On Roughriders!

What a crazy night. The rain was so heavy and all I had to protect me was a thin garbage bag that I grabbed from Lori's. That game will go down in the Rider history books, that's for sure. The worst part of the night was the city police and rent-a-cops taking it upon themselves to tell us that the game was cancelled and that we had to leave. Ben, Lori and I had sat in our water puddles for about a half-hour after the delay began waiting for it to start up again, but we figured that if the police are going around kicking us out then it must actually be cancelled. I guess what the black folk say is true - You can't trust the po-po.

Luckily I caught the end of the game on CBC at Lori's. I still would have rather been there because, as you can see from the picture, it was a crazy atmosphere after the delay was over. After the game, the Riders were coming up into the stands and shaking hands with all the crazy fans that waited out the delay.

The game itself was nuts! A great back-and-forth shootout. When all was said and done, THE RIDERS WERE LEFT ALONE, FIRST IN THE LEAGUE. I'm still soaking it up, this team is for real. The two week break comes at the perfect time because we are really hurting with all the injuries we've been dealing with. Can't wait till the labour day classic, that's going to be a crazy time.

On my way...

Well, today I packed up and moved out of Leeds residence. It was nice enough (especially the air conditioning!) but campus is a bit too isolated for me. Not really anything nearby for food or coffee. I will miss the squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs and my new friends the raccoons. I won't miss the Iraqis who practically lived in the TV room and didn't let anybody else use it.

I leave for Montreal in about two hours. I've only heard bad things about driving around in Montreal so I don't really plan on leaving campus unless it's by bus. The conference runs until Saturday and then I'm driving home. I'm planning on stopping in Sault Ste. Marie and Kenora on the 3000 km trip. Since listening to music for 30 hours didn't work too well on the way over here, I downloaded a series of CDs for learning french. I've actually spent a lot of my life learning our second language but it never sticks with me because I never get a chance to use it.

I don't know if I'll get a chance to log on before I get home so if not, I'll see ya when I see ya.

Holy Crap

High school in San Antonio, Texas. Wow. Here's a snippet of their curriculum:

CALCULUS
Students will examine the nature of God as they progress in their understanding of mathematics. Students will understand the absolute consistency of mathematical principles and know that God was the inventor of that consistency. Mathematical study will result in a greater appreciation of God and His works in creation. The students will understand the basic ideas of both differential and integral calculus and its importance and historical applications. The students will recognize that God created our minds to be able to see that the universe can be calculated by mental methods.

To read more about what you could learn going to high school in Texas, check this out.

Blind Spots Be Gone!

I read this article a few days ago about adjusting your side mirrors to remove the blind spot. I gave it a shot and, sure enough, it works! Give it a try for yourself. Just like the article says, cars behind you first come into view in your rear view mirror and then shortly shows up in both your side and rear view mirrors. Saves you the dreaded shoulder checks.

Physics Problem

All of us science students can relate to this guy :)

Heil, mein Führer!

I'm not sure how much of this article is a nutty conspiracy theory. I know that I've read lots of articles recently from reputable media sources (well...reputable in the context of the media) about many of these acts and bills that President Bush has been signing, slowly putting his administration above the law and making it easier for him to arrest people who are against him (Well, he disguises it by saying "against America", but...it's Bush's America at this point).

The stuff about the "shadow government" set up by Bush seems to be correct, according to an article by CBS News, and in 2006 the "Insurrection Act" (deals with the ability of the President to deploy troops in America) was amended to extend his ability to situations where he determines it necessary. Additionally, the Patriot Act has given the government the ability to overrule a whole bunch of rights and freedoms of citizens, and if you arbitrarily become labeled as an "enemy combatant," you forfeit your right to Habeas Corpus (basically, your right to not be held without charge).

There's a lot of political stuff going on in the States right now and a lot of public outcry for an impeachment. Even Bush's own party is starting to distance itself from him. I don't know how this will all unfold, but hopefully it's nowhere near as drastic as that first article would have you believe.

Tough Loss

Well, we saw shades of the past (is that kind of a Danny Barrett pun?) with the loss on Friday. After a very strong first half where we could do no wrong, we came out flat in the second half and couldn't answer the Eskimo's offense. The difference, as it turns out, was a missed field goal by Luca Congi to end the first half.

In my opinion, the reason we lost was that we were out-coached. And I don't mean by Danny "Shave" Maciocia. The credit goes to the uber-intelligent and future Edmonton head coach Jacques Chapdelaine. He took in what our defense did in the first half and came out with perfect play calling in the second half.

To be fair, I don't think our defense played that bad in the second half. They gave up two early touchdowns on back-to-back drives before figuring out the Edmonton offense. After that, they held them to two field goals, which is pretty good. Additionally, after we failed on a last minute desperation drive for a winning field goal, the defense gave us one more shot at it with a forced fumble. No, this loss falls on the offense, much like it did in the blowout against BC.

It's tempting to put this loss on Kerry Joseph. That seems to be the Saskatchewan way - it's always the QB's fault. I disagree. The difference between the first and second half was the O-line. Kerry had ZERO time in the pocket for the whole second half. We gave up four sacks, not to mention the countless times that Kerry threw it away as he was being taken to the ground. Okay, so we weren't holding up to the constant blitzing from Edmonton. Now the blame shifts to the offensive coordinators, Kent Austin and Ken Miller. Countless times during the CBC telecast, you could see Edmonton leaving the middle of the field completely empty of defenders during their blitzes, but we never sent anybody through there on a hot route, there was no outlet receiver for Kerry to quickly dump the ball off on during the pressure. Most of our receivers were busy running deep routes down the sidelines.

So, anything positive to take from this game? I saw a few things that I think are noteworthy. First, Austin seems to have taught Kerry how to put nice touch on the deep balls. His TD pass to DJ Flick in the first half was a perfectly placed ball. He also perfectly placed the ball in Fantuz's hands on at least two long bombs. Secondly, it looks like we've found our running back. I was really excited when I heard that we got Wes Cates from Calgary because I remember him being a game breaker with the limited playing time he had, stuck playing behind arguably the best back in the league, Joffrey Reynolds. He's still no KK, but he's a huge upgrade over Childs.

