Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A Valentine's Day miracle

There is a moment in every relationship that sets the stage for either a breakup or the relationship's permanent solidification. This moment can happen at anytime, from a first date to many years into the union. That moment occurred for Kate and me on February 12, 2011.

We were at my friends Gord and Lisa's house when I looked down at my feet and saw that I was wearing socks that didn't match. I knew I was wearing them earlier in the day, but I had thought to change them before I left. I guess I forgot. I commented on my predicament.

"My socks don't match!" I exclaimed.

They were similar in design, but one was clearly black and the other dark blue. We all took a moment to absorb the tremendous shock of the moment. Then my eyes moved to the rest of the party's socks. Gord had matching socks, so did Lisa, Kate did not. Then it dawned on me why I was unable to find the match to either of the socks I was wearing. Kate was wearing both of them. That's right we each had one sock from two matching pairs of socks. The odds of this happening are akin to the odds of the moon suddenly turning a man into some kind of man-bear-pig. I have to assume it was a sign from whichever God you believe in that we are meant to be.

As it was Valentine's Day and Microsoft saw fit to award 7x experience in Gears of War 2, Kate and I saw little of each other during the weekend, although it is true that we did nothing of importance on the 14th itself. We did contemplate the purchase of ice skates, but Play It Again Sports was closed so Kate spent the night working on a school assignment, and I watched "Condemned To Live", a 1930s horror movie. Quite good actually.

To be clear, Kate and I feel that V-Day is a bit of a farce, and that school work is more important so we were both fine with not being over-charged by flower vendors and restaurants yesterday. FYI, the cost of roses drops significantly on the 15th; but, since my cats are likely to destroy them anyway (yes, I mean they'll find yours too and kill them), I tend to avoid their purchase all year round.

Interesting things that have happened in the news recently include a few Leaf trades that will allow the team to continue to be adequate enough to miss the playoffs, but also avoid high draft picks, ensuring that no Stanley Cup will touch any member of the organization with a ten-foot pole. Bautista's arbitration has been postponed in the hopes that he can sign a deal with the Blue Jays without he need of an arbitrator, let's hope they get a deal done. Coca-Cola's secret recipe has been revealed (I didn't know it was a secret). And something is happening in Egypt.

Oh yes and it also turns out there is bacteria on raw chicken, who could have guessed? I suppose I should stop feeding the cats raw chicken skin, but they like it so much.  

Tonight in grammar class we learn about parenthesis, dashes, brackets, the proper writing of numbers, and capitals.

I have also made the executive decision to always use the serial --or Oxford-- comma. I do not know if that is the proper use of dashes as that class is still three hours away. Thankfully, I am already well versed in the ways of writing numbers from my many weeks of working as a sports writer so I should be able to concentrate on the difference between parenthesis and dashes.

That's the update. Talk to your later, family and friends, and whoever the person is that reads my blog from India.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Tony Clement fail

The Federal Court overruled a decision made by Finance Minister, Tony Clement, on Friday. In 2009 Clement overruled a CRTC decision, allowing a new wireless carrier with significant foreign ownership to operate. The CTRC had defined clear rules about how much foreign investment a company can have and still operate in Canada before the wireless spectrum auction of 2008. When those rules were broken, the CRTC stepped in and told the offending company that they wouldn't be allowed to operate with their current ownership structure. In comes Clement to say we need the competition. The company can suddenly operate, and out goes the CRTC's foreign ownership rules.

The other new wireless carriers were of course upset by this decision. They had followed the rules and now one of them was getting away with breaking them. Not any more.

The Federal Courts overruled the minister's decision, something that rarely happens, and the CRTC's original decision is now being enforced. It turns out Mr. Clement wasn't allowed to make that ruling in the first place. He has a law degree, he went to law school anyway, but it seems his actual knowledge of the law, and what's right for Canadians is a bit off. Next he'll be limiting the amount of information that Statistics Canada is able to gather so that he and his cohorts can get away with who knows what. Wait didn't that already happen?
Clement in private?
Of course the battle will continue and who knows what the end result will actually be, but I for one am currently satisfied with the decision the Canadian government has settled upon.