UPDATE, November 23, 2007, 6:30 a.m. No buys! It was announced officially today that UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra suffered a herniated disc in his lower back in a freak training accident on Monday and after being examined, pulled out today of his match with Matt Hughes, scheduled for 12/29 in Las Vegas.
UPDATE, November 17, 2007, 5:24 p.m. American tax dollars at work The State of Georgia loses its mind and writes rules for professional wrestling. (Link opens PDF.)
The document contains such helpful information as this: "When any part of a contestant’s body is touching the ropes or is outside the ropes or if, in the judgment of the referee, the contestant is no longer able to properly protect him/herself, the referee shall call time and the contestants at once shall release any holds and return to the center of the ring to standing positions and resume the bout."
UPDATE, November 17, 2007, 3:50 p.m. I was trolling around today finding some wrestling-related stuff and ran across this fine comment about one Mr. Irv Muchnick's diatribes about my review of the Chris Benoit book. Scroll down to the late October entries for the full story.
UPDATE, November 16, 2007, 7:09 p.m. Christian singer Amanda Falk (from Winnipeg!) was at our church this past week as part of her Beautiful Unique Girl tour. My daughter Nicole had a blast, and took some vidoes, which we've posted.
BEAUTIFUL
DIAMOND
And a picture of Amanda and Nicole:
UPDATE, November 12, 2007 3:34 p.m. The movie tally for the weekend: Spiderman 3 was OK. It suffered from TOO MUCH STUFF. Transformers was great. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Ratatouille was just as good as I remembered it from seeing it this past summer.
UPDATE, November 12, 2007 7:25 a.m. Ah ... the joys of being a civil servant: I actually get long weekends off. Today is going to be a nice quiet day at home watching movies with my wife. We watched Spiderman 3 yesterday. Today is Transformers and possibly Ratatouille ... if our movie rental store has it in stock.
UPDATE, November 11, 2007, 5:38 p.m. For years, wrestling fans like myself have worried that our secret would be revealed. And now it has been ...
UPDATE, November 10, 2007, 4:06 p.m. Well, the Edmonton Sun needs a new publisher. I'm not terribly surprised, as it was an open secret when I was at Sun Media that Gord Norrie wanted to move back to Calgary and be the publisher of the Calgary Sun. And having Gord as the publisher of both Edmonton and Calgary was one of those goofy Quebecor ideas that, I suspect, didn't quite pan out the way the company wanted. Kinda like most of Quebecor's goofy plans - like having someone in London, Ontario, write editorials for the Edmonton Sun.
It's kind of funny because last I checked, the Edmonton Journal needs a publisher, too.
Maybe Sun Media and CanWest can save some money and find some "efficiencies" by hiring one person to publish both papers, eh?
It's interesting, too, that CanWest is now starting to copy all of Sun Media's mistakes. I swear, the newspaper business in Canada is run by people who have no idea how to run newspapers.
UPDATE, November 10, 2007 I've been playing around with video editing software, figuring that since my digital camera takes video, I might as well do something more with it that burn it on CDs for family. Here's a couple of clips of our Hawaii trip. More videos at my YouTube site.
UPDATE, November 5, 2007 Wacky search strings leading to this site: "Casting Crowns in Shrek Movie"
UPDATE, November 3, 2007 I'm sitting here at the breakfast table, waiting for my toast. It is 8:03 a.m. It is DARK outside - the kind of "barely twilight" that at any other time of the year would indicate that it was 4 a.m.
My body, meanwhile, still thinks that it is 4 a.m. because it is DARK outside. Did I mention that it's 8 a.m.? And that on any other day, I'd be at work already? In the DARK?
In short, screw this extension of daylight time. Which, fortunately, ends tonight.
UPDATE, October 24, 2007 Without any comment from me whatsoever...
A guy named Mike Jenkinson wrote a review of Benoit in which he states, “If there is one glaring omission …, it is that the book does not raise the possibility that Benoit had been suffering from brain damage.”
I sent him a note gently pointing out that the book does just that in one passage.
On his blog, writing with all the grace of a sledgehammer pounding a feather into a pneumatic tube, Jenkinson huffs and puffs. This “hardly changes … my opinion” that the book is deficient in dealing with concussions, he says. The only problem is that the sentence, as published, wasn’t an opinion that the book was deficient in this area; it was a flat, and inaccurate, statement that the book “does not raise the possibility.”
