Lost Finale

I, for one, was really satisfied with the series finale of Lost tonight. All good stories must have an ending.

What I'm Doing On My Summer Vacation

This summer I'm coaching a minor baseball team here in Waterloo. There weren't enough parent coaches available so the manager, who I curl with, ask me if I was interested knowing that I used to play and umpire. Thinking it might be good to do some community volunteering for a change, I accepted. It's a Tier 2 Mosquito team (kids born in 1999... scary in and of itself), so we do a bit of travelling, but not too far. It's pretty good, as the kids are good enough to want to be there but they aren't the Tier 1, Triple-A, more focussed on winning pressure cooker. So far, we're at 1 win and 2 losses. If you really feel like keeping track of our progress, here is the league homepage (after clicking on schedule or standings, select Mosquito Tier 2 in the drop down box).

The downside to it is that it's a few more of my evenings every week taken up than I had originally thought. We usually have 2 games (home and away) and 2 practices each week. The consolation is that it's good fun while I'm out there.

Now all I have to do it learn all their names without using the lineup card as a cheat sheet.

Round 2 Picks For You

I only picked 3 first round series correct, which means I did worse than most monkeys. But I got one exactly correct (Sharks in 6), so... consolation? Anyway, round 2 goes like this:

Pittsburgh 4-0 Montreal
Boston 4-2 Philadelphia
San Jose 4-2 Detroit
Chicago 4-1 Vancouver

Barenaked Ladies Concert

I went to see Barenaked Ladies last night at Centre in the Square. I was really eager to catch them live since they became a 4 piece band. They certainly did not disappoint. Of course they played a bunch of stuff from their new album (which is pretty good), but there was a solid amount of their hits. I think my surprise favourite of the night was "Sound of Your Voice". The only song I had really hoped that they would play, but didn't, was "For You".

Of course, one of the things going into the concert was how were they going to be without Steven Page. Honestly, I can say except for one or two times during the concert, I didn't even really notice that something was missing... which I suppose means that there isn't. The only time I really noticed it was during "If I Had $1000000". Speaking of $1000000, someone actually threw Kraft Dinner on stage during the song. Really, guy? Really? I thought they got people to stop that like 10 years ago.

The crowd was a bit weird though. About a third teenagers, a third late 20's/early 30's, and a third seniors (for some reason). That, plus being in Centre in the Square, made the band work really hard to get people up out of their chairs during their songs... but they eventually succeeded. And kudos to them for doing it creatively (an impromtu rap which included the chorus of "get off your ass!"), instead of how I saw the Tea Party do it one time (they just simply said, "Stand up, this is a f*cking rock concert").

So, anyway, that was the third time I've seen them in concert. The first being at the Palace of Auburn Hills and the second at Bayfest. 3 very different venues. I'll see them again for sure.

What's In A (Country's) Name?

Here's something that's always bothered me. Maybe you can shed some light on the subject. Why is it that there are some countries that have completely different names for in English from their native language? I'm looking at you Deutschland. You too Nippon. Don't think I forgot about you Bhārat. Eire, Norge, Italia... you're all on notice.

Maybe the question should be, why don't we call them by their native name? And it's not just limited to English. French has Pays-Bas, Corée, Allemagne to name a few. I can understand, to an extent, when a name is made up of actual words (United States = États-Unis in French, Cote d'Ivoire = Ivory Coast in English), but a name should be a name. If I were to go to another country, they wouldn't start calling me Kodos instead of Matt because that's how they say it. That would be weird... and it's not my name.

I want to single out Germany, because it's case is especially weird. For example... the Olympics, ok? Usually, the countries will be identified onscreen by their 3 letter short form in their own language (NED for Netherlands, SUI for Switzerland) but not Germany... they're GER instead of DEU. What's up with that? Well, maybe what goes on TV screens is out of their control. But then why do they paint GER on their own bobsleds?

Better Late Than Never Playoff Predictions

Yeah, I made predictions for the NHL playoffs before they started. Honestly. So, I'm just posting it late. I'm totally not letting the knowledge of the last 5 night affect my predictions at all. Some of them are already wrong... but I'm still gonna post them.

Washington 4-1 Montreal
New Jersey 4-3 Philadelphia
Buffalo 4-2 Boston
Ottawa 4-2 Pittsburgh

San Jose 4-2 Colorado
Chicago 4-1 Nashville
Los Angeles 4-3 Vancouver
Detroit 4-1 Phoenix

See? Phoenix is already up 2-1 in their series. I can't get that one right now. But, in my defense, how was I supposed to know that Phoenix actually had a hockey team?

Today's Slurpee Conditions: Unnecessarily Frozen and Unofficial

So, I bought a six pack of coke to put in the mini fridge I have in my hotel room. Yep, they're frozen solid now.

CYQG-CYPT-CYQG-CYPT-CYQG and so on

I've been working in a new office since last Thursday.

It's the inside of a Cessna 208 (I think that's what kind of plane it is). I've been doing travel survey interviews (boo!) for people travelling to and from Pelee Island (which, at this time of year is by air). And since it's much easier to get people to participate before they take off, I've been flying in the plane as part of the job (yay!). It's about a 20 minute flight and it doesn't get too high, so you get to see Essex County from a nice aerial perspective. Here's a shot I took of Point Pelee:

The people have been warming up to me as I've spent a couple days there now (everyone knows everyone else on that island, it seems), and the pilot has been super-cool... even letting me sit up front on a couple trips:

Anyway, I'm really glad I like to fly, because it's been a really nice perk of a crappy, crappy job. It almost makes me want to learn to fly myself... but I know that takes a lot of time and money. I'm here for instant gratification, people.

Help Me Help Big Brothers

This weekend is the annual Curl for Kids event, which is a fundraiser for Big Brothers of Sarnia-Lambton. This is my fourth year (I think) of participating. I'd appreciate any help you could throw my way for my fundraising effort.

Click here to go to my donation page.

Thanks.

Geocaching

So, 5 years after signing up on the website, I finally went out and tried Geocaching last weekend when I was visiting friends in Belleville.

For those who are unaware of this hobby, people hide small containers with a logbook in public places and list the longitude and latitude online. Then you use your GPS to hunt it out. It's a fun reason to get outside and enjoy a walk. We were able to find 3 in a conservation area near Belleville, then when I got home I found a couple more in Waterloo Park. While in the park I ran into a couple of really experienced Geocachers and they gave me some good pointers on getting started out.

Anyone else ever try this. I think I might do some more of it, especially when the weather gets better.