As 2008 Comes to a Close

Is it still 3 days until 2009? Yes it is. Am I supposed to be on Blogcation? Yes I am. Did I just make up a word? Apparently. But here I am still posting. 

Good news (or bad I guess if you think my blog is terrible) I have signed up for NaBloPoMo (or National Blog Posting Month) in which I will attempt to post something everyday for the month of January. I was inspired by SA who attempted NaNoWriMo which involves writing a novel. Now, I don't have the kind of dedication to write an actual novel and as some of you who have read my short stories know things kind of end up going in crazy directions when I write so I thought I'd do this instead. 

This is probably the worst time to be doing this though given that one of my readers is about to become my temporary boss (you know who you are). But I'll try to ignore that and just do what I would normally do, just not on work hours. 

So Christmas Wishes Do Come True

Last week I decided that it would be excellent if we had a Broncos/Chargers AFC West Championship game to end the regular season. Of course that was dependant on a couple of things. The Broncos had to lose this week to Buffalo (which the did) and the Chargers had to beat Tampa Bay (which they did).

I can't really lie I was hoping that the Broncos would clinch a playoff spot. Even if they're terrible I like to watch them play. Okay that's not really true it's all about Jay Cutler. But really this game was going to happen whether it was for a championship or not so the fact that it means something is even batter.

Oh and while I'm on the topic of football, I lost in the first round of the playoff in fantasy so I'm out of the money but I'm in a 3rd place match up this week. Not that it means anything. Much like Saints beat down of the Lions (not that it was unexpected).

I love a good suit

I'm sure I've mentioned that I don't really watch college football. But I do watch/listen to enough American Sports Talk Shows to have at least some clue what's going on. For example the awards were handed out. I do break my no watching college football rule for the Florida Gators and only as long as Tim Tebow sticks around.

Now there was no Heisman trophy for Tebow this year but he did win the Maxwell Award. Don't ask me what it's for, but it does give me an excuse to post this picture of him in a suit.

Economic Stimulus

So apparently the Bank of Canada has officially declared a recession. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the economic stimulus package I have put together. Here's the thing it's Christmas and I just got a Christmas bonus. I've also probably spent about $2000 in the last week or so.

First of all there was the Christmas shopping as I've said before I have a fairly large family and the average gift price they will be receiving is about $65 a piece. I also haven't been very thrifty when it comes to buying stuff for myself. I would guess I bought $400 worth of clothes over that last week. Hey it's not my fault. First there were necessities and then some really good deals followed by a gift certificate. How could I not spend?

No wonder I don't have enough money to go back to school. Although with interest rates taking another cut this might be a good time to hit up the bank for a loan.

Taking a break

Barring some sort of change in my general mood over the next little while I will be taking a blogging break. I may drop in from time to time if I have something particularly interesting to share but for right now I'm saying that this is probably going to be my last post until the new year.

Given the current political situation which is well frankly retarded and the fact that I'm not seeing a whole lot of positives in my life in general I thought it would be a good idea to save you all from the bitching and complaining I'm going to be doing leading up to the new year.

See you in a month.

The fight for power

Anyone remember that election we had in Mid-October? Perhaps you were still in a turkey coma and didn't notice it happened. But it was before the American election. Clearly the Liberals, NDP and Bloc missed it because they're trying to form a government.

I've taken some Canadian history so I know that technically the Governor General can ask the official opposition to form government if the sitting government is defeated. I also know that the opposition parties didn't like that the Conservatives weren't spending like there's no tomorrow to stave of recession. I also took some economics in my time at university so I know that Keynesian economics says that it's okay to go into deficit in hard times in order to "prime the pump" as it were. As long as that debt is paid back in good times. And yet I see that we still have a national debt so someone must have missed the pay it back part of the lesson.

I have to say that I find what the Liberals and NDP are trying to do just a little bit offensive to the voters of Canada. Less that 2 months ago we went out and told you that we didn't want them governing and yet here they are trying to govern. I realize that elections cost people money. But if they wanted to form a coalition government perhaps they should have run in the election as a coalition. They certainly won't be running in the next one together.

What gets me the most is the absolute glee in the voices and faces of the people I work with. I generally accept that we have political differences. But this is despicable. I also believe that if it were my party doing this sort of thing I would be appalled. I get that the Conservative Party of Canada was formed by a coalition but it ran as a coalition and it won as a coalition. And even though I could have cared less at the time I'm kind of proud of that fact now.

Only on MY fantasy team

This was another terrible fantasy week for me. Well actually it wasn't completly awful just that the other team was way better. Actually if only I had played Eddie Royal and Donald Driver I would be very very close. But I didn't so I lost by over 35 points, 36.5 points to be exact. Terrible.

Even worse is when you look to finalize on Saturday night and find out one of your top recievers (and yes this explains why I lose by over 35 points) has shot HIMSELF in the leg. Makes me want to look up the Wonderlic score for Plaxico Burress. Can you have a negative Wonderlic score? Well if you can I'm sure he did. FRICK!

Also for the next 4 Weeks since that's all I've got left of my fantasy season I will be posting my fantasy player of the week, the player with the highest point total that week as of Tuesday morning. This will include bench players. So far it's Jay Cutler but I still have a couple of guys playing tonight.

No Regrets

After all the over analyzing about what I would do if I got the job I applied for it turns out that the decision was made for me. I didn't get the job. That's okay now I have fortified in my mind the idea of stalking Jay Cutler, mixed with pursuing grad school. I even have a fool proof bench sitting plan provided by my friend Lisa.

No but seriously in a way I'm kind of glad it turned out the way it did. I don't have anything to regret about the experience and I'm not entirely mad at my company. At least I wasn't until I heard that one of the applicants was actually given the interview questions beforehand. That seems a little odd to me. I guess life isn't fair.

Sometimes I wonder

I'm starting to wonder about the symbiotic relationship I have with some other people. It's funny to me, I'm in the middle of a mini-breakdown and the some of people that I consider my friends are all too busy with their own stuff to help me out.

Do I just have very bad judgement when it comes to people? Do I satisfy myself with just dealing with whoever is around at the time? Never really building up true friendships but only casual acquaintances?

It's not that all of my friends are bad people, but the constant reminders about how they have other stuff they should be doing but their spending time with me. Or changing the subject when they know that what we're talking about is important to me. I admit that I can get a little annoying sometimes when I dwell on things and a little goofy about other things on occasion.

But then again some people surprise you with their willingness to discuss your issues and help you through a problem. People that you don't expect. And to those people I am grateful.

Just another reason to hate Brett Favre

I don't hate Brett Favre exactly I just can't stand the way that every announce makes a big deal about him. I can pretty much guarantee that if you watch an NFL game on tv there will be a mention of Brett Favre. Even if his team isn't playing.

Yesterday Favre and the Jets beat the to this point undefeated Tennesee Titans. So now not only do we have to deal with hearing about how Favre is a giant killer but we also have to put up with obnoxious Pats fans and their 16-0 for at least one more season.

On a more happy note, I won my fantasy match up thanks to a ridiculous game by Randy Moss. I keep starting him even though he's not been putting up great numbers and I kind of lucked into a good game this week. Although my starting Cutler because the Raiders suck move didn't work out so well. I just hope Brees doesn't waste his good game against Green Bay tonight.

I'm going to use the lack of sleep defense

Today was such an odd day. Work wise it was fine, busy but fine. I'm still waiting to hear about the other job but my current boss also went over a growth plan with me which sounds like they want me to grow into a promotion. Which would put me in a slightly better place than if I took the other job. Unfortunately time lines were a little vague.

So now I'm life with a couple of scenarios:
1) I get the permanent job I applied for
2) I get the term job I applied for
3) I get neither job

Each scenario comes with it's own set of challenges. Although number 3 means that I don't have to make a decision which means that I can't have regrets in the future. I'm not quite sure what I would do if either of the other two go down and I guess I won't know until Tuesday, since I'm off on Monday.

But because of my confusion I really needed to talk to someone who knows about what's going on so I did that with one of the guys at work and now I'm having these warm, fuzzy completely inappropriate feelings towards him. So I'm blaming it on the fact that I've not been sleeping well this week so my mind isn't in such a great place.

