July 2010

Hockey

July began with an announcement that the Stanley Cup was going to join Blackhawk defenseman Nick Boynton on display to celebrate Chicago's victory. Obviously we were thrilled to get back to the hometown to check it out.

It was also at this moment that the Maple Leafs announced that they had acquired fellow Blackhawk champion Kris Versteeg. It was an exciting time for a Leafs fan (from Nobleton).

The Maple Leafs also introduced seven new players to the franchise in the NHL Entry Draft, including Brad Ross (whom the Leafs traded up to draft), Greg McKegg and Sondre Olden. None are expected to make the big team until late 2012 or 2013, I don't think.

In any case, the trip to Nobleton to visit the Stanley Cup was really cool, and certainly better than going to King City if the Flyers had won the Cup.

Comics

I continued posting the King of the Road - looks like I posted quite a few of them, and I was also able to put up a very old Tie Domi vs. Brett Hull comic I'd written quite a few years ago. I was feeling good about the artwork and stuff, and was inspired to do more.

Writing

I was gearing up to put out more artwork and comics because I was really looking forward to finishing my graphic novel script and start work on it. It was going a little slow, but picked up the pace a little later on.

Exploring Port Perry

My wife and I rented a canoe for a little while and took it out onto Lake Scugog. It was very nice. I recall the weather being very pleasant for our first month of so, and I recall thinking it quite odd that it never seemed to rain!

Then, finally by mid-July, we broke down and turned on the air conditioner.

Also, we started golfing regularly on Mulligan Mondays at the Canterbury Golf Course, where near to my buddy wound up moving a few short months later.

Basil, the bastard

We quickly came to realize that our neighbour's cat was an enormous bastard - it jumped up and tore the screens off our windows - and in so doing, had scratched our cat. We had to take her to the vet for antibiotics. It was really unfortunate - although one of the funniest sounds was Indy licking her wound, but being in angry pain about it - it sounded like "Num, num, num num num" and it was absolutely hilarious. We laughed a lot about it - we laughed less after a $90 vet bill, though.

Working in the Port

For the few first weeks in town I was building a list of places I could work, and I spread them around quite a bit. For a kitchen job, I wasn't looking to have to commute very far - so this shrank the list a bit, but that didn't mean I wasn't given three offers from three places that were within an eight-minute bicycle ride from our house.

I tried to find writing work, especially with Focus on Scugog, who said they had no work, and of course I never heard back from them.

I started my first job after the move on July 19 at a restaurant. I was pleased to have it and was happy to get back into the kitchen for a while. For the first little bit, I was excited to be getting familiar once again with cooking. I even had a chance to get back in touch with a few references and old jobs in prepping for new positions.

No doubt - my opinion of the job changed over my time there, but I was excited to get back at it.

I was able - while working at this job - to read lots and get some sun before heading to work, which started usually around 11 a.m. or so - plenty of time before work to have a good time.

Moon

I was super excited to watch this movie - and it came up on HBO during our trial subscription with our cable package. And, as I was hopeful it would be, it was a fantastic movie. Watch it if you can. I still tell people this.

Bed and Brick

The bed saga begins shortly after we moved in - The Brick and its inability to communicate what the hell was going on with the missing parts that we were supposed to receive in the mail. My wife and I were staying in the guest room (our other guest room actually had a guest in it).

Terra Nova

Our first mention of Terra Nova comes up - Spielberg's upcoming tv show about people in the times of dinosaurs. Actor Jim Shannon is named as the lead for the show.

Hitting the road

I was down in Toronto to help my sister move her things, which was alright. I recall things went really well until they went out shopping to pick some stuff up. I don't like shopping so much, so that was the end of that.

We were also down in Windsor for a cousin's wedding that was on the 24th (which answers a question I had with one of my best friends that I was in town for his birthday, but didn't go out to celebrate with him. I was pretty sure that wasn't the case (we arrived late due to a series of errors, including having to cross Toronto's rush hour traffic three times because of a purse.

