senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
ghosts and gremlins haunt my pc
permalink Sunday, 01OCT2006:my firefox settings went kerblooey yesterday, so i didn't risk taking my pc down to the lan party at the parish hall until i had dealt with the issue. i was able to restore most of my firefox functionality, but couldn't get my sage feed reader or MY WHOLE LIST OF FEEDS to restore itself. also, my toolbar customization wasn't being saved at the end of each session which was really annoying (and yes, i am that picky about my display settings).
so, norton ghost came to the rescue for the first time today. first, i made a data backup to my removable hard drive and then restored my ghost image of my windows drive and settings from july. yay ! firefox was restored to its previous glory ! i quickly exported my feedlist to an OPML file and re-installed the apps that i had installed since july (skype, windows media 10). however, my desktop settings were also over-written, so i had to try to recall what i had changed there. next time, i'll move everything on the desktop into a temp directory before restoring the ghost.
dwiddling around with dead air
permalink Monday, 02OCT2006:for tonight's artofthemix radio show, i selected: i encountered a few glitches thanks to matching an old cd-player with a burnt cd-r, but managed to get thru the set after only a few bouts with dead air.
a copy of the show (minus some of the dead air for your aural convenience) is archived online for a week at yousendit.
the chronicles continue ...
permalink Tuesday, 03OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: daniel, marco (1), chris, me, megan, julian, jacques (1), mark (1) [1st half], jillian [2d half]
team black: john, gord, JFre (2), kerry, kevin, steve (2), jillian [1st half], mark [2d half]
while i had feared that the initial teams selection might lead to a rout, with 4 newish players on team black (john in his 1st game, jillian, steve and gord) vs. only 2 newish players on team white (megan in her debut and chris). john's hockey skills came in handy and he was able to insert himself into the action. megan was hampered by having to switch shoes with every shift change, but at times seemed to be the only person open for team white in the 2d half. gord seemed to have the most difficulty keeping his feet today, but that will likely change once his new shoes arrive in the our equipment order.
team white did go ahead early with some pretty passing from julian to mark to jacques for the first goal. kevin was again unable to prevail when chris passed to marco to get the second goal for team white. however, kevin did heroically strain himself to stop *my* attempt from right beside the net after a beautiful setup pass by jacques. his deflection of my shot rang off the post to safety.
team black was not utterly helpless, tho, and JFre caught a pass from kerry that he put behind daniel to make it 2-1. after mark made it 3-1 for team white, steve returned fire for team black so that it was only 3-2 at the half. we decided to shake things up a bit by swapping mark for jillian at the half. while jillian's scrappy play livened up team white, mark's steady hands turned the tide for team black, as he was able to help set up 2d goals from both JFre and steve (guess we can't treat him like a rookie anymore).
near the end, both teams appeared exhausted, batting the ball half-heartedly around center ice. however, with only minutes left to play, both teams turned it up a notch to make some spectacular rushes. both kerry and chris had solo breakaways but were unable to convert. kevin stared down the french connection of marco and jacques, deignfully tossing the ball out to safety. and so the game ended, with team black coming out on top with a final score of 4-3. we were very happy that kerry was able to join us after his injury last week and he was able to show off his shiny new stick with at least one assist. our next game will be saturday afternoon at 4:30 at the old arena.
what to do with the trash ?
permalink Wednesday, 04OCT2006:friend jillian roped me into helping out with her trashy project this afternoon. my back will agonize me tomorrow, but i must admit that it was a treat to see her glow with pride and glee as her plots came to fruition. as we got going, neighbourhood kids just waltzed up and asked if they could help us collect garbage from the streamside beside white row. there were even some just this side of over-ripe blueberry patches left for me to graze.
last i heard, the city had been trying to set aside some funds from its public works budget to pay for an official fall clean-up, along the lines of the successful spring clean-up. however, with an election less than 2 weeks away, i don't really expect that anything will be happening on that front before the snow flies. i suspect that the city would be eager to off-load this type of work onto the backs of volunteer citizens, but that said, the city did provide some tacit support, as a city garbage truck swung by to collect our filled garbage bags.
this is in great contrast to how the city has interacted with the local community composting group. some city staff seem to go out of their way to make things difficult for that group, to the point of seeming to actively work against them. i must admit that the composting group hasn't done any favours for itself either, continually asking for more and forcing the city's hand.
