Free money, and stuff

Found a link the other day to a free $25 credit at a poker site I play at. I've only played at the "play money" tables, but I figured I couldn't pass up a free $25 to play there. So I signed up, got my free money, and so far in a few days I've more than doubled up.

I doubt my luck will last, but it's been fun so far at least.

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Coaching starts up officially this Saturday with our first team practice. I'll get to meet my coaching staff, and we'll have our first practice of the year (albeit indoors). It will be interesting working with these girls, who've been "hand picked" by the community as the top talents in the "Under-10-Years-Old" category.

Seems the community sports association has high hopes for me this year, considering my success last year. Let's hope I can live up to the expectations. It's odd to talk about "expectations for success" when dealing with ten year olds.

I'll be getting my Level 1 Technical certification next weekend, too. So that should be interesting.

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So, first it was orange blue lines, and now, they want to make the nets bigger in hockey.

Hey, morons.

How about getting the league going, first?

Then, contract the league so that anyone who straps on a pair of skates can't just find a team to play for, get out of the areas where nobody cares about hockey, start calling holding and hooking even if it results in fifty penalties per game (the players will figure it out eventually), reduce the obscene size of goaltender's equipment, and then things will be ok.

Oh, wait. Nevermind. I'm thinking from a "make the game better and restore the integrity of the sport" perspective. Silly me. These rational things will never happen.

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Finally made the plunge and, with it's recent price drop, picked myself up a shiny new Canon Digital Rebel. Mmmm. Fun 6.8 megapixel toy. I've been wanting this sucker for a loooooong time.

I'd been debating between the Nikon D70 and the Canon. And while the D70 is a far superior camera... I couldn't afford the extra $450 that they go for. I'm really looking forward to mucking about with the Rebel over the next while.

It's going to be great to use when we head up to the Yukon in June.

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Oh, yeah. We're going to the Yukon in June. This will be great fun. I love it up there tremendously. The scenery and tranquility is amazing. While we won't be going to Dawson City (as we're going to Whitehorse for Steph's brother's graduation, which will be great to see), there will be plenty to do around Whitehorse I'm sure and lots of opportunities for picture takin'.

I'm also sorely in need of a vacation, so on that aspect alone it is something I'm very much looking forward to.

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I'm disappointed in the slanted editing in this year's TAR. It's not really reducing my enjoyment of the show, but I'm just not a fan of "editing to develop a character" in a reality show. I guess it's unavoidable though. But it's still disappointing, as the show would be very entertaining if they just showed the interesting stuff and didn't edit it the way they are.

There's really no need to cut in a statement made by a player earlier in the race into a different clip, just to make it seem like they're doing something that helps portray them as the underdog/badguy/hero/etc.

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Rumour has it that Rupert is going to be on the next season of TAR, which is going to be a "family" episode. Reports are that he's going to be on there with his wife and two foster kids.

Interesting. I'm kind of on the fence about "famous" people being on TAR. While it makes for entertaining TV... part of the charm is that the show is made up of normal folk.

I'm also not a fan of the "WE MUST BEAT ROMBER IN THIS LEG OF THE RACE" attitude that everyone on TAR has taken this season. While I can't blame them for the attitude, it's tiresome.

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That is all.

It's the end of the world as we know it ...

...and I feel fine...

Finally! A solution to all of Hockey's problems in the USA

And at long last, they have come up with a solution to the lack of interest Americans show to hockey... THE ICE IS THE WRONG DAMN COLOUR!!!

White Ice + Blue Zone Lines + Red Centre Line = "I CAN'T SEE NO DAMN THING 'MA!"

Powder Blue Ice + Orange Zone Lines + Dark Blue Centre Line = "YEHAWWW PROFITS"

Yeah. Sure.

NOTICE TO ALL HOCKEY EXECUTIVES

The problem is not that they are unable to see the damn puck. The problem is that THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT HOCKEY IN NASHVILLE!!! This, of course, is not helped by the fact that there is NO PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE TO SPEAK OF RIGHT NOW in North America.

Ahem.

Ok, listen. Go ahead and make the ice powder blue. But for crying out loud, why must the line colours change? A red centre line and dark blue zone lines would be just as visible, for crying out loud.

Anyway, not that it matters, but this is a pretty big sign that hockey execs. have no idea what the hell is going on anymore.

Bah.

Mmm. Powder Blue.

