Top 10 most anticipated moments in 2008

2008 is already shaping up to be on of the biggest and most significant, if not the most significant year in the life of your’s truly. Here are some of the reasons:

10. Another great year of sports – what’s the best thing about Sports – there is always next year. 2008 brings new hope for my Leafs, Jays, Vikings and for the Riders to become Back-to Back Champs.

9. The Brady Farm Auction – it will be a sad day when all the equipment goes up for auction in March. But I think it’s great that the folks are moving on to enjoy something else for a few years. After farming his whole life I know pop’s is looking forward to a change – which will likely be golfing and biking the whole summer.

8. Quitting my job – Sure the conversation will be a little awkward, but I will have a real sense of relief when I know that my days here are over. I honestly don’t know if I will miss it at all. The paycheck sure, but the job, no.

7. Practicum – Nearing the end of 2008 I should go on a practicum with an actually fire department somewhere out there. I can’t wait for that first time the bell sounds and we hope in the truck. Obviously I have a lot of learning to do before that but I can’t help but be excited to actually be on a real call of some sort, whether it is a fire, an accident, a gas leak, or a cat in a tree.

6. The Bizzes Wedding – It’s not everyday I get to be the best man for a great pal. I totally want one of those best man patches like on You, Me , and Dupree. I hope my outfit has a tie so I can put it on my head. Heads up Brizzes…Heads up.

5. Wedding Reception – I’m looking forward to this, but I also have some reservations. Is it going to be fun if I can’t turn into Taylor and put my tie around my head? I just hope everyone else has fun.

4. Cuba week 2 – aka. Honey moon. After a week of bozzing and weddings I will be ready for some serious R&R with the then Mrs. Brady. It’s going to be sweet to just hang out and enjoy each others company and do all the things in Cuba that we couldn’t do the first week. This will be the first time I have had more than 8 days off in a row since I started working with the bank back in Feb 05.

3. Fire College – well I’ve got to get a place to stay still, and I am truthfully a little nervous but it’s got to be done, and it should be somewhat fun. I found out two days ago that I start on Feb 19, not March 12 like I thought. I am panicking just a little. I just hope I can get a job when it is all said and done.

2. Cuba week 1 – Not only do I get to marry my beautiful bride, but I get to party with some of my best friends and family for 7 days plus. I think it will be ridiculously good times, from the flight down there with 40+ people that I know, to the wedding of 56 people, or to what I’m sure will be some great partying. Here we come Sol Palmeras. Only 10 short days away.

1. The Unkown – I look forward to all those new challenges, opportunities, and moments that they next year will bring. Sharing the year with old friends, new friends, old family, new family. All signs indicate that this year will be full or more great times in this crazy, wonderful life that I have.

Top 10 Moments of 2007 – a look back at the my top 10 memories from what was a pretty great 2007.

10. Doing a back flip off the houseboat – While out in the Shushwaps I pulled the maneuver for first time. It might sound silly, but I was pumped!!!

9. Playing in the waves in Cancun – In the ocean, it’s hot, and the waves were huge. What’s not to love.

8. Rider home playoff game – when combined with the party the Murdock’s house, that was a great weekend. I can’t believe I am giving up my rider tickets next season.

7. The moment I realized that I was actually going to apply for Fire College – I have been thinking about it for years, and there was a moment sitting at home talking with Zentner that I suddenly knew that I was going to go for it.

6. Getting my new golf clubs – I got them the same day Michelle picked up our wedding bands. I won’t tell you which I was more excited for.

5. Getting the engagement ring – it showed up the afternoon before we were supposed to fly out to Banff. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t come on time, it really would have messed with my plans.

4. Riders winning the Grey Cup – Been waiting a long time for this. It was great to be in Regina and share it with so many other rider fans.

3. Holding the Grey Cup in The Tap – And we thought we were just going to enjoy some wings and beer. Then the cups shows up and they put it at the table right beside us. Very exciting!

2. Getting notice that I was accepted to fire college.- Boo-ya! That was a big day!

1.Getting engaged – Of course this is number 1. I was nervous as hell, and I don’t remember what I said. I actually not even sure she said yes, she just called me crazy and put out her hand.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Feel better about how much you paid for your home

Check out this place. It’s a 300 square foot home, dubbed The Little house in Toronto. On the market for only $173,000. My. God.

While I don’t know it for 100% certainty, I have heard a rumor that Journeyman is going to be cancelled. This is a great new series on NBC, the only TV show that I am watching right now since everything else is temporarily delayed until the writers strike is over. What is wrong with you people, why can’t more of you watch the shows that I want to watch. All the good shows (in my opinion) keep getting canceled and there is more and more crap on TV like “Dancing with washed up Celebrities”, or “So you think you can look ridiculous Dancing” or “ Deal or No wait, we’ll go to commercial again”. How about they cancel on one of the 6 CSI shows or one of the 27 shows about lawyers? It is just like last year when the Black Donnelly’s was canceled, and yet 9 new reality shows start up, like “Bring your Dumb Ass on TV and We’ll Ask You Questions from a Text Book and laugh when you don’t know who lost the Presidency in 1935.” What they hell is wrong with people.

At least I’ll always have SportsCentre.

I’m in!

It was another pretty good weekend for me. Late in the workday on Friday I got a call from a coworker that had been invited to sit in a certain telecom providers private box at the Pat’s game. He couldn’t make it and wanted to know if I wanted to three tickets. I, of course, accepted without any hesitation and when I couldn’t find any work colleagues to come with me, invited two lucky readers of this blog – Josh and Dave – to join me. There was a little corporate schmoozing when we got there, but after that we enjoyed free beer and appey’s and watched a pretty good hockey game in which the Pats won 3-2 in a shoot-out.

Then on the way home Zeddie called me and played a message on the answering machine – It was vermillion and they were calling me regarding my application and I should call them back. I pretty much started hyperventilating as I didn’t know what they wanted – were they calling to say I got it – to say that I should try again next year – or was it just that there needed some additional information from me. After dropping Josh off I made it home and tried calling and of course got no answer and left a message. It was such a cruel thing to do, leave a message like that then not answer. So after finally settling down and getting to sleep I woks up Saturday and played it cool. I didn’t call back again until 11 – 10 their time. Again I got no answer, but I left another message trying not to sound to pathetic and needy on the phone. This time I asked them to call me back on my cell.

Then as about 2:42 local time I got the call. It was Randy and he was calling to let me know I was successful in my application to the fire etc. program. Halleluiah! Halleluiah!

I was and still am – pumped! This is only another step in the end goal, but it was an important one.

But I know you are all likely sick of hearing about this, so I will try and blog about something else once in a while. I think I will tell work once I get back from Cuba.

Other good news, I was at a wedding on Saturday and Taylor never showed (for those of you who don’t know who Taylor is – read here). I kept all my clothing on and I don’t even think there will be any embarrassing photos of me. I was pretty sure that Taylor would make an appearance, especially when I sent Zentner home with my parents at 12:30 and stayed behind to catch up with my old comrades from back home. I think one reason that I stayed a little quiet was the cougar that repeatedly tried to get me on the dance floor with her and telling me that Zentner wouldn’t be hot forever. I was honestly scared of her, and at one time even thought about hitting her so she would leave me alone.

But all in all another great weekend.

Top 10 favorite things about Christmas

10. Sportscentre Year in review – I have to get my sports in. It’s always on right around Christmas. I would say the World Juniors, but they are on passed Christmas.
9. The holiday – just being off work or school for a few days. It’s great to have a couple of extra days to do nothing but eat, sleep, and drink.
8. The gifts – best ones over the years include a Nintendo, a remoter Car race track and a Maple Leafs jersey.
7. Turtles from Grandma – ever year since I can remember – I get two gifts from Grandma and one is always socks and Turtles
6. Stockings – always open stockings first…always.
5. One gift on Christmas Eve – get to open just one. Sometimes it’s the right one, sometimes it’s not.
4. The food – I love Christmas supper and Christmas baking. Time to put on the winter weight.
3. Wifesaver – it’s food again, but I live for Wifesaver on Christmas morning. If you don’t know what that is, you should find out.
2. Family – For the most part I enjoy my family and have always enjoyed the day with them. It’s not always perfect but lots of good times over the years – snowmobiling, skating, curling, shinny, games. It’s all golden
1. The traditions – like opening 1 gift on xmas eve, going to the same place after church on xmas eve, opening stockings first, boxing day curling, Wifesaver, super with the extended family, Turtles. I always look forward to these same things that I know and expect to be a part of my Christmas.

Ok, time to rant

Work is pissing me off again and it is all about people making a big deal out of nothing at all – and I hate it when people make mountains out of molehills. I got an email at 6:50 am this morning (go back to bed you crazy bastard) in which a client was explaining how a particular issue was of grave concern to him. He needed response by 11:30 or he would have to escalate to some of the executives in our company. He is in a meeting that whole time, but he is unable to extend the deadline. RRAAAAHHH. Oh no, you can’t extend the deadline or you are going to escalate… is that supposed to scare me. It almost makes me want to intentionally wait until after the “deadline” so he does escalate, just to make my day more interesting. Maybe that works for some people but I think I respond much more effectively to something like “ we have this problem, I would appreciate it if you can look into it today as it is important” – how about being nice for once. Why the threats? It really pisses me off. Don’t threaten me with escalating – that means nothing to me. What am I going to get yelled at – not likely, get fired – no chance. Worst is I might get another email saying that I need to do better next time – but even that isn’t probable.

