Wednesday, April 29, 2009

night in Kits

One sweet thing about being really busy at work with a crazy deadline is that when it’s over you feel no guilt going home at 5 and basically doing nothing at all. I know, I know most people don’t have a problem with this every day of their lives. Unfortunately I have a built in weird thing about work and wanting to not be a failure so on most days I usually just work a little late due to my own personal neurosis. I’m not sure whether to blame it on the University of Waterloo or a Lithuanian mother.

Anyways, today I got home early went for a jog then tried to take advantage of an awesome day in Kits. First I went down to Vera’s to grab a burger but it was too full. Okay, look at this logo. Am I the only one that thinks this place should be called “Rocky Dennis Burger”? Seriously, it’s a spitting image.

After not eating went to the beach and saw Scott and Ryan. Hung out there, kicked a soccer ball around. Then went up to the magazine shop, grabbed a few mags. On the way home saw a pretty sick throw up, as well as a cool poster for a show. Not a bad day at all.

Me and Christy got a “Back roads guide book” this week. It’s pretty awesome, it shows all sorts of old logging roads that lead up the mountains and towards some pretty cool spots. From glacier fed lakes to crazy hidden hot springs, it’s full of awesome adventures. Also a lot of lakes around the area recently got stocked with trout. Not big fish but I’m itching to get out there. Hopefully some cool fishing reports soon.

Blowing my own horn

So recently me and a friend in the ad industry entered the Young Lions competition. Well it turns out we won. Which is pretty cool, I got my name in the Globe and Mail today (Report on business, page B4) and had a few people talk about how they thought our ad was neat and stuff.

The best part is we won a trip to Cannes at the end of June for this global Young Lions competition that also happens at the same time as the big ad awards. The Cannes awards are kind of one of the last real throwbacks to the old school ad industry. Apparently theres some pretty extravagant parties and all that stuff so I’m pretty stoked. Plus anytime I get to drink French coffee I’m always amped. I’ll just be sure not to try eating pizza without a fork.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Spring hits Vancouver

More than any other city I’ve ever been in for any substantial amount of time living in Vancouver is like dating a girlfriend who’s a two face. When spring comes around life is completely different. Not only are the days longer but people are happier, food tastes better, the Canucks even win playoff games. Part of the reason is probably also due to the fact that fun in the area basically requires you to go outside. It’s hard to find a good bar to drink at and there isn’t much social life to speak of, plus I live 3 blocks from a beach so this area is basically dead until the beach starts hopping again. Thankfully that has seemed to happen.

I’m looking forward to beers at the beach during sunset, patio beers, fishing at a local river or lake, camping or hiking in the mountains, CFL football, Going to see a Vancouver Whitecaps or Canadians game, night bonfires on the beach, people watching at Granville island, boob watching at wreck beach, fish and chips at Jericho beach, road tripping to Seattle, Tofino and other places, seeing friends who have been hibernating over the winter, hanging out with Christy and the Captain, exploring more of the city, exploring more of the province and sweet sweet BBQ’s.

One funny thing I’ve noticed in reading all my friends’ blog is how regional they all are. It’s funny because when you move somewhere you think you’re the same person but just looking at posts, opinions and photos of my friends who blog I notice subtle differences depending on where they live. With that being said I have an idea to kind of involve some of my friends who I don’t get to see in my blog. I started this thing as a means of connecting with people (and basically avoiding sending so many emails) so I thought I’d go a step further and try and get some of my friends involved as well. More on this to come.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The problem with rooting for a 4th rate team

Right now in Vancouver everyone is going nuts about the Canucks. It’s been awesome getting caught up in it. To be honest it was pretty easy to drop the Leafs, I think like other Hamiltonians I’ve always had a nagging suspicion they were part of the reason why Hamilton can’t seem to get an NHL team. On top of that I’ve never actually seen the Leafs live. I’ve seen the sabers a bunch of times and even made it to a Chicago game, but no Leafs game.

You can definitely feel a vibe around the city, everyone is psyched and basically in a better mood. But that’s not what this post is really about.

This weekend the Blue Jays won a series against the A’s and are looking pretty awesome, especially considering they were supposed to suck this year. Arsenal, the team I follow in the premiership lost a crushing semi final game in the FA cup to Chelsea (thanks for that Fabianski). And finally AZ won the Dutch Eredivisie with 5 weeks left in the season. Despite all these sporting events taking place this weekend, none of these are the one that I’m thinking about the most right now.