but the city does have a history of scuttling projects with an environmental focus. both the bus service and the recycling service have gone the way of the dodo during this council's mandate, leaving many citizens frustrated and disillusioned. surely there must be some way for the city to see that there is positive potential in leveraging the passion and groundwork of volunteer citizens and at least make some effort to appear green ?
tough to call
permalink Thursday, 05OCT2006:so it was an another evening of online poker combined with ripping of cd's. i selected the tracks that interested me from:
- the new pornographers - twin cinema
- the delgados - universal audio
- pink - missundaztood
also chatted with my bro and sis in shanghai over skype as their day was starting. this bro is the only one in the family who's not on skype, and while we were talking, i could hear his jaw drop when he finally realized that he too could make as many long-distance calls to the rest of us famille without paying a single cent.
i ended up a wee bit in the black after tonight's playing, making up some of the ground from my cratering performance yesterday evening. however, tonight's highlight had to be the following hand in which i was lucky enough not to have any stake:
so the player at the top has just gone all-in, with a bet of double the pot. with 4 A's on the board a K is the nut. tough to call ...
but the player at the bottom makes the call and wins the pot with only a Q as his opponent turns over JJ. now that's a serious OUCH. flopping that full house A's over J's, you're only worried about someone else having an A, KK and QQ. when the turn comes A, you get a surge and bet, as there's no way the other player would be slow-playing KK or QQ at this point. however, as the other player takes longer and longer to decide, you realize that he doesn't need KK or QQ to beat you anymore. and when you get called, you know then that your time in the tourney is done.
long weekend saturday nite
permalink Saturday, 07OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: julian, megan, jillian, siobhan, mark, jane, jacques, kevin, JFra, JFre, john
team black: susan, steve, yoan, sheila, erin, kerry, chris, garym, daniel, marco, gord, me
wow, the dressing room was stuffed as 23 people showed up to play today, including 6 women. both of those would be record turnouts as far as i can recall. happily, we had just enough equipment so that only a few items had to be swapped during shift changes. with 3 or 4 people on the bench per side, everyone's legs were usually fresh enough to go 100%, so it was a very wide-open game even as we played 6 on 6 plus goalies.
veterans JFra and jane returned for their first game of this season. with his speedy moves, it was difficult to believe that JFra had been laid up with a bad back recently. susan and erin made their debut appearances, while yoan and garym returned after a few games away.
i tried to take a few photos of the action, but none of the still shots turned out. however, i did manage to record a short video before my camera batteries died.
so let's see, from my scribbled notes, marco from yoan and kerry gives team black 1. JFra from jacques ties it up. steve from yoan and chris makes it 2 to 1 for team black, but then jacques from mark makes it even again at 2. marco manages a solo on a breakaway to make it 3-2 for black, but then mark pots one from JFre to even it back up again. finally, JFre from jacques puts team white up 4-3 and with both goalies kevin and daniel exhausted from stopping all of the other shots that DIDN'T go in, that was how the game finished.
after the game, i hit the storehouse for a couple of rounds with chris, steve, and julian, but left just as jacques, JFra and daniel showed up to join julian to watch the leafs-habs hockey game on the big screen. i went over to the nav to pick up some supper, stopping to chat with jae and madeleine about our committee work. when i got back home, i found a message from j.d. on my machine, so i ended up going over to their place for a small tourney of 10. i played well until the buy-in period, but soon after, i got too enamoured with my K-high flush on the turn. there had been a 8-9-10 of diamonds of the flop, followed by a Qd on the turn. i could lose to only 2 cards - the Ad and the Jd. i bet 80% of my stack and was raised back - oops. not very smart to bet into a straight flush, which is what she had as she turned over the Jd.
so, i tucked my tail between my legs, bade my farewell and wandered back home to watch some vids while trying to make up some ground with online poker. while going up and down with the cards, i watched 'underworld' with the tech commentary, followed by 'the dancer upstairs' with commentary by the director john malkovich and the star javier bardem. after that, i logged off of poker to re-watch 'infernal affairs', the hong kong cops and gangster film that was the basis for martin scorsese's new film 'the departed'.