Then there is a second email – responded to another service issue in which we had previously responded with a - we’re sorry, we should have done it differently, we didn’t, we will do better next time – our bad. Now this isn’t the greatest explanation but it was really all we could say. There has been a lot of changes lately and this one was not easily identified. Well the client came back and said that that isn’t good enough, they realize we’re sorry but it was a really big deal (even though it wasn’t) and we look bad to there executives – but then they add nothing about what they would like us to do. So they don’t like our response, and write a page long email about it, but say nothing about what steps they would like to see. Well I hope you had a good time writing that bitchy note because I sure had a good time reading it….idiot. What they hell do I say back. I can’t say I’m sorry, I can’t say I will do better next time, I can’t say I should have done it differently. What they hell do I say?

Then a third note came about how two project were done incorrectly. This note came after I sent this client an email 12 days ago saying that I wanted to talk about these projects as I knew they were off track little. But I got no response, so I sent another email Monday, got no response - they complained to one of our other staff yesterday and it came back to me, so I phoned, left a voice mail, no response… then I get this email this morning saying that we haven’t addressed this. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I WAS TRYING TO DO!!! GRRR.

I need to go for a walk.

Life is good again.

Have a read of this article. As briz put it – only in Saskatchewan.

It is officially one month from Wedding day. (Que the scary music). I actually can’t wait. It is going to be lots of fun down there.

I’m not feeling very ranty today. Really I don’t have to much going on until after Christmas, the next 3 weeks should go by without too much stress. Although I am still worked up from the lat couple weeks, work should start to slow down heading into year end, and plans are in place to Christmas. Then it will be off to Cuba and two weeks of relaxation – mixed with drinking, eating, a small ceremony and many family and friends.

My testing in Vermilion went good last week – although it is evident that when it comes to standardized testing I am way dumber than I was about 7 years ago. That is the last time I did anything with Chemistry, Biology or Physics. That shit is hard. I should find out next week if I get in or not.

My car had a squeaky break. I freaking hate having to deal with vehicle maintenance. It would help if I new a think about cars. I always feel like I am getting ripped off when I take it in for repairs. Now there is a rant I might have to go on, the lousy, no good mechanics that always over charge for any work they do. And half the time it doesn’t even fix the problem. But I’m in a good mood today and don’t want to ruin it thinking about this.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Oh so much happening

This is the man now known as Taylor

So I have been slacking a bit on the blogging of late, but it’s really because things (life) has been pretty busy. So many things have been and are happening. First off work has been keeping me pretty tied up, but that’s boring so I won’t talk about it.

On Saturday we had my companies annual Christmas Party. About 120 people gathered together for some food, booze and music. And somewhat surprisingly it was a blast!

I was the MC for the evening, first time I have mc’d anything of the nature and in the end I quite enjoyed the duty. People told me a did a good job, and along they may have been lying, I think it went pretty good. Although I wasn’t a big fan when my boss had the mic and pointed Zeddie and I out and that we were going to get married. Then the clinking glasses started and we had to kiss. Then later when it happened again, Zeddie wouldn’t kiss me so I had to kiss the other guy sitting at my table. Awkward!

But I was a little nervous for it, and so after that part of the night was over, and the band came on I was ready to get my drink on – and apparently so were a lot of other people. Drinking games and dancing ruled the night and thepicture above basically tells the story. I am starting to get a little concerned because it seems lately that very time I drink I turn into this other person…we’ll call him… Taylor.

Taylor is the happiest person on earth. He smiles constantly, he talks to everyone. He talks loudly to everyone. Taylor does not have a throttle or a governor when it comes to Whiskey. He drinks as much of it as quickly as he can. He doesn’t really tire out, and he loves to be in the action. He will do just about anything to bring attention to himself – included taking is pants off at parties he knows less than half the people, wearing 12 different name tags at his girlfriends work event – one of which says “top performer” or putting his ties on his head at a company Christmas party. Taylor also seems to love getting his picture taken, because when the next day rolls around all I see are different pictures of Taylor doing things that he (and I) are not necessarily proud of.

I think Taylor has problem and I am thinking about holding an intervention to address this with him. Any of you care to attend?

But enough about Taylor, I have more important things to worry about right now, like my testing in Vermillion this week. There will be no top 10 on Friday as I will be either ding pushups, struggling though long division on paper, or nervously answering interview questions. I am nervous, excited and anxious all at the same time. I want this pretty bad, so I hope I don’t screw it up.

The wedding is only a month away – that also has me a little nervous. Not sure why exactly, but it’s a lot of pressure knowing that 50 people are going on a vacation and a certain amount of that vacation centers around you. What if it rains the whole time, what if no one has fun, what if Josh and Peewee get in a fight and henning has to kick both their asses. And standing in front of that many people during the actual wedding, it’s a little unnerving. Where do I put my hands, what if I cry (I am a bit of a cryer), what if my nose itches and I need to pick it. You see what I mean?!?!

Plus it almost Christmas and I haven’ even thought about gifts let alone bought any. Any volunteers to do my shopping this year? I know what I want, but no one I know can give it to me.

By the way, it looks as though I am going to have to cancel my stag. I think I better attend a wedding that same day, and it also appeared as many of the potential participants couldn't make it. I think I will try and have it after I return from Cuba.

But no more time to blog, I need to pack for the big trip.

Wish me luck.

Go Brody Go

Top ten things about the Grey Cup 2007 – pretend I posted this Friday

10.I got all you can eat pizza and a schooner for $10 at BP’s
9.They won it a year after Barret and Shivers were out. Shows those guys weren’t doing such a great job.
8.Rider Prider Shots!
7.That Henry Burris was broadcasting and not on the field – HEENNNRYYY!
6.That all of Canada got to hear about how crazy rider fans are.
5.That long time footballers like Gene Makosky, Yo Murphy, and others got to lift the cup
4.That the Bombers lost
3.That I got to be in the middle of the pandemonium Sunday night on the street of Regina.
2.I got to Hold the Grey Cup at the Tap on Thursday.
1.The riders WON

The Year of the Fan

So I am a couple of days late in posting my blog celebrating the riders big win – and really what else am I going to blog about. I won’t go into detail on the game, or what my favorite part of the game was, as that part has been fully dissected, but I will instead talk about what this win seems to mean to this province.

I have heard it about 300 times in the past few weeks, that the Riders have the best fans in the world, that we support this team like no others, that we made Grey Cup weekend in Toronto. I can’t really comment about what it was like in ’89, but I think this championship seems to be more about the fans than any other championship I have ever seen before in any sport.

I haven’t seen an interview with any person, player, coach in which they haven’t said how happy they are for the people of Saskatchewan. Even Troy Westwood, maybe the most hated Bomber of all, said while he was crushed by the loss, he was happy for the people of Saskatchewan…not for the Riders, but for the people…the fans.


It just seems that this year the fans were the story even more than the team. It started with the sellout pre-season games, then the impressive attendance through the first part of the season, then there was the now infamous black-out/torrential downpour game in which thousands of Riders fans endured an hour delay and soaked clothing to some back out an cheer like never before as the riders came back to beat the…who was it again- doesn’t matter. There was the game in which we got hit by a freak hail storm, which only made everyone more excited during a cold - somewhat boring game in October. There was the home playoff game in which the fans of Saskatchewan finally got to witness a playoff game in Regina after a twenty year drought. And the fans mad that game unforgettable, never have I been in a place with that much energy and excitement. The section I was sitting in didn’t sit down the whole game….not once. Next big thing was the win in BC, where not only was the green and white well supported in the stands, but 2000 people showed p at the airport at 1:30 in the morning to welcome the boys home.

And finally there was the Grey Cup. Thousands of people from Saskatchewan flicked to Toronto to attend the festivities, and thousands more adopted the Riders and there team and the Green and White fans were talked about all week on the coverage leading up to the game. In Regina you couldn’t find anyone who wasn’t talking about the game all week. Everyone in this province was not a Rider fan, (even if they didn’t know what a first down was). House parties were thrown, sports bars were overflowing, and when the clock hit zero’s, the city went crazy. Thousands upon thousands of people hit the streets, everyone with a smile on their face (despite the -20 weather). Albert was lined with Cars from almost the south right to the north, people hanging out of their cars, sitting on roofs, running down the middle of the road giving out high fives. I never saw one person looking to take advantage or cause damage, people we just thrilled to be in that moment. And it continued to the rally Monday at Mosaic Stadium, when 8000 crazy ass rider fans braved the -34 weather to welcome the team back from Regina (I was not one of then).

