Ray Emery - Fashionista

The Ottawa Senators have had numerous big names come through their line up. Okay, how can you tell I'm pumped about the NHL season starting. I'm talking Ottawa hockey. Again. But to keep with the hockey topic, the Sens cavalcade of stars. And a lot of those stars have been sitting between the pipes.

To start, the Sens first net minder was Peter Sidorkiewicz. This Polish born net minder came up through the ranks into the Hartford Whalers. Playing with the Whalers for five seasons before being picked up by Ottawa in the expansion draft, Peter went onto obscurity within the New Jersey Devils system, until he began coaching the Eerie Otters of the OHL.

In comes Damian Rhodes. Rhodes was the Sens saviour. The first netminder to help lift the Sens into the playoffs. Playing with the Senators for four seasons before being released and picked up by the Atlanta Thrashers.

Next up, Patrick Lalime. Lalime was a very good goaltender. He was with Ottawa for five seasons before being traded to St. Louis. Lalime's one fault; he couldn't backstop the Sens past the Conference Final.

After Lalime's exit, Ottawa picked up a gold mine in Dominik Hasek. For years he played with the Buffalo Sabers, and ironically, was a thorn in Ottawa's side. The Sens met the Sabers in the playoffs, and usually the Sens came out on the short end of the stick. Between stops in Detroit, Hasek backstopped the Sens. However, an injury early in the season saw Hasek playing goaltending coach for...

Ray Emery.

After Hasek's departure, Emery was number one, with former Carolina Hurricane Martin Gerber as number two. This is how this season opens as well. Gerber proved he could do it in a crunch, especially when Emery went out with an injury in '06-07. We'll see how the duo does this year with a healthy Emery between the pipes.

With all the former goaltenders they've had, Emery, however, is somewhat of a spectacle. Quite possibly one of the snappiest dressers with the Sens.

Until Emery wears conservative grey suits...

Keep 'em flyin'.

NHL: Serious hits in a serious game

The game between the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers brought about an issue, even before the regular season begins. Tuesday night Flyer Steve Downie lined up Dean McAmmond behind the net and drilled him into the boards. McAmmond lay motionless on the ice and had to be carted off on a stretcher. The issue at hand; head shots in the league.

The hit on McAmmond brought about a lot of player reaction. Veterans throughout the league agreed, players like Steve Downie have no business playing in the league. A hit like that could have career ending implications. McAmmond is out of hospital now, but is sidelined with what doctors say is a concussion. According to McAmmond, he doesn't have a history of concussions, he has a history of traumatic blows to the head.

But this brings about a fresh look at hits in the league. Open ice it might have been a different story, but this took place in what's called Death Valley. That area of the ice, just behind the net. Should Downie be suspended by the league? Many players, coaches and GMs say yes, that his hit was flagrant and excessive. Others say he shouldn't even be playing in the NHL. Downie was a star player in the OHL, and has a history of hits like this.

Notice has already been served by Sens Brian McGrattan. If Downie's playing in their meeting in November, then look for Sens to be gunning for him. History comes back again, as the Sens and Flyers have a long rivalry with violence filled games. This game on Tuesday wasn't the first, and it probably won't be the last.

Until next time...

Keep 'em flyin'.

The Virtual Atlas

Ever toyed around with GoogleEarth?

It's an amazing utility. A great and wonderous educational tool, you can literally spend hours just zooming around the different maps of GoogleEarth and exploring things you've never before seen that the old Funk and Wagnals could not put onto paper.

Google has managed to create a representation of Earth, complete with geological information, city information, and connections to Wikipedia to help educate about different places throughout the world. One of the great things about GoogleEarth is that not all the information needed to be gathered together by a large team of people under one roof. Call it, a large team of people under the global roof, perhaps. Because the users of GoogleEarth are the ones adding the information.

For example, Outlook's SkyTrail is noted on the map when you zoom in on Outlook. Cruise over to Saskatoon, and users have put up various facts and photos about Saskatoon landmarks. And it gets even better.

Want to take a 3D tour of the Grand Canyon? No problem. Just type it into the search, cruise on over, use the orientation tool to point yourself inside the canyon, and you see the area in glorious 3D.

