We arrived to Molson’s own bar buzzing with bloggers mingling and Neil Harnett providing the tunes.

Photo credit: Ianiv & Arieanna

The atmosphere was electric! I was a little overwhelmed at first trying to figure out what was going on, but we got our bearings and bee-lined it to the bar where we picked up our first beer. Who would’ve thought that we would be served Rickard’s Red by Gord Rickards himself!

Elisa & Brewmaster Gord Rickards

Bringing a sense of history to the occasion, Molson Brewery founder John Molson’s great-great-great-great-grandson, Geoff Molson, started the evening with a few words and history of the brewery and family.

Geoff Molson at Brew 2.0 Vancouver

The group was then treated to various food and beer pairings by Blair Rasmussen, Executive Chef at the Vancouver Convention Centre and Kerry Scarsbrook, Brewmaster.

Rickard’s Honey Brown Ale- Braised Bison Mini Sandwiches

Molson Brew 2.0 Menu

Scallop and Papaya Ceviche Crostini
paired with Rickard’s White

Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese Bruschetta
paired with Coor’s Light

Smoked Wild Salmon on Wild Rice and Beer Blini, Fennel Salad
paired with Molson Canadian

Prawn Quesadillas, Fresh Guacamole, Salsa Fresca
paired with Corona

Chorizo Empanadas
paired with Old Style Pilsner

Rickard’s Honey Brown Ale- Braised Bison Mini Sandwiches
paired with Rickard’s Red

Cheeseboard with Aged Cheddars, Brie and Gorgonzola
Walnut Baguette, Flat Bread and Crackers
Blair’s Addictive Beer Nuts
paired with Heineken

After the mouth watering treats we split up into 2 groups lead by Brewmasters Gord Rickards and Kerry Scarsbrook for a crash course in Beer 101 and tour of the brewery. After sampling different hops we ventured down to the line  where a 24/7 operation is run. Thousands of cans of Rickard’s Red zipped by at a dizzying pace! Here an engineer snatched fresh cans off the line like a skilled ninja.  I wouldn’t dare try it for the sake of stopping the line. A highlight of the tour was a sampling of the cans we received at the line which were timestamped at less then 2 minutes old making it the freshest beer I will ever taste. These cans were at the perfect tempature of -1°C.

Rickard's Red Line

We were then led back to the bar where we were treated to an exclusive brew of Rickard’s Gold by Gord Rickards made exlusively for Molson’s Vancouver 50th Anniversay and Brew 2.0, which will not be sold to the public!

Elisa, Geoff Molson, and me!

I had a lot of fun at the event and met some great people like Adam and Tonia from Molson’s social media team, Geoff Molson, 7th generation Molson, Meghan from Hill & Knowlton and of course all the Vancouver Social Media bloggers!

Leaving the event we were given taxi vouchers and some Molson parting gifts: 50th Anniversary glass and a 1GB thumbdrive with promo material from the event.

The next day I was called out to reception for a package which turned out to be a Rickard’s sample pack!

I did not have an obligation to blog about the event, but Molson did this event right! I had such a good time, met some awesome people and felt honestly special to be invited to the event. They could’ve brought us to a room and have us sample the beer and go home, but no! They wined (beered?) and dined us, had an actually Molson interacting with everyone, and Mr. Rickard’s himself serving beer at the tap! How awesome is that?

Brewmaster in Training

Check out some other photo sets of the event via Flickr by Danny, Molson, Karen, Raul, Rebecca, Duane, and Ianiv. I’ll add more when I find them, or leave a comment and let me know of yours!

Update:Tonia Hammer’s blog post about the evening.

The Apple “Let’s Rock” event has come and gone, leaving us with a few new gadgets to blow our hard earned iCoin. The nano-chromatic iPod was the major product announcement today answering all the rumours. So it looks like the leaked photo of the nano is bang on! How many jobs were lost after this leak?

A few noteworthy features:

• Comes in 9 colours
• Accelerometer just like its bigger brothers touch and iPhone
• Shake to shuffle, just like in the Urban Spoon app
• Thinner with contoured stainless steel enclosure
• Longer battery life
• 8g ($169 CDN) and 16g ($219 CDN)

The iPod Touch gets a refresh with a few new features:

• Is now the funnest iPod ever, really? Funnest??
• Built-in speakers & volume button, like the iPhone
• Thinner and lighter
• Longer battery life
• 8g ($259 CDN), 16g ($329 CDN), and 32g ($429 CDN)

A few other things worth a brief mention:

• iTunes 8.0 is out - new visualizer is trippy!
• iPhone firmware 2.1 released this week, finally fix all those bugs!
• iPod Classic is still kickin’ it in black or white 120GB - $279 CDN
• NBC shows are back on iTunes
• Nike+ is built-in to the new touch and nano’s - any word on iPhone?

