The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Every year, there's usually a couple of films that critics praise and with these high expectations, I leave the theater or turn off the blu-ray player wondering what the hell did I miss? Children of Men is a good example...Lost in Translation is another. So add another film to the list of movies I just didn't get: District 9.

So no one knows exactly what's going on, and it's a bit mind boggling.

Driving my Jeep to the mechanic, it felt steady and solid, no sense of a violent shaking problem at all. Not that I expect it to happen all the time. Actually it occurs just once in a while, and I thought the repairs and part replacements would ensure it wouldn't happen again, but as explained previously, it didn't.

Luckily I have an honest-enough mechanic looking at it. He explained he couldn't recreate the problem. He told me he did look at the YouTube video and did some more research but most of the suggestions are speculative more than anything.

He said he could replace the shocks and could replace the track bar. But there are no guarantees it would do anything, and from what he can tell they appear not to need replacing. Worn down a little from 94,000kms on it perhaps, but not in dire straits by any means. So no additional work has been done on it, and I'll pick it up on Monday.

Now I'm thinking perhaps it's time to change cars. My Jeep has low kms on it, but perhaps I need to drive something with a little more piece of mind that it isn't going to fall apart on me.

On the other hand...car payments. Bleah! Not having them is a nice thing no doubt. But having a new vehicle is starting to appeal to me, too. Ah...guess we'll see.

Apparently it's referred to as the "Jeep Death Wobble". I'm going to bring it back to the mechanic to see if anything else can be done as the shaking started up again over the weekend. Sigh. Is it wrong of me just to want something to work after shelling out some dough for it???

Only in Canada would a story about 46 players getting together for what's no more than a training camp for a hockey tournament six months away would get front page attention. The anticipation is here. It seems almost a foregone conclusion, after the disappointing 2006 Olympics and back-to-back losses at the World Hockey Championships , that Canada will ultimately get the chance to show they're the best in the world again at the 2010 Olympics on their home turf.

But it won't be an easy task. The Russians in particular have a legitimate shot at capturing gold and there's even talk that the overall skill level in Canada can't match them. Shudder the thought! But what I enjoy most at this stage of the game is trying to figure out who will make the team. The roster won't be announced until slightly before Christmas and a lot can happen from now until then, but there are few locks and it's hard to gauge what GM Steve Yzerman will look for when assembling the team. He could field an all-star lineup or decide to put a few muckers and grinders at the cost of skill to try to negate the other teams' opportunities. In any case, here's my roster of 23 Team Canada players:

Forwards:
Iginla - Crosby - Gagne
Nash - Lecavalier - Heatley
E. Staal - Getzlaf - Toews
Morrow - Thornton - Carter
Richards

Defence:
Pronger - Niedermayer
Boyle - Phaneuf
Bouwmeester - Green
Weber

Goalies:
Luongo
Brodeur
Fleury

I bet when December rolls around, my list may not even look remotely close to what I've picked. And of course, there could be a player or two not even invited to camp that may play their way on their team (Steven Stamkos? John Tavares?). Heck, I'm even hoping Jason Spezza might elevate his play to a true elite level, perhaps using the motivation of not being offered an initial spot in the camp to help him get there. In any case, good times!

Now who's the clown that signed me up for a couple of right-wing email lists? I assure you I will not be attending any anti-health care reform rallies anytime soon...

Today I had already booked time off work. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn Wednesday afternoon that Dany Heatley would hold his first media conference since demanding a trade that same Friday @ 1pm. I don't think I've ever listened to a conference call live so I thought it might make for some interesting listening...of course, the likelihood of getting any startling revelations was minimal and that was on the back of my mind. To start the call, Dany's agent said up front Heatley still wanted to be traded and that hasn't changed. Here are some the main points he spoke about:

- Dany felt his role was diminished on the team and he signed the long term, big money contract because he thought he would be an integral part of the franchise. Okay stupid, do you think an average $7.5 million a year player would be playing 4th line minutes? Did you not see your stats actually improved once Clouston arrived?  Sigh. Moron. Next:

- Dany has nothing against Edmonton. He simply chose not to accept the deal because it was the only option. In other words, he didn't like that option and was waiting for other options. For instance, if the San Jose Sharks were the only option he wouldn't go for it.  Right.  Okay, so far we've learned nothing new.

