Oscars

I was flicking back and forth to the Oscars last night when the basketball game was on commercial (of course I caught all the crappy awards like "best short film" and "best foreign language film" when I did), and I noticed that something just didn't seem to mesh well. This could be a totally misguided blog as I didn't watch the whole thing but the whole layout just didn't seem to go with the hosts.

Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosted and are both very funny people, or at least I think so. But the type of humour they were portraying just didn't seem to be received well and seemed out of place for an event that appears ridiculously formal. The layout, the outfits, the insanely boring speeches all reek of formality and I think some of the jokes they were laying on the crowd just didn't get appreciated. I very rarely heard laughter from the audience and from what I saw a lot of it was just awkward.

I don't think they did a bad job in any way, just that the venue didn't seem right, and I blame that on the "Academy". The whole event is painful to watch from the awards that nobody cares about, to the crappy musical performances (Randy Newman) and again the whole thank you speeches that drag on too long and have no character. It's way too serious of an event for my liking, which is why I'm more likely to watch the MTV movie awards than the Academy Awards, at least they attempt to have fun with it.

But maybe that's the way they want to keep it, more rigid and bureaucratic. In that case they should find different hosts next year. I hear Billy Crystal wants back in!

Download:
Pyro - Kings of Leon

Addict

Short entry, but just wanted to let you know that I'm currently facing a dilemma. My hatred for Tim Horton's is well documented, however they have Roll Up the Rim back, and I've been breaking my boycott as a result. The past two days I have had Tim Hortons and all because of my love of gambling on roll up the rim. Sadly however I lost yesterday and today I forgot to check the cup before I threw it out. If a car goes unclaimed I'm gonna be mad at myself. However the experience wasn't too bad. The line wasn't long when I got there, they didn't screw up my order and the Bagel BELT is a great breakfast sandwich.

I'm going to try to fight off the temptation to try to win on Roll Up, but I don't know if I can. I need an intervention.

Download:
Superman Tonight - Bon Jovi

Babe, Pig in the City

I uncharacteristically decided to take a trip to Toronto by myself to fulfill one of my life's goals, to see a live Bon Jovi concert, and I have no regrets as I was able to break out of my shell in a couple of areas.

The first was on the flight to Toronto. I actually initiated and prolonged a conversation with a total stranger from St. John's to Ottawa. Well she did most of the talking cause the chick could gab, which I guess was alright because there was less awkward silence to fill, but I actually used my Dale Carnegie training which is good!

The second breakthrough was kind of already in motion when I got there. I went to the Raptors game with a friend I hadn't see since probably high school, so it certainly had the potential to be awkward, and I always try to avoid potentially awkward situations, but I went through with it which proved to be a fantastic idea. It was like I hadn't seen her for 8 days rather than 8 years so I was really glad for breakthrough #2.

In addition to these personal breakthroughs, there was a lot of cool stuff going on:

1) Bon Jovi with Beth -> Great concert. They played for 2.5 hours including a 5 song encore. They didn't play "Always" or anything from the "These Days" album which was kind of disappointing, but I got to see "I'll Be There For You" and "Bed of Roses", and hey I got to see Bon Jovi live, so I'm not going to complain!

2) Raptors game with Steph -> They won! This rarely happens. Also I got to see upcoming superstar Blake Griffin play and see some cool dunks and a super freak mini Raptors robot. Also this means I've officially seen a live game from the 4 major North American Sporting Leagues, the MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA! (Another life goal accomplished).

3) Eaton Centre -> I didn't spend any money there surprisingly enough, but it was crazy to see how huge the place is. Take that Avalon Mall.

4) Hockey Hall of Fame -> Picture taken with the Stanley Cup (lookout for it to be a profile pic on Facebook soon), played the interactive shooter and goalie games and bought some souvenirs.

5) Flew on Porter Airlines -> Comfortable seats and great customer service but way too many stop overs for a guy who is nervous about flying. If I'm ever going from St. John's to Halifax I will definitely fly with them, but if going anywhere else I would have to choose an airline with a direct flight if possible.

6) Homeless People -> Saw some sleeping on the side of the road on top of the subway vents, also say one eating someone's leftovers at the food court in the Eaton Centre, which grossed me out.

7) Hooker -> Walking back to the hotel Monday night, in -15 C weather, we saw a hooker beating the streets with a short skirt and tank top on cracked out. Big knockers though.

8) Subway -> Travelled on the subway for a short distance, neat experience.

Summary: It's good to try new things.

Download:
As I Am - Goo Goo Dolls

Sexes with Exes

What I'm gonna write about may not always be the case (nor would anyone be able to admit to it being the case), but unjustified generalizations are what I'm all about so here goes...