To my extreme dismay I’ve realized this weekend that I am an out and out Toronto FC fanatic. I’ve known this was basically the case for a long time but this weekend I realized just how far gone I am.

I use Google reader to check the blogs I frequent, of the 9 sports blogs I follow, 8 of them are about Toronto FC (the other is about the Vikings). These aren’t even always just about TFC either, there’s one called MLS Rumors I follow that reports on, you guessed it, rumors about the league. This isn’t the premiereship so most of the rumors are about some strange kid from Ecuador I’ve never heard of, but I’m so dillusional I think these guys can turn my team around. People laughed at Man City supporters who thought Robinho could turn their team around. They’d have a field day with me when I was getting excited about Toronto possibly getting this guy. Seriously look at his hair cut! I even follow one called MLS Draft. I bet most people don’t even know (or care) that the MLS holds a draft.

After another crushing loss to FC Dallas, who hadn’t had a win until today against Toronto I’m at a serious cross roads. Given that Vancouver is going to be in the league in 2011 do I shift all my devotion to a team that I can almost guarantee will be better* ? I know it’s still 2 years away and god knows where I’ll be living, but how often are you allowed to do a team audit in your life? On top of that look at the teams I already root for:

Tiger Cats – nuff said. This team stabs me in the heart 9 years in a row, wins a grey cup every 10 then goes back to stabbing me in the heart.

Vikings – 4 time superbowl losers.

Blue Jays – man I love Cito but the AL East is no easy task.

Arsenal – ok this is a good team, but seriously can anyone watch the premiership without being a fan of the big 4? Picking Man U or Chelsea is like rooting for the Yankees and when I lived in London for a summer I was near Highbury.

I’m giving TFC an ultimatum. I will give them 2 more years of unyielding fandom but they better pull up their performance. Otherwise I’m going to make a move to a team that I’m sure will cause me less stress. There’s very few times in my life I feel I’m allowed to do this without looking like a jerk so I’m seriously considering it.


* How do I know the Whitecaps will be better than Toronto FC you ask? Well on top of Toronto being owned by MLSE here’s a few other reasons:

- The Whitecaps run hands down the best soccer academy in all of North America, it’s also one of the few residency programs in North America. In a recent tournament they beat out Manchester City, AC Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt and whole bunch of other big academy squads to make the finals which they lost to an Argentinian team.

- During the qualifications for the U-20 world cup almost half the team was made up of Vancouver Academy players. On top of that they had a player (Randy Edwini-Bonsu) who scored EVERY goal for them during qualifications.

- They have another player right now (Dever Orgill) in their academy system who’s already having rumors linking him to a premiership team. The dude hasn’t even played for them this season yet.

- They won the USL last year, yeah it’s a lesser league but the coach needs to know what he’s doing to win it.

- This isn’t why they’d be better, more just an opinion. I’d prefer to root for a team that was developing their own talent and on the forefront of developing the top Canadian talent. Though this isn’t entirely TFC’s fault, MLS has some weird rules about academies, the CBA is about to be negotiated again and Academy rules are about to change, even still TFC won’t be able to catch up to where Vancouver’s at anytime soon.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A day in Toronto

While I was back in Ontario 2 weeks ago I managed to spend an afternoon in Toronto. Unfortunately it was on a ridiculously rainy day. It was a pretty awesome day none the less. Just getting to hang out in the city, I miss the real feeling of hustle you get from the place. It takes me going back home to realize how west coast I’ve actually become. I generally talk slower, walk slower and drink less than I used to. With that being said I’m also probably more relaxed than the older version of me. Hey, it’s a little silver lining, unless I plan on restarting up Avarice again.

While pacing the streets I managed to find a few sweet finds, like a pretty rad door, as well as some nice 007 inspired Obama apparel. I also managed to stop for a beer with Ben Mills. It was really nice to catch up, as well as just sit in a real bar, in a real brick building. It’s funny sometimes the things that you really miss when you move away, brick buildings and real bars are definitely two of them for me.

With all that being said, after picking up some TFC tickets at Sherway Gardens, I had to drive back to Hamilton. You Ontarians can keep your 2 hour commutes in gridlock.

Excuses excuses

I have this bad habit of thinking I need to always write posts with a giant summation of everything I’ve done since the last time I posted. As a result, when I haven’t written anything here in a while it starts to snowball and feel more and more like a chore. Combine this with what has been a hectic work schedule and it basically means I get home with no interest in doing anymore writing for the day.

So a change of strategy is due, I’m going to just try and write more in chunks about things that have been happening recently and hopefully get caught up sometime soon.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ll try adding some stuff to this tonight.