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There is one thing I am certain hasn’t changed about me - I can be absolutely cold about throwing things out. I hold almost no sentimental value in anything. I throw away mementos, photos, girlfriends, etc. I do all of these with little thought or care. I just am not the kind of person who spends much time looking back. I still care about all the things in my past, I just see no reason to keep it around. I do make an exception for a few things in my life. When something truly proves its worth in my life, I feel it has earned it’s place in my life. Below are two of the longest serving items in my possession.

This is an old Hockey Hall of Fame T-shirt that is now about 14 years old. You can barely call it a T-shirt now. It is too fragile to be worn. The material is worn so thin it is pretty much transparent. I don’t wear it because it would disintegrate into nothing if I tried to wash it. This T-shirt managed the almost impossible feat in a dudes life. It went from a T-shirt I could wear to school, to one that only got chillin’ duty, to one that was worn to bed, to being relegated to under hockey equipment! It survived all that to come back to being worn to bed! A rare accomplishment that deserves praise! Hockey Hall of Fame T-shirt, your place in my hall of fame is secure. My mom once threatened to throw it away when I was 21 years old. I threatened to burn the house down. That pretty much summed up my passion for this piece of clothing. It will spend the rest of it’s life in my closet, unless I finally decide to frame it.

Next up is Pajamas, my stuffed dog. Don’t laugh, this is for real! I have had this thing for damn near 3 decades! This is the only childhood toy I still have. Everything else has been purged through the many moves in my life. Somehow, through it all, Pajamas still gets a spot at the end of my bed on some days. He spent many years guarding the top shelf of my closet but found a new purpose at the start of 2009. My baby bulldog, Chubbs, would snuggle up to Pajamas when he was sleeping on my bed. I assumed Chubbs would just tear eat him. I guess he knew how to respect his elders! Pajamas kept me safe through many bad dreams and I guess he will be around long enough to do the same if I ever have kids!

It’s a Friday and I am tired!  I had a late hockey game last night and didn’t get much sleep.  I tried a little experiment by downing a couple of beers before the game, assuming I would play better when drunk.  This is the strategy I use for golf.  It really doesn’t translate well to hockey.  My game continues to be in the toilet.  I scored in my first game back this season but have been snake-bitten since.  At this point I am just completely out of it.  I desperately need to bag a goal to get some confidence back.  Oh well.  One more regular season game and then the playoffs.  Thankfully I am still playing effective in the defensive zone so at least I am not costing our team goals!  I am writing this post at work, which really means I am slacking a little bit.  Speaking of slacking, here are some fun stats you might enjoy…

Via: Online Schools

Oh hell yeah!  I got my geek on tonight.  I decided that it was time to mess with my awesome little aluminum MacBook that I bought last year.  I have kept things pretty stock, which is unusual for someone like me.  I figured I might as well install Windows on this bad boy.  I started by trying to use the BootCamp assistant that is built into OS X on a Mac.  When I tried to create a 30 gig partition, it failed.  I ran the disk utility and my hard drive was kicking up some issues about inconsistent file sizes and some indexing type shit like that.  Hmmm…didn’t take me long to run into my first issue!  Here is a little tip for those of you who aren’t techies - you can boot to your OS X install disk by sticking the disk in the drive and then rebooting while holding down the “C” button.  It tries to run you through the normal install process but you can just use the utilities located at the top bar.  I was able to repair my disk errors this way and I got back to creating my Windows partition.  Now, BootCamp assumed I wanted to install XP or Vista on my Mac.  What!?  We rock Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit up in here, son!  Anyways, I threw in my Windows disk and restarted.  It booted to the Windows disk and started the install.  I ran into another problem when the Windows install program didn’t want to install on the partition BootCamp created for it because apparently the file system wasn’t NTFS.  Weird.  Oh well, they give you a handy-dandy option to format right there.  I went ahead and did that and I was good to go!  The install went reasonably quickly and when the computer restarted I was taken to the Windows 7 setup stuff.  Success!  Now I ran into the issue of how to boot back to my OS X install.  I want Windows on here, but I want OS X to by my default OS.  No problem.  Just hold down the “option” key when rebooting and you can pick which install you want to run.  In OS X you can go to system pref -> startup disk and select to have your OS X install be the default boot partition.  Alright, that problem is now solved!  Now, some things are a little funky on my Windows 7 install and I am thinking some proper drivers would be nice.  So, I pop in the OS X install disk and it should install BootCamp on my Windows install and give me the ability to install the proper drivers.  No such luck!  The install disk is pissed about me running a 64 bit operating system.  Well fuck them right in the ass!  Easy solution.  Manually navigate to the drivers folder and find the BootCamp64.msi file and run that bad boy.  Things will get funky on you while the proper drivers install.  You will be prompted if some shit is OK to install, your screen my flicker and you will probably lose your wireless network connection.  Once all is done just reboot and you will be good to go.  At that point you can just run Windows Update and you should be ready to rock.  My first suggestion is to install some anti-virus software.  Remember - you aren’t running OS X right now!  Ah, the joys of being a geek.  I hope you all enjoyed your Wednesday as much as I did.

