Category: Sports

Currently…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

reading: The Angel Riots by Ibi Kaslik and Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach by Charles Hill and Gareth Jones. Eye Weekly and Now Magazine every Thursday. Toronto Life once a month.

listening to: Saul Williams by Saul Williams, though any minute now I’ll move on to Death Cab For Cutie‘s Narrow Stairs or Visiter by The Dodos.

watching: almost nothing. I’m paying only marginal attention to sports (go Pens! go Celts!), The Office and 30 Rock are done for the season and The Shield hasn’t started yet. All that’s on right now is Battlestar Galactica, and even that’s on 2-week hiatus.

scanning: 190 news feeds, averaging about 509 articles per day. Of course, these are only my personal-interest feeds; I have just as many work feeds. I mainly skim the headlines here, and pay attention to maybe 50, flagging 5-10 to read later.

browsing: 6-7 websites per day. I rarely have a need to visit particular websites now (see ‘scanning’, above) but a few are applications (e.g., Google Analytics) or snapshots (e.g., the weather) that don’t work in an RSS channel. There’s also Bruce MacKinnon’s editorial cartoon every day which, despite my best efforts, I cannot wrangle into a Yahoo Pipe. Again, this is personal-interest only; there’re other work sites.

running: 3-4 times per week, 3 miles at a time. On a treadmill. Half flat, half slight incline.

eating: penne with sundried tomato pesto. Well…an hour ago, anyway.

looking forward to: our rockies/BC trip in June; Euro 2008; visiting Nova Scotia twice in August, once to visit with family and once to wrap up the MBA.

wondering: why the hell I started writing this blog post in the first place.

[tags]angel riots, ibi kaslik, toronto life, saul williams, death cab for cutie, narrow stairs, dodos, visiter,  google reader, bruce mackinnon, yahoo pipes, euro 2008[/tags]

Apparently I angered the fickle weather gods

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Today: not so nice. Downright rotten, in fact. Nellie and I just got soaked (despite having umbrellas and waterproof jackets) walking from Queen Street down to King, and then sloshed home after buying some shelves and lamps at InDesign.

The reason we were out in the first place was to have brunch with CBGB and parents-of-CB at Barrio, which was very tasty, and now we’re back just in time to watch Canada/Russia play for the gold medal. After that we’ll continue to clean & rearrange the condo as we started doing last night, which I like to do…change is as good as a rest and all that. If I can just make it the rest of the day without going back out into the rain I’ll be a happy man.

[tags]indesign, barrio, iihf world hockey championships[/tags]

Crushed

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The Habs folded tonight, losing 4 games to 1 to Philadelphia, the 6th-ranked team. Philadelphia’s 18 skaters were no really better than Montreal’s 18 skaters (except for R.J. Umberger…that guy went all John Druce in this series) but Martin Biron was excellent and Carey Price was awful. Hard to lay too much blame at his feet; he’s 20 years old and was in his first playoffs, and he’s played an enormous amount of hockey in the last year, but in the end he let in three soft goals tonight and that was the difference.

It’s a weird feeling I have right now, something I haven’t felt since the early-90s…missed opportunity. For the last 15 years the Canadiens have only made the playoffs half the time, and when they do they usually  just sneak in to the 7th or 8th spopt, so it’s a pleasant surprise if/when they win a round. This year, though, they finished first in the conference and drew just about the best possible opponents in both rounds…unfortunately, their goaltending disappeared in the second round, and the offense that ranked first in the regular season couldn’t find any consistency.

Big picture…the Canadiens were the youngest team to the make the playoffs, and they should only get better. I think a lot of young teams with big potential go through a rough ride in their first real playoff run; the question will be whether they can take the next big step and learn how to perform in the crunch. I guess I’ll have to wait eleven months to find out.

[tags]montreal canadiens, nhl playoffs[/tags]

Desperate times

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Well, I fear my Canadiens have had it. They were down almost the entire game, came storming back in the third to tie it up, and then a horrendous call by a referee late in the game (against one of the Canadiens’ best penalty killers, naturally) gave the Flyers a power play, et voila…3 games to 1, Philadelphia. To be honest, I’d be surprised if Montreal can win Saturday night, even on their home ice…something like that must just be so deflating.

If you’re going to call chintzy penalties, call the dozen interference and holding calls you should’ve called on Philadelphia this series. If you’re going to put the whistle away, then keep it away in the FINAL MINUTES OF A TIE PLAYOFF GAME, crapweasels.

.:.

92.11% of the way through the MBA just doesn’t feel like enough right now. I’m past the point of being ambivalent about it; I’m outright annoyed at still having 112 days to go.  I’m away on the second-to-last course next week, and then it’s the home stretch; let’s see if I can stay awake.

[tags]mba, canadiens[/tags]

Things I feel it's important for you to know

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  • My favourite word for today: solipsism. No idea why. I’m sure it’s related to some kind of deep and brilliant observation that I made earlier today and shall force you all to hear about. Gosh almighty I notice that the definition of solipsism sounds an awful lot like blogging geez whod’ve thunkit.
  • A new poll suggests that the Montreal Canadiens are considered “Canada’s team.” The results were met in disbelief both in Montreal (where they’ll believe it when the CBC assigns announcers to Canadiens games who can actually identify their players and correctly pronounce their names) as well as in Toronto (where they were, quite frankly, shocked to find out that other Canadian cities even have hockey teams).
  • Any smoker who justifies throwing butts on the ground by asking sarcastically, “Where are we supposed to put them?” is a premium unfiltered asshole. Why not apply the same logic to empty beer bottles? Used syringes? Diarrhea? Just because there isn’t a conveniently located receptacle into which I can dispose of the byproduct of whatever unhealthy habit I may have, I haven’t the right to discard butt, bottle, needle nor shit wherever I please. It’s bad enough that you smell bad; try not to be so lazy too.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled solipsism.

