Take me out to the ballgame!

My wife and I took the kids to see the Edmonton Cracker-Cats today, a team that is so minor league, I'm pretty sure that one of the bat-boys hit a three-run double at one point during the game.

OK, that's not fair to the Cracker-Cats, who are actually a pretty darn good baseball team. They are in first place in the entire (Fill in the name of the minor league you've never heard of here) League, and are heading to the playoffs for the first time in the team's history (which, and don't quote me on this, began at least before yesterday). And all 273 people in the stands today were thrilled by the 10-4 drubbing of Calgary today (largely due to that one bat boy).

At any rate, we figured that a Cracker-Cats game would be fun, so we bought some cheap tickets with the idea of moving to better seats once the game started.

And that plan worked - way better than I thought it would.

Just as the game started, a promotions girl approached us and asked if we would agree to be the "Move of the Game," which is when the ball club takes a group of fans and upgrades their cheap seats to a luxury box.

We deliberated for approximately 0.007th of a second before agreeing, and so off we trotted to a luxury box behind home plate, where we watched the remainder of the game.

We spent $36 on tickets. The luxury box was worth $508. I'd say we got a good deal.

And all kidding aside, it was a good game, and a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll be back next summer. The Cracker-Cats can save us a spot in the luxury box, please.

Sunday afternoon humour

more animals

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Ric Flair

I've been looking for a video of this match for years. This is the only meeting between these two men in the ring. It was for Flair's NWA title, and it took place in Winnipeg on a Pro Wrestling USA card (a joint promotion of the AWA and NWA during the time they were trying to stave off the WWF expansion). I was fortunate enough to be in the audience that night for this match, which ended in a double count-out at about 25 minutes. The YouTube clip isn't the entire match, but it's all that's around.

Randy vs. Brock?

So the big rumour in the MMA world these days is that Randy Couture will end his legal battle with UFC, return to Zuffa-land and battle Brock Lesnar at the November PPV.

Randy vs. Brock would be a money fight. I would love to see Brock win, but after just 3 professional fights, that's not happening.

Bret Hart book commentary

Anonymous writes (butchery of the English language left intact):

f you don't agree with the way Bret sees things, that is a commentary the man, not the book. The greatness of the book is that it is uncompromising in telling what the view of the world was from Bret's eyes. The book is an AUTOBIOGRAPHY - not a definative historical account, and it should be viewed as such.

I don't disagree that autobiographies are inherently subjective. But to try to draw some artificial line between "the man" and "the book" is slightly ridiculous. I mean, "the man" wrote "the book." And "the book" is about "the man" who wrote it.

Yes, the greatness of the book was the hard-hitting and uncompromising way in which Bret tells his story.

The failing of the book, however, is what I noted in my original commentary on it. Bret is quick to point out the failings of others, but in the process he makes himself look foolish and immature by refusing to take responsibility for his failings.

As a person gets older, there should be some wisdom of age and experience that better informs how they used to view the world. I do not doubt that, at those particular points in time in his marriage and career, Bret Hart thought his wife was being unfair to him in their marriage. My issue was more that at this point in his life, Bret should be able to see how selfish his opinion was (or still is) and grow beyond that.

A shout out to my brother Dean

He was nominated for a Gemini Awared for his work on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. List of all nominees here. Dean's official nomination notice is here.

Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series
Brooks Gray, Andy King, Leo Scherman, Morgan Waters - Cock'd Gunns - Ready, Aim, Fire
Graeme Manson - Rent-A-Goalie - Everybody's A Fag
Paul Mather, Irwin Barker, Greg Eckler, Chris Finn, Rick Mercer, Tim Steeves - Rick Mercer Report - Episode 8
Adam Reid, Max Reid - Billable Hours - One Hit Wonder
Jennifer Whalen, Andrew Bush, Gavin Crawford, Mark Critch, Nathan Fielder, Geri Hall, Albert Howell, Dean Jenkinson, Tim McAuliffe, Gary Pearson, Kyle Tingley - This Hour Has 22 Minutes - Episode 3

Running Night (Part 4 of a continuing series)

Week 2 of our running class went fine last night. It was 20 degrees and threatening to rain, which was a decidedly different night than our first week, when it was 35 degrees and threatening to incinerate us into ash on the sidewalk.

Our class has moved up from 2 minutes of walking and 1 minute of running to 1 minute walking, 1 minute running. Last night we covered just under 2 miles, and the group kept up a pretty good pace. The next practice run is tomorrow (Wednesday) and we should be able to make it (assuming I don't get stuck at work until 6 p.m. like last week) for that. We're taking tonight off to recoup from a Saturday-Sunday-Monday running stint.

