I just wanted to break from my normal geekery to congratulate Milt Stegall, #85 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, on his shattering the all time CFL record for touchdowns. Milt, who started his CFL and only ever played for Winnipeg, showed his class by thanking his opponents for their patience during the game stopping ceremony when he finally got the record. After 5 games this year, and several last season, Milt finally found coverage he could work in against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. For the first 4 games this year, including one where his daughter and son came all the way from Atlanta to see, both the teams they played, Edmonton and Montreal, made sure Milt was double covered, preventing him from any real chance at the record breaking completion into the end zone.
Recently in Winnipeg Category
What? Spring? When? In July? Sounds about right. I was reading the newspaper this morning, and there was a sad, but interesting fact listed there. The last few days have been colder than the weather was in January of this year. All of January. Bah. I hate working outside.
Snow. It is nearly the end of March, and we still have snow. It's almost the 'official start of spring' and we still have snow on the ground. No wonder they call us Winterpeg. I know, I know, I have no room to complain, we had a very short, and reasonable winter season. We didn't get a major snow until well into the new year, and have had snow on the ground for less than 3 months in total so far. For March, that's a pretty good thing. That said, GO AWAY SNOW! Thank you for reading this environmental dictatorial presentation of GeekBlog.net.
How do i know it's winter? I am coughing like my lung s about to detach and fly across the room, which is a sure sign my Bronchitis has returned for it's annual plague upon my body. The weather is much nicer than I would expect for late January, and if we can get through February without -50 plus windchill and/or a Blizzard, I think we could be clear for this year's Winter. Although I am not trying to complain about the much warmer than normal temperatures here in Winterpeg, home of the blizzard, it does have one potential problem it raises, that of melting sculptures for the Festival Du Voyageur. No, Winnipeg is not the home of Blizzard entertainment, nor so we have a Festival of Voyeurs, at least one is definitely out in California, and you'd be more likely to find the latter there too, if it were to exist. If you'll excuse me, though, I need to find a pair of shorts to put on for a walk around the block...
Ahh, well, I mentioned a few days ago that winter had come to the city known across the great white north as Winterpeg, and now we have what is called Indian Summer. No, not a racist slur, just an age old name for a rise in temperature shortly after a deep cold in early winter. Well, it is here, and it is amazing. A lot of the snow in open areas is melting, making puddles that are likely to freeze soon into ice slicked areas for the weak kneed like myself, but for now, it's above freezing and beautiful outside. Pardon me, I am going to go enjoy the weather while it's here.
Snow. Ice. These things bring unpleasant thoughts to my mind, and now they are back. Many of you know and recall when I slipped on ice back in early February, dislocated my knee, and was off work for 6 months which included surgery and a lot of painful days. I can say without a doubt that this is a point I had hoped to avoid for a long, long time. I had hoped to be in a department at work by now as well, but that has not come to pass. I hope that this winter I fare better than the last, and that my knees stay in their proper alignment the entire winter.
In a result that surprised non of those not suffering delusions, the first person charged under the city of Winnipeg's new anti panhandling bylaw, Arthur Pierre, cannot afford to pay the fine dictated by the court. Pierre, who was ticketed for panhandling at a Graham Avenue bus stop, a no begging zone under the bi-law, is a 'Couch surfer'(Winnipeg Free Press) who is on social assistance and cannot afford the $105 fine ordered by the court. Not surprising, as it would be more than a quarter of his monthly allowance from assistance, assuming he was getting rent instead of living on the couches of family and friends. There are concerns, though, that the law doesn't properly address the problems of poverty and homelessness.
Mr. Pierre, for his side of the story, claims he was not panhandling, but waiting for a bus with change in hand when he was ticketed. He also says he was drunk at the time, and didn't figure out about the ticket until his court appearance had passed, and that police took advantage of his drunkenness by ticketing him. Wayne Helgason of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg says the law is useless, and that police would have been using more sense if they had detained the drunken man under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act. Some groups like Helgason's are trying to take the panhandling law to the highest court as a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
After months of waiting, the demolition of the old Ogilvie Mills building on Higgins finally went off this past Sunday, and I must be honest, I am unimpressed. It was quiet, uneventful, hard to see, and the after views I have seen going near the area show they didn't seem to bring much down, and what is left seems to be angled precariously, as if it could fall over at any time. They also still have the silos to bring down, which were thought to be in the original plans to bring the building down with explosives. This was definitely nothing like the Canada Packers plant demolition, which was in an open field, and easy for photographers and gawkers alike to see clearly as it came down.
