Pain In My Heart II

So it appears I'm going against the grain on three popular picks, those being the Rangers, Avs, and Stars. Why?

The Rangers beat the Devils, yes, and somehow this instantly elevates them to superstar status. Ignore the fact that the Devils they beat are nowhere near the Devils of old, have no defence, and a goaltender who has not made a difference in the playoffs for years. That said, the Rangers are good, and very well could win this series. My guess is Avery will be taken care of by the Penguin muscle and, unlike round one, Lundqvist will actually face shots. Good ones.

Avs/Wings will be fun, as always. The Avs did a good job taking out the Wild against my pick, but I still view them as a team that's too old to go any further. I'd love to see a 7-game series because you know it's going to be bitter and tough, but I'll stick with the Wings "upset".

Finally, the Sharks. This is a tough one because I'm picking a team that should win entirely on their lineup and skill. I can't ignore the fact that they seem to disappear at playoff time. I don't think their troubles with Calgary were entirely their fault, I do think the Flames played well and their goaltenders showed up just about every night except the last one. The Stars looked good, but Anaheim didn't, and I can't help but think the Sharks will have the offensive firepower the Ducks did not, coupled with an actual hunger to succeed. There was no edge with Anaheim.

Long story short? The only pick I'm really confident in is Montreal taking revenge on Briere for not signing with them. Take that for what you will.

Evergreen

I recall back in my interview process for Ingram Micro I issued a small nugget of truth concerning myself, and wondered if it would be well received. It went something like this: "If there's an easy way to do something that guarantees a decent result, or a difficult and risky way to do something that might result in greatness, I'm taking the risky way." To paraphrase, utilizing the lyrical skills of the great Neil Young: "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

With that in mind, and after a full year of trying to bring the company on side, I've finally been tasked with the green initiative for Ingram Micro Canada. This includes mostly an annual campaign and a fairly large chunk of an internal direction. The whole thing is geared towards reducing costs, presumably both for us and for our customers. So I've begun the process of phone interviews with influential folks from the American offices, all of whom have been forthcoming. I've also officially launched the new campaign, featuring a rather difficult piece of machinery that should take my life over for the rest of 2008 in hopes of becoming a fairly great piece of lore.

I'll be running a virtual tradeshow later this year, free to attend, and targeting business men and women with the promise of teaching everyone how to go green with a minimal cost outlay. Focusing on the tech industry - because that's where our relationships lie - I'll also be looking to bring in external clients to present their products and services in a unique way. It's planned to be three days, cross-Canada, and with a rather exhaustive marketing plan utilizing both traditional and virtual marketing options. Keep your eyes peeled, I'm hoping all you friendly readers will plan to attend; we might even have a couple fun options for those with large numbers of referrals as attendance will be the name of the game.

Here goes nothing...

Everyone's A Loser

My favourite finale of any given year is always The Biggest Loser, I just love seeing the changes most of the people have made. I suppose it's also amusing to see the lack of changes in some of the more stubborn folks, but either way it's great to see them unveil those final few. This was a record year for 100 pound losses, and in "the season of the pound" it was, again, a single pound that separated the two at the top of the home weight loss portion of the evening. Mark, who arguably should have won the whole thing, fell a single pound short of the 130 he required to unseat Bernie as the champion.

In the end I was happy with the winner - I couldn't believe how many people, Ali included, were actually thin people when all was said and done! Ali, Mark, Roger, Dan, and Curtis were actually pretty small. It's inspiring, I hope, to many of the viewers - here's hoping they can keep it off before the "Where Are They Now" special!

1. 47.86% Ali
   
2. 45.94% Bernie
   
3. 45.26% Mark
   
4. 45.18% Roger
   
5. 43.87% Dan
   
6. 40.22% Kelly
   
7. 39.37% Curtis
   
8. 36.18% Jackie
   
9. 35.15% Jay
   
10. 31.37% Amanda
    
11. 30.96% Trent
    
12. 29.95% Mallory
    
13. 29.29% Maggie
    
14. 28.74% Bette Sue
    
15. 27.76% Neill
    
16. 25.79% Brittany
    
17. 25.20% Jenn
    
18. 20.22% Jenni
    
19. 19.55% Lynn
    

Ali
Start Weight: 234
Elim Weight: 135 (-99, 42%)
End Weight: 122 (-112, 48%)

Kelly
Start Weight: 271
Elim Weight: 178 (-93, 34%)
End Weight: 162 (-109, 40%)

Roger
Start Weight: 363
Elim Weight: 219 (-144, 40%)
End Weight: 199 (-164, 45%)

Mark
Start Weight: 285
Elim Weight: 169 (-116, 41%)
End Weight: 156 (-129, 45%)

Jay
Start Weight: 293
Elim Weight: 202 (-91, 31%)
End Weight: 190 (-103, 35%)

Brittany
Start Weight: 221
Elim Weight: 170 (-51, 23%)
End Weight: 164 (-57, 26%)

Bernie
Start Weight: 283
Elim Weight: 195 (-88, 31%)
End Weight: 153 (-130, 46%)