timely discussions
permalink Monday, 09OCT2006:chatted with my brother in moscow early in the a.m. over skype. it was 1 in the afternoon over there when it was 5 a.m. here, so that would be a time difference of only 8 hours. he's got a new russian girlfriend and he's invited me over to visit. however, he was also assaulted by a skinhead on the street last week, so i still have my reservations.
this week's 'artofthemix' show is archived for a week on yousendit (login required, but it's free to set up an account). the show was based on 'a road trip mix' by Salman1. he posed a question on his latest mix about what the appropriate length for a mix should be. my take was:
i think that mix length is part of the art - it depends on the purpose (road trip, background, party time), theme, flow, and any other creative idiosyncracy you'd like to throw into the stew. it's a shame when a perfectly good mix gets wrecked when a couple of filler tracks are kludged in to top up a mix to 79:55. however, i also hate to think that i've 'wasted' part of a cd and usually accept the challenge of designing a mix that makes maximum use of the time available.after the show, i finished reading 'future prime: the top ten science fiction films' as selected and ranked by the members of the World Science Fiction Society. here was the top 10:
- '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968)
- 'Blade Runner' (1982)
- 'Forbidden Planet' (1956)
- 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' (1951)
- 'Alien' (1979)
- 'Planet of the Apes' (1968)
- 'The Terminator' (1984)
- 'Star Wars' (1977)
- 'The Matrix' (1999)
- 'Aliens' (1986)
broomballers R us
permalink Tuesday, 10OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles
team white: JFre, gord, john, daniel, marco, siobhan, me
team black: kevin, julian, steve, mark, jacques, jillian, kerry
with 14 people out this time, we decided to play 6 on 6 plus the goalies and dispense with any subs. as such, my scoring notes were pretty meagre. however, a few of us were given a boost by the fact that one of our equipment orders had arrived and we wielded new sticks / elbow pads / shinpads into the fray.
daniel and kevin faced off again in net, and the teams were pretty evenly matched, tho team black did manage to get ahead by two with a pair of goals by steve fed my mark. one was a centering pass from the corner that steve deftly put in past daniel, while the other one had mark driving past the net, dropping the ball back softly right onto steve's stick and then steve just inching the ball thru the gap between daniel's leg and the post.
john (who gamely played on even with his limp), gord, siobhan and i mostly played defense for the first little while, leaving the majority of the offense in marco's magic hands. however, he was held scoreless until JFre showed up fashionably later. with the extra offensive power brought to bear by JFre (and i'm not talking about the love tap he gave to another player's helmet), marco managed to catch one of JFre's extreme passes to breach kevin's shutout.
team black featured the talents of 'scrappy' jillian, 'sparkplug' jacques, 'crusher' kerry, and 'speedboat' julian, augmenting 'the master' mark's usual solid play on offense and defense. just to make sure 'sniper' steve didn't hog the entire shotting spotlight, mark tossed his own goal passed daniel after i flubbed up my attempt at a block at the blue line. however, marco happily returned the favour for team white when mark stepped in to backstop. with only a 1 goal lead, team black finally put the game away with a goal from jacques. don't ask me for details, cuz i didn't see it, but he definitely scored.
thus the game endeth, 4-2 for team black. our next game will be saturday afternoon at 4:30 at the old arena. hopefully the rest of our equipment order will have arrived by then, and we will be awash in a sea of new broomball shoes.
if it don't look like no newspaper, it aint no newspaper
(SCC rules for rights of authors over rights of users)
permalink
Thursday, 12OCT2006:i posted the first bit of this in response to this slaw posting.
Robertson v. Thomson Corp., 2006 SCC 43, a 5-4 decision that divides on whether the electronic databases ‘Info Globe Online?and ‘CPI.Q?violated copyright by including articles by freelancers that were originally published in the newspaper. the court was unanimous in determining that the cd-rom collection of newspapers did not violate the copyright of the freelance authors.
the majority ruled that the articles, when re-published in the databases, became part of a separate work no longer tied to the original newspaper. the minority felt that since a substantial part of the newspapers was reproduced, that the newspaper’s copyright in its compilation should be recognized. the decision parallels the majority and minority opinions in the 2001 tasini decision of the u.s. supreme court which split 7-2.
