Today marks the 1st day of snow. On that note, just a reminder that the US election is coming up. I think based on the fact that Obama is younger and will live long enough to regret and/or own up to the mistakes he makes over the next four years, he should be the one in office. He will have a more invested interest than somebody who won’t be around long after his presidency ends. Am I joking or not? Who know?
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Cheap Gas!
I bought gas at 93 cents today. And with my gas card I worked it down to 88 cents! Long live the recession!
Benchmark set
In 2006, I won the fantasy football pool. Still trying so hard to win the baseball pool, but that’s a different story. It’s clear to me that I’m a little better judge of football talent as it pertains to fantasy. Correction, I think I’m better in a dynasty environment were I can pluck out the talent early and balance it accordingly. I can’t wait until the baseball pool evolves into dynasty.
Oh yes, fantasy – a geek’s closest shot at managing a sport’s franchise. But hey, it’s fun, competitive and rewarding when one is successful.
Anyway, since 2006 I’ve had to retool my team by phasing out or trading off older talent that still has value and in return receiving young talent with upside that still has some current day value. It’s a hard task to not sacrifice too much of today to insure your team will be competitive down the road. I see too many owners in my league constantly tooling for the future at the expense of never having that team that will win in the now. After all, winning today is what really matters. What’s the point of always having that potential team that never achieves victory?
In 2007 I came OH so close to defending my title. A matter of mismanagement more than anything else. But the mismanagement comes from the fact that I had to make so many right decisions to squeak out the tight wins. My team simply wasn’t strong. A question of having too much young talent and not quite enough consistency to win.
This year is different. I have a great balance of youth and experience. And it is paying off. I am 1st overall at the halfway point. I know how precarious that can be, but for a single point in time I can say I’ve gone to places never before. Even though I won in 2006 and was close in 2007, I was never in the top 5 or 6 in the standings throughout the season. An underdog as you will. This year I am top dog and I got there last weekend by achieving something I’ve never done: top the century mark in points. Good thing too considering my opponent posted a healthy 73.5 which would win 95% of the time:
Now, always thinking about the future, I have a subtle weakness that I want to resolve: I have 2 WRs on the same team: Holmes and Ward. It is a weekly agonizing task to figure out which of the 2 to play on any given week. It is virtually impossible to determine who is going to perform better than the other as they are fairly equal.
It makes sense to peddle Ward on the market to a team contending for the championship this year. He is 10 years into his career and won’t really be part of anybody’s rebuilding effort. Therefore I would only get the most value out of somebody who appreciates his worth to help them TODAY. I have found one such candidate who not only is contending this year but is a HUGE Steelers fan. In return he has offered me Anthony Gonzalez (2nd year WR out of INDY) and a 2nd round draft pick. In my dynasty rankings I have Ward and Gonzalez virtually the same in value at this point in time. So on the surface the trade seems pretty good. Gonzo is a #3 reciever right now but if/when Harrisson goes bye-bye that will change since Manning believes in this young talent. This would certainly help my rebuilding at the minor expense of weakening my current WR strength. But the problem is that as a Steelers fan, he should be willing to give up more for the #1 WR and heart and soul of that team. A 2nd round pick is not that lucrative especially if he wins this season and ranks last in the draft order.
What I’m trying to get in addition into the deal is Brady Quinn for Vince Young. I have the volatile Young who just doesn’t project well. Quinn is a prototypical fantasy-type passing QB that is on the verge of coming out once the Derek Anderson experiment is over in Cleveland. I need to get this player from him now before he starts and the owner realizes his potential. I want to take that risk on. Unfortunately the owner is not interested in this part of the deal. But if he gets desperate enough I think I can work it. This weekend he is in tough and will likely lose. I will likely win especially if I can keep Ward for this weekend’s matchup. So my plan is to respond after the weekend and hit him up when is in a somewhat more desperate situation. Quinn is the man that will make this deal slightly more favourable in my direction albeit with some risk attached. But that is what needs to be done to be successful.
Here’s hoping.
James reborn?
My brother Luc just informed me that James has a new album on the market. Time to skip out and check it out! More to come on that one.
What troubles me slightly is that I had no idea they were producing again. What has happened to me?
On TV!
