That's a wrap!

For a variety of reasons, each less believable than the last, I didn't get around to doing an as-it-happens diary. I'll make up for it sometime.

So Dalton McGuinty poked his head out, saw his shadow, and declared four more years of Liberal rule for the province of Ontario. Can't say I'm surprised - I didn't vote Liberal, but I didn't see this election going any other way. What follows are some random thoughts on the election itself, as well as the CTV coverage, in the order they come to me...

-Obviously the CTV team had some problems (pixelating picture and disappearing audio), but I can forgive them for it. With as many people in as many different places as they would have had tonight, something was bound to go wrong - and they'd have more trouble than usual getting in contact with the people who know how to fix it. Besides, I seem to be making a habit of watching DVDs that do the same thing, only worse.
-Poor John Tory. I think his main fault is that he's just a little too naive for public life. It seemed to me like he honestly believed political success was more about having good ideas and knowing the issues, and less about, well, politics. It seemed from his concession speech that he's already learned where he went wrong, and he'll be leading the Conservatives again come the next election. Good.
-Howard Hampton, on the other hand, might be done. No real opinion on this (because I don't know who could replace him), but a new approach might lead the NDP to even greater gains.
-When did CKCO's Frank Lynn turn from "the one guy at the station who you'd actually expect to dig and/or fight for a story" to "the old guy who was probably a good journalist once", and when can we expect Art Baumunk to undergo a similar transformation? And whatever happened to David Imrie?
-I'm still convinced that Gerard Kennedy will one day be Prime Minister.
-On a similar note, the NDP could really have used a better spokesperson. Kennedy and Ernie Eves both managed to spin things to their parties' benefit as well, but Olivia Chow wasn't the least bit subtle about it.
-I'm told that it's still surprisingly easy to defraud electoral officers.
-Does Mike Duffy have a sponsorship deal with Blackberry? On a similar note, can his mere existence be proof that intellect is still more important than looks in some avenues of television?
-My polling station was a church gymnasium. When I went to vote, the priest was there mingling with idle workers. The phrase 'seperation of church and state' popped into my head. I forget where I was going with this.
-It's too bad that MMP didn't come anywhere close to going through, but I can easily blame it on the fact that nobody wanted to publicize it. That takes a way a bit of the pain, and if we can get it on the 2011 ballot, hopefully people will have learned enough by then.
-Speaking of MMP, I started watching CTV's election coverage at about 8:45. First mention of the referendum? 9:48. Second mention? 10:21. Third mention? Nope!
-For the first half-hour or so after polls closed, the CTV ticker showed one 'other party' candidate leading - but none of the hosts mentioned it, and we never saw a graphic for whatever riding that was. Even though I'm sure they never stood a chance, I'd have like to have known what that was about - similar to the last federal election, where CTV showed a Marxist-Leninist candidate leading in Surrey, with six votes.
-On that note, when you have one or two polling stations reporting and the leading candidate has 12 votes, why are the TV people assuming it's indicative of how everythig else will go?
-Those were some really, really good chocolate chip cookies.

I think that's everything I've got. Fun night.

--Ryan

Giblets!

Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without a turkey. I am now in the process of correcting this.

In light of my previous post, I'm making a turkey. So far so good, but I'm really curious about one thing. What the hell are giblets and what should I do with them?

In my turkey, they seem to be removed, wrapped in some kind of paper, and placed back in the bird. They seem to be (as I sit here, typing and poking them) a heart and a liver. I don't know what has happened to the neck, and I have no idea what a gizzard is. Odds are, I don't think I want to know.

So what shall I do with this heart and liver? I've promised my roommate, Mark, that I'll whip him up something nice with them. So far, my plan is to make a pate (by squishing the liver up really good and sticking it on a cracker). As for the heart? Well, let's just say this is going to be the grossest milkshake the world has ever seen.

We'll see how well that plays out.

I can only imagine flawlessly.

--
Dan

Election ahoy!

So there's an election tomorrow. I've been meaning to write about it for a while now, but I kept putting it off, and then I forgot about it (on that note, I'd like to thank Dan for keeping you all entertained this weekend).

