Re-Hacktionary Report

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Oh Hobbes

Tonight I went out to my friend Gina's (it's actually pronounced "Jenna") birthday (it's actually on Sunday, but she did the same thing I did in terms of celebrating early). Gina and I were in just about all of the same Poli Sci classes during undergrad. It was usually completely unplanned as well. She was teaching English in Taiwan for a year, so I hadn't seen her in a while. Her boyfriend Harold was in our 260 class (half of which seems to have wound up at U of A Law) so there was also much reminiscing about various Poli Sci experiences and professors. Good times. It's also always interesting to see the clientele at Blues on Whyte.

Earlier in the day, I utilised some HMV gift certificates that I had accumulated. They went towards the purchase of season's 1-4 of Red Dwarf, my favourite British Comedy series. It also has the distinction of having other prominent admirers in the hack community (see Tam's joke about Silicon Heaven from the Pac Cup wrap up). I've always been a huge Red Dwarf fan, so the opportunity to get ahold of the DVDs was one I couldn't turn down.

Friday, February 25, 2005

If You Have A Problem, And No One Else Can Help

Well, I've finally recovered from Wednesday night. It's generally a good idea to not go drinking the night before your birthday, lest you spend most of your birthday in a rather rough condition. That lesson having been learned, the day was still fairly good. Got to go for dinner at the best restaurant in Edmonton, so that's always a plus. I also received from my sisters the complete first season of The A-Team on DVD. Sheer awesomeness. I always liked B.A. best when I was younger, however when the series was on what was then TNN a couple of summers ago, I found I was all about Hannibal. At any rate, unlike some TV shows in the '80s that I thought were really good at the time (*cough*Knight Rider*cough*) and turned out to be less so looking back, The A-Team is still just as good as enjoyable as it was then, if not moreso. This is likely due to the fact that Mr. T and George Peppard didn't turn out to be David Hasselhoff and Feeney from Boy Meets World.

In sporting news, I'm quite pleased with the developments on the trading deadline in the NBA. I'm confident that the addition of Chris Webber could definitely help the Sixers, and hopefully they should at least be able to win the Atlantic now.

In football, I never particularly cared for Henry Burris at the best of times, so having him in Calgary just makes it easier to pull against him. It should be interesting watching the reception he gets in Regina when the Stamps play the Riders. Things should also be quite interesting in the west next season, what with Calgary now having landed both Burris and Jermaine Copeland. Luckily they still don't really have a running game to speak of at this stage. I'm also interested in where Khari Jones winds up. He's too good to just pack it in, however he may have to accept a back up role somewhere.

I'm also glad that the Super 12 is starting up again, though Sportsnet doesn't seem to be broadcasting games this year, so that's a shame. I shall of course be pulling for the Hurricanes, with all other New Zealand teams, and the Stormers, as the fall back choices. Realistically, it's anyone but the Aussies.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

A Quarter Century of Mediocrity

Well, today is my birthday. I'm still recovering from the after effects of my party last night (not sure that attempting to burn most of one's bridges is the best way to start a new year). That, and Macho Man really isn't a very good song (though I suppose even it doesn't deserve the indignity committed on it last night by drunken karaoke revellers). As well, who the hell complains about noise in Keegan's at 4 am?

Birthdays are kind of a melancholy time. It's usually an exciting day (and stressful in the sense that you don't want anything to go wrong), but the whole getting older thing is usually rough. As well, most of the birthdays I have left aren't really "positive milestone" ones. I'm not at the stage where I think I should be lying about my age or anything. Yet.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Curb Stompers

Carbolic was fun, though the beef entree was a tad smaller than I would have liked. The mushroom soup was very good though. I had a minor role in our year's video as well, so that was quite exciting. I also won a $50 gift certificate from Packrat Louie's as a door prize. Much like last year, the evening seemed to pass quite quickly as well. I was suprised at the turnout in Admin the next morning, though I'm told that I by far looked the worst of all those present.

Pac Cup was a good time as well. Steph and I broke to finals, and I broke in public speech as well (and this is the first time I've actually been able to garner public speech hardware, as every other time I've broken the hardware always starts above where I finish). Steph and I managed to go undefeated until the finals, so we're now 14-2 as a team. There was definitely no shame dropping to Greg Allen and Jo Nairn in the final (who were also undefeated going into the final), and the win couldn't have gone to nicer people.

It was also good to see Chris Taylor out and debating drunk with Roman. Taylor had been in Japan for the past couple of years, and this was his first tournament since we hit eachother in the finals at Manitoba 2 years ago (he won).

After the tournament was over, I stayed in Vancouver a couple of days and hung out with my cousins. It was good times, though they were both quite busy.

