Supposedly these rules were part of a speech Mr. Gates was giving to a high school graduating class.  I highly doubt that, but they’re still funny and relevant even though I’ve had this email for at least ten years now. Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it.   Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.   Rule 3: You will NOT make forty thousand dollars a year right out of high school.  You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.   Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.  He doesn’t have tenure.   Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping.  They ...

I really have no idea how old this one is.  I remember receiving it as far back as the late 90’s.  Its funny how times and personal opinions change over the years.  Turns out Article V is kinda, sorta not valid anymore and I’m not in favour of the death penalty anymore except in extreme cases.  (i.e. serial child molesters … I don’t know, do we really need them?) Anyway, I of course am not American.  But a number of these things really ought to be common sense for everyone.  So … enjoy! ”We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, deluded, and other Bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a ...

I don't know what it is about Rob Ford that irks me so. Could be any number of things. The fact that he's such a die-hard conservative doesn't immediately colour his character for me, but it does make me wary. The hypocrisy? Perhaps, that's a big irritant for me usually. Is it that he seems so backward to me, as I'm coming from the progressive heartland of Calgary? It's not even that he's an arrogant turd ball. It's that he knows he's an arrogant turd ball and strives to contain it because he knows it won't sit well with the public. But sometimes it slips out ... Case in point, again: Mr. Ford is ambushed on his property by the CBC's formerly hilarious although less hilarious in recent years fake news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The details of his most recent spoiled frat boy antics are readily available on the Internet: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/27/rob-ford-911-call.html?cmp=rss http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/10/27/rob-ford-makes-a-bad-situation-worse/ http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1076717--ford-swore-at-911-dispatcher-report?bn=1 ... oh what the heck, there are so many sources: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rob+ford+9-1-1 Now my point is not that Ford has to expect ...

I usually don't put too much stock into the performance of any NHL team until the 10 game mark. By then you can get a better sense of who they are, who they want to be and what blocks there are preventing them from getting there, if any. That being said ... Here I am anyway with some thoughts after the Flames have played only eight games. It is roughly 10% of the schedule though so maybe I'm not violating too many karmic rules. What irks me is the seemingly constant work on "discovering the team identity". This seems to happen nearly every season and by the time the team has decided on who they want to be 20-25 games have passed and they are looking at a 10-15 point difference between themselves and the last playoff spot. Now I know that this off-season saw some comparatively major changes in tone around the Flames, with the new general manager putting stamps on things and bringing in his type of players. But when is it going to end? With ...

(Found this old rant of mine on archive.org … thought I’d re-post it just for kicks.) (Original posting date May 2000) What should we talk about today? How about hockey? How about the fall of the Toronto Maple Leafs? No. Although the commercial brand of hockey sprouting from Toronto is fun to laugh about, how about the fact that the Calgary Flames will be leaving town in three years, on the outside? Is this official? Not yet. But let's face it. With the deadline to renew season's tickets less than a week from now, the Flames have a 30% renewal rate. That's approximately 3000 tickets. They've sold 1500 new seasons tickets so far in their drive to ensure "Flames Forever". All said that's 4500 people paying for the seat even if they aren't there. That's almost 10000 short of the number they've demanded that they have sold by June 30th. Are 10000 Calgarians going to show up in the next 7 weeks to buy tickets? No. ...