It seems a little late now, but some quick thoughts:

-I followed this election closer than I've ever followed any election, mainly because it's the first one I'm eligible to vote for.
-Despite that, or maybe because of it, I was a little disappointed. Howard Hampton wasn't carrying Jello and swiss cheese to all his campaign stops, and nobody refered to Dalton McGuinty as an 'evil reptillan kitten-eater from another planet'. That was a bit of a let-down.
-Watching the full debate, I thought Dalton came off terribly with maybe one or two exceptions. Watching Mike Duffy's analysis afterwards, he seemed to agree with me. Watching/reading ANYTHING the next day, they pretty much only showed the exceptions.
-Let me get this straight. We've got massive unemployment, the always-persistent crime problem, long health care rates, astronomically-rising tuition...and the only issue that anybody paid attention to is the education of a few thousand people? Nice work by the Liberal spin doctors to divide people based on THAT, but it's ridiculous.
-Why did John Tory not play off his successful business background a little more?
-Ahahahaha, John Turmel.

I'm voting tomorrow, as I should hope you all are. In the interest of full disclosure, I started off willing to listen to anyone, but I'll be voting for the Conservatives (I don't want to see the NDP as anything more than opposition, Dalton's debate performance pretty much sealed the fact that I won't be voting for the Liberals, and I like to think my vote matters, so I don't vote for minor parties that don't stand a chance.)

More importantly, I'll be voting 'yes' on the referendum. Unfortunately, much as I think we'll have another Liberal government, I'm convinced that MMP will not go through, at least not this year. It's too bad, really. If we were under MMP, I'd definitely be giving the Green and FC parties a lot bigger of a look - but too many people see it as nothing but a way to get more politicians in office, so it's not gonna go through.

There you go. A few thoughts on the election - remember, I'm new at this.

If I'm not doing anything else tomorrow night, I'll probably keep a running diary of the televised election coverage.

--Ryan

Happy Thanksgiving!

My usual methods of procrastination have let me down, so I've finally decided to make use of our savory and oh-so-saucy blog.

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a beautiful bird with more stuffing than they could stuff into themselves. I personally had a ham, which is cool too.

I'm thankful for this chance to get good grades in school this year. Why, here's my first chance! Conveniently timed such that employment training at the Sanderson Centre can only prove to motivate me, I have my first two term papers as well as a Stats test this week. (I'm really not complaining. I'm writing this down in hopes that I'll remember to get ready for this week.)

What am I actually thankful for? Oktoberfest was a bit enjoyable. I didn't partake to any worthwhile extent, but my sister probably did. That could be why she missed the ham. Or perhaps she just jumped on the chance to have Turkey instead.

Alright, one last chance to seriously be thankful on this Thanksgiving day: I'm thankful for my good fortune, as I had my phone number changed to spell out my name. (And as soon as Bell lets me pay my bill to receive calls, I might actually appreciate it.)

There are things, events, and especially people that I am thankful for, but after the sorry list I started with... I think it's disrespectful to bring them up.

How's this for a cheesy answer? I'm thankful that you read this entry!

We'll see how well that plays out.

I can only imagine flawlessly.

--
Dan

Who remembers World War II?

So I seem to do most of my blogging on weekends. A smarter man might stockpile weekend writing for posting during the week.

When you surf all corners of the Internet, you find some amazing things. Of course, it's much easier to simply let a website like Fark bring them to your attention. Such was the case earlier this week with a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled 'For class of S.F. high school, WWII details are elusive'.

What was I expecting? Something along the lines of a "today's students aren't educated enough about major historical events like World War II". I'd be fine with that.

I don't pretend I know everything there is to know about WWII, but I like to think I know the basic facts - started in the late 30s in Europe, the US got involved with the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, and the war ended in 1944. The Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima had atomic bombs dropped on them, and Hitler committed suicide. D-Day. Churchill. Normandy. That sort of stuff.

I don't have a problem with people who know a lot less about WWII than I do. If you have a rough idea of when it happened, who was on your side, who was on the other side, and what the Holocaust was, that's enough for me.

The Chronicle surveyed 90 high school students - all of whom should have covered WWII in history class by this point - and here were some of the responses.

"Hoping to aid Third World countries, the United States joined the war."

To the question "Who was US President during WWII?", eighteen students left the question blank, while Winston Churchill (UK) and George Washington (dead) each garnered votes.

