Coping with Hockey withdrawl

Had an awesome hockey game last night. We lost 5-1, but it was our best performance yet. By the end of next semester I might even be able to hold my own in net.

Got a halloween costume lined up for the weekend. Val and I are going as Coaches Corner... I'll be Ron and she'll be Don. We even got a fake desk to attach to ourselves. Should be a riot.

The McDonald's caravane tour hits Montreal in 3 weeks. We'll be catching some 4-on-4 action, which should feature some NHL'ers.

Now I'm guessing you understand the title of today's entry.

The Greatest Canadian Contest

So, for those who follow the CBC closely, you're probably aware of the Greatest Canadian contest taking place right now. The CBC released a list of 10 people (who were the top vote-getters from a public vote) that are the finalists.

Not too many suprises on it, except for Don Cherry. I mean honestly, I appreciate that he voices his opinion without much regard for what others think. I don't always agree with him, but it's nice to see someone who stands up for what they believe in, instead of yielding to mass opinion always. But, seriously... what's he doing in the top 10? Same for Wayne. I think he's a great person and hockey player, but with 130+ years of history this country has been home to some great people.

Now that I've made a big stink about 2 people that shouldn't be on there, do I have suggested replacements? Nope. To be honest, I think the whole question is kind of ridiculous. If they had asked "The greatest Sports player from Canada" or "Canadian who contributed the most to our current well-being" then I might venture some guesses. But with how broadly the adjective "greatest" can be interpreted, we end up with a set of people who are incomparable because of their differences. I mean, how do you compare Terry Fox with Lester B Pearson?

First Post

Alright. This is my first shot at this kind of thing.

Not a whole lot to report these days. Between course work, research, and sports I've been crazy busy. Speaking of sports, I've been pretty adventurous this semester. I'm presently goalie on our Intramural hockey team. That's especially a riot, since I've never played goal on ice, and my skating is less than stellar. Still, it's been a ton of fun. Fortunately, our team is a great bunch of people, and they don't mind losing 8-2. Besides Hockey (and Soccer) I've been taking Karatedo lessons. It's my first introduction to martial arts, and I'm really enjoying it. We do an intense hour long warm up session, 2 or 3 times a week, and then spend about the same amount of time learning various Kata's and techniques. I'm only at the white belt level right now, but I think I might pursue this a further. Finally, on the activity front, I went swimming yesterday for the first time in probably 10 years (swimming laps, I mean). I felt like a floundering fish but it started to come back to me by the end. I only managed 500m that time, but hopefully that'll increase quickly. Then I can start working on my form, and with a girlfriend who was a former national level swimmer, I've got lots of experience available!

Research is going well these days. Mostly just wrapping up some loose ends on one of my projects, which will end up being part of my Thesis. We are also planning on submitting it for publication by the end of this year, so I've got to get moving on it. It always seems like this is the hardest part of doing any research... wrapping up the loose ends. I seem to fly through the initial development, but the little things take me a long time to wrap up. Guess that's just the way I am. Maybe I should switch to Pure Math, and then I can just say the little details are clearly taken care of :)