I'm disappointed

One of the disadvantages of having a rather large family (there are 6 of us excluding significant others) is that you have to come up with Christmas gifts for all of them. This was fine back when you couldn't afford much and neither could they. If you bought them a DVD or a book that was awesome. Now it's much more difficult. We all have our own money and you don't think twice about dropping $50 on something you kind of sort of want. Hell I just spent $500 shopping online.

On the other hand it's also difficult trying to come up with a list of things you want from them. So I started digging around online for things I might possibly want. One of my first stops was NFL.com. Where I discovered that I really want a Jay Culter bobble head for my desk. Except that it doesn't look like him at all. But I also discovered they don't have a Drew Brees bobble head. Does anyone else find that strange? I'm deeply disappointed in you NFLshop.

I guess not everything has stayed the same

3 years ago I would have been all over today's throne speech. Hell I likely would have skipped school to watch it. I know I would have watched CPAC later in the evening to get strategists reactions. This year Nada. I kind of half thought about it this morning and then proceeded to ignore it as my day went on.

It's not that it's not important or interesting to me anymore but I'm falling into that trap where my day to day things are more pressing than keeping tabs on the current political climate in our country. I guess this just proves what everyone told me. Politics don't matter in the real world.

The hard part is over, now for the waiting

So most of you know by now that I had a job interview today. Like most people I find job interviews stressful. Seriously if employers want to know how potential employees will handle themselves under pressure they need look no further than the interview.

I am the type of person who panics for no reason. Case in point every time I had to write an exam in University whether I needed a good mark or not I'd end up calling my parents bawling that I was going to fail. Like somehow that single test was the end of the world. So as it happens I called Mom and Dad last night, they weren't home. So I tried Dad's cell and ended up talking to my Aunt who gave me suggestions and tips on dealing with the interview.

Did it help? Probably not. But now that I'm done the interview all that's left to do it wait. The nice thing for me is that if I don't get the job I've still got something to fall back on. I'll still have my old job. It will be difficult to have to stay given that I told the people in my department that I had applied for the job but really what difference does it make. If I don't get the job then I'm just not the right fit, and that's okay. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself today.

Whether I get the job or not I've gained valuable experience, I've spent a little more time getting to know me. Also I may have used this interview as leverage for a potential salary increase at my current job. We'll see how that one plays out.

The more things change...

You know the saying the more things change the more they stay the same? Well after writing this post I realized just how true it is.

Someone who reads my blog occasionally, but sometimes forgets that there is a comments section told me that she read that post and she laughed. I couldn't figure out why she thought it was so funny until I really started to think about it.

It would appear that I'm exactly where I started a little over a year and a half ago. I'm about the graduate from my certificate program, whereas in May of 2007, I was graduating from University. I have the same job that I did when I first graduated, but in between I worked a term in a different department. I live with my little brother in an apartment, but he moved out for about 6 months in between. Even on the crushing side I'm still crushing on a QB who's mom probably cuts his hair, though I've switched from Eli Manning to Jay Cutler.

So really as much as things have changed in the past year I'm really back to where I started.

Goal of the week

As usual a review of last week's goal. Actually I know there wasn't a goal last week but let's go with the week before that then , I did finish my lesson 4 reading now I just need to do the assignment for lesson 4.

This is actually a big week for my personal goals. First and foremost I want to finish the lesson 3 assignment. I've only got one question left so that should get done tonight unless I'm too tired to do anything which it's looking like I might be. Then I want to finish lesson 4, which again is just the assignment and if I actually sit down and do it on Saturday that will be the end of the course.

The final goal is to finish knitting the left mitten of the new set I'm working on for a co-worker. I enjoy knitting while I'm watching TV anyway so I thought I might as well make something nice for someone else. It also helps me use up the grey yarn I was going to use to make a sweater but then got frustrated when it was miles too big and quit working on it. So now I've got 8 balls of this fuzzy, grey stuff that's perfect for winter wear and not much else.

My week off

So it would appear that I haven't written in a week. I guess it's mostly because I don't have a lot to say. I was also sick for about 4 days. I still don't have anything to say but I thought I'd better write something before ya'll stop checking back to see if there's anything new.

Frankly there is nothing new with me. I'm still at the same job, living in the same place with my brother, doing all the same stuff I've been doing for the past year and a half. Does that mean I'm in a rut?

Of adverse weather and ridiculous shoes

Whenever the weather is crazy bad I am almost inevitably wearing the most inappropriate footwear. First of all I should mention that I'm all about sensible footwear. I'm not one of these girls who has 30 pairs of shoes (although my shoe collection has been growing recently), I have 2 main pairs aside from my sneakers. Brown flats to wear with brown inspired outfits and a pair of black suede casual shoes for work.

But today I had to go and wear these new shoes I bought at Payless last night, as shown on the left (aren't they cute?). Of course because I hadn't had a chance to wear them yet I didn't realize that the would cause massive blistering on the sides of my feet. So I had to walk home in pain.


Not only that but we're experiencing our first winter storm of the year, a Colorado low that's moving through the next couple of days. Yeah, screw you Colorado just for this I hope the Broncos lose tonight. But not horribly and I hope it's a really high scoring game because I'm starting Cutler. It's more freezing rain than anything else but it's cold and wet.


But hey at least it numbed my extremely sore feet. I'm starting to feel it now that they're thawing a bit though.

Missed Opportunites

Last night's election filled me with an odd sense of nostalgia. When I was in university I had a little stalker. Actually he wasn't a stalker at all. He was just this guy in one of my classes who liked to walk me to my bus and talk about how well I would fit in with his family and friends. Okay so it was a little strange. But he was from Texas and so we shared alot of ideology. Maybe it's just because I'm going through a bit of a dry spell but I kind of miss those days. A least it was nice to have someone who agreed with me around once and a while. Anyway I guess the point is clearly he liked me and well it's been a long time since I found someone who really liked me. So uh yeah.

Election Day - Part I can't count that high

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html
Part 5:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-5.html

I don’t know if I’m missing any important election news as I got a little distracted by other non-election blog posts. Well it was kind of election related but funnier.

Okay I’m back. I heard there was a big projection coming up. I’m quitting once they announce a projection for president. I’m tired and I suspect that we could have called it about an hour ago. Hooray for battleground states.

I’m still floored that McCain is under-performing Bush. Is it really more the popularity of Obama than the unpopularity of McCain? It must be. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.

Ohio called for Obama, that leaves us 194-69. Fox has bigger numbers for Obama they’re up to 200, but they’ve also got McCain’s numbers up a bit too. Not looking very conservative there Fox.

Franken is leading in Minnesota. That’s not good. What the hell is wrong with people in Minnesota. Hmm… scratch the grad school plans? Still haven’t heard from Indiana. Unless I just missed it.

Holy crap Hank Williams Junior is playing at the Republican thing. That’s pretty cool.

So CNN just went through the likelys, the maybes, and the extreme long shots for McCain and they couldn’t get to 270. Which means they SHOULD BE CALLING THIS THING. But they won’t. But looking a the map it was kind of funny. Easily 70% of the map was one shade of red or another and yet there was no way to get McCain to win. Gotta love those rural states. Even the cities in those states aren’t very big. Take North Dakota, Fargo and Grand Forks are extremely small cities.

New Mexico for Obama, Louisiana to McCain. Sadly I probably know more about the history of Louisiana than most Americans. Anyway we’re up to 199-78.

Wow that popular vote number is crazy close but not in the elector college. Funny we just talked about this at work today about how it’s not the popular vote that counts.

Oh I get why CNN won’t call it. 6 more hours of coverage. But I'm ready to call it. Let's welcome President Obama.

Election Day - Part 5

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html


81 to 34 now. Sorry I missed the projection so I don’t know where those came from. Pennsylvania is Obama So now it’s 102 to 34. Can we call it now?

Okay now I actually am calling bias on CNN. They’ve got at least 2 and probably more reporters in Chicago to report on the Obama campaign. That doesn’t seem odd to anyone else? Oh I’m just paranoid, okay.

Okay it looks like the Republicans have thrown in the towel. Not that they’ve announced it yet but from the report it seems pretty clear that they know it’s over.

102-43, looks like Alabama is the one they called for that. More projections to come in 1 minute. I kind of hope this is quick. I’m almost election-ed out. And just I do like to make my own verbs why do you ask?