Next up we have Edmonton at home. I wouldn't be against putting Crandell in for a change of pace. I still think Kerry can be our #1, but you just know that Edmonton is planning around keeping Kerry under pressure with blitzes. Marcus tends to pick those up better and doesn't panic like Kerry does. Also, Marcus passes to Dominguez, something Kerry doesn't do too often. Maybe it'd give Joseph a chance to watch what his receivers are doing, see who is constantly getting open. We play Edmonton two more times after this next one. It might be nice for him to sit this one out and study the defense.

Thrilling!

They just don't make prisons like they used to...

Blasphemy!

I just forced myself to suffer through a two hour video of a seminar given by a creationist about why evolution is stupid. I don't know why I did it, I think I was drawn in by his ridiculous claims and his complete lack of reason. Of course it's easy to make evolution look silly if you ask "When's the last time you saw a dog come from a rock? Evolution is stupid!". Here are a couple of the claims that he makes during the lecture:

-Humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs and, in fact, Noah took some on his arc. Some even exist today in Africa!
-The Grand Canyon was created in a few weeks by the great flood
-There is ZERO evidence for evolution and everything has been disproved.
-Hitler and Stalin were evolutionists and this played a part in their decisions to remove lesser species.

I don't know if I recommend watching the video or not. I had to bite my tongue on a few occasions to prevent myself from yelling at my computer. It's frustrating to see one man spreading this kind of dangerous ignorance to a whole lecture hall full of people who are agreeing with him. If this kind of ideology were to become dominant in society, we'd be back in the ages where we assume Earth was the center of the universe because God would have it no other way. Grrrr, blind fundamentalists anger me.

http://pandachute.com/videos/100_reasons_why_evolution_is_dumb

I can heal you!

I hope that you guys find this video as awesome as I did :)

The new video for "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool.

Can't Escape!

If it's not Bible camp it's the annual Celebrating Hymn Heritage conference, held by The Hymn Society. There are hundreds of people, young, old and Amish. I usually notice when something comes to Carleton because they take over the cafeteria and annoy the hell out of me. At least this conference, unlike Bible camp, seems less cultish, lacking the evangelical preachers.

Paintball Showdown

These guys have a battle of the guts, standing 60 paces apart and firing paintballs at each other. Enjoy :)



A Paintball Duel - Watch more free videos

Har dee har har

Suckers!

Apparently I'm going to age a lot slower than the rest of you. I get to look forward to a long, moley lifetime while the rest of you with perfect skin will age at an accelerated rate. Take that, beautiful people! Bet you wish your skin was covered in blemishes too!

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/07/13/moles.html?ref=rss

Note: Apparently my hairline hasn't heard about this study...

Of This and That

I finished the last of my books last week (This summer I've read The God Delusion, A Brief History of Time and Angels & Demons). They were all good reads, especially Angels & Demons. I think that it is much better than The DaVinci Code and will make for an excellent movie (once again starring Tom "more forehead than not" Hanks).

Tonight I picked up The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It's about the size of a typical soft cover novel, except 1400 pages long. It should keep me busy for a while. Any other suggestions for "classic" stories that I should read? I was also eyeing up Moby Dick and Sherlock Holmes for future books...

I'm starting to count down my days left here in Ottawa. Roughly a month until I'm back home. On the one hand, it's great that I'll get to come home and hang out with all y'all in not too long. On the other hand...I've still got lots of hardware stuff to accomplish in the next few weeks.

Roughriders Destroy the Stumps!

I avoided the obvious title, "Riders Stomp Stamps". Mad props to me for that.

Although I didn't watch the game live (Dammit!!!!), I did watch the game in the TSN archives at their website. There's not much to say. We hit on all cylinders. CFL's website is down so I can't get the stats right now, but game ball has to go to Kerry Joseph. Props to John Chick for getting a sack in his first CFL game.

Is it just me or does our defense look more dangerous than it ever has? Maurice Lloyd is a stud at middle linebacker, Kitwana Jones has held his own as a substitute defensive end, DESPITE being roughly 50lbs lighter than the guys he's facing (He's filling in for Terrell Jurineack who is out with a knee injury). It seems like we have no drop off on the D-line even when we are rotating through all of our guys. In the backfield, we are finally getting the interceptions that Richie Hall sets our guys up for. Davin and Omarr were always there to make the plays but consistently dropped easy interceptions. James Johnson started last season and has kept it up this year with 2 interceptions already. Ron Robinson is making plays all over the field, he had a great mid-air tackle on Nik Lewis as he tried to hurdle him. In any case, 8 interceptions and 13 sacks in two games says this is going to be a great year for our defense.

Bring on the Lions! Although they are 2-0 as well, they've pulled off victories against Toronto (Only because Toronto missed the winning field goal) and Edmonton (Whose defense looks easier to penetrate than...well, insert your own perverted joke here). Their offense has looked horrible to start the season and their D is about the same as last year. We had no problem scoring on them last year, I don't see us having any problems again this year.

On Roughriders!

The White Stripes

How many of these songs do you recognize?

-Let's Build A Home
-Black Math
-Ball and Biscuit
-In the Cold, Cold Night
-Instinct Blues
-Stop Breaking Down
-Cannon
-Astro
-When I Hear My Name
-I Fought Piranhas
-Catch Hell Blues
-Icky Thump
-Seven Nation Army
-I'm Slowly Turning Into You
-Hotel Yorba
-De Ballit of de Boll Weevil
-Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
-Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
-300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues

I've been following the White Stripes for a long time now so I recognized most of them (not necessarily by title, but I knew the songs). They certainly put on a good show, they sound great live, but.... to a casual fan (and one who has been listening for a long time), this was a horrible set list!

Maybe it was because they were headlining at a blues festival that they felt like they had to play a lot of songs with a blues sound, I don't know. What I do know is that I missed a hell of a Rider game to listen to a bunch of White Stripes B-sides.

Songs I would have loved to have heard: Conquest, Rag & Bone, Hello Operator, Fell In Love With a Girl, Hardest Button to Button, Blue Orchid, The Union Forever

Spore

Take a look at one of the future games being put out by Maxis, makers of The Sims.

http://www.spore.com/about.php

Basically, it's similar in concept to The Sims, but you evolve from the cellular origins of life all the way to the point where you are colonizing other planets. It's pretty ambitious and I could see this being way more addicting than The Sims, based on the countless ways that your creatures could turn out (You earn DNA points along the way which allows you to "buy" certain characteristics, allowing you to survive).