In any case, I have found the message from the birthday card that commemorated that birthday, which went like this:

Birthday wishes

"To be honest, having a French Marlborough man (who’s delivering three bricks of cocaine and a tall pot of coffee) fart into your espresso is one of the highest compliments you can receive on your birthday.
Eviter les Contrefacons! And Happy birthday"

For the record - I'm going to have to pick up the remaining birthday cards from the grocery store so I can use this over and over. It's an absolutely hilarious birthday card. It's perfect!

Homer the Father

I very rarely blog about The Simpsons - and frankly, I've heard that many, many people don't bother tuning in on Sunday nights for the new episodes. I mightn't either, but hey, I still like cartoons.

That being said: one of the absolutely funniest episdoes of the Simpsons was on last weekend, called Homer the Father.

It is absolutely hilarious, and you should DEFINITELY find it somewhere on the Internet to watch it. I'm not sure WHERE you could go to stream it but IT'D BE WORTH IT if you did.

I'm just saying.

cool couple days

My wife and I had a rather unique opportunity this week to have some real fun together in Peterborough, just like the old days recently.

She has training for work once in a while, and I work in Peterborough - so when she has a two-day program, she got a hotel room and we both stayed in town. This saved us a trip, and gave us an evening in Peterborough to hang with friends, visit with newborns, have pizza, watch a movie at the theatre, and go to lunch together. It was real nice.

We even caught Sports Net on cable this morning - which was neat. The Leafs lost, but it was still neat (I have a new theory on why the Leafs are in tough shape - it stems back to John Ferguson Jr and all his no-trade clauses).

We saw Barney's Version last night, and it was nice. It makes more sense if you knew that it was based on a novel by Mordecai Richler before you go in.

Anyhow - after a few interruptions at work, some long interviews and a lunch date, I was way behind in my work, and am having to wrap up my obligations from home. here it is, 9 p.m., and I'm still chipping away.

BUT it'll be done shortly and then I can start all over again at 6 a.m. to head back into work.

It's seemed like a long week already, seemed like a long week before it was even Tuesday. That's weird.

Anyhow - let's hope the rest of the week is awesome.

Nice - TMNT throwback

I found this last night digging through old Ninja Turtle badguys - this artwork is pretty solid, even if the characters were predictable losers.

All in the details

The news is all about details, and deciding which ones to include to make that news the most interesting.

For example, "human hits human" is pretty general and basic. Not too interesting. So let's add pieces to this news story to make it more interesting.

• "Man hits human."
• "Man punches human."
• "Man punches woman."
• "Man punches LA woman."
• "Man punches LA woman in the face."
• "Hockey player punches LA woman in the face."
• "Hockey player punches LA woman in the face drawing blood."
• "LAPD searches for hockey player who punched an LA woman in the face drawing blood."
• "LAPD searches for Toronto Maple Leaf who allegedly punched an LA woman in the face drawing blood."
• "LAPD searches for Toronto Maple Leaf who allegedly punched an woman in the face drawing blood, while at a Hollywood night club."
• "LAPD searches for Toronto Maple Leaf, Mike Komisarek, who allegedly punched an woman in the face drawing blood, while at a Hollywood night club."

1/22/2011 12:50 AM PST by TMZ Staff Toronto Maple Leafs all-star Mike Komisarek is on thin ice with the LAPD -- after the hockey player allegedly punched a woman in the face at an L.A. nightclub earlier this month ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... the 28-year-old defensive powerhouse was named in a police report filed by a woman who claims the whole thing went down after Komisarek decided to lift her up in the air at a Hollywood nightclub.

We're told the woman claims she demanded Komisarek put her down -- but he refused -- so she slapped him in the face.

The woman claims Komisarek immediately set her down ... and then punched her in the face, causing her to bleed.

The woman claims Komisarek left the club ... so she went to the cops. We're told investigators are hoping to speak with the NHL star as soon as they get the chance.

So far, no comment from Komisarek's camp.

This is obviously incorrect. The facts area all wrong. First off, since when was Komisarek a "powerhouse" or "NHL star"?

What else might they be exaggerating?

New Tomb of the Undead scene

Check out the new scene for Tomb of the Undead.


It's two pages long, and called You're a Snake. I hope you like it. Follow along for page-by-page updates, sneak peaks and other graphic novel news at Zombie Dinosaurs.

Hope you're enjoying it.

