#office moving in edmonton

[ezymoving]

Seamless Office Moving Solutions in Edmonton

Are you planning an office relocation in Edmonton? Look no further than Ezy Moving for reliable and efficient office moving services in Edmonton tailored to meet your business's unique needs. With our experienced team of office movers and dedication to customer satisfaction, we make the process of moving your office smooth, seamless, and stress-free.

1. Expert Office Moving Team

At Ezy Moving, we understand the importance of minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth transition during office moves. That's why we have a dedicated team of expert office movers in Edmonton who are trained to handle all aspects of your office relocation with precision and care. From packing and labeling to loading and unloading, our experienced movers have the skills and expertise to get the job done right the first time.

2. Comprehensive Office Moving Solutions

Whether you're moving a small office or a large corporate headquarters, we offer comprehensive office moving solutions to meet your needs. Our team works closely with you to develop a customized moving plan that addresses all your requirements, including furniture disassembly and reassembly, equipment relocation, IT setup, and more. We handle every aspect of your office move, allowing you to focus on running your business with minimal disruption.

3. State-of-the-Art Equipment and Tools

To ensure the safe and efficient transportation of your office furniture, equipment, and supplies, we use only the highest quality equipment and tools. From heavy-duty moving blankets and straps to specialized dollies and carts, we have everything needed to protect your office belongings during transit. Our modern fleet of moving trucks is equipped with air-ride suspension systems and hydraulic lift gates for smooth loading and unloading, ensuring the safety of your valuable assets.

4. Minimal Disruption to Your Business

At Ezy Moving, we understand that downtime can be costly for your business, which is why we strive to minimize disruption during office moves. Our team works efficiently to complete your move in a timely manner, allowing you to resume operations as quickly as possible. We carefully plan every aspect of your move to ensure that it's executed seamlessly, with minimal impact on your day-to-day operations.

5. Flexible Scheduling and Competitive Pricing

We understand that every office move is unique, which is why we offer flexible scheduling options to accommodate your business's needs. Whether you need to move during business hours, after hours, or on weekends, we can accommodate your schedule to minimize disruption to your operations. Additionally, we offer competitive pricing and transparent billing practices, ensuring that you receive the best value for your investment.

Trust Ezy Moving for all your office moving needs in Edmonton. Contact us today to learn more about our services and to schedule your office relocation with us.

[felassan]

Article: 'Laid-Off Dragon Age Testers Will Picket BioWare'

Unionized ex-Keywords devs won the right to protest, against EA's wishes

Excerpt:

"Former quality assurance testers who worked on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf are preparing to picket outside Bioware’s Edmonton offices after being laid off earlier this year. Electronic Arts tried to block the protest but the developers prevailed in a ruling by the Alberta Labour Relations Board in Canada. BioWare laid off 50 employees in August, including some longtime developers whose tenure goes back to the beginning of the Dragon Age series. It also cut its contract with Keywords Studios, which was supplying quality assurance testers on in-development sequel Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Those same testers had unionized just a year earlier. Last month, they were laid off from Keywords as well, with the outsourcing company blaming it on the loss of the BioWare contract. Now, as first reported by Game Developer, those former Dragon Age testers say they’re planning to picket outside BioWare’s office on November 7 around noon. They are demanding that Keywords reinstate them and continuing bargaining their first contract, calling the layoffs earlier this year a “union busting tactic.” But Keywords doesn’t have any offices in Alberta so they are going to BioWare instead. EA was apparently far from happy about the decision. The publisher tried to force the laid-off developers to take their protest elsewhere, noting that, as fully remote staff, they never technically worked inside BioWare’s Edmonton office. Instead, EA tried to convince the Alberta Labour Relations Board to make them picket outside their homes. The regulators were unmoved, ultimately siding with the workers. “We view this Labor Board ruling as a huge win for not just us, but remote workers everywhere in Canada,” former Keywords tester James Russwurm told Game Developer. “Workers can now go ‘oh, I can picket my employer’s offices downtown even though I didn’t work in the office.’” The ex-testers had been contracted to work at BioWare beginning during the pandemic, first on Mass Effect Legendary Edition and later on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. When BioWare moved to force staff back into the office, the group successfully unionized to try and keep their remote status and improve pay. The Keywords developers were laid off before they could finish bargaining their first contract. EA said at the time that it had previously renewed its contract with Keywords and not doing so in September had nothing to do with the group unionizing. But the publisher has never made clear why it cut staff on a highly anticipated game like Dreadwolf that is still deep in development following several reported internal delays. EA and BioWare did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

