Tuesday Morning Diversion

You know what? This blog has been pretty weak lately. No real original content. No real thought put into any of the writing. Little more than mindless, mildly amusing YouTube clips and cut-and-paste news stories. So I feel like I need to apologize.

The reason behind this recent slacking is that I've been devoting most of my sparish time to the editing process, and the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside as a result. Believe me when I say that if it were up to me, I'd be blogging rather than editing, but sometimes that's just the price you have to pay.

So here are a few of the interesting things I've been stockpiling of late. I meant to write in depth about all of them, but I guess you'll just have to settle for the links and a token word-bite for now. I'll be in NYC for the next five days, so this might be it for awhile.


(As a side note, I have been for years extolling the virtues of http://www.thesaurus.com/... I tell everyone I know that it's one of the top-five most useful websites on the internet, I happily link to them in most of my blog entries... Hell, I even subscribe to their sister site's word of the day! And then just when I need them the most; as in, when I need them to help me slash and cut the work I've been toiling with for the better part of the past five years; they go ahead and completely abandon me. Apparently now, thesaurus.com charges a nominal fee for access to their premium content, only giving the poor people like myself {read: cheap} the shitty dregs of what they have to offer for free. This goes against every principle behind the internet, and is depriving children the world over with access to highbrow synonyms and better diction. It's a complete travesty, and because of this premium content bullshit, I've actually had to resort to something I never thought I would have to again: using the paperback thesaurus I got for Christmas when I was 18... My God, I feel like it's the late 90's all over again. Is that the theme music to 90210 I hear?)



Letting Go, by David Sedaris

A great piece from the New Yorker about one man's steadfast refusal to give up the habit despite the overwhelming evidence suggesting that he probably should. I like the way he eventually thinks of his quitting: the cigarettes he was alloted in life have all run out, and as a result, he is finished with smoking.



Yankee Stadium - Old vs. New

Very few people know this, but I used to have an unhealthy obsession with classic ballparks. In fact, some might argue that I still do. In any event, this obsession has taken me all over North America in my attempts to visit some of the finest cathedrals our culture has to offer. In my opinion, it is a shame that the Steinbrenners are tearing down The House That Ruth Built. I was fortunate enough to catch David Wells take a perfect game into the 7th inning (four months after throwing his famous perfect game) in some of the most ridiculously good seats I've ever sat in (courtesy of my Unkle Mike), and the vibe in that stadium was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before in my life. The crowd standing and cheering everytime Boomer got two strikes on a guy; roaring thunderously everytime he mowed another down; a standing ovation every time he walked off the mound... Finally, I thought: now I know what a baseball game is supposed to feel like. It really was one of the highlights of my life.

So anyway, I'll be hitting up Yankee Stadium for the last time this weekend, and even though it will be sad to see the old yard go, I have to admit that the new digs look pretty special. And I love the fact that they're keeping the field's dimensions identical. Hopefully they can manage to keep that same Bronx charm that makes the stadium such a joy to visit.



Quite possibly the coolest album title of all time: My Get Up and Go Just Got Up and Went, by Ass.


Best possible weapon to have in a riot? How about a bass drum:





Where was this kid when I was getting my ass kicked at flip-cup?





And finally, for anyone interested in the the dangers of greenwashing and the fascinating world of sustainable roofing, feel free to check out this piece I wrote for an Alberta Trade Publication... Yeah, that's right: an Alberta Trade Publication. No telling where things'll go from here.

Relative Sustainability, by Sean McCallum