Silly Monkeys

This week was looking rather bleak until today work wise. Last week the weather decided to be a tease before bitch slapping us all in the face to start this one, but then the sun came out today and work was...well, work, but not miserable work. Save for being a bit on edge sandwiched between 4 lanes of traffic doing 90 clicks a few feet from my head, things were relaxed.

More relaxed than I was during the Avs game a couple nights ago anyways. Hopefully tonight they don't attempt to snatch defeat from the glory of victory and blow a 3-0 lead again. Hopefully they don't just outright lose it either, as them going through this round is almost guaranteed to make me some coin in a hockey pool (as long as Carolina and Detroit also play along and keep losing).

The playoffs overall have been awesome. I definitely missed them during the strike despite all the extra soccer and baseball coverage that took their place. Its killing any semblance of good sleep though, especially now that the series games have generally moved west. Bloodshot eyes and lack of energy are only temporary though, following your team to the cup lasts a lifetime....or if you're a Leafs fan, following you team to the cup takes a lifetime. Being an Avs fan, on the other hand, with wins in '96 and '01, I'm due for another this year!

In a completely different direction, the new Tool album is kickass and well worth a listen for anyone who's enjoyed them or A Perfect Circle in the past. It takes bits of the Lateralus sound, and bits of APC feel, mixes them together, and makes the 5 year wait for a new album well worth my while. Now there's a coincidence; Tool's previous two albums were released in none other than 1996 and 2001. Go Avs!

Spitting out the words

I probably shouldn't write posts while I'm tired, getting my drink on, and watching hockey like last night, but hey, no-one here is charging admission to the circus sideshow. If they are, you've really been screwed.

There were some great games last night, including the Jays rally and then win over the BoSox. And today, its time for the Avalanche to prove all the 'experts' wrong; I think Maggie the Macaque has a better concept of hockey then her counterparts over at TSN.

Its grey and cold again outside, and I don't feel like doing a thing. Its after 12 now at least, maybe I should just go get the Moosehead train rollin and wait for the puck to drop.

EDIT (12:32pm): Wait a minute, found something gimmicky and time consuming to do over at Tony's funhouse. Take your audio player of choice, make sure shuffle's on, and answer each question by skipping forward one song...and you have to keep the embarrassing songs in your playlist in your answers, no double skips!

Will I get far in life?
Man of Action - Matthew Good Band

How do my friends see me?
Patio Lanterns - Kim Mitchell

Where will I get married?
Broken Box - Queens of the Stone Age

What is my best friend’s theme song?
Get What You Need - Jet

What is the story of my life?
Soolaimon - Neil Diamond

What was high school like?
Crossing the Frame - Coheed and Cambria

How can I get ahead in life?
Just Push Play - Aerosmith

What is the best thing about me?
Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent

How is today going to be?
Kill Rock 'N Roll - System of a Down

What is in store for this weekend?
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones (and here I thought these were my plans for last weekend)

What song describes my parents?
Apparitions - Matthew Good Band

My grandparents?
X-Static - Foo Fighters

How is my life going?
Walkin on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves (apparently? maybe embarrassing skips should be allowed, saves lies and deceit)

What song will they play at my funeral?
Night Drive - Jimmy Eat World (i hope not)

How does the world see me?
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

Will I have a happy life?
Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin

What do my friends really think of me?
Downer - Nirvana (wow, pretty close to home at times)

Do people secretly lust after me?
Because - The Beatles

How can I make myself happy?
Inhale - Big Wreck

What should I do with my life?
The Secret Wedding - Braveheart Soundtrack - James Horner

Will I ever have children?
Who Can It Be Now - Men at Work

What is some good advice?
Silence - Gomez

What is my signature dancing song?
Falling Away From Me - Korn

What do I think my current theme song is?
Why Don't You and I - Santana feat. Chad Kroeger (this song was subsequently deleted)

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Jet - Paul McCartney and Wings

What type of men/women do you like?
Its The End of the World - R.E.M.

What did you think of this meme?
Knife Party - Deftones

And there you have it.

The New Season

Players are selected, pools are in, playoff puck proceeds. That's some special alliteration for Nicholas.

Really though, the most entertaining part of hockey is back. No more useless shootouts, no more silly interdivisional play, and best of all, no more Leafs! The energy is amped up proportional to the stakes and a whole new season is on its way.

I'm just hoping that dropping the extras lets the Avalanche finally overcome the gimmick machine Stars who as far as I know didn't lose a single shootout all year. And if they do go down, I'm hoping that the southern teams are dropped early so we don't have to watch horrible bounces on slushy ice decide champions.

