Ramblings From A Radio Guy

It's been a while

2010-06-20T00:42:00.003-06:00

Just a quick post. Sorry been gone so long. Busy at work... busy trying to enjoy this so called summer.

This weekend, my brother and his son are camping at Eagle Valley Campground near Maple Creek. Friday at 5am, someone banged on their trailer door and told them to evacuate to higher ground. A few hours later their campsite was under 25 feet of water.

A damn south of Maple Creek broke and there's been some insane flooding. The scary part is... my brother and his son are trapped there.

Unable to return to Medicine Hat due to Highway 1 being washed out they decided to stay put and camp in the highground until the waters receed. Since then... the highway to the East of the campsite has been completely washed away.

They're currently surrounded by water. Safe... but stranded. It sounds as though the only way out is to drive over the damn that broke without his trailer and hope he can make it across. Here's hoping the water goes down soon. They've decided to wait it out another night... and see what the morning brings.

I'll try to post some photos when I get a chance... but here's a video. Niagra Falls has some competition. It's called highway 1 west of Swift Current.

Take care boys... Hope to see you soon.

DAR

Roadtrip Ramblings

2010-04-23T00:00:00.002-06:00

I had to make the trek to Shaunavon today to meet with the staff there. Along the way the weather was beautiful. I got up a little earlier than usual to try to hit the road early. Turned out I required a stop at the radio station in Swift to print a few things off so I was about 30 minutes behind my planned departure time. Still... I was on the highway before the 8am news was on the air.

Driving on a highway, early in the morning, by yourself, on a beautiful day, with a Tim Horton's in your hand is wonderful.

You really get a chance to think. You're wide awake and notice stuff too.

This morning as I turned off the Trans Canada to head in to Gull Lake I was met by a train. So there I sat... starring straight forward at the variety of rail cars humming by. It was then that I noticed that some people's graffiti... is pretty amazing. And not so surprising... some people really suck at it. While I waited, probably 4 or 5 cars passed that were completely painted on one side top to bottom with some amazing skill displayed.

Then as the last rail car passed I noticed the group of cars in the oncoming lane. Right at the front of the group was a female RCMP officer. For whatever reason, when I'm in the station vehicle I tend to wave at people if we make eye contact on the road. Never know if they know me and I just don't know them or if they're just looking at the vehicle with all the pretty colors on it.

I gave her a wave as we passed and I noticed while one hand waved back, the other was firmly locked on a cel phone to her ear.

It's funny... because January 1st a law was passed in Saskatchewan that banned the use of operating a handheld cel phone while driving. It took all of us a couple of weeks to get used to it. But to be completely honest... I've probably seen 15 people driving while holding the phone to their ear since January 1st. Of those 15... probably 10 of them have been police officers. Just saying.

The trek continued down highway 32. As I approached the midway point between Shaunavon and Gull Lake I realized that on this single lane highway there was a car smack dab on my bumper.

My parents were courteous drivers. I learned from them. When someone is behind you and they're obviously in a bigger hurry than you are to get going, you pull over to the shoulder to non-verbally say, "Let me get the door for you... after you."

I also learned that when YOU are behind someone and they realize that YOU are in a bigger hurry than they are... you're supposed to non-verbally say "Thank You" after you pass them. This is usually done by waiting until you're completely in front of them and waving or raising your arm up in front of the back window.

No one does this anymore. I find it irritating. When someone takes the chance of blowing their tires by driving on the shoulder of the road... a place where things that fly off of vehicles are known to come to a rest... SAY THANK YOU.

It's the same as red light lineups that extend passed a driveway or intersection. The best example I can think of is the Tim Horton's running down Central in Swift Current.

During a busy time of day, when the light at Chaplin turns red... the cars often line up in front of the Tim Horton's parking lot exit or even as far back as the drive thru exit. For those of you unaware let me give you a lesson in courtesy. When you see a red light ahead and realize that by pulling RIGHT up to the car stopped in front of you, you're preventing someone from leaving the parking lot, you're a idiot. There I said it.

What do you gain by stopping 12 feet further ahead than you'd be if you let them in? Nothing. You're still sitting at the same red light. But here's what someone stuck in the drive thru doesn't gain. When you don't let them in they have to stay where they are... out of the line.

While you're stopped and they're out of the line... other cars are stopping behind you. Meaning that LONG after you're moving... they're still sitting there waiting for the group that lined up behind you to go by... hopefully if the light turns red again before this group vacates... they don't have bad enough timing to be met with another idiot in the same place in the line.

YES... there is a slight chance that letting someone go in front of you could mean that they make it through the next green light and you don't but unless this merge is WAY back from the light that's unlikely. And if it is way back... odds are good you're going to be required to sit through at least one more cycle anyway.

Don't be an idiot. Be mindful of the world and people around you. And not to sound like a broken record... but similar to the single lane pass courtesy... when someone saves the "exit spot" for you at a red light lineup... for God's sake wave to them as you're assuming their place in line.

Wow... you can notice a lot of crap in a 1 hour drive.

Next time I drive with the radio on.

DAR

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

2010-04-10T01:47:00.003-06:00

I had another poker night at my house tonight. Played about 3 or 4 times in recent weeks. 2 for 4in the money dept. 3 for 4 I guess if you count winning my money back tonight for 2nd place.

But that's not the only reason to play. We had some new people out for our game last night and it's always fun to introduce some new players to our group.

Tough staying up till 2 to break even though! :) But, I can't complain... I made bad decisions and was up and then down all night so breaking even was a best case scenario,

I recently joined up with an older group who play dealers choice poker with quarters. They play on Sunday nights and the age ranges from me to late 70's. It should be fun.

Happy trails.

DAR

Who's the Bigger Screw Up?

2010-04-05T23:10:00.004-06:00

So it's been a little while since an opinionated rant hit the blog. Seems like a good time. Plus, I thought it'd be a good time to try out my wife's new netbook from the comfort of my kitchen table. Please forgive me for the odd spelling mistake as a netbook keyboard was obviously not intended for my gigantic hands.

Couple things in the news lately that have kind of bothered me the last few days. One story from overseas and one story from here.

First... overseas. CNN and several other news outlets reported last week about a new Japanese "Rape" video game called RapeLay. Basically, the concept of this game is in order for you to win you must rape and molest young girls. There's a great deal of backlash going on in North America right now over this recent release. I say recent because apparently these games are common store shelf video games in Japan. They've been banned in the US and while I'm not positive I'd think it would be banned here in Canada as well. Problem is we live in a viral age where everything is available thanks to the internet and this filth has washed up on our shores now sort of speak.

I saw a video on CNN where they showed bits and pieces of the game (I'm sure the Japanese Game Creators are thanking them for the free advertising) and I was pretty shocked. You can do just about anything action your perverted mind can think of and make it happen. Some girls in the game are also depicted to be very young. It's pretty bad.

One of the guys at work and I were having a discussion about the game and he said something that really made me think. He said while he certainly doesn't condone what the game represents or it's actions, gamers in Japan have been desensitized to that kind of "entertainment." Just as we've been desensitized to the actions in games like Grand Theft Auto.

It's a solid point. Rape, as bad as it is... shoot me for saying this, is on a VERY slightly different morality scale than serial killings. In Grand Theft Auto it's common practice to shoot thousands of innocent by-standards during the course of completing the game. And in a variety of sadistic ways. There's the plain ol' shooting. The run-down by a vehicle approach. There's also the ability to drive a car passenger to a scrap yard... then get out and watch that person be crushed to death in the car crusher. Want more? In one of the games in the GTA series you can pick up the proprietor of a local deli, take him to a sawmill, attack him with a chainsaw, then delivery his remains back to the deli in the next meat shipment. No lie!

You can kill cops, pedestrians, political figures, women, men, you name it.

Why this really hit home is because less than a week before my co-worker and I had this conversation... I picked up one of the Grand Theft Auto games out of the Walmart bargain bin for my Playstation Portable. And believe me... as brutal as the game is when you stop and process the acts you're carrying out in the game... it's a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Why? Because I've been desensitized to this type of game. It's normal in today's North American society to own these forms of entertainment.

We're reacting to this game because it's a new form of "entertainment" that hasn't become mainstream here yet.

Is this Japanese game worse?? Not in my opinion. They're both equally as bad. We might even have them topped. One thing's for sure... before outlets like CNN go after the makers of these Japanese games and criticize the Japanese people for allowing such filth as being acceptable... they should turn the focus on the garbage on their own soil.

I've never purchased a GTA game before. It's troubled me a little since this discussion that I made the choice I did. That said... can't stop playing it. Wrong as it is.

Speaking of turning the focus internal... if you live in Canada you no doubt know the story of Graham James. If you don't I'll quickly summarize. He's a junior hockey coach who was accused of raping and molesting more than one of his male players when they were teens. He plead guilty to some of the events in the 90's and spent a whopping 3 and a 1/2 years in the clink. This is a particularly sensitive story here in Swift Current because the majority of the instances he's been accused of happened while he was coaching here in Swift Current in the late 80's, early 90's.

Pictured Here:

Recently, more allegations have been brought up by other players. Most notably, former NHL superstar Theoren Fleury. And just over this past weekend, it surfaced in the national and local media that Graham James was quietly pardoned for his crimes 3 years ago in 2007. This only became public over the weekend.

As you'd expect people are outraged. By the sounds of it... the Canadian Justice System is set up so people convicted of these types of crimes have the option to ask for a pardon 5 years after sentence and it sounds as though it's pretty much a lay up that the pardon goes through.

Continuing with my request to have North Americans and Canadians specifically in this case look in the mirror before pointing the finger at other society's... let me just say... WHAT THE HELL?

Pretty sad that you could steal some money and be laced for life with a criminal record which prevents you from doing many things. But, someone can destroy the lives of several individuals while they're still children and get a clean slate 8 years later.

How does the line about glass houses go again? The Canadian Justice System is a complete joke. Let's fix that before we worry about what the other guy is doing.

I'm sure anyone reading this has an opinion. Feel free to add yours to the comments sections.

Have a great week,
DAR

2010 World Women's Curling and Keith's Patch Humour!

2010-03-22T00:02:00.002-06:00

Swift Current is hosting the biggest sporting event going on in the country at the moment and there is plenty of excitement.

The weekend for me kicked off on Friday with the Gala Event. The K-Motel put on a fine meal. In fact, it was probably the best K-Motel catered meal I've ever had... and I've had a few! ;) Following a great program I found myself at the table of team Denmark. Very friendly gals. I had a quick visit with them, wished them good luck and asked for a picture. They obliged but all I had was my blackberry. Their coach took a few pictures but wasn't satisfied with the turnout. It was at that point that the team's second Denise Dupont offered to take the picture with her digital camera and email it to me later. I was caught a little off-guard by that and could only imagine what it must of looked like to everyone in the room when two seconds after posing for a picture, I immediately get handed a piece of paper and a pen from this gal and begin writing a note for her. Probably not very good. But, it was kind of funny.

Saturday, my brother Shannon came down and we took in the evening draw. Watched Canada pick up their first win of the event over Sweden and then we hit the Keith's Patch. My brother and I had a real fun night in the patch that kept us up well in to the evening. The band was great and it's packed... check it out this week if you have a chance!

On Sunday night, my friend Mike and I took in the another draw to see Canada's 3rd straight win and made another MUCH shorter visit to Keith's Patch. Before the band starts they have an event MC who does a few contests and bits to keep the crowd entertained.

One of his bits was showing this video. He claims this is from an episode of Who's Line is it Anyway with Richard Simmons that never aired. I don't know if that's true or not but it's REALLY funny! Apparently the entire episode is available online but I just have the segment they showed on the big screen. Worth 6 minutes of your time I promise!

Funny Stuff.

Go Canada!

DAR

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie + My Musical Taste

2010-03-19T00:13:00.002-06:00

Hi. What's up? Been a while. I've been kind of busy and the family has been fighting a bit of the flu bug too so I haven't spent a lot of time on the blog.

Want to take a moment to say hello to any friends reading in Australia. I believe I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm doing a little "What's going on in Canada" bit with a radio station in Adelaide, Australia on the Jeff Burzacott show! Listen live at http://www.fiveaa.com.au

Just a week or two ago, Jeff added a photo of me on their website and I'm not sure how he got it (Because I've never mentioned it to him) but he has my blog listed on my profile.

With that said, I'm guessing there are one or two curious Australian's who might be showing their face on the blog so let me give a quick shout out to all of you.

Welcome to my boring blog. Feel free to jazz it up by leaving a comment and thanks for visiting. I wish I could tell you I knew Aussie were visiting the site but since I changed the backdrop of the site several months ago I haven't figured out how to put my hit tracker back on the site. So I have no idea who's reading and where they're from. No matter... welcome one and all.

---------------

On to the Music! I've been pulling a lot of old CD's out in recent weeks. I have a rather interesting collection when it comes to CD's. (Ya... I'm still in to CD's. I don't own an i-pod. Although I do have a few tunes on my Blackberry so I guess I'm slowing catching up with the world.)

I've worked in country radio for about 6 or 7 years of my 10 year on-air radio existence. So of course I have an interest in Country Music. But, I have everything from Country, to Folk, to Punk in my collection. I even have a couple classical CD's although they haven't been pulled out in years.

My Favs:

COUNTRY:

Doc Walker: In my books... the best Canadian Country BAND in the history of Canadian Country Music. Chris Thorsteinson is a great lead man... Dave Wasyliw is an incredible vocalist and musician... ok... Murray Pulver (Who used to be in the Crash Test Dummies by the way) is awesome too. I love these guys. They make great music... and they're one of only 4 musical acts in my radio career who've actually invited me on their tour bus before or after a show. (Gull Lake... 2005 I think) And they're without a doubt the only band who's ever invited me on their bus before a show... then invited me to sit and put back a few beers with them on the bus too. (Were I not married with Children, I may have not gotten off that bus. Travelling with the guys at that moment seemed like a great idea)

My Favorite Doc Songs: Probably in this order...
1) The Show is Free
2) Trying to Get Back to You
3) Rocket Girl
4) Maria (Toss up with Rocket Girl)
5) Driving with the Brakes on
6) And... if you've ever been to a Doc Show... Dave's version of "Barbershop" is off the hook. Not on any album... but an absolute staple at any Doc Walker show. I should know... I've seen them 6 times.
7) Oh... the new single If I Fall is pretty good too.

Dierks Bentley: Huge fan of his music, and of his style. He seems like a guy who'd be great to sit down and have a beer with. Favorite Dierks Tunes: Long Trip Alone, My Last Name and Settle for a Slowdown. Kind of like his ballads the most.

Kenny Chesney: Not so much anymore. I really liked Kenny when he was first starting out.

Favs: (In no particular order)
1) I Lost it
2) I Go Back (That song takes me back to Grade 11 every single time I hear it and brings a tear to my eye. If you are in the ball park of the same age as Kenny as I am... and can't listen to every word of that song and relate to it, you're weird. Just saying.
3) Me and You
4) The Good Stuff
5) That's why I'm here
6) When I Close My Eyes (This song is one that I can't go to any Karaoke function without singing... and it's one that I have "History" with. But, I have to listen to I Go Back to remember that history... it's a vicious cycle)

There's plenty more... another guy that I wouldn't turn down a chance to hang out with in front of a BBQ and a case of beer.

Blackhawk -

Founding member Van Stevenson died of Cancer in 2001. They've never really been the same since but in their early days, they were incredible. Henry Paul's lead vocals are great. He's one of those guys who you'd know who the band is the second he opens his mouth even if you've never heard the song before because he's that unique.

Key hits:
1) Goodbye Says it All - One of my all time favorite country songs
2) Every Once in a While
3) Down in Flames
4) I'm not Strong Enough to Say No
5) There you Have it
6) I Sure Can Smell the Rain
7) That's just about Right

On to other Genre's:

Punk... Won't go in to specific songs... but depending on my mood I like some good upbeat punk.

NOFX, RANCID, PENNYWISE, ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES. Some gooders... but really when it comes to punk... you could listen to one various artist compilation CD and love all of it and then listen to another one with the same artists and hate it. It's hit and miss.

Pop/Rock

I've been out of the Rock/Pop Radio Scene since 2002, so I'm a little clueless with a lot of the new stuff but here's a run down on what's in my Blackberry at the moment:

3 Doors Down (Big Fan)
Airborne
Dashboard Confessional
Foo Fighters (Probably my favorite Rock band in the last 8 years or so)
Mobile
Nickelback
Papa Roach

Way back when... I was the biggest fan of the Killjoys.

They were the first band I ever saw in concert and went on to see them probably 4 or 5 more times before they split up. They were a Punk/Pop band in the mid 90's. Lasted about 1996-2001. They're the only band I can say I have everything they ever recorded. I have all their albums... their live album... and their lead singers CD's he released after he left the group. I even have a couple of recordings their lead singer mailed to me after I contacted him several years ago. (Long before facebook... but he is on my friends list.) I'd asked Mike to send me anything he could legally send me and I'm sure he did that as I have 2 cd's that are actually burnt CD's that he mailed me. Cool guy. If I ever go out east I'd like to check out one of his shows as an indie artist.

Folky Stuff:

The aforementioned Mike Trebilcock's Shield Millions - Great CD! Stark Raving Glad and This Side of Human would be my personal favs.

Most Underrated Band that I still have in my Car:

The Moffats. (All Brother Group) They were a Canadian boy band that started out in Country as children. Then they switched to pop. Their last album was a little heavier and darker. I have that CD, Submodalities. It was released in 2000. They went their separate ways in 2001 for 2 reasons... or so I gather from Wikipedia. The biggest reason was that they got tired of never being able to shake the Boy Band image and didn't get credit for the musicians that they were. (Listen to the CD... I guarantee if you heard it for the first time and had no idea who they were you'd like it. They were very talented and they wrote or co-wrote almost all of the songs on that CD. It was also rumoured that the breakup was due to one of the brother publicly coming out of the closet.

At any rate... if you're in a pawn shop or happen to see The Moffatts, Submodalities in a bargain bin at Giant Tiger... pick it up. You won't be disappointed. Correction... you will be disappointed that you can't buy their follow up CD because it never happened. Great Album.

Classics I'll never forget:

Going back to my high school days...

Weezer - The Self Titled Debut Album in 1994 with legendary song Buddy Holly got me through high school. I listened to it every single night in my room. One of the greatest albums of all time!

Green Day - Dookie - Also an album that carried me through the trials and tribulations of high school life. Will always be an all-time greatest album choice for me.

Well enough about me... what do you like to spin?

DAR

Bring Back Old Time Hockey!

2010-03-08T21:56:00.004-06:00

Getting tired of seeing this garbage in hockey:

Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins absolutely devastated the Bruins Marc Savard. If you're not a hockey fan, you need only know that this crap has been going on WAY too much in the last few years.

It's time for this game to change.

It's quite clear, even though the culprit claims he thought it was a "shoulder to shoulder" clean hit... it's obvious watching the replay that he was just trying to clip him on the way by. He wasn't trying to throw a clean body check. If he was... he would have been looking at his target as he was hitting him. Instead, this clown was trying to catch him with a shoulder.

It happens all too often in today's hockey. The "brains" behind that game have ruined it. Rule changes like the instigating rule to eliminate those fighting... and with the way they call holding and hooking like they're being paid a commission for penalty calls, you may as well not bother trying to play defence in your own zone because anything more than simply trying to poke the puck off your opponent's stick as he skates around you is going to send you to the box.

It's time to bring back "Old Time Hockey." Stuff like this didn't happen then. Why? Because fighting in hockey was not only NOT frowned upon... it was encouraged. And every team had their one player who's only purpose on the team was to kick the crap out of people. He was... "OUR GOON."

When you got angry at someone from the other team... you both squared off and settled your differences and moved on. Nowadays, you can't bodycheck a guy, and you can't fight a guy without getting an extra penalty... so when a little animosity developed between two warriors the only way it can be settled is to try and catch him on a cheap one behind the play when no one is looking. Or if you really loose your cool... smash your stick over his head, face or some other extremity.

And what's the penalty for doing so? In this case... NOTHING. No call on the play. But if you get caught... you serve a couple minutes and you're back on the ice.

Back in the days of old time hockey there was another type of penalty. You see, most team's best player was linemates with "OUR GOON". So if anyone tried to do anything to "OUR STAR," he made sure that the perp left the ice needing a mop pail behind him. As a result of this threat... crap like this didn't happen as much in the first place. Because people knew the consequences would be far worse than two minutes by yourself to feel shame.

I'm saddened by the fact that not only did Matt Cooke not get mauled for his cheapshot... but he was physically able to still stand on the ice running his mouth off to the rest of the Bruins players the entire time Savard laid motionless on the ice. In the days of old time hockey, his mouth full of freshly removed teeth would have made this most challenging.

For the anti-fighting crowd out there... let me just say this: I'd rather have two individuals willingly FACE EACH OTHER (None of this cowardly blindsided garbage) and attempt to hurt each other for 20 seconds, only to have the linesmen step between them before any real damage is done (MOST OF THE TIME)... than someone cross-checking someone in the face or knocking them six ways from Sunday on a blind-sided head shot.

Better yet... let's go even a few years back to my dad's "Old Time Hockey." When there wasn't "GOONS." There were "Total Package" guys like Gordie Howe. He didn't need a goon on his line. He scored goals, set up goals and if things got out of hand, he'd drop the gloves and knock them around himself. That... was a hockey player. Matt Cooke isn't a hockey player.

Good rant huh?

DAR

If you could only see some of the nonsense that goes on behind the scenes.

2010-03-05T11:42:00.004-06:00

You can't call yourself a radio vet unless you've witnessed one of these. Not usually caught on camera though. Hilarious!

Click Here!

