Playing Blocks III

We did some birthday shopping and got two more blocks. At the time it was retiring, now it is retired, Imperial Column and ongoing favourite French Crest. This whittles my list of current tiles that I desire down to one: Piano Keys. However, the display only leaves space for pairs, quartets and sextuplets, so I'm going to hold off on Piano Keys until it has a partner, and the partner has to be something that goes with Trans, since that is the block that will be displaced from the living room display by the move of Musical Notation and the introduction of Piano Keys. My current wishlist of retired tiles doesn't really offer any options here either:

1. T30 German Script
2. T64 Roulette
3. T82 A (Aristocrat)
4. T89 Trademark
5. PQ9 Stripe
6. PQ10 Stripe with Script and Seal
7. PQ11 Medieval Script

Playing Blocks II

I spent some time on the weekend hanging out with my nephews. We played Cranium Cadoo and Thomas the Train (they were nice enough to let me win once), and of course we ventured out into the blustery fall afternoon to swing, climb, slide and play basketball. This also gave me a chance for some woodworking projects. I fixed one of my degree frames that had come unglued in the corner, and we made a bunch of Sid Savers on which to hang the remaining blocks ... as well as an additional 30ish. This should cover the entire rest of my collecting career (with another 20 spares), especially given the appeal of recent collections.

Gionta!

As I blogged previously, Gionta was named Captain of les Canadiens ce matin, finally.

Press release
Video
CBC
Almela
Denis
Tremblay (en francais)
Gordon
Markov's thoughts (en francais).

Since they've had a couple of weeks to ponder, this is obviously exempt from my previous criticism of instantaneous analysis.

Go Habs Go!

I like lacrosse, and I like dressing well

but not this much.




So a word to those who sometimes like to buy me clothes:
please don't!

What scares you more?

I know my answer to this question, but before I reveal it, I'd like to see what other people think. Feel free to use the comment section to elaborate on your responses to this short survey.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Locker Rooms and Journalism

The internet is instantaneous. We expect informed opinions yesterday and updates the day before for today's news. News outlets want to develop a reputation of being first to report something, which often means that they don't have time to validate (but they have endless airtime to tell you that you heard it hear first). This is why unconfirmed stories about celebrities deaths can go viral before the person has even read their morning paper (and who reads the paper instead of just setting up an RSS feed?).

Dave playing "Jesus Christ Pose"

And while we're on the topic of Soundgarden, here's my boy Dave giving a tutorial on how to play drums for "Jesus Christ Pose" ... sniff, taught him everything he knows ;)
He's got his very own swanky YouTube channel listed in my Blogroll, but he needs to record some more songs, if I dare say so myself.

Return of "In One Ear And Out Your Mother" Music

I haven't decided, entirely, how I feel about Soundgarden being back. They were one of my favourite bands, and I was bummed that I wasn't going to hear new music from them anymore. Over the past, what, 10 years? I've come to accept that sometimes good things should end before they suck. The Beatles got it right. Go out on top and spare the world reunion after reunion after reunion. Anyway, the new video courtesy of Spinner is cool, and it's just old material getting a new lease on life with a fun video (apologies for the embed that makes it larger than life - I'm too lazy to go in and edit the HTML), so I can't complain about the reincarnation of the Knights of the Soundtable until they start recording new music. Right? And when it's super awesome I'm allowed to eat humble pie ...

Blowouts and Sportsmanship

I played enough recreational slopitch this summer to have come out on either end of a blowout (extremely lopsided score), which got me thinking about the various codes of behaviour (sportsmanship) that govern how athletes interact.

Hockey Heaven

The NHL training camps have opened, which means that the silly season of speculation has started.

I'm going to lump the silly season into three categories: political, Halak and the next captain.

Merrill's Back in Town

Time for some Toronto Rock updates!

Google Tools

I have a question for those of you who are reading. Are Google Analytics and Adsense worthwhile?