I guess what I am getting at is that in a way this wasn’t about the team. Really the riders didn’t play that well in the payoffs. Well the defense did, but offensively we were less than outstanding, but it seems like finally nothing could stop us fans from getting the championship that we have waiting so long for. I don’t want to take too much away from the team, as Ken and the boys have done something very impressive, and I hope this turns into a dynasty, but this main story line remains the fans and our support of our beloved football team.


I watch a lot of sports, and while teams often make reference to there great fans, the fans are never the story themselves, but in the case of Saskatchewan, we were what made this grey Cup 2007 such a memorable time. For the first time in a long time it seemed this province was finally in total agreement on something, and that is that WE LOVE THE RIDERS.

My Top 10 most anticipated sporting events in my life

10. 2003 Big Moose Final – Kenosee Lake 2003 vs the Saskatoon Outlaws- we should have won, they beat us in the bottom of 7. It hurt like hell.
9. 2001 MLB Division Series –Yankees vs Twins – I saw games 1-2 live. The Metrodome was loud, but twins lost both on way to loosing series 3-0.
8. 1992 World Series – Finally the Jays were in the world series. I remember Candy Maldonado making the final out in the ALCS to put them in the series. I was just old enough to be a big fan.
7. 2001 Memorial Cup – Regina hosted and the pats had an awesome team – if only they had a better tender they would have won. I only went to one game live but it was a beauty.
6. 1998 Olympic Hockey – This first Olympics where NHL’ers were allowed to play. Unfortunately they put Rob Zamnuer on the team and we were lost. I still hate shootouts because of that year.
5. 2003 World Juniors – after losing the previous two years after entering into the 3rd period with the lead we were coming back with a vengeance in 03.
4. 1993 World Series – after the win in ’92 it made bigger Jays fans out of many people. They had an awesome team this year, I think it was better than the ’92 team.
3. 2007 Rider Home Playoff Game vs Calgary – Never, Never have I been in atmosphere like that. Mosaic Stadium was rocking!
2. 2007 Grey Cup – Only 2 more sleeps. Go Riders Go! This town is excited!
1. 2002 Olympic Hockey- The only event that can beat this year Grey Cup. I looked forward to that event for 4 years. It made my 2002. I don’t know if I will ever be that excited for a sporting event again.

GO RIDERS GO!!!!

The riders are going to the Cup and IT FEELS AWESOME

So our beloved Roughriders did the job against BC and will face the hated Bombers on Sunday the first ever Bomber/Rider Grey Cup. And man am I excited!

It actually is a little surprising how excited I am. To me football has always been clearly the 3rd sport on my list, clearly behind hockey and baseball, and it has never rivaled those sports when it comes to anticipation and excitement for a game. But I haven’t been this excited for a sporting even since the 2002 Olympics Gold Medal Game.

I think part of the season is that none of my favorite teams have played for a championship in some time, and I’ve forgotten just how good it can feel, how exciting it is. During the game against BC I got pretty excited, but that is just a drop in the ocean compared to what I will be like for the big game this weekend.

Already you can feel the energy in Regina, everybody is talking about it and this city is ready to explode. I think they better have to riot police out on Sunday because it could get crazy. This city loves it riders. All ages, from 7-70 will be watching to see how the boys do on Sunday.

Go Rider Go!!

Top 10 controversial subjects

– the things I might want to blog about, but just shouldn’t. All I will say is that I am both for and against things in this list.

10. Euthanasia - more than just pulling the plug.
9. Politics – Provincial Politics is one thing, but what about Communism, Dictatorships, or Democracy
8. Spanking – Did your parents? Do you or will you?
7. The Death Penalty – Canada doesn’t do it – should they?
6. Native Cultures – Poverty, crime, and unemployment are some of the issues here.
5. Abortion – Pro-choice or Pro-life – both sides have merit
4. Religion – Not just Catholic vs United, but what about the lives lost in religious conflicts
3. Homosexuality – Can you handle it? What about marriage?
2. War – Linked with politics in many ways. Is war today different than war in 1915?
1. Jen or Angelina – who should Brad choose? Who would you choose?

Hangovers

Inspired by yesterday’s hangover after two days of boozing I am going to try and describe a typical hangover in my experience.

For me hangover’s typically start pretty early. It doesn’t really matter what time I go to bed, but at about 7am it all gets started with waking up to a dry mouth. And not just a little dry. Sometimes my tongue actually feels like it might crack. The immediate needs is water. On some occasions, when I don’t have water at my bed side, I may fall back a sleep a couple of times and dream about water. (one time I fell asleep while holding a glass of water on my chest, it ending up spilling right in my face – not cool)

Shortly after finally getting some fluids back into my mouth the headache makes it self known. For me this is typically the worst thing about my hangover’s. It is blinding pain that seems to focus in my eyes and/or the back of my head just above my neck. I get some drugs in me, whatever I can find, but it typically offers little solace as the Hangover Headache out battles any headache medication known to man. This pounding in my head prevents me from sleeping anymore, so I spend the next several hours laying there, beginning to realize how nauseous I am. I roll from side to side, but I can’t lay on my sides or else I can feel the puke coming. Like most people, I hate throwing up, so I fight for as long as possible. Then there is the moaning… for some reason part of fighting back the puke is letting a moan out every few minutes. I will lay there wishing to hell that there is something that may make me feel better, and promising myself I wil neer drink again. Eventually when I have grown tires of the rolling around, or the mrs has kicked me out of bed, I will move to the couch. But going vertical only intensifies to headache. I try to drink some water, as I need re-hydration to ease the headache, but my stomach won’t allow it. I take sips, but the water just doesn’t taste good. My stomach feels like it is going to pop.

Eventually the puke comes. Some days I fight it longer than others, but eventually it comes. It comes with a ferocity that one rarely see’s in their lifetime. I yell at the toilet, scaring the cats and waking the other people in the house, until it is all out. When that’s over my head feels so close to exploding I hold it to offer extra support. All the skin around my eyes is filled with popped blood vessels that won’t go away for a couple days. I look like hell, but on the upside, my stomach feels better.

The next few hours bring more laying around, but no sleep. Maybe a little food, but not much. The headache wont’ let up, but usually the stomach starts to quiet down.

Eventually, at about 1 or 2pm I finally am able to have a nap. The nap lasts for 1 or 2 hours, and when I wake up a feel ok, but the headache is even worse. But at least I can eat at this point. And I don’t just eat a little. I devour anything within sight. Typically I crave grease, soup, and caffeine.

Once I have food, caffeine, and more water the headache eventually subsides. This might happen by 5pm or so. The rest of the evening I try and do something productive, but it never really goes well, and I end up just sitting on the couch, hoping the next day I will be back to normal.

When bed times come I enter into the last stage of the hangover…the shakes. While trying to fall asleep I will these sudden jolts when my whole body shakes like I got shocked by a deliberator. I wake up a couple times soaking wet as my body seems to try and sweat out the remaining booze in my system. I tell my self on last time that I will never drink again.

My Top 10 movies:

10. SuperBad – Super Funny. It might not last long on the list, but right now has to be there.

9. For Love of the Game – For I love baseball, Vin Sulley, and seeing a guys attempt to throw a perfect game.

8. Transformers – Dare I say best action flick ever?!?

7. The 3^rd lord of the rings – There were actually people cheering in the theatre when I saw it. Awesome! All three were good, this was my favorite.

6. Ladder 49 – More or less why I want to be a firefighter

5. Rounders – Matt Damon is awesome, and the narration in this movie rules.

4. The Matrix. – At one time my #1, the two sequels were let downs, but I loved the original

3. Shawshank Redemption – Everyone loves this movie. Morgan Freeman at his best.

2. Good Will Hunting – I wish I was a Genius like Will. Plus he’s tough.

1. Crash – If you haven’t seen this movie, rent it (download it) now. I didn’t know much about it the first time I saw it, but have never been so captivated by a movie.

Top 10

I am starting a Friday ritual in which I will create a Top 10 list on every Friday on whatever category I see fit.

This week is my Top 10 broadcaster sports personalities.

10. Vin Scully – MLB play by play – classic play by play – best voice out there
9. Don Cherry – NHL analyst – CBC – starting to lose it, but still entertaining
8. Chris Cuthbert – NHL/CFL play by play – TSN – great play by play man
7. oe Buck – NFL/ MLB play by play – FOX – one of the best of our generation
6. Jay Onrait – Sportscentre anchor – TSN – Funniest anchor in Canada
5. Chris Berman – NFL/MLB analyst – ESPN – Knows his stuff
4. Bob McKenzie – NHL insider- TSN – Truly knows the inside scoop on the NHL
3. James Duthie – NHL on TSN – Leader in Panel hosting in Canada plus he writes a great article on tsn.ca
2. Ron MacLean – NHL analyst/host – CBC – he defines hockey night in Canada
1. Jerry Haworth – Blue Jays Radio play by play- FAN – another Classic – no one was better than the late Tom Cheek and Jerry on the radio.

