Re-Hacktionary Report

Sunday, January 30, 2005

We Don't Know Him

Last night went to Catrin's birthday celebrations, after a brief stop by Ang and Phil's apartment for some CompE movie viewing. Quite an enjoyable evening, though as was pointed out by some "When did Scholar's become a dance club?" There was much hack talk to be had, and we also got to meet some of Catrin's "real" friends, who seemed like nice people.

I had a rather large treatise on my thoughts on The Apprentice thus far this year, but my browser crashed. I shall likely incorporate my thoughts into whatever remarks I have on next week's episode (which I shall sadly once again have to tape, in light of a possible Wine & Cheese as well as the Car Show).

Thursday, January 20, 2005

The China Clipper

Roads were very treacherous today. Luckily I was on the highway before they closed it (but I wound up driving home at 60 km/h most of the way). My sisters on the other hand got stuck in the city. Hopefully the roads will be a bit better tommorrow morning.

The appointment of Normie Kwong as Lieutenant Governor just further emphasizes the extent to which the 50's era Eskimos have influenced the province: Mayor of Edmonton (Bill Smith), Premier of Alberta (Don Getty. Peter Lougheed also played for the Eskimos, but pre-dated most of the others) and now Normie Kwong. Really impressive. Apart from the Forzani's, you don't really see the same type of thing with the Stamps. I wonder why? ;)

On the topic of football, I'm not sure about R.D. Lancaster as the new offensive co-ordinator. I didn't find Winnipeg's offence last year to be particularly explosive, despite the fact that they had dynamic players in Milt Stegall and Charles Roberts. In terms of poaching assistants, it might have made more sense to go after Steve Burratto (like Calgary did), or perhaps Marcel Beufeuille in Saskatchewan (who was apparently shortlisted for the head coaching job). At any rate, I will reserve judgment. It should be a really interesting year, particularly with Tom Higgins in Calgary now.

On an unrelated note, I have some fun classmates.


Prognostication

Since Crossman has done the NFL prognostication thing (rather poorly might I add), I think I'll try my hand at it as well, my views on the NFL notwithstanding.

We have the potential for an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl (which would be almost as cool as the all-Pirate Super Bowl they had a couple of years back), however, I don't think that's going to happen. While both these games can go either way, I have a bit of a gut feeling as to how they'll actually turn out.

New England and Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh really didn't deserve to win last week. New England on the other hand made the top offence in the league look decidedly ordinary. I think a bit much emphasis is placed on that, though. The weather conditions were far from ideal. As well, as much as there was media criticism for John Lynch's remarks that the Colt receivers were "soft", that doesn't mean that they weren't true (and I don't think that running by the Bronco DBs at will necessarily proved that wasn't the case either). Pittsburgh is a different team, however. Their running game is much more punishing with a healthy Bus, and their receivers are grittier as well. They also have the top defence in the league. All of that being said, I just can't get bet against the Patriots in the playoffs. New England will win, but it should be close.

Atlanta and Philadelphia
As I've implied elsewhere, the Eagles haven't gotten the proverbial monkey off their collective backs just yet. They beat the Falcons last time they met in the playoffs, however that was two years ago and I think this Falcons team is better (but then, the Eagles are also better this time around). A lot will obviously depend on the Eagles' run defence, as well as the Falcon's secondary. McNabb won't have as much time as he did against the Vikings, but the Eagles defence will also put up more of a fight than did the Rams. An article I read earlier in the year talked about how it might come down to whether Deangelo Hall would be able to contain T.O. Well, that's not much of a problem any more. I'm going to go for the Eagles choking again, and the Falcons winning.


And I still miss hockey.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Still Here

I'm still around. I blame my absence mostly on that quiz going around (I shall eventually complete it, just not now), but I've also been rather busy lately. Trying to figure out exactly which classes I'm taking by the add/drop deadline. In the meantime, here's something stupid to watch.