The Future is NOW!

Check this link, they've got a talking hologram.... what will they think of next...

Bowling for Combines

Well, I sure hope we don't hit a combine, cause they're dang expensive, but Saturday is the return of the Trebuchet.

And I've secured 2 projectiles of the bowling ball persuasion. I picked up a 10-pin ball (probably 14 lbs) at value village, and got a 5-pin ball (probably 4lbs) donated by Jamie and Jim at Towne Bowl in Kitchener.

My goal for the return of the trebuchet was to pick up some good weighted projectiles that would accel in the area of aerodynamics. What better than a cannonball! Alas, with no canonballs on the horizon, bowling balls were the next best option!

There will be pics and videos for all to see posted after the weekend. If you'd like to come along to partake in the festivities, email me and I'll hook you up with specifics.

Shootout! I love thee.

So, I've been swayed to the liking of the shootout, strictly because the Leafs won last night, but at least I'm honest. I missed all of the game up to the last 2 1/2 minutes, but what a finish! I don't think I've seen such a good active Overtime in a long time, and the Leafs held on to have the chance to win in the ol' shootout. A Tie would have been a let-down at the end of such a good game, although it's almost unfair that the Leafs be rewarded for hanging on by the skin of their teeth. However, Belfour played well enough to get that far, why not let him win based on stopping more shots..

Ah well, 1-2 in shootouts this year, Jason Allison 0-3. Not sure why Quinn wouldn't put someone else in that #2 spot. I really think Jason's a wonderful player, more of a playmaker, but really, he's pickin slow, and hasn't seemed all that wonderful in the shootout. Put Domi in so he can just plow through the goalie and let the puck follow.

Wonder when teams will start running goalies in shootout and make it look like an accident. Strategy.

Guess that makes me a DIC

So, on a very tough day of work Friday, we did a personality test at our Day Program Breakaway Day. Ya, tough day... personality test, chinese food and pool tourney.

Anyways, I hate personality tests cause there's no way to lump people into 1 of 14 possible categories. However, I was being paid so I took my test. It was the DISC test, so you could be a D, I, S or C type personality, or a combination of all. Turns out that I'm a DIC, possessing 3/4 of all personality traits! Lucky me, most of the genaralizations for DIC's didn't really fit me, as I am much more complex than that.

Well, that was good for a laugh and a few cheap jabs from Pat, so, not all lost... Now I can claim to all who suggest doing personality tests that they only prove that I'm a DIC.

I ended up winning the modified 9-ball pool tournament, skunking Patrick in the first game... Booyah!

Ever Feel Like a Criminal?

Twice in the past week, I have. Last week sometime, I got to work and my key wouldn't work in the front entrance. I went to them back door to try it, subsequently setting off the alarm (a very loud one) which could be heard throughout the Christian Horizons Building (Corporate Office and West District office). I scampered quite quickly to the front entrance to punch in the code (4 8 15 16 23 42) and shut off the alarm. I called the security company to make sure I wasn't gonna get a visit from the police, and everything was ok.

Last night, I was teaching at Calvary Pentecostal Assembly School of the Arts, when I left the teaching area between lessons to use the washroom. Other teachers often share the same lesson time in the teaching area, but they had all gone home by then. My 9:00 lesson showed up just as I was realizing that I locked my keys in the teaching area. I scrambled and tried the ol' Bible College blockbuster card trick, to no avail. Apparently that only works on Chris Pudel's room. I was forced to send my student home as I had no idea when I was going to get back in. Oddly enough, the only thing I worried about was my computer left in the room and my bottle of Dr Pepper. I called someone, they came to let me in, and I was extra paranoid of leaving my keys anywhere after that.

It's a strange feeling, trying to break in to a place you're supposed to be, can't immagine what it would be like actually breaking into some place. That's my story

Festering away.

