What happens on the ice...

Vancouver Canuck foward Todd Bertuzzi was in court today and pleaded "not guilty" to assault from an incident earlier this year where he punched Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore. Good plea. He made the right one. The punch was obviously not assault. He simply sucker punched another player during a hockey game. That isn't assault. If he had done the same thing later, on the street, well then that would be assault. (And yes, I am serious.) What happens on the ice, stays on the ice.

Road rage

I was browsing through an issue of Going Places (a publication of the Canadian Automobile Association, or CAA) when I happened to notice an article about road rage. There was a short quiz to determine whether or not a person was inclined towards road rage. You were to answer a series of 19 questions. At the end of it all, if you had answered "yes" to 6 or more of the questions then you were considered an highly aggressive driver with a disposition towards road rage. I answered "yes" to all 19 of the questions.

Site feed

Hey all you tech-enabled hipsters out there in cyberland. In case you care, this site now has an XML site feed available for your convenience. Click on the Dog Blog Site Feed link, which can be found under the Other Links section (in the side bar of this webpage.)

Canadian fruit loops

Oh great. Some fruit loop jumped into the pool during an Olympic diving event, prompting a massive security crackdown. He was wearing polka-dotted stockings, clown shoes, a frilly purple tutu, and had a website address painted across his naked chest. He was Canadian. (I suppose if we can't make an impact with our athletes, then we may as well become a leader in exporting our nut jobs to the rest of the world.) AFP reported that, after his jump, the guy "stayed in the pool for several minutes before officials at the Aquatic Centre realized he was not supposed to be there and pulled him out of the water." Let me see if I have this straight. He was dressed as a ballerina, wearing clown shoes, and it took them minutes to determine that he wasn't supposed to be there? No wonder they need a security crackdown.

Credit card signature strips

Today's topic is credit cards. Or, more specificly, that little strip of paper on the back of a credit card onto which you are supposed to sign your name. Is it possible that they could make that thing any smaller? I had to sign one today, and I could barely do it. The end result was that whatever I had scrawled onto it ended up looking nothing like my usual signature. It was all scrunched up and basically looked like it was written by a three year old who was using their non-writing hand. I tried correcting it, but that made it look even worse. The funny thing is that sometimes when you use the card at a store, the clerk will look at the back of your card, to compare the signature with the one you just wrote. They usually nod and hand the card back to you, apparently satisfied that you are the right guy. As if they can tell. (I once read about a guy who used to sign "Mickey Mouse" instead of his own name, and most of the transactions went through with no problems.) Anyway, if they want to have a more accurate example of our signatures, they should make that signature strip somewhat larger because what they've got now is totally useless.

Olympic spirit

The Olympic Games have begun. Hmm. I just haven't really been into the Olympic spirit yet, which is kind of odd since I usually do enjoy watching the competition. Maybe it's because I generally prefer the winter sports to the summer ones. One thing that I've found very annoying is that if you are interested in a particular event, it is nearly impossible to get good television coverage of it. Our official Canadian telecasts jump from event to event with such rapid pace that it's impossible to get into the flow of anything. You get the end of a bicycle race. An inning or two of softball. Five minutes of badminton. And so on. And then they'll cut to an extended commercial break every few minutes. That doesn't exactly make me stay riveted to my seat. My favourite moment so far, was something that I noticed during the opening ceremonies. It was really cool to see the pride and excitement of the athletes from third-world countries. This is something I've never really noted in the past, but my visit to the Dominican Republic (in March, 2004) has opened my eyes to the kinds of conditions that some of these people come from. For someone such as an NBA player, making millions of dollars per year, the Olympics may be a nice diversion from their typical routine. But for the men and women from the poorest of countries around the world, I can only imagine how amazing it must feel for them to walk out into the stadium during the Olympic ceremonies, all dressed up and representing their countries. I was genuinely happy for them.

First lady

I was just thinking. If Hillary Clinton ever ran for president of the United States, and if by some miracle she were actually elected (help us all!)... would Bill Clinton become the First Lady?