Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Hoping For History

Well, it's that time of year again. The Grey Cup has just passed, and the NFL regular season gets good.

As far as the Grey Cup goes, let me give you this one piece of advice dear reader (and I mean this for all of the ones of readers out there. That's right, I have a friend or two that happens to look at this occasionally, if they are busy washing their hair or have a headache.). If you ever get a chance to go to Canada's Superbowl, the Grey Cup...do not hesitate to jump at the chance and trample anyone who tries to get in your way. I had the opportunity to go this year, and yes, there were problems, like long lines for beer and lack of roving beer guys in the stand, at least in the upper deck, but I still had a blast. And I had no rooting interest, except for a grudge against the eventual winner Saskatchewan. I can't stand a name stealer. But that is a story for another time.

In the NFL there are two intriguing stories out there, which if you have glanced at a sports page or website in the last few weeks, I'm sure you have heard about. The New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins are both 'pursuing' history. The Pats to go undefeated, and the 'Fins to go perfectly defeated. Okay Miami's not trying, but they do really freaking suck. New England meantime is trying, and so far at 12-0 finding ways to get it done.

Now, I am not a fan of either team, so normally I couldn't care less. But for some reason this time the 'perfect season' has caught my interest. Maybe it's because I have loved watching Randy Moss since he debuted with my Vikings, but I am pulled in by this possibility. I'd love to see the perfect season from the Pats. It certainly seems that I won't see something like this again in my lifetime, the last time it happened was in '72, the year I was born. I'd like to see and remember this one.

As far as the Dolphins go, that '72 team has been gloating over the last undefeated team going down every year since. Well, popping champagne to celebrate your own greatness and someone else's defeat, over and over again for 35 years seems a bit much, and I dare say probably bad karma. I am hoping the current incarnation does go winless and tieless. Screw it, they celebrate everyone else's failure for that long, let their former team be the biggest failure in the history of the league. Sounds fair to me.

So let's see 19-0 for the Pats, you know we probably won't see it again. And Let's replace the 76 Bucs (0-14) with the 07 Dolphins as the worst team ever fielded.

Make some history for us boys!

Until next time, see you in the funny pages.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A Holiday Theme

In honor of me taking the American Thanksgiving off, I thought I would post some interesting links I read today.

Here's a great one about blowing the myth of the first Thanksgiving all to hell:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071121/ts_alt_afp/lifestyleusthanksgivinghistoryfood

Imagine! 400 years later the story has been slightly corrupted! Never would have guessed that could happen. Especially love the quote from the man named Fortunate Eagle near the end. Priceless!

And here's one that explains that sleepy feeling you get after the big Turkey feeds, not what you might think!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071121/sc_livescience/thankgivingmythturkeymakesyousleepy

Let's here it for gluttonly! Pass the turkey!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Some quick links for Nov.

Pretty sure this wouldn't raise an eyebrow up hereis Canada, but I could be wrong:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_fe_st/odd_cheerleading_stunt;_ylt=Auoyp8RVhsswiinNceraU1Cs0NUE

If you read this as a sarcastic POV it is much better, I hope that was the intention, because it might make me kind of stabby otherwise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html

Do we really need to deconstruct and retcon Sesame Street? Was anyone REALLY influenced by the gluttony of the Cookie Monster? I remember it being funny, and funny to do the impression, but noone I knew actually looked at it as a good idea to eat nothing but cookies in copious amounts. Perhaps that's because we were raised in a simpler time where the TV wasn't a babysitter and the sole purveyor of knowlege to kids.

Or perhaps I read too much into it. It's been know to happen.

Monday, October 15, 2007

What Ever Happened to Common Courtesy?

Now when I read/heard about e-mail free Fridays last week, I thought to myself 'Sh!t, what a ridiculous idea." But then thinking about the reasons that employers were thinking of implementing it, I found myself in an unusual situation for me, actually agreeing with the establishment. I started to see the correlation between the increasing use of e-mail and to a lesser extent faxes and the decline I have noticed for years in phone manners.

I'm by no means some sort of crusader for manners or against electronic communications, and perhaps there is no link whatsoever. But in the too many years I have had to use the phone as a large portion of my job, I have notice a drastic drop off in simple etiquette. When did it become acceptable to reply to a greeting with "Who is this?" or the slightly less rude, "So and so please"? Or simply launch into a diatribe without introducing yourself?

I do realize that in my position in a support department that people aren't always going to be in the best of moods when they call. Hey, they wouldn't be calling me if they didn't have something they needed. I get that, I do. But why does that give people the license to be as rude as possible? Is is so hard to say " Hi I'm blah-blah and I'm calling from such and such, I was wondering if you could help me." or something like that?

Perhaps there is something to the theory that e-mail is contributing to loosing some of the social skills developed in the 20th century. I wouldn't go so far as to blame it completely, I think the 'I'm so special' attitude is much more to blame. (You know the attitude I'm talking about, it is the one that allows people to talk no responsibility for anything they do, anything that goes wrong is obviously someone else's fault because someone so special couldn't possibly be in the wrong.) But that's an argument for another time. I have notice that as e-mail has become more prevalent phone manners have declined almost in step.

