- 08:06 AM
- 04/18/24
I'm in. A warning though, I'm a bit of a music geek, so there might be 12 songs nobody's ever heard of on there. Hope that's ok.
posted by sauril at 02:51 PM on January 17, 2005
gspm, what kind of work does your wife do? I *might* have a contact or two, but they're probably pretty tenuous. gimme a shout at the email in my profile.
posted by sauril at 01:14 PM on December 16, 2004
geek. I imagine that you're at McGill? I just got back from a trip out east, so commenting on some earlier comments... - the clips site works fine for me, even from the front page. - I am an ex-montrealer, and docgonzo is there now, afaik. - That was a whole lot more about concrete than I ever learned in a couple of weeks of my first-year materials course...
posted by sauril at 03:00 PM on December 14, 2004
Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
posted by sauril at 06:04 PM on December 06, 2004
gspm, you been interviewed yet? I already answered the canuck quesitons for you.
posted by sauril at 10:36 PM on December 01, 2004
Shoulder season is the time of year when it's too cold to play outside sports, but there's not quite enough snow for snow sports. I don't know why it's called that either ... that's just what it's called, dammit! As for the SpoFi EPL Fantasy League, I predict a top 3 finish for me, but not #1. My team is a little unbalanced right now, and I haven't been making good calls in the last few weeks. But no matter where I finish. It'll be ahead of you, wc2k2... To my rivals. One word: Heskey. He's gold. Trust me on this one. Oh, I think Cisse would be a good deal right now too. Thanks for the interview. That was fun.
posted by sauril at 11:02 AM on December 01, 2004
looks interesting. I'm usually not a fan of Jam bands, but the breakbeat stuff changes things a bit. I'll have to check them out.
posted by sauril at 02:58 PM on November 30, 2004
Fucking sellout. har har Yeah, no kidding. There are ideals and then there are ideals, y'know... trox: nope. "couldn't resist, could you?" is a qustions. closer would be "couldn't resist, eh? wc?" smithers, I haven't heard of them. what are they like? To the q: I'm taken. I've been living with a wonderful woman for the past year and a half or so, and she's been extremely supportive over the last month. We're planning on making it permanent one of these days. She's the one who got me into climbing in the first place, and I met her playing ultimate, so we do a lot of sports together. This makes doing those things even more fun, and makes it easy on the relationship. The crazy work schedule should end soon, and as it's shoulder season here still, my summer stuff is done and my winter stuff is just picking up steam, so although I've been busy, I haven't really been doing *that* much. Luckily this stretch is over this week (we have a presentation to do on Friday) and after Wednesday Dec 8, I'm taking a few days off and spending it on my parents' couch. I can't wait.
posted by sauril at 10:01 AM on November 30, 2004
BSS are great, aren't they? Be warned that their first album is quite different. Still good, but without the poppy hooks. goddam, I'm the same with dvd's. I'm more pissed off at the anti-competetive user-negative 'features' like region codes and not being able to skip past the stupid copyright statement. I swore I wouldn't get one, but now I have 2, both in computers...
posted by sauril at 09:31 PM on November 29, 2004
Yer gettin there, wc! In this part of the world, it's absolutely impossible that sctv is underrated, since it is constantly touted as the best show that is, ever was, or will be. I like it, but not that much. Both those programs are also Ontario - created, which (as you might have heard me rant about before) hardly represent all this country has to offer. To the question: Outside of sports, I read far more than I really should. I'm addicted to quality, interesting science fiction such as Iain M Banks. His non sf stuff as Iain Banks is sheer quality as well. I probably read about 2-3 books a month on average. I also love wierd, odd and "magical realism" books. Rushdie, Murakami and Findlay spring to mind as 3 I've read recently. I browse through magazines if they're there, bur generally only grab them for flights, long car rides and the like. Usually a geek mag like Wired or a sports mag like TWSnow or Gripped. TV and Movies - Don't really watch them. I don't have cable, and the tv's only hooked up if I'm renting a movie. I've also gone off movies recently, I don't really know why. Although again my tastes usually run to the odd. I'm a huge music buff. I've played in a couple of bands no one has ever heard of, and have a collection of CD's, records, and mp3's that numbers in the thousands. I go see live shows whenever I can, but due to location and circumstance, that isn't very often these days. Again, my tastes veer to the odd. I really get off on experimental electronic music in the Autechre vein, and also more interesting rock stuff like Iron and Wine, Broken Social Scene and a huge favourite,Mogwai. I've also been going to see a fair amount of theatre in the last little while. Calgary has a surprisingly strong theatre community for such a cultural ghost-town. I saw a production of The Black Rider last week (which was awesome), and my favourite company just raised $5m for a new space. I just wish I had more time. There are usually 2-3 things that I'd like to be doing every single night, and I never get to do enough of anything that I like.