Seasons are a'changin... we are now (apparently) knee deep in the seasons of festivities. First was Turkeyfest last weekend, Oktoberfest is still rolling out their barrel, and all over KW I see signs for "Einsteinfest". Which prompts me to ask the questions:

"Who is this Einstein and what's so festy about him?"

The website claims Einsteinfest is a "celebration of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s annus mirabilis – “miracle year” – of 1905 when, at the age of twenty-six, he published several groundbreaking ideas that led physics—and thereby, the world—into the modern era."

Sounds like a lot of modern geekery or nerdcraft to me. It's been going on for 2 weeks now and will go on til Oct 23rd. Just how much crap can you fit into a 3 1/2 week span. Oktoberfest is only barely over a week long, and that's been going on for ages since the dawn of Kitchener when city planners sat around a barrel with crayons, wearing leiderhosen, drunk out of their heads, deciding what the map of Kitchener would look like... "lets make Weber and King street cross 3 times!" said one, to which another replied, "what if Weber and King street were the same..." They all gasped at the depth of this conversation.

Anyways, I have no idea how they can justify 3 1/2 weeks of Einstein crap, but there is one thing I do know. There sure are a lot of signs on the highway for it.

Cameo Appearance by Yours Truly!

So, over on this blog, Matt seems to have changed the look of ye ol' blog stylings. Nice simple look with a photo banner on top featuring moi in the far right behind the ladder. Kinda creepy eh...

Correction Notice: Matt's blog turns out to be very sophisticated and challenging to even comprehend. To think that it would be simple would be like saying Einstein is an idiot.

- The Management

At Least My Blog's Back to Normal...

After a long wait, my hair has grown in and my bLog has gone through an ugly phase with it's links section. Ah well.

Turkey day comes and goes, and somehow the only turkey I consumed on Sunday was on my Subway Club sandwich. We went to Grandma's in Corunna on Sunday to find out that Turkey had been taken away from us and been replaced by ham. The ham was good mind you, but it sure wasn't Turkey. Oh well, life goes on.

Garrett seemed to recognize me after a little bit. I don't see him all that often, and last time I saw him was when I had my mullet... he's a good kid, almost makes me wanna have a 1 1/4 year old, but I want to skip the time leading up to that. I also got the urge to get a little dog over the weekend. I won't act on that impulse, but have made some simple guidelines for any dog wishing to join my household.
1. It must have short hair (allergies)
2. It must be small enough to give the cats a fair fight.
3. It must not be ugly

I know I'm limiting my selections, but I really don't want a dog... not until I get a fence around the yard. I don't like walking a lot, dogs do.

I hope all had a wonderful Turkey Weekend and a beautiful Oktoberfest season.

Deep Thoughts

by Jack Handey

I think a good gift for the President would be a chocolate revolver. and since he is so busy, you'd probably have to run up to him real quick and give it to him.

da da da da da...

Hockey Night in Canada is back!

It's about pickin time.

and thanks to an 11pm church league game, I can watch the whole thing... Gonna see quite a few yougsters in the game tonight, which is ok. I've been waiting a long time to see some of the kids get a chance...

Prediction: Leafs 4 -- Canadiens 2

Go LEAFS Go

Shootout Shmootout

While I found the shootout to be a pillar of excitement, I can't help but griping about the results. Go figure though. First game in a long time, good set of rivals (Ott and Tor) and possibility to be controversial (with lots of new rule changes)... had to be the Leaf game...

I missed most of the game, although it turned out I didn't miss much, with the game being 1-0 for a long time. It was real good to see the newbies in action for the Leafs, seing a lot of Lindros and Allison (both putting up defenceman type minutes). Hopefully Sundin isn't that badly injured... he should be wearing a visor anyways, right mom?


It was good to see the game again, although it conflicted with episode 3 of LOST. Something to be said about the shootout though. I went to a different room and opted to watch it over the end of LOST, which was very good last night. I caught most of the story at commercial breaks, but there was no way I wasn't gonna be glued to the set for the shootout... If the Leafs won, I'd be happy, otherwise, I feel cheated by the new rules... "games shouldn't be decided this way" I'd grumble...

