Though I don't mention it much, I am indeed a fan of the local pro ice hockey club, the Vancouver Canucks. I have been a fan since 1982. I have seen many incarnations of the team come and go. I remember their first Cup run in 1982, the heart-wrenching game 7 loss in 1994, and of course the current edition of the team.
Many players have suited up for the Canucks, but no other player has had a bigger impact on the team and the city than Trevor Linden. Along with his accomplishments on the ice, his devotion to charitable and benovelent causes off the ice have made him a beloved player in the community.
Linden is in his 19th season and questions remain as to his status as a player beyond the current season. He'll be 38 years old in April and few players at that age play competitively in the NHL. This very well could be his last season.
Because this year could be the last, I am determined to go to the last home game of the regular season. The Canucks have struggled in their last two games, so if this continues, they won't make the playoffs, rendering the last home game the last game period. Now Canucks tickets have been sold out for like seven seasons straight. My only recourse is to go through a ticket broker or a scalper. Ticket brokers are like a slightly higher class scalper. Things with them are a bit more legit, so I'll probably go with them.
The only problem is that tickets in the nosebleeds currently stand at $175 per ticket for that game. It's ridiculous actually. What's even more ridiculous is that I'm pretty much decided to buy two of those babies. I don't want to go alone, so I've decided to take my good friend Garrett along. I don't expect him to pony up that stupid amount of cash, so it's on me.
Is $400 too much money for two people to go to a hockey game? Hell yeah it is. It's also a chance to be there at Linden's last game, assuming he does retire. If he doesn't? Well, I'll have to do this damn thing all over again next year.
Originally, this post was solely going to be about how it's been nearly eight weeks since my last haircut. I was going to mention how Krameresque my hair had become and how I have wings on the sides that threaten to give me flight in a strong breeze.
Then I found the awesome video above, which I must warn you contains some strong language of the f-word kind. If you're offended by such language, then read to the end of the post, close this browser window and continue on with your day. Anyways, the video contains some exclusive footage from the movie Knocked Up. The film was a hit and quite popular. While everyone knows that Vancouver native Seth Rogen was a big part of the movie's success, did you know he wasn't the original actor in the role? Yes, that is true! No lie!
Actor James Franco, better known for his role as Harry Osborne in the Spider-Man movies was the first actor to play the lead in Knocked Up. The video above shows some shocking footage from on the set that demonstrates why he was replaced after filming had started. Amazing stuff.
I didn't realize it until I was in the shower tonight but my domain turned eight years old on Monday (yesterday). I was an unemployed bum on March 24, 2000 when I decided to take up some company's offer of free domain registrations. The promotion lasted an hour and I realized just how many people could visit a web site at once. The company's promo site slowed to a crawl and I wasn't even sure if my registration went through. Obviously, it did though. I think I've told that story before.
Anyways, we sure have come a long way since the early years here at et.com. I remember our first office was in this cheap rental space in an old strip mall located in Pitt Meadows. We were between a sporting goods store and a beauty salon. Those were simpler times.
As always, I would like to thank each and every one of you for visiting this site, either on a frequent or infrequent basis. There wouldn't be much point in me writing for this site if no one visited, so thanks for giving it purpose. If I don't go bankrupt buying a former grow-op condo in Abbotsford, maybe I'll get some more et.com t-shirts to give out again. Thanks for sticking with me for the last eight years.
Like most people on an Easter long weekend, I calculated my net worth on Saturday. I find that as you get older, you should really find out how much you're worth every once in a while. I wish I could say that I somehow discovered I was worth a million dollars but that wasn't what happened.
While I wound up with a figure slightly larger than I had expected, the real reason I did the calculations was to find out what kind of mortgage I could wind up with. I wanted to know the largest amount of money that a bank/mobster would be stupid enough to give me.
Based on some really rough calculations and some online investigating, I found out that ING Direct would allow me to buy a home worth $315 000. My monthly mortgage payments would be $1608. CIBC was even more generous, allowing to me buy a home valued at $327 000. The mortgage payments here would be $1688 monthly.
For the moment, let's not dwell on what kind of home $315 000 and $327 000 would buy me. Let's think about my mortgage payments. $1600 to $1700 is a lot of money per month to be paying just to cover a mortgage. For a single dude like myself, that's essentially half a paycheque gone immediately towards housing. Is that reasonable?
Of course, there's nothing to say that I have to spend everything cent I could borrow. What if my desired home was only $250 000? Then my mortgage payments would be lower. I guess the next steps would be to find out what $250 000 to $350 000 buys me and where that is.
Hold on, because Daddy might be getting into some more debt!