Both were pushed by Google when I setup my blogs and sites, but I was focused on created the pages at the time. I think I understand what Analytics does, and I'm inclined to install this unless I hear horror stories of it not working properly. What I'm more interested in is the control over Adsense. How much money can one reasonably expect to make from it? Would it be enough to cover the cost of a unique domain? Would it distract from the content focus of the blog or site?

My Adventure Buying Habs Tickets

I'm going to Montreal in October for the Canadian Science Policy Conference, last week I booked my train and hotel tickets and paid my registration fee. I have been a Habs fan my entire life, and this is the first time I will be in Montreal during hockey season. Obviously I had to get tickets, and this is the tape-delayed live blog of my quest to buy a ticket on September 11th

Grading the Rock's Draft Class

NLL Insider gives the Rock a B+. I assume the B is for best, and the + is for even better.

By way of comparison, last year the Rock got an A (behind the Mammoth and Bandits). We all know how that worked out. Stephan Leblanc won Rookie of the Year, and Garrett Billings could just have easily have walked away with the hardware since the two were neck and neck in the rookie scoring race (and way ahead of the rest of the pack). Joel Dalgarno was part of the trade for Colin Doyle. Anthony Lackey contributed on defence, and undrafted rooks Drew Petkoff, Creighton Reid and Brendan Doran held their own out of the back gate.

I assume the step down from A to B+ means that we can only expect one rookie of the year candidate and two solid contributors. Either way, I'm excited. I'm probably more excited about lacrosse season starting than the NHL, and I'm waking up bright and early Saturday morning to get into the online queue to buy a ticket to the Habs game against the Devils on October 21st when I'll be in Montreal for the Canadian Science Policy Conference.

Also, while we're on the sports theme, I'm still riding a bit of a high from our big come from behind victory to keep our playoffs alive in slopitch last night. I don't even care that we should never have been behind in the game, or that we very nearly won our earlier game that would have made our playoff route much easier. Go Moruns Go!

Gender Roles

Interesting piece from the Globe and Mail from a couple of weeks ago:

As Diane Sollee, director of the Coalition for Marriage, Family, and Couples Education, told the magazine, “In a way, it’s almost like bragging for a woman to say she has a stay-at-home husband. Not only is she the breadwinner with a great job, but she’s also got this highly evolved male person – a feminist, father and husband who doesn’t care what the gender roles are.”
Nice, although I still feel somewhat like that chihuahua peering out of Paris Hilton’s handbag.
Ms. Solle finished her statement by saying, “It’s really an elevated life form.”
“It’s”? “Life form”? Did she just compare me to E.T.? (Note to self: Also lay off the Reese’s Pieces.)

I feel like I have a lot in common with Kevin McKeever, the author of this piece. We both take on some of the traditional female jobs in the house (today I'm doing laundry), and we both enjoy writing (especially where there are golden opportunities for sarcasm and pop culture references - why is it pop culture? Could Pepsi and Coke not come up with a weekly ownership agreement of culture?).

Then I remember that I'm actually only doing my fair half of the chores, and that I sometimes let those linger far longer than is appropriate (I don't need to empty this trash can until I can no longer even balance a dirty kleenex on top if it after compressing the existing contents with a hazmat boot). Househusband, I am not.

What really surprises me, from this den below the Centre of the Universe, is how any family can afford to be single income (sugar daddy or mommy). Minimum wage in Toronto allows you to purchase a one bedroom condo, maybe. Moderate professional paths like nursing, teaching or the trades get you two bedrooms. If you want three or more bedrooms you have to be in the serious professions that earn six figures. The suburban trade-off is an extra bedroom for every 30 minutes (non-rush hour) driving distance you are willing to move from the Centre of the Universe. Is life really worth living if you are that far removed from the magical land of garbage strikes and annual film festivals?