Trent
Start Weight: 436
Elim Weight: 349 (-87, 20%)
End Weight: 301 (-135, 31%)

Dan
Start Weight: 310
Elim Weight: 198 (-112, 36%)
End Weight: 174 (-136, 44%)

Jackie
Start Weight: 246
Elim Weight: 204 (-42, 17%)
End Weight: 157 (-89, 36%)

Maggie
Start Weight: 239
Elim Weight: 184 (-55, 23%)
End Weight: 169 (-70, 29%)

Jenn
Start Weight: 254
Elim Weight: 223 (-31, 12%)
End Weight: 190 (-64, 25%)

Bette Sue
Start Weight: 261
Elim Weight: 224 (-37, 14%)
End Weight: 186 (-75, 29%)

Amanda
Start Weight: 204
Elim Weight: 185 (-19, 9%)
End Weight: 140 (-64, 31%)

Neill
Start Weight: 317
Elim Weight: 292 (-25, 8%)
End Weight: 229 (-88, 28%)

Mallory
Start Weight: 217
Elim Weight: 204 (-13, 6%)
End Weight: 152 (-65, 30%)

Curtis
Start Weight: 381
Elim Weight: 356 (-25, 7%)
End Weight: 231 (-150, 39%)

Jenni
Start Weight: 267
Elim Weight: 260 (-7, 3%)
End Weight: 213 (-54, 20%)

Lynn
Start Weight: 409
Elim Weight: 390 (-19, 5%)
End Weight: 329 (-80, 20%)

Pain In My Heart

Tired Eyes

What an adventure of a week! I've now come down with some nasty cold or something and can barely breathe, but last week was totally worth it. My travels have brought me and my gang undue levels of attention on YouTube and it's all documented below. Keep reading after Louris, you don't want to miss the part about the Jays game..

Sunday was a Gary Louris concert at the Mod Club. Gary was my introduction to the "alt.country" music movement through his band the Jayhawks. Kip and I had met Gary's grandmother on a vacation back in our school years to Florida, and I've really enjoyed his music over the years. Craig, Paul, and myself enjoyed some frites and beer at beerbistro, found dinner at Il Gatto Nero on College, and then caught the show. We muscled our way to the front and enjoyed opening band Vetiver, who doubled as Gary's supporting band for his main set, alongside the world's most awesome pedal steel guitarist, Eric Heywood. I managed to snap this YouTube video of a performance of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" with guests The Sadies. More entertaining is this video of the same song, but in which you can see our three bald heads to the bottom right of the screen. YouTube Fame Moment #1. Craig and I also followed that song up by prompting the crowd on in a rhythmic clapping (and/or banging) for an encore, which was also caught on this video, again our heads visible on the bottom right. YouTube Fame Moment #2.

Wednesday brought Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers to town, of course, my favourite band. Craig brought his cousin Jason along this time and we hit Caffe Volo for a great Italian dinner and some fine craft brews, and actually hit beerbistro again for a follow-up beverage. From there it was over to the Horseshoe Tavern for opening band Deep in the Ninth. Finally RCPM hit the stage, Paul and I knocked back a ceremonial tequila shot, and the show was on. Just absolutely wild and tight as always, everyone had a great time and Paul and I simply worked ourselves into an unreasonable sweat, damaged our vocal chords, and busted our necks head-banging. This is not uncommon for me at an RCPM show. In fact, someone caught us banging our heads (check at the 0:20 mark for a couple bald heads) and slapped us up online. YouTube Fame Moments #3. For what it's worth I recorded a cell phone version of 'Nada'. My cell phone takes bad quality videos.

After the show we roamed out back to the tour bus and hung out with Roger Clyne and bassist Nick Scropos a bit. They're always so friendly and willing to spend time with their fans, and it was great to actually have a brief but real conversation about the weather, the tour, and the venues in Cleveland. Of course, this isn't the first time I've met the band. Sadly, by the time we were done here another 45 minutes had slipped by and we weren't on the road until after 1:30AM with a full day of work ahead. We did managed to snap this pic, though:

A little over a day later our resident friends Agnostic, House, and Cliff Coleclough had purchased me an opening day ticket to the Blue Jays vs Red Sox, a second year tradition for myself with these three gents. I swear this was by far the rowdiest Jays game I've ever been to, the rumours on the internets were true. We were seated in section 130D where the vast majority of the locals were drunken employees of Rogers. Other sections spoke of topless women, fights, and general drunken rowdiness. Our section saw girls showing their thongs, excessive chanting, angry mobs, and people you may or may not know attempting to catch popcorn in their mouths as thrown by the local drunken ladies. Add in a couple streakers and you've got something reminiscent of Exhibition Stadium bleachers circa 1980s.

Of course, I took videos. And these videos are popular, some nearing in on 1,000 views already and having taken home many "most viewed" and "most discussed" honours. Check them out here, they're entertaining! My favourite is the last one - yes, that's me with a loud raspy voice encouraging chants of "MAN RAM" (my variation of Manny Ramirez; keep listening to the end, the last MAN RAM chant picks up some far away takers), "ICE COLD BEER", and "ICE ICE BABY".