Check out the official trailer which can be found here.

Any wagers on how long before right wing organizations start sending out press releases condemning this game as being sent by the devil? I wonder if they'll be allowed to play this in Kansas...

Happy Canada Day!

The day is almost over here in Ottawa so I guess I should send out a "Happy Birthday" to Canada. I don't think I'm going to make it downtown to watch the fireworks. I've never really been a fan of fireworks. I'm of the opinion that if you've seen one show, you've seen them all. In 2004 when I was in Vancouver, they held an international fireworks competition, with such countries as Canada, Spain, China, Sweden, Mexico... I mean, they were alright, but nothing special. If I wanted to see a colourful happy face exploding into the sky, I'd just try LSD.

So enjoy this day, even if you don't like fireworks. At least it means you get tomorrow off!

Sicko

I went to see Sicko last night, the latest documentary from Michael Moore. It's your typical Moore movie - biased facts used to push a liberal point of view. Fortunately, I'm liberal so I bought into it :) I think that the main point of the movie is to show why the USA relies on HMO's instead of a universal healthcare system. (answer? Money, money, money - The American Dream)

Moore often compares America to Canada in his documentaries and Sicko is no exception. He talks to a few people in Canada about their experiences with the healthcare system. Of course, none of them have a single bad thing to say. Granted, after seeing how it goes down in the States, I still believe that our system is superior, but it's not without it's own flaws. Obviously he didn't talk to anybody in Canada who had been waiting for months for required and urgent surgeries. Then again, he also didn't talk to anybody who had to declare bankruptcy to have their finger sewn back on.

Moore spent some time talking about healthcare in Canada, Britain, France and Cuba. I was astounded to see the quality of care that they receive in Cuba. Apparently they have one of the top healthcare systems in the world. All four of these countries used some form of a universal healthcare plan, the main difference being how they handled prescription drugs (of the four, it seemed as though Canada was the only one that charged a lot of money for precriptions, granted still well below what is charged in America).

I'd recommend this movie if you've enjoyed Moore's past work.

But The Bible says...

The Catholic Church is speaking out against the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS in Kenya. Their solution? Men should only marry virgin brides. So very counter-productive to all of the work that has been put into educating African people on aids prevention.

http://pressesc.com/01183307636_catholic_church

DEEEEE!

Anybody who was worried about the loss of Nate Davis, Omarr Morgan, Davin Bush and Jackie Mitchell is probably feeling a lot better about our defense after last night's game.

8 sacks. 3 interceptions.

For the first time in 10 years, Montreal loses it's home opener. We had some great personal performances on the D, in particular:

Eddie Davis - Game MVP as far as I'm concerned. 10 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception.

Our offense, although not spectacular, was efficient and protected the ball. How about that opening play, a 32 yard pass to Jason Armstead?

There are some areas of concern that showed up last night. Obviously our running game was virtually non-existant. I think that once we get Wes Cates in the backfield (rumoured to be happening for our home opener against his ex-team, Calgary), we will see a much improved ground game. Childs did show that he's got some great hands and that's why we'll keep him out there. I fully expect to see plenty of two-back formations in the future.

Another area of concern was our return game. A few times Jason Armstead elected to just crumble on the ball rather than trying to make something happen. With every other team in the league making full use of the new blocking rules for returns, we really need to step it up in this department.

Looks like Kent Austin is just the man we needed. The team went out there and did something that we rarely saw under Danny Barrett - They played the full 60 minutes. No fourth quarter breakdowns on D, no second half urgent come back attempts by the O. We saw a consistent four quarters from this team. Almost as refreshing as that Gatorade bath Kent took after the game, courtesy of Makowsky and O'Day.

Stereograms

Like those magic eye posters? Like tetris? Like mixing things together that don't seem to belong together? You're gonna love this:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/36795242/

So far, my high score is 5301 on beginner, and temporary loss of function in my left eye.

Also Sweet

Kyle's new ride, plus his trailer for work. Wow, that's a nice beast.

Sweet

Stick Figure Battles Designer - Watch more free videos

On a much brighter note...

Who wants some icy-cold organic soft drinks? Let's just skip over to the supermarket to grab some!

Haha, I wonder how pissed off Hank is that THIS is the picture they chose for him at CFL.com. Won't matter, soon enough there'll be a lot more pictures of him holding a clipboard on the sidelines...

Chris Benoit (1967-2007)

So I guess Chris Benoit strangled his wife on Saturday, watched the WWE PPV on Sunday with his son and then smothered him in his bed. Monday he hung himself. Wow...

On Roughriders!

Well, training camp has come and gone, the preseason is over. Since I haven't been in Regina I didn't get the chance to head to Taylor Field to catch any of the training camp, but I've been following them very closely from afar, like Kris Ross on a 'date' with a girl.

Here's what we're looking at:

Offense

QB: Joseph/Crandell, Darian Durant

It's still very much up in the air! Both have had great camps and both put up some good numbers during the preseason games. Crandell is more in the style of the Austin-type passer, but KJ is probably the better choice as long as his knees are healthy. It's nice to know that the moment he falters we will pull him, unlike the pat 7 years of enduring struggling QBs suffering from start to finish. Kent had said that he'd announce the starter on Monday, so we'll see.

WR:
Wow! What can I say about our wide receivers? Remember two years ago when Dominguez went down? Our core looked like this: Elijah Thurmon, Jamel Richardson, Jason French, Karsten Bailey and Corey Grant. The only one still on the team is Grant and that may only be because he's currently injured.

This year: Matt Dominguez, DJ Flick, Jason Armstead, Andy Fantuz, Yo Murphy, backed up by Corey Grant, Nathan Hoffart and a few other Americans. Where's the weak link in our starting 5 receivers? Who does the opposition double team? On 5 receiver sets (which we did a lot of during preseason), we've got 2 of the fastest in the league to stretch the defense (Flick, Armstead) and three of the surest hands in the league in Dominguez, Fantuz and Murphy underneath. I think we're going to give the opposition fits, especially with our recent addition at running back...

