The Loonie & Colbert

"Canada was founded by a duck, a beaver & a moose. That... that's known." - Steven Colbert (1:28 into the linked clip)

The Loon closes higher than the US dollar... Steven Colbert puts Canada in his cross hairs.

Kenyan Sets Canadian Record in Marathon

I saw this coming. Of course.

"set the fastest time ever run on Canadian soil as he won the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Sunday.

Kelai's time of 2 hours 9 minutes 30 seconds knocked 25 seconds off the Canadian open mark set at the 1976 Montreal Olympics by East Germany's Waldmar Cierpinski." - Globe & Mail

/As an aside, Waldmar is accused of enhancement drugs as prescribed by the East German sports authority. It seems that 2nd place in 1976 is attempting to be awarded the gold medal.

Civic Election

Medicine Hat has 5 mayoral candidates to choose from this civic election. The three front runners for Mayor (no incumbent running) have all responded to DM's offer over at medhatblog.

Submit your platform, and respond to the questions raised by the 17,000 viewers of the blog. That is a lot of traffic. Specific traffic too, as an aside, the blog should probably be monetized, but that is just me. Skeet & DM must know better, but i doubt it. ;)

Norm Boucher was the first candidate to take up DM's offer;

Norm Boucher gives his platform
The back and forth has been good, and vote for him or not as a candidate, he has taken the time to answer questions, even the hard ones.

The second candidate was past City mayor Ted Grimm;

Ted Grimm gives his platform
Mr Grimm seems to have missed the question and answer concept of the forum, but he has some supporters or campaigners who have taken it upon themselves to be heard. Good fun.

The third candidate is past Alderman Bill Cocks;

Bill Cocks gives his platform
This thread has just started, and so hasn't picked up post & comment steam quite yet. It also appears that there might be some technical difficulties. Kind of like when the mike doesn't work during a live forum, only not. Either way, the first comment was about the Esplanade, and it will get rolling from there.

Will the other two candidates submit to the forum, i hope they take advantage of this opportunity to speak.

Toastmasters & Jif

I attended our Toastmasters meeting today. I've been away from meetings, all summer i suppose, and it was good to get back.

I had the opportunity to serve as the Sgt. at Arms for todays meeting, and i brought the toast as well (and in my most puny, i ordered toast for lunch as well... served with a healthy helping of Jif)

/mmm Jif

Blogging Interuptus

Life may go on, but as the lack of posts demonstrate, life has not been archived here.
/meh.

Little Bells & Pepper

Heh

"...little bells... & pepper..."

Alaskan Grizzly Bear Notice.

/Thanks to popurls for the link.

Wendy's Contest Period Closed

The Wendy's Kick for a Million contest ends September 16th... that's a Sunday. Upon closer inspection, that is this Sunday, aka today. I have a total of 124 entries logged online for this contest. Not nearly enough i fear.

/This is that familiar part of addiction... the crash. :(

//And now, for the reflection... it was fun while it lasted;

August 26, 2007 - "The Baconator Made Me Do It"

September 3, 2007 - "Nine For Nine"

September 15, 2007 - "Stamps Game Today"

///Nothing left to do but wait for the phone call.

Stamps Game Today

44-22

That was the score of todays game between the Stampeders and the Riders. The game was in Calgary. Kick off was 2 o'clock. We were almost late, finding a place to park when you are only 4 of over 35,000 spectators is not easy, no matter what anyone ever says.

D.H got some great pics and digital video footage of the superfan sitting in front of us. Further proof that day-passes and alcohol should never mix. What a nutter. :)

The stadium ended up looking like a cut open watermelon. All the edges were Riders fans, the middle sections were predominantly Stamps fans, decked out in red.(maybe you had to be there, but it really did resemble a giant watermelon... for real.)

/Off to add a few more entries into my Wendy's Kick for a Million account. (i hope, i hope, i hope...)

Rocketboom & Brie

I had lunch with a couple friends this week. We met at TWIST downtown. I enjoyed (in a panini w/ pear & glaze) the most incredible brie i've tasted since spending that sunday morning in Amsterdam.

During the conversation we reminisced about Rocketboom & Amanda Congdon. It's been a long time since i talked about, let alone thought about either. When Amanda left Rocketboom, so did i, tho i didn't think to follow Amanda either. It was a different time i suppose.

i watched this episode of Rocketboom tonight. It was fun i guess. The new host is ok, i guess. What i appreciated tho, was the link and referral to see this Chris Jordans' current work; Running the Numbers. Genius... pointed too.

