No sooner do I go and predict a possible Liberal minority government than all hell breaks loose. That wasn't the strangest week in Newfoundland political history, but it was certainly up there high on the surreality scale.
I kept thinking that I was going to write another blog post about it during the week, but circumstances kept changing so fast I was afraid to write anything else for fear that post would quickly look antiquated. I was following CBC reporter David Cochrane and NTV reporter Mike Connors (both Muse alumni) on Twitter and there were days they couldn't keep up with the swirling rumours.
For those not following the madness, the week went something like this.
1. Rumours start on Sunday that Liberal leader Yvonne Jones might not run in the next provincial election on October 11, barely two months away. Jones had been fighting breast cancer for more than a year.
2. The rumours are quickly confirmed and on Tuesday she announces that due to medical reasons she can't run. Her immune system is too compromised and the election campaign could be harmful for her.
3. The Liberal executive announce their doing an emergency leadership race. Nominations open on Wednesday, close Friday and the executive will vote who the next leader will be on Sunday afternoon.
4. The creme de la creme of fringe candidates come out and announce they're running for the leadership, including a guy who ran for the Conservative leadership earlier the year and a guy who couldn't win his own party's riding nomination a few years ago. Things look grim.
5. Then, like the shot heard around the world, late Wednesday night it breaks that retired General Rick Hillier is considering running. It's one of those things that would have changed everything. Odds would go from a Liberal slaughter to a landslide Liberal victory. The only person more loved in the province that Williams is probably Hillier. One joke says that Dunderdale would defect to the Liberals if that happened.
6. It doesn't happen. Citing family reasons, Hillier opts not to run.
7. Gloom and despair settle on the Liberals. People I've never heard of before decide to run. A couple of former Liberal cabinet ministers from the early 00s rise like the undead and announce they're thinking of running. One, Chuck Furey decides against running. The other, Kevin Alyward, tragically decides to.
This is the list of candidates here. One is reluctant to use words such as "doomed" and "slaughter" before the actual campaign begins, but whoever wins this (Lawyer Bern Coffey is apparently the favourite) has their work seriously cut out for them. They have less than two months to rally a political party that is pretty much broke. They have to introduce themselves to a deeply skeptical public. And if it's one of the political neophytes who have never run before, they're going to have to get used to the pressures of an election campaign on short notice and try and find a seat to run in.
So seriously, good luck with that. That's a huge learning curve and amount of work to do in less than no time, with barely any resources.
I'll come out with a final seat count prediction once the election is called and we'll get an idea of how the new Liberal leader shapes up. But it's not a stretch to see the NDP taking over the role of official Opposition as of October 12. Not much of a stretch at all...
Last Five
Last Five all from "Light of Endangered Species" by Matthew Good
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Election prediction
It's about two months until the election back in Newfoundland and Labrador. Obviously, I'm not on the ground, which means distance is giving me problems in making completely accurate assessments about what's going on back in the old stomping grounds. Although if plans hold I'll probably be back in the province the week of the election, so that'll be interesting.
But I guess distance has its advantages. I tend to look at the election from a different point of view than if I was there. I have a bit more of emotional distance from it. Rightly or wrongly I'm looking at it more from a strategy/game point of view than the "which party is best to run the province?" which is the correct way to look at these things.
So looking at the landscape right now, I'm beginning to form a potentially interesting theory. That we could see a minority government after this election.
Yes, I'm crazy. Hang in there with me for a second.
The province is in a rare bubble where there is no cult of personality type of leader heading any of the three political parties. I honestly can't think of the election where that was the case. Williams, Tobin, Wells, Peckford, Moores and Smallwood all fit that role. People voted for them as much as they did the party. Especially Williams. If he came out of retirement right now and decided to run under the Danny Party this election, no only would about 2/3rds of the Tory caucus defect, he would also still probably win 40 seats.
But Dunderdale, Jones and Michaels are nobody's idea of a cult of personality type of leader. I'm sure they're liked within their party (well, not sure about Dunderdale), but they don't exactly set the public's imagination on fire. That means there's no strong leader to come into a riding and ride roughshod or save a weak candidate. It now means individual candidates are going to have to stand on their own merit more and local issues are going to come much more into play.
That can be potentially very messy. For example, how pissed off are the people in the Burin and Bonavista peninsula areas with the government over the Hurricane Igor response?
And what about St. John's? Both seats went NDP in the last federal election and they're clearly thinking they can get more than their traditional one seat in Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi. The fact that they have more of their candidates in place at this point in time than the Liberals is interesting. The fact that staunch Liberals like Ed Hollett and Simon Lono are taking as much time bashing the NDP online these days as they are the Conservatives says to me they are concerned they could actually pick up seats.
How many? I could see the NDP getting a half dozen seats, perhaps more. They take a bunch of riding around the city, maybe one in Labrador or something and there you go. So say they pull six or seven seats. That means all the Liberals need is 18 seats or so to make a proper mess of things. It may happen, it may not. But I think in the heat of the election anything is possible.
So yeah, that's my longshot prediction - A Liberal minority government. Although that does depend on the Liberals getting their act together more than they seem to right now. Hell, the other weird thing could be a repeat of what happened federally - a Conservative government with an NDP opposition.
I'm just saying, it has the potential to be the first interesting election the province has seen in more than 20 years. Like anything, time will tell.
Last Five
1. Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners*
2. Matt Eiley - Figgy Duff
3. Killing the blues - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss
4. Surprise - Sean Panting
5. We've got tonight - Bob Seger
But I guess distance has its advantages. I tend to look at the election from a different point of view than if I was there. I have a bit more of emotional distance from it. Rightly or wrongly I'm looking at it more from a strategy/game point of view than the "which party is best to run the province?" which is the correct way to look at these things.
So looking at the landscape right now, I'm beginning to form a potentially interesting theory. That we could see a minority government after this election.
Yes, I'm crazy. Hang in there with me for a second.
The province is in a rare bubble where there is no cult of personality type of leader heading any of the three political parties. I honestly can't think of the election where that was the case. Williams, Tobin, Wells, Peckford, Moores and Smallwood all fit that role. People voted for them as much as they did the party. Especially Williams. If he came out of retirement right now and decided to run under the Danny Party this election, no only would about 2/3rds of the Tory caucus defect, he would also still probably win 40 seats.
But Dunderdale, Jones and Michaels are nobody's idea of a cult of personality type of leader. I'm sure they're liked within their party (well, not sure about Dunderdale), but they don't exactly set the public's imagination on fire. That means there's no strong leader to come into a riding and ride roughshod or save a weak candidate. It now means individual candidates are going to have to stand on their own merit more and local issues are going to come much more into play.
That can be potentially very messy. For example, how pissed off are the people in the Burin and Bonavista peninsula areas with the government over the Hurricane Igor response?
And what about St. John's? Both seats went NDP in the last federal election and they're clearly thinking they can get more than their traditional one seat in Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi. The fact that they have more of their candidates in place at this point in time than the Liberals is interesting. The fact that staunch Liberals like Ed Hollett and Simon Lono are taking as much time bashing the NDP online these days as they are the Conservatives says to me they are concerned they could actually pick up seats.
How many? I could see the NDP getting a half dozen seats, perhaps more. They take a bunch of riding around the city, maybe one in Labrador or something and there you go. So say they pull six or seven seats. That means all the Liberals need is 18 seats or so to make a proper mess of things. It may happen, it may not. But I think in the heat of the election anything is possible.
So yeah, that's my longshot prediction - A Liberal minority government. Although that does depend on the Liberals getting their act together more than they seem to right now. Hell, the other weird thing could be a repeat of what happened federally - a Conservative government with an NDP opposition.
I'm just saying, it has the potential to be the first interesting election the province has seen in more than 20 years. Like anything, time will tell.
Last Five
1. Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners*
2. Matt Eiley - Figgy Duff
3. Killing the blues - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss
4. Surprise - Sean Panting
5. We've got tonight - Bob Seger
Monday, August 01, 2011
Sunsets
Cathy had the clever idea of framing up a bunch of sunset photos from all our trips. I quite like the idea of taking anywhere from four to six sunset photos, putting the time and location underneath and putting them in one frame. I think it'll look good on the wall.
I'm going through old sunset photos right now (once I get over some technical glitch with Aperture, where it's telling me the master versions aren't there, although I can still see the image on my computer), but I'm trying to figure out which sunset photo to use from the Costa Rica vacation. Through a bit of good luck, we hit an absolutely spectacular sunset on our last day on the Pacific coast.
So, for your reviewing pleasure, here's my list of the best of those sunset shots. I'm curious as to what people think is the best one. I know which one I like best, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best one. Feel free to leave a comment with your vote.
Last Five
1. Look for me - Neko Case
2. Hoochie woman - Tori Amos
3. Turkish revelry - Loudon Wainwright III
4. The forty - Mark Bragg*
5. Distant early warning - Rush
I'm going through old sunset photos right now (once I get over some technical glitch with Aperture, where it's telling me the master versions aren't there, although I can still see the image on my computer), but I'm trying to figure out which sunset photo to use from the Costa Rica vacation. Through a bit of good luck, we hit an absolutely spectacular sunset on our last day on the Pacific coast.
So, for your reviewing pleasure, here's my list of the best of those sunset shots. I'm curious as to what people think is the best one. I know which one I like best, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best one. Feel free to leave a comment with your vote.
Last Five
1. Look for me - Neko Case
2. Hoochie woman - Tori Amos
3. Turkish revelry - Loudon Wainwright III
4. The forty - Mark Bragg*
5. Distant early warning - Rush
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Back again
So, I'm back in Iqaluit...I'm sure the five of you still reading the blog will be happy to know this.
Obviously the blog has been rather slow the last couple of months. Hell, most of this year. But I think I might be starting to feel a little revitalized. I think the couple of weeks vacation helped. Some may recall in the last blog post I said I would be back in a few weeks. Well, I was vague because I was going on vacation. Normally I have no problem letting people know that because we have someone housesitting. But not this time. We sent Boo off to Cathy's parents back in Newfoundland, which meant the house was empty. I prefer not to mention that sort of thing on the blog.
And then we had communications problems the last week. Apparently while we were away one of the city's sewage trucks clipped our internet satellite dish, knocking it out of alignment. It's back now, but that took a couple of days. And today we had pouring rain and fog, which interfered with reception. So, we've had some issues.
That doesn't excuse most of this year, but I've been doing this blog for about six years. I think a little burnout is entitled.
So, where was the vacation? Well, we managed to pack in quite a bit in two weeks. First up was Toronto, a city ordinarily we wouldn't go anywhere near (Cathy has a near psychotic loathing of the place and 40C with smog during our time there didn't help), but there was a small gathering of old friends taking place and it was good to see them again (even if several threatened me if I didn't restart the blog). That was Sunday.
On Monday we finally got to use the U2 tickets we bought over two years ago. I loved the show, although it was fascinating to read the review the next day. The Sun had a fairly bland recap, but gave it five stars, the Globe quite liked it, but went into more detail. But the Star must have seen a different show, because they didn't really care much for it. Then again, it read like a review of someone who has seen the band every time they've hit Toronto since the 80s. He wasn't impressed, which is fair enough, I guess. But seeing as how it was the first time I saw the band, I was blown away.
After that, back to Ottawa to spend a few frantic days doing our sealift order. That's always a terrifying amount of money out the window in a short period of time. And then we headed to Costa Rica for 10 days.
We've always wanted to go, and rather than plan everything ourselves, we got lazy and used Caravan - a bus tour operator. I'd read reviews about how good they were for ages and we decided to take a chance on them. A very good tour, I must say. Volcanoes, hot springs, lots of wildlife, lots of greenery (returning to Iqaluit was a bit of a shock) and a good time was had by all. Funny, there were 43 people on this tour, and we were the only Canadians. Us and 41 Americans. That was a touch eye-opening. But most were lovely people and a lot of fun.
So, what's next? Well, I'll be putting up some photos over the next couple of blog posts. I may need help with one of them. Cathy and the fantastic idea of doing a frame of a bunch of sunset shots I've taken over the years. I have a couple of great ones from the trip, so I'm curious as to what people think is the best one. A little about what I've been up to the last few months (including a hacking incident) and I may even delve into politics again. Really, there's an election in Newfoundland in October. If you think I can pass that up, well...
And, of course, I have to revamp the Moving to Iqaluit FAQ. New information and I think I'm going to organize it differently. If you have any more questions, now is the time to get them in.
