"Daddy Horny"

Hey Yaars,

In attempts to beef up my blog post numbers, I'm going to try and write about itty bitty things I've seen or done from day to day. YES, even MORE than I do at the moment!

A good friend at work loaned my the DVD's of season 1 of Arrested Development and admit it's pretty damn funny. Nothing mind blowing in terms of comedic value, while at the same time witty enough brighten anyone's day. The quoted title of this post alone still is giving me the giggles. Let's hop it continues thoroughout the remaining 15 episodes I have yet to watch!

Painting it Pink...

Just a quick mention before I retire : My Blue Jays cohort Melanie has started her own blog on this little thing of ours we call the Internet. From what I've read it's definitely worth the read. Check it out at : http://paintingitpink.blogspot.com

It's Just Not Cricket!

Hey yaars,

It's been a busy few days at work, and at the behest of a few of my readers I decided I'd try to keep everyone up to speed on my goings and happenings. I may be the only person I know who's keeping up to date on Hair-Gate, so here's my best explanation of things...

Last sunday During the Fourth Day of the Fourth Test Match Between England and Pakistan at the Oval, play was stopped as umpire Darrell Hair decided to give England an extra 5 runs and decided to change the ball. The reason given by Hair for his decision was that he believed Pakistan to have tampered with the ball illegally.

With such an allegation - essentially accusing the Pakistan team of cheating - Inzamam ul-Huq lead his troops off the field in protest. The umpires asked if Pakistan was planning on returning to play, our captain Inzamam retorted by asking why the umpire had changed the ball. The umpire said he wasn't there to answer questions and left to go onto the field and take off the bails of the wicket, signifying the end of the match - i.e. Pakistan's forfeiture. Of course matters became more confused as the Pakistani's minutes later came on the field ready to play! It went down in the record books as the first forfeiture in international cricket in 129 years.

Ball-tampering is used by bowlers in cricket to gain an advantage in something called "reverse swinging" the ball. By keeping one side of the ball shiny by polishing it while at the same time roughening up the other half, it allows a bowler to pitch a ball in a way that it swings in air towards or away from a batsman at extraordinary depths. It's an art which was brought into the game by Pakistan in the 1970s and for decades was considered a dark art/cheat tactic/taboo until it's secrets were revealed about 5 years ago.

Finally when our players of the past decades get some proper recognition for their brilliance, the current crop is being mud-slinged at. I say this with confidence because despite the umpires' decision, not one of Sky Sports' 26 cameras at the ground had any evidence of a Pakistani player acting diabolically. Along with this, the umpire heeded no warning to the Pakistan team to any suspicion of ball tampering, cold-handedly pointing the accusatory finger with a McCarthy-ist demeanour!

What makes things worse in this story is that this isn't the first time this umpire has been in controversy before. Years back he "no-balled" Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan 7 times in three overs from the other end - which is akin to the first base umpire calling a pitcher balking three times in an inning. On top of that, the Pakistan team lodged a complaint about his umpiring earlier this year. I'm not saying he has it in for Asian teams, but he isn't exactly enamoured by them either.

The juciest part though? The fact that after the incident last sunday, he sent an email to cricket's head honchos offering his resignation (and silence) for the princely sum of $500,000. That's a pretty big price to ask for coming from an umpire who re-iterated that he was impartial in the matter and was only doing his job. Let's just say it's pretty obvious something is rotten....

I figured I'd put my two cents in as it's the talk of the English Press these days. It even made the front page of Tuesday's LA times!

Alright, I planned on writing more, but I'm just too sleepy! Talk to y'all later!

Swimming with the Fishes...

I just watched the first two Godfather films for the first time last week and was quite impressed. In high school a buddy of mine rented it through recommendation and I remember us turning it off an hour in as we found it horrendously tedious. How little artistic integrity I had back in my high school days!

Unfortunately though, Part 2 was RUINED for me by a certain sibling of mine! Right from the get go after Zan put the DVD on we were thoroughlly confused. We had no clue who everyone was and how all of the killings made sense. What was worse was that it ended in an hour and ten minutes! We both sat in our living room bamboozled until Zan utters the now classic line "Maybe the other disc has something interesting!". Ladies and gents, he put DISC TWO in first!!!!

To this minutes I can't understand how brainless he had to be to ignore reading the discs and inserting the first one he saw into the DVD player. I yelled at him and in typical Zan fashion, argued back that it wasn't that big a deal and that he'd pay for the movie. After throwing $6 at me he left the room and I ended up seeing the remainder (or beginning really) of the film. If only I had seen it in sequential form!!!

Another day, another story. I'm still riled up over this one!

"NEMESIS - A righteous infliction of retribution..."

Hey yaars,

After dilly-dallying on what to post to keep whatever readers I have interested, I still can't decide and figured I'd just say hello and that all is good.

Oh yeah, and I just played MLB '06 with Zan for the first time in months. We went 17 innings and his stupid D'Backs beat the Tribe 6-4. SEVENTEEN innings! I think I lost a few pounds of sweat in that game. And I must boast I executed the coolest move ever on Zan to keep myself alive in the game!!!

The quote? From one of my favourite movies of all time - Snatch.

"Nemesis: A righteous infliction of retribution, manifested by an appropriate agent. Otherwise personified by an 'orrible cunt, ME!"
- Bricktop

An offer I couldn't refuse...

Hey yaars,

I'm almost finished enjoying a good weekend off. It's the first stretch of a few days off I've had since May, and I've thoroughlly enjoyed it. Lots of sleep, lots of TV, and some Blue Jay wins!

