desperately seeking GrandCentral invite

I thought I could wait until Google Voice goes live, but I can’t.  They say it’s “coming soon”, in just a few weeks, but they’ve been saying that for weeks now.  I’ve got their Google phone, but I can’t use their enhanced voicemail, transcripts, and other goodies — arg.

If you can help me, please let me know.

fireworks, revisited

It’s a rare night, sitting alone at home, watching the Leafs play the Caps on TV.  At the intermission, they flashback to a man named Sawchuck; Terry “Gordon” Sawchuck — I wonder if he was listed in the Barenaked-liner-notes with all the other great Canadian (and international) Gordons…  “gordon howe” — yes.  “veal gordon bleu” — yes.  but “terry gordon sawchuck”? — tragically (gordon downie), he was not.

[and the commentator just seqeue’d with , “that night in Toronto…”  :P]

But dude; Sawchuck barely wore a facemask — and he was a goalie.  To see the footage of him and Bower; I mean, they had big leg pads, but their shoulder and chest pads were hardly more substantial than the rest of the players, and that’s way less than I wear when I get out on the ice.

Anyhow; so many of the hits on this blog are the Hockey Songs…  it seemed fitting to revisit this song.

Fireworks — The Tragically Hip:

If there’s a goal that everyone remembers it was back in ole’ 72
We all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the trigger
And all I remember was sitting beside you

You said you didn’t give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

As I said in the original post, this is the adolescent view of the Canada Cup; Paul Henderson and Bobby Orr and all that.

Isn’t it amazing anything’s accomplished
When the little sensation gets in your way
Not one ambition whisperin’ over your shoulder
Isn’t it amazing you can do anything

That’s the chorus.  Not so exciting to read, but in the song it’s a little more enthusiastic: “Isn’t it amazing (?); You can do anything (!)”

We hung out together every single moment
Cause that’s what we thought married people do
Complete with the grip of artificial chaos
And believing in the country of me and you

Crisis of faith and crisis in the Kremlin
And yea we’d heard all of that before
It’s wintertime, the house is solitude with options
And loosening the grip on a fake cold war

Anyone who has lived with someone else in a committed relationship can relate to that… (no?)

[repeat chorus]

Next to your comrades in the national fitness program
Caught in some eternal flexed-arm hang
Droppin’ to the mat in a fit of laughter
Showed no patience, tolerance or restraint

OK, so this is something that is uniquely Canadian.  We had the National Fitness Program when I was in school; it was a yearly measurement of physical fitness for which you were awarded a Bronze, Silver, or Gold badge.  Kind of like a Boy/Girl Scout merit badge, but in your school phys-ed program.  I like to think I got a Gold once, but I’m sure if I did it would be in my momento-box (and there is none).  I remember the “flexed-arm hang” as some kind of torture-test;

Fireworks exploding in the distance
Temporary towers soar

Fireworks emulating heaven
Til there are no stars anymore

Fireworks aiming straight at heaven
Temporary towers soar

Til there are no stars shining up in heaven
Til there are no stars anymore

.

Isn’t it amazing what you can accomplish
When the little sensation gets in your way
No ambition whisperin’ over your shoulder
Isn’t it amazing what you can accomplish, eh
This one thing probably never goes away
I think this one thing is always supposed to stay
This one thing doesn’t have to go away

“This one thing” being that original thing — the goal that everyone remembers, the sense of unlimited possibilities, of national pride, of sitting beside that blasphemous girl, of finding true love… the fireworks.  Great song.

blowhard, Nobel laureate; whatever

Yeah, virtually the day after I called him names on my blog, Paul Krugman wins the Nobel.  Makes me look a little silly, doesn’t it?  In my defense, he’s being recognized for seriously influential economics work that he did, like, 20 years ago — not for the humorless op-ed stuff he does now in the NYT.

Of course, I was completely unaware that he was a serious, influential economist until this award, and for that I am clearly exposed as an ignoramous.  Or at least for going off half-cocked, picking a fight against someone clearly out of my league.  Oh well.

Friedman, Gladwell — if you want me to pick on you next fall, maybe you too can be America’s Next Hot Economist.

sorry Beezer

I think I may have found a new favorite hockey blogger.

She even kind of sounds like she know what she’s talking about. For example, regarding Craig Conroy and Owen Nolan:

Two beauties from what I like to call the “old guy line”. Well not only are they my two favorite old guys, they’ve turned into two of my favorite Flames this season. Yes, Tony Amonte would have been a fantastic third on the old guy line, but even TLC attempted to survive without Left Eye. And so it goes. These two have been HUGE (and kind of underrated) factors in the Flames semi-success this season. Who could forget Owen Nolan’s Hatty-Boom-Batty-Trick during the January 30th game VS San Jose, his first in nine years (O-No also played his 1000th game this season), and my personal favorite hat trick moment of the season. Doin’ it for the old Irish guys, rock it out Owen Nolan. The Flames, in general, rarely disappoint me, but these two fellas really made the season.

