I’m finding the Aplia Econ blog really interesting. Maybe it’s because I’m in the middle of economics week right now; let’s see if I’m still digging on it next week.
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The Hot Docs lineup is out. The temptation to look at that rather than study: almost overwhelming.
Day three is behind us. I have a few minutes’ break and then head back over to the “social center” for a little group chat with our company’s COO. This morning we had a presentation from our Chief Economist, so it’s been an executive kind of day.
We also had a complete shift in the approach of our prof. We were going way too slow, and some people said something, so now we’re off to the races. We still haven’t encountered anything difficult, and I’m starting to think I’m spending effort on the wrong things. I’m just going to work through some of the sample exam tonight after this COO thing and go from there. I think everything else may be, as one colleague likes to put it, an “attractive nuisance”.
Honestly, this feels too easy to me. I know I don’t have that good a grip on economics, so either this course is geared too low for us or the other shoe is gonna drop on Friday morning.
I want a “Bomb The Blogosphere” t-shirt like Marten’s. Of course, I’m sure that’s what Jeph is planning.
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You just know that any article called “Why the Leafs stink” is going to make me happy.
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By the way, in case you haven’t figured it out, the percentages in the title field shows how far through this week’s course I am. I also happen to be 39% of the way through the overall program. Hooray for me.
Day two: down. Just finished most of my “homework”. Will probably get something to eat, finish the rest, review some other stuff and maybe watch 24 before heading to the bar to see who’s out and about. No exercise tonight: it’s yoga and volleyball in the gym.
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Have been having weird computer problems all day. Half the time my laptop can’t find an IP address on this network, but it only seems to be my laptop. The tech support guy thinks it might be a security policy that was pushed down last week and is causing some problems for me now. All I know is, it seems to come and go randomly, so…argh.
The Canadiens beat the Penguins last night to jump into a 7th place tie with New Jersey. Jersey, by the way, lost to the Leafs. This was one game that I didn’t mind the Leafs winning.
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Managed to get lots of exercise in last night. There were only three of us out shooting hoops, so we played bump. Many, many games of bump. Still managed to get my work done and head to the bar for a drink too. A good night, overall.
Ugh. This place, shockingly enough, didn’t prepare the best duck I’ve ever had. I’m still hungry!
Anyway…done most of my homework already so I’m going to go shoot hoops in a little while.
Here I am again, trapped in the compound. Day 1 (well…we didn’t start until 1:00 so it wasn’t exactly a full day) of economics is behind us, and I have just a little bit of work to do tonight. Homework, as it were. As you might expect, the content’s a bit dry, but I can live with that.
The Toronto star does a little metareporting today, listing the Canadian CDs that have scored 80 or better on Metacritic this year. No surprises, really.
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Forgot to mention this last night when writing about the Habs-Leafs game. Darcy Tucker was dirty when he played for Montreal, but I think he now holds the unofficial title of dirtiest player in the NHL. The Leafs, as a whole, pretty much have the title locked up as a team as well — having cheap-shot hacks like Tie Domi and Luke Richardson on your team and whining about the refs after every game will do that — but Tucker may be the worst. Last night, as they were getting pounded, Tucker decided to throw an elbow at Alexei Kovalev and clipped him in the forehead. Kovalev isn’t a fighter by any means, but rather is the Canadiens’ most talented offensive player. He isn’t, however, small or week (unlike Mike Ribeiro, who Tucker had decided to jump earlier in the game) so two minutes later as he skated toward the corner — being lined up by Tucker for another hit — he skated into Tucker…elbow first.
I don’t normally like such plays, but the refs hadn’t called Tucker’s elbow attempt, and the little shit was determined to hurt somebody…so Kovalev did something about it. Tucker wasn’t hurt — he got up started punching Kovalev — so there was little harm done, but I honestly think thatbacked the Leafs down enough that the game didn’t spiral completely out of control. That loss practically eliminated them from the playoffs, and they seemed hell-bent on taking out the their frustration on the Canadiens.
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I’m off to my course in about an hour. Posting will probably be sporadic, or at least limited mainly to whining about how the week is going. These courses are usually a little better in that you don’t work until midnight or 1 AM every night, and I haven’t seen my classmates in four months now, so I’m kind of looking forward to this one a bit. That said, by Tuesday I’ll be more than ready to come home. 🙂
We just finished watching Gunner Palace (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about an American field artillery unit who took over Uday Hussein’s old palace in Baghdad. It was a bit uneven and slow at times, but overall a pretty informative slice of (shitty) life for these guys and the Iraqis they deal with. The soldiers have to duck rocks, worry about IEDs and deal with the fact that no one back home will every understand what their time in Iraq was like. The Iraqi people get held at gunpoint, woken up in the middle of the night by soldiers and sent to prisons like Abu Ghraib without much evidence against them.
“I don’t think … anywhere in history has someone killed someone else and something better has come out of it. It’s just … not possible.”
Whatever you think about the war, you have to respect the soldiers for the work they have to do, and feel sorry for them when the situation sometimes pushes them over the line. Gunner Palace was a good look at a bunch of soldiers standing at the edge of it.
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I also watched Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this week. Dopey martial arts movie, but holy smokin’ Joe Kubek, that Tony Jaa is one bad-assed squeaky-voiced mofo. No effects, no digital tricks, no “bullet time”, just a little dude kicking and elbowing and jumping and kneeing his way through a whole raft of baddies, including one creepy voiceboxed chief. If you appreciate martial arts movies for the action and don’t mind the thin plot or dippy dialogue, pick this up.
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The Canadiens all but eliminated the Leafs tonight, winning 6-2 after beating them 5-1 two nights ago. Atlanta lost, so Montreal moves back into the 8th playoff spot. The way things are going, the Montreal-New Jersey game we have tickets for in two weeks could be big indeed.
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Clubbed today: protestors in Minsk, baby seals.
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My old friend from university, Farm Boy (ironic that he got the name, since I grew up on a farm and he did not) visited today. He, his wife, Nellie and I had lunch downtown at the Irish Embassy and then caught up for a bit before they left to have dinner with his brother. They were enamored with the cats; who wouldn’t be?
Busy day. Got to work around 7:30 and left around 7:00. I can’t really remember doing anything major today, just a pile of little things. Seems like that’s all I can get done anymore. I’m thinking about booking a small room for myself one afternoon every week…no email or phone, just a notepad and a pen and my brain.
Anyway, it was partly busy ’cause I’m away all next week. Course number…6, I think. A friend of mine from university is coming into town tomorrow, and I have about 10 other things on the go, so I have lots to do between now and Sunday morning.
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I just pre-ordered the fifth season of Six Feet Under. Good thing Nellie has her Young Riders nostalgia to keep her occupied, otherwise I don’t think she could keep her mitts off the SFU discs until I get home.
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I’ve been pretty silent on music & movies lately. This is what I’ve bought in the last month or so:
I also have new albums from Ben Harper, Gomez, the Fiery Furnaces and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in my ‘inbox’ waiting to be reviewed. The new ones from Clearlake, Magneta Lane, Rainer Maria and Beth Orton are on my wishlist.
As far as movies that are still out in Toronto that I want to see:
The movies coming up this spring/summer that I really want to see: American Dreamz, Flight 93 and X-Men 3.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 