Triple fight at the drop of the puck

I was looking at the NHL boxscores last night and saw that there were a few penalties in the PHI v. OTT game. Here's what happened.

Tomb of the Undead update

Hey, back from holidays, meaning I've finally got another update to Tomb of the Undead.

Check it out, even though it's short.

Port Perry makes the Toronto Star...

... which is usually a bad thing. In any case, I guess Port Perry ALLEGEDLY has its own share of sneaky shysters. Although, after a judge makes his ruling, you've been sentenced as a shyster, I guess.

Judge orders man to repay bank $90,000 paid in error

Peter Small
Toronto Star

A judge has ordered a Port Perry man to repay the Toronto-Dominion Bank $90,000 in cash given to him in error by a Stouffville branch five years ago.

Two low-ranking bank employees were later fired because of the mistake, made after William Zaparanuik came on Oct. 18, 2005 to pick up a pre-arranged $10,000 he wanted to pay for a used truck.

Staff quickly noticed they had given Zaparanuik $100,000 — 10 bundles of $100 bills stuffed in a black bag — $90,000 more than he came for.

But, by that time the sheet metal contractor had left.

The branch’s manager, William McKinney, and a teller drove to Zaparanuik’s work site and asked for the money back.

But he refused, claiming he only received $10,000.

The bank sued.

The branch manager testified that when he arrived at Zaparanuik’s work site, the contractor told him that if he was paid too much money, it was the bank’s fault.

“Mr. McKinney told the defendant that that was not how it worked, and that the defendant would be responsible for the extra money,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter Lauwers.

Zaparanuik denied any such conversation took place, testifying that the bank manager was not specific about the problem.

The judge did not believe Zaparanuik.

“His first response, that it was the bank’s mistake and the bank’s fault, shows how Mr. Zaparanuik decided to play the situation,” the judge wrote.

“He made the wrong choice.”

The contractor knew he had been paid $100,000 in error, Lauwers ruled. “He saw it as an opportunity.”

An honest person would have produced all the evidence for the bank immediately, Lauwers wrote. “Instead, he disposed of or destroyed that evidence.”

Lauwers granted Toronto-Dominion Bank $90,000, plus interest.

He rejected the 33-year-old man’s counterclaim for damages for malicious prosecution and to recover legal costs associated with defending himself from a criminal charge.

Acting on the bank’s complaint, police charged him with theft over $5,000, but the Crown later withdrew the charge. It cost him $25,774.85 in legal fees to defend the criminal charge

Zaparanuik had tax problems because his mutual fund account, from which he normally made his tax payments, was frozen by the bank. He is now seriously in arrears on his income taxes.

Calls to Zaparanuik’s lawyers were not returned.

For the record, this isn't the TD Bank in town here in the Port. Our ATM machine doesn't work, and they don't convert pesos back into currency. [They say I have to go to Oshawa to find a bank that will do it.]

Why can't they suck in my favour, too? At least if I had $90,000 of theirs, they'd bargain with me a little and exchange my $20 back into Canadian currency.

Dinosaur news!

I have a huge backup of dinosaur news to post about - so let's see if I can't get through some of this before heading to work.

China's earliest fossils of small carnivorous dinosaurs discovered
People's Daily Online [English]
(Chinese paper)

Fossils of a small carnivorous dinosaur, which lived in the same period with the Lufengosaurus were recently discovered, in Lufeng and these are currently China's earliest fossils of small carnivorous dinosaurs, according to the Lufeng National Dinosaur and Geological Park in Yunnan Province on Oct. 7.

Experts have deduced that it was able to run fast and possessed predatory abilities. Therefore, it is a kind of small carnivorous theropod dinosaur and the rock formation in which the fossils were discovered was formed 180 million years ago during the early Jurassic period.

The fossils are single dinosaur skeleton fossils with a relevant complete overall shape. The morphogenesis of the skeleton including the skull, vertebrae, rachis and ribs are clear, while the tailbone was damaged.

A research group led by Dong Zhiming, a well-known dinosaur expert in China, studied the fossils and theorized that the dinosaur is more than 1 meter long and 0.7 meters to 0.8 meters tall, and it walked on two feet and has two forelegs and sharp teeth.