the majority in today's decision seemed to focus on the rights of the freelance authors while the minority seemed to focus on the rights of end users (including libraries and researchers) and noted that the effect of the u.s. decision was the removal of all freelance articles from the electronic databases.
while the 2004 CCH copyright decision was unanimous in determining that users' rights need to be balanced with those of creators and rightsholders, this decision seems to return to the philosophical 4-3 split seen in the court's 2002 decision, Théberge v. Galerie d'Art du Petit Champlain inc., [2002] 2 S.C.R. 336, 2002 SCC 34. looking at the 2 split decisions, the background of the justices is striking. i am curious about whether a grounding in civil law vs common law played some essential part in these decisions ?
| Robertson v. Thomson Corp., 2006 SCC 43 | |
| Majority 5 | Minority 4 |
|
Bastarache (NB) Lebel (QU) Deschamps (QU) Fish (QU) Rothstein (FC) |
McLachlin (BC) Binnie (Fed DoJ) Abella (ON) Charron (ON) |
| Théberge v. Galerie d'Art du Petit Champlain inc., [2002] 2 S.C.R. 336, 2002 SCC 34 Bastarache (NB) and Arbour (ON/QU) did not sit |
|
| Minority 3 | Majority 4 |
|
Lebel (QU) L'Heureux-Dubé (QU) Gonthier (QU) |
McLachlin (BC) Binnie (Fed DoJ) Iacobucci (FC) Major (AB) |
hmm ... look at those neutral citations ... numbers in reversed order ...
the informed background of our newest justice also may have had some influence. as kirk makin notes in his globe article:
“The nature of today’s legal cliff-hanger shed light on the Court’s decision last winter to re-hear the case to allow its newest member - Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein - to participate. It now seems clear that the Court was deadlocked 4-4 at the time, meaning that Judge Rothstein came on board as the likely swing vote.?so, am i implying that those with a quebec / francophone background see copyright in a somewhat different manner than their anglophone / rest of canada colleagues ? no, i don't think it's that cut and dried. i do think that quebecers are probably more steeped in the idea that culture needs to be protected and that safeguarding the rights of individual creators is the best way to do that. however, i disagree with that idea that
- (a) creators are the best caretakers of culture; and
- (b) that assigning a commercial copyright will help preserve culture
just for fun, i decided to compare these results with a couple of recent patent decisions. first, i looked at the Harvard mouse decision - surely we won't find any obvious pattern ! ...
|
Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents), 2002 SCC 76, [2002] 4 S.C.R. 45 |
|
| Majority 5 | Minority 4 |
|
Bastarache (NB) Lebel (QU) L'Heureux-Dubé (QU) Gonthier (QU) Iacobucci (FC) |
McLachlin (BC) Binnie (Fed DoJ) Major (AB) Arbour (ON/QU) |
hrrm. ok, maybe that was a bald pick. after all, this decision had to do with whether or not higher life forms were patentable and the majority decided not. the minority didn't want to decide that they were patentable, but according to the text of the law, they felt that they had to rule that way and if the government / citizens had a problem with that, then they should change the statute. but the parallel with today's copyright decision is still striking - go ahead, cut out the charts and overlay them.
ok, let's try again. how about the monsanto decision?
| Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 902, 2004 SCC 34 | |
| Minority 4 | Majority 5 |
|
Bastarache (NB) Lebel (QU) Arbour (ON/QU) Iacobucci (FC) |
McLachlin (BC) Binnie (Fed DoJ) Major (AB) Deschamps (QU) Fish (QU) |
(hey look, it's that neutral citation number 34 again !)
ahhh, that's more randomly distributed. here the majority decided to uphold the patent on the monsanto genes and held that when schmeiser 'used' the genes by planting seeds containing those genes, that he infringed the patent. the minority decided that yes, the genes were patentable, but that the plants were higher life forms. thus, when schmeiser planted those seeds, he could not infringe any patent because the plants weren't patentable, following the logic (?) of the harvard mouse decision.
so, without the bugbears of religion or culture in the mix, the court still ended up with a split decision, but one that seemed to turn more on the commercial aspects of the case. me, i think that if there is some kind of systemic orientation when it comes to the protection of culture or the patentability of life, that these kinds of things should be discussed out in the open and even embraced. following the lead of the u.s., where commercial concerns trump most other values, is not something that i would support, so i'm a bit knackered with how closely today's robertson decision hews to the reasonings in tasini.
