lance_sibley: (Go Leafs Go!)
I just finished watching the NHL All-Star game. I like a good, clean bodycheck as much as the next hockey fan, but it's nice to see a game in which there's a constant flow of action with plenty of skills on display. Of course, I also end up feeling sad for the goalies because with no hitting, the score usually ends up something like tonight's (which was 8-7 for the Eastern Conference).

I didn't see much of the Leafs' representative, Tomas Kaberle, though the game summary at NHL.com says that he played 16:32. I guess he just didn't get involved in any spectacular plays, though I did see him save a goal in the second period by preventing a Western Conference player from being able to take a shot from the slot with an open net.

I'm feeling pretty drowsy this evening. I didn't go out last night as Yvonne called and suggested that, rather than my schlepping out to her and Lloyd's place to borrow their dolly, they would just come and pick me up, take me to Future Shop and bring me and my new laser printer back home, since they had to go downtown today anyway. I'm grateful, of course - since I didn't expect it - though the fact that they're morning people and I'm not meant that I had to be awake at 9:30 this morning to make sure that I was ready to go when they arrived.

But I now have a shiny new laser printer/copier/scanner. Which means that I no longer have to go to Kinko's when I have massive printing to do for Polaris (the inkjet just wasn't fast enough, and I always had to deal with clogged nozzles), and I can scan in my own old pictures to horrify you all. ;)

So here are a few... click if you dare. )

I may eventually get around to scanning and uploading more, but that's it for now. (And I hear a collective sigh of relief. ;) ) BTW, [livejournal.com profile] the_nita, I remember some time ago I asked if you had any old FASS pictures from when I had long hair. Were you ever able to find them?
lance_sibley: (Bleed Blue And White)
Since the fans in Anaheim are either too polite or too ignorant of history, I guess it's up to me to lead the chant...

1927! 1927! 1927! 1927! 1927!

*grin, duck, roll*
lance_sibley: (illogical)
Wow, it's been nearly a week since I last posted... I guess nothing's been going on. Well, that's not really true, I suppose, but nothing unusual has happened in my life since last week. The stuff I've been doing at work for the past month was uploaded to the test server today, and the client is really excited about the changes. So excited he wants to know when the next batch of changes, which he gave me last Friday afternoon, will be ready.

The Programming scheduling meeting for Polaris 21 went well on Sunday. We managed to get the whole schedule done in about six hours - mind you, it was simpler than in past years because it seems that the pre-reg deadline snuck up on a lot of our regular panelists this year. We're still getting panel signups via the website. It's much easier to avoid schedule conflicts if the schedule is made before many panelists have signed up. ;)

I managed to make it to the Exec meeting on Monday night only an hour or so late. I discovered that evening that taking the Viva blue bus from work to Richmond Hill Centre, the purple line from Richmond Hill Centre to York University, the orange line to Highway 7 and Martin Grove, the York Region #7 bus south to Finch and the Martin Grove #46 bus to Dixon is even slower than taking the Viva blue bus all the way down to Steeles and then the Steeles West #60 bus from Finch station. Perhaps next time I'll take the blue bus to Finch and take the route I normally take from home (subway to Kipling, Martin Grove #46 to Dixon) and see if that's any faster (it certainly can't be any slower).

For the three or so of you who haven't been following the latest kerfuffle, there's a blog here by "Warriors For Innocence", the holier-than-thou group that's getting LJ accounts and communities shut down for listing interests that they don't agree with, in the name of protecting children from potential abusers. There aren't many posts there yet, but I'm sure that there will be more as word gets around. I read some of the comments, and it boggles my mind that they're claiming that they're not ultimately responsible just because they're not the ones deleting the journals and the communities.

Oh, and I'm a little late with this, but [livejournal.com profile] montrealais' post from the other night, along with this article in the Globe and Mail, highlights just why Gay Pride celebrations are still needed now, perhaps more than ever. For those who didn't hear about it, here are the opening paragraphs from the Globe's article:


Russian police detained gay protesters calling for the right to hold a Gay Pride parade in central Moscow on Sunday while nationalists shouting “death to homosexuals” punched and kicked the demonstrators.