I'm also rather pleased with my electoral prognostication skills, as all of the candidates I endorsed for the ESS Elections were elected. Congratulations to all winners.

In terms of reality television:

Survivor:
So far I've liked the rules, kind of a "return to the roots of Lord of the Flies". At the same time, it kinda sucks to bring in two extra people only to vote them off a couple of minutes into the first episode. While it's alright as "gotcha" tv, you don't really get a chance to get to know the characters (I would have been interested in seeing how Wanda actually interacted with the tribe on a long term thing). From a strategy perspective, I can't understand why the one tribe didn't stay at the original beach: in addition to making the other tribe go to tribal council, you also make them build a whole new shelter. Really, after the smart move of taking just the fire, that was a dumb on. Not sure on the contestants as a whole yet, as it usually takes a few episodes to figure people out. This season shows promise, however.

The Apprentice:
Michael clearly had to go. At the same time, I think it's pissing Trump off in the boardroom more than anything that gets you fired. Michael clearly didn't get it either, when he kept trying to give Trump his card at the end after he'd been fired. This task was quite close, and there still aren't any clear front-runners (in the same way Kelly was at this point in the last season). Also, I found the absence of Carolyn more noticeable than when George is gone (but part of that may be because George is usually gone more , and this was the first episode without Carolyn).

Thursday, February 17, 2005

It Wasn't The Flu This Time

Well, the NHL season is over. I sort of expected this, but it's still rather hard to swallow. That being said, if it results in a more sustainable system it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I was still hopeful they'd get back (I was even a little excited about the 20 game season and the "everyone in" playoffs). I am glad that the owners didn't wind up caving, though it is sort of frustrating that both sides wound up getting so close at the end. What I think is going to be interesting (and what Don Cherry brought up with Peter Mansbridge on The National) is how are they going to do the draft? In other words, who is going to win the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes? Should be interesting. Hopefully there will be a season next year.

In football news, it's unfortunate that Mike Pringle retired, but I sort of saw it coming. I'm glad to say that I saw his last game live. It's also good to hear that Rod Connop and Willie Pless will be going to the Hall of Fame. This likely means that they should also be putting Connop on the Wall of Honour shortly. I think, along with Larry Wruck, he's one of the more notable omissions out of the Eskimos of that era (though, it's certainly understandable given how limited amount of space and the history of success of the team).

Carbolic tommorrow night. Should be fun, though apparently my 9:00am Admin class on Friday is no longer cancelled. I should probably go, but if I do it will be with about 2 hours sleep. And I've got Pac Cup this weekend as well.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Relentless Pursuit Of Perfection

So, what have I been up to lately.

Car Show:
There are some things that are just wrong. A Jaguar with a bike rack for example. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed the car show. Lots of fun picking up brochures and oggling at various expensive cars. While there were a number of impressive cars, my personal favourite, expensive-vehicle-at-the-show was the Lexus SC 430.

Career Day:
I enjoyed it. I liked the lunch. However, it ran a bit late and as we had to leave for McGoun there wasn't as much time to hit booths as I would have liked. Said hello to a few of the firms that I had interviews with before, and got some free stuff.

McGoun:
We dropped in quarters. I didn't debate as well as I may have liked, but Roman was able to carry me into the break at least. It was quite the adventure getting down, and we almost wound up having to have a make-up round Saturday morning (which would have sucked), but luckily we were able to fit it in with no alterations to the schedule. Lots of merriment was also had.

The Apprentice:
I'm still figuring this season out. The contestants are a lot more abrasive this time around. In terms of recent episodes, I don't think that Danny even belonged on the show in the first place, and was more of a ratings ploy, so I wasn't too suprised to see him go. That being said, I got the sense that Trump was just itching to fire Michael, so if they lose again next week I wouldn't be suprised to see him gone. Magna Corp (tangentially, I wonder what Frank Stronach has to say about all this) strikes me as lacking in unity, though its suprising how these things change from week to week.

Superbowl:
Caught the end when I got home from McGoun. I was pulling against the Patriots (as always) so I wasn't too pleased with the result. I can take solace in the fact that the loss of Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel to Notre Dame and the Browns, respectively, will actually hurt them and we won't have to listen to this "greatest team ever" talk this time next year.

Rugby Tour:
We leave tommorrow morning. What goes on tour stays on tour.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Registration

Well I renewed my driver's license today, as it was going to expire shortly. Now you give them your old license and they give you an interim license, which is actually just a piece of paper. You're supposed to get your actual new license in a couple of weeks. This does cause problems for my next couple weeks plans of carousing with debaters and rugby players (respectively), however. Particularly since I get ID'd wherever I go and the interim license doesn't exactly make for sufficient ID(what with it not having a picture, or my birth date for that matter).