fearless on a friday nite
permalink Friday, 13OCT2006:went to see 'fearless' at the astro theatre tonight with jillian and john. in the last three months or so, i've only made it to one other film (cuz most of the stuff churned out by hollywood in late summer was utter dreck), so i was very glad to re-aquaint myself with uncomfortable seats and salty popcorn.
the melodrama of the colonial powers attempting to humiliate the populace of turn-of-the-century china was a bit over the top for my viewing companions, but i'll probably go to see it again. like i told them, it's a historical pageant with a bit of martial arts thrown in, rather than a martial arts movie with bits of topical history for spice. all of the period architecture and costumes were very well done and the story arc of jet li's character, from cocky young turk to wiser maturity was very apropos.
afterwards, i ended up going for a couple of drinks at the storehouse and after closing that pub down, strolled into the legion to play a couple games of pool and rock out to some jukebox '80's tunes. i must say that it's much harder to make a decent pool shot when you can barely stand up - of course, it doesn't help that i don't drink that often and that this was probably the most alcohol i've drank in an evening - my sharking skills were definitely sub-par.
so, as a salute to pop tunes of the past, here's a vid from puffy amiyumi - 'tokyo i'm on my way' (thanks to popmatters for the reference !).
hanging on for the win
permalink Saturday, 14OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: jillian, mark, marco, calvin, odile, chris, jane, JFre, sheila, me (1), kevin (2)
team black: stephen, gord, kerry, megan, JFra, john, jacques, erin, yoan, julian, kevin (1), me (2)
with 21 people showing up it was another saturday melee on the ice. however, after 8 new pairs of broomball shoes arrived this week, we now seemed to have enough equipment to go around. stephen even spray-painted his pair gold ! first-timer odile seemed to have no trouble getting her footing on the ice and we welcomed calvin to the squad. he was one of the original founders of the broomball club and only needed a few minutes to get right back into the swing of things.
without daniel, i volunteered to go in net opposite kevin. big mistake. over the next half hour, i got peppered by the likes of kerry, stephen, JFra, jacques and yoan, who combined to score 4 goals. jacques scored the first one on a breakaway, beating me with a shot over my 'glove' side arm. the next goal was scored after JFra lofted the ball towards the net right to where 'cherry-picker' yoan was standing and he had no trouble batting it home. JFra got his own try a few minutes later after my botched attempt at blocking a cross-ice pass.
megan threatened on a couple of solo breakaways but i was lucky that they were called back for offsides. gord was ecstatic with his new shoes as he could now concentrate on ball-handling rather than about how to keep his footing. i made a few ok saves, but was glad when my defensive line of odile, sheila and jane were able to clear the ball to center ice where mark and jillian waited to throw it over the red line. marco and mark were frustrated on all their attempts by the stalwart kevin in net.
at the half, kevin and i switched teams and julian stepped into net in kevin's place. without kevin's bullseye to target, mark, marco, JFre and chris began to cut loose and managed to sneak a couple of goals past julian. marco streaked past john and i as if we were standing still to get the first goal, but while i can't remember who scored the second goal, i do recall that it was a 3 on 2 situation and i was astounded as we had all been standing on the red line mere seconds before. however, john (no longer limping) and erin joined me on defense to prevent any further incursions. the rampaging o-line for team black ran into 'stonewall' kevin, who, contrary to my previous chronicle, actually achieved his 2d consecutive shutout. the game thus ended with a final tally of 4-2 for team black.
another saturday evening, another poker tourney at todd's. i wasn't too positive about my prospects, seeing as i had been the first to get punted in the last couple of tourneys that i had played in. this time i didn't let myself get out of hand and managed to win a couple of back-and-forth rounds, enough to get into the money for the first time in a good while. of course, by the last 2 winner-take-all side games, i had returned to my '1st out' status. both times i was taken out by a 10 on the river 10's undercut my dominating post-flop hands. however, i had climbed enough ground earlier in the evening so these setbacks weren't sufficient to drop me back into the hole.
