Montreal Alouettes Win the 2009 Grey Cup

For sports fans who aren't checking out 'TMZ' or the 'Insider', to find out why Tiger Woods ran over a fire hydrant and then tried to decapitate a neighbor's tree, there is other breaking sports news tonight. In Canada's football version of the Superbowl, the Montreal Alouette's defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 28-27 to win the 97th annual Grey Cup classic.


Trailing by 2 points, and with time running out, the game ended when Montreal field goal kicker, Damon Duval kicked a 33 yard field goal. On the previous play, Duval had a chance to win the game on a 43 yard field goal but missed it to the right. However, Saskatchewan was penalized for having too many players on the field, and Montreal got a second chance to kick the field goal, 10 yards closer.

Now that all that statistical business is taken care of, here's an interesting fact. The Grey Cup was named after Canadian Governor General Earl Grey who donated the first cup to the Senior Amateur football Championship league in 1909. I wonder if Earl Grey was named after the tea with the same name? Oh well, that would require more research, and who has time for that these days.

Well hopefully this tidbit of Canadiana will help inform those people who may have mistakenly thought the Grey Cup was named after its silvery grey finish. It's amazing what we can learn just from reading Wikipedia.

Tiger Woods Driving Misses Fairway Hits Tree

The big news this weekend centers around golf's most valuable player, Tiger Woods. The facts in this unusual case are difficult to determine. We've been told that Tiger ran into both a fire hydrant and a neighbors tree, and was rescued by his wife who heard the accident and rushed outside to pull him out of the vehicle. Conflicting reports of his physical condition also arose. The police report stated he was in serious condition, while the hospital released a statement saying he sustained only minor injuries.

Simulated damage caused by Tiger Woods collision

A couple of interesting tidbits of information jump out of this story, besides the obvious plowing into a fire hydrant. Tiger's collision occurred in the very early morning, reported to be at 2:25 a.m. and Tiger's wife Elin, used a golf club to smash the rear window of his Cadillac SUV to rescue him. Some have asked why Tiger's wife didn't use a second set of car keys to open the locked doors. Maybe the second set of keys weren't easy to find, and she grabbed the first thing in sight, a club. Rumors of infidelity on Tiger's part have been circulating recently and images of his wife wielding a golf club allow the imagination to create an ugly picture. Even though speculation can often be inaccurate, it can definitely lead in interesting directions.

Hopefully some of the questions will be answered on Sunday when the 911 emergency phone call tape is released. Also police have rescheduled their interview with Tiger for Sunday, after being turned away on Saturday. However you look at it, the richest athlete in the world's private life is going on tour and Tiger's fans will be following.

Happy Paraskevidekatriaphobia Day

Well it's another Friday the 13th and fear of something horrible occurring is on many people's minds. Did you know the name given to fearing Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia. Giving it such a name, makes FTT (Friday the thirteenth) even scarier in my opinion, because it sounds like a serious medical disorder.

Obviously any sane person realizes there must be good things that have happened on Friday the 13th, so with a little bit of research, here's a sample of some good events occurring on paraskevidekatriaphobia day:

• 1899 Alfred Hitchcock born on Fri. August 13th
  

• 1948 Wright Flyer, 1st plane to fly, returns to US from England Fri. November 13th
  

• 1959 Barbie doll goes on sale Fri. November 13th

• 1970 Black Sabbath releases their debut album February 13th
  

• 1971 Golfing Fri. November 13th, Vice President Spiro Agnew hits 2 tee shots into the crowd, injuring 2 (okay maybe that's not a good thing, but it must have set some kind of lasting record for a VP)

• 1980 And of course "Friday the 13th" the movie, which was released on May 9th
  

• 1986 Kate and Ashly Olson born on Friday June 13
  

• 2009 And finally, Whoopi Goldberg turns 54 years old today (Fri. November 13th)

And for those who will continue to fear the dreaded Friday the 13th, the good news is there is only one next year: in August.

Should I be using SEO?

I rarely use SEO. Maybe that's the problem why there aren't more visitors to this blog. What is SEO? From my limited understanding, I believe it means using words and terms in your writing that are popular and frequently used when internet folk are searching for information online. Maybe if I start using SEO, which stands for "Search Engine Optimization" I'll draw much more traffic to this page. SEO is a tool that many, if not, most writers and webmasters use.

Hmmm... I wonder if I just used the letters SEO, a lot more in my articles, that people would find this blog. The trick of course, when using SEO, is not to let your readers think you are using specific words just to draw attention. That's why I would never consider just typing SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, over and over again, because, as you can see, this would be obvious to even the most uninformed internet user.

To sum it up, I think writers who consistently use SEO have a much higher chance of finding readers, than people like myself, who rarely use the SEO method.

To understand a little bit more about using SEO, read the following information from a Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

Oh, and if anybody is wondering how many times I've used the term SEO in this blog post, the answer is 15 times. Count them for yourself if you don't believe me. As you can see, you probably didn't realize that I was using the letters SEO just to get you to visit me. Sorry that doesn't seem ethical does it? Oh and that's 16 times I've used SEO. I mean 17. BTW, I didn't count the SEO in the title so if I count that one, plus the one in this sentence that would make 19. I can't believe I used SEO 20 times in this post. Whew!