Halloween

So another Halloween has come and gone, and I and a few others around here noticed that there weren’t many kids out last night. Maybe it was just coincidence that our neighborhoods were slow, but I wonder if Halloween still offers that same excitement that it did when I was a youngster. I’m not sure there was a day of the year that I liked more when I was between the ages of 5 and 11. My mom never really kept junk food around the house, but on Halloween I got to get pounds of it and kept it all to myself. Man did I love that stuff.

But besides the candy, the whole dress up in a costume thing was hug for me. Some of my greatest costumes were Zoro, Batman, Leonardo from TMNT, an astronaut, a guy who got beat up, a cowboy, amongst many others. I think the batman was the best.

I don’t know if the kids these days are putting forward a good enough effort. I think next year I will give out Candy depending on the quality of the costume. A full blown, home made costume that shows great effort will get a bag of chips, a chocolate bar, and a bag of nibs. A ghost will just get a chocolate bar, and a kid in jeans with a crappy mask on will get a single piece of gum- and it won’t be double double. Plus I want to see enthusiasm when you say trick or treat! And show some manners, a thank you sir wouldn’t hurt anyone.

The rating system will have to be further developed, but you get the idea. No more hading out Candy just because you show up at my door. As for the kid last night, who came at about 9:00 and asked if he could have the rest of my candy just because he was likely my last “customer”, he might just get a swift kick in the ass. And the kid who said marry Christmas, he might get a punch in the nose. Happy Halloween you little $#%*!

Ah the downtown drunks.

I was sitting in my officle this afternoon, typing away on my computer and I hear one of the guys a few officles over yelling for me to look out the window. So I get up and have a look and there laying in the middle of the parking lot is this guy, facedown, spread eagle, absolutely motionless. We watch him for a few seconds and then we decide to call 911 to be safe. But I head down stairs with one of my other coworkers to see if this guy is alive. As we go outside and walk up to this guy he opens his eyes and looks right at us. Immediately I was sure he was just plastered. The smell of booze coming from him was my first clue, the second was the empty bottle of vodka laying a few feet away. I ask him how he is doing and he says not very fucking good. Asked him if he was drunk and he confirms that he is. At this point he is still laying on his belly in the middle of the parking lot alleyway, so we tell him he should get up and move to the near by wall. But before he gets up asks me “you can see I don’t have anything on me right?” I just say “ya, sure”, I hadn’t even think about that until he said it. But he gets up and he swaying back and forth like a sailor on rough seas. He starts to move to the wall, but turns around and goes for his smoke that is laying a few feet the other direction. There is a lighter about 6 feet to his left, a toonie about 6 feet to his right, and his jacket is over by the wall. He gets his smoke, I kick his lighter over to him, and he asks me for a ride home. My coworker responds that we don’t have cars. I have to say he was a very polite drunk, he even asks us if we wanted to come sit down beside him and have a drink. Haha. Then the guy who called 911 comes out and says the ambulance is coming, and it arrives pretty promptly. We explain that the guy is just drunk, but they ask if he will get it the trunk and he does, so now he is their problem and I returned to my desk, a little disappointed I didn’t get to do more.

Ah yes, good old downtown riffraff.

Am I allowed to make two post in one day… not sure of the proper blog etiquette.

How fit am I – about Average

So in preparation for my trip to Vermillion in early December for two days of evaluating to determine who gets in to the fire college, I am working on improving my physical fitness. While searching for ideas on the website of Men’s Health, I found the Men’s Health Challenge. It is 5 different categories that you measure yourself to see how fit you are. Basically you come in 4 different areas – Unfit – Average – Fit – and Men’s Health Fit, depending on how you do when you track your own performance. As it turns out the categories you are measured in – Pushup’s, Chin-up’s, Vertical, One-leg squats, and the 1 mile run – are similar to the areas I will be measured on in Vermillion. So for the next 5 weeks I cam going to dedicate myself to this work out.

On Sunday I tested myself to see how I measured up. As if to confirm my blog of a few weeks ago, this little test had confirmed that once again I am AVERAGE:
Chin-ups- I did 6 – Avg.
Vertical – 18 inches – Avg.
1 Leg squats – 1 (they are hard) – Avg.
1 mile run – 7:49 – Avg.
The only area I was above avg was push-ups, as I squeezed out 40, and that is just above avg.

So I take all these figures and log them in to the website, and in big, bold letters it says – YOU'RE AVERAGE! As if I didn’t know that already.

I scored 22/40, but I will follow this workout and test myself again in a week and see if I can improve.

Random

Sorry to all my faithful readers for the amount of time between posts, I guess I got lazy plus with thi- what’s that?... You didn’t notice. Alright then, never mind.

This weekend was the much anticipated Meet The Parents weekend when the Brody’s and the Zeddie’s got together, but there really isn’t any exciting story coming out of it…not fires, no injuries, no called off weddings…nothing exciting at all. We got muffins from Tim Horton’s, so that was cool.

Ever since my last post work had been rather hectic, I think the work gods are punishing me for considering this other career path. Going from a contributing member of society, just so I go back to being a bum student.

I just went and wrote my Air brakes written test…failed. But I get to write it again tomorrow for a fee of $10 bucks. If it was that way in university I never would have studied. Just write it, fail, remember what you did wrong, and go do it again the next day. But here’s to hoping the questions are the same.

I also stopped to get my criminal record check – I see they missed that stalking conviction that Sidney Crosby had against me. Nice.

I almost have everything in line to apply to college, just need this airbrakes thing and I am good to go. It’s pretty ridiculous all the things I have to get together… letter of reference, high school transcripts, university transcripts, first aid, CPR, air brakes, criminal record check, driver’s abstract, and on and on. Then it’s the interview and testing. Yikes.

The leafs lost again last night, this time to Atlanta, who had only won 1 game this year. It seems the leafs can’t keep the opposition to less than 4 goals. It tough to win that way, even with Mats and Antropov putting up impressive offensive umbers thus far.

My co-worker in the nest officle over is going up to see Ozzie tonight in Saskatoon. He is going with 3 other 50 year olds. I’m sure they will be up to no good. I didn’t even know this guy still toured. He can’t even talk, how can he sing. Mind you I have never likes his music, it seems the Wolf always has Ozzie on and thus my radio is usually tuned into NewsTalk 980.

I am off to the dentist this afternoon. It will be my first filling in – gosh – 7 years. Looking forward to it. Truth is am a scared of the dentist, even at the age of 25. But for those of you who haven’t been in a while, they now have TV’s in the ceiling…Ingenious! I should have picked a day when there was some afternoon playoff baseball on.

I ordered my Rider playoff ticket yesterday. Hard to believe this is the first time Regina citizens have been able to do this in 20 years. Someone needs to do one of the articles about what was happening back then, like who was in power, how much a loaf of bread was etc.

Well I hope it won’t be so long until my next post. Take care, comb your hair.

My Big News

I am taking this opportunity to announce to all my bloging comrades (those of you that don’t already know) that I am looking at making a pretty big change in my life. It is something I have been thinking about for years, but I have finally worked up the courage to do it.

What could it be?
Am I returning to work for the bank, as I just missed it too much?
Am I moving to Tibet to become a monk?
Am I pursuing a career as a beat writer for my beloved blue Jays?
Have Michelle and I broke up as I am in love with the old lady from the cafeteria?

Nope, it’s none of those…this time.


Caution! Before you read any further I need you to promise me something. You must promise not tell anyone from my office what I am about to tell you. This could seriously jeopardize by ability to not get fired. Promise?
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Ok, I believe you.


I am in fact making a real attempt to become a firefighter.

Some of you may know that this has been my calling for some time. For about 4 years I have constantly said this is the career I think I belong in. Up until know I have told myself that I need to give my business degree a chance, see how the corporate world treats me. And while I have a job that pays me well, allows flexibility and interaction with many people, some travel, and great benefits… it’s not what I really want to do.

For the past several months I have been seriously investigating this, speaking to many people involved in the schools and the profession, plus hours of research on the internet and talking with my family and most importantly my bride to be. I will be submitting my application soon and will be going for the physical test and interview on Dec 6&7th. Nothing is guaranteed, as I am just applying, but I am excited nonetheless.

I consider myself pretty lucky; I don’t think many people have the chance to pursue a career they believe they will love. It is a long road until I actually land a job, but the thought of it really excites me. It is going to mean at least a year without a salary, and at least a year of Miss Brody supporting me (good thing I already bought those golf clubs), and the biggest issue, a year living away from the her (Peewee, don’t get any ideas) and everyone else in Regina. But if it was easy I would have done it a long time ago.

So why do I think I will love this? Well I look forward to actually working in a TRUE team environment. In the corporate world we often refer to our groups as teams… “ good win team”, “let’s work as a team”…”welcome to the team” I call BS to all of that. Everyone is still just looking out for themselves, maybe working hard, maybe not, but not overly concerned with the success of the others on their “team”. In the fire hall, I believe I will actually be a part of a team. A team that will go in together and come out together. If one man runs out of air, we all move to get him out. On top of that, I am sick…SICK… of people treating shit in the office like it is life or death. ‘I need that computer running right now or else there will be hell to pay”, “It’s critical that we get the project done by October 5th or else heads will roll” I find I can’t take it anymore- people crying wolf. Everything is an emergency, urgent, or critical, and what difference does it make??? Who knows! The world never comes to an end, no one looses a limb or a loved one, no one even loses their jobs. And if it gets done the next item on this list is now an emergency, urgent, or critical. I can’t say I look forward to people loosing their lives, but I will relish the fact that many of problems in the world as a firefighter will be life or death and should get the appropriate attention. I don’t expect it all to be roses, I am sure there is political BS, and I have never wanted to be part of a union, but once you go out on a call that shit won’t matter.

