The Starbucks Corporation

The next time you pass a Starbucks – and there will be a next time, as long as you leave the house – check out their new promotion for Starbucks Via. And be afraid. Be very afraid. The new logo for Starbucks Via – which is instant coffee, by the way – ew, remind you of anything? Have you seen or read The Corporation lately? Creepy! Doesn’t Starbucks have people to point these things out? Didn’t someone, in some boardroom, put up there hand and suggest that a logo that looks a hell of a lot like that of The Corporation might be making a bit of a statement about a corporation – ahem, sorry, company – like Starbucks?

Admission: I do really like big chain coffee – Tim Horton’s is my favorite, so I’m not trying to say I’m not paying the man too. But at least I’m paying him less (a lot less), and for better coffee (mmmmm). And I can order a large. LARGE. If I bought in to the lingo and ordered a Grande Orange Mocha Frappuccino, I’m afraid I wouldn’t know where to draw the line. The next day I’d yell, “gasoline fight!” and who needs a burning nasty death. So I’m sticking to Tims.

Warrior Hockey

This fall, Kristin is playing varsity hockey for the Waterloo Warriors. Very cool, you say? I agree. The week I got to check out two of the games. There was an exhibition game against Team China last Wednesday, and yesterday was the home opener against the Western Mustangs.

The game against the Chinese National team was pretty sweet to watch. It really felt like an event – like a big deal. Kristin played really well and almost scored a goal. It was a fast and entertaining game, but alas, a big W, 8-2. As a spectator, the game felt a lot closer than that. Waterloo had a rough second period, allowing at least a handful of breakaways. The third was much better – if China scored at all, it was only 1. (I don’t remember).

After the game they did some shootouts for practice (or practice and funsies, I don’t know) – Funsies for the spectators either way. Actually, we didn’t know that they were doing shootouts at all until it started happening. That’s because something was up with the announcements, by which I mean the crowd, at least where we were sitting, couldn’t hear a word of it. Just noise. A girl sitting to my right lost her cell phone, and figured it went under the bleachers. When she tried to go get it, she couldn’t find it. I was telling Kristin about it on the walk home, and she asked if the girl went to go claim it when they announced that someone had found a missing phone. Ha!

Yesterday’s home game was also great, and a WIN. J I thought the Warriors dominated. After killing off a five-on-three penalty at the end of the first, they put in the first goal just before the buzzer went. Page may or may not have yelled, “Damn straight!” They scored again in the second period, and kept the pressure on. It looked like there were sitting pretty when part was through the third period, the Warriors made it three-zip. The third goal was called back, ruled a kick-in. When I say “ruled a kick-in”, I mean I have no idea officially when the third goal was called back. I did hear an angry fan yell, “What are you blind ref?? That was NOT a KICK IN”, so that’s what I’m going to go with. So 2-0 Warriors with time running out. With about 3 minutes left, Western manages to apply some pressure and put one it. This didn’t seem like a big problem until they managed to find the back of the net after pulling the goalie in a play I can only describe as a cluster-fuck mob. Oh no! Tied!

The game remained tied after 5 minutes of overtime, although there were a few chances on either end. Good thing they practiced shootouts the other day, hey? The good guys came out on top, you can put it in the win column, the day was saved, and any other sports cliche you can think of.

ps. When I say "yesterday", I mean last weekend. I wrote the blog on the bus and didn't post it until now.

Ecofont – Less is More

Reading National Geographic is almost always rewarding for me. The other day was leafing through one in a coffee shop and read an article on Ecofont. A Dutch company called SPRANQ came up with the idea of creating an environmentally friendly font. If you want to try it, download it here – it’s free.

Ecofont has as much of each letter removed as possible, while maintaining readability. The font is full of holes, which means less toner is required when it comes time to print. The amount of ink saved the size of the font, but it can use up to 20 % less ink.

Less is more – Ecofont’s tag line - could be taken in many ways. Some offices/employees/people are so wasteful with printing. Making an effort to only print what you really need could save ink and paper at the same time – lots of ink and paper. Print quality and colour (or lack thereof) makes a big difference. Setting your printer’s default settings to black and white with lesser quality is a good idea. That way if you forget and hit print in a hurry, you won’t get a colourful surprise. If you really need good quality printing for your work, then you’ll be checking the settings anyway and can change to a higher quality.

That said, printing does happen, even if you are mindful to print only what you need too*. Why not try Ecofont? They even have a version for businesses.

Random thought**: SPRANQ sounds a bit like someone new to English trying to say thank you***.

*if you print this blog post, you are an asshole.
**I am an asshole.
***if you laughed at that, you are an asshole.

Beware of Zombies!

No, really. On Saturday, I was walking down King Street in Waterloo when I ran into a group* of the undead. I’ll repeat: The undead. The leader of the pack was a man with a large bushy beard (fake) and a black, shiny machine gun (plastic). He was directing a pack of about thirty zombies! They zombies lurched and moaned their way down the street, occasionally calling for fresh blood. I saw them accost several living people, one who offered his youngest daughter to them if he might be spared. His older daughter squealed in delight at his. His younger daughter also squealed – I’d say she was about eight – but I think it was half delight and half fear. I managed to duck into the hardware store unharmed**.