Riot police detained the protesters, including two European parliamentarians, as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.

Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as “evil” while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon's masks, which they said would protect them from the “gay disease”.


That's right - the police arrested the gay activists. For the most part, the mob attacking them got off scot-free.

We might have it pretty good here, but our brothers and sisters in other countries aren't so fortunate.

Oh, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks just took a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup final by beating Ottawa 1-0. As much as I hate to say it, because it implies that I'm cheering for Anaheim when I'm not... it looks good on the Senators. ;)
lance_sibley: (Go Leafs Go!)
The Stanley Cup finals: Ottawa Senators vs. Anaheim Mighty Ducks. (Yes, I know they dropped the "Mighty" a few years ago. I don't care - the team was named after the movie, I'm going to keep reminding them of it.)

It's not right to hope for the return of the 1919 influenza epidemic, but surely something can happen to prevent the Cup from being awarded this year...

And if that weren't bad enough, tonight's Boston Legal episode didn't air. CH was showing NCIS instead, and I have no idea what ABC was showing.
lance_sibley: (Brian - hehe - by little_icons)
It's rather disconcerting to turn on CBC and have the first thing one hears be that Paul Martin has been penalized for hooking in Ottawa. Of course, it was this Paul Martin, who plays defense for the New Jersey Devils, not the Paul Martin who is the former Prime Minister of Canada. Whew, dodged a bullet there...

Even more amusing is LolTrek, a site which combines the latest craze of lolcats with Star Trek - specifically "The Trouble With Tribbles". Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] bovil for the link.
lance_sibley: (Canucks)
Harry Neale: "And the Vancouver Canucks can smell the Anaheim Mighty Ducks right now!"

Um, Harry? I'm not sure that's a good thing. You've been a coach... surely you've been in a hockey team's dressing room?

I think I'll be cheering for the Canucks the rest of the way. It's been a process of elimination:

Buffalo and Ottawa are out because all good Leafs fans hate them.
New Jersey is out because they didn't play Brodeur in goal in the final game against the Islanders.
New York and Detroit are out because... well, just because.
Anaheim is out because I refuse to take any team seriously that was named after an Emilio Estevez movie.
San Jose is out because I hate the colour teal.

That just leaves Vancouver.

YES!!!!!!!

Apr. 8th, 2007 05:57 pm
lance_sibley: (Bleed Blue And White)
New Jersey just tied the game 2-2 with 0.9 seconds left in the third period. They're going to overtime.

GO DEVILS!!!!!

FUCK. The Islanders won in the shootout. Crap.
lance_sibley: (Go Leafs Go!)
Were you trying to kill me tonight?

*goes to make sure my New Jersey Devils jersey is clean*
lance_sibley: (Bleed Blue And White)
The organist at the Calgary Saddledome is having far too much fun in his job. So far, he's played the themes to Star Trek: The Next Generation and Pinky And The Brain.
lance_sibley: (Strike)
I had a satisfactory night at bowling last night: 171, 165 and 189. All three games above my average (though that's mostly because after my slightly-below-average week last week, my average had dropped to 164 - it's now back up to 165). I was a little surprised that I was doing so well for two reasons: first, we were bowling against one of the walls (again - that's the third time this year), and second, because on the bus ride from the subway station, the driver decided to take the first turn out of the station at full speed. I was standing and holding on to a strap, and the sudden change in inertia made my elbow pop - and it was my bowling arm, which still isn't 100% after last year's injury. :( Maybe the pop actually fixed it, though...

The team only won one game out of three, though. :( Again, the other team didn't show up, but unlike the last time this happened, four of them had declared scores. Normally the use of a dummy score would mean an easy four points for us, but we had a dummy score as well, as Randy didn't feel well and we didn't have anyone filling in for him.

Now we have a two-week break - hopefully when we go back, I won't hurt my arm again (it was the first week after last year's Christmas break when the injury occurred). Mario's going to be away that week, though - fortunately he left us with a really good declared score (he had two 200 games last night).


