el oh el

SO I guess Saturday was the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. On it they had this new "rap" video. It's just 2 dudes rappin' about absolution nothing, but its totally hilarious and catchy!
Apparently the new guy in the videos is part of a trio of guys that did comedy stuff in LA that got hired by SNL. The other 2 are now writers for the show.
So here are 2 other videos they did before SNL. The Nintendo one being VERY funny for any of us who played the old NES as kids.
Just 2 Guyz
Nintendo (Oh and a bit of bad language in this one)

Indoor Soccer League - Futsal

This is the indoor soccer league that I play in on Monday nights. It's a lot of fun and very competitive. I actually find it a quite harder work out than hockey too, although I am definitely a better in hockey.
I am on the "Rangers" and as you can see we are in second last. But we did tie the team in first last week, so we can be good apparently.
It's awesome that someone put it together because I really thought there would only be hockey to play this winter which I was a little sad about.

Lord of the Manor

So Anne is gone for 3 days, including today, and so I am the king of the castle. I have lot to do however, as I am finally finishing the walls of Maya's cubby hole which will be a sort of play room for her. We plan on showing it to her on Christmas.
I also have numerous presents to put together and wrap and general tidying to do.
It just may be possible that I may fit in 1 or 2 gaming sessions as well... ;)

Death to Santa Claus

Anne and I are not going to do Santa Claus with Maya. We both think his entire purpose is commercial and in directed contrast to the true meaning of Christmas. We give presents at Christmas because that is what the wisemen brought baby Jesus, not because some fat guy dressed in ridiculous clothes brought us gifts because we were "good".

So thus, when I took Maya to the Early Years Centre yesterday and at circle time 80% of the songs were about Santa, and none has any religious anything in them, I grew a little irritable.
I just find the whole concept of Santa, and what he represents in this day and age, totally contrary to the Christian message and what we should be thinking about. And it causes all sorts of strife as well. Anne's sister, for instance, has renounced Christmas all together in her household, something clearly brought on by a Santa-centric society. They are not giving or receiving any presents, which is something I cannot blame them for considering how people and kids seem to act this time of year.
We even recently hear a parent admonishing her child, "You had better start behaving, Santa doesn't bring presents to bad little boys". Stuff like that really makes me mad.

So of course this brings up the whole problem of what an anti-Santa Maya will say to other kids.
For example:
Little boy: "Santa, brought me a new computer, I must have been really good!"
Maya: "Santa didn't bring you the computer, your parents did. Santa doesn't exist, stupid"
Little boy: "Does too, does too!" *cries* *runs away*

I hope to teach her a little diplomacy in this area so this doesn't happen. But it probably will, oh well. Obviously she knows about Santa now, but we will teach her what we think about it.
I think, overall, this will make Christmas easier for my family in the years to come.

Tall Pines Pictures

This will be the last Tall Pines post until I have the video footage.

Here are pictures Ian and ourselves took (mostly Ian though).

Ours our the first few, then you can tell that Ian's photography skills far surpass ours.

Johnston makes it around the "S" bend! His girlfriend screams shrillly, as if cheering, in the background. 

Rally of the Tall Pines

So on Saturday, Anne, Ian, Heather, Chester, Tim and I ventured up to Bancroft to watch the rally. Since it was a bigger group this time things moved a little slower and we missed the first couple of cars on the first pass, but no big deal. But say them all the next 2 times at that first spectator area and had a great time. Everyone listed to the advise to dress warm and cold toes were the only complaint. The night stages viewing also impressed everyone a great deal as well.
It was Anne's, Heather's, Chester's and Tim's first time at a rally and they seemed to have their expectations exceed. Anne had even said how we will do things differently next year thus inferring that she plans to go again?! Chester was quite pleased to have gone and had a great time, but I didn't talk to Tim enough to know how he felt.
Anne and I also met Ian's girlfriend Heather for the first time and were very pleased to have done so. We both enjoyed her company immensely. She and Anne got along great and we can't wait to get together again soon.
So it was an excellent day and Maya was apparently an angel for Andrea and John who graciously cared for her all day. I am sure Anne will recount her experience as well.

This Hyundai Tiburon won the rally. Definately the smoothest driver we saw all day. A well deserved win.
He was just coming off of a fairly sharp turn here. 

Across the bridge. This guy came in second.

Only one car really can into the sides of the bridge when we were at this spectator part. But they didn't damage anything or slow down at all. 

Another action shot from last years rally. Pat Richard, the driver here, did not finish due to technical difficulties but is the #1 north american driver. I hope he makes it this year.
There are tons of really good entries so far this year and its look like more top cars are entered than last year already. 

It's time to Raaallllllyyyyy

The Rally of the Tall Pines is on November 26th.
Who wants to come this year? Anne is coming and we are meeting with my friend Ian and his girlfriend Heather. I have some other "maybes" but I need some firm commitments so I know of I want to try and borrow my parents van. We leave early Satuday morning to make it to Bancroft at about 9-9:30am and won't be back until well after midnight. It should be an awesome day, with fast cars, good food and good friends. Dress warm though. 

big guy with a beard

Today Anne and I went to Home Depot. While we were in the line at the check out Anne went to grab one last thing. No one was behind us so I stepped sideways to grab a couple of 9V batteries. While I was trying to grab a 2 pack of them an older couple come up to the line and so I stepped sideways in front of them (and their load of lumber I might add) and said "oh sorry in am in the line I was just grabbing some batteries". Not a big deal.. or so I though.
The old guy says "Oh look at me, I am a big guy with a beard and I can do what I want!". I laugh in a my head until I realize he is serious. I turn around, mouth agape and say " No seriously we were here and just were looking at batteries for a second.". The man replies bitterly, "oh well then, if you are in such a hurry just go right in front of me then!".
I just shrugged and turned around. Then a new till opened and they got in first of that new line.
I guess I looked suitably menacing today :)

Maya the Flower Girl

Here is not one, not two, but 80 pictures of Maya the Flower Girl. Once we got her in the dress she loved it. For the second set we took in the park the other day, she was actually pretty photogenic.

A nice fall trail.
On the Bruce Trail near Kimberey. For fun we walked up one of Talismans most difficult run on our way back to our car.

Some nice fall scenery. The view from some spots was amazing. 

We stopped for lunch on the trail, Maya enjoyed sucking on the hydration pack. 

The trail was a bit rough and the leaves were hiding a lot of the roots and stones, but Maya walked for some of it. 

Here is a coool animated music video, its electronic music featuring asian instruments. I have no idea who the group is.
Be warned, the are mermaid boobies. Gasp!

Want to teach in Japan? Think twice.

Here is a great site, kind of like a blog, detailing an american's experiences while teaching english in japan. Its absolutely hilarious. Japanese are very strange people.
I am glad "Kancho" isn't something kids are into around here.

We lost our cell phone and...

A couple of months Anne lost our cell phone. We think she took it on a transfer and since then we haven't seen it. We don't use it for anything except to keep in the car for emergencies and other calls one occasionally has to make on the road. I don't think we have every used more than 15 minutes in a month.
So today I finally get around to going to the Bell Store (its exactly 2 blocks away) and do something about it.
It ends up that our plan had an upgrade option and I get a new phone for free. Then the phone I supposed to get was missing something and it was the last one so I get an even better one. So we ended up with this one, which is exactly what I was hoping for but doubted it would happen without a lot of money exchanging hands. We will probably start using it more, just so we can play with it :)
Not only that, but apparrently CAA members get deal when you get a $20/mo rate which will save us even more!
So everything working out very well. I think we better lose this phone in a couple of years so we can see what kind of deal we can wrangle then too.