Note: Today we traded Jason French and Thyron Anderson to Hamilton for Tad Kornegay, a DB

RB:
Wes Cates, Shermar Bracey, Henri Childs and Fred Russell (one of the last three will certainly be released/traded, probably Russell). We recently acquired Cates from Calgary in exchange for Lazeo. Wow, I'm excited to have him. He's damn fast and a big play guy who can catch in the backfield. In his limited play last year (after all, he was stuck behind Joffrey Reynolds, arguably one of the best in the league) he had 25 rushes for 181 yards and 2 TDs (that's 7.2 yards per carry!) and 21 catches for 286 yards and 1 TD (13.6 yard average). I suspect that we'll be doing a two back system with Cates and Childs, but don't expect to see either of them for game 1 in Montreal on Friday. Cates just joined the team yesterday and Childs has an ear infection.

O-Line:
No more turnstile!! But also, no more Andrew Greene or Fred Childress. Now that Charles Thomas is gone expect better pass protection, which is exactly what we want in our new big-play offense. Returning to the OL are Makowsky, Frenette and O'Day. Joining them will be some combination of Mike Abou-Mechrek, Mike Smith, Jermese Jones and Marc Parenteau. Based on what I've heard from the preseason games, our O-line has been great for pass protection, not so much for rushing. We'll have to see how they work out.

Defense

D-Line:
Well, we said good-bye to Nate Davis, but it was about time. He had appropriately earned the nickname "Weight Davis" due to his lack of conditioning. His play at really dropped off last year, although I hear that getting cut was motivation enough for him to get back into shape for Winnipeg. Could be scary come Labour Day.

With that being said, we see the return of Fred Perry, Scott Schultz and Terrell Jurineack. Marcus "Chunky" Adams and Luc Mullinder will probably see the starting D-Line as well, I'd expect Chunky.

Linebackers:
The linebackers bring a great big smile to my face. Kitwana Jones. Maurice Lloyd. Reggie Hunt. Mike McCullough. Sean Lucas. We've got some beasts back there, all capable of taking people's heads off. Coming into this season, Mo Lloyd was pencilled in as the starting middle linebacker, but after sustaining a minor concussion in the first preseason game, Mike McCullough made a great case for regaining the starting role against Calgary. It's a nice problem to have so I won't complain. Starting McCullough means we can have an extra American on the roster so that helps out a lot.

DB:
This is the big question mark this year. With Davin Bush and Omarr Morgan leaving in the offseason, we've got some very capable and talented young talents ready to step up. Rontarius Robinson has been waiting in the wings for a chance to start. He's a great talent, always around the ball making plays. We've still got the captain of our defense, Eddie Davis back there so that should help the transition a lot. Expect to also see Tristan Clovis/Scott Gordon switching up at safety depending on the situation. Clovis is a better cover guy but Gordon will break your ribs with a strong hit. Just ask DJ Flick how he felt in 2005, the same game that we lost Dominguez for the season. Expect one of Airabin Justin, James Johnson (incumbent) or Lance Frazier to be the other guy out there.

Kicker:
We've got both Jamie Boreham and Luca Congi this year. Expect Boreham to take the kickoffs (he's traditionally the best in the league at kickoffs) while Luca will take FGs. Apparently Luca has improved immensely in the offseason as far as punting is concerned. Reports from training camp have him regularly booting 60 yarders, and that's from the line of scrimmage so 70+ yards in the air. Boreham, while lacking the leg strength that Luca apparently picked up, has better accuracy so expect him to come in for situations where we want to coffin-corner the opposition.

There you have it. Everything you wanted to know about the Riders. I'm really excited about our offense this year. You can see the influence of Kent on our passing game, we completed more 30+ yard passes in the preseason than we did in all of last season. Our defense seems to be pumped up too. We managed to stop at least 4 (that I can recall) 3rd and shorts in the first two games, with rookies in nonetheless.

Of Note: Regina's Nathan Hoffart (WR) made the squad. He'll likely be behind Andy Fantuz and Corey Grant though, but expect him on special teams. He was drafted two years ago in the first round but has had injury problems. He seems to be healthy this year and he's been impressing the coaches.

So Long...

I'm going to miss Maxwell's Amusements.

I will fondly remember the countless lacerations on my back caused by the uneven joints between sections of slide. I will remember all those times that I got stuck at one point or another on the big tube slide and had to get up and walk because the water just didn't have enough oomph to keep you going. I'll remember the time that Barrett applied SPF 900 way back in elementary school (at the waterslides...not just in general. I think he went home whiter than when he arrived...) And oh yeah, Angie worked there for about a day. Guess she couldn't handle all that hard work on her knees ;)

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?......

Wildlife and The White Stripes

I've seen more wildlife on campus than I did in my entire trip across Ontario. Carleton is crawling with groundhogs (as a side note, I'm convinced that Gainer is a groundhog, not a gopher). In addition, I've also crossed paths with a skunk and a raccoon. Perhaps the elusive moose is next!

After listening to the new White Stripes album (Icky Thump, highly recommended!), I bought a ticket to see them at the Ottawa Blues Fest. As I previously mentioned, they play at the same time as Hawksley Workman. I'm a little disappointed that I won't get to see him, but the White Stripes should more than make up for it.

Anybody who was at the Rider game last night, or listening to it on the radio (as I was) should be more than excited to see that we now have a big play offense. It's been so many years since we've tried attacking over the middle, or going for long bombs more than once a game. Can't wait to see this team in person. I'm still debating whether or not to go to the season opener in Montreal...

Hmmm...

Probably the neatest magic act I've seen in a while.

The Genius Test

They call it the genius test, I call it passing the time. I'm currently at 23/40. People typically destroy me when I post challenges on here, but that's fine. At least I'm inspiring :)

Try not to cheat, you cheaters.

http://www.genius-test.com/

Natural Death?

While I was out driving this afternoon, I ended up behind a van with an interesting license plate holder. "Life is Precious from Conception to Natural Death. Choose Life!" As we are driving down Bronson Avenue, the red light warning lights start flashing, so we know the lights up ahead are about to turn. Just as expected, they turn red. This didn't deter our pro-life friend though. She went right through, well after it had turned red. Does getting smoked off in an intersection fall under "natural death"? And if not, does her life continue to be precious until she is reincarnated and proceeds to die naturally? And what of the people in the other car? I guess I'm struggling with the definition of natural death and its relevance to your life being precious. What if Mother Teresa had been murdered?

This isn't meant as a slag towards religion (she also had a Jesus fish...) as much as it is a slag against stupid people, in this case, people who drive through red lights during high traffic times. More often than not though, the people driving around with giant "Yay Jesus!" bumper stickers tend to fall into both the religious AND stupid person category. What can you expect though from somebody who was created out of a pile of mud...