[source] [the referenced Game Developer article] [more on the Keywords topic]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A group of protesters gathered outside of the Edmonton Police Service Northeast Division on Saturday, calling for police accountability and the resignation of police chief Dale McFee. The protest was one of multiple that have been held since 28-year-old Mathios Arkangelo was shot and killed by a police officer in Fraser on June 29. "I feel if we stop … this thing will be brushed under the rug," said Mathios' older brother Dini Arkangelo. "People will move on with their lives, and stuff like this will keep happening." The shooting was captured by nearby security cameras, and the family released a 25-minute video compilation showing the interaction from multiple angles. 

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @abpoli

[youcouldmakealife]

SOTM: Erin/Julius, grudge match

For the prompt: Julius' exit from the Oilers

Julius was never going to stay. Erin doesn’t really know how anyone could have expected otherwise. Sure, she knows the expectation, that if you’re a franchise saviour you stay with the franchise, give it your all, saw that play out with Bryce even though fans acted like he was team whipping boy instead of franchise saviour half the time.

But the thing is, the Oilers have been beyond saving for the entire time Julius has been there. There’s only so much one guy can do, no matter how good they are. And Julius is so good, and he tries so hard. Everything he can do, he has done, nobody could say otherwise, doesn’t slack off on the ice in any game situation, works to win the team games. But they don’t win, most games. They don’t win, because they’ve got a mismanaged team and what the old boys club might call a loser culture. Nobody’s expecting to win games, the players included, and they’re usually right.

Erin’s not like, saying that out loud any time soon, but whatever. It’s true. She likes some of the Oilers as people, has a game buddy in Farmer’s girlfriend, who is one of the funniest people she’s ever met. She likes the city okay, close enough to pop in on mom and dad but far enough they don’t really pop in on her, except for the occasional visit when the Canucks come to town, because Jared’s indisputably their favourite child. There’s nothing personal about Julius’ decision to move on, on his end or hers.

Well, mostly. Erin’s never understood how Deslauriers has kept his job so long, considering he hasn't made the Oilers any better, but they’re not worse, not that that’s saying much. Unfortunately he’s still in charge of the whole operation, and she’s a teensy bit biased against him due to the whole being raging homophobe who tried to destroy her brother’s life because he was gay thing.

Like, just a smidge. Giving the TV the middle finger every time they show his face level. Julius has been smart enough never to introduce them level. Erin’s the only one allowed to destroy her brother’s life, and she sure as shit would never do that because of Bryce, who’s like, the best thing about Jared. By far Jared’s best life decision, full stop, was somehow winning over Bryce Marcus despite his horrible personality.

Well, after adopting Julius. Erin’s pretty grateful for that one, to be honest.

The summer before Julius’ contract expires, he goes into contract talks, though he has zero intention of staying. The talk is basically ‘thanks, but no thanks'.

Erin has no clue why it takes so many meetings to get that across; maybe they’re being too polite about it, or the Oilers are being a little too obtuse, because ‘no thank you’ is three words, as are ‘please trade me’. But after those talks end Oilers management doesn’t say anything to the media except that ‘they’re working on something that works for both parties’, which must be difficult, considering Julius’ current ask is ‘no amount of money will make me stay’, which she’s pretty sure is hard to match.

Or like. Maybe there is enough money. Theoretically, there could be a magic number of money. Like, a mindboggling amount of money might do it. But they haven’t offered him it. They’ve offered him fair value, market rate, but the thing about market value is that the market’s going to offer him that too, and testing the market means he doesn’t have to play for Edmonton anymore.

But nobody gets it. Going into his final contract season, the media’s talking about how much it’ll take to re-sign him, how sweet a deal they’ll have to make it, and she almost wishes that someone would leak the fact he isn’t going to stay so that fans would feel a little less betrayed down the line. But apparently the Oilers front office is a tight ship, or they’re still firmly in denial, hoping Julius is going to change his mind.

