QuesoGuapo

I went to the expo for the Professional Hockey Centennial Celebration Friday. It was really neat seeing all of the history of the game. I was also impressed to see some of the hockey historians that had traveled so far to attend the event.

The sights of the expo were cool as well. There was old equipment like hockey sticks on display and some old ice skates that looked pretty painful. The Hockey Hall of Fame had some displays of the Stanley Cup and the Original Six NHL teams as well as some skills tests. The kids really had a ball (puck?) with the games.

All in all a rewarding, educational experience. I’ll be back Sunday to see the Stanley Cup in person as well as checking out some more local hockey history. Tonight, the Red Wings alumni team faces off with an alumni team from Michigan Tech.

I frequent Amazon.ca from time to time. Sometimes there are DVDs there that haven’t been released in the United States (like Made in Canada), plus there are added features on the Canadian release and sometimes the exchange rate is in my favor.

Anyway, I was reading through Amazon.ca’s Essential Canadian DVDs and this interesting combo came up. Apparently, people who bought classic children’s TV show Mr. Dress-Up also purchased the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Amazon.ca decided to make it a “Great Buy” where people can save $20CDN by purchasing the two together.

I’m guessing that many purchasers are buying for families. It might explain the purchase of a kiddie show and an adventure flick.

I must say that I’m impressed with the singing ability of Robert Pomakov who’s been singing the national anthems in Toronto during the recent World Cup of Hockey which is ending tonight.

Part of it is his incredible dedication that he displayed while singing all these national anthems from Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Canada. He tilts his shaven head forward slightly and stares ahead as he sings — which sounds so fluent even though I can’t understand a word he’s saying. I wish he was allowed to sing “O, Canada” tonight, but they gave it to someone else.

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By far the best performance of “O, Canada” that I’ve heard is Mark Donnelly before Game 7 of the Vancouver Canucks playoffs last year. It was electrifying, especially when he stops and lets the crowd sing along (and they’re in tune!). I have a recording of it that I still listen to from time to time.

Living in a battleground state means that we get a _ton_ of commercials. Despite the fact that the U.P. is fairly rural, every vote apparently counts.

Tonight, there was an ad from George Bush promoting his health care plan and his Agenda for America. There was a lot of interesting proposals there ranging from savings accounts and allowing small businesses to group together.

What was notably missing was anything about lowering the cost of prescription drugs. There was nothing at all, compared to the one or two things that might — might — reduce the price of health care.

To be honest, I don’t know what Kerry’s plan entails, but this seems to be a critical oversight.

BTW, I’m really doing my best to avoid commenting on this upcoming election. Part of it is that, professionally, it shouldn’t matter which candidate I support. The other reason is that there’s probably millions of blogs out there that dispense political blather like it was liquid gold.

As the election nears, I’m probably going to delve more into the political realm. In the end, I’ll try to keep it to a dull roar.

Thank you, internal combustion engine. I needed to get my car fixed today to tackle some wheel and axle issues. Since it was a nice day, I walked from the repair shop and back.

I didn’t know that it would take me about an hour and 20 minutes to walk and that it was just over 3 miles from the shop to my house. It was extremely pleasant with the gentle breeze keeping things mostly cool and I got to walk near the creek as it drifted toward the canal. But, dang, blisters stink — especially after nearly 7 miles of walking.

While it was to nice get a new perspective on the city, I gladly turned on the A/C and put my feet up when I got my car back. The topper on my afternoon was free burgers from Hardees — the restaurant was packed to the gills as they did a promotion.

I’m reading more newspapers online these days. It’s interesting reading stories from around the country, especially some of the different writing styles. There was one story from down South that caught my eye today.

The story was about a recent search at a college that may be linked with another criminal probe. Obviously it seems like a confusing matter, but the story didn’t clear things up until the background portion toward the end. I’m not going to name the paper or the college, but this is the fourth graf:

Why the (…) investigation is being investigated and who is at the center of the investigation is unclear.

I know I’m new to this story, but with two cases centered around the college, this sentence was a roadblock in the story. I had to stop for a bit and puzzle out what the writer meant. I also reflected on the repeated use of the word “investigation.”

As I understand it now, I think the writer was trying to say it’s unclear why investigators have launched this new probe and who is being targeted.

I’m sure that my writing has been less than clear on occasion over the years, and I think this shows there’s always room to be clearer and more concise.

People who have read my blog know that I write a bit about the CBC from time to time. It’s pretty much my network of choice right now. What people may not know is that the official name of this blog is “Ryan’s incredible, edible blog” in tribute to the American Egg Council‘s “It’s the Incredible, Edible Egg” ad campaign.

Now it seems like the two things have collided, in a sense. In the past year, I look at what Google searches people use to access my site. One phrase “CBC Edible Incredible” came up several times. I scratched my head, like I’m sure many people did when they clicked through to my site.

As it turns out, the CBC has a new children’s program called Surprise! It’s Edible Incredible! which started airing last month. I saw the first episode — it’s kind of interesting. Although the Web site calls it “Iron Chef meets Fear Factor,” I think it closely resembles BBC series “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook” in terms of presentation except with kids.

So anyway, Google search mystery solved.

Personal video recorder company TiVo has a great product, but has been facing pressure from competitors (including former partner DirecTV). This coming reality has led to a lot of critics and analysts to be down on TiVo’s future. Much is the same as NetFlix, which has been touted for its system of delivering DVDs to homes through the mail. There have been many questions raised about NetFlix’s future as technology advances.

As I read on TV Barn, Newsweek has an article detailing a possible alliance between TiVo and NetFlix. This alliance supposedly includes the delivery of movies over broadband to your friendly TiVo.

Company reps deny this as rumor for now, but I think this deal has the possibility of offering an easy-to-use package for home users to pick movies they want from the comfort of their couch. It gives both companies a unique advantage to survive and thrive in the developing marketplace.

I just got a TiVo this year. For all of its touted advantages as a digital video recorder that efficiently slices and dices your viewing, a superb recorder can only record what’s availble to watch — and I’ve got basic. If I went to an expanded cable package or switch to satellite, TiVo’s competitors stand ready with PVRs of their own (they’re just not as good as TiVo on the whole).

This proposal gives me a great reason to stay with TiVo in light of increased competition.

I was thinking about the different forms of the suffix “-icide” today. One of my favorite TV shows (and books) is Homicide.

There’s a lot of wacky variations of the word out there — regicide, fraternicide, et al. I recalled Issac Asimov penning the phrase “robocide” to describe the murder of a robot.

All this got me thinking that what if someone tried to commit a murder or death through a ‘blog? Doing a Google Search of the word ‘blogicide’ comes up with 185 hits. The phrase seems to refer to the death of a blog, which I suppose is appropriate.

I, myself, have a dead blog out there (I wiped it when I created this new site). Two Scooby points to whomever can figure out/remember what it was. I could rebuild it in Blogger, but I have no interest right now.

BTW, any form of “-icide” I didn’t mention, I’m not thinking about. That includes cyborgicide.