Make mine a single malt.

Just got off the phone with a few friends who live in Calgary. When I say friends, I don't mean casual acquaintances who give you a couch when you're in town, but real friends; the kind you call even before your mom, when you when you propose to your girlfriend, and the kind you want to speak to when she says no. The bhoys you want to talk to on Christmas morning, and the ones you miss on New Years eve.....those kinds of friends.

When I was fortunate enough to have a bachelor party a couple of years ago, my brother called me a rich man. I laughed initially, thinking that I was the only rich guy in town who couldn't pay his tab. Later he explained, that when he saw me with my 'best' friends, he knew my life would live like an Irish wedding band.....with friends I would never be lonely, with love I would never be poor, and with loyalty I would have both.....pretty rich luck for a relatively poor man.

So to my friends I raise an electronic pint,and wish you all Slainte!!

If in doubt choose C

Once upon a time, in a city far far away, there lived a boy who had really poor marks at school. In fact his report card read like a multiple choice test where this child steadily chose 'C'.
Many years later, this young boy found himself in school again at the tender age of 33. When he found himself in school again, the boy decided, "well if I have to be here, I may as well make it worth it." He did indeed make it worth it as he received excellent grades initially. Confident that he could achieve marks that his friends would be envious of, the boy who was now a man, continued to attend class and take part in discussions. Life was good for our title character until.......
I got a 67% on an assignment today......F&*K!!!!!!!!
From here on in, I think I'll revert back to my highschool days...smoke pot, skip class, and try and pick up the cheer leaders.

I dreamed a dream.

When I was a little kid, it seemed that I always had different dreams of what I wanted to do when I grew up. There were tonnes of different careers I wanted, much like any other kid probably did.
Earlier, I was thinking that it was pretty sad that I know very few people who attempted living out their dream, let alone achieved it. Believe it or not, at no point in my childhood did I ever dream of being a 33 year old student living in Hamilton. Weird eh?
I know engineers who wished they were artists, advertising reps who wanted to be hockey players, and teachers who wished they could read.
Seeing as I'm a student again, and constantly looking at what I'll do when I graduate, I am gaining a new respect for those people who live a tough existence as they follow their dreams, and also those people who are thriving in their careers.
So to my sister the actor, my pal Tomi the singer, and the boys from departures...well done, your successes are more than deserved!!

It's a funny old game.....

There is a common saying within the soccer world that stronger teams are “better on paper.” Yesterday, some of Europe’s elite teams found out the hard way that a sheet of paper is pretty useless when the game kicks off.
Although I knew I had a meaningless Pro-Line ticket in my pocket, it was great to see what a little bit of luck, and a lot of heart can do. Barcelona, Arsenal, and Liverpool played in the Champions League yesterday, and a bet on any of them dropping points would have made you a great ROI.
Barcelona are arguably the best team in European football right now, however their millionaire line up failed at every hurdle, as they lost to European minnows Rubin Kazan.
Liverpool lost to a late Olympique Lyonaise strike in a game they were expected to win comfortably, and Arsenal drew with a weaker AZ Alkmaar.
I suppose that’s what makes us watch the games week in week out…….anything can happen in 90 minutes.
Glasgow Rangers were also embarrassed 4-1 by a Romanian side who had until yesterday only scored 1 goal in their Champions League history.

FIFA CHANGES THE RULES

I'm sure I shouldn't be surprised by Football's governing body anymore, but c'mon, are you kidding me?
Just to bring you up to speed, the world cup finals to be held in South Africa are nearing the end of the qualifying stages. There are 8 groups of teams which enter qualifying, and the first place team automatically qualifies. The remaining teams to learn their fate are those which finished second in their qualifying groups. Historically, the remaining teams would get drawn at random against another of the runners up from the other groups.
This year, in their infinite wisdom, FIFA have decided to 'seed' the top four teams, and they will be drawn againstone the bottom four teams.
The change in policy is quite simply to make sure the 'big' teams are in the tournament. What in the world wouold happen in France or Portugal failed to qualify for the biigest sporting event in the world?
My biggest complaint in changing the rules to accomodate the big teams, is that all teams have ended up 2nd in their groups, therefore they are equal throughout qualifying.