People say things in ways on e-mails that they would rarely have done via phone or face to face in years past. That freedom of not having to have personal contact while you insult someone seems to be flowing through to the phone. Why people feel that rudeness and insults is acceptable in an e-mail is another matter, but what is triggering the disappearance of just basic courtesy on the phone or to a lesser extent in person.

I know I'm just one man, with little or no influence on where society is going, but ask yourself this. How would I like to be spoken to? With respect or contempt? Respect or at least politeness right? That's what I thought. So, next time you need to call a business, no matter what is happening on your end, remember, a little decency goes along away. The person at the other end of the line may be someone who only answers the phone, or someone that can help you, but either way, they are just doing their job. There is never a good excuse for belittling them or being rude to start a conversation. And who knows, you may find that you people are more willing to be helpful and polite back when you don't start a conversation with rudeness.

Or maybe it's just me.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Yet another sign of the Fall

My god, have we really come to this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_on_fe_st/odd_no_hugs

We are now worried about middle school students hugging? Hugging?!?! What the hell are they teaching these kids? That all forms of human contact should be regulated by 'those-who-know-more' and should make us feel uncomfortable in every way?

Okay, I get the inappropriate thing, but come on!

I could be wrong ,but who hasn't had a hug linger too long, or been on the giving end of one? Didn't you deal with it all right? No trauma? Especially in middle school. These are the years that you start exploring/developing how you are going to interact with the opposite sex, or not, depending on your leanings. It seems to me this principal is interfering with the children's social growth, and sense of independence.

Should everyone rely on an authority figure to resolve anything for them by creating a 'rule'? If you are programming robots perhaps, but I have the strong opinion that we should be teaching kids to think for themselves, and at least resolve personal issues amongst themselves.

Is it really such a bad thing to give someone/receive a hug? I guess shouldn't be surprised the U.S. has never seemed to have too much of a problem making laws against what happens in people's bedrooms, but this seems excessive even for them. Hopefully someone higher up will put a stop to it, or even better the parents will rise up and put an end to this nonsense. That would give me some hope for the kids eventually growing into well-adjusted productive members of society.

I guess I should have some sort of witty remark to end this, but I'll end with this instead.

HUGS.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Some more face book posts

Sorry for the archives. But here are some more facebook notes. These ones are called " On the Other Hand"

A place for the opposite of the "Links of the Apocalypse"..(Updated 31 August 2007)

(31 August 2007)

Don't know why, but I find the fact that a bunch of monks are ticked at an anonymous internet user over some story they posted just hilarious! I mean I kind of get it, after all who doesn't hate ninjas. (Or is that just me?)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070831/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_ninja

Go get them Shoalin monks! Show them your Kung Fu outrage and lawyer-ing is stronger than theirs! HAHAHAHAHA!



Love this story about the Young At Heart Chorus, a collection of elderly singing rock songs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_en_ot/young_at_heart_chorus

And here's a link to them singing Cold Play's 'Fix You'. Strangely haunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6k-99qcCE

Satchel Paige was a baseball pitcher. A great pitcher, but not a learned scholar. However he has a great collection of quotes that I enjoy more than just about anyone else. Check this out and I hope you'll like them too.

http://www.satchelpaige.com/quote2.html

A collection of previous 'posts' from the past

Here is a collection of notes from my facebook page that I was using as a defacto blog for the last few months. In lieu of an actual archive. This collection was named "Links of the Apocalypse". I apologize if the links don't come through or are no longer valid. But for the most part you don't rally need them, and you can always copy and paste them if you are really interested.


Welcome to a running note that will feature links I think prove beyond a (tongue in cheek) shadow of a doubt that we currently live in the fall portion of western society.

(28 August 2007)
Okay, anyone that has been paying attention knows I’m obviously not a pie-in-the-sky dreamer. In fact, most would at best describe my worldview as cynical, or less flatteringly, bitter. I am under no delusions that racism is dead either south of the border or in this country (or really anywhere for that matter) In fact it is probably more alive and thriving than I have ever seen it.

However some of the claims made in this article regarding Michael Vick and anything to do with racism are WAY off base.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/070827

And no offense to Ms. Hill, this is just the latest time I have heard the Vick is being treated worse because he is black argument. In the words of Penn & Teller, Bullshit!

Actually aside form that a pretty good article, with some great points, if she hadn't played the race card I would even agree with here. But even mentioning that Vick may be being treated worse because he is black is beyond ridiculous. Off the top of my head I can shoot down that argument easily.

1. Ever since he was drafted very few people in the media ever dared criticize Vick in any way. The talking heads on every show I saw were lining up to join the fan club and slurp him. Despite the fact he has been in actuality a pretty good running back that can throw the ball once in a while. Great if you play RB but not what I would look for in a QB. Sorry a bad QB is a bad QB, do we make fun of Joey Harrington because he is white? No we make fun of him because he sucks. Same goes for Vick.

