Regarding the previous post about how I was going to make a blog entry in the honor of idiots, the official "coach" on my daughter's hockey team is a complete and utter blithering idiot.
He could not, with a pencil, trace a circle around a glass placed upside down on a piece of paper.
He could not, teach a dog how to eat, if the dog had been starved for two days, and he had a plate with pieces of chicken, in gravy.
He cannot coach a hockey team.
The kids, boys and a girl (mine) are all nine and ten years old. Most are barely able to stand on their skates, some can't brake, some can't turn properly, most can't handle the puck with a hockey stick and skate at the same time.
Naturally we've just lost six straight games, and in the last five, we've not scored a single goal.
We are the laughingstock of the league.
The Mighty Ducks from the Emilio Estevez movie.
The coach, keeps bringing in an expert power skating coach, at great expense to the league. Not only do I find this appalling, but borderline insane. How? Why? In which universe is it plausible that children who cannot skate need a POWER skating coach.
It's like taking a blind man, and sit him on the driver's seat next to The Stig for a race-driving lesson.
Better yet, like putting make up on Sarah Jessica Parker.
What is the point?
Last week-end during the game, while it was still within reach (only a 3-0 lead for the other team), one of the kids from our team, for some reason (I call miracle) had a breakaway.
He was all alone, no other kids around him for about 30 feet, and as soon as he entered the other team's zone with the puck, which he was actually controlling WHILE skating, the moron (the coach) yelled at him to shoot.
This is a 10 year old kid.
The blue line, on an official size rink is 56 feet from the net. The kid was about 3-4 feet into the blue line when he heard the coach yell "shoot".
He took a shot. The puck obviously barely crawled by the net as he missed it by easily 20 feet.
When he came back to the bench and sat down, I crouched in front of him and asked him -I'm assistant coach for the defense- why he shot from so far away as he didn't have anyone around, and he pointed out that the coach yelled to shoot so he did.
I stood up and explained to the coach that it might be best not to tell the kids to shoot from quite that far as none of then actually have a decent shot and the odds of scoring are about 0% when there is no goaltender in front of the net and they drop in the negative when there is.
He got angry with me and exploded that he would rather see the kids shoot from "clear across the ice" for "at least they had a shot on net".
I love my daughter very much.
When she decided to join hockey in late August, I was happy to make the deal with her that I'd coach her team if she stuck with it. At first she could barely stand, she got onto the ice for the first practice and was holding herself up on the boards.
She has stuck with it so now, only about a month and a half later, she can skate like a 10 year old.
I will stick with it too so I will not quit being the defensive coach.
I'm not sure what will happen in the weeks to come, but I will keep you all posted. The bumbling idiot entered the team (at great expense) into two tournaments next spring. Can't wait to see how THAT will turn out.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
I think it's time we put couples relations back in their places
This post was supposed to be about how I'm surrounded by idiots and in a way, it still is. A stern warning goes out immediately;
The following article will likely make me come across as a misogenyst, petty man. I want to assure all three of my readers that nothing could be further from the truth. I have the upmost respect for most women, their jobs, as well as how they have to constantly struggle to better their careers.
In fact my own wife is doing this better than I am, right now, and she is the woman I respect the most in the world.
It all began a few weeks ago, when at work we were discussing how our kids were getting overprotected from everything. I have a daughter that plays ice hockey - she's 10 years old - and who is forced to wear a full helmet with a facemask AND a mouthguard!
I said; WTF?? Why both? How exactly will you get a hockey stick in the face if you're wearing a full facemask?
Most men I asked agreed with me. But when it came to women it was a different story. They brought up urban legends about mouthguards preventing concussions, which is not the case, I've read a few articles and studies made that pointed out that no, they did not prevent concussions and if you fall on your head a mouthguard is irrelevant.
On the other hand a lady pointed out, what does it hurt if they wear both? And I was forced to agree.
But then, how far do we go? What's next? Goggles?
Naturally, THAT SAME WEEKEND at the hockey game, as I was crossing the ice with the other assistant coaches, to shake hands with the opposing team's kids, I noticed a kid wearing squash goggles under his helmet. Poor boy, he had on a full helmet with facemask, mouthguard and squash goggles.
