Category: Sports

Vodka + ice wine = Nellie's new best friend

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Watched Show Me (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, a low-budget Canadian film. It was interesting if not plausible, and well-acted if not well-written.

.:.

We also went out for our last Winterlicious dinner last night, to Jump with our friend CH, and were happy with the way the event ended. We had a great time: the service was great, our drinks were very tasty, and the food was quite good, especially my celery & parsnip bisque and my chocolate/espresso cheesecake.

And so it’s over for another season. The final tally: 1055 was poor, Savoy and Jump were very good, and Canoe was excellent. I think that next time we’ll keep it to one or two restaurants; the value for money doesn’t always seem as great now that we’re more or less limited to vegetarian options.

.:.

Today is sports marathon day. Right now I’m watching the end of the Raptors/Clippers game; after that I’ll slip over into the recording of the Canadiens/Penguins game, and then at some point tonight tune in to the Superbowl (hopefully I can avoid Billy Joel singing the anthem and Prince performing at halftime). Nellie’s been forced to set up temporary residence in the bedroom.
[tags]show me, winterlicious, jump cafe, raptors, clippers, canadiens, penguins, superbowl[/tags]

I'm not the only dummy in this dummy room

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After last night’s drinks & veggie burger (at Spuntini’s The Spud Spot The Auld Spot) I watched Montreal play Pittsburgh. The Canadiens eventually lost in the shootout, but were lucky to get out of it with a point, being down 2 goals with 6 minutes to play. They had to endure a 7-minute (!) power play (during which they also went down 2 men for a while) and the loss of their best defenseman, so all in all they did well to get an OT draw, especially on the road.

Overall it was a great game: very chippy with lots of hitting but still fast with some real moments of skill. I can’t wait for the rematch on Sunday afternoon.

.:.

Fridays are my days to get stuff done in the office: fewer co-workers around me, fewer incoming questions & requests, and a last surge of energy before the weekend.

Ummm…I guess that means I should stop blogging though…
[tags]penguins, canadiens[/tags]

The summer of Dan

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I’m a very happy MBA student right now. Not only did I just finished stats/quants (which is generally thought to be one of the least pleasant courses), and not only am I now more than 60% of the way through, but I have a very favourable series of courses coming up:

  • Information Systems (IT is kind of my specialty, so this will be like a 3-month vacation for me)
  • Strategic Thinking (I took this course before I even started the MBA; that doesn’t mean I can skip it, but I’m already more than familiar with the subject matter)
  • Financial Risk (as I understand it, this is running computer simulations to determine financial risk of various investment & spending strategies…again, computers + numbers = my wheelhouse)

That puts me into September. I’ve been joking with classmates that this is the summer of Dan (a term I adapted from Seinfeld), and offered my assistance since this is probably one of the few times I’ll be of any help to anyone.

George: This is gonna be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this: The Summer of George!

[A bee comes and George has to run inside]

[via]

I also have a large comprehensive term paper to write up by the end of October, but I’m not worried about that. A classmate and I already have a topic in mind, with a ton of supporting material already lined up, and neither of us struggle to fill pages.

.:.

Since it’s cold out and neither of us are feeling that well, Nellie and I are undertaking the very winter-y exercise of watching the Leafs play the Canadiens, and then watching a movie: The Devil Wears Prada. Now that is the definition of marital compromise.
[tags]the summer of dan, mba courses, leafs, canadiens, the devil wears prada[/tags]

8.73%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Day 1 is behind me. The class was pretty lightweight (just an intro and refresher), but already this feels like it’s gonna be a long week. I did manage to squeeze in about 45 minutes of shooting around in the gym, which felt good. I seem to constantly be hungry, though, so that’s bad; I’m making sure I always have some fruit in my room. The meal choices were a little lacking, but I’ll live. Our usual trip to Wendy’s could be tricky; I guess I’ll have to find a subway.

.:.

I don’t normally much care for football, but the Colts-Patriots game was a pretty great one.

[tags]mba, colts, patriots[/tags]

"My mother told me to be wary of Fauns."

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Just got home from seeing Pan’s Labyrinth (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a film I’ve wanted to see ever since it got huge buzz at the Toronto film festival. It was, as advertised, Alice In Wonderland for adults: a child’s bizarre, sometimes grotesque visions as she copes with the horror of Spanish civil war. It was a disturbing, fantastic fairy tale; I wish I’d seen it at TIFF when I knew nothing about it.

.:.

Speaking of disturbing, we watched The Downfall (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, the story of Hitler’s last days in his Berlin bunker and of those around him, mainly from the perspective of his secretary Traudl Junge. It focused on how wildly erratic Hitler’s grasp of reality (and his tactical sense) was in those final days, as well as how his senior military members acted. Also interesting was how Eva Braun was portrayed; she was quite sympathetic, not the demoness the name tends to conjure. Anyway, we know how it all turned out — lots of cyanide pills and gunshot wounds — but it was a very interesting look at the final days of people at the whim of a madman, the only one among them not aware that the hounds are at the door.

As a side note: I wonder how tough it must be for German actors to put on as SS uniform, do a Nazi saulte and say, “Heil Hitler”. I guess they’re actors, and it’s what they’re paid to do, but man…I don’t know if I could dress up like Hermann Goering and recite lines about the superiority of the master race.