posted by sauril at 06:52 PM on November 29, 2004
It's a huge generalization, of course, Garfield, but I agree. I think it says a lot about the Canadian "personality" (as if there's only one). Of course there are regional variations, too. Here in Alberta, I've noticed that a lot of people use "hey" instead of "eh". There's a noticible increase in use as the education level goes down as well.
posted by sauril at 03:18 PM on November 29, 2004
It's pretty much the same thing. Although it appears to have a lot less cultural force than in the US. Being in October, it doesn't signal the start to the Christmas season, and we don't get news stories about stranded travellers every year. We do get Turkey and all the fixins, though. Yum. Personally, with my family being from England (I didn't move to Canada until I was 3), it's not that big of a deal. My girlfriend and her large, 5th gen family consider it a huge holiday, though. And just to be a pedant, I have to correct your use of "eh?". "Eh?" is generally used at the end of a declaritive sentence to turn said sentence into a question. It invites the listener into replying. So you would say: "Crappy weather today, eh?" not "how's the weather, eh?". And I've never met anyone who says 'aboot' I have no idea where that comes from. And I want to start one more paragraph with the word "and".
posted by sauril at 02:08 PM on November 29, 2004
Have a good Turkey Day, all you USians!
posted by sauril at 11:35 AM on November 25, 2004
I had my turkey a month ago. Harvest was a long time ago up here in the GWN. I'll be working this weekend... as per usual November! I'm 33 now. Not ancient by any means, but I definitely have to work a lot harder to stay in shape than I used to. My special regimen of exercise is this: Summer: try to play ultimate 3-4 times a week Winter: try to get to the climbing gym 3-4 times a week. That is all. I hate exercise for exercise's sake. It's a lot easier to run when you're chasing a frisbee or work out the muscles trying to get up a wall. Notice I said try to, though... And as you can possibly imagine, I haven't kept to schedule in November... I also have a new diet: Chicken wings once a month at most. Plus beer. mmmm. lots and lots of delicious beer. lbb - don't knock the tubing, man, that's fun times.
posted by sauril at 11:34 AM on November 25, 2004
no shit. I can't wait to see what my friend greg has dreamed up. This is the same guy who invented "smash or dash bingo", where the bingo winner would win a cheesy prize and have the option of smashing it, or dashing off with it. The old tv's were great fun to smash, lemme tell ya. those crt's are an inch thick.
posted by sauril at 04:01 PM on November 24, 2004
OK, a question! My favourite mainstream sports are hockey and soccer. Played both as a kid, soccer pretty competetively (my team made it to the semis in provincials a couple of times), hockey really really badly (I didn't start skating until I was 10). My favourite teams are Liverpool, as discussed above, and the Montreal Canadiens because, well, I grew up in Montreal. Hockey is the best sport in the world to watch when it's at its best (like the last olympics), but the NHL in recent years has truly sucked ass. I haven't missed it yet. However, by the time I got to University, I quit sports for beer, girls and bands. Then I fell in love with Ultimate. (stupidest name ever, but I didn't make it). I've been playing for 11 years now and have made it to numerous Canadian Nationals, one World Clubs competition in Scotland and tournaments in Thailand, Hong Kong and all over Canada and some northern States. I still play, but I'm getting a little old to be running after 21 year olds, so I might switch over to Master's this summer. It's quite simply the best game in the world to play and to watch when playing with skilled, but not overly competetive players. I love it. In the winter I get out the old snowboard (I've been riding for about 10 years now), and have been hitting the backcountry stuff as well as the resorts recently. As well, I started rock climbing a couple of years ago. I suck, but it's a great challenge to the body and to the mind as well. I know that I sound like some "x-treme athlete, dood" when I throw those together, but it's not about that. Really. I also joined a dodgeball league that starts in January (really) and a friend of mine is putting together some sort of competetive toboganning thing coming up. There's pretty much nothing a bunch of ultimate players can't make a game out of.
