Planet Xdroop

xdroop: needs a floppy disk. What is this, 1995?!

Ever wonder why political leaders never provide thoughtful, paradigm-shifting, intelligent plans?

Rae, Ignatieff, LeBlanc ditch Green Shift

OTTAWA - Liberal leadership candidates Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff would ditch the Green Shift carbon tax, outgoing leader Stephane Dion's signature policy, on grounds it was rejected by voters on election day.

That's right, Skippy, it's because the voters don't want them.

And so forward the great Liberal party, having lost power to the Conservative party's brilliant and innovative we're-not-the-Liberals strategy, can now be counted on to put up a brilliant and innovative we're-not-the-Conservatives strategy in response.

But on the other hand, such a strategy gets votes, so it can't be all bad, right?

Besides, it gives the columnists, opposition MPs, and bloggers the opportunity to bemoan the lack of intelligent, innovative, paradigm-shifting leadership.

Since we know everyone likes to get a head start on shopping, here are the Mackintosh family wish lists:

Family:
Toy chest
Digital picture frame (preferably one that can be wall mounted)
Membership to Cosmic Adventures


Alex:
Clothing: 4 year for pants, 5 year for pajamas and tops
Toys:
Colouring books
Hot Wheels
Lego (Duplo size)
Music: (he likes hip-hop music)
Will Smith Greatest Hits
Sharon, Lois and Bram (he has Great Big Hits 1)
Sesame Street Platinum All Time Favourites
DVDs:
4 Square (it's his new favourite show, we don't know if there is a DVD)
Other ideas:
Alphabet and number books (he's starting to be able to read)
Big print simple story books
Favourite characters: Elmo, Grover


Nathan:
Clothing: 18 month - 2 year (he could use some pants and pajamas)
Toys:
Hot Wheels or other toy cars
Blocks
Fisher Price School Bus (ours is broken)
Puzzles
Animal toys (the plastic/rubber realistic ones)


Jenn:
CDs:
Nickleback: Dark Horse
Celine Dion: My Love
Jordin Sparks (self-titled)
DVDs (widescreen always preferred):
Ironman
Incredible Hulk
Hell Boy II
Hancock
Mamma Mia
V for Vendetta
Comics:
Spider-man: Back to Black
Spider-man: One More Day
Gift certificates: Future Shop, Addition Elle, Chapters
Other ideas: iPod Travel

Dave:
Senators tickets
Gift certificates: Future Shop, Tip Top Tailors, AMC, Moxie's, Capone's, Chapters
DVDs:
Wall-E
One player strategy/brain-teaser logic games: board games or computer

We'll try to keep this site updated with new ideas and pull stuff if someone tells us they've bought it.

Happy Holidays everyone!

xdroop: wonders why XP ships in a configuration which guarantees that only administrators will be able to log in after setup is complete.

xdroop: is thinking some dogfood never looked so good.

So here we are at the bottom of the East. The good news, if it is good, would be that we are only 3 points out of the last playoff spot. The bad news is that this means there are six teams which are also within one or two points out of the last playoff spot. Past years have shown that this log-jam at the bottom is only likely to get worse, not better, as the season draws to a close, and the team really needs to be well up the standings in order to have the luxury of preparing for the playoffs rather than having to fight to make them.

A couple of years ago I wrote that the Senators' performance was due primarily to a sea of mediocrity in the East. It has become obvious that this team's loss in skill (and perhaps motivation), plus the improvement in skill in the rest of the East, has swamped the Senators. Gone are the days when we could win without trying.

For all the stick that John Muckler and Jacques Martin took about having an under-producing team, one could make the convincing argument that Murray rode the tails of both Muckler's and Martin's accomplishments to the cup final; since being granted the opportunity to place his own stamp on the team, the results have become somewhat poorer.

While too early to panic, I think it is time to consider that the team can no longer be "tweaked" into becoming a contender and longer term plans (along with appropriate, lower expectations) be put in place. This is a shame considering the top-line talent that the team has in long-term contracts in Heatly, Spezza and Alfredsson; if the team does go into a rebuilding phase, there is a question as to how productive these players will be once the rebuilding is complete. The problem is that right now the rest of the team can't support the three top players.

Again, I don't think it is time to throw everybody out and start from scratch; merely time to start considering it should things not improve.

Stop! You must NOT hop on Pop!

So, on the one hand, it is a loss. On the other hand, it is a shoot-out loss, which means that the Senators kept one of the East's best teams to one goal in regulation and blanked OT. Coming off of two back-to-back, arguably blow-out losses to one of the East's worst teams, this is a step forward.

Or at least it will be if they can keep it up.

Ottawa needs to ensure that they keep this kind of work ethic up when playing lesser teams -- including (especially!) the upcoming game against Toronto Montreal, and then again when the Rangers come back to Ottawa on the weekend.

xdroop: has sparkley hands. Why can't the company buy the Christmas cards without all the glitter please?

xdroop: caught a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of his eye.

Thanksgiving included a chocolate cake this year.  It was well received.

I really wonder if J is going to be able to deal with this blogger thing. I'm running Chrome, and I don't think I am really trying to do anything hard or all, but if I have to resort to editing the HTML in order to get things looking the way I want them to, what chance does she have?

Problem: Image Insertion always seems to insert the image at the beginning of the post, not where the cursor is left when you click the "insert image" button. Solution: edit the HTML directly.

Problem: You can't make a picture link to a different page. Solution: yes you can, edit the HTML directly.

Problem: Spacing after image insertion is weird. I can't get it to double space after an image that's been inserted, and I can't seem to insert text before the image that gets inserted right at the top of my document. Solution: guess what, yes... edit the HTML directly.

Weak, Google, very weak. I might as well be running my own software or an instance of somebody else's software for all the good this is doing me. At least if J can't get things done, I will be able to.

xdroop: is slightly steaming over low heat.

Mom put in a huge amount of effort for this year's Hallowe'en costumes.  We continue the theme of super heros, and the idea here was to set the cosumes up so that when we went to Hazeldean, there would be a theme as Nathan chased his brother around.

xdroop: went to Toys-B-We today and purchased a shiny new Elmo potty seat with whiz shield. Ahh, the glamorous life of a parent.

xdroop: is swapping M.Brodeur out of his Facebook hockey pool for R.Miller. Luongo in the west was a lucky pick to have from the start.

xdroop: is looking at his first '09 Hot Wheels. Interesting card design. Cars are pretty cool, too.

[xdroop] HD comes out, and suddenly every sitcom DP thinks he's shooting a fucking movie.

xdroop: requires some assembly.

xdroop: is leaking blue cooler-pack goo. Tasty.

Not to belittle the danger that the hostage was in, this whole business with the CBC's reporter being kidnapped stinks a bit of media hypocracy to me.

xdroop: would, as a matter of fact, like fries with that.