Oh, and finally, happy anniversary to my lovely wife. Six years ago today she said "I do" shortly after I said the same thing. We're celebrating in the traditional way, with me in Iqaluit and her in Mount Pearl. Luck of the draw when you marry a teacher. Anyway, happy anniversary, my love...
Last Five
1. In-between - Josh Rouse
2. Lost control - Grinspoon
3. There's an arc - Hey Rosetta!
4. Flower - Liz Phair
5. Rains on me - Tom Waits*
Obviously the blog has been rather slow the last couple of months. Hell, most of this year. But I think I might be starting to feel a little revitalized. I think the couple of weeks vacation helped. Some may recall in the last blog post I said I would be back in a few weeks. Well, I was vague because I was going on vacation. Normally I have no problem letting people know that because we have someone housesitting. But not this time. We sent Boo off to Cathy's parents back in Newfoundland, which meant the house was empty. I prefer not to mention that sort of thing on the blog.
And then we had communications problems the last week. Apparently while we were away one of the city's sewage trucks clipped our internet satellite dish, knocking it out of alignment. It's back now, but that took a couple of days. And today we had pouring rain and fog, which interfered with reception. So, we've had some issues.
That doesn't excuse most of this year, but I've been doing this blog for about six years. I think a little burnout is entitled.
So, where was the vacation? Well, we managed to pack in quite a bit in two weeks. First up was Toronto, a city ordinarily we wouldn't go anywhere near (Cathy has a near psychotic loathing of the place and 40C with smog during our time there didn't help), but there was a small gathering of old friends taking place and it was good to see them again (even if several threatened me if I didn't restart the blog). That was Sunday.
On Monday we finally got to use the U2 tickets we bought over two years ago. I loved the show, although it was fascinating to read the review the next day. The Sun had a fairly bland recap, but gave it five stars, the Globe quite liked it, but went into more detail. But the Star must have seen a different show, because they didn't really care much for it. Then again, it read like a review of someone who has seen the band every time they've hit Toronto since the 80s. He wasn't impressed, which is fair enough, I guess. But seeing as how it was the first time I saw the band, I was blown away.
After that, back to Ottawa to spend a few frantic days doing our sealift order. That's always a terrifying amount of money out the window in a short period of time. And then we headed to Costa Rica for 10 days.
We've always wanted to go, and rather than plan everything ourselves, we got lazy and used Caravan - a bus tour operator. I'd read reviews about how good they were for ages and we decided to take a chance on them. A very good tour, I must say. Volcanoes, hot springs, lots of wildlife, lots of greenery (returning to Iqaluit was a bit of a shock) and a good time was had by all. Funny, there were 43 people on this tour, and we were the only Canadians. Us and 41 Americans. That was a touch eye-opening. But most were lovely people and a lot of fun.
So, what's next? Well, I'll be putting up some photos over the next couple of blog posts. I may need help with one of them. Cathy and the fantastic idea of doing a frame of a bunch of sunset shots I've taken over the years. I have a couple of great ones from the trip, so I'm curious as to what people think is the best one. A little about what I've been up to the last few months (including a hacking incident) and I may even delve into politics again. Really, there's an election in Newfoundland in October. If you think I can pass that up, well...
And, of course, I have to revamp the Moving to Iqaluit FAQ. New information and I think I'm going to organize it differently. If you have any more questions, now is the time to get them in.
Oh, and finally, happy anniversary to my lovely wife. Six years ago today she said "I do" shortly after I said the same thing. We're celebrating in the traditional way, with me in Iqaluit and her in Mount Pearl. Luck of the draw when you marry a teacher. Anyway, happy anniversary, my love...
Last Five
1. In-between - Josh Rouse
2. Lost control - Grinspoon
3. There's an arc - Hey Rosetta!
4. Flower - Liz Phair
5. Rains on me - Tom Waits*
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Ah yes
Reports of my death are somewhat exaggerated. Let's call it severe blog fatigue. But it's not dead, I promise. He'll, I've had stuff I could write about the last few weeks, but the drive to post it up just wasn't there.
But the blog isn't dead, nor am I going to delete it. I still have great affection for old place, even if cobwebs are setting in and rats are beginning to eye the place.
Just give me a couple more weeks and I promise I'll come back with new stories and more updates.
But thanks for your patience, everyone. I know I've been abusing it something fierce lately.
But the blog isn't dead, nor am I going to delete it. I still have great affection for old place, even if cobwebs are setting in and rats are beginning to eye the place.
Just give me a couple more weeks and I promise I'll come back with new stories and more updates.
But thanks for your patience, everyone. I know I've been abusing it something fierce lately.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
A hard week
So yeah, we're having a bad day in Iqaluit. And when I say we, I'm not referring specifically to Cathy and I. For those of you who might have missed the news, we had an....incident here yesterday. You can read more about it here and here.
I've had some friends and family contact me and ask if we're all right. We are. They've asked if we knew the family involved. We did not. However, Iqaluit is 7,000 people. We're not talking six degrees of separation here to find people who were friends and family of the people involved. And if it seems I'm being circumspect with the information, well, the police and media are not giving out a lot of information until family can be notified. And there's enough of a reporter left in me that I respect that. Besides, the mood in town can best be summed up as stunned.
Understand, it's a small town. Rumours are flying fast and furious. Everybody knows the names of those involved and there's plenty of speculation about what happened. But this blog isn't the place for that, so I'm not getting into it. The RCMP will be doing a press conference on Thursday. If you want to know more I'm sure there'll be more coverage then.
This hasn't been a great last 12 months in Nunavut. There's been a lot of tragedy and when you start reading reporters finding it getting too hard to keep doing these stories (Several experienced journalists were on Twitter last night giving details as they learned it and they were obviously distraught) then you know things are getting bad.
We love living in Iqaluit and Nunavut. If we didn't we'd be making escape plans. We wouldn't have bought a house. We wouldn't have just bought a car which is getting here next month. It can be an astonishing place to live. An opportunity you feel lucky to get a chance to experience.
You get tremendous acts of community and willingness to come together. When there was a fire earlier the year that left dozens homeless so much clothes were donated they had to ask people to stop because they didn't know what to do with it. There was a terrible snowmobile accident a few weeks ago that left one man dead and a young woman still in hospital and the outpouring of grief and support for the families involved was nearly overwhelming.
And that's in Iqaluit. It happens all across Nunavut. In the face of tragedy, communities band together to help.
I just wish tragedy didn't feel so commonplace up here sometimes. We love Nunavut. I just wish Nunavut made it easier to love it, that's all. I think the thing that disheartens me the most sometimes is that there are smart people up here trying to figure things out, so that tragedies like what happened on Tuesday are less common than what they are. And they struggle to come up with solutions.
I've always said Nunavut's problems aren't going to change overnight and for a (North American) culture that expects change to happen almost instantaneously and without pain, that's a hard thing to accept. That it could take decades or generations for Nunavut to be the kind of place that people here dream it could be is hard to take.
In the meantime, if you could spare a prayer or, if that's not your thing, then at least a thought for the friends and family who are absolutely devastated by this, then I think that would at least be a start.
Last Five
1. 40 - U2
2. Come talk to me (live) - Peter Gabriel*
3. Do what you want - Hall & Oates
4. Why do you love me - Garbage
5. Ending start - Metric
I've had some friends and family contact me and ask if we're all right. We are. They've asked if we knew the family involved. We did not. However, Iqaluit is 7,000 people. We're not talking six degrees of separation here to find people who were friends and family of the people involved. And if it seems I'm being circumspect with the information, well, the police and media are not giving out a lot of information until family can be notified. And there's enough of a reporter left in me that I respect that. Besides, the mood in town can best be summed up as stunned.
Understand, it's a small town. Rumours are flying fast and furious. Everybody knows the names of those involved and there's plenty of speculation about what happened. But this blog isn't the place for that, so I'm not getting into it. The RCMP will be doing a press conference on Thursday. If you want to know more I'm sure there'll be more coverage then.
This hasn't been a great last 12 months in Nunavut. There's been a lot of tragedy and when you start reading reporters finding it getting too hard to keep doing these stories (Several experienced journalists were on Twitter last night giving details as they learned it and they were obviously distraught) then you know things are getting bad.
We love living in Iqaluit and Nunavut. If we didn't we'd be making escape plans. We wouldn't have bought a house. We wouldn't have just bought a car which is getting here next month. It can be an astonishing place to live. An opportunity you feel lucky to get a chance to experience.
You get tremendous acts of community and willingness to come together. When there was a fire earlier the year that left dozens homeless so much clothes were donated they had to ask people to stop because they didn't know what to do with it. There was a terrible snowmobile accident a few weeks ago that left one man dead and a young woman still in hospital and the outpouring of grief and support for the families involved was nearly overwhelming.
And that's in Iqaluit. It happens all across Nunavut. In the face of tragedy, communities band together to help.
I just wish tragedy didn't feel so commonplace up here sometimes. We love Nunavut. I just wish Nunavut made it easier to love it, that's all. I think the thing that disheartens me the most sometimes is that there are smart people up here trying to figure things out, so that tragedies like what happened on Tuesday are less common than what they are. And they struggle to come up with solutions.
I've always said Nunavut's problems aren't going to change overnight and for a (North American) culture that expects change to happen almost instantaneously and without pain, that's a hard thing to accept. That it could take decades or generations for Nunavut to be the kind of place that people here dream it could be is hard to take.
In the meantime, if you could spare a prayer or, if that's not your thing, then at least a thought for the friends and family who are absolutely devastated by this, then I think that would at least be a start.
Last Five
1. 40 - U2
2. Come talk to me (live) - Peter Gabriel*
3. Do what you want - Hall & Oates
4. Why do you love me - Garbage
5. Ending start - Metric
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Jets and comic books
So most of the day has been people cheering loudly about the return of hockey to Winnipeg. Understand, I could not care less. Hockey is not my sport, at all. I cheer for Vancouver in the finals simply because if I have to read another sports story about how long its been since a Canadian team won the Cup, I might go mad.
Still, you know, good on Winnipeg if it makes them happy. There was a rumour swirling around on Twitter today that they might call the team the Manitoba Polar Bears. Which I don't think is likely, but will result in me cheering against the team whenever they play just because I have a think about polar bears. Although if, in-between periods, they put a live polar bear and two fans out on the ice and the one who survives the intermission gets a prize, that's a team promotion I could possibly get behind.
There's also the possibility of Winnipeg's AHL team ending up in St. John's, which has people all excited and Danny Williams back in the news. Just in case you forgot how much bluster and bullying the man possesses, read this story. Seriously, if he changed his mind and created the Williams Party to run in the next provincial election, not only would he win, but 2/3rds of the current PC caucus would defect to him.
Anyway, I tend to be of two minds on giving the AHL team money. First of all, I think it's going to happen. Williams is making a racket, it's an election year and there's only so much Dunderdale can do to piss off Williams, who is still beloved. I'm not sure about giving money to a professional sports team. Williams can afford the $500,000 so I don't understand what the big deal is for him needing the province to kick in the dollars.
On the other hand, lord knows the provincial government wastes more than $500,000 a year on stupider stuff than a travel subsidy. So I guess we'll see what happens.
But honestly, the thing that interests me the most is this story. DC Comics is rebooting its entire line of comics. Now, something like this seems to happen every few years, although this one seems to be bigger than most, what with all the titles being cancelled and relaunched from #1 (including Action Comics and Detective Comics, which have been running with the same numbering since the 30s.). They're also promising younger versions of the characters and more "real world situations". I expect you can kiss the Clark Kent-Lois Lane marriage good-bye for starters. Robin might be gone. God only knows what they'll do with poor Wonder Woman.
This is all fairly high end geek stuff. If you love the comics, you'll notice. If you don't, you might be somewhat interested in passing, but probably would have no interest in going out of your way to a comic store and checking it out. Which is where the clever bit comes in. In September, when the reboot happens, the same day the physical comic hits your local store, the digital version will be available online to buy.
This was inevitable, is going to piss off comic stores like nothing else, and entirely clever. Going digital was going to happen, but doing it when relaunching the comics to attract younger readers....not half bad. I'll be curious, that's for sure. I could download comics off torrent sites if I wanted, but I like the idea of sampling digital comics online.
We'll see how this all shakes out. More interesting than bloody hockey, that's for sure.
Last Five
1. Hollow - Drive
2. Mushaboom - Feist
3. Falling down blue (live) - Blue Rodeo*
4. Don't let the man get you down - Fatboy Slim
5. Yesterdays - Billie Holiday
Still, you know, good on Winnipeg if it makes them happy. There was a rumour swirling around on Twitter today that they might call the team the Manitoba Polar Bears. Which I don't think is likely, but will result in me cheering against the team whenever they play just because I have a think about polar bears. Although if, in-between periods, they put a live polar bear and two fans out on the ice and the one who survives the intermission gets a prize, that's a team promotion I could possibly get behind.