posted by sauril at 03:27 PM on November 24, 2004
true, forgot about turkey day.
posted by sauril at 03:00 PM on November 24, 2004
* crickets * This is the slowest interview ever. I'll try to be more interesting in my next answer...
posted by sauril at 02:16 PM on November 24, 2004
I see smithers, and gspm, and....
posted by sauril at 11:31 AM on November 24, 2004
um, man I can't type. that should read "I love that people here can make sports that I have no interest in whatsoever interesting." I need more coffee
posted by sauril at 10:03 AM on November 24, 2004
I found SpoFi through MeFi, like many of you I suppose, and I come for the fantasy soccer, general soccer talk, and the smartest sports board I've ever seen. I love that people here can make sports that I have no interest in whatsoever. The recent threads on the basketball riot are a prime example. I don't really care about b-ball, but there were many good points, well thought out opinions and even the occasional changing of a mind... The Red Sox / Yankees threads were more fun than watching the actual games...
posted by sauril at 10:02 AM on November 24, 2004
I think I went over the post limit... I completely forget what I was going to say. Ummmmmm.... And sometimes I'm extremely forgetful. yeah. that's it. that's the ticket.
posted by sauril at 06:04 PM on November 23, 2004
Well, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately given the current score), the game was not on. So I'm stuck at work reading the updates... Oh well. I think I said this earlier somewhere, but I'm not a tried and true old-school Liverpool fan. I do remember them from way back, watching Rush and Barnes and others with my dad, back when they were winning everything. So they've kind of been stuck in my head a little since then. When I got back into watching soccer, I hung out with a friend of mine who is a Newcastle fan. So I cheered for them a bit, but my heart was never really in it. I stopped following them, and switched my allegience to Liverpool when I started going to watch soccer early Sunday mornings with my (then) new girlfriend. She's a Liverpool fan (mostly because of Michael Owen) and I found myself cheering for them again. That was about 2 years ago, and I've found myself caring, for one reason or another. I can't find it in me to support the team from my old hometown (in the current 2nd division, the Shrimpers), as they're never on tv, it's tough to find news about the lower divisions, and quite frankly, they're not very good. Favourite player that I remember was Ian Rush. I couldn't believe that a scrawny, ugly little guy like him could be so good. I don't remember any specific goal, but I do remember him scoring lots of them. Favourite match was the 4-3 newcastle game about two years ago. what a game, and it was the beginning of my switching alleigence. One great goal I do remember was Gary McAllister boinking it off some poor Chelsea player's head a couple of years ago to win the FA Cup. That was a great game too. At the end of the day, I cheer for Liverpool because it's way more fun to cheer for a team than just be a neutral all the time, they're good, but not Arsenal (yet) and they are most definitely not ManYoo or Chelsea. And sometimes
posted by sauril at 03:41 PM on November 23, 2004
Sorry about the triple posting, but I do have one more thing to say about this. I love working for companies like this. Even though my salary is less than what I'd be making on the open market (if I could get a job), there's huge potential upside, and I get some perqs that make up for the big pushes, like going for a 2 hour lunch today to watch Monaco vs Liverpool today :)
posted by sauril at 12:45 PM on November 23, 2004
heh dusted. I read that. Now that's insane. Even in the push, I had time off. I only worked a couple of days for more than 10 hours.
posted by sauril at 12:37 PM on November 23, 2004
I'm a programmer / project manager / operations guy who joined a startup in July, and we've got a demo of our new software scheduled for December 3rd, and our lead programmer had a trip scheduled for Nov 20th, which we knew about before we hired him. Since I'm in charge of building the softare, I decided to give us a Nov 19th deadline to finish all major functionality. We hit it, and now it's all testing and finishing up some ui details. It's unfortunate that pushes and crunch-times like this happen, but as a PM, they're my responsibility, so if my programmers are working, I am too. Since we're a startup, we all wear a few hats, and I have to do my share of code-monkeying as well. I just realized on preview that Saturday was my first day off in November. yeowch.
