either reused directly on the float or used as a stencil for new letters out of the same old corrugated bulletin board covering from Creelman School. Then, continuing after our second float, green artificial turf became a staple as well.

After that first year we thought that we might run out of ideas if we tried to do one every year, so we decided to try to make a float every other year. When Pixar started it was never about quantity, but more so on quality, kind of like us. We did make the one exception, however, that if the Saskatchewan Roughriders ever won the Grey Cup we would make a Rider float even if it was in back to back years.

Pixar films are known for their stories while other animated movies seem to lack the quality Pixar produces. In parades, lots of floats can be pulled by one guy in a truck and that's good enough because they will usually have a big colourful float with a huge "thing" on it and some sort of message. Our floats stood out, and not because they were just flatbed trailers with kids on them. Our floats wouldn't have been the same without the people. That's what made our floats stand out, the people and the story they told by being on that float.

Hockey Night in Creelman - 2003
I would have been 12 years old at the time, meaning my siblings and cousins ranged in age from 11-5. With the help of my uncles and dad we put together what I consider the greatest float in the history of the Creelman Fair, or close to it.
Hockey Night in Creelman featured a couple of kids playing ball hockey on a trailer bed. We had a net, a tennis ball tied to the trailer floor with binder twine (so we wouldn't lose it), a chicken wire backstop, and hockey boards to display the tagline. On the front of the trailer was a desk with two of my brothers suited up as Don Cherry and Ron MacLean who threw candy out of a replica Stanley Cup (if the greatest part about the parade was getting candy, the second best thing had to be throwing it out to people).
Award: Neil McCallum Parade Award - The entry which best captures the spirit of Creelman's "Biggest Little Fair."

Have a Ball at the Fair - 2005
If our floats have any connection with Pixar, this was definitely our "Cars" of the bunch. It was good, but nothing special. It stood out, but not with the same flare as some of the other floats we were going to make in the future. But it got the job done.
The slogan was a classic and that green artificial turf with masking tape baselines looked solid.

Creelman Gas - 2007
Based on the hit CTV television show, Corner Gas, this float was a classic. We went all out with a gas pump, counter from "The Ruby", and a custom Corner Gas sign (thanks to the help of Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Larry, and Uncle Lawrence), but the thing that really made this float was the people. Just like our first float, we had a great cast of character that really brought the float to life.
I tried to get in contact with the actors and actually sent a few emails back and forth with a few agents, but they were on tour promoting in the United States, so we went with our original plan and took on the roles of Brent, Hank, Davis, Oscar, and Lacey.
Award: Best Non-Commercial Float

Rider Pride - 2008
After the Saskatchewan Roughriders' third Grey Cup Championship in November of 2007, we had to break with our "float every two years" tradition and make a Rider Pride Float the next summer. I tried to get Gainer the Gopher to come to the fair (as I'm told he has been there before), but it was game day so it didn't work out.
The lines on the field turf looked pretty good and so did the uprights at the back of the float. Besides the uprights, the two other major projects were the Grey Cup and the wooden retro Rider logo on the front of the float (if it was on the front I only had to cut and paint one, see I was learning a lot about symmetry).

Winter Olympics - 2010
In 2010 I was lucky enough to be an Olympic Torch Bearer in the Torch's journey to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Torch Bearers are then allowed to buy the torch they carry as a keep sake. My grandpa made a deal with me that he would pay for the Torch as long as I brought it to the Creelman Fair. Done and done.
This worked out perfectly as 2010 was 2 years after our last float and an Olympic themed float could fit into the rotation nicely.
We had the Olympic Rings, and sure having the torch there was nice, but building a 3D version of the Vancouver Inukshuk logo and having a variety of Olympians on the float was the best part.

Now, the comparisons to Pixar could be a stretch, but I know we did something special year after year. We became closer as a family while building the floats and we learned a lot (from welding, to carpentry, to design), we made people smile, and heck we even made the Weyburn Review! But the best thing, in my eyes, is that we were able to fulfill a simple dream. I wanted to enter a float in the Creelman Fair Parade, and well, I did it.

See more Creelman Fair Parade Float photos on Flickr.