It was Monday today

Well you can see from my last post date, I haven't been here in a while. Just for fun, let's see what's happened since that last post on March 24th 2009. Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Summer has come and gone. NASA crashed a couple of rockets into the Moon, looking for evidence of water.

I'm sure there were probably some other important news events that took place since March, but I can't think of them right now.

Oh and yes a late update: The human race is being won by the stupid.

A blog a day can keep the doctor away (Note; nothing to do with doctors)

I hate it when I can't think of anything to write about. I hate it for myself and even more for you, my loyal reader(s). If I can't inform, entertain or motivate you in some way, then I've failed as a blogger. You deserve more than just plain blogger slobber, and it is my duty as a writer to ensure you receive information that is useful and inspirational. That implies a challenge. By your reluctance to comment on what you read here, I must conclude that what you are viewing is perceived as pure literary landfill.

It is time for me to become a real writer, so I can relay to you (my busy worker bee) what I see as important in what is happening in the world today. And I must not take this task lightly and become a joker instead of a reporter. However, that is for you to decide, for it is you that is important, and I, am your loyal servant. (BTW I don't think it's such a bad thing being a joker. In my opinion, it's better than a arrogant know it all. Oh god, I hope I am never perceived like that).

So what happened today? Well I went to Kanata and met with our group; the CleanTech Task Force. Not a whole lot of progress, but we are getting very close to having a website published. We discussed a number of items including the "Go Green Expo" which took place on the weekend at Landsdowne Park. It was free and a large number of vendors were there, selling everything from hemp seed crackers to photo voltaic solar panels. It was a big success from my point of view, as the place was packed on Saturday (the day I went) and on Sunday as well, I found out, after talking with another member of our CTTF who was there both days.

In tonight's news, President Obama gave a press conference in prime time on TV. He read from a teleprompter to start off with, and I noticed a couple of times when he hesitated on the wording. He did much better with the questions posed by the press members who were selected to ask questions, although CNN senior reporter Ed Henry may have got a short reply when he posed a follow up question. He asked why it took so much time for the president to respond to the news about millions of dollars in AIG bonuses being given to senior executives in the company. The president said abruptly to Henry, that it was because he wanted a couple of days to think about it, so he would know himself, what he was talking about. I'm guessing he did okay, but I will leave the decision up to the experts (pro and con) to fight this one out.

He did very well on a phone call to the space station with some unexpected humour, including a comment about the speed of the ship going 17,000 mph. He said he was happy that the commander of the ship was using a hand's free phone.

I was just sitting here, and a blog come out

Not much excitement today, which is kind of normal, and besides, it is Monday.

A lot of conservatives are criticizing Barack Obama for laughing too much during a "Sixty Minutes" interview last night. I suppose they're right (no pun intended), and we should expect him to be grim faced and solemn during these tough economic times. Really? I don't think so. These conservative folks are depressed because they lost the big election, and they just can't get over it. It is commonly referred to in immature terms as being a "sore loser" Nah nah nah nah nah...

I like anyone who can smile under stress and the US president is showing he's pretty damn good at it. In fact, he can laugh his ass off and it won't bother me one bit, on one condition; that he's successful at positively affecting the economy. Pres Obama's smiling doesn't affect the stock market, but coincidentally the DOW Jones Industrial Average gained 497 points today. That's big. Now the experts say the reason for the market's gain is due to news that the Federal government is planning to partner with private investors to buy up more than a trillion dollars in toxic bank loans. If you believe in superstition, then when Obama smiles, the result is that the economy soars.

Smiling helps, so for all the sad right wing conservatives who are big fans of Rush Limbaugh and hoping Obama will fail, please, I beg of you, just take a deep breath and try to force out a tiny smile. You might just feel better, but be careful; it's believed to be contagious.

A blog is a beautiful thing to waste

When I have nothing valuable to contribute to society, I write about it here. It's my way of giving the most I can with the least amount of material. Somewhat surprising, I find that writing about nothing actually takes a large amount of effort. Sometimes I'll sit here for days(sorry I mean minutes) at a time just staring at the computer screen, waiting for the creative process to take place. Blogging can be beautiful, since it allows you to express your deepest thoughts and share them with others who aren't the least bit interested.

Blogging is also a way to unwind when the brain is full of stuffed up thoughts. Purging the system by flushing out the gobbledygook is an important function of blogging. When I think about it, pointless blogging is the opposite of mind control; yes, what we might call; mind out of control.

It was Thursday just a little while ago

Today is Thursday pronounced Thur-s-day not "Thirsty." Okay, why am I telling you how to pronounce this. Truthfully, there's no point to this kind of logic and it could actually backfire, when you start saying; who is this guy and why does he think he's an expert in the spoken word. Actually I'm using this technique as filler because if nothing is written here, you would be staring at a blank page.

