Valid Code

As nice as being able to control the finest details is with code, differences between things like '&' and '&' that have you Googling around for 2 hours before you find them can be rather frustrating. But now my pictures are displaying properly in Firefox 3, so its worth it? And really, what else do I have to do?

Last week's awesome weather has faded into cold rainy crap, putting an abrupt end to any plans to have an outdoor poker night this week on the picnic table I built this weekend. I'm not a fan of the furnace kicking on overnight in the middle of June.

I am however a huge fan of the Netherlands domination of Group C at Euro, despite handing an undeserving Italy a pass to the quarter finals in beating Romania yesterday. Beyond changing in 9 second string players, there's not much more Holland could have done to help Romania along. Here's hoping they don't go ahead and choke now against whoever of Russia or Sweden they meet on Saturday. If they keep playing the way they did in the group stage, I'm convinced they can beat any team out there. The key is not getting too cocky.

Hup Nederland!

After a France-Romania draw, the Dutch are the leaders of Group C after taking it to the Italians. You can dispute the first goal all you want, the fact is, until the player beyond the end line gets treatment, he is still in play. Further to that is Holland's pretty second goal and the 3rd goal.

The plan now is to be back at Kickoff for game 2, hopefully the French supporters show up as strong then as the Italians did today.

In other news...the Catholic school board is at it again with their monopolistic business partnerships. Apparently my mom ordered Grad photos for my brother a few weeks back at an astonishing total of $162 dollars for a very limited package of photos. Well, while I was out today apparently the people at the company that the Catholic School Board chooses to do the grad photos called my mom up and promptly informed her that she wasn't entitled to the photos she ordered, despite ordering over their '$100' dollar minimum. In the world of cash grabs and monopolizing people with a once in a lifetime opportunity (e.g. graduation), Lifetouch / Life Touch has done their utmost best to fuck over the little man. Similar to the uniform monopoly run by McCarthy's for uniforms in Catholic schools in the area...this bullshit needs to stop. The Catholic schoolboard, if they want to sustain themselves within a society with so many other religions needs to stop buying into these bullshit contracts. And the people who run these companies need to be held accountable for their actions. If no-one is willing to even file a complaint (i.e. my mom) then these issues won't come to the forefront.

So if you have an issue with Life Touch / Lifetouch and their photos...be sure to at the very least file an e-mailed complaint with the board. If the board doesn't hear about it, they have no official cause for concern. In the end...no matter what watermarks you put on your proofs Lifetouch, educated people will find a way around it.

A New Distraction

Less than a week after the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Euro 2008 is underway. Sure the NBA playoffs are still going, but now that the Pistons or Spurs can't win it, I'll be pretty much satisfied with whoever wins. That said, I'm not a huge Kobe fan, and think Garnett deserves a ring, so go Celtics I guess.

The Euro so far has been great. Despite Groups A and B not being very deep, the games have been contested fairly evenly, even in the case of the poorly ranked Austrian team who are only there by virtue of hosting this year's tourney. I have my concerns about the Netherlands even making it out of the group phase, somehow getting lumped in with both Italy and France who at any given time are football forces. Somehow 3 of the top 10 teams in the world ended up in the same group of the European tournament, but if nothing else, it will provide for some fiery, tightly contested play. As I write this, 5th ranked Germany has scored its 2nd against 28th ranked Poland, and they still get to play Austria who is ranked below Canada (?!) in the world.

Anyways, competition and all that, I hope to go out to Kickoff in campus plaza for the Netherlands-Italy game tomorrow. What Kickoff lacks in menu, it more than makes up for in tasty, obscure imports on tap and always having a soccer game tuned in.

Hup Nederland!

Pro Bore

The NFL's version of the all star game is the most useless one in all of pro sports. I understand that in football with the players playing through injury as they do, playing an exhibition game mid-season is more of a penalty than anything, but why bother even playing the Pro Bowl? Does anyone actually care? Why not just make it like John Madden's Horse Trailer, give the players the distinction they deserve, whether they are injured and unable to play or not.

Its not that the other pro sports offer a substantially better all-star 'game', though they at least do offer better showcases in the home run derby or the slam dunk competition. And baseball even took the step, after that awful tied game in Milwaukee, to make the actual game mean something, giving home field advantage to the winning league in the World Series.