Have a good weekend.

DAR

Hubba Wha??

2010-03-04T01:41:00.002-06:00

You have to admire the guy for not being intimidated by the biggest fish in the sea but me thinks this guy might be a little off the deep end.

Why test on Haiti? Why not Cuba?

Cookoo for Coco-Puffs!

DAR

Lindsey who??

2010-03-02T00:11:00.007-06:00

Over the course of the last two weeks everyone... well ok... every MAN has been drooling about Downhill Skier Lindsey Vonn from the United States. (small picture below)

Now before you judge me for this post... know that I'm mearly here to point out that our own athletes such as... ohh... I dunno... Ski-Cross Gold Medalist Ashley McIvor are worthy of our undivided attention every bit as much as Lindsey Vonn... perhaps more. (larger picture below)

Just making sure that both sides are told in the Pro-US, Pro-Canada battle. To tell only one side of this story would be unfair to my readers. (Tongue lodged firmly in my cheek!) :)

Oh... Canada!

DAR

The Team Canada Rap

2010-03-01T23:44:00.002-06:00

Stumbled across this tonight. Kind of funny!

Nice Piece

2010-02-25T00:07:00.001-06:00

Stole this from Ryan Switzer's Blog.

Great piece.

DAR

Some of these make me sick to my stomach to watch.

2010-02-24T00:26:00.003-06:00

Behold... a compilation of Reporter Failures:

Viewer Discretion is Advised.

Here's another... no severe injuries... just funny.

DAR

February Randoms

2010-02-22T23:42:00.003-06:00

Been kind of busy so I haven't had much time for updating so I'm going to throw a hodge-podge your way.

The 2010 Olympics are underway in Vancouver. I'm been watching an unhealthy amount of olympics... more than I can ever remember before. Not sure if it's the fact that it's here or whether I'm just amped up because it's the first time I can watch it with one of my kids. Reagan and I have watched it together.

She has an interesting way of re-naming her favorite events:

Ski-Jumping - (Ski-Flying)
Figure Skating - (Figure Dancing)
Women's Hockey - (Girl Hockey)

It was also the first time I've EVER in my memory watched an opening ceremony from start to finish. I thought it was generally pretty good. My favorite parts were the flying "Peter Pan-like" dude flying over the prairies to Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. I also thought K.D. Lang's performance was off the charts.

It's been an up and down olympics with high hopes for Canadian's on the podium falling short WAY too often.

There have also been the REALLY BAD PARTS... the death of the Georgian Luge Slider, The Weather ruining events, the protesters in Vancouver and the death of one of our athlete's mother's over the weekend. Joanie Rochette (Figure Skating) still plans to skate Tuesday night. She's the Silver Medalist from Torino I believe and I have a feeling with her skating for her mom she's going to be unbelievable.

I was pretty discouraged after our awful weekend performances but Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir winning gold in figure skating tonight has me back on the wagon. (I think I have a crush on Tessa... I'm damn near old enough to be her father but she's a doll.)

What else?

I made my return to the radio last week. Or should I say debut. I've been off the air since August 2007. During Grey Cup week... I met an Aussie in Calgary who ended up hooking me up with a buddy who works in a talk radio station in Adelaide http://www.fiveaa.com.au/

He was looking for someone to talk Canadian News once a week on his show. I debuted last week and we had a pretty good time. It's me and Jeff Burzacott, every Tuesday from 7:30-7:50am Sask time.

What else?

I don't buy movies. When I do... I usually find that I never watch them more than once. Around Christmas time I watched "District 9." My favorite movie of 2009. I want to buy it... I've now seen it 3 times. If you haven't seen it yet... DO IT! It's kind of a science fiction, but it's more of a political statement than Sci-Fi and it's an amazing show done with unknown South African actors on a low budget. Watch with an open mind and you'll be amazed.

What else?

Got this emailed to me tonight... Too Funny!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1610699488?bctid=31812464001

Enjoy it!

Goodnight...
DAR

Divine Intervention in Haiti??

2010-02-09T23:47:00.003-06:00

This guy was pulled out of the rubble ALIVE after 27 DAYS!! The crazy part... he says that someone dressed in white was bringing him water during his MONTH under the rubble.

Make your own conclusions.

DAR

Superbowl Fun - Quick Post at Lunch

2010-02-08T12:34:00.001-06:00

Watched the big game last night. Well... most of it. I fell asleep with the girls in the afternoon and woke up in time for the start of the 2nd quarter. Pretty good game.

Commercials... although stupid Canadian tv blocks most of them... were also good.

Some of my favorites:

Caught Red Handed!

2010-02-03T22:38:00.003-06:00

Funny Video from CNN...

SEEN HERE.

DAR

After riding my first Zip Line... it's time to up my game

2010-02-02T00:33:00.001-06:00

WOW!

DAR

Home Safe and Sound

2010-01-31T21:58:00.007-06:00

It was a long week. Lots of fun but I was ready to get home and see my girls.

I'm a little sore. I seemed to have countless run-ins with my lower extremities and my feet, toes, shins and ankles are cut up and very bruised. Take your pick on the source of the injuries... kicking corals while snorkeling, stepping on corals while swimming, tripping on lawn chairs after too many cerveza's or just wearing crapping sandals with no arch support for too many consecutive days.

But the most pain of all comes from my own stupidity. Over the first 6 days I'd developed what I felt was a really nice tan. Some days I put on a boat load of sun screen... other days... since I'm not really a burner usually I didn't bother with it. So... on our last day there... I decided to go without.

We were in the pool all morning and in the ocean all afternoon. It was also the hottest day of the trip. I fried like chicken on a BBQ. My shoulders...back... and belly are the tender spots. Worse yet... had I done that the 1st day and been in the humid air for 6 more days... I suspect that burn would have turned to a nice tan. Instead... I'm drying that fresh burn out in Saskatchewan today so I'm expecting to be shedding my old exoskeleton for a new one any minute now. Praying for no blisters. Nothing yet.

The trip was good. I'm not looking forward to getting back to work. I turned my phone on in the airport parking lot and had 108 emails to sort through. Got it down to about 40 heading in to work tomorrow. And like a dummy I booked a full day tomorrow before I left so this week is going to be nuts.

The trip had a few strange moments. First, the 6.5 hour delay on our flight out of Canada. Then, I convinced the crew to go to a different location to go zip lining because it was cheaper. The brochure also said if you booked through the front desk you'd get a free ride in a cab to the location. Our Taxi driver and I got in to a little debate over the "free cab" ride, then halfway there in the middle of the jungle with no cel service and no 2-way radio service, our cab drivers car overheated.

So we sat in the middle of the Mexican jungle with a cab driver who I don't think really liked me stranded for about an hour.

Amazingly, our cab driver discovered that putting his head under his hood gave him cel service!!! Who knew?? After a very hot wait another cab came along and completed our journey.

The place must not be that well known as we only saw one vehicle pass us by during our prolonged wait. That said... everyone was in agreement that we saved money and had a really good time.

We had about a 45 minute flight delay coming home which completed the tri-fecta.

Planning a vacation to Mexico?? Time for Thumbs up, Thumbs Down.

RESORT - Gran Bahia Principe - 2 Thumbs up (With and Astrix beside it... read on)

TIPS -

WHERE TO SAY - There are 3 areas to the resort... Tulum, Akumal and Coba. Stay in Coba or Akumal. Tulum is the oldest of the 3 wings and is a little dumpy when it comes to the bars and walk up anytime food places. Akumal is a little nicer and centered between the other two so getting around is simple. Coba is the newest. Has nicer rooms, nicer pools and is just generally nicer all around. And the best part is... your all-inclusive bracelet gives you access to all 3 resorts so you can check out the best parts of all 3 without having to live in the crappier parts. We stayed in Coba.

THE BEACHES - TWO THUMBS UP! Coba's only downfall is that it's the only one of the 3 with no ocean beach. Akumal's beach is great for kids. There are sand breakers all around it so the VERY ROUGH Caribbean Sea is a gentle giant by the time it reaches the swimming area. This makes it good for snorkeling (Bring your own - I'll discuss later), swimming with the kids or just soaking with a beer in your hand. Akumal's beach also has a Swing Bar on the beach. (Swing... Not Swinger) The Tulum beach is more for the party crowd. They have lots of beach volleyball and water sports going on... the DJ is laying it down all day at poolside and it's a pretty fun place to spend a day. The water however is no place for children. The Caribbean Sea unleashes hell on the beach all day and while it's fun to go out there and get slammed around by the ocean it was probably much more dangerous than we realized. They have sand bars but they're staggered one in front of the other so basically you go between two of them and try to keep your lungs filled with air while bouncing back and forth off two immovable objects and some times right over them and consider that fun. (Hence most of the injuries to my legs and feet) Fun for a while but unless you're over 5 foot 6 and have a reasonably good grasp on swimming... this probably isn't a smart idea. Come to think of it... probably wasn't a smart idea period. Especially since the red flags were up at all of the beaches the whole week. I'd estimate the waves were between 6-12 feet at times. Most of the water sports offered at the resort are included at no charge but with the red flags out they don't give you the equipment. So even though I wanted to snorkel in the very safe Akumal beach... they wouldn't give me the gear so bring your own. The one good part about the beaches is even a good 100 yards out... the water was never deeper than I was.

FOOD - TWO THUMBS UP! The food was for the most part OUTSTANDING. Some of the Ala Carts oddly weren't outstanding but the inclusive buffets were always good. Arlequin and LeGourmet are must visits for Ala Carts. Avoid Mediterranean and Dolce Vida (1 of 2 Italian). The Japanese Ala Cart was the talk of the resort but we couldn't get in. BOOK ALL OF YOUR ALA CARTS AT ONCE THE DAY YOU GET THERE OR YOU MIGHT MISS OUT. Avoid the Snack shack near the beach in Tulum. Really gross. Dirty tables and chairs and the food is just greasy crap.

THE BAD PART OF THE RESORT - TWO MASSIVE THUMBS DOWN - For some reason we could never find any people part about midnight. The place kind of shuts down. There is a disco on the resort but even that was thinly lined with people the one night we went there. We paid extra to be a "GOLDEN GUEST". We had people tell us as a golden guest in other places they got exclusive restaurants, private buffets, private pools, private beaches, etc. We pretty much got squat. As GOLDEN GUESTS we received 1 extra Ala Cart Restaurant Meal. We got 4 total... the peasants get 3. And we had a "Golden Reception" building with a bar and 4 internet connected computers that were supposed to be exclusive for our use. Truth is... no one was checking anyone's bracelets so anyone who happened to stumble across the place and realized there were computers inside could and WAS using them. Besides that... most of the resort had wi-fi so if you brought a laptop you had internet without waiting in line for someone to read email jokes to their friend for a half hour.

Another brutal part was their "Baggage Security." Our flight was at midnight. We had to check out at Noon. So for 12 hours our luggage sat in limbo. We were told they had a "Secure" area to leave our luggage that we would have access to if we needed it. The first two times we accessed it there was no one there monitoring anything and it was litterly sitting in a room with a door wide open to the outside. I accessed our bags to get a change of clothes but quite frankly I could have accessed just about anything I wanted no questions asked. And the one time I went in there when someone was working there he asked me if I was leaving. I said no... just getting something out of my bag and he said... OK. Didn't even need to prove it was mine. BRUTAL!!

OFF-SIGHT LOCATIONS TO VISIT -

Xel-Ha (Shell-Hah) - TWO THUMBS UP! Very cool water park with outstanding snorkeling, Swimming with the dolphins, inclusive bars, cliff jumping (We lost one of the water cameras... not sure if I have a pic) and restaurants and a "neat idea at the time" tubing experience. Basically, you go to the far end of the place... get in a tube and float to the other end. Or at least that's the idea. When there's a hurricane blowing in your face... you paddle your ass of for 3 hours till your arms and legs feel like they're falling off and you're miserable then crawl out of the water and go home. By the way... the people at the resort will try to get you to go to Xel-Ha for all these wonderful reasons. But, they forget to mention swimming with the Dolphins. They do this because they're trying to get you to do another place with exclusive swimming with the dolphins stuff. Save your money and hit Xel-Ha. Really great place to spend a day. Booked through a tour it was about $90 bucks a person for a FULL DAY 9AM-5PM including a bus ride there and back. We looked at our options to get there ourselves for cheaper but unlike some of the other places... you're hard pressed to do it much cheaper yourself. Their pamphlet says it's $79US for admission so we basically paid $11 for a return bus trip. (SWIMMING WITH THE DOLPHINS IS NOT INCLUDED IN THAT PRICE - Cough up another $150US)

- Aktun-Chen - ONE THUMB UP! Free ride from Bahia Principe to and from... and only cost us $50US per person to go on about 1KM of zip line fun... and snorkeling in a 3000 year old Cenote (Underground water cave). I'm sure there are MUCH bigger Cenote's elsewhere that you could spend forever in but you're allowed as long as you want in this one. An hour and a half tops is probably as long as you'll want to be there. We didn't do it... but you can also go on a guided walking tour through a cave as well. Everything cost a pile of money to do in Mexico and this was about as affordable as it gets.

- Town of Playa Del-Carmen - ONE THUMB UP! It's the town everyone goes to for shopping at it's famous 5th Avenue. Tip - Avoid Senor Frogs unless you don't want your money. They'll take it. And while it's pretty much essential to complete any trip to the Mayan Riviera... you'll find the best deals there for shopping but be prepared to feel uncomfortable. They are aggressive and in your face and don't like to take no for an answer. Sometimes they're very rude. We took the Collect-a-Bus there. (Collectivo) It's only $3 each way and while it's affordable... it's a little tricky to find the Collectivo when you want to leave. They're a little off the path. Most of the shops there will bargain with you ALOT. The first place we went to I hadn't even said no to a guy. I picked up an item and asked how much. He said $40. As I starred at it he said... "for you $35." I set it down and looked at something else and he said $30... then $25... then $20. When I left blocked me on the street and offered it to me for $15. I promised him we would be heading back in his direction again and that I would return. The same item was available in almost ever shop but no one would come even close to his offer. The lowest I could get was $25. I returned and bought it from him and he thought that was pretty great. I had a Canada hat on and he had plenty of good things to say about Canadians. I wore my Rider jersey there... don't do it. Everyone wants it and will badger you constantly to get it. I had one guy ask me... "how much did you pay for that jersey?" My answer was "$160." His reply... "I'll give you $20." Now I know how they feel on a daily basis... perhaps he was making a point. And while it's pretty safe on the main strip you should probably stick together. I was offered drugs on more than one occasion... everything from marijuana to cocaine. And a couple of dudes tried to get us to come in to a darkly lit building to eye up a few of their ladies.

Tulum Ruins - TWO THUMBS UP! Take the Collectivo. Cheap to get there at $3US each way... there is a little bit of shopping in the town and the ruins are a must see. Only $5US per person to get in to the Ruins. There are other Ruins such as Coba and the legendary Chichen-Itza (One of the 7 Wonders of the World) but sadly we didn't make it to these. It was very expensive and we thought it would be a "Maybe Next Time."

More pictures to follow soon.

Good to be back!

DAR

Uno Cervesa Por Favor! (Ola from Mexico)

2010-01-25T11:36:00.002-06:00

I wish I had some pictures to post... but we haven´t got anything to get them off the camera.

There were delays getting out of Regina (7 hours) and our flight ended up being a redeye here but we still had a pretty good day yesterday.

Food is great! Beer is cold! And the beach is beautiful. Got a cool picture of me benchpressing parrots at poolside.

Will try to update later. Hopefully with pics.

DAR

The Power of Radio

2010-01-22T13:27:00.002-06:00

The most easily distributed media. The most easily received media for the consumer. The most instant media. And sometimes, the difference between life and death.

You gotta love radio!

From Bad to Worse (Not Sure if it's in that order)

2010-01-19T21:13:00.011-06:00

Tough week last week. I apologize if there are spelling mistakes and if my writings are a little choppy. I'm in a bit of a rush but I've been wanting to update for a couple of days so I figured a quick update is better than none.

First, the insanely devastating earthquake in Haiti hits on January 12th. And with that, the POOREST country in the Western Hemisphere can likely change their status to POOREST in the world shortly. These people have absolutely nothing and they just lost that too. The capital city of Port Au Prince looks like a junk pile and it seems like what little form of government they had has pretty much gone AWOL.

Really sad to see the pictures but much like a bad traffic accident I can't turn away. I'm logging on to CNN constantly.

Locally, we're doing our part to raise money through a 1 day radio drive on all 4 of our local stations all day Wednesday. (Find out more from the Eagle's Blog HERE )

Ever since it happened I've been feeling a need to go. I don't know what I'd do since I have no real ability they're looking for right now but I have a desire to try to help.

Crazy (Close to Home) Moment. Back in 2006 I went to Nicaragua with Compassion Canada. Our trip leader was a wonderful lady from Calgary named Karen Taylor. She is such and awesome person. I felt a close bond to her right away and I was amazed at how everywhere we went in Nicaragua people at the projects knew her. She travels a lot and incredibly forgets no ones name or face.

Anyway... I found out today that Karen had landed in Haiti with another mission group the day of the earthquake and had only been there about an hour when it hit. Apparently, they were en route to the hotel when it hit. And when they arrived at their hotel there wasn't a hotel anymore. A VERY close call. I listened to a radio interview with her and she saw some things that I'm sure she'll never forget. They were taken to the Canadian Embassy and I understand they were evacuated from Haiti shortly there after. I haven't been in contact with her yet but I still talk to her occasionally and plan to send her an email tonight. I'm really glad to hear that she's safely back home. As people become more and more desperate in Haiti, it's becoming a dangerous place for more reason's than an earthquake.

And just when the week couldn't get worse... a local 4 year old girl fell through the ice on her family face and drown. Hit me particularly hard. When I found out she was missing I immediately thought of my daughter Reagan who's also 4. And even more shocking is as I understood from talking to someone who knows the family, this little one just had a birthday over Christmas... just like Reagan. So they were the same age almost to the day. Couldn't stop thinking of this poor little girl and her family.

Strange things happen though. When I learned of her body being recovered, for some strange reason I noticed a song playing on the radio in the background that I'd not heard before. It was a new song by Carrie Underwood called Temporary Home and the lyrics were haunting considering what I was reading about as I heard it.

My heart and condolences go out to the family of that little angel.

4 days till Mexico!

Dar

Hit the Tan Man!

2010-01-14T22:23:00.002-06:00

So I don't know if I've said this on the blog... but my wife and I as well as another couple we know are heading to Mexico in about 8 days.

I'm kind of excited about it but a little worried about it at the same time. My wife has been after me for quite a while to get to a tanning bed and well, I haven't done that.

So I'm a little nervous about my pasty white skin hitting the Mexico sun. Truth is, I've never been to a tanning bed before. I don't really care for the idea of laying on a bed of lights and quite frankly they scare the crap out of me.

I have visions of falling asleep and coming out looking like a lobster. Or visions of it starting on fire while I'm in it. I know all of these fears are dumb... but I can't change who I am.

Time to feel the burn I guess.

DAR

Puddles

2010-01-13T22:16:00.001-06:00

I've come to the conclusion that drivers in Swift Current are oblivious to the world around them.

The weather has been warm lately and that means lots of melting and puddles. If you're debating walking anywhere you should rethink that strategy as no one in this town pays any attention to puddles and pedestrians. I walked a grand total of about 5 blocks today and had to run out of the way of about 3 or 4 mini tsunami's.

I've gotten used to it so when I'm walking if there are cars coming I move well before they even arrive or stop short of a puddle because I know you can bet your bottom dollar that the approaching driver hasn't seen you or the puddle.

Common courtesy people! When you're passing pedestrian in wet weather, slow down or at the very least pull over the opposite way a little.

Bunk.

DAR

A Trip to Snip

2010-01-12T23:35:00.003-06:00

Not a fan of people giving you TOO MUCH INFORMATION? Change Websites now!

Don't care about TMI or you can help? Read on!

I have a consultation with the doctor tomorrow.

And not the good kind either!!!

Wednesday, at 9:30 in the morning I'm going to speak to a doctor regarding whether or not I'm ready to lose my manhood.

I'm not sure I'm ready for this career move. Don't get me wrong... I'm quite convinced that I'm ready to put a cap on my role in procreation.

My problem is the procedure itself. I have lots of friends who've had it done. Some say it was no problem at all. Others say it was stupidly painful and that pain didn't go away for quite sometime. Others have told me that it still, after years doesn't feel "right."

I like right. I'm used to right. Feeling right and I are companions.

So I ask you... how bad is it? What am I in for? Is it worth it? Feel free to fill the comments section. Ok... 4 people read this if I'm lucky... some are female and some... we've never really had the discussion about whether or not they're experts in this field... so feel free to post A (singular) comment. Or maybe some encouraging words.

Thanks,
DAR

Back by "Popular" Demand

2010-01-10T22:52:00.005-06:00

Well, I've been asked by 3 people in the last week to update the blog. Since my entire viewership is unlikely to exceed the number 3 I'd better please the masses.

Truth is... there have been plenty of things to blog about. Over the last month or so there have been plenty of things that have happened that I thought... "This would be good blog material." Then I always seem to be too busy or lazy to update.

And now that I'm taking the time to do it... my mind is pretty much blank.

So here are a few randoms for your enjoyment.

Before Christmas I took Reagan to church for the rehearsal of her church Christmas concert. While she was practicing, I visited with several folks who were using the kitchen downstairs to make lefsa.

For those of you who don't know what lefsa is... it's GOOD. Ok... a little more detail. It's a potato pancake basically. Now, that in itself doesn't sound real tasty but if you smear something terrible for you all over it and roll it up it's outstanding. (My topping of choice is butter and brown sugar!)