2. Ray Lewis may not have suffered from the same public revulsion that Vick has gone through, and I think it is a very good point. Ray-Ray was implicated in a double-murder, i.e. actual people were killed and he was around and involved in some manner. But here's the thing, Lewis is BLACK! So we are more outraged by Vick killing dogs than if he was white, but Lewis got off because he was...waitaminute!

3. Let's not loose perspective here, while murder, spousal abuse, DUI, and any other of the plethora of morally reprehensible acts, humans do to each other, and do deserve every bit of public outrage that has been focused on Vick, there is a difference. She makes a valid and very sad point that we are desensitized to human on human violence, it is everywhere everyday, some of it even sanctioned by governments. However when animal cruelty comes in to the picture, every single normal functioning human being is thoroughly repulsed. We tend to think of our selves as caretakers of the marvelous domesticated beast we have bred to be unconditionally loyal and dependant on us. Someone preying on that deep-rooted bond goes beyond and deeper than violence towards a fellow human being.

And that is why I don't want to here about race being involved in such matters, please, let's fight racism, with all guns a blazing. But for f-sake point the business end of those guns in the right f-ing direction. Talk about it openly and honestly, denounce racism wherever you see it, but don't try to drag it into this type of thing. It just distracts from the real fight.

Oh, and by the way, did you here Vick 'found God' as a result of his ordeal, I mean really, like we could really give a s-t what that dog-killing turd of a sociopath is doing to live with himself or make it look like he is sorry. "F-off and go away Mr. Vick."

(1 August 2007)

Now here is yet again another study that you have to scratch your head why bother?

I mean isn't the answer obvious to anyone? (Maybe the researchers are that special kind of geek that didn't have first hand knowledge.;)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_fe_st/sex_reasons;_ylt=AmB03EUM6HFjqyHAmwJehW2s0NUE

Yeah, I think I'm going to make this my next career. Hiring myself out for these studies as a common sense advisor to answer these studies for the 'researchers'. Seriously, if I can give 5 easy answers in under two minutes to any question they are trying to 'solve' pay me a couple of hundred grand for my troubles. It will save millions for other research, and make me quite rich in the process, See everybody goes home happy except maybe you dear reader, you don't get any money. (Idea is copyright 2007 Ian Giggal, there I said it it's minseys no stealsies!)

(24 July 2007)

And in the category of gross exaggeration, comparing seat belt and anti-smoking laws here is the winner:

"I feel like it's the Nazi regime coming in here, talking away all of our rights, said Tim Main, as he cleaned up Mike's Ten-Pin Lounge in Alton. "First they make it so you have to wear seat belts, and now they want to put a stop to smoking. What's next?"

Seriously, 'Nazi regime'? The architects of concentration camps, icons of evil, the great 'ethnic cleansers" of the 20th century, and you compare that to seat belt laws and not being allowed to smoke indoors? That's comparable to you? Really?!?

This guy needs a kick in the junk.


(10 June 2007)
Here's a funny one, according to the Wiki article, SOME people consider this building's shape to be somewhat phallic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Torre_Agbar_-_Barcelona%2C_Spain_-_Jan_2007.jpg

I cannot possibly see why. Got to love the people who would erect (pun intended) a building shaped like a giant solar powered dildo and try to pass it of a geyser shaped. Long live Spain.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/en_nm/arts_auction_dc

73 million???? For that???? Rothko couldn't even come up with a proper name for it! I should paint an abstract of the face book pages and call it. Blue Top (on White) I'm sure my descendents will thank me when they auction it for millions after I'm dead.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_re_us/potter_protest

Okay, let's get this straight, your country is waging war across the Middle East, trying to bully other countries to do what they want, Russia is ramping up their nuclear arsenal, your economy is in the shatter, your justice system is backed up, and you think THIS is something that the courts should spend time on? A Children’s book? REALLY? That's what's important?


Ahem.... Are you listening?

Dear MS. Mallory, FUCK OFF!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

An Intoduction

As my very first posting I though I would add a bit to the 'about me' post that I had trouble editing to 1200 characters.

My friends and family are very important to me, in fact the line is very blurred most of the time. If it weren’t for the encouragement of friends I wouldn't be doing this. And it is as much written for them as it is for me.

In my thirty plus years, I have been a few things. (Or at least considered myself so.) Musician/Artist hopeful, accounting clerk, software support technician, technical writer, dart team captain, slo-pitch player, scorekeeper and honorary team member, and have even had he honor of working on a film which somehow landed me with my own entry on imdb.com. And depending on who you talk to I have been a friend, lover or a-hole, sometimes even all three at once, but I would guess I'm not alone in that distinction.

I would very much like to hone my meager writing skills for future opportunities. I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I hope I enjoy writing it. Please excuse my poor grammar; I knew I should have paid more attention in grade school!

In case you don't know me, I do attempt in my sports writing to be somewhat unbiased, but I am a fan, so things may end up being slanted despite my best intentions. For example, I am a unapologetic Sens fans, but I do follow the Leafs as I live in Toronto. I don't really have much against the Leafs (as long as they are not playing my Sens) but I will call it as I see it. At the risk of Bill Simmons branding me a team bigamist, I do like both teams and want to see the best for them. (But slightly more for Ottawa, ‘natch!)