Again, WHUT? I had run into the 2009 Waterloo Zombie Walk. How cool is that? We looked it up on the internet later that night. I really hope that they have another one on Halloween. How scary would that be? All of the zombies were in full character with impressive costumes. These folks went all out! There website says that if a human is bitten, and that human is lucky, they might be allowed to join the undead and walk for a few blocks. I should have done it! That would have been so much fun!

If you happen to be in Waterloo, watch out for the zombies, or maybe even join them.

* a gang of undead? a shuffle of undead? a posse of undead? a cloud of zombies? a pack of zombies?

** I think with my massive and nasty head cold, the zombie saw me lurching and moaning down the street and figured I was already one of them.

Fall in Waterloo

A Long Way Gone, What is the What and the Time Traveler’s Wife

I had three more books that I would recommend. If you are pressed for reading time, don’t stop reading my blog so you can go read the books are said were good. But that said, chop chop. Winter is coming. Hibernate with a good book. Or three.

Two are books about kids and war-torn countries: Ishmael Beah’s Long Way Gone and Dave Egger’s What Is the What. Both were excellent, although after spending that much time reading about death and destruction, I was pretty damn ready to get lost in some relaxing fiction. This came in the form of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Rookie and I recently went to go see the movie version of The Time Traveler’s Wife. It looked good, the weather was nasty, and Eric Bana is dreamy. (You'd never know Eric Bana is Australian by watching this movie. His American accent is bang on). Kristin had read the book already that enjoyed. Plus, I had already finished the book I brought, so I needed something to read on the bus ride home. Seeing the movie first didn’t spoil the book at all, and instead allowed me to enjoy the extra detail and depth while picturing Eric Bana as Henry. I found myself getting very lost in the story, in the good way. I took it with me to read on the subway, not because I was bored, but being I was addicting. If you’re looking for a quick and enjoyable breezy fiction, check it out.

A Long Way Gone was gripping enough that when I moved to Toronto half way through my reading borrowed it on “extended loan*”. I finished it shortly after I got here - I just opened it up and found a bunch of pictures and even my ticket stub (I think I might have finished it on the plane). The book is written by a boy from Sierra Leone, now in his late twenties and living in New York. His account of his childhood is a disturbing but interesting and intriguing story. I was grimacing as I read in several parts, but I didn’t find it to be too much - that was depressing or why would I want to read that? over kill. I didn’t love it enough to blog about it as soon as I finished it, but that probably has more to do with my timing that it does with the book.

What is the What is considered a work of fiction. It’s the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, who grew up in a civil war-ridden Sudan. Deng is a very interesting fellow, and he has a website- clikc here if you would like to see it. Dave Eggers ‘helps’ with the writing (or maybe he writes the whole thing? Or barely any of it? I wonder) and the account of events long ago is so detailed that the book was classified as fiction. (A Long Way Gone is considered non-fiction, but again, it’s difficult to say how much was exactly as it happened. Beah was traumatized, starved and drugged, which isn’t exactly an easy state to remember word for work a conversation that one had at age 11).

I’ve read one other book by Dave Eggers, his first: Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I would also recommend. I'd like to find some more work by him, having read and enjoyed there two, plus listening to a speech by him on TED (an interesting website!).

Deng’s story is a crazy one, which of course makes it very interesting. It’s very well written, which I’m sure is a perk of getting a veteran author like Egger’s involved in the project. I sure was ready for some pleasure reading (I’m now onto some Stuart McLean – Vinyl Cafe Diaries, but What is the What is a book well worth reading.

*thanks Mom.

Capitals Take the Northeast

The Capitals won NE Regionals this weekend, securing a bid (and third seed!) to Nationals in Florida.

Colours

I'm trying some new colours - let me know what you think. Now if I could just figure out where "change sidebar subject colour" (still white) is....

ps. thanks to my Dad for pointing out white is not the easiest colour to read.

Trunkit Moves To Tdot

It’s about time that Trunkit saw the world. He has to be at least twenty now, possibly more like twenty-three or twenty four. Trunkit and I go way back. I can’t remember where I got him, he’s so old. He lived on top of my bookcase in my condo in Calgary. Today, since my folks sent me my bike trainer (and some other stuff) - surprise! Trunkit moved to Toronto. Who would have thunk it? Ughhhw1.

Trunkit was just as I remembered him. Do you remember these stuffed animals? You know, from the eighties. Trunkit is a Wrinkles Dog, with the puppet whole in the back of his head - except he’s the elephant. One thing I didn’t remember about Trunkit was how he is dressed. Flowered onesie, matching bows in his hair…it seems like he’s always wearing that. I think Trunkit is going to get along in Toronto just fine.

1 – barf noise, because that was so cheesy and terrible I can’t believe I’m leaving it in print.

Traffic and BoomBoomBoom but No Monkeys

I was in Ottawa for a Capitals practice weekend, gearing up for NE Regionals in Boston. Actually, it’s pretty hard to think about anything else. While my team was practicing and gearing up, the NW and the kids at home were playing to go to Florida.

Traffic (Vancouver women’s) and Psychoplastique (Edmonton mixed, plus a few friends from Calgary) both made it through. Congratulations guys! To see their results, click here (Traffic) or here (Psycho).

Unfortunately, there will be no Monkeys in Florida in 2009, as Furious George (Vancouver men’s) came fourth in the NW. Sorry boys. NW men's results are here.

Ps. The weather at the practice weekend was pretty good and far better than the forecast. Terri described the Salt Lake City weather as crazy, including a 'mix of flurries and lightning'. Ouch!