I weighed in this morning at 178.8 lbs. Considering I was 183 lbs a couple of weeks ago, I'm pretty pleased. I still want to break south of 170 lbs. That would be a huge accomplishment for me.

Overheard Everywhere

Obviously Not
Student #1: I have to go to class.
Student #2: Which one?
Student #1: Quantum physics.
Student #2: Is that where you go back in time to set right what once went wrong?
Overheard by: Sydney

via Overheard Everywhere, Aug 25, 2008

Running Night (Part 3 of a continuing series)

Week two of our Learn to Run class goes tonight. So far, it's been hugely successful: I clocked 25.7 miles last week in 7 hours and 50 minutes of walking and running, and managed to drop about 2.5 lbs. in the process. I'm now slightly below 180 lbs., which is a good start.

In total, my wife and I went out running five times this past week, including Monday night's class.

Tonight, we're doing one minute of walking and one minute of running, at 10 reps.

Downhere - A Better Way

One of the greatest songs ever written, in my humble opinion.

Free Starbucks Coffee Recipe E-book

Free Starbucks Coffee Recipe E-Book

Details in the link.

Hat tip: Coffeefair.com

Sunday afternoon humour

more animals

Downhere - The More

Yeah, I've basically turned the blog into a music video reposting service. Consider it a respite between the Learn to Run updates.



And the studio version ...

I have found something more delicious than chocolate peanut butter

Chocolate cream cheese.

Oh yes.

This pretty much sums up my feelings about leaving newspapers

Fading to Black: 'Thank God I got out'

Only I didn't get out to write a book.

Lincoln Brewster - Everlasting God

Stellar Kart - Me and Jesus

The cornucopia of Christian music videos continues. I love this song, but the album version is much better.

Downhere - Here I Am

My current favourite song.

Dude! That's so meta! Part 2

I was checking my site stats today and found that the Google search string "Google search strings" led to my site.

Windows Vista: Over One Third of Vista Machines Have Been Downgraded to XP

Windows Vista: Over One Third of Vista Machines Have Been Downgraded to XP

Posted using ShareThis

This is why I'm keeping my current laptop as long as possible.

Running Night (Part 2 of a continuing series)

We're back from our first Learn to Run class, which took place in 35 degree heat and resulted in several of our new classmates spontaneously combusting into ash on the sidewalk.

Which reminds me: Could someone please explain to me the concept of women running outside in 35 degree heat in full makeup?

In all seriousness, though, the first class went very well. It's a good group of people, and I look forward to the practice session on Wednesday night.

Running Night (Part 1 of a continuing series)

My wife and I start our Learn to Run course tonight. It's a 10-week course, and the goal is to be able to run 20 minutes when you're done.

Personally, I hope to lose some weight (my metabolism appears to have shut down entirely of late) and improve my distance running.

Updates over the course of the 10 weeks.

More free stuff from Downhere

The Christian band Downhere released their 2006 album Wide Eyed and Mystified entirely free on the Internet a while back. Anyone who took advantage of it got quite the deal, because the album is very good.

The band now has a free song, My Last Amen, off their forthcoming album Ending is Beginning available for download here, and the new single, Here I Am, streaming off their website.

If these two songs are any indication, the new album is going to be great.

Sunday afternoon humour

more cat pictures

I'm back!

I'm back from my work-related road trip, which included a great helicopter tour on Thursday. Definitely one of the highlights of my entire life.

Regular updates to resume in the coming week.

Away (again) for a few days

Just a short note to let my two regular readers know that I'm away on a work-related road trip until the end of the week. The itinerary is pretty packed, so there will be no posting between now and the weekend.

Gud leminayd!

Slow motion lightning video

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Video from Today's Big Thing website.

New WWE DVD: The Definitive Braden Walker

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Stolen from a messageboard. Click for full size.

Web 2.0 has been very good to me ... continued

As I mentioned a while back, moving The Newsroom to Web 2.0 has been very good for my hit counts. July 2008 was the best month ever in the history of this little website.

The fact I'm attracting more hits than ever, despite being a year-plus removed from my columnist job with the Edmonton Sun, is an interesting footnote to all of this.

WWE Diva and ECW replica belt ordering info

As a public service because about 99.982% of my Google hits now come from search strings wondering how to order replicas of the new WWE Diva belt or the new WWE ECW belt, Wrestling Superstore has a link up that's worth bookmarking for further information as it becomes available.

Wheat

Inspired in its own little way by this picture from Colby Cosh.

Grand Beach vacation video

Sunset at Grand Beach II

Sunset at Grand Beach