On a much more awesome note, I'm home from tomorrow until the 20th. Drink me in friends, drink me in.

You and the Candles

This is why I keep going back to Hawksley's shows.

Regina Spektor

I came across Regina Spektor recently. She has a unique sounding voice with a unique style. Take a look at her video for "Fidelity" below.

It's Coming...

Ottawa - Playoff Victory Edition

Friday I went to see "Knocked Up", the new Seth Rogen movie. It's pretty funny from start to finish, so I recommend it to all of you.

Saturday night I hit the town with my roommate, Matthew, who is from Britain. We went down to the Byward Market to watch the game and then joined in on the festivities after the victory. Being in a bar in Ottawa during a Sens playoff game is a lot different from being in a bar in Edmonton during an Oilers playoff game. In Edmonton, after a goal everybody stands up and yells "GOAL!!!", and then somebody gets stabbed. After the Sens 4th goal, I yelled "GOAL!" and stood up. Wait for it...Wait for it... *clap clap* from some obscure corner of the room. Wow. I suppose that's why they don't have a football team here anymore

Both being slightly intoxicated, we decided to walk home. We got a little bit lost but eventually found the Rideau Canal which goes right past Carleton. An hour and a half later, my legs hurt like a bitch.

Anybody ever heard of highballs being referred to as bar rails before? When I asked the bartender what the hell a bar rail was, she just looked at me funny. I suppose the look could have been entirely unrelated to the question...

Looks like fun!

If you don't like watching people have throwing stars thrown at them, I recommend not going past 2:45...

You, Me and E.T.

Super Mario Brothers is Frustrating

I'm not entirely sure of the background here, but it looks like this guy is playing a modified version of Super Mario Bros. Each video is 12 mins long, but I guarantee you won't get bored :)

http://www.break.com/index/super-mario-brothers-is-frustrating-part1.html

http://www.Break.com/index/super-mario-brothers-is-frustrating-part2.html

Bad Weather

So how's the weather back home? I hear it's not so good. I can empathize with that... It's 8:30AM and it's already 18C...a high of 31C today (feels like 35 with the humidex). I can't stand this extremely warm sunny weather.

A Lesson from Dr. Quantum!

Learn all about the infamous two-slit experiment, demonstrating wave-particle duality!

IGNITE!

I wish they would... This weekend, Carleton is host to the All Ontario Youth Convention - i.e. Bible Camp. There are a lot of hooligans running around campus and filling up the cafeteria at lunch time. The theme for this year's conference is "Ignite!". Perhaps they hope to ignite the flame of God inside of each of them...Perhaps they are a group of pyromaniacs offering sacrifices to God. There really is no way to tell.

Here's a link to their conference rules. Rule 11 is interesting:

11. I will not bring to convention a skateboard or any form of firework, sparkler, or combustible fuel

Not only is it kind of prejudice, implying that skaters would bring these things, but it also goes against my theory of pyromaniacs. Recovering pyros perhaps?

EDIT: Check out their promo video. Made me cringe a little.

The Future is Now

I think the blades are just there for show.



I know the real reason they aren't moving in the video, do you?

Sweet Merciful Crap!

Fund the stem cell research! Who cares about particle physics, put it all into stem cell research!!!!

There is hope!

My Place

Here are my living quarters for the summer. It's a pretty nice place.

A nice big bed, not the most comfy though

The kitchen. I don't have much to do in here since I didn't bring any cooking supplies. Really wish I had brought my coffee perk...

The view from my room. It's better than an alley or something...

Brooke Marks The Spot

I came across Brooke Marks while not surfing for porn. Her blog videos are pretty entertaining.

Return to Literacy

Since I'm finding myself to be uber-bored, I went out and bought a few books to pass the time:

Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

I'm not sure which one I'm going to start with but hopefully they last about 90 days :)

Edit: Whoops, accidentally downloaded seasons one and two of The Office. Now I have to watch those instead :(

Edit #2: Whoops, now I have season three as well. Whatcha gonna do.

Great Minds...

Guess which other University also has a few sheets of scrap metal welded together in the name of (sh)art? I guess to be fair to the UofR, we should give them props for going with the "random pile of sheet metal," rather than the "rusty penis."

Note: This is what a rusty penis looks like when photographed with my new camera!

Sweet Revenge

Warning, the language is NSFW

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

Need Coffee...

There seems to be a 12 year old girl convention here today. While this might be one of Kris Ross' wet dreams (the other involves me and some whipped cream), it was incredibly annoying to me. I had to ride down in the elevator with them and look at their whore-like makeup jobs.

I'm in a bad mood. Can you tell that the cafeteria doesn't serve coffee at breakfast?

What's Wrong With This Pic?

10 points to whoever can tell me what is wrong with this pic:

Ode to Ottawa

Lovely Ottawa
Oh so muggy and smoggy
Just how I left you.

The eagle has landed!

Or, since I'm Canadian, should I say "The beaver has set up dam!"? Anyhow...

It was a long and uneventful drive. I'm still disappointed that I didn't see any moose. In fact, I don't even think I saw any roadkill. Something fishy about that...

After 2800kms of bagels, burgers and subs I decided to treat myself to a nice supper tonight. First thing after I checked into residence I headed over to Walmart, invested in a 12 pack of the most comfy-looking toilet paper they had and (after placing the tp in my car) walked over to the Outback Steakhouse for a 12oz slab of prime rib. Supper at restaurants is a lot more interesting when you're out by yourself. It's also more embarrassing, but that's neither here nor there. The couple at the table beside me was clearly on a first date. The man, in his thirties, was trying ever so hard to seem interested in the twenty-something's work stories. He almost had me convinced. The highlight of the night was when the overweight asian man had to ask to be moved because he didn't fit between the booth and the table. Also, the cute waitress kept touching my shoulder when she asked me how stuff was going. I gave her a good tip - Just the tip.

A "miner" problem

Wow, pat on the back for that title. I stayed in Thunder Bay last night. Since it was still another 1500 kms to Ottawa, I figured I'd spend the night in Sudbury and drive another 500 kms the next day. What I didn't count on was a mining convention, filling up all of the hotels in Sudbury. Luckily, I managed to find a last minute cancellation at the Days Inn. This guy is spending the night on the Executive Floor...I have to decide which of these two giant beds to sleep in now...maybe I'll flip a coin.