Erin’s never seen Julius change his mind on anything big. Or even little. He hates watermelon. He’s never actually tried watermelon, but he’s decided he hates it, so obviously trying it would be silly. This is the person they’re expecting to change his mind. The person Erin has debated force feeding watermelon, because he thinks it tastes like watermelon flavour and nothing tastes like watermelon flavour, she doesn’t know what the fuck watermelon flavour tastes like, but it is not watermelon.

Anyway, he doesn’t change his mind. Shockingly.

A week before the trade deadline Erin walks in the door to find Julius sitting at the dining room table in the half dark of twilight, chin on his fist. He looks like a stock photo: ‘sad man brooding’ or ‘gloomy Finn’ or something, so defeated that Erin doesn’t have the heart to give him shit. Well, almost. She wouldn’t want him to get a big head or anything.

“Pretending you’re the protagonist in a sad indie movie, huh?” Erin asks.

“I don’t know that one, protagonist,” Julius says, then, when she turns the overhead light on, “Ow!”

“Main character syndrome,” Erin says, as Julius squints at her, looking betrayed. He’s not a vampire — he’ll survive a little light.

“Is that what you said Jared has?” Julius asks, and Erin laughs. She can’t even remember saying that, though it must have been years ago. Years ago Erin was right, though.

“Probably,” Erin says, leaning on the table so Julius is forced to look at her instead of into the abyss or whatever. “What’s up?”

“They’re going to boo me for the rest of my career,” Julius says.

“Flames fans don’t even boo Bryce anymore,” Erin says. “Rest of your career’s a stretch.”

“That isn’t true,” Julius says.

“Okay, they don’t boo like, every time he has the puck,” Erin says. That’s basically the same, right? He has to earn the boos by scoring, or assisting, or holding onto the puck a little too long, or — anyway, they boo a whole lot less than they did initially, which is her point. People have short memories, and, more importantly, they’re lazy. Hating someone takes too much energy, long term. They’ll have found someone else to hate by then — some other poor, talented kid doing his best while he’s stuck on a team with no ambition.

“Have they traded you?” Erin asks.

“I think they’re about to,” Julius says.

“Like gut feeling or—“ Erin says.

“My agent told me to keep my phone close,” Julius says.

So probably actually about to, then. She knew it was coming, unless Deslauriers was stupid and stubborn enough to keep Julius until the end, let him walk for free. Which she wouldn’t put past the guy or anything, but still. It was coming.

“You’ve been waiting for this,” Erin says.

“I know,” Julius says.

“You want this,” she says. Getting traded at the deadline, people get a chance to get used to him in another uniform. If he stays until the end, the Oilers don’t get anything for him, but the Oilers fans are going to expect him to stay, hate him if he doesn't. Even more than they will this way, she means.

“I do,” Julius says. “You’ll come with me, right?”

“As long as it’s to a decent city, sure,” Erin says, and the offence on his face is exactly what he deserves for asking such a ridiculous fucking question in the first place.

[rabbitcruiser]

Jasper National Park, AB (No. 15)

The Jasper Park Information Centre National Historic Site, located in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, is the primary visitor contact centre for visitors to the park. Sited in the Jasper townsite, it was built as the park administration building in 1913-1914, and became the visitor contact centre in 1972. It is located in Athabasca Park, which is not included in the National Historic Site designation.

The Information Centre was one of the first rustic style buildings to be built in a Canadian national park. Conceived by park superintendent Lt. Colonel Maynard Rogers and designed by Edmonton architect A.M. Calderon, it incorporates local materials and construction techniques. The design is unique. No two windows or doors are the same, and the different peaks of the roof were meant to remind a visitor of the surrounding mountains.

As built, it was a multi-purpose building. The ground floor was the park superintendent's residence and the park's administrative office. Upstairs, there was a library, a small museum and a drafting room. The basement included a fish hatchery. The building served as a landmark for arriving train passengers on the Canadian National railway line that runs through the park. The administration building was the prototype for future construction in the Jasper townsite, and influenced building designs throughout the Canadian park system.