Isch...in my day it would have been a whoop-ass waiting to happen.
Then last week, still at work, we were going on about the current Swine Flu crisis. Here in Quebec, what has happened is that the media, essentially television newschannels, radio stations and newspapers as well as internet news sites have all blown the Swine Flu "thing" out of proportion.
They will report every single person that has been hospitalized, died or had complications due to having had the Swine Flu, but we don't hear from the overwhelming majority of people who've had it, and recovered.
They will interview mostly women who have had it and told the cameras that it came with unbearable pain and suffering and that we should all burn our nipples off with a blowtorch rather than take the chance of having it, and then went on about their children having had a vaccine against it.
Naturally with such overwhelming media campaign, the health minister a man told us that a vaccine would be available to everyone that wanted it, in the fall. But he also pointed out that we should not panic.
That's when women got involved and demanded that all children between such and such age and with siblings from such other demographics should get the vaccine.
All the news anchors except one, a man took this to mean that we would be running out of the vaccine and that we would all die, Friday.
They even named the website www.pandemiequebec.gouv.qc.ca which means quite literally: "You will all die this Friday.com"
This brings me to my point, ok well not right away but soon I promise.
I have several friends who have small children, three people I work with, and other acquaintances. They all have the following trait in common, their spouses all women are "stay at home moms".
Yet, as "go to work dads" all of the aforementioned friends, co-workers and acquaintances are forced to get their asses home after work, night after night, prepare supper, make dishes, bathe their respective children, some of which are nine years old and should be able to wash themselves, basically all on the excuse that their spouse is "tired" from staying home all day and watching the kids.
Again; WTF????
I was going to cite myself as an example. I would have liked to help more when my daughter was a baby, unfortunately at that time I was working an evening shift and only got home at 10:30PM or so. I did what I could, got home, raised her from sleep, fed her once more then changed her and back to bed she went until the morning, I got up later than my wife did, helped a bit but after lunch I had to run off to work.
My wife is not a stay at home mom, she is a go to work mom. This is possibly the biggest reason I respect her for. She has incessantly cared for our daughter since her birth and only rarely asked me for anything.
That and everything else she touches and becomes awesome, except for me of course :)
Later, when our daughter was about three, I was laid off work and stayed at home for a few months, at that time I made sure that every night, when my wife made it home from work, the table was set, supper was ready, our daughter was picked up from daycare, bathed and her hair brushed. Ok maybe not the hair brushing part but still.
Another few years later I was home for almost a whole year again after being laid off work, and again I took care of everything except the washer and dryer. Supper was made, dishes were made, the house was spotless and granted, our daughter was in school by then, but I also had time to rebuild an old truck.
I was a stay at home dad for a while. Girls...it's NOT that difficult and tiresome.
Has it occurred to you that maybe you're just lazy?
Or do you enjoy whipping your respective spouses? Two of the guys I mention above are horribly pussy-whipped. Personally I wouldn't give their respective spouses the time of day if they asked, while wearing full glorious lingerie, shoving their tits at me, and sporting fuck me boots.
Not because they're ugly.
Because they're the reverse of misogynists. They clearly hate men. Misandry is it? Is it less frowned upon than misogynism?
The following article will likely make me come across as a misogenyst, petty man. I want to assure all three of my readers that nothing could be further from the truth. I have the upmost respect for most women, their jobs, as well as how they have to constantly struggle to better their careers.
In fact my own wife is doing this better than I am, right now, and she is the woman I respect the most in the world.
It all began a few weeks ago, when at work we were discussing how our kids were getting overprotected from everything. I have a daughter that plays ice hockey - she's 10 years old - and who is forced to wear a full helmet with a facemask AND a mouthguard!
I said; WTF?? Why both? How exactly will you get a hockey stick in the face if you're wearing a full facemask?
Most men I asked agreed with me. But when it came to women it was a different story. They brought up urban legends about mouthguards preventing concussions, which is not the case, I've read a few articles and studies made that pointed out that no, they did not prevent concussions and if you fall on your head a mouthguard is irrelevant.