Maybe there is a corporate job out there that would make me happy, maybe there isn’t, but I know that to be happy I have to feel engaged and appreciated, and I don’t feel that now. I think in my posts of late you could see that I felt like a change. I also feel to be successful I will have to climb the corporate ladder, and not to sound arrogant, but I think with time I could do that. However, when I look around at the executives in our company, and some of our partner companies I just don’t want to be like them. They all seem over stressed and over worked and whatever drives them to keep going and to succeed - well, I don’t think that is in me, at least not in the long term.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a bitch session about my job, as this is supposed to be a celebratory post. It sounds cheesy, but I feel life I am pursuing a dream, and it feels good. This is more about wanting to pursue this new career than it is about not likely my current, but the fact that I am not satisfied will make it easier to walk away. I don’t mean for it to sound like we should all quit our jobs, just because it is at times a piss off, but I just had to get all that out. Plus it’s my blog and I will write what I want.

Again, I am taking a bit of a risk putting this information on the world wide web, because at this point I still haven’t told anyone at work, so please if anyone sees my boss pretend like you don’t know anything. I need to hold this job in case I am not accepted, and I need the money wither way.

Kind of a weird day

Yesterday was progressing by as a fairly normal day in the life of your’s truly, but once I headed out the doors after work a couple of strange things happened.

The first and I suppose most exciting was when I stopped by the liquor store at the Normanview Mall to apply for a liquor permit for the wedding reception in February (I know, on the ball or what?!?). Anyway, I was at the till going through the details with the nice lady helping me out. Several other customers walked up to the till, but as we were going to be a while she directed them to another clerk.

About 10 minutes in another guy walked up, and I never really thought much of it, he put down a 24 of Lady’s light, and a bottle of some orange stuff. Without looking the lady said, “You should go the other till; we are going to be a while”. The guy, with a certain “inner city” look to him said something like “Oh really?.” The lady, who is about 55 years old, and not much more than 110 pounds, looks up and immediately goes off. She yells at him, “HEY BUDDY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!” She runs out from behind the till in front of this guy and right beside me. I have no idea what is going on, but obviously this guy has done something wrong. He immediately gets a deer in the headlights look on his face and starts for the door. She keeps yelling at him “ SHOW ME YOUR POCKETS – WHAT DO YOU HAVE!” He responds with – “What are you talking about?” and makes a move to get by her. This little lady then starts pushing this guy, blocking him like an offensive lineman and preventing him from getting out the door. By his point she is yelling for her manager and this alleged thief looks pretty scared. But this was no small guy- at least my height, and at least 50 pounds heavier than me. He continues for the door, pushing her out of the way and telling her to get off him. She makes another move and pins him up against the wall. All the while I am standing about 5 feet away still not sure exactly what the problem is, but starting to understand that this guy has stolen something and put it in his pants. I did mange to say something like, ‘you should just let him go”, as even though this guy looked more scared than aggressive, I certainly didn’t think a stolen micky or whatever he had was worth her getting stabbed or punched or something. But this little lady won’t back down, she is latched onto his arm, and he is pulling her right out of the building. Her manager, another lady, comes running out, also yelling, but this guy breaks free and stats to jog, not run, across the parking lot to an waiting “getaway car” parked over by the CIBC.Eventually the ladies come back into the store. I am thinking they will call the cops, but instead they all just go back to work! The manager tells the lady at my till that she is never to try and stop a customer like that ever again, but the little lady says “That guy bugs me”. Apparently.

I got to talking to the both of them, and apparently this guy is a repeat offender, usually he comes up to the till with some booze, then says he forgot his wallet and that he will get it from his car, but then just takes off with whatever it is he had in his pockets. Another gentleman came back in and gave the license plate of the car the guy left in, the lady says thanks, but then tells me that the cops can’t do anything, at worst they just get a slap on the wrist. They tell me some other stories, like on time a guy came in with a bandanna across his chest and over his shoulder, with a huge knife in it, right out in the open. They tell me in that situation, they just ignore they guy, let him take what he wants and hope he leaves without creating a scene. They have seen guns and all sort of stuff. They apologize to me for that all happening right in front of me, but I am just happy I have a good story for my blog.

So I went home, had a quick bite and went to the gym, it was chest day so after a short warm up I headed to bench press and threw on two 45’s and did quick set. I sat up, just waiting to for the next, then out of the corner of my eye I see this little kid, about 10 years old, maybe younger, putting the safety pins on the barbell for me. He puts one on then goes away gets another one and goes to hand it to me, I tell him that he can just put it on, so he does and the runs off in the other direction. What is this kid doing I the weight area anyway? Just watching out for everyone's safety? Maybe was he my guardian angle!?!

Then at the same time, just as I turn around, and old man, like really old, wearing the grandpa sweater and everything, is standing right in front of me. He is about a day away from needing a walker, in no shape for any sort of weight training. He says, “90 pounds! You can life that much?” I just sort of laugh and said I guess. He said something else I didn’t understand as I laid down and got ready to start my next set, but I could feel him watching me. This guy sort of reminded me of the old guy from Family Guy, as he was sort of just walking around the free weights areas looking at everyone. Kinda creepy, but definitely weird. I just shook my head and laughed to myself.

What a weird couple of hours..

Sports

It’s certainly no secret that I am a big sports fan. I am certainly not the minority in this as millions of people around the world are huge sports fans, and many much larger than I. But some of you might wonder why it is that I get so much enjoyment out of sports.

Where do I start? Well not many other things in life will get me jumping off the couch in anger ,or in jubilation, like that game winning goal, homerun ,or touchdown. But the deeper questions is why am I so vested in this that I jump off the couch, throw inanimate objects, and/or hug grown men, depending on the gravity of the situation.

Well I think it partially comes down to emotion. Sports are the true reality TV. You are seeing people giving their hart and soul to win for there cities, their fans, their teammates and themselves. These athletes, through blood, sweat, and tears, give their all to achieve the ultimate goal in their respective sport. Yes, there are a few overpaid bums that only play for the money, but I like to think they are few and far between.

Maybe it is that I am just living vicariously through these athletes. When I cheer for Sidney Crosby, maybe it is because I want to feel what it must be like to have his kind of success. Maybe it’s that I wish I could be these guys for just a few days; do see what it is like to do what they do. These athletes are the best of the best; they can do things on the field, ice, or court that I and most others simply can not. The fact that I play most of these sports, even recreationally, makes me appreciate the extraordinary things they can do. That one time slap shot to the top corner, that 97mph fast ball, or the guy that can hit that fast ball over the fence, the receiver that can run full speed and lay our for a football and catch it with one hand, the centre fielder that can climb the wall and pull back a sure home run, or the forward that can deke through three guys and the goalie and slide it home, even the tennis player who can play a five hour match and still stand at the end. They can do things that I can’t, but at least I can watch it and share in the glory by cheering them on.

When there is a good game on, with a team I care about, I almost feel like I am part of the team. I will wear the team colors at the stadium, at the bar, or even alone on my couch, just to show my support, and for some reason I believe it makes a difference. If I watch a game at BP’s and the riders get pumped, I won’t watch it there again. A few years ago when watching the leafs in the playoff’s, I would hold my breath anything the puck was in the Leafs zone, and do my best not to exhale until the puck went back out over the blue line. One year during the baseball playoff’s me and two buddies would lay on our stomachs in front of the TV, drumming the floor for good luck…what happened, Luis Gonzalez hit a World Series winning single to beat the hated Yankees. This is blamed on sheer superstition.

A large part about sports is the camaraderie it brings with friends and family. Not much else brings together a group of friends than a great sporting event. I remember being 7 and watching the riders win the Grey Cup in 89 at a family friend’s house. I might not have totoally understood why everyone was cheering when Dave Ridgway kicked that ball through the uprights, but I know that everyone in the room was happy I remember sitting down with my whole family back in 92 and 93 to watch the Blue Jays win the world series, and all cheering together when Joe Carter hit that walk off home run, and jumping around until I knocked my brother into the corner of the couch. I remember sitting with about 20 of my best friends watching Joe Sakic score the clinching goal in the 2002 Olympics and high five-ing everyone in the room. I remember several world junior tournaments during Christmas time, with so many people home that you haven’t seen in months, getting together to see the boys beat the Russians. It gives me goose bumps even to think about it.

Have I made it clear enough, can you now understand the excitement that sports provide? If not then I have failed. But I will not give up! I will continue to put the TV on SportsCentre when I get the remote, I will start conversations on the games from the night before, and I will promote trips to live events, and with a little luck, and a lot of channel surfing, I will turn all of you into the sports nut that I am.