Chances are when a man marries a woman, she isn't the best sex partner he has had, and my logic behind this is as follows. He is agreeing to marry the woman because he is in love with her, they have a lot in common and he enjoys spending time with her. That's not to say they don't have a good sex life, but chances are that before he met or hooked up with his current wife, he was with another girl strictly for sex, which is probably an indication that the girl was pretty good at it. If a man is willing to put up with a girl that he is totally incompatible with or who has lots of Mother Hens surrounding her, chances are she's good in bed, probably better than the person he is now with.

So that's my reasoning for why sex with your wife would generally not be as good as sex you've had with an ex. This basically just solidified me as a single man for the rest of my life cause if any woman reads this she would not want to marry me, unless she respects a man with an offensive opinion!

Download:
You and Me - Dave Matthews Band

Colorblind

I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to make any commentary on the Brad Cabana switching parties fiasco, because well everyone seems to have an opinion on it and those aren't usually the things I blog about, however I did it once before and well the political science degree in my peripheral is kind of making me want to weigh in.

There are so many things that just do not add up in this scenario. Part of the reasoning given for this switch to the Liberal party after running for the LEADER of the Conservative party was due to the Auditor General's report which outlined various "questionable" spending tactics by the Conservative government which made Mr. Cabana look at them in a different light. So are we to believe that if he had won his appeal and was eligible to run for the leadership that he would have suddenly pulled out of the race when this report came out? I find that HIGHLY unlikely. At the end of this blog there will be a link to a CBC story and audio clip of an interview with Mr. Cabana conducted by David Cochrane, who makes reference to various Auditor General's reports in which the LIBERAL governments of the past have been caught doing much worse things with their money than the current PC government has been caught doing, and the answer Mr. Cabana gives seems generic and rehearsed and it doesn't really add up.



Don't Fret Steve, Brad
Still Loves Ya!



If Mr. Cabana wanted to "make a difference" in Newfoundland politics (despite the fact that we've done better than we ever have in the last ten years - so I'm not sure how he was going to bring improvements), and he doesn't really agree with the PC philosophy anymore, then why not run as an independent rather than a Liberal? Cabana is a supposed Conservative for life and even claims to support the Federal Conservatives still, yet due to the convenience of it all he is now suddenly a Newfoundland Liberal, which as David Cochrane points out in the interview, has very different beliefs than the Federal Conservative Party.

In my opinion this also makes the Liberal Party look weak by "accepting him with open arms". I'm glad to hear that they are not just going to hand him the reigns in his territory and he has to win the right to the seat, but I would be VERY shocked if the party doesn't select him to run for his riding just based on his popularity alone. However letting someone run for your party who's mandate last week was to ensure that you didn't get many, if any seats in the House of Assembly reeks of desperation!

So while Mr. Cabana may be Red/Blue colorblind I guess it could have been worse. He could have attempted to pull a Joey Smallwood from the early 70's and tried to split the PC party in two. For those who are not familiar, Mr. Smallwood lost a leadership race to lead the Liberals in that election and rather than just bowing out he decided to start his own "Liberal Reform Party" and ended up splitting the Liberal party voters in the election allowing the PC's to waltz into power. Of course Mr. Cabana doesn't quite have the same influence that Joey did, but it would have been fun to see history repeat itself, and let's face it, it would have made much more since ideologically than switching to a completely different party!

It really makes you consider what Mr. Cabana's end game is. Based on all the media attention he has been given and putting his face in the limelight for the past month, I don't think he is going to be content with being elected and being a backbencher in the Liberal party. If elected he will become a critic of one of the PC Ministers, but not out of choice, out of necessity because the Liberals will have no more than 10 people in the House after this election and well they'll need people to review the PC mandates. However I don't think this is what he is after. I think it would be too brash for him to try to take the leadership from an unhealthy Yvonne Jones but I predict that in 4 years Mr. Cabana decides to either try to run for a position in Ottawa with the Conservatives (another party jump), or that he attempts to go after the leadership of the Liberal party...and if both of those fail he might even try the provincial NDP under the reasoning that he likes the color orange better than blue or red.

This jump to the Liberal Party can go one of two ways. It will either lead to a landslide victory for him in the election or a complete and utter failure/landslide defeat. I have no doubt in my mind that he will win the right to represent the Liberals in his constituency, but my gut tells me that he will lose badly, especially since his riding (Trinity North) is currently held by Ross Wiseman. His only hope is that they switch him to a weakly held riding and he wins there, which they may do because they really need seats wherever they can get them. Either way, you know what they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and if nothing else I'm sure his blog hits have increased!

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/01/31/nl-cabana-court-131.html

Download:
Make Up Your Mind - Theory of a Deadman