A couple of weeks ago when I was on leave from work, Sonia, Christien and I went to the Bay to pick up some baby clothes. When it came time to pay, the closest sales desk was too busy for me. So, we walked over to the main sales desk to pay for our merchandise.
Lo and behold there was a CTV camera there doing some filming of the store. As we were about to pay we were approached by the host of CTV ProvinceWide to do an interview on the Bay going ‘green’. In particular, the Bay’s encouragement to use re-usable cloth bags instead of plastic.
Reluctantly, since we were not at our best with a 7 day old child, lack of sleep and general concern for our appearance, we agreed to be filmed and I also agreed to be briefly interviewed about my thoughts of the Bay going green and the general ‘green-ness’ of other stores.
I was as bland as could be and gave the standard cookie cutter responses instead of jumping on my soapbox and putting to light the cost (environmentally) of the Bay creating all of these cloth bags in lieu of plastic and how their solution is only moderately green. Yadayadayada.
I’ll see if I can post the video on the site as soon as I can.
But, THE coolest part of this is that I convinced the camera guy to grab some footage of Christien. And then he USED it in the article. Christien was on province-wide TV only 7 days into his life. And not only that, I found out last week that the clip was promoted to Canada AM and thus he was on NATIONAL TV only 7 days into his life. How cool is that?
The show aired recently (2 Sundays ago) and I’ll see if I can post the video here.
Breaking up is hard to do
I have been a Good Life member for over 10 years. I became a member just after graduating university. The only thing that mattered then was finding something cheap. The club was a perfect match for me and for every other grad as witnessed by the age group of the crowd that goes there.
Time passed and I got comfortable going to that club. I grew up with those grads and watched new youngsters joining the gym. I thought the equipment was great, plentiful and modern.
Then, the closest branch closed down on Columbia Street. The owner of the building is converting it to office space. Can’t blame them because this area is becoming quite lucrative for office space and real-estate to build 5 story student ghettos. Chris my friend, I wonder what your old property would be worth today? You’ll be happy to know that the house still stands there like an old 18th century church surrounded by imposing city-scrapers. Must be some wild-assed voodoo going on there.
When the branch closed, there was a solemn oath that was pledged by the company that a new, improved, and state of the art facility would be ready on Weber/Columbia just down the road. 2 months have passed and we’re being directed to the WLU gym to sweat it out with a million other acne-faced goobers. Nothing will be ready until at least January.
Well, I was sad. Even with having a baby I still would have time to hit the gym and there’s no way I’m going to WLU to battle for parking space and then wrestle for limited equipment with some muscle-head.
So, I poked my head into the gym across the street from work (literally) and a whole new world was opened up. I will miss you o Good Life. I will not miss you that much however. Yes, I’m paying a bit more at this new gym, but I like paying more to keep the riff-raff out and to work out in an enormous gym that is usually virtually empty when I go. Those who are there are usually mouse-slinging desk jockey types who are there to do their business and go home, not strut around and ruffle their feathers like a peacock. The facility including the change rooms are very modern, relaxing (lounge with HiDef TVs) and immaculately clean. The equipment is ultra-modern and always in working order. I really didn’t know it could be this way.
Yes, there’s a time and a place for a Good Life membership. But then there’s another time and a place for a step or two above. Man, I must be getting old.
The geo-political state of the world
Here we stand on the brink of a Brave New World:
-we have a minority PC government again when we’re in a time where a majority leadership (I don’t really care who) is needed to make some tough decisions coming up.
-we have a mortgage breakdown that’s crippling the economy but nobody seems to be too worried
-we have an oil shortage. What’s left in the world resides mainly in Canada and Russia….satellite ‘countries’ that are soon to be Russia
-we have a water shortage. What’s left in the world resides mainly in Canada nad Russia
-we have a food shortage. The major suppliers are Canada and Russia
-we have 2 greedy powerhouse nations in the world: one in decline (USA) and one hurtling forward too fast to control (China)
-there is a US election soon to happen where one party has a minority visionary and the other party has a geriatric timebomb alongside a ‘grassroots’ uneducated vice president who says “y’all”, thinks they know the enemy (Russia) because she lived next door, who wears gucci high heels and hunts large mammals for recreation.
We are in for one hell of a ride!