Clearly this is an individual who treats the act of reading as an imposition.
Irv Muchnick
UPDATE, October 22, 2007 It seems that Irv Muchnick has taken umbrage with one particular element of my review of the new Benoit book.
Irv writes me in an e-mail: "I think, however, that your complaint that the book doesn't deal with concussion syndrome (evidently a beef with the book as a whole, not just my chapter) isn't entirely on the mark. See the bottom of page 141. It's true that this topic is not presented as a specific forensic of the Benoit case and is layered in an essay style you don't like. But calling "not so easily forgivable" what was, at worst, half of an omission sounds a bit over the top."
Accusing me of being over the top is quite funny considering the source.
But I digress.
So here is what Irv wrote in his chapter: "Benoit, like The Dynamite Kid, regularly took diving head butts off the top rope, even after missing a year of action with a broken neck. He also took chair shots to the back of the head, "which is stupid," anti-concussion crusader and former wrestler Chris Nowinski said."
There. That's the "bottom of page 141."
So, yes. Concussions were mentioned in the book.
Once.
That hardly changes my review, or my opinion (and Muchnick seems to have forgotten here that book reviews are basically someone's opinion of a book), that the book has a big hole in it - that being the impact of all these concussions and what role they might have played in the terrible events that unfolded.
I should also note, for the record, that none of the other authors have written me with any concerns about the book. But Irv has. Twice.
UPDATE, October 21, 2007 Irv Muchnick, one of the four co-authors of the new Chris Benoit book, has has responded to my review of the book.
UPDATE, October 19, 2007 I'm back with some actual content, as I review the new Chris Benoit book for my good friends at Slam Wrestling.
UPDATE, October 11, 2007 The news today that Randy Couture quit UFC and resigned as heavyweight champion is obviously bad news for Dana White's company.
Randy was by far the company's most beloved performer, having come out of retirement at 44 to win the world title again. He's got a huge fan following, and was always seen as one of the "good guys" in MMA - someone who didn't let success go to his head, and just kept working harder and harder at his craft to continue to improve himself long after most athletes his age would have been happy to retire permanently and settle into a cushy commentating job (which Couture did for UFC in addition to being the company's heavyweight title holder).
I've read some commentary today that suggests this is just a negotiating tactic, and that if UFC ponies up bigger bucks, Randy will return.
Maybe. But in the meantime, there's now one less reason to watch UFC PPVs.
UPDATE, October 5, 2007 What happens when a newspaper is cut past the bone, part MXVIII. Heired?
Seriously, people ...
UPDATE October 3, 2007 I know, I know, I haven't updated my web page for over a month. Sorry, I've got kids and a job and lots of other stuff going on. I'm having a difficult enough time updaing my Facebook status on a daily basis, nevermind finding stuff to write about here.
Besides, I've had the new Family Guy DVD set to watch in the evenings, so this has been a low priority for me.
I'll try to be more regular. In my updates, that is.
UPDATE, August 31, 2007 Oh yeah, my web page.
So, the new Casting Crowns album is pretty good. I think I like Lifesong better than the new one, but you can't get everything you want in life. Still, it's got some good songs, and I'll listen to it a lot.
Spent most of my day today doing TV interviews for the department. It all turned out well.
UPDATE, August 16, 2007 The little things that make me happy .... I discovered quite by accident tonight that one of my favourite bands in the world, Casting Crowns, is releasing a new album at the end of August. And now I'm practically GIDDY. There's something about new music from my favourite artists that just makes me excited.
And to how just how diverse my musical tastes are, I'm thinking of picking up Skillet's most recent album. From worship music to hard, guitar crunching rock. As long as it has a good hook, a singable melody and great harmonies, I'll probably like it.
UPDATE, August 13, 2007 Figured I'd use a television commercial break to post a quick update. Last week's ID replacement trek was remarkably quick and easy. I was done everything in under 2 hours, thanks to having my passport and the miracle of computer databases. So we're back in business.