On the other hand a lady pointed out, what does it hurt if they wear both? And I was forced to agree.
But then, how far do we go? What's next? Goggles?
Naturally, THAT SAME WEEKEND at the hockey game, as I was crossing the ice with the other assistant coaches, to shake hands with the opposing team's kids, I noticed a kid wearing squash goggles under his helmet. Poor boy, he had on a full helmet with facemask, mouthguard and squash goggles.
Isch...in my day it would have been a whoop-ass waiting to happen.
Then last week, still at work, we were going on about the current Swine Flu crisis. Here in Quebec, what has happened is that the media, essentially television newschannels, radio stations and newspapers as well as internet news sites have all blown the Swine Flu "thing" out of proportion.
They will report every single person that has been hospitalized, died or had complications due to having had the Swine Flu, but we don't hear from the overwhelming majority of people who've had it, and recovered.
They will interview mostly women who have had it and told the cameras that it came with unbearable pain and suffering and that we should all burn our nipples off with a blowtorch rather than take the chance of having it, and then went on about their children having had a vaccine against it.
Naturally with such overwhelming media campaign, the health minister a man told us that a vaccine would be available to everyone that wanted it, in the fall. But he also pointed out that we should not panic.
That's when women got involved and demanded that all children between such and such age and with siblings from such other demographics should get the vaccine.
All the news anchors except one, a man took this to mean that we would be running out of the vaccine and that we would all die, Friday.
They even named the website www.pandemiequebec.gouv.qc.ca which means quite literally: "You will all die this Friday.com"
This brings me to my point, ok well not right away but soon I promise.
I have several friends who have small children, three people I work with, and other acquaintances. They all have the following trait in common, their spouses all women are "stay at home moms".
Yet, as "go to work dads" all of the aforementioned friends, co-workers and acquaintances are forced to get their asses home after work, night after night, prepare supper, make dishes, bathe their respective children, some of which are nine years old and should be able to wash themselves, basically all on the excuse that their spouse is "tired" from staying home all day and watching the kids.
Again; WTF????
I was going to cite myself as an example. I would have liked to help more when my daughter was a baby, unfortunately at that time I was working an evening shift and only got home at 10:30PM or so. I did what I could, got home, raised her from sleep, fed her once more then changed her and back to bed she went until the morning, I got up later than my wife did, helped a bit but after lunch I had to run off to work.
My wife is not a stay at home mom, she is a go to work mom. This is possibly the biggest reason I respect her for. She has incessantly cared for our daughter since her birth and only rarely asked me for anything.
That and everything else she touches and becomes awesome, except for me of course :)
Later, when our daughter was about three, I was laid off work and stayed at home for a few months, at that time I made sure that every night, when my wife made it home from work, the table was set, supper was ready, our daughter was picked up from daycare, bathed and her hair brushed. Ok maybe not the hair brushing part but still.
Another few years later I was home for almost a whole year again after being laid off work, and again I took care of everything except the washer and dryer. Supper was made, dishes were made, the house was spotless and granted, our daughter was in school by then, but I also had time to rebuild an old truck.
I was a stay at home dad for a while. Girls...it's NOT that difficult and tiresome.
Has it occurred to you that maybe you're just lazy?
Or do you enjoy whipping your respective spouses? Two of the guys I mention above are horribly pussy-whipped. Personally I wouldn't give their respective spouses the time of day if they asked, while wearing full glorious lingerie, shoving their tits at me, and sporting fuck me boots.
Not because they're ugly.
Because they're the reverse of misogynists. They clearly hate men. Misandry is it? Is it less frowned upon than misogynism?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Why corporations suck.
A while ago, ok a long while ago, I worked for a large corporation, one of the largest in the world, with over 300.000 employees world-wide not counting all the contract workers they hire to keep their staffing costs down.
It sucked.
I thought it wouldn't but it did and I should've known better because I'd worked for another large corporation ten years earlier, another large corporation with over 100.000 employees world-wide, and that didn't hire people directly but used an agency so they could wash their hands of any claim regarding salary, promotions, etc.
