Fade to Play

Yesterday an autograph signing and picture taking session featuring Maëlle Ricker, the Olympic gold medalist in the Women’s Snowboardcross, occurred at the Canada Post building on Georgia Street. She is the first female to win Olympic gold on Canadian soil and a native of Squamish, BC. There were hundreds of people that stood in line, dressed in red and white, waiting for the opportunity to meet her.

Canada’s Maëlle Ricker – 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist during media scrum

During a brief media scrum beforehand, she spoke about her love of snowboarding (she is the overall World Cup champion for 2007 and 2008), provided advice for aspiring young athletes, and shared her feelings about that moment.

“Stopping at the finish line was pretty amazing”

Canada’s Maëlle Ricker – 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist signing autographs

With a humble spirit and a positive energy she greeted each fan she met with a smile, perhaps inspiring a young person to become a future Olympian.

Today I woke up early and headed to Creekside Park beside Russia House to watch a live outdoor taping of the Colbert Report. It was simply surreal to be there. I had an amazing time surrounded by many people in Canada gear. We sang O Canada, we chanted Go Canada Go and that was before Stephen Colbert even arrived.

Around 10:30am Stephen Colbert appeared and the crowd when wild with cheering and alot of flag waving. Although my feet were numb and cold as it was chilly, I’m so glad to be a part of this event. It was very cool to share this experience with my friends Nadia and Jenn (way to grab a prime spot).

He will be back again Thursday morning – I recommend being there by 6am for a good location, although I’m sure some people arrived at midnight.

Jenn and Nadia await Stephen Colbert

The crowd was quite large

Designed by Shepard Fairey, downloaded from colbertnation.com

We gave the Colbert Report permission to film us

Colbert arrives

I guess it’s important to hold out hope

Michael Bublé and Stephen Colbert sing O Canada to the tune of the Star-Spangled Banner

Colbert is loved in Canada

The complete Day 6 flickr set is available here

EVOKE trailer (a new online game) from Alchemy on Vimeo.

EVOKE is an alternate reality game directed by Jane McGonigal, an alternate reality game master (see her World Changing interview here).

From her blog:

EVOKE is an online game designed to teach collaboration, creativity, knowledge networking, entrepreneurship, courage, resourcefulness, sustainability, and vision.

Our goal: to empower young people all over the world, and especially in Africa, to start tackling the world’s toughest problems: poverty, hunger, sustainable energy, water security, conflict, disaster relief, health care, education, human rights.

It launches on March 3rd and will end on May 12th. What are you waiting for? Sign up now.