Inset pic: Barenaked Ladies singing national anthem... who's the guy second from the left? I recognize the other 4 dorks, but this guy seems too dorky (like a ringer)

The Beginning of the End

So begins another downward spiral for me, myself, I. McDonalds has come out with the yearly Monopoly game, my secret gambling addiction if only for a few months. I've been relatively good as of late, opting for more 'healthy' fast food options, and haven't eaten much McDonalds.

Then they go and do this.

So, like the chump I am, I will go a few times a week in search of the illustrious Boardwalk or that last Railroad so I can win a dodge viper and work to pay the insurance... this is the life.

I was gonna buy Subway today for lunch, but for some strange reason I felt the urge to go into that left turning lane, and end up in the drivethru staring at the "You could win $1,000,000.00" sign... heart-burn and heart-ache--HERE I COME

Make your own kind of music

LOST last night was something else. I feared that they would drag me through yet another hour of television without elaborating on the storyline with Jack and Desmond, and BAM, here we are with nothing but more info on the leading up to that point. While I could have gone without Michael's back story part II last night, I really liked the different perspectives shown from the time that the hatch was blown to present, albeit very frustrating and annoying to have to wait another week to "figure things out".

The others actually exist, and look like cavemen. Weird indeed. Maybe Locke can trade the razor-blade that he uses for shaving his head to one of the others for his safety. I've got to stop watching the previews for the next weeks show. They only consistently show the "scenes from the next LOST" on ABC, whereas CTV doesn't always show them. I find that it takes away a lot of the mystery of the show, after all, they've left enough loose ends to drag people back next week without the need to remind them about what they are going to see. bah.

He thinks everyone is sick outside the hatch and inputs the numbers to reset that clock thing to 108 (which is the sum of the numbers 4+8+15+16+23+42). His washer and dryer look new-ish and his blender too, although everything else seems from the 70's.

Ah well, I'm hooked. Counting down those hours til the next episode, seems there's about 108 hours left... oh NO! The NUMBERS!!!!!!!

Can you tell we're related?

Technology saves the day!

Well, the power came back on, and how did I find out? On my new Cell Phone. I bought a phone last week, Pay as you go from Virgin Mobile, in hopes of it working past North Bay on our trips to Cochrane. It worked like a charm, all the way to the house in Clute with digital coverage. It seemed like the best deal of all the big companies, having the best per minute feature and offering extra features like voicemail with no contract or monthly fee. Very easy to setup, quick and on the internet! If you want my number, ask me for it.

In other news, I did get to see the LOST premiere... the same old cliffhanging endings that kept me wanting more until the next Wednesday. That can't be the same guy... can't be... nutty stuff. Good to see the background behind Jack's fiance. Hurley can't get anyone to take him seriously. And don't you find it odd that QUARANTINE was stamped on the inside of the hatch, as if to say that everything outside was being quarantined, not what was locked inside... Love that ABBA!

Well, bed soon

Just when I thought...

...it couldn't get any worse...

Thr friggin power is out in Cochrane, seriously hampering my plan to watch the season premiere of LOST. I'm sure we'll see it somewhere, just not at Faith's parents place. Boo-urns to power outages!

The Fabulous life of...

My Head!

I've gone through many a phase in the past few years, as far as my head goes. I've always enjoyed doing strange things with my hair, so here is a phot journal of what my hair's been through in the past few years.

First shot is January 2004, quite short then, I think I had started from scratch the fall prior and that's where I was at. I had decided to grow my hair until I could have dreads. I had never grown my hair all out, having a year or so of forgettable hairdo's courtesy of Dave.

The next shot is as Grandma's place, October 2004 when Faith teased my hair enough to make it stand up and almost walk out on me. They straightened it before they teased it, and somehow my hair didn't fall out due to shattered self esteem.