Note: I chose the one closest to the TV.

Night Danger!

This sign always strikes fear into my heart. Something about the way the moose is charging at me. Why not change the sign to something more like this?:


Equally as informative with half the terror.

This is now my third time driving across Ontario and I'm still yet to see a moose. And believe me, I've tried. For all the terrifying signs that they've posted on the highway, you'd expect the meese...the mooses...whatever, you'd expect them to be jumping out of the trees at you, rapid fire style. So far, my only evidence for the existence of the moose is local folklore...stories passed down through the generations about the "furry tank of the forest". This sounds about as credible as another mythical creature:

Freedom!

At last, the semester is over! The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of business, due in no part to my procrastination over the rest of the semester... It's always a weird feeling, the first few days after exams are over - what to do?

I guess I'll be spending some time getting ready for my trip to Ottawa. I'm probably leaving on the 7th which means we'll have to have a killer birthday/going away party on Saturday.

Well, I'm pretty free for the next week so if anyone gets bored, give me a call!

Very nice...

Maybe there's a silver lining to my Ottawa trip this summer... Looks like Hawksley Workman is playing at the Blues Festival in July :) Hawksley concert #7, here I come!

***UPDATE: Looks like The White Stripes are going to be there as well! They're also going to be in Saskatoon in July for those of you who are fans.

Also at Blues Fest: BOB DYLAN, Kanye West, Sam Roberts...

Boo to The Man!

I've been parking in the 15 minute visitor parking spots at the UofR on weekends for a long time and never have I got a ticket. Apparently the same was true for the rest of the cars who also had tickets...Grrrr!

Representin

Man, there's a lot of Saskatchewan boys in the NHL playoffs this year...

Colby Armstrong (Pittsburgh)
Derek Boogard (Minnesota)
Curtis Brown (San Jose)
Garnet Exelby (Atlanta)
Jeff Friesen (Calgary)
Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim) --- Regina boy!
Scott Hartnell (Nashville) -- Regina boy!
Darcy Hordichuck (Nashville)
Chris Kunitz (Anaheim) -- Regina boy!
Patrick Marleau (San Jose)
Kyle McLaren (San Jose)
Travis Moen (Anaheim)
Brenden Morrow (Dallas)
Wade Redden (Ottawa)
Robin Regehr (Calgary)
Cory Sarich (Tampa Bay)
Peter Schaefer (Ottawa)
Nick Schultz (Minnesota)
Michael Sillinger (New York Islanders) -- Regina boy!!
Rhett Warrener (Calgary)
Brendan Witt (New York Islanders)

Did you guys know that Cam Ward was from Saskatoon?

Flushed Away

Unlike the mouse in Flushed Away, I don't think my belt buckle is coming back. What are the odds - just as I pulled the lever to flush the toilet, my belt buckle fell off and was swept away into the shit and piss abyss. So long rusty belt buckle, you always held my pants up with a quiet dignity.

Einstein Biopic?

We're going mainstream! From I Watch Stuff,

Speaking at the press junket for Perfect Stranger, Giovanni Ribisi revealed that he'll be playing Albert Einstein in Liliana Cavani's biopic of the famous physicist. The film will begin at the star of Einstein's relationship with his first wife, Mileva, and end at his death, never reaching the historical point where your idiot roommate insisted on hanging up a poster of the scientist sticking his tongue out, turning off every girl you brought back.

While Einstein is known as perhaps the most important scientist in history, having used facts and theory to further human understanding, Ribisi is famously a Scientologist, using nonsense and science fiction to invent crazy shit. Also, the two have similar hairlines. Overall, good casting.

Who ya got?

The season is over and here are the first round match-ups:

East
(1) Buffalo Sabres vs (8) NY Islanders
(2) New Jersey Devils vs (7) Tampa Bay Lightning
(3) Atlanta Thrashers vs (6) NY Rangers
(4) Ottawa Senators vs (5) Pittsburgh Penguins

West
(1) Detroit Red Wings vs (8) Calgary Flames
(2) Anaheim Ducks vs (7) Minnesota Wild
(3) Vancouver Canucks vs (6) Dallas Stars
(4) Nashville Predators vs (5) San Jose Sharks

My money is on Buffalo but my heart is on Pittsburgh...

The Girl Without a Face

Tonight I watched a show on TLC called "The Girl Without a Face". It was really quite disturbing. It told the story of a girl, Juliana Wetmore, who was born with a disease that causes severe facial development problems. Essentially, from her forehead down the bone structure is non-existant. She's been undergoing countless surgies to allow her to function (e.g. eat, breathe...) normally. The show is really haunting me now and I find that all I can see is her face.

I guess that I should have learned my lesson after watching that last TLC show, The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off...

Going to London?

The trip gets tricky around step 34...

Back to the Capital City

Well, it looks like I'm heading back to Ottawa for a few months this summer... >:-( We're shifting our hardware research from the calorimeter to tracking so that we can join up with the rest of the Canadian Universities. I guess we were the oddballs... Anyhow, the group at Carleton (in Ottawa) has some work that needs to be done with testing their tracking system as well as converting their simulation code from Fortran to C++ and then using it to study the tracking system. Enter Blair... The work that I do there will largely make up my Masters thesis, so I suppose I should do a decent job.

I'll be there for 2-3 months starting in May, likely closer to 3 months. I was really hoping to stay in Regina this summer, just like I was really hoping to stay in Regina last summer...Guess I'll have to sell off a few of my Rider tickets once I get a better idea of my timetable.

Anyone feel like takin a trip to Ottawa this summer? It's gonna get lonely.

Out with the old...

I finally replaced my 3.2 MP camera that I bought in Vancouver nearly 3 years ago. It's always been horrible on batteries and as of late it only turned on when the planets aligned juuust right.

My new baby is the Sony Cyber shot DSC-W50. It's a perfectly capable 6.0 MP with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical-zoom lens, giving very crisp photos. It is capable of taking photos at ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000. My favourite feature, however, is the fact that tests of the camera showed that it was capable of taking 390 pictures on one battery charge. That beats the hell out of my old camera, which sometimes stretched for that 20 picture mark...

Here's a real detailed review of the camera, as well as a bunch of sample pics.

