A random act of kindness, followed by a random segue

On the way to work this morning, a TTC bus pulled to a halt at the side of the road about 500 m from the next bus stop to flag down someone who was walking towards the it and let him on. There was no way that guy could have made it to the bus stop on time to get on with everyone else. He would have had to wait another 15-30 minutes.

In other news, Priscilla Ahn got a haircut!

Better Breakfast Tea

Last night, I got a green apple green tea with tapioca from Go For Tea. It was huge.

So I got them to put it into a take-out cup and promptly left it in the cupholder in the car overnight.

This morning, I had tea for breakfast. Green apple green tea, of course.

Hi, I'm a Mac

It has been about 1 month since I received my first Mac, and here is a brief rundown of how awesome it is, and also the not-so-awesome bits, in no particular order, based on my own needs and expectations.

AWESOME:

• the looks: svelte!
• baaaaaaaaattery life: 8-ish hours!
• trackpad: for most things, better than a separate mouse
• Spaces and Expose: organizing without thinking
• speed: base model is still stupid fast
• so quiet!
• the screen: she is beautiful and highly viewable
• back-lit keyboard: no more tilting screen down to find keys in the dark

NOT AWESOME:

• sharp corners on lid opening indentation
• so easy to get dirty
• only 2 usb ports stuck very close together
• SD cards stick out from the reader, so I cannot boost storage space (or run OS X off of an 8 GB SD card)

DOUBLE NOT AWESOME:
I ordered Snow Leopard through the Up-To-Date program (pay for shipping only). It was due to arrive on September 3, having shipped on August 28. It has not arrived. I called Apple Support and waited on hold for 20 minutes or so before I could get it filed as lost/stolen. They're sending me another one free of charge with a different carrier.

This only happens once in awhile

So I'm marking it here for posterity.

In other news, Brian Burke declared that the Maple Leafs have two top-six forwards heading into this season: Mikael Grabovski and Matt Stajan (!).

I am pleased, but at the same time a little bit puzzled.

Outside of this blog and probably his family members and his hometown of Mississauga, Matt Stajan does not receive much praise.

Last year, prior to the season's start, then-Interim General Manager Cliff Fletcher lowered fan expectations and singled out Nik Antropov as the only top-six forward on the team. He was promptly dealt to Atlanta at the trade deadline after racking up career numbers on a team in a tailspin.

Burke is a master at making deals, and a good portion of that mastery is a result of how well he can sell a player. Publicly declaring the viability of these two forwards serves more than one purpose. Higher expectations will likely produce better results in players who've been given the confidence of upper management. Better results mean those players will show up on the radars of other teams.

I believe the praise is deserved. Stajan's on-ice poise, hockey smarts and defensive play make him one of the most reliable forwards we have. He has shown improvement in each of his 4 seasons, though not quite reaching the initial expectations. He has spent the last 4 years honing his defense and centerman duties (face-offs, puck distribution). Now out of the shadow of Sundin, and backed by a larger, more physically imposing team, I think this will be another breakout year for Stajan.

Updates you didn't need to know about

I have not blogged in awhile. That does not mean I haven't written, it just means all that stuff is sitting in the blog post queue, waiting for me to finish them (or start them). To get back into the groove, I will write less ambitiously.

Anyway, my mom made me take vitamin B supplements. My pee is now neon yellow thanks to all the riboflavin that my body didn't need and flushed out.