A new season has apparently started at work too. Most of the first week I was stuck in the office with nothing going on, and now there seems to be more fieldwork than people or time to get it done, which means a busier, happier me. To top it off, I've started using my van for work too, and even with gas prices climbing like one of those Acme 'Too Fast' spedometers as Bugs' plane dives towards the ground, I make money on the kilometer...as long as the van lasts thru the next 4 months sans repair.

The hockey games are getting more intense by the second and my thought is goin of the rails like a crazy train so that's all I got for now...

Great Start Redux

The second Jays game for me this season, while not seated quite as nicely was full of the same energy. Or nearly the same energy. Sitting up in the 500 section for 2 bucks mixes you in with all the 'riff raff', read; Yankees fans, who come up across the border, or just out of hiding. But then you're afforded great opportunities when Gary Sheffield gets lazy like he tends to do and drops an easy line out, and there's a tool 2 rows up decked out in a Sheff jersey.

The other difference in energy comes from people who have gotten into their seat for 2 bucks, so aren't as shy about spending another 7 dollars each for beers after that. While there's no way in hell I'm paying 7 bucks for a beer, let alone a Budwater, some people do, and get all wide eyed and boisterous and make for some additional entertainment. And then the girls of Toronto start getting in on the fun too, and then I sometimes forget that there's a game going on somewhere in the distance far below me.

And then you get the true fans who come up and offer you money and tickets for the retro jersey off your back, and commend you for hanging on to the little piece of history instead of selling out.

I suffered for my fun, only getting 4+ hours of sleep before hitting the road for work again, and then the Jays lost their nooner rematch with the Yanks but what can you do?

In something non-baseball or work related for once...Toronto has a serious lack of Tim Hortons. Walking around killing time after the game (okay I lied, its still quasi-baseball related) to avoid traffic we could not for the life of us find a Timmys to caffeinate and drain bladders. During the walk we came across not less than 3 Starbucks and 3 Second Cups (which seem to all be located very close to their competitors), 2 Coffee Times, a Country Style and a Krispy Kreme, but not ONE Tim Hortons. Starbucks and Second Cup being too expensive for my taste, and Coffee Time et al having shitty coffee even by my low standards, we were on a mission for a Timmys, and we failed.

What the hell Toronto? Around here you are never further than 4 city blocks from a box of Timbits (donut holes for you yanks). The only one in T-dot I know of for sure got blown up a couple weeks back....you need to fix that before the next time I go back.

Serious Case of the Mondays

Have I mentioned I hate office work? No?

I hate the shit...which is weird since I end up spending a lot of time infront of my computer at home. Maybe that's why. Or its that my computer at work is a slow piece of shit, and I can't run winamp while I have more than an excel spreadsheet or firefox window open. Yeah, I spoil myself with my computers like any other nerd, so it frustrates me in the workplace I guess. Moreso when there's no work to do.

Its harder work to make yourself look like you're busy than it is to actually be busy in most cases, but them's the breaks, and the promise of my first paycheque in 7 months will keep me goin' for now. In all honesty, it doesn't even have to with a bunch of fieldwork to do in the next two weeks, its just easier to bitch than have something positive to say.

That said, I'm gonna bust my ass tomorrow, and try to be back to the office, changed into my jersey, and ready to head to toronto for a $2 Tuesday Jays game against none other than the Bronx Bombers. They won't be the same sexy seats I had a few weeks ago, but I'm not making THAT much money. And when its the Yankees, anywhere is a good seat to show your support from.

It would be impossible to expect to top the last Yankees-Jays game I went to anyways, and having to work again the next morning, I almost wouldn't want it to.

"April 19, 2001...Played the longest game in club history vs the Yankees, 5:57 in a 6-5 loss in 17 innings..."

That 'longest game' was surpassed last year I believe, but that was the last time I was at the Dome when the Yankees were the visiting squad. I got a last minute call from one of my highschool buddies saying he had an extra free ticket and that they could be by in 5 minutes to pick my ass up. We got to the gates in the home half of the first, and I got my first look at my ticket: Section 118, Row 4 (aisle)...or more roughly translated, 4 rows behind the Visitors dugout.

Like I quoted before, the game went 17 innings, and by the 12th we were just a few of the maybe 3,000 people left, and had moved up to the 2nd row behind the dugout (the ushers for whatever reason didn't want to let us in the empty first row infront of us). Being immature kids, the entire Yankees squad heard some pretty lameass commentary on the pastimes of their mothers all night. We might have managed to slip in one or two actual noteworthy burns, but I don't remember.