In both cases working there was like working for McDonalds only worse because the scheduling was less flexible and you didn't get any free lunch, or any employee discount worth mentioning.
Enter Archos, a corporation that develops, builds and sells portable media players.
I never worked for them (probably never will) but from the way they work their corporate crap, you know I'd hate it.
Last spring I got myself an Archos 605 Wifi portable media player, 80Gb of storage (on HDD) and was supposed to play, well media.
The normal cost for the unit was 400$ but I paid 200$ for it minus some Future Shop card I had with about 50$ on it, a Christmas gift from my sister.
The issue is that Archos do not sell you a complete product. They sell you a product that is purposely crippled by having some of the more popular codecs be disabled, and having you pay an extra 20~40$ to enable it with a code.
To make matters worse, the operating system they put on these units is quite possibly the worst to come out of a non-Microsoft company, in other words it sucks.
It sucks so much that it took me several attempts to do something simple (connect the unit to my wireless network) because the OS is flawed.
You see, a WEP Shared Key passcode can be in one of two formats, either ASCII (text) or Hexadecimal (base 16 numbers). Like any other device, it will take the ASCII passcode, translate it into hexadecimal and send it to the router for it to authorize, or deny access.
The problem is that the Archos software is so idiotic that it mistranslates ASCII so that the Hexadecimal string it sends to the router is wrong (bitch!).
The only way to figure this out was to change it to hex on my router and notice that the hex string on the router was different from the one the Archos genarated.
An online translator proved that indeed it was the Archos that had the error.
This should've been corrected EONS ago on a device that actually carries WIFI as part of its name. Instead Archos, when ansked about it, simply replied that WEP is not supported.
A bold claim considering the OS has a WEP option for the wireless connection.
I think they were just lazy, or worse...
GREEDY (and bastards...)
Do I like my Archos device, sure, it plays vanilla divx files which is pretty cool on my daily train commute.
Will I buy another one when invariably this one brakes.
HELL NO!
It sucked.
I thought it wouldn't but it did and I should've known better because I'd worked for another large corporation ten years earlier, another large corporation with over 100.000 employees world-wide, and that didn't hire people directly but used an agency so they could wash their hands of any claim regarding salary, promotions, etc.
In both cases working there was like working for McDonalds only worse because the scheduling was less flexible and you didn't get any free lunch, or any employee discount worth mentioning.
Enter Archos, a corporation that develops, builds and sells portable media players.
I never worked for them (probably never will) but from the way they work their corporate crap, you know I'd hate it.
Last spring I got myself an Archos 605 Wifi portable media player, 80Gb of storage (on HDD) and was supposed to play, well media.
The normal cost for the unit was 400$ but I paid 200$ for it minus some Future Shop card I had with about 50$ on it, a Christmas gift from my sister.
The issue is that Archos do not sell you a complete product. They sell you a product that is purposely crippled by having some of the more popular codecs be disabled, and having you pay an extra 20~40$ to enable it with a code.
To make matters worse, the operating system they put on these units is quite possibly the worst to come out of a non-Microsoft company, in other words it sucks.
It sucks so much that it took me several attempts to do something simple (connect the unit to my wireless network) because the OS is flawed.
You see, a WEP Shared Key passcode can be in one of two formats, either ASCII (text) or Hexadecimal (base 16 numbers). Like any other device, it will take the ASCII passcode, translate it into hexadecimal and send it to the router for it to authorize, or deny access.
The problem is that the Archos software is so idiotic that it mistranslates ASCII so that the Hexadecimal string it sends to the router is wrong (bitch!).
The only way to figure this out was to change it to hex on my router and notice that the hex string on the router was different from the one the Archos genarated.
An online translator proved that indeed it was the Archos that had the error.
This should've been corrected EONS ago on a device that actually carries WIFI as part of its name. Instead Archos, when ansked about it, simply replied that WEP is not supported.
A bold claim considering the OS has a WEP option for the wireless connection.
I think they were just lazy, or worse...
GREEDY (and bastards...)