The Eulogy of Sam Reed (an excerpt from a draft)

I was sitting in the library of the house we used to share. I was in my favourite chair, the large brown leather chair that I think was older than I was. Whatever it's age, it was something that Sam and I had picked up when we were at a garage sale one cool fall afternoon. The old lady who was cleaning out her basement was selling it for next to nothing, and for some reason it appealed to me. I think that it appealed to me because it was so lost and forlorn looking; that, again for a reason I'm not really aware, is something that usually appeals to me. A sense of being lost. Perhaps that's why I ended up as an english teacher, trying to help students who were searching for something in their lives but not really sure what they were searching for. Or maybe it was just where I landed. It was something I always gave thought to but never came to a definitive answer. But I'm getting off track. You'll notice that I have a tendency to do that sort of thing.

As I was saying, I was sitting in the library. I was surrounded by the books that I had collected over my lifetime, mostly fiction and mostly classic books. The garbage that they published these days wasn't even in the same league as the works of Salinger, Twain, Shakespeare, Hemingway, and so on. I was elitist that way, I suppose, and I am certain that I passed that elitism on to my students when I taught them. But it wasn't something that I gave much thought to, really. I had my preferences. Everyone has their preference in life. I'm not one to judge people's preferences. But I'm getting off topic again, aren't I. I should try to avoid doing that.

I looked over the books that were sitting on the dark wood shelves that surrounded me. The room was dark, dimly lit, with most of the light coming in naturally through the windows. Today was cloudy outside, appropriate I suppose, considering the nature of today's activities. Where there weren't books in the room there were photos. Photos of me, photos of Sam, and photos of us meeting famous people. Mostly famous athletes, mostly famous baseball players. Some when they were still playing, others when they had retired. Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Curt Schilling. Reggie Jackson, Cal Ripken... we had met so many of them, Sam and I. It filled him with a great deal of excitement whenever he got to meet these people, but it usually filled me with a lot of sadness. Sadness not because we were meeting these men that we held so highly, but because I knew if things had been different, Sam would have been the famous athlete meeting people like us, instead of the other way around.

Sam would have had fans the world over, desperate for just a few seconds of his time. Desperate to have something autographed, something to hold up to their friends and declare, "See? I met Sam Reed." But it was not to be, not because of a lack of talent but ... nevermind. I'm not going to get into that right now. There are other things that need to be told right now.

You might be wondering why I've decided to write this. I think I'm wondering that myself, really. It's not something I ever thought I would write. It is a story that nobody knows. Not my students, not my parents, not even my children. The only people who know the whole story are Sam and I. There are people who do know parts of it; they are the people who were involved in what happened. But they only know parts. Some good, some bad. I'm not here to tell either version. I'm simply here to write about what happened. And I think I'm doing it just for myself, not for anyone else. I think I need to get it all out so that I can understand it better. So maybe that's why I'm writing this. Maybe.

Anyway, I was sitting in the library of the house that Sam and I used to share, surrounded by the beautiful old books and photographs, and I was gently touching a photo of Sam that I had picked up from the desk. My fingers, curled from the arthritis that I had started to develop, gently brushed over the photo of him. It was an older photo, back before he had started to die, back when he was full of energy, a strong and determined man who I loved with all my heart. I was lost in thought, memories, thinking about the past, the days, months and years gone by that we had spent together. It was during my reverie that the door to the library slowly opened and Matthew, one of my students whom Sam and I had sort of “taken in” when he had no one else, ducked his head in and smiled gently at me.

"We're about ready to get going, I think. So you can come down when you're ready."

He was such a wonderful person, who had grown into a man that I was as proud of as I was proud of Sam. I looked up at him with a soft smile on my face. "Okay, Matthew. I'll be down in a minute." I placed the photo back down on the desk and slowly started to rise out of the chair.

Enjoy your trip, bitch.

Think those millions will help you now?

It's nice to see some justice served in these cases. This person profited from fraud and ruined the lives of many, many people.

I hope he gets all 80+ years.

Hello, hello.

Some ramblin'

- Today's ramblins are gonna be short. I've got a Exchange Server 2003 rollout document to finish. Yeh. Whee.

- Something that TAR fans may enjoy: CLICK

- Driving home yesterday from dropping off Steph, I noticed in the neighbourhood everyone was out walking their dogs, playing in the big field with their kids, etc. It made me excited for spring, excited for the warm breeze of summer, excited for baseball (both on the TV and coaching).

- Going to see Sarah Slean in concert tonight. This makes me happy. She is wonderful.