Sorry for the lack of posting frequency.  Once again, I find myself extremely busy.  Between work and my social schedule I don’t get home until around midnight every night.  Tough life, I know.  This Saturday was an event so amazing that I really felt was something to blog about.  An old friend of mine threw up a party invite on Facebook that caught me off guard.  It turns out this was his going-away party as he is headed from Toronto to Vancouver.  He is part of a group of friends I have from way back in elementary school.  Seriously, I remember being out for recess with this gang!  We somehow stayed close through our teens and even into our 20’s.  We were even groomsmen at one of the guys weddings.  As the years went on, we drifted.  It isn’t like we had a problem with each other - we just seemed to fade.  The phone calls dropped off.  We stopped trying to make plans.  Our own lives just kept us busy.  It’s amazing how life can come around through the strangest of events though.  Late in 2009 we lost one of our friends to an illness.  That was a serious slap to all of us.  Life can happen without any warning.  It’s important to make time.  Last night was just such an opportunity.  A party to celebrate a friend and wish him well in his new adventure!  Walking through the door of the apartment was a shocking experience.  A blast from the past.  Faces that got older but still looked so familiar.  Things got a little emotional as the hugs went around.  I won’t admit that men were crying, that would be a violation of the bro code.  I will say that I noticed some clear, non-alcoholic fluid flowing from some of our eyes.  The best part about the whole night was that we all just picked up right where we left off.  We had a quick little catch up session and then got right back into complaining about our favorite sports teams and making fun of each other.  I couldn’t have designed a more perfect evening.  We all have very different lives and are in very different places.  But once in a while we can have a beer and be exactly the same as when we were young.  We just get to enjoy timeless friendships.  Awesome!

This pic is from about 10 years ago.  George is on the left and is headed to Vancouver.  James is in the red shirt and lives in Brampton.  Big John in back is living in Kitchener with his wife and kid.  Ben is on the right and is no longer with us.  Yours truly is in the middle.  Hopefully I can get some pics from last night and show you all of us in 2010.

Last Friday I went out to a bar with my new co-workers.  This was an exciting thing for me, as I almost never got to do that at previous jobs.  So, we all went out to a pub that is their regular spot.  It turned out to be one helluva evening.  Things definitely cranked up when a “stuntman” challenge was issued to me.  Apparently this is part of my initiation into this company.  Now, I agreed to this with absolutely no idea as to what a stuntman is.  A couple of people demonstrated this shot for me and my first reaction was to tell them to go fuck themselves and walk out the door.  I reconsidered and decided to give it a go.  Below is what it involves.  It starts with a standard tequila shot.  Things get crazy after that.

Step 1:  Setup a line of salt and snort it.  That’s right.  Don’t lick.  SNORT.  Right up in your nose.  Sounds nuts?  It is!  It burns through your sinuses as if it was drain cleaner.

Step 2:  TEQUILA!  This part is pretty straight forward.  You down your shot of tequila.  This was the only standard part of this operation.  Having just snorted the salt, you lose all sense of smell.  So it actually makes the shot pretty painless.  Things go downhill from here.