There's also the possibility of Winnipeg's AHL team ending up in St. John's, which has people all excited and Danny Williams back in the news. Just in case you forgot how much bluster and bullying the man possesses, read this story. Seriously, if he changed his mind and created the Williams Party to run in the next provincial election, not only would he win, but 2/3rds of the current PC caucus would defect to him.
Anyway, I tend to be of two minds on giving the AHL team money. First of all, I think it's going to happen. Williams is making a racket, it's an election year and there's only so much Dunderdale can do to piss off Williams, who is still beloved. I'm not sure about giving money to a professional sports team. Williams can afford the $500,000 so I don't understand what the big deal is for him needing the province to kick in the dollars.
On the other hand, lord knows the provincial government wastes more than $500,000 a year on stupider stuff than a travel subsidy. So I guess we'll see what happens.
But honestly, the thing that interests me the most is this story. DC Comics is rebooting its entire line of comics. Now, something like this seems to happen every few years, although this one seems to be bigger than most, what with all the titles being cancelled and relaunched from #1 (including Action Comics and Detective Comics, which have been running with the same numbering since the 30s.). They're also promising younger versions of the characters and more "real world situations". I expect you can kiss the Clark Kent-Lois Lane marriage good-bye for starters. Robin might be gone. God only knows what they'll do with poor Wonder Woman.
This is all fairly high end geek stuff. If you love the comics, you'll notice. If you don't, you might be somewhat interested in passing, but probably would have no interest in going out of your way to a comic store and checking it out. Which is where the clever bit comes in. In September, when the reboot happens, the same day the physical comic hits your local store, the digital version will be available online to buy.
This was inevitable, is going to piss off comic stores like nothing else, and entirely clever. Going digital was going to happen, but doing it when relaunching the comics to attract younger readers....not half bad. I'll be curious, that's for sure. I could download comics off torrent sites if I wanted, but I like the idea of sampling digital comics online.
We'll see how this all shakes out. More interesting than bloody hockey, that's for sure.
Last Five
1. Hollow - Drive
2. Mushaboom - Feist
3. Falling down blue (live) - Blue Rodeo*
4. Don't let the man get you down - Fatboy Slim
5. Yesterdays - Billie Holiday
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Regents again
Every three years my alma mater, Memorial University of Newfoundland (don't even get me started on dropping Newfoundland from most of the promo products), has the clever idea of allowing six alumi to be elected to the Board of Regents. Now, the Board is the governing body of the university and it has a decent amount of power on deciding how things are going to be run and done at the place. Those six people aren't going to change the world. Most of the 30 members are appointed to the board by the provincial government, so they tend to do whatever those up on The Hill tell them to do. Still, it's a chance for alumni to have a voice and I think it's an important election.
I've run twice - once in 2005 and in 2008. To surprise of pretty much no one, I didn't win. I finished about the middle of the pack each time. I give MUN a lot of shit, but I do love the place, have good memories and the place means a lot. I poke, bitch and complain because you do that to things you love sometimes. And lord knows MUN has needed a swift kick in the ass more than once over the years.
Case in point was the racket that happened around the last alumni election when then Premier Danny Williams and Education Minister Joan Burke blatantly inferred with the selection process for the university's next president. They had no business doing it and, to make matters worse, removed members of the Board of Regents for various reasons before the term. It was, I don't think, ever said in public but if I had to hazard a guess those members disagreed with what the government was doing and, of their troubles, they were removed.
I was pretty pissed with the Regents at that time. At the least they should have all stood up and said "The government doesn't get to decide the next MUN president. There's a process, we're following it so back off." But they didn't because Danny was Danny and it obviously required more balls than most of them possessed to do that. I think they should have resigned on mass, but again, requiring more guts than what was on the Board.
So that annoyed me. The other thing that annoyed me was that the vote totals for those people who ran in the election - and I think there was around 40 - were never revealed. We knew who the top six were. I knew how many votes I got and where I placed. But unlike virtually every other democratic election held in Canada, MUN's Board of Regents alumni election couldn't have the complete vote totals released because it would violate privacy regulations.
Yes, feel free to discreetly cough bullshit over that one.
However, I am pleased to see they've changed the rules on that one. You know what, I'm going to take credit for that one. I had more than one exchange with people at MUN over that, including getting a note from the university president. Not releasing the final totals for all candidates was bullshit and I'm glad to see they've changed that rule.
I thought about running again. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass. I've had friends tell me to just let it rest. Which is a fair point. I was pretty annoying (well, more than usual) for a few months back in '98 as MUN was taking up a lot of my time. Plus, the blog was a lot more active then, I had the radical notion of starting up a Facebook page to try and get people to vote for me (CBC interviewed me over the unique strategy). This time everyone is going to have a blog, Facebook page and god help Twitter. God help us all.
Also, I'm going to be out of the country for the last part of the election. So no, not running unless there is a sudden massive groundswell trying to convince me to run. Which I doubt will happen. But I will pay close attention to those who do run. They're important positions and people should be serious about running and what they want to do when they get elected.
Because if you're not going to go in there and fight and make a racket and try and change and improve things, why bother running?
Something those running should think about, at any rate...
Last Five
1. Honey - Best Coast
2. Ask me why - The Beatles
3. 7 - Prince
4. Me and Lazarus - Iron & Wine
5. Tired - Adele*
I've run twice - once in 2005 and in 2008. To surprise of pretty much no one, I didn't win. I finished about the middle of the pack each time. I give MUN a lot of shit, but I do love the place, have good memories and the place means a lot. I poke, bitch and complain because you do that to things you love sometimes. And lord knows MUN has needed a swift kick in the ass more than once over the years.
Case in point was the racket that happened around the last alumni election when then Premier Danny Williams and Education Minister Joan Burke blatantly inferred with the selection process for the university's next president. They had no business doing it and, to make matters worse, removed members of the Board of Regents for various reasons before the term. It was, I don't think, ever said in public but if I had to hazard a guess those members disagreed with what the government was doing and, of their troubles, they were removed.
I was pretty pissed with the Regents at that time. At the least they should have all stood up and said "The government doesn't get to decide the next MUN president. There's a process, we're following it so back off." But they didn't because Danny was Danny and it obviously required more balls than most of them possessed to do that. I think they should have resigned on mass, but again, requiring more guts than what was on the Board.
So that annoyed me. The other thing that annoyed me was that the vote totals for those people who ran in the election - and I think there was around 40 - were never revealed. We knew who the top six were. I knew how many votes I got and where I placed. But unlike virtually every other democratic election held in Canada, MUN's Board of Regents alumni election couldn't have the complete vote totals released because it would violate privacy regulations.
Yes, feel free to discreetly cough bullshit over that one.
However, I am pleased to see they've changed the rules on that one. You know what, I'm going to take credit for that one. I had more than one exchange with people at MUN over that, including getting a note from the university president. Not releasing the final totals for all candidates was bullshit and I'm glad to see they've changed that rule.
I thought about running again. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass. I've had friends tell me to just let it rest. Which is a fair point. I was pretty annoying (well, more than usual) for a few months back in '98 as MUN was taking up a lot of my time. Plus, the blog was a lot more active then, I had the radical notion of starting up a Facebook page to try and get people to vote for me (CBC interviewed me over the unique strategy). This time everyone is going to have a blog, Facebook page and god help Twitter. God help us all.
Also, I'm going to be out of the country for the last part of the election. So no, not running unless there is a sudden massive groundswell trying to convince me to run. Which I doubt will happen. But I will pay close attention to those who do run. They're important positions and people should be serious about running and what they want to do when they get elected.
Because if you're not going to go in there and fight and make a racket and try and change and improve things, why bother running?
Something those running should think about, at any rate...
Last Five
1. Honey - Best Coast
2. Ask me why - The Beatles
3. 7 - Prince
4. Me and Lazarus - Iron & Wine
5. Tired - Adele*
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thor!
1. I'm guessing I should probably do a review of Thor as I am the resident northern comic book geek. I've never been the biggest fan of the character in the world, with the exception of Walt Simonson's run on the series back in the 80s (Now collected in this bad boy which I will own soon enough). A norse God of Thunder is perhaps not the most likely candidate for a movie, but hey, Marvel seems to have a formula down with their movies. Take a basically good guy with lots of power and potential, but basically an dick with daddy issues, throw him into the deep end, watch him become a Man and then a good guy. The end.
So Thor is a fun enough movie. It's probably in my Top 10 all-time comic book movies, but definitely clinging to the bottom of the list as opposed to being near the top with films like X-Men 2, Spider Man 2, Iron Man and the Dark Knight. The acting is fun enough, the story does a decent job of making sense of a norse god walking the earth, Odin is a prick (Odin is a prick in the comics as well), Loki steals scenes like he's supposed to do, Natalie Portman slums along as nice eye candy and Kenneth Branaugh does a good job of making something fun not seem completely weightless.
But if I have a gripe, it's about the 3-D. I think it's a gripe I can have about almost any of the movies using 3-D and Roger Ebert is currently in the middle of a jihad against it on his blog, but he's right. I'm tired of spending extra on a movie that looks really dark and in which the 3-D adds little to it. I'm willing to bet I'm going to enjoy Thor a lot more on Blu Ray when it comes out because I'll appreciate how much brighter and sharper it is.
So a decent start for the comic movies of the summer of '11. And next week's X-Men: First Class is getting early comparisons to X-Men 2, which is a very good sign. Still not sure about Green Lantern. I think it's going to be spectacular, but good or bad I don't know. I still don't know enough about Captain America to have an idea of how that's going to work out.
2. An update for those of you who might possibly care about the banking stuff I mentioned the other day. CIBC seems oddly friendly to me right now. People at the bank certain seem to know who I am, although whether that's good or not I don't know. But they did step up. We got a much better deal at CIBC than RBC (and by much better, I mean 2.5% better at least) so that's enough to keep me happy for now.
I don't know if we're going to use it or not. We're juggling a few things here right now. The car (It's going to be an Equinox), upcoming sea lift order, our vacation and the desire to hammer some money down on the mortgage. Oddly, there is only so much money to go around.
But on the upside, we should have our new Equinox by early July, assuming the ice breaks up on time and the sealift boats stick to schedule. Which is questionable, but you can always live in hope. It'll be the first brand new vehicle for either of us in 10 years, which is pretty exciting. Mmmmmmm, new car smell...
Last Five
1. What you're missing - Sean Panting
2. DNA - The Kills*
3. Way out - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. Tightly - Neko Case
5. El Manana - Gorillaz
So Thor is a fun enough movie. It's probably in my Top 10 all-time comic book movies, but definitely clinging to the bottom of the list as opposed to being near the top with films like X-Men 2, Spider Man 2, Iron Man and the Dark Knight. The acting is fun enough, the story does a decent job of making sense of a norse god walking the earth, Odin is a prick (Odin is a prick in the comics as well), Loki steals scenes like he's supposed to do, Natalie Portman slums along as nice eye candy and Kenneth Branaugh does a good job of making something fun not seem completely weightless.
But if I have a gripe, it's about the 3-D. I think it's a gripe I can have about almost any of the movies using 3-D and Roger Ebert is currently in the middle of a jihad against it on his blog, but he's right. I'm tired of spending extra on a movie that looks really dark and in which the 3-D adds little to it. I'm willing to bet I'm going to enjoy Thor a lot more on Blu Ray when it comes out because I'll appreciate how much brighter and sharper it is.
So a decent start for the comic movies of the summer of '11. And next week's X-Men: First Class is getting early comparisons to X-Men 2, which is a very good sign. Still not sure about Green Lantern. I think it's going to be spectacular, but good or bad I don't know. I still don't know enough about Captain America to have an idea of how that's going to work out.
2. An update for those of you who might possibly care about the banking stuff I mentioned the other day. CIBC seems oddly friendly to me right now. People at the bank certain seem to know who I am, although whether that's good or not I don't know. But they did step up. We got a much better deal at CIBC than RBC (and by much better, I mean 2.5% better at least) so that's enough to keep me happy for now.
I don't know if we're going to use it or not. We're juggling a few things here right now. The car (It's going to be an Equinox), upcoming sea lift order, our vacation and the desire to hammer some money down on the mortgage. Oddly, there is only so much money to go around.