How dinosaurs conquered the world!
Zeenews.com

Toronto: Dinosaurs didn't need to kill other animals to become world beaters, says new research.

According to Canadian and US scientists, dinosaurs - the most powerful creature ever to walk on earth - did not spread throughout the world by killing other creatures but because of a natural catastrophe that wiped out their competitors.

The scientists have come to this conclusion after studying the new dinosaur, named Sarahsaurus, discovered in Arizona where this animal lived about 190 million years ago. It is believed that dinosaurs originated in South America and then rapidly spread out to every corner of the world, overwhelming all the animals in their path.

But the new discovery of Sarahsaurus challenges that view. "Until recently, we have viewed dinosaurs as very successful animals that outcompeted other species wherever they went,'' according to Prof Robert Reisz of the University of Toronto, who studied the species with Prof Tim Rowe of the University of Texas and Hans-Dieter Sues of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

"But this study puts dinosaurs in a very different light-that they were more opportunistic creatures that moved into North America only when a mass extinction event made eco-space available to them,'' the Canadian scientist is quoted as saying.

Ugh - gotta get ready to work instead of blogging - and these links aren't even that good. Bad on me - if you do read this, I'm sorry. I hope to put something of some entertainment up some time soon.

I take requests?

The trip home

The night before travelling for me always seems anxious. To be fair, this is the first sunrise I've seen this week we've been here - and we even had a late night. I hope we can get some sleep on our travels today - and when we get in nice and late tonight, all things considered, we'll have rested up enough to make Monday work out well.

I need to be sure to take some pictures of airports, too.

Sea turtles look like aliens

When they're still small, sea turtles look like ET.



We actually got to release some sea turtles into the ocean - they were hatched "yesterday" so this is how big a new born is.


Newborn turtles aren't 6lbs 8 o. or 5 lbs 12 o. ;)

Bill Hayes fired, Bill Watters fired?!

What?

I really enjoy AM 640's afternoon/evening Watters Show on weekdays. That's my favourite thing about the drive home. Bill Watters and Bill Hayes did a great job together, but now I'm finding out that Bill Hayes has been fired?



I thought he was doing a great job - and if anyone should be off the show it's The Bear and his awful NFL picks. I get that people like the NFL, but that segment, beyond the fun banter, was nothing of any substance, while Bill Hayes was 'Ron MacCleaning' the show for Mr. Watters.

I don't like change.

And now I'm hearing that Bill Watters has been fired from Sportsnets?! I KNOW that he's not as photogenic as he used to be, but shit! Nick Kypreos is what you'd rather have sharing his ideas on ANYTHING?

Source (yes, it's a blog - but it's technically from Steve Simmons' twitter account)

Good news everyone!

@simmonssteve
The media changes continue. Just heard: Bill Watters let go by Rogers Sportsnet

Here are some thoughts on why Watters might not be welcomed on a Sportsnet broadcast, because he's on AM 640 and not on the conglomerate's FAN 590 instead. And 590 won't bump The Bobcat to inject Watters onto the show.

Mexico

Casa della changos

Near our place there is a memorial where there are two monkeys you can go feed. They're a lot of fun, and they like to be fed fruit. After you feed them, they want rest with you (Mexican monkeys take siestas, too). So they'll put their arms and hands out through the bars and they just lay them on you, and then they sit and enjoy having company.

Indirect evidence that I was on horseback

Straight up - we rode horses for two hours yesterday, and it was fun. There was really only one instance where the horse galloped, and thank goodness it was only for a little bit. It was fun.

There are lots of pictures we'll be sure to load up sooner or later.

Mexico is great

Today we went deep sea fishing, and though we didn't catch anything, it was cool to see dolphins and sea turtles out in the wild. My folks saw a whale - and there were some neat sites of the Calima shoreline.

Then a lot of napping. A little disappointed we didn't catch any fish (we were planning on reeling in 300 lbs. marlins) but it was a good time nonetheless.

The weather is outstanding, the location here in Manzanillo is awesome and the food is incredible. A really good time, and I hope to post some pictures sooner or later. There's even a monkey house and an iguana around here, too.