Go Team GO!

Bosses

So I found out today that I am getting a new boss. It will be my first male boss since I joined my current company. He already works for us, but is coming over from the operations side to work on sales. I know him a little, pretty nice guy, and I think – think- he will be good to work for. I will likely loose a little freedom, reason being that since the last VP sales was let go in Feb, I have been reporting to the Executive VP of our area, and while a great boss, she didn’t really have time to worry about my day to day activities. I pretty much did whatever I thought was necessary each day. With new guy – we’ll call him Barry, coming in, I assume that he will have a little more say in what we do. Barry works out of Calgary, so once again my boss will not be in the same location as I am.
Counting back the last couple of years, I have worked for two organizations in a little over 2 and half years, and Barry will be my 6th boss, and only 3 of those bosses have been in the same city/town that I am. I have also changed locations/offices 7 times. Keeps things interesting I guess.
I think I would have to put my last boss as my favorite. She was very blunt, very open, and I didn’t feel like there was any BS with her. It was nice being so close to that top line of decision making. But Barry should have more time to assist us in Sales, so it will be nice to have that backup when struggling to get results from internal resources.
It interesting how different bosses can be, and how as their employee you have to alter your style to mesh with theirs. My first at the bank was an old school, worked hard in his office, first in, last to leave, didn’t interact with the employees much. My next one was a lot like Michael Scott from The Office. He wanted to be everyone’s friend, but no one really liked him…or respected him. Next boss was in a different city, but he was very supportive, would dive out if I needed help, complimented good work, I would say a pretty good boss and a pretty good guy. Next was my first boss in my current company, she was the smoke-oholic, stressed out, always doing 6 things at once, little ball of energy. She always look sort of tired and sort of overwhelmed, often expressed how much she had to do and how busy she was. I kind of felt sorry for her, and eventually she was let go. Then there was my current boss, very open, very well respected by her employees, very supportive, very smart executive type. When she talks everyone listens. Like I said before- probably the best of the bunch.

But now there is another one to bring in and train. I’ll have him whipped into shape in now time.

Fun and games…fun .and . games.

Anybody else have any interesting bosses over the years?

I wonder...

When I travel to and from work with so many other people on the roadway and I often wonder how there can be that many other people in this city that are in the same dull 9-5 job that I am. That many people that get up 5 days a week and go to work waiting for the opportunity to go back home again. I wonder what percentage of those people actually enjoy the work they do. What percentage only work to get that pay check. What is most important to this people. Is it their job, their family, their friends… themselves perhaps? What do these people rush home too, how many of them are happy. Do they feel their job is important, that they accomplish something when they leave for the day? Or do they work simply to provide for themselves and their own family, and maybe that is enough. We can’t all walk the streets like hippies after all. We have to eat, we have to drink, and we have to have fun. Is that why we work? Just so we can do all those things outside of work. I hope this isn’t depressing, but if there are lots of people out there that get up in the morning and actually look forward to the job, I am seriously jealous. Truth is every morning I think about how much I don’t want to go to work. I don’t know if I have ever had a job that I looked forward to going to. Except maybe Dairy Queen, and that could just be because I had a crush on the girl I worked with.

So will there be a job out there that I will look forward to going to. I think there is, and I need to find it. I will find it. That is my promise to myself.

Royally Drunk

So it was another Saturday night to remember on the weekend when Bankers from across the province gather to celebrate another year of record profits, of staff once again some how meeting the ridiculous sales targets in front of them, allowing the bank to increase the goals even more for next year. And once again, I and many others got royally drunk.
The night started when we walked in and the first people we saw were JAM. Up to that point I wasn’t sure how the night was going to go, but when I saw they were both already happily tipsy, I got all excited and knew it was time to get my drink on.
So into the wine, rye, vodka, champagne…basically whatever I could get my hands on. The rest of the evening turns into a bit of a blur, the awards last hours, resulting in dozens of empty glasses in front of us on the table, drunken conversations with my one time colleagues, multiple identities due to a stack of unused name tags I found, 5000 awards points to Mrs. Jam, drinking wine directly from the bottle, a smuggled bottle of red under my suit jacket and into our awaiting limo, a rather short appearance at the pump, and many PDA’s by JAM. But even with all the making out done by my good friends, Mrs. Jam saved her best kiss for the payment outside subway, when the combination of an unlit curb, and arms tucked deep in her pockets resulted in a pretty nasty lip stand. But even though I fully expected some pretty extensive damage, up she came relatively unharmed, and after we tracked down her shoes that we’re lost in the fall we were on our way. And after getting some wraps at subway (they had no bread – how does that happen) it was back in a cab, some drunken cabbie talk and another royally drunk performance was complete.

Not funny

It’s been a little over 2 months since I started this silly little blog, and I find it is helping me discover things about myself and the world that I maybe never thought through before. The latest is that I realize that in written word I am just not very funny – you might say average. I have at a few times tried to be funny in my posts and afterwards I think – who am I trying to kid, that was totally lame. My humor is better spent on off the cuff comments, quirky responses, or smart ass remarks. But I have never been much of a story teller and in my blog that is no different. So unless something particularly funny happens to me in my regular, everyday life, I am going to save myself a little embarrassment and stop the lame attempts at comedy. I will leave that to Mr. Murdock, as he seems a little more seasoned at it than I. Yes, that was a compliment Peewee.

Instead I am going to focus on re-evaluating the world, its people, and myself in a detailed, almost philosophical sense. I’m not sure if my readers (all 4 of them) care, or will be at all entertained by my new approach, but I guess I am willing to take the chance.

Average

I came to the realization recently that I am pretty much average in everyway…. I am average height, average weight, average intelligent, average wealth (for my age), average looks, average …umm size, average house, average car. I am average at most sports, which means that I can pick up a sport and in a short amount of time I can look like I know what I am doing, then after a while I just quite improving, I never become the best. I was an average student; I had a pretty average childhood, with an average family. I think I am an average boyfriend, (with an above average girlfriend), an average friend period, an average contributor to society, and I know fairly average people, no one famous, and no one particularly pathetic either. I have average knowledge about sports, politics, history, and current events. I can drink an average amount and I eat an average amount. Basically I came in or around the middle in almost everything.

I also think I am ok with this. I think it allows me not to create great expectations of myself, and yet when I do excel I get lots of credit. It allows me to blend into the crowd, so to speak, and never get signaled out or identified as the scapegoat or failed leader in any project or event, and again, if I do step up, I get noticed. It might make me a little boring, and that is a little concerning, but I will get over it.

There are some areas that I vary for the average. Let’s start with below average. I am way below average about knowledge in music, in artistic talents, and in organizational skills. I think I am above average in the speed I drive around the city, in NHL games on playstation, and in the amount of movies I go to.

The key is, I think this all may be adding up to a pretty dammed good life. Maybe it’s above average, maybe it’s not, but I do like where it is going. I think I just reached above average happiness for the day.

And I certainly cheer for an average sports teams. Average at best. – Go Riders Go.

Article by James Duthie

I am a little to lazy to blog today, but I thought I would share this great article from James Duthuie from TSN. He writes awesome stories. Below is one from back in 2001 after 9.11. Enjoy.

We, in sports, seem determined to attach a number to everything, and the nightmare of September 11 is no different.
The "Sports World", this imaginary bubble we supposedly live in, lost L.A Kings scouts Ace Bailey and Mark Bavis.
Two.
A neat, tidy death toll, perfect for the tickers at the bottom of the screen.

But wrong.
We also lost:
Soccer moms, and Little League dads, and big sisters who became corporate bigwigs, but could still whip you at 21 when they came home for Thanksgiving.
We lost star shortstops from the corporate softball league, and secretaries who didn't play, but always brought the oranges, and cheered like you were Derek Jeter.
We lost 11 year-old boys who could have been the next Jordan or Gretzky, and four-year old girls who could have been the next Mia Hamm or Venus Williams, not to mention whom they could have become in the real world.

We lost fans.
We lost Mets fans and Yankees fans and fans who couldn't stand either, which was a damn brave stance in New York.
We lost Jets fans who'd always go to the game with the same three buddies, each shirtless with a big green painted letter stretching from navel to neck. And no matter how cold, they'd remain skin to the wind, screaming: "J-E-T-S, Jets!" Even when it was 21-3 Colts.
We lost bosses you couldn't stand, until they invited you to the box at the Rangers game and you both wore your Messier shirts, and forever bonded.
We lost girlfriends who left you alone on Sunday afternoons in the fall, or better yet, sat right next to you and cursed like a convict when Kerry Collins threw a pick.
We lost guys from the mailroom who'd spend a couple of days wages to sit in the nosebleeds with their girl at a Knicks game, and traders in Boss suits who'd spend a couple grand to impress a model with courtsides. But they'd cheer just as wildly. New York has great fans.
We also lost Red Sox fans, Bruins fans, Patriots fans, Capitals fans, Redskin fans, Wizards fans, and probably at least a fan or two for every team out there. Even the Bengals.