In 1936 a separate residence was built for the superintendent. The fish hatchery moved out in 1941 to a site near the confluence Athabasca and Maligne rivers. The first park information centre was built in 1949 near the Canadian National line in front of the main building. In 1972 the information centre moved into the old headquarters. In 1988, the Jasper Park Information Centre was designated a Classified Federal Heritage Building and in 1992 it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. The upper floor is used as office space

Source: Wikipedia

[hockeyreport]

Cogliano Announces Retirement, Will Join Avalanche Front Office 

Colorado Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano has officially announced his retirement from the game of hockey after 1,294 regular-season games and 17 seasons in the National Hockey League. Cogliano will be joining the Avalanche front office where he will assist in a variety of roles, including player development, professional and amateur scouting, as well as working with the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles. Cogliano, 37, finishes his career with 464 points (190g/274a) in those 1,294 contests with the Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and Colorado. He also recorded 40 points (13g/27a) in 131 career postseason games and helped the Avalanche win the 2022 Stanley Cup. “The game of hockey has given me and my family so much and I am grateful for every moment,” said Cogliano. “I am blessed to have played for so long with some great organizations and amazing teammates. I will miss being with the guys in the dressing room and battling for each other on the ice every night but it’s time to move on. Thank you to everyone I ever played with, played for and all the great fans for all of their support. I am excited to start my new chapter in the front office.”

[allbeendonebefore]

I have to ask nutmeg, I have to

Good to see when one is aware of one's branding ;)

nutmeg ⇢ how’s your room/home decorated? do you have a specific theme or style going on?

my bedroom is kind of a mess and will be for the foreseeable future because it's just kind of being used as storage at the moment rather than decorated. I spent the whole holiday monday moving those damn blackout curtains and my mum is still like "wouldn't drapes be better?" like ma i am working with what i already have and can afford and they do not make drapes short enough for those windows and i am no longer in possession of the sewing machine because you all took it back out of province with you aaaaaaaaaaa

but apart from the ugly but lifesaving curtains and half the bookshelves in the house being crammed into my room I try to have a few personal touches (fairy lights, a nice framed star wars poster). Most of the conscious thought goes into my office.

I'd say it's an eclectic mix of sci fi posters and local art (both mine and others) and a bunch of knicknacks both recent and from childhood. It's not so much themed as just a reflection of my life (and i also keep getting edmonton swag).

i SUPPOSE i can show pictures but be warned its mostly just me like "gotta get stuff off the floor" and not much in the way of serious thoughtful design (which requires some money and some talent). There is some feng shui though to try to balance out the "idk what i am doing" chaos.

Office

ft. ted harrison, art by a person who didnt appreciate it so i keep it out of her reach so she cant destroy it, edmonton skyline print

beluga i have had since birth, star trek / wars figurines and some other guys as well as the tops of two out of many degrees

i have been digging all my pins out of storage to put on here plus necklaces and there's all the giant roadside attractions in alberta prints made by nancy nickolson who's art i love

i had books on this shelf for my zoom background to make me look like an intellectual and then the shelves fell on my head once so i decided to move them elsewhere hahahaha so now i just look like a weirdo obsessed with edmonton transit and star trek which is true.

(ignore the stupid hat it was a gift for my dad that he absolutely doesnt want but i dont know what to do with it)

postcards from places i've lived that aren't edmonton featuring art by @en-theos hehehe

some posters including a print from fort edmonton, local art propaganda, and a very kind yelp review printed out and given to me by a frequent houseguest :)

everyone is just jealous of my edmonton swag (and my piles of roasted peanuts for the magpies)

Living Room

moved my nice zoom shelf books (contributed by @randomoranges over here (and you must understand i liked voltron Before the reboot)

there's some dinosaurs my sister painted for me, several matryoshka dolls, some montreal art, kitty cats, and very tiny elgin marbles.

this is like the gay trek/who shelf i guess?? (ignore the calgary flag that's not real)

the star wars shelf (c3po is filled with orange pekoe so that's c3pekoe) and the eclectic plant collection (some of which belongs to @quatschmachen). They're hanging out here because i blacked out my office windows during the heatwave.

i keep getting these model valley line lrts and they have to live SOMEWHERE okay

tbh now that i have many of these i am thinking of rearranging them in rainbow order but i love them sooo much.