Do I like my Archos device, sure, it plays vanilla divx files which is pretty cool on my daily train commute.
Will I buy another one when invariably this one brakes.
HELL NO!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Top 8 Reasons We Will All Die On Friday.
Here are the top eight reasons why we are all doomed to die this Friday.
-Bears.
Recently on a quiet news day, a report came out that a lady, somewhere out in a remote area of Quebec, had been mauled by a bear while her husband had been severely injured while trying to save her.
Naturally channels like LCN have jumped on this and subsequent to that, Le Journal De Montreal made it's cover page about bears in our backyards and how dangerous they were, they also made it very clear that we were all doomed to be mauled by bears, in our backyards, by Friday.
-Crooked investment advisers.
In the last few years a witch hunt has literally gone down, where everyone who has ever invested, and lost, even a single penny, has succesfully sued and won, against their financial adviser.
So now, after a month-long search for this guy above, LCN and The Journal de Montreal have been running long winded articles about how financial advisers were going to get us all killed by taking our moneys, and forcing us to live on the street and starve to death, by Friday.
-Street gangs
Possibly the only real threat in terms of percentage in this list, street gangs first came to LCN and Le Journal De Montreal's attention about two years ago when a white police woman shot and killed a latino teenager in a ghettofied area of Montreal North.
So now, yearly on the anniversary of that shooting, both LCN and the Journal de Montreal make it a point to remind us to stay home that night as if we go out, we might get shot and killed by police women, unless of course we're white in which case they will only give us a ticket for driving while talking on our cell phones, of course this usually occurs on Friday.
-Cell phones
Speaking of cell phones, the leading cause (not) of car accidents in Montreal apparently is cell phones while driving, never mind the kids acting like douchebags on the back seat of cars, or the parents looking behind them on the seats rather than at the road ahead, never mind the pityful state of the roads, the deficient signals, inapt drivers, elders at the wheel and teenage wannabe hip-hoppers in those impossibly low Honda Civics and Volkswagon Golfs.
I'm not posting a photo of a cell phone because frankly if you've never seen one, you probably aren't reading this on the Interwebs.
In either case, both LCN and Le Journal de Montreal have issued several warnings about cell phones, how if they don't kill us by this Friday by having a cell phone driver hit us all, they will certainly kill us within the next 25-50 years by giving us brain cancer.
-Falling bricks
Almost three months ago, a really unlucky woman was sitting on a restaurant terrace, on seats that apparently SHE requested, enjoying lunch with her husband on their wedding anniversary I think, when a 500kg slab of granite fell on her, having dislodged itself from the 18th floor of the facade at the building they were at.
It also severed some of her husband's fingers in the process.
The city closed down the whole street for almost three months while investigations were run to make sure this could not happen again. Naturally LCN and Le Journal De Montreal issued articles where they both announced that it would be adviseable not to walk within a 50 foot radius of high rise buildings in Montreal for otherwise we would be crushed to death, by Friday.
-Various epidemics
From the HINI flu to SARS en passant by Tuberculosis, Syphilis and the good old runs, LCN and The Journal of Montreal (there) have been busting our chops all summer with contradicting articles on whether or not we would all die on Friday unless we had been inoculated by a supposed vaccine which apparently is composed primarily of spermicide.
So now we're all running around with our sleeves over our hands, not touching anything and carrying disinfectant and antibiotics everywhere we go, this in no way will contribute to actually building a superbug which would be resistant to disinfectants, vaccines and antibiotics.
No really. Most of us have something called an immune system that normally should be able to kick those microbes complexive asses, and for those of us who don't, you know who you are and indeed, you should take precautions but for Christ's sake, leave every one else alone.
-Russian submarines
Yep, on a slow news day all newschannels and papers picked up the news that Russian subs were maneuvering off the coast of Nova Scotia, possible preparing a strike.
A strike against what? The Canadian army? What would they need submarines for in that case? Seriously, if the Russians wanted to invade Canada they could just walk in with some of their (seriously) hot women
and quite honestly if they provide us with that caliber of women, I think we should let them have the damn country, maybe they could do something about the road systems and our overall morale.