The one I do remember clearly was probably in the 14th or 15th as Chucky Knoblauch, doing his experimental outfield stint, came walking back to the dugout after an at bat, and one of my buddies, already hoarse, and having used up anything even close to witty busts out: "Heeeeeey, Knoblauch!.........|exagerrated pause|.....You're Short!". The only comment of the whole night that actually drew a reaction; Knoblauch, by then below the lid of the dugout takes two steps back up, looks at us and just shakes his head.

We lost the game, but still by far the best game and seats I ever got, and to top it off they were free. I don't hope to be rolling in at 4am this Wednesday morning before work though, so lets hope the Jays can blast those no good New Yawkers out by the 5th and let Chacin and B.J. Ryan polish off the rest of the game in a timely fashion.

Doctor Tom

Step by step visual directions to the most important diagnostic test learned in med school:

Don't expect me to cry for all the reasons you had to die

Week one of work went down a success, discounting the reality that it wasn't a full week, and despite spending a bittersweet day in the sunshine, but stink of Hamilton. Nothing kicks off a long weekend like spending a day outside in the good weather, and it makes the time roll along smoothly instead of grinding along with nothing to do sitting in a cubicle.

Most of the people I know seem to be taking off to travel the world within the next few months. Work terms in Shanghai, post exam celebrations in the Dominican, post graduation vacations in Europe and Thailand, new work opportunities in Australia. And here I sit still mildy enthusiastic about trips 45 minutes down the road, earning a paycheque in the sunshine, and looking forward to day trips to the beach asap.

Do I want to go to Europe when I graduate, of course. Whether I will have the money still remains to be seen. Can I live without the trip? Absolutely. I'm sure plenty of less expensive alternatives will be possible, but I unlike everyone else from around here do not have some burning sense of imprisonment to escape from this town. I guess I'm just not motivated enough to have a desire to flee.

If work takes a turn for the worse, maybe I'll get to that point, but right now, I have 3 days of religious worship to take part in. My idol, Beer, King of the Booze, son of Hops, born of the Virgin Barley. Only hopefully it doesn't rise again on the 3rd day.

Always look on the bright side of life 'doo-do doo-do-doo-do-doo-do'

1 Hour Unpaid Waste of My Time

I hate unpaid lunches in general. When they're an hour long its even worse. I like to spend as little time at work as possible, regulations on mandatory breaks or no, I tend to circumvent those regulations. When its an hour lunch, and you have to sign in and out of the building, and its unpaid, i.e. not counting towards your 8 hour work day, its frustrating.

Aside from that, the new job's great so far. Nice big open office cubicle, with a nice big open desk for myself. Everyone's friendly enough, although I knew that going in from past employees and having had a couple drinks with some of my new co-workers before. I was worried about the bitch of a drive across the city, but I made the trip twice each way today at what should have been fairly heavy traffic times, and had no issues, besides the one blue hair doing 45 in a 70 and keeping me from getting home.

Bike trails nearby and a barbecue out back will keep me occupied during my hour of free time every day at least, I'll just have to get used to the 9 hour 8 hour days.

Missed the blogger bash the other night, and in doing so, apparently a good time. Life goes on. I'm tired and need beer and beef in the fastest available order.

Busy Ignoring Priorities

This morning I set my alarm for 8:45, and actually managed to be off the futon before 9. The goal: get some studying done for the one exam I have this term for the one course I enrolled in while I was making myself 'busy' doing renovations at home instead of finding a work placement.

Two and a half hours later, I finally had the .pdf of my coursenotes on screen and was almost ready to read them. Once I reached the quarter-way point I decided I needed to get around replacing the strings on my acoustic, and took a walk uptown. Of course getting the strings wasn't enough to satisfy the procrastination so I pulled the remaining old strings, threw on the new ones, tuned up, and played for an hour and a half.

Exams in the past just haven't kicked my ass enough to make me change these ridiculous habits, but I finally returned to the screen and breezed through another quarter of the book, making a few half-assed notes. Combine mundane, common sense course material, with too much subjectivity in marking, and a guy who is really indifferent, and you really shouldn't expect much more. After that the rest of the afternoon and evening was killed with errands and finding some leftover beer from last weekend's bbq, and then trying to figure out what's happening with this whole meet-up in town tomorrow night.

Tony was nice enough to give me a little heads up, so we'll see what happens tomorrow night. But again, if anyone knows of tickets floating around for tomorrow night's show at the Starlight please drop me a line.

Lots of Jesus talk in the past few days too between the Gospel of Judas and a scientific explanation for Jesus walking on water (I swear I came across a more indepth article yesterday, but whatever, you can discuss it here).