Step 3: Now, this is where your average alcoholic would bite that lemon wedge to kill that tequila taste.  Your average stuntman has another way of dealing with it.  You squeeze that piece of citrus fruit right into your eye!  I shit you not.  Right into your damn eye!  After doing that, you almost completely forget about having had anything to drink.  All you have is a burning eye and a hole in your sinuses.

**Optional 4th step involves either getting slapped in the face by your waitress or having someone punch you.  I’m not even kidding about that.  Seriously, look at steps 1 and 3, are you surprised?

So there you have it.  The Stuntman.  I can say very proudly that I survived it.  Not only survived, I thrived!  I went on to drink more pints than I can count and I barely remember the end of the night.  I crashed at someones place that night and woke up without much memory.  Thankfully, I remember the stuntman.  My only regret is that we weren’t able to get a shot of me doing it.  Since I am a glutton for punishment, I am sure that opportunity will present itself in the near future.

These pics have been making there way around the interwebs recently.  It isn’t unusual to catch celebrity couples around town.  Sometimes, these shots catch someone wearing a new engagement ring.  It is rare to actually catch the moment when a celebrity couple gets engaged.  That’s exactly what happened recently for NHL hockey player Mike Comrie and superstar Hilary Duff.  We really get to see the three major points of this event.  Let’s run through the play by play…

The Moment:  This is where all preparation and training pay off.  Mike gets down on one knee and asks Hilary Duff to marry him.  Mike is a pro athlete, so he isn’t afraid to get down and dirty (neither is Hilary, as you will soon see).  His old school approach seems to work as Hilary looks pretty excited.

The Brag:  Success!  She definitely said yes.  It certainly helped Mike’s cause that he was able to afford a million dollar ring to put on her finger.  Now this is where Hilary gets into the play.  She has been waiting for this moment for a long time.  Now she has to show off to her crowd of family and friends by taking a pic of the ring and texting it over to everyone.

The Reward:  When Mike scored a big goal in hockey, he had the crowd rise to it’s feet and the coach would give him a pat on the back.  Call me crazy, I think this reward might be a little better.  Hilary proves she isn’t afraid to get down and dirty (told you!) as she rewards Mike for his solid play.  Judging by Mike’s expression, he couldn’t be happier with the result!

Thank god Friday is here!  This has been my first week back in reality and I am desperate for the weekend.  I need to make this clear - I love my new job!  My co-workers are awesome and the work itself is fun.  It has just been tough adjusting to a normal schedule.  I have also been very busy with my social life.  Big problem, I know!  I need some “Mike” time.  A day that I dedicate to relaxing.  Maybe next week.  Tonight I had a hockey game.  Hockey has been a frustrating experience for quite a while.  I was never great at it.  As a younger man, my greatest skill came with my ability to hit people in open ice.  I would consider that a skill as it takes some serious timing.  Before I took a couple of years off, I was the kind of guy who scored goals.  I knew that if I got the puck that there was a good chance it was going in the net.  I was so confident in my abilities.  These days I have crawled into some kind of shell that I just can’t bust out of.  I seem to get more hesitant with each game.  I am so screwed up that my body just freaks out when I am near the puck.  I know I need to just slow things down and take the puck and take my time and look for opportunities.  Knowing and doing and very different things.  Amazing what confidence can do!  I have it in all other aspects of my life.  None on the ice anymore.  I am thinking I should get drunk before my next game.  I am always a little more ballsy when I have had a few.  Let’s see what happens!  Happy Friday everyone.  If you are in Canada then I know what you will be watching tonight  As usual, here is an SMBC comic that has nothing to do with anything.