But on the upside, we should have our new Equinox by early July, assuming the ice breaks up on time and the sealift boats stick to schedule. Which is questionable, but you can always live in hope. It'll be the first brand new vehicle for either of us in 10 years, which is pretty exciting. Mmmmmmm, new car smell...
Last Five
1. What you're missing - Sean Panting
2. DNA - The Kills*
3. Way out - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. Tightly - Neko Case
5. El Manana - Gorillaz
Monday, May 23, 2011
Being watched online
I've had a slightly odd encounter with the world of social media last week. And if nothing else proves the point that what you say online can have unforeseen results.
We had a minor crisis last week when Cathy went out to start the car and it failed to do so. Now, we're getting near the end of our time with the vehicle, so there's only so much money we're willing to put into her at this point. So if it was something cheap and simple, no problem. But if it was something catastrophic that would cost thousands of dollars, well, we were going to have a long chat about what was going to happen. Driving Force has one 2010 Equinox left on their lot, so we would have taken a look at buying that.
Now, as it stands, it was a dead battery. We got her towed, a new battery put in and she's right as rain.
But before we knew this, I popped into our bank - CIBC - to make an appointment to talk about a car loan. Now, I've banked with CIBC since I was four years old, however they burned a lot of graces with us back in 2009 when we couldn't get a mortgage with them because they didn't have anyone in town who could help us. The mad scrambling to instead get an appointment at RBC slowed us down enough that someone got a bid in ahead of us, which cost us the house. We were so annoyed we very nearly pulled our accounts from the bank. But inertia got ahold of us and we didn't do it.
So, last Tuesday I go into the bank to make an appointment about possibly getting a car loan. The teller informs me the earliest spot they have is sometime next month.
Understand, I forgive a lot of inconvenience because we live in the north. It's just the way of things. But when I go into a bank and they tell me there is no one available to talk to me about me borrowing money from them, then I get annoyed. Especially since I know at First Nations Bank I could get an appointment in about 10 minutes and at most it would take a few days at RBC, certainly not weeks.
I turned around and walked out of the bank without making an appointment. Later that day I vented on Twitter that CIBC was completely useless because it clearly didn't want my money or business.
Now is when the weirdness comes in.
Wednesday after work there's a message from someone at CIBC waiting for me. I think nothing of it, they're probably trying to sell me insurance again. Except on Thursday there's another message asking me to call them. So on Friday I finally call. They weren't selling insurance. Instead it was someone from their customer service department. Seems they have someone there who monitors social media, like Twitter, for complaints. They were calling to see what the problem was.
I'm still going back and forth on if that's cool or creepy. The jury is out.
Anyway, I had a lengthy vent about the situation, was told that was unacceptable and if I would hold on for a few minutes, they would contact the bank manager to fix the situation.
Ten minutes later, a not entirely pleased sounding bank manager made an appointment with us for Wednesday. So there you go, the power of social media networks in action. Kind of cool, but also deeply weird.
Are we going to stick with CIBC? Depends on what they offer. If it's a tie, no. RBC wins the tiebreaker. But if CIBC comes in a few points lower than RBC we'll stick with them. Money is money, after all. But if we end up getting a loan and going with RBC, that's our mortgage and car loan with them. I think then we ask if we're going to bother sticking with CIBC. Whether they care or not, I don't know. I guess we'll see how much they want us on Wednesday.
Last Five
1. Kiss and tell - Spirit of the West
2. The absence of God - Rilo Kiley
3. C'mere - Interpol
4. Backseat - Jenny Gear and the Whiskey Kittens
5. The union forever - The White Stripes
We had a minor crisis last week when Cathy went out to start the car and it failed to do so. Now, we're getting near the end of our time with the vehicle, so there's only so much money we're willing to put into her at this point. So if it was something cheap and simple, no problem. But if it was something catastrophic that would cost thousands of dollars, well, we were going to have a long chat about what was going to happen. Driving Force has one 2010 Equinox left on their lot, so we would have taken a look at buying that.
Now, as it stands, it was a dead battery. We got her towed, a new battery put in and she's right as rain.
But before we knew this, I popped into our bank - CIBC - to make an appointment to talk about a car loan. Now, I've banked with CIBC since I was four years old, however they burned a lot of graces with us back in 2009 when we couldn't get a mortgage with them because they didn't have anyone in town who could help us. The mad scrambling to instead get an appointment at RBC slowed us down enough that someone got a bid in ahead of us, which cost us the house. We were so annoyed we very nearly pulled our accounts from the bank. But inertia got ahold of us and we didn't do it.
So, last Tuesday I go into the bank to make an appointment about possibly getting a car loan. The teller informs me the earliest spot they have is sometime next month.
Understand, I forgive a lot of inconvenience because we live in the north. It's just the way of things. But when I go into a bank and they tell me there is no one available to talk to me about me borrowing money from them, then I get annoyed. Especially since I know at First Nations Bank I could get an appointment in about 10 minutes and at most it would take a few days at RBC, certainly not weeks.
I turned around and walked out of the bank without making an appointment. Later that day I vented on Twitter that CIBC was completely useless because it clearly didn't want my money or business.
Now is when the weirdness comes in.
Wednesday after work there's a message from someone at CIBC waiting for me. I think nothing of it, they're probably trying to sell me insurance again. Except on Thursday there's another message asking me to call them. So on Friday I finally call. They weren't selling insurance. Instead it was someone from their customer service department. Seems they have someone there who monitors social media, like Twitter, for complaints. They were calling to see what the problem was.
I'm still going back and forth on if that's cool or creepy. The jury is out.
Anyway, I had a lengthy vent about the situation, was told that was unacceptable and if I would hold on for a few minutes, they would contact the bank manager to fix the situation.
Ten minutes later, a not entirely pleased sounding bank manager made an appointment with us for Wednesday. So there you go, the power of social media networks in action. Kind of cool, but also deeply weird.
Are we going to stick with CIBC? Depends on what they offer. If it's a tie, no. RBC wins the tiebreaker. But if CIBC comes in a few points lower than RBC we'll stick with them. Money is money, after all. But if we end up getting a loan and going with RBC, that's our mortgage and car loan with them. I think then we ask if we're going to bother sticking with CIBC. Whether they care or not, I don't know. I guess we'll see how much they want us on Wednesday.
Last Five
1. Kiss and tell - Spirit of the West
2. The absence of God - Rilo Kiley
3. C'mere - Interpol
4. Backseat - Jenny Gear and the Whiskey Kittens
5. The union forever - The White Stripes
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Ipads, cars and FAQs
Yeah, I'm not even giving excuses anymore. Let's just move forward with some things, shall we?
1. I forgot to mention that one of the toys I picked up in Florida last month was an iPad 2. It was borderline miraculous I managed to find one, really. I popped in to the Apple store in Tampa and they were polite enough not to laugh at me when I asked. Instead, they pointed out the store opened at 10 and the line-up to get whatever shipment they received that day normally started at 7 am. Which was too stupid for me to seriously consider on vacation.
There was a Best Buy nearby, and they were laughing too when I asked. But on our next to last day there, I popped in at lunchtime on a lark and they had a few just come in. So pure dumb luck.
So how are they? I admit, we picked one up more for travelling than any practical use around town or anything. But the the damndest thing....I really like using it. If we're out watching TV I'll pop in and grab that if I just want to poke online for a few minutes during commercial. I like it a lot. It's a slick little gadget. It's much better than the iPod Touch, which I was kind of disappointed in. The games are fun, the keyboard is pretty easy to use for writing. I downloaded the Kindle app and bought my first ebook (Espediar Street by Iain Banks, which is an old favourite of mine) and I liked the experience of reading it on the iPad.
On the downside, the auto-correct when typing can be a bit annoying and we had one glitch with the iPad not wanting to switch away from the US iTunes store to the Canada one which meant I had to reset it to factory settings.
My laptop is going to be four years old this fall. I was beginning to wonder, in the back of my mind, if I might not need an upgrade this year. Now I'm wondering if I really need a new laptop as long as I have the iPad.
2. As long as we're talking about spending money, we're also in full car-hunting mode right now. I recently test drove a Subaru Forrester, which is a lovely ride. The downside is they do no warranty work in Nunavut. Which means if something goes wrong, we're totally on our own. Which can get pricy in a hurry.
So back to plan b. The only vehicles that get warranty work done in Iqaluit apparently are GMs, Fords and Toyotas. There's a place in town that sells Fords and GMs, so we're now looking at either a Terrain or an Equinox. They're essentially the same vehicle. The main difference is that I like how the Terrain looks and Cathy likes how the Equinox looks. Place your bets on who is going to win that battle of the wills.
It's not ideal, but it's better than going to Ottawa, going through all the hassle of buying it, going through the licensing and taxes and then getting it shipped up and not having anyone to do maintaince work. This way, we can go into Driving Force, tell them what vehicle we want, they'll order it up here and then they'll call us when it arrives on the sealift boat. Much simpler. Probably a little pricier, but you take a certain price hit for not dealing with a ton of hassle.
And yes, I know, GM. I'm aware of the potential downfalls, although both vehicles are well reviewed. But we shall see.
3. And yes, I'll try to get better with the blogging. If nothing else, I need to start gearing up to revamp the FAQ again, which is an annual thing. I've had no less than three people at work tell me they read the FAQ and it helped them decide to move here. That's always good to know.
Last Five
1. Shaking the tree (live) - Peter Gabriel
2. Road trippin' - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
3. I would die for you - Garbage
4. The long way home - Norah Jones
5. Sodium - Ian Foster
1. I forgot to mention that one of the toys I picked up in Florida last month was an iPad 2. It was borderline miraculous I managed to find one, really. I popped in to the Apple store in Tampa and they were polite enough not to laugh at me when I asked. Instead, they pointed out the store opened at 10 and the line-up to get whatever shipment they received that day normally started at 7 am. Which was too stupid for me to seriously consider on vacation.
There was a Best Buy nearby, and they were laughing too when I asked. But on our next to last day there, I popped in at lunchtime on a lark and they had a few just come in. So pure dumb luck.
So how are they? I admit, we picked one up more for travelling than any practical use around town or anything. But the the damndest thing....I really like using it. If we're out watching TV I'll pop in and grab that if I just want to poke online for a few minutes during commercial. I like it a lot. It's a slick little gadget. It's much better than the iPod Touch, which I was kind of disappointed in. The games are fun, the keyboard is pretty easy to use for writing. I downloaded the Kindle app and bought my first ebook (Espediar Street by Iain Banks, which is an old favourite of mine) and I liked the experience of reading it on the iPad.
On the downside, the auto-correct when typing can be a bit annoying and we had one glitch with the iPad not wanting to switch away from the US iTunes store to the Canada one which meant I had to reset it to factory settings.
My laptop is going to be four years old this fall. I was beginning to wonder, in the back of my mind, if I might not need an upgrade this year. Now I'm wondering if I really need a new laptop as long as I have the iPad.
2. As long as we're talking about spending money, we're also in full car-hunting mode right now. I recently test drove a Subaru Forrester, which is a lovely ride. The downside is they do no warranty work in Nunavut. Which means if something goes wrong, we're totally on our own. Which can get pricy in a hurry.
So back to plan b. The only vehicles that get warranty work done in Iqaluit apparently are GMs, Fords and Toyotas. There's a place in town that sells Fords and GMs, so we're now looking at either a Terrain or an Equinox. They're essentially the same vehicle. The main difference is that I like how the Terrain looks and Cathy likes how the Equinox looks. Place your bets on who is going to win that battle of the wills.
It's not ideal, but it's better than going to Ottawa, going through all the hassle of buying it, going through the licensing and taxes and then getting it shipped up and not having anyone to do maintaince work. This way, we can go into Driving Force, tell them what vehicle we want, they'll order it up here and then they'll call us when it arrives on the sealift boat. Much simpler. Probably a little pricier, but you take a certain price hit for not dealing with a ton of hassle.
And yes, I know, GM. I'm aware of the potential downfalls, although both vehicles are well reviewed. But we shall see.
3. And yes, I'll try to get better with the blogging. If nothing else, I need to start gearing up to revamp the FAQ again, which is an annual thing. I've had no less than three people at work tell me they read the FAQ and it helped them decide to move here. That's always good to know.
Last Five
1. Shaking the tree (live) - Peter Gabriel
2. Road trippin' - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
3. I would die for you - Garbage
4. The long way home - Norah Jones
5. Sodium - Ian Foster
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Ten election thoughts
An assortment of random thoughts about the election that will have to tide election junkies over for the next four years.
1. Cleary and Penashue, Newfoundland? Really? I mean, it's not as mind-boggling as electing Bonnie Hickey back in '93, but all right, sure. If that's the way you want to go.