/i've never read about Chris Jordan before, but i'm sure i will again.

First Civic Campaign Sign Spotted

I was driving today(as an aside; i like to drive, it could have been a career choice: end aside) anyhoo, i was driving today and spotted the first Medicine Hat Civic campaign sign i have seen so far this year. The election is a month (give or take a couple days) away, and i imagine we will see many many more signs before this one is thru.

It's been a long time since we had such a full candidate card for Mayor. This will be interesting.

Top of Dunmore Hill you may have seen, like i did, a sign for Jim Ogston. Jim is no stranger to Medicine Hat's civic politics or elections, having run several times in the past. He has run a strong platform and i encourage his willingness to incite debate. Mr. Ogston, whom i've never met, is a regular contributor to the medhatblog forum, and his often well thought out comments are well worth the read.

Speaking of medhatblog, Dangermouse has availed the blog for campaign platforms, and in a quick response, mayoral candidate Norm Boucher gets right to the point.

House Ownership All Time High

Nationally & Provincially we are on the right path. The right track, as it were. This is relatively good news;

"Figures from the 2006 census, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, show that more than two-thirds - 68.4 per cent - of all Canadian households owned the place they lived in, the highest since this information was first collected in 1961." - Canada's home-ownership highest level on record: Report on Business - Globe & Mail.

This is a big reason why we do what we do; why i do what i do. - Classic Communities - Attainable Ownership.

Badonkadonk

Heh... oops.

i suggested a good friend (b.k.) by his son one of these when he turns sixteen. Seems harmless enough, and i know he is a big starwars fan.

Said friend thought i meant one of these (This is the oops part i mentioned above). i've never even heard of Trace Adkins before. ("...goin' on like Donkey Kong" - now THAT is funny)

/i had some explaining to do. It *was* good for a laugh. Semantics can be so fun.

// i can already imagine the influx in traffic i'll be getting to this page from google. Sorry folks, no pictures here, but thanks for stopping by.

NEWSCIENTIST RATATAT

Try this:

Listen to RATATAT; Brooklyn electronica & hip-hop. You can find their music on their myspace page.

Do you have that music going yet? The music itself isn't the trip, or the point. This is the point:

Now that you are listening to RATATAT (headphones preferably...) now go read the New Scientist article on "13 things that do not make sense". Yeah, this is a good little sensory overload. Maybe a bit too deep for Sunday night, or it might be exactly what the doctor ordered. What do you think?

Laughing Baby 2.0

Finally, verifiable proof that your funny bone is connected to your sense of balance!

Today

Today was not a particularly good day. I've had other days that are tough, or rough for one reason or another. Today tho, was clearly not a good day.

era Goes to the Zoo

We took era to the Zoo today. The Calgary Zoo. He loved it. And why wouldn't he?

i was excited to show him the African animals that i had seen on safari.



This is arguably closer than i have ever gotten to a lion in the wild. (The fence does wonders for one's cavalier disregard for personal safety)


Era enjoyed watching the elephants... a lot. For a long time. (Does that elephant have aluminum tipped grills?)


It's hard to argue with the boy when he likes the red panda. That is a cute beast.


The ring tail Lemur was a hit too, era likey!


Here you see dad bravely helping era sneak up on some wild game. Vicious beasts in the wild; (ducks)
What? what?


/i probably should have wore a yellow hat (implying that era is the monkey)

Nine for Nine

Every day, once a day you can kick field goals on Wendy's website. Each field goal you hit (getting consistently farther and farther away from the uprights) is worth an entry in their "Kick for a Million" contest.
I play this almost every day (i missed yesterday due to lack of computer access). Today, just moments ago, was the first time that i hit ALL NINE of the field goals (including the 50 yarder). Now, i realize this is an online game, and i further realize that i am labouring over a trite marketing campaign. But seriously, Nine for Nine... Boo-yeah! (i would so nail the real life 50 yarder for sure, now that i can account for wind direction and stuff)

You also get extra points when you Lift the Lip of your Wendy's drink. We were in Calgary this weekend (for the Zoo) and i wanted to eat at Wendy's for every meal. While i do like their menu more than most fast food shacks, i have to be brutally honest, all i could think of was getting more free entries in this addicting contest.

Is it weakness or strength?: We ate near Wendy's once, and it was all i could do to avoid going down their drive thru after dinner and buying a drink (i wasn't even thirsty) plus, i thought they might just sell me a couple dry cups, and save the actual fountain pop for someone else. Heh.