perfectly missing
permalink Monday, 16OCT2006:so i was in such a hurry to get to the radio station tonight that i forgot to set up my pc to record the show. i picked one of my own mixes 'perfect weapons' to showcase. samantha regine, the musician who opens the mix, had googled herself over the weekend and posted a comment. she was happy to accept my offer to send her a copy of the mix and i mailed it off to her this morning. salman sent me an email to say that he enjoyed listening to his own mix thru my ears on last week's show and hadn't even spotted the helicopter theme.
earlier in the day, i had taken a few minutes to vote in the local municipal election. with only 9 people running for 8 spots, this meant that only 1 person wouldn't get in. last time i voted for a mostly random slate of 8 out of the 13 possible candidates. in the end, all 13 of the candidates were offered the opportunity to serve on council as councillors moved away or quit. since i knew more about the candidate platforms this time, i voted for 6 out of the 9. we'll see if this council has more staying power and can make some headway with the municipal staff.
could've been a tie ...
permalink Tuesday, 17OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: john, siobhan, stephen, JFre, jillian, me
team black: kevin, gord, chris, julian, megan, jacques, mark
tonight's game was a pretty even-handed affair with both teams getting some great opportunities. team white struck first as JFre tossed a ball out from behind the net to stephen, who re-directed it thru the crease (and with the inadvertent assistance of jacques' toe) past julian in net. after that first goal, kevin moved himself back into the net and busted the scoring run by team white. on the other side of the ice, i stared down the threats by jacques, mark, chris and megan with the able defending by siobhan and john.
just after the half, team black pulled even after mark centered the ball to chris who then slid it cross-ice to the streaking jacques who made up for his earlier faux pas by beating stephen in net. with the sub, team black's fresher legs began to give them an advantage and with 15 minutes left, gord made a nice pass to chris at the side of the net and chris snuck the ball past siobhan to put team black ahead by a single. intense returning fire by JFre, stephen and jillian was unable to poke a hole in kevin's armour. with only 3 minutes left, team black put the game out of reach when julian took a pass from mark and eked it between siobhan's leg and the goalpost. the final tally was 3-1.
no such thing as overnight success
permalink Friday, 20OCT2006:this afternoon, we celebrated sandra's call to the bar. the room was packed with well-wishers and it turned into a very emotional occasion. there are many times where you see jerks and back-stabbers getting ahead on the backs of others, but when a good person like sandra succeeds, it brushes all that crap aside. she's destined to do great things and i'm very proud of her.
in the evening, i hit the astro for a return engagement with 'fearless', this time with julian, jane and kerry. while it's not destined to be a classic movie, i like how it is steeped in principles of how to be a better person, without any cloying patina of religiosity:
- understanding that other people may have different, but still valid perspectives;
- that you should respect those who came before you;
- that friendship is not something to be easily spurned;
- that one needs to take the occasional moment to reflect;
- that 'success' for its own sake is a hollow aim;
- that every choice you make can have good and bad consequences, that you can't necessarily control those consequences, and that wisdom is embracing their reality rather than railing against them
- link of the day: what
it takes to be great
... talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. ... The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition. ... you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it. ... Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.
sinning thrice on saturday
permalink Saturday, 21OCT2006:1. THEFT:
got up earlier than usual to take in the latest cape dorset print show at the nunatta sunakkuttaangit museum. i went a couple hours after the show opened to avoid the mad rush, but was still lucky enough to sign up for a print that i liked. because it was in an alcove gallery, some buyers might not have been aware that it had been for sale, so i was happy to take advantage of their possible oversight.
2. INJUSTICE:
iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: sheila, JFre, JFra, kerry, me, jimmy, chrisw, siobhan, calvin, erin
team black: megan, julian, gord, jacques, john, stephen, mark, jane, yoan
a high-scoring affair thanks to the presence of JFra (and the lack of kevin, who was still nursing bruises from his outstanding performance in tuesday's match). JFra scored the first 2 goals with a solo blast from the center and then another after taking a pass from kerry. jimmy, in his first game with our club (tho obviously not the first time playing broomball) took a pass from siobhan and pumped it in from the side of the net past julian. i was in net for team white to start with and managed to hold off the hordes of mark, jacques, yoan and stephen, but once team white was seemingly safe up 3-nil, i decided that i wanted to get some exercise and switched with siobhan. of course, julian would take that moment to rocket one towards the net, deflecting off of my leg to beat a screened siobhan.