More projections just made. 174-49, I don’t know if Minnesota to the Democrats is a surprise or not. North Dakota went McCain though which I find kind of interesting because it‘s close to Canada. I’m still waiting for results from Indiana.

Here’s why exit polls are crap. 20% of people said race was important but 55% voted for Obama when race was important. I don’t for a second believe that. I think it was important to more than 20%. Oh and now they’re discussing the whole race issue. If Obama wins does that mean that the race card goes away?

And the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, interesting. I wonder if that means that the Democrats will take a lot of heat in the next election or if they’ll just keep blaming it on Bush (or Canada).

One of the Republicans called Al Franken a lunatic. I am kind of interesting in the Minnesota senatorial race. Mostly because all of my American network television comes out of Minnesota so I’ve seen a TONNE of attack ads.

Georgia just called for McCain, bring it to 174-64. Did Obama pick up all of New England? I don’t know if everything is in there yet but everything that I’ve seen has gone Democrat.

Election Day- Part 4

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html

South Carolina was just projected for McCain. So we’re at 16-3. That won’t last long. See 2 minutes later we get, 77 to 34 for Obama now. That’s cool, Maine and Nebraska can split up their electoral votes. I like that, it’s more reflective of the popular vote in the State.

Yeah those interactive maps are freaking awesome. I think we’ve already established that I’m a giant dork.

I don’t understand how everyone hates G.W. Bush but McCain is not even doing as well as Bush did in the last election. Don’t get it. Okay change in demographics explain some of it. Indiana is looking kind of red map-wise but it’s kind of population centered too.
Ohio and West Virginia and New Hampshire are largely Obama. Georgia is Republican.

It’s it odd that I’m live-ish blogging election coverage but watching Greek during commercials?

I temporarily switched to Fox. So funny. It’s all about understanding the bias and then adjusting the information to suit. Seriously, I do the same thing with the CBC. I don’t know if I’ve expressed my dislike of the CBC but it’s like the Canadian equivalent to Fox except on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

What’s with the creepy choir boys at the Republican camp? I’ve noticed that CNN is showing a lot of shots of the Obama party but only one or two of the McCain camp. Maybe they just think the Obama thing is more impressive and I don’t want to call bias on CNN but it I do feel that it’s worth mentioning.

Election Day - Part 3

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html

Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html

Oh hologram reporter, that’s some Star Trek shit right there. Awesome.

Here’s the thing about this election. If Obama happens to lose, which isn’t very likely but IF he does, I can already see a Michael Moore documentary about how McCain/Palin “stole” the election. God I hate Michael Moore. Actually I don’t hate because hating requires energy and well hating him would be a waste of energy. Sorry that was a bit of a detour.

Holy crap why does Florida account for 27 votes? Is the population a whole lot higher than in other states? Oh I like that CNN’s Florida polls are way off. As in they don’t add up to 100%. That’s kind of scary given the 27 votes.

Oh recession talk. Scary stuff. Recessions are that rainy day that people tell you, you should be saving for. I’m not actually all that worried at the moment about a recession. I guess if I lost my job I’d be a little more worried. But I’ve saved a bit and I don’t NEED to go to Scotland next summer. I want to but it’s all about tightening the belt. Sorry, that was some more tangent for you.

Oooo… Obama leading in N.C and Florida. Florida by 57%, that’s huge. Okay popular vote is 51% for Obama. But clearly the popular vote doesn’t necessarily give you a winner.

Alright this one Republican strategist is making me angry. I don’t know who he actually is, but he’s continuing to stress that “it’s early, it’s early”. Yeah we get it, you’re not willing to admit that your guy might not win.

Election Day - Part 2

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.
For part one click here:
http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html

Okay, okay so it’s still early. And now the pundits are talking strategy. You know, what worked and what didn’t. I like how the Republican strategist are wearing red ties and the Democratic strategists are wearing blue. I guess things really are black and white in the U.S. Or Blue and Red if you will.

I really don’t get the American system. I suspect the Americans say the same thing about all of the Parliamentary Democracies out there too. But whole electoral college thing confuses the crap out of me. And how the entire state popular vote determines how ALL of their votes will go.

I also don’t understand how both candidates promised tax cuts. Anyone seen that 10 trillion dollar national debt they’re running? Seriously if you can budget tax cuts you might want to try budgeting debt reduction instead. It makes me angry.
I’m kind of surprised that Obama had more money than McCain to run this campaign. Aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich?

Oh they’re making projections for Vermont and Kentucky. One for each. They are usually pretty accurate because they don’t announce until they know for sure. But Kentucky is worth 8 points while Vermont is only worth 3 so that means McCain is ahead… for now. Wait they’re showing 0% for each and zero votes reported in 0% of the polling points in Vermont but they’ve declared Obama. Make sense of that one for me?

I can’t help but wonder how splitting demographics by things like race and sex don’t promote racism and sexism. I guess that’s one of the downsides of statistics. You can break things down so much that they don’t really mean much.

Election Day - Part 1

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commericals as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.

Okay well it’s not MY election day. We already did that a couple of weeks ago and everything that I wanted to happen there happened. Tonight is US election day.

I’m not going to pretend to be impartial and feel free to hate me if you want but I’m much more Republican than Democrat. To be honest I didn’t really watch much of the pre-election coverage it didn’t matter much to me and it’s not like I was voting anyway. But I know that they’ve been predicting an Obama win for a long time. But I think it’s going to be a lot closer than people think. That’s the joys of secret ballot, you can vote for whoever you want for whatever reason you want and not have to answer to social opinion.

I know that sounds terrible but it’s true. For example, if you want to vote for lower taxes because it’s going to benefit you, you don’t have to justify why it’s okay for children to live below the poverty line because you have lower taxes.

Holy crap it’s 49% to 50% for Obama in Indiana right now, can’t get much closer than that.

I just want to say that I probably would have been one of the apparently few people who stayed home for this election. I heard voter turnout is going to be huge. Well good on Americans. But I wouldn’t vote for either of these people for president. Actually that’s not entirely true, I wouldn’t vote McCain because his running mate would make a mockery of the U.S. internationally. It’s kind of the same reason that I wouldn’t vote for Stephane Dion in the Canadian election. I wouldn’t vote Obama because I don’t like the Democrats policies.


CNN has some really awesome stuff. They’re all about crazy exit poll stats. For example, the percentage of white evangelical voters that voted for each candidate and broken down by state. That’s some ridiculous stat crunching. And ya’ll know how I love stats.

Screw You, Kyle Orton

Also (too), what the crap Braylon Edwards? Way to have a good game when you're sitting on my bench. Once again my fantasy team got killed. This was a freaking terrible week. I should have started Jay Cutler, not that he was much better and he doesn't look nearly so much fun to drink with.

Although the injury to not-so-drunken Kyle Orton did lead to the return of Rex Grossman. It also lead to the return of the Rexy-Back video. Seriously every time I hear Sexy-Back I start singing these words instead. There is also a Matt Hasselback version of the song but it's not as cool.

Pre-game Jitters

There's a saying that goes "no one cares about you fantasy team" and you know it's probably true. But that's not going to stop me from talking about mine.

As you've seen I like to keep you updated on my team. This week I'm starting Kyle Orton at QB because well Drew Brees is on a bye week, Jay Cutler has a sketchy finger and Chicago is playing Detroit so there are points for the taking. So I'm a little nervous about the outcome.

Also if I lose my match-up this week then one of the guys will be overtaking me for first place. I've been having fun being in first place. Also because the guys are not taking the whole losing to a girl thing very well.

I think I'm probably a little too into this whole fantasy thing. It's pretty apparent when you boss starts asking you about it. But it's not like I'm checking it out at work because well it's blocked.

Yup, this is my starting QB people. If this doesn't go well I might have to pick up my own bottle of JD to ease the pain.

Holy Crap I just watched College Football

I never watch college football. Mostly because unlike everyone in the US I don't have a cheering interest. Sure I'm probably going to end up there for grad school one day but at the moment I've got nothing. I also have this thing about college football. It's kind of like watching junior hockey, yeah it's fun but it's not as good as the real thing.

I lived on Campus for 3 years while I was going my undergraduate degree and I didn't go to a single football game, even though my school's team was one of the best in the country. I preferred to check out the volleyball team instead.