I do have piles of art that needs to be framed languishing in drawers and stuff but that's for Later. enjoy :)

[nazmazh]

Well, I'll say one thing - Pokemon Go making me activate my video game grind mentality at least meant I made myself go for a walk

(well, several laps around the basement. I probably should have done my driveway loop earlier in the day, but it's dark now)

Basically, there's a "Masterwork Research" Quest Line, full of long, pain-in-the-ass quests. Most will finish eventually. It'll take me a long time to hatch 20 eggs, catch 500 Pokemon, and make 50 excellent throws.

But, statistically, they'll happen eventually

The "Visit Pokestops on 7 Different Days" one will be probably take some time, because I'm out in the middle of nowhere, but eventually, I'll get it done.

Being a rural player is kind of a pain for this, honestly - Back when I was in Airdrie, the park behind my house was a stop, so I could ping it from my desk. Same thing back when I was in Edmonton; there was the convenience store stop across the street to the north, and the dorm building across the street to the east, not to mention that from my office on campus I could reach several, and getting more meant just taking a quick stroll to stretch my legs.

Anyway - The only one in this set of tasks that required actual planning was "Catch 75 Pokemon in One Day"

The big obstacle there is that you need to have at least 75 pokeballs. More, most likely, because you're probably not gonna catch with every throw. Again, being rural and not having access to many convenient stops, my stocks of supplies usually run fairly low.

But, as luck would have it, I ended up finally being able to progress a bunch of "Beat Team Rocket" quests that had piled up, because I've finally got some mons that can actually take down the leaders' overpowered teams [I haven't really gotten tons of overpowered mons from raids or anything. In fact, earlier this month was the first time I managed to snag a raid participation while heading through town, which is what progressed all those quests to a stage I could actually do with my usual routine]

This meant that I had like, 5 or 6 quests to beat Giovanni ready to go, and I managed to just drag myself across the finish line on that one with a C-Team in the morning before going to bed [Shout-out to my Passimian for taking down his Persian, the big MVP, my Crustle, for taking out his Crobat (which had a Dark-type attack, meaning my Psychic mons couldn't safely fight it), and my Durant for bringing it home against his Cresselia. Bug-Types for the win?]

So, beating Giovanni got me a ton of items and a bunch of Pokemon encounters Meaning, this morning before going to bed, I had like 30 captures, and a ton of Pokeballs (ultra balls, even), so I figured now was a good day to push for the quest

I would have done more on it earlier, but we had company pop in Anyway, I had a bunch of incense in my inventory and read on how it worked. Apparently, one bonus Pokemon spawn every 5 minutes if you're stationary, one every minute or 200 meters if you're moving. So, I figured I'd make myself do some walking around to guarantee enough spawns to finish up

As a bonus, this meant my current egg hatched (Shiny Hisuian Growlithe, of all things!) And this finished another quest Which led to a bunch of "Pokemon Encounter" rewards Culminating with a guaranteed Celebi catch reward And as a capper, my Celebi spawned as a shiny! {Maybe it's guaranteed to spawn as shiny? The quest was called "Distracted by Something Shiny", after all]

But yes, now, the rest of the quests are inevitable. The one I actually had to actively work towards is done!

And I got a 20 minute walk in, which is never a bad thing.

Yay, exploitative video game mechanics…?

(I'm glad it was a guaranteed-to-catch thing, because the little fucker kept hopping around, and spawned far enough back on-screen that it was a major pain in the butt to actually hit with a Pokeball, so I probably would have burned all my stock trying to get it otherwise)

[felassan]

New today on DA:TV from Game Informer:

"A Deep Dive Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Expansive Character Creator by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 27, 2024 at 02:00 PM As BioWare prepared to show me the character creator for Dragon Age: The Veilguard in its Edmonton, Canada, offices, I expected something robust – it's 2024, character creators have come a long way, and Bioware has a rich history of good customization. Despite my expectations, I was not prepared for how robust it actually is in Veilguard. Robust enough, even, that BioWare used it to create most of the NPCs in the game, save for mainline characters like companions. Setting hyperbole aside, it is a staggeringly rich creation system, and I look forward to seeing player-created near-replicas of celebrities and monstrous creations that'd be more at home in a horror game.  But I'm also looking forward to the community's reaction to the Dragon Age series' best character creator yet. At the heart of it is inclusivity, Veilguard game director Corinne Busche tells me before letting me guide her through creating my own character."

