Once I Was the King of Togo

The problems with being busy are twofold with respect to this blog. First of all, it means I don't keep this quite as up to date as I'd like. Secondly, it means that I have so very little to tell from week to week. Since last time, I have seen X-Men 3 (very good, deviates from the traditional superhero formula, bound to raise some hackles), The Break-Up (funny at moments, but the fights often forgo comedy and become quite uncomfortable which in itself is something to be impressed by), and a run of Alfred Hitchcock movies which I will probably go into detail on in some other post. Steph also graduated and a bunch of us went out for dinner and to the Hose. Andrea got married and I had a lot of fun there. And so on. For the moment, here's a recap of what I've been up to...

Soccer To Me
Now as I mentioned in my most recent post, we had our first soccer game on Thursday in the rain. It seems the rain is here to stay, I have no idea how people live in Vancouver. So tiring. Anyway, with a light rain, the other team didn't all show up and so we won by default, but played a fun game anyway and came out of it 4-3. Playing in the rain, aside from slippery, was actually kind of nice in a way, because you stay cool even running around. Our game next week is at 7:00.

Kurt also organized a World Cup draft that I bought into. We drew teams. My Australian associates will be happy to know I'm representing Australia's chances at the cup and I also have Mexico, who just won their first game today. So, I'm pretty sure I'm better off than the people who drew, for example, Brazil or Germany. Or at least Togo.

Day of the Beast: Day of Dan
It was an eventful weekend of sorts this weekend. Last week was Dan's birthday... yes, on the supposed day of the beast, 6/6/06. At least, if you're in North America. In Malaysia, Chinese couples were falling over each other to get married on that day, apparently the word for six sounds like "luck" and so it was 'triple luck day' there. One church had 200 weddings. Meanwhile, here at home, people were rescheduling c-sections and doing their best to prolong labours while others were watching The Omen, a movie marketer's dream. Down in Vegas, oddsmakers cheerfully gave 100,000:1 odds that the world would survive Tuesday. Of course, there are some scholars who believe that 666 refers to Nero (not exactly beloved, but remembered for playing a fiddle as Rome burned) using Hebrew letters for numbers.

In any case, it marked the birthday of a friend of mine, whom I've often thought of as evil, Dan. We went out for his birthday on Saturday night, out to Winston's, and had a good time. I don't always get a chance to see all those people, so it was nice to catch up a little bit. And on the topic of things I have not done in a long time, we went bowling later that night at KG and I set some new records in 5-pin bowling. The first game we played I set a personal best and hit three digits. 103. The second game, a much more impressive 64.

Oilers and Hurricanes
Maybe it's just me, but it seems prophetic on a year where meterologists are calling for even more hurricane activity and economists for even higher oil prices as a result, that the two teams competing for the Stanley Cup are the Edmonton Oilers and the Carolina Hurricanes. Still, I'm happy to see my old favourite team back and after the cup. Will they win? Oh, I don't know. It's an uphill battle after losing Roloson, that's for sure, but I will be able to tell you definitely tomorrow night. You see, if the Oilers win tomorrow, they return to Carolina with the series tied, with the momentum of a two-win streak, and the confidence they've been lacking since being thwomped in the first two games. If they lose, the playoffs, effectively, are finished. My two cents.

So, that's all for now. This week, an IEEE Gold Meeting, at least two more Playoff games, recording podcast 9, and hopefully a really exciting prospect for our tenth Frank Black podcast.
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