Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Montreal Canadiens 100 Years of Glory

I just finished up reading another book. It was The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory by D'Arcy Jenish.

The book was written to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens in 2009. It was a good book. With 24 Stanley Cups in their history the Canadiens of course have had a lot of glory over the years. So there's plenty of good to write about. Still the author presents a balanced story of the good and the not so good.

The book is a good read and not hard to wade through. I'm neither really for nor against the Canadiens myself. I remember in the famous game 7 against Boston in the semi finals in 1979. I watched that game and I was hoping for the Bruins. But in 1993 when they had the incredible playoff run to win the Stanley Cup I was cheering for them against the Kings in the final.

One thing that I found interesting is I didn't realize the rivalry between Montreal and the Toronto Maple Leafs between the 1930s to the 60s. The Leafs had some very strong teams those years and quite often beat the Canadiens in the playoffs. I didn't realize how many good Leafs teams there were during that era. It was a great rivalry between the teams.

Today with Bob Gainey in charge the Canadiens fans are hoping he can duplicate the incredible success he had with the Dallas Stars. They have been more competitive since Gainey took over and are now more of a contender. The Montreal fans would sure be happy to celebrate the team centennial with the 25th Stanley Cup.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Chicago tea party

This is excellent. Rick Santelli's rant.



Even better it looks like there's some momentum for a Chicago tea party in July. That would be so cool. I'm not American but I'd still like to be there for it.

+1 for Santelli for someone going on tv and actually telling the truth. I think that's about the first time since this whole thing started 2 years ago that someone stood up for the real little guy. The little guy who lived within his means, saved, and was responsible. I like to hope that is still the majority but I'm not sure any more.

Regarding the bailouts. It's incredible that those who benefited the most from the bubble years 2001-2007 and awarded themselves all those billions in salary and bonuses now are demanding and getting taxpayer bailouts. This is a breathtaking looting and transfer of wealth.

Back to the tea party. That would be so fine to get a good crowd there. With the real great thinkers of today Santelli, Denninger, Keith. It would be cool to be part of what might be history. And to meet up with some like minded thinkers, people who get it, would be a real treat.


The last opportunity I had to be part of history was in 1996 during the Quebec referendum. This guy John in the PRIOR office sent out this e-mail titled "If you care be there". There was some shenanigans where for the absurdly low price of like $100 you could get from Halifax to Montreal to be part of that massive and historic pro-Canada rally. I'll give John credit, he did go and the separatists lost. They cried foul about that Montreal rally but c'est la guerre.

Monday, February 16, 2009

saw Paul Blart mall cop

I caught the movie Paul Blart mall cop over the weekend. It was pretty good. The film is the story of a New Jersey state trooper wannabee who settles for a job as a security guard at a large shopping mall.

The hero Paul Blart is a likable loser who lives with his Mom and teenage daughter. He's unusually dedicated and long serving as a mall security guard. His teenage daughter has a quirky suitor who phones at opportune times and provides some comedy. There are some funny scenes in the movie.

The first half of the movie unfolds about as I would expect of a mall movie about a forty something security guard with a good heart but not a lot success in life. Then in the second half there's a surprising plot twist and the action picks up a lot and hero Blart is able to show new dimensions to his character. Still they keep up a pretty steady stream of funny moments in the film to keep it entertaining without taking itself too seriously.

I don't regret seeing it. It's an OK movie for this time of year. This is kind of a dead time at the theatres. The Christmas blockbusters are gone and they are waiting to release the summer blockbusters [and I can't wait for Star Trek]. So this is OK as a filler movie between now and May when the big summer films start coming out.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

annoyed

I was annoyed today. Something happened in a meeting at work in the morning and I was angry about it all day. I'm still annoyed about it now.

There's this daily meeting where people are supposed to talk briefly about what they are working on. The last guy to speak said his part. I asked him a question a thing he'd worked on and someone else cut in. He made a rude response. I wasn't even asking him. The original guy I asked did then answer properly but it was too late.