I think my next pseudo-househusband chore is to spend a day in line to buy tickets to a TIFF showing so that we can have an enjoyable date night. Ideally everything about this date night will be better than Date Night - hopefully we'll see a better movie and we won't be subjected to a mad-cap 3-smirk and 4-laugh inducing plot featuring Marky Mark and Common (we'll probably get Snow and Choclair - shudders).

The Rock picked a goalie (is it January yet, I want the lacrosse season to start)!

I am getting ridiculously excited for the start of the new Toronto Rock season!

Playing Blocks

Last weekend I crossed two blocks from my wishlist, because I'm not sure I'm going to like the bisque finish, and the completist in me figured I couldn't live without another Tree or Skull!

1. T45 Piano Keys
2. T123 French Crest
3. T191 Tree of Life Evolution
4. T199 Imperial Column
5. T205 Destiny (Black)

Niagara-on-the-Lake

We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake over the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Our first stop was Cow's for ice cream, since it was such a memorable and enjoyable part of our trip to Halifax in 2007. In Halifax it was the perfect complement to dinner on the harbour and a stroll on the boardwalk. Perhaps it was a case of my memory inflating and exaggerating the deliciousness of Cow's, or maybe it just isn't as good in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Competitive Imbalances

So the completion of my post from the 24th is that Calgary declined to match the offer. Thank goodness NLL Insider has the wiretaps working. Hopefully this signing works out for the Rock. They still need a replacement goalie. Fingers and toes crossed that it's not this year, but it's inevitable in the next year or two.

Perfect Weather: The Definitive Blog Posting

No one loves to small talk about the weather more than Canadians. We love it so much that we can even turn it into serious all-consuming conversation with the potential for hostile debate! Since I'd love to see a good flame war erupt in the comments of this blog, I'm going for broke: my definition of the perfect day.

Conspiracy Theory from the Centre of the Universe

I have to start with a disclaimer. Unlike the folks at NLL Insider I don't have a wiretap in the head offices of the National Lacrosse League. Unlike the kids who post on the NLL Forums I am not an owner or manager of a team, I'm not a player, nor can I call any of the above my friends or family or friends of family, and I'm certainly not a random troll. I've said 'hi' to a few of the guys at Toronto Rock season ticket holder events. That's it. I have no inside information at all!


I have noticed a pattern in some of the Rock's off-season moves. Let's go through them so we're all up to speed (compiled from NLL Transactions Page and NLL Insider transcripts of wiretaps).

The Winner of the Name Game is ...

Boffins and Cold Warriors

No subtitle.

Now to get to work on the format and description and maybe some content. There's still plenty of work left to do on this blog as well, and of course both webpages.

Also, I'm wondering: how useful are Google Analytics? I kind of want to know if people are reading or not ...

The Name Game

It was a bit of a trick coming up with the name for this blog. At first I used an alliteration on the nickname I use most frequently on the web, but it didn't really capture the image I wanted to project. Also, I wasn't sure that I wanted to publicly connect the web between internet alias, personal profile and professional life. I'm a firm believer that there ought to be separation between private life and public life. I just haven't figured out what the line should be, and how to actually go about protecting the integrity of a line drawn arbitrarily in the sand.

Proof that you'll read anything

I've decided that I need to rediscover my love of writing so that I can get the d-thingy over and done with. I need to write hourly/daily/weekly. Since the d-thingy is going to be read by a committee and an external examiner, and perhaps in the long run by the people associated with publishing and even (gasp) some real people, it seems that I should be practicing writing where other people can read it. At least in theory people can and will read this, right?

I'm Addicted to Sid Dickens Memory Blocks

Those of you who know me are well aware that I am highly addicted to Sid Dickens Memory Blocks. I got my first one for Christmas from my sister in 2004. I then searched high and low for the coolest block Sid has ever made. After a few months of picking up tiles at retailers I found the Message Board (RIP) on Sid Dickens' website, and through it I started picking up retired tiles from other collectors.