After watching for a while, I decided to take my turn at making one. I'm a good lefsa roller... perfect thickness and perfect circle! Transferring the raw lefsa to the griddle... different story.

Tonight, the Olympic torch passed through Swift Current. There was a huge event planned for it and I'm sure it was well attended. My wife had to go in to work tonight and I had to go in to work this afternoon so unfortunately we didn't attend. Probably should have since I may not see it again in my lifetime but life goes on.

At least I can say I've seen the torch. In fact... I've held it. Back in November, an Olympian (Name slips my mind) was passing through doing some speaking engagements and she stopped in at the station to flash to big stick. Incredibly light... but I'm still trying to figure out how it doesn't melt because it feels and looks like plastic. (Did you know that all torch bearers could purchase their torch afterwards? About $400 I'm told) Pretty Cool.

And finally... a video someone sent me. Really doesn't have anything to do with what I've been talking about... just thought it was funny.

Enjoy.

Have a Great Week!

DAR

Grey Cup Snowbowl Video Part 3

2009-12-19T00:16:00.002-06:00

Now posted. This is the HD version... takes a while to load.

http://mykaussie.com/stream_files/MykSnowBowl09Pt3MYKwebTVHD.wmv

Great times!!

DAR

Been Busy. More Grey Cup Stuff.

2009-12-14T21:14:00.002-06:00

It's been pretty hectic with work and with the kids Christmas concerts, staff parties etc. So I haven't had a lot of time for posting and it seems when I plan on doing something, I end up falling asleep putting the kids to bed and crash for the night.

By now I've more than gotten over the tough Grey Cup loss. I'm ready for hockey season in full force. I've not planning on missing another Bronco game from here on out, I'm ready for Saskatchewan to host the World Juniors and I may even try to get my gear out of the attic for the first time in about 3 years and actually play a little hockey.

In my last post, I spoke about the Grey Cup Snowbowl event I had the pleasure of being a part of. The guy that organized it, "Myk Aussie" hosts a internet TV show and has posted a few videos from the Snowbowl. I believe the 4th Quarter as well as some post game interviews will be posted in a 3rd video later this week. I've linked the first two for you viewing pleasure. The fat guy playing QB and wearing the burgundy #7 jersey... yeah... that's me. These take a while to load... seriously... like probably 20 minutes.

PART 1 (It's in HD and takes a LONG time to load)

http://mykaussie.com/stream_files/MykSnowBowl09Part1MYKwebTVHD.wmv

PART 2 (Again... takes a while to load but has much more game footage.)

http://mykaussie.com/stream_files/MykSnowBowl09Pt2MYKwebTVHD.wmv

I'll post PART 3 as soon as he posts it.

He's a pretty good guy. Been exchanging emails with him ever since the Grey Cup weekend.

Later,
DAR

Sorry I'm Late. GREY CUP 2009

2009-12-02T23:09:00.002-06:00

I promised a Grey Cup post... (A long one)... but truth be told... some things have come up in the last couple days that make me realize this game isn't as big of a deal in my life as I make it out to be. That said... I'd written most of this the other night but was too tired to finish it... so I'll post it anyway.

Here's the Grey Cup Summary:

What a weekend!

It was a frustrating week for me. I wanted to go... but I really couldn't afford it. My wife and I booked a trip in January and this was really not a financial option. I probably made the decision to go to the game... then changed my mind not to go about 5 times.

At about 10pm Thursday night my brother informed me he'd just purchased tickets at face value. Money was tight so I decided my entire budget for the weekend was $150 POST TICKET PURCHASE. I think my brother and I could co-write a book called "Grey Cup on a Budget." We kicked ass.

Friday afternoon, my brother informed me he'd lined up a place to stay with an old friend so hotel expenses were off the slate. My car is great on gas so I drove 5 and a half hours to Calgary... drove around Calgary all weekend and when we left town I filled up for $32. (Thanks in part by a MUCH lower gas price in Calgary) Even I didn't realize this thing was that good on gas.

I left for Calgary Saturday morning at about 8am Saskatchewan time. It had snowed the night before and roads were terrible. Vehicles in the ditch everywhere and the journey included fog for about an hour that was so thick I couldn't see the front of my car. A semi almost Jack-knifed about 100 yards in front of me which likely wouldn't have ended well.

Picked my brother up along the way and we continued to Calgary. A quick road pop and appy from Hank's Bar in Bassano and we carried on. (About $12 tab)

Once we'd arrived in Calgary and dumped all of our things off at our weekend accommodations... we dressed up and carried on to Moose McGuires for supper. For those of you living in Calgary who've never been... Moose McGuires is an AWESOME pub. It's very much a Stamps bar so we did endure a little abuse but the cold beer, and STELLAR... CHEAP food made up for that. A beer each... and a full meal each... ($30 including tip). We both had the "CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAME" Steak Sandwich. Recommend it.

Once at the festival, we walked to main drag for a while watching the buskers and just generally having fun being a part of it all.

We decided to enter the obscenely long line to Riderville. After about an hour and a half, we'd moved 20 ft in the line that if entirely outside it would have probably been the equivalent of 2 city blocks long. This was both a curse and a blessing. Yes... we'd just lost an hour and half of our already limited party time but we'd also enjoyed an hour and a half of socializing with fans that didn't cost us anything. (YAY BUDGET!)

Once we realized Riderville was not happening, we decided any team party was better than no team party. The Spirit of Edmonton was our next party of choice but we'd been informed it was a little ways away and we didn't want to go all the way there to find out the line was just as bad so we decided to find a place that served cold beer on the festival strip. That place was the Unicorn. (AKA - Home of the Argos "Double Blue Bash")

The line was short but still probably took us an hour to get in. While in line we befriended a couple of Bomber fans. (Man, it feels weird saying that)

Also while in line... I watch a fan who I assume was from Saskatchewan give up his seat at the Grey Cup. I assume he was from Saskatchewan because he was wearing a "Saskatchewan" jersey similar to those worn in the Highschool North/South Senior Bowl. He was incredibly drunk... and decided he wanted to fight... well... to be honest... he confronted so many people in the 5 minute incident that I'm not really sure who he wanted to fight. It became very obvious, this gentleman was on something more than beer. He took his jersey and hat off, and proceeded to pace back and forth, in circles and screamed and pretty much anyone within 30 feet. Hence... I really had no idea who he wanted a piece of. He was yelling in the direction of the line... and a few people were yelling back at him but there was no toe to toe standoff.

While he was busy trying to run a marathon in a 15 ft radius, 5 members of the boys in blue strolled up and confronted him. He calmed down immediately and I thought the incident was over. As they were all walking away without incident someone from the line yelled something at him. That's when he decided that trying to fight through 5 police officers to get to someone hiding in a crowd of people was a good idea. (Let's just call this an "Error in Judgement") After shoving his way through 2 of them, his quest ended... hard. I have a hunch he was not in attendance for the big game.

The funny thing was during the skirmish I looked back and his belongings that he deemed stripable were no longer there. Moments later I saw a couple walking a LARGE dog... who happened to be wearing a Team Saskatchewan Jersey. TOO FUNNY!

Anyway... once inside the Unicorn we enjoyed cold beer by the pitcher, a FANTASTIC Rock-a-Billy band complete with Dancers. And some good company. We spent some time with a few older Rider fans who had room at their table for a few more. We sang happy birthday and had pictures with a couple of Rider fans who apparently recognized me from their section at home. (Can't say I recognized them and I've been there for years)

And as mentioned... we ended the evening sitting with the 4 Bomber fans we'd met in line. Since we were all taking turns buying the pitchers it was an affordable evening. (Exact amount spent... still hazy.)

The evening ended with an early morning encounter with Joffery Reynolds. He's the Calgary Stampeders Star Player. He's also an unrestricted free-agent this offseason. I put a bug in his ear. At 2:30 in the morning we drove past him in a very empty Calgary Tower parkade. We stopped beside him... I wound down my window and calmly said... "Hey Joff... You'd look real good in green buddy!" He got a really good laugh out of it and said "You never know man!"

For the record... my brother was the sober driver. He was nice enough to buy us a pitcher though... even though he wasn't slugging with us.

The next morning we slept in a little late. That not only meant we were late for Snow Bowl... it also meant we didn't get a chance to eat ANYTHING before Snow Bowl. As I sprinted across the park HOPING I was going in the direction of the Enmax Stage which I couldn't see my stomach was growling and I wondered how the hell I'd play football on an empty stomach.

I got there just as the teams were separating and preparing to start. I'd spoke to the organizer earlier and he'd informed me they were in the market for a QB. I play QB in our flag football league so I'd already told him I'd be more than happy to sling the ball for team west. After a quick survey to ensure no one else had their heart set on the job, it was confirmed that with one warmup throw, zero stretching, and still out of breath from sprinting to the game, I would be the starting Quarterback for Team West in the 2009 Snow Bowl.

The game started out rough. Mercifully, we kicked off so I had time to introduce myself to the people I'd call "Team" for the next hour and a half.

Our defence held the East to a Two and Out and we went to work. My first two throws... grossly off target and the punt team came on. Our organizer, Aussie Myk showed off his "Footy" skills by booming a punt for the first point of the game. 1-0 West.

The East proceeded to put up the next 14 points to lead 14-1 by the end of the 1st quarter. Despite the deficit... I felt I was starting to get a grasp of how to get things going against the East's tough defence led by none other than the Hamilton Tiger-Cats ACTUAL Mascot, Pigskin Pete! (If you're not familiar with him, NO... we weren't playing against someone in a Tiger suit) He's a young guy in a jersey with a cool hat.

The rest was history. We started rolling. Thanks to a couple of STELLAR catches by a Stamps fan named "Shea" and another set of STELLAR catches from another Stamps fan (Name Escapes Me) we were putting up points at will. We also had a Lions fan (I believe he goes by LionBacker13 on some of the fan forums) who had SEVERAL sacks on defence.

Near the end of the game when we had a big lead, I decided to go out and run a few routes and I managed to catch a TD pass.

If you've never been to the event before, there is the usual post game celebration with the trophy presentation and all that good stuff. Then there's the award for the "Snowman" game MVP. Despite the fact, I thought the receivers on team West bailed me out by catching my ducks all game long, I was given the coveted award. I really struggled throwing the ball but got better as the game went along. The trophy will be displayed proudly on my desk at work. The final was 39-28 for team West. I believe I had 5 TD passes, 1 INT and a receiving TD. At least that seems to jive with the math I tried to compute on the drive home.

I decided to pass on the post game beers with the participants as the big game was only a couple of hours away. We changed out of our football gear and got in to our football fan gear. A quick stop at the Dairy Queen was in order as the hunger I seemed to forget I had during the game returned. (Eating for the first time that day meant I'd only dropped about another $12) We hopped aboard an incredibly crowded C-train and the next stop was McMahaon stadium. It was crowded so by the time we got to our seat we were a mere 30 minutes till kick-off.

The pre-game was electric. The fly overs were incredible. There was a moment of silence for those at war. I was very annoyed at several people impersonating Rider-fans who yelled continually throughout that moment of silence. The anger quickly left as I started to well up during the national anthem. Everyone in our section was singing loudly and I was so jacked up I was bouncing up and down with my eyes closed as I sang.

The game was the best of times. (First Half) It was the worst of times. (Second Half)

Half time was surprisingly entertaining. I didn't like the decision to bring in Blue Rodeo when it was announced. They're not exactly a "High Energy" performance. That said, there's no such thing as a Blue Rodeo song people don't know and it was impossible to not sing along to some wonderful songs.

The ending of the game was painful. During the Montreal Challenge that would have put them in Field Goal range with 13 seconds remaining I sat down with my eyes closed.

Once it was ruled incomplete I was jacked. Then deflated again when they completed a pass to put the ball in field goal range anyway the very next play. But, after the ball was spotted, I did the calculations and came to the conclusion that this was about as long as Duval had shown he was able to hit all game so there was a chance.

When the ball went wide and I saw the flag I dropped in my seat. Everyone was celebrating a Rider win already on the field and in the stands. I already knew otherwise. There are only 3 penalties that can be called from where the officials were standing that I can think of. 2 of those 3 penalties are against the defence.

1) Too many men (DEFENCE)
2) Pyramiding (DEFENCE)
3) Time Count (OFFENCE)

And I knew it wasn't a time count.

I knew the Riders had just given away the 2009 Grey Cup Championship.

I didn't see the ball go through the uprights. I watched the kick in silence and as soon as it left Duval's foot I knew it was perfect. I dropped my noise makers where I stood. I can still hear the sound of my cowbell hitting the concrete. I sat down and looked at the ground for about 5 minutes.

Then, I picked up my stuff and walked out.

There was no cursing. Anger wasn't something I was feeling after the game. (After the penalty, yes... but not after the game)

Discovering the C-train was going to be backed up for hours, we walked all the way to our vehicle 2 train stations over. I'm not sure how long that walk took but not much was said and I was thankful for the time to collect my thoughts.

The first words I recall saying to my brother after quite sometime of silence were, "This now replaces Tony Gabriel's catch in 1976 as the single worst loss in franchise history." This will be a legacy that the Saskatchewan Roughriders and their fans will speak of for the next 100 years.

On the way home the next day we didn't talk much about the game. ($12 breakfast in Strathmore by the way! LOL!)

After I dropped my brother off, I continue the rest of the way home (about 2 hours) in silence. No radio on. Nothin. Just drove.

I tried to keep my mind off the game but, that was impossible. Yet, anger still isn't a feeling I get. I don't know what it is. Every time the thought of this game enters my head I feel sick to my stomach.

During the drive home in silence, I also had a chance to review every play in my head. What went wrong? What could have happened differently?

If I take nothing else away from that drive, I'll take solace in knowing that replaying the game over and over in my head gave me more reason's than the obvious for losing the game.

I won't bore you by outlining each and every one of them that popped in to my head like a memorized essay during the trip home.

In a moment of irony... in the 4th quarter, when Darian Durant scored his touchdown to put us up 16 with 10 minutes left, the Lions fan beside me turned to me and said "congratulations, you've just won the Grey Cup." My response was: "No we haven't, I've seen this song and dance before. We need one more score... a field goal... a TD... a safety... anything and we've won. But, as long as this is a two score game we're in trouble." You could feel that the Als were rolling and were going to make a final charge. They're a good team... and were it not for a horrible call by the officials which the league recognized as an error and resting their starting QB for a loss they could have/likely would have finished the season 17-1 instead of 15-3.

My fears were confirmed as the Riders failed to pick up a first down for the remainder of the football game and the game ended the way you all know it did.

Lots of blame going around but, there's no point in playing the blame game. I'll still feel the same way when I think about this game... sick.

Grey Cup.

2009-12-01T01:15:00.001-06:00

Long Grey Cup Recap coming up tomorrow.

DAR

Season's Greetings from the Family

2009-11-21T16:43:00.001-06:00

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Tee Hee... Jib Jab is fun.

2009-11-21T16:08:00.001-06:00

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Making Fun of the Stampeders is Fun. EDITTED!!

2009-11-19T18:52:00.002-06:00

Apparently after I posted this you tube video it was removed... I found it again on Jib Jab's website. Hillarious.

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Good Times in Riderville

2009-11-09T08:56:00.003-06:00

This weekend the Saskatchewan Roughriders clinched 1st place in the west division for the first time in 33 years. At the games they have what's called the Suite 16. It's basically and RV and Hottub at field side you can rent out for beers, good times and football.

Local Business owner, Tyler Bragg had the game rented for this weekends game. They had plenty of face time on TSN during the game and had some excitement come their way post game as well. Several of the Riders including QB Darian Durant spent time running over to each section, honoring and giving props to the fans. Some, including Linebacker Kitwana Jones actually went IN TO the crowd post game.

Tyler, enjoying every last minute of the hot tub, was joined by a post game guest.

http://watch.tsn.ca/cfl-news-and-highlights/clip232818#clip232818

These are happy times indeed in Riderville.

DAR

What the Hell is Wrong With You?

2009-10-29T23:39:00.002-06:00

I'm troubled these days. I used to have a bad habit of checking CNN.COM first thing when I came in to work. For the last year or so I've managed to resist the temptation. Unfortunately, for whatever reason I started doing it again in the last week.

CNN.COM is depressing. There's rarely any good news on there. And the bad... is as bad as it gets.

In the last week, 2 children between the ages of 7-9 have disappeared and been found dead. There was a 20 year old go missing from a Metallica concert... no one knows where she is. And over the weekend, a 15 year old girl left her homecoming dance with a "friend". Only to have him lead her behind the school where she would be gang raped by between 10-20 people for 3 hours.

Yes... this happened on school property during a school function. But, it gets so much worse.

During the 3 hours ordeal, some of the participants left to go back in to the school and brag about it to others. You'd think that would bring it to a merciful end... but instead many came out to watch, cheer on, and some even came out to participate.

What the hell is wrong with people? I'm not sure who's worse. The participants or the "fans". Either way, each trip to CNN.com makes me sick to my stomach.

But, like a bad traffic accident, I continue to go back and get angrier at the world with each visit.

What can we do with a society that is warped beyond return? There is nothing that can be done to change these evil people. Is there any hope for mankind if this is how it's going to be for teenagers?

I'm at a loss for words.
DAR

A Meeting Inspired Post About My Radio Life Story Chapter 3 (2005-Present Day)

2009-10-22T04:25:00.003-06:00

Back by popular demand. Episode III of the "saga." LOL!

So where were we? Well, 2005 was a year of change with my new role and another MAJOR life milestone which I'll get to in a minute. I again, in an effort to gain a little respect in the room volunteered myself for Christmas duties so everyone else could enjoy their holiday.

I was spending the holiday in town at my wife's family farm anyway and it only required me to pop in a couple of times Christmas day so it really wasn't that big of a deal. My father-in-law is an early riser so I figured he really get a kick out of heading in to town to the radio station at 5AM to update all of the weather forecasts and to make sure everything was running smoothly. And he did. I popped in later that day a couple of times... once around mid-day and once in the evening. I was back for the morning news run on Boxing Day. Riveting... I know.

Let's move on. Around a week after Christmas we were in for big changes on the home front as the arrival of my first child came December 30th, 2005. A beautiful baby girl named Reagan Dawn.

My wife and I had gone through 1 miscarriage in November of the previous year and that isn't something I'd wish on anyone. This was a wonderful blessing.

I don't consider myself a "baby guy" anymore. I used to... and I like playing with other people's babies... but for me... the real fun started as a dad when they hit about a year old and could actually start doing stuff. Reagan is really smart and spoke quite early so it seems like she's much older than she really is. What a kid!

Back on track... this is radio life story. 2006 was pretty uneventful... at least for the first half. I continued on the afternoon show at CKSW and as the Program Director. I continued on as the news director as well.

In late August, I was summoned in to my boss' office. I couldn't have guessed what she was about to ask me. She informed me that the company was partnering with a missionary organization called Compassion Canada. And as part of their partnership, they were sending some radio staff on a missionary trip. She told me that there is a trip going to Nicaragua in October. My name had come up as someone who should go. Just one catch... she needed to know THAT DAY.

So I immediately returned to my office and phoned my wife. I explained to her what the opportunity was and it was obvious to both of us that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity so we agreed that I should go. I returned to my boss' office with the good news and the race to prepare began immediately.

I'd only been out of the country once in my life so... Passport? NOPE. Immunizations? NOPE. And I didn't exactly have a lot of time. A little more than a month to prepare.

I had a consultation with Sask. Health and almost immediately started a long line of needles that lasted a few weeks.

The passport was another concern. I drove to Saskatoon to deliver my forms in person and with about a week and a half to spare I had passport in hand.

It was the week before the trip and I was incredibly excited. Everything was falling in to place... including calcium deposits.

I remember I was at work and it was just before lunch. I started to get a pain in my abdomen that I assumed was just hunger. Within a minute or two it was too uncomfortable to sit down so I thought I'd walk it off. I talked to Ken in the AM control room for a few minutes about how something didn't feel right. By about 12:15 I was begging for someone to take me to the hospital.

Our traffic coordinator Nadine, drove me to the hospital emergency room and was forced to endure me screaming until my wife arrived and she could escape. I couldn't sit still... I just rolled back and forth on my bed, moaning and groaning.

My little girl... around 9-10 months old at the time didn't know what to think. I remember asking the nurses if they were keeping an accurate record of my treatment because I had 8 shots of morphine and 2 shots of Demerol (sp?) in the time I was in the emergency room bed and it seemed like it was a different staff member every time. OD'ing on this crap entered my mind on several occasions, but they assured me they were well aware of what had entered my body and that I could withstand more yet. I replied... "Well, keep it coming then."

I was wheeled in to a big room for a CT scan and it was at that point I fell asleep. Not sure if that was exhaustion related or drug related but at any rate I was out.

When I woke up I had been moved to a hospital room and was hooked up to numerous IV's. By the next morning, nature had run it's course and I was finally rid of the little sadistic bastards. Unfortunately, I went in to the hospital on a Friday. And the nurses informed me the doctor looking over me rarely comes in on the weekends. So I had to stay there till Monday morning.

Let me tell you, a hospital is no place for a healthy person. When you feel fine... you should leave. I believe in temporary insanity because I've been through it. The guy next to me was dying. I listened to him puke and poop himself ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT. (This is still in the days of the old hospital in Swift... when they put 40 people in a room. OK... only 4 but it seemed like 40.)

And the poor bugger across from me had his appendix burst and was not diagnosed properly. He almost died because of it. However, he'd been there for 3 weeks trying to rid his body of the poisons inside and I understand seeing him occasionally that he was there for another month after I left. This guy was moaning and groaning all the time. And coughing non-stop.

