Curling Roundup

While the losing streak continues, at least my curling team has been doing much better recently. For the past 3 weeks, we've taken the game right to the last rock. Sometimes we had the hammer, and sometimes not, but we're only losing by a point or two.

This past weekend was the Big Brother's fundraising bonspeil. Our team went 1 win and 1 loss. There was only 1 instance of Joel highsticking Joe in the face. He drew blood, but the refs didn't see it, so there was no penalty. However, the evidence was left on the ice. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

It's Like Free Money!

As you may recall, I bought an HD-DVD attachment for my XBox 360. My rationale for buying the losing format in the High Definition media war were basically around what I got for my $129... namely 6 free movies and the hopes of a firesale. Well, since HD-DVD was beaten so badly, the price of the attachment drive just dropped to $49! Seeing how I was still well within my 30 day price guarantee windows at Best Buy, I went down there and got my $90 back! And (in theory) I'll still get all those free movies. I'm still waiting for that firesale on actual movies to start though.

So Long Champ Car

The news came out last Friday... the IRL had bought out Champ Car. The teams would be offered financial incentive to move over the the "League" and a few (it looks like 3) events will be attempted to be squeezed into the existing IRL schedule. It's the death of the series I loved and to top it off the end of the Toronto race (Molson Indy/Steelback Grand Prix). To say I'm disappointed is an understatment. A lot of casual observers to the sport would ask me, "What's the big deal? I can't see the difference between the two." Believe me, there was a difference. There were the venues (more road/street courses vs. oval after oval), there was the Canadian Content (3 races and drivers like Paul Tracy, the late Greg Moore and Alex Tagliani), there was the cars (just compare pictures of the two types of cars, paying special attention to the nose and sidepods), and the engines (the sound of turbos are so cool).

Of course there was also the fact that the IRL was started as a blatant power-play by the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway disguised as the protection of American grass-roots racers and oval tracks. Just look at what the IRL was becoming... adding more street/road races and leaving oval tracks. Now you'll say, "well, wasn't that what you wanted a series to be in the first place?" You'd be partially right, but it's the hypocrisies of it all that I can't get past. Not that the opinion of one guy will change anything, but it's something I felt I had to stick to.

Now I'm faced with a choice. Don't watch the IRL, or follow my favourite drivers and teams there and watch them struggle against the existing IRL teams all season (with 6 years of experience with the equiptment) and hope that magically the series is drastically altered for 2009 (there's talk the the Toronto race would come back after a year's hiatus... but we'll see). I'll probably watch to begin with, to tell you the truth, and see what happens from there.

Oh Yeah... Then There's Curling

So, as painful as it is to report on the adventures of my curling team this year, I'll give it a go. Our team is 1-9 so far this year, and that one win came when I was on vacation (but don't get any ideas... I'm not the weak link here... we just got a super-sub that week). But the last 2 weeks have been really good. We've taken both games down to the last shot of the eighth end... and lost by 1.

This weekend is the Big Brother's Bonspiel. I've sent most of you solicitations for donations by email. But if I haven't and you'd like to chip a couple bucks toward the Big Brother's of Sarnia-Lambton, it'd be appreciated. Click here to go to my donation page. Thanks.

I'm 10% of a Loser

I've reached the first major goal in my Weight Watcher's program. I've officially lost 10% of my starting weight. I weighed in at 243.6lbs last night, which is a total loss of 26.2lbs. It's taken me 21 weeks to get to this point, which is an average loss of 1.25lbs per week. Check out the Excel chart...

The cruise I took over Christmas didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. I only gained 1.2 lbs from that despite not paying attention to what I ate. I credit that to the amount of physical activity I was doing while on board.

Speaking of physical activity, that's the next step I have to take in this whole process. I don't hit the gym very often (because I really don't like it there) and I've been quite inactive while the weather is cold. But, my plan is to soon go out an buy a bicycle and do some riding this spring/summer.

For reaching the 10% point I got a keychain for my efforts. Hurrah!

Did you see the eclipse last night? I tried to get some pictures, but they didn't turn out so good. I really need a tripod.

Tonight: Total Lunar Eclipse

Check it out. Tonight, there'll be a total lunar eclipse. The moon will be dark starting at 10:01 tonight and will start to light back up at 10:51. It's supposed to be a partly cloudy night, so it should be easily visible. The next total eclipse of the moon won't happen again until December 21, 2010, so enjoy it!

Deliberatly Losing

There's nothing like intentionally buying a technology that will not be around for long.

Yesterday I bought myself an HD-DVD player.

Yes, I was fully aware that Blu-Ray is the winner of the format war and that I'm ending up with this generation's version of a Betamax player. But bear with my reasons. Firstly, it's not going to take up extra inputs on my TV. I bought the HD-DVD attachment for my XBox 360, and I'm not going to be disconnecting that any time soon. Secondly, it recently came down in price... $70 down. Throw in the fact that I get 6 free movies with the purchase and an XBox 360 Universal Remote (which I really wanted to make watching movies easier), I think I'm not coming out behind with this. That, and I hope that there'll soon be an HD-DVD disc firesale. I already got my favourite movie from last year, Hot Fuzz, and I'm hoping to pick up the HD-DVD version of Serenity.

Sure, one day I'll get a Blu-Ray player, whether is be a PS3 or a standalone player (or, if I'm lucky, an Blu-Ray attachment for my 360). But for now, this is good. I rented "The Kingdom" in HD-DVD last night. So, I'm already getting use out of it.

0 Days Since Last Asked For My ID

Just because I think it's awesome... Today I got I.D.ed at the Beer Store. The girl saw my licence and just laughed. I was older than her.

For those keeping score at home, this is the second time in just under 2 months that I've been asked to prove I'm old enough to purchase alcohol. The last, of course, being on December 22nd at the Duty Free store. Not that I'm keeping track or anything.