-Supercolliders
Apparently a failure in CERN's Hadron Collider this last spring is the only thing that saved humanity and indeed the earth itself for you see, this thing apparently creates BLACK FUCKING HOLES and I don't mean the kind you can find in Looney Tunes, the real, huge, solar system eating kind.
They are due to switch it back on this Friday...
-Bears.
Recently on a quiet news day, a report came out that a lady, somewhere out in a remote area of Quebec, had been mauled by a bear while her husband had been severely injured while trying to save her.
Naturally channels like LCN have jumped on this and subsequent to that, Le Journal De Montreal made it's cover page about bears in our backyards and how dangerous they were, they also made it very clear that we were all doomed to be mauled by bears, in our backyards, by Friday.
-Crooked investment advisers.
In the last few years a witch hunt has literally gone down, where everyone who has ever invested, and lost, even a single penny, has succesfully sued and won, against their financial adviser.
So now, after a month-long search for this guy above, LCN and The Journal de Montreal have been running long winded articles about how financial advisers were going to get us all killed by taking our moneys, and forcing us to live on the street and starve to death, by Friday.
-Street gangs
Possibly the only real threat in terms of percentage in this list, street gangs first came to LCN and Le Journal De Montreal's attention about two years ago when a white police woman shot and killed a latino teenager in a ghettofied area of Montreal North.
So now, yearly on the anniversary of that shooting, both LCN and the Journal de Montreal make it a point to remind us to stay home that night as if we go out, we might get shot and killed by police women, unless of course we're white in which case they will only give us a ticket for driving while talking on our cell phones, of course this usually occurs on Friday.
-Cell phones
Speaking of cell phones, the leading cause (not) of car accidents in Montreal apparently is cell phones while driving, never mind the kids acting like douchebags on the back seat of cars, or the parents looking behind them on the seats rather than at the road ahead, never mind the pityful state of the roads, the deficient signals, inapt drivers, elders at the wheel and teenage wannabe hip-hoppers in those impossibly low Honda Civics and Volkswagon Golfs.
I'm not posting a photo of a cell phone because frankly if you've never seen one, you probably aren't reading this on the Interwebs.
In either case, both LCN and Le Journal de Montreal have issued several warnings about cell phones, how if they don't kill us by this Friday by having a cell phone driver hit us all, they will certainly kill us within the next 25-50 years by giving us brain cancer.
-Falling bricks
Almost three months ago, a really unlucky woman was sitting on a restaurant terrace, on seats that apparently SHE requested, enjoying lunch with her husband on their wedding anniversary I think, when a 500kg slab of granite fell on her, having dislodged itself from the 18th floor of the facade at the building they were at.
It also severed some of her husband's fingers in the process.
The city closed down the whole street for almost three months while investigations were run to make sure this could not happen again. Naturally LCN and Le Journal De Montreal issued articles where they both announced that it would be adviseable not to walk within a 50 foot radius of high rise buildings in Montreal for otherwise we would be crushed to death, by Friday.
-Various epidemics
From the HINI flu to SARS en passant by Tuberculosis, Syphilis and the good old runs, LCN and The Journal of Montreal (there) have been busting our chops all summer with contradicting articles on whether or not we would all die on Friday unless we had been inoculated by a supposed vaccine which apparently is composed primarily of spermicide.
So now we're all running around with our sleeves over our hands, not touching anything and carrying disinfectant and antibiotics everywhere we go, this in no way will contribute to actually building a superbug which would be resistant to disinfectants, vaccines and antibiotics.
No really. Most of us have something called an immune system that normally should be able to kick those microbes complexive asses, and for those of us who don't, you know who you are and indeed, you should take precautions but for Christ's sake, leave every one else alone.
-Russian submarines
Yep, on a slow news day all newschannels and papers picked up the news that Russian subs were maneuvering off the coast of Nova Scotia, possible preparing a strike.
A strike against what? The Canadian army? What would they need submarines for in that case? Seriously, if the Russians wanted to invade Canada they could just walk in with some of their (seriously) hot women
and quite honestly if they provide us with that caliber of women, I think we should let them have the damn country, maybe they could do something about the road systems and our overall morale.