Evidently, the secret to success for the Toronto Maple Leafs is for me not to watch their games. I was working at the computer and noticed that the game had been on for about 45 minutes. I turned it on, and it was already 5-1 for the Leafs. I managed to see Kyle Wellwood's third goal, but then went to make dinner - and when I got back it was 8-1. Watching the Rangers' goalie almost flub a shoot-in from the blue line made me recall a comment about Dave Reece, the losing goaltender in the Leafs' 11-4 win over Boston on February 7, 1976 (and I remember that date because it was the night that Darryl Sittler scored six goals and assisted on four others): they said that Reece was so despondent that after the game, he went down into the subway and threw himself in front of a train - but it went right through his legs.


I spent a little time today tinkering with my Scripting Languages assignment - I noticed an odd behaviour that I wanted to correct. According to the assignment, if a user is not logged in and they try to go to the Reservations page, they're supposed to be redirected to the Login page. Whether they log in or go from the Login page to the Registration page and create a profile, they're then supposed to be returned to the Reservations page. I thought that was working, but then I found that I couldn't get back to the home page if I decided to cancel the registration - I kept getting redirected to the Login page. After I fixed that, I tested it and went to look at the registration table to see if my new user had been correctly registered - and I found a user record with my instructor's name on it. The assignment isn't due until tomorrow, and he's already looking at it. WTF??? I sent him an email to let him know that it wasn't ready yet. Grrrr.

I also fixed another thing that was niggling at me: the "page last modified" date kept getting updated every time I reloaded a page, probably because the text that was being displayed was being generated by the code. I took out the Javascript function that I was using to display that and replaced it with an ASP function that I found that actually retrieves the time the file was last updated, and now that works nicely. Yay. So I think I'm now completely done - or as done as I'm going to be.
lance_sibley: (Wet)
Yet another weekend chock-full of meetings. Five hours with the Toronto Trek department heads yesterday, and three hours with [livejournal.com profile] plaidlibrarian going over stuff for Gaylaxicon programming. Not that I'm complaining overly much; both meetings were very productive.

I still have yet to go back and reply to all of the comments on Wednesday night's post. I will, but I just wanted to say that I'm a lot less angry now than I was at the time. The ironic thing is that I wasn't angry about John turning me down - I'd psyched myself up for a negative response (though a positive one would have been so much nicer). The anger was more about missing out on a chance to go to my bowling league finals. However, I've since found out that [livejournal.com profile] cuteteenboy was extremely sick, which is why he didn't show up. (So I forgive you. ;) )

This problem that others have reported whereby the window keeps getting progressively wider while updating is happening to me as well. Most annoying. Someone suggested that it was because of a bug in the interface between Linux (I guess that's what LJ is written for) and my Firefox browser. It doesn't happen with any other message boards I'm on, though, and it doesn't seem to happen when I'm commenting on other people's posts. Very strange.

I'm trying to figure out why CBC is airing the Olympic Women's Hockey gold medal game. Sure, it's nice to relive the success of the Canadian team, but it seems an odd choice, considering that they've shown some good movies the past two nights after the late hockey game (Chariots Of Fire last night, and The Accidental Tourist the night before).

Oh... I've been having some fun with new icons, too. Like this one? Yes, that's John Barrowman... I found the original photo in the Google cache for Bay Windows, a New England LGBT newspaper. Hot.
lance_sibley: (Leafs 1)
My beloved Leafs did their best, whipping Ottawa tonight (the first time this year they'd beaten the Senators), but it was all for nought as Tampa Bay won in overtime to eliminate the Leafs from the playoff hunt. :(

What makes it worse, of course, is the ribbing I'm going to take on TrekBBS from Garak and firehawk12, both of whom hate the Leafs with as much passion as I have in loving them...
lance_sibley: (Leafs 1)
First, observations from today:

  1. What was with that freak hailstorm today? 17 degrees, and hail? That was just weird. Not to mention, those were some big honkin' hailstones. I'm glad I was inside.

  2. Go Leafs Go! *grin* 4-3 win, in overtime. Two goals by Matt Stajan, including the game-winner. Jean-Sebastien Aubin is now 7-0-2 in goal. (Now, if he would only stop admiring the big first saves long enough to realize that he's given up a huge rebound...) If they don't make the playoffs, it won't be from lack of trying. I just wish they'd tried a little harder earlier in the year rather than leaving it to the last ten games of the season. They're giving me heart failure.