- Dany chose to be quiet and not make any public statements because he didn't want to add to the circus. Okay, I'm not sure who's giving you this advice, but any agent or PR person will tell you being quiet is probably one of the WORST things you can do, and actually adds to even more speculation and rumour as to why you're leaving. In other words, CONTRIBUTE to said circus.   My personal feeling is that you feel you don't owe Ottawa or the fans an explanation, and the only reason why you're doing so now is because Steve Yzerman told you to do so.

- Dany says he isn't worried about his reputation taking a blow, because his teammates knows he's a good team guy. Right. That's why, when Clouston arrived, the team turned things around and started to put a few marks in the win column, at the cost of you playing an average of 18 minutes instead of 20 a game, so you decided you wanted out. Sure Dany, sure. Your reputation is rock solid.  That's the sign of a team player.

- Dany never meant for the trade request to become public. This is probably the only statement I'll give him credit for. It's much easier to trade someone when there's no pressure to do so and this summer has been a roller coaster for all involved. But still, there's no excuse for being quiet until forced to talk by the people running the Team Canada training camp.

Anyway, during the Q & A, Ottawa Sun scribe Don Brennan thought he'd be funny by stating before his question, "Sorry I've been so busy to return your calls." He came across very childish and unprofessional. I was never a fan of the guy to begin with, but this just confirmed what I thought of him: I no longer want him writing about my Senators.

It is clear the team is best without Heatley now and it's time to move on. The only good thing that can come out of this entire mess is that the team will use this as a rallying point to prove Heatley and the naysayers wrong and become a contender again in the NHL.

Man I hate banks. I'm sure not the only one with that sentiment. Today perhaps I'll do something about it. Maybe you think I'm overreacting; tell me what you think.

A few weeks ago, TD Canada Trust charged me a $5.00 overdraft charge. For the first time in the 22 years I've been a TD customer, I didn't have the funds when a pre-authorized payment was processed. My bad...pay day was the next day and I didn't think my car insurance was coming out the day before. Initially upset, I let it go thinking, "Well, maybe I deserved it for being so irresponsible with my budgeting." I slept on it and forgot about it. Until today.

I was reviewing my bank balance when I noticed those jerks over at the jerk store charged me SEVEN CENTS as interest for the one day I was in "arrears". SEVEN CENTS! I was livid. Like I said before, totally forgot about the $5.00 charge. But this petty charge brought the memories all back. Couldn't believe the bank not just nickels and dimes you but PENNIES you to death! Don't I deserve a break? Does 22 years of being a client mean anything?

So I emailed TD Canada Trust and asked those questions, mentioning it wasn't the $5.00 but the SEVEN cents they collected that set me off. I asked for both charges be reversed, seeing as it was an innocent oversight, I'd been with them for 22 years, I have my bank account, mortgage and recent car loan with them and this was the first time my balance was short when doing a transaction.

Well...the emailed response was copy of their policy on overdraft charges. Not what I asked for so I tell them that. They tell me to call this number for "specific" inquiries about my account. No way...I'm not calling a 1-800 # to be put on hold for an hour while they transfer me from person to person passing the buck. THEY got my email, it's up to THEM to figure out who to give it to and deal with. And the response to that was still, no, call the number, and really, I'm lucky they didn't charge $42 for the mishap and that they provided the overdraft "product" for me.

So am I supposed to send them an email now to say "Thanks for not charging me an addition $36.93"?

I don't think so. Screw TD. No more bank account, no more mortgage. That's what I'm thinking. Seven cents!

Choke on it!!!

As you can tell, I'm running out of things to write about! But hey, if you're thinking of getting a new pair of overpriced shades, $20 will go to the Lance Armstrong foundation for each "Livestrong" edition purchased. Here I'm proudly wearing the Flak Jacket XLJ version. "Livestrong" is actually etched on the left lens as well which is pretty neat. And I have to admit, the timing of the shipment couldn't have been better: my old pair got scratched on the inside lens after some drinking crystals somehow got on there, and I tried wiping them off with less-than-desirable results. Booooo! Otherwise, I'm fairly proud of myself having owned them for about five years. Anyway, hopefully that screw up will prevent future ones...