"As is usual, there are four races to choose from: Elves, Qunari, Humans, and Dwarves. After selecting Qunari, Busche pages through various presets, explaining the game allows for more detailed looks at each and the ability to choose pronouns with she/her, he/him, and they/them separately from gender, select different body types, and more. You can view your character, referred to as Rook in-game, in four different lighting scenes at any time, including The Veilguard's keynote purple hue, a bright and sunny tropical day, and a gothic night.  I joke with the team that after spending upwards of an hour creating my Dragon Age: Inquisition character in 2014, I immediately restarted the game after seeing him in the first cutscene; the in-game lighting made my hair color look terrible amongst other issues I had with my Inquisitor. Veilguard creative director John Epler says the team is aware of countless stories like that with Inquisition and its green-hued character creator, adding BioWare worked hard to squash that concern in Veilguard.  Head and body presets can be selected individually and customized to your liking with 40 different complexions that include smooth, rugged, youthful, and freckled skin tones, skin hues ranging from cool to neutral to warm, undertones to those skin tones, and even a melanin slider. Busche tells me BioWare relied on consultation to represent all people authentically. There's a Vitiligo slider (where you can adjust the intensity and amount of it) and sliders for your forehead, brow, cheeks, jaw, chin, larynx, and scalp. You can select your undergarments, with nudity as well because "this is a mature RPG," Busche adds, and use the "Body Morpher" to select three presets for each corner of a triangle and then move a cursor within it to morph your body or head into a mix of these presets. It's an impressive technology I'd like to see adopted in other games. [link to embedded DA:TV gameplay reveal video]"

"I can keep going: You can adjust height, shoulder width, chest size, glute and bulge size, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, how visible cataracts are, the sclera color, how crooked your nose is, how big its bridge is, the size of nostrils and the nose tip, and there are as many sliders, if not more, for things like Rook's mouth and ears. On ears alone, I see you can adjust asymmetry, depth, rotation, earlobe size, and even add cauliflower ear to your Rook. Busche says makeup blends modern stylings with the fantasy of Dragon Age with more than 30 options, including eyeliner intensity, color, glitter, eye shadow, lips, and blush. Tattoos are just as customizable alongside options for scars and paint. Tattoos, scars, and paint are very culturally relevant to some lineages, BioWare tells me, with unique tattoos for elves, for example. You can add tattoos to Rook's face, body, arms, and legs, and you can adjust things like intensity, too.  Im most impressed, however, by the hair options on display; there are a ton, and as someone with long hair, I'm especially excited about the fun selections I can make. You can finally dye your hair with non-traditional colors, and it's gorgeous. EA's Frostbite engine uses the Strand system to render each style fully with physics. "The technology has finally caught up to our ambition," Dragon Age series art director Matt Rhodes says. After customizing all of that and selecting our Qunari's horn type and material (of which there are more than 40 options to choose from), it's time to pick a class out of the Rogue, Mage, and Warrior – read more about Veilguard's classes here. Since we built a Qunari, we went with Warrior. For the penultimate step of the character creator, at least during the demo BioWare shows me, we select a faction. Out of the six options, we select the pirate-themed Lords of Fortune."

"Rook ascends because of competency, not because of a magical McGuffin," BioWare core lead and Mass Effect executive producer Michael Gamble tells me in contrast to Inquisition's destiny-has-chosen-you-characterization. "Rook is here because they choose to be and that speaks to the kind of character that we've built," Busche adds. "Someone needs to stop this, and Rook says, 'I guess that’s me.'" Ready to begin our Rook's journey, we select a first and last name and one of four voices out of English masculine, English feminine, American masculine, or American feminine options. There's a pitch shifter for each voice, too, allowing you to tweak it to your liking further. Don't stress too much about locking in your character creations before beginning the game – the Mirror of Transformation, which is found in Veilguard's main hub, The Lighthouse, allows you to change your physical appearance at any time. However, class, lineage, and identity are locked in and cannot be changed after you select them in the game's character creator.  From here, we're off to Minrathous, and you can read more about that famed city in our cover story, which is available here. For more about the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below."