Well that was all that was released yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Were you satisfied? I’m still waiting on a 12″ Powerbook replacement! Bestest MacBook Pro Steve?

What the girl says to the guy “Du darfst Dir was wünschen.” which roughly translates to the english equivalent to “Make a wish”. Anyone want to hook me up with a test drive?

Photo Credit: Christopher Chan on Flickr

Good news islanders! Today Westjet annouced that they are now offering seasonal service to Las Vegas from Victoria (YYJ). No need to factor in ferry and parking costs. This new non-stop flight will operate three times weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Las Vegas is such a unique place to visit. I can’t think of any other city that comes close to the amount of money, tourist attractions, shows, and energy, all in a couple mile strip. I’ve only visited a few times but I know I have only scratched the surface. If you haven’t seen a Cirque Du Soleil show definitely do not miss out on O. It puts the little tent at False Creek to shame.

What was your favourite thing to do or memory in Vegas?

If you are a big Apple fan boy\girl then you know that today at 10AM PST Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event begins! Today’s event will be located at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Sifting through all the rumours online, most sources say that a refresh of the iPod Nanos is due. Others are hoping for a new MacBook or new device to drool over. How about the rumoured MacBook Touch from January?

What I know for sure is that Apple always has something up its sleeves. Who else can draw this much attention for a press conference?

What do you think Apple will launch?

Schedule
07:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
02:00AM - Tokyo (September 10th)

Follow Live

• -Engadget
• -Gizmodo

A couple highlights I am looking forward to:

• -Meeting Kerry Scarsbrook & Gord Rickards, creator of Rickard’s Red.
• -Meeting Molson Brewery founder John Molson’s great-great-great-great-grandson, Geoff Molson, who will also be sharing some family stories
• -Blair Rasmussen, Executive Chef at the Pan Pacific, will be lining up a menu crafted specifically for beer-pairing.
• -Meeting other local bloggers, ping me if you are going!

It looks like Molson knows a thing or two about social media. You can bet you’ll see this event talked about on several blogs and tons of photos on Flickr even though we’re not obliged to. Who can turn down a night of free beer and good times?

When Rockers Fall

Today I took my dad and sister out to this years Red Bull Soapbox Race in Kitsilano not knowing what to expect. Walking up Burrard street towards West 4th ave, you can hear and feel the energy/excitement. Once we turned the corner and looked up 4th all you can see up and down the street and roof tops were people!

Soapbox racing in Kits has been a long time tradition but had difficulty finding volunteers and participants. So for the first time in 17 years The Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce has step aside and let Red Bull run it. This has not come without its controversy as no kids under 19 can participate!

You can tell Red Bull brought their money. Everything from speakers lining the street to a 2 huge video screens, film crews, and DJs! All the teams had hilarious video introductions to dance routines. All teams had uniforms or costumes. There were some lavish soapboxes to hideously slow crawlers. I didn’t expect to see any crashes, but boy when they do crash, it sure looks painful!

Red Bull hosted a great free event to help bring Vancouver summer to an end. If they decide to host next year, who knows, you may see me flying down 4th in a cape! Who was your favourite team?

I was never really happy with the way my blog looked. I think I’ve changed the layout 5-6 times already this year. So time for another change. If you find things broken or out of whack let me know. I will be making some much needed changes this week.

24 hours and 48 posts later, here we are. I have completed the Blogathon 2008. My body and brain have taken a toll, I have learnt a lot from the experience. My server went down, and I broke parts of the website trying to code while half asleep.

Special thanks to Elisa, Harry, Baba, Edward and Norm for the moral support and to all the bloggers who stopped by for comments, THANK YOU!

I wish fellow Blogathon bloggers the best of luck on their shifts and will check in tomorrow.

Don’t forget to pledge the BC SPCA Paws for a Cause and help BC’s animals and support the bloggers still participating in the Blogathon!