.:.

Other things we did today: got a much-needed haircut, got Nellie a 30GB Zen Vision M (pink, naturally), picked up a couple of DVDs (Brokeback Mountain & Good Night And Good Luck), tried to buy a TV (but were unsuccessful), watched the Senators demolish the Canadiens, finished updating my Shelfari collection, watched a bunch of shows on the PVR…and that’s pretty much it.

[tags]pan’s labyrinth, the downfall, hitler, traudl junge, zen vision m, shelfari[/tags]

"Because of this, she is not a real Seeing Eye bitch, and is also mentally deranged."

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The Onion A.V. Club sums up what’s wrong with 21st century game shows:

There’s something about Deal Or No Deal that’s more insidious than its molasses-pace and spotlit emptiness. Like 1 Vs. 100—like our culture, increasingly—it neither encourages nor rewards actual intelligence and talent. It rewards hope, self-regard, and blind persistence.

Idiocracy, here we come. Really, when you consider the success that game shows like Deal Or No Deal and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire have enjoyed recently, it’s a tribute to ABC that they’ve kept Jeopardy on the air for so long without dumbing it down.

.:.

While the story about Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone accepting a challenge to let the public make suggestions for the TTC website revamp was in all the Toronto blogs last week, it’s finally seeped into the mainstream media. This story makes my inner geek all warm and fuzzy. Congratulations to Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto for getting something done, and well done Adam Giambrone.

.:.

The Doha round of World Trade Organization talks may still have some life, though the clock (on President Bush’s “fast-track” authority, specifically) is ticking. Ultimately, this is a case where a lame-duck president could come in handy; if Bush were facing re-election in 2008 there’s absolutely no chance he’d cut $20 billion in farm subsidies.

.:.

The Canadiens are now mired in what can only be called a slump. They’ve lost 3 straight, partly because of the flu bug that’s floored half the team, and partly because New Jersey just has their number. The Habs need to locate their scoring touch, and soon, because the Senators and the Rangers are turning on the jets.

.:.

Last night we watched Everything Is Illuminated (imdb | rotten tomatoes), the movie adaptation of a book I read a few years back. I wondered how director Liev Schreiber would deal with the third, most fantastical storyline; it turns out he ignored it altogether. It was the right choice, if also the boring one; there was no good way to put that on the screen and still hold the other storyline(s) together, and yet that storyline was the only thing that made the book stand out from the rest of the story which had been told hundreds of times before. What remained in the film was good, but not new.
[tags]deal or no deal, 1 vs 100, who wants to be a millionaire, jeopardy, ttc, adam giambrone, robert ouellette, wto, doha round, canadiens, everything is illuminated[/tags]

You know what rule?

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The platinum lounges at the Air Canada Centre. That’s what rule.

[UPDATE] We just got back from the game where the Raptors held on (barely) to beat the Wizards. We got the tickets through a charity auction at Nellie’s office, and they might have ruined our basketball-going future. I don’t know if I can go back to regular seats after this: a platinum lounge — a room just for six of us, with a TV, free food, free drinks, free ice cream, comfy chairs, etc. — and seats just a few rows behind the Wizards’ bench. The lounge’s concierge looked after us, even coming out to our seats to see if we needed anything.

If this is how the other half lives, I wanna be the other half.

[tags]air canada centre, platinum lounge[/tags]

"We just f***in' got it done."

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Highlight of my day: Canada winning gold for the third straight year at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Montreal Canadiens prospect Carey Price was named to the all-star team, named best goaltender and named tournament MVP. Forward Jonathan Toews, also named to the all-star team, was so excited that he dropped the F-bomb live on TSN immediately afterward.

.:.

Today — day 5 of vegetarianism — was the day I discovered the veggie burger at Harvey’s isn’t bad. Good to know that I can still get a decent junk food fix if need be.

In recent days I’ve realized that a lot of the food I find the most satisfying has little to do with meat. For example, we’re about to get some dinner at C’est What before we go to the movies, and I can still have the yummy antijitos and yam frites.

[tags]canada, wjc, vegetarianism, veggie burger, harvey’s, c’est what[/tags]

Guide dogs, polar bears and cats…oh my!

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I watched most of the world junior semifinal hockey game between Canada and the US today (thanks, TSN broadband!), and watched overtime and most of the shootout in the TV room with a bunch of colleagues. It took the 7th round of a shootout for Canada to finally complete the comeback win. It just kept going on and on; I actually yelled at the TV once, “Do they not realize I have a 1:00 meeting?!??!” before Jonathan Toews finally put it away and Carey Price (Canadiens draft pick; natch) stopped the final American shooter.

I went from nearly having a heart attack to running down the street for a meeting.

.:.

Pat Robertson has either gone senile or just hasn’t gotten enough press lately. To wit, he’s claiming that God spoke to him about some terrorist attacks. I don’t believe there is a God, but if there was, he sure as shit wouldn’t waste time talking to Pat Robertson.

.:.

Nellie talks about all the donations made in our names this year (in lieu of xmas gifts, as per our request). There’s some great stuff on there: animal protection, environmental concerns, anti-poverty, education…good stuff, all. Makes us feel warm and fuzzy.
[tags]hockey, world junior championship, pat robertson, terrorist attacks, charitable donations[/tags]