UPDATE, August 6, 2007 So ... instead of going back to work tomorrow, I'm spending the entire day out replacing my identification. On our first day in Hawaii, my backpack was stolen, and my losses included: my glasses (I was swimming at the time), our new digital camera, and my wallet with all my ID and credit cards.
Most of the stuff was quickly replaced, so it's not like it ruined our vacation. And then I came home to discover one of my pastors had his house burn down in that really horrific fire on July 21. That put what happened to us in some real perspective.
SECOND UPDATE: Me, as a Simpson's character. Courtesy http://simpsonizeme.com/
UPDATE, August 5, 2007 We're back from Hawaii. It was a great trip. We snorkelled. Swam with dolphins. Waded with wild sea turtles. Sun tanned. Visited beaches. Ate lots of food. The usual fun stuff from Hawaii. A small sample of pictures can be found on my Facebook site.
UPDATE, July 20, 2007 On vacation starting tomorrow. Nothing to see here. Move along.
UPDATE, July 14, 2007 I'm going to BBQ hotdogs for supper tonight. On the sidewalk. Edmonton has the same temperature (and humidex) today as Honolulu.
UPDATE, July 8, 2007 I took the kids to see Ratatouille yesterday, and it was further proof that all movies should be made by Pixar. Great stuff. Way better than Cars (which, IMHO, was the "worst" of the Pixar films so far), and on the level of The Incredibles (which up until yesterday, was my fave of the Pixar flicks). The word I used coming out of the movie was "brilliant." I mean, it's a movie about rats and cooking! What's not to love about that?
My wife and brother went to see the Transformers movie yesterday and they both loved it. I had no great desire to see that, but I may end up renting it based on their rave reviews.
UPDATE, July 2, 2007 We're back from a whirlwind trip to Saskatchewan, where we attended a family reunion with my wife's family. I ended up with a gimpy ankle after doing a big hike through sand dunes wearing my sandals. That probably wasn't the best decision I've ever made. Oh well, no permanent damage (I hope). The resort we were at in Good Spirit Lake was pretty cool, though. Nice cabins and decent facilities.
In my absense, the Chris Benoit story went pretty much where I expected it would. This is not going to be good news for the WWE. Seriously ... a 10-month supply of steroids every three to four weeks? So much for the WWE's "wellness policy."
UDDATE, June 26, 2007 Well, the Chris Benoit story went exactly where no one wanted it to go. The WWE is in full retreat mode on last night's tribute show and there's every likelihood that the Smackdown show in Edmonton next month is going to be cancelled because the company is too scared to run in Canada for a while. The Calgary Raw show the night before Edmonton's Smackdown has already been pulled from the schedule. There is going to be more mainstream media focus on pro-wrestling now than at any point in recent history - even Owen Hart's death - and the business is going to be put under a microscope. And I can guarantee it's not going to be pretty.
SECOND UPDATE: This would explain all the hits I got on the site today. On Monday night, the Sun phoned me looking for sources. I gave them what I could. Strangely, the Journal phoned me late this afternoon at work ... also looking for sources. THAT was weird, considering I have exactly one friend at the Journal (Lorne Gunter), and otherwise have never spoken to anyone in their newsroom, ever. Oh, and Dave Meltzer reported tonight that the Edmonton Smackdown show has been cancelled.
UPDATE June 25, 2007 The sad wrestling news of the day is the sudden death of Edmonton's own Chris Benoit and his family in Atlanta. Chris was in the top 3 of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and he'll be missed terribly.
UPDATE June 16, 2007 Between work and soccer this week, it's been a busy, hectic week. Add to that two family members getting sick, and by the time yesterday came around, I was totally bagged. I actually napped after work before going to soccer, and slept for nearly 3 more hours this afternoon. I'm starting to feel somewhat human again, but sometimes it's good to lie in bed all day and do nothing.
UPDATE June 10, 2007 Our weekend of soccer tournaments is over. My Older Daughter's team took the silver medal today, succumbing 2-1 after 14 penalty kicks. They played a team 4 tiers above them, so holding them to a 1-1 draw in regulation and through overtime was quite the accomplishment, particularly since they played a mini tie-breaker game at 11 a.m. then a full game at noon, and the gold medal game at 3:30. A good time was had by all.