2. By all accounts Siobhan Coady was a hell of an MP. And while it sucks to lose, given the current state of the federal Liberal party, I suspect more than one are glad to be out of Ottawa for the next four years. Also, tell me she wouldn't make an interesting pick as the next leader of the provincial Liberal party. With due respect to Yvonne Jones, I don't think she's going to stick around long after the next provincial election. Coady is an interesting choice. If nothing else, if you've stood up to John Baird, I imagine Kathy Dunderdale and Jerome Kennedy are not exactly scary people to have yelling at you in the House of Assembly.
3. Humour is not something that translates from culture to culture well. I remember being in South Korea and the audience would not laugh at Men in Black until the group of English teachers I was with laughed first. Because they didn't get the jokes (they did laugh a lot at weird moments during Romeo + Juliet, though, including the death scene at the end). It's why Hollywood likes action movies more than comedies these days. It's easier to sell tickets on shit blowing up with minimal dialogue than trying to explain why Zach Galifianakis is funny.
All of which is a preamble to I'm sure there's a punchline to last night's election results in Quebec, but I've never really got French humour. For example, Ruth Ellen Brosseau won her seat despite:
A. Not living in the riding.
B. Going to Vegas in the middle of the campaign.
C. Her riding is 98% French and she can't really speak it that well.
D. Appears to have not even visited the riding during the election.
Yet she got 40% of the vote, won the seat and now gets a $150,000+ a year job, which is a bit of a step up from assistant manager at a pub.
So yes, there's a punchline here somewhere, I just don't get it. Can someone explain French humour to me, please?
4. Although, seriously, the day I would see that much orange on a map of Canada I would assume I had a stroke and was hallucinating.
5. I have something like 170 friends on Facebook. Of those, I have about two who admit to supporting the Conservatives. Most were supporting the NDP and were giddily ecstatic for a chunk of the evening. And I swear, most of them must have went to bed early, because the amount of shock and bile on Facebook this morning to discover that, yes the NDP have a historic high number of seats, but one of the results of that is the Conservatives got a majority.
Why this is a shock is beyond me. I saw enough projections that said if the NDP got 100+ seats it was all but certain they were going to take them from the Liberals and the Bloc and not the Conservatives. Reading Facebook it looked like a bunch of people went to bed with the hot babe and woke up to something....not quite what they were expecting....in the morning.
6. What's the over/under on how much longer Michael Ignatieff stays in Canada? I give it a year.
7. I'm disappointed the Hasselhoff Party didn't make more inroads in this election, but I'm bitter to discover there was a Pirate Party and they got 3,198 votes. I seriously would have been tempted to run for the Pirate Party in Nunavut. Arrrr. Although apparently they're about copyright instead of, you know, actually talking like a pirate and plundering, which is kind of disappointing. Clearly this needs to be addressed at their next national convention.
8. And, you know, the Communists and the Marxist-Leninist Party are never going to form a government if they keep vote splitting like that.
9. Quote of the day, making the rounds on Twitter: "The Conservatives are like Nickelback. No one you know likes them, but they always seem to do very well." - Anonymous
10. The next federal election isn't until October 19, 2015. For those of you who hate federal elections, this is a break. However, you will pay for it with interest as I believe there will be several provincial and territorial elections scheduled for the same time. For example, the next election in Newfoundland after this fall is, I think, October 12, 2015.
Try not to think about the campaign signs.
Last Five
1. Vow - Garbage
2. Pinball wizard - The Who
3. Subterranean homesick alien - Radiohead
4. Semi suite - Tom Waits
5. The long day is over - Norah Jones
1. Cleary and Penashue, Newfoundland? Really? I mean, it's not as mind-boggling as electing Bonnie Hickey back in '93, but all right, sure. If that's the way you want to go.
2. By all accounts Siobhan Coady was a hell of an MP. And while it sucks to lose, given the current state of the federal Liberal party, I suspect more than one are glad to be out of Ottawa for the next four years. Also, tell me she wouldn't make an interesting pick as the next leader of the provincial Liberal party. With due respect to Yvonne Jones, I don't think she's going to stick around long after the next provincial election. Coady is an interesting choice. If nothing else, if you've stood up to John Baird, I imagine Kathy Dunderdale and Jerome Kennedy are not exactly scary people to have yelling at you in the House of Assembly.
3. Humour is not something that translates from culture to culture well. I remember being in South Korea and the audience would not laugh at Men in Black until the group of English teachers I was with laughed first. Because they didn't get the jokes (they did laugh a lot at weird moments during Romeo + Juliet, though, including the death scene at the end). It's why Hollywood likes action movies more than comedies these days. It's easier to sell tickets on shit blowing up with minimal dialogue than trying to explain why Zach Galifianakis is funny.
All of which is a preamble to I'm sure there's a punchline to last night's election results in Quebec, but I've never really got French humour. For example, Ruth Ellen Brosseau won her seat despite:
A. Not living in the riding.
B. Going to Vegas in the middle of the campaign.
C. Her riding is 98% French and she can't really speak it that well.
D. Appears to have not even visited the riding during the election.
Yet she got 40% of the vote, won the seat and now gets a $150,000+ a year job, which is a bit of a step up from assistant manager at a pub.
So yes, there's a punchline here somewhere, I just don't get it. Can someone explain French humour to me, please?
4. Although, seriously, the day I would see that much orange on a map of Canada I would assume I had a stroke and was hallucinating.
5. I have something like 170 friends on Facebook. Of those, I have about two who admit to supporting the Conservatives. Most were supporting the NDP and were giddily ecstatic for a chunk of the evening. And I swear, most of them must have went to bed early, because the amount of shock and bile on Facebook this morning to discover that, yes the NDP have a historic high number of seats, but one of the results of that is the Conservatives got a majority.
Why this is a shock is beyond me. I saw enough projections that said if the NDP got 100+ seats it was all but certain they were going to take them from the Liberals and the Bloc and not the Conservatives. Reading Facebook it looked like a bunch of people went to bed with the hot babe and woke up to something....not quite what they were expecting....in the morning.
6. What's the over/under on how much longer Michael Ignatieff stays in Canada? I give it a year.
7. I'm disappointed the Hasselhoff Party didn't make more inroads in this election, but I'm bitter to discover there was a Pirate Party and they got 3,198 votes. I seriously would have been tempted to run for the Pirate Party in Nunavut. Arrrr. Although apparently they're about copyright instead of, you know, actually talking like a pirate and plundering, which is kind of disappointing. Clearly this needs to be addressed at their next national convention.
8. And, you know, the Communists and the Marxist-Leninist Party are never going to form a government if they keep vote splitting like that.
9. Quote of the day, making the rounds on Twitter: "The Conservatives are like Nickelback. No one you know likes them, but they always seem to do very well." - Anonymous
10. The next federal election isn't until October 19, 2015. For those of you who hate federal elections, this is a break. However, you will pay for it with interest as I believe there will be several provincial and territorial elections scheduled for the same time. For example, the next election in Newfoundland after this fall is, I think, October 12, 2015.
Try not to think about the campaign signs.
Last Five
1. Vow - Garbage
2. Pinball wizard - The Who
3. Subterranean homesick alien - Radiohead
4. Semi suite - Tom Waits
5. The long day is over - Norah Jones
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Lo, I am risen
What? Easter was last week? Oooops, sorry...
So yes, Hi. Sorry about that. Certainly hadn't planned on disappearing for quite that long. I really figured at some point the urge to blog again would become over-powering. Figure for sure it would kick in while on vacation. It's not like it was action-packed, but stuff happened that was amusing and worth writing about.
Nope.
Not even after being back for a week, it didn't kick in. So, at some point, you have to give something a kick all on it's own and hope the creaky thing swings back into life.
However, I will not be writing about the Royal Wedding. You can go somewhere else for that.
So, first, the vacation. It went well, I think. A trip to St. Pete's Beach is not meant to be an epic vacation. But it was my first one in a year and it achieved what it was supposed to. We resupplied and we did a lot of relaxing next to the pool or on the beach. Mission Accomplished. Although I think we managed to throw a bit of a scare into Cathy's parents. They've never seen a full-power Northern Power Shop before. It can be a terrifying experience if you're not used to it. It is not unlike a plague of locusts hitting a location. In this case it was hitting an outlet mall south of St. Pete's. Cathy and I even printed off coupons for the stores in the place and had a plan of attack. At the end of it, much money was spent, but we essentially had all of our clothing for the next year.
Oh, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Those things are spiffy.
And from there on out, it was mostly about the relaxation. Sure we might pop out for some air conditioning and twacking (window shopping for you non-Newfoundlanders) when the beach got too hot (about 33C every day down there). The ocean was also cooking quite a bit, so I suspect hurricane season is going to be an unpleasant one for Florida. They all kind of know that there, after speaking with some of the locals.
If there was a disappointment in the vacation it was the lack of wackiness. Last year I had a guy dragging a 10-foot cross along the beach on Easter weekend, marginally racist barbers, my first trip to the Wagon Wheel flea market and a stop at the Golden Corral for feeding. This year, no crosses, the flea market was kind of boring, the barbers were more worried about the weather and the Corral was completely unexciting.
Perhaps I'm getting used to Florida. I mean, all the heavy metal tapes and t-shirts disappeared from the flea market. Was there a run on them or something? Although the volume of betamax tapes....I didn't know there were that many left in the world. The only funny thing I heard was a woman saying "well, she went and divorced his ass once he got out of prison." Which was funny only because of the southern accent. I've overheard the same thing when I lived in Clarenville and it was just another day at Sobeys.
Still, here are some pics. A bit of wackiness. And I include the fruit ones just to drove people up north mad.
So yes, Hi. Sorry about that. Certainly hadn't planned on disappearing for quite that long. I really figured at some point the urge to blog again would become over-powering. Figure for sure it would kick in while on vacation. It's not like it was action-packed, but stuff happened that was amusing and worth writing about.
Nope.
Not even after being back for a week, it didn't kick in. So, at some point, you have to give something a kick all on it's own and hope the creaky thing swings back into life.
However, I will not be writing about the Royal Wedding. You can go somewhere else for that.
So, first, the vacation. It went well, I think. A trip to St. Pete's Beach is not meant to be an epic vacation. But it was my first one in a year and it achieved what it was supposed to. We resupplied and we did a lot of relaxing next to the pool or on the beach. Mission Accomplished. Although I think we managed to throw a bit of a scare into Cathy's parents. They've never seen a full-power Northern Power Shop before. It can be a terrifying experience if you're not used to it. It is not unlike a plague of locusts hitting a location. In this case it was hitting an outlet mall south of St. Pete's. Cathy and I even printed off coupons for the stores in the place and had a plan of attack. At the end of it, much money was spent, but we essentially had all of our clothing for the next year.
Oh, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Those things are spiffy.
And from there on out, it was mostly about the relaxation. Sure we might pop out for some air conditioning and twacking (window shopping for you non-Newfoundlanders) when the beach got too hot (about 33C every day down there). The ocean was also cooking quite a bit, so I suspect hurricane season is going to be an unpleasant one for Florida. They all kind of know that there, after speaking with some of the locals.
If there was a disappointment in the vacation it was the lack of wackiness. Last year I had a guy dragging a 10-foot cross along the beach on Easter weekend, marginally racist barbers, my first trip to the Wagon Wheel flea market and a stop at the Golden Corral for feeding. This year, no crosses, the flea market was kind of boring, the barbers were more worried about the weather and the Corral was completely unexciting.
Perhaps I'm getting used to Florida. I mean, all the heavy metal tapes and t-shirts disappeared from the flea market. Was there a run on them or something? Although the volume of betamax tapes....I didn't know there were that many left in the world. The only funny thing I heard was a woman saying "well, she went and divorced his ass once he got out of prison." Which was funny only because of the southern accent. I've overheard the same thing when I lived in Clarenville and it was just another day at Sobeys.
Still, here are some pics. A bit of wackiness. And I include the fruit ones just to drove people up north mad.
 |
| Enough to make you cry. |
 |
| It was Sunday. I guess Jesus was busy somewhere else, |
 |
| I really wanted to buy this for my friend Karin. |
 |
| Just in case the flea market gets rowdy. |
 |
| Happy Easter! |
So yes, a good vacation and certainly a much needed one. Although I will say this one thing - and perhaps I've been watching too much Fringe - but is it possible that at some point during our flights we were transported into an alternate universe where the NDP is now a real political party. Just asking.
