The playoffs have me excited this year, but I’m finding that some of the excitement is just the same excitement that the playoffs used to bring every year.

I think part of it is because with the impending lockout, and pretty good parity at the top of the league, the playoffs promise to be pretty intense this year. There are some really good rivalries building up, despite the fact that the league has broken their rivalry generating playoff format into a more “fair” and crappy format.

One of the worst things that ever happened to the NHL was the switch to three divisions. Back in the 80’s, some extremely tense rivalries built up because of a couple of things.

• Teams played each other a lot more often if they were in the same division.
• Teams met each other a lot more often in the playoffs if they were in the same division, and
• Teams meeting in the second round of the playoffs were still from the same division, so you’d have more opportunity for rivalries.

I think bringing back a 4 division format, with the old 4vs1 3vs2 playoff is a good thing. Then you can have divisional championship series, conference championship series, and of course the Cup final.

As it is, there are a couple of rivalries in the league now, but no team has two legitimate rivals. I’m waiting for someone to post here and blow my theory away, but it’s tough to compare today’s rivalries to the bitter feuds that developed between Calgary and Edmonton, or Montreal and any other team in the Adams. Those rivalries sometimes came naturally because of geography, but they were fostered by a bunch of intense playoff meetings. It probably didn’t hurt that player movement was typically based on trading skill for skill, rather than trading high salaries for draft picks.

I have some crackpot ideas about how a league could be structured in order to remain fan-friendly, and yet provide a benefit to both the players and owners, but nobody listens to a crackpot, so I’ll have to hold off on them until I have nothing to write about some day (in the near future.)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Dear Mr. President, There are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.” - Grandpa Simpson

This may come as a shock to some, but I wasn’t a popular kid in highschool. My friends and I considered ourselves the “normal” kids, even though we were probably geeks. We didn’t get picked on by other groups of kids, and we only really picked on each other in fun. I think that’s part of where my warped sense of humour comes from - well, that, and one of the earliest TV shows that I remember watching with my Mom was SCTV, even though it was obviously way over my head at the time.

Anyway, with that lead-in, I’ll direct you to an interesting article on Why Nerds are Unpopular, by Paul Graham. Apparently he wrote it back in February of 2003, but I didn’t read it until today, because my membership in the Paul Graham fan club apparently got lost in the mail or something.

I find it a fascinating look at the typical American Highschool, and the popularity hierarchy contained therein. My only real quibble with it is that a lot of kids didn’t play the popularity game, and don’t get ostracized because of it - at least at my highschool. It might be because I went to a large school - I couldn’t pick a good portion of my graduating class out of a police lineup - or it might be because I found people who shared common interests, and were interesting people to hang out with. We didn’t get beat up for our lunch money though.

I wore the same basic clothes through most of highschool - jeans and a tshirt of some sort. I didn’t pay much attention to hygiene until around grade 10, when I started combing my hair. I think if I’d gone to Paul Graham’s highschool, life would have sucked. As it was, Highschool was ok. Not the best 4 years of my life, but not the pit of despair that I hear so many geeks talk about. Was I just below the radar, or was it because I was always a big kid? I don’t know. I think my school was civilized because the hierarchy was broken up between grade 8 and 9. In grade 8, everyone in my class had to choose a highschool for the following year. When you arrive for highschool, there are suddenly hundreds of kids your age that you’ve never met before, and three times as many kids who have been at that school for at least a year already. The hierarchy that developed in that situation was that older kids picked on younger kids - but only kids that wanted to play that game. The initiations into highschool were pretty tame, if I recall correctly, and then a year later, the same initiations got carried out on a new batch of grade nine’s.

That being said, I’m sure there was bullying that happened at my school, I was just completely oblivious to it. I don’t think any of my friends were the target of bullies, or at least if they were, they kept it fairly well hidden. I sometimes hung out with the chess club gang, and the math club gang (though there really was no such thing as the math club - it’s just a yearbook photo of people who wrote math contests for fun - and profit.) so if anyone was going to be put through hell by the bullies, you’d think I’d have known them. Any of my highschool classmates out there reading this that would care to comment on it? Maybe I was just my typical oblivious self, and didn’t notice what was going on right in front of me.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “People now… Please, please, I can assure you that we’ll be using the most advanced, scientific techniques in the field of… body finding.” - Chief Wiggum

I had Dave and Darren over on Saturday night to partake of some arcade gaming on the projector. We started out with a little bit of Caveman Ninja and followed it up with some other games, including Captain Commando - hence the title. Anyway, we managed to play until it was far too late - time slips away when you’re having fun like that.

Yesterday, I didn’t do a whole lot, other than put up the roller blinds that we’ve been meaning to put up for about 4 years. I don’t know why we didn’t do it before, but once I got around to it, it didn’t take more than a half hour from start to finish, including figuring out how to take the valence off the wall, so I could get the drill in there to mount the brackets. The end result is that it’s a lot darker in the bedroom when the sun is out.

Speaking of which - The Sun Is Out - it’s a beautiful day in Saskatoon, and it’s expected to be beautiful for the rest of the week. The sun is shining, the snow is melting (again) and it was bright out when I was waiting for the bus this morning. It’s just one of those days when it feels great to be alive.