So why would I spend most of my Saturday watching Florida vs. Georgia, instead of say sleeping? Well it's simple really, Tim Tebow.

I know that I should hate him on principle because he plays for Florida. It's kind of like Duke or Notre Dame, you don't need a reason to hate you just do it. But then he goes and spends his spring breaks doing missionary work, so really it's almost a wash.

Okay that's enough Tim Tebow for now. But if I had to pick a College Football boyfriend this would be it.

Goal of the Week

I usually save this for a Friday post but I thought I'd give myself a little extra time. Not much mind you given that I'm going to be going to bed in about 1/2 an hour.

This week's goal is to read lesson 4 for my Cattle Nutrition course. It's the last lesson and then I have to do the assignment and then I'll be done the course which means I can apply for December graduation. Yay more graduation.

Once I'm done the course I'll have to decide on my next course of education. Do I take Psych courses by distance ed? You can do almost an entire psych degree through DE so I wouldn't have to quit my job or anything. Do I wait until summer and take my Lab pre-reques? This would in fact, require me to quit my job and I wouldn't be eligible to start the lab program until fall 2010 anyway. Or do I study my but off to write the GRE so that I can apply for Grad school? Which would happen either Fall 2009 or 2010. So many choices. The only things I've decided is that I plan to do something more. I love learning.

Dream Diary Episode 5: I hope I never have that dream again

Last night I had not one but two dreams about work. The first one was not so much about work but two of the guys I work with. I don't even remember all of the details I just remember waking up and going "what the hell was that?"

Explanation:This one is pretty easy to explain since a couple of days ago at coffee break we were discussing that I never checked out any of the guys that I hang out with at work. One of them then accused me of being a lesbian. Which if you read this blog you'd quickly find out I'm not. Then someone mentioned that me and one of the other guys would be "perfect for each other". So clearly my mind was trying to determine what would happen if we actually did get together. Damn logical brain. Let's just hope this isn't a recurring dream because that might actually mean something.

The second one was actually related to a job that I recently applied for but am now considering not interviewing for. Let's just say that the dream showed me what would happen given the most likely outcome of the interview process.

Explanation: Again pretty self explanatory. I fear change. At the same time I'm always looking for a change. So this was my subconscious saying perhaps you'd better re-think this career change thing.

What's a girl to do

I'm so confused. I went from excited to scared to worried in a matter of about 15 minutes.

Every couple of weeks I get the idea that perhaps it's time to take myself out of the corporate world and wander back into academia. I've now been out of school for about a year and a half and I've saved up a little actually a very little bit of money but enough to pay for one semester of my Master's degree anyway. After that I'm sure I can get funding for the rest of it. Anyway, I had convinced myself that it was too late to apply for next September as one my top choice has a December deadline for fall admission, but then I found out that some of the other schools I'm considering have deadlines as late as June.

So my first issue is to school or not to school. There's the whole "what would a Master's degree do for me?" thing. Sure it's something that I want to do but do the benefits of doing it now outweigh the costs of quitting my job and leaving all the friends I've made at work. At the same time perhaps this isn't a big deal. Not that it wouldn't make me sad but in reality I'm probably going to have to move on from here anyway.

So the second issue then is am I just looking for an escape from my current position. I think the answer to this one is a resounding yes. Last week I was ready to quit and seek training for a medical profession. This week I'm looking at continuing on my current career path that I also give up on every other week.

Oddly enough, even though I'm not looking to do anything for almost a year I really have to move fast to get stuff done. There is the testing, and the gathering of references and the transcript ordering. It's a mess.

I just don't know if it's the right time yet.

Things I've Learned from Reading Blogs

The boys at work tend to give me a hard time about my obsession with the blogs. I think the issue actually comes more from the fact that I know things weeks before they do an they're a little jealous. I also mentioned some of the "things you can't unsee" that have come up on some of the blogs I've read.

One of the nice things about blogs is that you can be as involved as you want to be. There are several blogs that I read only for readings sake and have no desire to comment on. One of these is Deadspin. I'm a regular reader but not once in all of the time that I've been reading it (roughly 2 years) have I ever had the desire to "audition" to comment. I do however comment regularly at Ladies... and of course I write my own blog. Outside of the sports world I also enjoy my politics and often visit sites that are part of the Blogging Tories blog roll. I very infrequently comment on some of those blogs. And then there is TechKnitting which I like to find knitting tips for when I'm trying out new patterns and am frustrated when they don't work out.

Phrases I need to find a way to work into everyday conversation:
Attainable Hot - I used to describe Tony Romo as regular people hot, this is a much more articulate way of saying it.
Cutlerfucker - Seriously I did a bit of a spit take when I read that one.
Politicalism - I can't remember where I picked up this one but it's really a violent reaction to an opposing political opinion.

Got a blog you think I should check out? Let me know in the comments

Why I hate fantasy football

I joined a Fantasy Football League at work this year. I was actually pretty psyched that the boys asked me to join. I'm also currently leading the league. So what's not to love, right?

Well this week my opponent in head to head has 4 players from my favorite team (I have none by the way). This makes it awfully difficult for me to cheer for the Colts knowing that every time someone on the Colts who isn't Peyton Manning touches the ball he's probably getting fantasy points. My fantasy team is also done for the week so I don't really have any excitement about tonight's game.

I hope the game ends 3-0 in favor of the Colts. At least he doesn't have Vinatieri kicking.

Who Needs Two Computers Anyway?

It's times like these that I'm really glad that I went out and bought myself a notebook computer. It looks like I really messed up my desktop. My technologically inclined brother says it's either a power source issue or a motherboard issue. Both of which are going to cost a pretty penny to fix.

You see I accidentally unplugged my computer while it was on. It's kind of a long story which involves the speakers that it's attached to and my annoyance with sounds when I'm sleeping. But it's really going to mess with my morning routine which includes things like watching stuff that I've downloaded and checking my e-mail. I can do that last one easily enough, but damn.

All I'm Asking For is a Little Consistency

Once again Drew Brees put up Ginormous numbers this week. Which is good because Denver is on a bye week so I had to play him in fantasy football. Not only did the Saints score a ton of points but they also beat the Chargers. I think I've mentioned that Philip Rivers is a giant douche. It would be nice though if Brees could at least be a little consistent. I mean I won last week's match up but only barely.

I won't actually know the results of this week's matchup until Tuesday because my opponent has 3 guys starting in the Monday night game. But I do know that I shouldn't have played Plaxico Burress since you know didn't start. I even checked to see if he was starting this morning and there was nothing to say that he wouldn't. Frick! It's still probably a better choice than Braylon Edwards.

Also can Tony Romo please get better? I really need better production out of Marion Barber. Although given that Romo is dating Jessica Simpson I'm sure this injury is making him stupider. I can just imagine brain cells being lost every time she talks. On the plus side I know that my opponent this week would have normally played Romo and he got stuck with Roethlisberger instead.

Because I feel like the Tim Tebow tag doesn't get used enough

At some point when I was in the beginning crushing stages I decided that I would likely need a Tim Tebow tag. I've used it a whole once in conjunction with a jorts tag. But since I'm bored and this tag doesn't get enough use and his shirt is REALLY tight in this picture:

One other random note there is a guy at my work who likes to pretend he's Tim Tebow because I once told him that he kind of looks like him. In fact he called me one day at work pretending to be Tim Tebow. Funniest conversation ever.

And so it begins

As you know I'm not a huge fan of my job. It has it's good days and it's bad days. I would be really sad to leave some of the people I've met at work. Even sadder if I wasn't there to collect when I win fantasy football (you know if Drew Brees and Jay Cutler don't crap out on me like they did last week). At the same time I think perhaps it's time to cut the cord.

I've watched five of my former classmates crawl up the ranks at my workplace each making more money than I do all because I was willing to settle and scared to try something else. Well I've just fixed up my resume for an internal posting and well if that doesn't work out, hell I've got an updated resume so I might as well test the waters.

Maybe I'll get scared and not be able to actually take that leap. Actually that's the most likely scenario. But I'd like to believe that if it came to it I would be able to do it but I have issues with change.

Because I haven't mentioned him in almost a month

Here's some Jay Cutler pouty face. This is the new official face of my work day.