To "When was World War II?", dates ranged from 1700 to 1967.

"Who was Winston Churchill?" - answers ranged from 'a dictator' to 'some important dude'.

"Who was Benito Mussolini?" - answers included 'Soviet leader', 'an explorer' and 'a columnist'.

"What was the war about?" - obviously there are lots of possible answers for this one, but I doubt that 'communism' or 'Boston tea' had anything to do with it.

So, yeah. Overall, I can make excuses for a lot of ignorance - but the Chronicle's survey is taking things to a whole new level.

--Ryan

Awkwardly-worded thought for the day

You don't notice how poorly some socks can be insulated, until you find a pair that isn't.

--Ryan

Hello hockey

Long time no see! If you're wondering where I've been...I guess I've been finding other ways to procrastinate for the last week or so. Ah well. Here's a little something anyhow!

So it's hockey season again. And for the first time in - well, in my life - I find myself starting the season without a team to cheer for.

A brief history lesson - for reasons that basically boil down to proximity, I spent my formative years as a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then a relative got a job with the Colorado Avalanche, who had just moved from Quebec, and I started following the Avalanche a little more closely (of course, it didn't hurt that they won the Stanley Cup their first year!).

The relative has since moved on, and I've spent the last few years half-heartedly cheering for the Leafs once again - but I just can't do it anymore. They're not good, they're not even CLOSE to being good, and they're not going to get good without some radical changes. Sundin is too old to carry a team on his back, Jason Blake is not the superstar saviour that the media is making him out to be, and anyone below the second line would be lucky to make the roster of any other club. The defence is horrible aside from McCabe and Kaberle, and all these great things I'm hearing about Toskala sure sound like what was said about Raycroft a year ago. How'd that work out?

But back to my original point - I'm in the market for a new team. Now, there are a few main criteria I had to set out before starting this search...

-No 'bandwagon factor'...it'd be easy to pick Anaheim or Ottawa simply because they've got a great shot at going all the way this year. Not interested. Ditto for Pittsbugh...not as good as the other teams I mentioned, but because of Crosby, everyone's jumping on that bandwagon anyhow.

-Along the same lines, I *do* want the team to have a realistic shot at at least making the playoffs this year. If mediocrity didn't bother me, I'd stick with the Leafs.

-I will never be able to bring myself to cheer for the Red Wings, Canadiens, or Rangers, so they're all out.

That still left me with probably about a dozen teams. So then I looked at some other things...are they going to be on TV often (thus allowing me to watch their games)? Are they a younger team that will likely only improve over the next few years? Do they have any players I really like?

After all that, I narrowed it down to three teams.

Buffalo: Geographically, if I refuse to cheer for the Leafs, this is the next-most logical choice. However, because of a large, undefended border, they seem further away than they really are. Plenty of games on TV, and if I try really hard, I can usually pick up Buffalo radio signals. A year ago, they'd have been a bandwagon team, but after losing Drury and Briere, people seem to have soured on them. I don't think those losses will hurt them as much as most seem to think. Bonus: Derek Roy, Andrew Peters, and Max Afinogenov - the Sabres lead the NHL in former Kitchener Rangers.

Philadelphia: Not as much TV coverage as Buffalo, and they don't have the same 'underdog' story going for them this year. However, they *are* poised for a breakout season, and do also have a former Kitchener Ranger in Mike Richards. On the other hand, I still have bad feelings towards their minor league team. Bonus: I've heard of virtually none of their lower line/bench guys. This means that there's a decent chance they haven't failed with other teams and been brought in regardless, like, say, Toronto.

Colorado: Yeah, there's a chance I could get back into them this year. They don't have the whole "Sakic/Forsberg/Bourque/Blake/Roy" thing going on that made them, along with any other team of all-stars, such an obvious choice back in 2000. They do still have Sakic, and picked up Ryan Smyth for a nice one-two punch, but beyond that...there's pretty much nothing. I think I've watched roughly half of this year's Avalanche play in the AHL. And yet, people are convinced that they'll somehow make the playoffs.

So who am I cheering for? I don't know yet. I'll watch as many games as I can of all these teams, and hopefully one will make a strong enough impression on me - and when I do make a decision, this blog will be the first to know.

--Ryan