When you're healthy... and have to listen to that all the time... you go crazy. On the Sunday night... I got dressed at 3am packed up my stuff and informed the nurses I was leaving. They told me to quit being an idiot and go back to bed. I went back down the hallway pouting and climbed in. I didn't sleep the whole weekend... I wasn't thinking rational.

FINALLY, Monday came and by about noon that idiot had busted me out of the joint. I hope I NEVER return.

Did I mention I was supposed to leave for Nicaragua, Wednesday Night? Tuesday morning, I had an appointment with the urologist who gave me the A-OK to travel. By Wednesday night, I was on a plane to Calgary. At 4AM, Thursday morning I was on a plan to Nicaragua. Travel time, layovers, time change, etc... we got to Nicaragua that evening.

My god it was hot there... and humid. I could barely breathe outside but I was just pumped to be a part of it all. I remember when we loaded in to our shuttle at the airport in Managua the workers helped us with our bags. When they finished, they litterly climbed in the van with us demanding a tip. Not really knowing how to react or what to do (not to mention we didn't understand their currency), we all dug in our pockets and handed him one of our newly inherited colorful bills to the lads. Our guide informed us afterwards that we'd probably given them 2 month's salary. Apparently, ONE of us giving him something would have been sufficient.

Over the next 8 days, I saw some of the worst living conditions one could imagine. I walked through open sewers to visit children who had nothing. I heard stories of areas where 80% of the adults are single parents and drug addicts. I was moved to tears when a little boy told us that spending an afternoon in a fast food restaurant with a couple of strangers was the "best day of his life."

The next 8 days would change me in ways I couldn't imagine. When I returned, I thought I'd document my stories and do a speaking engagement with whoever wanted to come to show some pictures and tell some stories. I was requested for 20 more by January of 2007. I spoke for Kinsmen, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotarian, Seniors, Scandanavian Club, Church Groups, you name it. Even if you can't name it... I probably spoke in front of them. Each time, I broke down and nearly cried at the same parts of my speech.

Sadly, our guide who took us to Nicaragua told us, "You may think the things you see here will change you forever... but over time... you return to your life and your way of doing things and you forget what you saw and what it meant." She was right. I don't thank god for the people around me and the place I live nearly enough. And I don't pray for every individual separately that touched my life there like I did when I first got back. Believe me... you can listen to someone tell you a million tales but until you've seen it with your own eyes... you just don't get it. There is no such thing as a poor person living in Canada. They don't exist.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to send you there so the video I put together as a part of my presentation will have to do till you can go on your own. (Credit Craig Hemmingway in Moose Jaw for making the first half of this video, I added the second half) **** I tried embedding the video... couldn't get it to work so you can download it here. Not sure how long it will stay on that site though) ****

http://www.mediafire.com/?ywmzzynmwyq

Near the end of my trip, I'd made up my mind I was going to sponsor one of these kids but I wanted to meet the one I chose. I met a 4-year old boy named Norvin on the final day we were there. I'm still sponsoring him, as well as sending and receiving letters and pictures today. He's now 7. Because my sponsorship was on the impulse, I didn't get to meet his family and see his home like others did which was too bad. I hope one day I can return to meet them.

By mid 2007, I was starting to feel like I was finished with the on-air business. My show had become a chore and that was never the way it was supposed to be as far as I was concerned. I was so busy with admin stuff in the two departments I was looking after, stopping what I was doing to go on the radio seemed like a job. So I talked to my boss about it and the wheels immediately began to swing in to motion to get me in to sales.

Someone in our sales team was retiring and she felt I had the "right stuff" for the job. By August... I'd been relieved of my previous duties. A job I'd held down since 2002. I began training for an FM sales list with a bright young sales gal who was about to go on a maternity leave. Moving back to FM was a bit of a reacquainting process as I'd been a country boy for the last 5 years. She trained me well and showed me a lot of neat tricks I still use. I had a decent year but, I'm a goal setter. My boss' had made it sound like I'd be a natural seller and not attaining budgets became difficult for me to accept.

Adding to the challenge was the arrival of baby girl number 2. Hannah Elizabeth arrived October 19th, 2007.

I learned that sales is not easy. And it certainly isn't for everyone. Luckily, I've been blessed with working with great people. My new boss by then was a converted sales person named Carla. Her and I work great together and trust each other alot.

She's a joy to be around because she's the most positive human being I've ever met. I'm sure she has bad days... just no one knows about them. I sometimes feel bad because she's my sounding board and I think I go to the well too often. But, I always leave the room feeling better than when I entered. She's awesome!

So my first year ended and I'd come up a little short on my annual budgets but looking back it was a pretty good first year.

Following that year I was moved to back over to the AM side in September 2008 and took on an AM sales list as well as Assistant Sales Manager duties. Carla needed someone she could count on to help her out and I felt like I owed her that much for how much she'd helped me through my first year in sales.

I have the benefit of working with a killer sales team. Because of it we were able to have a tremendous year. Our biggest year ever. And I owe it to the sales team who really got it done.

1 month ago the Assistant title was removed from my position. It was done quietly, without fanfare which was fine for me. I really haven't noticed a big change. I'm still doing the same things I was doing before... I guess I just don't need to ask for Carla's permission before I do it. Well, ok... I appreciate her input so much I usually talk it over with her anyway so really things haven't changed at all.

It's October 2009. Hannah just turned 2 on Monday. Reagan will be 4 in December And you're up to date. What lie ahead is anyone's guess. I guess it's true what they say... everyone has a story. You just have to take time out of your life to go back and read it.

Take Care,
DAR

A Meeting Inspired Post About My Radio Life Story Chapter 2 (2000-2005)

2009-10-05T22:45:00.004-06:00

So it's the new Millennium. No one died. The computers didn't reset to the year 1900... no one's files got deleted. People got drunk, I worked way too early in the morning on New Years Day... and I slept at the radio station for the first time in my life. I think we're caught up.

The year 2000 brought on my 3rd and final opportunity (so far) to run away from my radio career.

As I'd mentioned, I was brought in to the fold in Swift Current without knowing that I was in effect, replacing someone who hadn't left yet. We split the on-air time for a few months with me getting the better time slots. Within a couple of months he was doing evening's and overnights and I was doing the afternoon show full-time.

I'm not sure how long it was into my Swift Current days... maybe 6 months. Whatever it was, it wasn't much later that the same thing happened to me. The person I had replaced moved over to our sister Country station and out of the blue, a person was brought in who started to get the better part of my shifts.

At the time, I was told that "no decisions had been made... this person was being brought in to raise the bar." And that they planned to give each of us, "1 month to earn the job."

Not a management strategy I would suggest using. Both he and I approached it the same way... if you're going to line us up head to head and say may the best man win, it isn't going to be pretty.

I decided to myself that I wasn't going to run to yet another job. I felt I was getting the run around, and although I thought I was doing a decent job... even if I wasn't... I thought I deserved the courtesy of a face to face chat to find out what it was I was doing wrong and how I could have improved it. Didn't happen.

So we went to war for a month. Each trying to out duel the other in whatever precious air time we got. He tried a little too hard and ended up doing somethings on air that upset a lot of clients. (The clincher... During the initial season of Survivor, they ate live rats on the air. It was much talked about. He thought it would be a good bit to phone several local restaurants and publicly announce that he heard they made a good rat soup. Obviously, these businesses did not see the humor in their name being tied to such a thing.)

So when the month ended, I thought I'd done what I needed to do. But, there was no follow up meeting. I waited another month. Nothing. So I approached the them general manager at the time about it and was told point blank that there was never any intention to return me to that position. If I couldn't accept that, I was invited to submit my resignation.

Again... I decided I'd ran away to a new community at the first sign of adversity enough already. At that stage of my career, I already knew people personally who's careers were a never ending cycle of going from job to job every 6 months. Always expecting the next one to be somehow more perfect than the last.

I liked Swift Current. I had friends here. I felt like the community accepted me much more than ever before. I decided that I was going to become a better employee. So I didn't take his offer to resign. I shut my mouth and went back to work. To justify me being there... I was given other duties... I did most if not all of the opping for Broncos games and Bluejays games. And I'd also started producing commercials and imaging for the Eagle.

I got the feeling I was not wanted there as make work projects continued to be piled on... but I kept my mouth shut. The kicker came when I was told at 3 in the afternoon one day that a good portion of the Eagle's imaging needed to be reproduced... BY THE NEXT MORNING. I had been at work since 8am that morning already. As soon as I could get in to the prod studio I began working on the project. I worked all night. I finished it at 6:30am the next morning. I went home, had breakfast, showered and returned to work for my usual 8am start. The first thing I did when I got there was take a demo cassette with ALL of the imaging I'd produced overnight to our GM and set it on his desk.

I honestly believe that was a turning point in my career. I don't think I was intended to finish that project. Maybe I'm wrong... but I got the feeling that was a project given to me so I'd fail. And that failure would be his just cause to get me out of here. Again... maybe I'm completely off base here but, it seemed as though my relationship with the GM in question completely 360'd after that day.

Soon the lad I had fought for airtime with decided to move on elsewhere and no one was brought in to challenge for the spot. It was mine. A short time later, our mid-day gal left. I assumed her music scheduling role in an unofficial capacity.

My relationship with that manager was good... albeit short after that. Not long after, our GM and our company parted ways.

His replacement, was a young lady who had started at the bottom and worked her way up at CHAB in Moose Jaw. I knew her a tiny bit from my 9 months or so there but not really well.

One of the first things she did as a manager was give me the official title of Eagle Music Director... and a little more compensation to go with it.

Life was good. I'd finally started to get somewhere in my career and I was starting to lose the chip I'd had on my shoulder for years. One of the first things I did after the old manager left, was phone him and thank him for the opportunity. His departure was sudden... just a note on the bulletin board following a weekend... so I didn't get a chance to talk to him at work. I don't think I owed him that phone call but I was really trying to show for the last time... that I was the bigger person during our entire time working together.

I see him rarely... but I still talk to him today and we've developed a lot of respect for each other.

Work was great throughout the remainder of 2000. (This all happened around March or April or so)

2001 was also great although I started to feel like I was doing more and more and was ready for the next challenge.

It came in December of 2001 when I learned the Grant Schutte, the Program Director for CKSW was going to be leaving to start a new station in Melfort. I had a meeting with our GM and while she wasn't offering me the job... she's strongly suggested that I tough it out in my current role till February 2002 to see how the chips would fall.

In February 2002... I was officially hired as the Program Director/Morning Man for CKSW 570. I only did morning's for about 9 months before I moved myself to afternoons. It was a challenging start. As anyone who's ever done it can attest... going from co-worker to Boss is difficult. The people who've known you for years don't respect you in that capacity and unfortunately... most people in that situation never will.

We went through a lot of staff that year. Quite frankly, there was a lot of staff working for the station. Too many... so we needed to get rid of some of the people who didn't deserve to be there. Then... there were a few that just simply couldn't handle working for someone they saw as a co-worker so they moved on. We made some good hires that hung around for a few years... we made some perhaps... not so good hires. I can honestly say I've hired and fired probably more than my share of people in my career.

I won't go in to specifics about certain situations but there were some doozy stories to be told those first 2 years.

And no matter how much you're ready to see someone move on... firing someone is never fun. By late 2004/early 2005, I'd gotten my staff where they needed to be. We had a solid morning man in Ken Audette (who's now doing news). We had a great gal handling promotions and mid-days, I took the day's anchor shift... and our part-timers had been streamlined to the BEST and most productive folks we had. Someone would even move on to on-air careers.

In early 2005, with our newsroom in a bit of disarray, our News Director quit. I was asked to go down stairs and manage the department temporarily. I agreed to it. My goal was not to go in there and raise hell. Quite frankly, most people there knew more about telling the news on the radio than I did.

My goal was to learn everything about the room. Become one of the Newsies. I made sure I knew everything about the formatics for all 3 stations. I made sure I knew how to work all of the equipment. If we were short staffed for a weekend/holidays... I scheduled myself to cover and actually work shifts. I needed to prove to them, I could do the job. I thought that was the only way to get them to follow me.

What I didn't try to do was change too much. The core plan was there... they just needed someone to be strong enough to make sure it kept going in the direction it was intended to go... and I think I did that.

Of course... it didn't happen without losing a few staff along the way. There were a few folks who simply refused to follow the direction I wanted them to follow and we did make a few changes but the core group remained intact.

Within a few months... I was no longer a temporary fill in. I was VERY quietly announced as officially, the News Director for Swift Current/Shaunavon Center.

That brings us to mid-2005 and my bed time.

Just a little further.

Darwin

A Meeting Inspired Post About My Radio Life Story (Chapter 1 1996-1999)

2009-10-04T23:34:00.004-06:00

This past Thursday, we were in Regina at Hotel Saskatchewan for a full day of meetings. In the evening, we held the 52nd Annual Golden West Radio Sales Awards Banquet.

It's the big ceremony where everyone who was able to attain their yearly budget is presented with an award. The last few years they've done a great job of making it a Hollywood type deal... complete with produced intros for all the award winners. I'm proud to report I took home my first piece of hardware since my move to sales in August 2007. Felt good.

Anyway... during the day portion of the meetings... we had several people currently working in company get up and speak. Some told their amazing radio life story while others told AMAZING stories about their triumphs in their personal life.

The meetings are designed to inspire us heading in to a new fiscal year. I don't know if I'm inspired but I can admit I cried a few times at these meetings. Some REALLY gut-wrenching stories that had the entire room lining up to hug the speakers during our breaks and thank them for telling their personal story.

It got me thinking about my story. While it won't make you cry... I started to write down things that popped in my head over my radio journey.

If you care... read on. If not... change sites now.

My radio road began in 1995. I applied at only one post secondary school out of high school. SAIT in Calgary. I didn't get in. (That's called putting your eggs all in one basket)

It was a blessing for me... I ended up working for a year at Safeway... making friends with someone who ended up being the only person in my hometown of Moose Jaw that I still stay in contact with. I made a little dough too which helped the following year.

In 1996, I decided to be wiser. I applied at 5 places to learn about the world of Radio. I applied at WABC Saskatoon, NAIT, SAIT, Mount Royal and LCC in Lethbridge. I was accepted at WABC and LCC... I chose the latter.

From September 1996- April 1998, I attended college in Lethbridge. I learned a lot. How to survive on my own... how to enjoy education (First time for me)... and how to party.

It was also an interesting time for me personally. I went to college fresh off of the ending of a 2 year relationship with my high school sweetheart. The end of that relationship crushed me and I am still to this day a different person because of it. I'm a lot harder than I once was. I used to be a kinder, more patient person. I still have issues of trust with new people in my life.

I went to college angry and bitter. And after 2 years at school, some of that had improved but it would still be there for several years later.

After college, I was hired on at 800 CHAB in Moose Jaw. There I worked as a summer events student. My role was to drive the cruiser to all the big events in the Heartland... give away prizes and be a walking billboard for the company. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I MC'd on the big stage at Craven... I met stars like the Dixie Chicks and JoDee Messina... and I even rode a bull... sort of.

After the summer came to an end... I was offered a chance to stay on part-time and roll the church tapes in the evenings. I was living at home with my parents and not paying rent so it was actually profitable. At $5.75/hour, I was able to earn enough that summer to buy my first car. A 1988 Ford Tempo.

I was AWFUL on the air. I used to come home and bury my head on the table listening to my BRUTAL voice tracks. There was one time... I was asked to fill in for Wayne Lamb on the Saturday Top 30 countdown while he was on holiday's. It was a voice tracked show and I was SO nervous about screwing up my one shot at the "big time" that I listened to Wayne's voice tracks from the previous week before I recorded mine. I wanted to sound just as good as he did. I just inserted this week's songs in place of what he said and re-voiced it virtually with all the same inflections. That weekend, I got up to hear the countdown... already half over. I was mortified!! I'd tried to replicate Wayne so much that I'd actually been saying HIS name!! Not surprisingly... my opportunities to "fill in" stopped happening after that. I litterly cried at my parents table because I thought I was possibly the worst DJ in the history of radio. (And even after all these years... I have to admit it maybe wasn't the worst... but it was god awful.)

In around October 1998, one of the folks in the CHAB newsroom left. I wanted my foot in the door anyway I could get it and I wanted more on-air time so I approached Rob Carny about the gig. Almost instantly, I was doing weekend news. I thought I was doing a great job. I even got a chance to fill in for Carns on the morning sports once... albeit pre-recorded in a time when the news/sports were always voiced live. But, that was short lived.

After two weeks, one of those "right guys at the right time" arrived. I've learned all about these people over the years in fact, I've hired some of them.

A retired school teacher who once worked in the business decided he had been bitten by the "radio bug" once again and approached Rob about getting back in to the industry. Instantly, HE became the weekend news anchor with INCREDIBLE pipes and the man you may know of as Jim Strom is still there as the Afternoon Drive host on Country 100.

I like Jim... I hold nothing against him today. But, then... I hated him. I also felt like I was slapped in the face. So I did what I would do one more time in my radio career... I ran.

I reacted the way... now that I've been in management... I've told people not to react. I played the role of the victim. It was the company that screwed me... I won't stand for it.

Never taking the time to realize that Jim was in fact, much better than me... and they were doing what every manager SHOULD do... put the person with the most ability in those positions, I started sending out resumes.

I received an interview at CKSA in Lloydminster and went there for an interview for a part-time promotions... part-time evening and weekend swing announcer. While I was there... in the days before everyone owned a cel phone... a collect call to my mom informed me that I'd been requested for an interview in Rosetown. (Prior to Golden West's purchase of that station) So after I interviewed in Lloyd... I took a detour to Rosetown on the way home and interviewed there.

I didn't get the Lloydminster job. It went to a friend of mine... Mike Doll who was one year behind me in college and was now... leaving school 5 months early to begin his career.

A week later, I got a phone call from Neil Bergen in Lloydminster. Another announcer had left the station so they'd moved Mike up to JUNIOR Swing. (Yes... this was in the days where ONE radio station had THREE... count em... THREE LIVE SWING ANNOUNCERS!

So I was offered the coveted Promotions/Part-Time Swing Position. I also received a call from Rosetown with an offer to join them. I decided, Lloydminster was a bigger community... and I knew 4 people who I'd attended college with working there so it was the place for me. (Shortly after I got there 2 more people from college were hired making the total including me SEVEN people.)

I won't talk about salary much during this story but it is notable... after announcing I was going to leave MJ... I was offered $1100/Month to stay full-time. Being a little green for negotiating and feeling like my word stood for something... I told my boss in MJ that I'd already committed to Neil and I was going to Lloyd for the whopping sum of $1150 per month.

Yes... for an extra $50/month I was prepared to leave my parents basement with free rent and food and move to Northern Alberta! Dumb ass.

It was a rough beginning. I left for Lloydminster on December 18th/1998 with everything I owned loaded in the back of a 1988 Ford Tempo. Having never needed to find my own place to live before... I assumed I'd drive up... pick an empty apartment and move in. The vacancy rate in Lloydminster at the time was not good... I drove there with everything in my car... and no place to unload it. That didn't change after my first day of work. Thank god... a wonderful lady named Della who unfortunately I haven't kept in contact with allowed me to sleep in her spare bedroom for a couple of days. She worked in the office of the TV station which was above the radio station. She was recently divorced... not sure why she trusted me but I was thankful she did. I emptied the bigger stuff of mine in to her garage... the rest I left in my car knowing full well I didn't plan to stay for long. I ended up being there a month and lived out of a suitcase for all of it.

I was not informed until after I'd got to the radio station for work that they closed it up tight for something like 11 DAYS over Christmas. So arriving on December 18th, I was informed that I would be working December 22nd - Jan 6th without any days off. For each of those days... the on-air shifts were as follows:

Senior Swing - 6am - Noon
Junior Swing - Noon - 6pm
ME - 6pm - Midnight

So for my first Christmas away from home... I was homeless and working till midnight on Christmas Eve. I remember getting off at midnight Christmas Eve... leaving work... and wanting to have SOMETHING that resembled Christmas to remember... I took the only present I had... a shirt an socks from Mom and Dad... and opened them at the table at the 24 hour Husky while I had my midnight turkey dinner.

Christmas Day I slept till about 3pm... showered... grabbed a bite to eat at 7/11 and went back to work for another 6pm-Midnighter. Hands down... the most depressing Christmas ever.

After my marathon workfest, I was given 6 days off in January which I went home. Mom had arranged for my brothers to be there and we had our own chinese Christmas then.

After about a month I ended up moving in to an apartment with a TV commercial writer from upstairs. I think her name was Janice... can't really remember. We didn't get along. It was not a fun 4 or 5 months or so... but it was a damn nice apartment.

I worked hard in Lloyd. I partied hard too. My drinking buddy was a TV news reporter named Bryan Mudryk. He was fighting his second battle with Cancer and was on leave when I got to Lloyd... but shortly after he returned to work after his successful fight against Cancer we just clicked. He was a good guy. However, like most people I've met in my life... I'm not great at "staying in touch". He moved on to A-Channel in Edmonton... the A-Channel in Winnipeg. I talked to him regularly by phone until he moved to CTV Edmonton, then on to TSN in Toronto. Just within the last few months I finally made the effort to contact him by email and we've exchanged a few.

Anyway, I worked hard in promotions. In fact, I think I was probably the best promotions guy they'd ever had. I took a lot of the stuff I'd learned from Abbey White (A Promotions God) in Moose Jaw and made it work there.

And I had a lot of fun along the way. Our station had a hockey team that played teams for charity. I organized a huge fundraising game against the RCMP for a local women's shelter. It was huge. We also played games in small towns, I swore weren't far from the north pole. The team was put on temporary hiatus after one of the TV sales guys decked a player from the opposing team in a charity game. Forgot to mention we were playing the only ALL WOMEN'S team in Lloyd... with proceeds again going to... you guessed it... the Women's Shelter. I still remember sitting on the bench when it happened thinking... I'm SOOOOOO FIRED.