Oh, and here a few photos of sunsets and the beach. Just to prove we were there.
 |
| An attempt at me being creative. |
 |
| Bridesmaids on the beach. Stalking wedding parties was a favourite thing to do with Cathy's family. |
 |
| Us looking all happy. |
 |
| The clan. Cathy, her parents and her aunt. |
 |
| Good-bye Florida... |
Last Five
1. Dignity - Bob Dylan
2. Down for the count - Girl Talk
3. The great pretender - Queen
4. Surveyors and cranes - Bob Mould
5. Out of touch - Hall & Oates*
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Break time
I write this on April 12 and it's -25C outside. The winds are calm, so there's no windchill to add to the punishment, but it could hit -39C. This is spring in Nunavut, by the way. Realistically it's another two months until we'll start seeing regular above 0 temperatures. It's never the cold that sinks you in Nunavut, it's the duration of the cold that ends up doing the trick. This has been a short winter by Iqaluit standards because of the massive mild spell we had in November and December.
It's also why we need a vacation. Now, I've been cautioned by a friend about talking about vacations as it has been pointed out that not everyone gets one, let alone the two or three a year Cathy and I can normally squeeze out. Which is true. I recall when working for the Packet and getting a whopping two weeks off a year and my vacation consisted of going to St. John's to stay with one of my parents for two weeks. Because when you're making $19,000 a year, the around the world vacations don't really drop into your lap.
However, we have the money now. It's one of the perks of living up here. And a trip out every now and then is a sanity measure for us. People react different to living in the north. Some move here and they never want to leave. Their idea of a vacation is to hop on their ski-doo, or their boat, and zip on up the bay to spend a few weeks at their cabin. Because, you know, what you need when you live up here is to get away from it all. But people do it and that's cool.
Others come up here and last three weeks. Or three minutes. There's the story, true or not, of a teacher arriving in one of the Kivalliq communities, walking off the plane, looking around and then getting back on the plane and leaving. I repeat this for everyone who ever thinks about moving here - it's not for everyone. And for those who stay, you may love the place to pieces. But I'm willing to bet most still need a break from it all. And that's us. A couple of times a year, it's nice to go somewhere. Somewhere new and exotic if at all possible.
And one of the great...resentment is too harsh a word, but certainly envy, of my late 20s and early 30s, was watching friends go all over the world. I had friends in the UK, Africa, southeast Asia, the middle east, California....everywhere it seemed. I had Clarenville and St. John's.
So we're making up for some lost time. Besides, I haven't had a vacation in nearly a year. The last time I sat around and did nothing was when we went to Florida last April for a week. So yes, a break. Something other than the ice and snow.
So where are we going? What exciting and exotic land are we off to?
Um, Florida.
Yeah, I know. Cathy's parents are there so we're going to go and crash with them for a week like we did last year. Although last year I had a hard time sitting still. I had been unemployed for several months, so I didn't really need the break. This time, I suspect I'll have no problems flaking out on a beach with a book. Or possibly an iPad 2 if I can find a store there that's selling them.
Yes, relaxation is the name of the game this time.
Oh, and in case anyone is thinking the house is unattended for that week, well, we have a vicious attack dog (well, he's a noisy fucker at least), plus a house sitter. So if you were thinking of breaking in, well, no.
I'll let you know if I see any true weirdness. It's Florida and it's Easter, so I'm willing to bet the odds are good.
Last Five
1. Century city (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. On the back of a broken dream - Flogging Molly
3. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen*
4. Fiesta - The Pogues
5. December - David Gray
It's also why we need a vacation. Now, I've been cautioned by a friend about talking about vacations as it has been pointed out that not everyone gets one, let alone the two or three a year Cathy and I can normally squeeze out. Which is true. I recall when working for the Packet and getting a whopping two weeks off a year and my vacation consisted of going to St. John's to stay with one of my parents for two weeks. Because when you're making $19,000 a year, the around the world vacations don't really drop into your lap.
However, we have the money now. It's one of the perks of living up here. And a trip out every now and then is a sanity measure for us. People react different to living in the north. Some move here and they never want to leave. Their idea of a vacation is to hop on their ski-doo, or their boat, and zip on up the bay to spend a few weeks at their cabin. Because, you know, what you need when you live up here is to get away from it all. But people do it and that's cool.
Others come up here and last three weeks. Or three minutes. There's the story, true or not, of a teacher arriving in one of the Kivalliq communities, walking off the plane, looking around and then getting back on the plane and leaving. I repeat this for everyone who ever thinks about moving here - it's not for everyone. And for those who stay, you may love the place to pieces. But I'm willing to bet most still need a break from it all. And that's us. A couple of times a year, it's nice to go somewhere. Somewhere new and exotic if at all possible.
And one of the great...resentment is too harsh a word, but certainly envy, of my late 20s and early 30s, was watching friends go all over the world. I had friends in the UK, Africa, southeast Asia, the middle east, California....everywhere it seemed. I had Clarenville and St. John's.
So we're making up for some lost time. Besides, I haven't had a vacation in nearly a year. The last time I sat around and did nothing was when we went to Florida last April for a week. So yes, a break. Something other than the ice and snow.
So where are we going? What exciting and exotic land are we off to?
Um, Florida.
Yeah, I know. Cathy's parents are there so we're going to go and crash with them for a week like we did last year. Although last year I had a hard time sitting still. I had been unemployed for several months, so I didn't really need the break. This time, I suspect I'll have no problems flaking out on a beach with a book. Or possibly an iPad 2 if I can find a store there that's selling them.
Yes, relaxation is the name of the game this time.
Oh, and in case anyone is thinking the house is unattended for that week, well, we have a vicious attack dog (well, he's a noisy fucker at least), plus a house sitter. So if you were thinking of breaking in, well, no.
I'll let you know if I see any true weirdness. It's Florida and it's Easter, so I'm willing to bet the odds are good.
Last Five
1. Century city (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. On the back of a broken dream - Flogging Molly
3. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen*
4. Fiesta - The Pogues
5. December - David Gray
Monday, April 11, 2011
Kiss and tell
When I read this story about Kiss playing Grand Falls-Windsor my first reaction was to mock. Well, all right, I might have already mocked on Twitter. But that was mainly due to the absolutely ludicrous lede. I don't know if it's Ms. Colbourne's fault or if she has a desk to close to Steve Bartlett at the Telegram and suffered a temporary loss in sanity. Look, most people don't consider Kiss to be the most influential rock band in history. Virtually no one does. If you're going to have discussions about most important rock bands of all time then you mention The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Ramones to start with. Kiss is a great rock band in the same way that Def Leppard and Bon Jovi are. And yes, that's meant exactly as backhanded as you think.
Now, the easy thing is to mock the band for playing Grand Falls. I've long had the theory that Newfoundland is the elephant graveyard of rock music. Bands who were big once stagger to the island, trying to desperately grasp one last burst of glory before wandering off into the Atlantic to die. Or shot out of mercy. It doesn't always work. April Wine and Trooper keep playing there despite the best efforts of some to put them out of their misery. But it's rare that a band in their prime plays in the province.
To say Kiss is past their "Best By" date would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure they haven't had a hit in 25 years. Oh, I'm sure it'll be an entertaining enough show for the devoted, but if I was in Newfoundland would I pay $70 to go and see them? Hell no. I wouldn't pay them that much if they were actually in St. John's. Paying to see them in Grand Falls? Not in this lifetime.
But an interesting thing happened on the way to this blog post, which has been brewing for a few days. I read this article from Rolling Stone the other day about Bob Seger. It's a great interview (how the hell is his stuff not up on iTunes) and talking about how he's not doing this too much longer because, well, he's 65 years old and chain smokes and playing for a couple of hours on stage kind of hurts these days. Seger probably hasn't had a hit since 'Breakdown' from the Beverly Hills Cop movie.
For that matter, Jackson Browne is on tour right now doing solo acoustic shows. I have two of the solo acoustic albums and they're fantastic. But again, no idea when he last had a hit song.
Now, I could make the point that I consider both Seger and Browne to be much better than Kiss, but of course, that's a matter of taste. And, I would argue, common sense, but anyway...
So I can't get up on my horse too high about people willing to pay to see Kiss. If that's your thing, more power to you. I'd pay good money to go see Seger in a second. I think Browne was playing in St. John's and tickets were a pretty penny. So logically, I can't really mock if you're willing to drive all the way to Grand Falls and stand outside for hours to watch Kiss play a set.
But understand, I really, really want to.
Last Five
1. American Idiot - Cast of American Idiot
2. The fixer - Pearl Jam
3. Blackbird - Neil Diamond
4. The masterplan - Oasis
5. Take this waltz (live) - Leonard Cohen*
Now, the easy thing is to mock the band for playing Grand Falls. I've long had the theory that Newfoundland is the elephant graveyard of rock music. Bands who were big once stagger to the island, trying to desperately grasp one last burst of glory before wandering off into the Atlantic to die. Or shot out of mercy. It doesn't always work. April Wine and Trooper keep playing there despite the best efforts of some to put them out of their misery. But it's rare that a band in their prime plays in the province.
To say Kiss is past their "Best By" date would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure they haven't had a hit in 25 years. Oh, I'm sure it'll be an entertaining enough show for the devoted, but if I was in Newfoundland would I pay $70 to go and see them? Hell no. I wouldn't pay them that much if they were actually in St. John's. Paying to see them in Grand Falls? Not in this lifetime.
But an interesting thing happened on the way to this blog post, which has been brewing for a few days. I read this article from Rolling Stone the other day about Bob Seger. It's a great interview (how the hell is his stuff not up on iTunes) and talking about how he's not doing this too much longer because, well, he's 65 years old and chain smokes and playing for a couple of hours on stage kind of hurts these days. Seger probably hasn't had a hit since 'Breakdown' from the Beverly Hills Cop movie.
For that matter, Jackson Browne is on tour right now doing solo acoustic shows. I have two of the solo acoustic albums and they're fantastic. But again, no idea when he last had a hit song.
Now, I could make the point that I consider both Seger and Browne to be much better than Kiss, but of course, that's a matter of taste. And, I would argue, common sense, but anyway...
So I can't get up on my horse too high about people willing to pay to see Kiss. If that's your thing, more power to you. I'd pay good money to go see Seger in a second. I think Browne was playing in St. John's and tickets were a pretty penny. So logically, I can't really mock if you're willing to drive all the way to Grand Falls and stand outside for hours to watch Kiss play a set.
But understand, I really, really want to.
Last Five
1. American Idiot - Cast of American Idiot
2. The fixer - Pearl Jam
3. Blackbird - Neil Diamond
4. The masterplan - Oasis
5. Take this waltz (live) - Leonard Cohen*
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Not so fine dining
I mentioned we had a new restaurant in town, with the introduction of Yummy Shawarma. I've eaten there twice more since the last time I wrote about it, and I still like it quite a bit, although I need to ask them to go light on the garlic sauce. I love garlic, but it repeated on me something fierce. Plus, I'm sure I wasn't a joy to be around a few hours later.
However, if the fates giveth, they also taketh away. And no, not just with the loss of Fantasy Palace. Cathy and I like going to the Gallery Dining Room at the Frobisher maybe once a month. It's an expensive restaurant, but if we have the money and we're in the mood. This evening we had the added bonus of being able to go and not have it cost us anything. As part of my Glorious Curling Victory last weekend I go a $120 gift card for the restaurant. Which, given the prices at the place, is almost exactly enough for supper for two.
The problem with the Frob is they tend to switch up chefs once or twice a year. And the last few have not had a curb upwards in menu quality. The latest is apparently a big fan of seafood. For example, the only appetizer that was not seafood was a Caesar salad. Most of the main courses are now seafood. They changed the cut of beef for the steak I used to get and it's not nearly as good now. And for $50, I'd like a slightly better quality steak than that. Or, for that matter, more than a few scraps of potato and some asparagus as a side. Cathy spend $30 for essentially vegetarian pasta. Lovely and all, but they at least used to offer to toss in a bit of chicken for a few dollars extra. Not so much anymore.
So yeah, the Frob is off the list for the next little while. Normally not a big deal, but when you have something like seven restaurants in town, losing one is a bit of a blow.
Then again, in about a week's time, we're going to overdose on restaurants. Ever time we go out and friends or family are around, I think they're bemused/horrified by the number of restaurants we go to. I mean, we don't even make the pretence of picking up some groceries. We so rarely get to eat out or sample new foods. So yeah, we'll be hitting a few places when we start our vacation.
And where are we going? Well, more on that next time.