Let's talk about the word "assume" for a minute. As long as I can recall, the word assume has been used over and over again, and I have personally used it frequently, not thinking much about it. A few years ago, I used the word assume at work and was chastised by someone saying to me; "You should never assume anything, because you know what they say about the word assume; it can make an "ass" out of "u" and "me." I'm not sure that even makes any sense, but I understood it to mean I did something wrong by "assuming." So here's my question. If we aren't supposed to assume, what are we supposed to do if we don't know the answer? How can we ever have an opinion, because that's all that assuming is; an opinion. It might be an educated opinion or a shot in the dark, but it's still assuming. Anything other than the actual truth is an opinion or an assumption isn't it? Our whole life is a series of assumptions, so we must "assume" it's acceptable. I hate someone telling me I shouldn't assume, which you can probably tell by now, I assume.

It's Wednesday not Wensday

No one I know pronounces Wednesday like Wed-nes-day. Everyone I know and everyone I don't know, pronounces Wednesday like Wens-day. It's easier to say Wens-day than Wednesday. And then there are people who must correct your pronunciation; "You know, Karl, it's pronounced WED-NES-DAY not Wensday" Okay not everyday people, but still there's enough of them around to keep you leery of saying Wednesday out loud amongst a group of strangers. What kind of people need to get upset over this almost silent d anyhow?

I'm wondering if it's possible to change Wednesday into Wensday for the sake of freedom of easier speech. How do names of days and months get changed? Who does it and how long does it take? Do you think it's something voters can vote on? Do you have to get a petition going. If it's a long drawn out process, forget it, it's probably not worth the effort. One thing I'll promise to do is to keep on saying Wensday incorrectly while spelling it properly.

Just can't please everybody.

When Tuesday turns into Today

Today is Tuesday. For a little fun, try taking out the "s" from Tue-s-day and see what it sounds like. Does it sound like to-day, funny huh? Is this just coincidence or is there something very mystical happening here?

You many not believe me, but this blog is actually posted on Wednesday and not on Tuesday as the title suggests. There is a reason for this, and it isn't because I had intentions of misleading you. It's really because I started writing this on Tuesday but left it for awhile, while I switched my focus to finishing a cartoon to go along with my Newsvine.com article. Well the cartoon is pretty well finished, but the article isn't even close to being completed. The article is about how to tell if you are a Newsvine junkie. It's supposed to be funny and I'm not, which means it will require lots of effort. I might get it done in the next day or so, and maybe even post the link here, if you're interested.

Now I must take a break and try and figure out how to reset my watch so it matches the change in daylight savings time from a week or so ago. I haven't worn it since then and today I realized I lost the instructions so I'll be spending way too much time trying to adjust the time. My life is full of challenges.

Monday, Monday

Welcome to the work week. I probably would be more depressed if I actually had to go to work today.

When someone has nothing to write about, it usually turns out like something you are presently reading. Of course you never know when the writer can say or think of something profound, so it is worth reading a little bit further on, in hopes of gaining some value out of this time investment.

Value, such as important advice on how to deal with your financial situation. Well I've always been compelled to help people, so here goes. Save your money, quit spending it. You worked hard for your money; so save it, don't give it away to anyone you don't know. If someone asks you to invest your money into a get rich scheme, be very wary. Ask them to loan you some money first, and then you'll gladly invest it, then see how eager they are to do so. Trust no one, especially me. Thanks.

Sunday's are Monday's pretending to be Saturdays

Wow it's Sunday and the sun is shining; is that a coincidence? Well this must be a sign of Spring, because the sun is out and the temperature is above freezing. It's been a long winter, but soon I'll be opening the glass patio doors and letting the dust fly outside.

It's just about time for spring cleaning too, as it will be on so many people's minds. For me, it'll mean cleaning the carpet, the refrigerator, toaster and definitely both my ears. Can't leave that last one too long.

Hiding behind the blog

If this is your first visit here, then you must be wondering why there isn't a lot of traffic to this page. You are probably saying to yourself; "This is like finding a gold mine, I mean, there's so much humour here, and no one else around to read it. I can't believe I have it all to myself. I'm not telling anybody else about this blog, because if I do, then a whole bunch of misfits will come here and make rude comments, then the guy who writes this fabulous material, will get all upset and quit blogging."

Yep that's probably what you're thinking right now, and that's a good reason not to tell anyone else about this blog. Make me a promise before you leave, that you won't tell anyone else about this blog and we'll keep it our little secret. Now remember; this is just between us, okay?

Where did that last year go?

This is my first post since June 2008, and it's February 2009. I haven't been slacking, just directing my creative energies in different directions. Not much has happened since June of last year, I'm still seriously telling myself it's time to start looking for a real job and I'm motivated more and more each day. I'm now eager to get back to work. I love thinking about looking for a career. The more I think about looking for a job, the more I actually want to pick up a newspaper or search online for work. I'll get back to you later on the success of my efforts, but for now, here's a cartoon to look at which I drew recently when there was such a big fuss about the Rod Blagojevich Senate seat scandal.