My Jagged Little Humps

Hey Alanis - What ARE you gonna do with all that junk...all that junk inside your trunk?

Wank!

To see more great superhero moments, like the above visual of Captain America wanking a guy, check out this link.

Edmonton '06

I finally got my hands on pictures from last summer in Edmonton. At the time, it really sucked being sent off to Edmonton with no say in the matter, but looking back on it we had some pretty awesome times drinking in Kathryn's room...

The finished product. This is the kind of stuff I used to build with GlueX

Looking at signals from a detector similar to one we built in Edmonton.

We stayed in a conference center and spent most weekend nights drinking in Kathryn's room.

Me and Ben showin off the drinkin' hats

Wouldn't you like to know what happend right before the cuddling...

I'd like to point out that I was single (more or less) when that last photo was taken...Too bad Kathryn wasn't.

Stephen & Steven

I think he might actually be drunk...

Hey-oh!

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Pub Trivia

We have formed the ultimate team for Pub Trivia at O'Hanlons tonight - Lord Leverington, Angie "EIT" Verhelst, Adam "Egghead" Staruiala, Lori "My Girlfriend" Parks, and myself, Blair "David" Jasper. We will destroy the opposition with no mercy, adopting the group name "Antioxidants will not protect you from the Spirit-Crushing Greyness of your Tawdry Existence."

Be afraid...Be very afraid.

From Collegehumor.com

I didn't even know that this happened:


"The Computer Science Student Society was the only society that voted against a pranking policy at the U of R. This happened to their tiny lounge the next day." (from CollegeHumor)

Contacts, Anyone?

Does anyone wear contacts with the following prescription?

-3.25, Base Curve:8.6, Diameter 14.2

I may have a deal for you.

Less Charming, More Dangerous

Tonight is the first round of soccer playoffs. Charmed and Dangerous takes on STFC, which I think stands for "Shitty Team Full of Communists". Therefore, it is only right that we destroy them. I'm going to be watching my back though, just in case it actually stands for "Super Transvestites From Canada" - I don't want to back into anything that may compromise my butt.

I'll probably be in net tonight. I'm aiming to let in less than my average 10 goals. It's playoff time ladies and gents, and I'm gonna have to put my body on the line. Hopefully Lori won't throw me to the curb if my face is all swollen from taking a few balls to the face (soccer balls, not tranny balls).

More Time Well Wasted

How long can you last?

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

Time Well Wasted

Want to kill some time?

http://www.tredz.co.uk/game/

My high score is 1088.4 m. Beat that!

Funnies

My friend Barrett has a website, Randomness of the Day. The comics live up to their name. I found them more than amusing, especially if you go back to #1 and work your way through in order.

Uh-oh...

Looks like the years of abusing my body with junk food are finally catching up to me. My gut is becoming a lot squishier than it used to be and pants just aren't fitting like they used to. Combine this with my quickly receding hair line and you can see that I'm incredibly lucky to be as awesome as I am or else I'd probably be a fat bald loser :P

Time to hit the gym...


No, that's not me in the picture, but give me a few weeks

Futuristic Photo Album

Check out this photo album software from Microsoft. It's incredibly neat and really brings photos to life. It must be pretty memory intensive though so probably not the quickest way to browse through your pictures of bordellos or what have you.

Fun, Fun, Fun

I thought I'd start a new post to keep talking about the Riders. I didn't want that last one to keep dragging on and on.

It's been an exciting off season, that's for sure. When was the last time that the Riders made so many moves? Shivers was better at finding talent and developing it, perhaps out of necessity since he had a lot of enemies due to his outspoken personality.

It's been an off season of change. We've said goodbye to Davin Bush, Omarr Morgan, Nate Davis, Jackie Mitchell, Rocky Butler, Jamel Richardson, Andrew Greene and Fred Childress. These are all long-time Riders and a lot of them can expect to be future Plaza of Honour inductees (Omarr, Nate and Andrew for sure). Also, we may have seen the last of Kenton Keith if he manages to stick on with the NFL's Colts. The earliest we'll see him back is Labour Day, if ever.

Despite seeing all of these guys leave, we've brought in a lot of new, great talent. We managed to rob Hamilton in the Rocky trade, bringing in a starting Canadian OL in Wayne Smith and a great speed receiver in DJ Flick. We also signed Mike Abou-Mechrek and Marc Parenteau, making an all-Canadian OL possible (which opens up A LOT of possibilities for using import receivers - see last post).

This is going to be a season of rookies stepping up and filling in the voids left by our departing veterans. In the days of Danny and Roy, it seemed as though there was an "old boys club" attitude preventing rookies from starting unless injuries forced them into play. Now, expect to see Rontarius Robinson, Luc Mullinder, Dwan Epps and a bunch of others ACTUALLY HAVE A CHANCE to compete for a job at training camp.

I really don't know what to expect next season. On paper, I think Tillman has improved our team. The biggest question mark will be our defence. With veterans Mitchell, Bush and Morgan all gone, it will be an inexperienced group back there. Hopefully Eddie Davis can step up and lead by example like he did last year. Either way, I'll be in the stands with my Aldag jersey cheering them on.

On Roughriders!

Wow. Over the past few years, one of our biggest weaknesses has been our receivers. With the exception of The Doctor, Matt Dominguez, we've been cursed with slow receivers with wooden blocks for hands. It seems as though the times have changed...

Today it was announced that the Riders have acquired Thyron Anderson from Montreal in exchange for a conditional 2008 draft pick.

We now have 11 receivers coming to camp this year:

Matt Dominguez*
Andy Fantuz
Jason Armstead
DJ Flick
Thyron Anderson
Yo Murphy
Jason French
Corey Grant
Craig Yeast
Kahlil Hill
Joshua Tinch
Curtis Jackson (No, not 50 Cent)

I would be ecstatic if we were to start the year off with MD, Armstead, Flick, Fantuz and Anderson for receivers. That's four established 1000 yard receivers and Fantuz (the future of the Riders at receiver)

* I wouldn't be surprised to see Matt Dominguez traded somewhere. There have been A LOT of rumours of sending him to BC for Aaron Hunt or Jason Clermont.

The Speak Easy

Well, I arrived in Calgary today. I'm staying the night at Evan and Kris' place then heading to Banff tomorrow afternoon. Country cooked us a lovely supper tonight - roast. That's right, four of us split a roast...and that's it. It was really good roast, but I would have enjoyed some potatoes or...water...

