Might as well start off with the hockey pool.
Most of you might remember back in October, atht ebeginning of the hockey season, where I went into a hockey pool with members of the Kingsway store.
Lessee...Going to go back in time here...
Oh, right. I titled it I Am A Hockey GOD! (Oh, this bodes well...)
Pulled into first place in the store hockey pool.
While Jeff has a pretty impressive selection of players, I'm just getting the goals more frequently.
At last count, with four days into the NHL season, here are the stats:
Jeff: 8 goals, 18 assists, 1 goalie win, 1 goalie tie
Me: 11 goals, 10 assists, 2 goalie wins, 1 goalie tie
(You score 2 points for a goal, 1 for a tie, 2 for a goalie win, 1 for a tie, and 4 for a shutout. Stupid Cechmanek was NOT in the net when the Kings got a shutout. No points there, dammit...)
The next guy is 11 points behind us.
Lord of the hockey pool. At least for today...
Life is good.
And now the [cough] results. There's a reason I stopped posting about it. Becuase after four days, I was definitely Archduke Shit of Fornicatialand.
At the end of the season? Seven months later? Third place. Not too bad. BUT! Look at the standings...
Jeff (my then boss): 339 goals, 472 assists, for a whopping 1317 pool points.
Me: 236 goals, 421 assists, for 1054 pool points. 263 points less than Jeff.
At least I was 140 points in front of fifth and last place Darren.
So! Playoffs! A whole new ball game.
Eight competitors in the pool. Now hailing from all over the district. And it's playoff hockey, which means that you pretty much have to figure out who's going to go all the way.
It was so tough trying to figure out which teams would make it to the end. I didn't want to pick players from teams meeting in the first round, since that would be pretty dumb, losing so many so early.
I ended up going with St. Louis almost all the way. Here's hoping...
* * *
Had a flash of the past, when Songbirds, the choir mailing list, turned into more than just random announcements.
At one point, Canton and I OWNED the list. We made it our personal battleground, using it to discredit each other. We had fun. I hope the other people reading had fun. Because we sure did.
About three years ago, really, the posting became all about the choir, and not too much silly flame wars were tolerated. It became a shell of its former self.
Recently, someone asked if knitting needles were allowed across the border (when our tour goes through Montana).
Grank replied to someone saying that it would be fun to see how to hijack a bus using only needles.
Dev shot back with a funny scenario involving him not succeeding due to the choir caugh up in the cheerleader movie Bring It On.
I came out of lurk mode with my own piece, which I will reprint in its entirety. (Note: I am the list administrator. Hence, I have no qualms about trying to go old school Songbirds...)
JAGO: Okay, Dev, we're past the border. Hand me those knitting needles. I'm going to tell Bev to take this bus east.
DEV: To the Wisconsin Processed Cheese Festival!
JAGO: No. To Stamford, Connecticut. Home of World Wrestling Entertainment.
DEV: But, Jago! Cheese!
JAGO: Sorry, Dev. I want to break into wrestling, and Wisconsin isn't going to cut it. Besides, I hate processed cheese.
DEV: Hollandaise, Indiana?
JAGO: No.
DEV: Rabbit Hash, Kentucky?
JAGO: Stop it. You're making me hungry.
CANTON: Weinerwrapzfielt, Washington?
JAGO: Shut up. You're just making up names.
DEV: How about SPAMford, Connecticut?
JAGO: Give me that! [Snatches US map, rips it in half.]
DEV: My map!
JAGO: Okay, enough goofing off. Give me the knitting needles.
DEV: But I'm making a scarf! Get someone else's.
JAGO: Canton? You don't knit! Give me those!
CANTON: No! I'm a walrus! [puts needles in mouth] Ooorf! Ooorf!
JAGO: [exasparated] Sarah? Can I borrow yours? Thanks. [goes to front of the bus]
JAGO: Bev! Take this bus to Connecticut! I'll make you a sweater.
BEV: Okey dokey.
JAGO: [storms back to seat] THERE! THAT'S how you hijack a bus with knitting needles!
DEV: Cool.
CANTON: [whispers] That's right. Interstate 3, just outside Billings. Hurry! He's scaring me!
JAGO: Canton? Why do you have that cell phone?
CANTON: [hangs up hurriedly] No reason.
JAGO: Did you just call the Montana Highway Patrol on me?
CANTON: Maybe.
JAGO: WHY! WHY would you do such a thing?
CANTON: I wanted to go to the Cheese thingy. And you were being mean to me.
JAGO: Damn you, Woo! I'll kill you!
CANTON: Oh, yeah, well why don't you shut up and go back to sleep?
JAGO: [yawns] Stupid post-hypnotic suggestions... I'll get you yet, Woo...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well, I would have gotten a lot further, if it weren't for my so-called 'friend' stabbing me in the back. With his stupid walrus tusks. After I had fallen asleep.
Man, spelling Connecticut is a lot harder than you'd think. Stupid silent C! Who silences a C?
* * *
Went to D!'s Nerd Night on Friday. It was fun, but same latecomers and some long card games gave me a rude awakening.
ME: Well, that was a good game of Wizard. Now it's only [looks at watch]5 AM!?!?! I've got a meeting at 8:30!
D!: Let's watch some Aqua Teen Hunger Force!
ME: Okay.
Four episodes later, I'm on his couch, asleep.
So I had 1.5, maybe 2 hours of sleep on Friday/Saturday. And went to work.
I came back at 6 pm, laid on my bed for a nap and woke up sixteen hours later.
* * *
On Sunday, Dev and I went to the library to watch the National Film Board's Oscar-nominated cartoons through the years.
We had a great time, starting off with the first cartoon, Richard Condie's The Big Snit, a childhood favourite of mine. And one Dev had never seen before.
During the short "Paradise" (just an awesome cartoon, with amazing animation), I heard the Zamfir song "The Lonely Shepherd" and suppressed a giggle.
Because, while, as a child, I was hugely into Zamfir, these days, that song brings up different memories.
Halfway through it, Dev leans over to me. "Where have I heard this before?"
"Kill Bill, Dev. Kill Bill."
"Riiight."
Kinda disturbing that I can never listen to Zamfir the same way since this January.
* * *
My workplace will be changing soon.
Not just because of the new manager, Stock. (Although I have an interesting story about that later on...) But because of the merger.
Circuit City will be buying up InterTan (RadioShack Canada).
What will this mean in the short run? Not much, they assure us.
In the long run, however, it might mean big box stores run by us in Canada. And it might mean a name change, since we lease it. And RS USA and CC are competitors.
On the plus side, it's virtually impossible for the company to get any more schitzophrenic. Maybe it'll lead to better stock, more of it, and more tech for the stores.
Seriously, for a store as tech-savvy as RS tries to be, we're pretty Luddite.
A UNIX operating system. No working bar code scanners. A manual physical inventory.
We're the electronics equivalent of Amish folk selling automobiles.
So, maybe this merger/buyout will be a good thing down the road.
Hopefully, I'll be long gone before any changes start happening, though...
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