God he's cute. You know now that I look at it again I think perhaps he's stoned. Any thoughts on the use of marijuana to treat diabetes?

Nothing Like A Week Off To Give You A Little Perspective

I take it back.

I'm so very bored

Here I am on vacation with nothing to do. You'd think it would be awesome but actually I'm really bored. I would nap but I'm going to see my cousin's baby in just under 2 hours and I'm afraid I'll miss my bus if I nap (I don't do alarm clocks), I've already read a 1/4 of my book this morning, I could work on my assignment but I just don't want to and as far as sports go well there is a replay of a World Cup qualifying match but really I just don't care enough about soccer.

Goal of the Week

First an update on last week's goal of the week, the right mitt is finished so now I just need to attach the dummy strings. The problem I have is the thickness. Just attaching a single strand of yarn probably won't provide the strength I need, but my attempts to use an I-cord leave a large lump running across my back.

As for this week's goal, I'm on holidays so no goal this week just relax and enjoy my vacation.

Thank you

I just wanted to give a public shout out to a friend who helped me today when I was on the cusp of a breakdown. Thanks for taking time out of your day to help a friend.

OH MY GOD!

I promised myself I wouldn't write anything political today BUT this needs to be seen by people who don't watch the news or follow politics at all.

Some of you are still considering who you're going to vote for take a second to watch this before you cast your ballot. Some of you have already voted, you can't go back on it now but you should still watch the video.



And this man could be leading our country just five days from now. I hope anyone that was considering voting Liberal will at least throw thier support behind Jack Layton after this.

When did that happen?

Okay despite my constant complaining I've discovered today that I actually like my job. Well just a little bit. I think the shift happened when I took over one of our new programs. I think that perhaps management (and my co-workers) are perhaps starting to see that I'm pretty darn competent. Also it seems that the outside world (that is outside our office) like dealing with me. I even had a glowing review from one of my co-workers from another department.

So maybe the issue was never really the work but the way that I was always being beaten down by others in my department. It's funny what a little confidence will do.

Why October 14 will determine my life path

First a little public service announcement. As most of you are now aware there is a Federal election going on. If you haven't gone to vote in the advanced polls make sure you get out on Tuesday. Same goes for Americans though you still have some time to decide.

Okay on with the show. Has anyone noticed this "global economic crisis" that's going on? Can you name me one place that it has yet to really hit hard? If you guessed Canada well that *ding,ding,ding,ding*.

This is likely to change if the Liberals are able to implement their Green Shift plan. In a time where there are very few world economies that are still managing to hold their own Canada has. There is one sector in particular which is showing growth, the oil industry. Taxing oil companies (which are the big target of the Green Shift) is one sure fire way to limit future growth, tax them too much and they might leave all together.

If we were in a booming economy and not heading toward an imminent recession I would say vote however the hell you want, seriously vote communist if you want. But if you vote Liberal to stop a Conservative majority (which quite obviously not going to happen at this point anyway) you're being dumb. If the Liberals win this election it will prove to me that the Canadian public is full of dumb people. Now I believe in democracy so if more Liberals are elected to government than Conservative that's the will of the people. But I don't want to live in a country full of stupid people.

A couple of notes before I end here:
1) I was probably always going to leave Canada, I just never really thought it would be this soon
2) If someone is willing to take my bet I'm willing to bet $10 that the Green Shift will not be implemented in it's entirety (or likely at all) before the next election.

Why I don't feel the Need for Charitable Giving

Damn election, it's making me think about things. Also it's time for my company's annual charity campaign where they try to entice us to sign up for payroll deductions to give to charity. There is one guy at work that we tease about his scrooge-like attitude when it comes to stuff like this, but this election has got me coming around a bit to his way of thinking.

See I already give charitable donations through payroll deductions, although you might call it income tax. Now I've taken a public finance course so I understand that somethings are just better off being public goods. Fine, great agreed. But really 1/3 of my annual income (which is not the greatest sum in the first place) goes back to the government to spend as they please. And spend they do. Funny though how if you take away that 1/3 of my income I suddenly have as much disposable income as those considered low income who receive payments from the government to top up their incomes (not to mention live in subsidies housing).

I'm not sure that I'm all for a progressive tax system but even if I was, this clearly is NOT it. Don't get me wrong I definitely donate to charity when I could afford it, but I prefer to choose which ones I donate too. Not be told by the government that my money will be going to support their causes.

Warning: Political Content Ahead

I'm amused. I love elections because they provide a reason for people to talk about the way that they view the world. It doesn't really matter which side of the political spectrum you're on, your opinions are important. Informed opinions are even better.

I just checked out the Liberal Green Shift calculator . It's kind of fun. Seems strange to me though that I would get an extra $150 for living in a rural area, when that really means that I'm going to have drive EVERYWHERE and there isn't a hope in hell of reducing carbon emissions by say taking public transit for example (which I do in the city). As it turns out the GreenShift would give me an extra $362 per year. Or less than $1 per day. Wait a second isn't that what it costs to feed a starving child in Africa? My favorite part is under the "how much will it cost me" tab. It will increase "some" energy costs. Right so I'm paying more for gas, hydro, and heating, but I shouldn't worry because $362 should be enough to cover it. HA!

I also can't help but enjoy this little bit of geeki-ness. Sure I hate math, but I enjoy mathematical theory, which may just be why I studied economics in the first place.

Here's some more food for thought, if the Conservatives lose this election (which based on the most recent polls isn't a complete impossibility), Stephen Harper will likely (read: definitely) be turfed as Conservative leader and then who will the Liberals and NDP accuse of eating babies? I wasn't a party member during the last leadership convention (nor am I one now for that matter), so I can't remember who was up against Harper but if they chose someone with a slightly more moderate image, likely from the PC side of the party it might not be long before we see another Conservative government. One that's likely to keep things interesting for a long time.

Goal of the Week

Normally I do the goal of the week on a Friday night but I'm giving myself an extra day because if next week is anything like this week it's going to need it.

This week's goal of the week is to finish my right mitten. I'm knitting myself a pair in preparation for the cold weather that we all know will be upon us all too soon. This time I'm committed to putting dummy strings on them so that I don't lose time every time I take off my coat. I already did the matching scarf and if I'm really ambitious and learn how to cable I may even do a matching hat.

Gossip

I have to admit that I normally love gossip. Not malicious gossip but just stuff that I know that not many people know. So maybe it's not gossip so much as inside information. But lately I find that my inside information simply leaves me enthusiastic about my life prospects and then angry and bitter when things don't seem to play out the way I think they should.

I realize that out in the real world I have no control over what other people do or how my organization set their policies but the end result usually leaves me more baffled than anything else.

I also find it difficult to talk to people when I know something is going to happen that they don't yet know about. It's kind of like trying to throw a surprise party for someone without telling the suprisee what's going on. I manage to do it, but just barely.

Yup, it's love

Anyone remember the days when I was in love with Eli Manning? When he would be absolutely terrible and I'd shrug it off and say "it's just one game". You know back before he was Superbowl MVP. Well you know how I was developing a big crush on Jay Cutler? . Yeah well my reaction to his play on Sunday where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns and did pretty much nothing for my fantasy team was "it's okay, I still love you". Dammit, what's wrong with me.

I've also noticed that he looks a little stoned, pretty much all the time. Much like my fantasy team I can only see this ending badly. Hopefully this was the result of a bye week for most of my favorite teams and will pass quickly.

In other news I'm back to a previous office crush. I'm hoping that this is just a residual feeling from the growing love of Jay Cutler. But I had a strange dream about him the other night. I very rarely remember my dreams so this is kind of strange.

Why I may not vote

I'm all about election stuff. I love elections. I realize that they cost a ton to administer but at the same time I feel that it's the one time when all of the politicians have to actually prove that they're doing something worthwhile in Ottawa. I am also deeply opinionated about many issues which allows me to lean strongly towards one party or another based on their policies.

However, I may not be voting in the upcoming election. Despite having voted in 2 federal elections in 2 different ridings I'm not on the voters list. I called my local returning officer's office on Thursday and they told me that they could mail me a form to fill out. I received a call today telling me that I would have to come down to the office (which is completely out of my way) in order to fill out the forms. Seriously for all the discussion about why voter turnout is so low no one has thought that perhaps this might be the reason? Not only do I have to go to register to vote but then I have to actually go out and vote.