Hockey did its best, with mixed results, to make its talent exhibition better this year. I actually didn't see a second of the breakaway competition, but even the game itself tends to be filled with some dazzling plays.

The Pro Bowl misses the boat on all these things, and comes across like an afterthought the week after the Superbowl; something to placate the Sunday football hangover for some, for others, ruining chances to see the local pro basketball team play an actual meaningful game.

EDIT: Also, in the sports vein, I've set up a Fantasy Baseball league for this season. If you can commit to actually managing your team til the end of the season, feel free to join.

ID: 41506
Pass: void
Draft: Live draft; March 22, 12:00pm EST

Nachos and Chili

Chili is followed closely by pizza as the most popular superbowl serving. Ironic given the prime sport interest of most in Mexico and Italy, a game actually played predominantly with...feet!

No comment there on the watered down, over smoothed, flavourless, North American beer that will be consumed in even greater volumes than chili. My homebrew doesn't fit the flavourless, over smoothed, or North American characters, but high volume consumption is a given.

Pats, 35; Giants, 31; me....who can predict?

Update: 9/11 still has its carry-over in the sports world as well. God bless America in the middle of baseball games still, and every year since, a depiction of the Declaration as part of the Superbowl leadup. One has to wonder how many of the viewers out there actually pay attention to, or think about the words contained within, particularly in the beer and food atmosphere described above. Showing it under that setting likely has more tendency to incite blind patriotism, rather than critical thought and well considered patriotism.

Anyways, the Patriots of New England are about to take the field, enough rambling.

Parabolic Annoying

I'm all for technological advance in delivering better sound and video to me at home infront of the TV, particularly when it comes to sports coverage. But all day today I've noticed, particularly in the NFL coverage, but also baseball, that they've taken it too far. I don't mind the features where they mic up players and take soundbytes though a game. Interviewing baseball managers early in innings is also tolerable. What I can't take now is listening to the fucking 13 year-old kid in the second row screaming incoherent gibberish repeatedly and it being picked up on the game audio and getting pumped into my rec room.

Also, the 49ers are now 2-0...NFC Championship is next!

For the non-sports inclined...I picked up tickets to the Matt Good stop in town the other day, and am pumped for that. That is, if I'll be in town. The prof I'm working for this term wants to meet this week, presumably to discuss upcoming work in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Florida, Wyoming, and/or California; all of which I will do my best to avoid.

Until then, someone please shut up this goddamned kid in Miami.

Playing Nostradamus

Colts 27 - Bears 13. You heard it here first.

Also, in the year 2104, a global peril will lead to much agonizing in government. The fortune teller/miraculous prophet game isn't all that hard to play.

With that said its time to settle in for an afternoon of sports. First to watch the born again Raptors take on the Clippers, and then later to watch the one sporting event that men and women everywhere are forced to come together for every year in the name of celebration: competitive ice dancing.

Really, the Superbowl should be a competitive game this year, particularly given the windy and rainy forecast which will likely pull the teams closer together than what I feel their actual talent should predict. As long as the zebras don't go and blow it like last year, it should be a good game. Though I don't particularly care who wins, I think Peyton Manning deserves a ring, especially after finally showing he has what it takes to put the team on his back when it really counts, as he did to the Patriots 2 weeks ago.

The smell of chili is already drifting through the house, and the beer is stocked. No matter the outcome (which is never really the concern of millions of Superbowl parties anyways) it will be a glorious Sunday.

Old Lane Sign?

I've managed to deflect plans from going to Niagara Falls for New Years, which I had neither the money, nor particularly the energy for, to relaxing around here, playing some games, enjoying fondue, and drinking with friends. Getting smashed with friends is after all the point of yet another arbitrarily set holiday. New beginnings, resolutions, blah blah blah, there's really no significance to the day anyways, except that its the day of the Rose Bowl. And that's not til 5 which means I'll have plenty of time to clean up and sober up before I watch Michigan show that they really should have been in the title game.

In other news, the sasquatch has invaded the wooded areas of the Waterloo moraine. Sasquatch's girlfriend appears to enjoy taking pictures of sasquatch's moss stained crotch, and hitting him there with knees, or foosball table handles at every available opportunity.