posted by sauril at 12:37 PM on November 23, 2004
well... there were some bouts of drinking interspersed between labs and playing games.
posted by sauril at 10:52 AM on November 23, 2004
no kidding. that game cost my roomate TWO girlfriends and I almost failed the year. I still miss it.
posted by sauril at 10:22 AM on November 23, 2004
Actually no. That's the first I've heard of it, and it took me a while to clue in. Although I did get "mmmmmm-BARK" far to often.
posted by sauril at 06:30 PM on November 22, 2004
btw rcade, thanks for putting this space together and keeping it going.
posted by sauril at 06:14 PM on November 22, 2004
Ahhh, the easy one first, eh? Ok, my real name is Mark, and as you can imagine, I got called all the usual stupid nicknames growing up (Marcus, especially). My roomate in university took nicknames a step furthur that most, and mine mutated like this: Mark --> Marcus --> Marucus Aurelius --> Saurilius --> Sauril. Sauril seemed to stick, and when I first started signing up for online boards like this or for things like icq or hotmail, sauril was always open. So on MeFi, here, NYT, whatever, that's my first choice. Chances are that sauril@somefreeemail.com either goes or used to go to me. The only time it's ever been taken is when I forget that I've already signed up and try again, or forget my old password. Exciting, eh? As an aside, the only other nickname that ever stuck was Samarkand. We were playing a lot of Civilization at the time...
posted by sauril at 06:06 PM on November 22, 2004
It would make a great avatar, though. I wonder how coca cola feels about the branding insinuated by this picture...
posted by sauril at 03:35 PM on November 22, 2004
url window icons? you mean the .ico files that are on the left of the url? or something else?
posted by sauril at 03:17 PM on November 22, 2004
heh. 
posted by sauril at 02:35 PM on November 22, 2004
Hey, I work 'til 5 or so local time, bud. But I'm back. fire away.
posted by sauril at 10:45 AM on November 22, 2004
YAY! thanks Ufez. it worked. I really should have been able to figure this out myself.
posted by sauril at 05:00 PM on November 19, 2004
Hey! I thought you said next week! But I must say one thing: nem·e·sis n. pl. nem·e·ses (-sz) 1. A source of harm or ruin: Uncritical trust is my nemesis. 2. Retributive justice in its execution or outcome: To follow the proposed course of action is to invite nemesis. 3. An opponent that cannot be beaten or overcome. 4. One that inflicts retribution or vengeance. 5. Nemesis Greek Mythology. The goddess of retributive justice or vengeance. I tihnk #3 fits perfectly :)
posted by sauril at 04:36 PM on November 19, 2004
sounds good to me, I'm stepping away from the computer this weekend after 19 straight days of work.
posted by sauril at 03:50 PM on November 19, 2004
updated, still have the same problem...
posted by sauril at 03:49 PM on November 19, 2004
I've got 1.0 at home, this is my work box. Ahh, what the hell....
posted by sauril at 03:40 PM on November 19, 2004
When I go to the locker room, I get an error message like this one
Error Diagnostic InformationAn error occurred while evaluating the expression: #cookie.small_font_family#Error near line 37, column 26. Error resolving parameter COOKIE.SMALL_FONT_FAMILY The cookie value SMALL_FONT_FAMILY was not found in the current template file. The cause of this error is very likely one of the following things:
To set default values for cookie variables you should use the CFPARAM tag (e.g. <CFPARAM NAME="Cookie.Color" DEFAULT="Red">)
The error occurred while processing an element with a general identifier of (#cookie.small_font_family#), occupying document position (37:25) to (37:50). Date/Time: 11/19/04 15:21:03 |
posted by sauril at 03:37 PM on November 19, 2004
I remember a song that the montreal comedy/musical group Bowser and Blue would do about Toronto: "come to Toronto, come to Toronto, you can have a ball, whoops! to late last call!" That's changed recently, but the Protestant work ethic / puritanism of Toronto was much maligned in Montreal when I was growing up. ok, enough toronto talk from me...