Maybe I should just be grateful that I live in a democracy that allows me the right to vote at all, but at the same time I can't remember it being this difficult to vote in the previous two elections. This election also marks the first time that I'm actually have to seriously evaluate who I intend to vote for, for the first time I'm divided on the issues.

Incidentally I now live in one of those "swing ridings" where the incumbent may not win back their seat. Which probably makes it all the more important to vote given that I could make an actual difference in the outcome. For the record my old riding was won by 111 votes in the last election.

I'm kind of worried about myself

I think you're all fully aware that I am playing fantasy football against a bunch of guys that I work with. If you're not aware of this fact then I probably haven't talked to you in the past month. Also as you know I've abandoned Drew Brees (who I love) for Jay Cutler as my starting QB.

Ever since I posted that McDonald's commercial I've found myself with a growing crush on Jay Cutler. It doesn't hurt that he's putting up ridiculous numbers and winning me fantasy match-ups. Also we have a mutual dislike of Phillip Rivers. I don't know the whole Rivers/Cutler history but Phillip Rivers is a douchebag. Actually my dislike of Phillip Rivers probably stems from this exact incident involving Jay Cutler:



Other Jay Cutler randomness that only makes him cuter in my very messed up mind. He's 6'3, I have this thing about height since my younger brother is 6'3. He's from Santa Clause, Indiana. He's got Type I diabetes. He played his college football at Vanderbilt which is not exactly known as a football school.

But he's not exactly cute. Case in point this is the best picture I could find of him:

But only liking a person because they are cute is shallow right? So you should all be encouraging this then.

Election Sign Count

Okay I lost count. But I DID see my first two NDP signs in my riding. I guess there is hope yet. I just found out that it's going to be quite the process to register to vote for this election. And the returning officers office is in the stupidest place. It's in like the far corner of the riding. If I weren't so election geeky I probably wouldn't bother voting.

Time for a Change

As you can see I've changed my blog layout... again. I get bored easily and changing it up every once in a while probably keeps people coming back. Or not.

The Cat Came Back... or Not

When I got sick at the end of my 2nd year of university my parents offered to get me a puppy. Not being much of a dog person I opted for a somewhat smilar though less slobbery option and got a kitten. I loved my cat. Sure we didn't know right away if it was a boy or girl (the owner told us it was a girl and we never bothered to check until it started growing boy parts), but it was mine. Thank god I chose a unisex name.

I had my kitten with me in my apartment for almost a year before we moved out. He even had his own room in the apartment, though he much prefered to cuddle up on me. My favorite apartment/cat story was when my brother left his Chem textbook open on the sofa overnight and we woke up to find it scattered all over the living room floor. At least it was a second hand textbook.

When I moved out of the apartment back into residence for my last year of University my cat went to live with my parents on the farm. They weren't big fans of a cat in the house so they let him outside whenever he wanted. He became an outdoor/indoor cat. He still liked to cuddle with me when I was home watching TV, but no one else seemed to like him much.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because my cat is missing. Apparently there was a big thunderstorm back home about 2 weeks ago and he's been missing ever since. I hope that he's just lost but it's much more likely that he's dead. Especially since my parents have talked to all of the neighbours and no one has seen him. Poor kitty. I'll miss you.

Switching Allegiances

Last year just before the playoffs I made a list of my favorite NFL teams. It really wasn't so much a complete list as my top 5 teams followed by "a whole lot of teams no one cares about" and finally the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots.

My Top 5 Teams were:
1. Indianapolis Colts
2. New York Giants
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. Denver Broncos

Hey, don't question my choices just go with it. Now I studied Economics at University so I've quite familiar with the concept of transitivity, that is if A is preferred to B and B is preferred to C then A must be preferred to C. So why in the world was I cheering for the Broncos over the Saints yesterday? The answer lies in my fantasy football team.

As I've noted before I have both Jay Cutler (who has been tearing it up) and Drew Brees (who despite how he's playing is hot) on my team. So deciding who to play week to week is kind of touch and go. This week I went with Cutler. As it turns out I would have had more points with Brees but I stand by my choice give last week's results.

Lucky for me I still had Jeremy Shockey to pick up some of those Saints offensive points (though not very many). For those of you who don't know he used to play for the Giants and I didn't like him there either but I'll deal since he's picking up some fantasy points for me.

See even he is admiring his abs. So I don't feel so bad.

I'm Done

Who knew that those two words (well one is a contraction) could cover so many different situations.

First of all the feeling that you can't do anything. We went out for lunch today and I'm absolutely stuffed. To use the words of one of the guys I went with I feel a little like a zombie now. Which of course makes the afternoon drag on and on. Remind me not to do that next time. So as far as eating anything more today, I'm done.

The second current situation is a friendship. Oddly enough I read an article not too long ago (in fact it may have been Monday) about when it's time to let a friendship go. I'm not sure if it's just because I recently read this article or it just gave me the confirmation that I needed that I'm in an unhealthy friendship but either way there it is. It's not that I have a whole lot of close friends but at the same time being treated badly does not a friend make. So again, I'm done.

My 200th Post

I know scary isn't it that I've actually had enough to say to write 200 posts. Okay maybe that's a little strong but hey you're reading this so you must enjoy my randomness at least just a little bit. So here are some balloons to celebrate my excessive amounts of crazy!

It's Wednesday

I hate hump day. In true pessimist fashion I have trouble looking at it as half way to the weekend, instead it's only half way through my work week. It's also about this time in the week where I start to feel really tired and have to really drag ass in order to get through the day.

There are some nice things about a Wednesday though. For example the Hump Day Hottie over at Ladies... Also I don't have any annoying weekly reports to run like I do on Mondays. There have already been 2 days to discuss how bad my fantasy team was on Sunday/Monday so now I can prepare for the next week.

Also a plus is that I get paid tomorrow.

Election Sign Count - September 15th

For those of you who are not so football-ly inclined here is another election sign count post

Liberal - 8
Conservative -4
Green Party - 1

These are not exact numbers as they are the cumulative from the past week and well sometimes it hard to remember which signs you've already counted but I'm going to say they're pretty close. There is also the issue of the 41% poll that came out last Friday. That's majority territory for those of you who don't know and it was in favor of the Conservatives. But it might just be enough to scare some voters back to the left to prevent the majority. Let's just hope it's not too far in the other direction (ie: Liberal Majority). I've fine with a minority either way but a majority is a scary prospect at this moment.

Sonofa...

You know who has the number one ranking in Fantasy Football right now? Jay Cutler. Do you know who has Jay Cutler on their fantasy roster but went with Drew Brees instead because she's a freaking idiot? Oh right that would be me. God Dammit!

Also just to confirm my post from earlier today, I went from most points last week to second last this week. Seriously what the hell team. Also Braylon Edwards is getting sat next week!... maybe... okay I'll probably take all week to think about it and then give him a third chance.

But here is an amusing McDonald's add with my new starting QB, Jay Cutler. Oh and also he'd better not start sucking as soon as I pull him off the freaking bench.

God my fantasy team sucks

Gah! Last week my team absolutely killed. This week they all stunk. Actually I can't say that exactly as I'm starting the Dallas defence and they don't play until tonight. Put mostly my team was a steaming pile of stink.


I haven't actually looked at the fantasy points today either (the free live tracking ended after week one), but I can only imagine given that stats that I've seen so far for my players that I lost miserably in this week's match up.



Right at the top of my list of players who are making me rather grumpy is Braylon Edwards. Yes I now I did fairly well to get him in the first place but given that our teams are all stacked he's got to actually perform in order for me to do well. Okay so 32 yards is not terrible. It's almost double what he had in the last game but I'm still less than impressed.



This however, I am rather impressed with:


Oh and on a final note, the Colts just barely squeaked out a win yesterday. This whole season is looking kind of shaky.

Drew Brees is a stud

I say that now but it may not last. Welcome to my first post about my fantasy football team (many more to come I'm sure). My starting Quarterback is Drew Brees who I already kind of loved (as you can see he has his own label). He also put up some nice numbers this weekend leading my fantasy team to an absolute slaughter of my opponent. Next week I won't be so lucky but for now I'll take it. Oh and for those of you know don't know he plays for the New Orleans Saints who I will not jinx by wearing my Saints t-shirt during games.

