Chapters/Coles/Indigo is having a boxing week sale with all hardcovers 30% off, and select books discounted up to 50% off. They've got the "Lord Stanley's Cup" coffee table book by Andrew Podnieks available for 50% off, as well as "Baptism by Ice" by Paul D. Grant. If you've got a membership card, you get an additional 10% off, so it's really quite a deal!
Today I picked up "Baptism by Ice," which I've actually been eyeing for about a month or so--since I noticed it in the window of the BCE Place Coles. Its subtitle, "How Hockey Taught An American To Love Canada" initially caught my interest, and the blurb on the back cover increased it:
"I sought to save my Canadianness, to be able again to say 'please' and 'thank you' without shame, to apologize for things that aren't my fault, to be indifferent if someone becomes prime minister without ever being elected. Homesick, I longed to see Vancouver's seaside mountains, to walk for kilometres through downtown Calgary without stepping outside, to verify that Toronto really is the centre of the universe, to wait forever in a Montreal restaurant before being served. I wanted to be unabashedly Canadian, not disguise the way I pronounced 'out' or 'pasta.' I wanted to drink skunky Canadian beer and laugh that it was still superior to fresh American brew. I wanted to see again the cultural wallpaper Canadians take for granted every day. I wanted to play hockey and not be the best player. I wanted to hear people make fun of themselves and not others. I wanted to rediscover home. Mosaic over melting pot. Familiar over unknown. Maple Leaf over Stars and Stripes. Home over away."
Now, if you're wondering how exactly saving "Canadianness" and teaching an American to love Canada work together, well, the basic premise is that the author goes on a ten-day trip through the six Canadian hockey cities with an American friend "who believes in all the stereotypes" abour Canada.
I know I'm not a particularly good salesperson, but if any of the descriptions/blurbs I've posted here interest you, I'd highly recommend that you go out and buy this book while it's on sale! I'm only on page 29 and I'm loving it! It's funny and insightful and rings so totally true. ^_^ Go out and buy now!! If you've got a Chapters/Coles/Indigo membership, it's only $15.41 total, and it's a hardcover, so that's an excellent price!!!
Woohoo! One down, five more to go!! Basically I'm re-making all of my layouts in the style of the Giguere layout Lisa made for me since it seems to be compatible with Netscape and 800x600, and it's attractive and simple. ^_^ Check out the screenshot below, or visit the actual site at http://rhf.obliviousmind.net/avs!
Well, the Juniors are off to a good start this year, defeating Slovakia 7-3. ^_^ I've heard commentators saying that this year's team might be the best chance in seven years to win the gold! Let's all hope they're right!! The World Junior title seems to be the only thing in international hockey that's eluded Canadians in the past couple of years. We're greedy when it comes to hockey--we want all the titles!! =P
Anyway, this is just a quick post. Below is the new image for my Mogilny fanlisting--it's very similar to the Avs and Kaberle ones, but I don't think that's a bad thing. So yes, click for an enlargement!
I received an email a while ago telling me that most of my fanlistings weren't compatible with Netscape and 800x600 resolutions. Unfortunately it was during my crunch time, so I didn't have time to do anything about it. Now that I'm on Christmas vacation, however, I've started working on new layouts (hopefully compatible with both Netscape and IE browsers, and 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions). ^_^
Here're samples from the two I've started working on so far--the Avs and Kaberle fanlistings (as always, click for larger images):
I think they're going to be pretty decent layouts. ^_^ The thing I'm most pleased about with these is that I've only used original photos--taken by me!--for them. =D Very exciting!! Usually I find making layouts a pain, but I'm having fun with these!
Well, I went to the Hershey Centre for the taping of the last episode of Making the Cut, and it was pretty fun. Best of all, I got to meet Jello!! She's just as cool and nice in person as online! ^_^ (Apologies for my lack of conversational skills! =P)
Anyway, the skills competition was really quite short, with only four events: accuracy, hardest shot, fastest skater, and ambush. The ambush exercise was quite interesting. Skaters had five pucks which were alive during the entire time period. The first shot had to be a breakaway, but after that everything was fair game, so they could go for rebounds, etc. Pretty tough on the goalies!! Mole got burned by not clearing a rebound early on, but then he learned and started clearing the pucks to both prevent rebound goals and to make the skaters spend more time retrieving pucks (and therefore shooting on net less).
Oh yeah, I was a total idiot, and I forgot my camera!! I had it in my hand in my room, but then I put it down to get change from my piggy bank (always good to have a bit of cash on hand!) and didn't pick it back up! The worst part is that my brother even asked if I had my camera, and I said "yes" without checking!! ARGH! Ah well, it's not like there were a lot of great shots to take anyway. =P Besides, when I've got a camera in hand I tend to focus so much on taking pictures that I'm distracted from the action, so I guess it was good that I could just concentrate on enjoying the experience.
Yeah, I really don't know what to say. It was fun. I wish the audience had been a little louder though. Oh, and "Lou" (Dickensen) is really a rather unfortunate name in terms of cheering, because people kept calling "Lou", but it sounded like "boo" so it just sounded bad. ^^;;
Oh, and of course Toronto had the last pick! =P Nate and I were talking and we agreed that either Toronto or Vancouver would get the last pick, just because. It was actually kind of nice that the Original Six teams went last--Montreal, then Toronto. I was really happy that Mole got picked, but I was sad that Jacob didn't. Those were the two I was really rooting for. =( Ah well, good for the six!! Really, any of the eighteen would've made a good choice, so I can't really complain.
Heh, there's a Making the Cut 3-disc DVD boxset coming out on March 22 that's available for pre-order right now. I wonder if I should order it, or wait a little bit and see if Leafs Insiders will get a deal? =P Really I just want to watch the fitness test episode again--some of those tests looked crazy!
Well, looks like that's about it for me and hockey this year! *sigh* Although, after seeing Michael Mole get picked by the Sens, I really want to go watch a Mississauga Ice Dogs game now! ^_~
Woohoo!!! The Kladno online store (http://www.sportkontakt.cz/) is finally open!!! I've attempted to place an order, but who knows if I'll be successful. =P Seems like they're not set up to take international orders, considering that they only ask for your name, email, phone number, street address, city and postal code--not your country and/or province/state! *sigh* We'll see if they email me back.
At any rate, I got to flex my Czech "skills" by adding a note saying "Jsem Kana?anka"--I am Canadian (female). D'oh. Come to think of it, maybe I should've written something along the lines of, "I don't speak much Czech. Do you speak English?" Ah well. I suppose I can always enlist Daria to help translate if they do reply to me in Czech.
How very exciting!! I hope I can get my Kaberle Kladno jersey!