[source]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Edmonton police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Alberta early Saturday morning, one of several measures authorities have taken in recent days to crack down on campus protesters at sites across the country.

The Edmonton Police Service said it repeatedly gave campus demonstrators notice that they were breaching university policy and provincial trespassing laws. Officers issued a final warning just after 4:30 a.m. and escorted demonstrators from the north campus quad following one last call to leave, said spokesman Scott Pattison.

The move by authorities came less than two days after the camp began to form on Thursday, mushrooming to about 40 tents by the next day as protesters called on the university for divestment from Israeli institutions. The group has also demanded disclosure of those investments, a declaration of the right to protest and condemnation of Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip as a “genocide.”

University president Bill Flanagan issued a statement on Saturday citing fire hazards and the risk of escalation and violent clashes with counter-protesters among the reasons for police involvement. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @abpoli

[hopetorun]

perspective flip: any of the baseball scenes from rat novel

oh gosh this was fun! sorry it's the one where they don't actually interact lol

under a cut for obvious reasons

Leon’s at a baseball game. He’s at a baseball game in St. Louis, with a crisp Cardinals cap shoved onto his head—and then yanked right off to get the tag off, and then shoved back on.

He’s never been to a baseball game before. Watched it, obviously, mostly in bars or on Connor’s couch. 

The memory stings more than he anticipated.

The trade wasn’t a surprise. Another embarrassing playoff showing, and this time he was just enough of a problem for the critics to win out. Would’ve been nice to get it done before draft day, but oh well.

The destination—that was a surprise.

He gamed it out with his agent, how to populate his trade list with teams the front office wouldn’t be willing to cut a deal with. Divisional rivals. Calgary was on Leon’s official trade list. And St. Louis—“They’re gonna make a move on Tkachuk, they’ll want to keep plenty of cap available,” his agent said, “might even trade for his rights rather than let him hit the market”—well, apparently they wanted Leon enough to risk it.

Leon wanted New York, maybe. To slip into the anonymity of somewhere new, the opposite of Edmonton. He remembers debating the contract options. Maybe if they’d dropped their AAV ask a bit more, he could’ve gotten a full no trade, picked his new team. He can just see the reactions—his agent, appalled by the low number. The Oilers, thrilled to get him at a bargain. Easier to move, if need be.

Well, they managed it as is.

Leon mostly tried not to get his hopes up for anything too specific, and St. Louis is a far cry from Edmonton. The constant beating heat is a reminder of that. And the baseball.

Most of Leon’s associations with St. Louis are hockey. He’s played a lot of games here, good and bad. Came to an all-star game here, though he tries not to dwell on that. Mostly, he tries not to think about anything to do with St. Louis that isn’t the arena, because there’s too many pockets of stray memories to stumble on.

He hasn’t thought about Matthew in a long time, not as anything other than a nightmare in red and black on the ice. He doesn’t need to start now, even with Cardinals logos all around him. Matthew’s dad now a colleague. The knowledge that Matthew is somewhere in this same city, or the suburbs.

He can’t catch himself in time, wonders if Matthew is in the crowd somewhere, watching him wave awkwardly at the camera from one of the luxury boxes, a smile on his face that isn’t quite comfortable. 

It’ll be a fresh start regardless. A new team, a new chance to make a place for himself. A new set of reporters to infuriate. A new area to learn. A lot of guys do this every few years; Leon’s been lucky to spend more than a decade in the same place. 

There’s a sharp crack of wood, a roar from the crowd, a player dashing around the bases when Leon looks. Maybe in St. Louis he’ll become someone who watches baseball. Or maybe it’ll remind him too much of the last time he sat on Connor’s couch, the Jays losing quietly in the background, and pretended this wasn’t going to be the last time.

He can’t think about this now. He closes his eyes, breathes in and out slowly. When he opens them, well—

It’s been more than six years since Leon touched Matthew in any way that matters, and there's no reason for his heart to lurch when the video board shows him in the stands, drink in hand, scowling at his phone until someone gets his attention. Then he laughs, waves for the crowd, puts on a good show. The stuff that makes everyone like him off the ice.

The stuff that made Leon think he liked him.