Last Five
1. All you need is love - The Beatles*
2. Your fake name is good enough for me - Iron & Wine
3. Near fantastica - Matthew Good
4. The hands that built America - U2
5. Treasure - Ron Hynes
However, if the fates giveth, they also taketh away. And no, not just with the loss of Fantasy Palace. Cathy and I like going to the Gallery Dining Room at the Frobisher maybe once a month. It's an expensive restaurant, but if we have the money and we're in the mood. This evening we had the added bonus of being able to go and not have it cost us anything. As part of my Glorious Curling Victory last weekend I go a $120 gift card for the restaurant. Which, given the prices at the place, is almost exactly enough for supper for two.
The problem with the Frob is they tend to switch up chefs once or twice a year. And the last few have not had a curb upwards in menu quality. The latest is apparently a big fan of seafood. For example, the only appetizer that was not seafood was a Caesar salad. Most of the main courses are now seafood. They changed the cut of beef for the steak I used to get and it's not nearly as good now. And for $50, I'd like a slightly better quality steak than that. Or, for that matter, more than a few scraps of potato and some asparagus as a side. Cathy spend $30 for essentially vegetarian pasta. Lovely and all, but they at least used to offer to toss in a bit of chicken for a few dollars extra. Not so much anymore.
So yeah, the Frob is off the list for the next little while. Normally not a big deal, but when you have something like seven restaurants in town, losing one is a bit of a blow.
Then again, in about a week's time, we're going to overdose on restaurants. Ever time we go out and friends or family are around, I think they're bemused/horrified by the number of restaurants we go to. I mean, we don't even make the pretence of picking up some groceries. We so rarely get to eat out or sample new foods. So yeah, we'll be hitting a few places when we start our vacation.
And where are we going? Well, more on that next time.
Last Five
1. All you need is love - The Beatles*
2. Your fake name is good enough for me - Iron & Wine
3. Near fantastica - Matthew Good
4. The hands that built America - U2
5. Treasure - Ron Hynes
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Blackberries and shawarma
I've written before that telecommunications up here tend to be a little...different, than what most people experience down south. If I had a dollar for every time I read a tweet saying how much Northwest Tel sucked, I could pay off my mortgage in about half the time. To say there is hatred over NWTel in Iqaluit would be an understatement. It mostly starts with how bad the internet is. If you're paying $120 a month for internet and suffering with a 10 gig cap, you'd at least like the speed to be not disgusting and for it to be reliable.
That doesn't happen very often, alas. Hence our reasons for switching to Xplorenet last year.
The other thing that's cursed on is the cell phone service. Iqaluit only got cell service in the past five years, I believe. I know there wasn't any when we first moved here in 2005. And if you listen to some people around town, what's here now isn't all that great. Let's take today, for example. Blackberry service in town was almost completely useless. And why was that? Because there was a conference in town. That meant a couple of hundred extra people in town, all checking their Blackberry. Which, it seems, overloaded the local network's ability to handle traffic. So there were a lot of grumpy people around town today.
On the upside, we have a new restaurant in town. Anywhere else, not such a big deal. New restaurants don't open every day in Iqaluit. They don't open every year, for that matter. But for some reason, a family decided to open a shawarma and donair shop in town. Everybody is pretty excited by this. Cathy and I have eaten there twice and it's tasty. Judging by the line-up at lunch time today, they're off to a good start.
It does mean the end of another long term establishment in town, though. Fantasy Palace, a long-time coffee shop in town, is no more. So no longer will new arrivals leave the airport, glance to their left, see the name Fantasy Palace and assume it was the local strip joint. It's the loss of a local landmark and the first local coffee shop killed by Tim Hortons. I don't think too many people were surprised to see it go, to be honest.
But hey, shawarma. And the Grind and Brew started serving pizza late last year, which is also not bad. If we could get some good Mexican and Indian food, we'd be all set.
Last Five
1. I will follow (live) - U2
2. In the neighbourhood - Tom Waits*
3. The world we live in - The Killers
4. Talk to me - Bruce Springsteen
5. Living with the masses - Sloan
That doesn't happen very often, alas. Hence our reasons for switching to Xplorenet last year.
The other thing that's cursed on is the cell phone service. Iqaluit only got cell service in the past five years, I believe. I know there wasn't any when we first moved here in 2005. And if you listen to some people around town, what's here now isn't all that great. Let's take today, for example. Blackberry service in town was almost completely useless. And why was that? Because there was a conference in town. That meant a couple of hundred extra people in town, all checking their Blackberry. Which, it seems, overloaded the local network's ability to handle traffic. So there were a lot of grumpy people around town today.
On the upside, we have a new restaurant in town. Anywhere else, not such a big deal. New restaurants don't open every day in Iqaluit. They don't open every year, for that matter. But for some reason, a family decided to open a shawarma and donair shop in town. Everybody is pretty excited by this. Cathy and I have eaten there twice and it's tasty. Judging by the line-up at lunch time today, they're off to a good start.
It does mean the end of another long term establishment in town, though. Fantasy Palace, a long-time coffee shop in town, is no more. So no longer will new arrivals leave the airport, glance to their left, see the name Fantasy Palace and assume it was the local strip joint. It's the loss of a local landmark and the first local coffee shop killed by Tim Hortons. I don't think too many people were surprised to see it go, to be honest.
But hey, shawarma. And the Grind and Brew started serving pizza late last year, which is also not bad. If we could get some good Mexican and Indian food, we'd be all set.
Last Five
1. I will follow (live) - U2
2. In the neighbourhood - Tom Waits*
3. The world we live in - The Killers
4. Talk to me - Bruce Springsteen
5. Living with the masses - Sloan
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep 13
So here we are at the end of the another season. This normally means bad things for the Doyle family. Last year we had heart attacks, a frame up for a murder and Ron Hynes closing out the season. So what's going to happen this time?
Well, Tinny and Des get kidnapped, an old partner of Jake's comes back looking to settle a score and about the only person safe for next season appears to be Jake. Everyone else is up in the air. In other words, another eight months or so of pure torture for fans of the show. Anyway, let's get started.
So it seems back in the day, when Jake was with the RNC he had a partner - Crocker - who was a wee bit of a scumbag. And Jake helped to bring him down. The only thing, of course, is that he got away before they could arrest him. Now, 10 years later he's decided it's time to come back and take care of Jake. And the best way to do this is to kidnap Tinny and Des and force Jake to rob several million dollars for him.
It's an intense episode, which is fortunate because if you pause and stop for a minute and actually start to think about it, you realize it's also a pretty stupid one. I'm tempted to use the phrase "intensely stupid", which is accurate, just not in the way you would normally think.
This has always been one of little annoyances with the show - good stories, but you sometimes get really stupid plot points. Jake's ex-partner kidnapping Tinny and getting Jake involved in a heist he didn't want to save her life is a good idea. It's just the execution that was weird. The robbery was weird, Jake turning on Crocker and getting him thrown in jail feels just like an excuse to get the police involved in the plot and to stage a dramatic jail break later.
Once Rose had it narrowed down to about seven places, that should have been it. No need for the big jail break. Once they knew it was an abandoned warehouse in St. John's they could have gone to the police, who arrest Crocker, organize a big search of the city and that's it. The only way to throw a wrench into that is if Crocker alluded to having a partner watching Tinny and Des. They can't go looking then because a partner at least puts the fear in them for trying something like that. But he never does, which is again, stupid. I know Crocker isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind, but still...
As I said, intense, but not all that smart. This was an episode that counted on people who are supposed to be smart being very stupid. When the cop at the end compliments Jake for being clever, I burst out laughing.
However, I will give props to a few things. First, Paul Gross looked like he was having a blast being a bad cop. So here's hoping they can find an excuse to bring him back sometime soon. Bring him back instead of that idiot author character.
Secondly, for a show settled into a nice, comfortable routine they certainly blew it up really good in the last 10 minutes. Jake possibly rejoining the police, Leslie fired, Tinny off to Europe and Mal and Rose running off into retirement. Now, the reset button can be hit quick enough, but it's an interesting cliff-hanger to end the season.
A couple of other points.
1. The actual mayor of St. John's, Doc O'Keefe, was in the scene at the Duke. So was John Crosbie. It occurs to me that Andy Jones hasn't appeared in the show yet. If he does, clearly he needs to be the premier. It would be a lovely in-joke, as he was the premier during the movie Secret Nation.
2. Trimmed Navel Beef (the name of the salt meat in the warehouse) was a local band that was quite popular about 10 years ago. Your in-joke for the week.
3. There was clearly a bit of money blown in this episode, what with the big car smash-up on Water Street, plus a Pogues song ("Dirty Old Town") to close out the season and a Bruce Springsteen song ("Mrs. McGrath" off the excellent Seeger Sessions recordings) for the dramatic jail break. I'm always surprised by the music choices on the show. They're mostly excellent, but I always figured they'd use more local music.
I'll do a wrap-up of the season in the next few days.
And now, best quotes:
Well, Tinny and Des get kidnapped, an old partner of Jake's comes back looking to settle a score and about the only person safe for next season appears to be Jake. Everyone else is up in the air. In other words, another eight months or so of pure torture for fans of the show. Anyway, let's get started.
So it seems back in the day, when Jake was with the RNC he had a partner - Crocker - who was a wee bit of a scumbag. And Jake helped to bring him down. The only thing, of course, is that he got away before they could arrest him. Now, 10 years later he's decided it's time to come back and take care of Jake. And the best way to do this is to kidnap Tinny and Des and force Jake to rob several million dollars for him.
It's an intense episode, which is fortunate because if you pause and stop for a minute and actually start to think about it, you realize it's also a pretty stupid one. I'm tempted to use the phrase "intensely stupid", which is accurate, just not in the way you would normally think.
This has always been one of little annoyances with the show - good stories, but you sometimes get really stupid plot points. Jake's ex-partner kidnapping Tinny and getting Jake involved in a heist he didn't want to save her life is a good idea. It's just the execution that was weird. The robbery was weird, Jake turning on Crocker and getting him thrown in jail feels just like an excuse to get the police involved in the plot and to stage a dramatic jail break later.
Once Rose had it narrowed down to about seven places, that should have been it. No need for the big jail break. Once they knew it was an abandoned warehouse in St. John's they could have gone to the police, who arrest Crocker, organize a big search of the city and that's it. The only way to throw a wrench into that is if Crocker alluded to having a partner watching Tinny and Des. They can't go looking then because a partner at least puts the fear in them for trying something like that. But he never does, which is again, stupid. I know Crocker isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind, but still...
As I said, intense, but not all that smart. This was an episode that counted on people who are supposed to be smart being very stupid. When the cop at the end compliments Jake for being clever, I burst out laughing.
However, I will give props to a few things. First, Paul Gross looked like he was having a blast being a bad cop. So here's hoping they can find an excuse to bring him back sometime soon. Bring him back instead of that idiot author character.
Secondly, for a show settled into a nice, comfortable routine they certainly blew it up really good in the last 10 minutes. Jake possibly rejoining the police, Leslie fired, Tinny off to Europe and Mal and Rose running off into retirement. Now, the reset button can be hit quick enough, but it's an interesting cliff-hanger to end the season.
A couple of other points.
1. The actual mayor of St. John's, Doc O'Keefe, was in the scene at the Duke. So was John Crosbie. It occurs to me that Andy Jones hasn't appeared in the show yet. If he does, clearly he needs to be the premier. It would be a lovely in-joke, as he was the premier during the movie Secret Nation.
2. Trimmed Navel Beef (the name of the salt meat in the warehouse) was a local band that was quite popular about 10 years ago. Your in-joke for the week.
3. There was clearly a bit of money blown in this episode, what with the big car smash-up on Water Street, plus a Pogues song ("Dirty Old Town") to close out the season and a Bruce Springsteen song ("Mrs. McGrath" off the excellent Seeger Sessions recordings) for the dramatic jail break. I'm always surprised by the music choices on the show. They're mostly excellent, but I always figured they'd use more local music.
I'll do a wrap-up of the season in the next few days.
And now, best quotes:
"Obviously I ended my personal relationship with the mayor when I arrested him." - Leslie
"Dessy’s being a good little housewife." - Tinny
"How is our plucky little PI connected to all of this?" - RNC investigator (blanking on his name)
"I don’t want you to starve, so you can eat my corpse." - Des to Tinny
"I’ve always been one more of a curling fan, myself." - Mal
"Another 50 and I can pretend to be a cop in private." - A hooker out in the Battery to Jake
"I don’t think you should eat 20 year old salt beef." - Tinny to Des
"I love you (pause) You can shoot me later if you want." - Jake to Leslie
"I wanted to kill you for a long time…I just needed something to get me off the couch." - Crocker
"You can shoot me now if you want to."