Oddly enough... I wasn't. And even stranger... neither was he. What a tool.

Eventually, my buddy Mike Doll got a job in his home town of Medicine Hat. So I'd naturally assumed I'd be MOVING ON UP... to "Junior" Swing. That was when another "Right Guy at the Right Time" came along. A few months earlier we'd hired a young, fresh out of college producer. When Mike left, he decided he'd had enough of producing and wanted to be a full time DJ instead. They hired him. I went to my boss and voiced my displeasure. He told me... Chris was better than me on the air and that I was doing a great job in promotions so he wanted to keep me there.

He was right. But, I was young... and stupid... so I ran again. I walked to my office... picked up the phone and called my mentor, Barrie in Moose Jaw. I explained to him my version of how it went down. You know... "I'm doing such a good job in promotions they're penalizing me for it" as I recall.

Within a week, I'd received a phone call from Kim Johnston at the Eagle 94.1 in Swift Current. I was told I was going to be doing afternoon drive. By then... I was making an unprecedented $1150 in Lloyd. I made the move to Swift for $1200/month. It also cost me $600 in my pocket. I was slated to do a 3 day out of town remote with the station in Lloyd. It would have saw me clear $600. Kim said he needed me right away so I quit... 3 days before the remote.

November 24th/1999 I arrived in Swift Current. Apparently, I didn't learn from previous experience so I arrived in town... listening to Reagan Bartel broadcast a Broncos game... with no home and needing to find a place to sleep before work the next morning. Golden West ended up putting me up at the Super 8 for the first two nights. (DUMB DARWIN FACT - I remember being strangely attracted to the gal working the front desk even though she was about 8 1/2 months pregnant.) After a couple of nights... I found a basement suite of a house on 6th S.W. GREAT PLACE!! LOTS OF ANTS IN THE BASEMENT... but a GREAT PLACE!

My first shift at the radio station I thought would be my last. I had to op the Grey Cup game which we were broadcasting on the air. I remember the game well... Calgary VS. Hamilton. Hamilton won. Calgary RB - Calvin Anderson unleashed an assault of F-Bombs on the post game show after the loss which aired. Somehow, I thought that would be my fault and assumed I'd be fired the next morning. I wasn't.

After I got here, it was pointed out by others at the station that I was hired to do the job of someone who was still there. He was on holiday's! When he returned to find out he'd been replaced, safe to say the working relationship was "uncomfortable".

With it being 1999, everyone was talking about the Millennium Bug. Kim and I had tried to convince sales to give away a "Millennium Beetle Bug" but the contest never came together. That said... everyone partied on New Years Eve like it was 1999 and the Eagle was there. We split all the announcers up and went to every bar and function in town and did live reports to Kim who was pulling the 7pm-Midnight New Years Eve Shift. I was my first time pretty much in any of the bars in Swift Current.

I got back to the station at 2am... and had to be on the air at 6am so I went downstairs and slept on the couch in the basement. Not a nice couch... but to this day... a VERY comfy place to lay your head. When that couch leaves the station... I want it for my garage.

Which brings us to the end of 1999 and the end of chapter 1.

Sorry if this seems a little self centered but, if you didn't want to read about me you wouldn't be here so why am I apologizing?

Chapter 2... coming soon.

DAR

Meeting Inspired Radio Post Coming Up

2009-10-02T13:24:00.000-06:00

Stay tuned... try to have it up by the end of the weekend.

DAR

Funny HaHa!

2009-09-30T00:56:00.002-06:00

I seem to recall posting some of these videos once before. But, what the hell it's been a while.

I enjoy good stand-up comedy. Two of my favorites... George Wallace. (Although I couldn't find his best stuff)

Another guy... John Pinette - He was in Saskatoon earlier this year... tried to get tickets... sold out.

He's lost a pile of weight over the years as you'll see by these videos. He's a riot!

Around the World in 80 Buffets:

Family Vacations:

More to follow...

I just pee'd myself.

DAR

New Look and the Spoiled Trifecta

2009-09-22T23:20:00.002-06:00

I attempted to complete the sports trifecta this weekend.

Two Sports. 3 Games. The Goal... 3 Wins by the Home Team.

FRIDAY - I attended the Swift Current Broncos Home Opener. Exciting game that saw the Broncos open up a 4-0 first period lead against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. Things went south in the 3rd period however but, the Broncos were able to hang on for a 6-5 win. CHECK

SATURDAY - My brother and I went to Moose Jaw (my hometown) to rebuild my mother's fence. We arrived in town early and spent the entire day in construction mode. Since no construction project is complete with out beer, (so says me) we made a stop at the LB (Liquor Board Store for those of you not from Saskatchewan) while were we on a supply run.

While we were there I bumped in to former Broncos PR man, Corey Nyhagen. He is now with the Moose Jaw Warriors and was stocking up on booze for their luxury suites as their home opener was happening Saturday night.

I decided to lend him a hand loading the suds while we "caught up" with each other and he hooked us up with 3 tickets to the game. BIG THANKS COREY!

That evening, I took my brother and my mom to the game. It was my mom's FIRST EVER hockey game. I was unaware of this until that night. For several years when I younger, my mother worked in the concession booth at the Warriors games but she'd never sat in the stands and watched a hockey game before.

To say she enjoyed it was an understatement. She had a blast. Helping with the entertainment was the Moose Jaw Warriors themselves who proceeded to pound Prince Albert 7-2. In the dying minutes my mom was shouting... "Come on... let's get another score!" Really fun night... which we ended off at Casino Moose Jaw. I donated, Mom and Brother won for the record. Win #2 for the Home Team? CHECK

SUNDAY - RIDERS VS. ESKIMOS - I don't want to talk about it. :( Riders were woeful.
Win #3 for the Home Team? FAIL Stupid Eskimos!

-----------------------------

What are your thoughts on the new look to the blog? I decided after in excess of 2 years blogging... it was time for a new look. Not sure if this one will stay or if I'll go to something different. This one hasn't grown on me yet.

Have a great week!
Darwin

Another Great Quote...

2009-09-15T00:29:00.000-06:00

From a Saskatchewanian living in Alberta.

"I'm from Saskatchewan, these Rocky Mountains are nice but they're blocking the view."

Cheers!
DAR

Tired of Getting Old Part Deux

2009-09-15T00:24:00.003-06:00

Add another one to the list.

Bum Shoulder.
Sore Knee. (Feels 100 times better today but still sore)

And new this evening... black eye for getting punched in the face by a teamate while diving to make a tackle on the last play of the game.

The bright side... we're now 8-1 after a 20-13 win. YEAH!

Tough game for me though. Caught the first pass of the game... didn't catch a cold the rest of the night. Pretty invisible out there to be honest.

Humbug.
DAR

My Time is a Piece of Wax, That's Fallen on a Termite, Who's Chokin' on the Splinters

2009-09-14T00:06:00.004-06:00

Strange but great Lyric from the 90's song "Loser" by Beck. I was reminded of the tune last night while out at a buddy's stag.

It seemed to fit this post of Random stuff.

It was a strange line. Kids say strange things too sometimes. I guess that's part of what makes them so great. A few weeks ago while driving in the truck, Reagan asked me a question only God knows the answer to:

"Dad, Are stars allergic to peanut butter?"

Ah the mind of a child.

My answer... "I don't think so. I think they live far enough away."

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It's been a busy summer. I've re-painted my entire house. (Exterior)

I won't do that again.

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My neighbor employed a contractor to put in a beautiful stamped concrete patio. The workers then proceeded to cover the side of my house with concrete and a black powder used to stain the concrete. Consequently, it stains a house too. Need to call the place and have a little chit chat.

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I attended AC/DC in Regina August 24th. Cool show. But, I must be getting old... I thought The Eagles in Saskatoon this spring was a much better show.

Angus Young's half hour guitar solo was impressive only because he's so old he should have died during that solo. But, musically and entertainment wise... 15 minutes would have been sufficient. It was a little excessive. Anytime you're looking at your watch wondering how long this has lasted... it's usually a good indication it's lasted long enough.

Pretty good show though.

-------------------

I've undergone a slight change at work. I'm no longer the "Assistant CKSW Sales Manager." I've dropped the "Assistant". Hasn't really changed anything as I was pretty much handling 90% of the CKSW duties anyway.

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I've come to the conclusion that it would not be possible to have a better boss. I don't say this because she reads this. I'm not aware if she even knows I have a blog. I say this because my boss Carla is an great person. And when it comes to work stuff, we always seem to be on the same page. We bounce ideas off each other not because we necessarily need to... but because we trust each others opinion. Couldn't ask for a better working relationship with my boss.

-------------------

I'm getting tired of getting old. I had the worst year ever playing slowpitch. Mostly because I didn't really play that much. I've had huge shoulder problems all year. Went for CT scans and and Arthrogram (6 inch needle injects dye in your shoulder then they x-ray it) to see if I tore anything... came back clean. I've since spent the last 3 months in physio. It's at about 85% now and is to the point where I can throw a football again.

But, I haven't been QB'ing for my team in flag football like usual. I've been playing receiver instead and I'm really enjoying catching the ball for a change. Unfortunately, nearing the completion of shoulder re-hab, I'm 90% sure I tore something in my knee this afternoon.

I dove in front of a sure touchdown while playing defence and something went in the knee that hasn't been surgically altered yet. I played the next play then sat out the remainder of the half.

Played the second half and it isn't bad enough to prevent running. But, I don't have the same push and something just doesn't feel right. It's a new feeling for my knee's who've taken more punishment than their 32 years deserve.

I'm hoping a day or two of ice and Advil reveals this to be just a deep bruise.

That said... I'm old enough to get hurt... dumb enough to keep playing. Another game Monday night... see you there.

-------------------

Swift Current has a rat problem. Or so I'm told. It's attracted national media spotlight recently... but it's been talked about around town since the spring.

For the record, I've not seen a rat yet. Not one.

I have however seen at least 3 roadkills.

I don't think it's the epidemic people are making it to be... but I am concerned about rat proofing my garage for winter. Right now it's an easy target and I have a neighbor with prime rats nest areas next door. Struggling with my method to the madness. Don't really want to mess around with live traps. Snap traps are dangerous for the kids and poison is even worse.

---------------------

I played an integral part in the organization of CKSW's first ever radiothon for our local healthcare foundation. At the end of the day Friday we'd finished with around 200 K. I'm glad it's over. It's consumed me for the last month and my sales report would verify that. Time to stop focusing on making money for charity and return the focus to making money for GWR before McDonald's drive through is coming. This month is probably my worst month in my sales history. But, I didn't have time to see one client last week so it's difficult to expect otherwise. Time to re-focus.

I think that's pretty much my summer in a nutshell.

Have a great week,
Darwin

New post coming

2009-08-28T00:12:00.001-06:00

Congrats to my friends Jess and Brad on their recent marriage! Way to go Brad! :)

I had a few ideas I wanted to post about recently... just no time. Promise to get to it soon. By weekend's end.

DAR

It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times (LONG POST)

2009-07-27T22:30:00.010-06:00

My Brother, my nephew, my friend Steve from Moose Jaw and I took in the Roughrider game this past weekend.

Very exciting start as the Riders VERY quickly opened up a 22-0 lead over the Edmonton Eskimos. That lead evaporated though and by the final gun the Riders had lost 38-33.

I spent the last 5 minutes of the game cursing under my breath. I spent the entire journey down the ramps to ground level doing the same.

However, the 4 of us had passes to the Green and White Lounge through Golden West Radio and when we got to ground level my brother asked me if I wanted to go in for a drink. I quickly responded that I was in no mood to stay there. But, after a slight twist of my arm I obliged and we went in for a drink.

The game was a milestone for the team who honored the 20th anniversary of the team's 1989 Grey Cup victory. Almost all of the players and coaches returned for ceremonies and get-togethers throughout the week including a half time presentation.

When we opened the door to the lounge I was excited to see that a LARGE portion of the 89 team had also decided that a post game drink was the perfect way to wrap up a brutal football game. Fun times ensued.

We took several pictures... tried on plenty of Grey Cup rings and even got a picture with someone who wasn't a member of the 1989 Grey Cup team. Because he was a member of the 1966 Championship team... the legendary George Reed.

Folks we conversed with included: Bobby Jurasin, Eddie Lowe, Gary Lewis, Dan Rashovich, Brian Walling, Steve Wiggins, Ray Elgaard, Larry Hogue, George Reed, Glen Suitor, Dan Payne, Dave Albright, Mark Guy, Bob Poley, Mike Anderson and I'm sure one or two I'm probably forgetting.

Coolest Stories:

Dan Payne, who's probably 7ft tall and about 400 pounds put my nephew over his head for a picture. Afterwards, I asked him if I could have a photo with him too. He asked "Do you want to go over my head too?" My reply jokingly... "That's up to you man." Before I knew it was 8ft off the ground for a picture. (I'm about 180 pounds and Dan threw me up like I was a 5 pound bag of potatoes.)

And as he was throwing me over his head the gal taking the picture starts yelling "look out". Dan didn't realize there was a ceiling fan right above us. Just about lost my head for this picture.

Dave Albright/Eddie Lowe - Talked to them both about the big play in the 89 west final when Lowe smashed QB Tracey Ham who fumbled and Albright took it to the house. Eddie Low is pictured here with me, Albright with my 8 year old nephew Josh.

One thing that I think a lot of the players were taken back by was me asking them about specific plays from the 89 Grey Cup I could remember. I think it hit home for them that for as much as it means to win a Grey Cup as a player, it's almost equally as sweet for a fan. Steve Wiggins was a defensive back who played for the Riders in 89. It was his one and only year in pro football.

I asked him about a HUGE diving knockdown in the endzone he made in the 4th quarter of the Grey Cup game and he just about fell over. Couldn't believe I'd recall a play like that. This is a picture of me with hime, I'm wearing his GC ring. I know I have big hands but I was surprised that his ring wouldn't actually fit all the way on my finger. But, then again Steve was a defensive back not an o-lineman.

Steve told me how he's big in to oil in Houston but he also told me how his brother (Who used to play with the Stampeders and had a great NFL career with Carolina) and '89 teamate Don Narcisse are in real estate together in Houston. Don wasn't there due to a wedding in Vancouver.

Another cool story was meeting Larry Hogue. Unlike most of the players he didn't have his jersey on. However, I saw a young girl walking behind him with a #3 jersey. I said to my brother, "That's gotta be Larry Hogue." The young gal, who obviously wasn't even born when Larry was playing overheard us and proudly turned and said "That's him! Larry Hogue is my dad." So we asked her to bring him over and she obliged. Obviously, a very proud moment her and Larry I'm sure.

Even though she never saw her dad play a down she was quickly learning the impact her dad had on football fans. Really neat to see.

Also talked to Brian Walling about his 54 yard draw play TD late in the West Semi against Calgary that sealed the deal. Walling was a late pickup off the Edmonton Practice Roster I think. Didn't play much but he made it count. He was also SUPER friendly. He was obviously tickled to be a part of it.

Other Pics:

My nephew chatting with '89 team member turned TSN's Color Analyst, Glen Suitor about the game.

Me with a very tall Gary Lewis.

Canadian Linebacker, Dan Rashovich. Dan was a real friendly guy. He's working in the oil and gas industry in Calgary.

Rider Legend, Bobby Jurasin takes a moment to talk with all of us about what's going on with him and his family. Bobby had 5 young kids when he played. Couldn't believe it when I asked him how old they were now and he told me the youngest was 17. I remember watching a news story about him when his wife had just given birth to baby number 5.

What else can you say? He didn't play on the '89 championship team but he did become a champion as a member of the 1966 Saskatchewan Roughriders. The greatest running back to ever play the game of football... George Reed. Super friendly guy.

Legendary Receiver, Ray Elgaard. Gotta admit... Ray wasn't very friendly but I'll give him the benefit of doubt. He likely was more interested in catching up with teamates than hanging out with me.

Former Running Back, Milson Jones. There were lots of vicious rumors about this guy after he retired and he did indeed fall on some tough times. But, he back living on the good side of life and was having a blast there.

1989 Receiver, Mark Guy. Not a fella who had a spectacular career. However, next to Tony Champion's backflip catch with broken ribs and Dave Ridgeway's "THE KICK", Mark Guy definately has the THIRD most memorable play of the 1989 Grey Cup. He made a two spectacular catches on the game winning drive to set up "THE KICK." Not only were they solid catches but on the most notable catch he was absolutely tattooed by a Hamilton defender and hung on to the ball. A lot of talk about his limited but HUGE contribution to the '89 team from any of his teamates you talked to. Apparently, he didn't talk EVER. And in the huddle on that drive he looked at Austin and told him to throw it to him. The stories legends are made of.

My nephew Josh hob-nobs with two of the best lineman ever to wear a Rider jersey, Roger Aldag and Bob Poley.

And finally, starting running back... Tim McCrae. He was a good one. Wrecked his knee a couple of years after 1989's championship and was out of football. He's likely in his late 40's - Mid 50's and looks like he could still play. He was in great shape.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures... I meant to bring our camera knowing there would likely be a couple of opportunities to get pictures with guys... but I forgot it at home so we used my brother's blackberry.

Hope you enjoyed the trip back in time.

Have a great week,
DAR

Greetings to Turtleford and Saint Walburgh!

2009-06-23T12:33:00.002-06:00

Noticed on the site meter I've managed a couple of hits from those place. It's been a long time since I've talked to anyone in that country.

If you're one of those fine folks I made acquaintances with a decade or so ago during my time in Lloydminster, feel free to drop a line.

DAR

Monday Inspiration

2009-06-21T23:02:00.001-06:00

Cheers,
Darwin

Tuesday's Inspiration/Motivation

2009-06-16T00:42:00.001-06:00

Have a good day!
DAR

A sign of the times... thank you Alexander Keith

2009-06-16T00:11:00.003-06:00

I tried finding the video for you but it's not available on the net yet. Alexander Keith just launched a new beer commercial campaign during the NHL playoffs.

One of them, I relate to a great deal. The concept shows several guys in a pub, texting... and a few talking to someone on a cel phone while they're in the line to get in or sitting at a table with others.

Then, they show a lad having a wonderful conversation with several attractive women, Keith's in hand. The narrator says something to effect of "John Doe is a firm believer that in order to talk to someone in the pub they need to actually be in the pub. Here's to you for being an original."

Now when I said I relate to that... I don't drink Keith's and I'm certainly not surrounded by attractive women at the bar on a regular basis. But, I truly appreciate someone who can tear themselves away from their cel phone for 5 minutes in today's world.

I recently attended the Swift Current Business Excellence Awards Banquet. A black tie affair that honors outstanding businesses in our community. Our station had a table of 8. I was floored when 3 of our 8 had their cel phones turned on and sitting on the table like another utensil no-one was really sure how to use. To me it publicly says "I want to keep this close by in case someone more interesting the company I'm currently keeping wants to talk."

It stunned me even more when those 3 began actively text throughout the ceremony.

Now, I don't hold it against them. I understand we live in a techno-world. Texting has become as much a part of everyday life as stopping at Tim's on the way to work. But, it's a trend I have no trouble saying I'm getting left behind.

I don't text. Perhaps if I had a blackberry or something that has a full keyboard on it... but, the idea of pushing a key 4 times to get one letter seems like a huge step backwards for mankind.

I like to speak to people. With my voice. And it seems very disrespectful to not only everyone you're with but the folks being honored. And what I really can't understand is when people at the same table text each other.

Have we truly become that inept at face to face communication in today's society?

At the same time, I've started to feel drawn in to this fray in recent weeks. Despite the fact I don't text. Everyone else does. So I'm constantly getting texts from people to which I feel an obligation to reply. Especially when people don't sign their name at the end of the text. Drives me nuts! "I'm in for poker." That's great... who the hell are you? "We're at BP's... are you coming?" Knowing who I'm on my way to visit will speed up my arrival... promise.

So part of me wants to have a phone with a texting plan... and a nice keyboard... so I don't get left behind.

Then again... the other part of me still likes to hear someone's "LOL" at my table rather than have them look at me silently as my phone vibrates in to and spills the salt shaker.

The moral of the story... don't text at the table. It's rude. Be it family table, bar table full of beer or at the president's inauguration. Time and Place.

Playoff Hockey

2009-05-21T22:40:00.003-06:00

The NHL Playoffs are in the heart of round 3. Got me thinking about a funny video on youtube that surfaced during last year's playoffs... "Hitler Loves the Philadelphia Flyers."

There are hundreds of versions of this clip with different subtitles... even some from this year's playoffs. But this one is still the best.

Enjoy. (P.S. It's a little vulgar... if you're offended by bad language... maybe skip this one.)

I'll send this one out to Meaner Gleaner.

DAR

A Blast From the Past

2009-05-18T18:43:00.003-06:00

Stumbled across this today. Turn back the pages of time to 1994. The Canadian Football League was in the middle of a miserable attempt to expand in to the US market.

One of their failing franchises were the Las Vegas Posse. (They averaged 8900 people for attendance in their one and only season and they also hold the World record for the worst attended professional football game... 2350 against Winnipeg)

The Saskatchewan Roughriders had the pleasure of being the opponent for the franchises 1st and only home opener.

A young fellow, resembling a cross between Eric Bishoff and Rick Flair of Pro Wrestling fame came out to sing O'Canada. And thanks to further developments in the world of the internet since 1994, the rest is forever documented history.

And there you have it. O'Canada. Not to be confused with O'Christmas Tree. Brutal.