Yesterday, his agent told him that the Blues were still clearing cap. “They might still make Tkachuk an offer.”

“He might take a discount,” Leon said. That’s a normal thing to know. Everyone knows he’s from St. Louis.

“Is that gonna be a problem for you?”

Leon shook his head, hoping it was the truth. Doesn’t let himself hope for anything at all now.

[rabbitcruiser]

Food and Drinks in Vancouver

Earls Kitchen + Bar is a Canadian-based premium casual dining chain that operates a total of 68 restaurants in Canada and the United States. Their head office is in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Leroy Earl "Bus" Fuller (1928–2019), the founder of Earls, was a Korean War veteran and an experienced restaurateur with over twenty successful and failed restaurants to his name. His first restaurant was opened in Sunburst, Montana, United States, in 1954 under the name "Green & White". In the late 1950s, Fuller moved his young family to Canada and operated a series of A&W (Canada) locations in Edmonton, Alberta. Soon, the Fullers were operating thirty locations and a series of Fuller’s, a Denny’s type of chain. In the 1970s, the Fullers moved west to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

It was during this time that Fuller went into business with his son Stan Fuller, founding the first Earls restaurant in 1982 in Edmonton. The chain quickly grew when the Fullers set up an Earls restaurant in their new home town of Vancouver in 1983. Although its menu originally consisted mostly of burgers and beer, Earls has changed the menu to offer "dishes inspired by trips around the world." Over the years, Earls restaurants have spread across Western Canada, the United States, and Ontario.

While the chain was originally a family business, in 2013, Mo Jessa became the first non-Fuller to be named as company president.

The Fullers are involved in a number of other Western Canadian restaurant chains. Jeff Fuller and Stewart Fuller, two other sons of Leroy, are involved in JOEY (a western Canadian restaurant chain) and Cactus Club Cafe, respectively. Ole Stan Fuller owns a 20% share of the latter establishment after the other brothers dropped out.

In December 2017, Earls announced that they would be closing one of their first locations, on Marine Drive in North Vancouver. In early 2018, the chain opened a concept restaurant in West Vancouver as a replacement.

Source: Wikipedia

[lightadarttomendyourheart]

i dont remember the last time i wanted something so badly. you consume me. maybe thats why im so on edge recently. i'm just not at peace, i want you so bad. 119 days left. and it feels like forever. but its less than 4 months now. 2 more weeks until i have a distraction and more-so, constant distractions. my own place.

i think being in edmonton is making it worse lol. i have nothing to do but think of you. i need my own space where i have things to do and people to see and honestly, where i have a life.

i cant wait to start decorating my apartment and making it truly mine. putting so many pictures and stuff on the walls and making it a home. ive never had this chance before. even in poland, i didnt put anything up on the walls. the only time i really truly felt like i had my own cave like in edmonton was when i lived with andrew downtown. i made that room my sanctuary and i absolutely loved it.

but now, FINALLY, im going to truly have my own longterm place. it'll be all mine. i can do whatever i want with it. im so fricken excited. i can take sarah and indy shopping with me and we can pick out stuff and have fun and go for brunch and hang out in the evenings talking and watching movies and mixing. this is honestly such a huge step in my life, i haven't have my own place with no expiration date ever. in poland i knew it wasnt forever and it was fully furnished. same with london, i just had rooms. and then vancouver, same thing. even when jake and i moved in together, it didn't feel right. i never felt like that place was decorated how i wanted it to be cause i really didnt decorate other than my office. the whole place felt.. empty. this place won't. i'm going to put so much effort into it. and then when you come in july, it'll be magic.

im scared. im honestly terrified im going to fall so hard for you. so in love with you. you're going to break me. i will be in shambles when we part. i know it. unless spending so much time together really turns me off from you. but honestly, i can't see it happening. i really cant. and i think part of me lowkey hopes you do turn me off because then i won't be so hurt. but knowing you the past few years and every time we see each other are these special, unforgettable memories that i cherish so much afterwards. its obvious you're going to hurt me. and i wont want anyone else.

i just truly hope you end up feeling the same way. if not, it is what it is, i cant force anything. but if july goes well, i want this to be the beginning of the rest of our lives.

[stallionvanlines]

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