posted by sauril at 04:24 PM on November 17, 2004
It seems (from this outsider anyway) like the country is dominated by Toronto. Population, culture, wealth, etc. - it would be like having the White House in New York City. That's what Torontonians want you to think. If you talk to people from Montreal, BC, Alberta, the east, or the praries, they'll have different stories. Culturally, until about 15 years ago, Toronto was a curtural backwater, and in some ways it still is. The capital is actually in Ottawa, so it's kinda like Wahington / New York. I could talk for hours and hours about Canadian politics, so don't get me started here. I'd be happy to answer any questions in email, though, so feel free.
posted by sauril at 01:57 PM on November 17, 2004
That's a great idea, dusted. I've always tried to negotiate for longer vacations. Here in Canada at least the minimum is 2 weeks a year, but I've always stuck to 4. That way I can take a few week long vacations, or one big one. re: Quebec. There is serious hostility between some English Canadians and French Canadians. The anglos see Quebecers as getting special treatment for everything, and the francos see their culture being eroded. it's tricky. Having lived in both Quebec and Ontario, it's safe to say that there are idiots on both sides.
posted by sauril at 12:08 PM on November 17, 2004
Great pictures of your trip, dusted. Sorry to hear about the bad experience in Ontario. I would have loved to have seen some stuff from Quebec, too...
posted by sauril at 09:26 PM on November 16, 2004
I'd be up for one too, wc, if you need another stooge...
posted by sauril at 02:26 PM on November 16, 2004
you guys all come out to Calgary. how about in February? ok maybe not.
posted by sauril at 05:22 PM on November 12, 2004
The Habs-Leafs rivalry is something, but because of the divisional playoff system of old and the waning and waxing of the Leafs and Habs, they haven't met in a playoff series where both of them were half decent in decades. Growing up in Montreal, what I really remember was the battle of Quebec, with the Habs playing the Nordiques. You had brawls before the games, suspensions, a cosmopolitan culture capital vs provincial provincial capital thing. It was nuts.
posted by sauril at 02:59 PM on November 09, 2004
Israel used to be in Oceana. I think that uefa's a much better choice
posted by sauril at 12:41 PM on October 16, 2004
not bad considering I got the rules wrong at the start and stopped playing halfway through. I promise to participate more this year!
posted by sauril at 11:37 AM on July 15, 2004
looks great with one exeption. on Moz/XP, the preview comment is squished way over to the left. Some margin would be nice. A small nit.
posted by sauril at 04:50 PM on June 15, 2004
calgary in 6. no frikken clue. the coin says tampa in 7. and my hatred of Bobby (call me Bob) Clarke. After watching the first Flames game, I'm getting serious deja vu from the '93 Canadiens. Decent team, great goalie, unbeatable in OT. San Jose outplayed Calgary, but really got lucky on two goals. The Flames deserved the win. And the refs were atrocious.
posted by sauril at 03:39 PM on May 11, 2004
vacationed in New Jersey Really? posted by 86 at 3:26 PM PST on May 7 really. Down in the Cape May area every summer after a soccer tournament in Connecticut. I have some fond memories of that place.
posted by sauril at 06:18 PM on May 07, 2004
wow. strange flashbacks on this interview. I grew up in Montreal, also went to Queen's, and now live in Calgary. I have also vacationed in New Jersey ;)
posted by sauril at 03:17 PM on May 07, 2004
A bit of a disappointing week for all it seems... As for McEveley, well, he was the cheapest player around. And I can't afford to replace him, even though his value has gone up since the start of the season.
posted by sauril at 03:59 PM on December 23, 2003
yahoo stinks. this is where it's at! but seriously, I've pretty much quit changing my yahoo team after finding out that when you sell a player after he's gone up in value, you don't get the points to spend. What's the point, then?
posted by sauril at 03:58 PM on December 15, 2003
btw, I love how BC and I have the same # of points total, as well, and yet such different teams...
posted by sauril at 11:15 AM on December 08, 2003
about time. I've had a rough go the last little while...
posted by sauril at 11:10 AM on December 08, 2003
hmmm... I don't think so. Seeing as how one of my guys just got two, and most are playing tomorrow. At least I can gloat a little in this league...
posted by sauril at 05:58 PM on August 26, 2003
***SPOFI LOCKER ROOM INTERVIEW #26*** 86:
Spite and Malice is evil. It's a great 2 player game.