Sounds like she has better hockey-sense than I have… “Old Guy Line” — nice. I’ll show you an Old Guy Line. Though I don’t think I’ve ever done a Hatty-Boom-Batty (unless that’s one of those girl drinks your friends buy you long after you’re drunk).

Put A Fork In ‘Er – Regular Season Wrap Part Une. More of her blog here. More pics of her really natural Seattle tan here.

so, does Ovechkin own the Capitals now?

 

I’d be surprised if the franchise is worth the $124M contract they offered him.

Maybe now he can afford to get his teeth fixed.

Seriously, what city will the Capitals be playing in at the end of his 13 year contract?  Log your guess in the comments.

the kids are all-right

so my Wife relays to me the following story (November 1st or 2nd):

You know how when you pull into our cul-du-sac you turn head-on to number [xx]?  Well I turn the corner today, and there are the neighborhood kids with a sign in the driveway: “Candy 25 cents”.  I stopped beside the driveway and asked them if they were really selling Hollowe’en candy, and they said yes, but “only the candy they didn’t like”.  “THEY’RE TRYING TO SELL OUR OWN CANDY BACK TO US!!!!”

I’m glad the Wifey relayed the story to me over the phone, cuz I’m sure it took the sting off the laugh I gave when she was done.  What did she expect?  I was proud of these kids, trying to turn their Hallowe’en booty into cold-hard cash.  I mean really, from an economic point of view, if people are willing to give you something for nothing (or virtually nothing, since costumes seem to be optional nowadays), why not try to sell the proceeds for a profit?

obviously, she didn’t buy anything.  and given that we had about 125,000 calories worth of left-over candy at our house, I didn’t object.   but come on — these kids had the right idea*

* the other thing the Wife was upset at was the idea that the kids were selling back candy “they didn’t want”.  Butterfingers, I believe, were the main thing they were pushing.  They were not trying to return the KitKats or Peanut Butter Cups that we liked, or she might have bought them back.  Again, I saw this as an example of the free-market at work…

regarding the Peace prize

nuff said.

does this blog make my butt look big?

“Blogging is very intense — physically, mentally,” she said. “You’re constantly scanning for news. You’re constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you’re sitting at a computer and your ass is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you’re constantly using a mouse.”

These are just a few of the reasons Susie Madrak (aka Suburban Guerilla) thinks a “blogger union” is a swell idea.  This is nonsensical on so many levels; of course the first thing it brings to my mind is having to pay $20 union-dues every month before I’m allowed to blog.  Fat chance.

I think the word she’s looking for is “professional association”… such a group that could set professional standards and buy group insurance.  But that term probably smacks of capitalism (oh! the horror!).

[update] ugh, I read down through more than 10 of her posts, and she clearly states that she isn’t trying to start a union, she’s just trying to buy group insurance.  I can’t fault her for that — in fact it’s exactly what I wish for all Americans — buying your own health insurance and not having it tied to your employer.  The corporate tax benefits of employer-provided health insurance is a BIG HUGE part of the reason we have spiraling health care costs (see previous post on “if car insurance was like health insurance” — wait, that was over a year ago, I should probably update it).

Butt she didn’t refute the quote that kicked this whole post off — so I stand by my headline.

what is Al compensating for?

ok, I know this is just going to come across as petty jealousy — but what on earth could Al Gore need three 30″ LCDs* for? Seriously, he’s not doing all that climate research himself, is he? Maybe that’s one way he could reduce his carbon footprint — donate one (or two) of those 30″-ers to Me. I’ll even get off his back for a while.

From here, it looks like he has three web pages open on those three displays. Somebody needs to introduce him to Tabs in Firefox — they rock, and you can have like 20 tabs open on the same 15″ screen.

ooh, ooh, PLUS a TV against the wall that he isn’t even watching. how globally conscious is that? unplug it, Al. and even the computer output on the far right display — that’s totally out of his field of vision if you look at the picture. the whole third display is out of his field of vision. not to mention that he can’t possibly be reading that small type on the left display, not from that distance — based on the size of the columns, that text is barely bigger than newsprint — do you read a newspaper from two and a half feet away? the only excuse I can think of for three displays like that is if you’re running a Network Operations Center (NOC), you’re an engineer/rocket-scientist, you’re trading stock and have real-time updates from around the world, or high-end gaming (Half-Life or whatever the kids play these days).

and you might want to kill that thing crawling on the wall, if it isn’t all Endangered and whatnot.

*duh, I just remembered he’s now a Board Member for Apple; they no doubt gave him the displays gratis.
oh and this whole rant was triggered by Time’s The Last Temptation of Al Gore (messianic imaging, anyone?)