I had to pop out last night to get Gaylaxicon flyers to [livejournal.com profile] marahsk to take to Norwescon last night. (Fortunately, there was a one-week break from the bowling playoffs.) You would have thought that it was Friday of a long weekend, from the people on the subway. There was a guy who got on the car with me wearing the pants and hat of a Santa outfit (no shirt) who spent most of the time between Eglinton and Yonge alternately growling at people and doing pushups, much to the amusement of the four tipsy 20-somethings sitting across from me. Not to mention the guy whom we didn't notice until Santa moved on to the next car, who was laughing maniacally while counting his fingers. The longer I live in this city, the stranger it gets. (And that's saying something, since I've lived here for all but seven of my 38 and two-thirds years.)

It took four days, but I seem to have slipped back into my previous routine of staying up all night and getting up in the middle of the afternoon. I don't know why, but despite going to bed at about 3 Tuesday night, I didn't wake up until 1 yesterday afternoon. Then I didn't get to bed until 5 last night. *sigh* Every time I think I've gotten myself back onto a normal schedule, somehow it slips...

[livejournal.com profile] assetic has given me permission to post a link to the short documentary film about TT20 that she made last weekend, filming at our committee meetings. So here it is - please right-click and select "save as" rather than playing it directly. You may need to download Quicktime Version 7 in order to watch it - don't worry about that $29.99 thing on the right hand side, you just need the free version on the left. I'm in there briefly talking about being a Co-Chair. (You can tell that my acting experience is on stage, too. I'm not used to having a camera in my face.)

And finally, here's a cool story from the Globe and Mail about the Venus Express mission - it seems that clouds of sulphuric acid have been found at Venus' south pole, swirling around at 350 kmh.

WTF?

Mar. 8th, 2006 11:42 pm
lance_sibley: (Bleed Blue And White)
Okay, let me see if I've got this straight.

Ken Klee: 15 points in 56 games (okay, not a lot, but he's a defenseman) and a -1 rating (not great, but not terrible either - and he's a +11 for his career), gets traded to New Jersey for a guy who has played all of one NHL game at the age of 24.

They give up a draft pick to reacquire Luke Richardson, who has 7 points in 44 games and a -18 rating (-119 for his career). Not to mention that he's two years older than Klee. It's not as though they were getting rid of someone who was going to become an unrestricted free agent and who was going to leave anyway in exchange for someone with a longer-term contract - they're both becoming unrestricted free agents on July 1.

Oh, and they put Mariusz Czerkawski on waivers, and Boston snaps him up. He's scored 25 goals in a season four times in his career (30 twice, which hasn't been easy in the era of the neutral zone trap), but Pat Quinn only put him in the lineup 19 times this season, out of 61 games.

Can someone please tell me why John Ferguson, Jr. has a job? The guy has been completely clueless ever since he was hired.
lance_sibley: (Gaylaxicon)
I went out this afternoon to try to finish my Christmas shopping. I still want to try to find one more thing, though, but I don't know yet what it is. I'll know it when I see it.

I bought:

  • an angora wrap and a copy of Wicked for Manuela (Mike's wife)

  • a Power Rangers sweatshirt for Adam (Mike and Manuela's older son)

  • an Incredibles sweatshirt for Brandon (their younger son)

  • stuffed Lilo & Stitch toys for each of them (I'll let them fight over who gets which :) )

  • Bill Maher's New Rules and a Doctor Who script book (the Tom Baker years) for Scott - I hope he doesn't have it already


I've developed a bad habit over the past couple of years when it comes to buying Scott's Christmas gifts - I'll be wandering around a bookstore, see something I think he'll like, and pick it up. Then five minutes later, I'll see something else I think he'll like, and pick that up too. Rinse and repeat. I think it was two years ago, in his words, I got him "a complete reading list." I was good to restrict it to only two books (though I almost got him a book on the making of the Hitchhiker's Guide movie too). I figure I'll toss in a Future Shop gift card or something too. I might do the same for Mike and Manuela. (I still have to figure out what the heck it was that I bought for Mike last year, wrapped and then put away without giving to him. It's about the shape and size of a coat, but I can't remember and I don't want to unwrap it. Maybe I should just make him open it here so that I can be surprised with him.)