Best Night Ever

Wow…..just found out that Ron Hawkins is opening for Billy Bragg next month. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, shut off your god damn computer and lose my contact info.
Billy Bragg is considered the God Father of modern folk music who has influenced the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Wilco, Henry Rollins and many, many more.
Ron Hawkins is/was the front man of one of Canada most underrated bands of all time…The Lowest of The Low. Ron has continued on with several solo albums along with new bands such as Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails.
The show is at Hamilton Place Studio Theatre and will be one of the best nights ever. That is a guarantee.

ch ch ch ch changes!!

Why is it when you sit down to write about something, you lose track of what you wanted to say and how you wanted to say it? It’s kind of like in the ‘old’ days when people used to go to the record store. You would walk into Changes (for those of you in Thunder Bay) or HMV, and the minute you crossed the threshold you forgot what you wanted to buy, and on a bad day, what kind of music you even liked.
I guess I can go with the obvious and write about the joys of spending time with family over Thanksgiving.
Gobble gobble!!

Seinfeld fought Turtle

If you had to choose a Seinfeld character which best represented you and your friends, who would they be? Who you may think, and who your friend thinks will probably be different. Put it this way, my brother's good friend Rob Derocco is so much like George, he actually thinks he's Jerry Seinfeld.
I got Newman nailed down.

I think this could also work if you try and self-cast yourself in Entourage.
I'm Vince......my buddy Scott Mac is Ari, and my other friend Scott is Turtle.....those are accurate though...one of them is a complete asshole, and one eats too many donuts. I'm not saying which Scott is which......I'm just saying......

I know a place

There is a place I know that is a little bit off the beaten track.When you go there though, it is very important to stay hydrated, and to keep warm by a modest fire.You must bring your own food, as there are no fish whatsoever, and the only wild life is named Phil. There is smaller, less threatening wild life however, which the locals call Ethan and Chase. These two little monsters appear to be non-threatening, but when they are hungry or tired, their hellish screams can be heard throughout the vast landscape. In recent years, the smaller wild life have developed an obvious preference for blondes, and look at husbands with disdain. Where in many places, alcohol is banned, residents of little piece of paradise not only promote excessive alcohol consumption, but actually get visibly annoyed when coffee is not mixed with bailey’s or water is not complimented by Vodka.
At times, there is the need to travel by boat to find your relative peace of mind. This is dangerous task, trying to find a piece of your mind on the open water, therefore females will normally stay of the safer shores of land. As illustrated above, these pilgrimages are not for the faint of heart……

To friends like mine....

Now while I was happy to speak to my old friend Chris Marchand about his life and career as a reporter, I was reminded of the fact that I was interviewing him about his job which reminded me about the fact that I don't have one.

Now while I don't feel sorry for myself by any means (I hated my last job), I also found out that while my 4 year old nephew is learning how to speak French at school, I learned how to make a post card with a rocket ship on it in class last week. Seriously, a bloody rocket ship saying "you're out of this world"

....and my wife wonders why I drink so much.

If I weren't me, I would like to be:

Henrik Larsson
David Beckham
Scott Bemko
Barak Obama
That guy who drives the new lincoln in that commercial....nice car.

Oops, got it wrong already

So I just realised this blog is meant to have a business relevance to it. Seeing as I don't have a job, and I'm not really an expert on anything, I decided that from here on in, I'll be adding my opinions on what I see in the media, as well as my usual comments on life. Please be patient while I figure out this 'blogosphere', and all the technology the kids are using these days.

Small Victories

I woke up this morning, dead tired, and not really looking forward to the day. I said good bye to my wife and that I love her and walked through the house to make my breakfast. Standing in the kitchen, I looked out in the backyard and saw the leaves starting to change colour through the falling rain. I made some extremely strong coffee and sat down to watch the news.
After 20 minutes of watching bad news stories from throughout the country, I realised that even though i don't have a job, or a mercedes in the driveway, I do have it pretty good.
A loving wife, changing leaves, and good coffee.......these are what I call the small victories, and added together makes a pretty great existence.

Test run.....

Ok, well here we go. Originally I set up this blog for no reason other than it was an assignment in my PR course. As I started picking names, and choosing a layout, I started to think it may be a pretty interesting way to vent, share, inform, and ask about any variety of information. For the time being, I think I’ll just throw in some random ideas and comments on the daily life of an average guy. For today, I think that’s all I’ll share….out of ideas on the first day already.