The maps are updated daily, as it has direct satellite information thanks to NASA. And there's more. Ever wanted to see the New York skyline? Well, thanks to some very patient people, they took advantage of a tool in GoogleEarth and created 3D buildings to scale of those on Manhattan Island. This is slowly being spread all over the world. Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Paris... All of these cities are slowly being added with 3D representations of the different builds and landmarks. Eventually, consider Outlook in GoogleEarth, in stunning 3D.

Until then...

Keep 'em flyin'.

Time for a lolcat

Bringing back the lolcat. Another great pic from ICanHasCheezBurger.com. And speaking of lolcat, still accepting entries for the Attack of the lolcat post.

More fun with wallpaper

Made using screenshots from the game Guild Wars, a couple of character creations. Enjoy.

Criminal hijinx

Seems a theft occurred at a Vancouver business earlier in the week.

Criminals walked into a build late at night, and walked out, just as easily, with several laptops and iMacs. What's really great is what happened next.

I'll leave the name of the business out of my blog, but you can check more of the detailed information here, which also has incriminating security video and photos.

The crime in a nutshell: computers were stolen from a Vancouver business. Criminals entered easily into the building and six minutes later, easily left. Both, there were two, completely oblivious to the fact the front doors were under security video. At that point, you think it would end there. But no, it doesn't.

It would also seem that this Vancouver company has a Flickr page. What's Flickr? Flickr is a website where any digital photo can be uploaded easily from you computer. This is especially easy when you have a webcam. Many iMacs have built in webcams, and come with iPhoto and Photobooth software preinstalled.

Anyway, back to the crime.

Whether these laptops and iMacs were sold is unknown. But whoever ended up using the laptop, decided it would be really, really cool to take pictures of himself using the built in webcam. And then, proceeded to upload them to the company's Flickr page. For shots of the incriminating photos, click here. You can also see the lovely mugshot of the individual above.

Whether or not this guy is the criminal has not been determined by Vancouver police. But, it is quite obvious that this guy loves his tattoos. It is also quite obvious that there is no such thing as a criminal mastermind. Especially after walking in front of a security camera, allowing it to record your face, using/selling said computers to take photos and upload them to the original company's photo page online.

As one poster in the thread had mentioned...

"The funniest part is that he had to name the picture and then click a button that says "upload" in order for it to show up here. It's not totally automatic."

Crminal hijinx will ensue.

Until next time...

Keep 'em flyin'.

Wallpaper Time!

I said I'd put some up, and here we are. For this first installment, I give you the Outlook Ice Hawks desktop wallpapers.




And there you go. Three variations of the Outlook Ice Hawks desktop that I created. Hope you like them. I'll post up more at some other point.

Until then...

Keep 'em flyin'.

Computer Wars

Got into a rather large discussion with some people about the virtues of operating systems and computer platforms. There are the two big ones, of course. PC based Windows(insert flavour here) and Mac computers. There are some facts which can be dished out for the use of both, and there can be some facts dished out about the users of both.

Radical Mac/Windows lovers hate the opposing OS. For example, a Windows loyalist will swear up and down that Windows is far superior to Mac. The situation is the same the other way as well. I used to be in the camp of Mac-never-going-to-use. And then I got my current job, as a graphic designer and production manager with The Outlook. Now, I can see the ease and functionality of a Mac.

Granted, this is after going to the current iMac's that we use. I do not ever recommend using legacy software on Mac X OS. You need the Classic install and running two operating systems at the same time, even if one is in the background, just spells disaster.

At home, I still use Windows. I have a desktop and a laptop that both run Windows XP Pro. Just out of curiosity, I checked to see if I could install an upgrade to Windows Vista, the shiny new operating system released by Microsoft.

The results came back, after using Microsoft's system scanner and it reported that I could run a low end version of the OS. Meaning, I could run Vista, and pretty much nothing else. No applications, no programs, nothing. I couldn't even watch a DVD from my DVD Rom drive. That's on my desktop, I didn't scan my laptop.

There is another thing that shys me away from getting on the Vista bandwagon. It took me a while to give into XP as well, so this isn't new. I don't think I could afford the price tag that Vista comes with. I'm not sure how much it costs, but if it's like any past Windows versions, it won't come cheap.

However, having said that, you can be pretty sure that getting a Mac won't be cheap either. an iMac averages around $2800 Canadian with all the bells and whistles.

