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)