I also have a strange feeling that I bought Wicked for someone else last year. I'll have to call Mike this week and ask him what I got Manuela last year before I wrap it.

I got home around 7:30, had dinner and watched most of the Leafs game. Ottawa can win all they want right now - it doesn't count until the playoffs. ;) Though I was getting frustrated at times. Note to the players: when Dominik Hasek is the opposing goalie, shooting the puck directly at him isn't going to work. Try aiming for where he isn't. Oh, and for the love of Pete, start lifting some weights, guys. Every game I've watched this year, the opposing players just have to look at you and they knock you off the puck.

When Ottawa scored to make it 5-2, I decided that it was time to call [livejournal.com profile] cuteteenboy. (Just as well; since the final was 8-2, I would have just given myself an ulcer if I'd continued to pay attention to the game.) As I'd suspected, he'd forgotten that we were going to get together this evening. Probably just as well, though, as I'm rather tired from wandering around a shopping mall full of people who give new meaning to the word "meander." His bf didn't sound too happy that I had called, though that might have been because I kept him on the phone for 45 minutes. But the Gaylaxicon 2006 webpage has now been updated with the following information:

  • an updated bio and photo of our Writer/Editor Guest of Honour, Michael Rowe

  • information on taking advantage of our Air Canada discount, for people flying to Toronto

  • pre-registration, dealers, t-shirt/polo shirt and dinner ticket prices (they were on the flyer, which has always been available on the site, but now it's easier to find)


Shiny. :)

There are more updates to come, but he needs to finish setting up email addresses for some departments before he can put those other pages up.

On tap for later tonight: watch "In A Mirror Darkly, Part II" woth commentary. I watched part one last night, and it was quite interesting.

Oh, and I finally figured out how to make my computer use my cable modem to access Symantec's website and download the latest virus definitions, instead of having to unplug my phone to do it. (Yeah, I know, I should have been able to figure it out earlier. Silly me, looking in the menus and the help files for Norton rather than going to my Control Panel.) It seems I've picked up a Trojan (I should be so lucky). Unfortunately, the removal tool I downloaded from Symantec isn't getting rid of it, nor did Ad-Aware. It's called Vundo - if anyone has any suggestions as to how to get rid of it without trying to edit the registry, I'd appreciate them.
lance_sibley: (Leafs 1)
It's amazing what you find when you clean. I found a Super 7 ticket from the May 6 draw on which I'd won a free ticket. I guess I should cash that in, shouldn't I?

While watching the Leafs game tonight, I was struck by a thought... whoever picks the songs that are played on the PA system during stoppages in play needs to have it explained that Franz Ferdinand's "Do You Want To" probably isn't about what he or she thinks it is... after all, it has a male singer performing the lines "Oh well do you, do you do you want to, want to go/Where I've never let you before?" and "Well he's a friend and he's so proud of you/Your famous friend, well I blew him before you, oh yeah..."

(To hear the song, go to this site and click where "Do You Want To" is listed under "Featured Songs.")

Then again, the Leafs won tonight (though they did their best to blow their lead in the third period), so I'm not going to complain.

Miffed.

Jul. 22nd, 2005 11:16 pm
lance_sibley: (Default)
I knew the Leafs weren't going to win the draft lottery today, but after having Mario Lemieux for god knows how many seasons, I'm miffed that the Penguins are going to get Sidney Crosby. I wouldn't have minded seeing some team that's never won the Stanley Cup get a chance. (Mind you, the Leafs have yet to win it in my lifetime...)

Oh, and a question for [livejournal.com profile] the_nita...

Do you happen to have any FASS pictures from circa 1991-92? Or from Edward II? I've been trying to get my hands on some pics of myself with the shoulder-length perm and it suddenly occurred to me that you might have some...




For anyone who's local and/or interested, tomorrow night Toronto Trek is holding a tribute to James Doohan at Auld Spot Pub, 347 Danforth Avenue (at Chester station), at 7pm.

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