JFra scored yet another goal to get a hat trick before the half. when kerry followed up with his first goal, it was looking pretty grim for team black. attempting to turn the tide, mark set up a goal by waiting until i committed myself before passing to stephen who easily stuffed the ball into the open net. yoan quickly tallied another one for team black to make the score a more reasonable 5-3.
however, the game then turned into a rout as JFra and kerry kept gord busy in net when they set up by JFre and calvin respectively, while only jacques was able to reply for team black, assisted by jane. just before the closing buzzer, i put the nail in the coffin by slapping in a ball that had dribbled past julian who had already sprawled to fend off 2 other players at the other side of the net.
i heard that there was some post-game grumbling, so for future reference, if at halftime the teams just don't seem to be working out fairly, anyone should feel free to suggest that the teams should be re-shuffled. however, while the final 8-4 score was quite lopsided, both teams had many defensive highlights with both megan and stephen seemingly able to snatch the ball in mid-air to break up a rush, and sheila and siobhan made up a strong defensive line for team white. chrisw was able to keep his footing in his first time playing broomball, while both john and gord showed off some fancy footwork in their new shoes.
3. GREED:
so we got together for another saturday nite poker tourney at todd's, but this time we were also celebrating j.d.'s birthday to boot. 19 gamblers started off the evening so it took some hours to sort things out. i managed to crawl my way into respectable, but still wallet-shrinking, 4th place, with becky finishing off johng in 3d, and spencer in 2d to take down her biggest pot ever. we sang happy birthday to j.d. at midnight and i have learned that the magic poker powers of snack poutine expire within 4 hours, so next time i will have to remember to re-charge.
sweet are the memories ...
permalink Monday, 23OCT2006:this week's Art_of_the_Mix show is archived for a week on yousendit (login required, but it's free to set up an account).
the show was based on a mix by bingsy called 'sweet is the memory: an americana mix'.
it should've been a tie !
permalink Tuesday, 24OCT2006:iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: siobhan, julian, stephen, dan, jacques, JFra, megan, me, kevin
team black: jimmy, kerry, chrisd, JFre, gord, mark, marco, kelvin
after the mis-match of the previous game, tonight's teams were excrutiatingly even. we welcomed dan back after his weeks-long absence - next time dan, could you try to schedule your weddings outside the broomball season ? both teams had extended periods where they could not clear their defensive zones thanks to tenacious red line play by siobhan, jimmy, mark and myself. the speedsters JFra, kerry, JFre, marco, megan and stephen were mostly kept to the sidelines as any rushes down the middle were quickly blocked up. with so much tight defensive play, goals were much harder to come by.
for team white, goals were scored by stephen, who deflected a no-angle shot by JFra past gord, and jacques from julian. for team black, marco from chrisd and kelvin from JFre managed to beat the heretofore unflappable kevin. so the game was tied 2-2 with only a few minutes remaining, but then after marco flim-flammed a high-stick call, kevin tossed the ball out weakly right onto jimmy's stick. jimmy lost no time blasting the ball past kevin to put team black ahead for the win. looks like kevin's one-game break made him a bit rusty, but we expect that he'll be back to his usual annoyingly-solid self at saturday's game (4:30 p.m. at the old arena).
fighting trhu the fritzing
permalink Wednesday, 25OCT2006:my pc is shorting itself out pretty frequently now, so i'll have to do an emergency backup this weekend and then try to troubleshoot. in the series of re-boots tonight, my zonealarm settings got fritzed. maybe it's time to just get a generic dell box :(.
so, rather than my usual oh-so-insightful rambles, i'll just quickly list 3 articles that caught my eye today:
- links of the day:
- help
for those who talk too much
[Point] One. If you think you ramble sometimes, you are probably right.