-Supercolliders
Apparently a failure in CERN's Hadron Collider this last spring is the only thing that saved humanity and indeed the earth itself for you see, this thing apparently creates BLACK FUCKING HOLES and I don't mean the kind you can find in Looney Tunes, the real, huge, solar system eating kind.
They are due to switch it back on this Friday...
Monday, September 7, 2009
Why the guilt?
Right now, I should be finishing up a song I have been working on. I spent part of the morning yesterday adjusting the ASIO settings on my PC/keyboard combo and now I have very little latency, to the point where I can actually play live into a recording and it will actually be recorded on time.
Earlier though, my beloved wife started giving me a hard time simply because I had been playing for the last part of the afternoon, I complied with her requests, going out for a drive and some ice cream after lunch. After we got back, I simply wanted to play some music a bit.
I shouldn't have to feel guilty about playing. I love playing music, in the last six months or so I leaped forwards in my guitar playing, reaching a level of proficiency that is tenfold what I could do just last Christmas. I can now say to people: "I can play the guitar".
An interesting side effect to this has been that I've also learned the bass somewhat. It's not perfect and I won't start bragging about it just yet. On the other hand, I can groove, slap and pluck to most songs. It's fun.
Now, I've managed to get my PS3 Rockband drums connected as a MIDI device to my PC and I've been using them to enter drum tracks. As I was playing earlier it occurred to me that I can now play;
The keyboard (piano and synthesizer)
The electric guitar, I'm not a virtuoso but I can play
The bass, ok
The drums
Here's a little example:
http://www.gtss.info/fame_is_free.mp3
Also, I can sing a tune or two. Damn, I wish I were 15 years younger.
Earlier though, my beloved wife started giving me a hard time simply because I had been playing for the last part of the afternoon, I complied with her requests, going out for a drive and some ice cream after lunch. After we got back, I simply wanted to play some music a bit.
I shouldn't have to feel guilty about playing. I love playing music, in the last six months or so I leaped forwards in my guitar playing, reaching a level of proficiency that is tenfold what I could do just last Christmas. I can now say to people: "I can play the guitar".
An interesting side effect to this has been that I've also learned the bass somewhat. It's not perfect and I won't start bragging about it just yet. On the other hand, I can groove, slap and pluck to most songs. It's fun.
Now, I've managed to get my PS3 Rockband drums connected as a MIDI device to my PC and I've been using them to enter drum tracks. As I was playing earlier it occurred to me that I can now play;
The keyboard (piano and synthesizer)
The electric guitar, I'm not a virtuoso but I can play
The bass, ok
The drums
Here's a little example:
http://www.gtss.info/fame_is_free.mp3
Also, I can sing a tune or two. Damn, I wish I were 15 years younger.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Cuba, their road-system and the tarantulas.
I recently went on a week's vacation to Cuba. The tropical weather, abundant flora and fauna, as well as its friendly people contribute to make this a great place to vacation.
Too bad the United States, and their douchebaggery, are preventing this country from being "all it can be" for the time being.
While I was there I saw a bunch of things I'd never seen before, tarantulas for instance, there are plenty. Here in Quebec we have squirrels, chip-monks, seagulls.
Over there they have iguanas, tarantulas and hummingbirds.
I'm not very fond of the tarantulas, yes, I know, they're harmless and will only bite if attacked, and their bite is not lethal like lots of people think.
They are not to be confused with black widow spiders, some of which can be found as near as Ontario. Black widows are tiny black spiders with a red mark on their backs.
Tarantulas are huge, and vary in color. The ones we saw were all black, and huge.
Fucking huge.
If you've never seen a real tarantula up close, imagine the biggest spider you've ever seen, then make it bigger. No. Even bigger than that. Bigger...
Bigger.
I saw two, one touched me (yuck!) on the leg and ran away, but it was a baby, only about as big as a hockey puck. The one that came close to my daughter was even bigger. At first we all thought it was a crab. Yes, a crab. That's how big it was.