One thing I did notice with Windows Vista. It looks like Microsoft is trying to build a Windows OS that is a clone of the Mac X OS.

No matter what happens, I shall still use Mac at work, and I shall still use Windows at home.

Until the first Mac Windows OS is created...

Keep 'em flyin'.

Hockey Night in Outlook

The season is coming up. We're almost there.

What am I talking about?

Saskatchewan Valley Hockey League.

And again, I will be up in the press box, helping with the public address for Outlook Ice Hawks home games. There were some really good games last year, and I look forward to some good ones this year. Once the schedule is released for this year's season, I'll post it up here. Until then, you can be eased with the fact that hockey will come from that other league. Ya know, it's called the NHL.

And, I have developed something that will have every Ice Hawks' fan shouting. I'm planning up putting up a wallpaper section. Desktop wallpapers for your PC.

Until then...

Keep 'em flyin'.

The Original Laugh-Out-Loud Cats

Found this as a link from our favourite lolcat website ICanHasCheezBurger.com. Seems that the term Lolcat (or Laugh-Out-Loud Cats) has been around for almost one hundred years. This rediscovered footage of Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford drawing one of his Laugh-Out-Loud Cats, circa 1912, as he draws one of the two characters in the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats in chalk. Want to see more of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats? Then check out apelad.blogspot.com.

Road trip

Just got back from a road trip this weekend. Kind of nice to get away and head some place else. This trip was in conjunction with the Sask Weekly Newspaper Association's annual convention. A full Saturday of seminars and then the awards banquet. And yes, The Outlook walked away with an award and an honourable mention. That was great.

The award was for a story written by our former reporter, Hiromi Fusano, who wrote an article on workers brought in from Mexico to help with potato harvests her in Outlook. It was a long feature article, and something I felt we had a very good shot at winning. Also, our honourable mention went to Susan Ewert for sales.

The trip in and back gave me a good look at construction on both Highway 219 and Highway 45. Heading in, we took 219 through Whitecap, and work crews are still going, even with the threat of the oncoming frost. It's hoped that the highway will be completed before the snow falls. Widened and resurfaced, the construction should continue from Saskatoon to the Whitecap reserve. And I believe that it was mentioned by the government that construction should continue on down 219. Here's hoping.

Also, the trip gave me another chance to snap some photos of the wonderous fall colours that were starting to come out. With lots of greens still on the leaves, there was also a good number of yellows and oranges to be seen. Sunny for the Saturday heading in, by Sunday, the weather had changed slightly to a rather gloomy look, and the sky opened up and it rained. Light rain, but it came down throughout most of the day.

But another convention has come and gone, and we look forward to next year.

Until then...

Keep 'em flyin'.

Fall Equinox

Yes, it's here.

Officially now.

According to research, today is the day the Fall Equinox arrives. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, the autumn solstice changes from year to year until the leap year comes around, at which time it reverts back to the earliest day, that being September 21st. During the four years from leap year to leap year, each date will move ahead a little bit, until the year before a leap year, such as this year, will come on September 23rd. Here is a quick explanation from ReligiousTolerance.org. If you wish to see more, click here.

Until next time...

Keep 'em flyin'.

The date and time of the fall equinox:

The exact date and time of the fall equinox, when the sun moves into the astrological sign of Libra, varies from year to year. Each year, the date/time moves progressively later in September until the year before leap-year is reached. On leap-year, it returns to an earlier date/time. This four-year cycle is then repeated.

Year	Fall Equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere (UT)
1999	SEP-23 @ 11:32
2000	SEP-22 @ 17:27
2001	SEP-22 @ 23:04
2002	SEP-23 @ 04:55
2003	SEP-23 @ 10:46
2004	SEP-22 @ 16:29
2005	SEP-22 @ 22:22
2006	SEP-23 @ 04:03
2007	SEP-23 @ 09:51
2008	SEP-22 @ 15:44
2009	SEP-22 @ 21:18
2010	SEP-23 @ 03:09

The dates and times were derived from the astronomical calculations on The Dome of the Sky web site for years 1999 to 2006. However, the web site does not seem to be functioning as of 2005-APR-05. The remaining equinoxes were taken from archaeoastronomy.com. An online "Easy Date Converter" calculates the dates and times of the equinoxes and solstices within 20 seconds. Times are in UT (Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT.