The Passion that Unites us All!

Hey yaars,

Once again, a combination of work, lack of sleep, and procrastination have led to my neglect of this precious blog. While I'm sure I've alienated the bandwagon readers, I hope the die-hard fans who enjoy my "interesting" stories still take the chance to read up.

The new job is actually very enjoyable so far. Everyone has been absolutely brilliant in welcoming me to the fold and ensuring that I'm not uncomfortable. While I'm admittedly still apprehensive at messing up (I am still in probation), it seems like I've had a good start. You can imagine my nervousness when I had a verbal review scheduled this week. While I was let known that this was standard for all employees and I shouldn't be concerned, I was concerned! Thankfully my boss was had no ill words to say, especially since I'd feel gutted at hearing harsh words after less than 4 weeks of work!

In the interest of keeping my rambles organized, here are the crib-notes from the past few weeks:

- Got my official cubical nameplate yesterday and considered it a sign that things are working out. I know it's only a piece of plastic, but not having it worried me that I was on the fringes!

- Yesterday I saw the Raps beat the Pacers from the comfy Air Canada Club. Our department had a table booked and I was duped into ordering the "Prime Eye" 20 oz. steak. Yes, I finished it, but politely declined their recommendation of a "Bosh Sundae" for desert.

- Jermaine O'Neal is a big guy! Before the game I had to drop of tickets to security in front of the Raptors dressing room and on the way back saw him walking with security. The only human I've seen in person who could compare is the Undertaker, and I'd love to see how they'd match up nose-to-nose :P

- I fulfilled my promise to Zan by purchasing him a Bargnani jersey t-shirt. He was excited about it for a few days until he saw that I received a Bosh one from my boss to wear yesterday. Somehow having big bro getting one for free tarnished the value for him.

- My good friend Jason celebrated his "Quarter-Century" birthday last week. While I missed most of the pre-event festivities, I was glad to be there and experience a very enjoyable evening

- Learning how to pick NFL games based on point-spreads is impossible! I'm not asking to be perfect, but just decent enough to be average. Somehow I get tricked into picking the most crap teams possible (RE: KC, Denver, and San Diego). Even still, I will not fall into Gwai-lo's trap of going for the favourites 95% of the time!

- As I predicted to Zan, the Leafs beat the Sens 3-0 today! I agree that their defense is terrible, but they really grinded out a victory tonight and I'm thinking this could be the start of a resurgence. Though I fear that it may be hard to play a season with only 2 sets of defensemen like they did tonight!

- After being sick of another pair of my iPod earphones crackling, I decided to invest in a pair of decent headphones (also known as 'cans' from what I read). After some research I invested in some JBL's and am hoping I'm not disappointed. In the meantime, I have to suffer with these sh*t cracklers!

- Not to brush this under the rug, but Pakistan has lost this year's Best of Five One-Day series to India 3-1 (they play a meaningless 5th match tonight). While I'm not happy, I'm not sure I'd be happy to have Pakistan lift the "IndiaOil Cup" either. I'm hoping they do better in the Test (5-day match) series, where they tend to compete strongly with their subcontinental rivals. And I'll still re-iterate, Pakistan has the upper hand in the overall Win-Loss tally against Hindustan (fyi - Hindustan is another name for India).

I'll stop short here. I don't want to tucker myself out and go on another sabbatical. Hope everyone reading is doing great, and as always with you all the best of health and luck!