Friday, September 28, 2007

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.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

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.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

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.

Friday, September 14, 2007

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.

Monday, September 10, 2007

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.

Friday, September 7, 2007

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.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

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.