You may or may not know Hockey Canada is no longer allowed to put their logo on Olympic uniforms as the IOC decided against the use of federation logos for one reason or another (although putting it on the shoulder appears to be ok). So it looks like they've come up with a simple maple leaf design, and if you look closely at it, you can see some inuit inspired art inside the leaf. I actually think it doesn't look too bad (prefer the white over the red design); the official unveiling is this Monday and these jerseys may turn out to be protoypes that have been discarded. But in the end, I'll settle for any jersey as long as there's a gold medal around the neck at the end.

There is a scene in Star Trek, the movie re-boot and monster box-office smash this summer, where three crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise are descending from their spacecraft in preparation for a landing to destroy a sort of massive land drill that is attempting to destroy the planet Vulcan. At three thousand feet, two of the crew announce they are deploying their chutes; the third yells out a "Yee-haw!" and doesn't bother to follow suit, prefering to feel the rush a little longer before doing so. The two other crew members plead for him to pull his chute but he refuses. At 1000 feet, he finally does, but he is too close to the landing platform and crashes into it, sliding off to the other side, taking him into his ultimate demise in the drill's exhaust. And Kirk and Sulu are now on their own to blow-up the drill and return to their ship.

If this was a different movie, such as perhaps Transformers, that cowboy parachuter probably would have waited until he was 20 feet from the platform, then while pulling his chute, performed a triple sow-cow and lutz before blowing up the planet drill singlehandedly. But Star Trek, while still having you need to suspend your disbelief to enjoy it, tries to make it feel a little more real, a little more gritty, and results in giving you a film with a lot more character than the average science fiction/action film.

The whole premise of a re-boot seems preposterous and insulting to audiences who loyally followed the original stories. It usually means that there is no creativity left in the think tank thus they have to go back to rehashing old characters and plots. But here's another way Star Trek delivers the goods: It has used the time travelling device in past stories, but it never has shown the consequences of messing around with the so-called "timeline". But here, it asks that question, and the movie is sort of the hypothesis. And by casting Leonard Nimoy and having the Spock character be a major plot point of the movie, it doesn't ignore the legacy of the past series while at the same time allowing for a younger version of the original cast to carry on with the Star Trek universe in a plausible, non-eyeball rolling manner.  And I think the audience buys into it.

My work changed offices to a new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building this week and they changed some of the accessories contained at our cubicles.

Many of my co-workers complained about the pint-sized garbage cans at our new digs. Indeed, they are tiny. But it occurred to me no one was complaining about the blue recycle box that came with it: It's actually much bigger than the garbage can. And I thought to myself, this is a good sign our society is headed in the right direction. Recycling options bigger than waste? Excellent. And hopefully this LEED building will be the norm for offices everywhere.

Hard to believe that they all thought, "This is a good idea!" before videotaping and posting it to YouTube. Stuff like this make me worry about the human race in general.

I never hesitated to recommend the Capital One credit card when any friend of mine would talk about how high their interest rates are on their credit cards. Prime + 1%: How can you beat that? It beat the line of credit rates TD Canada Trust was prepared to offer me. Their rate currently stands at 3.25%.

But in two months that's going to change. I got a letter in the mail today stating the rates are going up. It will now be 5.99% as a fixed rate for the next three years, then it changes to prime + 2.99% after that. Guess it was too good of a deal they were passing out to their customers. The reason for the increase was due to the "current economic climate". In other words, the interest rates in the economy aren't making enough millions of dollars for us, so we're sticking it to you.

I guess for a change with these credit card companies, I thought I was getting a great deal for once, and quite frankly I deserve it. Steady salaried job for 10 years. Never missed a payment. They ask ME to increase my credit limit so they can get more business off me. And this is the way they thank me.

A near 100% increase in my interest rate...and I have to admit though, the 5.99% rate they'll start to charge is still probably the best for a credit card that I know of. But still, it just shows you, when they figure out you're getting to big of a break, they'll catch up to you eventually and make sure they're maximizing their revenues.

Shaquille O'Neal as the guest General Manager of Monday Night RAW. I tell you something, it might have just been a one time only thing, but Shaq's a natural. They had boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. wrestle the Big Show @ Wrestlemania 24, but since he was so small, it was hard to buy him as a legitimate threat so they had to make it a no-rules contest and let's just say there were a few chairs used in the proceedings. But seeing these two 7'5" behemoths toe to toe...Vince should try to make that happen.

Anyway, Chris Jericho's & Big Show's ribs towards Shaq at the 1:09 mark are kinda funny!