- Apparently, nobody's blogs exist anymore. Whenever I try to go and leave a comment in someone's blog, I get an error saying "The blog you're looking for does not exist." I am in some bizarre metaphysical-internet thought experiment.

"If the blog server tells you a blog does not exist, but you can visit said blog and read it, does the blog exist?"

meh.

that is all. carry on.

Never again?

Never again?

For just free-ninety-nine, your cause can have your own personal Martyr

If you believe what you hear/read/see, the recent murder of 4 RCMP officers by a gun-toting-police-hating-child-molesting-pot-growing maniac is reason to, in no particular order:

- Legalize marijuana
- Decriminalize marijuana
- Toughen penalties for people who run grow-ops
- Lighten up penalties for people who run grow-ops
- Toughen penalties for people who use marijuana
- Ban guns
- Control guns
- Stop controlling guns
- Give everyone a gun
- More Police/RCMP presence
- Reduce civil liberties
- Legalize mob justice
- Increase penalties for career criminals
- Provide more therapy/resources/rehabilitiation for repeat offenders
- Increase penalties for child molesters
- Bring back the death penalty
- Keep the death penalty away
- etc.

Everywhere you turn, now, it seems, the only thing you can find in relation to the tragic murder of the four officers, is an article/op-ed/blog entry/radio spot/media report/inquest/etc. which goes, essentially, like this:

"My condolences to the family of those slain. You are in my prayers. NOW THE MURDER OF THESE OFFICERS JUST GOES TO PROVE THAT WE NEED TO [insert cause here]. WE CANNOT LET THEIR LIVES GO TO WASTE WE MUST USE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO [fight/campaign/protest/etc. for said cause]."

I've been on the family's side. I've sat by and heard people say "In the name of killed Canadian Forces pilot Miles Selby, we must ...", I've seen the news reports which in the ever-so-slightly-slanted way that news reports are made nowadays, invoke the death of someone to make a case for some viewpoint or another.

I used to do it. I used to see something happen to someone in the news, in the paper, etc, and say "Ah ha! This just goes to show that ...", but now that I've been on the "My condolences to the family" side, now that I've been able to sit back and say in my head, "All due respect, Mr. Editor, I knew him and he would disagree with you, and you're invoking his name in your argument", I don't know how you can do such a thing.

The only people who should invoke the name of someone in the name of a cause are those who knew them, those who knew the cause this person fought for in their life, or the cause they would have fought for if they had the chance.

And so, Const. Peter Schiemann, Const. Anthony Gordon, Const. Lionide Johnston and Const. Brock Myrol, rest in peace.

Everybody, everybody

Some randomness.

I'm sitting in Steph's office right now, waiting for her to be finished work so we can go home and eat dinner, and I can take her to her driving lesson. I know you're fascinated by this.

I've been working some split shifts the last few days, since we've had a "staffing shakeup" at the office, and as the highly responsible manager guy, I get to cover. Yahoo.

I actually like having afternoons off, I get to wander around outside in the sun, get stuff done, or just relax at the house and play videogames. Whee.

I predict a #1 finish for Rob & Amber on TAR 7.

Ever since it started, I've been a huge huge huge fan of HBO's Carnivale (now in its second season), but the most recent episode has vaulted this series into the upper echelon of my favourite shows ever. (Mike: Find these shows any way you can.) It is stunningly directed, the plot is fascinating, the acting very good... it's everything you could ever want in a deeply mysterious. While sometimes odd (I like to say it's the kind of story David Lynch and Stephen King would write if they were locked in a room together), and a little bit hard to figure out, it's absolutely freaking brilliant. Season one is on DVD, well worth the $100 price tag.

Our company has entered two teams in the Calgary Winter Club's annual "CURLING FUNSPIEL". I shall post pictures later once I have some.

Oh, speaking of pictures. For those of you who couldn't see the image I posted in my last post, it was a cover of "ACTION COMICS" featuring Superman, from the 40's I figure. The image was of Superman pulling a big handle on what appeared to be a printing press. The poster being printed said in big letters: "SUPERMAN SAYS YOU CAN SLAP A JAP WITH BONDS AND STAMPS!!!"

And yes, it's 100% real and authentic. (Check out www.superdickery.com for more bizarre, real, comic covers. Including the Archie comic cover where Betty, being held by Archie in his arms while he stands in the ocean, says "ARCHIE! Was it hard to save me from drowning?" and Archie's reply was: "Sure was! I hat to BEAT OFF three guys just to get to you!")

Click here to see it

That is all.