The Jays just finished blowing a 6-0 lead and losing 9-8 to the Devil Rays, and I have no reason to live now, so I'm done writing...studying and exam tomorrow, possible concert and blogger meet-up tomorrow, don't expect anything else soon.

This is what you get...

I've established here many times that I can be a pretty lazy pile of meat. Another recurring theme has been my adeptness at procrastination. Well those two sparkling traits may have caught up with me. And I'm not even talking about the exam I have to write on Saturday that I haven't looked at notes for in a month.

Earlier this week I had tickets for a Matt Good show here in Waterloo that got cancelled due to illness (actually just read a comment that he may have ended up in hospital, but that's all heresay). That show was originally added after the April 8th show this Saturday got sold out quickly...too quickly for my lazy ass to keep up.

Well now it turns out, half the blogging world are coming to waterloo by trains, planes and automobiles for Saturday's MG show/Raymi's birthday.

I'm not sure if I put enough links in that sentence, but you get the idea I'm sure. So if anyone out there happens to know someone trying to get rid of their tickets for the Saturday show yet let me know would you?

Great Start

Going to Toronto was always one of those 'special' events as a kid. An hour and a half trip down the road when you're 6 or 7 years old seems like an eternity, especially when Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Pat Borders, Kelly Gruber and so on are at the other end of that trip. But it wasn't just the baseball.

The sheer magnitude of everything in the core of Toronto, and the historical buildings and the energy of that many people squeezed into such close quarters always made for an exciting experience. Being a kid at heart, a bit of that notion is still there every time I visit.

Slap me in the face with your cold April winds of change, let your TTC rails grab my wheels and confuse me to no end while I try to find a decent parking lot. Let your building frenzy of new condominiums around the Dome ruin all my previous visual references for direction in the city, I'll still enjoy the visit.

Let me luck into some awesome seats and a home team win, and you can count on me being back soon. Great start to the season!

Cancelled Due to Illness

Last night's Matt Good show got canned, so I spent more time, and importantly money, than I probably should have at the end of term party. No info yet on whether the show will be rescheduled. Sunday would seem to work since there's no scheduled show that day and he has another sold out show in Waterloo the night before, but we'll see what happens.

Now its off to Toronto for the ball game, along with half of my MSN contact list apparently. It promises to be a good time, but it just doesn't seem right that its so bloody cold and windy. I wasn't counting on the Dome being open or anything, but I was hoping not to freeze my ass off walkin around outside being a nerd wearing my 80's Jays jersey.

And on that note, its time to go grab some cash so some hot beef can keep me warm from the inside when I get into town.

Oh Brother, Big Brother

Just came across a link from the Sunday Herald on Matthew Good's blog (which is clearly back up now) outlining a Pentagon plan for implementing itself more vigourously into the internet and all other forms of digital communication. Included in the simplified plan was this gem:

"...psychological military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future military action. Psyops involve using any media – from newspapers, books and posters to the internet, music, Blackberrys and personal digital assistants (PDAs) – to put out black propaganda to assist government and military strategy. Psyops involve the dissemination of lies and fake stories and releasing information to wrong-foot the enemy."

I honestly had to double check the date on the article to assure myself that it was infact an article from today and not April Fool's Day yesterday. I could swear that was a passage from 1984 reworded to fit with today's technological terminology. In essence, the U.S. looks like they're attempting to leverage themselves into even better position to control the internet and have the ability to more verily flex their muscle in any future delivery of freedom.

The Red Meat Barbecue

Some people do silly things like see doctors. Some of those people are told they have minor health issues. In turn, some of those people decide to do something drastic in assuring themselves of a long healthy life. In some cases those drastic actions take the form of irrational thought, and lead a man to become a vegetarian.

Such was the case of Joscelyn who decided in the late summer last year to give up meaty goodness in favour of nothing better than tofu. However, apparently with a clean bill of health, Jos decided a few weeks ago to return to the world of flesh and bone and grizzle and deliciousness. We were all proud to have him back on the wagon, until we found out that he hadn't had any red meat for at least 6 months.

Of course that had to be fixed, and so last night's barbecue and bonfire was a re-birth into the world of beef, and I daresay it went over well. The consumption of copius amounts of beer also eased the process, and blurred my memory, like my photos, of what exactly went down, but I've heard no complaints.

And now I'm down to my last week of freedom before I start my new job on the 10th. But I'll be enjoying an acoustic Matt Good concert, at least 2 street-meat vendors in Toronto, the start of a promising season for B.J.'s, and a matchup of the two best pitchers in baseball right now. Pitchers who will spend the season battling for the AL Cy Young, assuming no unfortanate comebackers to the mound. Money, music and meat, now there's reason to be excited.