Here's a quick recap of events...

THURSDAY - Sleep, sleep and more sleep. And a few meals in between

FRIDAY - Got the car fixed up, went to the Eaton Centre to shop a bit for some 'big boy clothes'. Returned home to see the Jays finally win a game convincingly!

SATURDAY - Shopping at Markville with the family. Had to cancel going to poker night at Derek's as the Mom made plans to go to family friends' home. If it weren't for the Jays game being on I would have been bored senseless. Mind you we received a great meal from Tangerine - a wicked Hakka restaurant.

SUNDAY - Sleep for as long as I could. Apparently ignored my brother's plea to drop him off at work (he had to take the bus). Woke up, ate, and wathed the Jays game. Fell asleep on my bed whilst watching. Woke up to pick the bro up, go to Shopper's so that my mother could get some hair colour. And now I'm back awaiting the next episode of Entourage!!!

Yes, I admit it's been the weekend of the sloth. It's been relaxing nonetheless. I was beginning to think I was going crazy after hearing the words "I need tickets for the Yankees" so many times! Now if only I could save some money to take a trip somewhere. And yes, Pakistan is off that list in the short-term - I'm not in the matrimonial state just yet.

Oh, there's my mom's barbeque meal ready to eat. Burgers, steak, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob - the perfect sunday meal!!!!

Talk to y'all later!

Oh I Think They Like It...

Hey gang!

Hope all is well on your end. Things are going "bowdy bowdy" for me these days. I finally have a few days off from work (not that I'm complaining!), which gives me time to do a few things I've been putting off such as:

- getting the car fully serviced
- replacing my iPod earbuds
- cleaning the room
- getting clothes altered
- buying some hip, NON-sports related clothes
- going to the bank to sort sh*t out
- buying brother a high school graduation present
- buying brother a birthday present
- buying MOTHER a belated birthday gift
- numerous returns of stuff I don't want/need/like
- fixing computer


There's probably more, I just haven't gotten the time to get around to any of it. And seeing as today was spent sleeping for about 15 hours, I'm thinking the plan to tick things off my list begins tomorrow. We'll see.....

ODD THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME:
- hot dog lady saying that I have an friendly face and that I look like a person who's good at making friends. I'm thinking it was a means towards getting some recurrant business but at the same time it made my day!

Getting ready for the Jays game tonight. This road trip is gut check time, hopefully the boys pull through!

Talk to you guys (and gals) soon!

Che Naveed

Blue Jays Party Pix - Part Deux

Hey yaars,

Here's a few more pics from last Wednesday for the collection...



Jason and Courtney messing with Lucas' head



Jason and Michelle



Doug and John having some hard drinks with Adam's assistance



Debora , Michelle, and Mike



Melanie, Joel, and Jamie



The crew (from left to right):
Jeff, Renee, Danielle, Debora, Michelle, Mike, Derek, Adam, and Ricky

Get Well Fidel...

Hey yaars,

I've been reading a bit about Senor Castro's illness and handing over of power to his brother over the past few hours. I can only say I wish him the best as I wouldn't wish ill health on anyone. Which is exactly why I think people in Miami are being a bit harsh celebrating as if they won the World Baseball Classic (oooh, I think I hit a nerve there!).

It's understandable that emigrators would feel joy at the site of someone they loathe losing their power, but full-on celebrations seem a bit gratuitous. I'm admittedly not a political pundit though I feel from what I've read and seen, that he genuinely has helped Cuba survive for decades on 'smokes and mirrors' (and a bit of USSR help). It just seemed a bit duplicitous to see images from Miami of Cubans celebrating in Hummers while their "brethren" back home are living on shoestrings. If Google blog search is any good, I'm sure I'll get the odd comment or two about this soon enough!

In other news...

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It's been a hot, hot day. With the humidex bordering on the half century mark, it goes without saying that things are becoming uncomfortable to say the least. Which means lots of water, baths, and air conditioned rooms for me!

I'm still finding it a bit surreal. It's as if my mom or dad lifted the climate from the stories they use to tell me and inserted them into the present. I can still vividly recall my Pops boasting of scorching Lahori summers so hot that a soaking wet towel would dry up after a trip to the corner store. Or of my mother losing a few pounds after having to withstand a day of heat in a burqa. If you've ever met her, you'll know that her burqa phase probably didn't last too long. She's way too fashionable for that!

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Dirty Bingo = most intimidatingly stressful game ever!

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The Jays blew it again. I have to somewhat concur with Bob McCown's comments on the Fan yesterday where he said that the Jays reluctance at making a deal at the trade deadline was an admission of surrender in the playoff race. It's an easy way to show that we're not going anywhere yet still give that glimmer of hope that there's a chance. And today's Yankee bashing didn't help at all either. Hopefully I'll be eating my words at the end of this week after we're done playing series with the Yanks and White Sox (I'm not counting on it though!).

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I was just informed today that the synagogue shooter in Seattle's name was - you guessed it, Naveed! Why would someone be so crazy as to commit such a heinous act I will never know. I'm hoping this won't stereotype my name as other crazies have done to some beautiful names (I'm thinking Adolf, Osama, Saddam, etc...).



OK, that's enough for a post. I was originally intending to make it a brief post. Regrettably, as I'm sure many of you have to come to know, my idea of brief can at times be a bit lengthier than first expected! In any event, talk to y'all l8er!