randomosity.

OK, so apparently the new Weezer record is NOT called Tout Ensemble. But I did think it was and I liked the idea while it lasted.

I've been limping around as of late due to an injury sustained in a post-Grey Cup (Canada's answer to the Super Bowl) football game in the snow in which I was tackled FEROCIOUSLY. I went to the sports clinic and got my calf x-rayed, but it appears nothing was broken. One week on and the pain is still pretty intense. I guess that's what 32 feels like.

Winter is looking to be the coldest in 15 years, according to Environment Canada. This has so far been proven by the piles of snow dumped on us, and the temperatures (which, with the wind chill, are around -30 Celsius).

Apparently I'm to put up a real Christmas tree next weekend.

Is it weird that I get really anxious about finding a good goaltender for my fantasy hockey team? Because I do - like at night I'll lie in bed going "I wonder if I could get Chris Osgood or Cam Ward from Team X if I offer them player A and B."

Weezer hearts Michael Ignatieff?

New Weezer album title = Tout Ensemble.

Exerpt of speech by Michael Ignatieff, Liberal leader candidate, Dec 1, 2006:

Look around this hall tonight!
Anglophones et francophones, tous ensemble!
Men and women of every faith and race: tous ensemble!
First Nations, Métis, Inuit peoples, tous ensemble!
Les gens de l'ouest et de l'est, les gens du nord et du sud, des villes et des villages: tous ensemble!
We're the party that holds our country together. Tous ensemble!
Nous avons construit le pays ensemble.
Nous le garderons unis. Tous ensemble!

Guess who?

Oh yeah... I'm back, I think... maybe.

I just got home, so I'm trying to catch up on exactly what happened. I'm not entirely surprised that Dion won - in fact, I'm more surprised that it was Iggy vs. Dion rather than Iggy vs. Rae or Rae vs. Dion.

I did have a favourite, although I don't consider myself a Liberal. My fave didn't win, and in fact Dion was my fourth favourite of the top four. I think Harper could potentially thrash Dion in the next election. We'll see.

More post-convention thoughts later, maybe.

2nd ballot prediction

Iggy will hold fairly steady, Rae and Dion will grow, Kennedy doesn't. Dryden will come in last and Kennedy will consider moving soon. Rae could jump ahead of Iggy, and Dion and Iggy will be close 2nd and 3rd.

Gotta go!

the morning after

-Scott Brison is supporting Bob Rae... but he has 'let his delegates go' to do whatever they want. I have no idea what that means. I guess as a former Tory who went Liberal, it makes a bit of sense to support a former NDP premier who is now Liberal.

-Martha Hall Findlay, who was last and is immediately removed from the ballot, is announced as done. It sounds like every delegates' supporters are cheering as loud as possible for each of the losers so they'll come over to their side.

-Joe Volpe has already gone to Rae, but his Campaign Manager went to Ignatieff, so who knows where his people went.

-Because the last place candidate is immediately eliminated after each ballot (hey... kind of like American Idol), the fact that Ken Dryden is still on the ballot means neither Dion nor Kennedy will likely go on the next one. Could be interesting.

-Iggy's on the floor greeting Brison supporters and handing out his trademark scarves. He's saying because he spoke last last night, some of his delegates didn't get to vote. Of course, there's no way of knowing whether that's true. You would hope he would be smarter than making something like that up.

-Martha's delegates have now gone to Dion, whose supporters are wearing lime green. Ugh. Dion reminds me of Milhouse from the Simpsons in every possible way. Least favourite of the top four. Devoid of personality and easily defeatable by Harper.

Hmm... pre-natal class all day. I'll try and see what's happening around lunchtime.

Iggy

He liltint manner of speaking is probably to his disadvantage. I think he could really rile people up if he got excited a bit more. As it is, he sounds kinda stoned, and somehow also condescending. I'm sure he's probably not either of those things.

So I've been writing the column while watching repeats of the speeches and the initial results of the first ballot being examined ad infinitum. Currently Bob Rae is up there, and while you have to have cojones to "wing it" without a podium or a teleprompter, you have to have some substance and personality as well. Mmm... not so much.

He just took a strange five or six second break in the middle of his talk too. Weird.

Ignatieff ended up under 30%, which many signal as his death knell. I'm not so sure yet... like every other pundit out there, I realize it's 100% impossible to say who will win.

Oh, I went and saw Casino Royale tonight... Daniel Craig is great, but if you want an action-packed movie, try The Bourne Identity. I watched it last weekend and it was far better.

Blah blah blah...

shame

So I haven't updated in a while, mainly due to the fact that I feel ashamed that I wasn't able to blog during the US midterm election results. I thought there was a problem with my e-mail, when in fact the cord was unplugged. Ugh.

I'll try and stay on top of the Liberal convention, but I have a pre-natal class all day Saturday, so it might be a bit spotty. Suffice to say I wish I was there - not because I'm a Liberal, but because I'd love to see how one of these things play out. Plus there are all of these hospitality suites where there's free booze every night.

Strangely, I wore a sweater to work today that I could have easily borrowed from Michael Ignatieff, although it's not so much red as it is burgundy. Either Ignatieff or Mr. Rogers would be proud of this sweater.

It sounds like there are lots of hijinks happening at the convention... check out www.liblogs.ca for all the geeks who are on site.

pre-election blog pt. 2

- 11 p.m. CST: new hour, new brigade of anchors. CNN = Lou Dobbs ("champion of the middle class") and Wolf Blitzer ("live from the situation room").

Fox News = Brit Hume. All they can talk about is how all the Democrats' leads in the polls are evaporating, and how the GOP are comin' up, lookin' good on the trails.

CNN, on the other hand, is decidedly more Democrat-oriented. All they talk about is the botched war in Iraq, the war on the middle class, etc. I'm all giddy about the whole thing!

CNN's Jack Cafferty just apologized for having editorialized about Donald Rumsfeld and calling him a "war criminal". Is it too early to call that "pulling an Iggy"?

let the mid-term blogging begin!

So as it turns out I’m not going to be home for a bit tomorrow night (baby reasons… more important), and therefore there will likely be delay/small gap early-ish on in my “groundbreaking” coverage of the US mid-term elections. It’s OK, though, because election coverage is already well underway.

CNN, led by the dashing salt-and-pepper haired Anderson Cooper, seems to have about 15 different angles on Bush’s downward spiral, while Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” has good old Bill playing moderator between a young, attractive Democrat and a young, attractive Republican.

It should be known that this is some of the first thinking I’ve done on the US midterm elections. See, yesterday I decided to start watching Lost. I watched eight episodes yesterday and three tonight. So far.

I have seen this ad a few times, so far, and I’m liking it:

Frickin Fricke

Why does every special that has to do with rock and roll have to feature an interview with David Fricke, Senior Editor at Rolling Stone (now one of the most irrelevant music mags left)?

(Uh, he's the guy on our right, FYI, and yes, his hair still and always looks like this.)