phik

Lots of people have neuroses. I have a green bean neurosis. It’s very simple, really.

I pick through the green beans at the store, basically one at a time, until I’ve bought more than enough to serve to a human. Then I take them home and discard a third of them, because they’re too discoloured or limp or missing pieces or whatever. Then I cut the tips off the remainder. And that brown part. And that part that’s pretty squishy. And that part which isn’t crisp at all. And now it’s too short, just throw that one away.

Well, shit, now there aren’t even enough beans to bother cooking. Throw the whole lot out. I’ll just make some fucking pasta.

I’m spoiled by picking pristine beans directly from the plant throughout my childhood. I need to buy better produce.

Daylight savings time! The very best time!

But really, as far as daylight savings time is concerned, it’s almost impossible to have too much of a good thing. I want ultra daylight savings time, something closer to GMT-1 or GMT. The sun should rise at 9 or 10, and give us more daylight when we can use it, during the critical 22h to 03h hours.

What the fuck is with the hockey playoffs? Honestly. This is a fucking disgrace.

In the halcyon days of my youth, by which I am referring to the 2002-2003 playoff season, you got to see every god damned game. Three games a night for the entire first round, two games a night for the second round, etcetera.

As scheduled today, not a single game of the entire first round series between Ottawa and Toronto will be shown on United States of America television. Not one game.

No wonder people are disenchanted with the NHL.

02:56 <phik> cvs [server aborted]: Revision 1.1 is already locked by radhika
02:56 <phik> tell me which goddamn file

03:06 <phik> [phil@innova cfs]$ cvs admin -u legal.content
03:06 <phik> RCS file: /home/cvs/www/www/content/cfs/legal.content,v
03:06 <phik> cvs server: No locks are set for phil.

Tonight’s game was excellent. One of the best 40-minute efforts I’ve seen all year.

There are no ads painted on the ice tonight, because the NCAA frozen four tournament is being played here this year. We were so excited, until we figured out that that was the reason.

I bet they’re back next week. Assholes.

The Bruins put in a pretty weak effort, but pulled it out in the end. The second period was the first time in these two games that they didn’t get a standing ovation at the end of the period. Because they played badly.

I went and practised with a cricket team in the morning, then we played hockey in the afternoon.

We played at the street hockey rink at the Albion Playground in Somerville. Nat came, and we played some 2-on-2 until I speared (well, butt-ended) myself. I was skating in to get a loose puck down by the boards, with my stick in front of me. It caught one of the huge cracks in the pavement, and I impaled myself on it. Fortunately the stick broke before it sent me to the hospital.

There is a wicked bruise in the shape of a hockey stick shaft on my solar plexus. That’s one good outcome. Actually, it’s pretty much the only good outcome of an otherwise very painful experience.

Oh, and I caught Jacob across the face with a high-stick. He scored on the resulting power-play. Despite his protests to the contrary, and my outrageous feelings of guilt and self-loathing, it didn’t leave a visible mark. The emotional scarring was plenty deep.

A good game, but a lazy icing led directly to the scoring of the winning goal. Truly a shame, because he had plenty of time to clear it carefully. If they’d played all of their games with as much heart as this one, they would have won the series. Or if Thornton hadn’t been a completely ineffective, borderline-negative, influence on the ice.

It’s really hard to get motivated to buy season tickets now, especially with a strike looming.

We watched Reservoir Dogs for the first time in years (Jacob had never seen it), and Kill Bill (which I hadn’t seen).

We also watched Toronto lose in pretty convincing fashion, and played with Joey’s new goaltending equipment.

And no — the fact that they managed to squeeze a game or two of the Toronto series onto US television doesn’t negate any of my previous statements.