A couple of weeks later... he was flown in to make amends. Wikipedia says he performed it correctly in Hamilton... but I recall it being in Toronto. No Matter. Someone must have actually played it for him before hand as he sang it the way it was meant to be sang.

Some other franchise highlights thanks to Wikipedia: (Please note the funny sad, not funny haha mistake the Ottawa Rough Riders (Another abortion of a CFL franchise) made during the Posse Dispersal Draft. Sucks when you waste a good draft pick on a guy who just never panned out to be the player you thought he'd be. You know... being dead and all. BRUTAL.

When the Posse started the 1994 season it was clear that CFL football would not last in Las Vegas. The team played at Sam Boyd Stadium on the eastern edge of Las Vegas, far from the central area of the city. The Posse practiced in a smaller-than-regulation field (only 70 yards long) at the Riviera Casino and Resort, where a sign read "Field of ImPOSSEable Dreams." The end zones at Sam Boyd Stadium were only 15 yards long, instead of the usual 20 yards. The stadium was uncovered and offered no protection from the infamous Las Vegas summer heat. Head coach Ron Meyer was seen at many a practice running drills with no shirt on in the sweltering heat. Local interest in the team was virtually nonexistent.

There were also several infamous moments. Posse head coach Ron Meyer asked the "Showgirls" to loiter behind the bench of the B.C. Lions in an attempt to distract the opposition. The scheme did not work and Las Vegas lost the game 39-16.

The Posse never had strong attendance, but when attendance started to decrease management unsuccessfully tried to sell tickets by employing tactics such as:

Reducing ticket prices to US$9 for each seat. The few who bought season tickets for about US$750 (in more expensive categories) were given extra tickets to make up for the price difference.

Advertising their scantily-clad cheerleaders, the "Showgirls", and by staging halftime bikini contests.

The Posse's last home game scheduled against the Edmonton Eskimos was moved to Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton due to the dreadful attendance at Sam Boyd Stadium.

In the end
A group led by singer and business mogul Jimmy Buffett attempted to buy and relocate the franchise to Jackson, Mississippi, but the deal fell through. The Posse were then quietly folded and a dispersal draft was held for its players in 1995.The Ottawa Rough Riders Drafted Mississippi State defensive end Darrell Robertson who had been killed in a December 1994 car accident. This was reported in a June 1995 Sports Illustrated article. Ottawa head coach Jim Gilstrap "the league didn't know he was dead until we told them, and we didn't know until we couldn't find him.

After the dispersal draft another group from Miami tried to purchase the remains of the Posse and move the team to Miami. The deal was that the franchise would return for the 1996 season as the "Manatees." In order to introduce the Miami fans to the CFL game, a pre-season game was played at the Orange Bowl between the Baltimore Stallions and the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995 (Baltimore won the game by a score of 37-0). With most of the American based teams disbanding following the 1995 season, the deal fell apart.

Something Cool for Your Surfing Enjoyment

2009-03-15T22:56:00.002-06:00

Check this site out:

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Try out the "Way Back Machine". Basically, you type in a website... and it will pull up a list of dates that this achive site has taken a backup of that site. So for example... you can check out TSN's website in 1998. Headlines, scores, all that cool stuff.

Kind of fun to tinker with if you have some time.

DAR

This isn't 1994 and this isn't the Hell Freezes Over Tour!!!

2009-03-10T22:32:00.003-06:00

I attended the much anticipated Eagles concert on Sunday night in Saskatoon with my brother.

What can I say? Alot apparently. I haven't stopped talking about it to anyone who will listen. IT WAS INCREDIBLE.

I definitely wouldn't consider myself an Eagles "fan". I'm familiar with most of their songs... I think they're pretty good. But, I only have one of their Albums... the live Hell Freezes Over CD from the mid-90's when the band reunited after 14 years at odds with each other.

But, let me tell you. If you ever have a chance to see them play, TAKE IT IN. They were simply amazing.

The music is... well... GREAT. They're so talented... all members take turns as the lead singer on several of their hit singles. How many bands can make that claim?? Not many.

And because of that... every member is a star. They aren't Don Henley and the guitar players. They are Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmidt.

They are GREAT.

Don Henley is a master of every instrument known to man and showcases this in the show. Glen Frey is the Master of Ceremonies sort of speak and he does most of the communicating with the band and crowd. Joe Walsh is the band nut. He's the wild one who can jam on a guitar just as good as anyone in rock n' roll history. And Schmidt is a fine bass player who sings brilliantly on all harmonies as well as 2 or 3 songs where he wears the lead singer hat.

Unfortunately, our seats were the worst seats possible in the Credit Union Center. As far away from the stage as possible. And as high in the rafters as possible. There was only one row behind us.

Fortunately, I attended the only one of three shows in Saskatoon that DIDN'T sell out so around 10 minutes prior to the show... us and several others moved to much improved seats.

Unfortunately, this improved view came at the cost of comfort. The Credit Union Center was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING COLD. I'm not talking chilly. I'm talking everyone in the upper deck complaining... some people wearing mitts and toques. I watched the second half of the show with my fleece jacket pulled over my ears. Our move had put us directly below the ducts and vents which it seems were pumping out cold air from the AIR CONDITIONING. Have I mentioned it's March and it was minus 30 outside??

Fortunately, the band took an intermission half way through the 2 and a 1/2 our, 32 song performance. This gave me time to find someone with EVENT STAFF on their shirt and be the spokesperson for the upper deck.

Unfortunately, the person I spoke to informed me that the Eagles have it in their ryder that the building must be at a certain temperature so any requests for adjustments would fall on deaf ears. I didn't realize a guy from Texas and 3 guys from California enjoy negative temperatures. Although I wouldn't be surprised if a contract ryder had that request... I sincerely doubt that request was being met.

There were several people yelling various things during quiet points in the show. I whispered to my brother that I'd like to yell... "This isn't 1994 and this isn't Hell Freezes Over... TURN OFF THE AC!"... but I resisted all temptation.

Fortunately, I received a surprise comp'd ticket a day or two prior to the concert so I didn't pay for my seat to the show.

Unfortunately, others spent $200 or more for a seat to this concert and while the music was incredible... had I shelled out the same dough I would be demanding answers from the management at the Credit Union Center. Unacceptable for an event of that calibre.

Show number two of three is sold out tonight. Show three is Wednesday night and is also sold out. If you can find some scalper tickets though... get em. You won't regret it.

But, take a parka just in case. Figure it out Credit Union Center!

Take Care,
Dar

Small Town Radio

2009-03-03T12:05:00.002-06:00

I'm gaining a renewed appreciation for small town radio in recent months.

Since the resignation of our sales representative in Shaunavon back in December, I've been coming down at least once a week to help look after all of our clients in the area.

We've just hired a new replacement, so after the next few week's of training I probably won't be making as many trips down here.

But, I have to admit I've kind of enjoyed it. Shaunavon's radio station, CJSN is a very rare animal.

With the start up costs of a radio station nowadays, you'll probably never see anyone launch a station in a market this small again. For the one's already in existance, they'll stay that way only as long as the community supports them.

It's kind of too bad. Because it's so fun to work here. We have a very small staff (3 including me). My temporary office is half the size of my house with a decor about as dated.

It takes merely a few visits to get to know your clients and to learn their quirks. You can visit a dozen of them in a span of an hour and a half because everyone is within a block of each other. And they're generally, really good people to talk to.

I've really had fun covering this list. The only downside has been trying to keep up with my Swift Current responsiblilities while I'm spending a day or two in Shaunavon each week.

It's grass roots, down home, small town radio. And it brings back many memories of my early days in radio.

Good times!

DAR

The Passing of a Legend

2009-03-01T21:01:00.003-06:00

With just 2 years remaining in his current contract with ABC Radio, Paul Harvey passed away Sunday at age 90. (How many people live till 90 and still have 2 years left on their contract at work??)

I always said even though he's been abscent more and more from the radio in recent years, he'd never fully retire. He'd just do his thing until his time was up.

And that's what happened. I sometimes got frustrated with some of his over the top pro-american rambles, but one can never dispute the fact he's a radio icon.

I remember the first time I ever heard Paul Harvey. I was sitting with my dad in his truck, outside my mom's workplace. As we waited for her to come out, Paul Harvey came on. I thought he was a local broadcaster on CKRM, and I thought he was awful. His delivery is one that needed to grow on me and it has.

R.I.P. Paul.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090228/paul_harvey_090228/20090228?hub=TopStories

Put Your Hands Up in the Air, Put Your Hands Up... In the Air.

2009-02-28T11:51:00.004-06:00

I think I started a new tradition last night at the Bronco game. We were just coming down the stairs (Reagan and I) to our seat right next to the Bronco tunnel when they came out on to the ice to start the 2nd period.

I asked Reagan if she wanted to reach through the railing and give the boys a high five. She thought that was a grand idea and we quickly filed in to place amongst the other young fans.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The vast majority of the players completely ignored the youngsters. A few of the bigger kids who were able to reach slapped their favorite guy on the shoulder pads but those who couldn't simply held their hands out in to the air in vain.

That is until a young man named Taylor Vause stepped out. He's a good kid by all accounts I've heard and I like the way he plays on the ice. And leading in to the 2nd period, he was the only member of the Broncos who put a hand up and touched everyone's hand as he walked by.

Reagan was hooked... and insisted we return for the 2nd intermission. Which we did.

Unfortunately though, the 2nd intermission was a similar result. Everyone walked by without acknowledging any of the fans until Taylor came out. He raised his hands for a high five as he passed but missed Reagan's hand.

Our backup goaltender, Clark gave a couple of high fives out near the end of the line but that was it.

Reagan turned to me right away with tears welling up in her eyes and said, "They didn't give me none fives!"

I wonder if these guys realize how much that simple act means to these kids.

Times have changed a lot. When I was young watching the Warriors, I remember standing at the tunnel slapping high fives with everyone. I remember at the end of the season, players giving away their sticks in the hallway as they left the ice.

I realize the whole giving away equipment thing has been kiboshed but these guys need to remember the heroes they had when they were youngsters.

I know they have a job to do and socializing with fans at that time isn't one of them but they don't even need to look at these kids.

Just put your hand up in the air as you walk by and touch them. That's all it takes to inspire a youngster, create a life-long fan, and put a smile on their face.

DAR

"The Broncos Losed and You're Macaroni!"

2008-12-11T18:57:00.002-06:00

My 3 year old, Reagan has a little hockey stick and puck I got her at Dollarama. Once in a while she picks it up but not very often.

And with me having season tickets this year I've taken her to quite a few games. She never watches the games, she just looks around and talks.

However, I learned tonight she is a dedicated listener of our rink's P.A. announcers, Gordie Cameron and Ken Audette.

Her and I were playing hockey. She asked to play goalie as usual. She then informed me that I was the Broncos and she was a different team.

After I scored a goal on her, I was told I had to sing "Ole, Ole." Then she informed me that even though I scored, "The Broncos still losed and you're macaroni."

I had no idea what that meant so I had to ask some questions. Finally figured out that I was Bronco forward, "Matt Tassoni" who'd just scored in a losing cause.

I asked Reagan where she learned Matt Tassoni's name from... she told me "From Kenny."

Nearly split my pants laughing at her tonight. I'm well passed the age of pretending I'm a junior hockey player... but, if I was forced to go back to the days when I pretended to be my favorite junior hockey player, I'm happy with the player Reagan chose for me.

I told her that she was Mark Gugenberger... that's a whole other story altogether.

What a great kid!
DAR

Don't like updating from work but...

2008-12-09T11:05:00.002-06:00

I never update my blog at work. This might be the first time ever. But, I was on cnn.com today and this is a Christmas story that simply needs to be told.

I'm sobbing at my desk as we speak.

Merry Christmas,
Darwin

Dion Stepped Down Today

2008-12-08T23:16:00.003-06:00

Don't let the door hit your rear on the way out!

Wow... going from humiliated and defeated party leader who promises to quit, to potential Prime Minister, to officially ending his own misery. ALL IN TWO MONTHS.

If Dion wanted to go down in history as the biggest political baffoon in Canadian History he may have succeeded.

Unfortunately, his last act of insanity still leaves our country's government at a stand still.

But, let's find the positive in all of this... and there is still one thing positive.

Thank god we've never done what many have suggested we do in recent years. Eliminate that position in our country's system many felt was "useless".

We still have a Governor-General. And the person sitting in that position, Michaelle Jean made a decision that will forever go down in our country's history.

It's seems weird to think that when we used to learn about John A. McDonald in school... our kids, and their kids will be learning about Stephan Dion, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, and Michaelle Jean.

Today it's news... tomorrow it's Chapter 15 in a text book.

Later,
Darwin

Back in Blog

2008-12-03T23:53:00.002-06:00

Hopefully, I've turned the corner here... more blogging to come.

Last September/October I posted a good people list. I think the 2008 version is overdue... I've added some new "good people" to the list. Look for that shortly.

And I'm going to try to fill the void when life gets busy with a "best of" if you can call it that. Since I'm pretty much the only one who reads this... I guess I can. I'll be re-hashing some of my favorite posts from the last year and a half of blogging if my blogging time is limited.

Have a day. Not a great one necessarily... just have one.

DAR

Coalition Smoalition... I want to move to Nicaragua... at least I know what I'm getting

2008-12-03T22:50:00.004-06:00

Whoa... it's been a long time.

There have been several occasions over the last month where I've had ideas I've wanted to sit down and write about however, life has just been too busy to sit down on a computer and put all to "paper".

However, I'd be remiss if I didn't speak about the absolute gong show that is our federal government situation in Ottawa.

Just prior to the election in October I recall hearing rumblings that if it was a Conservative minority government the other party's would consider ganging up to over take them.

Having never really been in to politics... particularly on a federal scale... my immediate response was "yeah right... can you even do that?"

Well in the last two weeks my question has been answered. YES... THEY CAN.

Members of the NDP, Liberal Party, the Bloc and a few independents are forming a "Coalition Government" that has enough clout to dissolve Parliament and take over as the new government. The only thing left before it becomes official is they need to get the thumbs up from the Governor-General, Michaelle Jean.

Words can't begin to describe how angry all of this is making me. I shudder at the thought of how much money this is costing Canadian Tax payers to have the entire government basically shut down for a couple of weeks, regardless of whether it gets Jean's approval or not.

And if it does go through I would HOPE the backlash from Canadians is so big that another election quickly follows... but elections cost a fortune. Who would pay for it? Canadian Tax Payers. What's happening to Canada on a global market while our country is in limbo... The TSE is plummeting through to the earth's core. The coalition government is doing their part to "rectify" Canada's economic suffering by throwing the last shovel of dirt on the economy in an effort to benefit personally.

As I said above, I've never been overly opinionated when it comes to politics. But, for god sakes this is a democracy! How can the government which Canada chose only 2 months ago be ran out of power by a gang of bullies? Isn't that treason? If this was the US, they'd put these clowns in the clinker.

And how can these parties involved have the pride to even show their face? After all, different party's have different platforms. And during the whole election campaign we were force fed each and every party's crap about how they stood for something much better than the other guy. The other guy is a moron.

Now, they're basically publicly announcing that everything they claim to have stood for isn't important. They've compromised what they stand for by merging with people who just 2 months ago wanted to do something completely different just to get power.

And that's what this is really about... Power.

You want proof that all politicians lie... you're witnessing it in Canadian history. There is no way that they'll follow through on promises they made during the campaign because they had to pick and choose ideals they had in order to be in agreement with their former foes. But, this "Coalition Government" isn't about doing something. It's about personal gain and power.

To have to sit and listen to Stefan Dion speak Canada-wide tonight... as if he were the Prime Minister of the country made me want to puke.

And before someone suggests it... this isn't me flying the Conservative flag. This isn't about who I voted for. This is about who the Canadian people voted for just two months ago.

Dion is a guy who, although the Liberals finished 2nd and kept things close enough to keep a minority government, was beaten so badly that he appeared devastated afterwards and within days announced he'd be stepping down as the leader of the Liberal party as soon as they found a successor.

Now, he's our Prime Minister?? And to listen to him spew absolute crap about "They feel the frustrations of the Canadian people... which is why they're doing this."

Frustrations from the same Canadian people who publicly declared that the Liberals aren't who they wanted just 2 months ago!!

How can this clown even go on tv with a straight face?

Shame on the entire political system in Canada. I used to appreciate the fact that we weren't a two party system like the U.S. I'd like to think there is more to the world than just black or white. (Not referring to the race of the US candidates)

But, it's now proven to be a huge flaw. We now know the way to win an election in Canada is not by being the best candidate and winning the confidence of the Canadian public. It's done by fragmenting the vote so much through numerous "Party's" with "Different Agenda" that it's pretty much impossible to attain a majority government. Then, throw away everything that you lied about saying it was important to you and merge all of these party's to overtake the group Canadian's chose.

Do we live in Cuba?? Communist China?? How the hell is this any different from Castro?

The perfect scenario? Michaelle Jean performs an abortion on this disgusting piece of Canadian history. Then, we blow even more public funds on a referendum to change the political system in Canada to ensure that this crap never happens again.

Rant over.

Have a great week,
Dar

And the winner is...

2008-11-05T00:30:00.003-06:00

Obama is the new president of the United States.

If you didn't get to see them, here are their acceptance... and conceding speeches.

Both pretty great speeches that will go down in history.

Barrack's winning speech. Pretty short considering the historical landmark this win is:

McCain Concedes:

Say what you want... both these guys are pretty darn good speakers. I thought McCain was pretty classy in defeat... even though many of his supporters didn't show the same class during his speech.

CNN discusses the crowd in this video... (While we're on a blog about braodcasting... should mention the female reporter in this clip seems a little scattered and distracted. Not sure if she wasn't ready for this live hit or whether she has something else going on but she really struggles... particularly at the beginning.)

Interesting stuff.

DAR

On Roughriders

2008-11-02T23:59:00.003-06:00

Yeah... we needed Calgary's help but it's the 2nd straight home playoff game for the Riders this weekend. This time it's the BC Lions who will have to face the insanity that is... Mosaic Stadium.

Let's get in the mood. (Not sure why it's in two parts but this is the same video:

Part 1

Part 2

Go Riders!

OK... one more.

2008-10-20T22:57:00.001-06:00

And you thought your wedding was ruined because you had off-white lilies instead of white ones. No one noticed that.

Worst wedding disaster ever... as the best man tries to kill the bride and preacher.

Whoops.

Welcome back from the dead.

2008-10-20T00:05:00.005-06:00

I'm still alive. Things in life have been too busy for internet posting but I'll be back on the wagon just as soon as the Riders hurry up and get eliminated in the playoffs! :) Just kidding.

Not to keep this site on a path of being overrun by CFL stuff... I found this beauty from the 80's.

Did George Wendt have some gambling debts in Calgary or what? How'd they score him for a commercial in the middle of the Cheers hayday?? (I love Normie Kwong popping out of the huddle in a suit. Nice history.

I enjoy this recent one from the BC Lions too.

More funny BC Marketing.

And one... not so funny. Apparently, this one is from this year... but it was banned. Not exactly, in good taste.

Have a great week!

DAR

This is OUR League!

2008-07-30T14:18:00.003-06:00

Kudos to the CFL for their 2008 advertising campaign. This year, they're focusing on the pride of Canadians to try to get them to really take ownership of the CFL and support the league that's been a part of our country's history for over 100 years.

With the threat of the NFL moving in to Canada and jeopardizing the future of the league this is an effective approach, I think.

And with commercials like this to get the message accross to fans... they've definately found the mark.

Might be difficult for people who aren't CFL fans to understand but this video darn near brings tears to my eyes.

They play this on the MaxTron at the Rider games before every game this year and I'm ready to strap on the pads, everytime I see it.

*** Special Note - Watch for the Rider fan wearing the hard hat, painted face and spikes on his shoulder pads. He's from Swift Current. And he's featured in this ad that has been airing across the country since June***

Go buy a Rider ticket... This is OUR League.

DAR

Hardworkin' Holiday's

2008-07-14T23:21:00.006-06:00

Sorry for the length of time since the last post. Summer has been busy for me and I've been not only busy at work... but busy with several projects at home.

I've finished 90% of the basement but the shower and baseboards still need to be put up in the bathroom.

I've set that project aside for another one though. I'm now on holidays. But, instead of relaxing and doing something fun I'm rebuilding our deck. I've been putting it off for years and it was to the point where it just wasn't safe to stand on anymore.

In anticipation of my holidays, I began demo of the old deck a few weeks ago. I've been doing it myself and only when I had my free time, an hour here an hour there. The idea was to have demo done, and have the deck ready to be assembled by the time holidays rolled around.

I picked up my supplies today but ended up buying much more wood than anticipated. Turns out, the joists underneath the deck were in poor condition as well so I began replacing them today.

Once the deck boards were removed it was quite a sight. Garbage and dead stuff everywhere. Dead leaves, dead birds, rotten food and garbage. (Living close to a school yard has it's draw backs.)

There was even a garbage bag full of dirt! Not sure what could possibly be in there... not sure I want to know.

So once the old joists were out today I decided that I should rake it all out before piecing things back together.

Found some interesting stuff. Including a poker chip (Not sure if it's mine or not), a Loonie, a GI Joe Helmet, a really rotten softball, a golfball and even... an old styrofoam McDonalds Big Mac container.

It's true what they say... they really aren't biodegradable.

Big Mac Container

Old Golf Ball, Softball I attacked with a deck screw and THAT's what happened to my GI Joe stuff!

"This wasn't under my deck. Was at the Saskatoon Forrestry Farm and Zoo. We visited while in Saskatoon for a wedding over the weekend. Tame little bugger. I was probably 3 feet away.

Have a good one,
DAR

Your Kidding Right?