- generate
your own library catalog cards
- a tip of the hat to
slaw
- 12
rules for marriage
5. Wedding rings don't really come with magic powers. You will learn how to take care of each other one insight at a time. And even when you're not sure how, show up and you'll think of something.
super duper saturday
permalink Saturday, 28OCT2006:got up *way* too early to meet up with erin at the astro to prep for her afternoon presentation of inuit films. however, we found ourselves surrounded by a b'day party, so wandered down to the frob for a bit of privacy and a rare treat of breakfast for me (yummy french toast !). after sorting out the show details, i spent the next hour with the nunavut tourism gals at lunch at the nav. rushing back to the astro, i got there before the whole audience had settled, so panicking erin was able to return to her mc duties. the full house for the show was a great contrast to the 7 or so sized audience back in july, so this project is definitely building momentum.
iqaluit broomball chronicles:
team white: kevin, kerry (1), sheila, dan, julian (1), jacques, siobhan, yoan (1)
team black: daniel, erin, tracy, mark (1), JFra (1), JFre, john, chris, me
saturday's game was another nail-biter as the score see-sawed back and forth. while team black had the stronger firepower of mark, JFra and JFre, the speedy legs of yoan, julian and kerry were better able to take advantage of their opportunities. as well, team black's higher ball possession percentage was negated by kevin's grand performance in net. he was only beat by a sidelong rocket from mark and a throw by JFra that dribbled off of his leg. daniel at the other end of the ice was bested by a streaking solo julian, by a scramble in front of the net where kerry put the ball home, and by yoan after a setup by jacques at the center.
what also kept the score low was the tenacious defending by both teams, with siobhan, sheila and jacques holding the line for team white and erin, john and chris for team black. dan and i contributed consistent center line support. tracy, returning after a long break, showed off her sleek style (and tassled helmet) and mark also competed for the costume prize with a monster mask. however, JFre was the clear front-runner, decked out in a full superman suit, cape included. his iconic moment was launching himself spread-eagled onto the ice in an unsuccessful attempt to use his superspeed slide to catch up with the ball along the side of the boards.
for those not pre-occupied with entertaining trick-or-treaters, our next game is tuesday evening at 7 p.m. at the old arena. hallowe'en celebrations for the adults, however, were held tonight, with a costume contest at the legion. me, i dressed up for the first time as one of the 3600 green lanterns and went over to jane and kerry's for their soirée. a group of us did head over to the legion shindig, but with the lineup all the way to the street, only those of us who had been signed in and stamped earlier made it in. i checked out some of the costumes, said my hellos and then went back to J+K's for the rest of the evening. back at the legion, it seems that my co-worker janine got a share of the first place prize of $1000 for her portrayal of some buxom woman from some t.v. show that i've never even heard of, much less watched.
environmental dark age ahead
permalink Sunday, 29OCT2006:after a 5-hour long teleconference call in the afternoon, i settled in to the snack for a bit to get some sustenance and dig into a couple more chapters of jane jacobs' 'dark age ahead'. the local book club will be discussing this volume on saturday, so it'll still be fresh in my mind. from there, i popped in to the museum where the federal commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, johanne gélinas, provided a status report of how well our federal government is meeting its stated aims regarding climate change. the report card was not a very positive one. without a set of recognized priorities, financial accountability and focused program support, many of the successful initiatives have been left floundering while the intended keystones like an emissions trading system haven't even gotten off the ground.
pc withdrawl frenzy
permalink Monday, 30OCT2006:so, my motherboard was fried last thursday. well, to be exact, my power supply did the frying, but i had smelt it earlier in the week and didn't take enough steps to investigate until i found the two welded together. perhaps that explains my video card difficulty earlier in the summer. in any case, this means that i'll be left without a pc at home until i can get some replacement parts. it's amazing how much i use that hunk of silicon - tracking my expenses and budgeting, recording my radio show, creating mixes, reading blogs, playing online poker, watching dvd's ... anyway, perhaps i'll use the time freed up to finally get my law schoool application packages in order.
so, i spent some time today scoping out what i should do about the pc - should i just buy brand new, or is it enough to buy some replacement guts ? bill suggested that since the case and peripherals were fine, that upgrading the guts would still be cheaper and would still be a step up from what i had before. so i went online to tigerdirect.ca and ordered some components:
- 550 watt Coolmax power supply (that should take care of any power issues)
- 2 Gig DDR2 RAM
- 500 Gig Seagate SATA hard drive
- Intel Socket 775 motherboard / Intel Pentium D 840 3.2 GHz CPU / GeForce 200 LE video card package
- Masscool CPU fan / fins
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