Side note: Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of Drew Brees after you've deleted all of the pictures you had saved of him?

Election Sign Count

So the writ had been dropped and Canadians are going to be voting too. As you should be aware by now I love elections. They are usually exciting. During the last Federal election my city riding was won by 111 votes. My country riding was a freaking landslide. I've also moved since the last election so I will be voting in a different riding for different candidates on different issues. So many things in my life have changed since the last election that it may be difficult to decide which party to vote for.

But this isn't about me it's about how my neighbours will be voting come October 14th. The current neighbourhood sign count (based on my very scientific method of counting signs as I walk to and from work) is 2 Conservative, 1 Liberal.

Turns out I'm kind of a head case

So as you may have noticed it's been a while since I've posted anything. I guess I should apologize for that. The thing is I haven't really been stringing together enough coherent thoughts lately to make a post. Additionally the thoughts that I do have really aren't the sort of thing that I want to be putting in writing.

Oddly enough I'm not even really into sports these days. Last year I would have been all over both the U.S. Open which is this week. I don't even think that I've mentioned that Rafa is now the world number one. Oh and there is a Djokovic-Roddick match tonight that might be worth watching. I however will likely be watching the football game as NFL regular season starts tonight (look for my fantasy team post in the next couple of days).

I've also been having all sorts of crazy dreams. Like this morning when I dreamed that my bus stopped 2 stops before my regular morning stop and then turned around. This is of course completely ridiculous but whatever my dreams very rarely make sense.

Talking politics... kind of

Now I'm not a big follower of American politics but I always helps to stay informed of the direction of our Southern neighbour and largest trading partner. I find American politics confusing as hell, what with the primaries and delegates, super delegates, electoral college, I really have no idea who's winning or losing.

One thing I have noticed though it talking to both Americans and Canadians my age is that there is a definite Anti-Republican sentiment. Actually to put it slightly more accurately it is an Anti-Bush sentiment. I'm not surprised that my Canadian peers would support the Democrats because as one of my college friends said once the Democrats are more right wing than our most right wing party. I'm more surprised by people who support them blindly. I talked to someone the other day about Obama's speech at the convention (which I didn't watch because quite frankly I don't care enough), her favorite parts were the Bush-bashing. Which makes me wonder, do people even know WHY they don't like Bush?

I am a little surprised by the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. I also think it's kind of cool. Yeah I realize that's not the most descriptive of words but nothing that I've read so far about her makes me dislike her, which is more than I can say about most politicians. I'm also amused by other people's reaction to it. For example, I was talking to a young woman the other day about the selection and her reaction was "that was an interesting choice... what if she becomes pregnant, would she just take a mat leave?" In reality I'm less amused and more appalled by that statement, less because someone said it but more that it was someone who is well educated and career focused. But I guess it does make you think that if someone here is thinking that it's a safe bet that Americans are thinking the same thing.

As we get closer to an actual election and I start paying a little bit more attention I'll probably have more to say on the topic.

Cake for supper one day? Brilliant. 2 Days is a row? STUPID!

I think that title is self explanatory. It doesn't really help that I had left the two largest pieces of cake for today and ate the smaller one yesterday. It also doesn't help that I didn't feel so hot at the end of the day at work today either. Maybe I just need to sleep it off.

I should mention that this cake is pretty awesome. It's chocolate with chocolate icing and a layer of custard. But seriously if I even see another piece in the next week I'm going to hurl.

Did I just eat birthday cake for dinner and other random thoughts

The answer the the birthday cake query is YES! It's left over from the family thing and it's been sitting in my fridge for 2 days already. I was trying to hold out until my actual birthday tomorrow but it was calling to me.

Moving right along, I've downgraded (or upgraded perhaps) my most recent office crush to office hotness. You see old office hotness left us a couple of weeks ago for some other job and I hadn't replaced him. Also I think I've found a way to define office crush vs. office hotness. I think that an office crush would be someone who I could actually picture dating, whereas office hotness is someone who is incredibly attractive but I don't think I could actually talk to without turning to mush. Except to apologize for almost running into them coming around a corner, which actually happened.

I had a meeting with someone from the HR department at work. Sounds like there may be some things opening up so we'll see. I've also been doing further grad school research. I've settled on U of M (Minnesota) or U of M (Manitoba) with one other target school yet to be decided.

A sportsless weekend

Yes I realize that this was the last weekend of the Olympics and I probably should have been watching them but this weekend was reserved strictly for family stuff.

We didn't have a family Christmas last year because my cousin just had her baby and of course everyone has a bunch of family get togethers right around that time so we've replaced it with a summer get together. Surprisingly it was kind of fun. My family has never been particularly close given that some of my cousins lived far away and there is a pretty huge age gap in the cousins (20 years between the oldest and the youngest).

Anyway it was pretty cold and wet all weekend, except Sunday morning. We spent most of the time in my Aunt's house or on her patio, so by the end of the weekend I'd vowed never to have children. Speaking of vows my aunt just got married a couple of weeks ago so they did a wedding re-enactment for us because we couldn't be there. Not that it's her first wedding or anything.

We also did a family history version of the Amazing Race, which just proved what I already knew that my family is a bunch of liars, cheaters and a witch. Actually the witch part is my great-grandmother on my Grandpa's side and she wasn't exactly a witch but she did the herbs and potions thing. We also did a family history quiz, it was pretty bad.

But all in all a good time and they're already planning for next year.

Playing with the Big Boys

As you should be well aware by now I'm something of a sports nut (though granted not as much as I used to be). As a female sports fan I spend a lot of time talking sports with the boys at work and trying to prove that I know my stuff. I guess I did a pretty good job last year because they've invited me to join their fantasy football league this year. Either that or they just want to take my money.

Of course I've already lost $10 on football during the off season as I conceded that Brett Farve is un-retired, so I'm not really sure if it's worth it. Also I'm a little scared. I am historically very, very bad at sports pools and fantasy leagues. I spend so much time trying to perfect it and then doing absolutely horrible. It doesn't really help that guys either retire or get injured on me. Plus I'm not really into stats and all that, at least not anymore.

So here's the dilemma. If I don't play I'm never going to be invited to play again, but if I play I may undo all of the work I've done to prove myself as a sports fan in the last year. Really it's $10 and I shouldn't really care what these guys think but really I only see this ending badly for me.

Just to Cleanse the Palate

Alright as we can see from my previous posts I tend to be kind of single minded. But in honor of a certain co-worker's new shirt here is some Joe Maurer of the Minnesota Twins. Have I mentioned I hate baseball? But I like baseball players. Oh and he's 6'5 so he's both age and height appropriate.

Is there anything hotter than an athlete doing stuff with little kids. Yes, I realize that sounds really bad but you know what I meant.

One More Thought on the German gymnast

Okay before I give up on this topic completely I wanted to post these pictures which I found this morning. Not only does he have a pouty face but he also sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating which I find totally adorable.

Okay so now we can go back to not discussing gymnastics for another 4 years and then being plesantly suprised when we see him again in London. Oh also he's slightly balding as I noticed this morning, 21 year olds are not supposed to be going bald!

It must be some kind of illness

Who doesn't need a new office crush? That would be me. And yet a new one is developing. Not good. You would think after a while I would run out of people to have crushes on but apparently not. It's just a good thing I don't have to see him all the time because I always act a little bit silly around my crushes, especially in the beginning stages.

Back to my new Olympic crush on Fabian Hambuechen, besides being too young (21 in October) and too short (5'5) for me is also kind of pouty. I got up early this morning to watch the High Bar final in which he was the top qualifier. He was the first to compete and from the time he got off the bar he didn't look too happy. Kind of like in this picture which I borrowed from what could possibly be my new favorite blog (even though it is on hold at the moment), but with more pout.

Anyway he didn't fall off the bar this time so that's a good thing. He also ended up with the bronze medal so that's not so bad given his other 4th place finishes so far.

My love hate relationship with amateur sport

I'm a little bit ticked off after my day at work so I thought I'd go on a little rant to release at least some of my pent up anger.