"Don't tempt me." - Jake and Leslie
"To not getting shot." - Rose
Last Five
1. She will be loved - Maroon 5
2. Burn your life down - Tegan and Sara
3. Bobby Jean (live) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
4. Glamourous death - The Pursuit of Happiness
5. U.R.A. fever - The Kills*
Monday, April 04, 2011
Three quick things
1. Clare first brought Indigo's health to my attention a few days ago. I didn't know her as well as some other northern bloggers, like Jen and Clare. But she always swung by the blog, had a few kind things to say or interesting observations to make. I was saddened to hear about her death. It's going to be an absence in the local blogging community, but more importantly it's the loss of a good friend and a beloved family member. My condolences to everyone.
2. When all hell broke loose in Japan last month, I remember reading a quick article with someone saying they were actually more in favour of nuclear power after the incident than they were before. Which was a curious thing to say in the wake of all the panic that was going on. But really, he had an interesting point. The reactor survive a 9.0 Richter Scale earthquake. It was only when the tsunami wave hit and knocked out back-up generators that all hell broke loose.
Geoff Meeker, who writes a media column with The Telegram, did a piece expressing his disgust with a lot of the fear-mongering reporting that happened after the plant incident. But it's this piece with Bob McDonald of CBC's Quirks and Quarks that really impressed me. McDonald explains what happened with the reactor better than anyone else I've read so far and makes an interesting and compelling argument on nuclear power.
I'm not saying let's rush out and build nuclear reactors everywhere. But I think after reading this I'm a little more open to the idea of nuclear power than I was before. And if nothing else, he's a good place to start on any debate on the subject.
3. So after Southwest Airline had a few incidents involving a Boeing 737 I was wondering if there was going to be a warning. Lo and behold, there is. But the thought that crossed my mind was that both First Air and Canadian North use older 737s, so were any of those planes going to be affected?
Thanks to the power of Twitter, I posed that question and got an answer. First Air doesn't, but Canadian North has one. Which I'm willing to bet is being inspected as we speak. So that brings up two things - god love Twitter, which is a brilliant way of throwing questions out into the wild and getting answers. And secondly, both airlines really need to get some new planes. Seriously.
Last Five
1. October - U2
2. From my own true love - The Decemberists
3. Wallet - Regina Spektor
4. Voicething - Goldfrapp
5. Times a thousand - Hot Hot Heat
2. When all hell broke loose in Japan last month, I remember reading a quick article with someone saying they were actually more in favour of nuclear power after the incident than they were before. Which was a curious thing to say in the wake of all the panic that was going on. But really, he had an interesting point. The reactor survive a 9.0 Richter Scale earthquake. It was only when the tsunami wave hit and knocked out back-up generators that all hell broke loose.
Geoff Meeker, who writes a media column with The Telegram, did a piece expressing his disgust with a lot of the fear-mongering reporting that happened after the plant incident. But it's this piece with Bob McDonald of CBC's Quirks and Quarks that really impressed me. McDonald explains what happened with the reactor better than anyone else I've read so far and makes an interesting and compelling argument on nuclear power.
I'm not saying let's rush out and build nuclear reactors everywhere. But I think after reading this I'm a little more open to the idea of nuclear power than I was before. And if nothing else, he's a good place to start on any debate on the subject.
3. So after Southwest Airline had a few incidents involving a Boeing 737 I was wondering if there was going to be a warning. Lo and behold, there is. But the thought that crossed my mind was that both First Air and Canadian North use older 737s, so were any of those planes going to be affected?
Thanks to the power of Twitter, I posed that question and got an answer. First Air doesn't, but Canadian North has one. Which I'm willing to bet is being inspected as we speak. So that brings up two things - god love Twitter, which is a brilliant way of throwing questions out into the wild and getting answers. And secondly, both airlines really need to get some new planes. Seriously.
Last Five
1. October - U2
2. From my own true love - The Decemberists
3. Wallet - Regina Spektor
4. Voicething - Goldfrapp
5. Times a thousand - Hot Hot Heat
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Not dead, just curling
First of all, no Republic of Doyle review again this week. Sorry. My curling game got shuffled from Thursday to Wednesday. By the time I got home, there was 20 minutes left, which I watched and seemed fine. But I certainly didn't see enough to review or comment on. However, I will make sure to catch the finale this Wednesday. Can hardly miss the last episode of the season, can I?
But yes, I've actually been busy with curling this week. I haven't written about it much this season because it was a fairly frustrating year. Teams I tried to put together for the mixed championship and the Dominion both collapsed. Every year there is a team that always seems to be caught on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to having games cancelled because teams folded or people are away on duty travel. This year, it was our team.
And then, to put one final kick in the groin, we suffered what was, no kidding, my single worst loss since junior high. We were blown out 12-0 in five ends on the second last game of the season. So when we headed into the play-offs, I was not that optimistic.
And yet, strange things started to happen. Getting regular games gelled us as a team. We won the first game pretty easily. Despite blowing a 6-1 lead, we won the second game. The third game was against the second seed who had smacked us around pretty good early in the season, and we held on against them. Then we faced the #1 seeded team who beat us 12-0 and got a measure of revenge by knocking them out. And then we managed to win the final. We won our league night.
Six years I've been curling at the club and I've made it to the final twice before, but it was nice to finally win one. But what was even nicer was to get one for the rest of the team. Mark, who kept laughing and shaking his head in disbelief that we pulled it out. Troy, who has only been curling for two years. And Ashley, my rock at Third, who ran home to boast to her husband that she's now a curling champion.
I figured that was pretty much going to be the end of it. But we had the Canadian North bonspiel this weekend and we agreed to put a team in weeks ago. But after winning the league championship, this was for giggles. I think we were all hoping to be lucky enough to win a plane ticket (plane tickets are offered up as door prizes. This prevents stacked teams and keeps things a lot more fun) rather than winning the thing.
We won the first game pretty easily, but the second game was against two of the best players in the club, so I figured that was going to be the end of that streak. But we won (secret strategy, make sure they get drunk the night before, have to get up early to work on the ice and play still feeling hungover. I recommend it). The third game went to something ugly called Skip Stones. It's the equivilent of a shoot-out in hockey. Each Skip gets to throw one rock to break the tie. Closest to the button wins. I managed to get my shot about 6 inches further (I nearly killed my sweepers) than the other skip.
And then in the final, we got in trouble in the early ends. I gave the team a motivational speech (I won't say what it was, but it got them to laugh and it got them to kick it up a gear.) And next thing you know, we won the bloody thing. Two championships in less than a week. Unreal.
(And yes, that is a big ass and unsubtle trophy that Ashley is hoisting up there.)
I think if you have to end a curling season, that's not a bad note to go out on at all. Alas, none of us won any of the plane tickets, although we all got nice prizes for winning. I grabbed a $120 gift card for the Frobisher, where I will take my lovely, curling widow wife out to supper when she next wants.
I'll add two other things. First, the Canadian North is an awesome curling event. We can take 16 teams and the spots filled up pretty quick (although we had one drop out last minute due to an emergency). Canadian North provided, no kidding, six plane tickets. Five were door prizes and one was for the infamous frozen foot draw (slide on your bare foot on the ice. Closest shot to the button wins. $5 a shot, all money goes to the food bank). Plus there were tons of other door prizes. I also managed to get a cool 2010 Winter Olympics jacket. I will bet there is no event in Iqaluit where you have better odds of winning a plane ticket (by the time you discount the team who had to drop out, Canadian North employees and a few people who do not show up for the draw, the odds are about 1 in 13 of winning), plus be able to have an absolute blast.
The second thing is that I'd forgotten how superstitious I can get over curling. I haven't written about curling in recent weeks because, well, I was winning and not mentioning it on the blog, so let's keep that going. One of the play-off games happened on St. Patrick's Day so I wore a green shirt. And we won. So I kept wearing that shirt. I wore it for every game except one down the stretch.
For that matter, I had a nice Olympic fleece Cathy bought at a house sale (for 50 cents. Insane) that I wore to a game early in the play-offs. The opposing team stole two points early, then I took the fleece off because I was warm. Next end, we took five. It was never worn at the club again.
And so wraps up curling. I was at the club this morning helping to clean up and put things away. The City brought in the zamboni to try and get the ice off as they need the club for a banquet on Thursday (good luck with that). A rough start, but an excellent finish. Last year when the season wrapped up, I was done and looking forward to the break. This year, well, I'm looking forward to next season.
Last Five
1. Cry on demand - Ryan Adams
2. Alfie - Lily Allen
3. Do what you want, be what you are - Hall & Oates
4. Tick tick boom - The Hives*
5. The red light - Joel Plaskett Emergency
But yes, I've actually been busy with curling this week. I haven't written about it much this season because it was a fairly frustrating year. Teams I tried to put together for the mixed championship and the Dominion both collapsed. Every year there is a team that always seems to be caught on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to having games cancelled because teams folded or people are away on duty travel. This year, it was our team.
And then, to put one final kick in the groin, we suffered what was, no kidding, my single worst loss since junior high. We were blown out 12-0 in five ends on the second last game of the season. So when we headed into the play-offs, I was not that optimistic.
And yet, strange things started to happen. Getting regular games gelled us as a team. We won the first game pretty easily. Despite blowing a 6-1 lead, we won the second game. The third game was against the second seed who had smacked us around pretty good early in the season, and we held on against them. Then we faced the #1 seeded team who beat us 12-0 and got a measure of revenge by knocking them out. And then we managed to win the final. We won our league night.
I figured that was pretty much going to be the end of it. But we had the Canadian North bonspiel this weekend and we agreed to put a team in weeks ago. But after winning the league championship, this was for giggles. I think we were all hoping to be lucky enough to win a plane ticket (plane tickets are offered up as door prizes. This prevents stacked teams and keeps things a lot more fun) rather than winning the thing.
We won the first game pretty easily, but the second game was against two of the best players in the club, so I figured that was going to be the end of that streak. But we won (secret strategy, make sure they get drunk the night before, have to get up early to work on the ice and play still feeling hungover. I recommend it). The third game went to something ugly called Skip Stones. It's the equivilent of a shoot-out in hockey. Each Skip gets to throw one rock to break the tie. Closest to the button wins. I managed to get my shot about 6 inches further (I nearly killed my sweepers) than the other skip.
And then in the final, we got in trouble in the early ends. I gave the team a motivational speech (I won't say what it was, but it got them to laugh and it got them to kick it up a gear.) And next thing you know, we won the bloody thing. Two championships in less than a week. Unreal.
I think if you have to end a curling season, that's not a bad note to go out on at all. Alas, none of us won any of the plane tickets, although we all got nice prizes for winning. I grabbed a $120 gift card for the Frobisher, where I will take my lovely, curling widow wife out to supper when she next wants.
I'll add two other things. First, the Canadian North is an awesome curling event. We can take 16 teams and the spots filled up pretty quick (although we had one drop out last minute due to an emergency). Canadian North provided, no kidding, six plane tickets. Five were door prizes and one was for the infamous frozen foot draw (slide on your bare foot on the ice. Closest shot to the button wins. $5 a shot, all money goes to the food bank). Plus there were tons of other door prizes. I also managed to get a cool 2010 Winter Olympics jacket. I will bet there is no event in Iqaluit where you have better odds of winning a plane ticket (by the time you discount the team who had to drop out, Canadian North employees and a few people who do not show up for the draw, the odds are about 1 in 13 of winning), plus be able to have an absolute blast.
The second thing is that I'd forgotten how superstitious I can get over curling. I haven't written about curling in recent weeks because, well, I was winning and not mentioning it on the blog, so let's keep that going. One of the play-off games happened on St. Patrick's Day so I wore a green shirt. And we won. So I kept wearing that shirt. I wore it for every game except one down the stretch.
For that matter, I had a nice Olympic fleece Cathy bought at a house sale (for 50 cents. Insane) that I wore to a game early in the play-offs. The opposing team stole two points early, then I took the fleece off because I was warm. Next end, we took five. It was never worn at the club again.
And so wraps up curling. I was at the club this morning helping to clean up and put things away. The City brought in the zamboni to try and get the ice off as they need the club for a banquet on Thursday (good luck with that). A rough start, but an excellent finish. Last year when the season wrapped up, I was done and looking forward to the break. This year, well, I'm looking forward to next season.
Last Five
1. Cry on demand - Ryan Adams
2. Alfie - Lily Allen
3. Do what you want, be what you are - Hall & Oates
4. Tick tick boom - The Hives*
5. The red light - Joel Plaskett Emergency
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