June 2010

June was a big month for us - we moved into our new house and left Peterborough behind. I didn't realize at the time that it would only be temporary - but that's still a long ways away.

Zombie Dinosaurs - Mugabe
At the very beginning of the month I posted the final page to the Mugabe strip I'd written. No one noticed - but I thought it was an important step to "warming up" for Tomb of the Undead.

Lefevre's Redemption
I had two copies of my third draft of Lefevre's Redemption returned to me with critical thoughts. This was important - because I wanted to reread and then reedit the entire thing - which I began, but didn't finish. There's a LOT of work to still go into it - even after editing, it'll be a long while fine-tuning and writing so much of the story. It's at this point that you realize that writing is much more than just typing your thoughts down- the narrative is important, and has to look good and read well, the language you pick has to be clear and consistent. These are things that have to be totally reviewed and fixed before I can submit the story to anywhere. Which I'd still like to do.

Lacrosse with Cogeco
I was helping to run a tv camera for Cogeco for a little while, and we started filming the Peterborough lacrosse team, which was kind of neat. The games were interesting and fun to watch. There's an interesting mix of young and old players, and in one game in particular, one ref got smacked pretty good - and a level three referee was pulled out of the audience to help finish the game. Weird.

I also helped film a dragon boat parade which was cool, sort of. Lots of ladies parading their support for a cure for breast cancer. An interesting day, and it served as my final stint with Cogeco, which was too bad. I did enjoy helping with them.

Kajiji
I have only ever sold one thing on Kajiji - our old BBQ. It was basically scrap metal - I even had to disassemble it for the guy so he could fit it into the back of a VW Jetta. We wound up leaving our washer and dryer at the townhouse in Peterborough (and made some decent cash on them, which was nice).

Guests
I had a few friends stop by one weekend, which was nice, too. An especially good time hanging out with Ben for a couple days, wandering through Peterborough and enjoying nice weather in June.

New House
We assumed ownership of our new house on June 17. A big step for us, and we had a lot of help from a lot of friends and family to get things moved. I'm looking forward to staying put here for a long time - I'd been very transient for a long while trying to keep my possessions to a minimum so moving wasn't a burden. Now, thank goodness, we can move beyond that.

Remember shampooing the rug, sweetie? How about that giant patch of sand? How about signing up for all of the utilities? Fond memories of moving in.

Toronto Maple Leafs
At this point in mid-June everyone was getting excited for the NHL draft, NHL free agency, and believing that the Maple Leafs were going to make some major acquisitions, major moves and make a serious difference to start the 2010/11 season. Their time at the bottom of the standings was going to stop - and they'd be greatly improved.

Kaberle was going to be traded, the draft was going to yield something special, trades were going to bring in talent, and free agency would shore up any of the Leafs' shortcomings. Everyone was looking forward to October already.

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, and everyone (not literally everyone) from Nobleton was excited to see Nick Boynton return with the trophy.

The Leafs named Dion Phaneuf as captain in June, too.

Port Perry
It was a new and exciting town to get to know and experience. The "moonlight madness" was a big start to our time here, which was nice enough. Over the summer it's a busy, cottage town where everyone comes out for the local festivities. Very nice - of course, we got to learn a lot more about it over the last few months.

We had a nice welcome at the Ocala winery, too - a potluck rendezvous with other new homeowners in the Port Perry area. We had a little wagon ride through the orchard, which was pleasant.

Reading list 2010

I'm part way into some new reading material this year and I've been meaning to post some of the books I managed to read over the past year. I think this is all of them -



And here’s the kicker, Mike Sacks



Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton

Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman


The Golden Mountain Murders, David Rotenberg


Thrum’s Hawaiian Folk Tales (incomplete), Thomas G. Thrum


Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton



Eaters of the Dead, Michael Crichton



East of Eden, John Steinbeck




Empire of Illusions (incomplete), Chris Hedges



Strengths Finder, Tom Rath


Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk


The Green Mile, Stephen King

never got to posting this earlier at the beginning of December.

It certainly wasn't a great mustache - but it was the best I've done to date. It was kinda gnarly, but before I shaved it I had to trim it way down - and it actually looked kinda tidy. No matter though - it's all gone.

My face felt weird after a month of not shaving it.