We lost fathers who'd take you to Mini-Putt and blow a six-inch gimme on 18 every time to lose by one, so he'd have to take you for ice-cream yet again.
We lost mothers who somehow found time to run households with a bunch of kids, corporate divisions with hundreds of employees, and marathons in under four hours.
We lost Grampas who took you out for your first round on a real course, and pretended they didn't see when you teed it up on the fairway.
We lost coaches who'd work 60-hour weeks, and then spend their Saturdays trying to teach six year-olds to stay in position, and not all chase the same ball.

We lost entire lines from the Firefighters Shinny League.

And you know what the saddest part of all is?
Sport was just a tiny part of who these people were.
We lost all of them.

OLD BALLS!

It’s not even my birthday and I am a little down because I feel like I am getting old. I think a big reason is that my cousin, who is in her second year of university, is staying with us for September while her rental is getting renovated. Now she is a nice girl and I wouldn’t call her a partier, but she is social and she’s making me feel like an “adult” and that sucks.
It all started the first night she was with us when she came upstairs and ask us is she could have some friends over to watch MTV. I fought the urge to say, “why do you watch that junk anyway” and said “Of course, no problem”. Immediately it felt weird to have someone ask me if they could have their friends come over to my house and hang out, but NOT with me. I don’t think I have ever had that happen to me before. So off she goes and about an hour later the door rings, and 3 “kids” walk in, 2 of which I know well, and are really not that much younger than me. So we exchange pleasantries and as they are proceeding to the basement to watch their stories on the tele, I have to ask them if they are all ready to go back to school the next day. What a dumb ass- mom and dad thing to say. I felt so uncool. Meanwhile the future mrs. Brody had an itch to bake earlier in the day, and is just about to pull some fresh muffins out of the oven. The kids comment on how great it smells, and in a way I think they are mocking me that we are making muffins like grandma would while they are gathering to enjoy the latest Teeny bobber series on MTV.

So that’s where it starts, and I’m rattled from that first night and now she is in my head. So the little things are starting to bug me. For example, like any good university student in there first few weeks of the semester, she is out just about every evening gallivanting around, and it depresses me that I am not even awake when she gets home. She tells me she gets in at about 11, and I just can’t fathom that I am so asleep that I don’t even hear her. Luckily we don’t have the rule that she has to wake us up to let us know she is home safe.
The thing is I don’t think of the future Mrs. Brody and I as overly boring people. While it’s nothing like my university days, we are fairly social, and often out of the house doing something. So being my insecure self, when returning from a social event of some sort I have been looking forward to returning to the house to show the young kid that I too have a busy social calendar. But as luck would have it, whenever I get home she is never there to see my triumphant return. I’ve considered sitting around the block in my car, then when she gets back driving up so she sees me come in and I can tell her all about my wild adventures, but that just seems a little too pathetic. So again and again she returns home to find me in front of the TV in my sweat pants (at least I have pants on).

One of the more recent events was last Sunday morning, when ms brody and I were getting out day started and doing some house cleaning (boring) and I noticed that the cuz’s bf stayed the night, as his shoes were in the door way. No big deal at all, I didn’t think twice about it. So we head out to the gym, and return to find that our guests have left the house, but she has left a long note apologizing because they got kicked out of dorm’s at the UofR (where he lives) that night so the bf had to stay over and she is very sorry for not ok’ing that with us and it won’t happen again. Wow. When she returned we tried to explain to her that we didn’t care at all, he could stay there any night, we are cool and hip and all that. She’s like, I told him not to worry, I said your guys weren’t that old. NOT THAT OLD – come on.

And so it continues, with her living in our basement, tying not to disrupt our old person lives, when we are home in the evening, in bed by 10:30, having tea on a Friday night when she is off to the bars, etc.
Not so long ago I was different. I was cool. I was hip. Do the kids even say hip anymore. Not likely.
But I will be ok, in fact I don’t even really want that life anymore, but I just hate to admit it. Makes me feel OLD.

Hey Riders – get your shit together.

Brr...fuck

Well it appears that winter is coming. I got up this morning, did my regular routine, saw the sun shining in through the curtains, and surmised that it must be a pretty nice day. So with my toast in hand, out the door I went ready for another wonderful day of fun and frivolity at the work place, only to discover two very disturbing things. One was that the future Ms. Brody was parked behind me and I would have to ask her to move her car, knowing that she would yell, curse, and hit me for disturbing her morning routine (she’s not a morning person). And two, and even worse than the abuse that I was surely about to receive, all my windows were completely covered in frost. Not only was I already late for work, but I had no idea where my scraper was and moreover I was just not mentally prepared for scraping my windows and what it represents. Memories of winters gone by flashed through my head as I remembered what the next 6 months unquestionably hold. Months of frozen fingers, shivering, shoveling snow, bad roads, cold legs in dress pants, cars that won’t start, plugging in cars, cold wet feet, god awful terrible fucking traffic, and so on…

It’s just too soon. I’m not ready to be done with summer.

Go Riders Go.

a case of the Mondays

So I realize this isn’t a ground breaking discovery or anything…but Monday suck!
For starters I’m always so damn tired. A combination of the trials and tribulations of the weekend, combined with sleeping in on Sunday and thus not being able to sleep Sunday night, and I always seem to be dragging my ass all day at work. I always seem to show up about 10 minutes late, then when I get here I am greeted by all the work that I left from Friday. It always seems like a good idea on Friday afternoon to leave the work until Monday, maybe go home a little early. Plus every few weekends I am actually foolish enough to think that if I take work home on the weekend I will actually do it. But sure enough, when Monday morning rolls around I wake up stressed and tired, with a whole pile of work to do and no energy to do it.
The future Mrs. Brody doesn’t help either, as she doesn’t usually work Mondays and I have to pull my sorry ass out of bed and into the shower while she rolls over and logs another couple of hours. (I know, I know, she has to work Saturday’s, but this is about me ok) The cats don’t even move, they usually just look up at me with there eyes barely open, seemingly thinking to themselves “What the hell man, it’s too early, go back to bed or get the hell out of here”
It also sucks that Monday is so god dammed far away from Friday, which brings the next weekend. All I want to do is have a sleep in and I know that can’t happen until at least 5 days from now. Wouldn’t it be nice to have every Wednesday off, just to catch up in the middle of the week. Now that would be a change in labour laws that I could get on board with.
I’m also depressed at the amount of money I spent, the amount of alcohol and the unhealthy, but delicious food I consumed. The problem is I just love to do all those things so much…it just tastes so good…when it touches my lips.
But I will power through, survive this Monday like so may before it. Tomorrow should be a better day and with determination and will I shall prevail too make it to the Friday five days from now and the weekend that I so desire. Then the golf tournament that is sure to involve multiple alcoholic beverages, poor food, and monetary expenditures that are not in the budget. But at least I will be able to sleep in on Sunday…

The cycle continues.

Go Riders Go.

My favorite time of year.

Of come to the decision that the end of September /start of October as the best time of my year. There are several reason for this, but for anyone who knows me you won’t be surprised by the fact that it mostly revolves around sports.
The best part has got to be that October brings the start of a new NHL hockey season. Hope exists for all 30 NHL teams, even my Leafs. It’s the first chance to see all the players on their new teams, new players will emerge as superstars, and a hockey pool or two adds to my excitement. A few of the most anticipated things for me are watching Sidney Crosby wearing the C for the Pens and if they are as good as I think they will be, if the Oilers can win any games without Ryan Smyth, and if there is any way I can cheer for the Leafs big signing Jason Blake, who I despised as a Islander. Plus there is all the debate... I love to talk hockey.

October also marks the time for Baseball playoffs, and even though I can’t skip school anymore to watch the games, I still get pretty excited to tune in for those afternoon games. There was nothing better than getting some pizza and beer, or a sub and a slurpee, and listening to Joe Morgan, Joe Buck, or Tim McCarver call a ball game in October. I don’t know what it is about playoffs, but every pitch seems to matter that much more. If the Blue Jays ever make it to the playoffs again, mark my word, I will be in Toronto to cheer on the boys.

Of course we have the last few games of the CFL season. Usually the riders have already blown a chance at a home playoff game, but this year things are looking very different. If we can win 2 out of our next three games, I like our chances of hosting our first playoff game since I have been a fan of the team.

NFL season is just beginning and by October I am up to speed on who’s who and what teams are contenders. I also enjoy the odd NFL pool. And any Sunday spent watching football is a good Sunday in my books.

Besides sports we also have the season premiers of many of my favorite TV shows- The Office, Heroes, Lost…they will all be back this fall and I'm sure better than ever.

Other highlights include the end of harvest, rec hockey to play, thanksgiving, and to top it all off the weather is still usually pretty damned decent.

Yep, it’s a great time of the year, only rivaled by my other favorite time of year- spring, when the weather gets nice, NHL playoffs are happening, baseball season gets underway, and love is in the air. As you can see, very similar reasons. But I will get into that in March.

Go Riders Go.

I can’t believe…

I often find myself in a situation when I am dumbfounded by someone or something and saying “I can’t believe…” So here is a list of things that I can’t believe.