Every couple of years motivated by the fact the Canada isn't winning so many medals at the Olympics people get the big idea that we should throw more money into amateur sports because we aren't winning enough medals. It's not that I don't support amateur athletics. I do truly love the Olympics. I also appreciate how hard these athletes work to be at the top of their sports. You hear stories about athletes who can't train as hard because they don't have the funding or some like David Ford even pay their own way to compete after they lose their funding. Sure we hear about things like Team Visa and RONA who pay to help a few athletes pay for their training but most don't really get that kind of help.

The thing is that as soon as someone says something like "we'd do better at the Olympics if we spent more money on amateur sport", I start thinking I already pay 1/3 of my annual salary to the government to pay for things like health care, the military, subsidized tuition and low income housing. All things that I feel are just a little bit more important that seeing someone with a medal hanging around their necks. The thing about spending tax money on anything thing is that the money has to come from somewhere, either something has to be cut or the citizens need to be taxed more.

I've also found that high performance athletes do actually receive a whole lot of extra little bonuses that the average person doesn't get either. Even if these are not professional athletes getting the big bucks for what most of them are able to receive at least some scholarship funding for college. Many of the large American schools even offer full scholarships for athletes (though granted most of these are for sports in which you can turn professional. But I came out of university with a piece of paper, a couple of letters to put behind my name and a whole lot of debt. Scholarship athletes could come out with the same things and a whole lot less debt.

I guess what I'm trying to say is not that these athletes shouldn't be rewarded for their dedication to their sport and their desire to compete for their country but I shouldn't be expected to foot the bill. Do I feel a tiny sense of pride when I see a Canadian up there on the podium? Sure I do. But I also work hard for my money and if I want to donate to sport of my own free will then I will but I'm not so sure it should be mandatory as part of my citizenship.

One more thing before I end my little rant. I realize that the Federal government as well as the Provincial government in BC have been and will continue to throw a whole lot of money into the Vancouver 2010 games and I'm not entirely sure I agree with that either but at least that is leading to changes such as improved infrastructure which will still be around (if done properly of course) long after all of the athletes that compete in 2010 are retired.

And end rant.

We have Medals

Yes I am aware this probably should have been posted about 2 days ago but I just didn't get around to it. So yes we have medals. The first ones were Women's Wrestling and rowing. I figured we'd get a couple of rowing medals and we did which is great because I like watching rowing.

I also watched 15 minutes of 8 guys swimming 30 laps of the pool to see Ryan Cochrane win a bronze medal. He's only 19 so he'll be back in 4 years. I've actually watched far more swimming than I have in quite some time given that I'm not the world's hugest swimming fan. I also missed Ian Thorpe hugging Michael Phelps' mom twice.


In non-Canadian medal news Rafael Nadal won gold in men's singles tennis, My favorite German male gymnast finished 4th in the floor final and the Jamaican women won first through 3rd in the 100m sprint.

I take it back

Yesterday I was talking about the Men's gymnastics competition and a certain German Gymnast who I discovered will not be 21 until October, which makes him just a little too young for me. This fact didn't stop me from staying up until almost 1 am to watch the men's all-around final though.

In case you weren't crazy enough to stay up to watch it Yang Wei of China won the gold medal. He was 2.6 points ahead of the silver medalist. The Canadians finished 15th and 17th which is pretty awesome given that it's the first time since 1992 that a Canadian has even been in the Men's all-around final. Hambuechen fell off the high bar which is apparently his best event even though both times that I've seen him on it at these Olympics he has fallen off the bar. But again he's cute so I'll look past it, though it does make me wonder about my power of jinx .

Oh yeah and since I'm on the subject of Olympics still no medals for Canada.

It's Olympics Time

Surprisingly I'm not so into the Olympics this year I blame it on Canada kind of sucking so far. Seriously win a medal already. I have however discovered my gymnastics crush a place that was previously unfilled until last night. I was watching the Men's team finals which Canada failed to qualify for. Fabien Hambuchen of Germany fell during his high bar routine which was kind of sad. But he's good looking so it's okay. He's also a favorite in the high bar apparatus final, which I will attempt to watch as long as it's not in the middle of the night.

By the way, Canada is still medal less.

More on my irrational hatred

As I have previously discussed I have some hate issues . New to the list of random people I hate is Michael Phelps. I'm sure he's actually a really nice guy but I could care less if he's going for 8 gold medals in Beijing. I'd like him to lose just one race so that the media can just shut up. I also wish that Ian Thorpe would come back. But that's a whole different issue. A brief side note on the Thorpe story because I found it while I was borrowing this picture of Phelps, apparently Thorpe is suing a French newspaper for saying that he took performance enhancing drugs.

The current object of my hate Michael Phelps. I think that maybe I'm just jealous

Random Thoughts to End My Vacation

Crap, I have to go back to work on Monday. Am I looking forward to it? Not at all. Not that my week off has been spectacular or anything what with the spending all sorts of money that I don't have yet (but hey at least work knows I have to come back), getting stopped at the US/Canada border on the way back, losing my 12 pack of Folklorama tickets at the very first show I went to, getting in a huge fight with my mom when I went home and having a terrible cold for the last 2 days and accomplishing pretty much nothing that I wanted to get done.

On the upside I bought a bunch of new stuff down in the States, dyed my hair (I looked better as a blonde), watched a whole season of Gossip Girl (still haven't decided if this is a good thing) and watched the Olympic opening ceremonies 3 times (well only part of it each time really).

Oh I also watched a little bit of the Disney Channel games. Yes it's a little embarrassing but after a week off I kind of ran out of stuff to watch and I certainly didn't feel like getting up off my couch today. But I've decided that the Jonas brothers are the Hanson of the younger generation. Geez, when did I become part of the older generation?

Taking my blog show on the road

So I'm on vacation this week. A much deserved one if I do say so myself. I was starting to feel just a little worn out. The first part of my vacation is being spent in the U.S. doing a little (and by that I mean a lot) of shopping with my brother.

The Border was just absolutely insane. Note to self: don't go to the States on a long weekend. We left pretty early in the morning, or at least early for 2 people who are supposed to be on vacation anyway. We hit the border around 9am. I can't imagine what it's going to be like coming back. I'm seriously considering staying an extra night just to avoid the traffic.

Anyway I'm already within $10 of my $400 duty-free dollars after one day.I did buy a fantastic pair of cowboy boots yesterday. Today we're hitting Albertville Outlets. I suspect it will be full of people and that more money will be spent.

I may not be posting much this week due to the vacation schedule of sleep until noon, in bed by ten. Gotta recharge that battery after all.

My guilty pleasures

Everyone has things that they do that they don't necessarily want to own up to. Things that if made public may ruin whatever sort of image they are trying to put forward. You can try to tell me that you're not grooming some sort of image but even if something seems to be your second nature there is still an image being created. For example my style when I'm just hanging out at home is much different than how I would dress for work. However I'm getting way off where I was going with this.

I have quite a few guilty pleasures. The first one is romance novels. Not just love stories but really cheesy, you-already-know-what's-going-to-happen-from-reading-the-first-page romance novels. The second is bad Canadian TV shows. I blame this on my upbringing of watching every episode of the original Degrassi ever made. Shows I watch on a weekly basis include Instant Star, Blood Ties and The Murdoch Mysteries. The last one in this quick list is ordering pizza so that I can talk to the cute delivery guy. I try not to do it very often because ordering out is expensive but it's especially nice after a long day when I probably wasn't going to cook anyway.

I haven't been feeling very bloggerly lately

The last couple of days at work have been just brutal. Although the shark documentary last night was absolutely awesome. There was so much stuff getting attacked. It helped me feel better. Also there have been a whole lot of documentaries about Germany during the Second World War (how can you tell I'm from Canada?) on the History Channel. I don't know why but that whole period of time in Europe as a whole fascinates me.

Let it slide

Sometimes I think I'm just a little bit too intense for my own good. I had a little chat with one of the guys that I work with today. Normally conversations with the boys at work have some sort of BPA-free reference or they make fun of this one uber-homophobic guy that I work with but occasionally we do have some serious conversations most of these happen more on a one-on-one basis. Anyway we were talking about how I really take things personally.

It's true. This combined with my constant over analysis of situations leads to many of my life problems. So I guess I'm going to try to take more of a let it go approach. I always say I'm going to try this and some how I end up slipping right back into my old patterns.