2008-06-23T20:25:00.002-06:00

What do you get when you cross Jackie Chan, with Willie Mays and Danica Patrick?

A pretty, spidermonkey who can play ball.

See below.

http://view.break.com/524970 - Watch more free videos

2008-06-14T08:58:00.005-06:00

Half Time Grey Cup Presentation

Former Regina Ram Teale Orban's First Play as a Saskatchewan Roughrider. (The Hometown kid looked really nervous when he first got out there but played well... for about 6 or 7 plays)

Orban's First Pass. (This was actually challenged by BC and the call was changed to an incomplete pass. But it looked good anyway.

Teale's 4th Offensive Play... (I believe this was called back...Kid had terrible luck.)

One More Cause I'm Still Up

2008-06-14T02:27:00.003-06:00

First Roughrider Points of 2008.

The first of many I hope! DAR

Saskatchewan Roughrider Football is Back

2008-06-14T01:49:00.004-06:00

My wife and I decided to attend the Rider's pre-season tilt against B.C. tonight. Just got home. Noticed some big changes in CKRM's coverage with Bob Poley gone. Some new voices on the program and some new features. Enjoyed the pre-game show on the drive in as always. To be honest...it's my favorite part of the show. I never have a radio at the stadium so I don't here the Play-By-Play for the home games and I think they never get to enough calls on the post game show and the people they do put on get on my nerves. Pre-game is where it's at. For out of towners... it's as big a part of the drive in tradition as anything. You count the minutes till it's 2 hours till kickoff then turn it on.

Anyhoo... the drive in was nice. Only hit rain in a few small spots. The game was a sell out. Deanna and I spent a pile of money the Rider Store pre-game. And even donated a little extra as we didn't complain about being over-charged by $10 on one item.

The game itself was great for a pre-season game. We saw plenty of new names... and typically when that happens it's a dull game but there were some big plays by some players I'd never heard of. I'm sure a few guys just made the coaches jobs much more difficult.

Anyway... I decided to do something I've never done at a Rider game before. I often see posts on Rider fans sites of folks who post pictures and videos from the game. Myself personally, I find myself so busy watching the game that I couldn't be bothered with a camera. However, since this was pre-season and we have a new camera I thought I'd try to get a good view of a few plays. Not trying to become the official Saskatchewan Roughriders website... just thought you might enjoy these if you weren't there. 33-13 was the final by the way for the Riders. This is the Rider's opening play on offence. Nice 8 yard pass and catch from Crandel to Bowman. Remember Bowman's name. He will be a stud this year for the Riders. Made some really nice plays.

I'll try to post more videos tomorrow. That took WAY too long to upload and it's too late in the evening/morning. I'll post stuff that includes the Grey Cup Half time Show... And former Regina Ram, Teale Orban's first few plays as a pro. (He's the only Canadian born Quarterback in the camp of any CFL team this season)

Until tomorrow. DAR

Give Credit to the Onion... I mean Union. Or maybe not.

2008-06-02T23:47:00.003-06:00

Big props to the folks from Wheatland Machine Shop who put up the new Credit Union I-Plex signs on the side of the arena. They look awesome. I was also impressed as I stopped in at the Bronco office, that folks are able to measure well enough to be confident that the large hole you're drilling in steel siding which can't be patched as easily as gyp rock is the right hole in the right spot. Well done.

But, that's not the union I'm talking about. The Pattison Group of radio stations recently formed a worker's union. Worker's unions in the world of radio aren't something you see everyday.

I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are now that things are a few months in.

Was it everything you thought it would be? Are things better or are they worse? For those of us who've never said the words "radio station" and "Union" in the same sentence before, what differences does it make to your world?

My only experience in unions was working at a grocery store in high school and I'm not certain I like them. Everything seems too structured for a radio person. DJ's enjoy the freedom of their job. Yeah... they might pull a long shift one day... but on another day, they might VT and jam out early for whatever reason.

I don't want to get anyone in hot water so if there's something you want to say that might get you in hot water... don't post it... or post anonymously if you want to chance it. But, I'm really curious to know what it's like from those who are, or have been in a radio workers union.

Fire away.

Thanks,
Darwin

To Fee or Not to Fee (And Death Comes in Threes)

2008-05-28T07:09:00.003-06:00

Ok... so it's been a while but I decided it was time to get back on the radio post bandwagon.

Not sure why I thought of this the other day, but I thought it would make for a great blog poll of radio people.

To Fee or Not to Fee? That is the question. Do you charge for MC gigs and public appearances?

My radio mentor always told me that MC'ing events is part of your job, so you should do it for nothing to strengthen your image and the stations image in the community. I followed this to a tee until a few years ago. Unless someone offered. I'd never ask, but I'd never refuse.

After Reagan was born, I MC'd a Duck's Unlimited Banquet. (I think it was the year before last) I was unaware when I arrived at 4:30pm that the event would last until around 1am. It was at that point that I decided that my time is worth money. Especially now that I was a family man. The following year, when they asked me to do it again, I explained to them that I'd put in an 8 hour day MC'ing their event the previous year and now that I had a family, that time meant something to me. It wasn't well received. Someone else from the station handled the duties that year for free, and I don't know if anyone from the station has handled it since.

There are a few events that I would MC in a heartbeat for nothing just because they are events and causes dear to me. For example, I'll do anything the abilities council asks me to do. And I've MC'd the Cancer Society's Relay for Life in every year of it's existence in Swift Current. Except this year. I decided with me no longer on the air... it was time to hand the reigns to someone else at the station. So this year, I'm actually PAYING THE CANCER SOCIETY to be a part of the event. I'm in the relay. (Kudos, to Jessica Williams at the station for bringing all Swift Current Media together for the event... it's going to be fun)

So I thought I'd throw this out to anyone in the business. Do you charge for all MC gigs? Someone of them? How do you pick and choose? PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND TELL US YOUR 2 CENTS. And don't forget to sign your name and say where you're from.

Thanks,

DAR

(On a sadder note... it seems everything... including death... comes in three's. First my dad, then a member of Deanna's extended family, and now Deanna's Grandpa Donald. She was very close to him and tomorrow's funeral is going to be very tough. 3 funerals in two months. If I attend another funeral in my lifetime, it better be my own.)

Crazy Busy Weekend.

2008-05-22T00:06:00.005-06:00

Painting the basement... trimming hedges... mowing the lawn... seeding and re-seeding grass... and... camping with a 2 year old!

Setting up the Tent

Hanging out in the tent with Reagan and Macy Dog

Roasting Marshmallows on a propane BBQ (Unconventional but it works.)

Bedtime in the tent.

Reagan refused to go to bed without "her boys" in the tent. Our two backyard garden gnomes.

Finally, the tear down after a good night with my little camper. Would definitely take her to a campground somewhere next time. She did well.

COMING UP...

Reno pictures... and an ACTUAL POST ABOUT RADIO. Promise. And this one requires your participation.

Later,
DAR

Backyard Campin'

2008-05-17T20:14:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week... I started to get the fever. Spring fever. May long weekend was on the horizon and despite the growing amount of things to be done at our house I got the notion I was going to drop it all and take my little girl, Reagan to the lake camping.

So I asked her if she wanted to go. After getting her really excited... reality set in and I started to wonder if this was a good idea. I thought about it and decided that driving all the way out there... setting up tents, paying for sites, purchasing food, etc... and having my kid freak out and want to go home wasn't a great way of spending the long weekend.

So I reached a compromise with her. We'd set up a tent in the back yard... cook hot dogs.... and roast marshmallows (On the propane BBQ) and sleep in the tent... just to test the water.

We set up the tent earlier today and roasted hot dogs... marshmallows and tenting is just ahead. I'll post pictures after our trip to the "great outdoors" is complete.

Have a great weekend,
DAR

Swift Current Flag Football

2008-05-12T23:29:00.003-06:00

I really love the sitemeter thingy I have on my blog. A quick click and it tells me how many visitors I've had that day, where they are from and how they stumbled accross my blog. (I.E. Google search, Facebook Link, a link from another website or whether they honestly intended on being here and typed it in.

Every once in a while there is an interesting visitor. Today, someone from California visited. Not out of the ordinary as I often have it where someone conducts a google search that may just happen to match the title of one of my entries.

What made this peculiar is that they were searching "Swift Current Flag Football." Maybe it's someone moving here looking for a place to play this fall. If it is... HI! WELCOME! I'm the league president this year so if you or anyone else is interested in playing this season, we're planning on starting around the 3rd week of August. Season ends in early Oct. If you have any questions... please feel free to post a comment and I'll tell you everything you need to know.

Thanks,
DAR

There's No Crying During American Gladiators!

2008-05-12T23:08:00.003-06:00

I have a confession. I shed a tear during American Gladiators tonight. They had a contestant on the show with only one leg. I watched him struggle to just keep the competition close throughout... which he was successful in doing until the final event... The Eliminator.

The event was designed to challenge even the most able bodied person... and seemed simply impossible for a person with only one leg to complete. Yet, with the competition long over and his defeat a reality... this lad refused to walk off the set without completing the course. And the crowd refused to allow the winner's celebration to take place until he'd finished. It took forever... and there were moments when I thought he would need to stop if not from exhaustion... from injury as he took some really ugly looking falls... but he received a standing ovation from the crowd until he crossed the finally finish line. Truly inspiring stuff.

That's reality TV I can stomach.

Pass me a tissue,
DAR

Stop Posting Sports Videos on a Radio Blog!

2008-05-10T20:26:00.003-06:00

Who says you can't have the best of both worlds?

What person in the industry hasn't had one of these live interviews?

Give'n Him the Business

2008-05-06T22:50:00.004-06:00

Sometimes... you just gotta call it the way you see it! :)

CFL Training Camp not far away... and Canadian TV's complete lack of creativity

2008-05-06T21:31:00.007-06:00

I'm starting to get excited. CFL training camp will begin in around a month. That means another football season is just around the corner. These are happy times for me.

In the spirit of it all, I decided to post this gem for your entertainment from a few years back. If you're not a huge CFL buff you might not remember this one... but football fan or not you'll enjoy it.

I'll set the stage... Dateline (early 2000's), Toronto Argo Quarterback Kerwin Bell just scored a touchdown. That's funny itself since he was a horrible qb, fat, and about 10 years past his prime at the time of this game. To celebrate, he decides to get in an opposing players face... spike the ball between his own legs and really rub it in. (And pure comedy ensues) The opposing player even adds insult to injury.

:) CLASSIC! PURE CLASSIC! And I love the fact that he was the one who got the penalty for taunting.

And to finish off the football talk... now that we've shown the silly stuff... let's throw some of what all football fans really want to see. OUCH! Possibly the ugliest hit ever.

Moving on.

I was watching Dancing with the Stars with my wife tonight. During commercial, I saw a promo for "So You Think You Can Dance... CANADA!" Drives me insane!

What is it with TV Corporations in Canada? Do they not have anyone on staff capable of coming up with an original game show? Honestly! Who Wants to Be a Millionaire... CANADA. Deal or No Deal... CANADA. Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader... CANADA. The list goes on and on.

They say many Canadians have an inferiority complex when it comes to the US. Every one of those people must work in Canadian TV. Why does a game show idea need to originate from the United States to be any good? Why not give away a million dollars in your own creative way. Has anyone ever seen Making the Cut... USA?? Didn't think so.

And even if it is the greatest show idea ever... show a little pride and self respect. Change a few of the rules... give it a name with a Canadian twist or something. The TV producers in this country are so lazy... they can't even think of a name other than... CANADA.

How long will it be before we see Survivor... CANADA? 18 strangers stranded for 36 days in La Ronge in February! At stake... $100. Embarrassing.

Speaking of game shows... thankfully the "Hollywood... CANADA" scene isn't strong enough to warrant coming out with a Canadian version of the reality tv show I saw over the weekend.

Can't remember the exact name of it... So You Think Your Kid's a Star or something. Truly a new low in television. Several parents who underwent a lobotomy at an early age exploit their children in various challenges in an attempt to prove that their kid is the next big thing in Hollywood. The real motive... they want to steal their kids money if they ever make it big.

The result... parents berating children under the age of 10 because they'd rather play than practice their lines in front of a mirror. One parent even went so low to call their child stupid because she didn't like the way her child "fidgeted" during his screen test.

Not only should this program be illegal... shame on Much Music for bringing this crap in to Canada. For shame!

Makes me respect the CBC that much more. Sure, I watched a movie after the hockey game a few weeks ago that featured a strung out rock singer fighting a giant skunk. (I laughed till I cried) And unfortunately... yes... I had to quickly change to the shopping channel while they showed every detail of a gay love scene... but at least someone wrote and produced something THEY thought was good. (To each their own I guess) They didn't hire new actors... use the same script and promote "INDIANA JONES... CANADA."

Proof positive that creative people in this country work in radio. No offence to my TV news friends... yours is a business with much more integrity than the people who lead your corporations.

Have a great week!

DAR

The True Comedy in Peas, Sleepwalking Kids, Rock Band and Some Guy Named Dinky

2008-04-27T23:01:00.008-06:00

Great weekend! Started things off on Friday by having some friends over. Their oldest boy just turned 5 and was super pumped that his "Uncle" Darwin was coming for the party.

Unfortunately, due to other things happening in my life I was unable to attend and he was quite disappointed. So we threw a little shin-dig for him on Friday. It was an enjoyable evening that included breaking things.

Service Master's portion of our SGI claim demolition was completed earlier in the day. So I thought I'd make my own mess. We had the ugliest archway in our basement that featured fake stained glass windows. I figured... if we were ever going to rid ourselves of this thing... doing it before carpet was installed was our chance. So Tim and I went downstairs and began destroying things.

(Pile #1 of previously mentioned Archway)

(Pile #2 of previously mentioned Archway)

(What used to be an Archway is an Archway no more)

Now I have to decide whether to patch the opening with the same nasty panel board or use this opportunity to re-panel or drywall the whole things. Cash flow could make that decision an easy one.

Saturday morning I awoke to find my little girl Reagan sleeping in the living room. This is odd for her. She's never done it before. If she gets up before us it's a virtual guarantee she's at my bedside with a "Dad geetup." Apparently her bed wasn't comfy so she went with plan B.
(8am Saturday morning)

Later, Saturday afternoon I joined our station team for the Ability Bowl. We had a blast. Everyone got in costume, let loose and had fun. 80's was the theme and I dressed up as an 80's rocker. (Will post the picture when I get one) When it was all over with, they raised over $87,000 (The Goal was $83,000) and the event was a huge success.

If you're wondering about the pledge collecting thing... I finished 4th in the city with $1724.05 collected. Somehow, I lucked out and when my name was called there were two Bronco season tickets sitting on the table still. Made the prize decision an easy one. Looking forward

Bronco season already!

After Ability Bowl I went home, and helped Deanna get the kids to bed. Following that, I headed over to Houston Pizza. My brother-in-law was having is 30th birthday party there and I decided I'd make an appearance. Since I was told we'd end up back at their house playing the video game Rock Band... I decided to leave the costume on. Safe to say it was a wild night at his place. I was the only one brave enough to sing and sing I did for 2 hours straight. Even involved me tearing off my shirt during a musical interlude and throwing it in to the "crowd" at one point. And no... I can honestly say alcohol wasn't a factor.

Sunday involved some more house work and a trip out to the farm. It was a milestone for Hannah as she ate Peas for the first time. Wish I had a video of it actually. Not sure what it is about peas but Hannah was busting a gut while she was eating them the first time. Who knew there was humour in peas?

And finally, the weekend involved an in depth conversation with my daughter Reagan about her invisible friend. He turned up a few weeks ago and I'm sure it's nothing to be alarmed about. But, what really drives me crazy is that his name is Dinky.

Don't know where she got the name. But, I learned all about how she gets into her toy car and goes to Dinky's house all the time. They also go for McDonald's in her car. I didn't think I'd need to go for the gun rack so soon in her life but this is one boyfriend I wish would hit the bricks. Or at least change his name for God's sake.

Have a great week!

DAR

The Easter Bunny's Off-Season Home

2008-04-24T21:04:00.003-06:00

Been noticing a friendly visitor in the front yard the last week. A small rabbit has been sitting on our lawn all day, every day for about a week now.

The only time he leaves is when someone walks too close to him. He usually returns within an hour.

Reagan really loves having the "Easter Bunny" live in the front yard. We needed to take some pictures this evening. He's also been named "Hoppy" for the record.

I Forgive SGI

2008-04-22T22:46:00.003-06:00

We're tight again. I worked out the house insurance claim issues today finally. Work has yet to begin but it sounds like they're covering all of the repair costs and with only one deductable.

If you have to make an SGI claim... try to get Brad. He's a good chap. Appreciate his efforts to straighten out the situation.

Busy doing some work from home tonight... so no more time to post on the blog.

DAR

Weekend Ramblings and Family Fun

2008-04-20T23:05:00.005-06:00

I just finished doing some work from home tonight. I thought those days were done since the move to the sales department but I guess not. Filling out orders is easy for me to do at work. However, when it comes to writing scripts or things that require a lot of thought or concentration, I find it hard to work in a shared office setting.

I try not to write a lot of commercials since we have a writers for that however, I occasionally take on the task myself. Especially in this case... where I simply needed to come up with a bunch of Grad Salute Tags for clients.

Moving on...

Ability Bowl is next weekend. It's a huge fundraiser for the physically and mentally challenged in Swift Current. I've been pretty dedicated to the cause since I moved to Swift Current. Last year, I raised over $3000 for the cause and ended up with the 3rd highest amount raised in the city. Landed me a pretty darn good prize but that's not why I do it. (REALLY IRRITATES ME WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT TO ME) The people who say that haven't attended every pancake breakfast or open house since 1999. Nor have they taken time out of their schedule to stop in and have a coffee with the clients at the Swift Current branch of the Abilities Council. Nor have they ever taken one of the clients to lunch.

This year, I've found that my sales job has limited me and my ability to gather pledges. For a couple of reasons... A) I'm not hitting up my clients. Don't want to ask them to spend their money on advertising... then ask for more money for something else. So I've lost out on a portion of the business community which is key for gathing big money. AND B) When I was on-air... I had more free time. I had the ability to voice track a couple hours of the afternoon show and pound the pavement downtown to gather pledges.

In sales, I have time to walk around gathering pledges... the same time I have to walk around gathering sales. Ability Bowl pledges can't rank above making a budget. That's something I can't afford.

At any rate... I made some more calls today and managed to get my total close to the $1600 mark. It's a far cry from $3000 but I think it's something to be proud of.

That discussion kind of reminds me of something brought to my attention the other day. I recently heard about some station folks taking exception to the FM sales team going for a Friday morning breakfast during company time.

I think there is a common misconception that sales people aren't working when they leave the station. I find it kind of funny. Despite the fact my name was brought up in the discussion, it's not something I really worry about.

I've been a manager. I know full well that everyone in a work place talks behind everyone's back at some point. I don't need anyone's approval except my boss'. (Who came for breakfast with us by the way)

But, it should be made clear just the same. Radio sales is a commission based job. If I slack off... it's my own rear end I'm kicking. So as long as my numbers are coming in... no one other than my boss need worry about what I'm doing during office time. If I did what many folks not in sales at radio stations think sales people do... I wouldn't get paid.

Back in pre-sales days... If I decided to spend far too much time chatting with others in the office, reading the paper or surfing websites like You Tube or Facebook, my paycheck wouldn't change. If you want the freedom to go for a coffee in the middle of the day because you feel like it... take the risk and stress of wondering if you'll get paid that month with it.

And most people in sales will tell you that Friday isn't a good selling day so that's usually the day we go for coffee or breakfast. In fact, many of my co-workers told me to never pitch anyone on a Friday afternoon. Business folks have there eye on the weekend... and saying no is easy when you're walking out the door for the weekend.

Moving on...

I had an enjoyable weekend. Deanna took our oldest girl Reagan and her Grandma to Maple Creek Saturday to visit her Grandpa in the care home there. This meant it was just dad and Hannah who turned 6 months old over the weekend. We had some much needed bonding time.

Hannah and I got off to a rough start in life... (She didn't like me for the first two months... honestly!) She cried every time I held her for the first little while which was both frustrating and trying on my patience.

Today Deanna went in to work to do our income taxes. So I looked after both kids. Reagan napped most of the time so Hannah and I had some more snuggle time.

I discovered that bouncing a soft dog toy off my kids melon creates a quality gut giggle!

I had to show Deanna when she got home... See for yourself.

What a dolly! :)

Have a Great Week!

DAR

SGI SUCKS

2008-04-19T10:54:00.001-06:00

That is all.

Gordon Dale Gooding December 19th, 1932 - April 9th, 2008

2008-04-16T22:26:00.013-06:00

My dad, Gordon Dale Gooding, passed away last Wednesday in the Moose Jaw Union Hospital. He will be missed. I spoke at the funeral. I thought it was going to be easy since speaking is what I've done for a living for the past 10 years. It wasn't.

Is struggled with it the entire week I was there. I ended up throwing something together at the library the day before... only to throw half of it out the morning of. I scratched this together an hour or two before the funeral:

Today is a day that many of us have been expecting for quite some time.

But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. Today, we have to say goodbye to Gordon Dale Gooding. A husband... a brother... a friend... a grandfather... and my dad.

Memories. Memories are what we have left. When I tried to figure out what I was going to say memories are all I could come up with. Some of these memories may strike a cord with you. Some of them with members of my family, and some of them may be memories that only my dad and I shared.

From very early on in life my dad was a man of responsibility. He went to work at age 12 and helped support his family. Tough for us to imagine nowadays. He began working for the Department of Highways... then for the R.M. of Baildon. From there he moved on to the R.M. of Marquis, from which he retired in 1993.