After our delicious supper we all went out to The Speak Easy, a local strip club. That was fun. The ladies were good looking but generally lacked enthusiasm. I don't know why feminists complain about strippers being degraded...the one must have cleaned up at least $15 in loonies bounced off her abdomen. $15 for 10 minutes? That's a good paying job if you ask me.

WNPPC07

Thursday I leave for Calgary, and then Banff, for the Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics Conference. I'm currently scheduled to give a presentation Sunday at 9:30AM. Those of you who know me well will know that there is an excellent chance that I'm going to sleep right through that time slot. Oh well, it's only my reputation in the physics community at stake.

My talk is about one of the projects that I'm working on in collaboration with Texas AMU. We are running simulations to study the feasability of measuring the mass difference between the two lightest supersymmetric particles, the neutralino and the stau, at the ILC. Another way to explain it is that we're looking at the relationship between dark matter and supersymmetry where the neutralino (the X with a squiggle over it) is a candidate particle for dark matter.

When I find a place to store it, I'll post my powerpoint file for those of you who are interested to browse through. Notice that there are lots of links in the above paragraph. Nobody has an excuse for not knowing what I'm talking about :)

This is the reaction that we want to study at ILC.

ILC

Here's a link to an article discussing the cost of the project that I'm working on.

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/2/10/1

F&$@!

With the fresh snow on the ground, I slid into the intersection at Parliament and Albert when the light turned yellow. Of course, I was still in there when the light turned red and now SGI has a picture of the back of my car. I'm kind of hoping that the snow that was on my license plate and the fact that my car was at an angle (hopefully back end away from the camera...) will make the photo useless to them and I will get off scott free.

SPIDERS!

I've killed two spiders over the past week, most recently there was one on my toaster. If there are lots of spiders here in the summer, you can expect to find me curled up in a ball in some kind of hermetically sealed anti-spider room. Just looking for a picture to post in this entry had me severely creeped out, checking the environment around me for lurking spiders.

I hope that Blake isn't as big of a pussy as I am when it comes to spiders or we're in trouble.

On Roughriders!

The Riders made some noise today shipping Rocky Butler off to Hamilton in exchange for DJ Flick (WR) and Wayne Smith (OL). Two starters for our third string QB...not too bad Eric. However, it's also a sad day for Riderville because big Nate Davis has been cut. Add him to the salary cap victims along with Jackie Mitchell. We may still see him in the Green and White next season, but it's going to be at a reduced price.

EDIT: Add Andrew Greene to the 'released' list.

Uh-oh...

There's a chance that I've reached my limit for comprehending abstract systems in an academic setting. I'll get back to ya.

Oh yeah, I got my Lab TA reviews back, I'll post a balanced cross-section of their opinions in the next day or so. A quick glance through one pile and I found that one of my weaknesses is that I "look like a hungry etheopean (sic)". Oh, and:

What suggestions do you have that might improve the effectiveness of the laboratory instructor?
-daily trips to the UofR gym
-spinach

Mind Boggling

An excerpt from one of my Phy 119 lab books, regarding Boyle's Law:

The gravitational force effects (sic) the volume in the tube because it adds a force to which takes more energy for the volume to yield to go against their force, which effects (sic) our outcome yielding less volume. Temperature, pressure, and volume in a fixed container act dependently upon each other which is kept intact by gravity.

Another product of the Saskatchewan education system. Angie...you speak Engineering... perhaps a translation?

So Much Pain...

I managed to injure myself at soccer on Thursday. I pulled something in my ribs and it is the damn most painful injury I've had in a while. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to move. It hurts to lay down. I did have intentions of going tobogganing tomorrow but that's kind of up in the air right now. After a night of not being able to sleep, I went and got some pain killers from the doc today. I hope they kick in soon, I can't wait to stand up straight.

Up and Coming

I've never really had an NHL team that I was a die-hard fan of. I've cheered for the Habs, the Wings and the Sens over the years, but I never really followed any of them. I find myself drawn to the Penguins. They are an incredibly young and talented team with a lot of great Canadian talent. Currently they are holding on to the last playoff spot in the east, 2points up with a game in hand on the Rangers. I don't think I'll start buying Penguins merchandise just yet, but I think I'm definitely going to put in the effort to watch them play.

Looks like someone was secretly recording me practicing my pool moves...

http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/3886

Career-Summing Movie Posters

I found these over at SomethingAwful.
Edit: They took the pics down, this is the only one left

Louis C.K.

I tried telling some people about this clip of Louis C.K. on the Daily show but they pretended I wasn't talking and continued on with their lives. So here - I'm forcing it into your lives. Suck on that.

The Superficial

One of the websites that I frequent is The Superficial. They have hilarious little commentaries on current events. And by current events I mean celebrity current events. I found this description of Terri Hatcher from the Golden Globes particularly amusing.

Ahhh, women drivers :) For those of you familiar with special relativity, there is one way she could fit into that spot...

http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/3839

Mwahaha

Oh Saskatoon, is there anything left of you?

Ouch!

You know what really stings? Toothpaste. In the eye.

The Wicker Man

If you haven't already seen The Wicker Man starring Nicolas "Good Thing My Uncle is Francis Ford Coppola" Cage, here is a video compiling the highlights of the movie. I recommend against actually watching the movie, but this is a pretty good summary.


Nick Fact: After taking his own stage name from a comic book hereo (Luke Cage), Nick decided to continue the tradition by naming his son Kal-el Coppola Cage. Seriously, I shit you not. For the uninitiated, Kal-el is Superman's name on Krypton.

Poems

From collegehumor.com:

O, male nipples!
You dispense no milk,
Provide no sweet respite for a
Weeping, thirsty babe.
No, you exist but to be transformed
Via purple assault
into Nurples.

O, coccyx!
It has been many years since
Humans had tails,
Yet stubbornly you remain –
And lo,
I have bruised you
Again.

O, little toe!
The others went to market,
Stayed home, had roast beef,
And had none, respectively.
You are even trumped by the fourth toe –
Whose lone feat is that it
*Did not*
Have roast beef.

Happy New Year!

Let's start 2007 off right!



EDIT: Looks like the Riders wanted to start the year off right as well. Happy to have ya, Richie.