A nine-year-old girl whose parents named her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii was put into court guardianship in New Zealand so that her name could be changed. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Why would you name your child this!? Though I think it is stupid to name your this or “Number 16 Bus Shelter”, but I do not believe the courts should be involved in changing ones name. What are these parents thinking? Full Article

How Censorship Can Go Wrong!

This picture is just awesome!  Just Smile

If you haven’t experienced Victoria what are you waiting for?

Victoria is a great city with so much heritage. Be sure to check out Hatley Park, home of the mansion used for X-Men. Have high tea at the Fairmount Empress hotel or just walk around the historic downtown. There is just so many little things to do I always find something new when I go.

Tourism Victoria will pay the ferry travel to and from Vancouver Swartz Bay terminal, but you must book from the Tourism Victoria website to qualify.

What’s your favourite thing to do in Victoria?

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

• Each player must post these rules to begin the meme.
• Each player must start with what their Blogathon cause is and why they are participating.
• Each players starts with six random facts or habits about themselves.
• People who get tagged must blog about their six things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose six people to get tagged and list their names.

Six facts you need or don’t need to know about: Danny Dang

1. I am participating in this years Blogathon to raise money for the BC SPCA Paws for a Cause. I was introduced to this organization by my work place and will be my 2nd year participating in the walk. In my childhood I always had animals around from chickens to dogs. Since moving to Vancouver, I have not be able to have any pets.

2. I have my 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo, but I am not actively training. I believe it has been over 8 years. Since joining fitness bootcamp I am trying to get back in shape and maybe take up another martial art.

3. I love computers and have been working with them since I was 5. My first computer my parents bought me, I took apart on the first day and put it back together without a sweat. All my technology\computer knowledge has been self taught, learned by doing is what I believe in.

4. My favourite cuisines are: Italian, Vietnamese, and Japanese. Living in Vancouver I am exposed to and have easy access to many ethnic delicacies.

5. I have never been drunk or sick from drinking, but it has been a while since I drank hard. I know my body is not like my young self.

6. I was born in beautiful Creston, British Columbia, home of Kokanee beer. I use to stay at my babysitter during the day who lived beside the plant. Her house was in a field byitself, so as I play in the fields with the chickens with the towering silos above.

Blogathoners that I’m tagging: Raul, Rebecca, Barbara, Duane, Karen, Mehnaz

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

If you want to virtually relive your childhood, Lego provides a program called the LEGO Digital Designer to virtualy create your creations.

Have you considered an alternative vehicle type like a Hybrid or electric vehicle? The Tesla Roadster is one the world’s only electric vehicle capable of accelerating from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds. That should satisfy the gear heads for performance.

I have been thinking a lot about creating a hybrid vehicle that runs on vegetable oil aka Frybrids. There are several companies offering the conversion kits, which will convert a diesel car to run on both vegetable oil and diesel. A 2000+ model VW Jetta is capable of running close to 1000km per diesel tank and add 900km on the frybrid system, that is some very good fuel economy.

For more information on electric alternatives I suggest visiting Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

If you have seen any of College Humor’s Jake and Amir’s pranks on each other check out their site.

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

Why can’t we solve office disputes this way?

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

Airwolf

MacGyver

Knight Rider

Do you have a favourite 80’s TV Show Theme?

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

Introducing Travelzoo:
Travelzoo is a hotel and airfare deal newsletter with over 12 million subscribers wordwide. Travelzoo’s deal experts source, research and test-book recommended deals before publishing. “We also provide our subscribers tips on when offers are available and where to find the best deals.”

What does that mean to me?
It’s the strength in numbers! With an audience of 12 million subscribers, hotels and airlines with unsold rooms and seats looking for some last minute business work an arrangement with Travelzoo. To the businesses this is one tool that will get your special out to a lot of people fast!

You may not know where you are going for vacation but you do know that you want to go somewhere, this newsletter is a great way to save some money and pickup a last minute sale.

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.

Introducing Airfarewatchdog:
What makes this site different from sites like Expedia and Kayak, it is actually run by a small handful of people who keep an eye out for travel deals. “We do not use automation or computer programs to find the fares we list.”

How it works?
The way it works is you tell the site what your home airport is and how often you want to be updated. Bowser does the rest!

Where are you going this summer? Do you have a travel tip to share?

If you liked this post, pledge me for the BCSPCA Paws for a Cause.