Next is January 2005, my nephew, Garrett, is seeing how big my mouth can open. My mom didn't much like me with loing hair, but she did like my curls.


Next was the age of hair extensions. Final Count: 104 braids, instant length. It was cool to have hair that long without putting the effort or time into growing it that long. I really enjoyed the month I had these, but man, did those stupid things smell. They smelled like a dirty dishcloth, and took forever to dry. Plus, my hockey helmet had a real tough time getting on my head.


Next up is the old shorty long... Business in the front, party in the back... the soccer shocker... the kentucky waterfall... the ape drape... the safety cut... on and on... I sported a full-on mullet for 5 days spanning trips to Wonderland, Marineland and the Acton Fall Fair where I posed with silver Elvis. This was fun, but agonizing. I got a lot of funny looks and reactions, but really didn't like not being able to pull all my hair back. I wanted to wear a hockey hair for the first game of my Church league hockey season, so I did and skated around the rink without my helmet during warmup.

Which brings me to today, coming full cycle to the uncle fester look. I chopped it right down to the "wood", scaring most of my music students today and not being recognized by my wife. I'm liking the "Powder" look, and just hope I don't get bad razorburn. Been there, done that. There ya go MOM, I cut my hair. I hope you enjoyed my synopsis of my hair's do's.

At least I didn't pick the old guy to win.

So seems I've only been ruled out on 1 of my picks so far, and 1 has been pretty much confirmed. I reckon my first out pick would have been right had we seen the other tribe at council, so I will consider it still active pending the other teams tribal council.

Rafe is such a fruit, so that's 1/6 so far.

I was pretty pleased with the tougher challenge to start off. The only realy overnight challenge I can think of was on Survivor UK, so this one was pretty good. It was cool to see them bring the CURSE OF SURVIVOR PAST to join the tribes. Sure, Steph's tribe did win immunity, but heck, those two were cursed, and will bring bad to anything they touch this season. They'll have to call in the Brothers Grimm to take care of things.

Anyways, I didn't manage to watch it til 11:00 cause it got shot down the priority list this year, and I've seen my share of puke this season, so now it's time for some real drama. or something like it.

Survivor Starts Thursday

So, after much deliberation, I have made my early picks for the New Survivor... If you can remember, my pick last year didn't even get to play, so I've spread my picks out.

Most likely to be:

Final 3: Brandon (Redneck), Brooke (curls), Brianne (cheerleader)
Early Winner Pick: Brooke
First Out: Amy (Police Sargent)
Gay: Rafe ... what a name
Funny: Judd
Sketchy: Brian

Seems they abandoned their formula for having a "JUGS" girl. There's a few cutesie girls, but no girls well endowed enough to be considered for the JUGS award.

We'll see where this one goes, Thursday at 8pm.

Birthday-o-matic

So I'm old... 27 to be precise. Faith got me a beer machine for my birthday. It's pretty cool, and quite stylish. The best part--IT ACTUALLY COOLS DRINKS. I know, craziness. It fits 12 cans of whatever is a standard can size, such as: most beer cans, pop cans, can of worms, mccain concentrate juice from a can, those stupid souvenirs with stuffed moose in a can. You get the point.
My birthday was great overall, consisting of me sleeping in til 10:30 which is unheard of these days, and getting 2 free meals. I milked the system on my birthday, going to Caseys for Ribs and Wings FOR FREE, and going to the Whale and Ale for supper, having the Rib-eye steak FOR FREE! I returned home, well fed, to cake and icecream with a bunch of strangers in my living room. Booyah!
I got a few "paper gifts" which helped with the purchase of the Complete First Season of LOST. I've gone through some of the 8 hours of extra crap and some of it is pretty cool. There's some pretty neat stuff with behind the scenes stuff and making of crap. There's also a funny spot from Jimmy Kimmel live where he was on location. Pretty Funny.

I'm old, feels good.