Speaking of which - Erin, William and John are on the road right now, on their way back to Saskatoon. It sounds like William missed me quite a bit (which works out well, ’cause the feeling is mutual) and hopefully that means he’s got giggles in store for when they get home tonight. I actually fired up the William slideshow last night just before bed. It’ll be good to have them back home, I know Erin and William are both pretty tired of not being at home, and I’m tired of them not being at home too.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “What time and how burnt?” - Cletus

I went to bed at 9:00 last night. Decidedly early for me. I got a phone call after 10:00, but didn’t have any trouble falling back asleep afterwards. I woke up pretty refreshed, which is good. I also woke up a few minutes late, and amost missed the bus, which is bad. I didn’t miss the bus though, which is good.

I guess William and Erin are having a good time in Alberta, though apparently William keeps looking around for me whenever “Dad” is spoken out loud. I’m looking forward to them getting back in town on Monday.

So, yeah, it has been quiet around the house without them, but quiet in a good way. I’m kind of an introverted person at the best of times, so it’s good to get some alone time every now and then. I say that, so that the people who invited me over to their places last night don’t get the wrong impression. I stayed home because I wanted to take advantage of some alone time. I made pizza buns (one of my all-time favorite recipes) from the pizza bun mix that Erin mad before she left, and watched TV/browsed the web, playing silly flash games, and laughing at funny sites, none of which I bothered to bookmark.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “So, ummm…do you like stuff?” - Ralph

Last night, Dave and Katriona invited me over for pizza and PS2. We got some pizza from “Homer’s Pizza” and rented some games from Microplay. We rented (I say we, even though it was really Dave renting the games I picked out ;-)) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NHL Hitz Pro, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but only played the first two. Overall, Turtles was a good game, but it lacked a certain something - two certain somethings actually, players three and four. The camera angles and some of the mechanics (you have to kill all the baddies before you can advance) were mildly annoying, and the voice stuff was brutal, but overall it’s not a bad game.

Hitz Pro is a different beast than Hitz 2003, and suffers from it. Hitz 2003 was so close to a great game that it’s hard to follow it. They could have settled for cleaning up some of the minor interface problems in 2003, but instead they went for a complete overhaul. The fancy heads aren’t available without a cheat, and team customization options suck. The game itself is good, if too easy. I think there’s another difficulty level we needed to notch it up to. At the same time though, it was fun to beat the Saskatoon Barnstormers 27-0. The “shoot from anywhere - it’ll go in” style of gameplay would get old quick though. We were playing on “pro” though, so it’s not like we were playing “rookie” or something. Overall, it just reinforced my desire to pick up a copy of 2003.

They’ve invited me over again tonight, but I think I’m going to stay home and go to bed early. Very early. Way too early.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Well, anyone who beats you up for wearing a shirt isn’t your friend.” - Marge

It was pretty quiet at home last night without Erin and William. They’ve only been gone about 24 hours, and I’m already looking forward to their return on Monday.

I didn’t do much, watched some TV, browsed the web a bit. Played some flash games too. Nothing too noteworthy. Around 7:30, I went to my parent’s place to pick up my brother’s truck. Bryan got a job in Vancouver, working for Relic Entertainment so he flew out there yesterday, leaving his truck behind. Works out well, since I’m vehicle-less, and Mom and Dad don’t really need 7 vehicles parked in front of their place (6 will do quite nicely.) Actually, I didn’t stop to count, but it’s 4 or 5 anyway.

Tonight? More of the same probably.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Save me from the wee turtles! They were too quick for me!” - Groundskeeper Willy

This weekend was fairly busy, with Erin’s dad (John) in town for a visit. I went over to a friend’s place on Saturday night, and we ended up calling it a night at a quarter to three, after playing a bunch of arcade games and a board game that he invented. It was a good time - one of those nights that ends because everyone is too tired, not because everyone is bored and wants to go home. It got me psyched about finishing my arcade cabinet again, which is good.

We did some plumbing repairs, and Erin and John got the bathroom sink installed on Sunday. Sunday night, just after we got into bed, a valve shot off, and there was water shooting at a high rate towards the door. I thought it was John in the bathroom using the new sink, and he thought it was me. Luckily, Erin recognized the sound for what it was, and rousted me out of bed to fix it. They went to return the bad stuff and buy good stuff yesterday, so we should be ok now.

Then yesterday, I met them for lunch (which is why there was no post) a little unexpectedly. That’s always a pleasant surprise. Last night John took us out for supper to the Mongolian Grill along with Jim, Judy, Jess and Ryan. William had a good time at the restaurant, making new friends with everyone in the restaurant, as usual.

And now we get to today. Erin, William and John are headed to Calgary. It’s going to be awfully quiet around the house with them gone for a few days. Hopefully William deals with the trip better than his mom has so far (she’s stressed out beyond belief.)

Nothing much else new though.

Simpson’s quote of the day:
Moustached Man: “Where to pappy?”
Grandpa Simpson: “I don’t know…take me someplace fun.”
Moustached Man: “You’re the boss. Next stop, Funsville.”