The Bears on Broadway is a set of 62 concrete bears placed along Broadway, a street half a block away from my home. There are, though, two bears that are away from the main set. There is bear at Polo Park shopping center, and a bear at the Winnipeg Airport. As it stands, I have one of every bear but those two. I am pretty sure I can get to both easy enough by bus, but the airport one is particularly annoying as it's not on the way to anything I want to go to, unless someone's got a spare plane ticket to somewhere better. So, alas, before the middle of October, I must make a trip to both the airport and the mall. I will be sure to have the best of each bear up at the Bears on Broadway gallery on DWP.
The Bears are back, the Bears ar... huh? Oh. Wrong lyrics? Ok, then. There doesn't appear to be a single song that includes the arrival of long awaited bears in modern musical lyrics. Anyways, yes, the Bears on Broadway, a project more than a year in the making, has now been put into visible effect, with 60 bears lining Broadway from Main to Osborne, and running all around Memorial Park. There is also one bear at Polo Park, and one at the Winnipeg International Airport. 62 bears in all, and 61 pictures to take. I am not sure how long it will take to get them all, as I rarely go near Polo Park and rearer still the Airport, but I should be able to get the 59 displays in the downtown area fairly effortlessly. The bears, for your info, will be there until October 22nd, at which time they will go to the home appointed by each bears sponsor. Update: The gallery is up, and slowly being populated.
April may have come in like a lamb, but it has gone out like a lion, with absolutely horrible weather for several days leading up to May. Bah.
Ok, from now on, I sleep at night, not during the day. I just woke up about 45 minutes ago or so and leaned over to look at my bedside clock, only to find I couldn't see it. I reached out to see if it's face was covered, and it was not. I then listened for the radio, and all I heard was an odd muffled alarm sound. I got up, tied to turn on my light, and found it was powerless. I scrambled around the place trying to get some clothes on, and after finally succeeding, I went to the back and front of the building and found the my whole side of the street up until Broadway and the side of Hargrave across the backlane from me also had not power. I then tried to find my caretaker to take cate of the fire alarm that was having issues outside my door, and came back to wait. I just got power back. Bleh.
Ok, so this week has seen temperatures of -50 or lower with windchill, and when that wasn't going on it was snowing heavily. I am not sure which is worse, but I definitely know what I would like to be seeing outside instead. I want to be seeing green grass, beaches, and all the other lovely things about the summer months. Yes, to the uninformed, this city does actually get a summer, and it is longer than 1 week. Right now, I suspect that 2 above freezing would feel like shorts weather, but I want real temperatures, I want 20 and 30 above 0 Celsius. So, who's with me? I vote on either moving Winnipeg to Texas between mid October to last March, or sending them our weather and us getting theirs, since all they'll do is complain about drought.
Ok, I have started and wiped this post more times than I can count, many time when I was pretty much done and ready to publish. I am not sure what to post. I have not met, nor can I say I ever saw the person play, but when posters were going up around downtown a year ago, I heard many of those who new Ed Sanchez say great things, and Dizz, a fellow DJ seemed to be in shock when he was telling me this earlier. I will admit this try comes some 12 hours after my first try, but I do see that CJOB is now confirming the body found in the basement of the Village Cabaret is that of Eduardo Sanchez, who was last seen there nearly 14 months ago. The police are not saying foul play, but I am not sure how someone just crawls behind a wall, waiting to be entombed willingly.
You know how they say that the fog in London could be literally cut, it is so thick? Well, on my walk about to the place I was meting a friend tonight the fog outside was so thick that a half block away I could not see my doctor's 18 floor office building other than three lights in windows. The rest was obscured by fog. I got about 200 feet from the front door, and could barely make out the forms or windows and the lights of the pharmacy ont he first floor. I am really not joking. Any area that was not well lit, the visibility was less than a block, and I can name many places in this city that there is really bad lighting. I have honestly seen a lot of bad snow storms in this city that had better visibility, and to make it all worse, the roads are very slippery. Uggh.
Winnipeg 4, St. Paul 3. That is the score I just found out about on CJOB. I had sat down in my bedroom to listen to the ball game on that radio station, but as it is my bed, I slowly turned sitting to sleeping, and just woke up an hour or so ago. I finally caught the score, and am very happy. The Goldeyes start the Northern League Finals on Tuesday with two games in Fargo against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, and then come home again for the last three at home. I tried again to get tickets to the game, but by the time I got there they were sold out and I was unwilling to buy a $15 ticket from a scalper at the park. I had my doubt about the team, as I expressed last night, but I am happy to see them going on. Now, guys, if you do win the final, let's not wait another decade, ok?
Ahh, after last nights stunning display of fireworks coming from the ball park, even with the view from afar that I had, I didn't expect there to be any further fireworks until sometime next May, but alas tonight there was, I assume, Labour Day fireworks out of The Forks, and while it was sort of centralized in it's launch point, and it was not nearly as impressive, even at work we could hear them, and they were awesome. However I am a sucker for blowing things up in nice looking ways, so that explains much. I wish I had actually been there, but I will be happy with the view I got.