I can’t believe…

- NASCAR is more popular than NHL hockey in the States… so sad.
- That people don’t signal, it’s rampant and it really bothers me.
- That “So you think you can Dance, and Dancing with the Stars are successful programming …I just don’t’ get it.
- That as a big sports fan, I have three favorite teams, the Leafs, the Riders, and the Jays, and in 25 years of existence I have only celebrated championships three times. That is a 4% success rate, unacceptable. Thank you to our Olympic hokey team of 2002 and our World Junior teams for keeping me out of a deep depression.
- That I don’t enjoy music more… It seems other people get so much enjoyment from it and yet I just can’t seem to get on the “Band” wagon. haha
- Terrorism or Religious War… Sorry to be so deep, but it all seems so unnecessary to me.
- That I get so hung over from beer. It’s like a handicap. Not fair at all.
- It’s not butter
- NBC pulled the show The Black Donnelly’s
- The brutal service given by Bell express VU
- That people can be so bold and so desperate to break into other people houses in the middle of the day and walk out with all sorts of stolen goods.
- The economics of farming, expenses keep going up and revenues remain stagnant year after year.
- That “The Office” isn’t the most popular show on TV…it’s great.
- How much of my life revolves around TV.
- How expensive golf is.
- How serious some guys take rec. hockey.
- How much money I loose of my pay cheques to income tax.
- That trampolines aren’t outlawed. I hate those things.
- That I claim to be very busy at work and yet have time to write the odd blog.

I like this. I think I will have to do a part II sometime.

Go Riders Go.

Isn’t it easier just to be civil?

I work in a position where I am often faced with people experiencing frustration with one thing or another and have come to me for assistance. And really, most people are very reasonable, patient, and courteous, but then again, there are many people who are rude, ignorant, and bitchy. Now I don’t think that people always have to act like Mary Poppins, in fact I think it’s a little exciting when things get a little heated in a corporate setting, but as long as it’s done in a professional way. I just can’t understand when people seem to go out of there way to be difficult and hamper constructive conversation.
But really, in the business world most of the people are professional and act accordingly, however out in the “real world”, it is a different story. I was recently behind a woman in line at the photo centre in Wal-mart who seemed to be more miserable than Saddam Hussein when he was living in that hole in Iraq (that must have sucked). I almost felt sorry for her, because she must have had some real problems in life to be that miserable, but more over I really wanted to tell her to get a frickin’ grip and quit infecting the rest of society with what ever has caused her existence to be so dreadful. The poor employees at Wal-Mart did nothing to bring it on, but that poor lady treated them like they insulted her first born (although I don’t see how there is any guy out there who would have procreated with this beastly woman – at least I hope not).
Other places I often see this sort of behavior are hockey games, amusement parks, airports, restaurants, and any political assembly I have ever seen in action.

Have people forgotten what there mothers used to say – “treat others like you want to be treated”

Where is the Respect?!?

Battle of first place teams this labour day…when is the last time that happened? Go Riders Go.

Brady Bunch

I said in my last post that I would find a frustration to rant about. Well you know what I’m sick of… no, well let me tell ya. It’s people making jokes to me about the fucking “Brady Bunch”. It was cool for like 5 minutes when I was 10 and realized there was a television show that featured my last name. But shortly there after I realized the show was lame and yet everyone knows about it. It reminds me of the movie Office Space, when everyone asks Michael Bolton if he has a relation to the singer. It is tiring, especially when one of my coworkers, superiors, or elders, makes reference to the show and I have to put forward my best fake laugh. At least with my peers I don’t have to pretend and can just stare at them with a look that clearly states my feeling to that same old joke.

Ok, I feel a little better now.

Siskel and Brody at the movies

So I still haven’t proactively let anyone know that I started a blog, and this is only my 2nd post. But earlier this week someone at my office from the communications team told me that I should think about a career in advertising or communications after an e-mail I sent out to our entire Regina office was well received. Now I’m think I’m John frickin’ Grisham and everyone wants to see what I have to write about. Then again, during a performance review a while back my former boss told me that I have poor writing skills and asked me if I ever read books – yes I read, but thanks for making feel like a 7th grade drop out. So for now, I guess I will stick to writing my blog that no one reads.
I went to the movie Live Free or Die Hard last night with a few of the boys from back home that were in the city. It is the 4th movie I have been to in about a week and a half. Even for me, a self proclaimed movie junkie, a lot for that amount of time. Here’s a quick run down and my brief opinion on each, which I know my readers value immensely.
Bourne Supremacy – Matt Damon – The 3rd movie in the Bourne Series based on the Novel’s by Robert Ludlum. Come critics have said it is the best of the three and I have to agree. This was a great show- good story line, good action, good everything. Best action movie I’ve watched in a long time. I might be partial as Matt Damon may be my favorite actor currently in the business (except for Vinny Chase). With movies like Good Will Hunting, Rounders, The Departed, all the Bourne’s, the Oceans movies, and Stuck on You, he never fails to entertain me (Ok, I’m completely kidding about the last one…terrible, terrible movie, but we’ve all made our mistakes.)
10/10

The Simpson’s- The Simpson Family – This movie could never be bad, there hasn’t really been a bad Simpson’s episode in the what, like 46 years the show has been running. I don’t think it the best comedy in years, but they did a good job (I’m sure they are happy to have my opinion on the job they did.) It’s pretty much a 90 minute Simpson’s episode, just a little better. Homer is classic as usual.
7/10

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry – Adam Sandler and Kevin James – Have you all seen that Family Guy episode where Stuey goes to see the movie Bewitched, then in the middle calmly gets up, walks out of the theatre, flies to LA, buys a ladder, goes to Will Ferrell’s house, climbs the ladder, rings the door bell, then when Will Ferrell answers he punches him in the face and says “THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”. Well that’s exactly what I would like to do to Adam Sandler after seeing this show. Only good thing is that the movie crashed for about 10 minutes, so after the show everyone in the theatre got a free movie pass. At first I thought they gave us the passes just because the movie SUCKED.
3/10

Live Free or Die Hard – Bruce Willis – I laughed a lot during this movie, way more than I did at Chuck and Larry. I don’t think this will be a movie for everyone, but I found it thoroughly entertaining. Between the hilarious dialogue of the guy from the Mac/PC commercials and the ridiculous action sequences (Bruce Willis actually knocks a guy out of an air born helicopter by running over a fire hydrant and hitting the guy hanging out the side of the chopper with the water) there was always something good for a giggle. This movie didn’t try to take itself to serious and I think it’s a great action/comedy. An easy watch for anyone, it would probably make a great hangover movie. For my techie buddies (you know who you are) there is a lot of cyber terrorism type stuff going on, I’d like to know if any of it is feasible, not that it matters.
7/10

Next post I will have to write about something else. I like movies to much and what fun is it writing a blog if you can’t rant about something you hate. I’ll build up some old frustrations for next time.

Go Riders Go!

My First Blog- anybody care?

So I’ve decide to give this blogging thing a go. Obviously I’m just having a slow day at work. What can I say it’s Friday afternoon and I’m looking out the window at a beautiful day, wishing I were anywhere but here.

I think I want to dedicate my first blog to making the roadways a better place to be. Few things cause me stress like the drivers I have to deal with on the road. I won’t claim to be one of the best drivers out there, as I’m usually one false move away from starting a 7 car pile up, but at least I get where I’m going in a hurry and I try to be courteous to other drivers. I think if everyone on the road followed the 5 rules below, the world would be a better place.
1) On any road with a posted speed limit of 70 km/h or higher, you always drive in the right lane except to pass. This one is without a doubt the top of the list, why some people think the left lane was built for their exclusive use is beyond me.
2) When driving on a signal lane highway always pass the vehicle in front of you. As soon as you choose to follow right behind that person, it make it harder for the next person coming behind you to pass, and then it snowballs until there is 16 cars traveling down the road together like one giant snake, filled with many angry little people. Then for the one guy (me) who decides to make the pass from the back, it becomes about as dangerous as a walk through Regina north central at 3am on a Friday night with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a pack of du Mauriers in the other.
3) Frickin Signal. It does make a difference. And do it before you actually start turning or moving into the next lane, at that point I already know what your doing and it’s kinda pointless.
4) Always drive at least 10km’s above the posted speed limit (weather permitting). Chances of getting a ticket are almost nil and we’ll all get where we’re going a little bit quicker. Those 30 seconds you cost me, because I didn’t get through that light will add up over a lifetime. I don’t want to spend my life sitting in my car at red lights. If you want to drive faster than that it’s cool with me too, but it’s your ticket.
5) Keep cell phone use to a minimum. As soon as you put a cell phone to your ear you start driving like an 80 year old woman with a heavy foot, myself included. At times it’s necessary, but make it quick.
- Others to consider: Turn your lights on, get aggressive at 4 way stops, turn into your first available lane, and learn how to merge.

Any other driving thoughts, please leave them in the comments section.

So this probably isn't a great blog debut, but I’ve always been a slow starter…and a poor finisher. Just ask Michelle.

Go Riders Go.