Shaking Things Up

It was my student’s birthday on Friday and she requested I make her one of my famous sandwiches.  I could hardly refuse.  Her only complaint was that it didn’t have good cheese on it.  Being from Switzerland, I guess she had a point.

I wish I could write a blog that sums up the weekend so precisely that no other weekend summary would even come close.

 

Saturday started out nicely with conversations, food, and even a bit of grocery shopping.  Sadly, both of my favourite sports teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were completely dismantled by their opponents.  In addition to this, I had just tried my hand at betting on College Fotball and didn’t win.  Though the bet was small, I was hoping for confirmation that I was a brilliant prognosticator of College Football.

This morning, I awoke rather early for a Sunday. I am not sure why.  I certainly didn’t get enough sleep and I expect to be somewhat of a zombie at work on Monday.  Thankfully, my students might also be in the same frame of mind and our zombie–ness will cancel each other out.

Just thought I would share Saturday’s lunch with you.  I hope I am not making you hungry.

This early morning meant that I could be a bit more productive than normal. I managed to;

• do a couple of loads of laundry.
• drink three cups of coffee instead of my usual two.
• watch a couple of episodes of the new fall season TV that I had PVRed but hadn’t watched. I’ve got the thing almost 70% full and I am worried that one long sporting event is going to crash the whole thing.
• get some new library books. Actually the big accomplishment there is finding a parking spot in the small parking lot. That it was close to the entrance is an amazing bonus.
• do a little grocery shopping without breaking the bank.
• get a new paper shredder and not get sidetracked by all the new computers and comfortable office chairs.
• get my lunch made for the next two days of work.

Lastly, and most importantly, I decided to rewrite my biography page–what I like to call the Anthony Story. I hadn’t done that in a while and I thought since I am shaking things up by being more productive than usual on a Sunday, I might as well shake things up even more.  If you want to check it out, you can follow the tabs above or click here. I don’t know if there are any earth shattering revelations, but at least it was fun to write.

Finding Common Ground

Though I could have chosen hitting the snooze button a bunch of extra times, or the extra time I had to enjoy my coffee this morning, I have decided to select something else as Today’s Perfect Moment.

Without further adieu, Today’s Perfect Moment is about accidently finding out about common interests.  You see, as I have already explained, for reasons not entirely clear to myself, I have become a fan of US college football.  It will never replace my love for the Canadian game, but it is a nice Saturday afternoon distraction.  I am a big fan of Notre Dame.  I had even considered making the pilgrimage to the stadium to watch a game this year–then I discovered how much the tickets cost.  It may have to wait.

After discovering I am not the only one, a co-worker, who I discovered is a fan,  has taken to quizzing me on team names.  Being as there are a lot of colleges, this is quite the contest.  I hung in there in the early rounds, but not as the colleges become less well know, I am losing ground quickly.  Who knew that there were so many…..unusual team names there were.  It is quite surprising.

I am holding back my Elon College Fighting Christians in reserve.  Any help would be appreciated.  Feel free to give your team a shout out.

I am having a good time though.

 

Today’s Perfect Rant…about the Super Bowl no less.

I watched a bit of the Super Bowl. However, I consciously chose the Canadian broadcaster. This had no effect on the game  or even the commentary during the game.  And it all comes down to the advertising.

See, the way things work in Canada is that the rights holder for broadcasting usually gets the rights to all broadcasts in Canada, and bids accordingly and sells advertisements on that basis.  Of course that meant that we didn’t get to see those famous Superbowl commercials when they aired.  People found this annoying.

That’s right. People complained that they didn’t get to see the commercials.  They complain about how many there are normally.  Somehow these are different.

Not sure why that is. I mean, really.  When the game is over, you will probably find all of these commercials on YouTube.

Let me lay out my complaint in bullet points.

• The people who paid for the rights did so with the knowledge that they had the broadcast rights for all of Canada.
• Advertisers who bought commercial time on these channels for this broadcast did so thinking that they had the total Canadian audience.
• The decision to change this came about a week before the game.
• When the CRTC gets sued because of the above situation (and I a sure they will) whatever fine they have to pay will be paid with taxpayer dollars–not to mention all the legal fees that will be incurred.
• The decision was based on allowing Canadians to see commercials that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to see during the broadcast.
• Usually people have little or no desire to watch commercials–hence the rise of Netflix and other streaming services, not to mention PVR use.
• These commercials may be for products or services that we do not have access to.
• These very same commercials are already probably available on YouTube.

Sorry for the rant…..but I felt that I had to say something. Is this the worst thing happening in the world?  Not by a long shot.  Is this the worst thing happening to me and the people around me?  No, not at all.  Shouldn’t I be complaining about other, more important injustices?  I should, but other people are doing that better than I can, and are much better informed about those injustices.

 

Let’s Here it for the Underdogs!

Another year and another Grey Cup final.  Say what you want, but Canadian football is entertaining.  This year was no exception as overtime was needed to decide a winner.

What makes this another of Today’s Perfect Moments is that I got to continue the family tradition of watching the game with my Dad.  For the past 15 or so we have watched the Grey Cup finals.  If my alma mater (Western) ever makes it back to the Vanier Cup we will watch that one too.  You might see it as stereotypical male bonding–but that doesn’t bother me at all.

Actually, I am thinking of taking my Dad to a Notre Dame football game next year.  I have adopted this team (for reasons that I cannot explain even to myself)  and have decided that I need to see a game in person.  I figure we can make a nice weekend out of it.

Back to the Grey Cup.   Congratulations Ottawa.  I always love it when the underdog wins.

I Can’t Be the Only One

It is early Grey Cup Sunday Morning and I am eagerly anticipating watching the game with my Dad. I don’t have a horse in the race since my team (the Toronto Argonauts) had an abysmal season.  Frankly, I don’t know who to root for, but I am sure I can sort that out before the kickoff.

As for breakfast and Today’s Perfect Moment (so far), well, I decided to go with a classic. Cold Pizza.  I am sure some of you out there can relate.  I can’t be the only one who finds this to be amazing.  I am not talking full on bacon, eggs, waffles amazing, but still.

I had a friend in Japan who told his Japanese homestay family that he wanted cold pizza for breakfast.  Rather than order it the night before and let it get cold naturally, they had the pizza place open early and deliver his warm pizza–which they then put in the refrigerator.

At least they tried.