Well, for the first time in my life tonight I had Buffalo Stew, and don't let anyone tell you it tastes just like beef, it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad but it wasn't beef. It has the same wild taste that Venison(deer meat) does, and I cannot stand Venison. Now, the treat of the night was the Bannock they made. They, of course, are the excellent cooks at the Metis pavilion for folklorama, which I attended tonight with my parents and grandparents. They had good jigging, including a guy that moved so fast the video mode on my HP was unable to capture it, and some great luminaries in the audience. It was a good night overall, but I will only say that when you serve a hard shelled fruit dish, it might be advisable to offer more than a soft fork to eat it with.
Toronto had Sarstock. Winnipeg, due to the many struggling farmers over the nearly 3 month old single case of Mad Cow in AB that has allowed the US to punish Canada for it's lack of support, has been at both Sarstock and the huge barbecue at Portage and Main this lunch hours. Manitoba beef burgers were sold at the concert in Toronto headlined by the Rolling Stones, and the same will be sold for $2 including a drink, on all four corners of Winnipeg's best known intersection. The proceeds, CJOB's Charles Adler tells, goes to Winnipeg Harvest, ad it allows Manitoba's farmers to sell their cattle at decent prices, and gives them the chance to get the word out of the troubles faced by cattle producers in this province, where no Mad Cow has yet to be found. I will enjoy!
Well, my attempts to bring those reading my Fotolog a nice picture of the wicked lightning in the sky has failed miserably, and all I got for it was drenched, and a head of hair interspersed with embedded pieces of sand. You see, while I waited to get a good picture about a block away from home, only about an hour after I left work, the wind began to gust really strong and I stubbornly stuck it out. Then it got even worse, and I still did. Only after it felt like I was going to be blown over, the sand beginning to really hurt, and the distinct feeling of a hurricane or tornado bearing down on me did I move to a much better place from which to take pictures. About 5 minutes later the rain began, lightly at first as if hinting I should begin walking. Nice try!
Only after the memory was full on my camera did I pull out my umbrella and begin trotting at a fair pace home, only about 100 yards away, and I was soaked when I got inside. What did I get for it? One decent picture of discernible rain hitting the street, and about 75 wasted shots of indescribable stuff. Yeah, so it is pouring outside now, like it does for every year on the first weekend of the Red River Exhibition, and my only hope is that ti cleans the air and streets out there with the downpour. As for me, I am gonna get into dry clothes and try to pick as many embedded pieces of gravel and sand out of my scalp. Take care.
I hereby declare that the hunt for the head of Mother Nature is to begin immediately. I do not car if she is brought before me dead or alive, I just want her punished for this! Today is April 17th, and a look out my window shows it is SNOWING, which it has been doing since last night. In April! My Birthday brought back the snow. I want revenge for this act, on whatever entity has brought this cruelty forth! I, and my fellow Winterpeggers, have to put up with this crud until such time as the sun or the rain wash it away. When will the weather in this city make up it's torturous mind? Sunday it was 35 degrees celsius above 0(meaning it was beautifully warm) and today, just 4 days later, it is snowing. I want to go back to bed!
So, I am here at the MTS booth at Home Expressions, the closest thing we have in this city to a tech show. We have a Shaw Interactive area with MotoCross loaded XBox Live, 4 of them, though no way to actually play each XBox against the other. We also have the Shaw Cable Technology Center with booths from Computer Boulevard, CompuSmart, and other tech companies in the city. Sadly, that and this booth from MTS DSL is about as far as we have here, and I am not knowlegable of any other shows in the next little while. Thankfully, we will again this year have the Mid-Canada Information Security Conference put on by IPAM, this year on the 30th of April. I really look forward to this show, and hope it is as good as or better than last year. I also hope it is bigger.
The Winnipeg Free Press today announced they have been instrumental in a Blizzard Awards nomination, no site for the awards, for their Stick Man series of commercials, created for them by my brother's work, Frantic Films, which has no mention of it, though it was only announced a day or two ago. To see a simply stick figure series of commercials go head to head with an Oscar nominated animated short, well, it rocks. I doubt that Slim has any hope of a win, but it is always nice to see a local connection to my long lost(misplaced? deserted? withdrawn?) brother.
My, what weather we have. Monday I could have walked outside without a jacket. Yesterday I walked to work and was pelted with ice pellets continuously. Tonight I walked home and was repeatedly almost left on my ass by the sheet ice left all over this city's sidewalk, back lanes and parking lots. No amount of caution seems to work, and it literally covers everything, from cars and power lines to office windows and bus benches. This is no thin coating either, that melts at the first morning's sun and only covered the low area's, but this is a thick sheet covering all area's in the city, and not easily degraded by sand, which I will add was only dropped on the streets and by store owners not wanting lawsuits. Oh, and Brad, watch out in Ohio!