UPDATE June 9, 2007 Last night's soccer game ended in a 1-1 draw. My Older Daughter's team played a squad three tiers above them, and came within a minute of winning the game. Our girls scored moments into injury time to go up 1-0, but Forest Heights stormed back and tied it right away. Good, exciting finish. Younger Daughter plays this morning (I'm not going to that one, my wife's on duty there), and Older Daughter plays again at 3 p.m. today.
In the meanwhile, I'm discovering that there are enough former Edmonton Sun people on Facebook that we could start our own newspaper. Not that I'd ever want to do something like that ... I'm perfectly happy where I am right now.
UPDATE June 3, 2007 I succumbed to the beast this week and joined Facebook. It's a decision I will probably regret for the rest of my life. Darn peer pressure ...
UPDATE June 2, 2007 It's supposed to top 30 C. today in Edmonton, which is great. I love the heat. After the winters we endure, you'll never hear me complain it's too hot.
Just for fun this morning - knowing that I was going to be outside going for a long walk and then mowing the grass - I weighed myself before doing that and then again about 2 hours later. I lost 1.6 lbs of weight (all from sweat) in that period. Six more pounds and I could challenge Matt Serra for the UFC welterweight title!
UPDATE May 27, 2007 I'm kicking myself for not getting last night's UFC PPV, as a show sold on just one match (Chuck Liddell vs. Rampage Jackson) turned out to be a great show that some are calling one of the best MMA shows they've ever seen.
UPDATE May 21, 2007 Took the family to see the third Shrek movie yesterday. It was definitely the weakest of the three, but any film that does a Six Million Dollar Man spoof in 2007 is all right in my books.
I'd give it a mild thumbs up. Lots of funny bits in it and a few call-backs to the previous films, but I thought the overall storyline was kind of forced. And when they didn't go for a "croak" joke when the king died, well ... if you pass up the easy laughs, I can't help you after that.
UPDATE May 17, 2007 Blogging will be temporarily interrupted by the American Dad Volume 2 DVD set.
UPDATE May 13, 2007 We were playing our semi-regular family game of poker last night, and, boy, did I get schooled. I'm really not a bad player when playing online. In fact, I think I'm pretty good, as I've won quite a few 45-person tournaments. But when I play against my wife and kids, I'm brutal. Despite being married for 16 years and knowing my wife's moods inside and out, I can't read here for squat when we play poker. Last night, for instance, I lost most of my stack with bottom pair despite the fact she kept raising and re-raising me. I mistakenly assumed she was trying to force me off my marginal hand with a complete bluff. Turns out she'd flopped quads and fleeced me from there.
Not that I'm bitter, though ....
UPDATE May 11, 2007 I'm sorry, but when it's 24 degrees outside, bright and sunny, and the kids are paying soccer, it's slightly ridiculous that the NHL is still playing a winter sport. Not that I had that much interest in the playoffs this year anyway, what with the Oilers sucking and all, but once we hit May, hockey should be over.
So when the Stanley Cup is finally awarded sometime next month, let me know, OK? Thanks.
UPDATE May 8, 2007 I found this quite amusing. Scroll down and look for my name.
UPDATE May 5, 2007 I'm a bit bleary-eyed today as I was out late (well, for me it was late) last night at a going-away part of sorts for the recently departed employees from the Edmonton Sun. Which would, of course, include me. It was good to see some of the old gang again - even if I've only been gone from the paper for three weeks. And while I'll undoubtedly stay in touch with a lot of people there, it's a chapter of my life that's now closed. Time to move forward, not hang on to the past.
UPDATE May 4, 2007 Summer movie season has started. Between Spiderman, Shrek, Ratatouille, Harry Potter, Ocean's 13, The Simpson's Movie and about a half-dozen other movies I want to see before August, I may need a bank loan.
UPDATE May 1, 2007 Off to work today, starting my new job as a public affairs officer for Sustainable Resource Development.
UPDATE April 27, 2007 Here's a question to which I cannot find the answer. Is the final Harry Potter book going to be delivered by Canada Post on one of those special Saturday same-day delivery deals like they did with the last book (and I believe, the last couple of books)? I checked the Canada Post website, and I cannot find any press release on it either way. And neither the Amazon.ca or Chapters websites seem to have any info on that. So I'm hesitant to order it online if it's NOT coming on the release date.
