Continuing the Broadcast Into Empty Space...

An overdue post that pretty much will bring us up to speed.

School started the second half of the term this week, my 2nd midterm was due Monday and we started the 2nd half with new professors in each course. the MBA program is going much better than expected, I'm enjoying it, it's not extremely difficult as long as I put in the hours necessary to get the job done. The commute to Hamilton is a bitch, but the Go Train isn't so bad, except when there's a hockey game and the train is full of Leafs fans. I don't feel any smarter half way through the term, I just have a new perspective of how certain things operate and with that I feel that much farther ahead.

Hockey is back with a vengance. I brought my brothers and Barbara to see the Flyers play in Ottawa the other night and just happened to show up on a night where the beloved Sens lost a game. This disappoint is slightly offset by the beating they gave rightly administered to the Leafs the night prior, I'm not sure what I appreciated more, an embarassing 8-0 nothing victory, or a broken Tie Domi nose. It's a close call. I'm having a hard time restraining myself from driving to Buffalo to see the Sens play there tonight. It's funny though when I think about it, it seems like my devotion to our nation's capital hockey team sort of mirrors the devotion and enjoyment that I used to have for music. Instead of showing up and singing along, I'm showing up and screaming "Clear the puck maggots!". I just guess I never got to see Good Clean Fun cover Earth Crisis' head with their jerseys and punch their covered heads in.

Going back to music, Propagandhi released their new album after a 4 year wait last week and I've been listening to it a few times a day. It almost makes it worth the wait. Considering the profound influence their first two albums had on me in my teenage years, it's almost nostalgic with this newness. The Nation-State-Flag-Waving-Bashing Propagandhi though has managed to muster some sort of patriotic sentiment in their first track "A Speculative Fiction".

A new iron curtain drawn across the 49th parallel. Cut all diplomatic ties as we expel all American dignitaries and issue a nation-wide travel advisory for any others left inside..... Still visible below their charred remains: Pax Americana plates. Your stupid fucking laser-pucks™ were just the start.... And while you may stand six full cubits and a span, we got a shepherd’s sling and five stones in our hand and the battle of 1812 lives in our hearts.

Of course, we can never be sure with those Propagandhi guys, they may just be too smart for us and we may be missing the entire point. I'm sure somewhere in there they are singing about the unprivileged something or other, but at any rate, I think Canada may have just found their new fight song to take to the streets with our hockey sticks and chainsaws to battle the Canadian Beef Ban and Softwood Lumber tariffs. Watch out Yankees, I'm sure there's no coincidence that 90% of us live within a 100 miles of the border, we may be salivating dogs just waiting for you to make the wrong move! Exclaim has a featured article on our beloved anti-heroes from Winnipeg this month, and this quote particularily resonates with me:

“Anything that gets a laugh will keep going. And if it doesn’t, it’ll keep going twice as hard.”

Anyway. Work is status quo, but I've been endulging in some atypical frivulous spending, recently acquiring but not yet receiving a Blackberry 4280, an HP 23" LCD flat panel monitor and an Apple 12" Powerbook. I guess I might as well have my toys if I'm going to play alone.

And my recent partner in crime, Gary the Cat says hello to all. Or is that meow to all?