Archive for July, 2010

What’s Next

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

In a few hours I hop on yet another plane. It never seems to end with me, does it? I’ll be on a 36 or so hour journey to my next new home in Guangzhou.

Yet again, I didn’t do all that I wanted to this summer, and yet again I missed seeing a lot of very important people to me. If you’re one of them, then I’m sorry, really I am. I missed seeing most of my friends and many of my family members this time. As usual I crammed too much stuff into not enough time and things kept popping up left, right, and centre.

But I am very excited to head to a new school and start a new life in a new place. Guangzhou is by all accounts a very happening city that I think will suit me well. In the two times that I have been there it seems like an exciting place full of energy and enthusiasm. If that isn’t enough, Hong Kong, the coolest city on the planet, is a short train ride away.

As for what I’ll be doing: I will continue to teach High School Math at an International School. In addition though, I will be taking on a new class for me, Theory of Knowledge. This is the course that is designed to bring all of the subjects together a bit, and runs like a Philosophy class. I am pretty exciting for that. Also, I do plan on setting up a class blog for that, so I’ll be sure to post some links to that around here somewhere.

As always, should any of you happen to be in the area, please drop me a line (preferably not on Facebook as it tends to be blocked). I’d love to meet up and/or hang out.

Hope to see you soon,

Until next time,

G

P.S.  And this is Post number 17…

School Year’s Resolutions 2010-11

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

So I was going to write a post about my New Year’s Resolutions for the upcoming school year.  I looked back at ones that I made last year at around this time and I was shocked, and well I probably shouldn’t have been.

Increased Focus on Teaching, Cook More, Weigh Less, Learn More Chinese, Write More.  My plan for today was to include four of those here today, thinking it was new and fresh.  I would like to think that I succeeded nicely at the first one as I was able to put more focus on my career this year, and I’m proud of that.

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On Kovy

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

It looks like everyone spoke to soon about Ilya Kovalchuk’s mammoth contract with the New Jersey Devils. The NHL has rejected his 17 year, $102 million contract because of cap circumvention. All I can say here is, what took them so long?

Precedent was set for this kind of front-loaded, stupidly long term contracts last year with Chris Pronger, Marian Hossa and Roberto Luongo’s long term contracts. In all three cases the contracts start out huge but taper off very rapidly, and takes them all past their obvious playing days.

While this may not seem like a big deal, it is something that really shouldn’t be allowed. In all cases the Devils, Flyers, Blackhawks, and Canucks all are creatively getting around the cap. They are signing these player for longer than they will play, knowing full well that they will retire before the contract runs out. Once the players retire, they still get paid but their salary does not count against the cap.

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The Pinnacle of The Internet

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Every so often something comes along and changes the face of what we know.  A few years ago we had the OK Dance Video, before that “All Your Base”, and now we have something so amazing that it simply escapes words.  I love people that don’t have lives…

The LeBron James nWo video…the greatest thing ever achieved in the Internet bar none.

Until next time,

G

P.S.  14 down, 3 to Go!

“I Can’t Do Math”

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Let’s do a bit of an experiment today, shall we?

Say we have two well educated, intelligent people, both of who did very well in school, but each had one subject that they struggled with and just plain didn’t get. Now, imagine them each saying the following things:

Person A: I really can’t read much. I mean, I was good at it in elementary school, but when the books stopped having pictures I couldn’t do it anymore. And really, what’s the point? All the best books are movies now anyway.

Person B: I really can’t do math. I mean, I was good at it in elementary school, but when letter started showing up I got to confused. And really, what’s the point? I have an accountant to do it all for me now anyway.

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Shades of Wrestlemania – 7 Months in Advance

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Well it’s been a while since I have done this.  With Money in the Bank all over and Summerslam just around the corner.  It is as good of a time as any to make some guesses for the really big show that will be coming our way in March.  I have a feeling it will be a good one.  And it may just look like this…

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Dear Mother: The Rain

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

Just a bit of context before we get to the main body of the post.  I wrote this as a bit of a stream of conscious rant/creative piece a few months ago.  I had meant to post it to the blog here, but I think that I got too busy and never got around to it.  It’s meant to be a fictional letter to my mother, and I hope to have more of these done in the future.
Enjoy…

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Why Not Canada?

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

One of the more interesting things to circulate both TSN and The Globe and Mail last week was the six-part, multi-platform story where they investigated the possibility of Canada adding a seventh NHL team, title Why Not Canada?. They looked at four potential locations for franchises including Winnipeg, Hamilton, Quebec City, and a second team in the Greater Toronto Area.

If you did not get a chance to either watch it on Sports Centre, or read it, I highly suggest that you do it now. It was a very interesting and intelligent look at the different locations and went beyond the “We Want a Team Here” and looked at the building, corporate support, legal issues, and regional demographics.

After it was all said and done, they seemed to be high on the possibility of a team in either Winnipeg or Quebec, and not so much on adding a third team to Ontario. As much as I would love a team in Southwestern Ontario, or in Toronto, I think that I understand the situation now.

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Nerdy Little Secrets

Friday, July 16th, 2010

While this blog has been dedicated to The Nerdy Things in Life, I feel that I haven’t really used this space to honestly and truly geek out.  That changes here and now.

A little while ago I touched base with an old friend, Brian.  He recently started a blog called The City State of Balic (which you can see a link from to you right if you look for it) which is primarily dedicated to the nerdiest of nerdy endeavors, Dungeons & Dragons.  He sent me an e-mail a little over a week ago with an idea.  He and I would join together and make a D&D setting, each taking part time responsibility for things.  So far it has been really fun reconnected with that nerdy side of my life, and an old friend.  While we are still in the draft stages, the setting got off to a good start.  We both included some “creative” sections to lay a bit of the land for our planet which I’ll include here…

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New York, I Love You

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

I never gave the US much of a chance. I spent my travel time, money, and energy on far away places in Europe and Asia. I mean, why would I go to my closest neighbour when I can go to China or Greece?

I always felt like this was the right decision. I mean, I can always go to a closer place where everyone speaks English when I’m older, slower, and less adventurous. Also, maybe the difficulty entering the US would loosen up in the coming years, so why bother, right?

There was of course, one place in the country that I wanted to go, but never felt the need or pull like I had for places like Paris or Beijing. I mean, I had seen it in almost every movie and television show that I had ever turned on. So why bother going to a place like New York? I mean, I had practically been there already without leaving my own home.

And then, last year happened. I start dating someone from The City (as it tends to be known) and I go for a few day visit.

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