So can anyone clarify this one way or another? Please and thanks.
SECOND UPDATE: D'oh! Turns out there a whole section on the Chapters website about this that I missed. I feel so dumb.
UPDATE April 25, 2007 Since word has already leaked out (I'm getting congratulatory phone calls from my former co-workers), I guess I'll officially let the cat out of the bag: I've landed another job already. I'll post the details next week after I put in a few days in my new digs. It's with the provincial government of Alberta.
UPDATE April 23, 2007 My e-mail is back in business and the switch to the new servers is complete.
UPDATE April 22, 2007 I went out of my way yesterday to avoid spoilers for UFC 70, and I'm glad I did. Otherwise, the shocking first round knockout of Mirko Cro Cop wouldn't have been nearly as surprising as it was. Poor Dana White - all his plans for the year have been destroyed by Matt Serra winning and Cro Cop losing. How UFC salvages Cro Cop from here will be interesting.
SECOND UPDATE: The transfer to the new server has been completed (minus my missing mugshot, which will be replaced soonish). The only thing not working right now is my e-mail, so if you're sending me something and it bounces, please try it again sometime late Monday or Tuesday. It's going to be down for about 36 to 48 hours.
UPDATE, April 20, 2007 I got an e-mail from a friend today about me being cut from the Sun this week. He said he read it on this page, which, despite the fact it hadn't been updated since, I dunno, November or so, he was still checking faithfully. I'm not sure if I should be touched or recommending him some counselling. (Kidding!) That said, I was doing one of my periodic Googlings of my name last week and ran across someone noting that I hadn't updated my page in 112 days. It's nice having such a dedicated fanbase. Guess I'll just have to entertain them here now that my journalism career has come to an abrupt end.
And with that, I'm off grocery shopping. The glamorous life of a house husband!
UPDATE April 19, 2007 It's been snowing in Edmonton today. Yeah. Welcome to Canada, eh?
UPDATE: April 18, 2007: Because I'm about to go to lunch today with Fred Curatolo, this would be as good a time as any to add to my post below and say that of all the people I worked with at Sun Media, perhaps no one meant as much to me as Fred when he was the Edmonton Sun's cartoonist and I was his boss. With both of us being comic book geeks, we worked really well together on the cartoons - although, of course, he did 100% of the drawing. Still, he was willing to take creative input from me and fine-tune toons to make them absolutely perfect. He was unceremoniously cut last summer, and I've missed him greatly ever since in a professional capacity. On a personal level, we see each other all the time.
The server switch has hit some snags (read: I'm not smart enough to figure this out), so if you can still read what's on the site, be happy because it means things haven't gone so horribly wrong as to wipe out my website completely.
SECOND UPDATE: I've noticed a number of Google searches coming to this site because individuals are looking for information about specific Sun people. The best place to look for that might just be the Toronto Sun Family Blog, which has become the one-stop shop for unofficial Sun Media news. Plus, the site was kind enough to link to my little farewell message here.
UPDATE: April 16, 2007: I'm back, and with some actual developments.
My position was eliminated at the Edmonton Sun today. I knew this was coming (it could be seen from a mile away with all the centralization of copy done by Quebecor), so I was neither surprised nor shocked.
As for what the future holds, stay tuned.
In the meantime, I just want to take the opportunity to say that I had a great time at Sun Media over the last 10 years. I worked with lots of fantastic people, made some lifelong friendships and got to live my dream as an editorial writer, editor and columnist. Folks like Mindy Jacobs, Kerry Diotte, Doug Beazley, Licia Corbella, Roy Clancy, Linda Williamson and many many others (if you don't see your name, don't feel bad, I can't name everyone I've worked with over 10 years), made my job so much more fun and easy to do. I wish my former Sun family the best in the future.
And thanks to all the readers who wrote to agree or disagree with the thousands of editorials and columns I wrote over the years. Sun readers are great, and I'll certainly miss interacting with them.
In other news, I'll be switching servers soon, as my good friend Jim Whitelaw, who had been hosting this site since, well, forever, is shutting down his servers. The switch should happen sometime in the next few days, so if this site disappears for a while, that's why.