[tags]solipsism, montreal canadiens, canada’s team, cbc, cigarette butts[/tags]

"Give him the gun. Give him all the guns."

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Bad night for my teams. The Canadiens lost and now trail a series for the first time in these playoffs. The Raptors lost and were eliminated in the first round, 4 games to 1.

.:.

I forgot to blog about it, but we watched both parts of Grindhouse (imdb | rotten tomatoes) a few weeks back. I’d heard Planet Terror was better than Death Proof, but I found it to be the other way around. A lot of people complained about the prolongated girlie conversations in Death Proof, but I found they were good buildup to the high-grade ass-kicking at the end.

[tags]canadiens, raptors, grindhouse[/tags]

4 down, 12 to go

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The Canadiens took game 7 tonight, pounding the Bruins 5-0 to salvage the series win. No one expected the series to last more than five games, but Boston turned the series into an ugly scrap long enough to win three games. Tonight, though, Montreal’s defense and goaltending were stellar, and their skill just took over in the second and third periods.

Not sure yet who Montreal will play in the next round…I guess it’ll be either New York or Philadelphia. I have to say, I’d rather see them face Philadelphia; for that to happen Philly would have to beat Washington, but I like Washington and hate Philadelphia, so I’m torn. Strategically, I’ll be cheering for the Flyers tomorrow, but deep down I’ll probably be hoping the Caps win.

[tags]montreal canadiens, boston bruins, nhl playoffs[/tags]

In which Dan briefly contemplates buying another TV

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The statistics in this Washington Post article just baffle me:

  • The Pew Center on the States released a study in February showing that for the first time in [American] history, more than one in every 100 adults is in jail or prison
  • According to the Justice Department, 7 million people — or one in every 32 adults — are either incarcerated, on parole or probation or under some other form of state or local supervision
  • Today one in nine young black men is behind bars
  • African Americans now comprise more than half of all prisoners, up from a third three decades ago
  • The U.S. incarceration rate is five to 12 times that of other industrialized countries as well as being the highest in the world

I can offer no insight or perspective. I’m still in shock from that first number.

.:.

The Canadiens held on for a tough win tonight. That game was like a war. The Bruins forced them to play their kind of game, but a superb goalie and a good power play (which finally clicked tonight) was enough to get them the 3-1 series lead.

The Canadiens should finish them off at home Thursday night, and I soooooooo wish I could be in Montreal for it. I wouldn’t even need tickets to the game, I’d be happy just being in the city and absorbing all the energy.

Between work, the NHL playoffs, Hot Docs (which starts Thursday), my assignment and everything else, I’ve kind of forgotten about the Raptors. They’re limping into the playoffs, but will face Orlando in the first round and should have a legitimate shot if they can throw enough big men at Dwight Howard. This is the first time since 2002 that both my teams have made the playoffs in the same year. People…I only have so much attention span!!

[tags]washington post, prison, incarceration, montreal canadiens, boston bruins, toronto raptors[/tags]

"I put two in his heart, one in his computer."

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We watched Planet Terror, the first part of the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature. It was ok. Ridiculous, cartoonish, over-the-top violence and gore, but at least a discernible plot to go with all the silliness.

From what I’ve heard, though, Planet Terror is the better of the two, so I shudder to think how bad Death Proof must be. I don’t think I’ll bother with it. I’m so behind on movie-watching that I might have to impose a “nothing below 50% on Rotten Tomatoes” rule on the PVR.

.:.

The Canadiens won last night’s game in overtime to take a 2-0 series lead into Boston. Tonight’s game was a must-win for Boston, and they did. I figured it was 50-50 going into tonight; Montreal’s the better team, but Boston was playing for their lives.

Next up: game 4 on Tuesday.

[tags]grindhouse, planet terror, death proof, quentin tarantino, robert rodriguez, montreal canadiens, boston bruins, nhl playoffs[/tags]

Would that I could still eat smoked meat

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It’s a very Montreal day: St. Urbain bagels for breakfast, the Canadiens game on TV tonight. Of course, that could be any Saturday, but it’s even better during the playoffs.

.:.

While I sit here and catch up on news and such from the past two days, I’ve been poking through my music inbox and seeing what’s what. I’m a little disappointed in the newest Black Keys disc Attack and Release. Part of what I loved about their previous albums was the lo-fi fuzzy blues; the new one is more advanced musically, but less interesting to me.The new R.E.M. isn’t great, but at least it has some crunch. I don’t mind it so far. (metacritic: black keys | r.e.m.)

Recently it’s stopped making sense to me that the album format even really exists anymore. Albums were really only a convenient format under which to release music; they were just groupings of singles before becoming ends unto themselves. Now that the album is no longer necessary, it’s only a matter of time before the increasing popularity of iTunes, etc. makes the album format irrelevant and we just consume individual songs, like we did 60 years ago.

.:.

We watched the season premiere of 30 Rock. Very funny. My love for Tina Fey (Girlfriend du jour!) is really getting quite alarming. It’s distressing, to be honest with you.

[tags]st-urbain bagels, montreal canadiens, black keys, r.e.m., itunes, 30 rock, tina fey[/tags]