B'oh Canucks B'oh

With tonight's overtime loss, the Canucks are one point out of the playoffs with two games remaining. If Edmonton wins both their games, the Canucks are eliminated. If the Canucks lose both their games, the Canucks are out. If the Oilers win one and the Canucks lose one, the Canucks are out. Understandably, I'm not terribly happy. I'm even unhappier because I happen to be going to the Canucks/Sharks game tomorrow night in San Jose. I bought these tickets months ago, thinking it would be a good game and I'd get to see the Canucks in playoff form ready to feast on an 11th-place Sharks team.

Well, that's not exactly how it's worked out, and now that I am not driving to the game either, I am considering getting absolutely tanked on ridiculously expensive hockey game beers. It will be an allegory of the Canucks' season. I will start out drinking beers that are decent but not quite worth the money. As time goes on, I will switch to Bud Light -- probably after the first intermission -- and then just after the second intermission, things will look up for me and I will drink one more decent beer. After that, though, things will go to shit and I'll be sitting there stupidly drinking $9 Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Now, I know that $9 is way too expensive for beer, but fuck off, the Canucks might miss the playoffs.

On the other hand, it's at least two hours on the train back to Berkeley, and that's a long time to have to take a leak, so I may have to tone it down some.

SLOOOO-OOOOO-OOOAN

Jim pointed out to me yesterday that I neglected to mention Sloan among the bands that represent Canada to me. This is borderline inexcusable, as Sloan is my favourite Canadian band ever. I recently ripped all seven of their albums so I could put them on my iPod and I can't stop listening to One Chord To Another, Twice Removed, and Navy Blues. I decided to look on YouTube for some videos.

I wasn't disappointed. Take a look at this:



What a great song that was. I remember seeing it all the time on MuchMusic. It feels like it was yesterday.



















Well, it wasn't.

It was ten years ago.


























TEN FUCKING YEARS AGO.

Current Music: Sloan - The Lines You Amend

Random quotes from my past, provided without context #36

FREE WOOD!

-- Jim Dinning

Current Music: Barenaked Ladies - Shoebox

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

I have a theory that if you reside in Canada for one calendar year, odds are better than 80% that you will hear "If I Had $1000000" by the Barenaked Ladies at least once. Even if you only casually channel surf past MuchMusic or MuchMoreMusic, you might still hear part of it. Failing that, it may well appear on at least one commercial for a non-profit organization on CTV or Global. Then there's specials on Bravo!, various specials on Showcase and the Comedy Network, &c. Suppose you don't even have a TV. There's still parties, outdoor carnivals and fairs, and of course radio. Now, I've only lived in and around the Lower Mainland so I can't really attest to other areas, but I imagine that you'd be just as likely to hear them in the Prairies, and even more likely to hear them out East. Maybe not in the Territories, though.

Thoughts?

I don't know how popular the earlier Barenaked Ladies stuff is in the US (that is, everything before that live version of "Brian Wilson"), but I assume not at all. I've always been amused that Americans really started to latch onto them only when they were well past their prime. Remember "Enid"? Remember "Jane"? "Be My Yoko Ono"? If I'm correct, the Canadians are thinking Of course! while the Americans are thinking Wha? I liked "One Week".

Hearing this stuff again really stirs some memories. About a year and a half ago I had, for the first time in my life, a real, strong urge to listen to the Tragically Hip. I realized that it had been three months since hearing any Hip, and that is probably the longest I'd ever gone in my life without hearing "50 Mission Cap". The stuff had really wormed its way into my brain; it apparently is deeply entwined in my upbringing. It's the same with this early Barenaked Ladies stuff. These songs, along with all sorts of other weird and wonderful (?) gems by Glass Tiger, I Mother Earth, Ashley MacIsaac, the list goes on, represent something very peculiarly Canadian. A lot of it, I would think, would never fly on American radio.

And that's a damn shame.

Current Music: BNL - If I Had $1000000

Perhaps I should just accept my stupidy

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Unfortunately it also seems to make the brain grow duller. Yesterday I was trying to put together a combinatorial formula for the Fed Ex of Funk and I fucked it up. Today I spent about two hours trying to figure out a "really easy" exercise, then cursing my professor for labelling it as such, then kicking myself when I finally got it. (It really was easy.) I think Spring Break has made me stupid.

Or maybe it's just that I'm getting dumber as I age. When I was younger I was such a promising mathematician. Now, I might be if I could remember half the stuff I learned two years ago. This feeling drives me to think that I should instead spend my time sharpening other skills, like songwriting, guitar playing, internet humour-ing, and cooking. I've gotten in touch with my old English teacher and it's reminded me what it was like to not be known solely as a math/CS/stats student. It was so much more fun being known as "the guitar guy". If I'm just getting book-stupider as I get into my mid-20s, why not give up in the brain game and join a band?

Then again, I met an undergrad at the bus stop yesterday who was sharpening ninja stars that his roommate had sent back from Japan. (Damn, Americans take that whole right to bear arms shit seriously.) He said, "We're just looking to have some fun with them, you know." And then I think, "Wow, I would never do that." And then I remember, "Yeah, I probably would have at his age." Maybe I'm not getting stupider.

And so I guess I'll go to class tomorrow.

Current Music: Eisley - Plenty of Paper

One of these days I'll remember what it means

Reading Dr. McNinja a few days ago, I encountered my old foe Deus ex machina. No matter how many times I look it up, I never remember what it means.

Fortunately, in today's day and age, I can always just Wikipedia anything I don't understand. Quoth the article:

In modern terms the Deus ex machina has also come to describe a person or thing that suddenly arrives and solves a seemingly insoluble difficulty. While in storytelling this might seem unfulfilling, in real life this type of figure might be welcome and heroic.

You don't say.

So if a couple of years ago I said, "Man, I wish I knew what 'Deus ex machina' meant, but am nowhere near anyone literate," and then Wikipedia became popular, I guess that would have been a Deus ex machina. And now my world is a little richer.

Current Music: XTC - Go 2
Current seemingly insoluble difficulty: Gosh, I sure am hungry right now.
Current really seemingly insoluble difficulty: World hunger

LUGsWang: The Unpleasant Obligation to Blog

Yammer yammer Dunning yammer yammer Math Club yammer yammer Get Flash Player yammer yammer thanks Graham