He had a work ethic in him that he carried all of his life. This was a hereditary trait passed down to his children. My memories of my dad working were that he was typically gone before sunrise and home by or after sunset.

This meant that mom handled most of the childcare. And because he was away so much… he perhaps didn't do as much housework as mom might have liked. My wife insists this is a hereditary trait passed down to us as well.

But there were plenty of things about dad working that I have fond memories of. Dad parking in front when he got home from work. So we could savour that short ride around the block in the back of the truck.

I remember racing out to see him when he got home to see if he'd found any pop bottles in the ditch that day. He'd always stop and pick them up for me. $15 cents for the small bottles. 30 Cents for the big ones. After receiving my glass bounty, I usually made a quick pitstop at the garden hose to clean them up… then it was off to the corner store to make my glass-for-candy exchange.

Occasionally, we'd get the opportunity to go to work with dad. This gave us an appreciation for an honest days work. I remember stopping for sandwiches mom had made; Cut diagonally, wrapped in wax paper, inside a bread bag. Those were long days in the cab of a grader. And hot too! But, that luke warm milk never tasted better because I felt like we'd earned it. I never felt like I was a kid tagging along with his dad. I felt like I was actually working right along side of him. Occasionally getting to drive the grader enhanced the experience that much more.

Dad's home town of Rouleau was also the home for many memories. We used to plan a yearly camping trip to the Rouleau camp ground. Sure, we were around the block from civilization but when we were inside that perimiter, I was in the great outdoors. When I misbehaved during the camping trips dad's threat to take me to the "bad boy tower" usually got me back in line. It took me several years to find out it was a water tower.

Another classic Rouleau event was going to John's Café for a pop. I'm not certain if we ever actually ate at John's café. I'm sure we did but I don't remember it. I only remember going there for a pop. Why something so simple sticks out in my mind I don't know but no trip to Rouleau was complete without a visit with John.

Speaking of trips… dad had his quirks. A creature of habit I suppose. He would always stop at the same gas station's and restaurants. And then complain about how bad the service was every time. When we'd tell him not stop at the same place again… his answer was always… "Well where else are we supposed to stop?", as if there wasn't a dozen other options.

Something else that amazed us during these trips all over western Canada was the fact that we couldn't stop at any restaurant, café, gas station along the way without dad striking up a conversation with a complete stranger… within 5 minutes, he would have told them everything about us, found out everything about them.

Everyone is Unique. My dad was certainly no exception. If you knew him at all, chances are good that you will recognize these as "Gordon'isms":

If you've ever found toothpicks laying in obscure places around your home. Chances are good, you've had my dad as an overnight guest.

Who here has asked my dad, "How are you?" and recieved... "ohh just tickety-boo!" as a response?

If you've been asked as a child to "Put up your dukes." you may have been a nephew of my dads.

If you recall the phrase, cooba-caboo-koo! You probably knew my..... ok that one's only for Ralph.

And if you know that "Going out to the Office" meant going out to the Shell for coffee, you definately knew my dad well.

My dad was a good person. He worked hard and was dedicated to his job. He was dedicated to his wife and family. But, along the way he was never to busy to make a new friend. He had an impact on so many people. Whether it was a waitress at the "office", a co-worker or a relative, Gordon Gooding blessed us with just what I've talked about today... Memories.

I'd like to ask you all to not mourn his death but celebrate his life today by thinking of YOUR memory of my dad. Gordon Dale Gooding.

Thank you.

R.I.P. Dad.

DAR

Is this some kind of sick joke?

2008-04-16T10:29:00.002-06:00

What a week!

Early last week I recieved a call from my wife informing me that our basement was full of water. Our water softener had gone berzerk and the salt tank began filling and then over filling with water. Salt water that is... which is that much more damaging to belonging and the concrete foundation of the house.

A quick call to SGI, Service Master arrives and things seemed good. They're going to clean it up under our insurance... and better yet, they'll replace our ratty basement carpet under our insurance. The only thing it would cost us is $80 to fix the water softener and our $500 deductable.

Then, days later I get the news that my dad has passed away. Expected for quite some time but still no easier to cope with. I left that night at around midnight and was in Moose Jaw for a week.

We got home last night to guess what? A basement full of water. The fix... wasn't a fix I guess and with no one at home to monitor things the extent of the water damage is much greater than the first time. so I was up till 2:30 cleaning up the best I could.

I'm now awaiting the call from SGI to find out if this will be added on to the original claim or if this will require another claim... THUS ANOTHER DEDUCTABLE. I fear I already know the answer to this question. The one bit of good news is that the water softener repair place is refunding my $80 repair bill.

With all that behind me I decided to head off to work a little late this morning. Go to use the facilities... AND... my toilet is broken. Off to Home Hardware for parts.

You're kidding me right?

Hope your April is going better than mine.

DAR

Big Plugs for Saskatchewan. Much Respect for Patrick Marleau

2008-04-16T09:49:00.006-06:00

If you watch the Flames and Sharks game 3 contest a few days back you saw one for the ages. The Sharks jumped out to a 3-0 lead just 3 and a half minutes in to the game, chasing the Flames star goaltender to the bench.

The Flames battled back however scoring in the final few minutes for a 4-3 win.

In the first period, Aneroid's Patrick Marleau was in a scrum that produced a cut around his right eye.

Moment's later, Flames defenceman Cory Sarich laid a devistating hit on Marleau that caused blood to emit from other areas of his face. He looked like hell. But, he stayed in the game.

If you missed the hit... here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ArWvAz_zw

Does Cory Sarich respect his competitor? Click and listen all the way to the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU96aagq7is

Great Quote!

I just gained some respect for Cory Sarich. Seems to be a well spoken class act.

Heartbreak!

2008-04-08T23:15:00.002-06:00

I attended the Broncos Road Party held at the i-Plex tonight. Took the kids. Stayed until overtime started. Listened to the rest on the radio. A 2-0 lead blown. A 5-2 lead blown. 6-5 Calgary Double Overtime final. I hate saying it because I sure hope our beloved Broncos can pull it out. But, games like these are the type of games that define a series. And with the 3 of a possible remaining 4 games in Calgary it don't look good. To say the boys need to pull off the next two games in Calgary is an understatement of epic proportion.

Let's Go Broncos. :(

Wii WOES AND THOUGHTS ON NATIONAL BROADCASTS

2008-04-08T00:23:00.003-06:00

So my brother and I along with the rest of his family made an emergency trip to Moose Jaw this weekend. My dad's health is failing and we all thought this would be the trip we'd all been expecting for months. However, my dad's a trooper and continues to fight. Please pray for him if you're in to that sort of thing. If you're not, tell your parents you love em.

Moving on.

My brother and I along with my Moose Jaw buddy Ben took a break from the hospital on Saturday night and decided to head down a to a bar and convince the bartender to put the Broncos/Hitmen game on the big screen. The Cornerstone Inn obliged. After the game, we decided that with all the stress of the weekend, we deserved to cut loose so we went on a bit of a bender.

It featured numerous bar visits... running in to a few Swift Current gals on a Girls Night Out to the spa... a little Karaoke and ended off at the home of my brother's high school buddy who we'd bumped in to moments before last call.

This lad happened to have a Nintendo Wii. I was a Wii virgin so I was pretty excited to try it out. My brother, who also owns a Wii informed me that I'd regret playing Wii till 5:30 in the morning. I thought he was full of it. I thought wrong. Turns out you work a lot of muscles you didn't know you had playing Wii. I'm really hurting. My shoulder and bicep are really stiff. Who knew?

Moving on...

I was pumped to find out that SHAW is covering the entire Broncos/Hitmen playoff series. I was even happier when I saw the outstanding job they are doing covering the series.

But, what upsets me a little is how National Media can "big league" the way they do. Shaw announces they're covering the game... and the game gets bumped by 7 minutes to allow a pre-game show. There were a few other changes to how a regular Bronco goes down too.

That kind of irritates me. I know it shouldn't but I can imagine what the league would say if Jon Keen sent the league an email "informing" them that due to an increase in commercial load, Golden West Radio will be forcing the two teams to sit through a radio timeout that's 2 minutes longer than normal. Wouldn't happen.

I find it amazing, that national media who haven't put in nearly the time and effort that local media does covering, and promoting this league and it's can dictate start times, and game night procedures even if they affect team sponsors.

It's not the Broncos fault. I understand they don't have a choice. It's a league decision. I guess I just hate seeing the little guy get the short end of the stick.

Jon's play by play is better anyway.

DAR

Child WHAT?? And a big win!

2008-03-26T23:52:00.002-06:00

Kind of creeped out today. Every once in a while I check my blog hits and out of curiousity I check to see just how people found my blog. Alot of it is just a simple google search where someone happens to type in something I've typed in a sentence word for word and voila. But I had a hit from someone today who was searching about "Child Anatomy" today.

First of all... that creeps me out for obvious reasons. Second... why the hell is my blog coming up in that kind of search?? Eeek!

Oh yeah... and a BIG win by the Swift Current Broncos tonight! 5-4 in overtime. That said, if they want to win this series, they'll have to play more disciplined and for the love of god stop handing the puck away in thier own end so much. I don't recall EVER seeing two hockey games where one team made as many unforced turnovers in their on end. It was borderline embarassing. Let's do away with that boys, shall we. Better be careful how I word that last sentence. Could open me up to more google creepers.

Cheers to the Broncos in Game 5. Stupid Pats! :)

DAR

Playoff Overtime... Blah!

2008-03-25T23:09:00.004-06:00

I love playoff hockey. There is an indescribable buzz in the rink before the players even step on the ice. There's more fans. And for some reason the intensity level both on and off the ice is cranked up a notch.

I attended game 3 of the Broncos/Pats series tonight and I have to admit, I was nervous with butterflies in my stomach before the game.

You see, I grew up in Moose Jaw as an avid Warrior fan. So it's safe to say that I need no encouragement to absolutely despise the Regina Pats.

I don't like their fans. (Had a guy from Regina, probably 35-40 years old kick the living hell out of me in the stands at a game in Moose Jaw when I was 14 years old once) I'll freely admit that we were doing more talking than listening but come on bud, I was 14.

I don't like their uniforms. I think they're ugly. I know they've made subtle changes to them but for some reason they look like the same ugly jerseys I saw at the rink as a 7 year old. I swear they're wearing the same jerseys they won their last Memorial Cup in.

I don't like very many of their players. Not so much in this era but in the good ol' days guys like Frank Kovacs and Mike Sillinger were players I actually took pleasure in seeing get rocked. (No one ever levels anyone legally anymore in hockey, you never see guys get caught in the trolley tracks floating... defenders always let up... I hate it.) I have one play that still is as clear in my mind as it was back then. Kovacs carrying it over the Warrior line... dropping it for someone as he cut back in to the middle and being KO'd as he admired the pass. It was very Scott Stevens vs. Eric Lindros'ish with the helmet flying off and everything. Miss those days.

But, even worse than hating the Regina Pats... I hate playoff overtime. I wouldn't hate playoff overtimes if they ended with a pretty tic-tac-toe play. But, they always end with a greasy one. And without fail, the "greasy" one is ALWAYS scored by the team that has been getting their show ran up to that point in the extra frame.

Happened again tonight. Broncos had a couple of incredible chances in overtime. Even had a couple bounce off bodies and roll passed the open net by mere inches. Only to have a player skate down the ice along the side boards and lift a floater passed the goalie. (Unfortunate for Yonkman because he played unbelievable tonight.)

Since this is a blog supposedly about radio, I suppose I'd compare it to a day when I was having the best shift ever. Unfortunately, I kind of booted the very last break of my shift. The next morning, I get called in for an aircheck and guess which break is played, criticised and over-analysed?

Even when your team wins... you can usually look back on it and say... "wow... that really was a crappy goal." But, they all count and the Broncos must show Swift Current and the Pats what they're made of Wednesday night. I have to be honest. I said to a few friends before the game that I felt the Broncos needed to win both games 3 and 4 to win this series and I haven't changed my opinion. This was a devastating loss. But, we can only rally around the team and hope for the best. Game 4 is critical.

If you don't have tickets yet... GET THEM. It was around 400 bums away from a sell-out tonight and it should be sold-out tomorrow. It was an incredibly exciting hockey game. Best $19 one could spend. And a 50/50 over $1800 helps too!

Go Broncos Go... and no more overtime. :)

DAR

The Unfortunate Power of Radio - UPDATED

2008-03-16T16:25:00.005-06:00

I attended the final Bronco regular season game on Friday night and unfortunately the team will be heading in to the playoffs on a losing note after dropping a 5-4 decision to the Moose Jaw Warriors.

If one were to try to take a positive out of it, that would be that the loss means the Broncos will play the Regina Pats in the opening round of the playoffs. Many, (Myself included) feel the Broncos, while 5 positions in the standings back of the Pats, match up really well against them and have a great chance of pulling off the opening round upset.

Unfortunately, this series match up has already sparked up an unnecessary controversy.

Radio is powerful. And often things we say on the radio, sometimes without even putting a lot of thought in to it can provoke a strong reaction from listeners. Sometimes positive... and many times (most times actually) negative.

The play by play man for the Pats, is a guy who's well known for being outspoken and is also known to like attention. Last season, he grew frustrated with Bronco fans pounding on his broadcast booth last season. So, he began criticising it on his blog and on the radio. This caught the attention of some Swift Current folks who made it their duty to make it "extra" loud when Regina came to town. The previously mentioned PBP guy then retaliated by coating the outside of the pressbox with Vasaline. Which created even more of a confrontation between the fans and himself. (For the record... if you've never been to the SC Civic Center before, the press box the visiting announcer uses is shared by the home teams announcer so our PBP guy, Jon Keen listens to the same "pounding", regardless of who's in town and has never once brought it up as an issue.

So here it is, not even 24 hours after the series match ups have been determined and Vasaline-Gate has rekindled it's fire. A visit to the very well known blog of the voice of the Pats shows a war of words already underway. And I'm disgusted by what I'm reading from both sides. I realize it's a very small group of people but I'm embarrassed by what's being said from those "representing" Swift Current... just as much as those from Regina should be embarrassed by their "representation".

There's more to it than that though. First of all, I'll go on the record that I think the Vaseline thing was incredibly childish and unprofessional. There's a line between listener and radio person that shouldn't be crossed. That's just my take. But, the saddest part of all is that one person's goal to get attention has overshadowed the performance of two hockey teams who've had good seasons and finished just 5 points apart.

This series is about the Swift Current Broncos and the Regina Pats. Unfortunately, through the power of radio one person has created and fueled an ugly war of words that has gone beyond the boundaries of hockey or good taste... from both sides.

To the fans from both sides... cheer for your hockey teams, not their announcer. And let's fight clean. Leave the hutterites, natives and stereotypes out of the war of words.

To folks in radio... let this be exhibit A in how not to abuse the power of radio.

UPDATE! -

Glad to see Rod has cleared the comments page on his blog since this blog entry was originally written. Good move. Now let's talk hockey.

More Fun Show Prep Courtesty of a Salesperson

2008-03-04T00:31:00.002-06:00

May need to modify this one to make it G-rated but it's a beauty.

A Winter Statistic :

98% OF CANADIANS SAY "OH SHIT" BEFORE GOING IN THE DITCH ON A SLIPPERY ROAD.

THE OTHER 2% ARE FROM SASKATCHEWAN AND THEY SAY, "HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS ! "

Courtesy of Nancy Anderson (AM Sales). Thanks Nancy!

DAR

Easter Show Prep

2008-03-04T00:28:00.002-06:00

Courtesy of our FM Sales Manager, Carla Congdon. Great Bit!

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008

* As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st fullmoon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). *

* This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrewpeople used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Romancalendar. *

* Found out a couple of things you might be interested in!

* Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of ourlives!

And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it thisearly (95 years old or above!).

And none of us have ever, or will ever, seeit a day earlier! Here are the facts:

* The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year2228 (220 years from now).

The last time it was this early was 1913 (so ifyou're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285(277 years from now).

The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no onealive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Add that to your Easter Show Prep. Nice bit Carla!

DAR

I must need sleep

2008-02-23T00:47:00.004-06:00

Jessica, you've created a monster!

Another quality bit.

http://www.justforlaughs.com/videos/show/1061-george-wallace-jfl-white-rhinoceros-vs-chicken-Stand_Up_Comedian_on

Back to the Buffet, I mean Blog

2008-02-23T00:06:00.004-06:00

Still on the Bronco wagon... very angry about the loss tonight. Tigers were owned for the entire second half of the hockey game... unfortunately the first half... not so much.

Anyway... before I get in to this post... some post related entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUosUk6X9gE

Classic John Pinette. Thanks to Jessica Williams for refreshing my memory. This is one of my alltime favorite bits by a comedian. I recommend searching for his "Skiing" bit. BTW, apparently John's lost a pile of weight now. Good for him.

Anyway... on to the reason for the post.

During our recent radio auction on CKSW, I got together with 3 guys from one of the businesses I service to make a purchase. One of the fellas from Full Line Ag in Swift placed bids on an All You Can Eat Alaskan King Crab feast from Joey's Only. It was a meal for 4 that we took down for $126.

Now, I'm not a big guy but I've been known to pack it in at events like these. Apparently I brought my A-Game Wednesday night.

2 Sides... a few Dry Ribs... 2 Beers... and FIVE... YES FIVE platters of Crab legs. The other 3 guys ate 5 COMBINED.

Now if this was 10 years ago I might be proud of myself. But, considering I've been watching what I've been eating and working out at the gym recently this is a slight set back. But, DAMN that was good.

That Diet Pepsi and Cheese Cake I chased things down with was what some might consider, "In Excess." I guess I realized that when the waitress called me a psycho upon presenting me with my desert.

I can only imagine what the kitchen staff was saying when they peered through the window... "Son of bitch still here!"

What the hell... we'll end things off with more John...

http://vidsearch.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=3510508

Welcome to the Official Swift Current Bronco Blog - "These are Happy Times in the Bronco Nation"

2008-02-03T00:54:00.000-06:00

OK... so it's not official. Alright... it's not even a blog about the Broncos. But, I sure seem to be talking about them alot. In fact, so does everyone else.

Another win tonight, 3-0 in Saskatoon. That's 7 in a row! And another shutout for the new goalie. That's 2 in 3 starts with the team.

The only thing that could make the Broncos more exciting would be if I would have won the $2760 in cash the other night. The $1400+ 50/50 would have worked too.

To quote my good buddy Ken Audette who's usually talking about the Riders with this sentence... "These are happy times in the Bronco Nation."

Go Broncos Go!

60 Minutes and a Happy Play-By-Play Guy

2008-01-26T00:04:00.000-06:00

I took 3/4 of the family to the Bronco game tonight. (Hannah stayed with Auntie Dawn)

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were in town with the Grey Cup in tow. The Kelowna Rockets were in town. With a high powered offense that has decimated opposing GAA's all season. And it was also a night where the Swift Current Broncos boasted their biggest crowd ever with close to 2500 people taking in the game. (And yes, there are more seats to fill so get out there. Almost 2900 in fact) And with the biggest crowd, I'm sure they hit a record 50/50 going over $1100.

Oh... and one of the newest members to the Bronco team made his debut in goal and got the shutout in what I believe is only his 3rd or 4th time on the ice this season.

Those who were at the game knew it was a special night. Those who've just read those paragraph are likely thinking the same.

But it gets better. In front of their record largest crowd the Broncos threw together what will likely be there best performance of the season. Tonight may have been the best performance in several years!

The game started out scary as Kelowna was peppering the Swift Current net with shots in the opening 8 minutes. But, from then on the Broncos took control and out hustled, out hit, out skated, and most importantly outscored the Rockets on the way to a 4-0 win. The jump they had in their step tonight is one that I'm not quite sure I've ever seen out of any team during my 9 year tenure in this city.

And with an insane amount of time shorthanded, they not only did an outstanding job killing penalties, but they also outchanced their opposition routinely with one less skater on the ice. It was an accomplishment for Kelowna to even get possession of the puck while on the power play. The second period reminded me a lot of the 2002 Women's Olympic Gold Medal final when the US ref called something to the effect of 18 straight penalties on Canada and they still won 2-1. Sometimes a great PK can get a crowd going more than a goal.

I hate to sound Cliche but this was about as close as to a "Full 60 Minutes" as anyone can get. Thank you to the Broncos for a wonderful experience tonight! I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Got me thinking on the way home though. This game, as good as it was presented a difficult problem for the Bronco coaching staff. It's the same problem managers deal with in a workplace.

There are plenty of times during a season when a coach can say he's proud of his team for giving their best effort. Then, when evenings like tonight happen, he's left to ask why his team has been holding back.

There wasn't junior hockey team in Canada that could have beat the Swift Current Broncos on January 25th, 2008. Coaches and managers drive themselves crazy when they see maximum potential... because as great as it is... they can't for the life of them figure out how to make their people perform that way all the time.

What is it... that makes us give our best, best? I know, as an athlete in my younger days that there was no time EVER that I felt like I wasn't giving my best. Except my "best" seemed to be better on certain occasions and worse on others. Why? It's the impossible question that no coach or manager can answer. If they could, they'd be training other coaches and managers and making lots of money doing it. Whatever it is... please keep it up Broncos. That was a fantastic hockey game tonight.

I also thought of long time play by play guy, Jon Keen on the way home. As a play-by-play guy, you try to not get too attached to your team. But, at the end of the day those 25 or so players and coaches are the people you spend the most time with. They grow on you... and you want to see them succeed. I also know that it can be frustrating trying to sound excited about the game you're calling when the team you represent racks up losses in the standings. I never spoke to Jon after the game tonight... but I'd almost bet he's in a great mood. Those games are fun to watch... AND fun to call.

Here's to giving "A Full 60!"

Go Broncos!