Hearing the call

"Golf is the cruelest game, because eventually it will drag you out in front of the whole school, take your lunch money and slap you around."

- Rick Reilly

After years of working in the white-collar corporate world, I have heard many a conversation about individuals hijinx on the golf course. So far I have resisted the urge to adopt this obsession. But now I'm starting to question this resistance. I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing out on something. So, I've decided to take the plunge.

I'm going to take up golf this year.

If I'm going to to this, I'd better do it right. I've heard that if you start, and start wrong, you can become deeply engrained in bad habits. A bad tick in your swing can become a permanent bad habit. So, luckily for me, I live close to two golf courses. I notice one has a newbie "Learn To Golf" class, four one-our sessions in March. I'm as good as signed-up. So we'll see how this goes.

After I'm cut loose by this learn to golf thing, LOOK OUT!

Addictive like crack, but free

Not very often does a show come along that totally and completely hooks me and has me helpless in its grasp. I was recently told to give this one show a chance, just watch the first episode and see what you think. This person was a 220 pound whole-lotta-woman knick-named "Jabba", so I chose to obey this directive.

The show is called "Heroes".

After watching the first episode, I was thinking that this show is a total breath of fresh air! Here's what makes it totally different from your typical primetime serial:

• It does not take place in a hospital, it is not a medical drama


• It resembles the "fantasy", or "sci-fi" genre, but not overly so


• There are two ethnic characters, a guy from India, two dudes from Japan, who are not stereotyped in any way by the writers


• The story writers boot you in the ass every few episodes with totally surprising plot twists


• There is reference to this land called "Canada", yes this series is an American series

So, if you're looking for a new show to try, give this one a shot! What I would do is go to bittorrent and download episodes 1 thru 17. The torrents should be pretty good as its really gaining popularity.

The show airs Mondays on NBC.

The 51st State of the Union?

Today, another bomb ripped through some Baghdad buildings killing another 90 people. When I read this, I was a little desensitised to it. 90 people. Not too bad. At least its not a three digit number.

So, are you like me? Are you forgetting what's causing all these deaths? It just seems like people are dropping like flies over there, and I don't have a clue why. I know that the U.S. originally went over to nab Saddam, which is done. So why are they still over there? Their death toll is still climbing - 3,116 as of Sunday when another soldier died. When is Iraq considered "Mission Accomplished".

Here's a thought that came to mind after reading about the carnage:

Since they do not have an actual plan, with milestone dates, mitigation strategies, and stated key deliverables, why not consider Iraq officially occupied and declare it a U.S. Territory? Do like Guam. Make Iraq like Hawaii. You consider it a place of strategic importance to the U.S., you then occupy, you then put in your own government, you put in your own law enforcement, and presto, a U.S. Territory.

Heck, you might even want to declare it a state. Okay, the state thing seems a little radical, but the Territory idea has precident. Iraqi people could be like Puerto Ricans, demi-American. It just seems more honest to do things this way. The U.S. seems to be calling the shots anyway, so why not formally announce that you're calling the shots.

So my first point about the explosion, and my second point about U.S. territory, may be completely unrelated. It just seems like more people are getting blown up since the occupation, and there appears to be no end in sight.

Ah well. It seems like more people are interested in Anna Nicole than Iraq these days anyways....

298 More Sleeps...

Family Vacation 2006 was spent at Disneyworld. We went for a week last February and hoped to take in most of the sights and sounds of the Orlando area, with DisneyWorld being our #1 priority. Our conclusion? We didn't even come close. So, during the Christmas Break, we started planning for Family Vacation 2007. The verdict?

DisneyWorld.

This time, however, we're making it 2 weeks. We're going to bust it up into 1 week chunks. The first week is at a condo in Orlando, to hit Universal Studios, Seaworld, maybe venture out to Busch Gardens. The second week, we're at Disney Beach Club Resort. This means walking distance to Epcot and Disney Studios. If you've driven into DisneyWorld to park then visit the park, I think you can understand the motivation for wanting to stay at the actual on-site resort.

So, officially as of last week, everything is booked, signed, sealed and delivered. We're leaving December 1 10:00am, and coming back December 15th.

However, we're going Air Canada, and we never underestimate Air Canada's uncanny ability to turn a pleasant journey into a stressful, teeth-gnashing, attitude session.

298 more sleeps...

Impulse purchase: The Shaw PVR

SHAW PVR, the 160 GB model

First, let me get into why I bought the darn thing in the first place, 2 reasons:

(1) Fits into overall plan to gradually move to HD piece by piece.
(2) We have very limited available time slots for TV watching.

After multiple attempts with wrestling with XP Media Center, I decided to at least check out the PVR. FutureShop, at the time, had 100 bucks off this model. I scooped one up.

If you ever do end up getting one, don't bother looking for a "Quick set-up Guide" that you sometimes see when you buy a computer, or whatever. Just plug in your power, cable, video/audio out to TV, then after all this is done, do not turn on the power, hit the "menu" button and adjust your settings. Then call Shaw to have your terminal zapped.

It's super cool to be able to look at the program guide and pick off programs to record. Then, when you have a half hour to spare, you can sit down and watch what you really want to watch. Basically, it was a good purchase.

I heartily recommend.