One day in and I already miss life as a bum.  For the first time since December of 2008, I am back in the ranks of the working class.  I actually had an excellent day at the office.  Everyone was very nice and it seems like it will be a fun group to be around.  I will get to satisfy my geeky nature while I continue to pursue my ultimate goal of being a firefighter.  It really is the perfect situation.  Hell, my new boss even bought me lunch today!  Not bad at all.  Everything was great right up until 5:30 when I left the office.  In case you don’t live in Toronto, we got hit with a bit of a snow storm.  This wasn’t exactly unexpected, it was on pretty much every weather report you could find.  Somehow this managed to cripple the commute home.  my hour long drive took 2.5 hours to get home!  I needed over an hour and a half just to get to the highway.  On my drive I saw people in ditches, people who had smashed into each other and people who almost ran over pedestrians.  Seriously, we live in freakin’ Canada.  This is freakin’ February.  Why the fuck are we so unprepared for this?!?!?!  It’s snow.  You have seen it before!  Make your dumb ass familiar with it’s properties and it’s affect on your vehicle.  This will come up again in the near future.  Unless you have the memory retention of an eggplant this knowledge will be applicable repeatedly.  Just a tip from your favorite smart-ass!  Now, as is tradition, a web comic that has nothing to do with anything I just talked about.  This is just about how awesome engineers are.  Enjoy!

I have blogged a lot about the differences between men and women.  Usually I keep the discussion about boobs but every rare once in a while I go a little deeper.  I think women get bad advice when it comes to guys.  The main problem is they usually rely on other women to feed them info.  That’s like the blind leading the blind!  Women can’t tell you how a man thinks.  I read some of the advice given and it makes me cringe.  There is so much subtlety in the way women think and act that we, as men, really have no idea what’s going on.  Women - you operate on some deep levels.  We are impressed.  You have so many layers that it’s amazing you actually want to spend your time with us.  I once actually read a column that suggested a woman ask her man what’s going through his mind when he is gazing dreamily into the distance.  Are you fucking insane!?  Let me tell you what we are thinking: Nothing!  Seriously, we have absolutely nothing going on at this time and we enjoy that.  It’s why we are looking at the wall.  When a woman asks us about our feelings at this time we panic.  CRAP!  What am I supposed to say?  If I tell the truth and admit to thinking about nothing then she won’t believe it and assume I am breaking up with her.  If I come up with something quickly then I wouldn’t have scanned it for any chance it can be related to her weight.  Fuck!  The clock is ticking and she is still waiting for an answer!  Maybe if I jump out off the balcony then it will cause a change in subject.  Hopefully, I proved my point there.  Not all the advice you get about how to deal with men is quality.  If you want to know how a guy would react then just go out and ask a dude.  Although, make sure it is a guy you know.  If you ask some random guy then he will instantly assume you want to have sex with him and he will tell you whatever he thinks is the fastest route to your vagina.  I got the below images from CoolMaterial.  It’s an awesome site geared towards dudes.  These are what women’s magazines would look like if a guy wrote them.  Funny, but very true!

Alright, I know I am extremely late to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day.  I figure that if you have someone you love then you were probably busy spending time with them, so you really shouldn’t have been checking out my blog.  If you were alone then you probably didn’t want me reminding your lonely ass about the empty life you live.  I spent Valentine’s evening drinking with some friends at a bar downtown Toronto.  Things got a little hazy and I ended up in some persons living room wearing pants that didn’t belong to me.  Weird.  Well, weird for anyone but me.  Sadly, this kind of thing seems to happen fairly often for me!  I spent all of the holiday Monday recovering from the damage I did to my liver.  This week is all about trying to get back into some form of routine.  School is done.  My vacation is over.  It is time to get back to reality.  I recently accepted a job offer with a tech company in Toronto.  I start my job on Monday.  This will be my career until I get on with a fire department in the area.  I am pretty excited about making money again.  I haven’t done that since 2008!  That pretty much gets you up to date on my world.  Here are two Valentine’s Day related funnies that I think you will enjoy.  The first is from FailBlog and features a bunch of wedding proposals that are…well…complete fails!  When asking someone to marry you in front of a large group of people I would think you should make sure beforehand that the answer would be a yes.  After that you get the Valentine’s Day comic from XKCD.  God I love geek humor!  Since I am largely abusive to you, my faithful blog readers, I think today I should be nice.  I actually love you all….except Kevin Gray.  I hate you Kevin.  I hate you with every muscle in my elegant, brown body!