Luckily I had had a nice share of local vitamins (rum) and I could handle it. I'd hate to run into one of those, in close quarters, when sober...
Both encounters happened at night, and outdoors. We heard other visitors of the resort we stayed at telling one another that they had a huge spider in their room and they had to call the front desk for them to come and usher the spider out, and that apparently they showed up with a broom, and did just that; ushered the spider out.
Well what else would you do? I suppose to them, who are used to it, having a tarantula in the house is akin to us having a squirrel.
Still, I was disgusted. Other than that we had a wonderful time, the beach was incredible, the water was of the most incredible blue, the sand white.
Awesome.
Also the road system in Cuba is interesting, it's not very modern, if fact, it reminded me of the road system in Italy when I left back in 1979, only older, and with less asphalt.
There are also plenty of Suzuki trucks, mostly Vitaras, which is their version of the Sidekick, and Jimnys. I'd buy a Jimny if it were available here. Consider it a more friendly version of the Sidekick, more rounded, probably with a bigger engine, the one I saw had a 2.0l Diesel engine.
There were also lots of classic American cars, some of which in such impeccable condition that when inevitably, the US borders are reopened to Cuba, and vice-versa, Americans will flock in to buy them. They looked brand new.
Also they had roundabouts. They are practical and would work great in Quebec if the transport minister was smart enough to develop them. Instead of pulling stops at each corner we'd have limited corners and a couple of roundabouts.
But not like the failed one in Vaudreuil which is way too tight to be of any use. Some decent size ones where trucks can turn, not just bicycles...
Too bad the United States, and their douchebaggery, are preventing this country from being "all it can be" for the time being.
While I was there I saw a bunch of things I'd never seen before, tarantulas for instance, there are plenty. Here in Quebec we have squirrels, chip-monks, seagulls.
Over there they have iguanas, tarantulas and hummingbirds.
I'm not very fond of the tarantulas, yes, I know, they're harmless and will only bite if attacked, and their bite is not lethal like lots of people think.
They are not to be confused with black widow spiders, some of which can be found as near as Ontario. Black widows are tiny black spiders with a red mark on their backs.
Tarantulas are huge, and vary in color. The ones we saw were all black, and huge.
Fucking huge.
If you've never seen a real tarantula up close, imagine the biggest spider you've ever seen, then make it bigger. No. Even bigger than that. Bigger...
Bigger.
I saw two, one touched me (yuck!) on the leg and ran away, but it was a baby, only about as big as a hockey puck. The one that came close to my daughter was even bigger. At first we all thought it was a crab. Yes, a crab. That's how big it was.
Luckily I had had a nice share of local vitamins (rum) and I could handle it. I'd hate to run into one of those, in close quarters, when sober...
Both encounters happened at night, and outdoors. We heard other visitors of the resort we stayed at telling one another that they had a huge spider in their room and they had to call the front desk for them to come and usher the spider out, and that apparently they showed up with a broom, and did just that; ushered the spider out.
Well what else would you do? I suppose to them, who are used to it, having a tarantula in the house is akin to us having a squirrel.
Still, I was disgusted. Other than that we had a wonderful time, the beach was incredible, the water was of the most incredible blue, the sand white.
Awesome.
Also the road system in Cuba is interesting, it's not very modern, if fact, it reminded me of the road system in Italy when I left back in 1979, only older, and with less asphalt.
There are also plenty of Suzuki trucks, mostly Vitaras, which is their version of the Sidekick, and Jimnys. I'd buy a Jimny if it were available here. Consider it a more friendly version of the Sidekick, more rounded, probably with a bigger engine, the one I saw had a 2.0l Diesel engine.
There were also lots of classic American cars, some of which in such impeccable condition that when inevitably, the US borders are reopened to Cuba, and vice-versa, Americans will flock in to buy them. They looked brand new.
Also they had roundabouts. They are practical and would work great in Quebec if the transport minister was smart enough to develop them. Instead of pulling stops at each corner we'd have limited corners and a couple of roundabouts.
But not like the failed one in Vaudreuil which is way too tight to be of any use. Some decent size ones where trucks can turn, not just bicycles...
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