I was so angry. And I was mad at myself for not having a mouthy comeback ready. Defeated again. I was mad about it all day at work.

Not much I can do about it now I guess. I'll be waiting for my chance though jump in with my own snide comments.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

ads we should't be seeing?

Lately there's been a couple of ads refused to be shown. Judge for yourself I guess. Paternalism seems to be in high gear these days.

First the Ashley Madison commercial which CTV would not show during the Super Bowl.




It didn't seem that bad to me.

Then there's the Halifax Metro transit atheist ad story. The ad Metro Transit doesn't want you to see can be found here.



That doesn't seem all that bad to me either. They are just expressing an opinion and not attacking anyone else. You're free to ignore it or disagree. The Metro Transit sales team doesn't exactly sell out 100% of the ad space on their buses so they should be happy for the business. I don't see any harm in the ad as written. At least I know what this ad is about unlike those silly Alesse ads I had no idea what that was for like years.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Yahoo briefcase shutting down

I was trying to find some old computer files yesterday. After I switched computers I couldn't quite recall what had happened to them. I currently back up my important files on my current PC by just e-mailing them to myself on Gmail as a zip archive.

But the old files didn't seem to be in any old backup zips on either Gmail or my older Yahoo e-mail. I was kind of resigned to them being lost but then I kind of had an inspiration. I checked over on my Yahoo Briefcase. And there they still were! I'm glad they weren't lost after all.

I downloaded the files (which were from 2001-2006) from my Yahoo briefcase to my hard drive. Then I made a nice zip archive and sent them to my Gmail account with a nice searchable subject line and body text. So now I should be able to find them in the future if I want to.

As it happens it was fortunate I was able to recover the files. It turns out that yahoo briefcase is shutting down. I only found out by pure accident by going to my briefcase account. Of course Yahoo hadn't bothered to tell me it was shutting it down soon. They would have been content to just delete all of my files that I was trusting Yahoo to store for me. So it was a lucky break I was able to recover my files.

I kind of liked Yahoo briefcase. It did have some moments of usefulness for me over the years. I'm a bit sad to see it go. So this is a word to the wise. If you're among the apparent few who used Yahoo briefcase then be careful to see if there's anything there you want to keep and get it backed up somewhere else soon.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Super Bowl at Kokomo's

It's becoming a Super Bowl tradition. This year I went to Kokomo's for the Super Bowl. I also went there last year. It was the same friend I went there with last year. We live nearby and didn't have any plans, plus we know the owner of Kokomo's from back in high school.

It was a good time there again. The Budweiser rep was there with some Bud girls for eye candy. They had a fun relay type game at half time which I got drafted into.

The Bud rep was pretty cool. We got talking about pro line somehow. He said he beat pro line NFL this season for around 100% profit on the money wagered. Most weeks he lost but he had 3-4 really big weeks during the season to make a healthy profit overall. He said he studies the games in detail including injury reports to come up with picks. I've always thought pro line was beatable. So if you are willing to put in the time to do some homework with a system that works I'm pretty sure it can be beaten. Although I've never actually tried to myself. Maybe I should look into it some time.

As usual with the Labatt/Bud rep there were some draws and door prizes. I did even better than last year. I ended up getting a beer glass, a t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a toque and a football jersey.

The crowd there was a bit less than last year. They had had a big UFC pay per view there the night before so it's generally the same people who go to both. I mentioned before the Kokomo's is a great place to watch UFC pay per view if you're looking for a bar to catch UFC at. Also last year there was a large number of Patriots fans. The Patriots fans in Halifax are notoriously fairweather so without them in the final they quickly lose interest in football.

The game was of course great. It looked like the Steelers were going to cruise to a comfortable win a couple of times. But Warner, Fitzergerald and Darnell Dockett had so much determination and courage the Cards nearly won it. Another excellent Super Bowl. The last several years have produced a few close, exciting games.

Maybe I'll drop in at Kokomo's a bit more this year.